May 2011 - Digital Group - Non Destructive Editing 2

Meeting Notes March 2009 to 2018.
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spb
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May 2011 - Digital Group - Non Destructive Editing 2

Post by spb » Thu May 12, 2011 12:44 pm

NEWS

The latest version 6.4 of Adobe Camera Raw is out and includes the latest cameras and lenses. Use Help>Update in whatever version of Photoshop (or Lightroom) that you have.

Samyang have been making lenses since the 1970’s but have recently started actively marketing in the UK and had a stand at Focus. They specialise in simple manual prime lenses which are getting quite good reviews. If you have a limited budget and would like to experiment with a wide, ultra-wide or mirror lens they might be worth a look. Be aware that they are manual lenses though – you’ll have to focus and choose the aperture all by yourself. The camera will handle the exposure nevertheless.

STEVE CAPLIN

We were entertained and educated by Steve Caplin on Monday night with his talk on Photographic ethics and the latest Photoshop tools and tricks.

Although the Photoshop part of the talk was aimed at the latest CS5, several items were of relevance to Elements users;

Content Aware Fill – although the Edit>Fill feature for selections is only in CS5, the Spot Healing Brush version is also in Elements 9. There is also an option to automagically fill the blank corners of an image after rotation in CS5 with the Ruler Tool. Elements users have the Straighten Tool but not the auto-fill option.

Quick Selection Tool – we’ve used this enthusiastically for some time and it first featured in CS3 and Elements 6. It is currently the best tool for selecting all but the most difficult edges.

Background Eraser – has long been included in all versions of Photoshop and Elements and we should probably make more use of it. The handy ‘Sample Once’ option has only been available in CS. It’s particularly impressive if you are demonstrating how to remove a sky from behind a tree and the sky is conveniently all one shade of grey!

Snapshots and History Brush – can be useful for restoring areas of an image to a former state but are not offered in Elements. There are other ways to achieve the same result however and I have personally never found them to be essential.

NON DESTRUCTIVE EDITING (NDE) OF IMAGES – CONTINUED

Last month we covered Layers, Adjustment Layers, Layer Masks, and non-destructive Cloning. To conclude, here are some other non-destructive techniques;

DODGING AND BURNING
It’s tempting to dodge and burn directly onto an image layer but that’s not reversible. Better is to create a new layer above the image layer then use Edit>Fill>50% Gray. Change the Blending Mode of this new layer to Overlay and use the Dodge and Burn Tools on the layer. The benefit is that the layer can be deleted, reduced in opacity or modified without any change to the original image layer. Any unsatisfactory areas can be painted over with 50% grey paintbrush to remove them or lightened or darkened with shades of grey paint as required. Erasing areas of the grey layer or hiding them with a layer mask also gives infinite control.

The same grey layer+overlay mode technique can be adopted for other changes such as adding Filters like Grain, Lens Flare or Lighting Effects. However the plain grey layer cannot be used for the majority of filters that interact with the image itself such as the artistic filters.

Using Hard Light blending mode instead of Overlay can give a stronger effect. I often use this for dodging and burning when I want a more intense effect. I also use a 50% grey layer + blending mode to add a non-destructive vignette using Filter>Correct Camera Distortion>Vignette.

HIGH PASS SHARPENING
Although Unsharp Masking has been the mainstay of sharpening since day one, other methods have come and gone over the years. Currently the most fashionable is High Pass sharpening.

Duplicate the image layer and zoom to 100%. Apply Filter>Other>High Pass to the new layer and set a strength value that reveals the edges of the image but not the flat areas of tone – probably in the low single figure range. Change the blending mode to Overlay and you have sharpened your image non-destructively. A full range of subsequent control can be achieved by reducing the opacity of the high pass layer or masking it. The effect can also be reduced by changing the blending mode to Soft Light or increased with Hard Light.

As with all sharpening this technique only works on a single image layer so you will need to flatten your image and ideally, resize it to suit the output medium before sharpening.

LAYER STYLES
Somewhat hidden in Elements, Layers Styles are not very useful for photographers, but I have found them invaluable for a few specific jobs such as giving text more impact. Having created a text layer choose Layer>Layer Style>Style Settings and then values for Drop Shadows, Glows, Bevels and Strokes can be chosen. Note that Layers Styles do not work on Background Layers.

The settings for Layer Styles can subsequently be adjusted by clicking on the fx symbol in the appropriate layer in the layer palette.

OTHER NON DESTRUCTIVE TECHNIQUES
In Photoshop CS only, non-destructive cropping can be achieved by ticking the Hide option for the Crop tool. Note that the Hide option only appears after you have drawn the cropping area and will be unavailable if the image consists only of a Background layer. The cropped area can be restored with Image>Reveal All.

Finally CS offers Smart Objects and Filters which are a whole topic in their own right, to be explored another day.

Don’t forget that for all of these non-destructive techniques and tools to be available for later adjustment, your image must be saved as a .PSD file.

NEXT MEETING

Thursday 22nd September. Have a great summer!

Cheers, Steve Brabner

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