Digital Camera World » Photoshop CS6

Adobe to stop selling boxed copies of Photoshop CS

jmeyer — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:44:35 +0000

Adobe will cease selling boxed versions of Photoshop CS and the other programs in its Creative Suite software, according to reports.

TechHive quotes an Adobe representative, who confirms that Adobe will now make its Creative Suite programs – which includes Photoshop – available only through digital distribution or cloud service.

The website quotes the rep as saying: “As Adobe continues to focus on delivering world-class innovation through Creative Cloud and digital fulfillment, we will be phasing out shrink-wrapped, boxed versions of Creative Suite and Acrobat products.

“Electronic downloads for Creative Suite and Acrobat products will continue to be available—as they are today—from both Adobe.com, as well as reseller and retail partners. We are in the process of notifying our channel partners and customers, as plans solidify in each region.”

Furthermore, according to Adobe resellers Toolfarm and Softwaremedia the software giant will stop selling boxed copies of Creative Suite as of 1 May 2013.

The move comes as Adobe’s Creative Cloud software subscription service has recorded incredible growth. Adobe claims it receives 8000 new subscriptions for the service every week.

Adobe’s Creative Cloud service offers users access to all of the same software’s the boxed versions at monthly rates, and allows users to receive software updates the moment they’re released.

Via: PetaPixel

Photoshop Effects: using Layers to rescue exposure

jmeyer — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:36:35 +0000

Find out how to rescue bad exposures with subtle Photoshop effects by using Layers to process colours and tones in your photos.

Photoshop layers are one of the most fundamental image-editing features in Photoshop Elements’ tool set (which makes it hard to believe that they were unavailable in the earliest versions of the package!).

In this tutorial, we’ll focus on how layers enable you to process a photo’s colours and tones to overcome exposure problems, create more impact and draw the eye to specific subjects in the shot.

You’ll learn how layers and Adjustment Layers give you the freedom to experiment with different looks. Layers are non-destructive, which means you’ll always have access to your unaltered image.

We’ll also show you how to apply selection marquees and brush tools to Layer Masks, so that only certain areas in the image will become altered.

Our before image

Thanks to layers you can take total control over the colour and tonal changes in any part of your shot, and fine-tune these changes with ease.

When shooting this project’s start image we were pleased to capture the pigeon flying on the left as the girl walked on the right, because it gave balance to our composition.

However, there are plenty of problems with colour and exposure.  By metering for the shaded foreground we have over-exposed the sun-lit cathedral and sky.

We’ll show you how to make selective exposure adjustments using layers and masks, and restore missing background detail.

We’ll also selectively warm up the cathedral’s colour temperature while adding a blue-green hue to the sky so that it complements the cooler colours of the bridge.

Using Layers to process colour and tones (Steps 1-6)

01 Arrange your workspace
Open Photoshop Elements. Go to File>Open and browse to your start image. Click Open. In Elements 11, there’s a More icon bottom right. Click on its triangular fly-out icon and choose Custom Workspace. Drag the Layers palette out of the Panel Bin so it floats. Go to Window and untick Panel Bin.

02 Add an Adjustment Layer
We won’t edit the Background image layer directly; we’ll alter its colours and tones using Adjustment Layers. In the main menu bar, go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels. Click OK. A Levels 1 thumbnail will appear above our Background image layer. A floating Levels panel will also appear.

03 Adjust the contrast
In the Levels panel, drag the black shadow slider to 35. This darkens the shadows on the image layer below. Drag the grey slider right to 0.60 to darken the midtones. This gives the over-exposed cathedral more contrast, and boosts its colours. However, it also plunges the foreground into darkness.

04 Paint on the mask
To protect the bridge from being darkened, grab the Brush tool. Click on the Brush preset picker and choose a soft round brush, size 300. Set the Tools palette’s foreground colour to black. Click on Levels 1’s white mask. Spray on the glass to restore correctly exposed tones. Leave the girl’s face as a silhouette.

