Digital technology has definitely made its mark on the photographic world. For
all the analogue diehards, myself being one, and to the naysayers who viewed
it only as a passing fancy the message is clear - it's here to stay. As a
tool it's a wonderful thing. Since I crossed over - to the dark side as one
of my film photographer colleagues calls it - I have seen a marked
improvement in my pictures, if for no other reason than the freedom digital
provides. Still, great pictures don't happen simply by pushing the shutter
button, that's just the beginning of the image. In the digital world,
including scanned negatives or slides, the second half of the equation is
the computer and imaging software like Photoshop.
Photoshop is a huge program and to learn all of its capabilities could take
months of study. Fortunately for most of us that's not necessary. Getting a
handle on a few of Photoshop's tools will help amateur photographers greatly
increase the quality of their images, especially now that home printing is
increasingly becoming popular.
For beginners, the most important elements of Photoshop to understand are
setting the levels, controlling brightness and contrast, using unsharp mask
and the correct use of the clone stamp and healing brush.
Once an image is imported into Photoshop the first thing to do is to set the
levels. There are two methods of doing this. The first is to go to the image
tab on the top menu bar, click then scroll down to adjustments and then over
to levels. Once chosen a dialogue box will appear with what is called a
histogram, essentially a graph depicting the exposure of the image. There
are three toggles, one on the left, one on the right and one in the middle.
The left one represents the dark areas of the picture, the right the white
areas and the centre the midtones. Adjusting any of these will affect how
the picture is going to look. Ideally the left and right toggle are pulled
in to just where the graph starts - it kind of looks like a black hill - and
the middle one is then used to make fine adjustments. The best way to get to
know how to use levels is to try it. This is where the second method comes
in handy.
This time, instead of scrolling across to Image, go to Layers, click and
scroll down to New Adjustment Layer. From here choose levels and follow the
same rules as with histogram. The difference between the two is a matter of
safety. By using the New Adjustment Layer option, Photoshop creates a layer
on top of the original picture, but separate from it. In this way the
picture can be manipulated but if a mistake is made it won't damage the
original underneath. This is my preferred method of fixing pictures, because
I know that I am as capable as making a mistake as anyone else.
Moving onto Brightness and Contrast, again go to the New Adjustment Layer and
choose Brightness and Contrast. Click yes for a new layer. When the dialogue
box appears adjust the brightness to around a value of -5 and the contrast
to about +5. I would try to keep them around those numbers. Small movements
in Photoshop can mean big changes to your images. So be careful.
Any adjustments made through the New Adjustment Layer will create a new layer.
Once you are happy with the image the final step is to flatten the layers,
ostensibly squishing them all together into one image. Again go into layers
and scroll down and click on Flatten Image. Another tip is to make a copy of
the original in Save As under the File tab. Check the copy box and save to
wherever you want - ie: desktop or a specific picture folder.
Next is Unsharp Mask (USM). There are a lot of complicated reasons why Unsharp
Mask actually works, but the details aren't important. The thing that is
important however is to use Unsharp Mask sparingly. If too much is added the
image will go from being gently nudged to give it a little punch to being
knocked out with too much manipulation.
Scroll across to the Filter tab on the top menu bar and then move the cursor
across and down to Unsharp Mask. The dialogue box will open with three
sliders. From the top they are Amount, Radius and Threshold.
By sliding the Amount toggle to the right, dark areas get darker and light
areas lighter. Slide too much though and everything becomes a mess of darks
and lights and looks somewhat like an x-ray. Radius is what controls the
amount of blurring at the edges in an image and Threshold determines
differences in pixels. It sounds like a lot of boffin nonsense, and to most
of us it is. Still, used properly USM will give an image with that little
extra something making it stand out, especially when pictures are printed.
Try starting with the Amount set at 20, the Radius at 50 and the Threshold
at 0. It's also best to view the image at %100, or click on the Actual
Pixels box at the top. This way the differences between settings are easily
seen. But keep in mind Unsharp Mask must be used sparingly. The last couple
of things I wanted to look at are a couple of clean-up tools: the clone
stamp and the healing brush. Both are important tools when trying to remove
dust and scratches or flatten out wrinkles on faces.
The healing brush is one of the best innovations of the last two or three
editions of Photoshop in my opinion. The Healing Brush essentially is an
intelligent paint brush that is similar to the Clone Stamp tool, but
different in a couple of crucial ways. Whereas the Clone Stamp will mirror
image whatever is sampled and duplicate it wherever the operator decides to
put it, the Healing Brush looks at the texture, color, and luminosity of the
source area separately. Then when you paint, it merges the texture from the
sample area into the color and luminosity of the destination area. To create
a seamless merge the Healing Brush spreads out by 10-12 pixels around the
brush. This is an important tidbit of information to keep in mind. When
using the Healing Brush around areas in a picture where there is a hard
shift in colours - edge of a building against a blue sky background - if not
done carefully the healing brush will pick up one colour or the other and create
a smudge where you don't want it. In these circumstances I use the Clone
Stamp. Again, like the Unsharp Mask, clean-up should be done at %100.
Photoshop can be a daunting program to use. But with practice and a bit of
time enough can be learned to really make your pictures sing. I've only
touched the surface here. To begin to get a better understanding of this
amazing program start with a resource book. There are many on the market but
one the best and easiest to follow has to be Photoshop
for Dummies. From Amazon starting at £11.21.
