Photoshop Tutorials - Special Offer

Finding Photoshop tutorials that are easy to understand and which address the basics in a comprehensive manner is not easy. I can highly recommend tutorials by local photographer and world famous photo-blogger David Nightingale.

David is publishing via his website www.chromasia.com an excellent series of on-line Photoshop tutorials that are proving extremely popular. David was a university lecturer before he became a full time photographer and this shows in his easy to follow tutorial style.

The tutorials, published monthly, have so far covered :-

• Tonal Range and the Curve tool
• Toning coloured images
• Black and White – part one
• Landscapes: creating dramatic skies
• Portraits: part one
• Next month: An introduction to LAB colour mode.
  

Each tutorial comes with a set of down-loadable images for you to practice with, video clips to explain particular points and a printable pdf document.

There is a modest charge for each tutorial or an annual subscription is available for less tha the cost of a photography magazine. Dave Nightingale is offering PPS members a special limited period offer 25% discount for an annual subscriptions. For more information and a sample tutorial click here.

Or you can find out more about the individual tutorials by clicking this link.

Shutterchance Workspace Problem

Processing images for upload to Shuterchance.

I noticed recently that some of my images were being degraded when uploaded to Shutterchance. This was mainly evident in well saturated colour images. See example here. After some experimentation and an exchange in the Shutterchance Forum I came to the conclusion that the problem was due to my images having an AdobeRGB profile whereas Shutterchance webpages appear to require images with an sRGB profile. Images which are not in sRGB are automatically converted on upload. As sRGB contains less colour information than Adobe RGB profiles there is a loss of colour information, ie some de-saturation!

This is my workaround:-

1. Open your image in Photoshop (CS2: v9) and if the Workspace is not sRGB change it before you start any further processing.
2. I would start by copying the image.
3. To change to sRGB, go to Edit, Assign Profile, and choose sRGB, click OK.
4. You can check the Workspace ID on the bottom margin of your image.
5. The information displayed in the margin by default is the size of the image in pixels, this can be changed by clicking the black arrowhead in the margin, choose “Show” and you will get a list of options one of which will be “Document Profile”, this displays the Workspace identity.
6. I set other image parameters as:-
   Dimensions 72 px/inch, smallest side dimension 700px or largest side maximum 1000px
   JPEG compression 12

I am no Workspace expert so if I you disagree with my comments I would be pleased if you would correct them.

Bleeding Shadows or Highlights

A effect beloved of wedding photographers of old was to use a soft focus filter either on the camera or over the enlarger lens in the darkroom. When a diffusion filter is added to the lens when taking a picture, the highlights bleed into the shadows, lightening them and blurring the edges somewhat. If that same filter is used in the darkroom when printing a negative, the shadows bleed into the highlights. The technique also works well with images of flowers.

These effects can both be recreated in Photoshop.

The effect is rather dependent on image size. This tutorial is based on an image at 300 dpi.

1. Make any cosmetic adjustments to your image, Levels, Curves etc.
2. Duplicate the Background layer
3. Select Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur and set radius to 5.
4. Immediately go to Edit> Fade Gaussian Blur and adjust the amount of Blur to suit.
5. Change the Blend Mode to either Lighten or Darken dependant upon which effect you want.

Tip: If you are using this effect on portraits it can look a bit spooky if the eyes and teeth are blurred. To remove the blur from these areas add a layer mask ( the rectangle with circle in at the bottom of the layers palette) with a small soft brush paint over the eyes and teeth with black selected .

[Click image to enlarge]

Cross Processing

[Click image to enlarge]

Cross processing is the creation of false colours in an image. Traditionally this was created by processing a slide film in negative film chemistry or less commonly vica versa.

The result is high contrast images with blown highlights and their colour balance completely skewed, with a strong green/yellow cast to highlights, blue shadows and magenta reds. Having said that cross-processing can also produce a low-contrast pastel look.

