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February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Advanced Image Retouching
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Gary has pulled out all the stops this month: you’ll be walked through not just image editing in Xara Designer, but advanced image retouching. Significant areas of a target image are missing, but by first defining a process, and then by following it with Xara’s tools, you’ll be able to restore a photo exactly as a pro would with Xara.
How about gaining a serious edge on a new professional skill? Get the tutorial files and and then post your excellent tiki retouching work here. |
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
I enjoyed this months tutorial, maybe I'm the exception to the rule here but I liked the fact that it was a little longer. After I went through the tutorial I started playing with different colours and came up with a kind of tiki pop art piece :)
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Quote:
Originally Posted by
angelize
I enjoyed this months tutorial, maybe I'm the exception to the rule here but I liked the fact that it was a little longer. After I went through the tutorial I started playing with different colours and came up with a kind of tiki pop art piece :)
I like the tiki pop art Francis, not got round to doing this tut. yet and likewise, I don't mind at all it being a little longer. Love the colours Francis.
Stygg.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
I LOVE what you did with this month's "assignment", Frances.
The ice cube tray was created to be fun (I think, wasn't there), so I'm pleased we see the fun, and extend that fun in our endeavors here.
Let me ask: was the colorizing more fun, or learning the retouching technique and more importantly the process of discovering, evaluating and choosing the right tools?
Because I could easily flip an addition real world (difficult) example image or two right here in about a week.
Attachment 94599
Something with people in the photo, and no chance to fake anything. I'd like our membership to seriously consider Xara as a retouching tool, while in the same mindset realizing it's not going to drive Adobe Systems out of business tomorrow. Quite honestly? I use Xara depending on the type of retouching because the zoom levels are better and large high res images can be worked on faster.
By the way, there's a long way around retouching the three images together. You use the Freehand tool to draw the area that needs replacing, and then put the shape to back, clipview it to a copy of the replacement area, and then feather, then position it. This gets you around having to make one image out of three to use the Clone tool. Attached is a whack I took at this method. Apologies in advance for the file size, but whenever I can I use PNGs and not JPEGS because PNGs use lossless compression/greatest possibly fidelity.
My Best,
Gary
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Hi Gare!
Thank you for the tutorial. I had a chance to work on the imaging tutorial today. Here is my example.
Attachment 94601
:)
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
I think you did very well, BeanPole. The bridge of the nose is a little flat, but this area is compl;etely up to the artist's interpretation because it doesn't really exist in any of the photos!
Did any of the "process" register with you?
IOW, are you ready to tackle a fresh photo problem based on your resurrection experience with this one?
-g
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Hi Gare,
After such extensive surgery on the nose I think it will be fine, once the swelling goes down! I too did find the nose a little flat and wide, but decided to continue on with the tutorial.
Changing the colors was neat.
I would love to tackle a fresh photo!
Bring it on!
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
You got it!
Let this simmer with our community for around a week before I roll out a new image, okay?
If I don't pace myself, this is going to be a full-time job with a volunteer's wages!
You did excellently overall, BeanPole, right up there to the front of the class after not much time at all, pal!
My Best,
Gary
P.S. By suggesting a highlight at the top of the nose shape, you can reduce the swelling and learn something new, too. See my attached file.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
I tried the highlight and it does look a little better.
Attachment 94603
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Quote:
was the colorizing more fun, or learning the retouching technique and more importantly the process of discovering, evaluating and choosing the right tools?
Most definitely the best part ( and this is the same for any retouching job I do) is the process of discovery evaluation and and coming up with right tools and method to fix a photo. I would love another real world example to practice on.
The feathered highlight to provide roundness to the nose is exactly what I did in my example because I thought the exact same thing, that the nose was too flat :) Great minds think alike! (and yes I know the rest of that saying ;)) )
Here is another bit of fun with the tiki this time I used a stained glass fractal plasma transparency and the embossing filter to get a sort of wood like texture and then cloned the resulting image three times. Each clone was recoloured using the hue slider on the photo tools and areas were erased out leaving an image that looked like it was painted. I grouped all layers and erased out the mouth and eyes to create a tiki mask. The wood texture is not perfect, it still looks a little soft but I like the end result.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
@Frances—
The choice of colours is spot-on, and I like what you did conceptually.
