Digital Camera World » Photoshop CS

Photoshop Curves Tool: 6 techniques every photographer must know

jmeyer — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:39:24 +0000

The Photoshop Curves tool is one of the most powerful commands you have in the digital darkroom. But it can be intimidating to some. Here are 6 Photoshop Curves techniques every photographer should incorporate into their workflow.

The Photoshop Curves command is your most powerful tool for adjusting tones to brighten, darken, add contrast and shift colours, yet many users choose to avoid it.

The problem is, despite being the most effective, it’s also one of the most difficult commands to get to grips with. This may be why Adobe has never included it in the more beginner-friendly Photoshop Elements.

As Elements gets better and better with every new release, the lack of a full Curves command remains one of the few big reasons not to plump for the more wallet-friendly version of Photoshop.

Beginners need not fear. After you’ve spent a little time experimenting, Curves quickly becomes the go-to tool for many tonal tweaks. It’s often the first edit you make on an image.

And as well as being one of the most powerful tools Photoshop has on offer, it’s one of the most versatile.

Whether you want to lighten a dark scene, boost contrast and colour, check for clipped pixels or make a variety of colour shifts, Curves is the tool for the job.

So, read on for six top tips to help you master the best tonal tool Photoshop has to offer.

Essential Photoshop Curves Techniques: 01 Curves Adjustment Layer

Curves is best applied as an Adjustment Layer. Go to the Layers Panel, click the Create Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom and choose Curves.

Now your original image remains untouched.

Whatever settings you apply are editable by double-clicking the layer thumbnail, and you can take advantage of all the options working with layers allows, such as Masks, Blend Modes and Opacity.

PAGE 1: Essential Photoshop Curves Techniques – 01 Curves Adjustment Layer
PAGE 2: Essential Photoshop Curves Techniques – 02 The Curve line
PAGE 3: Essential Photoshop Curves Techniques – 03 Set white and black points
PAGE 4: Essential Photoshop Curves Techniques – 04 The amazing S-curve
PAGE 5: Essential Photoshop Curves Techniques – 05 Making selective adjustments
PAGE 6: Essential Photoshop Curves Techniques – 06 Tweaking colour channels
PAGE 7: Inside the Photoshop Curves interface

Adobe to stop selling boxed copies of Photoshop CS

jmeyer — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:44:35 +0000

Adobe will cease selling boxed versions of Photoshop CS and the other programs in its Creative Suite software, according to reports.

TechHive quotes an Adobe representative, who confirms that Adobe will now make its Creative Suite programs – which includes Photoshop – available only through digital distribution or cloud service.

The website quotes the rep as saying: “As Adobe continues to focus on delivering world-class innovation through Creative Cloud and digital fulfillment, we will be phasing out shrink-wrapped, boxed versions of Creative Suite and Acrobat products.

“Electronic downloads for Creative Suite and Acrobat products will continue to be available—as they are today—from both Adobe.com, as well as reseller and retail partners. We are in the process of notifying our channel partners and customers, as plans solidify in each region.”

Furthermore, according to Adobe resellers Toolfarm and Softwaremedia the software giant will stop selling boxed copies of Creative Suite as of 1 May 2013.

The move comes as Adobe’s Creative Cloud software subscription service has recorded incredible growth. Adobe claims it receives 8000 new subscriptions for the service every week.

Adobe’s Creative Cloud service offers users access to all of the same software’s the boxed versions at monthly rates, and allows users to receive software updates the moment they’re released.

Via: PetaPixel

Photoshop CS2: is Adobe offering a free download? (UPDATE)

jmeyer — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:36:19 +0000

UPDATE 8 January: It appears Adobe is not offering free downloads of CS2. According to a post on Adobe’s forums on behalf of Adobe Systems…

You have heard wrong! Adobe is absolutely not providing free copies of CS2!

What is true is that Adobe is terminating the activation servers for CS2 and that for existing licensed users of CS2 who need to reinstall their software, copies of CS2 that don’t require activation but do require valid serial numbers are available. (Special serial numbers are provided on the page for each product download.)

