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LEARN PHOTOSHOP CC & LIGHTROOM TODAY! Issue 125 August 2021

5 EXPERT LESSONS

VIDEO PLUS

SUPERHERO EFFECTS TEXTURE TRICKS SUNSET PORTRAITS

TURBO CHARGE YOUR WORKFLOW

Editor James Paterson Art Editor Rosie Webber Production Editor Richard Hill Content Director Chris George Senior Art Editor Warren Brown

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

Welcome to issue 125 of Practical Photoshop!

If you enjoy the issue, why not subscribe and get a whole year forEveryone just $19.

9 9? has their own approach to image-editing, but there are a few universal workflow tricks that we can all take advantage of. So if you have the need for speed, read on to find a host of tips and tricks to transform you into a Photoshop whizz.

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

www.digitalcameraworld.com TURBO CHARGE CREATE THE YOUR WORKFLOW nCOVER IMAGE Make a speedy nTips and tricks to make you faster and more efficient

effect with the help of Actions

TURN THE KIDS INTO TOP TEXTURE SUPERHEROES TRICKS nGet creative with nMaster this Blending Modes for amazing portraits

image-enhancing raw command

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PORTRAITS ATnTake SUNSET and edit

amazing people photos at day’s end

TURBO CHARGE YOUR WORKFLOW Learn essential tips, time-saving Photoshop tricks and speedy special effects to turbo-charge your workflow DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE http://bit.ly/pho_125 ON YOUR PC OR MAC

MASTER LIGHTROOM IMPORTS

The best time to start organizing your images is when you first download them, before the excitement of looking through them gets in the way of housekeeping.

The Lightroom Classic Import dialog offers a wealth of useful workflow tools. Here you can choose a backup location and folder, make collections, add keywords, build Smart Previews, embed copyright data and more. A few seconds spent working through the options here can save you bags of time in the long run.

GET TO GRIPS WITH KEYWORDS IN LIGHTROOM

Keywording is vital for an organized image library: it allows you to quickly find any photo you might need, whether it was taken yesterday or a decade ago. As well as adding keywords when you import into Lightroom, you have lots of keywording options in the Library Module. Here you can add keywords to the field (press Cmd/Ctrl+K to quickly make the box active), or use the Keyword Sets Panel to add common tags (hold Alt and you’ll see numbers appear against each; tap a number to add). Under the Metadata menu you can also set up your own custom keyword shortcut, which you can then add to highlighted images by tapping Shift+K (think K for keyword). The spray can found at the bottom of the panel (when in Grid View) can also be loaded with keywords. With it you can sample keywords from one photo, then spray over others to quickly copy them.

If you’re looking for an image, there are a few ways to find it using the keywords you’ve previously added.

First there’s the keyword list

in the Library Panel, which lists all the keywords you’ve added to your photos. Click the arrow icon next to any word to see all the images assigned with that keyword.

Then there’s the Library Filter (tap \ to toggle it off or on). Use the search fields at the top to search for a specific keyword.

By default, keywords are stored in the Catalog with all the other data about your photos, like ratings and edits.

This could pose a problem if you want the keywords to be used in other apps.

There’s a way to save your keywords and metadata to the individual file, so if the file moves, the keywords

go with it. For individual images go to Metadata > Save Metadata To File. To set it up so that Lightroom automatically does it for all your photos, go to Lightroom > Catalog Settings and check Automatically Write Changes To XMP in the Metadata tab.

BOOST YOUR PHOTOSHOP BRUSHING SKILLS

Tons of tools in Photoshop are based around a brush interface, so we inevitably spend a lot of time brushing. As such, any time-saving brush tricks we can learn will save a heap of time in the long run. One of the biggest time-savers is a graphics tablet. It takes

a little getting used to, but it has huge advantages over using a mouse. You can make use of pressure and tilt capabilities in the pen to control your brushing to a far greater degree than a mouse. It’s also much easier to draw curved lines and paint precisely. Many tablets

offer shortcut keys you can use alongside your keyboard to make common keystrokes or actions. On top of all this, it just looks cooler to be using a pen compared to all of your mouse-dragging mates. Put simply, a pen and tablet will make you a better brusher.

EMBRACE LIGHTROOM COLLECTIONS Collections are like Lightroom’s answer to traditional folders, but they have extra benefits. You can set up your collections just like a normal folder structure, using Collection Sets to house them. But the structure remains independent of your file

locations on your hard drive.

So you can use it like a secondary structure to sort your photos, without having to copy and paste them into different locations on your drive. This also means an image can be present in several collections at once, without making storage-

hogging duplicates of the file. To make a collection, click the plus next to the Collections Panel. The panel is present throughout Lightroom’s Modules, which makes it easy to take a set of photos through the Develop Module then on to the Print or Slideshow Modules.

OPEN AS LAYERS

This handy command saves lots of time whenever you need to open several versions of an image into one document, such as when you’re focus-stacking or making a triptych. Simply

highlight the set of images in Bridge then go to Tools > Photoshop > Load Files Into Photoshop Layers.

You can also run a similar command from within Photoshop – go to File >

Scripts > Load Files Into Stack. If you prefer to open images through Lightroom, on the other hand, highlight several photos, then go to Edit In > Open As Layers In Photoshop.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF LINKED SMART OBJECTS After making a Smart Object, we can link it to other Smart Object,s so any changes we make to that image are replicated in all of the duplicate Smart Objects within our document.

This means you could, for example, alter several similar icons in a document at once, which would be a huge timesaver when making designs or mocking up web pages.

Simply highlight the layers

that make up the image or design, right-click and select Convert To Smart Object to house them all within the same bubble. Then duplicate and reuse the smart object in other places or artboards.

To make changes later, double-click any of the Smart Object layers to open it up in a new window, then make your changes and save. All the other Smart Objects will be updated in the same way.

The Place Linked command (File > Place Linked) works in a similar way. It allows you to place an image or file saved on your drive into an open document. If the original file is changed later, then the Smart Object can be updated to reflect the changes. This doesn’t happen automatically, however: you need to go to the Properties Panel to update the Smart Object.

CROP WITH CONTENT-AWARE

The Crop Tool’s main job is to remove parts of a photo by cropping in tighter, but you can also use it to expand a canvas by dragging outside of the original image window to enlarge it. There’s also

a handy Content-Aware feature in the Crop Tool options at the top. Toggle this on and, when cropping outside the original canvas, Photoshop will attempt to fill in the extra areas by generating new pixels.

The results will depend on the complexity and size of the fill. If the backdrop is fairly simple, then the fill can be very successful – and even if it’s not perfect, it may take just a few moments spent cloning to finish off.

USE PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS Actions let you record a sequence of edits, commands and changes to an image, then replay them on other images. They’re a huge time-saver, especially when it comes to making everyday, monotonous edits like cropping to a specific print size or sharpening the image.

To set up an Action, go to Window > Actions. The panel can be set to Button Mode (click the flyout menu at the top of the panel), which gives you a neat set of buttons, but you’ll need to turn this mode off while making Actions.

To make a new Action, click the icon at the bottom.

Give the Action a name and click Record. From this moment, anything you do will be recorded within the Action, so think carefully about the sequence of edits you want to make. One done, click the Stop button.

Then open another image, highlight the Action and click Play to run the same set of edits again.

Often when making an Action there will be points where you’d prefer the sequence of edits to pause, so that you can manually change a setting.

For example, if the Action includes a sharpening filter, then this would be a good moment to pause it so that

you can fine-tune the level of sharpening required for that specific image. You can build these pauses into the Action after you’ve made them. Simply expand the Action in the panel so that you can see all the individual steps, then check the box to the left of a step to pause at a particular command.

One of the other great uses for Actions is the Batch command. This allows you to run an action on an entire set of photos. Go to File > Automate > Batch; choose the Action you wish to use; set a source and destination folder; then click OK to quickly alter an entire folder of images at once.

CREATE THE COVER IMAGE Make a speedy special effect and learn how timesaving actions can help progress your projects

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3xNRs41

01

PREPARE THE BACKGROUND Open the image (we used

a free image from Pixabay. com; search for 884069) then go to Select > Subject.

Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy to a new layer. Highlight the bottom layer then grab the Clone Tool. Clone the tarmac across the background.

Grab the Crop Tool, check Content-Aware and crop to enlarge the canvas.

03 STEP AND REPEAT Press Cmd/Ctrl +T to transform the area. Use the arrow keys to nudge it a few pixels where you want it to streak (five taps right, one tap up here). Press Return to apply, then press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T repeatedly to extend the effect until the streak is a good length.

02

START THE ACTION Highlight the top

layer and grab the Lasso Tool from the toolbar.

Zoom in and make a small selection of part of the bike or rider. Next, go to Window > Actions and click the New Action icon. Give it a name, then click Record.

Everything you do now will be recorded. First copy the selected area to a new layer with Cmd/Ctrl+J.

04

TEST THE ACTION Now press Cmd/

Ctrl+E repeatedly to gradually merge your layers down until the entire streak is on one single layer. The Action is now complete, so click the Stop button. Next, test it out. Highlight the motorbike layer, make a small selection of another layer, then highlight the Action and click Play.

06 ADD A SHADOW

Once you’ve built up lots of streaks on different layers, double-click one of the layers to open the Layer Style options then check Drop Shadow. Use the settings to add a subtle shadow effect below the streak, so that it adds depth. You can drag within the image to change the position of the shadow relative to the streak.

05

WARP THE STREAK Highlight one of the

streak layers, press Cmd/ Ctrl+T to transform, then right-click and choose Warp. Drag the end of the streak to curve and skew the layer. Repeat for the other layer. Next continue in the same way – highlight the motorbike layer, make a selection, run the Action, then warp the streak.

07

COPY AND GROUP Click OK, then right-

click the layer and choose Copy Layer Style from the resulting pop-up menu.

Shift-click between the top and bottom streak layersto highlightthem all, then right-click over them and select Paste Layer Style. With all the layersstill highlighted, press Cmd/Ctrl+G to group them together.

09 TONE THE IMAGE

Press Cmd/Ctrl +Shift+Alt+E to merge a copy of all the layers, then go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter. In Camera Raw, choose a Profile in the Profile Browser to alter the colors, then use the tonal tools to finish off the image in any way you like. We’ve also added a vignette here, using the Radial Filter to direct focus onto the bike.

08

HIDE THE SHADOW EDGES Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy

the group. Highlight the layers within the new group, right-click and select Clear Layer Style. Press Cmd/Ctrl+E to merge into a layer, then Cmd/Ctrlclick the layer thumbnail to load it as a selection.

Highlight thelayer group below, then click Add Mask.

Hide the top layer.

TURN KIDS INTO SUPERHEROES James Paterson shows you how to add special effects to your portraits and master Photoshop blending skills

Why not give the kids a superhero makeover? By utilizing the power of Blending Modes and a range of free images, it’s easier than it might look to create a shot that could pass for a movie poster.

The key skill here is in mastering layer Blending Modes. These let us combine our portrait with our set of other images. The most useful Blending https://bit.ly/3imXRwA Mode for this is Screen, which adds together the brighter parts from each image, cancelling out black areas. It means we can start with a black background, then build up our layers on top.

By using Screen we can blend images of fireworks, flames and stars to build up our special effect with ease. We downloaded our shots from www.pixabay. com – search for 2585843, 3860177, 5456206, a portrait for you to practise 1285364 and 3129573. with, but you can shoot We’ll also make use of the your own. All you need to do Select Subject command, is capture a person (a child which lets us cut out our or otherwise) in a heroic subject. We’ve provided pose; place them against

WATCH THE VIDEO

BEFORE

AFTER a plain backdrop so they’re easier to cut out. You could even take it a step further by adding a moviestyle title or other graphic elements to the scene.

DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE http://bit.ly/pho_125 ON YOUR PC OR MAC

01

CUT OUT THE SUBJECT Open the portrait

image, then go to Select > Subject. Once selected,click the Add Mask icon in the Layers Panel. Next, click the Create Adjustment Layer icon. Choose Color Lookup from the resulting pop-up menu. Click the square Clip To Layer icon and choose the Edgy Amber LUT. Lower the layer opacity slightly.

02

BLEND IN SOME FIREWORKS Make a new layer, drag it

to the bottom of the stack and fill itwith black. Open the fireworks image (search 2585843 on www.pixabay. com). Drag-and-drop it into your image, then drag it just above the black layer at the bottom. Press Cmd/Ctrl+T if you need to resize the fireworks layer to fit.

03

ADD MORE IMAGES Download image art-

3860177.Drag-and-drop it into the portrait image and resize. Position the layer below the cut-out portrait in the layer stack, then go to the Layers Paneland change this layer’s Blending Mode to Screen. Repeat the whole process described within this step for the image universe-5456206.

04

LIQUIFY THE LAYER Drop in the image

05

FINAL COMPONENT Add a Layer Mask

06

CHOOSE A PROFILE A tonal change at the

explosion-1285364,and again set it to the Screen Blending Mode so that the darker areas get cancelled out. Position the image to one side of thefigure, then go to Filter > Liquify. Use the Forward Warp Tool to stretch out the lines, creating a wing-like shape on one half of the figure. and paint black to hide any unwanted parts of the wingshape layer, then duplicate the layer (Cmd/Ctrl+J) and repeat for the other side.

Next, drag in the image meteor-3129573 and set it to the Screen Blending Mode.

Drag this layer to the top of the layer stack and position it over the figure. end of the project will help all of the elements you’ve added work together. Press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to merge a new layer. Go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter.

Choose a Profile to alter the colors. We’ve used Artistic02 here, and added a white vignette to lighten the cornersa little.

AFTER

WATCH THE VI D EO https://bit.ly/3wMYDZ3

TAKE CONTROL OF DETAIL

BEFORE

Get to grips with one of the best tools for boosting details and enhancing portraits

The Texture control is one of the best tools in Camera Raw and Lightroom for controlling details in your images. On the face of it, the slider is very simple – drag one way to increase detail, drag the other way to decrease it. But in combination with other Camera Raw or Lightroom tools like the Adjustment Brush and Range Masking,

the Texture command becomes really powerful.

While the name may imply that this tool is best at enhancing textures, it’s often at its best when doing precisely the opposite.

A negative value can result in a wonderful softening effect – useful for de-emphasizing overly busy parts of your frame, or for speedy skin softening in portraits.

In this project we’ll look at how to get the most out of the setting by applying it locally. This can be done in either Camera Raw or Lightroom, which have almost identical controls.

We’ve used the Texture command here to soften the skin over the face and enhance the details in the fur hood, but you’ll find it useful for all kinds of editing tasks.

DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE https://bit.ly/pho_125 ON YOUR PC OR MAC

2 3 1

1

THETheTEXTURE SLIDER Texture slider is

available in Camera Raw and Lightroom, as well as within the Camera Raw Filter in Photoshop. You’ll find the Texture slider both in the Basic Panel and also within the settings for the three local adjustment tools (the Adjustment Brush, Radial Filter and Graduated Filter).

It works by targeting the high-frequency details (essentially the fine details) within your scene.

2

ADJUSTMENT BRUSH The Texture effect rarely

works effectively when you apply universally over an image. It’s much more effective when it’s applied locally, using the Adjustment Brush. This way, we can paint the texture into areas that need it and leave everything else untouched. Simply grab the Adjustment Brush, load it with positive or negative Texture, then start painting.

You can hold Alt and paint to subtract areas.

3

BRUSH OVERLAY When we paint texture

with the Adjustment Brush we can toggle on a mask overlay that shows where we’ve painted. Press Y to turn it on or off, and use the color box in the settings on the right to choose an overlay color. (Green is good for portraits, because it contrasts with skin tones.)

The overlay is useful when adjusting Range Mask controls, as it shows exactly which areas are targeted.

4

5

6 4

NEGATIVE TEXTURE ON FACES A negative Texture setting

5

6

CLARITY VS TEXTURE RANGE MASKING FOR SKIN Clarity is similar to Texture Range Masking is one

in that it can also be used to can be fantastic for skin enhance or soften details. tones. In fact, using negative But Clarity has more of an texture is often more useful effect on smooth details, than positive texture. Not whereas Texture leaves smooth areas alone and only is it good for applying a swift skin-softening effect, works more on the fine it’s also handy for softening details. As such, Clarity is often a better choice for sharp details or rough, patchy tones. Simply paint over the selectively boosting surfaces area with the Adjustment like rocks or trees. Texture, on the other hand, is better Brush, then lower the Texture slider to a negative for pulling detail out of finer value to soften the details. surfaces, like the fur hood.

of Adobe’s best selective editing tools. It works by targeting areas based on color or luminosity. Here it means we can paint loosely and quickly over the skin with the Adjustment Brush, then turn on the Range Masking color setting and sample the colors in the skin. Everything apart from the sampled colors will be excluded, giving us a precise local adjustment.

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PORTRAITS AT SUNSET

James Paterson shows how you can shoot vibrant photos of your friends and family at sundown - even if the sun doesn’t appear

The golden hour has long been known as the best time of day to capture gorgeous landscape photos, but it’s being increasingly used by portrait photographers too. As the sun goes down the vibrant colors can create a stunning backdrop for portraits. And even if the sky doesn’t erupt into color, it’s still a great time to head out for the chance of dramatic clouds.

The key challenge to overcome is the strong backlighting we get when

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/2UZQfZ1 shooting towards the setting sun. This makes it tricky to get a balanced exposure, because the subject’s front will be in deep shade. If we were using natural light alone we could expose for the shade, but this would blow out the sky; or we could expose for the bright sky, but then the subject would be in silhouette. Either can lead to great portraits, but to record detail in the sky and the subject, we must supplement the natural light with some of our own.

An off-camera flash is ideal for achieving this goal.

A pop of light at the right moment will let us balance out the bold clouds with the light on our subject for a stunning sunset portrait.

When it comes to choosing the right light you could use a flashgun for this, but a larger flash unit gives you more control and power over your frame.

When we can manage to get the flash working in harmony with the setting sun, the results can be truly spectacular.

DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE http://bit.ly/pho_125 ON YOUR PC OR MAC

3

1 2 5

4

STUNNINGSUNDOWNERS Set up an outdoor off-camera flash to light

6

your subject for dramatic sunset portraits

1 SETTING SUN The best angle for our

2 LOCATION Think of a location near

3 OUTDOOR FLASH A standalone flash unit, like

4 MODIFIER & LIGHT STAND Light modifiers, like

5 FLASH TRIGGER When shooting with an

6 WHITE BALANCE Set the white balance to

sunset portrait will usually you that will work for your the Godox AD300Pro here, is be shooting towards the sunset portrait, and consider ideal, as the output is enough sun. The most vibrant colors the direction of the setting to balance with the sunlight will often form in this part of sun in advance. The rapeseed even when firing though the sky as the sun reaches field here offers vibrant large modifiers like a softbox the horizon. Even if the colors that match those in or umbrella. A unit like this sun disappears behind low the sky. The beach or a lake will have a rechargeable clouds, you’re still likely to see can be great choices too, battery pack. If you don’t dramatic cloud formations as the sun will reflect off have an outdoor flash, a and hints of orange or pink. of the water. flashgun can work too. the softbox here, let us off-camera flash, we need transform the hard light from to be able to trigger it from the flash, making it softer the camera, either using so that it gently lifts our a second flashgun, a sync subject with flattering light. cable or a dedicated trigger.

Umbrellas or softboxes are Alternatively, set your best, but you could simply fire off-camera flash to optical it through the diffuse panel release so that it fires in sync in a five-in-one reflector. with your pop-up flash.

enhance the sunset hues.

Try using the Manual white balance setting and choose a Kelvin value around 8400.

Shoot in raw if you can, as this gives you the option to alter the white balance afterwards, as if you’d done it while shooting.

01

GET SET UP FOR SUNSET PORTRAITS

POSITION THE FLASH The great thing about

using off-camera flash is that we get to place it wherever we like. So we can put it to one side of the subject for dramatic directional light that complements the backlighting of the sun. Try feathering the flash so it’s angled across the front of the subject. This gives more even light.

02

EXPOSE FOR THE AMBIENT LIGHT Before turning on the flash,

we work out an exposure that best captures the sky. Set your camera to Manual mode with shutter speed at 1/200 sec and an ISO of 100. Start off with an aperture around f/8, then take a test shot and vary it, if needed, until the sky looks right. Initially our aperture was f/5.6.

03

TURN ON THE FLASH Next, turn on the

flash and trigger, then take a few test shots to work out what the best angle is for the flash. We can adjust the strength of the light from the flash either by tweaking the power settings, or by moving the flash in closer or further from our subject. Taking your time here pays dividends when the shooting starts.

04

LIFT THE SUBJECT Leave the camera

exposure settings as they are and adjust the strength of the flash until you find the right balance for your subject. You might want to position the subject so that they block the low sun, or perhaps have the sun peeking just around the edge of the subject to create some atmospheric flare. See which works better.

05

BALANCE THE FADING LIGHT As the sun eventually goes

down, the ambient light levels will begin to slowly drop. We may need to increase our ISO to account for the fading light, and also drop the flash power to balance it out with the daylight. A compatible wireless trigger can be useful for tweaking the flash power on the fly.

06

FIND THE BEST SUBJECT DISTANCE The distance between the

flash and the subject has a bearing both on the softness and the strength of the light. Bringing the softbox in close will make for softer light over the face, as the light source will be larger in relation to the subject. Of course, a closer light will also require less flash power.

01

ENHANCING YOUR SUNSETHUES

TARGET COLORS The Color Mixer Panel in

Camera Raw and Lightroom is very useful for targeting and enhancing different color ranges. Go to the panel and click the Saturation tab, then drag left or right over colors in the image to change the saturation of the colors within. Here, it’s useful for boosting oranges and yellows in sunsets.

02

SELECT THE SKY You can also boost the

colors selectively in the sky using an Adjustment Layer.

First go to Select > Sky. Then click the Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers Panel and choose your adjustment from the resulting pop-up menu – try Hue/Saturation to boost the color intensity, or choose Curves to add some contrast to the sky.

03

USE THE CHANNEL MIXER Here’s another quick

technique for boosting sunset colors. Add a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer. Set Output Channel: Red then set Red +200, Green -50, Blue -50.

Set Output Channel: Blue and set Blue +200, Red -50, Green -50. Adjust the strength of the effect by altering the layer opacity.

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

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

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

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If you’re a designer who wants to build a quick layout for a web or print page, then Comp is the ideal place to start piecing ideas, images andtext together.

Youcan draw common design elements such as text or image boxes with quick gestures. For example, a couple of squiggly lines with a dot makes a header, and a cross makes an image box. It makes it easy to mock up a layout in seconds.

FREEIPAD You can then add words and graphics. The app even spits As the name suggests, this app enables you to paint freehand using a selection of brushes, colors and other out a Photoshop,Illustrator or InDesign document. tools. However, Sketch is more than just a painting

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP SKETCH

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

PHOTOSHOP FIX FREE IPAD

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

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

Manage your photos from capture to output in three stages The image-editing process begins as soon as you’ve transferred your photos from your memory card to your computer.

1 The first stage is to begin sifting through your pictures to discover which are the keepers. The image organizer that comes with Photoshop is ideal for this task. Adobe Bridge has controls for keywording, rating and filtering your images, and there are handy tools for batch renaming files, creating panoramic stitches, making contact sheets and more.

