The colors of grey...

The above image is from an original by....titled....I did some retouch work explained in the first comment of the photo if you click it. I then wanted to do a greyscale conversion. Normally when you simply the conversion it can appear flat and lacking contrsast. Boosting te contrast in different ways can often deteriorate the subtle ones.

One way tat can help a great deal with your conversion is to add a layer of colored light above it. In photo shop you simply creat a new layer and fill it with an appropriate shade. See this example below...


The first image is the full color version, then a straight greyscale conversion fr testing. The foue other images have cyan, red, green and then blue layrs added respectively. In each instance that color layer was applied as "soft light" blending mode. The colors gained are only fr the aid in the greyscale conversion. Once a simple conversion is applied to the ccolored variants, they react in different ways...





Other colors could be used also, but thee example is to give you an idea of how helpful it can be to filter light through your colored original. It is the same way an enlarge head dials in hues and tones. By making the adjustment to te light, you retain all of he details in the original. You can further contrast a touch, but you will have better details to begin with.


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Deanna Cremin Memorial Foundation | Recent Uploads



flickr HiveMind | MotherChildSeries
http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/MotherChildSeries
flickr HiveMind | 4Deanna(recent uploads)
http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/4Deanna/Recent

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Shine on ruby2sday...

I will buy you a garden, where your flowers can bloom...

I will buy you a new car all shiny and new...

...Yes, I will.

 The Mustang in the photo above has the headlights turned on by using one of the light modes in Photoshop. That one was the lens flare, and I just had the lens portion of the headlight selected when applied. It makes it appear they were on for the photo. Often times you have to add light back into a photo for one reason or another. The second photo uses the Multiply and Soft light layer options to help with the sky and overal lighting. There are always descriptions of the work when you click on the photo. It will take you to flickr where the steps I used are int eh comments.
 The next photo below, as well as the first photo in the blog, were completely reworked and the background only had new lighting applied with the Lighting Effects Filter.

 Using the Lighting Effects Filter will allow you to recreate many theatrical lighting scenarios. It is a powerful feature that definitely takes time to learn well, but there are many things that can be done simply, and right off the bat. The image below had some symmetrical things fixed, and then I I isolated the lamp portion. I copied this to a new layer, and then relit the background on the layer below with a Radial style light, and centered to the lamp...





That Jade CD design is also done with fairly simple lighting effect. I almost always isolate the subject somehow and the apply lighting differently to the foreground and background. That technique will add more depth to your shot and make it look natural too. Here are a couple screen caps that have more info on the filter:

Those two screen examples use a spotlight, which is a litle more difficult to understand. There will be another blog on just that one light as it invlovles the understanding of planes and ellipses. Start with something simple like the Lamp with the Blue sky.

Deanna Cremin Memorial Foundation | Recent Uploads

flickr HiveMind | 4Deanna(recent uploads)
http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/4Deanna/Recent
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Stairway to Heaven GrfxDziner.com
| Articles on Deanna Cremin... Somerville, MA

greenRoom…

Peta Evans-Taylor | Hold On imagery/editing from gwennie2006 • YouTube™ Used with permission from Peta's Out of the Darkness CD.


Often times you can add some texture through additional layers, and especially when the original photograph is shot with some sort of texture behind it. In greenRoom I applied several layers and all blended into the previous layer beneath it with a light blending mode,

such as screen, multiply, etc. I did select the subject first and used the Pen Tool to get the most accurate edge. It is also quite qwick with the Pen Tool and completely editable if you need to tweak it some.
 Following are a couple other pieces from the Deanna Cremin Memorial Foundation as well as a few pages from the introducttion to the Power of Art, from gwennie2006...





Automatic Download of 8-Page tutorial in .PDF format:
Introduction | the Power of Art | 44 MB PDF file • GrfxDziner.com


For some similar techniques for a different style of textured, you can have a look at these examples. Each is much better explained in the blog written about each of the edits. The indivisual blog links are below the images...

Check out these blogs too from the
Deanna Cremin Memorial Foundation:
GrfxDziner.com | Texturized • Cabin Fever…
GrfxDziner.com | GoldiLoches • Out of the Woods…




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Deanna Cremin Memorial Foundation | Recent Uploads

~Candlelight Vigil~ Deanna Cremin
Investigator/Reporter - Bob Ward
My Fox Boston | Fox25 News - Monday, March 29, 2010



flickr HiveMind | MotherChildSeries
http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/MotherChildSeries
flickr HiveMind | 4Deanna(recent uploads)
http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/4Deanna/Recent

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Stairway to Heaven GrfxDziner.com
| Articles on Deanna Cremin... Somerville, MA

Isis • Goddess of MotherHood

flickr HiveMind | 4 Deanna
Brightness | Is the same Light as to Sound.
Wikipedia | Isis...Egyptian Goddess of maturnity; fertility & nature.



Here is also a link to another edit...and a portion of the editing description. Just click an edit to see the full description....
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Whenever I work on jewelry it is important to try and sparkle the stones and metal some more than what the original photograph offers. Because of the angle of the light to the angle of the gem stones, some are much less brilliant than others. This can be easily adjusted with layers and having them applied as "Screen" blending mode. For the first layer that we will label Diamonds, I will also be using a Layer Mask. To start, I duplicate the Original Background layer, and name it Diamonds...


Then, chose a Layer Mask from the Lyer drop down menu. You see we have two choices, Reveal All and Hide All. Reveal all will give you a white mask, and you paint in black to cover what you do not want to show. Hide All gives you a black mask and you paint in white to reveal the portions you want.


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I ended up using the Hide All option, and you see the Layer Mask is all black. Reveal All gives you an all white mask to begin. Then select the layer and apply it as "Screen" blending mode.


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I then added several more layers. One for the Rubys, another for the Emeralds, etc. I eneded up with many layers on this edit, so having them named was helpful.

I only had a Layer Mask for the Diamonds one, because I included some definition of the gold work too. The other gem stone layers were applied as "Screen" blending and I used very light tones of the color to paint with. A pale pink for the Rubys, and a pale bright green for the Emeralds. I also duplicated the layers once they were done and applied the duplicates as "Soft Light" blending mode and a little stronger opacity. This punched up the contrast, and gave the gems more brilliance.



Thank you so very much for letting me work on this stunning photograph of this magnificent woman and her jewels. I hope you find my effort worthy of her.




~Candlelight Vigil~ Deanna Cremin
Investigator/Reporter - Bob Ward
My Fox Boston | Fox25 News - Monday, March 29, 2010



check out this blog too from the
Deanna Cremin Memorial Foundation:
GrfxDziner.com | Fade to Black...
http://GrfxDziner.blogspot.com/2010/02/fade-to-black.html

flickr HiveMind | MotherChildSeries
http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/MotherChildSeries
flickr HiveMind | 4Deanna(recent uploads)
http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/4Deanna/Recent

...and also...
Fields of Gold...
GrfxDziner.com | Blogger GrfxDziner:
http://GrfxDziner.blogspot.com/2009/05/fields-of-gold.html




Deanna Cremin Memorial Foundation | Recent Uploads
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Stairway to Heaven GrfxDziner.com
| Articles on Deanna Cremin... Somerville, MA