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Graphic & Photo Design Tips, Tutorials & Techniques

The design section includes posts and articles that cover tips, tutorials and best practices for various areas of web design on the internet today. Also discussed is print design for offline media. Discussion includes fundamental and moderately advanced topics in the worlds of brand identity, graphic design, photo manipulation, typography and more. Additional topics include how to effectively manage website layout, e.g. mobile and tablet interface, responsive website design as well as coverage of online communities that assist with the design profession.

How to Create a Freehand Vignette in Adobe Photoshop

July 18, 2016

How to Create a Freehand Vignette in Adobe Photoshop

Among the next few posts, I’ll be writing about how to work on portraits in Adobe Photoshop. It’s important to realize that very few (if any at all) portrait photos are released into the wild without being touched. Oftentimes, they’re edited in Photoshop in such a way that accentuates specific areas of the image. In the posts that I write on this topic, I’ll begin with the outer edges of a portrait of a young girl and move in towards her primary focal point – her eyes. Since this is a multi-step process, I decided to break this serious up into multiple posts.

In today’s post, I’ll demonstrate how to begin editing a photo like this. While this type of work isn’t terribly challenging, it does require a good eye and some knowledge of the basic necessary steps. More precisely, I’ll be creating a very light and subtle vignette that encapsulates the model’s face, again, working in from the edges of the photo.

Original Photo

Below is the original portrait photo. The difference between it and the final photo won’t be very noticeable at all, and that’s the point. Drawing in someone’s eyes is a delicate maneuver and must be completed in a way that’s inviting as opposed to abrupt.

Original Portrait Photo

Creating a New Layer

Since my goal is to darken the edges of this portrait while leaving the model’s face alone, I’ll need a new layer. I wouldn’t want to touch the original layer because if I did, it would be awfully challenging to undo anything I might want to change in the future. By creating a new layer and working in that layer to make my changes, I’m creating an environment that’s called non-destructive. At any point, I could simply delete the top layer to start everything over from the beginning. Think about it like covering a car with clear plastic wrap and then painting it. It will look nice, but if you wanted to paint the car a different color, all you’d need to do is pull off the wrap.

Creating a new layer today is going to be a bit different than way I’ve done it in the past on this blog. While I normally move down to the bottom of the Layers panel and just click the Create New Layer icon, I’m going to add one more step to the process for this project. Before I click the icon, I’m going to press and hold the Alt key on my keyboard (Option on Mac). Doing so will open a small dialog box.

New Layer Dialog Box in Adobe Photoshop

This box is called the New Layer dialog. Inside it, there are a few options. I’ll only be taking advantage of three today.

First, I’m going to name the new layer. Since I’ll be creating a vignette, I’ll call it Vignette. Second, I’ll click Soft Light in the Mode drop-down.

Soft Light Mode Drop-Down in New Layer Dialog Box in Adobe Photoshop

Finally, I’ll check the box that says Fill With Soft Light Neutral Color (50% Gray).

Fill With Soft Light Neutral Color 50% Gray in New Layer Dialog Box in Adobe Photoshop

You may be asking yourself why I did all this. Well, let’s take a look at Adobe’s description of the Soft Light blending mode:

Darkens or lightens the colors, depending on the blend color. The effect is similar to shining a diffused spotlight on the image. If the blend color (light source) is lighter than 50% gray, the image is lightened as if it were dodged. If the blend color is darker than 50% gray, the image is darkened as if it were burned in. Painting with pure black or white produces a distinctly darker or lighter area, but does not result in pure black or white. Source.

Since my goal is to burn the edges of this portrait, this should work out perfectly.

Burning the Edges

Before I begin anything else, let’s take a look at my Layers panel.

Layers Panel in Adobe Photoshop

As you can see, I have the background (original image) layer as well as a new solid gray layer that has a blend mode applied to it. Now, just to let you know, I could have gone about creating this new layer a multitude of ways, but the method I used is the most simple.

The oddest thing about what I currently have going on is that the top gray layer is virtually invisible. That’s only because the Soft Light blend mode is applied. If I turned that mode off and back to Normal, the image would be hidden by the layer.

Remember, when using this blend mode along with a solid gray layer, all I need to do to darken, or burn, an area of an image is to paint it black. To lighten it, or dodge, I’d similarly paint it white. Since I want to darken, I’ll select my Brush Tool, choose a preset brush and make sure my color picker is set to pure black.

The goal here is subtlety. I don’t want any burning to be very noticeable. For this step of the project, all I want to do is to draw the viewer’s eye towards the face. Because of this requirement, I’m going to move the opacity of my brush to 25% up in the options bar.

Reduced Brush Opacity in Options Bar in Adobe Photoshop

If I kept the opacity at 100%, the burn would be far too harsh.

Finally, with my brush size, shape, edge softness and opacity set, I can begin painting anywhere in the image that I don’t want attention drawn to. Basically, this means everything but the model’s skin.

How to Create a Freehand Vignette in Adobe Photoshop

Now let’s take a look at the Layers panel.

Painted Layer with Brush Tool in Adobe Photoshop

As you can see, I now have a vignette that surrounds the girl’s face.

While the change isn’t dramatic and you may be thinking I’m crazy right now, there surely is a change. Take a look at the next photo.

Half Dark Half Light Portrait Photo

I’d say that’s enough for this step of the process. For each future step, I’ll be linking back to this post as well as placing links in this post to the future ones.

Please click below for the following parts of this post:

Brightening Eyes with the Curve Adjustment in Adobe Photoshop

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If you’ve enjoyed today’s post and found it helpful, please share it with a friend. Also, if you’d like to continue learning and would like our posts sent directly to your email inbox, simply sign up for our newsletter. We’ll send each and every post directly to you. Thanks!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


How To Create Custom Brushes in Adobe Photoshop

July 16, 2016

How To Create Custom Brushes in Adobe Photoshop

If you’re anything like me, you probably didn’t even know you could make custom brushes in Adobe Photoshop. Unless you’re an artist or graphic designer, brushes most likely haven’t played a large role in your use of the application. Every now and then, though, we all need to reach for that Brush Tool. Whether it be to work with masks or to color something in, we generally choose one of Photoshop’s presets.

Here’s a scenario: what if we needed a specific type of brush for a project we’re working on and it wasn’t available as a preset? What would we do? We certainly couldn’t just whip one up out of thin air – or could we?

In today’s post, I’m going to talk about how we can create custom brushes in Photoshop. In all honesty, you can probably put a very simple one together in about three steps. It’s when you have to meet certain specifications that things become more complex. Not crazy complex, but a familiarity of certain panels is definitely in order.

Creating a Custom Brush – The Simple Method

There really are only a few steps necessary to create a custom brush. In this section, I’ll cover the fastest method.

Create a New Document

The very first thing I need to do is to create a new white document. To accomplish this, I’ll head up to the File > New menu item and click. From there, I’ll set the document to 1000 pixels wide by 667 pixels high. Also, I’ll set the dpi to 72 because this is for web, not print (that would be 300 dpi or higher). Now, I want you to know that these settings aren’t important. I merely chose them because this is the size I usually work with while making screenshots for this blog. It’s also the same ratio of a normal photograph. Please feel free to choose any settings you’d like, as long as the document is large enough to work inside of.

Change the Workspace

Next, I’m going to change my workspace to one that’s more conducive to working with brushes. Luckily, Photoshop has such a workspace already preset into the application. To change it, all I need to do is head to the upper-right corner and click the drop-down box. From there, I’ll select Painting.

Painting Preset Workspace in Adobe Photoshop

This workspace places the Brush Presets panel on the right side and in clear view, above the Layers panel. It also makes the Brush panel easily clickable in the vertical toolbar that sits just to the left of that.

Create a New Layer

This step is easy. I’ll move to the Layers panel and click the New Layer icon that sits at the bottom. This will create a new empty layer.

