Welcome Back,
Thanks to those of you who think I jumped the shark on my recent SEO quest and have stayed with me for more actual Photo Restoration Hints. More will follow after I jump the shark one more time...
Good news, my rating went way up (check your own site on freegrader.com). This little gem of a website shows you how you rate on the internet from 1-100 for all the things that Google's little algorithms look for and then tells you what you need to do to fix it. I started with a 6 and got it to 68. I think I have to sell my literal soul at this point to get it higher because I have tried everything to get it higher without result. It has been an interesting ride learning about claiming your business name on directories out there and how to avoid paying for listings (yp.com has a really nice introductory listing service). The biggest thing out there seemed to be getting a "landing page" with a free offer or a survey to get you to interact on your site. The closest think I have to that is a "ready to go" button. It is really an all consuming task if you are like me. I jumped into it and now I am exhausted. At this point, I must set the keyboard down and get back to photo restorations.
It's just as well because the summer is usually a slow time for photo restorations anyway.
Let's talk more about airbrushing photos. This is just another way for going to the first soft brush in the upper left hand corner (it is round with soft edges that fade out) and picking up a little color using the eyedropper tool. Think of an actual airbrush...you load paint into it and it sprays out of the "pen" making a nice way to smooth out things using sprays of paint. In Photo Shop you need to be aware of how this artist's tool works.
Be sure you are using the eye dropper on every part of the item you are airbrushing. If you notice the color box on the left hand side of the screen, you will see that there are different colors all over the picture based upon shadows and highlights. It is easier to see when you run the eyedropper brush over different parts of the picture. You have selected a brush and size, but you still need to look at hardness, opacity and flow.
Hardness is right under the brush when you use the drop down arrow. This along with the opacity and flow are infinite choices you get to make. Don't skimp here. Take the time and look at the difference with these along with size of the brush you selected. I am always trying out different settings until I get the look I want.
One of your best friends in Photo Shop is the History Panel....(window/history) Using this will allow you to go back. But, make sure you are saving your work along the way in different versions. Sometimes the history panel doesn't go back every single step you took and you are back to the beginning. Oh, Snap.
Long story short, the airbrush is a beautiful tool and allows you to make the softest makeup adjustments. (Don't be afraid here, my manly men friends.) Of course, the clone tool and the two healing brush tools are marvelous too. But, sometimes you just need that little bit of softness that only comes with a light application of "paint" using a soft air brush that Photo Shop provides. Like I have said before, it is easy to overdo. Be very aware of what the subject looked like before and after the restoration and make sure that their mother would still recognize them. This will keep you from having your friends call your restorations "scary". People should not be shocked when they see their restoration. They should be happy and not really know why or how you did it. That is retouching done right.
Thanks for reading my blog.
See you next week ...
Renee :-)
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