LEARN PHOTOSHOP CC & LIGHTROOM THE EASY WAY! Issue 85 April 2018
Essential skills to enhance your photos WATCH & LEARN
9 VIDEO LESSONS CREATE COLLAGES | RETRO EFFECTS | SCI-FI PORTRAITS
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Welcome to issue 85 of Practical Photoshop! If you enjoy the issue, why not subscribe and get a whole year for just $19.99? These days I ind I spend almost as much time in Camera Raw and Lightroom as I do in Photoshop, which goes to show how much depth they ofer for image editing – as our ‘50 Top Raw Tricks’ feature explains. Elsewhere we show you how to make amazing sci-i montages and creative collages.
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James Paterson, Editor t james.paterson@futurenet.com
www.digitalcameraworld.com
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HIGHLIGHTS: WHAT’S INSIDE… 50 RAW TRICKS
CREATIVE COLLAGES
RETRO LIGHT LEAKS
MAKE SCI-FI PORTRAITS
LIGHTROOM SKILLS
Q Learn new skills in Camera Raw and Lightroom
Q Discover four ways to transform your photos
Q Recreate an atmospheric analog efect
Q Make a montage that’s truly out of this world
Q Learn how to keyword and organize your image library
Discover a host of top techniques in Camera Raw and Lightroom
5 SPLIT TONING TRICKS 1 CHOOSING A COLOR TOOL Selections play such a big part in all kinds of projects – whether it’s making cut-outs or selective tonal adjustments. The Quick Selection tool is hands down the best tool Photoshop ofers for making diicult selections of irregular shapes. It automatically seeks out and snaps on to edges as you paint; as you build up a selection, it learns and adapts to target the details you need while excluding the rest. Simply paint with the tool to select shapes; hold Alt while painting to remove the selection in areas you don’t want. Quick Selection also appears in the Select And Mask command. It’s a good idea to run complex selections through Select And Mask to improve the edge.
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2 SINGLE SPLITS The Split Tone panel allows you to add colors to both highlights and shadows. But often the best results come from adding a single color to just one or the other. After adding a single color, try adjusting the Balance slider to tweak how the efect plays across the entire tonal range.
3 STRIKE A BALANCE The Balance slider in the Split Tone panel lets you shift the color bias one way or the other, but it can be diicult to judge when the colors are subtle.
Hold down Alt while dragging Balance for a temporary view of your chosen Shadow and Highlight colors at 100% saturation, making it easier to judge the split between the two.
4 VINTAGE PRINT TONING A warm yellow tone in the highlights of your image can give it the look of an old print, as it mimics the way a print will age over time by gradually turning yellow. Use the Split Toning Highlight controls to add a yellow tone to the highlights, then ine-tune things with the Balance slider.
5 CREATE A CYANOTYPE To recreate the look of a traditional cyanotype, irst convert to black and white then go to Split Toning; set Highlights
Hue 205, Saturation 15; Shadows Hue 221, Saturation 60, Balance +55. Next go to the Basic panel. Lower the whites and up the blacks.
5 TONE CURVE TRICKS WATCH THE VIDEO https://goo.gl/ZVYaq6
1 THE AMAZING S-CURVE A simple S-shaped curve can do wonders to boost the impact of an image. Drag one control point upwards near the top right of the line, and a second downwards near the bottom left. The more pronounced the S you make, the greater the contrast and color saturation. An optional third point in the middle of the line lets you anchor the midtones.
2 SPLIT TONE WITH CURVES For a simple split-tone efect, irst convert to mono then try adjusting the top and bottom points of the curve line in the Tone Curve panel. In the Red channel, dragging up/left adds red, down/right adds cyan. In Green, up/left adds green, down/right adds magenta. In Blue, up/ left adds blue, down/ right adds yellow.
3 FINE CURVES CONTROL Diferent parts of the Tone Curve line afect diferent sections of the tonal range, from shadows (left side) to highlights (right side). This means you have ine control over the brightness and color. For example, if you select the Blue channel, lift the very bottom of the curve line then peg the rest back into place, you add blue just to the very darkest pixels.
4 THE WASHED- 5 SOLARIZATION OUT LOOK EFFECT
To give an image a washed-out, vintage look of an old print, try adjusting the Tone Curve. Drag the very bottom of the diagonal curve line upwards, and drag the top right point downwards. This lifts the blacks and lowers the whites, reducing contrast for a retro feel.
