practicalphotoshop1332022 by borov665

LEARN PHOTOSHOP CC & LIGHTROOM THE EASY WAY! Issue 133 April 2022

TIME FOR ACTION

Master Actions for creative effects and workflow tricks MIST Y LANDSCAPES | VIDEO EDITING TRICKS | TOY PHOTOGRAPHY

Editor James Paterson Art Editor Rosie Webber Production Editor Kyle Hearse Content Director Chris George Senior Art Editor Warren Brown

DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES To download this issue's files, type the following link into your web browser on your PC or Mac:

https://bit.ly/pho_133

Welcome to issue 133 of Practical Photoshop! If you enjoy the issue, why not subscribe and get a whole year for just $19.99? Actions are one of the most powerful yet overlooked Photoshop features. Whether you want to speed up your own edits or use those created by others, Actions can be hugely useful. This issue we bring you an in-depth guide. Elsewhere, learn how to edit your videos in Photoshop and make misty effects.

FIND US HERE… http://bit.ly/practweet http://bit.ly/pracface Also available on:

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James Paterson, Editor • james.paterson@futurenet.com

www.digitalcameraworld.com

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HIGHLIGHTS: WHAT’S INSIDE… TIME FOR ACTION

n Master Actions and steamline your workflow

CREATE THE COVER IMAGE

n Learn how to make a stunning polygon effect

MISTY LANDSCAPES

n Use our free brush set to paint mist over scenes

PHOTOSHOP VIDEO EDITING

n Edit moving images like stills with Photoshop

CREATIVE TOY COMPOSITES

n Bring toys to life with shooting skills and editing tricks

TIME FOR ACTION Discover how Actions can save you time, streamline your workflow and enable all kinds of creative effects

Actions are a Photoshop feature that lets you record a sequence of steps, so that you can repeat the steps on other images. As such they’re great timesavers, as you can record monotonous edits and then play them back on other images, shaving minutes off your workflow. In theory, if you perform a task once then you never need to do it in full again – simply create an Action and let Photoshop do the rest. Over the next few pages we’ll explore the basics of Actions then go on to show you how they can be used for all kinds of practical and creative projects, from creating the cover image to making timesaving crops and stacking timelapse sequences.

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ACTIONS: THE BASICS

HOW TO MAKE AN ACTION Go to the Actions panel and click the plus icon at the bottom to make a new Action. Give it a name and hit Record. From this point until you press the stop button in the Actions panel, every edit, command, brush stroke and setting you change will be recorded in the Action. You’ll see steps appear in the panel for each change you make. Some of these can be expanded to give you more info on what is included in the step. After pressing the Stop button, you can repeat the sequence on other pictures by highlighting the Action name and pressing play.

PL AYING BACK ACTIONS When it comes to playing back an Action, pressing the Play button in the Actions panel is rather a clunky way to do things, especially as the point with Actions is to speed up your workflow. There are a couple of ways we can speed things up. If you click the flyout menu at the top of the Actions panel and turn on Button mode, then the Actions will be shown as a list of buttons. Simply click on an Action button to play it. Another way to speed things up is to assign keyboard shortcuts to your favourite Actions. You can do this upon first making an Action (in the New Action dialog), or you can add keyboard shortcuts afterwards by double-clicking on the Action in the Actions Panel (whilst not in Button mode) to bring up the Action options.

ORGANISING ACTIONS As you build up your collection of Actions – either by creating your own or downloading those made by others – your Actions panel can quickly become crowded and disorganised. Action sets are like folders for organising Actions. Make new sets by clicking the folder icon at the bottom of the Actions panel and then drag Actions to the set. You can also assign new Actions to a specific set when creating the Action in the New Action dialog. Another useful organising feature is colour coding, which works when in Button mode view. You can assign colours to actions in the Actions options (double-click an Action name) or in the New Action dialog. So you could, for example, colour all your cropping Actions red, and your tonal Actions blue.

T WEAKING ACTION STEPS

Often you’ll want to include steps in your action that require you to input a setting, as a sort of manual override. After making the action click the little box next to the step in the Actions panel. Now the action will pause at this step to let you tweak settings manually. If after making an Action you want to tweak the automatic settings that are applied in a certain step, then there’s no need to go back and record the whole

thing. Just, double-click the step in the Actions panel and only that step will play. If it involves a command with a dialog – like a tonal change or filter effect – then you can tweak the settings in the command dialog, then apply them. The new settings will overwrite the old ones and be saved in the Action. You can also copy Action steps between Actions by highlighting and Alt-dragging them, or delete steps by dragging them to the trash.

