At my current day to day job I use this technique religiously. It’s fast, easy and extremely effective when trying to achieve better quality photos for print and online. In the following Adobe Photoshop tutorial I’ll walk you though a quick (less than a minute once you learn the steps) process on how to brighten up those dull, dark photos you’ve been sent from your clients… or in my case, taken with your poor digital camera.

The following tutorial was done in Adobe Photoshop CS3, but 80% of the process can be used on just about any program with a “Levels” function (such as the freeware, open source image editing software, GIMP) while the last 20% can be done all the way back to Photoshop CS1 (this is the black overlay feature achieved by holding the ‘option’ or ‘alt’ key in levels).

» TIP: IT’S ALWAYS GOOD TO MAKE DUPLICATES OF YOUR LAYERS IN CASE YOU NEED TO GO BACK IF YOU MAKE A FATAL MISTAKE.

Step 1:

Open the file you wish to adjust and open the Levels adjustment window » SHORTCUT: COMMAND+L (pc users: CTRL+L). This will bring up your image’s histogram and the palette where this tutorial will focus. Locate the white point slider as seen above.

Step 2:

One of the best features of this tutorial is built right in to Photoshop CS1+. While on the white point slider, press and hold OPTION (pc users: ALT) and begin scrubbing the bar left and right. This will give you a black overlay over your image. If you’re using an older version of Photoshop or a different program you can skip to step 4.

» NOTE: THIS FEATURE WILL ONLY WORK IF YOUR IMAGE IS IN RGB MODE.

» TIP: USING ADJUSTMENT LAYERS IS A GREAT WAY TO INSURE THAT YOU DON’T RUIN YOUR ORIGINAL FILES. THIS IS CALLED “WORKING NON-DESTRUCTIVELY”. IT WILL ALLOW YOU TO KEEP YOUR ORIGINAL FILES INTACT FOR FUTURE PROJECTS, OR TO RETURN TO A PREVIOUS STATE IF YOUR ADJUSTMENT LAYERS AREN’T WORKING FOR YOUR DESIGN ANYMORE.

Step 3:

While still holding OPTION (pc users: ALT), scrub your white point slider to the left on the histogram. The key here is to slide the white point until your overlay image starts to get to a point where it turns pure white. This is where we will be setting the white point of your image, thus adjusting the entire histogram to account for the new white point of the image.

Step 4:

Now that we’ve found the new area of the image we want to set our white point, we have to actually do it. Locate the WHITE POINT EYEDROPPER tool, as seen above, and click it once to highlight. Your cursor should now change to the little Eyedropper icon (Depending on how you have your preferences set up in Photoshop, this may or may not happen.). Take the White Point Eyedropper and find the area of the image we designated to be our new white point, click once. You should see an immediate change to your image and a new histogram should be generated in your Levels window as well. If the desired change is too much, or too strong, you can keep clicking around until you get a nice new balance for your white point.

» TIP: DOUBLE CLICKING THE EYEDROPPER ICON WILL LET YOU CHOOSE A BASE COLOR AS YOUR COLOR POINT. PLAY AROUND WITH THIS FEATURE FOR SOME NEAT EFFECTS.

Step 5:

Now we will repeat steps 2-4 above, but on the opposite side of the histogram, the black point. Again, we will hold the OPTION (pc users: ALT) and scrub our black point slider on the histogram, but this time we will be looking for the image to turn it’s blackest.

Step 6:

Now that we’ve found our new black point we will follow the same process as step 4, but using the BLACK POINT EYEDROPPER. Locate the Black Point Eyedropper and click once to highlight it. Now, find the area we designated to be our new black point on our image, and click once. Again, if the desired effect is too much, or too strong, try clicking around to find a more suitable black point. Once you click you should again see an immediate change in your image and a new histogram should be generated.

Step 7:

Lastly, review the changes you’ve made and adjust the slider bars to tweak your image to get it just where you want it. The final result should be a much brighter, more vibrant picture.

I’m sure by now you’ve all seen this tutorial, but for those of you who haven’t PSDTUTS has an AMAZING, easy to follow process for getting a very organic crop of grass around your text! If i have some free time, because this one looks like it might take a little longer than the previous “Bling it out!” tutorial, i’ll try to organicize my ninethreestudio logo for all of the world to see. or maybe just the ninethree iconic bird in the sense of time.