This is a classic darkroom efect that’s easy to recreate with the Tone Curve simply by plotting a V-shape on the curve line. Begin by dragging the bottom-left point up to the top, then drag the middle of the line to the bottom and add a few more anchor points to make the V-shape.
10 LOCAL ADJUSTMENT TIPS 1 DODGE AND BURN WATCH THE VIDEO https://goo.gl/gg34T2
Our eyes are drawn to the lighter areas of a photo, so with subtle lightening and darkening, you can help to guide the eye around your landscapes. This is easily done with Camera Raw/Lightroom’s Adjustment Brush. Grab the brush and use the tonal sliders to load it with positive or negative exposure, then paint to dodge or burn the image. Here we can use it to lighten the clifs, and enhance the texture with a boost in Clarity too.
2 MAKE A ROUGH BORDER Grab the Graduated Filter tool and load it with -4.0 exposure, then drag a tiny gradient near the edge of the frame. Move to the next edge and add another, then keep going around the edges a few times until the border is complete.
3 USEFUL SHORTCUTS FOR GRADS You can use the Graduated Filter to enhance a sky by selectively darkening Exposure or increasing Clarity. You usually want the adjustment to run perfectly parallel to the horizon, so hold down Shift while dragging a Graduated Filter adjustment to keep it horizontal. If you hold down Alt while dragging the grad adjustment, the blend begins centrally instead.
4 SOFTEN SKIN Selectively applied, negative Clarity can result in an efective skin smoothing efect. It’s not as reined as some Photoshop skin smoothing techniques, but it’s ine for a quick ix. Simply grab the Adjustment Brush, click the minus icon next to Clarity a couple of times, then paint over the skin. Be careful not to go over sharp details like the eyes or lips.
5 ENHANCE THE IRISES The eyes are the most important part of any portrait, so applying a subtle boost here is guaranteed to add impact to your shot. Grab the Adjustment Brush from the toolbar, then dial in some positive Exposure, Clarity and Saturation. Paint precisely over the iris with a small brush (making sure to exclude the pupil) then ine-tune the tonal sliders.
6 SYNC ADJUSTMENTS It’s easy to copy local adjustments – simply Alt-drag the pin. This is especially useful for portraits, as you can copy an adjustment from one eye to the other. If you have several similar photos, you can apply local adjustments across the entire set by syncing the images.
7 GET WHITER TEETH
With the Adjustment Brush, dial in -30 Saturation and +0.2 Exposure, then paint roughly over the teeth. Next use Range Masking to constrain the efect to the teeth. Set Range Mask: Color then grab the Eyedropper and Shift-click a few times to target the teeth.
8 TWEAK ALL SETTINGS AT ONCE While making selective adjustments, you often end up tweaking several tonal settings at once – for example, you might want to increase Clarity, Exposure and Saturation. Here’s a neat trick for ine-tuning the settings. Hold Alt and drag over the point to the left or right, and all the settings within will change together.
9 CHANGE CLOTHING COLORS
Paint over the clothes with the Adjustment Brush then go the tool settings on the right. Set Range Mask: Color and Shiftclick a few times over the clothes to target the colors within. Next, adjust either the Temperature and Tint sliders, or use the Color box to change the hues.
10 ADD A VIGNETTE
Vignettes let you darken down corners to focus attention on your subject. They’re especially useful for black and whites. The Radial Filter is great for adding vignettes. Dial in negative Exposure, then either drag a circle or hold Cmd/Ctrl and double-click to snap the vignette to the edges of the frame.
10 SHARPENING AND NOISE REDUCTION TIPS 1 TACKLE GRAINY NOISE WATCH THE VIDEO https://goo.gl/E8y8eB
The Noise Reduction Luminance slider within the Detail panel lets you ix grainy noise of the kind you’ll often see when shooting at high ISOs. Simply zoom in close to the image and adjust it until the noise disappears. Be careful not to push it too far, as it can smudge the details.
2 USE COMPARE
When you’re judging the strength of sharpening, noise reduction or any other task that requires scrutiny, it helps to compare your adjusted image with the
original version to see the improvement. Click the rectangular before/after view icon in the bottom-left of the image window to cycle through diferent views.
