ordinary people / by alyssa lau: Tutorial

Two weeks ago, before the holiday madness began, I made my second visit to the ROXX Salon and Spa (thanks ASC PR and Schwarzkopf Professional), only to emerge with the perfect hair. I'm talking about the type of hair that the high-school-Alyssa would've died for but the present-day-me is too lazy to even strive for. But now that I've seen the magic been performed, I can assure you that it's much easier and quicker than you had ever imagined. Plus, this whole routine leaves your hair smelling like some sort of whimsical field of flowers. What's not to love?

O N E / Starting off with damp hair, apply the OSiS+ Blow & Go Thick all over your hair for extra volume

T W O / Using a blow dryer, dry hair with warm air while brushing. Finish off by blowing cold air all over hair

T H R E E / Apply the OSiS+ Glamour Queen all over the hair for easy styling

FO U R / Style/Straighten hair as preferred

F I V E / Apply the OSiS+ Glamour Queen again to keep the hair in place

S I X / Take a small amount of the OSiS+ Thrill fiber gum, clap hands together to activate gum, and use it to smooth down flyaways and apply to ends to create a sleek finish.

  M A T E R I A L S
  OSiS+ Glamour Queen ($20)
  OSiS+ Blow & Go Thick ($21)
  OSiS+ Thrill ($23.50)

H2O-free, versatile and voluminizing hairspray with faster drying and innovative trigger design for precise targeting. Apply to dry hair from approx 30 cm away and use in short bursts

Express blow-dry and non-sticky spray for voluminous looks and beautiful shine. Apply to damp hair and blow-dry/style as required

Fiber shine texture gum that allows elastic style control and gives hair shine. Perfect for molding shorter hair or smoothing fly-aways/ends.

/ OSIS+ GLAMOUR QUEEN

/ OSIS+ BLOW & GO THICK

/OSIS+ THRILL

Tutorial

Purfect Hair Tutorial

Friday, December 27, 2013 • 4 comments

Okay, so, I haven't done one of these in a while (so bear with me here for a second) but I really wanted to show you guys a few tricks I've learned whilst experimenting with Adobe Photoshop. Quick disclaimer, I am no Photoshop wizard (just a lowly Photoshop apprentice, in fact), so if this doesn't work out the way you want it to, feel free to ask me questions in the comments section of this post or e-mail me here. Anyway, one of the reasons why I'm sharing all my secrets (just kidding, they're not really secrets) is because one of my lovely instagram followers told me how lucky I was to have a large and well-lit room to take my outfit photos in. First things first, my basement is nice and open only if you happen to un-see or forget about all the clutter, outdated exercise equipment, and toy figurines from the 90s. And the lighting is sufficient at best. So, for all of you who want to trick people into thinking you have a nice and open space dedicated solely to taking well-lit outfit photos, then you happen to be reading the correct photoshop tutorial. All you need is Adobe Photoshop (I use CS6), a camera and tripod (or cameraman) to take your photo, some sort of light (try to pick a spot near a window), and a background of some sort (a white wall works best). Oh, you'll also need to download the free Fixer Collection from The Color Shop (which you should really check out if you're willing to pay for some awesome curves and actions). Here goes!

PS: Here's the original photo in higher res if you're curious to see what I'm working with.
PPS: You'll need to know how to use masks. Check out my previous "lighting" tutorial here to learn more or just google another Photoshop masks tutorial!

↳ S L I G H T L Y D A R K E N T H E B L A C K H U E S

IMAGE / ADJUSTMENTS / SELECTIVE COLOR / BLACKS / BLACK: 2~8%

↳ L I G H T E N Y O U R S U R R O U N D I N G S

ACTIONS / LIGHTEN AT 50% OPACITY (FROM FIXER COLLECTION) / MASK / ERASE EVERYTHING EXCEPT YOURSELF

↳ D A R K E N B R I G H T S P O T S O N Y O U R O U T F I T

ACTIONS / DARKEN AT 30% OPACITY (FROM FIXER COLLECTION) / MASK / ERASE EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE AREAS YOU WANT TO DARKEN

NOTE* MY FEET AND SANDALS WERE A LITTLE TOO BRIGHT FOR MY LIKING, SO I DARKENED THEM SLIGHTLY.

