Graphics Tips

Here is a tutorial on how to beautify a face in Photoshop (via). Before getting to the detailed how-to's, the author lists a bunch of points that describe a terrific all-around methodology for graphics work:

It's important that you calibrate your monitor

Avoid reflections or bright light on your monitor's screen.

Analyze the image carefully before you start and figure out what you want to correct.

Plan ahead; what are you going to correct first, which techniques or tools are you going to use.

Work with large images (more pixels is better)

Avoid images that are heavily damaged by strong lossy compression like Jpeg. It's preferred to work with lossless formats like TIFF, RAW, PSD, etc. (Lossless formats always contain the original data, no pixels or color is lost). In this tutorial we're going to use a Jpeg image to show you that we will run into a problem when we want to color the scarf.

Zoom in as much as possible, because it allows you to work extremely accurate and that's very important, because we want to avoid as much as possible that he image looks retouched.

Constantly check your progress by turning off/on the layer with your corrections, because it makes it easier to see when you've gone too far. Also make sure you check your image at 100% (1:1) on a regular basis.

Name your layers. Why is that so important? It's because sometimes we have layers on which we only have very small corrections for eyes, mouth, teeth, etc which can't be recognized just by looking at the layer's thumbnail. This can lead to mistakes, frustration and lost time.

Lock every finished layer. This is to avoid that we make corrections to the wrong layer and discover this days or weeks later when it's too late.

Try to work as much as possible non-destructively (Photoshop tutorial about Non-Destructive Editing)

It's very important to work slowly and patiently. Be critical and don't be afraid to mess things up. As long as you work Non-Destructively it's going to be easy to undo mistakes, even days later.

Learn the most important navigation techniques (Photoshop tutorial about General Navigation). This not only allows you to work faster, but also more efficient. You will notice that it will increase the quality of your corrections.

Always start with a global light and color correction and end with a proper crop and sharpening if necessary.

I learned most of these the hard way, I'm sorry to say. Pardon me a moment while I print and frame them in the line of sight, as a reminder. (You go read the article, as it not only explains all of these in detail, but also is a pretty darned good tutorial on photo retouching.)

(no subject)

In celebration of the date, two versions (both links YouTube video) of Genesis performing Supper's Ready (both from 1973, with Peter Gabriel). ("What's the connection?" I hear some of you asking. This lyric:

666 is no longer alone,
He's getting out the marrow in your back bone,
And the seven trumpets blowing sweet rock and roll,
Gonna blow right down inside your soul...)

And, just for fun, and because he's a bit demonic, this bonus video, Das Ubertuber, to music by Ookla the Mok.

Have fun!

(no subject)

( Cooler than skydiving. And the next stage of development will be fitting 'small turbo-jet drives' to the wings to extend range even further. )