Innehållsförteckning för May 2021 från Practical Photoshop

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3sxoNfW The Object Selection tool is very similar to the Select Subject command on the previous page – but instead of the command searching image-wide for the subject, you start by drawing a box around the part of the image you’d like it to search. It’s helpful when you need to quickly select an object. Simply drag a box over the area and let the machine learning do the work for you. If it doesn’t pick up the entire area on the first pass, hold down Shift and drag a second box to add to the area. If it picks up unwanted details, hold down Alt and drag a box to subtract the details.…

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3aFAyLB This trick lets you select pixels based on luminosity. Go to the Channels Panel (Window > Channels) then hold Cmd/Ctrl and click on the RGB channel to load the luminosity of the image as a selection (alternatively, Cmd/Ctrlclick on any other channel to load it). By selecting the brighter parts of an image, you can make precise tonal adjustments that are tailored to different parts of the tonal range. Here, after selecting the luminosity, we’ve added a Levels Adjustment Layer. When you add an Adjustment Layer while a selection is active, the selection will automatically be converted into a Layer Mask, so you can selectively adjust the tones in the isolated area. We’ve used the Levels layer here to enhance the details in the moon’s surface…

This is one of the most useful selection tools on offer in Photoshop. It works like a paintbrush, so – like any brush-based tool in Photoshop – you can use the] and [bracket keys to resize it. As you paint over an area, the tool will seek out edges and similar pixels, so as long as the area or object contrasts with it’s surroundings, making a selection is a cinch. Like all semi-automated tools it can occasionally go wrong and pick up unwanted details, but you can hold Alt and paint to subtract them from the selection. As you do this, the tool remembers the kind of pixels you don’t want and gets smarter as the selection progresses.…

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3v5T9YC If you’ve always found Photoshop to be a tricky program to master, here’s some good news for you: it’s getting easier. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a raft of new tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI). They employ machine learning to analyze image content and can carry out a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Here we’ll explore three helpful commands while crafting a moody composite portrait. We’ll kick things off by using Skin Smoothing, one of Photoshop’s new Neural Filter commands. When subjects are lit strongly from the side, like our example above, the light tends to reveal the texture of the skin – and draw attention to rough areas. Skin Smoothing can improve things with a couple of clicks. We’ll…

1 STILL CAMERA A tripod will help to keep the camera steady and free your hands to hold the straw. Alternatively, you could place the camera on the table instead and use a book to prop the lens up. It also lets you keep the focus in the right place. 2 OFF-CAMERA FLASH We used two flashguns here, but if you only have one, that’ll do, as long as you can trigger it off-camera. Use a wireless trigger, or set the flashgun to optical remote mode, then use the popup flash to trigger the off-camera flash. 3 PAPER TUBE This tube is made from two sheets of paper. The paper acts as a diffuser, spreading the flash out around the surface and bouncing it along the tube. This lights the…

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/2P65Jbg The Color Range command is a bit like the Magic Wand, but better. It lets you seek out and select similar colors in your image. The dropdown at the top also offers a range of handy presets like Skin Tones, which automatically isolates them for you. If you want to isolate an area that is uniform in color, it’s a great tool to try. In this photo, we can use it to boost the red leaves so that they really pop. 01 SELECT THE COLORS Go to Select > Color Range then grab the Plus Eyedropper from the tools in the box and drag over the colors in the leaves to include them. Uncheck Localized Color Clusters. Click around the image to include all the colors…

Quick Mask is a handy feature that shows your selection against a pink overlay. When entering Quick Mask mode (press Q to toggle it on or off) you can paint with white to add to the selection or black to subtract. It’s also very useful for adjusting a selection made with other tools. Say you’ve used the Magic Wand to select an area but some small details have been missed – simply enter Quick Mask mode and paint over the details with white to include them.…

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3edYdDx Photoshop’s Blending Modes have long been one of its most useful features. Each Blending Mode uses a distinct algorithm to blend a selected layer with the layers below. If this sounds complicated, in practice using Blending Modes is simple. All you need to do is copy one image on top of another, then experiment. Blending Modes can be used for all kinds of projects, and allow you to create a near-limitless range of effects. Here we’ll look at how to give a car a vibrant psychedelic treatment by blending images of colors and smoke. This involves two of the most useful Blending Modes: Screen and Multiply. We’ll also make use of brush Blending Modes to color our smoke. Beyond this, Blending Modes can be used for…

