Dear Lifehacker, I’ve learned a bunch of great Photoshop tricks but whenever I use that knowledge my images end up looking unrealistic. I don’t want my family to look like an airbrushed perfume ad or my nature photos to look like a unicorn threw up a rainbow all over them. How can I touch up my photos without sacrificing their realism? Thanks, Unintentionally Fake
Mac: We’ve discussed how a keen eye can help you detect if an image has been photoshopped, but if you need an app to help you determine if that photo is a fake, Photo Police is a utility for the Mac that can help. If it does detect that an image has been modified, it will show you what’s been changed so you can get an idea of what the original may have looked like.
You can do just about anything to an image with Photoshop, but if you don’t have the cash to shell out, free program the GIMP — available for Windows, Linux, and OS X — can take you pretty far. Here are our favourite Photoshop how-tos that also work in the GIMP.
Instructables user PenfoldPlant gives a great step-by-step guide to turning photos into colouring book pages using Pixlr, a free online imaging webapp.
Photoshop is an amazing tool that can take any photo and change it into anything you can imagine. While it can take years of practice to alter reality like a pro, there are a few simple tricks you can employ to reshape the world captured in your photos. Here are five of our favorite techniques and how to use them effectively.
No matter how fancy your camera or how fast your lens, without perfect lighting you’re unlikely to end up with a perfect photo. That can be pretty disappointing if you’ve got a great photo of a person without adequate light on their face. Fortunately this is an easy problem to correct and you can do it with virtually any image editor. Here’s how.
Photoshop guru Helen Bradley has a nifty technique for building interesting shapes using a keyboard shortcut that repeatedly rotates and copies an existing image. Very handy if you’re a regular Photoshop user. Hit the post for the full process. [Project Woman]
