Photoshop User September

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T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R L I G H T R O O M ® & P H O T O S H O P ® U S E R S     S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1

Maximum Workflow

Join us as we take a grand tour of the brand-new ON1 NoNoise AI 2021 plug-in for Photoshop and Lightroom

Lightroom Laboratory

Learn how to take an ordinary, boring photo and turn it into a black-and-white fine-art image ready for a gallery

®

Cover Image by Sandra McCarthy  |  KelbyOne Member

Bow to Your Sensei! Machine learning and AI is like a faithful companion ready to obey your commands when it comes to editing your images

TAKE YOUR IMAGES FROM FLAT TO FABULOUS

Get ready to learn “The System” crafted by world-renowned Lightroom expert Scott Kelby. This is a new way of working and thinking about editing your images that will change the way you work in Lightroom forever, so you’ll spend less time fixing your photos and more time finishing them, and doing the fun, creative things that make Lightroom the amazing tool that it is. This isn’t a “read about it” book. This is a hands-on “you do it” book. You start each lesson with the RAW photo, right out of the camera (you can download Scott’s images, so you can follow right along). Then, you’re going to apply the 7-Point System, until these seven points are absolutely second nature to you. Once you learn this system, there won’t be an image on your screen that you won’t be able to enhance, fix, edit, and finish like a pro! This is the book you’ve been waiting for—the industry has been waiting for—and once you learn this system and start applying it yourself, you’ll be the next one to say, “You can’t beat the system!”

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SEPTEMBER 2021 



  VOL 24 

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  NO 9

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[020]

[028]

DEVELOPING THE SHOT

LIGHTROOM LABORATORY

UNDER THE LOUPE

[042]

[054]

[064]

MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

VISUAL STORYTELLING

LIGHTROOM Q&A

[066]

[070]

[074] PHOTOSHOP FOR LIGHTROOM USERS

Piper on Remembrance Day: Depth Blur

ON1 NoNoise AI 2021

LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS

Learn to Work Faster and Smarter in Lightroom

From Boring to Fine Art

A Moment with a Stranger

GOING MOBILE

Lightroom Field Workflow on iPad

Keys to Getting Organized in Lightroom Classic

Answers to Your Lightroom Questions

The Power of Layer Blend Modes

DEPARTMENTS [ 007 ]  A NOTE FROM SCOTT [ 009 ]  CONTRIBUTORS [ 010 ]  BENEFIT SPOTLIGHT [ 012 ]  KELBYONE COMMUNITY [ 018 ]  NEW ONLINE TRAINING

[078]

BOW TO YOUR SENSEI: EXPLORING MACHINE LEARNING AND AI IN PS SCOTT VALENTINE

[094]

[108]

DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

[128]

[134]

[140]

PHOTO EFFECTS

PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND

DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

Quick Photo-to-Sketch Tricks

[120]

Escape to a Surreal Sci-Fi Storybook Dreamscape

Removing Tape from Old Images

Frequency Separation with Luminosity & Color

BEGINNERS’ WORKSHOP How to Create a Paint Drip Effect

Olympic-Style Sports Poster

mags

[148]

[152]

[164]

PHOTOSHP Q&A

REVIEWS

PHOTOSHOP TIPS

Terry White Answers All of Your Photoshop Questions

Learn to Work Faster and Smarter in Photoshop

Get the Scoop on the Latest Gear

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A NOTE FROM SCOTT

FROM PHOTOSHOP WORLD TO ADOBE MAX could finally rename a layer just by double-clicking on its name. Up to that point, you had to choose New Layer, and a New Layer naming dialog would appear onscreen where you had to type in the new name and click OK. The reason the crowd stood up and cheered was that this was something that changed their daily workflow for the better. This wasn’t some feature they’d only use every once in a while; this was something they’d use every single day, all day, and because they wouldn’t have to do it the hard way anymore, it brought the crowd to their feet. That’s the type of stuff I’m talking about. If I could choose a really “low-hanging fruit ” enhancement I’d love to see, it would go to all those filters we use day in, day out, such as Gaussian Blur, Unsharp Mask, Motion Blur, or, well heck, how about all the legacy filters? Give them a new interface with a much larger preview window; for example, look at what Adobe did with the Smart Sharpen dialog. The preview is huge, you can resize the window to the size you want, and even hide Smart Sharpen features you don’t use. It’s like Adobe created the future of what a filter dialog should look like, but they stopped right there (and that was way back in 2005). I’m sure there are more pressing issues than this, but seeing as this is just a “take-the-windowfrom-that-filter-and-apply-it-to-this-other-filter” type of fix, I don’t think it would take many engineers off the crazy miracle AI stuff Adobe keeps coming up with as of late. Just my two cents. My thanks to all the folks who joined us at the Photoshop World Conference, and thanks for just being KelbyOne members. We appreciate you big time! All my best,

Scott Kelby KelbyOne President & CEO Editor & Publisher

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As I write this, the Photoshop World Conference has just kicked off. This is our first time doing the entire conference virtually, and it’s a really exciting day here. We worked so hard to make the online experience as close to the in-person event as possible, and this morning (August 31) we had our traditional silly opening movie (with a space theme), followed by a keynote presentation from Adobe. Then we were off to class for three different simultaneous training tracks (Photoshop, Lightroom, and photography). Later tonight we have the attendee party where my band, Big Electric Cat, will perform from a nightclub in Tampa, and I have to imagine it will sound pretty bad (LOL!); but we’ll all have fun (and sadly, lots of laughs) and that’s what the party is all about. We still have the Guru Awards, Midnight Madness, and lots more, and if you’re at the conference with us today, I hope you’re having a wonderful experience. Tip of the hat to Christina Sauer, our amazing head of video production, for putting on a three-ring circus like this. It ’s an incredibly challenging job with lots of moving parts, but she seems to do it without ever breaking a sweat, and I’m so grateful to have her leading and inspiring our team. Next up is the Adobe Max conference (also an all-virtual event) in October. Historically, this is when Adobe announces a bunch of new Photoshop, Lightroom, and mobile editing features, so we’ll all be watching their opening keynote (and sharing all the new features here in the magazine). As far as new features go, I’m in a weird place because Photoshop is so mature now (it’s like 30 years old) that I don’t find myself working in Photoshop and thinking, “Man, if it only had this one feature.” Then again, Adobe comes up with things that I never thought of, such as Vanishing Point, or didn’t even think were possible, such as Select Subject. With me, and I know a lot of you out there feel the same, rather than wishing for new big features, we just want those little improvements, those enhancements that make our work in Photoshop easier or faster. In my entire career, the one and only time I got a standing ovation doing a demo of a new Photoshop feature was many years ago when I showed that you

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THE MAGA ZINE FOR LIGHTROOM & PHOTOSHOP USER S

EDITORIAL: Scott Kelby, Editor-in-Chief Chris Main, Managing Editor Kim Doty, Associate Editor Barbara Thompson, Copy Editor Cindy Snyder, Technical Editor Cover Image: Sandra McCarthy

GRAPHICS: Jessica Maldonado, Art Director Margie Rosenstein, Senior Graphic Designer Angela Naymick, Senior Web/Graphic Designer

MARKETING: Adam Frick Ashley Fosse Kleber Stephenson

WEB: Adam Frick

Each issue we feature cover art by a KelbyOne Member This issue’s cover is by Sandra McCarthy, owner of Sandra McCarthy Photography based in Southern New Hampshire. Sandy has been photographing pets since 2016. Inspired by the bond with her own dogs, Sandy likes capturing dogs in their natural environment, particularly when they’re in

Curt Husting

motion, whether they’re running with reckless abandon

Yojance Rabelo

or intent on capturing a Frisbee. Sandy also works with

Aaron Westgate

PUBLISHING: Scott Kelby, Publisher Kalebra Kelby, Executive V.P. Jean A. Kendra, Business Manager

ADVERTISING: Kleber Stephenson, Vice President of Business Development & Enterprise: [email protected]

local rescue organizations, photographing pets to help get them adopted more quickly. She’s recently begun learning how to digitally paint and can produce works of art from photos provided by the dog parents. To learn more about Sandy, turn to page 17.

All contents ©COPYRIGHT 2021 KelbyOne, LLC. All rights reserved. Any use of the contents of this publication without the written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. Photoshop User is an independent journal, not affiliated in any way with Adobe Systems, Inc. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, and Photoshop are registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. in the

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COLOPHON:

Photoshop User Magazine is produced using Adobe Photoshop CC 2021 and Adobe InDesign CC 2021. Korolev, Factoria, and Priori Sans are used for headlines and subheads. Acumin Pro and Korolev are used for body copy.

An official publication of KelbyOne This seal indicates that all content provided herein is produced by KelbyOne, LLC and follows the most stringent standards for educational resources. KelbyOne is the premier source for instructional books, online classes, and live seminars for creative professionals.

SEPTEMBER 2021 

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  VOL 24 

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  NO 9

VICTORIA BAMPTON

BRYAN O’NEIL HUGHES

FERNANDO SANTOS

runs the popular Lightroom Queen website and forums. She is an Adobe Community Professional based in England, and the author of the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic: The Missing FAQ and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: Edit Like a Pro series of books.

is Director of Product Management & Partner Outreach at Adobe, overseeing a portfolio of Creative Cloud applications and services. He’s one of Adobe’s primary spokespeople, representing them across creative segments and platforms.

is a photographer, part-time trainer, and Adobe ACE in Lightroom. Devoted to landscape and travel photography, he’s now also focusing on portraits. You can find him at the KelbyOne Community where he’s a Leader and Moderator.

COREY BARKER

SEAN McCORMACK

COLIN SMITH

is an award-winning designer and illustrator. He has also been an instructor at the Photoshop World Conference and an Adobe MAX Master Instructor, and has produced numerous titles for KelbyOne. Look for his latest book Photoshop Tricks for Designers.

is a commercial photographer based in Galway, Ireland. His work covers everything from fashion and portraiture to products and interiors. He fell into writing from his love of Lightroom, and appreciates the opportunity to pass on his knowledge. He also loves playing with plug-ins.

is an award-winning digital artist, photographer, and lecturer who has authored 20 books and a library of training videos. He’s the founder of the online resource PhotoshopCAFE.com, president of Software-Cinema .com, and runs a popular YouTube channel.

PETER BAUER

KIRK NELSON

LESA SNIDER

is an award-winning photographer and author, and does photo and video verification for a limited clientele. His latest book is Photoshop CC for Dummies. He was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame in 2010 and received the Pioneer of Photoshop Award in 2005.

DAVE CLAYTON

is a professional graphics artist in the Washington, D.C., area. He is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop. Kirk’s career has touched on a broad range of subjects from logo design to animation. He can be reached here.

IBARIONEX PERELLO

is a UK-based graphic designer with over 30 years experience; author of How Do I Do That In InDesign; host of the successful He Shoots, He Draws podcast; and a KelbyOne, Photoshop World, and Adobe MAX instructor.

is an LA-based photographer, writer, and educator with over 30 years of experience. He’s the host of The Candid Frame podcast, and has written many magazine articles and books, including Making Photographs: Developing a Personal Visual Workflow.

SEÁN DUGGAN

is the author of Adobe Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC for Photographers: Classroom in a Book (2016), Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual, TheSkinnyBooks, and more than 40 video courses. She’s also the technical author and eLearning specialist for TAITTowers.

ROB SYLVAN is a photographer, educator, and aspiring beekeeper. He’s the author of many Lightroom and photography books, eBooks, and videos, including Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic for Dummies. Rob can often be found in the KelbyOne Community helping members with PS and LR.

is a fine-art photographer, author of several books on Photoshop and digital imaging, and creates educational content for companies such as Adobe and LinkedIn Learning, where he has over 20 courses on photography, Photoshop, and mobile image making.

DEB PIETI

ERIK VLIETINCK

has worked with Photoshop and Lightroom since 2009, retouching photos for family. She has always been intrigued with old photos and the history behind them. Ancestry.com has inspired her even more and fits perfectly for restoring and colorizing photos.

A J.D. by education, Erik has been a freelance technology editor for more than 22 years. He has written for Macworld, Computer Arts, Post Magazine, Red Shark News, and many others. Visit his website at Visuals Producer.

MARTIN EVENING

SERGE RAMELLI

TERRY WHITE

is a landscape and urban photographer based in the US and Paris. His work has been shown in more than 90 galleries worldwide, and he has 7 fine-art books. Serge teaches photography, Photoshop, and Lightroom to students all around the world.

is a Worldwide Creative Suite Design Evangelist for Adobe Systems, Inc., an Adobe Certified Expert, author of Secrets of Adobe Bridge, co-author of InDesign CS/CS2 Killer Tips, runs Terry White’s Tech Blog, and presents at conferences around the world.

is a photographer with a background in commercial studio photography. He’s also an experienced technical reviewer, who has over the last two decades authored 25 books on Photoshop and Lightroom. He was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame in 2008.

BOW TO YOUR SENSEI: EXPLORING MACHINE LEARNING AND AI IN PHOTOSHOP SCOTT VALENTINE Scott blends his education in physics with his love for art, bringing a unique voice to teaching through experimentation. His Hidden Power books (Adobe Press) are used in colleges across the US. He wants you to never let your tools get in the way of your art.

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BENEFIT SPOTLIGHT

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As a Pro member, you’re receiving the ultimate



You can also get Photoshop, Lightroom, and

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Imagine if someone took the same photographic techniques, principles, and tools used by high-end and professional photographers, but applied them to shooting with an iPhone. Imagine the type of images you’d be able to create using those same ideas. Well, Scott Kelby has done just that in his latest book—The iPhone Photography Book: How to Get ProfessionalLooking Images Using the Camera You Always Have with You.

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COMMUNITY Get Inspired on Mondays

five years. Her grandmother gave her an old Brownie camera when she was eight, but it wasn’t until she was in her 50s, after her kids were grown, that she seriously got into photography. The image featured in her Member Monday post is called Ordinary to Extraordinary (shown below), which she captured on a country road in Burlington, Connecticut. She loves to search for and photograph flowers on the roadsides of rural Connecticut. She captured this image with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III and a 100mm macro lens and then processed it in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Color Efex Pro 4. We absolutely love so many things about this image: the color and focus on the details just jump out and grab your attention. To see her entire Member Monday post, click here. By the way, how would you like to have the chance to be featured in Member Monday on the Insider, or have your images featured in Photoshop User, or even have one of your images on the cover of the magazine? Just head over to our Show Off Your Work webpage, fill in the short form, and click that Submit button so we can check out your portfolio. You never know until you try. n

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

Colleen Malley

Patricia Grindley

Every Monday on the Insider (a.k.a. the KelbyOne blog), we feature the work of a KelbyOne member. For example, on August 23, 2021, we featured the work of Patricia Grindley where she not only shares several of her images, but she also talks a little about her experience of being a photographer and a KelbyOne member. We learned that she’s from Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and has been a serious amateur hobbyist for the last seven years, and a KelbyOne member for the past four years. Her love of photography began early as she grew up reading Life, Look, and National Geographic.

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She calls the image above Fuchsia, which we featured in her Member Monday post. It was taken at Shady Lane Nursery in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, in early May on her first post-COVID outing with the Menomonee Falls Camera Club. The image was captured with a Nikon D850 and a Tamron 90mm macro lens, and then processed in Lightroom. To learn more about Patricia and to see more of her images, check out her Member Monday post by clicking here. On the previous Monday, we had featured the work of Colleen Malley, who is based in Burlington, Connecticut. She has been a photographer for the past 12–15 years, and a KelbyOne Pro member for the past

CHRIS MAIN  |   ASHLEY FOSSE  |   DAVE CL AY TON

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 Artist

Spotlight     Jonathon Rose / member since 2010 / jonathonrose.com

KELBYONE COMMUNITY

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KELBYONE COMMUNITY

 Artist

Spotlight     Robert Barr / member since 2020 / rdbimages.net



 Artist

Spotlight     Asad Sarfraz / member since 2021 / instagram.com/asadsarfrazphotography

KELBYONE COMMUNITY

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KELBYONE COMMUNITY

 Who’s

Who in the KelbyOne Community     Sandra McCarthy / member since 2015 / sandramccarthyphoto.com

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KELBYONE COMMUNITY

WHO’S WHO IN THE KELBYONE COMMUNITY SANDRA MCCARTHY 

Sandra McCarthy is the owner of Sandra McCarthy Photography based in Southern New Hampshire. Inspired by the bond with her own dogs, Sandy has been photographing pets since 2016. She also works with local rescue organizations, photographing pets to help get them adopted more quickly. She’s recently begun learning how to digitally paint and can produce works of art from photos provided

Congratulations on this issue’s cover! Can you tell us a little about the featured image?

Everyone loves kit. What did you start out with and what’s in your kit bag today?

The cover image is of my own dog, Bogey. He’s a 7-year-old Australian Shepherd. This shot was taken with a Nikon D800 atop the summit of Pack Monadnock in New Hampshire.

I think my first ever DSLR was a Nikon D50. Over the years, I’ve also used the D90, D800, D500, and now shoot with the D850 and Z 6II. My favorite lenses are the NIKKOR 70–200mm and NIKKOR Z 85mm.

You obviously love photographing animals despite the age-old adage “never work with animals or children.” When did you decide to start working with pets?

What kind of preparation do you need to put into a pet shoot? Are there any tips you can share with other KelbyOne members?

I started photographing pets in earnest in 2016 when I happened upon a workshop being offered by none other than Kaylee Greer (a KelbyOne instructor) along with two other instructors called Barkelona in Barcelona, Spain.

I’m primarily an outdoor photographer, as I prefer the natural environment. To prepare for a shoot, I work with the pet owner to understand what kind of shots they want. It could be portraits or action shots of the dog alone or portraits of the dog and owner. We can then determine what location gets them the type of photos they want. Most photos are shot with leash and collars on for safety reasons and removed in post, so Photoshop skills are an absolute must. Here are some tips for anyone interested in pet photography: (1) Let the dog get to know you and your camera before you begin. Let them get close to the camera and hear it click. (2) Get low and photograph the pet at their eye level, or put the dog up in a higher position, like on a rock. This gives you the best perspective. (3) Use sounds to get the dog’s attention, but use them sparingly, as they’ll get ignored if used too often. Sounds can often elicit the adorable doggy head tilt.

Has there been anyone on KelbyOne that’s helped or inspired you in your own photography? I’ve been following KelbyOne since as early as 2012 when I attended my first Photoshop World in Washington, D.C. I’ve attended a few Lightroom and photography day seminars as well and the more recent virtual conferences. I’ve been a KelbyOne member for many years and have learned a tremendous amount through the video training and books. Scott Kelby and the other instructors have a great way of simplifying concepts and making them easy to understand and learn. As mentioned earlier, I have also drawn inspiration from Kaylee Greer and her incredible dog images.

You also do painting as well as photography. Were you an artist first and then a photographer?

It’s obviously been a difficult year for many photographers. How has it impacted your work of photographing animals?

I’ve always been a creative person. I’ve been a UX [user experience] designer/director full time for more than 20 years, but photography is my passion. Painting is a natural extension of my photography work.

For me, this passion and business of mine is part time. Interestingly, I’ve been busier this year than any other, so the pandemic really hasn’t impacted my work. It helps that my sessions are outdoors. n

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by the dog parents. One of her images is on the cover of this issue.

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Here Are Your Latest Online Courses

The Time-Traveling Photographer Join Frederick Van Johnson as he shares his unique philosophy on this topic. In this class he explores three different techniques—multiplicity, cinemagraphs, and adding motion to a still image—that you can incorporate into your photography. Starting with the fundamentals, Frederick discusses the tools he uses, and then steps through a series of demonstrations involving on-location shoots and in-studio postprocessing to teach you how to accomplish each technique from start to finish.

The Biggest Mistakes Wildlife Photographers Make and How to Avoid Them Join Juan Pons to learn how to avoid the most common mistakes made by fellow wildlife photographers. By learning what to avoid, we put ourselves in the best possible position to do all the right things when photographing wildlife. Juan pulls from his decades of experience leading photographic workshops to share stories, examples, and sage advice on how to create the best photographs you can while enjoying and savoring the experience of being out in nature.

Every week, we publish at least one new training course. Check out these brand-new courses below:

Scanning Images Using Your Camera Join Jack Reznicki as he shares the process he uses to digitize his huge archive of work from his days of shooting film. You don’t have to compromise between speed and quality, and Jack demonstrates the tools and workflow he’s found to give him amazing results. Once the pictures have been digitized, Jack explains his postprocessing workflow in Lightroom Classic and Photoshop to convert negatives to positives, correct color, and fix problems you couldn’t fix before.

Working a Scene: Building with Small Flash Every person or situation that presents itself in front of the lens is unique and demands equally unique solutions and reactions from the photographer. Joe McNally shares how his unique studio (formerly a bank) is transformed via small flash into a complex dramatic location photograph. In this fast-paced session, Joe will take light-shaping tools and work with the same face in the same environment, while we observe.

MARTIN EVENING

DEVELOPING THE SHOT

PIPER ON REMEMBRANCE DAY: DEPTH BLUR Remembrance Day is a memorial day, observed by the UK and Commonwealth member states, which is held each year on November 11 to commemorate the armistice at the end of the First World War. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, we remember armed forces members who have died in the line of duty. A couple of years ago, my local cycle club arranged a private ceremony for Remembrance Day, where one of our members, George Carr, who is a piper, played a lament on the bagpipes.

For some reason I forgot to bring my usual camera with me on that occasion; therefore, I had to make use of my iPhone 8s instead to photograph George while he was playing. The location was a converted farmyard and my favorite picture from that day was this one by a gate and  20 

overlooking the fields. Like any regular smartphone photo, more or less everything was sharp from the foreground to the distance. So, in this month’s article, I want to explore some of the different ways you can add blur to a background and thereby help the subject stand out more.



DEVELOPING THE SHOT

ALL IMAGES BY MARTIN EVENING

The main section looks at the new Depth Blur Neural filter effect in Photoshop. This filter is quite smart in that it cleverly examines the scene to generate a pseudo depth map. This is then used to apply progressive amounts of blur from the foreground to the distance. But for all that, I wouldn’t say the final results are always entirely convincing. The same way that background blurring applied on online conference calls is only ever partially successful. There are ways, however, as I show here, to refine the filter output to achieve more realistic results. [KelbyOne members can click here to download a DNG version of this file for practice purposes only.]

THE STEPS

Before

STEP TWO: I then adjusted the remaining tone slider controls to add more contrast. I dragged the Highlights slider to the left to preserve detail in the clouds and dragged the Shadows slider to the right to bring out more detail in the dark uniform.

Step One

Step Two

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STEP ONE: To start, I wanted to fix the biggest problem: the exposure. I therefore went to the Basic panel in Lightroom Classic, where I set the Exposure slider to 1.15 to lighten the image.

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

HOW TO

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP THREE: Next, I adjusted the Clarity and Vibrance sliders in the Presence section. Adding a small amount of Clarity added more definition to the piper’s uniform, while adding more Vibrance helped enrich the colors in the scene, especially the red tartan.

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STEP FOUR: In this step I went to the Effects panel and dragged the Post-Crop Vignetting Amount slider to the left to darken the corners of the image. This helped focus the eye more on the piper in the center of the frame. I then chose Photo >Edi t in > Edi t in Adobe Photoshop 2021, to continue the editing in Photoshop. In the resulting dialog, I chose the option to Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustment s and clicked Edit.

DEVELOPING THE SHOT

STEP FIVE: With the selected photo open in Photoshop, I went to the Filter menu and chose Neural Filters. This opened the dialog shown here, where I enabled the Depth Blur option from the menu on the left by clicking on its switch. (If this is your first time using the Depth Blur Neural filter, you’ll have to download it first.) This revealed the Depth Blur options on the right, where I set the Blur Strength to 50 and the Focal Range (the shallowness, or range of blurring) to 60. You can click on the image to select the point of sharpest focus but, in this instance, it auto-selected the piper’s face. Down in the bottom-left corner I selected Smart Filter from the Output menu and clicked OK. STEP SIX: Here you can see the outcome using the settings applied in Step Five. The filter applied a shallow focus to the photo (as could be seen in the preview window in Step Five). You’ll also notice in the Layers panel how the filter is applied as a smart filter layer. Click the Eye icon next to the Smart Filters layer to turn it on and off so you can see how it’s affecting the photo.

