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Using the Dust & Scratches Filter to Clean Up a Photograph

February 15, 2019

If you’re old enough to remember back, you’ll recall that there was once a time when people used cameras that contained film as opposed to using digital cameras. I had one (or many) of those film cameras and I can tell you that while I took hundreds and hundreds of photos, I like digital a lot more. This is because of a few reasons. First, I don’t need to pay for film or processing anymore and second, I can actually see how the various camera settings will affect a photo before I capture it. Looking back, I have no idea how I ever took film photos. It’s beyond me how I ever got a decent shot either. Let’s just say that I’m glad digital rolled around because if it didn’t, I wouldn’t be involved with photography at all today.

The thing is, there are many people out there who have lifetimes worth of photographs and these people want to preserve them for as long as possible. One of the best ways to do this is to scan the image into a digital format and then store it on a hard drive. This way, the photos will take up less room than before, won’t degrade over time and can be easily accessed for online purposes. The only problem is that sometimes these scanned images aren’t in the best shape. Oftentimes, they’ve got dust and scratches all over them. If there were only a way to clean these scanned images up a bit.

Here, take a look at this photograph I’ll be working with today. If you look closely, you’ll see some scratches in the lower left and right corners.

In today’s post, I’d like to walk you through the process of removing some of the scratches in this image. While I won’t restore the photo completely, I will lead you down the path of doing so. I’ll be using the Dust & Scratches filter inside of Adobe Photoshop to do most of the heavy lifting and then I’ll take advantage of the mask that’s created by the Smart Filter to remove some of the filter affect from areas I don’t want to see it. This is a relatively simple process, so this shouldn’t take too long.

Converting to a Smart Object & Accessing the Filter

I have the photo opened up in adobe Photoshop already, so the first step I’ll take from here is to right-click on the image layer and then click on the Convert to Smart Object option from the menu that appears. After that, I’ll head up to the Filter > Noise > Dust & Scratches menu item and click.

When I do this, the Dust & Scratches dialog box will appear.

Adjusting the Dust & Scratches Filter Settings

Okay, this is where you’ll need to experiment with your own images, but I can give you some guidance as to how to best go about doing that. There are two settings in this dialog box. They are Radius and Threshold. Both of these settings are rather sensitive and you can go too far by clicking on the sliders with your mouse and pushing them around. I suggest you go about it like this:

For the Radius setting, instead of clicking and dragging the slider to the right to reduce the appearance of scratches or dust, click once on it to make it active and then use the up arrow on your keyboard to increase the value incrementally. When you begin to see the scratches disappear, stop pressing the up arrow. Again, this is a very sensitive setting and you can easily make the entire image look blurry. You only want to go as far as you have to. For the image I’m working on, I stopped at a Radius value of 5.

For the Threshold setting, follow the same steps as the Radius setting. This time though, use the up arrow until you see the image begin to become sharper again and the scratches or dust reveal themselves. Then, when that happens, go down by one click. For the photo I’m working on, I chose a Threshold value of 10.

So basically, you want to use this tool just until the dust and scratches begin to disappear. Again, if you go too far, the image will become blurry and unusable. This tool is perfect for images that have lots of dust and minor scratches though, so it should be taken advantage of.

When finished with the sliders, click the OK button to accept your changes.

Here are some before and after shots of the lower left corner. Mind you, there were some fairly serious scratches on this photo. The process I followed removed many of them. Any that are left I can easily remove with the Spot Healing Brush Tool.

Masking Away the Filter Effects

The image that I’m working with doesn’t have much dust on it and only has a few scratches in the area of the lower corners. So really, I don’t want to have this filter applied across the entire thing. What I’ll do to remove the filter from any areas I don’t want it is to use the Brush Tool and paint the mask black over those areas. First though, I’ll click on the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel.

Then, I’ll access the Brush Tool and make sure the color that’s set is black. And finally, I’ll paint over any area I don’t want this filter to affect. In this particular image, that will be most areas except for the lower corners and any area that doesn’t have scratches or dust.

After painting for a bit, I have the final mask. Take a look at it in the Layers panel.

Using this filter is sort of like using the Spot Healing Brush Tool, except it’s much more efficient when attempting to cover larger areas with lots of specks from dust and scratches. Also, it’s got some fine tuning controls to it as well, so that’s a definite plus.

I hope I clearly explained how to use the Dust & Scratches filter in Adobe Photoshop. Give it a try on your own images and if you experiment for a while, you’ll quickly learn that your mileage will vary, depending on the severity of the issues you’re facing. If you have any questions regarding this post, please ask in the comment section below or in the Photoshop forum. Thanks for reading!

Use a Focus Rail For Better Macro Photography

February 11, 2019

Part of taking great photography comes from knowing which gear to use for a given situation. While it’s easy and fun to grab a camera with an 18-55mm kit lens and run outside to take some photos of an owl perched on a branch, you won’t be getting any very good shots of it unless you figure out a way to get quite close to it without it flying away. In the same vein, when attempting to take very close up photos of the insides of a flower or of an insect, you most likely won’t have the ability to keep your hands as steady as is necessary to avoid camera shake or to maintain the proper depth of field. Remember, the closer you get to a subject, the narrower the depth of field becomes, even at medium to small aperture sizes.

For both of these situations, specialized camera gear is called for. In the first example, a telephoto lens that could easily reach up to the owl would help out exponentially. That way, you wouldn’t have to risk having the bird fly away as you climb the tree in an attempt to get closer to it. In the second example, a tripod is absolutely necessary. That would keep your camera steady while you concern yourself with other settings on the camera and focusing in on the part of the flower you might want to capture. But in this instance, there’s another piece of gear that wold most likely come in handy and that’s what I’d like to discuss down below.