There are numerous ways of producing a cross processed effect in Photoshop. One of the most flexible and none destructive methods is to use the Curves tool to process the individual RGB channels. The secret of success of using this technique is to select the correct blend modes.

1. Open your image and make normal Levels and Curves adjustments.

2. Make sure you have the Layers Palette open

3. Select, Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves, a New Layer dialog box opens, now change the blend Mode to Color and click OK. The Curves adjustment Palette opens.

a. Click the Channel selector and choose RED Channel, Apply a shallow ” S” curve.

b. Select GREEN Channel and click on the centre of the diagonal line and push up to create a very shallow curve.

c. Select BLUE channel , drag the right hand end of the diagonal like down 1 square, drag the lower lefthand end up 1 square.

4. The image can be tweaked by opening a further Curves adjustment layer this time set the Blend Mode to Luminosity, select Layers>New Adjustment Layer>Curves, now change the Blend Mode to Luminosity. Introduce an S curve to adjust contrast if required.

5. Select Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color>Mode=Color, click OK. When the Color Picker opens enter the # “e5ec0c” this is a lime green colour, click OK. Reduce opacity to about 10 - 25% or to suite

6. All these adjustments can be tweaked to produce the effect you find most pleasing, don’t be afraid to experiment.

History in the Making

I experienced a very emotional photographic moment today (16-07-07). Whilst on a visit to London at the weekend I decided on Monday morning to take a trip to The Truman Brewery in Brick Lane to see if I could catch any of the Art Student exhibitions, that's another story.

My last visit to the Brick Lane area was in October last year. I had a great day recording the vast amount of Graffiti in the area. At that time I also visited the location of a painting by the painter Nicholas Middleton who used the railway tunnel at the end of Pedley St, off Brick Lane, as the location for his painting "Scene from a Contemporary Novel". To my horror on my visit today I discovered the Pedley St and the Bridge are no more along with 90% of the Graffiti I recorded, including some classic Banksy stuff.

Why? Because, around what was the old Shoreditch station, which closed in June 2006, they are building a new station which will be part of the new Overground rail network covering London, as part of the developments for the Olympics. They call it progress. I know there are photographers out there who are recording the East End of London before the Olympics developments sweep history under the carpet. We have a duty as photographers to record the world as we find it. Get out there and get recording before it is too late. You will discover some great images in the process.

The images I recorded in October are now, I assume, of immense historical value.

To see a mix of the images I recorded in October 2006 and July 2007 click the image below to visit my Picasa Gallery or view the slide show.

Graffiti - Brick Lane Area

Blue Screen of Death - Rescue

What to do when your Laptop Dies

I have been going to update my computer system since last Christmas but have not been able to make up my mind which way to jump. In the mean time I have been relying on my aging Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop which is at least 8 years old and gets plenty of hammer.

My very worst nightmare happened, it was only a matter of time! Everything ground to a halt and in the process of shutting everything down the dreaded Blue Screen appeared with the error message KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR. According to Microsoft this could have been due to anyone of a number of possibilities all of which made me want to slit my throat there and then. From the unlikely to the unthinkable, new hardware or software, a boot sector virus, loose RAM, motherboard failure, IDE controller failure, HD failure. Because I did not make a note of the code which preceded the error message I had no way of working out which of these failure it could be. Instinct told me it was dread of dreads a HD failure!!!!! EXPLETIVE.......

Where do I go now? It was well past closing time so it was no use ringing the TechGuys at PC World, as though I would! Much better bet, a quick email to my son and heir, better known to some of you as Drewble, he sorts out this sort of thing for a living - HELP.

I awoke to find a reply from Andrew suggesting that I remove the HD from the laptop and insert it in an external HDD cady which could be run from a USB port. He recommended a 2.5in Icy HDD enclosure which I could have obtained fro my local Maplins for the sum of £29.99 but I discovered that PC World which is next door, had an Akasa Integral 2.5in external enclosure for £19.99, so that was the one I bought, I am a pensioner, almost. I also bought a new 2.5in HD for the Inspiron whilst I was at it, a Samsung 80GB HD for the princely sum of £59.99. So with the goodies under my arm I set off home more with hope than expectation.

