Photoshop Top 40: The Contest

Nothing is real but the model. All else, including the ears and tail, was rendered in Maya / Maxwell and assembled in Photoshop. The 3D models for both signs relied heavily on curves derived from the pen tool. Refine edge controls the compositing, and hue/saturation and curves control the color of the model as she is integrated with a warmly-lit environment. Smart objects are essential for finessing the lineup of the model with her background without degrading the image every time I change my mind. The Pussycat Theater is a now defunct chain of XXX theaters. I wanted to create something with a swinging 60's/70's retro feeling. I do not shoot process screen to extract the model. I lift her out of her environment using my deke-taught 'layers' superpowers that I learned at lynda.com - I use the pen tool a lot. I don't extract hair carefully very often. I usually cut it crudely and rebuild it strand by strand with stroked pen curves, which I copy and build up by holding the alt key on a PC and moving them around. It's easier and faster than it sounds. For high-res, click here. Here's the original photo from 2006 (as I said, it was never shot to be comped; that idea came years later). It includes the model's blue denim shorts before I turned them brown with shiny metallic gold threads (thank you Photoshop). ---- Feature 37, The Fill Functions Feature 36, Black & White Feature 35, Refine Edge Feature 34, Save for Web Feature 32, The Pen Tool Feature 31, The Brush Tool Feature 28, Hue/Saturation Feature 27, The Crop Tool Feature 25, Selection Calculations Feature 24, Curves Feature 23, Color Range Feature 22, The Healing Brush Feature 21, The Gradient Tool Feature 20, Free Transform Feature 19, Luminance Blending Feature 18, Smart Objects

This is actually a pano. The problem: once the two images had been through Camera Raw and stitched, create a good sharpen to bring out the amazing texture of the mountain without accentuating the noise in the blue channel and without leaving any obvious halo at the edge of the mountain. So... #23: Select>Color Range to isolate the sky, invert the selection, leaving the hard edge in place. Into Quickmask and brush out the cloud with a large, soft-edge brush on the mask. Out of Quickmask, copy the selected mountain to its own layer (Ctrl-J). Filter>High Pass on the new layer, picking a good radius. Change the blend mode to overlay and Ctrl-U to desaturate (to avoid any color halos). Downshift (double de-clutch, of course -- no stripped gears in my copy of Photoshop) into 8-bit mode and save the jpeg. (Click the image for high-res.)

Hello, This is my 4th entry and there may be one more (or 2 maybe) Dynamite is a fictional 50s retro muscle car. I really wanted to get my head around creating cars..transport and so on. Using the pen tool and smart objects (like all of my work) i created a fictional 1950s American Muscle car.. Most of the tools in the top 40 were actually used...and for the first time in my entry's i actually used the type tool lol! woop! Liquify was actually handy..not to destroy my pic, but to tweak parts of the car very carefully...with a feather touch..it works great..this is how i mostly use liquify..just gently..subtly. A very very subtle gradient was used for a bit of texture..this can be seen best on the go faster stripe on the side.. Once again smart object was the best tool of all..in my opinion one of the most handy tools i use..getting used to using it with the new version of PScs4 needed a bit of getting used to now its a vital tool in my creative armory! :) Crop tool was used to cut the image down to size..Actions was used to store some effects for further car creation...save for web was used to save it as a .PNG (it seems to compress better in save-for-web rather than just save as..which is nice) and brush tool was used mainly to give the bodywork a bit of weight and texture..thou like all good use of these tools..it was only used subtlety. (Click the image for high-res.)

Hey to all !!! I will explain in a couple of lines what features I have used and what was in my mind when I made this composition. First I took my bike and my camera in a fall weekend to make some shots. I was thinking that it is autumn, all nature is covered in gold color and it`s should be interesting stuff to shot. I have traveled all day in search of ‘something special till I got bored of taking pictures that i didn`t like anymore. I came back home to see on my computer how the shots are looking and I have to be honest, I was disappointed and I left them on my hard drive since it is so spacious. One day I thought maybe I can try to make a composition blending some shots, so I have looked at all pictures that I have shot that day and I tried to make a composition and I decided to name it Autumn. I have used three shots one of a leaf one of a duck and one of sunset Futures I have used: Feature 23, Color Range -->for masking Feature 31, The Brush Tool --> to paint inside of mask Feature 28, Hue/Saturation --> for changing colors and desaturation Feature 27, The Crop Tool -->for croping images to square shape Feature 21, The Gradient Tool--> used for knockout layer Feature 34, Save for Web--> final to post it on the web For high-res, click here. Here are the layers from Autumn composition. And here are the base images.

