Back in the day, when one would print their own black and white prints, you had a choice of a zillion different papers. They basically boiled down to cooltone and warmtone papers. This combined with different developers gave one an array of tones to choose from for any given picture. Sadly, nowadays it’s getting harder to find specific papers and certain developers are no longer being manufactured. In the digital era, most people who might not have gone through the trouble of trying different tones of paper (or even B&W printing for that matter) will be satisfied with converting a color image to a straight B&W palette by simply desaturating the color. Today we’re going to take it a step further. Achieving different tones for specific images will help you create different moods according to the overall look you’re going for.

Cooltone Effect

Let’s to start of with a cooltone effect. First thing we need to do is convert the color image to Black & White by using the Black & White layer adjustment found at the bottom of your layers palette. This will bring up the Black and White conversion window from where you can choose a variety of predefined adjustments that simulate different photo filters. Choose the filter setting most suitable for your image. You can also leave it in “Default” and tweak each color rendition separately. In my case, I used a mix between a high contrast blue filter to light up the highlights and a red filter to darken the clouds and shadows by masking out the areas with the adjustment layer’s mask. Now that we have a Black & White image we’re ready to cool it down!

Next thing we’re going to do is open up our curves adjustments window. I’m going to show what your red channel, green channel and blue channel should look like. Basically what we want to do is remove some red from the midtones, a little tiny bit of green and then add some blue. Carefull with the green curve. If you subtract too much the tone will have a magenta cast, if you subtract too little and the blue will be more of an aqua tone.

Now, for the effect to look natural what we want to do is to bring it down a bit. One way to do this is by simple using the opacity slider for this adjustment layer to say, 50%. Not only that but, for a more realistic effect, we’re going to mask out some of the midtones and highlights and leave the shadows with a black blue hue. To do this, select the layer mask and go to Select > Color Range. There you can select the tones you want to subtract by simply clicking on the image with the drop icon. Click on a middle grey and then check the “invert” checkbox. This way you’ll recover some pure white and the overall image won’t look so murky blue.

As you are doing this, you can see the same selection on your layer’s mask as the one in your color range window. All you have to do is press OK.

If for any reason you want to modify your selection, simply click on the mask while holding down the CTRL key. Now that you have your layer’s mask selected you can go to Select > Refine Edge. In this window you can tweak your selection by using a variety of sliders to feather and smoothen the edge of your selection.

If you want to check out your layer’s mask on screen, just press on it while holding down the ALT key. Now you can modify using your black and white brush any specific area. For more unobtrusive modification be sure to drop the opacity level on the brush as well as the hardness of it.

Warmtone Effect

To achieve a warmtone effect we’re going to create a different curves adjustment. Now, the difference between this effect and say, a sepia effect is that warmtone B&W paper when not toned in sepia toners has a natural warmth to it. The midtones have more of an olive tint to them where as the white is more of a creamy palette. These papers are especially responsive to toners but have a very interesting color palette all to themselves. This is what we’re looking to recreate.

Go ahead and turn off the curves adjustment layer you’ve just created by clicking on the little eye and open a new curves adjustment layer. This time, recreate the following curves for your red, green and blue channel:

As you would expect, we’re doing quite the opposite as before. Instead of adding a whole lot of blues, we’re subtracting them. Also, we’ll need to take away a little bit of red and green. As you did previously, go ahead and use color range to select the midtones in your layer’s mask. In this case, I dropped the opacity to 70%.

That’s pretty much all there is to it. I hope you found this tutorial helps to add a little style to your B&W images. You can download the curves adjustments shown in this tutorial Here and Here.

Here’s your before and after pics:

Original Image:

Cooltone Image:

Warmtone Image:

24 Ultra Realistic Photomanipulation Photoshop Tutorials
From Worth1000.com

Solarisation has been used since the very beginning of photography but was made famouse by Man Ray when he rediscovered the technique by accident in the 1930′s. The effect consists mainly of partially reversed tones in an image recorded on a negative or a photographic print. Basically the dark areas appear light or the light areas appear dark. The effect was usually caused by accidentally exposing an exposed plate or film to light during developing. That said, results were usually unpredictable and good results were obtained by luck and lots of practice. In this tutorial, I’m going to show you a simple way of getting similar results in Photoshop without having to lock yourself in the darkroom!

To start things of, we’re going to convert our image to black and white by using the Black & White layer adjustment found at the bottom of your layers palette. This will bring up the Black and White conversion window from where you can choose a variety of predefined adjustments that simulate different photo filters. Choose the filter setting most suitable for your image. You can also leave it in “Default” and tweak each color rendition seperately. For my image, I set it to Blue Filter.

Now that we have our black & image, we’re going to soloraize it using our curves adjustment layer. Go to the bottom of your layers palette open the Curves window. On your left you will see a pencil icon. If you hover over it it will say “Dray to modify the curve”. That’s exactly what we want to do. Select it and make a point at the very bottom of the left corner while holding down the SHIFT key. Now go to the top center and make another point. Finally go back to the bottom, this time to the right corner. You should now have an inverted “V” curve.

You can save this Curves Adjustment as a preset if you want. That way, everytime you want to solarize an image, all you have to do is select this Curves Adjustment from the dropdown menu in your Curves window. Do this by going to the top-right corner of the Curves window and selecting “Save Curves Preset”. Call it Solarisation and that’s it!

Now what we need it to give it some contrast. You can give it as much as you like but for this image I didn’t want to loose too much detail in the dark sky in order to keep those interesting branches. To do that, I masked out that area so that my Levels Adjustment did not take effect in those specific areas. The way you do that is after you have finished with your Levels Adjustment, click on the Layers Mask beside it. It will be white, so pick your brush and make sure your foreground is set to black. Paint the areas you want to block and leave white the areas you want to continue having the Levels Adjustment. You can use opacity on you brush for a more subtle effect. To have a better view of your Layer’s Mask, hold down the ALT key and click on the mask. My layer mask looks like this:

The last thing I want to do is add some film grain to make it look like a proper B&W print that has been solarized. Merge everything on to a new layer by clickng SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + E. Now with this layer selected go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. For this small web image, with an amount of 3% I’m fine but if your image is large you will probably need a higher amount. Just make sure it’s subtle, not overpowering. Also make sure to check monochromatic to avoid colored grain and to select Gaussian in the Distribution Box for a more natural looking grain texture.

