LEARN PHOTOSHOP CC & LIGHTROOM THE EASY WAY! WAY!
December ecember 2016 2016 Issue 69 D
RAW TOP 10 Get more from your digital negatives
HDR IMAGING IMAGING | CREATIVE COMPOSITES COMPOSITES | STACKING SKILLS
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Welcome to issue 69 of Practical Photoshop! If you enjoy the issue, why not subscribe and get a whole year for just $19.99? It should go without saying: if you want the best quality, the most control and the greatest headroom for editing, you should shoot photos in raw format. But then what? Raws need to be processed processed,, but how? That’s where this issue comes in, as we bring you an in-depth guide to our top 10 best raw tools.
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Jame Pate terso rson, n, Ed Edit itor or jame james. s.pat pater erso son@ n@fu futu ture rene net. t.co com m Jamess Pa •
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PHOTOSHOP NEWS
TOP 10 RAW TOOLS
LEARN TO FOCUSSTACK
GET CREATIVE WITH BLOCKS
ORGANIZE YOUR LIBRARY
nPhotoshop
nMaster the best
nExtend depth
nLearn how to craft
nSort your
CC 2017, Project Felix and more
tools in Adobe Camera Raw
of field for pinsharp close-ups
a surreal portrait out of wooden blocks
Lightroom library with keywords
a handy new search tool, accessible with Ctrl/Cmd+F, that lets you quickly type a search term to find tools, stock assets or learning guides. It’s a speedy new way to navigate Photoshop’s labyrinthine tools, commands and panels. Probably the most useful new changes are made to the Properties panel. Its jurisdicti juri sdiction on ha hass expand expanded ed to cover elements like text and image layers, so when they’re highlighted in the Layers panel the Properties panel will show useful settings such as the width and height of the image, or the font styles for
NEWS
PHOTOSHOP CC 2017 ARRIVES The 2017 update to Photoshop CC is upon us – and the big news is… well, not much, unfortunately. We’re treated to revamped Start and New Document dialogs, with a variety of templates to get started in
never really took to the Start screen when it was released a while back, but at least it can be turned off off.. Elsewhere you’ll find incremental improvements to the ever ever-useful -useful Libraries panel. Now you can undo
text-based layers. There’s good news for fontfont-lovers lovers too: Photoshop now supports SVG fonts, which have styles that allow for more than one colour colour.. You can also insert emojis. While these updates will prove useful, they’re mostly workflow solutions and incremental improvements. We love Photoshop because
your projects, divided into several categories: Photo, Print, Art and Illustration, Web, Mobile, Film and Video. We
deleted items, and right-cli right-click ck assets and choose Find Similar to search for similar images on Adobe Stock. There’s also
it’s a kick-ass image editor. Please, Adobe, give us some interesting new tools for editing images!
Evolution, not revolution, in this update
The Properties panel expands its reach to cover text and image layers.
New templates for quick project starts adorn the revamped Start panel.
If you’ve always wanted to get into 3D design but lacked the time to learn
from Adobe that straddles the worlds of 2D Photoshop compositing and 3D shape building. And the best part is, you don’t need any 3D expertise to start. Project Felix comes with a library of 3D models and materials for you to quickly
belong in the scene, with clever perspective-matching tools and simple 3D lighting controls. Like most Adobe apps these days, it also has close integration with Adobe Stock so you can easily search and license more 3D objects. Adobe haven’t given a
complex modelling software, then you should be very excited about Project Felix. This is a brand-new program
drag and drop into your 2D images. From there it’s fairly easy to manipulate the 3D objects to look as if they
release date at the time of writing, but expect to see a beta of Project Felix before the end of the year.
MOBILE APP UPDATES
Photoshop Mix and Photoshop Fix are now available on Android. What’s more, Photoshop Sketch, Adobe’s painting app for the iPad and Android, now supports standard Photoshop brushes, so you can bring in any custom-made brushes you
like, or create them from scratch using the Adobe Capture app. Photoshop Fix for iOS has also seen major improvements: the latest version features new options like auto skin smoothing and warmth adjustment.
ADOBE ANNOUNCES PROJECT FELIX
There have been a whole raft of improvements to Adobe’s mobile apps for tablets and smartphones. First,
M A S T E R C L A S S
RAW TOP 10
Camera Raw and Lightroom both offer powerful tools for enhancing enhanc ing your raw files. Here’ Here’ss our pick of the best... best...
-100 Clarity
0 Clarity
+100 Clarity
TOP RAW TOOLS
1 CLARITY
Bring out the stunning detail of your digital photos way to put it is that it crisps up the details Raw files often look a little dull and in your photos. flat straight out-of-camera out-of-camera – but Used sparingly, Clarity can pull a few quick tweaks in Camera Raw’s detail out of lifeless patches; Basic panel can work wonders. used heavily, it can give images a There are lots of useful sliders grungey feel that can work well here (Highlights and Shadows WATCH THE VIDEO for portraits or HDR effects. The deserve an honourable mention mention), ), http://tiny.cc/ve03gy slider can also be pulled back for a but one of our favorites has always negative effect, but this is usually been Clarity. It works by increasing best done selectively. midtone contrast – but perhaps a better DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE http://tiny.cc/d4t0gy http://tiny.cc/d4t0gy ON ON YOUR PC OR MAC
1 ENHANCE TEXTURE
2 NEGATIVE CLARITY FOR SKIN
Clarity is a great tool for enhancing the texture of surfaces in landscapes. It pulls out detail in midtones by increasing the contrast. As such, it can perform miracles over lackluster surfaces like the rocks here, revealing all the textures, cracks and edges that give shape to these features.
Clarity can be applied selectively to any area using the three selective tools: the Adjustment Brush, the Graduated Filter and the Radial Filter. A negative shift in Clarity can help to smooth rough skin. For a quick portrait fix, grab the Adjustment Brush, dial in -50 Clarity, then paint over the skin, being careful not to go over fine details like the eyes.
3 BOOST THE IRISES
4 DOUBLE DOSE
As well as making skin look great, Clarity has another excellent use for portraits: it helps to enhance irises in the subject’s eyes. This time we can use the Radial Filter tool. Dial in +50 Clarity, +1.0 Exposure, +40 Saturation and -40 Shadows, then plot a circular adjustment over one eye. Hold down Ctrl/ Cmd+Alt Cmd+ Alt then drag the pin to make a copy over the other iris.
If you want to give your image a gritty, grungey look, then sometimes applying +100 Clarity just isn’t enough to achieve the result. There’s a quick way to add more. Simply grab the Graduated Filter tool and dial in +100 Clarity, then zoom out with Ctrl/Cmd+mi Ctrl/Cmd+minus nus to make the image smaller on screen. Start a new grad outside the frame and drag it away from the image.
TOP RAW TOOLS
2 HDR MERGE
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Use Camera Raw’s HDR command for quick, natural-looking naturallooking merged exposures For those new to HDR imaging, the term stands for ‘high dynamic range’.. It’s range’ It ’s a technique that lets you combine several different exposures – taken in alignment using a tripod – into a single, detail-rich frame. In simpler terms, it helps you pull more detail out of the really bright and
really dark parts of a scene, which is something that might not be possible with a single frame, especially in high-contrast scenes. With so many excel e xcellent lent dedicated HDR programs out there, HDR aficionados have learned never to go near Photoshop’ss own rather poor Photoshop’ po or Merge to HDR Pro command.
However, Camera Raw now However, offers its own, very decent, HDR function. Here we’ll take a look at working with HDR exposures in Camera Raw, then go on to finetune the look of the scene in Photoshop, by building up the trails of light in our image below by using Blend modes.
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01 Open Adobe Bridge 01 OPEN THE SET
and highlight the set of images you want to merge by Ctrl/Cmd+clicking Ctrl/Cmd+clicking over them, then right-click and Open In Camera Raw. Once they’re all open, press Ctrl/Cmd+A Ctrl/Cmd+A to select selec t all the images. Grab the White Balance tool from the toolbar and click over a neutral point to fix the white balance.
02 02
LAUNCH HDR MERGE
Go to the Lens Correction panel and check Remove Chromatic Aberration. Go to the menu at the top left and choose Merge To HDR. Once loaded, check and uncheck Auto Tone to see which you prefer prefer.. The Auto Tone Tone adjustment can be tweaked afterwards, so it’s not essential to have it turned on.
03 With a set of 03
CHECK GHOSTING GHOST ING
images like this, there’s a lot of movement and discrepancies between frames. Sometimes this can be fixed with the Deghost feature, which corrects for movement by using a portion of a single image from the set. You can see which areas are being worked on by turning on the overlay overlay..
04 04
MERGE AND ENHANCE
Here the fix for ghosting resulted in unwanted background noise, so we left it at Low. When you’re happy,, click Merge then happy Save. Back in Camera Raw, you now have a newly created HDR file in Adobe’s DNG format, ready for enhancing. First off, get stuck in to the Basic panel and improve the tones.
05 05
MAKE SELECTIVE CHANGES
The Exposure slider in the Basic panel goes from +10 to -10, which just shows how far you can push the tones (normally it’s +4 to -4). You can also make selective adjustments with the Adjustment Brush. Grab this and dial in positive Exposure and Clarity, the paint over the building. Click Open.
06 06
ADD MORE TRAFFIC TRAILS
Open one of the original files and use the Move tool to drag it across to your HDR image. Go to the Layers panel and set the Blend mode to LIghten. Press Ctrl/Cmd+ Ctrl/Cmd+L L for Levels, then drag the midpoint to the right until only the trail remains visible. Repeat to build the effect with other images.
TOP RAW TOOLS
3 THE TRANSFORM TOOL
Explore Camera Raw’s newest tool and learn how to correct lens distortion, improve converging converging verticals and fix wonky images Camera Raw’s Raw ’s Transform Transform tool offers a new way to fix keystoning and distortion. You simply plot lines through the image and let Photoshop do the work of straightening it out for you. The only thing you need
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are natural guide lines within the image to trace along, like a convenient wall or horizon line. The tool also houses the familiarr Upright controls that familia are often very effective for auto-fixing distortion and tilt.
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1 GUIDED UPRIGHT The new Guided Upright tool helps you fix converging verticals and wonky horizons. You You will find it in the Transform options, alongside the Auto, Level, Vertical and Full. Unlike these automatic tools, Guided Upright offers you manual control over plotting lines along
2 CORRECT DISTORTION Before you begin using the Guided Upright command, head to the Lens Correction panel and check Enable Lens Profile Corrections. This will fix any lens-related barrel distortion. It’s also worth checking the Remove Chromatic Aberration option to correct
horizontals and verticals.
any color fringing in the photo.
1
6
5 2 4
3
3 DRAW A FIRST LINE
4 MAKE SOME MORE LINES
5 OFFSET AND SCALE
6 UPRIGHT CONTROLS
The Guided Upright tool is accessed through the new Transform tool. (The other Upright controls have also been moved here. here.)) Select Guided Upright in the options, then plot a line by tracing along a natural line in the image that you know to be either perfectly horizontal or vertical.
After adding the first line, nothing changes. It’s only when you plot a second line that the correction begins, so drag another line along an object in the scene. You can add up to four lines. For extra precision, turn on Loupe View. (Enable GPU in your Camera Raw preferences first. firs t.))
You might find after correcting distortion that a large portion of the image is cropped off. You can bring it back by lowering Scale. Alongside this, Offset lets you shunt the image one way or another another.. Alternatively,, hold Alternatively Ctrl/Cmd+Alt and drag to reposition the image.
The Guided Upright command sits alongside the other Upright buttons. There are four other options: Auto, Level, Vertical and Full. Each offers a different one-click fix for correcting vertical and horizontal lines – perfect for landscapes and architectural shots.
TOP RAW TOOLS TOOLS
4 THE TONE CU CURVE RVE Get to grips with the most powerful tonal tool Photoshop has THE HISTOGRAM Understanding curves begins
So pixels in a bright, cloudy sky might sit around the 220-
value by dragging the line up or down. At any point above
with a quick detour into the basics of the Histogram, which you can see greyed out behind the diagonal curve line. Imagine that all the pixels in your image are sorted into piles depending on how bright they are. In simple terms, that’s what a histogram is. Every pixel has a certain value depending on how bright it is, on a scale from 0 (black) to 255 (white).
255 mark, while the pixels in a nighttime sky are more likely to be around 0-40. The higher the peaks on the histogram, the greater the number of pixels in that part of the tonal range. So if the peaks are clu clumped mped to the left side, the image is dominated by dark tones.
its original position, the tones will become lighter. At any point below, they’ll become darker. Each point you click on the line creates an anchor. Placement of the anchor points along the line is important, as it determines which part of the tonal range you wish to change. Towards the left will target shadow tones, and the right will change highlights.
THE CURVE LINE The curve line lets you give pixels a different brightness
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PARAMETRIC OR POINT? There are two tabs at the top of the panel: Parametric and Point. If you’re new Curves, thento have a play with Parametric first. This gives you a good visual clue to what the curves line does, as you can see the line adapt to changes you make to the four sliders – Highli Highlights, ghts, Lights, Darks and Shadows. Once you switch to Point, however,, you’ll probably however never need to go back to Parametric. Point offers much more control, as you can place points at any point
COLOR CHANNELS Target individual color channels to fix colors or apply creative shifts. An upwards drag on the red line adds red while down adds cyan; up on the blue channel adds blue and down adds yellow; up on the green line adds green and down adds magenta. Try dragging the very top or bottom of the channel lines to add subtle color shifts to highlights highligh ts and shadows.
value. It goes from 0-255,, and 0-255 represents the tonal range of the image from blacks
along the line and target individual color channels.
INPUT AND OUTPUT As you drag a point, you’ll see the Input and Output amounts change. The Input amount is the horizontal
on the lefton to whites the right. Output represents the change being made. So if Input is 120 and Output is 180 180,, it means all the pixels that originally had a brightness value of 120 on the tonal range now have a brightness value of 180, which of course makes them lighter.. And as the curves line lighter is fluid, the rest of the tonal range adapts accordingly as you make these changes.
