Abstract Photo Manipulation in PHOTOSHOP

Here we'll learn how to create an abstract photo manipulation that looks like you've just painted the subject, I've included lots of useful techniques for creating impressive abstract pieces. I've tried to keep this simple but if you don't understand any steps then just skip it as not all of them are compulsory.

Preview of Final Results

Below is the image we will be creating, the inspiration for this image came from an image by Maciej Mizer, a great artist, check it out here.

Abstract Photo Manipulation Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

Go here and download the image then open it in Photoshop. Now go Image>Rotate Canvas>90°CW to get it it looking like the image below.

Step 2

IN the layers panel create a new hue/saturation adjustment layer and use the settings shown below, the reason for doing this is that we are going to increase the saturation of the whole image at the end which would make the background to high in saturation so we are lowering the saturation now.

Step 3

We are going to use an image of a parrot; mainly because parrots are colorful but you can use your own image if you want, the one I used can be found here so copy this image into your document then resize it is similar to the image shown below.

Step 4

Now probably the least enjoyable part of any photo manipulation; the extraction, it's worth get good at it though as you get quick after doing it a lot. So we only want the parrot, not the lake or the the white pole. Unless you've already got a solid way you like to extract images then use the way I'm about to teach you. Select the image of the parrot then click on the layer mask button in the layers panel to add a mask, if your not familiar with masks then basically if you paint black onto a mask then it will hide that part of the layer and the opposite goes for white, at the moment the whole mask is white so everything in the layer is visible. Select black as the foreground color then make sure the mask is selected not the layer. Now select the brush tool and use a round brush with about 80% hardness, start off with a diameter of about 30px although you'll have to change this a lot so do so by using the ] key to increase the diameter and the [ key to decrease. Now you just have to brush round the parrot, you wont need to be too accurate here as we're going for a grungy look anyway, I was pretty neat because I tend to use image that I've extracted multiple times. this was the part that I started on and I had to decrease the brush size to get into the bit next to the red feather.

I lowered the hardness of the brush to 0% for this part as the feathers need to look soft.

This is what it looked like after cutting the parrot out, well done if you've made it this far it's easy sailing from here on.

Step 5

We are going to use some watercolor brushes to create the painted effect, watercolor brushes have become really popular recently and the set I tend to use can be found hereso download and install them; you may need to restart Photoshop to get them properly installed. We are going to create all the watercolor effects behind the parrot so create a new layer then move it below the layer with the parrot in it. Select the eyedropper tool then click somewhere on the tail(is that what its called?), this is to get a reddish color that matches the color of the bird. Now select the brush tool and choose one of the watercolor brushes then click once to get the effect shown below. If you want to rotate the brush then go Window>Brushes>Brush Tip Shape and move the arrow in the circle that looks like a compass.

Step 6

Do this again twice using different brushes and use yellow and blue as the colors. You should end up with something similar to the image below.

Step 7

I then used some splatter brushes in random colors to add some more detail which you can see below. Feel free to use different brushes but I liked the effect gained from using the splatter brushes.

Step 8

You now need to find an image of a rainforest or a jungle, ideally something with lots of green plants. I tend to get my stock images from SXC so copy an image then paste it into your document and move it behind the watercolor strokes then resize it and position it like so.

Step 9

Select the layer with your jungle image then hold Alt and click on the layer mask button to, this time, create a black layer mask so this will hide your jungle image. Change the foreground color to white then select the layer mask then the brush tool and using a 0% hardness brush of about 100px diameter brush at parts round the parrot to unhide bits of the plants. In this step I only did the bits around the parrots back.

Step 10

I then repeated the last two steps for the parts below the part, you may have done this already in the previous step which is fine.

Step 11

This is an optional step but also an opportunity for you to add some personal touches. You will need some cool patterns, you can download these, use the ones that come with Photoshop or make your own, I've written loads of tutorials which include the creation of patterns, 45° lines, Photoshop's transparent pattern, diamond plating. What I did was to select the pattern stamp tool, chose a pattern and used either a splatter brush or a watercolor brush then brushed onto a new layer below the parrot layer.

Step 12

Create a new layer directly below the parrot then select the brush tool and choose a 2px hard round brush. Now using a few different bright colors draw some long freehand lines and make the pretty random and go wild. Use about three or four different colors, I've shown a couple of examples below.

Step 13

Next I added some details using the shape tools, I've shown some below so add a few of each in a new layer each time, you decide if it should be above or below the parrot. Here I used the line tool to create some crosses, I used a weight of 2px and held Shift to get the lines at 45°.

I held Shift and used the rectangle tool then reduced the opacity of the layer to give a semi-transparent effect.

Just some simple circles her, I added a few of these dotted about.

I added some more simple shapes in different colors like the white rings but I'm sure you've got the idea now.

