Coffee With Morgan: You Don't Need a Portait to Use the Perfect Portrait Action!
>> Thursday, March 18, 2010
I have been itching to take pictures of hubby's new bike, so yesterday he finally cleaned it up really nice and moved it out back just before sunset so I could get some shots. I am loving them! He told me he wanted just one "normal" shot (because I like getting different, more abstract shots of inanimate objects).
I was asked to make tutorial on how to edit this particular shot.
SOOC shot
I utilized the RAW menu as follows.
Next I run CoffeeShop Perfect Portrait...because it's awesome! I bring the vignette down to about 25% opacity.
*For images that show the paint I paint over it with my brush on the soft skin layer to make it have the waxed look, gaussian blur and adjust opacity as well*
Then I use the eye define layer (Changed the blending mode to see where I brushed) and gaussian blurred to make it blend well.
Flatten and make 2 duplicate layers. Set the blending mode to multiply on the top layer and bring the opacity down to about 50%.
Set the middle layer to screen and keep at 100% opacity.
Flatten.
Duplicate layer.
Set the blending mode to soft light for the top layer and run a high pass filter set at about 5.
Run a reduce noise filter on the bottom layer.
Before and after shots
Meet Morgan! I am from a small town in southern Texas, but now live in central Texas, Fort Hood/Killeen area to be more specific. I am a stay-at-home mom and do photography in my spare time. I am married to a wonderful man that I was lucky enough to meet and be able to spend my life with. We have two beautiful children, Payton 4 years old & Amelia 1 year old. The thing I love the most about photography is that you can take an intangible moment in time and make it last forever. I don't have any formal training, I just learn from experimentation and research.
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9 Thoughtful Comments:
Just a quick note to let you know that a link to this post will be placed on CraftCrave.com in the Tutorials category today [19 Mar 01:26pm GMT]. Thanks, Maria
How do you use the RAW menu in Elements? Where is it? Its driving me nuts! I have heard you can put your jpegs into the raw menu and manipulate them also (but not as freely). Wish I could find it! :)
Kim
Open>open as
there is a drop down menu and select camera raw and your image.
WOW! Your tutorials are amazing! Keep them coming! The before and after pics are like night and day. I have learned so much, thank you! One question...how do you know what to do (in the post processing) and what order to do it in? I'm still learning!
Wow! What a difference! I never thought of using Perfect Portrait on anything other than a portrait. Thanks!!!
Monica,
Think of it like you apply make-up. You have to have a good foundation, clean and even to start with, then you add detail as you go.
A lot of my figuring things out were just me opening up an image and applying filters and edits one at a time to see what they all do.
Best of luck experimenting, it's fun!
:)
Thanks for the info on the RAW editor in Elements Morgan! Then Rita did a post. So I am all set and have been using it and WOW it is SO much easier to get things ready to start applying actions. Thanks. LOVE the tutorials they are extremely helpful!!!
Loved this one. Thanks, i didnt use the Raw menu, but its still turned out great.
I totally agree! I use it on soooo many things!!
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