3 ZOOM TO 100%
4 RADIUS
It’s best to judge sharpening and noise reduction at 100% view, as this shows the actual pixels you’re editing. Double-click the Zoom tool to jump straight to 100% view in Camera Raw. To zoom back out and it the entire image on-screen, double-click the Hand tool.
Sharpening’s Radius setting works in combination with Amount. Sharpening works by applying contrast along edges in the image – the lighter edge will get brighter, while the darker edge will be darkened more. Radius determines the distance from the edge in which that contrast change occurs.
5 CHANGE THE DEFAULTS Lightroom and Camera Raw apply a default sharpening amount of 25 to raws (but not to JPEGs). You can tailor these
defaults, or turn them of. Click the Reset button, input your new values, then hold Alt and click the Set Defaults button.
6 TYPICAL VALUES When you’re judging sharpening strength, you should usually aim to keep Amount in the range of 80-130, with Radius between 0.8 and 1.5. Subject is a major factor in this – landscapes and detail-rich images tend to need a higher Amount setting and a lower Radius, while portraits typically require a lower Amount and higher Radius.
7 DON’T SHARPEN EVERYTHING Many images will have detail-free or outof-focus parts that don’t need to be sharpened, as this’ll just amplify noise. The Masking slider lets you conine the sharpening to the important parts. Hold Alt while dragging it to the right – areas that appear in black will be excluded from sharpening.
8 LANDSCAPE CONTROL The Detail slider is often a good choice for suppressing sharpening in landscape images. Like the Masking slider, you hold Alt and drag the slider for a grayscale view that helps you gauge the level of detail suppression required.
9 SHARPEN SELECTIVELY Camera Raw’s Adjustment Brush lets you selectively paint in sharpening, so you can use it crisp up the important parts of your photos, like the lashes in a portrait. Grab the Adjustment Brush and load it with Sharpening, then carefully paint over relevant areas. Press O (the letter, not zero) to toggle a mask that shows you where you’ve painted.
10 APPLY OUTPUT SHARPENING The Output Sharpening settings in Camera Raw’s Save dialog (and in Lightroom’s Export box) let you apply sharpening that’s based on the size of the image (as speciied in the Image Sizing settings above). Output Sharpening might look overly simplistic – you set the strength to low, standard or high – but these settings are tailored speciically to your image’s output (either print or screen) and resolution.
10 PHOTO FIXES
1 CHANGE YOUR DEFAULT PROFILE
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If you ind your photos initially have lackluster tones, then why not try a diferent camera proile? You can choose a proile in the Camera Calibration panel. The
proiles on ofer match your camera’s picture styles. If you like, you can set a default proile for all imported photos – hold Alt and the Set Default button appears below.
2 CHECK FOR CLIPPING
3 VIBRANCE FOR SUNSETS
You usually want to use the full tonal range from black to white, without losing details in highlights or shadows. Hold Alt while dragging the Whites or Blacks in the Basic panel for a view that shows clipped pixels as you drag – bring both sliders to a point just before the pixels begin to clip.
Often a sunrise or sunset displays strong colors around the sun, while those further out are less saturated. You want those colors to pop, but if you increase Saturation you risk pushing the strong colors too far. Instead try Vibrance, which targets and boosts only the less-saturated colors.
4 CHECK FOR COLOR CASTS
5 FIX UP THE FRINGING
Sometimes your camera’s white balance isn’t entirely accurate, but you can use Lightroom to ix a color cast in seconds (especially if you shoot raw, which means you can set the white balance afterwards). Simply grab the Eyedropper next to White Balance in the Basic panel then click over a neutral point, like a rock or a road.
Wide-angle lenses are susceptible to chromatic aberration, which causes color fringing along high-contrast edges. Go to the Proile tab in the Lens Correction panel and check the box to ix it. To enable the ix by default on all imported images, check the box (and alter nothing else) then hold Alt and click the Set Default button in the bottom-right.
6 FIX WONKY IMAGES
The Upright controls within the Develop module’s Transform panel can automatically correct wonky horizons and converging verticals for you. The useful Guided option lets you plot guides through the image along natural lines you know should be perfectly horizontal or vertical.
