Digital Black and White
www.DigitalBlackandWhite.co.uk
Removing Halos With Photoshop
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Digital Black and White
www.DigitalBlackandWhite.co.uk
HALO REMOVAL
With Photoshop
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When we talk about Halos in Photoshop, we are usually referring to a white line appearing around the edge of an object. The halos are usually apparent when you zoom into the image.
What Creates The Halos The halo artefacts are usually caused when we are aggressively pushing tones within an image. One example of this is when we try to darken a sky with the use of curves.
The halo effect was introduced as I pushed the curve downwards to darken the sky.
In the above image, the sky was mostly blue with a very light cloud covering.
The dark edge of the building against the lighter tones in the sky created this halo effect.
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Tools To Remove The Halos In Photoshop With most things in Photoshop, there are a number of ways to perform a certain task. The method I am about to show you is in my opinion one of the easiest and in most circumstances the most effective way to remove the halos from around the edges of objects. Tools we are going to be using: •
Separate Layers
•
Blending Modes
•
Healing Brush
Layer Stack in Photoshop showing the various layers we shall be working with.
Organizing Layers As a side note, when working with layers in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, it is always a good idea to get into the habit of naming your layers with descriptive names. As you start increasing your layer stack by using multiple layers having the default layer names such as Layer 1, Layer 2, Curve 1 will become meaningless especially if you like to save all your layers when saving the file.
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Procedure The first thing you need to do is confirm that do actually have halo artifacts that are causing you concern. Zoom in to about 100% and inspect the edges of the objects. What you are looking for is a white line that runs parallel along the edge. If increasing the contrast with the use of a curves or levels adjustment has caused the halo, you could try and re adjust the adjustment to see if you can reduce or eliminate the halo. If that doesn’t seem to be working then try the following.
Create a new layer by going to the Photoshop menu and choosing Layer -> New -> Layer You will then be presented with a dialog box asking you to enter a name for the new layer. Name the layer Darken and click OK.
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If you now look in the Layers Pallet, you will see the new empty layer. Make sure the New Layer is located above your adjustment Layer (the one that created the halo). If it isn’t above the adjustment layer, simply drag the layer and drop it above the adjustment layer. Now that we have created the New Layer and named it Darken, the next step is to change the Blending mode from Normal to Darken. Darken Blend Mode: Darken – Looks at the colour information in each channel and selects the darker of the base or blend colour as the result color. Pixels lighter than the blend colours are replaced, and pixels darker than the blend colour do not change. The next step is to select the Healing Brush from the Tool Pallet. From the Healing Brush Options change the Mode to Darken and make sure the Aligned Checkbox is ticked. Press the Alt key on the keyboard and place the bullseye target on a colour close to the edge of the halo and then
Consectetuer: press the left mouse button and start to paint over the halo. As you move along the image it is a good idea to keep resampling the colour. TIP: You can adjust the Opacity slider on the Darken Layer you created to change the overall effect.
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Resources Created by: Ian Barber for Digital Black and White Ian Barbers Personal Website: http://www.ianbarberphotography.co.uk Digital Black and White Website: http://www.digitalblackandwhite.co.uk
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