SMART SHORTCUTS In some ways Actions can be infuriatingly literal. If, for example, you want to target the layer below the current layer then it’s best not to simply click on it as you normally would, as the Action step would assume you want to target ‘layer X’, rather than ‘the layer below.’ Instead if you want to target specific layers then it’s best to use keyboard shortcuts that let you move up or down the stack, as these leave no room for interpretation. To target the layer above or

below hit Alt + [ or ]. To target the very top or very bottom layer press Alt + . (full stop) or , (comma). To highlight more than one layer press Alt + Shift + ] to include the one above, or Alt + Shift + [ to include the one below (press repeatedly to include more layers). You can also move the position of the current layer up or down the stack with shortcuts. Press Cmd/Ctrl + ] or [ to move a layer one place up or down or Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+ ] or [ to send it to the very top or bottom.

RECORD BRUSH STROKES The ‘Allow Tool Recording’ feature in the Actions panel flyout menu records the position of any brush strokes or other points of contact you make on your image with Photoshop tools. As such it can be useful for saving regular brush strokes, cloning or other tool-based edits. Positioning of brush strokes will depend on the size and proportions of the image, so the feature works best on images of a similar size to the one you use to record the Action. It’s very useful if, for example, you need to remove recurring sensor marks from a set of photos. You can record an Action as you retouch one photo, then run the Action on the rest of the set using the Batch command.

S T OPS A ND CONDI T ION A L S

USE PERCEN TAGE VA LUES

While recording an Action you can add in Stops. These can be helpful if you need to pause the Action at certain points, perhaps to add in an explanatory note. Click the flyout menu at the top of the Actions Panel and choose Insert Stop. You can also insert Conditionals in this way. Conditionals let you send your Action off in different directions by, for example, choosing different edits depending on whether an image is vertical or horizontal. Conditionals work in combination with other Actions, so if you want to use them then you need to create further Actions for each if/or conditional scenario.

Any settings we make are recorded in an Action, so we need to be aware that if we set an amount in pixels, then the results may vary depending on the resolution of the image. If an image is 500 pixels wide then adding a 50 pixel border will look very different compared to the same value border on a 5000 pixel wide image. As such, it’s often better to use percentage values if you can. Simply add a percentage symbol after the amount to change the units.

IMPORTING AND EXPORTING ACTIONS You’ll find lots of excellent Actions and Action Sets available for download, some of which are free, and others that will require a small fee. Here’s a good place to start looking for free Actions: https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/uk/features/free-photoshopactions-for-photographers Once downloaded, simply double-click on the ATN file to load it into Photoshop. If you want to share Actions you’ve created yourself with others, then you can export Action Sets (if you want to export individual Actions, first make a set and copy the Action to it). Highlight the set in the Actions panel, click the flyout menu at the top right of the panel and choose Save Actions. This generates an ATN file that can be shared with others.

THE BATCH COMMAND This command lets you run an Action on an entire folder of photos, so it’s great for automating regular edits if you need to work through a set of images at speed. Go to File>Automate>Batch, then choose the folder of images you want to work on and the Action that you’d like to run on each image. Useful settings like ‘Save and Close’ allow you to close each image after editing then open the next file in the folder.

USE SCRIP TS Scripts are similar to Actions, but they’re able to make intelligent conditional decisions during processing, and access Photoshop features that can’t be used with Actions. There are several scripts built-in that you may use already. For example, the Image Processor (Use File>Scripts, or to launch from Adobe Bridge use Tools>Photoshop> Image Processor) lets you batch-convert a whole folder of files from one format to another, which can be a great time-saver. There are also plenty of excellent free scripts online. For example, Photoshop guru Russell

Brown makes a variety of handy scripts, including the excellent Paper Texture Pro (pictured, http://www. russellbrown.com/scripts. html). And check out this list of top scripts on our sister site, Creative Bloq (http://

DROPLETS After making an Action you can create a Droplet to represent it on your desktop, then simply drag image files or folders onto the Droplet to quickly run the Action on them. To create a droplet, go to File >Automate>Create Droplet, then choose the Action and set up the folder options – it’s usually best to set ‘Save and Close’ so the files are saved in the same place. Once done, simply drag images to the Droplet icon to quickly play the chosen action.

www.creativebloq.com/ photoshop/free-scripts4132388?page=1). You can also browse lots of free scripts, new panels and other handy plug-ins via Window>Find Extensions on exchange.

