Photoshop...wanna learn???

[hatch]

I started this post during tech week, but never finished it. If anyone is interested in learning photo manipulation, I would like to give a hand. The following link is to a great program that is quite easy to learn. It's on sale for 20 bucks. Adobe Photoshop is horribly expensive, and not really necessary for a beginner.

If anyone is interested, reply and let me know.

I could also give some tips if you have the Adobe program.

http://www.arcsoft.com/en/products/photostudio/2000.asp

[Smokin Joe]

Well, I ordered it.

[hatch]

Cool....I'll try to keep current on this post....let me know any questions you have.

[SKR8PN]

Throw as many Adobe tips as you would like to!
I can use ALL the help I can get!

[hatch]

The first tip I have....if you know how to get a picture loaded, that's the first thing you have to do. On either the Arcsoft or Adobe program, I use the clone tool quite a bit more than any other tool....I would start with learning that tool first....it's fun.

[The_Monster]

Sounds like a cool idea hatch!

Heres your first question on this topic that I've been dealing with.

Say you have 2 layers you want to merge. and you have an effect on one layer like outter glow that also happens to be a 'multiply' layer, and you want to merge that layer down into a different layer that has a different effect, like inner glow, and its a 'difference' layer. how do you keep the layers options and effects true to the layer when you merge the two? instead I get the top layer overriding the one getting merged, and overriding the bottom layers options and effects?

If i link them or leave them unlinked i get different results for each, but not the ones i want. any suggestions?

Thanks hatch http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

(this is for adobe photoshop btw)

[surf monkey]

hope you dont mind me adding a tip here......if your not sure and dont wanna shell out loads of dollars/pounds for the latest photoshop...checkout uleads photo-impact...fraction of the cost and does the same thing

monkey

[surf monkey]

ps...i got both and i use photo-impact a lot more than photoshop

monkey

[hatch]

Monster...I guess I should clarify what I'm doing....with just one year of experience, I think I can help some people get started doing some car chopping....your photoshop images blow mine away!!!!.....You could teach me....but, I think helping you might be tough. If you have any thoughts on this topic that will help people learn, please feel free to jump in....that goes for anyone replying.

[286merc]

Ive got Photoshop 7 (freebie of course) and can do most enough for fixing up EBay stuff.
But is there any way to correct for poor focus and get rid of flash reflections/white spots?

How can I select just say one object and eliminate all else? Ive played with brush, crop and some others but it doesnt do what I want. Yeah, I'm probably dense.

That is enough for starters.

[The_Monster]

ahh hatch, i think we are all learning here! every time i start my computer up i learn something new, you know?

I really appreaciate youre kind comments! I enjoy your photoshop work as well as others that contribute to HAMBers requests.

I think this is a cool tech idea, and as a matter of fact, I have a guide line thingy i made up for a HAMBer a while back when he had some questions about layers and how to use them. I could post them here if youd like.

I dont want to rob your post man, you run the show! But I may throw in my 2 cents here and there on occation http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

screen 0001

red arrow is tool bar
white arrow is upper tool bar
orange arrow is options and brush sizes for each tool
yellow arrow is for layers and navigator
black arrow shows the layer options
purple arrow shows that layer is visible but not selected
dark blue arrow shows layer is selected but not visible
green arrow is new layer
light blue arrow is trash a layer
pink arrow is history of steps
grey arrow is showing the first step made

[The_Monster]

screen 02

red arrow is the lasso tool
yellow arrow shows the layer is visible and selected, you can see the green in the little view window.

orange arrow is showing that if you have that layer selected and create a new layer it will pop up ontop of that layer. also it shows how easy it is to effect your image with layer, you can notice that the sun spots and glimmers are turned off now with that layer unvisible.

in the history you can see what has happened, opened it, created new layer, used lasso and dumped paint. you can click back up through the history to back up a few steps, or throw that layer away and get a new one if you dont like what you did.

This is just a generic beginner layout for someone that has never used layers before, to help get them started. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

(sorry for the crappy quality, I know its hard to read)

[porknbeaner]

Hatch,
I've got adobe but I never used it enough to get good at it. Always used paint shop pro.
Gonna load adobe in the very near future. Expect lotsa questions.
The PknBner

[KCsledz]

Hey monster,

If you are finished with the artwork go ahead and save it out as a photoshop eps. The layer effects should stay the same and it will be a flattened image when you open it back up. Make sure that you do a "save as" lways keep your layered photoshop documents in case you have to adjust something later. you can always save a new eps file from it.

