How to Create a Header or Banner in Minutes – Easy Photoshop Lesson

Here is an easy instructional article regarding the steps in making a website logo and banner using Photoshop.

A header or banner can be seen at the topmost portion of a website. Most of the time, this contains the logo and name of the company it represents. A banner or header is important because it gives an initial impression on the company or a person that the website represents.

The color mixture should immediately catch the attention of people, it should be compelling, easy to use and has the capability to make the readers stay and visit your website again.

The color of the banner should be easy and cool on the eyes. The design should also match the nature of the website.

Here are the ways by which you can make a banner:

1. Making the size of your banner.

Make an original file by pressing on “File” then click “Open”. Maintain the size of the file as 780px in width and 120px in height. You can also try 140px in height. A banner can be adaptable based on its design. 

Open a new file by clicking on File>Open. Make the file size width of 780px and height of 120px. You can go till 140px for the height. You can make a banner flexible according to your design.

2. Setting the color of the background.

Make an original layer. Coin it as “bgcolor”. Now the color of the background can be done by doing these steps.

• Revise the color of the foreground to #E4D1B8.
• Press on the Tool, “Paint Bucket” which can be clicked on the panels for tools at the right side.
• Using your mouse press on the canvas. The color of the background now has another color.

3. Setting the inside color of the background

Make a fresh layer. Give it a filename “insidecolor”.  Click on “Rectangular Marquee Tool” which can be viewed on the right side of the panel for tools. Set the width of the rectangle at 760px and make the height of the background from the inside at 100px. Paint it with hue number C64866 utilizing the tool for paint bucket.

4. Making the logo of the background.

Set a fresh layer. Give it the filename, “logobkg”. Click on the tool, “Rectangular Marquee”. Set the width of the rectangle at 120px and 100px in height. Place the rectangle on banner’s leftmost part. Paint it with black hue #000000.

5. Making a logo through the tool custom shape

Make a fresh layer. Give it a filename, “logo”. Pick the tool, “custom shape” which is located on the right side of the panel. Press on the menu, “Shape drop down” located above the toolbar. Press on arrow and choose “Ornaments”. Find the ornament inside the banner. Move it the space for the logo and place it at the center of the background logo. This momentary ornament logo is interchangeable with the logo of the company.

6. Making the banner’s vertical lines

Make a fresh layer. Give it a filename “band”. Choose tool, Rectangular Marquee”. Set rectangle width at 7px and 120px height. Place the rectangle at the banner’s center. Paint it with hue #E8BOBD.  Create four layer copies by right clicking the layer and press “duplicate”. 
Input the layer “band copy”. Press “OK”. Repeat for band copy 3 up to 4. Place them on the banner.

7. Making the Border of the Logo

Make a fresh layer. Filename it “border”. Choose tool, “Rectangular Marquee”. Set rectangle width at 20px with 100px height. Paint it with #A63D56. Place it at the right of the background. Duplicate and place it on the left of the logo.

8. Dashed Lines

Click tool, “Horizontal Type” and set it on top. Duplicate and put it at the bottom.

9.   Company Name

Using text tool, input name of company using hue #FCF3E5.

How to Add Motion to a Photo – New Photoshop Lesson About Realistic Motion Effect

Do you want to know how to create a photo containing a high speeding car using Motion Blur of Adobe Photoshop? If you do, read on!

This article about Photoshop will inform you on the steps in which you can make a real fast effect motion. Through this, you can make a normal looking car that is parked turn into a race car that you always dreamed of. This article will teach you how to make a realistic motion blur. You will also learn how to do a radial blur together with the smoke billowing out from those fast wheels.

1. How to make a blur motion by using Photoshop

Grab an image of a car that you like. To make the process simple, maintain your settings the same with this instructional article. Keep the size of the car to one thousand pixels in width. Also, try to increase the saturation for added effect. Make a duplicate of the background and save it as “motion”. A selection will now be created which will be utilized in this instructional article. 

