Project In Progress: Stucked With Flowers

Hallo everybody,
following a tut about Photoshop compositing, I have to create a fake shadow on the ground. I make it pretty good (see image 1) using tre different layer copy with different blendings mode and Opacity.




But when i Merge three layer i loose my semitransparent shadow...it becomes completely black, at the starting point...
(see image 2)



What it wrong?

And than, if I want to blur the (unique) faked shadow layer, how can i male it without blurring all layers of the document? I try to use an empty layer as a Clipping mask, and I applied blur to it, without results...
please help!

Thx!

I was doing a restoration project for the community center that i work for, But I got an issue with the lighter spots in the surrounded area. I planed to make a selection of the areas, use hue/ saturation to desaturate and then equal the tones between light and dark making an adjustment dodge and burn layers. But I think there are other methods as well which can solve this issue. You can download the untouched original version of the pic from the link and feel welcome to give a try whit your versions and suggestions of this project.

I will appreciate your opinion and help.

Here is my work in progress and the issue:


Here is a link to the original image:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_K7...TU0/edit?pli=1

P.S the image represent an reproduction of women harvesters, who sing while working, wearing a traditional Bulgarian clothing My progress till now is to do some healing using spot healing tool and stamp tool.

I have seen this image before and we may have used it a while back. With a whole new set of players, I feel it's safe to bring it back in a new challenge.

No comments from the cheap seats on the condition of her skin. This is a lovely young woman and I would hope that we can all treat her image with respect.

I encourage everyone to give it a try even if your new to Photoshop. All participants should be prepared to explain the techniques they have been using, as we can't learn or help without some idea as to how it was accomplished.

Good luck!



Here is my 1st attempt.

edit: I start by opening the original and duplicating it and then turning off the original layer.
I create a new layer. This is the layer that I will do all of the following adjustments on.

I started by using the following tools and settings.
Healing Brush Tool - Mode= normal - Source= Sampled - Clone sample mode= Current level and below.
Spot Healing Brush Tool - Mode= Normal - Type= Content aware - Sample cloned data from composited data= Sample all layers.
Brush Tool - Mode= Normal - Opacity= 100% - Flow= 1%

This is the image (Layer A) after only using the tools above and one added Levels Adjustment Layer.



edit: I then select the uppermost layer (Levels Adjustment layer) and hit Shift>Option>Command + E to stamp all visible layers. I then name this layer A.
I highlight all other layers except layer A and the original background layer and group them. I then turn off the group.

I then start where the tutorial starts with only the layer A turned on.

Here is the image after using a skin softening technique described in this video:

I have some questions about a new layer vs. a layer copy. Let's say I am retouching a head shot. First I copy the Background layer (Ctrl-J) and clear up blemishes with the Spot healing brush. Next I want to soften some skin shine with the Patch tool and I want that on it's own layer. As I have tried various ways of doing this, it appears that I have copy either the Blemish layer or the Background. If I copy the Background layer, the the stacking order is critical: it has to be below the Blemish layer for the blemish fix to show. Copying the Blemish layer, then the Blemish fix is part of the Shine layer which defeats the purpose of a separate layer. New layer does not work for using the Patch tool, or I may be doing some completely wrong.

Then add another skin fix like soften the skin (Gaussian blur) and I'm really tied up with stacking order, etc.

Can someone help me with the correct order/procedure for creating layers that would be used like above.

Mixed up...

Todd

I've noticed that I get a good flow painting over a textured canvas (blank canvases are not for me) when doing so I work with a brush with the opacity set to about 45 and two layers, the bg textures and the actual image.
When I feel I'm done with my sketch I want to exclude the bg layer but still use the texture seen through the actual image i.e. I want to select all pixels in the top layer, merge this with the bg texture and then cut it out.

I've tried a couple of techniques (incl. ctrl + click on the layer icon) but not found any technique that selects _all pixels_ in a layer without me having to manually add some here and there.
Anyone have a clue how to?

