When ites to designing in Photoshop there is a myriad of ways one could use to achieve a certain result especially when ites to photo retouching. Designers use technique they are most confident as well as fortable with which is great because it always useful to peek into the workflow of our colleagues and learn new design approaches. Ill be covering some of the useful techniques and tricks which Ive learned from my experience. You may know some of them but hopefully not all of is a short overview of the techniques well be coveringn Naturally Increased Light #technique1 Simulate Infrared Images #technique2 Levels #technique3 Color Look With An Adjustment Layer #technique4 Controlling Mid-Tone Contrasts #technique5 Sunset #technique6 Creating Smiles #technique7 Colorful Water Drops #technique8 Skin Color #technique9 Matching Skin Tones #technique1 Reducing Noise #technique11 Retro Look With Curves #technique12 Identifying Layers #technique13 Conserving Resources #technique14 Classy Sepia Look #technique15 Precise Positioning #technique16 Applying Layer Styles Multiple Times #technique17 nNow lets look at some of the details Naturally Increased Light nThe light of the sun creates ure. There are shadowy areas and spots where the sunlight can shine without interference. To control the intensity you can draw more light onto a separate layer or increase already existing light. Create a new layer by going to Layer 2 New 2 Layer or by pressing Shift + Control + N on Windows or Shift + Command + N on a Mac. Set the blending mode to Color Dodge and the opacity to about 15%.n n Increase light on a separate layer. italic nThen use the brush tool with a soft brush and hold the Alt key to pick up colors from the area that you want to brighten. Continue to brush in some light picking up appropriate colors if the background changes. This way you increase not only the light but the saturation which makes for more realistic results.n n The blending mode Color Dodge creates realistic results. italic n Simulate Infrared Images nOpen a photo in Camera Raw; you can do this either in Bridge using the right mouse key and clicking Open in Camera Raw or directly in Photoshop by selecting File 2 Open as Smart . Apply basic adjustments to optimize your s 341 5 master_ s zoomable . italic n Levels nWhen applying a Levels adjustment you can set black and white points in order to decrease color tints but where are the darkest and brightest spots in the by using a Threshold adjustment layer. Add a new blank layer between the original s 363 5 master_ s zoomable (if neutral grays are present). Add a Color Sampler delete both the threshold adjustment layer and the 5% gray layer. Create a new adjustment layer Levels. Use the first Eyedropper tool to click on the darkest area then use the third Eyedropper on the brightest area.n n Here a before-and-afterparison. italic nNow you can use the gray Eyedropper tool on the third Color Sampler spot. The color tint will be decreased. Color Sampler spots can be deleted by dragging them off the canvas with the Color Sampler tool. n Color Look With An Adjustment Layer nGo to the Layer menu and then New Adjustment Layer 2 Hue and set the blending mode to Soft Light and check Colorize. Use the Hue Saturation and Lightness sliders to control the color for a cool look for example set the hue at 21 the saturation at 5 and the lightness at 1; for a warm look set the hue at 3 the saturation at 3 and the lightness at 5.n n Here is Hue and Color Fill. italic nAlternatively you could use several color layers. Create them from the layer palette with the New Fill Layer button. Choose a color then set the blending mode to Vivid Light. Reduce the opacity to about 12% and invert the layer mask with Control + I. Paint in the colored light with a big brush and white color. This works especially well for the lighting in portraits that have a ured background.n n Here the Color Look with an Adjustment Layer. italic n Controlling Mid-Tone Contrasts nTo increase detail in landscape shots boost the mid-tone contrast. Copy the background layer with Control + J and then click on Filter 2 Convert for Smart Filters in the menu. Then go to Filter 2 Other 2 High Pass and enter a radius of 3 pixels. Change the blending mode to Overlay and double-click the layer next to its name to open the Layer Style window.n n Layer Style window This Layer italic nFor the first gradient This Layer split the sliders by holding the Alt key and trim the layer effect to the 5 and 15 ranges. As soon as you move the sliders youll see where those numbers are. This increases contrast only for the mid-tones. Double-click the High Pass filter in the layer palette to bring the dialog box up again in order to adjust the radius to your liking.n n Check out these mid-tone contrasts. italic n Sunset nA sunset especially at sea can be an amazing color spectacle. The hues will depend heavily on the weather though but you can push them a bit with a gradient map. Click on the New Fill Layer button in the Layer palette and select Gradient Map from the list. Click on the gradient to open the Gradient Editor.n n Gradient Map italic nClick on the first color patch below the gradient and change the color to red. Set the color patch on the opposite side to yellow and click OK. Set the blending mode to Soft Light and reduce the opacity to about 5%. This will create a warm almost golden sunset.n n Observe the movement from a blue to a golden sunset. italic n