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Photoshop Tutorial – how I edited this photo from start to finish.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011 Posted inALL,PHOTOSHOP

Hey guys!

Today I’ve put together something special for today’s Chatty Tuesdays episode. I wanted to give you wonderful creators an insight into my editing process. Below is the very informal tutorial that I put together. I start off with some contouring of the image. There are many ways to do this, but this is the way that I find easiest. Then I go on to showing you how I customise my actions to get the colours that I’m looking for. This is so important as each photo you work with will be different, so you want to make sure that you customise it so that you can achieve the precise look you are going for. I finish off by covering how I deal with sun flare, how I add that extra brightness, glow and contrast to the sun. As I said, it’s a very informal approach, if you have any questions feel free to ask away – but to make it easier for you I’ve added a list of which photoshop tools we use so that you can spend some time googling them and learning them in case you’re a bit rusty. :) This is what we cover:
Layers. Opacity. Layer Masks. Brushes. Gradients. Actions.
Practice makes perfect, people!

I love you guys, hope you love this one!

xoxo

Want to skip to something specific? Here’s the timeline: 

Intro: 00:00 

Contour – Defining shadows and highlights: 00:24
Using the brush tool in black over the parts you want to make darker. Using the white colour over the parts you want to make lighter.

Using actions to create the desired colours: 05:42 

Adding colour and extra “oomph” to sun flare using Maracas : 7:35 

All Photoshop Actions used in the video above are available for purchase in my awesome online shop:
CONTOUR, Summer Princess, Juxtaposition and Maracas.

Click here to visit the store.

Get 4 FREE Photoshop Actions in your inbox now!
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Posted inALL,PHOTOSHOP

  • http://svetlanahillkovich.com Svetlana HillKovich

    AMAZING! Thanks for the tutorial Alex!

  • http://www.facebook.com/Laurenbytheseaphotography Laurenbythesea

    Love your process Alex! What does the contour action actually consist of if you know what i mean? I’ve never seen that done before! I like it!! Much love xx

  • http://www.alexbeadonphotography.com Alex Beadon

    Hey Lauren :)

    There’s lots of ways to contour, but this is by far my favourite and easiest (in my opinion). Basically all you’re doing is using the brush tool to draw the colour white over the areas you want to highlight (cheekbones, under eyes etc..) and then using the brush tool to draw the colour black over the areas that you want to add more of a shadow to (eyebrows, under cheekbones, round the face, maybe around the entire image as I did here). You should definitely look into it, I know lots of people prefer using the dodge and burn tools, but this is what works for me :)

    Big hugs my darling <3

  • http://thisisrosie.ca Rosie

    Once again, amazing! I’ll definitely be referring back to this!

  • http://www.cathieheartphotography.com/ Cathie – Cathie Heart Photography

    Really great tutorial Alex. Just an extra tip if you want to see before and afters without having to group everything together. Just click on the bottom layer eye while holding down the Alt key. It will then hide all the other layers and reveal only that layer, click again holding the Alt key and it puts it back the way it was. Its an easy way to see how the edit is progressing without having to hit all the ‘eyes’ for each layer :D

  • http://www.alexbeadonphotography.com Alex Beadon

    Thanks Cathie!!! That’s what I love about Photoshop – there is a never-ending amount of things to know and learn – thanks so much for the tip!! :) :) I’ll definitely be putting that to use!! <3

  • Sarah

    Hey there Alex! I found you through flickr and have been admiring your work from afar- but couldn’t resist commenting on this. I’ve been dying to know your editing process, particularly those gorgeous colors. Sadly I only have photoshop elements, so actions don’t work for me…I was wondering if you could do a quick breakdown of what your actions like Summer Princess consist of- and also if you have any tips for duplicating that effect in elements.

  • http://www.helenliskphotography.co.uk Helen Lisk

    Thanks Alex, that’s brilliant to watch! You are a superstar for sharing :)

  • https://plus.google.com/107915786693914465723/ Fernando

    Wouldn’t it have been easier (albeit a lot more expensive) to have taken the original photo with good lighting to begin with?

    Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Photoshop tutorial, and yours one of the best I’ve seen.

    On an unrelated note, what tablet are you using?

  • http://www.alexbeadonphotography.com Alex Beadon

    Hey Fernando :) Easier for you? Probably. Easier for me? No. :) But you’ve definitely given me something to think about – I still need to master artificial lighting, it’s on my to do list for sure. And to answer your question, I’m using the Wacom Bamboo and I love it!

