Tutorial: Pseudo HDR

By Dirk Metzmacher

You might know this situation: You’re taking a lot of time trying new combinations in Photoshop, and the result looks good on exactly one picture, yet not so good on many others. This is one of those cases.

Well, maybe not quite, because otherwise I wouldn’t write about it. This „trick“ works on image material that shows neither total black nor total white. A studio model in front of a white background leads to horrible results, even. So be warned. Read more »

4 Comments / Published on Mai 28, 2010

Tutorial: Head work

By Dirk Metzmacher

It’s amazing that even with very little artistic talent you can create realistic images in Photoshop. As an example, I’ll show you the creation of a woman whose hair, skin, eyes, nose and mouth were drawn. Read more »

No Comments / Published on Mai 20, 2010

The world’s five largest photos

By Dirk Metzmacher

Gigapixel worlds are fascinating with their sheer size and incredible level of detail. You see a panoramic view of a city or of a landscape, and you can zoom right down into people’s faces. Here we collected the world’s five largest photos for you. Hundreds of single shots were combined into one single image, which is more than 1.000 times larger than the images standard cameras can provide. Read more »

1 Comments / Published on Mai 17, 2010

Photoshop-Week I (April)

By Dirk Metzmacher

In this series I have a look at the most current Photoshop tutorials. Sometimes there could also be classics among them. I’m sure you’ll always find great techniques and inspiration. Read more »

No Comments / Published on April 23, 2010

Image made of text

By Dirk Metzmacher

Every day we’re surrounded by written words. Be it the daily morning newspaper, documents at the workplace or texts on the internet – type is part of our everyday life. So in order to set a counterpoint to all that, we’ve created the „image made of text“ effect, in which the content is supported by the shape, which in turn forms a face.

Basis

For example, an article about „anxiety and panic attacks“ could be visually emphasized with the following image. This stresses the message even more. There are only very few necessary prerequisites to putting this effect into practice. The image element that dictates the text’s shape should be in front of a white background. If that’s not possible, you should extract the element and then fit it with a white background.

It’s also favorable to have a rather bright image element. Such an element doesn’t have to be a portrait, because with this technique the text can follow any shape you like.

Conversion to black & white

If you want to create a black & white image from a color photo, you could simply click on Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. But this makes the image flat and low in contrast. There’s a reason for that. Different colors with the same brightness are very similar as shades of gray, which is why you can’t differentiate the single tones anymore. Read more »

No Comments / Published on April 16, 2010

Web design – small but nice

By Dirk Metzmacher

When little information must be presented very quickly on a website, such as preview information for a site prelaunch or a portfolio demonstrating skills, miniature websites that show only the most necessary content in very little space are the way to go. Read more »

No Comments / Published on April 14, 2010