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HOW TO

STEP SEVEN: The result looked okay, but was by no means perfect. To refine the appearance of the depth blur effect, I needed to generate an accurate mask outline of the piper. To do this, I clicked on the Neural Filters Smart Filters Eye icon in the Layers panel to temporarily disable the Depth Blur filter effect. I then went to the Select menu in Photoshop and chose Subject. This created the rough outline selection shown here.

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP EIGHT: The next step was to refine the Select Subject selection. The best way to do this was to press the Q key to switch from the marching ants to the Quick Mask selection mode. This revealed the masked areas using a red overlay. (Note: If the subject is covered by the red overlay instead of the background, double-click the Quick Mask mode icon [circle in a square] near the bottom of the Toolbar to open the Quick Mask Options dialog. Select Color Indicates Masked areas instead of Selected areas, and click OK. Then press Q again to reenter Quick Mask.) Now, at this stage, you can use whatever method you find most useful to edit the Quick Mask. Personally, I found it best to select the Pen tool (P) to draw a precise path to define an area that needs filling, convert the path to a selection by Right-clicking in the image and choosing Make Selection, and then pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill with the Foreground color. Filling with black will fill the mask (red overlay), and filling with white will erase that area from the mask. Pressing the X key will swap the Foreground and Background colors. An easier option might be to select the Brush tool (B) and paint on the Quick Mask switching between the Foreground and Background colors to fill, or erase the mask. When finished, press the Q key again to exit Quick Mask and return to the marching ants.

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STEP NINE: Having finished the mask editing, I reenabled the Neural Filters by clicking where the Eye icon used to be next to the Smart Filters layer. With the selection still active, I clicked on the Smart Filters mask thumbnail in the Layers panel. I then pressed X until the Foreground color was black, and used the Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) shortcut to fill the selected area with the Foreground color. In the Layers panel you can see the mask applied to the filter effect, which hides the blur on the piper, and how this has improved the depth blur effect in the image.

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DEVELOPING THE SHOT

STEP 10: The outline of the piper was now neater, but there were a few small areas in the background that remained sharp. To further improve the depth blur effect, I clicked on the Create a New Layer icon (+) at the bottom of the Layers panel to add an empty new layer at the top of the layer stack. Next, I Command-clicked (PC: Ctrl-clicked) the Smart Filters mask thumbnail to reload the outline selection. Having done that I clicked on the Add Layer Mask icon (circle in a square) at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a new layer mask based on the active selection. I was now ready to add some more blur. I selected the Blur tool from the Toolbar and made sure the Sample All Layers option was checked in the Options Bar. With the new image layer thumbnail (not the mask thumbnail) selected, I then painted directly on the image to apply more blur to the background areas that needed more blur.

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ALTERNATIVE BACKGROUND BLURRING METHODS

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The steps I’ve just shown demonstrate how it’s possible to refine a depth blur effect to make it look more convincing. If you look closely at the finished result, however, you’ll notice how there’s still a noticeable softening along the edges of high contrast where there’s a “blur bleed” that extends beyond the outline edge, although it’s less noticeable elsewhere, such as along the edges of the tartan. There’s not much that can be done to get around this when editing a photo in the way I’ve just shown. I did mention earlier that this photo was taken using an iPhone 8s. If I’d shot it using the telephoto lens rather than the wide angle, then I’d have been able to make use of the embedded depth map data to apply a selective blur, all while editing the photo in Lightroom (see my “Depth Range Masking” article in Issue 46 of Lightroom Magazine). Essentially, if you duplicate a layer, blur the lower one and then mask the subject on the upper layer to keep it sharp, the blurred layer below will include blurred pixels of the subject you want to keep sharp. This will result in the aforementioned blur bleed. Even if you make a selection to constrain the area you wish to blur, Photoshop will still look beyond the selection boundary edge to calculate the blur. There is, however, a way to get around this problem in Photoshop. Here are the steps I used in the example shown here. (There’s a TIFF version of the file in the download folder that already includes the Outline alpha channel as described below.)

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1. U  sing the same image, I Command-clicked (PC: Ctrl-clicked) one of the layer mask thumbnails to reload the selection. I then went to Select>Inverse and then Select>Save Selection. I named the selection “Outline” and clicked OK. I then deleted everything in the Layers panel, except for the original image layer, and pressed Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect. I also Rightclicked on the layer in the Layers panel and selected Rasterize Layer so it was no longer a smart object.

Background selected via the Channels panel (shown in Quick Mask mode)

Field Blur settings in Blur Gallery

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2. In the Channels panel (Window>Channels), I clicked to select the Outline mask. I then selected the Gradient tool (G) and, in the Options Bar, selected the Foreground to Background gradient preset and set the blending Mode to Screen. With the Foreground color set to black and the Background color white, I then dragged from the middle of the frame to just above the piper’s boots.

4. N  ext, I clicked on the RGB channel in the Channels panel, went to the Filter menu, and chose Blur Gallery>Field Blur. I could then choose the amount of blur to apply to the selected background area. But crucially, the Blur Gallery Options Bar has a Selection Bleed slider. When it’s set to zero, there’s no bleed between the background and the subject. Click OK to apply the blur.

3. H aving edited the outline mask, I dragged the Outline mask channel to the Load Channel As Selection icon (dotted circle) at the bottom of the Channels panel. I then chose Select>Inverse so the background was selected.

This alternative method does resolve the edge-bleed problem, although the blur fade from foreground to the distance is less nuanced compared to the Depth Blur filter method. Well, I suppose we can’t have everything! n

Alternate method final image with the edge-bleed problem resolved

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Selection Bleed slider set to zero in the Options Bar of the Blur Gallery

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SERGE RAMELLI

LIGHTROOM LABORATORY

FROM BORING TO FINE ART While recently in Paris, I was trying to capture monuments with a new camera at new angles. Because I’ve seen and captured these so many times, it’s always nice to approach them with a new perspective and to find different ways to process the images. So, in this article, I’ll show you how to go from a very basic boring photo to a fine-art photo ready for a gallery. I’ll be using different tools in Lightroom Classic and Photoshop to achieve the final effect, so let’s get to it!

ALL IMAGES BY SERGE RAMELLI

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L I G H T R O O M L A B O R AT O R Y

STEP ONE: As always, because we’re working with a super high-resolution RAW file, it’s good to start with some basic development to get a good idea of what we’re working with. Here we can open up the Shadows to +67, bring down the Highlights to –60, set the black points (Blacks) to –47 and the white points (Whites) to +14. We’ll also add some Texture (+19) and Clarity (+18). Tip: You should only add Clarity to the overall photo when you don’t have any clouds in your sky; otherwise, it can create an unpleasant effect!

STEP TWO: To do justice to the photo, we’ll go to the Transform panel and click on Auto to remove any distortions.

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HOW TO

STEP THREE: This step is optional and depends on your photo, but for the black-and-white dramatic look that we want to achieve with this photo, we could use a more dramatic sky. To do that, we need to jump over to Photo­shop, so go to Photo>Edit In>Edit In Adobe Photoshop 2021. In Photoshop, go to Edit>Sky Replacement and select a nice sky in the Sky Replacement dialog. You can use one of the skies that comes with Photoshop or use one of your own, but try to find a sky that matches the time of day your photo was taken to make it more natural (because

we’re eventually going to black-and-white with our photo, this doesn’t matter as much). Set the Output To New Layers, click OK, and you’ll see a new layer group with a few layers in your Layers panel for your new sky. Save your document, close it, and return to Lightroom where you’ll see a new version of your file with the new sky. [For an in-depth look at the Sky Replacement feature in Photoshop check out “Sky Replacement, Part 1” and “Sky Replacement, Part 2” in the December 2020 and January 2021 issues of Photoshop User.—Ed.]

STEP FOUR: Now we can start working on a selective black-and-white treatment. Our goal here is to keep the flag in color but convert the rest of the photo to blackand-white. In the HSL panel, we’ll select the Saturation

tab, and lower all the colors that aren’t affecting the flag: Yellow, Green, Aqua, Blue, Purple, and Magenta are all set to –100. We set Orange to –39, as it’s affecting the flag a little.

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STEP FIVE: The next step is to remove any remaining colors outside the flag, which are mainly in our new sky. For that, you can use the Adjustment Brush (K). Set its Feather, Flow, and Density at 100% (which we normally never do). Double-click the word “Effect” at the top left of the tool’s panel to reset all its settings to 0 and then lower the Saturation slider to –100. With that brush in hand, brush over all the areas where there’s any color you want to remove. In this instance, when painting close to the flag, we activated Auto Mask so that only the center of the Adjustment Brush was active and not the border. That way we can paint very close to the flag without affecting it.

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PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP SIX: Mission accomplished: The photo is now fully black and white except for the flag! Some photographers may find this look a bit dated or cheesy, but it still works great and people love this style of photo. Let’s add some drama to the photo to make it more fine art. The first tool we’ll use is the Graduated Filter (M). We’ll set one gradient that starts near the top of the photo and

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goes almost to the center, lowering its Exposure to –0.74. Then, we’ll set another one at the very top of the photo a bit darker at –1.17 of Exposure. You can use the Range Mask option set to Luminance to make sure the filter isn’t affecting your subject too much (here we set the Range to 8/100). To finish and “close up” your photo, add a Graduated Filter at the bottom with –1.17 of Exposure as well.

STEP SEVEN: To create an even more dramatic look, you can do some clair-obscur, which is a fancy French way of saying dodge and burn. To start, go to the Basic panel and lower the overall Exposure of your photo to –0.65 and add a lot of Contrast (+66). It looks scary right now but don’t worry.

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STEP EIGHT: We’re going to relight the scene using Radial Gradients (Shift-M). Double-click on the word “Effect” to make sure all of the tool’s settings are at 0, and then boost the Exposure to 0.85, set the Feather to 100%, and check on Invert. Now you can place various Radial Gradients around the photo and play around with the Exposure for each; for example, on one area of the clouds, we set the Exposure at 0.50. After you draw your first circle, you can easily duplicate it by Right-clicking its edit pin and selecting Duplicate. Note: Regarding the Exposure, try not to go over 0.90, which is a little overboard.

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PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP NINE: As a double development, you can also use the Adjustment Brush to relight the photo. Boost the Exposure to 0.90 (not more), and set the Flow and Density at around 80. Now paint over areas of the photo to make the overall lighting more complex and interesting!

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STEP 10: We’re getting close to the final result. The overall photo is very dark now, so we’re going to bring back some Whites (+37) and boost the Exposure a little (from where we had it at –0.65) to –0.40 so that we have a more balanced contrast.

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This is the final look for our image. You can tweak your images as you want; from this point it’s more of an artistic decision, so you can brighten the whole photo or darken it, whichever you feel is right!

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the effect really transforms your photo from okay to spectacular—always my goal! You can also try this with a boring daylight photo if you’re too impatient to wait and capture that perfect sunset! n

I hope you enjoyed using these tools and that you learned some new techniques. The steps are quite simple, but

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ROB SYLVAN

UNDER THE LOUPE

KEYS TO GETTING ORGANIZED IN LIGHTROOM CLASSIC As I’ve been working with people over the years, I’ve noticed a few common obstacles to getting their Lightroom Classic (LrC) lives more organized. My approach for this article, therefore, is to address ways to overcome these issues and help anyone struggling to feel more in control of their growing photo libraries. I’ve also embedded links to related articles I’ve written and one of Scott’s classes to help you go even further. ALL IMAGES BY ROB SYLVAN

One of the first obstacles to overcome is understanding what all the components of a LrC workflow are so that you can manage them over time. From there, the next hurdle is knowing what organizational tools are available within LrC, and then how to use them. Once people understand the components and the tools, then they can apply them effectively and continue to refine their workflows to become more consistent and efficient. Once you’ve reached that stage of progress, you’re in control  36 

of your photo library, and that’s the place I want to help everyone reach. What about a specific organizational system? I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a lot of different ways photographers organize their photos: some methods work really well, and some are a horrible, disorganized mess. The three important elements of a successful organizational system appear to be that (1) the system must make sense to the way that person’s brain works, (2) it must scale

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THE COMPONENTS The key components of a LrC workflow that you need to keep in mind are your photos, the catalog (and its associated files), and the presets/templates you use to become more efficient. You also need to understand how these files interact and depend on each other to avoid self-inflicted injury. A firm grasp of each component will put you on the right track to staying organized. Let’s explore each of these components in a bit more detail.

YOUR PHOTOS The whole reason you’re doing this is for your photos, and they must be at the center of all your decisions. You must know where your photos are located on your system, have them included in a backup process, and have a plan for managing them over time as you outgrow your current hardware. The place to find them in LrC is the Folders panel in the Library module.

There are two main places where LrC touches your actual photos, with the first being part of the import process and the second being through managing them in the Library module. During the import process, you have an opportunity to decide where the photos will be stored, and after import, in the Library module you’ll find the tools to rename, move, delete, keyword, organize into collections, and find your photos over time. You must understand how to use each of these tools and then have a plan for how you’ll use them to keep your library organized. We’ll revisit these tools a little later.

THE CATALOG At its heart (or brain?), LrC has a database called the catalog, which stores information about every photo (and video) that goes through the import process. The main job of the import process is to create a new database record for each photo that includes all the metadata created by the camera, the exact location (path) of where that photo is stored on your system, and any additional metadata you add along the way (such as copyright and contact information). You can find where your catalog is located by going to Lightroom Classic (PC: Edit)>Catalog Settings and clicking on the General tab.

Each time you launch LrC, you’re opening that database and looking at its contents. All the work you do in LrC (every keyword, color label, collection membership, virtual copy, edit, etc.) is written to that database as you do the work in real time. By default, LrC doesn’t write any of that information to your photos at all. For that

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smoothly into the future as the library grows, and (3) the user must be able to easily find the photos for which they’re looking when needed. Outside that, there’s a lot of room for creativity. So, while I’ll share some of my thoughts on what works for my brain, I recognize that it might not work for yours, so if you have a system that meets the above criteria (such as Scott Kelby’s SLIM system), then I feel you’d get more out of focusing on improving efficiencies within your system than changing the system completely.

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reason, you can see that it’s very important to know where your catalog is located, keep it backed up, and know how to restore from disaster if something happens to your catalog file.

Stored alongside the catalog (which has a .lrcat file extension) are several files that protect it from being opened by another program while you have it open, assist it in case of a crash, and store previews of each photo that ’s being managed by that catalog (called a cache). Together, this collection of files allows you to work with your photos even if they’re stored on an offline drive because LrC spends most of its time writing to the catalog and showing you previews of your photos. Your actual photos are never in LrC, but always stored in some folder on some drive on your system that LrC simply references via the path stored in the catalog.

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PRESETS AND TEMPLATES

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The words presets and templates get used interchangeably within LrC, but whatever you call them, they’re crucial to a consistent and efficient workflow. LrC’s original reason for existing was to provide a more ef ficient workflow for digital photographers, and there are many points within a workflow, from import to export (and everything in between), where you can leverage presets and templates to make your life easier. The most common examples are the presets we use in the Develop module, but you can create import presets, filename templates, metadata templates, tex t templates, and export presets too. Keeping these files updated, organized, and under control is an important consideration to managing your photo library over a lifetime. Now that you’re familiar with the components, let’s dive into the most important organizational tools LrC has to offer.

ORGANIZATIONAL TOOLS The Develop module is the sexy beast where everyone likes to spend time, but the Library module is the most important place for keeping your photo library under control and for finding the photos you want when you need them. I include the import process as part of the Library because that’s your first opportunity to keep yourself organized and moving in the right direction, so let’s start there.

THE IMPORT WINDOW Earlier I stated that the main job of the import process was creating records in the catalog file about each imported photo, but the secondary job of importing can involve copying or moving photos to a storage location of your choosing. You need to be in the driver’s seat for this job and ensure that LrC isn’t placing photos in an undesired location. There are two choices on the Import window that determine where your photos will end up. The first choice is along the top of the screen where you choose between Copy as DNG, Copy, Move, or Add.

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Of these choices, the two most common are Copy and Add. If your photos are coming from a memory card, you’ll choose Copy. (Copy as DNG is effectively the same as Copy except it also includes the operation to convert the RAW photos to DNG; but for organizational purposes, it’s beyond the scope of this article.) If your photos are already exactly where you want them to be stored (because you put them there outside LrC), then you will choose Add. A word about Move: For safety reasons, I don’t recommend using Move, because Move includes a copy operation followed by a delete operation from the original location. It’s much safer to use Copy for import, and then once the copy operation is done successfully, you can manually delete the source files from the original drive, if that’s what’s needed. Move will be unavailable when the source is a memory card, so it would only come into play when source photos are on a hard drive. When choosing Copy, the only other choice you need to make at this time is in the Destination panel. When Add is selected, the photos are already in their final location, so the Destination panel isn’t included. When configuring the options in the Destination panel, you again have two choices: First, where do you want the photos to be stored; and second, how do you want them to be organized at that location. Keeping in mind that the settings in the Import window apply to all photos being imported at this time, you want to choose a location that works for all of the photos being imported. The default setting in the Organize drop-down menu at the top

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PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

of the panel is By Date, which includes options for your choice of date format in the drop-down menu below it.

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The nice thing about the By Date organize option is that it’s fully automated using the creation date of each photo to create corresponding folders within the folder selected in the Destination panel, and it scales nicely into the future; however, dates alone may not give you enough information to find your photos easily in the future. I work around this limitation by simply renaming the date-based folders after import (using the Folders panel) to include additional meaningful information along with the date. This way, I don’t have to think about organizing my photos during the import process, and I can let the automation of folder creation save me time, as well as get the benefit of dates

added to each folder so that they sort in a meaningful way within the Folders panel. Note: If your workflow uses the Into One Folder option in the Organize drop-down menu, and that works for your brain, then don’t let me stop you from using that option. I recognize the benefits of putting your photos in custom-named folders from the outset, and I know many who use that option. Additionally, I recommend standardizing on the toplevel location for all newly imported photos. In my case, I copy all new photos to a folder structure within the Pictures folder of my internal drive, with the same top-level parent folder selected for all imports (and let LrC create the subfolders within it). Thus I don’t have to spend any time thinking about where to put photos at this time and, best of all, I can create an import preset that includes the settings in the Destination panel (as well as all the panels above it). Over time, I use the Folders panel to move folders to a larger external drive to maintain space on the internal drive. To create an import preset, configure all desired import settings (in all panels), then click the Import Preset drop-down menu at the very bottom of the screen and choose Save Current Settings as New Preset. You can create as many of these import presets as your workflow requires. These are huge timesavers and allow for consistency in your organizational efforts. For each subsequent import job, simply choose your desired import preset and everything is done. After a quick visual confirmation, all you need to do is click the Import button and LrC does the rest.

THE LIBRARY MODULE Once the import process begins, your view returns to the Library and, as the photos fill your screen, you can turn your attention to the Folders panel to confirm that the photos are going exactly where you designated. The Folders panel is one of the most powerful tools for

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organizing your photos over time; it’s where you can move folders into new folders and drives, rename folders, remove folders, create subfolders, and more. For example, I mentioned that I rename all newly created folders after import to include a meaningful name in addition to the date. Here’s how to do this: STEP ONE: Right-click the folder you want to rename. STEP TWO: Choose Rename from the contextual menu. STEP THREE: Enter a meaningful name in the Rename Folder dialog that appears and click Save.

STEP ONE: Click All Photographs in the Catalog panel so the entire library is searched, and press G for Grid view if you’re not already there. STEP TWO: Click the Text button on the Library Filter Bar to open the text input field. STEP THREE: Type into the field the text for which you want to search. In this example, I typed “Yosemite” again. LrC now searches your entire library for that word in all searchable fields, which includes folder names. In the screen capture below you can see the folder name displayed on the thumbnail. I find this much faster and simpler than keywording each individual photo. I’ve got nothing against keywording in general if it’s needed for a given workflow but, in my experience, it’s a non-preferred activity for most people. If keywording is your thing, then take a dive into my “Controlling Keywords” article to learn more about them. With these basic concepts mastered and put into practice, you’ll be well on your way to being organized, and you can then take it up a notch with becoming more efficient over time. n

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This renames the folder in the Folders panel as well as on your drive, all in one move, while keeping the record in the catalog up to date. By performing all your file-management tasks in LrC, you keep your files organized and the catalog updated. To learn even more about the Folders panel and how to unlock its power, be sure to bookmark my article on “Understanding the Role of the Folders Panel.” A powerful benefit to naming your folders with simple, descriptive, and consistent names is that you can utilize the filter at the top of the Folders panel to quickly find all of the folders that match what you type in that field, even across multiple drives. This works with both numbers and names, so if I wanted to see only folders from 2021, I can just type that in the filter and display only the folders that match. Likewise, if I wanted to find all folders containing photos from Yosemite, I just type that in the field and I don’t need to remember when I was there at all. The key is to be consistent when naming folders so that you get consistent results from the filter. This same trick works in the Library Filter Bar for finding photos based on the names you gave the containing folder. Here’s how to do that:

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SEAN MCCORMACK

MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

ON1 NONOISE AI 2021 It’s not that often that we see a new product come to market. For the most part, it’s additions to current packages, or iterations on the current. From that point of view, ON1’s NoNoise AI 2021 is refreshing. Using the skills they’ve built with Photo Raw, ON1 has created a niche program that does an excellent job of fixing photos where noise is an issue. They’re not the only ones in the market, though, with Topaz and Neat Image having products of their own. NoNoise does have the benefit of real-time noise editing, something that’s been sorely lacking. ALL IMAGES BY SEAN MCCORMACK

We say it’s niche, because current cameras have excellent noise responses, far outweighing anything that would’ve been possible in the film world. Even at ISO 6,400 or 12,800, noise is often quite low or acceptable. So why would you need an application like this? Well, there are times when noise is unavoidable. If you shoot concerts or astrophotography, you’re dealing with low-light situations all the time. Sometimes to freeze motion, you need a higher ISO; for example, with wildlife on a darker day. The long lenses used require higher-than-average shutter speeds, made even worse on a dull day.  42 

Overall, having a noisy shot is better than a blurred shot, especially in newsworthy situations. Rather than worry about the noise, think about how you now have the ability to fix it using artificial intelligence (AI). Knowing in advance that you can fix a specific issue means you’re more than likely going to work harder to get that shot.

INSTALLATION ON1 has used Internet-based authorization for a long time now and, on purchase, you can access the installer

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GETTING AROUND Since we already have the standalone version open, we’ll begin there. Select either files or folders to add for processing. If you’re just testing, try the Open Sample Photo option. Here, we’re starting with an older CR2 file of a long night exposure.

When you open a file into NoNoise AI, it automatically applies the noise reduction and presents the image in the middle with an active preview bar. It’s also zoomed to 100%. On the left of the screen is your original, and on the right is the version with noise reduction. The preview bar isn’t static; it can be moved left and right to see the changes being made. Usually they’re perfect right off the bat, so here ends the article. Not really! There’s more to see and you can tweak the settings to get them to match your preference, rather than the AI’s preference. Looking around, on the left is the Tool Well with tools, such as Crop, Mask, Refine, Retouch, and View, which is the currently active tool. Below these at the bottom are the preferences and the Learning Hub. (Note: For the left screen grab of the Tool Well, we’ve compressed the window to remove UI spacing.) At the top are the Zoom options. By default this goes to 100, but often you want the Fit view or to zoom in to see more detail. You can click-and-drag on the word “Zoom” for a scrubby slider, or

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files from your account. Download the package and run the installer, which will take you through the steps of adding both the standalone and plug-in versions of the application to your system. With macOS, it added plug-ins for Photoshop, Lightroom, Apple Photos, and Affinity Photo. Run the standalone version to begin and get signed in.

MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

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click on the down-facing arrow to the right of the Zoom field to reveal a slider. Here’s the 200% view of our image, clearly showing what’s going on with the noise reduction.

