Tuesday Tutorial: Retouching Photos of People in Photoshop

A few days ago I discovered this great blog called Kirsten Learns.  It's all about this girl named Kirsten and how she's learning to do things.  One of the things she's learning to do is edit photos with Photoshop.  She wrote a post with some photos she's edited and the tutorials she used to edit them.  She wasn't pleased with how the final photo of herself turned out, so since I like editing photos and haven't tried making a Photoshop tutorial yet, I decided to see if I could come up with a good edit of her photo and write a tutorial for how to do it.  I asked her for permission to edit her photo and post it and the tutorial on my blog and she said that I  definitely could, so here we go.

Here is the original photo.

It's not bad, a bit underexposed, but nothing too hard to fix.

So here's what I did, step by step.  (If you would like me to clarify any of the steps let me know in the comments and I'll add a screenshot of that step.)

1.  Adjust the exposure.  In Adjustments, click Exposure and adjust it so the photo looks like it's the right exposure.  (The exposure is the amount that the light lets in when the photo is taken.  If it's underexposed, that means there was not enough light let in and the photo will look dark, like this one.)  I adjusted the exposure of this photo to +1.7.

2. Add a photo filter.  In Adjustments, click Photo Filter.  I used Warming Filter (81) at 10% density.

3. Adjust brightness and contrast.  In Adjustments, click Brightness/Contrast.  I adjusted the brightness to 5 and the contrast to 10.

4.  Adjust vibrancy.  In Adjustments, click Vibrance.  I adjusted it to +10.

5.  Copy the background layer.

6.  Use the Dodge tool on the eyes to make them more lively.  I used the Dodge tool with Range: Midtones and Exposure: 20%.  Get the eyes nice and bright, then lower the layer fill (in the Layers panel) until the eyes look natural.

7.  Create a new layer.  Zoom in on the eyes.  You are going to add something called catch lights, which are just the reflection by a light source in a person's eye.  Adding them helps to make the eyes more lively.  Choose a brush with 50% hardness and make it the size that the catch lights would be.  (On this photo there were already very light catch lights, so I just used them to determine the brush size and then made them a bit more intense.)  I used a 56 pixel brush size.  Click the brush once on each catch light (if you're using a photo that already has them) or click once on each eye in roughly the same position (if you're using a photo that doesn't already have catch lights).

8.  Set the blend mode of the layer to Overlay.  Turn the layer opacity down until it looks natural.  (I used 25%)

9.  Create a new layer filled with 50% gray.  (Do this by clicking Create a new layer in the Layers panel, then clicking Edit, then Fill.  Set it to Use: 50% Gray, Blending Mode: Normal, Opacity 100%.)

10.  Set the blend mode of the 50% gray layer to Overlay.

11.  While on the 50% gray layer use the Dodge tool on the parts you want to brighten (such as the shine on the hair and the lips) and the Burn tool on the parts you want to darken.  (There might not be any but if parts of the face are looking flat and not 3D like they would be in real life, you can darken the edges to make it look more 3D.  For example, on this photo I used the burn tool just a little bit where the shadows around the nose were.)  This is the Photoshop equivalent of using highlighter and bronzer with makeup to contour your face.  Doing it on a 50% gray layer set to Overlay lets you add depth to the photo with a lot of control.

And that's it.  With this photo you really only need to adjust the exposure, if you're a Photoshop beginner, to make it look way better.  The other steps are all optional and more advanced.  I hope something from this tutorial is helpful for you.  And definitely let me know if there are any parts of this tutorial that you would like me to explain further or expand upon.  Like I said, this is my first Photoshop tutorial, so it's not perfect and I would love to improve it for you in any way possible.

Without further ado, here is the finished product.

DIY: Jewelry Display for Product Photos

The best part is that while this project only costs $1, it will make your product photos look about 10 times better and nearly profeesional quality, even with a terrible camera like mine.

Supplies:
picture frame from Dollar Tree with the piece on the back that makes it so you can stand it up on a table
some paper (I used printer paper) or fabric
something to cut cardboard with (I used an Exacto knife)
some glue (I used a glue stick)
some white paint (alternatively you could glue the paper even with the top and cut the same notches out of it as the cardboard, but it was easier with my wrist brace to use the white paint)

I didn't take pictures of the steps, but it should be easy enough to understand.

1. Remove the cardboard backing from the picture frame.  Put the rest aside. You don't need it for this project.

2. Cut notches in the top of the cardboard.  You can see in the following picture that I cut two close to the edges for longer necklaces and two further in for narrower necklaces.  Then I did two small ones in the very middle for earrings.

3. Glue on your fabric or paper.  Trim it so it doesn't overlap.  I didn't because that's too difficult with my wrist brace.

4. If you glue it like I did, you'll need to paint over the top portion of exposed cardboard.  Alternatively you could glue the paper even with the top and cut the same notches out of it as the cardboard, but as I mentioned earlier it was easier with my wrist brace to use the white paint.

5. Wait for your glue and paint to dry and then you can use it.  That's it. You're done. Pretty simple, right?

Here are some photos I took using it:

See, it can work as a backdrop for other non-jewelry items too!

the white background really makes the colors pop

You could take this so much further than I did, since I'm assuming your dominant hand isn't in a wrist brace.  For example, you could use some nice looking velvety material to cover it.  You could also cut it into a shape like an actual necklace/earring display shape.  Do whatever you want with it.  These are so simple and inexpensive to make that you could whip up a bunch of them in lots of different shapes and colors.

