Price: $6.00
Format: eBook, PDF format, 29 pages
Size: 16.4 MB
Requirement: Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0 or greater
Archives For photoshop tutorials
Here’s a shot from Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. In an earlier post, we talked about using histogram to capture details in the highlights. Here, we’re going to talk a little bit about bringing out details in every part of the image.
After RAW processing, the photo looked like this:
Notice the lack of details in the water. We can use the lasso tool to draw a selection around the highlights in the water, and then look at the histogram to see what’s happening in that area (see image above). In this case, the histogram shows that the water is not overexposed – but the peak pretty narrow, and skewed to the right. There’s not a lot of detail in the water, and the highlights are pretty bright. We’ll blend a second exposure for that area and see if we can reduce the brightness just a bit – pull that peak apart with a little more contrast.
There are a variety of options for fixing the highlights. We might use an adjustment layer and a mask to bring out the details in the waterfall. Or, we might blend two exposures – one for the highlights in the water and the other for the surrounding forest. Either option will work just fine. Here’s the finished image after blending. The histogram for the selected area is wider, which shows that we have much better detail in the water.
To learn more about Layer and Mark check our iHDR webinars and our eBooks:
Price: $21.00 (10% Discount)
Format: eBooks, PDF format
Collection: Waterfalls, Coastlines, Mountains, Details & Macro
Requirement: Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0 or greater
Take a look at the workflow I used to process this photograph from Eagle Creek in Oregon.
Raw Image
Raw Image + iHDR Highlight Blend
Take a look at the RAW image above on the left – the trees look just right, but there are some blown highlights in the water. This is a typical problem when shooting water. The solution is simple. I process the same image again – this time for the highlights in the water. I blend the two images using layers and masks in Photoshop. The result looks like the image on the right. Both the trees and the water are properly exposed, and we can see details in highlights as well as shadows.
The next step is to make some minor adjustments to restore contrast in the image. I use a stylus to draw selections with my Wacom graphics tablet and create masks to make adjustments that are targeted to specific areas. A little bit more contrast at the river’s edge, some softer contrast in the water… and so on. The image below shows the layers and masks I used to make those adjustments.
Raw Image + iHDR Highlight Blend + Targeted Adjustment
Most of our post-processing revolves around these simple steps. To learn more check out our iHDR webinars and eBooks below:
One of the things that people ask us about a lot is sharpening. So, here’s a quick tutorial on how we do it. There are lots of different ways to sharpen an image – and lots of tool available. Right now, we’re using a great tool called Nik Output Sharpener for sharpening images for print and preparing images for web display. Jay used Nik Sharpener to sharpen the image above.
Nik’s sharpening software lets us control the edge sharpness and local contrast independently, and it’s “structure” control lets us get picky about fine details. We fine-tune our sharpening with their “U-Point” technology – which makes the whole process easy, and gives us even more control. Most importantly – in our opinion anyway – the final results are displayed in Photoshop as a separate layer. That means we can create and adjust masks to further restrict the sharpening to specific areas of the image. (Did I mention that we’re control freaks?)
Here’s what our workflow looks like.
We start by selecting a preset option that is close to what we want for our finished image. We want the image to look sharp – but it’s important to avoid haloing along high-contrast edges. The preset option we choose differs depending upon the image we’re working with… but once we’ve chosen one that’s close to what we want, we start refining. We use control points to define local contrast and structure selectively. Maybe we want more contrast in one area and less in another – control points let us make very specific adjustments as we work.
When we’re happy with the results in every part of the image, we click “done” and the image opens automatically in Photoshop. There’s the layer we’ve just created… ready and waiting. In an image like this one, we might want to remove sharpening in some areas – like the water and the sky – to eliminate noise. We prefer a softer look for skies and water, so we don’t want to sharpen those areas. A quick adjustment to the mask does the trick, and we’re done.
To learn more about Layers and Masks please check our our eBooks and Webinars below:
We are often asked why we need to understand Layers & Masks in Photoshop? After all, we can always blend or adjust images using HDR software, right? Here’s a quick explanation.
