Using Adjustment Layers

May 082011
 
 May 8, 2011  Posted by Habenero at 12:31 pm How To, Photography , , , , , , ,  No Responses »

The control freak in me likes to be able to exercise absolute authority over my images.  As part of my regimen,  I shoot in camera raw in order to maintain as much control as possible and save the initial camera files on their own hard drive.  The first sort is copied as a PSD file to a different drive, and JPG files are derived from the PSD drive and stored on yet another drive.  Yet even when shooting this way, I do not always capture a scene the way I envision it.  That is where Photoshop comes in.  The power of Photoshop lies in the ability to manipulate an image as much or as little as you desire.  But if you do this recklessly, you can easily destroy your image.  You have a couple of ways to preserve your image, copy the original file or work in layers.  I choose to work in layers.

When working in layers, there are a multitude of adjustments you can make without harming the background image directly.  Levels, Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, Vibrance, and more can be applied either through a layer or directly to the background image (the latter is not a wise choice because you can not undo it if you decide you don’t like it at a later date).  To further enhance your ability to play with the image, one can also add masks to any layer so that the adjustment made only affects those parts you intend it to (a feature far more powerful than dodging and burning in the chemical darkroom).

Adjustment layers are made by either going to the drop down menu for layers and selecting “New Adjustment Layer” or by clicking on the half filled circle icon at the bottom of the layers pallet and selecting the style of adjustment you want.  You can use many layers and mask them as needed to create the image that satisfies you.

Masks will be discussed in a later article.

Print at Home, Maybe Not

Apr 202010
 
 April 20, 2010  Posted by Habenero at 10:38 pm How To, Photography , , , , , , , , , ,  No Responses »

When you take photos, how you post process them is dependent upon the output format you plan to display them. If you are using them only for email or web pages, you are pretty much done as soon as you cut the resolution and size down and create the jpeg. If you plan to make hard copies of the images, a bit more work is required. How do I ensure what my screen shows me will match the print? How large is the final print? Where is it going to be displayed? What is the best method to produce the print? The answer to these questions determine the survivability of your print.

To ensure that what you monitor shows you matches the print can be done in several ways. The best method (and the only one worth doing) is calibrating your monitor to the industry standard. There are several manufacturers that make tools for doing this. I own a Spyder 2. Calibrate your monitor at least once a month, more often as it ages, and every time you move the monitor to a new location. When calibrating your monitor keep the lighting around it at the same level it normally is when you edit photos, as ambient light affects the calibration results. There are some calibration target photos you can adjust your monitor with, but they do not ensure your monitor is meeting the industry standards, and if you adjust your monitor using them there is no guarantee that your printed image will match very well. The absolutely worst way to adjust your monitor is to print an image and then adjust your monitor to match. Doing that only makes your printed images and monitor match, but if you have to send the file to someone else, it may look extremely bad! Whichever method you use, remain consistent with it. The biggest advantage of a calibrated monitor is the uniformity your images will have between different displays and printing devices.

Email and web use generally does not need a resolution greater than 72 DPI, and a maximum dimension of around 10″ These settings produce very good images for most computer applications, but printing them gives poor results. Further security for the images can be made by encasing them in flash files, disabling right clicking, water marking, or any combination of these techniques, Be assured, if somebody really wants to steal an image from your site, they can, so only allow them to get an image that is of low resolution. Keep your high resolution files on your computer and an external media (CD, DVD, External HD, Etc.)

Post processing for a printed image takes more care. Images on the screen have about 7 stops of lightness (about the same as slide film) whereas, paper handles about 5 stops. The excess information has to be removed and either you will be doing it on your computer, or you are at the mercy of someone else. Even if you print the files straight from the camera, you are ceding the post processing to the camera’s and the printer’s manufacturers. The results may be good, but they will be weighted towards making an average shot that includes people. Since I am a control freak when it comes to my images, I post process them using Adobe Photoshop. I shoot in camera raw, which gives me the maximum amount of data my Nikon D300 can gather. I adjust color temperature, brightness, contrast and the histogram Adobe Camera Raw and then export a PSD file to Photoshop. There I fine tune using curves and saturation in adjustment layers and masks. I try to find out what the lighting will be in the area that my photos will be seen and adjust the color to create the best image for that kind of lighting. Just prior to sending the file to the printer, I make a final adjustment so that my output file will match the printers profile for the paper that has been chosen.

Printers, whether attached to your computer or located in a lab often have a profile or digital print parameter file that can be applied to your image so that the calibrated monitor will show you a truer representation of the finished product. Epson, Canon and HP have generalized profiles that are to be used for specific papers run through the printer. If you choose to go a more commercial route, many of the labs have down loadable profiles for the same purpose. When you have a file that has been optimized for a specific printer, you will get the best results. If you have a lab make prints for you and you have already optimized the file, be sure to inform the lab technician that ALL CORRECTIONS MUST BE OFF. This is because most labs deal with people that have not bothered to do any adjustments on their own and your efforts will be trashed if the computer in the equipment tries to further enhance your work.

I base my current print output on the cost. Printing at home costs about $4.50 to print an 8″ x 12″ print on my Epson when archival ink and paper are added up. Since I have a local lab (Costco) that can produce an image on Fuji Archival Paper for $1.99, it wouldn’t require being a genius to figure out which place is getting my business (sorry Epson).

