The image this week is Wickett
Try to make it look not so flashed out, but not so dark that the features disappear
Try to make it look not so flashed out, but not so dark that the features disappear
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Challenge: Black Cats
- Thread starter icklemiss21
- Start Date
Here's my first go, and a quick one since it is almost 2:00 in the morning....
I first did Auto Levels. Then I went into the Curves and darkened it up until I was happy with it. In the new Photoshop CS3 (downloaded the 30 day trial, because I know I'll be getting it for work soon
), there is this FAB tool called "Quick Select" that makes selecting a breeze!! I used that, feathered at 5 pixels since he's a floof, copied and pasted it onto the blank sig. Used Transform Tool to resize to fit. Used the Smudge to add back some floof. Then I cheated and used downloaded styles for the background and style of his name.
I first did Auto Levels. Then I went into the Curves and darkened it up until I was happy with it. In the new Photoshop CS3 (downloaded the 30 day trial, because I know I'll be getting it for work soon
My try with Wickett
I did auto contrast first and cut him out of the background, then I selected the pale bits with a 7pixel feather and played with the Hue/saturation settins untill it looked OKish. It looked a bit red so I made another copy, cut out his eyes and did new layer/paint bucket black 20%, then merged these and pasted this on to the other one.
PS I am begining to think the hardest bit of these challenges is trying to remember to make notes and explain what you have done
I did auto contrast first and cut him out of the background, then I selected the pale bits with a 7pixel feather and played with the Hue/saturation settins untill it looked OKish. It looked a bit red so I made another copy, cut out his eyes and did new layer/paint bucket black 20%, then merged these and pasted this on to the other one.
PS I am begining to think the hardest bit of these challenges is trying to remember to make notes and explain what you have done
Here is mine.
First I did the Auto Levels, then Auto Contrast. Then I selected the whited out sections and adjusted darkness and contrast until it looked like it matched. Some areas I left lighter to keep the shine of Wicketts fur. I then selected a large portion of my left of Wicketts picture because there seemed to be a yellow hue to it. I added blue to take away so much of the yellow. Next I added blue and cyan to the entire picture, to take out the red and and make Wickett look blacker. Next I selected each of Wicketts eyes, and darked and added saturation to it, in the one eye, I had to add colour hue because it was whited out. Next I cut out the image into a PSD file, because I always save my PSD files.
I then created the background to sort of match Wicketts eyes, and pasted him on to the background. Then I duplicated the first layer of Wickett and set it to Soft Light. Then Gaussian blurred it a bit. Then I duplicated that layer and left it on Soft light, and lightened it, as well as reduced the Opacity to about 25. Next I added a drop shadow to the bottom layer of Wickett (which I probably shouldn't have done)and then flattened the image, added the text and that was that.
First I did the Auto Levels, then Auto Contrast. Then I selected the whited out sections and adjusted darkness and contrast until it looked like it matched. Some areas I left lighter to keep the shine of Wicketts fur. I then selected a large portion of my left of Wicketts picture because there seemed to be a yellow hue to it. I added blue to take away so much of the yellow. Next I added blue and cyan to the entire picture, to take out the red and and make Wickett look blacker. Next I selected each of Wicketts eyes, and darked and added saturation to it, in the one eye, I had to add colour hue because it was whited out. Next I cut out the image into a PSD file, because I always save my PSD files.
I then created the background to sort of match Wicketts eyes, and pasted him on to the background. Then I duplicated the first layer of Wickett and set it to Soft Light. Then Gaussian blurred it a bit. Then I duplicated that layer and left it on Soft light, and lightened it, as well as reduced the Opacity to about 25. Next I added a drop shadow to the bottom layer of Wickett (which I probably shouldn't have done)and then flattened the image, added the text and that was that.
Here's my attempt
Here's a summary of what I did
1) Auto levels & Auto contrast to the original picture
2) cut Wickett ("W") out with feather at 5px
3) duplicate the copy 4 times. 2 layers were put on colour dodge...1 at 100% and 1 at 65%
4) Any patches of 'white flash' still showing, I tried to select these and use hue/saturation and brightness/contrast to blend them in..But for me, it didnt work well. So what I did, I cut out an area of fur on the 'non flashed' part of the face, rotated it horizontally and put that over the flashed bits.
5) I used smudge tool to blend these parts in. Smudge tool also run over the flahed 'white beard' parts too to blur them out a bit.
6) edited brightness/contrast to darken W as much a possible but still so you could see his features
7) Once happy with the colour, I used the eraser tool to tidy up the edges.
8) Then used smudge tool with the stipple brush to blend W's coat and the edges too. 14px for the coat and 7px for the edges. This, I discovered today, is the best brush for me to replace fur. I've been struggling with fur replacing for a while now but this brush seemed to make it a bit easier.
9) I cut out W's eyes and put them in new layers. Magic wand selected the coloured areas of the eyes and then on hue/saturation>colourise, opted for an apple green. I then pasted these back onto the main layer I was working on.
