guest

Stunning Aerial Photography

guest — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:30:43 +0000

Photography is great and amazing in and of itself, but aerial photography takes it to another level of beauty by capturing these incredible shots only few people are able see without these photos. I hope you all enjoy and get inspired from this!

Hello everyone! I'm Mackenzie, a graphic designer out of Colorado. In addition to being a designer, I run Artists Inspire Artists - an inspiration blog. I hope you've enjoyed this post. For more, follow me on Facebook & Twitter.

Case Study – Bleach by Sharon Milne aka ChewedKandi

guest — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 03:44:10 +0000

Hey, my name is Sharon Milne and I go by the moniker ChewedKandi. I have a passion for vector art and have been creating digital art portraits and illustrations for the past decade. I’m self taught in the programs I use and especially love teaching others the benefits and wonders of Adobe Illustrator. All the vector work I produce is 100% vector with no raster effects.

I now write tutorials and articles for sites such as VectorTuts+ and produce a variety of pieces for commercial and private clients.

I can be found on Twitter, Facebook and deviantART, as well as my portfolio on ChewedKandi.net.

I wanted to create a vector portrait with some of the facial features exaggerated, specifically the eyes. I had previously created a vector portrait in this style so I wanted to see if I could pull it off again. This time around, I wanted to make the focus the eyes.

I picked out a stock image by Dagwanoenyent-Stock, one which I had previously seen and it had stuck in my mind.

My tools of the trade are: Adobe Photoshop CS4, Adobe Illustrator CS5, A5 Wacom Bamboo... as well as a large glass of Dr Pepper Zero and the odd cat jumping up on my desk to try and play with my stylus!

Step 1

By using the lasso tool to select areas and enlarge and shrink them, duplicating and flipping areas, I got a rough idea of what I wanted the piece to look similar to. My reference images post Photoshop aren’t the most polished of images, but they do what is needed. I get a rough idea of the dimensions of the face and a rough idea of the shadow/light cast on the face.

I use the smudge tool to smooth out some of the areas to make the curves of the face seem more natural. Then I go into using colour balance and brightness/contrast to modify the colours slight.

Step 2

Now my reference image is ready for Illustrator. Using the reference image I begin with doing some base layers which split the face and the neck/chest in two layer folders. I begin adding low opacity layers to build up on the shading. I use the reference image for each shape to make sure I’m following the curves of the face and lighting. Throughout this step I’m using only 2 colours, the base and the shading colour, no gradients or meshes are used at this point.

Step 3

Thankfully due to completing many portraits, I’m able to not need to refer to the reference image now until later on. I begin adding lighter coloured shapes to give the skin shading more depth and to highlight features such as the nose, top lip and brow bones. I’ve now used my 3rd colour and still not using gradients or meshes.

Step 4

Now I begin to add transparent radial gradients. I still use the same 3 colours I’ve previously used but changing the blending modes. Due to the neck area and face area being in separate layer folders, the shading is easier to do on the neck to give clear definition to the face/jaw line.

I use light transparent gradients to highlight areas on the face, again using the same colours previously used; just changing the blending mode.

Step 5

As the skin has a variety of tones and I don’t wish for the portrait to be too porcelain in appearance, I begin add blends within clipping masks to give blush to the cheeks, greys to the corner of the eye socket and more highlights on the chest area.

Step 6

As I’m feeling the skin is almost complete, I begin to work on the lips more in detail. Using transparent gradients on a variety of blending modes, width profile brushes and many circles, I add shine and a dash of colour to the lips. In general when I’m shading skin, I see the lips as part of the skin and make the basic contrast while rendering the skin. This is so the lips don’t look as if they are floating on top of the skin.

Step 7

I add further colour and some highlighting lines to give the lips a bit more of a shine and gloss appearance as well as a slight light reflection on the tip of the nose. This gives the nose a bit more definition.

Step 8

I now refer back to the reference image to get the basic shapes of the eyes and basic details. I lower the opacities of the majority of the shapes so I can get a good idea of the colour effect I want to go for. I don’t copy and paste the eyes as I don’t wish for them to look perfectly identical, however whatever I do to one eye, I do to the other so the effects are balanced.

Step 9

I now add transparent radial gradients, brush strokes and dots to add detail to the eyes. I use a variety of blending modes and opacities to give an interesting contrast effect. The strokes within the eyes are of a variety of colours and thanks to the lower opacities and gradients behind, they give a great effect.

Step 10

Further transparent radial gradients and a variety of solid colour low opacity shapes to give further depth and detail to the eyes. I use many radial white gradients around the eyes to give a subtle highlight effect. This method was also added around and on the lips to give a highlight/sparkle to them. This also softens any harsh lines.

Step 11

Now adding eyelashes to frame the eyes using the same width profile brushes with a variety of weights and colour.

Step 12

I want to give a frame to the portrait using plain white hair so I try out a very basic style of hair. I don’t want the hair to be too detailed that it takes away from the eyes. So I use a white stroke rectangle to first frame the vector then build on it with strands of hair. I also add further colour to the lips to give them a little more attention.

Step 13

I try adding the eyebrows, however once added it makes the hair look too simple and I feel I need to change the hair. Upon showing it to a friend he confirms this and it’s back to the drawing board!

Step 14

After playing around with some sketches of framing hair and adding a few more gradients to give more depth in the skin, I add basic shapes to give a larger frame. With the hair in this style I feel it draws the viewer into the face and onto the eyes... which as I say I want as the focal point!

Step 15

I add further details to the hair to make the base layer shape of the hair less chunky and add a beauty spot near the mouth. A lot of my portraits include moles and beauty spots as they have hidden meaning where ever they are situated. Although from time to time in my non-conceptual pieces I place them purely to highlight an area of the portrait. In this case, I want to balance the eyes and lips slightly so I place it on the top lip area.

This completes my vector piece.

Photoshop Quick Tips: Advanced Techniques for UI Design

guest — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:18:30 +0000

As with all creative suites there are many ways to achieve your end result in Photoshop. The difference between these approaches lies in the speed they can be created and modified. After talking to fellow designers I discovered I used many techniques that they were unaware existed, doing things "the hard way" instead. So I made this video screencast to share those techniques with the community.

Video

Advanced Photoshop Techniques for UI from Edward Sanchez on Vimeo.

Preset Styles http://cl.ly/8347ee3d593be1a72924
Preset Patterns http://cl.ly/51f799c44c7344185999
Keyboard Shortcuts http://cl.ly/b2a95fde98ba6aa17f2a

About the Author

Edward Sanchez is a UI designer working in Sillicon Valley. For more information about his work visit his personal Web site at htp://edwardsanchez.me or follow him on Twitter at @edwardsanchez.

20+ Incredible Sunrise Wallpapers

guest — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:22:32 +0000

Abduzeedo means Abducted in Portuguese and our theme always has this space feel, with stars, sun flares and everything else necessary to a very cool space scene. It's been quite a while since the last time we posted some really cool wallpapers with this subject, because of that we selected 20 incredible sunrise images for you.

Sunrise in Space

Sunrise

Ti'll Sunrise Comes by *Kaioshen

Departures

by AkenBosch

Wonderland sunrise by =Funerium

Others

About the Author

Lilian Ostropel is a freelancer in search of online perfection. His passion for quality, in terms of usability and content, speaks for itself when you take a closer look at Photos-room and Wallpapers-room.

HDR Guest Experiments

PauloGabriel — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:42:11 +0000

Abduzeedo has became a reference in the Internet when the subject is HDR posts. It's a huge pleasure for us to find those cool pictures and post it here for you. But now, George Wilson, a student from the UK, has written us an email, telling his experiences with HDR. Really cool!

Here it is:

A little comparison between hdr and non-hdr.

"I am a student living in the UK with a Canon 400d with a hobby for photography. Whenever I have free time (rarely!), I try to use my camera. I have only been using a DSLR for a short while, but I have learned so much about photography since.

Where do I get my inspiration? I first saw HDR photos in photography magazines and saw the dramatic effects that the process has on photos. I started using Flickr as a portfolio but I was soon hooked on the community! From Flickr I have learned so much and it really inspired me to take more photos. Flickr was another place where I found HDR; I found all the different styles of HDR. I was mainly inspired by the works of Stuck in Customs (Trey Radcliffe) and followed his tutorial about how to start with HDR. I have since then found many HDR photographers which inspire me in different ways.

Most people (non-photographers) who see them say things like “But that’s not real. That’s not photography!” But I think this is one of the reasons digital photography has its advantages. It opens up whole new dimensions in imagery, and this is one of them. I think HDR is just a new medium for digital photography, a new style.

