oh yea, i remember saying i was going to write up a thing about how to gangster out pictures or something.... so yea.

step 1: get a decent picture. all the photoshop in the world won't save your ass if you have a shitty picture. this one is for feature in upcoming S3. photo credits go to stunna ben.




step 2:this is probably the most pain in the ass, crappy part of the whole process. cut the car out. basically just outline the car and copy/cut to the selection to a new layer. i use the polygon lasso with a 1px feather. everyone else uses pen tool, but i forgot how to use pen tool properly (quickly) so that method is now for gays.




step 3: (also note that i did this shop a month ago and i do most of my work the same way, but every picture is different and so is method, so this exact way may not work out for you in every situation) well apparently i cut this one into a new layer. so then i used the quickmask and paintbrush to make a selection of the road and foreground area.



step 4: also, i work in a lot of layers and you should too. thats what makes photoshop awesometown. label them so you remember what the fuck each one is. i'll usually keep layers of stuff that isn't touched so i have something to go back too in case of major screwups or if i just don't like the way something turned out. also the snapshot button is awesome, so that you can "save your progress up to certain points. especially good because the history only goes back so far before it starts making it where you can't go back anymore.

anyway, here i went into the levels to make the road more tasty. generally the closer they are the more contrast and crazy its gonna look. you just gotta play with it until it looks good to you most of the time.

step 5: fuck with brightness and contrast



step 6: note that earlier i had a layer with the car cut out. i then cut out the ground into another layer and had the sky in its own layer. just do to the sky the same way you did with the ground. i probably should have told you that earlier. anyway, do that and end up with this



step 7: ok, now we're going to make the car extra shiny and pretty. basically you copy the car layer. make it extra bright and shiny looking (i mean very extra) via the levels...



step 8: this step could probably go before the other one, but whatevs. go back to original car and fuck with the levels in that one until it looks pretty much delicious albeit a little dark.

step 9: then making sure that the super shiny copy is on top, turn the opacity down on it to between 20-30%. tada car is shiny and pretty now.




step 10: clone stamp out the license plate (haha, it was still there the last 9 pictures ) and possibly do something else that i forgot about.



step 11: (optional...but not really. go get lightroom) put it back into lightroom (also i failed to mention that i pre-edited the picture in lightroom. just minor stuff really. color balance fine tuning, lil contrast and brightness etc.), add vignette, and fine tune the leves, brightness contrast, color saturation and all that crap. you end up here.



step 12: ?????

step 13: profit.

link to finished product: http://www.pandamoniumphoto.com/randomp ... 3-eg-2.jpg

and the colors never turn out right when you export. don't know why, but thats why the colors aren't as exciting as the screen caps.

that's totally rad.

awesometown. the pandamonium editing skills make me happy.

very nice write up, pic looks awesome. I especially like the tip on the two layer paint to get that candy paint look. Ill have to try that out if I ever manage to get a good parked shot of my car. any ideas on an easy way to get the windows to match the altered sky?

you can add a mask to the top car layer, then use a black brush (set at a somewhat low opactiy) to paint out the window, leaving the original (darker) window underneath

yeah i as thinking that but then it wouldnt be the same color as the sky. it would look like tinted windows. you could do it with a purpleish color and get a pretty close match. photoshop is awesome.

i have learned so much more by reading this, thank you. now go back to being useless and mean will you, you have an image to upkeep

This is an awesome write-up! Pandatorial = SUPER RAD.


I never thought about the dual-layer super bright/hella dark method. That is sweet!

driftPANDAspl wrote:and the colors never turn out right when you export. don't know why, but thats why the colors aren't as exciting as the screen caps.

I found out why this happens... I dunno if I posted it or not, but it is because of monitor calibration/color profile for the display. Kinda like a "what you see isn't really what you get... unless you screen cap it, then you do get what you see" kinda thing.

I guess when you export it shows you the true color data... even though that still doesn't make much sense.

Anyway... Photoshop = WIN.

hmmm, looks like i may have to invest in a pantone huey calibration device. $80 ftw.

glad you guys enjoyed it! i wasn't sure how everyone would follow cause i didn't go into super detail or n00b terms, but i should've remembered that dM's are hardcore to the max and don't need all the fluff.

as far as the windows in the car, there are a couple ways i usually approach that. if there is a lot or weird shit in the windows and if all else fails usually i'll just tint the shit. otherwise most of the time i'll cut or copy that section(s) of window(s) into their own layer. put that layer above the sky layer, merge down, and proceed as normal. that usually works. just didn't do it on this pic cause i was kind of in a hurry and it needed to go to cody's computer for magazine... or maybe i was hungry..... not sure.

also, when i feel like being hardcore about it, to make it super gangster, do the shiny and contrast brightness crap in separate layers to the wheels and head/tail lights. gangster town.

the candy coat thing happened one day when i was like "dammit the color of the car always looks fucked when i try to do this shit." then i was like, "ok, well i'll actually cut out the car for real then do it on its own." but that didn't really work out. so then i thought, how does clear coat work? then i was like, virtual clearcoat! then i fucked around for awhile and came up with that little method. true story. i also ate a hamburger using a krispy kreme for a bun.

and cankles,

FUCK YOU WOMAN, GET BACK IN THE GODDAMN KITCHEN.

love,
Panda
aka pandarandy
aka randy
aka carlos
aka flip mo dee
aka big poppa

flip mo dee.
you lawlz me.

i heart u.


A li'l trick I like to rock for windows... is trace the window shape, and fill it solid black, then select "color" from the transfer mode. It gives it a nice effect. You can also apple+j to duplicate and set that one to "overlay", and create a gradient mask over it and delete half of it in any direction, drop to 50%, and more radness.

BTW... I marvel that I'm not the only one who loves the polygonal lasso tool. I hate using the pen tool for some reason. If you're careful with the poly.lasso tool, you can rock it just as well... even if it does take a li'l more time.

YESS!!!! polygon lasso crew!!!

i learned the pen tool once in college when they were teaching illustrator. then i was like awesome. then i forgot and i could never get it to follow curves the way i wanted, so i decided that it was indeed, truly lame.

it's a li'l faster to use the pen tool... but i'm with you. poly.lasso ftw.
also, quick mask ftw forever.