Launch Adobe Bridge and navigate to a folder containing new images. Use the cursor keys to quickly flick through the images and click below a thumbnail to add a star rating, or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl+1-5.You can then filter your photos by the star rating to group the ones you want to work on.

2 The next step is to open the shots from Bridge into Adobe Camera Raw. ACR is the best place to make initial changes to your images to boost tones and correct any problems with exposure and so on. It doesn’t enable you to combine images– you’ll use Photoshop for that – but it does enable you to make the kind of edits photographers need.

3 In Photoshop,you can furtherrefine the image with layersand adjustment layers, which offer a much more flexible way of working than ACR. Once you’ve finished, it’s time to share it with an audience. Go to File>Save, and your image will be saved as a Photoshop document (PSD). This keeps all the layers intact, which means you can go back and retweak the image at a later date. However, PSD files are large and can take up lots of hard drive space. If you want to share your images online or via email or social media, save them as JPEGs.

1

2

3

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

THE BASIC PANEL IN ACR

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

CONTRAST Makes light pixels brighter and dark pixels darker

HIGHLIGHTS Controls the brightness

TEMPERATURE Use this slider to warm

of the lightest pixels

or cool an image if the White Balance tool fails to correct a color cast

SHADOWS Controls the brightness

TINT This slider enables you to

of the darkest pixels

WHITES Sets a point on the tonal

correcta green or magenta cast, again, if the White Balance tool fails

range at which pixels should be pure white

EXPOSURE

CLARITY Controls the amount

Controls the overall brightness of the image

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

of midtone contrast

SATURATION Controls the overall color intensity of the image

VIBRANCE Adjusts the intensity of

the less-saturated colors

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

02

CURVES Curves is one of the most powerful

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

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

01

LEVELS This should be the first layer you add

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

03

HUE/SATURATION This adjustment layer is best used

for altering the intensityand brightness of individual color channels in an image – greens and bluesin landscapes, for instance.

Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer, click the Master menu and choose the color channel you’d like to adjust. Small changes are usually the most effective.

04

HEALING LAYER Most photos contain unwanted

marks or blemishes. The Spot Healing Brush tool is effective at removing these. The best way to apply the healing is on a new blank layer, so that you can easily tone down or remove selected healing work later without having to start from scratch because you healed directly on the background layer.

To do this, create a new blank layer, choose the Spot Healing Brush tool from the Tools panel and tick Sample All Layers on the Options bar, then continue as normal.

06 SELECTIVE SHARPENING

Once all other adjustments have been made, you need to sharpen the image for output. The traditional way is to create a merged layer at the top of the stack, apply Unsharp Mask, then paint on the mask to remove the sharpening from those parts of the image you want to remain soft.

However, the Sharpentool enables more control over the process by enabling you to build up the effect by brushing repeatedly with a low opacity brush. Create a new blank layer, select the Sharpen tool, tick Sample All Layers and set a Strength of 50% or lower.

05

AFTER

BEFORE

DODGE AND BURN One of the best ways to enhance a

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

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

D

XSwitch the foreground and background

ALT+[SCROLL WHEEL] Zoom in or out of the image

[Resize OR ]the brush tip

CMD/CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E Create a merged copy of all the layers in the

SHIFT+[ OR ] Cycle backwards or forwards through the

Reset the foreground and background colors to black and white

layer stack

color swatches

layer blend modes

SPACE BAR CMD/CTRL+Z Temporarily switch the current tool to the Hand Undo the last change made to the document. tool, for moving around the image while zoomed in Worksmultiple times

ALT+[EYE ICON] CMD/CTRL+[LAYER MASK] Switch off the visibility of all other layers in the Load the currently active layer mask as layer stack, for before-and-after comparisons

a new selection

Invert the color of a layer mask to black

CMD/CTRL+I

CMD/CTRL+T Activate the Free Transform tool

SHIFT+[LAYER MASK]

CMD/CTRL+J Duplicate the current layer

Disable the effects of a layer mask

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

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