Photoshop User Magazine[March 2009]

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T H E A D O B E ® P H O T O S H O P ® “ H O W- T O ” M A G A Z I N E

INSIDE SECRETS AND CLASSIC EFFECTS

QUICK TIPS AND SHORTCUTS

SCOTT KELBY’S DOWN AND DIRTY TRICKS

NEWS, REVIEWS AND OTHER COOL STUFF

Reduce your contact sheet workflow to drag-and-drop ease

Digital Camera Workshop:

Mastering the ins and outs of selfpromotion in photography

Beyond Photoshop: Explore an awesome new way to rotoscope

PLUS:

What is DNG and why should you care? Under the Loupe: Using third-party plug-ins for your online galleries  Lightroom book reviews  

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PHOTOSHOP PROFESSIONALS VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.PHOTOSHOPUSER.COM

DISPLAY UNTIL APRIL 14, 2009

Features

36 | The Future of Automation in Photoshop

In the past, we were relegated to standing on the sidelines and observing as our favorite program continued to evolve. Today, we can take Photoshop and truly make it our own. By way of example, through automating the process of creating contact sheets, you can see the future and stand on the bleeding edge of automation technology.—Drew “Dr. Woohoo!” Trujillo

Departments 8 | About Photoshop User Magazine 10 | From the Editor 14 | Contributing Writers 16 | Photoshop News 18 | NAPP Member News 72 | From the Help Desk

Reviews 98 | Nikon D700 99 | ContrastMaster 100 | Lensbaby 101 | Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited 2009 102 | EZcube Light Box 102 | Casio Exilim EX-Z300 103 | Nik Sharpener Pro 3

106 | Photoshop Q&A

103 | SANYO PLV-Z700

108 | Photoshop Design Showcase

104 | Photoshop Book Reviews

Contents

March 2009 | www.photoshopuser.com

Columns 22 | Down & Dirty Tricks

70 | The Copyright Zone

Learn what to do the next time you’re shooting at the zoo and some security guard gives you the stink eye.—Ed Greenberg and Jack Reznicki

Command the light when designing with silhouettes; learn how to do a hotbranded type treatment; and find out how we created the iconic helmet for Photoshop World 2009.—Scott Kelby, Felix Nelson, and Corey Barker

47 | Photoshop Mastery

74 | Beyond Photoshop

Rotoscoping video can be a time-consuming process. Here’s a unique way to save time and create a killer look.—Scott Onstott

Rest assured, masking around trees has sent more than one artist to the insane asylum. Here’s how to ensure you don’t go next!—Ben Willmore

48 | From Bert’s Studio

110 | Photoshop Quick Tips

Save custom settings; reinstall your presets; add a quick sepia tone; and rediscover some frequently used keyboard shortcuts.—Sherry London

Using his next masterpiece, Bert covers masking basics to prepare us for the more technical aspects of hiding visual elements.—Bert Monroy

50 | Graphic Secrets

130 | Photoshop Beginners’ Tips

These are some killer tips this round: Resize images that are too big to see; drag to select; speed up your scrubby sliders; and more.—Colin Smith

Do you pause (or even flinch) when asked for your business card? Here’s everything need to know to usher yours into modernity!—Lesa Snider King

52 | Photoshop Speed Clinic Been searching for the PDF Presentation feature in Photoshop CS4 to no avail? Matt shows us where it is and a whole lot more.—Matt Kloskowski

56 | The Fine Art of Printing John Paul gives us an exceptional education on what it means to offer unique print runs, and things to consider before doing so.—John Paul Caponigro

60 | Beginners’ Workshop Concluding his series on patterns, Dave makes some seemingly daunting technical information on patterns more accessible.—Dave Cross

62 | Digital Camera Workshop Today, more than ever, selling your artwork is highly competitive. Ensure you stand out from the others with this recipe for self-promotion.—Jim DiVitale

64 | The WOW! Factor By using smart objects you can build a set of instructions to make Photoshop handle your images nondestructively.—Jack Davis and Linnea Dayton

66 | Digital Photographer’s Notebook

Back by popular demand, Kevin gives us more professional printing tips; this time through the use of smart objects.—Kevin Ames

68 | Classic Photoshop Effects

The video wall effect never goes out of style. Corey updates this grand technique with smart objects to maximize versatility. —Corey Barker

108 But Wait—There’s More: Wherever you see the symbol at the end of an article, it means there’s additional material for NAPP members at www.photoshopuser.com.

Photoshop Lightroom Section

Feature

Contents

78 | To DNG or Not?

DNG, or Digital Negative, is a RAW format unlike any other because it’s publicly documented, not proprietary. This means our great-grandchildren will be able to open our DNGs in 100 years’ time, long after the proprietary formats are unsupported. Victoria Bampton explains the pros and cons of DNGs, and how to work with them.—Victoria Bampton

82 | Lightroom News 84 | Featured Photographer This issue, we showcase the versatile photography of Doug Levy.

88 | Under the Loupe

There’s a variety of third-party Web gallery plug-ins for Lightroom. Learn where to find Web galleries and how to install them.—Rob Sylvan

90 | Lightroom Book Reviews 92 | Under the Hood

Camera profiles are new to Lightroom 2.2. Matt explains what they are and how to use them.—Matt Kloskowski

96 | Lightroom Tips & Tricks 97 | Lightroom Q&A 84

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PHOTOSHOP PROFESSIONALS

PHOTOSHOP USER Photoshop User magazine is the official publication of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). It is for members, by members, and is not available to the general public by subscription. As a NAPP member, you automatically receive Photoshop User delivered right to your door eight times a year. Each issue features in-depth Photoshop tutorials written by the most talented designers, photographers, and leading authors in the industry. Photoshop User magazine cover image by Doug Levy.

Photoshop World Conference & Expo

Discounts on hardware and software

Discounts on seminars

n at i o n a l a s s o c i at i o n o f p h ot o s h o p p r o f e s s i o n a l s The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) is a dynamic trade association and the world’s leading resource for Adobe® Photoshop® training, news, and education. Founded in 1998, NAPP has become the largest graphics and digital imaging association in the world with more than 70,000 members worldwide. NAPP is open to any individual using Photoshop in a casual or professional environment.

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There’s no faster, easier, and more affordable way to get really good at Photoshop. Join today for only $99 U.S., $129 Canada, and $99 International (digital delivery). NAPP also offers special educational memberships. Go to www.photoshopuser.com to get more info.

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NAPP Membership Benefits: • Annual subscription to Photoshop User magazine (eight issues annually) • Members-only website with time- and money-saving content • Registration discount to Photoshop World Conference & Expo—the biannual NAPP convention and the largest Photoshop event in the world • Monthly e-newsletter produced just for members Find NAPP membership details at www.photoshopuser.com or call 800-738-8513 Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST.

A Few Words from the [Managing] Editor

[managing]

The Inner Workings of Photoshop Under the surface there is a brave new world

To attend the Adobe MAX conference is to witness the convergence of art and science, and learn what it means to stand on the bleeding edge of technology. Truly unique and inspirational ideas emerge from this nexus of designers and developers. For instance, after attending Drew “Dr. Woohoo!” Trujillo’s class on automating tasks across Creative Suite 4, I approached him with a challenge to reduce the number of steps involved in creating contact sheets; the time-consuming process I encounter when artists submit their work. This meeting spurred our desire to answer the question “Where did the Contact Sheet II plug-in go?” and it’s where the idea for this feature was born (it starts on page 36). First, he shows us how to return the Contact Sheet II plug-in to Photoshop CS4. Then, through the use of Adobe AIR and Adobe SwitchBoard, he demonstrates how Adobe is loosening the tethers and making Photoshop more customizable than we ever imagined possible. After transplanting the plug-in and installing some software, you can check out an AIR application and a script Dr. Woohoo! made exclusively for Photoshop User. This is a great opportunity to learn more about automation and the inner workings of Photoshop. Speaking of creatively compelling conferences, the Photoshop World Conference & Expo is headed to the John B. Hynes Convention Center in Boston March 25–27, 2009, and we hope to see you there. NAPP members have it made: If you sign up before February 20, 2009, you can knock another $100 off your registration fee (NAPP members already save $100 just for being a member, so altogether that’s $200 off). Nowhere in the world will you have the opportunity to see the far-reaching and diverse set of Photoshop instructors that we have waiting for you at Photoshop World. In this issue, we embraced the opportunity to fulfill some reader requests, which is truly a pleasure. First, we were inundated with requests to help folks learn how to use Photoshop to refresh their business cards, and you can read how Lesa Snider King stepped up to this challenge on page 50. Then Kevin Ames received lots of accolades from readers for his last article on pro-level printing, so he’s given us an in-depth piece on how to zero in on the perfect print settings using smart objects (page 66). Starting on page 56, we have a special three-page edition of John Paul Caponigro’s column, “The Fine Art of Printing.” Have you ever wondered what that “AP” scribble on some prints means? How about the difference between “limited editions,” “rare editions,” and whether or not you should engage in this practice with your own artwork? John Paul gives us an exceptional guide that you’ll want to keep on hand for years to come. The Lightroom section is really hopping this issue, too. We have a feature called “To DNG or Not?” by Victoria Bampton that begins on page 78. In it, she explains the pros and cons of using the DNG format and how to use it in Lightroom. On page 88, Rob Sylvan shows us how to add Web galleries to the Web module’s Engine panel. And, for the next couple of issues, Rob is going to review a slew of Lightroom books. This issue, it starts on page 90. Well folks, time to get in gear! This issue is packed with info that will ensure NAPP members stay one step ahead of the pack. We hope you enjoy this issue at least as much as we enjoyed putting it together.


All the best to you and yours,

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Issac Stolzenbach Managing Editor

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Contributing Writers Kevin Ames • Steve Baczewski • Victoria Bampton • Corey Barker Peter Bauer • John Paul Caponigro • Rafael “RC” Concepcion Dave Cross • Jack Davis • Linnea Dayton • Jim DiVitale • Daniel East Laurie Excell • Mark Fleming • Ed Greenberg • Dave Huss • Lesa Snider King • Matt Kloskowski • Doug Levy • Sherry London • Bert Monroy Scott Onstott • Chris Orwig • Jack Reznicki • Colin Smith • Rob Sylvan Drew “Dr. Woohoo!”Trujillo • Ben Willmore

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HOW TO COnTACT THE nAPP: u.S. Mail: 333 Douglas Road East • Oldsmar, FL 34677-2922 Voice: 813-433-5005 • Fax: 813-433-5014 Customer Service: [email protected] Letters to the Editor: [email protected] Membership info: [email protected] Membership Suggestions: [email protected] World Wide Web including the Photoshop Help Desk, Photo Gear Desk, and Advice Desk: www.photoshopuser.com

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COLOPHOn: Photoshop User was produced using Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe InDesign CS3, and Adobe Illustrator CS3. Adobe Myriad Pro was used for headlines and text.

This seal indicates that all content provided herein is produced by Kelby Media, Inc. and follows the most stringent standards for educational resources. Kelby Media is the premier source for instructional books, DVDs, online classes, and live seminars for creative professionals.

All contents ©COPYRIGHT 2009 National Association of Photoshop Professionals. 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 United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners. Some of the views expressed by contributors may not be the representative views of the publisher. ISSN 1535-4687

Photoshop’s Most Wanted

KEVIN AMES creates evocative photographs for clients such as Westin Hotels, AT&T, and CocaCola. His fourth book, recently published by Peachpit Press, is The Digital Photographer’s Notebook: A Pro’s Guide to Photo shop CS3, Lightroom and Bridge. He teaches the digital arts worldwide.

STEVE BACZEWSKI is a freelance writer, professional photographer, graphic designer, and consultant. He also teaches classes in traditional and digital fine arts photography. His company, Sore Tooth Productions, is based in Albany, California. Steve can be reached at [email protected].

PETER BAUER is the Director of the NAPP Help Desk and a featured columnist at Planet Photoshop. As an Adobe Certified Expert, Pete does computer graphics consulting for a select group of corporate clients. His latest book is Photoshop CS3 for Dummies.

JOHN PAUL CAPONIGRO an inductee to the Photoshop Hall of Fame and author of Adobe Photoshop Master Class, is an internationally renowned fine artist and authority on digital printing. Visit www .johnpaulcaponigro.com and receive a free subscription to his enews Insights.

J IM D I VITALE is an Atlanta-based photographer and instructor specializing in digital photography. His clients include IBM, Carter’s, Mizuno USA, Genuine Parts Company, Scientific Atlanta, TEC America, and Coca-Cola. Check out his website at www.divitalephotography.com.

ANGELA DRURY is a photographer who specializes in floral, travel, kids, and stock images. Her work has received many awards and has been featured in numerous shows. Angela is working on several stock projects in addition to teaching workshops about Lightroom. To see her work, visit www .angeladrury.com.


DANIEL EAST

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is an author, freelance writer, presenter/trainer, and consultant with more than 20 years’ experience in professional photography, pro-audio, and marketing. Daniel is also founder and president of The Apple Groups Team support network for user groups.

KATRIN EISMANN author of Photoshop Restoration & Retouching and Photoshop Masking & Compositing and co-author of The Creative Digital Darkroom, is the Chair of the MPS in Digital Photography department at the School of Visual Arts in NYC (www.sva.edu/digitalphoto).

LAURIE EXCELL has 28 years of photography and photographic equipment sales experience. Her images have been showcased in galleries, Audubon calendars, Camping Life Magazine, Amtrak publications, and BT Journal. Check out her website at www.excellnaturephotography.com.

MARK FLEMING is an award-winning photographer who completed coursework in the photojournalism program at R.I.T., then returned to his passion of editorial photography. His images have been featured in publications including Down East, GO Magazine, and Layers. More at www.markflemingphoto.com.

DAVE HUSS with more than 25 years’ experience as a photographer, has authored more than 18 books on digital photography and photo editing. His latest book is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2: A Digital Photographer’s Guide. Dave is a popular conference speaker in the U.S. and Europe.

LESA SNIDER KING is the chief evangelist for iStockphoto.com and author of Photoshop: The Missing Manual (O’Reilly). She’s an author for KelbyTraining.com and writes for Macworld, Layers, and Elements Techniques magazines. Check out her free tutorials at GraphicReporter.com and catch her live Wednesday nights on YourMacLifeShow.com.

SHERRY LONDON is author of Photoshop CS2 Gone Wild and has written a number of other books on Photoshop, Illustrator, and Painter. Sherry also writes tips and product reviews for Photoshop User and Layers magazines, as well as tutorials for Planet Photoshop.

CHRIS ORWIG a photographer, book and video author, is on the photography faculty at the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara. His publications include Adobe Photoshop CS4 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques (Adobe Press). For more inspiration, visit www.chrisorwig.com.

COLIN SMITH is an award-winning designer, lecturer, and writer, who has authored or co-authored 12 books on Photoshop and has created a series of Photoshop training videos available from PhotoshopCD.com. Colin is also the founder of the online resource PhotoshopCAFE.com.

ROB SYLVAN a trainer and photographer, is the author of Photoshop Lightroom 2 for Dummies, a Help Desk Specialist for the NAPP, host of Peachpit’s Lightroom Reference Guide, and Site Director for iStockphoto. Check out his Lightroom tips and tutorials at http://lightroomers.com.

BEN WILLMORE is the author of Up to Speed: Photoshop CS4, which covers all the new features in CS4 and nothing else. Ben spends many of his days on the open highway, a digital nomad in his 40' motorcoach. Learn about his latest adventure at www.whereisben.com and view his photography at www.thebestofben.com. JACK DAVIS & LINNEA DAYTON Jack Davis and Linnea Dayton are authors of many books on Adobe Photoshop. Jack’s most recent book is How to Wow: Photoshop CS3 for Photography. Linnea is at work on The Photoshop CS3/CS4 Wow! Book (with Cristen Gillespie, Peachpit Press, 2009).

DEKE M C CLELLAND is author of Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One (http://deke.oreilly.com) and the video series Photoshop CS4 New Features and Photoshop CS4 One-on-One (http://lynda .com/deke). In his spare time, he creates the free biweekly podcast, dekePod (http://deke.com/dekepod).

BERT MONROY is considered one of the pioneers of digital art. His work has been seen in countless magazines and scores of books. He has served on the faculty of many well-known institutions, written dozens of books, and appeared on hundreds of TV shows around the world.

SCOTT ONSTOT T author of Enhancing CAD Drawings with Photoshop, has written and edited dozens of books and videos on AutoCAD, Revit, 3ds Max, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver. Subscribe to his Digital Architect video podcast on iTunes and check out his website at www .scottonstott.com.

ED GREENBERG & JACK REZNICKI

Ed Greenberg and Jack Reznicki can be reached at Igotaquestion@ thecopyrightzone.com. Because of the large volume of questions and shortness of time, not everything can be answered personally. But they’d still like to hear your questions and stories. It could even become the subject of a future column.

Photoshop News

All the latest on Photoshop-related gear and software

By Mark Fleming


Latest | Photoshop-related gear and software

Digital Photography Life now on podcast network

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Personal Life Media, Inc., publisher of lifestyle podcasts and blogs, has added Digital Photography Life: Make Every Shot Count to its digital photography network. This new podcast features Scott Sherman and Michael Stein, the original creators of The Digital Photography Show, one of the most successful photography podcasts out there. “Working with professionals like Scott and Michael to create the best show in the world for photo enthusiasts has been an intense collaboration,” says Susan Bratton, CEO of Personal Life Media. “They are superstars in the space and are truly focused on serving their listeners. Our expertise in optimizing podcasts to grow audience and sponsors is a perfect match.” Digital Photography Life is targeted to the digital photography enthusiast who wants to learn everything about the latest cameras and software, the best photography techniques, and the most helpful resources. Providing listeners with reviews, tips, tricks, and shopping advice, the show is augmented by an online photography album, a Twitter account, Facebook, MySpace pages, and a fan-run Flickr group. For additional details visit http://personallifemedia.com. A free multi-show podcast player widget is available at http://personallifemedia.com/widget.

Spyder3Elite and Spyder3Pro upgrades Datacolor has released upgrades for their Spyder3Elite and Spyder3Pro: Elite 3.0.5 and Pro 3.0.7 are free for both Mac and PC from the software download page of Datacolor’s website (spyder.datacolor.com). While these upgrades don’t contain major improvements to Spider3Elite or Spyder3Pro lines, the Spyder3Utility included with these upgrades has been significantly improved. Redesigned for easy use, Spyder3Utility has a new tabbed Preferences pane, including the following tabs: General is used to control the length of time dialogs are displayed and for making choices regarding the LED indicator function; Ambient provides choices for how frequently you want the ambient light checked; Certification presents a number of choices for certification frequency; and Recalibration offers choices for frequency of equipment recalibration. Ted Kawalerski, featured photographer in Datacolor’s December 2008 Newsletter says, “What appears perfect on my screen may appear flat, inaccurate, and even unattractive to an art director whose screen isn’t properly calibrated. We all put so much time and effort into creating our art. Why everyone in the world of art and commerce doesn’t calibrate their systems regularly remains a mystery to me.”

Affordable scanning The HP Scanjet G3110 Scanner at just under $100 comes standard with software capable of removing red eye, dust, and scratches, as well as restoring vibrant color to old, faded images. Able to scan 48-bit color at 4800x9600 dpi, the G3110 can handle photos, documents, slides, and even 35mm negatives. The G3110 scans up four 35mm slides, five negatives, or three 4x6" photos at once, then you can save each as a separate file. Users can archive important records and documents, create word-processing files and PDFs from scanned documents, scan directly to email accounts for quick and easy sharing, and print copies of scanned documents using a one-touch button. Additional information is available at www.hp.com.

Photoshop News

IMAGE COURTESY ADOBE SYSTEMS INC.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 enhances RAW digital photography workflow with powerful importing, processing, and managing features; however, RAW data-processing software must be upgraded regularly because of the frequent arrival of new cameras. Adobe’s recently released Lightroom 2.2 upgrade (free to Lightroom 2 users) adds RAW support for seven new camera models including the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon PowerShot G10, Panasonic DMC-G1, Panasonic DMC-FX150, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Panasonic DMCLX3, and Leica D-LUX 4. Available for Mac OS X and Windows, Lightroom 2.2 is the second half of Adobe’s one-two punch for support of RAW image processing. The first came in late November with the release of Lightroom 2.1, which included improvements to Photoshop integration, Web module stability for Windows Vista 64-bit operating system, and improved performance with the 64-bit Mac OS X 10.5 operating system.

Make money with your blog

Latest | News

Lightroom 2.2 provides RAW support for seven new cameras

Chances are that if you’re an artist with an Internet connection, you have a blog. Why wouldn’t you? Blogs provide an easy and userfriendly way to get your work out there. Now, how do you turn blog traffic into revenue? The keen minds over at ExposureManager have a quick and painless solution: BuyThisImage. This free Web service gives users the opportunity to install a widget that will manage and track the sales of images on websites or blogs. Simply select the print sizes or specialty items that you want to sell, choose images to make available, and you’re ready to go. Get started by visiting www.buythisimage.com.

Quantum’s new TRIO offers nonstop flash all day everyday

Wireless comes to pen tablets The Wacom Graphire Wireless tablet offers the user an unprecedented 30' of wireless freedom. Compatible with Bluetooth 1.1 or higher, the Graphire is easy to install and even easier to operate. The tablet, powered by either a rechargeable lithium battery or a universal power adapter, makes editing wirelessly a pleasure. Draw, paint, or mark up documents from nearly anywhere in your home or office with 512 levels of pressure sensitivity. The Graphire Wireless tablets work with most mouse drivers and adapt easily to both PCs and Macs. Check out www.wacom.com for information. ■

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The new Qflash TRIO QF8 from Quantum Instruments, Inc. combines a dedicated portable Qflash head with built-in FreeXwire TTL radio adapter for digital cameras. This unit delivers nonstop (10,000+) flashes of studio-quality light from the convenience of the camera hot shoe. The TRIO QF8 is capable of sending TTL commands to other remote Qflash units including other TRIOs. It also allows the user to configure modes and settings on remote Qflash units right from the back of the on-camera unit. For more details as well as Q-Flash dealer locations, visit www.qtm.com.

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NAPP Member News

All the Latest on Membership and Benefits

ALL THE LATEST ON MEMBERSHIP AND BENEFITS

Member News

Ten years running and better than ever This year, 2009, marks the 10-year anniversary of Photoshop World and it looks to be the best Photoshop World & Expo yet! How do we know this? Simple, Photoshop World just gets better every year. For example, roughly 95% of the SCOTT KELBY’S 100+ classes are brand new with some true WORLDindustry legends teaching them. Plus, our Expo just keeps getting bigger with more and more bonus classes available. But best of all is what you’ll take away with you: a spinning brain, packed with new techniques; an enlightened sense, thanks to all the inspiration and creativity that will surround you; and a heavy suitcase, thanks to your ginormous Photoshop World workbook containing instructor notes from nearly every class—so you can take what you learned from class home and even learn from classes you didn’t take. And, of course, we can’t forget the stuff that legends are made of: our keynote speech, “after-hours” events, and wrap-up ceremony!

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By Nancy Masse

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Speaking of Photoshop World…the blog is back Last year, between Photoshop World Orlando and Photoshop World Las Vegas, something went missing: the Photoshop World blog. We’re pleased to announce, however, that the Photoshop World blog is back—with even more in store for everyone. Be on the lookout for guest posts from your Photoshop World instructors, behind-the-scenes updates, Photoshop World survival tips to help you make the most of your experience, and so much more. When Photoshop World is taking place, this blog will be the place for live reporting, the latest news, and pictures galore. Basically, what happens at Photoshop World…gets broadcast on the Internet ASAP. This way, even NAPP members who couldn’t make it to the conference can at least join in and keep up with all the latest developments as they happen. So, for all the latest Photoshop World news, be sure to bookmark or add the RSS feed from www.photoshopworld.com/blog.

NAPP News is now a podcast

Great news! The weekly NAPP News from NAPP Director, Larry Becker, is now a podcast on iTunes. Every week, Larry gives the rundown on the latest from NAPP: news, discounts, book and DVD releases, and most importantly, cool contests. Watching Larry’s podcast not only puts you in the first-to-know category, but it’s also a great way to win cool programs, plug-ins, and more. The easiest way to find and add the NAPP News podcast to your iTunes library is to open iTunes and search for NAPP. Then, scroll down to the Podcasts panel and, poof! there it is.

Recent NAPP Discounts To take advantage of these discounts, NAPP members should go to the Discounts section at www.photoshopuser.com. Photodex Corporation—ProShow Producer, the award-winning professional slide show software from Photodex Corporation that provides potential output to more than 60 different formats, is available at a special 20% discount for NAPP members.

Environmentally conscious training You may have noticed a slight change in our Kelby Training DVDs’ packaging. Beginning with our latest releases— Adobe Photoshop CS4 Selections and Masks by Dave Cross, Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Beginners by Corey Barker, and Adobe Creative Suite 4 Suite Integration by Dave Cross—we’ve switched from those bulky plastic boxes to much slimmer, more environmentally friendly, heavy-duty paper sleeves. Although our new packaging does remove the title from the spine, we hope you appreciate and understand our reasons behind the switch. Also, as we move forward with our new packaging, we plan to add even more recycled content to the paper (not the DVD!) as we continue to do our part for the environment. Visit the NAPP member website (www.photoshopuser.com) for more info regarding any item on these pages or anything concerning your membership. If you have suggestions or ideas for enhancing your NAPP membership, please send them to the NAPP Executive Director, Larry Becker, at [email protected].

DriveSavers—This data-recovery provider now offers NAPP members a 15% discount on its service. DriveSavers even has a Digital Arts Division that specifically caters to Photoshop users and professional photographers. Tatung—U.S. NAPP members can buy televisions, monitors, and openframed displays at a discounted rate from Tatung online. Look in the Hardware section under the Discounts tab for special information to gain access to a private NAPP page on their site. Airbrush Action Magazine—Receive free shipping on Photoshop Techniques for Illustrators: Creating Arctic Kiss with Jerry LoFaro. Join Jerry on this enlightening journey as he renders a professional illustration in Adobe Photoshop from start to finish. SiteGrinder—NAPP members enjoy 15% savings on this “must-have” Photo shop plug-in. SiteGrinder turns you into an instant Web expert, allowing you to generate powerful, professional websites right from Photoshop using the Photoshop skills you already have. B&H—B&H offers free 3–5 businessday UPS shipping to NAPP members (within the contiguous U.S.) when ordering online. Need it quicker than that? As a NAPP member, you get a discount on next-day and secondday shipping, too. ■


Have you been to the forums lately?

Now that NAPP has spread its presence out into the world of social networking websites, we’ve noticed an increase in questions from our members on everything from how to perform certain functions in Photoshop to what plug-ins would we recommend. While we do our best to answer these questions, nine times out of ten, our reply is, “Did you check the NAPP forums?” If you’re looking for answers, advice, feedback, links, or if you just feel like goofing off, there’s no better place than our forums. Not only will you connect with fellow members, you’ll also get faster answers, better advice, and instantaneous feedback. There’s always someone online at the NAPP forums ready and willing to lend a hand. Plus, our dedicated moderators are always there to ensure a fun, friendly, and spam-free experience. And seriously, what better way is there to goof off than to get in on one of the (often hilarious) Photoshop battles? If you haven’t been to the forums in a while or (gasp!) if you’ve never been there, you really owe it to yourself to see what it’s all about. You’ll be glad you did.

eStudioLighting—A complete source for studio lighting equipment in the photography and video industries. Get a 5% discount off your entire order.

