r67 yfjt

T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R L I G H T R O O M ® & P H O T O S H O P ® U S E R S  A U G U S T 2 0 2 1

Maximum Workflow

A closeup look at the new features in the suite of Photoshop and Lightroom plug-ins in Nik Collection 4 by DxO

Proving Ground

Creative ways of using blend modes and adjustment layers to control the contrast in your images

®

Cover Image by Lenworth Johnson | KelbyOne Member

Local Flair Take total control of local adjustments in Lightroom to not only fashion beautiful images but also get creative

Square Jellyfish Tripod Phone Mount Platyball Ergo

Platyball Elite Platypod Gooseneck

LitraTorch2.0 Lights

Platypod Max

Benro IN00 Single Action Ball Head

Platypod Multi Accessory Kit

Platypod Ultra Photo © Gilmar Smith 2020

The Platypod Ecosystem Founded in 2014, Platypod built its brand around quality and utility for artists to establish expanded perspective and vision. Our products offer unlimited combinations of tools forming an ecosystem of inspiration for photographers in areas of macro, architecture, landscape, hiking and traveling situations where tripods dare not go.

Photo © Bob Coates

Photo © Paolo Cascio

Photo © Bob & Dawn Davis Photography

platypod.com

Photo © Joe Pellicone

AUGUST 2021



VOL 24



NO 8

[020]

[026]

[032]

DEVELOPING THE SHOT

LIGHTROOM LABORATORY

[038]

[052]

[062]

MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

VISUAL STORYTELLING

LIGHTROOM Q&A

[064]

[070]

[076] PHOTOSHOP FOR LIGHTROOM USERS

Victoria & Alfred Waterfront: Super Resolution

Nik Collection 4

LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS

Learn to Work Faster and Smarter in Lightroom

How to Retouch 102-Megapixel Files

Resurfacing in Paris

GOING MOBILE

Lightroom: An End-to-End Workflow

UNDER THE LOUPE

The New Collaborative Editing Feature in Lightroom

Answers to Your Lightroom Questions

Learning the Basics of Layers in Photoshop

DEPARTMENTS [ 007 ]  A NOTE FROM SCOTT [ 009 ]  CONTRIBUTORS [ 010 ]  BENEFIT SPOTLIGHT [ 012 ]  KELBYONE COMMUNITY [ 018 ]  NEW ONLINE TRAINING

[082]

STAY LOCAL: EXPLORING LIGHTROOM'S LOCAL ADJUSTMENTS SEÁN DUGGAN

[106]

[118]

DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

[136]

[144]

[148]

PHOTO EFFECTS

PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND

DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

Layer Style Tricks for Text and Compositing Effects

Long-Exposure Hacks: Streaky Clouds & Silky Water

[130]

BEGINNERS’ WORKSHOP

Title Treatment Inspired by Marvel's Loki

How to Create a Glitch Effect

Using Blend Modes with Adjustment Layers

Re-creating Old-Style Ephemera

mags

[156]

[160]

[170]

PHOTOSHP Q&A

REVIEWS

PHOTOSHOP TIPS

Terry White Answers All of Your Photoshop Questions

Learn to Work Faster and Smarter in Photoshop

Get the Scoop on the Latest Gear

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KelbyOne

A NOTE FROM SCOTT

GETTING READY FOR PHOTOSHOP WORLD

Terry well. It was so nice to see how valued someone like Terry is. You all know Terry as one of our industry’s top trainers but, beyond that, Terry is one of our world’s top people just overall. He has a huge heart, loads of compassion, empathy, and a smile a mile wide that lets you peek into the character of the man behind the mic. Congratulations, Terry! All the accolades and outpouring of love are well deserved.

Another great issue this month (high-five to Managing Editor, Chris Main). So dig in and we’ll catch you next issue (which will be our September issue; did I mention I can’t believe how fast this year is going by?).

All my best,

Scott Kelby KelbyOne President & CEO Editor & Publisher

KELBYONE .COM

Happy August, everybody!

(I can’t believe it’s August already.) Here at KelbyOne, we’re knee-deep getting ready for our Photoshop World Conference 2021, coming up August 31–September 2. (The conference is all online, and every day that goes by, it seems like that decision is better than we first thought.)

There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes to produce an event of this scale, and even though we’re doing the event online, we’re still doing many of the same things we’d do for our in-person event: We have an opening keynote, a party, Midnight Madness, the Guru Awards, and all the other pieces of the puzzle that make a Photoshop World such a great event. It’s a lot of work but, at the same time, it’s so much fun, especially as it gets closer, and it all starts coming together. It really is the most fun we have all year.

We’re especially excited about the attendance this year. If things keep up as they’re going now, we may well have more people attending this year than we did last time in Vegas, and that would be just awesome. So that’s just a heads-up of what’s going to be happening at the conference, and if you want to be a part of it (and you’re definitely invited, as this is your conference, after all), go to photoshopworld.com to register today.

While I have you here for a minute, I want to highlight something very special. My dear friend, colleague, and fellow KelbyOne instructor, Terry White, just celebrated his 25th year with Adobe, which is just outstanding.

I was really tickled to see the fuss the folks at Adobe made about Terry’s 25th anniversary. The things his direct bosses put together to honor the occasion were really heartwarming, including a 30-minute video of people from Adobe and others in the industry wishing

7

THE MAGA ZINE FOR LIGHTROOM & PHOTOSHOP USER S

EDITORIAL: Scott Kelby, Editor-in-Chief Chris Main, Managing Editor Kim Doty, Associate Editor Barbara Thompson, Copy Editor Cindy Snyder, Technical Editor Cover Image: Lenworth Johnson

GRAPHICS: Jessica Maldonado, Art Director Margie Rosenstein, Senior Graphic Designer Angela Naymick, Senior Web/Graphic Designer

MARKETING: Adam Frick Ashley Fosse Kleber Stephenson

WEB: Adam Frick

Each issue we feature cover art by a KelbyOne Member This issue’s cover is by Lenworth Johnson, a beauty and fashion photographer based in Houston, Texas. Jamaican by birth with a natural gift for graphic design and photography, Lenworth grew up in Jamaica where he obtained his education and training. He earned a Bachelor of Arts

Curt Husting

from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing

Yojance Rabelo

Arts where he majored in graphic design and minored in

Aaron Westgate

PUBLISHING:

photography. His work covers advertising, beauty, and fashion photography for commercial clients. To learn more about Lenworth, turn to page 17.

Scott Kelby, Publisher Kalebra Kelby, Executive V.P. Jean A. Kendra, Business Manager

ADVERTISING: Kleber Stephenson, Vice President of Business Development & Enterprise: kleber@kelbyone.com

All contents ©COPYRIGHT 2021 KelbyOne, LLC. All rights reserved.

Any use of the contents of this publication without the written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. Photoshop User is an independent journal, not affiliated in any way with Adobe Systems, Inc. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, and Photoshop are registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. in the

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belong to their respective owners. Some of the views expressed by ISSN 2470-7031 (online)

Customer Service: info@kelbyone.com Letters to the Editor: letters@photoshopuser.com

COLOPHON:

Photoshop User Magazine is produced using Adobe Photoshop CC 2021 and Adobe InDesign CC 2021. Korolev, Factoria, and Priori Sans are used for headlines and subheads. Acumin Pro and Korolev are used for body copy.

An official publication of KelbyOne This seal indicates that all content provided herein is produced

by KelbyOne, LLC and follows the most stringent standards for educational resources. KelbyOne is the premier source for instructional books, online classes, and live seminars for creative professionals.

AUGUST 2021



VOL 24



NO 8

VICTORIA BAMPTON

SEAN McCORMACK

ROB SYLVAN

runs the popular Lightroom Queen website and forums. She is an Adobe Community Professional based in England, and the author of the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic: The Missing FAQ and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: Edit Like a Pro series of books.

is a commercial photographer based in Galway, Ireland.

His work covers everything from fashion and portraiture to products and interiors. He fell into writing from his love of Lightroom, and appreciates the opportunity to pass on his knowledge. He also loves playing with plug-ins.

is a photographer, educator, and aspiring beekeeper. He’s the author of many Lightroom and photography books, eBooks, and videos, including Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic for Dummies. Rob can often be found in the KelbyOne Community helping members with PS and LR.

COREY BARKER

KIRK NELSON

SCOTT VALENTINE

is an award-winning designer and illustrator. He has also been an instructor at the Photoshop World Conference and an Adobe MAX Master Instructor, and has produced numerous titles for KelbyOne. Look for his latest book Photoshop Tricks for Designers.

is a professional graphics artist in the Washington, D.C., area. He is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop. Kirk’s career has touched on a broad range of subjects from logo design to animation. He can be reached here.

blends his education in physics with his love for art, bringing a unique voice to teaching through experimentation. His Hidden Power books (Adobe Press) are used in colleges across the US. He wants you to never let your tools get in the way of your art.

PETER BAUER

IBARIONEX PERELLO

ERIK VLIETINCK

is an award-winning photographer and author, and does photo and video verification for a limited clientele.

His latest book is Photoshop CC for Dummies. He was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame in 2010 and received the Pioneer of Photoshop Award in 2005.

is an LA-based photographer, writer, and educator with over 30 years of experience. He’s the host of The Candid Frame podcast, and has written many magazine articles and books, including Making Photographs: Developing a Personal Visual Workflow.

A J.D. by education, Erik has been a freelance technology editor for more than 22 years. He has written for Macworld, Computer Arts, Post Magazine, Red Shark News, and many others. Visit his website at Visuals Producer.

DAVE CLAYTON

SERGE RAMELLI

TERRY WHITE

is a UK-based graphic designer with over 30 years experience; author of How Do I Do That In InDesign; host of the successful He Shoots, He Draws podcast; and a KelbyOne, Photoshop World, and Adobe MAX instructor.

is a landscape and urban photographer based in the US and Paris. His work has been shown in more than 90 galleries worldwide, and he has 7 fine-art books.

Serge teaches photography, Photoshop, and Lightroom to students all around the world.

is a Worldwide Creative Suite Design Evangelist for Adobe Systems, Inc., an Adobe Certified Expert, author of Secrets of Adobe Bridge, co-author of InDesign CS/CS2 Killer Tips, runs Terry White’s Tech Blog, and presents at conferences around the world.

MARTIN EVENING

COLIN SMITH

DAVE WILLIAMS

is a photographer with a background in commercial studio photography. He’s also an experienced technical reviewer, who has over the last two decades authored 25 books on Photoshop and Lightroom. He was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame in 2008.

is an award-winning digital artist, photographer, and lecturer who has authored 20 books and a library of training videos. He’s the founder of the online resource PhotoshopCAFE.com, president of Software-Cinema .com, and runs a popular YouTube channel.

is a well-seasoned, UK-based travel photographer, educator, and blogger with internationally published work and a passion for sharing his knowledge of Adobe software. Dave lives by the mantra, “Lend me your eyes and I’ll show you what I see.”

BRYAN O’NEIL HUGHES

LESA SNIDER

is Director of Product Management & Partner Outreach at Adobe, overseeing a portfolio of Creative Cloud applications and services. He’s one of Adobe’s primary spokespeople, representing them across creative segments and platforms.

is the author of Adobe Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC for Photographers: Classroom in a Book (2016), Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual, TheSkinnyBooks, and more than 40 video courses. She’s also the technical author and eLearning specialist for TAITTowers.

STAY LOCAL: EXPLORING LIGHTROOM’S LOCAL ADJUSTMENTS SEÁN DUGGAN Seán Duggan is a fine-art photographer, author of several books on Photoshop and digital imaging, and creates educational content for companies such as Adobe and LinkedIn Learning, where he has more than 20 courses on photography, Photoshop, and mobile image making.

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BENEFIT SPOTLIGHT

ARE YOU GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR KELBYONE PRO MEMBERSHIP?

10

As a Pro member, you’re receiving the ultimate

You can also get Photoshop, Lightroom, and

experience with KelbyOne. This is our complete

photography help from the amazing members in our

plan that includes everything to immerse yourself

Community. You get Photoshop User magazine

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monthly along with access to more than 150

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back issues, including all the issues of Lightroom

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library (800+ courses), including a new course

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help accelerate their learning today! n

Do you know someone who should go Pro?

COMMUNITY Winner of Member Challenge 45 | Macro

P H O T O S H O P U S E R > AU G U S T 2 0 2 1

Falu Bakrania

Shannon Moseley

What comes to mind when we say macro photography?

Maybe you think of flowers, bugs, or the details on a watch or accessory. Macro photography is all about highlighting the details or creating abstract patterns.

In Member Challenge 45, we asked our members to give us their take on the ultimate macro image. And wowza! You didn’t let us down. Let’s meet our winners.

Congratulations to Shannon Moseley for winning our Member Challenge with quite the unconventional subject: a hair pin! Never has a simple accessory looked

12

CHRIS MAIN | ASHLEY FOSSE | DAVE CL AY TON

so glorious. We love the little droplets and the symmetry in the reflection. Let’s give a hand to our winner!

And then this butterfly (below left) flapped its wings right into our hearts and took the runner-up spot. The focus and precision took this shot over the top for us.

Well deserved, Falu Bakrania!

To check out the honorable mentions, head over to the Insider. And, for even more inspiration, click here if you’d like to see all the submissions for this contest.

By the way, we’ll be taking a break from our monthly Member Challenges until September 2021. We have some really amazing stuff in the works, so be sure to keep an eye out for when we announce our next photo challenge in September!

The Top KelbyOne Community Post for the Month of July Are you an active member in our KelbyOne Community forums? If not, why not? This is a major part of your KelbyOne membership. Not only is the community aspect important (and special), the educational aspects of the community are astronomical. Just about every photography and postprocessing topic you can imagine gets discussed in the community where thousands of members are ready to offer their experience and expertise. And not only that, KelbyOne instructors are in there, too, answering questions and offering advice.

So, if you have a question, don’t be afraid to ask it in the Community. You’ll find the nicest, most helpful people in the world there ready to help. Don’t let this important part of your education go to waste. Click this link to visit the Community today.

But we digress. We’re supposed to be talking about the top Community topic for the month of July. Imagine our surprise (and delight), when we clicked on that Top button at the top of the Community homepage and the post, “Photoshop World 2021 will be online! Save the dates!” was the most active topic of the month. Thank you @fsantospt (aka, Chicky Nando) for getting the conversation started, and thanks to our own @ekuna for jumping in and answering everyone’s questions about the upcoming conference.

We really missed Photoshop World last year (more than we can put into words), so we’re excited that we can at least do it online this year. (Here’s hoping we get to see everyone in person next year!) For more information on the conference, head on over to photoshopworld.com.

We hope you can join us! n



 Artist

Spotlight  Michael Sargent / member since 2018 / msargentphoto.com/favorites

KELBYONE COMMUNITY



KELBYONE COMMUNITY

 Artist

Spotlight  Bob Felderman / member since 2015 / bobfeldermanphotography.com



 Artist

Spotlight  David Spanburg / member since 2012 / da6dspanburg.myportfolio.com

KELBYONE COMMUNITY



KELBYONE COMMUNITY

 Who’s

Who in the KelbyOne Community  Lenworth Johnson / member since 2017 / lenworthjohnsonphotography.com



KELBYONE COMMUNITY

WHO’S WHO IN THE KELBYONE COMMUNITY LENWORTH JOHNSON

Lenworth Johnson is a beauty and fashion photographer based in Houston, Texas. With a natural gift for graphic design and photography, Lenworth grew up in Jamaica where he obtained his education and training. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts where he majored in graphic design and minored in photography. Not only is one of his images on the cover of this issue, but Lenworth is also a KelbyOne member turned instructor. Be sure to check out his new class From Concept to Creation: Making Impactful Fashion and Beauty Portraits.

This image came to life last summer when the model reached out to me wanting to do something creative.

After spending a lot of time in my garden due to COVID lockdown, I decided to base the shoot on the beauty of flower petals, hence the title Fresh from the Garden. It turned out I couldn’t get the petals locally, so after days of research, I struck gold in Europe. So we had to wait another two weeks before we did the shoot.

You started out as a KelbyOne member but then you got “the call” to create content. How cool did that feel going from student to teacher?

It was a crazy moment when I saw the message.

I actually thought it was a scam, so I ignored it for a couple days. After watching The Grid later that week, the name Christina came up, so I went to Instagram to verify the name and then responded to the message. Being an instructor for KelbyOne was the furthest thing on my mind. I didn’t know that would ever happen, which leads me to believe I’m doing something right! It brings me a lot of joy to get to share my love and passion for photography with the KelbyOne community.

You’ve also won a Photoshop World Guru! Can you tell us a little about your Photoshop World experience?

My first Photoshop World was in 2019 and it was the best experience I’ve ever had at a conference. I’ve always wanted to attend but never built up the courage to do so. That year, I was determined to go, so cost wasn’t a factor. I really wanted to be in that creative space where I could see and feel in order to grow creatively.

Most great photography is about storytelling. How do you think your background as a graphic designer helps your photographic ideas?

My graphic design background helps my photography in a way you wouldn’t normally think of. I approach

every concept and idea as if I’m working on a campaign or advertisement for a magazine or newspaper.

So I have all these things running through my mind, whether it’s the use of color, space, typeface, shapes, or illustrations that will convey the message I’m trying to send.

Looking through your portfolio (which rocks by the way), you have galleries for people, objects, fine art, places, and weddings. What type of photography do you love doing the most?

I think of myself as an all-round creative. People along with objects are my specialty, because they work well together. Photographing products helps with the science of lighting and understanding how it affects different objects. Beauty products tend to have high gloss and shiny surfaces, which forces you to have control over your lights.

You’ve been a KelbyOne member for a while. Which classes and instructors have influenced you the most?

I’m always striving to improve and learn more. There are several instructors and classes who have 100% influenced my photography: Lindsay Adler’s Master High Key and Low Key Lighting; 5 Tips for Shooting Fashion on a Budget; and The Art of Digital Photography. Scott Kelby’s classes have also played a huge part in my process; I love the way he breaks it down for you. And Kristina Sherk’s High-End Skin Retouching in Photoshop has helped me to add those finishing moves in post.

What do you shoot and what’s in your go-to kit bag?

I’m a Sony shooter. In my kit bag, you’ll find the secret sauce to fuel my shoots on the go: a Sony a7R III; a 70–200 Tamron lens and a Sony 90mm Macro lens; Godox AD600Pro and AD300Pro strobes; a Westcott 24" beauty dish; a ColorChecker Passport; a bunch of Lexar memory cards; a roll of gaffer tape; a Sekonic light meter; a Platypod; and a portable Bluetooth speaker to set the mood. n

KELBYONE .COM

Congratulations on this issue’s cover! Can you tell us a little about the featured image?