Using the tool polygonal lasso set in radius one or zero, choose the whole car with its wheels and mark it. Click “Select” then click “Save Selection” and filename it as “car”. The next step is to de-select your choice.

From the layer motion, move to “Filter”, then to “Blur” then to “Motion Blur”. Its angle set as zero and two hundred fifty pixels.

To make a mask layer on the layer motion, input the “car” by clicking “Select”, then press “Load Selection”. Put the color black to the selection to make the car appear. You can also use a little brush to get back on details that you may have passed. You can also paint into blurs where there are reflections on the car.

2. Smoking and Spinning

For our race car to be believable, its wheels should turn as fast as it runs. To do that, we will use Photoshop spin. The initial thing to do is make a copy of the car we can work on. Move the rectangular shaped tool to select the whole wheel. Then move to “Edit”, then click Copy Merged, then make a new figure and paste the choices to it.

Then click “Filter”, then press “Blur”, then click “Radial Blur set at fifty, spin and highest quality.

Copy-paste the figure to the primary car figure on a new layer. Also lessen the opacity to line up the figures with each other. Perform the process again to the other image and combine them. Next, put on a mask layer and mix the figures with each other.

3. Putting on Smoke and Final Processes

To make your race car complete, we need to make your tires smoke. First, put on a layer above. Then, add black to it and put the blend setting to light pin. Maintaining your background and foreground in black and white, move to “Filter”, then click “Render”, then press “Clouds”. Do this up to the point that you view interesting billows of smoke coming out of the speeding wheels.

Now put on a mask layer to take out too much smoke. After selecting the layers of smoke, press “Filter”, then click “Blur”, then click “Motion Blur” with a length of twenty pixels.

Lastly we will adjust the figure to something like that of a car commercial. Choose a motion layer. Load the choice of car that was saved at the beginning with the reverse checked for our background choices. Put on Photoshop Hue and Saturation layer and examine the color box. Drag the sliders until there is a good color mixture between the background and car. Now you have just turned a normal looking parked car into a hot high speeding car.

How to Make a Photo Look Old – Photo Editing Photoshop Lesson

Photographs capture the moment and intensity of any given event.  It also catches how a person is and how that person looks at a given moment in time thereby eliciting a certain kind of emotion and feeling when that picture is looked upon years and years after.

Currently, there are various hi-tech programs that could enhance, modify, put special effects on a particular photograph as needed and as wanted minus the hassles of subjecting it to a darkroom or denying it the exposure from any available light. 

Thanks to the magic of Photoshop,  there are a lot less worries now when handling photos.  All one has to do is to make a few clicks on the mouse and viola, an instant masterpiece is created.

When one has a desire to make a particular photograph look a bit old than how it really is, there are specific directions to go about it when using the program called Photoshop. To have that – sort off – worn out look and feel that old yellowed photographs have, the following are helpful tips to get that picture the way you just want it.

Apply sepia

Applying sepia to a photograph to make it appear a bit aged is an effective way to achieve that old look.  What is sepia then?

In Photoshop, sepia is a tone that basically consists of a reddish shade of brown tint in monochrome. Once this specific color is applied to a particular photograph,  the result is immediately a picture perfect look of warmness and an actual feeling that one is looking at an antique visual artifact.  One simply cannot help but feel sentimental towards a picture that looks older than one’s grandmother. 

The following are the steps that one could take to change a current picture to one that would appear more mature than you.  Believe it or not, this skill could be learned by anyone and everyone.  All it takes is a little tweak here and a little tweak there in as little as five short minutes courtesy of the ever reliable Photoshop.

The first step is to open the file image or picture using the Photoshop program.  Check to see the image opened.  Is the picture taken in color?  If it is taken in color,  click the tab where it says Image,  then go over the tab that says Adjust and then choose Desaturate.  After doing this,  immediately go to the tab that says Image, then choose Adjust, then choose Variations. 

Then, there is a slider that says Fine on one end,  Coarse on another.  Go move this slider a notch lower compared to the middle.  After which, carefully click on the button that says More Yellow.  Do this only once.  Then, go click on the button that says More Red.  Do this once also.  After this, click OK. 

