istockscoop.com » Photoshop

iStock Article: Learn to Love your levels

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 16:08:35 +0000

“Demystify those histograms and figure out how to make blacks black, whites white and reduce your mid-tones so your images don’t look quite so washed out.”

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=235)

iStock Article: Quick Polaroid Frame

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 15:33:12 +0000

“I have the attention span of a gnat. Seriously. I get bored easily, I rarely enjoy leftovers, and I make faces when I’m forced to do the same thing over and over again. That’s why you’ll see me using different frames — edge effects, rather — on photos throughout this site. I’ll do the Black Hairline Pixel Edge thing for a bit, followed by the Soft Fluffy Feathery edge thing for a while, and I’ve even been known to hop over to iStockphoto.com and download real picture frames to plop photos into. Just anything to jazz things up.”

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=210)

iStock Article: Fast Photo Spotlight

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 15:28:04 +0000

“While at Photoshop World in Miami recently, I picked up a super quick method of drawing the eye to the heart of an image. By using a filter you’ve probably never heard of, you can produce an effect that truly beautifies a portrait, and looks like something you’d get from a real portrait studio (Olan Mills, anyone?).”

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=209)

iStock Article: Partial Color Effect

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 15:26:03 +0000

“One of the best ways to accentuate part of a photograph is to use partial color. That is, make a portion of the photograph color and the rest of it black and white (or rather, grayscale). A festive way to employ this technique is to capture the focal point of an image in color with a polaroid-ish border, and turn the remainder of the photo black and white.”

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=208)

iStock Article: Softening Freckles

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 15:23:47 +0000

“An important thing to remember when retouching photos is to exercise a little restraint. You probably don’t want to retouch a subject so much that they cease to resemble themselves. Take this photo of a beautifully freckled woman. If we remove her freckles completely, it wouldn’t look like her.”

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=207)

iStock Article: Goin’ Grayscale

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 15:21:42 +0000

“I’m feeling pretty feisty today: I’m going to try to convince you to use *several* steps to perform a technique that technically requires only one. Impossible you say? Could be, but I’m gonna give it a shot.”

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=206)

iStock Article: Creating a Circuit Board Face

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 14:41:56 +0000

“So the other day I get an email asking how to map the image of a circuit board onto a human face. An interesting though slightly unusual request, it’s definitely not the oddest email I’ve ever gotten. Turns out, this is a really useful and easy technique and now that you know what to look for, you’ll see it used in ad campaigns all across the country.”

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=205)

iStock Article: From Photo to Pencil Sketch

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 14:16:07 +0000

“Recently, a weekend trip to Atlanta, GA took my husband and I through Chattanooga, TN. After gleefully following the touristy signs leading to the actual Chattanooga Choo-Choo train, we found ourselves standing in front of the little engine that could. Unfortunately, it was encircled by row and after row of the type of cheese-ball souvenir shops becoming all too common in America these days. Ugh.”

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=204)

iStock Article: I Resolve to be More Resolute: Understanding Resolution

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 14:14:11 +0000

“We’re going to boil it down to the bare minimum. Forget about the dpi of an image. It’s pretty much irrelevant until ink hits paper. What is important? Total number of pixels. The resolution can be set to anything (72, 300 or 3000 dpi), and as long as the total number of pixels in the file are kept the same, it’s all good. Note here that we are certainly not saying you should up-res or up-sample your images, as it’s referred to. This is where people are really getting confused. They’ve always been told that increasing the resolution of a file is bad–and it generally is*–but that’s not what we’re doing here. We’re scaling the image instead of up-sampling and we’re going to do it in a way where the number of pixels won’t change one tiny little bit.”

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=199)

iStock Article: Lomo / Not Lomo?

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 14:00:42 +0000

“The first time I saw a photo that looked like this, I wanted to shoot one of my own. But for the longest time I couldn’t figure out how to do it. I didn’t realize I needed a Lomo LC-A camera.”

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=190)

iStock Article: Please Adjust Your Set

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 09:45:50 +0000

“Most of us never take the time to adjust our monitors after hitting the power switch. No, we donâ€™t mean fiddling with the contrast or tilting your laptop. We mean fixing your monitor to get the best quality. Are you constantly getting rejections for reasons that you just canâ€™t see? It may be time to recalibrate your monitor color.”

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=120)

iStock Article: Photoshop Clipping Paths

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 09:10:26 +0000

“Ahhâ€¦ clipping paths. Like trips to the dentist, theyâ€™re something everyone tries to avoid, but really arenâ€™t that bad once you just accept it and get them over with.“

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=89)

iStock Article: Getting what you wantâ€¦ even if you didnâ€™t photograph it.

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 08:52:45 +0000

“Sometimes after a photo shoot you walk away with an arrogant confidence, â€œbaby, I just shot perfectionâ€, sharp, stunning, worthy of immediate upload to iStock. You know the feeling, and itâ€™s great. Suddenly confidence begins to deteriorate as you move files from your card to computer. Bad lighting, out of focus, â€œIs that her bra strap peeking out? I told her to take that off!â€

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=70)

iStock Article: Getting Dark & Gritty

scoop — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:02:04 +0000

The Art of Faking Black & White Film

“There is more to the artistic flair of black and white photography than merely grayscaling your photos. It is a world of grain, contrast & lighting. If you love the gritty look and are looking to show more emotion and dramatics with a hint of sexiness, but have found there’s more that meets the eye in achieving this style, no fret. Where your digital camera settings may be showing sub par, we’ve got the cheap tricks in Photoshop that can compensate the difference for a professional look and new edge. Choosing to convert to black and white should be an intentional effort and not a solution. Architecture and portraits make great subjects, but when it comes down to it, some photos are just monotonous and black and white isn’t an instant answer.”

(http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=5)