TOP RAW TOOLS TOOLS
5 TARGETED ADJUSTMENT TOOL Alter colors and tones in seconds with this powerful on-image on-image control
This is a hugely intuitive tool that gives you on-image control. You You alter tones or colors simply by dragging up/right to lighten or increase, and down/ left to darken or decrease. There are five different options. Parametric Curve lets you alter
the brightness of the shadows or highlights; highligh ts; Hue, Saturation and Luminance affect eight different color ranges within the image, depending on where you drag; WATCH THE VIDEO and Grayscale Mix is for black and http://tiny.cc/7b03gy whites. Click and hold on the tool to change what is targeted.
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1 ADD DRAMA TO A SKY
2 CHANGE CLOTHES COLORS
Right-click with the tool and choose Right-click Luminance, then drag down over the blues in a sky to make the blues darker and more intense. Right-click Right-click and choose Saturation, then drag up to add saturation to the blues.
Right-click with the Targeted Adjustment tool Right-click and choose Hue from the options that appear. appear. Now you can drag over clothes, eyes, hair or anything else you like to quickly change the object’s color.
3 LIFT SKIN
4 SPEEDY MONO OR SPOT COLOR
If you want to give skin a quick lift, simply grab the Targeted Adjustment tool, right-click and choose Luminance, then drag up over the skin to lighten the color colorss slightly. slightly.
For a mono conversion, grab the tool, rightclick and choose Grayscale Mix. For a spot color effect, target Saturation then drag down every color except the one you want.
3 1 2 4
5
TOOLS TOP RAW TOOLS
SAVE VE BOX 6 THE SA The rich feature set here proves invaluable for all sorts of workflow tasks… We know what you’re thinking: Really? The Save Box? Yes, Yes, as tools go, it’s about as exciting as a Brussels sprout. But the thing is, this is one of our most-used most-u sed commands in Camera Raw. There are a couple of essential features that make Save an important part of our
[1]]. Of course, this or TIFFs [1 can be done in Photoshop – but increasingly we find that Camera Raw offers all the controls we need to edit an image, and often there’s no need to open into Photoshop at all. So it’s useful to be able to save in other formats here. What’s more, you get to decide whether to include
Then there are the sizing options. As well as giving you the option to limit the file size [4] – useful if sending images in email – you can also choose a specific resolution with Resize To Fit [5 [5]]. (We like to use the Long Edge, which means it doesn’t matter whether images are horizontal or vertical.) These
workflow. it gives youin the option First, to save raw files different formats, like JPEGs
metadata or]copyright info in the file [2 [2] , and you can batch-rename images [3].
settings invaluable when we wantare to resize several images at once.
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TOP RAW TOOLS
7 SPOT REMOV REMOVAL AL TOOL Fix marks and blemishes with this powerful tool It can’t compare to the breadth and depth of retouching tools in Photoshop, but Camera Raw’s Spot Removal
tool is very useful for giving your raw files a quick retouch, especially if you need to remove sensor marks.
1 HEAL OR CLONE Like all tools in Camera Raw, once Spot Removal is selected, you’ll see a set of options appear in the panel on the right. Here you can set the type to Heal or Clone. In our experience, Clone is rather too basic: you’re much better off opening the image in Photoshop and using the Clone Stamp tool there. Heal proves more useful. It employs Content-Aware healing, similar to using Photoshop’s Spot Healing Brush tool.
2 ESSENTIAL SHORTCUTS
3 SEEK OUT SENSOR SPOTS
Use shortcuts for speed. The ] and [ keys resize the brush, and Shift+]] or [ changes the Feather Shift+
Check out the screengrab on the top. Can you see any sensor marks? Now look at the one on the bottom. See them now? Visualize Spots can be very useful for seeking out sensor marks, particularly in skies. Press
amount. Sometimes thepress heal V points can be distracting: to toggle them on or off.
Y to toggle on the for aslider grayscale viewthe thatlevel emphasizes detail, thenituse to change of detail until you spot any troublesome marks.
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4 HEAL IN A LINE
5 SYNC YOUR SPOTTING
There’s no need
Spot Removal can be applied to a set of photos – to erase
to let unsightly wires spoil your landscapes. Grab the Spot Removal tool and make the brush tip slightly larger than the width of the wire, then simply hold down Shift and click between two points
sensor marks, for example. Simply remove any marks on one image, then sync the edit. To sync, open a batch in Camera Raw and use the top-left menu. Alternatively Alternatively,, use Adobe Bridge: right right-click an image and choose Develop Settings > Copy Settings, then highlight other images, right right-click -click and
to draw a straight line between them, making it easy to remove the wire.
choose DevelopIn Settings > Paste Settings. the sync options, click Check None then check Spot Removal.
