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Text
NEW
Bumper Holiday Special! BONUS DOUBLE EDITION!
Improve Your Image Essential Photoshop Delve Deep Into Our
Compositing Skills!
Assemble Your Images to
Make Amazing New Artworks.
Mega Tips & Tricks! Creative Artwork Projects!
From Colour Matching to Lense
Flare, We have it covered.
We Show You How to get the
Very Best from Photoshop!
Want to master your Camera?
Then don't miss our NEW Photography
magazine on Reodlq now!
Bumper Holiday Special! BOHUS DOUBLE EDITION!
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NEW
DIGITAL Essential Photography Skills / |
CamerausEff
Expert Tutorials & Tips
Issue Eight | December 20231100% INDEPENDENT
Learn How
To Shoot /
Amazing
Photos!
Master Professional Tips
and Techniques with Ease.
Perfect Your Portrait Want to Upgrade Your Expert Image Processing
Photography! Photographic Gear? with Adobe Lightroom!
-----------
From Black & White to We Reveal Stacks of Cool Take Your Photographs to the
Natural Light covered Inside. Accessories to Inspire You. Next Level with Our Help.
Click our handy link to read now: https://bit.ly/30wbQyE
Photoshop
1 USER
The power to make your images amazing!
We want to share with you our
knowledge of Photoshop and all it has
to offer as a photo manipulation tool
and creative outlet. We will also dip our
collective toes into image processing
with programs like Lightroom and
Camera Raw so you can take your
favourite photos and make them look
amazing. It doesn’t stop there, we’ll
also give you a chance to experience
Photoshop Elements too. We thought
it only fair that it gets its moment in the
sun too. Let’s not hang about then. Read
on and start learning.
www.pclpublications.com 3
1
23 Smart portrait
8 Take a normal portrait ofa friend or loved one and 23 Depth blur
turn it into something extraordinary! 24 Harmonization
24 Makeup transfer
25 Object selection
25 Illustrator integration
26 JPEG artefacts removal
22 Select and mask
Art Attack!
28 Scale Ul
29 Content-aware fill
29 Locking the workspace
26 Quick actions
27 Sky replacement
27 Lens blur
Previous versions
28 Select subject
28 Distribution spacing
28 Reference point
28 Double-click text edit
New and Improved
Photoshop Update
20 Can you update?
20 Color transfer
21 Landscape mixer
21 Style transfer
22 Content credentials
22 Super zoom
23 Colorize
23 Gradient tool
23 Skin smoothing
24 Shareforcommenting
29 Go home
29 Symmetry
4 www.pclpublications.com
Photoshop: The Basics
34 The history of Photoshop
36 Keep Photoshop up to date
38 Photoshop preferences guide
40 Main interface
42 Menus
44 Keyboard shortcuts
46 The toolbar
First Things First
76 Pixel explosion
50 The Photoshop home screen
52 Your first PSD document
54 Open and save your first image
56 Using layers
Photoshop Mega Tips
60 Create specular highlights
62 Any colour from anywhere
64 Blackand white colour control
66 Advanced clone stamp control
66 Colour match your images
68 Combine adjustment layers
70 Precise lens flare placement
84 Making reflections
The Digital Darkroom
92 Get more out of your photos
94 The history of Lightroom
96 Lightroom versus Photoshop
98 Shooting in Raw mode
www.pclpublications.com 5
Compositing Walkthrough
Best of the Rest
100 We reveal a technique called grey screen
compositing to make a movie poster
Photoshop
110 Quick actions - remove background
110 Quickactions-blur background
110 Quick actions - make b/w background
111 Discover
111 Quick actions-enhance image
111 Pattern preview
112 Properties panels
112 Zoom to layer
113 Pattern presets
113 Warp tool
112 Remove background
112 Object selection tool
112 Type layer properties
113 Pattern-solid-gradient
114 Brush to eraser
114 The frame tool
114 Blend mode preview
114 Maths in number fields
115 The color wheel
115 Default text
115 Updated undo
115 Transform tool
115 Auto-commit
6 www.pclpublications.com
Photoshop Essentials
118 Placing and importing images
120 Non-destructive enhancement part 1
122 Non-destructive enhancement part 2
124 Selection tools
126 Making selections
140 Create a neon sign
148 Double exposure effect
154 Collodion portraits
160 Cartoonize your photos
Photoshop Creative Zone
Unleash the Power
130 Your first composition
132 Your first cut out
134 Your first layer mask
136 Your first set of adjustments
Exploring Lightroom
168 Lightroom underwent a big update for 2022, so
let's start with what's new in the most recent
version and show you the latest new features.
176 Exploring the workspace
178 Importingphotosforthefirsttime
180 Fix photos with quick develop
Lightroom Tips & Tricks
182 Let us show you how certain less well-known
tips and tricks can enhance your Lightroom
experience and creative workflow.
www.pclpublications.com 7
Art
.. V
i
Ps
Attack!
We thought we’d start with a little bit of
a demonstration of the power of image
editing with a tutorial to
show you how you
can use Photoshop
to transform the
portrait of a friend
or loved one into
something creative
and unusual. This
easy to follow guide
will have you creating
patterns, using guides,
layers and more to really
help you understand just
what Photoshop is able
to achieve.
8
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BEFORE
AFTER
Г I I I I I I I I I I I
Lego
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I Lego or by a few degrees oftoy, consisting of
who has. Lego is the popu a building just about
coloured interlocking plastic bri^ as our inspiration, we
XS°ocXtea po^that looks like it was made out of
Lego bricks.
LEGO PORTRAITS
ART ATTACK
Photoshop CC Edit Image Layer Type Select Filter 3D
New... XN . ft Г « Open... Я XO „ Browse in Bridge... XX0 Open as Smart Object... Open Recent ► Close X W Close All XX W Close and Go to Bridge... Save X S Save As... OXS Check In... Revert H2
Name: Untitled-1 Q qk
Document Type: Custom Cancel Save Preset... Width: 50 Pixels Height: 50 Pixels * Resolution: 144 Plxels/lnch Color Mode: RGB Color * 8 bit Background Contents: White * H
©First, we are going to make a basic Lego-shaped pattern. Go to your
File menu and select New (Cmd + N) and make a new document
that is 50 pixels wide x 50 pixels high. Click OK when you are ready and the
document will be created.
®The document is very small but if you press Cmd + 0, it will fill the
screen with the document so you can view it with greater ease. If
you also click the lock icon on the Background layer, you can release it and
use it as Layer 0.
Filter 3D view Window Help
Proof Setup ►
Proof Colors XY
Gamut Warning OXY
Pixel Aspect Ratio ►
Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction
32-bit Preview Options...
Zoom In X +
Zoom Out X-
Fit on Screen xo
Fit Artboard on Screen
100% X1
200%
Print Size
Screen Mode ►
У Extras XH
Show ►
✓ Rulers XR
У Snap OX;
Snap To ►
Lock Guides XX;
Clear Guides
Clear Selected Artboard Guides
Clear Canvas Guides
New Guide...
New Guide Layout...
New Guides From Shape
Lock Slices
Photoshop CC HiebBtnriage Layer Type Select Filter 3D View Window
Undo Make Layer XZ
t Fi ft f* tep Forward C>5tZ —A(atfi -• ie. m I
C Щ * Step Backward XXZ
Untitled-1 ф 2210* (Lay
22 20 18 Fade... OXF И 2 ° ? <
I Cut XX
Copy XC
p Copy Merged OXC
Paste XV
' Clear
Check Spelling...
Find and Replace Text... , |
Fill... Or I । Ф ,
__________________________Stroke... ' И - — *
®To help you work accurately, especially at large magnifications like
this, make sure you go to View > Show > Smart Guides and also Pixel
Grid in the same menu. You can even drag in two guidelines from the rulers
to show you where dead centre is.
©The first step is to go to Edit > RII (Shift + F5) and choose 50 per cent
Grey as your fill colour. This will be the base of our Lego brick. The
other Fill default settings can be left as they are. Click OK when you’re ready
to continue to the next step.
www.pclpublications.com Ц
ART ATTACK!
LEGO PORTRAITS
[2j * ЧЬ C % Feather 0 px Sty
X Untitled-1 @ 2210% (Layer 1, RGB/8*) •
. 22 20 18 16 14 12 10
Г”] [_ j Rectangular Marquee Tool M
Elliptical Marquee Tool . M
«-* Single Row Marquee Tool J
У ••
U Single Column Marquee Tool
u
®lf you double-click the Layer 0 thumbnail, you will activate the Layer
Style menu. Under Blending Options, click on the Bevel & Emboss
button and replicate the settings we have used here. This gives us a bevelled
edge effect to our block base.
©Next, create a new Layer (Shift + Cmd + N) and call it Layer 1. We
need to add the stud above the base of the brick to complete the
familiar Lego shape. To do this, we need to select the Elliptical Marquee Tool
from the toolbar (M).
®lf you hold Shift + Alt and drag your cursor from the centre of the
document, you can constrain the ellipse and maintain a perfect
circle. Draw a circle that is 3 pixels from the edge of the square on each
side (making the ellipse 44 pixels).
©When you let go of the left Mouse button the circle will become a
selection. Go to Edit > Fill and choose 50 per cent Grey again as your
fill. You will have a grey circle above a grey square base that you won't be
able to see for the moment, but not to worry.
12
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LEGO PORTRAITS
ART ATTACK
® Double-click on the Layer 1 thumbnail and you will call up the Layer
Style menu once more. Click on the Bevel & Emboss button again
and use the same settings as you did for the base. The Lego block stud now
has some depth added to it.
®Then click on the Drop Shadow button and add the values we
have shown here. A small shadow is added to the stud, helping the
illusion that it is a three dimensional shape on top of the base. Press Cmd
+ D to clear the selection.
Undo Free Transform X Z
Step Backward XXZ *
Check Spelling...
Find and Replace Text...
Puppet Warp
Perspective Warp
Free Transform XT
Transform ►
Define Brush Preset...
Dvlvie Pattom...
Purge
©We have also gone to the Horizontal Type Tool and added a little
optional Photoshop logotype ‘Ps’. The text is also 50 per cent
grey and we have added the same Bevel & Emboss and Drop Shadow
settings as the Lego brick.
®lf you go to Edit > Define Pattern, you can name your pattern ‘lego’
and it will be saved, ready to use as a repeating pattern when you
need it. Click OK to save the pattern. You don't have to save the document if
you don’t want to. It has served its purpose.
®With our Lego pattern saved, we need to open an image that we
can turn into our Lego portrait. We have a colourful, full face portrait
that has nice, clearly defined features and interesting shapes and texture.
Name this layer ‘base’.
®The image we are using is 2100 pixels wide x 3300 pixels high.
Be aware that the size of your image needs to be divisible by
50 to match the Lego brick size. That may sound a bit odd but all will
become clear in the next steps.
www.pclpublications.com ] 3
ART ATTACK!
LEGO PORTRAITS
molocnopUU Ue age Layer type Sefe<
About Photoshop CC. About Plug-In
Preferences » General... XK
Services Hide Photoshop CC Hide Others ► ~XH XXH hMn Workspace... Tools... History Log... File Handling...
Quit Photoshop CC XQ Export.. Performance... Scratch Disks... Cursors,.. Transparency & Gamut... Units & Rulers...
Guides, Grid & Slices
Plug-Ins... Type... 3D... Technology Previews...
Camera Raw...
wraw нар Proof Setup Proof Colors Gamut Warning Pixel Aspect Ratio XY OXY ►
Zoom In X +
Zoom Out X-
Fit on Screen xo
100% 200% Print Size X1
Screen Mode ►
✓ Extras XH
MB Layer Edges
✓ Rulers XR
✓ Snap OX; Grid
Snap To
Lock Guides XX; ✓ ArtboaTO Guides ✓ Smart Guides
New Guide- New Guide Layout... Slices
®lt’s not essential but is useful to get in the habit of setting up guides.
If you go to your main Photoshop menu and choose Preferences
> Guides, Grids & Slices and make Gridline Every 50 Pixels and make
Subdivisions 1. Click OK when ready.
®Now we can turn on the grid. Go to View > Show > Grid (Cmd + *).
Horizontal and vertical gridlines, 50 pixels apart, will be overlaid on to
your image. Make sure that the base layer is active, then press Cmd + J to
make a duplicate. Call this new layer ‘mosaic’.
Convert for Smart Filters
Filter Gallery. .
Adaptive Wide Angle... \‘OXA
Camera Raw Filter... OXA
Lens Correction... OX R
Liquify... OXX
Vanishing Point.. XXV
3D ►
Blur ►
Blur Gallery ►
Distort ►
Noise ►
Color Halftone...
Render ► Crystallize...
Sharpen ► Facet
Stylize ► Fragment
Video ► Mezzotint.
Other ► Mosaic
Flaming Pear ►
Nik Collection ►
Topaz Labs ►
Browse Filters Online...
Lock: В / Ф U a Fill: 100%
О v mosaic
©With the ‘mosaic’ layer active, go to Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic to
bring up the Mosaic dialog box. Set your Cell size to 50 and click
OK. We are simplifying the image so one block of colour in the portrait
will match one Lego block, when it’s applied.
® Click on the Create a new layer button to add another layer. A new
layer will appear above the ‘mosaic’ layer. Call this one ‘lego’. This is
where we’ll apply our block pattern. Make sure the ‘lego’ layer is active. You
can click it and its corners will be highlighted.
iie bn* Image Layer Type Select fl
Undo Name Change 36 Z
Wind 10
Step Backward X 38 Z
io, в
so ______________<>*F
Cui 38 X
Copy XC
Copy Merged OXC
Paste XV
Paste Special ►
Check Spelling...
Find and Replace Text...
Stroke... kt
Content-Aware Scale X О X C
Puppet Warp
Perspective Warp
p юпн * В О T
Linear Light v Opacit
Lock: / 4* Fl
О mosaic
®Next, you need to go to Edit > Fill (Shift + F5) to call up the Fill dialog
box. Choose Pattern from the Contents list and under Custom
Pattern, you can choose your Lego pattern created earlier. Click on your
pattern and then click OK to proceed.
®The ‘lego’ layer is now filled with the brick pattern. Go to the Blend
Mode menu and select Linear Light. When you do, the bricks will be
blended into the mosaic pattern on the layer below. You see how the bricks
match the mosaic blocks exactly.
14
www.pclpublications.com
LEGO PORTRAITS
П Д Grad wit Tool к G
_ <J>* Paint Bucket Tool v G
4j>*3D Material Drop Tool G
a a
®At this point, if you press Cmd + * to turn off your grid, you will see
the image more clearly. We could happily call this done but there is
a little more we can do to enhance it further. For the moment, temporarily
hide the ‘lego’ and ‘mosaic’ layers.
©Click on the ‘base’ layer to activate it and press Cmd + J to duplicate
it. A new layer called 'base copy' will be created. With ‘base copy’
active, press G to choose your Gradient Tool and make sure your foreground
colour is set to white.
® Click the Gradient context menu at the top to open the Gradient Editor
and choose the Foreground to Transparent preset. Click OK then set
the Gradient Fill Opacity to 50 per cent. Make sure the 'base copy’ layer is
active so we can apply our gradient.
©Click and hold the left Mouse button outside the document in the top
left corner and drag the cursor towards the bottom right comer, just
over half way. When you let go, a white gradient will be applied. Repeat this
process from the bottom right comer.
®Now we have a nice sheen that runs from 50% opacity at its start
and fades to 0% opacity on our ‘base copy’ layer that will help
differentiate it from the ’mosaic’ layer above; its use will become clearer in
the following stages.
®Make the ‘lego’ and ‘mosaic’ layers visible again and then make
sure the ‘mosaic’ layer is active. Go to the layer options panel
and click on the Add Layer Mask button and that will be added to the
‘mosaic’ layer.
www.pclpublications.com ] 5
ART ATTACK!
LEGO PORTRAITS
©It is important that the ‘lego’ layer only interacts with the ‘mosaic’
layer below. To ensure this, click on the ‘lego’ layer to activate it,
then right-click on it and choose Create Clipping Mask from the context
menu. A small white arrow indicates it is done.
©Click on the ‘mosaic’ layer mask thumbnail so you can edit the
mask. We want to remove random blocks to make it look like the
portrait is not finished yet. You could do it brick by brick but this would take
an age. Here is a little trick to speed things up.
tl-. 0
s.,
-•A 0
о
/ / Brush Tool к
Pencil Tool d
* Color Replacement Tc
л Mixer Brush Tool
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®With the ‘mosaic’ layer mask active, go to the toolbar and choose
the Brush Tool or press В to activate it and select a large medium
soft brush of about 200 pixels from the top context menu. Make sure the
foreground colour is set to black.
® Start to paint random blobs of black around the perimeter of the layer
mask; as you do, you will see it reveal the ‘base copy’ layer below.
Pressing Alt + left-click on the mask thumbnail will show it in isolation. Repeat
to go back to the normal view.
Sharpen
Stylize
Video
Other
Crystallize.
Facet
Fragment
Mezzotint...
Mosaic. $
Pointillize...
Flaming Pear
®We have also changed the brush to a much smaller white one and
painted white blobs in amongst the larger black ones. Pressing the
plus (+) or minus (-) keys will alter brush size. The addition of these random
white brush strokes will help add to the effect we are after.
®With the ‘mosaic’ layer mask still active, go to Filter > Pixelate
> Mosaic and add the same mosaic Cell Size settings of 50
as before. The blobs of black now conform to the grid and blocks we
already have, but the image fades in and out in places.
16
www.pclpublications.com
Layer Style
®The ‘mosaic’ layer mask needs one more tweak. Go to Image >
Adjustments > Threshold. You will see the mask change to solid
black or white blocks, which vary in number as you move the slider back
and forth. Click OK when ready.
®We have our random pattern of solid blocks, with some missing to
show the image below. If you double-click on the ‘mosaic’ layer,
you can call up the Layer Style menu again and add a small drop shadow
to give some depth to the blocks.
ЯЗ Л -----------------
©Reducing the Saturation of the ‘base copy’ layer helps add some
separation between the Lego blocks and the face. This small
adjustment is the final tweak, which means
this Lego portrait is complete.
dddddSl'Jdj
ddddddJdj
Opacity:
Angle:
Size:
Quality
Anti-aliased
Noise: A
Duplicate-
Apply Image.
Calculations
Use Global Light
ноя Toning..
Bleed Mode: Multiply
Drop Shadow
Structure
Immortalise
someone in Lego
Who thought plastic bricks could be so artistic?
New and
Improved^
We take a closer look at some of the latest updates
seen in Adobe’s layer-based image editor
Contents
Photoshop 2022
20 Can you update?
20 Color transfer
21 Landscape mixer
21 Style transfer
22 Content credentials
22 Super zoom
23 Colorize
23 Gradient tool
23 Skin smoothing
24 Share for commenting
24 Select and mask
25 Smart portrait
25 Depth blur
26 Harmonization
26 Makeup transfer
27 Object selection
27 Illustrator integration
28 JPEG artefacts removal
28 Quick actions
29 Sky replacement
29 Lens blur
Previous versions
30 Select subject
30 Distribution spacing
30 Reference point
30 Scale Ul
18
NEW AND IMPROVED
Double-click text edit
Content-aware fill
Locking the workspace
Go home
Symmetry
www.pclpublications.com 19
PS NEW AND IMPROVED I
Check out these useful new features and tools
October 2021 saw the release of the latest
version of Photoshop 2022 which at the time
of writing is in release version 23.1.0. It has many
new improvements over those tools first offered in
the 2020 update. Certain additional new tools and
updated features are still in beta but available for
us to have a play with. So play we will. A number
of the new beta filters have to be downloaded
and there are also a number of tools that are as
yet unavailable but Adobe ask you for input and
submit reasons why a filter like this is useful to
you. At first glance, some of the tools new to
this version look a little gimmicky but others are
actually quite powerful. With a little refinement,
there are some great potential features, so
let’s get cracking and show you a few of the
more notable ones, key among which are the
improvements and additions to the Neural Filters.
Can You Update?
Although many reacted against the decision by Adobe to
move their products to a subscription model, what came
out of it was the fact that you didn’t have to buy a new
product or go through an upgrade path to get your hands
on all the latest features in any given application whenever
a new version came out. Photoshop is a good example of
how you can at least benefit from the latest bug fixes and
the addition of new tools by dropping coin every month to
keep up to date.
It has to be noted, if you are an owner of a pre-2012 Mac,
you may find that you are in a bit of trouble. One of the
Photoshop editing machines we use is a late 2012 iMac and
when version 2021 of Photoshop was released, we couldn’t
update to that version without updating its OS from High
Sierra 10.13 up to Catalina 10.15. As far as we are aware,
2011 and older machines cannot update any further than
version 10.13 which means you may not be able to use
Photoshop 2021 and 2022. So as it stands, the 2012 iMac is
still compatible with current versions of Photoshop - for now.
Color Transfer
This is a Neural Filter and is found under Alter > Neural
Filters. This one is currently still in Beta so
presumably it has some development
and refinement to go before
becoming a fully-fledged featured
filter. Essentially, it is a means
by which you can use the colour
palette of an entirely different
image and apply it to your own
image in various creative ways. We
have an image of a tiger and when you
activate the Color Transfer filter, you are
presented with a number of presets to get you started. The
presets are a series of images that have various tonal and
colour qualities that can be applied to your own image. We
clicked on one of the more garish examples to see what it
would give us. Results will vary based on your own target
image and also the Color space you use. You have the
additional option to adjust Saturation, Hue and Brightness
if required. We also tried a second image of a Japanese
landscape image for comparison. If you keep the Color
space in Lab mode, you have a few more adjustment
options available. When you have something you like, you
can choose the Output method and create a new layer
containing the newly enhanced image.
20
I NEW AND IMPROVED PS
Landscape Mixer
Another new filter currently in Beta added to the list is the Landscape
Mixer. It seems to promise an almost magical ability to transform
one landscape image into something else entirely.
Imagine a green valley with a river running through
it, converted into a harsh tundra wasteland
with the click of a button. Well, that’s what
the Landscape Mixer says it can do. In our
example its claims can be put the test with an
image of a lush river valley. When you fire up
the Neural Filters, click the Landscape Mixer
button to view the options available. There are
a few presets that range from sunny meadows to
wintery mountain scenes. Below are a number of sliders
that control the strength of effect applied and seasonal effects that
can make your image look more wintery or indeed more summery.
Since our original image is a green valley, we clicked on the first winter
preset. It took a while to convert the image and it did a passable
job of making it look more like a winter’s day. Adding more of the
Sunset slider’s influence on the scene certainly turned it into a sunnier
landscape and then we tried 55% on the Winter slider. The effect it had
was to roll an instant ice age across the landscape. It was definitely
eye-catching.
The Landscape Mixer looks like it has the potential to be a very
powerful tool. Be aware thought that unless you click the Preserve
Subject button, new image elements are merged into your image to
achieve the effect you are after. This essentially overwrites the base
image with new pixel data. That in itself is fine since you can output the
new mixed image to a new layer, but if you look closely at the resulting
image, it looks soft and muddy in places and quality does take a hit.
Also be mindful of the fact that processing these effects can take time.
If your original image is very large, you may have a long wait for the
effect to be applied. It’s still fun though!
Style Transfer
If you fancy altering the visual style of an
image by applying the colour, tone and
artistic style of another very different
image, then Style Transfer is for you.
Take a normal image and open the
Style Transfer filter. You will see a
number of images under the Artist and
Image Styles menu and the Custom
menu where you can source your own
examples. You can choose any of these and
their particular visual appearance will be transferred to your
target image. At its simplest, you could take an image and if
you choose an image style where there is a very colourfully
sketched styling, it will attempt to apply the style to your photo.
We tried this with a simple landscape and chose a very
colourful naive-style image of a face with bright colours. The
effect was very dramatic to say the least, but you can use the
sliders provided to dial back the effect if required. You can
experiment and apply all sorts of weird and wonderful effects
by choosing different Style options. The results can be output
to new layers in a number of ways including a Smart Filter layer
with all the effects combined within it.
www.pclpublications.com 21
PS NEW AND IMPROVED I
Content Credentials
This new feature is still in Beta phase and not
active when you first update to Photoshop
FILE NAMlI
content cn
2022. If you go to Photoshop >
Preferences > Technology
Previews, you can click
the Enable Content
I Credentials (Beta)
button to activate
it. You will need to
restart Photoshop
to see it. Content
Credentials is a means by
which you can attach useful
image information to the file such as assets
use, edits made as well as attribution info.
With Content Credentials now active, open
a PSD document with various layers and
adjustments and go to Window > Content
Credentials (Beta). The Content Credentials
panel will open showing a few options to
determine what information is saved with
Technology Previews
Q Enable Preserve Details 2.0 Upscale
Enable Content-Aware Tracing Tool
Deactivate Native Canvas
Precise color managment for HDR display
□ Enable Native Canvas Rulers
□ Enable Content Credentials (Beta)
/T\ Cha
your document, such as Edits and Activity
and Producer. If you click the Preview button,
you can see what data can be viewed. Note
that since it is still in Beta, certain edits and
activity are not compatible yet.
Now, if you go to File > Export > Export
As, you can open the export window and
choose the various file settings and format
you want your image to be saved as. Under
Content Credentials, if you click the Attach To
Image button, your data will be exported with
it. You may ask yourself how you know for sure
that any data is attached. Luckily, you can go to
https://verify.contentauthenticity.org to confirm.
When you’re on the site, click the Choose Image
button in the top right and you can drag and
drop your file. We exported our document as a
jpeg, which we dragged into the verify box. After
dropping the image, you will see all the data that
you attached to your image displayed on the
screen. That’s great, but there is a flaw that has
yet to be addressed.
If you go back to Photoshop and open the
exported image with the attached data and
make a simple edit, such as Levels and save
the image, something problematic arises. Take
this newly saved image and go back to the
verify site and try that version. This time all the
data is gone. Clearly, there is more work to do
on this particular tool, but hopefully a future
update will take care of it.
Super Zoom
This is designed to enable you to
enlarge a photo by zooming in,
cropping and letting Photoshop
add additional pixel data to
mitigate the loss of detail
and resolution. If you have an
original photo and you want to
enlarge a portion of it to fit within
your original picture dimensions, you
can use the Super Zoom feature. Choose
the amount of magnification by clicking the plus (+) or
minus (-) magnifying glass icons. In our example, we
enlarged the image by 3x. The resulting image can be
moved around in the small preview window so you can
compose it how you want and then, when ready, click
the OK button to create a new layer with the magnified
section of your image in it. As with all forms of image
interpolation and resampling, the more magnification
you apply, the more pixel data has to be added and the
final result will suffer as a consequence. Also, if you are
starting with a very small original image, this will only
compound the issue if you enlarge it too much.
22
I NEW AND IMPROVED PS
Colorize
□ Gradient Tool
This is a Featured Neural Filter
that has had a few tweaks
since its initial release in the
2021 version of Photoshop.
It is a tool designed to help
you add colour to old black
and white photographs. You have
a few options to choose in order to colour
your image. You can choose Auto Color and
the filter will decide what colours to apply
based on what it deems right after analysing
the image. You can also use colour profiles
such as Retro High Contrast and others. If you
prefer, you can click on areas of the image in
the preview window and apply local groups of
colours to suit your tase. You can, for instance,
Gradient Tool
ф Paint Bucket Tool
'<4 3D Material Drop
The Gradient Tool has been
a staple of Photoshop
pretty much for ever, but
most recently it has
had a small update
in the 2022 release
of Photoshop. The
change may seem
fairly bland compared to
some of the other features
available, but Adobe clearly
decided it was required. Back in the days of
Photoshop 2021 and older, when you chose
the Gradient Tool, the method that was used to
blend colours together was the so-called classic
method. Now, though, when using the Gradient
Skin Smoothing
This is a Featured Neural Filter that makes
quick work of skin retouching. It requires an
image with an obvious face
in it, otherwise the filter
is not active. When
you activate the filter
it scans the image
and places a blue
bounding box around
the subject’s face to
show the area that will be
affected. Note that partial
portraits due to cropping may not
work. A full face works best.
You have two control sliders. One is for Blur
and one for Smoothness. You can experiment
with how much of each adjustment is
make the background yellow and the
suit blue. You can also alter the colour
balance as well as Saturation, Hue,
Color Artefact Reduction and Noise
Reduction. Rather than just outputting a
final colourised image, you can click the
Output as new Color Layer button and your
colour choices will be saved in a new layer with
the Color Blend Mode instead. This is useful if you
want to mask out certain areas in this new colour
layer or alter what’s already there.
Perceptual
Linear
loc V Classic
Tool, you have
Classic, with
Linear and
Perceptual
added to the
list. What’s
the difference
you may ask? Our example uses a simple multi-
coloured grad, and the three different blend
methods are displayed side-by-side for easy
comparison. Apparently, the Linear method is more
akin to the way Adobe Illustrator blends its colours.
Perceptual is said to be more a more accurate
blend method and presumably results in more
colour-accurate output to print. Ultimately, it’s up to
you. Which do you prefer?
needed and the large preview image will update
accordingly. Our example used the full amounts of
both options and actually didn’t look bad. Enough
detail was kept in the portrait to avoid it looking like
a shop mannequin. Faces with a lot of freckles or
larger and more numerous blemishes will result in
a slightly more muddy look. These do look more
obviously retouched and the amount of blur can
spoil the portrait. A less automated and more
advanced method of retouching might be in
order but for a basic one-click option, it does
reasonably well. The areas retouched by the filter
can be output to a new layer if you feel the need
to make any additional edits.
www.pclpublications.com 23
PS NEW AND IMPROVED I
Share for Commenting
As the name implies, this feature allows
you to share your work on-line for others
to comment on and interact
S' with if preferred. First of
/with OtherX all, your image needs
( \ to be saved to the
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invite people to edit. I others wi|| not be
/ able to see it. This is
к Share J easy to do. Open an
У image that you want
to share and click on
the Share for Commenting
button in the top right of the menu bar.
Hit the Continue button and you can save
the document to the cloud. Our example
was named ‘Girl and Robot’. Once it
is saved to the cloud, note that the file
format is now a .PSDC. When you click
it and open it, note that the document
tab shows a small cloud icon in front
of the filename to let you know you are
dealing with a cloud-based file. Now that
it’s open, go to Windows > Comments to
open the Comments panel. Click on the
Share button to open a small preferences
panel. You can invite people to edit the
file or you can change the parameters by
hitting the Change Settings button. Click
your choices of Link Access and people
you can link with and return to the Share
Document panel. Now, if you click the
Copy Link button, you can send that link to
people you want to view the on-line image,
or paste it into your browser so you can view
it yourself. The file is up on the cloud and is
accessed via your Adobe account. Here you
can comment on the file, view other people’s
comments or delete/filter them as required.
If at any point you go back into Photoshop
and open the cloud-based file again, you can
go back to the Comments panel and view any
comments that may have been made about
the image in the meantime. This is handy,
since you don’t have to log into your Adobe
account and view comments that way.
Select and Mask
The Select and Mask tool (originally called
Refine Edge) has been with us for a while but
there have been a couple of tweaks made
worth mentioning. When you access the Select
and Mask toolset, you will notice that on the
top menu bar are two buttons. One is Select
Subject (which can also be found on the main
Select menu options) and also a Refine Hair
button. The Select Subject button will analyse
your image and make a determination as to
what your main subject is and put a selection
around it. With the new Photoshop update, the
improved Object Selection Tool found out on
the toolbar is also available within the Select
and Mask panel. It behaves just
as it does out in the main
document. Over in the
properties panel on the
right, is a Refine Mode
option with a choice of
Color Aware refinement
or Object Aware. If your
Select and Mask...
subject has a well differentiated background
comprised of a single contrasting colour, you can
choose the Color Aware option to help separate
your subject from that coloured background.
Otherwise you can use the Object Aware option
to scan the image for obvious objects to help
the refinement process. If your selected subject
is a person and their hair is difficult to make a
selection of, you can also click the Refine Hair
button in the top menu and it will attempt a more
accurate selection of fine hair detail. There are
a number of Output To: options, our example
has the selection turned into a mask so we can
separate out the subject from the background.
24
I NEW AND IMPROVED PS
Smart Portrait
Next is the Smart Portrait filter. This one
has been around since the 2021 update and
is currently still in Beta. Your image needs
to contain a face which the software can
detect and surround with a blue outline.
Then you can start making some eye-
opening alterations. For
example, if you move the
Be Happy! slider to the
far right, after giving
the filter some time
to think about it, up
pops a result that has
transformed a neutral,
unsmiling subject into
one with a toothy grin!
Trying a couple of different
images shows that it either works well or
fails hilariously. Various other emotions
are available and so is the ability to
change the direction your subject is
looking (up to a point). The Facial Age
slider is able to age your subject by
adding wrinkles and grey hair or make
them look more child-like. The results
can be output to a new masked layer to
preserve your original image.
As we’ve noted, it can work well,
depending on the original image or just
completely fail with some scary results.
For the moment, this one feels like
some more refinement to the editing
ability of facial features is on order
before it becomes a Featured Filter.
Depth Blur
Another Neural Filter currently in Beta
phase. This particular filter lets you take an
original image with sharp focus throughout
the scene and create custom blur to make
the image look like it was shot with much
shallower depth of field. The example image
is very sharp, but with the filter applied, you
can blur the foreground rock
structures and the ones
in the far distance. By
clicking on the preview
image and adding
a focal point, the
rocks in the middle
ground remain sharp.
You can put the focal
point anywhere in your
image and you can use the
Focal Distance and Focal Range Sliders to
alter the affect. The amount of blur can also
be controlled by a slider and so too can
the amount of atmospheric Haze. You also
have the option to tweak the Temp, Tint,
Saturation, Brightness and Grain sliders.
When you have something you like, you can
output the final result to a new layer and
call it done. There is another option, though,
which is a bit more complex.
Instead of saving the result, you can click
on the Output Depth Map Only button. This
breaks the image down into a series of grey
shapes that coincide with the shapes of
the rocks in the shot. Note that the closest
objects are black and the furthest objects
are white. Simply put: black is closest to you
and white is furthest away. The Depth Map
is saved to a new layer and can be used
with Photoshop’s Lens Blur tool by adding it
to a new Channel which we’ve called Alpha 1.
Click on your your original untouched sharp
landscape and go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur.
In the Lens Blur setting panel, click the Depth
Map Source and choose Alpha 1. Activate the
Set Your Focal Point tool and click on the rocks
in the middle of the image. As you increase
the blur radius, you’ll see the foreground
and the distant rocks start to blur. The depth
mask in conjunction with your chosen Focal
Point prevents certain areas blurring, but
allows others to be affected. This gives a
similar effect to the Depth Blur filter.
www.pclpublications.com 2 5
PS NEW AND IMPROVED I
Harmonization
This is a new Neural Filter. Currently in
Beta, this one should be of great interest
to those Photoshop artists
who like doing composite
images. Composites
are created by taking
multiple images from
various sources and
cutting bits out from
each and assembling
those elements into a
new artwork. The problem
faced by the composite artist
is how to seamlessly blend one image
into another so its colour and lighting
matches the rest of the scene. This is where
Harmonization steps in. Our example is a
very simple composite image of a girl sitting
on the edge of a cliff. The lighting on the girl
is not quite right based on the background
landscape she’s meant to be inhabiting,
so a little help is required. Make sure the
layer you want to harmonize is active, then
go to Filter > Neural Filters and click the
Harmonization button. You will be asked to
choose what image in your document you
want the chosen layer to look more like.