By the way, much of the inventory of what’s sold in today’s camera stores and online isn’t readily known to beginner and amateur photographers. These types of photographers oftentimes stumble through their formative years until they discover the piece or pieces of equipment that may have helped them so much along the way. For example, imagine yourself trying to take some macro photography on a nice sunny day while hand holding your camera. After taking many shots, it’s likely that you’d review them later on at home to realize that many of the shots are blurry or that the depth of field surrounded the wrong part of whatever it was that you shot earlier. If you had a tripod and the little nugget of wonder that I’m going to share below, you’d likely be confident with your results because you’d focus much of your efforts on other things while taking the shots, such as previewing the shot, working aperture size and focus. Holding the camera steady should be the last thing on your mind.

Introducing the Focus Rail

Back when I first began getting into photography, I tried my hand at taking some macro shots. I wasn’t bad because I knew to take advantage of a tripod. What I noticed though was that as I was setting the photos up, I’d have to move the tripod slightly in any and every direction to have the focus targeted on the area I wanted it targeted on. And when I say “slightly,” I mean centimeters. The setup didn’t call for me moving the tripod much at all, but when I did try to nudge it one way or another, I’d generally overshoot, which was frustrating to say the least. Believe me when I say this, I wish I knew of a better way to move the camera slightly from side to side and back and forth.

If memory serves, I believe I relied heavily on zooming the lens in and out in an effort to maneuver the focus where I wanted it. This wasn’t ideal though because as I zoomed, the depth of field would become more shallow. I didn’t want that, so again, I became frustrated. Another side effect of my zooming was that the subject would become larger in the frame. I didn’t want that either.

At least I knew enough to use a tripod, so my images came out better than I expected them to. As a matter of fact, the image above is one of them. I captured that years ago. I placed the flower in the trunk of my car and illuminated it with a drop light. You would laugh if you saw my garage “studio.”

I would much rather have had a device that would simply move the camera for me in slight increments, as opposed to me having to zoom or nudge the tripod with my foot. As it just so happens, there actually is a device and it’s called a Focus Rail. Here, take a look at it.

Photo courtesy of PhotographyLife.

There are a wide variety of these types of devices, but I chose this one because it’s a solid representation of what one looks like and what it’s capable of.

How Can a Focus Rail Help With Macro Photography?

If you take a look at the image of the focus rail above, you’ll notice a whole bunch of small dials that are attached to the rails themselves. Some of those dials clamp down and hold the camera in place while other dials move the camera along the rails in increments. Basically, the way it works is like this; you attach the focus rail to your tripod and then your camera to the focus rail. Then, you set your shot up as best you can and when you’re ready to fine tune things, you rely on the focus rail’s minute movement capabilities to do that. With rails like this, you’re given the ability to adjust your camera by fractions of an inch at a time. With one of these devices, after initial setup, there’s no more need to gently nudge your tripod with your foot, like I did back in the day. And you won’t need to zoom in and out anymore like I used to do as well.

With most focus rails, you’ll have the ability to move the camera to the left and right and forward and backward tiny distances. So since your depth of field will most likely be very shallow with your macro photography, you’ll have an easy time of creeping up on that perfect focal spot by simply twisting a dial or two. If you need larger movements, you can always slide the camera along the rails in one or two fell swoops. That process is just as simple.

Do you remember that post I wrote on focus stacking? Well, just as luck would have it, focus rails are a focus stacker’s best friend. Imagine yourself in the middle of a macro photo shoot and finding that your shot’s depth of field is just too shallow. This actually happens a lot. If you use your camera to take a first shot and then move your camera forward by using the focus rail and then take another shot and then follow that process for multiple shots, you’ll have the ability to quite easily merge those images together inside of Adobe Photoshop by using the focus stacking utility. Now that’s something to write home about and this process will give you a much deeper depth of field.

Remember though, the focus rail is good for non-moving subjects. If the subject is moving, you’ve got an entirely new set of issues to deal with.

I hope I clearly introduced a new piece of camera gear to you as well as explained a bit about what it’s good for and how a focus rail works. If you have any questions regarding this post, please ask down below or in the macro photography discussion forum. Thanks for reading!

How Do Lens Aperture Sizes Affect ISO Values?

February 9, 2019

We all know that lower ISO values are better when it comes to photography. High ISO adds grain to an image, so it’s only logical that the lower you go, the better things are. The thing is, it’s not always clear to many new and budding photographers how the different settings on a camera can affect this value. Just so you know, the three big settings are shutter speed, aperture and ISO. It’s the dance between these three that can give you the results you’re after.

I want to talk about two things in this post today. I’d like to first discuss something pretty neat that not many of us pay attention to when we’re out and about taking photographs and purchasing lenses. That’s basically how the different aperture sizes compare to one another. I find this topic so cool and I always love looking at how much larger an F/2.8 is than an F/4. It’s crazy and this is “need to know” information when buying a new lens for your camera.

The next topic I’d like to discuss is an easy one. I’d like to reiterate the importance of knowing how your camera settings can affect your photographs. In today’s post, I’m going to limit the discussion to aperture versus ISO values. I’m not going to bring in depth of field at all. I’ve covered that in the past and I’m sure I’ll cover it in the future. For today though, I simply want to talk about light and sensor sensitivity.

Before I begin though, I’d like to bring attention to a very neat graphic I just finished making in Adobe Photoshop. I hope you like it. I’l be referring to it quite a bit in this post.

A Look at the Different Aperture Sizes

So here’s the thing. When you’re out shopping for a new camera lens, you need to be very mindful of what you’ll be using that lens for. I can remember back when I purchased my first new lens, which was years ago, by this point. I really didn’t know what I was looking for and my primary source for deciding if I wanted a particular lens or not came from star ratings. If a lens was rated highly, I guessed it would be good for me. Today, I’m much wiser than that and I now know that different lenses are used for different things. If I want shallow depth of field and something that’s good in low light, I would most likely go with a prime lens that offers a large aperture. If I was going to use the lens for landscape photography on bright sunny days, I would definitely think about a lens that offers a smaller aperture because it would have a deeper depth of field and it would keep some of the light out of the camera. If there was too much light, the resulting photo might come out over-exposed and I’d likely need to use a lens filter to combat that. My point here is, be sure you know what you’re looking at when you’re ready to buy.