TOP RAW TOOLS TOOLS
8 THE ADJUSTMENT BRUSH Make all kinds of useful selective selective changes to your images This is hands down our favorite Camera Raw tool. In fact, it probably comes close to being our allall-time time favorite Photoshop tool. and very good atIt’s itssimple, job. Wequick use the Adjustment Brush all the time
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to selectively alter areas of our images, perhaps by making them brighter, brighter, or increasing contrast, or boosting bo osting color color.. So it’s equally for dodging and burninguseful landscapes or enhancing a portrait.
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1 SELECT THE TOOL
2 PAINT OVER THE IMAGE
Grab the Adjustment Brush from the toolbar.. There’s a brush that lets us toolbar paint over the image, and a set of sliders that dial in the adjustment. It doesn’t
Start by changing a few settings using the tonal and color sliders on the rightwe’ve increased Saturation and decreased Exposure to boost the spice here. Then get
matter whether you choose to paint over an area then make the adjustment, or dial in some settings then begin painting. We prefer the latter option.
painting. Pressor ] and [ to resize theToggle brush a tip as you paint, right-click+drag. Mask Overlay view on and off by pressing Y Y.. This shows you where you’ve painted.
3 TIDY UP YOUR MASK
4 FINETUNE THE SETTINGS
While you’re painting, you might accidently brush over areas you actually want to remain unaffected. If this happens, you can subtract parts of the mask by holding down Alt as you paint. Setting a large Feather radius for your
Because every change you make when you use Camera Raw is non-destructive (which means you can go back and undo the changes much later on), we can change either the area we covered with the brush or
tiptransition is usuallyfor best, astonal this’llchanges. give you abrush softer your You can alter the Feather radius with the keyboard combo Shift+] or [.
the tonal settings you made with the sliders at any time. So after painting, fine-tune the adjustment using the sliders to the right until you’re happy with the effect.
TOOL TIPS: THE ADJUSTMENT BRUSH TIP 1 USE THE PLUS/MINUS ICONS The Adjustment Brush will automatically remember the previous settings you chose – which is sometimes helpful, sometimes not.But Sliders can bethis reset individually by double-clicking double-clic king them. we prefer method: click the plus or minus icon next to any slider to reset all the other sliders and begin a new adjustment at the same time.
TIP 2 FLOW AND DENSITY Flow lets you build up your brush strokes gradually. Let’s say you dial in -1.0 -1.0 Exposure. If you set the brush to a low Flow of around 30, you can brush over an area repeatedly to gradually darken it down, until eventually the adjustment maxes out at -1 -1.0 .0.. Flow can be useful for dodging and burning. Density sets the brush to a uniform value no matter how many times you paint over an area.
3 AUTOMASK TIP 3 Enable Auto-Mask and your paint brush will automatically seek out edges, making it easy to paint over and adjust complicated shapes. The T he color color-seeking -seeking is based on the fir first st color you click on, so click and hold to seek out a single color, or click repeatedly to add new colors to the mask.
TOP RAW TOOLS TOOLS
CROPP TOOL 9 THE CRO Improve your composition with this simple, effective tool Camera Raw is the best place to crop your raw photos: the crop controls is alwaysare non-destructive, and the simple less clunky than Photoshop’s Crop tool. Simply
grab the Crop tool, right-click to choose a ratio, you can press A for athen rulercrop. tool While or X tocropping, flip the horizontal and vertical dimensions.
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TOP RAW TOOLS
10 THE GRADUATED FILTER Create a blended effect that works wonders on skies Like the Adjustment Brush, the Graduated Filter lets you alter the tones in part of your image. But the change in tones follows a linear gradient. It’s a hugely useful tool, most obviously for
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darkening in a similar wayskies to a lensmounted ND grad. DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE http://tiny.cc/d4t0gy http://tiny.cc/d4t0gy ON ON YOUR PC OR MAC
1 DARKEN THE SKY Grab the tool and drag across from one point to another to make a grad. (Hold Shift to keep the grad lines perfectly horizontal, vertical or at a 45-degree angle.) Use the settings change the affected area. Here negative Exposure darkens the sky sk y.
2 EDIT THE MASK If, likethe thegrad image here, the grad affects part of the the options foreground that jutsand intochoose the sky, you can edit with a brush. Select Brush from to the right Subtract, then press Y to toggle the mask view on and paint over the object to remove the tonal change. Press M to enable Auto-mask for easier painting over well-defined shapes like this.
