[Damon]

The Wiz had asked about learning the ins and outs of post processing images in the Digital Picture Thread, and I thought it might be good for us to have a thread where we could share some advice on using Photoshop with newer users out there. Feel free to share any techniques you use, tips, or general advice about using Photoshop in this thread. With some effort and time, we could have a nice little thread that we could all learn from.

Where to begin. The most challenging thing I found when teaching new people at Corbis processing techniques is where to start. So I will go over a few basic things with RAW processing first, that everyone should know when starting out.

1. Shoot and process in a RAW format. If your camera can shoot RAW, do it! This will give you the ultimate file for correction in post, and is much better than working on JPEG. In RAW you can change elements like color temperature and exposure which you would never be able to manipulate in JPEG the same way. There is no compression to a RAW file, so all the data is there as it was the moment it was captured by your digital camera sensor. Anything that the camera applies after capture, can be manipulated. The only things you can't manipulate in RAW would be focus and depth of field as those are set by the camera hardware itself at the time of capture. By shooting RAW, I don't have to worry so much about color temperature, for example, as I can correct it in post. That is a huge help for me with concert shots as color temperature is all over the place at any given time during a show.

2. Do major color fixes to temperature and exposure in RAW (ACR, adobe camera raw is the name for the app that opens raws, I will use this term from here out). You can set a white point in ACR using the white balance tool (eye dropper in top menu), click the tool, find a nice light gray tone and click it. White balance is subjective, and varies depending on the shot, so you need to play around with it to get it to look "right", you can try clicking on various neutral tones in the photo with the white balance tool to see the differences. I also will often just use the color temperature sliders in ACR to set my white balance, and eyeball it. Your looking for a color balance that is pleasing, and fits the shot, so your eyes are the best tool you have for this.

3. Crop in RAW. I always do my crops in ACR before opening in photoshop. Mainly because the crop tool in ACR is more functional, lets you set ratio's easier, and let's you undo the crop if you so desire at any point.

4. Contrast Curves. Using curves is something you will get very familiar with if you use Photoshop for long. Before raw processing we had to apply all correction using curves, usually in layers within Photoshop. Now with ACR you can do primary curves adjustments to the raw files before they open in Photoshop. The simplest curve is a contrast curve (usually looks like a shallow "S" shape). In ACR select the curve menu (second item) and you will see a histogram with a line going from one corner to the other.

http://www.sally-jane.co.uk/tutorials/bridge-acr-images/acr-curves.jpg

You can set and manipulate points along that line to adjust color in highlights (top of curve), mid tones (middle of curve), and shadows (bottom of curve). Set a point in the middle, and then one a little over halfway between the middle and bottom, and another point half way between the middle and the top. You can then pull the points to get your desired contrast, usually you would pull the bottom point down slightly, and push the top point up, thus giving that slight "S" shape to the curve.

http://digitaldailydose.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/contrast.jpg

You can set curves for all channels (RGB) in ACR, or do curves for individual channels via the curves menu within Photoshop. You can also use the eyedropper and select a point on your photo, and it will show you where that selection lies within the histogram (in Photoshop, not ACR). Play with this tool, and play with it a lot. Experiment with changing the curve in each channel. It's a great way to remove overbearing red tones, or if things look "green", etc, etc.

Tip: In ACR you can save any curve you make as a preset. So if you have a batch of images that all need the same curve applied, save it as a preset and then apply it to them all.


Trick: Faking a HDR file. One thing that has become a little too popular, is HDR images. This is taking multipe exposures and then blending them together for a super exposure where all highlights, midtones, and shadows are exposed to their maximum potential, often creating surreal looking images, also knows as "The Harry Potter" effect. While it's best to have three captures for a true HDR image, you can sort of fake this using ACR and Photoshop and no HDR files. Here's what you do.

1. Open your image in Photoshop. Open it as a Smart Object (hit shift key when you open for a shortcut). Go the layers menu and choose New Smart Object via copy. This will create a duplicate layer without linking it to the background layer. Double click on the duplicate layer thumbnail and it will open the smart object in ACR. Now you can change the exposure of it, drop your exposure so your exposing only highlights (shadows will be blocked, i.e. most of your image will be dark). Repeat this process if neccessary, except exposing the shadows and blowing out all the highlight (i.e. most of your image will be white). Since these are opened as smart objects, the changes in ACR are applied to the open images in Photoshop. Go back to Photoshop and go to the layers pane. Bring up the Layer Style menu, and blending options. There are two blend sliders at the bottom of this menu that will allow you to blend either darker or lighter areas from the layer below the one selected. When you select the slider, hit option (or alt on a PC), this splits the blending slider and allows for a better blending of the layers. That's the quick way of doing it, and often times it's all that is needed (you might need to touchup a few spots in the photo which can be done with a layer mask, adding a mask will cover the blending and show the original (good for problem spots where something is either blown out or shadows blocked). The other way of blending these three images is using purely layer masks to paint over and blend the various areas of the photo that need it.

This is a process I use often for my concert shots. People wonder how I get these exposure that look even, and perfect. Well, that's my secret!


That's all I can type for now, haha. I will be back with more to be sure, and feel free to ask any questions within this thread as well.

[Jeff Goldberg]

http://www.oceansofosyrus.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/champagne.gif Cheers for taking the time to type that out, Damon. I'm sure many-an-Osyran will appreciate it!

[Zander]

OK, I need help prease.



