For the Photoshop lovers we picked a set of hot Photoshop tutorials to help them learn essential and advanced portrait effect techniques. In this round-up you will find various retouching, digital make up, special effects, painting effects and various others techniques to spice up usual photos and make them look really outstanding. In our post we’ve covered techniques used in magazines and advertizing that give photos a glamorous shine.
Since portrait effects are no longer constrained to vignettes or simple stencil effects, this area of Photoshop activities has evolved to an unbelievable level of creativity and complexity. So do not expect to find here tutorial consisting of 3-4 steps, some of them require hours of painstaking work that would result in a lot of new techniques learned and killing photo manipulation you have produced.
A small piece of advice, do not try these effects with your average low quality family photos. These effects require high resolution images to obtain optimum results.
Comics Photoshop Action
* * *
Creating Unique Profile Image
* * *
Vexel Image Effect
Continue reading →
Happy Friday, folks! As long as nasty weather keeps raging all over the world, we hope that you have clear sky above your head and sunny mood in your soul. Nature always reminds us that we are only a small part of it and we can only enjoy by observing its beauty and power. The following shots perfectly demonstrate majestic charisma and elegant charm of the nature embodied in wonderful stormy clouds. These scary and captivating photos mesmerize and intimidate at the same time. Well, we hope you’ll appreciate this collection and give some social Friday love! Take care now and see you next week.
Source
* * *
Source
* * *
Source
Continue reading →
The internet is now saturated with all-around fascinating images showing incredible Photoshop results. And it seems like almost everyone these days use some type of fancy photo editing software. With Photoshop being excessively overused, people just intend to churn out great looking pictures that actually have nothing to do with originality. Today we’d like to bring something different to your notice. We place the following collective photo series under the not photoshopped title, since each and every picture in the list is taken directly from camera and doesn’t show any Photoshop manipulation. These are simply photographed images which render the true story of the subjects they capture. Look only at the aesthetics of form, shape, color, mood – this has nothing to do with all that artificial embellishment.
* * *
* * *
* * *
Continue reading →
Let’s get closer to the bounty of aquatic life and bring back photos of under the waves. Underwater photography is a tempting though specialized art, and shooting there has its challenges. You should consider that a refractive index of water is different than air, this makes judging distances difficult. Objects can appear larger than they really are and light levels quickly drop as you get deeper in water. Besides, water lessens contrast, color, and sharpness in photos, so it’s recommended to get in close to the subjects and better stay shallow, where the light from the sun penetrates the most. Plus you may adjust the photos with color balance to help offset the bluish tint of the water.
Divers today have many affordable solutions as for special underwater equipment. Photographers may use a traditional film or digital camera (compact or a dSLR) covered in a watertight casing. As for technical matters it’s better not worry much about them. Divers may use their camera’s underwater settings or otherwise resort to a common trick using a high ISO setting, a powerful strobe and a medium shutter speed that will capture enough ambient light without blurring the subject. As for the choice of lenses it is rather personal and depends on what you enjoy taking photos of. However it is advisable to use macro lens and lens with a narrow angle of composition. You may shoot in portrait, use wide angle, head on, diagonal, shoot from underneath, fill the frame or macro compositions, and don’t forget to pay attention to the background. In some cases it is better to play with the depth of field to have the background blurred.
In the current post we also present some of our favorite shots from underwater that share the thrill and adventure of diving. Take a tour round these great fresh and truly different vivid scuba pics!
Source
* * *
Source
* * *
Continue reading →
Those who love street photography and who always perceive the world around as if they’re tourists in the city will surely enjoy our today’s round-up of fabulous candids being shot on street. Guess when shooting street, people perform this urban magic simply relying on the passer-by’s moods to fill each peculiar shot with a special sense. They try to capture the subjects being far from mundane, imprint uncommon visions which is though achieved through habitual approaches. Sometimes, it even seems to be a cheating – strangers just go about their daily lives or walk nonchalantly in the streets, and they don’t expect someone to capture them, yet this particular aspect helps to fully convey what kind of person they are and what feeling they give you as their observers. Spotting the right subject is not so easy as it might seem, however often there’s something that just so naturally stand out of the crowd and almost demand attention. So you should be ready to seize the moment.
As for the tips for this sort of thing, firstly you should understand that you do not have a whole lot of time for planned photography, there’s simply no time to think, get settings right compose. Everything is constantly changing, so your shot should be a spur of the moment – set free your mind, and literally do not let your camera leave your hands because you find the picture not the picture finds you. Because candid shots come across as quite random, you have no ability to influence the scene, so position yourself strategically, switch your camera to continuous shooting mode and shoot in bursts of images. Besides, it’s better to lose the flash, set the camera to a smaller aperture (between f 4.8-8) and to ISO 400 so it uses a fast shutter speed, and use a telephoto lens or long zoom. Note that people doing things make the best candid photos, so try capturing the very essence of their activity, possibly framing the image with foreground elements. For the time being enjoy the showcase and good luck with your candids!
* * *
Source
* * *
Source
* * *
Source
* * *
Continue reading →
It is hard to resist the magnetic charm of windmills – these structures personify triumph of engineering and architectural beauty. It is interesting to know that the first windmill was invented in eastern Persia. Today we can see various windmills – both old school style and modern ones. Windmill is a great object for the photographers because you can always take an excellent shot by combining windmill with impressive background objects. Here are some really stunning windmill photos as a part of Friday inspiration for you. If you have your own favorite ones – please feel free to share them with us.
* * *
Source
* * *
Source
* * *
Source
* * *
Continue reading →
A wide-angle lens can focus on the foreground and background simultaneously and this ability makes wide-angle cameras a perfect helper in shooting large landscapes and dynamic backgrounds. As the result you’ll get really fascinating shots worth thousands of compliments. Of course working with wide-angle lens ain’t that easy and you need to have some skills. We hope that our set of wide-angle masterpieces will encourage you try out this wonderful photo technique.
* * *
Source
* * *
Source
* * *
Continue reading →
The Orton effect is named after photographer Michael Orton who first used the technique making a sandwich of two images, one image is sharply focused and over exposed 2 stops, the other – out of focus and over exposed by 1 stop. So, Orton photos are generated by the overlay of two images of the identical scene to produce a mystical image. Basically, through a combination of blurring and exposure settings the process results in a somewhat dreamlike image that has a slightly fuzzy look while retaining lots of edge details and softness as well. This effect definitely adds a nice glow and ample diffusion. And such surreal quality of the eventual imagery has become very popular. Just look through these awesomely ortonized images which are simple fun when viewed large! The mystical Orton effect feels kind of fitting for every shot mentioned here…
Source
* * *
Source
* * *
Continue reading →