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NAPP SPONSORED

®

CS4 Training Join Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, Bert Monroy, Ben Willmore and other industry greats as they share their latest tips, tricks, and creative secrets using Adobe® Photoshop® CS4.

Upcoming Dates: SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA March 19, 2009 South San Francisco Conference Center

featuring Scott Kelby or Matt Kloskowski Take your photography to a whole new level of productivity, efficiency, and fun with real-world insider techniques that make your life easier and free your time so you can do what you really want with your photography.

CHICAGO, IL March 30, 2009 Donald E. Stephens Convention Center

Location Lighting Techniques featuring Joe McNally

Maximum Adobe Photoshop® CS4

®

featuring Dave Cross Boost your creativity, productivity, and skills, and discover how to truly utilize Photoshop’s most powerful tools and features. This seminar will teach you the hottest tips, tricks, and techniques to maximize your creative talents! Upcoming Dates: TAMPA, FL February 27, 2009 Tampa Convention Center

Adobe® Photoshop® CS4 for Photographers featuring Ben Willmore Enrich your images with valuable tips for everything from setup to printing your masterpiece. Photoshop® Hall of Fame guru Ben Willmore reveals key digital photography concepts, powerful adjustment tools in Photoshop®, and manipulation techniques. Upcoming Dates: NEW YORK, NY March 13, 2009 Jacob K. Javits Convention Center

ARLINGTON, TX March 6, 2009 Arlington Convention Center › › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › M a r r c h 2 0 0 9

Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 Live Tour

realistic images that boggle the imagination! It’s the perfect seminar for Photoshop® users, photographers, and illustrators alike!

ALL NEW

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LIVE TRAINING

UPCOMING SEMINARS TO LEARN THE LATEST PHOTOSHOP® TECHNIQUES FROM THE PROS The following conferences and seminars are produced by Kelby Training Live and sponsored by the National Association of Photoshop® Professionals. Visit www.kelbytraininglive.com for all the latest seminar information.

Adobe® Photoshop® CS4 Creativity Tour featuring Bert Monroy While you may not be able to draw like Bert (he’s truly the master), in this seminar you’ll learn the Photoshop® techniques he’s developed to create

HOUSTON, TX March 16, 2009 George R. Brown Convention Center LOS ANGELES, CA March 20, 2009 Los Angeles Convention Center

Joe McNally launches a nationwide lighting tour uncovering the secrets to using off-camera flash and on-location lighting to create the look you see in professional publications. You’ll see the whole process unfold right there in the class, as Joe shows you how to set-up, position, and control simple lighting.

Photoshop® World Conference & Expo

You’ll learn the most up-to-date techniques and hottest tips for Adobe Photoshop CS4, Photoshop Lightroom 2, and Photoshop CS4 Extended from a team of the industry’s most talented instructors. And don’t forget the Tech Expo where you can get an insider’s look at the latest products and technologies. BOSTON , MA March 25–27, 2009 John B. Hynes Convention Center Registration Info:

SEMINAR REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Advance Registration is $599 NAPP members pay $499 Regular admission is $699. NAPP members pay $599. Students (with ID) pay $149.

Regular admission is $99 • NAPP members pay $79 visit www.kelbytraininglive.com or call 800.201.7323

Call 800-201-7323, or register online at www.photoshopworld.com. ■

Down & Dirty Tricks The hottest new Photoshop tricks and coolest special effects ■ BY COREY B ARKER

Design with Silhouettes A little detail can say a lot. This issue, we’ll make a compelling movie poster by crafting a silhouette effect from a photograph. Combined with subtle light effects, we create a sense of drama and mystery, and it will look pretty cool too.


STEP TWO: Open the Channels panel (Window>Channels) and click on each channel to view them separately. Look for the one that’s the darkest overall against the background, made easier in our example because the background is white. With that in mind, we chose the Green channel then made a duplicate (Green copy) by dragging it onto the Create New Channel icon located at the bottom of the Channels panel. With the new duplicate alpha channel selected, press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to invert the values.

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STEP THREE: Grab the Brush tool (B) from the Toolbox and select a medium-sized, soft-edged brush (ours is 65 px). In the Options Bar, change the blend Mode to Overlay. Press D to set the Foreground color to white, click in the gray area, and start painting. As you paint you’ll notice that only the gray area is affected. This is because with the tool in Overlay mode, it will only affect these lighter areas, leaving the darkest areas alone. Continue to paint, adjusting the brush’s Mode as needed, until the subject is totally white, as shown here.

©FOTOLIA/T.TULIC

STEP ONE: If you already have a silhouetted image, go ahead and start with that, but for this example we’ll create one from a photograph. To keep it simple, we chose a photograph with a subject against a white background; more complex backgrounds may require more masking time.

STEP FOUR: Choose File>New to create a new RGB document (ours is 7x10" at 150 ppi). (Note: Size will vary depending on desired result.) Press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to invert the white background to black.

STEP FIVE: Go back to the silhouette file, click on the alpha channel, and drag it to the new document. It will automatically go to the Channels panel. With the Move tool (V), reposition the shape toward the bottom of the document, leaving a fair amount of room at the top. Note: If you’re using tabs in Photoshop CS4, click-and-drag the tab for your new document onto your desktop to create two separate document windows, then drag the alpha channel into the new document.

STEP SEVEN: Drag Layer 1 onto the Create a New Layer icon to duplicate it (Layer 1 copy). Click the Lock Transparent Pixels icon (circled) and press Command-Delete (PC: Ctrl-Backspace) to fill the silhouette with white. Now hold down the Shift key and press the Up Arrow once; this will nudge the layer up 10 pixels. Hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and click on the original silhouette layer’s thumbnail in the Layers panel to load it as a selection. Press Delete (PC: Backspace). What you should have left is a subtle white edge just above the selection. This will be our highlights.


STEP SIX: In the new document, go to the Layers panel and click the Create a New Layer icon to create a new blank layer. Go to the Select menu and choose Load Selection. In the dialog that appears, click the Channel pop-up menu, select the alpha channel (Green copy in this example), and click OK. This will make the silhouette an active selection. Press Shift-Delete (PC: Shift-Backspace) to open the Fill dialog, set Use to Black, and click OK. You can click the Background layer’s Eye icon to turn the visibility on and off to ensure the shape is filled properly.

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STEP EIGHT: With Layer 1 copy selected, click the Lock Transparent Pixels icon to unlock it, then choose Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Give this a very slight blur (because we have a small file, we’ll keep it around 1 pixel). If you’re working with a higher resolution file, then you’ll want to increase this setting.

STEP NINE: Click the Add a Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Outer Glow. Click on the color swatch to change the color of the glow (we chose R:255, G:156, B:0 but feel free to experiment with other colors). Set the Opacity to 100%, increase the Size (ours is 15 px), and click OK. Again, this will need to be higher on a larger file. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

STEP TEN: Grab the Gradient tool (G) from the Toolbox. Select the Radial Gradient in the Options Bar, click on the Gradient Editor, and choose the Foreground to Transparent gradient. Press X to set the Foreground color to white. Click the Create a New Layer icon and drag out a small radial gradient just above the subject. To apply the layer style to the new layer (Layer 2), press-andhold the Option (PC: Alt) key and click-and-drag the ƒx icon onto it. To modify the size of the glow, Control-click (PC: Right-click) directly on the ƒx icon and choose Scale Effects at the bottom of the menu.


STEP ELEVEN: Now let’s do a quick step-and-repeat process. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the Layer 2 thumbnail to load the gradient as a selection. Press Command-Option-T (PC: CtrlAlt-T) to make a duplicate in Free Transform mode, then click in the selection and drag it to the right of the original. (Note: If you’re having difficulty dragging it, zoom in, click just inside the bounding box, and try again.) Press Return (PC: Enter). Now press Command-Option-Shift-T (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-T) two times to create two more copies at the same distance to the right. This should give you a row of four lights.

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STEP TWELVE: Create a second row of lights below the first by repeating the first part of Step Eleven. Deselect if you have an active selection. You should have eight lights stacked, as shown. Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to invoke Free Transform, Controlclick (PC: Right-click) on the object, and choose Warp from the menu. Then just manually move the corner handles to give the lights a looser look, so they don’t look too symmetrical, and press Return (PC: Enter). continued on p.26

STEP THIRTEEN: Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate these lights (Layer 2 copy), then go under the Edit menu, under Transform, and select Flip Horizontal. Use the Move tool to drag it to the other side so there are two sets of lights.

STEP FOURTEEN: Click the Create a New Layer icon to create a new blank layer (Layer 3). Grab the Lasso tool (L) from the Toolbox and draw a selection that will roughly be the area of the light beam (as shown). Choose Edit>Fill, set Use to Color, choose the same yellow color we used in Step Nine, and click OK to close the dialogs. Now go under the Filter menu, under Blur, and choose Gaussian Blur. Give it a big amount of blur, such as 60 pixels, and click OK. Deselect.

STEP FIFTEEN: Click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to apply a layer mask. Grab the Gradient tool, choose Linear Gradient in the Options Bar, and press X to set the Foreground color to black. Draw a gradient from the bottom of the image to approximately three-quarters of the way up the image. This will give the light beam some fade. In the Layers panel, lower the Opacity (we used 75%), then click-and-drag the layer to position it between the Background layer and Layer 1 in the stack.


Finally, add some text to complete the design. Enjoy! ■

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Down & Dirty Tricks The hottest new Photoshop tricks and coolest special effects ■ BY FELIX NELSON

Hot, Textured, Melting Brand That’s the best way to describe the text effect used for one of the logos on FX’s website (www.fxnetworks .com) for their television series Rescue Me. The type treatment has a very hot, branded look, even though it’s probably intended to be more of a badge or shield. Either way, it’s an awesome look that’s just crazy cool.

STEP ONE: Press D then X to set the Foreground color to white. Choose File>New to create a new RGB document that’s 6x4" at 150 ppi, and choose Background Color from the Background Contents menu. Choose the Horizontal Type tool (T) from the Toolbox and enter some text (we used 77-point Copperplate Regular).

› › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › M A R C H 2 0 0 9

STEP TWO: Duplicate the text layer by dragging it onto the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Controlclick (PC: Right-click) on the text layer copy and choose Rasterize Type. Click on the Eye icon next to the original text layer to hide it from view. Choose the Lasso tool (L) from the Toolbox and make a loose selection around the first character (“R” in our example). Go under Edit, under Transform, and choose Warp. Move the Bézier points and handles to slightly bend and distort the individual character. Press Return (PC: Enter) to apply the Warp. Select each letter individually and subtly bend and distort them until the entire line of type is affected (see example). Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

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STEP THREE: Choose the Brush tool (B) from the Toolbox. Using a hard-edged brush, paint in some imperfections around the outside of the type. Now, choose the Smudge tool (nested under the Blur tool) from the Toolbox. Add even more imperfections by smudging the edges of the type. Adjust the Strength value in the Options Bar to vary the intensity of the effect.

STEP FOUR: Click the Add a Layer Style (ƒx) icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Bevel and Emboss from the list. Enter 500% for Depth, 3 for Size, 2 for Soften, uncheck Use Global Light, 135° for Angle, and 48° for Altitude. Change the Highlight Mode Opacity to 100%, and set Shadow Mode Opacity to 57%. Click on the Highlight Mode color swatch, choose yellow as the color (R:252, G:232, B:60), and click OK. Click on the Shadow Mode color swatch, choose a dark red color (R:116, G:8, B:8), and click OK. Choose Texture from the Styles list on the left. Click on the down-facing arrow next to the Pattern thumbnail, then click the right-facing arrow and choose Rock Patterns. Click Append when the warning dialog appears. Scroll to the bottom of the Pattern list and choose Dirt. Enter 125% for Scale and +15% for Depth. STEP FIVE: Now choose Pattern Overlay from the Styles list. Make sure the Opacity is set to 100%, click on the down-facing arrow next to the Pattern thumbnail, choose Rock Wall, and enter 400% for Scale.

STEP SIX: Choose Gradient Overlay from the Styles list and change the Blend Mode to Overlay. Click on the Gradient thumbnail and when the Gradient Editor appears, click on the black color stop on the bottom left. Now, click on the black color swatch, choose an orange color (R:231, G:116, B:53), and click OK. Click on the white color stop on the right, then click on the white color swatch, choose a reddish-brown color (R:155, G:29, B:42), and click OK twice.

STEP EIGHT: Duplicate your copied text layer (RESCUE US copy) by dragging it onto the Create a New Layer icon (RESCUE US copy 2), then move this new layer below your copied type layer (RESCUE US copy). Click on the word Effects under this layer and drag it onto the Trash icon to remove the effects. Now, press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to invert the image. Click on the Add a Layer Style (ƒx) icon and choose Bevel and Emboss. Choose Emboss for Style, enter 500% for Depth, 15 for Size, 2 for soften, 135° for Angle, and 48° for Altitude. Change the Highlight Mode Opacity to 100%, and set the Shadow Mode Opacity to 57%. Click on the Highlight Mode color swatch, choose yellow as the color (R:224, G:231, B:123), and click OK twice. Choose the Eraser tool (E) from the Toolbox and erase away portions of the beveled edge (as shown) to make it look irregular and imperfect.


STEP SEVEN: Choose Satin from the Styles list. Change the Blend Mode to Overlay, Distance to 38, and Size to 14. Click on the downfacing arrow next to the Contour thumbnail, choose Gaussian (last one on the top row), and click OK to close the Layer Style dialog.

