Photo Enhancing ??

[mnotaes]

I was looking to get photos done for a recording artist, but they didnt turn out how we thought they would look...
So i was looking to get them enhanced, however the pricing is really high. So i know what look i want them to have, but not sure on what steps to get there.

I want to apply the same effects as in these images : http://www.ziggazaggaproductions.com/packages.html
Can someone help me with the process ? (im an intermediate user of photoshop CS)[/url]

[Welles]

Hi mnotaes and welcome to the forums. As we don't have any starting image it is nearly impossible to suggest an approach. Do you want to start with a makeover? Here's a great tutorial on which to start.

http://photoshopgurus.com/intermedia...o_makeover.pdf

If that doesn't help, could you post an image so we have some notion of what you are starting with and where you wish to go?

Cheers!
Welles

[Sheba]

Have you looked at the tutorial on this site?

http://www.photoshopgurus.com/interm...o_makeover.pdf

Looks like exactly what you are looking for.

Edit:

Oops, posted at the same time. ;\ What Welles said.

[Welles]

Hah! I beat you to it by a full minute, Sheba.

That is a great tutorial, isn't it?

Cheers!
Welles

[Sheba]

I'd like to get a ruling on the exact seconds! :P

And yes, it's an awesome tutorial, I refer to it all the time. :}

[Erik]

Try to find the magazine

ComputerArtsProjects issue50

it has a 52 page tutorial on Photoshop portrait retouching.

[mnotaes]

Here is one of the images, they were professionally taken, but came out grainy :S SO that something i need not be visable also.

[Welles]

Here's one approach.

First use the Clone tool to get rid of the light hair and fleck of dust on the green background.

Duplicate your background layer so you are working on a copy above the original.

With that copy selected in the layers palette, use Filter > Noise > Dust & Scratches... In the dust and scratches dialog, set the Radius to about 4 pixels and click OK.

Now back in the layers palette change the blending mode to Darken and drop the opacity to 55% or until you see the highlights in the eyes come back enough but not the other little light pixels.

You may wish to paint in a tiny highlight in the shadowed eye and keep the opacity of the layer on which you've run the filter a little higher, maybe 60 - 65%

A similar approach might be to use Filter > Noise > Despeckle. Experiment to see what looks good for you. ;)

[Erik]

I clicked on that link. First of all I got a popup that, luckily!, goot stopped by firefox, but then, when closing the site and returning here I got this scandalous kind of window.
Please *never* ever use that site again as someone here might be less experienced and get into problems!

[Welles]

That's weird! I've dealt with ImageShack on several occasions (including this one) with no difficulty but I'm using a Mac for the internet (Safari with popup blocker and PithHelmet as well). They're using Linux servers... I wonder... some Windows only issue? Perhaps spyware? \:]