  • http://www.alexbeadonphotography.com Alex Beadon

    Hi Sarah! I am currently trying to make the actions available for Elements users too :) I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as I do :)!! Big hugs xxx

  • http://ashleydellingerphotography.com ashley dellinger

    I really enjoy your style and your blog just wanted to say thank you for all the tips!

  • http://www.facebook.com/brithooks Brit Hooks

    How do you make the “summer princess” look?

  • Amanda

    Wow, you spend WAY too much time on images… you can’t even really tell that you’ve changed some of the things you did. You should really streamline… save yourself some time!

  • http://www.alexbeadonphotography.com Alex Beadon

    Hi Amanda,
    I do spend a lot of time editing my images – but I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I want them to look their absolute best, and this seems to work quite well for me at the moment. Plus, I love Photoshop and experimenting with a variety of effects – so it’s a win/win for me :). Thanks for the advice, though!
    xxx

  • http://www.alexbeadonphotography.com Alex Beadon

    Hi Brit,

    The “Summer Princess” look is a Photoshop action which can be downloaded here: http://www.alexbeadonphotography.com/blog/where-all-of-your-photoshop-dreams-come-true/

    Enjoy!
    xxx

  • Shelley Tholen

    Alex, I just happened upon your website. I’m so glad I did! I was just wondering if I can do the same things in photoshop elements 6? or do I need CS2?

  • http://www.alexbeadonphotography.com Alex Beadon

    Hey Shelley!

    Welcome to the blog :) I’m so happy that you like it here! Unfortunately these actions only work in Photoshop CS2 – CS5. I’m not sure about Elements as I have never used that program before. I’m so sorry to not be of much help! :(

    Big hugs and thanks for stopping by!
    xxx

  • Crystal

    Hi there! Love your actions and this video. Do you happen to have one on resizing? I think that’s one of my greatest challenges is resizing and cropping! It’s a big headache! Thanks! Beautiful imagery!

  • http://www.fitforthesoul.com Ellie

    Wowwwww this is beautiful and so amazing!! I really appreciate your hard work on this video–and the model subject and editing are beautiful :) Found you through pinterest!

  • http://www.angelacappetta.com AC

    Solid advice. Well done.

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  • http://www.jessicavalentin.com Jessica Valentin

    Thank you for sharing :) loved it!

  • http://www.bamfotography.com Amy Manns

    Found you on Pinterest! Right now my husband and I use Lightroom a lot but I’m wanting to learn the ins and outs of CS5. This helps!! Thanks so much :)

  • jennelle oliver

    This was so amazingly helpful! Thanks.

  • http://tipsquirrel.com Eric ‘TipSquirrel’ Renno

    Very nice and clear tutorial, thanks for sharing!

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  • Alisa

    Hey! What was the action you used after summer princess?

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  • http://www.alexbeadonphotography.com Alex Beadon
  • http://blog.aspiringimagesbyrachel.com Rachel

    W-O-W! This made me sooooo excited because I have always applied actions as a whole and never thought about their opacity, applying them only to specific places, etc. You do a great job of organizing your actions for the user as well. Well done! I can’t wait to buy the whole set you are offering on sale. Just gotta do it when I get home to where my Photoshop is.

  • http://blog.aspiringimagesbyrachel.com Rachel

    BTW – Bought the entire package & am so thrilled! Thanks so much for such a great deal & your videos really helped me to understand better how to individualize the actions to suit my needs. Most excellent & thank you.

  • Sally

    I’m new to the photoshop world. I watched how you used “action”. How do I get the “action”? Is that something I have to create first?

  • http://www.bloggakpphoto.net AKP Photography

    Great tutorial as always :D Thanks for sharing :D

    Love from Norway

  • Katherine Naulty

    I loved your tutorial! And I have a few questions about the actions you used in it! So I was able to record the actions simple enough, but I was really confused about how that action could be in a layer, it would do the action, but I think that it was just happening on the background layer–how do I get them to be their own layers so that I can group them, in order to alter the opacity and be able to see the changes etc? Also, I was wondering how you go about choosing how to make your specific color pallets, like summer dream. Do you use a compilation of gradient maps and basic colors and then just try out different pieces of the action?
    Thanks so much for posting your videos, they are so helpful and exciting!
    Thanks,
    Katherine

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