In this case, the landscape background
‘layer 4’ is the target reference. The filter
now knows to alter the colours of the girl to
look more like the landscape. Boosting the
Strength, Saturation and Brightness yielded
Makeup Transfer
This is a Beta filter with quite a specific
function. As the name no doubt suggests,
it will attempt to apply any makeup effects
found in one image, to the eyes and lips of
the subject in another image. To that end,
our example is a shot of a fashion model with
bright purple eyeshadow and bright pink lip
gloss. Our second image is another model
with makeup applied. Make sure
the model with no makeup
is the active image and
then fire up the Neural
Filters and activate
the Makeup Transfer
tool. It shows you the
current face you have
selected and then you
can choose the reference
Image by clicking on the
dropdown list and choosing the
second image of the model with all the
makeup on. The Neural Filter will do its thing
and then the result is displayed. Then you can
save the result to a new layer and that is Makeup
Transfer in a nutshell.
26
I NEW AND IMPROVED PS
Object Selection
The methods by which you can select objects
in your document has been updated with the
inclusion of the improved Object Selection
Tool. Found in the toolbar or by pressing W,
this function analyses your image and makes
note of how many distinct, separate objects
there are in your photo. In order for this to work,
you need to make sure you have the Object
Finder button checked. You can find it up in the
tool properties bar. In our example, after a few
seconds of scanning, most of the obviously
distant elements in the image were marked for
selection. You can press and hold the N key to
view which ones have been chosen or click the
Show All Objects button in the tool properties
bar. Alternatively, you can simply roll your
cursor over each image element and if they are
highlighted, then they can be selected. Next to
the Show All Objects button is a gear icon, this
is the setting panel for Object Selection Tool
and lets you alter the Color, Outline and Opacity
of the overlay and whether the Object Finder
Mode refreshes itself manually or automatically.
You can also choose the Mode of selection via the
small dropdown menu. You can choose between
Lasso and Rectangle. The Hard Edge button
allows you to choose whether your selections have
hard edges or, when not checked, a softer edge if
dealing with more complex edges like hair.
In our example, a number of objects were
marked for selection, we rolled the cursor over
the plant pot to highlight it, then clicked on it and
an active selection was added to the pot. We then
copied that selection to a new layer and were
able to move the duplicate to a new position.
The same was done with the lampshade, in a
few clicks, with no need for time-consuming
manual selection techniques. It should be noted
that this function fairs better with simple, hard-
edged, shapes. Things like hair selection are not
as refined. It’s also worth noting that the Object
Selection Tool is also available within the Select
and Mask tool too. It behaves the same as it does
out in the main document.
Illustrator Integration
If you use Adobe Illustrator a lot in
combination with Photoshop, this could
be a very handy update for you. In past
versions, if you had created a layered
Illustrator file and wanted to open it
Photoshop, you had to make do with some
limited Copy and Past options. Thankfully,
Adobe have come up with
a very useful addition
to the Copy/Paste
function.
In the previous
versions, you would
open your Illustrator
file with its various
groups and layers and
chosen Select All and
<Cro
then Copy. You then opened
Photoshop and created a new document
that you could paste your Illustrator file into.
At this point, you would have a few Paste
options appear in a dialog box. Some of
the choices seem somewhat odd, but they
included Shape Layer which just pastes a
solid box onto your document. Then there
is Path which converts the illustrator file
into its outline form and pastes that as a
bitmap. Pixels just pastes a bitmap version
of the original. The latest update has a
new option called Layers and this one is
much more interesting. When you paste
an Illustrator file into Photoshop 2022 and
choose the Layers option, it creates a layered
document that matches the layers of your
original file. Moreover, it doesn’t turn the image
into bitmaps, it uses Shape Layers which
are scalable vectors. You can increase the
resolution to any size without loss of quality.
Since each layer is a shape, it can edited
using the Pen Tool. In our example, we were
able to change the shape of the hair using
bezier curves and increase the document
dimensions from 500 pixels to 2500 pixels
with no quality lost. It is a deceptively
simple but very powerful addition to the
Photoshop armoury.
www.pclpublications.com 2 7
PS NEW AND IMPROVED I
JPEG Artefacts Removal
Quick Actions
Jpeg compression is a marvellous thing. It can reduce the file size
of an image by a huge amount. It is however a lossy format. This
means that the image can be degraded if too much
compression is used or if an image is re-saved
a number of times. As this happens, so-called
\ artefacts appear. Parts of the image start to
\ show areas of heavy pixelation and there can
be a large amount of detail lost too. If you have
any original images that have been degraded
in this way and you do not have access to an
original file, you can try to save the image by
running it through an artefact remover. Photoshop
has added such a tool to the Neural Filters Featured list.
We have an example that is badly damaged by heavy compression.
Open the filter, choose the Strength of artefact removal you want
and let Photoshop do the rest. As ever, results will vary depending
on the size of the original image, the amount of damage cause
by compression and how much filtering you decide to apply. Our
example didn’t turn out as bad as expected and the artefacts were
significantly reduced. Be aware though that your result may look a
little soft and painterly, with a reduction in sharp detail.
Quick Actions are very similar
in feel to the automated effects
available in Photoshop Elements.
They are quick in the sense that
you simply click once on each
effect’s Apply button and the
effect is added automatically.
At the time of writing, there are
twenty Quick Actions available.
They are accessed via the Help
> Photoshop Help menu option
which opens the Discover panel.
Here are a few notable examples
to get you started.
Remove Background
Quickly remove the background
from an image.
Select Subject
Automatically selects the main
subject in your image.
Make B/W Background
Select the background and
convert it to black and white.
Add Duotone Effect
Create a powerful and dramatic
effect with high-cont ast images.
Blur Background
Automatically select the
background and apply blur.
Adjust Lighting
Make changes to your photo so
it’s brighter and punchier.
Select Sky
Selects the sky automatically so
you can adjust or replace it.
Self-Portrait Filter
Add creative brushwork and bright
colours to your portraits.
28
I NEW AND IMPROVED PS
Sky Replacement
Spectacular
Sky Replacement...
If you have a photograph with a lacklustre sky or you simply
.____________want to change the mood of the image, then
clicking on this option will bring up the Sky
Replacement dialog panel. The image
will be scanned to work out the best
mask to use to accurately drop in your
new sky. Firstly, you can choose from
a number of preset skies from the Sky
menu. You also have the option to set up
named groups of skies or even use your
own images by clicking the Create New Sky
button and browsing to an image you want to use.
That image will be added to your library ready to be used.
The Sky Replacement panel has a number of useful options to
help you get the most out your new sky. You can alter the Shift
Edge or Fade Edge parameters to help blend your foreground
and sky together. Sky Adjustments lets you alter the Brightness
and Temperature of the sky, as well as the Scale. If your original
image has sunlight coming from a very obvious direction,
you can use the Flip button to flip the new sky horizontally, if
that better suits the light. Altering the Lighting Mode, Lighting
Adjustment and Colour Adjustment lets you more closely match
the colour tones seen in the sky for a better overall look to your
image. In the upper right of the Sky Replacement panel, there
are a couple of tools to help you. The main one is the Sky Brush,
which lets you paint in or paint out areas of the sky if you feel
it is in need of some refinement. Finally, at the bottom are your
Output options. Here you can choose how your new creation will
be output. New Layers will create a new layer group into which
the new sky, its masks and colour adjustments will be placed for
you to edit further, if you want.
Lens Blur
More
Box Blur...
Gaussian Blur...
Lens Blur...
Motion Blur.
Radial Blur.
Sjape Blur.
This is a useful little option if you like working with
depth maps to achieve selective focus effects.
We __________have an aerial image of a bridge
and formal garden area in the
foreground on a layer. We’ve
(gone to the Channels layer
and added a new Alpha
1 channel with a black
grad fading up to about
halfway into the frame.
With your image active, if
you go up to the File Menu
and choose Filter > Blur > Lens
Blur, it will take you to the Lens Blur Tools. Under
Depth Map, select Alpha 1 as your Source and
then click the Set Focal Point button. Now you
can define where the Depth Map appears by just
clicking anywhere on the image. If you click over
the head of the lions on the bridge, they become
the sharpest part of the image and the rest fades
out to a soft blur based on your Radius setting.
You can use the Blur Focal Distance slider, but
clicking on the image is much faster.
For those who could not
update and are using
the 2020 and 2019
versions of Photoshop,
read on for a quick look
at some of the cool
features available with
those versions.
www.pclpublications.com 29
PS NEW AND IMPROVED
Select Subject
Select Subject
Distribution Spacing
>00 2000 5
Distribute:
1
Distribute Spacing: Align To
Select i
Distribute horizontally
Although Photoshop already has the available options to distribute
objects on layers by spacing their centre points evenly, if objects were
different sizes, the gaps between each item would vary. Now, if you have
a number of different sized items on layers and you want to have them
evenly spaced, you have two new options in the form of the Distribute
Spacing buttons. Choose between Distribute Horizontally and Distribute
Vertically. Select all the layers you want to distribute and then click on
the distribution method of your choice. All the items, despite being
different sizes, will be spaced with the same sized gap between them.
Scale Ul
General
Interface
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This is a chance to exercise some control over the Photoshop user
interface and scale it independently of your other applications.
If you go to Edit > Preferences > Interface, you will see the
new option to Scale Ul To Font. You have several font sizes
from which to choose, these are: Tiny, Small, Medium and
Large. When you choose a preferred font size, in order to see
the changes you’ve made you will have to restart Photoshop.
For example, if you have originally had the Tiny Ul font chosen,
when you select Large and restart, you will see how the Ul has
scaled to accommodate the larger font size. The toolbar and all the other
panels will also be bigger to allow for the lager text sizes being used.
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Reference Point
X: 3510.50 px
In previous versions of Photoshop, each time
you clicked on an image, or text item, to move or
transform it, you would see a small crosshair appear
in the centre of the image. This was the movable
reference point that would serve as the centre of
rotation, or scale, for the active item. In Photoshop CC
2019, Adobe decided that it is hidden by default. If you
want the reference point to be visible on every active item, you can
still go to the Tool Options menu and click the Toggle Reference
Point button.
Double-click Text Edit
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30
I NEW AND IMPROVED PS
Content-Aware Fill
Older versions of Photoshop’s Content-Aware fill
option were originally accessed via the Shift + F5 All
option and had few options for you to tweak. Now
there is a brand new, dedicated Content-Aware
workspace that you can access with more tools
and functions available, as well as a live preview
of the fill results before you have to commit to it.
You can access the new fill tool by going to Edit >
Content-Aware Fill. The screen you are presented
with enables you to choose what areas of your
image can be targeted, and used as sampling
areas, for more accurate fill results. A mask overlay
can be modified, with the tools provided, for the
best seamless results. Each time you change the
parameters, the live view will update so you always
know what your end result will be.
Locking the Workspace
ill H
New Workspace...
Delete Workspace...
Go Home
While you are working in the Photoshop workspace, you will now see
that there is a small Home icon in the top right of the Tools options
menu. If you click this, you will be taken to Photoshop’s Home screen.
You can access it at any time while working on a current document,
or each time you start Photoshop. Using the Home screen, you
can quickly access current working documents, Click on the Learn
options and choose from an array of tutorials on the web or dig
deeper via Adobe.com. Also, if you are a Lightroom user, you can
view any LR photos you may have and import them.
Found under Window > Workspace > Lock Workspace, this feature
simply locks down all workspace panels so they can’t be dragged
and moved by accident while you are working. This appears to be
particularly useful if you are working with Photoshop via a tablet
and stylus and are in danger of dragging items around by leaving
the stylus too close to the tablet surface. One thing to note however,
is that if, for example, you currently have any floating panels, they
can still be dragged and docked with any locked panels and will be
retained there until you turn the Lock Workspace option off.
Symmetry
This feature has been implemented
to work alongside your Paint Brush,
Mixer Brush, Pencil, and Eraser Tools.
Click any of these tools and in the
top options menu bar, you will see a
Butterfly icon. If you click and hold it, a
small dropdown menu will appear and you
can choose from a number of symmetry options
including Diagonal, Wavy, Mandala, and Spiral.
Certain options let you choose how many lines
of symmetry are used and then, as you paint, the
strokes are reflected in each line of symmetry,
a bit like a kaleidoscope. Others, such as circle,
create a circular path along which your brush
strokes follow. You can make some very delicate
and intricate patterns with these options.
1900 2000
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Transform Symmetry
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www.pclpublications.com 31
Q
Photoshop:
The Basics
Adobe Photoshop is a very complex piece of
software. Even people who use it every day as part
of their profession may only use a fraction of its
capabilities and mastering its subtleties can take
time. Over the coming issues, we can teach you
useful skills and get the most out of this fantastic
program. Let’s start by unearthing some the basics.
Contents
34 The history of Photoshop
36 Keep Photoshop up to date
38 Photoshop preferences guide
40 Main interface
42 Menus
44 Keyboard shortcuts
46 The toolbar
32 www.pclpublications.com
THE HISTORY OF PHOTOSHOP
The History
of Photoshop
Before we begin, here’s a little background information
Thomas and John Knoll created Photoshop
in 1988 with the release of Photoshop
1.0 following in February 1990. It is a
raster graphics editor and has become the
predominant industry standard for digital
image editing.
At its heart, it has a suite of tools that allow
the user to edit, assemble and compose
images using multiple layers and masks. It
is this use of layers and masks that are the
core features of Photoshop’s power. Such
layer-based editing means you can build very
complex images and create incredible works
of art using this method.
Photoshop’s Strengths
0 Photoshop is a pixel-level editor. Where
Lightroom allows you to adjust pixels
in an image, Photoshop lets you move
them and manipulate them in a way that's
nothing short of magical.
Q Photoshop allows multiple layers to be
applied to an image. You can keep images
and edits on separate layers and modify
them accordingly and independently. This
is the basis of non-destructive editing.
Qlt’s huge. Mind-bogglingly huge. The
toolbox alone is the stuff of legend and
contains everything the professional
designer and photographer would ever
need from a piece of software.
Q
QYou can record specific actions within
Photoshop, allowing you to apply those
actions to other images with a click of
a button.
QYou're able to blend many different layers
together, masking areas of an image to
protect it from being edited, even down to
the pixel level.
Almost anything is possible in Photoshop.
If you can imagine a scene, then you’re
able to turn your wedding photos into a
dramatic space battle or have a picture
of the kids playing with a Т-Rex. Remove
objects, add objects, touch up skin tones,
the list goes on and on.
Q Adobe Photoshop
34
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THE HISTORY OF PHOTOSHOP
Photoshop: The Power to Create
The Tools for the Job
Photoshop also has a large variety of tools that
allow the user to edit their images in numerous
ways. Broadly speaking, the tools cover areas
such as drawing, painting, navigation, content
selection, text, masking and retouching. Many
of the tools have additional variants that allow
you to perform different tasks and functions.
As well as the ability to create pixel-based
images and art, it can also create and
manipulate text and handle a number of vector
graphic formats, including EPS files and Adobe
Illustrator files. Older styles of Photoshop had
extended versions that allowed the creation and
handling of 3D graphics, whereas Photoshop
CC, the cloud-based subscription service
version, has 3D capabilities built in as standard.
It can also, to a limited degree, import and edit
video files.
The program’s main functionality can be
enhanced with the addition of numerous, small
add-on effects and programs called plug-ins.
Although Adobe has a number of plug-ins, such
as Adobe Camera Raw, it is mainly third party
companies that develop them. Most of the
plug-ins require specific versions of Photoshop to
run, but a few of them can also act as stand-
alone image editing applications.
Formats and Versions
When a Photoshop document is saved, it creates
a default file that has the .PSD file extension. This
stands for Photoshop Document and it contains
all of the layers, adjustments, masks, transparent
items and other content that make up the
finished document. There is another Photoshop
file format known as .PSB, which stands for
Photoshop Big. This is a large document
format that lets you use vastly increased image
dimensions and file sizes.
The program has had a large number of
updates and version numbers. In 2003, the
numbers were replaced with CS plus a number,
to reflect its current Creative Suite branding.
It wasn’t until 2013, when Adobe changed its
business model to subscription-based rental and
the introduction of the Creative Cloud brand,
that CS was replaced by the suffix CC which has
recently been dropped altogether. Photoshop is
currently in stable release 2022 (23.1.0).
www.pclpublications.com 35
PHOTOSHOP: THE BASICS
KEEP PHOTOSHOP UP TO DATE
Keep Photoshop
Up to Date
Reap the benefits of the most
current versions of Photoshop
Mobe Photoshop
PS
Mobe Photoshop
Mo<tez^
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Creative Cloud
© 1990-2021 Adobe. All rights reserved.
Artwork by Natasha Cunningham
For more details and legal notices, go to the
Aoout Photoshop screen.
Adding extension... MMXCore Routines
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David Dobish, John Peterson. u .1лгвнггп
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Now that Photoshop and a host of other Adobe products have
moved to the subscription model, you have an application
that can be continually updated, overtime, without needing
to buy a new version. This is in contrast to older versions of
Photoshop where you bought a box containing a disk, installed
it and called it done. If a new version was released, you had to
purchase it or upgrade to the new
version. That has been superseded;
your computer now maintains an online
link with Adobe so each program you
have downloaded and installed can be
incrementally updated. Photoshop is a
good example, since you can have an
update appear that adds new features
and fixes bugs in the current version.
To make sure you are keeping your
versions up to date, there are a
couple of things you can do.
36
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KEEP PHOTOSHOP UP TO DATE
• • • Apps Your work Discover Marketplace
APPS
AHaPPS
0 Updates
CATEGORIES
Й Photo
4 Graphic design
R Video
St
Get
find
®When you purchase a particular
subscription plan through Adobe, you
download the Creative Cloud app which lets you
manage your subscription, your apps, resources
and much more besides. The app itself has been
updated, but its basic functions remain the same.
When you open the Creative Cloud app,
down the left side you are now presented
with a menu containing Apps, Categories and
Resource Links. If you click on All Apps, you
can view everything installed as part of your
subscription plan.
Click on Discover on the top menu bar and
you can view a set of key features for each
app installed. There are videos you can watch,
along with links to tutorials and examples. There are
also links to more resources and a search function
for further information.
Updated recently
И Photoshop 22.5.1
Updated 16 days ago
к
Update all
к
Photoshop v 21.2.12
Updated 16 days ago
Illustrator v 25.41
Updated 16 days ago
and some stability
Update all •••
Check for updates
©Below All Apps, in the top left of the page,
is the Updates button where you can
access any update info. This opens a page where
you can view what can be updated, has recently
been updated and a listing of what’s new with
each updated application.
©Staying on this page, if you look up to the
top right corner, you will see an Update All
button. This can globally update all apps marked
as having an update available. Next to that is a
small icon comprised of three dots which contains
a drop down list.
If you click on the Three dots icon, it
brings up a small window called Check
For Updates. If you click this, you can force it
to rescan all applications and advise if there are
any new updates currently available. This can be
automated and we’ll look at that next.
Installing
install location Default location.. ✓
English (International) v
Settings
•D Show Older Apps
In the main file menu of your desktop, you
can access Preferences for the Creative
Cloud app. You’ll see the various preferences
that you can alter to suit your requirements. The
General pane has a link to your Adobe account
and Cloud Storage status.
What interests us is the Apps button.
Clicking on this calls up the Auto-Update
window. Here, you can, not only turn on Auto-
Update but also choose which of your installed
apps will actually be updated. You can also make
sure previous settings are applied to the update.
Now your apps will automatically be kept
up to date as and when Adobe release
new updates for them. Further down the page,
you will see options for changing the default
installation location and what the default language
will be.
www.pclpublications.com 37
PHOTOSHOP PREFERENCES GUIDE
Photoshop
Preferences Guide
Here are all the preferences
and what they do
Photoshop is nothing if not customisable. You can
shape and adjust the user interface to suit your own
needs and make it a very personalised, and customised,
workspace. Not only can you choose what appears in
the main toolbar, you can also arrange and group the
you here.
various windows and features
entirely to your preference.
That accounts for the items
you interact with on the
screen, however there are
also a number of options
you can tweak to adjust
various ‘under the hood’
settings, as it were, too.
Photoshop has a listing of
all its Preferences both
general and specific, so
we thought we’d share
the salient points with
38
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PHOTOSHOP PREFERENCES GUIDE 1SHCF THE BASICS
Preferences
Color Picker Adobe
HUD Color Picker Hue Strip (Small)
Image Interpolation: Bicubic Automatic
Options
Auto-Update Open Documents
Disable the Home Screen
Use Legacy "New Document" Interface
Skip Transform when Placing
Units & Rulers
Guides. Grid & Sices Use Legacy Free Transform
Pkig-kii Z7\ Workspace changes will take e
Type 'J-'
3D
Enhanced Controls Reset All Warning Dialogs
Technology Previews
General
Interface .
Workspace
Tools
History Log
File Handling
Export
Performance
Scratch Disks
Appearance
Color Theme:
Highlight Color Default
Default
Default
Standard Screen Mode:
Full Screen with Menus:
Full Screen:
Artboards:
Presentation
Ul Language:
Border
Drop Shadow -
Drop Shadow v
Black
None
Options
Auto-Collapse iconic Panels
□ Auto-Show Hidden Panels
□ Open Documents as Tabs
□ Enable Floating Document Window Docking
□ Large Tabs
Default
Line
Artboard settings only apply to GPU RGB i
English: International
Ul Font Si»:
□ Scale Ul To
Changes will take effect the next time you start Ph
Condensed
Enable Narrow Options Bar
Changes will take effect the next time you start P
Restore Default Workspaces
® Under Photoshop CC > Preferences >
General (Cmd + K) you will see the list of
preferences available. The General preferences
provide you with options to use some legacy
features from older versions of Photoshop,
Clipboard options, Smart Object creation and more.
®The next preference option is Interface.
This is one you are likely to access more
than most. This section primarily concerns itself
with the appearance of your workspace. The main
Colour Theme and the various colours employed
by the screen modes are set here.
Preferences
®The Workspace presences are fairly simple
and let you Auto-Show or Auto-Collapse
panels as required without the need to manually
open their properties. The Tools section below
that allows the use of Tooltips and panning and
zooming options can be turned on or off here.
History Log
Hie Saving Options
Image Previews: Always Save - О Save As to Original Folder
□ Thumbnail О Save in Background
Append File Extension: Always Я Automatically Save Recovery
Information Every:
□ Use Lower Case
10 Minutes
Quick Export Format
PNG - □ Transparency Smaller File (8-bit)
Quick Export Location
О Ask where to export each time
Export files to an assets folder next to the current document
Metadata
None
Color Space
□ Convert to sRGB
Available RAM: 30656 MB
Ideal Range: 16661-22073 MB
Let Photoshop Use: 21459 MB (70%)
History a Cache
Optimize Cache Levels and Tile Size for.
Web/Ul Design
Default / Photos
Huge Pixel Dimensions
Graphics Processor Setfi
Detected Graphics Procesi
NVIDIA Corporation
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 6801
Q Use Graphics Processor
Advanced Settings...
History States.
Cache Levels:
Cache Tile 9ze:
History Log lets track your actions in
each Photoshop session and then save
them out as a text file. File Handling offers a set
of options to control the use of Image Previews
and File Extensions. You can also adjust the File
Compatibility options such as layered Tiff files.
Export contains a few options that govern
what format your images are if you choose
to use the Quick Export function. You can also
decide on a Quick Export Location, choose if any
Metadata is appended to the image format and
what Colour Space the image will be.
©Performance is a key area in which to
spend some time as it will greatly speed up
your work if set up correctly. Here you can control
how much RAM Photoshop uses and, if your
graphics card is compatible, to allow the use of
advanced Graphics Processor Settings.
Scratch Disks
Active? Drive Free Space
1 Q Macintosh HD 742.48G8
2 Work Storage 4 318.41GB
3 Master 0 1236.02GB
4 Time Machine 43.58GB
5 C Master В 2TB 235.13GB
6 C Mark Storage 1 683.21GB
Startup
Painting Cursors
Standard
Precise
О Normal Brush Tip
Canvas: Cyan
Artboard: Light Blue
Show Inactive Artboard Guides
©Scratch Disks lets you use hard drive
storage as virtual RAM, whilst Cursors lets
you specify the precision, size and shape of the
Brush Tip. Transparency and Gamut govern the
transparent, background grid size and in what
colour a Gamut warning will appear.
©Units & Rulers is fairly self-explanatory with
options for in which units of measurement
your Rulers and Type sizes appear. Grids, Grid &
Slices is a useful set of options when you need
precise grids added to your document in terms of
colour and grid line frequency.
©You can control the use of Plug-Ins and
Type Options in the next two preference
sections. Then there is the 3D section where you
can set VRAM usage, 3D Overlays and Interactive
Rendering. Enhanced Controls for Touch Bar and
Technology Previews round out the list.
www.pclpublications.com 39
PHOTOSHOP THE BASIC: MAIN INTERFACE
Main Interface
This is Photoshop’s
graphic user front end
Photoshop has a great interface, with a
dark slate grey work area, slightly lighter
menu and palette bars and sharp white text.
It looks great and really makes photos stand
out from the background. Let’s see what it
has to offer.
• Photoshop File Edit image Layer Type Select Filter 3D View Plugins Window Help
(Ц, □ Resize Windows to Fit Zoom All Windows Q Scrubby Zoom 100% Fit Screen Fill Screen
^(Curves 1, Layer Mask/8) •
Menu Bar
You’ll find all the menu options here and many
more nested menus to control all aspects of
Photoshop. Read on for more details.
Tool Palette
Here you’ll find your main editing tools. The
following pages look at the individual tools and
what you can do with them.
Tool Option Bar
For each tool on the palette there are options,
such as brush size or softness. You’ll find them
in this area.
Document Window
Each window you open will have its own tab
to identify it. It includes the document name,
current scaling and colour space being used.
Document Details
Here you’ll find the compressed and real size
of your document. You can also call up other
information such as document pixel dimensions.
Museful tip
I You can set up your own workspaces to reflect
I the way you work and save them so that you
I can quickly switch from one to another.
Active Image
The new interface provides a larger area
to work on your images, with a darker
background colour.
40
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MAIN INTERFACE PHOTOSHOP: THE BASICS
Rulers
Use these to accurately measure positions
on your image and drag guidelines from
here to help line up text and layers.
Palettes
There are a number of interchangeable
palettes available, which you can choose
from the Window menu.
Workspace Option
Choose between preset workspace
arrangements, including 3D workspaces,
zoom and Share for Commenting.
ф <D - Mon 19 Nov 10:45:03 s Q.
Adobe Photoshop 202
□efaun
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Add an adjust merit
QKind
Normal
Lock: -У
- Opacity; 100%
FiN: 100%
Fly-out Palettes
You can set up your own custom list of
frequently used palettes and access them by
clicking on these buttons.
Layer Palette
Here you’ll find the layers of the image you’re
currently working on. Layers at the top of the
stack will appear above those below.
Layer Options
Here you can add effects, layer styles,
adjustments and other options to your
currently active layers.
www.pclpublications.com 41
MENUS
Menus
One look at the menus and you
begin to understand Photoshop’s
complexity and versatility
The main interface of Photoshop has no fewer than twelve menus and a Help option, each with many options and with many additional nested
sub-menus. It’s vital to become familiar with the contents of the most important ones, because once you know where to look for everything
you’ll be able to work more quickly, efficiently and confidently. Let’s take a look at some of the key menu listings.
File
Edit
Image
Layer
New... xn|
Open... xo
Browse in Bridge... xxo
Open as Smart Object-
Open Recent ►
Close xw
Close All xxw
Close and Go to Bridge... oxw
Save XS
Save As... OXS
SaveaCopy... XXS
Revert -J
Export ►
Generate ►
Share...
Invite...
Search Adobe Stock-
Place Embedded-
Place Linked...
Automate ►
Scripts ►
Import ►
Import from iPhone or iPad ►
File Info... XOXI
Version History
Print... XP
Print One Copy хохр 1
File
The most important options here are
New... to create a new document,
Open... to open an existing
document, Save to save your current
project in its default file format an
location and Save As... which gives
you the option to save in a diffe ent
format or location and to change the
file name. Also in the File menu a e
the important Automate and Scripts
sub-menus, which provide advanced
Undo Extrusion from Text Layer xz]
Toggle Last State xxz
Copy XC
Paste XV
Paste Special ►
Search Check Spelling... Find and Replace Text... XF
Fill... Stroke... Content-Aware Fill... Orsl
Content-Aware Scale XOXC
Puppet Warp Perspective Warp Free Transform XT
Transform ►
Sky Replacement...
Define Brush Preset... Define Pattern...
Purge ►
Adobe PDF Presets... Presets Remote Connections... ►
Color Settings... Assign Profile... Convert to Profile- OXK
Keyboard Shortcuts... XOXK
Menus... Toolbar... XOXM
Mode
Adjustments
Auto Tone
Auto Contrast
Auto Color
Image Size...
Canvas Size...
Image Rotation
Trim...
Reveal All
Duplicate...
Apply Image.
Calculations.
Variables
Apply Dat
Analysis
Contact Sheet II...
Conditional Mode Change...
Fit Image...
Lens Correction...
Merge to HDR Pro...
Photomerge...
batch processing and automated
editing options.
Edit----------------1
The Edit menu has many features
you’ll find familiar if you use
word processor, including Copy,
Paste and Cut functions and even
a spelling checker, although you’ll
probably find it quic er to use
the keyboard shortcuts for these.
You’ll also find the useful featu es
Fill, Stroke, Content-aware Scale,
Puppet Warp and Free Transform,
as well as the colour profiles an
Preferences sub-menu.
OXL
XOXL
OXB
XXI
Image
The Image menu is where
you come to make changes
to the whole image, including
Mode (colour type), Image
Size, Canvas Size and Image
Rotation, but the most
important thing you’ll find he e
is the Adjustments sub-menu,
Brightness/Contrast... Levels... Curves... Exposure... XL XM
Vibrance...
Hue/Saturation... XU
Color Balance... XB
Black & White... XOXB
which Adobe could probably
have made into a separate
main menu in its own right.
Under Adjustments you’ll fin
all your main image controls,
such as Brightness/Contrast,
Levels, Curves, Hue/Saturation
and many more. You’ll fin
many of these duplicated on
the Adjustment Layer palette.
I New ► 1
Copy CSS
Copy SVG
Duplicate Layer...
Delete ►
Quick Export as PNG OX'
Export As... XOX'
Rename Layer...
Layer Style ►
►
New Fill Layer ►
New Adjustment Layer ►
Layer Mask ►
Vector Mask ►
Create Clipping Mask XXG
Mask All Objects
Smart Objects ►
Video Layers ►
Rasterize ►
New Layer Based Slice
Group Layers XG
Hide Layers X.
Arrange ►
►
►
> 1
LockLayers... X/
Merge Visible OXE
Flatten Image
Matting ►
Layer-------------1
Layers are a vital feature of
Photoshop. The most important
options here though are New,
which lets you create and
name a new layer and New
Adjustment Layer, which adds
a non-destructive editing layer
to your image. The Merge and
Flatten options can also be
found here along with Mask and
Slice options.
42
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MENUS
HOTOSHOP: THE BASICS
COPS
L я*
Type
More from Adobe Fonts...
Panels
Anti-Alias
Orientation
OpenType
Extrude to 3D
Create Work Path
Convert to Shape
Rasterize Type Layer
Convert to Paragraph Text
Warp Text-
Match Font-
Font Preview Size
Language Options
Update All Text Layers
Manage Missing Fonts
Load Default Type Styles
Save Default Type Styles
Filter
Last Filter
Convert for Smart Filters
Neural Filters...
Filter Gallery-
Adaptive Wide Angle...
Camera Raw Filter...
Lens Correction...
Liquify...
Vanishing Point...
3D
Blur
Blur Gallery
Distort
Noise
Pixelate
Render
Sharpen
Stylize
Video
Other
Skylum Software
***
\OXA
OXA
OXR
OXX
XXV
View
Proof Setup
Proof Colors
Gamut Warning
Pixel Aspect Ratio
Zoom In
Zoom Out
Fit on Screen
Fit Layer(s) on Screen
100%
200%
Print Size
Actual Size
Flip Horizontal
Pattern Preview
У Snap
Snap To
New Guide...
New Guide Layout-
New Guides From Shape
XY
OXY
XR
OX;
Window
Arrange
Workspace
Find Extensions on Exchange (legacy)...
Extensions (legacy)
Type---------------1
The latest version of Photoshop
includes many new text
presentation and handling
options. Most of these can be
found in the fly-out Cha acter
and Paragraph panels on the
right of the screen or the Panels
option. Others can be found
here, including 3D text, warping
and special foreign language
options and glyphs.
Photoshop CS6 and Creative Cloud
saw a major overhaul of the Filters
menu, with many new options,
including the amazing Adaptive
Wide Angle feature. There’s the
ever-popular Liquify fil er, automatic
lens distortion correction, as well
as a huge range of other fil ers and
effects. Ma e sure you don’t go too
wild though, most of them are best
used sparingly!
View------------
The View menu is home to the
basic viewing controls such as
zoom level, but again you’ll want
to control those using shortcuts
to save time. You’ll also find the
very useful controls for the Snap
functions, including guide lines,
essential when you’re laying
out a more complex design or
composing text on an image.
У 3D
Actions
У Adjustments
Brush Settings
Brushes
Channels
Character
Character Styles
Clone Source
✓ Color
Comments
Glyphs
Gradients
Histogram
History
Info
Layer Comps
✓ Layers
Libraries
Measurement Log
Navigator
Notes
Paragraph
Paragraph Styles
Paths
Patterns
Properties
Shapes
Styles
Swatches
Timeline
Tool Presets
Version History
Window —
This isn’t a menu you’ll be using
constantly, but it does hold some
very useful features, such as the
Arrange and Workspace sub-menus,
which allow you to control the layout
of tabs, windows and the various tool
palettes and panels.
Select
All
Deselect
Inverse
All Layers
Deselect Layers
Find Layers
Isolate Layers
Color Range...
Focus Area...
Xb
XD
OXI
XXA
XOXF
New 3D Layer from File-
Export 3D Layer...
Spherical Panorama
Get More Content...
New 30 Extrusion from Selected Path
New 3D Extrusion from Current Selection
New Mesh from Layer
Group All Objects in Scene
3D
This is one of the more recent
additions to the Photoshop
workspace. The 3D menu lets
you turn your document into a 3D
environment where you can turn text
into 3D objects, import 3D geometry
and use lighting tools to create works
of 3D art and computer generated
imagery. You can even modify your
object’s surface colours and textures.
www.pclpublications.com 43
PHOTOSHOP. THE BASICS KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
Keyboard
Shortcuts
There’s always a quicker way of doing
almost everything in Photoshop
MUSEFUL TIP
I Learning the keyboard shortcuts
I will speed up your editing and you
I can also set up your own in the Edit
I menu. Just be aware of creating
I ‘shortcut collisions’ where a custom
I shortcut is the same as a current
I default one.
One of Photoshop’s best features is its huge list of fully customisable keyboard shortcuts. Almost all of the program’s functions can be
accessed quickly by pressing various combinations of keys and once you learn those shortcuts your workflow will speed up immensely.