Drum rolls please, take a deep breath and then, tadaaa!  You have officially made a photograph look old using Photoshop. 

However, if the image that is to be changed is in grayscale,  do the following steps.  After opening the picture file using Photoshop,  go to the tab that says Image, then choose Mode, then choose RGB Color.  After doing this,  immediately go to the tab that says Image, then choose Adjust, then choose Variations.  The next steps are similar to the steps listed above as when a picture is in color.  Follow the same directions and you are clearly on your way to achieving a picture-perfect  image. 

In summary, it is extremely easy to modify a picture using the current programs available.   All it takes is a little bit of patience and skill plus a lot of practice and surely almost everyone can do it.

Stick to the basics of search engine optimization – SEO Lesson

Search engine optimization has only one objective – get traffic into your website. You can spend thousands of bucks and hundreds of hours for coming up with a gorgeous website, but if that site does not get visited, all your efforts will have been in vain. Here are a few basics on SEO.

1. Include your keyword in the title tag.

Search engines look at title tags in ranking a website. As such, you will want to have the keyword that best describes your site, your business, your products and services, into that title tag. If you can, you may use a different tag for each page of your site, but don’t overdo it. Having a long procession of all the keywords you can think of will not necessarily mean you automatically get into the search results of your potential customer or inquirer. Focus on relevance.

2. Be careful about links.

Whether it is an internal or an external one, again relevance is a major issue. Building a link or a series of it, the more the merrier, must make sure your keyword is included. If you have a different tag for every page, and the keyword conveys the essence of that page, then your link will already consider what a site visitor will most likely see in your site or specific page. So you links’ anchor texts must consider your keywords.

Analyze the links for their relevance and connection to your site’s features, your business, your products and services. Whether these are inbound links pointing to your site or outbound ones you recommend, make sure the online visitor will not feel he or she wasted time in exploring the links. The links’ subjects must be related or complementary to those of yours.

3. If you’re new, prove your worth.

The age of your site sometimes determine SEO. More mature and established ones have been there longer and have made a track record of traffic. Plus they know the secrets already. If your site is relatively new, you need to work harder on getting that traffic in through SEO by managing the basics. Your public relations with your peers in the industry will also play a role in establishing that online track record. As you prove your worth in actual business practice, more and more network colleagues, industry peers, even possible competitors will be noticing if not even linking to your site.

4. Don’t just copy and paste.

Try to avoid if not actually eliminate duplicate content in your site. Replicating the contents of the about page in the products and services page limits not only your creativity but the possibility of traffic. More importantly, don’t plagiarize.

5. Keep it simple.

Your site’s visitor will have a very short and impatient attention span. While you may have come up with the most relevant keywords, if there is not enough substance on the pages, no visitor will stay. Be brief, direct to the point, and highlight how you or your site is the answer to the visitor’s quest.

Stick to the basics of SEO and watch that traffic grow.

How to Remove the Background behind People in Images – Interesting Photoshop Lesson

This will illustrate how to take out the green or blue key screens or take out the plain backgrounds through Photoshop 5, 6, 7, CS and CS2. 

Often green screens were used in films and to place backgrounds that are difficult to actually make or go to. “Green screening” is very advantageous in various ways. It does not only make changing the background easy,  but it can also create distinct background portraits or grab an object which can be re-designed.

These are the steps to be done using Adobe Photoshop CS which can also be applied to other versions like CS2, 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0.

1. Select the picture wherein you would like to take out the green screen.

2. Choose “Color Range” on the Select menu.

3. When the Color Range shows, press in tool, eyedropper. Slide the “Fuzziness” to 30. See the checkbox “Invert”, pick “Grayscale” on the “Selection Preview”. See to it that the “Selection” key is clicked.

4. Using the tool, “eyedropper”, press on the green part of the picture. This can be found on the original canvas or in “Color Range”. Most of the green part are colored white while the rest of the picture is black. In case there are locations due to unbalanced lighting that are not white, press “Shift” and click using eyedropper. Stop when all the green area is chosen.

