Photoshop Workshop  April 11
at Tallaght Library

Thanks to everyone who attended the workshop.
I will redo this blog  soon to cover in detail some of the more useful techniques for Intermediate shoppers………..
seankent1@gmail.com

Beginners' Workshop
The Beginners' workshop 
blog found at    >  dccphotoshop.blogspot.com
Click HERE to go there now.
**************
Intermediate Workshop

I welcome suggestions from those interested.

A non destructive workflow is important. 

It is my opinion that there are a limited number of photoshop skills that photographers use all the time.
These you need to know well.
Once you have mastered a few difficult skills you then have the know-how to solve problems that you encounter. There are some very good uTube tutorials out there and some really bad ones.

What I propose is to take about 6 to 8 images as shot by the camera and go through the various stages

of change to arrive at the finished - ready to print work.
Have you got a suitable image we could work on?

This approach seems to me to be more practical and more suited to the problems many of us face in post processing. 

Here are a few examples.

                                                       Below is the original as shot.

Below is the after. Not everybody's cuppa.

*********************************************************

      

Another example .................


 It would be easy to bypass this as just another poorly lit image. Everything is dull and flat.     
         
The lighting was poor.

But I believe you can greatly improve all images and if the composition is there you will end up with a decent image.

Below is the final image >

John Hooton liked it ............

Shaun the seagull is hovering in off-shore wind.
Shaun has a Kerry all-Ireland medal for doing this .....

The mountains have receded and changed shape a bit.

By lighting the mountains the Kinard stack becomes visible.

The headland has detail but not enough to distract.

The colours are harmonised - greens of the headland and water - various shades of brown and a little red. Very faint touch of yellow added to the sky.

******************************************

This example makes for practice of a lot of simple skills.

Quite a few niggly little changes had to be made.

eg

Getting rid of some of the twine

Bringing out the stem of the plant and in part creating a wider stem.

Creating a two tone backgrond. Some blurring and sharpening.  

Final Image



************************************

Start Image

Final Image



**************************************





Start Image


Final Image






******************************************

More Intermediate ideas.
Layer Masks and their uses.
Adding a Graduated Colour filter.
Dealing with Colour Casts.
Making colour selections with the Magic wand tool and Colour Range.
Making a High-key image.
Blur filters - Gaussian, Surface and Lens blur.
Correcting verticals.
Adobe Camera Raw.
Panoramas with Photomerge.
*********************************

 ( This is the Layer mask symbol found at bottom of layers panel. )

Layer Masks ……….. The Basics.
                                                                                  Easy once you understand.
Very useful and non-destructive.
They allow you make selective changes rather than global ones.
Layer masks are either White or Black.
White is see through - Black is not.

A layer mask is a cover and like most covers can be removed in part or in total.
This cover can be placed on a layer and all or part of the cover can be made transparent.
You can see through the transparent part.
Let's look at an example.
Here we have 2 layers - a Red layer on top of a Yellow layer
I have put a layer mask (white) on the red layer - nothing changes.  (left)
Why? White is see-through.

                   

I paint the mask black and now the red layer is masked/covered - not visible.
How?  Edit/Fill and choose Black.
The Red layer is now masked as if it was not there.
And so we see the only visible layer = the Yellow layer. (Above right).

Left I have used a white brush to paint the top section of the mask.
This action begins to reveal the Red layer again.

I could also use a Gradient to partly reveal the layer underneath.





We need a practical example.
We will take a portrait and use a Layer mask to
blur the background.

Step 1.

Make a duplicate layer.

On one layer Use Gaussian blur to blur the whole image at 15 pixels.
Filter/Blur etc (second photo)

So now we have two layers
One is blurred and the other is not.

Then we add a Layer Mask.
It will be white.


Step 2.
With the Elliptical tool I make a selection around the head and feather that selection with 75 pixels
see below left  ..................

At bottom of the Tool box you will find this
symbol           >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Click on it to see how the feathering will work. Looks good .....................














Select the Layer Mask.
Fill with Black.
This is the Layers panel as it looks now >>

Final result on the Right.
The model is sharp and we blurred the background.
                            ******************************************

 Colour casts ........ Very Easy

Easily removed using either Levels or Curves.

Use middle eye dropper on what should be neutral grey.

or use the 3 colour channels in Levels and adjust each using the Alt key.

Can also be dealt with in the Raw Converter. (ACR) - using the White Balance tool which looks like a colour picker or eye dropper. Click on an area that you know should be white or grey.

                                                   

Graduated Colour filter ....... tricky!

Useful for Landscapes and seascapes.

Gradients can be tricky. It is best to experiment on a transparent page - File/New - 6in x 6in.

In the Gradient Tool the Neutral Density filter is the one that goes from Dark to transparent.
This is the last one below - 

So if you want to darken the top of a sky with a shade of blue fading out altogether or fading to a pale colour like orange or  light yellow etc -

Place the required colours in the Colour picker boxes.

What you see here is a prepared Gradient going from Blue to Yellow to transparent.

                

As with most tricky elements of photoshop explaining is useless - you need to see -  and do.
*******************************
Colour changing and selective colouring.

Selective colouring.

Make duplicate layer called "Mono"

Then adjustment layer "Black and white"     

See The Layers palette bottom Left.                                      

                                                                                                                    

 Move the RED slider left to darken the reds

 Add a Layers Mask

Soft brush set to Black paint the robin's breast.

I also did some plants bottom Right.

(Go over mistakes with white).

Add a vignette on top using the elliptical Marquee tool..

                                              Change the colour of an object

Useful in my opinion for all kinds of photography - creative / landscape etc.

We will take 2 examples

1  Walkers    ( Medium easy)     2 ways to do this A and B.

2  A car

Here are the walkers  >  A

The red jacket is dominating everything. We want to change its colour without losing the texture.

Nor are we talking about lowering Saturation.

Technique 1.

Hue/Saturation method   ..easy.

Rough selection of the offending jacket.

Hue/Sat adjustment layer.

Click on Master and change it to any of the colours  e.g Red

Crunch the sliders at the bottom together in the middle.

Now move the Saturation slider all the way Left.

Choose the centre eye dropper + and drag over the jacket.

Now bring the Saturation back to 0.

Move the HUE slider to change the colour of the jacket.

The walkers   >   B

Make a manual selection of the jacket with the pen tool or Polygonol lasso tool.

Feather with 0.5 pixels.

Create a Hue/Sat adjustment layer.

Use the Hue and the Sat sliders to get the desired colour.

You may need to do some cleaning up at the edges -

              Use the mask that comes with the Hue/Sat layer (below)

              Small brush with WHITE and go around the edge to modify the selection.

***********************************************

2  Respray the car.    (Tricky - watch your steps!)

The Hue/Sat method does not work with this car because in trying to select the car the similar colours of the background get included.
We could do a manual selection - that would work.
But we are going to respray digitally - using a blending mode.

Create a new layer.
Change its mode to "Colour".
Pick the colour we want to use - ok.
Get the brush ready
Paint .....................
Note all the reflections and details are kept .
Paint over mistakes with Black.

                                *****************************************************