Members LoginBefore and After Competition Part 1
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UPDATE: Please see the video above to watch how this technique was done and what tools were used.
Hello and welcome to the first of three Photoshop competitions I’ll be running here over the next 4 to 6 weeks!
The winner from each competition gets to choose a Photoshop training CD or DVD from my catalogue of award-winning Photoshop training tools.
To enter, simply look at the two photos below then scroll down the page for entry details and competition closing dates.
(All competition winners names will be taken and put in a prize barrel for the chance to win our major prize draw at the end of the year. Details coming soon!)
Good luck and I hope to see you in the winners circle.
NOTE: This was a 4 min. job as it’s about the competition NOT perfection – if more time was spent you’d see a better result.
Here is the before photo
Click here to download this image to practice
Here is the after photo…
NOTE: This was a 4 min. job as it’s about the competition NOT perfection – if more time was spent you’d see a better result.
Here’s how to enter the competition:
1. Check out the before and after photos above.
2. Write your comments in the comments section below stating what tools and steps you think I took to change the first photo from the before shot to the after shot.
3. In a week or so I’ll post the video tutorial that shows the exact tools and steps I used.
How is the winner selected? What do you win?
The first person to correctly state which tools and what steps I used (in the comments section below) will be the winner of a CD or DVD of their choice.
If more than one person gets the answer correct I’ll put the answers before a panel so they can decide which answer is the clearest and best description of the steps and tools I used. My decision will be final.
The winner will be announced one day after the video is posted.
The winner will then be contacted via email to collect their prize.
Will it be you?
By the way, you can download a copy of the photo I used and make the changes I made if this helps you figure out which tools and steps you think I used.
To download the practice image simply click the download link below the first photo.
Now, tell me: How did I do it? What steps and tools did I use?
Enter your answer in the comments section below now for your chance to win!
PS: If you want a FREE 5-day Photoshop training course that’ll show you some of the techniques I used in the above photos you can get it by clicking here
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October 28, 2008 12:43 pm
No problem. any body can do it using the clone tool efficiently. done it wherever you do not like an extra figure or object in the composition
October 28, 2008 10:09 am
1- use the clone tool to remove the lady and replace the sea instead.
2- use the smudge tool to soften the cloned places and the man’s hand
3- make thephoto more dark by using color balance
4- add picture tool to put the dark frame in the photo
mmmmm
October 28, 2008 5:19 am
I used the patch tool on the most of the girl to replace her with ocean then I used a clone stamp tool to remove and blend her hand into just his.
October 27, 2008 10:32 pm
I would try this:
1-Duplicate the background;
2-Select the woman with “Quick Selection”;
3-Fill the selection with a select sea/sand with “Edit-copy-past into” that I had from duplicate photo – where I used “Retangular Marque tool”;
4-Fix the guy hand with “brush tool”;
5-To smooth the edges selection – “Healing Brush tool e Bluer tone”;
6-After guy mask, I used curve and Channel Mixer to increase the blue saturation,
7-In the end, I add black canvas size = width > height.
October 27, 2008 10:27 pm
I think you used clone tool to delete the woman .You did masking and used the patch and heal tool.
October 27, 2008 7:43 pm
Greetings Shane
Well this before and after pics, tool used is clone tool, heal clone and also change image mode to lab to adjust the colour to give it this viberant colour.
October 27, 2008 5:49 pm
Any of the above methods will work.
I just want to thank you for a brilliant idea to teach skills to millions simply!
We get hooked with the comp, read all the answers and decide on the way we want to tackle it depending on our level of competency.
You are a wizz Shane, please keep this as a feature if you can. I’m sure you can think up a lure to get us all beavering away. Kind regards, Jill
October 27, 2008 3:50 pm
Ah, I wish i didn’t have a migraine right now because I see at least three things done that haven’t been mentioned yet. I just can’t type it all out right now cuz this light is really bothering my migraine. Hopefully in the morning nobody will have gotten ALL the possible steps yet (well, that’s in my opinion… I could be wrong).
This is fun!
October 27, 2008 2:38 pm
OK Shane, I’m ready for my DVD
Here is what you did. You created a new layer 500w X 487h > Used paint bucket and made it black > Dragged your photo onto the new layer, and centered it > Went to ‘Color Balance,’ clicked on ‘Highlights,’ and slid the yellow to blue slider to +34 on the blue side > Then you used the ‘Clone Stamp’ tool to make her go away > Finally, you used the ‘Healing Tools’ to fix his hand! Oh boy, can’t wait to check the mail 
October 27, 2008 2:35 pm
Lasso to Select girl, Clone tool for remove Girl, Curve Adjustment for inhance colour, Increase Canvas size with black background.