You can even make up your own for your most frequently-used operations.
Customising Shortcuts
You’ll find the Keyboard Shortcut preferences
menu at the bottom of the Edit menu, although
naturally it has its own keyboard shortcut,
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+K. You'll find an exhaustive list
of all Photoshop functions, broken down into
category headings matching the names of the
main menus. You’ll find that many operations
already have their own default shortcuts. You
can easily change these, or even add your own
new ones. To apply a shortcut to an operation,
first locate it in the list and then click in the space
to the right of the name. You’ll see a small text
window appear and the next key or combination
of keys that you press will appear here. If the
combination is already used by another shortcut
you’ll see a notification warning you of this and
asking if you want to proceed with the change. If
you click Accept the new shortcut will be applied
immediately. Take care when making your own
shortcuts that you don’t accidentally overwrite
some useful defaults.
3S+N
Opt+SG+O
Shift* 3€+O
Application Menu Command
> Photoshop CC
v File
New...
Open...
Browse in Bridge-
Open as Smart Object-
Open Recent»
Clear Recent File List
Close
Close All
Close and Go to Bridge...
Save
Save As...
X+N
X+0
Opt+X+O
Shift+X40
Set: Mark 1 (modified)
A
x+w
Opt+X+W
Shift+X+W
X+S
Shift+X*S
Opt+X+S
Keyboard Shortcuts Menus
Shortcuts For: Application Menus
Use Legacy Channel Shortcuts
44
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KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS PHOTOSHOP: THE BASICS
Some Useful Default Shortcuts
Here are some of the more commonly-used shortcuts for image editing. There are many more of course, but it’s worth taking the time to
memorise these ones. You’ll work efficiently and they’ll make your life a whole lot easier.
CLOSE CURRENT DOCUMENT
INVERT SELECTION
ZOOM IN VIEW
CLOSE ALL DOCUMENTS
INCREASE BRUSH SIZE
PASTE FROM CLIPBOARD
control +
ZOOM OUT VIEW
| control j !♦ —
FIT ON SCREEN
control + ) 0
CUT TO CLIPBOARD
FREE TRANSFORM
DECREASE BRUSH SIZE
100% ZOOM
TURN SNAP ON OR OFF
TOGGLE LAST STATE
{
[
BRING CURRENT LAYER TO TOP
shift + control *m
MOVE CURRENT LAYER UP control j+ j
MOVE CURRENT LAYER DOWN
SHOW RULERS
SHOW OR HIDE GRID
| control | * II 1
SHOW OR HIDE GUIDES
control +
SELECT ALL ON CURRENT LAYER
I control + A
DESELECT ALL
HELP
F1
Important Note
On a PC the Ctrl key for your
shortcuts looks like this on a
standard Windows keyboard.
If you use a PC and you see
an instruction in this title to
use a Cmd key, then just use
Ctrl instead.
On a Mac computer the
Ctrl key is replaced by the
Cmd key on a standard Mac
keyboard. If you use a Mac
and you see an instruction in
this title to use the Ctrl key,
just use your Cmd key instead.
www.pclpublications.com 45
PHOTOSHOP: THE BASICS THE TOOLBAR
The Toolbar
Let’s take a look at Photoshop’s main editing tools
The main elements of the Photoshop Toolbar haven’t changed all
that much since the introduction of Layers and the Move Tool with
version 3.0, back in 1994. The shape has changed a bit, elongating
into a single column to take advantage of today’s larger monitors and
a few more tools have been added, but anyone who’s familiar with any
previous version of Photoshop will soon feel right at home.
olbar
Move Used to move pixel information on ♦|» Move Tool
the active layer or selection. You '□ Artboard Tool
can also create multiple layouts using the Artboard feature.
Eyedropper The Eyedropper and its extensive list of alternatives provide you with tools that can tell you more about the image you’re working on, such as colour values, sizes and object count. Eyedropper Tool 2^ 3D Material Eyedropper Tool Color Sampler Tool Ruler Tool C7 Note Tool *23 Count Tool
Marquee The Marquee is used to select an area of the active layer. Alternative options include an elliptical shape and single row or column selections. L_J Rectangular Marquee Tool О Elliptical Marquee Tool ••• Single Row Marquee Tool S Single Column Marquee Tool
Lasso The Lasso is also used to make area selections from the active layer by clicking or drawing a line around the area to be selected. (p Lasso Tool Polygonal Lasso Tool Magnetic Lasso Tool
Spot Healing
Another tool that has seen some
changes in the latest version, the
Spot Healing Tool is for removing
small blemishes such as stray hairs
or dust spots from your images.
Spot Healing Brush Tool
Healing Brush Tool
О Patch Tool
JC Content-Aware Move Tool
+o Red Eye Tool
Magic Wand
This tool can select an area based
on its colour. The alternative option
is Quick Selection, or the newly
updated Object Selection Tool that
scans the image automatically.
Object Selection Tool
/ Quick Selection Tool
X* Magic Wand Tool
Crop
The Crop Tool has seen a major
overhauls in the past, but it still does
the same job. Use it to select one
area of an image and discard the rest.
*t|. Crop Tool
£1 Perspective Crop Tool
X Slice Tool
Slice Select Tool
Frame Tool
The Frame Tool can be used to create
placeholder frames for images. You
can create any kind of shape and
drop an image into it.
Slice Select Tool
И Frame Tool
Eyedropper Tool
Brush This is a basic but useful tool for all types of image editing, painting and drawing. Alternatives include the equally useful Pencil Tool, as well as colour replacement and mixing. X Brush Tool $ Pencil Tool DX Color Replacement Tool •X Mixer Brush Tool
Clone Stamp
Clone Stamp is used to copy one
area of an image onto another. It
can remove any unwanted element
in your image.
History Brush
The History Brush can be used to
selectively restore certain areas of
an image to a previous state.
Eraser
As the name implies, the Eraser Tool
is a special brush that can delete an
area of an image, layer or selection.
± Clone Stamp Tool
XX Pattern Stamp Tool
History Brush Tool
Art History Brush Tool
Eraser Tool
Background Eraser Tool
‘<^ Magic Eraser Tool
46
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THE TOOLBAR PHOTOSHOP: THE BASICS
k.
Gradient
The Gradient Tool can apply a fill-in
to an area that fades gradually from
one colour to another.
Smudge
The Smudge Tool and its options,
can be used to blend and alter
colours and details in the image.
Burn
Burn and its alternatives Dodge and
Sponge, are based on photographic
darkroom techniques and are used
to selectively lighten, darken images.
Pen
The Pen Tool is used to draw
smooth curves for lines or
selections, using something
called Bezier curves. They can
produce great results.
Type
The Type Tool is another area that
has continued to receive various
updates and overhauls and is now
part of a powerful text system.
Path Selection
Paths are used for many purposes
in Photoshop. Use this tool and its
alternative to select a path to use.
Line
The Line Tool and its alternatives
are used to create shapes and
paths on your images. It is very
useful for graphics work and adding
arrows and custom shapes.
Hand
The Hand Tool is used to navigate
around a large image. It is most
often used via the space bar.
□I Gradient Tool
<*>. Paint Bucket Tool
4*4 3D Material Drop Tool
A Blur Tool
A Sharpen Tool
Smudge Tool
P Dodge Tool
О Bum Tool
Sponge Tool
£7 Pen Tool
:0 Freeform Pen Tool
C0 Curvature Pen Tool
*0 Add Anchor Point Tool
Delete Anchor Point Tool
Г4 Convert Point Tool
T Horizontal Type Tool
IT Vertical Type Tool
ГТ Vertical Type Mask Tool
ТГ Horizontal Type Mask Tool
Path Selection Tool
Direct Selection Tool
□ Rectangle Tool
CD Rounded Rectangle Tool
О Ellipse Tool
О Polygon Tool
/ Line Tool
Custom Shape Tool
>> Hand Tool
Rotate View Tool
Rotate view iooi
Zoom
This zooms in to an area of the image.
Again it is most often used via a
shortcut, in this case CTRL + or CTRL -.
C< Zoom Tool
Edit Toolbar
This tool enables you to customise
yoir toolbar to add or remove tools to
your specific requirements.
Edit Toolbar...
Switch Colour
Clicking on the first icon sets the
colours to their defaults. The other
swaps the background and
foreground colours over.
Set Colour
Clicking here brings up the
colour chooser palette, which
lets you choose the foreground
or background colours.
Quick Mask
The Quick Mask mode is a
great way of making complex
selections using the drawing and
painting tools.
ГР Standard Screen Mode
О Full Screen Mode With Menu
Full Screen Mode
Screen Mode
Click here to switch between the
current screen mode and a full-
screen view of your current image.
Most of the tools in the toolbar
have alternative options,
denoted by the small arrow
below and right of the icon.
Click and hold on the icon to
see the pop-up alternative
menu. This diagram shows
the alternative menus for each
tool. You can move the toolbar
around by dragging the border
at the top, or switch back to the
old two-column look by clicking
the double arrow.
www.pclpublications.com 47
First
Things First
We want to be thorough in our journey through the
essential aspects of Photoshop. It maybe not as
exciting as building your first piece of fantasy art or
creative edit, but they’re important. There are so many
facets to Photoshop to uncover over time. Some may
appear simple but they’re the essentials
that makes Photoshop as
amazing as it is.
Contents
50 The Photoshop home screen
52 Yourfirst PSD document
54 Open and saveyourfirst image
56 Using layers
48
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THE PHOTOSHOP HOME SCREEN
The Photoshop
Home Screen
We show you what the Photoshop user front
end has on offer in the latest versions
In the good old days of Photoshop CS, you
had a product that you opened up and
environments that are more than just a list of
recently opened files. Now you can browse
basic videos on getting started with layers
and cutting out images, to more advanced
simply started using with nothing else getting
in the way. These days that is no longer the
case. The Adobe Creative Cloud series of
apps now offer user interactive front-end
and sort those files and display them in
thumbnail or list form. That’s not all, you also
have access to Adobe’s online web tutorials
covering every topic you can think of. From
topics, you have a library of knowledge at
your beck and call. Even creating a new
document has a huge wealth of choice for
every creative need.
want to learn more about
Photoshop and all its techniques?
The Home Screen has a number of
links to some very useful tutorials,
as shown above, that will walk you
through some of the essential skills
needed to get you up and running.
IHOT
50
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THE PHOTOSHOP HOME SCREEN
Ps
New file
Open
A Home
V Learn
FILES
Pl Your files
®When you open Photoshop, rather than
just going direct to the workspace, you
are first presented with the Adobe Photoshop
CC Home screen. The main part of the window
concerns itself with the display of your Recent files
in ascending or descending order.
In the top left of the screen you can click on
the menu items. Home is active by default,
but you can click on the Learn button to display
a page of available tutorials from which you can
choose. At the bottom, there is the option to go to
Adobe.com for even more.
Below the Learn option is LR Photos. When
you click on this option, it displays a page
of your Lightroom images that are stored online.
View them and choose which ones you would like
to select for import. They will then download and
open in Photoshop.
PRESET DETAILS
Untitled-1 [£]
Width
1321 Pixels
Hetfrt Pixels v
772
Inches
Resolution Centimeters
72
Millimeters
®For your reference, in the top left comer is
the PS icon. If you click on that, it will open
the Photoshop workspace, but no images will be
opened. You can start your workflow if needs be,
or you can click on the Home button to return to
the Home screen once more.
®The next option on the left of the Home
screen is Create New. When you click on
this button the New Document screen will appear.
The first screen will list Recent items and the
document sizes available will reflect image sizes
you’ve used in the past.
®You can input your own dimensions in the
Width and Height fields and choose a unit
of measurement for your new document. You can
select the Orientation, Resolution, Color Mode and
even Pixel Aspect Ratio. Then click Create to open
the document and start working.
TEMPLATE DETAILS
Abstract Visions Photo
Masks
By Wavebreak Media
St Adobe Stock
A set of photo masks in a variety of shapes on
brightly colored backgrounds.
Across the top of the New Document
window, you will see a number of Blank
Document Presets from which you can choose.
First is any you have saved yourself, then there are
the Photo presets. These are a range of standard
photo print sizes such as 7 x 5 in @ 300ppi.
Below the Presets are a number of masking
Templates, provided free by Adobe, for you
to use. They range from Gallery Frames to Collage
Layouts. When you click on any of the templates,
you will see a set of details listed to the right of the
New Document window.
©If you click the See Preview button,
you can look at the templates in more
detail prior to deciding if you want to download
it or not. There are also Presets and making
Templates for Print, Art & Illustration, Web,
Mobile and Rim & Video.
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FIRST THINGS FIRST
YOUR FIRST PSD DOCUMENT
Your First
PSD Document
Let’s start at the very beginning and walk you through
the process of making your very first document
You might think that opening or creating a
new Photoshop document is a very
simple task to achieve. In the days of older
versions of Photoshop that was certainly true
with its original start up sequence. You either
opened a photo, or you made a new
document and started work. These days, with
the advent of Photoshop CC, it’s a slightly
more involved affair and goes way beyond
anything that has been seen in Photoshop
before. The newest version of the program
has a Home screen and a more interactive
front end, offering a lot more choice from the
very moment you open the program. Let’s
start at the very beginning, dive in and have
a quick look at what the Home Screen has
on offer for the new user, create a couple
of different documents and get to know the
options available to us.
Browse tutorials
Recent
и
Edit your photos
Tweak lighting and colors and remove things.
Recent v
Layers
Q Kind
Normal
Opacity: 100%
Fill: 100%
BEFORE
AFTER
Layer 1
planet-10-orange-blue-final-
smalLjpg
27 seconds ago
space416949S.jpg
26 seconds ago
portrait-4 S72313.jpg
26 seconds ago
„.«a»*»
(V) Recent
J000p»P300p₽‘
fantasy-SO54OO5.jpg
Ю seconds ago
Lock: ЕЭ
52
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YOUR FIRST PSD DOCUMENT
File Edit Image Layer Type Select
New... p 3€N
Open... 3€O
Browse in Bridge- XttO
Open as Smart Object-
Open Recent ►
Close
Close All X3SW
Close and Go to Bridge- O3€W
Save &S
Save As... S
Revert F12
Fvnnrt b
If you have never used Photoshop before,
the first time you open the program you are
presented with the Welcome screen giving you the
option to take a tour, check out the new features
or just open an image and get started on your
new project.
If you’ve used Photoshop a few times, your
Home screen will look slightly different.
It will display any recent images you have been
working on as a set of thumbnails. You can click
on any thumbnail to open that file and resume
working on it.
ФТо create a new document, you can either
go to the top file menu and choose File >
New (Cmd + N), or simply click on the Create New
button on the left of the Home screen. Either option
will open the New Document screen, ready to start
your project.
©We’ve chosen a 2000 x 2000 pixel
document. The default resolution is
300pixels/inch and in RGB Color mode with White
Background Contents. If you are not familiar with
Colour Mode and Colour Profile, you can happily
stick with the defaults for general use.
®When you hit the Create button, a new
document is created with your settings
applied from the New Document screen. Since we
opted for the Background Contents to be white, the
new document will be created with the Background
layer appearing as a locked, white layer.
If you look at the Background layer in
your layers palette, you will see the small
Padlock icon that indicates the layer is locked. If
you click on the Padlock icon, you can unlock the
layer and turn it onto a standard, editable layer
called Layer 0.
RGB Color v 8 bit
Background Contents
White ✓
Black
1
Background Color
Transparent
Custom
Just for comparison, if we start going
through the new document procedure once
more, we can also alter the Background Contents
and, in this case, choose Transparent instead.
Now, when you hit the Create button, you will have
a different looking document.
®This time, when your new document
appears, it will have a transparent
background layer, called Layer 1, which will also be
unlocked and ready to edit. Transparent layers are
easy to spot since you will see the chequerboard
pattern of white and grey squares.
©That is your first document created. So
far so good, now, of course, you can start
populating the document with images and graphics
to create your very own work of art. Don’t worry if
you’ve not tried it before. We can show you how
it’s done.
www.pclpublications.com 53
OPEN AND SAVE YOUR FIRST IMAGE
Open and Save
Your First Image
A quick guide on how to open new photos and
images in Photoshop, and then save your edits
A true Photoshop masterpiece has to start
somewhere right? In order to create that
masterpiece you have to be able to open and
navigate to your various image assets, and
then fire them up in Photoshop in order to
begin working on them. Photoshop is no
different to many other programs in that it
allows you to bring up a browser window in
order to find the files you require. It also has
its own methods for both managing and
locating your images in the form of Adobe
Bridge, which lets you search for images as
well as keyword them making future searches
much easier. This is all useful stuff, so get
ready to try it out.
54
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OPEN AND SAVE YOUR FIRST IMAGE
CC File | Edit Image Layer Type Select
New... XN
Open... XO
Browse in Bridge... XX 0
Open as Smart Object...
Open Recent ►
Close
Close All XX W
Close and Go to Bridge... OXW
Save XS
Save As... OXS
Revert
Export ►
►
chain-
idge-lli329.jpg
fantasy-223i796.jp
g
fantasy-2368432-j
g
lrl-3071077.jpg
gullS-4634307.|pC
©Since we’ve covered how to create a
new document, it seems worthwhile just
touching on the other options available. One of
which is simply to open a base photo. You have the
Open option on the Home screen, or, from the top
file menu, you can choose File > Open (Cmd + O).
This calls up a new window where you can
browse your computer’s folders for any
stored images. It makes sense to try and keep all
your image files in a centralised repository, rather
than casting around the darkest corners of your
hard drive.
©Once you have found your image, it is
simply a case of either double-clicking the
image in question, or highlighting it (or several
images at once) and then clicking on the Open
button at the lower right of the browser window.
They will then open in Photoshop.
File j Edit Image Layer New... Open... Type Select XN XO
Browse in Bridge- XXO
Open as Smart Object...
Open Recent ►
Close
Close All XXW
Close and Go to Bridge- OXW
Save xs
Save As... OXS
Revert
Export ►
_MRK1210.jpg
Date Created: 07/01/2018, Of
Date Modified: Today, 09:15:1
6.26 MB
Document Type: JPEG file
1.3 s at f/11.0 -0.67, ISO 64
Focal Length: 30.0 mm
4253 x 2642 @ 300 ppi
Color Profile: Adobe RGB (19
Landscape, ocean, water
®lf we can step back to the Home screen
for a moment. Rather than using the File >
Open menu command, you can choose instead
to use the File > Browse in Bridge (Alt + Cmd
+ O). Bridge is Adobe’s image management,
cataloguing and key wording application.
Rather than just using a standard browser
window, you can use Adobe Bridge to find
your images, display them, arrange them in date
order and even add specific keywords making
them that much easier to search for, and find, if
you need them again.
You can click single images and add
keywords or you can select images in bulk,
and, in the Keywords section of Bridge, click the
New Keyword button and add keywords specific
to those you have currently highlighted. They will
then be displayed alongside the images.
Metadata
Keywords
//11.0 1.3
[И] -0.67
X ISO64
4253 x 2642
6.25 MB 300 ppi
Adobe RGB RGB
ф Open
L- Open With
stone f
Move to Bin
Get Info
- Ale Properties
Alename
Document Type
Application
Date Created
_MRK1210.jpg
JPEG file
Adobe
07/01/2018,
Adobe Photoshop 2022.app (default)
□ Adobe Acrobat.app
Q Adobe Illustrator 2022.app
Э Adobe Photoshop Elements Editor.app (17.0 (2
Format:
Save:
Color:
✓ Photoshop
Large Document Format
BMP
CompuServe GIF
Dicom
Photoshop EPS
IFF Format
JPEG
JPEG 2000
JPEG Stereo
Multi-Picture Format
PCX
Photoshop PDF
©In Bridge, you can browse your images
in much the same way as in a browser
window except you have a lot more control over
what you can do with them. You also have a lot
more image data available to you, which is found
in the Metadata section.
©When you have found your image, click
on it to highlight it and then right-click it to
bring up a context menu where you can choose
from a number of options. In this case, we would
go for the Open With > Adobe Photoshop CC
2019 (default) option.
®lf you open a Jpeg and do not add any
new layers, when you save it after editing,
it will be saved in its original Jpeg format. If,
however, you make edits that involve layers and
adjustments, then it will need to be saved in PSD
format to retain those layers.
www.pclpublications.com 55
USING LAYERS
Using Layers
Understanding layers is fundamental to Photoshop editing
The concept of Layers was first
introduced with Photoshop 3.0 in
1994 and has become the very core of
Photoshop image editing, as well as being
imitated by every other image editing
program on the market. Layers are exactly
what they sound like; the elements of the
image are stacked up and displayed in
descending order. Since layers can include
transparency, lower layers can be visible
through higher layers.
Effects, adjustments and operations can
be applied to individual layers, or to all
the layers at once. You can move layers
around relative to one another, change the
order of layers in the stack, turn layers on
or off and delete layers without affecting the
others. Some people seem to have a hard
time getting their head around the concept
of layers, so the best way to think of them is
as a pile of glass panels with the elements
that make up the image painted onto them,
with you looking down on them from above
to see how they stack up.
Layers have a number of advantages. For one
thing, the ability to change one element on one
layer without affecting the other layers means
that you can edit your image non-destructively.
For example if you want to perform an operation
on a layer but you’re not sure how it’s going
to turn out, just make a duplicate layer, set the
original to be invisible, then do your editing on the
copy. If you don’t like the result, you can simply
delete it and go back to the original.
There are four main types of layer. There
are Pixel layers, which contain the graphical
elements of the image. There are Text layers,
which contain text information which can be
edited and resized. There are Vector layers,
which contain vector information such as shapes
and work paths and then there
are Adjustment layers, which
contain embedded commands
that affect the layer immediately
below. We’ll look at Adjustment
layers in more detail on the
following pages.
There is a downside to using
layers and that is the file sizes they
generate. Adding layers and the
information that goes along with
them massively increases the size of the file, so
when you’ve finished editing and you want to save
the picture you’ve created, it’s usually a good idea
to Flatten the image, which merges all the layers
together into a single image.
USEFUL TIP
Click on a layer, press and hold the Shift key
on your keyboard and click on another layer
to multi-select a number of layers.
56
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USING LAYERS FIRST THINGS FIRST
The Layer Palette
Knowing your way around the Layer palette is vital if you want to make the best use of this feature.
Blend Mode
Determines how the layer interacts with the
layer below it. Can be changed for every layer
one by one, or for a group.
Opacity
Controls how transparent the layer is and how
much of the layer below will show through.
Layer Filters
Choose to display only one type of layer, or all
of them and by selecting from the drop-down
you can choose what order to show them in.
245
Adjustme
Add an a<
1
A|
Й E2 0 И
Layers
PKnd
Channels
Б О
6°
Opacity: 100%
£
Or
Normal ф
O'
Lock: ES / •£ ft ft Fill: 100%
Front
Front
Middle Of
) fx О Q о
Background
The Background layer is the default bottom
layer and always starts off locked when you
open a new Photoshop document.
Link Layers
Highlight a few layers and then click this
button to link the layers. Transform and
Move commands will affect all linked layers.
a
D
Text Layer
There are several different types of layer. Text
layers, not surprisingly, contain text characters.
Layer Locks
By clicking on these buttons you can lock the
layer from any further activity. Transparency,
image pixels and position can be locked
independently of each other.
Fill
Similar to Opacity, but only works on pixel
information, ignoring blending options and
layer effects.
Visibility
Clicking on the eyeball simply renders the
layer and all its effects invisible.
Layer Styles
Add effects such as drop shadow, bevelled
edges, inner glow and more.
Layer Mask
Add a mask to a pixel-based layer to reveal
or conceal information using a black or
white brush.
О Adjustment Layer A
An alternative to the main layer
menu, you can add all the adjustment
effects such as Levels, Brightness and
Contrast and Saturation here too.
New Group
Creates a new layer group, into
which you can drag and drop layers,
which helps you to organise layers in a
big complicated composition.
О New Layer
Clicking on this button
creates a new blank layer
directly above the currently
active layer.
©Delete Layer
Does exactly what you’d
expect it to do. Click to delete the
currently active layer, or drag a layer
onto the button to delete it.
www.pclpublications.com 57
60 Create specular highlights
62 Any colourfrom anywhere
64 Blackand whitecolourcontrol
66 Advanced clone stamp control
68 Colour match your images
70 Combine adjustment layers
72 Precise lens flare placement
Ps
Photoshop
Mega Tips
Next, we have a number of more involved tips for
improving your Photoshop workflow. There are
many tools, techniques and features that you may
not have uncovered yet, so we thought we’d share
a number of them with you here. They range from
creating specular highlights on your images to
combining various adjustment layers.
Contents
58
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PHOTOSHOP MEGA TIPS
CREATE SPECULAR HIGHLIGHTS
Create Specular
Highlights
AFTER
BEFORE
A specular highlight is the bright spot
of light seen on a glossy or metallic
surface when brightly illuminated.
We look at a handy blending mode
technique to create strong highlights
where none exist.
60
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CREATE SPECULAR HIGHLIGHTS
PHOTOSHOP MEGA TIPS
Q Kind * S Э T □ £|
Normal * Opacity: 100%
Lock: B3 Z ft nil: 100%
®We have a science fiction image of a sleek android in a futuristic setting.
Although it has been well lit and rendered at high resolution, it could do
with a few extra highlights to create some stronger visual cues and enhance the
metallic look of the armour.
©Create a new layer above your base image and name it ‘specular’.
Choose a fairly soft white brush and place a brush mark where you
would like a brighter specular highlight to appear. Choose a few to begin with. It
is just a white daub at the moment, but we can enhance that.
©If you double-click the ‘specular’ layer, you can open up the Layer Style
panel. Under the main General Blending option, choose Linear Light
as the blend mode. At the moment, nothing will change until you uncheck the
Transparency Shapes Layer button.
©It is subtle, but you will notice that the white brush mark, rather
than fading softly to transparent, now makes the pixels underneath
it much brighter and more vivid. Unchecking Transparency Shapes Layer
now makes it behave more like a real-world specular highlight.
®Use your Eraser Tool and shape the white brush mark a little, to look
more like a large light is reflecting on the metallic surface. Since it is on
its own layer, the highlight can be moved, scaled and rotated until you have it
looking just as you want it.
®We continued to add a few more layers with white brush marks and
then used them at different sizes and shapes to add more highlights to
the armour and the mechanical parts. The Eraser Tool was used to remove any
unwanted excess and give the final image a little more zest.
www.pclpublications.com 61
PHOTOSHOP MEGA TIPS
ANY COLOUR FROM ANYWHERE
Any Colour
From Anywhere
BEFORE
When creating a Photoshop document,
you will sometimes need to be able to
sample colours to use in your document.
Do you know that you can sample any
colour on your screen, whether it’s in
Photoshop or not? We show you how.
62
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ANY COLOUR FROM ANYWHERE
PHOTOSHOP MEGA TIPS
®Let us say, for the sake of argument, that we are preparing an image
that requires a coloured background. The subject of the image has been
removed from its original background and you need to place a colour behind it to
complete the document.
®lf you go to the bottom of the Layer Palette and click on the Create New
Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon, you can choose from a number of layer
adjustments. In this case, choose Solid Color. When you do, the Color Picker
(Solid Color) will open.
Q Kind vSOTdB
Normal v Opacity: 100% ~
Lock: 88 / ti ft Fill: 100% ~
©The default colour for Solid Colour is usually black, unless you have a
colour chosen which is the active foreground colour. The new ‘Colour
Fill 1 ’ layer will be placed above your cut out subject. Click and drag it so it sits
beneath the subject. Now your subject should be sat on a black background.
©Double-click the Colour Fill 1 thumbnail (not the mask) and the Colour
Picker will appear again. Hover your cursor over any part of the
Photoshop workspace and then left-click and hold. Wherever your cursor is, the
colour directly beneath it will become the new background colour.
®Move the cursor over the subject’s body and, in real time, the background
will become that colour. Hover the cursor over its fur and it becomes a
sandy brown colour. Place the cursor over an iris and the background becomes a
darker taupe colour. This is great, but you can go even further.
©While the Colour Picker is active, resize the Photoshop window and then
open another window beside it. In this case, we opened Google and did
a search for ‘colour swatches’. With the Color Picker active, hover your cursor
over the contents of the other window to sample even more colours.
www.pclpublications.com 63
BLACK AND WHITE COLOUR CONTROL
Black and White
Colour Control
i w
AFTER
Black and white colour control may sound
somewhat counterintuitive, but in actual
fact, with the adjustment layer and a
particular blend mode, you actually have
another quick, non-destructive method for
controlling the colour in your photographs.
64 www.pclpublications.com
BLACK AND WHITE COLOUR CONTROL
Solid Color... Gradient... Pattern...
Brightness/Contrast... Levels... Curves... Exposure... Vibrance... Hue/Saturation... Color Balance...
Black & White...
@ И V Photo Filter... ' Channel Mixer... Color Lookup...
о ® Invert Posterize...
зил Threshold...
Gradient Map... Selective Color...
®A colourful portrait image provides a perfect example for this case
in point. There are a number of strong reds, blues, yellows and
greens, with which we can work. As mentioned already, this is a useful non-
destructive method, so your base image remains unaffected.
®Go to the bottom of your layer palette and click on the Create New Fill
Or Adjustment Layer icon. A dropdown menu will appear with a list of
adjustment choices, click on Black & White. An adjustment layer, called Black
& White 1, will be added to the layer stack above your main image.
Darker Color
Lighten
Screen
Color Dooge
Linear Dodge (Add)
Lighter Color
Overlay
Soft Light
Hard Light
Vivid Light
Linear Light
Pin Light
Hard Mix
Difference
Exclusion
Subtract
Divide
Hue
Saturation
Color
Luminosity
f*. °
©As you would expect, the image will be converted to black and white,
but, bear in mind this is a non-destructive adjustment. Keep the ‘Black
& White 1 ’ layer active, click on the Blend Mode panel and choose Luminosity
from the menus. At this point, the image should revert back to colour.
©Make sure the Layer Thumbnail is active. If it’s not visible, you can
double-click the Layer Thumbnail to activate the Properties panel. We
would recommend that you dock the Properties panel beneath your layer
stack, since you are likely to be accessing it a lot when working in Photoshop.
®The ‘Black & White 1 ’ properties panel displays a series of colour sliders.
One for each of the primary colours contained in a colour photo, from
Red and Yellow, through Green and Cyan, down to Blue and Magenta. Moving
these sliders will affect the brightness of any colour within their tonal range.
®As an example, if you move the Yellow slider to the left, those yellow
shades will get progressively darker. Move the slider to the right and
the same shades will start to get lighter. Push the slider to the far right and the
colours will become white. It’s a great method for non-destructive editing.
www.pclpublications.com 65
PHOTOSHOP MEGA TIPS
ADVANCED CLONE STAMP CONTROL
Advanced Clone
Stamp Control
BEFORE
AFTER
The Clone Stamp Tool is one of the most
important tools available in Photoshop.
With it, you can paint pixels from one
part of an image onto another. Let’s
look at some ways you can employ the
cloning process with greater control.
66
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ADVANCED CLONE STAMP CONTROL
PHOTOSHOP MEGA TIPS
Layers Channels Paths
Q Kind * Ш О T П fi •
У Current Layer
Current & Below K
All Layers
150 160 170 18
®We have an image of an aircraft at an airshow display. We can use the
Clone Stamp Tool to create more versions of the aircraft and place
them in the shot, but more than that, we can have a measure of control about
how the cloned copy is placed when you stamp it onto a layer.
®lt is always a great idea to place any cloned samples onto a new layer.
Create a new layer called ‘clone’ and select the Clone Stamp Tool from
the toolbar. In the Menu options panel, make sure that Sample is set to Current &
Below. This will clone from the Background layer onto the new layer, without issue.
®Set a size for your Clone Stamp Tool. Our example is a brush 1300
pixels in size and Hardness is set to 50%. Next, press Alt and click
over the centre of the aircraft to set this as your clone source. If you move
your cursor, you will see a real time preview of the chosen pixels.
©Before stamping it into place, if you hold the Shift + Alt keys and then
press either the < (less than) or > (greater than) keys, you can rotate
the cloned source. The < key rotates anticlockwise and the > key rotates in a
clockwise direction. You can rotate 360° if you wish.
Lock Frame
Reset Transform
£>
ce 1
ce 2
ce 3
ce 4
ce 5
У Show Overlay
У Clip to Brush Tip
Auto Hide Overlay
Invert Overlay
Add an adjustment
Ф ЙЙ И \
3
О Clipped
Auto Hide
Close
Close Tab Group
®You also have the option to scale the cloned pixels before stamping it
into place on your photo. If you hold Shift + Alt and then press either:
[ (left bracket) or ] (right bracket), you can scale the source pixels. The [ key
reduces the size and the ] key increases the size.
®lf you want to clear the Clone Source settings, open the Clone Source
panel, click on the small menu icon in the top right of the panel and
choose Reset Transform from the list that appears. Your Clone Stamp Tool will
be reset to its default state.
www.pclpublications.com 67
COLOUR MATCHING
Colour Match
Your Images
AFTER
BEFORE
When you cut out one subject and
combine it with another background,
you may notice that the colours don’t
appear to match. We have a great
method for matching your image
elements together.
68
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COLOUR MATCH YOUR IMAGES
PHOTOSHOP MEGA TIPS
®We have here two example images. The first is of a forest scene
comprised of warm colours, which give it an overall orange colour cast.
The second image is of a young girl’s portrait taken in a studio. The tones in this
image are much cooler with more of a blue cast by comparison.
®The image of the girl has been cut out and placed on a layer above the
forest scene. Now you can appreciate the difference in the two images
and how much the warm image of the forest stands out against the cool tones of
the girl. We need to alter her colours to match her environment.
jyers Channels Paths
QKlnd ~ H О T □ Й *
Normal * Opacity: 100% v
This adjustment clips to the layer (click to affect all
Auto Color Correc
Algorithms
Enhance Monochromatic C
Enhance Per Channel Cont
J And Dark & Light Colors
Analyze image to Tina dark ano
Snap Neutral Midtones
Target Colors & Clipping
©With the girl’s layer active, click on the Create New Fill Or Adjustment
Layer button and choose Curves, from the menu, to add the adjustment
layer above the girl. In the ‘Curves 1 ’ Properties panel, click the Clip To Layer
button so any adjustment only affects the girl, not the forest.
©Ensure that the ‘Curves 1 ’ thumbnail is active, not the mask. Click the
Curves properties menu icon in the top right of the panel and choose Auto
Options. The Auto Colour Corrections Options panel will open. Make sure the
Find Dark & Light button is checked and Snap Neutral Midtones is not checked.
Target Colors & Clipping
Shadows: , Clip:
Midtones:
Highlights: Clip:
©Click the Shadows target colour picker and then choose the darkest colour
from the forest image. One of the dark trees should suffice. Click OK, then
click Highlights and choose one of the lightest tones. The pale light through the
trees is fine. Click OK to continue and click No to Target Colours As Defaults?
®Your portrait image might be a bit dark, but you can now click and drag
the Curves control points to add more contrast. We’ve simply created a
very rough ‘s’ curve that both lightens the image a little and adds contrast. Now
if you compare, the resulting image better matches the background.
www.pclpublications.com 69
PHOTOSHOP MEGA TIPS
COMBINE ADJUSTMENT LAYERS
Combine
Adjustment Layers
Here is how you can combine multiple
adjustment layers and then combine
them into one effect. That way, you can
then use this combined adjustment on
any other image, so it has the same look
and feel as your original.