MAKE ACTIONS FOR PRINT PREPARATION

Actions let you automate everyday tasks like preparing images for printing. If you find that you regularly print images at specific sizes – like A4 – then you can set up an Action that will not only resize your image to those proportions, but also quickly access other printpreparation tools like sharpening. Here’s how…

CROP AND RESIZE

Click the New Action Set icon in the Actions panel and name it Print Sizes, then click the new action icon and name it A4 Print, then hit Record. Grab the Crop tool from the Tools panel. Click the top left dropdown and choose Width, Height and Resolution, then input Width 297mm, Height 210mm, 300 pixels per inch. Make a crop.

UNSHARP MASKING

COPY THE ACTION

Go to Filter>Sharpen> Unsharp Mask. Apply sharpening to the image to prepare it for printing. Hit OK, then press the stop button in the Actions panel. Click the boxes next to the Crop and Unsharp Mask steps. Now each time you play the Action it will stop at the steps to allow you to tweak the crop box and sharpening settings manually.

Hold Alt and drag the A4 Print Action up the Actions panel to copy it. Double-click the Action name and rename it 10x8inch Print. Double-click the Crop step in the Action and change the width and height to 10 inches and 8 inches. Make the crop, double-click the sharpen step and tweak the settings. Copy the action and repeat for other sizes you like.

USE OUR RETOUCHING ACTIONS Retouching portraits can sometimes be a somewhat dull, time-consuming process, which is why retouchers adore Actions. Here’s a handy Action Set that automates common retouching tasks like skin softening and teeth whitening. You’ll find the set amongst the project files. Open the Actions panel, click the flyout and choose Load Actions to load them in. You’ll find a Frequency Separation Action here, along with several other useful retouching techniques.

CREATE STUNNING TIMESTACKS Actions can be put to all kinds of creative uses. In this project we take an in-depth look at how they can be used to create a stunning timestack image. The technique for this is rather simple – we copy images on top of one another and then change the blend mode to Lighten, so that the lighter parts of the clouds show through, creating a staggered cloud pattern. However, if we want to blend hundreds of photos then it’s not practical to load them all into layers at once and then blend them all. The solution is to use an Action that opens each image in the sequence, then copies and blends it with our base image. This involves a neat trick with the Batch command.

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POLYGON PHOTOS In this project we’ll look at how to transform a photo into a series of striking angular shapes. Each triangular shape in the face has to be plotted out by hand, which will take time and patience. Thankfully, we can speed up the process by making an Action, which lets us record the repetitive sequence of edits, then apply the entire sequence again and again with a single click. All we have to do is drag one corner of the triangle into different positions, then repeat the Action to build up the effect.

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3KU6YBt

MAKE A TRIANGLE

Open the image (we used a free pixabay.com image no.3317670), then grab the Pen tool from the toolbar. Click to make a triangle shape over part of the subject. Next go to the Actions panel (Window>Actions). Click the New Action icon, give it a name, assign a Function key shortcut and hit Record.

BLUR THE AREA

ADD A DARK EDGE

Go to the Paths panel (Window>Paths and Cmd/ Ctrl+click the work path to load the shape as a selection. Next press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+[ to select the bottom layer, then Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy the selected area to a new layer. Hold Cmd/Ctrl and click the layer thumbnail to load a selection of the triangle again. Go to Filter>Blur Average.

Click the fx button in the Layers Panel and choose Inner Glow. Set the blend mode to Multiply, choose a grey colour and set Opacity 20%, Choke 0, Size 20 then hit OK. Press Alt+, (comma) to highlight the bottom layer. Click on the Work Path in the Path panel. Press the stop button in the Actions panel.

MOVE THE TRIANGLE

BUILD IT UP

SCATTER TRIANGLES

Grab the Direct Selection tool from the toolbar. Click on one point of the triangle and drag it to another position, then hit the play button in the Actions panel (or use the keyboard shortcut you assigned earlier) to repeat the process to create a second triangle. Carry on making triangles in this way.

