Adobe Photoshop

Magic Street – Before and After

photo editing process Photoshop

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago.

It shows a magical street of a lovely city called Gyor in Hungary.

We like going there, it’s a nice place.

 

Since, as you might already know, I never leave my pictures untouched (because that would cause my brain to break), I had to open it in my editing software (Photoshop Elements Eight) and play with it for awhile.

This is what I did, step-by-step…

 

photo editing process Photoshop

The original picture.

No editing at all.

 

I like the magic of the place.

I like how the shadows and bright spots interact.

I like how the history still lives and breathes there.

Captivating.
photo editing process Photoshop, the Pioneer Woman actions

1. I applied the Pioneer Woman Boost Action here.

 

I use that action a lot.

It’s awesome!
photo editing process Photoshop

2. Here I ‘burned the remaining haze’ a little using the Unsharp Mask.

 

That is my favorite editing technique of all times.

Actually, I once wrote a tutorial about it.
photo editing process Photoshop

3. In this step, I used the Unsharp Mask again.

Only this time to sharpen the image a little more.

 

I’ll soon bring a tutorial on what settings I use to sharpen my pictures.

photo editing process Photoshop

The final result.
photo editing process Photoshop

And again – before and after.

 

In fact, the whole transition took me no more than 5 minutes.

Just a few clicks can lead to a very different, punchy and bold result.

 

What do you think, dear friends?

Do you use any of the mentioned techniques?

Let me know!

Share via

How to Remove Crumbs (…From Your Pictures)

how to remove and clean crumbs, blemishes, and irregularities from pictures with Photoshop tutorial

Before.

After.
Let’s imagine there’s a person in this world who takes pictures of food.

Right, that’s definitely easy to imagine.

Okay. Now let’s take this idea one step further and assume that the person sometimes doesn’t like crumbs in her (his) pictures and feels a strong need to remove them.

Oh yeah, that’s a little weird. I agree. Maybe that person should see someone.

Well, I don’t know whether a person like that exists.

I totally don’t!

But if she (or he) hypothetically lived somewhere and had such bizarre things on her mind and so much time on her hands then this might be what she (or he) would do to get rid of the crumbs:

how to remove and clean crumbs, blemishes, and irregularities from pictures with Photoshop tutorial

She (or he) would:

1. Open the picture in Photoshop.

2. In the Layers palette, click on the Background layer and then press Ctrl+J (Mac: Command+J) to create a duplicate layer. Leave this new layer selected (highlighted).

3. Choose the Healing Brush Tool from the left-hand Tool palette.

4. On the tool options bar, set the brush diameter to a suitable size – you need it to be big enough to cover the crumbs.

5. Choose a part of the picture without a crumb which is close to the spot with the crumb. This is done to get a similar color and texture to replace the crumb with. Alt+click (Mac: Option+click) on the crumb-less spot.

6. Move the circle over the crumb and click your mouse. This should place the sample right over the crumb.

Repeat this as often as needed.
how to remove and clean crumbs, blemishes, and irregularities from pictures with Photoshop tutorial

Feel free to use this tool to replace any irregularities – crumbs, dust, wrinkles or people’s heads.

It’s fun!

Share via

Photo Set (Bundt Cake)

Right now I am preparing a yummy recipe that I’ll be posting here tomorrow. Meanwhile I have something else you might want to see.
Over the past few months some of you asked me how this or that photo had been taken. Your questions gave me an idea that you might find interesting to see how several of my sets looked like. I myself love this kind of information and seek it eagerly wherever possible.

So, from now on, if I find the photo set that I’ve created interesting in a certain way I’ll show it to you.

If it helps at least one of you then my mission was worth it.

 

The picture above is by far not perfect or exquisite or anything. But what I find interesting about it is the lighting. You might be wondering how on earth that set was lit and whether I used artificial lights or not. And how I dare own photography lighting without letting you know.

So, this is what the set looked like.

I don’t use lights since I don’t own photography lights.

But what I own is my home-made silver reflector (you can find its heart-touching story here). And then I have one window. And then I have some white paper that I duct taped to the wall and to my kitchen countertop. And that’s it!

Very, very simple.

This is the job that my camera did.

Well, she was really trying.

I still love her dearly.

And yes, I refer to my camera as her. It’s my best friend after all. Actually, I might start calling her Amelie.

And this is how Photoshop helped.

Needless to say, I love Photoshop.

I might start calling it Fred.

 

See you soon!

Love,

Petra

Share via

How to Tint a Photo

how to use photo filter in Photoshop step-by-step tutorial

There are always many questions regarding photography and photo editing running around in my head.

And that’s awesome since I always have something new to learn or find out.

For example, for quite some time now, I’ve been wondering how to apply a color tint to my pictures.

Today, maybe because I still feel a little overwhelmed by the romantic atmosphere of the wedding we attended recently, I decided to definitely learn how that thing is achieved.

Of course, as with everything in the photo-editing realm, there are about 3 gazillion ways how to achieve certain effect.

In fact, I’m glad I found at least this one.

So if you know of any other approach, feel free to let me know.

I’ll be more than happy.

how to use photo filter in Photoshop step-by-step tutorial

This is the original picture.

I took it while I was house sitting (and dog sitting and canary sitting) for my parents about a month ago.

Those days were long, lazy and filled with taking scandalous amounts of pictures.

Scandalous, I’m telling you!

As I was choosing the picture to play with today, I noticed these flowers. They were literally calling for some romance to be brought into their lives.

So this is what I did to help them…

Note: I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 here.

how to use photo filter in Photoshop step-by-step tutorial

I clicked LAYER  -> NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER -> PHOTO FILTER.

how to use photo filter in Photoshop step-by-step tutorial

This is what appears on the lower right-hand side.

Right now, a wonderful time begins for you – just go and choose whatever color tint you want in your picture.

I went for ‘Warming Filter’ under the ‘Filter’ option. The filter option includes gorgeous preset tint colors.

Instead of the ‘Filter’ option, you can also click the ‘Color’ button (just under the ‘Filter’ button) which will allow you to choose from any color that basically exists.

 

Now that you have your color selected, you can adjust the intensity of the color with the ‘Density’ option. Dragging the ‘Density’ slider to the right adds more of the color to the image for a stronger amount of tinting, while dragging it to the left reduces the amount of color for a more subtle tinting effect. You can see a preview of what’s happening in your image as you drag the slider.

how to use photo filter in Photoshop step-by-step tutorial

When I was perfectly happy with the new tint of my picture I flattened it (LAYER -> FLATTEN IMAGE).

Then I decided to do one more thing – to lighten the image up a little. I clicked ENHANCE -> ADJUST LIGHTING -> LEVELS and dragged the slider to the left until the image was as light as I wished.

Ta-da!

how to use photo filter in Photoshop step-by-step tutorial

Here are both pictures side-by-side for you to compare.

Gosh, I LOVE this tinting game!

Just try it, it’s awesome!

Love,

Petra

Share via
Send this to a friend