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You are here: Home / 2018 / Archives for June 2018

Archives for June 2018

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Text Effects with the Difference Blend Mode in Adobe Photoshop

June 29, 2018

Have you ever wondered how you can easily invert part of your text when it overlaps other text? I’ve wondered that for a long time and today, I’d like to share the trick for how to accomplish that with you.

When it comes to text effects, the Difference blending mode can be a lot of fun. This is one mode that doesn’t get a lot of play, but I think when I show you its power, you’ll add it to your arsenal of “go to” tools, especially when you’re working with text. There’s a lot you can do with this one.

Before I go any further though, let’s refresh ourselves on what the Difference blend mode can do for us. Or rather, what the Difference blend mode does, in general.

The Difference blend mode “Looks at the color information in each channel and subtracts either the blend color from the base color or the base color from the blend color, depending on which has the greater brightness value. Blending with white inverts the base color values; blending with black produces no change.”

In essence, most of what you need to remember is that white inverts the color of the background layer and black makes no change. So, if you have a white background layer and a white layer on top of that and apply the Difference blend mode to that white top layer, everything will invert to black.

I know this isn’t the easiest thing to understand, so I’ll do my best to help you out below.

In today’s post, I’m going to offer you two examples of how you can take advantage of this particular blend mode, in order to get some pretty neat looking effects while working in Adobe Photoshop. Really, the extent of the effects are going to be up to you and what your brain came come up with, but I’ll give you the beginnings of what you’ll need right here.

Example #1

For this first example, I’m going to create a simple document that has a white background. I’ll then add one text layer with the text colored black. This is what I have so far.

Layer Text

It’s rather simple, I know. As you can see, the text says, “LAYER.”

Next, I’ll type out some new text on a new layer. This time though, I’ll make the new text white and have it spell out “TYPE.” So you can see the new text, I’ll make it so it overlaps the bottom portion of the first text. Here’s what we have.

White Overlapping Text

Do you see the white text creeping up on the black text from below? That’s good.

At this point, I’d like to apply the Difference blending mode to the “TYPE” text layer. Knowing what this blending mode does, I’ll assume that the parts of the text that are on top of the white background will turn black and the parts that are covering the black “LAYER” text will stay white. Let’s see the result. First, I’ll change the blend mode in the Layers panel.

Difference Blending Mode in Adobe Photoshop

Now, let’s check out the result.

Full Difference Blend Mode Overlap

Yup, just as I suspected. the bottom layer has been partially inverted. Now, if I push that bottom layer down just a bit so it’s more readable and then apply an Invert adjustment layer, I can invert everything in the entire image for an even more creative look.

First I’ll apply the Invert adjustment layer by going over to the Adjustments panel and clicking on the Invert icon.

Invert Adjustment Layer

And then I’ll take a look at the result.

Inverted Text & Background in Photoshop

I’m sure you can see the possibilities here. Just with this small amount of information, you should be able to add a lot of flair to all different types of projects. I’m picturing this type of effect having a big role in media types, such as magazines and other types of print.

Example #2

Now that we know what this blend mode can do, let’s apply it to a real-world project. This isn’t going to be any more challenging that what I just did, but it will be better looking.

I’ve got a photo of a girl in a yoga pose here and I’m pretending that I’d like to use this image in a magazine. Right now, the image looks fine, but I want to add a message to it. Let’s see the photo.

Girl in Yoga Pose

What if I write “YOGA” across the entire picture. Would that look good?

Yoga Girl with White Text

I guess that looks okay, but what if I apply the Difference blending mode to the white text? I wonder how that would improve the image. Let’s take a look.

Difference Blending Mode Applied to White Text

Ah, that looks better. Now we can at least see the text while having the girl fully visible. I wonder if this version is edgy enough though. I think I want to invert everything, just as I did in the first example. That should change things up. I’ll add an Invert adjustment layer, just for fun. Let’s see what that does.

Inverted Yoga Model

Oh now we’re getting somewhere. I could even change the look further if I change the text from being white to being gray. I could do any number of things, but that’s beyond the scope of this post. What I shared above is what I wanted to show you, so I think I’ll stop there. I’m hoping you can find an application for this.

——

I hope I clearly explained how to use the Difference blending mode to establish a text effect in Adobe Photoshop. I also hope I gave you some good examples of how the Invert adjustment can affect these changes as well. If you have any questions regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


How to Create & Apply Preset Styles in Adobe Photoshop

June 27, 2018

Styles are one of the first places you, as a new editor, will go when you launch Adobe Photoshop. If you’re working with text at all, you’re most likely going to want to add some flavor to that text. After all, boring text is, well, boring. There are a million different combinations of effects that you can add to jazz things up.

In today’s post, I’d like to talk about some preset styles that Photoshop has to offer. As I’ve written in previous posts, we have the ability to add our own styles, one effect at a time. If you’d like to read these previous posts, please feel free to click through the links below.

Layer Effects & Styles in Adobe Photoshop

How to Scale Styles with Object Size in Adobe Photoshop

How to Animate Layer Effects (Styles) with Video in Adobe Photoshop

Preset styles are styles that have been created by the folks over at Adobe. In their most basic sense, they’re individual effects that have been combined with one another to create an overall look. Those “looks” have been saved inside of Photoshop and can be easily accessed to apply to pretty much anything. These effects include drop shadows, beveled edges, embossing and so much more.

Where to Find Style Presets

Photoshop certainly doesn’t hide the style presets. Off the top of my head, I can think of two really easy ways to get to them. First, there’s an entire panel dedicated to them. If you click the Window > Styles menu item, you’ll end up looking right into this panel. In my install of Photoshop, the panel is already available in the right column. It’s nested with the Adjustments panel. To access the styles, I’ll just click the Styles tab.

Styles Tab in Adobe Photoshop

Another way to access the styles is to double-click on a layer. When the Layer Style dialog box appears, click the Style option that sits at the top of the left column.

Layer Style Dialog Box

Both of these methods will allow you to choose a style to apply to your layer.

Changing Style Views

Currently, the styles are shown as small thumbnails. It’s oftentimes difficult to see exactly what the styles are without descriptions. With this in mind, Adobe has given us the ability to change the way we view those icons. We can create lists with either small or large icons or simple small or large icons without a list (description). The way to access these changes is to, in the Styles panel, click the small menu in the top right corner. A menu will appear that offers many different options. In this case, I chose to change the view from Small Thumbnail to Large List. You can see the list behind the menu in the screenshot below.

Style Large List

If I was in the Layer Style dialog box, I would click on the small gear menu button that sits at the upper right corner of the style box and choose a new view from the menu that pops up. In this case, I chose Large Thumbnail.

Layer Style Dialog Box Style Menu

How to Append Styles

I’m not sure if you noticed this or not, but I don’t really have all that many styles to choose from. This doesn’t mean that additional styles aren’t hiding in the background, waiting for me to add them to the list of what I can take advantage of. To append additional styles to either of the styles panels I discussed above, I’ll simply click one or more of the available options down in the lower portion of the menu I just showed you.

Append Style Menu Option

When the confirmation box appears that asks if I want to replace or append the styles to those that already exist, I’ll click Append. This will add to the existing styles as opposed to replace them.

