Innehållsförteckning för Issue 4 från Photoshop User

Although it is primarily designed and best known as an image editing program, Photoshop also offers a range of versatile tools, allowing you to create original artwork as well as adapting existing images. The brushes, pencils and eraser are designed to behave as much like their real life counterparts as possible, to make using them an intuitive process. If you have a graphics tablet and a pen, this helps even more. The Brush Tool The most useful drawing implement is the Brush (keyboard shortcut B), which is a multipurpose tool that can emulate almost any type of drawing tool imaginable, be it a fine pencil, a felt-tip marker pen, a soft-bristle brush, an airbrush, or anything in between. The Brush tool has received a major upgrade for version CS6 and…

Transforming a face into a text portrait is a fairly simple task, but it gives fantastic results that elevates a simple image into a piece of art. If the portrait is of a friend or loved one, you can even make the words used for the portrait reflect the character and experiences of the subject in question. 01 We’ll need a suitable subject in black and white. A nice, high contrast image will work well. Our example image is 3000px square, and our settings are based on that size image. If you are using a different size, your settings may have to be altered to suit the size you are working at. 02 First we create a Displacement Map to shape the text in our portrait. Right-click on your image…

All digital SLRs and Compact System Cameras, and most of the better compact cameras, have a shooting option called Raw mode. You’ll usually find it in the menu as an option under image quality. Raw mode offers greatly improved image quality over the usual JPEG image file format, and is recommended for all serious photographers. Let’s take a closer look at Raw mode, find out how it works and see how it can help you produce better photographs. What is Raw Mode? Raw mode is a special image recording option that is available on digital SLRs, Compact System Cameras, and other high-quality digital cameras. If your camera has this option, you have access to much higher image quality than the standard JPEG file format. Essentially, Raw mode is just what…

If you are new to Photoshop, you may possibly have encountered the term ‘plugin’ and wondered what it actually was and how you can access them. Plug-ins are small, self-contained programs that add extra effects and workflow possibilities to the Photoshop toolset. Plug-ins can can simply be a single effect added to your image that automates existing Photoshop effects. It could even be an effect Photoshop may not be able to do itself. It can also be something more complex, like a self-contained mini editor that you can use to modify your images and return the result to Photoshop for further editing. plugins are supplied by Adobe themselves and by many third-party vendors. There are so many to choose from, it can be a bit of a minefield. As an…

This is a fully featured creative photo editor, and a powerful one at that. Luminar is designed to work as either a standalone product or as a plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom. It is a photo editor, browser and raw processing application all in one package. It is packed with impressive tools to turn your favourite photos into creative works of art. Luminar is designed to be as intuitive as possible, meaning you can fire it up and master its controls very quickly. The learning curve is not too steep and you can happily spend more time creating than scratching your head wondering what to next. Moreover, Luminar is not a subscription based product. You pay for it outright and then it’s yours. At £81, it represents a good deal…

Reducing an image to a much smaller size presents no problem in day to day use. A good original at 4000 pixels wide, when reduced to 800 pixels wide, will look fine. However, what happens if the reverse is true and you need to blow up a 800 pixel wide image to 4000? This is an extreme example, but of you are face with this dilemma, you have to scale the 800 pixels up and hope it comes out ok. Plugins like Blow Up 3 can help by using algorithms to upsample the image and retain as much detail and sharpness as possible. Of course, concessions have to be made since you are interpolating an image an injecting pixels where there were none to begin with. Results of the 800…

Lightroom incorporates advanced facial recognition technology to help put names to the faces in your photos. It’s remarkably effective at recognising the same face, even under unusual conditions, but it does need a bit of help. 1 To get started with the facial recognition system, go to the Library Grid view. On the bar at the bottom of the view window you’ll see the row of viewing option buttons that we discussed earlier, and next to them a button with a face on it. This is the People button; click on it or alternatively use the hotkey shortcut O. 2 If this is your first time using the facial recognition system, you’ll see an introduction screen with two options. You can choose either to fun face recognition on your entire…

Photoshop has become the go-to guy for all your artistic and image manipulation needs. There is no doubting its long development history has lead to a current iteration that offers so many tools to aid you, the end user, on your path to creating the perfect piece of art. It is easy to use, and complex enough for the most advanced users. That is its beauty. It scales perfectly depending on how much complexity you need to put into your work. From one-click adjustments, to advanced layer-based documents, you have it all at your fingertips.…

