쐃 Mendelsson placed a black-and-white 쐋 From an old catalog image, he lassoed selection on the new layer with black at a
chef image into a file and brightened it a picnic table and layered it between the low Opacity, deselected it, then applied
with a Levels adjustment. “I have a great chef and kitchen layers. The depth was a Gaussian Blur with a 4-pixel Radius. He
love for technicolor films where people too short, so he duplicated the table lay- used Free Transform to realistically posi-
appear brighter than life,” he says. He er and positioned it farther back. There tion the shadow under the knife.
then placed a black-and-white head was a basket in the table image that he
image on a layer over the chef’s head. didn’t want, so he used a 3-pixel Feather Because he places characters into
Selecting the new layer, he lassoed the to lasso a large empty table area with a found settings, Mendelsson often
eyes, brows, lips, and hair as a group, then similar tonal quality, jumped it to a new ends up with limbs angled in wrong
inversed the selection (Shift-Command/ layer (Command/Ctrl-J), and positioned directions. In this case, the hands
Ctrl-I), and accessed Hue/Saturation it over the object. Mendelsson used the weren’t quite sitting flat on the table.
(Command/Ctrl-U). He tinted the skin by same technique on the chef’s head but He used a feathered lasso to loosely
checking Colorize and adjusting Hue to instead of concealing, he lassoed the hair select the hand up to the elbow and
his liking. He then chose Image > Adjust- and jumped the selection to add more chose Free Transform. He positioned
ments > Selective Color, selected Neutrals hair to the side of the head. “The clone the crosshair at the elbow to set the
from the Colors pull-down menu, and tool is effective, but feathering a larger pivot point and rotated the Transform
moved the Yellow and Magenta sliders to selection and copying it often looks box to swivel the arm until the hand
fine-tune the skin tones. He deselected more seamless,” he says. rested properly on the table.
and lassoed separate features to colorize
each with Hue/Saturation. 쐏 Mendelsson used the polygonal lasso
to select elements from scanned images
쐇 He scanned a kitchen image and
FOR USERS OF PHOTOSHOP 5 AND LATER. COMMANDS AND IMAGES SHOWN IN PHOTOSHOP CS.
PHOTOSHOP FIX 2
3 JANUARY 2005
F E A T U R E D A R T I S T
쐃 After adding layers of color above his so he could stroke them. Etter also uti- filled it with white. He deselected and
type layer, Etter wanted to boost satura- lized the space inside closed paths. chose a large black airbrush to brush
tion in a different amount for the text For example, he dragged a vector across the channel until he let it fade
compared to the color around the text. grid from Illustrator into Photoshop. out to white at the bottom of the word.
To do this in the same space, he added He clicked the grid layer, selected the He Command/Ctrl-clicked the channel
a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and magic wand, checked Contiguous, and and selected the original type layer in
set Saturation to 50. Loading a previously pressed Shift while clicking inside sev- the Layers palette, then added a Hue/
saved path of the type only, he inversed eral squares. He selected a background Saturation adjustment layer. He shifted
the selection (Shift-Command/Ctrl-I), texture layer, copied the selection, and Hue (using Colorize) to purple, which cre-
clicked the Hue/Saturation mask thumb- pasted it on a new layer—the selected ated a smooth transition from the blue at
nail, and filled it 50% Gray (Edit > Fill > empty spaces were now elements. the top of the word to purple at the bot-
Contents). A mask filled with 50% Gray Finally, he applied a Hue/Saturation tom. By using a channel for a selection,
allows only half the amount of an adjust- adjustment to alter the elements’ color. he had one less layer to manage.
ment to show, so in this case the type
took on the full amount of the Saturation 쐏 After creating a color layer of contrast- 쐂 For highlights on the sides of the
setting while the selected area increased ing values to overlay on the type, Etter letters, Etter wanted control over where
Saturation at only half the amount. enhanced the layer’s lighter values using and how they were placed. He first ac-
a channel. To do this, he accessed the cessed the Brushes palette and selected
쐇 Etter used a cool trick to further inten- Channels palette and determined the a small, white, hard-edged brush. In the
sify the type’s color. He loaded a saved Green channel had the best contrast Paths palette, he created a new path and
path of the type as a selection and cre- between lights and darks. He increased drew multiple paths with the pen tool
FOR USERS OF PHOTOSHOP 6 AND LATER. COMMANDS AND IMAGES SHOWN IN PHOTOSHOP CS.