7 BOOST THE BLUES Here’s a quick tip for enhancing weak blue skies. Go to the HSL panel to the right of Lightroom’s Develop module. First head to the Luminance settings and click the little target icon, then click and drag down over the blue sky. Next, click the Saturation target icon and drag upwards over the blues to inish.
8 WHITE BALANCE TRICK If you ind it hard to ix your images’ white balance, try this. Go to the Basic panel and temporarily increase both Saturation and Vibrance to +100. Here, for example, this makes it obvious that the image is too blue and magenta, so you can push Temperature to the right and Tint to the left to even things out a little.
9 LIFT THE SKIN If you want to give your subject’s skin a fresh, bright feel, here’s a quick ix you can try. Simply go to the Luminance tab in the HSL panel and grab the target icon for on-image control, then drag upwards over the skin slightly. This will make the skin slightly brighter, resulting in a fresher feel that works well for beauty shots.
10 CUT THROUGH THE HAZE The Dehaze slider can be very useful for landscapes, as it reduces atmospheric haze and adds punch to flat scenes. The slider is found in the Efects panel. Simply drag it to the right to reduce haze. The shadows may go too deep, so if necessary go to the Basic panel and lift Shadows and Exposure slightly to compensate.
10 QUICK TIPS
1 2 3 4 5
Double-click any slider in Camera Raw or Lightroom to reset it to its default value.
To sync your edits across several photos, highlight them in the ilmstrip and press Alt+S.
If an image is very underexposed, converting to black and white can rescue it,
Hold down Alt as you drag any tonal slider in the Basic panel for a helpful grayscale view as you edit.
For a panorama, open the images in Camera Raw, select them all and press Cmd/ Ctrl+M.
6 7 8 9 10 With the Spot Removal tool, Shift-click between two points to heal in a straight line.
The Visualize Spots option lets you quickly spot sensor marks with the Spot Removal tool.
When you’re cropping, press A to switch to the Straighten tool: use this to level the horizon.
Right-click when using the Crop tool to choose diferent ratios, or customize your own.
To edit JPEGs or TIFFs in Camera Raw, right-click them in Bridge and select Open in Camera Raw.
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GET CREATIVE WITH COLLAGES Discover four ways to slice up your photos for inventive results, from Hockney-esque collages to stylish geometric patterns RIPPED PAPER
STRIP LINES
BEFORE
RETRO COLLAGE
WATCH THE VIDEO https://goo.gl/b4YLLK
GEOMETRIC SHAPE
TOP TRANSFORMING TIPS All of the techniques explained here involve transforming and moving your image in diferent ways so that portions of it sit over other design elements. As such, it helps if you know a few transforming tricks. When you use the Move tool, tick Show Transform Controls in the tool options at the top and you’ll see a bounding box appear around the currently selected layer. Click on this to begin transforming. Drag the corner points of the box to resize the layer, or drag outside the box to rotate it. Hold Shift while resizing to constrain the image proportions, and Alt to resize from the centre point. (Shift+Alt does both at once.) Right-click while transforming for more options.
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01 RIPPED PAPER TRICKS
Download an image of ripped paper. (We found ours at pixabay.com; search for ‘ripped-2034949’.) Drop the paper image on top of your portrait photo with the Move tool. (The download ile is already cut out.) Next, highlight the background layer and press Ctrl+J (Cmd+J in macOS) to duplicate. Drag the layer to the top of the stack then go to Filter > Stylize > Find Edges. Press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+U to desaturate. Right-click the layer and choose Create Clipping Mask, then change the Blending Mode to Multiply.
02 THE STRIP LINE EFFECT
Open an image and make a new layer, then drag a thin selection with the Marquee tool. Press Alt+Backspace to ill with a color. Grab the Move tool and Alt-drag the shape sideways to make a copy, then press Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge down. Repeat this until the strips cover the frame. Click the FX icon in the Layers panel to add a drop-shadow. Next, copy the image layer and drag to the top of the stack. Right-click it and choose Create Clipping Mask, then press Cmd/Ctrl+T and drag the corner to ofset the layer.
03 RETRO HOCKNEY COLLAGES
Go to File > New. Open ‘Grunge Paper Textures’ under ‘Art and Illustration’. Go to File > Place Embedded to load your image, then drag the layer above ‘Your image here’. Move and resize it to show a small part, then press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E. Turn the merged layer’s visibility of. Click the image layer, press Cmd/Ctrl+T and reposition, then merge again. Repeat to make lots of layers. Open a new document, drag the layers in and rearrange to make a collage. Add a drop-shadow to each layer.