I removed the Inspiron HD and inserted it in the new enclosure, a simple job. The hardest part was getting the HD out of the laptop but it just needed a bit more brute force than I was applying. The only viable PC available to test the new gizzmo was my old Dell W98E. So I installed the drivers that came with the HDD enclosure and connected the USB (1.1) cable and the 5v USB power cable which were provided. The device, according to the literature works with W98E and USB 1.1. I was delighted to discover the HD was spinning in the enclosure but alas I could not see the drive, failure, may be not!

At this point I decided to fit the new Samsung HD to the Inspiron and reinstall XP. this was straight forward the laptop booted from the XP Pro CD and installed itself no problem. I decided to try the Akaska HDD before installing all the Windows updates. Plugged in the cables, again 1.1 on the Inspiron, - BINGO the laptop detected the device and autoplay found all my folders and files - YIPEEEEEEEE......... we were back in business.

The moral of this story is, isn't it always? Back up your data and preferably create a HD image so that you don't have the fag of reinstalling everything.

Write out 100 times - I must back up my data..........

WARNING - this fix is the equivalent of using a Defibrillator on a dying man it may only work once. If your HD does fire up you may only have the one chance to recover your data, so copy off the important stuff first. Mine ran long enough to recover "My Documents" and all sub-folders, which was pretty large but then it made a horrible grinding noise and stopped never to go again! Best of luck.

Don't blame me if it does not work but you can send a cheque if it does, I will leave the amount up to your gratefulness!

Ghost Ship

This is the method I used to create the image below from the image above:-

1. Duplicate background layer, Filter> Styilize> Solarize, Gaussian Blur> 12, Blend> Exclusion.
2. Copy and past as new layer a texture image. I used a cracked old plaster wall. Blend> Vivid Light and adjust opacity to suit.
3. Levels Adjustment layer - tweak to suit.
4. Add New Layer and Fill with colour R:229, G:174, B:43, Blend> Multiply, adjust Opacity to suite
5. Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer - tweak Hue and Saturation to suit.

The blog version of this image can be seen here.

Salt Print Effect

One of the earliest photographic printing papers, attributed to Fox Talbot, was made by coating paper with Sodium Chloride (Salt) and Silver Nitrate. Objects were placed on it and then exposed to sunlight for a number of hours. The resultant print had a distinct texture and could vary in colour from brown through yellow to violet.

1. Texture and Balance - Duplicate background layer and find egdes (Filter> Stylize> Find Edges) . Apply Dry Brush filter (Filter> Artistic> Dry Brush) Size 1, Detail 7, Texture 3. Change blend to Overlay at 25% opacity. Add Curves Adjustment Layer increasing contrast with an S curve. Add a Levels Adjustment Layer, move centre slider to 0.50.
2. Second Texture - Add new layer and Edit> Fill with 50% grey. Add Filter> Texture> Grain, select Clumped grain, Intensity 33, Contrast 50,. On same layer add Filter> Distort> Glass, Distortion 18, Smoothness 7, set to Frosted. Blend mode Pin Light.
3. Colour and Paper Texture - Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Click Colorize and set Hue to 7 and Saturation to 22. Add new layer as in 2, Edit, Fill with 50% Grey, Filter> Texture> Grain use Vertical graion, Intensity 2, Contrast 50, Blend mode Vivid Light.
4. Finish - Create new layer fill with Clouds Filter>Render> Clouds. Set blend mode to Hard Mix and Opacity to 3%.

The technique works best on images without any blown highlights.

