Bob Redmonds Digital Tips
Improving your Prints October 2008
Using Photoshop CS3
I suggest opening all of your camera JPEGs using Photoshop’s Raw Convertor. This will allow far greater control of your images in less time than trying to do all the alterations in Photoshop.
To set this to happen automatically, in Photoshop select EDIT/PREFERENCES/FILE HANDLING and in the action box that opens tick the option “prefer adobe raw for JPEG files“. Press OK to accept the change. Now every time you double click on a JPEG in BRIDGE the image will open in the RAW CONVERTOR.
RAW CONVERTOR
1st icon from left – BASIC – (this is also the DEFAULT control when you open RAW CONVERTOR so it will be automatically selected).
Try the AUTO option in the WHITE BALANCE option. Often it works – if not click on “AS SHOT” and change the “COLOUR TEMPERATURE” and “TINT” sliders to suit.
Hold the ALT key down while altering the EXPOSURE SLIDER. This will black out most of the image depending on the setting used. Slide the control until the minimum of light spots appear on screen. This usually gives the best highlight exposure setting – the light spots that appear will be areas that will be at maximum white i.e. burnt out.
The HISTOGRAM at the top of the screen will show the spread of tones in the image. The area at the right of the graph shows the amount that will be pure white i.e. burnt out. Clicking on the arrow at the top right of the histogram will cause all burnt out areas on the image to be shown in RED.
Holding down the ALT key while moving the BLACKS slider will work in a similar way on the SHADOWS as the EXPOSURE slider did on the HIGHLIGHTS.
Clicking on the arrow on the top left of the histogram will cause all areas of maximum black to be shown in BLUE.
Generally the main subject should show little or no maximum black and white as these areas will show no detail.
The RECOVER slider attempts to put detail back into the highlights while the FILL control attempts (more successfully) to put detail into the shadow areas.
The VIBRANCE slider increases the SATURATION in the mid tones (I tend to use a value about 30).
The CLARITY slider increases the CONTRAST in the mid tones (I tend to use a value about 12)
2nd Icon from left TONE CONTROL
This basically controls the overall contrast of the image. If needed, enter values in the four boxes to produce a shallow “S” shape curve. E.g. Highlight +30, Light +5, Darks -5, Shadow -30
4th Icon from left HSL/GREYSCALE
Click on SATURATION and you can boost or subdue individual shades of colour in the image.
Click on the CONVERT TO GREYSCALE box to produce B & W images. The tones in the image can them be controlled by altering the saturation of the individual colours.
FINALLY Click OPEN to transfer the image into PHOTOSHOP.
CROP
Before using the CROP tool, ensure that the setting in IMAGE/SIZE drop down box has only the CONSTRAIN PROPORTIONS ticked. DO NOT TICK the RESAMPLE IMAGE box. This would lead to either a permanent loss of information or the manufacture of extra pixels which would degrade the image.
The drop down box that appears in the top left of the tool bar can be pre-programmed with your normal paper sizes by clicking on the CREATE NEW TOOL PRESET icon (lower of the two that appear on the right hand side of the box).
This opens a new box into which you enter the dimensions of your paper. Remember to open one for landscape and another for portrait orientation of each paper size. Once accepted right clicking on the paper size will allow you to rename it e.g. “A3 Portrait”.
When you next use the CROP tool the box you drag will not only crop the image but ensure that it is the correct size to match your paper.
SHARPEN
This is normally done last before printing though there could be occasions when it needs to be done earlier, e.g. when producing a second layer to blur a background.
To SHARPEN a layer, drag it to the CREATE NEW LAYER icon at the bottom of the LAYERS PALETTE, then FILTERS/OTHERS/and select HIGH PASS FILTER.
The image on the screen will now become grey with the possibility of some subdued colour, and a drop down box with slider will appear. Set a value between about 4 and 12 with this slider. (Experimentation is needed here – the degree of sharpening depends on the final use of the image). It is better to over sharpen at this stage rather than not sharpening enough.
In the LAYERS PALETTE change the BLEND mode from NORMAL to HARD LIGHT (sometimes SOFT LIGHT is more suitable). The on screen image will now appear normal but probably over sharpened. Click on the OPACITY box in the LAYER PALETTE and reduce the OPACITY to fine tune the sharpness. Typically the opacity will be reduced to 40 to 80%.
ADDING TWO IMAGES for improved tonal control
Open the image, using RAW CONVERTOR, adjusting the settings to optimise one part of the image e.g. the foreground, then open the same image in RAW CONVERTOR but this time optimise the settings for another part of the image e.g. the background.
Click the REDUCE SCREEN SIZE icon, the middle of the three icons in the upper right of the image screen, to reduce the size of the two images. Drag one away from the other. (Make sure you have the MOVE tool selected). Hold down the SHIFT key and drag one image over to the other. When you release the SHIFT key the moved image will jump into register with the first.
Now you can close the single image and then click on the MAXIMISE SCREEN icon to return to full screen with the two images on their own layers.
Click on the upper layer in the LAYERS PALETTE to highlight it, and click on the LAYER MASK icon at the base of the palette. (5th icon from right). Press the “B” key to select BRUSH, reduce hardness of the brush to a value between 30% and 0% by clicking the arrow to the right of the Brush box on the upper tool bar. Ensure that SET COLOUR icon in the left hand tool bar is showing BLACK as the FOREGROUND. (If it isn’t press the “X” key to swap the foreground and background colour). Now paint out the area that is not wanted from the top image e.g. the foreground, to reveal the corrected area on the layer beneath.
If you make a mistake while doing this, press the “X” key to swap the foreground and background colour and paint the mistake out. (This paints the upper image back in so hiding the lower layer.)
BLURRING A BACKGROUND
The method above of using the LAYER MASK can be used to blur a background, by copying the image onto a new layer, (drag the layer to the NEW LAYER icon at the bottom of the LAYER PALETTE), and use FILTER/BLUR/GAUSSIAN BLUR to blur the copied layer. Add a LAYER MASK and use the brush to reveal the sharper foreground on the layer below.
This same method could be used to reduce a distracting background to B & W by converting the copied layer into B & W ( and possibly blurring it as well )before adding the LAYER MASK.
The LAYER MASK is very useful as it is non destructive i.e. it does not permanently change the image on that layer unless you flatten the image or save it as for example a JPEG. Provided the image is saved as a PSD file you can go back to the layer mask at any time in the future and modify your original work.
Boosting a colour in the image e.g. the greenery in a landscape.
CONTROL + “U” selects the HUE and SATURATION dropdown box. To boost the greens in the vegetation try selecting the YELLOW in the RGB box at the top of dropdown box and increase the SATURATION for example to +30
Dodge tool
If there are small areas that need to be lightened, e.g. white crests of waves on water then select the DODGE TOOL from the left hand tool bar. In the upper tool bar select HIGHLIGHTS, and a LARGE SOFT BRUSH e.g. 20% to 0%. Reduce the EXPOSURE to about 5% and then brush over the area to be lightened. It is best to do this several times to build up the effect. This is a DESTRUCTIVE process as you cannot easily brush the area back as you could with the LAYER MASK.
If however things go wrong then select the HISTORY PALETTE and click back to earlier actions until the image is back to just before the mistake. You can move forward to the more recent actions if you have gone too far back.
If it was only the last action that you made a mistake on then pressing CONTROL + “Z” will take you one step back. (Pressing CONTROL + “Z” again will return you to the last action )
Bob Redmond 24/10/08 Notes based on talk given on 13th Oct 2008 to HPS
