Toolbox

Do you really know your tool's in Photoshop? It's amazing how many tools you may not use to full potential, so let me talk you through each individually, there use in Digimoding and how to access those hidden ones!

Dodge Tool? Healing Tool? You'd be very surprised how many different tools there are Photoshop, and how many you may not be making full use of. To complete most of my tutorials, you'll first need to have a good insight into each tool, and know them by name for easy selection. Here's a real good look at the tools Photoshop 7 has to offer.

It's pretty hard to miss, its usually located on the left of your screen, and will look like on the left. Your toolbox may be slightly blander looking, or maybe a little nicer, but in most cases the tools will be there. Some older versions may do without the more complex tools, but you'll have the core tools to make a nice car with.

If you have a keen eye, you may spot the little arrows on the bottom right of each individual tool button. This means there are other related tools within that set. For example, on Tool 1 - "Marquee Tools", if you right click this, there is the option to select another four tools from there. This is often an email I get, asking where the Polygon Lasso tool is? Basically right-click Tool 2, and it'll pop up.

Anyway enough of the chatting, what really are the tools? The quick access keyboard shortcut for each tool is displayed at the end of each paragraph in Bold.

Tool Details:

1) Marquee tools. This allows selections to be made - in the form of rectangles, ellipses, single rows or single columns. We only mainly use rectangle and ellipses. Ellipses are a good way of selecting wheels to get nice round smooth edges. The selections made by this tool can be altered in size or skewed easily by using the Select > Transform Selection feature. M

2) Lasso tools. This tool is much like the Marquee tool above, but the lasso version is ideal for making more freehand selections rather than a set circle or rectangle. There are three tools in this group. The normal lasso tool is a basic click down and drag. The selections are wavy, so you really to need a steady hand. The more recommended lasso tool is the Polygon one. Your selections are made up of a series of lines, which are ended by a click in different areas. This makes long straight selections much easier. Wheel arches are normally selected by making many small straight lines. The final lasso tool is the magnetic one, this is pretty damn hit and miss, but is good if you are lazy (hey we all are).. It automatically clings onto different areas, making easy selections with very little concentration. L

3) Crop tool. This cuts away any unwanted parts of the image. Basically select the area you want to keep, and then press enter. Cutting away unwanted background allows people to focus more on the car, and also cuts down on file size. C

4) Healing tools. The healing tool is much like the Clone tool, and, like it says on the tin it heals parts of your image that are damaged looking. For example, a small blip on a bodywork can be removed by this. First you need a reference part of the bodywork, you do this by holding ALT and then clicking on it. You then just rub over the imperfection and Photoshop automatically fixes it and adjusts the balance etc to make it all look spot on! The Patch tool, within this tool set is also the same but works with patterns. J

5) Clone Stamps. This allows part of an image to be cloned somewhere else on it. You again use ALT click as a reference point. The more you paint, and the wider the area you brush, the more of you reference point will be brushed on.. This is useful for removing door handles and generally smoothing bodywork! Pretty much like the Clone stamp is the Pattern stamp, however it paints a pattern which can be chosen from the in-program patterns, or if your brave you can make your own. S

6) Eraser tools. Think of this as an eraser in real life, you can basically rub out sections from your layer. This is useful for smoothing in new bumpers into the original bodywork. The Background Eraser erases to a background colour rather than simply to the layer behind. The Magic Eraser tool erases pixels similar to the ones selected. E

7) Smudge, Blur and Sharpen tools. Smudge tool is pretty useful for distorting and dragging around part of the image. The blur tool is great for blurring sharp edges and taking away any detail, this is useful for making nice smooth edges on body kits, or airbrushed body parts. The exact opposite to this is the Sharpen tool, this makes blurred edges more sharp and increases detail. R

9) Path selection tool. Used to make shapes and selections showing anchor points and direction lines etc. A

10) Pen tool. This is an awesome very under used tool - think of it like the lasso tool, but much more smoother and less pixely. You can use it to make good selections of wheel arches and make smooth non jaggedly edges for airbrushed body kits. Other tools in this set are used to add and remove anchor points. P

11) Notes tool. With this you can add your own written or audio notes. Its a good idea to use this so you can remember to do certain tasks if you you have a bad memory like me! Just select and click on the area where you want your note to be. N

12) Hand tool. This allows the image to be move around very easily. This is great to maneuver yourself around the image from corner to corner or top to bottom. H

13) Foreground and background colours. This shows you the current foreground and background colours that you have selected. You can flip between these using the arrow on there, or revert back to default colours using the little black and white boxes on there.