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Left of the bottom center are the preview options. The first is another zoom slider, useful when you’re not adjusting the settings. Next is the preview bar toggle, which changes between the preview bar view and the after image. Then you have the Mask View, to

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show any masks being applied to the current layer (yes there are layers here). By default this is white, as you’re changing the whole photo. Finally, there’s the Preview on/ off toggle. You can use the keyboard shortcut \ with this. The meat and potatoes is next. The right panel contains all the settings. As we’ll show you the inner workings with different example photos in just a moment, a quick overview will suffice here. At the top are Nav, to show your zoom location on the photo; Levels, which is the histogram; Info, which has basic image exif; and History, to show your steps. Next is the Layers panel where you can build up different settings to maximize sharpness in areas that need it by applying different levels of reduction to different parts of the photo. The Details section is where the Noise Reduction and Sharpening are applied. At the bottom you can reset all of the currently applied settings and start from scratch, as well as Sync copies to other photos if you’ve opened more than one image. Cancel closes the plug-in, while Save obviously saves the image. The final two options are Export, which becomes available when you’ve applied settings, and then a drawer option to close down the right panel.

Lower ISO for this astrophotography shot has not prevented noise from creeping in

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MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

NONOISE IN PRACTICE Because NoNoise can be run in a batch, it’s potentially good enough to set and forget. For this reason, we’ll look at a variety of image types where this is useful.

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

Luminance: Luminance is so-called because it controls noise in the luminance channel. Essentially, it lets you control noise based on variations in brightness, which shows as grittiness or additional texture where it should really be smooth. All Luminance noise sliders are effectively blur controllers. What’s essential is that it can recognize edges, and NoNoise does this. Even at 100 and with Enhance Detail off, edges are still defined, but not sharp (see top right). Of course, you wouldn’t normally need this to be at 100. The AI decided on 94 for this, but you can tweak it, of course.

Enhance Detail: As Luminance blurs the photo, you need a way to bring back edge definition, which is done with Enhance Detail. The default setting is 50, but again, you can tweak this to taste. Speaking of taste, this is an important aspect of noise reduction. Some people prefer the smooth look, but you might like to leave in some noise for a more organic feel. Above are the Auto settings again, with a Luminance of 94 and Enhance Detail of 50.

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With night sky photography (more specifically wide field shots of the sky), you have two main photos: really long exposures for star trails, or long exposures with high ISO for more detail. Our first photo is the former, a 293-second exposure at f/4.0, ISO 400. The lower ISO still hadn’t prevented noise from creeping in as the sensor heats up over such a long exposure time. We’re working from the RAW file here, as the rendered queue in NoNoise hasn’t been optimized, though it’s planned for an upcoming update. To this end, the coloring from the original processing that removed the color cast hasn’t been applied.

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HOW TO

Color: With brightness-based noise taken care of, it’s probably obvious to you that color would be next. Color noise shows up as a mix of red, green, and blue pixels where there should be one color. It also shows in a larger context as variations in color over greater areas; so, for example, blue skies might have areas of purple mixed in. With NoNoise, Color always defaults to 100. There’s not much reason to change this unless you specifically want to reintroduce some of the noise back. In this example, we set it to 74.

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Auto: Let’s look at the Auto setting. This might seem like there wouldn’t be much to look at, but there are actually three settings from which to choose: Low, Medium, and High. You’ll find this drop-down menu in the Preferences (the icon near the bottom left of the interface). Unusually, the default is High, where ON1 feels that the noise reduction is working the best. Here’s how the Medium version looks in our image. Try the settings to see what suits your taste. If you find you prefer one, use that as the Auto option and you’ll have a much faster workflow in future.

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Sharpening: As noise reduction works by blurring, you need some way to retain and repair missing edge detail. Obviously that requires a sharpening tool. Amount is the overall strength, but you don’t want to bring back noise in the process. Detail sharpens higher frequency items, such as stars

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MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

or leaves in trees. Threshold decreases the areas sharpened; a higher Threshold allows continuous areas to remain unsharpened. You can see the default Sharpening Amount of 20, with the other settings at zero, in the previous images.

ROLL YOUR OWN Armed with this information, let’s process our image to taste. STEP ONE: Starting with the Medium Auto setting, Luminance noise is still quite obvious. We can fix this by boosting the Luminance slider to 57, which looks good here.

STEP THREE: Color Noise Reduction works well at 100 for this photo, so let’s move onto sharpening. We’ll start by bringing the Amount up to 40.

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STEP TWO: There’s a lack of detail in the trees on Pine Island, so we’ll set Enhance Detail to 63.

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HOW TO

STEP FOUR: This has increased noise, so rather than deal with Detail first, we’ll bring up Threshold to fix this in the water.

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STEP FIVE: Finally, we’ll bring up the Detail slider. Too much can make the image look crunchy, but 50 works here.

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STEP SIX: We’re not done with fixes yet though. Click the Apply button to lock the settings; it will become the Adjust button. Don’t worry, you can always edit again with the Adjust button. Click the Retouch tool on the left,

select the healing option at the top (the bandage icon), and zoom in via the slider at the bottom. You can now paint to remove spots and marks such as hot pixels or dust using this tool.

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MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

LAYER IT UP You may want to apply heavier or lighter adjustments in different parts of the photo. Let’s say you wanted to have stronger Luminance settings on the water. When the settings have the red Adjust button visible, you can work with layers in the Layers panel.

STEP EIGHT: You can mask these new settings on this layer. Click on the Show/Hide Masking Options icon (circle in a square) to the left on the top layer in the Layers panel, which will reveal the masking options

and activate the Mask tool in the Tool Well. Click Invert to change the Mask from white to black on the layer, which hides the results.

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STEP SEVEN: In the Layers panel, click the first icon to duplicate the layer, and then click the Adjust button so you can edit this new layer. You’ll see a warning in the Details panel that retouching will not be visible while adjusting. We’ll set the Luminance higher for this layer to 76.

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HOW TO

STEP NINE: Set the Mode to Paint In at the top, and then paint where you want the new effect to show. To see the mask as you paint, click View. There are a few options for creating the mask. The default is the brush, but you can also use a gradient or the AI Quick Mask options. The Gradient can be linear, radial, reflected, or use edges. With AI Quick Mask, you paint Drop and Keep colors, and NoNoise automatically generates the mask. STEP 10: With the file edited, you can click Done to save the work. From the app, you can save as a DNG or to any of the supported formats (JPEG, TIFF, PSD, and PNG). You can also opt to Export it. The Export dialog is fairly self-explanatory. Choose your preferred output in the File Type section and then use settings that match it.

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STEP 11: As NoNoise was working on the RAW file, this still needs further editing. Here’s a quick example of the settings used in Lightroom Classic to get the final look. Note that although the file was saved as a DNG, it’s still a rendered file, without Kelvin-based temperature controls.

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Before

After

MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

CONCERT Another area of low-light interest is concerts. This image isn’t a particularly noisy photo as it was shot at only ISO 1600 on a Fuji X-T2, a relatively new camera. In this instance, we’ll open the image via the File>Plug-in Extras menu in Lightroom Classic, creating a DNG in the process. This also means that the Lightroom settings can be embedded. Beginning with Auto, we increased Enhance Detail to 60. To bring back Sharpness, we changed the Amount to 29 and Detail to 35. We then clicked Done to return the edit to Lightroom.

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HOW TO

WILDLIFE A prime example of use where daylight is involved is wildlife photography. With long lenses, you need high shutter speeds, even with image stabilization. This in turn leads to higher ISOs to prevent camera shake and motion blur. Here we’ll use Photoshop. Duplicate your layer and then open it in NoNoise AI via the Filter>ON1 menu. This is an older photo so, despite being ISO 800, it’s reasonably noisy. Honestly, if this technology was available then, you easily could have gone to a higher ISO when shooting. You’ll get a warning about using non-RAW images, which NoNoise isn’t optimized for yet. The image opens with excessive Luminance noise of 93 added.

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Bringing this back down to 70 makes a big difference.

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MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

As well as the reduced noise, this image needs a mix of Enhance Detail and Sharpening. We pushed Enhance Detail to 60, and for the feathers, brought Detail to 37. To keep the background areas smooth, we increased Threshold to 5. Clicking Done will bring the layer back into Photoshop. From there, you can edit further, if required.

NOISELESS Well there’s not much more to say, except that NoNoise AI does ON1 proud. The noise reduction looks great, with plenty of options to cater for personal taste. And even better, it does this in real time. It’s a winner for low-light photography, meaning you don’t have to worry about bumping ISO to get the shot. It’s also a winner for older photos where you didn’t have much choice about noise, because the cameras then just weren’t great with high ISOs. So all in all, high praise to ON1 for this plug-in. n

Before

After

After

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Before

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IBARIONEX PERELLO

VISUAL STORYTELLING

A MOMENT WITH A STRANGER In my youth, I stuttered and was shy. The result was a self-consciousness that made it difficult to interact with people, especially with my peers. It made me less socially adept, but it made me a keener observer, a quality that certainly benefited my photography.

I gravitated to people as subject matter from the very beginning. And while photographing people from a distance with a long lens satisfied me initially, I yearned to create closer, more intimate results. Eventually, I learned that  54 

the camera made it easier to overcome my tentativeness around people, especially strangers. After a while, my desire to make such photographs overcame my fears and insecurities. I discovered that

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V I S UA L S T O RY T E L L I N G

ALL IMAGES BY IBARIONEX PERELLO

STRANGERS IN PARIS Our recent trip to Paris provided a respite from all that. In retrospect, I realize now that we were graced with a time between the promise of normalcy and another spike created by a variant of the stubborn virus. Yet, despite its brevity, this respite provided me wonderful opportunities to engage with a stranger and to make his portrait. The conversation began while sitting in a crowded Parisian café. A bold young man (Benjamin) squeezed past our table to flirt with a young woman seated in front of us. My wife and I looked at the table next to us where Benjamin and his friend were sitting. We smiled, amused and impressed by the young man’s boldness.

Original image

I learned that Benjamin was a local DJ who had transitioned from a career in the fashion world in London. I was struck by his story and the way he carried himself, so I asked if he and his friend would pose for me. We walked them down the street to where there existed an incredible shaft of light. The late afternoon illumination and the canyon created by the residences on either side provided an ideal spot for a portrait. I was now faced with a high-contrast scene. Using my Fujifilm X-Pro3 and XF 35mm f/1.4, I set an exposure that retained highlights but did not underexposure his dark skin tone. The image looked good on the back of my camera’s LCD, but I knew I could do much more once I imported the file into Lightroom Classic. [KelbyOne members can click here to download a downsized DNG version of this file for practice purposes only.]

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the camera allowed me an entrée into other peoples’ spaces and lives. It gave me the excuse to strike up a conversation with a stranger, something that otherwise terrified me. By beginning a conversation with a compliment, I found myself engaged in conversation: “That’s a cool hat you’re wearing,” “Your dog is adorable,” or “I love the way you look in that shirt.” Those genuine and sincere compliments opened the door. I realized that people appreciate and enjoy being recognized for something unique about themselves. It was something they enjoyed talking about, even if just briefly. Most importantly, I realized that I didn’t have to be terrified about speaking to people, despite my self-consciousness. My sincere interest was enough to overcome my awkwardness and my stutter. Though still inept in small talk and cocktail chatter, I became increasingly confident when wandering the streets with a camera. It encouraged me and gave me greater confidence. I learned to control my stutter, and social interactions became something to look forward to rather than dread. Some of my favorite photographs resulted in just such encounters. The experience of meeting and sharing a moment with another human created a special memory. It added life to the image beyond the aesthetics that may or may not have made it a great photograph. Over the past year-and-a-half of living during a pandemic, I missed those moments. Fear of a virus made everyone hyper-aware of their personal space, and encounters with a stranger now evoked a newfound sense of perpetual anxiety.

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HOW TO

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP ONE: After importing the RAW file into Lightroom Classic, go to the Develop module and select the Crop Overlay tool (R). Choose the 4x5/8x10 Aspect ratio and crop out the photographer’s shadow at the bottom of the frame. Press Enter to commit the crop.

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STEP TWO: In the Presets panel, expand the Portraits: Medium Skin group and click on PM04. This provides a good starting point for the rendering of his actual skin tone. For photographers inexperienced with photographing people with darker skin tones, it’s easy to create a look that possesses too much orange or yellow. In this case, this preset provides a good neutral starting point.

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V I S UA L S T O RY T E L L I N G

STEP FOUR: To create a more nuanced degree of contrast in the overall portrait, adjust Highlights to –36, Shadows to +32, Whites to +45, and Blacks to –15.

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STEP THREE: Because of the direct lighting, the resulting image is high contrast. To create a less harsh look, decrease the Contrast to –35 in the Basic panel.

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HOW TO

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP FIVE: The subject possesses good quality skin. To reveal texture, but reduce some of the shininess, increase Texture to +10 and decrease Clarity to –10.

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STEP SIX: To add a little more pop to the color of the skin, but without adding too much orange, set the Vibrance to +9 and Saturation to –6.

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V I S UA L S T O RY T E L L I N G

STEP EIGHT: To achieve more color contrast between the subject and the background, go to the Color Grading panel and click on Shadows to view only that color wheel. Adjust the Shadow control for Hue to 221 and Saturation to 30. This will result in a slightly bluish color cast to the shadow area. Set Blending to 11 and Balance to –1.

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STEP SEVEN: The skin is a tad yellow, so to achieve a more neutral and accurate look, go to the HSL/Color panel and click on the Hue tab. Adjust Red to +6, Orange to –5, and Yellow to –5.

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HOW TO

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP NINE: Add some sharpness to the overall image by going to the Detail panel. Set the Amount to 45, Radius to 1.1, Detail to 6, and Masking to 31.

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STEP 10: To bring greater emphasis to the face, we’ll apply an aggressive vignette. Go to the Effects panel and then to Post-Crop Vignetting. Set the amount to –29, Midpoint to 37, Roundness to –25, and Feather to 64.

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V I S UA L S T O RY T E L L I N G

STEP 12: The previous adjustment has also darkened his bearded chin, which is undesirable. To refine the mask, click on Range Mask at the bottom of the Graduated Filter panel and select Luminance. Check the box designated Show Luminance Mask. A red overlay will appear on the image indicating the area impacted by the adjustment.

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STEP 11: The brightness of the shirt is a concern, as it detracts attention from his face. To selectively darken it, grab the Graduated Filter (M) in the toolbar below the Histogram panel. In the Effect drop-down menu, select Burn (Darken). Then, while depressing the Shift key, drag your cursor from just below his necklace upward until the edit pin is between his lips. Darken the area further by decreasing the Exposure to –0.62.

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HOW TO

STEP 13: Next, adjust the left Range slider to 26 and Smoothness to 20, which creates a change in the area covered by the mask.

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP 14: The mask is still darkening Benjamin’s chin and beard, so go to the top right of the Graduated Filter panel and select Brush. In the Brush section at the bottom of the panel, click Erase and paint over the area around his chin and lip to eliminate the influence of the mask. Tip: Use the Bracket keys on your keyboard to quickly resize the brush.

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STEP 15: Next, bring out the color and details in his eyes with the Adjustment Brush (K). From the Effect drop-down menu, select Iris Enhance. To increase the size of the image until the eyes are enlarged on the screen, hold the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and tap the + key on your keyboard. Reduce the Size of your brush, and paint the effect onto the iris of the eyes to both brighten and reveal detail.

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Before

After

areas to reduce the shine, while still retaining skin texture. Encounters like this and the resulting photographs are special to me. Despite the brevity of such moments, these interactions persist in my memories. Those brief conversations are gifts that make my travels unique, personal experiences. Making and having photographs like this remind me of the importance of being connected, even when traveling halfway around the world. n

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STEP 16: There’s a distracting shine on the bridge of his nose and forehead. To fix that, we’ll again use the Adjustment Brush. Click New at the top of the Adjustment Brush panel to create a new brush and double-click the word “Effect” at the top left of the panel to reset all the sliders to 0. Reduce the Clarity amount to –27, set the Brush Size to 5.2, and paint over the problem

V I S UA L S T O RY T E L L I N G

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VICTORIA BAMPTON

LIGHTROOM Q&A Q.  I purchased some brush presets, but when I try to import them, it says they’re the wrong type. How do I add my brush presets? A. Only normal Develop presets and profiles can be imported using the File>Import Develop Profiles and Presets command. If you’re ever unsure what type of presets you’ve downloaded, open one of the .lrtemplate files using a text editor. Brush presets have a line near the top that says type = “LocalizedAdjustmentPreset.” To install brush presets, go to Lightroom Classic (PC: Edit)>Preferences, click on the Presets tab, and click the Show All Other Lightroom Presets button. This opens a Finder (PC: Explorer) window to the right location. Place the brush presets inside the Local Adjustment Presets folder and then restart Lightroom. When you select the Adjustment Brush tool, you’ll find the presets in the Effect pop-up at the top of the brush options panel.

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Q.  Someone told me I should write the metadata to the files as an extra backup. Is this necessary, and does it include all of my metadata and edits? A. Writing the metadata to the file headers (or sidecar

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XMP files for proprietary file formats) using the Metadata>Save Metadata to Files command is primarily designed for exchanging metadata with other software, so it doesn’t include Lightroomspecific information. The main metadata that would be missing are flags, virtual copies, collection membership (including books/slideshows etc.), uncommitted location data, Develop history, stacks, Develop module panel switches, and zoomed image pan positions. Having some of the metadata with the files could be useful as a disaster backup, if you haven’t backed up your catalog recently, but making regular catalog backups is a far more complete solution.

Q.  I’ve reset an image, so there are no edits, yet when I tap the Backslash key (\) in Develop, there’s a difference between the Before and After views. What am I missing? I’d have expected them to be the same. A. A s you’ve discovered, the Before preview isn’t necessarily the unedited image. By default, it’s the initial Import step in the Develop history. It’s possible, however, to set any History step as the Before state, and using Metadata>Read Metadata from Files updates it too. To change it back to the default settings, Rightclick on the Reset Settings step in the History panel, which appeared when you clicked Reset, and choose Copy History Step Settings to Before.

Q.  Previously, I stored all my photos on a networked NAS, but editing in Lightroom on my PC became too slow. I moved all of my photos to a new, faster hard drive using Lightroom. I can see them all in the collections, but when I go to the Book module to view books I’ve previously made, there’s a red exclamation mark in the corner of the photos and it says the photos are missing. If I try to reconnect the photos, they say “The file IMG_****.jpg is associated with another photo in the catalog. Each file can only be associated with one photo.” How do I get Lightroom to find the photos and put them back into each book? A. Without being able to see your catalog, it’s hard to tell exactly what you’ve done and when. I can, however, give you a little background on what triggers that error message and the basic principles of how to solve it. It all revolves around the fact that each photo location can only be listed in the catalog once, unless the additional entries are virtual copies.

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LIGHTROOM Q&A

ALL IMAGES BY VICTORIA BAMPTON

At some point, the photos have been moved on the hard drive (or the drive letter/NAS path has changed) and the photos have been marked as missing in Lightroom. Rather than reconnecting the missing photos, you’ve simply reimported them at their new location as new photos. (This wasn’t necessarily recently; it could have been any time after you created the books.) When you later came to reconnect the missing photos, you couldn’t, because that new location is already listed in the catalog.

been applied: keywords, map location, collection membership (including books), crop, and other Develop edits

3. W hen you’ve decided which record you’re going to remove from the catalog, select the photo and press the Delete key. If Lightroom asks whether to Remove from Lightroom or Delete from Disk, make sure you select Remove from Lightroom, as you don’t want to delete the file from the hard drive.

4. Once that duplicate record has been removed from the catalog, check the photo you’ve decided to keep. If it ’s marked as missing, you can now reconnect it without triggering that error message.

5. R epeat for each of the photos with the same

1. B ack up your catalog and photos, just in case you make a mistake.

2. Look at the photos in All Photographs view in the Catalog panel, where you can see both copies side by side. First, you have to determine which of the duplicate records to keep: the original one that’s marked as missing, or the newer one. In most cases, you’ll choose to keep the version that you’ve edited and added to collections. The small badges in the corner of the thumbnail may offer some clues. In the screenshot shown here, the badges from left to right show that the following have

To be able to give you more specific instructions, I’d need more information. If there are lots of photos affected, there might be some time-saving workarounds, such as exporting the book as a temporary catalog, reconnecting the missing photos in the exported catalog, and then using Import from Catalog to pull the corrected records back in as virtual copies. Feel free to post on the KelbyOne Community forum or my own Lightroom Queen forum and we can figure out the best course of action for you. n

If you have a Lightroom question that you’d like Victoria Bampton to answer in the pages of Photoshop User magazine, send it to [email protected].

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To fix it, you have to remove one copy of each photo (ideally the one you haven’t edited!) and then you can reconnect the missing photos. If you’ve edited both copies, it becomes a much bigger job. The basic steps would be:

problem. If you have the same problem on a large number of photos, you may be able to work on entire folders, rather than fixing each photo individually.

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SEÁN DUGGAN

LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS Last issue, I covered the local or selective adjustments in Lightroom for mobile (in the feature article for that issue, I covered the same for the desktop versions of Lightroom Classic and Lightroom). This month, we have a continuation of that topic as we look at a very specific use of local editing in the iOS version of the Lightroom for mobile app.

ACTIVATE DEPTH MAP SUPPORT IN LIGHTROOM MOBILE

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

If you have an iPhone that supports recording depth data via the use of the Portrait mode, you can access this depth information when you photograph with the Lightroom camera. At the present time, this feature is only available in Lightroom for iOS. To enable this, go to Settings (the gear icon), tap Technology Previews, and turn on Depth Map Support.

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In the Lightroom camera, tap the mode button to the left of the shutter button (in the default state it will be set to Auto) and choose Depth Capture. Though you can use the Portrait Mode to create a depth/background blurring effect when using the native iOS camera app, recording the depth information in a way that Lightroom can use it requires the Lightroom camera. Images that have depth map information will appear in the thumbnail grid with the depth icon in the upper-right corner.

LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS

SELECTIVE DEPTH MAP EDITS IN LIGHTROOM MOBILE

ADJUST THE DEPTH MASK

If the photo has depth map information captured by the Lightroom camera, when you choose to apply a Selective edit, and then click the plus icon in the blue circle at the top of your screen to expand the tools, you’ll see a new option for Depth Mask mode.

Once you’ve selected the Depth Mask mode in the Selective edit screen, the first step is to adjust the mask that Lightroom has created from the depth map information. The image will display with some of it covered by a transparent red overlay. Below this you’ll see what appears to be a combination of a histogram and a curves adjustment. By default, the hill shape of the curve is placed in the middle of the depth range for the photo and the red overlay corresponds to this. The vertical bars (i.e., the histogram shape) represent where the depth data is. Instead of showing tonal values, however, it’s showing distance from the background to the foreground.

between the adjusted and unadjusted areas. Above the image is an Invert button, as well as three options for rendering the mask edges: Smooth, Sharp, and Sharpest.

In this image of the three vintage cameras, there’s depth data representing the far background on the left side, a bit to the left of the midpoint, and in the foreground on the right side. The red overlay indicates the area that will be affected by whatever selective edit you apply. You can drag the control points to change the area of the image that will be affected by the adjustment. In the examples to the right, the control points in the first image have been modified to create an adjustment that will affect the background and, in the second image, the points have been modified to target the foreground. The lower points on either side of the raised center point allow you to control the gradient, or the falloff zone. The further away these are from the middle point, the more gradual the transition will be

Depth Mask targeting the background

Depth Mask targeting the foreground

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HOW TO

APPLY THE SELECTIVE EDIT TO THE MODIFIED DEPTH AREA Once you’ve adjusted the Depth Mask to target an area of the image to be adjusted, tap the checkmark. After the mask has been adjusted, it will be interpreted as a Brush Mask and you’ll be returned to the Selective edit screen for the Brush tool. At this point you can’t return to readjust the Depth Mask. If you want to do something different in terms of which area is being affected, you’ll have to cancel or delete the selective adjustment and start over. Bonus Tip: Use the Versions feature to save different versions of the image that use a Depth Mask in different ways. In the photo of the three cameras, the Depth Mask was very useful in applying a darkening adjustment to mainly affect the background of the image.