This is a pretty strong effect and will take quiet a particular image to do it justice so experiment! Hope you found it useful. Here’s the before and after:

30 Charming Christmas Photoshop Brushes

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40 Colorful Christmas Patterns

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25 High Resolution Wood Textures

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Toning is a method that has been around since the very beginning of photography. It consists of changing the color of black-and-white photographs through the use of different chemicals. Initially performed to achieve greater archival properties for photographic prints, it was also done for the aesthetic qualities of certain toners. It involves many different dangerous chemicals from Selenium to Gold Chloride as well as different papers and developers. There are many variants possible so trail and error is a must. It can be a daunting practice for most amateur photographers. Luckily, we can use Photoshop to achieve these subtle tones without having to prepare a darkroom or toxic chemicals! In this tutorial, we’re going to be recreating the ever popular sepia tone.

The first thing we’re going to do is convert the color image to Black & White by using the Black & White layer adjustment found at the bottom of your layers palette. This will bring up the Black and White conversion window from where you can choose a variety of predefined adjustments that simulate different photo filters. Choose the filter setting most suitable for your image. You can also leave it in “Default” and tweak each color rendition separately. Now that we have a Black & White image we’re ready to tone!

Perhaps the earliest of toning techniques and the most common for its warm brown color is the sepia tone. There are many ways of achieving a sepia tone in Photoshop but perhaps the easiest is simply going to your Photo Filters Adjustment Layer located at the bottom of your layers palette.

In your Photo Filters window select Sepia from your dropdown menu and dial in the Density with the slider. I’d say about 50% will do. Make sure you have the Preserve Luminosity setting selected otherwise the result will be quiet murky.

The best way of achieving a more controlled sepia tone is using your Curves Adjustment Layer. Open that up and select your green channel and drag the curve down from the middle to add some magenta. Around 115 for Output and 140 for Input will do.

Next go to your Blue Channel and do the same. Around 105 for Output and 150 for Input. That will give your image a nice brown tone.

Finally, go to your Red Channel and just add a little bit of cyan by dropping the curve just a little bit. Around 120 for Output and 135 for Input. Careful not to add to much cyan or you’ll get a green color cast.

If you find that by dropping the curves on all the channels you have darkened your image too much you can go to the RGB channel and lift that up a bit to recover some luminosity.

Your sepia curves adjustment should be set. Remember you can dial it back a bit if it seems too much by simple using the opacity level for that layer. You can also apply a blend mode to this adjustment layer but bear in mind that it will alter the contrast and density of your image depending on the blend mode chosen. To save this Curves Adjustment as a preset in order to have it available for any image you wish, simply select this Curves Adjustment from the dropdown menu in your Curves window. Do this by going to the top-right corner of the Curves window and selecting “Save Curves Preset”. Call it “Sepia Tone” and that’s it!

The last thing I want to do to this image is to simply integrate the sepia tone more realistically by eliminating the effect of the adjustment in certain areas. I will be doing this by use of the Layer’s Mask. A Layer’s Mask is created with each Adjustment Layer so you should see a white box next to your Curve Adjustment layer. What I’m looking for is to eliminate the effect from the highlights. To do this, first we will need to merge everything onto a new layer by pressing SHIFT + CTRL + ALT +E. With this new layer selected go to Select > Color Range. In the color range window select the whitest point in the image and try to get as much of it as possible by setting a high amount of “Fuzziness”. I’d say between 90 to 120 depending on your image and the amount of highlights in it.

Press OK and you will have the highlight selected in your image. Now go to Select > Refine Edge. In this window you can tweak your selection with an array of settings ranging from Feather to Contrast. Once you have the selection you desire, go to the Output part of the window and from the dropdown menu select Output to:“Layer Mask”.

You now will have that highlight selection as a Layer Mask next to your merged layer. Invert that Layer Mask by selecting it and pressing CTRL + I and while holding down the SHIFT key, drag it on top of the Layer Mask below it. It will prompt you to replace Layer Mask. Say yes and now your Curves Adjustment Layer has the highlights masked out by that Layer Mask! You can delete the merge layer with it’s Layer Mask if you wish since we won’t be using it.

If you find that it masked out too much you can see the Layer Mask by holding down the ALT key and clicking on it and then simply lower the intensity of the darker areas. The easiest way of doing this is taking your eraser tool and with an Opacity of around 20% and erase over the whole image area. Make sure the brush size is large for one clean swipe or small if you want to recover color in very specific areas.

The result should show a stronger sepia tone in the midtones to dark shadows and a more subtle effect on the highlights. This will avoid the effect looking like a straight up filter that covers the whole image and will make the effect more realistic.

Hope the tutorial has been helpful. Good luck with your photos!

Cross-processing is a film technique that consists in deliberately processing photographic film in chemicals intended for a different type of film. Discovered by accident, there are as many possibilities as there are types of films and depending on the film you use and the lab you use to develop, you´ll get completely different results. In general, the results are extremely high color saturation (the color cast will depend on the film used), very high contrast and a lot of film grain. Because results can be inconsistant, it can be more of a hit & miss technique. In this tutorial, I´ll show you the most common cross-processing effect using Photoshop where you have total control for consistant results and creative freedom.

The first thing we need to do is to bring up our Curves Adjustment window by clicking on the “new layer adjustment” icon at the bottom of your Layers Palette.

From the drop down menu we will be able to navigate through our different channels to effect the colors of the overall image. Lastly we will select the RGB channel to handle contrast and saturation.

Here´s what the three color channels should look like. If you can´t get them to look just right, don´t worry about it. With the curves adjustment you can control how much of a specific color affects your overall image. Because results with film is usually inconsistant, there really isn´t an exact color scheme so go crazy! I have included my curves adjustment as a preset for you to download in any case.