Append or Replace Button

Once I click that button, I’ll see the available styles grow in number.

Applying Styles

If you’ve never worked with styles before, you’re probably wondering what in the world I’m talking about in this post. Well, let me take this opportunity to show you something. I’ve gone ahead and written out some simple text. It’s black on a white background. It says, “STYLES.”

Styles

Now, I’m going to go into the Layer Style dialog box and click on a random style icon. Let’s see what happens.

Liquid Rainbow Style

In this case, I clicked on the Liquid Rainbow style. While it looks really cool, there may be a few things about it that I want to change. The question is, how do I see the individual effects that were used to create the style? That’s easy. Once I choose that style or even if I choose the style, click the OK button to apply it and then double-click on the layer to come back to it later on, all I need to do is take a look at the left column of the Layer Style dialog.

Layer Style Dialog Left Column

After choosing a style, all of the other optional effects disappear from the left column. All that’s left are those effects that were used for this particular style. If I wanted to change anything or even add new effects to this combination, I could accomplish all that by clicking around the left column and then working in the individual effect areas to the right. Again, to see how to add and manipulate individual effects, please click through those links I added to the top of this post.

Adding Multiple Styles

If you’d like to add multiple preset styles to one layer, all you need to do is hold down the Shift key on your keyboard while clicking on the styles in the Styles panel. As of right now, this trick only works in the Styles panel and not inside the Layer Style dialog box. You’ll know you’ve added multiple styles if you keep your eye, not only on the layer itself in the work area, but also on the layer in the Layers panel. You’ll see the list of effects growing there.

Multiple Layer Styles Applied to Text

Creating a Layer Style

Let’s say I applied a preset style and then made some modifications to it. Let’s also say that I know I’ll want to use this modified style again in the future. Instead of applying this default preset style to each and every layer in the future and then modifying it again and again, I can modify it just once and save that modification as a new style.

I’ve gone ahead and applied the Shaded Red Bevel style to my demo text. I also went in and made the drop shadow a bit larger than the original called for. Since I’d like to save this as a new style to be used again, I’ll click the New Style button in the Layer Style dialog. When I do this, the New Style dialog box appears, where I can name the new style. I’ll call this one, Shaded Red Bevel – Shadow and then click OK.

New Style Dialog Box

Now, if I look at the bottom of the preset styles list in either panel, I’ll see the one I just created.

Red Shaded Bevel - New Style

By the way, this is the style I’m referring to.

Red Bevel Style

——

As you can see, there’s a lot you can do with styles in Adobe Photoshop, whether it be to styles you create yourself or to preset styles created by the folks at Adobe. They’re very flexible and should help out a lot with your projects. I hope I clearly explained how to work with preset styles today. If you have any questions regarding this post, please leave them in the comment area below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


Working With the Tree Filter in Adobe Photoshop

June 25, 2018

Did you know that you can make really good looking trees right inside of Adobe Photoshop? I’m not talking about lousy one dimensional trees either. I’m talking about trees that actually look real; ones that you can change and customize in about a million different ways. That’s right, this is one of those virtually unknown features of an application many of us use almost every day of our lives. It’s a good feature too, so read on below.

In today’s post, I’d like to introduce you to the Tree filter in Adobe Photoshop. I’ll create a blank document and then enter the filter area where I’ll explore many of the customization options available to us. I’ll also walk through the process of creating a custom tree and then applying it to the document at hand. It’s such an easy process and I’m sure you’ll love it.

Pine Tree Created in Adobe Photoshop

The Tree Palette

Okay, let’s get right into it. I’ve gone ahead and created a new document inside of Photoshop. The document is 700 pixels wide, but that doesn’t matter. The only reason I used that dimension is because it fits well on the pages of this blog. I also made the background white, so each tree I create is clearly visible. If you’re following along, feel free to use any dimensions you wish and any color you wish.

I also created a new, transparent, layer that sits directly on top of the white background layer. The reason I did this is because I’d like to have control over any tree or trees I create. I’ll make a new layer for each tree. That way, I’ll be able to move all the trees around independently of one another. If I were to simply place them on the background layer, they’d all be stuck together and I’d ultimately have very little flexibility.

To get to the Tree palette, I’ll head up to the top of the application and select the Filter > Render > Tree menu item.

Filter > Render > Tree Menu Item in Adobe Photoshop

Once the Tree palette opens, I’ll see something that looks like this:

Tree Palette in Adobe Photoshop

Now, just to let you know, there’s already a tree created inside of this palette. You can see it in the previous screenshot. If I wanted to keep that tree and use it, all I’d need to do is to click on the OK button inside this palette and that tree would end up in my workspace. Since most people have a certain tree in mind before entering this palette, I’ll discuss some of the options available to us next.

The palette currently has two tabs; one is called the Basic tab and the other is the Advanced tab. In previous versions of Photoshop, the options contained in these tabs were merged into just one. Adobe has since split some things apart though.

The most important option in the entire palette has to do with what type of tree you’d like to end up with. If I were to click on the Base Tree Type drop-down, I’d have a fair number of types of trees to choose from.

Base Tree Type Option

Once I click on one of the tree varieties, that type of tree will appear in the preview area to the left. Currently, there are 34 varieties of trees available to choose from.

As you may have noticed there are quite a few different adjustments someone could make to any tree they’re working on. I’ll list those adjustments and offer some words of explanation below.

Basic Panel

The most widely used options are contained in this panel.

Light Direction: Picture having a large light in your hands and shining that light at the tree you’re creating. You can walk from the left side of the tree all the way to the right side. That’s pretty much what this option controls; the lighting that’s illuminating the tree. This option offers 180 degrees to choose from, therefore, the available slider values are anything between 0 and 180. The lower values shine the light on the left side of the tree and the higher values move around to the right.

Leaves Amount: Do you want a sparse looking tree or a very bushy one? You can control the amount of foliage your tree contains by moving this slider to the left or to the right. The available values range from 0 to 100, with 0 being completely bald and 100 being completely full.

Leaves Size: This option goes hand-in-hand with the previous one. Not only do we have control over how many leaves are on a tree, but we can also control how large those leaves are. The available values for this slider range between 0 and 200, with 0 being the smallest leaves available and 200 being the largest.

Semi-Bald Oak Tree

Branches Height: At what distance from the ground would you like the branches on your tree to begin stemming from the trunk? You can select from rather low branches to ones that begin almost all the way at the top of the tree. This slider offers values that range from 70 to 300. Here are some examples for you. This is a Zelkova Serrata tree. The first image has the Branches Height value set to 70 (lowest) and the second image has it set to 300 (highest).

Zelkova Serrata Branches Low to Ground

Zelkova Serrata Branches High From Ground

Branches Thickness: This option controls how thick the wood is on your tree. It controls the thickness of not only the branches, but of the trunk as well. The range of values for this slider span from 0 to 200. Here’s an Ash Tree with a Branch Thickness of 20. The lower numbers show less wood.

Ash Tree with Thin Branches

And here’s the same Ash Tree with a Branch Thickness of 200. The higher numbers show more wood.

Ash Tree with Thick Branches

Default Leaves: If I’d like Photoshop to keep the default style leaf for the selected tree, I’d check this box.

Leaves Type: If I uncheck the above box, I can choose my own style of leaf, no matter what type of tree I’d like. Currently, there are 16 available different leaf types to choose from.

