Jugs

[DeeGee]

Aware that this is probably not everyones thing.

Still learning the textures masks and layering. Said I was going to try still life.

Managed two layers on this - with a bit of huffing and puffing - somethings didn't got like I wanted to it was a lot of step back, step back, try again technique but think I got somewhere in the end. Youtube and Google "how to do this" have been used alot recently.

Background is two layers with textures, the painted colour separate from the cracked concrete. Theres a third layer in there as well. Originally taken against some patio doors with veritical blinds, now realised I need to get out a sheet and make a plain back ground if I want to do this, the lines of the blinds stood out too much to do a flatter background. (learn something everyday)

Sorry I lost the main exif in the struggle to upload to Flickr and altering file formats. Some reason I ended up with a 120mb
file.. not sure how but I did that but the system freaked a little till I worked out how to reduce and the exif went with it. Taken as always with:
Canon 500D
Canon 50mm Macro
Macro 50mm

[IMG]Jugs - A Still Life by Dee Gee, on Flickr[/IMG]

[colin C]

Re: Jugs

Well done Di, very nice image.

Photoshop is a lot of study, perspiration, pulling your hair out and making lots of mistakes. Eventually you learn from all of it and it starts to come together and what took you hours at the computer a month ago, you can now achieve in a few minutes. As you are aware, I sometimes tweet the occasional shot on this Forum where I can see potential in the image and it only takes a couple of minutes. It takes longer to upload it on Flickr than I spend on the shot, but that is after years of experience. In fairness, I am playing with low res images and if I had access to the original RAW file, I would take a lot longer and try to pull the very best out of the image for a large high class print, but for this Forum and the resolution we are using, it is plenty good enough.

I have in the past lectured in Photoshop to local camera clubs and my general advice is:

Learn the basics - that is Levels (ctrl L), Curves (ctrl M), Saturation (ctrl U), or shadows, highlights etc from the menu bar.

Make a selection - practice with the various selection tools and use whichever is appropriate. You can mix using the tools, perhaps use the magic wand to automatically select the main area and where it doesn't quite do what you want, zoom into those areas and refine the selection by adding to, or removing from the selection with the lasso tool. Decide whether it is easier to select your subject, or select the background. If for example you have a bird in flight with the sky as a background, the bird may be rather difficult, to make a selection of, so instead select the sky, zoom into difficult areas and refine the selection, add a feather of 0.5, or 1.0 and then invert the selection from the menu bar, or use ctrl>shift>I to invert the selection. Hey presto you have selected the subject by not selecting it.

Make a new layer - once you have a selection you can make a new layer from the menu bar, or much easier use ctrl J as the shortcut. The new layer will be placed above the layer which you selected from. Once you have a new layer, its back to the basics and play with that layer, independently of other layers or the background.

Shortcuts - are a very convenient way to speed up your workflow. Best advice is to just learn the ones you use most and gradually increase from there. I have them as a word doc rather than a jpg, but I will try to upload them here if that helps.



Microsoft Word - Photoshop short cuts.doc by colin cross, on Flickr

[Stan]

Re: Jugs

Super still life and the textures work very well with the jugs. Well worth the time

Stan

[tesarver]

Re: Jugs

Super still life and the textures work very well with the jugs. Well worth the time

Stan

Agree with Stan.

Tom

[DeeGee]

Re: Jugs

Thanks for the feedback everyone,
And Colin, thanks for them, at the moment I'm going up and down menu listings. Gonna print them and keep them with the computer