If you take a glance at the graphic above, you’ll see how different aperture sizes truly are. At the top left, we have an F/2.8 and down at the bottom, we’ve got an F/22. The white hole at the center of the circle is the actual opening that will allow light to pass through the lens. Think about a lens as a straw. A wide straw will let you finish your soda in a few seconds while a thin straw will force you to take more time to finish the same soda. Big apertures let tons of light through. This is perfect for low light and night time photography because you’ll need all the light you can get. Daytime photography, well…I discussed that above. Sometimes too much light can be a bad thing.

The primary area I’d like to focus on in this section is how much the aperture size grows as you go down in number. I used to think like, “I mean really. How much different can an F/2.8 aperture be from an F/4 one? Those numbers are so close in the grand scheme of things.” Well, take a look at the graphic above. I’m no mathematician, but I can tell you that the F/2.8 lens lets in about twice the amount of light that the F/4 lens lets in. It doesn’t look like that, but the area of something can be deceiving in these types of comparisons. So if you were shopping for a lens to use at night, you would certainly go for the lowest number possible.

Now, I know my graphic only goes down to F/2.8. Check out how large apertures get when they go down to F/1.4. Huge!

Source: Wikipedia

So yeah, these things make a big difference. I just wanted to impress that upon you as much as possible.

The Relationship Between Aperture Size & ISO

Let me ask you a question. Do you think using an ISO value of 6400 is a good thing? Do you think that ISO value would introduce noise or grain into an image? The answer is that it’s not a good thing and yes, it would likely introduce noise into an image. If you were taking photos of a birthday party at night and the scene was dark, you would definitely want to do everything in your power to keep the ISO value down. Your camera will want to pop it up as high as possible because that’s what cameras do. They don’t know any better. So basically, your options are to lower the ISO value manually and use a slow shutter speed or to lower it down and use a large aperture. Since there are moving subjects in a birthday photograph, slow shutter speeds aren’t really an option. The only other option you’ve got is to open up that aperture as wide as possible.

Here’s the relationship between aperture and ISO values; the larger the aperture, the less of an increase in ISO the camera will need. As you open your lens farther and farther, the lower the ISO value will fall. It’s that simple. I attempted to illustrate that in my graphic above. If you shrink the aperture, your camera isn’t going to have much of a choice other than to increase the ISO, given that the shutter speed is locked in at a specific setting and it’s not super slow.

I guess there’s not much more to say about this. I hope you got something out of it. I know it’s important to repeat these principles a few times because folks tend to forget them. Also, if you like the graphic I created, feel free to share this page around. Perhaps other will like it too.

If you have any questions regarding this post, please ask down below or in the photography discussion forum. I’m always here to help. Thanks for reading!

How to Change the Auto-Rotate Settings on your Canon Rebel DSLR Camera

February 6, 2019

When you take a photograph with a Canon Rebel DSLR camera while holding it the traditional way and then play back that image for review, it’ll show just as you took it. Horizontally. When you turn the camera so it sits vertically and then take a photograph and play it back, it’ll show…well, it’ll show however you have your camera set up to show it. You can review it either horizontally or vertically. It’s up to you.

In today’s post, I’d like to quickly cover one small setting that can be found inside of most Canon DSLR cameras. It’s a setting that controls both playback for photographs that are being reviewed on the rear LCD screen on the back of the camera as well as playback on your computer screen.

The Auto-Rotate Settings

On my Canon Rebel T7i, I’ve got three auto-rotate settings available to me. The first one will auto-rotate a vertically taken photograph so it’s able to be seen horizontally on both the camera as well as the computer screen after download. The second setting covers only the computer screen, while keeping the camera playback image to be viewed exactly as it was taken. Finally, we have the “Off” option for the auto-rotate setting. In this case, as you take it, you see it. If you take a horizontal photo the regular way, you’ll see it that way on both the camera and the computer screen. The same is true if you take a photograph vertically. You’ll see it that way on the camera as well as the computer screen.

I do want to mention a few things before I continue. First, to me, it doesn’t matter how the image plays back on the computer screen. There’s a handy “rotate” feature that’s built into Adobe Bridge that quickly solves any viewability issues. It rotates an image any way I want. Second, I sort of like it when the camera doesn’t automatically rotate an image during playback. If you’ve ever viewed an image that’s been corrected on the rear screen of your camera, you most likely have noticed that it shrinks quite a bit. The reason I am playing the image back in the first place is to see what I took a photo of and to see if that photo is any good. I like it when it’s larger. I don’t mind having to twist the camera in my hand to see it. It’s for these reasons that I have this feature turned off.

Changing the Auto-Rotate Setting

In this section, I’ll walk through the steps you’ll need to take to change this setting to whatever you want. There are only a few steps, so this should be fast.

First, with your camera on, press the Menu button on the back of your camera. Next, use the dial on the top of your camera to find the section that has the Auto Rotate option. On my T7i, this is the first yellow section (the wrench).

Once you see that option, use your down arrow button to go to it and then press the Set button to see the available options. Use the up and down arrow buttons to navigate to the options you’d like to set your camera to and once there, press the Set button to accept your changes.

Finally, press the Menu button again a few times to back out of the menu area. That’s it. Once you do this, you should be ready to rock and roll.

I hope I clearly explained the various options available when it comes to the auto-rotate feature on Canon DSLR cameras. I also hope I clearly explained how to change this setting. If you have any questions, please go ahead and ask them in the comment section or on the Canon Discussion Board. Thanks for reading!