Leaf Type Options in Tree Palette in Photoshop

Randomize Shapes: If I’d like Photoshop to choose the shapes and positions of the branches on the tree for me, I can check this box.

Arrangement: If I’d like to choose my own branch arrangement, I can move this slider. The values fall from 1 to 100 and appear to make no sense at all. Continue to move the slider until you find a look that appeals to you.

Advanced Panel

For more advanced, but less used, options, click into this panel.

Camera Tilt: Let’s say you wanted to view your tree from a different angle. You can do that with this setting. The values of this option span the range of 0 through 24, with 0 being as if you were standing on the ground in front of the tree. As you increase this value, it would be as if you were levitating up, off the ground and hovering over the tree.

Use Custom Color For Leaves: We’re also able to change the color of the leaves on all of the available trees. If you were going for an early spring look, you could change the color to a lighter green and if you were going for a late fall look, you could change the leaves to either orange, yellow, red or brown.

Oak Tree in Autumn

Use Custom Color For Branches: Along the same lines as the option above, we can also change the color of the branches. So, if you wanted a lighter wood, you could change the default color to a light brown. The same is true with a darker wood, but you’d go with a darker brown.

Flat Shading – Leaves: The default leaves include a lot of gradient for the sake of interest. To remove this interest, you could give the leaves a flat color.

Enhance Contrast – Leaves: In contrast to the option just above, you can also add even more contrast than the default offers. To increase the contrast in the leaves, simply check this box.

Flat Shading – Branches: To remove any gradient from the wood and to make the color flat in the trunk and the branches of any tree you create, check this box.

Leaves Rotation Lock: If you check this box, you can stop the leaves from rotating three dimensionally. Doing this will create a result that’s much more like an illustration.

Converting to Smart Objects

Remember, after creating your trees, you’ll likely resize them quite a bit in an effort to get the look you’re going for just right. If you convert each individual tree layer to a Smart Object, you’ll save yourself a lot of time by not having to create new trees when you lose resolution from scaling down and then scaling back up again. Smart Objects are key when it comes to this sort of thing.

Variety of Trees Created in Adobe Photoshop

——

I hope I clearly explained how to create a tree in Adobe Photoshop by using the Tree filter. If you have any questions regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


How To Embed a Linked Smart Object into Adobe Photoshop

June 23, 2018

I sometimes wonder if I’m the only one on earth who gets excited over the most mundane details of how Adobe Photoshop works. I think it has something to do with my imagination. I imagine people sitting behind their computers trying to find the solutions to all types of quandaries and honestly, I find that idea very motivational. I enjoy helping people and I really like it when something I share makes a project work out or saves a little time for someone.

In today’s post, I’d like to show you a few different methods for creating Smart Objects in Adobe Photoshop. Now, I know I’ve already talked about Smart Objects a few times on this website, but rest assured that most of what I’m going to discuss today is new. While working in Photoshop, you’ll discover that there are dozens of ways to accomplish the same thing and sometimes it’s important to learn all those ways so you can speed up your work. Also, at times, one method will just make more sense than another, based on where you are in a workflow, so that’s something to think about as well.

Towards the end of this post, I’ll discuss one very important aspect of linking Smart Objects and changing that linked object to an embedded one. I’m not a huge fan of linking external files to Photoshop files, so this is of particular interest to me. I’ll do my best at explaining the situation below, so you can make your own choices.

Demo Photos

For today’s post, I thought I’d use two different guitar images. I play guitar, so I was attracted to these. Mind you, I could have used pretty much any type of image because it really doesn’t matter what the content of those images is. It’s the process that matters here.

Warm Guitar Heat & Strings

Guitar Strings & Face

The Situation

Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to open one of the guitar images up into Adobe Photoshop. That image will be in its own tab. After that, I’ll take advantage of a few different methods for importing the other guitar image into the first image’s tab, as a Smart Object. So really, this isn’t a “how to create a Smart Object” post as much as it is a “how to import a file as a Smart Object” post. It’s also a “how to embed a linked Smart Object” post as well.

By the way, if you have no idea what a Smart Object is when it comes to working in Photoshop, please feel free to click through the links below to catch up.

What are Smart Objects in Adobe Photoshop?

3 Different Ways to Create Smart Objects in Adobe Photoshop

How To Open RAW Files As Smart Objects Directly into Adobe Photoshop

How to Correctly Duplicate a Smart Object in Adobe Photoshop

Importing & Converting with the Rectangular Marquee Tool

With this first example, I’m going to duplicate one of the guitar images and import that duplicate into the other guitar image’s tab (simultaneously). From there, I’ll convert the duplicated layer into a Smart Object, all while using the Rectangular Marquee Tool. This type of scenario happens quite often and layers are frequently copied over into other tabs. Don’t get caught up on what the reason is for me moving one layer in one tab over to another tab, just focus on how I’m getting things done.

Both images are opened into their own tabs in Photoshop. Right now, I’ll head into the cooler looking guitar photo’s tab; the one showing just the strings.

I’ll first go ahead and activate the Rectangular Marquee Tool over in the left toolbar.

Rectangular Marquee Tool in Adobe Photoshop

With my mouse pointer hovering over the image somewhere, I’ll right click and select the Duplicate Layer option.

Duplicate Layer Option From Right Clicking

When I do that, the Duplicate Layer dialog box will appear. I’ll name the layer I’m duplicating Cool Guitar Strings in the As: field and I’ll choose the other file’s name from the Document: drop-down.

Duplicate Layer Dialog Box

Finally, I’ll click on the OK button to send the layer over to the other file.

From here, I’ll click on the other file’s tab and I’ll see the layer I just copied, sitting there in its own layer.

Copied Layer

With the Rectangular Marquee Tool still active and the copied layer selected in the Layers panel, I’ll right click once again. This time though, I’ll select the Convert to Smart Object option from the menu that appears.

Convert to Smart Object Option From Menu

And that will complete the first example. As you can see in the Layers panel, the new layer is there, it’s a Smart Object and it’s been renamed. All with just a few easy steps.

First Example Layers Panel

Placing Embedded & Converting All in One Step

This example is pretty cool because it’s so easy to pull off. There isn’t much involved at all.

To get this done, I’ll start back at the beginning with fresh images in their own tabs. This time though, I’ll use the warmer guitar photo; the one I copied the other photo over to above. I’ll head up to the File > Place Embedded menu option and click.

Place Embedded Menu Option

When I do that, a window will appear that I can use to browse for the image I’d like to place in this tab. I’ll locate the image, double-click on it and it will instantly be placed into the tab I’m working in. It’ll also have that “Place” bounding box around it.

Placed an Embedded Image into File

Because I have my install of Photoshop set up to open Camera Raw when placing images into Photoshop, this particular image opened in Camera Raw first, after I double-clicked on the file. All I had to do to continue with this process was click the OK button in the lower right corner of Camera Raw. Also, because this placed image appears a bit small when it’s put into the tab, I can grab a corner to stretch it out somewhat.

The final step to place this image is to simply press the Enter key on my keyboard. When I do that, the bounding box will disappear and the new layer will automatically be converted to a Smart Object. And the best part is, because I placed this new layer as an embedded object, I don’t have to concern myself with keeping track of any linked files, which I’ll discuss next. This new layer is actually stored as part of the file I’m working on.