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STEP NINE: Click the Create a New Layer icon to create a new layer (Layer 1), and drag it below the original text layer. Choose the Rounded Rectangle tool from the Toolbox. In the Options Bar, click the Paths icon, enter .25" for the Radius, then click-and-drag around the text. Click on the Load Path As a Selection icon (the dashed circle at the bottom of the Paths panel) to load it as a selection. Press D then X to set the Foreground color to white. Choose Edit>Stroke, enter 13 for Width, choose Inside for Location, and click OK. Choose the Eraser tool from the Toolbox and, using varying properties in the Options Bar, erase away portions of the stroke to add some imperfections. STEP TEN: Press-and-hold Command-Option (PC: Ctrl-Alt) and click on the word Effects in the Layers panel, just below the first text copy layer (RESCUE US copy in our example), and drag it onto Layer 1 to apply the layer style.

› › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › M A R C H 2 0 0 9

STEP ELEVEN: Create another new layer (Layer 2) and drag it below Layer 1 in the Layers panel. In the Paths panel, click on the Work Path, then click the Load Path As a Selection icon. Press D to set the Foreground color to black. Go under Edit and choose Stroke. Enter 13 for Width, choose Inside for Location, and click OK. (Because the stroke is black, you’ll have to hide the Background layer and Layer 1 to see it.) Choose the Eraser tool from the Toolbox, and add some imperfections the same way we did at the end of Step Nine. Press-and-hold Command-Option (PC: Ctrl-Alt) and click on the word Effects below the second text copy layer (RESCUE US copy 2), and drag it onto Layer 2 to apply the layer style. Deselect then turn on the visibility of the Background layer and Layer 1 to complete the effect.

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OPTIONAL STEP: We’ve added a textured background and flames to give the overall effect a little kick. NAPP members may download these optional steps from www.photoshopuser.com/members/mar09-downloads.html. ■

Down & Dirty Tricks The hottest new Photoshop tricks and coolest special effects ■ BY FELIX NELSON

Photoshop World Helmet Retouch

STEP ONE: Start by opening up an image of a helmet. Use the selection tool of your choice to make a selection of just the helmet. Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to put the selection on its own layer (Layer 1).


STEP TWO: Go under the Image menu and choose Adjustments> Selective Color. Choose Reds from the Colors drop-down menu, enter 100 for Yellow and 35 for Black. Now choose Yellows from the Colors menu, enter 27 for Cyan, 3 for Magenta, and 94 for Yellow. Finally, choose Neutrals from the Colors menu, enter 5 for Magenta, 8 for Yellow, and click OK. This will give the helmet a more golden hue.

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STEP THREE: Click on the Background layer, make a selection of the face mask and put it on its own layer (Layer 2). Press Command-L (PC: Ctrl-L) to bring up the Levels dialog. Enter 10 in the Shadow Input field (the one on the far left), 1.11 in the Midtone Input field (the one in the center), 180 in the Highlight Input Field, and click OK to accentuate the shadow and highlight details of the face mask (see example).

©ISTOCKPHOTO/JASON LUGO

We’ve been getting questions about the helmet we’re using for our Photoshop World promotional materials. What lighting setup was used? How was it shot? Is it a 3D model or rendering? The answer is pretty simple: It’s just a photo with a basic retouch and a few elements thrown in to achieve the effect we wanted.

©ISTOCKPHOTO/ALEXANDER HAFEMANN

STEP FOUR: Open an image of a stadium. Grab the Move tool (V), click-and-drag the stadium image onto the helmet document, and move this layer (Layer 3) to the top of the stack in the Layers panel. Reposition the stadium so that it’s over the right side of the helmet. Go under the Edit menu and choose Transform>Warp. Move the points, handles, and Bézier curves to bend the image, following the contour of the helmet. It doesn’t have to match exactly; just try to show a really exaggerated curve. Press Return (PC: Enter) to apply the Warp.

STEP FIVE: Press Command-Shift-U (PC: Ctrl-Shift-U) to desaturate the image then press Command-Option-T (PC: Ctrl-Alt-T) to make a copy of this layer (Layer 3 copy) and bring up Free Transform. Control-click (PC: Right-click) in the center of the bounding box and choose Flip Horizontal. Move the flipped image down and toward the left. Press Return (PC: Enter) to apply the Transformation.

STEP SIX: Press Command-E (PC: Ctrl-E) to Merge Down and then change the Opacity of this layer (Layer 3) to 25%. Next, click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Press D then X to set the Foreground color to black. Choose the Brush tool (B) from the Toolbox and, using a large, soft-edged brush set to 50% Opacity (in the Options Bar), mask away the areas beyond the shell of the helmet, as shown here.

STEP EIGHT: Drag Layer 4 onto the Create a New Layer icon (Layer 4 copy). Change this layer’s blend mode to Lighten. Go under the Filter menu and choose Blur>Gaussian Blur. In the dialog, enter 20 pixels and click OK to add a slight halo around the stadium lights.


STEP SEVEN: Click on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layer panel (Layer 4) and change the layer blend mode to Screen. Set your Foreground color to white and use a softedged brush to paint in some stadium lights. Try to follow the curve of the stadium, and make sure your “lights” get smaller and less opaque as they curve toward the middle of the helmet (as in our example).

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STEP NINE: Click on the Foreground color swatch, choose a gold color (R:190, G:172, B:116), and click OK. Create a new layer (Layer 5). Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the face mask layer thumbnail (Layer 2) to make a selection. Use the Brush tool to paint in some gold reflections on the face mask (see example). Change the layer blend mode to Overlay. This will make the painted-gold reflection look more realistic. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

STEP TEN: Open a logo of your choice (we used the PSW logo, of course). Click-and-drag it into the helmet document. Use Free Transform to resize and rotate the logo into place. Now choose the Elliptical Marquee tool from the Toolbox. Make a selection around the shell of the helmet (see example). Go under the Filter menu and choose Distort>Spherize. Enter 75% for Amount and click OK. Reposition the logo, if necessary.


STEP ELEVEN: Click on the Add a Layer Style icon (ƒx) and choose Bevel and Emboss. Uncheck the Use Global Light checkbox, enter 1 px for Size, 77° for Angle, 42° for Altitude, and lower the Shadow Mode Opacity to 50%. Then choose Gradient Overlay from the Styles list on the left, enter 20% for Opacity, 41° for Angle, 10% for Scale, and click OK. This will complete the effect, giving the logo a shadow that appears as if it’s following the contour of the helmet. ■

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MONICA HOOVER


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By Drew “Dr. Woohoo!” Trujillo Drew “Dr. Woohoo!” Trujillo is a New Mexico-based artist and developer who creates applications that add to and leverage from existing features in the Adobe Creative Suite (primarily). Through his applications, Woohoo integrates natural phenomena, such as the forces that cause motion, in his artwork, and he lectures all over the world on art and applications.

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or some lead designers, photographers, and photo editors who must be able to rake through hundreds—or even thousands—of images at any given moment, the absence of Contact Sheet II in Photoshop CS4 was noticeable (if not scary!). Although the function isn’t totally gone, but relocated to Bridge, this article will show you how to bring the Contact Sheet II plug-in back to Photoshop CS4—but that’s not all. We’ll make your photo-and-thumbnail-inspecting life a little easier by showing you how to automate the process of printing, saving, and closing a new contact sheet. Finally, we’ll add the ability to drag-and-drop images to a custom mini-application which does all of the above with a simple drag-and-drop. Special thanks to John Nack, Jeff Tranberry, and Bernd Paradies at Adobe Systems Inc. who answered our questions on Photoshop and Adobe SwitchBoard. [To the technologically timid: Be advised, the first part of this tutorial is a simple plug-in transplant; however, the latter portion is challenging and will require you to install some experimental software, so make sure your backups are up to date.—Ed.]

Like many Photoshop users, when a new version is released, we open it up to find new features with a bittersweet feeling. We love most of them, yet we wonder why some of our requests didn’t make it into the release. Moreover, we wonder why some of our favorite features disappeared; for example, the Contact Sheet II plug-in from Photoshop CS4. (In CS3 it was found under File>Automate>Contact Sheet II.) Realistically, the Adobe Photoshop team has priorities that might not match yours or mine. Yet we’re fortunate because there are some do-it-yourself (DIY) tricks to enhance Photoshop, thanks to some great foresight on their part and what you’re about to learn. We’ll bring Contact Sheet II back to life in Photoshop CS4; then we’ll automate printing, saving, and closing the contact sheet; and we’ll take advantage of some new techniques that enable you to drag-and-drop images onto a mini-application. Once you complete this exercise, you’ll be able to apply this same technique to further automate and extend Photoshop by yourself.

Click the Choose button and select a folder containing images that you want to include in your contact sheet. Adjust the Width, Height, Resolution, and any other settings you’d like to edit now. When you’re satisfied with the settings click OK.

Bring back Contact Sheet II

First, we need to get our hands on the necessary data. You can get this information and read the backstory regarding what happened to this feature and others from the blog of Adobe Photoshop Principal Product Manager, John Nack, at http://blogs.adobe.com/ jnack/2008/10/where_did_extra.html. Hint: The download links are in the second paragraph—look for the “see Mac & Windows downloads” hyperlinks.

STEP TWO: Let’s verify that we placed this file where it belongs and that it’s working properly. If Photoshop was open, restart it now, and then select Automate>Contact Sheet II from under the File menu.

STEP THREE: Photoshop will start the process of opening, processing, and closing the series of images located in the folder you selected. After a short period of time, the process will end and you’ll be left with a single Photoshop document (or documents, depending on what settings you chose and how many images are involved) containing a series of thumbnails based on the images.


STEP ONE: Download the Adobe Photoshop CS4 Optional plug-ins, which contain a bunch of presets and other goodies, including the Contact Sheet II plug-in. Once unzipped, we’ll copy the ContactSheetII.plugin file from the English/Goodies/Optional plug-ins/ Automate directory to: Hard Drive/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS4/Plug-ins/Automate (PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4\Plug-ins\Automate).

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Contact sheet...script...action

Woohoo! You’ve restored the Contact Sheet II plug-in and recorded a Photoshop action. You can now select the “Contact Sheet action” from the Actions panel, click on the Play selection button to save, print, and close future contact sheets. This will certainly make it easier to send contact sheets to your client and/ or keep them for your own perusal. The tutorial could end here, but we’re more adventurous than that…

STEP FOUR: From the files you downloaded, double-click the PrintCloseScript.zip file to open it, place it in Hard Drive/Applications/ Adobe Photoshop CS4/Presets/Scripts (PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\ Adobe Photoshop CS4\Presets\Scripts), and restart Photoshop.

Drag-and-drop contact sheets

Next up, let’s automate the process of printing, saving, and closing our contact sheet by installing a script and recording an action. [NAPP members may download content associated with this tutorial from www.photoshopuser.com/members/mar09-downloads.html.]

STEP FIVE: Open the Actions panel (Window>Actions) and click on the Create New Action icon at the bottom of the panel (circled). The New Action dialog will open. Name it “Contact Sheet action” and click Record. Keep in mind that everything is being recorded for this action until you press the Stop Playing/Recording button.

Here’s a brand-new trick to make the contact-sheet-creation process more streamlined and even easier. Our objective is to drag-and-drop a series of images onto a mini-application and with that single gesture, automatically open up Photoshop, create a contact sheet, save, print, and close it. Sounds awesome, right? It is, but we need to install some additional software, and there’s a dash of coding. STEP SEVEN: Download and install the Adobe AIR runtime. This is similar to having the Adobe Flash Player installed in your browser, except it allows applications created with Adobe AIR to run on your computer. For more information on AIR and to get the download, check out www.adobe.com/products/air. STEP EIGHT: The next program we need to install is Adobe SwitchBoard, which allows our AIR applications to relay information between Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Download the SwitchBoard ZIP file from http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/ index.php/SwitchBoard#Installing_SwitchBoard. (Note: The address is case-sensitive.) Be sure to read all the warnings and license info before installing! STEP NINE: The other file contained in the associated download content—PS_AIR_Droplet.air—is an application I created especially for Photoshop User. You can get it from the NAPP member website at the link listed above (or you can get it from www.drwoohoo.com/update on or about May 1, 2009). This mini-application will enable us to drag-and-drop images onto it and then it will tell Photoshop to create a contact sheet, save, print, and close it—with a little help from you. Download the mini-application, install it, and make sure you save it to your desktop (so it’s easier to drag-and-drop your images onto). If you’re on a Windows computer, check the Add Shortcut Icon to My Desktop box.


STEP SIX: With your contact sheet document open, let's run the script we just installed: Go under the File menu, under Scripts, and choose PrintCloseScript. When the Print dialog appears, choose your parameters and click Print. Then the Save As Options dialog will appear, so input your filename, choose the Save location, the image Quality, and click OK. Click the Stop Playing/Recording button at the bottom of the Actions panel when the script finishes (you’ll know that the script is finished when the document closes).

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Installing PS AIR Droplet on a PC

saved to the Desktop. Open the file with TextEdit on the Mac, or Notepad on the PC, and you’ll notice there’s a lot of crazy-looking code in there, separated into two steps on the Mac, three on the PC. You can tell where the steps are separated when you see this: // ==========================================

Installing PS AIR Droplet on a Mac STEP TEN: At this point, if we were to drag-and-drop our images onto the mini-application, it would simply say “hello” to Photoshop . We need to give it a set of instructions to pass on to Photoshop so that Photoshop knows exactly what to do. For the most part, recording our steps within Photoshop can automatically create the instructions we need. By default this feature is turned off, so let’s go turn it on. On a Mac, you’ll want to make a copy of the ScriptingListener .plugin located in your Hard Drive/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS4/Scripting/Utilities folder. On a PC, you’re looking for ScriptingListener.8li that’s in your C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4\Scripting\Utilities folder. Once you locate the file, copy it into your Automate folder (it’s the same folder where we dropped the ContactSheetII.plugin earlier).