Step 14

Last thing to do in almost any Photoshop image is to experiment with some color adjustments, the way I see it is if your a beginner then use the hue/saturation adjustment layer, an intermediate then go for the color balance adjustment layer and if you have a bit more experience or feel adventurous then try the curves adjustment layer. I added a curves adjustment layer with the settings shown below and mainly lowered the output of the blue channel increased the rest as the image was looking to cold I felt.

Conclusion

Obviously there's a lot further you can take this but the techniques I've shown here are really all you need to create an abstract photo manipulation like this one.

TUTORIALS -USING MULTIPLE COLORS IN PHOTOSHOP

Have you ever used a brush and thought how pretty it would look, if only you could make it show up in more than one color? Being able to change the color of Photoshop brushes upon application is a beautiful thing, but sometimes the colors on image brushes and the like can look rather... flat in color. This tutorial will show you how to add multiple colors to the same brush.

1. First off, start by creating a new layer on top of the Background layer. On the layers palette, click the "Create a New Layer" button on the bottom right (just next to the trash can). Now, on that layer... using black, make a single brush stroke on the canvas using the brush of your choice. I'm using a flower brush, and it looks like this:

2. Now, in the layers palette, right click on that layer, and choose "Layer Properties," then rename the layer to "Black" so that you know that the color on that layer is...well, black! You should now have a background layer, and this new layer with the black brushstroke on it named "Black." Now, to add some color! So that you don't have to paint in everything and hope to "stay in the lines" of where the boundaries of the brush is, we're going to just duplicate the layer and then you can work with that. Here goes! Right click on the "Black" layer in the layers palette and choose "Duplicate Layer."

3. Name that layer whatever color you would like to use first. The primary color of my phlox flower is a blue-violet, so I named mine "Blues." You can rename it either as you duplicate it (it will ask you what to name it) or afterward, if you forget, you can right click on the layer in the layer palette and choose "Layer Properties" just like we did in the first step. Now, on the layers palette, make sure you have the "Blues" layer selected and click on the "f" at the bottom left corner of the layers palette.

4. Choose "Color Overlay" from the dropdown menu, and then pick out a color.

5. You should have an image exactly the same as the original black, but now in whatever color you chose. We're going to change the way that this layer blends into the entire image, but first we need to get rid of the "color overlay" on this layer (but keep the color, of course!). In the layers palette,click on the layer just beneath the colored layer - in my case, the layer just below my "Blues" layer. Click on the "Create a New Layer" button at the bottom of the layers palette (highlighted in red on the image to the right). It should look like this:

6. Click on the "Blues" layer to select it. In the top menu, choose "Layer" and then "Merge Down" (or hotkey CTRL-E on a PC, CMD-E on a Mac).

7. You'll probably have to rename your "Blues" layer. Whenever you merge a layer down, it takes on the name of the layer below it. So, do that now using the same way we did it earlier.

Now we want to change the way that the blues layer blends in with the whole image. Select the "Blues" layer by clicking on it in the layer palette. Now click on the "f" at the lower left of the layer palette again. Choose the first option, "Blending Options":

8. In the menu that pops up, at the top, you'll want to change that from "Normal" to "Color."

9. What this is doing is changing it so that this layer now merely changes the color of anything on the layers below it. It does NOT change the luminosity of it, so if you had this over white, it wouldn't do anything. It would make it a blue white, but a blue white is still white - white doesn't have any color to it at all. However, when you have gray tones in the layer below, as we do, it adds color to those gray tones to make them blue-grays. I played around with my blues layer and added different tones of blue simply by painting it in. If you didn't want to actually paint them in, you could add a gradient - with this flower, I added a radial gradient so that the tips were darker and the inner portions had more purples in them:

10. I followed steps 2-8 again, beginning with the duplication of the black layer, and created a layer with yellows and oranges in it. You can do this as many times as you want, with as many layers as you want.. or just with the one beginning layer that you created, if you'd rather put all the colors on one layer. I tend to use separate layers so that if I want to, I can change the hue/saturation of each individual layer.

11. You can do a lot of "playing around" with it afterward by changing the hue/saturation like that, or by changing the lightness/darkness or opacities of each layer (including the black one!). Here's another image of a pansy where I did just that. The first one is the original, where I have the black layer's opacity set at only about 60%. The second one is different hues AND the black layer's opacity is set much higher, at 100%. The third one is different hues again, with the blues on the edges much more saturated and the black layer at a lower opacity, around 30%.

13. If you're not familiar with where to change the hue and saturation, brightness, etc, it's under the top menu. Click on "Image" then "Adjustments" then "Hue/Saturation.." A window will pop up that has three bars where you can play around with the colors (hue), how strong or weak that color is (saturation), and the lightness/darkness of that color. As you change them, you'll see the changes to the image itself, so you can see exactly how it will turn out.