Here, take a look at the Layers panel now. You can see that the top layer is a Smart Object as indicated by that little icon in the lower right corner of the thumbnail.

Placed Embedded Layer in Layers Panel of Photoshop

Placing a Linked File

To start this final example, I’ll clear everything out again so I’m dealing with fresh images. What I’ll do this time is follow the same instructions from the example above, but instead of choosing the Place Embedded menu item, I’ll choose the Place Linked item from the File menu. So basically, I’ll use the File > Place Linked menu item. After the file has been placed in the tab, I’ll press the Enter key on my keyboard and everything will appear the same as before. There’s only one problem with this though and that problem is that the placed layer is tethered to a file that’s stored someplace else, away from the project file I’m currently working on. Meaning, the layer that I just placed isn’t actually going to be saved in the Photoshop file that’s currently open. Personally, I don’t like to work this way.

So why would anyone want to place a linked file into a working file in Photoshop? Well, if the file that they placed is absolutely huge and they didn’t want that hugeness to be counted as part of the file size they’re currently working on, then they’d place it as a linked file. If the placed file is small, then they’d likely just place it as embedded. The reason I don’t like to place linked files is because I move things around on my hard drive all the time. I would never remember that the linked file was linked and after I moved it around, the link would break and my project in Photoshop would be screwed up.

FYI – You can tell if a file is linked by looking at the small icon that’s located at the bottom right of the layer’s thumbnail in the Layers panel. That icon will look like a chain link. This placed linked file will also be placed at a Smart Object.

Changing a Linked File to an Embedded One

Because I don’t like linked files inside of my working Photoshop files, I’m going to switch the linked file to an embedded one in this last section. The process for doing this is super simple. All I’ll need to do is go back to the Rectangular Marquee Tool and right click on the placed file. After I do this, a menu will appear. From that menu, I’ll select the Embed Linked option.

Embed Linked Menu Item

When I do this, the linked object will cease to be linked and it will become embedded in the working file. It’s that easy.

——

I hope I clearly explained how to duplicate layers and copy them to different files. I also hope I clearly explained some various methods for creating Smart Objects and how to change a linked Smart Object to an embedded one. If you have any questions regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


Exploring Slider Effects on Color in Adobe Camera Raw

June 21, 2018

Correcting color in Adobe Camera Raw can get confusing at times. After all, there are a pretty good number of sliders in the Basic panel and in many cases, one slider value effects another area’s appearance. For instance, if you were to increase the value to the Contrast slider, that adjustment would affect how intense the color is in the photograph. The same is true for the Clarity slider. Again, you’d affect the color of the photo. Even warming an image with the Temperature slider can overly saturate a photo. It’s because of this that we need to get a handle on what controls what in this application. The last thing you want to do is get caught in a vicious cycle of pushing sliders around all day, doing and undoing things. When you push one slider, you need to know not only the immediate primary result, but also the secondary. Understanding this type of thing can save a lot of time.

In today’s post, I’ll be working with only a handful of sliders in the Basic panel of Adobe Camera Raw. The primary purpose of this post is to explore the effects of just a few adjustments. I’ll begin with the Clarity slider and then work my way down to Vibrance and Saturation. Then, I’ll head up to Exposure and Contrast. Finally, I’ll work with the Temperature and Tint sliders as an experiment to see how each slider affects the possible position of another.

The Demo Photo

Believe it or not, there are colors hiding in this photo. I know things look pretty dull right now, but by the end of this post, I hope to have some interesting colors shine though.

Rusty Hinge on Old Door

I’m sure you can see the oranges in this image, but can you see the blues? You will by the end of this post. It’s actually those blues that I’ll be focusing on the most.

The Clarity, Vibrance & Saturation Sliders

Since the hinge in this photo is rusty and the nearby wood is somewhat weathered or rotted, I’d like to have some of those details really stand out. After all, they are front and center. The best way to bring out these details is to increase the clarity. With this in mind, I’ll push the Clarity slider to the right until it has a value of +50. If you aren’t aware, the Clarity feature in Adobe Camera Raw adds midtone contrast to an image. It makes things in the image appear sharper then they were when the photo was taken. I use this slider often, but using it does have a side-effect. This side-effect is that clarity can oftentimes reduce the appearance of color saturation. If you think about it, adding midtone contrast is the real culprit here. The way Camera Raw adds this contrast is by slightly darkening the edges it sees in the photo. As you can probably guess, when the edge colors are darkened, they lose some of their color.

The way to deal with this is to simultaneously increase the vibrance and then on top of that, add some saturation. I don’t want to add too much here. I’d like to first compensate for the color loss from the Clarity slider and then add some additional color to make the image stand out.

Here’s a screenshot of these three sliders after I pushed them.

Clarity, Vibrance & Saturation Sliders in Adobe Camera Raw

And here’s the modified image itself.

Photograph with Increased Vibrance, Clarity & Saturation

If you’ll notice, the photo doesn’t look overly colorized at all. I increased the vibrance value to +50 and the Saturation value to +20, which, in my opinion, should have added a lot more color than what we see above. This just goes to show how related these three sliders are. They sort of counter one another.

If you’d like to read more about Vibrance versus Saturation, please click through the link below.

What’s the Difference Between Vibrance & Saturation in Adobe Photoshop?

The Exposure & Contrast Sliders

Since both the Exposure slider and the Contrast slider add color, I’ll have to be careful with what I do with them. I already know that I’m going to be reducing the color in just a moment with a different slider, so I think adding some more color now is fine. Basically, I’d like to add a fair amount of contrast to the image so there’s a good distinction between the light and dark areas, so I’ll push the Contrast slider to the right first until it reaches a value of +50. Then, because I want to brighten up some of the shadows just a hair and also give an all around brightness, I’ll push the Exposure slider to the right until it reaches a value of +0.70.

Exposure & Contrast Sliders in Adobe Camera Raw

Let’s take a look at the resulting image now.

Photo with Increased Exposure & Contrast in Camera Raw

The Temperature & Tint Sliders

Okay, now comes the tricky part. From past experience, I know that adding warmth to an image really adds a lot of color saturation. Obviously, there needs to be some existing reds, yellows and oranges for this effect to be pronounced, but I’m always careful when I move the Temperature slider. In today’s case though, I’d like to reduce the temperature to pull some of the blues out of the left side of the photo I’m working on. These blues weren’t even visible until I moved this slider. The thing is, when I push the Temperature slider to the left, a lot of color saturation is lost in the process. Because of this, I’ll need to increase the value of the Vibrance slider down below again. It’ll take some back and forth, but when it’s all said and done, I’ll have a Temperature value of -10 and a new vibrance value of +70. The increased vibrance will compensate for the lost color from the temperature reduction.

There is one issue though. When I reduce the temperature of this photo, a magenta hue appears over some of the wood. This hue isn’t welcome, so to remove it, I’ll push the Tint slider to the left a bit, just until the magenta disappears. I just did this and ended up with a new Tint value of -15.

New Temperature & Tint Values in Adobe Camera Raw

Now let’s take a look at the final photograph.