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COMBINE ADJUSTMENT LAYERS
PHOTOSHOP MEGA TIPS
®With your base image active, go to the bottom of the layers palette
and click on the Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer button. From the
dropdown menu that appears, you can start choosing various adjustments to
alter the tone and colour of the original image.
®This example used four adjustment layers to get the final look that we
liked. Now, if you wanted to transfer that same look to a separate image, it
would normally mean having to replicate all the adjustment layers you’ve used for
the original image and apply them to the new one.
*№ Edit Image Layer Type Select Filter 3D View W
New... XN
Oper... XO Q ScrvMy Zocn too* t»»
Browse in Bridge... xxo
□per as Smart Object... Oper Recert ЧМ • so» taeckfnxna. «ив, a
Close xw
Close All xxw
Close Olliers Close and Go to Bridge... oxw
Save xs
Save As... OXS
Reve-t Ftt
Export ь Quick Export as PNG
Generate Share... Share on Benance... Export A*
Export Preferences...
Search Adobe Stock... Save for Web (Legacy)...
Place Embedded Place linked... ArtXMtdt to PDF,.
Export Per Aem..
Automate e.
Scripts ь Layer Comps to POE..
Import P Layers to Files... Color Lookup 1ШМ...
File Info... XOXI
Print- XP Paths to llustrator...
Print One Copy \OXP Render Vdeo...
Zoomify-
©However, we can actually combine all four adjustments and turn it into a
single effect that can be applied to any other image without the need for
multiple adjustment layers. One thing to be aware of before you start, is that your
current document must have a locked background layer.
©Go to File > Export > Color Lookup Tables and type a filename for your
combined effect. You can choose from a number of Formats and then
click OK to save it to a folder of your choice. Then you’ll need to open up a new
image to which you want your newly created effect applied.
Paragraph
fr О Э
□
Solid Color.
Gradient...
Pattern...
Brightness/Contrast...
Levels...
Curves...
Exposure...
Vibrance...
Hue/Saturation.
Color Balance...
Black & White..
Photo Filter...
Channel Mixer..
Color Lookup...
Invert
e
1.CSP
combine Hi
adjustm...s 1.CUBE
c
adjust
©Click on the Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer button and select Color
Lookup to add a new adjustment layer. From the ‘Color Lookup 1 ’ layer’s
properties, select Load 3D LUT and navigate to where you saved your file in the
previous step. If you saved multiple formats, CUBE is a popular choice.
®The image will now have its colours remapped by the 'Color Lookup
1 ’ adjustment layer, using the CUBE file you selected as its guide. The
image will take on a completely new look that will match the style of your original,
without the need for many adjustment layers.
www.pclpublications.com 71
PHOTOSHOP MEGA TIPS
PRECISE LENS FLARE PLACEMENT
Precise Lens
Flare Placement
AFTER
BEFORE
This is a handy tip for placing a lens
flare effect exactly where you want
it, on any photograph. The Lens Flare
Tool can be a bit hit and miss, but
this lets you work non-destructively
and with pixel precision.
72
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PRECISE LENS FLARE PLACEMENT
PHOTOSHOP MEGA TIPS
Tiiw 3D View Window Help
Gaussian Blur
Convert for Smart Filters
Q Kind v S Э T П
Filter Gallery...
Adaptive Wide Angle... X О X A
Camera Raw Filter... OXA
Lens Correction... OXR
Liquify... OXX
Vanishing Point... XXV
30
Blur
Blur Gallery
Distort
Noise
Pixeiate
Render
Sharpen
Stylize
Video
Other
Nik Collection
Flame-
Picture Frame...
Tree-
Clouds
Difference Clou<
Rbers...
Lens Flare ..
Lighting Effects'
Q Kind * S О T □ Д
Screen * Opacity: n
Lock: ES / ❖ Й ЯН: к
® Normally, to add lens flare you would go up to the Ale menu and choose
Alter > Render > Lens flare. This opens up the Lens Flare panel, from
where you can choose the Brightness and Lens Type for your flare effect. The
preview window allows you to drag the centre of the flare around.
©Alternatively, create a new layer above your base image. In our example,
we have named it ‘flare’. Go to Edit > Fill and fill the layer with 100% Black.
Obviously, this will obscure your main image on the layer below. Now set the Blend
Mode for the ‘flare’ layer to Screen and your main image will be visible again.
View Window Help
Arrange ►
% Workspace ►
Find Extensions on Exchange-
Extensions ►
22U ----------------------
3D
Actions X F9
V Adjustments
Brush Settings F5
Brushes
Info
8-blt
76
56
61
1973
8-blt
Channels
Character
Character Styles
Clone Source
Color
Glyphs
Gradients
Histogram
History^..
Info
Layer Comps
to
У Pixels
Inches
Centimeters
Millimeters
Points
Picas
Percent
Л 6
c
ФТо call up the information panel go to: Window > Info. You will see it
displays both the X and Y co-ordinates of your cursor. Click the small
Crosshair icon next to the X and Y values and you can choose the units in which
the co-ordinates are displayed. In this example, we used Pixels.
©With the Info panel visible, you can zoom in to your photo and place the
cursor over the exact point you want your flare to appear. Make a note of
the X and Y co-ordinates (in this example, X: 1458 and Y: 705) and you are ready
to add the lens flare to the ‘flare’ layer.
►
►
►
► Flame...
► Picture Frame...
► Tree...
►
Clouds
Difference Clouds
Fibers...
Lens Flare... к
Lighting Effects...
®Go to Filter > render > Lens Flare, to open the Lens Flare panel. This time
hold the Alt key and click on the preview image to open a new panel
called Precise Flare Center. There are two boxes, where you can enter the X and
Y values. Type in the values you made a note of from your Info panel.
®The flare will be moved to the precise position you placed your cursor
on originally. Now you can adjust your Brightness and Lens Type as you
would normally and then press OK to commit the flare to the ‘flare’ layer, on the
exact X and Y values you chose. You can add more using this technique.
www.pclpublications.com 7 3
Ps
Photoshop
Creative Zone
Here are a couple of more involved tutorials that
will help solidify a number of core Photoshop skills.
We’ve kept them fun and hopefully interesting,
yet with enough detail to show you more of what
Photoshop can do. Watch this space for
more to follow. This may be your first
step, but we hope it won’t be the last.
Contents
76 Pixel explosion
84 Making reflections
74
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I
PIXEL EXPLOSION
AFTER
BEFORE
Create an image that explodes off
the screen in a thousand pieces
The pixel explosion effect, or pixel dispersion effect as it is sometimes
known, is a great little technique that can turn an image into a
shattered explosion of shards. The pieces look like they are tumbling into
the air and your subject appears to be eroding away as the pieces fly off.
For anyone with a good grasp of Photoshop basics this is, at its heart, a
relatively straightforward effect to achieve. It helps to have a photograph
of a subject that can be easily removed from their background. If they
have a well-defined outline and
a simple background, then Photoshop has
the tools you need to cut them out, put them on their own layer
and fill in the background. With a couple of layers, some masking and
brushwork, you can take your base image and turn it into a classic pixel
explosion image. Take a look and see how you can start creating your
own right now.
www.pclpublications.com
PIXEL EXPLOSION
®As we mentioned at the outset, any photo of a subject against a
simple background that creates a clean outline, can be used for this
effect. We have a bright image of a model against a yellow background. As
you can see, her outline is well defined so this is an obvious advantage.
size. If you are using a photo that is of a different size, then be aware that you
will need to modify your settings to take that into account.
Л СУ v Г У i (“У ГУ 1 o v Г Sample All Layers Q
x pixel explosion.jpg @25% (RGB/8#)
2000 1800
1600
1400 1200 10
2200
P. 0
cz '
L-l-. 2
M 0
i У Quick Selection Tool. W
Magic wand Tool
®The process begins by separating the subject from the background.
Luckily, Photoshop has just the right tools for the job in the form
of a method for making selections. Go to the toolbar on the far left of the
workspace and choose the Quick Selection Tool (W).
• • •
Xb f У v f'y -‘"У Г'У • ~ C Sample All Layers C
k" 10
x pixel explosion.jp
ф 2200 2000 1800 1600 1400 1200 К
* * 2
Г’Т 0
!—L о
Q о
’LT. 2
BL ° I
©Before you start making any selections, go to the top options menu
and click on the Add To Selection button. This is just a personal
preference and sets up the tool to enable you to make additional selections
all the time unless you specify otherwise.
• Photoshop CC File Edit Image Layer T
о • •
®The Quick Selection Tool brush size can be altered by pressing the left
and right bracket keys on your keyboard [ or ]. The size of the brush
will depend on the area of image you are trying to select. We began selecting
the subject with a 10 pixel brush.
® Simply click on an area of your subject and slowly begin to drag the
brush around within their outline. If you do it a little at a time, you will
see each selection will be enhanced to better match the outline. Keep adding
to the selection until the entire subject is selected.
www.pclpublications.com 77
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
PIXEL EXPLOSION
Filter 3D View Window Help
Select Subject Select and Mask...
I Create or 'ehne a selection 1
0 ( t f 400 , t,,, [apo t 0 200 400 600
®The selection needs to be reasonably accurate. In this example, a
small area under the chin was not selected. Using a very small sized
brush, we could press the Alt key, change the selection method to Subtract
From Selection, and get a better selection in that area.
©With the figure completely selected, you also have the option to refine
that selection even further. Keep the selection active and go to Select
And Mask in the top menu options panel. Older versions of Photoshop used
to call this Refine Edge but it has the same function.
Deselect
Select Inverse
Feather...
Select and Mask...
Save Selection...
Make Work Path...
Layer Via Copy
Layer Via Cut *
New Layer...
©When the Select And Mask window opens, make sure the Refine
Edge Brush Tool (R) is active. With a brush of about 100 pixels, you
can begin to drag the refinement brush over the outline of the subject. Each
brush stroke will try to improve the quality and accuracy of the selection.
®Once you are happy with the quality of the selection, press the OK
button and return to your main document again. Now, the selection
will be much more accurate. If you right-click within the selection, you can
now choose Layer Via Copy.
QKInd S Э T П Й
Normal x Opacity: 100% ~
Lock: Ей / Ф Г!' Ь ЯМ: ioo% ~
A P ~ * C %
x pixel explosion.jpg @ 259
• 0
L-I. 0
(p (p Lasso Tool к L
Polygonal Lasio Tool L
Magnetic Lasso Tool L
L-l, 2 *
И 0
S. 4
... 0
0
©This will copy everything within the selection, create a new layer, and
place it there to give you the subject on a transparent layer. You can
name this new layer ‘figure 1 ’. Now we will need to make the background
solid yellow with no subject on it.
®Make the ‘figure 1 ’ layer invisible for the moment and click on the
‘Background’ layer thumbnail to make it active. Go to the toolbar and
choose the Lasso Tool (L). We are going to use this to make a rough selection
around the outside of the subject.
78
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PIXEL EXPLOSION
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
• О • I Photoshop CC В File | Efflt Image Layer Undo Lasso Type Select MZ Filter 3D View
A ft 5 Redo oxz 1 Mask...
Toggle Last State
> pixel explosion.jpg @ 25 Fade... OXF
2200 2000 1800 3 400 200
* ‘ 2 • o Cut Э€Х
!—L 0 Copy Э€С
p. 0 Copy Merged ОЭ€С
Paste 3<V
u. Paste Special ►
Clear
я
Search 3€F
. 1 Check Spelling...
Find and Replace Text...
/.• Fill... QF5
X. ° Stroke...
Content-Aware Fill...
8 * <
®Use the Lasso Tool to draw a selection that encloses the subject.
Keep a small distance away from their outline so you’re only dragging
your cursor over yellow background. Go all the way around them and join
back up at your starting point to close the selection.
©You will now have an active selection. Go to Edit > Content-Aware ЯП;
this is a newer implementation of the Content-Aware fill option in more
recent versions of Photoshop CC. You can still access the original Content-
Aware Fill option by using Edit > Fill (Shift + F5).
®The new Content-Aware Fill offers more control, but the basic function
is the same. It will analyse anything inside the selection and try to fill it
with sampled material from outside the selection. It doesn’t have to be exact,
as you see in the example. Click OK to continue.
®Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and add a significant amount of
blur to even out the background. In this case, somewhere around 170
was enough. Now, if you make the ‘figure 1' layer visible again, you should
have something looking similar to the original, but split across two layers.
©Make sure ‘figure 1 ’ is the active layer and then press Cmd + J to
create a duplicate layer, named ‘figure 2’, above it. Then click back on
‘figure 1 ’ to make it active again. Press Cmd + J again to create a new layer,
called 'figure 1 copy’, which sits between ‘figure 1 ’ and figure 2’.
©Click on ‘figure 1 ’ and press Cmd + T to activate the Free Transform
Tool. Hold Shift and then drag the middle right control point to the
right. The pixels on that layer will stretch out. Do the same on ‘figure 1 copy’
to about half that distance, until it looks like the example.
www.pclpublications.com 7 9
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
PIXEL EXPLOSION
If you want, you can make ‘figure 1 ’ active again, right-click the image
and choose Warp. Then stretch things out even further, in various
directions, by dragging the control points until you have something you like.
Don't drag the pixels too far away from the untouched 'figure 2’.
®Part of the effect is having the right coloured pixels in the right places.
If you go to the toolbar and choose the Eyedropper Tool (I) you can,
for instance, sample her hair colour and brush it over areas on ‘figure 1 ’
where you would like to see more of that colour in the final effect.
fx D Э □ ®
5 In
ЭХ
® We’ve also done the same with areas of her shirt and trousers on the
‘figure 1 ’ layer and extended those colours away from her body. For
the moment, you can press shift, highlight the ‘figure 1 ’ and figure 1 copy'
layers, and merge them by right-clicking and choosing Merge Layers.
®Keep the newly merged ‘figure 1 ’ layer active and select Add Layer
Mask from the options at the bottom of the layers palette. Hold the Alt
key as you do so. This creates a black mask on the ‘figure 1 ’ layer that will,
for the moment, obscure it (more on that in a minute).
• Photoshop CC File Edit Image Layer T
О • •
A ~ ~ К Mode: Normal ~ c
" * 600 “
® Click on ‘figure 2’ and add a mask to that layer as well. You don’t
need to hold Alt in this case. A white mask will be added, so the layer
is still visible. Next, we want to erode parts of the image on this layer and for
this we'll need the Brush Tool selected.
©We want to use square brushes for our effect, but they may not be
installed by default in new versions of Photoshop CC. With the Brush
Tool active, go to the Tool options menu at the top and click on the Brush
Preset icon to open the properties panel.
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PIXEL EXPLOSION
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
I
Window Help
100% - Q* _ -4«nmo: 0%
New Brush Preset-
New Brush Group...
Rename Brush..
Delete Brush...
Brush Name
Brush Stroke
✓ Brush Tip
✓ Show Additional Preset Info
У Show Recent Brushes
Preset Manager...
Restore Default Brushes...
Import Brushes...
Export Selected Brushes...
Get More Brushes...
Converted Legacy Tool Presets
Legacy Brushes
> Round Brushes with Size
> Special Effect Brushes
-Bi Square Brushes
o & Ш
®ln the top right corner, click on the small gear symbol to open more
options, then click on the Legacy Brushes option at the bottom.
Confirm you want the Legacy Brushes installed and, in your brushes panel,
you will see a new folder appear called Legacy Brushes.
® Click on that folder, scroll down until you see the subfolder called
Square Brushes, and then open it. We can start with a Hard Square
brush of 24 pixels. At this point, make sure your foreground colour is set to
black and the ‘figure 2’ layer mask is active (not the image thumbnail).
Brush Settings
Brushes 5,28 J,tter
100%
□ Shape Dynamics й
_ Minimum Diameter 0%
Dual Brush £]
Color Dynamics &
Transfer Й Angle Jitter 50%
Brush Pose &
Noise &
Control: Off V
Wet Edges &
Build-up & Roundness Jitter 0%
□ Smoothing & ▲
D
►
S
®lf you were to paint on the ‘figure 2’ layer mask right now, all you
would get would be a series of squiggles, as if drawn by a square
pencil. Therefore, we need to introduce some brush settings that can scatter
the square brush in a more random pattern.
®lf you click on your Brush Settings icon to open the settings panel, you
can work on the settings that will make the brush strokes more random
and dynamic. Check the Shape Dynamics button and make Size Jitter 1000%
and Angle Jitter about 50%. This makes the brush randomly scale and rotate.
Brush Settings
Brushes
Scatter О Both Axes 1000%
Brush Tip Shape ~
K Control: Off
Q Shape Dynamics Й
Q Scattering Й Count
^Texture 1^1 A
Brush Pose &
( J Noise & Flip X Flip Y
Wet Edges & Angle: 0е ►
Build-up & Roundness: 100%
Q Smoothing &
Protect Texture &
Q Spacing 125%
Color Dynamics й a
Transfer Й Control: Off
Brush Pose Й
□ Noise Й
□ Wet Edges &
©Next, check the Scattering button, set Scatter to 1000%, and check
the Both Axes button. The rest of the settings can stay at their
defaults. If you look at the bottom of the Brush Settings panel, there is a
preview of the current brush tip. We need a little more spacing.
® Click on the Brush Tip Shape button, make sure the Spacing button
is checked and set it to about 125%. You’ll notice that the preview
window indicates how the brush tip shapes have spread out even more. This
is the kind of brush pattern we require to start creating the pixel explosion.
www.pclpublications.com 81
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
PIXEL EXPLOSION
©Now begin to use the square pixel brush on the ‘figure 2’ layer mask.
You can hold the mouse button and spray a random pattern, or, for
more control, you can just click on the areas to which you want to add black
pixels. Each pixel you paint should be different from the last one.
®Any black pixel that your brush creates will remove part of the subject,
creating a mask in the shape of that particular pixel. With this method,
you can build up a series of pixel brush strokes that erode the right side of
the subject leaving random holes.
Layers Channels Paths
Q Kind S Q T П Й •
Normal v' Opacity: 100% ~
Lock: Й) / ❖ Jzjl ft F,,l: 1(X)% v
®Now we can turn our attention to the ‘figure 1 ’ layer and click on
its layer mask to make it active. Remember, you’ll know it’s active
because it will have highlighted comers. Since this mask is totally black and
obscuring the layer, we need to reveal it with white brush strokes.
©This layer simulates the parts of the subject that are flying off to the
right. Any white brush strokes you apply should be in the space
between her right side and the far right of the yellow background. Now you
will see how the distorted ‘figure 1 ’ layer creates these flying pixels.
82
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PIXEL EXPLOSION
®To match the shadow already in the image, you could also click on the
Blend Mode, set it to Multiply and choose a colour that matches her
hair to tie it all together. You can now save this file as a PSD and this brings
the pixel explosion tutorial to a conclusion.
Explosive
results
You too can create this cool effect.
PS PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
MAKING REFLECTIONS
AFTER
BEFORE
Making
Reflectio
We show you how to make your
own reflections where none exist
In this tutorial, we are going to take a look at a technique that allows you to
create your own reflections in an image where none currently exist. It’s a great
method to add a sense of depth to a photo or any piece of art you may have
created. Anyone who loves creating fantasy-based images will no doubt have
seen quite a few examples of this technique. The prerequisite for the image to
work well is that the main subject in the composition needs to be in the close
foreground and look as if the photographer were shooting them from the same
height or a lower angle. A photo taken from too high an angle may look
quite odd when the reflection is applied. This effect uses a few different
techniques to make the reflection look like a fair facsimile of the water’s
surface with an appropriate amount of distortion and ripples. We also use
Smart Objects in this tutorial to aid us in creating as many non-destructive
edits as possible. They also allow you to go back in and tweak all your
settings, if you so wish. Dive in and we’ll show you how it’s done.
MAKING REFLECTIONS
®We have a fantasy style innage of a girl in a forest. It is all quite dreamy
and surreal and could benefit from the extra foreground interest that
a watery refection could provide. As previously mentioned, both she and the
ground are level with the viewer so the effect should work well.
®The base image in this tutorial example is 3630 pixels wide by 2830
pixels high. All our settings and techniques are based on an image of
this size. If you use a different size image, be aware that your settings may
have to alter accordingly.
t Image Layer Type Select
Mode ►
*ln Adjustments ► *
R< Auto Tone O3€L л
ос Auto Contrast XO3€L
Auto Color
Image Size... X&l
Canvas Size... г ХЭ6С
Image Rotation ►
Trim...
Reveal All
Duplicate...
Apply Image...
Calculations...__________________
Size: 29.4M
Width: 3630 Pixels
Height: 2830 Pixels
Ж 58.8M
Width: 100 Percent
Height: 200 Percent
©Firstly, the image needs to be unlocked so it can be worked on. The
layer thumbnail will have a small Padlock icon on the right. If you click
this, you can unlock the default background and turn it into an active layer,
which is named ‘layer 0’ by default.
©Next, we need to add enough space below our main image to
accommodate the reflection, once it is created. To do this, go to Image
> Canvas Size (Alt + Cmd + C) and call up the Canvas Size settings panel. Set
the Anchor to top middle and Height to 200%. Click OK to proceed.
®The document will be resized with the extra canvas area added to
the bottom of the image. Press Cmd + J to create a duplicate of the
main layer. You can name the new layer ‘reflection’ and the base layer can be
called ‘top’ (more on this in a moment).
®Make the ‘reflection’ layer active. Choose Edit > Transform > Flip
Vertical. The layer will be turned upside down and you can use the
Move Tool (V) to drag it down to the bottom half of the document. You can
also drag the ‘reflection’ layer so it sits beneath the ‘top’ layer.
www.pclpublications.com 85
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
MAKING REFLECTIONS
Blending Options...
Copy CSS
Copy SVG
Duplicate Layer...
Delete Layer
Group from Layers...
Quick Export as PNG
Export As...
Artboard from Layers...
Frame from Layers...
Convert to Smart Object
|l H h |l| ••• 3D Mode: <£> ' i <$> %•
>y, RGB/8#) x reflection 1.psb @ 33.3% (reflection, RGB/
1 л A——аам—« л л « л л л
reflection! _psb @ 33.3% (reflection, RGBZ8#)
go fx О Q, О ®
jstments Properties
Create new fill or adjustment layer
®Now we need to do some work on the flipped image. Firstly, right-
click the layer and choose Convert To Smart Object from the menu
that appears. This will convert it to a Smart Object. If you look in the lower
right corner of the layer’s thumbnail, you will see the Smart Object icon.
®lf you double-click the Smart Object, it will open it as a PSB file. Think
of it as an editable Photoshop document within your main document.
We can edit this in a non-destructive manner. Click on the Create New Fill Or
Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette.
9.43 Ш
0 px
fx □ 3 g
У Solid Color
Gradient...
Pattern...
Brightness/Contrast...
Levels...
Curves...
Exposure...
Color Picker (Solid Color)
Vibrance...
Hue/Saturation.
Color Balance...
Black & White...
reflection
Color Fill 1
©Choose Solid Color and, from the Color Picker that appears, select a
sandy brown colour that could be the bottom of a riverbed. When you
click OK, a solid colour will cover your flipped image. Drag the ‘Color Fill 1 ’
layer below your main ‘reflection’ layer.
®Make the ‘reflection’ layer mask active and then click Add Layer Mask
to add an active mask to your reflection image. Choose the Gradient
Tool from the toolbar and make sure your gradient is set to be black to
transparent. If it isn’t, click the Gradient Editor in the top left.
3 и н в и Mode: Normal ~ Opa
i, RGB/8#) * x reflections.psd @ 16.7% (Layer 0 c<
600 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0
©Use your mouse to drag a vertical gradient that extends from the
bottom of the image to about halfway up. When you let go, a black to
transparent grad will be created on the mask. Any area that is black will allow
the solid colour beneath to show through, giving a brown tint to the water.
©Click the small cross in the left of the document tab for the Smart
Object to close it. At this point, you will be prompted to save changes
to ‘reflectionl .psb’ before closing. Make sure you click Save or you will loose
what you’ve done to the image so far.
86
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MAKING REFLECTIONS
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
®When the PSB file closes, you will taken back to your current working
document where you will see the sand coloured tint on the image.
Next, go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and choose a -90° Angle and a
Distance of 85 pixels. Click OK to add the blur to the image.
©If you examine the ‘reflection 1 ’ layer, you will note that the effect you
just added shows up under the Smart Filters thumbnail. This means
you can go back in at any time and alter that setting. Next, we need to sort
out the blurred edge of the image that is leaving a gap.
pe Select Filter 3
04.00% с-Э H: 104.00%
ms.psd @ 16.7% (Layer 0 cc
0 1200 1000 BOO
®lf you press Cmd + T to enter the Free Transform tool, you will see a
warning that tells you certain effects will be turned off while performing
a transform. Click OK then scale the image to about 104% to close the gap
between the blurred image and the main image.
©Once done, the Smart Filters preview will activate again showing
the correct blur of the flipped image. Now we can blur the join
between the sharp main image and the reflection. Create a new layer, called
‘waterline’, and make sure it is at the top of the layer stack.
age Layer Type Sc
В 0 Щ Mode: Norm
k________________
#) * 1
1800 1600 1400 1200
Use the Eyedropper Tool (I) to sample a dark blue colour, and then
go to the Gradient Tool (G) and select the Reflected Gradient option
with the blue foreground colour set to fade to transparent. You can use the
Gradient Editor to select it.
®Next, it is a case of dragging a gradient that starts where the two
images touch and goes up to just the below the girl’s leg on the top
image. When you let go of the mouse, blue grad will be drawn above, and
below, the start point of the grad creating a nice blur between the two images.
www.pclpublications.com 87
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
MAKING REFLECTIONS
®Add a new layer called ‘ripples', make sure it sits between ‘reflection
1 ’ and ‘top’ and is the active layer. Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool
(M) to draw out a selection that covers the bottom half of the image entirely.
We will use this area to create some ripples.
®Go to Edit > Fill (F5) and fill the selection with solid black. Then go to
Filter > Noise > Add Noise and make the noise Amount 400% and
click OK. Then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and make the Radius value
about 3.0 pixels for a small amount of blur to the noise.
®Now go to Filter > Stylize > Emboss, then make the Angle about 38°
and the Height about 15 pixels. The Amount value can be set to its
maximum of 500%. This adds a heavy random textured effect to the original
blurred noise pattern. Make sure the selection is still active.
® Right-click the selection and choose Perspective from the menu that
appears. For the next part, you will need to press Cmd + minus to
zoom out quite a distance. We used a magnification of 4%. Drag one of the
bottom corner control-points as wide as possible to add perspective.
®lf you press Cmd + 0 you can go back to a standard view of the
document. You will see how the mottled texture seems to get larger
as it gets nearer the bottom of the image. Go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur
again and use an Angle of 0° and a Distance of 150 pixels to blur the texture.
©Now change the blend mode of the ‘ripples’ layer to Vivid Light. If you
feel the texture is too harsh, you can go to Image > Adjustments >
Levels (Cmd + L) and then drag both Output Levels sliders inwards, to reduce
the contrast of the texture, for a more subtle effect.
88
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MAKING REFLECTIONS
Type Select 3D View Window Help
Motion Blur
winaows Q Scrub! cr,n r. • fr.r s , art ।
»d e 16.П Filter Gallery-
1ЯЮ K> Adaptive Wide Angle- XOXA
Camera Raw Fitter- OXA
Lens Correction... O9CR
Liquify... OJCX
Vanishmg Point... XXV
3D ►
Blur ►
Blur Gallery ►
Distort ►
Noise ►
Pixelate ►
Render ►
Sharpen ►
Stylize ►
Video ►
Other ►
®For even more movement in the water’s surface, click on the
‘reflection 1 ’ thumbnail to make it the active layer, and then go to Filter
> Distort > Wave. This opens up the Wave generator panel. This part can be
a bit hit and miss, but the idea is to get a nice tight wave effect.
©After a bit of trial and error, we arrived at settings that work for this
size example. Number Of Generators was 150, Wavelength was Min.
1 and Max. 500. Amplitude was Min. 70 and Max. 75. Rnally, Scale was
Horiz. 8% and Vert. 1 %. Click OK to add a subtle wave pattern.
Just another example of the power of Photoshop.
Now the watery reflection is looking more interesting. You have some
effective texturing that can emulate the riverbed, and the addition of
the Wave generator has created more visually pleasing distortions on the
water’s surface. Save your document as a PSD and the tutorial is done.
Smart Objects for
great effects
www.pclpublications.com
Lr LrC
The Digital
Darkroom
Photoshop comes in a number of subscription
options, one of the most popular being the
Photographers package that also bundles Lightroom
with it for your digital photo processing needs.
Let’s take a moment to understand what Adobe
Lightroom is all about and how it
differs from Photoshop.
Contents
92 Get more out of your photos
94 The history of Lightroom
96 Lightroom versus Photoshop
98 Shooting in Raw mode
* Л I
90 www.pclpublications.com
THE DIGITAL DARKROOM
GET MORE OUT OF YOUR PHOTOS
Get More Out of
Your Photos
BEFORE
When processing an image in Lightroom, half
the battle is knowing enough about the many
tools on offer to help you extract as much
detail from your photos as possible. In the
following issues we show you those essential
tools and techniques to help you along.
The HSL panel in Lightroom is perhaps more powerful that you might at first think.
It can enable you to take greater creative control over your images and allow you
to selectively adjust the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance of the unique colours in an
image. Our example is a simple application of this. The sky is very bright and the blue
sea is quite murky. By adjusting the Luminance and Saturation of just the blues and
aquas in the image, you can bring more depth and colour back into them.
GET MORE OUT OF YOUR PHOTOS THE DIGITAL DARKROOM
www.pclpublications.com .93
DARKROOM
THE HISTORY OF LIGHTROOM
The History
of Lightroom
Let’s take a closer look at the development of Adobe’s specialist
app for photographers, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
Ever since digital cameras first
became popular in the early 1990s,
photographers have sought ways
to adjust and improve digital images
and replicate the darkroom tricks and
techniques that film photographers have
used for decades to get the most out of
their pictures. There are dozens of digital
image editing programs available and
almost everyone who’s ever taken a digital
photo, whether they use a top-end digital
SLR or just the camera on their mobile
phone, has used some sort of editing
software to adjust and enhance the image.
Most smartphones come with some sort of
image editing app as a standard feature.
Adobe Photoshop
For more than two decades the industry
standard for image editing software has
been Adobe Photoshop and ever since
it was first introduced in 1990 it has
been the go-to program for professional
photographers. The editing tools that you
take for granted in your smartphone app
were all inspired by tools first introduced
in Photoshop.
Ps
Adobe Photoshop
© 1990-2021 Adobe. All rights reserved.
Artwork by Natasha Cunningham
For more details and legal notices, go to the
A&out Photoshop screen
Adding extension... MMXCore Routines
Thomas Knoll, John Knoll, Mark Hamburg,
Seetnaraman Narayanan, Russell Williams. Jackie
uncoln-Owyang, Alan Erickson, Sarah Kong, Jerry
Hams. Mike Shaw, Thomas Ruark, Yukle Takahashi,
David Dopish, John Peterson. Adam jerugim, Judy
severance, Yuko Kaglta. Foster Brereton, Meredith
Payne Stotzner, Tai Luxon. Vmod Baiakrishnan, Tim
Wright, Mana Yap, Pam Clark. Kyoko rtoda, Steve
Guiinamet. David Hackel. Enc Fioch, Judy Lee, Kevin
Hopps, Barkin Aygun, Cody Cuellar, Heewoo Ahn.
John Fitzgerald, Dominic Michael. Chad Rolfs
г Adobe Creative Cloud
Photoshop is an amazing piece of
software and in skilled hands it is capable
of making almost any adjustment or
alteration imaginable to a digital image.
However, in recent years Adobe has
expanded Photoshop’s capabilities to
include elements such as video editing,
3D texturing and text editing, making
what was already a very complex
program even more difficult to master.
Of course, these expanded capabilities
“...it was clear that
a new app was
needed, that catered
more specifically
to the needs of
photographers.”
have been reflected in the ever-increasing
price, making Photoshop a very expensive
piece of software indeed. Nobody likes
to pay for something they’re not using
and photographers found that most of
Photoshop’s expanded features were surplus
to their requirements; so it was clear that
a new app was needed, that catered more
specifically to the needs of photographers.
This was the remit under which Adobe
Photoshop Lightroom was developed.
Shadowland
Mark Hamburg is a veteran software
engineer who has been working at Adobe
since 1990 and, along with Thomas
Knoll, was part of the original team
behind the development of Photoshop.
In 1999 Hamburg started working on a
new project codenamed Shadowland
(a reference to a k.d. lang album, of all
things). He brought on board Andrei
Herasimchuk, the interface designer
responsible for the distinctive look of
Adobe Creative Suite, and development
was started later that year.
Some people are under the impression
that since it’s officially named Adobe
Photoshop Lightroom, it is essentially
just a repackaged version Photoshop
with some of the features removed, but
this is not true. Hamburg, Herasimchuk
and their team wrote the new program
virtually from scratch, even writing a large
portion of it in a completely different
coding language. Initial development
took three years and in 2002 Hamburg
was able to demonstrate an early version
of the program. An interface was added
the following year and in 2004 full
scale development started at Adobe’s
development facility in Minnesota.
In early January 2006, Adobe took the
unusual step of releasing a beta version of
their new program for public evaluation,
initially on Apple Macintosh computers
only, and used customer feedback to
continue development of the program.
Further beta versions followed later
that year, adding new features, including
support for Microsoft Windows in July,
and integration with Adobe Photoshop in
September. Finally, the full retail version
of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 was
announced in January 2007 and released
to the general public the following month.
94 www.pclpublications.com
THE HISTORY OF LIGHTROOM
Lightroom Classic
Over the years since its initial release as a stand-alone
product, there has been major stand-alone versions
released and multiple minor sub-version updates. Then
Adobe launched its subscription based Creative Cloud
service. You were able to choose from the entire suite of
Adobe Products either singly, or in various packages. Adobe
Photoshop Lightroom CC (2015) as it was initially called,
has received various updates over the years of its release
and at the time of writing is in the stable release version
11.1 as of mid-January 2022. It is now known as Photoshop
Lightroom Classic and is the powerful desktop-focused
version of the app. It is widely regarded as the go-to app for
serious photographers.
The Map Module is a great addition to recent versions. Utilising GPS technologies,
you’re able to stamp location specific metadata to your photos.
Lightroom easily imports your photos from many different sources. You can
create Collections, add Presets and custom Filters to each or all of your images.
Lightroom
Photoshop Lightroom was launched mid-September 2017
and at the time of writing is in its stable release version 5.1 as
of mid-January 2022. Photoshop Lightroom is a cloud-based
photo service which caused a bit of a stir at its release. Not only
was it an unexpected new product, it was a much pared down
version of its much more fully-featured cousin Lightroom Classic.
You can only work on images that are stored in the cloud and
if you need extra storage space, then further storage has to be
purchased. There is no doubt it is a faster and more streamlined
product for enthusiasts to use across multiple mobile platforms,
but if you are a professional photographer, then Lightroom
Classic might be your better option.
The Lightroom interface is a much simpler affair, designed to be less cluttered with
just the main tools for processing your images and adding keywords.