Finally, your RGB channel should look something like this. Depending on your image, you might want to add or decrease contrast by creating a slight “S” curve.

Remember you can dial the effect back using the opacity level if you find the result too overpowring. This depends entirely on the effect you desire. If you´re really adventurous, you can even use a blend mode to mix the colors in but be careful with the adding too much contrast!

You can save this Curves Adjustment as a preset if you want. That way, everytime you want to use it all you have to do is select this Curves Adjustment from the dropdown menu in your Curves window and you won´t have to go through this process again unless you want to tweak the color a bit. Do this by going to the top-right corner of the Curves window and selecting “Save Curves Preset”.
Call it Cross-processing and that´s it!

The last thing we need to do to this image to make it look realistic is to add some film grain. To do this first we need to merge your background image with your curves adjustment layer. The shortcut for doing this quickly is simply pressing Shift + CTRL + Alt + E. Turn that fresh new layer into a smart object by going to Filters > Convert for Smart Filters. Next, go to the top menu and select Filter > Noise > Add Noise. Because this is a small web image, with an amount of 3% I´m set but if your image is large you will need a higher amount. Make sure to set “monochromatic” to avoid colored grain and select Gaussian in the Distribution Box for a more natural looking grain texture.

That’s all there is to it! I hope you found the tutorial useful. You can download the Curves Adjustment preset Here.
Here´s your before and after:

Like everything in Photoshop, there are more than one way to saturate the colors in your image. There’s always an easy way around it and a more complex way of doing it with a lot more control. Let’s say you want to really saturate your colors as if they were cross-processed without adding a wild color cast and increasing contrast in your image. Well, in that case, there’s only one way to do that!
In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to improve color saturation and vibrance in your photos using the Lab Color space.

Perhaps the easiest way of improving color saturation is using the Hue & Saturation Adjustment Layer. Go and open that up at the bottom of your layers palette.

There you’ll notice you can select the different colors you want to saturate (default value is set to "Master") and the amount of saturation. I usually don’t add more than 20%. Once you go past that value, the colors start to block up. In order to avoid this we need more color variety and that is why Lab Color is useful. Lab Color Space includes all perceivable colors which means that its gamut exceeds those of the RGB and CMYK color models allowing us to really crank up that saturation

Go on and close that window and delete that adjustment layer. Now, let’s head on to the Lab Color Space. At the top menu, go to Image > Mode > Lab Color. Once in lab color mode we’re going to open our Curves Adjustment Layer. You’ll notice that instead of the usual Red channel, Green channel and Blue channel, we’re going to have a Lightness channel, an "a" channel, and a "b" channel. Now, the trick here is to drag our curve away from the center counter clockwise and in the same amount on both sides. Your midpoint should remain in the same place. Holding down the ALT key click and on the curves window for a more detailed grid if necessary. This is what your channels should look like:

As you can see, this technique not only adds color intensity but also color variety. This will make most colorful images really pop out! Now, if you find that the intensity is a little too harsh. You can dial it back using the opacity level of that layer. Once you’ve got the color depth you were looking for, head back to RGB color by going to the top menu and selecting Image > Mode > RGB color. You will be prompted to discard the Curves Adjustment Layer you just created. Unfortunately, Photoshop loses the adjustment layers when you switch from different color modes. Instead going ahead by selecting "OK", choose "Flatten". This will keep the color adjustment we previously made in the image but we will no longer have the Curves Adjustment Layer to go back and adjust so make sure you got it just the way you want it!

The last saturation trick I want to show you is to saturate the luminous values of the image without effecting the overall image. Let’s say I want to I want to deepen the reds a little bit on this image. Go to your Curves Adjustment layer at the bottom of your layers palette. You’ll notice that now in RGB mode you have your Red channel, Green channel and Blue are channel back. Select your red channel and drop the curve down a bit. While you’re at it, go to the RGB channel and create a small "S" curve to add a little contrast.

Next, we’re going to give this curves adjustment layer a Blend Mode of "Luminosity". This will make the curves adjustment blend into the image affecting the luminous values of your image. It’s still really strong for my taste so I brought it down a notch by setting the opacity to 60%.

The last thing I want to do to this image is a really quick and subtle vignette around the corner edges just to direct the attention towards the center of the image. To do this merge your background layer with your curves adjustment layer onto a new layer by pressing SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + E. With this new layer selected go to your top menu and select Filters > Lens Correction. In the Custom tab, you’ll see the vignette setting in the middle. I gave my image an amount of -60% and moved the midpoint to +70. You can give your image a little more intensity and then use the opacity of that layer to dial it down to the exact amount.

There you have it! I saturated image with greater control and no color block ups. I hope you found this tutorial useful. Check the results comparison.

Original image

Hue & Saturation command (+35, check the color distortion)

LAB mode Technique

Bleach bypass is a photo effect used very often in the movie industry. It has been used in such films as Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report and many others. To achive this effect, filmmakers either parcially or completely skip bleaching during the processing of a color film giving as a result a black and white image over a color image. This creates reduced saturation and exposure latitude along with increased contrast and graininess giving a kind of gritty, dirty look to the image. This is done in special professional labs for an additional cost and might be dificult for one to find a lab that processes film in this way. Luckily we can turn to Photoshop to achieve this effect without much trouble.

To start things off, we’re going to convert our image to Black & White by using the Black & White layer adjustment found at the bottom of your layers palette. I’ve seen some people simply duplicating their background layer and then desaturating that layer with the Hue & Saturation Adjustment Layer. By instead using my method of converting to Black and White using the Black & White Adjustment Layer you will gain much more control because this adjustment layer allows you to apply different photo filters that dramaticly change your result. When you open the Black and White conversion window, you can see a dropdown menu where you have a default value. Open that up and you’ll find many different photo filters to choose from. Let’s go with default for now.

Now, the most important step here is to give this Adjustment Layer a Blend Mode. Blend modes are located at the top of your layers palette with a defaulkt value of “Normal”. Give this layer a blend mode of “Overlay”. You will immediatley see a boost in contrast and a recovery of color due to the mix of the Black & White Adjustment Layer and the color image below it. We’re almost there!