Final Edited Photograph

I suppose I could go back and adjust the tint value some more, but for now, I think this looks good. My point with this post was to demonstrate the relationships between some of the sliders in the Basic panel of Adobe Camera Raw. If you move one, you’ll likely need to move another. Also, it’s important to remember that just because you already pushed one slider into a new position, that doesn’t mean that you won’t need to revisit that same slider again down the road.

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I hope I clearly explained how to color adjust a photograph with Adobe Camera Raw (FYI – the same exact principles are true in Adobe Lightroom). I hope I also clearly explained some of how the relationships work between sliders in the same application. If you have any questions regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section down below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Camera Raw


Smoothing Selections with the Color Range Command in Adobe Photoshop

June 19, 2018

There are many methods for selecting something in Adobe Photoshop, but only a few ways to modify a selection once it’s been made. While the more traditional tools are somewhat strict in their usage (but becoming less strict everyday), there are a few, not as frequently used, tools that really should be looked at more closely. One of these selection tools is the Color Range Command and it’s extremely easy to take advantage of. It’s also quite powerful, so let’s not forget about that.

One of the issues I see quite often has to do with having a selection gradually fade out from its origin point. I know that some of the selection tools try to take care of this in their own ways, such as altering the Tolerance values of the Magic Wand Tool and changing the Feather values of the Rectangular Marquee Tool and the like. While I’ll get into some of the limitations of using the Magic Wand Tool below, I do want to mention that we have a tool that’s much more capable in many instances and that’s the one I mentioned above; the Color Range Command. At least for having edges gradually fade out, if that’s the look you’re going for.

In today’s post, I’d like to offer you a few examples of how the Color Range Command can compare to the Magic Wand Tool while selecting some flames at night. For the Color Range Command, I’ll use the Fuzziness slider in an attempt to blend the flames into the background of a layer and for the Magic Wand Tool, I’ll use the Tolerance field. I think this post will give you a good idea of what the differences are between these two tools and will help you decide which one you should use for your projects that require certain outcomes.

Today’s Demo Photo

Here’s a photo of a fire at night. As you can see, there are tons of flames that blend effortlessly into the dark sky.

Fire at Night - Huge Flames

The Issue

Let me ask you something. If someone asked you to select those flames and copy them over to a black background so they looked realistic, do you think you’d be able to do it? I used to attempt things like this with the Magic Wand Tool and my results were, well, let’s just say that you could totally tell that they were copied from somewhere else. While I was able to capture the majority of the content, the edges looked horrible. I’d even try to apply an inner glow to compensate for the lousy gradient, but that didn’t work very well. I sure wish I had known about the Color Range Command.

Changing Colors with Color Range Selection in Adobe Photoshop

Working With the Magic Wand Tool

To kick things off, I think I’ll work with the Magic Wand Tool. Before that though, I’ll head over to the Layers panel and click on the small lock icon that’s in the image layer. Doing this will unlock the layer and will let me create a new layer that I can move underneath the image one. I’ll do that now.

Layers Panel with Two Layers in Adobe Photoshop

I’ll also use the Paint Bucket Tool to pour in the color black. You can see that I’ve done this already in the above screenshot.

Okay, I’m now going to head over to the left toolbar to activate the Magic Wand Tool.

Magic Wand Tool

After that, I’ll move to the options bar up above the image in the workspace and I’ll set the Tolerance value to 100. This tolerance should give the selection a nice spread. After all, I want to select a good portion of the flames. If the tolerance was too low, not enough flame would be selected and if it was too high, the entire image would be selected. Let’s see how 100 does. I’ll click on the center area of the flames now. I’ll also hold the Shift key down on my keyboard and select an unselected area if need to, just to expand the selection.

Selection Made with the Magic Wand Tool in Photoshop

That looks pretty good. Now, I’ll click on the Add Layer Mask icon (after making sure the image layer in the Layers panel is active) at the bottom of the Layers panel to apply a mask. Doing this will keep the selected area visible while hiding anything that wasn’t selected in the image layer. The selected area will appear on the black background.

Masked Area of Flame

That doesn’t look terrible, but it could look better. And really, I could probably make it look a lot better with some tolerance adjustments and some expansion of the selection area. Truth be told, it looks fairly good because it’s on the same color background. What if I wanted to move those flames over to a white background? I’ll use the Paint Bucket Tool again to change black to white. Let’s see how the edges look now.

White Background Flames

Yeah, that’s not looking so hot anymore. So if I did choose to expand the selection with this tool and while it does have the potential to look very good on the same background color, it’s only when I change the background color does the whole thing fall apart. It’s the edges I care about most. The Magic Wand Tool does a great job at selecting, but when it comes to transitioning that selection into the background, it doesn’t do the greatest job. There has to be a better way.

Working with the Color Range Command

There is a better way and it’s by taking advantage of the Color Range Command. Before I get into things though, I do want to tell you that I already wrote a post that talked about the Color Range Command. You can read it by clicking through below.

Changing Colors with Color Range Selection in Adobe Photoshop

I wanted to let you know about this because I’m not going to be covering this process in great detail. I’ll be focusing primarily on the Fuzziness slider below.

Okay, I’ll start this process off with a fresh image. It’s the same one as before, but there will be nothing done to this one. I’ll go ahead and unlock this image layer in the Layers panel and I’ll create a new layer and fill it with black, just as I did with the example above. Next, I’ll go up to the Select > Color Range menu item and click.

Select > Color Range Menu Item

Once I do that, the Color Range dialog box will appear. I’ll keep an eye on the black and white image inside of this dialog while I click on the areas of the flame I’d like selected. If I want to expand my selection, I can again hold down the Shift key on my keyboard and click other areas. I can also click and drag my mouse pointer for even more of a selection.

Color Range Dialog Box in Photoshop

The Color Range Command is rather awesome. What’s really awesome about it though is that it can expand a selection based on luminance values. So, if I wanted to select the most orange flame, but I also wanted to expand that initial selection to some flame that’s not as bright, I could do that. By pushing the Fuzziness slider to the right, I can expand the initial selection to include whatever the value of the slider is in both directions. As you can see in the above screenshot, I pushed the slider to the right so the value reads 100. This means that I’ll have my initial area selected and I’ll also have any area of the image that’s both 100 luminance levels brighter than that area as well as darker than that area. This is what creates the fade I was talking about earlier. The best part of all of this is that Photoshop doesn’t apply a full selection to those additional luminance levels. Those area’s are only partially selected, which offers a blend into the background, towards the edges of the selection.

When I’m happy with the preview inside of the Color Range dialog, I’ll click on the OK button to apply the selection.

Marching Ants in the Color Range Selection

Finally, I’ll go ahead and click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel again. This will mask out anything that’s not selected.

Image Masked Out

This is already looking much better than the example I created with the Magic Wand Tool. I’ll change the background from black to white, for the true test. Here goes.

Color Range Selection with White Background

Yes, this one looks much better, especially up towards the top where the flames fade out into the night. I would never be able to get that transition with the other tool. This is what makes the Color Range Command so powerful. Also, I bet I could get an even better result if I sat here and played around a bit longer, but since this is a tutorial post, I think I’ll leave it at this. I’m sure you get the idea. If you want to experiment on your own, please do. I think you’ll be impressed with the results you can end up with.