The top step represents the code associated with Contact Sheet II, while the bottom step displays what code was generated when we ran the action. This is going to be the set of instructions we’ll give our mini-application, which in turn will pass it on to Photoshop, which will then run it. Now that we’ve verified that our steps were recorded, save a copy of this log to your Desktop as “magicPSInstructions.jsx,” and take a deep breath—you’re about to start coding.

Code generated on Mac with ScriptingListener.plugin

STEP TWELVE: Because we moved the ScriptingListener file, thus turning it on, everything we did in our last step was recorded to a file called “ScriptingListenerJS.log” that


STEP ELEVEN: Restart Photoshop and select File> Automate>Contact Sheet II. Adjust the settings (if needed) and then click the OK button. When the process is finished, go to the Actions panel, select the Contact Sheet action we created earlier, and then click the Play Selection button.

Code generated on PC with ScriptingListener.8li

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STEP THIRTEEN: We need to make three small changes to the script in our magicPSInstructions.jsx file. If we moved this set of instructions in its current state into where our mini-application would look for it, when we dragged-and-dropped our images on the application icon, it would always process the same folder of images—even if we selected images from a different folder. To fix this, we need to change our script so that it automatically figures out which folder our images are in. Let’s edit our magicPSInstructions script: Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the magicPSInstructions.jsx file on your Desktop and choose ExtendedScript Toolkit from the menu. If you don’t see ExtendedScript Toolkit as an option, choose Open With>Other from the menu. In the Choose Application dialog, you’ll want to navigate to your Hard Drive/Applications/Utilities/Adobe Utilities/ExtendedScript Toolkit CS4 folder (PC: C:\ Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Utilities\ExtendScript Toolkit CS4). (Note: If the program is grayed out, select All Applications from the Enable menu.) Pick ExtendedScript Toolkit from the menu and click Open. (Note: ExtendScript Toolkit is an Adobe application used to create and edit scripts that communicate with the Creative Suite applications.)

will be passed into our instructions, which in turn will be passed to Photoshop, which will in turn run this script. The only thing left to do now is move our edited script to where the mini-application can locate it. STEP SEVENTEEN: On a Mac, locate your custom AIR application (PS AIR Droplet), Control-click on it to reveal the pop-up menu, and select Show Package Contents. A new window should open up that contains a Contents folder. Copy your magicPSInstructions.jsx file to the Contents/Resources folder, replacing the existing magicPSInstructions.jsx file, and then close the Window.

If you’re on a PC, open an Explorer window, navigate to the Desktop, and open the PS AIR Droplet folder. Copy your magicPSInstructions.jsx file into the PS AIR Droplet folder, replacing the existing magicPSInstructions.jsx file, and then close the Window.

STEP FOURTEEN: Input the following line to a new line at the very beginning of your script: function doMagic(folderPath) { At the very end of your script, on a new line, add the following: }


STEP FIFTEEN: Do a search in your script for “new File(” without the quotes. You should find a line of code that’s similar to this:

040

STEP EIGHTEEN: That’s it! Let’s test it! Drag-and-drop a set of images on top of the mini-application icon; the application will open, Photoshop will then open (if it wasn’t open already); and the process of preparing, printing, saving, and closing the contact sheet will start running. When prompted, press the Print button and in the Save As Options dialog, enter your filename, save location, quality, and click Save. STEP NINETEEN: We’re almost finished, the only thing left for us to do is delete the copy of the ScriptingListener.plugin (or ScriptingListener.8li on PC) from the Photoshop Plug-ins/Automate directory. (If we didn’t do this, the ScriptingListenerJS.log file would continue to grow and eventually bring our computer to its knees!) Before you empty your Trash, make sure you still have a copy of ScriptingListener.plugin in your Photoshop Scripting/Utilities folder.

desc1.putPath( idInpD, new File( "/Users/drwoohoo/Desktop/test" ) ); If “desc1” ends in a number, don’t change it, it’s fine; “idInpD” might be a little different as well but don’t worry about it. The path (in quotes) to the folder containing the images you selected to create a contact sheet will be different. We’ll need to replace the path inside the quotations—and the set of quotes—to folderPath. Your final code should look something like this: desc1.putPath( idInpD, new File( folderPath ) ); STEP SIXTEEN: Go under the File menu and Save it! Now when we drag-and-drop the images onto the mini-application icon on our Desktops, the path to the folder that contains those images

We just laid the foundation of working with an enhanced Photoshop. But we’ve only scratched the surface of what we can do and by doing it ourselves, we’ve also provided the opportunity to instill greater confidence in future DIY Photoshop techniques. If you’d like to see more articles like this, send your input on this one to [email protected]. ■ ALL IMAGES BY DREW “DR. WOOHOO!” TRUJILLO UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

PHOTOSHOP WORLD • THE EASTERN CONFERENCE

Coming to you LIVE from the Hynes Convention Center Boston, MA • March 25 – 27, 2009 CATCH THE EXCITEMENT!

Get your game face on and join us in Boston for three days of FULL CONTACT PHOTOSHOP! Learn the latest moves from the best in the industry, tackle the art of Photoshop and get into the game with panels, portfolio reviews, a three-day Expo, and after-hours events that make any tailgate look like a tea party!

Suit up for an incredible three-day training camp overflowing with Photoshop, photography, digital media and graphic design classes; and more fun than you can shake a pom-pom at! • Well over 100 training sessions taught by an all-star lineup of industry experts • After-hour events that range from outrageously fun to awesomely inspiring • Bonus classes, cutting-edge gear, the latest tech, and plenty of surprises at the Expo • Day-long pre-con workshops that put you right on the 50-yard line with your instructor Plus, all attendees receive the Photoshop World workbook — an 800-page playbook containing instructor notes, tutorials and instructions from nearly every class!

Scott Kelby Dave Cross Matt Kloskowski Corey Barker RC Concepcion Bert Monroy Katrin Eismann Ben Willmore Dan Margulis Fay Sirkis David Ziser Taz Tally

Julieanne Kost Jack Davis Vincent Versace Jeff Schewe Joe Glyda Jim DiVitale John Paul Caponigro Rick Sammon Andrew Rodney Moose Peterson Joe McNally Jay Maisel

Jack Reznicki Martin Evening Rod Harlan Terry White Helene Glassman Ed Greenberg Frank Cricchio Richard Harrington Kevin Ames Eddie Tapp Laurie Excell

OPENING KEYNOTE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25 — Entertaining, enlightening and always exciting! With “Johnny L,” Scott Kelby, and the “Photoshop Guys” at the helm, our keynote is more like a rock concert than a conference.

EXPO WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25 TO FRIDAY, MARCH 27— Three days of the latest gadgets, the newest gear, awesome swag, and even more bonus classes!

PORTFOLIO REVIEWS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25— Only Photoshop World designates time for you to receive the feedback of a lifetime with one-on-one portfolio reviews by some of the most highly acclaimed photographers in the industry today!

ART OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY THURSDAY, MARCH 26 — Join some of the world’s most celebrated masters, and true living legends of photography, as they bring their amazing talents together for a night of pure magic in this special after-hours event.

Tuesday, March 24: Pre-Conference Workshops. These pre-con workshops are optional, so a separate registration and fee is necessary. Only Photoshop World attendees are able to participate. CANON LIVE STUDIO 11:00am – 6:00pm

LAB IN DEPTH 1:00pm – 5:00pm

Experience a live studio session and learn techniques for lighting, posing and photographing models, as well as digital workflow techniques. Reznicki, Tapp

Take part in a discussion of Blends, Masking, and other tools that unleash the power and creative potential of the LAB color space. Margulis

ON LOCATION WEDDING SHOOT 12:00 – 6:00pm

THE ART OF PORTRAIT: A PHOTO PAINTING JOURNEY NEW! 1:00pm – 5:00pm

Take part in a “real-life” church wedding scenario and learn techniques for capturing stunning images with a minimum of gear and time. Ziser

REAL WORLD HDR NEW! 12:00 – 5:00pm This hands-on session covers every aspect of HDR from how to shoot HDR images to processing the final image with Photoshop and Photomatix Pro. Kloskowski

MIDNIGHT MADNESS

NAPP PHOTO SAFARI 12:00 – 9:00pm

THURSDAY, MARCH 26 — There are two things we can promise you about Midnight Madness: (1) You’re not going to learn a darn thing about Photoshop, and (2) You’re going to have an absolute blast doing it!

Explore the historic streets of Boston with Moose Peterson and Joe McNally as you learn hands-on tips and techniques for photographing models, scenery, and more. Peterson, McNally

PHOTOSHOP WORLD AFTERHOURS PARTY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25— Don’t miss your opportunity to mix with fellow attendees and mingle with your instructors at The Estate Boston for a night of food, fun, and music. Limited tickets available, $59 per-person

EPSON PRINT ACADEMY 1:00pm – 5:00pm Learn to make the clearest, finest prints imaginable with these specially customized lessons exclusively for Photoshop World attendees. Rodney, Caponigro, Schewe

Using Photoshop CS4 and Corel Painter, learn to transform your photographs into paintings that replicate the the Old Masters. Sirkis

SHOOTING FOR PHOTOSHOP NEW! 1:00pm – 5:00pm Create images impossible in a traditional darkroom with techniques designed for use with Photoshop. Willmore

PHOTOSHOP SELECTIONS & MASKING NEW! 1:00pm – 5:00pm Making selections and working with masks which are two of the most important skills in Photoshop. Cross

PHOTOGRAPHING FASHION “LIVE”! AN INSIDE GUIDE NEW! 1:00pm – 5:00pm Bringing the photographer, stylist, and fashion model together for an interactive “live” experience to show you how a fashion shoot works. Ames

Visit www.PhotoshopWorld.com for the complete class schedule and course titles. Adobe, Photoshop, Creative Suite, Acrobat, Flash, After Effects, Lightroom, Illustrator, Camera Raw, Dreamweaver, Bridge, and InDesign are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. *All classes, class materials and instructors are subject to change without notice.

PHOTOSHOP WORLD EXPO

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25

GENERAL PHOTOSHOP

BONUS CLASSES NAPP EXPO THEATER 1:15 - 2:15pm

EXPLORING 3D WITH PHOTOSHOP CS4 EXTENDED NEW! Barker

2:30 - 3:30pm

TAKING GREAT DIGITAL PHOTOS UNDERWATER NEW! Tally

3:45 - 4:45pm

PAGES FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S NOTEBOOK NEW!

THURSDAY, MARCH 26

FRIDAY, MARCH 27

1:15 - 2:15pm

9:15 – 10:15am

BRINGING OUR IMAGES TO LIFE IN THE DIGITAL DARKROOM NEW!

UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVE JUICES & GROW YOUR BUSINESS

Excell

2:30 - 3:30pm

TRICKS OF THE TRADE IN THE COMMERCIAL WORLD Glyda

10:30 – 11:30am

HOW TO WOW! JACK’S TOP TEN FAVORITE TIMESAVERS!

5:00 - 6:00pm

3:45 - 4:45pm

11:45am – 12:45pm

Snider King

Scrivner

Excell

GRAPHIC SECRETS FOR CREATIVE PROS NEW!

SPORTS CENTERED GRAPHICS NEW!

CLICKING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

Attend any session in any track and move between them as often as you like. Instructors, classes, and class materials may change without prior notice. Visit www.PhotoshopWorld.com for the latest information. Adobe, Photoshop, Creative Suite, Acrobat, Flash, After Effects, Lightroom, Illustrator, Camera Raw, Dreamweaver, Bridge and InDesign are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Building Online Photo Galleries NEW! Concepcion 12:00 - 1:00pm

Creating Smart Object Templates NEW! Cross 12:00 - 1:00pm

Planet Photoshop Live NEW! Barker 6:15 - 7:15pm

Going to Glorious Grayscale NEW! Tally 6:15 - 7:15pm CREATIVITY

In Search of the Perfect B&W Print NEW! Schewe 8:15 - 9:15am

The Art of Animal Photo Painting UPDATED! Sirkis 8:15 - 9:15am

Introduction into InDesign CS4 NEW! White 9:30 - 10:30am

The Eyes Are the Windows to the Soul UPDATED! Sirkis 9:30 - 10:30am

Real World Camera Raw NEW! Schewe 10:45 - 11:45am

Photoshop for Designers NEW! Barker 10:45 - 11:45am

Illustrator Classic Effects NEW! Kloskowski 12:00 - 1:00pm

Tips for the Working Photographer NEW! McNally 12:00 - 1:00pm

InDesign CS4: Beyond the Basics NEW! White 4:45 - 5:45pm

Light, Gesture & Color NEW! Maisel 4:45 - 5:45pm

CREATIVITY

Davis

Ames

Painting With Photoshop NEW! Monroy 10:45 - 11:45am

Empowering Your Creative Discoveries 3 UPDATED! Tapp 6:00 - 7:00pm

Glassman

FRIDAY, MARCH 27

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25

THURSDAY, MARCH 26

Check-out the coolest new Photoshop-related technology, gear, and services at the Photoshop World Expo, open from 1:00 to 6:00pm on Wednesday, 1:00pm to 5:00pm on Thursday, and 9:00am to 1:00pm on Friday. You can also get great bargains and discounts on the newest books and DVDs by conference instructors at the Official Photoshop World/Peachpit Bookstore. Best of all, the Expo is absolutely free to conference attendees!

Dreamweaver, Photoshop & Lightroom NEW! Concepcion 10:45 – 11:45am

CREATIVE SUITE

EXPLORE THE LATEST PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGIES AT THE EXPO—OPEN ALL THREE DAYS OF THE CONFERENCE!