04 TRENDY GEOMETRIC SHAPES
Go to File > New and download ‘Textured geometric shapes’ under ‘Photo’. Drop in your photo and drag above the ‘Your image here’ layer in the Layers panel. Scroll through the layers and choose a shape. Next, duplicate the background layer. Select a portion of the design with the Polygonal Lasso, then click the Add Layer Mask icon. Click the link between the mask and the image thumbnail to unlink them, then reposition the image to ofset it. Drop in metal_texture.jpg and set its Blending Mode to Multiply.
SPRING A LEAK Bright spark James Paterson explains how you can use templates and layers in Photoshop CC to create a retro light leak efect In today’s age of crisp, digital perfection, there’s something endearing about old-school chemical ilm flaws. In days gone by, camera makers faced the problem of light leaking into the camera body and accidentally exposing the ilm inside. The issue plagued cheaper cameras in particular, often resulting in an orange glow fogging around the edges of the frame, where the sides of the roll of ilm were most exposed. Now, rather than an entire unexposed roll of ilm sitting in the camera, the digital sensor is only exposed for the duration of the shutter speed, so light leaks are only an issue with really long shutter speeds; and even then the results aren’t as attractive as the orangey yellow bleeding that occurred with ilm. It’s one of those analogue flaws that can evoke a retro mood, and it’s become popular as a digital efect. Here, we’ll explain how to mimic the light leak look with a combination of tonal adjustments. We’ll make
AFTER
WATCH THE VIDEO https://goo.gl/44gttM
BEFORE
use of a free paper texture in Photoshop CC to give our image the look of an old print,
then use Adjustment Layers and Blending Modes to create our efect.
DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE http://bit.ly/2prCXRj ON YOUR PC OR MAC
01
OPEN A TEMPLATE
Open the start ile light_leaks_before, then go to File>New. Under the Art and Illustration tab, download and open the Grunge Paper Textures ile. Grab the Move tool and drag the image to the paper texture ile. To resize it, press Cmd/ Ctrl+T, hold Shift and drag the box corners.
02
TWEAK THE LAYERS
In the Layers panel (Window > Layers), drag the image layer above the Your Image Here layer. Click through the layers and groups that make up the paper efect. There are several options within the ile. Turn layers on or of to suit, and adjust the layer opacity if you like.
03
ADD A GRADIENT
Click the Create Adjustment Layer icon and choose Gradient. In the Properties panel, select Foreground To Transparent, then click the preview to open the Gradient Editor. Double-click the square at the bottom- left of the gradient and choose an orange color to mimic the light leak.
04
BLEND WITH THE IMAGE
Click OK, then use the Angle control to inetune the angle of the gradient. You can also drag in the image to change its position. Go to the Blending Mode drop-down in the Layers panel and change it from Normal to Screen. If it’s too strong, lower the layer opacity.
05
PAINT LIGHT LEAKAGE
Click the Create New Layer icon in the Layers panel and change the Blending Mode of the new layer to Screen. Grab the Brush tool, choose a soft-edged tip and press 5 for 50% opacity, then paint with yellow and orange colors around the edges to add to the efect.
06
RETRO COLOR CURVES
Click the Create Adjustment Layer icon and choose Curves. Drag down the curve line to darken the image. Click the RGB drop-down at the top of the Curves settings. Select Blue, then drag the bottomleft point on the line upwards to add a blue tint to the shadows.
TO BOLDLY GO… Learn how to blend your portraits with free images from Nasa, to make Photoshop composites that are out of this world Search for ‘Nasa images’ and you’ll (Nustar), PIA03606 (Crab Nebula). There are ind a huge array of photos of stars, plenty more to choose from, though. nebulae, galaxies, planets, astronauts and We’ve supplied a starting image here of more. Many of these images are high-res, and our chiselled astronaut, but why not use one they are free to download. As such, of your own portraits? All you need is you can make use of these incredible a photo of somebody against a dark images to create a composite black background. Ideally, light them that is stellar. For this project from behind and to the side like our we’ve made use of the following portrait here: this’ll help them stand images: PIA13005 (Orion Dream https://goo.gl/UkKoA9 out. We’ve also supplied a ile with Stars), PIA08653 (Sword of Orion), glowing wavy lines, so you can copy S89-51923 (helmet photo) PIA19821 those across to your image too.