Plot triangles to cover the entire subject, using the Action and Direct Selection tool. Try to keep triangles to areas of similar colour and tone. Use larger triangles for smooth areas like the fur and smaller ones for details like eyes and mouth. Each triangle should meet at the corner with the one beside it.

Make a new layer at the bottom and fill it with a colour of your choice. We’ve made a few more triangles on the background to add to the effect. Grab the Move tool, check the Auto Select box in the options. Hold Alt and drag triangles outside the main face to make copies. Create a scatter of triangles shapes around the face.

ENHANCE MISTY LANDSCAPES

James Paterson uses the 10 free brushes supplied to enhance the atmosphere of your photos

BEFORE

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AFTER A misty morning is one of the most magical times to head out and shoot. However, if the conditions aren’t right for fog then it is possible to create, or boost, your own. In our scene the mist is rolling in over the landscape below, but the tree is clear. As such, this can be a good time to paint in a little more mist to intensify the atmosphere. In visual terms, mist and fog are simply light, blurry

patches of air. This is easily recreated with Photoshop brush skills. But it can be tricky to get the shape of the mist right, so we’ve supplied 10 mist brushes for you to use to enhance the atmosphere of photos. All you have to do is make a new layer, choose a brush and click around the shot to add a random mist effect. Real mist will become stronger as the scene recedes into the distance. We can mimic this by

making the mist thicker in distant parts of the scene. It helps if we can paint the mist ‘behind’ objects like the tree here. This is done by selecting and copying the tree to a new layer, then painting on a layer below so that the mist looks like it’s stronger behind the tree. We’ve supplied an image for you to try the brushes on, but why not use them to give your own pictures an atmospheric boost?

DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE http://bit.ly/pho_133 ON YOUR PC OR MAC

LOAD THE BRUSHES

With Photoshop running, double-click the supplied brush abr file to load the brushes. Grab the Brush tool (B), then click the Brush Picker in the options. Scroll down the list to find the 10 mist brushes. Choose one of them then hit D and X to set colour to white.

PAINT THE FOG

SELECT THE TREE

Click the New Layer icon in the Layers panel to make a new layer. Click around the image with the Brush tool to paint in the mist. Use the ] and [ keys to vary your brush tip as you go. Each time you click, the brush tip will change shape and orientation for a random result.

Highlight the bottom layer, get the Object Selection tool and click the tree to select it. Click the Select and Mask button, grab the Refine Edge brush and paint over the edges of the tree to improve the selection. Next, set Output: New Layer with Layer Mask and hit OK.

PAINT DISTANT MIST

BUILD IT UP

TONE TO FINISH

Highlight the bottom layer, then make another layer above it. Grab another mist brush then paint to add more mist. This will help to add depth to the mist effect. You’ll want to paint heavier mist as the scene recedes into the distance.

Build up the mist effect using a combination of different brush tips while varying the size of the brushes. You can hit the number keys to set a brush opacity as you paint (1 for 10%, 2 for 20% and so on). You can also vary the opacity of the layer to make the mist more subtle.

Finish off by altering the tones. Highlight the top layer and press Cmd/ Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to merge a copy of all layers, then go to Filter>Camera Raw Filter. Choose a profile in the basic settings (we used Artistic 04) and reduce Temperature to cool the image. Make any other tonal changes you like.

ENHANCE VIDEOS IN PHOTOSHOP Put your photo-editing skills to work on moving images to maintain a natural-looking and striking aesthetic

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/36ejZqK

BEFORE

AFTER Even though Photoshop has offered video tools for several years, many users still don’t know they exist – and those who do may assume that Photoshop is unsuited to editing videos. But not only is it possible to edit video in Photoshop, it can also be a sensible way for photographers to work with moving images. The great thing about using Photoshop for video

is that you can take lots of the things you already know about editing, and apply them to video. You can use brilliant tools like the Camera Raw filter to tone your footage, and even add layer effects, like Blending Modes, to combine videos in creative ways. That being said, just as many of us are photographers who dabble in a bit of video

shooting, Photoshop is first and foremost about editing photos. The video tools can’t match those found in a dedicated editor like Premiere Pro, and we wouldn’t suggest you attempt importing and editing together hours of video footage. But for short videos that need toning or effects, Photoshop is up to the job. Here are a few tips and tricks to get you started…

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THE TIMELINE

SIMPLE EDITING

TONING WITH ADJUSTMENT LAYERS

The Timeline panel (Window>Timeline) is much like timelines in other video editors. Clips appear as coloured blocks that can be lined up to form a sequence. Trim a clip by dragging the ends or using the scissors. When you first open a video clip, a new video group appears in the Layers panel. If you drag in another clip, it’ll be included in the group and appear after the first clip.

