How to Cheat in Photoshop

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Posted on 18/10/26 2:29:56 PM

lwc
Hole in One
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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

Posted on 18/10/26 5:21:57 PM

dwindt
Realism Realiser
Posts: 1219

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

The Last batch of the day.

Unbashful, still cheating with my images.

Both the first image together with this image, total over 150 PS layers. I use to colour correct every added layer to my image, manually, to sync such layers with the environment of my subject. I mentioned this before. In 3D, you can light a scene with an HDRI sphere. Basically, you are lighting whatever is in your scene, with the environments light thereby balancing the tone and secondary colours that illuminate all objects in your scene. I now use ai to speed up my art process, in doing this task automatically.

This is my prompt or instruction to ai when pre-finalising my image. I still take it back into PS for final scrutiny and tweaking after this stage.

"Refine the existing image with professional cinematic lighting correction and subtle colour grading only. Preserve the original image exactly as composed.

ABSOLUTE PRESERVATION: Maintain every original subject, character, facial feature, expression, anatomy, pose, clothing, armour, weapons, props, architectural details, background elements, and spatial relationships. Preserve the original Greek mythology aesthetic, artistic style, atmosphere, and narrative. Do not add, remove, replace, redesign, or reposition anything.

LIGHTING AND TONE: Correct tonal imbalances, exposure, contrast, highlights, midtones, and shadows. Establish consistent directional lighting with physically believable light falloff, natural shadow placement, and coherent light interaction across all subjects and surfaces. Balance foreground and background illumination while retaining atmospheric depth. Refine highlight roll-off, shadow density, ambient occlusion, and reflected light. Preserve realistic contact shadows and ensure all cast shadows agree with the original light source direction.

COLOUR GRADING: Harmonise colour temperature, white balance, saturation, and tonal relationships. Retain the original colour palette and material colours. Introduce subtle cinematic depth, natural skin tones, realistic metal reflections, and nuanced separation between illuminated and shadowed areas. Preserve existing textures, fine details, surface materials, and image sharpness.

FINAL RESULT: The same original image, composition, subjects, and artistic intent, with balanced exposure, coherent lighting, refined shadows, harmonious colour, and improved tonal depth. Subtle, controlled, technically accurate refinement only.

No reinterpretation, no creative alterations, no new elements, no exaggerated HDR, no artificial glow, no excessive contrast, no oversaturation, no loss of detail, no changes to composition."

Don't let an unedited ai image blind you. They are so fascinating that even a trained eye misses the obvious. It's been evident in the last few challenges here aswell.

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Posted on 18/10/26 5:36:04 PM

dwindt
Realism Realiser
Posts: 1219

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

"Don't let an unedited ai image blind you. They are so fascinating that even a trained eye misses the obvious."

Lol...like the tiny purple grape that has fused to the bigger green one, in front of the naked male's foot on the right, carrying the big wicker basket.

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Posted on 19/10/26 01:29:58 AM

Ben Boardman
Printing Pro
Posts: 877

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

You and I do love our backlight. It's lovely here.

Which, since you do not mention them, implies that you did not use AI for the, far more difficult, Badger and friend and basket/boat contents. If that is so, this is wonderfully impressive work Ben. I wouldn't like to attempt it. Wow!

Hi David,
A lot of my photography was Contre-jour, apparently I didn't read the Kodak Box Brownie instructions. Changing Ratty & Mole to marble was a pain in the .. I lost count of the different methods I tried, don't think I'd bother again. Get it right add the marble texture and start again. I'm fortunate that I own the Wind in the Willows models - made it easier to get right perspective. The background image came from research into Kenneth Grahame. My parents bought me the book in 1953. The models were from Chapter 1 - The River Bank.

Posted on 19/10/26 11:05:21 AM

DavidMac
Director of Photoshop
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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

You mean physical models that you photographed? The texturing is marvellous!

Yes, books like Wind in The Willows and Winnie the Pooh were based on real English locations.

I shot a film about Ernest Shepard the illustrator who produced the wonderful original whimsical line drawings for Pooh and all the A.A.Milne books. I met him, by then in his eighties. He had old suitcases filled with his originals and we photographed many of these for the film. To leaf through the original drawings of something that had been a familiar part of my childhood was a quite astonishing experience.

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Posted on 19/10/26 11:11:13 AM

DavidMac
Director of Photoshop
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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

B.T.W Shepard deeply regretted licensing his drawings to Disney. He hated what Disney did to them and could give us thirty minutes of pure vitriol on the subject without drawing breath!

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The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it .......

Posted on 19/10/26 12:32:03 PM

Ant Snell
Specular Specialist
Posts: 667

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

Posted on 19/10/26 8:15:05 PM

DavidMac
Director of Photoshop
Posts: 6608

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

Ant! That's about as perfect as it gets!

They produced some of the most pretentious (and stupid) advertising that this and the last century has ever seen. Not just England but the rest of Europe too!

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The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it .......

Posted on 20/10/26 06:11:17 AM

Ben Boardman
Printing Pro
Posts: 877

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

I forgot to mention David. After getting nowhere, I found "Making Statues from life" by Steve Caplin, Chapter 10, HTCIPS CC

Posted on 20/10/26 10:15:22 AM

lwc
Hole in One
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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

Posted on 21/10/26 09:19:05 AM

lwc
Hole in One
Posts: 3816

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

Posted on 21/10/26 6:01:03 PM

DavidMac
Director of Photoshop
Posts: 6608

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

Ben Boardman wrote:
I forgot to mention David. After getting nowhere, I found "Making Statues from life" by Steve Caplin, Chapter 10, HTCIPS CC

I take it you have seen the end products he made on Photoshop London .

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The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it .......

Posted on 21/10/26 6:03:15 PM

DavidMac
Director of Photoshop
Posts: 6608

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

Ah Loyd .... I see that time of year is fast approaching ........

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The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it .......

Posted on 21/10/26 6:11:34 PM

DavidMac
Director of Photoshop
Posts: 6608

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

DavidMac wrote:

Ben Boardman wrote:
I forgot to mention David. After getting nowhere, I found "Making Statues from life" by Steve Caplin, Chapter 10, HTCIPS CC

I take it you have seen the end products he made on Photoshop London .

Looking at them again I had forgotten (because of the stiff poses?) how some still tend to look like top quality waxworks and some are really convincing. For my money, the real stunner is Franklin. I'm astonished by him every time I visit!

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The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it .......

Posted on 21/10/26 8:12:11 PM

GKB
Magical Montagist
Posts: 4233

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

Bartholdi was pleased when the last two pieces of the Statue arrived at Liberty Island.

Sorry it's a bit feeble this week but somebody keeps stealing all my time. Yes Sylvia, I'm looking at you.

... but no AI whatsoever.

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Posted on 21/10/26 10:55:42 PM

Ben Boardman
Printing Pro
Posts: 877

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

[quoted]
DavidMac wrote:
You mean physical models that you photographed? The texturing is marvellous!

I bought then from a local artist on Phillip Island about 25 years ago. Unfortunately Toad is a different scale.

Posted on 22/10/26 04:29:44 AM

tooquilos
Wizard of Oz
Posts: 3014

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Re: Challenge 1127: Bartholdi's basket

After spending five weeks travelling around Morocco and Greece, it's good to be back.

Ant, the Ferrero Roche entry is bloody brilliant! Thank you Gordon for the pic.

http://vimeo.com/1238226404?fl=pl&fe=sh