Image Effects, Filters, Masks and Other Image Processing Methods

Lately there's been a bad trend in photography: photographers stealing or buying images, to make their portfolios look better. As photographers we must keep growing and learning. If we do not incorporate different styles of photography in to our workflow, our portfolios become stagnant and people will lose interest.

A few weeks ago, I came across this video by Joe Fellows explaining how to create “parallax” effects on photos using a combination of Photoshop and After Effects. 

Last May, we took a look at Mextures and found it to be one of the best filter apps for adding subtle effects and layered textures to your photos. 

One of the issues talented photographer and retoucher Michael Woloszynowicz often runs into when he's taking portraits is mismatched skin tones.

HDR processing, ways to improve the clarity in your images without using the sharpening tool to the ninth degree and enhancing that brilliant eye color. 

Processing HDR using Lightroom and Photoshop:

http://weeder.org/rLHY4ln

Looking their best is what any photographer wants for their series. HDR processing is not only a tricky business but a delicate one that can go awry. 

Four Ways to Improve Your Photos with the Clarity Slider:

http://digital-photography-school.com/four-ways-improve-photos-clarity-slider-lightroom/

Clarity slider will determine in which four ways you would want you photo to turn out. Lighter, darker, more depth and a bit faded. The decision is up to you.

How to Enhance Eyes in Photoshop:

http://weeder.org/rLHY4J9

From the people at Phlearn who have worked their way around the realism concept and enhancing the color that is naturally there in the first place. 

From week to week we find the things that will give you the reader a better reason to use filters or to find some ways to enhance your photographs. Keep coming back each week for more information.

In this video, the guys at Phlearn take us through an innovative way to bump up eye colors in Photoshop without losing realism.

Image compositing is a common practice in digital art and advertising. But often the crazy extent of it is completely invisible. Like the image above, which is made of a few dozen separate pictures. 

For photographers looking to get really creative with their gear, Lensbaby is well known for its various DSLR lenses that can create tilt-shift and other popular effects. But for the first time, the company is letting iPhone photographers get in on the fun too, with a tiny smartphone-friendly lens providing extreme focus effects.

How to Use the Radial Filter in Lightroom {Before & After Photo Editing Tutorial} by One Willow Studios for iHeartFaces.com

In this tutorial, you'll learn why they look deformed and how you can properly create text along a curve without deforming the letters.

Two updates from not only promising photo editing apps but also two programs that are a joy to work with. Then a tutorial for matching tones and correcting any color splashes that don't quite make the mark.

Brand New iOS Photography App Union:

http://theappwhisperer.com/2014/04/16/brand-new-ios-photography-app-union-photo-blending-for-intuitive-editing-powerful-surreal-imagery/

By combining photos and changing new backgrounds, Union has a promise. And that promise just so happens to make a lot of users happy with what they create and see.

A Simple Technique for Matching Tones and Correcting Colors in Photoshop:

http://weeder.org/rLHZa39

With any color splashes like shadowing or any discoloration, you want a clean slate that shows off your fashion photography or portfolio. A tutorial for showing just what you can do to correct those mishaps.

Mextures 2.0:

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2014/04/12/mextures-2-0/

When we've said update, Mextures 2.0 went under the knife and came out a whole new program. Even getting a new interface design to go with all of the new features. Plus you don't have to go through the hassle of using a third party just to share your images anymore.

From techniques to updates that have floored the apps and rebuilt them as new. It goes to show that technology is fast on the rise and ready to team up with people that have the creative power to make them bigger than big. Keep coming back for more news.

The tutorial will show you how to take a RAW file, prep it in Lightroom, convert it to black and white in Silver Efex Pro 2, and then finish it up back in Lightroom.

 The only problem is, they do seem to be a bit cookie cutter. You can add a similar look to your photos, and have them be entirely original, and each unique. I’ll show you a very simple and effective way to add an edge burn to your photos using Photoshop’s Quick Mask.

The all-star Pixite LLC photo app suite gets an impressive boost this week with the launch of Union, a pioneering photo enhancement app designed for intuitive, high-level image stacking, editing...

High Dynamic Range photography—to make some of my images. I do

my best to keep the processing as minimal as possible, without “nuking” or over-saturating the end result. It can be easy to be heavy-handed with HDR processing, so in this article I wanted to share my process and what I do to make my photographs look their best.

Improving your images is what this roundup has brought to you this week. From clarity to the radial filter, along with the new features ProCamera 7 can do to increase your picture quality.

Four Ways to Improve Your Photos With the Clarity Slider:

http://digital-photography-school.com/four-ways-improve-photos-clarity-slider-lightroom/

Sometimes we can't change the weather. So some flat light was all we had when we needed to take this photo. No problem, the clarity slider will make your image look as if you had the perfect lighting all along.

ProCamera 7 New Correction Tools and More:

http://www.iclarified.com/39625/procamera-7-gets-tiff-support-new-correction-tools-more

The main focus was the Highlight and Shadow corrections, taking in the more vast stability of color tone. Another nice touch was the full resolution photo preview giving you view of every pixel of your image. Click the link to read about the rest of the features.

How to Use the Radial Filter:

http://www.iheartfaces.com/2014/04/how-to-use-the-radial-filter-in-lightroom/

Here is a Photoshop tutorial from the Radial Filter view point. Which for black and white images can add much needed depth and even texture to the image. When your photo has that overly lit, bleached effect this tool will be the one to use.

Rounding up what we have compiled for you, hopefully this will help you on your Photographic journey. Which tools will be beneficial to what you are trying to accomplish. Come back at the end of each week.

The ProCamera 7 app has been updated with TIFF support, open-in functionality, high-res Instagram support and Shadows and Highlights correction tools.