Orbe-Globe-Eclipse compositePhotoshop Secrets > Girl & Globe

Having seen my commercial/corporate work evaporate in March and with no sign of a return yet, I decided to try and upgrade my Photoshop skills in photo retouching, editing and compositing (for creative applications).

The opportunity arose early in lock-down with a special offer to buy a complete course for a knocked-down price from California based Rikard Rodin of Zeven Design and his NUCLY photoshop training brand.

It took me almost a month to gather the enthusiasm and commitment to begin, and so after a couple of false starts with my own copy of PS (CS5), I soon realised that it just wasn't going to cut the mustard and allow me to follow the video lessons more intuitively with same tools. So I overcame my reluctance and resistance to sign up with Adobe CC and at least had the same or similar tools to begin.

With no work coming in, I have had plenty time to tackle these projects and work on my creative side albeit under the control of the guide projects and to be honest it will be a little more time before I have the mindset and skills to take a project forward entirely on my own.

So what have I been learning? Some of the simpler things I already knew, but getting chucked in at the deep end also brought some scary moments fuelled with frustration, exasperation and ultimately, triumph.

Layer compositing, masking, special effects, colour grading, skin retouching and more to date, are accumulatively, slowly adding to my knowledge and expertise.

Below are some of the projects I have completed. These are a complete departure from what I normally show, but at least you will get the idea. The complexity behind the scenes is I suppose like the proverbial swan graciously floating on the calm river, whilst its feet paddle away furiously.

I hope you enjoy these recreations from the mind of the master Rikard.

majestic-spirit-animal_compGetting Started with Photoshop

Majestic Animal composite

Butterfly Girl_compPhotoshop for Photographers >

Butterfly Girl the-good-chef-poster-finalPhotoshop for Photographers >

The Good Chef poster project

Girl-with-Tattoo-Movie-PosterPhotoshop for Photographers >

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo poster

model-layla-Retouch-afterPhotoshop for Photographers >

Portrait Retouching (after)

panoramas-01-PanoPhotoshop for Photographers >

Panorama composite

ascension-compositePhotoshop Secrets > Ascension

See my project folder as it develops and is added to here: NUCLY Photoshop Training Projects