How to Change the Image Review Settings on Your Canon Rebel DSLR Camera

February 5, 2019

If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s taking a photo of something while I have my camera in Live View mode and then, when I go to look at the image on the back of the camera, it’s only there for a second or two before it disappears. I know I’m not supposed to be looking at every photo I take and that I’m supposed to be concentrating on my photography instead, but I’m not always at a race track or a sports game that requires very active participation. Sometimes I’m just sitting someplace quietly trying to take some decent photos. It’s so annoying to have the image review only last for the default two seconds.

In this very brief post, I’d like to show you how to change the Image Review setting on your Canon Rebel DSLR camera. This is a simple change that can be made in about three seconds. And what I’ll share with you below is good for many Canon Rebels, such as the T2i, T3i, T4i, T5i, T6i and the T7i.

Changing the Image Review Setting

There are a few different options when it comes to the length of time you can review an image on these Canon cameras. The ranges goes from no review at all to no time limit at all. In between are two second, four second and eight second options. If you’d like to extend the two seconds, but still want the camera to automatically get rid of the image after some time, you can always opt for the eight second option. In my opinion, I say the Hold option is best, because that’s the one where there’s no limit. When you take a photo and then review it on the back of the camera, the image will stay there as long as you’d like it to. To make it disappear so you can begin taking pictures again, all you need to do is half press the shutter button. It’s that easy and this option puts the power back in your hands, regarding what you’d like to happen in these instances.

To change the setting, press the Menu button on the back of your camera. Then, with the left and right arrow buttons, navigate to the red section that has the Image Review option available.

Next, use the up and down arrow buttons to navigate to the Image Review option. Press the Set button to enter it and then when the review options are visible, use the up and down arrow keys to navigate to the time setting you want and then press the Set button to accept your changes.

When you’re all finished, press the Menu button again and again to back out of the menu area. Finally, get out there and start taking photos!

I hope I clearly explained how to change the image review setting on your Canon EOS DSLR camera. If you have any questions or if you have anything to add to this post, please do so below. Or, you can always ask your Canon questions and find answers in our Canon Camera Forum. Thanks for reading!

How to Calculate Depth of Field For Photography

February 3, 2019

I’ve written about depth of field as it relates to photography before on this website, so I won’t rehash all that I’ve already covered here. What I would like to do instead is expand upon what I’ve discussed and move towards a more refined level of photographic planning. If you’re a still life or portrait photographer, you’ll want to read this. This is important stuff.

When taking photos of objects that are fairly close to your camera, you’ll definitely need to contend with blur. Depth of field. Out of focus. Whatever you want to call it. The closer you get to an object, the more blur you’ll see in front of the object as well as in back of it. It’s as if this blur is magnified the closer you go. If you were outside taking landscape shots, blur caused by a large aperture wouldn’t be nearly as intrusive as it can be when you’re inside. The window where objects remain sharp gets larger the farther you move away from them.

In today’s post, I’d like to offer you a very handy tidbit of information that will greatly assist you when it comes to determining exactly how large or small that sharp window (depth of field) will be. Depending on what type of camera you have, what your aperture size is, what your focal distance is and how far you are away from the object you’d like to photograph, you can actually calculate how much of your subject will be in focus and how much of it won’t be. If you’re new to photography or even a well seasoned amateur, this may come as news to you. I think that once you learn this concept, you’ll have a new “focus” on where you position yourself and your camera as well as what settings you use. This is all fun stuff, so read on below.

A Quick Reminder of What Depth of Field Is

Okay, fine. I’ll do it. I’ll remind you of what depth of field is, just in case someone new to this website is reading today. Depth of field is the point that is closer to you to the point that is farther away from you that is sharp in a photograph. So if you’re standing there with your camera in hand, taking a photo of someone who is facing you, depending on your camera settings, there may be some blur in front of them and some behind them. Depth of field is the distance of sharpness in between those two blurs. If this concept is completely foreign to you, I highly encourage you to read my previous post on the topic.

How to Calculate Depth of Field

Since I’m fairly certain that there are very few people on earth who want or need to know the actual depth of field calculations as they relate to photography, I’ll skip the numbers. If you are one of the few, you can find them here. Let me warn you though, they are extraordinarily boring and there are many different calculations, depending on many different factors. Personally, I use either online depth of field calculators or apps that can easily be downloaded and used on tablets and smart phones. For most photographers, there’s no sense in pulling out a pencil and paper while attempting to engage in some marvelous photography.

I found two different only calculators that might be helpful to you. The first is called DOFMaster and the second is from PhotoPills. Both of these services do the trick. If you’d like to find your own service, simply search for “Depth of Field Calculator.” It’s that easy.

Some Calculation Examples

In this section, I’d like to go over some very realistic examples of what some of these types of calculations might look like. Let’s say that you’ve got your camera set up on a tripod that’s next to a table and on top of that table, you have a small figure that you’re photographing. I’ll give you some specs and then the results of the calculations. Here goes:

Focal Length: 55mm
Aperture Setting (F-Stop): F/16
Subject Distance: 2 Feet

Near Limit: 1.89 Feet
Far Limit: 2.12 Feet
Total DOF: 0.22 Feet

In Front of Subject: 0.11 Feet (47%)
Behind Subject: 0.12 Feet (53%)

Okay, so the above information describes a situation where you’ve got a camera that’s two feet away from the object on the table. This is actually the distance from the camera’s sensor to the object. You’ve got your lens set to 55mm, which is the actual focal length, not the converted focal length for your sensor size. Most of these calculators take your camera model into account, so you won’t need to do any conversion. Finally, you have your aperture set to F/16.