17

Here Are Your Latest Online Courses

From Concept to Creation: Making Impactful Fashion and Beauty Portraits Join Lenworth Johnson, a beauty and fashion photographer, as he takes you through his process for creating fashion portraits with impact. In this class you’ll learn how to develop your concept into a visual message, the importance of building a team to support your creative efforts, how to convey your ideas to your team, the tools you need, how to get your light right, how to work with models on set, and many more tips to help you elevate your craft!

Lighting for Food Photography Join AaronVan, a commercial food and beverage photographer, as he teaches you the fundamental skills to capture amazinglooking food in the studio. Starting with the basics in camera gear, lighting, and settings, he’ll take you step by step through his process of creating stunning food shots. Each lesson builds on the concepts of the previous lessons as he changes out subjects, lighting, and camera angles to give you the foundational skills to make informed decisions in your own shoots.

Every week, we publish at least one new training course.

Check out these brand-new courses below:

Travel Photography: A Photographers Guide To San Francisco Join Jefferson Graham for this photographic exploration of San Francisco.

Visit iconic locations around the city as Jefferson offers his advice on when and where to set up in order to get the best shots. He also shares some gear recommendations and suggestions on great places to eat.

Copyright and Copyright Registration Join Jack Reznicki & Ed Greenberg, a photographer and a lawyer, to learn the key facts you need to know about copyright.

Copyright can be one of the most confusing aspects of photography, but it’s absolutely critical for all photographers to understand. Jack and Ed give you the history of copyright law, your rights under copyright law, a step-by-step walkthrough of how to register your copyright, an examination of fair use, the role of watermarks, and much more!

MARTIN EVENING

DEVELOPING THE SHOT

VICTORIA & ALFRED WATERFRONT: SUPER RESOLUTION Over the years, I’ve visited the African continent a number of times, and each trip has been totally unique.

So, when my wife and I visited South Africa, we had little idea what to expect. Cape Town was our first port of call, where we spent several nights in a B&B. Our hosts, Trev and Dell, were keen to impress and recommended we headed first to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. While this sounded like a good idea, the place actually proved to be disappointingly modern.

On arrival, we walked through a shopping center full of designer boutique stores, sushi bars, and fancy restaurants. It wasn’t that much different from an up-market American mall experience. But once outside, though, we could appreciate the preserved historic buildings and, in particular, the fine views of the harbor, overlooked by the famous Table Mountain.

20

Admittedly, the photo shown here is very much a picture-postcard image but, for me, it brings back happy memories of our first day out in Cape Town. This photograph was captured using an 11-megapixel Canon EOS-1Ds camera. The steps below show how I used the new Super Resolution feature in Lightroom to enlarge the image by 200%, turning what was an 11-megapixel



DEVELOPING THE SHOT

ALL IMAGES BY MARTIN EVENING

THE STEPS STEP ONE: The first step was to generate a new, Super Resolution RAW file from the original RAW. To do this, go to the Develop module Photo menu and choose Enhance (Control-Option-I [PC: Ctrl-Alt-I]). Alternatively, you can Rightclick on the Develop module image preview and select Enhance from the context menu. Within the Enhance preview dialog, select the Super Resolution option, which in turn updates the close-up preview. Then click the Enhance button to generate a new Super Resolution RAW DNG image.

STEP TWO: The following steps were all carried out on the new enhanced RAW image. To start with, I selected the Basic panel and updated the profile from the old ACR 2.4 legacy profile to the new Adobe Color default profile.

This made a slight change to the image, adding more warmth, color saturation, and contrast.

KELBYONE .COM

Before

capture into a 44-megapixel RAW DNG file.

With this particular photograph, the detail enhancement was incredible.

Even without my having to adjust the sharpening settings, the enhanced DNG version looked like a high-megapixel capture shot with a modern camera.

You see, over the last few years Adobe has made much use of machine learning artificial intelligence when adding new features to its software products.

We saw this first with improved Auto image adjustments, followed by the new Neural Filters in Photoshop. The new Super Resolution feature is yet another product of Adobe’s machine-learning developments. It can be used to add definition to small megapixel captures, or used to increase the image size for photos that have been heavily cropped.

21



HOW TO

STEP THREE: Next, I dragged the Temp and Tint sliders in the White Balance section to assign a warmer color balance to the scene. I also added a small amount of Contrast and dragged the Exposure slider to the right to brighten the image.

P H O T O S H O P U S E R > AU G U S T 2 0 2 1

STEP FOUR: To further refine the tone adjustments, I set the Highlights to –70 to preserve the detail in the clouds and set the Shadows slider to +85 to lighten the darker areas. I also adjusted the Whites and Blacks sliders to expand the range of tones and add more contrast.

22

STEP FIVE: I now wanted to add some midtone contrast, which I did by adding more Clarity. I set the Texture slider to +25 to add more definition to the fine detailed areas, and then added some Vibrance and Saturation to make the colors stand out more.



DEVELOPING THE SHOT

STEP SEVEN: All the cameras I shoot with these days have built-in lens profiles.

This means that the lens corrections get applied automatically; but, with an older camera such as this Canon EOS-1Ds, I needed to manually check the Enable Profile Corrections option in the Lens Corrections panel. Once selected, this applied an auto-selected profiled lens correction to compensate for geometric distortion and vignetting toward the edges of the frame.

KELBYONE .COM

STEP SIX: In the Detail panel, the original Sharpening settings were set to the old default Amount of 25. The new default is 40 but, in this instance, I decided to increase the sharpening Amount to 50. Because the image contained so much fine detail, I lowered the Radius to 0.8 and, as I had shot this photo using a low ISO setting, I knew I could safely increase the Detail slider to 50. This also helped enhance the sharpness.

23



HOW TO

Original RAW

STEP EIGHT: It was now time to compare the Super Resolution version with the original. First of all, I selected all the settings that had been applied to the Enhanced version and synced these with the original RAW file. This included things such as the extra Sharpening and Texture settings. Tip: To apply the settings of an image that you just edited to another image, click the other image in the Filmstrip, and then click the Previous button just above the Filmstrip on the right.

I then compared the two images side by side, except I had to increase the magnification of the original RAW version to 200% to match the size of the Enhanced version image. Here, you can see how the Enhanced version is sharper and has better defined detail compared to the original.

P H O T O S H O P U S E R > AU G U S T 2 0 2 1

SUPER RESOLUTION ENHANCEMENTS

24

Super Resolution RAW

The original Enhance Details feature promised so much. Yet, at the time, Enhance Details failed to impress that much. The new Super Resolution feature is something else, though. Just about every photo I’ve processed appears more detailed compared to the regular interpolation methods.

Even so, the original Enhance Raw Details option can be used to improve the detail in some specific RAW images (without including the Super Resolution option). To do this, check the Raw Details box in the Enhance Preview dialog. As I say, with most photos this may not make much of a noticeable difference, but certain images may benefit. For example, this picture of bluebell flowers was photographed using a Fuji X-E2 camera. Worm-like artifacts can be seen in the 400%



DEVELOPING THE SHOT

KELBYONE .COM

close-up view of the before version.

Enabling the Raw Details option very effectively smoothed out these artifacts while still preserving the image detail and texture.

Overall, I suppose it can be considered a fiddle to have to select the Enhance option from the Photo menu, wait for the Enhance Preview to load, and then wait several seconds after clicking the Enhance button for an enhanced DNG image to be generated. It’s certainly not a quick process, but on the other hand this isn’t something you’d want to apply to every picture. Not all photos will need to be enhanced this way, which is why it’s best to apply selectively to just those images you feel might benefit from enhanced RAW details or being scaled up in size. n

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SERGE RAMELLI

LIGHTROOM LABORATORY

HOW TO RETOUCH 102-MEGAPIXEL FILES I heard a lot about the Fuji GFX100S and wanted to give it a try to see if it was indeed one of the best cameras in the world for landscapes and cityscapes. This is a 102-megapixel larger-format camera at an affordable price and, if you make big prints, it could be the camera of your dreams.

I’ll take you with me to Paris in the following pages to witness an incredible sunset as we retouch those high-quality files!

ALL IMAGES BY SERGE RAMELLI

STEP ONE: This photo is 11,648x8,736 pixels, and let me tell you, it’s really sharp, and the details are insane!

Let’s start with some basic retouching. We’ll open up the Shadows to +96, bring down the Highlights to –100, and set the black points (Blacks) to –65 and the white points (Whites) to +12. Next, we’ll boost the Exposure a little to +0.20, add some Contrast (+25), lower the Clarity to –6, and bring back some Texture with a setting of +19.

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L I G H T R O O M L A B O R AT O R Y

STEP TWO: A cool tip for quickly creating pleasing moods in your photos is to use the Profile Browser in Lightroom. You’ll find it by clicking the icon with the four squares at the top right of the Basic panel. You can select from profiles that are adapted to your camera and find the perfect LUTs (lookup tables) for your images.

It’s a great feature! Usually, I select the Velvia/Vivid that appears in my Camera Matching set of profiles for the magenta tint that it created with film cameras. So that’s the one I picked here. The profiles in your Camera Matching set will depend

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on the camera with which the image was taken.

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STEP THREE: I like to crop my images in a way that makes them more dynamic.

The 16x9 panoramic aspect ratio works great for cityscapes and landscapes

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because it creates a cinematic look.

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STEP FOUR: You can now play around with the local tools to fine-tune your image.

In this example, I used Graduated Filters (M) on the top and bottom to “close” up the photo by darkening those areas with a Temp of –9 and Exposure of –0.44.

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STEP FIVE: To finish up, I’ll use the Adjustment Brush (K) with both the Flow and Density set to around 75, and boosting the Exposure to 0.74 and Saturation to 17 to relight the overall photo. And here’s the final result for this photo. I really love this natural look, and the great thing with such a high-res file like this is that you can zoom in, crop it, and still have a sharp shot! It’s perfect for printing.

STEP SIX: Now let’s copy those settings so we can use them on our next shot to save some time. Press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) to bring up the Copy Settings dialog except the strokes from the Adjustment Brush and the crop. We’ll want to do those steps manually for each photo.

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where you can decide which settings to copy. In this case, we’ll copy everything

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STEP SEVEN: This next shot took a lot of work to capture as I was trying to figure out how to shoot this space with a 24mm lens. I ended up taking eight photos and stitching them together in Lightroom using Photo>Photo Merge>Panorama with the Cylindrical option and the Fill Edges turned on in the Panorama Merge Preview

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dialog. I then cropped the merged photo as shown here.

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STEP EIGHT: The file is now 26,443x15,505 pixels so I can definitely make some amazing prints from it! Now let’s do some more Lightroom magic and paste in those copied settings from the previous image by pressing Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V). For a better retouch on this image, I boosted the Exposure +0.40 and adjusted the Whites to +35. Just for fun and because I’m addicted to magenta, let’s set the Tint to +32.

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STEP NINE: For the local tools, we can adjust the Graduated Filters that were copied with the other settings by lowering their Exposure to –0.64 and moving them around the image as needed. And just as with the other image, we’ll also grab the Adjustment Brush, boost its Exposure to 0.74 (with a Flow and Density around 75), and paint to highlight various parts of the image.

STEP 10: If you’re adventurous, you can use the Edit >Sky Replacement feature in

I’m honestly quite impressed with the end result, and I feel confident that having such a high-resolution file can give you a lot of freedom in the developing process, especially if you wish to print your art. I hope you found this useful and that you learned some new techniques to use on your RAW files! n

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Photoshop, as we did here for the final result.

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ROB SYLVAN

UNDER THE LOUPE

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE NEW COLLABORATIVE EDITING FEATURE IN LIGHTROOM The June 2021 update to the Lightroom family of apps brought a new feature to the Lightroom cloud ecosystem called Collaborative Editing. This builds on the existing functionality for sharing an album with others by giving you the ability to grant permission to those you invite to edit existing photos, as well as adding new photos of their own to the shared album.

Previously, we could share the album and we could allow those with whom we shared it to add their own photos, so granting editing permission represents a pretty significant change in how these albums might be shared. For example, I’ve been creating shared albums for my college classes where I place each student’s work for the class to view, like, and comment. It has been a really nice feature that gets them introduced to album 32

sharing, as well as providing me with a way to track their interactions with the photos.

With this new functionality, I’ll employ a different shared album where I grant them editing permissions to see each person’s take on an edit. Another example might be if you work with another photographer, and you want to have an album where you both can submit and edit photos to the same album. Another use I can

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UNDER THE LOUPE

ALL IMAGES BY ROB SYLVAN

foresee is simply sharing a single photo with another photographer to get their opinion on an editing approach or technique.

As I mentioned, this feature is primarily aimed at Lightroom for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and ChromeOs cloud-based versions, but we’ll look at how Lightroom Classic users can utilize this, as well. It’s also important to mention that you can only invite someone who currently has an active Creative Cloud subscription to use the service.

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HOW IT WORKS I’ll start off in Lightroom (Lr) on my Mac (a.k.a. “Lightroom Desktop”) as the larger interface makes things easier to see, but these steps can also be done in Lr on the other platforms.

The first step is to choose an album that you want to share, and then Right-click the album’s name to access the contextual menu and choose Share & Invite.

In the Share & Invite dialog, note the new icon under the Invite tab for granting edit and contributing permissions to whomever you invite by email. Enter the person’s email address, select the desired permission level (in this case edit and contribute), then click Invite.

Once the invitation is sent you’ll see an icon representing the email appear in the space below, along with that user’s permission level. You can change that level of permission anytime, as well as remove a user from the shared album.

In addition, after the invitation has been sent, you should see a new badge appear on the cover photo for the album indicating that it’s shared and how many members (besides you) are invited.

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When the invitation is received and accepted by the other person, you’ll notice that the email icon in the Share & Invite dialog is replaced by an icon representing the invited person along with their name (this is the information associated with their own CC subscription).

with You section. This is how they can access the album for viewing, editing, and adding their photos. Below you’ll see what it looks like in Lr for the person I invited. Notice at the top that search is disabled within albums shared with you, and your level of permissions is also displayed.

On the invitee’s end, they can open any of their Lr apps on whatever device they use, and they’ll see this new album appear under the Shared tab in the Shared

Invited members are not locked into the album, and can leave any time they wish. All they have to do is click the badge on the cover photo to open the Sharing

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dialog and click Leave Album. As you can see, they’re unable to change their permissions, but they can see who else is included in the share. One tip to make it easier for an invitee to add photos to the shared album is to Right-click the album’s cover photo and choose

UNDER THE LOUPE

If an invitee decides to add a photo to the album, they’ll be prompted with a notice informing them that a copy of the photo will be added to your album along with some options for what metadata they might choose to exclude.

EDITING WORKFLOW The editing process is the same for all parties and works just as it does for any photo already in your Lr library. Remember, this is intended for Lr cloud-based applications so, when you share the album, the other person gets access to the actual photo stored in the cloud. Yes, they could even export a copy of the original. Note: In the documentation it says the invitee can only export JPEG copies, but in my testing I was able to export a full RAW file.

If your album includes photos synced from Lightroom Classic (LrC), then only a smart preview would exist in the cloud and that’s all that would be shared in that album.

People using only Lr, however, will have full resolution photos in the cloud, so bear that in mind when sharing access for editing with others.

The key to the editing workflow is found in the Versions panel (check out my article on LightroomKillerTips.com

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Set [“Album Name”] as the Target Album, which allows them to select any photo in their Lr library and press the T key to add it to the share.

Note also that when the invitee is viewing the album, they can see a badge representing you on all of your photos, but when you’re viewing your own album, you’ll only see a badge representing them on their photos (since I assume we can all recognize our own contributions). Now it’s all up to your intended purpose for sharing and inviting the other person to determine how you proceed from here.

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on using Versions to learn more). Let’s look at a scenario where the person I invited, Jeff, has edited one of my photos in the album. If I click on the Versions button at the bottom right in the Edit section in Lr on my Mac, it opens the Versions panel. Click on the Auto tab to see the versions that are automatically created by the other person’s edits.

Here I can see when and by whom the edit was made along with any Auto versions that may have been created by my own previous edits. Just moving your cursor over the different versions will give you a live preview of what changed, so keep an eye on the editing panels to see what moves. Clicking the three-dot menu next to a version gives you the option to delete that version or to Save it as a Named Version if you choose.

This can be helpful if you had previously saved a version of your edits, and perhaps you want to keep a named version of this new collaborative edit before you make new tweaks that get synced back to your collaborator.

I can see how this can help track and compare final versions along the way.

Keeping track of Versions in Lightroom Desktop

HOW DOES LIGHTROOM CLASSIC FIT INTO THIS? In my testing, I’ve had success with a collection that originated in Lightroom Classic, and then was shared through Lr on my Mac. The album contained a mix of smart previews (from LrC) and full-resolution photos (imported into Lr), and all were viewable and editable by my invitee. You can’t control any of the sharing permissions

Lightroom Classic History panel showing notations of external edits

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going to lightroom.adobe.com in your web browser, where you can actually edit photos, access the Versions panel, and even control sharing and invitations.

Since editing is normally a solo experience, I wasn’t sure how much I’d like this concept, but the more I use this feature, the more I like the possibilities for collaboration with others. Maybe there are some instances where stepping out of the silo can be a benefit to all involved?

I look forward to seeing where other people take this idea.

Maybe we could set up a shared album in the KelbyOne Community and see what happens? n

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or invitations from Lightroom Classic, so you’d need to use one of the Lr apps to do that part.

In addition, while versions are very similar in behavior to virtual copies in Lightroom Classic, neither versions or virtual copies sync between LrC and Lr. All you’d see back in LrC are “From Lr mobile” notations in the History panel when edits were made to a synced photo (along with the associated edits of course).

Obviously, if you only use the Lr apps, this isn’t relevant to your workflow, but I know there are many, like myself, who use both LrC and Lr together. LrC users should also keep in mind that a lot of this can be accomplished by

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37

SEAN MCCORMACK

MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

NIK COLLECTION 4 DxO has done its yearly look at Nik Collection. This comes in the form of a more modern interface on two of the apps, coupled with new features, presets, and looks throughout the rest. There are no new plug-in additions like Perspective Efex from last year’s update, but both Viveza and Silver Efex Pro got version number boosts. The rest of the collection remains the same as previous versions.

ALL IMAGES BY SEAN MCCORMACK

The vastly improved look of Viveza and Silver Efex Pro does lead you to hope that this will extend to the rest of the collection, especially with some of the apps not having had an update in a long time. One of the Viveza additions was a resizable UI, something that ’s not made it to Dfine 2 or Sharpener Pro 3 yet.

