Photoshop Tutorials... tips & tricks

[ViceLikeEye]

Originally Posted by cylnz

On a different note, have any of you noticed todays posts of Salma around the interwebs in the red dress? In several of them I noticed they used an adjustment layer in linear burn mode for some reason to make her look darker/older. No idea why. It really brought out age lines and stretch marks something awful.
http://veterperementour.ru/showpost.p...postcount=1293
http://veterperementour.ru/showpost.p...postcount=1292

normal:

linear burn layer mode adjustment layer:


lol. Why?

Agreed, the second one is kinda shit. It looks like they hit it with a high pass filter and then a levels adjustment and maybe a vibrance adjustment - they used a hammer when they needed a delicate paint brush. Their actions were overkill. I like all the adjustments I mentioned, and hell, I like a little more vibrance than maybe you guys do, but graphic artists have to know when they've gone too far.

To play devil's advocate here: Maybe this was done in a rush under pressure from some magazine editor who doesn't have a clue about good graphic art, or they don't care - a "just get it done, I need it in 10 minutes, type of boss". I've had bosses that don't know the first thing about my job, yet they expect everything to be done perfectly and on or before schedule. These bosses are the worst. This is one of the reasons that I never tried graphic arts as a career. Plus I'm red/green colorblind like you. Being colorblind is not a crippling disability, but it's still a disability and it sucks. I get teased by my family and it's really annoying. I can't help that I see brown when the color is dark green. Would you tease a guy with one leg? My family are assholes. Several years ago, I saw there was a surgery they did on chimps that made it possible for them to see color like humans. The plan was to bring that surgery to colorblind humans like us, but they couldn't get FDA approval and I don't know or remember why.

Not the same video I saw, but interesting.

You Tube

You Tube

[cylnz]

theres a whole bunch of screwed up ones done the same way over on phun and tfb. it's funny that the normal ones were posted a day or so before the screwed up ones.

It's a 2 step process.

base pic+dupe
set dupe layer to linear burn
set dupe layer to about 10-15% opacity
done

color blindness is certainly debilitating in graphic arts lol. Hasnt stopped me in the last 27-28 years tho, lol. Actually, I kind of think my staring at computer monitors constantly since 1992 has hurt my eyes with the color blindness. I bet in the future they find that out officially. those old crt monitors screwed up folks vision.

[MasterBates]

cant believe you cant see trees, or grass, something i care less about cause I completely take it for granted. got that palate thing not sure where to put it or how to use it inPS..

[cylnz]

what?

[ViceLikeEye]

Originally Posted by cylnz

color blindness is certainly debilitating in graphic arts lol. Hasnt stopped me in the last 27-28 years tho, lol. Actually, I kind of think my staring at computer monitors constantly since 1992 has hurt my eyes with the color blindness. I bet in the future they find that out officially. those old crt monitors screwed up folks vision.

I'm old enough to remember the saying, "Don't sit too close to the TV". Back then, TVs didn't come with a remote. If you were the youngest kid in the family, you were the remote for yourself and everyone else. Those CRT TVs and monitors were beasts. You had to let those Cathode Ray Tubes warm up so they could display a video signal. They were probably terrible for our eyes. Screens in general are not great for eye health, which sucks if you love graphic arts. And people today are on screens all day long, so I don't think specific research regarding eye damage via CRTs versus all other screens will ever be done - maybe I'm wrong, but I don't know how you could differentiate. I know my eyes burn at the end of screen-heavy days.

Originally Posted by MasterBates

cant believe you cant see trees, or grass, something i care less about cause I completely take it for granted. got that palate thing not sure where to put it or how to use it inPS..

We can see trees and grass, they just look different. And there's a spectrum of human colorblindness, so maybe my colorblindness is "better" or "worse" than it is for cylnz. In other words, maybe cylnz sees more of the red and/or green gamuts than I do, or vice versa. I always double check traffic lights as I go through an intersection at speed, to make sure my eyes aren't trying to fool (kill) me.

Bringing this back to PS, the thing that pisses me off is when I'm doing a model extraction from the background and PS can't tell the difference between the model's skin (or hair or clothes) and the damn wall behind her. My colorblind ass sees the difference, why doesn't PS? I have varied and limited success with the pen tool, so I don't use it. I find I have to fiddle with a layer mask on an extraction that PS fails to get correct.