Remember I told you that you could obtain radicaly different results by using the Black & White Adjustment Layer instead of the Hue & Saturation Adjustment Layer? Click on that Adjustment Layer to open the window up and go the the dropdown menu. Now change the photo filter to see how that fiter effects your overall image. Because this layer has the Overlay blend mode you can instantly see the results of the photo filter you choose. Here are a few examples:

Once you have chosen the photo filter most suitable for your image, you might want to improve contrast a little bit by using the Levels Adjustment Layer. Open that up and add a little to you midtones, about 1,30. You can also darken your blacks a bit but try not to loose too much shadow detail. If you find that your highlights are a little too washed up, you can darken them a bit lowering the Output level below the Histogram. I dropped mine to 240.

The last step for this effect is adding some film grain to represent the silver that is retained in the emulsion along with the color dyes during processing. Merge everything on to a new layer by clickng SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + E. Now with this layer selected go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. For this small web image, with an amount of 3% I’m fine but if your image is large you will probably need a higher amount. Just make sure it’s subtle, not overpowering. Also make sure to check monochromatic to avoid colored grain and to select Gaussian in the Distribution Box for a more natural looking grain texture.

That’s pretty much it. Easy as pie! Hope you find this tutorial helpful. Here’s your before and after:

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How to download these maps

Click on each image to go to the medium resolution map download page. On that page you will have the chance to see the full version of the map at 800px wide. If you want to download themall at once and in a much higher resolution, a small donation is requested to cover the bandwidth usage fees. Scroll down to the end of the page to donate and get your full set of high resolution old maps in a single compressed .zip file.

40 High Resolution Old Maps

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30 Photoshop Text effects

Autochrome was a color positive transparency process developed by Lumiere in 1907 and used by such photography greats as Edward steichen and alfred stieglitz, just to name a few. The process consisted in coating a glass plate with a random mosaic of microscopic grains of potato starch dyed red, green and blue which act as color filters. These rather coarse grains of starch gave a hazy, pointillist effect to the overall image.In the digital age we can recreate this effect with the use of digital noise.

The first thing we’re going to do is to try to recreate the Autochrome color caracteristics. One thing to bear in mind is that since this was an early color process, color rendition was not always faithful and consitant. Another thing is, from the autochromes I have seen, color deterioration is a big issue. Usually there are alot of color streaks and stains. Sometimes a green color cast developes on certain parts of the image making it difficult to imagine what the original subtle colors might have been. Having said that, no two autochromes are alike. So when working on your image perhaps it would be a good idea to search for examples on the web to get an idea of what kind of colors where achievable. There are however, certain general caracteristics. Usually autochromes were quite dark and low in contrast. This was mainly due to the fact that they needed a long exposure for a proper image and that besides the potato starch dyes, they also had a layer of panchromatic silver hylides emulsion(the stuff found in regular B&W film).

Go to your curves adjustment by clicking on the “new layer adjustment” icon at the bottom of your Layers Palette.

Starting with the red channel, what we want to do is to drop the curve a bit. Do this by creating a new point there in curve and setting the Output to 120 and the Input to 130. You can make the curve dip a little deeper depending on the image but you want to avoid a green color cast.

With the green channel you want to make the same curve only this time, make sure to stop before you get a magenta cast.

With the blue channel we want to take it a little further. In this case I gave it an Output of 150. Usually Autochromes were more in the warm side of the color palette.

What this curve adjustment will do is give you image a warm pastel look but we want it even warmer so open your Photo Filter adjustment layer.

The Photo Filter will act as if you have taken your photograph with an actual color filter on your lens. Autochromes used an additional special orange-yellow filter in the camera mainly to block ultraviolet light and restrain the effects of violet and blue light which were parts of the spectrum to which the emulsion was overly sensitive. In this case, we’re going to choose a Warming Filter (85) and set it’s Density to 50%. This value can vary depending on your image.

The next thing I want to do is to modify some specific color by using the Selective Color adjustment layer. I like deeper blacks so I’m going to add 10% to them. For this image, the whites have been a little bit darkened by all the warmth so to make them pop again I’ll simply select them and give them a -100% value. This might depend on your image.

Another characteristic of the Autochrome process was the subdued saturation. We can achieve this by opening the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and decreasing the value of the Master saturation by -20%. You can also tweak the saturation of specific colors depending on your image but this is the fastest way of going about it.

Once we have finished applying these color adjustment layers we are going to merge them in a new layer. The easiest way of doing this is by pressing SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + E. Name this layer Noise and convert it to a Smart Object by right-clicking on the layer and selecting “convert to Smart Object”. This step is important because by using smart filters you will be able to correct and modify the degree in which you apply the Filter effects giving you more control over your final image.
You will notice a small icon has been added to the preview image of your layer indicating that it is indeed a smart object.

What we want to do to this filter is recreate the effect of the potato starch dyes found in Autochromes. If you ever see an autochrome up close, these dyes resemble noise in digital images. We can add noise to our image by using the Add Noise filter found in Filters > Noise > Add Noise…

Now the amount of noise you want to add will depend entirely on the size of your image but keep it on the low side. Make sure to have your image set to 100% to see what the noise looks like. If you added to much and the image looks unrealistic, simply double click on the Add Noise filter layer to readjust the value. Also, set the Distribution to Gaussian for a more random noise structure.

To finish off, we’re going to add some Gaussian Blur to the image. Go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur…

What we want to achieve here is simply blend those noise particles together. Blur them out to make them look more realistic and less “digital”. Just add a little tiny bit. We don’t want the image to go completely out of focus. Again this value will depend on the size of your image and how much noise you’ve added to it.

That about does it! Your layers palette should look like this. Hope you’ve found this tutorial useful and continue to explore Photography’s rich past. Here’s a before and after comparison.

Before and after:

Infrared light is the part of the spectrum that ranges between 700nm to 900nm. We are not able to see this light so infrared photography can be quite challenging to say the least. In the good old days of film photography, one could purchase Kodak´s wonderful High speed HIE film to take true infrared images. The film had no normal ISO rating so exposure had to be bracketed and you had to use a special infrared filter for a proper effect. You also had to load and unload film in complete darkness to avoid fogging the film as it was extremely sensitive to infrared light.