Here are the results. The “near limit” is 1.89 feet. This means that this is the distance from your camera to the very closest spot in your scene that is acceptably sharp. Everything between your camera and this point will be blurry. The “far limit” is much like the near limit. It’s different though, of course. The far limit is 2.12 feet and it’s the distance from your camera to the farthest spot that’s acceptably sharp. So from your camera to the near limit is blurry (in front of the subject). Then you’ve got the area that’s sharp (the area surrounding the subject) and then you’ve got the far limit, which is the beginning of the blurry area behind the subject. The area surrounding the subject that’s sharp is called the total depth of field. In this case, it’s .22 feet, which isn’t a lot. This happens to be a very shallow depth of field.

And finally, because we’re fancy like that, we’ve got the percentages of the the distances from the focus plane to the near limit and the far limit, respectively. In this case, they are 47% and 53%.

What I’d Like to Emphasize

You can head into one of the calculators and punch in numbers all day long to get a feel of how the different variables affect depth of field. What I’d like to impress upon you in this final section is how much the distance between your camera and the subject you’re photographing can truly impact the acceptable sharp area. It’s pretty crazy.

I’m going to to keep all the variables the same from my example above, except the distance between the camera and the subject. If I change the distance from two feet to six feet, the depth of field increases from .22 feet to 2.21 feet. Now, if I increase the distance to 20 feet, the depth of field jumps all the way to 38.5 feet. That’s quite impressive.

The reason I mention this is because it’s quite common for people to associate depth of field with aperture size. While that’s a very good measure and while I’m not discounting it in any way, I’d like to just remind you that distance between your camera and the subject you’re shooting can have a profound effect on depth of field as well. I just want you to keep that in mind as you’re shopping for lenses and thinking about what type of photography you mostly engage in.

Well, I hope I clearly explained how you can calculate depth of field as it pertains to photography. As you’re engaging in this hobby or profession, it’s helpful to know exactly how much sharp area you’re dealing with, so these calculators can prove invaluable. If you have any questions regarding this post or topic, please ask down below in the comment section. If you have anything to add or further questions, you can always participate in the photography use’s forum. Thanks for reading!

Using the Camera Raw Smart Filter & Masks in Adobe Photoshop

January 31, 2019

There are many methods for adjusting the color and tone of images inside of Adobe Photoshop, but I have to be honest here when I say that I much prefer using Camera Raw for my editing. While Photoshop does a good job of fixing up images and making them look much better than they did straight out of the camera, it has felt sort of clunky ever since I began using Camera Raw. Camera Raw has got it going on. There are tons of sliders and I do almost everything I need to, color and tone correcting-wise, inside of it. Of course, I use Photoshop when I need to go beyond simple corrections, but generally, simple corrections are all I need 99% of the time.

In today’s post, I’d like to work through a quick project using both Adobe Photoshop and Camera Raw. Sometimes I find myself working on a photo inside of Photoshop when I really need to edit part of that photo in Camera Raw. To help out in situations like this, I take advantage of the Camera Raw Filter to move the photo over to that application and then, when I return to Photoshop after making my edits, I take advantage of masks to limit those edits to specific areas of the image. This is an extremely handy workflow because of its versatility. When used, the editor (you and me) is able to jump back and forth between Photoshop and Camera Raw in a seamless manner. Having masks available to carve out specific areas of an edit is super handy as well.

Today’s Demo Image

Here’s a nice photo of a woman holding a magazine in front of her face. The reason I chose this particular photo was two-fold. First, I like it and second, there’s a distinction between the woman and the wall behind her. I’ll be able to select either her and her magazine or just the wall when the time is right. So that’s why I chose this photo.

What’s My Goal?

My goal with this photo, or project rather, is to pretend that I’ve been working on it in Photoshop for some time, but just realized that it’s sort of dull looking. I’d like to enhance the colors of the woman and her magazine, but not of the wall behind her. I’d like to leave that as is.

Using the Camera Raw Filter

The first step I’ll take is to right-click on the image layer in the Layers panel. When the menu appears, I’ll select Convert to Smart Object. After I do that, I’ll head up to the Filter > Camera Raw Filter menu item and click.

When I click that menu item, I’ll immediately jump to Camera Raw, where I can make my edits to the entire image. You should really read my previous post on how to make photos look fabulous in Camera Raw if you’re interested in that. When I’m finished in Camera Raw, I’ll click the OK button, which will bring me back to Photoshop.

If you aren’t aware, Camera Raw is actually a Photoshop plugin. I like to call it Adobe Camera Raw and refer to it as its own application, but that’s just because it acts like one. I’m not really being very accurate when I do that.

Let’s take a look at the image now that I color and tone corrected it in Camera Raw.

If you look closely at the image, you can see that I not only edited the woman and her magazine, I also inadvertently edited the wall behind her as well. Since I added some sharpening and brightness to the woman, I added the same thing to the wall as well, as is evidenced by the grain on the wall. I didn’t want that, so I’d like to revert the wall back to its original state. I’ll work on that next.

Inverting the Mask & Making a Selection

Before I go any further, let’s take a look at the Layers panel.

As you can see, I’ve got the top image layer that’s now a Smart Object. Below that, I’ve got the Smart Filter that is currently a Camera Raw Filter. The important thing here is the mask. Its thumbnail is white, which means that any and all of the edits I made in Camera Raw are showing. What I want to do is actually hide all of the changes and then reveal just what I want to show.

So, I’ll first need to invert the mask. I’ll click on the mask thumbnail to activate it and then I’ll use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl+I (Command on Mac) to invert. After using the shortcut, the mask thumbnail should turn black and any changes I made in Camera Raw should be hidden. The changes are still there, but they’re just masked out at the moment.

At this point, I’d like to select the woman and her magazine. To do this, I’ll click on the image thumbnail in the Layers panel and then I’ll use the Quick Selection Tool to make the selection. If you’re interested in learning about how to make great selections in Photoshop, I encourage you to read my previous post on the topic.