Creating a New Layer in Adobe Photoshop

Draw a Brush

This is where we begin to get into the meat of this project. If you think about it, brushes are just drawings. If I draw a happy face, I can save that as a brush and stamp happy faces everywhere. I can do the same thing with a simple circle or a few straight lines. To keep things as basic as possible in this section, I’ll draw some lines with one of the Brush Presets Photoshop offers. I’ll do this in the new empty layer. Also, I’ll make sure I’m drawing in black.

Sample Brush in Adobe Photoshop

Save the Brush as a Preset

Now that I’ve got my brush drawn, I can save it to the Brush Preset panel. To accomplish this, all I need to do is to head up to the Edit > Define Brush Preset menu item and click.

Edit Define Brush Preset Menu Item in Adobe Photoshop

Once I click that menu item, I’ll be presented with a Brush Name dialog box that asks me to name the brush. In this case, I’ll name it Jay’s Sample Brush and then I’ll click OK.

Brush Name Dialog Box in Adobe Photoshop

Finding the Custom Brush Preset

Basically, I’ve created the custom brush. To use it, all I need to do is take a look around the Brush Preset panel and find it. In this case, since I just created it, it’s still sitting at the bottom of the list of presets.

New Brush Created in Photoshop

I can create a new document, change the size of the brush and start drawing with it as I please.

Sample Brush Strokes in Adobe Photoshop

Deleting or Renaming a Brush Preset

As you may have noticed, the brush I made has a few issues. Perhaps it would be good for some use, but honestly, it’s not very effective for anything I can think of. Due to this, I’d like to delete it.

To delete or rename of brush preset, all I need to do is to right-click on it in the Brush Presets panel. Once I do this, a popup box will appear with two instructions. Rename Brush and Delete Brush.

Delete or Rename a Brush Preset in Adobe Photoshop

If you look closely at the above screenshot, you’ll see that the Rename Brush… option has three dots after it. That means that there will be some sort of dialog box that opens after you select it. In this case, it’ll be a Rename dialog. The Delete Brush option doesn’t have this. If I click that option, the brush will disappear (after I click OK).

Creating a Custom Brush – The Complex Method

You have to admit, creating a new brush preset is pretty easy. All you need to do is draw something and then save it. The issue with this is that there certainly isn’t a lot of thought that goes into this type of thing. As I mentioned above, there will usually be some sort of requirements that come along with making a new brush. In this section, we’ll explore the Brush panel to see how we can add some extra flavor to a new brush preset.

Adding Spacing & Jitter

My goal with this section is to make a brush that’s actually interesting. And one that might work well for a specific project. While this is merely an example, this is how you would go about doing something like this in real life.

The first thing I’m going to do is open the Brush panel. If you remember back, the shortcut for this is in the vertical tool bar that’s next to the right column.

Next, I’m going to select a random round brush preset. This is my starting point. I’ll size it so it’s easily workable and then head down to the Spacing slider and set it to 50%.

Brush Spacing Slider in Adobe Photoshop

I’ll draw a sample line with the brush set like this in the document. I’ll show that sample in a bit.

Next, I’ll click the Shape Dynamics checkbox in the left column of the Brush panel. This will offer many more options to choose from and alter. Right now, what I’m concerned with is Size Jitter. I’ll bring that all the way up to 100%. I’ll draw a sample line with the brush set like this as well.

Changing Size Jitter Brush Setting in Adobe Photoshop

If you take a look at the above screenshot, you’ll see that the left sample line has uniformly sized dots while the one on the right has varying sized dots. This is what the Size Jitter setting changes – the sizing and randomness of the paint dabs.

Changing Opacity

Now that I’ve got some good spacing and jitter in the brush which makes it much more interesting than regular lines, I can move onto another dimension – opacity. To shake up and randomize the opacity of each brush stroke or paint dab, I’ll click on the Transfer check box in the left column of the Brush panel. After that, I’ll click in the top drop-down box and choose Pen Pressure. When I do this, a small warning triangle appears telling me that I need to use a pressure sensitive drawing pad to experience different opacity while drawing, but I’m going to ignore that. Even without that piece of equipment, I’ll get some different opacities in my lines.

Brush Pen Pressure Opacity in Adobe Photoshop

Now, just to let you know, what I’ve got here is a fairly interesting brush that’s well worthy of saving like we already did above. I don’t want to do that just yet though because I’ve got bigger plans.

The next thing I’m going to do is to draw something like I did in my first example above. I want individual lines that will act as strokes. To do this, I’ll draw another picture, but this time, I’ll use this new brush that I’ve set up. I’ll also use random sizing as I draw. Here’s what it looks like.

Random Brush Design in Adobe Photoshop

Next, I’ll save this as a brush preset like I did above and this time, I’ll call it Jay’s Random Brush.

Let’s see what this brush looks like if I paint with it.

Sample Random Custom Brush Strokes in Adobe Photoshop

This looks pretty good. It’s interesting, to say the least. There are a few more things I’d like to experiment with though.

Changing Direction

Let’s pretend that I wanted to use this brush so it showed horizontal strokes instead of vertical ones. How would I do that? Well, if I go back into the Brush panel and click on Brush Tip Shape in the left column, I’ll see where I can change the direction of the brush itself. If I click inside the Angle area, I can change 0 degrees to 90 degrees and my brush will turn sideways.

Setting Brush Angle in Adobe Photoshop

Following the Direction

If I wanted to go one step further and have my new brush follow the direction in which I’m painting, I can do that too. This would make things much more realistic. To accomplish this, I’ll click on Shape Dynamic in the left column again and then click on the drop-down box that’s right below the Angle Jitter slider. Inside that box, I’ll select Direction.

Setting Brush Fluid Direction in Adobe Photoshop

As you can see, the brush now acts much more like a real live one.

At this point, I can save the brush again and name it as something else. I’ve changed many settings to add to what I originally saved, so it’s definitely worth it to retain all that work.

I’m going to stop here. I think I’ve demonstrated how simple or complex it can be to create a custom brush in Photoshop. I’ll be writing many more posts on this topic, so stay tuned. Thanks!

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If you’ve enjoyed today’s post and found it helpful, please share it with a friend. Also, if you’d like to continue learning and would like our posts sent directly to your email inbox, simply sign up for our newsletter. We’ll send each and every post directly to you. Thanks!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


How to Stretch an Image Using Content-Aware Scale in Adobe Photoshop

July 13, 2016

How to Stretch an Image Using Content-Aware Scale in Adobe Photoshop

Take a look at the above photo. Do you see anything strange about it? Anything wrong that jumps out at you? Don’t worry if you don’t. I don’t either. That’s the power of a pretty awesome feature in Adobe Photoshop that’s called Content-Aware Scale.

Content-Aware Scale is a tool that allows you to scale a photo within Photoshop without the harmful effects of distorting people, buildings, animals and more. It helps to preserve proportion when scaling smaller as well as filling in empty areas when scaling larger. When you use this feature, Photoshop focuses its efforts on pixels that don’t play a large role in the photo. Ask me how it does this and I’ll tell you it’s magic. I wish I knew the secrets that are hidden inside the Adobe lab.

To read more, please take a look at Adobe’s page: Content-Aware Scaling

In today’s post, I’m going to extend a photo that originally has a drink set off to one side. Here, take a look:

Original Photo of Drink on Beach

My goal for today is to center the drink in the photo without reducing its size at all.

I know that the first step most folks would take in a situation like this is to crop the photo smaller so the drink sits at the center. The thing is, what if we didn’t want to lose any sand or sky area? What if we didn’t want to cause the drink to appear larger? In cases like these, simple cropping wouldn’t work. That’s where Content-Aware Scale comes in.

Cropping Outward

I want to give you a word of warning before I begin today’s tutorial. When using this feature in Photoshop, you need to be careful. The best results occur in photos that have larger open areas that are conducive to manipulation. I played around with another photo before I settled on this beach scene and didn’t have half as much luck. The was a road in the photo and when I attempted to enlarge it, it warped in an obvious way. If you have images of fields, skies, beaches or anything that can be enlarged gracefully, you should achieve very good results.