Depth Map converted to Brush Mask

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

ACCESSING DEPTH MASK EDITS IN LIGHTROOM

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Selective depth edits applied in the Lightroom for mobile app will show up as a Brush edit in the cloud-based Lightroom. Other than with the Brush tool itself, there’s no way to edit the Depth Mask in Lightroom. For most images, I don’t edit the mask in Lightroom because when using the Brush, I might alter the delicate gradient transition that ’s created by the original Depth Map information.

Accessing Depth Mask edits in Lightroom

Selective edit to darken the background

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LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS

ACCESSING DEPTH MASK EDITS IN LIGHTROOM CLASSIC

ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN

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In Lightroom Classic, depth mask mobile edits will show up in the Develop module as an Adjustment Brush edit (in order for Lightroom mobile images to show up in Lightroom Classic, you have to turn on syncing). Lightroom Classic does offer some additional ability to fine-tune the depth mask that’s not available in the cloudbased Lightroom. When the brush edit pin is active, go to the bottom of the brush control panel, open the Range Mask menu, and select Depth. Using the Range sliders, you can modify the area that’s being affected. There aren’t as many options as those that are available in the Lightroom mobile app when you’re first adjusting the depth mask, but they do allow for some additional fine-tuning once you’re working with the image in Lightroom Classic on the desktop. In the example below, a bit of the top of the Dick Tracy camera was being affected by the adjustment that targeted the background, as shown by turning on Show Depth Map. Modifying the Range sliders corrected this and created a better transition with the background darkening that had originally been applied in the Lightroom mobile app. n

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BRYAN O’NEIL HUGHES

GOING MOBILE

LIGHTROOM FIELD WORKFLOW ON iPAD Last issue, I described an end-to-end mobile workflow, wherein I captured and edited my image entirely on mobile. Yes, the iPhone is the camera I use most, but it isn’t the only one. I also shoot regularly with a Sony A 7R III, a Leica Q2, and a DJI Mavic Air 2S. Images from each of these cameras are ingested and edited on my iPad Pro. In this piece, I’ll explain how this workflow differs and how I came to embrace a

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

tablet over a laptop (or desktop) for this workflow.

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When the iPad first came out, many of us dreamt of this

application to act like the desktop version, which is to

type of field triage: the import, editing, and synching of

say a deep, robust feature-set and cloud synching, as

RAW files, conveniently, from anywhere. Realizing this

well as seamless touch-optimization. It was 2019 before

dream would require the hardware to evolve in terms of

all of these disparate pieces truly came together.

performance, RAM, storage, and display. It would also

So, aside from portability, how does the iPad improve

require the operating system to make some fundamental

upon the laptop? Is mobile really as much or more than

changes, such as allowing Lightroom to import images

the desktop? For my workflow, yes. Let’s describe it in

directly, and it would require the Lightroom mobile

a shoot.

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GOING MOBILE

ALL IMAGES BY BRYAN O’NEIL HUGHES

IMPORTING IMAGES

EDITING IMAGES

It starts with the SD card reader (the cameras I shoot

Okay, so here’s how I approach every edit:

device from Satechi. Depending upon your model of iPad, there are both dedicated SD card readers and a USB-A connection which interfaces with all other card

1. Select a single image. 2. In Edit, select Auto (trust Auto). 3. N ow browse Profiles, which are how

readers and external hard drives. Newer iPad Pros

Lightroom converts colors, and they’re

and Airs leverage a very fast USB-C connection and

way more power f ul than any of the

the import speeds are as fast, if not faster than my

individual color controls in the interface

2016 MacBook Pro. This isn’t to say that other model’s

below. Creative profiles are my go-to

Lightning interfaces are slow; they aren’t.

for changing the look of any image

It’s once these images are in Lightroom that the performance is felt, because a lack of menus, mouse travel, or any dialogs means that I’m moving faster.

and are the ver y best way to handle your black-and-white conversions. 4. A pply Effects. In my case, a modest appli-

I pinch to enlarge the thumbnails, swipe to flag photos,

cation of Clarity (midtone contrast) and

and touch to select photos. Once you’re accustomed

Dehaze (think of this like a polarizer), and

to driving Lightroom by touch, a mouse can feel like a

perhaps some positive or negative Texture,

step backward.

depending on the image.

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with all leverage SD or Micro-SD), and I love this

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HOW TO

5. N ow I refine any glaring problems, usually revisiting the Light section to back down Contrast a bit (Dehaze tends to add a bit of contrast). 6. A t this point, there’s a great opportunity to save a lot of time. If your images were shot in similar conditions/lighting, leverage the work you’ve just done for the other images. To do this, simply tap the three-dot icon (…) in the upper right of the Edit panel and select Copy Settings.

Paste Settings

Now in the group view, touch-and-hold to select an image, add each image to which you want to paste the settings, and choose Paste Settings. Magic! I’ve now edited seven 47-megapixel images in seconds! Color Mix

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

DRILLING DOWN AND REFINING THE BEST IMAGES

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At this point, I’ll look at each image individually,

the green tones, I realized the wisteria itself had resolved as blue

checking composition and to see if any changes

rather than purple. My tip here is not to get hung-up on what color

are needed to the settings I just applied.

you think you’re adjusting, but rather to step through them and

I often don’t know which images I like until I’ve

experiment. The correct tone in this case meant subtle changes to

gotten to this point, and somewhere in here,

the blue and purple values (see image next page for edited colors).

a hero image will usually present itself. In this

Upon adjusting the color, there was a glaring problem in the

case, I chose an image of wisteria from my

tonality of the foreground flowers: they were too bright. This is a

yard and realized the color was falling short

perfect opportunity to leverage Apple Pencil, which runs on all

of what I saw in the garden.

current iPads, from the entry model to the Pro on which I’m working.

Color Mix in the Color panel is a great way

With it, I have a precise method of defining a specific piece of my

to target individual colors. While I came into

image. Simply navigate to Selective Adjustments and choose the

it wanting to adjust the hue and luminance of

Brush tool. After defining brush size and feathering, you simply paint

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GOING MOBILE

the area you want to adjust and apply refinements to that region, as shown here where I adjusted the Exposure and Contrast. My last step was to further emphasize the vignette by returning to the Effects panel. The trick here is to first over-apply a negative Vignette, and play around with the Midpoint, Feathering, and Roundness (as they’re all easier to see when the effect is amplified). I then adjust the overall Vignette strength to something appropriate. Now, I’m pleased with my overall image.

IN THE CLOUDS As you can see in the steps above, you can work quickly, easily, powerfully, and with unique tools for navigating and precisely editing images. In the background, as I’m working on these images, Lightroom is uploading them to the cloud so that anyone logged into the same Adobe ID can access these same images on other devices or even the web. Remember the days of running media cards back to the studio? No need! Follow me on Instagram to see more of this workflow in action. Happy shooting and editing! n

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Final

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SCOTT KELBY

PHOTOSHOP FOR LIGHTROOM USERS

THE POWER OF LAYER BLEND MODES Okay, we’re picking up where we left off last issue, where we went through the basics of layers and why we even need layers in the first place. We focused on creating new layers, changing the order of objects (or photos) on our layers, how to fill stuff on layers with color, and how to move stuff on layers—all that type of stuff.

©Adobe Stock/Africa Studio

This time around, I’m going to introduce you to the wild world of layer blend modes, which are useful for so many things (it’s one of my most-used layers’ features), including creating fine-art montages the easy way. You’re going to super dig this. Here we go:

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

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STEP TWO: Now we’re going to open an image that we want to add to our coffee image (in this case, it’s a graphic of a restaurant logo on a white background). To get this restaurant logo over into our coffee image, we’re going to do a simple copy-and-paste, but first we need to let Photoshop know if we’re going to copy-and-paste just part of this image or all of it. We want all of it, so we’ll go up top under the Select menu and choose All. Now we’ll press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) to copy that entire logo into memory.

Shutterstock/Vasya Kobelev

STEP ONE: First, let’s start by opening an image (in this case, I’m using an image of a cup of coffee on a table, but the image doesn’t really matter for what we’re going to do).

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PHOTOSHOP FOR LIGHTROOM USERS

STEP THREE: Next, we’ll switch back to the coffee image and press Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to paste that logo into this document and, as you can see here, it appears on top of our coffee background. Look in the Layers panel and you’ll see it appears above the Background layer as Layer 1 (when you copy-and-paste like this, images automatically appear on their own layer, and by default it names them “Layer 1,” “Layer 2,” and so on). Now, for learning blend modes, this next thing is really important: The Layer blend mode for this layer is set to Normal, and you’ll see the word “Normal” near the top left of the Layers panel. This simply means that the object on this layer (Layer 1) will cover up whatever is below it and, as you can see, sure enough, it covers most of the coffee cup. That’s the way the Normal layer blend mode works. If something is solid (not transparent) it covers what’s below it. Okay, now let’s have some fun with it.

STEP FIVE: Let’s go in the opposite direction this time and, from that same pop-up menu, we’ll choose Lighten. Now instead of dropping the white from around the logo, this time the black areas around the letters have become transparent and you can see through those areas to the coffee layer below it. Tip: If you hover your cursor over any of the blend modes while the menu is open, you’ll see an instant onscreen preview of how that blend mode would look if you chose it. So try hovering your mouse up/down that menu to see the different effects (if it doesn’t work for you, it means you have this feature turned off in Photoshop Preferences).

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STEP FOUR: The other layer blend modes (there are 27 in all) will blend the layer with what’s on the layer below it, rather than just covering it up (well, that’s usually the case anyway). That’s why they’re called “blend modes;” they blend in with the layer beneath it. Let’s choose one so you’ll see what I mean. Click-and-hold on the word “Normal” in the Layers panel and, from the pop-up menu that appears, we’ll choose Darken. You’ll notice that the white areas of the image drop out, leaving just the logo. This won’t always be the case when you choose the Darken mode because it’s entirely dependent on the colors in the image on the layer below it. In this case, when it reacts to the colors in the coffee image, the result is that the white background around the logo is gone. Let’s keep going and try another blend mode.

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HOW TO

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP SIX: Another way to try out different blend modes that doesn’t require you to hover your mouse over their names, or even have that menu open, is to use the keyboard shortcut Shift-+ (the plus sign) to move forward through the list. Each time you tap the + key while holding the Shift key, it moves to the next blend mode in the list. Press Shift- – (the minus sign) to move backward. I use this shortcut a lot in my own work. In the example here, the logo is set to the Color Burn blend mode.

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STEP SEVEN: Find which blend mode from the list that you think looks best. Spoiler alert: I think it’s Multiply for this image, so I chose that, but it leaves a slightly visible hard edge around the logo where the original white background used to be. So I grabbed the Eraser tool (E) from the Toolbar, chose a large soft-edged brush, and erased the hard edges. There’s actually a better way to do this, and it uses layers; however, that’s for another day, my friends, but we’ll get there. For now, once the logo is looking good, we’ll switch to the Move tool (V) and drag it up a bit so it’s not touching the coffee cup at all. Also, as a finishing move for adding logos like this, I generally lower the opacity of the layer a bit using the Opacity slider in the top-right corner of the Layers panel. I lowered it to 80% so the logo doesn’t look so “stuck on” there. Okay, now that we’ve gone through all that, we need to delete the logo layer so we can move on to the next thing. To delete a layer, either press the Delete (PC: Backspace) key on your keyboard, or drag the layer into the trash can at the bottom of the Layers panel.

THE FOUR MOST-USED BLEND MODES

There are four blend modes that you’ll probably wind up using a lot in your work, so let’s look at them. To do this, we’re first going to duplicate our Background layer, so click on your image layer and press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J), and now you have a duplicate (Layer 1) of your

Multiply

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PHOTOSHOP FOR LIGHTROOM USERS

image layer right on top of the original. Of course, it looks exactly the same at this point, because our blend mode for this new layer is set to Normal. MULTIPLY: To have this layer blend with our original, let’s choose one of the four most-used blend modes, Multiply. This makes your image darker and more saturated, kind of like “doubling up on itself” tone-wise (see previous page). So, when you want to darken your image, Multiply is your go-to layer blend mode.

Screen

SCREEN: The second of the four “mostused” blend modes is Screen, and when you choose it for the duplicated layer, it brightens the image big time (as you see here), kind of like doubling up the brightening rather than Multiply’s darkening. SOFT LIGHT: Number three of the “big four” is Soft Light, which adds a nice amount of contrast to your images, making the brighter parts brighter and the darker parts darker. Because it’s adding contrast, it generally makes your image a little darker and richer looking.

Overlay

Well, there ya go. We uncovered just a tiny bit of layers magic there. Lots more to come, but now that we’ve dipped our toe in the pool, it’s time for a deeper dive next time. See you then. n

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Soft Light

OVERLAY: The final mode of the big four is Overlay, and it’s a more powerful version of Soft Light in that it adds more contrast. These last two blend modes are great when you want to add a texture over a solid background. For example, if you posed somebody against a roll of seamless paper, or a flat wall in their home, and you wanted to add a textured or painted pattern to the background, you’d copy-and-past the texture image on top of the portrait, and then change its blend mode to Soft Light (for a subtle texture) or Overlay (to see a lot more texture). Then you’d erase the texture over the person to cut a hole out of it so it’s not covering their face, clothes, etc.

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BY SCOTT VALENTINE WELCOME TO THE FUTURE! FOR SEVERAL YEARS, ADOBE HAS BEEN QUIETLY (AND SOMETIMES NOT SO QUIETLY) PLACING BITS OF FANCY ROBOT BRAINS INTO YOUR FAVORITE DESKTOP APPLICATIONS, EFFECTIVELY HELPING PHOTOSHOP LEARN TO THINK ABOUT HOW YOU WORK. THE RESULTS CAN RANGE FROM ASTOUNDING TO HELPFUL TO, WELL, EMBARRASSING. BUT IT’S ALL IN PURSUIT OF A BETTER PHOTOSHOP UNIVERSE! LINE UP YOUR PIXELS AND GET READY TO MEET YOUR NEW ROBOT OVERLORD: ADOBE SENSEI.

What is Sensei?

©psyberartist

Adobe Sensei is a catch-all term for the artificial intelligence (AI) that Adobe uses in its products. Whether it’s in creative apps such as Photoshop and Lightroom, or marketing tools in the Experience Cloud that help build complex analyses, the core capability is referred to as Sensei. Artificial intelligence is a way of approximating human thinking and decision making, and it does so through a technique called “machine learning” (ML). While the obvious result of teaching machines to think is laid out with stunning accuracy in any number of Hollywood movies (cough, cough, Terminator, cough), we have a brief period of time in which we can enjoy simpler, less apocalyptic benefits. Machine learning is a way of telling computers what’s important in massive sets of data, and that importance is based on statistics. Effectively, we ask a computer to observe our behaviors and let it gather statistics that relate the decisions we make to what information we’re presented. Suggestion lists that you find on popular social media, streaming, and purchasing services are

a basic example of applied machine learning: the more you consume a particular kind of news story, TV show, or clothing, the more you’re teaching the system about what you do and don’t like. The same concept is applied to image editing and manipulation. Adobe set up Sensei to pay attention to user behaviors that answer some broad questions such as, “How are portraits typically retouched?” or “What’s the difference between sky and subject?” While we can each describe our opinions about these topics in words, computers need math. Lots of it. Computers have no real idea about human perception, so it’s our task to translate for them, and we do that by repeating tasks over and over on many different images., Before you unplug your devices and put on the tinfoil hat, let me jump ahead: Adobe doesn’t peek over your shoulder while you’re working unless you specifically opt in to their voluntary programs.* And should you choose to volunteer to participate, Adobe keeps strict governance over how those images are used and shared internally, with very limited access. You can choose to participate by going to Photoshop (PC: Edit)>Preferences>Photoshop Improvement, or you can submit images as feedback when using Neural Filters. In fact, most of Sensei actually runs on your local machine, with only a few features requiring an Internet connection for cloud processing. The discussion about artificial intelligence and machine learning can get very complicated very quickly but, for our purposes, we can sum up the main point by saying Sensei has been trained by Adobe engineers to understand more or less what most users want to accomplish in a few different situations.

There are only a handful of Sensei features currently in Lightroom, but they are mighty: Auto Tone, Super Resolution, Raw Details, and Image Tagging. Of these, automatic image tagging (for Sensei search) is only available for images you’ve stored or processed in Adobe’s Creative Cloud servers, typically using the cloud-based version of Lightroom.** Those tags are written behind the scenes without any real way for users to read them except as results when you’ve used the search function. Rusty robot (Meow Wolf entrance at Santa Fe, New Mexico) *Note: Disclosure is more complex than I can cover here, so check out this link for more details. **Note: F  or a fantastic workaround that lets you use Sensei tagging for your desktop collections, check out Scott Kelby’s article, “Lightroom Classic Users: Use this AI Trick to Search Your Image Library.”

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Does Lightroom Use AI? Yes!

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AUTO TONE c an be applied in Lightroom Classic from the Basic panel using a simple shortcut: Command-U (PC: Ctrl-U). It will automatically adjust exposure, brightness, contrast, and black levels. In Camera Raw and the cloud-based Lightroom, look for Auto in the Edit panel to have Sensei take over. (The shortcut for Auto in Lightroom is Shift-A.) I tend to look at these automated tools as starting points; they represent what the AI presumes is an average “best look” for a given image. Scott Valentine, 2019

The same tagging and image-recognition ability is used for Bēhance recommendations and Adobe Stock searches. Both are pretty amazing uses of identifying photographic and image elements. If you haven’t checked out Adobe Stock recently, you should give it a spin and try out the search features. You’ll find options to find similar images, search on dominant colors, find images with low-detail areas for inserting copy text, and even depth of field. If you’re a contributor, it can even suggest titles, or alert you that you may not have a model release when your image includes people. Lightroom’s other Sensei tools are also available in Camera Raw: Super Resolution, Raw Details, and Auto Tone. While they’re accessed and appear somewhat differently, their underlying functions are the same. SUPER RESOLUTION a  llows you to increase your image size by up to four times, using an intelligent interpolation method that also applies selective sharpening and detail enhancement. Sensei was shown images at full and half resolution to train it on what increased resolution should look like, and to better distinguish between actual image texture and noise. (For more on Super Resolution, check out Martin Evening’s article in the August 2021 issue of Photoshop User.)

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

Scott Valentine

RAW DETAILS is a related function that increases color depth and detail without increasing the linear dimensions of your image. Both Raw Details and Super Resolution are available in Camera Raw under the Enhance menu item by Right-clicking on the image thumbnail in the Filmstrip, or in Lightroom Classic and the cloud-based Lightroom by Right-clicking on the image itself. Note that there are significant limitations on file type (nonlinear DNG only), and you can’t apply these tools more than once on a given image.

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Super Resolution doubles the pixel count and intelligently blends details to create a smoother enlargement.

Auto Tone before and after

Now Do Photoshop!

Faster Font Finagling

The list of AI-enabled features in Photoshop is impressive and growing. It definitely gets the robot’s...er, lion’s share of machine-learning goodness. Here’s everything I could find that includes Sensei power:

A few of Sensei’s powers aren’t exactly obvious, such as Match Font and Show Similar Fonts. Match Font has been around for a while, showing up in 2015 as a wizard that lets you identify fonts used in a photograph. Simply go to Type>Match Font, select the region with text you’d like to identify, and Match Font goes to work. You’ll get a pop-up window with a range of typefaces from which to choose, arranged by similarity. To use Show Similar Fonts, first add some text in your file and then open the Character panel (Window>Character). Open the font drop-down and to the right you’ll find a pair of wavy lines; this is the option for Show Similar Fonts (it’s a mathematical symbol meaning “approximately equal to”). Sensei then opens a list of fonts currently installed on your machine, as well as a selection available on fonts.adobe.com.

• Show Similar Fonts • Object Selection tool • Select Subject • R  efine Hair button in Select and Mask • O  bject Aware Refine Edge Brush tool in Select and Mask • Curvature Pen tool • C  ontent-Aware Tracing tool (Technology Preview) • Select Sky • Sky Replacement • Content-Aware Fill • Content-Aware Scale • P  reserve Details 2.0 (Technology Preview) • Face-Aware Liquify • Neural Filters • Discover panel

The Discover Panel One standout feature that doesn’t really get any press at all is the Discover panel. Unlike other panels, it doesn’t show up under the Window menu. You get to it by going to Help> Photoshop Help in the top menu. What’s great about the Discover panel is that it not only gives you the help information for anything in Photoshop, it will also show you tutorials and related content, including plug-ins, stock, fonts, templates, and more on the Creative Cloud. Everything on the Sensei-powered list on this page can be found in the Discover panel, so be sure to give it a try!

Selections Made Easy Some of these are pretty straightforward, even if it’s surprising to see they use artificial intelligence. You’ll notice that Adobe really focused on making selections faster, easier, and much more accurate. SELECT SUBJECT: My personal favorite is the Select Subject feature, (I can feel years of my life being reclaimed!) You can either go to Select>Subject or, if you have the Object Selection, Quick Selection, or Magic Wand tool active, you’ll find a Select Subject button in the Options Bar. (For more on Select Subject, check out “The Future Is Now, Sort Of...” by Mark Heaps in the May 2019 issue of Photoshop User.) OBJECT SELECTION TOOL: Only a little behind Select Subject on my favs list is Object Selection, useful for when you want to isolate elements that aren’t exactly the subject of the photo, or you want pieces and parts selected quickly. This is an incredible timesaver when pulling out pieces of a photo to use in compositing work, or isolating objects for creating custom brushes. (For more on the Object Selection tool, check out “The Object Selection Tool Is a Game Changer” by Mark Heaps in the January 2020 issue of Photoshop User.)

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• Match Font

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PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

CURVATURE PET TOOL: A more organic selection method that’s similar to the Lasso tool, the Curvature Pen tool (nested below the Pen tool [P] in the Toolbar) showed up way back in 2017. You can quickly lay down smooth curves or sharp corners, drag existing control points, or add new points without using modifier keys. It may not seem like much, but it makes working with paths so much faster. The Curvature Pen tool is actually a great example of how AI can be used in subtle fashion to speed up workflow and, while it’s not exactly a wow! feature, it saves a lot of time and effort. And aren’t robots supposed to make our lives easier?

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CONTENT-AWARE TRACING TOOL: A technology preview is available (Photoshop [PC: Edit]>Preferences> Technology Previews) called the Content-Aware Tracing (CAT) tool (once you turn it on, you’ll need to restart Photoshop). This handy gizmo should be located with the other Pen tools, but it could be hiding under the Edit Toolbar icon (it looks like three horizontal dots near the bottom of the Toolbar), or you can open the

©Adobe Stock/Alexander Y ©Adobe Stock/adimas

REFINE HAIR AND OBJECT AWARE: Inside Select and Mask you’ll find two Sensei features: the Refine Hair button in the top Options Bar, and Object Aware in the Refine Mode section of the Properties panel. Refine Hair is simply a single button that has no controls, but intelligently looks at the current selection to focus entirely on masking hair. Object Aware changes the behavior of the Refine Edge Brush tool (R) and leverages AI to consider the conceptual elements in your photo, as opposed to the Color Aware option, which uses procedural color-based methods (i.e., no AI).

Discover panel and type “Content-aware trace” to have its secret location revealed to you. Not everyone likes a treasure hunt, right? The CAT tool automatically highlights edges and allows you to select complex regions quickly and easily. It behaves in a way similar to the Magnetic Lasso tool, but doesn’t require you to actually trace along an edge. Hold Shift to link connected regions until your selection is fully outlined. You end up with a work path that you can use for masking and compositing, or creating new shapes.

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©Adobe Stock/alexlmx

SKY REPLACEMENT and its base capability, Sky Selection, made a big splash when it was released late last year, and with good reason. More than just creating a solid

selection of sky in a photo, you also get adjustment layers that are set up to help harmonize color and tone in the resulting composite. Sensei looks at the base image and the sky with which you want to end up, and applies some matching magic that you still get to control and tweak after the fact. Personally, I feel this is how most AI-enhanced features should work: return a “best guess,” but also provide the tools for that last little bit of human creativity and vision. That theme is carried forward into Neural Filters, which I’ll talk about shortly. (For an in-depth look at the Sky Replacement feature in Photoshop, check out my “Sky Replacement, Part 1” and “Sky Replacement, Part 2” articles in the December 2020 and January 2021 issues of Photoshop User.)