ated a new layer above the type layer. He the contrast of the channel with Curves, on the highlight side of the letters. He
added a mask, set the new layer’s blend- then duplicated it by dragging it to the chose Stroke Path from the Paths palette
ing mode to Color Dodge, and clicked Create new channel icon at the bottom and Brush for the Type, then checked
the layer to deselect the mask thumbnail. of the palette and Command/Ctrl-clicked Simulate Pressure. This stroked the paths
After making the Foreground Color blue, the duplicate channel to load it as a se- with a thick center and tapered ends.
he selected a brush and made quick lection. In the Layers palette, he selected He applied a Gaussian Blur to soften the
strokes across the type (confined to the the color layer, clicked the Create new effect and tinted the highlights to the
mask) to generate a luminescent metallic fill or adjustment layer at the bottom of color of the dominant light source using
look; he followed up with a rusty red for the palette, and chose Curves. He then Hue/Saturation with Colorize checked.
the smaller type. “Rich, medium to dark adjusted the curve, which affected the
colors work best with Color Dodge,” he lighter values from the Green channel
adds. “If you’re not happy with the color, while the darker values were masked
use Hue/Saturation to adjust it until from the adjustment. (Invert the mask
you’re satisfied.” to affect dark areas instead.)
쐋 To add details, Etter saved a low-res 쐄 Etter wanted to gradually shift color
JPEG of the image and placed it into Illus- in the word out from blue to purple with-
trator. He used the image as a guide and out creating a hard transition between Ryan Etter Illustration, LLC
strategically drew paths around the type colors. Loading a previously saved path 816.228.9347
on a separate layer. He dragged selected of the word as a selection, Etter made it info@ryanetterillustration.com
paths into his main image in Photoshop a channel in the Channels palette, then www.ryanetterillustration.com
PHOTOSHOP FIX 4
5 JANUARY 2005
E S S E N T I A L S
BY GARY YOUNG
DOWNLOAD “LAUGHINGMAN.JPG,” “SAILBOAT.JPG,” AND “LAKE.JPG” FROM WWW.PHOTOSHOPFIX.COM, JANUARY 2005 ISSUE.
Each Auto command in the Image > Color because in addition to adjusting yellow light in the sky. Auto Levels will
Adjustments submenu performs the highlights and shadows, the command attempt to adjust the shadows so they
same function: It darkens the darkest looks for a significant midtone area that appear black instead of the blue you
area (shadows) and brightens the lightest is nearly neutral, and matches each color want. Using Auto Contrast does the best
area (highlights). The differences among channel’s midtones. job here since it adds contrast yet retains
the commands are how they adjust each the intentional blue cast in the shadows.
color channel and whether or not they 쐇 Not all photos benefit from Auto
adjust an image’s midtones. Color, however. “SAILBOAT.JPG” does Color pros often prefer Adjustment
not have any significant nearly neutral layers to the Auto commands because
쐃 After opening “LAUGHINGMAN.JPG,” areas, so when you apply Auto Color, the they allow immediate fine-tuning of
access the Info palette (F8), position the attempt to match midtones isn’t helpful. the results and don’t permanently al-
cursor over the wall behind the man, and And, this image’s yellow color cast is ter the image pixels. Click the Options
read the values in the palette. Normally, pervasive—looking in the Info palette, button in the Levels or Curves dialog
neutral gray areas should have nearly you can see low Blue values not just in box to make the same adjustments us-
identical values for Red, Green, and Blue. the midtone areas, but in the highlights ing different choices in the Auto Color
Here, the Green value is much lower than and shadows as well. If you choose Correction Options dialog box.
the others, which is why the wall and the Auto Contrast, you can see it adjusts • Auto Contrast =
man’s shirt have a magenta color cast. all three channels identically, so it Enhance Monochromatic Contrast
For experimental purposes, duplicate the doesn’t alleviate the yellow cast. Now • Auto Levels =
Background layer three times. Select the apply Auto Levels—this works best Enhance Per Channel Contrast
top duplicate layer, and choose Image > because it maximizes contrast in each • Auto Color =
FOR USERS OF PHOTOSHOP 7 AND LATER. COMMANDS AND IMAGES SHOWN IN PHOTOSHOP 7.
