Mula Photo

Windows (Ventana)

2008-06-17T16:07:00.002+02:00

High contrast using Lightroom preset

Tonemapped image

Bullas in HDR

2008-05-27T19:40:00.002+02:00

2008-05-23T21:49:00.002+02:00

Childrens playground Mula
3 exposures -2, 0, +2 EV

Old and New Mula
3 exposures -2, 0, +2 EV

Car in Mula
3 exposures -2, 0, +2 EV

Murcia railway station

Some recent HDR images

Mula Market

2008-04-22T11:35:00.002+02:00

Psuedo HDR effect

The basics starting point of this effect:
Recovery - plus 100%
Fill Light - plus 100%
Contrast - plus 100%
Vibrance - plus 100%
Clarity - plus 100%
Saturation - minus 95%
Black - darken slightly
Exposure - adjust until it looks right
Vignetting - darken the corners

Converting an image to Black& White

2008-04-01T06:27:00.001+02:00

Converting an image to black and white can be a very simple process.
However, when the visual impact of an image fails to transfer with those
simple processes, the need for more complex conversion options increases.

If the conversion method is not done most effectively, contrast and delicate
grey tones can wash out, leaving an image looking muddy or lacking in
adequate tonal range. Black and white conversion methods must honour the
spectral relationships between colours, or the conversion can haphazardly
dilute the overall aesthetic impact of an image.

The history of black and white conversion methods in the digital environment
has continuously inspired great technical controversy. Every guru in the industry
has an opinion supporting a particular conversion method. Unfortunately
for the non-gurus (the rest of us), there are a substantial number of different
conversion methods, and an even greater number of gurus to champion each
method for any number of disparately convincing reasons. So how is a non guru
supposed to evaluate which guru’s method to adopt? And further, why
can’t there be one best conversion method everyone can agree upon?

The answer to both questions is complicated. Although having just one
“best conversion” method would greatly simplify the learning process, all
images are not created alike, and, therefore, all conversion methods cannot
apply unilaterally with the same impact. The reality is that most all conversion
methods can effectively render reasonably pleasing results; the difference
to the user in choosing the “best” conversion method depends on a number
of factors including image content, exposure, contrast, tonality, luminance
as well as time to invest in the conversion process, workflow and one’s level
of familiarity with the tools and software. If one needed to make quick
conversions for an editor or newspaper for example, the “best” method may
be the quickest and simplest one. If one had more time and the intention of
creating a fine art portfolio print, the choice may be a more complex method.

Just as each type of black and white film carried unique and distinguishing
aesthetics, any number of variable factors can affect why one might choose
any particular conversion method. Remember, just as what is good for the
goose is not always good for the gander, your own “best” conversion will be
best for your own unique set of reasons.

A SIMPLE WAY TO CONVERT TO B&W

2008-03-25T12:08:00.000+01:00

TUTORIAL

BLACK & WHITE CONVERSION USING PHOTOSHOP HUE AND SATURATION ADJUSTMENTS

A SIMPLE WAY TO CONVERT

This method was originally described by Dr Russell Brown of Adobe Labs and will work in all versions of Photoshop, so even if you have a pre CS version you will still be able to produce superb B&W conversions from colour images..
This tutorial will also introduce those of you who are unfamiliar or confused with the use of layers in photo-editing.
Layers are just transparent sheets laid on top of the original image and enable the author to make adjustments without changing the original image.

So lets get started:
Select your image that you wish to convert to B&W
Open the image in Photoshop
Go to the top Toolbar and under IMAGE, select Duplicate, this will mean that there is NO way that you can change the original image.
A Copy of the original image will be displayed (If you wish, you can close the Original image by clicking the X on the top right hand side MAKE SURE YOU SELECT THE ORIGINAL IMAGE)
On the Photoshop Toolbar move along to Window and from the drop down list, click on Layer -- you can also press F7 on the keyboard to produce the same effect
This will open the Layers palette
Now with the image (COPY) displayed, hold down the CONTROL key on the keyboard and at the same time press key J --- this will produce your first layer
If you double click in the layers Palette the default name (Layer 1) you will be able to type an alternative name for this layer, for e.g. Dupe layer

We are now going to add two more layers which are both Hue/Saturation adjustments
Again, go to the Photoshop Toolbar and under Layers from the drop down list, choose :
New Adjustment Layer, an further drop down box appears and from that, select
Hue/ Saturation.. Click this to Select
A New Layer Dialog box will appear, just change the Name to FILER and where it says Mode, click the down arrow and select COLOUR´ -- Now click OK
A box appears which will enable you to make adjustments, DO NOT alter anything in this box , just click OK and it will close
If you look in the layers palette, you will see a new layer has been created call FILTER