October 27, 2008 12:21 pm
Sorry I did not put the black border around. Also sorry I phrased my work in first person. I plead license because it was late. Next time will be better.
To make the black border, you could have increased the size of your canvass, selected around the picture, inverted the select and used the fill to add the black. You could also select around the pict and use a stroke of 72 ppi to add a border of an inch. GayLynn
October 27, 2008 11:03 am
Hi Shane, my recipe!
Make copy of downloaded picture
Rectangular marquee to copy area of sea and sand next to girl, a tad larger than her size.
Make work path and load path as a selection
Use magnetic lasso round girl and her shadow
Go Edit, select ‘Paste into..’
Tidy any remains up with clone or brush tools
Enlarge canvas and fill resulting border with black.
Adjust blue saturation
It didn’t look too bad!
Obviously with bit of fiddling here and there would have been fairish.
October 27, 2008 9:51 am
Forgot to add the border. I went to Image>Resize>Canvas Size and increased the canvas size by 1 1/2 inches on the width and 1 inch on the height. That seems to look about right. The image is 5 X 5.
Tom
October 27, 2008 7:08 am
Hey Shane-Looks to me like a quick selection tool to select the woman. Then the clone tool to replace her figure. Then adjust hue for the blue. I also increased the contrast a little in curves. My after looks like your after. I see from the comments there is more than one way to do this. I just have to keep it simple because I’m new to this.
Tom
October 26, 2008 11:23 pm
Hi shane!
Nice work up there by u!,those are nice couples,and the u did a great job so quick!.i was amazed when i thought of that!!!
nice removal of the girls shadow and her hand off from that boys hand!,
and i noted that u cropped the picture a bit!,and also the gradient of the beach color was nice…
my answer to ur work is that u have used a “HEALING BRUSH TOOL” and set the mode to “REPLACE” and with a good and smooth “HARDNESS OF THE BRUSH” the “AFTER IMAGE” will be accquired!!.hope i got the answer correctly!
October 26, 2008 3:46 pm
1. I took a wide selection from just beside where the girl was standing and copied it.
2. I then selected the area I wanted to replace around the image of the girl, but left her hand placed in his.
3. I did a copy into and put the selection of sea and sky I had copied into the selected space. I invoked a free transform around the clip of sea and sky and reversed it horizontally, in order to match the hue and light where the old and new joined. Using the free transform, I fit the new image into the selected area I was replacing.
4. I selected around the arm and hands, and copied them onto a new canvas so I could enlarge them and get a better view to select the girl’s thumb and delete it. I then carefully selected around the male’s fingers, hand and arm up to the parallel line going up his shoulder, copied and pasted it into place. I used the patch tool to blend in the wrist area and also to get rid of any lines that remained in the landscape from the copy into.
I am not entirely happy with the hand and wrist, but it is after midnight in Utah, so will call this good.
October 26, 2008 3:34 pm
You simply use the lasso tool to select the girl image then followed by the clone stamp tool and little adjustment on the opacity of the clone stamp to removed the girl in the scene.That is a less than 4 min. job….
October 26, 2008 7:46 am
I would use a combo of clone tool then touch up with the patch tool.
I would them lool for a ‘donor hand’ to replace the guys weird hand.
October 26, 2008 5:58 am
The new image is darker and more blue. You probably played with curves. Might do some levels as well, but not sure about that. The image was already contrasty enough. Four minutes is quite fast retouch therefor i think you used the easiest way: clone stamp or patch tool and then clone stamp with low opacity for a good blend and large opacity in the middle for details.. Btw you forgot to erase a part of female shadow. Check male left leg. The shadow shall start between his legs. You used clone stamp do paint the missing part of the male hand. You could do it by using brush tool but i think it would take longer. You did not change the crop size of the original image so i think the frame could be made by setting black background color and changing canvas size. Simple as it and four minutes is enough.
There is one more way how you could do it. You did the curves (maybe levels), changed canvas size for the frame and the way how you got rid off the girl was that you made extra layer, use marque tool to select and copy see-sand part into the new layer so it replaced the girl and as a blending you added a new mask and used gradient on sides. All you had to do next was use history brush to paint back the guys arm and use clone stamp (or brush) to paint the missing part of the hand.
October 26, 2008 4:36 am
Here’s my guess (or the way I might do it):
First, using the selection tool, select an area of the ocean and beach to the left of the woman and about the same height, copy and paste on a new layer, and move to cover as much of the woman as possible Select the new layer, then inverse select, feather a few pixels and delete to give it a soft edge to better blend in.
