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10/22/2005 04:32:32 PM · #126 |
| Thanks for the response Robert. Hope it wasn't an inappropriate question. I'll check the archives. - Julie |
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10/22/2005 05:21:57 PM · #127 |
Originally posted by JulieG:
Thanks for the response Robert. Hope it wasn't an inappropriate question. I'll check the archives. - Julie |
Gosh, no, Julie. I just don't have the answer. If anyone does, feel free to offer it up here.
R.
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10/23/2005 03:14:56 AM · #128 |
Originally posted by bear_music:
Originally posted by JulieG:
Thanks for the response Robert. Hope it wasn't an inappropriate question. I'll check the archives. - Julie |
Gosh, no, Julie. I just don't have the answer. If anyone does, feel free to offer it up here.
R. |
Julie, I have not had a chance to play with Smart Sharpen much, but here is a video by Scott Kelby I came across in response to a question in another thread. He gives a very good overview of the tool. (link --QT video)
David
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10/25/2005 08:34:52 AM · #129 |
| Britannica - that link pretty much answered all my questions about smart sharpen - thanks for pointing me to it |
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10/31/2005 03:06:34 AM · #130 |
Basic Photoshop Workflow — Continued, Part VI
In Part I we uploaded and image from the camera into an organized file structure on our hard drive. We then saved the image as a .psd file so that we could work on it in a format that allowed us to keep layers and so forth intact in the saved version. We learned that we will NEVER do any work on our original file, but instead will clone off new copies of this file as needed to experiment with. We learned that our basic workflow is Open/save as .psd/adjust image/save final version at full size with layers intact/resize and adjust/publish to web. We looked at the concept of saving more than one version of an image, and why we'd do that.
In Part II we discussed what the Photoshop tool IS from a basic, photographic point of view, and how we would be using it as a part of our basic workflow for presenting images. We touched on what might best be done in-camera and what might best be left "neutral" so we could fine-tune it in Photoshop. We listed 7 basic things that Photoshop is used for by photographers. Finally, we promised the next section of this tutorial would discuss actual Photoshop workflow, the order in which we do things.
In Part III we took a diversion and discussed the basic use of "layers" in Photoshop. We showed how layers are not as complicated a concept as they seem at first glance, and why they are vital to an organized workflow in image editing.
In Part IV we discussed a simple Photoshop "workflow"; some of the many things we can/should do in Photoshop, and in what order we should do them?
In Part V we learned about Unsharp Mask, how and when in the workflow to use it.
Now we're going to start exploring some assorted topics; we're through with the basic workflow and ready to address subjects of general interest in basic editing. I'm open to suggestions from this point on.
Resizing to 640 pixels and Adding Borders in Photoshop
At the end of the last lesson we had produced a full-sized, essentially finished image working from our original, untouched file. Now it's time to reduce it in size so it can be posted to DPC. We are limited to a maximum of 640 pixels in size in any direction, and to a file size of 150 Kb.
The simplest, most straightforward way to adjust the dimensions is to go to "Image/image size" and set the larger of your two dimensions to 640 pixels (or whatever size you need to allow for borders, more on that shortly); be sure "resample image" is checked and be sure the "proportional" field is checked. The dpi figure is irrelevant for web display (trust me on that). If "proportional" is not checked, you can adjust the two axes of the image independently and make it more or less skinny, so to speak, but we don't want that; so have "proportional" checked at all times.
However, there's a small problem with this approach; we started with, let's say, an image that was 3,500 pixels on its long dimension, and we are reducing that by about two and a half times. When we do this, we are essentially throwing detail out the window. In images of any complexity at all, we have serious problems holding onto detail as we downsize this dramatically. This shows up very noticeably in fine, diagonal lines especially. If we have a telephone wire raking diagonally across the sky, for example, it will most likely render as a zig-zaggy diagonal line instead of a straight one when we downsize in one giant leap.
The traditional way to avoid this is to reduce size in small increments of approximately 10% at a time. This works very well but it time consuming. There are Photoshop actions available for downloading that automate this process. My web is down right now, but I'll link to some later. I've been told that PS CS2 does the downsizing "intelligently" without additional actions, but I don't use CS2 so I can't advise on that. Any readers familiar with this feature of CS2, feel free to weigh in OK?
Anyhow, now that you've downsized to 640 pixels, do a save-as (still working with a .psd file, .jpg comes after we do the borders) to "image_name_640.psd" and work on this new, smaller file from this point on. The main thing to do here is to take a look at the picture in full viewing size ("view/actual pixels") and decide if it needs any further adjustment to show well at the small size. Typically these reduced-size images lose both apparent sharpness and apparent contrast. They usually can be improved by doing another run of USM on them, which will bump both sharpness and contrast a tad. So do that now, and save it when you have a finished image.
Now it's time to add borders. For the moment we will ignore the fact that adding borders will make the image larger than 640 pixels in size. In your final workflow, once you're used to adding borders, you will have a good idea how larger your border is going to be before you resize, and you'll take that into account when doing the resizing described above. I typically use somewhere from 8-12 pixels for boders, so I resize to 628 or 630 pixels, usually.