ORIGINAL STORY

Adobe appears to be offering free and legal downloads of Photoshop CS2, the older version of its popular photo editing software, according to a new page on the company’s website.

News of a possible free Photoshop CS2 download came to light when PetaPixel highlighted a new page on Adobe’s website titled “CS2 Downloads“, where people can download its older Creative Suite 2 software, which includes Photoshop CS2.

The CS2 Downloads page is down at the moment, but it was live long enough for fans of the photo editing software to take screen grabs of the page.

From these images (via PetaPixel) you can see that Photoshop CS2 and each of the other programs from Creative Suite 2 is being offered for download alongside a universal serial number for people to use.

However, because the page is no longer working it remains unclear if enthusiastic fans of the software have crashed the site or the page was simply an error on Adobe’s part.

We placed calls to representatives at Adobe and will update this story as more information becomes available.

Adobe CS2 includes Photoshop CS2, InDesign CS2, Illustrator CS2, Adobe ImageReady CS2 and Adobe Version Cue CS2.

Full installation of Adobe CS2 requires 2.62GB of space, and programs like Photoshop CS2 can also be downloaded individually, as can other Adobe products like Photoshop Elements 4/0/5.0.

Photoshop’s High Pass filter: sharpen and soften portraits in all the right places

jmeyer — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:00:02 +0000

The Photoshop High Pass filter can be used to both sharpen and soften an image. This is particularly useful for portraits, where the subtle Photoshop effects help your subject stand out, but the High Pass filter is useful in a number of different photo editing situations (which we’ll explain later).

In this step-by-step Photoshop tutorial we’ll show you how to apply the High Pass filter to a duplicate image layer to isolate the edge detail, and then invert the result. When you blend this layer with the Overlay Blend Mode, the image is softened.

You’ll apply a mask to this layer so you can paint the smoothing effect onto the model’s skin and hair. You’ll then apply the High Pass filter to a second duplicate image layer to isolate the edge detail.

Finally, you’ll blend that detail using the Overlay Blend Mode, and then use another mask to paint this sharpening onto those areas of the image that need sharpening. Here’s how it’s done…

01 Soften the skin
Open your start image. To soften the skin, make a duplicate of the Background Layer by choosing Layer>Duplicate Layer or by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J. Name it ‘Soften’ and click OK. Choose Filter>Other>High Pass, set the Radius to 9 pixels, and click OK. Set the layer Blend Mode to Overlay.

02 Invert the layer
Click Image>Adjustments>Invert to invert the layer so that it softens the image. Hold down Alt and click the Add layer mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel. Target the Brush tool, select a soft round brush, set the foreground colour to white and paint on the skin and wayward hair strands.

03 Sharpen features
Make another duplicate of the Background Layer and drag it above the other layers in the Layers Panel. Name it ‘Sharpen’. Apply the High Pass filter again to this layer, this time using a 4 pixel Radius. Set the layer Blend Mode to Overlay and add a Layer Mask to it (holding down Alt again to fill the mask with black paint). Do not invert this layer.

04 Blend the effects
Using the same brush as before, paint with white on the mask to sharpen features such as the eyebrows, eyes and mouth. If the effect is too severe, paint with grey instead of white. Adjust the Opacity of both the ‘Soften’ and ‘Sharpen’ layers to blend the effect so that it looks natural.

NEXT PAGE: Other uses for the Photoshop High Pass filter

Photoshop effects: add reflections to pictures of water drops

jmeyer — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 15:19:02 +0000

Photoshop effects are often used to correct problems, but in this tutorial we’ll show you how you can use it for more creative endeavours as we improve a macro shot’s content and composition. In the start image, we can see a hint of the petals’ reflection in a water droplet. In theory, we could have positioned our camera to try to fill the droplet with background flowers, or even waited until the other droplets got larger to add more interest. In practice, we can take control over these elements more quickly and effectively using Photoshop to create reflections in pictures of water drops.