Then, you can create a new layer, hold down alt and choose “merge Visible” from the menu. All layers are combined in one, but leave the originals under your new layer.
Use the Clone Stamp to clean up anything left of the woman and the guy’s hand.
Bump up the blue saturation.
Finally, draw a selection rectangle around the scene, then select inverse, shift+delete to fill the border with black.
October 26, 2008 3:52 am
Used clone stamp &/or patch tool to remove the lady though it seems that a shadow of the lady has still remained. Perhaps you have made a copy of the photo first. Also you have modified the level & hue & saturation. Finally you have cropped and pasted on a black background.
October 26, 2008 1:04 am
(I meant a 2 px FEATHER C&P…)
October 26, 2008 12:59 am
I would have used a simple 2 px C&P from a copy plus the healing brush. For the frame, I would have resized the canvas, used the magic wand to isolate, and pour in K paint.
(I mainly use PS Elements, but sometimes use CS 2.)
October 26, 2008 12:08 am
i think Shane used the clone tool to remove the girl. he probably used the hue/saturation to move from green water to more blue. the saturation was also increased to enhance the entire picture. the burn tool was probably used to make the sky more dramatic as well. the black background is a nice touch to offset the bright picture and give an overall richer experience.
4 minutes well spent – nice.
October 25, 2008 9:40 pm
First you used the clone tool to do the major removal of the woman and her shadow, and adjust the man’s hand. Then I think you used the healing brush tool and/or the patch tool to refine the cloning. I think you bumped the saturation and adjusted the levels. Finally, you reduced the image and added the matte frame – probably as a new layer, using the rectangular tool to draw two rectangles, and the clipping mask to knock out the center. The rectangles had to be aligned first and then filled with black.
Joyce
October 25, 2008 7:57 pm
Additional information:
I tried this out:
1. Duplicate background
2. Remove the girl with the Magic Lasso
3. Use Clone Stamp for the picture that was cut out, and to “heal” the hand
4. Add black canvas size of 1 inch.
A bit pity I can’t attach the result. It looks the same as yours!
Kind regards!
October 25, 2008 7:17 pm
clone is done,and increase the depth of the colour
October 25, 2008 4:53 pm
Hi Shane,
1. Duplicate background
2. Make the layer black
3. The couple picture: use the Clone Stamp, give it more contrast, and crop the picture (Select Inverse)
4. Merge both pictures.
Have a nice day!
October 25, 2008 4:36 pm
I think you definately used the clone tool to get rid of the woman and her shadow, how, is always difficult to say, but maybe using the clone source, followed by a couple of corrections or maybe just cloning…. The sky is saturated, probably with a saturation layer or gradient layer or maybe tweeking the blues with curves and the black border was created maybe by resizing the canvas and filling the extra space with black or maybe by adding an extra layer behind the photo, filling it with black and again resizing the photo infront.
October 25, 2008 4:08 pm
You have the clone tool.
October 25, 2008 3:57 pm
Sorry forgot about the black border-used rectangular marquee tool to selectthat area, inverted selection,cleared selection(del),then used paint bucket tool to fill selection(chose black as foreground colour)thus creating the black border
October 25, 2008 3:43 pm
This is what i did–duplicated the image,selected the girl and her shadow using the magnetic lasso(on this picture that worked faster),then i selected the patch tool and moved the selection to left- this way i got the girl and her shadow replaced with sea and beach instantly.Then used clone stamp to touch up the edges.That done i used the clone stamp on the guys hand to remove the girls fingers.a little retouch and Done
October 25, 2008 3:25 pm
Using the retangular marquee tool make a selection of the water and sand to the left of the woman, Ctrlj to put it on its own layer selct the move tool and place it over the woman and some of the man, next free transform and pull it out over them tilt the selection to marry up with the water. Add a layer mask to this layer drop the opacity so you can see the two people then with a soft brush paint black on the man and some of the sea turn up the opacity to see how it looks and tidy up ,set new layer and clone on the man’s hand to fix. Crop to size then set the crop tool again over the whole picture then gabbind hold of one of the corners pull diagonally while holding down the Alt key to get an even distance around the picture and crop then make a new layer and fill with black change the picture layer to a normal layer then pull the black layer down under it to finish flatten image
October 25, 2008 3:13 pm
Load Original
Duplicate Background Layer
With rectangular marquis: copy section of water and sand large enough to cover the girl (except for the wrist)
Paste into copy layer
Use smudge tool to blend away sharp edges of pasted area
Smudge boy’s arm to erase girls arm and wrist
Copy a finger and paste it in place of missing ones to fix boys hand
Smudge more to repair wrist and palm
Use light blur to smooth all edges
Enlarge canvas size about 2 inches all around to accomodate border
Fill empty border with Black
Delete original Background
Flatten Image …..Save as Final
October 25, 2008 2:57 pm
There are several ways to do this, but I would guess that a combination of Patch and Clone were used, the clone tool was needed on the wrist to remove the area where both hands overlapped. Then it appears as though the cyan color of the sky and water were shifted to a more vibrant blue color. This can be done several ways, such as Hue and Saturation, then isolating the Cyan color on the drop down palette and shifting the color. Alternately, for a more refined color shift, Channel Mixer may have been used. The image also appears to be downsized to approx 85% of its original size. This may have been done by duplicating the original background layer, then choosing Transform / Scale. Afterwards the bottom background layer, that is beneath the image is filled with black. This is done by typing “D” on the keyboard to set the colors to the “default” black and white, then pressing Alt/backspace (Opt/backspace on the Mac) to fill the layer with black.