Anyway, the simplest and most intuitive way to add a border to our image is by increasing the canvas size so it is larger than the image, and by changing the color of the canvas to include the color(s) we have chosen for our border.
In your tool palette, near the bottom, are two overlapping "color picker" squares, for foreground (upper square) and background (lower square). There's a little double-ended arrow connecting the two; click on this arrow and they will exchange places, so that foreground becomes background and vice versa. Double-click on either of the squares and you'll get a dialogue box for interactively changing the color of that square. While this dialogue box is open, if you move your cursor over the image (indeed, anywhere within the PS screen) it will turn into an eyedropper tool; click on a color, that color will be inserted into the square.
So, for example, if you want a border of the same color as your sky, you can use this eyedropper tool and click on this sky, and the color will show up in the active color-picker box.
Now, let's suppose you want to do a double border, a simple one. You have a darkish picture, and you want to border it with a thin, white line and then a wider, dark blue line. Go to the background color square, double click on it, and move the selection marker to the far upper, left portion of the color field that appears; this will always be white. Now that white is your background color, double-click on the foreground color square and choose the blue you want, either by lifting it from the image with the eyedropper tool or by navigating the color selection palette until you find "your" blue.
You now have two colors selected, white and blue, and white is the "background" color, so it's the one that will be applied to the canvas in the next step.
Now, in the main menus, go to "image/canvas size" and click. You will get a dialogue box that shows you two fields where you can specify the increased size you want to add on each axis, and a graphic of 9 squares beneath that. You want to click on the center square of those 9; this will ensure that the border you apply will be apportioned evenly on all sides of the image. You are making a thin, white line first, so in the dialogue boxes type "2" in both fields and select "pixels" for both fields. When you click OK, this will draw a 1-pixel wide, white line around the perimeter of your image.
Why ONE pixel when you specified TWO? Because you are adding 2 pixels to the canvas along each axis, and by clicking the center square of the 9 you told Photoshop to divide the added pixels between left and right, top and bottom. If you wanted a 2-pixel line, you'd have typed "4" in the boxes.
Now go back to the tools palette and click the double-headed arrow to move white to foreground and blue to background. Head back to "image/canvas size" and specify 8 pixels in each of the fields, then click OK.
You have now increased your canvas size by a total of 10 pixels on each axis, and have a 1-pixel white border surrounded by a 5-pixel blue border. That's all there is to it. If you know in advance you're going to use a 5-pixel border all around, do your resize from full size down to 630 pixels; when you're done with the borders, you will be back up to 640 pixels.
It's better to do borders last, rather than on the full-size original, because if the border is already present on the resized image, you may get some sharpening artifacts when you apply USM to the resized image. It goes without saying, I hope, that not all images NEED borders. This is a very personal issue. IMO most images benefit from a simple, small, tasteful border, but not everyone agrees with me. Sometimes much larger borders can be very effective. As a rule, loud and colorful borders don't do well in DPC, so be careful with that.
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This pretty much covers our basic, simple workflow, except for "save for web" issues, which I'll do next. I'm open to requests for what to get into next, people. What do YOU want to see?
Robt.
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11/01/2005 11:00:14 PM · #131 |
| Gah! Forrest for the trees. Doing borders simply and well has been bothering me forever. Such a simple method that works so well! Thanks again Bear! |
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11/02/2005 12:13:59 AM · #132 |
Glad someone's read it and appreciated it :-) This group seems to have died out, eh?
R.
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11/02/2005 12:20:25 AM · #133 |
Hi Robert, Still here and reading all of the posts. Have printed out the thread as well. Thank you so much for your time and information, I really appreciate it. Aloha, Renee :)
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11/02/2005 12:36:07 AM · #134 |
| not at all bear- we are all here!!! & I have learned so much! :0) |
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11/02/2005 12:58:09 AM · #135 |
Check in when I have time - enjoying reading a different point of view.
David
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11/02/2005 01:28:54 AM · #136 |
Originally posted by Britannica:
Check in when I have time - enjoying reading a different point of view.
David |
oooh, OOOH, that's damning with faint praise, David! jejeje™
Robt.
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11/02/2005 02:14:37 AM · #137 |
Originally posted by bear_music:
Originally posted by Britannica:
Check in when I have time - enjoying reading a different point of view.
David |
oooh, OOOH, that's damning with faint praise, David! jejeje™
Robt. |
:D No venom intended! -- Diversity is the only true strength. :D
David
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11/02/2005 05:00:08 PM · #138 |
| I'm still here as well! Just found out about the new borders post, and will read it as soon as possible! Borders have bothered me for quite a while now, thanks! |
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11/04/2005 11:39:30 PM · #139 |
Bear, I just wanted to let you know I had some free time to play around tonight and I finally got what you were saying about layers...