14) Masking Modes. The Quick Mask mode lets you edit any selection as a mask. The mask can be modified using almost any Photoshop tool or filter. You can toggle between editing with or without the quick mask in use. Q

15) Screen Modes. This allows you view your image normal, at full screen with the menu bar, or at full screen. This is useful when working with a large image so you can see it as a whole on your monitor. F

16) ImageReady. This handy link loads up your current work in ImageReady ready to be edited. ImageReady is another package that comes with Photoshop and is ideal for making animated images from layers. I'm sure there are tutorials on Google to help you with all this. Ctrl+Shift+M

17) Move Tool. Allows you to move layers or selections about the screen. Ideal for placing and moving bodykits, wheels, etc about. V

18) Magic Wand Tool. This selects similarly coloured areas. This is great for selecting sections of colourful bodywork, vents or even alloy wheels for manipulation. W

19) Slice Tool. This creates slices in the image. When converted to ImageReady the image can as a html document, and used for website layouts and designs. Very good if you want to create a website. K

20) Brush and Pencil Tools. Brush tool is used for creating strokes of colour with smooth edges and is ideal for making soft body parts from scratch. The Pencil tool is a bit more harsher, so you can make freehand sharp edged lines of colour with it. B

21) History brushes. If you have made a bit of a mess up, providing you are on the same layer, you can brush out your mistakes to revert back to how it was originally. Y

22) Paint and gradient fill. Fill similar areas with the single foreground colour, or the gradient tool also in this toolset can be used to make seamless blends of two colours (foreground to background, as well as some built in gradient designs). G

23) Dodge, Burn and Sponge Tools. This toolset is very good, and I often use it. The Dodge tool makes the image lighter with every stroke. This is great for increasing brightness of areas and making highlights. The burn tool simply makes the image darker with every stroke, this is good for darkening area of bodywork, and creating shadows. The sponge tool can have two modes - either saturation or desaturation. So with every stroke, dependant on the mode, the image colour with either increase or decrease in intensity. O

24) Text Tools. This tool is great to add text layers to your car. You can add graphics to the side, number plates, you name it. You can change the font, size and colour too by hitting Ctrl+T while typing on the layer - this will bring up a text box. The Text Mask tool creates selections in the shape of the text. T

25) Shape tools. Create custom shapes and fill them with the foreground colour. Within this toolset is the useful line tool - a must for creating cartoon cars! U

26) Colour Sampler, Eyedropper, and Measure Tools. Colour sampler is basically a tool which displays the colour details and values on the Info Palette. The Eye Dropper tool sucks up and selects colour - this is used as the new foreground colour.. this is great for referencing colours off body panels for airbushing. The measure tool just measures lengths and angles etc. I

27) Zoom Tool. Allows you to zoom in and out to get real close for fine detailed work. There are other options such as predefined % zoom levels and also a fit on screen option to see you whole car on your monitor. Z

And that is the tool section complete. Now I'd advise to go try and familiarise yourself with the tools and have a play with them to see how they work and of how much benefit they will be to you. Open up a random car and have a play, and remember this section will always be here for reference, so you don't have to boggle your mind with too much information at once.

Tutorial by Pete Smith
Digimods Bible

How to make smooth curved lines

One of the most frequently asked questions about photoshop is “how do I make a simple, smooth curved line?”. If you’ve got a tablet, there might be other ways, but with a mouse it can seem a little tricky. The brush and pencil tools are too “jerky” so those are no good. The pen tool is the answer, but to many it’s unintuitive. So I thought I’d pass along my technique. Hopefully it’ll help someone out there.

The end goal is something like:

Nothing fancy, but nice and smooth.

