odd tutorial #1: how to make your images a bit more dramatic

yes, here it goes: my first ever odd tutorial... maybe not too odd for most of you but hey, there will always be newbies who could find this interesting. i hope :)

you could give a rather dull image a much more dramatic and sharper look with a couple of really simple tricks in photoshop. these tricks have saved my life in many occasions where i had to work with crappy, out of focus raw photos.

applying 'sharpen' with 'brightness/contrast' to such a photo-which seems to be the obvious solution that comes to mind-, does not do the trick with most of the raw images. you might end up losing too much image data on the way, and still get a 'blah' result.

i have to assume that you have at least a little photoshop experience.

yup, here is our starting image:

ok, let's begin. just start by downloading the first picture above.

once dowloaded, open the .jpeg file in photoshop (any version will do).

from the 'layers' tab in the right-hand side menu, duplicate the 'background' layer. change the blending mode from the default 'normal' to 'overlay'. the resulting image should look like this:

pretty decent looking, high-contrast and all. but i'm still skeptical about the sharpness of the image.

now we will add another layer that will sharpen the image, but it will yield a much more advanced result than the 'sharpen' filter. we will use 'high pass'.

duplicate the 'background copy' layer one more time. again, change the blending of the layer to 'overlay'. don't worry, the super-contrasted look will soon go away. choose 'high pass' from filters. that's right, with the uppermost layer chosen, go to 'filters/other/highpass'. tweak the value until you are happy with the sharpness of your image. notice that 'high pass' also adds some detail back to the image.


enjoy!

first tutorial ready...

yup, the first ever odd tutorial will be up in couple of days. i wonder what you'll think about it. let's see, i could improve myself with the reactions i get from you. or maybe not.

in the meanwhile, you could check out felt-tip kittens :D

life on crutches

as if i haven't been absent enough from blogosphere, i have broken my foot as well. 'fifth metatarsal' in case you would like to learn a little anatomy trivia :) when will my design inspiration come back? hopefully soon. i'm still working, but life gets me exhausted quite easily. sitting on my behind has never felt so bad, and the world outside is such a dream land for me right now. enjoy the outside while you can!

oh-and one more thing- apparently now i'm 'following' myself. any idea how to cancel that?

pixels:)

sketchy reality

i can't believe how fashionable it is to design without drawing anything these days. i have seen it in various parts of the world and have been mildly shocked. i have seen people finishing complete design projects without drawing a single line on paper, and i mean they don't use tablets to sketch digitally either. people don't sketch. of course, everyone has their own method but come on! don't you need to visualize your ideas even a little bit beforehand? how do they evolve into that 'mature' state if you don't let them? yeah, i know, the deadlines are tight, but how can you afford the costs resulting from an ill-designed and rushed project? sketching saves you a lot of time, headaches, resentment, fights and bitten nails. i don't know, maybe i am old fashioned.

do you skip sketching when you design something or do you see it as vital? what methods do you prefer if you do sketch? and what does a crab have to do with all this?

attention please: odd tutorials take over the web!!

in the coming weeks, i will be starting a new type of section. or a new type of entry. arrg, whatever! all for you design folks! it is called 'the odd tutorials'. this has been a project that i have been thinking about for a long time. the tutorials won't be super long or super detailed, and they sure won't be solving typical/basic problems-hence the name :)

over the years, there have been some odd problems i needed to solve while using programs or doing things, most for which i couldn't find any sufficient tutorial on the internet or nobody i asked could answer my questions. so i needed to come up with my very own ways. i will be talking about those ways for the tiny teeny little questions that nag you when you are trying to sleep in your bed...

well, of course every problem gives birth to its own weird solution, and not all of my solutions will make sense to all of you, but still... i hope you can make use of them and i hope you enjoy :) i'll try to be as simple as possible. oh, and even if they inspire you a little bit, that will make me happy as well! feedback will always be more than welcome... let it all begin!

i'm not dead (yet)

happy new year to you all! i wish you a year full of beauty and inspiration!

hehe if there are any readers left, that is... i feel guilty, like i have abandoned my child or something. but every day is a fresh start, no? the good thing is, i have accumulated some stuff i would like to post. the bad thing is, you may find them totally irrelevant :) ahh, focus, focus!