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Just Making Things Up

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

One really exciting use for AI is what we can consider “made-up” results. In early image processing, a technique called interpolation was the foundation for any size or content adjustments made to photographs. Let’s say you have an image of a black square in a white surround. Scaling up that square means the pixels are physically moving away from each other: interpolation fills in the blanks by comparing the pixel’s original value and location to its new location, and creating new pixels. For a black square, the math is easy: just fill in with more black pixels. But in a photograph, those blank spaces generally represent some kind of real detail, so simply making a smooth transition or gradient between pixels no longer works. Sensei steps in to consider the entire image so those pixels retain some context. The result is that the transition between pixels isn’t just a simple gradient, but can be rather complex. While details aren’t created, the illusion of detail can be created (or rather implied) in a very reasonable way. The best examples of this in Photoshop are Content-Aware Fill and Content-Aware Scale.

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Original tree (left) and CAF-generated texture (right)

CONTENT-AWARE FILL (CAF) has become a staple of modern image-editing workflows. Yeah, it can be a little unpredictable, but it has gained a lot of ability and control in the last few versions. In the modal environment, which focuses your toolset on the task at hand, you can interactively adjust the selection area and choose what material should be considered to replace it. You also have some options for refining the algorithm and then get updated results almost in real time. I use CAF along with Select Subject to isolate and rebuild new backgrounds for compositing, but it’s just as useful for removing people and objects nearly seamlessly. (Check out my article on “Get Creative Path Blurs” in the March 2021 issue of Photoshop User where I use CAF in conjunction with a blurring technique.) And if you really want to get tricky, you can use CAF to generate large, random, non-tiled textures. (For more on CAF, check out “Cracking Open Content-Aware” by Mark Heaps in the January 2021 issue of Photoshop User.)

©Adobe Stock/joerg dirmeitis/EyeEm

Lightning in sky before and after using Content-Aware Scale

stretched, and some are left alone (you can also mask areas that you want to protect from any changes), all depending on how much you scale and in what direction. Just select the area you want to scale (or isolate it on its own layer), and go to Edit>Content-Aware Scale to get a Free Transform-like bounding box.

Preserve Details 2.0 Way back in 2018, Preserve Details 2.0 made a sneaky, quiet debut as a Technology Preview. Three years later, it’s still a preview feature, but it’s pretty awesome. Enable it under Photoshop (PC: Edit)>Preferences>Technology Previews. With an open, flattened image, go to Image> Image Size and select the Resample option in the Image Size dialog. Then choose Preserve Details 2.0 in the drop-down menu to the right of Resample. With the Width and Height fields linked, adjust the physical size of one of the dimensions (in general, I prefer to use the Percent option); the other field will update automatically. You can expand the dialog window to preview the results. Here’s a shot I took with my phone, getting as close as possible to a bee. The original image was 3,000x4,000 pixels, and I cropped in to 1,600x1,600 pixels. Using Preserve Details 2.0, I was able to easily double the physical size to 3,200 pixels on each side.

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Scott Valentine

CONTENT-AWARE SCALE (CAS) is similar to CAF in that it considers the context of a selected area and tries to prioritize different regions for scaling. It also uses a form of CAF to generate small areas of detail based on what’s actually in the image. The result is that some areas are filled with generated content, some areas are

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For better or worse, Liquify has a kind of reputation among retouchers. It’s often used to massage facial features, but can be very finicky without lots of masking and restraint by the artist. With FAL, Sensei automatically recognizes facial features in portraits and lets you turn on controls that perform common functions: size, placement, and rotation of key landmarks on the human face. What’s great about this tool is that it gives you control by manipulating sliders and handles, so effects are easier to manage. (For more on FAL, check out “Why Face-Aware Liquify Is a Game-Changer” by Kristina Sherk in the March 2019 issue of Photoshop User. )

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

Neural Filters

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New to Photoshop in 2021, Neural Filters (Filter>Neural Filters) are what most people expect when they hear about artificial intelligence. Currently, these are split between Featured, Beta, and Wait list: Featured are officially supported, released filters that you can expect to work out of the gate. Beta filters are currently being developed and, while they look great, may still have some issues to work out; but they’re expected to show up as Featured at some point. The Wait list is to gauge your interest in various creative and utilitarian tools. These may never see the light of day, but are being explored; if you see something you like, click the “I’m Interested” button to vote! Note: The first time you try to use one of the filters in either the Featured or Beta section, you’ll be presented with a Download button. You’ll need to download the filter before you can use it.

©Adobe Stock/jim

Face-Aware Liquify (FAL)

Using FAL to alter the face of one of our robot overlords so he at least looks friendlier

©Adobe Stock/kamil

SKIN SMOOTHING: At the top of the Featured list is the Skin Smoothing filter, which automatically recognizes faces in your photo and selectively applies a smoothing algorithm to even out skin tones and a few blemishes. It’s limited to faces at the moment, and can sometimes jarringly ignore necks and chests in portraits, but the results can get you to an 80% solution in very little time. I tend to reduce the default Blur and boost the Smoothness settings, then blend the results into the original portrait later on.

Before and after Skin Smoothing

Output Options for More Control

• Current Layer • Duplicate Layer • Duplicate Layer Masked • New Layer • Smart Filter Of these, I lean most heavily on New Layer and Duplicate Layer Masked. These give me the flexibility I want for masking and blending, and are especially important for retouching when Skin Smoothing and Smart Portrait are used. Choosing Smart Filter to create a smart object (SO) layer is just the ticket when you want to get back

to your original settings (and you can paint on the SO mask or change the blending mode). New Layer and Duplicate Layer differ in that New Layer only returns pixels that have been updated, while Duplicate Layer returns the entire layer, complete with the filtered results in place. Of course, Duplicate Layer Masked returns the duplicate layer with a mask already set up if you want to get a head start on tweaking small elements. Since the Current Layer option is destructive and replaces the layer you’re filtering, I generally don’t recommend that option unless you have a special situation, such as working on only selected elements, or you know you’re going to be confident with the results (and you started with a duplicate layer anyway).

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Speaking of blending the results, let’s take a little tangent. Remember when I mentioned AI giving you a “best-guess” and letting you run from there? The best way to accomplish this with Neural Filters is to take advantage of the Output options. When you have results you want, you can choose from the following in the Output drop-down menu at the bottom of the Neural Filters panel:

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Scott Valentine; Model: Susie Edwards

JPEG ARTIFACTS REMOVAL does what it says, dealing with compression artifacts in lower-quality images. The image itself doesn’t have to be JPEG, either; anything with compression problems can be fed into the filter for some basic smoothing. This isn’t a magic bullet, but it’s a reasonable way to deal quickly with some of the uglier results of using low-quality or repeated compressions.

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Original image used for the Style Transfer results shown to the right

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STYLE TRANSFER: Last in the officially released Neural Filters is Style Transfer. This one really makes me smile. You give Sensei an image and choose a style to get a remixed, funky version of your work. There are almost 50 current styles from which to choose. To see all the styles, click on the drop-down menu just above the style preview thumbnails and select All Styles, and then click Show More below the style thumbnails. You can vary the intensity, color preservation, number of passes, amount of detail, and more. This is definitely one of those filters that you ought to output as a duplicate layer so you have full freedom to blend the results as you like. Run this filter multiple times on the same starting layer to get different results, and composite your favorite bits! When you use Style Transfer, try out the different number of Passes to see how your picture responds. Each additional pass takes a little longer to process because the output of the first pass is fed into the next one, so you’re applying the style over and over again. It’s ridiculously fun to play with! It’s my sincere hope that we’ll get to add our own reference styles in the near future. (For more on Style Transfer, check out “Experimenting with the New Neural Filters: Style Transfer” by Dave Clayton in the December 2020 issue of Photoshop User.)

Style Transfer examples

Smart Portrait before and after

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SMART PORTRAIT: Down in the Beta section are some really promising options that actually work great in many situations right now. Smart Portrait (similar to Face-Aware Liquify) is the one that caused all kinds of buzz when it first came out. It’s the one that gets most people excited; for better or worse. Here, you can adjust expressions (I wish I had a Happiness slider!), light fall, head direction, and even age! The sliders give you quite a bit of control, but with great power comes great responsibility. For example, cranking up the Happiness slider causes Photoshop to add teeth to an otherwise closed mouth. Sometimes this looks pretty good, sometimes...not so much! In this example, the same model from the “Skin Smoothing” section above treated to Smart Portrait turns out really well. If you really want to get into nightmare fuel, try randomizing all the sliders. If you’ve ever wondered how someone can look both angry and happy at the same time, Photoshop has sliders to sate your curiosity.

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©Adobe Stock/Subbotina Anna

MAKEUP TRANSFER does let you choose your own source image, which works best when your source and working images are already somewhat similar. Because this filter sometimes adds odd feature distortions, use the New Layer option (which returns only altered pixels to a blank layer), and set the resulting layer to Color blend mode. This way you’ll avoid the weird artifacts that frequently show up.

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Girl with no makeup

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There aren’t many controls, but you can crop in to a specific area that you want to use as your reference—handy if there are several faces. Be warned that Makeup Transfer wants to map features, so if it can’t find a face, or the lighting is very different, it will simply pout and refuse to cooperate. Nobody likes pouty robots.

Girl with makeup variations

©Adobe Stock/ilcianotico

map gives you the opportunity to load it into the Lens Blur filter for some interesting bokeh effects (check out my article on “Fake Bokeh with Lens Blur” in the July 2021 issue of Photoshop User, and then check out Martin Evening’s “Developing the Shot” on page 20 of this issue for more on the Depth Blur filter.) SUPER ZOOM allows you to zoom into an image, though it’s different from Super Resolution, which actually increases the pixel count in your photo. Super Zoom helps address the problem of not zooming your physical lens in close enough to a subject of interest, but it’s effectively similar to Preserve Details 2.0.

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DEPTH BLUR: Next up in the Beta list is Depth Blur. I expect this will be a favorite among phone photographers and landscape lovers alike. It’s also a boon to compositing subjects into stock backgrounds, which are frequently tack sharp from front to back. Adding some intelligent depth blur to make your subject stand out is a great trick. Wanna know what’s really cool about this one? There’s a checkbox where you can choose to output only the depth map that’s generated by the filter. The depth map is used to determine how much blur an area gets based on the shade of gray. White gets full blur, black gets little to no blur. Generating a depth

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The U.S. National Archives

COLORIZE: Way down at the bottom of the list of Beta filters is Colorize. It’s cool. Seriously cool. Run out to the Internet and pick up a few black-and-white public domain images from the turn of the century (you may have to desaturate images with a strong yellow or brown cast), and just try it. Go on. Is it an accurate representation of the true colors? Not on your life! But it’s a great simulation that gives very realistic results for lots of images. You can even take a color photo and desaturate it, then use the filter and compare. If you’re into restoration or breathing new life into old photos, this is a fantastic capability.

Group of unemployed men, 1937

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Keep Calm and Respect Your Sensei

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Since Sensei is constantly learning, you should expect results and behaviors to change over time, generally for the better. More and more people opting in to help train the AI means that there’s a greater pool from which to pull, but also potentially more noise if too many participants give unexpected responses. Fortunately, that contingency is covered in most machine learning applications, so oddball results or even intentionally devious attempts are generally ignored. With new features and abilities rolling out, it will be important for users to understand they still have final say in the results. Whenever possible, be sure to make use of nondestructive workflows. When you use a Sensei feature and it doesn’t meet your needs or expectations, send feedback to the Photoshop team

(feedback.photoshop.com). Explain what you wanted to see or how you want to work; that way we can all benefit from each other’s insights and experience. And don’t be afraid to submit requests for new abilities as well! Overall, I’m very impressed with its capabilities, and excited to see what’s on the horizon for Sensei. What are your favorites? What do you want to see next? Head over to the KelbyOne Community forum and let’s talk! Artificial intelligence and machine learning are undoubtedly here to stay. I for one (mostly) welcome our robot overlords! n

COREY BARKER

PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

QUICK PHOTO-TO-SKETCH TRICKS I was recently asked about an illustrated look I did years ago in my book, Down & Dirty Tricks for Designers, so I decided to revisit it. As cool as it was back then, I ended up adding a couple new updated tricks to create a custom illustrated look using just one layer, well, two if you include the background texture. It’s a fun technique that you can use quickly and easily to turn almost any photo into a distressed

STEP ONE: Start by opening the photo to which you want to apply the effect. This technique can yield interesting results in a variety of images, so be sure to experiment! In this case, we’ll build a stylized city image that could be part of a series of cities all done in the same style for a consistent look. I like the symmetry with the lines and shapes in this image taken in Tribeca, New York, and we’re going to turn this into a piece of art. If you’d like to download the low-res watermarked versions of these images to follow along, click this link, log in with your Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library button. Right-click the image in the Libraries panel (Window>Libraries) and choose Edit to open it in Photoshop.  94 

©Adobe Stock/janifest

illustration on parchment.

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To make it easier to work with the image, increase the resolution of the practice file. (We normally don’t recommend enlarging images, but this is only for practice purposes.) Go to Image>Image Size, turn on the Resample checkbox, select Preserve Details 2.0 from the Resample drop-down menu, set the Width to 3,000 pixels, and click OK. STEP TWO: Choose the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) in the Toolbar, and draw a rectangular selection over the central area of the image, or around the part you want to be the focus of the composition. You want to leave enough area outside the selection to create the stylized fade effect. STEP THREE: Once the selection is made, go to the Options Bar and click the Select and Mask button to open the refine selection settings (you can also choose Select and Mask under the Select menu). These features are primarily designed to enhance the accuracy of selections and they work rather well; however, let’s explore how some of these features work so we can see what creative possibilities could emerge. We’ll start in the Properties panel. Go to the View menu at the top and set it to On White (T), which will set the backdrop color of the area outside your original selection. Then just below, set the Opacity to 100%. This contrast of the image and background will allow us to see the effect take shape.

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STEP FOUR: Now go over to the small Toolbar on the left side and choose the Refine Edge Brush tool (R). Click on the Expands Detection Area icon (+ inside a circle) up in the Options Bar, and click on the brush preview thumbnail to the right to open the Brush Options. Here we chose a standard soft-edged brush (Hardness set to 0%) set at 400 px. You can use the Bracket keys ( [ ] ) on your keyboard to quickly resize the brush. Starting in the upper-left corner of the image, paint with the Refine Edge Brush along the top edge and you’ll see it randomly searching for edges because our initial selection was simple and intersected many different edges. This will result in a kind of patchy fade effect. Continue painting this effect around the entire image, circling around to where you started. Just looking at the image now, it’s a cool edge effect but this is merely a preview of the selected and unselected areas.

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STEP FIVE: Back over in the Properties panel, scroll down a little to the Global Refinements section. If you’ve never explored these settings, there’s no better time than now. The Smooth and Feather sliders can give you soft edges and a blurry effect but, for our purpose, we’ll concentrate on Contrast and Shift Edge. First, increase the Contrast to around 25%, which will tighten the edges that have a soft fade and make them a bit sharper. Then set the Shift Edge to 10%, which will expand the overall selection a little to include more of the image. Finally, down at the bottom of the Properties panel, set the Output To drop-down menu to New Layer with Layer Mask, and click OK . In the Layers panel, you’ll see a new layer with a layer mask that’s based on our refining. The image is on a transparent background but we’ll take care of that in a moment.

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STEP SIX: Now let’s create the illustrated look for the image itself. There are various ways to achieve this effect but here’s an old filter combination I’ve used for years for just this kind of quick illustrated look. First, in your Layers panel, click on the thumbnail preview for the layer itself so it’s highlighted in white and not the layer mask. Then go under the Filter menu, to Blur, and choose Surface Blur. I use this to smooth out images that might have too much detail that can result in a messy final look. Here I have both the Radius and Threshold set to 7. Note: I rarely ever go over 10 for either. Click OK.

on the image, and the preview window comes in handy here, as you can zoom in and click-and-drag to move around the image to see how it looks in different areas. With this one filter, this results in a somewhat illustrated look. Click OK when done.

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STEP SEVEN: Go under the Filter menu, to Texture, and choose Grain. (Note: Some of you may not see the Texture menu in the Filter menu and may be wondering why it’s not there. Not to worry. Just go under the Filter menu and choose Filter Gallery instead, and then expand the Texture folder and choose Grain. If you want all the filters to show in the Filter menu, go to Photoshop [PC: Edit]>Preferences>Plugins, and check on Show All Filter Gallery Groups and Names. You may need to restart Photoshop for them to appear.) In the Grain dialog, select Speckle from the Grain Type drop-down menu. For this image, set the Intensity to 15 and the Contrast to 25. These settings will vary depending

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STEP EIGHT: Go to the Filter menu again, but this time go to Artistic and choose Poster Edges (this also is in the Filter Gallery if you don’t see Artistic in the Filter menu). Here we have the Edge Thickness set to 1 with both the Edge Intensity and Posterization set to 3. This added to the Grain effect results, creating a much more stylized look. As with Grain, zoom in and move the image around in the preview to see how the effect looks in different areas. Click OK when done. You’ll now see the illustrated effect with the layer mask.

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STEP NINE: The very next thing you need to do is go under the Edit menu and choose Fade Poster Edges (or Filter Gallery if you accessed it there). This is only available right after you apply the filter, so make sure it’s the very next thing you do. Here you can achieve some interesting results with “undo” on an Opacity slider and a blend Mode menu. These only affect the Poster Edges filter and how it mixes with the image. Change the blend Mode to Soft Light and you’ll see a better blend of the grain and poster edge textures, but as always, experiment with other modes. Remember, if a mode seems too intense, just lower the Opacity a little. Click OK, when done.

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STEP 10: Now let’s add the background texture. Here we have a nice parchment texture from Adobe Stock, which will give the image an aged look. You can download the preview version to your Libraries panel by clicking here. Drag this texture image from the Libraries panel into the main working image. Use the bounding box to rotate the texture 90° and adjust the size and position to fit the composition. Press Enter to commit the image, and then drag it below the image layer with the layer mask in the Layers panel.

STEP 11: Click on the masked image layer’s thumbnail in the Layers panel and change its blend mode to Multiply near the top left of the panel. This will force all light areas in the image to become invisible, letting the texture below show through. This already looks really cool and far from the simple photo with which we started, but we’re not done yet. We need to adjust the texture color a little.

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©Adobe Stock/javarman

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STEP 12: Reselect the texture layer in the Layers panel and then press Command-U (PC: Ctrl-U) to open the Hue/Saturation dialog. The texture seems a bit heavy on yellow with the image in place, so set the color drop-down menu to Yellows, and then lower the Saturation as needed. Here we set it to –35. Click OK.

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STEP 13: Now let’s apply some filter effects to the layer mask to clean up the soft edges. Yes, you can apply filters to layer masks just like you can a regular layer. First, click on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers panel to highlight it. Then Option-click (PC: Alt-click) the layer mask thumbnail to make it visible in the main canvas window, which will make it easier to see the effect when applied.

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STEP 14: Go under the Filter menu, to Artistic, and choose Poster Edges again. We’re using slightly different settings than before because we want more contrast, as this is a mask effect. Set the Edge Thickness to 3, Edge Intensity to 5, and Posterization to 2, and click OK. You can see there’s now much more contrast around the mask edges, resulting in an interesting frame effect on the image.

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STEP 15: Even though this dramatically increased the contrast, there’s still some areas of detail that can come out. Go to the Toolbar and select the Brush tool (B). Up in the Options Bar, choose a simple round soft-edged brush and set the tool blend Mode to Overlay. Press D to set the Foreground color to white, and then paint over the lighter gray areas of the layer mask to force them to white. The Overlay blend mode won’t affect the black areas. Continue to paint around the edge to force all gray areas to white, revealing a bit more detail. Option-click (PC: Alt-click) the layer mask thumbnail again to return to the regular layer.

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STEP 16: Double-click the image layer thumbnail in the Layers panel to open the Blending Options in the Layer Style dialog. Go to the Blend If sliders at the bottom. Hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and click on the white slider below Underlying Layer to split it. Drag the left half of the slider to 211. This will allow a certain range of the lighter tones of the texture below to show through the image, giving it an even more faded and aged look. Splitting the slider allows the change to happen gradually. Click OK.

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STEP 17: The effect is pretty much done at this point but there are a couple quick things we can do to give it a finished look. Select the Rectangle tool (U) in the Toolbar. Go to the Options Bar and set the Tool Mode to Shape and the Fill to No Color. Click on the Stroke swatch, choose a dark color that matches one of the darker colors in the image (we’re using a dark red), and set the Stroke width to 7 px. Hold down the Shift key and drag out a square to frame the image. Once done, press Command-A (PC: CtrlA) to select all, and switch to the Move tool (V). Up in Options Bar, click both the Align Horizontal Centers and Align Vertical Centers icons to center the square shape in the canvas. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

STEP 18: Set the layer blend mode to Linear Burn and lower the layer Opacity to 75%. Click the Add Layer Mask icon (circle in a square) at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a layer mask to the shape layer. Switch to the Brush tool and open the Brushes panel (Window>Brushes) to select a brush. Using a simple spatter texture brush (you can search for the word “spatter” at the top of the panel), press X until the Foreground color is black, and paint away areas of the stroke effect to give it a distressed look as well.

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STEP 19: Next, grab the Text tool (T) but, before you click to set a new text layer, create a new layer at the top of the layer stack first. If you click with the Type tool while the Rectangle shape layer is active, it will add the text on the path of the shape. With the new layer active, click with the Type tool and it will convert it to a text layer. We’re simply typing the word “TRIBECA, NY” in Trajan Pro, using the same dark red color we used for the stroke element. (Don’t forget that as a CC subscriber you have access to all the fonts on Adobe Fonts [Type>More from Adobe Fonts].) Place the text at the bottom, centered over the stroke line. Tip: With the type cursor inserted anywhere in the text, press-andhold the Command (PC: Ctrl) key to bring up a bound box around the type. While the bounding box is active, you can easily resize and reposition the text. You’ll also need to hold the Shift key to maintain proportions. Use the smart guides to help you align the text.

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STEP 20: In the Layers panel, click the layer mask thumbnail on the Rectangle shape layer to make the mask active. Using the Rectangular Marquee tool (M), draw a selection around the text. Press X until the Foreground color is black, and then press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the selection with black, thus hiding the stroke around the text. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

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That’s pretty much it. Now you can see how you can create a series of images that have a consistent look and style regardless of where the original images were shot, but read on for a bonus tip.

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Bonus Tip: Here’s a quick bonus tip to make the image look like a really old sketch without color. STEP 21: Click on the image layer with the mask, and press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to make a duplicate of it. Turn off the original layer by clicking its Eye icon in the Layers panel. Turn off the text and shape layer as well.

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STEP 22: Press Shift-Command-U (PC: Shift-Ctrl-U) to remove the color, and then press Command-L (PC: Ctrl-L) to open Levels. We want to push the contrast by making the lighter areas lighter and the darker areas darker using the settings shown here. Click OK, when done.

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STEP 23: This gives a rather interesting sketch result but to make it blend with the texture a bit more, press Command-U (PC: Ctrl-U) to open Hue/Saturation. Check on Colorize then move the sliders to apply a color cast on the image that matches the background texture. This is just another myriad of ways you can use this technique to turn almost any photo into an interesting piece of art. n

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KIRK NELSON

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ESCAPE TO A SURREAL SCI-FI STORYBOOK DREAMSCAPE Ever get lost in a good book? Ever get so lost that it feels like you’re immersed in a totally different environment that barely even resembles our own world? There is perhaps no more escapist form of entertainment than a novel you just can’t put down. In this project, we attempt to visualize that surreal, almost dreamlike, experience of losing yourself in a vivid sci-fi dreamscape.

