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What is your favourite trick?

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Vivek_DPR said:
This did not work so dramatically for me. Maybe my model had fairly
smooth skin anyway.

However, this technique also chages the color of everything else
around it. Maybe the skin has to be selected first ?
Click to expand...
Hmm... did you change the blending mode to luminosity? There is an increase to the luminosity (brightness) of reds and greens - but no change to the tone of any color - depending on the photo you could perceive this as a change of color. You could try more extreme numbers also (e.g. +145, 0, -50) to make the change more obvious.

Viewing the channels one at a time on a close-up of the skin, specially the red and blue, should also give you a pretty good indication of how much it will soften the skin.

Also... like everything else, this may not work on all photos - it is simply an alternative to the usual blurring techniques that softens with less loss of detail - you may prefer blurring which does not change the luminosity of colors at all.
 
gail said:
ajay kumar said:
USM Amount 15-30.
Radius 250 (max)
threshold 0
Click to expand...
I'm new to some of this stuff, but I usually never set USM to over
1, with a radius of about 150.

Seems like these high numbers that so many have mentioned would
ruin an image.

What am I missing?
Click to expand...
It's a 'haze fix' or contrast adjustment - take a 'foggy, hazy image' and start with 30,60,0 and then increase to tweak - 40,80,0 etc. I can blow out highlights, but use a layer mask to tone them down. See:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=10227992
--
Kent
http://www.pbase.com/kentc
 
Actually I am trying to experiment with Noise reducers as a method of smoothening skin.

I can imagine a process of having the regular pic on a layer, the noise reduced plastic version on another layer with a mask for parts of the face that need smoothening.

I assume this will not change any colors
 
Kent C said:
Roger104 said:
Hi Cricket,
That is a dumb question no doubt but here goes, if I download one
of the actions in your thread or if I buy one of Fred Miranda's
actions, a dialog box opens click save where do I save it too
(adobe 7.0) and where will it show up when I want to use it on
adobe 7.0 I never used downloaded actions and I could use advice.
Click to expand...
Rog,

Not Cricket but:

How to get, save and load actions:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=5767245

And no, it doesn't have to go in the Adobe path. In fact, in case
you have to reinstall for some reason, it's better somewhere else.

--
Kent
http://www.pbase.com/kentc
Click to expand...
Cricket,

I download them to a folder in "My documents". Usually, these actions come zipped and I keep the zipped version in this folder. (The few that download unzipped, I keep a copy there anyway.)

This proved to be a big advantage to me because:

1. My old computer kept crashing and needing to be reformatted. Each tiem, I went to that folder and reinstalled all my actions into Photoshop> Presets> Photoshop Actions.

2. I finally got a new computer. When I transferred my documents to it, all my actions were in a central place and I was able to unzip and re-install in my new computer and new version of PS.

Other considerations: if you have PS7, there is a limit to the number of actions (they call them action sets) that you are allowed to have. You don't know ahead of time that you are about to hit that limit, you just know you did. I suddenly discovered actions on fine day and went on a downloading spree. The actions palette froze up (the little side arrow wouldn't open). Diagnosis: action overload. So I had to remove some and put them in another folder outside of PS7 (I called it Kate's Unisntalled Actions ). If I wanted to use one of these, I would make it switch places with one of the "installed" actions.

Having acquired a treasure trove of actions that was getting hard to keep track off and handle, I came across a thread that mentioned a small program called ACTION DEX. What a find! It allows me to run my actions from there as well as from PS.

Its got two features that I love: First, I can group and sort my actions (even actions that come in multiple action groups) into categories that I define. I've put all my actions dealing with frames, or watercolors, or sharpening, or exposure corrections, text effects--on and on. Now I can look at all my sharpening technique actions and select the one I think would be best.

The second feature is that I can save a sample photo to show a small version of how an image looks after running the action. This way I know in advance if this action can do the effect that I want for my image. I just click "preview" and decide if that's the action I'm looking for.

Kate
 
D Juan Hundred said:
Color correction for PS CS

Duplicate background
Filter> blur> average
Image> Adjustments> Invert
Change blending mode to "color"
Change opacity to about 50%
Add saturation with Hue/Sat adjustment layer
Click to expand...
I read that trick above at this same forum about a month ago. Someone posted a night shot of a building. Many tried to WB after the fact. The above method was also described.

But I fail to see how it will work

The idea is that if there is a cast of a particular color, you should add some percentage of that opposite color back again to get a correct WB.

So the theory is that you take an average of the pic, get the inverse color and add that to the main pic.

But the problem is in the way the method above tries to decide what is the color cast.

Suppose you get a slight blue cast of a picture of Orange, the average will be mostly orange. Suppose you get same blue cast of a picture of a Green Apple, the average will be mostly green ie we could not isolate the blue cast

Average of a pic is not same as average of the cast on a pic !!

I had suggested use of a "Filter" and you can try and guess the filter color and percentage which is real time and more intutive than abover method.

So my humble contribution to this great tread could be : Warm up outdoor pics using a warming Filter.

IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > PHOTO FILTER > WARMING (85), 25%

Does great for skin tones and grass green on outdoor pics, especially JPGs

( Most people correct color casts during RAW conversion hence there is less need of a filter)
 
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