I've just recently taken up a new hobby. Its sketching portraits. I was really impress with a street artist that was sketching the a girl's face in Sunway Lagoon. I never really explore arts in my life before. When I was young, I was pushed more towards studying and get good grades. I remember the only thing I painted was of an abstract geometric art that the art teacher gave as a homework. She said I was good with colors. I used to love playing with colors those times.

But after the once instant of artistry on my part, I dont remember having actively involved with art at all. Only recently I took up digital imaging with photoshop and open up the more creative side of me.

I saw this guy sketch the girl face in about 15minutes. He was only using a pencil and the result was amazing. I was really impressed. I was thinking about this guy and how he does this stuff and about pencil sketching in general for the past few days. Its said if you have something on your mind thats bothering you, then meditate on it and you will find an answer. So I did and the answer I got was "Why Not Do It and See How Good You Are At It"

Yesterday night, I spend more then 1 hour sketching my eye out on paper. The result for a first time attempt that most people think that only gifted people can do is really encouraging. I just cant get over the fact that its soo life like. I took me 1 hour just sketching a small part of the face. I didnt even do both of the eyes, I just did one. However this first sketch is really encourage me to accept sketching as something in my life. I will keep on doing it till I master this art.

The below is the sketch I did. I didnt know what setting to put my scanner to, so I got this result. It doesnt really shoe the shading that well. The original one is way better. Let me know how is it. Did you like it?

In this blog post I will talk about how you can save all your under-exposed picutes (the dark ones). Its preety simple and anybody can do it. After learning these steps you dont have to throw away the dark photo. Enjoy

Step 1 : Open Photoshop

For this step-by-step tutorial you need to use photoshop to edit your photos. Open your photos with photoshop. In your layer tool box you will see something like the one on the left. This means your pictures has one layer and its called background.

Step 2: Duplicate Your Background Layer.

The first thing you need to do is to press CTR-J to duplicate the background layer. You then need to set it to "Screen" this will brighten your picture. However your picture is not bright enough yet.

Step 3: Duplicate the layer again.

You will need to duplicate the layer more then 3 times at least. If the picture gets too bright then delete one of the layer. After doing this steps you will have a bright and clear pictures. Hope this helped you.