I have a feeling this process is going to sound more complicated than it is. Do it once though, and it’ll be a piece of cake after that.

First, the tools we’ll use:

Take special notice of the direct select tool. There are two arrows under there. The solid black one (path selection tool) lets you move a path as a single unit. The white one (direct select tool) lets you modify a path. This is the one we want right now.

Step 1
Define what you want the line to look like. I wanted a smooth 3px line. I like the brush for such things. Choose the brush tool and have a look at it’s options, and palette:

My settings show a simple 3px brush - but you can go crazy here (and get some interesting effects ultimately).

Notice! We’re not doing anything with the brush tool - we’re just setting it up - no drawing!

Step 2
Select the Pen tool. (This is by far my favorite tool in PS). You want to draw a path (not a shape) so get your pen toolbar looking like this:

Now, create a start and end point on your canvas by clicking twice (or make a few points - whatever strikes you)

Step 3
Select the direct selection tool (the white arrow, not the black one!). Right click anywhere on your curve. From the pop-up menu choose add anchor point. This will put a point on the line. Now, (still with the same tool) click and drag that new point. This is the basis for all pen-related actions. You created an anchor point that has two handles.

You can drag the point around, as well as the handles. Mess with them a bit to see what you end up with.

Add a second (3rd, 4th whatever) anchor point and move the anchors and handles around. I ended up with this:

Step 4
Create a new blank layer:

So you’ve got a curve you like - here’s the magic part. Go to the paths palette:

There’s the path you just created, called work path. Right click on that layer and choose Stroke Path. You’ll get a pop-up box:

From there you can choose to create your stroke from any number of items (pencil, brush, healing brush etc). In step one we set up our brush the way we wanted it. So choose brush. Click Ok. It’ll look something like:

To get rid of the path line, just deselect the work path in the paths palette (click anywhere in the palette).

That’s it!

It’s worth mentioning that the final colored path was put on that new layer you created. It will not be modified by changing the path!. To change your line, delete the layer you put the stroke on, go back to your path, reshape it, then reapply the stroke. It’s easier than it sounds. In fact this whole process of creating a curved line just takes a few seconds - it just might look complicated.

Go forth and be smooth and curvy.

Creating Selections With Photoshop's Pen Tool

The Pen Tool is often used in the creation of sophisticated smooth-edged selections, but strictly speaking it is not one of the selection tools. The Pen Tool creates vector paths instead of selections; these, however, can be converted into selections that in turn can be used to extract or mask groups of pixels. The Pen Tool has an unfortunate reputation—neglected by most, considered an awkward tool by those who have made just a passing acquaintance, and revered by just a select few who have taken a little time to get to know ‘the one who sits next to Mr Blobby’ (custom shape icon) in the Tools palette. Who exactly is this little fellow with the ‘ye olde’ ink nib icon and the awkward working persona? The Pen Tool was drafted into Photoshop from Adobe Illustrator. Although graphic designers are quite adept at using this tool, many photographers the world over have been furiously waving magic wands and magnetic lassos at the megapixel army and putting graphics tablets on their shopping lists each year in an attempt to avoid recognizing the contribution that this unique tool has to offer.

Not everything you can see with your eye can be selected easily with a selection technique based on color or tonal values. The resulting ragged selections can be fixed in Quick Mask mode, but sometimes not without a great deal of effort. The question then comes down to ‘how much effort am I prepared to apply, and for how long?’ It‘s about this time that many image-editors decide to better acquaint themselves with the Pen Tool. Mastering the Pen Tool in order to harness a selection prowess known to few mortals is not something you can do in a hurry—it falls into a certain skill acquisition category, along with such things as teaching a puppy not to pee in the house, called time-based reward, i.e. investing your time over a short period of time will pay you dividends over a longer period of time. The creation of silky smooth curvaceous lines (called paths) that can then be converted into staggeringly smooth curvaceous selections makes the effort of learning the Pen Tool all worthwhile.

