Ivan does lesson 9, Or I like Geodes

The Original Photograph. Should have set my white balance to florescent...


Cleaned and highlighted photo. Used Photoshop CS3.

Image Adjustments: Up brightness by 20
Add Levels Adjustment Layer and adjust for best color.
Add Brightness/Contrast Adjustment Layer
Mask off everything but the geode. Using the paint brush.
Up the brightness + 50 and the Contrast +10


Did a little modification on the center to make it a little cooler...

Add Hue/Sat Adjustment Layer
Use Polygonal Lasso to select the center.
Sharpen the selection line a little and soften the edge.
Invert the center and mask off the rest so only the center is available.
Adjust the Blues so we have +70 Hue and +25 Sat.


Finally I cut the background out of the picture entirely and removed the stand.

Add a regular layer.
Mask off everything with the paint tool except for the geode. Use Black.
Use Clone Stamp, Brush, Eraser and heal tools to remove the corners of the stand from the bottom.