blog: http://www.galefraney.wordpress.com
October 25, 2008 1:51 pm
you use clone tool.
October 25, 2008 1:29 pm
Ow and I forgot to mention the last step. i.e increasing the hue/saturation of the picture just slightly higer on the contrast..
October 25, 2008 1:26 pm
Hey Shane,
Thnx for starting this interesting competition.
Below are the steps I think you might have used.
For the Girl:
- Duplicate the layer and renamed it ‘Cloned girl’..lol
- Using the clone tool, you erase her out not forgetting the use of different levels of opacity so the sea remains looking realistic.
- Lastly you might have used the patch tool to clear the texture of some parts that might have been left rough.
For the Border:
- click on the image menu, selecting canvas size, where the height would have been increased by about 2cm while the width increasing to about double the increase of the height, therefore about 4cm.
-Fill the empty space with black using the fill tool.
October 25, 2008 12:32 pm
All of the above…But
I wish you had got rid of the guy instead!
Cheers.
October 25, 2008 10:27 am
Also forgot the frame, this could have been done with several different methods. Using the Crop tool or making a new layer and making selection with the rectangular Marquee tool, inversing it the fill with the fill tool. Ernie
October 25, 2008 10:17 am
First up I would say, you made a duplicate layer, cloned out the young lady using the Clone Stamp tool, then to add some blue to the water, made a hue saturation Adjustment layer, then possibly added some levels adjustment. Ernie
October 25, 2008 9:58 am
This is really cool.
I’m just guessing but I think you’ve have used the Clone Stamp tool to remove the lady.
You’ve also done something to the color of the image and then added a black border but I’m not 100% sure how you’ve done that.
Great work and I can’t wait to see the video.
Thanks alot
Mark
October 25, 2008 9:08 am
PS I forgot to mention the addition of the black border. It could have been done by using the crop tool to increase the size of the picture which would put the black border, or you could have added a new layer behind the photo, filled with black, reduced the size of the original photo, and there is the border.
October 25, 2008 9:05 am
You used a gradient filter to change the sky colours. Probably a combination of the patch tool, healing tool and/or clone tool to remove the lady & shadows from the photo and fix the guys hand. You would have used masks to prevent the guy from being affected by the gradient.
October 25, 2008 9:05 am
Cloned out girl, applied a mask to man and applied curves, saturation to background.
October 25, 2008 8:41 am
A postscript to my previous comment about how it was done: I omitted to say that in using the Patch Tool I used the fourth setting, ‘intersect with selection’. Also I think the overall saturation was changed to adjust the hue of the blue sky/water.
October 25, 2008 8:36 am
I did it just as quickly as Shane as follows: Use Quick Selection Tool to outline the woman, remembering to include the shadow on the sand, then select the Patch Tool and drag it to replace the selected woman with the ocean/beach background (and clean up with a little cloning if necessary depending on how perfect the initital selection was).
October 25, 2008 8:32 am
The girl and her shadow has been cloned out then the boy’s arm and hand was re-built with cloning and possibly the healing tool.
The saturation has been bumped up (maybe more so in the blues) and the curves have possibly been adjusted.
A black border has been added. This is possible by several methods for example placing picture onto a new canvas with a black background or by resizing the canvas and filling extra area with black.
October 25, 2008 8:17 am
If I were doping this I would have used the clone tool heavily. I have done things like this and that was my tool of preference.
October 25, 2008 8:03 am
Shane I think you used the clone tool to remove the woman and fix up the mans hand where her hand was.