05 Try cross-processing
In the Levels Adjustment Layer, set the Channel drop-down menu to Red. Drag the black shadow slider right to 50. This darkens the reds in the shot, adding a cross-processed style blue-green hue to the sky. Click the Levels 1 layer’s eye icon to see a before-and-after version of the adjusted image.

06 Darken the sky
Click on the Create New Adjustment layer icon in the Layers palette and choose Gradient. A Gradient Fill Adjustment Layer will appear. In the Gradient Fill window, click Reverse so the gradient starts at the top of the frame. Click and drag the mouse upwards to push the gradient higher in the frame.

PAGE 1: Using Layers to process colour and tones (Steps 1-6)
PAGE 2: Using Layers to process colour and tones (Steps 7-12)
PAGE 3: Extra layer tools in Photoshop CS6

Photoshop Ruler Tool: how to straighten horizons and draw straight lines

jmeyer — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 14:00:49 +0000

The Photoshop Ruler tool used to be called the Measure tool in previous versions of Photoshop, which was probably a more sensible name, given that the name is already used for a different feature in Photoshop.

The Photoshop Ruler tool enables you to measure the distance between two points, and even the angle of lines in an image.

Before you use the Photoshop Ruler tool, it makes sense to decide how you want to measure units in an image. Go to View>Rulers. Horizontal and Vertical rulers will appear at the side and top of the workspace. By default, these rulers use pixels as units of measurement.

The Photoshop Ruler tool will use pixels, too. If you’re planning to edit photographs then inches might be a more useful unit of measurement. Go to Photoshop’s Preferences menu and choose Units & Rulers. Set the Rulers drop-down menu to Inches and click OK.

The Rulers along the top and sides will now display measurements in inches. If you click and drag with the Ruler tool, the Options bar’s Width (W) and Height (H) fields will display values in Inches, too.

Open your start image. Grab the Photoshop Ruler tool. Click to place a point at the bottom left of the foreground rock and drag to measure the diagonal line where the rock meets the water.

In the Options bar you’ll see that this line has an angle (A) of approximately 31 degrees and a length (L1) of around 5.5 inches. If you place the mouse on the end point of the Ruler’s line and hold down Alt, an angle icon will appear.

You can now draw a second measurement line from this point and see its angle (A) and length (L2) in the Options bar.

How to straighten horizons using the Photoshop Ruler tool

01 Open the image
When shooting without a tripod your photo’s horizon might be tilted, which can be distracting. You could use the Crop tool to select the image and then drag outside the Crop window to rotate it. The Ruler tool provides a faster way to straighten a wonky horizon. Open your start image.

02 Draw a line
Grab the Photoshop Ruler tool from the Tools Panel. Click to place a point on the shoreline at the left of the image. Drag the Ruler right to draw a diagonal line that follows the tilted shoreline. In the Options bar, the Angle of tilt is 7.5 degrees. You can drag the start and end points to fine-tune the line if necessary.

03 Straighten the image
To make the tilted ruler run level, tick the Straighten Layer icon in the Options bar. This counteracts the 7.5-degree tilt so that it runs horizontally, straightening the shot’s horizon in the process. You’ll need to use the Crop tool to remove any transparent edges created by rotating the shot.

Preview Photoshop Effects: 5 free filter tables to download (and how to use them)

jmeyer — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:06:50 +0000

Photoshop is jam packed with handy filters and effects. Some, including the Color LookUp and Photographic Toning presets for the Gradient Map adjustment are new to Photoshop CS6. Other Photoshop effects like Photo Filters, Curves and filters have been around for a while.

With so many filter options, it can be hard to find the right one. To help out, we created five Photoshop effects filter tables for you to download for free.

In the tutorial below we’ll show you how to size your image and add it to the table so you can see what each filter will look like on your image.

When you find one that you’d like to use, we’ll show you how to copy it to your image and how to adjust its settings to suit.

How to preview Photoshop effects on your free filter table

01 Open the Table

Download the Photographic toning table.

