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NON Destructive Sharpening in Photoshop & Photoshop Elements
The following High-Pass sharpening procedure can be undertaken in either Photoshop or Photoshop Elements but should be done after you have completed all of your processing. It is not always the case that you want to sharpen everything in your picture. The reason the High Pass filter technique works so well at sharpening images is because any areas in the image which are not an edge are left untouched. The only areas that have sharpening applied to them are the edges, which is exactly what you want, To achieve this you create a high-pass sharpening layer and layer mask and use the brush tool sharpen only those parts I want sharpened. The process is as follows images shown are for Photoshop but Elements is similar. :- Duplicate Layer Once you have finished working on your image the final step is to sharpen the places that require sharpening. The first thing we need to do is to make sure we have a layer at the top showing the final image. this could be the background layer as you have flattened your image or you have merged visible. I can see in my Layers palette now that I have my original Background layer at the bottom, which contains my original pixel information, and the duplicate of it, which Photoshop automatically names “Layer 1”, above: Change The Blend Mode Of The Duplicate Layer To “Overlay” Next, we need to change the blend mode of the duplicate layer from “Normal” to “Overlay”. The reason is that the High Pass filter is going to turn all non-edge areas of the image into neutral gray, and the...
How to re-size and send images to DS Colour Labs for printing
The following steps are a guide to those of you who have Photoshop and would like DS Colour labs to print off your images. This is the way I do it, but others might have another ways. Basically I create a new document in Photoshop and paste my image onto the new document. I then brightened the image and save it as a JPEG, then I download it onto the DSCL site. So this is how I do it. Go to the DSCL website and find the printing size you want, write down or remember the size needed. As a rule I use the 12X16” print size or smaller. Open up your image in Photoshop, making sure it is processed and to your liking. Open up a new document in Photoshop by going to file – NEW- Name the new document as required. Change the Width to inches and Height to inches, Change the values in each to those you want for printing for example 12×16”. Change resolution to 300. Colour mode should be RGB and Background contents should be White. Go to your image and flatten your layers. Now select (CMD A) your image and copy (CMD C). Go to your new document and paste (CMD V) your image into it. Your image should be larger than the new document in which case Free Transform (CMD T keeping the perspective) your image and resize as required. Once re-sized brighten your image by at least +10 using a brightness and contrast layer. The reason for doing this is because our monitors have light at the back of them and...
Keyboard Short Cuts
Remember before mice we used to use a keyboard well many programs stil have keyboard short suts that can improved your workflow see http://www.setupablogtoday.com/adobe-photoshop-keyboard-shortcuts/ http://www.setupablogtoday.com/adobe-creative-cloud-cheat-sheet/ http://www.setupablogtoday.com/adobe-lightroom-keyboard-shortcuts-cheat-sheet/...
Photographic Distortion And Perspective Correction
Following on from last nights theme of How do I do That Dave Carter has submitted the following like to an article on Photographic Distortion And Perspective Correction...
50% Grey
Not 50 shades of grey I hasten to add During the recent Show & Tell session various techniques were discussed about how to lighten or darken an area of an image aka Dodge and Burn. One technique that seem’s to be used a lot with varing success particularly on sky’s when the original image really needed a graduated ND filter, is to select the sky, apply a large feather selection and then create a levels adjustment layer in which you move the black point on the histogram to the right to darken. This technique is often then followed by inverting the selection, creating a new levels adjustment layer and then moving the white point on the historgram left to lighten the foreground. The disadvantage of this technique is if you over do it by moving either the black or white point beyond the ends of the histogram you tend to leave a halo effect along the selection boundary i.e. An alternative method which has been discussed before is the 50% grey adjustment layer with an overlay blend mode. Martin Godfrey discribed this method last season as a way of implementing a non distructive Dodge and Burn. To recap I will discribe this in relation to Adobe Photoshop elements. Open your image in PSE Create a Solid Colour Adjustment layer Select the colour In the layer pallette you should now have You can simplify the layer The Layer pallette should now look like Set the blend mode to Overlay (Soft light has a similar but not quite so dramatic effect) If the colour you selected for the solid colour was...