Basic Drawing Skills

Vector lines and shapes are constructed from geographical markers (anchor points) connected by lines or curves. Many photographers have looked with curiosity at the vector tools in Photoshop’s Tools palette for years but have dismissed them as ‘not for me’. The reason for this is that drawing vector lines with the Pen Tool for the inexperienced image-editor is like reversing with a trailer for the inexperienced driver. It takes practice, and the practice can be initially frustrating.

The pen can draw a vector shape whilst filling it with a color and applying a layer style—all at the same time. Although tempting, this has nothing to do with selecting a bald man’s head, so we must be sure to disarm this charming little function. We can also use the training wheels, otherwise known as the ‘Rubber Band’ option, by clicking on the menu options next to ‘Mr Blobby‘.

Basics Step 1 — Go to File > New and create a new blank document. Choose ‘White’ as the ‘Background Contents’. Size is not really important (no really—in this instance anything that can be zoomed to fill the screen will serve your purpose). Click on the Pen Tool (double-check the ‘Paths’ option, rather than the ‘Shape layers’ option, is selected in the Options bar) and then click and drag (hold down the mouse clicker as you drag your mouse) in the direction illustrated above. The little black square in the center of the radiating lines is called an anchor point. The lines extending either side of this anchor point are called direction lines, with a direction point on either end, and that thing waving around (courtesy of the Rubber Band option) is about to become the path with your very next click of the mouse.

Basics Step 2 — Make a second click and drag in the same direction. Notice how the dragging action modifies the shape of the previous curved line. Go to the ‘Edit’ menu and select ‘Undo’. Try clicking a second time and dragging in a different direction. Undo a third time and this time drag the direction point a different distance from the anchor point. The thing you must take with you from this second step is that a curve (sometimes referred to as a Bézier curve) is both a product of the relative position of the two anchor points either side of the curve, and the direction and length of the two direction lines (the distance and direction of the dragging action).

Basics Step 3 — Scenario one: Let us imagine that the first click and drag action has resulted in a perfect curve; the second dragging action is not required to perfect the curve but instead upsets the shape of this perfect curve—so how do we stop this from happening? Answer: Hold down the Alt key (PC) or Option key (Mac) and then drag away from the second anchor point to predict the shape of the next curve. This use of the Alt/Option key cancels the first direction line that would otherwise influence the previous curve.

Scenario two: Let us imagine that we have created the first perfect curve using two normal click and drag actions (no use of a modifier key). The direction lines that are perfecting the first curve are, however, unsuitable for the next curve—so how do we draw the next curve whilst preserving the appearance of the first curve? Answer: The last anchor point can be clicked whilst holding down the Alt/Option key. This action converts the smooth anchor point to a corner anchor point, deleting the second direction line. The next curved shape can then be created without the interference of an inappropriate direction line.

Note: The information that you need to take from this third step is that sometimes direction lines can upset adjacent curves. The technique of cancelling one of the direction lines using a modifier key makes a series of perfect curves possible. These two techniques are especially useful for converting smooth points into corner points on a path.

Basics Step 4 — Just a few more steps and we can go out to play. It is possible to change direction quickly on a path without cancelling a direction line. It is possible to alter the position of a direction line by moving the direction point (at the end of the line) independently of the direction line on the other side of the anchor point. To achieve this simply position the mouse cursor over the direction point and, again using the Alt/Option key, click and drag the direction point to a new position.

Basics Step 5 — If this path is going to be useful as a selection, it is important to return to the start point. Clicking on the start point will close the path. As you move the cursor over the start point the Pen Tool will be accompanied by a small circle to indicate that closure is about to occur. You will also notice that the final curve is influenced by the first direction line of the starting anchor point. Hold down the Alt/Option key when closing the path to cancel this first direction line. Alternatively, hold down the Alt/Option key and drag a new direction line to perfect the final curve.

Basics Step 6 — When a path has been closed it is possible to add, delete, convert or move any point. Although these additional tools are available in the Tools palette they can all be accessed without moving your mouse away from the path in progress. If the Auto Add/Delete box has been checked in the Options bar you simply have to move the Pen Tool to a section of the path and click to add an additional point (the pen cursor sprouts a plus symbol). If the Pen Tool is moved over an existing anchor point you can simply click to delete it. Holding down the Ctrl key (PC) or Command key (Mac) will enable you to access the Direct Selection Tool (this normally lives behind the Path Selection Tool). The Direct Selection Tool has a white arrow icon and can select and move a single anchor point (click and drag) or multiple points (by holding down the Shift key and clicking on subsequent points). The Path Selection Tool has to be selected from the Tools palette and is able to select the entire path.

