ESSENTIAL GUIDES, TIPS & TUTORIALS

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Master Photoshop and improve your

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 The Complete

User Manual

Your photo editing journey starts here!

Let us show you just how powerful Photoshop is,

while discovering a range of tools and techniques
that can make excellent digital artists of us all. Even
if you are a beginner, Photoshop is easier to learn
than you might imagine. This guide begins with the
various tools and editing basics that can get you
up and running in no time. The second half
concentrates on some creative projects that will
expand on what you’ve learnt and have you
creating new images just like a digital professional.

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 6 32 Selection tools
Welcome to
34 Your first layer mask
Photoshop 36 Your first set of adjustments
8 Main interface 38 Your first type tool project
10 The toolbar
12 Menus 40 Learn
14 Keyboard shortcuts
and Improve
16 Photoshop preferences guide
18 The Photoshop home screen 42 Adjusting exposure 54 Photoshop
20 Your first PSD document 44 Contrast and saturation
Essentials
22 Open and save your first image 46 Gradient fill & paint bucket
24 Placing and importing images 48 Curves and levels 56 Non-destructive enhancement 1
26 Using layers 50 Cropping and resizing 58 Non-destructive enhancement 2
28 Your first composition 52 Content-aware fill and scale 60 Brushes, pencil and eraser
30 Your first cut out 62 Making selections
64 Modifying selections
66 Quick mask mode
68 Healing brush tools
70 The Clone stamp tool
72 Perspective cloning

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74 Enhance 92 Plugins 112 Creative
Your Skills Round-up Project Guides
76 The Pen tool and paths 94 Manual install 114 Artwork compositing
78 Adding a graduated filter 94 Photoshop install 122 Dual lighting effect
80 Correcting lens distortion 94 Photoshop Elements 130 HDR panoramas
82 Panorama stitching 95 Luminar 4 136 Perfect portraits
84 Colour replacement 96 PixelSquid 142 The midas touch
96 StockSolo 148 Enhancing your photos
97 Blow Up 3 154 White to any colour
97 Aurora HDR

86 Your Questions 98 Adobe 160 Glossary

Answered Camera Raw of Terms
Sometimes, Photoshop 100 Processing raw files
may throw you a curve ball 102 Camera raw
and do something you may 104 The toolbar
not expect. It may even throw
106 The edit menu
up errors you’ve not seen
108 Raw workflow
before. Don’t worry, we have
a section that might help you
out if you’re in trouble.

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6 www.pclpublications.com
 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

Welcome to
Photoshop
Over the years, Adobe has continually refined and
honed the tools available in Photoshop, but at its
heart, the basics have always remained the same.
You can simply crop a photo, create a complex and
multi-layered artwork or anything in between. Let’s
take a look at what Photoshop is all about.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP MAIN INTERFACE

Main Interface
This is Photoshop’s
graphic user front end

P hotoshop 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.

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.

USEFUL TIP
Active Image
@V\JHUZL[\W`V\YV^U^VYRZWHJLZ[VYLÅLJ[ The new interface provides a larger area
the way you work and save them so that you
to work on your images, with a darker
can quickly switch from one to another.
background colour.

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 MAIN INTERFACE WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

Rulers Palettes Workspace Option

Use these to accurately measure positions There are a number of interchangeable Choose between preset workspace
on your image and drag guidelines from palettes available, which you can choose arrangements, including 3D workspaces,
here to help line up text and layers. from the Window menu. zoom and Share for Commenting.

Fly-out Palettes Layer Palette Layer Options

You can set up your own custom list of Here you’ll find the layers of the image you’re Here you can add effects, layer styles,
frequently used palettes and access them by currently working on. Layers at the top of the adjustments and other options to your
clicking on these buttons. stack will appear above those below. currently active layers.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP THE TOOLBAR

The Toolbar
Let’s take a look at Photoshop’s main editing tools
T he 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.

Move Eyedropper
Used to move pixel information on The Eyedropper and its extensive
the active layer or selection. You list of alternatives provide you with
can also create multiple layouts tools that can tell you more about the
using the Artboard feature. image you’re working on, such as
colour values, sizes and object count.

Marquee
The Marquee is used to select an Spot Healing
area of the active layer. Alternative Another tool that has seen some
options include an elliptical shape changes in the latest version, the
and single row or column selections. Spot Healing Tool is for removing
small blemishes such as stray hairs
or dust spots from your images.

Lasso
The Lasso is also used to make
area selections from the active Brush
layer by clicking or drawing a line This is a basic but useful tool for all
around the area to be selected. types of image editing, painting and
drawing. Alternatives include the
equally useful Pencil Tool, as well as
colour replacement and mixing.
Magic Wand
This tool can select an area based
on its colour. The alternative option
is Quick Selection, or the newly Clone Stamp
updated Object Selection Tool that Clone Stamp is used to copy one
scans the image automatically. area of an image onto another. It
can remove any unwanted element
in your image.

Crop
The Crop Tool has seen a major
overhauls in the past, but it still does History Brush
the same job. Use it to select one The History Brush can be used to
area of an image and discard the rest. selectively restore certain areas of
an image to a previous state.

Frame Tool
The Frame Tool can be used to create Eraser
placeholder frames for images. You As the name implies, the Eraser Tool
can create any kind of shape and is a special brush that can delete an
drop an image into it. area of an image, layer or selection.

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 THE TOOLBAR WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

Gradient Zoom
The Gradient Tool can apply a fill-in This zooms in to an area of the image.
to an area that fades gradually from Again it is most often used via a
one colour to another. shortcut, in this case CTRL + or CTRL -.

Smudge Edit Toolbar

The Smudge Tool and its options, This tool enables you to customise
can be used to blend and alter your toolbar to add or remove tools to
colours and details in the image. your specific requirements.

Burn Switch Colour

Burn and its alternatives Dodge and Clicking on the first icon sets the
Sponge, are based on photographic colours to their defaults. The other
darkroom techniques and are used swaps the background and
to selectively lighten, darken images. foreground colours over.

Pen Set Colour

The Pen Tool is used to draw Clicking here brings up the
smooth curves for lines or colour chooser palette, which
selections, using something lets you choose the foreground
called Bezier curves. They can or background colours.
produce great results.

Quick Mask
The Quick Mask mode is a
Type great way of making complex
The Type Tool is another area that selections using the drawing and
has continued to receive various painting tools.
updates and overhauls and is now
part of a powerful text system.

Screen Mode
Click here to switch between the
Path Selection current screen mode and a full-
Paths are used for many purposes screen view of your current image.
in Photoshop. Use this tool and its
alternative to select a path to use.

USEFUL TIP
Line
The Line Tool and its alternatives Most of the tools in the toolbar
are used to create shapes and have alternative options,
paths on your images. It is very denoted by the small arrow
below and right of the icon.
useful for graphics work and adding
Click and hold on the icon to
arrows and custom shapes.
see the pop-up alternative
menu. This diagram shows
the alternative menus for each
tool. You can move the toolbar
Hand around by dragging the border
The Hand Tool is used to navigate at the top, or switch back to the
around a large image. It is most old two-column look by clicking
often used via the space bar. the double arrow.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP MENUS

One look at the menus and you

Menus begin to understand Photoshop’s
complexity and versatility
T he 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

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
File Rotation, but the most
The most important options here are important thing you’ll find here
New… to create a new document, is the Adjustments sub-menu,
Open… to open your file, Save
to save your current project in its
default file format and location and
Save As… which gives you the
option to save in a different format
or location and to change the file Edit
name. Also in the File menu are the The Edit menu has many features Layer
important Automate and Scripts you’ll find familiar if you use a which Adobe could probably Layers are a vital feature of
sub-menus, which provide advanced word processor, including Copy, have made into a separate Photoshop. The most important
batch processing and automated Paste and Cut functions and even main menu in its own right. options here though are New,
editing options. a spelling checker, although you’ll Under Adjustments you’ll find which lets you create and
probably find it quicker to use all your main image controls, name a new layer and New
the keyboard shortcuts for these. such as Brightness/Contrast, Adjustment Layer, which adds
You’ll also find the useful features Levels, Curves, Hue/Saturation a non-destructive editing layer
Fill, Stroke, Content-aware Scale, and many more. You’ll find to your image. The Merge and
Puppet Warp and Free Transform, many of these duplicated on Flatten options can also be
as well as the colour profiles and the Adjustment Layer palette. found here along with Mask and
Preferences sub-menu. Slice options.

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 MENUS WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

Type Filter View Window

Type Filter
The latest version of Photoshop Photoshop CS6 and Creative Cloud View
includes many new text saw a major overhaul of the Filters The View menu is home to the
presentation and handling menu, with many new options, basic viewing controls such as
options. Most of these can be including the amazing Adaptive zoom level, but again you’ll want
found in the fly-out Character Wide Angle feature. There’s the to control those using shortcuts
Window
This isn’t a menu you’ll be using
and Paragraph panels on the ever-popular Liquify filter, automatic to save time. You’ll also find the constantly, but it does hold some
right of the screen or the Panels lens distortion correction, as well very useful controls for the Snap very useful features, such as the
option. Others can be found as a huge range of other filters and functions, including guide lines, Arrange and Workspace sub-menus,
here, including 3D text, warping effects. Make sure you don’t go too essential when you’re laying which allow you to control the layout
and special foreign language wild though, most of them are best out a more complex design or of tabs, windows and the various tool
options and glyphs. used sparingly! composing text on an image. palettes and panels.

Select Select 3D 3D
The Select menu contains the main This is one of the more recent
tools that let you control any or all additions to the Photoshop
selections that are currently active workspace. The 3D menu lets
within your current document. you turn your document into a 3D
Whether you’ve got the Lasso environment where you can turn text
Tool active, Quick Selection or into 3D objects, import 3D geometry
Magic Wand, you can modify and and use lighting tools to create works
transform those selections here. of 3D art and computer generated
You can also select all your layers imagery. You can even modify your
or just items in selected layers. object’s surface colours and textures.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Keyboard USEFUL TIP

Learning the keyboard shortcuts
will speed up your editing and you
can also set up your own in the Edit
menu. Just be aware of creating

Shortcuts
‘shortcut collisions’ where a custom
shortcut is the same as a current
default one.

There’s always a quicker way of doing

almost everything in Photoshop
O ne 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 already have their own default shortcuts. You combination is already used by another shortcut
menu at the bottom of the Edit menu, although can easily change these, or even add your own you’ll see a notification warning you of this and
naturally it has its own keyboard shortcut, new ones. To apply a shortcut to an operation, asking if you want to proceed with the change. If
Alt+Shift+Ctrl+K. You’ll find an exhaustive list first locate it in the list and then click in the space you click Accept the new shortcut will be applied
of all Photoshop functions, broken down into to the right of the name. You’ll see a small text immediately. Take care when making your own
category headings matching the names of the window appear and the next key or combination shortcuts that you don’t accidentally overwrite
main menus. You’ll find that many operations of keys that you press will appear here. If the some useful defaults.

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 KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

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.

CREATE NEW DOCUMENT REDO LAST STEP INVERT SELECTION PASTE FROM CLIPBOARD

CREATE NEW LAYER LEVELS ZOOM IN VIEW COPY TO CLIPBOARD

CLOSE CURRENT DOCUMENT CURVES ZOOM OUT VIEW CUT TO CLIPBOARD

CLOSE ALL DOCUMENTS INCREASE BRUSH SIZE FIT ON SCREEN FREE TRANSFORM

SAVE CURRENT DOCUMENT DECREASE BRUSH SIZE 100% ZOOM TURN SNAP ON OR OFF

SAVE AS BRING CURRENT LAYER TO TOP SHOW RULERS SELECT ALL ON CURRENT LAYER

UNDO LAST STEP MOVE CURRENT LAYER UP SHOW OR HIDE GRID DESELECT ALL

TOGGLE LAST STATE MOVE CURRENT LAYER DOWN SHOW OR HIDE GUIDES HELP

Important Note
On a PC the Ctrl key for your On a Mac computer the
shortcuts looks like this on a Ctrl key is replaced by the
standard Windows keyboard. Cmd key on a standard Mac
If you use a PC and you see keyboard. If you use a Mac
an instruction in this title to and you see an instruction in
use a Cmd key, then just use this title to use the Ctrl key,
Ctrl instead. just use your Cmd key instead.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP PHOTOSHOP PREFERENCES GUIDE

Photoshop
Preferences Guide
Here are all the preferences
and what they do
P hotoshop 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

BEFORE

AFTER

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
you here.

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 PHOTOSHOP PREFERENCES GUIDE WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

Under Photoshop CC > Preferences > The next preference option is Interface. The Workspace preferences are fairly
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General (Cmd + K) you will see the list of This is one you are likely to access more simple and let you Auto-Show or Auto-
preferences available. The General preferences than most. This section primarily concerns itself Collapse panels as required without the need to
provide you with options to use some legacy with the appearance of your workspace. The main manually open their properties. The Tools section
features from older versions of Photoshop, Colour Theme and the various colours employed below that allows the use of Tooltips and panning
Clipboard options, Smart Object creation and more. by the screen modes are set here. and zooming options can be turned on or off here.

History Log lets track your actions in Export contains a few options that govern Performance is a key area in which to
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each Photoshop session and then save what format your images are if you choose spend some time as it will greatly speed up
them out as a text file. File Handling offers a set to use the Quick Export function. You can also your work if set up correctly. Here you can control
of options to control the use of Image Previews decide on a Quick Export Location, choose if any how much RAM Photoshop uses and, if your
and File Extensions. You can also adjust the File Metadata is appended to the image format and graphics card is compatible, to allow the use of
Compatibility options such as layered Tiff files. what Colour Space the image will be. advanced Graphics Processor Settings.

Scratch Disks lets you use hard drive Units & Rulers is fairly self-explanatory with You can control the use of Plug-Ins and
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storage as virtual RAM, whilst Cursors lets options for in which units of measurement Type Options in the next two preference
you specify the precision, size and shape of the your Rulers and Type sizes appear. Grids, Grid & sections. Then there is the 3D section where you
Brush Tip. Transparency and Gamut govern the Slices is a useful set of options when you need can set VRAM usage, 3D Overlays and Interactive
transparent, background grid size and in what precise grids added to your document in terms of Rendering. Enhanced Controls for Touch Bar and
colour a Gamut warning will appear. colour and grid line frequency. Technology Previews round out the list.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP THE PHOTOSHOP HOME SCREEN

The Photoshop
Home Screen
We show you what the Photoshop user front
end has on offer in the latest versions
I n the good old days of Photoshop CS, you
had a product that you opened up and
simply started using with nothing else getting
environments that are more than just a list of
recently opened files. Now you can browse
and sort those files and display them in
basic videos on getting started with layers
and cutting out images, to more advanced
topics, you have a library of knowledge at
in the way. These days that is no longer the thumbnail or list form. That’s not all, you also your beck and call. Even creating a new
case. The Adobe Creative Cloud series of have access to Adobe’s online web tutorials document has a huge wealth of choice for
apps now offer user interactive front-end covering every topic you can think of. From every creative need.

USEFUL TIP
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.

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 THE PHOTOSHOP HOME SCREEN WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

When you open Photoshop, rather than In the top left of the screen you can click on Below the Learn option is LR Photos. When
01 02 03
just going direct to the workspace, you the menu items. Home is active by default, you click on this option, it displays a page
are first presented with the Adobe Photoshop but you can click on the Learn button to display of your Lightroom images that are stored online.
CC Home screen. The main part of the window a page of available tutorials from which you can View them and choose which ones you would like
concerns itself with the display of your Recent files choose. At the bottom, there is the option to go to to select for import. They will then download and
in ascending or descending order. Adobe.com for even more. open in Photoshop.

For your reference, in the top left corner is The next option on the left of the Home You can input your own dimensions in the
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the PS icon. If you click on that, it will open screen is Create New. When you click on Width and Height fields and choose a unit
the Photoshop workspace, but no images will be this button the New Document screen will appear. of measurement for your new document. You can
opened. You can start your workflow if needs be, The first screen will list Recent items and the select the Orientation, Resolution, Color Mode and
or you can click on the Home button to return to document sizes available will reflect image sizes even Pixel Aspect Ratio. Then click Create to open
the Home screen once more. you’ve used in the past. the document and start working.

Across the top of the New Document Below the Presets are a number of masking If you click the See Preview button,
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window, you will see a number of Blank Templates, provided free by Adobe, for you you can look at the templates in more
Document Presets from which you can choose. to use. They range from Gallery Frames to Collage detail prior to deciding if you want to download
First is any you have saved yourself, then there are Layouts. When you click on any of the templates, it or not. There are also Presets and making
the Photo presets. These are a range of standard you will see a set of details listed to the right of the Templates for Print, Art & Illustration, Web,
photo print sizes such as 7 x 5 in @ 300ppi. New Document window. Mobile and Film & Video.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP YOUR FIRST PSD DOCUMENT

+1. FirstŏPSD
Document
Let’s start at the very beginning and walk you through
the process of making your very first document
Y ou 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.

BEFORE AFTER

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 YOUR FIRST PSD DOCUMENT WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

If you have never used Photoshop before, If you’ve used Photoshop a few times, your To create a new document, you can either
01 02 03
the first time you open the program you are Home screen will look slightly different. go to the top file menu and choose File >
presented with the Welcome screen giving you the It will display any recent images you have been New (Cmd + N), or simply click on the Create New
option to take a tour, check out the new features working on as a set of thumbnails. You can click button on the left of the Home screen. Either option
or just open an image and get started on your on any thumbnail to open that file and resume will open the New Document screen, ready to start
new project. working on it. your project.

We’ve chosen a 2000 x 2000 pixel When you hit the Create button, a new If you look at the Background layer in
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document. The default resolution is 300 document is created with your settings your layers palette, you will see the small
pixels/inch and in RGB Color mode with White applied from the New Document screen. Since we Padlock icon that indicates the layer is locked. If
Background Contents. If you are not familiar with opted for the Background Contents to be white, the you click on the Padlock icon, you can unlock the
Colour Mode and Colour Profile, you can happily new document will be created with the Background layer and turn it onto a standard, editable layer
stick with the defaults for general use. layer appearing as a locked, white layer. called Layer 0.

Just for comparison, if we start going This time, when your new document That is your first document created. So
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through the new document procedure once appears, it will have a transparent far so good, now, of course, you can start
more, we can also alter the Background Contents background layer, called Layer 1, which will also be populating the document with images and graphics
and, in this case, choose Transparent instead. unlocked and ready to edit. Transparent layers are to create your very own work of art. Don’t worry if
Now, when you hit the Create button, you will have easy to spot since you will see the chequerboard you’ve not tried it before. We can show you how
a different looking document. pattern of white and grey squares. it’s done.

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 OPEN AND SAVE YOUR FIRST IMAGE WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

Since we’ve covered how to create a This calls up a new window where you can Once you have found your image, it is
01 02 03
new document, it seems worthwhile just browse your computer’s folders for any simply a case of either double-clicking the
touching on the other options available. One of stored images. It makes sense to try and keep all image in question, or highlighting it (or several
which is simply to open a base photo. You have the your image files in a centralised repository, rather images at once) and then clicking on the Open
Open option on the Home screen, or, from the top than casting around the darkest corners of your button at the lower right of the browser window.
file menu, you can choose File > Open (Cmd + O). hard drive. They will then open in Photoshop.

If we can step back to the Home screen Rather than just using a standard browser You can click single images and add
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for a moment. Rather than using the File > window, you can use Adobe Bridge to find keywords or you can select images in bulk,
Open menu command, you can choose instead your images, display them, arrange them in date and, in the Keywords section of Bridge, click the
to use the File > Browse in Bridge (Alt + Cmd order and even add specific keywords making New Keyword button and add keywords specific
+ O). Bridge is Adobe’s image management, them that much easier to search for, and find, if to those you have currently highlighted. They will
cataloguing and key wording application. you need them again. then be displayed alongside the images.

In Bridge, you can browse your images When you have found your image, click If you open a Jpeg and do not add any
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in much the same way as in a browser on it to highlight it and then right-click it to new layers, when you save it after editing,
window except you have a lot more control over bring up a context menu where you can choose it will be saved in its original Jpeg format. If,
what you can do with them. You also have a lot from a number of options. In this case, we would however, you make edits that involve layers and
more image data available to you, which is found go for the Open With > Adobe Photoshop 2022 adjustments, then it will need to be saved in PSD
in the Metadata section. (default) option. format to retain those layers.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP 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
I t’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
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
file that retains all the layers and adjustments so useful as an image editing and digital
information within it. We’ve looked at creating manipulation tool for photographers and
new documents from scratch, so now we can designers alike. We will use this tutorial to get
take our newly created blank document, start used to bringing in images and working with
importing images and begin the process of them on their layers.

BEFORE

AFTER

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 PLACING AND IMPORTING IMAGES WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

Opening a single image is a fairly simple To begin, a quick word about the two Secondly, you have the Place Linked option.
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process, which Photoshop makes even methods on offer for imported images. This means you have an image that once
easier thanks to the number of ways you can interact You can use the Place Embedded option, which placed in your document retains a link to the original file
with your files before opening them. Now, having embeds images as Smart Objects that can be that you placed. Now, if you edit the original image, the
made a blank document to your requirements, we’ll edited independently of your active document, but next time you look at your document containing that
go a step further and populate it. are still contained within it. image, it will update to the latest saved version.

Here, we have used File > Place You can now move, scale and rotate the Go to File > Place Embedded again and
04 05 06
Embedded. Start by navigating to the folder image before you commit to finally placing this time choose a second image. We have
with the first image you’re using, highlight it and it on its layer. Click and drag the cover control a skeleton character we want to bring in to a new
then click the Place button, or simply double-click it points to scale the image to fully fill the document. layer. Place this new image, and then use the
to open it in the document on its blank layer. Note Then you can hit Enter on your keyboard to control points to scale the image and also drag it
the layer name changes to the image name. commit the changes. to your preferred position.

Both images, since they are embedded, Right-Click on your layers to call up the You have created a basic document with
07 08 09
are placed as Smart Objects. If you look Context menu. Look down the list and two layers. It might seem quite simple,
in the lower right corner of their thumbnail, you’ll you will see the Rasterize Layer option. When you but this is what makes Photoshop so versatile
see the small icon that denotes a placed Smart select this, you will convert each of the Smart and offers you the chance to take various image
Object. If you are happy with them, you can Objects into normal pixel-based images that now elements and combine them in amazing new
convert them to standard pixels. behave like standard photos. ways to create stunning artworks.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP USING LAYERS

Using Layers
Understanding layers is fundamental to Photoshop editing
T he concept of Layers was first
introduced with Photoshop 3.0 in
1994, and has become the very core of
descending order. Since layers can include
transparency, lower layers can be visible
through higher layers.
or off and delete layers, without affecting the
others. Some people seem to have a hard
time getting their head around the concept
Photoshop image editing, as well as being Effects, adjustments and operations can of layers, so the best way to think of them is
imitated by every other image editing be applied to individual layers, or to all as a pile of glass panels with the elements
program on the market. Layers are exactly the layers at once. You can: move layers that make up the image painted onto them,
what they sound like; the elements of the around relative to one another, change the with you looking down on them from above
image are stacked up and displayed in order of layers in the stack, turn layers on to see how they stack up.

BACK

MIDDLE

Layers have a number of advantages. For one work paths, and then there
thing, the ability to change one element on one are Adjustment layers, which
layer without affecting the other layers means contain embedded commands FRONT
that you can edit your image non-destructively. that affect the layer immediately
For example if you want to perform an operation below. We’ll look at Adjustment
on a layer but you’re not sure how it’s going layers in more detail on the
to turn out, just make a duplicate layer, set the following pages.
original to be invisible, then do your editing on the There is a downside to using
copy. If you don’t like the result, you can simply layers, and that is the file sizes
delete it and go back to the original. they generate. Adding layers and
There are four main types of layer. There are the information that goes along USEFUL TIP
Pixel layers, which contain the graphical elements with them massively increases the size of the file,
of the image. There are Text layers, which so when you’ve finished editing and you want Click on a layer, press and hold the Shift key
contain text information which can be edited to save the picture you’ve created, it’s usually a on your keyboard and click on another layer
to multi-select a number of layers.
and resized. There are Vector layers, which good idea to Flatten the image, which merges all
contain vector information such as shapes and the layers together into a single image.

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 USING LAYERS WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

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 Opacity Layer Filters

Determines how the layer interacts with the Controls how transparent the layer is, and how Choose to display only one type of layer, or all
layer below it. Can be changed for every layer much of the layer below will show through. of them, and by selecting the drop-down you
one by one, or for a group. You can use the slider or numeric value. can select the order in which you show them.

Fill
Similar to Opacity, but only works on pixel
information, ignoring blending options and
layer effects.

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.

Text Layer
There are several different types of layer. Text
layers, not surprisingly, contain text characters.

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
A B C D
button to link the layers. Transform and
Move commands will affect all linked layers.

Visibility Layer Styles Layer Mask

Clicking on the eyeball simply renders the This panel lets you add effects such as Add a mask to a pixel-based layer, to reveal
layer and all its effects invisible. Also, Alt + drop shadow, bevelled edges, inner glow, or conceal information, using black to
left-click to view that layer on its own. gradient overlay and much more. conceal or white to reveal.