KCsledz

[Gr8ballsofir]

Monster, I'm a bit of a novice myself, but have you tried lessening the Opacity of the affect your trying to get on the upper layer? This might let the lower layer show through more(?)

[hatch]

I think this post may quickly become...."Wannabe teacher becomes student" http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif....but I think that learning is a good thing....I'd like to keep this going and make it a group effort.

I know there are some beginners and also some very advanced people into this addiction called photoshop...I love it and want to pass some of my excitement along...maybe help someone who is intimidated by the whole concept of a huge program with a million ways to chop a top....and no idea how to start....sorta like me one year ago.

Monster...those are fantastic learning tools...most of the books I have read aren't even close to the learning tools you are doing. Please keep contributing to the thread...I love it!!!!

I would like to see some beginners reply with questions too......anybody wanna jump in???

[The_Monster]

thanks for the input guys!

Gr8, its not that it doesnt show through, its more like the upper layers option and effects dominate over the lower one thats getting merged upon. its weird.

try it yourselves, see what im talking about. make two layers, put differernt effects on each or change the options of each, whatever, and then merge one into the other. because you can only merge down, the bottom layer falls victom to the top.

KC, thats good advice, I always save a photo shop version with all files for sure, like you say, you never know when youd like to tweek something, and you wont have to go through it all again.

However, the reason i was wanting to merge them is so that i could move them around alot on the page and have them lined up perfectly at the same time, instead of aligning them every time i moove it. and yea, i use the arrow keys to move them percisely, and count them, so that they are perfect, but its still a hassle.

I just found a way to overcome it! (duh! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif)

turn off all layers except the ones I want to merge then just do a select all, copy merged, paste. thats the answer right there! haha, sometimes it takes a while, i know.

Like this for example. the text is red with a white outter glow effect. the shadow behind is black with a white inner glow (making it transparent) and opacity is down to 39. and when Im moving text around the page to see where it looks best i like to have it all with me, instead of moving the text, and then the shadow and lining them up.

Well enough of that, im sure I'll come up with another question sometime soon, haha http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[50Fraud]

I definitely qualify as a beginner. I have Photoshop 5.0 and ran through the tutorial when I got it a few years ago, but haven't used it often enough to remember what I learned.

I'd love it if you could show step by step some of the most obvious customizing procedures:
1. Change style and/or size of wheels/tires
2. Lower a car on its wheels
3. Change the overall paint color while retaining highlights and reflections
4. Chop or section a car

These would be hugely valuable!!
Thanks to both of you for taking this on.

[The_Monster]

no prob, ill try a bit to tell you a few secrets.

1. change style of wheels, go to altavista.com, choose image tab and type in anything, it finds images found on the net. save pic, open it, use marque tool or lasso tool to selecet it roughly. drag it onto your image youre working on. use erase tool at 100% fine edge. clean it up. chose to mess with brightness/contrast in the image/adjust drop down, also change color balance if needed.

change size of anything, do a cntl+T or free transform. hold shift while pulling for uniform expansion or whatever, and theres other ways to distort.

2. use polygon lasso tool to select whole car, ecept the wheels, have orignal car pic layer selected, chose cntl+C then cntl+V (copy/paste) now you have a car body on a new layer you can move up/down whereever. (youll have to recreate, or fill in the background if lowering the car, youll see the original roofline)

3.select the car like above excluding all windows, lights grill etc, just painted surfaces. go to image/adjust/desaturate. will give you a grayscale without choosing grayscale (grayscale wont allow color on that layer) now make a new layer, with still selected dump paintbucket. change layer to multiply and youll see all highlights.
if you ever want to change the color or paint, go into that layer, choose effects, go to fill color and choose what color you want. very easy.

4. lasso select the roofline down to the tops of the doors. choose copy/paste. its on a new layer, move it where you want it. you may need to expand or stretch it, thats where the artist part comes in, but chop it smart, just like a real chop job, save yourself time.

now youre a pro!!! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[hatch]

Right Monster...great tips.....keep em coming!!!
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I do my chopping and sectioning a little differently. I'll explain how a simple chop on a profile shot of a modelA works for me.

I rely heavily on the clone tool for chops, sections and lowering.

ON the "b" pillar of a modelA, set your clone at the high point of the chop(on the B pillar)...then...slide down the pillar(the amount you want to chop) to where you want to start your clone..."blow" the image from that point upward. Learn this first....then try a section job on a fifties car...same method with the clone....a lowering job can also be done with the clone...just start your clone above the car...drop down the amount you want to drop the car and "blow" the image towards the bottom of the car, but only to the wheelwell edges... without disturbing the lower portion of the tires....this will drop the car and leave a small duplication at the top of your screen...just crop the whole picture to remove that area.