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I hope I clearly explained some of the differences between the Magic Wand Tool and the Color Range Command in Adobe Photoshop. What I covered in this post was only the tip of the iceberg, so be sure to stick around for more clarification on all these topics in future posts. If you have any questions regarding what I shared above, please let me know in the comment section down below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop, Selections


Changing Some Basic Crop Tool Settings in Adobe Photoshop

June 17, 2018

Have you ever wondered what the most popular tool in Adobe Photoshop is? It’s the Crop Tool. Isn’t that interesting? I think so. Out of all the fancy things Photoshop can do, the basic task of cropping is what the majority of folks choose to do the majority of the time. I don’t know, I just find that fascinating. I would have guessed the most popular tool would have been one of the selection tools or one of the healing brush tools. Oh well.

There’s a lot to the Crop Tool these days. Back when I first began using Photoshop, I took advantage of the Rectangular Marquee Tool, made a selection around the object I wanted to preserve, visited the Image > Crop menu item, clicked and was done with it. I still use that method sometimes when I want to crop out a certain shape or selection, but those instances are few and far between.

In today’s post, I’d like to visit the Crop Tool and just mess around a bit. I’ll use a photo to experiment with and I’ll attempt to demonstrate some of the functions that are contained within. I’ll also visit the Crop Options area to give you a peek behind what makes this tool tick. Inside of this area, I’ll have the opportunity to revert back to the original Crop Tool (pre Photoshop CS6), show and hide certain aspects of the image I’m cropping and even adjust the opacity of the area outside the crop. This is actually a very powerful tool with tons of bells and whistles, so follow along down below to learn a little something about it.

The Demo Photo

Of course, I needed something to crop, so I decided on a cow in a field. I mean, what else is there? Since the subject is isolated, I think my demonstration will be clear and easy to understand. Here’s the photo.

Bull in a Field

My Previous Post

I’d like to let you know that I’ve already written a pretty good post that covers a lot of what the Crop Tool can do and how it works. If you’re interested, please click through this link below.

Using the Crop Tool in Adobe Photoshop

In my previous post, I talk about the functions of the tool and how to change many of the basic settings. Below, I’d like to focus more on a few areas I haven’t covered before.

What is Cropping – Really?

If you think about it, the act of cropping is really just an isolation of a part of an image. It’s a focus, if you will. You’re attempting to remove anything other than that on which you wish to work. The strange thing is, back in the early 2000s, I was doing what I just explained. I was isolating areas so I could work on them further. I got rid of everything I didn’t want and I continued on with my projects.

Although my process worked most of the time, I did come across a few issues. I can remember cropping something and then doing a bunch of work to an image and after all that work, I’d tell myself how much I wish I had part of the image back. Meaning, I cropped too much out and because of the old method of cropping, those pixels I got rid of were gone forever. Because of this type of thing, I found myself making backup layers (duplicates) of everything I ever wanted to crop. Things got ridiculous after a while.

One of the areas Adobe has focused on in recent years is making various tools non-destructive. All this means is that, in this case, if I were to crop something out of an image, whatever it was that seemingly disappeared was never really gone. It would always be recoverable. I can’t even tell you how much this has helped through the years. No more backup layers for me – well, for this purpose anyway.

Lesson #1

When using the Crop Tool, never delete the cropped pixels. With the tool active, you’ll see a check box up in the options bar. This box is the Delete Cropped Pixels box and by default, it shows as unchecked. I advise that you keep it that way, unless you’re a master user and you really know what you’re doing.

Delete Cropped Pixels Check Box in Adobe Photoshop

If you were to go ahead and check this box, you’d be nullifying many of the advancements this tool offers. You’d really be removing the pixels that aren’t used in your focal area and they wouldn’t be recoverable, ever. That’s not a good thing.

Using Classic Mode

As I said, the Crop Tool has grown up a lot over the past few years. If you’re using versions of Photoshop before CS6, you’ll be using what’s known to us futuristic types as Classic Mode. While there are major differences between the classic mode and this new version of crop, the most visible one is the fact that when you click on the Crop Tool icon in the left vertical toolbar, with this new version, you’ll instantly see the crop border surround the entire image. From there, you’d either pull the border in towards the center to shrink the workable area or out to create a larger work area. With the classic version of this tool, you won’t see the border. To crop, you’ll need to click and drag over the area you’d like to keep. While this old way isn’t terrible, I can tell you that you get used to the new way mighty fast. The new way isn’t bad at all.

If you’re using a newer version of Photoshop (post CS6), you can still use Classic Mode if you want to. To activate it, simply activate the Crop Tool and then click on the Crop Options icon up in the options bar. When you do that, a drop-down will appear and all you’ll need to do is check the first box. This one says, Use Classic Mode.

Use Classic Mode - Crop Tool

From there, you’ll enjoy the older version of the tool.

The Front Image Option

This one is for all of you out there who have tons of photos to work on that all need to be sized to the same dimensions. This type of situation is so common; it makes my head spin when I try to think about the best way to get these types of edits completed.

As an example of how this feature works, I’ll open two images of different dimensions into Photoshop. The first image (the one with the bull) is 5760px x 3740px.

Cow Image Size

The other image I have opened is of a fox. This image’s dimensions are 4928px x 3280px.

Fox Image Size

Both images have a resolution of 300dpi.

Let’s say I wanted to crop the image with the bull in it to the same exact size and resolution of the fox image (or vice-versa). How could I do that? Well, to accomplish this sort of task, I would first click the tab of the image that has the dimensions I desire. In this case, since I want to shrink the bull image to the size of the fox image, I’d click the fox tab so that image is showing in the Photoshop workspace. Then, I’d activate the Crop Tool by clicking on its icon in the left toolbar. After that, I’d head up to the drop-down box and select the Front Image option.

Crop Tool Front Image Option

What this option does is set the image’s dimensions into the Crop Tool fields, as you can see in the above screenshot. To crop the other image to these dimensions, all I would need to do is click the other image’s tab to make that one active in the workspace and then, because the Crop Tool is still active and those same dimensions are still in the options bar (they carried over), double-click with my mouse to initiate the crop. Either that, or I could just press the Enter key on my keyboard. It’s that easy.

Creating a Quick Border

Besides cropping, creating borders around images is a very popular thing to do. I think I’ll cover a really fast method for doing this now.

Most people think about reducing an image’s area when they crop, but I’d like to let you know that you can also extend an image’s area just as easily. There’s no reason you can’t click on one of the crop border handles and pull it outward as opposed to inward. This is just something most people don’t think about doing all that much.

To create a simple border around an image, I’ll first click the small background layer lock icon in the Layers panel. This will unlock the layer. Then, I’ll click the Add New Layer button down at the bottom of the Layers panel. I’ll arrange this new layer so it’s underneath the image layer. This is what the Layers panel will look like after I’m finished with these steps.

Layers Panel with Background Layer

Next, I’ll activate the Crop Tool, head up to the drop-down box in the options bar and select the Ratio option. This option will lock the shape of the crop bounding box into the same ratio as the one the image has.

Finally, I’ll hold down the Alt key on my keyboard, click anywhere on the crop border and drag outward. I’ll drag until I see the border thickness I like. Holding the Alt key forces the crop box to expand from the center of the image, making the border sides equal to one another.