13. That's it! Now you can do all sorts of things with colors and brushes!

An alternative method that I use sometimes is to make a single black brush stroke on its own layer, then make another layer just beneath it where I "paint" in the colors that I want that brush to have. Just like I'd paint one of my paintings. This method isn't for everyone, though, and can be difficult to do with just a mouse. So I spent much more time outlining the method above. However, if you're an artist or would like to do these colors much more intricately, try painting the colors in on a layer below yourself.

Enjoy!

Hair Coloring in Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial, we're going to look at how simple and easy it is to change hair color in Photoshop by tinting and colorizing someone's hair in a photo. The technique we'll be learning here gives us complete control over what we're doing, with several different ways of fine-tuning the results, plus we can also go back any time we want and change the hair color without having to redo all the work! You can use this technique on photos of other people (friends, family, clients), or you can even use it on a photo of yourself to see how different hair colors would look on you!

Here's the image I'll be using for this Photoshop tutorial:

Photoshop Hair Color: The original image.

We're going to be giving her hair a brighter, slightly more reddish color to it in this tutorial, but you have complete control over the color you use with your image, as well as the intensity of the color. Here's how she'll look when we're done:

Photoshop Hair Color: The final result.

At the end of the tutorial, we'll see how easy it is to go back and change the color to something completely different. Let's get started!

Step 1: Add A "Hue/Saturation" Adjustment Layer

With our image open in Photoshop, click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (the circle split diagonally between black and white):

Photoshop Hair Color: Click on the "New Adjustment Layer" icon.

Then select Hue/Saturation from the list of adjustment layers that appears:

Photoshop Hair Color: Select a "Hue/Saturation" adjustment layer.

Step 2: Select The "Colorize" Option

When the Hue/Saturation dialog box opens, select the Colorize option in the bottom right corner by clicking inside its checkbox:

Photoshop Hair Color: Select the "Colorize" option.

As soon as you select the Colorize option, you'll see your entire image become colorized with a shade of red.

Step 3: Select A New Color For The Hair

Drag the Hue slider left or right to select the color you want to use for the person's hair. For the moment, you'll be colorizing the entire image, but we'll fix that in the next couple of steps. Just ignore the rest of the image for now and focus only on the hair. Once you've found a color you like, adjust the intensity of the color by dragging the Saturation slider left or right. Dragging it to the right gives you a more saturated color, while dragging it to the left reduces the saturation.
Don't worry about getting the color and saturation perfect because you can always go back and change it quite easily later. I'm going to set my Hue amount to about 9 and increase the Saturation to around 45 for now:

Photoshop Hair Color: Use the Hue slider to select a new color for the hair and adjust the intensity of the color with the Saturation slider.

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box. The woman's hair now appears colorized in red, but so is the rest of her:

Photoshop Hair Color: The entire image is now colorized in red. 

 

Step 4: Fill The Hue/Saturation Layer's Mask With Black

One of the great things about adjustment layers in Photoshop is that each one automatically comes with its own layer mask, and we're going to use it to fix the problem we currently have with our entire image being colorized when all we really want is for the hair to be colorized.
To start with, let's completely hide the effects of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer by filling its layer mask with black. Since black is our current Background color and the layer mask is already selected (Photoshop automatically selected the layer mask for us when we added the adjustment layer and set our Foreground and Background colors to white and black, respectively), all we need to do is use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete (Mac) to fill the layer mask with black.
As soon as we do, the colorizing effect disappears from our image and if we look in the Layers palette, we can see that the adjustment layer's thumbnail, which gives us a preview of what the layer mask looks like, is now filled with black:

Photoshop Hair Color: The Layers palette showing the layer mask thumbnail for the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer now filled with black.

Step 5: Select The Brush Tool

To bring back the colorizing effect and have it applied only to the hair, all we need to do is paint with white on our layer mask over the hair. Anywhere we paint with white on the layer mask will reveal the effects of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, and anywhere we leave black will keep the effects hidden. First, we need the Brush Tool, so either select it from the Tools palette or press the letter B on your keyboard to select it with the shortcut:

Photoshop Hair Color: Select Photoshop's Brush Tool.

We need to paint with white on the layer mask to reveal the colorizing effect on the hair, and Photoshop has already set our Foreground color to white for us, as we can see in the Foreground and Background color swatches near the bottom of the Tools palette (the swatch on the left is the Foreground color and the swatch on the right is the Background color):

Photoshop Hair Color: Photoshop's Tools palette showing white as our Foreground color and black as our Background color.

We also already have our layer mask selected, and we can tell that because the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette has a white highlight border around it, as shown in the image for Step 4 above, which tells us that the mask is selected.