Unzip the file, extract its contents and then open the file ‘photographic_toning_table.psd’ in Photoshop.

02 Resize your image
Open the image ‘tables.jpg’ and choose File>Automate>Fit Image, then set both Width and Height to 900 and click OK. Choose Image> Image Size, deselect Resample Image and set the Resolution to 300 dpi and click OK. Choose File>Save As, name the image ‘tablessmall.jpg’. Close it, and open ‘tables.jpg’ again.

03 Add your image
Display the Layers Panel by choosing Window>Layers. Right-click any of the numbered Smart Object layers and choose Replace Contents. Select the file ‘tablessmall.jpg’ that you created in the previous stage and click Place. All the images in the table will automatically update with this.

04 Apply your adjustment
Choose an effect that you like, then right-click the Adjustment Layer and choose Duplicate Layer. From the Document list, select your image and click OK to apply the adjustment to it.

Next, you have to double-click the new Adjustment Layer to then open it and adjust its settings.

Now you’ve got to grips with how to preview Photoshop effects and add them to your image, why not download a few more…

Free filter tables for Photoshop

Explore filters
The Filters table shows you how each of the filters in Photoshop works. To edit a filter, just double-click it in the Layers Panel and adjust its settings.

Download the Filters Chart table

Mimic Film Effects
The Color Lookup table shows the new Photoshop CS6 image colours that mimic different film effects. Find an effect that you like and then use it on your image – these adjustments can’t be copied.

Download the Color Lookup table (CS6 only)

Review your filters
View your image with a variety of coloured filters applied to it. Then copy a duplicate of your preferred adjustment to your own image.

Download the Photo Filters table

Creative Curves
The Curves table gives you previews of 30 different Photoshop Curves adjustments. Duplicate any Curves layer onto your image for great effects.

Download the Curves Adjustments table

Restore old photos: how to rescue vintage prints and family pictures

jmeyer — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:00:41 +0000

In our latest photo editing tutorial we show you a simple method to restore old photos using Photoshop’s many tools and filters. Master this simple technique and soon you will be able to rescue all of your old family pictures and vintage prints.

Thanks to our digital cameras and high capacity memory cards we can now document our family activities on a daily basis, without worrying about limiting our shots to rolls of expensive print film.

Our computer’s hard drive is likely to be packed full of pictures covering the development of our nearest and dearest.

Our high quality digital files are also free from the wear and tear that can afflict an analogue print  that has been handled, scuffed and even scrawled on over the years.

Old prints can also suffer from loss of tone and detail thanks to ongoing chemical reactions, such as ‘silvering’.

Our original shot

You may have a cherished collection of analogue family prints that date back decades. It’s unlikely that you’ll have access to the negatives used to create these precious pictures, so it makes sense to archive them digitally using a scanner or a digital camera.

You can then spruce up the scanned prints using Photoshop’s powerful restoration tools.

In the following tutorial, we’ll show you how to use Adjustment Layers to counteract faded contrast and give an old print more punch. We’ll explore several ways to remove typical blemishes like dust, scratches and stains.

Our start image also suffers from scratches that obliterate key details such as eyes, so we’ll show you how to rebuild missing facial features by performing some digital plastic surgery. We’ll finish off by adding subtle washes of colour to our vintage photo’s subjects.

By using these photo restoration techniques you can rescue damaged photos and give them a new lease of life.

How to restore old photos: steps 1-9

01 Improve composition
Open your start image. Double-click on the locked Background layer’s thumbnail to make it editable. By cropping and straightening the photo at the start you can improve composition and avoid the hassle of restoring details around the border. Choose the Crop tool from the Tools Panel. In the Options Bar, choose Original Ratio to preserve the shot’s shape. Drag a corner control handle to crop the shot and lose some of the wall.