This project does make use of stock files from Adobe. If you don’t wish to purchase the full-sized versions, using the smaller, watermarked versions will serve just fine to learn the techniques.  108 

STEP ONE: If you’d like to download the low-res watermarked versions of this image to follow along, click this link, log in with your Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library button. Right-click the image in the Libraries

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panel (Window>Libraries) and choose Edit to open it in Photoshop. To make it easier to work with the image, increase the resolution of the practice file. (We normally don’t recommend enlarging images, but this is only for practice purposes.) Go to Image>Image Size, turn on the Resample checkbox, select Preserve Details 2.0 from the Resample drop-down menu, set the Width to 3,000 pixels, and click OK. Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate the Background layer, which is automatically named Layer 1. STEP TWO: Use the Elliptical Marquee tool (nested with the Rectangular Marquee tool [M] in the Toolbar) to create a circular selection around the Earth. Keep the selection large so it fully encompasses the glow as well. You can pressand-hold the Spacebar while you’re drawing the selection to reposition it. Use the Content-Aware Move tool (nested below the Spot Healing Brush tool [J] in the Toolbar) to slide the Earth’s pixels to the left until it’s situated directly above the child’s hand. Our ultimate goal is to make it look like she’s holding on to a group of “balloons” that are actually planets. Press Enter to commit the move, and press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to cancel the selection. If the Content-Aware Move left some strange artifacts, use the Spot Healing Brush to correct them.

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©Adobe Stock/Kevin Carden

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STEP THREE: Click here to find the image of the planets that we’re using, and click the Save to Library button. Open the image in Photoshop and resize it as we did in Step One with the first image. Using the Elliptical Marquee tool again, make a round selection around the Jupiter image, keeping the selection just inside the edge of the planet so as not to grab any of the black background. Again, use the Spacebar to reposition the selection as you’re drawing it. Press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) to copy those pixels. Go back over to the main project file and press Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to paste the copied pixels in as a new layer. Double-click the name of the layer in the Layers panel, and rename it “Jupiter.” Change it to a smart object by going to Layer>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Object. Press Command-T (PC: CtrlT) for Free Transform, and then scale and position the planet to appear as another balloon next to the Earth. We also clicked-anddragged outside the bounding box to slightly rotate the planet. Press Enter to commit the transformation.

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STEP FOUR: Go to Image>Adjust­ ments>Hue/Saturation and check the Colorize box . Set the Hue to 202, Saturation to 64, and keep the Lightness at 0. Click OK, and then run a Curves adjustment from the same menu. Adjust the curve in the Curves dialog as shown here until the planet appears very bright (click on the curve to add points). Click OK , and then follow that with Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set the Radius to 0.5 Pixels, and click OK.

©Adobe Stock/Yazz

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STEP FIVE: Next comes a whole handful of layer styles. Double-click to the right of the Jupiter’s layer name in the Layers panel to open the Layer Style dialog. Begin with an Outer Glow effect with the Blend Mode set to Screen (to both turn on and activate its settings, click directly on the words “Outer Glow” in the list on the left). Set the Opacity to 92%, Spread to 10%, and Size to 76 px. Click on the color swatch, choose a pale blue (#188ee7), and click OK to close the Color Picker. Still in the Layer Style dialog, our next style is a Gradient Overlay with the Blend Mode set to Soft Light. Click on the Gradient thumbnail to open the Gradient Editor and select the Black, White preset in the Basics group. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor, and then enable the Reverse option and turn off Align with Layer. Set the Style drop-down menu to Radial, Angle to 143°, and Scale to 26%. Click-and-drag on the canvas area while the layer style dialog is still open to position the dark portion of the gradient at around the 8 o’clock position on the planet (you might have to drag quite a bit). Don’t click OK yet in the Layer Style dialog, as we’re not quite done with the layer styles.

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STEP SIX: Add an Inner Glow layer style with the Blend Mode set to Screen, Opacity at 75%, the color at a pale blue (#24c0ef ), and Size set to 18 px. Finally, add an Inner Shadow layer style with the Blend Mode set to Screen, color at a midtone blue (#175fcc), Opacity at 100%, Angle at 148°, Distance at 55 px, and Size at 35 px. Now you can click OK to apply the layer styles.

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STEP SEVEN: Repeat the steps for adding Saturn and Mars as planetary balloons. For Saturn, you can use the Quick Selection tool (nested with the Object Selection tool [W] in the Toolbar) to select the planet and its rings. If it selects too much, just press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key and drag over those areas to remove them from the selection. After you copy each planet into the working file, don’t forget to convert it to a smart object before you resize and position it. We want to apply the same adjustments and layer styles to the new planets. An easy method of copying smart filters from one smart object to another is to hold the Option (PC: Alt) key and drag the Smart Filters group from one layer to another in the Layers panel. The layer styles can be copied in the same way, just click-and-drag the word “Effects” instead.

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STEP EIGHT: Jupiter is just a touch too dark at the lower left, so add a layer mask to the Jupiter layer by clicking the Add Layer Mask icon (circle in a square) at the bottom of the Layers panel. Switch to the Brush tool (B) with a Soft Round tip, press X until the Foreground color is black, and set the Opacity to 40% in the Options Bar. Use the Bracket keys ([ ]) on your keyboard to resize the brush as needed, and gently paint around the lower-left portion of Jupiter just so the shadows aren’t quite as deep. STEP NINE: Add a new layer called “Jupiter Highlight” above the Jupiter layer, and set the blending mode to Screen near the top left of the Layers panel. Use the same soft round Brush, but this time with white paint (press D then X) and the Opacity at 100%, to cover over the top left rim of the Jupiter planet. Then go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask to clip the Jupiter Highlight layer to the Jupiter layer. Open the Layer Style dialog and go to the Blending Options area. In the Underlying Layer slider, hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key, and click on the left-hand, dark handle to split it. Set the right half to 135 and the left half to 89. This will allow some of the darker areas of the planet to show through the highlight. Click OK.

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STEP 10: Make Layer 1 the active layer and grab the Pen tool (P). In the Options Bar, set the Tool Mode to Shape, Fill to No Color, and Stroke to 2 px. For the Stroke color, click on the swatch just to the right of it in the Options Bar, select the Gradient icon at the top, and choose the Black, White preset in the Basics group. Double-click the left color stop (it looks like a little house) below the gradient ramp and set it to a midtone gray. Click OK to close the Color Picker and then repeat for the right color stop. Click below the gradient ramp near the right color stop to add another color stop that’s set to white. Using the Pen tool, click just below one of the planets to start the path, click on the child’s hand, and drag to add a curve to the shape; it should look like a string coming from one of the planet balloons down to the child’s hand. Commandclick (PC: Ctrl-click) anywhere in the document to complete that shape layer and then start a new shape layer for each balloon string.

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STEP 11: With the top string layer active, Shift-click the bottom string layer in the Layers panel to select all of them, and press Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G) to create a group from the layers. Name the group “Strings,” and then add a mask to the group. Use a very small round Brush on the mask with black paint (make sure the brush Opacity is at 100% in the Options Bar) to mask out the string area that should be behind the child’s thumb. You’ll probably need to zoom in quite a bit.

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STEP 12: Click here to download and open the low-res stock image of the books we’re using, and then increase its image size as we did with the previous images. Go to Select>Color Range and use the eyedropper to select the white background. Check the Invert box in the Color Range dialog so the selection is of the books, and not the background. Adjust the Fuzziness slider until all the books are completely white and then click OK. Press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) to copy the selected pixels. Then return to the main project file and press Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to paste the books in as a new layer. Use Free Transform (Command-T [PC: Ctrl-T]) to scale and rotate the books so they’re surrounding the child, intentionally placing an open book directly in her line of sight. In this instance, we also Right-clicked inside the bounding box and selected Flip Horizontal. Press Enter to commit the transformation. Name this layer “Books.” STEP 13: Some of the books are in good positions, others are really not. We can be selective with where the books are by using a layer mask. Use the Lasso tool (L) to create a selection around the books that you wish to keep (after you select your first book hold the Shift key to add other books to the selection), and then click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to mask out all the other, unwanted books.

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©Adobe Stock/New Africa

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STEP 14: Duplicate the Books layer with Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) and delete the mask from the duplicate by dragging its thumbnail to the Delete Layer icon (trash can) at the bottom of the Layers panel. Readjust the scale and position of the books to place them exactly where you want them, select the books you want to keep on this layer, and create another layer mask to remove the unwanted books.

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP 15: Make another copy of the Books layer, drag the duplicate below the Books layer in the Layers panel, and remove the mask. Scale this copy down a bit and rotate and position the layer off to the right side so it appears the cloud of books is trailing off in that direction. Add a layer mask to this layer, and use the Brush tool set to black to remove unwanted books from this layer.

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STEP 16: Select all of the book layers in the Layers panel and go to Layer> Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Object. Rename the layer “Books,” and then run a Hue/Saturation adjustment. Enable the Colorize option, and set the Hue to 202, Saturation to 35, the Lightness to –31, and click OK. Add a Curves adjustment, and adjust the curve as shown here to darken the books’ appearance. Then go to Filter>Blur Gallery>Iris Blur. Adjust the position and shape of the Iris Blur as shown here, set the Blur to 18 pixels in the Blur Tools panel, and click OK up in the Options Bar.

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PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP 17: The visual effect on the books needs to fall off as the books get further away from the subject. To do so, click on the mask for the Smart Filters and switch to the Gradient tool (G). Up in the Options Bar, click on the gradient preview thumbnail to open the Gradient Editor; select the Black, White preset in the Basics group; and click OK to close the Gradient Editor. Click on the Radial Gradient icon in the Options Bar and, starting on the child, drag the gradient outward toward the edge of the canvas.

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STEP 18: For a final effect, create a new layer named “Lamp Light” above the Books smart object layer. Set the blending mode to Overlay and clip the layer to the Books layer with Layer>Create Clipping Mask. Grab the Gradient tool, still set to Radial in the Options Bar. Click on the Foreground color swatch near the bottom of the Layers panel, set it to a pale orange (#faa811), and click OK to close the Color Picker. In the Gradient Editor, select the Foreground to Transparent preset in the Basics group and click OK. Start the gradient on the lamp and pull it out toward the edge of the canvas. This gives the books the appearance of being lit by the lamp.

“Ever get lost in a good book? Ever get so lost that it feels like you’re immersed in a totally different environment that barely even resembles our own world?”

PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

Many of the techniques in this project are steps that create very small and subtle changes. Frequently, compositing images involves making these small adjustments, which then accumulate to create a larger effect. It can often be an exercise in patience, but the end result shows that it’s worth it. n KELBYONE .COM

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LESA SNIDER

BEGINNERS’ WORKSHOP

HOW TO CREATE A PAINT DRIP EFFECT Let creativity rain down upon you by using a downloadable vector shape as a drippy photo frame! In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to isolate a subject onto a new layer, add art to your document, and then use the drip shape inside a layer mask. Read on for some fantasy art fun!

STEP ONE: Open a photo in Photoshop. (If you’re starting in Lightroom, select a thumbnail in the Library module and then choose Photo>Edit In>Adobe Photoshop 2021.) Choose Select>Subject and Photoshop places marching ants around the main subject in your image.  120 

If you’d like to download the low-res watermarked version of this image to follow along, click this link, log in with your Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library button. Right-click the image in the Libraries panel (Window>Libraries) and choose Edit to open it in Photoshop.

BEGI N N E RS’ WORKSHOP

To make it easier to work with the image, increase the resolution of the practice file. (We normally don’t recommend enlarging images, but this is only for practice purposes.) Go to Image>Image Size, turn on the Resample checkbox, select Preserve Details 2.0 from the Resample dropdown menu, set the Width to 3,000 pixels, and click OK. Then go to Select>Subject as described above. STEP TWO: There are many ways to clean up a selection, but today let’s use Quick Mask mode. Click its icon near the bottom of the Toolbar (circled) or press Q to turn it on. The area outside the selection becomes red and the area inside the selection is in full color. In this example, we need to add some of the umbrella to the selection, which we can do by painting across that area with a white brush. Note: If your selected subject has the red overlay, double-click the Quick Mask mode icon in the Toolbar to open the Quick Mask Options. Select Masked Areas for Color Indicates, click OK, and then re-enter Quick Mask mode.

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©Adobe Stock/Stanislaw Mikulski

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STEP THREE: Press D to set the color chips at the bottom of your Toolbar (circled) to the default colors of black and white, and press X until white hops on top. Press B to grab the regular Brush tool (also circled) and in the Options Bar, use the Brush Preset Picker (circled) to pick the Soft Round brush in the General Brushes folder. Set the Size to around 25 pixels and the Hardness to around 50%, and then make sure the Mode is set to Normal and Opacity is 100%. STEP FOUR: Brush across any areas in red that should be included in the selection (the brush cursor is circled in white here). To remove an area from the selection, press X to flip-flop your color chips so black is on top and then paint across that area.

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

Tip: You can press Command-+ or – (PC: Ctrl-+ or –) to zoom in and out of the image, and then Spacebar drag to reposition it. This is helpful when you’re working on fine details.

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STEP FIVE: Press Q to turn off Quick Mask mode and then press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to copy the selection onto a new layer. Hide the original layer by turning off its visibility Eye icon (circled) in the Layers panel.

BEGI N N E RS’ WORKSHOP

STEP SIX: Let’s add a new white background, which will make the masking we’re about to do a little easier. To do that, click the half-black/half-white icon at the bottom of the Layers panel (circled) and choose Solid Color. In the Color Picker that opens, enter FFFFFF into the # field (also circled) and click OK.

STEP SEVEN: In the Layers panel, drag the layer named Color Fill 1 beneath the subject layer.

STEP EIGHT: KelbyOne members can download the Drip_Shape.ai file by clicking here. After the file has downloaded, then choose File>Place Embedded. In the dialog that opens, navigate to the file—it’s likely in your Downloads folder—and click Place. In the Open As Smart Object dialog that opens, leave everything at the default settings and click OK. Photoshop adds a Drip_Shape layer to the Layers panel.

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STEP NINE: In the Layers panel, drag the drip shape layer above the subject layer. Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to summon Free Transform. Click within the resizing box and drag to reposition the drip shape so it’s on her raincoat. Now use the white square handles in the middle of each side to resize the drip shape so the top-right corner is just outside her left shoulder and all but the far-left and far-right drips fit onto her raincoat (make sure no drips go past her raincoat). Press Enter or click the checkmark in the Options Bar when you’re finished.

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP 10: Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the Drip_ Shape’s thumbnail in the Layers panel to load it as a selection and then turn off the visibility Eye icon (circled) for the Drip_ Shape layer.

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STEP 11: Click to activate the subject layer and then click the circle-within-asquare icon at the bottom of the Layers panel (circled) to add a layer mask.

BEGI N N E RS’ WORKSHOP

STEP 12: Now let’s edit the mask so we can see the rest of the subject. Double-click the layer mask thumbnail (circled) in the Layers panel. If this is the first time you’ve ever double-clicked a layer mask, Photoshop will ask if you want to Enter Select and Mask or View Properties. Once you make a selection, you won’t see this dialog again, but you can change this behavior anytime you want in Photoshop (PC: Edit)>Preferences>Tools. We have ours set to open the Properties panel. If you end up in the Select and Mask workspace when you double-click the layer mask, just press Esc and manually go to the Properties panel (Window>Properties). Once you’re in the Properties panel, lower the Density slider (also circled) to around 80% so you can see the rest of the subject.

STEP 13: Press M to grab the Rectangular Marquee tool (circled) and then drag to draw a rectangular selection around the top half of the subject. Make sure it extends into the area of the raincoat that’s 100% visible.

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STEP 14: With the mask still active in the Layers panel, choose Edit>Fill. In the dialog that opens, choose White from the Contents drop-down menu and click OK.

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP 15: Choose Select> Deselect to get rid of the selection. In the Properties panel, increase the Density slider back to 100%.

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STEP 16: Now let’s add a piece of background art. Choose File>Place Embedded. In the dialog that opens, navigate to the file you want to use and click Place. If you want to use the low-res version of the Adobe Stock image that we’re using, click here and then click the Save to Library button. In Photoshop, drag the image from the Libraries panel into your working file. When the art appears with resizing handles, lower its layer Opacity (circled) in the Layers panel a little so you can see the subject.

©Adobe Stock/Nopi Pantelidou

BEGI N N E RS’ WORKSHOP

STEP 17: Resize and position the art so the raindrops don’t go past the raincoat drips. You can drag a corner handle to resize it, and drag within the box to reposition it to your liking. Press Enter to commit the transformation.

STEP 18: In the Layers panel, drag the new art layer beneath the subject layer. We opted to leave the clouds and raindrops at the lowered Opacity. Here’s the final result: What a fun technique! There are many vector shapes for download on the Internet, though you should check the licensing to make sure a shape is legal for you to use (there are also shapes available on Adobe Stock). And of course, you can use the Pen tool (P) to draw your own! Until next time, may the creative force be with you all. n

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DEB PIETI

PHOTO EFFECTS

REMOVING TAPE FROM OLD IMAGES Photos that have been torn, whether old or modern, have usually been taped by someone to keep the photo “intact.” It comes at the cost of looking unsightly. However badly damaged the photo is and how much tape is used, removing the tape in Photoshop requires a great deal of time and patience, but it can be done. I won’t go through restoration/retouching steps in this article, but feel free to do so if desired.

REMOVING TAPE FROM A PHOTO In this first technique, we’ll remove tape from an old photo. In the second technique, we’ll remove tape from a card with handwriting. This photo can be found on Wikimedia Creative Commons by clicking here. STEP ONE: Open your image in Photoshop and duplicate the Background layer by dragging it to the Create a New Layer icon (+) at the bottom of the Layers panel.

Joseph Byron, Public Media via Wikimedia Commons

STEP TWO: Open the Camera Raw filter (Filter>Camera Raw Filter), and change the Profile drop-down menu from Color to Monochrome. To bring more detail back to the faces, move the Clarity slider to +40 and the Dehaze slider to +23 in the Basic panel. This will not only enhance the photo, but also accentuate the tape and tear. Click OK.

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STEP THREE: Add a blank layer above the Background copy layer. Select the Clone Stamp tool (S) and zoom into the part of the photo that has the tear and tape. In the Options Bar, set the size of the Clone Stamp tool to 45 px, Mode to Normal, Opacity to 100%, and Flow to 100%. Check on Aligned and set the Sample drop-down menu to Current & Below. I also have the Hardness set to 70% to avoid a hard edge. You can find the Hardness setting by clicking on the brush preview thumbnail in the Options Bar to open the Brush Preset Picker.

STEP FIVE: Repeat Step Four, continuing to sample the sky and cloning over the tape (without going over the castle tower yet). You’ll need to reduce the size of the Clone Stamp tool to work around the tower (I set it to 10 px). Notice we’ve not only removed the tape in the sky area, but the tear as well. Tip: Use the Bracket keys on your keyboard to quickly change the size of your brush.

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STEP FOUR: On the blank layer, pressand-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key, and click to sample the sky next to the bottom-right edge of the tape. Carefully paint over the edge of the tape starting right next to the castle tower and going up a short ways. You’ll see a preview of the area that you’ll be copying inside your brush cursor. Repeat this process of sampling the sky and cloning over the right edge of the tape going all the way to the top of the photo. The goal in this step is to remove a small strip of the tape along its right edge, and not try to remove it all at once.

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STEP SIX: Now we need to remove the rest of the tape from the castle. In this step, we’re going to clone over the area circled in red here. Again, repeat Step Four, but this time Option-click (PC: Alt-click) the tower to sample it instead of the sky. You’ll need to Option-click (PC: Alt-click) to resample various areas of the tower from which to clone as you move down the tape. It’s also important to clone the mortar around the bricks, otherwise it will look unrealistic. Continue diagonally cloning the tape to where it ends at the top of plants. STEP SEVEN: Repeat Step Six, but on the smaller tape mark on the wall, as shown circled in red here.

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP EIGHT: Finally, we need to remove the edges of the tape just above the plants (circled here in red) using the same cloning techniques as above. After this, you can retouch/colorize the photo if so desired.

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REMOVING TAPE FROM A CARD I recently completed this for a client and was given permission to demonstrate how I removed the tape. This is even more tedious and time-consuming than removing tape from a photo due to having to remove it from handwriting. Again, I’ll just focus on removing the tape in this technique and not go into the restoration (for more on how to restore a photo, please refer to my article in the May 2021 issue of Photoshop User). [This file is courtesy of the Little House On the Prairie Museum in Independence, Kansas. KelbyOne members can click here to download this file for practice purposes only.]

Courtesy of the Little House On the Prairie Museum, Independence, Kansas

STEP TWO: The majority of this work will be done with the Clone Stamp tool. While working on this, you’ll need to continuously adjust the brush size of the Clone Stamp, so there’s no one “set” size. Again, you can use the Bracket keys on your keyboard to quickly change the size of the brush. I’ll begin using the Clone Stamp at 50 px with a Hardness of 70%. In the Options Bar, set the Blending Mode to Normal, both Opacity and Flow to 100%, and the Sample drop-down menu to Current & Below. Add a blank layer above the Background copy layer, and then, beginning at the top of the card (above “Toto, I’ve a feeling”), use the Clone Stamp tool to sample a beige color. Carefully clone over the top of the tape going from left to right until you reach the filmstrip border. Once you reach the right side, go back to the left and begin the same process again. Continue in this manner until you reach the bottom of the tape just above the lettering. Remember to change the brush size and resample different areas as needed.

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STEP ONE: Duplicate the Background layer by dragging it to the Create a New Layer icon (+) at the bottom of the Layers panel.

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STEP THREE: Next, we’ll remove the tape on the right side (alongside the filmstrip border), as we did in Step Two for the top of the tape. Sample from the top part just above the tape, and continue cloning, changing your brush size, and resampling until you reach the top of the “t” in the word honest. STEP FOUR: Note the stain next to the capital “T ” in the word “Toto.” We need to remove that. This can be done with either the Spot Healing Brush (J) or Clone Stamp tool. Since we’re working primarily with the Clone Stamp, let’s use it to remove the stain. I adjusted the size to 60 px with all of the same settings as in Step Two.

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Step Five

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There’s also a small gray area around the quotation mark in front of the word “Toto.” Reduce the Clone Stamp to 20 px and very carefully clone that out without touching the quotation. Note: You’ll need to zoom in to comfortably see the gray between the first quotation mark and the second quotation mark. STEP FIVE: Next, we need to remove the edge of the tape that starts just to the left of the word “I’ve” and runs down to the letter “a” in “Laura” at the bottom; again, use the same cloning techniques that we’ve been using. If you accidentally capture some of the

Step Six

black lettering as you’re cloning, simply resample the parchment paper and go back over it. Continue in this manner until you reach the bottom of the card. For now, don’t worry about cloning over the handwritten lettering; we’ll fix that later. Once you’ve reached the bottom of the card, the edge of the tape on the left side should be gone. STEP SIX: Now we just need to remove the rest of the tape on the card. Again, clone around the lettering for now; don’t clone directly over it yet. As with all the other steps, you’ll need to adjust the Clone Stamp tool size

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and sample various areas throughout this process. Notice in our example that, after completing this step, the background behind the text has become lighter and much more uniform. This all takes time and patience. STEP SEVEN: Now we’re ready to clone over the lettering/handwriting that has tape/discoloration. Begin at the top Dorothy quote and continue using the Clone Stamp tool as before (adjusting size as needed). Optionclick (PC: Alt-click) on the quotation mark to sample some good “ink” and paint over the T to cover the scratches and marks on it. You’ll need to resample often as you go. Continue doing this in the same manner for the entire quote, and clean up any other areas around the letters that may still need repair.

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Removing tape from either a photo or lettering is very tedious and timeconsuming but, as you can see, it makes a big difference restoring life to an old photo or document. n After

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STEP EIGHT: Next we need to “clean up” the handwritten lettering. For this, you’ll work consistently with a very small brush size, around 9 px, for the Clone Stamp tool and zoom in to at least 200%. While holding Option (PC: Alt), click on the ink that isn’t faded and slowly go over letters that are faded or messy on the handwritten quote. The rest of this requires restoration work. I fixed the outer filmstrip, removing discoloration and folds in the paper. I also filled in the top above the Dorothy quote so the entire background has the same beige color. Finally, I cropped the image to remove any white around the border.