Adjustments > Auto Contrast. As you can channel separately to adjust highlights Find Dark & Light Colors +
see, this command doesn’t address the and shadows. Since it balances the Blue Snap Neutral Midtones
midtone color cast because it isn’t pres- channel values with the other channels, You can combine options, too. For ex-
ent in the highlights or shadows. Turn Auto Levels eliminates the yellow cast. ample, choosing Enhance Per Channel
off the visibility of the layer, and apply The command is more aggressive with Contrast and Snap Neutral Midtones
Auto Levels to the next duplicate—you’ll shadow and highlight adjustments than on “LAUGHINGMAN.JPG” provides the
get a similar result. Turn off the visibility Auto Color, so it makes colors pop. benefit of applying Auto Color with
of the Auto Levels layer, and apply Auto the increased contrast of Auto Levels.
Color to the bottom duplicate layer. Auto 쐋 “LAKE.JPG” needs a contrast adjust-
Color is able to eliminate the midtone ment that won’t alter its dramatic purple-
cast, and the R, G, and B values in the blue tone. The image’s lack of neutrals Gary Young has written Photoshop
Info palette nearly match. The man’s skin and its strong color confuses Auto Color. courses taught worldwide in training
tone dramatically improved, too. This Apply it, and you’ll see it weakens the centers and online. Contact him at
image is an excellent candidate for Auto purple and draws attention to the bit of gary@tectrixinc.com.
PHOTOSHOP FIX 6
AUTO COLOR
AUTO LEVELS
7 JANUARY 2005
T O O L S
BY SIMON TUCKETT
I had always thought of the magic wand, two are adjacent. Select a large 300-pixel In the interests of keeping your
rather derisively, as a tool for newbies. It airbrush and while avoiding the shadow, file size down, once you have a clean
wasn’t until much later that I came to re- paint out the background on the new selection of the vase and shadow, you
alize its power. As it often happens, it was middle layer. Leave a couple of spots un- can load the selection by choosing
the result of a job that went to press with touched for the purpose of this tutorial. Select > Inverse, and Select > Modify >
a mistake included. I had used a white Expand. Set it to 20 pixels, and choose
airbrush to remove the background of 쐋 Now choose the magic wand tool Image > Crop. By expanding your
an image while protecting the shadow (W), set Tolerance to 0 in the Options selection a bit, it ensures you’ll crop
and the product. I must have missed ar- bar, and check Use All Layers. Uncheck outside the end of the shadow.
eas because it showed up on the printed Contiguous so you’ll select the target
piece as regions with a faint dot. Not a value anywhere in the file—checking it I will often use the magic wand
glaring error, but certainly annoying selects connected pixels only. Click once to test color matching. First, I fill a
and more than a little embarrassing. in the white area close to the vase. If your rectangular marquee selection with
I now use the following technique with image resembles what mine did, you’ll my target color on a new layer in my
the magic wand tool to identify such have ants marching everywhere. It’s not image. I select the magic wand and in
regions before they become problems. as clean as you thought! Now Option/ the Options bar, I check Use All Layers,
Alt-click the Save selection as channel uncheck Contiguous, and set Toler-
쐃 I have already color-balanced and icon in the Channels palette, and choose ance to 10. I click in my color rectangle
created a path for the image “VASE.PSD.” Masked Areas in the dialog box. When to select all the pixels on either side of
Your goal is to make the vase image’s the alpha channel appears in the Chan- my target color rectangle. Obviously,
FOR USERS OF PHOTOSHOP 6 AND LATER. COMMANDS AND IMAGES SHOWN IN PHOTOSHOP CS.