Again return to the Layer on the Photoshop Toolbar and again select New Adjustment Layer, from the second drop down again select Hue/Saturation
Again a Dialog box appears, in name call this FILM, do not change the Mode (Should say NORMAL) -- click OK
On the Adjustment box which has appeared , move the slider under Saturation to -100, click OK
Now you will see in the layers palette a second layer has appeared called FILM

What we have done is to remove the saturation in the image and as a result we should now see a greyscale image on the screen

Now comes the creative bit

With your mouse, just click in the layers Palette, the layer called FILTER, this should be one down from the top, beneath the Film layer, this will select this layer and it will be highlighted.
Now Double – click this highlighted layer and the Hue/Saturation adjustment box will appear -- if you now move the HUE and SATURATION sliders as well as the Lightness slider around you will see variations in the grey tones of the image

THERE YOU GO CREATIVITY IN BLACK AND WHITE

There is even more you can do if you so desire
Say for example you wish to adjust just the blue tones
In the Box marked EDIT, just click the down arrow and select Blue,
Adjustments now will be confined to only the blue tones in the original image

When you are satisfied with the results, just click OK

Now return to Layer on the Photoshop Toolbar and select from the drop down -- Flatten Layer

Now save the image, you will have to change the Save as to JPG if you wish to use it on the Web or for printing

I think you will find this a SIMPLE method of B&W conversion and certainly much better than just desaturating or selecting Greyscale

Give it a try, I will be only too pleased to offer assistance to anyone who requires it

John

Spanish Bricks

2008-03-06T07:44:00.001+01:00

Ketboard Shortcuts Photoshop

2008-03-04T12:05:00.000+01:00

In many cases, when there are multiple options for a toolbar button, such as the dodge/burn/sponge tool button, the keyboard shortcut will activate the tool current tool, so 'O' will convert your pointer to whichever is the active tool.

Rectangular Marquee Tool M
Elliptical Marquee Tool M
Move Tool V
Lasso Tool L
Polygonal Lasso Tool L
Magnetic Lasso Tool L
Magic Wand Tool W
Crop Tool C
Slice Tool K
Slice Select Tool K
Spot Healing Brush Tool J
Healing Brush Tool J
Patch Tool J Red Eye Tool J
Brush Tool B
Pencil Tool B
Color Replacement Tool B
Clone Stamp Tool S
Pattern Stamp Tool S
History Brush Tool Y
Art History Brush Y
Eraser Tool E
Background Eraser Tool E
Magic Eraser Tool E
Gradient Tool G
Paint Bucket Tool G
Blur Tool R
Sharpen Tool R
Smudge Tool R
Dodge Tool O
Burn Tool O
Sponge Tool O
Path Selection Tool A
Direct Selection Tool A
Horizontal Type Tool T
Vertical Type Tool T
Horizontal Type Mask Tool T
Vertical Type Mask Tool T
Pen Tool P
Freeform Pen Tool P
Rectangle Tool U
Rounded Rectangle Tool U
Ellipse Tool U
Polygon Tool U
Line Tool U
Custom Shape Tool U
Notes Tool N
Audio Annotation Tool N
Eyedropper Tool I
Color Sampler Tool I
Measure Tool I
Hand Tool H
Zoom Tool Z
Default Foreground / Background Colors D
Switch Foreground / Background Colors X
Toggle Standard / Quick Mask Modes Q
Toggle Screen Modes F
Toggle Preserve Transparency / Decrease Brush Size [
Increase Brush Size ]
Decrease Brush Hardness {
Increase Brush Hardness }
Previous Brush ,
Next Brush .
First Brush <
Last Brush >

File Menu:New Cmd+N
Open Cmd+O
Browse Opt+Cmd+O Shift+Cmd+O
Edit in ImageReady Shift+Cmd+M
Close Cmd+W
Close All Opt+Cmd+W
Close and Go To Bridge Shift+Cmd+W
Save Cmd+S
Save As Shift+Cmd+S Opt+Cmd+S
Save for Web Opt+Shift+Cmd+S
Revert F12

Selections:
Select All Cmd+A
Deselect Cmd+D
Reselect Shift+Cmd+D
Inverse Shift+Cmd+I or Shift+F7
All Layers Opt+Cmd+A
Feather Opt+Cmd+D or Shift+F6

Adjustments:
Levels Cmd+L
Auto Levels Shift+Cmd+L
Auto Contrast Opt+Shift+Cmd+L
Auto Color Shift+Cmd+B
Curves Cmd+M
Color Balance Cmd+B
Hue/Saturation Cmd+U
Invert Cmd+I
Desaturate Shift+Cmd+U
Invert Cmd+I