Apart from basic exposure adjustments, you can crop, heal and add graduated
and radial filters. There are also a number of Presets for one-click adjustments.
www.pclpublications.com 95
THE DIGITAL DARKROOM
LIGHTROOM VERSUS PHOTOSHOP
Lightroom Versus
Photoshop
At some point in your digital image editing life you’re going to face
the question: Lightroom or Photoshop? It’s not always an easy answer
though as it depends on what it is you want to achieve. Both are
heavyweights in the photographer’s toolbox, but which is right for you?
Lr or Ps?
It’s not always an easy choice but there are vast differences between Lightroom and Photoshop that can help make your mind up. These
differences depend on the situation and what you intend to do with the finished product. Let’s break down a few strengths of each.
VS
Ps
Lightroom Classic Strengths
Photoshop Strengths
Q
Lightroom can manipulate and edit Raw files directly
from your camera, without the need to install or use
another plugin.
□
Workflow and image management is one of Lightroom’s
main draws. You can easily import, organise, edit and
manage each of your images without too much in-depth
knowledge of advanced design techniques.
□
There are less features than with Photoshop, which
lessens its learning curve and thanks to a well-planned
user interface, it’s relatively easy to adapt to if you’re
already familiar with other photo editing tools.
Q
Lightroom has an impressive number of presets available
to the user. Exposure levels, contrast, toning, colour
presets, video presets, effects and many more are readily
available via the Navigator.
You can arrange the images you’ve imported by
keyword, tags and metadata. You can easily publish
finished work and there are many more under-the-hood
tools and preferences to play around with.
You don’t have to dive into the program’s inner workings
to see great results. Most of the common functions that
provide you with a superb image are just a few clicks
away, and available on the surface of the interface.
Photoshop is a pixel-level editor. Where Lightroom
allows you to adjust pixels in an image, Photoshop lets
you move them and manipulate them in a way that’s
nothing short of magical.
Photoshop allows multiple layers to be applied to an
image. You can keep images and edits on separate
layers, and modify them accordingly and independently.
This is the basis of non-destructive editing.
□
It’s huge. Mind-bogglingly huge. The toolbox alone is
the stuff of legend and contains just about everything
the professional designer and photographer would ever
need from a piece of software.
You can record specific actions within Photoshop,
allowing you to apply those actions to other images with
a click of a button.
You’re able to blend many different layers together,
masking areas of an image to protect it from being
edited, even down to the pixel level.
□
Almost anything is possible in Photoshop. If you can
imagine a scene, then you’re able to turn your wedding
photos into a dramatic space battle or have a picture
of the kids playing with a Т-Rex. Remove objects, add
objects, touch up skin tones, the list goes on and on.
96 www.pclpublications.com
LIGHTROOM VERSUS PHOTOSHOP
So which one should I use?
In short, Lightroom is designed for
photographers. It’s a powerful image
management tool that you can use to
quickly organise and edit your photo
collection. Most photographers will
utilise Lightroom’s features over that of
Photoshop, but that’s not to say it’s the
only tool they’ll use.
The beauty of both products is that where one reaches
the limit of what it can do for a photographer’s
workflow, the other can then step in and take up the
baton to get the image to its finished state. Once you’ve
used up Lightroom's features and you want to do more
with an image, then you can take it over to Photoshop
forthat intricate level of control and possibly image
enhancement and manipulation.
It makes sense to do as much processing work in
Lightroom as you can to get it as close to completion
as possible. Photoshop can then let you do any layer-
based editing on top of that. Both programs are an
integral part of the design process and workflow, but for
the sake of this book and photographers the world over,
we’re opting to start your post-processing adventure
with Lightroom.
Lightroom is a great image editor and organiser, and is remarkably easy to use,
considering how powerful it can be.
Photoshop has an incredible array of benefits on offer; with it you can just about do
anything your imagination comes up with.
Most photographers will use Lightroom fortheir post-processing, moving to Photoshop for advanced techniques and edits.
www.pclpublications.com 97
THE DIGITAL DARKROOM
SHOOTING IN RAW MODE
Shooting in
Raw Mode
To get the best out of your digital images with Adobe Lightroom,
you should always shoot in Raw Mode.
I f you’ve bought this book, we can safely assume that you
I know something about digital photography, so you’re probably
I already aware that the vast majority of digital images are stored
in a file format known as JPEG. Nearly all digital cameras and
the majority of users, professional photographers want the best
images possible and so any loss of quality is unacceptable. For
this reason, most high-end cameras have an option to store
photos in an uncompressed format usually known as Raw mode.
mobile phones record their images as JPEG files. You can spot a
JPEG file because it will usually have the filename extension .jpg
or .jpeg. The JPEG format has been around since 1992, when the
standard was first specified by the Joint Photographic Experts
Group (after which it takes its name), a standing committee of
imaging and software industry experts. There have been various
attempts to update or replace the JPEG format over the years
but it is now so entrenched in the digital world that it will likely
be with us forever.
The JPEG format is great for digital images that are shared
or published via the Internet or stored on digital media, because
it is a compressed file format. File compression is a way of
shrinking file sizes by removing redundant information and
encoding the rest in a more efficient way. For digital images
this means that a photograph that is maybe 35 megabytes as
it comes off the camera sensor can be compressed down to a
fraction of that size without losing too much image quality. This
obviously means that you can store a lot more images on your
memory card or hard drive and view your friends’ photos on
Facebook without using up your entire
data allowance at once. Whilst a
slight loss of image quality, as
a trade-off for more efficient
storage, is not a problem for
Advantages of Raw Mode
И-а
Quality
RAW
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* ON
OFF
JPEG
IL IL IU IU
AF-ON
A full explanation of JPEG compression would take up much
more space than we have available in this guide and you really
don’t need to know most of it. For our purposes, the major
difference between JPEG and Raw mode is the amount of
information used to describe each pixel in the image. In JPEG
mode each pixel is described by 24 bits, that is 24 ones and
zeros, 8 for each colour channel of red, green and blue. This 8-bit
encoding allows 256 gradations of brightness per colour channel,
meaning that it can display 256 x 256 x 256, or 16,777,216
different shades of colour. That might sound like a lot but if
you look at a JPEG image of a clear blue sky you may still see
lines between the different tones of blue rather than a smooth
gradation of colour.
In uncompressed Raw mode, each pixel is usually described
by 12 or even 14 bits per channel, giving 36 or 42 bits per pixel.
This might not sound like a big difference but whilst a 12-bit Raw
file can describe 68 billion shades, a 14-bit file can describe four
trillion. This means that not only will your colours look smoother
and more lifelike, much more shadow and highlight detail can
also be recorded, giving your pictures much more dynamic
range. This means that when you’re processing a Raw mode shot
you can pull out much more detail from shadows and highlights.
See the sample photos shown here to see the difference.
и
О 1196 e 3528
File Format
JPEG Recorded Pixels
JPEG Quality
RAW File Format
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RICOH
RAW
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DNG
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98 www.pclpublications.com
SHOOTING IN RAW MODE
This photo was shot using in-camera JPEG compression. As you can see there is
almost no detail in the shadow areas and no amount of brightening can change that
This is the same photo shot in Raw mode and processed in Lightroom. With the greater
exposure, latitude and colour depth this mode provides, shadow detail and colour
saturation are improved, producing a much nicer shot.
Disadvantages of Raw Mode
For day-to-day use there aren’t many disadvantages to shooting
in Raw mode. High capacity memory cards and multi-terabyte
hard disks are now so cheap that storage capacity really isn’t
a problem and if you want to send a photo via email or share
it online it’s very simple to convert a Raw file into a more
manageable JPEG. The only real disadvantage is that there is very
little standardisation of Raw file types between different camera
manufacturers, and all of them have their own proprietary formats.
This means that when you buy a new camera you may find that
Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw won’t be able to open or
process the images until a compatibility update is released, which
can sometimes take several weeks. One way around this is to use
the Adobe DNG Raw format, which is an open-source Raw file
format that is available on some cameras, notably Pentax DSLRs
and some other high-end cameras. All Adobe software can handle
this format by default. Adobe also offer a Raw to DNG converter
that can batch-convert all your Raw files to the more compatible
DNG format. The downside being that you then have native Raw
and DNG versions of all your images.
Raw or RAW?
Most books, magazines, websites
and even camera menu screens
refer to Raw mode all in capital
letters: RAW. There’s really no
reason for this as it’s not an
acronym and just means that you’re
recording the Raw uncompressed
information from the camera’s
primary image processor. As far
as we’ve been able to determine,
the practice of writing it in caps
started with a Canon press release
circa 1998; and was carried on by
other PR departments and camera
journalists who didn't know any
better. Since we do know better, in
this book we’re going to write
it as‘Raw’.
O
IL
JL И+JL
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JS______ И+JS
ЙШ
О О Л 28 В
_1_ 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
E? Image Size L:12M
E?Aspect Ratio 3:2
E? Quality_______________RAW & JPEG
E9RAW File Type Uncompressed
Panorama: Size
Panorama: Direction
0
www.pclpublications.com 99
Ps
Compositing
Walkthrough
The power of Photoshop comes from its ability
to let you create anything you can think of using
images and graphics from different sources. It
uses layer-based editing which means you can
make very complex images whilst still keeping
the various elements separate from each other
on their own layer. This issue, we kick off by
showing you a technique called
grey screen compositing to
make a movie poster.
100 www.pclpublications.com
Create art like the pros using some key
methods that are easy to use
Compositing is the combining of visual
elements from separate sources into
single images, often to create the illusion
that all those elements are part of the same
scene. There are a number of ways to produce
composite images. In this tutorial we will be
looking at a fairly typical approach for the two
main elements of the image which is the grey/
neutral background compositing technique.
The beauty of shooting your main subject
against a grey screen is that it gives them a
well defined edge that makes the process of
blending them into another environment all the
easier. Whether your subject is normal human-
sized or in this case, just a 150mm tall action
figure, grey screen compositing is the choice of
many graphics professionals and is easier to do
than you think. To flesh the scene out, we have
a background and some additional graphics to
create what could easily be a movie poster for
the next big zombie apocalypse blockbuster.
102 www.pclpublications.com
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
otoshop CC File Edit Image Layer Type S
New... S?
• . ft к Open... N *
Browse in Bridge...
Open as Smart Object...
Image Size: 34.3M Ф
Dimensions: v 3000 px x 4000 px
Fit To: Original Size *
Width: 3000
s
Height: 4000
Resolution: 300
Pixels
Pixels
Pixels/lnch
Q Resample: Bicubic (smooth gradients)
® Composites normally have a number of elements to work with, but
you need to start with your main parts first. For our example, we went
to File > Open and navigated to a file called ‘hero.jpg’. Places like Pixabay
have many similar images you can use for your own projects.
®The image is 3000 pixels wide x 4000 pixels high. Certain settings
and brushes used are based on an image that size but if working with
images of a different size, you may need to alter your settings accordingly so
they match the scale you are working at.
I I assets
hero.jpg
zombie l.png
®Next, we went to File > Open again and navigated to a file called
‘street.jpg’ and clicked Open. This image will open in its own
document. Now we need to combine the two images. Press Cmd + A to
select all and then Cmd + C to copy the street image to the clipboard.
©Go back to your main ‘hero’ document and then press Cmd + V.
This will paste the street image you just copied into the document
containing the image of the hero. You can convert the Background to a layer
by clicking the padlock icon on the right of the layer.
2
ГУ Quick Selection Tool p,w
y?*Magic Wand Tool 9/
©You now have two layers. You can name the recently pasted layer
‘street’ and the unlocked background of the man can be named
‘hero’. For the moment, turn off the visibility of the ‘street’ layer by clicking the
small eye icon next to its thumbnail.
©Click on the ‘hero’ layer to make sure it is active and then go to the
toolbar and choose the Quick Selection Tool (W). This is where the
grey background that the figure was photographed on will help you make an
accurate selection of him.
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COMPOSITING WALKTHROUGH ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
®Take your Quick Selection Tool and select a brush size of about
25 from the tool options menu. Then click anywhere on the grey
background and drag the cursor around the outside edge of the man. Make
sure you also select the gap in his left arm.
®lf the Quick Selection Tool selects too much, such as his left boot, you
can go to the tool option menu at the top and click the Subtract From
Selection button. Carefully draw over his boot and that part of the selection
will be removed.
©You can use the add or subtract selection options to make sure just
the background is now selected. Most areas should be fine but as
noted, the boots, and in this case, the tip of the baseball bat, need a little
attention to get the selection correct.
®Keep the selection active and click on the ‘street’ layer visibility icon to
turn it back on. You will see your selection, denoted by the marching
ants, overlaid on the street image. In the next part of the process, you are
going to make a mask.
fx о э a @
its Character ^агжОг^ЯЯИНЛЯИВ
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©Go to the layer options panel and click on the Add Layer Mask button.
When you do, a mask in the shape of the selection will be added to
the ‘street’ layer. Any white area of the mask reveals the street image, black
areas conceal it.
®At the moment, the figure of the hero looks very obviously like a cut
out. Click the ‘street’ layer and then choose Overlay from the Blend
Mode panel. Now both images blend much more smoothly, with light and
shadow of the grey mixing with the street image.
104 www.pclpublications.com
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
/ Brush Tool В
у fl Pencil Tool в
‘ Color Replacement Tool В
*/ Mixer Brush Tool в
®Go to the layer options panel again and choose Create A New
Layer. Name this new layer ‘fog’ and make sure it is at the top of the
layer stack. This is a little visual technique to create some more separation
between figure and background.
®With the ‘fog’ layer active, go to the toolbar and choose the Brush
Tool (B). Set foreground colour to white and use a soft round brush
of about 1200 pixels and paint white around the figure of the man. Blur the
brush marks by about 125 pixels.
©Obviously the white brush marks have obscured the man but if you
right-click the ‘fog’ layer, you can select Create Clipping Mask from
the menu. The ‘fog’ layer is clipped to the layer below and inherits the mask
properties you created, revealing the man.
®You can adjust the Opacity of the ‘fog’ layer as you wish; we set it
to about 50%, just enough to help separate the foreground figure’s
outline from the busy details of the street image. Now, if you have them, you
can add extra character elements.
Isnop
©We went to File > Open and navigated to where our example
characters 'zombie 1 .png’ and ‘zombie 2.png' were kept. Highlight
your assets and click Open. The files will be opened in Photoshop in their
documents. We went to ‘zombie 1 .png’ first.
®lf you press Cmd + A to select all content and then press Cmd + C
to copy all selected, you can then go back to your original document
and press Cmd + V to paste the first zombie into the document. It will appear
on a new layer which you can call ‘zombie 1 ’.
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COMPOSITING WALKTHROUGH ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
Lock: fS Z IS в
®We repeated the process with the second zombie image and named
its layer ‘zombie 2’. Both zombies are at the top of the layer stack
and you can see that they appear to float in front of our main foreground
character. Let’s fix that next.
®Hold Shift and left-click on each zombie’s layer to highlight them both.
Now right-click on them and a context menu will appear. Choose
Create Clipping Mask. You will see that both layers are now clipped in the
same way the ‘fog’ layer was previously.
g zombie 2.png
©There is one more asset we can include to finish our scene off. We
went to File > Open again and opened the ‘bike.png’ file. Just as
we did with the zombies, you can copy and paste images into your main
document at the top of the stack. We named the layer ‘bike’.
® Since the ‘bike’ layer appears in front of our character, there is no
requirement to clip it like the zombies and the fog. Now that we have
all our elements in place, they can each be moved within the scene as you
see fit. We can also boost the drama a little.
Solid Color.
Gradient...
Pattern...
Brightness/Contrast...
Levels...
Curves... ~
Exposure...
Vibrance...
Hue/Saturation.
Color Balance..
®Then we went to the layer options panel and clicked on the Create
New Fill Or Adjustment button and chose Levels from the dropdown
list. This will add an adjustment layer to the top of the stack; we used it to
boost light and shadow in the image.
©With the ‘Levels 1 ’ adjustment layer active, go to its Properties and
push the middle Midtone slider to the right. All the middle tones will be
darkened but since this is affecting the whole image, you need to be a little
more selective.
106 www.pclpublications.com
ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
Set foreground color
£] o
®Keep the adjustment layer active and go to the toolbar and choose
the Brush Tool (B). Set the Foreground Colour to black and use a large
soft round brush to paint black on the ‘Levels 1 ’ layer mask where you do not
want the darkening effects to be seen.
®We painted around the three characters to keep them at their original
brightness but made sure that their surroundings are darker. If you Alt
+ left-click the mask, you can see the brush marks that conceal the effects of
the adjustments you’ve made.
®lf you press Shift + Alt + Cmd + E, you can create a new layer that is
a merged version of all the layers you’ve created so far. Think of it as
a snapshot of the work done so far. Be aware that any layers that are turned
off, will not be merged into the snapshot.
Type Select Filter 3D View Window Help
Unsharp Mask ~3€F
Convert for Smart Filters Align Bqqm
Filter Gallery...
50 40 Adaptive Wide Angle... XO3€A 10 5fl 00
Camera Raw Filter... . O3€A
Lens Correction...
Liquify... оэех
Vanishing Point... X3€V
3D ►
Artistic ► • i iIIIh ’
Blur ►
Blur Gallery ►
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©This boosts overall contrast and adds a level of sharpness, bringing
out detail in the image. Now you can think about the colour in your
image. If you go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter (Shift + Cmd + A), you can play
with some its new filter options.
©Call this new layer ‘merged’. You can add some extra sharpness and
boost contrast quickly by going to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask.
Set the Amount to 30% and Radius to 30 Pixels. Threshold is 0 Levels.
• и # в s и» fx в s
Presets
► Color
▼ Creative
Desaturated Contrast
Ф Cool Light
Turquoise & Red
Soft Mist
Vintage Instant
Warm Contrast
Flat & Green
©The ‘merged’ layer will open in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). The latest
version of ACR now has some interesting new creative filters which
can be found under the Presets tab. You can preview each filter’s effect on
your image until you see something you like.
www.pclpublications.corn Ю7
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
COMPOSITING IMAGES
* Photoshop CC File Edit Image La
OOQ
Z v ® v 92 Mode: Normal v
* 300
x hero.jpg @ 33.3% (flare, RGB/8#) *
130 120 110 100 90 80 70
о
©We chose the Flat & Green preset under the Creative options as
this suited the content of the image quite well. We also employed
ACR’s own Basic adjustment options too, to add more contrast and colour
saturation. Click OK when you're happy with the changes.
®ACR will hand the ‘merged’ layer back to Photoshop where you can
see it updated with the adjustments you’ve just made. You can add a
new layer next and call it ‘flare’. Go to the Brush Tool and choose a soft white
brush of about 300 pixels.
>e Select Filter 3D View Window Help
X&l
X&C
Brightness/Contrast...
Levels...
Curves...
Exposure...
Vibrance...
Hue/Saturation... 4
Color Balance...
Black & White...
®We painted over the headlights of the bike with the white brush. Then
we set the Blend Mode of the ‘flare’ layer to Linear Light. This is a
favourite method of ours for adding a glowing effect to bright areas in an
image for a little extra visual appeal.
©Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Cmd + U) and in
the panel that appears, check the Colorize button, set Hue to 20,
Saturation to 40 and Lightness to -22. Click OK to apply a yellow glow to
the headlights.
108 www.pclpublications.com
COMPOSITING IMAGES
Create another layer called ‘flare 2’ and make its Blend Mode Overlay.
Now paint with your white brush on top of the glow you just made to
enhance the light effect of the bike’s headlights.
Normal v Opacity: 100% ~
Locle ES / tS ft Hit 100% -
We also added another Levels adjustment to darken the edges a little
Xer more using the same selective masking methods used in step 25. Our
composite example image is finished. Our hero is about to face off with the
zombie hordes and we have front row seats.
Ps
Best of
the Rest
Last issue we looked at the main new updates that
graced the 2022 version of Photoshop. Here’s a
look at some of the other interesting features and
tools originally implemented in Photoshop 2021
that actually were genuinely good to have.
Contents
Photoshop 2021 116 Pattern presets
112 Quick actions-remove background 116 Warp tool
112 Quick actions - blur background 116 Pattern - solid - gradient
112 Quick actions-make b/w background 117 Brush to eraser
113 Discover J18 The frame tool
113 Quick actions - enhance image 118 Blend mode preview
113 Pattern preview 118 Maths in number fields
114 Remove background 119 The color wheel
114 Object selection tool 119 Default text
114 Properties panels 119 Updated undo
115 Zoom to layer 119 Transform tool
115 Type layer properties 119 Auto-commit
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Quick Actions - Photoshop 2021 onwards
These so-called Quick Actions are very
similar in feel to the automated effects
available in Photoshop Elements. They are
quick in the sense that you simply click once
on each effect’s Apply button and the effect
is added automatically. At the time of writing,
there are twenty Quick Actions available with
the promise of more to follow. These new
actions are accessed via the Help > Photoshop
Help menu option. This opens the Discover
panel. There are other options to look at but we
will look at a few Quick Actions.
Quick Actions - Remove Background
Let’s start with the Remove
Background action. Click on
it and you will be presented
with a small effect preview,
a quick explanation of
what the effect will do and
. which layer, if any, is going
4 Blur background^ to have its background
removed. You simply hit
the apply button. This will
scan your image and make
an educated guess based on its
content as to what constitutes background and
what is your foreground subject. Our example is
Bailey the dog against a blue sky. A fairly simple one
we think. The result is pretty good. Your results will
vary depending on how well your subject stands out
from their background. You can further refine your
mask or return to your image which will now have a
mask added.
Remove backgr
Quick action
® st
Quick Actions - Blur Background
Quick Actions - Make B/W Background
As the preview example shows you, a bright foreground object like
a rose in our case, against a green background, should be fine for
this effect to work well. When you hit Apply, the foreground object
is masked and the rest of the background has a Black & White filter
applied to it. As ever, your results will depend heavily on having
a foreground image that stands out well against its background.
The more complex it is, the more likely it is that the effect will start
to break down. At the end of the process, you are given a masked
layer that lets you refine the mask if you need to.
Another fully automatic effect for you to play with. This time,
instead of cutting your foreground subject out of the background,
it scans your image, isolates your foreground subject and then
blurs the background to help reduce any annoying distractions. We
used a fairly complicated image to see how well it would cope. The
main subject was identified reasonably well and a new masked
layer added to the document with a Gaussian Blur filter added.
This filter can be activated in order for you to increase the blur if
you so wish. The problem that we can see with this filter is that
the foreground subject is simply masked out. The more you blur
the layer, the more you can see a blurry halo appear around your
subject. If the subject were cut out and put on a new layer and the
background filled in using Content-Aware Fill and then blurred,
we think it would be a more successful action. If nothing else, you
have a masked subject that you can use to do it yourself.
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Discover
Quick Actions - Enhance Image
SHORTCUTS
I
Q saturation
NualSHIlMMl
Discover
Remove smalt imperfections
Hands-on tutorials • 2 min
Hue/Saturabon..
Image > Adjustments
Camera Raw Filter...
г
SUGGESTIONS
Enhance image
Quick action
Make BWl
Quick action
If you need help at any time while
using Photoshop, you will find it
has been improved to better aid
you when searching and finding the
relevant tool you need. You can find
it under Help > Photoshop Help. The
Discover panel will then open. It has
a number of items you can browse and
a list of resource links you can access but
if you want to input something specific, then
in the search pane you can
input your search request.
For example, if you want
to find any or all tools
relating to Saturation, type
it in and it will display all
topics related to the search.
It will also display a series
of shortcuts. If you hover
your cursor over each one, a
small tooltip icon will appear
that points you to the right
menu. Alternatively, you can
just click the shortcut and
that particular tool will open
up for you ready to use.
Pattern Preview
si Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation.
imounWn-beside-body-of-water-with-aurora-
k 400 200 0 200 400 600
Image Layer Type Select Filter 3D
Saturation
Lightness
Enhance image
Enhance the look of an image with auto adjustments
lake-747964
Hue/Saturation
This is a very simple but very useful tool that lets you
create completely seamless patterns with no guesswork
involved. The time was, you used to create a pattern by
drawing it out within the image bounds and then choosing
Edit > Define Pattern to save the result in your patterns
library. Applying the pattern however, may show up
some nasty flowers that make it useless as a repeating
pattern. If you use the Pattern Fill option and scale your
creation down, as you can see in this example, the lines
don’t match up at all. So much for a seamless pattern.
Thankfully, that has been addressed. If you start with a
blank document and go to View > Pattern Preview, as
soon as you start creating your pattern, you are shown
exactly how it will repeat. Zoom out your workspace and
you will see more of the pattern repeating. Now you can
join elements up accurately and you can even edit your
pattern outside the confines of your original document.
Jut paint anywhere on the preview and it will be added
to the overall pattern. Now you can define your pattern
secure in the knowledge of how it will look when repeated
many, many times.
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PS BEST OF THE REST I
Remove Background
Object Selection Tool
The Select Subject Tool is a very useful addition
that will automatically throw an active selection
\ around what it thinks is the main foreground
image. However, what happens if there is
more than one subject, and you only want to
select one specific item? That is where the
Object Selection Tool comes in and saves
the day. As our example shows, if you choose
Select Subject, all the text items are selected.
If you want to select just one character, go to the
toolbar and choose the Object Selection Tool (W) and
from the Tool Options menu above, choose the selection Mode. In this
case, you have either Lasso or
Rectangle as your choices. We
used the Lasso to encompass
one numeral roughly and then the
Object Selection Tool did the rest.
Object Selection
у -Magic Wand T
Remove Backgroun
image
Lasso
B/8)
20
Zoom to Layer
Type Layer Properties
W 203.2 mm
H 2WI3fnr
ffi QC
Select Subject
У Quick Selection
Mode v
Properties Panels
The properties of the various layer types
have been upgraded to include many more
choices and options as to how you can
modify the properties of that layer. If you
take the basic background layer properties
as an example, now you have many more
options including a series of Quick Actions
for altering Image Size, Crop, Trim and
Rotate. A standard Pixel Layer properties
also contains the Remove Background
and Select Subject Quick Actions as well
as Distribution and Spacing options and
Transform controls too.
This is a very simple but effective tweak to the basic zoom functions
available. Sometimes, if you have a number of image objects
scattered around your document across a number of layers,
navigating around and filling the screen with that particular item
for close inspection can be a bit of a process. It may require you
to zoom in, then zoom out, locate the next item and then zoom into
that. Now, as long as you have your items on separate layers, you can
simply press the Alt key and click on the layer you want to view and
fill the screen. Each layer you Alt-click on will scale to fit the screen
as large as possible whilst showing all pixels on that layer.
r ffl E3
Another set of properties to get an overhaul are those of the Type
Layer. When you create a new layer of text in your document,
opening the Properties panel for it will reveal a much more varied
array of options that can make your workflow a little easier and puts
all the main options that you might need right at your fingertips. Apart
from Transform options, the Character and Paragraph properties
can be accessed here as well as more varied Type Options such
as Ligatures and Contextual Alternates. There are additional Quick
Actions included that allow you to convert your text layer. There are
options to Convert to Frame and Convert to Shape.
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Warp Tool
Pattern Presets
Ы Trees
M Grass
Adding a Pattern adjustment layer now
reveals a few more presets available
to you. We have an image with the
background removed and we wish
to add a pattern behind it. Pattern is
chosen from the Create New Fill Or
Adjustment Layer menu, and the new
Pattern Fill 1 layer is dragged beneath
the subject layer with the background
removed. If you go to Window > Patterns,
you can see there are some new presets
supplied under the headings of
Trees, Grass and water. If you have
the Pattern Fill 1 layer thumbnail
active, each pattern preset you
move your cursor over will be
displayed in real-time.
Split Warp Vertir L
Some new additions to the Warp Tool give it extra split Warp Cro*J
creative clout and the ability to warp your images in even
more interesting ways. Our example features a car, which
we duplicated onto a new layer ready to edit. You can press Cmd
+ T to activate the Free Transform Tool and then, when you right-click the
image, you can select the Warp option. You can add a 3x3,4x4, 5x5 or
Custom grid if you like, but if you right-click the image, you can choose
Split warp Horizontally and add a warp point wherever you like on your
image. Control Points let you start the warping process after which more
can be added and warped to your heart’s content. Then, if you Split
Warp Vertically, you can add custom warps in the vertical direction too.
And if you choose Split Warp Crosswise, you can warp in both directions
at once. Lastly, if you hold the Shift key, you can also multi-select mesh
points and rotate and scale that selected group in one go.
Pattern - Solid - Gradient
Taking a step on from the Pattern Preset
function. It is now very easy to change a
Pattern Adjustment layer to another kind
of layer using a simple drag and drop.
What happens if you added a Pattern Fill
1 adjustment layer but then decided you
preferred a solid colour instead? You would
normally have to delete the existing layer and
add a new Adjustment layer entirely. Now, if
you go to Window > Swatches and open the
Colour Swatch panel, you can simply drag
and drop a solid colour onto the Pattern Fill 1
layer and it will automatically change it to
a solid Colour Fill 1 layer instead. Open
the Gradients swatches, and you can
drag a gradient onto the Colour Fill 1 layer
where it will transform to a Gradient Fill 1
layer instantly.
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Brush to Eraser
This is a simple one that lets you switch easily between
using a brush of a specific size, colour and properties,
to an eraser that uses the same properties but lets
you erase with the brush. While working with a chosen
brush, simply press the tilde key (~) and the brush
becomes an eraser.
The Frame Tool
This tool is great for the quick and easy
creation of rectangular or elliptical frames.
Simply go to the toolbar and click the
Frame Tool (K) then from the Tool Options
menu at the top of the screen, select your
choice of rectangular or elliptical frame.
You can then draw that shape on your
document and make an instant frame
ready for an image. You can easily
"k drag any image onto a frame
- ° \ and it will automatically
Щ 5 I be sized to fit the
[\ —f frame you’ve made.
W Any images that you
place are converted to
Smart Objects, so you can '
edit them non-destructively. You’re i
not limited to rectangles and ellipses I
either. Any shape or text you make
can be converted into frames and filled I
with your images. Right-click on the
layer that contains an item you want to ’
convert, and choose Convert To Frame
from the menu.
shutterstock 117003562.
) 1600 1700 1800 1900
Blend Mode Preview
Maths in Number Fields
An interesting one this, basically now you can use simple maths in
any numeric value input box or number field. As an example, if you
have an image on a layer currently at 100% Opacity and want it to be
exactly 1/12th the opacity (we're not sure who might find it useful),
you can type 100/12 in the Opacity input field and the Opacity will
be altered to 8% which is 1/12th the Opacity of 100%. If you have an
image and want the Canvas Size to be precisely 1/3rd the width, you
can call up the Canvas Size dialog box and add /3 to the Width value
of your image. So, if you had a photo that was 4000 pixels wide and
3000 pixels deep and wanted the canvas to only be 1/3rd the width,
adding that /3 will automatically size it 1333 pixels wide.
The Blend Mode preview is a handy new time saving feature that
has recently been implemented. Up until now, if you wanted to know
what affect a particular blend would have on your images, you had to
select one and apply it. If it wasn’t right, you had to undo that choice
or go back in, choose a new blend mode and apply that to see the
difference. Photoshop CC does away with Blend Mode guesswork.
Now, if you click on the Blend Mode button and scroll through the
available options, each one you roll over will be applied in real time,
so you can instantly see what effect it has. It will not commit the
blend you have chosen until you actually click the preferred blend.
This also works when viewing the Layer Style dialog panel too. A
small change, but a welcome one nonetheless.
Width: 4000/3
Pixels
Height: 3000
Pixels
Relative
Width: 1333
Pixels
Height: 3000
Pixels
Relative
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The Color Wheel
The Color Wheel is a useful new way to
visualise the colour spectrum and choose
colours for your artworks and design
projects. It can be accessed via the Color
panel fly-out menu or by pressing F6 and
clicking the small Menu icon in the top
right of the Colour panel. It operates by
letting you control the Hue, Saturation, and
Brightness of your colours. The outer wheel
controls the Hue and the triangle within
controls the Saturation and Brightness of
the Hue chosen in the outer circle.
Hue Cube
Brightness Cube
»
о ° V Color Wheel
Grayscale Slich
RGB Sliders
HSB Sliders
CMYK Sliders
Lab Sliders
Updated Undo
Edit Image Layer Type Select Fl
Undo Free Transform Z
Redo New Vibrance Layer l< Z
Toggle Last State X Z
Fade... O3€F
Cut Э€Х
Copy C
The Undo function has been updated once
again, after a couple of odd functionality
changes. In older versions of Photoshop
you could press Cmd (Ctrl on PC) + Z to
step back and undo multiple steps. Then
they decided to change that and you had
to press Cmd + Z for the initial undo and
then press Cmd + Alt + Z to keep stepping
backwards. In the 2019 version, if you
press Cmd + Z now, you go back one
step each time you use that command.
Whereas pressing Cmd + Shift + Z, will
step you forward each time. Hopefully
Adobe will finally settle on which version
they prefer, so we can settle down and
memorise a keyboard shortcut that
remains unchanged from here on.
Transform Tool
Photoshop has now swapped the methods
by which you can proportionally transform
your images and other layer types. The
previous method was non-proportional
by default. Meaning if you clicked and
dragged a control point, it would scale
and stretch without maintaining its original
proportions. Proportional scaling was
achieved by holding the Shift key as you
dragged a control point. Now, in this latest
version, the transformation of most layer
types, such as pixel and bitmap layers, text
layers, and Smart Objects is proportional
by default. To transform non-proportionally,
you now have to press the Shift key.
Shapes and paths have recently been
updated to transform proportionally too.
Default Text
Auto-Commit
This is quite a simple one, but also one
that does away with a potentially annoying
trait of older versions of Photoshop, which
was to display a pop-up asking if you
wanted to commit the change you just
made before you could move on to the
next part of your workflow. Your other
option was to hit the Enter key on your
keyboard to commit a change you had
just made, or go up to the top options
menu bar and click the Commit button.
Now, if you crop or transform, Auto-
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Ps
Photoshop
Essentials
As you dive deeper into the world of photo editing
and digital image manipulation, remember that
there a number of core skills, tools and concepts
to be aware of that, once learned, will become the
backbone of any image editing that you do. In this
issue, we present some more of those key tools that
with practice, can be used quickly and intuitively.
LI
Contents
Placing and importing images
Non-destructive enhancement part 1
Non-destructive enhancement part 2
120
122
124
126 Selection tools
128 Making selections
118
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PLACING AND IMPORTING IMAGES
Placing and
Importing Images
Now we will show you how to bring content into your
document and make it look amazing
It’s very easy to find and open a photo, work
with it, and then save it again, without the
need to turn it into a native Photoshop PSD
file that retains all the layers and adjustments
information within it. We’ve looked at creating
new documents from scratch, so now we can
take our newly created blank document, start
importing images and begin the process of
building a basic design with just a couple of
images. As simple as this guide may appear,
it is a cornerstone to what makes Photoshop
so useful as an image editing and digital
manipulation tool for photographers and
designers alike. We will use this tutorial to get
used to bringing in images and working with
them on their layers.
