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Issue 46 January 2015 includes
free video tutorials!
RAW 7 things you didn’t know about
Get a wider colour space, rich tones and instant effects with ACR’s hidden features
Learn PhotoshoP cc & Lightroom the easy way! www.digitalcameraworld.com
Issue 46 January 2015 includes
fRee video tutoRiAls!
Learn PhotoshoP cc & Lightroom the easy way! www.digitalcameraworld.com
Issue 46 January 2015 includes
fRee video
tutoRiAls!
RAW 7 things you didn’t know about
Get a wider colour space, rich tones and instant effects with ACR’s hidden features
RAW 7 things you didn’t know about
tap here to see video
Get a wider colour space, rich tones and instant effects with ACR’s hidden features
Practical Photoshop is now available on all Apple and Android devices, and it’s still only $1.67 an issue with a one year subscription of $19.99 Our main feature this issue highlights the hidden features in Camera Raw that every photographer should know about. Our tutorials reveal how to make Photoshop brushes, render 3D trees, and create a mono still life. There’s also our regular Lightroom video tutorial – this month on custom print layouts.
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James Paterson, Editor •
[email protected]
www.digitalcameraworld.com
Highlights: WHAT’S INSIDE… The World of Photoshop
n Be inspired by the very best Photoshop imagery
Seven Adobe Camera Raw tips
n Camera Raw is more than a simple image converter
Make a Photoshop Render a forest brush from a photo of 3D trees n Turn snapshots into custom brush shapes
n Generate trees from scratch using Photoshop
Create a minimal still life in mono
n Use printer paper to create a blackand-white still life
Penrose waffles By Dina Belenko Using Photoshop CS6, Lightroom 5.6
I love optical Illusions, impossible objects especially. I’ve tried to recreate the Penrose Triangle out of something ordinary. That’s honestly much easier than you might think. The whole secret is to put the camera at the right angle, and then the illusion will work.
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Dirty Money By Karim Nassar Using Photoshop CC
This image is purely photo compositing with some paint over for the details such as hairs, saliva, stains, and the blending of the pig skin and human skin. I shot a friend of mine in an old factory using a three-light setup. I then purchased a couple of pig heads and shot them separately in my studio, reproducing the same light setup. http://www.karimnassar.ch
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Seceda, Val Gardena By Jerome Berbigier Using Photoshop CC
I took this long-exposure photograph of Seceda while hiking in the Italian Dolomites. The weather was challenging during the six days I was in the region, but it also offered unique opportunities to capture beautiful and often surreal moments.
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It’s rare to see a landscape as dynamic and powerful as this. The lowlying cloud tops it off! James Paterson, Editor
OREA MALIÁ By Giovanni Bortolani Using Photoshop CC
I started taking pictures for landscape painting in the garage. I was 11 years old and had a Polaroid. In high school I projected slides on the walls to paint big trompe l’oeil. When I studied at the academy of fine art, I entered the darkroom and no longer went out. Manipulating photographs and creating images became my trip. I have “made money” by working as an illustrator, designer, filmmaker, and art director, and I spent all of to be a photographer. Distracted by the clouds, I think with a pencil, and write with light. I live in Italy and I love my dreams.
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Novus Prometheus By Giovanni Bortolani Using Photoshop CC
In this picture, a little girl brings with her a thunderbolt of Zeus. She’s The New Prometheus, this time, as a woman. She will not be punished by the gods, but she brings with her the hope that this time, the fire, the technology, the artificial world can find the right balance with the natural one. The wish is to have an integrated humanity, through greater responsibility and commitment with nature.
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after
Raw 7 things you didn’t know about
before
There’s more to Adobe Camera Raw than making simple image adjustments. Here are seven little known reasons why ACR rocks!
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A raw file isn’t an image For those photographers who want the best image quality and greater control over the finished image, raw is the only choice. The problem with JPEGs is that in-camera processing means that much of the data collected by the
sensor is discarded at the time of shooting. By contrast, a raw file is the unprocessed information your camera’s sensor creates. It’s not exactly a digital image, but rather the building blocks of an image. And because raw files hold so much data, not all of those building blocks end up being
used. For example, raw files have a greater dynamic range than JPEGs, so there’s more detail in highlight and shadow areas. Even a seemingly black stairwell holds a surprising amount of detail in the shadows after a few quick tweaks to the Basic sliders in Camera Raw.