02 Rotate the shot
Place the cursor outside the crop box and it will change to a rotate icon. Now drag to rotate the photo by 1.6 degrees, so that the tilted horizontal lines run parallel with the overlay grid. Drag the  photo so that you don’t crop out any more of the children’s legs. This will leave a transparent edge that you can replace later on. Click the tick or alternatively hit Enter to apply the crop. The children are now more prominent in the straightened frame.

03 Tweak contrast
The shot’s faded tones are very flat. To boost contrast, choose Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels. Click OK. Drag the black input level slider to the right to a value of 29. This darkens the shot’s faded grey shadows. Drag the white input levels slider to the left to a value of 215. This brightens the shot’s weak highlights. Drag the grey slider left to 1.24 to lighten the midtones. The shot now has more contrast.

04 Create Smart Object
Click on ‘Layer 0’ and press Cmd/Ctrl+J to duplicate it. It’s worth keeping a copy of the scratchy image so that you can compare it with the cleaned up version. Click on ‘Layer 0 copy’ and choose Filter>Convert for Smart Filters. Click OK. This turns the layer into a Smart Object, enabling you to fine-tune filter settings at a later date. Choose Filter>Noise>Dust & Scratches. Set Radius to 20 and Threshold to 15. Click OK.

05 Disable the filter
Many of the scratches and dust spots will become filled in, but you’re also losing key details on the subjects. In the Layers Panel, click on the white Smart Filter layer and press Cmd/Ctrl+I to invert it. The black pixels stop the filter from altering the attached image layer. In the next step you can paint white on the filter to choose which areas of the image will become filtered and which ones will stay sharp.

06 Dust busting
Use the Zoom tool to view the image at 100%. Now grab the Brush tool from the Toolbox. Choose a soft round tip from the Brush Preset picker. Set the Toolbox’s foreground color swatch to white. Click on the black Smart Filter to target it. Spray  white over the background’s black dust spots, fingerprints and thinnest white scratches to fill them in. Leave the children’s clothes and faces as they are for the moment.

07 Rough and ready
This selective Dust & Scratches filter technique will fill in thin scratches and specks in a rough and ready way, but it’s not sophisticated enough to remove artefacts that overlap delicate details like faces and clothing. It can’t deal with thicker scratches either. Go to Layer>New>Layer. Click OK. We’ll use this transparent layer to tackle some of the bigger background scratches.

08 Patch the scratch
Grab the Patch tool. In the Options Bar, choose Content-Aware. Set Adaptation to Very Strict. Tick Sample All Layers. Click on transparent ‘Layer 1’. Draw a patch around sections of scratches. Place the cursor inside the patch and drag upwards to select a clear bit of the wall. The sampled area will fill the original patch and blend seamlessly with its neighbouring pixels. A few small patches will work better than one large one.

09 Tidy with Clone Stamp tool
Use the Patch tool to select the scratch running across the girl’s patterned dress. Drag upwards to choose a clean dress section to patch over the scratch. Details such as her handbag strap may not be in the correct position. Grab the Clone Stamp tool. Set it to Sample Current & Below. Alt-click to sample the adjacent clean strap and spray to extend it over the patched area. Sample and spray clean flowers over scratched ones.

PAGE 1: How to restore old photos, steps 1-9
PAGE 2: How to restore old photos, steps 10-18
PAGE 3: How to restore old photos in Photoshop Elements

Photoshop Blur Gallery: use the new CS6 filters for precise depth of field effects

jmeyer — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:34:56 +0000

The new Photoshop Blur Gallery introduced in CS6 is perfect for replicating in-camera restricted depth-of-field effects that make cityscapes look like tiny architectural models. In this post we explain what each of the filters in the Photoshop Blur Gallery can do – and how to use them.

Adobe introduced three new Photoshop blur filters with CS6, which are grouped together at the top of the options in the Blur filter collection. Unlike other Photoshop blur filters, such as Gaussian Blur and Lens Blur, the Field Blur, Iris Blur and Tilt-Shift filters in the new Photoshop Blur Gallery allow you to target the softening effect and restrict it to specific areas.