The more recent versions of Photoshop CS, and Photoshop CC onwards, offered the ability to create, import and render 3D objects that could then be used in conjunction with any 2D artwork projects on which you were working. Over time, it has developed to a point where it actually offers some quite sophisticated 3D tools and methods by which you can light them and even affect the quality of the textures and materials used. You can start with some simple 3D text, or even import complex geometry files and incorporate them into your designs. Obviously some of this work is quite processor intensive and therefore the more power and system memory you have, the better. Even so, we can easily get some 3D design into a document relatively easily and…

Dual lighting, as the name suggests, is a technique used by photographers to add two separate coloured lighting effects to a subject. Most typically, they are used in a studio setup and can add a lot of drama to a portrait session. One colour of light is used to strongly illuminate the subject from one side and then the second light is brought in to add a cross-lit effect with another complimentary colour on the other side. This can be done with just the head and shoulders or the whole bodydepending on the subject. Of course, not all of us are photographers with access to expensive studio space and photographic equipment, but with a good source image, Photoshop can turn a normal portrait into an image with just as much…

Should you use Jpeg or Raw for your photography? This is a question that has been going back and forth for some time between photographers. Many champion the use of Jpeg, whilst others will extol the virtues of the Raw format; so, should you shoot in Raw or Jpeg? Is the processing of Raw photos an overly complicated process? Can Jpegs give you all you need for a great final photograph? Here’s an overview of the two formats. Take a look and see what is right for you. Jpeg Let’s start with the Jpeg format as it is probably the most commonly encountered image type. Jpeg is certainly the most popular image format in which photos can be saved, whilst being able to display millions of colours and be compressed…

As we’ve already noted, there are so many plugins available, it can be a chore to wade through them all to figure out what is best for you. Moreover, you need to be aware of what versions of Photoshop any particular plugin is compatible with. Some are fairly universal, others may need updated plugins. When purchasing, double-check version numbers to avoid disappointment. Before we dive in and regale you with some prime plugin choices. We thought we’d cover the main question asked by anyone new to plugins. If you’ve downloaded one, you have to get it installed. How do you do it? Well, there are a couple of ways you can approach it, it’s pretty easy so here goes. Manual install First things first is to download your plugin. It…

This is a 3D asset browser that gives you access to the tens of thousands of design objects PixelSquid have available. They are fully realised 3D objects that you can spin around as if it were a solid object so it better matches the orientation needed to fit your image requirements. You can use the free version which gives you access to over a hundred free objects, as well as watermarked versions of everything else in their library. You will need to create an account but it is easy to set up and ready in minutes. To use un-watermarked versions, you will need to upgrade to their subscription service which runs at $199 per year. Personally, we feel this is a little steep for a niche product, but if you…

Even as an experienced photographer using a modern top of the range digital SLR, it’s sometimes possible to mess up your white balance. Luckily, if you shoot in Raw and use Lightroom, it’s very easy to correct any such mistakes. 1 You can spot an incorrectly set white balance straight away by the colour cast over the entire image. Open the Basic panel and look at the white balance setting; you can see it’s ‘As Shot’ and that the colour temperature is 3250K, a typical setting for incandescent or tungsten lighting. The camera was incorrectly set when the shot was taken. 2 The quickest way to correct the white balance is to let Lightroom do it automatically. Click on the white balance setting and you’ll see a drop-down menu appear. Select Auto…

Photoshop can do many things, but the one thing that so many users love about it, is its ability to create artworks using multiple images sourced separately. Whether you’ve shot your own source materials, or downloaded them from stock photo libraries, the layer-based features Photoshop offers, makes compositing that much easier. If you’ve not heard of compositing before, it’s simply the name given to the process of combining different image elements to make one final image. This example of a knight, dragon and castle can effectively be combined to create one final fantasy scene. Photoshop has various tools that let you extract your subjects from their current image and drop them into a new document. Take a look at how this scene evolves from separate elements into the finished article.…