Before

After

Make a Picture Grid using Picasa

How often have you wanted to make a grid of photographs? OK what is a picture grid, well checkout the example above, yes, it's a Collage. You can do this in Photoshop but it will take you an hour or so. In Picasa it is the matter of a few moments. If you don't know anything about Picasa, it is a free image editing programme from Google, click the link to find out more.
On the Main Picasa page there is a button at the bottom named "Collage". But before you click this you need to select your images, ok have a look first if you must.
Search through the Album views, select your images by highlighting it, the image will appear in the "Photo Tray" bottom left, click the "Hold" button to select the image. Continue to select all the images you want to include in your Collage by adding them to the Photo Tray.
When you have accumulated the required number of images, click the "Collage" button, choose the option "Picture Grid" and choose a place to file your Collage. The option creates a SQUARE grid of images 10x10, 20x20 100x100 etc. If you do not select the required number of images to fill the grid ie only 95 images Picasa will duplicate 5 images from your selection to fill the gaps and give you a round 100 images and a 10x10 grid, you get the idea!.
Once you have saved your file you can modify it in Photoshop as I have done below, to add text or to fiddle with as you see fit.

Photobloging

Getting Started
For those interested in starting a Photoblog here are a few links to get you started. For the absolute beginner with no knowledge of webpage design I would strongly reccomend that you look at the Shutterchance option for getting a blog up and running straight out of the box. Lots of information available through Photoblogs-wiki.

Blog Hosting Options
Blogger - http://help.blogger.com/
Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/
Pixelpost - http://www.pixelpost.org/
Shutterchance (This is my recommended photobloging choice) - http://shutterchance.com/
PixyBlog - http://www.pixyblog.com/

Recommended Blogs
Photoshau - http://photoschau.de/index.php
Chromasia - http://www.chromasia.com/iblog/
Daily Walks - http://www.dianevarner.com/
David Kleinert - http://davidkphotography.com/
Mal - http://mal.shutterchance.com/
Eddyhead - http://eddyrhead.shutterchance.com/
Redshift - http://redshift.shutterchance.com/
SerialPhotographer - http://www.serialphotographer.co.uk/index.php
Drewble - http://www.25sept.com/
Niko - http://www.nikoslaskaridis.com/
Vernon Trent - http://www.xoverip.info/pb/index.php
MaxBlack - http://maxblack.shutterchance.com/
Digiphotology - http://digiphotology.shutterchance.com
Digiphotology.com - http://www.digiphotology.com

Online Competitions
PhotoFriday - http://www.photofriday.com/
Vazaar - http://www.vazaar.com/
WeeklyShot - http://www.weeklyshot.org/
UniqueChallenge - http://www.uniqueexposures.com/challenge/
TuesdayChallenge - http://www.tuesdaychallenge.co.uk/index.php

Promote your blog
Onexposure - http://www.onexposure.net/
Photobloggies - http://www.photobloggies.org/
Photoblogs.org - http://www.photoblogs.org/
Coolphotoblogs - coolphotoblogs - http://www.coolphotoblogs.com/
VFXY Photo - http://photos.vfxy.com/photoblogs/971
PhotoblogCommunities - http://www.photoblog-community.com/Home.php

Useful sources of info
Photoblogs - wiki - (good place to start) - http://wiki.photoblogs.org/wiki/Main_Page
Photoshooter Sam - http://buzz9.wordpress.com/favourite-photoblogs/
Google Analylitics - http://www.google.com/analytics/
Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoblog
http://del.icio.us/
Photo Editing - http://www.cellsea.com/java-cellsea/media/index.htm
Picasa - Album and Image Editing - http://picasa.google.co.uk/#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-emea-uk-google&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=picasa
Picasa Video Tutorials http://www.campgroundcomputerheroes.com/tutorials.htm

Photoblog

This page was constructed as part of a talk on "Photobloging" to demonstrate the image size limitations of using Blogger as the basis of a photoblog. I am sure that there are hacks thak can be applied to the Blogger template to allow the posting of larger images. I love Blogger as a weblog but there are better solutions for photobloging. My suggestion would be Shutterchance, see this non-exhaustive list for more options



A shot of the boardwalk at Lytham Lifeboat Station.

This is a composite shot with an added sky, taken in the same location but on a different day. The image has been toned using the blue channel in Levels.