To begin working on the photo, I’ll open it in Photoshop and then select the Crop Tool from the left vertical toolbar. As of today, it’s the 5th tool from the top. You can either select it from the toolbar or simply click C on your keyboard.

I’ll then select the image with the tool so it looks like this.

Crop Tool in Adobe Photoshop

After that, I’ll take a look at the drop-down box in the Crop options bar that sits along the top of the workspace when the Crop Tool is activated. I’ll make sure I have the appropriate setting chosen. If you aren’t comfortable with cropping in Adobe Photoshop, please take a look at these posts. I wrote them a while back and they do a good job of covering most of what you need to know on the topic:

Using the Crop Tool in Adobe Photoshop

How to Crop a Photo to an Exact Size & Resolution in Adobe Photoshop

Next, I’ll click inside the image somewhere and drag it to the left until the drink is centered in the photo.

Dragging Image with Crop Tool in Adobe Photoshop

After that, I’ll either double-click or hit Enter on my keyboard to actually crop the image. What I have left is exactly what you’re looking at above, minus the Crop Tool outlines.

Selecting Part of the Image

The next step is to try to select as much of the photo that’s similar to the area I’d like the empty part to look like. In other words, in the photo I’m currently working on, I would like the empty area to look like sky, water and sand. I don’t want any part of the drink in it. So, I’ll use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select everything on the right side of the drink.

Selection Made by Rectangular Marquee Tool in Adobe Photoshop

Content-Aware Scale

Here comes the best part. The magic, if you will. Now that I have the proper area selected, I can head up to the Edit > Content-Aware Scale menu item and click.

Content-Aware Scale Menu Item in Adobe Photoshop

Once I do that, I’ll notice that the selected area stays selected, but has some Free Transform handles applied to it. If I click the center-right handle and drag the transformation to the right so it matches up with the edge of the photo, things will start looking good.

Content-Aware Scale Transform in Adobe Photoshop

From here, all I need to do it hit Enter on my keyboard to apply the transformation and then go up to the Select > Deselect menu item and click to remove the marching ants. And that’s it. I’m done.

How to Stretch an Image Using Content-Aware Scale in Adobe Photoshop

Looks pretty good, doesn’t it? I don’t think anyone would ever guess that this photo was edited.

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If you’ve enjoyed today’s post and found it helpful, please share it with a friend. Also, if you’d like to continue learning and would like our posts sent directly to your email inbox, simply sign up for our newsletter. We’ll send each and every post directly to you. Thanks!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


How to Use the Auto Mask Feature in Adobe Camera Raw

July 9, 2016

How to Use the Auto Mask Feature in Adobe Camera Raw

Remember back when I wrote the post that covered the Magnetic Lasso Tool in Adobe Photoshop? In that post, I talked about how the tool in question sort of “snaps” to the edge of an object. What I mean is that, after you select the Magnetic Lasso Tool and begin tracing an outline, the selection will adhere to that outline, as long as it’s distinct enough. Well, as it turns out, Camera Raw has something similar in its arsenal of tools. In this case, it’s called Auto Mask.

Before you continue on with this post, I want you to read something. I think it would benefit you if you headed back in time a few months and took a look at a post I wrote where I discussed the Adjustment Brush Tool in Adobe Camera Raw. In order to get the most from the tutorial I write below, you need to know how the tool actually works.

If you’ve already read that post or if you’re familiar with the Adjustment Brush, please read on.

Today’s post is simple. I’m merely going to use an example photo to demonstrate how you can make adjustments inside Camera Raw that are more controlled than they’d be without the use of the Auto Masking feature. Everything I show you below can be accomplished without Auto Masking, just as every selection can be made without the use of the Magnetic Lasso Tool in Photoshop. The thing is, if you want to keep your sanity and complete a project within a reasonable amount of time, you may want to take advantage of the tools that make life more pleasurable. This is definitely one of them.

The Adjustment Brush

In this demonstration, I’m going to alter the painted stripes on the road in some way. I’m doing this for no other reason than to show you exactly how the Auto Mask feature works. Please don’t take any of my modifications to heart – they are going to look awfully silly.

The first thing I’m going to do is to select the Adjustment Brush (keyboard shortcut – K) from the top toolbar.

Adjustment Brush Button Icon in Adobe Camera Raw

Next, I’m going to head over to the new Adjustment Brush panel that appears at the right side of the application. I’ll click the small menu that’s located directly to the right of the panel title and then select Reset Local Correction Settings. Usually, this panel holds all the settings of the last use and most of the time, those settings aren’t what you want to continue working with. By resetting them, all adjustment sliders become zeroed out.

Reset Local Correction Settings in Adjustment Brush Panel in Adobe Camera Raw

Now, for demonstration purposes, I’ll push the Exposure slider all the way to the left. Once I do this, anything I touch with the Adjustment Brush will turn very dark. I’ll also add a slight Feather to the brush and size it by using the left [ and right ] bracket keys on my keyboard.

What I’m going to do here is attempt to color in the lines on the road by painting with my adjustment brush. Let’s see how things turn out the traditional way.

Painting with the Adjustment Brush in Adobe Camera Raw

Wow. As you can see, I went outside the lines quite a bit. If the area I was trying to paint wasn’t so detailed, I may have gotten away with it. Unfortunately, there are curves, nooks and crannies which made me look like a five year old. I certainly wouldn’t be able to show this to anyone.

Auto Mask

For this next demonstration, I’ll turn on the Auto Masking mode. To do this, I’ll scroll all the way to the bottom of the right Adjustment Brush panel and check off the box to the left of the words, Auto Mask.

Auto Mask Check Box in the Adjustment Brush Panel in Adobe Camera Raw

By the way, I deleted my previous edit.

Now, I’ll do the same thing as I just did above. I’ll try to paint in the lines on road with the Adjustment Brush. Let’s see what happens.

Painting in Auto Mask Mode in Adobe Camera Raw

Do you see the difference? As I painted in Auto Mask mode, my paint clung to the inside of the area I was painting. This is why I compared this tool to the Magnetic Lasso Tool in Photoshop. It sort of does the work for you.

When using the Adjustment Brush in Auto Mask mode, it’s important to focus on the crosshairs at the center of the brush. Where the adjustment goes depends on where those crosshairs are. Also, a word of warning – any time you use the Auto Mask mode, there really needs to be some defined edges to work inside of. I experimented in areas with fuzzy edges and the effect was terrible. In the case of the lines of the road I worked with above, Auto Mask was perfect. I can’t think of a better solution.

Making Further Adjustments

As usual, now that I colored an area with the Adjustment Brush, I can go into the associated panel and make any adjustments I’d like. In this case, instead of decreasing exposure, I’ll push the sliders around in a way that I normally would if I were editing a photo.

Normal Edit Photo Slider Settings

This is especially helpful if I wanted to isolate and edit a specific area of a photo.

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If you’ve enjoyed today’s post and found it helpful, please share it with a friend. Also, if you’d like to continue learning and would like our posts sent directly to your email inbox, simply sign up for our newsletter. We’ll send each and every post directly to you. Thanks!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Camera Raw


How to Arrange Layers in Adobe Photoshop

July 5, 2016

How to Arrange Layers in Adobe Photoshop

I’ll start this post off by telling you that my favorite aunt is a very talented illustrator. She’s been drawing and painting for years. I can remember back to when I was a young boy sitting in one of those Radio Flyer wagons, waiting for her to finish painting a picture of me. Believe it or not, I have that picture hanging on the wall not more than ten feet from where I’m sitting right now. She stood on my grandmother’s walkway with her easel and paint and I sat on the edge of the road in the wagon. My legs were so short they didn’t even touch the ground.