You can add transitions like fades using the square icon next to the scissors. Drag transitions to the start or the end of a clip. Audio clips can also be added, using the Audio track channel in the Timeline. Click the musical note icon to add music or sound. You can also right-click on clips in the Timeline to choose from preset animations like pan and zoom, which can help to liven up slideshows.

Adjustment Layers can be added above videos to enhance tones. Adjustment Layers make it easy to selectively alter parts of the frame. Here, we can use the Select Sky command to isolate the area. When we add an Adjustment Layer, the active selection becomes a Layer Mask, allowing us to make a selective change to the sky.

4 6 5

FILTERS WITH VIDEOS

BLENDING VIDEOS

PLAYBACK AND RENDERING

One of the best things about editing videos in Photoshop is that you can use filters on them. First, right-click the video layer and select Convert to Smart Object. Next, choose any effect you like from the Filter menu. We used the Camera Raw Filter to add a colour effect and adjust the tones, then we used the Tilt-Shift filter (Filter>Blur Gallery>Tilt-Shift) to blur out the foreground.

Clips that appear on top of one another work in a similar way to layers in Photoshop’s Layers panel, so you can blend them together with Blending Modes, or use Layer Masks to make parts of a clip transparent and reveal another clip on the layer below. First, drag the second clip outside the video group. Now it will sit on its own line in the Timeline. You can move it over the clip below, then choose a Blending Mode.

The playhead lets you choose a point in your video. If you find that playback is slow and choppy, try leaving the clip to play a couple of times, or click the cog to reduce the resolution. Once you’ve finished editing your videos in Photoshop, go to File>Export>Render Video. You can choose a format for the video, as well as a preset for the resolution.

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3qgi4ZO

BRING TOYS TO LIFE James Paterson shows you how to make toys appear huge with forced perspective and editing tricks Have you ever wished your toys and models were life-size? In this project we’ll look at how to make them appear so with a combination of shooting skills and editing tricks. One such skill is forced perspective. Used in all sorts of productions, from fun YouTube videos to big-budget Hollywood movies, forced perspective photography enables you to play with scale by combining objects of different size into a realistic whole. Best of all, it doesn’t require any fancy

Photoshop skills, just basic items and time perfecting the angles. Another trick we’ll employ is the age-old technique of ‘smoke and mirrors.’ The term refers to the old magic trick of creating floating objects with mirrors while using smoke to obscure the tell-tale seams in tricks. But we’ll use a handful of baking powder to create a flurry of snow. Not only does this add to the atmosphere, it also helps to distract from the details that give the game away.

An iconic toy like this is ideal, but you could use all kinds of items. Perhaps you have a model of an old classic car or a life-like action figure that would be ideal for this effect, or maybe you have a kid’s playroom full of toys to experiment on. Whatever you choose, the technique is the same. We begin by shooting our toy on a makeshift platform, positioned to match the scene beyond. Then comes Photoshop, where we seamlessly bring our set of photos together.

DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE http://bit.ly/pho_133 ON YOUR PC OR MAC

5 2 6 3

FORCED-PERSPECTIVE TOY PHOTOGRAPHY 1 TRIPOD

2 PLATFORM

3 SNOW

A tripod will allow you to set up your composition and then leave the camera in place while you arrange the toys. It also enables you to take a sequence of photos then combine the best parts from each. What’s more, it gives you the option to shoot for a focus stack and extend your depth of field.

To create a forced perspective look for a suitable scene with a road or other surface that will be easy to mimic, then create a platform that looks similar. We drilled a hole into a piece of wood and attached it to a tripod plate, then fastened sandpaper on the top to look like the surface of the road.

Atmospheric details like snow, rain or fog can help to elevate these kind of pictures. On top of that, the ‘weather’ can also help to sell the effect by hiding tell-tale details in the scene. We scattered a handful of baking powder over the car here to create the impression of a flurry of snow.

4 CAMERA SETTINGS

5 LIGHTING

6 TOYS

If you want to shoot snow like this then you need to use a fast shutter speed of 1/800 sec or quicker. We also need to use a narrow aperture for plenty of depth of field. Our camera is set to Manual mode with the aperture at f/16, shutter speed set to 1/800 sec and an ISO of 1600.