5. These choices will work fine, but in case white pixels remain, set down the Fuzziness up to the point when it’s simpler to press on the areas. You may also press “shift” and drag the mouse to choose different points compared to pressing per point. For higher accuracy, press “Control” then “+”.

6. When you are already sure with your choice, press “OK”.

7. Now you can view the image you have chosen. In case there are problems such as ants scrolling in and out of your choices, utilize “lasso Tool” by holding down “Shift” for Mac or “Control” for Windows to subtract or add from your choices.

8. You are now set to take out the blue or green screen. Double check if you are on the right layer. Once on the “background”, double click then press “OK” to go back to normal, then choose “Inverse” from the menu “Select”. Now your choices are reversed.

9. Click “delete” or choose “Clear” from menu “Edit” to take out the selection. Now, the borders of the image have a touch of “halo” that encloses it. Remove it by clicking “Layer” then click “Matting”, then press on “Remove White Matte” or by pressing “Layer”, then click on “Matting”, then click on “Defringe”.  Most of the time one to three pixels are enough.

10. Lastly, any background that you choose can be placed at the back of the image. For example, if your image is King Kong, you can set him on the forest background, or with New York City as his backdrop. You can even locate him in the Himalayas, in the Sahara desert or in the middle of the ocean. You can choose any background as long as you have an image of that. Just double check that you put the background on a layer underneath the present layer.

An easy way to do a fast and dirty portrait background is to pick a set of colors in the color selection box then choose “Filter”, then click “Render” and then press “Clouds”.

Now that you removed the background behind people in images you can just adjust the blur and noise to make it perfect.

How To Create Cool Portfolio Layout – Photoshop Lesson with images

This Photoshop Lesson is about how to create a cool portfolio layout, the final result is shown below; please click on the image for a larger view.

So to start of you will need a background images, please use this one <photobucket>

1. Make a new Photoshop document 1000px wide and 1200px high and paste in the background image from above.    Rename this layer background

2.  Create a new layer and then using the rectangle marquee tool; make a selection 200px high and 1000px wide and fill this color black.  Rename this layer header.

3.  Now we need to add some guides, go to view > new guide and add a vertical guide at 200px and 800px and create a new layer, call this layer content and drag this layer under the header layer. See the picture below if your unsure.

4.  Select the rounded rectangle tool and with the settings below, draw a box 700px in length and make sure you draw the box between our 2 guides.

Right click on the content layer and select rasterize layer.  You should have something that looks like this.

5. Create another layer this time above the content layer but below the header, call this layer main.  Now use the same settings as before when drawing a box but this time, instead of using the color a3a3a3 use a solid black and also change the feather to 15px and draw a 500px box.

You should now have something that looks like this.

6. create a new layer again above the other two layers but still below the header layer, name this layer navigation, use the same settings as we did for the last box but change the color to a nice green shade, I will use the color b1cd19,

Draw a 50px high box from the 200px header now right click on this layer and rasterize it.  You should have something similar to the below image.

7.  Create 2 new vertical guides at the 210px mark and the 790px mark.

8.  Click back onto our ‘header’ layer and press ctrl + j to duplicate the layer. Then drag the block all the way to the bottom of our design and rename this layer footer.

We now have the basic shapes for our layout.  Check the image below to see if yours looks similar.

9.  Let’s now start to add some text to the layout.  We will start from the top, select the header layer by clicking once on it then select the type tool (T). I have used ‘my portfolio’ as the name of our site. I have used the font hemi head at size 60pt.

Double click this font layer and select these blending options.

10.  Now we will add the navigation text, i’m going to use a pixel font called ‘pixel your life’ which can be found at dafont.com.  Once you have added the text double click on the layer to add this layer style to it.

11. using the same pixel font make a new text layer and write ‘our portfolio’ then make a new layer and draw a 1 pixel line all the way across the main image until you reach the outer guides, make this line color ‘898989’

12.  Now add some stock images to your site, to make it look more interesting, only add these images to the main layer though.  You should now have something that looks like this.