The biggest feature update is to U Point technology. In older versions, the controls could take up a lot of screen real estate, making it look cluttered. Now, you have a single slider, with most of the controls available in the panel 38

instead. If you’ve used Range Mask at all in Lightroom, you’ll be familiar with using Color and Luminance to restrict where the settings are applied. You can now do this via Chrominance and Luminance with U Points. This means less overlapping points to control an area. A definite win on what was one of the Control Points’ main weaknesses.

Rather than repeating the full list of new features, why not go check out the Photoshop User review in the July 2021 issue to get up to speed on things like the new Meta Presets in the Nik Selective Tool in Photoshop.

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MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

VIVEZA 3 As “Maximum Workflow” is mostly about “Show, don’t tell,” let’s load an image into Viveza and get to work. From Lightroom, you’ll find Viveza in the Photo>Edit In menu; in Photoshop, it’s under the Filter> Nik Collection menu.

If you’ve used Viveza before, you’ll immediately notice the difference. The window opens full screen and the interface is noticeably modern and the layout straightforward. Around the central preview, you have the settings on the right and presets on the left. At the top, you have the Compare options for before and after views, along with Zoom options.

Each section header has a triangle for opening and closing the section. It’s a great way of helping avoid clutter and reducing scrolling.

This image veers toward being too blue and, while this is great for the sky, it’s not great for the rest of the photo. You may find using one of the Presets is a good start, and here 004 Fill Light

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GLOBAL SETTINGS

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works well. It lifts the shadows and adds warmth. You can do the bulk of your global adjustments in Lightroom or Photoshop, but it’s good to be able to do them here when necessary.

While Fill Light did improve the photo, it needs more contrast via the Contrast slider (21%) and a reduction in Highlights (–28%) to bring the sky back a bit. Increasing Contrast also tends to increase saturation, but in this case we didn’t need to adjust the Saturation slider; if you prefer more color, then increase Saturation as needed.

U POINT TECHNOLOGY With the global settings out of the way, it’s time to concentrate on the best of the new features by going to the Selective Adjustments section. There are four main things that need work in this image: the sky, the sails, the river, and the red house that’s competing with the sails for our visual attention.

SKY

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STEP ONE: Dealing with the sky first, click on Control Points in the Selective Adjustments panel on the right, and then drag out on the sky until a section of sky is selected. Repeat with as many overlapping Control Points as needed until you’ve covered the whole sky; it doesn’t matter if other things are selected in the image, as well. In this example, we used three Control Points.

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STEP TWO: Shift-click on the other Control Points in the image to add them to the collection, and then in the Selective Adjustments panel, click on the icon that looks like a folder with a + sign to add the points to a group. Double-click the group’s name (initially it’s Group 1) and change it to “Sky.” Instead of multiple points to control, you now only have one.

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MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

STEP THREE: To view the areas that the points are affecting, click the middle icon to the right of the Sky group that looks like a square with a circle, which will show the mask.

Using the new Luminance slider, move it to the right until the areas of sky with which you want to work are white. Chrominance can help refine it even further.

STEP FOUR: Turn off the mask by clicking that square icon again and then make changes to enhance the sky. In this image, turning down the Brightness (–11%) looks good, as well as increasing the Saturation (19%).

For color changes, a Warmth of 18%, Blue of –6%, and Hue of –2% gives the feel of summer warmth.

SAILS Next up are the sails. These boats, called Galway Hookers, are renowned for their sail color, and are used for sailing across Galway Bay with turf from Connemara for those on the other side of the bay.

STEP SIX: The sails are the focal point of this photo, so they should pop more than the rest. One great thing about Viveza is that you don’t need huge setting changes to make an impact. Reducing the Brightness to –16%, while increasing Contrast and Saturation to 14%, have a noticeable effect on the look of this image. The final change on the sails was to increase the Red to 21%.

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STEP FIVE: We’ll click on Control Points again to create a new Control Point that’s centered on one of the sails, and rename it “Sails” for easier identification. After we click on the mask icon again, a lower Luminance (0%) works better to isolate the sails this time, along with a smaller amount of increased Chrominance (60%).

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HOLD BACK THE RIVER The river reflecting the open sky is a really deep blue, getting darker as it goes toward the sea. The cool tone is probably a little much and needs a hint of warmth to reduce it.

STEP SEVEN: As with the sky, we made a set of Control Points for the river, grouped them together, and named them “River.”

After clicking the mask icon to see the mask, we again used Luminance and Chrominance to further refine the mask. In this case, a Luminance of 41% and Chrominance of 59% look good.

STEP EIGHT: The first step is to increase Brightness to 21% and then boost the Warmth at around 52%. A little hint of Shadow (23%) looks great. Finally, we wrapped up with a change in Blue by setting it to –15%.

BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE

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There’s a definite clash of color between the sails and the red house. Despite the U Points, it was still affected by the sails’ settings, so we’ll need to reduce the impact.

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STEP NINE: You can probably guess that we made a Control Point on the house and checked the mask. In fact, four smaller Control Points worked better here than one.

STEP 10: Here we’re doing anything that reduces light and color, so we lowered the Brightness to –19%, Saturation to –65%, Warmth to –17%, Shadow to –22%, and Red to –13%.

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MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

FINISHING UP STEP 11: To see how far you’ve come, and to check what’s left to do, you can make use of the Compare tools. Clicking the first one toggles to the before image; the second allows you to drag across the before view; and the final option stacks the views.

Using this, we saw that the image needed a little reduction in Brightness and Saturation.

With both at –6%, the image is good to go back to the host program. Use the Apply button at the bottom right to save the edit.

As you can see, Viveza is straightforward to use and offers very different masking to other applications, including your host applications. The new interface is a delight to use, especially being able to make the most of the full screen.

Hopefully, this bodes well for the rest of the collection.

After

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Before

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SILVER EFEX PRO 3 Silver Efex Pro 3 was probably the first dedicated black-and-white plug-in. It was so loved that many plug-in makers created their own version to try and

match it. The fact that Silver Efex Pro is still here, and the others have been absorbed into other programs, is a testament to how great a plug-in it is.

Most of what’s new in version 3 is the modern interface that we just saw in Viveza. In addition, it has ClearView: DxO’s version of Dehaze, taken from their PhotoLab application, as well as 39 high-quality film grains, taken from their FilmPack.

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STARTING WITH PRESETS

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One of the beauties of Silver Efex Pro 3 is its collection of presets.

There are 58 in total with sets such as Classic, Modern, 25th Anniversary, En Vogue, and Vintage. While you don’t have the advantage of a hover for a full preview, you can easily click to apply and undo, or use the 00 Neutral preset to reset completely.

STEP ONE: Here’s how 024 Full Contrast and Structure looks on our example image.

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MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

STEP TWO: The previous preset, 023 Wet Rocks, also has an interesting look.

Realistically, this image would look great with an edit that falls somewhere between the two.

STEP THREE: By examining the settings of a preset, you can get an idea of what’s creating the look and work from there. The first panel shown here is for 023 Wet Rocks. For the second panel, 024 Full Contrast and Structure, it appears that a lot of the look comes from the Amplify Blacks and Amplify Whites settings.

024 Full Contrast and Structure preset

STEP FOUR: Here’s what 023 Wet Rocks looks like with both Amplify settings at 50%.

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023 Wet Rocks preset

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STEP FIVE: The whites look great, but the image is a little dark. You can offset this without overly affecting the whites by using Dynamic Brightness.

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STEP SIX: While the image is still a little dark with Dynamic Brightness of 30%, any higher will affect the rest of the photo too much, reducing contrast.

Instead, we can add 30% Shadows to lift it.

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STEP SEVEN: There’s so much texture in this scene, it would be great if we could emphasize this.

Well, of course we can!

The Structure slider is the key here. While there has been some addition to most of the tonal region sliders, the main slider hasn’t been used yet. Setting it to 39% looks great.

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MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

STEP EIGHT: At any stage in the process, you can use the Compare tools to check where you came from to see if you’re happy with your progress.

YOU’RE IN CONTROL

STEP NINE: You probably have the gist of using Control Points from our look at Viveza above, so we’ll open the Selective Adjustments panel and add a Control Point on the rocks.

Then, we’ll turn on the mask and use Luminance and Chrominance to refine it.

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The foreground rocks are a little dark. Normally this would be okay, but in this case it draws the viewer’s eye. As the rest of the image looks well for the most part, we’ll need some local adjustments to fix it.

Roll in U Points!

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STEP 10: For the fix, we’ll set Shadows to 22% and Blacks to 10%. This improves the photo.

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STEP 11: Part of the composition within the photo is the reflection of Buachaille Etive Mòr, Scotland. The cloud gives it some background, but there’s little else to draw the eye. Let’s place a new Control Point here and refine the mask.

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STEP 12: The reflection needs to be brighter, so we’ll set the Brightness to 20%. A Structure boost (also at 20%) will help with the water blur.

A hint of Amplify Whites (14%) and more of Amplify Blacks (27%) will increase the contrast and help the reflection stand out.

MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

STEP 13: The final thing to fix is the left corner, which has empty space that can draw the eye. By using two Control Points in a group, we can easily darken this area. A Luminance of 68%, with Chrominance of 58% refines the mask.

STEP 14: The only thing we need to do now is reduce Brightness to –42%.

FINAL TOUCH STEP 15: To touch on the new additions of ClearView and film grains, we’ll jump out of Selective Adjustments into the ClearView Intensity slider. While similar to Dehaze in concept, it’s not exactly the same, and a little goes a long way. You could try 10% to start and see how you like it. While it’s a tool for removing haze, you can also use it as an effect.

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STEP 16: For Film Grain, try something like the ever popular Illford HP5 Plus 400 setting. You could keep the original Intensity and Grain Size, but we opted for a larger Grain Size of 1.7 here. One thing that helps is that, as you scroll, you can preview the effects on the image.

STEP 17: When you’re finished, click the Apply button to return to your host application. During the edit process, we noticed some flare which we cleaned up by cloning the photo in Photoshop for the final version.

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After

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MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

LIGHTROOM BONUS! With this version of the Nik Collection, it’s now possible to copy settings from a photo edited with a Nik plug-in and copy it to another image in Lightroom Classic, without opening the plug-in.

STEP ONE: Right-click on the edited photo and go to the Export menu. Alternatively, go to File>Export with Preset. Look for the Nik Collection section and choose Copy and Apply Parameters. Make sure you’ve selected the images to which you want the settings copied.

STEP TWO: After a short period, the Nik Collection Copy & Apply dialog appears and automatically detects which plug-ins have been used. Click Copy to copy the settings.

STEP THREE: Apply will become available at this point, so you can click this to apply the settings, and they’ll run without opening the plug-in fully. You’ll have to click Edit in the Edit Photo dialog first.

STEP FOUR: New edits get saved into Lightroom automatically.

COLLECTED THOUGHTS It’s truly great to see DxO adding to the Nik Collection. The new interface design on Viveza and Silver Efex Pro is very modern and praiseworthy. The Lightroom-like triangles for showing and hiding sections make life much easier. The downside is that the other plug-ins look a little jaded in comparison. Hopefully, though, it’s a sign of things to come.

The new additions of ClearView and FilmPack grains are great, as is the change in the U Point interface and mask refinement.

The Lightroom workflow is great for matching images. Wedding, fashion, and portrait photographers will love this, as they can edit one photo and then just paste the settings to the rest of the shoot as required.

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The final aspect of this is that it ’s great to see DxO still being involved with the collection and giving it new life. Long may it continue! n

ALL IMAGES BY SEAN MCCORMACK

51

IBARIONEX PERELLO

VISUAL STORYTELLING

RESURFACING IN PARIS On a recent Friday morning, I found it difficult to get out of bed. The alarm was disabled, and there was no impetus to jump into the shower, brush my teeth, shave, get dressed, walk the dog, meditate, eat breakfast, and warm up the car before heading off to work. Instead, I succumbed to the seduction of a plump pillow and warm comforter.

I eventually arose, walked to the window, and pulled back the curtains. Instead of a view of my familiar suburb, I was welcomed by the streets of Paris in the early morning light.

Twenty-four hours before, I was immersed in schedules, deadlines, researching, production, writing, interviews, and photographic assignments. A day later, those things were a distant memory. The morning promised the first of many days where anything, including absolutely nothing, could happen. I welcomed it.

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LAID-BACK We had survived a year of the pandemic, which included the postponement of our Parisian vacation. Mask wearing, social distancing, grocery deliveries, and endless Netflix binge sessions gave way to a tentative sense of normalcy.

The reality of that change couldn’t have been more perfectly expressed than with the view from our hotel window.

This trip was different not only because it occurred on the tail end of the pandemic but also because it had

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ALL IMAGES BY IBARIONEX PERELLO

CASUAL PHOTOGRAPHY My photography became the most casual it had ever been. Activities, destinations, and even the time of day for outings weren’t based on how conducive they were to my photography. If I responded to something visually, I made photographs without the burden of achieving some personal best or finding some practical use for them.

I made photographs for the pleasure of seeing and making the photographs, but not at the expense of losing out on the moment’s experience.

I made less than 1,000 exposures during those two weeks. All the photographs were encompassed on a single SD card, with backups stored on an external drive and in the cloud. I didn’t feel any sense of loss due to my lower frame count. I thought that the time I did dedicate to image making was focused, purposeful and, most importantly, fun.

An early image of the view from our hotel window was a perfect launching moment for our time in Paris. I stood there at the window for a long time, taking in the scene with my naked eye before grabbing my Fujifilm X-Pro3 and making photographs.

Original image

The lines and shapes of the buildings and streets provided strong graphics on which to build the composition. These were made stronger by the position of the sun, low on the horizon. It resulted in a contrast of light and shadow that provided a complementary graphic element to the scene.

Though the RAW exposure of the scene was well composed and exposed, I knew that I needed to bring the image into Photoshop to create a photograph that reflected how I felt during that memorable morning.

Note: KelbyOne members can click here to download a lower-res DNG version of this image for practice purposes only and, even though we’re using Adobe Camera Raw in the following steps, you can just as easily follow along using Lightroom Classic.

STEP ONE: Open the RAW image in Photoshop’s Camera Raw converter. Click on the Profile pop-out menu and select Adobe Landscape, which provides a warmer rendering of the scene, as well as a slight boost in contrast.

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been a year of personal change. A year filled with loss, uncertainty, and health challenges provided a fresh perspective on my life and my priorities. I had been living a life that was perpetually in fourth gear with innumerable work and personal projects and a few unexpected family health issues. The inevitable adding of yet another task or obligation became par for the course. The option of saying no wasn’t even a consideration.

Paris provided a needed break from that. Unlike previous trips, I didn’t bring work with me. I wasn’t writing another book or magazine article, and I wasn’t conducting interviews or working on the production of my podcast.

My photography for this trip didn’t presuppose future publication. This trip was entirely about the experience.

Though my camera was always on hand, I prioritized the experience of my moments in one of the most beautiful and intriguing cities in the world. Drinking a glass of Pinot noir at Café de Flore, gazing at a Caravaggio painting at the Louvre, or sitting with an old college friend under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower was important and precious, regardless of whether I produced a good image from it or not. It took a year of being locked up due to COVID to realize how I used vacations as a time to work on commitments and responsibilities. I hadn’t used the time as a respite from life’s obligations, chosen or not.

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HOW TO

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STEP TWO: The image can benefit from a crop and a change in aspect ratio. Click on the Crop & Rotate tool (C) (Crop Overlay tool [R] in Lightroom Classic), and in the Aspect Ratio pop-out menu, select the 8.5x11 option. Correct for the slight tilt of the image by adjusting the Angle to –0.21. Press Enter to commit the crop.

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STEP THREE: To enhance the warmth of the light, go to the Basic panel and set the White Balance Temperature to 6600K.

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V I S UA L S T O RY T E L L I N G

STEP FIVE: Increase the midtone contrast by adjusting Texture to +10, Clarity to +5, and Dehaze to +5.

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STEP FOUR: To create a punchier look by boosting contrast, adjust Exposure to –0.10, Contrast to +15, Highlights to –6, Shadows to –10, and Whites to +25.

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HOW TO

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STEP SIX: To boost colors while maintaining a natural quality, set the Vibrance to +20 and Saturation to –8.

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STEP SEVEN: The image is still a little flat. So, using the Parametric Curves tool in the Curve panel (Tone Curve panel in Lightroom Classic), adjust the Highlights to –2, Lights to +15, Darks to –8, and Shadows to –1.

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V I S UA L S T O RY T E L L I N G

STEP NINE: Next, adjust the look of the sky by choosing the Blue color in the Color Mixer and setting the Hue to –3, Saturation to +5, and Luminance to +21.

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STEP EIGHT: To darken the prominent building in the composition, go to the Color Mixer panel, select Color in the Adjust pop-out menu and, with the Orange color selected, decrease the Luminance to –17. (In Lightroom Classic, click on Color in the header of the HSL/Color panel.)

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HOW TO

STEP 10: To add a slight cool color cast to the shadow area, go to the Color Grading panel and click on the word “Shadows” so you only see that controller.

Click the disclosure triangle below the bottom right of the color wheel to reveal the Hue and Saturation sliders. Set the Hue to 225, the Saturation to 65, and the Balance to +28.

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STEP 11: Emphasize the center of the frame by applying a subtle vignette. In the Effects panel, set the Vignetting control to –8, and then expand its settings. Click on the Style pop-out menu, and select Color Priority. Then adjust the Midpoint to 29, Roundness to +19, and Feather to 84.

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V I S UA L S T O RY T E L L I N G

STEP 12: A smudge on the camera’s image sensor is evident in the center of the sky, just above the bird. To eliminate this, select the Spot Removal tool (B) (Q in Lightroom Classic) and, in the Type pop-out menu, select Heal. Then adjust the brush by setting its Size to 55 and Feather to 45. Click on the area with the streak to apply the effect.

STEP 13: You can now click Open to open the image in Photoshop. Tip: If you hold the Shift-key in Camera Raw, the Open button will change to Open Object, which will open the layer as a smart object in Photoshop that you can double-click at any time to return to Camera Raw. (If you’re working in Lightroom Classic, Right-click on the image, and select Edit In>Edit In Adobe Photoshop 2021.)

To add a bit of red to the color rendering of the architecture, click on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon (half-black, half-white circle) at the bottom of the Layers panel, and select Photo Filter.

Step 13

Step 14

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STEP 14: In the Properties panel (Window>Properties), click on the Filter popout menu and select Red. Set the Density to 14, and make sure that Preserve Luminosity is checked on.

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HOW TO

STEP 15: Click on the layer mask thumbnail for the Photo Filter adjustment layer, and then press Command-I (PC: I) to invert it from white to black, which will hide the effect of the adjustment layer.