Cross This Line (Click the image for high-res.) Used tools: Feature 38, Vector-Based Type Feature 37, The Fill Functions Feature 36, Black & White Feature 34, Save for Web Feature 32, The Pen Tool Feature 31, The Brush Tool Feature 29, Liquify Feature 28, Hue/Saturation Feature 26, Dodge and Burn (with layers) Feature 24, Curves Feature 21, The Gradient Tool Feature 20, Free Transform Feature 18, Smart Objects and much more Best regards from Austria Martin --- http://blog.martindoersch.at

Hi, due to the bad weather over Europe, this year Santa's delivery will be delayed. In any case, this one is compiled from my photos, and two scans, taken with different cameras at different places. As usually with this kind of work, a lot of PS features were used : cropping, distorting, color balance, healing brushes, dodge and burn, channel masking, luminace and layers blending, even some calculations were employed, but only for the sake of seriousness ( you know, when you say I use calculations, this sounds very heavy, serious and even dangerous ). In any case, hope that everyone will get something from Santa's bag. Wish you merry Xmas and happy photoshopping during next year. (Click the image for high-res.) Cheers, dalmar

I made this piece out of 8 photos I/friends took. (Click the image for high-res.) These are the features I used: Feature 37, The Fill Functions Feature 35, Refine Edge Feature 34, Save for Web Feature 32, The Pen Tool Feature 31, The Brush Tool Feature 30, Actions Feature 28, Hue/Saturation Feature 27, The Crop Tool Feature 24, Curves Feature 20, Free Transform

(Click the image for high-res.) This was painted completely in Photoshop CS4 from stock photographic references. Model/Stock Artist: http://neriah-stock.deviantart.com/ Stock References: http://neriah-stock.deviantart.com/art/Me-Standing-Around-97493107 http://neriah-stock.deviantart.com/art/Lost-Shoe-Due-to-Squirrel-82387768 http://neriah-stock.deviantart.com/art/sortofnotreallysideview-79319990 http://neriah-stock.deviantart.com/art/Much-Standing-79319295 I used the following Top 40 Features to assemble and compose my master reference (not shown): Feature 36, Black & White Feature 33, Calculations Feature 26, Dodge and Burn Feature 24, Curves Feature 18, Smart Objects These features were used in combinations to mask the figures out of the stock photos, assemble them into a composition (i.e. as smart objects), and posterize them into black and white (no gray tones). Once I had this black and white collage to reference, I painted the black and white image above, following the reference reasonably closely. Once the black and white inking was done, I threw on a texture, and some simulated markers for a touch of color. I used the following Top 40 Features for the painting itself: Feature 34, Save for Web : Thanks, Deke, I never knew you could adjust the size in the dialog for Save for Web! Feature 31, The Brush Tool: My ink and marker brushes rely on the brush engine; Feature 29, Liquify: helps me when quick fixes are needed, especially painting faces, schmering noses around to get just the right look, etc.; Feature 27, The Crop Tool; Thanks, Deke, now I know to hide, rather than trash the pixels outside my crop! Feature 20, Free Transform: another way I can fix quickly when I accidentally paint someone's head too large or on a bad angle--Thanks, Deke, I never knew holding down control/command would allow me to move individual corner points in free transform!

Hi, here are the features i've used for my picture (at least, from what's already known about the top 40); may i add that i also used tip 40 reset and purge (prove me wrong on that one) : Feature 36, Black & White Feature 33, Calculations Feature 31, The Brush Tool Feature 29, Liquify Feature 28, Hue/Saturation Feature 27, The Crop Tool Feature 25, Selection Calculations Feature 24, Curves Feature 23, Color Range Feature 22, The Healing Brush Feature 21, The Gradient Tool Feature 20, Free Transform i was thinking about this wonderful movie "dancer in the dark" (wonderful, but insanely sad, even more than that movie with Rick Schroeder, John Voight and Faye Dunaway...), and so i wanted to show a dancer in the dark, but i also wanted to show her dancing into the light, so... ...here it is : (Click the image for high-res.) cheers from Paris, France, where it's almost 3AM (which kinda is my cue to go to bed...). Carmina One PS/ by the way, happy hannucah, merry xmas and a schmappy new year...

The original photograph is from Eirian Stock and i found it on google. My entry: (Click the image for high-res.) What I used for this design from the videos: The Pen tool Gradients Hue Saturation Dodge & Burn and a little of liquify and many others that haven't been mentioned yet.

You can view my entry at: For high-res, click here. I used many Photoshop features to create this artwork, including: Feature 38, Vector-Based Type Feature 37, The Fill Functions Feature 32, The Pen Tool Feature 31, The Brush Tool Feature 28, Hue/Saturation Feature 26, Dodge and Burn Feature 24, Curves Feature 21, The Gradient Tool Feature 20, Free Transform Feature 19, Luminance Blending My thoughts were to create a fun holiday card. Best holiday wishes to all!

Peace_HoPE 2007 Holiday card anticipating the coming election. When printed, one of these was flipped so it would stand up, folded. PEACE---> The shapes were designed in Illustrator, just type and embellishments in b&w. I took the electronic file to a copy facility and enlarged and printed it to about 8 feet long. It was important for each letter to be of a sufficient scale that I could wrap each in a satin fabric, without being overwhelmed by the fabric. Each of the letters were then transferred and cut out as large fome core shapes, and individually wrapped in gold satin material. Then I went to a Florist, bought a bunch of green, bendable Curly Willow, and a few other plants, formed them into braids like rope, and painstakingly wired them onto the fome core enlargement template to create the typographic embellishments. All pieces were photographed separately, and composited in Photoshop. HOPE---> Much more graphic . . . wanted it to employ a rainbow of color and I LOVE type. This was a decidedly less digital approach than much of my work, but cloning, healing, dodge & burn, free transform, smart objects are part of every image I create. For high-res, click here. *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:* M i c h a e l B R U N S f e l d

dekeLine 100% created in Illustrator and Photoshop. (Click the image for high-res.) I wanted to create something entirely from scratch. So I started with Illustrator and brought the vectors as vector smart object to Photoshop. And there the magic begun... Best regards from Austria Martin --- http://blog.martindoersch.at