To make the shot look more interesting, we’ll show you how to place an entire flower into the droplet, as though a more distant flower is being refracted and distorted by the watery lens.

We’ll also replace the black background with an abstract organic alternative derived from a flower photo.

We’ll kick off by using standard selection tools to select the fibres on the stem of the main flower. These fine details are tricky to select, so we’ll show you how the Refine Edge command’s new Smart Radius tool can help.

Selections often look too sharp and jagged, so we’ll reveal how to smooth and soften them to make copied petals blend in.

We’ll then show you how to select, copy and transplant the largest droplet and create three water lenses, and use Transform tools to make the copied flower look different in each droplet.

To enhance the illusion of distortion, we’ll apply a filter and blend the flowers with existing colours and textures, making a realistic composite image that looks like a natural reflection in pictures of water drops.

How to recreate reflections in pictures of water drops

01 Open the image
Open your start image in Adobe Camera Raw. To maintain a high-quality picture, we’ll start by improving composition and tone here, before opening the shot in the standard Photoshop editor to make more complex and creative tweaks.

02 Crop it down
Note that only a narrow region of the shot is illuminated, and this is where the points of interest – the water droplets – are. To remove the darker areas and make the droplets look larger, select the Crop tool, and click and drag to crop the shot to the dimensions shown above.

03 Tweak colour and tone
Adjust the Exposure slider to +0.55 and lighten the mid-tones by sliding Fill Light to 24. Create a stronger contrast by pushing Blacks to 14. This will enable us to select the delicate white hairs on the stem when adding a new background. Meanwhile, push Vibrance to +49.

04 Modify the brush tip
Click Open Image to edit the modified shot in Photoshop’s standard editor. Double-click the Background Layer thumbnail to unlock it and make it editable. Then choose the Quick Selection tool from the Tool palette and set its Size to 45 and Hardness to 100.

05 Make your selection
Click the black background to select it. Use the Add To Selection option to include the section of background hiding inside the white hairs of the stem. You won’t be able to select the delicate white hairs overlapping the black background with this tool alone! Choose Select>Inverse.

06 Refine the edges
Click the Refine Edge button in the Options bar. In View Mode, hold down the mouse button on the View pop-up and choose On White. Unselected areas should now appear in white. As you can see, the selection edge is sharp and jagged and the delicate hairs have been excluded.

07 Get smart
To refine the selection, tick the Edge Detection command’s Smart Radius box. By dragging the Radius slider to 60 pixels, the edge expands to include the hairs. Fine-tune the edge by grabbing  the Refine Radius brush tool. Spray over the hairs  with a Size 35 brush tip.

08 Create layer mask
To make the selected edge blend more effectively with a new background, pop Smooth up to 9 in the Adjust Edge section. To enable us to modify the selection later, set the Output to New Layer with Layer Mask. Click OK. The black layer mask hides the background, but leaves the flower visible.

NEXT PAGE: Steps 9-18

How to use Photoshop Actions for instant effects

jmeyer — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:00:36 +0000

Learning how to use Photoshop Actions might not be the most glamorous aspect of creative post-processing, but integrate them into your workflow and you’ll save bags of time by applying your favourite special effects in seconds.

An Action is essentially a recording of a Photoshop process (you can only record Actions in CS; newer versions of Elements enable you to play Actions, but the options are limited).

In this Photoshop tutorial we’ll create a cool retro effect by editing the red, green and blue colour channels on a Curves adjustment layer and show you how to use Photoshop Actions like this to speed up your photo editing times.

Our image before we ran an Action

The result works a treat, but it’s time-consuming if you want to apply it to lots of images. Record it as an Action, however, and it can be applied to other shots with a single click. And as if this wasn’t clever enough, you can apply an Action to an entire batch of images.

You can share your Actions online, or download Actions created by others.

