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Challenge #1 Fire, Explosions and Pixie Dust

Lesson 2 from: Photoshop This 2018

Jared Platt, Lisa Carney, Rafael "RC" Concepcion

Challenge #1 Fire, Explosions and Pixie Dust

Lesson 2 from: Photoshop This 2018

Jared Platt, Lisa Carney, Rafael "RC" Concepcion

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Lesson Info

2. Challenge #1 Fire, Explosions and Pixie Dust

Lesson Info

Challenge #1 Fire, Explosions and Pixie Dust

So our first challenge of the day is what I like to call Fire, Explosions, and Pixie Dust. We've all been in a situation where we have a fireplace that's not on or we want to have an explosion of some kind or we want to have some kind of an atmospheric effect in our photograph and those can be pesky because you have to see through them, so it's not just cutting and pasting a person onto your background. It's literally leaving that translucent effect and maybe even adding a glow to the effect so that the rest of the walls and things get that effect to them. So, our contestants are going to take this challenge. They have been given free for all, they can use whatever images they want and they need to create some kind of a translucent effect for their photo. (audience laughs) And, maybe, are you done? No, I was just-- You're supposed to wait until I say start! I was like, I got one, like you guys told me, crisp, I was like crisp, like potato chip? And then I went down that road. And...

I was like, oh, dang, I'll figure it out. I love it. I'll figure it out. No, it's beautiful. I'll figure it out. I can explode those chips. I got it. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. And you have three minutes to complete this challenge. And I will be looking over their shoulders. Ready, go! Alright, let's see what we're doing. I see that we already have our fire selected and we're going through, looked like you were going through the different blend modes-- Yeah, a lot of the times, you know, you just want to get a blend mode like that. And then after that you want to be able to do kind of a clipping mask within that with an adjustment and then you can kind of adjust how much of that fire you-- The fire burns through the chips, very good. Exactly. Lisa, it looks like you are searching what? I am in a program called Particle Shop, it's a plugin, and it allows me to brush-- You can use plugins? Oh sweetheart you can use-- Apparently, there are no rules. Did I tell you that the only rule in Photoshop This is that there are no rules? (audience laughs) Now you tell me? Nice. Yeah. Okay, so you're in a plugin to Photoshop that's allowing you to create effects on the go. And look, they're layered. I am in love, that is amazing. It's buggy, let's call it like it, it's a little buggy. But there's some pretty amazing things in here. And it works in conjunction with Photoshop, it's not a replacement for Photoshop, it's just an add on. Right. I love the add ons and that's the beautiful thing about Photoshop and Light Room, is that there's so many plugins that you can use. In fact, I've never heard of Particle Shop but I've heard of six billion other plugins, so that's fantastic, what are you doing over here Jesus? Having fun man, what are you doing? I'm having fun too. (audience laughs) Looks like you're going for clouds as well? You're gonna give us some fog, it's gonna get a little dark in here folks. 'Cause that, you know what, that photo you started with is a little bit too happy for the dark knight of death coming at people, right? Yeah, how much time do we have by the way? I don't know, let's find out how much, oh, looks like you have one minute and 16 seconds left. Perfect. So you should stop talking to me and focus on your work. I only need 16 seconds. Oh, okay, perfect. (audience laughs) That's sad. (laughs) Yeah. Oh my word. We might be out-gunned here. The whole room's gonna be on fire. Yeah, you can't just-- Are you gonna kind of brush out him? Or he is on fire too-- You know, I was looking at it as more kind of like an ad, like if you were just doing an ad, we'd need a little bit more atmospherics here. And a lot of the times, you know I'm trying to work very, very quickly for this, now watch. I need to bring him out a little bit, so I'm just gonna come over here and I'm gonna go to select subject, like I got no time to play around with lassoing, so I'm like, oh just turn around and just there we go-- That does a great job, the select subject is an amazing tool inside of Photoshop because it really does a fantastic job, even with hair, it does a pretty dang good job. So now I can kind of pull out all of the things that I want out of him. And then once I'm done with that, I can always go back and refine most of that stuff with an actual brush. So I think what you're seeing, and what you're gonna see a lot here, is that people are going to give you ideas and they would have to finish them a little bit. But we'll see who comes closest to completion in four, three, two, one. (buzzer sounds) Pens up, mouse up, Jesus. Okay, so let's what we accomplished. Jesus, we'll start with you, tell me a little bit about what you were accomplishing and what you wish you could finish. I was trying to get the Adobe Stock logo in there as many times as possible. (audience laughs) I think I accomplished that. You did and it's even vertical and horizontal. Any which way you look at the image, the Adobe Stock logo is there, Adobe, that one's for you. It's a little love for Adobe but, and then as soon as you decide you really like these things, you're just gonna license those and then they'll all just replace themselves and become the final image with no Adobe Stock. We're you planning on leaving those in as part of the art work? No, this is Adobe Stock sponsored, so I gotta make sure the logos are-- That's part of the art work. It's a whole new trend. I could do that if I wanted to but that's not what I want to do. But that's not what you're doing, yeah, perfect. I love it, so you're gonna send this to Adobe, they're gonna put it on their website. This is what you can do, I love it. So it looks like you added some clouds. No, they were there originally. Oh, they were there originally. You just added the fog-- Added the fog, explosion, that swirly thing around the person, and that flame going around them. So he's more of a magical knight. There you go. Got it. Very good, thanks, everyone give it up for Jesus. That was pretty impressive. (audience claps) That's actually quite nice, that almost feels finished. It's right there and I like the fact that you have clarity on his up here, so you erased that out a little bit? It's beautiful. Yup. Alright Lisa, show me what you've done. Alright, so what I did is I am also a fan of Adobe Stock, so I was originally doing Particle Shop but I realized in three minutes I couldn't quite get it exactly the way I wanted it. So I said, I'm gonna surrender that and I switched to Adobe Stock, so I picked an image like that. Put it on screen mode, put a little levels move to darken it out, and there's my chiquita. And then she needed a little darkening, I think, to make that effect really show up. So I put an adjustment layer to darken it up. And there you go. You know, I think I've used that same sparkle before when I was trying to do it, but you did it better than I do, so I'm gonna call you later. Alright sweetie. Let you do my work. Adobe Stock is your friend. I love it, and what have you got here? So, I was, what I wanted to go for was I literally wanted to kind of take the crisp image idea. (audience laughs) Like, I was excited about that part and I was like, well, if I were told to make an ad that was crisp and then with flames, like what would it look like? And oftentimes, what happens is you're not necessarily the person that does the shoot. You don't have the concept, you don't have anything. So, you do have to go to Stock to be able to do that. So, I'm like, well what do we have with Stock, what do we have with Photoshop, and what do we have with the techniques that you can do as fast as possible? So, personally my goal was how many Adobe tools can I use very, very quickly to make it faster? How many things can I use from Adobe Stock to be able to make it faster? And then, how do I take, not just let's put flames on something, but let's actually go with a specific, cohesive idea to bring it. So, I'll probably, the only other thing I probably would have added would be like some type. Nice, los diablos tortilla chips! Nice, that is hot. Delicious. Very good, let's give it up for all three of our Photoshop contestants. (audience claps)

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