Nowadays, in the digital era of photography, you can have an old digital SLR converted to take infrared images but you would need long exposures making it difficult for handheld shots. This conversion can be expensive and you would not be able to take normal pictures as before once the camera is converted. An infrared filter is also a must. I´m going to show you two easy ways of achieving an infrared image without all the complicated gear.

The first thing I want to cover is choosing the right image for this effect. Not all photographs look good in infrared. The main caracteristics of the effect is a dreamlike appearance caused mainly by foliage reflecting infrared light. This foliage is usually contrasted by dark skies that absorb infrared light. Another caracteristic, mainly of the Kodak film mentioned before, is the formation of a strong glow or blooming around the highlights that helps emphasize the lurid appearance caused by the absence of an anti-halation layer on the film.

When choosing your image make sure there are lots of trees and bushes to create a glow. Also make sure the sky is as dark as possible by use of a polarizing filter or simply darkening it with Photoshop. You might want to include a subject that will not reflect infrared light as a point of interest (a trail in a forest, a house, etc).

The easiest way of achieving an infrared effect in Photoshop is by simply using the B&W Adjustment Layer in your layers palette. You can access it by going to the bottom of the layers palette and selecting “create new fill or adjustment layer”.

This will bring up the Black and White conversion window from where you can choose a variety of predefined adjustments that simulate different photo filters. Choose the infrared setting. Now, depending on your image, you can modify the values of different colors and how they will translate to black and white accordingly. In my image I had a lot of yellow and with the default value I lost a lot of detail in the highlights so I had to pull those back a bit. Furthermore, my sky was not dark enough so I decided to tweak the Cyans and the Blues. This will depend entirely on you and the image you have chosen.

This quick step by adding some grain texture would be pretty much done but we would be missing a critical ingredient. What about those dreamy glows? If you want to add the blooming effect than we will have to take a different approach. Get rid of that previous adjustment layer (or simply make it invisible of you want to keep it around) and copy your background layer by simply dragging it onto the New Layer icon at the bottom of your layers palette. Call this layer “Infrared”.

With this layer selected go to your channels palette (it should be next to your layers palette) and select your green channel. What we´re going to do to this channel is blur it using Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur..

In the Gaussian Blur window you can set how much blur you want to add to this channel. You want to blur but try not to go overboard. If you can still make out the image that should be enough. In my case, because it´s a small image for the web, a radius of 4 pixels was good enough. For a large image you might go as high as 15px.

Remember your image is still in color. We´re just looking at the green channel. To convert it to black and white this time we´ll use the Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer.

In the Channel Mixer window the first thing we need to do is to check where it says Monochrome. This will convert our image to black and white. Because we want the foliage to seem as if it´s reflecting infrared light we want the green channel to increase +200%. To compensate (The total of the three channels must add up 100%) we´re going to drop both the red and the blue channel to -50%

Now when you go back to you image you will notice that the overall effect is way too much. Your highlights will be completely washed up. Don´t worry. What we have to do to recover those details is to go back to your layer marked Infrared and drop the opacity level on it. Again, this will depend on your image. In my case I gave this layer an opacity of 40%.

The last thing we want to do to really give the appearance of infrared film is to add some film grain. In digital images this comes in the form of noise. Merge all your layers in a fresh new layer by pressing SHIFT + CTR + ALT + E and call this layer “Grain”. Next, go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise. In my case, with an amount of 5% I´m fine but if your image is large you will probably need a higher amount. Just make sure it´s subtle not overpowering. Also make sure to check monochromatic to avoid colored grain and to select Gaussian in the Distribution Box for a more natural looking grain texture.

That´s all there is to it! Hope you found this tutorial useful. Here´s the before and after pictures to see how they compare:

Original

Infrared

Embraced by the lo-fi photography movement and toy camera fanatics, redscale film consists in exposing photographic film from the wrong side. In other words, the emulsion is exposed through the base of the film which acts as a red-orange filter. The resulting colors range from bright red shadows, orange midtones and yellow highlights. The saturation and contrast of these red tones depends on the exposure. In this tutorial I’m going to show you how to recreate this effect in just a few easy steps saving you the trouble of having to load a 35mm cartridge inside out!

For this tutorial I chose an image with a bright sky and interesting contrast. If you’re looking for a more subtle redscale effect, more like a warm filter, I suggest an image with some green trees. Green compliments the redscale quite well.

The first thing we’re going to do to this image is coloraize the image using the Hue & Saturation layer adjustment found at the bottom of your layers palette. In your Hue & Saturation window you want to select “Colorize” and shift your Hue towards the warmer colors on the left. To make this red pop, crank the saturation to about 50 to 75.

This will give you a pretty flat monochrome image. We now want to get those warm yellow highlights. To do that, first merge what we have so far on a new layer by pressing SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + E. Select this new layer and go to Select > Color Range. What we want to do is select all the highlights. Using the color picker try to click on the whitest part of your image. Next, slide the “Fuzziness” to around 100 to 150 to include as much of those highlights as posible. If you want to add some midtones to your selection hold down SHIFT and you’ll see a plus sign next to your color picker. Click on any midtone to add to your selection. Make sure to keep most of your midtones and your shadows out of this selection.

Press OK and you will have your typical marching ants selection. Remember you can tweak your selection a bit by going to Selection > Refine Edge. This will open up your Refine Edge window where you can feather the edge of your selection to make the selection a bt more natural. If you happen to not like your selection press CTRL + D to deselect and try again. When you have your selection ready, we’re going to copy that selection on to a new layer by pressing CTRL + J.

This time we want to colorize just the highlights so go again to your Hue & Saturation adjustment layer. Before we continue, get out of the Hue &amp Saturation window and go to your layers palette. Hold down ALT and place your mouse between the Hue & Saturation layer and your highlights layer until you notice your hand icon turns into an icon that resembles two circles intertwined. Click and your Hue & Saturation layer has now become a clipping mask!