STEP 16: Choose the Brush tool (B), make sure the layer mask thumbnail is still active in the Layers panel, and press X until your Foreground color is set to white. In the Options Bar, adjust the brush Opacity to 50%, Flow to 50%, and Smoothing to 10%, and then paint on the building to reveal the Photo Filter effect where you want it to appear. Because the Opacity and Flow are set to 50%, you can build up the effect with multiple strokes. Tip: Use the Bracket keys on your keyboard to quickly change the size of the brush.

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Step 16

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Step 17

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V I S UA L S T O RY T E L L I N G

Step 18

Final

STEP 18: Go to the Filter menu and select Sharpen>Smart Sharpen.

Set the Amount to 160%, Radius to 1.5 px, and Reduce Noise to 5%. Click OK and you’re done! If you started in Camera Raw, go to File>Save As, and save it as a PSD file. If you came from Lightroom Classic, go to File>Save, close the document, and then return to Lightroom Classic where you’ll find the Photoshop edited version of your file. n

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STEP 17: Create a sharpening layer by pressing Shift-Option-Command-E (PC: Shift-Alt-Ctrl-E) on your keyboard. This will create a new merged stamped layer that includes the Background layer and adjustment layer (see previous page).

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VICTORIA BAMPTON

LIGHTROOM Q&A Q. I’ve made a mistake. I moved my RAW files into a new parent folder using the macOS Finder. Now when I open Lightroom, all of the images have error marks and I can no longer edit them. How do I fix it?

A. T he good news is that you know where you put the photos, so it’s just a case of telling Lightroom where to find them now. If you start relinking individual photos instead of entire folders, you can create a bigger job, so let’s take one step at a time.

Missing folders are identified with a question mark on the icon. If you moved an entire folder structure with subfolders, Right-click on the parent folder in the Folders panel (such as the 2021 folder in the image shown here), and select Find Missing Folder from the context-sensitive menu. Then navigate to the new location of that parent folder and click Choose. As long as the names and structure of the subfolders haven’t changed, all of the subfolders will be reconnected at the same time. The process is exactly the same if you moved individual folders, except you’d need to do one folder at a time.

If you don’t have a suitable backup, however, you can reconnect one photo at a time. Click on the exclamation point at the top-right corner of the thumbnail. Lightroom displays the last-known location of the photo. Click Locate and navigate to the new location of that photo. If you click the Options button at the bottom of the navigation window, and then check the Find Nearby Missing Photos box, Lightroom tries to automatically relink other files in the same folder.

Finally, once you think you’ve finished reconnecting all of the missing photos, it’s worth going to Library>Find All Missing Photos, just to double-check you haven’t missed any. It’s far harder to find them again once some time has passed and your memory has faded.

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Q. When shooting a wedding with more than one camera, how do I import the photos so they’ll flow into Lightroom in the order that they were taken?

A. In an ideal world, it’s simplest to set the times on both

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If you rearranged individual photos into new folders using Finder or renamed the photos, then you have a much bigger job on your hands, as you’ll need to relink them individually. In this case, it’s often quickest to restore your normal folder structure from a backup and then redo the reorganization using Lightroom.

cameras so they’re identical (ideally to the nearest second) before you start shooting. Then you can simply import the photos as normal. In the Sort Order pop-up on the Grid view Toolbar, select Capture Time and the photos should automatically sort into the right order, or you can go to View>Sort>Capture Time.

If you forgot to set the times before you started shooting, don’t worry. Import the photos as normal and then you can fix it in the Grid view. Let’s pretend Camera A has the correct time and Camera B is wrong.

Find a time when you were shooting the same scene with both cameras (e.g., first kiss) and make

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LIGHTROOM Q&A

ALL IMAGES BY VICTORIA BAMPTON

Q. I no longer have any “selection dots” for my local brush adjustments. I have to get my adjustment right the first time, because I can’t go back and reselect it. How do I get those dots back?

A. T hose dots are officially called edit pins, and they can easily get hidden by accidentally pressing the H key. With the Adjustment Brush (K) selected, look at the Toolbar underneath the photo. (If you can’t see the Toolbar, press the T key.) You’ll see a pop-up marked Show Edit Pins. Set it to Auto, which shows the pins when you float the cursor over the photo, or Always, so they show whenever

the Adjustment Brush is selected. You can do the same for the Graduated and Radial Filter tools too.

Q. Why don’t the white balance values update when I sync Develop settings across multiple photos?

A. T he WB (white balance) pop-up value in the Basic panel is the key. If the source photo is set to As Shot white balance, then syncing settings sets the other photos to As Shot too, rather than the same numeric values. If you need to sync the numeric values, select Custom from the WB pop-up before syncing.

Q. My photos are already stored on the hard drive. Why are they being duplicated when I import them into Lightroom?

A. W hen you’re importing photos that are already on the hard drive, look for the options at the top of the Import dialog.

The Copy option copies the photos to the location you’ve selected in the Destination panel.

It’s the best choice when importing from a camera or memory card; but if the photos are already on the correct hard drive, this can result in duplicate files.

If the photos are already on the hard drive, you need to select one of the other two options. If they’re already organized in the right folders, select Add to leave the files in their current folder structure with their existing filenames. If you want Lightroom to reorganize the photos into new folders, then select Move to move the photos to the location you’ve selected in the Destination panel. n

If you have a Lightroom question that you’d like Victoria Bampton to answer in the pages of Photoshop User magazine, send it to letters@photoshopuser.com.

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a note of the correct time from Camera A. Use the Metadata Filters in the Library module to show only the photos shot using Camera B and select them all using Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A). Click on the thumbnail (not the border) of the photo for which you know the correct time. This makes it the active (lightest-gray) photo without deselecting the other photos.

Go to Metadata>Edit Capture Time to show the Edit Capture Time dialog. If you’ve selected the photos correctly, the thumbnail on the left is the one for which you know the correct time. Select the Adjust to a Specified Date and Time option and enter the correct time. Click Change All to update all the selected photos. When you clear the Metadata Filter to show all photos, they should now sort correctly.

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SEÁN DUGGAN

LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS In the feature article for this month’s issue, I wrote about the local adjustments in Lightroom Classic and the cloud-based Lightroom. For this edition of the “Lightroom Tips & Tricks,” I’ll continue with that same topic, but focus on the local adjustment tools in the Lightroom for mobile app on phones and tablets.

LOCAL ADJUSTMENTS IN LIGHTROOM FOR MOBILE

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In the Lightroom for mobile app, you have access to the same local color and tonal adjustments as in the desktop versions of Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. There’s a slight naming difference, though: for the mobile app, they’re referred to as Selective edits.

On a phone or a tablet device, the Selective edits can be found in the Edit screen. On a phone, swipe on the tool icons under the image preview, and the Selective edits can be found at the far left.

On a tablet device, the Selective edits are found among the tool icons on the right side of the screen. Once you’ve entered the panel for the Selective edits, tap on the blue plus button at the upper-left corner to reveal the three

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Phone view

Tablet view

selective edit tools: the Brush tool, Linear Gradient, and the Radial Gradient. Let’s take a look at each of these.

THE BRUSH The first of the three selective adjustments is the Brush.

Tap on this and the small control panel will appear on the left.

SET SIZE, FEATHER, AND FLOW In the second section of this small panel, the three circular icons control Brush Size, Feather (hardness), and Flow (how fast the effect is applied). Drag vertically on any of these to change their settings. For Size and

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LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS

ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN

PLACE THE BRUSH PIN Tap on the area of the photo you want to adjust, and a small blue diamond shape will appear. Next, begin brushing over the photo to define the area that you want to edit. As you brush, a red overlay will appear to show you which areas of the image will be affected.

SET THE ADJUSTMENT Next, choose which adjustment you want to apply. For the image in this example, I wanted to lighten the

model’s hair. Tapping on Light opened those controls, and I could apply the adjustment to the area that I’d already defined with the Brush. Once you begin to apply an adjustment, the red overlay is dismissed (to see it again, tap on the blue pin).

REFINE THE BRUSH AREA The red overlay view is useful to see if you’ve accidentally painted over areas that you don’t want to affect.

If this is the case, tap the small brush icon on the left to open the control panel and use the Eraser tool to edit the areas affected by the Brush. The same controls for Size, Feather, and Flow can be applied to the Eraser tool.

Tip: If you need to work on smaller areas, use a two-finger stretch gesture to zoom up for a closer view of the photo. Choosing a smaller Brush Size when zoomed-in will give you more control. Double-tap on the screen to display the maximum zoom view, then double-tap again to return to the entire image.

REFINE THE ADJUSTMENTS Once a Brush pin is placed on the image, you can open any of the available edit controls and add to the adjustments that are applied.

After lightening the woman’s hair for this image, I decided to apply some Clarity to further define the texture of her hair.

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Flow you’ll see a red overlay in the center of the image showing the brush shape that changes as you adjust the settings.

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HOW TO

ADD ADDITIONAL BRUSH PINS If there are other areas that require a separate Brush adjustment, tap the plus icon at the upper left, choose the Brush, and tap on the image where you want to place a new adjustment. To remove a Brush pin, tap it to select it, and then tap the Trash icon.

Tap the checkmark in the lower right to apply the Brush edits and return to the main Edit panel.

THE RADIAL GRADIENT Once you choose the Radial Gradient, drag on the image to define the size and shape of the gradient. The pin for a Radial Gradient is a small blue circle.

The control panel for the Radial Gradient offers the following settings/tools: An Eraser for customizing the area that’s affected by the initial radial shape; a Feather control, which can be applied after the radial shape has been defined; and an Invert button. The default behavior for the Radial tool is for the area inside the radial shape to be affected by the adjustment.

If you want to affect everything else and not the center area, tap the Invert button.

Before

After selective edits with the Brush

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DUPLICATE AND OTHER CONTROLS

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Long-press on the pin for a Radial adjustment to reveal a menu with additional controls (this also works with the Brush and the Linear Gradient). One of the most useful is the Duplicate command.

When you duplicate a radial selection, it will be slightly of fset from the original.

In the image of the train, I used the first radial selection to affect the area on the back of the train car. Then I duplicated this adjustment, tapped the Invert button, and adjusted the settings to darken the area outside the radial shape. I also increased the color Saturation and shifted the color Temp more to blue, to suggest an early-evening look.

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Before

THE LINEAR GRADIENT Drag on the image to define the size and direction of the Linear Gradient.

The pin for this tool is a blue square.

The control panel offers an Eraser tool

After selective edits with the Radial Gradient

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Tip: To see how your selective edits compare to the overall adjustments you may have applied, use the Versions feature (scroll to the far right in the main Edit panel and look for the clock icon) to create a version of the image before you apply the selective edits, and then another version after you’ve made the selective edits.

LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS

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HOW TO

for customizing the area that’s affected by the gradient. The image to the right shows how the linear gradient has been modified with the Eraser tool along the shoreline at the lower right of the image.

As with the desktop versions of Lightroom or Lightroom Classic, just drag on the outer lines to adjust the length of the gradient, and drag on the center line to adjust the rotation.

Rotation Tip: If the gradient lines are close together, it can be hard to drag on just the center line to modify the rotation, especially if you’re using your finger on a small phone screen. Drag on an outer line first to create more space between the lines and make it easier to adjust the rotation, and then drag on one of the outer lines again to return the gradient length to what you want it to be.

INVERTING A LINEAR GRADIENT This tool doesn’t have an Invert button like the Radial Gradient, but it’s easy to invert a gradient so it affects the rest of the image. Simply drag on the outer ends of the center line to rotate the gradient all the way around until it’s affecting the opposite side of the photo.

START ON MOBILE, FINISH ON THE DESKTOP

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The great thing about being able to apply local adjustments in Lightroom for mobile is that, if needed, you can fine-tune them with more precision in Lightroom on the desktop.

Images in Lightroom mobile will automatically sync to the cloud-based Lightroom and will even sync to Lightroom Classic if you enable syncing in that program.

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Before

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE In Lightroom mobile for iOS, there’s one other selective adjustment that’s available with some phone models. It can be applied to certain images captured using a special mode with the camera in the Lightroom mobile app: Selective Depth Map adjustments.

We’ll take a look at that, as well as other tips, in next month’s column. n

After selective edits with the Linear Gradient

TAKE YOUR IMAGES FROM FLAT TO FABULOUS

Get ready to learn “The System” crafted by world-renowned Lightroom expert Scott Kelby. This is a new way of working and thinking about editing your images that will change the way you work in Lightroom forever, so you’ll spend less time fixing your photos and more time finishing them, and doing the fun, creative things that make Lightroom the amazing tool that it is. This isn’t a “read about it” book. This is a hands-on “you do it” book. You start each lesson with the RAW photo, right out of the camera (you can download Scott’s images, so you can follow right along). Then, you’re going to apply the 7-Point System, until these seven points are absolutely second nature to you. Once you learn this system, there won’t be an image on your screen that you won’t be able to enhance, fix, edit, and finish like a pro! This is the book you’ve been waiting for—the industry has been waiting for—and once you learn this system and start applying it yourself, you’ll be the next one to say, “You can’t beat the system!”

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BRYAN O’NEIL HUGHES

GOING MOBILE

LIGHTROOM: AN END-TO-END WORKFLOW I just returned from a road trip that took me from the coast of California to the upper “panhandle” of Idaho. While I traveled with two mirrorless cameras and a drone, there was one shot with which I was happiest and, wouldn’t you know, it was captured on the iPhone and edited in Lightroom on the iPad Pro (though, to be fair, most of what I did could have been edited on the phone, as well).

While I often go deep on multiple apps and hidden

ProRAW format. For those of you with older iPhones or

workflows, I thought I’d use this example to methodically

Android devices, fear not, Lightroom’s camera module can

take you through one image, from capture to share.

also grab a RAW image. A RAW image allows the most

I think that everything I’m about to share lends itself to

color adjustment and the highest-resolution results, as the

most shooting and editing, so I hope you find this useful.

pixels aren’t compressed, nor are individual color channels.

Before I show you the unedited RAW image, I should

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THE ORIGINAL FILE

stress that there are four critical things I take into

I captured my initial file with an iPhone 12 Pro Max, which

consideration when I shoot: a compelling composition

means that I can natively capture RAW files in Apple’s

(it isn’t unusual for me to shoot various perspectives

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GOING MOBILE

and crop wildly); a clean lens (a drop of water on

(I shot this location across several days and times,

a DSLR is a nuisance; the same drop on a mobile

being happiest with dusk, as the light was warm and

device is unusable); stabilization; and balanced lighting

there were no harsh shadows).

EDITING ON THE IPAD While I shot the image on my phone, I waited to edit it on my iPad Pro. Why? Three reasons: light pollution, a larger screen, and Apple Pencil/selective editing.

STEP ONE: If I’m going to crop, I usually start there. In this case, I elected to have the sky appear only in the top third of the image, rather than half of the image as in the original capture. The full sky was pleasant, but the mountains wanted more impact. In cropping down, I also placed the building in the upper-right cropping box and lifted the base slightly to hide the ground.

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Original

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HOW TO

STEP TWO: My next step is always the same: Auto. The Auto option in the Edit section leverages machine learning (or Adobe Sensei) to dynamically adjust eight sliders. Even if I choose to tweak the Auto settings, Lightroom can give me a good starting point much faster than I could achieve on my own. I used the default Apple ProRaw profile, though I highly encourage trying any of the dozens of creative profiles as another starting point in your edits. These are incredibly powerful for color and B&W conversions alike, and

Step Three

offer a great one-click look, prior to moving sliders.

STEP THREE: There are many ways to adjust color: if I wanted to change the time of day, I could play with the Temp; if I wanted to overlay color values to individual tones, I could use Color Grading (a powerful, recent addition to Lightroom); but my go-to is Color Mix in the Color panel, where I can tune individual color values for Hue, Saturation, and Lumi-

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nance. These give me my first

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global edits and a base for any additional work. In this case, darkening the blue values brought out the mountains, and brightening orange and yellow made the foreground pop. These changes inadvertently brightened the sky, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

Step Four

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GOING MOBILE

STEP FOUR: Next are Effects, which are critical, but often

Lightroom has a library of lenses, including any and all

overused. Let’s step through them in order. Texture is

found on the iPhone, so this simple switch will quickly

used to add or soften texture. For this image, I love the

remove lens distortion, vignetting, and chromatic aber-

soft glow and I don’t want to disturb that, so I’ll use a

ration (or color fringing). Like Auto, I always use this

bit of negative Texture. I’ll then use positive Clarity to

and encourage you to do the same.

amplify the midtone contrast, so my image is both soft, STEP SIX: My first selective edit is a simple Linear

I love Dehaze, but there are two things to note: one,

Gradient across the area of the sky. A reduction in

it introduces contrast, so if you apply it globally, you

Exposure, Contrast, and a slight addition of Dehaze

might consider going back to the Light panel to reduce

and Saturation yield the sunset I was hoping to catch.

the Contrast; and two, it can be applied selectively. So

I was careful to avoid the mountains and house, though

for this image, I’m thinking about my diluted sky and

looking at it, I realized that the house’s impact is its

considering that I only want Dehaze selectively applied to

bold contrast. So my last step is a Brush-based edit

it, so I’ll wait. Last is Vignette. I love this (in moderation!)

(this is where I love Apple Pencil) to the house and an

for a center-weighted subject but, as my building is offset,

increase of the Whites values, which will brighten the

I won’t use it here.

house without disturbing the other surrounding tones.

STEP FIVE: Before I head over to my selective adjustments, I’ll

The above workflow touches on, or acknowledges,

go to the Optics panel and toggle on Enable Lens Correction.

the places I spend most of my time in Lightroom.

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but impactful.

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

HOW TO

Remember, I could save these steps as a preset, or

I hope that was helpful. You can follow me on Instagram

I could copy-and-paste them from one image to another

at @bryanoneilhughes to see this image and others.

(or several). I often see people repeating the same steps

Happy shooting and editing! n

dozens of times. Lightroom is designed to help you save time and accelerate your workflow, so don’t be afraid to borrow from old edits!

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Before

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After

ALL IMAGES BY BRYAN O’NEIL HUGHES

Get professional-looking images using the camera you always have with you

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Imagine if someone took the same photographic techniques, principles, and tools used by high-end and professional photographers, but applied them to shooting with an iPhone.

Imagine the type of images you’d be able to create using those same ideas. Well, Scott Kelby has done just that in his latest book—The iPhone Photography Book: How to Get ProfessionalLooking Images Using the Camera You Always Have with You.

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SCOTT KELBY

PHOTOSHOP FOR LIGHTROOM USERS

LEARNING THE BASICS OF LAYERS IN PHOTOSHOP It’s time to move on from removing stuff from our images, which we’ve been covering in the past several issues, and now we’ll start adding stuff. Starting with this issue, we’re going to begin unlocking the power of Photoshop’s layers, which is another one of the main reasons we take an image over to Photo­shop in the first place.