My wheel replacement is done with two images on the screen....resize if necessary (most likely)....and clone from one pic to the other...alot of times I just clone the wheels and not the tires.

[50Fraud]

Excellent. Thanks to you both!!

[Mike Landwehr]

I'm with 50fraud , I can't even bring up 2 pics on the same page,but his list is exactly what I need to learn- wheel/tire changes and color w highlight/shading.chopping is secondary as I'll never chop a real one tho I like em.not enough tosls or patience + Too scared to ruin a car.I put this in my favorites and will keep coming back to it for reference-thanks guys -D

[The_Monster]

fender_clip05

1 original pic

2 found front clip and back fender online from a car with correct perspective, cut them, scaled them into position (this was actually a pic of a toy car!)

3 make everything smooth, using airbushing on different layers and 'airbrush' eraser on low 'pressure'

4 shine up the paint a bit, add reflections using lasso and large airbrush at very light pressure and sun highlights

5 chop and scale the roof, cleaned the windows by hand with airbrush. created bushes above the roof with clone tool and airbrush. use lots of layers, theyre free! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[The_Monster]

steel_04

1 original pic

2 select car (lasso), copy/paste, lower and tweek the angle a bit, turn into a desaturate while still selected. add more shadow under the car due to its lower now, less light

3 creat background by hand with airbrush and clone tool when possible.

4 smooth up the car and add highlights with airbrush. dont forget cool reflections, like from the garage lights on the back fender on this car! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[The_Monster]

chopped_04

1 original pic

2 you can see original pic, roof hieght and level stance. next i lasso selected the body copy/paste, lowered it, and gave it a rake by using free transform and rotating it counter clockwise by hand. next you can see i chopped it. if you look at the headlights you can see that i gave it even more rake, hehe! I also got rid of the spare tire and rear fender, front fender and running board all with the airbrush.

3 again, using the clone tool where i could, the rest created using the airbrush. i removed the rack from the back using airbrush.

4 add wheels from two different pics i had. the flames were created first by 'laying them out' with the lasso tool, dumping paint. then using the outer glow layer effect giving it a pinstripe, mild shade down the side to create the illusion of the body rolling down, getting darker. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[hatch]

Monster...how long have you been working with PS????....your tutoring is great....more more more!!!

Mike...do you have a shortcut(visible icon when you start your computer) to your picture file?..This is the easiest way to open a picture and start your PS (photoshop)program. If you don't have a shortcut, open a new file( right click on open area of screen and click "open new file".....and name it PS pics or whatever you like. Now you have an easy way to start working each time

When you open your picture file and right click on a picture, you should get the next window with options...clic on "open picture with"...then click Adobe PS...that should load your first picture.....downsize your PS window...return to your picture shortcut file and open the next picture the same way. The pictures will be stacked on top of each other...enlarge the first one for ease of working...you can switch back and forth by enlarging or clicking the minus sign on the open picture "window"..

let me know if this helps....now get learning....I suggest the clone tool first.

[Mr 42]

Are you using a mouse, or some other type of pointing device?
I find the mouse hard to use when trying freehand jobs.

[hatch]

I use a mouse, but hopefully soon I can buy a tablet for easier drawing.

[Boones]

Hatch, now about doing a step by step How To on Photoshop.. Do something simple like lowering a car... How to load a pic, what buttons to choice when cut the wheels or car to lower etc... I would really enjoy knowing how to use my program for more then resizing pics and optimizing them..

Or maybe how to change a cars color etc...

[Kojack]

Nice Monster... amazing work there. I've been messing with PS and PSP for a while now, and while I've gotten down all my basic skills when it comes to virtual kustomizing, one thing gets me. How do you do that with the paint? I can't figure it out. You have that one there with the rusted car, but then you've smoothed it out to look all like brushed metal. What's the trick? Cloning?

[Mike Landwehr]

started playing with it from this -

[Mike Landwehr]

to this -just a mid clean up, kinda looka familiar don't it?

[hatch]

Mike...try a chop on it....use the "a" pillar as your cutting area.

[The_Monster]

hey kojack, thanks for the compliments!

No, there would be nothing in the picture to clone off of, and finding another pic with the same car, bare steel and same perspective, lighting etc would be next to impossible.

Some things just take going in there and painting it by hand with an airbrush.

as for tricks, there arent any, but theres alot of steps and shortcuts i take to save me pulling out my hair and wasting alot of time.