Let’s see what the selection looks like. Mind you, this is very fast and rough, so don’t make fun.

Can you see the marching ants? They are surrounding the woman and the magazine.

The reason I had to click the image thumbnail in the Layers panel was to make the selection. Now, I’ll click on the black mask thumbnail in the Layers panel because I’d like to fill part of it with white. The selected area, to be exact.

I’ll click the mask thumbnail and then I’ll right-click inside of the selection while the Quick Selection Tool is still active. When the menu appears, I’ll select the Fill option.

When the Fill dialog box appears, I’ll choose the White option from the Contents drop-down.

Finally, I’ll click the OK button and watch as the wall stays in its original state while the woman and her magazine revert to the edited version. Let’s take a look.

I’ll use the Select > Deselect menu item to deselect the active part of the image and take a look at the final result. It’s exactly as I wanted it to be. This is the final result. While the entire image was modified in Adobe Camera Raw, only part of that modification is showing because of a mask in Photoshop. I’m hoping this has inspired you to apply the same principles I used in this post for projects of your own. This technique is great for landscapes, portraits and all types of photography.

And just in case you’re interested, this is the active mask that’s revealing the woman and magazine while concealing the wall in back of her.

To superimpose the mask over the image in the workspace, I simply held down the Alt key on my keyboard and then clicked once on the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel.

I hope I clearly explained how to use the Camera Raw Filter inside of Adobe Photoshop and then how to use a selection to mask out part of the previous edit. If you have any questions regarding this technique or post, please let me know in the comment section below. You can also ask or add anything in the Photoshop forum as well. Thanks for reading!

How to Learn From Scene Modes on Your DSLR Camera

January 28, 2019

If you’re like most beginning photographers, you purchased a pretty nice DSLR camera, took it out of the box and began taking photos with it. To do this, you most likely turned the dial on top of it to Auto mode and didn’t think anything of it. Of course, as time passed and as you learned more about the principles of photography, you began experimenting with a few other modes, such as Aperture Priority mode as well as Shutter Priority mode. This is pretty much what I did after I bought my first camera. I thought the DSLR was just the coolest thing. I loved the big lenses and all the gear I had the option of buying. I wasn’t too much into taking skilled shots or anything like that at the time, but I certainly got into that later on.

Learning photography takes time and effort. There are mechanics that need to be understood and there are quite a few ups and downs along the way. Even very skilled professional photographers have their bad days. It’s a lot like life. That’s just the way it is. Many beginning photographers give up on learning the inner working of photography after either getting bored or simply not understanding what they’re supposed to do that will allow them to take photos like they see in magazines and on the internet. They may dabble in a few courses here and there or watch a few videos, but they never quite form the understanding that’s necessary to use their cameras with confidence.

In today’s very brief post, I’d like to offer these beginners a quick tip that might assist with the learning process. I know that trying to determine the best time to take advantage of a large aperture might be confusing. I also know it can be tough to figure out when, or even why, someone would choose to set a faster shutter speed. It’s because of this I offer these folks a trick that they already know how to use. The answer is right under their noses and all they have to do is copy it.

The Modes

I’ve written about the different available camera modes a lot on this website. Most of the time, I focused on the three big ones; Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Manual mode. Well, I guess I’ve talked about Auto mode as well, but definitely not as much as the others. At times, I even discussed the semi-automatic modes, such as Portrait, Landscape, Close-Up and Sports. I don’t really use these last three, but I can tell you that they serve their purpose. And that’s what I’d like to talk about down below.

The Truth

Here’s the painful truth. Even though it’s easy to initially set your camera to some sort of auto mode, such as Program, you didn’t buy a very nice DSLR to stop there. You didn’t go out and spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars to point and shoot. You could do that with your smart phone. I’m guessing here, but I’m going to say that before you spent all that money, you had some big plans. You did a bunch of reading and browsing and settled on the perfect camera for you because you wanted to go places. You wanted to learn this skill and become great at it. Again, I’m guessing here, but that’s the way I thought. I’m still working at becoming great at this, but I’m better today than I was back in the beginning.

Anyway, here it is. You have to get your camera out of Program mode. You simply can’t keep setting your camera to “P” and going on photo shoots. There’s too much that your camera can do for you to be wasting time like this. The ultimate goal should be to use Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Manual mode very heavily. They’ll get you the best results and if you start using these modes, you’ll become very proficient at photography very quickly.

Now, this isn’t to say that Program mode is bad and that it doesn’t have its purposes. It does. It’s perfect for when someone borrows your camera or for when you hand someone your camera to snap an image of you. If they aren’t photographers, they’re not going to have any idea how to set your camera in any other mode and those shots are going to come out all screwed up. But as far as you go, don’t use Program mode anymore. Start to move away from that.

How to Easily Learn About the Other Modes

Take a look at the mode dial on your camera. You’ll likely see small icons opposite the more traditional modes I mentioned above. These icons represent the semi-auto modes. The reason I call them “semi” auto modes is because the camera still does all the work for you, but you tell it what type of shots you’d like to take. So for instance, if you set the camera to Portrait mode, it would know to optimize its settings for a photograph of someone. It would most likely, based on conditions, choose a somewhat fast shutter speed because the subject may move during the process, a larger aperture size to make the depth of field more shallow and the appropriate color settings. If you switched the camera to Landscape mode, things would be quite different. The camera would set, based on conditions, a much smaller aperture for a deeper depth of field and a slower shutter speed to compensate for that small aperture. You’d likely need a tripod when using this mode because of that slower shutter speed.

What’s the Point?

