Innehållsförteckning för November 2018 från Practical Photoshop

The most exciting news to come out of the annual Adobe Max conference this October was the announcement of a new iPad version of Photoshop. In the past we’ve seen smaller apps with limited functions like Photoshop Mix, but this is something much more ambitious. Using the same underlying code as the desktop version, the new iPad app will feature essential Photoshop tools. Tools like: Layers, selections, blend modes and more, making it possible to round-trip your workflow by switching between desktop and tablet to suit your needs. The preview version shown by Adobe at Max featured an impressively economical workspace, with layers and tools accessed by combinations of finger gestures. Of course, the tablet also opens up the possibility to use a stylus for painting or retouching on a…

The new Frame tool lets you create circular or rectangular frames within your image, then drop images or other content into those frames. It makes it easy to constrain an image to a specific size box, which could be helpful for all kinds of design tasks. Simply grab the tool from the toolbar, choose a circle or rectangle in the top options, then drag over your image. The currently selected layer will now be constrained to the shape of the frame. The tool performs much the same function as a clipping mask, but is more beginner-friendly. WATCH THE VIDEO https://goo.gl/s29dY3…

The Radial Filter lets you create vignettes and other circular edits in Camera Raw and Lightroom. It’s especially useful for portraits, where it can help draw attention to faces and expressions. Here, for example, while the orange lichen on the walls is eye-catching and colorful, it also slightly overpowers the subject. By darkening the corners, you can come up with a more balanced frame. While a subtle vignette is all about controlling the balance of the frame, you also have the option to add more of a stylized vignette that goes with the retro Instagram-look that is so popular. This is a case of uping tonal settings and reducing the feather so the vignette is obvious. But, there’s more to the Radial Filter than simple vignettes. Together with the powerful…

This is a fun feature that had previously been available as a ‘tech preview’ but now makes it into the main application, and with a couple of extra options to play around with too. You’ll find an option to turn on Symmetry Paint within the Brush tool options (found at the top of the screen when the tool is selected). Click the Butterfly icon and choose between different symmetry options. Next start painting and you’ll see your brush strokes appear in several places at once, as if holding a mirror up to your canvas. The newly added “mandala’ setting shown here is great fun. WATCH THE VIDEO https://goo.gl/2bA6bB…

Although it may be viewed primarily as a photo-editing program, Photoshop has all kinds of tools that cater for other uses too. Not least are the 3D tools. Photoshop offers a wide array of tools that let us manipulate 3D shapes and composite them into our 2D photos. Master a few simple skills and you’ll be able to create 3D composite scenes like this – useful if you want to create a fantastical street scene. It’s also handy if you’re planning on helping plan and build some sort of grand architectural project! Photoshop’s 3D modelling tools are fairly limited compared to dedicated 3D software like Cinema 4D – you can only make rudimentary shapes and simple objects. However, you are also able to open common 3D files, so you can…

Photoshop has many types of layers and adjustment layers available, but there are six that you’ll find you need to use again and again. Learning how they should be used may seem a little daunting for beginners, but once you’ve got to grips with them, you’ll find they play a part in the creative process of almost every image you make. 01 LEVELS This should be the first layer you add to an image, because it fundamentally alters the tonal range of the entire image. Create a Levels Adjustment Layer, drag the Black Point slider inwards until it touches the left-hand edge of the histogram, and drag the White Point slider inwards to the right-hand edge. This remaps the tones of the image to make more of the available tonal…

1 GET STARTED First you’ll have to make a selection with any tool, such as the Lasso tool, then go to Edit > Content-Aware Fill. The split-screen shows the original area on the left, and a preview of the fill on the right. If the fill samples from areas that you don’t want to include (usually parts of your subject) then you can paint on the green overlay to subtract areas (or Alt-Paint to add them back). Here subtracting the other glasses gives a much better result. 2 MIRROR THE FILL In symmetrical scenes like this it can help to check ‘Mirror’ in the fill options to the right of the dialog. This will make the tool search for similar flipped content. Here it lets us sample from the opposite…

1 NEW UNDO Many of us are used to using the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+Z to undo continuously and go back through several history stages, while Cmd/Ctrl+Z used to apply a single undo/redo when required. In CC 2019 these two shortcuts have been switched around. So now Cmd/Ctrl+Z is how you do a continuous undo. The switcheroo has been done for consistency between Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign, but If you find these shortcut changes unnecessary then you can always go into Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts and change them. You’ll find an option here to ‘Use Legacy Undo Shortcuts’. 2 TRANSFORM TWEAKS Another slight change to keyboard shortcuts that may take a little getting used to… In the past, if you want to keep the proportions of a layer while transforming and…

This isn’t your everyday portrait edit, but it demonstrates the breadth of possibilities open to you in Photoshop. After processing the image in Camera Raw to enhance the tones, we use the Liquify filter to reshape the face and enlarge the eyes, before finishing off by recoloring the backdrop and hair. You’ll find the original raw file amongst this issue’s project files. Read on for three essential tips to help you create incredible portraits like this, and watch the video to see the walkthrough in full… 01 SMOOTH THE DETAILS The white balance is off in the original raw photo, but sometimes skewed colors can look good – especially for cool tone portraits. So we chose to leave it as is. Instead, after lifting the shadows we used a quick…