Overview
Due to a requests from multiple people I have created a guide showing the process I used to dapper up my Imperial Clipper screenshot which can be found linked below. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=840138816
Introductory
This guide will familiarize you with various tools and techniques in Photoshop or other similar programs.
For all screenshots taken outside of the ships cockpit I entered the debug camera (ctrl + alt + space)
Here’s all the screenshots I had taken until I was able to get one which I felt was just right, it is circled in yellow.
And here it is, unedited (you can use this to follow the guide if you wish):
Also something I would like to mention is that everything I do on the computer is currently done on a laptop. A really really cheap laptop. With this being said I do not play on high graphic settings as it would be nearly impossible to do anything with any sort of accuracy do to poor frames. That is why just before I took these screenshots I changed my settings from medium to ultra, only for the purpose of these screenshots though. I changed it back to medium afterwards. Anyways, my laptop’s native screen resolution is 1366×768. I’ll will be upsizing the screenshot we will be working with to 1920×1080, but I will show you one of the ways I battle against poor quality images do to the upsizing.
Regarding the above striked text, while I was messing around with how to take screenshots using ED’s in-system tools I found out that there is an option to take screenshots with very high quality, this is achieved by hold the Left ALT key while pressing F10. By hitting F10 without the ALT button you take a screenshot with your computers normal native resolution, when holding the Left ALT button while pressing F10 E:D goes through a process to produce a very high quality version, much larger than that of your normal screen res. Keep in mind this can only be achieved in Solo and Private as it affects performance, ie your screen may freeze for a short period of time while the process is taking place. With this in mind you can skip the upsizing process and JPG artifact removel steps listed in this guide.
So lets get started!
Step 1 – Preparation
For this demonstration we’ll be working with a 1920×1080 document. Load up Photoshop and create a document of that size.
Go to the layer panel. By default it will be found on the right hand side of your screen. If you do not see it then look towards the top right portion of your screen just below the Minimize, Restore, and Close buttons. Select Essentials in the drop down box. That will provide you with the setup I’ll be using for this guide.
So now, at the layer panel double-click the layer named “Background”. This will open a pop-up. Click OK.
Now open the screenshot you wish to edit in a seperate document. Select all.
Now copy and paste this image onto the 1920×1080 document we created earlier.
Make sure the copied layer is selected. Go to Edit>Transform>Scale.
Now drag the image to fill the size of your document, once this is done hit ENTER to complete the action.
We are now ready to start editing. On to step 2!
Step 2 – Working around the JPEG Artifacts (Optional)
You should now notice that the image we have to work with has an awful case of JPEG artifacts. Yuck!
Okay, so lets duplicate your image layer so that we always have something to turn back to if we mess up.
Now to make this image look a bit more high quality by smoothing those artifacts away.
Go to Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise.
I am going to use the following settings:
Strength: 10
Preserve Details: 10%
Reduce Color Noise: 10%
Sharpen Details: 0%
And keep Remove JPEG Artifacts turned OFF. From my experience it makes odd blur spots on lines, and that is not at all what we’re aiming for.
Keep in mind the settings I used aren’t what’s “right”. Just play around with them until you find something which looks good in your eyes. This applies to all settings I will list in this guide. Play around, have fun!
We will now smooth the image out further by using the Oil Paint filter.
Go to Filter>Oil Paint
I used the following settings:
Stylization: 1.73
Cleanliness: 0.5
Scale: 0.1
Bristle Detail: 0
Angular Direction: 0
Shine: 0
Again, play around with these until you find whatever you like best. Too much Stylizationa and you’ll notice things start to get smeared a tad too much.
Press OK.
Step 3 – Masking
Now copy the first layer, again, and place it at the top.
With it selected go to Layer>Layer Mask>From Transparency
Layer masks allow you to erase parts of an layer without actually harming anything on that layer. Meaning you are able to adjust or revert any changes you make far down the line. A very handy feature.
Now with the layer mask selected choose a round soft brush with a size of 400, or that’s what I used anyways, and draw over the spaceship. What we are doing is removing the old JPEG artifact infected spaceship of the copied layer and showing the smoothed spaceship below. This allows for the nonsmoothed stars and planet to show below. I did this because I thought they looked a bit better that way.
By holding the ALT button and clicking on the layer mask you are able to see a full document size drawing of what the layer mask looks like (hold ALT and click the layer mask again to go to back normal view):
Step 4 – Glowiness
Duplicate the first layer once again and place it at the top.
Make sure it is selected and then go to Blur>Guassian Blur.
Set Radius to 50.0 pixels.
Hit OK.
Then change the layer mode to Screen and the Opacity to 25%.
Step 4 – Airbrushing Dodging&Burning
This is a trick I learned a few years back while taking an online photography course.
