Photoshop Source

Hollywood Movie Retouching

Photoshop 911 calls are numerous wanting to know how to remove blemishes from photos, give skin the fashion magazine look, or just how to get that certain glamorous fashion look. Well, when so many people wanted the same advice we went straight to the source — The Glitter Guru! We forwarded Suzette’s directions to all those readers, and now present the full piece complete with pictures…

Beauty Retouching

By Suzette Troche-Stapp a.k.a. the glitterguru

I take a slightly different approach to retouching beauty. People I have taught in the past have found it difficult to distinguish where to start with the clone tool when retouching someone’s face.

Step 1:
I came up with a different way of seeing the imperfections, which should help you think differently about the process of retouching. It allows you to ignore color momentarily and concentrate on shading, similar to the old Hollywood black and white style of portrait retouching.

First open an image of a person, preferably female. Then choose windows –documents– new window. You will now have two versions of the same file on screen.

Step 2:
Choose the document on the right.

Go to your channels palette and turn off the eyeball on the red and blue channels so that you are only viewing the green.

Most of the skin imperfections on light to medium colored skin will show up in this channel and you will be able to see these imperfections more clearly by just viewing the green channel on its own.

Step 3:
Create a new layer called “retouch”.

Begin with a large clone stamp at around 20%-25% and begin to smooth the skin. Use the color version on the left to monitor your work as you go along, and to make sure you are getting the desired result.
I tend to be quite heavy at this point and really remove all texture.

 Step 4:
Once I have a smooth even skin tone, then I close the b&w version and go to the retouching layer and reduce the opacity.

It really depends on the image but I average around 50% opacity. This allows some of the texture of the skin to come back through.

Here is the original file and the final “point-of purchase” created for the client.

Good Luck and glitter, glitter everywhere!

Question:  “I’m looking for a tutorial on breaking out of a frame , have Elements 3″…

Answer:  This is actually a fairly simple task — although many of the Photoshop authors make it seem more difficult than it really is. Using logic, the portion of the image to be popped out of the frame must be separated from the original image and raised to a higher level, in front of the frame, while leaving the original photo in tact. This technique works in any image software which has layers. (We were doing this back in the days of Photoshop v.3.)

1. Cut out the image: Using any of the software’s selection tools you wish, make an accurate selection of the portion of the image you wish to pop.

In this example we used a combination of the Lasso and Magnetic Lasso to carve out the front of the car.
Tip: to save time, cut only the part that will pop out. 

Lift the image: Once your selection is accurate, and ready to go, duplicate it onto its own layer by using the “float” command (Cmd/J or Ctrl/J)

You can see the nose of the Jaguar is now on its own layer. (#1 in the layers palette) Note that it’s just the nose — no use to select more than you have to. It will match perfectly with the original image on the background layer and provide a seamless pop-out.

2. Create the Frame: Now, in a new layer, you can create the frame for the photo. Here we simply used a white background with the frame cut out. Layer #2 in the diagram.

At this point you can decorate or modify the frame any way you wish — textures, borders, etc.

Key Concept: Layer Sequencing. Always remember that the stacking order of your layers affects the final product. As you look at the file, you’ll understand that the layers were generated in that specific stack order to achieve the effect — even though they may not have been created in that order.

Also note that we did all the selection work on a COPY of the background, just in case we flubbed something up, or needed to go back and get more of the image. The “work” layer can be deleted, and the whole image flattened when complete.

1 droplets

Two or more droplets caught in the act of merging, usually symbolic of convergence or union: The Cingular logo is a wonderful example. The effect can also be used to express a technical or scientific association. Sometimes these shapes are flat, but other designs have highlights or shadows that give the impression of dimension.

1. design firm: proart graphics/gabriel kalach client: g2 team sales
2. design firm: grapefruit design client: grapefruit design
3. design firm: planet propaganda client: interactive media solutions

 2 refinement

Over the past few years, there has been a return to simplicity in major corporate logos, alá Chermayeff & Geismar, which has never really strayed from this post. There are many more marks based in geometries, mixed with the simple twist of visual phrase. Possible reasons abound: Is this an homage to the 1970s and the days of classic logo design? A greater reliance on the computer’s natural geometric tendencies? Or is it possible that there are fewer and fewer designers out there with the hand skills necessary to craft more illustrative marks?

1. design firm: liska + associates communication design client: the wexan group, ltd.
2. design firm: chermayeff & geismar inc. client: multicanal
3. design firm: prejean loblue client: 1st intranet bank

3 pop

In the ongoing “Blast from the Past” tour, in which we trace a complete circle about every 30 years, companies that cater to the youth market as well as more boutique organizations have embraced the pop culture language of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Period letterforms, in particular, have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, possibly the result of ready availability from companies such as House Industries and from less common sources such as rave flyers.

