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Make Your Photos More Intense in 12 Easy Steps

By Tom Ross, 8th March, 2009, 39 Comments

(Photo Effects - Tutorials)

Final Image

This is the final image that we’ll be creating. This tutorial aims to show how a few simple steps can add real intensity to your image.

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Images Used

Lime Photo

Step 1

Open up a photo of a lime:

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Step 2

Start by cutting out the lime. To do this, select it using the lasso tool or pen tool, and then paste your selection onto a new layer.

Then create a new layer beneath your lime cutout layer called ‘background’. Apply a radial gradient ranging from 292C2F to 0F1010. This is the first step to making your photo more intense, by positioning your photo in front of a dark background you’re giving it more contrast, and making the bright colors of your photo stand out more.

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Step 3

Now create a new layer below your lime layer and above your background layer called ‘background highlights’. Create a couple of radial gradients ranging from white to transparent behind each piece of lime. Then reduce the opacity of this layer to 40%.

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Step 4

Now apply a color overlay to your background highlights layer (color: 83BFDE).

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Step 5

Now create a new layer called ‘background shadows’ and apply a black to transparent radial gradient beneath each lime piece, and between the two pieces.

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Step 6

Now duplicate your lime photo layer and change the duplicate’s blend mode to ‘hard light’. Reduce it’s layer opacity to 50%. Then duplicate your hard light layer and change the blend mode to ‘soft light’, keeping the opacity at 50%. Then merge down both of your duplicate layers with your original lime layer, by pressing option+e twice.

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Step 7

Now go to image>adjustments>hue/saturation and apply the settings shown below:

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Step 8

Now go to filter>sharpen>sharpen, to emphasize the details of your lime.


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Step 9

Now go to image>adjustments>color balance. Make the adjustments shown below to reduce the green in your photo and give a more yellowy tint to compliment your gray background.

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Step 10

Now create a new top layer called ‘burn layer’. Select a large, soft black paintbrush, blend mode: ‘color burn’, hardness: 0%, opacity 10%. Paint over the darker green areas of your limes to bring out the shadows. I reduced my burn layer’s opacity to 50% eventually in order to make the effect a little more subtle.

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Step 11

Now create a new layer called ‘orange burn’. You want the edges of the yellow inner part of the lime to burn to a deep orange color. Change your brush color to orange (FF6C00) and use a medium size soft brush to brush around the edges of your yellow area. Then reduce your brush size, and brush even closer to the edge of the yellow, making this area more intense with color.

Finally, be sure to change the blend mode of this layer to ‘color burn’. This will really bring out the orange color of this layer, and won’t let your of your orange brush marks overlap into your dark background.

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Step 12

Now create a new layer called ‘white highlights’. Use a white paintbrush to paint in the highlights in the yellow area. Use a very small brush to repeatedly brush over your white edge and thin white lines. Then enlarge your brush and paint over the light areas of your green lime skin. If any of your brush marks go over into your dark background, use your magic wand tool to select outside of your lime shapes, then return to your white highlights layer and hit delete.

Finally, I reduced this layer’s opacity to 40% to make the highlights more subtle and realistic.

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And We’re Done.

And there you have it! Very simple photo manipulation, to create a truly intense end result. If you compare the before and after images below, you can see how these easy techniques make a real difference to your images.

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Download Source File for this Tutorial

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About the Author:

Tom is the founder of PSDFAN. He loves writing tutorials, learning more about design and interacting with the community. On a more interesting note he can also play guitar hero drunk with his teeth.

Leave a comment

39 Comments:

  1. spacer salmen says:
    March 8, 2009 at 11:57 pm

    Nice Work

    Reply
  2. spacer Tom says:
    March 9, 2009 at 12:04 am

    Thanks mate spacer

    Reply
  3. spacer Cristhian Bedon says:
    March 9, 2009 at 12:10 am

    Seems like its an orange instead of a Lime, nice job though, seems to bring out the lime.

    Reply
    • spacer Tom says:
      March 9, 2009 at 1:11 am

      Heh I see what you mean, I thought it was kinda cool to bring out the color even in the orange part though.

