Monochrome Strømsfoss

Here’s my entry for Leanne & Laura’s Monochrome Madness Challenge this week.

Strømsfoss, Norway (click to see large version).

You can see my Adobe Lightroom settings & Adobe Photoshop layers in this gallery:

The original photo

Lightroom settings

Sharpening in Lightroom

Added a brush and brightened this area

This is the image after I was finished with it in Lightroom

The Photoshop layers.

After I’m finished with the settings in Lightroom, I export the file and open it in Photoshop. This is my Photoshop workflow (see the Photoshop layers picture for reference):

• In Lightroom I used a preset called Antique Light. I tweaked the settings to what you see in the “Lightroom settings” image in the gallery and exported the image.
• Open the exported photo in Photoshop.
• In Photoshop: The layer Background Copy is the one I work on. The layer named Background is the original, as it looked when I exported it from Lightroom.
• On the background copy I used a low opacity brush and added some dodge & burn (in the corners, around the edges, on the trees, boats and their reflections).
• The Old book cover layer is set to darken with an opacity of 50%
• The 4 tape layers are set to multiply at 100% opacity
• The grain & noise layer: I used the Paint Bucket tool to fill the layer with black. Set the layer opacity to 28% and then used filter – noise – add noise, ticked off monochromatic with uniform distribution at 16,5%
• Then I added my watermark, file info and saved as a jpeg.

Related Posts: 

• Check out Leanne’s Monochrome Madness post here: http://leannecolephotography.com/2014/08/13/mm24-monochrome-madness-24/

More tutorial posts: 

• https://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/photoshop-sharpen-with-high-pass/
• https://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/tutorial-restore-scanned-photos-in-photoshop/
• https://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/converting-into-black-white-using-photoshop-lightroom/
• https://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/the-alligator-lens-blur-effect/
• https://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/blogging-tips-crop-resize-your-photos/
• https://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/cat-got-a-good-treatment/
• https://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/recreate-the-bokeh-effect/
• https://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/duck-and-spot-healing-brush/

Converting into Black & White using Photoshop & Lightroom

I wanted to write a tutorial on how I post-process images and show you this method to turn them into black and white. This is just one of many methods. The software I use is Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop. As you can see, the original image is rather boring and flat, with a grey sky and not a lot of contrast. 

Original image. Boring and flat, with a grey sky and a lack of contrast.

Recreate the Bokeh Effect

Tutorial: Recreate the bokeh effect using Photoshop

Half a decade ago we went on an evening walk where we shot some photos.  Unfortunately a lot of the pictures are out of focus and/or the exposure is wrong. The camera I used at the time was good, but not good enough: for example the view screen was small and the camera had a lot of noise at high ISO levels. I didn’t have a tripod either, but the main problem was (and I’ll honestly admit this) that my photographic skills at the time just weren’t good enough to capture the photos the way I pictured them in my mind.

Musical Portrait

Just watched episode 310 on Kelbytv.com and picked up this awesome technique. If you’re into Photoshop I recommend that you check them out in one of their channels. These tips are not only for advanced photoshoppers – Kelbytv.com makes sure to incorporate easy tips & tricks as well.

Musical Portrait by CardinalGuzman.wordpress.com

To see how I made this picture, check out the program and you might learn something new as well. I promise you: it’s an easy technique.
http://kelbytv.com/photoshopusertv/2012/07/10/episode-310/

You can also watch it on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMWuWegCka8

Tutorial: Restore Scanned Photos in Photoshop

Original, scanned photo.

This is  a detailed tutorial with screenshots. Many of you probably have old photos lying in a drawer or shoebox.
The first thing you should do if you intend to digitize these images, is to clean the surface of the images before scanning them. It’ll save you a lot of post-processing later. For this tutorial I’ve scanned a typical summer photo and I’ll restore the photo using Photoshop.

Enjoying ice cream – scanned and restored photo

I’ve started to restore some old family photos that I’ve scanned. The saturation is corrupted in some of the images, many of them have scratches and some are discolored. A few of them even suffer from all of the above!

Original photo after scan.

It can be time-consuming to scan your old photos, especially if the photos are very damaged and you want to restore them. I was working on this photo last night and here’s a very short summary of what I did with this photo: