Photo_Manipulation

Advanced Photoshop Tutorial: Energy Sphere

Advanced Photoshop Tutorial: Energy Sphere

Follow the step-by-step instructions below and try to recreate this ENERGIZING tutorial!

Before we start, save this image that we’ll be using for the tutorial on your computer.

Step 1 – Crop (C) the lower part source image as seen on the image below, and adjust its Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U – Hue: 1, Saturation: -52, Lightness: 0) & Curves (Ctrl+M – Output: 0, Input: 18) settings.

Step 2 – Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) and draw a swoosh-like path between the image’s hands using the Pen tool (P).

Step 3 – While the Pen tool is still active, do the following steps: Right click > Stroke Path > Tool: Brush > Check Simulate Pressure box > Click OK > Press Enter. Prior to those steps, you need to set up your brush tool (B) to achieve the blurry effect. Press F5 to open the brush setting window. Select a feathered (#25) brush tip shape and check the Shape Dynamics and Smoothing boxes. Use #9ef8fb for the brush fill and match the brush size as seen on the image below.

Step 4 – Select the swoosh path’s layer and then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur >  OK. Duplicate the layer (Ctrl+J) and set its Opacity to 20%. To add more light effect, create a new layer and apply a feathered brush in #9ef8fb fill color to the areas indicated on the image below.

Step 5 – Now what we would like to do is put some of the light behind the hand. Use the pen tool to path and duplicate a part of the hand. Put the layer on top of the light and use the Eraser tool (E) to remove some areas of the hand to make it look like some light is passing through.

Step 6 – The next thing we’ll have to do is the lens flare effect. Create a new layer on top of all layers and fill it with black using the paint bucket tool (G). Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare >  OK. Set the layer’s blending mode to Color Dodge and Opacity to 95%. Erase some areas of the lens flare by using a layer mask.

Step 7 – Create more swoosh paths in different layers just like we did on steps 2 and 3. This time we want to do a little variation so we’re gonna add the following layer styles:

Gradient Overlay

Blending Mode: Normal

Opacity: 100%

Style: Linear (Align with Layer)

Angle: 90

Scale 100%

Outer Glow

Blend Mode: Screen

Opacity: 100%

Noise: 0%

Technique: Softer

Spread: 0%

Size: 9px

Range: 59%

Jitter: 93%

Step 8 –  Download these free smoke brushes. Use one of the brushes in the set to create a smoke-like effect on the hands. Using the erase tool, remove some parts of the smoke as seen on the image below.

Step 9 – Create a new layer and using the brush tool, apply a #9de9e1 brush at 20% Opacity to the skin of the male image. Change the layer’s blending more to Color — you will see a slight change in the skin tone as it imitates the reflection of light.

Step 10 – For the final touches, create another new layer and fill it with black. Change the layer’s blending mode to Color Dodge. Using the brush tool, apply a white brush on the areas encircled on the image below to exaggerate the light effect.

Final output:

Try applying what you’ve learned in this tutorial to your own photographs.

Happy Raksha Bandhan Contest & Weekend

Raksha Bandhan Contest Teaser

The elements of a good brochure design

When you are a student in design school, designing brochures doesn’t sound like the most exciting task. Nevertheless, it can be a very interesting work if you are not working with brochure templates and let your creativity flow. In this post you’ll find a few things you should keep in mind to design better brochures.

Appropriate format

This is the very first step you’ll have to take when creating a brochure. You will usually discuss this with your client, so try to recommend the right medium for the message and type of product your client has to get across.

For example, a tri-fold or z-fold brochure will not be the best choice for luxury products that require lots of white space and big pictures. You will chose one of these narrow formats when you want to present documents that are easy to hand out.

Of course, it is better if you get creative with the format of your brochure. Nowadays many concert organizers create brochures that unfold into a poster. It makes it easy to send by mail, and practical to hang somewhere in the room to make sure the brochure stays visible all the time. The better looking the poster, the more people will hang it, so be artistic if you create this kind of poster.

Some common brochure formats.

White space

This may sound like dull advice, because it could be given for any kind of graphic design project, not only for brochure design. It is however important to remember to keep some well-balanced white space on your brochure for the sake of aesthetics and readability.

I will not go over how to use white space in your designs, I’ll just assume that you know how to do it as a graphic designer. The problem you will run into will probably be that your client doesn’t understand the importance of white space. In that case, check out that post I wrote previously on Designer Daily.

Example of white space from a brochure by Bluefish agency.

Quality printing

Design isn’t only about nicely layout pages, but also about the end physical product that people will hold in their hands. Brochure printing can sound quite boring, but if you know printing techniques well, it can seriously enhance your design.

Some of my favorite techniques, among others, are:

• Letterpress: the inked (or not inked) parts are pressed into the paper, thus creating a nice look and feel.
• Die Cut: irregular shapes created by cutting in the paper. It’s great to create some unusual effects.
• Varnish: a varnish layer that adds a glossy effect, my favorites are partial varnishes.

If you want to learn more about printing techniques, I suggest that you read thisguide to printing techniques on Design Instruct.

The downside of most of these special printing techniques is certainly the cost. You will need to convince your client of the added value for his brochure if you want to use any of these.

Wise choice of colors

Again, this applies to most graphic design products, but the colors is the first thing that people will see on your brochure designs. Color conveys a lot more than just aesthetics, so it’s important to chose it wisely.

Unfortunatly, you will quite often not have much of a choice when picking colors, you’ll have to stick with the corporate identity guidelines of the company you are working for. Nevertheless, be very careful when chosing colors if you have total freedom in that matter. To become a bit better at picking colors, check out Johannes Itten’s book on color, it can be considered as the graphic designer’s bible about color.

Attention to typographic details

Most people who will take the brochure and read it will not notice if you kern the titles good or if your text is justified with perfect space between the words.

Some of the details you should pay specific attention to are: using ligatures, using thin spaces where appropriate, avoiding dumb quotes, avoiding widows and orphans. Of course there is much more to it, but I suggest you read a goodtypographic guide if you forgot about important typographic rules.

Typographic brochure by loretonoce.com.

Use the right paper

Paper is amazing. It can turn a boring design into something great. Try to convince your client to put some money on his brochure’s paper, because it’s well worth it.

Some of the high-end paper providers are:

• Gmund: a german company, their papers are amazing, check out the collection.
• Conqueror: one of the most famous brands, they have a great website to demonstrate their paper’s possibilities.
• Neenah paper: another great paper provider, I’m a sucker for their Astroparch paper.

Make sure that you get some samples to show your client, you must see and touch the paper to know whether you like it or not.

Weekend posts

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The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding

The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding

The psychology of color as it relates to persuasion is one of the most interesting—and most controversial—aspects of marketing.

The reason: Most of today’s conversations on colors and persuasion consist of hunches, anecdotal evidence and advertisers blowing smoke about “colors and the mind.”

To alleviate this trend and give proper treatment to a truly fascinating element of human behavior, today we’re going to cover a selection of the most reliable research on color theory and persuasion.


Misconceptions around the Psychology of Color

Why does color psychology invoke so much conversation… but is backed with so little data?

As research shows, it’s likely because elements such as personal preference, experiences, upbringing, cultural differences, context, etc., often muddy the effect individual colors have on us. So the idea that colors such as yellow or purple are able to evoke some sort of hyper-specific emotion is about as accurate as your standard Tarot card reading.

The conversation is only worsened by incredibly vapid visuals that sum up color psychology with awesome “facts” such as this one:


Don’t fret, though. Now it’s time to take a look at some research-backed insights on how color plays a role in persuasion.


The Importance of Colors in Branding


First, let’s address branding, which is one of the most important issues relating to color perception and the area where many articles on this subject run into problems.

There have been numerous attempts to classify consumer responses to different individual colors:


Source: The Logo Company

...but the truth of the matter is that color is too dependent on personal experiencesto be universally translated to specific feelings.

But there are broader messaging patterns to be found in color perceptions. For instance, colors play a fairly substantial role in purchases and branding.

In an appropriately titled study called Impact of Color in Marketing, researchers found that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone (depending on the product).


And in regards to the role that color plays in branding, results from studies such as The Interactive Effects of Colors show that the relationship between brands and color hinges on the perceived appropriateness of the color being used for the particular brand (in other words, does the color "fit" what is being sold).


The study Exciting Red and Competent Blue also confirms that purchasing intent is greatly affected by colors due to the impact they have on how a brand is perceived. This means that colors influence how consumers view the "personality" of the brand in question (after all, who would want to buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle if they didn’t get the feeling that Harleys were rugged and cool?).


Additional studies have revealed that our brains prefer recognizable brands, which makes color incredibly important when creating a brand identity. It has even been suggested in Color Research & Application that it is of paramount importance for new brands to specifically target logo colors that ensure differentiation from entrenched competitors (if the competition all uses blue, you'll stand out by using purple).

When it comes to picking the “right” color, research has found that predicting consumer reaction to color appropriateness in relation to the product is far more important than the individual color itself.
 So, if Harley owners buy the product in order to feel rugged, you could assume that the pink + glitter edition wouldn't sell all that well.

Psychologist and Stanford professor Jennifer Aaker has conducted studies on this very topic via research on Dimensions of Brand Personality, and her studies have found five core dimensions that play a role in a brand’s personality:

(Brands can sometimes cross between two traits, but they are mostly dominated by one. High fashion clothing feels sophisticated, camping gear feels rugged.)

Additional research has shown that there is a real connection between the use of colors and customers’ perceptions of a brand’s personality.


Certain colors do broadly align with specific traits (e.g., brown with ruggedness, purple with sophistication, and red with excitement). But nearly every academic study on colors and branding will tell you that it’s far more important for your brand’s colors to support the personality you want to portray instead of trying to align with stereotypical color associations.


Consider the inaccuracy of making broad statements such as “green means calm.” The context is missing; sometimes green is used to brand environmental issues such as Timberland’s G.R.E.E.N standard, but other times it’s meant to brand financial spaces such as Mint.com.

And while brown may be useful for a rugged appeal (think Saddleback Leather), when positioned in another context brown can be used to create a warm, inviting feeling (Thanksgiving) or to stir your appetite (every chocolate commercial you’ve ever seen).

Bottom line: I can’t offer you an easy, clear-cut set of guidelines for choosing your brand’s colors, but I can assure you that the context you’re working within is an absolutely essential consideration.

It’s the feeling, mood, and image that your brand creates that play a role in persuasion. Be sure to recognize that colors only come into play when they can be used to match a brand’s desired personality (i.e., the use of white to communicate Apple’s love of clean, simple design).

Without this context, choosing one color over another doesn't make much sense, and there is very little evidence to support that 'orange' will universally make people purchase a product more often than 'silver'.

Color Preferences by Gender

Perceived appropriateness may explain why the most popular car colors are white, black, silver and gray … but is there something else at work that explains why there aren’t very many purple power tools?


One of the better studies on this topic is Joe Hallock’s Colour Assignments. Hallock’s data showcases some clear preferences in certain colors across gender.


It’s important to note that one’s environment—and especially cultural perceptions—plays a strong role in dictating color appropriateness for gender, which in turn can influence individual choices. Consider, for instance, this coverage bySmithsonian magazine detailing how blue became the color for boys and pink was eventually deemed the color for girls (and how it used to be the reverse!).


Here were Hallock’s findings for the most and least favorite colors of men and women:


Men’s Favorite Colors

Women’s Favorite Colors

Men’s Least Favorite Colors


Women’s Least Favorite Colors

The most notable points in these images is the supremacy of blue across both genders (it was the favorite color for both groups) and the disparity between groups on purple. Women list purple as a top-tier color, but no men list purple as a favorite color. (Perhaps this is why we have no purple power tools, a product largely associated with men?)