So here’s my point. Let’s say you know nothing about photography. You have no idea what aperture to use for a portrait shot or a landscape shot and the same is true for sports or close-up photographs. You just don’t know. Trust me, this isn’t rare. Hardly anyone knows. So what to do? Well, like I said up top, the answer is right under your nose. You can learn about settings by simply imitating what the camera does so very well – set settings! The camera is already doing it for you, so why not switch to one of the semi-auto modes when you’re in one of these types of situations, meter the camera and write down what the camera would like to set itself to? Then, you can switch to the more advanced Aperture or Shutter priority to make those settings yourself. After you take a few photos, experiment with moving things up or down a stop or two. I think you’ll quickly get the hang of things. After all, the camera is an excellent resource and it can tell you a lot about the conditions it finds itself in. All you need to do is watch what it wants to do and then do those things yourself, with a bit of flair.

I hope I clearly explained how to learn about photography by using your camera as a teaching device. If you have any questions regarding this post or if you have anything to add, please let me know in the comment section below or over in the photography forums. Thanks for reading!

How to Focus Stack Your Images For Better Photography

January 26, 2019

This is a very exciting post to share with you. Believe it or not, I’ve actually been having multiple conversations with various people lately on the topic of depth of field as it pertains to photography. Basically, the conversations go something like this:

THEM: I would love to solve the issue of not being able to take sharp photographs, from front to back.

ME: What do you mean? Can’t you just reduce your aperture size so your depth of field is very deep?

THEM: Well, that would work in theory, but sometimes I’m too close to something and the depth of field becomes shallow because of that. Also, I like large apertures because of all the light and clarity I’m able to capture. I feel like I’m being hamstrung because of some sort of limitation.

ME: You are. There’s only so much you can accomplish with your camera. There’s always going to be a trade-off. That’s what post-processing it for. Don’t worry, I’ll soon write a post that will solve all your problems.

You see? It’s that easy. Basically, because of the limitations of how cameras and lenses work, it’s not always possible to take crisp, clear photos that are sharp from front to back. Actually, it’s nearly impossible, unless you’re a decent distance away and are focusing on infinity. But really, a lot of the time, people want to take photos of things that are up-close and would like the entire image to be sharp. Unfortunately, that’s just not possible, even if you set your aperture to a very small size, such as f/18 or even smaller. So what to do?

In today’s post, I’m going to share a technique that top photographers use when they’re in situations like the one I described above. Since these photographers understand the capabilities of their cameras as well as how their cameras actually work, they prepare ahead of time. They bring the necessary gear to the location of their shoot and they capture photographs that they’ll use later on to create the perfect image. The best part is, the technique I’ll show you today is so easy, pretty much anyone can do it, granted they have the necessary software. You’re going to love it.

Down below, I’ll talk about taking multiple photos of the same scene while focusing on different planes of the scene, so you capture each plane in focus. After that, I’ll explain how to modify those images in Adobe Camera Raw and then how to import them into Photoshop as layers. Finally, I’ll show you how to use the Auto-Blend Layers command in Photoshop to “stack” the photos so only the sharp sections of each shows in the final image. Again, you’re going to love this technique because it’ll allow you much more flexibility in your photography. Imagine not having to worry so much about the exact perfect shot every single time you press your shutter button because you know you’ll be able to merge a few different ones later on. It’s liberating, to say the least.

Capturing The Images

Okay, what I’m going to discuss today will be about taking photographs of objects that aren’t moving. Think flower photos or macro photography. A shoot you’ll need a tripod for because trust me, you aren’t going to be able to pull this technique off holding the camera in your hands. You need your camera to be absolutely still and if you have a remote shutter, you might want to use it. Your subject needs to be stationary as well. For my example, I took some pictures of a few bottles of hard cider I recently purchased for a recipe I was preparing. I had to think of something I could scatter on a table and these bottles came to mind. They worked out well enough.

To take the photos, I set my camera to Aperture Priority mode. Then, I set the aperture to f/4.5 because that’s as wide as my lens allows. I set the camera on a tripod and then made a few adjustments so the scene looked good. Overall, I took five photos. I began by focusing on the front bottle and then for every one after that, I focused on the second bottle back, the third bottle back and so on. Here are the five images. Please note the focal points of each.

To alter the focus, I used the magnify feature on my camera and then focused that way. I also use back button auto focus, so that was helpful as well. My goal was to capture multiple images that were taken with different focal distances that will ultimately give me a resulting image that displays a far greater depth of field than any one image in particular.

Enhancing the Images in Adobe Camera Raw

This is just a bonus section, as it has nothing to do with the process of focus stacking. But, since we all want our photos to look as good as possible, I figured I’d add it in. Basically, I selected all five photos inside of Adobe Bridge and then opened them up in Camera Raw. Once there, I edited the first one and then copied those edits to the others. When I was finished and when I thought the photos looked appealing, I pressed the Done button in Camera Raw to return to Bridge. I’ll leave links below for each of these steps.

How Can I Open Multiple Photos From Adobe Bridge Into Camera Raw?

How To Edit More Than One Photo at a Time in Adobe Camera Raw

How To Make A Photo “Pop” With Adobe Camera Raw

Loading the Photos as Layers into Photoshop

So far, I’ve taken the photos with different focal distances and I’ve cleaned them up in Camera Raw. The next step is to move them into Photoshop. The thing is, I would like each of the five files I’ve got to load into the same file in Photoshop as individual layers. There are multiple methods for accomplishing something like this, but I’ll show you the easiest. To move these photos from Adobe Bridge into Photoshop as layers, I’ll select all five image thumbnails in Bridge. Then, I’ll head up to the Tools > Photoshop > Load Files into Photoshop Layers and click. After a bit of working, Photoshop will open up and each of the photographs will be in their own layer. For a more thorough description of the process I just described, please take a look at the first part of this post.

Here’s a screenshot of the Layers panel in Photoshop with the images as layers.

