Thanks to William, here’s Creative Crew’s new video tutorial. It’s a smart and flexible technique to coloring black and white images.

Ask your wuestions to WIlliam : waiaung @ hotmail.com

Go to William’s DeviantArt

The new revolutionary CS4 Adjustment panel, is the positive evolution of Adjustment layers.
Since non-destructive editing became a “must”, the menu Image> Adjustment retired. Adjustment layers, instead, allow to edit images in the most flexible way.

Ten reasons why to use the new Adjustment panel.

Member of Creative Crew can require the source image with labeled layers.

(File size 2.1Mb) Practice will be much easier. Ask the image to the Administrator using the contact module.

1- Edit an Adjustment layer once you added it from the Adjustment panel. Any Adjustment layer can be eventually deleted by simply dragging it to the small trash bin at the bottom of the Layers panel.

2- Adjustment layer can be used at lower opacity than 100%. Just decrease the Adjustment layer opacity in the Layers panel, if you realize that the effect is too strong.

3- You can edit it an Adjustment layer unlimited times. Just use the new Adjustment panel and do not need to double click anything. It is all visible.

4- Every Adjustment layer comes together with a Layer mask. Whatever you paint black in the Layer mask, will hide the effects of your Adjustment layer. Whatever is white shows the Adjustment layer’s effect.

5- Some special effects can be obtained by changing Blending mode to an Adjustment layer. Use the drop down list in the Layers panel to change Blending mode. A nice colorization effect can be obtained using the Colorize mode of a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer, in Blending mode Overlay.
Another interesting one is obtained by just adding a new Curves Adjustment layer. Do not apply any change to the Curves, just change Blending mode from Normal to Overlay or Soft Light.

6- Adjustment layers are in fact layers. So you can actually duplicate (or drag and drop) from a document to another one or more. Whatever you set in the Adjustment layer will be duplicated in the other documents.

7- Form Photoshop CS3 onward, the amazing Select> Refine Edge, allows to control the edges of a layer mask. Now, in Photoshop CS4, it is even easier using the new Mask Panel.

8- Some new Adjustment layer users, are afraid to lose control, because an Adjustment layer works on every layer underneath it. In Photoshop CS3 you should have used what I call “The trick of the pot“, as the shape of the icon resemble a pot. The trick consist of a simple Alt+click in between an Adjustment layer and the underlying layer. When the pot appears, the Adjustment layer is parented to the Layer.
Now, in Photoshop CS4, everything is much easier. All you need to do is to decide, before to add a new Adjustment layer, if you want it to clip the layer underneath or not. It can be quickly set by clicking the icon at the bottom right hand side of the new Adjustment panel.

9- To clip more than one layer can still be a bit tricky. The solution is to put together in a group (folder) all the layers that you want to be affected. On top of them place your Adjustment layer. Then, finally, change the Blending mode of the whole group, from Pass Through to Normal. Immediately the layers included in the group will be affects by the Adjustment layer.

10- Sometimes, struggling in post processing risks to be wasted time. Auto correction can return excellent results on under exposed pictures. Unfortunately, if there are white and/or black areas, Auto corrections do not have space to fix the image histogram. In that case you may want select a target area of the image that does not include any pure white and/or pure black pixel. Select that area using any basic selection tool. Add a new Adjustment layer Levels or Curves. In the Adjustment panel use the side drop down menu to select Auto Options. From the pop up window experiment the three Auto correction algorithms.

• Enhance monochromatic contrast corresponds to Auto Contrast.
• Enhance per channel contrast corresponds to Auto Tone (previously Auto Levels).
• Find Dark & Light colors corresponds to Auto Color.

Auto Color gives excellent result when applied together with the check box Snap to Neutral Mid-tones.
Once you decided which Auto correction works better, click Ok.
Last step, trash the Adjustment Layer’s Layer Mask. The Auto correction selected will be applied to the whole image.

Creative Crew Seminar by Stefano Virgilli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.creativecrew.com.sg.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

Hi Crew,

I’ve created 2 presets adjustment layers to add a green filter to your pictures.

Click the following link in order to download the two adjustment layers, compressed into a .zip file:

Download Green presets

Use the 2 Adjustment layesr as described:

1- open a picture with a medium contrast between shadows and highlights

2- Layer> New Adjustment layer> Hue/Saturation

3- Load the Hue/Saturation preset from the .zip

4- Set blending mode to Overlay and set Opacity to 50%

5- Layer> New Adjustment layer> Levels

6- Load the Levels preset from the .zip

7- Set blending mode to Multiply and set Opacity to 20%

8- Layer> New Adjustment layer> Levels

9- Load the Levels preset from the .zip

10- Set blending mode to Screen and set Opacity to 30%

11- Layer> New Adjustment layer> Levels

12- Load the Levels preset from the .zip

13- Set blending mode to Color and set Opacity to 80%

Try to experiment yourself by changing the opacity of the adjustment layers, and create new different results.