Step 6: Paint With White Over The Hair

With our Brush Tool selected, the layer mask for the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer selected, and white as our Foreground color, all we need to do now is paint over the hair. To quickly change your brush size as you paint, use the left and right bracket keys on your keyboard. The left bracket key makes the brush smaller and the right one makes it larger. You'll want to use a soft-edged brush, so hold down your Shift key and press the left bracket key a few times to soften its edges (holding Shift and pressing the right bracket key a few times makes the brush edges harder). Then simply paint over the hair to bring back the colorizing effect:

Photoshop Hair Color: Paint with white over the hair to reveal the colorizing effect from the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

For trickier areas where there's only loose strands of hair, go up to the Options Bar at the top of the screen and lower the Opacity of the brush down to about 25% or so:

Photoshop Hair Color: Lowering the opacity of the brush in the Options Bar.

Then lower the size of your brush so it's no bigger than the area you're colorizing and paint over it a couple of times. This way, the color won't be so intense in those areas. You may find it helps to zoom in on those areas as well, and the easiest way to do that is to hold down the Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and the Spacebar and drag a selection around the area. Photoshop will then zoom into the area you selected:

Photoshop Hair Color: Zoom into the areas of loose strands if needed and paint over them a couple of times with a lower opacity brush.

Press Ctrl+Alt+0 (Win) / Command+Option+0 (Mac) when you're done to zoom back out to 100%.
If you make a mistake as you're painting and accidentally paint over an area you didn't mean to (happens all the time), simply press X to swap your Foreground and Background colors, making black your Foreground color, and paint over the mistake to undo it. Then press X again to set your Foreground color back to white and continue painting until you have all the hair colorized:

Photoshop Hair Color: The woman's hair is now colorized while the rest of the image is not. 

 

Step 7: Change The Blend Mode To Either "Color" Or "Soft Light"

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The hard part is done! We've colorized the hair while leaving the rest of the image untouched thanks to the layer mask that came with the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Now we can fine-tune the effect, and the first way to do that is by changing the blend mode of the adjustment layer. By default, the blend mode is set to "Normal", and it works fairly well, but let's change it to something better. Go up to the blend mode options in the top left corner of the Layers palette, click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal", and select either Color or Soft Light from the list:

Photoshop Hair Color: Change the blend mode of the adjustment layer to either "Color" or "Soft Light".

The "Color" blend mode gives us even more of a colorizing effect, since it changes only the color of an image (when we had the blend mode set to "Normal", it was affecting not only the color but also the lightness values of the hair). Here's my image with the blend mode of the adjustment layer set to "Color":

Photoshop Hair Color: The image with the blend mode of the adjustment layer set to "Color". Only the color of the hair is being affected. The lightness values in the hair are not being affected).

The "Soft Light" blend mode gives us a more dramatic colorizing effect because it not only changes the color of the hair but also boosts the contrast, which I think works even better than the "Color" blend mode in this case. Here's my image with the blend mode set to "Soft Light":

Photoshop Hair Color: The image with the blend mode of the adjustment layer set to "Soft Light", giving us a more dramatic effect.

Choose the blend mode that works best with your image.

Step 8: Lower The Opacity Of The Adjustment Layer If Needed

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Another way to fine-tune the colorizing effect is by lowering the opacity of the adjustment layer. If you find the color is too intense, simply go up to the Opacity option in the top right corner of the Layers palette (across from the blend mode option) and lower it until you're happy with the results. Here, I've lowered the opacity of the adjustment layer to 50%:

Photoshop Hair Color: Lower the opacity of the adjustment layer for a more subtle colorizing effect.

This gives me a more subtle colorizing effect:

Photoshop Hair Color: The image after lowering the opacity of the adjustment layer.

Step 9: Edit The Hue/Saturation Settings To Change The Hair Color As Needed

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At this point we're done, but if you need to go back and change the hair color to something different, simply double-click on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer's thumbnail in the Layers palette (the thumbnail on the left, not the layer mask thumbnail on the right):

Photoshop Hair Color: Double-click on the adjustment layer's thumbnail to edit the Hue/Saturation settings and change the hair color.

This brings the Hue/Saturation dialog box back up and we can change the hair color simply by dragging the Hue slider to something different. We can also re-adjust the saturation of the color with the Saturation color. Since this is an adjustment layer, we're free to make as many changes as we want without worrying about damaging our image. Just for fun, I'll set my Hue slider to 304 to give her hair more of a pink/purple look:

Photoshop Hair Color: Adjust the Hue slider to change the hair color again.

I'm also going to set the blend mode of the adjustment layer back to "Color" and increase the opacity to around 75%:

Photoshop Hair Color: Setting the blend mode back to Color and raising the opacity to 75%.

And here's my new result:

Photoshop Hair Color: The image afterChanging the hair color and saturation, blend mode and opacity value.

And there we have it! That's how easy it is to change someone's hair color in Photoshop!