For one, I cant stress enough how important the layers and history are. the more layers you use the more control you have.

For instance, lets say you dont use layers or very few. and lets say youre working on the layer that the cars paint color is on. now you want to put highlights, reflections on it. if you lay down a light foggy highlight on the top of the fender and you dont like that and want to do it over, you have a lot of work cut out for you.

you cant just erase it, because youll erase the cars paint color as well cause theyre on the same layer.

now lets say same senario, but you have your history up. you make that highlight, dont like it. now just go into the history and click above the last thing you did before that highlight and it "erases".

the reason for the quotes is that its off the page but still there. helpful if you add a tiny touch of detail, not sure if you like it or not, you can go back and forth with the history and turn it on or of, to see if you like it.

however the history only remembers like a dozen things at a time, so you are limited on how far back you can go. if youre tapping your airbrush a ton of times to get a light fog or whatever, and dont like any of it, you maybe screwed.

thats where layers come into play. for every step, i use a new layer. new layer for body, body painr, tires, shadows, body fill, chop, highlights, sun glares etc.

with having both layers and history you can go wild and not be afraid of messing up your pic. say you want to see what it looks like to get rid of the hood ordiment. you use a 100 airbrush strokes (for some odd reason) your history wont erase them all, but you can simply throw out that layer and get a new one.

also the beauty of layers is that you can shuffle them around, putting one layer that was ontop of another, now undernieth. you may say so what does that do? plenty. like say you select the body with the polygonal lasso tool, copy/paste. its now on a new layer. you lower it. well when you lower it the shadows of the wheelwells on the tires are now covered by the body. so many photoshop jobs ive seen with no shadow on the tires from the wheelwells. it looks so flat and fake. you need it to add depth and realism.

so you add a layer underneith the body and put in shadows on the tires. youre airbrushing under the body layer, so that means you wont get any overspray onto the body, it will be hidden. if you moved that shadow layer to antop of the body layer, youd see the shaddow spill all over the body, depending on where you sprayed the airbrush.

anyways, use layers, you cant use enough. my typical sodapop jobs have anywhere from 10-15 layers, i think there is a limit, but ive only reached it a few times with drawings and photo touchups/manipulations.

When youre all done, dont flatten it, save it as a photoshop file. then select all, copy+merge, new, ok, paste, save. now you have an image of what you created. merge down the white layer and save as jpg or whatever. i like to name the jpg and ps file the same name, so that they stay together in my files when im looking for them.

Hope that helps out a bit! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

(layers, layers, layers, history!)

[hatch]

Monster...I have just started using layers and you are right....that's the way to go. Before I started using them, I would trap myself and have no way to totally back out of what I'd done...thanks again for jumping in and helping out!!!!!

[The_Monster]

heres one that you guys may like.

I used her exsisting hands and copy pasted them around adding shadows to them. coloring the nails differerntly.
I had this on my resume for an example of photo manipulation art, so i dont think its too over the top for here.

( I also added the underwear, so it could of been worse http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif )

[Mojo]

One other thing that might help when working with pasting new wheels on a car... If they're at a slightly different angle than the rest of the pic, you can "bend" them a bit in photoshop.

Use the lasso tool, draw around the tire (very easy when the tire is on it's own layer, you don't have to be perfect), then right click on the highlighted tire, and select "Free Transform". You'll see a box appear around the tire with little squares on the corners. You can grab those corners and pull on them, to change the shape. Anyhow, right click again, and you'll see options to rotate, skew, scale, etc. The important one is "Distort". With that one, you can grab a corner, and pull, and it will pull only that corner out.

So, you can use "skew" and pull down one side to change the percived angle of the tire to match the car, and then use "distort" to tweak it just a bit more to make it match perfect. Hit the "Enter" key on your keyboard to exit out of that mode. It's not a cure-all, but it helps when they almost match, but not quite. It's also helpful for tweaking shapes on chops too. Hope that helps!

[jaybee]

Have to confess I'm having trouble with PSP at a most basic level. What's the best way to change the color of something? I've tried different things but it always comes out looking like crap and completely unrealistic.

[The_Monster]

heres a quick break down on the two ways i do it.

1. use the paolygonal lasso tool to select the door to be painted.

2. go to image/adjust/color balance. you see the window there im using with three sliders. notice the three choices as well. shadows, midtones, highlights. one this i did full red midtone

3. on this i added full blue highlight to show you how it works. see how the red didnt change much, but the highlight on the body lines turned a shade of blue? you can use this to your advantage sometimes. This method is good for slight changes in the color.