Example:


Many thanks in advance.
/Mansson

Hello,
I am not sure if this is even a necessary worry of mine nut I will pitch it out anyway. I will be printing the attached file on the back of a white t-shirt and I wondered if there was any technique that could be used to reduce the harshness or abruptness of the image that may be seen when the image is printed onto the white shirt. The color at the edges of the image is very light / almost white so fortunetly in most areas of the print you may not be able to clearly see the edge. if I am not making any sense I guess what I am trying to say is I would like for it to seem like the image fades away at the edges slighhtly rather than seeing a clear edge of the picture. I could imagine using some kind of edge eraser tool with a spotty brush or partial opacity but not really sure the best way to try and achieve it. The picture unfortunetly has texy of my url running very close to the edges so I would like to be careful that we don't fade any text away. Just wondered I would see if there was a quick and easy way to do it. Ideas are welcome. If you do any work please post back your .psd file and a brief description (if it's not too complex) of how you did what you did.
Thanks,
Joe

Hi all!
We're using photoshop to prepare assets for a game engine, and i'm trying to find a good workflow, which i can then teach to my artist.
At this point, i have an image with five layers. 12345

Layers 2-5 each have a layer mask on them.

Now what i want to do is, copy the layer mask of layer 2, and paste it into the Red colour channel of layer 1
then mask of layer 3 into the green channel of layer 1
layer 4 into the blue channel
and layer 5 into the alpha channel

So the result is that the channels of that layer will each look identical to the layer masks, and thus layer 1 will look like a wierd (but programatically meaningful) mishmash of colours.

I'm having some problems though.




Apologies for the massive image.
This is the green channel that i've gained from the above procedure. The big gradiented circle in the middle is what i made, but for some reason i have this white stripe down the left side too. I have no idea what that is or why it's there. It appears on both he green and blue channels when i paste in a mask. But if you look at the channel image in the right hand panel, it doesn't seem to have a stripe down it.

the stripe is definitely there, it's affecting the main image, and its annoying me.

any thoughts what might be causing that?

Hey All, I am new to PS, love it - I use it for everything now lol. I am trying to do some jersey designs and up until a few days ago I was able to use the bucket tool to change the various sections. I probably clicked on something and now the bucket fills up the entire jersey making it pretty much impossible to ad various colors etc. I could have sworn that all 3 attached images were allowing me to edit the various parts without affecting the rest of the image- i.e. jersey arms, shoulders, chest, neck, neck lining, etc etc - were all separate elements.

I am attaching the files I am using. If anyone can help out you would be really helping me out - I spent half the day and no luck.

On the same note - How would I search for a tutorial on creating various sections within an image i.e. I have a JPG of a jersey and I want to play around with it, so what is the action called to be able to cut it up into different sections? Am I making Sense? If I want to make he red jersey's shoulders, arms, and neck lining as separate elements which I could manipulate without affecting the rest; what would that be called so I could look into a tutorial. Thanks.

Hi,
So I do this as a favor to a friend... His mother was painted when young. The painting was abused, and all the mother was left with was a black-and-white photo of the painting.
I tried to add color by making selections, and adding masked layers of solid color blended as "soft light", but the result is not good, maybe you can help me improve it...

Problems I see:

1. Abuse caused no details for the lower part (hands). I had to guess the hands position based on her right thumb and the belt, but there is no outline for the hands. Should I cut the lower part from the image, or maybe paint an outline for the hands (and if so, what is the easiest non-destructive way if I already have a path and a selection for the hands)? I know I need to fix the selection as at least the left palm is too big...


2. The seperation between the colors I added is too sharp, can I use some non-destructive filter or should I use "refine mask" on my masks and what to change? or maybe something else to blur the edges?


3. The belt is there but doesn't look real. Maybe I need to enhance the blacks (contrast) on the BW image, or maybe paint an outline of it? I have a selection and a path for belt.


4. Anything else?... This project was really above my head most of the times... Oh I now see I missed the lips...


I attach both the B&W pic of the painting, and my attempt to restore color to it.
Thanks for any help,
raananh

Lets say I have a photo of a vase of flowers on a neutral gray background. The background has reproduced off
color. After adjusting the color back to neutral gray I want to do he following.


1. Save the adjustments made to the image.

2. Apply that adjustment to a different image of the same subject.

Working in Photoshop cs6