PHOTOSHOP 101

The Fine Digital Print NEW! Caponigro 11:00am - 12:00pm The World in 3D NEW! Monroy 1:00 - 2:00pm And Then There Was Light NEW! Peterson 2:15 - 3:15pm

Color Management for Photographers Using Photoshop CS4 NEW! Rodney 6:00 - 7:00pm DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY Practical B&W Conversion for the Common User Versace 11:00am - 12:00pm Lighting On a Laptop Versace 1:00 - 2:00pm Exposure Triangle NEW! Excell 2:15 - 3:15pm

DESIGN

PHOTOSHOP FIXES

PRODUCTIVITY

Photoshop CS4: The Creative Composite NEW! Kost 10:45 - 11:45am

Photoshop Restoration Rescue NEW! Kloskowski 10:45 - 11:45am

Fixing Common Image Problems NEW! Cross 10:45 - 11:45am

Illustrator Down & Dirty Tricks NEW! Barker 12:00 - 1:00pm

Portrait Retouching Techniques - Part 1 NEW! Kelby 12:00 - 1:00pm

Working With Your Digital Photographer NEW! DiVitale 12:00 - 1:00pm

The Designer’s Lifesavers NEW! Davis 6:15 - 7:15pm

Prepare to Be Amazed NEW! Versace 6:15 - 7:15pm

Exploring HDR, Plug-ins & Filters NEW! Sammon 6:15 - 7:15pm

PHOTO STUDIO LIVE Location Lighting NEW! McNally 8:15 - 9:15am Still Life Photography Shoot Live DiVitale 9:30 - 10:30am The ABCs of Digital Portraiture NEW! Glassman 10:45 - 11:45am How to Light for Shooting Food NEW! Glyda 12:00 - 1:00pm Establishing the Perfect Digital Studio File UPDATED! Cricchio 4:45 - 5:45pm Lighting Using Triangle Lighting Floor Plan NEW! Cricchio 6:00 - 7:00pm PRINT/PREPRESS

GENERAL PHOTOSHOP

MOTION GRAPHICS

Lightroom Instant Enhancing & Effects With Presets NEW! Davis 10:45 - 11:45am

TECHNIQUES Camera, Lights, Lightroom! NEW! Evening 10:45 - 11:45am

Creative Lightroom NEW! Eismann 12:00 - 1:00pm

Mastering Adjustments & Masks Panels NEW! Willmore 12:00 - 1:00pm

Speed-editing in Lightroom NEW! Evening 6:15 - 7:15pm

Textures, Special Effects: Make Them Look Real NEW! Monroy 6:15 - 7:15pm

PHOTOGRAPHY

PRODUCTIVITY

Creative Synergy in Photoshop NEW! Tapp 8:15 - 9:15am

Panoramic Photos for Motion Graphics/Video NEW! Harrington 8:15 - 9:15am

Lightroom for Wedding Photographers NEW! Ziser 8:15 - 9:15am

Photoshop 3-Minute Makeovers NEW! Sammon 8:15 - 9:15am

Top 10 Things You Should Know in Photoshop NEW! Concepcion 9:30 - 10:30am

Creative Chroma Keying NEW! Harrington 9:30 - 10:30am

Nice Glass NEW! Peterson 9:30 - 10:30am

Photo Effects & Finishing Touches NEW! Cross 9:30 - 10:30am

Portrait Retouching Techniques - Part 2 NEW! Kelby 10:45 - 11:45am

Photoshop for Video Quickstart NEW! Harlan 10:45 - 11:45am

Lighting Concepts Reznicki 12:00 - 1:00pm

Animation Design Techniques in Photoshop NEW! Harlan 12:00 - 1:00pm

Anything & Everything Legal...Copyright Reznicki, Greenberg 4:45 - 5:45pm

Commercial Effects Using Adobe After Effects NEW! Harlan 4:45 - 5:45pm

Anything & Everything Legal... Releases Reznicki, Greenberg 6:00 - 7:00pm

Creative Animation With the Puppet Tool NEW! Harrington 6:00 - 7:00pm

PRODUCTIVITY

GENERAL PHOTOSHOP®

Five Minutes to a Picture Postcard - Part 1 NEW! Margulis 11:00am - 12:00pm

Image Compositing for Advertising Illustration NEW! DiVitale 11:00am - 12:00pm

Creative Thinking in a Commercial Setting NEW! Glyda 11:00am - 12:00pm

Five Minutes to a Picture Postcard - Part 2 NEW! Margulis 1:00 - 2:00pm

The Newest on HDR NEW! Willmore 1:00 - 2:00pm

Drawing With Light: NEW! Caponigro 1:00 - 2:00pm

Digital Photography On Location NEW! Sammon 2:15 - 3:15pm

Fantastic Portraits: Smoke, Mirrors & Photoshop NEW! Ames 2:15 - 3:15pm

InDesign for Printing NEW! Tally 2:15 - 3:15pm

LIGHTROOM®

Photography for Photoshop NEW! Eismann 10:45 - 11:45am Flashing for Fun & Profit NEW! Ziser 12:00 - 1:00pm Organizing Strategies Using Lightroom NEW! Rodney 4:45 - 5:45pm Using Camera RAW in Lightroom 2 & Bridge CS4 NEW! Ames 6:00 - 7:00pm LIGHTROOM®

Color Correction for Busy People With CS4 NEW! Tally 10:45 - 11:45am Skin, Skin, Skin NEW! Eismann 12:00 - 1:00pm Every File Has 10 Channels - Part 1 NEW! Margulis 4:45 - 5:45pm Every File Has 10 Channels - Part 2 NEW! Margulis 6:00 - 7:00pm TECHNIQUES

Lightroom Basic Training NEW! Now You See It - Now Kloskowski You Don’t NEW! 11:00am - 12:00pm Evening, Schewe 11:00am - 12:00pm Lightroom & Photoshop Integration NEW! The Perfect Panoramic Kloskowski NEW! 1:00 - 2:00pm DiVitale 1:00 - 2:00pm How to Show Your Work in Lightroom NEW! Mastering Curves NEW! Kelby Willmore 2:15 - 3:15pm 2:15 - 3:15p

Upgrade to a PRO PASS and get all the coolest gear the moment you walk through the door. Your Pro Pass includes: NAPP ATTACHÉ Stay organized and on the go with this multi-compartment canvas briefcase.

EXCLUSIVE NAPP SWAG Including a badge holder, official Photoshop World cap, and exclusive Pro Pass T-shirt.

PHOTOSHOP WORLD PARTY TICKET Guarantee your place at THE after-hours event of the conference. A $59 value!

EXTRA PHOTOSHOP WORLD WORKBOOK Get your extra copy of our priceless workbook, distributed on the last day of the conference.

Both of these choice hotels are situated in Boston’s historic Back Bay neighborhood where you’ll find a wide variety of restaurants, shopping, museums, and nightlife to round out your Photoshop World experience. And, both are conveniently connected to the Hynes Convention Center offering you an easy walk to classes, the Expo, and social events. Special room rates are available—just identify yourself as a Photoshop World attendee when you reserve your room before March 2, 2009—it’s the cut-off date to get the special rates. SHERATON BOSTON HOTEL Stay where the instructors stay! 39 Dalton Street Boston, MA 02199 Reservations: 888-627-7054

THE WESTIN COPLEY PLACE 10 Huntington Avenue Boston, MA 02116 Reservations: 800-WESTIN-1 or 617-262-9600

For more info about these hotels visit the “Travel Information” section of www.PhotoshopWorld.com. Where you’ll also find discount information for Avis and Alamo car rentals. MEMBER

NON-MEMBER

499

Before Feb. 20, 2009

$

599

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$

$ $

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699

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*Price includes a one-year NAPP membership

REGISTER BY FEBRUARY 20TH AND SAVE $100! ©2009 National Association of Photoshop Professionals – all rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. All other company names, logos and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

Ben Willmore

Photoshop Mastery Masking around Trees

In many of my images I alter the sky—to remove glows around trees (the result of processing an HDR image) or to create a visual twist, such as a black-and-white effect—and often the most difficult part is selecting around the edges of a tree.

T

he Photoshop Background Eraser tool is my tool of choice when I need to make a selection around a tree. (To find it, click-and-hold on the Eraser tool icon in the Toolbox.) This tool isn’t designed to produce selections, but I’ll show you how to get a little sneaky and convert its results into a selection.

STEP TWO: Having the original layer under the duplicate layer will get in your way because you won’t be able to tell where areas are being deleted—the original image will still appear in the duplicate layer’s deleted areas. For this reason, click on the Eye icon beside your original layer to hide that layer and then click on the duplicate layer’s name to make sure it’s active. STEP THREE: There are some settings that I find essential when I start to erase around the edges of a tree. So, with the Background Eraser tool active, click on the Brush Preset Picker in the Options Bar and set the Hardness to 0%. Now choose the leftmost icon (Sampling: Continuous) of the three that appear to the right of the Brush icon, then set the

Original image

Limits menu to Discontiguous and the Tolerance to 30%. STEP FOUR: The Background Eraser has a circular cursor with a crosshair in the middle and when you click, it deletes the color that’s under the crosshair in the circle. The Tolerance setting determines how much it can stray from the color under the crosshair. Only allow the crosshair to touch areas that should be deleted (like the sky), and keep the crosshair close to the trees without ever touching them (at least not when you’re holding down the mouse button), while allowing the circle to overlap any part of the trees that also contains sky. If you find the Background Eraser causes the trees to thin out, try lowering the Tolerance setting. If it leaves behind too much of the sky, increase the Tolerance. Of course, the ideal setting will vary for each image you encounter. Concentrate on trying to delete the areas of the sky that touch the trees while preventing the trees from being deleted. When working your way around the trees, try not to concern yourself with what’s happening in other areas of the image.

Background Eraser

After using the Background Eraser

STEP FIVE: Now, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the duplicate layer’s thumbnail, which will produce a selection. Once you’ve done that, drag the copy layer to the Trash icon, which will return you to the original layer with an active selection. Note: If the original layer is a Background layer, you’ll need to make it a regular layer before you go to the next step. Just double-click on the layer name and click OK to change it to Layer 0. STEP SIX: To refine your selection, press Q on the keyboard to enter Quick Mask mode, choose the Brush tool (B), and paint with black to add to the red overlay or white to remove the overlay until red covers only what you want to be selected. Finally, when you’re finished painting, press Q again to see your finished selection. ■

Quick Mask view after painting

Ben Willmore is author of Up to Speed: Photoshop CS4, which covers all of the new features in CS4 and nothing else. Learn about his latest adventure at www.whereisben.com. ALL IMAGES BY BEN WILLMORE


STEP ONE: The Background Eraser will delete pixels from your image, so you want to take precautions before you use it. It’s best to make a duplicate layer (in our example, the trees) on which to work. So press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J), or if you don’t like keyboard shortcuts, go under the Layer menu and choose New>Layer Via Copy. This will keep your image intact and prevent the tool from causing permanent damage to the image.

047

Bert Monroy

From Bert’s Studio Masking Basics

In this article, we’ll discuss two types of masking—methods of hiding elements so they’re not seen within the context of the overall image. But why not eliminate them if you don’t want them to be seen? Well, we’re not talking about totally getting rid of them, but partially hiding elements nondestructively.

T


he concept of masking takes on different meanings within the vast number of functions in Photoshop. One crucial way to work in Photoshop is with the many features that have a nondestructive quality (and each new version of Photoshop introduces more of these nondestructive elements). The adjustment layer, for instance, is one such important feature: It lets you alter images in a way that allows you to further alter or reduce the effect later on—very important when dealing with clients who change their minds a lot. Another feature is smart filters, where you can apply all the filters you want and go back and change the settings at any time without actually modifying the original image. The Eraser tool (E), however, is a destructive tool. Once you erase something, it’s gone. Open that file next week and there’s no history. The pixels you erased are gone forever! And this is what makes the type of masking we’ll explore in this article so important. You erase things without actually erasing them. You hide them! In this fashion, you can always go back and change things later because all the elements still exist within the image.

048

Using layer masks The first masking technique we’ll look at actually has “mask” in its title: the layer mask, which you attach to a layer. Based on the values within that mask, the elements in the layer will either be visible, invisible, or partially visible. Where the mask is black, the layer will be invisible. Where the mask is white, it will be 100% visible. There are, however, 254 levels of gray available in a layer mask, where the level of gray equals the level of visibility. For example, if you have 50% gray in the mask, the layer will have 50% opacity. Once again you might say, “Why not just lower the opacity for the layer?” Well, we’re talking about control here, the ability to control various opacities within the same layer. In this night scene of Times Square (top right), representing a tiny portion of a painting I’m currently working on, the face of one of the buildings is covered with glass. In that glass, a reflection of a brightly lit sign is visible. The glass will show the reflection but the metal separations will not. Furthermore, the dark areas of the reflection will allow some of the background inside the building to be visible through the reflection. This next image shows the layer mask created for the layer containing the reflection. Notice that the area of the glass is pure white, allowing the reflection’s colors to appear full strength. The metal separations area is solid black, which

completely hides those portions of the reflection. The dark red of the logo area needs to partially expose the interior of the building so this area was filled with a gray value that partially hides that portion of the reflection.

In our final image (next page), we see the result of the mask over the rest of the image. The beauty of this feature is that it can be modified at any time. Just Shift-click on the mask in the Layers panel to turn the mask’s effect on and off, and the original elements within the image remain intact.

From Bert’s Studio

Masking with clipping groups The other masking technique we’ll discuss here is the clipping group—a feature that I use extensively throughout my images. This technique takes into account multiple layers working in concert. But it’s the nondestructive quality of this method that’s so important. A clipping group is a collection of layers where the bottommost layer is used to mask the other layers in the group. It works by using the transparency area of the base layer as the basis for the mask. Any parts of the layers above the base layer that fall within the area of transparency will be hidden and areas of those layers that fall within the area of active pixels in the base layer will be visible. Let’s use this image of a layer containing a red circle to help demonstrate the clipping group concept.

