Photorealism

DreamLab · January 2011

I usually use illustrator, but I have seen the kind of things you all can do with photoshop and making real photos into photorealistic art like this.

So I was wondering if there are any tutorial out there or anyone that can give some advice on to how to master photoshop painting and such. thanks
DL

IsabelleK · January 2011

Joe's graphics are made from photos.

DreamLab · January 2011

TheMoonwalls said:
Joe's graphics are made from photos.

I know that. My question is, is there a tutorial out there that teaches you how to paint on to of them, or edit them. Thats what photorealism is. Joe edited those, and I am asking how he did.
DL

firemaplegames · January 2011

Yeah, the images for my adventure games are created by collaging several different photos together, and then painting over them with a variety of hand painted techniques. I also use lots of blending modes and layer effects.

Keep in mind that I have been using Photoshop for 20 years now, so I have had a lot of practice!

There are tons of fantastic Photoshop tutorial websites on the internet, one of my all-time favorites is psdtuts+

Here is a link to a collection of digital painting tutorials from their site:

That site is part of a great network of sites, which you can access through the orange plus button in the top-right of the menu bar.

They have all sorts of tutorial sites in there, including a great Illustrator tutorial site.

Hope this helps!

Joe

tmoehle · January 2011

If you want to get better at photorealism I would suggest getting very familiar with the magic wand, pen tool and image adjustments.

Below is the process I use for photo realism.

1. FIND IMAGES WITH SIMILAR LIGHTING
It will seem more believable if the light is cast from the similar direction/brightness.

2. CUT OUT YOUR IMAGES
Use the Magic wand or pen tool to cut out objects for your photo collage. Practice using the magic wand and increase or decrease your tolerance to better fit your selection. The pen tool took some time to master, but it's ideal when cutting objects out of photos.

3. MATCH/BLEND COLORS
You can better match colors by going to image>adjustments > in photoshop. I would study everything in this dropdown.

RESEARCH
This is a great place to start learning this type of photo blending.

James White has several great tutorials and psd breakdowns.

Smashing Magazine is a great magazine about all things design.

Lynda.com is the best video tutorial resource on the net. It's well worth every penny.

I would suggest also searching YouTube for tutorials.

LuckyLurcher · January 2011

I would recommend you take a class in Photoshop. It is really helpful to have someone on hand to help you and you will learn much quicker than trying to teach yourself. I recently did this as a subsidiary part of an art degree and found it invaluable. Some colleges run week long courses during summer breaks etc. This would be good to get you started, but as Joe's 20 years use of Photoshop shows, there really is no substitute for experience. I actually started out drawing graphics on a 1980s 8 bit computer which really shows my age.

By the way, I don't think photorealism is the correct term here as it brings to mind the American art movement of the 1960s & 70s. Traditionally photorealistic art is painted on canvas. Possibly photo manipulation would be more suitable, but I'm not really sure.

J.

quantumsheep · January 2011

LuckyLurcher said:
I actually started out drawing graphics on a 1980s 8 bit computer which really shows my age.

I love you already!

QS

forklift · January 2011

And I thought I was the only one that learned to draw with the green triangle (affectionately called mr. turtle)!

LuckyLurcher · January 2011

@ forklift: Sorry, but I don't know what a green triangle is. I was talking about the 8 bit Sinclair Spectrum 48k (UK, 1982).

@ quantumsheep: Thanks! I haven't any 8 bit stuff online, but if you like old style graphics I did come across a review of a game I made ages ago, for the Atari ST (1990).

Please note: the game is now 21 years old!!! and that the Atari ST could only display 16 colours on screen from a palette of 256.

I think things have improved since then.

J.

forklift · January 2011

8 bit? I'm talkin Green monochrome, baby!

LuckyLurcher · January 2011

I'm talking about plugging an RF cable into the old fashioned CRT television and turning the little wheel until it's tuned in! and then having to unplug it when Dad wants to watch the news.

craps · January 2011

I am very new to photoshop and have been playing with painting on photos. The problem I am having is that my original photos are in the 1280 x 800 pixels size range ( some larger) and is around 450 Kb is size. With painting the size is of course getting larger.

With 20 scene photos we are talking around 9 MB of images - not including anything else - is this normal?
Is there a way to keep the total image size down.

Trying to keep in the 1024x768 size range for the ipad and smaller for the iphone what should I do?

tmoehle · January 2011

The link above should help. If you are using Photoshop be sure to optimize your images when you save them.

File > save for web & devices > Select the preset : unnamed in upper right hand corner. > Select png24. Save.

I was able to take a 1024 x763 image at 187k down to 102k with puny png.

Photorealism

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