120 www.pclpublications.com
PLACING AND IMPORTING IMAGES
« File Edit Image Layer Type Select
• • • New... XN
A Open- Browse in Bridge... XO \X0
Untitled-1 Q 6 SO 45 4( Open as Smart Object... Open Recent ►
0 Close xw
Close All xxw
P. s Close and Go to Bridge... OXW
/ t|- 1 0 Save As... OXS
5 Export ►
Generate ►
0 Share-
/ 2 Share on Behance...
5 Search Adobe Stock-
3“ 1 Place Embedded
Place Linked...
Save As... 09
Revert
Export
Generate
Share...
Share on Behance...
Search Adobe Stock...
Place Embedded...
Place Linked... к
Package...
® Opening a single image is a fairly simple
process, which Photoshop makes even
easier thanks to the number of ways you can interact
with your files before opening them. Now, having
made a blank document to your requirements, we’ll
go a step further and populate it.
®To begin, a quick word about the two
methods on offer for imported images.
You can use the Place Embedded option, which
embeds images as Smart Objects that can be
edited independently of your active document, but
are still contained within it.
©Secondly, you have the Place Linked option.
This means you have an image that once
placed in your document retains a link to the original file
that you placed. Now, if you edit the original image, the
next time you look at your document containing that
image, it will update to the latest saved version.
rs.psd
moon-4544929.j
pg
mystery-21
jpg
an 22.psd
robot-201^
ng
psd 1 layers back.psd
n-
I329.jpg
dino.png
1 layers
Here, we have used File > Place
Embedded. Start by navigating to the folder
with the first image you’re using, highlight it and
then click the Place button, or simply double-click it
to open it in the document on its blank layer. Note
the layer name changes to the image name.
®You can now move, scale and rotate the
image before you commit to finally placing
it on its layer. Click and drag the cover control
points to scale the image to fully fill the document.
Then you can hit Enter on your keyboard to
commit the changes.
©Go to File > Place Embedded again and
this time choose a second image. We have
a dinosaur character we want to bring in to a new
layer. Place this new image, and then use the
control points to scale the image and also drag it
to your preferred position.
Artboard from Layers...
Frame from Layers...
Convert to Smart Object
New Smart Object via Copy
Edit Contents
Relink to File...
Relink to Library Graphic...
Replace Contents...
Export Contents...
Convert to Linked...
®Both images, since they are embedded,
are placed as Smart Objects. If you look
in the lower right corner of their thumbnail, you’ll
see the small icon that denotes a placed Smart
Object. If you are happy with them, you can
convert them to standard pixels.
® Right-Click on your layers to call up the
Context menu. Look down the list and
you will see the Rasterize Layer option. When you
select this, you will convert each of the Smart
Objects into normal pixel-based images that now
behave like standard photos.
You have created a basic document with
two layers. It might seem quite simple,
but this is what makes Photoshop so versatile
and offers you the chance to take various image
elements and combine them in amazing new
ways to create stunning artworks.
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PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS
NON-DESTRUCTIVE ENHANCEMENT PART 1
Non-destructive
Enhancement ₽art,
A great way to edit your images without damaging them
Although there are many editing options
in the Image > Adjustment menu, they
all have one thing in common. When you
apply them to an image the effect they
have is destructive, because they discard
information from the original image. For
example, if you apply Curves, then Hue/
Saturation, then add a Photo Filter effect,
that’s three operations that have discarded
information, each one degrading your
image quality. If you apply an operation
repeatedly, such as multiple Curves
corrections, you’ll actually be able to see
the degradation. The only way to undo
the damage done by these modifications
is to revert to an earlier version by using
undo or the History palette, but that also
undoes all your subsequent editing as well.
This degradation is much worse with 8-bit
than with 16-bit images, since there’s less
information to start with.
Levels...
Curves... *
Exposure...
Vibrance...
Hue/Saturation...
Color Balance...
Black & White...
Photo Filter...
Channel Mixer...
Color Lookup...
Invert
Posterize...
Threshold...
Gradient Map...
It’s impossible to avoid this image degradation
altogether, but by using Adjustment Layers
we can reduce it as much as possible.
Adjustment Layers sit above the pixel layer in
the stack and their effects are applied in real
time as the layers are displayed. That way
if you change your mind about an effect, or
wish to change it after it has been applied,
your alteration doesn’t have any further
effect on the layer below it and the image
degradation isn’t applied until the layers are
merged when flattening the image.
You can apply Adjustment Layers in several
ways. First, you’ll find a list of available layers
in the Layer > New Adjustment Layer menu.
Second, if you have the Adjustments palette open
(it’s open in the default interface workspace) you
can click on the button for the layer you want to
apply. Third, you can click on the middle button
at the bottom of the Layer Palette. All of these
offer exactly the same list of options and produce
the same results.
e Layer Type Select Filter 3D View Window Help
New ►
m / Screen Fill Screen
f Copy SVG
,er Duplicate Layer...
Delete ►
Rename Layer...
Layer Style ►
Smart Filter ►
New Fill Layer ►
New Adjustment Layer к ► Brightness/Contrast...
bi
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NON-DESTRUCTIVE ENHANCEMENT PARTI
The Adjustment Layer Palette
Click on any of these buttons to instantly create a new adjustment layer.
Brightness/Contrast
Edit image tonal range.
Levels
Adjust colour and tonal range.
Curves
Adjust points through the tonal range.
Exposure
Adjust an images' exposure range.
Vi bra nee
Enhance less saturated colours first.
Hue/Saturation
Alter Hue, Saturation and Lightness.
Colour Balance
Add colour to shadows and highlights.
Black and White
Convert to monotone or greyscale.
Photo Filter
Add custom colour cast to images.
Channel Mixer
Create tinted or greyscale images.
Colour Lookup
Add preset colour effects to images.
Invert
Inverts image colours like a negative.
Posterize
Adjust the number of tonal levels.
Threshold
Convert to black and white bitmap.
Selective Colour
Alter individual primary colours.
Gradient Map
Maps an image to a custom gradient fill.
©
©
©
©
©
©
©
©
Before and After
This photo of a girl in a field was taken on an intermediate level digital
camera. The subject was photographed with strong back lighting
and this has resulted in a fairly low contrast image and lacks any real
punch. By applying Levels, Saturation and Photo Filter adjustments
to the image, the colours have been saturated and contrast
enhanced to bring back some life and detail to the image.
www.pclpublications.com 123
PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS
NON-DESTRUCTIVE ENHANCEMENT PART 2
Non-destructive
Enhancement Part2
Add effects non-destructively with Layer Masks
While a Quick Mask function is an easy way to selectively edit your pictures, the
more traditional method is to use Layer Masks. The advantage to this method
is that it is non-destructive, so if you don’t like the results you can just go back and
start again. It is also repeatable, because you can use the same mask for multiple
effects, saving you time and effort. For this quick tutorial we’ll use a Layer Mask to
apply a selective monochrome or colour extraction effect. We’ll start with this bright
image of a red truck. The red tones will remain in colour while the rest of the picture
will be changed to black and white.
To start with, right-click on the thumbnail of the
photo in the layer palette and select Duplicate
Layer from the menu. Alternatively click and drag the
layer thumbnail in the palette onto the New Layer
button at the bottom of the palette, which will also
duplicate the layer.
File Edit Image Layer Type Select Filter 3D View Window
ie Windows to Fit Zoom t New Copy CSS Copy SVG ► creen Fill Screen
>0% (Layer 0. RCB/M) • Duplicate Layer... f
30 40 ^ 5f ► > . .110. 120 1Э
4b ЛI * ’ г Quick Export as PNG Export As... OX' XOX'
Rename Layer- Layer Style *4 5
r 'if New Fill Layer New Adjustment Layer ► ►
Layer Mask Vector Mask ►
®Next, activate the new layer by clicking on it in the
palette and then click on the Add Layer Mask button
at the bottom of the palette.
GO fx □ ®
justments CharactelwwvapHHBHM
r Properties
ФА white square will appear in the layer palette
representing the new mask. Double-click on this
and the Layer Mask palette will fly out. This palette lets you
configure the mask in a variety of ways.
124 www.pclpublications.com
NON-DESTRUCTIVE ENHANCEMENT PART 2
PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS
©Click on the Color Range button and you’ll
see a new window appear with a colour
range picker and the cursor will change to an
eyedropper tool. Click on the red chassis of the
vehicle and adjust the sliders so that as much of
the colour as possible is selected, but none of the
background. Click OK when you’re happy.
©Next we can apply the effect to the top
layer. For this one we’ll use the Black
and White menu option, since it’s a quick
and easy effect. You’ll find it in the Image >
Adjustments menu.
toil image Layer lype select Finer 3Dview window Help
Mode ►
©The Layer Mask can be used to produce
any kind of selective effect like this and
the great part of it is that the original image is
still intact in the background layer, so if you’re
unhappy with the finished result you can just
delete the effect layer and start again. However
as you can see, the effect is working well.
Auto Tone OXL
Auto Contrast X О X L
Auto Color OXB
Image Size... XXI
Canvas Size... XXC
Image Rotation ►
Trim-
Reveal All
Brightness/Contrast...
Levels... X L
Curves... XM ,M
Exposure...
Vibrance...
Hue/Saturation... XU J
Color Balance... XB
Black & White..., XOXB
Photo Fitter...
Channel Mixer...
Color Lookup...
©You can adjust the parameters of the
Black and White effect with the sliders
on the window that appears. The results
are a matter of personal taste, so adjust the
parameters until you’re happy.
®Now we’ve got a mask that covers the
shape of the truck but what we need is a
mask that leaves the chosen colour, while covering
everything else, so click on the Invert button
that swaps the mask and the background. This
effectively creates a hole in the layer through which
the background layer will be visible.
SELECTION TOOLS
Selection Tools
This fundamental technique allows multiple methods
for isolating specific areas of your image
The ability to select discrete areas of an image and change them
in isolation is fundamental to Photoshop editing and to help
with this there are many different ways of making that selection.
The most frequently used are the Marquee tools, which allow
you to select regular shapes such as rectangles, ellipses and lines. For
irregular shapes there are several Lasso tools, which let you draw the
area to be selected. For quicker selections there are the Magic Wand and
Quick Selection tools.
Common Options
If you look across the top left of your menu bar,
you will see there are common tool options for all
of the selection tools. After the Home button and
the Tool preset picker are the selection options.
The row of four buttons are: New Selection,
which is the default setting; Add To Selection,
which can also be activated temporarily by
holding down the Shift key; Subtract From
Selection, also activated by the Alt key; and
Intersect With Selection, which selects only from
areas you have already selected.
Edge Refinement
The next option is Feather, which softens the
edge of the selection based on the number of
pixels you enter in the Feather input field. This
is useful for gradual effects where you do not
want a hard edge around your active selection.
If you want even more control, the edge of the
selection can be further adjusted by using Select
and Mask, which uses sophisticated edge-
detection techniques to automatically select
around things like fine hair or soft and blurred
edges. You are given a number of options and
tools to control just how much refinement and
adjustment you want to apply to your selection.
A number of selection tools are also included
within the Select and Mask panel itself.
Object Selection Tool
The most recent update to Photoshop has seen
a number or improvements to the selection
tools on offer. Most notable is the Object
Selection Tool which can scan your image and
individually target all the differentiated objects
in your photo. This is a handy new feature and
when used in conjunction with all the other
selection methods such as Select Subject,
Select Sky and all those shown opposite, you
have lots to choose from.
ДД USEFUL TIP
I You can use the Quick Selection tool to
I quickly paint a selection using an adjustable
I round brush tip. As you drag, the selection
I expands outward and automatically finds
I and follows defined edges in the image. If the
I tool isn 4 visible in your toolbar, hold down
I the Magic Wand tool to see the fly-out menu
I with the additional options that are available
I to you.
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SELECTION TOOLS
PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS
Rectangular Marquee
Single Column Marquee
Elliptical Marquee
Make a selection of a rectangular area of any
size or aspect ratio. Just click and drag to the
right size. Hold down the Shift key to constrain
the selection to a square shape and use the
arrow keys to move the selection area.
This option creates a selection of just a single
vertical column of pixels. This is useful for tidying
up other selections or crops that are just a little
too big. Click near the area you want to select
and then drag the marquee to the exact location.
Create a selection of an elliptical shape of any
size or proportion. Just click and drag to the size
and shape you need and hold down the Shift key
to draw a circle. If you hold down the Alt key the
ellipse will be centred on the starting point.
Magnetic Lasso
Lasso
Single Row Marquee
This tool uses edge-detection to try to match your
selection to the edges of the subject in the image.
You simply draw a line as closely as possible to
what you want and it should automatically snap to
the edge. Works best on high contrast areas.
The Lasso is also used to make area selections
from the active layer, but this time the shape can be
irregular, marked out by clicking or drawing a line
around the area to be selected. Join up your lasso
at the point you started to close the selection.
This is the same as Single Column Marquee,
but this time it selects a single horizontal row
of pixels. As with the Single Column Marquee
option, click near the area you want to select and
then drag the marquee to the exact location.
Polygonal Lasso
Magic Wand
Quick Selection
The Polygonal Lasso lets you draw a point-to-
point line around your subject. It can only draw
straight lines, but by using very short sections it’s
possible to approximate a curved line. To draw
curved lines you need to use the Pen tool.
This tool lets you make selections from areas of
the same colour and brightness and by adjusting
the tolerance and whether or not it will select
contiguous areas, you can use it to do things like
automatically select all the sky in your image.
This tool lets you paint a selection and uses edge
detection to try to match the selection to the
nearest hard edge in the image. Again it’s often
only an approximation and will have problems
with blurred or low contrast edges.
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MAKING SELECTIONS
Making
Selections
The ability to select and modify only part of an image is
fundamental to how Photoshop works
One of the most basic features of Photoshop is the ability to
modify only part of an image, leaving the rest unchanged.
The way that we do this is by using Selections, and there are
several tools and menu operations that we can use to help us
achieve this.
After the Move Tool, the next three icons on the Tool Palette
are all selection tools, giving you a wide range of methods for
isolating an area of your image. Some are fully manual, while
others use varying degrees of automation.
The most basic selection tools are the Rectangular and
Elliptical Marquee Tools. These both allow you to manually select
a simple shape of any size, or of a fixed size or aspect ratio. You
can select several areas, either separately or joined together,
and with a hard edge or a soft feathered edge. The various Lasso
Tools let you select an area of irregular shape, again with the
option of a feathered edge. You can draw the area freehand, or
use point-to-point lines for greater precision.
Let’s take a look at the process of making a selection, and
examine the various options that are available.
Elliptical Marquee Tool
®The Elliptical Marquee tool works
in much the same way as the
Rectangular Marquee, but draws a
curved shape.
®As with the Rectangular Marquee,
you can set the size or aspect ratio. A
ratio of 1x1 draws a circle, other ratios draw
ellipses of various sizes.
To draw an ellipse around your
selection, imagine that it’s actually a
rectangle, start from one corner and drag to
the diagonally opposite corner. This can be
tricky to get right, so alternatively hold down
the Alt key and start from the centre of where
you want your ellipse to be.
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MAKING SELECTIONS
Simple Area Selection
® Let’s start off with the simplest selection
tool, the Rectangular Marquee. This is
used, as the name implies, for selecting simple
rectangular shapes.
Type Select Filter 30
s Styh
king sei
(RGB
35 40 46
®You can draw a freehand rectangle, or fix
the size or aspect ratio by using the Tool
Options. Let’s draw a perfect square selection
by setting a ratio of 1 x1.
Feather 30 px
% (RCB/8*) •
Style:
ФТо make a soft-edged selection, type a
number into the Feather box. The higher
the number, the more blurred the edge will be.
©To draw a square, click on a point where you
want one of the corners to be, then hold and
drag to the diagonally opposite comer. You’ll see
the “marching ants” line of the selection box appear
following the cursor.
If you use the Paint Bucket Tool to fill the
area you’ve selected you'll see that the
edges are very sharp.
©This time if you draw a selection and fill it,
you’ll see that the edges are very blurred, with
the marquee “marching ants" line in the middle of the
blurred area.
USEFUL TIP
If you want to select more than one area or
add to the current selection, holding down
the Shift key will temporarily put the tool into
“Add to Selection” mode.
For selecting more complex shapes, the
best option is the Polygonal Lasso Tool,
or if you want to draw freehand, then the Lasso
Tool is the one to go for. Drawing freehand may
be quite odd using a mouse, but with a little
practice you can use it with confidence.
With the Polygonal Lasso, you
click around the edge of the area
you want to select. When you complete
the loop, or double-click, the selection is
completed and you’ll see the “marching
ants” border.
A Polygonal Lasso selection is ideal if you
want to cut or copy a complex shape out
of a background, for example to make it part of
another picture. It is particularly helpful when your
subject has lots of straight, regular edges that are
easy to follow.
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Unleash
Contents
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38
40
42
44
Yourfirst composition
Your first cutout
Yourfirst layer mask
You r fi rst set of adjustments
the Power
Learning how things work is a series of
firsts. Your first cut out, layer mask or
adjustment layer is an important part of
the road to becoming a confident and
skilled Photoshop artist. We all had to
start somewhere right? We wanted
to spend a little time just showing
you some of the ‘firsts’ you will
encounter as you get more familiar Jn
with Photoshop.
UNLEASH THE POWER
YOUR FIRST COMPOSITION
Your First
Composition
This is when you discover the power
of Photoshop
Now is the chance to get to the nitty gritty
of what Photoshop is all about. Working
with layers in a document and importing
various images and graphics is a key part of
how Photoshop functions. Opening a photo
and then adding layers of adjustment or
additional elements on top is what makes
Photoshop the incredibly useful image
editing program it has become. You can
simply enhance a favourite photo to make
its colours look more vibrant and the details
a little sharper, or you can create amazing
compositions by combining various images,
or parts of them, in new and exciting ways
that will have your viewers wishing they could
do it too.
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YOUR FIRST COMPOSITION
This new artwork starts with the opening of
a base image. In this case we chose File >
Open (Cmd + O) and then navigated to where our
background image was stored. We have chosen a
snowy background image for our new composition.
Now we can add more elements on top.
®lf you wanted to, you can keep a browser
window open on your computer that
contains your images and, rather than going
through the open and find procedure, you can
simply bring the browser window to the front and
drag your next image on top on the base image.
®This means your dropped image will open
on its own layer, which will be named after
the title of the file. In this example, an image of a
knight now sits above your base image on a new
layer. Next, we need a little more background
interest to flesh out the scene.
©Using the same drag and drop technique,
we have added a set of standing stones
that sit quite nicely in the background. There is one
problem however, the stones now appear to be
covering our foreground character. This is when
layers become so useful.
Click and hold your mouse over the layer
containing the stones. You can actually drag
that layer so it sits underneath the layer containing
the knight. Now, the image makes more sense with
our knight in the foreground and the stones behind
him in the distance.
©Since each element is on a separate
layer, they can be edited and manipulated
independently of each other. For instance, the
stones would look better if they were the other way
around, so we flipped the layer horizontally for a
better looking composition.
®lf you go to the layer options palette, you
can click on the Create A New Layer button
and then add a layer between the stones and the
base image called ‘shadows’. Here you can use a
soft black brush to add some shadow to anchor
the stones to the ground more realistically.
©Since both the knight and the stones are
Smart Objects, when you are happy with
their final placement, orientation and size, you can
right-click on them, choose Rasterize Layer from
the menu and convert them to normal pixel images
in each of their layers.
©One final addition for this example was a
new layer named ‘mist’, which was placed
between the knight and the stones. This layer of
mist contains a white to transparent graduation and
then, to complete this dramatic composition, its
Opacity was dropped to about 55%.
www.pclpublications.com 133
UNLEASH THE POWER
YOUR FIRST CUT OUT
Your First
Cut Out
Learn how to cut out parts of one
image to use on another
f we are talking about key skills that
make Photoshop the most popular photo
editing program around, then we have to
talk about the ability to cut out parts of
one image and then use it as part of anther
image entirely. Cut outs are another staple of
image enhancement and manipulation that
are essential skills to have. It is lucky for us
that Photoshop has a number of tools at its
AFTER
fingertips that can help make the process
less of a chore. We are going to take two
images and then cut out part of one and use
it on the other. Yes, it’s a very simple tutorial,
but it’s also very useful. This is a skill you will
need to use a lot if you wish to create works
of art involving multiple image sources. It’s
not as daunting as you might imagine and we
can show you now.
134 www.pclpublications.com
YOUR FIRST CUT OUT UNLEASH THE POWER
bird flight.jpg
bird skies.jpg
bird flightjpg @ 50% (RGB/8#)
♦£♦ 0 90 100 110
fl 6
•—», 0
Lasso Tool к L
... 5^ Polygonal Lasso Tool L
0 L
a s
With Photoshop open, we have gone to
File > Open and then navigated to a folder
containing the two images we want to combine. It’s
a shot of an owl in flight along with a very moody
sky we want to use as a backdrop. Select both and
then click on Open to get started.
®We need to concentrate on the owl image
first since we want to remove it from its
background. This image has one immediate benefit
in that the bird’s outline is quite well defined against
the darker colours of the forest behind it; useful
stuff to know.
You could choose the Lasso tool (L) and
try to draw freehand around the outline
of the bird. This can be a time-consuming, tricky
and relatively inaccurate way to do it when there
are other tools available to you in Photoshop’s
selection arsenal.
(”/ Quick Selection Tool W
Magic Wand Tool 4V
Subject Select and Mask...
iample All Layers □ Auto-Enhance
I rd skiesjpg @ 50% (RGB/8#)
®ln this example, the Quick Selection tool
(W) may be a better option. Select it from
the toolbar and, in the tool options panel at the
top, make sure that Auto-Enhance is checked.
This means that it will refine any selection you
have made.
® Using a relatively small brush size, of about
9 pixels, start to click and drag the tool
across the body of the owl. Take care not to stray
outside the edges of the owl’s outline. The Quick
Selection tool will automatically start to make
selections as you go.
®Once you have the owl selected, you can
refine the selection still further using the
Select and Mask tool. Click on it and use the Refine
Edge Brush tool (R) to brush over any areas that
might be in need of some targeted refinement,
such as the feathers on its tail.
le Edit Image Layer Type Select Filte
Undo Select and Mask XZ
Redo oxz
Toggle Last State xxz anct
0% Fade... OXF
100 150
Cut XX
С°РУ ИИ xc
V Me^ed oxc
Paste XV
Paste Special ►
Clear
Normal v Opacity: 10
Lock: SJ / Ф ДAll: 10
® If you’re happy with the refinement, click
OK to proceed and return to the main
image. You can now go to Edit > Copy (Cmd + C)
to copy all the pixels inside the selection area you
have created. You can then click on the document
tab of the other image to open it.
®Now you can go to Edit > Paste (Cmd
+ V) and paste the cut out owl into this
document on its own layer, which is called ‘Layer
1 ’ by default. The owl can be moved, scaled and
rotated, if you wish, until you have it how you want
it against the clouds background.
All we did next was to use the Lasso tool
(L) to select the tips of the wings and the
talons. Then we went to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur
and added an Amount of about 3 to the Spin Blur
method. This added a small amount of blur to
suggest the bird's wings were in motion.
www.pclpublications.com 135
YOUR FIRST LAYER MASK
Your First
Layer Mask
An introduction to one of the key
ingredients of Photoshop work
Photoshop’s use of layers is one of the
most important aspects of what makes
it is so versatile and enables the user to
unleash their full creativity. Once you include
the ability to add masks to those layers, you
have yet another very powerful tool that lets
you blend or hide parts of one image on
a layer and control how they interact with
another. Masks are not only very useful in
hiding or revealing parts of an image, they
can also be used, in conjunction with an
adjustment layer, to provide the same
function of hiding or revealing parts of the
effect you’ve chosen. We are getting ahead
of ourselves however. Let’s take a look at
how you can use a simple mask to produce
a very cool effect. In this case, cover up part
of a base image and allow part of another
image to show through to transform the look
of the original.
136 www.pclpublications.com
YOUR FIRST LAYER MASK
4
0
(У Quick Selection Tool W
Magic Wand Tool k? W
®We have opened an example image of
the famous and iconic landmark, the
Matterhorn. Lovely image though it is, we want
to be able to replace the sky with something a
little more exciting and masking is a method that
allows us to do just that.
®We have another photo with a great sky
that should work well with our original
mountain image. We simply drag and drop the
sunset image onto the active document, which
then appears on its own layer. We then scale the
image so the sky fills most of the frame.
Making the new layer invisible for a
moment, we make the Background image
active by clicking its layer, then go over to the
toolbar and choose the Quick Selection Tool (W).
This tool allows for simple area selection based on
detecting contrasting edges.
©Because the outline of the mountain against
the featureless sky is very well defined,
the Quick Selection Tool can easily select the sky
alone. All you do is click the tool on an area of sky
and then slowly drag the cursor around the sky
area, selecting more sky as you go.
®Make the top layer visible and active again
and you will notice your active selection that
encloses the sky area (indicated by the black and
lines known as marching ants) is now overlaid. We
want to turn this area into a mask that hides the
area outside the selection.
©Keeping the selection active, go down to
the layer options palette and choose Add
Layer Mask. When you do, a mask will be added
to the top layer in the shape of the selection you
made. The area inside the selection is white, the
area outside the selection is black.
®Any white masked area allows that part of
the layer be seen, whilst any black part of
the mask hides that part of the layer. The result is
that only the interesting sky area of the top layer is
visible, while the featureless sky is hidden on the
layer below.
®To view the mask on its own, hold the Alt
key on your keyboard and left-click on
the mask itself. The Quick Selection Tool made
a decent job of discerning the edge between the
mountain and the featureless sky. Alt + left-click on
the mask to return to normal view.
©To move the sky in the top layer around,
but keep the mask in the correct position,
you can click on the small Chain link icon between
the layer thumbnail and the layer mask thumbnail.
This unlinks the image from the mask so either can
move without affecting the other.
www.pclpublications.com 137
UNLEASH THE POWER
YOUR FIRST SET OF ADJUSTMENTS
Your First Set
of Adjustments
This is another key aspect of
non-destructive editing
What do we mean when we say non-
destructive? Well, in simple terms,
if you open a photo shot as a jpeg file and
make all your edits and enhancements
directly to the image itself, you will find that
unless you save the results as another jpeg
file, the original will be lost to you. You have
effectively overwritten the original with your
edited version and there is now no way to
retrieve it. Unless you specifically wanted
to only use the edited version from then
on, that could be a very annoying outcome.
This is where Photoshop’s use of layers
and adjustment layers comes in very handy.
Something simple like a boost to brightness
and contrast need not be applied to the
image itself. You can use an adjustment
layer to affect the image, which means if
you remove the adjustment layer, the image
returns to its previous state. Not only that,
once you use layers, you can save your
work as a PSD and create a document with
everything you’ve used also preserved. You
can go back into it at any time and make
further adjustments knowing that the base
original has not been affected.
J
AFTER
138 www.pclpublications.com
YOUR FIRST SET OF ADJUSTMENTS
fx □
aragraph
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9 о____®
Solid Color-
Gradient...
Pattern...
Brightness/Contrast.
Levels...
Curves...
Exposure...
Vibrance...
Hue/Saturation...
Color Balance...
Let’s take a fairly typical example as
our first step into adjustment layers. We
have a photograph of a blonde lady taken on an
overcast day. The image is a bit underexposed
and lacking any real punch and colour. That’s ok,
we can use adjustment layers to help us.
The image can remain as a locked
Background layer. If you go to the Layer
Options panel, click on the Create New Fill or
Adjustment Layer button and choose Brightness/
Contrast from the list that appears. An adjustment
layer will now appear above your main image.
If the Properties panel does not
automatically appear, simply double-click
the adjustment layer thumbnail (not the mask) and
the properties panel will appear for that particular
adjustment; in this case, two sliders that control
Brightness and Contrast.
f* □ Q ®
©This image looks better after a +40 boost
to the Brightness along with a small -5
adjustment to the Contrast. The problem is that
the darkest areas still look too black with not much
visible detail. There is another adjustment that can
help out in this case.
® Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment
Layer again and choose Levels to add a
Levels 1 adjustment above Brightness/Contrast
1. Levels gives you more control, of any shadows,
midtones and highlights in the image, than
Brightness and Contrast alone can offer.
Click on the middle slider and move it to the
left, all the middle tones will get lighter. You
can also move the Black Point slider below slightly
to the right, to remap solid black to progressively
lighter tones. The darker areas should now show
more detail.
Preset: Custom
Master
Hue: +5
A
Saturation: +49
Lightness: +6
A
/ 4 £ C Colorize
Now we can address the colour in the
image. At the moment, all the colours look
a little subdued. We can boost the vibrancy of the
image with another adjustment layer. This time,
choose Hue/Saturation and add that to the top of
the growing layer stack.
®How much you decide to boost saturation
is purely down to personal taste. In this
case, the Hue has a +5 adjustment, Saturation is
+49 and Lightness +6. Because these adjustments
are all on layers, they can be modified or removed
at any time with no issue.
©You aren’t limited to standard adjustments
either. If you wish, you can experiment with
Things like Gradient Map. This uses two colours
initially, to replace the lightest and darkest tones
in the photo. In this case dark purple blends into
bright orange.
www.pclpublications.com 139
Photoshop
Creative Zone
As per the last issue, here is a section to get your
creative mind into gear. Examples like these are
the next step in your evolution as a digital artist
and master manipulator is to take on some new
projects and really let your digital creativity loose.
Contents
142 Create a neon sign
148 Double exposure effect
156 Collodion portraits
162 Cartoonize your photos
140 www.pdpublications.com
: 'W.
www.pclpubj^tions.com 141
PS PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE I CREATE A NEON SIGN
Create
a Neon
Sign
Transform plain text into
eye-catching lights
Nothing is quite as eye-catching as a neon sign. If you've ever been
around a metropolitan area after dark, you have no doubt been
bombarded with any number of high visibility signs in a host of gaudy
colours selling their wares. Although LED signs and even large digital
displays are now very commonplace, there is something about a glass
tube filled with gas, stimulated by an electrical current that can still
command your attention. That effect certainly carries over onto the web
AFTER
BEFORE
and in graphic
design in
different forms.
Whether you want a
realistic neon sign or more of a graphic
representation, we have a fun guide that can show you
the basics of getting a good neon glow on the go.
142 www.pdpublications.com
CREATE A NEON SIGN
> File Edit Image Layer
I Beon v Med
&25%F,lter: Allclasses v CO ★
4o
ф Coffee House
ф Zekton
£ > Skia
ф > Kozuka Gothic Pr6N
^y Gear Choco cooky
^y Bellerose
^y hemigraphy
ф > Trajan Pro 3
ф > Kozuka Gothic Pro
®Our example image is perfect for our neon effect. For your information,
we are working in Essentials workspace. The image is 5000 pixels
square. All the settings we are going to use are based on this image size. If
you're using a different size image, you may need to alter yours accordingly.
®We start by going to the toolbar and selecting the Horizontal Type Tool
(T). Up in the Tool Options panel, you can select a typeface you think
is suitable for being converted into neon. We are using a font called Beon,
which is styled to look a bit like neon signage.
©If you click the text colour swatch on the right of the Tool Options,
you can use the Color Picker (Text Color) to select a base colour for
your text. We have gone for a bright blue, which should stand out against the
darker brickwork. Click OK when you have a colour you like.
©Now you can simply click on your document and Photoshop
automatically places some default text on a new layer for you. Select
the text and type the word NEON, or whatever text you want the sign to read.
If you press Cmd + T, you can scale the text to whatever size you want.
Layer Style
Bevel & Emboss
Structure
Style: Pillow Emboss ~
Technique: Smooth ~
Depth: Д 250 %
Direction: О Up ( Down
Size: д 90 px
Soften: 15 px
El
Shading
®Now we have to create our neon effect. With the text layer active,
if you double-click it, you can call up the Layer Style menu. We will
use this exclusively to make the neon effect. Start by checking the Bevel &
Emboss box; now for some layer style magic.
®We need to add some basic structure to the text. Under the Structure
panel, choose Style: Pillow Emboss, Technique: Smooth, Depth
250%. Direction is Up, Size is 90 pixels and Soften is 15 pixels. The small
preview on the right shows you've added some basic glow to the text.
www.pclpublications.com 143
PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE
CREATE A NEON SIGN
Shading
Angle: - о •
□ Use Global I
Altitude: 0 •
Gloss Contour: v Antl-alia
Shading
Angle: 0
□ Use Global Light
Altitude: _ 0 •
Gloss Contour v Antl-aHased
Styles
Blending Options
Q Bevel & Emboss
Q Contour
Texture
Contour
Elements
Antl-allased
Highlight Mode: Overlay
Opacity:
Shadow Mode: Overlay
Opacity: д
Make Default Reset to Defai
Styles
Blending Options
Q Bevel & Emboss
□ Contour
Texture
Contour
Elements
Contour: v Antl-allased
Range д 100
® Below Structure is the Shading panel. Make the Angle and Altitude 0°,
Gloss Contour is Cove - Deep, selected by clicking the small arrow to
the right of the current contour shown. Highlight Mode should be Overlay white
with 100% Opacity and Shadow Mode should be 0% Opacity.
©Next, click on the Contour button out in the Styles list to activate it.
Under Elements, make the Contour Cove - Deep again and set its
Range to 100%. The effect is subtle, but it makes the lettering more rounded
and three-dimensional.
Layer Style
s
s
Stroke
Structure
Size: д 35| px
Position: Center ~
Blend Mode: Screen ~
Opacity: д 100 %
□ Overprint
Fill Type: Color
©Back in the Style listing on the left of the panel, check the Stroke
button. This is probably the main one to really get this effect working.
Under Stroke > Structure, make the Size 53 pixels, Position is Centre, Blend
Mode is Screen and Opacity is 100%. Check the Overprint box.
®Fill Type is more involved, click on the Gradient to open the Gradient
Editor. The Gradient Type colours need editing. Note that above the
Gradient Preview you have what are called Opacity Stops and below it are
Color Stops. Click the left-hand Opacity Stop and make its Opacity 0%
1—НГЯ----J/ » J
Z^B^BB^FF
Cancel
Import...
Name: Custom
New
Gradient Type: Solid *
Smoothness: 100 * %
□
Stops
©Click the far-right Color Stop and under Color use the Color Picker
to make the right-hand colour a bright blue, like your text. Then click
midway along the gradient preview twice to add two more Color Stops. They
will use whatever is currently set as your foreground colour.
®ln our case, the two new middle Color Stops are our blue text colour.
Click each Color Stop and change it to a much darker blue using the
Color Picker again. Now, you need to add two Opacity Stops directly above
each of the two new Color Stops you've just added.
144 www.pclpublications.com
CREATE A NEON SIGN
Name: Custom New
Gradient Type: Solid *
Smoothness: 100 * %
□ Bevel & Emboss
□ Contour
Texture
D Stroke [+]
l Inner Shadow [+]
Inner Glow
Satin
Color Overlay [+]
I Gradient Overlay [+]
Pattern Overlay
Outer Glow
Drop Shadow [+]
Position: Center v
Biend Mode: Screen
Opacity: д 100
□ Overprint
Fill Type: Gradient ~
Angle
Scale
-/ Linear
Radial
Angle gradient
Reflected
Diamond
Shape Burst к
—
Make Detaun
Reset t<
®Make the Opacity of the middle left stop 0% and the Opacity of the
middle right stop 100%. The Gradient Type preview should now
run from transparent, quickly fade up to 100% of the darker blue and then
smoothly fade into the lighter blue on the far right of the preview.
