As you can tell, I am very excited for the upcoming theatrical release of the Watchmen. Only two weeks away! I've created a few wallpaper backgrounds in Photoshop of Rorschach's mask, Doc Manhattan's hydrogen atom logo, and Nite Owl's crescent moon logo. Click the pictures for larger versions. Feel free to email me at ryan@noirgraphicdesign.com if you need a bigger size or uncompressed version since Blogger likes to limit the size of photos you can upload. On to other Watchmen news, I've read that the running time of the film is going to be just over 2 and half hours. That's good to hear since last I read, the studio wanted to cut it down closer to 2 hours. The first release of the director's cut DVD will be over 3 hours but that won't be until July. Once you think the waiting is over...it's not. 5 months and 2 weeks away. It will be worth it.
Watchmen Wallpapers
Who Photoshops the Photoshoppers?
Well it's been awhile since my last post and all of you (Dan) have been bugging me to update this thing more often, so I will try. A lot has happened in the past few months. I've played a few new games including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry 2, and Left 4 Dead and have watched numerous movies. For instance, last night I movie hopped and saw Defiance and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. I've also switched jobs. Previously, I was working at an automotive company doing graphic design in the marketing department and now I'm working at an advertising agency doing design work for multiple clients. I've also upgraded to Adobe CS4. On the photography side, I've recently purchased a speedlight and new lens and have been having a blast playing with those. Perhaps I'll blog in more detail on these topics sometime soon.
In the meantime, today as I was keeping tabs on the most anticipated movie in my world these days, The Watchmen, it inspired me to do some Photoshop work on a photo I took of myself recently. So as an homage to the Watchmen, I introduce you to myself as Dr. Manhattan. The original photo can be found on my Flickr here.
Noir Stationary Set
UPS Really Stands For Ultimate Photon System
Today's Photoshop fun. As you can see, my friend Chris and I get a lot done at work. He makes the corrugated robot suit and I make him all powerful in Photoshop. Slow day at work equals awesome picture. I decided to post the "before" (slightly grunged up in Lightroom) and the "after."
Noir Graphic Design Studios Site Launched
Tutorial: Vintage Grunge Effect
This is the first of hopefully many tutorials to come. This recipe of Lightroom adjustments is a cool way of making a photograph look a little more darker and edgy. I shot this photo recently and while it looks cool I think it can look a little cooler.
Programs used: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 and Adobe Photoshop CS3
The first step of editing any photograph is to crop it accordingly. Using the crop tool in Lightroom I've isolated the car slightly to the left in this horizontal fashion.
This series of tweaks are what it's all about. Crank up the Recovery, Fill, Blacks, Brightness, Contrast, and Vibrance all the way up and adjust slightly if necessary. To combat the crazy colors you'll end up seeing, turn the saturation almost all the way down. This will give it the faded, vintage look.
Next, I've adjusted the color temperature slightly to color correct the ground since it was looking rather blue.
Bring up the color sliders and make adjustments as necessary. In this instance I brought up the saturation in the greens to make the plants pop a little more since they got lost with the previous adjustments.
Now, to make the sky pop. Open the photo in Photoshop and create a new layer. Make sure black is selected as your foreground color and open the gradient tool and pick the black to transparency option. On the new layer, hold SHIFT and drag downward from the top of the photo to the middle. Select Overlay as the blending option in the layers palette.
For a final touch I'll be adding glints to the highlighted areas of the car. The key is to not over do it. Create a new a layer and select the brush tool. Under the brush palette options choose Assorted brushes and use brush number 48 which looks like an X. Increase the brush size by using the bracket keys and click once on the area needed. In this case I chose one on the rear view mirror and a few on the chrome bumper. Reduce the opacity of this layer down to 45%.
Boom Bam. You're done.
Photoshop World Conference & Expo
Coming up September 4-6 is Photoshop World Conference & Expo in Las Vegas and I will be there! Hotel is booked and registration is paid for. I just need to buy my plane ticket. 3 days of Photoshop and design classes taught by industry greats such as Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, and Matt Kloskowski. In between classes there will be a tech expo with exhibitors such as Canon, Nikon, and Adobe where I can see all the latest gadgets and software. (image above taken from the Photoshop World website. Check it out)
In preparation for my trip I recently purchased a new camera/laptop backpack- the Kata DR-467. A friend of mine has the model below this one, the only difference being that the one I bought holds up to a 17" laptop. It looks bad ass and is ergonomically comfortable. When not carrying your camera, the dividers can be taken out and the entire bag can be used as a simple backpack. It also has a built in rain cover in case the worst happens. I should be getting it this week. It will make things easier in the airport and trekking through the expo keeping my laptop, camera and other digital devices with me in one bag instead of bringing a separate bag for my laptop and camera. Most bags I was checking out were well over $100 to get the laptop option but I got this baby for an even $66 from Amazon. B&H and Adorama lists it $79.95 but if you buy it from Amazon who goes through Adorama (don't ask me why it's cheaper) it's only $66 bucks. No tax. Free shipping. Boom bam.