How to use Photoshop Actions

01 Get set up
Go to Window > Actions to open the Actions panel. Start by creating a new Action set, by clicking on the Create New Set button at the bottom of the panel. Name the new set ‘My Retro Actions’, then click the Create Action icon and enter a name for your Action – we’re calling this one ‘Retro Cool’.

02 Record it
Click the Record button, then create the effect. Add a Curves adjustment layer, choose Blue from the channel menu above the curve window, and create an S-curve. Next select Red, and drag a point down in the shadows section of the curve, then select Green, and create a more gentle S-curve in this channel.

03 Pause the Action
Add another Curves layer, leave the channel set to RGB and pull a point down to darken the image. If you want to use different settings for other images, you can configure the Action to enable this. Choose Insert Stop from the Action panel’s fly-out menu and type a prompt in the dialog – in this case ‘Tweak Tones’. This prompt will appear each time you run the Action.

04 Play it again…
When you’ve finished your series of edits, press the Stop button (you don’t have to rush – only actual edits you make are recorded, without pauses). Your new Action will be displayed in the Actions panel; click the Play button to check it works properly.

Image Sharpening: do it the subtle way

jmeyer — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 16:00:30 +0000

Even famous photographers can find it a challenge to capture a perfectly focused photograph, especially when shooting with a camera set to a wide aperture. The resulting shallow depth of field can make it difficult to get all of the key areas in focus, which makes image sharpening in the digital darkroom all the more imperative.

Some cameras use a low-pass filter to help reduce the false moiré-pattern colours produced by complex textures. But this in-camera filter tends to blur the image, producing a soft-focus result. It’s also hard to tell if a shot is actually sharp when you view it on the camera’s LCD screen.

There’s no substitute for getting a shot sharp in-camera, but Photoshop Elements does have a range of commands designed to help you reduce blur and reveal more of the image’s delicate details. The image sharpening commands work by increasing the contrast around the edges of features such as eyelashes and hairs, giving them a more defined appearance.

Our original image

The downside to image sharpening is that it can also add unsightly artefacts. For example, if you increase the spread of the contrast change it can add ugly white or dark halos around objects.

Image sharpening can also emphasise things such as the picture noise produced by a high ISO setting. It’s all a case of getting the balance right.

Here, we’ll show you some tips and techniques you can use to tease out extra detail from a soft-focus shot while keeping ugly artefacts at bay.

01 Duplicate your image
Open your image. If the Layers palette isn’t visible, go to Window>Layers to open it. Drag the Background layer’s thumbnail onto the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to copy it. By sharpening the copy you can compare it to the softer start image.

02 Zoom in on key areas
To see the how sharp the shot really is, grab the Zoom tool from the Tools palette. Tick the 1:1 button in the options bar to see the photo’s actual pixels. Hold down the spacebar to activate the Hand tool and drag the image to view the eyes. Delicate details such as the eyelashes look a little soft.

03 Tidy up blemishes
If you sharpen the image now, you’ll exaggerate the smudges of make-up under the eyes. To remove them, grab the Spot Healing Brush from the Tools palette. Choose a soft round tip from the Brush Preset picker with a Size of 35 pixels. Tick the Content-Aware option. Click on the smudges to remove them.

04 Recognise artefacts
Go to Enhance>Unsharp Mask. Increase Amount up to 500% and Radius to 10 to create typical sharpening artefacts. The shadows are clipped and lack detail, while highlights are blown out. White halos cling to the contrasting black eye shadows, and even picture noise and freckles have been exaggerated.

05 Remove halos
Pop Radius down to 2.0. This stops the edge contrast change from spreading too far, which helps to avoid halo artefacts. Reduce the Amount to 143% to make a less drastic contrast change. Tick the Preview box to compare the sharpened shot with the original version.

06 Increase Threshold
When sharpening, you can end up exaggerating image noise and low-contrast blemishes such as freckles. By increasing the Threshold slider’s value you can get the Unsharp Mask to leave the low-contrast areas (such as of patches of skin) alone, while still sharpening darker details such as eyelashes.