10) I added circle eclipse shapes in a new layer for the pupils and gaussian blurred them out. I painted the whites speck of light in and gaussian blurred them out.
11) The background was a green marble background and I used the paint daub facility on filter to give a different effect to it. I added W on it, re-sized and positioned him, tidied up any edges with a tiny eraser and added a few more bits of fur to blend in the edges using the smudge tool as described above.
12) Then added the text.
13) Then played around with the brightness/contrast of the finished product to what looked best to my eye.
I think thats all the steps I took lol. A lot of it is trial and error. Anakat was right....the instructions bit is harder that the actual sig lol.
Here's a summary of what I did
1) Auto levels & Auto contrast to the original picture
2) cut Wickett ("W") out with feather at 5px
3) duplicate the copy 4 times. 2 layers were put on colour dodge...1 at 100% and 1 at 65%
4) Any patches of 'white flash' still showing, I tried to select these and use hue/saturation and brightness/contrast to blend them in..But for me, it didnt work well. So what I did, I cut out an area of fur on the 'non flashed' part of the face, rotated it horizontally and put that over the flashed bits.
5) I used smudge tool to blend these parts in. Smudge tool also run over the flahed 'white beard' parts too to blur them out a bit.
6) edited brightness/contrast to darken W as much a possible but still so you could see his features
7) Once happy with the colour, I used the eraser tool to tidy up the edges.
8) Then used smudge tool with the stipple brush to blend W's coat and the edges too. 14px for the coat and 7px for the edges. This, I discovered today, is the best brush for me to replace fur. I've been struggling with fur replacing for a while now but this brush seemed to make it a bit easier.
9) I cut out W's eyes and put them in new layers. Magic wand selected the coloured areas of the eyes and then on hue/saturation>colourise, opted for an apple green. I then pasted these back onto the main layer I was working on.
10) I added circle eclipse shapes in a new layer for the pupils and gaussian blurred them out. I painted the whites speck of light in and gaussian blurred them out.
11) The background was a green marble background and I used the paint daub facility on filter to give a different effect to it. I added W on it, re-sized and positioned him, tidied up any edges with a tiny eraser and added a few more bits of fur to blend in the edges using the smudge tool as described above.
12) Then added the text.
13) Then played around with the brightness/contrast of the finished product to what looked best to my eye.
I think thats all the steps I took lol. A lot of it is trial and error. Anakat was right....the instructions bit is harder that the actual sig lol.
Aww... look at my little boy! They all look lovely! Espically considering how terrible the original image was.... Wickett says thank you!
Here's another try, showing the softer side of Wickett
I cut him out, made a new image and duplicated the layer. I then used the Burn tool to make the image darker where he was washed out. I used the lasso tool to select his eyes on the darkened layer, and adjusted the Color Balance to make his eyes more amber. Then I used the lasso tool again to select the pupils and deleted them from the 2nd layer to get them back to black. I duplicated the top layer 4 times, then merged visible.
I copied the new, darker Wickett to a new sig file, used clouds to make the background, then a gradient stroke using Shapeburst in the same colors as the clouds for the border. Then I used brushes and styles to make the rest of the background.
I cut him out, made a new image and duplicated the layer. I then used the Burn tool to make the image darker where he was washed out. I used the lasso tool to select his eyes on the darkened layer, and adjusted the Color Balance to make his eyes more amber. Then I used the lasso tool again to select the pupils and deleted them from the 2nd layer to get them back to black. I duplicated the top layer 4 times, then merged visible.
I copied the new, darker Wickett to a new sig file, used clouds to make the background, then a gradient stroke using Shapeburst in the same colors as the clouds for the border. Then I used brushes and styles to make the rest of the background.
Aww... he matches my wedding theme now! Green and butterflies!
Oh cool! I didn't know that!
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #10
First I did auto colour on the original image and cut it out using the magnetic lasso - cropped and used image size to shrink to siggy making size.
I then pasted my cut out pic to a new sig sized document, made three copies, the first set to screen and the two upper layers on soft light which brought out his features. I used a soft edged brush to blur the bottom (original) layer
I then did a layer of blurred black over Wickett to get rid of some of the bright spots and set it to multiply at low opacity and went over the coloured part of the eye with a darkish yellow and did the same
I then did a cloud render with yellow and green and used a green butterfly brush set to linear burn over it - keeping with Meaghan's wedding theme
I then pasted my cut out pic to a new sig sized document, made three copies, the first set to screen and the two upper layers on soft light which brought out his features. I used a soft edged brush to blur the bottom (original) layer
I then did a layer of blurred black over Wickett to get rid of some of the bright spots and set it to multiply at low opacity and went over the coloured part of the eye with a darkish yellow and did the same
I then did a cloud render with yellow and green and used a green butterfly brush set to linear burn over it - keeping with Meaghan's wedding theme