Now where we have left blank space on this layer just add the text ‘<< Previous Next >> “so it looks like you can flick through our design to see more creations.

13.   Our website is coming along nice however the navigation looks very basic so we will make it look a lot nicer, we can do this by selecting the navigation layer and changing the layer style.

So select the navigation layer and double click on it.  Now use these settings below.

Gradient overlay

Stroke

14.  Now click on the content layer and then create a new layer above it.  Using the same font settings as before write ‘latest works’ and add a 1px solid black outside border to it.

15. create a new layer and draw a 1px solid black line all the way across just like we did before, stopping before the inner lines.  Once you have done this add some stock images to the content layer.  You can also leave room and duplicate the ‘previous next’ layer and drag it down on our image, but this time change the text color to black, keep the green arrows however.
You should now have something that looks like this.

16.  For the bottom of the layout you might want to add external links or a copyright for your website, i’m going to add the PSFarm logo and some links.

17.  Now looking at the image, the layout is nearly complete however i’m not to keep on the logo at the top of the screen so to fix this we will change it a little.  Find the text logo layer that is at the top of the screen then press CTRL + J to duplicate it, then press ctrl + T then right click on the image and select flip vertical.

18.  Drag this new layer below the original layer on the layers pallet.  Then right click on the copied layer and select clear layer style.  Now change the opacity of the copied layer to 15%.
19.  All that’s left to do is to clear the guides left behind to do this go to View > Clear guides.

We are now left with our finished version.  Please click on the thumbnail image below to view our layout in all its glory.

We hope this Photoshop Lesson will help you to start making your first design layouts. You are welcome to post your attempts in our Webmaster Forum where you may ask for original psd of this lesson as well.

High-Scalability Hosting for Streaming Media and Video Content Sites – Scalable Hosting

Ever since YouTube rose to fame when Google bought it in 2006, many webmasters tried to clone it. Unfortunately, a lot of them failed. While several factors contributed to their failure, from poor marketing to the lack of a big budget, the failure to deliver when their users’ demands grew is one significant factor.

Hosting streaming media such as videos is different from a website that only hosts text and images. File sizes of videos are much larger and thus take up more bandwidth. And so what happens when an ill-equipped video content site is suddenly bombarded with many visitors is that they fail to keep up. Streaming of videos and even loading of pages suddenly slow down. When this happens, users get frustrated and leave that website. Everytime this happens, the video content site loses potential customers.

To prevent such disaster from happening, the webmaster should first consider getting high-scalability hosting before even developing the website.

Scalable Hosting means High Scalability and high availability – these are essential requirements for high-performance Hosting Services

What is High-Scalability Hosting

Simply known as Scalable Hosting, the term refers to hosting solutions that make it easy for websites to adapt sudden to increase in traffic. Using the same example mentioned earlier, visitors of a website will not experience slowdowns even if their numbers spike up because scalable hosting immediately adapts itself to the website’s current demands.

But sudden spikes in traffic aren’t the only things that owners of video streaming sites have to worry about. They should also ensure that their files are hosted on reliable and stable servers.

How Reliable Hosting Can Help Prevent Site Disasters

Many things come into play in the background in preventing site disasters such as slow downs and crashes.

First of these is called server clustering. This is a kind of set-up where several servers  work as one unit. By having this kind of arrangement, the host ensures that the websites hosted under it will continue to run smoothly even if one server fails. This is because the resources are redistributed to the remaining functional servers in case one breaks down.

So put into the context of a video content site, it will run without a hitch even if it  experiences a spike in traffic because there are several servers that share the workload.

Then there’s also the issue of file storage. The larger the website is, the more reliable file storage it needs because it cannot afford to lose even a single bit of data.

Webmasters putting up streaming media sites should therefore consider hosts that offer reliable storage options such as Storage Area Networks or SANs. In this kind of set up, storage devices are attached to servers remotely. This ensures that if the server fails, the files remain safe.