Edit menu:
Edit Undo / Redo Cmd+Z F1
Step Forward Shift+Cmd+Z
Step Backward Opt+Cmd+Z
Fade Shift+Cmd+F
Cut Cmd+X F2
Copy Cmd+C F3
Copy Merged Shift+Cmd+C
Paste Cmd+V F4
Paste Into Shift+Cmd+V Clear
Fill Shift+F5

History Pallette:
Step Forward Shift+Cmd+Z
Step Backward Opt+Cmd+Z

Image Size:Zoom In Cmd++ Cmd+=
Zoom Out Cmd+-
Fit on Screen Cmd+0
Actual Pixels Opt+Cmd+0

Layers:
Layer via Copy Cmd+J
Layer via Cut Shift+Cmd+J
Create / Release Clipping Mask Opt+Cmd+G
Group Layers Cmd+G
Ungroup Layers Shift+Cmd+G

Arrange Layers: Bring to Front Shift+Cmd+]
Bring Forward Cmd+]
Send Backward Cmd+[
Send to Back Shift+Cmd+[
Merge Layers Cmd+E
Merge Visible Shift+Cmd+E

Image size:
Image Size Opt+Cmd+I
Canvas Size Opt+Cmd+C

Printing and File info:
File Info Opt+Shift+Cmd+I
Page Setup Shift+Cmd+P
Print with Preview Opt+Cmd+P
Print Cmd+P
Print One Copy Opt+Shift+Cmd+P

Miscellaneous:
Hide Photoshop Control+Cmd+H
Hide Others Opt+Cmd+H
Quit Photoshop Cmd+Q

101 Tips for Adobe Photoshop CS3

2008-03-04T12:01:00.000+01:00

1. Press Tab will hide tool bar and palette, Shift+Tab will hide only palette.

2. Hold Shift + click the top blue bar for toolbar and palette will move them to the nearest edge.

3. Double click the top blue bar, on any palette window, to minimize it.

4. Double click the gray background will bring up open file option, Hold Shift+double click will open up the browser.

5. Sick of the default gray background around your image? Select paint bucket, hold shift and click on the gray background, it will change to whatever color you have in your foreground color box.

6. In Photoshop, all "Cancel" buttons in a window can be changed to a "Reset" button by holding Alt.

7. Caps lock will switch your cursor for accuracy.

8. Press F button, it will switch between 3 different screen modes and give you more working area.

9. To draw a straight line, click then move to the end point and hold shift + click.

10. Hold Ctrl will temporary make any tool into move tool until you release Ctrl.

11. Ctrl + Alt and click drag the image, it will make a duplication of the current image over lay on top.

12. Hold Space bar, it will make any tool into "Hand Tool" until you release Space bar.

13. While in Zoom Tool, Ctrl+space = zoom in, alt+space = zoom out.

14. Hold Ctrl and press "+" or "-" it will change the % for image in navigator window.

15. When Using eyedropper tool to capture foreground color, hold Alt and click, it will instantly capture the color for background.

16. With Measure Tool, draw a line then hold Alt and draw another line from the end of the first line, it will measure the angle.

17. Ctrl+Alt+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z will go back and forth in the history.

18. Alt+Backspace and Ctrl+Backspace will fill in the whole screen with foreground color or background color, Shift+backspace will bring up option window, Alt+Shift+Backspace and Ctrl+Shift+Backspace, will fill the image with foreground or background color but will leave the alpha transparent area alone.

19. When free transforming with Ctrl+T, hold Alt to keep the original image and then to transform a duplicated layer of it. Ctrl+Shift+T to repeat whatever you did in the last transform.

20. To make sure your Crop is on the edge of the image, hold Ctrl while cropping.

21. Ctrl+J will duplicate the current layer.

22. Ctrl+Shift+E will merge all visible layers to one layer, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E will make a copy of the original and merge all visible layers.

23. While using Marquee Tools, hold Alt it will make the starting point as a center of the selection.

24. Ctrl + D to deselect, Ctrl+Shift+D to reselect what you deselected.

25. While selecting with Marquee tool, pressing the space bar can allow you to move the selection.

26. Hold Shift and press "+" or "-" it will switch between the layer mode:

N = Normal
I = Dissolve
M = Multiply
S = Screen
O = Overlay
F = Soft Light
H = Hard Light
D = Color Dodge
B = Color Burn
K = Darken
G = Lighten
E = Difference
X = Exclusion
U = Hue
T = Saturation
C = Color
Y = Luminosity
Q = Behind 1
L = Threshold 2
R = Clear 3
W = Shadow 4
V = Midtones 4
Z = Highlights 4

***The shortcut works even for following situation:

***Alpha turned off, Indexed Mode, Line tool, Bucket Tools, Dodge and Burn Tools

27. While using Brush or any other tools, change the opacity by typing the number.

*** type one number for % of it's ten times [4=40%]

***type two number for exact % [press 7 then 2 will get 72%]

28. Hold Alt while clicking on the eye icon beside the layer, it will hide all other layers.

29. Hold Alt while clicking the pen icon beside the layer, it will unchain this layer from all layers.

30. Select a layer, hold Alt and click the top edge of another layer, it will group them.

31. Hold Alt and click the button "Create a new layer", it will create a new adjustment layer.

32. Select a layer and hold Alt, then click on the garbage can button. It will instantly delete the layer, marquee where you want alpha and Ctrl+click the "Create new channel" button, it will create an alpha only on the area you marquee.