A Adjustment Layer B New Group C New Layer D Delete Layer

An alternative to the main layer Creates a new layer group, into Clicking on this button Does exactly what you’d
menu, and here you can add all the which you can drag and drop layers, creates a new blank layer expect it to do. Click to delete the
adjustment effects such as Levels, which helps you to organise layers in a directly above the currently currently active layer, or drag a layer
Brightness and Contrast and Saturation. big complicated composition. active layer. onto the button to delete it.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP YOUR FIRST COMPOSITION

Yŏour First
Composition
This is when you discover the power
of Photoshop
N ow is the chance to get to the nitty gritty
of what Photoshop is all about. Working
with layers in a document and importing
editing program it has become. You can
simply enhance a favourite photo to make
its colours look more vibrant and the details
various images and graphics is a key part of a little sharper, or you can create amazing
how Photoshop functions. Opening a photo compositions by combining various images,
and then adding layers of adjustment or or parts of them, in new and exciting ways
additional elements on top is what makes that will have your viewers wishing they could
Photoshop the incredibly useful image do it too.

BEFORE
AFTER

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 YOUR FIRST COMPOSITION WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

This new artwork starts with the opening If you wanted to, you can keep a browser This means our dropped image will open
01 02 03
of a base image. In this case, we chose window open on your computer that on its own layer, which will be named
File > Open (Cmd + O) and then navigated to contains your images and, rather than going after the title of the file. In this example, an image
where our background image was stored. We have through the open and find procedure, you can of a warrior princess now sits above our base
chosen a pasture background image for our new simply bring the browser window to the front and image on a new layer. Next, we need a little more
composition. Now we can add more elements. drag your next image on top on the base image. background interest to flesh out the scene.

Using the same drag and drop technique, By clicking and holding the mouse over the Since each element is on a separate
04 05 06
we add a mythical creature that sits quite layer containing the horse, we can actually layer, they can be edited and manipulated
nicely in the background. There is one problem drag that layer so that it sits underneath the layer independently of each other. For instance, the
however; the horse now appears to be covering containing the princess. Now, with our figure in the horse might look better if it were the other way
our foreground character. This is when layers foreground and the horse behind her, the image around, so the layer could be flipped horizontally
become so useful. makes more sense. for a different composition if you wanted.

If you go to the layer options palette, you Since both the figure and the horse are One final addition for this example is a
07 08 09
can click on the Create A New Layer button Smart Objects, when we are happy with new layer named ‘mist’, which is placed
and then add a layer between the horse and the their final placement, orientation and size, we right- between the princess and the horse. This layer
base image called ‘shadows’. Here you can use a click on them, choose Rasterize Layer from the of mist contains white brush marks and then, to
soft black brush to add some shadow to anchor menu and convert them to normal pixel images in complete this dramatic composition, its Opacity
the creature to the ground more realistically. each of their layers. can dropped to about 45%.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP YOUR FIRST CUT OUT

Yŏour Firstŏ
Cut Out
Learn how to cut out parts of one
image to use on another
I f we are talking about key skills that
make Photoshop the most popular photo
editing program around, then we have to
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
talk about the ability to cut out parts of it on the other. Yes, it’s a very simple tutorial,
one image and then use it as part of anther but it’s also very useful. This is a skill you will
image entirely. Cut outs are another staple of need to use a lot if you wish to create works
image enhancement and manipulation that of art involving multiple image sources. It’s
are essential skills to have. It is lucky for us not as daunting as you might imagine and we
that Photoshop has a number of tools at its can show you how.

BEFORE

AFTER

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 YOUR FIRST CUT OUT WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

We have gone to File > Open and then We need to concentrate on the girl’s image We could choose the Lasso tool (L) and
01 02 03
navigated to a folder containing the two first since we want to remove her from try to draw freehand around the outline
images we want to combine. They consist of a shot her background. This image has one immediate of the girl. This can be a time-consuming, tricky
of a model along with a very moody woodland shot benefit in that, for the most part, the girl’s outline is and relatively inaccurate way to do it when there
we want to use as a backdrop. We select both and reasonably well defined against the lighter colours are other tools available to us in Photoshop’s
then click on Open to get started. of the background she is pictured front of. comprehensive selection arsenal.

In this example, the Quick Selection tool The Select Subject tool will automatically Luckily, we have additional tools that allow
04 05 06
(W) could be a better option, but since scan and analyse the image for you and us to refine the selection still further using
this is a recently updated version of Photoshop, then it will make a best guess of what it considers the Select and Mask tool. We can click on it and
there are newer selection tools that might be to be the main subject and put a selection around use the Refine Edge Brush tool (R) to brush over
even better. The Select Subject button in the tool it. Since our model is posing against a plain any areas that might be in need of some targeted
options bar is just the ticket. background, the selection is fairly accurate. refinement and we can use the Refine Hair tool.

If you’re happy with the refinement, click Now we can go to Edit > Paste (Cmd All we did next was to use a couple of
07 08 09
OK to proceed and return to the main + V) and paste the cut out girl into this Levels adjustments to add more contrast to
image. You can now go to Edit > Copy (Cmd + C) document on its own layer, which is called ‘Layer the figure and a little Color Balance adjustment on
to copy all the pixels inside the selection area you 1’ by default. The figure can be moved, scaled and the woods to make their colours more compatible.
have created. You can then click on the document rotated if we wish until we have it how we want it The end result is a fine example of how to quickly
tab of the other image to open it. against the woodland background. make cut outs in Photoshop.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP SELECTION TOOLS

Selection Tools
This fundamental technique allows multiple methods
for isolating specific areas of your image
T he 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.
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
The most frequently used are the Marquee tools, which allow 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

USEFUL TIP
The most recent update to Photoshop has seen
a number or improvements to the selection tools You can use the Quick Selection tool to
on offer. Most notable is the Object Selection quickly paint a selection using an adjustable
round brush tip. As you drag, the selection
Tool which can scan your image and individually
L_WHUKZV\[^HYKHUKH\[VTH[PJHSS`ÄUKZ
target all the differentiated objects in your
HUKMVSSV^ZKLÄULKLKNLZPU[OLPTHNL0M[OL
photo. This is a handy new feature and when
tool isn’t visible in your toolbar, hold down
used in conjunction with all the other selection [OL4HNPJ>HUK[VVS[VZLL[OLÅ`V\[TLU\
methods such as Select Subject, Select Sky with the additional options that are available
and all those shown opposite, you have lots to to you.
choose from.

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 SELECTION TOOLS WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

Rectangular Marquee Single Column Marquee Elliptical Marquee

Make a selection of a rectangular area of any This option creates a selection of just a single Create a selection of an elliptical shape of any
size or aspect ratio. Just click and drag to the vertical column of pixels. This is useful for tidying size or proportion. Just click and drag to the size
right size. Hold down the Shift key to constrain up other selections or crops that are just a little and shape you need and hold down the Shift key
the selection to a square shape and use the too big. Click near the area you want to select to draw a circle. If you hold down the Alt key the
arrow keys to move the selection area. and then drag the marquee to the exact location. ellipse will be centred on the starting point.

Magnetic Lasso Lasso Single Row Marquee

This tool uses edge-detection to try to match your The Lasso is also used to make area selections This is the same as Single Column Marquee,
selection to the edges of the subject in the image. from the active layer, but this time the shape can be but this time it selects a single horizontal row
You simply draw a line as closely as possible to irregular, marked out by clicking or drawing a line of pixels. As with the Single Column Marquee
what you want and it should automatically snap to around the area to be selected. Join up your lasso option, click near the area you want to select and
the edge. Works best on high contrast areas. at the point you started to close the selection. then drag the marquee to the exact location.

Polygonal Lasso Magic Wand Quick Selection

The Polygonal Lasso lets you draw a point-to- This tool lets you make selections from areas of This tool lets you paint a selection and uses edge
point line around your subject. It can only draw the same colour and brightness and by adjusting detection to try to match the selection to the
straight lines, but by using very short sections it’s the tolerance and whether or not it will select nearest hard edge in the image. Again it’s often
possible to approximate a curved line. To draw contiguous areas, you can use it to do things like only an approximation and will have problems
curved lines you need to use the Pen tool. automatically select all the sky in your image. with blurred or low contrast edges.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP YOUR FIRST LAYER MASK

Yŏour First
Layer Mask
An introduction to one of the key
ingredients of Photoshop work
P hotoshop’s use of layers is one of the
most important aspects of what makes
it is so versatile and enables the user to
can also be used, in conjunction with an
adjustment layer, to provide the same
function of hiding or revealing parts of the
unleash their full creativity. Once you include effect you’ve chosen. We are getting ahead
the ability to add masks to those layers, you of ourselves however. Let’s take a look at
have yet another very powerful tool that lets how you can use a simple mask to produce
you blend or hide parts of one image on a very cool effect. In this case, cover up part
a layer and control how they interact with of a base image and allow part of another
another. Masks are not only very useful in image to show through to transform the look
hiding or revealing parts of an image, they of the original.

BEFORE

AFTER

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 YOUR FIRST LAYER MASK WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

We have opened an example image of a We have another photo with a great night Making the new layer invisible for a
01 02 03
beautifully scenic lakeside mounain scene. sky that should work well with our original moment, we make the Background image
As lovely as this image is, we want to be able mountain image. We simply drag and drop the active by clicking its layer, then go over to the
to replace the sky with something a little more sky image onto the active document, which then toolbar and choose the Quick Selection Tool (W).
exciting, and masking is a method that allows us appears on its own layer. We then scale the image This tool allows for simple area selection based on
to do just that. so that the sky fills most of the frame. detecting contrasting edges.

Because the outline of the mountain against Make the top layer visible and active again Keeping the selection active, go down to
04 05 06
the featureless sky is very well defined, and you will notice you r active selection the layer options palette and choose Add
the Quick Selection Tool can easily select the sky that encloses the sky area (indicated by the black Layer Mask. When you do, a mask will be added
alone. All you do is click the tool on an area of sky and lines known as marching ants) is now overlaid. to the top layer in the shape of the selection you
and then slowly drag the cursor around the sky We want to turn this area into a mask that hides the made. The area inside the selection is white, the
area, selecting more sky as you go. area outside the selection. area outside the selection is black.

Any white masked area allows that part of To view the mask on its own, hold the Alt To move the sky in the top layer around,
07 08 09
the layer be seen, whilst any black part of key on your keyboard and left-click on but keep the mask in the correct position,
the mask hides that part of the layer. The result is the mask itself. The Quick Selection Tool made you can click on the small Chain link icon between
that only the interesting sky area of the top layer is a decent job of discerning the edge between the the layer thumbnail and the layer mask thumbnail.
visible, while the featureless sky is hidden on the mountain and the featureless sky. Alt + left-click on This unlinks the image from the mask so either can
layer below. the mask to return to normal view. move without affecting the other.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP YOUR FIRST SET OF ADJUSTMENTS

Yŏour First Set

of Adjustments
The use of adjustments in Photoshop are another
key aspect of non-destructive editing
W hat 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.

BEFORE AFTER

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 YOUR FIRST SET OF ADJUSTMENTS WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

Let’s take a fairly typical example as our The image can remain as a locked If the Properties panel does not
01 02 03
first step into adjustment layers. We have Background layer. If you go to the Layer automatically appear, simply double-click
a photograph of a young lady taken indoors. The Options panel, click on the Create New Fill or the adjustment layer thumbnail (not the mask) and
image is a bit underexposed and lacking any Adjustment Layer button and choose Brightness/ the properties panel will appear for that particular
real punch and colour. That’s ok, we can use Contrast from the list that appears. An adjustment adjustment; in this case, two sliders that control
adjustment layers to help us. layer will now appear above your main image. Brightness and Contrast.

This image looks better after a +50 boost Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Click on the middle slider and move it to the
04 05 06
to the Brightness along with a small -8 Layer again and choose Levels to add a left, all the middle tones will get lighter. You
adjustment to the Contrast. The problem is that Levels 1 adjustment above Brightness/Contrast can also move the Black Point slider below slightly
the darkest areas still look too black with not much 1. Levels gives you more control, of any shadows, to the right, to remap solid black to progressively
visible detail. There is another adjustment that can midtones and highlights in the image, than lighter tones. The darker areas should now show
help out in this case. Brightness and Contrast alone can offer. more detail.

Now we can address the colour in the How much you decide to boost saturation You aren’t limited to standard adjustments
07 08 09
image. At the moment, all the colours look is purely down to personal taste. In this either. If you wish, you can experiment with
a little subdued. We can boost the vibrancy of the case, the Hue has a +5 adjustment, Saturation is Things like Gradient Map. This uses several colours
image with another adjustment layer. This time, +49 and Lightness +6. Because these adjustments initially, to replace the lightest and darkest tones in
choose Hue/Saturation and add that to the top of are all on layers, they can be modified or removed the photo. In this case dark purple blends into red,
the growing layer stack. at any time with no issue. then orange, then bright yellow.

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 WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP YOUR FIRST TYPE TOOL PROJECT

Yŏour First Type

Tool Project
Get to know what the various Type Tool options can
do to really lift your artwork

BEFORE

AFTER

T he introduction of text and type effects

in Photoshop now means that you
can create cool logos or even documents
with paragraphs of text in them, if you
want. Although you don’t have the more
complex control of text that you might
have in desktop publishing programs such
as InDesign, you can still produce simple
text layouts, and other effects with relative
ease, thanks to a set of useful tools and
text controls. You can produce normal
horizontal text and vertical text if required,
and you can also use both vertical and
horizontal text to create masks. The only
limiting factor is the number of fonts you
carry on your system. The more fonts you
have, the more choice you have.

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 YOUR FIRST TYPE TOOL PROJECT WELCOME TO PHOTOSHOP

Having opened an image, in the form of When you click on the Type tool, your If you drag an area with the Type tool on
01 02 03
a photo of a sunset beach, we want to options menu at the top of your screen will your image, it will automatically create a
incorporate it with some text in order to use it as reflect what is available for that specific tool. In this new text layer and then display some default text to
a title graphic. To access the Type tools, we need case, you can choose your font, the weight of that show you what it looks like in your chosen font and
to go to the toolbar on the right and click on the font and the size you want it to be, along with some size. We can then type in whatever text we want to
Horizontal Type Tool (T). other basic options. use; we have simply typed ‘BEACH’.

If you highlight your text, you can add some That was one option. Now, to use text to You will see that the area inside the text
04 05 06
Warp Text effects by clicking on the icon create a mask, go to the toolbar again and, shows the image clearly. Anything shown
in the options menu. Here, you can choose from this time, choose the Horizontal Type Mask Tool (T). that is outside the text is currently coloured red,
a number of effects such as Arc, Bulge, Fisheye We have dragged out a text box over the flowers which means when you move on to the next stage
and Flag. Our example is a simple Wave effect with and typed the word ‘BEACH’ again in large text. of the masking process, using this text mask, it will
sliders to control Bend and Distortion. We can move/scale the text box if necessary. not be selected.

Click on the Commit Changes button, the If you prefer, you can go to the layer As mentioned, you can also create
07 08 09
text will turn into an active selection. At this options panel and choose Add A Mask. paragraphs of text by dragging out a
point, you have a couple of options. You can click This will mask the entire image of the beach text box of the size you want. Placeholder text
on a selection tool like the Lasso Tool, right-click scene, leaving only the area inside the selection will appear in the box and you can then use the
the selection, then choose Layer Via Copy to copy visible. When masking, remember that white Character and Paragraph properties to format your
the area inside the text to a new layer. reveals and black conceals. text to suit your preferences.

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40 www.pclpublications.com
 LEARN AND IMPROVE

Learn and
Improve
Like many new skills, Photoshop may be easy
to follow, but more challenging to master. All
it takes is time, patience and the willingness
to learn. After taking a look at some of the
essential aspects of Photoshop, let’s get you
trying a few more techniques and tools to add
to your skill set. Every new skill takes you closer
to being a confident and experienced user.

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 LEARN AND IMPROVE ADJUSTING EXPOSURE

Adjusting
Exposure
Correcting your exposure mistakes is easy with Photoshop
E ven with the sophisticated technology found in the light metering
systems of modern digital cameras, they are not infallible. Some
lighting conditions can confuse them, resulting in pictures that are over
or under-exposed.
All cameras have a limited dynamic range, levels of illumination at which they
record featureless pure white or featureless pure black. The tonal variation available
between those two extremes depends on the quality of the lens, sensor and image
processor that captured it, along with the bit-depth of the file type used to record
it. For maximum bit-depth it’s always best to use Raw mode, since this will usually
store images in 42-bit or even 48-bit form, capturing greater dynamic range.
We’ll look at improving the exposure of the more common JPEG images from a
compact camera. JPEG images are usually
only 24-bit, so have less latitude for any
exposure recovery.
Over-exposure tends to be more of
a problem than under-exposure, since
burned-out highlights contain no detail, but
the JPEG format is surprisingly good at
capturing detail in areas that might initially
look like featureless black. As a result it’s
often possible to rescue shots that are
quite badly under-exposed, although this
will also amplify any noise in the image, so
there is a trade-off for image quality.
This shot was taken using centre-
weighted metering against backlighting
and as a result the bright part of the
horizon is exposed reasonably well but
the foreground is under-exposed. It
would have been a better idea to use
spot metering, but we can still rescue the
photo using an image editing program.
Brightness/Contrast

The quickest and easiest way to brighten the photo is

to simply turn up the brightness. You’ll find Brightness/
Contrast as an adjustment layer in the palette on the right,
or in the Image > Adjustment menu. The Brightness/
Contrast function in recent versions of Photoshop has
been changed to improve contrast and tonal balance
when adjusting the brightness of your images.
By moving the Brightness slider to the right, the overall
brightness of the entire photo is then increased, but the
new algorithm retains a reasonable balance in shadow
tones. You can tweak the effect with the Contrast slider,
the result is reasonably acceptable.

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 ADJUSTING EXPOSURE LEARN AND IMPROVE

Levels
Photoshop offers another way of altering brightness between represented by a spike on the graph. On the mid-tone and highlights points left towards
and contrast, but this time with more subtlety and the bottom axis of the graph are three points, the the shadows. This has the effect of bringing out
control, by adjusting the Levels histogram. You’ll left representing the black cut-off point, the right a lot of the detail from the shadow areas without
find Levels in the same Image > Adjustment sub- the white cut-off point and the one in the middle burning out any more highlights. It also leaves the
menu as Brightness/Contrast. The Levels histogram representing the mid-tone point. deeper shadow areas intact. It is a far better way of
is basically a graph showing the proportion of As you can see from the graph our image is adjusting the exposure of a photograph than simply
pixels in the image at each colour intensity. The mostly shadows and mid-tones with little highlights, altering the Brightness/Contrast, however it isn’t
far left-hand end of the graph represents black so we need to brighten some of those shadows quite the best way. Adjusting the Levels mid-point is
and the right-hand end is white, with every tone in into mid-tones. The way we do this is by moving still strictly linear in its adjustment.

Curves
The Curves adjustment option, again found in the
Image > Adjustment menu and as an adjustment
layer option, is a method of changing the relative
brightness of specific tones and ranges of tones
within an image, giving precise control over
exposure. Learning to use it properly is a core skill
in image editing and will enable you to make precise
and subtle changes to the brightness and relative
contrast of not just of the image as a whole, but
also of individual colour channels.
Drag the Curves output line around by clicking at
any point, then moving the handle that appears. To
improve this picture we need to brighten the shadows
and mid-tones, while simultaneously darkening
the highlights, so we should drag the lower side of
the curve upwards and the upper part of the curve
downwards, creating an inverted S-shaped curve.
As with many Photoshop techniques, the key here
is subtlety. Push the curve too far and you’ll ruin the
picture, so keep an eye on it as you progress.

USEFUL TIP
As with most Photoshop editing techniques,
subtlety is the key. If you push the curves too
far you’ll lose detail.

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 LEARN AND IMPROVE CONTRAST AND SATURATION

Contrast
and Saturation
Using curves and blend modes to improve colour
saturation and contrast in your digital photos

W hen you take a digital photo of a scene,

you are relying on your camera to be
able to capture all the colours and tones that
you see. Unfortunately most digital cameras
simply aren’t capable of recording the full
range of colours and shades that the human
eye can see, so your photo of what was a
bright and colourful scene may prove to be
a bit of a disappointment when you see it
on your monitor. Fortunately there are many
different ways to improve both contrast and
colour saturation, which might help to restore
some of the sparkle to your photos. Let’s
take a look at some of the alternatives.

As an example we’ll use this snapshot The simplest way to improve the saturation A much more controllable way to adjust
01 02 03
of a parrot. In reality the colour of the is by adding a Hue/Saturation adjustment both saturation and contrast is to use a
scene is much more intense than it looks here, layer. Like many other parts of the program, Hue/ Curves adjustment layer. We’ve already looked
but the digital camera that was used to take the Saturation has been improved in Photoshop, at Curves in the section on adjusting exposure,
photo was set to a neutral and flat colour mode producing a smoother result than previous but by using Blend Modes we can also use
to capture as much dynamic range as possible. versions. If you were to boost the saturation by Curves to enhance saturation. In Normal blend
This mode generally leaves images looking a about +50, you’d restore some of the missing mode the curve will change both contrast and
bit pale and lacking contrast and vibrant colour. colour, but it’s a scattergun approach and doesn’t saturation. We’re using the same S-shaped
This shouldn’t be a problem as the shot is well offer much fine control. It can also increase noise curve, which boosts brightness at the upper
exposed and contains plenty of detail that will in shadow areas in JPEG images. Let’s look at end of the scale and darkens shadows at the
suit the increase in saturation. more options. lower end.

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 CONTRAST AND SATURATION LEARN AND IMPROVE

AFTER
BEFORE

Another way to improve saturation is

06
a Photoshop function called Vibrance,
which can also be applied as an adjustment
layer. Vibrance is a difficult thing to quantify. It is
a saturation function, but it works on a graph,
affecting the least saturated areas most, and the
By changing the blend mode to most saturated areas least. On a picture like this
04
Luminosity, the curve will only affect Conversely, by using a Color blend it can help, but it has to be used with contrast
05
brightness, so an S-shaped enhancement mode, an S-shaped curve will alter enhancement for best effect, which may again
curve will improve contrast, lightening colour saturation without affecting brightness, cause an increase in noise. This option is less
highlights and darkening shadows without so shadows and highlights are unaffected. This intense than using Saturation. Vibrance is best
affecting colour saturation. is great to keep noise under control. used when processing a Raw image file.

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 LEARN AND IMPROVE GRADIENT FILL AND PAINT BUCKET

Gradient Fill &

Paint Bucket
Fill layers and selections with colours, textures
and gradients
O ne very useful facility that Photoshop
provides is the Gradient tool. It can fill an
area of a layer with a gradual blend between
such as vignettes and centre-spot soft-focus.
Let’s take a closer look at how it works.
You’ll find the Gradient tool about halfway
multiple colours. You can choose from a down the Tool Palette. It has its own unique set
selection of pre-set gradient fills or create your of options in the Tool Options bar, the main one
own. It’s a great way to add gradient filters for being the Gradient Picker, which lets you choose
enhancing photographs, or to create effects from a list of pre-set gradients.

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 GRADIENT FILL AND PAINT BUCKET LEARN AND IMPROVE

Photoshop comes with a selection of default Below are the main gradient types that you can
pre-set gradients loaded, but there are other packs choose from the tool options bar at the top left of
of gradients available. You can load in these other your screen.
packs via the Gradient menu. If you open the
Gradient Picker you’ll see a small icon like a cog
wheel. If you click on this you’ll see the menu, with
the list of standard gradient packs available to load
at the bottom.
Linear
Other Gradient tool options include the overall
layer opacity, reversing the direction of the gradient
colour mix, changing the “dither” of the colour
mixing and toggling the transparency.
Next to this is a row of buttons that create different
gradient shapes. The default setting is a straight
Radial
Linear Gradient, but other options include Radial,
Angle, Reflected and Diamond shapes.

Angle

Reflected

Like the Brush tools the Gradient has blend

modes that let you mix the gradient colour fill with
Diamond
the layer below it in various ways. This is a great way
to enhance landscape shots, by using an orange-
to-transparent gradient fill in Color mode, as in the
example seen here.

Paint Bucket Tool

BEFORE AFTER

If you click and hold on the Gradient tool you’ll way as the Magic Wand tool. To add a tint to a
find that one of its options is the Paint Bucket whole image, create a new layer then fill it with
tool, which is used to fill an area, a layer, or a the colour. It will fill the whole layer and you can
selection with a solid colour. In combination then use layer transparency and blend modes USEFUL TIP
with layer transparency and blend modes it’s to achieve the effect you’re looking for.
a great way to add a colour tint or filter to a To get this vintage photo effect, we used Remember that the Paint Bucket uses the
same edge detection as the Magic Wand
whole image. a sand brown colour, at 100% opacity and
[VVS0M`V\^HU[[VÄSS[OL^OVSLZJYLLU\ZL
If you use the Paint Bucket on the a Colour blend mode, which combines the
a new layer.
background layer of your image it will fill in an fill colour with the tones and colours of the
area of contiguous colour in much the same background image.

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 LEARN AND IMPROVE CURVES AND LEVELS

Curves
and Levels
The most versatile way to adjust brightness
and contrast in your digital images
Y ou’ll find the Curves function in the Image >
Adjustments menu, or use the keyboard shortcut
Cmd+M. The Curves dialog looks a bit daunting
at first; a graph with a diagonal line running up the
middle of it, like a difficult piece of maths homework.
It’s nothing to be scared of though and is in fact the
most useful and versatile tool for making adjustments
to the exposure and tonal balance of your images.
We’ll use this female portrait as the image to begin
with. What we want to do first is crop it down so we
just have the main part of her face and hair with some
trees beyond.
The Curves graph is a histogram showing the relative
strengths of different tones within the image. It shows the
input distribution along the bottom of the graph and the
output up the vertical axis. The straight diagonal line from
corner to corner indicates that there is a 1:1 ratio between
input and output at all tones; the output is exactly the
same as the input, as you’d expect. It is by adjusting the This tutorial
line and altering the ratio of input tones to output tones, content is
that we can achieve a number of effects. The left-hand available for
end of the horizontal axis represents the darker tones,
download
while the right-hand end represents the highlights.

The Curves graph can be manipulated in several

ways. You can move the line directly, by clicking
on it to place new anchor points and then dragging
these points into new positions. You can also use the
arrow keys to nudge a selected point up, down, left
or right. There’s no limit to where the line can start or
finish, or where it goes in between, which can lead to
some extraordinary results.
In later versions of Photoshop there’s an even
more useful way to use Curves. Just to the lower
left of the histogram you’ll see a button with a hand
and two arrows on it. If you click this button and
then move the cursor over the image you’ll notice a
point on the line move up and down as the cursor
passes over lighter and darker areas. Pick a spot
that you want to lighten, click on it and drag upward
and you’ll see the tone curve move to match. Using
this awesome feature you can selectively lighten or
darken pretty much every tone in the image.

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 CURVES AND LEVELS LEARN AND IMPROVE

Boosting Contrast
Add two anchor points to the tone curve roughly
one-third of the way from either end. Drag the
shape of the line into a narrow S-shaped curve,
slightly raising the upper half of the curve and
lowering the lower half of it, leaving the mid-
point and both ends in the same positions.
This will brighten the lighter areas of the image,
while darkening the darker areas, increasing
the contrast while maintaining the same overall
exposure. It’s an excellent way to make very
precise adjustments to contrast. Mid-tone
lightness can be adjusted by moving the mid-
point on the curve up or down.

Emphasising Highlights Emphasising Shadows Brightening Mid-tones

To boost the highlights of an image move the Moving the lowest point on the curve to the right For images with very high contrast sometimes it is
highest point leftwards along the top horizontal will darken the shadows, but this will lose both necessary to boost the mid-tones to balance the
axis. This increases the brightness of the lighter shadow and mid-tone detail. This can be alleviated image. To do this, set three points on the tone curve
pixels and may cause the brighter highlights to be by moving the mid-point of the curve upwards at roughly equal positions along the curve and then
burned out, but the result can be quite pleasing slightly, flattening the upper part of the curve and move the middle one upwards to achieve the effect.
for the right kind of image. This technique works brightening the mid-tones. This emphasising of The other two points act as anchors, keeping the
well in monochrome, producing an ethereal high- shadows is very similar to boosting contrast, but shadows and highlights unchanged. Moving the
key image. can create a more extreme result. mid-point downwards has the opposite effect.

Levels
A quick, easy and accurate
way to adjust brightness
and contrast

In the Image > Adjustments menu you’ll also find

the Levels function, keyboard shortcut Cmd + L.
The Levels function is easier to use than Curves
and lets you quickly adjust the black and white
points and overall brightness of your image. It’s
particularly useful for images that contain a lot
of light or dark areas, such as dark objects on a
light background, because it provides a method
for fixing the lightest and darkest areas of the
image, while leaving the mid-tones free to be
adjusted upward or downward.

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 LEARN AND IMPROVE CROPPING AND RESIZING

Cropping
and Resizing
Changing the size of a digital photograph

S ometimes a digital photograph

can be the wrong size. Maybe
you’ve got too much of the
surroundings in the picture, when
you wanted to concentrate on just
the main subject, or maybe the
BEFORE
whole image is too big, and you
need to make it smaller to send
via email or publish on a website.
Doing both of these things is very
quick and simple in Photoshop.
We’ll use this landscape shot of an
old shack and lake as the image to
start with. What we want to do first is
crop it down so we just have a tighter
view of the shack.

The best tool for the job is, not

01
surprisingly, the Crop Tool. You’ll find it
in the tool palette, fourth down from the top. It
looks a bit like two set-squares.

The Crop Tool is very easy to use. Simply

02
click near one corner and then drag a
box around the area you want to crop. Don’t
worry if you don’t get the size exactly right first
time, because you can adjust the size of the box
by using the drag-handles on each side and
corner. Press Enter to perform the crop.

Next we’ll resize the image to make it a In the Image Size dialog box, check
03 04
more manageable size. To do this you’ll the box marked Resample Image,
need to get to the Image menu and select and open the drop-down option panel below
Image Size, or use the keyboard shortcut it. We’re reducing the size of this picture, so
Alt + Cmd + I. select Preserve Details 2.0.

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 CROPPING AND RESIZING LEARN AND IMPROVE

AFTER

You’ll see the current size in pixels at

07
the top of the panel, with the width
as 800 pixels. In the lower window put in a
height of 500 pixels. If your main subject is
not in the centre of the frame, you can alter
the anchor point by clicking on the arrows
surrounding the box below. Click OK to
In the Pixel Dimensions panel, enter Next, go back to the Image menu, perform the resize. You’ll get a warning that
05 06
the width that you want your image to but this time choose Canvas Size, or you’re about to chop off part of the image,
appear. If we were preparing this picture for a use the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Alt + C. but just ignore it.
website, a width of 800 pixels would be ideal. Canvas Size will allow you to be able to extend Now we’ve resized the image to 800 x 500,
The height will change automatically to keep the dimensions of your current document by a convenient size for display on many mobile
the aspect ratio the same. Press OK to resize adding extra pixels to the image. Bear in mind devices, and ideal for uploading to a website
the picture. this is different than simply resizing the image. or sending via email.

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 LEARN AND IMPROVE CONTENT-AWARE FILL AND SCALE

Content-aware
Fill and Scale
Photoshop contains image processing technology so
advanced it looks like magic
P hotoshop CS4 introduced the world to an
amazing new technology called Content-
aware Scaling, which can resize an image
Content-aware Scaling
If we resize the image vertically by 60 You’ll find Content-aware Scaling
while preserving the proportions of important 01 03
percent using the standard Photoshop in the Edit menu, but it will be
image elements. It works by analysing the
Image Size menu option, the tree and clouds greyed out unless you’ve converted the
image and removing lines of pixels that
will end up looking flattened and out of image into a layer.
contain relatively little information, so that a
proportion, since their height has also been
plain background will be affected before the
reduced by about 60 percent.
main subject. The best way to illustrate the
effect is with examples, such as this image of
a tree and clouds.

However if we use Content-aware You use Content-aware Scaling in just

02 04
Scaling, the clever algorithm detects the same way as the normal Image
BEFORE that the areas that are just sky contain relatively Size option. Either drag the handles on each
little information and so this time when we edge in the direction you want, or directly enter
re-scale the image it deletes those pixels first, the proportions into the text boxes on the tool
preserving the more information-rich pixels that options bar. Content-aware Scaling works for
hold the details including the tree. As a result a both height and width and can also be used to
60 percent height reduction leaves the scene enlarge an image.
AFTER looking relatively unchanged, although the area
of blue sky has been reduced.

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 CONTENT-AWARE FILL AND SCALE LEARN AND IMPROVE

Content-aware Fill and Move

Photoshop CS5 took the content-aware technology further with the introduction of Content-aware Fill. This extremely useful function can fill in blank
areas of an image with an approximation of the surrounding area, which makes it particularly handy for filling those triangular edges that are left after
rotating an image, for example when levelling the horizon line. Again it’s relatively easy to use.

Starting with an image that has just been rotated, leaving There will be a short pause while Photoshop analyses the
01 04
those empty triangles, take the Magic Wand tool and select image, but then it will fill in the blank areas with a texture derived
the plain areas. from the content of the immediately surrounding area.

Next, go to the Select menu and click on Modify > Expand.

02
Increase the selection area by a decent amount; for this picture
10 pixels should do nicely.
Content-aware Move is a new feature introduced with
05
Photoshop CS6 and uses the same technology as Content-
aware Fill. The idea is that you can select an object on a background
and move it to a new area of the image. The Content-aware algorithm
should automatically fill in the area that you moved from and also
blend in the moved object.
In practice it’s not actually much use unless the object to be moved
is on a virtually plain background, in which case it’s often simpler to
use the Clone Stamp anyway, but some people may find it useful.

You’ll find Fill in the Edit menu. Click on it and you’ll see the Fill
03
options window appear. Content-aware should be selected by
default, but if not choose it from the drop-down menu.

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54 www.pclpublications.com
 MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS

More
Photoshop
Essentials
As you’ve progressed through this manual, you’ll have
become more familiar with how Photoshop works, and
should now be ready to take on a few more features
that are key to successful image editing. We’ll delve
even deeper into the toolbox, learning more about
layer-based editing, making selections and cloning.

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 MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS NON-DESTRUCTIVE ENHANCEMENT PART 1

Non-destructive
Enhancement Part 1
A great way to edit your images without damaging them
A lthough there are many editing options
in the Image > Adjustment menu, they
all have one thing in common. When you
Saturation, then add a Photo Filter effect,
that’s three operations that have discarded
information, each one degrading your
the damage done by these modifications
is to revert to an earlier version by using
undo or the History palette, but that also
apply them to an image the effect they image quality. If you apply an operation undoes all your subsequent editing as well.
have is destructive, because they discard repeatedly, such as multiple Curves This degradation is much worse with 8-bit
information from the original image. For corrections, you’ll actually be able to see than with 16-bit images, since there’s less
example, if you apply Curves, then Hue/ the degradation. The only way to undo information to start with.

It’s impossible to avoid this image degradation merged when flattening the image.
altogether, but by using Adjustment Layers You can apply Adjustment Layers in several
we can reduce it as much as possible. ways. First, you’ll find a list of available layers
Adjustment Layers sit above the pixel layer in in the Layer > New Adjustment Layer menu.
the stack and their effects are applied in real Second, if you have the Adjustments palette open
time as the layers are displayed. That way (it’s open in the default interface workspace) you
if you change your mind about an effect, or can click on the button for the layer you want to
wish to change it after it has been applied, apply. Third, you can click on the middle button
your alteration doesn’t have any further at the bottom of the Layer Palette. All of these
effect on the layer below it and the image offer exactly the same list of options and produce
degradation isn’t applied until the layers are the same results.

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 NON-DESTRUCTIVE ENHANCEMENT PART 1 MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS

The Adjustment Layer Palette

Click on any of these buttons to instantly create a new adjustment layer.

01 Brightness/Contrast Photo Filter 09

Edit image tonal range. Add custom colour cast to images.
02 Levels Channel Mixer 10
Adjust colour and tonal range. Adjustments Create tinted or greyscale images.
03 Curves Colour Lookup 11
Adjust points through the tonal range. Add an adjustment Add preset colour effects to images.
04 Exposure Invert 12
Adjust an images’ exposure range. Inverts image colours like a negative.
01 02 03 04 05
05 Vibrance Posterize 13
Enhance less saturated colours first. Adjust the number of tonal levels.
06 Hue/Saturation 06 07 08 09 10 11 Threshold 14
Alter Hue, Saturation and Lightness. Convert to black and white bitmap.
07 Colour Balance 12 13 14 15 16
Selective Colour 15
Add colour to shadows and highlights. Alter individual primary colours.
08 Black and White Gradient Map 16
Convert to monotone or greyscale. Maps an image to a custom gradient fill.

AFTER

BEFORE

Before and After

This photo of a girl and her horse was taken on an intermediate
level digital camera on a fairly overcast day. The subject was
photographed against a dark green foliage and overall, the image
lacks any contrast. By applying Levels, Saturation and Color Balance
adjustments to the image, the colours have been saturated and
contrast enhanced to bring back some life and detail to the image.

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 MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS NON-DESTRUCTIVE ENHANCEMENT PART 2

Non-destructive
Enhancement Part 2
Add effects non-destructively with Layer Masks

W hile 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
01 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
start again. It is also repeatable, because you can use the same mask for multiple layer thumbnail in the palette onto the New Layer
effects, saving you time and effort. For this quick tutorial we’ll use a Layer Mask to button at the bottom of the palette, which will also
apply a selective monochrome or colour extraction effect. We’ll start with this bright duplicate the layer.
image of a lady in a red dress. The red tones will remain in colour while the rest of
the picture will be changed to black and white.

BEFORE

Next, activate the new layer by clicking on it in the

02
palette and then click on the Add Layer Mask button
at the bottom of the palette.

A white square will appear in the layer palette

03
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.

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 NON-DESTRUCTIVE ENHANCEMENT PART 2 MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS

Click on the Color Range button and you’ll Next we can apply the effect to the top 08 The Layer Mask can be used to produce
04 06
see a new window appear with a colour layer. For this one we’ll use the Black any kind of selective effect like this and
range picker and the cursor will change to an and White menu option, since it’s a quick the great part of it is that the original image is
eyedropper tool. Click on the red material of the and easy effect. You’ll find it in the Image > still intact in the background layer, so if you’re
dress and adjust the sliders so that as much of Adjustments menu. unhappy with the finished result you can just
the colour as possible is selected, but none of the delete the effect layer and start again. However
background. Click OK when you’re happy. as you can see, with a little cleaning up of the
layer mask, the effect is working well.

You can adjust the parameters of the

07
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.

USEFUL TIP
Always remember that layer masks do not
erase any of a layer’s detail, it just makes
05 Now we’ve got a mask that covers the certain details invisible without deleting
shape of the dress but what we need is a
them. This is referred to as non-destructive
mask that leaves the chosen colour, while covering
image editing.
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.
AFTER

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 MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS BRUSHES, PENCIL AND ERASER

Brushes, Pencil
and Eraser
Photoshop has many tools
to help you create images as
well as edit them
A lthough it is primarily designed and best known as an image
editing program, Photoshop also offers a range of versatile
tools, allowing you to create original artwork as well as adapting
existing images. The brushes, pencils and eraser are designed
to behave as much like their real life counterparts as possible,
to make using them an intuitive process. If you have a graphics
tablet and a pen, this helps even more.

The Brush Tool

The most useful drawing implement is the You select the Brush tool by clicking on its
Brush (keyboard shortcut B), which is a multi- icon in the tool palette, but to get the most out
purpose tool that can emulate almost any type of it you need to open the new Brush palette by
of drawing tool imaginable, be it a fine pencil, clicking on the little folder-shaped icon in the
a felt-tip marker pen, a soft-bristle brush, an options bar.
airbrush, or anything in between. The Brush tool When you take a look at the new Brush
has received a major upgrade for version CS6 palette you’ll be blown away by just how
and now has more options and more presets customisable it is. You can adjust the shape
than ever before, giving you unparalleled of the brush tip, the density, length, thickness,
versatility for creating your own artistic stiffness and angle of the brush bristles and
Photoshop masterpieces. adjust or disable brush spacing. As well as

The Pencil Tool

The Pencil tool used to be a separate
item from the Brush tool, but with radical
expansion of the Brush in Photoshop to
include simulations of numerous types of
pencil, the Pencil tool itself is now just a
variation of the Brush tool and uses the
same options palette. It’s not without its
uses though.
The Pencil can be used as a secondary
brush, which can save time swapping
between pre-sets and can also be used to
apply a stroke to work paths. You can press
Shift + B to make it appear. By default it
uses the 1 pixel brush size. The pencil tool
is limited to hard-edged brush shapes of
various sizes.

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 BRUSHES, PENCIL AND ERASER MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS

this there are many more options, allowing you There are preset brushes to simulate airbrushes, Many people may choose to use Photoshop
to add random scattering, noise, texture, wet pastel crayons, big soft brushes, small stiff bristles, with a pen and tablet device, such as the
edge simulation, airbrush-like build-up and both pencils, felt pens, sponges and even template Wacom Intuos range shown here. The Brush
shape and colour dynamics. If this degree of brushes to quickly draw grass or leaves. The tool includes options for pen tablet users, such
control is too time-consuming there are also options and adjustments can be applied to preset as allowing pen pressure to control either brush
dozens of preset brushes, a small sample of brushes, so you can customise them for your size or opacity.
which you can see in the picture shown below. own specific needs. You can even make your own
brushes if you want.
As well as options for the appearance and
texture of the brush, there are also options for
how it interacts with the layer that you paint
on. These are called Blend Modes and you can
choose which one to use by clicking on the
Modes button in the tool options bar.

The Eraser Tool

The Eraser tool (keyboard shortcut E) is a
specialised variation on the brush tool and uses
the same palette options. It differs from the
standard brush in that it can render pixels from
a layer transparent, allowing the layer beneath to
show through. If used on the background layer it
paints in whatever the current background colour
is set to.
As well as the Brush palette options, the
Eraser also has tool options including Opacity, There are two other Eraser options available if
Flow and one unique one, Erase to History, which you click and hold on the Eraser tool. Background
can be used in conjunction with the History Eraser can, as the name suggests, erase parts
palette to selectively undo changes in layers. The of the background, but it does this by converting
Mode options for the Eraser are Brush, Pencil or the background into a layer. Magic Eraser simply
Block, which is a small square-shaped eraser of combines the Magic Wand tool with the Eraser tool
fixed size and full opacity. and selectively erases contiguous areas of colour.

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 MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS MAKING SELECTIONS

Making
Selections
The ability to select and modify only part of an image is
fundamental to how Photoshop works
O ne 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

01
much the same way as the Rectangular To draw an ellipse around your
03
Marquee, but draws a curved shape. subject, imagine that it’s actually a
rectangle, start from one corner and drag to
As with the Rectangular Marquee, the diagonally opposite corner. This can be
02
you can set the size or aspect ratio. A tricky to get right, so alternatively hold down
ratio of 1x1 draws a circle, other ratios draw the Alt key and start from the centre of where
ellipses of various sizes. you want your ellipse to be.

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 MAKING SELECTIONS MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS

Simple Area Selection

To make a soft-edged selection, type a

05
number into the Feather box. The higher
the number, the more blurred the edge will be.

Let’s start off with the simplest selection

01
tool, the Rectangular Marquee. This is To draw a square, click on a point where you
03
used, as the name implies, for selecting simple want one of the corners to be, then hold and
rectangular shapes. drag to the diagonally opposite corner. You’ll see
the “marching ants” line of the selection box appear
following the cursor.

This time if you draw a selection and fill it,

06 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
You can draw a freehand rectangle, or fix add to the current selection, holding down
02 the Shift key will temporarily put the tool into
the size or aspect ratio by using the Tool If you use the Paint Bucket Tool to fill the
04 “Add to Selection” mode.
Options. Let’s draw a perfect square selection area you’ve selected you’ll see that the
by setting a ratio of 1x1. edges are very sharp.

Polygonal Lasso Tool

For selecting more complex shapes, the With the Polygonal Lasso, you A Polygonal Lasso selection is ideal if you
01 02 03
best option is the Polygonal Lasso Tool, click around the edge of the area want to cut or copy a complex shape out
or if you want to draw freehand, then the Lasso you want to select. When you complete of a background, for example to make it part of
Tool is the one to go for. Drawing freehand may the loop, or double-click, the selection is another picture. It is particularly helpful when your
be quite odd using a mouse, but with a little completed and you’ll see the “marching subject has lots of straight, regular edges that are
practice you can use it with confidence. ants” border. easy to follow.

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 MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS MODIFYING SELECTIONS

Modifying
Selections
Photoshop has sophisticated tools to refine selections
P hotoshop’s standard selection
tools: the Marquee, Lasso and
Magic Wand, are fine for making basic
selections of regular, well defined
shapes, but they’re not so good at
picking out soft-edged or very fine
shapes. One thing in particular, that has
always been a problem, is the edge of
fine or untidy hair. Take the photo shown
here for example:
This image is representative of a typical
studio setting, with good lighting and
against a plain background. Photos like
this are used all the time for catalogues,
advertising posters and the like.
However, in order to fit these needs the
model will have to be separated from the
background. With a plain background like
this, it would be tempting to use a normal
selection tool such as the Magic Wand.
However if we try it, what we end up with is
something like this:

Modify Selection Border Smooth

Photoshop has other tools to modify a selection Border converts the single-line selection into a Smooth removes the kinks and wrinkles from
which you’ll find, appropriately enough, in the border of the specified width. You can use this the line of your selection. It’s useful when you’re
Select menu, under Modify. The options include: selection to create a border around your original selecting smooth-edged objects, but it will round
Border, Smooth, Expand, Contract and Feather. selection by using the Paint Bucket Tool. Be off the corners of any irregular shapes. The larger
They’re all relatively simple, but useful nonetheless. aware that the border extends an equal amount the value of Smooth Selection, the smoother and
We have some examples to show you. from either side of your original selection. less detailed the selection becomes.

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 MODIFYING SELECTIONS MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS

When you’ve been around all the edge

area that you want to refine, click OK and
then wait a few seconds while the program
recalculates the edge. As you can see here,
the result is a good improvement over the
first attempt.

Select and Mask is very easy to use. Starting

with a Magic Wand or Polygonal Lasso
selection as close as possible to the edge
of the hair, or any other soft edge, click on
the Refine Edge button on the Tool Options
bar. In the dialog window that opens, in Edge
Definition, check the box marked Smart Radius
and use the square brackets keys to set the
brush size so that it’s large enough to cover
the hazy edge area around the hair. Then
simply paint around the edge, overlapping both
the model and the background.

As you can see, the edge around the

model’s hair looks terrible. The automatic
Magic Wand selection has produced a very
jagged edge, because it can’t distinguish
between the fine edge of the hair and the
background. Fortunately the latest version
of Photoshop has a feature called Select
and Mask, which is capable of making
much finer distinctions.

Expand Contract Feather

Expand, as the name suggests, expands the Contract is the opposite of Expand. It shrinks We’ve looked at Feather before. It softens the
size of the selection by the specified number the size of the selection by the specified edge of the selection by the radius set in the
of pixels. The larger the value you expand the number of pixels. As with the Expand option, dialog box. It’s perhaps the most useful option
selection by, the more the detail and shape of the more you Contract the selection, the here, particularly if you’re trying to copy and
your original selection will begin to decrease more the original selection shape’s detail will paste the selection into a background. Unlike
as it enlarges outwards. become less well defined. Smooth, this creates a soft vignette effect.

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 MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS QUICK MASK MODE

Quick Mask USEFUL TIP

By varying the transparency of
the Quick Mask selection you can
alter the effect of the edit you
want to perform.

Mode
There’s a quicker way of editing selections and masks
O ften when editing in Photoshop it’s useful to be able to
block off certain areas that we don’t want to be affected.
For that we use masks and there are several ways of creating
them, but by far the easiest is Quick Mask, a fantastically
useful feature that was first introduced in Photoshop 7. Quick
Mask lets you create and edit masks and selections quickly
and easily using any of Photoshop’s pixel painting tools to
apply a brushed mask with freehand strokes of the mouse.
It’s extremely simple to use, but it can produce a wide and
varied range of results. You’ll find the Quick Mask mode
button near the bottom of the Tool Palette. Clicking it will
toggle Quick Mask mode on or off.

The most basic way to use Quick Mask is with the brush tool. When you
switch on Quick Mask, you’ll notice that the foreground and background
colours change to black and white. Select a normal paint brush and start
painting in black. You’ll see that instead of black, the colour is a translucent
red. Paint this colour over the area you want to mask.
If you make a mistake and overlap your area, simply switch to the white
background colour. Painting white will erase the mask.

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 QUICK MASK MODE MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS

By using a combination
of the two you can
mask out even quite
complex shapes. If
you then toggle out
of Quick Mask mode,
you’ll find that all but
the area you’ve masked
will be selected. You
can now alter very
specific areas of your
image, such as just the
beak and eye areas on
this eagle portrait.

Gradient Mask
There are other ways to apply Quick Mask. For example it can be used
with the Gradient Tool to produce gradual mask effects. Simply enter
Quick Mask mode, then select the Gradient Tool. Drag a gradient fill
over the area you wish to affect and when you release the Mouse button
you’ll see that the gradient effect is in translucent red, like the painted
Quick Mask.

BEFORE

AFTER

You can now use this gradient mask to produce graduated effects on an
image. For instance, on this picture we can darken the sky and leave the
foreground as it is by using a graduated Levels function. The gradient mask
ensures a smooth transition from the full effect at the upper edge to zero effect
at the lower edge of the picture.

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 MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS HEALING BRUSH TOOLS

Healing Brush
Tools
Clean up minor blemishes, dust spots and
stray hairs with the Healing Brush Tools

E ven with a modern digital camera, your

photos may have slight imperfections.
Maybe it’s just a stray hair or an unwelcome
USEFUL TIP
Spot Healing Brush Tool J
skin blemish in a portrait, or maybe some To get the best out of the
dust has managed to get onto your sensor, Healing Brush Tool J healing tools, you need
causing dark spots on your photo. to work with care and not
Whatever the reason, sometimes you Patch Tool J overdo the effect. The key to
need to remove some small features from success is to be subtle. There
your images and the best tools for this are
Content-Aware Move Tool J is also no reason you can’t
use several of the healing
the Healing Tools. There are five Healing Red-Eye Tool J brushes to make sure you get
Tools in Photoshop, which you can see
a perfectly healed image.
if you click and hold on the Spot Healing
Brush Tool icon in the tool palette.

Healing Brush Tool Content Aware Move Patch Tool

The Healing Brush is a legacy from older versions of The Content Aware Move Tool was introduced in The Patch Tool is used for repairing larger areas.
Photoshop. It does much the same job as the Spot Photoshop CS6. The idea is that you can simply It can be used in one of two ways; either draw
Healing Brush, but is rather less sophisticated. It draw a selection around an object and then drag it to around the area you want to replace and then
works in much the same way as the Clone Stamp another place. The program analyses the surrounding drag the sample to an area of matching clean
Tool. To heal a blemish, you first need to set a sample area and fills in the source with a matching texture. In texture, or sample an area of clean texture and
point by clicking on an area of similar texture while practice the Content Aware Move Tool is only useful then drag it over the part you want to replace.
holding down the Alt key, then painting the sample in very specific circumstances, when the object you Here, a patch of wooden floor can be used to
over the blemish. As ever, when it comes to healing want to move is surrounded by a uniform texture. You remove some bread crumbs from the shot. As
and cloning techniques, subtlety is the key. You may will find that the more even the texture, the better the you drag the patch, it will show you a real-time
find that it might take several attempts to get a good final result. Backgrounds such as grass and blue sky overlay over your target area so you can align it
texture that doesn’t stand out as being cloned in. are much more successful candidates for this. as best you can to ensure a good patch.

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 HEALING BRUSH TOOLS MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS

HEALED

ORIGINAL

Red Eye Tool Spot Healing Brush Tool

Red Eye is caused by light from a camera flash For removing small objects such as dust spots
reflecting off the blood vessels at the back of the and stray hairs, the Spot Healing Brush is the USEFUL TIP
eye when the pupil is wide open. It’s possible to most useful and effective tool at your disposal. In
avoid it by proper camera technique, but if you find some cases, you can even remove larger objects Camera sensors pick up dust spots over
it in one of your portraits, Photoshop has a quick and people. When you use it to paint over an time. Use the Spot Healing Brush to remove
unwanted sensor dust spots that appear
and easy tool to help remove it. Simply click on the object, the brush samples the area around it
on your digital images. As you can see
offending redness and the tool will automatically and replaces the object with a simulation of the from these examples, you can also remove
analyse how much redness there is in the subject’s background. The way that it samples can be larger objects as long as you have an even
eyes and remove it and replace it with a more selected and the most effective option is Content background behind it, otherwise the effect
natural-looking tone which is usually black or a very Aware sampling. The brush parameters can be might look fake.
dark tone. adjusted like any other brush.

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 MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS THE CLONE STAMP TOOL

The Clone USEFUL TIP

Vary brush size by using the
open and close square brackets
keys and vary brush hardness
with the curly brackets.

Stamp Tool
Remove unwanted elements from your photos
T he Clone Stamp Tool (also known as the Clone Brush in some
programs) is one of the most useful items in your image editing
tool kit. Despite recent developments such as Photoshop’s Spot
elements such as dust spots, skin blemishes, lens flare, telephone
lines and other intrusive objects from your pictures. Because the
process is entirely manual it can be somewhat time-consuming,
Healing Tool and Content-aware fill, it is still the most precise and but the results are often superior to the output of the more modern
reliable way to retouch photographs, allowing you to remove unwanted automatic tools.

BEFORE AFTER

The Clone Stamp works by copying (“cloning”) pixels from a selected target We decided it would be a good demonstration of the power of the Clone
area and placing them over the unwanted objects. Using the Clone Stamp, Stamp Tool to use it for one of its classic purposes. Since Photoshop has
it is relatively straightforward to remove even quite large unwanted objects been able to do it, retouching skin is one of those techniques that were
from a photo. Our example is a close up portrait photo, taken in a studio designed with the Clone Stamp Tool in mind. This girl's portrait reveals
setting, of a young girl. some blemishes that can be removed with this tool.

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 THE CLONE STAMP TOOL MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS

Go to your toolbar and select the Clone 04 Now move your cursor over the top of the Now that you know how to clone a
01 06
Stamp Tool (S). For the image we’re face and position it over the small blemish clean area of skin and use it to remove
working on, a brush Size of about 25 - 45 pixels directly below the area you just sampled. It is blemishes, you can start to work around the face
will be fine. You can make the brush Hardness shown as an overlay so you can see what you are and remove any other blemishes required..
anywhere between 0% - 40%. We’re going to about to clone on top of your figure. If you click
start with the blemishes under her left eye. your mouse over the blemish, the clean skin just
sampled will be cloned over the top of it.

Sampled
pixels

Sampled pixels
are copied here As you clone, watch out for any obvious
07
repeating patterns that give the game
away. These repeats appear because you have
You can now choose another clean a blemish in your original sampled area which is
05
target sample below her left eye and being stamped over the target skin. Patterns like
clone skin from that side over the blemishes just this highlight the fact that cloning has been used.
below her eye. If you notice any repeated areas If you see any patterns like this emerging, you can
that stand out as being cloned, or differences in press Cmd + Z and undo those steps and find a
brightness and skin tone, you can choose a new clean area of skin to sample and try cloning over
target area and clone in some new skin to keep your target area again.
Make sure that you have the Aligned the pattern random.
02
option ticked. This means that the
sampling area of your brush moves as your brush
does, otherwise you will clone the same sampled
area repeatedly until you alter it.

Find an area of clean skin next to the Another trick to help you, is to create a
03 08
blemish and then press your Alt key. A new transparent layer and clone your new
small target icon will appear. Anything under pixels onto that. Make sure you have Current And
this target will be your sample to be used as Below selected from the Sample: menu. You can
the starting point of the cloning. Left-click your then clone onto this clean layer, preserving all the
mouse to confirm this as your sample area. pixels underneath on the base layer.

This is your
clean target
pixel sample.

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 MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS PERSPECTIVE CLONING

Perspective
Cloning
Clone out items accurately using the Vanishing Point tool
T he Clone Stamp Tool is very powerful as we’ve already seen,
but on its own, it does have its limitations. The shortcomings of
the Clone Stamp Tool are most obvious when trying to clone out an
will appear to recede into the distance and get smaller, or get closer
and larger. The Clone Stamp Tool cannot match this perspective on its
own and your cloning will look pretty bad. It’s ok though. Photoshop
item that is on top of a very regular pattern with a perspective. The has just the tool to help with this tricky form of cloning. It can be found
repeating pattern of a brick wall or tiled floor looked at from an angle under the Filter menu and is called the Vanishing Point Tool.

BEFORE

AFTER

The Vanishing Point Tool lets you

define an area of perspective
pattern that covers your target to
be removed. Once you have defined
the area, any cloning you perform
inside that area will follow the
perspective of the scene faithfully.
This means your cloned sample area
will increase or decrease in size as
you move it around the scene.

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 PERSPECTIVE CLONING MORE PHOTOSHOP ESSENTIALS

We’ve created a tricky cloning challenge In this example, just using the Clone Stamp We are going to clone out the car, but
01 02 03
for ourselves. We have a toy car on a tiled Tool straight out of the box is going to give rather than destroy the original pixel data,
floor background. The challenge is going to be you problems. If you sample a clean area of tiled we are going to clone onto a new layer so we can
to completely remove the toy car and maintain a floor near the car and position your cursor over the do it as a non-destructive edit. Go to the layers
good tiled pattern and hopefully keep the relative parts of the car you want to remove, you will see palette and click on the Create a New Layer button.
brightness of the tiles intact. straight away that they won’t line up. The new layer appears above the base image.

With the new layer selected, make sure Keep the new layer active and choose Click and drag the box you’ve created and
04 05 06
that in the menu bar, the Sample option is Filter > Vanishing Point from the menu. This make it bigger to give you more sampling
set to Current & Below. This means that data will opens the Vanishing Point panel. Next, click on an areas to work with. This is fine as it will follow the
be cloned from the base image and placed on the area that covers the car and adheres to the corners perspective of the tiled floor precisely. Before you
layer above so as not to destroy the original image of the tiles. This area you’ve defined will control start cloning, make sure Heal is set to Luminance
that you started with. how the cloned samples match the perspective. so cloned areas are the correct brightness.

Clone

Sample

Click the Stamp Tool (S) and Alt + Left-Click Work your way around the car in small Once done, click OK to commit the all the
07 08 09
to define a clean area of tile. Use a point increments. You can Alt + Left-Click to re- cloning changes and return to your main
where tiles intersect and then move your cursor sample a new area of clean tile at any point. Once document. If you look at the new layer you created,
over a corresponding area of tile with the car on it the car is removed, you can go over any slight all your cloning work is on that layer and the original
and start to paint out the car. The Luminance Heal mismatched areas and do a final clean up until you image containing the car is completely untouched.
will make the cloned areas the correct brightness. have the tiled floor empty. This is the beauty of layer-based editing.

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74 www.pclpublications.com
 ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS

Enhance
Yŏour Skills
Photoshop can make your images look amazing.
It is used by graphic designers, digital artists and
photographers the world over. The only choice
you have to make is deciding what tools are best
for the kind of editing you want to do. This section
adds a few more strings to your bow, ready for
you to take on any creative challenge.

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 ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS THE PEN TOOL AND PATHS

The Pen Tool

and Paths
Draw smooth curved paths with the versatile Pen tool

T he quickest and most common way to make

selections is to use the Polygonal Lasso
Pen Tool P tool but since that only draws straight lines from
point to point it isn’t ideal for making accurate
Freeform Pen Tool P selections around curved edges. Photoshop
does have an extremely useful tool for making
Add Anchor Point Tool smooth curves though, and it’s called the Pen
tool (keyboard shortcut P).
Delete Anchor Point Tool Rather than creating a selection directly like
the Lasso tool, the Pen tool is used to create
Convert Point Tool a Work Path. A Work Path in Photoshop is
a vector graphic outline which can be used
for several functions, including shaped text,
outline strokes and of course selections. A path
consists of straight and curved lines segments
Bezier control Tangent line connected with points. You can leave a path
open to form a straight or curved line, or close a
path to form a shape.
Paths are independent of any particular layer,
so you can use the same path to create shapes
on more than one layer of an image, and you
can copy a path from one image to another.
Using the Pen tool and Paths effectively is a
Curved path complicated process that takes a lot of practice
Anchor point to master, but it’s worth the effort, because
once you crack it you’ll be able to make smooth
curves and selections around almost any shape.
If you want to use Photoshop in a professional
capacity it’s an essential skill to learn.

USEFUL TIP
If you need to repeat the same selection on
multiple layers, save your selection as part
of the image. You can then load it in again to
save repeating work.

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 THE PEN TOOL AND PATHS ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS

Using the Pen Tool

Using the Pen tool effectively takes some practice and a lot of patience. Here’s the low-down on how it works.

The Pen tool works by using anchor points connected by lines. Unlike the Click with the pen tool at three or four points on the line you wish to
01 02
Brush Tools which paint pixels, the Pen Tool creates vector-based draw; these are called anchor points, and you’ll see that there are
shapes. To draw a curved line, first select the Pen tool from the Tool Palette. straight lines connecting them.

Next, click and hold on the Pen tool icon, and select the Convert Point Click and hold on any of your anchor points, and drag away from the
03 04
tool. You use this to manipulate the anchor points and control the point. You should see two lines with handles on the ends extrude from
curvature of the line. the anchor point. This is called a tangent line.

If you move the cursor around you’ll see the line linking your anchor With practice and patience you can bend a curved line around even quite
05 06
points flex and bend. You can use this to bend the line to match the complex shapes. If you open the Paths palette you’ll see the work path
curvature of the edge you’re trying to follow. you’ve created appear in the list.

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 ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS ADDING A GRADUATED FILTER

Adding a
Graduated Filter
Graduated filters can improve photos by adding
depth and colour to the sky

P hotographers use graduated filters

placed in front of the camera lens
to selectively change the exposure and
sometimes the colour of part of a picture,
usually to darken the sky to bring out details
in the clouds and balance the exposure with
the landscape in the foreground. They come
in many different shapes, sizes and colours to
fit all types of camera system.
As with most photographic techniques, it’s
possible to duplicate the effect of graduated
filters using Adobe Photoshop and as usual
there are several ways to accomplish this. For
this example we’ll use a landscape photo of a
sunrise over a field.

AFTER

BEFORE

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 ADDING A GRADUATED FILTER ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS

Graduated Filter in Camera Raw

Since this photo was taken using Raw mode, we can use the Graduated Filter tool in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). ACR is the Raw processing
application supplied with each version of Photoshop and allows you to add the effect during processing. This is by far the best way to do it, since it
preserves the maximum amount of detail in the photograph.

When you open the image in Adobe To apply the filter, drag a line down from The red dotted line marks the lower, least
01 03 04
Camera Raw, you’ll see a row of tool the top of the screen to the horizon line. saturated edge of the gradient effect, but
icons across the top of the main image window. You’ll see a horizontal and vertical dotted line like an there is also a green line at the top of the frame. This
The Graduated Filter icon is to the right. inverted T. You’ll also notice that you can change the marks the top or most saturated edge of the effect,
angle of the line by moving the cursor left and right. with a smooth gradient between the two lines. If you
To constrain the line to the vertical, hold down the drag this green line down, more of the image will be
Shift key while dragging. at maximum effect and the gradient will be shorter.

When you click on the Graduated Filter

02
icon, you’ll see the control panel on the
right of the screen change. The filter can apply
many different effects, but the one we want to
use is a reduction in exposure. A setting between
-2.00 and -2.70 should produce a suitable effect
for this picture.

Graduated Filter in Photoshop

If your photo wasn’t taken in Raw Next, in the tool options bar, click To apply the gradient to the picture, start
01 02 03
mode, you can apply a graduated on the gradient editor and select at the top of the frame and then click and
filter using the Gradient Tool. To set up the Foreground to Transparent, click on the button drag down to the horizon line. If you hold down
graduated filter, first select the Gradient Tool, for Linear Gradient, set the Blending mode to the shift key it will constrain the line to the vertical.
then set the foreground colour to dark blue Overlay and the Opacity to 100 percent. Make The blue is blended into the sky making it darker.
by clicking on the foreground square and sure the boxes for Dither and Transparency It’s always a good idea to tailor the blend colour to
then using the colour picker. are checked. match the sky. Apply again if you want it darker.

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 ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS CORRECTING LENS DISTORTION

Correcting
Lens Distortion
Correct the optical distortion of ultra-wide lenses
with Photoshop’s Adaptive Wide Angle

O ne of the new features introduced with Photoshop CS6 is

called Adaptive Wide Angle; this can warp and bend an
image to undo the optical distortion common to all very wide
angle lenses. We’ve all seen photographs taken with “fish-
eye” lenses. These lenses are called ultra-wide-angle, because
the angle of view that they can capture can be as much as
180 degrees. Naturally the ability to squeeze half a room into
the same shot comes at a price and that is extreme optical
distortion. Straight and parallel lines appear to be bent,
perspective is massively shortened and familiar objects take on
almost unrecognisable proportions. In the photo opposite, the
straight uprights of the pillars and floor seem to curve strangely,
everything appears to bulge outwards and the whole effect is
certainly quite disconcerting.

In the Adaptive Wide Angle interface,

02
first select the Constraint Tool from the
panel on the upper left of the main screen and The line will automatically warp the
03
select Fisheye from the Correction drop-down picture to make the curved line
Adaptive Wide Angle attempts menu. Pick one of the vertical lines, in this case straight. You’ll see that there is a circle
01
to correct at least some of these the pillars in the foreground, click near the top overlaid on the line, with two more control
problems and can warp the picture to undo of it and drag a line down the length of it. You handles where they intersect. You can drag
most of the optical distortion. Remarkably it should find that the line will automatically curve these handles, rotating the line to bring it
can do all this while still preserving most of to follow the line, but you can drag the control into a vertical position. If you hold down the
the detail in the picture. You’ll find Adaptive handle in the mid-point of the line to match it shift key it will automatically snap to vertical
Wide Angle in the Filters menu. up to the curvature. right away.

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 CORRECTINGLENS
CORRECTING LENSDISTORTION
DISTORTION ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS

AFTER

BEFORE

Again, drag the handle on the circular

05
line to move the upright into a vertical
position. If you’ve done it right the vertical
curvature distortion of the image should now
be looking better. You may notice that the
correction isn’t quite perfect; there may still be
some slight curvature of the various uprights
and horizontals, but it’s certainly a great
improvement and the vertical structures are The process will have left some empty
06
04 Pick a line on the opposite side of the much straighter. You can carry on and try to spaces at the edges of the image, so it
picture and repeat the process by correct more of the curvature, but be aware will be necessary to crop the image to remove
dragging a line down the uprights of the pillars of how much warping is being applied to the these. This does mean losing some of the original
ranged on the right of the image. This too will image to straighten everything out. Click OK photograph, but the result is much less distorted
automatically straighten up the line. when you’re done to finalise the correction. than it was at the start.

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 ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS PANORAMA STITCHING

Panorama
Stitching
Get the whole of the landscape
into one ultra-wide picture

M any digital cameras have a feature

known as “Panorama Stitching” or
“Panorama Assist” mode. It’s there to
BEFORE
We’ll use this example of a five-shot sequence
help with a particular type of photograph, taken at a sweeping beach location.
or rather series of photographs, in which
successive shots are taken as the camera
is panned across a scene. After you take
the first shot, the camera shows the edge
of that shot superimposed on the monitor
so you can match up the position of
features in successive shots, producing a
long continuous photo showing an entire
panoramic scene. You can also shoot your
pan sequence manually, especially if you
have a tripod handy to keep the camera
level. When it’s done well the results can be
breathtaking, but getting a satisfactory result
isn’t as easy as it looks.

Having downloaded our panorama

01
pictures from the camera into a folder The Photomerge window offers
03
on the PC, it’s time to fire up Photoshop and a number of options for how to
stitch them together into a panorama. Locate arrange your panoramic shots. For a simple
the files on your hard drive and open all of landscape panorama like this the Auto
them in Photoshop. If you go to the Window option should work fine. Click on the Add
> Arrange menu you can view them all at Open Files button to add the five shots to
once in various arrangements. Not essential, In Photoshop you’ll find Photomerge in the Photomerge list and check the top two
02
but it gives you a chance to make a last- the File menu under Automate, along options and the bottom option to attempt to
minute exposure check. with several other automatic processes. fill blank areas with the Content Aware tool.

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 PANORAMA STITCHING ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS

USEFUL TIP
If shooting a panoramic sequence manually,
always make sure that you have a large
enough overlap between each shot you take.
For best results, it is advisable to have about
25% of the previous frame visible each time.

AFTER

Once the Panorama has been

05
rendered, you’ll see that there are
areas where the program has had to warp
the pictures to correct for perspective.
Once you click OK the merging This is where the Content Aware Fill tool
04
process starts and it is completely will have attempted to add something that You can also use the Crop tool to
06
automatic. It will take a while to complete, looks a bit like sky and sea. Depending straighten out any slight tilt in your
possibly quite a long while if you have a slow on how well the fill works, you can always horizon, but hopefully you won’t need it. The
computer and/or very large image files. crop out these areas. finished result should look something like this.

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 ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS COLOUR REPLACEMENT

Colour
Replacement BEFORE
Swapping one colour
for another
O ne relatively simple operation that you
can do in Photoshop is to replace one
colour with another. By using some of the
selection tools we looked at earlier, along
with the Hue/Saturation controls, we can
change the colour of individual objects in our
photos, such as replacing the colour of the
cat’s green eyes in this shot.

With the Magic

02
Wand, it’s best
to add a bit at a time. Click on an area that’s a
mid-tone for the total area you want to select, and
you’ll find that the wand tool will select an area
around it. The size of the selection will depend
on the tolerance setting. By holding down the
Shift key and carefully clicking on areas around
your starting selection, you can add more areas.
If the wand selects any wrong areas, you can
Selecting large areas of the same use Cmd+Z to undo that step, and try again
01
colour is one of those few occasions more carefully, possibly adjusting the tolerance
where the Magic Wand tool is actually downwards if it keeps happening.
useful, so we’ll use it as a starting point here.
With a tolerance setting of 40-50 it should
be able to pick out the items without too
much trouble.

When you’ve reached the limit of

03
what you can usefully select using Again hold down the Shift key to add
04
the Magic Wand tool, you can finish your more areas to your selection. If you
selection using the Lasso tool. By setting need to remove any areas from the selection,
the Feather to zero you can produce a such as the dark edges of the eyes, you can
sharp-edged selection. Alternatively, use the subtract by holding down the Alt key and
Selection Brush tool. going around them with the Lasso.

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 COLOUR REPLACEMENT ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS

AFTER

Although there are several filters we You have three options under the
06 07
could use at this point, the most Hue/Saturation setting. Leave the
versatile way to change the colour of the Lightness slider in the middle position
selected area is the Hue/Saturation/Lightness to preserve the overall brightness of the
option. This is common to most editing object, but you can experiment by moving
programs. In Elements you’ll find it in the the Saturation and Hue sliders around.
Enhance menu. As you move the Hue slider, the colour
will start to shift through the spectrum of
colours, or you can produce subtle colour
changes with lower saturation settings, or
say to hell with subtlety and go for broke
with full saturation or Colorize the eyes.

When you’ve selected all the bits you

05
want to repaint, you can save the
selection for later use, to save you doing all that
work again if you change your mind.

When you’re happy with the result, or

08
when your eyes start bleeding, you
can clear the selection by using the keyboard
shortcut Cmd+D, and then save the result.
When you save the final image as a .PSD file
in Photoshop or Elements, the selections are
saved as well, embedded in the file.

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86 www.pclpublications.com
 YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Your
Questions
Answered
Every now and again, as you learn new programs
like Photoshop, Lightroom and Elements, you may
encounter head-scratching moments that can send
you flicking through a user manual. We’ve gathered
up a few of the more frequently asked questions, and
answered them for you.

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 YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Photoshop, Lightroom and Elements Q&A

W hen Photoshop arrived on the scene all
those years ago, no-one could really have
predicted just what a monumental impact it would
we shall cover a Q&A session where we will try to
answer some of the more common (and perhaps
not so common) questions that users both new
that we haven’t tried before that can have an
impact on how we work. There’s also the general
knowledge section of owning and using it that can
have on the fields of design, photography, art, and and old are asking. There are no silly questions, be invaluable too. So, let’s get started and canter
of course, image manipulation. Be in no doubt that even experienced users don’t know every single through a number of Q&As. Some are relatively
there is a lot to learn, but also comfort yourself thing there is to know about Photoshop. We can simple. Some may be commonly asked questions.
in the knowledge that it is also easier to grasp speak from experience to that point. There’s always Some might be quite random. Hopefully, all are
the basics than you might think. In this section, something new to learn, some little trick or feature useful in some way. Read on.

Q: What is the main Q: Where can I get Q: Do I really have to

difference between free pictures to practice pay a monthly subscription
Photoshop and Lightroom? Photoshop with? to use Adobe programs?

A: New users are sometimes caught out A: Luckily, there are a number of great A: The short answer is yes, if you want the
between what one program can offer over Internet sites that make free images available most up to date versions of these programs.
the other and what kinds of work can be to you. ‘Free’ can be a relative term, so make Only Elements can be bought outright.
done with them. This was particularly true a sure you check each site you visit for their You can still purchase copies of
while back when you had some disconcerting licensing restrictions. For example, some Photoshop CS6,
naming conventions that gave you: Adobe can be free to download for personal use but Adobe no
Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom only, while others can be downloaded, used longer support
and Adobe Photoshop Elements. New users commercially or redistributed without any it with new
were not entirely sure what was what. Now we restrictions. updates. Old
have: Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Lightroom pre-subscription
Classic, Adobe Lightroom CC and Adobe Flickr: The Commons copies of
Photoshop Elements. Let’s try and break this First port of call is Flickr: The Commons. Lightroom are
down for you. Here you can browse through the world’s not available for
public archives. Many museums, institutions purchase any more.
Adobe Photoshop is a pixel- and libraries make images available with no
based graphics editor. It uses copyright, as do many Flickr users.
layers and tools to enable
you to manipulate photos, cut DeviantArt
things out, paste others in and Another huge repository of photographs, art and
create entirely new works of art. It has become other media. Whilst a lot is free to use, artists will
an industry standard for artists everywhere. have individual restrictions on how their work is
used. Check before you download anything.
Adobe Photoshop Elements
is also a graphics editor
for hobbyists but where
Photoshop is a complex beast,
Elements contains a number
of the same features but presented in a much
simpler way with a lot more automation
provided for new users.
Wikimedia Commons
Adobe Lightroom Classic and A searchable library of images formed under
its mobile-focused sibling the Wikipedia umbrella project. As well as their
Lightroom CC are used as a collection of photos, you can access videos, Pixabay
means to import, organise audio files and various media without restriction. Packed with nearly 2 million stock photos and
and find your digital photos. illustrations, this site allows all images to be
They offer image adjustments that use non- used freely for any purpose with no attribution
destructive methods to preserve your original required, although a thank you posted on the
file. Typically, photographers use Lightroom artist’s profile page wouldn’t go amiss.
to catalog their images and edit them. Things
such as brightness, contrast and saturation are
applied to get the very best out of an image.

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 YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Q: In Photoshop, my cursor Q: All my panels have

sometimes changes shape. disappeared from the Photoshop
Why does this happen? workspace. What did I do?

A: If you’ve been working with the type A: We’ve done this ourselves any number
tool or any tool other than your brush, this of times by accident. An inadvertent press of
can sometimes happen. If you’ve returned the Tab key will hide all your panels to maximise
to the brush tool only to find that it has the workspace. A quick glance at either side of
changed shape, then you may have possibly the workspace area will show two thin panel. If
switched to the precise cursor option. All you you hover your cursor over them, the panels will
have to do is press the Caps Lock button pop out for you to use and then hide themselves
on your keyboard to return to your standard again when you move the cursor off them. Just
cursor. Pressing Cmd + K will take you to the press the Tab key again to reinstate the panels to
preferences panel where you can also specify normal operation.
more cursor parameters.

Q: I’ve been working on

an image but why can’t I
save it as a jpeg?

Q: I keep getting a Clipboard Export error when switching A: There are a couple of things you need
to check. Firstly, if you have added layers
to another program. Can it be stopped? either intentionally or by accident, it will want
you to save it as a layered .PSD file unless you
tell it otherwise. You also need to check what
A: If you are experiencing the clipboard colour mode you’re in . If for some reason the
error, press Cmd + K to open up your mode has been changed to 32 Bits/Channel,
preferences panel and click on the General jpeg is not a format option to save in. Go to
option. Here you will find the Export Clipboard Image > Mode and check out the dropdown
option. Make sure it is unchecked. This means menu. Typically, a normal jpeg image is in
any Photoshop clipboard data you have is 8 Bits/Channel mode. One other thing to
unable to be pasted outside Photoshop. check is the overall file size of the image. Very
You are still able to paste clipboard data into large images, those that might be in 32 Bits/
Photoshop from outside. Channel mode, or documents comprised of
many layers and effects will only allow them to
be saved in other formats such as Photoshop
Q: Jpeg files used to open in Photoshop when I double- Raw and large format .PSB files.

clicked them, now they open in another program. How do I

change that?

A: The most likely answer is that you may

have installed a new program that has taken
over the file association for your images. Using
your file browser on a PC or Finder on a Mac,
navigate to an image file that is opening in
the wrong program. On a PC, right-click on it
and the select Open With > Choose Default
Program. From there you can select which app
to associate with that file type. On a Mac, find
a file with the wrong association and highlight
it. Click the Get Info button (Cmd + I) in the info
panel that appears click the Open With menu.
All available applications will be displayed. Click
on the Photoshop app and below that click
the Change All button. This ensures all images
of that file type will now be associated with
Photoshop by default.

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 YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Q: When I zoom an image in Photoshop, the window remains

the same size and I have to scale it manually to see the picture
in full. Is there a way around that problem?

A: That’s an easy one to remedy. It sounds

like the Zoom Resizes Windows button may
not be active. Press Cmd + K to bring your
preferences up and go to the Tools section.
Here you’ll see the Zoom Resizes Windows
option. Make sure it is checked and now the document to the edge of the workspace until
your window will scale as you zoom your you see a blue line appear. Let go of the mouse
image until you reach the limit of the available and the document window is now docked to the
workspace. Alternatively, you can dock the workspace and remains the same size even if
document window to the workspace. Drag you reduce the image to a very small size.

Q: Why are certain filters Q: I’m new to Photoshop. Q: I’ve saved a jpeg from
and options greyed out After installing it I also have Photoshop. When I try to
on certain images? Others an application called Adobe open it, it says ‘Could not
seem to work fine. Bridge. What is it for? open “xxx.jpg” because an
unknown or invalid JPEG
A: You’ll need to double check your image A: Very simply put, marker is found. What has
and what bit depth it has been saved as. Adobe Bridge is a neat asset happened to the file?
Typically if your image shows a bit depth of 16 management program that lets
Bits/Channel or 32 Bits/Channel, then certain you preview, catalog, keyword
filters and functions will not work. You’ll need
to go to Image > Mode and set the bit depth
and search through your image
and asset library. You can also add metadata,
A: This is another irritation that can befall
you sometimes. This usually comes about
to 8 Bits/Channel. Then they should work fine. rename files in bulk and launch Photoshop.
because even though you saved it with a
.jpg filename, you have in fact saved it in
a .PSD format. In the most recent version
of Photoshop, it will warn you that you are
trying to name a file incorrectly. If you have
older versions of Photoshop like CS6, this
can be a common occurrence. Navigate to
the problematic file and rename the file and
change the .jpg extension to .psd. You’ll be
asked to confirm this, so click OK. The file will
be renamed and you should now be able to
open the file again in Photoshop.

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 YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Q: Which version of Q: When editing text in

Lightroom is better; Lightroom Photoshop, a small panel
Classic or CC? of alternate text characters
keeps appearing. This is a
A: This might be more about how serious bit annoying, can I easily
you are about image processing. Over the turn this off?
last couple of years, Adobe have renamed
and revamped Lightroom to the point it now
exists as two versions. Lightroom Classic A: Yes you can. This small flyout panel is
is an advanced desktop-focused version a quick method of showing you alternative
with a complete set of modules that allow characters and symbols. If you don’t want
the serious photographer to get the most this panel to appear whilst editing text, go to
out of their images. Lightroom CC is a pared Photoshop > Preferences > Type and find the
down mobile version that offers more basic check box named Enable Type Layer Glyph
controls to edit your photos. It is arguably Alternatives and make sure it is unchecked.
considered an entry level application for The text flyout box will be disabled after that.
photo processing and adjustment.

Q: Am I only able to open Q: Do I need Photoshop

raw files in Lightroom for if I already have a copy of
image processing? Photoshop Elements?

A: Not at all. While it’s true that Lightroom A: That really depends on whether the
primarily supports a large number of native tools provided by Elements continue to fulfil
camera raw formats such as Canon’s CR2 your image editing requirements. Elements
format, Nikon’s NEF format and the Olympus can be purchased outright and does not
ORF format, you can also open PNG, TIFF, require a monthly subscription, which makes it
JPEG and DNG formats too. Lightroom also an attractive proposition. It is less expensive
supports Photoshop’s own PSD document than Photoshop, but this means that it has a
format too. number of limitations and has less features
and advanced options. If you use Elements
and find yourself always in need of greater
creative functionality, then Photoshop is your
next upgrade path. Otherwise, sticking with
Elements continues to make sense.

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92 www.pclpublications.com
 PLUGINS ROUND-UP

Plugins
Round-up
Plugins are small, self-contained programs that
add extra effects and workflow possibilities to the
Photoshop toolset. Plugins can simply be a single
effect added to your image. They can also be
something more complex, like a self-contained mini
editor. Let’s take a look at some of the more notable
plugins available for Photoshop at the moment.

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 PLUGINS ROUND-UP

Get switched on with plugins

A s we’ve already noted, there are so many
plugins available, it can be a chore to wade
through them all to figure out what is best for you.
with. Some are fairly universal, others may need
updated plugins. When purchasing, double-
check version numbers to avoid disappointment.
question asked by anyone new to plugins. If
you’ve downloaded one, you then have to install
it; but how do you do that? Well, there are in fact a
Moreover, you need to be aware of what versions Before we dive in and regale you with some prime couple of ways you can approach it, and it’s pretty
of Photoshop any particular plugin is compatible plugin choices, we thought we’d cover the main easy, so here we go.

Manual install Photoshop install Elements install

First things first is to download your The latest versions of Photoshop CC lets Installing plugins on Elements is a similar
plugin. It may be in a compressed format you browse, install and manage plugins process to Photoshop’s manual install.
such as a zip file. Unpack the ZIP file. from a handy interface. From the top In this case, the target plugins folder
Then copy the unpacked folder. Then you menu, select Plugins > Browse Plugins. is found within the Adobe Photoshop
need to navigate to the folder that contains This will bring up your Creative Cloud Elements Support Files folder. Paste your
the Photoshop plugins. Paste your copied app. Here you can browse for free or paid downloaded plugin there and restart
plugin into Photoshop’s plugins folder. plugins and install them with ease. For Elements. The new plugin should be
Start your version of Photoshop. Click on example, we clicked on the PixelSquid visible at the bottom of the Filter menu.
the Filter menu. At the bottom should be 3D objects browser. You can view details
the name of the plugin you just pasted into about the plugin of your choice and then
Photoshop’s plugins folder. Click it to open download it. Once downloaded, you can
and enjoy. go back to the plugins menu and your
downloaded plugin will be displayed at the
bottom. Click on it to activate it. That’s all
there is to it.

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 PLUGINS ROUND-UP

Luminar 4 30 day money back period. £81 for 1 license.

This is a fully featured creative photo editor, wealth of creative options and manipulation
and a powerful one at that. Luminar is tools that will keep you busy for ages. You can
designed to work as either a standalone use the browser to organise your photos and
product or as a plugin for Photoshop and then begin work on your chosen edit. Using
Lightroom. It is a photo editor, browser and the AI Sky Replacement Tool, you can instantly
raw processing application, all in one. It is change a sky to better suit the mood of the
packed with impressive tools to turn your picture. The algorithms built into the application
favourite photos into creative works of art. can accurately drop a new sky into your photo,
Luminar is designed to be as intuitive as taking care not to remove small details like
possible, meaning you can fire it up and leaves and grass. If you want, you can even
master its controls very quickly. The learning relight the scene for a totally new look. All the
curve is not too steep and you can spend effects you bring to bear on your images can
more time creating, rather than scratching be added as layers, which gives you a lot of
your head wondering what to do next. control and non-destructive editing to boot.
Moreover, Luminar is not a subscription- Portrait photographers also have an amazing objects into your photos, add sunrays, or
based product. You pay for it outright and set of tools to enhance their subjects, with just extract as much detail from an image as
then it’s yours. At £81, it represents a good AI Skin Enhancer and Portrait Enhancer. It you desire. If you have unwanted objects in
deal considering how much you get for such can quickly and accurately remove unwanted a photo, then the Erase tool will make short
a relatively small outlay. blemishes, but preserves all the important stuff work of removing them. Add to that a noise
At its simplest, it is a powerful, raw like pores and hair. Again, clever algorithms reduction tool, a large number of creative
processing application much like Lightroom, save you time. No complex masking is needed, presets called ‘Looks’ and a landscape
offering non-destructive edits and endless but you have the option to tweak any of the enhancer, you have a powerful photo editor
methods of image adjustment. Beyond that, edits if you want. on your hands that could have a major
Luminar comes into its own by offering a With Luminar, you can drop additional impact on how you approach your workflow.

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 PLUGINS ROUND-UP

PixelSquid Free with limited object choices. $199 per year for access to all 3D assets.

This is a 3D asset browser need to create an account, but it is easy to set your photo. The object in your document
that gives you access to up and ready in minutes. To use un-watermarked will update to match the preview. When you
the tens of thousands versions, you will need to upgrade to their have the object just as you want it, you can
of design objects subscription service, which runs at $199 per click the Embed Smart Object button and
PixelSquid have year. Personally, we feel this is a little steep for a layered PSD will be created, which gives
available. They are a niche product, but if you require the use of 3D you a lot of control over the object in terms
fully realised 3D objects in your projects on a regular basis, then of layered effects, selection areas, depth
objects that you the cost is a little more justified. mapping, shadows and fog. Be aware that
can spin around You simply fire up the plugin and choose the high resolution objects can slow your
as if it were a solid which object you want to appear in your machine down if it is a little underpowered.
object, so it better document. Place your chosen object and scale This is a fun little plugin. The main downfall
matches the orientation it to the required size. You have the options is that you cannot light the objects to match
needed to fit your image to choose low resolution or high resolution the lighting in your photo for added realism,
requirements. You can use the free version 3D objects, and whether you want the object but if you wanted to get down and dirty with
which gives you access to over a hundred to cast shadows. In the PixelSquid preview the layered PSD file, you could no doubt
free objects, as well as watermarked versions window, you can rotate and angle the object introduce some more shadows to help your
of everything else in their library. You will to help it match the perspective present in image blend in better.

StockSolo Free to use. No restrictions on photos.

StockSolo is a stock photography library Photoshop plugin and install it. When you start (say 3000 pixels by 2000 pixels), when you
search engine that gives you access to up Photoshop, you’ll find the plugin under find an image you like, click on the Place
many thousands of photos, that are free Plugins > StockSolo. The plugin activates and button and it will be downloaded and inserted
for personal and commercial you can browse, or search by keyword, for at the correct size to fill your document.
use. No subscription is images. StockSolo has the option to search for Images are downloaded as Smart Objects,
required and you have free images from a number of stock library sites. which you can rasterize if you so wish.
immediate access to At the time of writing, it allows you to search This is a very handy little plugin, and it lets
countless high quality, Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash. You simply put a you quickly find and download images directly
full resolution images; subject name in the search field and hit Search into your documents. Given that you have
with no restrictions. to access the libraries of the stock image sites. access to all those high-resolution photos from
First, download the If you create a blank document of a certain size a free plugin, what’s not to like?

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 PLUGINS ROUND-UP

Blow Up 3 30 day trial. $79 one off purchase.

Reducing an image to a much areas of similar tone. Adding a little more grain Starting with a larger original, we tried
smaller size presents to the image before scaling helps to reduce to scale an image from 3000 pixels to 6000
no problems in day the impact of the repeating pattern, but how pixels. With a little finessing of the settings,
to day use. A good much you add does come down to personal the results proved to be quite acceptable.
original at 4000 preference. Also bear in mind that the quality They’ll never be archival quality, but if you
pixels wide, when of the original image is the key to how well it need the extra pixels, then it is certainly
reduced to 800 can be enlarged. A compressed jpeg is going an option. At $79 for such a niche plugin,
pixels wide, will to suffer, since all those inherent artefacts will we wonder if Photoshop’s own resampling
look fine. However, result in more of that unwanted repeat pattern algorithms are good enough to make you
what happens if the than you might possibly like. reconsider the value of this particular plugin.
reverse is true and
you need to blow up
a 800 pixel wide image to
4000? This is an extreme example, but if you
are faced with this dilemma, you just have to
scale the 800 pixels up and hope it comes
out ok. Plugins like Blow Up 3 can help by
using algorithms to upsample the image
and retain as much detail and sharpness as
possible. Of course, concessions have to be
made, since you are interpolating an image
and injecting pixels where there were none
to begin with. Results of our 800 pixel to
4000 pixel test were mixed. Although some
finer detail of the girl’s hair was maintained,
it still looked a little painterly and you could
make out a definite repeating pattern through

Aurora HDR 30 day money back period. £92 for 5 licenses.

you can import one image and
Aurora HDR will still be able to
create an HDR image from that.
Just be aware that if the sky of
an image is far too overexposed
and detail is lost, no amount
of clever algorithms will save it.
Although, if you’ve already read
the review about Luminar 4, you
do at least have the option to drop a
completely new sky in there!
If you do have a bracketed sequence
of images, then you can open these
together and Aurora HDR will merge them
automatically. It can align images, and
apply deghosting techniques to reduce
the impact of any moving objects in the
scene; using one of the sequence images
as a reference. You also have the option to
apply a colour denoise filter and remove
chromatic aberrations in each image. Then
High dynamic range (HDR), images are the number of industry leading photographers. the process of enhancing the results begins.
result of combining 3 or more bracketed Aurora HDR works as both a Photoshop You have a huge set of tools at your disposal
photos to give you a result that contains more and Lightroom plugin, as well as a standalone that let you bring out every last pixel of
tonal data than you can capture in one photo application. There’s no subscription, it’s just a detail and tonal data. You can also layer
alone. Once you have your set of bracketed one-time purchase and it’s yours. Be aware of your adjustments, add radial and gradient
photos, you need to be able to combine them which versions of Photoshop and Lightroom it filters, choose from a number of presets and
to create your final HDR image. There are works with though. We tried the demo, which so on. You can even save your edits as a
plenty of applications out there to merge your didn’t appear to work with Photoshop 2020, preset, to apply to any subsequent images.
photos and produce a final result. Photoshop although the newer versions do, according to It is certainly powerful and the control you
and Lightroom are among them of course, the website. Presumably support for Photoshop have is impressive. Beware though, it is all
but Aurora HDR is an advanced HDR creation 2021 is on the way. Until it is supported, you can too easy to get a bit heavy handed with your
package that gives you a huge amount of of course run it in its standalone form anyway. edits. A good HDR is all about subtlety, so
control over your images, and is used by a First off, if you don’t have bracketed images, keep an eye on those edits.

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 ADOBE CAMERA RAW

Adobe
Camera Raw
When you install Photoshop, you also get a very
useful application called Camera Raw. It allows you
to edit Raw files captured by digital cameras. A
Raw file offers a higher quality than standard jpeg
files. Think of Camera Raw as the little brother of
Lightroom, which offers you a digital darkroom
where Raw files can be processed.

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 ADOBE CAMERA RAW PROCESSING RAW FILES

Processing
Raw Files
For the best possible quality,
shoot in Raw mode

A ll digital SLRs and Compact System Cameras, and most of

the better compact cameras, have a shooting option called
Raw mode. You’ll usually find it in the menu as an option under
image quality. Raw mode offers greatly improved image quality
over the usual JPEG image file format, and is recommended
for all serious photographers. Let’s take a closer look at Raw
mode, find out how it works and see how it can help you
produce better photographs.

What is Raw Mode?

Lens Sensor Processor JPEG Output

Raw Output

Raw mode is a special image recording option captured by an electronic image sensor. This eye, so the signal from the sensor feeds into the
that is available on digital SLRs, Compact System sensor has millions of tiny photocells that produce a camera’s image processor, a combination of
Cameras, and other high-quality digital cameras. If charge when they are exposed to light; the brighter computer electronics and software which turns the
your camera has this option, you have access to the light, the higher the charge. Digital camera brightness data from the sensor, adjusted for the
much higher image quality than the standard JPEG sensors don’t record the colour of the light hitting colours in the Bayer filter, into a full colour digital
file format. them, just the brightness, so a special mosaic of image that you can view and print.
Essentially, Raw mode is just what it sounds coloured filters is placed in front of the sensor, Part of that process includes reducing the
like. It’s the raw data pretty much straight from called a Bayer filter. bit-depth of the basic image data (the amount of
the camera’s sensor. In a digital camera the Naturally, the image generated by the sensor and 1s and 0s used by a computer to describe each
photographic image is, as I’m sure you’re aware, filter wouldn’t make much sense to the unaided pixel), usually from 36-bit (12 bits per channel)

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 PROCESSING RAW FILES ADOBE CAMERA RAW

“LOSSLESS” COMPRESSED

USEFUL TIP
Modern cameras all come supplied with
Raw processing software, although if you
have Photoshop, it has Adobe Camera Raw
built in as part of the application. Try to get
used to always shooting in Raw mode on
your camera. The quality and processing
possibilities are much greater than JPEG
ÄSLZ;OLZLKH`ZL]LUZVTLJHTLYHWOVULZ
have the ability to shoot in Raw format.
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to understand how much more processing
ability you have. Your photos will see a
marked improvement when you use Raw.

or even 48-bit (16 bits per channel) to 24-bit (8 artefacts into some areas of the image. that the saved files are much larger, so they take
bits per channel), which makes a smaller and The main advantage of Raw shooting, apart from a lot longer to save to the memory card, and you
more easily processed file, but loses some colour the improvement in overall image quality, is that it can fit fewer of them on there. For a typical 16MP
depth because of the smaller palette that can be bypasses the in-camera image processing, such DSLR, a high quality JPEG file will be around
represented by that many bits. Other adjustments as white balance, saturation, sharpness etc. This 8MB, while a Raw file will be around 25MB, over
to the colour balance, such as unusual white sounds illogical, but it’s not really. The processing three times the size.
balance settings, can also reduce image quality, as that takes place in the camera is pre-set before the Many of the more recent DSLRs have the
will heavy noise reduction. shot is taken, and irreversible once the image has ability to record Raw and JPEG image files
In order to save space on the memory card, been converted to a JPEG file. By shooting in Raw simultaneously. This has the advantage of the
produce faster transfers and make it easier to mode, you can make the processing adjustments convenience of JPEG with the versatility and
display and print the photograph on a computer, after the shot has been taken, and if you need to quality of Raw, but takes up even more space on
the image is usually converted to a compressed change them you can do so as long as you have your memory card. Fortunately the price of very
JPEG file. Unfortunately JPEG compression also the original Raw file. large memory cards is falling almost daily, so this
reduces the image quality, and can introduce The downside to Raw file recording is of course needn’t be much of a problem.

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 ADOBE CAMERA RAW CAMERA RAW

Camera Raw
The new look for Photoshop’s Raw processor

P hotoshop comes with Camera Raw

as standard. It offers a range of
processing options that enable you to
get the best out of your photos, including
exposure adjustment, sharpening, noise
reduction, colour correction and automatic
correction for lens distortion. It’s regularly
updated so it’s compatible with the latest
cameras and lenses. It recently underwent
a major update and the layout has been
redesigned to match the look of the
mobile version of Lightroom.

Film Strip
This shows all the files you currently have
open in thumbnail format and is displayed on
the left side of the screen. You can alter its
orientation and display it along the bottom of
the screen if preferred. Click the one you want
to work on.

Image Window
The image you are currently working on
is displayed here. All the changes and
adjustments you make to the file is shown
here in real time. If you alter the before and
after view options the screen will be split in
half accordingly.

Ratings and Preferences

The lower middle of the interface has a
ratings panel so you can apply a star rating
to each image you’re working on. The small
trashcan button will reset the rating to zero
stars. Below that is a clickable link to Camera
Raw’s preferences.

Zoom and Orientation

The lower left area has two controls that let
you control the amount of magnification of
the currently active image that range from
6% to 1600%. Next to that is the show/hide
Filmstrip button and orientation options.

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 CAMERA RAW ADOBE CAMERA RAW

Control Tabs Info, Edit, Profile Histogram Toolbar

The user interface breaks the Below the Histogram are three This displays the distribution of This holds all the main selectable
workflow down into discrete small panels. The first displays tones in your image and changes tools including Edit, Crop and
sections, each with its own information about the camera as you apply different exposure Rotate, Spot Removal and
tabbed palette of controls and settings used. The second lets and colour adjustments. Darkest Masking. The options for the tool
adjustment sliders. Switch you choose if you are using Auto tones are on the left of the graph you select will be displayed in
between them by clicking on or B&W colour settings. The and brightest on the right. It the main control tab panel to the
their name to expand each panel third is the colour profile selector displays RGB colours and the left of the toolbar and changes
such as Basic and Curve. and browser. combined colours. with each tool you choose.

Save, Preferences and Full Screen

In the top right corner of the screen sit
three more buttons. From left to right
they are: Save Options, which can also
be accessed from the thumbnail of each
image in the filmstrip, Preferences and
the Full Screen Toggle button.

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 ADOBE CAMERA RAW THE TOOLBAR

The Toolbar
Get to know all the tools you have at your
disposal in the current version of Camera Raw

T he Toolbar in the newly updated layout of Camera Raw sits

vertically in the top right side of the interface. It is broken down
into a series of buttons that you can click. Each button you click, will
display its particular tools in the main control panel situated right
next to the Toolbar. This version now looks more like Lightroom, the
mobile-focused version.

Edit Crop & Rotate Spot Removal Masking

First in the Toolbar is the Edit button. As the name of this next tool This is a useful tool that can remove The most recent update to Adobe
Clicking on this displays the main suggests, this is where you can alter spots and blemishes from your image Camera Raw (version 14.0.1) sees a
tools that you will be using to edit and the aspect ratio of your image and by either cloning another area over number of tools being amalgamated
adjust your photos. Edit is broken perform a crop on it to either remove the offending spot, or healing the into a unified section all its own. The
down into nine sections that cover an unwanted part of the image, or area in question by blending other Adjustment Brush, Linear Gradient
all your typical adjustment tools such get it to more closely adhere to a pixels into that area. You can choose and Radial Gradient that appeared
as altering Brightness and Contrast, compositional guide such as the Rule the Size, Feather and Opacity of separately, now all sit under the
Hue and Saturation, Detail and Noise of Thirds. It also offers a levelling tool the brush which can still be moved Masking button. You also have the
Reduction. There are also tools to that can be dragged over a slanted once placed if required. If you have new Select Subject and Select Sky
correct optical flaws in camera lenses horizon to instantly correct it and multiple images selected, the choices options as well as tools to create
and alter image geometry amongst options to rotate the image and flip it you make will be applied to all masks for Color Range, Luminance
other options. vertically and horizontally. selected images at once. Range and Depth Range.

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 THE TOOLBAR ADOBE CAMERA RAW

Brush & Gradients Select Subject/Sky Color/Luminance Red Eye Removal

The Brush, Graduated and Radial The two tools are something that up The Color Range and Luminance Red eye is caused by the flash from
adjustment tools work just as they did until now, only existed as a selection Range tools are variations on the a camera reflecting off blood vessels
before they were all amalgamated into option in Photoshop. Now though, methods you can use to select an in the inside of the eye giving
one. Each tool has a set of adjustment Select Subject and Select Sky have area. The Color Range tool, as the the owner of those eyes a rather
parameters that appear in the tabbed made their way to Camera Raw. name suggests, lets you sample an demonic appearance. Pets can also
palette on the right of the screen. You When you activate each one, it scans area of colour you wish to adjust and suffer from this affliction but their
can manually brush adjustments onto the image for the most obvious will only affect that chosen range of eyes glow green. Modern cameras
your image or use the two gradient subjects in the image or the main sky colours. Alternatively, the Luminance have red eye reduction ability, but
options to affect areas of your image area and creates a mask for you. You Range selection method allows sometimes they slip through. This
and apply brightness, exposure, can then apply various adjustments you to choose areas of a specific tool can easily remove both red eye
contrast, saturation, sharpness and to those areas just as you would as if brightness and then apply your and pet eye and restore them to a
much more. you had masked the area manually. adjustments to just those areas. more normal appearance.

Snapshots Presets More Settings Additional tools

If you are working on a particularly Pressing the Presets button in Represented by three small dots, At the bottom of the toolbar on the
involved edit to one of your photos, it the toolbar presents you with an this button opens a menu of some right, there are also four additional
may be prudent to use the Snapshots extensive list of image presets. This additional options that allow you to buttons. The magnifying glass is the
feature at key points during the edit. means that you can apply one-click Reset your image to one of a number basic zoom tool (Z), then the Hand Tool
Adding a Snapshot saves the image adjustments to your photos. These of previous states. You can also (H) lets you click and drag your image
in its current state and allows you presets range from High Contrast apply either a favourite preset or a around the screen. Press the spacebar
to step back through your edits to a colour adjustments to Cross Process Snapshot. If you have a sumner of to activate the same tool. The Sampler
point in time when the Snapshot was effects and a number of Creative and active settings you like and want to (S) lets you select a number of points
created. You can still step forward Black and White options too. You can save it as a preset, you can export and display their current RGB colour
as well since each Snapshot is a also save any number of user-defined these to a named file. You can also values. The Grid Overlay (Shift + G)
non-destructive save point in the presets too and these are added to Load or Save settings and set Raw helps general alignment of horizontal
adjustment process. the User Presets list. defaults for newly opened images. and vertical items.

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 ADOBE CAMERA RAW THE EDIT MENU

The Edit Menu

Camera Raw has a powerful set of features all nested
within a series of easily accessible control tabs

T he main interface of Camera Raw is comprised of a series of

menus, each with a series of control sliders and some additional
menu tabs to access further features. Although you will no doubt
spend most of your time working in the Basic panel, when used in
conjunction with adjustments from the other control panels, you will
be able to enhance your images beyond what you thought possible.

Basic Curve Detail Color Mixer

The Basic panel in Camera Raw The Curve options in Camera Raw Here you can handle Sharpening The Color Mixer panel is where
is probably the one you will spend behave very much like the Levels and Noise Reduction. Sharpening you can get to grips with the
the most time in and also making and Curves Adjustments you can works by increasing the contrast colours in your images and how
the most important global image make in Photoshop itself. The of the brightest and darkest edges you can affect them. The first
adjustments. You can adjust White basic Parametric adjustments allow in your image. The Detail and panel is Hue, which lets you alter
Balance, Exposure, Contrast, you to use sliders to individually Masking sliders can effectively a specific range of colour values
Highlights and Shadows as well adjust Highlights, Lights, Darks suppress the halo effects of over such as reds for example; then
as Whites and Black. To bring out and Shadows. The Point Curve sharpening. The Noise Reduction alter their hue to make them more
detail, you can use Texture, Clarity adjustment allows you to place settings help you reduce the magenta or make orange more
and Dehaze to reduce haze in your custom control points. You can work amount of image noise and colour yellow or blue more purple. The
photos. You can also adjust Vibrance with individual RGB curves too. There artefacts seen in high ISO photos other panels allow the adjustment
and Saturation to boost the purity of is also a Targeted Adjustment Tool for with options to retain as much of their Saturation (intensity) and
the colours in your image. greater tonal editing precision. detail in your images as possible. Luminance (brightness).

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 THE EDIT MENU ADOBE CAMERA RAW

Color Grading Optics Geometry Effects

Colour Grading controls how much Throughout its life, Camera Raw has The Geometry feature gives you The Effects panel allows you to add
of a certain colour appears in the been updated at regular intervals. control over the horizontal and Grain to your image, with three values
highlights or shadows of your Each new update brings the latest vertical balance and geometry of to control its impact. You can specify
images. Interactive colour wheels profiles that can automatically assess your photos. From simply levelling the Grain, the Size of the grains and
are used to choose the colour of your photo and determine what lens a slanted horizon to correcting the Roughness of the image grain
the overall image and those in the was used on the camera that took the perspective in both the vertical and you apply. The other effect is Post
shadows and highlights. Those shot. Once it knows what lens was horizontal plane, you can apply an Crop Vignetting which allows you to
chosen colours will start to dominate used, it can apply a set of corrections automatic adjustment that scans the darken the outer edges of the photo
the brightest and darkest areas. that can eliminate lens aberrations image for strong upright edges and before and after you’ve cropped the
Sliders determine whether Highlights and distortions specific to that horizontal ones and corrects them. photo. You can control the Amount,
or Shadows are more dominant and lens. It does also allow for manual You also have the option to apply Midpoint, Roundness, Feather and
how intense they are. adjustments and Defringe control. transformations manually as well. Highlights.

USEFUL TIP
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ZLSLJ[HUV[OLYVYT\S[PWSLZPTPSHYPTHNLZMYVT[OLÄSTZ[YPW^OPJO^PSSHSZVILOPNOSPNO[LK@V\JHU[OLUOV]LY
`V\YJ\YZVYV]LY[OL[VWYPNO[VM[OLVYPNPUHSS`LKP[LKPTHNLHUKJSPJR[OL:`UJOYVUPaLPJVU[OH[HWWLHYZ*OVVZL
^OPJOHKQ\Z[TLU[Z`V\^HU[[VJVW`[V[OLV[OLYPTHNLZVYZPTWS`JSPJR*OLJR(SSHUKWYLZZ62>OLU`V\KV
HSS[OLLKP[ZMYVT[OLÄYZ[PTHNL^PSSILHWWSPLK[VHU`HKKP[PVUHSS`ZLSLJ[LKPTHNLZPU[OLÄSTZ[YPW

Calibration
Calibration is a module more
powerful than it may look at first
glance. Mainly used as a calibration
for your camera it can be a brilliantly
creative tool. You could think of the
Calibration panel as a more refined
Hue and Saturation adjustment tool.
You can alter the Tint value found in
the shadows of your image, as well
as adjust the general use of Hue and
Saturation in the Red Green and Blue
channels of your image for much
finer control.

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 WHAT IS RAW MODE? RAW WORKFLOW

Raw Workflow
Make your images look their absolute best
A sk any five professional photographers
about the process they use to create their
pictures, you’ll get five different answers. The
the type of final image required, as well as the
type of camera used to take the photo and
the use to which the photo will be put. There
so we’ll take a look at a common general
purpose workflow that will be suitable for
most types of photo. Our example will be
amount of processing and adjustment used are certain operations that will be common using a sunrise photograph taken on a rocky
will vary, depending on the job at hand and to most photos that you’ll want to process, formation down on the coast.

If you look at the histogram at the top In the Basic panel, hold down the Alt key We can spend a while carefully adjusting
01 03 04
right of the screen you’ll notice that the (Option on Mac) and begin to move the the various sliders by hand to try and
line at the right (brightest) end of the graph is exposure slider to the right. With the key held down, equalise the histogram, but the quickest way to get
peaking at both ends and flat in the middle. all you’ll see will be the over-exposed areas. You can close to the optimum result is to let Camera Raw
Ideally the graph should fill the area between do this with any of the first six sliders and it’s a good do the hard work. If you click on Auto the software
the lightest and darkest ends of the range, so way to make adjustments without going too far. will automatically adjust the image to produce a
we need to slightly reduce the lighter end of the good approximation to a balanced exposure. It’s
graph without causing under-exposure. probably not going to be ideal, but it will give us
a good starting point. You’ll notice that the sky
along the horizon is over-exposed or very near to it,
but that’s OK. We’re looking for a good spread of
tones and that includes white.

To ensure that we don’t lose too much

02
detail to highlight clipping, click on the
arrow in the top right corner of the histogram
window. This turns on the highlight clipping
warning. Any over-exposed areas will turn bright
red in the image window. Clicking on the left
button turns on the shadow clipping warning.

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 RAW WORKFLOW WHAT IS RAW MODE?

The Auto adjustment has made a good Camera Raw offers a useful lens
05 07
job of this particular picture, but for correction feature under its Optics panel.
landscape shots a little bit of extra saturation The Tamron wide-angle lens used to take this
usually looks good, so we’ll boost the vibrance picture is a nice bit of glass, but it’s not perfect.
and the saturation to get the colours of the Although it’s hard to see at a glance, this wide-
sunlight, water and rocks to really pop out. angle shot does suffer from some pincushion
distortion and slight chromatic aberration.
Fortunately Camera Raw comes pre-loaded
with correction profiles for a huge list of popular
lenses, including this one. All you need to do
to automatically correct the optical distortion
caused by the lens is to check the box Use
Profile Corrections. You’ll see the change happen
to your image immediately.

The next step is largely a matter of

09
personal taste, but you can also choose
to use a preset profile for the colour calibration
too. Just below the histogram, click on the Profile
panel and from the drop-down menu select your
preferred profile. Choose Browse to see more.
There are now a number to choose from. This
sets the colour rendering profile to the preset.

Camera Raw also provides another

06
method of adjusting exposure: by altering
the tone curve. Although it’s no more accurate
than using the sliders many people will prefer it
because it’s nice and simple and gives a good
visual representation of what we’re doing. It’s
also a lot harder to burn out the highlights using
curves. By adjusting the highlights to decrease a
portion of the overexposed areas and by boosting
shadows, it is possible to quickly equalise the
histogram without losing too much quality. Chromatic aberration is just as easy
08
to fix. Click on the Remove Chromatic
Aberration button to automatically remove it.
You’ll need to zoom in near the edge of the frame
to see the difference, but you’ll notice the effects
at once.

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 WHAT IS RAW MODE? ADOBE CAMERA RAW WORKFLOW

For this particular image, the sky is a bit lighter than we prefer, but
10
we can easily darken it down a bit by adding a high quality digital
graduated filter in Camera Raw. Click on the Masking button in the toolbar BEFORE
on the right edge of the screen and you can add a Linear Gradient. Set the
exposure slider between -1.5 or -2, then in the image window drag down
from the top of the picture to just below the horizon line to apply the filter. If
you hold down the shift key while dragging, it will stay parallel with the top
of the frame.

Next we have the Save Options. Camera Raw gives you the option to
11
output the processed image in a number of different ways, but which
one you use will depend on what you want to do with the finished image. For
most purposes the default settings will be ideal, but you may need to select
a different colour space and for maximum colour fidelity you can output in
16-bit format. You can also choose an image size different from the native
resolution of your camera, but be aware that choosing a larger size doesn’t
magically create new pixels; the image will be enlarged using a resampling
algorithm. If you’re planning to print the picture you might also want to look
at the sharpening options. When you’re happy with your choices, click Save.
The picture will be saved according to your preferences.

You also have the option to save a particular group of adjustment

12
settings in order to use them later on other images. You can apply a
selection, or all the settings at once, if you wish. Once you have a group of
adjustments you want to save, click on the More Image Settings icon in the
toolbar to call up the options menu.

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 ADOBE CAMERA RAW WORKFLOW WHAT IS RAW MODE?

AFTER
USEFUL TIP
You may notice that you will
often see small white dots next
to some or all of the toolbar
icons on the extreme left of
the screen. These are simply
small indicators that are there
to inform you that an edit using
that tool has been used on
your image and is active.

From the options menu, choose Save Settings. This will open the Once saved, the Preset you created is added to the list of User
13 14
Save Settings dialog panel where you can specify which settings can Presets. If you have an image to which you want to apply this Preset,
be saved. You can choose to Check All or manually choose by checking or open it in Camera Raw as normal and then scroll down to where ‘New
un-checking your preferred adjustments listed in the panel. Click Save and Landscape Preset’ is listed. A real-time display shows the effect it has on your
name your Preset. Our example is called ‘New Landscape Preset.xmp’. image. If you click it, the adjustments will be applied to the active image.

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 CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES

Creative
Project Guides
How about taking on some new projects to really
let your digital creativity loose? Part of the fun of
learning how to use Photoshop is tackling a variety
of photo editing and image manipulation scenarios.
It helps you understand how best to approach
them, and what tools are right for the job. It also
helps sharpen your growing creative skills.

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 CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES ARTWORK COMPOSITING

AFTER

Artwork BEFORE

Compositing
How to incorporate multiple image
elements into a unique piece of artwork
If there is one area that really helps artists to show off their skills, it is
in the creation of unique images and fantasy artworks. Websites like
DeviantArt and Pixabay are full of images that have been assembled in
your own brand new fantasy
image, then Photoshop is perfect. It
lets you put each image element on its own layer and
Photoshop, using many disparate components to create a final, cohesive with some careful editing and masking, you can blend them to produce
end result. Part of the attraction of those websites is that artists and a final image worthy of any fantasy genre. So why don’t we have a go
photographers create content and allow others to download their images right now? In our example, we’ve downloaded a number of free images
and use them for their own artworks. If you find yourself wanting to create which we are going to assemble into a final artwork.

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 ARTWORK COMPOSITING CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES

Let’s kick off the process by firing up Photoshop and from the file menu Our main background image, sourced from Pixabay, is 2700 pixels wide
01 02
selecting File > Open. Navigate to where your images are stored. Our x 3540 pixels high. Any brushes and other effects used in this document
base image is a jpeg file called ‘landscape’. If you double-click your image or will be sized according to the scale of this image. If you’re using other images of
click the Open button, the image will open in Photoshop as a new document. different sizes, scale your brushes proportionally to your image if needed.

This layer is named ‘landscape’. It makes sense to name all your Now we need to start bringing in the various image elements needed
03 04
layers as you create them, just so you don’t lose track of all the in this creation. A rocky outcrop is needed as our foreground, so we
elements. More complex creations in Photoshop can use many layers and need to go to File > Open, and navigate to our foreground image named
adjustments, so be aware of this as you proceed. ‘rock’. This can be double-clicked to open it in its own window in Photoshop.

The part of the image that interests us is just the rock foreground. The With the tool selected, and using a relatively small brush size of
05 06
sea and sky are not needed. This means we need to select just the 50 pixels, you can click on the rock foreground and start to drag
rocky area. There are a number of ways you can do it, but it’s probably easiest the selection tool across all of the rocky areas. Because there is sufficient
to go to the toolbar and choose the Quick Selection Tool (W). contrast between the rock and the sea and sky, just the rock is selected.

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 CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES ARTWORK COMPOSITING

When you have all the foreground rock selected, you can copy the pixels Now you can either go to File > Paste or press Cmd + V. This pastes the
07 08
within the selection by going to Edit > Copy or pressing Cmd + C. This rock image you selected into your document. Notice that a new layer will
copies the selected area to the clipboard. Click on the document tab of your be created for it. You can name the layer ‘rock’. We positioned the image at the
original ‘landscape’ image to make it the active window. bottom of the document to create an outcrop overlooking the scene.

Now we can continue to bring other image elements into the document. Because the statue is already on a transparent background, we can
09 10
Go to File > Open and navigate to your next image element. We have a simply pick the Lasso Tool (L) and draw around it so it is completely
series of stone figures which have already been cut out by its author. We prefer enclosed by a selection. Then you can either go Edit > Copy again or press Cmd
the statue down in the lower left of the file. + C. The statue will be copied to the clipboard.

Back to the work in progress and press Cmd + V to paste the statue into Next, the statue needs to be scaled up a bit. With the ‘statue’ layer
11 12
the document. Make sure this new ‘statue’ layer is between the ‘rock’ active, go to Edit > Transform > Scale. Control points will appear
and ‘landscape’ layers. We prefer the statue to be facing the other way, so we around the image which you can drag to enlarge the statue. We scaled it up
can go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal to have it face the other way. and placed it slightly to the left of the frame.

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 ARTWORK COMPOSITING CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES

We want the statue to appear as if it is some giant artefact dwarfing A layer mask will be added to the ‘statue’ image. Click the layer mask
13 14
the surrounding landscape. We also want it to look like it has foliage thumbnail to make it active. This is important as the next step requires
growing up around it, rather than looking like it’s just been dropped there. From brushing onto the mask and not the image itself. Go to the toolbar and choose
the Layer Options panel, choose Add Layer Mask. the Brush Tool (B) from the menu.

With the Brush Tool active, you can go to the Tool Options panel at the Now you can begin to paint with a black brush onto the statue’s layer
15 16
top of the document and open the Brush Preset Picker. We need a brush mask. Each brush stroke of black will hide that part of the statue and the
of about 60 pixels with Hardness set to 0% so it will be nice and soft. Then, set foliage underneath will show through. You can paint areas around the toes and
the foreground colour to Black, using the Set Color tool. make it look like foliage is growing up around its feet.

If you press Alt + Left-Click the layer mask thumbnail, you can view your Now we can continue layering in new elements. Go File > Open and
17 18
handywork. The brush marks are enough to make the statue look more bring in another image of the moon which we copied to the clipboard.
a part of its surroundings, and gives it scale relative to the landscape it is in. You We pasted, scaled and positioned the moon in the working document in a layer
can click on the statue layer thumbnail to exit this view. called ‘moon’, between the ‘landscape’ and ‘statue’ layers.

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The moon looks odd hanging there in front of the clouds, but we can With the selection still active, click on the ‘landscape’ layer. Now choose
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blend it in with some masking. Right-Click the ‘moon’ layer thumbnail any selection tool such as the Lasso (L). Right-Click inside the selection
and choose Select Pixels from the list. Alternatively, you can press Alt + Right- area denoted by the ‘marching ants’ and choose Layer Via Copy from the list.
Click the ‘moon’ layer thumbnail. This makes a selection of the moon. This has just copied the section of sky directly under the moon.

This copied area will appear on its own layer which you can call ‘moon Press Cmd + D to ensure no selections are active. In the Layer Options
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mist’. You can click and drag this layer so it appears above the ‘moon’ panel, click on the Add layer Mask button. A layer mask will appear on
layer. The moon image will effectively disappear, but it is still there. Click on the the ‘moon mist’ layer. Click the layer mask thumbnail to make it active, then go
‘moon mist’ layer to make sure it is active. to the toolbar and choose the Gradient Tool (G).

Use the Gradient Tool Options Panel to make sure you have the Where the gradient is solid black, the ‘moon mist’ layer is concealed.
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Foreground to Transparent type selected in the Gradient Editor. Now you As the gradient fades to transparent, more of the layer is revealed. This
can click and drag the Gradient Tool from the top of the moon down to the lower creates the illusion that the moon is just visible through the atmosphere. You can
part of the moon. When you let go, a black gradient will be created on the mask. also make the ‘moon’ layer Opacity 85% to help it blend in.

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We’re going to add a foreground character. Go to File > Open and navigate The Select Subject tool has done a reasonable job apart from her toes.
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to your image and open it; ours is called ‘girl’. We need to extract her from Select the Lasso Tool (L) and make sure the Add to Selection button is
the image. There are a few ways to do this, but Photoshop has introduced the active in the Tool Options panel. Now you can draw around the parts of her feet
Select Subject feature that can automate the selection process for you. that haven’t been selected, ready for the next part.

Click the Select and Mask button in the Tool Options panel. Use the Copy and paste the new layer into your working document. Put this new
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Refine Edge Brush Tool (R), to refine the quality of the mask around layer at the top of the stack above the ‘rock’ layer and name it ‘girl’. You
the girl. Increasing the Edge Detection Radius to 8 pixels can help. Click the may want to scale both her and the rocks to a slightly smaller size by pressing
Decontaminate Colors button, choose New Layer with Layer Mask, then click OK. Cmd + T and dragging and scaling until you have it how you want it.

We also added a layer between the girl and the rocks called ‘shadow’. We copied and pasted the clouds image onto its own layer between
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We simply used a small, soft, black brush to add a dark area under her the statue and rock layers. Then we clicked the Add Layer Mask
feet, to make it look she was standing on the rocks. Next, we went to File > button whilst holding the Alt key to add a black Layer Mask to the cloud image,
Open and double-clicked on a file called ‘clouds’ to open it. effectively concealing it for the moment.

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We then chose a 500 pixel soft brush and set its colour to white. Then, We also added a ‘mist’ layer between the ‘cloud’ and rock’ layers and
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by painting white brush marks on the black layer mask, we were able to used a 1200 pixel soft white brush to add extra mist, just by the girl’s
reveal areas of cloud to give the illusion of a fog layer hovering above the foliage head and shoulders. We dropped the ‘mist’ layer’s Opacity to about 50%. This
and around the base of the statue. gave a little separation between the girl and the statue.

At this point we want to add a little glow, as if the sun is just off to one The ‘glow’ layer’s Blend Mode needs to be changed to Linear Light. Then
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side of the scene. We added a new layer called ‘glow’ between the go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation (Cmd + U), to bring up the
‘cloud’ and ‘mist’ layers. Then we used a 1200 pixel soft white brush to paint a Hue/Saturation panel. Make Hue +20, Saturation +40 and Lightness -40, and
large blob off to the left of the scene, below the statue’s mouth. check the Colorize button. The white blob should now be a warm glow. Click OK.

In the Layer Option panel, click the New Fill or Adjustment Layer button Then take a large 1600 pixel soft, black, brush and begin to paint on
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and choose Levels. Make sure ‘Levels 1’ is at the very top of the layer the ‘Levels 1’ layer mask to reveal areas you want to be at their original
stack. In the Levels’ properties panel, drag the mid-tone slider to the right, then brightness such as the glow, moon, clouds and other areas that you like. This
drag the White Point slider to the left to darken the image. adds a little more mood to the overall look of the scene.

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We then added a new Color Balance adjustment layer to the top of the Then we added a Photo Filter adjustment, and used Sepia as the
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stack. We added Cyan and Blue to the Shadows and Red and Yellow to filter colour; setting its Density to 25% and unchecking the Preserve
the Highlights. Preserve Luminosity was unchecked. This added more drama to Luminosity button. This adds a global colour cast to the image that ties all the
the scene and also evens out the global colour palette a little. various objects of differing colours together.

A new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer was added to boost the

39
overall saturation of the scene. We then thought that the addition of a
small flock of birds in the middle distance would add some more scale to the
statue. This final tweak meant that our fantasy scene was now complete.

Bring your
vision to life
Compositing allows you to create amazing artworks.

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 CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES DUAL LIGHTING EFFECT

AFTER

Dual
Lighting BEFORE

Effect
Add dramatic lighting effects to your
images with gradient maps
D ual lighting, as the name suggests, is a technique used by
photographers to add two separate, coloured lighting effects to a
subject. Most typically, they are used in a studio setup and can add a
depending on the subject. Of
course, not all of us are photographers
with access to expensive studio space and photographic
lot of drama to a portrait session. One coloured light is used to strongly equipment, but with a good source image, Photoshop can turn a normal
illuminate the subject from one side and then the second light is brought in portrait into an image with just as much drama as those captured by the
to add a cross-lit effect, with another complimentary colour, on the other pros. Since this is Photoshop, we can take it a step further with extra
side. This can be done with just the head and shoulders or the whole body, effects to enhance the image even more.

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The key to a good dual lighting effect is to select a good source Our example is of a young footballer holding a soccer ball. As you
01 02
image, with the potential to be turned into a final dramatic photo. If can see, he has been lit quite dramatically along each side of his
you don’t have your own, you can find plenty of images on Pixabay, Pexels body, creating what is known as rim lighting. This is a great example that
and other free sites, which are attribution free. can benefit from the dual lighting effect.

This example image is 2832 pixels wide by 4240 pixels high. Our Now the process of adding the dual colours can begin. Go to the
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settings and brushes used are based on an image this size. If you Layer Options panel and click on Create New Fill or Adjustment
are using images either smaller or larger, you may need to adjust some Layer. Then choose Gradient Map. This will let you remap the pixels in
settings to account for the different sizes in your own image. your image to a new colour, or series of colours.

The new layer Gradient Map 1 will be added above your base We need to edit the colours used in this gradient. The far left of
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image, on its own layer. You can double-click the layer to bring up the gradient is black and that is fine for this image, but we will
its properties panel. In the properties panel, click the gradient and it will need to click on the far right Color Stop to change its colour. When you
take you on to the Gradient Editor panel. do, the Color Picker below it is activated. Click it to continue.

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When you click the Color Picker, you can choose whatever colour you The next part is down to personal preference and the brightness of
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want from the palette provided, but select a nice vibrant colour to use as your image, but if you click the Color Midpoint slider and push it to the
the first part of the dual lighting effect. In this case, we altered the Color Stop to a left, you’ll notice that the image increases in brightness. This is because you
bright blue and clicked OK to continue. are mapping blue to more of the mid-tone values in the base image.

When you are happy with the results, click OK on the Gradient Editor Now, go through the Gradient Editor process as you have just done,
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panel to return to the main work in progress. Next, click on the Create and this time create a gradient that goes from Black, on the far left,
New Fill or Adjustment Layer button again and add a new Gradient Map 2 to a bright colour on the right, by clicking on the right Color Stop again and
layer to your document, above the first one. choosing a bright colour from the Color Picker.

Once again, you can slide the Color Midpoint to the left to increase We’ve decided that the footballer will be lit with a blue light on the left
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the brightness and inject more colour into the darker areas and mid- side of his body and the orange will light him on the right side. Click
tone areas. The orange is the second colour we’ll use in the dual lighting on the layer mask thumbnail of Gradient Map 2 and press Cmd + I to invert
effect. When you’re happy, click OK to proceed. the mask, which is currently white, to black.

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The orange gradient is hidden for the moment, since the mask has now Go over to the toolbar and select the Brush Tool (B). Then, in the
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been inverted to black. Always remember that in masking terms, black Tool Options panel at the top of the document, adjust the brush size
conceals and white reveals pixels. What we need to do now is selectively reveal to about 125 pixels and make sure Hardness is 0%. Then make sure the
areas of the orange gradient map on our footballer. Foreground Color is set to white before you proceed.

With the Gradient Map 2 layer mask selected, begin to paint white As you paint white on the mask, more and more of the orange
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onto the mask in the areas you want the colour to appear. Since we gradient map will appear turning his skin that colour. If you paint an
want it to look like he’s being lit by an orange light from the right-hand side, area you didn’t want orange, switch the foreground colour to black and
choose the brightest areas on the right of his body. conceal those unwanted areas, then switch back to white.

After a bit of trial and error with the application of the brush strokes, Next, double-click the Gradient Map 1 layer and it will open the Layer
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blends and chosen areas, we got a result we quite liked. The effect Style panel. We will use the Blend If properties to blend this coloured
of being lit with two different coloured studio lights is working well. Next, we layer into the base image below in a more realistic way, by letting more of the
want to blend those colours into the subject a bit more realistically. base layer’s darker colour show through the layer above.

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To use the Blend If function, Alt + Left-Click on the left-most Underlying Now it’s time to perform the same action with the orange Gradient
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Layer tab, to split it in half. Splitting it allows for much finer blend control. Map 2 layer. The effect you get from it can be subtle, but it means
Drag the right half of the tab to the right. This will allow the subtle blending of the both the coloured gradient maps are blended into the original image. Next,
base layer’s darker areas with those of the bright blue gradient map layer. let’s add a little bit of a flourish to finish the image off.

We’ve got a nice light painting image off a free image site that we Back in our main document, you can paste the image you just copied
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want to combine with our main image. We have an example called to the clipboard using Cmd + V, or if the copy is the same size as
‘light.jpg’ that we opened in a separate document. We then pressed Cmd + your main document, Shift + Cmd + V to paste it in place. Obviously the light
A to select all pixels and then pressed Cmd + C to copy it. painting image covers the footballer but we can address that next.

Make sure the ‘light’ layer is at the top of the layer stack. Now we can Keep the ‘light’ layer active and click on the Add Layer Mask button in
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change its Blend Mode to Lighten. In this case, only pixels brighter the layer options panel. Now, for the moment, make all layers invisible,
than 50% grey will show up. Darker pixels are effectively invisible, revealing except the base image, and make that active by going to Select > Subject,
the footballer below. The next problem is uncovering the footballer’s face. which will automatically scan the image and make a selection of the footballer.

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Make sure you keep the selection of the footballer active and make As you paint, the footballer’s face is revealed with each stroke. The
25 26
all layers visible again. Then click on the Layer Mask thumbnail of the selection you made of his outline is creating a nice crisp mask, and each
‘light’ layer. Choose the Brush Tool and use a small black brush of about 125 brush stroke is constrained by the selection, so you don’t paint anything other
pixels to paint across the area where the footballer’s face is obscured. than the inside of the selected area. So far, so good. Let’s keep going.

The ‘light’ layer is just a single colour blue at the moment, but it would Keep the ‘light’ layer active and go to the Layer Options panel below
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be nice to be able to colour a part of the light paint effect to match the layers panel, click the New Fill or Adjustment Layer button and
the orange glow on his right-hand side, as if the swirling light pattern is choose Gradient Map again. A new layer called Gradient Map 3 will be added
responsible for creating the blue and orange lighting effect on his body. to the top of the layer stack, with a Layer Mask in place.

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Double-click this new gradient map layer to open its properties and Once you are back in the Gradient Editor, choose an orange gradient
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click on the Clip to Layer button, to make sure this adjustment only and adjust the Midpoint slider to suit your preference for brightness.
affects the ‘light’ layer below it and nothing else. Then click the gradient to Click OK and you’ll see that the light swirl image is now turned completely
enter the Gradient Editor as you did before. orange. That’s ok, since we can use the mask to conceal some of it.

Click the Gradient Map 3 layer mask to make sure it is active and At this point we thought the image could use a little punch, so we
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choose the Brush Tool from the toolbar. Use a soft black brush to added a Levels adjustment layer at the top of the layer stack and
paint on the mask, revealing the original blue swirl pattern on the left side of increased the brightness of the highlight areas and the mid-tones too. The
the footballer’s body once more, andº leaving orange areas on the right. brighter image is now looking very vivid and dramatic.

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For a final effect, we added an image of blue and orange smoke. We then A small amount of a white gradient fill on the mask, at the bottom of
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used the same Select > Subject technique to create a mask that, when the image, created the effect of some smoke rising around his waist.
filled black, made the smoke look like it was sitting behind our main subject. With that, the image with the dual lighting effect was complete.

Light
fantastic!
Gradient maps can create cool light effects in Photoshop.

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 CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES HDR PANORAMAS

HDR
Panoramas

AFTER

BEFORE

Create wide panoramas more different

exposures,

and HDR images all in one! capturing a much

larger range of tonal
values that can be merged at a later time on the computer.

I f you are out and about doing landscape photography, there are times when
you are faced with some compositional and technical challenges that could
affect the quality and overall impact of your photos. One area that regularly
Great, but what happens if you are also tasked with shooting a very wide
panoramic shot that cannot be captured in one go? You would need to
create a series of images where you pan from left to right, capturing a series
demands your attention is that of exposure and getting a beautifully balanced of narrower, overlapping slices of the scene, then splicing those together
tonal range. When trying to photograph scenes of very high contrast, that into a wide-angle shot on your computer. Now imagine trying to do a super-
can be a very tall order. A lot of photographers will employ the HDR (high wide panorama in HDR as well? How would you go about processing all
dynamic range) technique. This is where they will shoot the scene at three or those images and creating a viable HDR panorama at the end?

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As luck would have it, Photoshop and its accompanying digital darkroom Our example is a super-wide HDR shot that needs to be assembled and
01 02
- Camera Raw, have everything you need to be able to assemble the processed. It is comprised of 5 x 3-shot HDR images, where the camera
multiple images, and multiple exposures, into one final image that you can was panned left to right to capture a much wider area than could be captured
process as if it were an in-camera original shot, taken out in the field. with one shot alone. So we have 15 images that need to be combined.

Each 3-shot HDR capture comprises: one average exposure, one that is The key to a successful merge is to work on all the images and apply all
03 04
underexposed to keep detail in the sky and one that is overexposed so the same adjustments at the same time. To do this, you can open Adobe
there is detail in the foreground. When merged and processed, it simulates an Bridge and navigate to where your images are stored. You can press Cmd + A to
image that has more tonal data; similar to what the human eye sees. select all of them, or choose Edit > Select All in the top menu bar.

All the images will be selected. Now you can right-click any of the images Right-click any one of your images and choose Select All (Cmd + A), from
05 06
and choose Open in Camera Raw. This will open up Camera Raw and, the menu. This will select all 15 of the images, so any changes made
depending on how you have your filmstrip positioned, it will display all the images will be applied to all of them at the same time. Once you’re happy all images are
in your HDR panorama sequence down the left side or along the bottom. highlighted, you can start the basic adjustments process.

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Since the images were taken on a Canon 5DMK3 digital camera, with a If you click on both the Remove Chromatic Aberration and the Use Profile
07 08
16-35mm wide-angle lens, there will be some barrel distortion present Corrections buttons, it will asses your image and remove any optical
that Camera Raw can eliminate for you. Over in the main control panel on the issues created by the lens used at the time of capture. It correctly identified the
right, click on the Optics tab to reveal the corrections that can be made. lens that was used and removed the distortion.

You could opt to try and add a number of exposure adjustments at this A word of warning here. As the process begins, it may take some time to
09 10
point, but instead, you can right-click an image over in the filmstrip and both merge the HDR sequences and then create the panoramic image
choose the Merge to HDR Panorama option. Any adjustments can easily be from all 15 images. Imagine if you captured a 7 x 5-shot HDR sequence. You
made once the HDR panorama has been created. would now be waiting for 35 photos to be merged and a panorama created!

As long as you have plenty of overlap between the shots, Camera Raw At first the image may look a bit underwhelming. You have a very dark
11 12
should be able to identify anchor points and successfully stitch the foreground and a bright sky. Bear in mind that the image now contains
images together. It analyses each image and aligns them to make sure they are much more tonal information than just one single image alone. This extra data
as sharp as possible. When done, it will display a Merge Preview for you. just needs to be coaxed out of the image for a perfect HDR image.

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If you look at the Merge Preview options, you have a number of tweaks Spherical is the default option and the most commonly used. Also on by
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you can make before you commit to creating the final merged panorama. default is the Auto Crop feature. If you turn it off, you can see a preview
The Projection option lets you choose if the image is mapped to a sphere, a of the entire image and how the 5 segments were warped and stitched together,
cylinder or is set to show near or far objects in a more extreme way. leaving gaps around the perimeter of the scene.

You can alter the Boundary Warp value by moving the slider to the We now have the base image ready. The edges have been filled with
15 16
right. As you do, the image will be warped in an attempt to plug the Content-Aware pixels. The only other option you may want to look at
gaps between the image and the blank areas left by the stitching and warping is the Apply Auto Settings button. This will assess the image and apply some
process. We opted Warp 65 and clicking the Fill Edges button to fill the gap. default adjustments to get you started. One click and the image transforms!

Now you can click the Merge button and type a name for the result in If you look at the image information at the bottom of the screen, you will
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the Merge Result window. When done, your HDR, merged panorama see that the combined images now gives you a panorama that is 10025
will appear on the screen. The auto settings have actually done a great job. The pixels wide by 3240 pixels high, and has a file size of 32.5MP. If you also look at
highlights have been darkened and shadows eliminated for a balanced shot. the Basic adjustments, you can see how the Auto settings altered them.

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We were pretty happy with the auto results and made just a few simple We then clicked on the Masking button and added a Linear Gradient
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adjustments to finish it off. We added more warmth to the image by (G). The gradient was added to the top of the image and dragged
increasing the Temperature up to 6500, and under the Colour Grading tab, we down to the horizon. We then used the Light controls to darken the sky a little
injected some blue into the shadows and yellow into the highlights. and used the Temperature slider to add just a shade more blue to it.

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We tweaked the exposure just a little and then went down to the Once complete, it’s just a case of clicking the Done button and
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Texture, Clarity and Dehaze sliders and increased Texture to bring returning to Adobe Bridge. The newly created HDR panorama will be
more detail into the image, as well as increasing the Clarity to boost micro- visible and ready to be opened in Photoshop for any further image editing, or
contrast. A little more Vibrance and Saturation completed the image. opened in Camera Raw again and saved as a jpeg or other image format.

This is how you see

the bigger picture
Let Photoshop and Camera Raw transform your photos.

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 CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES PERFECT PORTRAITS

AFTER

Perfect BEFORE

Portraits
We show you the key to beauty
retouching for great skin
B efore the advent of digital technology, it was the job of the makeup artist
to get the skin looking perfect on set or in the studio. Now, thanks to
Photoshop you are the makeup artist. You can control exactly how you want
use of retouching and manipulation of body
shape. All we are looking to do is make our model’s skin
look as healthy and glowing as possible. We are going to use a technique
your model to look in the final image. As ever, there are numerous ways you called frequency separation. Simply put, you break the base image down
can go about retouching skin. Some techniques are very simple but do not into two components. One layer carries just colour and tonal information,
give natural results. Some take it to extremes and end up with their models the other layer holds detail and texture. This means you can work on one,
looking like mannequins. Of course, there has been much debate about the without affecting the other. It’s a simple and effective method.

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Let’s begin by firing up Photoshop and from the file menu selecting File For your reference, the image is 3000 pixels wide x 4500 pixels
01 02
> Open. Navigate to where your images are stored. Our base image is a high. Throughout our tutorial we will be using settings and brushes
jpeg file called ‘portrait’. If you double-click your image or click the Open button, appropriate to an image of this size. If you are using images of different sizes,
the image will open in Photoshop as a new document. your settings and brushes may need to scale to match your image dimensions.

Now we need to separate this image into its component elements for For the moment, turn off the visibility of the ‘detail’ and ‘Background’
03 04
this process to work properly. If you go to Layer > Duplicate Layer, or layers, leaving the ‘color’ layer visible. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian
hit Cmd + J on your keyboard, you can create a duplicate of the base image. Blur and choose a Radius value that is just enough to blur out any sharp
Name this new layer ‘color’. Then create a second duplicate called ‘detail’. details. A value of 25 pixels was just enough for this image.

Next, make the ‘detail’ layer visible, again by clicking the eyeball button Under Layer: select color and under Blending: choose the Subtract
05 06
next to the thumbnail, and make sure it is the active layer. Go to Image option. This means the ‘detail’ layer and the ‘color’ layer are blending
> Apply Image to open up the Apply Image window. This lets you blend two to create a desaturated image. Make sure Scale: is 2 and Offset: is 128 for
images together for a range of effects. optimum results. Click OK to continue to the next step.

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The ‘detail’ layer has now changed after its blended integration with Next, click on the Blend Mode panel and choose Linear Light from
07 08
the ‘color’ layer below it. To remove all vestiges of colour, go to Image the dropdown list. In combination, the ‘detail’ layer blending into the
> Adjustments > Desaturate (Shift + Cmd + U). The image will now look like a blurred ‘color’ layer below now looks like the original image, except it now
greyscale image. This is where all the detail will be kept in this process. requires those two layers to achieve it.

For the next step, make sure the ‘detail’ layer is the only visible layer This is critical: make sure the Sample panel is set to Current Layer.
09 10
and that it is currently active. Go to the toolbar and select the Clone You do not want what you are about to do next to be influenced by
Stamp Tool (S). Up in the Tool Options panel, click the Brush Presets button any other layers. We’re going to use the Clone Stamp Tool to copy and paste
and select a brush of about 45 pixels and Hardness 0%. areas of clean, unblemished skin onto areas we want to look just as clean.

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 PERFECT PORTRAITS CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES

Target area

Sampled area

Target area
is covered by
sampled area

Sampled area

Pick your first blemish. Find an area of clean skin next to it and place This is the basis of clone stamping. Now you can select clean areas
11 12
your cursor over it. Press the Alt key and left-click that clean area. You next to each blemish and paste them over the top of each target spot
have just sampled an area of clean skin. Move your cursor over the target to remove them. When cloning, take care not to overdo it, and watch out for
blemish and left-click to paste the clean sampled area over the top. tell-tale repeating patterns that signal incorrect use of the clone stamp tool.

Because you are cloning skin on top of skin, this technique avoids Click on the eyeball icon on the ‘color’ layer to make it visible again
13 14
problems that result in loss of detail, or noticeable blurring of areas and you should now be able to view the fruits of your labours. The
that have been retouched. With a little patience and care, your subject’s skin cleaned up ‘detail’ layer is blended back into the ‘color’ layer below, and the
should look noticeably fresher and cleaner, ready for the next step. result is that you now have a subject with perfect skin.

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At this point you could sit back and conclude that your work is done, Make sure the ‘color’ layer is active and then go to the toolbar and
15 16
but there is another trick you can employ to enhance this portrait select the Lasso Tool (L). Use this tool to drag a selection around the
image still further. You may notice that the subject’s skin has shiny hotspots shiny area of the forehead. If you need to add more areas to this selection, go
on it. With a little attention, this can be removed quite easily. to the Tool Options bar and click the Add to Selection button.

Your Lasso Tool cursor will have a small plus symbol (+) next to it When you have all the areas that require some attention selected, go
17 18
to indicates that you can add additional selections to the ones you to Select > Modify > Feather (Shift + F6). This panel lets you feather
already have. We worked our way around the face, picking out areas that the edge of the selections you’ve made. For the size of image we’re working
looked a little shiny and were in need of attention. with, a radius of 45 should work just great. Click OK to continue.

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The selections will be softened ready for the next step. Go to Filter > Blur In the Gaussian Blur panel, choose a Radius value that blurs those areas
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> Gaussian Blur to bring up a blur panel. Remember that you are working of skin even more, and is just enough to reduce the amount of shine on
on the ‘color’ layer that is already blurred, but you can blur these specific areas the subject’s skin. If you overdo it, it will look obviously blurred. In this case, a
even more. value of 65 pixels was enough to soften the shiny skin areas.

Now you can sit back and take in the work you’ve done to this
21
portrait. The skin now looks like it has had the attention of a good
makeup artist. The blemishes are gone, but the skin still looks like skin, with
pores and detail, and not like a smooth shop dummy.

Create a flawless
complexion
Now you have the key to perfect skin.

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 CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES THE MIDAS TOUCH

AFTER

The
Midas BEFORE

Touch
Turn the subjects of your
photos into solid gold
K ing Midas was a character from Greek and Roman legend who wished that
all he touched could turn to gold. When he got his wish, he nearly starved
to death since his food was also turning to gold. He then realised his error and
gold. We will take
a photograph and
manipulate it in such
quickly wished for an end to the golden touch! Well, thanks to Photoshop, you as way as to give it shine, highlights and
can turn things into gold and not worry about your next meal being inedible. the colours you associate with this precious metal. A couple of
Using some fairly simple techniques, you can turn subjects in your photos layers, a few adjustments, perhaps a new background of your choice and
into golden objects, that have a beautiful lustre that only comes from solid you will be celebrating your own power of the Midas touch.

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Let’s begin by opening Photoshop and going to File > Open, or The image has a plain background which is helpful to us, since it
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clicking Cmd + O to open a new image. Our chosen example is of creates a nice, clean edge between the statue and her background.
a simple marble statue that we are going to turn into gold. Double-click the Selecting the statue will be much easier because of this. It’s worth taking this
image or click Open to bring it into Photoshop as a new document. into account when choosing your own subjects for this effect.

The image we are using is 2740 pixels wide by 4000 pixels high. Any It’s always a good idea to start a project by creating a duplicate of your
03 04
brush sizes and adjustment values added are based on an image of base image. This means that if all else fails, you still have your original
this size. If you are working on a project of a different size, bear this in mind which will remain untouched and unaffected. Simply press Cmd + J to create
as you may have to alter values to accommodate the different dimensions. a duplicate layer. We named our new layer ‘statue’.

Next we’re going to remove the statue from her background. As we You’ll see the black and white dotted lines of the selection appear
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mentioned, since the statue has a nice clean edge which is easily (marching ants), and you can right-click inside the selection and
visible against the background, you can go to Select > Subject and let choose Layer Via Copy, from the context menu that appears. This will select
Photoshop do all the hard work for you, and make a selection of the statue. all pixels within the active selection and copy them to a new layer.

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The cut out of the statue will appear on a new layer called ‘Layer 1’. For clarity, while working on the cut out, we went to the layer options
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You can rename it if you like. Layer 1 is what we will work with to panel and clicked Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer and added a
create our gold effect. For the moment, click on the visibility icons of the other Solid Color adjustment Layer. Make sure it is below the ‘Layer 1’ cut out of
layers (the eyeball icon), so they are invisible. the statue. We made the Color Fill a strong blue to help the statue stand out.

Make sure ‘Layer 1’ is selected and go back to the layer options panel In the properties panel for the Hue/Saturation 1 layer, click on the Clip
09 10
and click Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer again. Choose Hue/ To Layer button. This will ensure that any adjustments will only affect
Saturation. A new layer called Hue/Saturation 1 will be added above the whatever is directly beneath this layer in the stack. Push the Saturation slider
statue cut out. We want to make a very simple change to the statue. fully to the left to completely desaturate the statue.

Next, we need to begin to apply a shine and lustre to the statue that Make sure Curves 1 is clipped like the Hue/Saturation layer, so it only
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mimics the look of metal. There are various ways to do this with affects the cut out image below. Then click the curve to add points
multiple layers, but there is also a nice quick method. Go to the layer options which you can drag to create a sawtooth set of curves like the example
panel, click Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer and choose Curves. shown. This adjustment should create a chrome effect on your image.

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Next we need to turn the chrome effect to gold. Click the Create New The preset colours the cut out to create a very nice facsimile of gold.
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Fill or Adjustment Layer button again and choose Color Lookup and At this point, you can return to the Curves 1 properties and tweak the
make sure that this adjustment is also clipped to the cut out below it. Now settings to get an even nicer gold effect. A little extra contrast seems to really
choose the 3DLUT preset EdgyAmber.3DL and watch your image transform. get that gold colour to punch right out at you.

Next, add a new layer to the very top of the layer stack and name it Click on Layer 1 which contains the cut out statue and right-click it
15 16
‘Highlights’. Go to the Blend Mode options menu and choose Overlay. and choose Select Pixels from the menu. This creates a selection in
We want to add some lovely specular highlights, that will really make the gold the outline of the statue. Click back on the Highlights layer to make it active
shine, but we need a mask in the shape of the cut out statue. and click Add Layer Mask in the Layer Options panel.

A mask in the shape of the statue is added to the Highlights layer. Go to the toolbar and select the Brush Tool (B). Choose a soft brush
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All this does is let you paint anywhere on the Highlights layer, but of around 250-500 pixels and make sure the Foreground Colour is set
brushstrokes will only be visible in the area of the mask that is white. Any to white. If you press D, you can set the colours to their defaults of black and
other areas in black will conceal pixels on the layer. white and use X to toggle which is the foreground colour.

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Make sure the Highlights layer is active and that you have the layer Since the Highlight’s Blend Mode is set to Overlay, the white brush
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thumbnail selected. and not the mask layer thumbnail. Using the soft marks create little hot spots on the gold coloured figure. The pixels are
white brush you chose, start to dab areas of white in places where you would brightened but not simply painted white. This means you can now add brush
like to see a nice strong highlight appearing on the statue. strokes anywhere on that layer to brighten the gold, metal effect below.

We worked our way around the statue, adding bright highlights to all For the sake of good housekeeping, since the number of layers was
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the areas we felt would be reflecting a bright light source. Her face, starting to increase, we clicked the Highlights layer, held the shift key
arms, fingers, hair and dress were all treated to some brush strokes to really and clicked on Layer 1 to select them all. While selected, clicking Create New
start to sell the idea of her being made of solid gold. Group, adds them to a new Group folder we named ‘Gold’.

We replaced the blue fill background for something more visually One final thing we wanted to add was a hint of a shadow behind the
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appealing. We opened a stone image in Photoshop called ‘stone’, and gold statue. Double-click the Gold group folder to open up the Layer
then copied and pasted it into the active document we were working on. This Style properties panel. In the Styles list on the left, choose the Drop Shadow
new layer was placed directly underneath the Gold group folder. option at the bottom. We chose black with a Multiply Blend mode.

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The Opacity was set at 60%, Distance was 500px and Size 62px. With those final adjustments, your statue’s transformation from marble
25 26
While this panel is active, you can actually click and drag the shadow to solid gold is complete. This technique can be used on various
around with your cursor if you prefer. We finally settled upon a shadow on the subjects, just remember to choose ones that can be easily removed from
statue’s left side, as if there was a light source to the right and above. their backgrounds. So now you know. What else deserves the Midas touch?

This is how
you strike gold
An effective and visually stunning technique.