On this occasion we’re looking for a warm yellow to compliment the red tones so slide your Hues towards the yellows nearest to the oranges (about 60). Crank that saturation full blast while at the same time making it lighter by decreasing the Lightness -30. Again because this is a clipping mask it should only affect your highlights.

The last thing we want to do to this image is one final Hue & Saturation adjustment. Open another Hue & Saturation adjustment layer and this time select Neutrals from the Colors dropdown menu. We just want to tweak the midtones a bit to achieve a nicer redscale.

Now, suppose you want to be able to dail in how much of this effect will be present in your image as if you were exposing the film at different speeds as one would with true redscale film. To do that, first lets merge all of our adjustment layers on to a new layer by pressing SHIFT + CTRL + ALT + E. Then
select all of your layers except your original layer marked “bg” and this new merged layer you just created by holding down the SHIFT key. Press CTRL + G and you will have created a new folder and placed all of these layers inside! In case you got lost, your layers palette should look like this:

The next thing we’re going to do is hide all the layer adjustments by clicking on the eye of that folder.

You should only have the merged layer on top and the original image visible.

To emulate different film speeds simple decrease the opacity of the merged layer letting the original layer reveal itself beneath. This way you will recover some of your original colors and will achieve more of a warm color effect rather than a full redscale. Here are some example of possible film speeds:

Redscale film exposed @25(opacity set to 40%)

Redscale film exposed @50(opacity set to 60%)

Redscale film exposed @100(opacity set to 100%)

That pretty much all there is to it. Hope you found this tutorial useful!

How to download these fonts

These fonts are offered for free by MyFonts.com, an online store of commercial typography. To download these fonts you simply have to add them to the shopping cart and proceed to the checkout without paying anything. As a matter of fact, the price for each of these fonts is just $0.

48 High Quality Free Fonts

To download these patterns, just click on the images and you will be redirected to the download page.

Usage rights: You can use these images any way you want, even in commercial projects. A link back to Photoshop Roadmap is greately appreciated, but not mandatory at all.

How to download these patterns

Click on each image to go to the pattern download page. If you want to download them all at once, a small donation is requested to cover the bandwidth usage fees. Scroll down to the end of the page to donate and get your full set of high resolution patterns in a single compressed .zip file.

50 High Resolution Retro Patterns

Donate and download all 50 patterns at once!

We ask for a donation just to help us pay the bandwidth cost of downloading a 17mb file.
You can donate whatever you want, any amount will help. $2 is fine. More than $2 is greatly appreciated.
Donations are processed by PayPal.
Right after the donation, you will be redirected to the download page.

Let’s face it our pictures will never come out perfect straight out of the camera. Sometimes there will be some details we did not notice in our tiny viewfinder or an annoying bird that just happened to fly by at the wrong moment. Luckily for us, Photoshop provides us with an array of different useful tools to erase unwanted imperfections in out photos. In this tutorial I will show you the tools I use and how I use them to erase everything from birds flying around to tattoos.

The Clone Stamp Tool

One of the first tools provided in Photoshop for this purpose was the Clone Stamp tool.
What this guy does is clones an area you have selected and stamps it wherever you click. To select an area, hold down ALT and click on the spot you wish to clone. The limitation on this tool is that if you do not have an appropriate area to clone over something you want to erase (for example same texture or color palette) than your modification will be grossly evident.

To use it, first create a new Layer in your layers palette that way if you make a mistake you can always go back to your original image. Make sure your settings (located at the top of your window) are set to Mode: Normal, Opacity:100%, Flow: 100% and Sample: All Layers. The sample all layers is most important since you’re telling the Clone Stamp to sample every layer the image has not just the one you are on. If not, since your current layer is new, nothing no image will be available to clone!

In this example I’m going to erase some trees that got in the way. What you want to do is using ALT key set the clone area in the sky immediately to the left of where the trees are. That way as you go down, the sky will gradually get darker and so will the area you are cloning.

The Spot Healing Brush

Another useful tool you can use is the Spot Healing Brush.
What this tool does is make an average of is around the area you select using the brush to recreate the same texture and color palette. You have to be very careful with this one as it sometimes adds a weird pixel texture if there are a lot of different textures around your selected area. Another thing to watch out for is an incomplete selection. What the tool will do is a horrible smudge as it gradually averages out of the selected area. For these reasons I tend to use it on small things like specs of dirt on a negative or really faraway objects.

The Spot Healing Brush in Photoshop CS3 has two Type settings. Switch it to Proximity Match and not only will it average everything selected but it will also blend the selected pixels and will try to follow the pattern of the image. Sometimes it is best to use this Type when, for example, contrasting colors or strong lines.

As of Photoshop CS5 they have added another Type setting called Content Aware. Now in my opinion it is a major improvement. Content Aware differs from Proximity Match as it tries to recreate the texture based on the surrounding pixels so it doesn’t blend with the pixels that you just painted over. A lot of times it’s a lot more accurate and smudge free.

Content Aware as a Fill

Now, a really neat trick you can do with Content Aware is using it as a fill. In this case you can select a spot in your photograph using the many selection tools available and by press Shift + F5 to bring up the Fill window. Make sure to set Content Aware in the Use dropdown list. Again, this feature is only available in Photoshop CS5.

This new feature gives you even better control and even better results. Remember you can tweak your selection using Refine Edge.

The Patch Tool

If you scan your negatives to work in Photoshop like I do or simply add grain to your photos you will find that sometimes these tools will mess up your grain pattern in an area that you worked on leaving behind revealing soft focus spots. What I like to use to recover the original grain pattern is the Patch Tool.
This tool works like a selection tool and averages the pixels selected from one area to where you want to place it. Just select a soft spot and drag it to a similar area you want to average it with. I find it comfortable to use because you can create odd shaped selections according to where you need to recreate the missing grain texture.

Make sure your Patch settings is set to Source otherwise it will work the other way. It will drag your selection and average it with the destination area you sent it to. This setting might be usefull if you find you’re missing grain in a certain area and you want to drag some in from other parts.