Click on the thumbnails to watch the pictures.

Enjoy it!

Stefano

Creative Crew Seminar by Stefano Virgilli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.creativecrew.com.sg.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

This is a tutorial on How To create blood on a t-shirt. The same technique may be applied to logos on t-shirts or tattoos on folded parts of the body.

We will use the Filter Displace.
Photo: Luca Scalzo

Displace Filter can only use a black & white PSD file as map for the displacement of the layer. First of all, we have to make a black and white copy of the original picture. I’m working with Photoshop CS3 and using the Black and White adjustment (1).

In this case I used the setting Maximum white (2).

Save the file on the desktop as Black_and_White.psd.

From the internet I have downloaded “Blood brushes and Spotting paper brushes”. There are thousands of brushes that you can download. Put the .abr file in your Photoshop> Preset > Brushes folder, then launch Photoshop.

Choose the brush tool (shortcut “b” on the keyboard), right click on the image, then click the small arrow on the top left of the pop up window. Select Upload brushes and browse the “bloody” and the “spotting” sets.

Now add a new empty layer (shift+ctrl+N), choose a brush tip (3) and paint some spots in red on the t-shirt.

Now to displace the drops on the t-shirt. Go to Filter> Distort> Displace (4) and set the values Horizontal scale 20, Vertical scale 40 (5), then press Ok. A pop up window will ask to locate the Black_and_White.psd file as map. Browse the file and click Ok again.

Now the drops look better on the t-shirt. To make the drops look more realistic, go to Filter> Blur> Gaussian blur and set 0,5 pixel.
Last two steps will make the drops very realistic. Double click the layer’s thumbnail to open the Layer styles window. Add the style Satin (6) and choose your own settings.

Click Ok when you’re done.

Finally turn the Blood layer’s blending mode from Normal to Multiply (7).
Photo: Luca Scalzo

Tutorial created by Stefano Virgilli
Adobe Video Specialist
Adobe Certified Instructor, Photoshop
Adobe Certified Instructor, Premiere Pro
Adobe Certified Instructor, Illustrator
Adobe Certified Instructor, After Effects
Adobe User Group Manager

Adobe Certified Instructor After Effects

Adobe User Group Manager

Creative Crew Seminar by Stefano Virgilli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.creativecrew.com.sg.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

Black&White is a cool topic today. Everybody is talking about it in magazines, web sites and even in the training courses.

This is a test I suggest you to set better you customized black & white, using the RGB target with the CMY crosses.

Why to use it?: to check which channel is obtaining more desaturation and have a visual idea of maths settings in Channel mixer (or in Black&White adjustment from Photoshop CS3). Normally Red is the most difficult color to desature, but is one of the most spreaded in nature. The aim with the target is to check when it goes down for each channel.

How to works?: the target is a Gif file with trasparence, so you just need to download it (click on it to enlarge and drag on your desk a bigger size), open the document with Photosohp, select all (Mac: apple+A, Pc: ctrl+A), to copy (Mac: apple+C, Pc: ctrl+C), move on the picture you want to black&white and paste (Mac: apple+V, Pc: ctrl+V).

Now we could try different technics.
You can create differente snapshots on the History palette in order to view the obtained black and white (for more details see the followig pictures).

	1- Simply desature using a hue/saturation adjustment layer.
	2- Add a Channel Mixer adjustment layer, check the Monochrome box, change values as obtaining the result 100, setting as higher value the red channel.
	3- Add a Channel Mixer adjustment layer, check the Monochrome box, change values as obtaining the result 100, setting as higher value the blue channel.
	4- Add a Channel Mixer adjustment layer, check the Monochrome box, change values as obtaining the result 100, setting as higher value the green channel.
	5- Duplicate the document (creating a copy), change it in Lab color mode, move on the channels and click Lightness. Choose all (Mac: apple+A, Pc: ctrl+A), to copy (Mac: apple+C, Pc: ctrl+C), move on the picture you want to black&white and paste (Mac: apple+V, Pc: ctrl+V). Add a Channel mixer adjustment layer as described at points 2, 3 e 4, but setting master opacity to 50%.
photo: Standing in front of the mall - Orchard Road, Wheelock by Stefano Virgilli Tutorial created by Stefano Virgilli Adobe Video Specialist Adobe Certified Instructor, Photoshop Adobe Certified Instructor, Premiere Pro Adobe Certified Instructor, Illustrator Adobe Certified Instructor, After Effects Adobe User Group Manager Adobe Certified Instructor After Effects Adobe User Group Manager

Creative Crew Seminar by Stefano Virgilli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.creativecrew.com.sg.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

In this tutorial we will learn how to create a burning effect with Photoshop for a small image such as an avatar. This will take just 30 seconds, but the effect could be very hot!
First of all create a new 100×100 pixel document, 72dpi, color Greyscale.
Background content White.
Apply Filter> Render> Clouds. This is a random filter and gives a different result each time. If you are not satisfied with the results obtained after the first Cloud, you can repeat the procedure as often as you like by pressing ctrl+F (mac: Apple+F).