4. for drastic changes in the color i desaturate the area first by going to image/adjust/desaturate.

[The_Monster]

5. next i lighten it so that the color i put down will show through. i go to image/ajust/ brightness-contrast. notice the slider for brightness is over to the right quite a bit and contrast is just moved slowly. play with them to get it right and still see detail.

6. make a new layer, change that layers options to 'multiply' in the dropdown on layers window. pick a color and use the paintbucket and dump it in. if you did it right, you can now 'see thro' the paint.

7. now make a new layer and use a lighter shade of blue, almost white and use the airbrush on a light pressure to make highlights on the body lines

8 finally another layer, this time using while and make the sun glares. done http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[The_Monster]

1. if you dont like the paint after you are done and have it deselected, its ok, because you should of made a new layer for that paint. if so right click on that layer in the layers window and select effects. when it pops up, uncheck apply for shadow (default effect) and go to the bottom of the scrool down menu and choose color fill.

2. choose color fill and check apply box. defualt color i think is bright red. click on the color box to get your color choices, pick your color you want and be happy! remember you can always just come back to that layer and uncheck apply if you dont want that effect on anymore http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Mai Ki-Ki]

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif..."layers people! Layers!"

Good tutes..guys.

[warpigg]

ogres are like onions?

[Mike Landwehr]

I can bring up 2 pics ,but only in seperate pages I'd like to have say 2 pics of the same car on 1 page, like a b4 and after,so it is printable in that way or sevearal cars on 1 sheet as in a for sale type of thing. I looked and I have PhotoShop 6 w the 6.5 update also freehand10 and paintshoppro5.5
Started playing with this one from the orig pic of the 39-

[Mike Landwehr]

to this , way its goin its gonna be LooonG time b4 I get to chopping anything-lol ,BUT I am learning where I was stalled , thanks great post

[hatch]

Here's the challenge....chop this modelA using the clone tool.....it can be done in about 10 seconds....learn the clone tool and life is GREAT.

How to start...click on clone tool....pick a point high on the B pillar where you would cut a real car....set your cloning at that point....now pick a low point on the B pillar where you would do the lower cut on a real car.....now left click your mouse and pretend you are spraypainting the car from that lower point upward....this will replace the roof at a lower point....give it a shot and post any questions.

[chickenridgerods]

Two of the most under used, but very useful, features of Photoshop are layer masks and paths. Older versions of PS don't have the paths tool, but they will still have layer masks.

Layer masks allow you to "erase" (mask) portions of layers, but allow you to easily unmask any previously masked portion. This is much more useful than trying to lasso a portion of a layer, copy it, and paste it onto a new layer only to find that you missed a portion of what you wanted to copy.

Paths are also a good way to eliminate the use of the lasso tool. They allow areas you want to select, fill, etc to be easily tweakable. Draw out the initial path and tweak it so it fits whatever you want to outline precisely. Unlike the lasso tool you can start and stop the outlining process many times very easily. The path is also saveable and repeatible - meaning that at any time you can come back and recreate the selection w/o having to retrace whatever you want to select like you would with the lasso tool.

[The_Monster]

I can see your points chicken, and theyre all good valid ones!

I think it comes down to what you learned or what way you were trained and ran with. im so quick now with the lasso and making new layers is such a habit, ive never had to use a mask.

However i can see the other way, where youd be very quick at manipulating the points of the mask to tweek it to the shape you wanted.

Thats the cool thing about photoshop, you can go about things in a varity of different ways and all are cool, all have their plus and minuses as far as time savers and what-not. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[cleatus]

As stated LAYERS ARE THE KEY to doing complex Photoshop alterations.

All the other tools are great, but layers unlocks the ability to experiment and use those tools to their fullest. It also allows you to store copies of the image at various stages.

Monster, When you want to move a bunch of layers together as a group and keep them registered to one another, LINK them together:
In the layers palette, choose one of the layers you want to move, then click the blank square (to the right of the eye symbol) of all the other layers you want to keep in register with the one you are moving. They will all move as one unit as long as they are linked together.

Also, If you are doing a very complex image with a LOT of layers (some of mine are over 800 MB with up to 80 layers or more), you can organize/group layers by creating Layer Sets (a folder in the layer palette) and then place all layers that have to do with one item (like a heading) into that folder.

Do this by holding down the arrow in the upper right of the layers pallete and the choosing "new layer set" from the drop menu. This creates a folder instead of a new layer. Then drag all the layers you want to combine into that folder.