Sexy retouch for a soft skin

By Dirk Metzmacher

You might have asked yourself now and then „How do I make a soft skin without destroying the pores?“. In this workshop I’ll show you how this kind of touch-up works, and how you can conserve the pores. This goes from basic retouch up to powdering the skin.

Basic retouch

Before we start softening the skin, you should perform a so-called basic retouch. This means that zits, moles and other blemishes are removed. How much you want to weaken things depends entirely on your personal taste, of course. Read more »

14 Comments / Published on März 9, 2010

Double and Triple Drop Shadow

By Dirk Metzmacher

It is well known that a layer style can only be applied once. So if you click on Layer > Layer Style > Drop Shadow, it’s not possible to create a double drop shadow, such as one with Angle: 120 degrees, Distance: 2 px and Size: 2px and another with Angle: 180 degrees, Distance: 12 px and Size: 12 px.

Oh, but yes. It is possible. And it’s actually very simple and editable at all times, which means it’s a non-destructive method. First of all, apply the first drop shadow as you’re used to. Then right-click on the layer and choose Convert to Smart Object from the menu. Read more »

No Comments / Published on März 9, 2010

Photoshop-Week I (March)

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.

Eye tutorials

I wasn’t aware that there are so many tutorials dealing with creative changes to the eyes, such as you can see in the collection It’s All in the Eyes: 100 Beautiful Photo Manipulations. Eyes are very important for human beings, after all.

3D sphere and cube

Initially, the Photoshop tutorial How To Design a 3D Glass Icon leads us to a 3D sphere including lighting effects. In addition to that, the sphere is then put inside a transparent cube. So basic geometric shapes are arranged in a beautiful composition. Read more »

1 Comments / Published on März 8, 2010

Tutorial: Vintage look

By Dirk Metzmacher

The internet holds numerous articles and workshops about optimizing and restoring old photographic material. But it is far more exciting and creative to turn fresh photos from your digital camera into old and aged pictures. A little noise and coloration are not enough, though. You will also need some vignetting, scratches and a realistic base.

The objective

We will choose a suitable motif (current fashion and cars are rather unsuitable), then age it for years, step by step. First open the document in Photoshop and trim it with the crop tool if needed. Hold the Shift key to get a perfectly square result. Keep some space around the desired motif because we will need room for a frame. The example shows our objective: Aged photos. Read more »

3 Comments / Published on März 7, 2010

Different versions within a single file – Layer Comps

By Dirk Metzmacher

Photoshop allows you to save several variations of a composition in the same file by using so-called layer comps. This setting remembers the position, opacity, blending mode and style of a layer. A separate layer comps window gives you easy control.

01 Command Center

First off, create the first version of your composition. Go to Window > Layer Comps to call the layer comps palette, where you can store the different states of your work. Later on, a simple click will load up any variation. These are stored along with the Photoshop file (important: in .psd format), so they’re always available again. Read more »

5 Comments / Published on März 5, 2010

Photoshop CS4: Intelligent extensions with panels

By Dirk Metzmacher

Since CS4 it’s possible to extend Photoshop with so called panels. Panels are palettes that you can easily create yourself. Based on Flash, they give you numerous options that go far beyond actions and even scripts, such as sending email directly from Photoshop, blog infos, watermark, lorem ipsum, or grid generators. Read more »

2 Comments / Published on März 4, 2010