I can't remember how I did something a couple years ago. :cowboy: :oops:


Here's the deal. We've got an image rotator built into our website software, and I'm trying to update those images. I've gotten all of the current images, and I've been creating new images in the same size, so I'm good there. The only thing I can't get right is the effect I used to blend images. :wallbash:



For instance, here's the original:

 rotate-3.php.gif (231.33K)
Number of downloads: 0



And here's the one I did today:

 1.jpg (177.7K)
Number of downloads: 0



Aside from the B/W to color difference, what did I do differently? The blend above is so much smoother than the one I did. This looks like dog mess, and I need to fix it, stat. For this recent one, I placed the four images in place, each with its own layer. Then, I created a "blending" layer, where I used a soft brush on dissolve to create the "cloud/smoke" effect, which ended up looking very uncloudy and not very smoky.

I did something differently last time and I, for the life of me, can't remember.



Halp?




ETA: I really wish I had the original file so I could just swap out the pics, but I lost them. :down:


And I think I'm going to keep it B/W. Easier to keep uniform...

This post has been edited by Zander: 10 March 2010 - 09:58 PM

[seisouso]

Zander - I'd probably have done the first one with layer masks. I'd have lined the 4 photos up, then created layer masks and used the gradient tool to create that nice smooth transition.

ETA - nice thread, Damon. I'm sure there are thousands of tips and tricks we have around here. One thing I've recently delved into is LAB colour. It's a bit too much to explain in a post but it gives a lot of flexibility around colour correction and colour manipulation that is next to impossible in RGB or CMYK.

This post has been edited by seisouso: 10 March 2010 - 10:25 PM

[Zander]

seisouso, on 10 March 2010 - 10:23 PM, said:

Zander - I'd probably have done the first one with layer masks. I'd have lined the 4 photos up, then created layer masks and used the gradient tool to create that nice smooth transition.

Well, that sounds familiar, but I've completely forgotten how to do that. :oops:




AHAHAHAHA I think I got it. Thanks dude!!

This post has been edited by Zander: 10 March 2010 - 10:58 PM

[Zander]

 1.jpg (103.1K)
Number of downloads: 6




Boom.



Thanks for the help Seisuoso!!

[seisouso]

[Kevin]

That is just completely fucking nuts.

[nubjamin]

Kevin, on 24 March 2010 - 09:28 AM, said:

That is just completely fucking nuts.

yeah, that's industry-changing right there.

[ShakestheClown]

That is just amazing. I can never allow my clients to know that content fill exists, or I may be losing some serious $$$ in the future.

[nubjamin]

ShakestheClown, on 24 March 2010 - 10:27 AM, said:

That is just amazing. I can never allow my clients to know that content fill exists, or I may be losing some serious $$$ in the future.

this is what i meant by industry-changing. if this works as advertised, photoshopping as a skill just became a much less valuable commodity. which really sucks for those who make their living with it.

[73eyes]

I'd be interested in seeing those images up close. Also, how long would that process take on a standard graphic design machine?

But... yeah. Wow. :blink:

[Zander]

WANT

[Damon]

Another new tool in the next PS release. Really useful, and looks they brought in a tool normally associated with video editing.

CS5 is looking to be a must have. The content aware tools (which I don't think are industry killers) will be awesome as well.

[Zander]

I agree, the new technologies aren't industry killers, but they're definitely industry changers. The Puppet tool just makes it easier to photoshop your boss blowing a tranny at the office xmas party. Sounds like someone's getting a raise!!

[Damon]

Zander, on 02 April 2010 - 10:40 AM, said:

I agree, the new technologies aren't industry killers, but they're definitely industry changers. The Puppet tool just makes it easier to photoshop your boss blowing a tranny at the office xmas party. Sounds like someone's getting a raise!!

Yeah, exactly http://www.oceansofosyrus.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif

Having worked in this business, most photoshop work done by labs is image cleaning and color correction, not reconstruction. More time is spent doing proofs even, than photoshopping a final file. And that was 5 years ago. It will though speed up some stuff greatly, and at the same time I'm sure something will fill that void. Most image editors at my old job had several things they did, including me. I photoshopped files for maybe 2 hours per day, and spent 6 hours working on development and image archival. Other people would spend 6 hours on photoshop, but do 2 hours of print production, or whatever.

I think the photoshop guru/developer is the best combo, most useful in a photo house as they can use you to build web, program, etc, etc. Photoshop skill alone isn't enough for most jobs that require it.

[Damon]

To add to the thread in general a tutorial. This one is on how to get the miniature or "model" effect from a standard, non tilt shift photo. They also at the end give some advice on photo selection. I know people like this little visual trick, it's easy to do, and gives you some good easy use of a quick mask if you've never played with masks before.

Creating a miniature look in photoshop

[ShakestheClown]

Damon, on 02 April 2010 - 10:58 AM, said:

I think the photoshop guru/developer is the best combo, most useful in a photo house as they can use you to build web, program, etc, etc. Photoshop skill alone isn't enough for most jobs that require it.

It's not an industry killer you're right. But, I do make a fair amount of money working images that the content aware tools are erase from my billable hours.

[Damon]

Good CS5 review.

Sounds like next month is release. What's great is this will be my first upgrade as I purchased CS4, so I won't feel completely broke after getting it (like I did with CS4 Suite....ouch).

Instant HDR scares me, it looks like "instant harry potter effect" and the whole HDR thing is so overused (and misused) now that I fear millions of shitty cross processed looking images will hit the net shortly after CS5 releases. It does however, peak my interest since you can't bracket concert light shots and have it work, so a faked HDR lighting image could be pretty cool. I'm looking forward to seeing the results, but still skeptical about the tool in general.

Big news is RAW 6. Apparently it will work incredibly well with my ID MK IV's already stellar noise reduction. High ISO shots are just getting better by the minute.

Mini bridge within photoshop is sweet, big time saver.

[Zander]

Are all the new toys shown above available in the new CS5?