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SCOTT VALENTINE

PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND

FREQUENCY SEPARATION WITH LUMINOSITY & COLOR In the last few years, frequency separation (FS) has become a standard technique for super-powered retouching. In a nutshell, it allows you to split structure (texture, details) from color so you can work on them independently. This is a kind of decomposition of the image data, or breaking it down into distinct but related pieces. Using the same concept of decomposition, we can split apart color from luminosity,

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

©Adobe Stock/vladimirfloyd

giving us even more flexibility to do photographic surgery.

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Scott Valentine

PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND

A quick note: In the Photo­shop universe of blend modes, color refers to hue and saturation together, while luminosity is simply brightness. Color + luminosity + structure = photograph. We can work on all three of these independently, or in combinations. For retouching, it’s convenient and powerful to start with FS and then split apart the low frequency (LF) layer into color and luminosity. Note: For a primer on setting up FS, see Kristina Sherk ’s KelbyOne class High-End Skin Retouching in Photoshop. STEP ONE: First, we need to run a basic separation to get the details or structure away from the general color information. A quick caveat: This variation works best when you use a slightly larger (20–50%) blur value on the LF layer, which preserves more of the available texture. For example, if you typically use a blur of 6 px, increase that to 8–10 px. STEP TWO: We’ll work with the LF layer here, so turn off the high frequency (HF) layer for now by clicking its Eye icon in the Layers panel. Above the LF layer, add a Solid Color fill layer (Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color) with Hue (H) and Saturation (S) set to 0 and Brightness (B) set to 50% (neutral gray) in the Color Picker. Change the blend mode of the Color Fill layer to Luminosity near the top left of the Layers panel.

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STEP THREE: What you get is a view of just the color without any brightness information. Luminosity is a component blend mode that replaces the value (brightness) of lower layers with whatever is on the blended layer. Using Luminosity set to 50% gray means you’re replacing the brightness values of the lower image with neutral, effectively canceling out brightness variations. We need to capture this, so with the Color Fill layer active, use “The Claw” shortcut: hold Command-ShiftOption (PC: Ctrl-Shift-Alt) and press E to create a stamped copy of the canvas view. Double-click the name of this layer, rename it “Color,” and turn off its visibility. STEP FOUR: Now set the Color Fill layer’s blend mode to Color. See a pattern here? We’re removing the hue and saturation and replacing it with gray: a black-and-white version of the low frequency layer! Repeat “The Claw” process above, and name the new layer “Luminosity.” You can now delete the Color Fill layer.

need to create another Color and Luminosity layer set. You should have a layer stack as shown above. STEP SIX: From here, the process is very similar to working on the LF layer with the Mixer Brush: You’ll target areas that need to be blended or smoothed, but there’s something special here. Let’s begin with the Luminosity layer since it’s more obvious. For this example, I’m using the Mixer Brush (nested with the Brush tool [B] in the Toolbar) set to a soft, round brush to blend and smooth. In the Options Bar, the Mixer Brush is set to 100% for Wet, Load, and Mix, and I tend to adjust Flow between 30–60% as I’m working, depending on how much strength I want. Also, turn on the Clean the Brush After Each Stroke option (the brush icon with the line through it) so the brush isn’t applying any color, and turn off Sample All Layers. Tip: You may wish to duplicate your working layers so you can recover any over-worked areas.

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP SEVEN: Start with blemishes first to get a feel for how they’re made up of both brightness and color. This model has lots of small pigment variations in addition to blemishes; I’m going to remove both for illustration purposes, but be aware that some models or clients may want those pigmentation differences left alone, especially freckles or beauty marks.

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STEP FIVE: Turn on the Color layer ’s visibility, and set its blend mode to Color. The Luminosity layer can stay on Normal blending mode, since the Color layer is adding both hue and saturation to the values. Finally, turn on the HF layer’s visibility, and you should see your original image on the canvas. We won’t use the original LF layer, but keep it around in case you

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Remember that you’re working with variations in luminosity (there will still be color variations left behind). For portraits, some of that will come from pigmentation or makeup, some from skin irritation, and some from shadows or highlights. Smaller features can be worked with a brush that’s 2–3 times larger than the mark and scribbling in a circle over it until it’s blended (use the Bracket keys on your keyboard to quickly change the size of your brush). Some may require you to “push” surrounding values into the mark and then scrub. In either case, be sure to pay attention to larger shadows so you don’t create odd distortions.

shadows and variations that define facial features and contours should be softened or adjusted slightly rather than attacked aggressively. Bonus Tip: If you make a highlight too dull, create a blank layer between the Luminosity and Color layers, and set its blend mode to Linear Dodge (Add). Grab the regular Brush tool set to a soft round brush and set the brush blend mode also to Linear Dodge (Add) in the Options Bar. Start with low Flow and Opacity and the color set to white, and work small-to-large, slowly building up the highlight. I’ll show you the result of this in the next example.

STEP EIGHT: Once the blemishes are done, you can move to highlights and sculpting. This is where you need to be very careful, because it’s extremely easy to overwork things. My recommendation is to duplicate the Luminosity layer you just finished and continue on that copy in case you need to revert to something. As with blemishes, highlights can be knocked down by simply scrubbing in a circle over them with the Mixer Brush, but be sure not to leave them too flat. Similarly,

STEP NINE: Once you’ve finished with the Luminosity layer, begin smoothing the Color layer using the same Mixer Brush. Again, be aware of overworking areas and making things too smooth, or even removing color by accident. Pay close attention to areas around the eyes and lips where it ’s easy to spill over and cause weird coloration. The technique is generally the same, though it can be less labor-intensive than the luminosity work.

After sculpting and coloring

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After removing blemishes in Step Seven

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PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

One of the great things about this technique is that it can be used far beyond portraits. Here’s an example of removing both wrinkles and dirt from a dress. Remember how I said above to increase the blur strength a little? That’s because playing with the luminosity can dramatically change fine textures such as pores or fabric weave. Using a larger blur means the texture detail is a little larger, but that can also sometimes leave behind features you’d normally correct on a LF layer. I had to deal with some of the smaller folds and bits of dirt in this dress on the HF layer with the Patch tool. I point this out so you aren’t tempted to try and do everything on a single layer. The tip I mentioned in Step Eight about using a Linear Dodge (Add) layer is exactly the thing to bring back some highlights along these satin folds. Working on the Luminosity layer can make things flat, and this little trick really helps keep the visual interest by adding depth. Here’s the paint layer set to Normal blending against a gray background so you can see what I added.

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©Adobe Stock/fiona_toke

OTHER USES

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Painted highlights

Splitting out the LF layer into luminosity and color isn’t always necessary, but it can really help when you hit a challenging correction or creative project. It’s another way to tackle a focused characteristic of your photo, and it opens up so much flexibility for use with a wide range of scenes and subjects. The next time you get stuck on a tricky retouch, give this a try! n Final dress with painted highlights

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Do you have better photos inside you, just waiting to get out? This book can help. A totally updated version of the #1 best-selling digital photography book of all time!

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Every time you turn the page, you’ll learn another pro setting, tool, or trick to transform your work from snapshots into gallery prints. If you’re tired of taking shots that look “okay,” and if you’re tired of looking in photography magazines and thinking, “Why don’t my shots look like that?” then this is the book for you.

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DAVE CLAYTON

DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

OLYMPIC-STYLE SPORTS POSTER If you’re a sports fan like me, you probably watched a lot of the Olympics coverage in August. Despite the difficult circumstances, it was a great and inspiring event to watch. So to honor all those great competitors, I wanted to create an Olympic-style sports poster using type, color, and some images of athletes that were downloaded from Adobe Stock.

We’re going to type the word “SPORT” and have athletes jumping out of the letters, and then add some extra graphics and type to finish our sporting poster. So let’s begin by creating our document.

STEP ONE: SET UP THE FILE We’re going to create a landscape-oriented layout to enable the letters to have as much space as possible. Begin by going to File>New and create a 3840x2160 px document (this gives us a 16:9 ratio for screen sizes) at 300 ppi. You can set it to CMYK if you want to make this a print document but, for now, we’ll use RGB for the web.  14 0 

DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

STEP TWO: ADD TYPE The next step is to add our letters to the document. We want to use a nice fat, sporty typeface, so let ’s use an Adobe Font (available with a Creative Cloud subscription) that’s called Octin College Heavy. Go to Type>More from Adobe Fonts, log in with your Adobe ID, search for Octin, and then click the Activate Font switch next to the College Heavy version. (A good tip is to use font weights from the same typeface when you’re working on a design rather than lots of different typefaces, so go ahead and install the Light, Book, Regular, SemiBold, and Bold versions of Octin as well for creating additional type on the poster.) We want to give each letter its own treatment and image, so they need to be on individual layers. Using the Type tool set to around 230 px, click in the document, type the letter “S,” and press Enter to commit the type. Click in the document again with the Type tool, type the letter “P,” and press Enter to commit the type. Repeat for the remaining letters until you have the word “SPORT,” with each letter on its own layer. The color and alignment don’t matter much at this point, but you can use the Move tool (V) to reposition the letters using the smart guides to help you line them up if you want.

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HOW TO

STEP THREE: MAKE A SWATCH The next step is to give each letter its own color. For this we’re going to visit a cool color site called SchemeColor and download their Olympic swatch (if you want to use your own colors, keep the swatch set simple). Just click here to go directly to the Olympic swatch, and then click the Download button to download a PNG of it. In Photoshop, go to File>Place Embedded, navigate to the swatch you just downloaded, and click Place. Use the bounding box to downsize the swatch and drag it above your letters. Press Enter to commit the image. We’re going to use this swatch to create a new swatch group in the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches) that contains all of these colors. So in the Swatch Panel’s flyout menu at the top right, choose New Swatch Group, name it “Olympics,” and click OK. Make sure the Olympics group is active in the Swatches panel, select the Eyedropper tool (I) from the Toolbar, and click on the first color in the swatch image. Click on the flyout menu in the Swatches panel, select New Swatch Preset, give it a name (e.g., “Olympic Blue,” “Olympic Red,” etc.), and click OK. Repeat for all five colors, and then drag the Olympic group to the top of the swatch stack in the Swatches panel.

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP FOUR: COLOR THE TYPE

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Next we’ll color each letter using our new Olympics swatch. Just select each letter with the Type tool and click once on the swatch color that you want to use in the Swatches panel. We’ll use the same order of the colors in the Olympic swatch that we downloaded and placed in our document. You can now delete the swatch layer in the Layers panel by dragging it to the Delete Layer icon (trash can) at the bottom of the panel. Now that we have our five letters in five different colors, it’s time to prepare our images.

DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

STEP FIVE: PREPARE THE FIRST IMAGE Open the five athlete images that you wish to use. I selected ones that will be easy to extract from their background by using the “Isolated Only” filter on Adobe Stock when searching for the images. It’s a useful tip when you need images with a plain-colored background. If you’d like to download the low-res versions of the images we’re using, click the links below, log in with your Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library button. Back in Photoshop, Rightclick on one of the downloaded images in the Libraries panel (Window>Libraries), and choose Edit to open it. 1. Boxer 2. Hurdler 3. Swimmer 4. Pole Vaulter 5. Runner We’ll prepare the first image and then just repeat the steps for the other four. These need to be converted to black-and-white (except for the runner image, which is already grayscale), so with your first image open (we’re starting with the boxer image), go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Black & White. Adjust the sliders in the Properties panel (Window>Properties) to your personal preference. Click on the Background layer in the Layers panel to make it active, and go to Select>Subject, which will make a good enough selection for what we need here but feel free to spend extra time refining your selection, if you wish. Once selected, click the Add Layer Mask icon (circle in a square) at the bottom of the Layers panel. Photoshop will use your selection to create the mask, which will hide the white areas in the background, leaving only the athlete. Shift-click the Black & White adjustment layer in the Layers panel to select both layers and go to Layer>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Object. Then go to Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal as we need him facing the other way. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the layer thumbnail in the Layers panel to select the subject again, and click the Add Layer Mask icon to add a new clean mask. Go to File>Save As and save the file as a PSD just to protect it.

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©Adobe Stock/Jaimie Duplass

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HOW TO

STEP SIX: REPEAT FOR THE REMAINING FOUR IMAGES

STEP SEVEN: MERGE THE FIRST IMAGE AND LETTER

Repeat Step Five for the other four images, using Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal only on the images you need to flip. For the swimmer, after going to Select>Subject, you’ll need to use the Quick Selection tool (nested with the Object Selection tool [W] in the Toolbar) to add the diving platform to the selection. You’ll need to do the same thing with the pole vaulter’s pole.

Using the Move tool (V) drag the boxer to the image with the letters and drop him into the document. Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) for Free Transform and drag a corner handle to resize him just a little larger than the letter. Then, click-and-drag inside the bounding box to position the athlete so that the bottom of his body lines up with the bottom of the letter S. Press Enter to commit the transformation.

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©Adobe Stock/snaptitude

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

©Adobe Stock/master1305

©Adobe Stock/vitaliy_melnik

©Adobe Stock/vitaliy_melnik

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With the boxer layer active in the Layers panel, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the S layer so they’re both selected. Now press Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G) to group the letter and the layer. Double-click the name of the layer group and rename it “boxer.” Inside the group, make sure the letter is below the boxer. Then make a copy of the boxer layer by dragging it to the Create a New Layer icon (+) at the bottom of the Layers panel (that’s just one way of copying a layer, of course). Next, clip the original boxer layer to the letter S layer by holding the Option (PC: Alt) key, hovering your cursor between the two layers in the Layers panel until it changes to a box with a down-pointing arrow, and click to make a clipping mask. This clips this version of the boxer inside the letter. The second top copy is for the areas of the boxer we want outside the letter. Click on the layer mask thumbnail of the duplicate boxer layer in the Layers panel to make it active, and switch to the Brush tool (B). Press X until the Foreground color is black, and then click on the brush preview thumbnail in the Option Bar to open the Brush Preset Picker. Select the Hard Round brush in the General Brushes group.

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DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

Now you can start painting on the layer mask to remove the areas you don’t want to get a mix of letter and athlete, using the Bracket keys ([ ]) on your keyboard to quickly change the size of the brush. If you accidentally paint away something you wanted to keep, press X to switch the Foreground color to white, and paint to bring it back. You can also temporarily reduce the Opacity of this layer in the Layers panel to help you see the areas you want to mask. Depending on the subject, you may find resizing the image helps. You should be left with something similar to the image shown here with parts of the boxer clipped inside the blue S and his head and hands extending beyond the letter.

STEP EIGHT: ADD INNER GLOW TO LETTER Next we will add an Inner Glow layer style to the letter to give it some depth. Click on the letter S layer in the Layers panel to make it active, click on the Add a Layer Style icon (ƒx) at the bottom of the panel, and select Inner Glow. These are the settings we used, but you can fine-tune them to your preference: • Blend mode: Normal • Opacity: 57% • Color: Black • Choke: 13% • Size: 50 px Leave the other settings and click OK. Now you can repeat Steps Seven and Eight for the other athletes and letters. Each time you drag in a new athlete, it might end up in the previous group in the Layers panel, so just drag it out of the group to the top of the layer stack. You can also easily copy the Inner

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• Range: 50%

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HOW TO

Glow layer style to other layers by holding the Option (PC: Alt) key while dragging the word “Effects” from one layer to another. You won’t need an Inner Glow for the black letter O as you won’t be able to see it, but if you used a lighter color, then you can add it to all the letters.

STEP NINE: REPOSITION THE LETTERS Now that we have all of our athletes placed, clipped, and masked into their respective letters, you can move each layer group into position as you wish. Be sure to click on the group in the Layers panel so all the layers in the group move together. You can stagger the letters and maybe have a couple of the athletes overlapping each other as we’ve done here so they kind of interact with each other. We also color-coded each group in the Layers panel to make the layers easier to identify and work with. Just Right-click on the Eye icon to the left of a group and choose a color in the contextual menu.

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

STEP 10: THE BACKGROUND

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Next, select all the groups in the Layers panel and click the Lock All icon (padlock) to the right of the word “Lock” to lock them in place; we don’t want to accidentally move them. To give the poster some added interest, we’re going to reuse various parts of the athletes to fill the gaps around the letters. Drag in all of the athlete images again one by one. Use Free Transform to resize and rotate them to fit how you wish. We’re making them really large and dragging the majority of each image off the canvas so you can only see a small part of each athlete. When you’re happy with the position, reduce the layer Opacity to about 40% so that it doesn’t overpower the letters. You can also flip them the opposite way for a better fit. Rename all the layers for easy identification (see images top of next page).

STEP 11: ADD QUOTE TO FINISH THE POSTER Select all of the background layers you just added in the previous step, group them, and lock the group. We’re going to add some type to complete our sporting poster, using the famous quote from Olympic legend, Jackie Joyner-Kersee: “The only person who can stop you from reaching your goals is you.”

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DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

Step 10

And there you have it, a creative typographical poster using athletes that you can edit and change as you wish. Try it with different genres of activities and share your results in the KelbyOne Community forum. n

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Using the same font family, Octin, create a new type layer at the very top of your layer stack, and type “THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN STOP YOU…” in the top area of the image using the Octin College Bold font. Color the type in the Olympic Red from the Swatches panel. Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to copy the type layer, use the Move tool to drag the copy to the bottom of the document, and then use the Type tool to change the words to “…FROM REACHING YOUR GOALS IS YOU.” Finally, add “Jackie Joyner-Kersee” in Octin College Book in black at the bottom-right corner to give her credit.

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TERRY WHITE

PHOTOSHOP Q&A ©Adobe Stock/apichon_tee

Q.  I f I miss something when I use the Select and Mask workspace, is there a way to go back in and fix it without having to start over? A.  T he answer is yes, but there’s one thing you’ll need to do first. When you use the Select and Mask workspace, make sure that you set your Output To results to New Layer with Layer Mask. When you click OK, this will make a new layer with a layer mask in your Layers panel. If you then see that you missed something or need to go back in and make tweaks, then you can double-click on the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers panel. You’ll get a dialog asking if you want to return to the Select and Mask workspace. Once you’re back in, you’ll be right where you left off, and then you can fix or tweak whatever you want and output another new layer with a layer mask.

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

Q.  I used to just place images in Photo­ shop that I wanted to composite. Now I see there are two options: Place Linked and Place Embedded. What’s the difference? A.  When you want to bring a photo or vector image into

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an open Photoshop file, you can just drag-and-drop it in. If it’s not convenient to do so, however, you can use the Place command and then go find the image you want to bring in and place it. It will automatically come in as a layer. The difference between Place Linked and Place Embedded is when you want the image you’re placing to stay connected to the original. For example, if I place another Photoshop image into my open file and I select Place Embedded, I’m embedding a copy of that file in its current state. If I later go back and edit the original file that I placed, the document that I placed it into will not be updated.

If I select Place Linked instead, it will continue to link to the file that I placed, and it will update my new document with any changes made to the original image that was placed. This way you could place a logo in multiple Photoshop documents and, if you later go back and update the original logo, all of the Photoshop files you placed it in will be updated.

Q.  I have a customer who likes certain layer effects that I use. Is there a way to save the effect and just apply it to different layers as needed? A.  T his question came up during a virtual education seminar that I was teaching. To be honest, I had to think about it for a minute. Then I decided to do a quick test right there on the spot and, luckily, I was right: Using Creative Cloud Libraries, you can absolutely save layer effects (styles) to use over and over again. Apply a layer effect (e.g., a Drop Shadow, Outer Glow, Stroke, etc.) the way you want on one of your layers. Now, open the Libraries panel from the Window menu, if you don’t already have it

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PHOTOSHOP Q&A

ALL IMAGES BY TERRY WHITE EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

Q. I was always told that, when retouch­ ing a portrait, I shouldn’t completely remove things such as moles, lines under eyes, etc. Is there an easier way to do this than using layers and Opacity? A.  Yes. This is one of my favorite hidden features

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open. With the layer that has the layer effect (style) selected, click the plus sign at the bottom right of the Libraries panel, and choose the option to add the layer style to your current library. After it has been added to your Library, you can Right-click on it to rename it so you know what it ’s for. The next time you need to apply this layer style, select the layer to which you want to apply it and then just click on the layer style in your Library. Since library items sync to the cloud, these layer styles will also be available on any of your other computers running Photoshop and for any document you open.

in Photoshop. It ’s called the Fade feature and it gives you Undo on a slider. Use the Patch tool (nested under the Spot Healing Brush tool [J] in the Toolbar) to completely remove whatever it is that you really only want to partially remove. Yes, remove it completely but don’t deselect (this is key!). While the area that you just removed is still selected, you can go up to the Edit menu and choose Fade Patch Selection. This option will only be available if you use it immediately after using the Patch tool, and before you deselect. You’ll see a dialog with an Opacity slider that you can slide to the left to bring back as many of the pixels that you patched out as you want. For blemishes, I usually set it to around 50–65%.

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PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

Q.  I like the Sky Replacement feature in Photoshop, and a while back you showed how to add your own skies one by one. Is that the only way you can add skies? That seems like a pain. A. I like Sky Replacement too and yes it was a pain

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to add your own skies one by one. I’m happy to report that the Photoshop team quietly updated this feature so that, when you click the plus sign to add a sky, you can now choose more than one at a time: up to 5,000 skies in one swoop! I recommend that you create a new folder in the Sky Replacement dialog before you add any skies. In the sky picker, click the gear icon at the top right and select Create New Sk y Group. Give the group a name and click OK . Now, make sure that group folder is active before

you import your skies, and they will be placed in that folder so you can easily find them without being overwhelmed. You can even create several folders, one for each type of sky you’re going to add, for example: “Cloudy Skies,” “Dramatic Skies,” “Sunsets,” etc. n

If you have a Photoshop question that you’d like Terry White to answer in the pages of Photoshop User magazine, send it to [email protected].

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FUJIFILM GFX 100S

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

 102

 152 

Seductive Megapixels | Review by Steve Baczewski

FUJIFILM Corporation is well-known for its APS-C format cameras but, in a strategic move, they decided to pass on manufacturing the already well-populated, full-frame camera market in favor of the less popular, more expensive, medium-format camera. I recently had the opportunity to use the company’s fourth medium-format camera, the 102-megapixel FUJIFILM GFX 100S. The relatively inexpensive ($5,999), mirrorless, GFX 100S uses the same BSI 43.8x32.9mm CMOS sensor as the company’s twoyear old GFX 100. This new camera body is $4,000 dollars cheaper, weighs less, is much more compact, and looks and handles more like a full-frame camera. It’s a new generation of medium format and it’s impressive. The magnesium alloy, weather-resistant, black body has a deep-textured grip that works well to balance FUJIFILM’s larger lenses. It houses two SD card slots and a single battery that’s good for 400 to 500 exposures. The PASM mode dial at the top left has six custom settings, and at the top right is a 1.8" LCD screen that alternatively displays your image settings, a virtual ISO and shutter dial, or a histogram. The body’s numerous buttons and dials can be customized to taste, plus there’s a “Q” button to quickly display and access a menu of up to 16 adjustable settings of your choice. The ISO range is 100–12,800, expandable to 50 and 102,400. Noise is noticeable at ISO 3,200, but cleans up well in post. Of note is that, separate from the bulb setting, you can dial in a shutter speed of up to 60 minutes. The CMOS sensor is covered with fast phase detection points and is quick to focus in single-shot mode, including low-light situations. The sensor is supported by the best 5-axis IBIS (in-body image stabilization) that I’ve used, and it enables hand-holding

Company: FUJIFILM Corporation

Price: $5,999 (body only)

Hot: Size; file quality; performance

Not: No vertical grip; CAF tracking

with tack-sharp results down to 1/15th of a second. This is a luxury for landscape, architectural, or portrait photographers. The GFX 100S can capture 5 fps in burst mode, good for capturing changing expressions in portraits, but not particularly good for focus tracking fast-moving subjects such as the quick movements of an animal, so it isn’t a good choice for sports or wildlife photographers. I shot mostly in RAW, but the JPEG’s color and dynamic range are simply the best I’ve seen. The camera can capture in either 14- or 16-bit RAW; however, 16-bit files weigh in at more than 200 MB, and I didn’t see a significant difference to warrant the 16-bit setting. FUJIFILM has 12 medium-format lenses available, both primes and zooms. They’re uniformly well-designed and sharp, but most of them cost more than $2,000—a consideration when building a camera system. A word about post: I’m using Apple’s M1 mini, and was surprised and pleased that there was no bottlenecking in either Photoshop or Lightroom. Workflow moved along smoothly. Working with the GFX 100S files is a revelation: The ability to crop and find another composition within your file without a loss in quality gives the medium-format a

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flexibility and a creative license not so easily found. There’s so much information in the files that slight slider adjustments reveal a wide range of colors and highlight/shadow detail. The dynamic range is extraordinary and practically eliminates the need for bracketing exposures. I found composing with the 100S more deliberate and unhurried. I enjoyed composing with both the EVF and articulated, rear touchscreen LCD. While the EVF has been downsized from the original GFX 100’s 5.76 million dots to 3.69 million dots, it’s still large and bright, with easyto-read shooting data and a realistic concession to make the camera affordable. The articulating 3.2", 2.36 million dot resolution LCD holds up well in daylight; however FUJIFILM’s LCD touch-screen technology hasn’t evolved, and is too limited to basics such as moving the focus point. Navigating the menus by touch would be nice. I carried the GFX 100S all day hiking and street-shooting, and it reinforced my original thought that the handling of the camera is indistinguishable from a full-frame camera. In the digital evolution, certain cameras serve as a reference point in file quality and technology: The FUJIFILM GFX 100S is one of those cameras! n

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Crucial X8 SSD  Small,

Fast, Portable SSD with Great Design and Performance | Review by Erik Vlietinck

External SSDs are becoming increasingly popular, faster, bigger, and cheaper. Crucial sent me their 109 g, aluminum, drop-proof (carpet), 2TB X8 (a 110mm model), which isn’t their newest, but it’s the fastest with a performance that reaches 1050 MB/sec. Their newest is the X6, which is even smaller at 70mm and available in

Company: Micron Technology, Inc.

sizes up to 4TB. Both X models are formatted with ExFAT for use in Macs, iPad Pros (2018 and later), Windows, Xbox One, PS4, and Android devices. The Crucial X8 feels solid and robust, and its rubberized extremities give it just enough grip on a smooth surface to keep it in place. A Blackmagic Disk Speed Test reported 909 MB/sec maximum throughput. Write speed was a nice 869 MB/sec.