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You can change camera profiles Occupying an inconspicuous spot third from the right in the Camera Raw panels, you wouldn’t necessarily think the Camera Calibration settings would be the best place to begin editing a raw file. But even before you make any changes to the basic exposure, its worth heading over to Camera Calibration to experiment with the Camera Profiles. These relate to the picture style options found in your camera’s menus. By
default it’s set to Adobe Standard, but experiment with the other settings and you might find a better starting
point from which to go on and make other changes. If you really like a particular profile, you can also make it a preset.
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Tone map HDRs in Camera Raw If you like combining several exposures into one, but find the Photoshop Merge to HDR Pro command clunky, then you can choose to tone map your HDR images using Camera Raw instead. Simply select the set of exposures in Bridge, and go to Tools>Photoshop>Merge
to HDR Pro. Once the HDR dialog opens, set Mode: 32 Bit and check Complete Toning in Adobe Camera Raw,
then hit the button at the bottom. Use ACR’s tonal tools to reveal detail in highlights and shadows, then open the image. Once done, you’ll need to save it as a manageable file, so choose Image>Mode> 16 bit, then, when prompted, choose Merge and set Method: Exposure and Gamma. Now you can save it as a TIFF.
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Improve skies with greater control Those who have the latest CC version of Camera Raw
have a new feature that makes the Graduated Filter tool even more powerful. The tool has always been great at
improving skies by allowing you to gradually reduce exposure in the top of the frame. But the problem is, if part of the scene protrudes above the horizon, then it gets darker too. Recently, the tool had been bolstered with a new Brush option. After drawing a gradient, check the Brush option at the top of the tool settings, then hit Y to toggle a view of the mask. Paint to subtract parts of the mask. Check Auto Mask and the brush will snap on to edges, making it easier to paint over solid objects like these rocks.
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Digital negatives are the best choice The great thing about raw files is that they’re untouchable, so you can’t accidently save over the original, and any changes you make are always editable. The problem is, there’s no industry-standard raw format, with every camera maker using its own proprietary files. The DNG (or digital negative) is Adobe’s attempt to standardise raw into a format that can be edited in its software. There are a couple of advantages to converting to DNG (which can be done in ACR’s Save Image dialog, or in Lightroom). First, DNGs are a bit smaller, so they’ll take up less room on your hard
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Make Bridge and Camera Raw work together Just like Photoshop, Bridge can ‘host’ Camera Raw. So you don’t even need to have Photoshop open to launch Camera Raw (right click a raw file and choose Open Choose your in Camera Raw to launch it colour space from Bridge). You can also use Another big reason to shoot in Bridge to copy Camera Raw raw is the control it gives you edits from one file to another. over colour. Not only can you Simply open an image, make correct white balance after your changes and click Done. the shoot, you can also choose Then back in Bridge, right click a colour space in the Camera the file and chose Develop Raw workflow settings. Set Settings>Copy Settings. Then sRGB for web, Adobe RGB all you have to do is select (1998) for images for clients, another image (or several), and Pro Photo RGB for the right click and choose Develop widest range of colours. Settings>Paste settings. drive. Second, there’s no xmp sidecar file for the edited data. All the editing data is stored within the file, while remaining endlessly editable. Third, they future-proof your images, in case the camera’s own format becomes obsolete.
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project info You’ll learn How to use the new Brush app in combination with Photoshop’s Libraries Panel to create Photoshop brushes with your camera phone What you’ll need Photoshop CC subscription and an IOS device such as an iPhone or iPad with a camera It only takes 10 minutes
Make a Photoshop brush From an iPhone photo Discover how to use your iPhone or iPad to create your own custom Photoshop brushes in an instant
01
Take a photo
Download the free Adobe Brush app from the Apple App Store to your IOS device. Once done, log in with your Creative Cloud login details. Click the plus icon to start making a brush. You can use an existing photo on your device or capture a fresh image with the camera. Easily definable objects against clear white backgrounds work the best.
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Refine the brush
Once you’re happy with the image, use the tools in the Brush app to refine the image. Choose Photoshop in the Style settings and set an Angle for the brush. Go to Crop and remove any messy edges. Go to Refine and use the White Masking slider to remove the background. Paint with your finger to subtract any other parts you don’t want.
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into Photoshop
Once you’re happy with the brush, tap the name at the top to rename it, then tap Save to store it. Open Photoshop and go to Window>Libraries. After a few seconds the new brush should appear at the top of the panel. Grab the Brush tool, click the Brush and you’re ready to start painting. Go to File>New to make a new blank document for your brush strokes.
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Adjust settings
Go to Window>Brush to access the Brush panel. Experiment with the many settings in the panel to change the way the brush works. To get a random scatter effect like this, click Brush tip Shape and increase Spacing, click Shape Dynamics and alter the Size, Angle and Roundness jitters, then go to Scattering and set the Scatter percentage.
Render Trees Generate a range of realistic trees from scratch using Photoshop CC’s cool new Render>Tree command
GENIUS tip!
tap here to see video
project info
Speed up the rendering
The new Render Tree command enables you to create 3D models of a range of tree species. You can alter the command’s attributes to populate the branches with hundreds of customisable leaves. This can create very complex models that may take a while to render,
depending on how much RAM your computer has. For a speedier rendering process, tick the box adjacent to Flat Shading – Leaves. This will produce leaves that lack a complex mix of light and shade. You can also tick a box to flatshade the branches.
You’ll learn How to modify properties such as the size, colour and density of leaves to create a tree for all seasons You’ll need Photoshop CC 2014.2.1 It’ll take 15 minutes
project info You’ll learn How to set up, shoot and process a minimalist still-life scene You’ll need Photoshop Elements 12 or higher It’ll take 30 minutes
Create a minimal still life Use ordinary printer paper to create a minimalist still-life sculpture, then shoot and process it in black and white
The great thing about abstract macro photography is that it enables you to engage with the viewer on a surreal level. Part of the fun of the image is the mystery behind it, and how you can turn something everyday into something special. The minimalist effect is easy to produce. We used a 105mm macro lens, a remote shutter release, a tripod and some plain white A4 paper to create our paper sculpture. We didn’t do any fancy origami, but if you do have the skills to do this, you can create some wonderful results. Follow the steps to make your own…
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Create the paper sculpture
Clear a flat work surface on a desktop and make sure you have a plain background behind your setup. Something like a white wall works well. Take a sheet of A4 paper and fold it in half to create a curve, but don’t crease it down the middle. Place a weight where the two sides of the paper meet. We used a mug. Repeat three more times and place each curved sheet on top of one another until you have your sculpture ready.
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Set up your SLR
Set your camera on a tripod. Put it into aperturepriority mode and set the aperture between f/8 and f/11. To ensure you’re shooting at the optimum image quality, set your ISO to 100. Finally, in the main menu alter your picture style setting to monochrome. This makes it much easier to gauge whether the shots you’re taking will work well when you process them in Camera Raw.
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Use Live View
Engage the Live View setting so you can compose your image and see the monochrome effect. Frame up your shot so you crop out the mug or weight on the left-hand side of the scene, and shoot looking straight down the paper tubes. Focus on the closest edge of the paper tube. Now is the time to consider arranging the lighting, which needn’t be anything fancy.
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Create shadows
Before you take the image, you need to light your paper from a sideways direction. This will create shadows to give your image a more 3D appearance. We used an ordinary table lamp as our light source, but you could also use a torch or an LED light or a flash if you have one. You don’t need to worry about the white balance or any colour casts ruining the end result.
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Tweak in ACR
Open your image in Camera Raw and switch to the Basic panel. Here you can tweak the Exposure to lighten the image if necessary. Use Highlights to lift the lighter parts, and Shadows to darken the shadows. Use Clarity to boost the midtone contrast, then tidy up the composition using a 3:2 ratio crop to remove any empty space or props that have crept into the image.
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Convert to mono
Open your image in the main Photoshop editor. Go to the Layers menu and choose New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map. In the pop-out box, hit the dropdown menu icon, and under the default menu select the first preset option. This will convert the image to black and white. There are other, more controlled ways to achieve a mono conversion, however.
