[PS] How to Airbrush?

[Igoy]

Yo.

I probably shouldn't admit to this, but I've only recently started using Photoshop (I prefer to use Paint Shop Pro 9). I'm applying to go to Uni in September and I imagine they'll expect me to be somewhat confident at using Photoshop and while I can do most things on there, I cannot work out for the life of me how to airbrush using it.

I'm talking airbrushing on this kinda scale. (An example of my airbrushing on PSP9).

I use Photoshop CS2, however I should be upgrading to CS3 soon if that makes any difference whatsoever.

So er... any tips please?

 

[Crotale]

It is a whole lot easier if you have a tablet. A Wacom Bamboo can be had for under $80 USD. My Graphire is fairly basic but I find that I can usually do way better work with the tablet than with a mouse. Of course, there are better tablets, such as the Wacom Intuous. Those range from about $250 on up, depending on the size.

 

[Continuum]

Not sure what the difference is between photoshop and paint shop since I havn't seen paint shop since version 4 or 5. In photoshop you can adjust about anything you can think of on the brush itself in addition to setting the opacity and flow on the toolbar. Of course the wacom tablets will help out with any brush work. Just don't get a small / cheap one if you do get one. Maybe pick up something like Imagine FX or one of the photoshop magazines for some tutorials or whatever, they tend to be better than most online tutorials from my experience.

 

[T2A`]

If your goal is to make a good picture look sh*tty, you can select an area with the lasso (easy) or or pen (hard), feather the edges, and Gaussian blur the selection.

 

[Continuum]

If your goal is to make a good picture look sh*tty, you can select an area with the lasso (easy) or or pen (hard), feather the edges, and Gaussian blur the selection.

Select and copy to a new layer so you can forget about the feathering and adjust the opacity / blending.

 

[T2A`]

That too. I've never actually done it because it looks so bad, so I wasn't sure how in-depth the process was. I hate pictures of women where their skin is falsely smoothed and blended to the point they don't look human anymore.

 

[Crotale]

That's why it should be done sparingly. But, some subjects have blemishes, etc, and you may want those corrected in the image. 'Tis one of the reasons for the soft lens when it is used, especially on women.

 

[Igoy]

For some of the work I do though, airbrushing needs to be used quite heavily.

With the exception of T2A`, nobody has really told me HOW to airbrush. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate you telling me the best equipment to use, etc. But I don't actually know HOW to airbrush on there. If there any other methods you know of, please share.

 

[daloonie]

A soft brush with low oppacity and just pick the colors off the background. Remember to tick off the "Airbrush capabilities" on the brush(found in the "lower" top menu when you have the brush tool selected).

 

[Crotale]

There are several methods to giving your images that airbrushed look. One method I use is to first create a separate copy layer of my base image. I normally use a light smudge technique to smooth out the necessary areas. I then pick a soft brush to paint over the required areas, but I do so in a new layer for each color. You can blend these painted layers according to your needs.

By the way, there is an airbrush option in the Brushes palette. You can play around with this to get a feel as to what measures you may need to use in different situations. That can be used as a finishing touch to your image.

 

[Igoy]

Okay, I'll give these things a try. Thank you!