Help needed (begginer)

[thirtyseven]

I've tried looking this up for myself, but honestly have no clue what its called that i'm looking for... So I cant find any tutorials on youtube or google whatsoever.

Here's what I need help with.... Say you have a picture of a park, and want to add a specific tree to the picture, so you cut out the tree and add it to the picture and whatnot, and it looks semi-decent... But, how do you make it look good? What i mean is, you can clearly tell by looking at the picture that the tree doesn't belong... it's a different lighting/shading than the rest, and it just simply sticks out from the rest...

I'm not necessarily creating this specific picture, its just an example, because it happens to me with everything... Even simple things like changing the sky in the background, its always just so obvious that the sky doesnt belong...

If theres a certain name for this I would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me, or if theres any tutorials on youtube or the internet in general some links would be awesome

Thanks in advance

 

[Tioga]

Welcome to the site thirtyseven

the tutorials you may be looking for are "Photoshop Manipulation"..... do a search for those. They instruction on using the dodge and burn tool as well as the blur tool around the edges of an object. They cover blend modes as well.... oh yea lighting too.

heres one link

http://www.instantshift.com/2012/02/17/70-best-photo-manipulation-tutorials-of-all-time/

hope this helps......... maybe a guru will have a better answer.

Ron

 

[thirtyseven]

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for, just didn't know what it was called. These tutorial pictures are so inspiring, I didn't even realize such things were possible to create with photo manipulation, I was thinking of it as a very simple basic thing in my mind, yet it seems the possibilities are endless!

 

[Tioga]

Try this link too...... You have to pay for the Premium tutorials but theres plenty there for free to keep you busy..... imho

http://www.psdbox.com/category/tutorials/manipulations/

 

[Tioga]

I only surfed/stumbled into it myself a few days ago and happy to help. Ive got a whole new gig going with that simple word manipulation.

Ron

 

[ibclare]

It's manipulating images and it's an art. But it's not out of your capabilities. Someone will look at the tree and say how do you plan to "blend" it.

The advice Tioga gave you is good. He also said lighting is important. Very. Also hues and saturation, color balance, levels or curves to adjust lighting. Try different blend modes and layer opacities to see what effects these have. Really experiment. Multiply, overlay, soft light, hard light, even screen will give you interesting options. It all depends on what is below your image to blend with. Just experiment. It's fun to try the different things.

I don't know your experience, skill, or knowledge level but these are all things you'll need to learn to use or you will only have half of Photoshop mastery. Half? What am I saying? There are many things to learn in PS -- big program. But once you have gotten beyond the skill needed for extracting an image (and it takes practice, practice, practice; plus learning many different ways to cut out an object), you are on the way. Now learn basic layer adjustments and blend modes, and the tools Tioga mentioned. It will take time to finally start getting results you're satisfied with, but it is way worth it. My manipulations are just starting to get comments like, "you have your own style," and "this is the best you've done so far."

Patience, practice, and passion, the 3 ps of PS. That's my motto!