Reveal the next step in your photography journey
T I C T I C K K E E T T S S O N
S A L E S A
A g r e a t g i f t f o r y o u r f r i e n d s a n d f a m i l y at at C h r i s t m a s Q u o t e c o d e X M S A D 1 7 7 f o r a s p e c i a l f e s t i v e d i s c o u n t
photographyshow.com
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FOCUS STACKING SKILLS Extending depth of field in your close-up photograph photography y by combining sharp parts ofto several frames is easy. Here arethe four techniques try – but first… http://tiny.cc/d4t0gy ON ON YOUR PC OR MAC DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE http://tiny.cc/d4t0gy
TAKE YOUR SHOTS How to capture high-quality frames for a focus stack To shoot photos to use in a focus stack project, simply use a tripod and take a series of shots while incrementally adjusting the focus ring (in manual focus), focus ), until you’ve captured front-to-back frontto-back sharpness sharpnes s across the entire subject. Take care not to move the
camera between frames.
studio for this type of shoot,
If you find the extended depth of field leaves the background looking too detailed, move the subject further away from the background to create greater separation. A conservatory is a really good place to set up a home
as you get plenty of natural light and shelter from the wind. An LED light panel like the Interfit model used here is also a great addition for close-up photography, photography, as a bit of extra directional light can help to bring out the form in your subject.
Two steps are all you need for a basic focusstacked image.
0 1 THE SIMPLE WAY Focus-stacking in Photoshop is quick and easy with two auto features. First go into Adobe Bridge: select the images you wish to stack, then go to Tools > Photoshop > Load Files Into Photoshop Layers. Once they’ve opened in Photoshop, go to the Layers Panellayer and Shift Shift-click -click on the bottom to highlight the whole stack. Go to Edit > Auto-Align,, set Auto and click OK. Auto-Align
Restore sharp areas from a layer to fix any soft patches.
TIDY UP MISTAKES 02 TIDY 02 Tip 1’s auto-blend method can result in soft areas. To fix this, find the layer with the missing details. Duplicate it, drag it to the top of the stack and delete the mask. To isolate the sharp areas, go to Select > Focus Area. Adjust the settings then click Select And Selection Mask. Usebrushes the Radius and Quick to improve the edge. Set Output to Layer Mask and click OK.
Painting in the sharpness gives you more precise control.
03 BLEND WITH MASKS To control which areas from each image are blended, paint masks to reveal the sharp parts. Open your shots as layers, then hide all but the bottom bot tom layer layer.. Click the eye icon next to the layer above to toggle it on or off, taking note of the areas that are sharper, then Alt-cl Alt-click ickentire the Add Mask icon to hide the layer layer. . Paint with white to reveal the sharper parts. Repeat for each layer layer..
Specialist software like Helicon Focus gets great results.
0 4 USE STACKING SOFTWARE There are several dedicated focus-stackers available, including Helicon Focus (www.heli (www.heliconsoft. consoft. com). The biggest advantage Helicon Focus has over Photoshop is accuracy: it rarely slips up when it comes to blending complicated stacks. If you a lot of focusstacking, givedo the 30-day trial a whirl, and you’ll see how easy it is to create a focus stack.
CREATIVE BLOCK Make a surreal portrait and get to grips with fundamental Photoshop ccompositing ompositing skills skills Photography, portraiture and surrealism all have long and colorul histories – and since Photoshop came along, it’s easier than ever to create
your images wherever your imagination wants them to go. We’ve combined a ace with a set o wooden blocks or an ofeat portrait effect. It may look
All our start images, including the blocks, were photographed with simple window light, coming rom the let o the camera. So i you want to shoot your own portrait,
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PROJECT INFO You’ll learn
How to merge a portrait with a photo of building blocks, then use Blend modes to place the objects’ shadows over the portrait You’ll need
subversive images or antastical scenes. With a ew Photoshop skills, you can take
complicated, but with a ew blending tips and tricks, it’s much easier than it seems.
position the subject against a plain wall with the window to the let o the camera.
Photoshop CS/CC It’ll take
One hour
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STEP BY STEP PUT STEP PUT YOUR HEAD ON THE BLOCK
01 Open surreal_bg 01
CUT OUT THE FACE
and surreal_before, then grab thepaint Quickover Selection tool and the face and arm. Click Refine Edge and set Radius to 4. Paint over the hair, set Output to New Layer and click OK. Grab the Move tool and drag the face onto the other image to copy it over.
PASTE THE T HE BLOCKS
02 02
Go to Edit > Puppet Warp. Set three anchor points over the arm, wrist and face. Open blocks_1 and copy it over with the Move tool. Position it over the arm. Duplicate the block and head layers with Ctrl/ Cmd+J. Hide the bottom layer copies.
03 03
BLEND THE LAYERS
Change the Blend mode of the top block layer to Multiply. Double-click the layer to open the Blending Options box. In the Blend If options, Alt-drag the left half of the top-right slider in to blend the highlights. Choose Reds in the dropdown and do the same.
STEP BY STEP PUT STEP PUT YOUR HEAD ON THE BLOCK
04 04
ADD BLOCKS TO EDGES
Right-click the layer and choose Create Mask. Click the Clipping Add Mask icon in the Layers panel, and paint black to confine the blocks to the arm. Reveal the lower block layer then Alt-click Alt-click the Add Layer Mask icon to hide the layer. Paint white to reveal some protruding edges.