1. design firm: howalt design studio, inc. client: work, inc.
2. design firm: adamsmorioka, inc. client: nickelodeon
3. design firm: braue; branding & corporate design client: stylus production

4 natural spirals

Imagine a few drops of dark paint dropped into a gallon of white paint, and you stirred them just slightly. Or picture the circle of light created by a child as he draws circle after circle against the evening sky. These are the less-contrived vortex or spiral shapes found in nature, not in a computer program. There is a mix of chaos and hard geometry in these marks that suggests order and freedom at the same time.

1. design firm: lieber cooper associates client: swissôtel-chicago
2. design firm: cato purnell partners client: the federal group
3. design firm: cronan group client: kintana

5 animorphic

Animals continue to be used to help companies quickly develop equity in their identities by reflecting the particular positive attributes of an animal back onto the company. Although this is a tactic used more by small- to mid-sized companies, there are a few Fortune 500 companies that rely on it, too, such as Pacific Life’s whale or John Deere’s deer, recently rehoofed by Landor Design. Although illustration styles vary widely, all of these logos rely on implied symbology.

1. design firm: gardner design client: blue hat media
2. design firm: felix sockwell client: peace
3. design firm: alterpop client: pardox media

6 canted

How can you take an unassuming geometric solution and make it remarkable? Cant it or wrap it onto a sphere, a task easily accomplished with a click of the mouse—not only by you, but by many other designers as well. Thanks to FreeHand and Illustrator, even very two-dimensional logo solutions can live in a faux 3-D world.

1. design firm: cato purnell partners client: sydney super dome
2. design firm: kontrapunkt a/s client: danish national center for development of competence and quality
3. design firm: grapefruit design client: boston media corporation

7 alpha-face

In an effort to make a company’s identity more friendly and approachable, many a wordmark has been turned into a face or a little person. Letterforms and their many shapes are turned into eyes, noses, ears and mouths and applied to a mark, alá Mr. Potato Head. Although these designs have been with us to some degree for generations, designers continue to find new and fresh iterations of the theme.

1. design firm: cronan group client: tivo
2. design firm: willoughby design group client: lee jeans
3. design firm: gardner design client: plazago

8 shadows

Be they hard or gentle, shadows continue to give logos a sense of place. Sometimes shadows are used beneath a mark to give it a greater iconic presence: A logo that defies gravity must have supernatural powers of some sort. Other logos have used the shadow because, really, they had no baseline and the shadow tethers them to reality. Illustrator Guy Billout’s work has provided another, more skewed influence: His delightful way of twisting the natural phenomenon of the shadow into performing contrary feats has inspired a number of designers to misshape shadows or set them off on strange trajectories.

1. design firm: jon flaming design client: central & southwest
2. design firm: evenson design group client: brooks and howard
3. design firm: cronan group client: verio

9 transparency

Let’s face it: The old rule that dictated that any really well-designed logo had to (A) be reproducible in only one color, and (B) that color had to be solid, not screened, is gone. Sure, there are still challenges to be faced in playing fast and loose with these rules when a job must actually go on press, but the internet is much more forgiving. There are many logos today, like the MSN butterfly, that have transparent qualities that reveal themselves through multiple layers. These designs can be very compelling, especially since they are still novel enough to stand out from the already crowded world of flat one-, two- and three-color logos.

1. design firm: mires client: fusion media
2. design firm: cato purnell partners client: neil henson fashion bytes
3. design firm: landor associates client: altria

10 green

This is a literal and metaphorical trend. The roots for this can be traced back further, but Landor’s greening of BP was a seminal effort. Although Raymond Loewy was using green and yellow in the historic BP logo, Landor gave it an environmental sense of place with the use of the flower/sun. Cargill, ADM, and Monsanto — all companies that might be likely to take an environmental hit—are all going green. It’s a trend that is a breath of fresh air in an industry awash with red, white and blue. Public utilities have also picked up on this trend. But if it is overplayed, corporate green will soon become a tired joke to the public.

1. design firm: enterprise ig client: monsanto company
2. design firm: landor associates client: bp
3. design firm: kiku obata & company client: ameren corporation

PixelOverload is the first site we have decided to feature.  The entire portfolio and site was done in Photoshop and Flash.  Flash may not be the best choice when thinking in terms of SEO, but it’s still very cool.