33. File> Automate > Contact Sheet: this can create a small thumbnail for every file, this can save you some time from searching.

34. When Move Tool is selected, toolbox on top can be useful from time to time, these are "Auto select layer" and "Show bounding box".

35. While Move Tool is selected, hold Shift (Alt+Shift+Right click) and allow whether or not to make a current layer chain with your upper layer.

36. With grid on, click the top left corner of the grid and drag to anywhere on the image to set the pivot, double clicking on the icon again reset the pivot.

37. After, draw a path on the image with pen tool, Ctrl+shift+H can hide/show it.

38. Control Navigator with keyboard sometimes can be more time efficient than mouse.

***

Home = move to top left corner
End = move to right bottom corner
PageUp = move up one page
PageDown = move down one page
Ctrl+PageUp = move left one page
Ctrl+PageDown = move right one page
Shift+PageUp = move up 10 pixel
Shift+PageDown = move down 10 pixel
Ctrl+Shift+PageUp = move left 10 pixel
Ctrl+Shift+PageDown = move right 10 pixel

39. Ctrl+Tab allows you to switch between different image files you are working on.

40. F12 = Revert to how the file was the last time you saved it.

41. Shortcuts for Channel: RGB, CMYK, indexed color...

***

Ctrl+"~" = RGB
Ctrl+1 = red
Ctrl+2 = green
Ctrl+3 = blue
Ctrl+4 = other path
Ctrl+9 = other path
Ctrl+"~" = CMYK
Ctrl+1 = light green
Ctrl+2 = pink red
Ctrl+3 = yellow
Ctrl+4 = black
Ctrl+5 = other path
Ctrl+9 = other path
Ctrl+1 = Indexed
Ctrl+2 = other path
Ctrl+9 = other path

42. hold Ctrl then you can draw a red box in the Navigator thumbnail for viewing.

43. Hold Alt and click on any of the history steps, that step will be copied and become the most recent one.

44. Alt drag a step from a serial action can copy it to another action.

45. Alt-click the flare preview thumb, and you can fill in numerical co-ordinates for lens flare.

46. Holding Shift + Alt while transforming an object will do it proportionally, from the center.

47. If you have the move tool selected and you want something duplicated just hold the alt key and move the image, holding the Shift + Alt while doing this, it will move it along one axis.

48. If you want to straighten an image that is crooked (maybe from scanning), click on the eyedropper tool or hit the I key 3 times to get the ruler. Click on the left side of the straight edge, then the right side of the straight (but crooked) edge. The choose Image> Rotate Canvas> Arbitrary, Photoshop will give you the degrees of rotation you just click ok.

49. If you create something in Illustrator, copy and paste it in Photoshop, it will ask you if you want this to be a pixel, path, or shape layer.

50. If you have a mask on a layer and you want to place a image in there and keep the mask. Simply open the image, say copy, and then Ctrl click on the layer to select the mask and use Shift + Ctrl + V to paste it into the mask which will also put it on a new layer as well.

51. To center an image, Ctrl + A , Ctrl + X, Ctrl + V, I think it also puts that image on a new layer.

52. Ctrl+E will merge the highlighted layer down to the next

53. When you have a brush selected, using [ or ] will scroll up or down that brush list.

54. Double clicking the zoom tool will make the image 100%, double clicking the hand tool will fit the image to your screen resolution.
55. Typing Content:

Ctrl + H will hide the highlight on your selected type.

If you click once while your type is selected on the font list, you can use your arrows to scroll up and down and see the fonts change on the fly!

Alt + Left or Right arrows will change your tracking in increments of 10
Ctrl + Alt + Left or Right arrows will change your tracking in increments of 100
Ctrl + Alt + Up or Down arrows will change your leading in increments of 10 pts
Shift + Ctrl with <> will change your font size in increments of 2 pts

56. Ctrl + Alt + T to make a copy of the layer in which you want to transform.

57. Ctrl + Alt + Right arrow. duplicates the layer you are on.

58. Change the active layer : Alt + [ or ].

59. Move the active layer up and down : Ctrl + [ or ].

60. Link 2 layers: with move tool click in the first layer hold Shift and click in the second one.

61. Ctrl+[plus key] will let you zoom in on an image anytime while Ctrl+[minus key] zooms out. Ctrl+Alt+[plus key] will zoom in AND RESIZE the window to fit the image size... same for Ctrl+Alt+[minus key] as well.