If the light is shining from behind your model, like for us, then the front of the subject will be plunged into shadow. This can create dramatic lighting that not only adds to the filmic look, but also helps to shade some of the details of the toy that might give the game away.

Any toy can work for this, but the more detailed the better, so high-quality diecast replicas are best. If you’re using a car, then the larger 1:24 or 1:16 scale cars tend to work better than smaller ones. But you can experiment with different sizes and kinds of figures.

SHOOT AND EDIT

FINE-TUNE THE COMPOSITION

Finesse the position of the platform and the tripod until the foreground matches up with the perspective of the background. Camera height is important, as it’s often best to be looking slightly upwards at the toy to make it appear larger than life. A wide-angle lens will help to exaggerate the perspective.

TAKE SEVERAL FRAMES

ALIGN THE IMAGES

For the forced perspective effect to work we need to take one shot with the toy on a platform, then a second with the toy and platform removed. It’s also worth firing off a few more frames if you’re scattering snow, as this will give you the option to combine shots later.

Highlight all the pictures that you want to combine in Adobe Bridge, then go to Tools>Photoshop> Load Files into Photoshop Layers. Cmd/Ctrl-click all the layers to highlight them, then you want to go to Edit>AutoAlign layers, set Auto and hit OK.

SHOOT AND EDIT

MASK THE PLATFORM

MATCH DEPTH OF FIELD

BUILD UP THE SNOW

Drag the empty layer to the bottom of the stack and hide all but the bottom two layers. Click the Add Layer Mask icon, then grab the Brush tool, set the colour to black and paint around the edges to hide the platform on the top layer.

The scene below is likely to look sharper than the toy. To fix this, you need to go to Filter>Blur>Blur Gallery>Field Blur. Click to add two blur points and set one to 0, and the other to match the distant blur in the scene.

We can combine the snow from several frames. Reveal the other layers, set the blend mode to Lighten, then hold Alt and drag the layer mask thumbnail from the lower to copy it over. Make any other changes you like – such as painting shadows – to finish off.

FOCUS STACKING

Expand your depth of field to keep both subject and backdrop perfectly sharp

SHOOT FOR A STACK

The problem we often have with toy photos like the one we used is that the subject is close to the camera, which limits depth of field even at narrow apertures. Focus stacking is the answer. If your camera has this feature, try setting it up to take a series of focus-shifted frames.

ALIGN THE LAYERS

Go to the set of images in Adobe Bridge, highlight them, then go to Tools>Photoshop>Load files into Photoshop layers. Once loaded, hold Shift and click between the top and bottom layer in the Layers panel to highlight them all, go to Edit>Auto-Align Layers. Set Auto and hit OK.

BLEND THE LAYERS

With all the layers still highlighted go to Edit>AutoBlend Layers. Use the auto settings and hit OK. This will generate masks that combine the sharp parts from each photo into one super-sharp whole. Finally, use the Crop tool to crop in tighter and remove messy edges.

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ESSENTIALS Your quick-start guide and reference to image editing in Photoshop

If you’re relatively new to editing in Photoshop, or you just don’t know where to begin, then this section is the best place to get started. Over the next 10 pages, you’ll find an overview of the different versions of Photoshop available; a breakdown of the

typical image-editing workflow in Photoshop; an overview of raw file editing; a guide to the six most useful layers; and a glossary of the most useful shortcuts. This guide condenses most of the tools and techniques you’ll use every time you import a new roll of pictures.

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ADOBE COLOR

FREE IPHONE, IPAD, ANDROID If you ever need help selecting coordinated colors for your designs, try using Adobe Color. It enables you to create color themes from photos taken on your mobile device. This could be anything from a scene in your local park to a famous painting. So if you come across an inspirational scene, capture the colors and save them.

Adobe Shape enables you to turn photos and sketches into beautiful vector shapes for use in your designs or artwork. The app smooths out jagged edges in images, resulting in gorgeous vectors that are endlessly scalable, just as if you’d drawn them by hand with the Pen tool. Make a shape with the mobile app and the next time you open Photoshop on your desktop, the shape will sync to your Library. Drag it in to any document to add color and make further adjustments.