Aunt Ruthanne emailed me yesterday and asked for my assistance. She recently set up an Instagram page that shows off some of her illustrations. If you’d like to take a look at those, please feel free. I’m sure she’d be thrilled to share something she’s so passionate about with those who appreciate such things.

Anyway, her goal is to take five illustrations and merge them into one document using Adobe Photoshop. The issue is, while she has the illustration part down pat, she’s relatively new with Photoshop. This is where I come into play. She requested that I write up a tutorial that talks about how to accomplish her goal. I’m more than happy to help.

In today’s post, I’m going to take the five files that Aunt Ruthanne sent over to me last night and take a step by step approach to putting each of these in a new document, cropping them and arranging them so they make sense. Hopefully by the end of this post, I’ll have something that looks like the lead-in image up top.

Creating a New Document

The first thing I’m going to do (after launching Photoshop) is create a new document. To do this, I’ll head up to the File > New menu item and click. From there, the New dialog box will appear.

New Dialog Box in Adobe Photoshop

I’ll set the width to 1000 pixels, the height to 667 pixels and the resolution to 72 dpi. The reason I chose these dimensions is because they are what I use for this blog. The ratio is that of a regular photograph taken with a DSLR camera and the resolution is what’s used for the web. If I were creating this image for print, all this would change.

When I’m finished with this, I’ll click OK and a new tab will appear. Now, regarding these tabs, you may see some additional ones in my screenshots for this post. Just ignore those. I’m currently using them for the previously mentioned screenshot. If you’re following along, you should only have one tab open in Photoshop at the moment.

Opening the Illustration Files into Photoshop

The next thing I’m going to do is open all five illustrations into Photoshop. I’ll head up to the File > Open menu item and click.

File Open Menu Item in Adobe Photoshop

When I select this menu item, I’ll be presented with the screen that navigates Windows. I’ll find the files, select all of them at once and then hit Open down at the bottom right of the dialog box. This will open all five illustrations in the same workspace in Photoshop. At this point, you should have a total of six tabs. One blank one and five illustrations.

Need a refresher on tabs? Check out my posts on the topic.

How To Arrange the Tabs in Your Photoshop Workspace

Tips For Tabs & Guides in Adobe Photoshop

Making Uniform Illustration Heights

This is the section where the fun begins. Since I now have all five illustrations open in Photoshop, I can start looking more closely at them. To see what I’m dealing with, I’ll click the Image > Image Size menu item from the top navigation bar.

Image Size Menu Item in Adobe Photoshop

When I do this, the Image Size dialog box appears. I’ll take a look at the height dimension for all five files to see if they match.

Image Size Dialog Box in Adobe Photoshop

It appears that they don’t. If they did and if each drawing was centered the same way all the others were, I could do some batch processing. Since each file is wider or taller than the others, I’ll need to work on them one at a time. The first thing I need to do is trim each image.

Cropping the Illustrations

In the final composition, I want some white space above the head and below the feet of each model. I’ll keep this in mind when I’m cropping.

To crop each image, I’ll first set up some guides. To do this, I’ll click inside the top ruler and drag the guide down so it sits where I’d like to crop from. If you aren’t familiar with using guides, please scroll down to the Setting Guides section of this post. I explain everything there.

Setting Guides in Adobe Photoshop

I’ll set guides like this for each illustration.

Next, I’ll select the Rectangular Marquee Tool from the left vertical toolbar.

Rectangular Marquee Tool in Adobe Photoshop

In the top options bar, I’ll be sure the Style drop-down box says Normal. Then, I’ll click and drag the marquee so it’s lined up with the guides and the edges of the image.

Marching Ants in Adobe Photoshop

In the above screenshot, please notice the small dashed lines that surround the area of the image I’ll be cropping.

After that, I’ll head up to the Image > Crop menu item and click on it.

Image Crop Menu Item in Adobe Photoshop

Once I click Crop, everything outside those marching ants (dashed lines) will disappear. I’ll be left with this:

Cropped Illustration

To remove the marching ants and deselect the image, I’ll go to the Select > Deselect menu item and click. Then, I’ll move on to the remaining four illustrations and do the same thing. I’ll crop them the same way I did above.

Resizing the Illustrations

Since the output file will be 667 pixels high, I need to resize each illustration so it’s the same height. Resizing is simple. All that needs to be done is for me to click on the Image > Image Size menu item again and to set the Height dimension to 667. When finished, I’ll click OK. This will reduce the image size so it matches the output file’s dimensions. I’ll do this for all five illustrations.

NOTE: If you look inside the red circle in the screenshot below, you’ll notice that a small chain link is highlighted. Make sure yours is too. This locks the image ratio so things don’t end up all squeezed and weird looking.

Reducing Image Size in Adobe Photoshop

After resizing, the images will look rather small on your screen. To enlarge them to their 100% size, simply click Ctrl + on your keyboard. Do this until you see 100% in each tab for each file.

Cropping Again

Since I know that the final image will be 1000 pixels wide and that I have five illustrations to fit in the final file, I’ll do a bit of math. 1000 divided by 5 is 200. So, each of these illustrations now needs to be cropped to 200 pixels wide. This is really easy to do as well.

Again, I’ll go over to the left toolbar and click on the Rectangular Marquee Tool. This time though, I’ll make a change to the Style drop-down in the options bar up top. I’ll choose Fixed Size. Once I do that, a few more fields will appear. Inside the Width field, I’ll type 200 px and inside the Height field, I’ll type 667 px.

Rectangular Marquee Fixed Size Options Bar in Adobe Photoshop

Now when I click inside one of the illustrations to crop, a fixed size square will appear. To nudge it up, down, right and left, I’ll use the arrow keys on my keyboard. When I get the square into position, I’ll go back to the Image > Crop menu item and click. This is what I’ve ended up with:

Cropped Image with Guides and Marching Ants

Again, I’ll deselect the Rectangular Marquee Tool. And again, I’ll crop all five illustrations this way.

Arranging the Layers Inside the Final Image File

At this point in the project, I have five identically sized layers (images) that are located in five different tabs. What I need to do now is drag each layer over to the final file tab. To do this, I’ll need to go to the Layers panel in each illustration tab, click the layer and drag it up to the tab of the final image. Without letting go, I need to drag the layer down into the workspace of the final image and then let go. I need to do this for each of the five illustrations.

Once the layers are all in the same file, I can begin arranging them. If I go to the View > Snap menu item, each layer will snap into place much easier than if I didn’t use that feature.

View Snap Menu Item

I’ll be sure to select the Move Tool (the top tool in the left vertical toolbar) to move the layers around. And if I take a look at the Layers panel, this is what it looks like with all the illustration layers in it:

Layers Panel

Once the layers are arranged the way I want them, I can save out the file.

Saving the File

Now that the project is basically finished, I’d like to save the file so I can email it or use it online. To do this, I’ll go up to the File > Export > Save For Web menu item and click. When I do this, the Save For Web dialog box will appear.

Export Save For Web Dialog Box

I’ll choose JPEG as the file type and 50% for the Quality. Then, I’ll click on Save and browse to the area on my computer I’d like to output the image.

And that’s it. I think this looks much more challenging than it is. I swear that if I timed myself to do something like this, it would take no longer than 2 minutes. If there are any areas you get hung up on, please ask in the comments section below. There are bound to be questions and by the time I get them, my fingers will be ready to type very clear and thorough answers. Thanks!

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Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


How to Open a File in Photoshop Directly From Adobe Bridge

July 3, 2016

How to Open a File in Photoshop Directly From Adobe Bridge

There aren’t many things I find more satisfying in life than working with my favorite trio of Adobe applications. The three I’m referring to are Bridge, Camera Raw and Photoshop. The smoothness between them is remarkable and the workflow unparalleled. Really – this is the best it’s ever been. I can say this from experience, since I’ve been working with Photoshop for over 18 years.