PSDTUTS - Create a Spectacular Grass Text Effect in Photoshop. Also seen on SwissMiss.

Yet another great tutorial by the talent at PSDTUTS. Brush manipulation, typography, visual design, layer blending modes, this tutorial has it all. A great place to start for beginners… now i know that might seem a little scary, but the best and only way to learn is through immersion, right? I say you just load up this tutorial and jump both feet forward and don’t look back!

How many steps do you imagine it would take to get tot his final product? i’m not going to lie. i thought at LEAST 25. Well, PSDTUTS did it in 16 steps. Now of course a step counts as a whole portion, but still. that’s pretty effing amazing if you want my opinion, and since you’re on my blog, i’d say so. haha.

For me, the tutorial really grabs hold at around step 8 up until the conclusion. The process of adding the flame and the particles with the brush manipulations are brilliant. Grab your stylus and start making pretty things, because really, we’re designers… that’s what we do!

Create a Spectacular Flaming Meteor Effect on Text
In Text Effects by Fabio

Take typography one step further by having text falling from the sky in a burning inferno. Yes, this is the text-on-fire tutorial to end all tutorials. It uses a little Illustrator for the text and a lot of Photoshop to burn up the screen!

In previous tutorials you’ve seen two smoke effects that I’ve created, but let’s face it, you can’t have smoke without a fire somewhere. So in this tutorial I will show you how to create a fire effect similar to when a spaceship or comet enters the earth’s atmosphere. The image we’ll be creating is inspired by a Nike Ad I saw some time ago. I’m not sure what the URL is, if anyone knows it, please link us up in the comments.

It’s always a good idea to keep your eyes open for inspiration for effects and designs no matter what you are doing. Graphics are everywhere and you can learn a lot by looking at what other people do. Now on to the tutorial!

Follow the Trackback to PSDTUTS for the full 16 step tutorial.

Sometimes your photos just need that something to push them over the edge, why not a grungy finish with a line-depth, colored rainbow? Well, problem solved!! PSDTUTS has a great tutorial on their site right now showing exactly how to manipulate your brushes, adjust your blending modes, tweak your adjustment layers and add that grunge style look to your plain, simple photos.

Being a HUGE fan of photoshop and it’s brush options. i’ve decided to post this link for everyone. Take the 20 minutes to do the tutorial, and if you’re in a crunch for time. at least skip to the section about the brush options. It’s MORE than worth any designer’s time, especially if you’re a photoshop junkie like myself!

Mix Cool Retro Curves Into Your Photographs
In Effects by Fabio

I’m a huge fan of James White’s work. I love the way he plays with geometric elements and colors. It gives a retro feeling to the design, but at the same time he uses a modern approach. In an interview, he mentioned that he uses a Flash script to generate the vector shapes. Then he does the rest of the job in Illustrator and Photoshop.

Well, inspired by James’s designs, I decided to figure out my own way of creating that type of effect in Photoshop. In this tutorial, I show you how to mix cool retro geometric shapes into your photos

Follow the Trackback Link to get to the full tutorial, with pictures and easy to follow instructions.

Ready to put out your next rap album cover Mad Money Millionaires? Need to add a little Zazzzz to your webpage? Well look no further! This great tutorial will show you exactly how to get the desired “bling” effect you’ve been waiting for. With this easy to follow, easy to replicate tutorial all you have to do is follow along… a monkey could do it. Well, you know, if that monkey has a wacom tablet and a stylus.

Click through to see the entire Bling Tutorial.

This tutorial will show you step by step on how to create a “Badass Bling Effect” using layer styles in Photoshop. Once you create the layer style, you can easily “blingify” any layer. There is also a video tutorial as well.

Here’s my shotty attempt at it. Don’t let the poor quality fool you, i assure you i am a good designer. HAHA. This was a quick, step by step, learn the tutorial, image… it came out ok, probably should have worked with a larger DPI though. Live and Learn!

I found all these images off quick google searches, so the quality was pretty poor. And i only had about 15-20 minutes before work to get this up finished and posted. But, enough excuses! TO THE BAT CAVE!