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Adding a tattoo – Episode #73

Compositing, Photoshop, Styling, Video Jun 22

Thanks for all the support you have given Phearn, we hope we can repay all the wonderful things you have all done for us. In today’s episode we are covering how to add a tattoo to a person, in this case a baby. For this task we are using channels. It is easier than it sounds, basically we are making a selection out of the tattoo, and then transposing it onto another person’s skin. We start off with the Red channel, and duplicate it. Then we apply levels to make the skin lighter, and the tattoo darker. This transition makes it easier to select the tattoo. You can turn the channel’s light area into a selection by cmd clicking on the thumbnail, then inversing the selection by hitting shift cmd I. After that, all you have to do is paint black on a new layer where the tattoo is and you are DONE!

Gear Used in This Episode

Wacom Intuos 4 Small

Adobe Photoshop CS6

15" Macbook PRO

« Studio Intro – Episode #72

Defining Cheek Bones – Episode #74 »

Anonymous

Awesome =)
Just posted a question on the episode of yesterday. I’d like to know how to make 360 panorama’s in photoshop from of several images.
Thanks
Mark

ROTF LMAO @ “This kid earns my respect”
http://www.facebook.com/nathanphoto Nathan Milner

Great video again! =]

I’d LOVE it if you would be able to do a video on the Brenizer Method for us.I’ve been trying to get my head around it for a while and just can’t see to grasp it.Thanks so much! =]
http://aileenluib.daportfolio.com Aileen Luib

I’d really like to see a tutorial on glamour, make-up and skin retouching!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=616886231 Keith Crusher

This is awesome! I’ve been wanting to learn how to do this for a while – you nailed it! As for ‘angry mothers’ – c’mon, people, have a sense of humor!
http://www.nightmarephotography.com Michael Nightmare

Thanks for answering my question and pheaturing me! A job well done.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58947799@N05/ Ian Arneson

how about an in depth episode on blending different images together. for example, if you have a stock photo of an object and you want it to look as if it was in the scene itself and not “copied in.” please and thank you
http://www.facebook.com/igor.mekhtiev Igor Mekhtiev

Hey Aaron,
I was wondering if you could show us how to remove a double chin, if the photo is taken from the front. I know that the basic idea is to play with highlights and darks under the chin but I always have a huge problem with matching skin, texture and colors.
Thanks in advance!!!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GFERTFWABGTSIOPE54T2AKQBNY Elisa

i would love to know to transform objects in water
http://www.facebook.com/psyx1 Venkat Pat’

can u teach how to make pictures like the image which i posted below, actually that picture is from dave hill photography i want to learn the technique which he is using to make his picture so good….
Waseef Akhtar

Wow. That was pro! The tutorial + the environment. I seriously love it that way. All messy with an artistic look. And I can see the A from the A-team too back there xD
the_druss

Would be good to see how to “wrap” such tattoos so they could be fitted to another body part, say around an arm. So it could look like the tattoo was cut out and then actually stuck onto the outside of the skin wrapping it’s way around the bicep etc.
Cornflake Couture

VOTE! Me tooooo!
Cornflake Couture

Oh wow- I need to go and check Dave out!
Tiara

Great episode as usual! I was thinking, do you have the instagram app for the iPhone? Could you do an episode on how to make some of those filter effects in photoshop?
Anonymous

I guess the best way to do this is to use the warp tool (ctrl+t to transform object, right click on it and select warp), so that you can match it to the surface. I use this technique continuously to add textures to my photos and match them to my surfaces.
Anonymous

Whoa! That’s one hell of a photo!

I’m not quite sure, but I think that one of the main aspects when taking this photo was balancing the ambient (background) light and the strobe light. I’ve already suggested this as it is pretty important in photoshoots and when using flashes outside.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/je-souhaite/ Leah Goetzel

Can you show us how to have objects levitating? Like orbs around a person and such. Thanks so much! Yall are awesome
http://profiles.google.com/carlos.yepez Carlos Yepez

I don’t have a request yet, but just wanted to say thanks for the great tutorials!
Tshahady

Can you explain displacement maps. If I understand them correctly, this might have been a good place to use one for getting the contours of the baby’s body. But I could be wrong!
Thanks
T
http://www.garrisiphotography.com Josh Garrisi

Wow that is an amazing shot – I’m sure there is lots of masking out parts to make the window light appear so overpowering.
http://www.ipbrian.com/ IPBrian

I was previously unaware of this technique, but it sounds pretty cool!
http://www.ipbrian.com/ IPBrian

I would like to see Aaron explain this in one Phlearn episode…that would be a pretty amazing feat!
http://www.ipbrian.com/ IPBrian

Just a side comment…love, love, love the physical space behind you now that you are in the studio…it really highlights the fact you guys shoot the video on a 5D…so buttery the DoF!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=513248378 André Borgen

Yes! Dave Hill is awesome! Andrzej Dragan, is also another photographer with similar effects.. I would love to learn more about how to achieve !
Thomsky

i found this little snake on google .. it’s cool on my chest. perhaps i’ll get it in real, but probably not.
http://twitter.com/GeorgeBriggs George Briggs

Great episode! This also is really good for artist to transfer the sketches to digital copies.
Anonymous

Really great tutorial. I was browsing your old 365 project on Flickr and saw you had a pretty extensive tattoo phase- so glad you shared your technique. The last step is really the key, appreciate it.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Steven-Heger/1521630920 Steven Heger

Hahaha does this count as a PS tattoo job? Enjoy!
http://www.ROBatGraveShift.com ROBatGraveShift

Hey A-Team!

Dropped you an email. Hope all is well. Digging the studio big time!!
Petter H

Fantastic episode. So clever with channels as a selection. Had to to this straight away: http://www.flickr.com/photos/macrolensfan/5878275259/in/photostream But again I´ve to ask how you start with a white background when opening pictures in CS5. I could only make ths tutorial with first adding a white background layer
http://www.facebook.com/guidrago Guilherme Coelho

Dave Hill is creating some awesome 3D effect and he shows the layers on these behind the scene video: http://www.davehillphoto.com/bts/
The photo posted here is in the Adventure one…
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_B6KATL4BH743A6LDZ6NMVTUJFA Andrea Christina

Great tutorial again! For some reason I found it quite complicated and was muttering “not so fast” several times I had to rewind quite often cause I tried it simultaneously. The only thing that did not work out for some reason was at the end when you went on the blue channel. I could not get it to highlight parts of the skin I wanted, it always only highlighted other parts! So I got crazy and used the magic wand tool instead and then also clicked cmd+J and put that layer in a very very low opacity over the tattoo layer. Worked fine Probably not as fine as yours would have worked but I could not figure out how to get it to highlight the part I wanted… I played with the levels 3 times (went back all the time to try again) but it did not work. Oh well… thanks though for the great tutorial, it was fun to do it on my image!