Thanks again for taking the time to type all this out. It is appreciated. :) |
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11/05/2005 12:30:24 AM · #140 |
Originally posted by bear_music:
Glad someone's read it and appreciated it :-) This group seems to have died out, eh?
R. |
Please dont think it has died out I am still avidly reading. Will have time in a couple of days to do homework!! |
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11/05/2005 09:28:09 AM · #141 |
This thread is still very much alive Bear. It is a great effort from your side and is highly appreciated. I am glad to hear that you are willing to discuss various, more specific subjects later on.
Personally I am very busy at the moment and have not had time to shoot or postprocess much. But once I have some free time I am sure I will have lots of questions.... :)
thx for your work.
Michael |
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11/06/2005 10:29:22 PM · #142 |
| I have a question for you- I can't save my raw files as a psd. It only offers me tiff or jpeg. Is tiff ok to work in or would you save it as a psd as soon as you opened it in Photoshop? Thanks :0) |
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11/06/2005 10:46:53 PM · #143 |
Originally posted by oOWonderBreadOo:
I have a question for you- I can't save my raw files as a psd. It only offers me tiff or jpeg. Is tiff ok to work in or would you save it as a psd as soon as you opened it in Photoshop? Thanks :0) |
I always save-as .psd as soon as I open them in PS. Keeps the TIFF pristine anyway. IMO .psd files are a little faster tow ork on. Not sure if that's a fact but it feels that way to me.
R.
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12/03/2005 04:23:23 AM · #144 |
| Bear,just wanted to thank you again for all you time and effort that went into these. I have just gone to print them off for future reference and have realised that the printer is out of ink!! |
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12/18/2005 04:51:04 PM · #145 |
Quick question:
If you shoot and process in Adobe RGB, and want to post an image on the web, do you convert it into sRGB first?
If you do convert it to sRGB, you would have to readjust the color, right? Since the color changes everytime I convert from Adobe RGB to sRGB.
Would/Do you save two copies on your computer, an Adobe RGB and a sRGB copy? or discard the sRGB copy once it's uploaded?
Thanks
Eric |
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12/18/2005 05:12:44 PM · #146 |
Originally posted by eswik:
Quick question:
If you shoot and process in Adobe RGB, and want to post an image on the web, do you convert it into sRGB first?
If you do convert it to sRGB, you would have to readjust the color, right? Since the color changes everytime I convert from Adobe RGB to sRGB.
Would/Do you save two copies on your computer, an Adobe RGB and a sRGB copy? or discard the sRGB copy once it's uploaded?
Thanks
Eric |
It's the same as with resizing for different print sizes -- there is alwasy the possibility of needing to make a few fine-tuning tweaks after that drastic an alteration. Save an alternate PSD, starting from the converted image if you feel there is a need to keep the editing steps, but if the final image is all your after there may not be a need.
There is certainly no reason to convert the original PSD just to throw an image onto a website.
David
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12/20/2005 01:19:45 AM · #147 |
Originally posted by Britannica:
Originally posted by eswik:
Quick question:
If you shoot and process in Adobe RGB, and want to post an image on the web, do you convert it into sRGB first?
If you do convert it to sRGB, you would have to readjust the color, right? Since the color changes everytime I convert from Adobe RGB to sRGB.
Would/Do you save two copies on your computer, an Adobe RGB and a sRGB copy? or discard the sRGB copy once it's uploaded?
Thanks
Eric |
It's the same as with resizing for different print sizes -- there is alwasy the possibility of needing to make a few fine-tuning tweaks after that drastic an alteration. Save an alternate PSD, starting from the converted image if you feel there is a need to keep the editing steps, but if the final image is all your after there may not be a need.
There is certainly no reason to convert the original PSD just to throw an image onto a website.
David |
Since the sRGB copy is intended for web viewing, it won't be very big anyway. Save it as a jpg so you can always post this picture again elsewhere.
R. |
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01/29/2006 01:33:57 PM · #148 |
Bumping this thread as there are quite a few people who may not be aware of it. You can start at the beginning and scroll through to find lesson posts with boldface in them to follow along.
R. |
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01/30/2006 06:39:55 PM · #149 |
thank you very much, bear music, you've been really precious, I'm so glad there's people like you in the world who sow help for strangers :)
I have two questions: how do you "flatten" an image? and what's the purpose and usage of curves?
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01/30/2006 06:44:26 PM · #150 |
Originally posted by gattamarta:
thank you very much, bear music, you've been really precious, I'm so glad there's people like you in the world who sow help for strangers :)
I have two questions: how do you "flatten" an image? and what's the purpose and usage of curves? |
To flatten an image, go to "layers/flatten image". You will also have an option to "merge visible"; sometimes in the middle of processing it is beneficial to make the base layer invisible and merge the rest into a single layer above the base layer.
"Curves" are a more sophisticated version of "levels", which in turn is a more sophisticated version of "brightness/contrast". Speaking very generally, you can use levels to adjust the white and black points, then use curves to adjust the contrast between the extremes of white and black without pushing either of them past the scale.
R.
Message edited by author 2006-01-30 18:45:04. |
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