Camera Shake or Out of Focus Rescue

This sharpening technique can rescue an image that is soft because of camera shake or focusing problems. It makes use of Layers and Blend modes to reduce the effects of noise and sharpening artefact's. Copy background layer.

• If your image needs Levels and or Curves adjustments do these before sharpening.
  


• Change the Blend Mode of the copy layer to Luminosity
  


• Apply Unsharp Mask filter. Try settings of Amount = 250, Radius = 1, Threshold = 1. You can experiment with these settings. They vary dependent on the amount of correction you need and the size of your image.
  

At this stage you should see a marked improvement in the appearance of your image. There is a next step you can try if your image has a lot of noise and or halo.

• Duplicate the copy layer, go to Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur and set an Amount of 3. Change the Blend mode to Color. If needed you can change the Layer opacity .
  


• Flatten the image and proceed.
  

It should be obvious but the image on the left is before sharpening and the one on the right after. It is not a perfect solution particularly if the unsharpness is caused by camera shake but it can be very successful with slightly out of focus images.

Contrast Masking - Rescue highlights and/or shadows

This is a technique with a wide range of uses, for example, balancing a bright sky against a dark foreground, rescuing blown out sky or specular highlights, unblock heavy shadows.

1. Duplicate your Background layer, name it "Contrast mask", this new layer should be above any adjustment layers.
   


2. With the Contrast Mask layer selected go to, Image / Adjust / Desaturate. The layer will now become monochrome, as will everything below it (for the moment).
   


3. Go to, Image / Adjust / Invert. This turns the Contrast Mask later into a negative.
   


4. Double-Click on the Contrast Mask layer on the Layers Palette and select Layer Options. Select Overlay blend mode.
   


5. Go to, Filter / Blur / Gaussian Blur and set a value of between 10 and 250. This will enable you to fine tune the effect on your final image.
   

Further fine tuning can be achieved by adjusting the contrast layer opacity. Finally use Levels and Curves to tweak the final effect. It is also possible to restrict the effect to specific areas by using a selection around a specular high light for example.

Before contrast mask

After contrast mask

See finished image here.

Burning and Dodging Non-Destructively

The Dodge and Burn tools in Photoshop are used for lightening or darkening areas of an image. Straight out of the box they can be a bit difficult to control and can be quite destructive.

Procedure for Non-Destructive Dodge and Burn

1. Open the image and make any basic adjustments.
2. Create a new layer by holding down the ALT key whilst clicking the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. When the dialog box opens change Mode to Soft Light. Press ALT and F to select the Tick Box at he bottom of the box. The legend states "Fill with soft light neutral colour 50% grey.
3. Select an appropriate size soft brush, set opacity to 10% or slightly less. To start Burning in (Darkening), make sure the new layer is selected. Press D to ensure the colour palette is set to Black and White, make sure the top colour is Black, if it is not press X. You can toggle between Black and White by pressing X. Start brushing over the area you wish to Darken or Burn.
4. To Lighten or Dodge a dark area toggle the Palette to White and proceed as for Burning.
5. To make corrections you have to set the palette colour to 50% Grey. To do this open the colour palette by clicking the Black/White icon when the colour pallet opens, make sure Web Colors is NOT ticked. To select 50% Grey, in the box marked with # enter 808080.
6. Select an appropriate size soft brush, set opacity to 10% or slightly less. Start brushing over the area you wish to correct.

If you found this difficult to follow try this Video Tutorial by Geoff Riggs, he demonstrates the technique quite well.

Revised: 11th December 2007

Photographing Smoke

Introduction
Photographs of smoke are some of the most evocative images. Fluid, ghostly shapes that stimulate your imagination and emotions. A great table top activity for a rainy evening.

Equipment

• A tripod.
• A camera which can be set on manual focus and manual shutter speed and aperture. I use a Canon 20D.
• A flashgun which can be fired remotely. Mine here is an ancient Cobra 700AF. The flash source should be as powerful as possible.
  
