Photoshop Showcase
A magazine for people of all skills
Ocotber 2014 Issue
Inside: Choosing colour!
An Interview with graphic designer Neville Brody! Learn how to use Photomanipulation!
ÂŁ6.99
Showcase your work!
A Note From The Editor The most important thing when you’ve first picked up photoshop is to quickly familkiarise yourself with the basic tools and their use. Photoshop is a really daunting program and it’s easy to lose yourself and get intimidated. I first picked up Photoshop in 2010 in a Digital Art and Design class at school. Our teacher, Mr Brink, made us work slowly through a text book but I didn’t feel like I was learning anything. This gave me the drive to go and learn how to use Photoshop of my own accord and a similar attitude is what is needed in order to actually understand how to use Photoshop. A textbook will only get you so far, but tutorials that help you interact and give you step-bystep instructions have helped countless people get a degree of confidence with Photoshop.
Photoshop is an ever-updating programme and there are numerous reasons to develop the skills and ability to use it to its full potential (besides decreasing models’ waists and increasing Kim Kardashian’s arse). In news, Photoshop Showcase has grown substantially since our first issue and it’s been thanks to the overwhelming reception of the readers. We’ve got some outstanding writers and artists working for us now.
designed a fantastic article on the basics of Photomanipultion on p57. Of course, there’s always the submitted showcase on p112, so be sure to check all of that out. Don’t forget to check out the digital version of our App by scanning the QR code below!
This month we’re also launching our first tablet issue, which has loads of extra features that you just can’t put on in a print issue. If you’ve bought a print copy, all you need to do is scan the QR code to the right. You can also buy it online through our App (which is On behalf of all of us here at available on the App Store for Photoshop Showcase, I want Android and iPad). to thank you for reading. See The purpose of this magayou next month! zine is twofold: the first is to In this issue, we’ve got some showcase work that we think great features. There’s a great deserves it. The second is to article on colour choice on p7, provide useful tips, insight, which would be helpful for tutorials and outline the veterans and newbies alike, thought process behind creat- our newest hire: artist Mike ing artwork. Di Leonardo has written and
Mike Taylor Editor in chief
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Table of Contents Guides
Features
P7 - On Colour Choice We take a look at the best way to choose your colour pallete.
P21 -
P12 - A Beginners Guide to Text Having trouble with text? From Sans Serif to placement we’ll help set you straight.
P98 - Neville Brody Interview An interview with famous graphic designer Neville Brody.
p57 -
Basics of Photomanipulation New writer Mike Di Leonar- do takes you through everything you need to know.
In The Studio We take a look at how Photographers use photoshop to touch up their pictures.
Other Articles P10 -
Editing Photographs How to make slight edits to your pictures so you can make it better
P82 -
Signature Tutorial A step-by-step tutorial on how to make your very own Photoshop signature
P112 - Submitted Showcase You submit, we choose the best and feature them here!
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Choosing Colour Something that’s always really easy to mess up in Photoshop is choosing a good colour palette. So, today, we’ll be looking at how you can make your colours compliment each other as best as you can. Firstly, I start with my image. In the example to the left, Michael De Santa from GTA V. Make sure this render is as high quality as possible (You’ll know when you zoom in how high quality something is). For my colour palette on this, I chose two shades of red from Michael’s shirt - one light and one darker. Then, I took a slightly darker shade of blue from his trousers for the background (You don’t want them to disappear into the background). Then I took a skin-tone from his arm, a brown from the bag’s strap, and another, darker, purple.
For the smaller piece above, I used three colours - dark grey, white, and purple. In this instance, I chose purple because I felt it would fit more with a sci-fi scene as well as giving a good contrast to the red glow from the suit, though I did my best not to overuse it. It’s important that you have at least one contrasting colour. Without it, your whole image will just end up looking boring. A good contrasting colour gives your image a bit of pop. The best piece of advice I can give while choosing colour is simple: just trust your eyes. They know what looks good and what doesn’t. And if your eyes can’t tell what’s good and what isn’t, then you’re boned.
It’s inadvisable to take too many colours, or you will end up over-stimulating the viewer and the overall effect is lost. I think between two and six is ample.
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A Simpler Life Learn how to edit your photos naturally
Editing Photographs Today we’re going to look at simple, yet effective ways to make slight and natural adjustments to photographs that you take. I’ll be using the photo on the previous page as a reference point. I was unhappy with how the sky turned out in the picture, so I created a black and white gradient over the layer - don’t create a new one - and set it to overlay. This brightens up the sky. You can repeat this process if you want, but the effect will eventually destroy the picture (remember, ctrl+alt+z or cmd+alt+z for PC and Mac respectively is backstep, which you can repeat multiple times, is handy for taking a few steps back quickly, so you can see the effect as it stacks. I liked the way it looked after once, with an nice blue-to-white-to-blue going from left to right, so I left it. Next, I thought the water looked a little grey, but I didn’t want it to be crystal blue (which can look fake), so I used the Colour Balance adjustment, it’s the black and white circle on the essentials workspace, and messed around with the blue and green sliders there. Don’t go too high or low with any of them, and try make sure you end up at a level that looks natural. Subtle edits are the best. Drastic changes tend to be far more noticable even without the original image to compare it to. Keeping your photographs looking natural should be your number one priority. Not just because once it becomes too digital it’s less effecp10
tive, but also because you should want to stay as honest as you can to your source material. That model doesn’t really need editing except maybe a few stray hairs. There’s beauty in imperfection. I could have removed the large stack of boxes on the lower right of the image. I didn’t, because I thought it gave the image a bit of a more individual feel and, anyway, would sheer rock be any more attractive? You need to ask yourself questions like this while you work, and decide for yourself. You have total control over your work.
For the picture below, I really liked the golden tones of the sun on the lighthouse and the grass, but I thought the image was a little over-exposed. You do that by using the exposure adjustment. Again, be slight in the intensity of it. Then, I wanted to make the image a little sharper, so I used the Sharpen filter. You can find that by going Filters (at the top) > Sharpen > Sharpen. Using this too much makes the image grainy, though. So usually once is enough.
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Here’s this month’s submitted showcase. We got a lot of great submissions this past month, but here are what we think are the very best. As always, we try to give people a prompt for their submissions, but don’t feel like you’re tied down to just the prompt. We’ll take anything, so long as it isn’t sexually explicit content (We are a family friendly magazine, after all!). This month’s prompt is “Deja Vu” We look forward to seeing what you submit. The prompt for last month was “The World On Their Shoulders” so here’s what we thought was the best!.
A great piece submitted by Forum Member Foresti
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(Left) A great example of blending and lighting effects submitted by John Smith, Aberdeen.
(Right) A smaller piece by Andrew Simm, Glasgow. We’re big Zelda fans too!
(Below) A banner submitted by BeardedCoconut.
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