Layers let you stack images on top of each other so you can create collages, montages, compositions, fine art, etc. It’s also about adding type to your images (pro-level type), as well as adding special effects. If this doesn’t make sense yet, don’t worry, it will. And you’ll fall in love with using layers because they’re pretty awesome.

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START AT THE BEGINNING In this installment, we’re going to focus on the basics of what layers are, and a bit about how they work. We’ll dig in deeper in future issues, but today, we’ll start with the essentials.

PHOTOSHOP FOR LIGHTROOM USERS

ALL IMAGES BY SCOTT KELBY

STEP ONE: Start by opening an image into Photoshop. In our example, we’re using an image of Hong Kong. Go to Photoshop’s Toolbar, click-and-hold on the Rectangular Marquee tool and, from the pop-out tool menu that appears, choose the Elliptical Marquee tool (the round one).

Drag out a large circular selection over your image (as shown here). Just click-and-drag the tool in your image and an oval selection will appear. Hold the Shift key if you want a perfect circle like the one we made here.

Once your circle is in place, press F7 on your keyboard (or go under the Window menu up top and choose Layers) to make your Layers panel visible. At this point, you only have one layer: the Background layer (the image of Hong Kong here). When you open an image in Photoshop, by default, that image’s name in the Layers panel will be “Background,” so when you bring an image over from Lightroom, that’s what you’ll see in the Layers panel.

STEP TWO: At the bottom of Photoshop’s Toolbar, there are two squares: the frontmost one is where you choose your Foreground color; the one behind it is for choosing your Background color.

Click on the front square and, from the Color Picker that appears, choose red as your Foreground color and click OK to close the Color Picker (it doesn’t really matter which color you pick, so just choose any color you’d like).

Now, we’re going to fill that circular selection with our red Foreground color by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace). You can deselect the circle now by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D). What you’ve done here so far is covered up part of your image with a red circle. That red circle is stuck there.

You can’t move it, you can’t delete it.

It’s now part of your photo.

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HOW TO

STEP THREE: Now, we’ll see why layers are so awesome. Instead of just covering up part of your image as you did with that big red circle in the previous step, with layers, that red circle would float above your image so you can reposition it; change its size, shape, and opacity; and you can even delete it altogether if you change your mind.

So, let’s go ahead and undo what we’ve done. Press Command-Z (PC: Ctrl-Z) a couple of times so the red fill is gone, but you still see the circular selection you made (as shown here).

Instead of just filling it with red and painting it permanently over your image, go to the bottom of the Layers panel and click the Create a New Layer icon (it looks like a square with a + sign inside it, to the left of the trash can).

This creates a new blank layer for you to work on, and if you look in the Layers panel, you’ll see Layer 1, which appears above your Background layer.

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STEP FOUR: Now press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the circular selection with red, and then deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D). We still have a red circle, and it’s still in the same place but, since you created it on a layer, it’s now movable because it’s floating on a layer above the Background.

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STEP FIVE: You move stuff around on layers using the Move tool, which is the top tool in the Toolbar (it looks like a four-headed arrow). It’s particularly handy to know the keyboard shortcut for this tool because you’ll be using it a lot: The shortcut is the letter V. So, press V to get the Move tool, click anywhere within that red circle, and drag to the right to move it.

If for any reason the circle didn’t move, you probably forgot to make that blank layer before you filled it with red.

You have to make that blank layer first, or it’ll be stuck on the Background layer like before (in Step Two).

PHOTOSHOP FOR LIGHTROOM USERS

STEP SIX: Let’s go ahead and make another blank layer. Head over to the Layers panel and add a new blank layer by clicking on the Create a New Layer icon (as you did before). This time, let’s get the Rectangular Marquee tool ( just to visually change things up), and draw out a rectangular selection.

Set your Foreground color to yellow (or really, any color you want) and fill the layer with that color by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace). When it’s filled with color, press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect the rectangle. So, now take a look in your Layers panel and you’ll see three layers: a Background layer with your image, Layer 1 with a red circle above the Background layer, and Layer 2 above Layer 1 with a yellow rectangle.

STEP SEVEN: Okay, now let’s do some “layers stuff.” Press V to get the Move tool (in case you don’t already have it), and drag the yellow rectangle over to the right until it overlaps the red circle (as shown here). Now you can really see the layers: the image in the Background; then above that, the red circle; and above that, the yellow square.

STEP EIGHT: To change this stacking order, you simply change the order of the layers in the Layers panel. For example, to move the yellow rectangle behind the red circle, just go to the Layers panel, click on Layer 2 (the yellow rectangle layer), and drag that layer down below Layer 1. This changes the stacking order of the layers, so now it’s your image on the Background (that hasn’t changed), then Layer 2 (your yellow rectangle), and then your red circle, which is now on top. That’s all there is to changing the order of your layers: drag them up and down in what’s called the “layer stack.” Of course, as you’ve seen, they stack from the bottom up, so whichever layer is at the top of the stack, that’s the topmost layer (which is why your red circle layer appears above all the other layers).

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STEP NINE: To work on a particular layer, just click on it in the Layers panel. Go ahead and click on Layer 1 (the red circle layer) in the Layers panel. To lower the Opacity of this layer (so it’s somewhat, or a lot, see-through), go to the Opacity setting near the top right of the Layers panel, click on the little down-facing arrow to the right of 100%, and a slider pops down. Drag the slider to the left to lower the Opacity (as shown here where we dragged it to 40%), and now you can see through the red circle to the yellow rectangle and your photo on the layers below it.

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STEP 10: To delete a layer, you can either click-and-drag it down to the trash can icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, or you can click on the layer (in the Layers panel), and then press the Delete (PC: Backspace) key to delete it.

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STEP 11: Here’s the image without the red circle layer. Now when you look at the Layers panel, you can see that it only shows your original Background layer (Hong Kong here) and Layer 2 (the yellow rectangle).

Now imagine that instead of those layers being a red circle or a yellow rectangle, they were photos. It works exactly the same way.

This is just a start, the tip of the iceberg of layers, but it’s important that you understand the basics of how layers work before we dig in deeper, which we’ll do next issue. See you then! n

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Of all the ways that you can improve and enhance your images in Lightroom Classic (LrC) or the cloud-based Lightroom (Lr), some Changes that can have the most impact in realizing your vision for a photo are those that are applied using the local adjustments.

In this article, we’ll explore how local adjustments work, including some of the common applications of the tools, as well as transformations for more specialized creative and interpretive effects.

Global And Selective Adjustments

Overall or global adjustments affect the entire image and can often do quite a lot to make a photo look better.

These include most of the adjustments in the Basic panel in LrC, such as Exposure, Contrast, and Saturation. In Lr, the global adjustments are found in the Light and Color panels.

Several of the global adjustments also belong to a subset of selective adjustments that target specific areas of the tonal range or specific colors. The sliders for Highlights, Shadows, Blacks, and Whites fall into this category, as do certain adjustments with the Tone Curve, changing specific colors via the HSL and Color Mixer controls, or targeting highlights, midtones, or shadows with Color Grading. The Vibrance control can also be thought of as a selective adjustment because it targets colors with low saturation values and doesn’t affect colors that are already highly saturated.

Even though these selective adjustments are designed to affect specific tones or colors, they’re still global in that they’ll impact the targeted color or tone wherever it occurs in the image. In contrast, local adjustments allow you to choose exactly where the change is applied, and this is what makes them so powerful.

Global adjustments in the Basic panel in LrC, and the Light and Color panels in Lr, that target specific tones or colors

The Radial Filter was used to darken most of this image except for the girl’s face and hair

In most cases, the best approach is to get the overall image looking as good as possible with global adjustments and then fine-tune it with the local adjustment tools. Some classic situations for local adjustments include using the Graduated Filter (Lr: Linear Gradient) to darken the sky in

a landscape image; the Radial Filter (Lr: Radial Gradient) to enhance a portrait by adding a darkening vignette or lightening just the subject’s face; or the Adjustment Brush to paint with light on specific areas to guide the viewer’s eye through a scene.

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WHEN TO USE LOCAL ADJUSTMENTS

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LOCAL ADJUSTMENTS IN LIGHTROOM CLASSIC

In LrC, the local adjustments are accessed via the tool icons below the Histogram panel in the upper-right of the Develop module. From left to right these are the Crop Overlay tool (R), Spot Removal tool (Q), Red-Eye Correction, Graduated Filter (M), Radial Filter (Shift-M), and the Adjustment Brush (K). Even though the Crop Overlay and Spot Removal tools are technically local adjustments in that they affect specific parts of the photo determined by the user, the focus of this article is on those tools that apply tonal and color changes to the image.

Radial Filter

Adjustment Brush

LOCAL ADJUSTMENTS IN LIGHTROOM

In Lr, the local adjustment tools are found on the right side of the Edit section below the Crop and Healing Brush tools. The names and keyboard shortcuts are different, but the purpose of the tools is the same as their counterparts in Lightroom Classic: the Brush tool (B), the Linear Gradient (L), and the Radial Gradient (R).

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Brush

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When you choose one of the local adjustment tools, a panel will open with all the different settings that can be used with that tool. You can either place the adjustment on the image first and then move the sliders to create a visible change, or you can apply changes to the sliders in the panel and then add the local adjustment to the image.

Either way works and there’s no “right way” to do this. It’s really a matter of personal preference.

I usually start by making a change to the main slider that I want to use, such as Exposure, so I can see a noticeable change when I place the adjustment. After I add the adjustment to the image, I then go back to fine-tune the sliders for the adjustment.

Tip: In LrC, the sliders may still reflect the settings that were active the last time you used a local adjustment tool.

To clear these out and reset everything to the defaults, double-click on the word “Effect” at the top left of the panel.

Double-clicking on the name or knob of an individual slider will reset only that slider.

Spot Red-Eye Crop Removal Correction

Graduated Filter

WHAT COMES FIRST? PLACING THE ADJUSTMENT OR CHANGING THE SETTINGS?

Linear Gradient Radial Gradient

THE GRADUATED FILTER

Before

After a Graduated Filter to darken the sky

Darkening the sky in a landscape photo is a classic use for the Graduated Filter tool

Long Gradient

This tool is for when you want to add an adjustment that extends across the image in a straight line. There are many ways that it can be used and modified to create the look you need. We’ll start with the basics of the tool and then consider some different case scenarios where it can make a big difference.

With this tool, where you start drawing the gradient will be 100% of whatever adjustment you’re applying, and where you end will be 0%. The gradient between the beginning and ending points represents the gradual fade from full strength to nothing. The longer the gradient, the more gradual and subtle the transition between 100% and 0%. A short gradient will create a much more noticeable and abrupt transition.

You can adjust the size of the gradient after you’ve placed it by dragging on the top or bottom lines. Drag on the middle line to rotate the gradient and adjust its angle (placing your cursor farther from the center edit pin will give you more control when you do this). Click-and-drag the gradient’s edit pin to reposition it.

TIPS: • H old the Shift key as you drag to constrain the gradient to either vertical or horizontal.

• H old Option (PC: Alt) to drag outward from the midpoint of the gradient.

This shows the difference between a long and short Graduated Filter

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Short Gradient

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THE RADIAL FILTER

The Radial Filter is excellent for situations where you need to apply adjustments that are centered around, or affecting the area within, a circular or oval shape. In LrC, the default behavior will apply the adjustment to the area surrounding the radial shape. If you want to apply the changes to the area inside the radial shape, click the Invert checkbox at the bottom of the panel for this tool. In Lr, the behavior is the exact opposite: In the default mode, the changes will be applied to the area inside the radial shape, and clicking the Invert checkbox at the top of the panel will switch the adjustment to affect the area around the radial shape.

Before

After two Radial Filter adjustments

Lighten face

TIPS:

• H old the Shift key as you drag to constrain the radial gradient to a circle.

• T he default behavior is to create the radial shape outward from the center of the click point. Hold Option (PC: Alt) to drag outward from the outer edge of the shape.

• D rag on the control points to change the shape; drag on the line segments to rotate

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the radial gradient.

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Showing the difference between the Invert feature in LrC and Lr

Multiple applications of the same local adjustment tool with different settings are effective for modifying the light in a scene

Darken background

Useful Shortcuts for All Local Adjustments: • Tap O to show the affected area with a transparent red overlay. In Lr, this shortcut cycles through hiding all overlays, showing the tool overlay (i.e., the white lines that define the Linear or Radial Gradient), showing the red mask overlay, and showing both the tool and mask overlay.

• Tap H to hide the gradient pin and the overlay lines (LrC only).

• W hen one of the local adjustment tools is active in LrC, there are menu and checkbox options on the left side under the main image display that correspond to the actions associated with the H and O shortcuts.

The four different overlay displays for a Radial Gradient in Lr

• O ption-drag (PC: Alt-drag) horizontally on the edit pin to adjust all sliders (that aren’t set to 0) proportionately. They’ll stop moving when one of the sliders hits its maximum value, or they can all be returned to the default value of 0.

In addition to the H and O shortcuts in LrC, you can also control the visibility of adjustment pins and the mask overlay via options below the main view of the image

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• C ommand-Option-drag (PC: Ctrl-Alt-drag) on an adjustment pin to make a copy of it.

You can also Right-click on a pin to display a menu with this and other options.

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MODIFY THE COVERAGE OF GRADUATED AND RADIAL FILTERS USING A BRUSH

Before

One of the most useful features for the Graduated Filter or the Radial Filter is the Brush tool that can be used to either add to or subtract from the areas they affect (the brush modifier for the two gradient tools is different from the Adjustment Brush, which we’ll cover in a bit).

In LrC, this appears as the word “Brush” in the upper right of the adjustment panel for each tool, and in Lr, it’s a brush icon at the top of the panel, along with an

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Editing a Graduated Filter with the Brush in Lightroom Classic to remove the effect from the dinosaurs

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eraser icon. The brush aspect of each tool is the perfect way to modify a linear gradient for a landscape horizon that isn’t strictly horizontal, or a portrait where the radial gradient will cover most of what you need it to, but there are areas that require some fine-tuning.

To use this, first apply the linear or radial adjustment, then select the Brush option. In LrC, the default behavior for the brush is add mode (indicated by the plus symbol in the center of the cursor). Hold Option (PC: Alt) to switch to erase or subtract mode. There’s also an Erase option in the lower part of the panel. When this is turned on, holding Option (PC: Alt) will change the brush to add mode.

In Lr, use the Brush icon to add to the area affected by the adjustment and the Eraser icon to subtract

from it. For fine detail work, the Auto Mask feature in Lightroom Classic will restrict the brush edits to the tonal area in the middle of the brush, preventing the change from being applied outside that area, as can be seen with the edits to the battling dinosaurs’ claws in the image above.

Changing Brush Size: In either program, you can use the Size slider to change the size of the brush, or you can tap the Right Bracket key on your keyboard to make the brush larger, or the Left Bracket key to make it smaller.

Holding Shift while you tap the Bracket keys will adjust the size of the edge feathering on the brush. If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can also use that to adjust brush size or edge feathering.

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Final result of editing the Graduated Filter with the Brush, plus a closeup view of the edited dinosaurs after using the Brush with Auto Mask turned on

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THE ADJUSTMENT BRUSH

The ability to modify both the Graduated and Radial adjustments with the Brush option adds a lot of flexibility for customizing those adjustments to fit areas that don’t conform to a linear or oval shape. Sometimes, however, the actual Adjustment Brush is the way to go for applying modifications to areas with an irregular shape, or if you simply prefer using a brush-type interface to paint changes onto your image.

Select the Adjustment Brush (just Brush in Lr), and start with a general setting for the effect you want to apply (i.e., lightening an area); you can dial in the exact setting once you’ve defined the areas to be affected.

Choose an appropriate size for the brush (changing brush size works the same as mentioned in the previous section), click on an area to set the brush pin, and then paint over the area you wish to modify.

In the example below, the dirt road through the Icelandic Highlands has been lightened to guide the viewer’s eye into the scene and highlight an important part of the photo.

If you want to add a new brush pin, click New (in Lr, use the Plus icon at the top of the Brush panel).

The Edit option allows you to edit the setting for the active brush pin.

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Important Brush Settings: In LrC, the top section of the Adjustment Brush panel controls the adjustments

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that you’re applying to the image. The bottom section controls the behavior of the brush itself. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with these settings and how they affect the Adjustment Brush. If the brush ever seems as if it’s not working at all, or behaving oddly, the reason can usually be found in one of these controls.

We’ve already covered the shortcuts for changing brush size, but if you want a slider for that, here it is.

Feather controls the softness of the brush edge (see the earlier section on changing brush size for a great shortcut for this).

Flow controls how fast the brush coverage reaches maximum density, and Density is like Opacity. We’ve already discussed the utility of the Auto Mask feature: If there’s a clear color or tonal difference between the area you’re painting and the surrounding areas, then Auto Mask can help to confine the brush coverage to the part of the photo you want to affect, as seen earlier in the photo of the fighting dinosaurs.

The A and B controls let you assign specific brush characteristics to two different brush tips, and these settings will stay associated with whichever brush is active until you change them. This is very useful for having a soft-edged brush (A) and a hard-edged brush (B) that you can alternate between as you edit areas that have different edge characteristics.

In this photo, the Adjustment Brush was used to lighten the road crossing the Icelandic Highlands

WORKING WITH THE RANGE MASK

The Range Mask feature in Lightroom Classic becomes available once you’ve placed a local adjustment pin on the image. It works with the Graduated and Radial Filters, as well as the Adjustment Brush. It’s similar to the Auto Mask brush feature but is more refined and lets you target specific ranges of luminance or color and then fine-tune the areas that are affected by the adjustment.

Once you select either Color or Luminance in the Range Mask drop-down menu, you’ll see an eyedropper

tool that you can use to click on a tone or color in the image to customize the mask (after you’ve sampled an area with the eyedropper, return it to the panel to continue using the brush). Sampling with the eyedropper when in Luminance mode will automatically adjust the two halves on the Range slider, which can be dragged separately (shadows on the left, highlights on the right) to fine-tune the Range Mask. Press Option (PC: Alt) and click-and-hold on either of the Range sliders or

Hold the Option (PC: Alt) key while dragging either the Range or Smoothness sliders to see a B&W version of the Range Mask

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Luminance Range Mask showing the settings and red overlay view of mask

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Before & After using a Luminance Range Mask to control the Graduated Filter

the Smoothness slider to see a black-and-white version of the mask. Viewing this can be useful when refining either the Range or the Smoothness.

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LOCAL ADJUSTMENT EXPLORATIONS

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Now that we’ve covered most of the essentials for using the local adjustment tools, as well as some of the more common ways to use them, let’s explore a little, ask the all-important question “what if?”, and take a look at some other interesting effects you can create.