FILL IN THE GAPS
Highlight the face layer. 05 05 With the Lasso tool, select the arm near the protruding blocks. Press Ctrl/Cmd+J to copy, and drag it above the layer with the protruding blocks. Create a clipping mask. Press Ctrl/Cmd+T and transform the layer to cover the blocks.
06 06 Blend and mask BUILD IT UP
other areas in the same way.. Add layer masks way to create tidy edges between each block layer. Use layer masks to hide parts of the portrait so that it ends in jagged blocks. Finally Finally, make a new layer and, use the Clone tool to tidy up any rough patches.
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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 begin, thenOver this section the best place totoget started. the nextisnine pages, you’ll find an overview of the different versions of Photoshop available; a breakdown of the
typical image-editing workflow in Photoshop; an overview of raw file editing; a guide to the six most useful layers; and glossary of the most useful shortcuts. Thisaguide condenses most of the tools and techniques you’ll use every time you import a new roll of pictures.
LIGHTROOM 6 £100.07 OR INCLUDED WITH CREATIVE CLOUD WINDOWS, macOS Lightroom combines the professional raw-
PHOTOSHOP CC £8.57/$9.99 PER MONTH MONTH WINDOWS, macOS Photoshop is the software of choice for most professional and non-professional photographers. Beyond the standard photo-editing features, it boasts a vast array of more creative tools and filters. Layers are one of the key differences between Photoshop and Lightroom. They enable you to mask out selected parts to build up increasingly sophisticated images.
processing tools in the more expensive Photoshop CC with the asset-organizing powers of the cheaper Photoshop Elements. Lightroom is available as a traditional boxed copy (Lightroom 6), and as part of a Creative Cloud subscription (Lightroom CC). Essentially, the applications are the same, except Lightroom CC has Creative Cloud support, ongoing updates, and access to the mobile and web workflows.
LIGHTROOM MOBILE INCLUDED WITH CREATIVE CLOUD IPHONE, IPAD, ANDROID Lightroom Mobile is the lightweight iPad, iPhone and Android
ELEMENTS 15 £79.10/$99.99 WINDOWS, macOS
version of the application, integrated with Lightroom CC but not Lightroom 6. To use Lightroom Mobile you need to sign up for an Adobe ID so that you can access the Adobe Creative Cloud. This enables you to create a collection of photos on your desktop copy of Lightroom and sync them via the Creative Cloud
Elements is the consumer variant of Photoshop, and contains many of its key tools and features within a simplified interface. It’s limited, but it does provide access to layers for those who have switched to a Lightroom workflow.
to Lightroom Mobile on your portable devices. You can then use Lightroom Mobile to edit or add ratings to your pictures.
ADOBE SHAPE FREE IPHONE, IPAD, ANDROID Adobe Shape enables you to turn photos and
FREE IPAD, ANDROID FREE IPAD, ADOBE PHOTOSHOP MIX Mix enables you to merge two photos together to create a composite image. It offers a simplified compositing process that makes it easy for beginners to start combining an object from one image with a background from another. You can then send the composite to Photoshop for further edits. If you like, you can also use Mix to edit a single image. It offers a few simple tonal adjustments and more complex edits such as Content Content-Aware -Aware Fill Fill..
sketches into beautiful vector shapes for use in your designs or artwork. The app smooths out jagged edges in images, resulting in gorgeous vectors that are endless endlessly ly scalable, just as if you’d drawn them by hand with the Pen tool. Make a shape with the mobile app and the next time you open Photoshop on your desktop, the shape will sync to your Library. Drag it in to any document to add color and make further adjustments.
ADOBE BRUSH FREE IPHONE, IPAD, ANDROID Adobe Brush enables you to make your own custom brushes
If you ever need help selecting coordinated colors for your designs, try using Adobe Color. It enables you to create color themes from photos taken on your mobile device. This could be
from photos or sketches for use in Photoshop, Illustrator or the Sketch app. The most successful subjects are usually those that can be easily isolated, such as a splash against white, or a leaf against the sky. You can capture objects for your brush tips using your device’s camera, choose from your camera roll, or use your
anything from a scene in your park to a famous painting. So iflocal you come across an inspirational scene, capture the colors and save them.
Creative Cloud library. Once captured, you can then finetune the look of the tip and apply brush settings.
ADOBE COLOR FREE FREE IPHONE, IPHONE, IPAD, ANDROID
ADOBE COMP CC FREE IPAD FREE IPAD If you’re a designer who wants to build a quick layout for a
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP SKETCH FREE IPAD IPAD FREE As the name suggests, this app enables you to paint freehand using a selection of brushes, colors and other tools. However, However, Sketch is more than just a painting p ainting 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,
web or print page, then Comp is the ideal place to start piecing ideas, images and text together. You can draw common design elements such as text or image boxes with quick gestures. For example, a couple of squiggly lines with a dot makes a header, and a cross makes an image box. It makes it easy to mock up a layout in seconds. You can then add words and graphics. The app even spits out a Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign document.