You did more than retouch; you sort of re-photographed the image(s).
The quality of resourcefulness is beyond measure when it comes to what you need to do, and what you have to work with. Again, this is not an apology for Xara...it might take a little longer to invent a solution by choosing which tools to work with than a bitmap editing program, but I've been stumped in Xara fewer times than I have ears on my pointy little head!
I won't tell you right away what I did to this photo, but I did do some retouching, and if the idea behind the image is clear and you can't see what I did...then that's called invisible retouching and what you should usually strive for.
Attachment 94605
You want your work to go unnoticed; you don't want to leave a "signature" in a retouched image file.
My Best,
Gary
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
I can't tell for sure what you did but I'm guessing either you added something that wasn't already there (an almond perhaps?) or removed something unwanted? or did you fake the depth of field?
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Much more subtle.
I'd been working in Barb's garden, and my nails were a filthy mess, not what a hand model's hands should look like.
It might seem like a trifling, but you'd notice how awful my hand looked before I worked this area over. Again, it's what you DON'T see that is the mark of a good retouching artist.
Attachment 94608
What I'll do next, after we've had our fill of the pagan idol, is post one of the most common problems in image retouching, one that gets asked on all the forums: what do you do when someone's eyes are closed in a group photo? The answer lies in the process: You make darned sure before your talent leaves for the day that you get a pic of that person with eyes open so you can add the correct eyes to the group photo where everyone else looks okay.
It will be a challenge because you'll be working with people, and objects are much more easy to fake than human portraits. The human eye has a keen sensitivity to people pictures that have been tricked up. But it can be done, I did it, and I'll show you before the March tutorial.
Here's something I did in Xara years and years ago. I was in both photos, I used my hand up to the wrist and did a linear transparency fade into my kid brother's forearm. It's all about the process; the photographic session was the real hero. I got the idea to swap places between photos and left the rest of the illusion up to the tools we have in Xara.
Attachment 94609
-g
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Before we move on to clean nails, eye kidnapping, arm transplants :D which I'm looking forward to all, here's my effort at tiki idol, excellent photo re-touch tut., although I might not have it spot on :)
Stygg
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
You got a little something going on at the base of the left shape you added,Stygg, but at a casual glance, any viewing audience would assume you photographed a complete object. You did good.
I'm still working on the transcript, in case anyone feels this will help!
My Best,
Gare
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Had to try this one also. I did have a little of problem. I had a hard time creating the "dents" on the nose. When I tried to use the line or pen tool the ends of my lines were square. Not rounded like yours were. I spent a long time trying to get a shape that would create a shape that worked well. I did use the square line and then feathered the heck out of it, then resized it like crazy to try to come close. How do I get a rounded end to my lines?
In the beginning of your process you said you need to combine the objects because you cannot clone from one object to another. I somehow missed that and after I lined the three object up, using the chin as a guide, I created the "close zone" on the first of the object and then was able to place my cursor over either of the other two images to get the results. It still worked. I did try another time after moving one of the second two images and although stuff would still show up in the "clone zone" it did not show the correct portion of the image when I moved my mouse. Interesting, I am going to mess around with that some more.
OK - so here is my result:
Attachment 94635
This was another great tutorial. Learned some really valuable things that I never would have discovered on my own. Looking forward to your next step in this process.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
To change the ends of the lines open the lines gallery and at the top there is a drop down list to set the end cap. Chose round cap, click OK and you will get lines with rounded ends. Or if you have Designer Pro X you can zoom in and use the shapebuilder tool.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
I thought I had done that yesterday and it did not work but I went in a few minutes ago and it worked fine. Do not know what I must have done wrong yesterday.
Another silly question: I have XP&GD 2013 and do not see what the difference is between the Shape Tool and the Pen Tool (which I just added to my toolbar). Also, during Gary's video he mentioned something about holding down the shift key while he was drawing the lines around the mask. Either I did not hear him correctly or I am doing something wrong. I just tried it and it did not do anything for me. What am I doing wrong?
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Hi DCAHall—
There is the Shape tool (used to be called the Shape Editor Tool) which is common to all versions of Xara, and what Frances is referring to is the Shapebuilder tool, which is not a feature in Photo & Graphic Designer. You have to pop for the "grownup" version to get that tool, sad to say.