Auto-Blending the Layers

The next step is to blend the photos together, so a spectacular overall image is formed. I’ll go ahead and select all five layers in the Layers panel and then head over to the Edit > Auto-Blend Layers menu item and click.

When I do that, the Auto-Blend Layers dialog box will appear. In that dialog, I’ll choose the Stack Images option as well as the Seamless Tones and Colors and Content Aware Fill Transparent Areas options.

Stacking the images is the primary operation I’ll be performing. I’ll choose the seamless tones and colors option because I used Aperture Priority mode when shooting, and due to that, my camera changed some of the other settings as I focused differently on the various areas of the scene. They’re slightly varied in their brightness levels. Also, Photoshop will auto-align the images during this process because, again, I wasn’t in full Manual mode when I shot the scene. And finally, because there may be some shifting of the layers due to the alignments that may be necessary, Photoshop will fill any gaps with content.

When I’m ready to go, I’ll click on the OK button.

The Final Result

After pressing the button, a few seconds will pass and then the process will be complete. Let’s take a look at the Layers panel now.

Do you see what I see? Masks. Essentially, Photoshop has analyzed each layer and masked out any areas that aren’t sharp. It kept the areas that are sharp and combined them to form one complete image. Let’s take a look at each individual layer to see what went on. I’ll start with the bottom layer (the one where I focused on the bottle all the way in the back) and then I’ll work my way forward.

And here’s the final image composite.

Pretty crazy, right? Do you see how the bottles are sharp from front to back now? And the best part is, the process is very simple. All you need to do is take the photos with varied focal points and then merge them together in Photoshop. Photoshop does all the work, so it’s rather painless.

I hope I clearly explained how to capture multiple photographs with different focus points and then how to blend the images together in Photoshop for a sharp image overall. If you have any questions regarding this post or topic, please ask down below in the comment section or in the Photoshop discussion forum. Thanks for reading!

Colorizing Objects with the Hue Blending Mode in Adobe Photoshop

January 23, 2019

Have you ever wondered how websites that sell clothing and others that sell cars change the colors of whatever it is they’re selling? You know what I’m referring to here. Pretend you’re looking at a Honda Civic on the Honda website and the default color is gray. Below the photo of the car are alternative colors. Click the small square and the same exact car changes color. Neat, huh?

Years ago, before I got into all this design and photography stuff, I wondered how the vehicle manufacturers pulled this little trick off. I thought, “Well, they must roll a differently colored car into the studio and take new photos of it.” That idea never squared with me because, I’m telling you, it was the same exact car – just in different colors. I was dumbfounded.

Now that I’m much more immersed in design and Photoshop and all that goes along with that, I know that, yes, it was the same car or the same sweater or the same pair of pants every time. The company that was selling them used some fancy software to change the colors. I’m sure they have their methods that I’ll never truly know, but I can tell you that we can do something very similar in Adobe Photoshop.

In today’s post, I’d like to introduce you to a blending mode that hardly anyone ever uses. It’s the Hue blending mode and when it comes to changing the color of an object, it comes in extremely handy. In the post below, I’ll select one of the colored pencils in the demo image and then I’ll apply an entirely different color to it. I think you’ll be impressed with the results. You’ll never even know that the original color was, well, the original color.

What Does the Hue Blending Mode Do?

I’ve talked a lot about blending modes on this website, so I can say that I’m rather comfortable with them. This one though, as I admitted above, hardly gets any use. Whether that’s because I don’t change colors of objects very much or it’s because I forget about it, I’m not sure. Perhaps after today’s post, I’ll give it some more love.

So, what exactly does the Hue blending mode do? Well, it allows a color to overlay an object, while maintaining the luminance and saturation of the object’s base color. Instead of simply “colorizing” the base color in a blunt and primitive way, it sort of allows the new color to “absorb” into the underlying one in a much more natural way.

Making a Selection

To start things off, I’ll use the Quick Selection Tool from the left toolbar to select the yellow pencil.

Now, just to let you know, I’m making this rough selection because it’s the easiest way to do this. I could just as easily paint over the yellow pencil with a color using the Brush Tool and maybe I’ll even clean things up later on using this method. But for right now, to give you the general idea of how to do things, I’ll make a selection.

After I make the selection, I’ll head down to the bottom of the Layers panel and click the Create a New Layer button. This will create a new layer while keeping the selection live. With the new layer active in the Layers panel and the Quick Selection Tool still active as well, I’ll right-click inside of the selection. This will open a menu. I’ll choose the Fill option.

Filling the Selection with Color

When the Fill dialog box appears, I’ll choose the Color option from the drop-down. This will make the Color Picker appear, where I’ll choose my new color.

When I’m finished, I’ll click the OK button for both the Color Picker as well as the Fill dialog. Let’s see what things look like now.

Ah, now we have a beautiful solid purple color. Just as I wanted.

Applying the Hue Blending Mode

At this point, since I have a solid color that’s shaped like a pencil in its own layer in the Layers panel, all I need to do is change the blending mode for that layer. I’ll head to the blending mode drop-down in the Layers panel and I’ll choose the Hue option.

Let’s see what that accomplished.

As you can see, the new color has changed the pencil from yellow to purple. As a reminder, the luminance and saturation are maintained from the original color, so that’s why this purple is so light. To give you a better idea of how this works, I’ll recolor a few more pencils quickly by following the same exact steps as I laid out above.

As you can see, we went from green, yellow, orange to blue, purple, green. That’s pretty cool and that’s all there is to it. Again, to clean the edges up, you can easily do that with the Brush Tool set to the original color. Simply paint the edges until they blend in with their surroundings well.

I hope I clearly explained how to colorize objects using Adobe Photoshop and the Hue blending mode. If you have any questions regarding this post, please ask in the comment section down below or in the Adobe Photoshop user’s forum. Thanks for reading!

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