Aside from that, SANs offer faster connection speeds than other storage options because data can be streamed from the storage device to the server using fiber optic cables. Fiber optic cables deliver data faster than traditional copper cables. And by using fiber optic cables, storage devices can be stored further than those that use copper ones.

How to Create a Panoramic Photo – Making Awesome Images with Photoshop Lesson

Nowadays, special cameras are no longer needed to create awesome panoramic photographs. One only needs to use the Photoshop program, using the Photomerge process. Photomerge is a separate program present in Photoshop CS created especially for panoramic photography. Although the results of the merge will be heavily dependent on the layout and quality of the image source, the process itself is not difficult. The feature permits the selection of images intended for panoramic setting, and it also allows manual arrangement.

Since the quality of the source image is important, it is necessary to note some tips when shooting scenic photographs

-Shoot pictures using manual exposure. Blending the pictures later on will be difficult when different exposures per shot is used

-Try to keep the camera in one place when shooting. If possible, use tripod. It will be harder to merge photos afterwards when the focus is in parallax.

-Establish a distance between the camera and the subject, especially when working with landscapes. The chances for parallax is greater when objects are so close to the camera.

Here is the simple step-by-step instruction on how to come up with panoramic images using Photoshop:

1. Download several images of a single scenery. For this instance, three images will be used.

2. Open Photoshop CS. Go to the File option, the select Automate, and then go to Photomerge.

3. The photoshop dialog box will be opened. Check to see that the three images selected appear in the dialog box, then check the Attempt to Automatically Arrange Source Images box, then select Ok. The program will then automatically select images one by one, afterwards, a window will open showing the images that are going to be merged in the interface for photomerge.

Note: It is possible that an error may occur in case the program cannot merge the images automatically. This should not be a source for panic since one can arrange the images manually.

4. If an errors occurs, integrate the images that was not merged by pulling the said image from the top window into the panorama, arranging it to its desired position.

5. Photoshop then will integrate the image into the panorama automatically. However, some clear lines that separate the images into the panorama may appear. It is possible to blend those lines so it will disappear. Select the Advance Blending option located at the right of the photomerge window, then select Preview. Inconsistencies in color will be calculated by the program. At this point, the images will blend together.

6. One can actually distort the pictures so that the scene will like it is in perspective. Select the Perspective option on the bottom of Settings. This can also be done by choosing Set Vanishing Point in the photomerge window, then click to an area in the panorama.

Remember that Photoshop will combine all the individual images into a single one on one layer. One can simply select the Keep as Layers option and click it to be able to edit each image individually.

Cylindrical mapping can also be utilized, where images are projected into a cylinder. It can improve the mapping of the perspective.

It is often recommended that Perspective should be used often instead of the Normal mode. Normal setting usually does not match the images seamlessly, and Perpective does that in a more accurate manner.

Creating panoramic photos does not need to be complicated. Using Photoshop will make the task a breeze for just about anyone.

Utilizing the program can make anyone producing inspiring and professional-looking images without the hassle.

How to Resize Images in Various Ways – Next Photoshop Lesson

On your bed side is your favorite photo of your girl friend. You want it to be smaller so it can fit inside your wallet. You try to scale down the size but the image becomes a bit blurred. Changing the sizes of pictures is a common problem but with Photoshop, there is an easy solution.

These instructions are for Photoshop CS and CS2. The CS version is very advantageous because of its innovative latest features. 

To make an image smaller, browse to “Image” then “Image Size” menu. Press on “Resample Image” and select on the drop-down menu “Bicubic Sharper”. You get the perfect setting in assuring that a picture will not blur. For example, a photo of your wife is set at two thousand pixels across. Even if it is lessened to two hundred fifty pixels and then to one hundred twenty five, there is no decrease in sharpness.

Bicubic Smoother should be selected in making an image bigger. This is a much more useful technique that you would want to have as a default setting for the Image Size menu in Photoshop. But further experimenting on the program would reveal that you yourself  can set it in default. The steps should be to browse to “Preferences” then to “General” and “Image Interpolation”, here you can choose “Bicubic Sharper” from the selection.  