Okay, if I'm wrong here and you're honestly asking the difference between the Shape and the Pen tools, I'd refer you to last October's video tutorial and also check out September. These tutorials show exactly how to use each tool, so you can see the difference—and decide which one is easier for you to use.
I don't believe I mentioned using the Shift key while drawing the outline around the Polynesian face, but I did mention pressing the Spacebar—doing this temporarily toggles you to the Hand tool, so you can pan your view, no need to use the scroll bars on the document window. This is a viewing option thing and has nothing to do with your creative work and the tools.
Here's how to get to the line gallery and its options:
Attachment 94645
And you did pretty darned good for someone who insists on calling themselves a non-artist, DCAHall!
;)
My Best,
Gary
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
OK, one more post where I just could not resist some additional playing around and combining tutorials. This time I combined Gary's tutorial with Stygg's to come up with something kind of interesting (IMHO).
Attachment 94646
As always, your comments and suggestions are welcomed.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
It's Friday, and you should be really, truly pleased with yourself and your work, DCAHall (I've forgotten your first name! It is, again ____?)
You've shown improvisation, innovation, performing a well executed variation on the main theme.
You'd better watch it or others will start calling you an artist!
;)
My Best,
Gary
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
That is cool dcahall! I love the way you used the elliptical tool to make oval backgrounds, and love the reflections! :)
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Thanks for the nice words Gary. My name is Dave :-)
I feel like I am learning and am a good imitator but not read to accept "artist". Maybe that is the same thing as when I used to teach programming classes but did not consider myself a programmer.
Should have gone back and listened closer. Yes, you said spacebar and I just missed what you said. On the line gallery setting, as I said before, I thought that was what I had done but apparently I did not do it correctly because this morning I did it successfully.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Thanks BeanPole - I also used used the mold tool.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Dave, I'm not going to beat you up trying to convince you that you have latent art skills.
You do the same, okay? Don't beat yourself up.
Me, I have people standing in line waiting to do it to me.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Hey, what is imitation other than learning how to do something exactly like someone else did, or at least to get the same results?
The key word there is "learning".
Before I went to school, I "imitated" (copied) comic book characters.
When I was in school, I did Life Study drawings. Again, copying what was before my eyes.
There's no difference except college costs more, and there's an instructor in the room.
-g
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dcahall
OK, one more post where I just could not resist some additional playing around and combining tutorials. This time I combined Gary's tutorial with Stygg's to come up with something kind of interesting (IMHO).
Attachment 94646
As always, your comments and suggestions are welcomed.
Hi Dave,
really good drawing and inovation and this time, no mention of darts! :D
Stygg
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Isn't it about time that that line on the horizon is gone?
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
@Dave—
Can you attach the file to a post so I can see how to get rid of that horizontal line of pixels for you, and then explain how everyone can do this on their own?
-g
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
I have attached it. On another post I had gotten rid of it by overlapping the sky and ground slightly (about 5 or so pixels and using feathering so that it blended). I am posting both images and both .xar files for you to examine.
The SurrealBackgrounds files are my original files under Stygg's tutorial. I overlapped some of the images and feathered them to eliminate the blank line between the sky and ground portions. Gary, you will want to undue the Clip View to see the individual components. Hope that helps a little.
The FacesWBackground files are the ones I posted for your Advanced Image tutorial but I did not take the time to do any overlapping or feathering which I think would have done the job but I will await your feedback.
I also wanted to pass along to some others who commented about the elliptical background for the faces that I discovered that if you use True Color + Alpha when you create the bitmap copy, that is does not pick up any of the background in the new copy. That is what I used and then I added the elliptical background produced another bitmap copy (again using the True Color + alpha so the background would be transparent). I then made a copy that I set to the kind of dark bronze copy of the faces and ellipses , and then used the mold tool to put some perspective on the new image. I made a copy of that and flipped it horizontally so I would have the image for the other side and the rest should be obvious.
Again, I hope these will help shed some light on the whole subject.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Dave, thanks for sharing.
Wow, as far as I can tell what messed up your work was quite sophisticated!