Go to Layer>New>Layer
With the new layer selected go to Edit>Fill
Under Contents select 50% gray. Leabe the Blending mode to normal and the opacity at 100%. Keep Preserve Transparency ticked off.
Hit OK.
Then change the layer mode to Soft Light. This will hide everything that is 50% gray.
With this done select the Brush tool and pick a soft round brush. I used the brush at a size of 125.
In the top panel change the Opacity and Flow of the brush both to 25%.
Now using the color white draw over the lighter areas to dodge those areas and using black draw over the dark areas to burn. If done correctly this will help attract the eyes towards those lighter areas, usually points of interest.
Here’s a comparison, the top image is the original and the bottom is dodged&burned.
The result may not be very noticeable in this side by side comparison but it does have a serious affect on the end result.
Step 5 – Increasing color depth
Create a new layer: Layer>New>Layer
With the new layer selected, choose the Brush tool and change the Opacity and Flow of the brush tool back to 100% for both settings.
What we’re going to do is expand the orange color of the sunrise and the blue jet flames from the rear of the spacecraft.
Using the color picker choose an orange color from near the sunrise.
Increase the brush size to 1600 and make a single click over the sunrise.
Do the same thing for the blue jets. Select a blue from near the jet flames and make one or two clicks to cover the entire flame area.
Then change the layer opacity to 5%. Again, this is totally by preference. 8 or 10% would have worked just as fine as well.
Now we’re going to add a layer adjustment. Just below the layer panel you’ll see a bar containing various buttons. The half white/black circle is the layer adjustment button. Click that and select Curves.
Using the properties menu, create a shallow curve like shown:
Then lower the opacity to 50% for the adjustment layer.
Step 6 – Adding DOP (Depth of Field)
Selec the top layer. Hold the SHIFT key and then click on the very bottom layer, this will select all layers.
With all layers selected, continue to drag them down to the Create a New Layer button, it looks like a page. This will duplicate all selected layers.
With all the duplicated layers still selected go to Layer>Merge Layers. This will merge the selected layers onto one, single layer.
With that layer selected go to Filter>Blur>Iris Blur.
I widened the blur radius so as to not engulf too much of the spaceship or the sunrise. Mostly it is just the corners of the pictures which are blured.
I set the Blur to 15px:
Hit OK.
Now we are going to manually blur out specific areas so as to keep the eyes on our points of interest; the front/middle of the spacecraft and the sunrise.
Select the Blur Tool.
With the Blur Strength set to 100% (top panel) and my brush size at 300 I blured out the following places:
The stars
Some of the lights on the planet surface
The right side wing of the space craft
The underside of the spacecraft, just below the jet engines
And the right side of the spacecraft
Bluring these areas helps me direct where the viewer will look at first glance.
Step 7 – Adding the ZOOM!
Using the same method as before, select all layers. Select the very top layers and hold SHIFT and click on the very bottom layer. Then drag down to Create a New Layer and merge.
With the merged layer selected go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur
Drag the Blur Center towards where the zoom will be leading to. In this case I wanted the zoom to lead towards the sunrise. You may have to retry this a few times before you get it just right.
Set the Amount to 15
Blur Method: Zoom
Quality: Best
Hit OK.
With the zoom layer selected go to Layer>Layer Mask>From Transparency.
Now select the Brush Tool.
Choose a Soft Round brush and set the size to 175. Now, with the layer mask selected draw over all of the spaceship that was previously infocus, we want the zoom effect to be on everything that has already been blurred in the previous steps.
Here’s what the drawing on the Layer Mask looks like (ALT + click Layer Mask, the same thing to go back to normal view).
Here’s a side by side comparison of before and after the zoom effect:
Step 8 – Increasing the glowiness of the jets
Create a new layer.
Select the Brush Tool. With the color selection menu click on one of the shades of blue near the blue jet flames.
With a Soft Round brush selected and the size set to 300, click on the three main jets to create blue orbs.
Set the Layer Mode to Screen and the Opacity to 10%.
Step 9 – Save your File
I prefer to have a .PSD back up of my file somewhere incase I wish to make further edits to an image or remind myself how something was done. But having a .PSD backup is completely optional.
To save your image as a PNG or JPEG…or whatever your prefered file type is, go to Layer>Flatten Image.
Now save your file to the destination of your choice!
(keep in mind if you’re going to make a .PSD backup of your work then you won’t want to flatten your image!)
Extras – ((WiP))
I’ll add some more things to this section later, things like distortion (fish eye effects) and jet flame distortions.
Closing
Adobe Photoshop and other programs of similar nature are great fun, so mess around and make the most of it. This is just a basic guide showcasing a few techniques and filters I use when editing my screenshots.
Feel free to leave a comment asking questions. I’ll try my best to answer them when I can. =)
Fly safe CMDRs!
Here’s the final result:
