PHOTOSHOP SECRETS

-under file browser – AUTOMATE/BATCH RENAME – rename whole group of pics

-setting LEVELS: click on left eyedropper and for black, instead of 0 set luminance to 5 (very very dark
grey rather than black), then do same for white – instead of full luminance 100 make it 95. Now hold ALT
and slide the black side slider till you find the darkest point in the pic. Mark it by holding SHIFT and
clicking. Then find the lightest point and mark it. Then grab the black eyedropper and move it over the
marked darkest point and that will make that darkest point black. Same for the whitest point. Last, grab
the GREY eyedropper and mark the middle grey point. When done, you will be offered to save the 5 and
95 points as default. Do it.

To see the darkest / lightest points when adjusting levels, hold alt. Same for clipping, when sacrifying
some parts that are unimportant.

-the LEVELS curve is an enter-exit, input-output graph. For x amount input, you get y output. Moving on
the top of picture will automatically tell you where on the curve you are, so you can adjust that given
part of picture. Clicking on the line will give you a fixed point. The rest of the curve will change with your
change, but you can bring it back. Creating multiple points on the curve is like creating a little equalizer
for tone levels. Just pull the points up/down. ADVANTAGE: you can target a specific region –such as
underexposed part of picture.

Increase highlights and decrease shadows = increased contrast.

-MAKING CHANGE TO ONLY A PART OF PIC:

-make the change, such as levels, through the pallette. The mask with the change has a white
rectangle next to it, meaning the whole mask shows. Fill it with black color (EDIT-FILL) and that will hide
the entire mask. Then you can grab a soft brush and WHITE foreground color and paint the part of the
pic that you want the change to be applied to. This can be done for SPLIT ND FILTER. You cannot
overdo this because you are only applying the previous adjustment. THIS IS A POWERFUL TOOL.

HOW TO RECOVER AN UNDEREXPOSURE (e.g. camera exposed for the sky and subject is a silhouette)

-IMAGE/ADJUSTMENT/SHADOW-HIGHLIGHT = ONE OF THE BEST NEW FEATURES.

TONAL WIDTH : determines which tones are affected, left means only the darkest ones are affected,
middle means midtones etc. Same for highlights.

RADIUS: how many pixels are involved

COLOR CORRECTION: increases/decreases saturation in the corrected area (this area will most
probably due to underexposure not have correct saturation)

CONTRAST: adjusts contrast

RAW IMAGE PROCESSING:

-adjust temperature to achieve warm/cold – this is also tied to white balance so set that first

-then adjust EXPOSURE and SHADOWS. For exposure, hold down ALT and move slider from left to right.
Set its value where highlights just start appearing. This is like adjusting the histogram to start at
highlights. Same for shadows.

-under DETAILS, LUMINANC SOOTHING reduces grain on the grey scale for smoother look. COLOR NOISE
reduction reduces color noise.

-ADVANCED menu – LENS – chromatic abberation – reduces color casts on the edges. VIGNETING
reduces the vignette in the corners. Leave CALIBRATE settings unless you really need to adjust. Now the
picture is ready for photoshop.

REMOVING COLOR CAST

-ADJUST/MATCH COLOR: Tick NEUTRALIZE and color cast disappears. Use FADE to tell how much
you want this applied.

-ANOTHER METHOD : VARIATIONS: just click on midtones and pick the way you want to go. Then click
on shadows and highlights and check for RED SPOTS = clipping.

-ANOTHER METHOD: Color balance. Check for casts in highlights, midtones or shadows and make
adjustment in that area.

ALIGNING IMAGE

-use metering tool (next to eyedropper) and draw a line along horizon, then go image/rotate
canvas/arbitrary and the angle will be already there. Then just crop the misaligned parts.

RED EYE

-select red eye healing brush, select color to replace red by clicking on a dark area or simply selecting
foreground color and then choose brush as big as the red areas in the eyes and paint over them. Details
are retained.

-ANOTHER METHOD: go to CHANNELS, select RED channel, and select burn tool. Darked the areas of red
eyes (with proper size brush – it takes just a few clicks) and that`s it. Darker area means less of that
color.

GRAIN REMOVAL

-select CHANNELS and see which channel R G or B has the most grain. Then blur only that channel. Use
BLUR/SMART BLUR – that blurs BUT retains the edges. Bring the radius up enough just to reduce noise.
You might have to blur two channels = less quality.
COLOR NOISE REMOVAL

-convert image to lab mode anmd go to channels – the image is split into 3 channels – black and white,
and then color a and color b, the latter two contain color info. Blur these rather than the whole picture.
Blur through FILTER/NOISE AND DUST AND SCRATCHES OR MEDIAN depending on how bad it is. Do
both channels, a and b.

SHARPEN

-best tool UNSHARP MASK. Set threshold to 0, radius btw 0.5 – 1.0, then the amount around 100%.

-quick way (unsuitable for animate subjects): duplicate the image via layers, select filter/other/HIGH
PASS filter, sharpen as much as you want.

REMOVE BLEMISHES

Use healing brush rather than clone stamp.

Use patch function: select area with any selection tool, select SOURCE meaning it is the selected source
that will be replaced, and then drag the selected area over the area which should replace it.

YELLOW TEETH

Select them and remove saturation form them.

BURN TOOL

-you can set only for shadows and set exposure low such as 10% and then as you paint over an area only
the dark shadows will be darkened such as eyelashes!

EYES

-darken eyelashes, desaturate the reds in the white part of the eye. Draw black line around the iris and
use opacity to just achieve enough edge outline for a subtle but very powerful effect.

GREYSCALE

Best way to apply greyscale is through channel mixer as individual channels contain information
otherwise lost. Select monochrome and play with the channels to achieve image with good levels and
detail.

Select hue/saturation and tick “colorize” to add a color to the monochrome image.

PORTRAITS

SOFTEN SKIN TONES – very flattering

-go to channels, blue channel is the most unflattering. Hold CTRL and click on the little thumbnail next to
the blue channel. That selects the highlights of the blue channel. Create new empty layer and fill that
selection with white – edit/fill. Then apply gaussian blur – around 5.0. Then under Layers use drop –
down menu to select “lighten” and select opacity as you desire to achieve nice soft skin. For a more
dramatic effect, select Overlay from that dropdown menu and opacity 100%.

MATCH COLOR

You can select source – color of another image will be applied to your image. You can use this to change
the “time of the day” for example.

FEATHER

When moving a cutout element, use the FEATHER function to soften its edges so that the transition is
not harsh.

TO REMOVE OBJECT FORM BACKGROUND

-SELECT/COLOR RANGE – use eyedropper to select color around image. The white area will be separated
from the black areas so use eyedropper, and EYEDROPPER + to add to selection. Then use FUZZINESS so
that your area to separate just looks black and the rest white. For the areas that get selected INSIDE
your selected cutout, enter quick mask mode and brush over them to protect/deselect them. Finally,
invert the selection., then new layer via copy.

GREAT! ANOTHER METHOD: EXTRACT TOOL

FILTER/EXTRACT: 1) use highlighter to highlight edges. HOLD DOWN CONTROL KEY TO USE
SMART HIGHLIGHTING – THIS AUTODETECTS EDGES! With hair, use larger brush. Make sure brush half-
covers the subject and half-covers the background.

2) Use the fill tool (bucket) to tell photoshop which part of the pic to keep.

3) Use the cleanup tool to fix any errors made by the computer – hold ALT
key and paint over – this will put back the erased areas, and use it with no ALT to erase unwanted areas.

4) When done and missing some areas, grab the HISTORY BRUSH, choose
the history palette, select the picture before extraction on the palette BY CLICKING IN THE LITTLE EMPTY
WINDOW NEXT TO IT and use brush to PAINT OVER THE EXTRACTED PIC WITH THE HISTORY BRUSH TO
PUT BACK THE MISSING AREAS. This works especially for hair.

LENS BLUR

-used to simulate shallow depth of field/large aperture

1) Select Channels and create a new ALPHA channel

2) Choose gradiend tool from the left-side tools, choose linear gradient, mode NORMAL, reverse is
OFF, then drag a straight line from e.g. left top to right bottom. That will create a gradient which we will
use to create blur.

3) Apply FILTER/BLUR/LENS BLUR : Select Source – ALPHA 1, then move the focal distance
to achieve the desired effect.

4) Use radius to select the level of blur.

5) IRIS simulates different lens irises.

6) Brightness and threshold can be used to blow out background brightness which is often typical
for shallow depth of field.

7) Finally, noise adjusts the grain.

PANORAMA

-can be top/bottom, not only left-right

-FILE/AUTOMATE/PHOTOMERGE

-Change the normal mode to PERSPECTIVE if a part is “falling over”

PHOTOSHOP NOTES

-SELECTION/GROW = extend selection into areas of similar color. Affected by

tolerance.

-SELECTION/SIMILAR = extend selection onto similar color anywhere in the picture

-FEATHER of two or three pixels provides realistic edge for pictures

-SPONGE decreases saturation

COLOR MANAGEMENT IN PHOTOSHOP

MUST DO: 0) Must shoot in Adobe RGB – same workspace as photoshop

 1) The monitor must be calibrated

2) Color settings in Photoshop must be adjusted EDIT/COLOR SETTINGS, click MORE.

Choose NORTH AMERICA PREPRESS 2 – much better for photographers than north America general
purpose 2 (default).

Set working space to Adobe RGB. Leave CMYK, Grey and Spot default.

Set color management policies : leave RGB, CMYK, and Grey to

PRESERVE EMBEDDED PROFILES.

PROOFING = making sure that what you see on the screen is what you will get when you print.