BEHANCE CREATIVE PORTFOLIO FREE IPAD, IPHONE FREE IPAD, Behance is the online social space for creatives to share
Fix is a retouching app for altering portraits and fixing marks or blemishes in your photos. Intelligent facial
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
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.
for iOS devices enables you to manage your page, while the Creative Portfolio app provides a polished portfolio.
but you can get great results with your finger.
PHOTOSHOP FIX FREE FREE IPAD
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 images by the star rating to group the ones you want to work on. 2 The next step is to open the images from Bridge into Adobe Camera Raw. ACR is the best place to make initial changes to your images to boost tones and correct any problems with exposure and so on. It doesn’t enable you to combine images – you’ll use Photoshop for that – but it does enable you to make the kind of edits photographers need. 3 In Photoshop, you can further refine the image with layers and adjustment layers, which offer a much more flexible way of working than ACR. Once you’ve finished, it’s time to share it with a wider audience. Go to File>Save, and your image will be saved as a Photoshop document (PSD). This keeps all the layers intact, which means you can go back and retweak at atake laterup date. PSD filesthe are image large and lotsHowever, 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
rather than in Photoshop, you’ll ensure the best possible image quality, because raw files contain more picture information than bitmap images such as un-layered PSDs and JPEGs. Here’s our reference to the features you’ll use the most in the Basic panel.
THE BASIC PANEL IN ACR
CONTRAST Makes light pixels brighter and dark pixels darker
HIGHLIGHTS
TEMPERATURE
Controls the brightness of the lightest pixels
Use this slider to warm or cool an image if the White Balance tool fails to correct a color cast
SHADOWS Controls the brightness of the darkest pixels
TINT This slider enables you to correct a green or magenta cast, again, if the White Balance tool fails
WHITES Sets a point on the tonal range at which pixels should be pure white
EXPOSURE
CLARITY
Controls the overall brightness of the image
Controls the amount Controls of midtone contrast
BLACKS BLACKS Sets a point on the tonal range at which pixels should be pure black
Controls the overall color SATURATION intensity of the image
Adjusts Adju sts the intens intensity ity of VIBRANCE 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
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 right-hand -hand edge. This remaps the tones of the image to make more of the available tonal range.
02
CURVES
Curves is one of the most powerful adjustment layers. An S-shaped curve brightens the highlights and darkens the shadows, resulting in extra contrast. Create a Curves Adjustment Layer and click the middle of the diagonal line to add a central control point. Drag down on the lower part of the line and drag up on the upper part of the line to improve image contrast.
03
HUE/SATURATION
This adjustment layer is best used for altering the intensity and brightness of individual color channels in an image – greens and blues in landscapes, for instance. Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer, click the Master menu and choose the color channel you’d like 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 from the Tools panel and tick Sample All Layers on the Options Bar,, then continue as normal. Bar
AFTER
05
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 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 Overlay.. Check Fill with Overlay-neutral color and click OK. Now use the Dodge and Burn tools (with Range set to Midtones) to work on the new layer.
06
SELECTIVE SHARPENI SHARPENING NG
Once all other adjustments have been made, you need to sharpen the image for output. The traditional way is to create a merged layer at the top of the stack, apply Unsharp Mask, then paint on the mask to remove the sharpening from those parts of the image you want to remain soft. However,, the Sharpen tool enables more However 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 layer Layers and set a Strength of 50% or lower.
14 keyboard shortcuts shortcuts that will massively massively improve your speed and efficiency while working in Photoshop
D
X
Reset the foreground and background colors to black and white
Switch the foreground and background color swatches
ALT+[SCROLL AL T+[SCROLL WHEEL] WHEEL ]
[ OR ]
Zoom in or out of the image
Resize the brush tip
CMD/CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E
SHIFT+[ OR ]
Create a merged copy of all the layers in the layer stack
Cycle backwards or forwards through the layer blend modes
SPACE BAR
CMD/CTRL+ALT+Z
Temporarily switch the current tool to the Hand tool, for moving around the image while zoomed in
Undo the last change made to the document. Works multiple times
ALT+[EYE ICON]
CMD/CTRL+[LAYER MASK]
Switch off the visibility of all other layers in the layer stack, for before-and-after comparisons
Load the currently active layer mask as a new selection
CMD/CTRL+I
CMD/CTRL+T
Invert the color of a layer mask to black
Activate the Free Transform tool
SHIFT+[LAYER MASK]
CMD/CTRL+J
Disable the effects of a layer mask
Duplicate the current layer
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