I can remember back to the good old days when my favorites were Photoshop, ImageReady and the absolute best animation program called LiveMotion. Boy, I miss LiveMotion. Of course, this was before Adobe acquired Macromedia – I had to learn a bunch of other things then. One example of what I’m referring to is Macromedia Flash. I took up the challenge and purchased the fattest Flash manual on the market. It took me one month of studying, but I can tell you that after that month, there weren’t many folks who could touch my skills. All of this because my then boss wanted one of those fancy website navigation bars to run across the top of our site. But hey, I learned Flash, which was pretty cool.

I bring all this up because with all the recent changes Adobe has been making to their suite of products, we’re now spoiled more than we’ve ever been. And since we’re so spoiled, I thought I’d catch up on some of the more interesting workflow features that are offered to us and demonstrate how a few of my favorite products work seamlessly together. With that said, I’m going to be including some of these more advanced posts into the mix from here on out. The posts will start off slowly and will gradually become more complex, so if you’re reading along, enjoy the ride.

In today’s post, I’d like to begin with something very simple. This is a question most folks who are new to Bridge and Photoshop ask, which is, How can I open a photo from Bridge directly into Photoshop? While this may seem like a simple question, there are a few caveats to be aware of. I’ll cover them below.

Starting Off in Bridge

If you aren’t aware of the existence of Adobe Bridge, let me introduce you to it. It’s the most wonderful photograph organizer. I absolutely love it and use it every day. And as a matter of fact, I’ve written quite a few posts that cover how it works. Don’t worry, it’s not difficult. I’d say that within a few hours, you can become a Bridge master.

The best part about Bridge is its integration with the other Adobe programs. While I’m only going to touch on one tiny bit of that today, let me assure you that things go much further.

Learn Adobe Bridge

I’m going to start off today’s tutorial by navigating to a folder called “working-photos” that I created on my desktop. Contained inside this folder are many of the photos I’ve used on this blog.

Stock Photos in Adobe Bridge

Double-Clicking

Now, I want to fill you in on how different types of files open from Bridge into Photoshop. And this is a tricky situation if you use Camera Raw a lot and have edited some of your photos in it or are working with RAW files. If I were to double click on a thumbnail of a brand new, unedited, JPEG photo inside of Bridge, that photo would open up inside of Photoshop in its own tab. If I were to double click on a thumbnail of a JPEG photo that I’ve already done some work to inside of Camera Raw, that photo would open in Camera Raw. All RAW files open in Camera Raw from Bridge when their thumbnails are double clicked on.

So, how would I know which photos are which? Well, that’s easy. If you take a look at the thumbnails inside of Bridge, you’ll see small light gray circles with up facing arrows in the upper right corners of those files that have already been edited in Camera Raw. This is true for both JPEG and RAW files. To tell the difference between those two types of files, simply look at their filenames. JPEG files end in .jpg or .jpeg and RAW files end in .CR2, .dng or other names that specific camera manufacturers have created.

Camera Raw Indicator Inside of Adobe Bridge

Right-Clicking

Right clicking is simply another method for accomplishing the same thing that double clicking accomplishes. If I right click on an thumbnail, I’ll be presented with a menu. If I roll over the Open With option and click on Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 16.1 (or whatever version you’re using), the files, depending on their types, will either open in Camera Raw or Photoshop.

Open in Adobe Photoshop Menu Item in Bridge

You have to remember, even though Camera Raw acts as a stand alone application, it needs to be tethered to something else, such as Bridge or Photoshop. The good news is, once a photo is launched into Camera Raw, all you need to do is click the Open Image button down in the lower right corner to move that photo into Photoshop. It’s really very painless.

Open Image Button in Adobe Camera Raw

Of course, you can do what I do and edit inside Camera Raw before you click Open Image. That’s where all the fun stuff is.

Jumping Between Bridge & Photoshop

Whichever method you choose, you’ll eventually end up in Photoshop. Once you have a photo in Photoshop, you have the ability to use either a menu item or a keyboard shortcut to jump back and forth between Photoshop and Bridge.

In Photoshop, if I head up to the File > Browse in Bridge menu item and click, Bridge will appear.

File Browse in Bridge Menu Item Inside Adobe Photoshop

In Bridge, if I head up to the File > Return to Adobe Photoshop menu item and click, I’ll jump to Photoshop. It’s that simple.

File Return to Adobe Photoshop Menu Item in Bridge

If I want to use a keyboard shortcut instead of the menu items, I can click Alt+Ctrl+O on Windows or Option+Command+O on Mac to move between the two applications. It’s the same shortcut for both, so it’s easy to remember.

I hope this post gave you a quick primer on how to open a photo from Bridge into Photoshop. As I said above, I’ll be writing many more posts that discuss workflow between Adobe products, so if you’re interested in these types of things, please keep on reading. Thanks!

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Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Bridge


How to Open a Smart Object from Lightroom into Adobe Photoshop

July 2, 2016

How to Open a Smart Object from Lightroom into Adobe Photoshop

In several previous posts, I’ve discussed the benefits of using Smart Objects while working in Adobe Photoshop. If you aren’t aware of these benefits, I’ll list them below. And if you aren’t sure what Smart Objects are, I’ll link to my previous posts below that. For the uninitiated, Smart Objects are wonderful things because:

– They are wickedly easy to create
– They preserve raster image quality
– They save free transform settings
– You can link to a Smart Object and share the source with many instances
– You can duplicate Smart Objects without linking them
– You can replace the contents of a Smart Object
– You can turn text into Smart Objects to preserve quality
– There are things called Smart Filters and Smart Filter Masks – this equals wonderful

Now, I know you’re looking at some of these benefits that I just shared above and are scratching your head wondering what in the world they mean. I get that. With this in mind, I’m going to link to the previous posts I’ve written that talk about Smart Objects. Much of what I just listed above is covered in these posts and what I haven’t covered yet, I will soon.

What are Smart Objects in Adobe Photoshop?

Converting Multiple Layers into a Smart Object in Adobe Photoshop

Editing RAW Files as Smart Objects in Adobe Photoshop

The Difference Between Duplicate Smart Objects in Adobe Photoshop

Using Smart Objects as Placeholders in Adobe Photoshop

Linking a Smart Object to a File in Adobe Photoshop

That ought to do it. Really. There’s a lot of information in those posts, so if you’d like to learn about Smart Objects, start with them.

The reason I bring this topic up is because there’s a way to take advantage of Smart Objects while working in Adobe Lightroom. I know I’ve discussed opening files into Photoshop from Lightroom already, but in this case, we can do things slightly differently. This time, we can open either a JPEG or a RAW file right into Photoshop from Lightroom, as a Smart Object. Of course, there are benefits to doing this, such as all the ones I mentioned above.

In today’s post, I’ll be walking through the process that needs to be followed to accomplish something like this. As in my two previous posts on this topic, there really aren’t any tough areas or areas that need special concern. It’s just a simple step by step process.

Working Photo

For this post, I’ll be working with a photo of a large building. It’s already been imported into Lightroom. It’s also a JPEG file. Again, for this process, it doesn’t matter if the file is JPEG or RAW.

Thumbnail in Adobe Lightroom

If you’re wondering why all the thumbnails have been shaded red, please see my post where I talk about how to filter photos by color.

Editing in Lightroom

For the sake of clarity, I’ll go ahead and make some quick edits to this photo inside the Quick Develop panel in Lightroom. I’ll click the Saved Preset drop-down and then roll over the Lightroom Color Presets selection and finally, I’ll click the Aged Photo preset.

Quick Develop Preset in Adobe Lightoom - Aged Photo

This simply applies a preset aged photo filter to the image. As you can see in the above screenshot, the photo now has a different look.

Opening Image as a Smart Object in Photoshop

At this point, things should start looking familiar. I’m going to head up to the Photo > Edit In > Open as Smart Object in Photoshop menu item and click.