Turn on the Lights: The Radial Filter is the perfect tool to “turn on” an existing light in a photo. In this image of a lamp post overlooking the harbor (see next page), there are two radial adjustments creating the effect that the

light is turned on. For the first one, I added a Radial Filter in LrC set to Invert so it would affect the area inside the oval, increased the Exposure to brighten the lamp, and added yellow and magenta via the Temp and Tint sliders to give the light a warm quality.

Then I held down Command-Option (PC: Ctrl-Alt) and dragged on the pin to make a copy of the adjustment.

In the tool’s panel, I unchecked Invert and changed the adjustment to darken the area surrounding the light. This darkened the rest of the image and enhanced the look of the glowing lamplight at the day’s end.

This same principle of two radial gradients, one to lighten and one to darken, can also be used to create glowing orbs of light for a supernatural or otherworldly effect. You can see this in action in this black-and-white

TIP: DUPLICATE ADJUSTMENTS TO BUILD UP AN EFFECT As seen in the examples above, making a copy of a local adjustment can be useful if you want to invert it to affect the opposite area. Sometimes, it can also be effective to duplicate a local adjustment so you can apply a double dose of the settings, or two different settings that work best when applied with separate adjustments.

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photo of a basket-like radio antenna with a pulse of light hovering above it. If you need even brighter light over an area of darker tonality, try lowering the Dehaze value.

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Create Beams of Light: There are a couple of approaches for creating the look of rays of light with local adjustments.

The Adjustment Brush is one way to go about this, but I prefer to keep it as simple as possible and, in most cases, I end up using multiple Radial Filters stretched out to make elongated oval shapes.

I start with one, usually the center beam of light, and apply the adjustments to add brightness and, if appropriate, a color tint using the Temp or Tint sliders.

Then I’ll make a couple of duplicates of the first radial gradient and rotate them to create the look of a beam of light that’s narrow at the top and wider at the bottom.

Finally, I’ll create a new Radial Filter to suggest a pool of light at the base of the beams. If you have an image where there’s already a hint of light coming down from above, such as this scene in the glacial ice cave, it can create a nice effect. Different images may require a different approach, and in some situations, creating light rays with the Adjustment Brush may work better.

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TIP: When creating light beams with the Adjustment Brush, you can create straight line brushstrokes by clicking at one end and then Shift-clicking at the other end ( just like in Photoshop!).

Multiple Radial Filters enhance the existing light in the ice cave to create the look of a bright ray of light entering the cave from above

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Add a Hand-Tinted Look: There’s a certain charm to black-andwhite images that have been hand-tinted to add color to the scene. If you have an image that doesn’t require many colors, you can create this look using multiple Adjustment Brush pins and the Color (Lr: Colorize) option near the bottom of the Adjustment Brush panel.

For this image of a butterfly, each color required a separate Adjustment Brush pin.

For areas that required more precise coloring “within the lines,” I used smaller brushes with a harder edge. For more indistinct color washes on the backdrop, I switched to larger, soft-edged brushes and lower Density and Flow settings. You don’t have as much control as you do in Photoshop, especially if the photo has a lot of small areas that need to be precisely colored, but for some images, this approach in LrC or Lr can work very well.

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Those three examples are just a hint of some of the other ways you could use the local adjustment tools to create effects you might not have thought of. Hopefully, they’ve given you an idea of the possibilities and will inspire you to explore more on your own.

FINISHING TOUCHES

The Lightroom app for phones and tablets also has local adjustment tools. See my “Lightroom Tips & Tricks” column on page 64 for additional info on working with the local adjustments on mobile surfaces.

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After you’ve made a photo look as good as possible with the overall, or global adjustments, local adjustments are the finishing touches that let you polish the image by paying special attention to certain areas. They let you enhance the existing story of the photo or suggest a new

one by taking the scene in a new direction. They can be subtle and barely noticeable, or they can transform the image in significant ways. n

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ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN

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THE MEETUP All attendees Invited | 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm EDT

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Day 1 (08.31.21) Conference Schedule TRACK A | PHOTOSHOP

TRACK B | LIGHTROOM

SETTING THE TONE: COLOR EDITS AND GRADING

SCOTT KELBY’S 7 POINT SYSTEM FOR LIGHTROOM

with Mark Heaps | 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT

with Scott Kelby | 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT

SELECTIONS AND MASKING MASTERCLASS

GETTING ORGANIZED

with Glyn Dewis | 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm EDT

with Rob Sylvan | 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm EDT

LUNCH BREAK

LUNCH BREAK

1:15 pm - 2:15 pm EDT

1:15 pm - 2:15 pm EDT

PHOTOSHOP RETOUCHING BASICS

THE DEVELOPMENT MODULE DEMYSTIFIED

with Kristina Sherk | 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm EDT

with Terry White | 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm EDT

SCOTT’S TOP 20 PHOTOSHOP TIPS AND TRICKS

MAKING LIGHTROOM HAUL BUTT: OPTIMIZING LR

with Scott Kelby | 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm EDT

with Rob Sylvan | 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm EDT

MASTERING LAYERS with Bret Malley | 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm EDT

THE LIGHTROOM MOBILE WORKFLOW with Terry White | 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm EDT

TRACK C | PHOTOGRAPHY TODAY’S EVENTS

FOLLOW YOUR HEART MORE THAN THE F/STOP with Moose Peterson | 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT KEYNOTE EVOLUTION OF AN IMAGE

All attendees Invited | 9:30 am - 10:30 am EDT

with Rick Sammon | 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm EDT LUNCH BREAK 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm EDT

THE AFTER HOURS PARTY All attendees Invited | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm EDT

THE ASSIGNMENT GUY: THE TWISTS AND TURNS OF A CAREER IN PHOTOGRAPHY with Joe McNally | 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm EDT

THE SECRETS OF CREATING AMAZING HEADSHOT PORTRAITS with Peter Hurley | 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm EDT

INSPIRATION AND PLANNING FOR OUTDOOR AND LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY with Ramtin Kazemi | 4:45 pm - 5:450 pm EDT

View the Photoshop World 2021 Schedule at photoshopworld.com Instructors and sessions are subject to change without notice

Day 2 (09.01.21) Conference Schedule TRACK A | PHOTOSHOP BEYOND THE DESKTOP: PHOTOSHOP ON THE GO with Victoria Pavlov | 9:45 am - 10:45 am EDT

TRACK B | LIGHTROOM HOW TO CREATE ART FROM YOU PHOTOGRAPHY WITH PROCREATE with Karen Hutton | 9:45 am - 10:45 am EDT

PLAYING WITH PLUG-INS AND HAVING FUN WITH PHOTOSHOP FILTERS with RIck Sammon | 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT

MORE THAN SHADES OF GREY: BLACK & WHITE IN LR with Mimo Meidany | 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT

PHOTOSHOP FOR SOCILA MEDIA with Dave Clayton | 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm EDT

USING PHOTOSHOP WITH LIGHTROOM with Serge Ramelli | 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm EDT

LUNCH BREAK 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm EDT

LUNCH BREAK 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm EDT

THE MAGIC OF COMPOSITING with Bret Malley | 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm EDT

TETHERING 101 with Glyn Dewis | 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm EDT

CAMERA RAW EDITING TECHNIQUES & WORKFLOW with Mark Heaps | 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm EDT

PRINTING MASTERCLASS with Scott Kelby | 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm EDT

ADVANCED LANDSCAPE EDITING TECHNIQUES with Ramtin Kazemi | 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm EDT

YOUR MOBILE DEVICE AS A SECOND CAMERA with Erik Kuna | 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm EDT

TRACK C | PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY FOR DESIGN with Dave Clayton | 9:45 am - 10:45 am EDT MANAGING LIGHT ON LOCATION with Joe McNally | 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT SPORTING EVENT CONVERAGE: YOUTH TO PRO with Dave Black | 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm EDT LUNCH BREAK 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm EDT NEED TO SEE THE SPEED - BRINGING THE LIFE TO OUR AVIATION IMAGES with Moose Peterson | 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm EDT LIGHTING SETUPS THAT CAN SAVE YOUR SHOOT with Frank Doorhof | 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm EDT PHOTOGRAPHING FAMILIES AND CHILDREN with Tracy Sweeney | 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm EDT

TODAY’S EVENTS LIVE WITH PLATYPOD with Larry Tiefenbrunn & Larry Becker | 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm EDT MIDNIGHT MADNESS with Scott Kelby All attendees Invited | 10:00 pm - 12:00 am EDT

Day 3 (09.02.21) Conference Schedule TRACK A | PHOTOSHOP

TRACK B | LIGHTROOM

MOBILE WORKFLOW FOR PROS with Frank Doorhof | 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT

ADVANCED PORTRAITS IN LIGHTROOM with Scott Kelby | 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT

FINE ART BLACK AND WHITE with Mimo Meidany | 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm EDT

ADVANCED LIGHTROOM TECHNIQUES with Serge Ramelli | 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm EDT

LUNCH BREAK 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm EDT

LUNCH BREAK 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm EDT

ADVANCED RETOUCHING IN PHOTOSHOP with Kristina Sherk | 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm EDT

LIGHTROOM TIPS AND TRICKS with Tracy Sweeney | 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm EDT

THE ART OF PAINTING IN PHOTOSHOP with Victoria Pavlov | 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm EDT

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS with Kaylee Greer | 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm EDT

ALPHA MASKS: FROM BEGINNER TO ADVANCED with Mark Heaps | 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm EDT

TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH LIGHTROOM PRESET with Serge Ramelli | 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm EDT

TRACK C | PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS TO CAPTURING THE BEST DOG PHOTOS EVER with Kaylee Greer | 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT THE ULTIMATE WILDLIFE ADVENTURE- PICKING AND PLANNING FOR GREAT CRITTER PHOTOS with Moose Peterson | 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm EDT LUNCH BREAK 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm EDT CREATIVE LIGHT AND ACTION with Joe McNally | 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm EDT ADVANCED MILKY WAY PHOTOGRAPHY AND POST PROCESSING with Erik Kuna | 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm EDT MY PROCESS FROM START TO END with Karen Hutton | 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm EDT

TODAY’S EVENTS CONFERENCE WRAP-UP/GURU AWARDS with Scott Kelby | 6:15 pm - 8:30 pm EDT

View the Photoshop World 2021 Schedule at photoshopworld.com Instructors and sessions are subject to change without notice

COREY BARKER

PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

COOL LAYER STYLE TRICKS FOR TEXT AND COMPOSITING EFFECTS It’s always enjoyable finding unusual ways to use layer styles in Photoshop, and one cool trick for mixing and layering effects is nesting the layers in layer groups. By building a library of simple patterns and layer style combinations, you can create a design template to cater to almost any background image.

Here we’ll create a sports-themed composite using these layer tricks.

STEP ONE: Let’s begin by creating a new file in Photoshop by going to File>New. Set the Width to 500 pixels and the Height to 2000 pixels.

(Note: Ultimately it doesn’t really need to be this wide, you could do this with a Width of 5 pixels and get the same result, but I found that having it at least 500 pixels wide makes it easier to handle the shapes that we’re going to draw.) Set the Resolution to 300 ppi, leave the Background Contents set to white, and click OK or Create.

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STEP TWO: Make the rulers visible by pressing Command-R (PC: CtrlR). Click on the horizontal ruler at the top and drag a guide down until it snaps to the center of the document. (If it doesn’t snap, make sure you have Snap turned on in the View menu.)

Step Two

Step Three

STEP THREE: Go to the Toolbar, select the Rectangle tool (U), and make sure its tool mode is set to Shape near the left side of the Options Bar at the top. The Fill color doesn’t matter for now, but make sure the Stroke is set to No Color. Click on the canvas and the Create Rectangle dialog will appear. Set the Width the same as the canvas and the Height to just 150 px. Click OK.

Step Four

Step Five

STEP FIVE: Press-and-hold the Command (PC: Ctrl) key. Your cursor should change to a black arrow.

Click-and-drag the rectangle to the very top of the canvas (it should snap to the edges). Release the Command (PC: Ctrl) key (you should still see the path around the shape), and press Option-Command-T (PC: Alt-Ctrl-T) to activate Free Transform in step-and-repeat mode, which will create a duplicate of the shape directly above the original shape.

Grab the duplicate shape and drag it down until it snaps to the bottom edge of the original shape.

Then hold down the Shift key and press the Down Arrow key on your keyboard five times. Don’t commit the transformation yet.

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STEP FOUR: In the Layers panel, double-click the Rectangle shape layer’s thumbnail to open the Color Picker. Set the color to around a 50% gray and click OK.

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STEP SIX: In the Options Bar, unlink the Width and Height settings (the area around the chain icon should be gray) and set the Height to 80%. Press Enter to commit the Height change, and then Enter again to commit the actual transformation (the shape’s path should still be active). Hold down ShiftOption-Command (PC: Shift-Alt-Ctrl) and tap T repeatedly about eight or nine times until the receding shapes almost reach the center guide.

Note: Since the shape’s path was active, all the duplicates should be on the same layer in the Layers panel. If you had entered step-and-repeat with any tool active other than the Rectangle tool, each duplicate would be on its own layer, so you’d need to Shift-select all the layers in the Layers panel and press Command-E (PC: Ctrl-E) to merge them into a single layer.

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STEP SEVEN: Go to the Paths panel (Window>Paths) and click in an empty space below the path so that none of the shapes are active. In the Layers panel, select the Rectangle shape layer and press Command-J (Ctrl-J) to make a duplicate.

Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to activate Free Transform. Go under the Edit menu, to Transform Path, and choose Flip Vertical. Then, drag the duplicate shape down until it snaps to the bottom edge of the canvas, and press Enter to commit the transformation.

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STEP EIGHT: Once the shapes are mirrored, Shift-click the original Rectangle layer in the Layers panel so both shape layers are selected and press Command-E to merge them into a single layer. Also, turn off the Background layer by clicking its Eye icon in the Layers panel to reveal the transparency behind the shapes.

STEP 10: Now that we have the basic pattern created and defined, let’s create a composite to which to add the effect.

Here we’re going for a sports theme with this really cool low-angle shot of a runner at the starting line. This will be the base image for the composite.

If you’d like to download the low-res watermarked version of this image to follow along, click this link, log in with your Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library button.

Right-click the image in the Libraries panel (Window> Libraries) and choose Edit to open it in Photoshop.

To make it easier to work with the image, increase the resolution of the practice file.

(We normally don’t recommend enlarging images, but this is only for practice purposes.)

Go to Image>Image Size, turn on the Resample checkbox, and select Preserve Details 2.0 from the Resample drop-down menu. First, set the Resolution to 300 ppi, and then set the Width to 2,500 pixels. Click OK.

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©Adobe Stock/vitaliy_melnik

STEP NINE: Now go under the Edit menu and choose Define Pattern. Name the new pattern when prompted so you can identify it, and click OK.

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STEP 11: Go to the Layers panel and create a new blank layer, and then press Shift-Delete (PC: Shift-Backspace) to open the Fill dialog. Set the Contents drop-down menu to 50% Gray, Mode to Normal, and Opacity to 100%. Click OK. This is just for the sake of visibility so we can see the text we’re about to create.

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STEP 12: Select the Type tool (T) in the Toolbar and click in the canvas area to set a text object and create a new text layer. We’re using the word “GO” in Eurostile Bold Extended Italic set to around 240 pt and black (for now). You can use any font you like, but it should be fairly bold so the word can still be made out when the effect is applied.

Don’t forget that in Photoshop you can go to Type>More from Adobe Fonts to go to the Adobe Fonts webpage to search for and activate fonts to use in your CC apps. You can see all the settings we’re using for our text in the Character panel shown here.

PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

STEP 13: Once the text is set, switch to the Move tool (V) and press Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to Select All. Go to the Options Bar and click on the Align Horizontal Centers icon followed by the Align Vertical Centers icon, which should center your text in the document. You can now turn off the gray-filled layer, as we don’t need it anymore, and press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to Deselect.

STEP 14: With the text now set, go to the Add a Layer Style icon (ƒx) at the bottom of the Layers panel, and choose Pattern Overlay. In the Layer Style dialog, click on the Pattern thumbnail to open the Pattern Picker and locate the line pattern you defined in Step Nine (it should be at the very bottom).

Pattern Overlay automatically tiles the pattern, so if you move the Layer Style dialog out of the way, you can click directly on the image and drag it around vertically but not horizontally. Well, it is moving horizontally but since it’s the same pattern in that direction it appears constant. Make sure Link with Layer is turned on, so when we move the text later, the pattern will move with it. Don’t click OK yet.

STEP 15: You’ll notice the gray line pattern is there but you can also still see the original black text color.

We want to see the background through the black lines which is why we defined the pattern on a transparent background. Go to the Blending Options section near the top of the list on the left side of the Layer Style dialog, and in the Advanced Blending section, lower the Fill Opacity to 0%. Click back on Pattern Overlay in the Layer Style dialog and reposition the pattern as needed. We moved it so there were larger gaps in the letters. Click OK.

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STEP 16: In addition to being able to manipulate the pattern, we also want to be able to easily change the color. If you add a Color Overlay layer style to the existing Pattern Overlay on this layer, it will colorize not just the gray lines but also the transparent areas where we don’t want color. Basically, it will affect the original shape.

Here’s a trick to get around this: Select the text layer in the Layers panel and press Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G) to place it in a group folder. Double-click the name of the layer group and rename it “GO Text 1.”

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STEP 17: Double-click to the right of the layer group folder’s name to open the Blending Options in the Layer Style dialog. Set the Fill Opacity to 0% just like before. Don’t click OK yet.

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STEP 18: Next, click on the words “Color Overlay” in the list on the left to activate it and access its settings. Click on the color swatch to open the Color Picker. The color you choose will depend on your particular design but in this case, we’ll use a simple light blue. Click OK to close the Color Picker, and then set the Blend Mode to Vivid Light and lower the Opacity to 30%.

Don’t click OK yet.

Note: If a layer style is missing from the list on the left side of the Layer Style dialog, click on the ƒx icon at the bottom left and choose the style from there to add it to the list.

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STEP 19: Activate Stroke in the list on the left. Set the fill Color to white and adjust the Size and Blend Mode accordingly. We’re using a very thin line set to Overlay to define the edge here.

STEP 20: Finally, activate Drop Shadow in the Layer Style dialog.

Click on the color swatch to open the Color Picker, click in the image to sample a dark blue, and click OK to close the Color Picker. Adjust Step 19

means you can simply drop in a new background image and change the text and effects accordingly.

Switch to the Move tool, and use the Up Arrow key on your keyboard to nudge the text up closer to the top of the document.

STEP 21: Double-click the word “Effects” below the layer group folder (not the text layer) in the Layers panel to go back to the Blending Options section in the Layer Style dialog.