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 CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES ENHANCING YOUR PHOTOS

AFTER

Enhancing
Your BEFORE

Photos
A few simple adjustments how it was in real
life. The images

can make all the difference are a bit washed

out, the colours seem a little
weak. Did you get your camera settings wrong? There’s every

H ere’s a scenario to ponder. You’re out with your camera, taking shots
of some beautiful scene. It’s sunrise down by the water’s edge. The
light is amazing, the clouds are well defined and lit by the rising sun, there
chance you didn’t. Sometimes what you see with your own eyes is not
how the camera will interpret it. Your eyes have greater dynamic range
than any sensor and they see more tonal variations. Don’t worry though,
is a glow along the horizon and some cool reflections in the wet sand with a few simple steps, you can take that image and enhance it to not
at your feet. You compose a strong, yet simple shot and click off a few only match, but surpass, the conditions present when you took the shot.
frames. When you get home and download them to your computer, you Adding more detail, contrast and saturation is referred to as making them
open them up and you’re surprised at how different the images look to ‘pop’. Here’s how you can make your own images ‘pop’.

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Our example is a moody evening hilltop chapel image. Although the Our image is shown here in Adobe Bridge, which is the application
01 02
exposure is a little off, it should be quite recoverable because of the designed to manage, catalogue and keyword your image library. Since
leeway offered by the Raw file. The sky is a little bit overexposed, but you’ll be this is a Raw file, we can go ahead and open it up in Camera Raw, by right-
surprised what you can do with it. clicking on it and choosing Open In Camera Raw.

The image will open in Camera Raw, ready for editing. One of the first Profile Corrections assesses what equipment has been used to
03 04
things to do is to click on Edit (E), in the toolbar and then choose the capture the image and removes any lens distortion from the Tamron
Optics panel. When you click it, the Optics panel will expand showing you all 15-30mm lens that was used in this example; as well as any purple/green
the available options for lens correction. fringing that lenses can sometimes produce.

Next, click on the Basic tab. This is where the majority of the required We’ve made some simple changes to the picture. The Highlights and
05 06
adjustments can be made to your image. Elements like Temperature, Whites have been reduced to keep detail in the bright areas of the
Tint, Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, Highlights and Shadows can all be clouds, and the Shadows and Blacks have been lightened. Texture, Clarity,
altered here. Dehaze, Vibrance and Saturation have been increased.

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 CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES ENHANCING YOUR PHOTOS

The next thing that would be a good improvement to the shot is to With the Linear Gradient chosen, click and drag from the top of the
07 08
make the sky stronger at the top of the frame. Go to the toolbar and picture to a point just below the horizon. The values for the graduated
click the Masking button and choose the Linear Gradient option. Be aware filter are zeroed out at first, so there is no apparent change. This is handy,
that if a sky is too bright and burnt out, this effect may not work very well. since we can demonstrate the effect the adjustments make.

When using the Linear Gradient the start point, which is displayed When you use the grad filter, its properties will be displayed on the
09 10
in red, will apply the effect at 100 per cent opacity. The effect then right of the screen. We started by altering the Temperature slider to
gradually fades to zero opacity at the end point, which is displayed in white. -30 at this point in the edit, and the Tint value was changed to +30 to help
You can think of this as a digital version of a filter used on a camera. add more depth to the colours in the sky and clouds.

We dropped Exposure to -1.70 and Contrast was increased to +55 The amount of Texture and Clarity was also boosted quite a bit to
11 12
to give it a little more punch. At this point in the processing stage, +40 and +25 respectively, to add midtone contrast to the clouds; and
Highlights were -15, to reclaim some detail in the brightest parts. Shadows Dehaze was left unaltered, but Saturation was left at 0. The sky is darker now,
were +10 and Whites were left at 0 and Blacks -10. and the clouds have more colour, definition and contrast.

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You can add more graduated effects to the foreground by clicking With the new grad active, you can alter all the settings until you have
13 14
Create New Mask and clicking on Linear Gradient again. The new something you like. We’ve altered values to brighten the foreground
gradient will have all its adjustment parameters at zero, ready for you to begin and altered the Temperature and Tint values, to make the ground a little more
adding them to suit your preference. brown. Texture and Clarity has also been boosted.

You can also make more targeted adjustments using the Brush (K), to With the adjustment brush applied to the clouds, you can set about
15 16
paint adjustments onto your image. All the parameters you can adjust altering the properties if you wish. We’ve made the brightest areas of
can be seen in the properties panel. You can alter the Size, Feather, Flow and the clouds warmer and boosted the Exposure, Highlights and Whites to bring
Density in the properties panel as well. out the light tones in the clouds, without losing detail.

Each Gradient or Brush you add can be clicked on and the values The edits are coming along nicely. The image is more tonally balanced
17 18
tweaked at any time. We went back to the Linear Gradient (G), and and enhances the moody look that was present at the time of
clicked on the top grad and decreased the Exposure value a little more, and shooting. The colour temperature has been increased for warmer tones and
boosted the cool tones. the clouds have more detail and contrast.

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 CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES ENHANCING YOUR PHOTOS

Next, we want to boost the colours of the horizon a little more using With the Radial Gradient selected, click and drag out an ellipse along
19 20
the Radial Gradient (J). This has been amalgamated with the Linear the centre of the horizon, just above the line of distant hills. The
and Brush filters and behaves like the Linear Gradient, but its effect is circular/ properties start at zero by default again, so we are able to demonstrate the
elliptical rather than a straight line. changes as we make them.

If you wish, you can click on the centre pin of the filter and move it To give the image even more of a glow, we want to warm up the
21 22
around to any part of the picture without any issue. After trying a few horizon. You can actually colour the filter by clicking on the Hue selector
positions we’ve just placed it on the horizon where the sun is lighting up the from the Radial Gradient properties, on the right of the screen, and selecting a
sky and the land in front of the chapel. tint that suits the scene best. You can boost the Saturation if needed.

You can also alter the filter’s other properties to further amend the One final, optional adjustment is to add a small amount of
23 24
quality, colour and brightness of the effect to your taste. We’ve altered vignette to the picture. If you go to the Effects panel, add
Exposure to -0.15 and Temperature to +10. Remember that you can go back Vignetting to darken the edges of the photo. We’ve made the Amount
into this adjustment and alter it at any time. -15, Midpoint 50 and Feather 60.

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Back in the Basic panel, we’ve made some final edits to the You can just click on the Done button and apply all the adjustments
25 26
image, boosting Exposure a little, lifting the Vibrance and you made non-destructively to the file. When you do, the image
Saturation and increasing the strength of the Whites. We also made a will show the changes made along with small icons in the top right of the
crop of the image. Our adjustments for this image are now complete. thumbnail to indicate it has adjustments and crops attached.

Improve your
landscapes
Great images created in mere minutes!

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 CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES WHITE TO ANY COLOUR

AFTER

White
to Any BEFORE

Colour
Realistically transform white
into any other colour
O ne of the many techniques that Photoshop allows us, the digital
artist, to do is to manipulate colour and tone. Changing the colour
of an object to a totally different colour is not too hard, but to do it in a
to take a white
object with shadows
and highlights and convert its colour
realistic way can be a bit more challenging. The complexity increases into any other colour, and still look great. We also take it a
when your original colour is white. Imagine trying to change a white step further and convert the white object to black. In our example, we
shirt into a black one. How would you even do that and make it look have a studio portrait shot, where the subject is wearing a plain white
convincing? Well, this tutorial aims to show you a relatively easy way shirt which we want to be any other colour than that. Let’s get into it.

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Fire up your copy of Photoshop and go to File > Open (Cmd + O), Our particular document is 3540 pixels wide by 5310 pixels high. Any
01 02
and navigate to where you have stored your example that you want to brushes and adjustment values used are set according to this size of
convert. As we mentioned, our example is a fashion model in a studio setup image. If you are working with an image that is a different size, be aware that
wearing blue jeans and a white shirt. The shirt is our focus in this tutorial. you may need to alter your values to suit your image size.

Since the shirt is the subject of our tutorial, the first thing we need Since the shirt is quite well-defined here, we opted to use the Quick
03 04
to do is to create a selection of it. This can be achieved in a number Selection Tool (W). It was then a case of dragging the brush around
ways. Feel free to use whatever selection method you prefer. Choose the the perimeter of the shirt, adding to the selection as you go. Keep adding any
Lasso Tool, Pen Tool or Magic Wand; it’s entirely up to you. areas the brush misses until it is all selected with marching ants.

If you have any problem areas that the Quick Selection Tool cannot Spend some time getting the selection as accurate as you can, but
05 06
cope with, you can always switch to the Lasso Tool and click the don’t worry if it isn’t pixel perfect since, in the following steps, there
Add To Selection button in the Tool Options panel to add areas of shirt to the will be ways you can refine your initial selection area, if you need to. Once you
selection, or click Subtract From Selection to do the opposite. have your selection ready, you can proceed to the next step.

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 CREATIVE PROJECT GUIDES WHITE TO ANY COLOUR

Go to the Layer Options panel and click on Create New Fill or In the (Solid Color) Color Picker, choose a colour that you want to use
07 08
Adjustment Layer. Choose Solid Color from the menu. This will add a to replace the white shirt. We have chosen a bright red colour to begin
masked Color Fill 1 adjustment layer above your main image, in the shape of with. Since this is a non-destructive adjustment layer, you can come back to
your selection. Double-click the Color Fill 1 thumbnail to open its properties. this at any time and alter the colour to something else if required.

At the moment, the red colour is just an opaque blob, with no detail As we mentioned, you can alter the colour of the fill at any time by
09 10
in it whatsoever. Keep the Color Fill 1 layer active and go the Blend double-clicking the thumbnail and going to the Color Picker and
Mode panel and change it from Normal to Multiply. Now, you will be able to selecting a new colour. We went back in and chose a blue colour this time,
see the darker tones of the shirt below, showing through into the red colour. but we couldn’t help noticing that the colours still looked a little flat.

We decided that adding Curves adjustments would do the trick, but Now, you can simply drag the mask from the Color Fill 1 layer and
11 12
realised each new adjustment would need its own mask so only the drop it onto the Group 1 tab. All subsequent adjustment layers can
shirt was affected. Rather than multiple masks for each layer, we selected be put in this Group and they all share the same mask. This saves a bit of
what we currently had and created a new group Folder called Group 1. messing around, and the need to create multiple masks of the same thing.

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So now Group 1 currently consists of the Color Fill 1 layer and a Altering the curve as shown to a flat s-curve increases the dark
13 14
Curves 1 layer we have yet to adjust. Double-click Curves 1 to open areas and brightens the highlight areas for a better looking result.
the Properties panel. We want to use this adjustment to add a little more That’s great, but what happens if you want a really dark colour? In fact, what
contrast and punch to the blue colour and the shirt. happens if you want the darkest colour of all - black?

If you double-click the Color Fill 1 layer and go to the Color Picker The black shirt looks ok, but it could do with more enhancement to
15 16
again, choosing solid black just doesn’t look right. The truth is that show more highlights and detail. That’s not a problem. Go to the
absolute black doesn’t really allow any detail to show through. You’re better Layer Options panel again and click Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer and
off choosing a dark grey which looks more authentic anyway. add a new Curves 2 adjustment layer above your current layers.

Double-click the Curves 2 layer thumbnail to open its Properties panel. Double-click the Curves 2 layer, to the right of the layer mask
17 18
Click on the curve down in the shadows and drag it up vertically near thumbnail. This opens up the Layer Style panel. We will be working
the top as shown. The shirt will appear to turn light grey, but we can now in the Blend If section. Click and drag the left-most Underlying Layer slider
adjust its Layer style to make it look much better. towards the right and notice how the black starts to bleed through.

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The current blend is looking quite harsh but if you press Alt and You could sit back now and call it done, but what happens if you want
19 20
click the slider, you can break it in half and drag the right half further just a little more shine to the black shirt? Go to the Layer Options
towards the right. As you do, you will see the tones change to more subtle panel and add a third Curves adjustment layer. Alter the curve by dragging
dark greys. Tweak the two halves of the slider to suit your taste. the shadows vertically like you did in the last step.

Double-click to the right of the Curves 3 layer to open the Layer Style Now that you have all these adjustments set up for a darker and shinier
21 22
panel again. Click on the left-most Underlying Layer slider and drag look, you can go back to the Color Fill 1 layer, open its properties and
it towards the right and split it to refine the blend. You should notice that the choose any dark colour to get the same feel across a broad range of dark
shirt has more contrast and appears a little shinier. colours, that look a bit like silk because of the range of highlights.

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Bear in mind that if you want to use lighter colours at any time, the We took the time to try a few colours to see how well the technique
23 24
current set of adjustments may not work so well. If you want to go holds up. We were happy with the results and had a range of colours
back to a light blue for instance, simply choose the new lighter colour and from yellow, blue, dark blue, purple and black that all came out really well.
turn off the Curves 2 and Curves 3 adjustment layers, if required. Bear in mind certain colours may require tweaks of the Curves layers.

Show your
true colours
Simple effects for maximum results.

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 GLOSSARY

Glossary A list of terms you may

encounter as you learn
Active layer Bits per channel Colour management Filters
The layer currently selected in the Layers panel. Determines how many tones each colour channel A system used to achieve consistent colour as an Options to alter the look of an image, for instance, to
can contain. image travels from one device to another. make it look like a mosaic, add unique lighting, apply
Adjustment layer distortions, and so on.
A layer that lets you apply colour and tonal Blending mode Colour temperature
adjustments to your image without permanently A feature that controls how pixels in an image are The degree of heat (in degrees Kelvin) that an object Flattening
changing pixel values. Use adjustment layers to affected by a painting or editing tool. The blend would have to absorb before it glowed in a certain Merging all visible layers into the Background layer to
experiment with colour and colour tones. You can colour is applied to the base (original) colour to colour. Each colour is associated with a colour reduce file size.
think of an adjustment layer as a veil through which produce a new colour. temperature, as are various kinds of light.
the underlying layers are seen. Font
Compression A set of letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and
Adobe RGB A technique that reduces the file size of bitmap images. symbols that share a common weight, width, and style.
The RGB colour space profile created by Adobe
Systems, Incorporated. It provides a large gamut of Cropping 48-bit RGB colour
colours. (See also RGB.) Trimming a portion of an image to improve its A high-bit image mode that can contain thousands
composition or to create a frame around it. of colours per channel. Photoshop supports 8-bit or
Aliasing 16-bits per colour channel, so an RGB image can be
The jagged edges seen at the edges of diagonal Definition a total of 24-bit or 48-bit, depending on the bit depth
lines, arcs, and so on, caused by pixels lining up in a Sharpness or clarity of detail in an image. per channel.
saw-tooth pattern.
Brush preset Dithering Gamma adjustment
Alpha channels A brush with preset settings for size, thickness and The approximation of an unavailable colour through The contrast resulting from darkening or lightening
Masks, which let you manipulate, isolate, and protect so on. Photoshop includes several brush presets the use of two or more available colours. The colour the mid-tones of an image.
specific parts of an image. In Photoshop, alpha for you to choose from, and you can create a large of adjacent pixels is changed in an attempt to
channels are called saved selections. To save an alpha number of your own presets as well. reproduce the unavailable colour. Gamut
channel, choose Select > Save Selection. To load an The range of colour that a device can reproduce.
alpha channel, choose Select > Load Selection. Burning Dodging
The selective darkening of a part of an image. The selective lightening of any part of an image. Gaussian blur
Anti-aliasing A softening effect applied through a bell-shaped
The smoothing of jagged edges in digital images by Camera raw format Dots per inch (dpi) distribution of tones and colours.
averaging the colours of the pixels at a boundary. A format describing data exactly as it is captured A measure of printer resolution. High dpi settings
by a camera sensor, with no in-camera processing produce prints with fine detail. Also used for GIF
Artefact applied to the capture. monitors. (See also pixels per inch (ppi).) Graphic Image File Format. A file format suitable for
Any unexpected and undesired change to a digital images that contain line art, large areas of a single
image caused by incorrect settings or faulty Canvas Duotone colour, and text. Web animations are done with
processing. Examples include blooming, moiré, The workspace around an existing image, within the A two-colour greyscale file that uses two custom inks. images in GIF format.
sharpening, and noise. image window. Layer data may lie outside of the
canvas, but it will be clipped to the canvas when Embedded profile Gradient
Aspect ratio the image is flattened. You can change the size and An ICC (colour) profile resident in an image file. Any of several methods for achieving a smooth
The ratio of an image’s width to its height. It is used colour of the canvas by choosing Image > Resize > This profile ensures that image colours are correctly transition between two adjacent colours, including
to determine how an image fits on a page or monitor. Canvas Size. interpreted. black and white.

Background layer Channel EPS Greyscale

The bottom-most layer in an image, usually A construct for describing the colour data in an Encapsulated PostScript. A file format used to save A single-channel image that includes only black,
containing the image data. The Background layer image. A black-and-white greyscale image has one images that will be used in illustration and page- white, and shades of grey. Depending on the bit
is always locked. If you want to change its stacking channel, an RGB image has three, and a CMYK layout programs. depth, greyscale images can reproduce various
order, blending mode, or opacity, you must first image has four. shades of grey.
convert it to a regular layer. EXIF
Clipboard Exchangeable Image File Format. A standard for Halftone
The temporary holding area for data stored with the simplifying the exchange of data between cameras A monochrome image made up of variably sized
Cut or Copy commands. and software. The data may include camera model, dots simulating the shades of grey in a photograph.
date and time the photo was taken, camera settings, It is used for reproducing photographs on PostScript
Clone shutter speed, and so on. printers and printing presses.
To paint with the Clone Stamp tool. You must set a
sampling point on the active layer before you paint Exposure Highlight and shadow
with the Clone Stamp tool. A measure of the amount of light in which a photo The lightest and darkest colours in an image.
was taken. Underexposed digital photos are too dark;
CMYK overexposed ones, too light. Histogram
Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black; the inks most A bar chart showing the distribution of the pixel
Backlight printers use to produce colour images. Photoshop Feathering values in a digital image.
Light coming from a source behind the subject. includes full support for CMYK mode. The softening of an edge of a selection.
Hue
Batch processing Colour cast Fill layer The colour reflected from or transmitted through
Performing one or more tasks to a group of files at An unwanted or unexpected colour shift in a photo. A type of layer that contains a solid colour, a pattern, an object. In common use, hue is the property that
the same time. For example, a photo taken indoors without a camera or a gradient as an interchangeable attribute. (See allows a colour to be distinguished as red, blue,
flash may have too much yellow. also layer and adjustment layer). yellow, and so on.
Bit depth
The number of colours used to represent a pixel in Colour channels ICC
an image. A 1-bit image is black and white; an 8-bit The component colours from which all colours in an International Colour Consortium. ICC device profiles
image can have 256 colours or shades of grey; a image are created. Usually refers to red, green, and are the industry standard for reproducing colours
16-bit image can have 65,536 colours. blue (RGB). accurately across devices such as scanners,
monitors, and printers.
Bitmap image Colour depth
An image consisting of rows and columns of pixels Measures how much colour information is available Image cache
in computer memory. Also called a raster image. to display or print each pixel in an image. Greater A section of hard disk space used as virtual memory.
Bitmap file formats include BMP, GIF, JPEG, PSD, colour depth means more available colours and more The image cache speeds the on-screen redraw of
PICT, and TIFF. (See also vector graphics.) accurate colour representation in the digital image. high-resolution images.

160 www.pclpublications.com
 GLOSSARY

Image mode Monitor resolution Quick mask Stroke

The colour mode of an image, such as Greyscale The resolution of a monitor, described in pixel A mask channel created in Quick Mask mode. (1) An outline around an image or part of an image
or RGB. dimensions. The size of an image displayed on-screen created with the Stroke command or with a drawing,
depends on the pixel dimensions of the image, the Red eye painting, or selection tool. (2) The characteristics of
Indexed colour size of the monitor, and the monitor resolution. The reflection of the camera flash from the retina the lines created with one of the painting or drawing
A colour that is rendered by using a pixel value as an of a photographed subject, resulting in a red dot in tools, especially brushes.
index to a panel of 256 or fewer colours. Noise the subject’s eye. You can eliminate it automatically
An artefact caused by interference or camera error. when you import images or by using the Red Eye Swatches
JPEG Noise is often seen as stray pixels of unexpected Removal tool. Preset colours that you can choose from in the
Joint Photographic Experts Group. A committee of colour or a generally “grainy” appearance. Certain Colour Swatches panel.
experts that develops algorithms for compressing compression techniques can amplify noise. Rendering
computer image files. Also, any graphic file to which Converting a vector layer such as a shape layer or a
a JPEG algorithm is applied. JPEG is the format Opacity text layer into a normal layer.
generally used to share photographs over the web. The extent to which something blocks light. You can
change the opacity of layers, filters, and effects so that Resample
JPEG compression more (or less) of the underlying image shows through. To change the resolution of an image by changing its
A lossy compression technique that reduces image pixel dimensions. Downsampling is decreasing the
data and file size. number of pixels, and resampling up (or upsampling)
is increasing the number.
Layer
A mechanism for overlaying and combining multiple Resolution
images. Layers are like transparent sheets of glass A measure of the clarity and sharpness of an image. TIFF
that you can stack and rearrange. In digital images, it is measured in pixels per inch. Tagged Image File Format. A digital image format
widely used for images that are to be printed or
RGB published. TIFF images can be compressed losslessly.
A model for representing colours on a computer
display. Red, green, and blue (RGB) are combined Transform
Panorama in different proportions to represent any colour. The To scale, shrink, enlarge, skew, distort, rotate, or
A broad view of a subject, usually a landscape, made RGB model can represent 256 x 256 x 256 colours. change the perspective of a layer, selection, or shape.
by overlapping individual shots as they are taken and
then merging them to form one image. Sample Transparency
To select a colour with the eyedropper in order to use In digital photography, the functionality that supports
PDF it with a drawing or painting tool. transparent areas in an image or image layer. Certain
Portable Document Format. An Adobe file format image formats do not support transparency.
Layer group that captures the elements of a printed document, Saturation
A collection of layers saved with a Photoshop image. including graphics and photos, as an electronic The purity, or strength, of a colour. A fully saturated Unsharp mask
image. You can search, navigate, print, and e-mail colour contains no grey. Saturation controls make A technique that sharpens details in an image by
Layer mask PDF documents. colours more vivid (less black or white added) or increasing the contrast between light and dark areas.
A protected area in an adjustment layer. Areas below more muted (more black or white added). (The name originates from traditional photography,
the mask cannot be edited. Perspective where contrast is increased by adding a slightly
The angle or level from which a photograph is taken; blurred negative over the original.)
Levels the camera-eye view.
Functionality for adjusting colour and tone. With a Vector graphics
Levels adjustment, you can set shadow and highlight Pixel Lines, shapes, and other graphic image components
values to use a full tonal range, adjust middle tones The basic, rectangular unit of data that a digital stored in a format that incorporates geometric
only, correct colour casts, and so on. image consists of. The edges of pixels can produce a formulas for rendering the image elements. For this
saw-tooth pattern unless anti-aliasing is used. reason, the graphics scale without degradation of
Locked layer image quality, and there are no jagged lines in the
A layer in the Layers panel that has the lock icon Pixel dimensions output. Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics program.
applied. No changes can be made to a locked layer. The number of pixels along the width and height of
A Background layer is always locked. an image. This is a measure of the amount of image Vignetting
data in the photo, not its physical size when printed A darkening of the edges of an image.
Lossless compression or displayed on a monitor.
An image-compression technique that prevents Warping
image degradation caused by data loss. Lossless Pixels per inch (ppi) A distortion of an image, often text, to conform to a
techniques usually use lower compression ratios A measure of image resolution stored in a camera or Selection variety of shapes. For instance, a line of text can be
than lossy techniques. computer file. High ppi settings produce photographs A part of an image selected for manipulation of warped in the shape of an arc or wave.
with fine detail and large file size. (See also dots per any kind, duplication in a layer, colour correction,
Lossy compression inch (dpi).) deletion, rotation, and so on. The selection consists
An image-compression technique using compression of all the pixels, fully or partially selected, contained
ratios that result in the loss of some image data. PostScript within the selection boundary.
A language developed by Adobe that describes the
Matting appearance of text, graphic shapes, and sampled Sharpening
A method for simulating transparency in images images on printed or displayed pages. In photo-editing programs, any functionality that
displayed on web pages. When transparency is enhances the details at the edges of photographed
not supported, you can specify a matte colour that Printer profiles objects and people. Sharpening is often applied as
matches the background to simulate transparency. Profiles that describe how printers reproduce colours. part of in-camera processing as well, although no
sharpening is applied to camera raw file images. White balance
Midtone Progressive scan A function that compensates for the different
An area that falls between the brightest highlight and A process of displaying images on-screen that draws Skewing rendering of identical colours under different sources
the darkest shadow. 60 complete frames of video from left to right every Deviation of the content of an image from a vertical of light: incandescent, fluorescent, sunlight, and
second. Progressive scan creates a cleaner, clearer or horizontal axis. Skewing can be a camera artefact so on.
Moiré picture than interlaced video. or an intentionally applied effect.
A wavy striped pattern in an image, resembling the White point
pattern of watered silk. Moiré can be an artefact PSD Smoothing A reference point used to represent white. This
caused by a camera’s inability to capture the detail The native uncompressed file format of Adobe A technique for averaging the values of neighbouring reference point is used to calculate all other colours
in an image. Photoshop, based on the TIFF standard. pixels to reduce contrast and create a soft, blurry effect. in the image.

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