Finally, it goes without saying that not one of these tools are miracle workers all on their own. If you want to wipe out a whole lamppost from a scene, you’re going to have to use a combination of all them. Each tool has it’s pros and cons so finding how to compliment them is the key for subtle modifications in your images. Hope these descriptions and tips were useful!

To change image size in Photoshop, you can use an interpolation method such as Bicubic Smoother or Bicubic Sharper for resampling the pixels. Resized images often lose image quality, most noticeably when enlarged. They can display a stair step or halo around some edges, often referred to as fringe artifacts.

Ever wanted to shoot Polaroid again but can´t seem to find any film for that old dusty polaroid camera in your father´s basement? Well, in this tutorial I´ll show you how you can achieve that old faded Polaroid look in a snap using Photoshop´s Curves Adjustments.

X-pro (short for cross-processing) is basically developing your film in the wrong chemicals. If you are shooting color negative film you develop it with E6 (chemicals for slide film) and you will get slides. If you´re shooting slide film, you develop it with C-41 (chemicals for color negative film) and you´ll get negatives. Depending on the film you use and the lab you use to develop, you´ll get completely different results. Great results depend on accurate exposure, experience through experimenting with a variety of films and a ton of luck! In this tutorial I´ll show you how to get interesting results using Photoshop with one of the most complicated processes: developing color negative film in E6 without the hassle of having to scan the resulting slides on to your PC.

The Fileteado is a popular culture decorative art typically used in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the beginning of the 20th century. It was, and still is, usually applied to almost anything from signs, leaderboards, objects, trucks and buses to mention a few. It is mainly composed of a text element, sometimes an image, and lots of natural decorative elements such as flowers, leaves and wood. It has sort of a baroque expression and what’s more important, the use of Tromp l’oeil techniques, resulting in a fake 3D look that’s both pleasant and amusing in some way.

In this tutorial I’m going to show you what I do when a scene has too much unwanted color and how to emphasize a part of the scene with just a bit of a color to draw attention. Try to find a picture with bright colors or a subject you really want to stand out.

In this tutorial I’m going to show you how I generally apply a soft focus trick known as the Orton Effect after it’s creator photographer Michael Orton. In the film days, this effect was achieved by overlaying two or more images of an identical scene with different exposures and focus on slide film. To do this, you had to use a tripod so your images would align perfectly.

Facebook drives a large amount of web traffic though its site, it is like a parallel Web with about 700 million users. Most successful sites are rushing to open a Facebook Fan page and try to capture new readers. Why? Well, let’s say that a single update can potentially reach thousands and thousands of readers.

And on the readers’ side, this is quite convenient. You just become a Fan of a certain page or pages and let the updates flow into your Facebook News Feed.

This list gathers a group of 10 excellent Photoshop related Facebook pages that deliver news, tutorials, downloads and other interesting goodies. Just become a Fan of all of these pages and start receiving Photoshop information in your Facebook News Feed.

Often overlooked, color post processing effects are usually a quick and easy way of turning a dull photo into a cool piece of art. It is not that there is no work involved. In fact some effects such as cross processing or HDR need some more extra steps than other good looking effects. But beside those, many of these effects are dead simple to achieve and offer a great amount of tweaking possibilities at no extra effort.

Let’s take a look at some popular color post processing effects tutorials for Photoshop that have been around for a while.

Browse through a nice collection of floral, trees and foliage Photoshop brushes created by creative artists. To download these brushes just click on the image and you will be redirected to the author’s download page.

Usage rights: These brushes should be free to use in both personal and commercial projects, but to play safe, always check the download page for usage rights instructions.

This collection of high resolution patterns, created using Filter Forge Photoshop Plugin, are both large and visually attractive enough to use them for production work.

Each image is a 1000 x 1000 pixels tileable pattern. It means that you can tile them to create a larger image.

Usage rights: You can use these images any way you want, even in commercial projects. A link back to Photoshop Roadmap is greatly appreciated, but not mandatory at all.

These two super easy video tutorials will guide you through the process of performing a fast, quick basic color correction.

In the first video, the instructor shows how easy is to get rid of a color cast from a photo using a grayscale wedge. The second video shows how to perform the same task but without the grayscale wedge, which is the most common situation for those photos that are not studio shots.

These videos are part of the Adobe Photoshop CS5 Tutorial DVD, a comprehensive course published by Infinite Skills and authored by professional instructors who have a passion for teaching. Learn more about these training DVDs at Infinite Skills web site.

An interesting and good looking collection of 30 high resolution grunge, rusty and dirty textures all created using Filter Forge Photoshop Plugins.

These are 1000 x 1000 pixel tileable textures. It means that you can tile these big textures as patterns to create a larger seamless texture.

To download these textures, just click on the images and you will be redirected to each texture download page.

Usage rights: You can use these images any way you want, even in commercial projects. A link back to Photoshop Roadmap is greately appreciated, but not mandatory at all.

Filter Forge is an awesome Photoshop plugin that lets you create your own photographic effects and textures filters. All this without programming a single line of code. Awesome isn’t it?

That’s possible because you work on a visual layout area where you can combine different components such as effects, transformations, blending modes, procedures, and whatnot, to produce stunning effects and textures. And what’s best, you can add user defined controls to the filter that will end up showing in the filter interface.

Whatever style Marco uses in his art, you can bet on, it will always come out pleasant to your eyes. His trademark is to combine photographs with dynamic forms and abstract vibes. He never gets bored of trying out new stuff. With his passion and love for art he is trying to work out the finest designs.

Last year Marco got a lot of prizes : so he was awarded with the "Golden Adgar". In the European final of the best YET: The title "Best European Team" (Rank 4). Second place of the "Young Lions Award" and some more.

Additional there were published some articles in different print medias. In particular the article in Germans best well-known graphic magazine "DOCMA". In special tutorial, more than two pages long, he revealed his secret to compose a lady face out of flames.

And now the time of waiting has gone, Marco Peis will make a incredible Photoshop Tutorial DVD, where he reveals his photoshop secrets. Register here to get more informations when the DVD is released.