      Reply
  4. spacer Sneh says:
    March 9, 2009 at 2:31 am

    This is an awesome tutorial … makes simple special right? Thnx for sharing spacer

    Reply
    • spacer Tom says:
      March 9, 2009 at 2:52 am

      Yep that was the idea. Not everyone has hours to work on complex graphics, sometimes it’s simple, but applicable techniques that are most useful. I’m glad you enjoyed it spacer

      Reply
  5. spacer Naldz Graphics says:
    March 9, 2009 at 4:18 am

    Great tutorial as always.i like it:)

    Reply
  6. spacer projectautomatika says:
    March 9, 2009 at 2:43 pm

    simple and great!

    Reply
  7. spacer Tom says:
    March 9, 2009 at 4:30 pm

    Thanks guys!

    Reply
  8. spacer MarcoscSantana says:
    March 9, 2009 at 5:34 pm

    EP = Easy and practical… good tutorial.. nice job

    Reply
  9. spacer Tom says:
    March 9, 2009 at 6:01 pm

    Thanks. I’ll try producing some more ‘practical’ tutorials like this one in the near future.

    Reply
  10. spacer Eric Shafer says:
    March 9, 2009 at 9:58 pm

    Great tut, simple but useful.

    Featured here: www.presidiacreative.com/web-picks-15/

    Reply
  11. spacer aldrin says:
    March 10, 2009 at 9:33 am

    great tutorial it’s really impressive

    Reply
  12. spacer Tom says:
    March 10, 2009 at 5:54 pm

    Cheers.

    Eric: Thanks for the feature spacer

    Reply
  13. spacer Css-Magazine says:
    March 11, 2009 at 10:01 am

    Hmmm amazing colors.

    Reply
  14. spacer mark says:
    March 11, 2009 at 3:15 pm

    it was better at start

    Reply
  15. spacer Dainis Graveris says:
    March 11, 2009 at 7:29 pm

    the final image looks much more delicious than first one! spacer nice!

    Reply
  16. spacer Nora Reed says:
    March 11, 2009 at 7:53 pm

    The finished product looks so nice. The yellow color brightens it up so much. The black background is great too.

    Reply
  17. spacer Tom says:
    March 11, 2009 at 11:57 pm

    Thanks guys! spacer I’m glad that you enjoyed this tutorial.

    Reply
  18. spacer Brian Simpson says:
    March 12, 2009 at 5:00 am

    The original looks better – sorry man. Don’t fix it if it aint broke.

    Reply
  19. spacer Lindsey says:
    March 13, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    The original image is much better than the final. Sorry. But you can actually tell it’s a lime in the original; in the final, the colors are so manipulated to the point where it looks more like an orange than a lime. There are ways to make your photo pop using this method, but not to this intensity.

    Reply
  20. spacer Patrick Turner says:
    March 14, 2009 at 5:56 am

    I agree with the above comment but it is still a great effect for other photos

    especially fashion portraits, the soft and hard light layers really made a photo come to life!

    Reply
  21. spacer ProjectCenter says:
    March 17, 2009 at 1:28 am

    That’s pretty easy stuff but still useful.

    Reply
  22. spacer Adam - Creare Design says:
    April 20, 2009 at 2:06 pm

    Quite nice. I find that modifying the levels of images makes a huge difference in making a distinction between light and dark colours, which in turn makes images seem more striking.

    Nice tutorial though.

    Reply
  23. spacer Fabian says:
    April 22, 2009 at 1:34 am

    Have you tried making the original on the white background stand out more? This seems to cut and paste.

    Reply
  24. spacer photo retouching says:
    May 7, 2009 at 10:25 am

    What a great piece of photo retouching , it has achieved a 3d feel.

    Reply
  25. spacer Alex says:
    May 15, 2009 at 7:54 am

    Bad. The Original looks nice, the final one is ugly. Never seen a lime with yellow inside. Also your technique of cutting out is bad. There should be no round corners. Don’t use the lasso, use the path tool and do it accurately.

    Reply
  26. spacer dip says:
    May 15, 2009 at 9:15 am

    Now I like the steps and the tutorial is quite easy to follow, but what I absolutely dislike is that you

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