Here's the deal:
First, you have your Nudge distance set up to a fractional amount, 3.8 pixels. That is bound to cause a hard line somewhere in your work. You can use 1 or 2 pixels but not 2.6, or 2.8, because Xara ultimately uses anti-aliasing when it has to write the image to file or to a bitmap export, and it then rounds fractional pixel values to the nearest integer, and it has to anti-alias an edge to some color or opacity, and this usually creates an edge or a line.
Second, you got groups inside of clipviews inside of clipviews. This causes a write problem that's not well-documented. When object groups become too complicated, and this means hierarchical nesting in addition to, say, extruding a shape that has 1,200 control points..."the math gets too hard" for Xara's internal rendering engine to display the result image accurately.
If you've ever had stuff go disappearing only to reappear when you zoom or otherwise refresh your screen, your shapes might be too complex, or you have groups inside of groups to the 12th power. I suggest this workaround: when you have a group of shapes you think are getting mathematically too complex, Ctrl+Shift+C to make a Bitmap copy, tuck your original group away, and proceed with the single, uncomplicated bitmap copy.
As I was taking the groups apart, Dave, it was kind of like pulling the proverbial thread on a sweater—it came undone, so my simple "cheat" was to make a bitmap copy of the background, slice it in two, hide the unwanted edge we got going in the composition, and then overlap the top piece over the bottom, then apply a very small, shallow linear transparency to finish a blend between the two pieces.
Attachment 94657
Oh, if there's a third here (!), your shapes weren't perfectly aligned, butted against one another at the horizon.
So we live and we've all learned here, I think.
By the way, I don't think anyone was paying close attention, but that is one kick-butt illustration of the boy. I assumed you'd traced the outline and just clipped the original photo.
People, look at this:
Attachment 94658
Holy moly! I used a Poser model because I didn't have the time, or most likely the talent to draw a surreal kid in time to create the tutorial! Look at the detail Dave put into this!
Go out drinking tonight to celebrate, man.
I'm serious.
Don't drive.
My Best,
Gary
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Hey that is some awesome feedback (on both counts). I had followed Stygg's tutorial (I thought) and did not do the Clip View until the end. I fully understand what you are saying and will put that into practice. To be honest, I do not think I was really aware of what the bitmap copy would accomplish for me and will look at it better in the future. I had tried combining shapes but that did not achieve the results I wanted. After playing around some during these two tutorials I have learned a lot that will help in the future.
Yes, I did not take the time to align the object correctly with the "horizon" as a dividing point. In fact, I was kind of trying to not go that route to try to add a little bit of illusion to some depth but it did not come out exactly as I had hoped but it was still fun.
The boy was an exercise. I spent a pretty fair amount of time tracing, zooming, trying different lighting/highlighting until I got something I was kind of proud of. The weird part was that once I had him completed, I then had to make a single color object out of him (eliminating all of that detail I had spent a lot of time creating) so that I would have an object I could use to produce a curved shadow of the boy for another thread.
Again, thanks for the complements. I feel good about what I accomplished on that endeavor. BTW: especially since I got him from you, feel free to use anytime you like (as can anyone else - even if it is only a model for creating something similar). You guys are making me feel different about the skills I am beginning to develop. :o:o
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Gary, I'm going to be a party-pooper - I'm not a fan of the "corrected" version. Here's why..
- The horizon line doesn't match the reflections; shouldn't they all be in line?
- there are shadows, yet with a distant horizon, they wouldn't be there.
..maybe it's just me.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
@Paul—
Agreed: the reflections and the originals don't converse at the horizon, my oversight.
I plead fatigue, Paul. In an attempt to correct a problem after a very long and largely unrewarding day, I introduced another one. Sorry, Dave, Paul is right and I should have moved the foreground shapes to accommodate the adjusted horizon.
I have an idea—but no hard empirical evidence—that the shadows aren't correct. Dave used the Shadow tool, and although the tool is very clever, it doesn't suit all occasions. I often recommend a feathered shape or a blend from an outer shape that's 100% transparent to an inner one that's something like 91% transparent.
But I'll be darned at this hour if I can see in the composition exactly where the source of lighting is, to glean where the shadows should fall, and how they should be shaped. As Stygg states, it's a surreal composition, and (yes this a cop-out) surreal compositions have both photorealistic and non-photorealistic elements.