Creating Smiles nRoughly select the area around the mouth with the Polygon Lasso tool. Go to Select 2 Modify 2 Feather and enter a radius of 1 pixels. Confirm then click on Layer 2 New 2 Layer via Copy (or press Control + J) then Edit 2 Puppet Warp. Photoshop will put a mesh over the entire layer in the shape of your previous selection.n n Here the mesh over the layer. italic nYou can control the size of the mesh with the Expansion value in the Options bar. Increase the density to More Points for increased precision. Press Control + H to hide the mesh then set the first pins to the corners of the mouth. Add more pins to distinctive spots of the mouth. By clicking and dragging the mesh you can shape a nice smile. n Colorful Water Drops nMacro shots of water drops are appealing and shapes can be further accentuated with discreet coloring. You could treat the bland surface with a linear gradient from #772222 (RGB 119 34 34) to #3333bb (RGB 51 51 187). If the photo is on a layer of its own click on Layer 2 Layer Style 2 Gradient Overlay or double-click the layer next to its name.n n Layer Style Gradient Overlay italic nSet the blend mode to Color the opacity to 5% the gradient to Foreground to background color and the angle to 9%. The gradient will be saved as a layer style so you cane back at any time to adjust the values. Double-clicking the style name opens up the dialog window once more.n n See the colorful drops with optimized colors. italic n Skin Color nIf the skin is not quite perfect after retouching it might be because of the general hue. You can control it by going to New Adjustment Layer 2 Hue Click on the miniature mask and press Control + I to invert the mask.n n Adjustment Layer Hue italic nUsing white color and a soft brush paint over the skin areas so that only they get treated. For the adjustment switch from Standard to Reds (found in the Hue drop-down menu of the Adjustment layer) and use the Hue Saturation and Lightness sliders to adjust the skin color. Switch to Yellows and optimize the skin tone. Getting the colors exactly right depends very much on the s 375 5 master_ s zoomable and use the Quick Selection tool to roughly select the red skin can hold down the Alt key and subtract areas from the selection. Click on Select 2 Modify 2 Feather and enter a value of about 15 pixels. Use the Control + J shortcut to copy the selection to a new layer.n n Adjustments Match Color italic nUsing the same technique copy the non-reddened skin to a new layer. In the next step youll have to differentiate between the source layer and the layer to edit so rename these two layers meaningfully; all it takes is a double-click on the layer name. You could use the naming scheme shown here and call them Beautiful skin and Reddened the layer with the red skin and select Image 2 Adjustments 2 Match Color from the menu. For Source select the current document and for Layer select the one with the beautiful skin. Control the effect using the Luminance and Color Intensity sliders in the Image Options area. Once you confirm you can control the effect strength with the Opacity slider.n n Paler skin after Match Color italic n Reducing Noise nNoisy s 318 5 master_ s zoomable s 6 5 master_ s zoomable s 412 5 master_ s zoomable s 6 5 master_ s zoomable s 393 5 master_ s zoomable s 531 5 master_ s zoomable s 377 5 master_ s zoomable with a classy sepia tone follow these steps. Click on Layer 2 New Adjustment Layer 2 Photo Filter and select the Sepia filter with a density of 1%. Double-click the layer (not the layer name) to open up the Layer Style window. This will show the Blending options.n n A view of the Layer Style window. italic nAt the bottom of the dialog box for the first gradient move the white slider to the left while holding the Alt key. This creates a smooth transition between adjusted and unadjusted areas. The sepia will now look elegant.n n Subtle sepia italic n Precise Positioning nIm sure youve often been irritated by Photoshop tendency to position elements on its own but the program is just trying to help you align an element that is on its own layer with the outer edge of the document or with the edge of another object. To your frustration the layer content will jump to the edge even though you wanted to leave a few pixels of space in between. You can temporarily deactivate the automatic snapping by holding the Control key as you position.n n A banner close to the edge. italic n Applying Layer Styles Multiple Times nUsually layer styles can be applied only once. For example if you click on Layer 2 Layer Style 2 Drop Shadow you cannot create a double drop shadow one of which has an angle of 12ub a distance of 2 pixels and a size of 2 pixels and the other of which has an angle of 18ub a distance of 12 pixels and a size of 12 it is possible! It just requires a little detour. Create the first drop shadow as you normally would. Then right-click on the layer and select Convert to Smart from the menu. This smart object can be assigned another drop shadow and you can convert the smart object into yet another smart object. This way you can easily add a third and fourth drop shadow. Alternatively you could apply multiple strokes.n n Three shadows inbination. italic nBy the way to put one or even several styles onto their own layers at once right-click on the FX symbol and select Create Layer from the list. Now you can apply filters to these styles but they won be editable anymore.n nSource Hope these help..