ADOBE BRUSH FREE IPHONE, IPAD, ANDROID

Adobe Brush enables you to make your own custom brushes from photos or sketches for use in Photoshop, Illustrator or the Sketch app. The most successful subjects are usually those that can be easily isolated, such as a splash against white, or a leaf against the sky. You can capture objects for your brush tips using your device’s camera, choose from your camera roll, or use your Creative Cloud library. Once captured, you can then finetune the look of the tip and apply brush settings.

ADOBE COMP CC FREE IPAD

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP SKETCH FREE IPAD

As the name suggests, this app enables you to paint freehand using a selection of brushes, colors and other tools. However, Sketch is more than just a painting app. It also enables you to connect with like-minded creatives, so you can follow artists and see their work updating. Once you’re done sketching the image on your iPad, you can upload to the Sketch community, or continue working on the image in Photoshop CC. You can also bring in brushes made with Adobe Brush, and for those who can’t paint, there’s an option to overlay images so you can trace over a photo. Sketch is compatible with Adobe’s pen and ruler hardware, Ink and Slide, but you can get great results with your finger.

PHOTOSHOP FIX FREE IPAD

Fix is a retouching app for altering portraits and fixing marks or blemishes in your photos. Intelligent facial recognition locks onto eyes, lips noses and chins, making it easy to tweak a smile, tuck in a jawline or enlarge eyes, should you wish.

If you’re a designer who wants to build a quick layout for a web or print page, then Comp is the ideal place to start piecing ideas, images and text together. You can draw common design elements such as text or image boxes with quick gestures. For example, a couple of squiggly lines with a dot makes a header, and a cross makes an image box. It makes it easy to mock up a layout in seconds. You can then add words and graphics. The app even spits out a Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign document.

BEHANCE CREATIVE PORTFOLIO FREE IPAD, IPHONE

Behance is the online social space for creatives to share and showcase their portfolios, connect with one another, and find work. With work from the best photographers, digital artists and designers out there, it’s also a great place to find inspiration for a new project. If you’re a Creative Cloud subscriber you can set up a Behance page in minutes. The Behance app for iOS devices enables you to manage your page, while the Creative Portfolio app provides a polished portfolio.

THE IMAGE-EDITING WORKFLOW Manage your photos from capture to output in three stages The image-editing process begins as soon as you’ve transferred your photos from your memory card to your computer. 1 The first stage is to begin sifting through your pictures to discover which are the keepers. The image organizer that comes with Photoshop is ideal for this task. Adobe Bridge has controls for keywording, rating and filtering your images, and there are handy tools for batch renaming files, creating panoramic stitches, making contact sheets and more. Launch Adobe Bridge and navigate to a folder containing new images. Use the cursor keys to quickly flick through the images and click below a thumbnail to add a star rating, or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl+1-5. You can then filter your photos by the star rating to group the ones you want to work on. 2 The next step is to open the shots from Bridge into Adobe Camera Raw. ACR is the best place to make initial changes to your images to boost tones and correct any problems with exposure and so on. It doesn’t enable you to combine images – you’ll use Photoshop for that – but it does enable you to make the kind of edits photographers need. 3 In Photoshop, you can further refine the image with layers and adjustment layers, which offer a much more flexible way of working than ACR. Once you’ve finished, it’s time to share it with an audience. Go to File>Save, and your image will be saved as a Photoshop document (PSD). This keeps all the layers intact, which means you can go back and retweak the image at a later date. However, PSD files are large and can take up lots of hard drive space. If you want to share your images online or via email or social media, save them as JPEGs.

THE BASICS OF RAW PROCESSING Discover how to process your raw files to perfection The latest version of the raw file processor included with Photoshop is so powerful that most photos can be processed entirely in the raw processor, with no need for further editing in Photoshop. And by making your adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw,

rather than in Photoshop, you’ll ensure the best possible image quality, because raw files contain more picture information than bitmap images such as un-layered PSDs and JPEGs. Here’s our reference to the features you’ll use the most in the Basic panel.