If you ran out of ideas or, most likely, of time to create your salutation cards, this selection of Christmas Photoshop resources will be of great help.

In this list you will find a nice amount of ornaments, trees, snowflakes, swirls, doodles, brushes, vectors, patterns and a lot more. Click on each image to go to each resource download page.

And of course, Merry Christmas to all of you!

It seems that text effects have become extremely popular over the last years. Thanks to the new advanced tools and commands Adobe is adding to Photoshop in each new release, users can create more complex typography artworks instead of the dull and boring headlines of the past.

Just take a look at these 25 incredible text effects and you will see what I mean.

About a year ago I published a comprehensive list of more than 800 Photoshop tutorials and downloads that was a hit. That list gathered a group of highly categorized Photoshop resources lists. Having all lists gathered in one article is something like a meta bookmark of the most important Photoshop tutorials.

Well, it’s been over a year and I believe it is time to publish the second roundup of Photoshop resources lists.

In this occasion, you will find some very specialized topics, such as gadget creation, water splashes effects, apocalyptic scenes, photorealistic text effects, and some Star Wars 3D models you can download for free. Remember that Photoshop is now a 3D application too!

Adobe Photoshop is an expensive software. But since you already bought yours, why don’t let your kids play with and learn with it? One of the first tools kids will use is the Paintbrush tool, but sadly the brushes sets that come with the default installation are somewhat boring.

Here’s a list of 15 amusing Photoshop brushes sets that your kids will love to use while they learn Photoshop.

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to match the colors of different images using the Match Color command, but first there are a few things you should now about this command.

The Match Color command is useful for matching color between multiple images, multiple layers or multiple selections. It works only in RGB mode.

This command matches colors in one image, which is called the source image, with colors in another image, called the target image.

It’s a very useful command but bear in mind it won’t always give the results you expected, as this depends on the colors of both images. That said, let’s begin!

HDR (High Dinamic Range) images are created using multiple photographs, each captured at a different exposure. It may happen you didn’t have the chance of shooting more than one image.. don’t worry, even if you haven’t got what’s needed to create a real HDR image, you can fake it.

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to enhance your images faking an HDR effect using the new HDR Toning command in Photoshop CS5. We’ll apply this effect to different images so you can see how this would work with different type of landscape shots.

3D Stereo is a hot topic nowadays but few people know any practical applications aside from the entertainment value. Few people also know how 3D Stereo works and how easy it is to use with any Photoshop project. To learn more about the powers of 3D Stereo and how to use Stereoscopic 3D to your Photoshop advantage, we invite you to view some quick illustrations.

This tutorial will show you how to create a beautiful and simple fractal image based on a flower. This is actually impossible with Photoshop’s standard plugins, so we are going to use the stunning Fractal Explorer free filter that is run using the Pixel Bender plugin.

Pixel bender is a free plugin released by Adobe that lets you run filters created using the Pixel Bender programming language. To follow this tutorial you will have to download and install both Pixel Bender and Fractal Explorer. Pixel Bender can only be installed on Photoshop CS4 and CS5. If you have older Photoshop versions, then you won’t be able to install Pixel Bender.

This article is a showcase of 27 beautiful photo effects covering subjects such as technicolor processing, frozen liquid effects, artistic and digital painting, lighting effects and many other photo manipulation examples that can be applied to your photos or designs. Although most of these tutorials require an intermediate knowledge of Photoshop, beginners will find the step by step instructions useful in their learning experience.

Here’s a collection of 20 Photoshop tutorials about modern and retro gadgets illustration. These gadgets are simply an excuse to learn how to represent shiny metal surfaces, glossy plastics, colorful reflections, textured parts and many other industrial design rendering techniques. Don’t skip a tutorial just because it isn’t about your favorite gadget. Take a look at each one and check how the pro’s are doing it.

Here’s a collection of 10 Photoshop tutorials, 3 Photoshop brushes and 7 stock images about those splashes effects that look so cool and are so popular today. These are not easy to manage. A bit of creative manipulation is required, but the results will surely end up being sort of awesome.

It’s time for a new roundup of cool text effects. It is amazing how authors and designers are coming up with so many new and interesting effects without using third party filters.

Last month I featured the incredible Photoshop and design work of Marco Peis here at Photoshop Roadmap. Let me say that I was literally flooded with emails and comments asking for more from Marco. Well, here’s an interview and a and incredible tutorial from him. Enjoy!

Hi Marco, thanks for taking the time for an interview! Let’s start with your background. Tell us a little bit about your job.

Well, I work for an international agency called EuroRSCG Vienna. We have international clients like Vichy, Peugeot, Citroen, and some else. But my first job was in a bank as a graphic freelancer.

It was a nice time, but veryyyyy boring. No conceptual, and only two colors. After that, i started tutoring in a graphic design school in Innsbruck. I made adobe training with the students – Primary photoshop ;D

It’s Christmas time and here’s a new roundup of snowy, bright, cheerful and beautiful Christmas related tutorials filled with white trees, ornaments and all kind of colorful effects. Each year, this kind of tutorials get more and more creative, reflecting the newest design trends. Hope you enjoy these ones, and Merry Christmas!

Whenever I have to research for new Photoshop tutorials for my compilations, I always focus on stunning, complex and difficult tutorials mainly targeted for pros. But most of the time you need to perform basic tasks such as red eye removal, or changing a color in a photo.

This list is about basic photo manipulation techniques for beginners. Some of these techniques require a bit of work, but many do not. Remember that good results require good starting photos!

Marco Peis – Junior Art Director & Specialist for Graphic Arts from Austria is using Photoshop, zBrush and C4D to create such amazing and breathtaking works. His portfolio is an eternal source of inspiration and ideas. His experiments have a strong and deep impression with remarkable effect combinations besides his sense of balance.

Born in Tirol (Austria), he started as a freelancer for some little but well-known agencies. Now he is working at the EuroRSCG Vienna on international clients like Peugeot, Vichy, Telekom, and some more. He told us, that in his job there is demanded much creative conception in ideas.