Teeth Whitening Tutorial

Ok, this will be the third tutorial I make so far and I hope you enjoy them. (Comments are ALWAYS welcome =))  )  This time we will be performing teeth whitening using quick mask mode and a simple hue & saturation layer.

The image I am using for this tutorial was downloaded from StockExchange.

Ok, so the first thing we do is to load the image into photoshop. (I write these tutorials assuming you also use photoshop. Shortcuts, buttons and functions might be different if you are using something else)

1. Once you open the photo, make a copy of the background layer by pressing CTRL-J, or right-click and select duplicate layer.

2. Enter quick-mask mode by pressing Q

3. Select the brush-tool by pressing B and adjust the hardness of the brush up a bit so that it will make nice and clear edges.

4. Zoom in on the persons teeth and start painting the teeth using black as the foreground color. You will see that the teeth will be covered with a nice red color. 

When you are finished, they should look something like this:

5. Press Q to exit quick mask mode and you will see a nice selection of the teeth, looking something like this:

If you see your selection covering more than just the the teeth, go back into quick mask mode and select white as the foreground color (by pressing X) and then paint over the area that you dont want. You will then see the red color go away. Check your result by exiting quick mask mode by pressing Q.

6. When you are happy with your selection and have exited quick mask mode, press CTRL-SHIFT-i to invert your selection.

7. Create a new hue & saturation layer as a new adjustment layer by choosing layer on the toolbar. Then go down where it says 'New Adjustment Layer' and choose Hue/Saturation.

A dialog will pop up, looking like this:

Make sure the box where it says' Use Previous Layer...' is checked, then click OK.

8. Now adjust the sliders for the hue & saturation layer. For this particular image i'm using, i have used the following settings:

You might want to zoom out a bit when doing this as it will make it easier to see the result of what you are doing. When you are happy with the adjustments you have made, save your image, you're finished. The results for this image wont be really astonishing since she had very nice teeth to begin with, but here is my result (slightly down-sized) :

Picture as a frame and Smart Object

In this tutorial i'm going to show you how you can use your photo as a frame (as shown above) and also one of the benefits with 'Smart Objects'.

First, lets open a photo in our editor...

1. The first thing we do is to right-click on the background layer and click 'Convert to smart object'. I will explain why, later.

2. Then duplicate the 'background' layer. (right-click and choose duplicate layer or CTRL-J)

3. Then with the new layer highlighted, go to 'Edit-transform-scale'

4. Then on the toolbar, set the size for width and height to 75 %

Hit 'Enter' to accept.

You can now see 2 versions of your photo, 1 fullsize in the background and one 25% smaller in front.

5. Next, make sure the layer copy is highlighted. Then right-click and choose 'Blending Options'.

Apply the settings as follows:

Stroke 5 px

Drop Shadow - Distance 12px - spread 0 px - Size 5px

If you do this on a small image, you might want to change these settings a bit to suit your needs. Click OK to accept the settings.

6. Go back to the background layer (layer 0 - zero) and apply 'Gaussian Blur' 15 - 25 pixels radius. This also depends on the size of your photo. Just go with whatever you think is nice.

Save your photo, you are finished!

Almost... Do you remember I said I would explain one of the benefits with smart objects? I thought so...

Ok, right-click on your bottom layer (layer 0 - zero) and choose: 'Replace Contents'. Find any other photo on your computer (same size) and click 'Place'.

Pretty cool if you ask me...

Orton Effect

The Orton Effect is one of my favorite effects of all. It makes the images very nice, warm and soft and can be used on almost all kinds of photos, even nightphotos.

Here is an example used on flowers:

Now, achieveing this is very simple and can be done in just a few steps.

1. Open the photo of your choice into your photo editor. (must support layers)

2. Sharpen the image a bit more than you would normally do but don't ruin it. (you can play around with this for the result you want)

3. Duplicate the background layer and set the layer mode for the new layer to 'Screen'. Change the name of this layer to 'Screen'.

4. Duplicate the 'Screen'-layer and name this 'Gaussian Blur'. Depending on the size of the image, you might wanna try different settings here as well. If it is a normal fullsize image like 4288 x 2848 like the Nikon D300 deliveres, I normally end up somewhere around 15 pixels for the gaussian blur. Smaller images = less pixels, but you decide... 

5. Change the layer mode for the 'Gaussian Blur' layer to 'Multiply' and then play around with the opacity for this layer to get the effect you want.

...and there you have it!

Here is a short video of my layers palette while doing this on a different photo. 

For more information on the Orton effect - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orton_(photography)