62. When using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, click backspace to undo a lasso step.

63. Pressing X will switch the selected foreground and background colors.

64. Pressing D will reset the foreground and backgrounds colors to black and white.

65. If your image has multiple layers, create a Marquee selection and press Ctrl+Shift+Cit won't work if you selected a hidden layer) will copy the image into memory as if they were flattened! Paste it on a new document to see the result.

66. Ctrl+Alt+Z will do multiple undo, versus just one.

67. Ctrl+click a layer thumbnail to select the layer transparency

68. To see what your layer mask looks like (and edit it), Alt+click its thumbnail in the layers palette

69. Press and hold Ctrl+Alt and click the Help bar with your mouse, drag it down and highlight "About Photoshop" and let go of the left mouse button for a different About Photoshop splash/screen.

70. When using Polygon lasso tool hold Shift to make a perfect line, it goes every 30 degrees

71.Photoshop CS2: Group many layers by clicking the layers you want to group by clicking it while holding the Shift key down, and then press Ctrl+G to group them into a folder for means of better organization.

72. Ctrl+Shift+N creates a new layer with a dialog box; Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N gets you a new layer without the hassle.

73. Back to brush, [ and ] will increase/decrease your brush size, Shift + [ or ] will soften or harden your brush edge.

74. Still in [ and ], Ctrl + [ or ] will move your currently selected layer up and down the hierarchy and Shift + [ or ] will select upper layer or lower layer.

75. Stamp Tool (s) is used to copy an area of image (defined by alt+clicking and area) and paint it somewhere else (cloning). It also works when you have multiple images open at the same time. Alt click an area of any opened file image and paint it anywhere else.

76. After you created a text you can click on font type tab and tap "down" key over and over to scroll through the font list and see the changes in (relatively) real time. A feature that I am tired of waiting to happen in illustrator.

77. Still in text mode, a trick from Microsoft word to apply hi-light to your text hit Ctrl+Shift+ <> to resize your text, to your preferred font size. Pressing Ctrl key while you are typing also gives you a free transform box temporarily and will go if you release it. Resizing text also works by pressing Ctrl+T (on selected layer, not when you are typing). It still retains as an editable text layer after.

78. And remember, pressing enter when you type will take you to a new line just like typing a letter but pressing Ctrl+Enter or Enter on numeric key will finish what you type.

79. You can drag a layer on to any other opened images in Photoshop and it will copy it as a layer (better than copy and paste image). Holding down Shift while moving it will snap the image right on the center of the other opened image

80. If you are working with sets....

Click on the set, in the blending mode it shows pass through by default... if you have an adjustment layer within a set and you want that adjustment layer to effect those layers underneath it within the set only, set the blending mode of the set to "normal" instead.

CODE

Mentioned before with more explanation:

- Pressed F to switch to 3 different viewing mode... when I first try it I said "wtf? what it's for?" Well, if you are sick of painting your image on the corners just to find yourself resizing your current image window, with F you can pan way outside your image. Happy corner painting!!

- Create a new file, 500x500 px, create a new layer, get a standard brush and paint a dot on the top center of your image (like the number 12 position on a clock). Press Ctrl+Alt+T, it will duplicate your original layer and free transform the new one. Move the pivot point (the circle with little dot in it found when you are free transforming something) to the center of your image, rotate your image 30 degrees to the right and hit OK to confirm the transform

now.........

Be excited..........

Hit Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T 10 times and see what happens!

81. When using the "move tool" you can select any layer by holding down the CTL key(CMD on a Mac) and clicking on the part of the layer on the canvas with your mouse. This way you won't have to go to the Layers palette every time and you don't have to keep checking on or off the auto select options for the move tool.

82. You can link up layers without going into the layers palette, by selecting the layer (how I just mentioned above) and holding down CTL + Shift(CMD + SHIT on a Mac) for each additional layer you want to link up. You can unlink them by clicking on the layer again.

83. You can delete more than one layer at a time.......by linking up all the layer you want to delete, and holding down CTL(CMD on a Mac) while you click on the garbage icon to delete the layer.

84. When using the type tool you can ok it by pressing CTL + Enter(CMD + Enter on a Mac) instead of clicking on the check mark on the options.

85. If you have more than one type layer, and want to make any of the following changes color/font/size/alignment/initializing to all of the type layers at the same time.....All you have to do is link up the type layer, hold down the Shift key and in the options for the type tool make your change i.e. color, size, etc.

86. You can use your number pad to change opacity for a layer.... I.e. type 5 and the opacity will be 50; type 55 and the opacity will be 55. You can use the number pad for any tool that uses opacity...like the airbrush tool, stamp tool, brush, gradient, etc.