Basics Step 7 — The final step in the creation of a Path is to save it. All Paths, even Work Paths, are saved with the image file (PSD, PDF, PSB, JPEG or TIFF). If, however, a Work Path is not active (such as when the file is closed and reopened) and then the Pen Tool is inadvertently used to draw a new Path, any previous Work Path that was not saved is deleted. Click on the Paths palette tab and then double-click the Work Path. This will bring up the option to save and name the Work Path and ensure that it cannot be deleted accidentally. To start editing an existing Path click on the path in the Paths palette and then choose either the Direct Selection Tool or the Pen Tool in the Tools palette. Click near the Path with the Direct Selection Tool to view the handles and the Path.

Photo Shop Hand Tool

Hand tool. This allows the image to be move around very easily. This is great to maneuver yourself around the image from corner to corner or top to bottom.

Navigator Palette and Hand Tool

Now that you've gotten familiar with the Photoshop interface, I'm sure you're eager to get started working with documents. Let's get right to it. In lesson one, we learned several ways to zoom in and out of documents. Now let's look at the Navigator palette and hand tool for even more ways of navigating a document. (Continued below...)

Adobe Photoshop Basics
• Read This First!
• Course Outline
• Navigator Palette & Hand Tool
• New View & Duplicate
• Image Size & Resolution
• Image Size Dialog Box

Interactive Classroom
Visit the forum to post your questions and comments.
-Get Help with Lesson 2
Printer-Friendly Page

The contents of the Graphics Software site are copyright © Sue Chastain and About.com. These pages may be printed for personal reference, but they may not be distributed or republished for any purpose without prior written permission. Please see the About.com User Agreement for more information.

First, the Navigator palette. If yours is not showing, display it now using any of the methods you learned previously.




Navigator palette

You'll also need to open a document. In the center of the Navigator palette, you'll see a small thumbnail representation of your image, surrounded by a red outline representing the visible area of your document. If your entire image is visible, the outline surrounds the entire thumbnail. If you look at the palette menu, you can choose palette options to change the color of the outline.

Below the thumbnail, we find even more controls for zooming. The text entry field lets you type in any magnification number, and the slider lets you adjust magnification up and down, and the two buttons on either side of the slider allow you to zoom in and out by set intervals.

If you move the slider all the way to the right, you'll see the maximum zoom level is 1600%. Move the slider back and forth a few times slowly and observe the red outline in the Navigator preview. As you can see, it gives you a visual clue as to what part of your image you are viewing. Click anywhere in the Navigator preview to move the focus to that area of the image. Click and drag in the preview to pan around your document. Remember, you can drag the edges of the navigator palette to change its size. The preview will increase as you increase the palette size.


Another way to pan around a document is with the Hand tool. When the hand tool is selected you can just click and drag in your document to pan the visible area. Try it now. Okay, now that you've tried it... make that the last time you ever use the Hand tool because I am going to tell you the one keyboard shortcut you will find yourself using all the time: Spacebar = Hand tool.

No matter which tool is active, the spacebar always temporarily activates the hand tool. Learn it; use it; and never look at the hand tool again. I'm not even going to bother telling you the shortcut and modifiers for the Hand tool; if you're curious, you know by now how to find that out.

At any time while working, when you need the most accurate representation of what you're working on, you should set the magnification to 100%. At any other magnification, there is going to be some level of distortion. Remember the current magnification level will always be displayed in the status bar, the navigator palette, or in the title bar of the document window.

Age Progression

Preface
I've been asked several times by different members to post a tutorial on how I age-progress a person. So, here it is!

Men and women age a little bit differently but since I've only aged female celebrities thus far, I'll just focus on women for this tutorial. I’ll be using the image of Katie Holmes that I did for a past W1K contest, as an example.