Open as Smart Object in Photoshop Menu Item

When I do this, the edited photo jumps directly into Photoshop in its own tab as a Smart Object.

Smart Object Layer in Adobe Photoshop

If you look at the layer in the above screenshot closely, you’ll notice that it contains the distinctive Smart Object icon inside the thumbnail. This is confirmation of what we already suspected we were dealing with.

Further Edits in Camera Raw

This is where I get really excited. I love jumping from one Adobe product to another. Let’s say that I wanted to edit this image further. Let’s say I’d like to do something to it that Camera Raw really excels at, such as adjusting the contrast, blacks, whites, vibrance, etc… How can I do that? Well, if I just double-click on the Smart Object layer thumbnail in Photoshop, Camera Raw will open with the Smart Object inside of it. Just like magic. And what’s super cool is that the modifications that were made in Lightroom are still intact in Camera Raw. Take a look at the Basic Panel. They were transferred over when I launched this file into Photoshop as a Smart Object.

Camera Raw Basic Panel

From here, I’ll make a few changes and when I’m done, I’ll click OK to close Camera Raw and head back into Photoshop.

Returning to Lightroom

The image looks pretty good. I made a few modifications inside Camera Raw that helped it with its clarity and contrast. I like this look better. Since I’m finished, all I need to do is return the image back to Lightroom.

To return to Lightroom, all I need to do is head up to the File > Save menu item in Photoshop and click. What this does is saves the original image as a TIF file under a different name. It automatically adds -Edit to the name. So, in this case, an edited copy of old-architecture.jpeg was created and named old-architecture-Edit.tif. This new file was placed in the same folder as the original. I can see the two files in the filmstrip at the bottom of Lightroom.

Filmstrip View in Adobe Lightroom

Viewing Before & After Files

If I wanted to view the original image next to the image I saved after being edited in Photoshop and Camera Raw, I just have to select both thumbnails and click on the appropriate button under the thumbnails. I’ve already written about the many methods for viewing images inside of Lightroom, so please feel free to read that post.

Before & After Views in Adobe Lightroom

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Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Lightroom


4 Masking Power Tips for Adobe Photoshop

June 30, 2016

4 Masking Power Tips for Adobe Photoshop

Working with masks in Photoshop is the best way to go in regards to blending photos and manipulating adjustment layers. But, as good as masks are, there come times when it’s challenging to see exactly what you’re doing. For instance, let’s say you’re using an adjustment layer to brighten or darken different areas of a photograph. Let’s also say that the areas you’re working on are rather small and detailed. When painting those detailed areas with either a white brush or a black one, in general, the only locations that visibly show the changes are the photo itself and the small thumbnail in the layers panel. Viewing your changes in these two areas is fine most of the time, but when it really matters, you’ll likely need a better way.

In today’s post, I’m going to cover four power tips for viewing and working with masks super efficiently in Adobe Photoshop. I’ll show you exactly how you can flip between two different masking views that take out any guesswork while painting. Also, I’ll explain how you can quickly turn the working mask on and off. Basically, how you can hide it and then unhide it so you can see your changes quickly. Lastly, I’ll offer a keyboard shortcut that will hasten your hiding and revealing by jumping back and forth between the white and black in your color picker. This is all done by using a few keys on your keyboard.

If you need a refresher on what masks are and how to best use them in Photoshop, please take a look at some of my previous posts. By the time you’re finished with them, you’ll be up to speed and ready to move forward with this tutorial.

What are Layer Masks in Adobe Photoshop?

Using Masks to Colorize Only Part of a Photo in Adobe Photoshop

Using Multiple Color Range Masks in Adobe Photoshop

Example Photo

If you look at the top of this post, you’ll see the example photo I’ll be working with. Now, I want you to realize that there’s nothing I particularly want to change about this photo, but for the sake of explaining what I need to explain, I’ll apply an adjustment layer to it in. I’ll choose something that’s obvious, such as the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, to help make my point. And in doing so, I’ll deviate from the primary tutorial for just a moment to talk about how to “colorize” a photo in an effort to give it a sepia look.

Giving the Photo a Sepia Look

If you aren’t aware, sepia is a reddish-brown color associated particularly with monochrome photographs of the 19th and early 20th centuries. I’m sure you’ve seen these types of photos. Some folks call them vintage, antique or rustic, but you can call them whatever you want. And as a matter of fact, I’ll be writing a few posts in the future that talk about this topic in full detail, so stay tuned for them.

Anyway, applying this type of look is rather simple. All I’ll do is head up to the Adjustments panel and click on the Hue/Saturation icon. This will create the appropriate adjustment layer in the Layers panel.

New Adjustment Layer in Adobe Photoshop

If you take a look at the new adjustment layer that’s outlined in red, you’ll see that the related mask is fully white. This means that any change I make to this layer will be fully revealed, which is what I want right now.

At this point, I’m going to click the Colorize check box that’s located at the bottom of the Hue/Saturation Properties panel. I’ll also push the Hue slider all the way to the left. This will mute all colors except the red/brown that I’m after.

Colorize Photo in Adobe Photoshop

This is the photo after these changes have been made.

Sepia City Scape

Editing the Mask

Before I can get to the power tips, I have to make a change to the mask. Do do this, I’m going to make sure I have black chosen in the color picker and that my Brush Tool is active. I’ll resize the brush so it can work efficiently and then edit the Opacity up in the options bar. I’ll change the opacity to 50%, so my changes are softer than they would be if I left them at 100%.

Finally, I’ll paint the sky area black to erase some of the sepia coloring. I’d like to bring the sky back somewhat from where it is now.

Blue Sky in Sepia City Scape Photograph

Okay, I now have a working file that will allow me to move on with the tips I’d like to show.

Tip #1 – Large Mask View

Even though I didn’t make any intricate or detailed changes via this mask, this tip will still help you out.

Right now, the only way I can see that I made a change to the adjustment layer mask is to look at the photo directly or to look at the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel. Those options aren’t very good. What if there was a larger view? Well, there is.

If I move my mouse pointer so it sits right on top of the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers panel and press Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) and left click on my mouse, the entire photo will be covered by the mask itself.

Large Mask View in Adobe Photoshop

By having a large mask view like this, I can go ahead and make edits to it that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to make. To change things back to their regular view, all I have to do is repeat the steps I took above. Option or Alt click. That’s it.

Tip #2 – Overlay View

The tip above is good, but I have an even better one. The issue with having a solid overlay like the one above is that I can’t see what I’m editing. This may be good for filling in solid areas or for changing black to white and vice-versa, but for continuous editing, not so much. Luckily, there’s another overlay option that shows the photo behind the large view of the mask.

If I roll over the mask thumbnail again and click Shift+Option or Shift+Alt and left click, I’ll get an easier view to work with.

Transparent Overlay Mask View

In this case, the areas where the mask is hidden (gray or black) have turned to red and the areas where the mask is in effect (white), there is no red. This is extremely handy because it offers the ability to continue working in this mode.

To change things back to the regular view, simply Shift+Option or Shift+Alt again.

Tip #3 – Hide the Mask

Every application I’ve ever worked with has had a before/after view. I love this because while I’m editing, the original fades from memory. By pushing a key or two, I can jump back and forth between the photo I originally opened to the one I worked on and edited. The great thing is, while editing a mask, I also have this type of option.

Turning on and off a mask is simple. All that needs to be done is to, once again, roll your mouse pointer over the mask thumbnail, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and left click with your mouse. Once you do this, a red X will appear over the thumbnail and the view of the photo will return as though a mask was never applied.

Hide Mask in Adobe Photoshop

To turn the mask back on, or unhide it, again, repeat the above steps. Shift and left click.

Tip #4 – Jump Between White and Black

There are two very important keyboard shortcuts you need to know when working with masks. In this final section, I’ll talk about both of them.