Aside from early TV show intros such as for the Twilight Zone and The Third Man, I recall a Dali painting where the horizon is quite far in the distance, and there are indeed shadows in the painting I'm thinking of. Salvador Dali simply didn't use the Shadow tool.
@Dave—
Everything I show, teach, demonstrate, is an exercise, so you just keep on doing what you're doing. This is not a classroom, there are no grades. This is not a peer-to-peer review, it's a discussion area where we all feel free to agree to disagree. And it certainly isn't a paying gig, the money I pay for completed assignments stinks as you've gathered.
You learned from this exercise and you're going to come back in the future to continue to listen, explain, experiment, and learn.
This learning jazz is not only the most important thing you'll achieve here, but it usually should be the only thing.
I commend you for your bravery, your diligence and persistence, and the results you've achieve in such a short time.
I need my sleeping cap and my pillow now.
Later,
Gary
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Despite my niggles, Gary did a great job on sorting out the horizon, so don't let my comments deflect from that.
Goodnight Gary!
Dave, I've been on TG for a long time and the journeys people make from absolute beginner to skilled artisan or artist are quite amazing. It just takes time and patience.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Seeing as I have caused this horizon debate with the surreal sky, here's my answer for the problem. It consists of a rectangle with a linear fill then 3 or 4 new nodes created, the fill being Rainbow. Selecting each node and using the eye dropper to give its colour fill from the clouds at the base. Hope I've made that clear :D and hope it helps. Nearly forgot the rectangle is then feathered about 10.3 to 11, untill it blends with the cloud yet hides the dreaded line :D
Stygg.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
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Originally Posted by
stygg2003
I have caused this horizon debate with the surreal sky.
I LOVE IT! Stygg, this would make a PERFECT supermarket tabloid headline, don't you think?
Hey, how about you upload the file itself as an attachment, so people can use both your text and the composition itself as guides?
Here's a decidedly un-surreal sky. Feel free to fool with it, everyone. I used the same techniques as Stygg has covered, and spend a good deal of time "eyeballing" (AKA "guesstimating") the shadows.
Attachment 94666
-g
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Did not realize where all this was going. While you guys were posting some more neat stuff, I worked on still another version that combined the two tutorials. Of course, I had to add some of my own touches. I tried to give the sky and floor some perspective. I also changed the shadowing to use some techniques learned in another thread. Did not use the shadow tool this time. In addition to some comments in another thread about being able to move the shadow in 360 degrees, I would also like to suggest being able to change the color of the shadow (another thing I did in this one). I hope this addresses some of the things you pointed out.
I am also attaching an updated set of files from the Curving Shadow thread that was inspired by some comments from Gary. And yes Gary, I have started making bit map copies of stuff and can see the difference. It also showed my that I could take that boy and make a bitmap copy of him and change the color so I can have both a gold and silver copy of him with all of the details. I really enjoyed finding that out. Opens up a lot of doors to me. =D>=D>
@Stygg, I should also let you know that you have opened my eyes to some whole new areas as well.
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Here's the file Surreal sky Gary so everyone can play with it, just ungroup and in the Page & Layer gallery you will see the Shape I used to hide the horizon line, click on it, select fill then you will see the linear fill with nodes, click on any node, bring up the colour editor and you will see the colour I applied or change the colours if you want, please feel free to do whatever you like with the file. :D
Stygg
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
OKAY THIS is wot I'm talkin' 'bout!
You people are generating branching threads of topics and you're strutting your stuff, and we're all learning.
This is what I came here for, people.
We're creating content, and the level of content is on the Pro side of Intermediate User, and you're helping one another by revealing stuff.
A lonnnng time ago, I butted heads with a talented artist who was trying to sell "secrets"; recipes for accomplishing something in Photoshop.
I disagreed with the whole premise; you either sell lessons or you reveal the techniques to people as part of a Giving Community, which many if not most real artists subscribe to.
There are no "secrets" when it comes to art technique. There are only things the artist hasn't discovered yet.
So it makes me very pleased that you're doing neat stuff with the tutorials, improvising, and then sharing what you've learned.
I'd love to be put out of business! :)
My Best,
Gary
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Re: February 2013 Video Tutorial - Advanced Image Retouching
Hi Dave, some really neat stuff your turning out and the bronze boy is superb, glad your enjoying yourself :D
Stygg.