In the next image (top right), we see an additional layer containing a green rectangle. Notice that portions of the green layer fall outside the area of the red circle. The red, being the bottommost layer, will be the mask layer.

There are a few ways to create clipping groups, but the method I prefer is the keyboard shortcut, as follows: Say you have two layers that you wish to group, pass the cursor over them in the Layers panel, and you’ll see the little pointing hand travel up and down. Now holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key, pass your cursor over the Layers panel again and this time the cursor changes to two overlapping circles as it hovers between two layers. Click while the cursor is changed and it will bring the two layers together into a clipping group. Each layer in the group can be altered in any way. Layer styles or opacity changes can be applied to individual layers and they’ll only be seen through the active pixels of the base layer being used as the mask. It’s important to note that any modification applied to the base layer will affect all the layers in the group. For example, if you reduce the opacity for the base layer, that amount of opacity reduction will be applied to all of the layers in the group. Masking through layer masks or clipping groups makes life easy. It’s not unlike working on a coloring book and not having to worry about staying within the lines. Now that we have layer masks and clipping group basics down pat, next issue we’ll get into more advanced techniques. ■

Bert Monroy is considered one of the pioneers of digital art. His work has been seen in many magazines and scores of books. He has served on the faculty of many well-known institutions, written many books, and appeared on hundreds of TV shows around the world. ALL IMAGES BY BERT MONROY


The image below, where the rest of the green rectangle appears to be missing, shows the result of the clipping group. Note how the clipping group is displayed in the Layers panel. The base layer name is underlined and the layers being masked in the group become indented with a small arrow pointing down toward the base layer.

049

Lesa Snider King

Graphic Secrets Taking Care of Business…Cards

Few design projects are as nerve-racking—or important—as designing your own business card. Just like the clothes on your back, a business card tells if you’re professional, artistic, or just a big ol’ ball of cheese. And, you have to pack a ton of info into a very small space.


STEP ONE: Create a new document by pressing Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N). Enter “business card” in the Name field and use the following settings: Width 1088 pixels, Height 638 pixels (for a standard 3.5x2" business card size), Resolution 300, and CMYK Color Mode at 8-bit. Select White from the Background Contents menu and click OK (you can always change the background later).

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STEP TWO: Press Command-R (Ctrl-R) to turn on your Rulers (if they’re not already on). Now we’ll drag guides to mark the printsafe zone—placing content within this area ensures that it won’t print too close or hang off the edges of the card. Open the Info panel (Window>Info), click within the vertical ruler, then drag to the right and drop a guide at 0.25" (watch your Info panel if you don’t know where that is). Drag a horizontal guide at 0.25" using the same process. To mark the trim line (where the card is cut), drag vertical and horizontal guides at 0.063". Drag similar guides on the right side of your card (3.373" for print safe and 3.563" for trim), and at the bottom (1.877" for print safe and 2.067" for trim). Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the guide to reposition it if you drop it on the wrong spot. Tip: If your Rulers aren’t set to inches, choose Photoshop> Preferences>Units & Rulers (PC: Edit>Preferences>Units & Rulers) and change the Rulers menu to inches.

Bleed zone—items extend off card edge Trim zone—items appear on card edge

Print-safe zone

STEP THREE: Place your logo (or photo background) as a smart object by choosing File>Place and locating the art on your hard drive. If it’s a logo, keep it fairly big and move it to the left side of the card. If you make it smaller and later decide to make it bigger, press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to summon Free Transform and increase its size. If it’s pixel-based, don’t make it bigger than its actual size or it may pixelate. If it’s vector-based, it’ll never pixelate. If you’ve placed a photo and want it to hang off the edges of the card (known as a “bleed”), make sure it extends past the trim guide to the document edges (if you went with a photo be sure it has a fairly “calm” spot for text!).

Smart Object, Adobe Illustrator file

Smart Object, Photo in Raw format

Fill layer, solid orange

LESA SNIDER KING

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side from the aesthetic message, you need to include: company name, your name, logo, URL (it’s shocking how many folks leave that out), phone, and email address—you have to include them all. But your first step is to pick a printer and get their document specifications. A great resource is www.overnightprints.com. They’re fast, affordable, and they do double-sided glossy or matte finishes (matte enables folks to write on the back). For a few extra bucks, choose rounded corners so your card stands out from the pile. The next step is to create a Photoshop template. Here’s the technique I use:

Graphic Secrets

STEP FOUR: Press T to grab the Type tool, click within the document and add your text. Keep these text tips in mind: • Sans-serif fonts, e.g., Frutiger, Myriad, Arial, are easier to read at small sizes because they lack the “feet” of serif fonts like Times and Garamond. For our example, we used Myriad Pro Light (8–9 pt) and Regular (10 pt).

• Because the text lines vary in length, right alignment works well (especially for the contact info block). Just select the text and click the Right Align Text icon in the Options Bar. • Adjust the spacing between letters. To adjust all spaces evenly (tracking), select the text, press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key, and then press the Left Arrow to decrease (or Right Arrow to increase). To adjust one space (kerning), place your cursor between two letters instead. • Adjust the spacing between lines of text (leading). Select offending text and while holding the Option (PC: Alt) key, tap the Up Arrow to decrease or the Down Arrow to increase. (This means you don’t waste space with blank returns.) Also, remember to place related items closer together. For example, put less space between your name and title, and more between other info. • Incorporate color from your logo. Basic black or dark-gray text always works, though you might try using logo color for your name, phone number, or email address to make them eye catching. Select the text, click the Set the Text Color swatch in the Options Bar, and when the Color Picker opens, mouse over to the logo and click once on the color.

STEP FIVE: If you’re designing a double-sided card, Shift-click to select the layers and then from the Layers panel flyout menu, choose New Group From Layers. (Note: If this option is grayed out, unlock or omit the Background layer). Name it “Front” and turn off the group’s Eye (visibility) icon. When you finish designing the back, add those layers to a group named (cleverly), “Back.” STEP SIX: Save your layered file, then choose File>Save As and pick TIFF as the Format. Turn off the Layers checkbox and click OK. In the TIFF Options dialog that appears, set Image Compression to None, and click OK. If, however, your printer wants a PDF, choose Photoshop PDF from the Format menu, and click Save. In the Save Adobe PDF dialog, click Compression in the list on the left, choose Do Not Downsample from the menu in the Options section, and click the Save PDF button. For extra pizzazz, pick an artistic element from your logo, make it bigger, reduce its opacity and hang it off the edge of the card, as shown here.

Front

Back

You could also use solid color Shape layers in the background for visual interest. The possibilities are endless! Until the next time, may the creative force be with you all! ■ Lesa Snider King, chief evangelist of iStockphoto.com, is author of Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual (Pogue Press/O’Reilly), From Photo to Graphic Art, and Practical Photoshop Elements (KelbyTraining.com). Lesa is also founder of GraphicReporter.com.


To add a solid color background, choose Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color, and click OK. Grab a color from the resulting Color Picker and click OK. (Tip: To pick a color from your logo, click it with the Eyedropper tool first.) With a Fill layer, experimenting with colors is as easy as double-clicking the Fill layer to open the Color Picker. Sweet!

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Matt Kloskowski

Photoshop Speed Clinic Faster Contact Sheets and PDFs

On page 36, Drew “Dr. Woohoo!” Trujillo shows us how to get the Photoshop CS3 Contact Sheet II feature back into Photoshop CS4. Did Adobe remove the whole contact sheet feature from Photoshop CS4? And what happened to PDF Presentation (a great way to email images to someone)?

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hey’re actually not gone; they’ve just been relocated into Adobe Bridge CS4 and once you get used to it, I think you’ll find that they work a lot better because of it. Let’s check it out. STEP ONE: Fire up Bridge CS4 (from Photoshop, go to File>Browse in Bridge) and navigate to a folder of photos from which you’d like to make a contact sheet. In Bridge, click on the Output icon in the top menu bar and choose Output to Web or PDF. Bridge doesn’t go away but the panels on the bottom and right-hand side change a bit. In fact, you’ll see two buttons at the top right of the window: PDF and Web gallery. This is now the new place to create PDFs (in the form of contact sheets or PDF presentations) as well as online Web galleries.

STEP THREE: Well, we just stumbled upon the one small quirk with this feature and that is: There’s no auto-update preview feature. This means that even though we selected our images and picked 4x5 Contact Sheet from the Template menu, nothing changes. It’s an easy fix though. Just click on the Refresh Preview button at the bottom of the Output panel and the middle Output Preview area will update to show your 4x5 contact sheet.


STEP FOUR: The Document panel gives you options to change the paper size (Page Preset), the PDF Quality, and the Background color behind your photos. It’s also got an area for adding password restriction (Open and Permissions Password) to the PDF file in case you want to prevent someone from opening it or Disable Printing, say in the case of high-resolution images.

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STEP TWO: Let’s concentrate on the PDF aspect here, as it’s changed the most. First, let’s assume you want to create a contact sheet the new way and you don’t want to import the old Photoshop CS3 contact sheet automation. The first thing you’d do is select some images that you want to use for your contact sheet and then choose one of the presets under the Template menu in the Output panel (by default, it’s the panel at the top right). In this example, we chose the 4x5 Contact Sheet as a starting point. continued on p. 54

Photoshop Speed Clinic

STEP FIVE: The next area in the Output panel is Layout. This is where you choose how many Columns and Rows you’d like on the page and how you’d like them to appear. You can change how far the images are from the margins as well as from each other.

STEP EIGHT: Okay, back in the last step, we skipped over Playback because it applies more to a PDF Presentation. But you probably noticed that not only is Contact Sheet II missing from Photoshop CS4 but PDF Presentation is missing as well. And that’s because you do both of them here in Bridge now. We’ve been looking at how to create contact sheets, but if you wanted to create a simple one-photo-per-page presentation, then just change both your Columns and Rows settings to 1 in the Layout panel (and click Refresh Preview).

STEP SIX: Next, the Overlays panel has one very simple (but hugely important) feature in it: the ability to put the filename under the image. This comes into play when you want whoever is looking at this PDF to be able to tell you which image they like.


STEP SEVEN: Scroll down so we can see the rest of the panels. Let’s skip Playback for a moment, because it affects PDF Presentation more than Contact Sheet, and jump to Watermark. I have to admit, I tried this once and haven’t used it since. It places a watermark of whatever text you type right in the middle of your image. It works a little better for presentation mode…but not so great with contact sheets.

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STEP NINE: If you’d like your PDF to open in presentation mode, go to the Playback section and select Open in Full Screen Mode. This automatically goes into presentation mode when the viewer launches the PDF. You can control how long each slide lasts (Advance Every x Seconds) and any Transition (None, Fade, Dissolve, etc.) you might want between the slides. When you’re ready to create the PDF, just scroll down, click on the Save button at the bottom right of the right-side panels, and choose a location. The PDF will be saved with your current settings and you’re ready to go. ■

If you have an idea for an action that you’d like to see in the “Speed Clinic,” please send it to [email protected]. ALL IMAGES BY MATT KLOSKOWSKI

John Paul Caponigro

The Fine Art of Printing A Backgrounder on Edition Structures

Edition structures, which disclose the entire number of prints that will be made of an image, vary widely—some are open (without limit) and some are limited. The current practice of limiting photographic editions was carried over from other printmaking media, such as paperback books, newspapers, and the like.

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n these other media, limiting an edition was for quality control purposes because after a certain number of prints were made, the plates used to make them deteriorated, and print quality suffered. With photomechanical processes, no such restraint exists, as it’s possible to generate a nearly infinite number of prints. No one does—it’s impractical. Consequently, there’s no physical need to limit editions; it’s primarily a matter of marketing. Scarcity is always a factor in any marketing strategy. By limiting access, price is escalated, which produces pressure to purchase quickly before supplies run out or price escalates further. The word “limited” is used as a selling point, regardless of whether the edition size is small or large. Edition size There are no standards for limited-edition sizes. Practices change at least once a decade, sometimes more frequently. For example:


• 50 years ago, the practice of limiting photographic editions was unheard of. • 30 years ago, limiting photographic editions became widespread. • 10 years ago, the most widespread edition structure contained 50. • 5 years ago, a large number of editions were offered at 25. • Today, many editions are offered at 12.

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Throughout that time, while there has been a constant trend favoring limited editions of increasingly small size, open editions have persisted and succeeded. One should note that average photographic print prices have escalated substantially in that time, far in excess of economic inflation. This escalation isn’t uniform in the market; the low end has remained unchanged, while the high end has become much higher. Limited, open, rare, and AP editions It’s useful for the producer and consumer alike that there’s little correlation between limited-edition size and the actual number of prints produced. Some limited editions are printed on demand (as orders are received) and in this situation, while prints are numbered, the full edition may never be produced. Open editions are typically produced on demand, and demand may be surprisingly low.

When photographer David Vestal polled many of the top photographers 10 years ago, he found that those who limited editions (whether 25, 100, or more) tended to produce the full edition upon release, while those who offered open editions printed on demand, and the average number of prints made of any one image was six. Note: Limited and rare editions are two different things: one suggests but does not necessarily deliver the other. Again, practice in the industry is diverse. There’s no correlation between price and collection and edition structure. Famous photographers, old and young, veterans or recently discovered, all produce either open or limited editions. Few produce both. And this trend is growing among emerging photographers. It’s standard practice for artists to issue artist’s proofs (APs) within an edition. In addition to the number of prints produced in an edition, additional prints are produced marked “AP,” generally in numbers not more than 10% of the total edition—classically less than 10. These prints often hold equal or greater value to the numbered prints issued in an edition. Disclosure of the number of AP prints produced is advisable. Print sizes Alternate print sizes may be issued, each with a limited-edition structure of their own. The difference in print size may be small but is typically significant. Editions of multiple sizes may each contain the same number of each size or the number may vary. The price of larger print sizes is traditionally higher than smaller print sizes. One approach is to offer larger numbers of smaller prints with increasingly small numbers of larger prints and steeply escalated prices to reflect both the increase in size and limited quantity. Alternate sizes may be offered after the first size escalates or sells out, even if this isn’t disclosed at the time of sale of a previous edition. This practice is questionably legal, often frowned upon, and it’s not advisable. But nonetheless, it’s not uncommon. It is advisable to disclose at the time of sale that there will, or may, be multiple sizes. Portfolios are typically considered outside a limited edition. They’re typically produced in a limited edition in an alternate size (and documented and marked as such), so as not to be confused with prints within a limited edition.