Now increase contrasts with Image> Adjustments> Levels. In the input levels Move through left the White slide (the right one). Move right the Black one (left slide). The aim is to move both to the beginning of the histogram. Do not move the middle slide.
Do not mind the input values because every cloud has a different histogram.

Go to Image> Mode> Indexed color, then go to Image> Mode> Color table…
From the menu choose Black body. Your fire avatar background is done already.
Go to Image> Mode> RGB and now you can add some texts to make it more cool!

Tutorial created by Stefano Virgilli
Adobe Video Specialist
Adobe Certified Instructor, Photoshop
Adobe Certified Instructor, Premiere Pro
Adobe Certified Instructor, Illustrator
Adobe Certified Instructor, After Effects
Adobe User Group Manager

Creative Crew Seminar by Stefano Virgilli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.creativecrew.com.sg.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

Firstly, this tutorial serves to understand that not all the white and black photographs are the same. Secondly, I understand it uses 4 examples of white and black obtainable with Photoshop. In this case I used Photoshop CS2, but with the previous versions it is possible to obtain the same result.

Note: This tutorial was written when Photoshop CS3 wasn’t released yet. Now everything is much easier. Thank to the new Black and White Adjustment.

1-As shown, using the hue/saturation adjustment and bringing the saturation to zero, the result for the images CMYK give lot of problems. (see photograph)

2- The hue/saturation tool nevertheless, is not excluded initially. In fact, activating the checkbox color in the lower right part and carrying the saturation to zero, the result is considerably better. (see photograph)

3- The result in step 2 with the hue/saturation tool with the activated colorize checkbox, is a bright white and black, with good contrasts. I think better appearance of the simple Mode>Grey scale black and White.

4- Nevertheless, the best black and white, (in my opinion and I enclose an image to demonstrate it) is converting the image in profile color Lab. The letter L from the acronym L*a*b*, is for Luminance and represents the transposition of lights and of shadows excluding the color. (see photograph)
Once converted in Lab, we have to take out the L channel in the Channels palette. Quickly we can activate the selection of all canvas (Mac: Apple+A, PC:Ctrl+A), make a copy (Mac: Apple+C, PC: Ctrl+C), create a new document (Mac: Apple+N, PC: Ctrl+N). The dimensions will be based on the area copied, choose the color profile CMYK, and paste (Mac: Apple+V, PC: Ctrl+V).

Tutorial created by Stefano Virgilli
Adobe Video Specialist
Adobe Certified Instructor, Photoshop
Adobe Certified Instructor, Premiere Pro
Adobe Certified Instructor, Illustrator
Adobe Certified Instructor, After Effects
Adobe User Group Manager

Adobe Certified Instructor After Effects

Adobe User Group Manager

Creative Crew Seminar by Stefano Virgilli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.creativecrew.com.sg.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

From a while, during my Photoshop training courses I dedicated myself ardently to the spread of the work flow for photographic post production based on three key passages:
1) Contrasts adjustments (the highlights and the shadows)
2) Neutral tones balance (color cast on grey)
3) Increasing or decreasing the saturation

The work flow of the photographic post production can be performed with many adjustment tools as:
Brightness/contrast - Color Balance - Hue/Saturation,
or Levels - Hue/Saturation,
or Auto-Adjustments - Sponge.

This tutorial is very brief and introduces a new method to decrease color cast on neutral tones.

The picture has a really intense orange color cast. I took this picture of Christopher Columbus’ statue along the “lower pavement” in Funchal (Madeira Island).

No need to be a colorimetric expert to understand that, the light effect due to the night orange lights is to much.

The goal is to decrease color cast, of course, without changing the “meaning” of the picture.

In fact, a strong yellowish light was illuminating the statue.
Check out the definition of “Colour cast” on Wikipedia.

First of all we duplicate the background layer. Then we apply Filter>Blur>Average, that will transform the picture’s layer into a colored “stain” by the average pixels’ color. Then we have to invert (ctrl+i) the obtained color in order to see the opposite color.

Now we change blending mode to Color (read also Blending modes tutorial) and decrease master opacity until we obtain our goal.
And that’s all!

Tutorial created by Stefano Virgilli
Adobe Video Specialist
Adobe Certified Instructor, Photoshop
Adobe Certified Instructor, Premiere Pro
Adobe Certified Instructor, Illustrator
Adobe Certified Instructor, After Effects
Adobe User Group Manager

Adobe Certified Instructor After Effects

Adobe User Group Manager

Creative Crew Seminar by Stefano Virgilli is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.creativecrew.com.sg.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.