The aim of the Photoshop Blur Gallery is to replicate some of the effects that can be created in-camera by limiting depth of field either by using a large aperture or by fitting an expensive tilt-shift lens.

This can give the sharp part of an image greater emphasis, subdue distracting backgrounds in portraits, or create the popular ‘miniature’ effect. It’s even possible to adjust the Bokeh (edge effect) of out of focus areas to make the blur look like it has been created optically.

Selecting any of the three new Blur options brings up the Blur Gallery panel on the right-hand side of the screen. From here you can quickly switch between the filters and apply them separately or in combination to create the effect that you want.

The Photoshop Blur Gallery panel has sliding controls that can be used to govern the degree of blur that’s applied, but the majority of adjustments are made using intuitive controls that overlay the image.

Unfortunately, the Photoshop Blur Gallery filters can’t be applied as Smart Filters, so in order to protect your original image it’s essential to create a duplicate layer (by going to Layer>Duplicate Layer or by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J) that you can work on.

One tip to remember – Masking
When you add blur with the Blur Gallery you essentially create a mask, which can be revealed by holding down M. When you do this, the areas in white are blurred, while the black bits are sharp, and the grey is somewhere in between. This mask can be saved for creating selections by ticking the Save Mask to Channels option at the top of the screen before hitting OK to apply the filter.

Now, let’s take a look at each of the filters in the Photoshop CS6 Blur Gallery and see what they have to offer…

PAGE 1: What is the Photoshop Blur Gallery?
PAGE 2: Photoshop Blur Gallery Filters – Iris Blur
PAGE 3: Photoshop Blur Gallery Filters – Field Blur
PAGE 4: Photoshop Blur Gallery Filters – Tilt-Shift Blur
PAGE 5: Bokeh effects

Photoshop CS7: 11 features we’d like to see

jmeyer — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:30:17 +0000

Yes, we know… you only just coughed up for Photoshop CS6, but now that it’s here and we’re using it, there’s no reason we should start writing down what features we’d like to see in Adobe Photoshop CS7, is there? It is, after all, the time of year for making wishlists!

So now that the dust has settled, indulge us for a moment as we reflect on what we’d like to see in Photoshop CS7.

11 features we desperately want in Photoshop CS7

1. De-blur
The leaked video at Photoshop world that showed a filter capable of rescuing a blurred photo caused a sensation (with some denouncing it as a fake), yet there’s been no word of it since.

2. Tool to overlap or tuck layers
A feature previewed a while ago that allowed you to tuck a layer over or under one another, weaving them in and out.

3. The Old Crop tool
We’ve been using Photoshop CS6’s new Crop tool for a while now and keep waiting for it to click with us, but it’s just not happening. Three reasons why: The crop box looks too similar to the Transform bounding box; we miss the Front Image button; and call us old fashioned but we prefer dragging a crop box rather than having it already there.

4 Keyboard shortcut to alter brush angle
How about a keyboard shortcut for Photoshop CS7 that allows you to rotate your brush tip clockwise and anti-clockwise?

5. Clarity slider/brush/Adjustment Layer in CS
The Clarity slider is one of Adobe Camera Raw’s most useful controls, so why not bring the same functionality into Photoshop CS7? It would be great to have a Clarity Adjustment Layer.

6. Print templates
Everyone has a printer that uses standard paper sizes, so why not include a template feature in Photoshop CS7 that can allow you to print templates such as, say, 3 6×4 inch prints on one piece of A4? How about a dedicated Print Template command?

7. Blend Mode brush
We’d love to see a blend mode brush in Photoshop CS7 that allows you to change the blend mode of different parts of a layer simply by painting over it.

8. Command to open a sequence of images one after another
Let’s say you’ve got a bunch of wedding photos. You don’t want to open them all in one go, so you work on them in batches of ten or so instead. It would be great if Photoshop CS7 had a feature like the Autoloader plugin, which allows you to target a folder then open the files inside one at a time, with the next in the sequence opening automatically each time you close an image.