• A means of triggering the flashgun. I can use my Cobra with a remote lead which is part of the flashgun kit. But I chose to use a flash "slave trigger" connected to the main flash hotshoe fitting. These days you may have the luxury of a wireless trigger outfit or a modern flashgun Master/Slave setup for off camera flash.
  
• If you are using a slave you will need on camera flash or small hotshoe flashgun to trigger the main flash.
• Black background, I used a black tee shirt, velvet is the material of choice but expensive. You can use black card or paper but the surface can be reflective and you may get hot spots. This decision is crucial if you want clean backgrounds for your images.
• Lightbox, as you need to work in a dark room, this is used as a working light so you can see the smoke and does not really contribute to the final image. I have change to using one of these stick on LED cupboard lights you can buy in "Pound" shops for very little money Make sure this does not spill onto the background.
• Smoke source. Incense or Jos sticks seem favourite for this.
  

Setup
The secret of success for photographing smoke is to ensure the back ground is really black. Use black material, ensure it is as far behind the position of the smoke source as possible, at least 12 inches (30cm). Make sure no stray light falls on the background from the light box or any of the flash guns. Use cardboard to shield the background. See the Set up image. The room should be in darkness when you are taking your shots.

Click image to enlarge

Camera settings

• Fix camera to a steady tripod, position 12-18 ( 30-45cm) inches from smoke,
  
• Use manual focus. Use the edge of a piece of card positioned in the same plane as the smoke source as a focusing aid.
• With my set up I use 1/60th at f11 in manual mode. Some workers suggest using a wide aperture (f4.5) to keep the background out of focus and to gather as much light as possible. The only problem with this is your smoke may drift out of focus.
  
• I use a small flash gun (Jessops 100M) fitted in the camera hotshoe. This is fitted with a cardboard deflector to keep the flash off the background and to deflect the light towards the main flash gun slave trigger. But you may use a cable or other remote trigger device.
  
• Exposure is a matter of trial and error. Run off a bunch of test shots. Don't forget you can move the flash gun within limits to alter the exposure.
• The main flash source should be in line with the smoke source and 90 degrees to the axis of the camera and the same height as the camera.It may help to make a Snnot for the flashgun, I used aluminium foil but thin card (cereal packet) would do.
  
• Although you can shoot jpg images you will have more post processing options if you shoot in Raw.

Taking your shot

Light your incense stick and mount more or less horizontally. I used a bulldog clip but you can use Blue tack or Plasticine (you need to be able to move the stick as it burns down). Just how far below the line of your lens you need to be will have to be determined by experimentation, start about 12 inches (30cm) below your lens for starters. You can blow on the stick to encourage it to smoke but the best images are obtained in very still air, so keep the doors and windows closed and don't flap about. Beware you need to enjoy the smell of incense it can be very pervasive and clings like the proverbial, don't wear you best suit! Best not to do this in a confined space, not sure what the health implications are for inhaling Jos stick smoke. Be patient and keep your finger on the button, a degree of anticipation is required.

Post Processing Using Photoshop
For simplicity I will discuss processing jpg images. Use Image> Adjust> Levels to ensure a black background and maximum detail in smoke. You can play with the sliders or use the shadow and highlight color droppers in the bottom right corner.

If your background looks a bit grey use the Shadow color dropper, the one on the left, to sample a section of the background. This should make it turn black, if it does not press the "alt" key and the Reset button (Normally the Cancel button) and have another go. You can do the same with the highlight dropper.

There are numerous ways to change the colour of the image. The simplest choice is Image> Adjust> Hue/Saturation. Check the Colorize box and play with the Hue and Saturation sliders.

Most images do not need sharpening. If you want to, try, convert to Lab Color and use Unsharp Mask in CS or Smart Sharpen in CS2 or later, convert back to RGB afterwards.

To create even more interesting images try duplicating and flipping layers, blend using Screen mode.

For more info try Googling - "Photographing Smoke"

Check out the work of artist Pae White

You can see examples of some of my smoke images here.

Updated 16/09/10