↳ B R I G H T E N D A R K S P O T S & B U R N D E T A I L S

BRUSH AT LOW HARDNESS (B) / SOFT LIGHT AT 10% OPACITY / BRUSH FOCAL AREAS SUCH AS FACE

BURN TOOL (O) / 6% EXPOSURE / BURN DETAILS SUCH AS BUCKLES, JEWELRY, SUNGLASSES, EYEBROWS, EYES

↳ G E T R I D O F A L L T H E J U N K

CLONE STAMP TOOL (S) / PICK SOURCE POINT CLOSE TO WANT TO CLONE OVERTOP

NOTE* I CLONED OVER TOP THE AIR VENT AND ELECTRICAL PLUG-INS ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE PHOTO. IN CASE YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE THE CLONE STAMP TOO, HERE'S A TUTORIAL.

RECTANGULAR MARQUEE TOOL (M) / SELECT AREA OF BACKGROUND YOU WANT TO STRETCH / FREE TRANSFORM (CONTROL+T OR COMMAND+T) / STRETCH BACKGROUND OFF CANVAS

NOTE* YOU MAY NOTICE THAT THE PENCIL AND BAG AT THE RIGHT SIDE OF MY BEFORE PHOTO ARE GONE IN THE AFTER PHOTO. I MERELY STRETCHED THE AREA OF THE BACKGROUND BESIDE ME ON THE RIGHT OF THE PHOTO TO GET RID OF IT. MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT STRETCH YOURSELF. YOU CAN ALSO DO THIS IF YOU WANT TO MAKE YOUR PHOTO WIDER BY STRETCHING THE AREAS TO THE SIDE OF YOUR BODY. TRY NOT TO DISTORT THE PHOTO TOO MUCH. (DISTORTION IS EASILY VISIBLE WHEN YOU HAVE PATTERNED BACKGROUNDS)

↳ F I N A L T O U C H U P S
I ALWAYS USE THE "LIGHTEN" ACTION (10% OPACITY) ON MY PHOTOS ONCE I'M DONE WITHOUT ANY MASKS. FOR THIS PHOTO, I ALSO GOT RID OF THE CEILING BY SLIGHTLY STRETCHING THE AREA ABOVE MY HEAD USING THE TECHNIQUE DESCRIBED ABOVE. I ALSO SAMPLED THE COLOR OF THE BRIGHTEST AREA OF THE WALL, SET MY BRUSH TO 60% OPACITY AND COLORED OVER THE STRETCHED OUT AREA TO MASK ANY DISTORTIONS.

Tutorial

Photoshop Tutorial Photo Processing Tutorial V3

Tuesday, November 26, 2013 • 14 comments

In honor of the start of reading week and as a toast to the future, I'm going to be doing a quick Adobe Photoshop tutorial today on how you can ameliorate the lighting in a photo! Lighting is such an important aspect of photography, so in order to make sure your subject stands out, you can take a look at this tutorial! Before we get started though, please take a look at The Color Shop! It's an amazing collection of Photoshop curve and action sets made by Nirrimi Firebrace and MexicoRosel that you can buy. For this tutorial, you need to download the free collection "The Fixer Collection" here. Anyway, let's get started!

Tutorial

Adobe Photoshop "Lighting" Tutorial

Friday, February 15, 2013 • 5 comments

I'm not sure if some of you have noticed or not, but my photo-editing routine has changed quite drastically for what I think is much better than what it used to be. Again, this routine is based on curves (most curves are from Julia Trotti of "I have something to tell you"'s weekly free curve friday feature which you should really check out at her blog here). Please note that I am no photoshop expert, so feel free to send me suggestions if you think this is too tedious (it is a bit, but it gets me the effect I want, y'know?).

Also, I used a photo from my shoot with The Mondrian Shift mostly because they're awesome and I had way more fun taking/editing the photos than I ever have with my own. And I guess I should let you know that I use Adobe Photoshop CS5.

PS: I'm pretty gimped right now thanks to soccer and have very, very limited mobility. This means no outfit posts for a while! Sorry!

Tutorial

adobe photoshop photo processing tutorial v2

Monday, August 20, 2012 • 8 comments

I've been getting a couple questions about my DIY studded denim jacket, so I thought I might do a quick post about it. All it cost was a denim jacket from Value Village ($14) and 150 spiked studs from etsy (which is actually more expensive than the jacket... but so worth it). These studs.

Okay, so here's the down-lo. All I did was use a sharpie and ruler to mark and space the studs an inch apart on the upper back of the jacket. With a paperclip (anything sharp, really), I poked through the denim and screwed in the studs using a 2 mm screwdriver. As for the shoulders, there really was no order or system to which I decided to place the studs. Just my judgement, or lack thereof.