87. Pressing Tab key will hide the Tools palette and any other palette that you have on the stage. Pressing "F" will change between Full Screen modes. Using these two tips you can view your work Full Screen without any palettes.(You can press CTL+Alt+0 to fit your work to the screen, or you can press CTL+0 to zoom to 100%)

88. Pressing the "+" and "-" keys while holding down CTL+Alt will resize the whole document window, not just the work area.

89. You can delete a layer by holding down the "Alt" key and pressing "L" twice......actually now with Photoshop 7 you got to press "L" three times. It's not actually a keyboard shortcut, but it's a quick way to do it....don't know if it works on a MAC.

90. Pan documents with the space bar.

91. Ctrl+click a layer (in layers palette) to select it's transparency.

92. Ctrl+Alt+click between 2 layers in the palette to group them.

93. Alt + click in “add layer mask” button to add a black layer mask (instead of a white one).

94. When you select something, pressing Ctrl+J will copy the selected area and add another layer with the copied area - opposing copying the layer, making a new layer, and pasting it.

95. To glue the palettes together (all palettes combined into one strip), you just drag & drop a palette onto the end of another palette (watch the rectangle that indicates where the palette will get attached to).

96. Hold down Alt while Burning to Dodge instead, and vice versa.

97. Ctrl-click a layer to select an objects; alternatively, you may select more than one object/s in more than 1 layer by holding Shift while using the method just mentioned (Ctrl-click). To deselect, just press Ctrl+D.

98. If you have a mini scroll on your mouse, you may use that to zoom in (scroll up) or zoom out (scroll down).

99. Need to locate a layer quick? Use the Move Tool (V) and right click on the area the object lays. There should now be a “cursor-menu” with all the layers that is in that particular area. Now take a good guess and see which one of them fits the shoe; select a layer and Ctrl-Click the layer in the Layer Palette - see if the selection traces the object you desired to edit/find. Useful for those messy people (i.e. me!).

100. Need to get rid of a background quick? Assuming you at least know how to crop around an object, do so. Now press Ctrl+I or Shift+Ctrl+I for Inverse Selection. Press Ctrl+X to %@#!* that part out, and you should be left with the object!

101. Want to save the time from loading All your Photoshop brushes, when your Photoshop accidentally forgets to load them up (happens to me sometimes)? Select the brush tool, and click the little arrow pointing right (located at the top toolbar), next to the Master Diameter tick. Go down to Preset Manager and now there should be a menu of all the brushes currently loaded. Click on the first brush (top left) and scroll down to the bottom. Now hold Shift and click the last brush (bottom right). This should highlight all the brushes. See the “Save Set” to the right in the menu? Click that and name your brush set whatever you want, for this matter I just name it All (so I remember that this brush set contains all the brushes I currently have loaded, and is located near the top when loading the brushes up).

Removing Colour Casts from Jpeg images

2008-02-01T13:31:00.000+01:00

REMOVING A COLOUR CAST FROM A JPEG IMAGE - Tutorial

Although I normally use either my Pentax K100D or Cannon 300D in RAW mode, I always carry my Fuji 2600Z 2Mb pixel point and shoot at all times.

This sample image was taken of the Belen (Nativity scene) which was in a marque in the Ayuntamiento Plaza in Mula during Xmas holidays, it was taken in the early evening and the lighting in the marque was a mixture of sodium and fluorescent lamps, as a result the image had a very magenta /red colour cast. This tutorial is a combination of methods as described in Scott Kelby book “The Photoshop CS2 book for Digital Photographers¨.

The first step is to open the image in Photoshop, then CTRL+J to create a duplicate layer.

With the duplicate layer active, go to the bottom of the layers palette and click on the 4^th item from the left, (Create new fill or adjustment layers). Scroll down the list to THRESHOLD and select it. The Threshold box will appear and your image will turn to a black and white negative.

Move the white arrow all the way to the left and the image will turn white, now move the arrow towards the right and stop when the first solid black area appears. Photoshop is now showing you where the darkest area of the image is. Click OK to close the Threshold dialog box.

You can now mark this spot….. Press SHIFT + I, this will select the colour sampler tool. On the top tool bar, in the box - sample size – select 3 by 3 average. Now with the colour sample tool, position over the darkest black and click, this will put a marker on the image. On the layers palette, double click on the active threshold layer thumbnail, this will again bring up the threshold dialog box.

This time move the arrow all the way to the right, the image will turn black, now move the arrow back towards the left until the first solid white appears. Click OK, this closes the Threhold dialog box. Making sure you still have the colour sampler tool active, click to mark this point.

You can now discard the Threshold layer by dragging it to the recycle bin at the bottom of the layers palette.