To answer your PS palate question MasterBates, you may never use it or you may use it all the time. Google and YouTube a tool if you don't know what it does, etc. Then you can figure out the frequency of how often you'll use the tool in question. If you only use it once in a blue moon, then close it out and bring it up when you need it. Don't let a tool steal your screen's workspace for nothing. If you have multiple screens, this helps, but you still don't need every tool available on screen all the time, especially if you never use these tools. That's overkill. The best advice for tools is, dive into PS, use it and figure out what works best for your workflow on your workspace(s). And you can change and save your workspace(s) on PS at any time. I currently have 3 different workspaces on PS and each one (or all of them) could change based on my needs. For clarification, a workspace is just how you have PS and its tools arranged - a workspace could be on one monitor, or you could utilize several monitors - it's all up to you the user and your computer's capability.

[SynchroDub]

Originally Posted by ViceLikeEye

I'm old enough to remember the saying, "Don't sit too close to the TV". Back then, TVs didn't come with a remote. If you were the youngest kid in the family, you were the remote for yourself and everyone else. Those CRT TVs and monitors were beasts. You had to let those Cathode Ray Tubes warm up so they could display a video signal. They were probably terrible for our eyes. Screens in general are not great for eye health, which sucks if you love graphic arts. And people today are on screens all day long, so I don't think specific research regarding eye damage via CRTs versus all other screens will ever be done - maybe I'm wrong, but I don't know how you could differentiate. I know my eyes burn at the end of screen-heavy days.

I hear you.
Ever since LED LCDs came out, I constantly suffer eye strain and general tiredness, if I stare all day at the TV or my PC monitor.
Wasn't a problem with old CRT monitors, for me.

I still have an old 22" Samsung 1080p monitor, which use CCFL instead of LED, and even at lower brightness levels it still DOES look bright, and doesn't give me any eye strain or fatigue, even during night hours.
It's just amazing using it.

BUT......as soon as I turn on my old iPad 2 to read a book or write something, BOOM........eye strain and dizziness up until the next morning.
Doesn't look any better with the Retina displays, either.
They suck your eye sockets out, literally......

I found that if I use a monitor with a higher refresh rate (from 75hz and higher) or that's AMOLED, I don't get as much eye strain.

But, for the rest, LED backlight suck for prolonged PC use.

There's a company that sells glasses for PC use, which they do block UV rays as well any blue light.
They're for sale for $40.
I didn't tried them, yet, but I heard good things about them.

[cylnz]

how you gonna do artwork if you dont see blue? Lol, we already cant differentiate red/green 1/2 the time; I couldnt handle losing blue too. I'd just go B&W like old BWnGreyscale did 15 years ago lol.

I wonder what ever happened to him. He was a really top end scanner. Had a good site, IIRC he was a longtime pinkdevils member

[ViceLikeEye]

Originally Posted by cylnz

how you gonna do artwork if you dont see blue? Lol, we already cant differentiate red/green 1/2 the time; I couldnt handle losing blue too.

Same here. And if you already have to wear glasses (like I do), what do you do? It's kind of the same story for these expensive colorblindness correcting lenses. I already wear glasses and I can't wear contact lenses because of my vision.

I took the test on this website that sells these colorblindness correcting lenses anyway, just for the hell of it.

http://enchroma.com/collections/outdoor-color-blind-glasses

And here's my results:

I took my glasses off, got right up to the screen and took the test again and got the same result.

To the section mods, I know this is "personal info", but there are lots of colorblind people in the world, so I'm really not giving away anything too personal - see quote:

There are an estimated 300 million people in the world with color vision deficiency. 1 in 12 men are color blind (8%). 1 in 200 women are color blind (0.5%).

[maxhitman]

Originally Posted by SynchroDub

I hear you.
Ever since LED LCDs came out, I constantly suffer eye strain and general tiredness, if I stare all day at the TV or my PC monitor.
Wasn't a problem with old CRT monitors, for me.

I still have an old 22" Samsung 1080p monitor, which use CCFL instead of LED, and even at lower brightness levels it still DOES look bright, and doesn't give me any eye strain or fatigue, even during night hours.
It's just amazing using it.

BUT......as soon as I turn on my old iPad 2 to read a book or write something, BOOM........eye strain and dizziness up until the next morning.
Doesn't look any better with the Retina displays, either.
They suck your eye sockets out, literally......