THE BASIC PANEL IN ACR

CONTRAST

Makes light pixels brighter and dark pixels darker

HIGHLIGHTS

TEMPERATURE

Controls the brightness of the lightest pixels

Use this slider to warm or cool an image if the White Balance tool fails to correct a color cast

SHADOWS

Controls the brightness of the darkest pixels

TINT

This slider enables you to correct a green or magenta cast, again, if the White Balance tool fails

WHITES

Sets a point on the tonal range at which pixels should be pure white

EXPOSURE

CLARITY

Controls the overall brightness of the image

BLACKS

Sets a point on the tonal range at which pixels should be pure black

Controls the amount of midtone contrast

SATURATION

Controls the overall color intensity of the image

VIBRANCE

Adjusts the intensity of the less-saturated colors

SIX ESSENTIAL LAYERS FOR PHOTOS The six most frequently used Photoshop layers for image editing, and how to use them to improve almost any photo Photoshop has many types of layers and adjustment layers available, but there are six that you’ll find you need to use again and again. Learning how they should be

used may seem a little daunting for beginners, but once you’ve got to grips with them, you’ll find they play a part in the creative process of almost every image you make.

LEVELS

This should be the first layer you add to an image, because it fundamentally alters the tonal range of the entire image. Create a Levels Adjustment Layer, drag the Black point slider inwards until it touches the lefthand edge of the histogram, and drag the White point slider inwards to the right-hand edge. This remaps the tones of the image to make more of the available tonal range.

CURVES

Curves is one of the most powerful adjustment layers. An S-shaped curve brightens the highlights and darkens the shadows, resulting in extra contrast. Create a Curves Adjustment Layer and click the middle of the diagonal line to add a central control point. Drag down on the lower part of the line and drag up on the upper part of the line to improve image contrast.

HUE/SATURATION

This adjustment layer is best used for altering the intensity and brightness of individual color channels in an image – greens and blues in landscapes, for instance. Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer, click the Master menu and choose the color channel you’d like to adjust. Small changes are usually the most effective.

HEALING LAYER

Most photos contain unwanted marks or blemishes. The Spot Healing Brush tool is effective at removing these. The best way to apply the healing is on a new blank layer, so that you can easily tone down or remove selected healing work later without having to start from scratch because you healed directly on the background layer. To do this, create a new blank layer, choose the Spot Healing Brush tool from the Tools panel and tick Sample All Layers on the Options bar, then continue as normal.

AFTER

BEFORE

DODGE AND BURN

One of the best ways to enhance a photo is by lightening or darkening selected areas of the image. This can be done with the Dodge and Burn tools, but rather than use them directly on the image, a separate grey layer gives you greater control. To create a Dodge and Burn layer, hold down Alt and click the Create a new layer icon in the Layers panel. Give the layer a name, then choose Mode: Overlay. Check Fill with Overlay-neutral color and click OK. Now use the Dodge and Burn tools (with Range set to Midtones) to work on the new layer.

SELECTIVE SHARPENING

Once all other adjustments have been made, you need to sharpen the image for output. The traditional way is to create a merged layer at the top of the stack, apply Unsharp Mask, then paint on the mask to remove the sharpening from those parts of the image you want to remain soft. However, the Sharpen tool enables more control over the process by enabling you to build up the effect by brushing repeatedly with a low opacity brush. Create a new blank layer, select the Sharpen tool, tick Sample All Layers and set a Strength of 50% or lower.

14 ESSENTIAL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

14 keyboard shortcuts that will massively improve your speed and efficiency while working in Photoshop

ALT+[SCROLL WHEEL]

[ OR ]

CMD/CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E

SHIFT+[ OR ]

SPACE BAR

CMD/CTRL+Z

ALT+[EYE ICON]

CMD/CTRL+[LAYER MASK]

CMD/CTRL+I

CMD/CTRL+T

SHIFT+[LAYER MASK]

CMD/CTRL+J

Reset the foreground and background colors to black and white

Zoom in or out of the image

Create a merged copy of all the layers in the layer stack

Temporarily switch the current tool to the Hand tool, for moving around the image while zoomed in

Switch off the visibility of all other layers in the layer stack, for before-and-after comparisons

Invert the color of a layer mask to black

Disable the effects of a layer mask

Switch the foreground and background color swatches

Resize the brush tip

Cycle backwards or forwards through the layer blend modes

Undo the last change made to the document. Works multiple times

Load the currently active layer mask as a new selection

Activate the Free Transform tool

Duplicate the current layer

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Future Publishing Limited, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA Editorial +44 (0)1225 442244 • www.digitalcameraworld.com Editorial Editor James Paterson james.paterson@futurenet.com Art Editor Rosie Webber Production Editor Kyle Hearse richard.hill@futurenet.com Content Director Chris George Senior Art Editor Warren Brown Cover image James Paterson

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