In the Advanced Blending section, check on Layer Mask Hides Effects, and click OK.

Step 21

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the Opacity to around 40%. Set the Angle to 120°, and then adjust the Distance and Size to make the shadow softer and more subtle but enough to create some depth. Click OK when done.

After you have all the effects in place, you can double-click the words “Pattern Overlay” below the text layer in the Layers panel to reopen the Layer Style dialog and start playing with the position and Scale of the pattern, depending on your typeface and font size (we set Scale to 168%). Click OK when done. All of these effects are customizable, including the text, which

Step 20

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STEP 22: With the layer group active, click the Add Layer Mask icon (circle in a square) at the bottom of the Layers panel. Press D then X to set black as the Foreground color. Switch to the Gradient tool (G) and, in the Options Bar, click on the gradient thumbnail to open the Gradient

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STEP 23: For organizational purposes, I like to color-code the layers. Just Right-click on or near the Eye icon of a layer and choose a color. Since we’re going to be using a duplicate text layer, this will make it easier to manage.

In this case, we set the GO Text 1 layer group’s color to Blue.

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STEP 24: With the layer group active in the Layers panel, press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate it, and then change the color of the new group. Also, click on its layer mask thumbnail, press D to set the Foreground color to white, and press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill it with white to wipe the mask clean.

STEP 25: Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to activate Free Transform.

Hold down the Shift key, grab the top-left corner point, drag inward to scale the text down, and then position it to fit in the lower-right corner as shown here.

Press Enter when done.

Step 25

Editor. Select the Foreground to Transparent preset in the Basics set, and click OK to close the Gradient Editor. Back in the Options Bar, choose the Radial Gradient icon and, finally, lower the Opacity to 90%. Now just draw gradients in areas where you want to reveal more of the subject.

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STEP 26: Click the disclosure triangle next to the GO Text 1 copy layer group folder to expand it and reveal the text layer contained therein.

Double-click the text layer’s thumbnail to automatically switch to the Type tool and highlight the type in the document. And then type in new text. Here we just typed “RUN.” You may need to use Free Transform to resize the new text again.

STEP 27: Open the Layer Style dialog by double-clicking the word “Effects” under the layer group folder (not the text layer).

Turn off the Stroke, then go to Color Overlay and change the Blend Mode to Normal. Click on the color swatch, choose a new color (we’re using a red to complement the red on the subject), and click OK to close the Color Picker. Set the Opacity to 100%, and click OK in the Layer Style dialog.

Step 28

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STEP 28: Now double-click the words “Pattern Overlay” on the text layer within this group so we can adjust its pattern. First, since the text is much smaller, lower the Scale to around 55%. Also remember to manually adjust the position of the pattern to get the best look.

Here we’ve moved the pattern so the thinner lines are at the top of the text.

You can see how versatile this effect can be and how you can easily change it by altering the layer style settings in the layer groups. I encourage you to experiment with various facets and see how useful it can be for quick eye-catching effects.

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STEP 29: Here’s one more trick with masking to finish the composite. Here we have a really nice texture that we want to subtly blend in to enhance the look of our composite. If you’d like to download the low-res watermarked version of this image, click this link, log in with your Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library button. Right-click the image in the Libraries panel (Window>Libraries) and choose Edit to open it in Photoshop.

Once you have your image open, remove the color by pressing Shift-Command-U (PC: Shift-Ctrl-U).

STEP 30: Back in the working image, click on the Background layer in the Layers panel, and press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to make a duplicate of the layer.

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STEP 31: Using the Move tool, drag the texture into the working image.

Use Free Transform to scale and position it to fit the canvas area.

Once in place, press Enter.

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Step 31

©Adobe Stock/Vidady

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STEP 32: In the Layers panel, drag the texture layer below the Background copy layer.

STEP 33: Click on the Background copy layer in the Layers panel to make it active and add a layer mask. We’re going to use the Gradient tool again with the same Foreground to Transparent Radial Gradient that we used in Step 22, but this time we’ll lower the Opacity to 55% in the Options Bar. Draw gradients around the edges of the image to subtly reveal the texture pattern below.

Final

Step 33

So, with just a few basic shapes and a simple texture, you can build an effect that ’s reusable and easily shareable. Again, remember to try the effect with dif ferent images and set tings to discover a world of variations that can cater to almost any theme. n

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KIRK NELSON

PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

TITLE TREATMENT INSPIRED

BY MARVEL’S LOKI Marvel’s decision to expand the cinematic universe into properties that have weekly streaming episodes has shown itself to be a brilliant move! The highly acclaimed Loki series following the trickster god after the end of Avengers: Endgame just recently wrapped up on Disney+. The title treatment was a fun mixture of various styles and effects, and that treatment is our topic for this month!

While the base letter shapes are constructed using 3D in Photoshop, don’t think this is another project filled with endless hours waiting for a render just to tweak another setting and then waiting some more. The project quickly reverts back into the more traditional tools to create the texturing and lighting effects in a way that’s much easier to control and doesn’t involve re-rendering. That in itself is a trick worthy of Loki.

Editor’s Note: As of the May Photoshop update (22.4), the 3D tools have been quite buggy. The fix from Adobe is to go to Photoshop (PC: Edit)>Preferences>Technology Previews, turn on Deactivate Native Canvas, and restart Photoshop. This has worked for some but not for others.

The next workaround is to go back into Photoshop’s General Preferences, click the Reset Preferences on Quit button, 118

and then restart Photoshop (we know many people don’t want to reset their Preferences, so this may not be an option for you; the only other option would be to wait until Photoshop releases an update that fixes the 3D tools). After you restart Photoshop and your Preferences have been reset, then turn on Deactivate Native Canvas as described above and restart Photoshop again. Our apologies for the multiple workarounds, but this tutorial was written before the May Photoshop release, and we’ve been holding on to it awaiting a Photoshop update that fixes the 3D tools but, since that hasn’t happened yet, and the Loki series just ended, we wanted to get this into the magazine as soon as possible. And who knows, maybe Adobe will fix these issues by the time you read this, and then you can just ignore everything above. (As an FYI, Photoshop was on version 22.4.3 when this article was published.)

PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

STEP ONE: In Photoshop, create a new document by going to File>New and set the Width to 2800 pixels, Height to 1600 Pixels, Resolution to 72 ppi, and the Background Contents to Black.

Click Create. Then grab the Type tool (T), click on the Foreground color swatch near the bottom of the Toolbar, select a midtone gray, and click OK to close the Color Picker.

Type the letters “PSUM” in the middle of the canvas at a text size of 700 pts. Highlight each letter individually using the Type tool, and change the font as follows: the P to Ethnocentric Regular, S to EloquentJFPro Regular, U to Amador Regular, and M to Brokenscript OT Bold. These are all Adobe Fonts that you can sync with Photoshop. Just go to Type>More from Adobe Fonts, log in with your Adobe ID, search for the fonts you want to use, and then click their Activate Font switches.

Select all the letters with the Type tool, go to the Character panel (Window>Character), and make sure the Tracking (the space between letters) is set to 0.

STEP TWO: Extrude the text into 3D space by going to 3D>New 3D Extrusion from Selected Layer. If Photoshop asks you if you’d like to switch to the 3D workspace, click Yes. In the Properties panel, set the Extrusion Depth to 212 px.

Switch to the Cap tab (the third icon at the top of the panel) to adjust the Bevel settings. Set the Width to 30% and keep the Angle at 45°.

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STEP THREE: Each letter needs to have materials assigned to it, so the meshes need to be independent of each other. To do this, go to 3D>Split Extrusion. Photoshop creates individual meshes for each letter, but also gives the letters a strange offset in the image (we’ll fix that in a moment).

In the 3D panel (Window>3D), you’ll see each mesh in a layer group called New Group. Double-click the name of each mesh and rename it the same as the letter, so PSUM becomes P, PSUM 2 becomes S, PSUM 3 becomes U, and PSUM 4 becomes M. Note: In the image of the 3D panel shown here, I’ve collapsed the layer groups for each letter so they’re easier to see.

Click on the New Group layer folder in the 3D panel to make it active, and then in the Coordinates tab in the Properties panel, click Move to Ground. Select Current View in the 3D panel and switch to the Move tool (V).

In the Options Bar, you’ll see a set of 3D Move tools.

Select the Pan the 3D Camera tool (the third icon) and click-and-drag to slide the letters back into the center of the canvas.

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It may also be necessary to scale individual letters.

In this case, we want to make all the letters the same height as the S. With the Move tool active, click on any letter besides the S. You’ll see a widget appear in front of that letter. Hover your cursor over the little rectangle on the green arrow. You should see a tooltip that says Scale Along Y. Click-and-drag upward to stretch the height of the letter. Click-and-drag on the green arrow tip to move the letter so it aligns with the bottom of the S. Repeat for the other letters.

Now, click on the P in the document to make it active.

Hover your cursor over the red square on the red arrow of the widget. You should see a tooltip that says Scale Along X. Click-and-drag to the left to squish the P so it’s more narrow. Drag the red arrow tip to the right to move the P back closer to the S. Finally, if your letters seem to be too far back in the scene, click on Current View in the 3D panel, grab the Slide the 3D Camera tool in the Options Bar, and click-and-drag downward in the document to bring the camera closer to the letters.

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STEP FOUR: Go to the Filter By: Lights tab (fourth icon) in the 3D panel and click on the Environment light settings.

In the Properties panel, click on the Environment tab (the first icon), and set the IBL Intensity to 400% and change the Ground Plane Shadows Opacity to 0%.

Select the Infinite Light 1 in the 3D panel, and clickand-drag in the document to rotate the light so the source is coming in from the top right. Set its Shadow Softness to 25% in the Properties panel. Click the Add New Light to Scene icon (lightbulb) at the bottom of the 3D panel and select New Infinite Light. Rotate this one so it’s coming from the top left, and set its Shadow Softness to 25%, as well.

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©Adobe Stock/Old Concrete: voraphong pirawd/Metal Dirty Background: michalchm89

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STEP FIVE: Click back on the first icon at the top of the 3D panel, and expand the P layers. Click on its top material layer and Shift-select its bottom material layer so that all of the P’s material layers are selected. We’re going to use a green moss concrete stock image from Adobe Stock for the P. If you’d like to use the low-res preview version of this image, click here, log in with your Adobe ID, and click the Download Preview button.

Back in Photoshop, click on the little folder icon to the right of the Base Color swatch in the Properties panel, and select Load Texture. Navigate to the file you just downloaded, and click Open. (You might not see a change until you start the rendering process in the next step.) Set the Roughness to 23%.

Select all the material layers for the S and click on the preview thumbnail at the top right of the Properties panel to open the Material Picker. Click on the Gear

icon at the top right, and choose Large List. Scroll down and select the material Metal Gold. Set Metallic to 12% and Roughness to 35% (you may need to reselect all the material layers in the 3D panel before or after you adjust a slider).

For the U, we’re going to use a dark grunge metal texture from Adobe Stock. You can click here to download that image. Select all the materials for the U, click on the folder icon next to Base Color, select Load Texture, navigate to the image you just downloaded, and click Open.

Set the materials for the M to Plastic Acrylic (Blue) using the Material Picker; but click on the Base Color swatch; change the color to a green with RGB values of 0, 129, and 12; and click OK to close the Color Picker.

Change Metallic to 16% and Roughness to 57% (again make sure that all the material layers are selected before adjusting a slider).

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STEP SEVEN: Turn the P layer into a smart object by going to Layer>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Object.

Go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. Set the Hue to –6, Saturation to +22, and the Lightness to –7.

Click OK. Then, add a Curves adjustment and drag the

in the 3D panel for one of the letters, and then click on the page icon to the right of the Base Color swatch in the Properties panel and select Edit Texture. A temporary document will open where you can make changes to the texture, or even move it around. You’ll see a wireframe of the letter so you can place the exact section of the texture image that you want to appear on the letter. Just save and close that temporary document when you’re done.

After you’re happy with your text and the render is complete, go to the Layers panel and use the Lasso tool (L) to select each letter individually on the 3D layer and copy it to a new layer by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Double-click the name of each layer and rename it to match the letter on that layer, and then hide the 3D layer by clicking its Eye icon.

bottom curve point toward the right and the middle point upward slightly to increase the overall contrast of the letter. Click OK. Note: You may need to experiment with these and the following settings, as your 3D text most likely didn’t render exactly as ours did.

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STEP SIX: Render the scene with 3D>Render 3D Layer and wait for Photo­shop to finish cooking (it could take a while). You’ll get a general idea of what your text will look like right away, so if there’s anything you don’t like, press the Escape key to cancel the render, and experiment with your settings. For example, you can try different angles with the Infinite Lights, or you could click on any of the materials

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STEP EIGHT: Turn the S layer into a smart object. The golden appearance can be frustrating to get right as a rendered effect, but can be quicker and easier to achieve with more traditional tools. First, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment with a Hue of –6, Saturation of –46, and Lightness of –39. Click OK.

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STEP NINE: Now it’s time for some layer styles to better sell that golden appearance. Start by clicking on the Add a Layer Style icon (fx) at the bottom of the Layers panel and selecting Bevel & Emboss. Set the Depth to 261%, Size to 16 px, and Soften to 8 px. In the Shading section, turn off Use Global Light, and set the Angle to 38° and Altitude to 21°. Click on the Gloss Contour thumbnail, choose the Gaussian curve in the Preset drop-down menu in the Contour Picker, and click OK to close the Picker. Click on the Highlight Mode color swatch, set it to #d1c298, and click OK to close the Color Picker. Set the Shadow Mode color to #5d4824. Turn on Anti-Aliased and set both the Highlight and Shadow Mode Opacity to 75%.

Follow with a Satin layer style (click on the word “Satin” on the left of the Layer Style dialog to turn it on and access its settings). Set the Blend Mode to Color Dodge, the color to #e1e07f, Angle to –35°, Distance to 71 px, and Size to 80 px.

Finish with a Color Overlay layer style set to Soft Light with a color of #604c33 and Opacity at 74%. This should generate a rich creamy golden appearance for that letter. Click OK to apply all the layer styles.

PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

STEP 10: We want to add a scratched metal texture to the S. If you’d like to use the low-res version of the texture we’re using here, click this link, and click the Download Preview button on the Adobe Stock webpage. In Photoshop, go to File>Place Embedded, select the downloaded scratched metal texture, and click Place.

Position and scale the texture to cover the S and press enter to commit the image (it should automatically be a smart object).

Clip it to the S layer with Layer>Create Clipping Mask. Set the blending mode in the Layers panel to Soft Light and reduce the Opacity to 16%. Then add a Levels adjustment and push the midpoint to the right to about 0.35 to enhance the dark areas of the texture. Rename the layer “metalscratches.”

STEP 11: Duplicate the metalscratches texture layer with Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J), and make sure the duplicate is clipped to the S layer.

Then go to Image>Adjustments>Invert to invert the image. Change the blending mode to Linear Dodge (Add) and use the Move tool to move the layer slightly so it doesn’t align perfectly with the previous texture, so now the light scratches and dark scratches are in different places.

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Metal Scratches: ©Adobe Stock/schab

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STEP 12: To really complete the golden appearance, add a new layer named “Highlights” that’s also clipped to the S layer, and set its blending mode to Screen. Then grab the Brush tool (B) with a Soft Round tip, and set the Foreground color to a dull yellow paint color (#b1b63e). Paint in highlight gleams around the edges where the light hits the shape.

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STEP 13: Move to the U shape and convert it to a smart object too. Run a Levels adjustment and pull the midpoint to the right to darken the letter (there’s a chance that your U came out too dark, so try moving the Levels midpoint to the left and adjusting the highlights slider, as well, to lighten the letter). Click OK. Add a new layer named “Highlights” that’s clipped to the U layer and set its blending mode to Linear Dodge (Add).

Hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and click on the U layer’s thumbnail in the Layers panel to create a selection from it. Go to Select>Modify>Contract, contract the selection by 15 pixels, and click OK. Go to Select>Inverse to select the outside edge of the U shape.

With the Brush tool active, change the Foreground paint color to a light gray and paint in highlights on the rim of the U bevel in the middle and upper sections. If the effect seems too strong, reduce the Opacity to 50% in the Layers panel. Be sure to cancel the selection with Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D).

PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

STEP 14: Move to the M layer and turn it into a smart object as well. Run a Curves adjustment, but add several points along the curve and alternate the vertical positioning of each point so the curve resembles several steep hills as shown here. This is an easy way to add simulated light reflections on a surface that needs to look reflective. Click OK. Then run a Hue/Saturation adjustment and set the Hue to 0, Saturation to +67, and Lightness to –50. Click OK.

STEP 15: Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the layer thumbnail of the M to select it. Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to copy those pixels to a new layer, and name it “M - Copied.” Go to Image> Adjustments>Desaturate to turn the layer into grayscale. Run a Curves adjustment and configure the points to have one steep hill and one deep valley as shown here. Then set the layer blending mode to Color Dodge.

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STEP 16: Now we’ll create painted highlights for the M using the same technique that we used for the U. Create a new layer called “Highlights” that’s clipped to the original M layer with the blending mode set to Linear Dodge (Add). Create a selection of the M layer.

Contract the selection by 15 pixels (through Select>Modify>Contract) and Inverse the selection under the Select menu. Then use a brush with white paint (press D then X) and paint in the white highlights along the edges.

Cancel the selection with Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D).

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STEP 17: To add even more lighting complexity to the M, add a new layer called “Darks,” clip it to the M layer with the Highlights layer, and set its blending mode to Soft Light. Then switch the paint color to black (press X) and use a soft brush to lightly add deeper coloring to the uprights of the letter shape.

If the effect is too strong, simply reduce the Opacity to around 50%.

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STEP 18: For a fun little final detail, create a mimic of the Marvel Studios logo with one red rectangle (red color of #ed1b24), two narrow white rectangles, and white text. An approximation of the Marvel font is available online if you search for it, and the “Studios” text is Bebas Neue with the tracking set to –25.

The primary lesson from this tutorial is: Don’t limit your approach to achieving your desired effect. Photoshop is primarily a 2D pixel-pusher that has a handful of 3D capabilities. Don’t try to force the 3D features to do something that’s more easily accomplished in the regular layers and effects. Ultimately, you’ll find your own balance point between the two feature sets. Explore that until your workflow is perfectly balanced, as all things should be. n

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LESA SNIDER

BEGINNERS’ WORKSHOP

HOW TO CREATE A GLITCH EFFECT Virtual reality environments are now so realistic that unplugging feels like you’re exiting a real, yet digital world. In this column, you’ll learn how to apply a digital glitch effect to a photo that conveys how someone may look when deeply immersed in VR. Read on for some serious, sci-fi themed Photoshop fun!

