Photoshoping your mini pics!

[Spacemunkie]

Hi all.

Thought it was about time to knock a quick tutorial together showing you how I do this. Bear in mind that there are other ways to achieve a similar effect (you can use Extract to isolate the fig for example), but this is the one I like because it gives me plenty of control.

EDIT: I didn't tell you to crop the image down to start with. And before you save it, you should resize - 500 pixels high is good in most cases

Stage 1 - Exposure correction.

Straight from the cam. You can see I have shot onto a white background. Try to use a single coloured, light background for easier editing later on. This is a touch under exposed (I bracket my exposures but chose this one to show a Levels correction...), so the first step is to go to...

Image > Adjustments > Levels:

You will notice the large gap at the right-hand side of the histogram. It shows a lack of white and light areas in the image.

In this pic, the highlight slider is green, the mid-tone slider is blue and the shadow slider is red. What you are aiming to do is close the sliders up to the ends of the histogram as shown, giving you a complete range of tones. The mid-tone slider can be adjusted as you see fit. I gave it a tweak here. Hit OK and you have just corrected your exposure. You can use Colour Balance to correct colour casts at this stage.

Stage 2 - Sharpening

You may want to sharpen your image. I don't usually, but the best way is to use Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. It's all a matter of preference really, just be aware that over sharpening will create a noisy, contrasty image.

Stage 3 - Isolating the mini onto a new layer.

I use the Magic Wand here. On the Tool Options at the top of the screen, you will see 'Tolerance'. This value can be changed to make the tool more (lower number) or less (higher number) sensitive. I usually set it at about 20. Click on the background, then hold Shift and keep clicking on the background until you get it all selected. Remember that you can change selection tools without losing your selection, just hold Shift again as you use it. Holding Alt and selecting allows you to remove parts that are selected and works great with the Marquee selection tools for removing light bits of the mini that sometimes get selected by accident.

Stage 4 - Invert selection.

Easy. Select > Inverse or Ctrl+Shift+I.

Stage 5 - Contract selection.

Select > Modify > Contract. Helps to reduce the 'haloing' effect you often get when doing this. I usually contract by 1 pixel, but you can play around. Depends on the res of your cam too...

Stage 6 - Feather selection.

Smooths the selection, giving a more natural, less pixelated edge. Select > Feather. I usually use 1 pixel but again, have a play.

Stage 7 - Copy selection to new layer.

Easy. Just press Ctrl+J or copy and paste. It'll appear as Layer 1 on the Layers palette.

Stage 8 - Adding a gradient.

Grab the Gradient tool. Make sure you select the Background on the Layers palette. Double-click the gradient on the options bar at the top.

This will bring up the Gradient Editor. You can double-click on your Colour-Stops to bring up the Colour Picker. You can save out your gradients too - always worth doing! Remember that strong colours will knacker the look of your mini!.

Simply hold Shift and drag the gradient tool up (or down...) on the background. Bingo, piece of piss!

Stage 9 - Save for web.

File > Save for web.

For posting on CMON, you need images smaller than 100k. Use the Quality slider on the right in conjunction with the image size on the right-hand image to optimise your JPEG to as near to 100k as poss.

And that's it. It takes a couple of minutes to do each one once you know what you're doing.

[Gonzoangel]

Many thanks, very informative piece.

[Celtic Lilly]

I am SO going to use this. Thank you Mr. Munkie.

[Art-de-Vivre]

Finally !

I've been waiting for something like that for a long time since I always have problems with backgrounds, and it seems that a majority prefers neutral backgrounds...

Thanks a lot for your efforts Spacemunkie !

May I suggest one addition to your tutorial : how to add an insert with a closeup of the face or another part of the mini that has a lot of detail... :thumb:

Cheers !