First, we have the left bracket [ and the right bracket ]. If you click the left bracket, the size of the brush you’re working with will get smaller. If you click the right bracket, it will get bigger. This is, how do I say, INCREDIBLY useful. Once you use these keyboard shortcuts for changing the size of your brush, you’ll never ever go back to doing it with your mouse.

Second, we have the X key on your keyboard. As you well know, the colors white and black are extraordinarily important when it comes to working with masks. Without a keyboard shortcut for switching between these two colors, we have to go over and click the little color picker double arrow. This by itself is a shortcut, but there’s an even faster one.

Color Picker Double Arrow in Adobe Photoshop

Instead of rolling over and clicking on the double arrow, simply press the X key on your keyboard. It does the same exact thing. It switches the foreground and background colors. So, if you already have black and white set for those two colors, you’re set up for some quick editing.

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Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop


How to Remove Face Blemishes in Adobe Camera Raw

June 27, 2016

How to Remove Face Blemishes in Adobe Camera Raw

In this post, let’s not get caught up in the definition of “blemish.” For the sake of learning about Adobe Camera Raw and its Spot Removal Tool, we’ll consider a blemish to be acne, a single zit, a freckle, a shadow, a spot on the wall – basically anything you’d like to remove, whether it be good or bad. I never really enjoyed reading posts while looking at photos strictly of those with something wrong with their skin, especially when we can use the tool I’ll discuss below in so many ways.

I chose this particular photo to work on today specifically because there appears to be sand or dirt on the individual’s face. This can happen in a photo. Whether it be a piece of dust on a camera sensor, a fly in the air or really, truly a blemish, it makes no matter. Whatever it is, it needs to be removed, which is exactly what I’ll cover below. The ins and outs of removing skin imperfections and dirt, that is.

The Spot Removal Tool

I’ll begin by opening the demo photo into Adobe Camera Raw. From there, I’ll click the Spot Removal Tool icon that’s in the top toolbar.

Spot Removal Tool Icon in Adobe Camera Raw

When I do that, a new Spot Removal panel will appear over to the right.

Spot Removal Panel in Adobe Camera Raw

Luckily for us, this tool is very well built by Adobe and extremely intuitive. With only a few clicks, we can remove almost any blemish that exists.

To retouch blemishes in skin, the most appropriate version of this tool is Heal. This can be found in the drop-down menu of the Spot Removal panel.

You may be asking why I chose Heal for this task. Well, that’s because there is a difference between the two choices we have. Let’s take a look.

Heal – This tool fills in the selected area with a blend of the texture, lighting and shading of the sample area in the image.

Clone – This tool simply takes whatever is inside the target area and places is directly in the selected area.

I know these two choices sound similar, but if you read through this post I wrote a while ago, things will become very clear for you. I discuss the Heal and Clone tools in more depth there and even give some nice examples of what happens when using them.

For faces though, we want to use Heal. That means Camera Raw will take an average of what’s found inside the target area and apply it to the selected area. Don’t worry, I’ll explain more below.

If you look below the drop-down box in the Spot Removal panel, you’ll see three sliders. They control Size, Feather and Opacity. These are fairly straightforward. The Size slider controls the size of the tool, the Feather slider controls the softness of the edges and the Opacity slider controls how visible the correction will be. For example, if we lower the opacity to only 10%, any correction we make to a blemish will be barely visible. For the sake of simplicity, it’s common to use a variable size that’s controlled by the [ and ] (bracket) keys on your keyboard. It’s also common to set the feather somewhere in the middle point of the slider (around 50) and the opacity to 100. Unless you’ve got a specific goal in mind, these settings will work fine for most cases.

Retouching a Blemish

Now that the panel is familiar, I’m going to go ahead and zoom in a bit to see a blemish more closely. To do this, I’ll press the Ctrl++ keys on my keyboard. Also, since I’ve currently got a tool selected, I can hold down the Space bar on my keyboard to temporarily turn my mouse pointer back into the Hand Tool. While in this mode, I can move the image around.

Skin Blemish

In the above screenshot, I circled the blemish I’ll be working on for this project. As you can see, I’ve increased the size to 12, kept the feathering at 50 and the opacity at 100. Since I’m ready to go, I’ll click on the blemish with the tool.

Removing Skin Blemish in Adobe Camera Raw

Now, if you remember back when I discussed what Heal and Clone were, I talked about the “selection” and the “target.” This is where both of those come into play.

If you look at the above screenshot, you’ll see two dashed circles. Both of these circles are tethered together by a dashed line. The red circle is the selection (where the blemish was) and the green circle is the target (the area where the blended data will fill in the selection). In the most basic sense, I clicked on the blemish. That created a red circle. Then, Camera Raw looked around for an area that’s similar to that area. It found one, circled it in green, took an average of the data found inside the green circle and applied it to the red circle. It’s that simple.

Moving the Target

While this is all fine and good, there’s a small problem here. Sometimes, Camera Raw gets it wrong and doesn’t apply the area we’d like to apply to the blemish. In cases like this, it’s very simple to move the target circle by clicking inside it and dragging it around with the mouse pointer.

Moving the Selection

We can do the exact same thing with the selection circle. Click inside of it and drag it around until you’re happy with where it is.

Resizing Both Circles

After making a selection, it’s common to discover that it’s either too small or too large. To resize either circle (the sizes are locked together), just roll over an edge and when your single arrow mouse pointer turns into a double arrow pointer, go ahead and drag.

Hiding the Circles

After fixing a bunch of blemishes, it becomes difficult to clearly see the remaining photo. To quickly hide and unhide all the selection circles, you can click the H key on your keyboard. H to hide and H to unhide.

Visualize Spots

I actually use this feature quite a bit. It’s perfect for large areas that have spots or specks that aren’t readily visible by giving things a quick glance, but that annoy you a whole lot after you’re finished editing a photo and notice them. It basically turns the photo black and white and accentuates any spots in it.

Visualize Spots Feature in Adobe Camera Raw

If I click the Visualize Spots check box that’s found at the bottom of the Spot Removal panel, The photo will turn black and white. The slider controls just how black and how white. In general, for a busy photo like the one I’m working on, it’s best to push the slider all the way to the left to reduce as much noise as possible. Even after I do that with this photo, it’s still quite noisy.

Revealing Blemishes with Visualize Spots in Adobe Camera Raw

If you look at the screenshot above, you can see how some areas that may be under consideration for spot removal. Especially in the area that I initially chose to correct (I undid that) and the area around the mouth. By looking at the image with this view, it’s possible to find areas you otherwise would have missed.

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If you’ve enjoyed today’s post and found it helpful, please share it with a friend. Also, if you’d like to continue learning and would like our posts sent directly to your email inbox, simply sign up for our newsletter. We’ll send each and every post directly to you. Thanks!

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Camera Raw


How to Change the Colors of a Photo in Adobe Photoshop

June 25, 2016

How to Change the Colors of a Photo in Adobe Photoshop

Tell me if you’ve ever experienced something like this – You install a new program on your computer (such as Adobe Photoshop), open it up and start wildly clicking icons and tools in an effort to see how everything works. You don’t really know how to do anything yet, but you still click away. Crop, paint and apply filters. I’d say filters is the most fun.

The reason I bring this up is because this is exactly what I did with pretty much every single application I’ve ever installed on any of my many computers. I can remember back so clearly – trying to make a photo look as good as the ones I’ve seen online – within the first 10 seconds of using whatever it was I was using. I can also remember the frustration of not getting anywhere. While the buttons, icons and tools looked relatively simple, without any true knowledge and understanding, I left myself in a heap of a mess. Eventually, I would just close things down, order some instruction book from Amazon, never read it and fail. I hated that part – the failing that is.

I want to fill you in on something. Learning any type of post-processing application takes time. It needs to be progressed through as more of a habit as opposed to as a task. It needs to become a way of life and worked on every day. It’s the little things that matter the most. Sure, I can apply the Lens Flare filter rather quickly and enjoy a major change to whatever photo it is I’m working on, but would I be able to apply that lens flare correctly? When should I do that? Why? There’s more to design and editing than simply getting things done.