9. Price drop!
Come on Adobe, we know you produce amazing software, but does it really have to be so expensive? We’ve asked our readers several times what they’d like to see in Photoshop CS7, and this tops every list!

10. HUD for other filters like the Blur Gallery
The intuitive’ Heads Up Display’ in the new Blur and Lighting Effects gallery works like a dream. How about the same display for other filters in Photoshop CS7? Some, like Zoom Blur and Lens Flare (with their tiny square preview box that’s impossible to judge) could really benefit from an update.

11. Reset All sliders button for Adjustment Brush/Graduated Filter tool in ACR
Adobe Camera Raw’s Adjustment Brush and Graduated Filter tools always remember the last used settings, which can be annoying if you want to make lots of different adjustments, as you end up hhaving to reset each slider every time. We’ve lost count the number of times we’ve forgotten to reset a slider (the temperature and Color box are regular culprits). Surely a Reset All control isn’t too much to ask for?

Photoshop Effects: how to make a postcard-style photomontage

jmeyer — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 04:00:31 +0000

Travel photography is one of the most enjoyable pastimes for most photographers. What better way to spend some quality time with your camera? There are so many interesting new sights to capture, you’ll probably come home with a bag full of maxed-out memory cards.

Inevitably, once you’ve printed your favourites and shared them with others, you’ll be left with lots of other good shots. But what to do with them?

Well, why not make a postcard-style Photoshop montage? This technique works best on simple shots of recognisable landmarks and objects, so it’s perfect for those holiday photos we’ve all taken that, while pretty, won’t win any prizes for originality.

It uses a host of key Photoshop skills, from combining images with type to using simple selections and Layer Styles. And thanks to a handy Photoshop feature called Clipping Masks, making the text effect is quick and easy.

01 Type the words
Open your image, then grab the Type tool. Choose a font (we’ve used Impact). Type your words, then click the Move tool. Check ‘Show Transform controls’, then drag the bounding box to make the words fill the screen. Hit Enter.

02 Add an image
Go to Layer > Layer Style > Style Settings. Check Drop Shadow, set it to 30px and hit OK. Open your second image. In the Layers panel, right-click the Background layer. Choose Duplicate, name it ‘N’, then set Destination: Document ny01_before. Hit OK.

03 Clip the image to the text
In the Layers panel (Window > Layers), hold down Alt and then click the line between the newly added image layer and the type layer below. This clips the image to the layer. Grab the Polygonal Lasso tool and plot a loose box around the N.

04 Add a mask
Make sure the second image layer is highlighted, then click the Add Layer Mask icon. Click the little link on the top layer between the image and mask thumbnails to toggle it off, then click the image thumbnail to highlight it.

05 Position the layer
Grab the Move tool, then click the layer’s bounding box. Press Cmd/Ctrl+0 to see the whole box, then drag it around to choose which part of the image is visible through the N. Hit Enter when you’re happy with the result.

06 Fill the other letters
Open your third image and repeat the steps: copy the layer and Alt-click between the layers. Select E, add a mask, unlink the mask and image, highlight the thumbnail and position the layer. Repeat for the other images.

Using Masks

The link in the Layers panel between the image and mask thumbnail can be toggled on or off, so the layer and mask can be moved independently of one another.

The great advantage of using this feature here is that the entire image is available for repositioning at any time – it’s just hidden behind a mask.

This means you can fill all the letters and then judge the overall composition, tweaking if necessary.

Also, if you think an image would work better over a different letter, simply delete the Layer Mask, add another, and then reposition the image.

The easy way to straighten verticals with Photoshop CS6

jmeyer — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 16:00:32 +0000

The recent launch of Photoshop CS6 introduced a wealth of exciting and genuinely useful and creative tools. However, one of the most impressive for photographers is the introduction of Photoshop CS6′s Adaptive Wide Angle filter.