I find this interesting. I am at the computer for many many hours and
I don´t get headaches or eye-problems. Guess it´s because I eat a
raw carrot once every 3 days. I heard carrots are good for the eyes

I used to own a huge box-monitor a couple of years ago (Sony),
but it was slowly going beserk and the screen colors were not
showing properly. My art was coming out really bad and suffering from
lack of a good pc monitor. I then researched the market and discovered
an HDMI ASUS VG248QE -24''-144Hz (1920x1080) monitor.

A couple years back it was considered one of the best monitors for gaming
and the colors+resolution looked great to me to be used for digital art.
It could even be used in a Vertical position, for doing art portraits.
Cost me around 300+ euros (years ago) but it is amazing for doing
my digital art and also playing some video games with high-resolution.

This thing has been working for many long hours for the last 8+ years
and it has never given up on me. I reccomend it, because now the
prices for one are much cheaper.
I KNOW, there are much better pc monitors out there at the moment,
but I don´t want to pay alot of money. I just want some thing cheap,
some thing that works great and it has to last for along time.
I have trusted the ASUS brand for many many years on many of my
computer components and this monitor is Tops in my book too.

My vision has not deteriorated so much, but if it does, I will start just
doing all Black & White art, or nudie photoshoots. Many people love
to see them and I think they always look classy. Specially when used
as a monitor wallpaper or phone background.
I still use them alot. Just look at my posts in the wallpaper section
of this forum.

...................................................................

For those interested , here is a video describing a good way to
calibrate the colors in your pc monitor.

How to CALIBRATE a MONITOR without a colorimeter

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jpL2nDAKuuI

...................................................................

Here is something very useful to do with your Photoshop program
which will also allow it to work faster for you.
These are also the settings I use and it does the job for me.

Ten Super Useful Photoshop Preferences

You Tube

You Tube

[ViceLikeEye]

Originally Posted by maxhitman

I find this interesting. I am at the computer for many many hours and
I don´t get headaches or eye-problems. Guess it´s because I eat a
raw carrot once every 3 days. I heard carrots are good for the eyes

That stems from a myth popularized during WWII, but has some truth to it.

The science is pretty sound that carrots, by virtue of their heavy dose of Vitamin A (in the form of beta carotene), are good for your eye health. A 1998 Johns Hopkins study, as reported by the New York Times, even found that supplemental pills could reverse poor vision among those with a Vitamin A deficiency. But as John Stolarczyk knows all too well as curator of the World Carrot Museum, the truth has been stretched into a pervasive myth that carrots hold within a super-vegetable power: improving your night-time vision. But carrots cannot help you see better in the dark any more than eating blueberries will turn you blue.

Fruits and veggies are good for you and tasty, but I don't think you can single out carrots as the only key to good vision. Diet, exercise and more importantly, genetics plays a huge part in your body's function, or lack of function...like my shitty eyes. I don't think one carrot every three days is doing much, except tasting good and helping to fill your belly.

I always take these food and vitamin studies with a large pinch of salt (pun intended). Simply because science is always changing its mind as it evolves. One minute eggs are bad for you, the next minute they're a "super food". Who or what do you believe? I know some of it is clickbait. I've seen so many hit pieces on the ketogenic (low carbohydrate) diet, calling it the "you only eat bacon diet" and that "it's bad for you because you'll clog your arteries, blah, blah, blah". I know that's BS, because I'm on a keto diet and yes I have bacon once in a while, but I eat a lot of veggies too. And my blood tests and BP are good.

I also know that some food "advice" is straight up lies motivated by money:

50 Years Ago, Sugar Industry Quietly Paid Scientists To Point Blame At Fat

http://npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat

I digress... Sorry for the food rant. It does anger me though, especially lies that hurt or kill people.

Originally Posted by maxhitman

How to CALIBRATE a MONITOR without a colorimeter

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jpL2nDAKuuI

What if you use multiple monitors? I've seen some videos claiming to have the answer to calibrate "all the monitors and TVs in your house" but they all look like a pain in the ass. Some involve using the naked eye, which for colorblind people, it's not an option. Some require apps and/or special equipment. I think I'll just continue to pretend my monitors are calibrated enough, because I probably can't tell the difference anyway and I don't have clients to impress.

Anyway, here are some videos of multiple monitor calibration that may be of interest:

Can you color match 2 or multiple different displays and should you?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NxTNSkxgVP8

How to color calibrate multiple displays setup, laptop, software & hardware calibrated displays!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=REGRfFdLYFM&t=177s

@MAX, you don't have to put YouTube in code tags.