01 FASHION A LIGHT-TENT Either use a piece of A3 (approx 12 x 16.5 inches) or tape together two sheets of plain A4 paper (8 x 12 inches), then roll it to make a long cylinder. Cut a small hole in the top of the paper tube large enough to poke a straw through. Place the tube on a table and tape it to the table to stop it rolling around. 02 MAKE BUBBLE MIXTURE Making bubble mixture is simple. In a small bowl or dish, combine two parts water with one part washingup liquid. Ideally, you should add a splash of glycerin or corn syrup, as this will make the bubbles more durable and longer lasting. Keep the bowl beside the tube as you shoot. 03 SET THE EXPOSURE…

PHOTOSHOP CC FROM £9.98/$9.99 PER MONTH WINDOWS, macOS Photoshop is the software of choice for most professional and non-professional photographers. Beyond the standard photo-editing features, it boasts a vast array of more creative tools and filters. Layers are one of the key differences between Photoshop and Lightroom. They enable you to mask out selected parts to build up increasingly sophisticated images. ELEMENTS 15 £79.99/$99.99 WINDOWS, macOS Elements is the consumer variant of Photoshop, and contains many of its key tools and features within a simplified interface. It’s limited, but it does provide access to layers for those who have switched to a Lightroom workflow. LIGHTROOM CC FROM £9.98/$9.99 PER MONTH WINDOWS, macOS Lightroom CC combines professional image-processing tools with asset organizing. It keeps all its images online in the Creative…

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…

One of the best things to happen to Photoshop in recent years is its pair of automated selection tools, which use artificial intelligence to recognize and isolate either the subject or sky in your images. The two tools are so good that often you won’t need to use any of the other selection tricks mentioned over the next few pages; even if sometimes they don’t get the job done, they can still be a useful starting point for further selection tricks. Here we’ve used Select Sky to give the impression of a long exposure in the clouds. To do this, first go to Select > Sky then press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy to a new layer. Cmd/Ctrl-click the layer thumbnail to load it as a selection then go to Filter> Blur…

The Radius controls are the key to improving selections. By increasing the radius, we make the Select And Mask command seek similar pixels along the edge of the selection, to either include or exclude them. Say you’re trying to select a tree. The command analyzes the pixels within the selection edge, noting the colors of the branches and leaves; when you expand the radius, the tool seeks out those similar green and brown pixels outside the selection edge. At the same time, it recognizes the details outside the selection edge – in this case the surrounding blue sky – and seeks out similar blues within the selection to subtract them. We end up with a selection of the tree without the hard work. There are a few ways to control…

This brilliant tool works by seeking out areas of sharpness, so if your subject is against an out-of-focus backdrop, the tool can select it in seconds. It can be very handy when you want to do some sharpening: there’s no point in sharpening the blurry areas of an image because all you’d be doing is amplifying the image noise in these areas. By first isolating then sharpening just the infocus areas, you can zero in and crisp up the detail that matters most. WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3suF8lJ…

Sometimes a selection might not be the quickest way around a task: there are other ways to get the job done. The Blend If command is a marvel. It works by letting us blend the pixels on one layer with those below, so effectively we can choose to hide or reveal pixels based on their color or luminosity. In practice, it’s very useful for tasks like knocking out a white background when you want to place an object onto a different image. Simply copy the image across, double-click the layer to enter the Blend If command, then drag the This Layer white point slider inwards to remove the white background from the image. If the blend looks jagged around the edges, hold Alt and drag half of the slider to…

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3x9wn4c When seen close-up, soap bubbles are a sight to behold. Vivid colors swirl across the surface in an elegant dance that has to be seen to be believed. The play of colors and textures make them look like planets. As such, a bubble makes a fantastic subject for a vibrant abstract photography project. What’s more, you’ll probably have everything you need for this already around the house. We can make our bubbles using a straw and a homemade bubble mixture. With a little care, it’s possible to blow up the bubble and let it dangle from the end of the straw to form a glowing orb of color. Then the lighting is key. We need a flash to freeze the motion of the swirls and pick…

01 REMOVE THE STRAW Removing the straw from the photo will make your bubbles look more planet-like. Open the images into Photoshop, then grab the Content-Aware Move Tool. Set Mode to Extend in the options, then drag a selection over part of the bubble next to the straw. Move and rotate the area so that it’s covering the straw. 02 HEAL THE HOLES The bubble will reflect anything nearby, so it’ll show the holes in the front of the tube and the opening where we poke the straw. If you want to remove these form your photo, you can either paint over those areas with the Spot Healing Brush, or make a selection with the Lasso Tool then go to Edit > Content-Aware Fill. 03 BOOST THE COLORS We can…