ETTR – Exposing To The Right
In digital photography, exposing to the right (ETTR) is the technique of increasing the exposure of an image in order to collect the maximum amount of light and thus get the optimum performance out of the digital image sensor. The name derives from the resulting image histogram which, according to this technique, should be placed close to the right of its display. Advantages include greater tonal range in dark areas, greater signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), fuller use of the colour gamut and greater latitude during post-production. ETTR images appear to be overexposed when taken and must be correctly processed (normalized) to produce a photograph as envisaged, therefore care must be taken to avoid clipping within any colour channel, other than acceptable areas such as specular highlights. (see WikiPedia for full definition) I’m not going to write an article on a technique that has been written about hundreds of times before and can be found by just by doing a Google search for “exposing to the right” But for those who can’t google here’s some Digital Photography School Cambridge in Colour Luminance Landscape Digital Camera World SLR Lounge DPReview ScrewePhoto Online Photographer Martin Bailey...
Architecture Photography
What makes a good architecture image? Read this discussion on Flickr 5 Interviews with Successful Architectural Photographers Examples 50 Stupendous Examples of Architecture Photography 50 Beautiful Examples of Architecture Photography 14 Architectural Photos That Will Make You Look At Buildings Differently 50 Stunning Examples Of Architecture Photography Architecture (HDR images only) Hints & Tips fotoblur digital-photography-school photographymad digitalcameraworld photo.net lightstalking ephotozine...
Action Photography
Following on from Landscape we have POTY 2 – Action : This quest of capturing and conveying motion is collectively called action photography. Action photography demands lightning-quick reflexes, a solid foundation in composition and other photo elements, and a little bit of luck. Freeze the Action – The world around us is in motion but a photograph is a still medium, a good shot freeze’s the action, and obviously it need’s to be sharp Being more Creative – The better image goes beyond just freezing the action. and seeks a creative way of capturing and conveying this motion to the viewer. Faces – If the image includes a person you need to see their face or more specifically their eyes and the expression. Balls – If the image shows some one jumping to catch a ball or to kick a ball you need to see the Ball and not just the attempt as this gives meaning to the image. Focus– the main subject of the image should be in sharp focus. However, sometimes motion blur can be used effectively to show motion. Lighting/Exposure – the subject should be easily visible and not hidden in a deep shadow or lost in the highlights. Background – the background should not be a distraction from the main subject of the photo. Colour – the colour of the subject should be natural. It can be very easy, especially when shooting indoors under certain kinds of lights, to produce a shot where the white balance is substantially off and people have a greenish or other color cast to them. Subject size – the main...
Landscape Photography
The opening competition of Photographer of the Year saw the theme of Landscapes. On the whole they were fairly standard landscape images and, with the exemption of a few, will get lost in the myriad of millions of landscape images ever produced. Whilst we are not expecting members to produced work more akin to the professional standard by icons such as Joe Cornish, Charlie Waite and David Noton, we do expect the members to produce something different from the norm whilst adhering to the storytelling nature of landscape photography. I find that images within the camera club world tend to do better if they are “people” orientated as, I believe, it is easier to tell a story. With landscapes we see so many nice but ordinary images. Even I started on this avenue and got constantly frustrated about why my image wasn’t doing better. Therefore it is imperative that when you enter you Landscape images, you are trying to tell a story and immerse yourself within nature, no matter how long you have to take the image. As usual, there are thousands of examples/resources on the Internet to help you in the future. You only need to take a couple pieces of advice and use this next time you take a landscape image. So, from what I have learnt to date: Tell a story Use the golden light (sunrise/sunset) Use filters, including the “Big Stopper” for long exposures at the coast In woodland scenes, take images on a cloudy day when the light is diffused Composition is as important as the light Think portrait Be intimate with the landscape...