07 Adjust Sharpness
Click the Unsharp Mask’s Cancel button. Let’s try Enhance>Adjust Sharpness instead. This newer command gives you a larger preview area and a few extra controls. Set Amount to 130% and Radius to 2.0. Hold the mouse button down on the preview window and then let go to see a before and after version.

08 Explore extra options
For a more subtle sharpening effect, set the Remove drop-down menu to Lens Blur. This creates a less harsh contrast change, which helps stop darker details becoming clipped. The More Refined box sounds good, but it tends to reveal more unwanted picture noise. Leave it unticked.

09 Stop motion blur
When shooting a moving subject you risk capturing motion blur. The Motion Blur drop-down menu is designed to help you counteract this problem using an angle slider, but this is a fairly ineffectual tool. It’s better to shoot with a faster shutter speed to avoid motion blur, and then brighten up the under-exposed shot.

10 Compare before and after
Leave the Remove option set to Lens Blur and click OK. Click the Background copy layer’s eye icon on and off to show the sharpened layer and compare it with the original Background image. The eyes now look much sharper, but you can also see unwanted noise in the soft-focus areas of the girl’s hat.

11 Add a layer mask
The top of the hat is well out of focus, due to a shallow depth of field, so you can’t sharpen it. You’ll need to limit the sharpening to key features such as her eyes, nose and mouth. This will keep sharpening artefacts to a minimum. Click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

12 Sharpen key features
Select the Background copy layer’s mask. Hit Ctrl+I to turn it black and hide the sharpened layer, revealing the blurred original. Grab the Brush tool and select a soft 300-pixel tip. Click the mask. Set the Foreground colour to white, then spray to sharpen the key features while leaving the blurred hat unsharpened.

Master the Photoshop Unsharp Mask tool in 10 minutes or less

jmeyer — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 10:45:03 +0000

There are many reasons why you might want to sharpen a photo, but generally it will be to bring soft areas into greater focus. By using built in tools in Photoshop, you can increase the crispness of your images. Both Photoshop Elements and Photoshop CS2 and above come with sharpening tools you can use to enhance your pics. In the quick guide below we’ll show you how the Photoshop Unsharp Mask can give your print-ready photos.

1. Open Unsharp Mask

Open your start image and zoom to 100 per cent. Now select Unsharp Mask by going to Enhance> UnsharpMask in Photoshop Elements or Filter> Sharpen>UnsharpMask in Photoshop CS. Unsharp Mask works by boosting contrast along the edges of an image. The Amount slider is pretty self-explanatory, controlling the amount of sharpening applied.

2. The Radius slider

Increasing the Radius value increases the number of pixels from the edges in your photo that are sharpened. The larger the radius, the more extreme the result. Try a setting of between 0.9 and 1.2 if you‘re sharpening to improve screen display and between 1.5 and 2.0 if you‘re sharpening for print.

3. The Threshold slider

When the Threshold slider is at 0 every pixel will be sharpened. Increasing the slider will decrease the number of pixels that are sharpened by telling Photoshop to ignore pixels that are similar in contrast to the edge pixels. Avoid going higher than 20.

4. Smart previewing

There‘s a small preview window in the Unsharp Mask window, but it‘s far more sensible to just move the Unsharp Mask window to the side and look at the effect on the photo itself. Check and uncheck the Preview button to monitor the changes you make

5. Balancing act

It can be hard to find the right level of sharpening - you don‘t want to oversharpen in case artefacts (digital noise) or halos (bright lines around the edges of objects) appear, but you don‘t want a ‘soft‘ photo either. Aim to find the best combination of sliders.

6. Push it up

To find the right level of sharpening try setting a high amount, such as 200 per cent, and then experimenting with the Radius and Threshold sliders until you‘re happy. You can then decrease the amount of sharpening to a safer level. Click OK to apply.