WATCH THE VIDEO
DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE http://bit.ly/2prCXRj ON YOUR PC OR MAC
01
PASTE A HELMET
Open the start image and a Nasa photo of a helmet. Select it with the Rectangular Marquee, then grab the Move tool and drag the helmet across to the other image. Right-click the bounding box and choose Flip Horizontal. In the Layers panel, lower the layer opacity while you position the helmet.
02
PAINT A MASK
Click the Add Layer Mask icon in the Layers panel, then grab the Brush tool. Paint with black to hide parts of the helmet layer until it’s neatly cut out. Next, click the New Layer icon in the Layers panel; drag the new layer below the helmet layer and paint with black to hide the rest of the body.
03
DROP IN A PLANET
Open a planet image from Nasa and drag it into your image with the Move tool. Drag the planet layer to the top of the stack, then click the Blending Mode dropdown at the top of the Layers panel and choose Screen. Add a layer mask and paint with black to hide the parts that overlap the face.
04
BLEND THE STARS
Drag in a Nasa photo of a galaxy or stars, then go to the Layers panel and change the Blending Mode to Screen. Use the Move tool to position or resize the layer. Add a mask and paint with black to hide parts of the layer or soften its edges. Add more images in the same way to build the efect.
05
ADD SOME GLOWING LINES
Open glowing_lines.psd from the project iles, then use the Move tool to drag individual lines across to the main image. Position the lines around the image and add layer masks to hide or reveal parts of each. Make it look as is the lines wrap around the face by hiding some behind the helmet.
06
USE A FLARE FILTER
Make a new layer. Press D then Alt+Backspace to ill it with black. Change the Blending Mode to Screen then go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare to add a flare efect. Click the Create Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers panel and choose Photo Filter. Select a warming ilter to tone the image.
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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 ind an overview of the diferent versions of Photoshop available; a breakdown of the
typical image-editing workflow in Photoshop; an overview of raw ile 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 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 inger.
PHOTOSHOP FIX FREE IPAD
Fix is a retouching app for altering portraits and ixing 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 ind work. With work from the best photographers, digital artists and designers out there, it’s also a great place to ind 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.
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 irst 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 iltering your images, and there are handy tools for batch renaming iles, 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 $NE $USM . You can then ilter your images by the star rating to group the ones you want to work on. 2 The next step is to open the images 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 reine the image with layers and adjustment layers, which ofer a much more flexible way of working than ACR. Once you’ve inished, it’s time to share it with a wider 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 iles are large and 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.
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Discover how to process your raw iles to perfection The latest version of the raw ile 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 iles 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
VIBRANCE
Controls the overall color intensity of the image
Adjusts the intensity of the less-saturated colors
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 ind 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 ind they play a part in the creative process of almost every image you make.
01
LEVELS
This should be the irst 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.
02
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.
03
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 efective.
04
HEALING LAYER
Most photos contain unwanted marks or blemishes. The Spot Healing Brush tool is efective 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.
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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.
06
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 efect 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 keyboard shortcuts that will massively improve your speed and eiciency while working in Photoshop
D
X
Reset the foreground and background colors to black and white
Switch the foreground and background color swatches
ALT+[SCROLL WHEEL]
[ OR ]
Zoom in or out of the image
Resize the brush tip
CMD/CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E
SHIFT+[ OR ]
Create a merged copy of all the layers in the layer stack
Cycle backwards or forwards through the layer blend modes
SPACE BAR
CMD/CTRL+ALT+Z
Temporarily switch the current tool to the Hand tool, for moving around the image while zoomed in
Undo the last change made to the document. Works multiple times
ALT+[EYE ICON]
CMD/CTRL+[LAYER MASK]
Switch of the visibility of all other layers in the layer stack, for before-and-after comparisons
Load the currently active layer mask as a new selection
CMD/CTRL+I
CMD/CTRL+T
Invert the color of a layer mask to black
Activate the Free Transform tool
SHIFT+[LAYER MASK]
CMD/CTRL+J
Disable the efects of a layer mask
Duplicate the current layer
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