Crop Border

When I’m done with that, I’ll press the Enter key on my keyboard. That will tell Photoshop to accept and apply the new image size.

To fill in the border with a color, I’ll choose a color from the color picker, click on the empty bottom layer in the Layers panel and then use the Paint Bucket Tool to pour the color into the layer. This is how the result will look.

Border Around Photograph

Pretty cool, right? And it didn’t take much effort at all.

Changing Crop Area Opacity

I’m going to show you something now that you most likely never knew existed. First though, I’ll activate the Crop Tool and click and drag some of the corners of this tool so the edges hug the bull in the photo fairly tightly. Take a look at what I did.

Crop Background Opacity

Do you see the area around the crop box? The inside is nice and bright at 100% opacity while the outer area is much dimmer. Right now, 80% of the light in the area around the primary crop box is being hidden, so basically, the outer area is at a 20% opacity. What if that was just too dark for me and I wanted to see the outer area brighter? Or darker? Or the same as the image itself? Well, the opacity value of the outer area is adjustable and I’ll show you right now how to make that adjustment.

I’ll first activate the Crop Tool so the proper options bar appears above the workspace. Then, I’ll click the Crop Options icon again and at the bottom, I’ll click the Opacity slider.

Crop Opacity Slider

If I push the slider to the left, the outer area will remain brighter. If I push it to the right, it will get darker. In this case, I’ll set the Opacity slider so only 25% of the light is being hidden, which will make the outer area brighter. Then, I’ll click and drag the crop edge inward again. Let’s see the difference between this example and the last one.

Brighter Crop Area

See? It’s so easy to change the opacity of this type of thing so you can truly customize your experience while working.

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I hope I clearly showed you some areas surrounding the Crop Tool in Adobe Photoshop that you may not have known about. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


Introducing the Inverse Selection Command in Adobe Photoshop

June 15, 2018

Selecting objects and manipulating those objects is one of the most commons tasks you’ll encounter while working in Adobe Photoshop. Since this type of thing is so common, it’s important that you know the ins and outs of what you can do to speed this process up. Now, I know I’ve touched on this area in the past, but I wanted to take this opportunity to continue on to show you a few more neat little tricks that I maybe haven’t showed you yet.

In today’s post, I’m going to select an object in a photograph using Adobe Photoshop. I’ll then alter the object contained within the selection by taking advantage of an adjustment layer. After that, I’ll reselect the same area and invert it so I can apply a different adjustment to the newly selected area. What I’d like to focus on in this post is the method for reselecting an object and inverting that selection. There are a few ways to go about these things and one can be more helpful over the other, depending on where you are in Photoshop.

Today’s Demo Photo

I chose this photo to use because it’s got an object in it that’s going to be really easy to select. There are clear edges and by using the Quick Selection Tool, I think capturing the house and the dock will take all of five seconds. Take a look.

House & Dock on Water

Selecting the House & Dock

As I said, I’ll use the Quick Selection Tool to select the house and dock, so I’ll head over to the left toolbar to activate this tool right now.

Quick Selection Tool

I’ll size the tool and adjust it so it fits my needs and then I’ll select what needs selecting.

Selecting Objects & Refining Edges in Adobe Photoshop

Selection in Photoshop

Okay, that looks pretty good.

Making an Adjustment

What I’d like to do now is make an adjustment to the house and the dock to, let’s say, brighten them up somewhat or maybe add some contrast. To accomplish this, I’ll head towards the Adjustments panel and click on the Levels icon. Once I do that, the adjustment layer will be created and the Properties panel for that adjustment will open up. Inside that panel, I’ll click the Presets drop-down and then the Increase Contrast 3 option.

Levels Properties Panel with Increase Contrast 3 Option

Adjusting the Background – Reselecting & Inverting

At this point, I’d like to darken the background so the house and dock really stand out. The thing is, by applying the adjustment layer I just applied, I also deselected my selection. To quickly get that selection back without doing any of the work involved, I’ll go up to the Select > Reselect menu item and click.

Select > Reselect Menu Item in Photoshop

Once I do that, my original selection will return. Since I don’t want to adjust the same thing again, but actually the opposite, I’ll go back up to the Select menu item, but this time, I’ll click on the Inverse menu item. This will alter the selection so everything but the house and dock are selected.

Select > Inverse Menu Item

It’s at this point I can apply a new adjustment layer that will darken things down. I think I’ll click on the Exposure icon in the Adjustments panel and then I’ll push the resulting Exposure slider to the left a bit.

Exposure Slider in Properties Panel

Here’s the resulting image.

Final Edited Image

I like the look of the photo, but that’s not the point of this post. The point I wanted to share was how someone can quickly reselect something and then invert that selection.

Fast Tips

You’ll always need to physically make your first selection, so use the proper tool and do it carefully. Once it’s made though, you can use it for a long time. Oftentimes, for the remainder of the project. The keyboard shortcut for reselecting something is Shift+Ctrl+D. If you’d like to invert a selection, you can use a keyboard shortcut for that as well. It’s Shift+Ctrl+I.

Earlier in this post, I mentioned that there are different methods for doing some of these things, depending on where you are in Photoshop. If I was in the Select & Mask workspace, I could easily invert a selection there as well. I’ll enter that workspace now to show you what I’m referring to.

I have an active selection. To enter the referenced workspace, I’ll click the Select and Mask button up in the options bar (this option is only available when a selection tool is active).

Select and Mask Button in Options Bar in Adobe Photoshop

Once the workspace opens up, I’ll see the active selection in white.

Selection Mask in Photoshop

If I went over to the right column, I would see an Invert button. I could click that to invert the selection, making the opposite area now selected.

Invert Button in Select and Mask Workspace

My view would change to this:

Inverted Mask in Photoshop

If I clicked on the OK button located at the bottom right of the workspace, I would return to the regular workspace, where I’d see the marching ants traveling around the larger area of the image. It’s that easy. And that, my friends, is how you can invert a selection quickly and easily.

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I hope I clearly explained the multiple methods for selecting, reselecting and choosing the inverse of a selection in Adobe Photoshop. If you have any questions regarding this post, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop, Selections


Brightening Shadows & Darkening Highlights in Adobe Camera Raw

June 13, 2018

I just couldn’t help it. As I was browsing through photos for my last post, I came across one that would be just perfect to use in this post. It’s a picture of a woman on a beach, facing the sun. The sun is so bright that it’s completely darkening the woman, hiding most, if not all, of her details. Cameras have a tendency to do this in very bright situations because a camera’s dynamic range is limited. It has to choose between offering details in shadows or keeping things not so bright that the entire photo is lost. In the case of this photo, the camera chose to keep the brightness in check, but the result was that the woman’s figure is essentially a silhouette. Luckily, we can fix this.

In today’s post, I’m going to quickly run through two primary sliders that can immensely help in situations like the one in this photo. I’ll use Adobe Camera Raw to brighten the woman, which will reveal her details and I’ll also reduce some of the brightness around the sun. These tips are critical because so many pictures that are taken every single day end up looking like this one below. Either the subject is almost black or the sun is completely blown out. This is what Camera Raw was made for. And by the way, if you’re using Lightroom, you can push the same sliders over there as I do here. Both Camera Raw and Lightroom are essentially identical in this respect.