CTRL+M will njow open the Curves window, select the “Set black point” eyedropper, the left one below the options box and position it exactly over the #1 marker and click, now select the “Set white point” eyedropper, position this exactly over #2 and click, you will immediately see a marked improvement in the image. Click OK to close the curves window. You can now clear the markers by going to the top tool bar and clicking “Clear”

The next step is to set the Grey point.

Click on Create a New Layer Icon at the bottom of the layers palette, it’s the one next to the trash can, this will create a blank new layer.

Go to EDIT menu and choose FILL. Under the Pop up menu, in the contents box where it say´s Use, select 50% Grey then click OK, this fills the new layer with 50% Grey

On the layers palette, with the new layer active, change the Blend mode to Difference, don’t worry that your image looks strange, its only temporary.

From the Create New Layer icon choose Threshold again, again and move the pointer all the way to the left, again your image will turn white. Slowly move the pointer back to the right and stop when the first area of black appears, this is your neutral Grey point. Click OK. Then Shift + I to select the colour sampler tool and position the eyedropper over the black area and click. You have now marked the Grey point and you can discard the Threhold layer and the 50% adjustment layer by dragging them into the trash can. You now have the image as it was previously and you should see the maker.

Press CTRL + M to select the curves window and this time use the centre eyedropper “Set Grey point”, position this over the marker point and click, you have now set the Grey point, click OK and the image colour cast is removed. On the top toolbar click “Clear” to remove the marker.

This technique should work 99.99% of the time

I would appreciate any comments or suggestions on this tutorial

John

Image Enhancement - Paint with Light

2008-01-31T13:19:00.000+01:00

Original Image

Enhanced PWL

Image Enhancement – Paint with Light

This is a method of adjusting the brightness or darkening parts of an image without affecting the overall total brightness/ or darkness of an image

If you look at the example, the original is at the top and the texture of the guy’s clothing is indistinct, I do not want to brighten the background or the faces.

Using PWL you can very selectively make changes to any image to give the feel that you require, it also works with B&W images.

There is no reason why this method should not be adaptable to Corel Paint (Paint Shop Pro) and it certainly will work with GIMP or GIMPSHOP.

I use Adobe CS2 and here is my method.

Open image

Ctrl+J to duplicate the background layer, this way you are using non destructable methods.

Ctrl+Shift+N This brings up New Layer box

Enter the following
Name - PWL
Color – Grey
Mode – Soft light
Do not tick – use previous layer to create Clipping Mask or Fill with soft-light-neutral color (50%)

Click OK

You will now see in the layers palette a new blank layer

Press D to reset foreground and background colors to Black and white

Select a Paintbrush, I usually use a soft brush
Set the following
Size as required usually up to 200
Mode – Normal
Opacity – 2 to 15%, Its best to start with about 5%
Flow – 100%

Now if you start with the foreground color as Black and make sure you have the New Layer PWL selected and paint on the light areas of the image, at portion of the image will darken,
To select theWhite as the foreground color, Press X
Now when you paint on a dark portion of the image you will see it lighten.
You can experiment with opacity settings and brush sizes.
When you are finished, you can now make a New Visible layer by Holding the ALT key down, and going to the little arrow above Opacity in the layers palette, then croll down to Merge Visible, click this item, then release the ALT Key on the Keyboard.

Give this a try, it works for me

I would really appreciate any feedback or comments on this technique
John

Door (Psuedo Lucis effect)

2008-01-10T17:32:00.000+01:00

Door (Psuedo Lucis effect)

Lighting conditions
Overcast and rather dull

Camera
EOS 300D
18mm lens
1/8 at f8.0

Technique for Psuedo "Lucis" effect
Taken as RAW image
Processed in Adobe Lightroom 1.3

Settings

BASIC
Recovery 100
Fill Light 100
Blacks 71
Brightness +50
Contrast +25
Clarity 100
Vibrance +64
Saturation -64

CURVES
Highlights 0
Lights +25
Darks -20
Shadows -17

SHARPENING
Amount 112
Radius 1

LENS VIGNETTING
Amount -88
Midpoint 50

Software problems

2007-12-29T20:48:00.000+01:00

Papa Noel Pentax K100D

Photoshopped image

The Belen in Mula....Fuji 2600Z

Foxy Fuji 2600Z

Having now slowly recovered from major software problems, the whole sysyem crashed and was unreperable , all due to Ibodrola surges, I am now using Rawtherapee 2.1 beta as my RAW converter and CS2 as my post editor.

