Green City

This image is made from stock photos and illustrations from istockphoto.com.  I copied and pasted parts of the illustrations from Illustrator into my stock photo in Photoshop to make the city.  Then I applied filters and layer styles to give the image an illustrated quality.  

Shoes at the Movies

I really liked the original color contrast of this photo.  So I used a few filters and a scan of old paper to play up the shoes and the color of the screen.

Sunglasses?

I was the photographer for this little 'photo shoot'.  This picture is a combination of three pictures.  I am practicing selecting objects and realistically combining them together. 

Finishing Touches

I normally like to use Photoshop to save an otherwise hopeless photo, or change or combine photos so the result is something completely different.  But sometimes the photo is fine and all I think the photo needs are a few finishing touches.  Below are 3 techniques I frequently use.  All are used in the photo above.  

Browntone:

There are lots of ways to achieve this effect in Photoshop, but this one is my favorite.  

1. Duplicate the background layer, command-J (PC:Option-J)

2. Desaturate the layer, Shift-Command-U (PC: Shift-Option-U)

3. Colorize the layer with Hue/Saturation, press Command-U (PC: Shift-U) , check the Colorize Box, set the Hue Value  to 38 & Saturation Value to 15, click OK

Soften a Black & White or Browntone Photo:

1. Select the layer you want to soften

2. Press Command-L (PC: Option-L) to bring up the Levels Dialogue Box, move the middle slider value from 1.00 to 1.30

Glow

1. Duplicate the background layer, command-J (PC:Option-J)

2.  Go to the Filter menu and choose Blur>Gaussian Blur,  set the Radius to 20 pixles and press OK. 

3. In the Layers Palette change the layer from normal to overlay.  Then adjust the opacity.

I use this effect to bring back a little color after I have desaturated a photo.  It gives an old quality to the photo, which I like.   

*There are more ways to achieve the effects above in Photoshop, but what I have listed above are my main & favorite methods. 

Original Photo

Mansard Roof

I've been intrested in architecture since I was 10. Somewhere in the middle of college, most likely in History of Interiors, I learned what a Mansard Roof was and I've been in love with it ever since. The music clip comes from Mansard Roof by Vampire Weekend.
For the photos, I made the 'age progression' on different layers of the original photo, then used the export layer comps to files option in Photoshop.

Serious Hometown Glory

The title of this image is a combination of two song titles Serious by Duffy and Hometown Glory by ADELE. I found the image of the TV on iStock.com.
To the image of the TV & the people I applied some of my usual favorites: brown tones, HDR, glowing & threshold filters which where then blended together to my liking. Then I combined the two images together, added text and cropped the picture.

Orginal Photo

Orginal Photo

Hoping for a Strike

I like this photo because of the moment it captures. How many people sit down in front of their lane at a Bowling Alley? However the original photo (see below) was very yellow due to the lovely florescent lighting. So I went to work.
First for the background I applied a Split Toning process, then I applied the Paint Daubs Filter selecting the shinny brush.
For the main subject I used layers of split toning, sketching, threshold & Gaussian blur which I then blended together using layer options and opacity.

Original Photo