The Original Image

How many times have you see something that looks like this?

Woman Walking on Beach

I mean, really. Almost every photo ever taken has some issue that reminds me of this picture. It’s so common. It’s a shame really, because this type of thing is so simple to fix. Notice the dark woman and the bright sun.

The Shadows Slider

I have no idea how Camera Raw knows what a shadow is when compared to other dark areas in an image, but it does. And it does a wonderful job of brightening and darkening those shadows on command. Check this out. For this next version of the photo, all I’m going to do is push the Shadows slider all the way to the right, so the value is 100%. In reality, I should probably only go to about 85%, but let’s just play around for a minute.

Shadows Slider in Adobe Camera Raw

I mean, look at this difference. We can now see the woman!

Bright Woman in Beach at Sunset

The Highlights Slider

So that was the Shadows slider. The next most important slider there is in situations like this is the Highlights slider. Because I raised up the shadows, the highlights were slightly brightened as well. This isn’t to say that we didn’t have to deal with their original brightness, but things just got worse. To deal with this, I’m going to push the Highlights slider all the way to the left, so the value is 0%. I pretty much always do this anyway, but because this case is so severe, I’ll make sure to do it.

Highlights Slider in Adobe Camera Raw

Take a look at the difference now.

Reduced Highlights in Photograph

I know things look a bit bland after this last change, but that’s what the rest of Camera Raw’s sliders are for. I can tell right off the bat that the image needs more contrast. Let’s see if I can’t push some additional sliders around to make the photo look the best it can.

The Final Image

Take a look at the Basic panel. I’d say the Whites and Blacks sliders played a critical role in bringing out the contrast I was looking for. A few others were important as well, but not as important as these two.

Basic Panel Sliders in Adobe Camera Raw

Let’s take a look at the final photograph.

Final Edited Photograph

I’d say that looks pretty good. It’s a far cry from the original and all it took was about 30 seconds of moving some sliders. Again, remember that in cases such as this, it’s the Shadows and the Highlights sliders that will save the day.

——

I hope I clearly explained how to deal with a dynamic range that doesn’t capture the entire range of light in a photograph while using Adobe Camera Raw (or Lightroom). If you have any questions regarding this post, please leave them in the comment area below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Camera Raw


Recovering Lost Photograph Details Using Adobe Camera Raw

June 11, 2018

In photography, details are oftentimes lost because of either too much light or too little light in the scene. If there’s too much light, parts of the photo can be washed out looking. If there’s too little light, parts of the photo can be hidden by shadows. If there is both too much and too little light in the same scene, things can get tricky. Oftentimes the details of whatever it is that’s being photographed are still available in the picture, it’s just that they need to be revealed by a talented editor. In general, it’s easier to pull the original scene out of RAW images as opposed to JPEG images because RAW images capture a lot more data than their lower quality counterparts.

Oftentimes, haze, fog, snow or other similar phenomenon has the potential to alter the look of an image. Adobe Camera Raw has done a very good job at combating this type of distraction with their Dehaze tool, but in reality, many other preexisting tools can do a very good job of clarifying what it is you originally took a photo of. And many times, applications like Camera Raw can make a photo looks a lot better than reality.

In today’s post, I’d like to focus on bringing back details to a photo. I have the perfect one in mind too. The image I’ll be working on is almost completely covered in snow, from the ground to the sky. I played around with the image before I began writing this post and I’m fairly happy with how much I was able to restore. For this post, I’ll be using only the Basic panel in Adobe Camera Raw to accomplish my goal. I think you’ll be impressed with the results.

Original Photo

This is the original photo I’ll be working on today. I’m sure you’ll agree that, while looking very interesting as it is, it can use some work in the “recovery of details” department.

House Covered in Snow During Snowstorm

When attempting to determine the look you’re going for, think about this type of photo hanging on a wall somewhere. Would you purchase it? If not, why not? Personally, I’d like to see some more differentiation between the snow on the ground and the darkness of the sky. While I understand that there’s snow everywhere, I wouldn’t want to spend money on something where there’s not enough contrast.

The Histogram

I’ve discussed histograms many times on this site before, so I don’t want to go too far into the topic. What I would like to tell you about is how you can alter the positions of some sliders in the Basic panel by simply clicking and dragging the histogram itself.

Histogram

Take a look at the histogram in the screenshot above. If you look closely, you’ll see a very light vertical band going up and down it’s right side. In Camera Raw, there are five of these bands contained in the histogram and each one controls a different slider in the Basic panel (you can see the bands by simply rolling over the histogram with your mouse). If I were to click and drag this currently active band to the left or to the right with my mouse pointer, I’d be moving the Highlights slider down below. From left to right (darker to lighter), these bands control the Blacks, Shadows, Exposure, Highlights and Whites of the image. It’s important to take advantage of the histograms in cases such as the one I’m up against today because it can reveal glaring situations. As you can see, I have a highlights and whites issue. The entire histogram is slanted towards that side. Since this image is mostly dark sky, believe it or not, I’d like to see the histogram leaning much more the other way. Not all the way, but more than it is now. I need to darken that sky.

Balancing the Histogram

My first goal is to balance out the histogram, which shouldn’t be much of an issue. To accomplish this, I’ll click and drag each section of it until I see more of a uniform curve. Here’s the result of this effort.

Balanced Histogram in Adobe Photoshop

This is the resulting photo after this first change.

First Photograph Edit in Photo Editor

This first change, in my mind, was merely a correction. Now that this is completed, I think the photo looks much better, but can still use more in the way of making it actually look good. This is where I like to push the limits. By the way, by balancing out the histogram, the only sliders that moved more than slightly were the Exposure and the Blacks. Both moved to the left to lessen the brightness and to add black, respectively.

Making Further Changes

As I go about pushing the sliders in the Basic panel, I have to keep in mind that as I push one, I may need to push another in the opposite direction. For example, I just mentioned that by clicking and dragging the histogram, the Exposure slider was nudged to the left to lessen the overall brightness of the image. Well, from experience, I know that moving the Highlights slider far to the left results in a gain of detail in brighter images. The thing is, when I push that Highlights slider, the overall picture becomes too harsh looking. It’s only when I increase the exposure that things look more normal. So the point is, there’s give and take with this process. Don’t become rigid during it and don’t think anything is ever set in stone.

As it turns out, I ended up increasing the warmth a bit by pushing the Temperature slider slightly to the right for a value of +5. I also reduced the Exposure, increased the Contrast, reduced the Highlights, increased the Shadows, increased the Whites and decreased the Blacks. I also increase both the Clarity and Dehaze. And after all of that, I increased the Vibrance slightly as well. Here’s a quick view of the Basic panel sliders (I took this screenshot before I moved the Vibrance slider).

Basic Panel Sliders in Adobe Camera Raw

This is the final image.

Final Image

I think that looks a lot better. I like the way there’s distinction between the field and the sky now and I also like the way I can see the snow blowing around in the atmosphere. In my opinion, I’d much prefer this image hanging on my wall than the original.

——

I hope I clearly explained how to use Adobe Camera Raw to increase the clarity of an image while attempting to recover details. If you have any questions regarding this post, please let me know in the comment section down below. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Development Tagged With: Camera Raw

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