STEP ONE: Open a photo in Photoshop and press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate the Background layer. (If you’re starting in Lightroom, select a thumbnail in the Library module and then choose Photo>Edit In>Adobe Photoshop 2021.)

If you’d like to download the low-res watermarked versions of this image to follow along, click this link, log in with your Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library button.

Right-click the image in the Libraries panel (Window>Libraries) and choose Edit to open it in Photoshop.

To make it easier to work with the image, increase the resolution of the practice file. (We normally don’t recommend enlarging images, but this is only for practice purposes.) Go to Image>Image Size, turn on the Resample checkbox, select Preserve 130

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©Adobe Stock/kegfire

Details 2.0 from the Resample drop-down menu, set the Width to 2,000 pixels, and click OK. Duplicate the Background layer as described above.

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STEP THREE: Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate the newly black-and-white layer.

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STEP TWO: Drain the color from the image by choosing Image> Adjustments>Black & White. In the dialog that opens, you can use the sliders to adjust the brightness levels of each color in the image; however, for this particular image, you can simply click OK.

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STEP FOUR: Double-click the thumbnail of the top layer (named Layer 1 copy) in the Layers panel and, in the Layer Style dialog that opens, turn off the R checkbox in the Advanced Blending section (circled). Photoshop excludes the red channel from blending with the layer below, which produces a double color exposure effect that will be visible after you move the layer in the next step. Click OK and notice the blending options icon on the layer (also circled).

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STEP FIVE: Press V to grab the Move tool (circled). Using the Left Arrow key on your keyboard, scoot the image to the left around 25 clicks, or until you see a good-sized strip of color appear.

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STEP SIX: Now let’s create a selection and scoot pixels left and right to create a pixelation look. Press M to grab the Rectangular Marquee tool (circled), and then click-and-drag to draw a somewhat thin selection near the top of the subject’s hair (say, around 40 pixels in height for a high-resolution image or 20 pixels for the Adobe preview image). Press V to switch to the Move tool and use the Right Arrow key on your keyboard to scoot the pixels to the right for about 10 clicks.

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BEGI N N E RS’ WORKSHOP

STEP EIGHT: Create a new layer at the top of your layer stack by clicking the Create a New Layer icon (+) at the bottom of the Layers panel (circled).

STEP NINE: Choose Edit>Fill and, in the resulting dialog, pick White from the Contents drop-down menu. Click OK.

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STEP SEVEN: Repeat the previous step to draw another selection a little farther below the original selection. Once you switch to the Move tool, use the Left Arrow key to scoot the pixels to the left for about 10 clicks. Repeat this process several times farther down on the subject. The goal is to make the subject look like she’s glitching between the real world and that of VR, so be sure to alternate between moving the pixels left or right. You can also vary the distance that you scoot the pixels, and leave more or less room between the selections so the space between the pixelated rows isn’t uniform (around 15 selections were created here). While roughly the same selection size was used, you can vary that too.

When you’re finished, choose Select>Deselect to get rid of the selection.

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STEP 10: Press D to set the color chips (circled) at the bottom of your Toolbar to the default settings of black and white. (The filter you’ll run in the next step uses these color chips.)

STEP 11: Choose Filter>Convert for Smart Filters, and then choose Filter>Filter Gallery. Open the Sketch category and click Halftone Pattern (circled). In the settings on the right side of the Filter Gallery dialog, set the Size slider to 5 and Contrast to around 15 (try a Size of 2 on the Adobe preview image). Set the Pattern Type drop-down menu to Line and click OK.

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Tip: Converting the white layer for smart filters gives you the option of reopening the filter to tweak the settings later on. To do that, double-click the words “Filter Gallery” in your Layers panel. Slick!

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STEP 12: In the Layers panel, set the blending mode menu to Overlay and lower the Opacity setting to around 80% (both settings are circled here).

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STEP 13: To bring back some of the original image color, activate the first black-and-white layer (named Layer 1) and lower the Opacity setting to around 50%. Here’s the final result.

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As you can see, this technique produces a striking and eye-catching effect! Until next time, may the creative force be with you all. n

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DAVE WILLIAMS

PHOTO EFFECTS

LONG-EXPOSURE HACKS: STREAKY CLOUDS & SILKY WATER Long-exposure photography is used to achieve a variety of results, including capturing sharp images in low-light conditions. One of the most common, creative applications of long exposures is to create silky smooth water and streaked clouds. When we’re out in the wild with our cameras and we want to create a long-exposure image, it’s best to rely on additional gear such as a tripod or Platypod and optical filters.

But sometimes we don’t have all our gear on us or perhaps we’re under time constraints, so then we can call on Photoshop to come to the rescue.

ALL IMAGES BY DAVE WILLIAMS

STREAKY CLOUDS A true outdoor long exposure has streaky clouds with a level of detail that’s determined by the length of the exposure. The clouds travel in the direction of the wind and sometimes will move in different directions at different heights. This technique in Photoshop is straightforward, so let’s get to it: 136

STEP ONE: Make your base edits first, using any retouching methods you desire in either Lightroom or Photoshop.

When you’re satisfied with your image, open it in Adobe Photoshop (if it isn’t there already).

We now need to select the sky. The simplest method for this is the Quick Selection tool, so activate it by

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PHOTO EFFECTS

holding the Shift key and tapping W on the keyboard until it’s active in the Toolbar. Click-and-drag the tool over the sky area until it’s completely selected. In this image, there’s clear contrast where the sky meets the mountains, so the Quick Selection works well.

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STEP TWO: With the basic selection made, we can fine-tune anything that should or shouldn’t be part of the selected area. In the Options Bar at the top, click Select and Mask to access options for refining your selection. Choose an option in the View menu at the top of the Properties panel to see different representations for your selection.

The red mask shown here is the Overlay (V) option, which shows the areas that aren’t selected, but use whichever View mode works best for your image.

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STEP THREE: The Select and Mask workspace has its own mini Toolbar at the top left, and the Quick Selection tool should automatically be active at the top of it. You can refine the selection by simply drawing over portions that you wish to add to the selection; in Overlay mode, this will remove the red overlay. For areas that you wish to remove from the selection, hold the Option (PC: Alt) key while painting over those areas, which will add the red overlay. Some of the layered mountain peaks in this image weren’t selected, so those are the areas we refined.

It ’s worth noting that, because of the long-exposure effect that we’re going to create, your selection doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect; it’s good enough when you have a clear edge in the right place. Once your selection is ready, click OK at the bottom right of the Properties panel to exit out of Select and Mask.

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STEP FOUR: Whenever you work with selections that you think you may want to use again, you can store them safely by going to the Select menu and choosing Save Selection. You’ll be presented with a dialog that allows you to name and save your selection should you ever need to come back to it later. To reload it, just choose Load Selection in the Select menu.

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PHOTO EFFECTS

STEP SIX: Next, go to Layer> Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Object. Converting this layer to a smart object ensures that its contents will be preserved, allowing nondestructive edits.

We then need to apply a layer mask to our sky layer so that when we blur the sky in the next steps, the blurred areas won’t be visible over the mountains in the Background layer. Hold the Command (PC: Alt) key, and click on the layer thumbnail of the sky layer. This will place a selection around the sky.

Then, click the Add Layer Mask icon (circle in a square) at the bottom of the Layers panel. Photoshop will use the selection to create the mask.

We need to unlink the layer mask from the layer itself. To do this, click on the chain link icon between the layer thumbnail and the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers panel. Now any changes we make to the layer won’t affect the layer mask.

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STEP FIVE: With the selection active, create a new layer from it by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Our new layer looks like the image shown here when it’s the only visible layer, as it only contains the sky. Even though this is the only portion of the image on which we’ll be working, we’re going to keep all the layers visible so we can see the overall changes as we move along.

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STEP SEVEN: Before we apply the blur effect, make sure the layer thumbnail for the sky layer is active by clicking on it in the Layers panel. Now let’s add a Radial Blur filter by going to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur.

A dialog will appear that gives you a few choices. The Amount will vary depending on the resolution of your image; in this case, we’ve selected 50. For the Blur Method, select Zoom to give the impression that the clouds are radiating out from a vanishing point in the image. You can determine this point by click-and-dragging in the Blur Center preview. Set the blur center so that it corresponds to the point within your image from where you want your cloud movement to emanate. For Quality, it goes without saying to select Best. With all the selections made, click OK. Our image now looks like this with streaked clouds.

If your image calls for a different style of blur, you could use the Motion Blur filter, which causes the streaking clouds to move in a single direction rather than outward from a vanishing point as we did.

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STEP EIGHT: Before we move on to blurring the water in this image, let’s fix the contrast of the sky. Command-click (PC: Alt-click) on the layer thumbnail for the sky to select it again. Then go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves. Again, Photoshop will use the selection to create the mask for the Curves layer. In the Properties panel (Window>Properties), you can quickly and easily change the brightness and contrast of the sky using the curve. We’ll apply an S curve as shown here, which will increase the contrast and give a more realistic look to our blur.

We can now tackle the water.

What the sky would look like using Motion Blur instead of Radial Blur

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PHOTO EFFECTS

SILKY WATER Silky smooth water is another common characteristic of long-exposure photography. In camera, the effect is achieved by allowing the motion of the water to be captured onto the sensor, and then the resulting frame contains all of that motion. Moving water captured with a long exposure loses any glass-like appearance, and its details are absorbed into the repetitive up and down, back and forth motion of the water.

STEP 10: With the selection made, create a new layer from it using Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). To reinstate the selection, click on the layer thumbnail while holding the Command (PC: Ctrl) key. Just as before, add a layer mask using the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, and then click on the chain link between the layer thumbnail and the layer mask thumbnail to detach the layer mask. Click on the layer thumbnail to make it active and not the mask.

STEP NINE: First we need to make a selection of the water using the Quick Selection tool. Before making the selection, make the Background layer the active layer by clicking on it in the Layers panel. In this image, we’ve selected portions of the water that would be free moving, which doesn’t include the thick ice or the rock in the water. Just like we did with the sky, you can use the Select and Mask feature to refine the selection, adding or removing any areas from the selection as necessary.

STEP 11: Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur. In the resulting dialog, the Angle determines the direction of the blur so, in this case, because we want the water to be quite flat as it has no obvious direction of flow, we’ll use 0°. If the water is clearly moving in a particular direction, use an Angle to suit the feel of your image. The Distance determines the spread of the pixels. We’ve chosen quite a long spread of 625 pixels to really dull the water and give it as much of a milky appearance as is reasonable to expect from a genuine long-exposure image. Click OK to close the dialog.

Step 10

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Step Nine

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Now, we have the long-exposure effect applied to both the sky and the water, using similar techniques with effective results. And if you’d like, you’re ready to make any further adjustments to influence the overall look of the image with this look applied. n

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SCOTT VALENTINE

PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND

USING BLEND MODES WITH ADJUSTMENT LAYERS This month, let’s take a little trip into the “Hey, that’s neat!” category of image adjustments in Photoshop.

If you don’t already know, you can change the blend mode of an adjustment layer to double up on its utility and power. Classic examples use Multiply, Screen, Overlay, or Soft Light to enhance contrast or brighten a dull photo. Normally, you’d use these with a Curves adjustment layer and fiddle with Opacity values to dial in your results. This technique ought to be in your bag of tricks, and it’s often used for advanced dodge-and-burn methods.

GO WITH THE FILL But there’s definitely more to be had from this basic idea of contrast enhancement, in particular when taking advantage of some of the so-called “Special 8” blending modes that behave differently when using the Fill slider instead of the Opacity slider. One of my favorite things to show off is how this works with the Hard Mix blending mode, because the immediate result is harsh and often just plain ugly. Check out this rather dull image of grasses along a local pond, and then take a look at the version where I added a Curves adjustment layer above the Background and set its blend mode to Hard Mix. “Eww! This is an abomination! Why, Scott? Oh, why?” Okay, it’s horrible, I admit.

Reducing the Opacity to 20% isn’t much better. Highlight details are all smushed, and some of the colors are just awful. Now let’s put Opacity back to 100% and instead set Fill to 20%.

That’s more like it! Contrast is much better, and there are no funky, clipped colors or muddy spots. The difference between Opacity and Fill is quite dramatic here, and it’s likely that you’d never have considered even trying Hard Mix in this way. The other two contrast modes in the Special 8 are Linear Light and Vivid Light. Both behave in similar ways, and offer stronger results than Overlay and the rest, though less total contrast than Hard Mix. 14 4

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With Curves adjustment layer set to Hard Mix

Opacity at 20%

Fill at 20%

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Using blend modes in this way increases the flexibility of Curves, and sometimes saves several steps or helps you achieve something that may otherwise require careful masking or other tricks. This shot of a night sky has a little too much glow for my taste. Adding a Curves adjustment

PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND

with Vivid Light lets me reduce the sky glow but retain detail in the clouds.

Since Vivid Light is increasing contrast, I’m able to manipulate the middle values more easily without creating a complex curve or using a luminosity mask.

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I’ve used 29% Fill, and also adjusted the Blend If sliders for the Underlying Layer in the Layer Style dialog to keep a hint of the tree outline on the left. (To open the Blending Options, double-click to the right of the Curve layer’s name in the Layers panel, and to split the sliders, hold the Option [PC: Alt] key and click on them.)

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With Curves adjustment layer set to Vivid Light

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BLENDING PORTRAITS The same technique applies to portraits, though there are some caveats around hue and saturation. In this image, using Linear Burn at 20% Fill gave me the tonality I wanted in the model’s skin, but increased saturation too much. The simple fix in this case is to

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Linear Burn is one of the Darken blend modes, similar to Multiply but with a much stronger effect. Going in the opposite direction, we can use Linear Dodge (Add) from the Lighten collection of blend modes to recover a slight underexposure.

In this case, no other adjustments were needed, not even a reduction in the Fill value. Linear Dodge (Add) is stronger than Screen, allowing for much more dramatic corrections.

Notice that I could have obtained a similar result simply by using Curves alone, but the blend mode did the heavy lifting, leaving me to use Curves for more delicate refinements.

add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer on top of the Curves adjustment, reducing Saturation by –15. I’ve also used the Brush tool (B) set to black to paint on the masks of the two adjustment layers to show the color of her eyes.

Linear Burn at 20% Fill

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Linear Dodge (Add)

Hue/Saturation with Saturation at –15

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MIXING THINGS UP Using blend modes in this way provides a lot of flexibility when you need more extreme adjustments and, while I’ve focused on a handful that respond differently to Fill and Opacity, there’s no real need to stick with only those, nor do you need to limit yourself to one blended Curves layer.

Here’s another picture of pond grass that was overexposed, then treated to a custom stack of adjustment layers.

I ended up using a Black & White adjustment layer set to Luminosity blending, then two Curves adjustments on top of that. The first Curves adjustment is set to Color Burn blending and about 10% Fill, then the white Blend If slider for Underlying Layer is split all the way from 0 to 255. That split provides a smooth transition for the blend, which darkens the base of the grasses and increases saturation. To bring down the highlights, the top Curves adjustment uses Linear Burn at 100% Fill, and Blend If adjusted to avoid affecting the shadow areas.

Nearly all the work is done by the blend modes, and I still have the ability to use the Curves layers for contrast refinement and color adjustment.

PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND

ALL IMAGES BY SCOTT VALENTINE

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Note: The Black & White adjustment layer is used to help bring down the blue and cyan brightness in the sky and the yellow in the blades of grass. Luminosity blend mode causes the Black & White layer to behave like a color brightness control panel: the color sliders in the Properties panel (Window>Properties) affect the brightness of each of six colors without shifting their hues.

KNOW YOUR BLEND MODES

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Now, I’m not going to argue that this approach is inherently better than other methods you’re used to. In some cases, blend modes allow you to target colors or brightness directly without having to create masks. And in the examples above, there was no real need for detailed work to get reasonable results in just a few seconds. You do need some familiarity, however, with how blend modes work for there to be any speed gains. Unlike creative effects where you’re exploring different looks, corrections are often something you can see right away, and trying out all 27 blend modes in the list isn’t exactly a fast approach.

When you need to increase contrast in an image where the dominant tones are in the midrange, try Linear Light or Vivid Light (or Hard Mix if everything hovers around middle gray). For images that are too bright, try Color Burn and Linear Burn in the Darken set. And to lighten things up, head for Color Dodge and Linear Dodge (Add) in the Lighten collection. Each of these listed modes should be used with Fill before Opacity because of the different behaviors, which I’ll discuss in detail in a future column. n

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DAVE CLAYTON

DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

RE-CREATING OLD-STYLE EPHEMERA If there’s one thing I love doing, it’s creating new artwork that looks old. The power of Photoshop gives us many options to distort, distress, recolor, and more; kind of the opposite of retouching, or “de-touching.”

Looking back at the many years of pre-computer design, there are so many wonderful treasures to be found among old, printed ephemera. Created by artists who were never credited and long forgotten, they made such eye-catching products, branding, and design.

There are many treasures to be found at junkyards and garage sales. Look for old packaging, tickets, leaflets, gum cards, or matchbook-style graphics, which is the focus of this month’s tutorial. These were simple illustrations with 14 8

maybe four colors at the most, and printed on various types of cards or paper. Part of the joy of the design is the imperfections in the print process and the distressed condition of the paper or card on which it’s printed.

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DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

FREE COOL RESOURCES Finding the right kinds of graphics for these projects couldn’t be easier.

Thanks to copyright laws and museum collections of scanned and collated art, thousands of old images are available to download and use for both personal and commercial work.

One such site that has curated some of these pieces is Heritage Type. They have a great collection of free-to-use graphics. For this issue’s tutorial, we’re going to use their Baseball Buddies pack, but you can use any of their available images to re-create this old ephemera look. You can also use the images to create fun collages, which I’ll cover in a future tutorial. We’re also going to use a free paper texture that you can get by signing up for Heritage Type’s newsletter, but again, you can use any paper or card texture you want.

STEP ONE: CREATE FILE Although matchbooks are small, we’re going to create a 6x6" file, which is perfect for Instagram.

So go to File> New and make a 6x6" file at 300 ppi and RGB Color (we’re assuming this is for the web, but use CMYK if you intend to send it off for print). Click Create.

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Go to File>Place Embedded, navigate to the downloaded Baseball Buddies pack, select your baseball character, and click Place. We’re using the HTC_Heritage Library_BaseballElement 4.pdf in the Vector folder, but you can place any file, be it JPEG, PNG, or vector/PDF. I prefer a vector file, as it means I can always take it into Illustrator to make changes.

In this instance, since the file is a vector PDF, when the Open As Smart Object dialog appears, select Page, and click OK. Press Enter, and now the player is placed in the document.

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STEP TWO: ADD CHARACTER

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