Additional research in studies on color perception and color preferences show that when it comes to shades, tints and hues men seem to prefer bold colors while women prefer softer colors. Also, men were more likely to select shades of colors as their favorites (colors with black added), whereas women were more receptive to tints of colors (colors with white added):

The above infographic from KISSmetrics showcases the disparity in men and women's color preferences.

Keep this information in mind when choosing your brand’s primary color palette. Given the starkly different taste preferences shown, it pays to appeal more to men or women if they make up a larger percentage of your ideal buyers.


Color Coordination + Conversions

Debunking the “best” color for conversion rates on websites has recently been a very popular topic (started here and later here). They make some excellent points, because it is definitely true that there is no single best color for conversions.

The psychological principle known as the Isolation Effect states that an item that "stands out like a sore thumb" is more likely to be remembered. Research clearly shows that participants are able to recognize and recall an item far better (be it text or an image) when it blatantly sticks out from its surroundings.


The studies Aesthetic Response to Color Combinations and Consumer Preferences for Color Combinations also find that while a large majority of consumers prefer color patterns with similar hues, they favor palettes with a highly contrasting accent color.

In terms of color coordination (as highlighted in this KISSmetrics graphic), this would mean creating a visual structure consisting of base analogous colors and contrasting them with accent complementary colors (or you can use tertiary colors):


Another way to think of this is to utilize background, base and accent colors tocreate a hierarchy (as Josh from StudioPress showcases below) on your site that “coaches” customers on which color means take action:

Why this matters: Although you may start to feel like an interior decorator after reading this section, this stuff is actually incredibly important in helping you understand the why behind conversion jumps and slumps. As a bonus, it will help keep you from drinking the conversion rate optimization Kool-Aid that misleads so many people.

Consider, for instance, this often-cited example of a boost in conversions due to a change in button color:


The button change to red boosted conversions by 21 percent, but that doesn’t mean that red holds some sort of magic power to get people to take action.


Take a closer look at the image: It’s obvious that the rest of the page is geared toward a green palette, which means a green call to action simply blends in with the surroundings. Red, meanwhile, provides a stark visual contrast (and is a complementary color to green).


We find additional evidence of the isolation effect in a myriad of multivariate tests, including this one conducted by Paras Chopra and published in Smashingmagazine. Chopra was testing to see how he could get more downloads for his PDFProducer program, and included the following variations in his test:

Can you guess which combination performed the best? (Hint: remember, contrast is important.)

Here were the results:

As you can see, example #10 outperformed the others by a large margin. It’s probably not a coincidence that it creates the most contrast out of all of the examples. You’ll notice that the PDFProducer text is small and light gray in color, but the action text (“Download for Free”) is large and red, creating the contrast needed for high conversions.


While this is but one study of many, the isolation effect should be kept in mind when testing color palettes to create contrast in your web design and guide people to important action areas.

Why We Love “Mocha” but Hate “Brown”

Although different colors can be perceived in different ways, the names of those colors matters as well!

According to this study, when subjects were asked to evaluate products with different color names (such as makeup), “fancy” names were preferred far more often. For example, mocha was found to be significantly more likeable thanbrown—despite the fact that the researchers showed subjects the same color!


Additional research finds that the same effect applies to a wide variety of products; consumers rated elaborately named paint colors as more pleasing to the eye than their simply named counterparts.


It has also been shown that more unusual and unique color names can increase the intent to purchase. For instance, jelly beans with names such as razzmatazzwere more likely to be chosen than jelly beans names such as lemon yellow. This effect was also found in non-food items such as sweatshirts.


As strange as it may seem, choosing creative, descriptive and memorable names to describe certain colors (such as “sky blue” over “light blue”) can be an important part of making sure the color of the product achieves its biggest impact.