Step 1: Choosing an Appropriate Photo

When deciding to age-progress a celebrity’s face, I try to select a picture that is touched-up as little as possible.

I find that candid shots, or any shots that have not been taken in a studio, work best because the resulting harsh lighting reveals more of the skin’s details i.e. slight bags under the eyes and faint wrinkles. The appearance of such details makes it all that much easier to visualize how your subject will age. Visualizing what the end result will look like brings you one step closer to aging her face realistically.

In Katie’s case, we can see very faint horizontal lines on her forehead, fairly obvious lines under her eyes and lines bracketing her mouth.

Step 2: Collecting Reference Material

Reference material is key in my method of aging. Keeping Katie’s face in mind, I scoured the Web, looking for faces of old women who either resemble Katie and/or share the same facial expression. Here, Katie is smiling with her face positioned at a 3/4 angle so I tried to gather as many pictures of old women who are smiling in the same manner or close to that. I then opened up the picture of Katie in Photoshop and pasted the found images around her face on a separate layer, spread out to provide easy visual access

Another kind of reference I like to use but is usually hard to find, is pictures of the subject’s parents. I managed to find a couple of reference pictures of Katie’s mother online and they really helped me to decide whether or not to give Katie a double chin. Since her mom has quite a bit of mass under her chin, I decided I would apply that to Katie too.

Step 3: Thinning Brows

Now the fun begins! The first thing I like to do is to thin out the subject’s eyebrows and eyelashes. The older people get, the thinner their hair gets - either because hair falls out and/or because it dries out as it greys.

Step 4: Mold the Face

Next, I like to add the basic sags to the skin. I do this in the Liquify mode. I tried to create sagging effects to the cheeks, jowls and the cliff just above the eyes by using the Push tool. For the eyes, I tried to be subtle; otherwise she may end up looking somewhat ghoulish.

From what I’ve learned about the aging process, I know that while bones cease to grow, and in fact shrink, cartilage does continue to grow. As a result, the end of a nose may appear larger as a person grows older. So while I was still in the Liquify mode, I used the Push tool to extend the length of the nose slightly. Then I used the Bloat tool to also enlarge it slightly, being careful not lose the essential quality or character of the nose. Go too far and it may not look like Katie anymore.

Step 5: The Aforementioned Double Chin

Based on her mother’s pictures, I then added a fairly massive double chin. I initially used the Airbrush tool with some fairly broad strokes, sampling the colors that were already in the area of her neck. I then worked in the details with a finer brush size. Also, keep in mind that I was also using the other reference photos of older women to guide me.

Step 6: Wrinkle Up the Eyes

For me, the most important parts to get right are the eyes. They can make or break the project. Done wrong and the picture may no longer be identifiable as one of Katie Holmes anymore. I sought out the fine lines around the eyes and I tried to imagine how they would progress into wrinkles. I then extended them in length and width accordingly. Referencing the pictures of old women helped a lot with this step.

I used a combination of the Stamp tool and Brush tool. I wish I could explain my technique at this point in a more clinical manner but mostly I relied on my artistic instincts. I emphasized the wrinkles around the eyes by widening and deepening the lines slightly and increasing the contrast by darkening the recesses and lightening the edges. Also, I extended wrinkles to the cheekbone areas. I then applied the same technique to the wrinkles around the mouth and to the forehead.

Step 6: Reducing the Lips

In this step, I work on the lips. As people grow older, the outline of the lips tends to recede. Using the Stamp tool, I sampled the skin surrounding the lips and thinned them out.

While I was at it, I also added a few vertical wrinkles above the lips to give her a bit of a "prune" effect. We just want a hint of that, so don’t carve out deep lines; deep lines would only be necessary if she was puckering her lips.

Step 7: Planning Out More Wrinkles

Here, on a separate layer, I faintly outlined or sketched, with a relatively thin brush size, areas that I may or may not add more lines and wrinkles to. It’s easy to get carried away with the addition of wrinkles. So, I stopped, took a step back and assessed where to take to image. For me, it's essential and a great test to see what best works.

Step 8: Touching Up the Wrinkles

Based on the previous step, I added wrinkles where I thought they were needed most.

