ptg Chapter 10 Special Effects for Photographers 281 The name of this chapter comes from the 2009 movie short Side Effects (it’s less than 20 minutes long, which is probably why you can buy it for only $1.99 in the iTunes Store. It’s either that, or it’s so cheap because of its lack of zombies). Anyway, here’s how they describe Side Effects (say this in your best movie voice-over guy voice): “An ordi- nary guy becomes a human guinea pig in an experimental drug test and meets the girl of his dreams…” Sounds like a pretty typical everyday story. At least the human guinea pig in an experimental drug test part. Anyway, I looked at the movie poster, and the guys in the poster all have this creepy-looking bluish/green color cast that makes them look kind of sickly, but then the female lead’s photo looks fine, with regular-looking flesh tones, and that’s when I realized why this guy thinks he’s found the woman of his dreams. She doesn’t have a creepy bluish/green color cast. I mean, think about it. If all the girls around you had a serious white balance problem, and then all of sudden you meet a girl carrying around her own 18% gray card, and so she looks correctly color balanced in any lighting situation, wouldn’t you fall in love with her, too? Exactly. I’ll bet in the last 10 minutes of the movie, you find out that this guy actually starts an online business for people using dating sites like eHarmony, or Match.com, or HandsomeStalker .com, where he offers to remove bluish/green color casts from your profile photo for a price. Things are going pretty well for him for a while, but then in about the eighteenth minute, the experimental drug wears off, and he finds himself trapped in a dank, dimly-lit room, forced to write nonsensical chapter intros late into the night, until his wife comes in and says “Honey, come to bed,” but right then, he notices she has a bluish/green color cast, and…. Side Effects special effects for photographers Download from www.wowebook.com ptg The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers 282 Chapter 10 Special Effects for Photographers Step One: This technique works best on photos that are kind of flat and drab. If you apply this to an already colorful photo, it will pretty much take the color right over the top, so choose an appropriate photo whose color needs some serious pumping up (I’m going to totally resist the urge to use a Saturday Night Live reference, like “We’re here to pump— you—up!” Oh rats, I just did it, didn’t I? My bad). Step Two: This is a Lab color move, so go under the Image menu, under Mode, and choose Lab Color (as shown here). This is a totally non-destructive move (moving from RGB to Lab color and back), so don’t hesitate to jump over there whenever you feel the need. Punching Up Drab Colors Using Lab Color Okay, so why isn’t this in the color correction chapter? It’s because this isn’t color correction. We’re not trying to make colors look as they did, we’re punching up the colors big time so they look better, more vibrant, and more contrasty than the scene really looked when the shot was taken. It’s totally a color effect and what you’re about to learn is a much simplified version of a Lab color technique I learned from Dan Margulis, master of all things color. The full-blown technique is found in Dan’s amazing book Photoshop LAB Color. SCOTT KELBY Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 283Chapter 10Special Effects for Photographers Continued The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers Step Three: There’s no need to head over to the Channels panel, because you’re going to be doing your work in the Apply Image dialog. So, go under the Image menu and choose Apply Image. Now, before we start working in Apply Image, here’s a little background: You know how we have layer blend modes (like Multiply, Screen, Overlay, etc.)? Well, in the Channels panel, there is no channel blend mode pop-up menu like there is for layers in the Layers panel, so to get channels to blend using blend modes, you use Apply Image to apply a channel to itself. When the Apply Image dialog appears, by default the blend mode is set to Multiply (which always seems too dark), so to get to the starting place for our effect, change the Blending pop-up menu to Overlay, as shown here. As you can see, it looks pretty sweet! If anything, Overlay mode may make your photo look too vivid and contrasty, but we’ll deal with that soon. Step Four: The nice thing about using Apply Image is that you get at least three different “looks,” and you simply have to choose which one looks best to you (they look different depending on the photo, so you have to try all three). By default, you’re seeing the full Lab color channel (that’s seen back in Step Three), so once you’ve seen that channel, then click on the Channel pop-up menu and choose “a” (as shown here) to see how the “a” channel looks blended with an invisible copy of itself in Overlay mode. It cer- tainly looks better than the original, but I don’t think it looks as good as the Lab channel did in Step Three. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 284 Chapter 10 Special Effects for Photographers The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers Step Five: Now try the “b” channel by choosing “b” from the Channel pop-up menu (as shown here). This channel usually adds more yellow and warm tones to the photo (as seen in the example here). In fact, if you want to make an outdoor scene instantly look like a fall color scene somewhere in the Northeast, convert to Lab Color mode, choose Apply Image, switch to Overlay mode, and simply choose the “b” channel—voilá—instant fall colors. Now, back to our project: in the example shown here, it’s very yellowish, and if you like that look—you’re done— just click OK. If not, continue on with me. Step Six: So far, you’ve seen the photo blending in Overlay mode (which is a pretty punchy mode), using the Lab channel, the “a” channel, and the “b” channel. Personally, I like the Lab channel by far, and if you feel it’s the best of the three, but think it might actually be a little too “punchy,” then change the Blending pop-up menu to Soft Light (as shown here). This is a more mellow mode than Overlay (how’s that for a New Age explanation), and if Overlay is too intense for you, you’ll probably love Soft Light. I don’t mind admitting that I probably use Soft Light more than Overlay. It’s probably from burning incense and sitting in the Lotus position (by the way, I have no idea what the Lotus position is, but it sounds painful). Download from www.wowebook.com ptg Before After (using the Lab channel in Overlay mode at 80%—no Curves, no Levels, no nuthin’) 285Chapter 10Special Effects for Photographers The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers Step Seven: There is another way to go if you think Overlay is too intense, and that’s to use the volume knob. Well, I call it the volume knob, but it’s actually the Opacity amount (which appears just below the Blending pop-up menu). The lower the opacity, the lower the amount of the effect. In the example shown here, I switched back to the Lab channel, chose Overlay in the Blending pop-up menu, but then lowered the Opacity to 80%. The After photo below was done using those same exact settings. TIP: Creating an Action This Apply Image trick is a great thing to record as an action. But once you create it, go to the Actions panel and click in the second column, beside the words “Apply Image” (a dialog icon will appear), and then when you run the action, the Apply Image dialog will appear onscreen for you to try your three choices. Once you make your choice, click OK, and the action will continue, and will convert you back to RGB. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers 286 Chapter 10 Special Effects for Photographers Step One: Open the photo you want to apply this trendy high-contrast portrait effect to. Duplicate the Background layer by press ing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Then duplicate this layer using the same short- cut (so you have three layers in all, which all look the same, as shown here). Step Two: In the Layers panel, click on the middle layer (Layer 1) to make it the active layer, then press Command-Shift-U (PC: Ctrl- Shift-U) to Desaturate and remove all the color from that layer. Of course, there’s still a color photo on the top of the layer stack, so you won’t see anything change onscreen (you’ll still see your color photo), but if you look in the Layers panel, you’ll see the thumb- nail for the center layer is in black and white (as seen here). Trendy Desaturated Portrait Look This is just about the hottest Photoshop portrait technique out there right now, and you see it popping up everywhere, from covers of magazines to CD covers, from print ads to Hollywood movie posters, and from editorial images to billboards. It seems right now everybody wants this effect (and you’re about to be able to deliver it in roughly 60 seconds flat using the simplified method shown here!). SCOTT KELBY Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 287Chapter 10Special Effects for Photographers Continued The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers Step Three: In the Layers panel, click on the top layer in the stack (Layer 1 copy), then switch its layer blend mode from Normal to Soft Light (as shown here), which brings the effect into play. Now, Soft Light brings a very nice, subtle version of the effect, but if you want something a bit edgier with even more contrast, try using Overlay mode instead. If the Overlay version is a bit too intense, try lowering the Opacity of the layer a bit until it looks good to you. Step Four: Fairly often, you’ll find that the person’s eyes really stand out when you see this effect, and that’s usually because it brings the original eye color and intensity back (this is an optional step, but if your subject has blue or green eyes, it’s usually worth the extra 15 seconds of effort). It’s just two quick steps: Start by clicking on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Then get the Brush tool (B), choose a small, soft-edged brush from the Brush Picker up in the Options Bar, press X to set your Fore ground color to black, and paint right over both eyes (not the whites of the eyes—just the irises and the pupils). This will seem kind of weird, because since you knocked a hole out of the eyes on this layer, you’re now only see ing the eyes on the B&W layer below it, but you’re going to fix that in the next step. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 288 Chapter 10 Special Effects for Photographers The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers Step Five: To knock the exact same hole out of the B&W layer (which means there will be “eye holes” knocked out of the top two layers, so you’ll see the original eyes from the Background layer), just press-and- hold the Option (PC: Alt) key, click directly on the layer mask thumbnail itself on the top layer, and drag it to the middle layer. This puts an exact copy of the top layer’s layer mask on your middle layer (as shown here). Now you’re seeing the original full-color unretouched eyes from the Background layer. Pretty neat little trick, eh? Step Six: Now flatten the image by choosing Flat- ten Image from the Layers panel’s fly out menu. The final step is to add some noise, so go under the Filter menu, under Noise, and choose Add Noise. When the Add Noise filter dialog appears (seen here), set the Distribution to Gaussian, and turn on the Monochro matic checkbox (otherwise, your noise will appear as little red, green, and blue specks, which looks really lame). Lastly, dial in an amount of noise that while visible, isn’t overly noisy. I’m work- ing on a very low-resolution version, so I only used 4%, but on a high-res digital camera photo, you’ll probably have to use between 10% and 12% to see much of anything. You can see the before/after at the top of the next page. Beyond that, I gave you some other examples of how this effect looks on other portraits. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg Before After 289Chapter 10Special Effects for Photographers Continued The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers Step Seven: Here’s another example using the exact same technique, and you can see how different the effect looks on a completely different image. I particularly love the almost bronze skin tone it creates in this image. Very cool stuff. Turn the page for more examples. TIP: Don’t Add Too Much Noise Be careful not to add too much noise, because when you add an Un sharp Mask to the image (which you would do at the very end, right before you save the file), it enhances and brings out any noise (intentional or otherwise) in the photo. ANOTHER TIP: Background Only I once saw this effect used in a motor- cycle print ad. They applied the effect to the background, and then masked (knocked out) the bike so it was in full color. It really looked very slick (almost eerie in a cool eerie way). Before After Download from www.wowebook.com ptg Before After 290 Chapter 10 Special Effects for Photographers The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers Step Eight: Here’s the same technique applied to a photo of a woman, however I didn’t knock out the eyes because her eye color was pretty subtle. Instead I lowered the Brush tool’s opacity to 50% and painted over her lips on the top layer, then copied that layer mask down to the B&W layer (just like before with the eyes—same technique with the mask). Without doing that, her lips looked pretty cold, and this way the subtle 50% pink looks right with the rest of the photo. TIP: Vary the Opacity Here are a couple of variations you can try with this effect: If the effect seems too subtle when you first apply it, of course you could try Overlay mode as I mentioned earlier, but before you try that, try duplicating the Soft Light layer once and watch how that pumps up the effect. Of course, you can lower the opac- ity of that layer if it’s too much. Another trick to try is to lower the opacity of the original Soft Light layer to 70%, which brings back some color with almost a tinting effect. Give it a shot and see what you think. One last thing: wouldn’t this be a great effect to apply as an action? Oh yeah—that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout! Download from www.wowebook.com . Effects special effects for photographers Download from www.wowebook.com ptg The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers 282 Chapter 10 Special Effects for Photographers Step One: This. 10Special Effects for Photographers The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers Step Seven: There is another way to go if you think Overlay is too intense, and that’s to use the volume. 10 Special Effects for Photographers The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers Step Five: To knock the exact same hole out of the B&W layer (which means there will be “eye