This amazingly powerful tool is like the Lens Correction filter on steroids. What makes it so great is the level of control you have in specifying which parts of the image need correction.

Naturally, the Adaptive Wide Angle filter will be a big draw for interior and architectural photographers, especially ones using wide-angle lenses.

Our original image

However, in this tutorial we’re going to use it straighten out the trees in our woodland scene, above. It was shot with an old 20-35mm f/2.8 lens at 20mm with the camera pointing upwards, so there’s plenty of work to do. Let’s see how it works…

01 Edit the RAW file
Open your original image in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). To tease out detail in the shadows, reduce blown-out highlights and boost the colours, go to the Basic tab and set these values: Exposure +55, Highlights -100, Shadows +50, Blacks +60, Clarity +55 and Vibrance +16.

02 Work smart
Hold down Shift and the Open Image button will change to Open Object. Click this to open the image in Photoshop as a Smart Object. Go to Filter > Adaptive Wide Angle, and change the Correction to Perspective from the drop-down menu. You now need to change the focal length to 20mm.

03 Straighten the trees
Select the Constraint tool from the Tools palette at the top left of the Filter window. Mark out any parts of the image that you want to straighten by specifying a start and end point with the Constraint tool. Hold down Shift to snap to 90° vertical. Be careful, though, because not all the trees are meant to be dead straight.

04 Crop the rough edges
There’s an element of trial and error when marking out the lines, so be prepared to experiment. Mark a horizontal horizon line too. Once you’re happy, click OK. In the main Photoshop window, select the Crop tool from the Tools palette and remove most of the transparent edges that have been left as a result of the distortion.

05 Fill in the missing trees
Make a duplicate layer and rasterise it by going to Layer > Rasterise and selecting Smart Object. Make a rough selection around the transparent corners by using the Lasso tool and then go to Edit > Fill > Content Aware. This should deal with most of the problematic areas in your image. You can also use the Clone tool if necessary.

06 Add the final effects
For the finishing touches on your woodland image, create a Curves Adjustment Layer to tweak the tones and then draw a gentle S-curve to boost the contrast. A Vibrance Adjustment Layer is helpful for boosting the intensity of the colours. These are, of course, re-editable, so you can go back at any time and tweak the settings.

Cool Photoshop Effects: how to fake stop-motion photography

jmeyer — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 14:00:09 +0000

Falling objects captured by stop-motion photography are impressive, but the techniques can be a bit hit and miss. For a simple Photoshop solution, first shoot a background, in this case a cake and tablecloth, and then the object you want to show falling through the air.

Using Photoshop’s layers and masks, we can overlay the two and give the impression of a high-speed shot. Here’s how it’s done…

01 Select Tilt Shift
Duplicate the Background Layer via  Cmd/Ctrl+J and go to Filter>Blur>Tilt-Shift. Move the preview dot over the near edge of the paper case and adjust the blur preview lines. You then need to set the Blur to 35.

02 Overlay the cherry
Copy and paste the cherry image onto the cake image. Use the Quick Selection Brush tool to select the background. Invert the selection and add a Layer Mask. Select a Black brush with the Hardness set to 80%.

03 Stalk cleaning
Use the Brush tool to remove any of the remaining toothpick in the original image, and carefully remove any white from the stalk. Click on the image icon in the layer then use the Clone tool to repair the bottom of the cherry.

04 Add the cherry’s shadow
Hold down Cmd/Ctrl and click the cherry’s mask and invert selection. Deselect, then create a new blank layer under the cherry layer and fill it with black. Apply a Gaussian Blur of 25 pixels and move into position.

05 Tonal adjustments
Add a Layer Mask. Switch the Blend Mode to Overlay. Remove the effect of the shadow from the background and reduce the Opacity to 30%. Add a new Curves Adjustment Layer with an S-curve to improve the tone.

06 Digital ironing
Select the Clone Brush tool and then zoom into the image to 100%. Start to work across the image holding down Alt and clicking to capture a sample point and left-click to clone out creases in the tablecloth.