#tutorial 1

Step One - Screenshots

So I feel like this goes without saying but obviously the first thing you need to do is take some screenshots. For taking screenshots for edits I like to have my sim in a pose. To use poses you’re going to need Andrew’s Pose Player which you can find here. After that you’ll need to download some poses which you can often find on tumblr. (For a tutorial on how to use poses go here.) I like to take quite a few screenshots to play around with the angles so I can find one I’m happy with. 

I then choose 2 or 3 from the same position and layer them together. I find this makes the image much better quality. Bring the opaqueness right down on your top layer and zoom right in so you can line them up seamlessly. 

Once you’re happy, merge the layers together and then crop the image to the size you want.

Step Two - Curves and Brightness

So next I edit the curves levels. For this edit I  really wanted the reds and greens to stand out but for every edit it’s going to be different, so have a play around to find out what works best for you. I then bring the contrast and brightness up just slightly. 

This is how it now looks compared to the original image. As you can see the eyeshadow, the hair and the plants in the background look really vibrant compared to the first image. 

Step Three - Blur

This next step is pretty easy. Duplicate your layer and then just grab your blur tool and, put it on the lowest hardness, and blur your background. If you want to be precise just zoom in and, on the layer that you used the blur tool (make sure this layer is on top), use the erase tool to make the edges more defined.

While I’m here, I like to quickly go in with the sharpen tool and just sharpen the eyes, eyebrows, bottom of the nose and mouth a little bit.

As you can see it really ads some depth to the photo and already looks much better.

Step Four - Imperfections

So this is where you go in and have a look if anything looks a bit strange. For me it was the choker and her arm as you can see by what I’ve circled below.

I find for this step it’s a good idea to first duplicate your layer so that if anything goes wrong you have something to go back to. 

As you can see it now looks a bit neater, a bit more precise.

Step 5 - Shadows + Highlights

The next thing to do is to create 2 new layers and label them ‘shadows’ and ‘highlights’ Then I take the eyedropper tool and find a colour that is one of the sim’s natural shadows. I then make this slightly darker to put in the shadows. I like to put that shadows around the nose, under the lip, the cupids bow, around the eyes, collarbone, neck and boobies. 

Then go in with the highlights on your highlights layer. For this again I use a light cream for the face highlights and for the body highlights I use the eyedropper tool to find a colour that is part of the sim’s natural highlights and then brighten it slightly.

After this I take my blur tool with the hardness on full and just go to town and blur both layers so they blend blend blend. I then take the opacity on both of the layers right down to somewhere between 10% and 20%. For this edit it landed at 11% but it all just depends on your own edit and how harsh you want the edits to be. 

Step 6 - Hair

For me I really like the hair to stand out. I again create a new layer, and took a brush from a pack I downloaded from deviantart that you can find here. After that it’s pretty simple. I use the eyedropper tool to find the colour of the hair that I want and just use the brush that mimics the texture of hair and just add in extra shadows and highlights to just bring the detail of the hair up.

Step 7 - Hand

So this was something that was unique to me but I find that this is a good time to look at any part of your image that doesn’t quite look right. For me it was my sim’s hand. I felt that it looked a little too purple and looked almost separate from the rest of the edit. 

I duplicated my layer and then erased everything on the new layer apart from the hand. I then just played around with the curves a little to bring the redness up and bring the purple tint down. I then turned the opacity of the layer down to around 60% so that it blended with the original image a bit better.

Step 8 - Light Leak

So before we move on I wanted to show you the difference between the original image and what we have so far. You could just leave it here, but I like to add a little bit more to my edits.

So the first thing I do is go to google and just find some light leaks on google images. This is the image I chose and I just rotated it to make it vertical and put it on a new layer over my sim. 

These are the layer settings. I set the layer to screen and bring the opacity down. 

I then decided to flip the layer horizontally as I felt the leak covered up the sim too much.

After that I then I add a little blur to the layer just to make it slightly more opaque and to blend it a little better and this is what it looks like now.

Step 9 - Lense Dust

Again, go to google images and find an image of lens dust you like. This is the image I chose. It was perfect apart from the fact that the colouring was very cool and I wanted something warmer for my image. 

I added a hue/saturation layer and a curves layer and brought the redness right up.

I then layered it over my image and changed the layer settings to soft light and opacity 72%.

After that I blurred the image slightly by going to filter --> blur --> blur, and this is what it looks like now.

Then I create a new image and take one of the brushes in the pack I previously linked and added in some extra lease dust and again brought the opacity of the layer down. 

Step 10 - Motion Blur

Next I created a new layer and added some motion blur to my image.

I changed the layer settings to overlay and 71% opacity.

After that, however, I wanted to get rid of the blur on my sim. If you click on the button on the layers bar that looks like a rectangle with a circle in the middle you can create a layer mask. Click it and then select the brush tool with the colour being black. Then just use the brush to paint over anything on the motion blur layer that I didn’t want to be blurred. This erases the blur and you can choose where you want the blur to take effect. 

Step 11 - Noise

Next I add a small amount of noise.

I don’t really know why I do this I just like the way it looks.  Make sure you don’t add too much, I never add more than 2.5 otherwise it just looks weird.

Step 12 - Exposure Offset

The last step! We made it! Go into exposure and change the offset settings the smallest amount. I find this blends all the layers in really well and makes the image complete.

This is what it looks like compared to the original image. 

And you’re done!