How to set up a Photoshop Action to edit multiple photos

jmeyer — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:24:04 +0000

When you shoot dozens of similar shots in the same location, you may end up needing to tweak loads of nearly identical photos.  For example, a batch of shots may need tones altered to increase the contrast range or a boost in colour saturation to increase impact. You could slog through each photo one at a time, tweaking contrast using a Curves Adjustment Layer and then adding a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer to boost colour, but this repetitive editing process could take ages. A faster way to tackle a group of photos with similar photo-fixing needs is to condense multiple editing commands into a single Photoshop Action.

By creating a Photoshop Action you only need to perform your time-consuming tonal adjustment and colour tweaking edits once. You can then unleash your multiple photo-fixing commands on any photo with the click of a button or the press of a ‘hot key’.

In effect, this will save you hours of boring and repetitive photo editing work because you can unleash your action on any shot – then sit back, relax and watch Photoshop do all the hard work for you.

In the following tutorial, we’ll show you how to create a new Action in Photoshop CS3 or higher to boost the contrast and colour of a photo.

You’ll also discover how to activate your Action by dragging a problem shot (or group of images) onto a desktop-dwelling Droplet.

01 Diagnose the problem
Open the image you want to edit. To view the shot’s tonal range go to Window>Histogram. This histogram is typical of an underexposed photo (learn how to read a histogram). You’ll see plenty of pixels in the shadow and midtones, but not many in the highlights section to the right of the graph.

02 Action stations
To create a photo-fixing Action, go to Window> Actions and click the Create New Action icon. In the New Action window, name the action Tonal Tweak and set its Function Key to F2, creating a ‘hot key’ to activate it later. Tick the Shift box, then click Record.

03 Start recording
The Tonal Tweak action will appear at the bottom of the Actions palette and the Record icon will turn red. In the Layers palette, click on Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer and choose Curves. This event  is added to the list in the Actions palette, to the right.

04 Boost contrast
The Curves command is full of presets that give a shot more contrast. Click on the Preset drop-down and choose Medium Contrast. This places control points on the curve that brighten highlights and darken shadows. Reposition the shadow control point so that Output is 32 and Input is 37. Click OK.

05 Boost colour
Click the Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon and add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. Boost your colours by changing Master Saturation to +12. Click OK then click Stop in the Actions palette. All your edits are stored in this action.

06 Test the Photoshop Action
To test your new Photoshop action, press F12 (File>Revert) to return the shot to its original state. Select the Tonal Tweak action in the Actions palette and hit the Play button. The Adjustment Layers you recorded will now alter the shot’s tones and colours instantly.

Get the retro photo effect in Photoshop

jmeyer — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:00:28 +0000

Our original image

Retro is all the rage these days, and particularly the retro photo effect. Just because you shoot with a digital camera, though, doesn’t mean you can’t still get this lovely vintage film effect in your images.

In the quick Photoshop tutorial below we show you how you can get the retro photo effect in 4 easy steps.

Step 1: Curves Adjustment Layer
Click on the Create new fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel. To add some contrast, apply a slight S-curve to the main RGB curve by dragging the top right of the curve up, then the bottom left of the curve down.

Step 2: Adjust colour curves
Now choose the Red channel from the drop-down menu, and apply a similar S-curve to the RGB channel. Select the Green channel and do the same. Select the Blue channel, but this time, apply a reverse curve by dragging the top right down and the bottom left up, then close the Curves adjustment window.

Step 3: Add a cool tone
Click on the Create new fill or Adjustment Layer in the Tools Panel, and then select the Photo Filter option. In the Filter drop-down, select Cyan to give the image a cooler tone, and then change the Density to 10%. Finally, from the Create new fill or Adjustment Layer, choose Hue/Saturation.

Step 4: Adjust the colours
In Master channel of the Hue/Saturation adjustment window, drag Saturation slider to -20 to reduce overall saturation. Select Red from the drop-down and drag Saturation to -10, select Green and set to -20 Saturation and finally +10 Saturation in the Blue channel.

Our final version