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Adjust the tones
Next, to boost the tones and contrast in the image, add a Levels adjustment layer and set the highlight and shadows sliders to the respective ends of the graph. If you want your image to have more contrast, pull the shadows slider in further. Your lighting setup will largely define the settings you need to use. Finally, use the Dodge and Burn tools to finish off the image.
Teach yourself
Black & White Photography Master mono photography – from visualising the shot through to how to get the best results when editing
Teach yourself
Teach yourself
Lightroom
Photography
Get to grips with Adobe’s powerful Lightroom image editing program with our complete instructional course
Beginner’s guide to understanding the key settings on your digital SLR so that you can take better shots
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Complete instructional course on mastering Adobe’s powerful Photoshop CC image editing program http://tiny.cc/ivo4nx
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ESSENTIALS 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 six 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 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.
The Photoshop family
Four versions of Photoshop with varying capabilities…
Photoshop CC
£8.78/$9.99 per month 20GB online storage Behance Prosite There are constant updates to the program as soon as new features are introduced Subscription model saves large initial outlay ✗ Monthly subs not everyone’s cup of tea Perfect for photographers
Lightroom 5
£73/$136 S howcases outstanding
Elements 13 £66.43/$99.99
Great value, no subscription fees ✗ Camera Raw doesn’t include any selective or gradient adjustments, and is limited compared with Lightroom 5 or Photoshop CC ✗ No Curves adjustments The ideal package for beginners and photography enthusiasts
Photoshop Touch £6.99/$9.99 tablet £2.99/$4.99 phone
image-processing features Ideal for smartphone image editing, especially while you’re out and about ✗ There are no layers or masks, so compositing multiple images isn’t an option Photoshop Touch includes layers and Curves Ideal for professional and enthusiast photographers At these prices, it’s a no brainer who don’t want a monthly subscription Ideal for mobile phone shooters and dabblers
The image-editing workflow 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 organiser 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 the image at a later date. However, PSD files are large and take up lots of hard drive space. If you want to share your images online or via email or social media, save them as JPEGs.
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the basics of raw processing 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 colour cast
Shadows
Controls the brightness of the darkest pixels
Tint
This slider enables you to correct a green or magenta cast, again, if the White Balance tool fails
Whites
Sets a point on the tonal range at which pixels should be pure white
ExposurE
Clarity
Controls the overall brightness of the image
Blacks
Sets a point on the tonal range at which pixels should be pure black
Controls the amount of midtone contrast
Saturation
Controls the overall colour intensity of the image
Vibrance
Adjusts the intensity of the less-saturated colours
Six essential layers for photos 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-hand edge. This remaps the tones of the image to make more of the available tonal range.
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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.
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Hue/Saturation
This adjustment layer is best used for altering the intensity and brightness of individual colour channels in an image – greens and blues in landscapes, for instance. Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, click the Master menu and choose the colour channel you’d like to adjust. Small changes are usually the most effective.
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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.
After
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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.
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Selective sharpening
Once all other adjustments have been made, you need to sharpen the image for output. The traditional way is to create a merged layer at the top of the stack, apply Unsharp Mask, then paint on the mask to remove the sharpening from those parts of the image you want to remain soft. However, the Sharpen tool enables more control over the process by enabling you to build up the 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.
14 essential keyboard shortcuts
14 keyboard shortcuts that will massively improve your speed and efficiency while working in Photoshop
D
x
Alt+[scroll wheel]
[ or ]
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E
shift+[ or ]
Space bar
Cmd/Ctrl+alt+Z
Alt+[eye icon]
Cmd/Ctrl+[layer mask]
Cmd/Ctrl+I
Cmd/Ctrl+T
Shift+[layer mask]
Cmd/Ctrl+J
Reset the foreground and background colours to black and white
Zoom in or out of the image
Create a merged copy of all the layers in the layer stack
Temporarily switch the current tool to the Hand tool, for moving around the image while zoomed in
Switch off the visibility of all other layers in the layer stack, for before-and-after comparisons
Invert the colour of a layer mask to black
Disable the effects of a layer mask
Switch the foreground and background colour swatches
Resize the brush tip
Cycle backwards or forwards through the layer blend modes
Undo the last change made to the document. Works multiple times
Load the currently active layer mask as a new selection
Activate the Free Transform tool
Duplicate the current layer
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