Part of the reason I enjoy writing posts that touch on small topics is because, for one, I get to learn and review. I enjoy that and every time I write, something new emerges. Another reason is, because it’s the many small topics that combine to create a large one. Take today’s topic for example; I’ll be working in the Properties panel of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. That’s it. There are only a few areas I’d like to talk about, but when you’re finished reading (and I’m finished writing), things will be more clear than they ever were – just for that one panel. I was never very good at breezing through panels while avoiding their details. It’s much better to stop and really analyze things.

With that said, in today’s post, I’d like to cover a few areas of what I just stated above; the Properties panel of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer in Adobe Photoshop. I’ll be using a beautiful photo of some flowers to help clarify the topics I’ll be discussing. It’s the sliders I’m most interested in, so if you’d like to pick up some knowledge and impress your friends, read on below. I’ll be adjusting the colors, saturation and lightness of the objects in the demo photograph.

Original Photo

At the top of this post, you can see the original photo with all of its original colors. My goal is to simply add the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to change a few of the colors. This is a popular activity for almost any type of photography. Folks need to update and enhance colors all the time.

While doing this, I’ll be exploring the aspects of the Properties panel control.

Creating an Adjustment Layer

The first task I’m going to complete is to create the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. To do this, I’ll head up to the Adjustments panel and click the appropriate icon.

Hue Saturation Icon in Adjustments Panel of Adobe Photoshop

Once I do that, I’ll see the related Properties panel appear. I’ll also notice that the new layer was created in the Layers panel.

Now, I want you to remember that any change I make to this photo related to this adjustment layer will be non-destructive. This means that the original photo will be untouched and I can revert back to it at any time.

Presets

The first area I’d like to cover in the Properties panel is called Presets. This is a drop-down box that holds some fairly magnificent methods for very quickly adjusting the look and feel of a photo.

Hue Saturation Adjustment Presets in Adobe Photoshop

To edit a photo using nothing more than a preset adjustment is extraordinarily simple. Actually, the whole process takes about three clicks. And as you can see, there are a few available choices. They are:

– Cyanotype
– Increase Saturation More
– Increase Saturation
– Old Style
– Red Boost
– Sepia
– Strong Saturation
– Yellow Boost
– Custom

As an example, I’ll first select the Cyanotype preset to show you what that looks like.

Cyanotype Photo Example

Next, I’ll select Old Style.

Old Style Photo Example

And finally, I’ll choose Sepia.

Sepia Photo Example

As you can see, there are some interesting results. All that work boiled down to a few easy steps. And what’s even cooler is that as you choose a preset, you can look at the sliders and controls in the same panel below to see what changed. Everything is completely visible. So if you enjoy the look of the Sepia selection, but would rather accentuate a color other than what’s given, you can easily figure out what happened and how to make the necessary change. Photoshop is all about keeping your eyes open and exploring around the menus and panels.

Selective Color

This next drop-down actually doesn’t have a name. On Adobe’s support page, it’s called “the menu to the right of the On-image adjustment tool.” That doesn’t matter. It’s basically the drop-down that’s directly below the Preset one.

Preset Color Drop-Down in Hue Saturation Adjustment Layer  Properties Panel in Adobe Photoshop

Inside this drop-down menu are a few choices. They are:

– Master (all colors)
– Reds
– Yellows
– Greens
– Cyans
– Blues
– Magentas

Now, this is where things get interesting. This drop-down menu and its selections work in tandem with the On-Image Adjustment Tool (the little hand icon to the left of the drop-down) and the hue sliders at the bottom of this panel. I’ll explain what I mean below.

I like to think of this trio as controlling the target color you’d like to change. Each one does it in a different way.

The Drop-Down

If I were to choose Master from the drop-down menu in question, all colors in the photo would be selected. I could alter them with the Hue slider, add or remove color with the Saturation slider and/or lighten or darken them with the Lightness slider.

If I were to select one of the other, more color focused, choices though, my options would change. I’ll use an example to illustrate this. Since there are some magentas in this photo, I’d like to see how it would look if I changed them. So, I’ll go ahead and choose Magenta from the drop-down menu.

Choosing Magenta Color From Drop-Down Menu

If you look at the screenshot above, you’ll see that Magenta is selected from the drop-down menu. If you look a bit lower than that, you’ll also see that something new happened to the hue sliders at the bottom of the panel. Inside the bracket that appeared inside of the sliders, you’ll see the range of color that will be affected if I move any of the above sliders, such as the Hue, Saturation or Lightness. That’s right, all other colors in the photo will be left alone and only the magenta color that’s locked in that range will be altered. Let see this in action. I’ll push the three primary sliders around a bit.

Adjustment Sliders

This is the output of the photo. Notice how only the magenta colors in the photo changed. All others stayed the same.

Altered Colors of Photo in Adobe Photoshop

Furthermore, I can edit one color, just as I did above, then select another color from the drop-down and edit that. I can repeat this step with all the available colors and build upon my initial changes.

The On-Image Adjustment Tool

Very similar to the drop-down is the On-Image Adjustment Tool. This tool can be found to the left of the color choice drop-down menu. It’s an icon that has the image of a little hand in it. If I click this tool to activate it, my mouse pointer will turn into a dropper. I can select any color from the photo by clicking on it and that color will be automatically chosen from the drop-down menu. This is a great tool to use if you can’t quite identify a color in the photo, but you know you want it changed.

As with the previous method, you can continuously select colors with this tool. All you need to do is to click the tool, select a color with the dropper, make your slider changes and then click on the tool icon again. This will deactivate it. If you want to select another color, simply click on the tool once more to start again (with an additional color). You can do this as many times as there are colors in the drop down menu.

Color Range

Let’s say you already selected a few colors to alter using one of the methods from above. You made your changes, but noticed that you would like to expand the selected colors. You initially selected a color that had a gradient into another color or two different colors are right next to each other. Whatever the reason, you want to expand the range of color for adjustment. We can do this.

Color Range Sliders in Adobe Photoshop

If you take a look at the screenshot directly above, you’ll see that I outlined an area in the Properties panel. This area includes three icons that allow you to expand, contract or keep the same color selection.

Since I already made a choice to change up the magentas in the photo, I clicked on the small dropper icon with the + symbol next to it in the outlined area to add to that. When I used my mouse (dropper) to click on another color, the brackets in the double color bars grew apart to accommodate that. Now, when I move the three primary sliders to make adjustments to the colors, anything contained inside the bracket area will be affected.

Another method for accomplishing the same thing is to physically click on the bracket edges themselves. You can click right on them and drag them to the left and the right to capture the color range and feathering you’d like.

To assist in explaining how this works, I’ll take a blurb from Adobe’s support page:

Four color wheel values (in degrees) appear in the Properties panel (the double hue sliders at the bottom). They correspond to the adjustment sliders that appear between the color bars. The two inner vertical sliders define the color range. The two outer triangle sliders show where the adjustments on a color range “fall off” (fall‑off is a feathering or tapering of the adjustments instead of a sharply defined on/off application of the adjustments). Source.

As you can see, you have a lot of control when it comes to changing colors in a photo.

Resetting the Adjustments

Oftentimes, I like to mess around with making changes before I settle on anything permanent. I do a lot of pushing sliders and making selections from the drop-down boxes. Because of this habit, it becomes cumbersome to reset everything to its original state before I begin making changes in earnest. Luckily, many panels in Photoshop have a feature that will take on this chore for you.

Reset Settings Icon in Adobe Photoshop

If you look at the screenshot above, you’ll see that I circled an icon at the bottom of the panel. It looks like a semi-circular arrow. If you click this icon, all the adjustments you made will be reset to their default settings.

Finally, here is the image after I made some changes to it. I actually like this version more than all the rest – even the original.

Beautiful Rose

——

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Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Photoshop

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