Even with a modern digital camera, your photos may have slight imperfections. Maybe it’s just a stray hair or an unwelcome skin blemish in a portrait, or maybe some dust has managed to get onto your sensor, causing dark spots on your photo. Whatever the reason, sometimes you need to remove some small features from your images and the best tools for this are the Healing tools. There are five healing tools in Photoshop, which you can see if you click and hold on the Spot Healing Brush tool icon in the tool palette. USEFUL TIP To get the best out of the healing tools, you need to work with care and not overdo the effect. The key to success is to be subtle. There is also no reason you…

We would like to spend a little time getting you up to speed with the step and repeat technique that allows you to quickly build interesting patterns and shapes, which you can use on portrait photos or artworks to spice up an otherwise plain or indeed boring background. Photoshop has Align and Distribute tools that you can use, but we're going to show you a quick way to build up a repeating pattern, adapt it and then incorporate it into a portrait photo as the new background. We will start with the basics to get you underway and then we'll show you a tutorial that lets you combine your repeating pattern and, with the aid of some simple masking, add some life to a flat background. 01 First of all,…

Photoshop comes with Camera Raw as standard. It offers a range of processing options that enable you to get the best out of your photos, including exposure adjustment, sharpening, noise reduction, colour correction and automatic correction for lens distortion. It’s regularly updated so it’s compatible with the latest cameras and lenses. It recently underwent a major update and the layout has been redesigned to match the look of the mobile version of Lightroom. Flimstrip This shows all the files you currently have open in thumbnail format and is displayed on the left side of the screen. You can alter its orientation and display it along the bottom of the screen if preferred. Click the one you want to work on. Image Window The image you are currently working on is…

The latest versions of Photoshop CC lets you browse, install and manage plugins from a handy interface. From the top menu, select Plugins > Browse Plugins. This will bring up your Creative Cloud app. Here you can browse for free or paid plugins and install them with ease. For example, we clicked on the PixelSquid 3D objects browser. You can view details about the plugin of your choice and then download it. Once downloaded, you can go back to the plugins menu and your downloaded plugin will displayed at the bottom. Click on it to activate it. That’s all there is to it.…

StockSolo is a stock photography library search engine that gives you access to many thousands of photos that are free for personal and commercial use. No subscription is required and you have immediate access to countless high quality, full resolution images with no restrictions. You can download the Photoshop plugin and install it. When you start up Photoshop, you can find the plugin under Plugins > StockSolo. The plugin activates and you can browse or search by keyword for images. StockSolo has the option to search for free images from a number of stock library sites. At the time of writing, it allows you to search Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash. You simply put a subject name in the search field and hit Search to access the libraries of the stock…

With the most recent update of Lightroom Classic and Lightroom to the 2022 version, you now have even more editing capabilities at your fingertips. A number of features that debuted in Photoshop have been implemented here as well. Read on to find out more. Powerful AI technology has been brought to bear in the 2022 release of Adobe’s Lightroom suite of products. Masking a subject or just making a selection of the sky is easier now than it’s ever been. As you progress with the new versions, you will need to bear in mind that the AI that analyses your images is only as good as the image itself. Photos with very low contrast and an over-abundance of detail will hinder the AI’s ability to accurately pick out the area…

Along with focus and composition, correct exposure is one of the keystones of successful photography. With the extra exposure latitude afforded by shooting in Raw mode, Lightroom lets you adjust exposure to get the best out of your photos. 1 The Histogram is a graphical representation showing the ratio of pixels of any given brightness that are present in an image, with black on the left and white on the right. In a correctly exposed image, like this example, the distribution is spread across the graph, without being cut off at the ends and with most of the peaks in the middle. 2 In an under-exposed image such as this one, you can see that the peaks of the histogram are clustered at the left-hand edge of the graph, which is the…

1 Open the Elements Photo Editor, go to File > Open and choose a favourite photo; then go to the Guided workspace. The Partial Sketch effect is under Fun Edits. 2 You have four pencil sketch effects to choose from. Click one to activate the sketch brush. Select Add and use the slider to control its size. 3 Paint across your image to reveal areas you want to be converted to a sketch effect. You can always use the Subtract brush, to remove any sketch areas you don't want. 4 If you want to, you can use the Detail Brush to more precisely paint the sketch effect on or off your photo, controlling the brush size and opacity. 5 An optional effect is to soften any hard edges or flip the effect. If you're…