I wanted to create a photoshop filters guide for both photographers and manipulators and here it is!

I will make this into two parts, the first one for freeware, the second one for shareware.

These are all plugins that I am currently using or have used or at the very least tried out during a trial period. Before purchasing anything I will strongly recomend to download a trial of it first.

FREEWARE:

Virtual photographer:

http://www.optikvervelabs.com/:

Without a doubt the best free photoshop plugin you can get your hands on. I still have a hard time believing it's free, I would actually pay for this one.

The amazing thing about this plugin is that you take your picture into it looking a certain way and it often comes out looking like a completely different picture, more dept,...

While working in photoshop I often pick up some new tricks each and every time. But then I also have some common "rules" that have proved very helpful time and time again. I would like to share some of them with you:)

Some random but hopefully useful photoshop tips:

*Always use layers, that way you can erase and delate what you aren't happy with. This is especielly important when painting or working with manipulation.

*Make two layers of the same picture. One is your experiment layer, one is the normal one where you do your usual adjustments. On the experiment layer you can go wild and try new things. If you don't like it, erase it, try something else. You will still have your usual layer underneath and untouched. Don't be afraid to try something new, even if it is just in a subtle ...

Part 2 of making realistic photomanipulations.

Last blog it was about shadows, now i'm gonna give some tips on creating fur and hair.

There's three ways to do this, I often combine two of them. Let's start with a model. You will need to erase all the parts around her that we don't need. Don't waste time on trying to mask out the strands of hair, just follow the basic shape of it all. When you're done you will need to create new hair to make it look realistic. Hair is not perfect and have strands flying everywhere. So what we can do first is to SMUDGE on the edges a little using a special brush. You can do this in a very light way or actually create big flowing hair this way, whatever you desire. You can use any brush you like, I have found that the first choice of photoshops "natural"...

I want to start by giving a big thank you to everyone that welcomed me to dreamstime, you seem like an awesome crowd and i'm really glad to be a part of it:)

Like I said in my first blog I am very much looking forward to sharing some of my tips and ideas here since I learned a lot by others and because the stock pictures here have inspired me to do art i'm very proud of.

Manipulating pictures on a daily basis I picked up some things that works really good when aiming for a realistic look. I will go through some of them here:) The first thing that can really make or break a picture is to know how to make realistic shadows. I see so many amazing photo manipulations that have very unrealistic shadows and it can really take the focus away from the beauty of the picture. It takes some practice ...

Hi everyone!

I just became a member here and look forward to being a part of this exciting community. I'm a graphic designer and have bought a lot of stock from here in the past and always been extremely satisfied. In the short future I hope to take my first steps as a contributor and add my own stock pictures.

The most exciting part of the whole community is to me the blog section. I am always writing, always creating, and I thought this was the perfect chance for me to share some of my design ideas and tricks. I am going to cover a different section every time and hopefully someone can pick up a few tips along the way:)

I'm going to start lightly with a few simple tips that have proved to be very valuable to me. Things we all know but rarely take the time to really KNOW.

- The most ...