Some Tips... and things for you to try

Howdy

Don't EVER be afraid to try, experiment, play with Photoshop...  You just might come up with a masterpiece!

 

This what I did

1. Made just a selection of the bridge using the Polygon lasso tool.

2. Made a new layer from the selection

Command J Mac or Control J PC

3. Used the selection by color tool

but, first,  sample some green from the i-5  bridge, because the color selection tool will key on the selected foreground color in the tool bar.

Then Menu: 

Select > Color Range...

4. Made the selection 

and for detailed instructions on using selection by color go here

http://uofgts.com/PS-P2Site/selectionbycolor.html

5. Then, choose the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and

Clip it to the selected bridge layer

6. In the HSL dialogue, Check colorize… and adjust the color to what you want

7.Then use a black brush on the H&S mask to tweak the mask…

and that's it...

Laying out images on a page for a flyer or a scrapbook page...

This is one area that Photoshop Elements has the advantage... It has a bunch of built in Layout Templates...

Photshop has a few in the OUTPUT Module

Lightroom has more...

But, in layout PSE Rules!

In Photoshop you get to make them on your own...

Here's how to do it the Hard Way

http://uofgts.com/PS/select-move.html

Here's how to do it quick and easy...

Up to Photshop CS3 there was a menu item in Photoshop called Contact Sheet.

Adobe took it out of CS4 and CS5, but put it back into CS6.

(However, you can download and install the Contact Sheet plug-in from Adobe's web site for CS 4 and CS 5)

IN CS6

1. Start in Bridge.

2. Select Your photos  (Control Click) How many You select will determine how large they are on the page (Experiment)

3. Select the Bridge Menu:  Tools > Photoshop > Contact Sheet II

The above is for 6 images... Play around with more or less images...

Each image will be placed on a layer, and they will be masked, ready for you to add a background and add

"fx" (Border, etc... ) to each image... or text

Experiment!

Email your questions, or bring them to class...

Have a fun weekend playing with Photoshop!

Adjustment Layers and Masks

Photoshop has the following different kinds of layers

1. Normal
2. Text
3. Fill
4. Shapes
5. Adjustments
6. 3D
7. Video
8. Smart Objects.

One of the most versitile is the Adjustment Layer and there are 15 of them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each adjustment layer is associated with a "Gadget-icon" and a Mask

Clicking on the "Gadget-icon" pops up a dialogue box that allows you to make adjustments to the layer(s) below...

In the example I have selected the Black & White Adjustment Layer using Photoshop CS 6

What I want to do is to "paint" some color back into the image of just the vending machine.  That way your attention will be really drawn towards the color in an otherwise black and white image.  

Here's how to do that.

Step 1:

Click once inside the White Mask to "activate" it... You'll see the double lines around the mask.

Step 2: 

Press the "x" key on the keyboard, to cycle the foreground color with the background color at the bottom of the Tool Bar... We want the forground coplor to be BLACK

Step 3:

Press the"B" key to select a brush.  You can make the brush bigger or smaller by pressing the Left or Right Square breket key.

Left square bracket makes the brush smaller, Right square bracket key makes the brush larger...

Step 4.  

Paint over the Pepsi Machine on the Canvas, untill all the colors are Visible...

Painting Black on the Mask, blocks the black and white effect of the B & W adjustment panel, showing the colors from the layer below...

 

Here's the result

Saving files in Photoshop

Saving files in Photoshop and file formats.

The file format you use to save your work in Photoshop will depend on how the image will be used.

Preserving Layers

If you want to perserve layer information so you can re-edit the image or apply the same techiques to another image, then save the image as a .psd file a PhotoShop Document.

The Menu item is

File > Save As

Keyboard short cut

Shift + Control + S (PC)

Shift + Command + S (Mac)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Save As Dialogue box

Give the file a unique name (Photoshop will add the extension, in this case .psd)

You can also check

 Save:  √ As A Copy and photoshop will add the word copy to the file name in this case it would be "Beach copy.psd"

TIP: In Photoshop, if there is a button or icon that you don't know what it does, put your "pointer" over the item and don't move it... in a few seconds a yellow box will popup and tell you what it does!

If you want to perserve layers in the PSD document Make sure the Layers box is checked and always perserve your color profile..

Saving for the Internet

The .jpg file format is "lossey" the more the file is compressed, the more data is thrown away. Too much compression and the image/photo looses detail...

The menu is 

File > Save for Web...

What's important here is to choose how much compression, and the file size you want to actually display on the web or in an e-mail

If the file is going to be displayed on a web page Check Convert to sRGB 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you make all your choices click the Save... button at the bottom of the page...

 

 

 

Where to from here? Week 8 and Beyond...

Here's a quick link to the week 8 Portal

The class web site will always be available, and is always evolving...

I'll be adding a Lightroom site shortly, the first Lightroom article is Softproofing in Lightroom...

 So, Now what... 

I'm often asked… now that the classes are over, what do we do now?

Here are some suggestions...

• Take another class, At some point Clark will have CS 6 (I'll let you know)
• Visit Websites, go to the library…
• … This is a Collection of Photoshop Websites, it's a bunch of Links to most visited/popular blogs
• http://photoshop.alltop.com/
• A Collection of LightRoom Websites
• http://lightroom.alltop.com/
• Photoshop Tutorials from Layers Magazine
• http://layersmagazine.com/category/photoshop/page/8
• National Association of Photoshop Users
• http://www.photoshopuser.com/
• The best Photoshop Magazine in my opinion is PhotoShop Creative
• http://www.photoshopcreative.co.uk/

Garry's Favorite web sites

1. The Luminous Landscape
   1. http://luminous-landscape.com/whatsnew/
2. http://www.dpreview.com/
3. http://www.imaging-resource.com/news
4. http://www.photographyblog.com/
5. http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer

1. Join a forum and lurk!

   http://www.photoshopforums.com/

   http://forums.adobe.com/community/photoshop

   At some point someone will post a question… And you'll be able to provide them the answer!