Raw or JPEG, choose your poison!

Apr 202010
 
 April 20, 2010  Posted by Habenero at 12:13 pm How To, Photography , , , , , , , ,  No Responses »

I often get to hear people say they don’t need Photoshop because they “GET IT RIGHT IN THE CAMERA”. When I do, I can be sure that it is most likely a novice, someone that does not shoot for a living, or a relative. Getting it right in the camera entails setting the camera to achieve the best possible exposure, the subject is properly lit, and the background is exactly what one desired. If all things are done to your ideal, you have it right in the camera. It does not imply that you do not need a photo editing program, because unless your pictures are going to be viewed in the camera back, some adjustment is in order. Shooting to get it right in the camera gives you a file (JPEG or RAW) that can be used “as is” or is easier to work with in your editing program. Mistakes made at the front end are not always salvageable, and should be avoided.

Very minor adjustments will be needed to make your images work on the web if your output JPEG file is set for SRBG. Color correction, contrast, saturation, and sharpening may or may not be needed to make the image its best. The program of choice for this can be made by your camera’s manufacturer (Nikon, Canon, Pentax, etc.) in which case they may preconfigure the out going file for you in a way that makes an average picture look very good but average, or let you make a few minor changes which will improve that average looking picture. Any program that is putting out a file that is viewable on the web is creating a JPEG image as its final output. Earlier camera software let you output a TIF file, but they are for print making and not web use.

More advanced photographers tend to want more control over the final image and tend to use the more advanced programs ala Adobe Photoshop or Gimp. These programs allow manipulation over the full range of the camera’s or scanner’s sensory input , 12 to 14 bit depth resolution vs. the 8 bit of a JPEG image. The input file generally used for these adjustments is a RAW file. RAW files contain the full information the camera sensor recorded. Photographers that are used to shooting JPEGs often have a hard time when they start manipulating RAW files. This is because the sensor image has not had the benefit of the camera maker’s tweaking applied and you have to start from a clean slate. JPEG images have not only had some tweaking applied, data has been thrown away in the creation of a JPEG image.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether you shoot in RAW or JPEG, provided you take time to learn the limits of your equipment and shoot to get it right in the camera!

Do you batch Process?

Apr 202010
 
 April 20, 2010  Posted by Habenero at 8:04 am General Notice, Photography , , , , , , ,  No Responses »

In the days of film, photographers that were not shooting with large format cameras (4 x 6, 5 x 7, 8 x 10, or larger), had to use consistent lighting and exposure for the entire roll of film in order to ensure quality negatives to print from. With digital cameras, no consistency is required for, but it does help your work flow if you try to maintain at least some sense of order to your shooting. Shooting using similar exposure and lighting enables one to make your pictures more uniform. If you are doing event, wedding, or commercial work, this will save time.

Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom enable one to “batch process” large numbers of images in short time. Batch processing is not the best way to produce quality work, but it does help speed up the work. I tend to see batch processing as building the infrastructure to a housing development. You don’t have to rely on it if you choose to live elsewhere, but when it is not there, you may find your car stuck in the mud. Batch processing is just another tool within Photoshop.

I do not batch process for color correction, sharpening, or creating my psychedelic work. I do batch process to add tags and key words to items that are going to be posted on the web.

My Workflow in Photoshop

Jan 062010
 
 January 6, 2010  Posted by Habenero at 6:56 pm How To, Photography , , , ,  No Responses »

Efficiency in Photoshop is achieved by having a standardized work flow.  This does not mean you must do things in the exact same way I outline here, but be consistent in how you do things.

My shooting is done in camera raw.  I shoot this way because I am a control freak of the highest order when it comes to my photography.  Shooting in camera raw means that I am generating an image file that contains the maximum amount of information my camera can produce.  I use a Nikon D300 set to produce a 14 bit image without compression.  The image is created so as to have the best possible exposure possible for the conditions at the scene.

When I download the card, it is done via Nikon Transfer software to a folder on a hard drive that only contains raw downloaded images.  These images are then copied via Adobe’s DNG converter to another folder on another hard drive that contains files to be edited.  This is the first layer of redundancy used to prevent losing data.  These drives are backed up every time changes occur to yet another hard drive (external)  that contains only back up information.

As soon as the files are ready, I open them up in Adobe Bridge.  I rate the pictures and then copy the starred images to my work in progress folders.  I then check levels and make sure that the images are ready to go into photoshop.  If the images are only for web use, my work is usually done by creating a Jpeg file here.

If the shot involves people, I fix any problems involving skin tones, eyes, and teeth before proceeding.  If dodging or burning are needed now is the time for this work as well.  I use several standardized adjustment made using hue and saturation over the mid tones, followed by curves adjustments to their light, dark, shadow dark, and mid tone areas.  If the shot is for portraiture, I make a further enhancement by darkening the edges and corners a tad.  It is then that I size the photograph and make any adjustments in sharpening that are needed.   My print files are most often 300 dpi with 12″ x 18″ dimensions and web images are at 72 dpi and 720 pixels for the long edge.