Price: 1TB: $149.95 2TB: $279.95

Hot: No throttling; stays cool; design; performance

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

To see how the X8 would behave when using it for longer periods of time,

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I let the AJA System Test run for 10 minutes. I looked at dropped frames and heat. I was sure that the X8, lacking any sort of visible heat-dissipation system, would throttle back at some point, but it didn’t. There was a consistent one-frame drop and no throttling. After 10 minutes, the drive had become as warm as my hands. This could mean that the drive will fail sooner than those that throttle, but it can also mean that the enclosure has very clever heat dissipation internally, or that Crucial is using a much faster rated SSD inside. Judging from the short time it took the enclosure to return to its cold state, I’d say option two is the most probable one. n

Not:

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REVIEWS

CalDigit Element Hub  The

Dock That Sets You Free of Daisy-Chaining | Review by Erik Vlietinck

The double-deck, SSD-sized CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub is a small, aluminum dock with three Thunderbolt 4/USB4 ports and four USB-A ports, all of which are backward compatible. The Element Hub doesn’t have the dazzling number of ports of CalDigit’s TS3 Plus, but it compensates on the performance side, and enables Thunderbolt 4 on

Company: CalDigit

all Macs with Big Sur installed. On PCs you’ll have to check with the maker. On my mid-2017 iMac, I was able to connect three Thunderbolt 3 devices to the Element

Price: $229.99

Hub and a few of them were daisy-chained. The whole bunch appeared in the Finder and I could drive an NVMe Thunderbolt 3 SSD at about 80% of its direct connected speed. As expected, the speed of each device will drop to lower levels when you use them concurrently. But here’s the biggest advantage of using the Element Hub: You’re set free of having to daisy-chain Thunderbolt devices. And that makes a big difference in terms

Hot: 3000MB/sec per Thunderbolt port; no more need for daisy-chaining; USB-A ports are 10Gb/s ports (USB 3.2 Gen.2); size; design

of cable management, while it expands the number of Thunderbolt devices you can hook up simultaneously, even if they have only one Thunderbolt port. You can also

Not:

drive equipment such as the Apple Pro Display XDR and use it with Apple’s latest 12.9" iPad Pros. Finally, the Element Hub will charge a tablet or a low-power 60W laptop through its Thunderbolt 4 computer port on the side. Thunderbolt, USB4, and USB-C devices, but if you have a non-Thunderbolt or a non-USB4 host, you can only daisy-chain USB-C devices. In short, I’m impressed with the CalDigit Element Hub and, as it can be used in tandem with, for example, a TS3 Plus, you can have your cake and eat it too! n

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There’s one caveat: Thunderbolt and USB4 computer users can daisy-chain

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REVIEWS

ProMediaGear L-Brackets for Canon EOS R5/R6

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

 Expandable

 156 

L-Brackets that Allows Articulated Screen Movement | Review by Fernando Santos

After hearing their peers praising the many advantages of using an Arcastyle L-bracket, many photographers go online and order the cheapest L-bracket they can find. Later, they find out that they can’t open the battery door, or they can’t change the memory card, without first removing the L-bracket. Maybe they also use a camera strap that has a special attachment (like a BlackRapid strap), and the L-bracket doesn’t work with that either. Forget proper use of the articulated screen, connecting an external microphone, or using a remote trigger. All that can happen when you buy a poorly designed universal L-bracket. That’s not what you want to do; instead, you need to get an L-bracket that was specifically designed for your camera body. By the way, if you also use a battery grip, get ready to buy two different L-brackets, because one won’t fit both configurations. ProMediaGear has released L-brackets for the Canon R5/R6 (the same L-bracket will fit both cameras because they’re physically identical) with and without the BG-R10 battery grip. These L-brackets were custom-designed to give you access to all your camera ports, battery, etc. Also, there are plenty of ways to attach thirdparty camera straps such as the popular BlackRapid or Peak Design (but you may prefer to use the included QD socket). Both L-brackets, which are very well built, strong, and sturdy, attach to your camera using not just the 1/4"-20 screw, but also the additional fixing points to get a connection as strong and snug as possible. They also have many 1/4"-20 threads you can use to attach other accessories. The QD socket allows you to use the Magpul (or compatible) Quick Detach system, which is a convenient way to

Company: ProMediaGear

Price:  $ 149.95 (PLCR56); $169.95 (PLCBGR10)

Hot: Full-screen movement allowed; all ports accessible; sturdy; well built; expandable system

Not: PLCBGR10 model: Incomplete documentation; wrong marking on the vertical plate

attach/detach a strap from your camera. ProMediaGear also gives you the option to select their proprietary SS2 attachment instead of the QD socket, which is similar to QD but not interchangeable, so make sure you get the right one for you. In my opinion, one of the most interesting features of these two L-brackets is the fact that you can use the Canon R5/R6 articulated screen fully, without it getting stuck in the L-bracket vertical plate, as usually happens with other brackets. ProMediaGear designed the L-brackets with a vertical plate that’s pushed forward, closer to the front side of the camera, allowing the articulated screen to move freely. While this is very convenient, it brings some problems too, as some lenses have controls that may be harder to reach. On the other hand (no pun intended), you can use that vertical plate as a grip for your left hand. There are also safety stop screws on both vertical and horizontal plates and on each side of each plate. ProMediaGear provides markings so that you know where the axis of your lens is, which can be particularly important to balance your setup properly, and also if you’re doing panoramas and want to find what’s commonly referred

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to as the nodal point. Unfortunately, on the PLCBGR10 model (the one for the battery grip), the vertical plate has that center marking in the wrong place, which hopefully will be fixed in a future batch. Both models include a built-in cold shoe on top of the vertical plate. You can use it to mount a microphone, an external monitor, or any other item that may be attached to a cold shoe socket. This allows you to use the camera’s hot shoe for what it was designed for: a flash. Also included is a nice storage pouch, as well as a 5/32 Allen wrench that attaches magnetically to the L-brackets. While an L-bracket doesn’t require extensive documentation, these units are part of an expandable system, and it’s important that you understand how you can customize your L-bracket even further. The documentation included in the box for the battery grip model referred only to the nonbattery grip model, which is something that ProMediaGear will be able to easily address in the future. Some people may prefer an L-bracket that’s built from a single piece of metal, which isn’t the case with these ProMediaGear units. In my opinion that’s a plus, as you get the convenience of an extensible and customizable system, without compromising the product’s sturdiness. n

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REVIEWS

KLP-310 Universal Multi Use Lens Plate 3.10  Quality,

Fully Featured, Arca-Style Lens Plate | Review by Fernando Santos

If you use an Arca style L-bracket on your camera, and you have a long lens with a tripod mount, instead of mounting the lens directly on your tripod head, you may be tempted to mount the camera, because your lens tripod mount is probably not Arca-compatible. Doing so doesn’t properly balance your setup and makes it harder to operate.

Company: Kirk Enterprises, Inc.

This Kirk Enterprises universal lens plate is Arca-compatible and should fit most (if not all) lens feet. It has features that you can’t easily find on cheap $10 plates;

Price: $48

for example, an anti-twist “lip.” The KLP-310 plate’s anti-twist lip can be mounted at three different locations on the plate, using two possible orientations, for a total of seven different configurations. For my Canon RF 70–200 f/2.8L lens, I configured the anti-twist lip so that it fits the angle on the lens foot. I mounted it on the opposite side of the factory default PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

configuration because I wanted the QD (Quick Detach) socket to be closer to the

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center of gravity of my lens/camera. I have other quality Arca plates with QD sockets, but those are on a corner of the plate and don’t balance the camera/lens as well. That’s not the case with the KLP-310 plate because the QD socket is on the central axis of the plate. Two optional safety stop screws are included and I used them too, so that my gear doesn’t slip, in case my Arca clamp isn’t properly closed. All in all, the KLP-310 is a nicely built Arca plate that will fit most, if not all, lens feet. The QD socket as well as the customizable anti-twist lip and safety stops are very useful features. I just wish there was also an attachment point for my Peak Design anchors! n

Hot: QD socket; configurable anti-twist lip; security stops

Not: Lack of attachment point for Peak Design anchors



REVIEWS

Vanguard Supreme Divider 53  Soft-Sided

Camera Bag Solves Long-Term Storage | Review by Fernando Santos

Do you store your lenses and camera bodies inside your camera bag? I used to do that but, over the years, as my kit grew, one bag was no longer enough. I had lenses in different bags—a mess whenever I had to pack for a shoot. After moving to the Canon RF system, I got more lenses, and my storage needed a makeover. I didn’t want to use a shelf, a drawer, or a dry cabinet. The Vanguard Supreme Divider 53 came to the rescue! This large, padded camera bag is deep enough to keep all my current lenses stored vertically (even the RF 70–200mm f/2.8!), as well as my gripped camera bodies with L-brackets. You can customize the inside of the bag with the included padded dividers to suit your gear. The handle seems to be robust enough to move the bag from one location to another, however, this isn’t a bag that I’d use to go out on a shoot, unless I just had to move it from my home studio into my car and back (or into my Vanguard Supreme 53F Carrying Case, which is a waterproof and airtight hard case).

Company: Vanguard

Price: $99.99

Hot: Stores lots of lenses vertically as well as gripped camera bodies

Not: Lack of identification pocket and lockable zipper

The Supreme Divider 53 is a good quality bag, with zippers that look good and work well, but unfortunately aren’t lockable. I do wish that the bag had an external pocket for a label to identify the gear inside, and I’d also like to see additional dividers details, I wouldn’t change anything. If you have a lot of gear lying around and you’d like a good storage solution, take a look at the Vanguard Supreme Divider 53 bag and maybe it will work for you as well as it did for me. n

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that could be used to pack small lenses on top of one other. Apart from these little

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REVIEWS

OWC Envoy Pro SX  Very

Fast, Portable Thunderbolt Drive That’s Certified Drop-Proof | Review by Erik Vlietinck

Other World Computing (OWC) added yet another model to its Envoy Pro lineup with the SX model. The SX has a Thunderbolt 3 cable included and is a tad faster than the FX when used with newer Thunderbolt and USB4-equipped computers. Unlike the FX, however, it’s black and it doesn’t support USB prior to USB4. The Envoy Pro SX has a top speed rated at 2,847 MB/sec and comes with an

Company: OWC Inc.

Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office one-year subscription. On my mid-2017 iMac, the drive achieved a respectable highest speed of 2,210 MB/sec, and AJA’s System Test Lite reported fewer throttled-back frames than the FX model. Acronis Cyber Protect

Price: From $199 (240GB) to $529 (2TB)

combines cloud backup (a generous 250 GB of space included), with protection against malware, viruses, and data loss in general. This portable drive is perfect for on-the-go audio and video production, photography, graphics, and general data storage/backup use. Its aluminum enclosure ensures PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

that the drive is certified dust-tight and waterproof (up to 30 minutes/1 meter deep)

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(IP67). It’s also drop-proof (dropped over 25 times at every angle from a height of 120 cm by a third-party testing and certification service). Its heat-dissipating aluminum housing makes a cooling fan redundant, and it supports macOS and Windows built-in encryption technologies. Just as with the Envoy Pro EX and FX, the SX has a front-bezel-mounted LED for confirmation of power and activity status. While the Envoy Pro FX will work when you connect it to a USB port, the SX will work only when connected to a Thunderbolt port. If you do connect it to USB, macOS Big Sur shows an incompatibility warning. The Envoy Pro SX comes with a three-year limited warranty from OWC Inc. n

Hot: Speed; price; robust enclosure

Not:

Have you ever dreamed of taking such incredible landscape photos that your friends and family say, “Wait a minute, this is your photo?! You took this?” Well, you’re in luck. In this book, pro photographer and award-winning author Scott Kelby teaches you how to shoot and edit jaw-dropping landscape photographs. Scott shares all his secrets and time-tested techniques, as he discusses everything from his go-to essential gear and camera settings to the landscape photography techniques you need to create absolutely stunning images. It’s all here, from the planning, to the shoot, to the post-processing—taking your images from flat to fabulous—and best of all, it’s just one topic per page, so you’ll get straight to the info you need fast. There has never been a landscape book like it!

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kelbyone.com

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rockynook.com

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#kelbyonebooks



REVIEWS

How to Make Hundreds Selling Microstock Photos  Thomas

Smith | Review by Peter Bauer

After reading this book, your first thought might be, “Why bother? Is it actually

Publisher: Independently Published

worth the time and effort to prepare and submit images to the various micro­ stock agencies to earn a few bucks a month?” The answer at first might be, “Not

Pages: 33

on a dollars-per-hour basis.” But if you make preparing and submitting images a regular part of your workflow, you might enjoy seeing those extra bucks magically and unexpectedly appear in your bank account. Are you likely to earn

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

a living just through microstock image sales? No. Is it an easy way to supplement

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your income? Perhaps. Using this book’s information can help you supplement your monthly income with (reasonably) little effort. I recommend the Kindle version, which includes clickable links for the major microstock agencies. You’ll also find details of which agencies work with which type of images, as well as some insider’s tips. n

Price: $4.99 (Kindle)



REVIEWS

Photography Pocket Guide: Camera Settings for Specific Situations  Al

Judge | Review by Peter Bauer

Publisher: Independently Published

Another very short publication, this one is designed to be carried in your camera bag. The author’s recommendations are based on using a specific camera (Sony A 7R III) with a specific set of professional-grade lenses (the Sony G Master series). As he says in the introduction, “If you are shooting with different equipment, you

Pages: 34

Price: $14.95 (Paperback); $2.99 (Kindle)

may need to modify some of the recommended settings….” Okay, then, if you’re not using the same equipment as the author, you have what he calls “a great starting point” for camera and lens settings. As for the “specific situations” mentioned in the title, there are nine: Milky Way, moon, moonlit landscapes, wildlife, landscapes without a tripod, landscapes with a panoramic gimbal, architectural shots without

pages, while the other subjects range from one to two pages. The info is limited and very specific. n

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a tripod, hand-held HDR, and real estate photography. The Milky Way gets six

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COLIN SMITH

PHOTOSHOP TIPS When you build a house, you use a variety of tools: A hammer drives in nails, but isn’t very good at cutting wood; a saw cuts wood, but isn’t good for driving nails. Using the right tool for the job is the way to go. Each month I try to introduce you to new Photoshop tools and ways of working to help get the job done as easily as possible. Check out the handy toolbox of tips I have for you this month.

NEW INDEPENDENT WARP OPTION

PEN TOOL CONTROL POINT HANDLES

When you want to wrap artwork onto an object, a great

Since we just discussed Warp, I’d be remiss if I didn’t

tool for this is the Warp transform tool. To activate

bring this “sister tip” to your attention, because I think

this tool, press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to start Free

it inspired the new Independent mode feature in Warp.

Transform. Right-click inside the bounding box and

After you’ve created a path with the Pen tool (P) and

choose Warp. Up in the Options Bar, choose a Grid

you’ve clicked on a point with the Direct Selection tool

option so you have some control points with which to

(nested below the Path Selection tool [A] in the Toolbar)

work. You can now drag on the layer to warp the shape,

to refine its Bézier handles, you can Option-click (PC:

or for even better control, you can click the points on

Alt-click) the point at the end of one of the handles to

the grid and use their Bézier handles, which are like

adjust only that side of the curve. The other handle will

the ones you find on paths created by the Pen tool.

now move independently as well.

Until now, the challenge has always been how to warp

PERFECTLY HORIZONTAL PANORAMAS

when you drag one of the Bézier handles. Good news!

There are various ways of stitching together a panorama

Adobe recently added a new feature: Hold down the

in Photoshop. You may be using Edit>Auto-Align Layers,

Option (PC: Alt) key and click on the point to change it

or the Merge to Panorama feature in Camera Raw. Some-

from Unison to Independent mode. In English, Unison is

times you end up with a warped or wavy-looking image.

how it’s always been; Independent allows you to move an

To fix this, go into Filter>Adaptive Wide Angle. Once the

adjustment handle without it affecting the other handles.

Adaptive wide angle dialog opens, click-and-drag along

Just what we need for those tricky jobs!

the horizon in the image to straighten the image. The

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

one side of a point without the other side also warping

ALL IMAGES BY COLIN SMITH | PHOTOSHOPCAFE.COM

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PHOTOSHOP TIPS

real secret is to hold down the Shift key as you drag; the

in these settings, it will create new adjustment layers for

line will change to yellow to indicate that the image will

each: a Brightness/Contrast layer for Sky Brightness and

be rotated to perfectly horizontal when you release your

a Color Balance layer for Sky Temperature.

mouse button. The line will remain in place after the image rotates so you can fine-tune it if necessary. This will get

OPEN AS OBJECT

you perfectly horizontal panoramas without the “bendys”

When you open a RAW image in Camera Raw and

(I made up the term, but I think it should be a thing).

you want to edit it in Photoshop, don’t click the Open

CONTROL LAYERS FOR SKY REPLACEMENT

Don’t see that button? Rather than digging around

Sky Replacement is an amazing tool to replace the sky

in menus to find this option, do this: At the bottom

quickly in a photo. Maybe you saw other people do this,

where it says Open, hold down the Shift key and

and they had all these different layers they can adjust

it will change to Open Object. If the button already

afterward, but you don’t get those layers? There are two

says Open Object, you’re good to go. Now when

things you need to do after you choose Edit>Sky Replace-

you click that button, your image will open in Photo­shop

ment to launch the tool. First, make sure the Output To

as a smart object, which not only offers you more flexibility

drop-down menu is set to New Layers. This alone will

but, if you double-click its thumbnail, it will reopen in

give you a Curves adjustment layer for the Foreground

Camera Raw with all its settings still in place.

Color and a couple of masked layers, one for the new Sky itself and the other for the Foreground Lighting.

Bonus Tip: Do you want that Open button to always say Open Object? Click on the link at the bottom of the

The second thing is to move the sliders slightly for

Camera Raw window that shows all the file info. This will

Brightness and Temperature. If Photoshop sees a change

open the Camera Raw Preferences where you can turn on

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button. Instead, click the button that says Open Object.

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

HOW TO

the option to Open in Photoshop as Smart Objects. When

mask, you’ll see gray speckles. This is common on

you click OK, your button will say Open Object. Now the

cutouts where you used Color Range and there wasn’t

Shift key will change the Open Object button to Open.

a smooth tone in the original image, or a lot of texture. You could grab the Brush tool (B) and painstakingly

VIEW A LAYER MASK

paint the mask to clean it up. (What? You’ve done that?

Have you ever painted on a layer mask and you weren’t

Me too!) Try this time-slashing tip: In mask view mode

sure if you painted out all the bits. It’s easy to leave a few

(see previous tip), press Command-L (PC: Ctrl-L) to

pixels behind, because it can sometimes be hard to see

open Levels. To clean up the little speckles, drag the

where you painted. Here’s a secret: Hold down the Option

black triangle to the right and drag the white triangle

(PC: Alt) key and click on the layer mask thumbnail in the

to the left. You’ll be able to see the results right away.

Layers panel. The mask will now show as black and white

Don’t drag more than you need because, if you’re

in the canvas area (see below). The white areas aren’t

heavy-handed, it can round off the sharper corners

masked, the black areas are completely masked, and

of your mask.

any gray areas will be semi-transparent. You can easily touch up your masks in the mask view. Click on the layer thumbnail in the Layers panel to restore normal view.

ADDING A DEPTH-OF-FIELD BLUR IN PHOTOSHOP

PHOTOSHOP USER > SEPTEMBER 2021

When you want to blur the background in an image, it’s

 166 

CLEAN UP A LAYER MASK

often more realistic to create a gradual blur. Lately I’ve

The previous tip shows you how to view a mask by

been alarmed at a technique some newer Photoshop

itself in your image. Sometimes when you view a layer

users are using by choosing Filter>Blur Gallery>Tilt-Shift

PHOTOSHOP TIPS

and then using only one side of the Tilt-Shift filter. I’m

SEPARATE A DROP SHADOW

going to chalk this up to the user not seeing the proper

It’s nice that you can easily apply a Drop Shadow to a

tool for this: Filter>Blur Gallery>Field Blur.

layer by clicking the little fx icon at the bottom of the

At first glance, it just looks like this filter blurs the

Layers panel and choosing Drop Shadow. Sometimes

entire image. The trick is to click on the image to add

you might want to apply some transformations or filters to

a second point. The tip (of course, there’s one) is to

the shadow separate from everything else. In the Layers

hold the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and click on the pins.

panel, Right-click on the word “Effects” under the layer.

This will instantly set their Blur amount to zero. Drag

From the menu that appears, choose Create Layers. The

the pins around to change the angle and intensity of

Drop shadow (and any other layers styles) will be moved

the blur of each. You’ll find this tool yields more flexi-

to their own layers and rasterized, so you can manipulate

bility than the Tilt-Shift blur, which is best for making

them however you like. n

miniaturization effects.

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 167 

Learning Light Designed by Scott Kelby

Learn lighting in the palm of your hand. • Made for educators and students • Designed to teach photography lighting • Offers a variety of lighting techniques • Lightweight handheld design • LED is cool to the touch • Optional mount for a tripod or stand • Standard AA batteries included

EDU Price: $89.90

Quickly switch between daylight and tungsten light

Center column rotates to change lighting options

Includes KelbyOne video training for students and educators

Experiment with various light techniques and effects

Direct Light

Diffused Light

Fresnel

Gobo

See how different light patterns look on your subject

Designed by Scott Kelby The Learning Light is the first educational lighting device that allows you to experiment with various lighting techniques without the need for complex or expensive equipment.

Split

Rembrandt

Butterfly

Loop

Scott is a photographer, designer, and awardwinning author of more than 80 books, including The Flash Book, Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It, and The Digital Photography Book Series. He’s Editor of Photoshop User magazine, and CEO of the KelbyOne Online Educational Community.

See it in action and order yours at fjwestcott.com/learning-light-by-scott-kelby