There are lots of videos on the Adobe TV web site

http://tv.adobe.com/

LUMINOUS LANDSCAPE  has a bunch of video tutorials that they sell. Get them and their video Journal...

http://luminous-landscape.com/videos/download-videos.shtml

George Jardine has a terrrifics web site a a series of videos

http://mulita.com/blog/

One more thing
Don't be shy, Stay in touch and share your photographs!

and

Photograph, Photograph, Photograph!

Then in Lightroom & Photoshop

Practice! Practice! Practice!

 

Best  Wishes

Garry Stasiuk

 

 

Gradients in Photoshop, PS Elements, Camera Raw and Lightroom.

How to apply gradients using any flavor of Photoshop...

Week 7 - Smart Objects, Softproofing and Focus using Photo stacking...

Howdy

Here's a short step by step set of instructions how to edit smart objects sent to Photoshop from Camera Raw.

Before you print,  soft proof!
Here's what to do using Photoshop… Softproofing in Photoshop

Later this week I'll add information on how to do Softproofing in Lightroom 4 

Here's a technique for boosting the color in a faded or overexposed photograph in Photoshop, works really well for .jpgs. Also, a similar technique can work on under exposed images.

Fixing Overexposed or Underexposed .jpgs

Class member Ken Eklund  sent us the following information about Photo Stacking for Focus 

Last week I mentioned focus stacking or blending, which is like HDR for focus rather than exposure.  Here is a link to some software.  It is also a feature in Photoshop.

www.heliconsoft.com/heliconfocus.html

 

Ken also sent us a series of photos he took and merged using PhotoStacking in Photoshop+

This is a carved Chinese bottle that I tried it out on.  I used macro extension tubes to take 8 shallow dof photos with the Photoshop blending technique. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ken also sent us a link to a Youtube video demoing the Photo Stacking Focus technique in Photoshop 

http://youtu.be/intzev1gsbI

 

 

Thank you for sharing Ken!

 

Review - Non Destructive editing in Photoshop/Camera Raw

The Goal:

Edit an image in Photoshop, to enhance, to improve it... and to be able to easily "tweak" or undo/redo the "fixes" at a later date without having to start over again.

In Photoshop you are editing pixels, as a result you should always work with a "copy" of the image, not the original.
1. In Photoshop after loading an image, use the File > Save As menu and save the files as a copy, or rename the file as... I usually just use a numbering system like imagename-001.psd.
This ensures you have an "original" RGB copy, even if you have the original raw image.

2. In your editing process you always want to use the Adjustment panel and the Adjustment layer tools. (If you can)

Images using Photoshop CS5
The Adjustment layer panel 

below is a list of adjustment layers… from the layers menu

     Example below uses Adjustment layers...







































3. Use Smart Objects for each layer of graphics or images that you are merging.

Any time you use the Menu item: Edit > Transform > Scale (etc). First convert the layer to be transformed into a 'smart object'

There are at least 3 ways to do this, select the layer in the layers pallet (so it is highlighted in blue)
then choose Menu:

Layers > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object

Or use the Layer drop down menu and choose
Convert to Smart Object

Or right click on the Blue Highlighted Layer and choose 
Convert to Smart Object. 

Transform Edits changes and "throws away pixels" especially if there is a scaling down in the size of the image...

When you select the transform tool a box surrounds the object and you can see selector squares that let you "transform the object… If you hold down the shift key while dragging with the mouse the transform will retain the original aspect ratio.

 

 

By transforming your layer contents to a smart object, the original data is available to re-size the new element without pixilation or having to start over again.  In this example both Logos were scaled smaller, then resized upwards… The Logo on the right was converted to a smart Object.

 

 

You can see the little "Samart object indicator" square in the bottom right of the thumbnail in the layers pallet

 

 

4. Use smart Objects to apply Filters

Use the Filter Menu:

Filter > Convert for Smart Filters

This adds the Smart Object indicator to the layer, and when you choose a filter like "Smart Sharpen" you'll see additional layers added beneath the smart object layer that will allow you to change the values in the filter requester any time you want.

Using "Smart Filters" let's you
re-adjust the effects of the filter
later…

 

5. Create a Blank Layer
When using any of the tools like the Clone or Healing Tools  to edit pixels, create a Blank Layer and use the Tool Bar to toggle on "Edit layers below"

Here's a short tutorial that uses "Edit Layers Below"

 

 

 

6.  What if If you can only directly edit pixels?

Sometimes a task has NO smart features or no built in adjustment layers… a good example is the Adjustment
Shadow/Highlights 

The menu is Images > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlights

Here's what to do to make a Flattened copy of the visible layers 

Select the layers where you want to apply the changes

If the layers are contiguous select the first layer, press and hold down the shift key, then select the last layer…

If the layers are not contiguous hold down the control key (PC)

The Command key (Mac)

and click on each layer you want to select...

Then press all at one time
Mac (Command + Option + Shift + E)

PC (Control + Alt + Shift + E)

Then  apply the Adjustment to the flattened copy of the all the layers...

To re-edit the Shadow/Highlights… you'll need to delete the layer and repeat the process...

Enjoy! As Always 'holler if you have a question or comment

Editing smart objects from Camera Raw in Photoshop is next.