How To Achieve This Sharp Effect

Hello all

I'm a new member here so hopefully I'm posting in the right section!

Now... I'm not a newbie with PS but I just can't figure out how these lights and shadows were created on the characters. Btw, these photos were taken in a virtual world and then edited in, I assume, PS.
I really like the polished look. These pics look almost like some photos in magazines like Vogue.
I did speak to the guy who edited them and asked what his technique is, but he barely speaks English so he explained just that he uses different blend modes. I did try many times better new achieve anything close to these images.

How could I achieve this effect and what 'tricks' are there to creating such nice lights and shadows?

Thanks!

ESPN is using these images on their football ads. I want to make these using my own pics. I assume it can't be difficult, but being a non artist/Noob, can't figure it out. Any help would be appreciated.
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New members please note.

You'll find explanations and helpful links here, including links to the original request threads. Please go through these images first and see if that's what you want and if the links address your need.

If more help is necessary, go for it; start your own. We also invite you to post your work if you created one of these effects. Share your pride!!

I apologize for any redundancy to the links provided. Nature of the beast, and I guess more is better in this case.

If anyone has additional effects they would like added, please PM me with the post url. The requests seem to go in cycles, fads I suppose. So if you remember one from some time ago that you like and think should be in here, PM me please with the thread url and I'll add it.


Following is a list of contents which will be updated as new topics are added. If you don't recognize the effect by name, scroll down to the images in each post and see if this answers your question. If not, post your effects question in a new thread.

Thank you for visiting here first!


Post 2: Smooth and glossy effects, might include Topaz Clean plug-in
Post 3: Popular Sports Image effects, smoothed, glossy, enhanced contrast; cartoon-like
Post 4: Dragan Effect: high-contrast, glossy, a bit of sepia toning
Post 5: Dave Hill Effect: similar to some of above in use of contrast and gloss. Also uses distortions.
Post 6: Popular Sports Image effect similar to that in Post 3. Discussion of using Topaz Adjust
Post 7: "Washed Out Look," "White Out Effect," or "Porcelain Effect"
Post 8: Another cartoon effect using Photoshop or Topaz plug-in Selection
Post 9: I am currently researching this one as the image and discussion link to do not match. Apologies . . .
Post 10: Sepia Toning

So I'm trying to edit the images to look like these. I don't care to much for the graphics I just need learn what to do and how to do the editing. I'm trying to figure out how they paint the metal and how to make it look smooth around the edges as well as make the stones look smooth and sharp. The jewelry I've shot does come out sharp and clear cause I am using a Nikon D800 with a 105mm micro lens. What are the steps that I need to take in order to acheive this kind of look on the Jewelry. I'd really appreciate any feed back or help. It doesn't have to look like these images 100% but if I can even come close to having them look like this in fine detail will make my company happy and not fire me lol. Please please please help me. I've watch a whole bunch of videos on youtube about fine jewelry editing but it never seems to come out like this.

Hello everybody

Can anyone tell me how I can create portraits like this? I think the camera settings are very important but this picture has been edited a lot. Anyone know how I can achieve images like that with photoshop?

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
David

Hi All

I am reasonably new to photoshop but am wanting to get a lot better! I am quite interested in being able to change the colours/livery of objects in photos most notably trains due to this being one of my main interests.

I have an image of a train and I want to edit the livery but keep an element of realism.so It doesn't just look drawn like a cartoon. I have made an attempt at this but I am not massively happy with the results. I have uploaded both a copy of the original image and a copy of my amended image. My main problem is the lack of realism, because I am trying to go from a very light colour to quite a dark blue I seem to lose a lot of the detail from the original image.

I have also uploaded an image of the sort of thing I would like to achieve. The person who has done this makes a really good job of them and I would love to be able to achieve similar results.

The way I have created my image is simply but creating adjustment layers for hue and saturation and levels and played with the settings until I get something like.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can make a better attempt at changing to colour so it retains an element of realism?

Original Image
My attempt
Quality I would like to achieve


Thanks In advance.

Chris.

the reason i'm asking for help is kinda personal, so if anyone is interested and willing to give me a hand please pm me and will explain it and will gladly appreciate all the help you can give.

many thanks

I was randomly sketching on CS5 (using brush) and I stumbled upon an effect that I was not able to replicate after. A relative newbie, no custom brush. using a wacom intuos that sometimes lost its settings and unresponsive.

If you look at the enclosed sketch, you can see that where the red arrows are pointing. Whenever I tried to draw a single stroke and turned a sharp corner, the ink seems to "bleed" to fill up the acute angle. The most obvious location is the nose on the left hand side, I draw the nose in one stroke, first the upper one, then when I turned the corner at the point of the nose, the ink "bleeds" as if trying to fill up the acute angle by capillary action. Similar effects were seen at the sharp chin, elbows, etc. wherever i turned a corner in one stroke. I thought this was a nice effect and I want to continue to do sketches in this way. However, after I closed CS5 and went back, I could not replicate such effect. I don't think I have change the brush at all. As you can see, on the right hand side are the 2nd trials, I lost the "bleeding" effect. I had no idea how I accidentally achieved such effect and I want to find out how! Could someone please identify what it is, what settings do I change to replicate this again? Any help would be highly appreciated!

some thing like those pics and something like that 2 handed sword and instead of Silkroad - UltraSro Please i realy tryed so hard and if i cant find something new on google images maybe someone can help me with this
http://i.epvpimg.com/AO6Sd.jpg , http://i.epvpimg.com/SCM2b.jpg . http://i.epvpimg.com/kQFDc.jpg . http://i.epvpimg.com/xF5Fh.jpg . maybe u know a better Pic with better graphics

I had a friend do a few portrait shots for me and while the pics turned out pretty good he didnt have the eye or attention to detail to point out the fact that my tie was out of place.
It reallys ruins the professionalism of the photo. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to attempt to fix it for me. About 30 have been ruined but would be incredible grateful if I could get just these right.