Here is a photo that my friends at www.jasmedia.net took and I tranformed it into a glamor shot.

Here is a before and final shot split screen so you can see what I am about to work on.

Above is the original photo that I started off with. First you will want to make a duplicate the original layer so you will be able to go back and forth and compare your result.

Glamor photoshop retouched, clone stamp

I start by using the clone stamp to “erase” any imperfection in the photo. Press the “s” key for the stamp tool and hold Alt or  Opt to sample an area of her face than paint over the area you want to cover up.

Glamor photoshop retouched, curve editor

Next, use the curve editor to correct the lightning information but make you use Create New Fill or Adjustment layer and select Curve. Its the half black/white circle icon on the bottom of the layer pallet. Us CNFA so that you can always come back and adjust the curve at a later time.

Glamor photoshop retouched, color blanace curve

Same thing with the curve, use the CNFA icon to select color balance, play around with the color until you are happy with it. I added more pink to the mid tone, purple to shadow and cyan to the highlights.

Glamor photoshop retouched, multiply

Now I am going to make a copy of all visible layer by ctrl/Cmd A to select all, than go to edit and select copy merged and than paste the layer at the top. Gaussian blur it at around 3-5 pixel than change the blending mode to Multiply, it will make the dark even darker to give you a more dramatic result, but you might want to lower the opacity down to 25% so it wont be overly dark.

Glamor photoshop retouched, glowing

Make the backgroud blow by filling the background with white and gaussian blur it, than lower the oppacity down to about 75%. You can fill the backgorund by first selecting it with a magic want (W key) since it pretty much white.

Glamor photoshop retouched, Vignette

Create a vignette effect with the Hue and Saturation Layer, again use the CNFA icon to select Hue and Saturation, make it darker and more saturated than paint out the center of the mask icon.

Glamor photoshop retouched, Gaussian blur

Blur the entire photo again by selecting all and copy merged and paste as we did earlier. Gaussian blur it and lower the oppacity down to whatever you feel like, I used 25%.

Glamor photoshop retouched, final

Here is the final (click on the image to see larger image.)

I hope you enjoy this tutorial and leave a comments to let me know if you have any questions!

This is part of my tutorial set. Please visit the TUTORIAL PAGE for a list of all the tutorials.

Here is a video tutorial on how to create a dramatic Metallic letter effects in Photoshop, please leave comment and questions if there is any part that is not clear.

This is part of my tutorial set. Please visit the TUTORIAL PAGE for a list of all the tutorials.

This is a video tutorial on how to create a electrifying text effect in Photoshop.

Electrifying text effects

Here is a tutorial on how to create a electrifying text effects in photoshop.

Start by creating your text and ctrl+click this layer to select all visible pixel, than on a new layer expand the selection by about 10-20 percents and fill it in with grey.

Use a MEDIAN filter to connect the letters together but not too much, just enough so that the letters are still legible.

Now add a layer effect with a metallic bevel effect. Now merge the text and the grey filled layer together.

Apply an ocean ripple filter, and a second layer on the panel with glowing edge filter, this will give it a electricity feeling.

Use Color Range to select the brightest area and on a new layer fill it with white. Hide the original layer.

Now apply a layer effect with outer glow with the color you want.

This is part of my tutorial set. Please visit the TUTORIAL PAGE for a list of all the tutorials.

Speed up your process in Photoshop by learning shortcuts! Shortcuts can be difficult to learn especially when you are new to the program and with so many software to learn it will get tougher.

So I created my own set of shortcut list to print out, each grouped into smaller categories so that I can find the exact shortcut I want with one glimps. Learning shortcuts in Photoshop will speed up your work by at least 40%! …ok ok I lied, I made that number up, but shortcut really speeds things up significantly, they will give you more time to learn and create instead of wasting it on finding the right tool on the menu, try them out.

Here is some of the more useful shortcuts in Photoshop that I use regularly. You will see a star* next to some of the shortcut names, that is because they are not part of the default set, you will have to go into the shortcut key menu to change them, but for the most part it stays the same. I hope you find my custome shortcuts useful and I encourage you to find your own set of shortucuts. Click here to download the file so you can upload them onto your Photoshop.

Custome photoshop shortcut list

This is part of my tutorial set. Please visit the TUTORIAL PAGE for a list of all the tutorials.

This video tutorial will teach you how to turn a ordinary photo to something more interesting.

More…SET UP – I use a photo that was shot using a consumer camera with flash, no professional lightning was used. The first thing that I did was delete the background, since my background is fairly plain, I just use the Magic Wand to delete them. You can access this tool on the tool bar or by pressing (W) on your keyboard. For photos that are more complex, you should use the pen tool. I also combined eraser tool and marquee tool to help delete the background.

SMOOTHING EDGES -The problem with using Magic Wand is that it leaves jagged edge, so you will need to smooth out the edge once you are finished. First start by selecting the empty pixels, you can use Magic Wand to do this or by Ctrl click the layer icon, it will select all the active pixel than inverse the selection. Than enter Quick Mask Mode, it can be found on the tool bar, the icon right below the color icon or by hitting (Q) on keyboard. Now you will notice everything that was selected is red and everything that is not is clear. Anything thing you do now will be reflected in the selection once you exit the Quick Mask Mode. Now go to filter-noise-medium and smooth out the edge than exit out of the Quick Mask and hit delete, now all the uneven pixel will be deleted.

BACKGROUND – The bacground is fairly simple, its just a series of filters and adjusting the color until you are satisfied.

LIGHT RAYS – To create the light rays that are shining behind her, first paint in some white in a new layer than use filter-blur-radial blur. Select the zoom option and hit ok. The white that you just painted now looks a bit more like light rays. However, light rays are usually broken up into tiny rays by the atmosphere or surrounding so lets break up the rays. Using the Quick Mask Mode again we will create a noised selection and delete that selection on our newly made rays than radial blur it again. You might not be able to see much now because the density of the pixel is low from all the blurring, you can increase density by duplicating the layer about 2-3 times, and don’t forget to merge them when you are done.

I repeated the same steps for another set of ray that will be overlapping her. After finishing with this second set, clean it up so the direction of the light make sense.

HAIR – I want to create the illusion that my subject is underwater but she is in a standing pose and her hair is down so I will have to paint the flowing hair myself. First is paint brush to paint in blobs of hair, use the noise filter to create some white noise than smudge it out. If you want you can duplicate this and make it a light color so it looks like the light is illuminating the edge of her hair.

COLORS – You should use adjustment layers to correct the color so you can come back later to make more adjustment. Adjustment layers are located at the bottom of the layer pallet, It looks like a ying-yang circle. Ctrl click on the subject’s layer and select the Level Adjustment Layer, by having a selection ready before you choose your adjustment layer, photoshop will automatically create a mask according to your selection, so now the adjustment layer only effect the subject and not the background.

FINISHING TOUCH – I’ve added some bubbles by duplicating them and went into liquify filter to to change her body, I didn’t spend a lot of time on liquify filter but I will show you a more detailed tutorial on this later.

I hope you didn’t have problem understanding it. If there is any part that you do not understand please let me know so I can change it or just any general comment and recommendation on how to improve on this will be appreciated. Thanks!