Andrew Smallman sets out a foolproof workflow for editing images in Photoshop.
Back in the good old days of film photography the process of making local adjustments to a print involved arcane manipulations in a darkroom reeking of noxious chemicals. This was a low-technology, craft-based activity. Adjustment options were limited and the results unpredictable.
Fast forward to the digital era and welcome to the world of Photoshop where almost any imaginable kind of image manipulation is possible. But that great power comes at a cost! Working with Photoshop can be a very technical, highly complex activity requiring a steep learning curve for newcomers.
There are so many ways to make local adjustments it can be difficult for even moderately experienced Photoshop users to feel confident about where to begin and how best to proceed. So, here is my seven-point plan to get you headed in the right direction. The steps follow a logical workflow progression, starting with the original out-of-camera image and ending with a file ready to print.
01 SHOOT IN RAW FORMAT
Compared to large superfine JPEG files, RAW format images deliver twice the bit depth and more than double the amount of digital information. RAW files tolerate global and local adjustments much better than JPEGs. Photographs destined for exhibition or publication should really start life as RAW files.
02 MAKE A DUPLICATE OF YOUR IMAGE
In Bridge (Photoshop’s organising software application), right click on the image thumbnail and select Duplicate from the drop-down menu. Leave the original file untouched for reference and work on the duplicate.
03 STRATEGIC GLOBAL ADJUSTMENTS
You may have a photo with lots of blown-out highlights and dark shadows. It needs plenty of local adjustments to rein in the highlights and open up the dark tones, right? Not always! The Basic Tab in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR is a Photoshop plugin) has sliders for Exposure, Recovery (of highlights) and Fill Light (for dark tones). Judicious use of these can reduce or eliminate the need for local manipulation.
Perhaps your photo is only available as a TIFF or JPEG file. In the past you might have used the Shadows/Highlights adjustment on such a file (Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights). But you can now process these files in ACR, and the results look more natural.
04. MAKE NON-DESTRUCTIVE ADJUSTMENTS FIRST, STARTING WITH ACR
All the changes made in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) are non destructive, which means they don’t permanently alter pixels. This means you can return to the file at any time and re-edit your work. Aim to make as many changes in ACR as you possibly can. There are five tools in ACR specifically designed for local adjustments.
Spot removal: This is self explanatory and sometimes useful if the unwanted spot is in the middle of an even-toned region of the picture such as the sky. But you can’t select the source pixels yourself so the effect is a bit ‘hit and miss’.
Red-eye removal: Again self explanatory and sometimes useful – if it works! If not, open the image in Photoshop to access tools with more control.
Graduated filter: In ACR version 6.x this tool has become very sophisticated and useful. Like a graduated neutral density filter the effect starts strong and fades to zero. It's very useful and you can put it to work with most key of the key adjustments including Exposure, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Clarity, Sharpness and Colour .
Adjustment brush: This tool applies the same range of adjustments as the Graduated Filter via a variable sized, round cursor which can be dragged anywhere on the frame. The Graduated Filter and Adjustment Brush can be used in tandem to solve a great many problems requiring local adjustment.
Targeted adjustment tool: This intriguing and very clever tool selects parts of the image by colour, not location. To activate it, you must first select the Targeted Adjustment Tool from the Toolbar then the HSL/Grayscale Tab, then the Hue, Saturation or Luminance sub tab. To use the tool, click and hold on the part of the image you want to change then drag left or right. The effect will be seen on the selected part of the image and all other parts of the photo having the same colour. You can change the colour completely or alter its saturation and/or lightness.
05 LOCAL ADJUSTMENTS: NON-DESTRUCTIVE
As good as the Adobe Camera Raw interface is, there's a limit to what you can do with it. At some point you'll need to switch to Photoshop's main editing workspace. When you do, it's a good idea to try to use non-destructive editing techniques wherever possible – that way any changes you make can be easily undone or modified. There are so many ways to make local adjustments using layers and masks it would take a book to describe them all. In fact, several such books have been written, but some of them are quite daunting. So here’s a selection of commonly used procedures which will deal with most problems the enthusiast photographer is likely to encounter. Note that changes made on layers are non destructive to the original image pixels and are reversible until you flatten the layers, at which point your changes become permanent.
Non-destructive dodge and burn: With your image open in Photoshop go to the main menu and choose Layer > New > Layer. In the pop-up window set the Mode to Overlay and check the box “Fill with Overlay-neutral color (50%gray)”. See the new layer in the Layers Panel. Select the Brush Tool. Set the Foreground/Background colour to Black/White. Brushing black on the image makes it darker, brushing white makes it lighter. You can vary the Size, Mode, Opacity and Flow of the Brush Tool. With practice this method is very effective and completely reversible and editable.