Lucis effect using Lightroom 1.2

2007-12-03T16:08:00.001+01:00

Semena Santa 2007 Mula

By using extreme settings in Lightroom it is possible to create the 'Lucis' effect
I then opened the image in Photoshop CS2 and created a duplicate layer, setting the Blending to Darken
Finally converted to 8 bit and saved as JPG

How to Convert from Colour to produce excellent B&W images

2007-12-02T10:38:00.000+01:00

How to Convert from Colour to produce excellent B&W images

Using Adobe Lightroom 1.2 or Adobe Photoshop CS3

There are many methods of converting RAW and JPEG images to B&W, I have tried most of them and eventually found that the Power Retouche Black and White Studio, a Photoshop Plugin, was without doubt the most successful, this gives results that are as good as the traditional ‘wet’ darkroom methods. During my experiments I realized that it was possible to reproduce almost identical images using Lightroom1.2 or Photoshop CS3,ACR 4.1 module.

You may think that this is the same as using the Channel Mixer method, which technically it is but is a lot more versatile with completely variable colour filters to obtain the full range of tones from the image.

The ACR 4.1 module is mainly used to convert RAW images into other viewable forms, e.g. JPEG, TIFF, DNG and many others.

If you only take JPEG images you can still open up the image in the Develop module in Lightroom or so I have read, if you have CS3, Right click the JPEG image in Adobe Bridge (part of CS3), and it will open in Camera RAW ACR.

The method I use is as follows:

Open the image in the Lightroom Develop Module, I usually make a virtual copy and use that.
Straighten, crop rotate image for best composition
Adjust Exposure and Blacks to expand (or contract) to get the full amount of pixels on the Histogram, taking care not to block the blacks or blow the highlights
Increase the Clarity to about +14 (approx), Increase Vibrance to + 35 (approx)
On the Tone curve, I adjust (Using preset Medium Contrast ) the curve to give more of a ´S´ shape to emphasis contrast
At this point you should have an excellent colour image
Now turn your attention to the next section, The HSL/Colour/Greyscale
Select Greyscale, the image will turn to B&W
You can now adjust the sliders on all the colours to obtain the range of grey tones required in the image, please keep an eye on the histogram to ensure you do not blow the highlights or block the blacks.
If you wish to tone the image you can open the Split Toning section and make adjustments there to the hue and saturation of the tone, either for the highlights and/or shadows.
Now move to the Detail section, here you can adjust the sharpening, please remember that this is only input sharpening, You may need to open Photoshop or PSP to apply output sharpening. I also observed that if you are using a JPEG image, the amount of sharpening required is very small before you start to get ´halo´ effects on edges. You can also adjust the Noise reduction in this section using the Luninance slider, again, do not overdo this as you want to keep a little noise as this is common in ´wet´ darkroom images and gives the final image that distinctive feel.
This completes the adjustments,
Transfer back to Library Module
You can now Export the image to your preferred location on the PC, the Export facility allows you a variety of configurations and colour spaces.

I hope you find this method interesting and I would be interested in any feedback as to your results

Happy processing

Joh

Mula, Murcia, España

Hi Key, Hi Contrast image examples

2007-11-25T15:16:00.000+01:00

The top image is as taken, a color image of Castle Velez in Mula, using a polarizer. RAW image converted to JPG using Lightroom 1.2

The second image was a Black and White conversion using Power Retouche Black and white studio and adjusted to give a high contrast image

The third image of Calle Del Martin Perea in Mula is an example of a Hi Key image, advanced technique in Lightroom from a RAW image produced this surreal effect

2007-11-23T21:40:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I received in the post the close up filters that I purchased on eBay
Here are a couple of images taken this morning using the +2 diopter

Climb to the castle

2007-11-16T19:55:00.000+01:00

This morning I climbed up to the castle and took about 100 photos

here is a HDR image of the mountainside

Technical details;

HDR Image

This is a HDR (High Definition Resolution) image, 32 bit.

Three images were taken at -2, 0, +2 EV, the camera mounted on a tripod

The 3 images were then processed in Photomatix Pro to produce a single HDR image, then tone mapped, which was then converted to a 16 bit TIFF.

Final processing was then done in Adobe CS2, to reduce saturation , levels and then sharpening in Power Retouche Sharpener plug-in..

Final image converted to 8 bit JPG for publication on the web.

Image taken on 16 November 2007

Camera Pentax K1000D

The centre exposure 1/60 at f16

No EXIF data is shown

Experiment with HDR image

2007-11-15T15:52:00.000+01:00

I am experimenting with HDR images, this is one of my first attempts using Photomatix Basic

This is a single image shot in RAW, then adjusted in Lightroom 1.2 to produce 3 separate images of -1, 0, +1 EV. These are then imported as TIFF files into Photomatix Basic, converted to HDR then tone mapped. Then the 16 bit resultant image is adjusted in Photoshop CS2 and sharpened using Power Retouche Sharpen plug-in. Finally saved as a JPEG for publication on the web.