©Click on the Style button and change the style to Shape Burst. You should
now have what looks more recognisable as a neon glow effect. Keep
the Layer Style panel open as we have one more tweak to finish the effect. Now
check the Outer Glow button in the Styles list on the left of the panel.
Sain
Color Overlay
Gradient Overlay
Pattern Overlay
Q Outer Glow
Drop Shadow
©Under Structure make the Blend Mode: Overlay, Opacity is 100% and
Noise is 0%. Make the Glow Colour the light blue used for your text.
Keep the Gradient button unchecked. Under Elements make the Technique:
Softer, Spread 4% and Size 250 pixels. Quality can be left as is.
©You should now have an effect that turns your text into a reasonable
facsimile of a neon tube. You may find that thinner fonts may work
better than wide, heavy fonts, but you are free to use whatever you think suits
your project.
©If you look at your layer palette, you should see that your neon text
layer now has the effects and styles you've just created added to it as
a small list. You can double-click these any time to go back in and alter the
values if you feel they are in need of tweaking.
®lf it isn't already, click the neon text layer to make it active and press
Cmd + J to duplicate it. You can scale this copy and edit the text to
type a new word. We have simply typed 'effect' and placed the smaller text
below the main neon sign. We have a few final additions to finish it off.
www.pclpublications.com 145
PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE
CREATE A NEON SIGN
о Outer Glow
О T NEON
o Effects
О Be*ei & Emboss
О Stroke
О Outer Glow
fr. О
A / w • v Mode: Norn
” * 1200 “
x neon.psd @> 25% (effect, RCB/8) •
40 60 80 100 120
2
p. ?
£Z »
ф °
/ • / Brush Tool К В
у Pencil Tool В
“ Color Replacement Tool В
eZ. Mlxer Bnjsh To°* B
<f.
®Go to the Layer options panel and choose Create A New Layer. Name
this new layer 'glow' and make sure it sits above your background
image but below your two text layers. Go to the toolbar, select the Brush Tool
(B), and choose a large, soft brush of about 1200 pixels.
©Make sure your foreground colour is the same light blue you've been
using and paint a stroke that covers the large main lettering. Then
reduce the brush size by pressing the minus (-) key to about 500 pixels and
paint another stroke to cover the smaller lettering.
®Now set the 'glow' layer Blend Mode to Overlay and the blue brush
strokes are blended into the brickwork, adding to the glow effect
we've made so far. It also adds more bluish light to the man's face, but we
want to limit the glow to just the left side of his face.
®Keep the 'glow' layer active and click the Add Layer Mask button.
Click the layer mask to make sure it is active and then use a black
brush of about 250 pixels and paint on the mask. Brush along the right side
of his face to remove the bright blue cast.
Layer Style
Bevel & Emboss
Structure
Style: inner Bevel ~
Technique: Smooth
Depth. Д 90
Direction: О Up Down
Size: д 20
Soften: Д 15
Shading
Angle: - go
Use Global Light
Altitude: - 30
®The next step is optional, but it helps to finish off the effect. Add a
new layer called 'wires' and make sure it sits between the background
layer and the 'glow' layer. Double-click this layer to activate the Layer Styles
panel again and check the Bevel & Emboss button.
©Under Structure, make Style: Inner Bevel, Technique: Smooth and
Depth 90 pixels. Direction is Up, Size is 20 pixels and Soften is 15
pixels. Under Shading, the Angle is 90° and Altitude is 30°. Highlight Mode is
Normal White at 100% Opacity. Shadow Mode is 0% Opacity.
146 www.pclpublications.com
CREATE A NEON SIGN
Layer Style
Drop Shadow
Structure
Blend Mode:
Multiply
Opacity:
85 %
Angle:
Q Use Global Light
Distance: д
Spread:
px
15
Size:
25
px
Quality
0
%
Now check the Drop Shadow button in the Styles list and under
Structure, make the Blend Mode Multiply and the Colour black.
Opacity can be about 85% and Angle is 54°. Distance is 0 pixels, Spread
15% and Size is 25 pixels. Quality can be left at its defaults.
Now click your foreground colour swatch and choose a dark grey
from the Color Picker. Go to the toolbar and choose the Brush Tool
(B) and select a Hard Round brush of about 20 pixels. We are going to use this
colour brush to add some wires that snake between the lettering.
PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE
DOUBLE EXPOSURE EFFECT
AFTER
BEFORE
classic technique
Double or multiple exposure photography is another reference to the
more traditional methods of image capture where a photographer
would expose one frame of film more than once to achieve a surreal look
in the final image. A downside to this method was that you could never
be certain of what effect you were actually achieving until the negative
was developed and a print was made in the darkroom. An alternative
method was to stack two negatives in the enlarger at the printing stage.
These
course, we can
explore the creative
aspects of combining multiple images on
our computers with effects that can be edited and adapted
precisely to suit our needs. For our example, we are going to combine a
graphic image of a woman and a city street.
148 www.pclpublications.com
DOUBLE EXPOSURE EFFECT
PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE
double ex l.png
double ex l.psd
double ex 2.pnc
lO.pil
fog-1850228.jp<
oca-ou4jxuo.jpg
Э1 IULICI
g
55672.jpg
sky-1283446.jpg
thunderstorm-35
42148.jpg
®For this tutorial example, we are going to need base images to blend
together. Go to Ale > Open (Cmd + O) and navigate to the folder that
contains your own images. We have a profile shot of a woman and a sunlit
street scene. We selected both and pressed Open to continue.
©These example images have been chosen because they have specific
properties that work well for a double exposure effect. The street photo,
in particular, is a staple of this technique. The two rows of buildings with the
gap down the middle will be quite effective. Read on to see how it works.
®Our example image of the woman is 3333 pixels wide by 5000 pixels high.
Any settings and brush sizes used are based on an image of this size. If
you are working with different sized images, then you may find that you need to
alter your settings and sizes to match the mage size.
©This figure has a grey background. For the double exposure technique
to look its best, the figure needs cutting out so it is on a plain white
background. Luckily, of course, Photoshop comes armed with several tools to
help us achieve this.
www.pclpublications.com 149
PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE
DOUBLE EXPOSURE EFFECT
Type Select Filter 3D View Window
Sample All Laye rs Q Auto-Enhance Select Subject S
(RGB/8#) •
350 300 250 2,00 150 100 50
itoshop File Edit Image Layer Type Select
- ( V • У ® v Л 0° $ ure.n Size: 20 px 0 л Hardness: 100% A iample All Layers (RGB/8#) • 350 300
Filter 3D View Window Help
Auto-Enhance Select Subject Select and Mask...
250 200 150 100 50 0 50
®Go to the toolbar on the left of your screen and choose the Quick Selection
Tool (W). With the Quick Selection Tool active, the Tool Options panel
above displays options for altering its parameters. Choose a brush of about 20
pixels in size and check the Add To Selection and Auto Enhance buttons.
©As a side note, you can see that the Tool Options panel also has a button
called Select Subject. This is an automated version of what we are about
to do next. We are doing it manually as we would always recommend that you
give yourself the chance to get more 'hands-on' with Photoshop's tools.
®The tool works by detecting contrasting edges in your image. The more
contrast your subject has against its background, the easier the tool will
find it to detect them. Start by clicking and holding the Quick Selection Tool brush
on the tip of her ponytail.
®Now start to drag the brush tip up slowly along her hair. The tool begins
selecting areas it thinks are similar. Keep the brush within the confines
of the figure's outline. Don't worry if the selection is not super-accurate. This
can be improved later on in the process.
150 www.pclpublications.com
DOUBLE EXPOSURE EFFECT
hop File Edit Image Layer t
pg@25%(RCI
600 5,50 500 450 400
©Continue to work your way around the figure. If the selection starts
outside the outline of the figure, don't worry, you can simply go to the
Tool Options panel above and click on the Subtract Selection button or hold
the Alt key. You can now remove any overspill.
©Click the Quick Selection Tool on an area you want to remove and start
to drag the tool over the overspill areas slowly. As an example, the small
area between her hands and her arm needs removing. Click on it, and the tool
removes that area from the active selection.
ct Subject Select and Mask...
Create or refine a selection
100 50 0 50 100 150 200 250
A 0 • - °’
x figure.jpg @25% (RGB/8) x streeLjpg @ 33-3
// 700 650 600 550 500 450
5
lO °
О Once you have the figure selected, click on the Select and Mask button.
This opens the various tools you can use to refine the edges of the active
selection. Make sure you have the Refine Edge Tool (R) selected and choose a
small brush of about 50 pixels.
®Use this Refine Edge Tool to brush over any areas that need refining.
The edges of the hair are the most obvious. The more you brush over
those areas, the better the refinement of those edges becomes. You can
usually keep the brush properties at their defaults for this.
www.pclpublications.com 151
PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE
DOUBLE EXPOSURE EFFECT
®Once you have refined the selection to your satisfaction, you can simply
click OK and return to your main document. The selection is now much
more accurate and we can use it to remove that intrusive grey background
before we move on.
®Make sure the selection is active, go to the Layer options panel and
then click on the Add A Mask button. A mask is added to the image,
which is now on a layer. Any area outside the selection is coloured black, which
effectively conceals the grey background.
®Next, we need to make a new layer. Go to the Layer options panel again
and click the Create A New Layer button. Name this new layer 'base' and
then click and drag it, so it sits beneath the layer containing the masked figure.
You might as well name that layer 'figure' for the sake of good housekeeping.
®Keep the 'base' layer active and go to Edit > Fill (Shift + F5), choose
White as your fill colour and click OK. The 'base' layer is filled with
white, so our figure now sits atop a nice plain background. Next, click the
'figure' layer to make it active.
ofduieru...
Pattern...
Brightness/Contrast...
Levels.,
Curves... *
Exposure...
©Go back down to the Layer options panel and click the Create New Fill Or
Adjustment Layer button. Choose Levels from the menu that appears. A
new 'Levels 1' adjustment layer is created above the 'figure' layer. We are going
to use this adjustment to add a little more contrast to the image.
®ln the Properties panel for the levels adjustment, you can drag the
highlights slider towards the middle of the histogram to increase the
contrast. Then go back to the Layer options panel and click the Create New Fill
Or Adjustment Layer button again and choose Black & White from the menu.
152 www.pclpublications.com
DOUBLE EXPOSURE EFFECT
PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE
®A 'Black & White 11 adjustment layer is added to the top of the
layer stack, converting the image to monochrome. If you want, you
can move the various colour sliders or click on one of the Presets to affect
changes to the contrast and grey tones in the image.
®At this point, we have our figure removed from its background, converted
to black and white and the contrast increased, ready for the next stage of
the technique. This is where the second image we opened comes into play for the
double exposure effect.
©Click on the document tab of the other image to view it. Press Cmd + A to
select the entire image. Press Cmd + C to copy all the pixels to the clipboard
and then return to your other active document. Press Cmd + V to paste the image
into your document. Make sure it is at the top of the stack and name it 'street'.
®Keep the 'street' layer active and change the Blend Mode of this layer
to Screen. You'll see how the image changes. The darker areas of the
street image only appear when it is in combination with any dark areas of the
'figure' layer below it. This is the key to a double exposure effect.
®Any bright areas of the 'street' layer now appear to punch a hole in
the image of the figure below it. You can now press Cmd + T to scale,
rotate and move the image of the street until you get a combination of the
two images that looks good to you.
©After a bit of trial and error, we have arrived at a good composition. At
this point, the edges of the street image are quite visible, particularly
across her shoulder and arms. That is easy to remedy, but first, we need to
convert this image to black and white too.
www.pclpublications.com 153
PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE
DOUBLE EXPOSURE EFFECT
®Add a new 'Black & White 2' adjustment layer above the 'street' layer.
We want to make sure that this adjustment only affects the 'street' layer,
so right-click it and choose Create Clipping Mask from the menu that appears.
A small arrow, pointing down at the 'street' layer, tells you it is clipped.
®ln many cases, a double exposure effect like this is done primarily in
black and white, but what happens if you wanted to bring some colour
back into it? That is quite easy to do. Make sure your foreground colour is set
as black and then pick a large, soft brush of about 1500 pixels.
v Opacity: 100% ~
aet
®The 'Black & White 2' layer has a mask that you can click on to make it
active and then use your large, black brush to paint on that mask. Each
dab of black hides that part of the black and white adjustment you applied.
Colour starts to reappear with each stroke.
®We just revealed a small amount of the yellow sunlit area of the street image to
add some warmth to it. Make the 'street' layer active and click the Add Layer
Mask button. This adds a mask to the street image so you can use a large, soft, black
brush on this mask to conceal any of the unwanted edges of the street.
® We've used the black brush on the 'street' layer mask to blend out the
edges of the street image along the left edge of the figure's ponytail.
We've also masked the area around their face so it can now be seen. Finally,
we masked the cobbled area so it blends into her shoulder and arm.
®ln the same way we allowed colour back into the image of the street,
we can do the same with the image of the girl, if you want. Click on
the 'Black & White 1' adjustment layer to make it active and use the large,
black brush to conceal its effect in certain areas.
154 www.pclpublications.com
DOUBLE EXPOSURE EFFECT
eAs you brush on the 'Black& White 1' layer mask, its effect is concealed
and the original colour of the figure is revealed again. We brought her
face back to its original colour along with her shoulder and hands. This part of
the process is purely optional, as is revealing colour in the street image too.
®With those tweaks in place, the double exposure effect is complete. These
kinds of images are often used as movie posters and can sometimes
convey a sense of a memory revisited. In this case, perhaps our main character is
remembering a happy time spent walking down a sunlit street as a child.
PS PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE I COLLODION PORTRAITS
k.
AFTER
Collodion
Portraits
Mimic an old wet plate photographic
process for unique portraits
When photography was in its infancy, the method by
which images were captured was complex, time-
consuming and involved a lot of brittle materials and harsh
equipment and process using
the old wet plate techniques. Some use
a digital approach using Photoshop. Safe to say this is only
BEFORE
chemicals. That said, some early wet plate images are
amazing to behold even now. So great is the lasting impact
of these early photographs that photographers today actively
seek out ways to replicate the look. Some actually use the old
an approximation of the result you would get if you did it
for real but since not everyone has access to old bellows
cameras, darkrooms, plates and chemicals, here is our
version of the classic effect given a Photoshop twist.
156 www.pclpublications.com
COLLODION PORTRAITS
©Let’s start off with a suitable head and shoulders portrait as typified
by so many classic portraits done in this style. This example is
a portrait of Courtney. It is 2667 pixels wide by 4000 pixels deep. The
settings are based on an image this size.
®The first step is to sharpen the image. Up in the File menu, go to Filter
> Sharpen > Smart Sharpen and set your Amount to about 200 per
cent, Radius to 1 px and click OK when you are ready to proceed. Try to avoid
too much over sharpening.
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1 Convert for Smart Filters
Filter Gallery...
Adaptive Wide Angle- XOXA a_« ..я —.st
Camera Raw Finer... OXA
Lens Correction... OXR
Liquify... OXX
Vanishing Point... XXV
30
Blur ► Average
Blur Gallery Blur
Distort Blur More
Noise Box Blur...
Pixelate Gaussian Blur...
Render
Sharpen Motion Blur../*
Stylize Radial Blur...
Video Shape Blur...
Other Smart Blur-
Surface Blur...
Nik Collection
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jstments Character
’roperties
©Press Cmd + J to create a duplicate layer of this image and name it
‘blur’. With the new layer active, go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur and
make your Radius 60 and Noise 2. Lens Blur is a more photographic-looking
blur method. Click OK and the blur will be applied.
With the ‘blur’ layer active, Click on the Add Layer Mask button at the
bottom of the layers palette. A layer mask will be added to the blurred
portrait. We now want to combine both the blurred and sharp layers to create
a suitable blend of the two to make the effect work.
www.pclpublications.com 157
PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE
COLLODION PORTRAITS
®Wet plate photographs are characterised by their very shallow depth
of field from the wide aperture the cameras typically used. Normally,
just the eyes and some of the facial features are the only things in sharp
focus. This is what we are trying to emulate.
©Once you’re happy with that, go to your toolbar and select the Brush
Tool. Make sure your foreground colour is set as black. You can press
D to default the colours to black and white and press X to toggle which is the
foreground colour.
Photoshop CC F
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©Click the ‘blur’ layer mask thumbnail to make it active and use a large,
soft, black brush with its Opacity set at 50 per cent and begin painting
in the eyes, nose and mouth of Courtney’s face. Make sure it is the mask and
not the actual layer thumbnail you make active.
©With each click of the brush, you will see more and more of the
sharp layer below starting to show through. When you are done,
you should have a shallow depth of field effect with just the eyes and the
face in focus.
bo ptxets/lnch
Adjustment* Character
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Solid Color.
Gradient...
Pattern...
Brightness/Contrast...
Levels...
Curves...
Exposure...
Vibrance...
Hue/Saturation.
Color Balance-
Black & White...
Photo Filter...
Color Lookup...
Channel Mixer..
Invert
Posterize...
Threshold...
Gradient Map...
Selective Color.
®You can make the top ‘blur’ image softer by putting an elliptical
marquee (M) around the face, inverting the selection (Shift + Cmd
+ I), feathering the selection by about 200 pixels and then using Gaussian
Blur with a Radius of about 20-30 pixels.
®Next, click on the Adjustment Layer button and select Channel Mixer
from the dropdown menu. Make sure the new Adjustment Layer is at
the top of your layer stack. Click on it to make it active if it isn’t already. We
will make some key colour adjustments.
158 www.pclpublications.com
COLLODION PORTRAITS
О From the Channel Mixer Properties panel, make sure the Monochrome
button is checked. Now you need to adjust the Red, Green and Blue
sliders to alter the balance of monochrome tones in the image and give it a
more authentic wet plate look.
®This kind of portrait requires that the RGB sliders are adjusted in such
a way to bring out texture in the skin. This image requires the sliders
be set at Red -24 per cent, Green -42 per cent, Blue +166 per cent and
Constant at +4 per cent.
®Add a Levels Adjustment layer and adjust the Output Levels of Black
to 10 and keep White at 255 to reduce overall contrast slightly, and
brighten the darkest parts of the image by a small amount. Mid-tone and
Highlight sliders can be tweaked too.
©Now you can add a Photo Filter Adjustment Layer. Make the filter
colour Warming (85) or Sepia. Make the Density about 30 per cent
and make sure the Preserve Luminosity button is checked. This gives the
image quite an antique feel.
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Place Linked...
Automate
Scripts
import ►
File info... XOXI
Print.. XP
®At the moment the image looks too new and not authentically old. We
need to add some effects to give it a distressed feel. The old wet plate
process also had an inherent amount of dust and scratches involved, which
we can add next.
®For this example, we went to File > Open (Cmd + O) and browsed
for the location of a couple of images that can add the authentic
distressed look. There are two examples called ‘scratches’ and ‘streaks’
created using an old but free version of Nik Collection.
www.pclpublications.com 159
COLLODION PORTRAITS
330 340 350 360
3D Channels Paths
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©We start with the ‘scratches’ image. Press Cmd + A to select the
image and then press Cmd + C to copy it to your clipboard. Click
back on your document and press Cmd + V to paste it on a new layer
which you can call 'scratches’.
With the new ‘scratches’ layer active, go to the Blend Mode button
and set this layer’s blend to Multiply. The 'scratches’ layer will now
blend into the layers below giving a much more authentic, analog and aged
feel to the image.
®Go to the 'streaks’ image and copy and paste this one into your
wet plate portrait document. This time, set the 'streaks' layer Blend
Mode to Darken to add more imperfections to the image and enhance the
wet plate look.
®We are close to finishing the image now. Make the Opacity of both
the ‘scratches' and 'streaks’ layers about 55 per cent. This will ensure
they don’t dominate the image too much but add to the overall effect of an
old style wet plate image.
160 www.pclpublications.com
COLLODION PORTRAITS
A classic look achieved with digital techniques.
If you feel it needs it, you can add another Levels Adjustment to
brighten the image. There is your final image. A classic photographic
process has been given a modem digital update.
Create eye-catching
portraits
CARTOONIZE YOUR PHOTOS
BEFORE
Turn a photo into a panel from a
cartoon or graphic novel
It’s a popular trend at the moment to be able to turn a
picture of yourself, a friend, or loved one into a cartoon
that you can use as an avatar on social media sites
etc. There are plenty of tutorials out there that cover
all aspects of the process, however, some can be very
involved and require digital painting and illustration
skills in both Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. There are
also a varied number of methods to
achieve a cartoon style. We have a
tutorial that can cartoonize a portrait,
producing a result that has a graphic
novel feel to it, without the need for
a lot of illustrative technique. Here’s
how to do it.
162 www.pclpublications.com
4'0 2 й
CARTOONIZE YOUR PHOTOS
PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE
®We have chosen an example portrait of a very fierce-looking tiger in a
snowy environment. The lighting in this shot is sufficiently bright and
simple with plenty of contrast and texture and therefore should convert well
into our comic book style.
®Our example image for this tutorial is 2667 pixels wide by 4000 pixels
deep and our settings to achieve the cartoon effect are based on this
image size. Be aware, if you’re using a different size image, your settings will
need to account for this.
Filter 3D View Window Hi
Last Filter
>w Convert for Smart Filters
Alter Gallery...
Adaptive Wide Angrw...X
Camera Raw Filter...
Lens Correction...
Liquify...
Vanishing Point...
3D
Blur
Blur Gallery
Distort
Noise
®This technique is quite straightforward and only requires a couple of
new layers. Start by pressing Cmd + J to duplicate the background
layer and create a new version that sits above the original background. Call
this new layer ‘outline’.
©Make sure that the ‘outline’ layer is currently active then go to the
File menu and choose Filter > Alter Gallery. You are looking for the
Artistic section in the right hand panel and in this subfolder is an effect
called Poster Edges.
File Edit Image Layer Type Select Filter 3D View Window Help
Mode ►
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550 500
► Brightness/Contrast...
Auto Tone OttL
Auto Contrast XO38L
Auto Color
Image Size... X38I
Canvas Size... xxc
Image Rotation ►
Crop
Trim...
Reveal All
Duplicate...
Apply Image-
Calculations...
Variables ►
Levels...
Curves...
Exposure...
Vibrance...
Hue/Saturation...
Color Balance...
Black & White...
Photo Filter...
Channel Mixer...
Color Lookup...
Invert
Posterize...
Threshold... к
Gradient Мар..Л*
Selective Color...
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XL
® Click on the Poster Edges icon and set Edge Thickness to 10, Edge
Intensity to 4 and Posterization to 0. The image will update in real
time to show you how it looks with those settings, it will now also have black
outlines. Click OK when ready.
®Now we have to turn it into a more simplistic black outline image. To
do this, go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold. The image will be
converted into a bitmap comprised purely of black or white. Now it is starting
to look much more graphic.
www.pclpublications.com 163
CARTOONIZE YOUR PHOTOS
Cancel
□ Preview
©Push the Threshold Level slider to the left. As you do, more and more
of the image will be removed as it brightens to white, we opted for
a Threshold Level setting of 56. Now our portrait is looking more like an ink
outline drawing.
®lf you wish, you can take a small white brush and paint out any area
of black detail that you feel is too intrusive on your image. We painted
out the background and some areas on the tiger’s chest and head to further
simplify it.
lect Filter 3D View Window Help
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Convert for Smart Filters
Filter Gallery...
Adaptive Wide Angle... XO3€A
Camera Raw Filter... O8€A
Lens Correction...
Liquify...
Vanishing Point... X9€V
3D ►
Blur ►
Blur Gallery ►
Distort ►
Noise ►
Pixelate ►
Render ►
Sharpen ►
Stylize ►
Video ►
Other ►
Nik Collection ►
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Diffuse...
Emboss...
Extrude...
Find Edges
Oil Paint...
Solarize
Tiles...
Trace Contour...
®At this stage of the process, you may notice that the outline of the
subject is a little ragged from the bitmap conversion, that’s not a
problem, we can smooth it out by going to the File menu and choosing Filter
> Stylize > Oil Paint.
©Settings are based on personal taste, but we settled with Stylization
10.0 and Cleanliness 4.0 while Shine needs to be 0.0. Scale and
Bristle Detail are both 10.0. As a result, the outlines are smoother, like brush
or pen strokes. When you’re happy, click OK to apply the effect.
164 www.pclpublications.com
CARTOONIZE YOUR PHOTOS
Cancel
Poster Edges
Edge Thickness 0
b—
Edge Intensity 0
b
Posterization 0
О Click back on the Background layer and press Cmd + J again, to
create another duplicate that sits below the ‘outline’ layer then call this
layer ‘colour’. For the moment, you can turn off the ‘outline’ layer’s visibility so
we can work on the layer below.
®Make sure that the ‘colour’ layer is active then go to the Я1е menu and
choose Filter > Filter Gallery once more before choosing the Poster
Edges effect again. This time set Edge Thickness to 0, Edge Intensity to 0
and Posterization to 0.
Image Layer Type Select Filter 3D View
Mode ►
Adjustments ► Brightness/Contra;
Levels...
(c Auto Tone Curves...
Auto Contrast Exposure...
Auto Color O3€B
Vibrance...
Image Size... X3€l Hue/Saturation...
Canvas Size... _____
®Now, the copy of the image on the ‘colour’ layer has had the number
of colours that are used in the photo reduced to give a more toonish
quality. We can enhance that still further in the next step. Click OK to apply
the Poster Edges effect.
©Next, go to Image > Adjustments > Levels (Cmd + L) and pull the
Shadows Output Levels slider slightly to the right to reduce the
contrast and lighten the image a little. Click OK to continue when you are
happy with the adjustments.
www.pclpublications.com 165
PHOTOSHOP CREATIVE ZONE
CARTOONIZE YOUR PHOTOS
t Image Layer Type Select Filter 3D View Window Help
Mode ►
Adjustments ► Brightness/Contrast... Levels... 3€L
Auto Tone Auto Contrast Auto Color Image Size... Canvas Size... O3€L XO3€L O3SB Curves... Exposure... Vibrance... 3€M
1 Hue/Saturation...
X3€C Color Balance... 9€B
Image Rotation Crop Trim... ► Black & White... Photo Filter...
®Next, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Cmd +U) and
push the Saturation slider right, to about +49 this will add a lot of
vibrancy to the image while making the colours purer and brighter. Click OK
to apply the saturation.
®Now we need to soften the colour image a little. Go to Filter > Stylize
> Oil Paint and this time make the Stylization, Cleanliness, Scale and
Bristle Detail all 10.0 and set Shine at 0.0. This creates a brushed feel to the
image while remaining quite graphic. Click OK when ready.
Layers
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©Back in the layers palette, turn on the visibility of your ‘outline’ layer
and then set its blend Mode to Multiply. When you do, the black
outline blends with the colour image below, the white areas disappear and
your cartoon character appears.
®The next step is purely optional, but if you want to you can adjust
the brightness and contrast of the image a lot more to enhance the
cartoon feel. Click on the Create New Adjustment Layer button and choose
Levels from the menu.
166 www.pclpublications.com
CARTOONIZE YOUR PHOTOS
®A new adjustment layer called ‘Levels 1 ’ will be added, make sure it
is at the top of the layer stack. If you pull the Shadows and Highlights
sliders towards the centre of the histogram, you will add contrast and a little
more punch to the image.
©After just a few simple steps, your cartoon image is completed. Your
photo has been transformed and you now have a character that is
ready to take its place in a graphic novel, cartoon strip, or just as a simple
toon avatar.
Cartoon capers in
Photoshop
A great idea for graphic portraits and toon characters.
Lr LrC
Exploring
Lightroom
We continue with our section covering more
about digital image processing using Lightroom.
When it comes to the processing of digital images
from your DSLR, Lightroom is unparalleled in term
of the tools available to you to get the very best
out of your images. Let’s kick of with what’s new
in Lightroom.
Contents
170 Colorgrading 175 Radial gradient
170 Customize metadata 176 Color range
171 Additional library filters / New Presets 176 Luminance range
172 Masking 177 Depth range
173 Select subject (simple) 177 Intersect
173 Select subject (complex) 178 Exploring the workspace
174 Select sky/Brush 180 Importing photos for the first time
175 Linear gradient 182 Fix photos with quick develop
168 www.pclpublications.com
EXPLORING LIGHTROOM L Г
www.pclpublications.com 169
EXPLORING LIGHTROOM WHAT’S N EW?
2 ) Customize Metadata
: Metadata ▼
ЙКН None
file Name ckttsNEF
FoW SuperMac 27
Title
Caption
Copyright
Creator
Rating............
Capture Date 23 Sep 2018 5?
Omwrewns 7360x4912
Megaoixeli 36.2 MP
Camera Nikon D810 #6040721
Camera ♦ Lens Nikon D810 ♦ TAM...8 Di VC USD A012N
Customize- '
________________________________L____________________
Color Grading is one of the adjustment tools found in the
Develop Module. It is a graphical user interface replacement
of the Split Toning panel. It works in the same way by
letting you adjust the hue and saturation in the highlights
or shadows of your image, but the methods by which you
interact with it have been updated. Rather than using a series
of sliders for highlights and shadows, you now click and
drag your cursor over a series of colour wheels. Now you are
able to alter not only highlights and shadows, but also the
mid-tones too. You just choose the corresponding colour
wheel and drag your cursor over it. As you do, the colour
selected will be injected into the image, creating a colour
cast. Dragging the cursor towards the centre of the wheel
decreases saturation, closer to the edge and the saturation
increases. The slider below each wheel lets you control its
luminance and the Blending and Balance sliders also control
how dominant that colour is in relation to the others. When
you click on the colour wheel, if you hold the Shift key, you
can constrain the choice to Saturation only, if you click on the
wheel and then hold the Cmd key, you can constrain it to Hue
selection only.
> Q Basic Info
▼ □ Camera Info
Q Megapixels
a Dimensions
П Cropped
Make
П Model
a Camera
Q Camera ♦ Lens
Г Camera ♦ Lens Setting
Serial Number
Exposure
Q Exposure Time
Q Shutter Speed
О F-Stop
a Aperture
Q Max Aperture
In photography, metadata is a piece of information that is
generated by your camera and is appended to your image
file. The data this information contains tells you everything
you need to know about that image. It tells you when it was
shot, what camera took the image and what lens was used.
Important technical aspects such as ISO sensitivity, shutter
speed, aperture and lens focal length are included. It goes
far beyond that too. It can contain keywords, copyright
information and even GPS co-ordinates if your device is
suitably equipped. Until recently, when you processed your
images and saved them as other formats such as Jpeg or
Tiff, you had just a few choices as to what aspects of the full
range of original metadata could be saved to your resulting
photo. Now, however, you can click on the Customise button
for a single image or a whole batch and decide for yourself
precisely what metadata is allowed to been seen and what
is not. There are a lot of tick boxes to choose, but you can
tailor it exactly to how you want it. As an example here,
we've simply added more camera settings data to what had
previously been set.
File Name cliffs.NEF
Folder SuperMac 27
Title
Caption
Copyright
Creator
Rating.............
Capture Date 23 Sep 2018
Dimensions 7360 x 4912
Megapixels 36.2 MP
Camera Nikon D810 #6040721
Camera ♦ Lens Nikon D810 + TAM...8 Di VC
File Type Raw
Exposure Time 7,60sec
Shutter Speed 1/1eo sec
F-Stop //7.1
Aperture / / 7.1
Max Aperture //28 X——
ПГ1
170 www.pclpublications.com
WHAT’S NEW? EXPLORING LIGHTROOM
3 ) Additional Library Filters
Date
When you are working in the Library
Module, you can go to the top right part of
the thumbnail grid and click on the Filters
Off button and choose what filters you
can employ to help you search for your
images. Until recently, the search by Date
filter only gave you the option to search
by year. That meant that if you have taken
many images in one particular year of your
search, you will still have a lot to go through to
find what you are looking for. Now though, you al so have
the newer filter options of both Month and Day. If you have
a set of images you know were taken on the 21st August in
2020, then your filtering options have become much more
focussed, letting you get to your photos just a bit quicker.
► 2014
► 2015
► 2016
► 2017
► 2018
► 2019
► 2020
Month
AU (4 Months)
June
July
August
November
bvelop I Map I Book ^elo^Ma^^ook
Filters Off
✓ Default Columns
Filters Off
Exposure Info
Filters Off
Ragged
Location Columns
Rated
Unrated
AU (1 Day)
4 ) New Presets
Save Current Settings as New Pres
Restore Default Presets
Delete preset ‘Default Columns''-.
Presets are a set of ready-made adjustments
that you can apply to your images with just
one click. Lightroom has a growing number
of presets available for free and the most
1 recent update to 2022 saw a few more
being added to the roster. Presets are
Г accessed from the left-hand panel when
in the Develop Module. Simply click on
- the Presets tab to expand the list of current
choices. Most notable additions are: Futuristic,
Urban Architecture Cinematic II and Travel II. As you scroll
over each preset, you will see a real-time preview of each
one. When you are happy with your selection, click the
chosen preset to apply its adjustments to your image and
you are free to carry on with more edits.
▼ Presets
► User Presets
▼ Subject: Travel II
ubject: Travel II
▼ Subject: Urban Architecture
ilj UAQ1
► Style: Cinematic
► Style; Cinematic II
► Style: Futuristic
www.pclpublications.com 171
IGHTROOM WHAT’S NEW?
The mobile version of Lightroom has undergone the same update, but just like Lightroom Classic, the Graduated Filter, Radial
Filter and Adjustment Brush have been relocated and amalgamated under the new Masking tool.
Images edited in older versions of Lightroom have all their masking data kept intact when opening them in the 2022 version.
Library I Develop I Map I Book Slideshow I Print I Wet I
Masks — » Histogra I
5 ) Masking
The main update that sets this
most recent version of Lightroom
Mask 1 Classic and Lightroom is the
Masking toolset. Previous
H । versions of Lightroom had a
L±J Subject1 set of editing tools that could
be found next to the histogram
___ in the top right corner of the
Develop workspace. Those tools
are still in that location, but they
have altered slightly. Until the 2022 update,
they were: Crop Overlay, Spot Removal, Red
Eye Correction, Graduated Filter, Radial Filter
and Adjustment Brush. Now, you'll find it runs:
Crop Overlay, Spot Removal, Red Eye Correction
and Masking. It is the Masking feature that is
the latest and greatest addition to Lightroom's
arsenal. Although the Graduated and Radial
filters appear to have gone, don't worry. They
are now located within the Masking tool. Any
images you edited using brush adjustments,
graduation and radial filters prior to the 2022
update are still intact. If you open the Masking
option and look at the small layer palette that
appears, all your edits will still be there. Masking
also contains a number of new and powerful
features that give you new and creative ways to
select and mask areas of your photos for much
greater adjustment control. Bear in mind that
although there may be some graphical user
interface design differences, the Masking tools
available in Lightroom Classic are the same as
can be found in the mobile version of Lightroom.
The Graduated Filter, Radial Filter and Adjustment Brush are now
found under the Masking feature along with the other Masking tools.
Note their name changes. Other than that, they work the same.
Lightroom Classic previous version
Basic
Lightroom <
lassie 2022
Add New Mask:
Jj£. Select Subject
Select Sky
(5hift*M)
(Shifts)
(Shift+Q)
Ц Linear Gradient
(•) Radial Gradient
Color Range
'•& Luminance Range
Lightroom 2022
И invert
Select Sky
preset
O
± О A
Lightroom previous version
Edit «ota *** § ’
Exposure
О
invert
Select Sky
Preset v
Exposure
X Select Subject
re Select Sky
K subtract Ц Mask 1
О Add to Mask using...