How do I do them? Most times I use my camera; I shoot in RAW mode, unless I am saving memory. This means that when I look back through the photos after loading them onto my computer, I might spot a photo and think to myself: that might make a good HDR! I then load the RAW file into photomatix and play with the tone mapping until I find a result which suits the photo. Many of my HDRs, especially the early ones, made when I was less experienced with photomatix tend to be very different from one another, because I was changing the settings each time. After processing them in photomatix, I always transfer them to Photoshop for touching up, balancing colours, cloning out unwanted features etc. I then of course upload them to Flickr! I rarely go out with my camera just to take some HDRs, it is usually just an effect I consider afterwards when looking through the set of shots.

I prefer photomatix because I like the setting “light smoothing”. Although I am rather against the extremely tone mapped photos, with virtually no light smoothing, sometimes it can be used as a cool effect!

An example of an HDR with little light smoothing

Some of my favourite HDRs that I have taken were in Iceland recently. When testing out an HDR on a RAW file of one of the waterfalls, I found some great settings which I used for all the Iceland shots:

About the author

Hello, everyone! I'm Paulo Gabriel, designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil, born in 1984. I have worked as a webdesigner since 2006, but websites and blogs have been a hobby for me since 1999. Here in Abduzeedo, I try to bring only the hot stuff for you... and hope that all of you enjoy my posts! For more cool stuff, you may also follow me on Twitter.

Photoshop Tennis

guest — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:34:33 +0000

From the title, some may think Photoshop tennis involves tennis rackets and copies of Photoshop, but the rackets are not need in this game. Photoshop tennis is, as the Flickr group stipulates, a game whereby someone chooses a starting image, and then people edit the image following the guidelines that the person who posted the original image lays down.

The game ends when people stop posting, or a deadline can be set. I’ve seen this in another form, called Photoshop Relay, in a Photoshop magazine and it produced some very good designs. The best thing about Photoshop Tennis is that it helps designers use what they are given and add to it and, in the long run, it also helps improve their skills. The ability to alter an existing design is challenging enough, but to continue the alterations continuously takes a certain amount of skill that can only be enhanced through playing.

Due to many of the “games” involving multiple people, with varying levels of design expertise, the final images can seem quite amateurish, but there are a few that can look stunning.

For those who are interested in joining with Photoshop Tennis, there are a few sites offering games. As mentioned above, there is the Photoshop Tennis Flickr Group, Urban Collective offer competitions and possibly the biggest site devoted to this e-sport, Layer Tennis, which also includes use of other programs, such as Flash.

About the Author

My name is Luke Davis aka Starchild, and I’m an 18 year old student from England. I’ve only just finished college, where I studied Further Mathematics, Mathematics and Graphic Design and will be going to Nottingham Trent University to study a degree in Computer Science. I’ve been using Photoshop since the summer of 2005, and relish the chance to use the program whenever I can.

My sites

guest

Stunning Aerial Photography

Photography is great and amazing in and of itself, but aerial photography takes it to another level of beauty by capturing these incredible shots only few people are able see without these photos. I hope you all enjoy and get inspired from this!

Case Study – Bleach by Sharon Milne aka ChewedKandi

Step 1

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Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

Step 9

Step 10

Step 11

Step 12

Step 13

Step 14

Step 15

Photoshop Quick Tips: Advanced Techniques for UI Design

Video

Further Reading:

About the Author

20+ Incredible Sunrise Wallpapers

Sunrise in Space

Sunrise

Ti'll Sunrise Comes by *Kaioshen

Departures

Wonderland sunrise by =Funerium

Origin

Aeon

Cosmic Daylight Close Up

The Last Sunrise

Detritus

Cosmic Sunrise

Sunrise in Space

Terra Nova

Smooth Vision

Remnants

Eastern Sunrise Updated

Planet One

Tau 31

Last Dawn

Misconstrue Image

Homeworld

Morning

Omicron Beta

Others

About the Author

HDR Guest Experiments

Abduzeedo has became a reference in the Internet when the subject is HDR posts. It's a huge pleasure for us to find those cool pictures and post it here for you. But now, George Wilson, a student from the UK, has written us an email, telling his experiences with HDR. Really cool!

About the author

Sponsored Links:

Photoshop Tennis

About the Author