Adjustment layers: Rather than applying adjustments from the main menu (for example, Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast) try using adjustment layers instead. There are 15 to choose from (go to the Layers panel and click the 'Create new fill or adjustment layer' icon) and they are completely non-destructive. Once you create an adjustment layer you can go back to it as many times as you like to redo your changes. You can also adjust the opacity of the layer to fade the effect in and out. And best of all, each adjustment layers comes with its own layer mask so you can moify the way the adjustment affects different parts of the image. Click the Mask to make it active and choose the Brush Tool. Change the Foreground Colour (in the Tools panel) to Black and paint in the main image window to conceal the adjustment.
Copy layer with mask: You can make a copy of your photo as a new layer. Go to Layer > New > Layer via Copy. You can now see two identical versions of your file in the Layers Panel. Let’s say you want to darken the sky. You can darken all parts of the background layer with the Levels or Curves control then add a mask to the upper layer. Select the mask, then select the Brush tool with the Foreground colour set to black. Then apply the brush to the mask on the upper layer in the sky area. In “Photoshop speak” this will “conceal” the sky pixels of the upper layer, allowing those from the darker background layer to become visible.
06 LOCAL ADJUSTMENTS: DESTRUCTIVE
There are some adjustments that can't be done non-destructively. When you get to this point in the workflow I suggest you make another copy of your file. TIP: NEVER apply pixel-changing adjustments to your original, out-of-camera file. Always preserve your original by working on a duplicate.
Dodge and burn tools: These are legacy tools from the early days of Photoshop when people working with images understood what happens in a photographic darkroom. Adobe has updated the way ‘Dodge’ and ‘Burn’ operate so they’re still effective and useful. In particular they allow you to confine changes to the highlights, mid-tones or shadows. TIP: Burn mid-tones and shadows, not highlights. Why? Because lowering the brightness of featureless highlights just produces muddy, featureless light areas. Similarly, dodge mid-tones and highlights but stay away from shadows.
Selection plus adjustment: You can select part of an image by any one of the many methods available then apply adjustments such as Levels, Curves or anything else to the selected part of the photo. There’s nothing wrong with doing this as long as you accept that the only way to reverse a mistake is to go back up the history states to the one before your error, or to start over from your “Printer Version” file.
Healing brush and spot healing brush: Here’s another set of old-style Photoshop tools which remain extremely useful when you need them. Scanned images, in particular, typically arrive on your screen covered in dust spots, scratches and defects, often requiring laborious cleaning up with hundreds of applications of the Healing Brush and Spot Healing Brush Tools.
Clone stamp tool: This is one of Photoshop’s most useful tools - it’s very handy for removing unwanted small objects from your images. You can adjust its size, feather, opacity and flow to soften harsh boundaries between light and dark sections of a photo. It can be used with the Polygonal Lasso Tool or Magnetic Lasso Tool to precisely limit the boundaries of the cloning effect.
07 THE NEXT DIMENSION
The final step is to sharpen your image. In the main menu go to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. The settings you use here will depend on the size of your image, where it will be used (online or in print), and the look you're going for. Zoom the preview window to 100 or 200% and start with an Amount setting from 100-200%, and a Radius of 0.5 to 2 pixels. Increase the Threshold to reduce noise as required. Experiment with different settings to get the look you're after.
This simple workflow should help you work smarter and faster in Photoshop, and, most importantly, help you extract the maximum quality from your images.
Copyright of this article is retained by author, Andrew Smallman. Article first published in Australian Photography magazine.
For more tips visit Andrew Smallman's Camera Ergonomics blog at http://cameraergonomics.blogspot.com.
Forbidden City, Beijing. I used the Targeted Adjustment Tool in Adobe Camera Raw to alter saturation and lightness in the sky and yellow roof tiles. The Adjustment Brush enabled me to simultaneously lighten and increase both contrast and clarity in the shaded detail work. Samsung NX10, NX18-55mm OIS lens @ 24mm, 1/200s @ f/6.3, ISO 100, handheld.
Three Gorges Dam, Chang Jiang River. This is the famous Three Gorges Dam on the Chang Jiang (Yangtse) River. Visibility was affected by the high level of air pollution. In Adobe Camera Raw I used several applications of the Graduated Filter with contrast and clarity dialled up in an attempt to cut through the haze. Samsung NX10, NX 18-55mm OIS lens @ 45mm, 1/350s @ f/8, ISO 100, handheld.
Stone Forest, Yunnan. These limestone formations make for interesting photographic compositions. In Adobe Camera Raw I adjusted local brightness levels with the Adjustment Brush. In Photoshop I used the Clone Stamp Tool to remove a CCTV camera stuck on a concretepedestal right in the middle of my composition! Samsung NX10, NX 18-55mm lens @ 40mm, 1/400s @ f/8, ISO 400, handheld.
Emperor’s bedroom. Most of the room was very dark, but the yellow trim at the bed end was brightly lit. I made extensive use of the Adjustment Brush in Adobe Camera Raw to even up luminance levels. Samsung NX10, NX18-55mm OIS lens @ 18mm, 1/40s @ f/3.5, ISO 3200, handheld.