Photoshop: Tips/Tutorials/Questions

[steph05050]

This thread will be used to ask for advice and tips. Also feel free to post any tutorials that you think would be helpful.

This would be a lot easier then posting a whole new thread in the Showroom asking for help on you sigs. Just post it here and the artists will give you advice and tips on how to improve your work.

[Toxic]

a ninja never reveals his secrets...

[PirateNinja415]

true story

[Pearce]

Hey guys,

I posted a Gonzaga sig a few weeks ago on MMAF but I never managed to get it to a level I was pleased with.

I took all the advice in and i've managed to come up with this one that im pretty happy with. I'm still nowhere near the Gods that are Plazz, MJB, Steph and Toxic, though! :(

http://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss11/Engom/GonzagaSig-2.jpg

Further feedback will be appreciated as always :D

[Toxic]

I really like this one, personally Id lose the border though and just try a fade in so its kind of a phantom sig.

[steph05050]

i really like it....post one without the border just so i can see what it would look like...i do but then i dont like the border..im undecided on it yet

[Toxic]

This should give you a rough idea of what I mean but of course I dont have the .PSD to do it exactly like I meant.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z168/bellr77/GonzagaSig-1copy.jpg

EDIT: I see I may be wrong I never noticed how the glow on the right of Gonzaga gets cut off.

[Pearce]

Yeah its a tricky one - I switched that border layer on/off so many times.

I think i'll stick with it though because as Toxic said, it messes with the glow. And also I think the border gives a 'reason' for Gabes head to be so squarely cut off at the top.

One thing I wanted to ask was about the 'tinting' of the fighter photo's to match the background. I tried my best to add a slight hue to this one but I can never seem to really nail it without him looking like the Hulk? :(

Cheers for the feedback btw guys!

[Toxic]

I like the tiniting of Gabe on this one personally I think if you tinted Gabe to much you would make the flag the focal point so its kind of a balancing act and I think you did good here.

[Pearce]

Ok thanks man - seems im getting there :)

[steph05050]

yeah i like your lighting on him...i think overall its a real good sig....keep it up pearce

[MJB23]

That's actually a really really good sig Pearce.

The lighting is great on it.

[steph05050]

alright i made a wallpaper what do you guys think....

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/chum567/chipperjoneswall.jpg

im wanting feedback...tell me everything you think i should fix

like if you look i have some scan lines over everything cept the chipper on the right should i increase the opacity on those lines since they are very low or is it good i have them low....also should i add a stroke border to the strip at the bottom

[Toxic]

I would try to blend the pic of him with the bat in more, I find myself confused where to look as the two pics seem to be fighting over where the focal point should be, I think the edges may be to crisp which is making it stand out against the background.

I would say your scan lines are good, I dont think you should ever really see the individual scan lines but rather see the effect the leave, as for the border you could put one on just for the visual when posting on the forum.

[MJB23]

I would erase the scanlines on the face of the guy on the left and like Toxic said make that pic blend in more so that the one on the right is the focal point.

Don't put scanlines over the one on the right if you want it to be the main focal point.

[steph05050]

thanks ill work adjustments tonight

[Pearce]

Looks good Steph, the only thing i'd say is to try and blend the left pic of Chipper into the the rest of the image as the other guys said.

And yeah it'd be good to maybe add a stroke to perhaps the underside of the strip at the bottom.

Other than that I really like it - nice work :)

[steph05050]

here is two text effect tutorials that i like and are easy if you follow the instructions

test them out and lets see what you got

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photoshop-text/text-effects/light-burst/

and i got this
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/chum567/hughestext.jpg

and
http://www.pixelhivedesign.com/tutorials/Neon+Sign+on+a+Textured+Surface/

and i got this
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b368/chum567/stephanieneon.jpg

just thought id share...enjoy

[Pearce]

Heres a wallpaper I just made for myself.

I've never tried anything this big before so it was nice to have that extra space to work with.

The original is 1440x900 but this is the smaller one.

http://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss11/Engom/EngomGFXPaperSmall.jpg

[steph05050]

cool...i like it a lot

[PirateNinja415]

love the wallpaper pearce, love the way the paper looks

[MJB23]

That looks really good.

Did you make the paper background or take it from somewhere else?

[Pearce]

Oh I made the paper from scratch. It was a plain white crinkled envelope.

I messed around with different colour overlays, linear dodge layers etc and then laid down some old script and stained/burned/erased it etc.

I'm glad you like it :).

[MJB23]

I saw this and thought it was pretty cool for anyone looking for some tutorials.

http://www.tutorialmagazine.com/33-best-photoshop-tutorials-of-april-2009

[plazzman]

Interesting stuff, most pretty easy, but I liked the fantasy room alot.

[Pearce]

Nice one MJB, they'll help alot of people starting out and those who are more familiar with Photoshop too.

[steph05050]

moved this to the tutorial section :)


those are great tuts MJB....

[SimplyNate]

Here is some interesting stuff that I've ran across and bookmarked.

Cool Photo Effects:
http://www.designshard.com/video-tut...cts-tutorials/

Cool Tutorials:
http://www.tutorialmagazine.com/33-b...of-april-2009/ (Whole site is awesome)

Photoshop Shapes:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008...custom-shapes/

850 Plus Tech Brushes:
http://naldzgraphics.net/freebies/fr...for-photoshop/

Some Interesting Photograph Techniques:
http://www.thephotoargus.com/freebie...r-photography/

I noticed MJ posted 1 already.

[JT42]

Wondering if someone can tell me the easiest way to lift just a portion of a photo. Just as an example, lets say this photo of Mike Brown:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a11/jtaylor42/Fighters/Brown.jpg

What is the easiest way to get just Mike Brown out of the photo so I can place him onto a textured background to make a sig? Do I have to use the Lasso tool because I find it difficult to keep a steady hand and get a good cutout?

[Negative2]

Wondering if someone can tell me the easiest way to lift just a portion of a photo. Just as an example, lets say this photo of Mike Brown:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a11/jtaylor42/Fighters/Brown.jpg

What is the easiest way to get just Mike Brown out of the photo so I can place him onto a textured background to make a sig? Do I have to use the Lasso tool because I find it difficult to keep a steady hand and get a good cutout?

Sometimes the magic wand works great. Theres one on Corel thats called SmartEdge that cuts around the area you select but it isn't 100% effective.

If there are too many lines then I'll just do a rough cut around the whole thing then take a tiny eraser to the outline. Paste it onto a transparent background, save it and shampow, you have yourself a cut out.

Shouldn't take you too long once you get used to it.

[MJB23]

If you have Adobe Photoshop the easiest way I find is to use the pen tool.

Zoom in once or twice then use the pen tool to make a bunch of anchor points tracing right around the body. Once you get all the way around and you connect the last anchor point with the first, right click on the picture and choose Make Selection. Set the feather to 1px and then hit Okay.

Now you'll have it highlighted and you can just copy it and paste it on a new layer or whatever you want to do with it.

[SimplyNate]

I'll use the magic wand, magnetic lasso and/or the background eraser.