Another tip in resizing images is to execute it once per image. Other people will change sizes repeatedly in trying to find the right size and will result in an image with a not so pleasing blur. It is recommended that you do trial and error on a copy image. After deciding on the final measurements, return to the original and change its size only once. 

Reminder:

An image in GIF format should never be resized. You should initially transform the mode to RGB Color, and then change the size. Your new sized image can still be saved as GIF, just do not resize the picture in GIF mode.

Resizing and Resampling Images

The amount of data in an image adjusts or changes once it is resized and resampled. Resampling an image is done by checking the Resample Image box at the lower part of the Image Size dialog box. Resample mode is set on default.

Resampling alters or adjusts the total amount of pixels of an image, which are presented as Height and Width in pixels found in the dialog box of Image Size in the section of Pixel Dimensions. Once there is upsampling or when the amount of pixels in this section’s dialog box gets higher, more data are added to the image by the application, and once there is downsampling or when the amount of pixels get lower, some data are taken out by the application.

The quality of an image is corrupted to some degree every time there is data taken from or added on to an image. Elimination of data is preferred rather than the addition due to the fact that upsampling entails that Photoshop Elements or Photoshop will estimate which pixels to put in. This is a much more complicated procedure than estimating which pixels to eliminate in downsampling. Great results are achieved when images are brought to Photoshop in the correct resolution for the output desired. Resizing images with no resampling involved may also give out the results that you need.

With a little help from Photoshop, resizing images is not such a complicated thing to do after all.

How to remove blemishes and make the skin look flawless – Easy Photoshop Lesson

Retouching photographs to make the skin of the persons found on it look flawless, smooth and completely free from blemishes is not an easy job.  The key to doing a perfect picture is, believe it or not,  patience.  This value is as important as the tools available to create that faultless look.  

Edit in RGB

As much as it is possible, try to do any and all picture editing using the file format of RGB.  This is even if the final format of the picture file you are to save will be in the CMYK format.  There are advantages when using RGB.  For one,  it is a lot more editable compared to RGB.  Also,  RGB is more flexible. 

If you find the image that you have as a bit too dark than the normal,  lighten it.  Utilize midtones and try to add the colors yellow and red. 

Layer it

Once you are done with editing the colors in your picture, make another layer, a new one.  This is an effective way for you to be able to control the work you are doing.  This method also works best just in case you may not like the things you have done on the image.  Via this process, you can conveniently start at the beginning or go back to a part of the image you are working on previously.  This trick is a very great way to impress anyone,  your friends perhaps or the clients you may have.

After layering, the time to retouch immediately follows.  The usual tools used for retouching is the cloning stamp and at times the heeling brush.  These are used to effectively take away any blemishes and imperfections – big or small – that may be present on the face of any person on the photograph.  Ugly features such as laugh lines or those lines directly under one’s eyes are taken off immediately like magic. 

Size does matter

Instances could occur wherein photographs taken of individuals sometimes appear that their noses become larger than the usual or that their chin is naturally large.  Or that the lips may have are small.  These little things sometimes may throw a picture off.  These little problems are quickly solved with the use of Filters.  By using this tool,  one is able to distort a image, smudge it or move it.

The Pucker tool in Photoshop is best to be used when there is a need to minimize a quite large nose or a chin.

Smooth the skin

The use of cloning stamp is an effective means to smooth the skin.  A cloning stamp that is big but with a hardness that is small – usually fifteen percent – is good. 

It is best that one click multiple times rather than apply strokes.  Patience is a virtue when using this process.  As much as it is possible, try  not to repeat any pattern that you have already done.  Check the palette history of your work.  If done,  do not forget to make adjustments to the color. 

Once completely done, it is advisable that you check the picture before it was retouched, and the picture after using Photoshop.  You will be able to see what you did different, how you did it and which part should you improve on doing next.

In summary,  retouching is an art as well as a skill that needs time, patience and a lot of practice for one to be able to evolve in it and grow. 

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