background white while protecting its nels palette, turn on the channel’s visibil- the Tolerance varies based on how
shadow. To load the vase outline path, ity, deselect your selection, and airbrush stringent my color matching require-
Command/Ctrl-click it in the Paths pal- all the regions that still need to be white. ments are. This technique provides
ette. Press Command/Ctrl-J to copy the You won’t see a change in the image as a powerful visual cue as to which
selection to a layer, then add a new layer you paint because you are looking at the regions match the target color.
and position it under the vase. alpha channel while painting on the RGB
channels. The tinted selection region is
쐇 Make your Foreground Color white. only a visual guide to the problem areas
Speaking of eradication of potential and even then, it only indicates regions
mistakes, get into the habit of physically that don’t match the pixel you clicked.
choosing white, whether by clicking
white in the Foreground/Background 쐏 Click in the white region again with
section of the toolbox, choosing it from the magic wand tool, and you are likely
a swatch, or specifying it in the Color to find a tremendous improvement. The
palette. Never assume you have white background should now be all white. If
chosen just because the active color not, save another alpha channel selec- Simon Tuckett is an illustrator and
looks white. A 4% white value looks tion and target the remaining regions retoucher in Toronto. For more infor-
much the same as a 0% value unless the with the airbrush. mation, visit www.simontuckett.com.
PHOTOSHOP FIX 8
9 JANUARY 2005
T E C H N I Q U E S
BY DOUG NELSON
except it controls the amount of blur. The “Combined,” and deselect the selection. but always inspect the image using
whiter values receive more of the blur More Accurate before clicking OK.
and blacker values get less. This is better, 쐂 Select the duplicate Background layer,
but the sundial is blurred even though apply Lens Blur again, but this time use
it’s the nearest object, which is a dead the Combined channel as the depth map. Doug Nelson is a freelance writer,
giveaway that your depth-of-field isn’t Now we’re getting somewhere! The path technical editor, and founder of
genuine, so cancel Lens Blur. gets increasingly blurred as it recedes RetouchPRO.com.
PHOTOSHOP FIX 10
BEFORE
11 JANUARY 2005
S T U D I O
BY SEÁN DUGGAN
쐃 To open the File Browser, you can 쐋 I then move on to the initial sorting text to supplement the criteria. I typically
choose File > Browse, or press Shift- process using the Flagging feature. This use the name of the location or person in
Command/Ctrl-O, or click the Toggle is usually a simple yes or no judgment. the image, a numerical representation of
File Browser icon on the left side of (Files not flagged are deleted.) Start with the date, and a three-digit serial number.
the Photoshop Menu bar. When the the first thumbnail in a folder and use
File Browser opens, you’ll see tabbed the left and right arrow keys to move 쐄 You can also apply keywords to help
palettes with names such as Folders and through the group. You can flag a file you easily find images in the future by
Metadata. Arrange these to your liking by clicking the flag icon at the top of clicking on the Keywords tab of the File
by click-dragging a tab. I like to arrange the File Browser, but it’s faster to use the Browser. If you want to create a new
mine with all the tabs at the top left so shortcut Command/Ctrl-‘ (apostrophe). Keyword Set, click the arrow in the up-
I can easily switch between them. By To unflag a file, press the shortcut again. per right corner of the Keywords pane,
placing the cursor on a pane border, Once you’ve sorted the folder, choose or Control/Right-click in the Keywords
you can pull it down to provide more Unflagged Files from the View menu, Se- section. Once a new set is added, you can
room for previews. To save different lect All, and press Delete/Backspace. Just follow the same procedure to add key-
configurations as a workspace, choose remember you cannot undo the deletion. words. To apply keywords to a selected
Window (from the Photoshop Menu bar) image or group of images, simply click in
> Workspace > Save Workspace. I have After you’ve deleted any unwanted the empty box to the left of a keyword’s
saved workspaces for sorting thumb- shots, use the ranking system to further name to place a checkmark there.