DIY: T-shirt to Pillow

First off: I would like to welcome my 32nd follower, Ryan Adair, who blogs here.

Now let's get down to business.  First off, I did this project last month and thought that I already wrote a post about it, but it appears that I forgot to write the post.  One of my goals is to face my fear of my sewing machine.  You see, I have had some experiences with sewing, though not many.  Most of them involve a sewing and a quilting class which I took in middle school.  I managed to make a tote bag and a bajillion cross-stitches in the sewing class.  And then came the quilting class.  The quilting class is when I learned that sewing machines want to make my life as difficult as possible.  Somehow I managed to complete a quilt.  I still don't know how.  Every single day, I had to combat the sewing machine and its crazy desire to unthread its needle, or just stop working altogether, or even worse stop working and make a loud annoying noise like it's commiting suicide whenever I pushed on the foot pedal.  So somehow I made it through it.  And recently I was like, "Oh hey, my mom was nice enough to buy me a sewing machine 5 or more years ago and I've never even used it."  So then I started my first project, which was trying to make a shirt that I outgrew but loved the design too much to part with it, into something that I could still wear.  And from that attempt, I learned that if you try to sew with really thin fabric, it will become mind-bogglingly entrapped in your feed dogs and your boyfriend will have to dismantle your sewing machine and remove it for you.  Luckily I didn't ruin the shirt, since I was sewing on a scrap piece I had removed from it.  And then the weather got cold and the shirt got neglected since it has short sleeves, so I wouldn't be wearing it anytime soon anyway.  And then my sewing machine sat all alone and sad for a few months.  And then I thought, I should make a pillow out of a T-shirt that I don't wear anymore.  You see, I have a lot of guy T-shirts that have cool designs on them, but I have been making an effort to dress like an actual girl for about a year now, so they have been alone and sad and unworn.  So I picked the shirt I used to love the most and decided to make it into a pillow.  The reason behind my need for a pillow is that I like to sit on my bed to work during the day, so I prop a few pillows behind my back for comfort.  One of the pillows I use for that purpose was sort of falling to pieces, so I wanted to replace it with something that looked nicer and wasn't falling apart.  It was surprisingly easily and my sewing machine didn't try to kill itself or me, not even once.  Keep in mind that while I have made a pillow once or twice before (Twice!), I have never been properly taught how.  I have actually learned two things from the crack that is Pinterest since making this that would have been good to know, so I will pass that knowledge on to you.  Lastly, before we begin, I would just like to say that if you are making this pillow to replace another one, you could just sew it over the top of the other pillow, or make a sort of removable pillow case so you can take it off and wash it, by using velcro or a zipper.  The first option would make you have to handstitch an entire side, and the last option is probably not a good idea for beginners.  If you're going to make this pillow, be sure to read through to the end before you start because I link how to handstitch the pillow shut when you're finishing it up.

Step One: Wrap your T-shirt over your pillow to see what
size you want it to be, as well as where you want the design to be.

Step 2: Remember why you are making the pillow:
The other pillow's best days are behind it.

Step 3: Look at the old pillow and have a moment of silence.

Step 4: Turn the shirt inside out and then pin the bottom of the shirt even with the
bottom of the pillow, leaving a small seam allowance, which you do not measure.

Step 5: Realize that you should have actually pinned a straight line along the top
instead, so now you have to cut across the top of the shirt to remove it from the pillow. 

Step 6: Sew along the actual seam on your shirt because that is
easier than measuring and you don't have to remove pins as you go.
Sidenote: Isn't my sewing machine pretty?

Step 7: Admire your pretty seam.

Step 8: Remove pins.

Step 9: Pin a straight line across the top portion of the shirt where it will make a square or rectangle.  This
means that your line will probably be just below the sleeves if you are trying to get the biggest pillow possible.

Step 10: Sew along your line of pins but make sure you leave an opening to turn it right side out and then stuff it. 
I probably should have left a bigger opening, but it worked with a smallish one.  It was just more time-consuming.

Step 11: Be surprised by how well this is going and admire your work.

Step 12: Turn your shirt right side out through the opening you left at the top.

Step 13: If you are working with another pillow, remove its stuffing and then put it in your new pillow. 
Otherwise, you should have bought some stuffing and then put that in your pillow.

Step 14: Remove big handfuls of stuffing.

Step 15: Struggle to put big handfuls of stuffing into the too small hole in your pillow.

Step 16: Stuff until you're happy with it, then smooth out the lumps and handstitch the opening closed.

Step 17: Have some of your stitches still visible, but rather than take it out, google
"how to handstitch", and then redo it, decide that it's good enough.

Step 18: Admire your work! You're all done : )

Sidenote: You should probably iron your shirt before you start, but I don't own an iron, so I didn't.  Click here to learn how to handstitch the pillow shut for Step 17.  And that's it: now you can use your lovely new pillow.  And if you did it the way I did, more or less, you can use the fabric from the dying pillow for something else later, because that's how I roll. I am frugal.