172 www.pclpublications.com
WHAT’S N EW? EXPLORING LIGHTROOM
6 ) Select Subject (simple)
If you open an image with no
previous edits and click the Masking
Д Maskl button, a panel will appear
™-----------------beneath it listing the Add New
* i—। Mask options. At the top of the list
I x I SubJectl is Select Subject. Click its button
and Lightroom will automatically
_____ Add/ scan your image and apply a mask
to what it considers the main part of
the image. Obviously, how well it selects
its subject is going to based on the content of the
image. A very complex photo with an abundance
(or lack) of detail is going to confuse the Al when
making its choices. This example is of a portrait of
a woman against a plain background. Relatively
easy for the Al to mask. When the mask has been
created, a layer panel appears which lists the masks
currently active in your photo and what kind of
mask it is. A colour overlay is applied by default
to indicate it is ready for adjustments to be made,
you can change what kind of overlay you want if
required. If at this point, these features look familiar,
then you are correct. Lightroom's Masking feature
is derived from the Photoshop Al that does the
same tasks. If you click the Subject 1 menu button
(the three small dots), you have some options that
allow you to affect the mask in certain ways. In this
case, we simply clicked Invert. Now the background
of the image has been selected. With any active
mask, you can use its adjustments panel to alter its
temperature, exposure, contrast etc.
Subject 1
Q)Adt
The previous example was quite
simple in terms of masking. This
next one is a little more complex.
We have a toucan on a brach
with a leafy background that
we want to adjust. We clicked
Select Subject and a mask was
created. It made quite a good job
of it. Various adjustments were made
to the bird's exposure to reveal a bit
more detail. What happens if you want to alter the
background? Since our bird already has a good
mask, we can actually click on its Mask 1 icon in the
layer panel and choose the Duplicate option. The
duplicate is renamed Background and is inverted.
Any adjustments made to this mask means that only
the background is affected. The green background is
adjusted to a new colour, but as you see, the branch
is also colour-shifted too. Below the mask layers are
two buttons. One is Add and the other is Subtract.
These two buttons let you add or subtract masking
information to the chosen layer using any of the
masking options such as the Linear Gradient, Radial
Gradient and Brush etc. In this case, we are going to
use the Brush tool to subtract some of the mask from
the Background layer. A New Brush layer is added
to the layer stack under Background. Now you can
use a brush to paint over the branch and erase any
mask data to reveal the original branch colour. All the
masking options can be used in conjunction with one
another for complex masking shapes.
www.pclpublications.com 173
EXPLORING LIGHTROOM
WHAT’S NEW?
3 ) Select Sky
As with Select Subject, Select Sky does
what it says on the tin. When you choose
this option, the Al will scan your image
for an obvious horizon line and attempt
to mask out the sky. As before, the
r complexity and detail present in the
image will determine how good a mask
you get. If there is plenty of blue sky in
the shot, you should get a decent mask. If
you have a busy horizon line with not much
contrast, the Al will struggle, so be aware. In our example,
after clicking the Select Sky button, it takes a moment
and then masks the image. The far horizon, which is misty,
gave it some work to do, but it feathered the mask and
decreased opacity there in order for it to blend a little
better into the ground. Some colour adjustments to alter
the sky to a warmer colour were added and the overall
effect is quite pleasing. As with any masks created by the
Masking feature, you can go in and edit the masks to your
heart's content.
Maskl
LeJAdd
As mentioned before, adjustments made
using the brush feature pre-2022 and
к now in the current version, remain the
I same basic procedure. You just need
I to open the Masking tool in order to
f find the Adjustment Brush option. By
* default, when you apply an adjustment
with the brush, there is no effect other
than activating the colour overlay so you
pry I Develop I Map I Book I Slideshow I Print
Masks
Create New Mask
Maskl
ISO 200
Еч Subtract
□ Original Photo
Show Overlay
m m l ih: l l JrK s j
i И i L Д J Д Д Я Д
know where you're painting. You can begin
to dial in your adjustments after. Note that as soon as you
add any adjustment, the colour overlay is turned off so
you can see the effect you're having on your image. When
the Brush tool is active, note that you have Brush settings
available that govern the size, softness and density of the
mask you're applying. These can be easily adjusted using
the sliders. You also have the option to use the Auto Mask
feature. When turned on, as you brush over the image, it will
look for obvious changes in contrast that might indicate an
edge and attempt to mask up to the edge. Turn this off if
you don't need it to refine the brush strokes you're making.
Add adjustments to the brush mask as necessary. Remember
that this mask, like all the others can be edited, added to,
removed from, and intersected with, the other masking
options available.
174 www.pclpublications.com
WHAT’S N EW? EXPLORING LIGHTROOM
I This masking option allows you to create
* । a gradient on your image that runs from
|B| Linear Grad 100% of its adjustment visible, down to 0%
of its effect. The effect runs in a straight
Add line. ц can be vertical, horizontal, or at any
angle you choose. A Linear Gradient is most
often used to simulate a graduated filter used
on a digital camera to help darken an overly bright sky in
comparison to the ground. Our example does such a thing
with the gradient being dragged down from the top of the
image. The colour overlay shows you the extent of the grad
you’ve created. It can be tweaked any time. Then, you can
make your adjustments as you see fit. Altering colour and
exposure are common adjustments to skies in photos. Again,
any of the other masking types can be used in conjunction
with this mask to finesse the gradient's effect.
Radial Gradient
Instead of a gradient that runs in a straight
line, the Radial Gradient emanates
outward from a central point in a circular
or oval shape. The adjustments visible can
be strongest at its centre and fade to zero
at its outside edge, or be inverted so all of
the effect outside the outer edge of the radius
is seen at 100% and fades to zero at its centre. In the case of
our example, we dragged a Radial Gradient from the centre
of the girl’s face outwards past her hair, at its centre, the
effect was zero, but at the outer edge, the drop in Exposure
of -3.33 was at 100% visibility. All the other masking types
can be brought to bear on the mask in the form of additions,
subtractions and intersections. Also bear in mind that since
the mask has control points, you are able to go back in at any
time and move the mask, scale it and alter the effect you've
created with ease.
www.pclpublications.com 175
EXPLORING LIGHTROOM
WHAT’S NEW?
Mask 1
MB; This new feature is another interesting
* —I method by which you can select and mask
|f*| Co,or Ran§^ areas of your photo. As the name would
suggest, it makes its selection based on
k*. Add colour values that are chosen by you. As
seen in our example, if you wanted to mask
the foreground sphinx and pyramid, you could
decide to use Select Sky, invert the mask and alter it that
way. If you choose Color Range, you are given the option to
select a range of colours using the color picker tool. You can
pick a single colour, drag out a sample area box, or click and
press Shift to add additional data points to your selection.
Because the orange tones all fall broadly within the same
range, selecting the sand colours only, is fairly easy to do.
Then you are free to make your adjustments as required.
Luminance Range
Q)Add
Mask!
I Broadly similar to methods used in the
I Color Range option, Luminance Range
f makes its decisions on what areas to
' mask based on the brightness of the tones
selected in the image rather than its colour.
Choosing an area of bright sky in a landscape
photo creates a mask that falls within the tonal
values selected. All other tones are protected by the mask.
However, you can use the Luminance Range panel to alter
how many brighter or darker tones are included in the mask.
Think of this a bit like the Levels adjustment in Photoshop.
You're simply telling the mask to include the darker tones
and lighter tones most directly similar to the ones already
selected. When you are happy with the tonal range selected,
you can make your adjustments to the image.
Effect
♦ Click anywhere to sample luminance. To
remove areas, create a subtract toot
176 www.pclpublications.com
WHAT’S NEW?
EXPLORING LIGHTROOM
14) Depth Range
X Select Subject
Select Sky
(Ю
_/ Brush
Mask!
(M)
(Shift *M)
Depth
(Shift*!)
(ShiftO)
(Shift *Z)
^Add
k?.- Subtract I
S Show Overlay
Depth Range
Show Depth Map
t Click anywhere to sample depth To
remove areas, create a subtract tool
Ц Linear Gradient
(e) Radial Gradient
Color Range
Luminance Range
Depth Range
63/88
Maskl
Sky 1
Note: at the time of writing, the Intersect function
is only available in Lightroom Classic.
You may notice that the
final option of Depth
Range is probably
greyed out. It only
becomes active when
$ using photos taken by
the most recent iPhones
that have taken photos
and used the Portrait
mode with depth information
contained within it and saved in the НЕ1С/
HEIF format. This is the High Efficiency
Image File Format. If you are able to
access a photo in this format, you can
activate the Depth Range feature. It
enables you to use a picker on your photo
and wherever you click, it will use the
depth information contained in the photo
and set the point you click as the sharpest
area. Areas in front of and behind that
chosen point will fade to an out of focus
state and the mask created will reflect
that. The depth Range sliders will let you
refine just how much is in, or out, of focus.
You can add adjustments just as you do
in the other masked options. The areas
that are darkest on the mask will remain
untouched. The lightest areas will have
the greatest effect visible on them.
15) Intersect
One feature in amongst all the new
Masking tools is the Intersect
function. It lets you combine
masks in interesting ways that
В give you a lot of scope when
И it comes to more precise
application of masks during
V your workflow. We have a simple
F example to show you where we
wish to create a bright halo behind
the lone tree atop a hill. Our first
step would be go to the Masking tool and choose
the Select Sky option. Lightroom will assess the
image and mask the sky out (Sky 1 under the
Mask 1 layer). Since the tree and the horizon
both provide strong outlines to work with, the
selection is quite refined. Now we want to remove
most of the mask apart from a halo around the
tree itself. You can click the Sky 1 menu tab and
then click Intersect Mask With to open a second
menu where you can choose which option you’ll
intersect the current mask with. We opted for the
Brush tool. We set its size and positioned it over
the tree and clicked to apply it. What happens
next is that all of the Select Sky mask will be
removed apart from whatever area sits within the
Brush stroke you just used. You now have that
area of sky with the tree and ground still masked
out. You will see a Brush 1 layer added to your
Mask 1 layer set to indicate what you've done.
Adjusting the Exposure, Temperature and Color
gives you the desired effect of the halo within that
very specific area.
Rename...
Select Subject
Select Sky
Invert
Brush
Linear Gradient
Radial Gradient
Color Range
Luminance Range
100/100
Add New Mask:
X Select Subject
:|S: Select Sky
/ Brush
Q Linear Gradient
Intersect Mask with
Duplicate "Sky 1"
Hide
Delete "Sky 1"
ll Gradient
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EXPLORING THE WORKSPACE
Exploring the
Workspace
The default workspace you view when launching Lightroom can look
a little confusing to begin with. However, with a little exploration the
many menus and options soon become second nature. Here, we show
you around all the basic areas before you get stuck into editing.
Q Lr__________________________________
This is the Identity Plate for Lightroom,
displaying the user’s logged in account
name, with further options available to be
expanded that connect to Adobe's cloud
services. The Identity Plate can be further
personalised, using either set templates
or customising your own for branding
your own photos. These can be text-
based, or even a graphical Identity Plate
to add that little extra personal touch to
your Workspace view and image edits.
Q Presets: Catalog____________________
The Catalog Preset is a database that
stores a record for each of your photos.
This record contains key pieces of
information regarding each of the photos
you import into Lightroom, such as a
reference to where the photo is stored
on your system, instructions for how to
process the photo and metadata relating
to the photo.
ф Presets: Folders____________________
The Folders Preset displays where your
photos are stored in the system. These
reflect the folder structure on the drive
itself and appear in an alphanumeric
order for you to browse through. The
triangles can be expanded to display
sub-folders within each root folder level
and each folder will display the number
of images or videos you’ve imported into
Lightroom; there’s also information on
the amount of space on the hard drive
that the images have taken up, with the
total space displayed too.
Mark Frost
Navigator
Catalog
Export
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EXPLORING THE WORKSPACE
Q Presets: Collections_______________
Collections provide a way for Lightroom
to group photos in one place for easy
viewing, or for performing a variety of
tasks. For example, to assemble photos
into a slideshow collection, or a web
photo gallery. You can create as many
Collections as you need from Regular,
Smart and Quick Collection listings.
These can store custom defined rules,
temporary groups and various other
clever features.
Q Presets: Publish Services
The Publish Services options menu
allows you to export collections of
photos to your hard drive or a variety of
defined online services, such as popular
social networks as Facebook and Flickr.
Additional information can be added
to the export process and you can find
more services online via the available
button. It’s even possible to publish entire
folders or collections of photos, reducing
the process considerably compared to
manual uploads. These can be used in
much the same way as the Collections,
with various options and custom defined
rules if needed.
Q Film Strip_________________________
The Film Strip view bar is where you
can quickly display and also access the
photos you are working on as you move
between the modules. This scrolling bar
contains photos and all images from the
currently selected Library folder, your
photo/image collection, or keyword set.
By using this option you can quickly
access your images without having to
open additional folders outside of the
Lightroom software. You can quickly and
easily move between each of the photos
in the Filmstrip using the Left and Right
Arrow keys or by choosing a different
source from the Filmstrip Source
Indicator pop-up menu to the right of the
navigation buttons.
A Histogram and
Adjustment Panels
The Histogram is an often overlooked
feature of Lightroom, which is a shame
as it’s an extraordinarily useful tool to
master. However, we have covered this
and these areas will be looked at in
further detail as we move through the
various Lightroom modules, such as the
Develop Module and other elements of
the software in this book.
ф Top Toolbar________________________
The top toolbar contains the familiar
aspects of a traditional program, with
File, Edit, Library, Photo, Metadata, View,
Windows and Help. Most of these are
self-explanatory, and function in the
same was as any other program. Others
though, contain elements and options to
enhance each of the modules. You could
spend a lot of time trawling through
the many different menu options and
we cover many of them throughout this
book. For now though, take a moment to
explore what’s available and see just how
in-depth Lightroom can get with just a
few clicks of the Mouse button.
Q Modules___________________________
Lightroom has seven workspace modules
available: Library, Develop, Map, Book,
Slideshow, Print, and Web. Each module
offers a unique set of tools and features
tailored to your workflow: importing,
organising and publishing, adjusting
and enhancing and generating output
for screen, print or web detail. These
tools, within each Module, are startlingly
powerful in their use, whilst still being
relatively simple to use. We’ll look at
these Modules and the tools within, as we
progress through the book.
Show or Hide Panel Groups
• To show or hide a single panel group, click the triangular
Show/Hide Panel Group icon. A solid icon indicates the
panel group is showing.
• To show or hide both side panel groups, choose Window
> Panels > Toggle Side Panels, or press the Tab key.
• To hide all panels, including side panels, the Filmstrip
and Module Picker, choose Window > Panels > Toggle
All Panels, or press Shift-Tab.
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LORING LIGHTROOM IMPORTING PHOTOS FOR THE FIRST TIME
Importing Photos
for the First Time
Before editing and improving your photos with Lightroom Classic,
you need to import them into the program’s database. Depending
on the size of your collection this could take a while, so it’s best to
set aside some time.
О The first step after installing Lightroom Classic for the first
time is to import your photos into the program’s catalogue.
Lightroom uses this catalogue to organise your photo collection
and to help you find them by applying keywords and other
search criteria. By keeping a separate database it means that the
files on your hard drive are not affected.
©On the next screen, you’ll see a message saying ‘Please
select a source’. In the upper left you’ll see a list of the
storage devices attached to your system. If you want to import
photos from some other source, such as a USB flash drive, you
need to plug it in now. Lightroom will add it to the drive list as
soon as it’s detected.
О When you open Lightroom for the first time, you’ll see a
blank screen with the words ‘No photo source selected’ in
the middle. To get started with importing your photos, take a
look in the bottom left corner. You should see a button labelled
Import. Click on this and you’ll be taken to a new screen to begin
the import process.
О Click on the drive that contains the folder from which you
wish to import your images and you should see all the
folders on that drive displayed in the file-tree on the left of the
screen. Navigate to the correct folder and click on it. Lightroom
will immediately begin searching that folder for image files,
including any sub-folders.
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IMPORTING PHOTOS FOR THE FIRST TIME
©The process of finding image files is fairly quick and even
a large collection should only take a couple of minutes.
Meanwhile there are a couple of settings we can look at. On
the right of the screen you’ll see a panel called File Handling.
Open it and if you want, un-check the option ‘Don't import
suspected duplicates’.
О Once the import process has completed you’ll see a report
notifying you of any problems. Common errors include
damaged files, which will not be imported, and unsupported file
type or colour modes. Lightroom supports all common file types
and most colour modes, so it’s unlikely that you’ll see either of
these if you’re just importing digital photos.
©Once the import system has located all the photos in your
selected folder you’ll see the total that it’s found and the
combined file size displayed in both the lower left and upper
right corners of the screen. All the files will be checked by default
but if there are any that you don’t want to import, you can
uncheck them.
©Click on the OK button to dismiss the report message and
you’ll finally be able to interact with your new catalogue of
images. We’ll take a closer look at the layout of the workspace in
the next tutorial but for now just explore and check that all your
pictures are present and correct. You can scroll up and down by
using the mouse wheel.
О Once you’re happy with your selection of photos to be
imported, click on the Import button in the bottom right
corner of the screen and Lightroom will begin adding photos to
your catalogue. If you’re importing a large collection of images
for the first time this process can take an hour or more, so go
and do something else for a while.
©If you subsequently want to remove any imported images
from your catalogue you may do so by right-clicking on the
image and selecting Remove Photo from the context menu. Note
that this doesn’t delete the photo from your hard drive, it just
stops Lightroom from seeing it. You can reimport it later if you
change your mind.
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EXPLORING LIGHTROOM FIX PHOTOS WITH QUICK DEVELOP
Fix Photos with
Quick Develop
Lightroom offers two ways to get the best out of your images. We’ll
take a closer look at the power of the Develop module in the next
section but the Library module Quick Develop tab features a range of
tools that can apply quick fixes to improve your photos.
□ Original Photo
О You can find the Quick Develop tab in the right-hand
sidebar of the Library module. To get the best use out of it,
it’s a good idea to make sure you have the Histogram tab open at
the same time, to help get the exposure right, and use the Loupe
view in zoomed-out mode so you can see the whole picture
much more clearly.
©The next feature is the white balance control. This lets you
change the white balance from the setting used on the
camera when you took the photo. It works best if you’re editing
a Raw file, since it can correct the white balance without losing
quality. If you’re not sure what the correct white balance should
be, use the Auto option.
□ Original Photo
Default Settings
Quick Develop ▼ I
Wh
Ughtroom B&W Filter Presets
Ughtroom B&W Presets
Ughtroom B&W Toned Presets
Ughtroom Color Presets
Ughtroom Effect Presets
Ughtroom General Presets
Ughtroom Video Presets
User Presets
Mark 1
Tint
О At the top of the Quick Develop panel you’ll see a drop-
down menu offering a wide range of preset developing
settings. These are great for experimenting with different looks
and styles and include a range of monochrome filter and toning
effects, various colour processing styles, sharpening, contrast
enhancement and more. There are also video effects available.
О The Auto Tone button is something of a last-resort option.
It will attempt to optimise the exposure, contrast and tone
settings to produce a good result but it will only ever be an
average approximation. All photos vary in their requirements,
so it’s best to avoid it and adjust tone and exposure manually,
keeping an eye on the histogram.
182 www.pclpublications.com
FIX PHOTOS WITH QUICK DEVELOP EXPLORING LIGHTROOM
Tint
Tone Control Auto Tone
Exposure
Contrast
Highlights
Shadows 1/ i 1 ► **
Whites < « >
| | | |
©The Exposure adjustment control has four buttons. The
ones with the single chevron adjust the exposure up or
down by one third of a stop, while the buttons with two chevrons
adjust it by a full stop. Unless your image is dramatically under or
over-exposed it’s best to use the l/3rd-stop buttons, keeping an
eye on the histogram and the Loupe view.
©The Whites and Blacks adjustments are basically more
extreme variations on the Highlights and Shadows
adjustments. They are used to correct excessive clipping in deep
shadows and bright highlights and take advantage of the expanded
dynamic range available in Raw file images, as we discussed on
page 15. Use in conjunction with the histogram for best results.
©Contrast is a harder thing to quantify than exposure but
generally it makes the light tones lighter and the dark
tones darker. Again, the singe chevron buttons make a slight
adjustment, while the double chevron buttons make a larger
adjustment. Most correctly exposed images won’t need much
adjustment, so use it sparingly for best effect.
©Clarity and Vibrance have replaced the old Saturation
adjustment and offer much more precise control over tone.
Basically, Clarity improves the contrast in the mid-tones of the
image by sharpening the edge detail, while Vibrance increases
the saturation of only the least saturated colours, so you can
improve overall saturation without blowing out bright colours.
О The Highlights and Shadows adjustments affect the higher
and lower ends of the histogram respectively. They are
used to improve detail in shadow and highlight areas and are
particularly useful in difficult lighting conditions, such as heavily
backlit scenes, where they can brighten up shadowed faces. They
are best used in combination to avoid unbalancing the shot.
©One advantage of using the Library module quick develop
is that you can adjust a whole batch of photos at once.
Simply select all the photos that you want to adjust and
whatever adjustments are needed will be applied to all of them.
This is particularly useful if you discover that you’ve used the
wrong white balance setting on a whole shoot!
www.pclpublications.com 183
Lightroom
Tips & Tricks
We have a few tricks we can share with you to
help you on your way to smarter workflow. They
are very simple, but as you may have already
surmised when using Lightroom, the simple ones
are often the most useful and the most powerful.
Contents
186 Before and after: using filters
188 Quick develop additions
188 Solo mode
188 Quick keywords I Panel reset
188 Tone curve finesse
189 Black and white preview
189 Set default/Split toning display
189 Lights out
190 Spot removal delete/Cropping
190 Visualise highlights and shadows
190 Grad filter control
190 Apply on import/Visualise fringing
191 Graduated filter intensity
191 Smart preview edits
191 Switch brush with eraser
191 Use luminance
191 Visualise sharpness and noise
184 www.pclpublications.com
LrC LIGHTROOM Tl
USING FILTERS
Using Filters
ВЯ1ХНДМ BELL
BEFORE
AFTER
Ш1
••MS
Filters play a huge role in getting a photo
just the way you want. With some clever
tweaks, Lightroom is capable of delivering
spectacular results, such as the before and
after images you see on these pages. We will
delve into elements like this in later issues.
Shots like this, that combine foreground with skyscape, are prime candidates for a
graduated filter. In this case, we’ve increased the overall exposure slightly, pulled back
the highlights to bring detail into the clouds, and reduced the shadows to bring out
texture in the boat and houses. We then applied a coloured graduated filter from top to
middle, reducing exposure by one stop and increasing colour saturation. The result is a
bright and colourful shot worthy of any picture postcard.
Turn the page for
some very useful
and simple top
tips to improve
your Lightroom
photo processing
workflow.
www.pclpublicatlons.com 187
NG FILTERS | LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS
LIGHTROOM TOP LIGHTROOM TIPS
Shadows
Whites
Blacks
Highlights .J.L
Shadows
Whites ''
Blacks —
Vibrancr ’
Sharpening
Saturation1
' Reset All
Keyword! ng
Enter Keywords
Reset All
Keyword! ng
Enter Keywords
The Quick Develop panel is found in the Library module.
Your Library module allows you to view the Metadata of your
images, add comments, and set up the keywords for your
selected photos. Over and above that, is the Quick Develop
panel. This lets you do some fairly simple, but powerful,
batch editing to your photo library. You have control over
White Balance and the various aspects of Tone Control. At
the bottom of the list, you will see the Clarity and Vibrance
controls. Now, if you hold the Alt key on your keyboard, those
options will change to Sharpening and Saturation. This extra
little addition, means you are less likely to have to head over
to the Develop module to make any additional edits.
Quick Keywords
Another little trick that will aid your workflow in the Library
module is the ability to assign quick keywords. Rather than
typing in the Keyword Tags field, there is a panel below called
Keyword Set. You can choose from a number of options such
as Outdoor Photography, Recent Keywords, and Portrait
Photography. You can also edit your own set for a more
specific approach to keyword usage. Each one will present
you with a number of generic options in the panel below. For
instance, Outdoor Photography will present options such as
Landscape, Macro, or Flowers & Plants, which you can use to
add tags to a batch selection of relevant images. However, if
you press the Alt key, a series of numbers will appear next to
the keywords on offer. Now you can simply press a number to
apply that keyword to your group of images.
2 ) Solo Mode
This is a very simple, but effective trick when working in the
Develop module. It won't have escaped your attention that
there are an awful lot of sidebar options and tools available.
Sometimes, you may find yourself having to scroll up and down
the open tool panels, because, when a few of them are open at
any one time, they do take up a lot of vertical real estate on your
screen and cycling between them not only takes time but also
gets a bit frustrating. This trick applies to both the tools in the
right sidebar of the Develop module as well as the ones on the
left. Hold the Alt key on your keyboard and click on one of the
small triangles to the right of each tool header bar. You should
notice that the triangle is now greyed out rather than solid. Now,
Lightroom will only expand the tool you choose. All others will
remain closed until you click on a new one to open, which also
closes the currently active one.
Panel Reset
This is another example of a superbly simple trick to aid you
when editing in the Develop module. We're sure there any
many artists and photographers who have been working on
an image and decide that they need to reset a panel to its
default zeroed-out state. Each slider can be reset manually
by double-clicking it, but what happens if you have made
substantial edits, using the HSL panel, in each of the Hue,
Saturation, Luminance, and Colour sections? That's a lot
of sliders to double-click to reset to default. Then there
are all the other panels as well, so you would be forgiven
for planting you face in your palm at the prospect. Luckily,
there is a super-simple solution. Simply hold down the Alt
key again and you will see a Reset option appear for each
setting. Click once to reset each setting.
188 www.pclpublications.coni
TOP LIGHTROOM TIPS EXPLORING LIGHTROOM
Tone Curve Finesse
The Tone Curve in Lightroom is a powerful
method for adjusting the tones in your image.
You have control over the brightness of the
entire tonal range, from the darkest shadows
to the brightest highlights and everything in
between. You can add control points to the curve
and modify it to suit your requirements. It is a
relatively small box to work within, especially
on a smaller screen, or with a mouse set to
higher tracking speeds and movement. Now and
again, you may find that precise positioning of
the control points may elude you. Not to worry,
Lightroom and the trusty Alt key has you
covered once more. By pressing the Alt key, you
alter the sensitivity of the cursor. The upshot
being that if you move your cursor now, the
control points will move a much shorter distance.
This gives you much greater fine-tuning of the
position of each point.
Set Default
This is quite a useful function if you shoot
with more than one camera from different
manufacturers. Although Canon and Nikon
cameras, for instance, can shoot amazing
images, they do both employ different in-
camera colour technology that may require
slightly different editing strategies and certain
tweaks to the baseline settings in Lightroom in
order to get them to match at the point of final
output. With one sample image open, if you
press the Alt key and click on the Set Default
button in the lower right of the screen, you can
save your baseline edits and automatically apply
them only to any subsequently imported Raw
files that were taken with that particular camera.
You can set up Default edits for each camera
that you use, knowing that you have been saved
a number of editing clicks already. Now you have
your photos from different cameras all starting
exactly where you want them.
Set Default Develop Settles
Change the Oefeuit setting* used by lightroom end Camera Raw for
Restore Adobe Default Settings
9 J Lights Out
Cancel Д23
This one could not be simpler, yet it is still something
that you may find to be of great use when editing
your photos. Lights Out mode lets you focus more
on your image, rather than on the interface that
surrounds it. While you are working on an image,
if you press the L key once, it will dim the interface
around your image while leaving the photo at full
brightness. Press L once more and the interface will
disappear completely leaving a black background
behind your photos. Pressing L one more time will
reset the interface to full brightness again.
Split Toning has recently been updated to
Color Grading but if you are using Lightroom
pre 2022, Split Toning is a cool creative tool
that lets you add a certain colour feel to your
images by altering the Hue and Saturation of
the Highlights and Shadows in your photos.
Whether you are trying to subtly alter a
colour cast, or radically adjust the colours
present in your photo, it is a great little tool
used by many photographers. Altering the
colours of your Highlights and Shadows is
a bit tedious as you have to jockey the Hue
and Saturation sliders to see the effect you’re
having. If you hold the Alt key, you can select
the Hue for Highlights and the Saturation is
automatically set at 100%, so you can see
that colour at full strength. Then you can dial
in the amount of Saturation you want to use
for the Highlights. You can do exactly the
same for the Shadows too.
www.pclpublications.com 189
EXPLORING LIGHTROOM TOP LIGHTROOM TIPS
16Т Spot Removal Delete
Cropping an image is an essential part of any photographer’s creative
arsenal. A simple crop can often turn a mediocre image into a sensational
one. Cropping in Lightroom is normally a case of dragging control points
to get the rough shape of the crop you want, then you have to drag your
cursor around with the crop to move your image so it can be placed in the
correct position. Then, if its not perfectly scaled to your requirements, you
have to tweak the size of the crop box. Sometimes, you just literally want to
crop the edge of the frame by the same amount. If you hit the Crop tool and
hold the Alt key, you can crop from the centre of your image. If you have a
horizontal crop and you want to flip it so it is a vertical crop, simply press the
X key to change the orientation. Handily, it will keep the same aspect ratio for
consistent cropping. The default crop overlay is the classic Rule of Thirds, but
there are a number of options. Press the О key to toggle through them.
15) Visualise Fringing
This is a very simple
trick that can make
the deletion of many
Spot Removal edits
a slightly simpler
task than right-
clicking each one
and selecting Delete
from the dropdown
menu that appears.
You can hit Reset,
of course, but that
removes all the
Spot Removal edits
and you may not
want that. To target
specific ones, you
can easily press the
Alt key. This results
in a small Scissors
icon appearing in
place of your cursor.
Now you can simply
click once on each of the Spot Removal
edits you want to remove and they are gone.
Visualise Highlights and Shadows
Your Histogram in the top right corner of your workspace can show you the
spread of tones in your image from darkest shadow to brightest highlight. It
also has the Highlights and Shadows Clipping options to show you if detail
areas are being lost to solid black or solid white. You also have another option
to help you see the spread of shadows and highlights, along with those nearing
the clipping threshold. By holding the Alt key as you move the Exposure,
Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks and Dehaze sliders, you can see a realtime
representation of which tones are nearing their clipping threshold, or have
already been clipped. For highlights, the screen will be mostly black with
highlights shown as white and coloured areas. For shadows, the screen will be
mostly white with shadows shown as black and coloured areas.
13 ) Grad Filter Control
Both the Graduated and Radial filter
options have a couple of extra options
available if you employ the use of the
Alt key as you work. One very simple
one is to click on your image with
the Graduated
active and begin
to drag the grad
down the image.
If you hold the
Alt key, the point
where you initially
clicked becomes
the centre of the
grad. With the
Radial grad, the
point you click
initially is the centre
point of your ellipse, but if you hold
the Alt key, it becomes the top corner
control point.
Add to Favorites
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This is very handy
one for those
photographers who
may be dealing with
many dozens, or
even hundreds, of
photos from a shoot
and want to apply a
set of baseline edits
to them all in one
go at the time of import. With your
preferred preset ready to go in the
Presets pane, right-click it and choose
Apply On Import. A small + (plus)
symbol will appear next to that preset.
Now, any pictures imported from
then on will have that preset applied
to them automatically with no input
required by you. You can deselect your
preset at any time so as not to apply it
to any further imports.
Apply on import
Another quick method to help you
see what effect your adjustments
are having on the image; under Lens
Corrections, in the Manual tab, you can
use the Defringe tools to remove the
purple and green tones present as a
result of chromatic aberrations caused
by the lens used to take the shot. Hold
the Alt key as you try each Defringe
option and you will see that white
areas are not affected at all whilst any
coloured areas are affected by fringing.
190 www.pclpublications.com
TOP LIGHTROOM TIPS EXPLORING LIGHTROOM
Graduated Filter Intensity
This is another simple one that you will
either get into and find useful, or just keep
using the sliders in the right hand sidebar.
If you drag out either a Graduated Filter or
a Radial Filter, you will see a small control
point at its centre. If you click and hold on
it, you can drag the grad around. However,
if you hold Alt and hover your cursor over
the same centre point, you can now drag
your mouse back and forth and, as you do,
you can intensify all the settings currently
active on that grad. If you had adjusted
the Exposure, Contrast, Texture, Clarity,
and Saturation for example, they will all be
adjusted together as you slide your mouse
back and forth.
Switch Brush with Eraser
Once more a very simple, but time-saving,
trick that can speed up the application and
refinement of your adjustment brushes. In
normal operation, applying an adjustment
brush is an easy enough process, right up
until you decide you want to edit the brush
strokes you've currently added. This would
normally mean moving your cursor off the
main image window and clicking on the
Erase button in the Brush parameters panel
beneath the main adjustments panel. Now,
instead of doing that, you can just press
the Alt key and the cursor will change from
the adjustment brush, with a small + (plus)
symbol in the centre, to an Eraser with a
small - (minus) symbol. You can erase parts
of your current adjustment using whatever
current Eraser brush parameters have been
set, let go of the Alt key and continue adding
adjustments as you see fit.
Visualise Sharpness and Noise
Making sure your images are as free of
noise as possible, without degrading
the overall quality, is as important
a part of extracting as much detail
from your precious photos as any. By
the same token, also ensuring that
your work is as sharp and detailed as
possible is another key consideration.
Everything you do in Lightroom
is a balancing act of settings to
ultimately arrive at the best photo
possible. Whilst working in the detail
panel, to add sharpness or combat
any image noise present, hold the Alt
key to help you see what is going on
in the image as you alter the values
of the individual settings. It gives you
a useful representation of the effect
you are having and just how much the
image is being degraded.
О Limit video cache size
Smart Preview edits
A Smart Preview is a great little trick for
increasing your image editing performance.
Raw files are very large and if the computer you
are using for editing is struggling with handling
the large amounts of data involved, you can
choose to use this option for a performance
boost. If you go to Lightroom preferences,
under the Performance tab, you will find the
Use Smart Previews option. When ticked, it will
let you use a smaller version of your original on
to which you can apply all your edits. Although,
at this stage there may be a visual decrease in
the image quality, at final output, it will be the
size and quality of the original.
Develop
hover preview of presets in Loupe
(A7* Sm*rt Prev,ews instead of Originals for image editing
Catalog Settings
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•’review Generation Settings
Q Generate Previews in parallel
Use Luminance
Most photographers are aware that shooting
a landscape often means that you are trying
to balance exposure between a bright sky
and a darker foreground. A sunny landscape
may mean that your blue sky looks bright
and a bit washed out. A lot of users may
be tempted to try and add saturation to
the blue sky, but you run the risk of over
saturating the entire image. Rather than the
Saturation tool, try using the Luminance tool
in the HSL tab. To bring out a blue sky, drop
the Luminance values of the blue channels to
make blues in the image darker rather than
more saturated.
www.pclpublications.com 191
Develop Module. We also begin to
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about using Photoshop Elements too. All
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Photoshop User
Issue Eight | December 2023 | ISSN: 2752-4701
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