nails, viewing a large preview, and categorize them. From the Browser’s
working with metadata and keywords. View menu, choose Show Rank. Below This is a great tip! After you finish
Choose an image folder of your own, the thumbnails, click after Rank, and organizing images, choose File >
and follow my File Browser workflow. enter as many as 16 characters for a rank, Export Cache from the File Browser
although designations such as A–Z or menu. This places the files used to
쐇 After downloading images, I add my 0–9 work best. Once you’ve highlighted display thumbnails, large previews,
copyright notice to them. This can easily a ranking field, press Tab to quickly move and metadata into your folder of im-
be applied to entire folders of images to each Rank field and enter a ranking ages. (Usually these files exist at the
without having to open every single file. for all the thumbnails. Now with the system level of your hard drive.) With
Click one of your thumbnails to select it. File Browser’s Sort menu, you can sort the cache exported, the folder can be
From the File Browser’s Menu bar, choose images by rank to see your best shots burned to a CD, and you won’t have to
File > File Info, and enter your copyright displayed together. wait for the File Browser to build the
information. Click the arrow in the upper thumbnails and previews every time
right to access the submenu, and choose 쐏 Once I’ve sorted the files, I like to you want to browse the CD.
Save Metadata Template. Name it, and rename them something more meaning-
click OK. In the File Browser, choose Edit ful than the default names created by
> Select All, then choose Edit > Append my camera. Choose Select All from the
Metadata and select the template you File Browser’s Edit menu, then choose Seán Duggan is a co-author of Real
just saved. You can also use this method Automate > Batch Rename. (You can also World Digital Photography and Pho-
to add general keywords that will apply Control/Right-click to access most of the toshop CS Artistry. For more informa-
FOR USERS OF PHOTOSHOP CS.
to an entire folder of images. More cus- File Browser’s functionality.) The Batch tion, visit www.seanduggan.com,
tomized keywords can be added on a Rename dialog box lets you choose from www.digitalphotobook.net, and
per-image basis later. preset criteria, and you can add custom www.bridgesweb.org.
PHOTOSHOP FIX 12
13 JANUARY 2005
E X P E R T T I P S
BY BIG AL GRUSWITZ
and 2-pixel Radius looks too blurry the shadow appears above the ele- like clumpy photographic grain (4).
(3), Cancel the filter and access the ment, it’s only a selection at this point.
Channels palette. Turn off the visibility d. Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to
of the Black channel, and apply the soften the mask’s edges, and press Q
filter again to further dither the Cyan, to return to Standard Mode.
Magenta, and Yellow channels while e. Add a new layer beneath, and fill it Big Al Gruswitz has been art director
retaining the sharpness of the Black with 100% black (2). Don’t use a four- and associate creative director with
channel (4). color black or you’ll get banding. If agencies such as Campbell Ewald and
your background is not white, set the Saatchi & Saatchi. He runs Boundless
Remember, any printed material you layer blending mode to Multiply. Creativity, which specializes in com-
scan has a copyright! You cannot f. Press Q, select the gradient tool, and plex retouching and realistic illustra-
reproduce any image scanned from choose the Foreground to Transparent tions. For more information, visit
published works without permission. option. Draw a gradient masking the www.boundless-creativity.com.
shadow more in the back than in the
front (3).
g. Return to Standard Mode, and apply
a Gaussian Blur to soften the shadow.
With the selection still active, Option/
Alt-click the Add a mask icon and the
shadow gradually fades (4). Add a
solid-color layer at the bottom of the
stack. Now that’s realistic!
PHOTOSHOP FIX 14
1 2
ARTIST SUBMISSIONS:
Click Artist Submissions at
www.photoshopfix.com.
EDITORIAL FEEDBACK:
photoshopfix@dgusa.com
15 JANUARY 2005
R E S O U R C E S
Considered the industry standard of excellence, an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) credential
expresses that you have demonstrated proficiency with one or more Adobe software products.
As an individual, an ACE credential allows you to get your resumé noticed and gain recognition
from your employer. As a business owner, an ACE credential helps you attract and win new busi-
ness, and differentiate yourself from competitors. To become an ACE, you must pass one or more
product-specific proficiency exams and agree to the ACE terms and conditions.