Photoshop Essentials

Photoshop Essentials l Exporting files from Lightroom to Photoshop: Before you export files from Lightroom to Photoshop you should go to Lightroom>preferences and choose the following settings: File Format: TIFF Color Space: Adobe RGB Bit Depth: 8bits Resolution: 300 Compression: None When saving images back to Lightroom from Photoshop go to File> Save DO NOT say “save as” this will prompt a new file name and then Lightroom will not ‘see’it. Workspace: To work effectively and efficiently in Photoshop it is best to use keyboard short cuts Toolbar: There are many tools available and tools that have a small triangle in the bottom right when you click on that tool and hold it there will be other tools hidden. Options Bar: This controls the settings for each tool-always look here first to make sure the options are set correctly. What is a Histogram and what does it mean to me? The histogram is one of those things that people have seen everywhere, it’s in your camera and available in almost every software program but there is still a lot mystery surrounding it. The histogram is basically your photo in a graph. It will show you the tonal range of a photo and it is used to help you see if you are capturing the entire dynamic range of an image.

The histogram is display as a playback option in your camera's playback menu. When you playback an image the histogram of that image is displayed in addition to other shooting data. The histogram is a great guideline to check to see if your exposure is right in the camera. Reading a Histogram If you look at the very far left that shows the shadows or blacks of the photo. When you look to the very far right that shows the highlights or whites of the photo. The peaks and valleys that are in between show the tones that exist between the blackest black and the whitest white. There are a total of 256 shades of grey that can possibly exist in a photo. Depending on what the photo is, will dictate where the tones show on the histogram. For the most part you shouldn't concern yourself so much about what happens in the middle of the histogram(as every image is different). However, you should pay attention to what happens at the ends of a histogram. The Background Layer: This layer automatically appears when you open a file in Photoshop. There is a thumbnail of you r image and a lock to the right. There are certain things that you cannot do to a background layer like erase and transform-in order to do those things the background would need to be turned into a ‘layer”. When editing in Photoshop it is best to “duplicate” this layer so that you are always working on a copy and if you need to get back to the original file you can. Go to Layer>duplicate layer. Layers: Layers are information that is added to your file. They appear above the background layer. Many of these are adjustment layers and can change the tone or color of an image. Layers can also be selections of images or text and graphics. Any of the adjustment layers like Levels, Curves, Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, B&W have the ability to apply a mask. Therefore you can make adjustments to selective areas of images.. And because they are adjustment layers, they can be hidden, tweaked, saved or thrown away. Retouching: Spot Removal tool This works simply by placing the curser over the spot and clicking PS will sample the surrounding pixels and blend them with the area chosen and remove it. Only good for ‘spots’, sensor dust, blemishes.

Healing brush: This will sample pixels and blend pixels. This is best for retouching faces. Clone Stamp: Samples pixels and then clones the information exactly. Good for removal of unwanted objects and for adding things. High Pass filter-Sharpening a photo that is ‘soft”

• Duplicate Background Layer

• In the top menu choose Layer>duplicate Layer

• Then go to go to Filter>other>high pass filter

• In the dialog move slider to 0

• Then bring slider up until image looks ‘embossed’ but without a halo.

• Then in the Layers panel>choose layer style>default is ‘normal’>set to soft light or hard light. Adding Canvas

• Add canvas when your subject gets too close to the edge

• Go to Image>Canvas size

• In the dialog box choose how much canvas to add

• Then clone in

• Adding Text

• Click on the (T) tool

• Type and the text will be put on it’s own layer.

• Then in the top option bar you can change the font, color, etc. Fixing perspective

• Turn the Background layer into a Layer

• Go to Layer>layer from background

• Then go to Edit>Transform>perspective

• Pull the corners to modify the perspective MASKING Masking with adjustment layers and brushes

• Make an adjustment layer with an adjustment

• Choose black and white

• A mask is created

• Then choose regular brush set to ‘black” then paint to ‘hide’ the adjustment Masking with selections and adjustment layers

• Make a selection first

• Then choose hue saturation

• Move saturation slider

• Move brightness slider

Photoshop for Photographers_ESSENTIALS

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