March 2008 Digital Group Meeting

Meeting Notes March 2009 to 2018.
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spb
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Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:04 pm

March 2008 Digital Group Meeting

Post by spb » Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:26 pm

A very respectable 25 turned out for the digital group this month.

Many thanks to Peter Jones who delegated for me last month - he's doing such a good job that I may go away even more often.

WHITE BALANCE

Thanks also to Mike Hynes who gave us an expose on White Balance;

Although we can set our cameras to Auto White Balance and then worry about any colour casts later, such errors may be somewhat random and inconsistent. Furthermore, if taking JPGs, the colour correction process in Photoshop (like most photo-editing) is detrimental to image quality. A better approach is to shoot in Raw which does at least enable virtually loss-free colour correction during the Raw conversion process.

An alternative, though more time-consuming, plan is to generate a custom white balance in the camera using a grey card, white sheet, diffuser or similar, and then enjoy accurate colour balance until the lighting conditions change. Note that this is NOT the same as adjusting exposure which must still be done shot by shot.

Peter Jones' routine for professional wedding photography is to set the camera to a suitable fixed white balance setting such as Daylight (NOT to Auto White Balance which will vary shot by shot) and then shoot in Raw. When processing the images in Lightroom he makes any necessary colour balance adjustment to a typical shot and then applies it to the entire set in bulk.

If anyone would like Mike's Powerpoint slides (2.5MB) let me know.

LAYER MASKS & PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS

Several people found the coverage of Layer Masks in January very useful but one or two missed it. Here is a repeat of the text from the January meeting notes;

Layer Masks have been an invaluable feature of Photoshop since early days but are not officially supported by Photoshop Elements except as part of an Adjustment Layer. Once owners of Elements have mastered Layers I would recommend going here where there are detailed instructions for fully activating Layer Masks within any recent version of Photoshop Elements.

Normally, when you erase a hole in a layer, the layer below shows through the hole. A Layer Mask achieves this same effect but the great bonus is that you can come back tomorrow and change the shape or transparency of the hole - basically that's all it does. The Layers Palette should be open when using Layer Masks. Add a Layer Mask to any non-background layer, click on the Layer Mask thumbnail and then paint with black, white or grey paint. Where the mask is black, the associated layer is invisible (ie erased), where it is white, the associated layer is visible (ie opaque) and where grey, it is semi-transparent. Anything that you can do to a regular layer you can do to a Layer Mask - use selections, filters, levels adjustments etc. In the Layers palette, click on the layer thumbnail or the Layer Mask thumbnail to switch between working on one or the other. To remove a Layer Mask from the layers palette, drag and drop it to the bin.

Shortcuts with layer masks;
- Shift + click on the Layer Mask thumbnail to switch it on or off
- Alt + click on the Layer Mask thumbnail to see the actual Layer Mask full-screen
- Ctrl + click on the Layer Mask thumbnail to make a selection from the Layer Mask
- key D to set the foreground and background colours to the defaults of black and white
- key X to switch between foreground and background colours

There are many tutorials on the web, mainly aimed at Photoshop users, but the principles are the same for Elements see here for an example. You don't need layer masks but once you start using them you won't be able to stop!


PETER'S PATENTED PATCH

Peter J volunteered his patented method for disguising burnt-out highlights (although obviously as a professional photographer he never suffers from those himself).

Here is his explanation and also a repeat of his burning and dodging technique;

Just to expand on a couple of processes I prefer in P/S:

Normally as Steve says you rarely paint as such in P/S however on occasions it can be useful e.g. rescuing highlights; you may find this method lacking with totally burnt out highlights (i.e R255,G255,B255) but it is still worth a try: using the eyedropper pick up a colour that you would have preferred the highlight to be, probably a colour adjacent to the highlight. Select a nice soft brush and set the brush's opacity at 10% to start with; most importantly set the brush mode to "Multiply", then gentle and gradual brushing over the area will give an acceptable result.

Although this wasn't mentioned last night if you have a high contrast situation, this is a method I use at weddings: try to take your exposure from an area that is equivalent to an 18% reflection e.g a brightly lit bit of grass, stone or wood and lock that exposure; you should find there is enough latitude to contain those highlights at in extreme cases at the expense of shadows. Obviously a more considered approach would be to use a tripod and either grey graduated filters or two exposures, one for the sky and one for the foreground and join in P/S but with weddings you rarely have time for such niceties.

The "Soft Light" method is extremely effective in burning and dodging and again restoring lost colour: above your background create a blank layer and set the mode to "Soft Light"; then Edit --Fill with 50% Gray; again with a soft brush set to again about 10% opacity and with black paint you can "Burn" in areas or with white paint you can "Dodge"; you will also realise that you can achieve such with any colour so again it can be used as a method of "restoring" colour to a washed out detail.Somebody asked me how do I achieve the dark vignetting on my pictures; I use the same method again "burning" in the edges; it is a very useful method to cover up your mistakes :-)

Dark vignetting can also be created more classically by selecting the areas you wish to darken applying a very heavy feather typically 150px or more and then use levels to adjust the exposure of your selection to taste.

I hope this is all useful, if anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me if Steve is globe trotting. Kind regards, Peter.


NEXT MEETING

Thursday 3rd April.

Cheers, Steve Brabner

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