Overexposed Highlights
After iHDR Blend
Take a look at the two images above. Notice that the highlights in the image on the left are overexposed. You can’t see any detail in the white areas in the water. In the second image, I corrected the overexposure with our iHDR workflow. I can create a similar blend using an automated HDR tool. But this is not a finished image. I want to take it further. I think the image needs some corrections to improve the contrast in the rocks, and to help focus the viewers attention on the water itself. To accomplish this, I used different layers and masks to limit each adjustments to a specific region. The image below show all the layers and masks I used, and the areas I targeted with each adjustment.
Adjustment Layers and Masks
It is true that I can accomplish the same adjustment without layers and masks in Photoshop, but adjustment layers combined with masks allow me a lot more freedom. I can fine-tune the adjustments I made on each layer without destroying the other layers. I can make adjustments to a single layer without having to retrace my steps. I can turn layers on and off to see what effect they have on one another. And I can add to or subtract from each mask to refine it at any time during the workflow.
I often save the image as a PSD file – with all those layers and masks intact – and return to it a few days later. In this way, I can keep track of all the adjustments I’ve made.
So, layers and masks let me take my blended image to the next level, and they allow me to preserve the processing steps I used to create the image. As my workflow gets more complex, layers and masks allow me to keep track of each adjustment, and gives me much greater control.
To learn more about Layers and Masks, check out Session 2 of our Nature Photography and iHDR Workflow Recording: Histograms and RAW Processing
Price: $10.00
Format: eBook, PDF format, 37 pages
Size: 21.9 MB
Requirement: Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0 or greater
Photo processed for Highlights
Unprocessed Photo
Take a look at these two photos of the same waterfall. Notice that the water in the image on the left is overexposed. This is a common problem when shooting scenes like this. The brighter water tends to lose detail even though the rest of the scene is properly exposed. The image on the right is properly exposed in every area. Notice the clear details in the water. I used our iHDR manual blending technique to make sure the entire image was properly exposed.
How do you know when you need more detail, and when you don’t? Take a look at the scene you are photographing. Can you see details in front of you? When I was was photographing this waterfall on an overcast day I could see details in the flowing water. However, if I look directly at the sun, I can’t see any detail at all… so if I’m shooting into the sun, I don’t expect to be able to see details in my finished image. The photograph below shows what I’m talking about. You can see lots of detail in the trees and the mountains… but the area right around the sun is “blown out”. In this case, it looks natural.
Of course, it’s important to keep in mind that photography is art. Only the artist can decide how much detail is right for a given situation.
To Learn more about our iHDR Technique check out our online webinar recordings:
Have you heard of HDR? Have you tried it? Here’s a recording from Jay’s recent Google+ Hangout with Alex Koloskov, where we discuss the HDR Workflow, the camera gear we use, and the different programs that we use to generate HDR images.
The original discussion was broadcast live using the Google+ Public Broadcast feature. For those who couldn’t join us for the original discussion, we hope you enjoy the recording! If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment on this post.
When Jay and I have a series of steps that need to be accomplished in Photoshop over and over again, we build an action. The image you see above has a simple frame around it. If you look at any of my photographs on social networking sites – like Google+ or Facebook – you’ll see the same frame again and again. A few years ago, I built a simple action that would create that frame automatically. So now, every time I finish processing an image, I just click a single button. The image is re-sized, converted to the sRGB profile, framed, labeled, and saved in my portfolio. It’s quick and easy. When I prepare an image for my website, I do the same thing. One click and it’s done. Actions are a perfect solution to handling any repetitive tasks in PS… and we get questions about them all the time.
A few weeks ago, we hosted a hangout on Google+. We invited G+ community members to join us for a brief tutorial and a discussion about Photoshop Actions. We stared off by walking through the steps required to build a very simple action in Photoshop – and then we talked about saving, loading, and running actions. Afterwards, we took questions from the group. By the time we finished, we’d talked a bit about editing actions, and the limitations of using actions in PS.
Of course, we understand that many people can’t join us when we host a hangout… so, we recorded it for you. We’re posting it here for those who are interested. We hope you enjoy it!