Overall, I found that the wrinkles and lines seemed a little flat in comparison to the rest of Katie’s features. They needed more definition so that they could pop out more. So, I highlighted the raised edges of the individual lines with the Brush tool and with a lighter skin tone.

Step 9: Hairy Lips

Facial hair becomes an issue with most women as they age. For some strange reason they lose it in the brow area and grow it back around the mouth area. I didn’t want Katie to be the exception so with a very fine brush size and the Brush tool, I added hairs to her upper lip.

I tried to make it as subtle as possible. Hairs too thick or dark would draw the viewer’s attention straight to her mustache and I didn’t want that. I also added more wrinkles to the area below the corners of her mouth.

Step 10: Refining the Neck

I decided that the neck was too smooth for a woman of 75 years of age. So I added finer wrinkles to that area. Also, I added more mass and weight to her jowls with the airbrush by increasing the value of the tones in those areas thus creating more contrast between surface planes.

Step 11: Adding Age Spots

A key component to effective aging of a face is the addition of age spots.

So at this point, I sampled one of the darker skin tones on her face, and on a separate layer that was set to Multiply and 30% opacity, I brushed them in and tried to create irregular shapes (there IS no perfect age spot). You can add as many as you like; the amount varies from person to person. I decided to be conservative with Katie.

Step 12: More Refinements

I took a little break from it and came back to it later to possibly get a better perspective on it. When I looked at it, at this point, I decided that certain areas needed refining and added detail. This is the beauty of working with a high-resolution file; I can zoom in real close and deal with a wrinkle up-close and personal.

Unless their teeth were subjected to regular whitening, most people’s teeth yellow with age. Gums also recede, showing less gum and more bone. And so with that in mind, I sampled a yellowish-brown color and on a new layer that was set to Multiply and 30% opacity and painted that color to the teeth with the Brush tool. Her gums didn’t show to begin with, so receding the gums here wasn’t necessary.

Step 13: Preparing the Hair

The finishing touch here is greying the hair. I began by creating a mask defining the area of the hair. I used the brush for this and tried my best to define as many loose strands of hair that I could.

With this mask as a selection, I then created a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and reduced the saturation to–63.

I then created a new adjustment layer based on the same mask and adjusted the Brightness/Contrast to brightness +9 and contrast –36. As a result, I found that the darker areas were too pale and caused a loss of depth and so to adjust that, I then selected the mask and scratched out the darker areas with a 5px brush size at 50% opacity so that they could show through from the original image.

Step 14: Hair Raising

The next step was to raise the hairline and thin out the hair. Hair loss is common with both sexes.

I sampled the area at the top of the forehead and extended the skin area above the original hairline.

Step 15: Greying the Hair

A lot of details of the hair were lost in the previous step so with a thin brush size at 80 percent opacity I drew in fine grey hairs, sparsely laid out.

Patiently, slowly, stroke by stroke I added more and more hairs until I was happy with the amount of grey I had added.

Step 16: Finishing Touches

Finally, I took a step back, refined a few wrinkles here and there ET VOILA!

I hope this tutorial was insightful. It may not be the most technically detailed tutorial but it gives you a good idea of the process I go through to get the job done. Hopefully, it will help you create your own trophy-winning images for future Fountain of Age contests!

Photoshop CS3 for Nature Photographers

The new edition of this practical guide, master photographer Ellen Anon and digital-imaging expert Tim Grey show you how to capture the beauty of nature by shooting the best possible photos from the start—and then getting the most out of your images at your desktop. You'll fing eye-opening techniques, workflow ideas, and terrific Photoshop tools, plis a host of valuable tips and stunning examples from some of the most esteemed professional nature photographers working today, including Michael Reichmann, John Shaw, Darrel Gulin, and Joe McDonald.










* Capture clouds, mooms, and other elements to composite later
* Wield new Photoshop CS3 tools such as Smart Filters, Quick Selection, and Refine Edges
* Master the revamped Adobe Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw
* Adjust color and exposure to fine-tune detail and capture mood
* Build montages, multiple exposures, and composites
* Prepare and sharpen your images for print on the Web

Download link