The Fine Art of Printing

An escalating structure One common enhancement of the limited-edition structure is an escalating structure. This can be used with or without limited-edition structures. Prices are raised as a number of prints are sold. In an open edition, it’s an arbitrary amount and an arbitrary number, frequently based on perceived opportunity or an artist’s fatigue. In a limited edition, it’s typically 20% (sometimes more), every 20% of the way through the edition (sometimes more quickly). Steep escalation may occur during the last 20% of the edition, where every print escalates substantially. Frequency and amount of escalation varies and here again, there’s no industry standard, only options. This option more rapidly escalates the value of an image and often establishes a trend within an artist’s entire body of work. It also brings a pressure to purchase now rather than later, as today’s prices are more likely to be better than tomorrow’s. Pros and cons There are many pros to limiting editions, such as: • It quickly escalates price. • It generates broad-based interest in an artist’s entire body of work, directing attention away from top sellers to other works and to new works.

Print framed

• It limits the amount of time spent producing the same image, directing the attention of the artist and their representatives to the production of new work. (More-prolific artists benefit more from limiting their editions than lessprolific ones.) • It appeals to those customers who will only buy art in limited editions. And, conversely, there are many cons to limiting editions, for example: • It limits the audience who may appreciate an image. • It prevents an artist from enjoying sales of an image at escalated prices as his/her career matures. (These benefits are enjoyed only on the secondary market; though higher secondary market prices may help escalate the value of new work.) • It prevents the improvement of print quality as an artist’s vision matures or as technology advances. (This can include producing prints with greater longevity or items that can hold their value for a longer time.) • It restricts the artist’s ability to gift or trade his/her work, perhaps to a colleague or a significant collection. • For better or for worse, limiting editions limits future options.


Print loose

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The Fine Art of Printing

Print portfolio


Actual sales in the market vary widely. Currently, the two most expensive photographs sold at historic highs (in excess of $3 million), both at auction, were issued in extremely low edition sizes (as low as 2). Some of the most expensive prints sold are unlimited or have very high edition sizes (10,000 or more). Earlier historic photographs sell for very high sums of money. While a majority of them weren’t limited, production itself was limited, and print numbers have been further limited by damage or loss. Market results are diverse.

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Should you limit your editions? It depends on many things. It depends on you. It depends on your level of productivity. It depends on your age. It depends on the kind of work you produce. It depends on the market you’re targeting. It depends on your representatives and how long you expect to be working with them. It depends on how quickly you’d like to see results. There’s no clear consensus or set of practices on whether and how you should limit your editions. Ultimately, it’s a personal choice—make it an informed one. Think long and hard about

it; then act. Undecided? Wait. Keep your editions open. You can always limit later when you develop a clear desire or identify a clear need to do so. An edition structure is considered part of the terms of sale. Honor it. If you limit your editions, don’t widen the edition number after initial sales. You may even further limit an edition after it’s issued; but while this would increase the value of previous sales, it’s rarely done, largely because of the complexity of accurate labeling and recordkeeping. You can adopt different edition structures for different images or at different points in your career; however, this makes describing edition structures more complex and may confuse consumers, leading to a loss of sales. You can always raise prices after issuing an edition; how quickly and how much is unclear, as it’s determined by increasing demand for an artist’s work. But, of course, it’s hoped for by artist, dealer, and collector alike. The bottom line is that whatever you do, do it with an eye to protecting and increasing the value of your collectors’ purchases. If you do this, the value and market for your work will increase. ■

John Paul Caponigro is an internationally respected fine artist, a member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame, author of Adobe Photoshop Master Class and the DVD series R/Evolution. Get more than 100 free downloads and a free subscription to his newsletter, Insights, at www.johnpaulcaponigro.com. ALL IMAGES BY JOHN PAUL CAPONIGRO

Dave Cross

Beginners’ Workshop Patterns 101, Pt. 2

Last issue, we looked at the various ways we can use patterns in Photoshop and learned how to apply one of the built-in patterns. In this article, we’re going to take it up a notch by creating and using our own patterns.

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n theory, making a pattern is pretty simple: You select an area with the Rectangular Marquee tool, then from the Edit menu choose Define Pattern. Simple, huh? Okay, that’s it…see you in the next issue…. Actually, it can be that simple, but there are a few catches, so follow along with this tutorial.

The challenge As mentioned earlier, one of the catches/challenges appears when you try to define a pattern from something that has obvious repetitions. Here we created a pattern from part of a photo that contains more obvious elements.

STEP ONE: Open your image, then make a selection using the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) with no feathering (0 px for Feather in the Options Bar). From the Edit menu, choose Define Pattern. (If the command is grayed out, something is stopping you—such as a feathered selection.) Name your pattern (we called ours “wall”) and click OK.


Next, when we created a large document and filled it with the pattern, the seams of the pattern tiles were very noticeable.

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STEP TWO: Apply the pattern using one of the methods we covered in the last issue. For our example, we click on the Add a Layer Style (ƒx) icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Pattern Overlay. In the Layer Style dialog, we choose the pattern we created in Step One and click on Bevel and Emboss to add that style also. It looks pretty good. The tiling of the pattern isn’t obvious because of the pattern itself and the relatively small area we applied it to.

Here’s what’s involved in making a seamless pattern from the selected area of our photo: STEP ONE: Make a rectangular selection using fixed dimensions—we used 500x500 pixels, but 200x200 pixels will work also. To do this, in the Options Bar change the Style menu from Normal to Fixed Size and enter the Width and Height in pixels.

Beginners’ Workshop

STEP TWO: Copy the selection (Edit>Copy) and create a new document (File>New). The new file will generate automatically at the same size as the selection you copied. Paste (Edit>Paste) the selected area into the new document. (Don’t close your original document yet.) STEP THREE: Go to the Filter menu and choose Other>Offset. In the dialog, enter a value that’s half the size of your document/ selection. For our selection, we entered 250 pixels in the Horizontal and Vertical fields—if yours is 200x200, then you’d enter 100 pixels in each field. Set the Undefined areas to Wrap Around. This moves the pattern seams to the middle, where we can deal with them. Click OK to close the Offset dialog.

pasted leaves using Free Transform (Command-T [PC: Ctrl-T]) where necessary—we defined a new pattern (Edit>Define Pattern). This time, when we filled a large document with the pattern, the seams are much less obvious. As you can imagine, the amount of time and effort it can take to cover up the seams will vary dramatically depending on the photo you’re using for your pattern. With a bit of practice you’ll find that it gets easier. And remember, once you have your pattern, you don’t have to recreate it. SOME “HIDDEN” PATTERNS IN PHOTOSHOP Until Photoshop CS4, there’s been a folder full of Postscript patterns that you could use in Photoshop. The pattern tiles, made in Adobe Illustrator, are already seamless, so all you have to do is open any one of them in Photoshop and define it as a pattern. Here’s where you’ll find them:

STEP FOUR: If possible, cover up the seams in the middle using the Clone Stamp tool (S). Depending on your photo, however, this may or may not be easy or even possible. In our example it would be very challenging to clone the leaves and make it look realistic. Instead, we selected individual leaves from the original photo, and copied-and-pasted them onto our pattern document, and then, using the Move tool (V), positioned them over the seams. Note: Be careful to avoid the four edges of the document because the edges are what create the seamless pattern. STEP FIVE: After spending a few minutes pasting and positioning leaves over the seams—including rotating and scaling the

(If you have Photoshop CS4, you’ll have to move the patterns over from Photoshop CS3.) The simplest way to access the patterns is to go to Adobe Bridge so you can preview them. Once you find the pattern you want, Control-click (PC: Right-click) on it and choose Open With>Photoshop CS(version). In the Rasterize EPS dialog, enter the size you want, colorize the pattern if you wish, and Edit>Define Pattern. ■

If you have an idea for a “Beginners’ Workshop” topic, please send it to [email protected]; however, if you have a question that you’d like answered immediately, go to the Help Desk at www.photoshopuser.com.


• For the Mac: Hard Drive/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS3/Presets/Patterns/Postscript Patterns • For the PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\ Presets\Patterns\Postscript Patterns

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Jim DiVitale

Digital Camera Workshop Self-Promotion in Photography

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or recent graduate, self-promotion needs to be high on your list if you plan to be successful in photography. And having a good, ongoing plan that works doesn’t mean you need to empty your savings account to be effective.

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ith a little planning—and a few simple Photoshop projects—you can create a self-promotion plan that works. Cold-calling portfolio interviews with potential clients have been replaced by the photographer’s website and blog. Many industry experts believe that the blog is now even more important than the website because it shows weekly updates on what you’re doing in your day-to-day assignments. Getting a potential client to visit the site is the challenge. In the ’80s, a commercial photographer wasn’t taken seriously unless he or she had an expensive ad in a creative sourcebook, such as The Black Book, Workbook, or The Alternative Pick. These are still good avenues of advertising, but they’re not the only way to go. A small, targeted campaign can be accomplished on a very small budget with a little creative planning.


Whom do you want to work for? This can be as simple as a little research on the Internet to find a few local names, to buying a national list of creatives that’s constantly researched and updated. Look for the websites of your local creative clubs and associations. They usually list their company information and clients so you can tell if they’d be a good fit. Think of it this way: Instead of trying to reach thousands of potential clients at one time, in might be better to pick a small group and make a campaign of several promotions sent one after the other. A one-shot promotion might just get ignored; having one arrive once every week for several weeks in a row will get the client looking forward to what’s coming next.

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Get some expert help There are always designers and art directors who need photography for their design competitions and portfolios. Establish a trade agreement with a few of your designer friends to help with the look of the promotion. Remember, they’re your target audience and will know better than anyone if an image is appealing or not (you’re not trying to attract other photographers). And generally, you’re way too close to your own work to make an objective decision. But remember, what appeals to photographers and what appeals to designers can be very different. Note: If you’re attending an upcoming Photoshop World, you can have your portfolio reviewed by a Photoshop World instructor for some additional insight. Visit www.photoshopworld.com/ portfolio_reviews.html for the scoop. Find the right envelope Before you plan your first promotional piece, visit your local highend art store and find the right envelope, because a cool envelope can go a long way in getting you noticed. By first finding the envelope, you’ll know the final design size of the promotional piece before you lay it out. It will be a whole lot easier to create the promotional piece to fit the cool envelope than to create a killer

promo at an odd size and then spend hours shopping for the perfect fit—or spend extra money for a customized envelope.

The right envelope will give you a look that brands your style and makes it recognizable as each promotional piece arrives in the mail. Make it as personalized as possible. You want the designer to recognize the envelope as yours and look forward to the next one. The purpose is to eventually drive them to your website and blog. Keep it simple Design a template in Photoshop with common-sized dimensions. Be sure to include the important information in the front so if the client pins it to his or her office bulletin board, everyone will see your name, Web, and blog address(es). If you don’t have a website or a blog, use your phone number instead. And if you have a logo, use that as well. Design four templates—if you have the artwork to fill them— at one time with a common look: Create one for a square image; one for a vertical image; one for a horizontal image; and one for mutable images. Finish all of them before you mail the first and then set a schedule for the rest to go out. Let’s get you started on your first (square-image) template. STEP ONE: Open Photoshop and select New from the File menu. Enter the dimensions you’re planning to work with (or measure your cool envelope and then input those measurements). For our example, we used 8.5" for Width, 11" for Height, and 300 pixels/inch for Resolution. For the Color Mode, choose 8-bit RGB, and then click OK. STEP TWO: Open the image you plan to use, select the Move tool (V), and click-and-drag the photo over to your template (to

Digital Camera Workshop

keep it centered, press-and-hold the Shift key). Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to resize the image using Free Transform. Add the Shift key while you click-and-drag to constrain proportions; add the Option (PC: Alt) key to resize it from the center Reference Point (by default it’s in the center; you can change the position of the Reference Point in the Options Bar).

Resize the image to fit the page, as needed. Add your logo, some text with the Type tool (T), and you’re ready to go. (I used Gill Sans Light for the text, and added my logo [of course], with a Bevel and Emboss layer style.)

Vertical image template

STEP THREE: Next, press Command-P (PC: Ctrl-P) to open the Print dialog. Select the appropriate combination of paper and profile for your particular model of printer. For my campaign, the finals were printed on Red River Paper Ultra Satin 2 (www.redriverpaper.com) on a Canon imagePROGRAF iPF6100. (I prefer Red River papers for this because it has no logos on the back and it’s just a great paper to print on.)

Horizontal image template

Mutable images template

First (square) of four templates with a common look

Each envelope is then hand-addressed for a personalized look and mailed once every 10 days with a different print, as I feel it’s better to send 10 different promo cards to a handful of handpicked, potential clients than one card to thousands of prospective clients. Give it a try and see what happens. Enjoy!

After being in this business for more than 24 years, I finally created a 20-page studio brochure to send out to clients, done completely in trade with the designer, copywriter, and printer. (I couldn’t figure out how to trade with the U.S. Postal Service, so I just had to break down and pay for stamps.) If you’d like to see a high-resolution, PDF copy of my studio brochure, you can download it from www .divitalephotography.com/portfolio.zip. ■

Jim DiVitale is an Atlanta-based photographer and instructor specializing in digital photography. His clients include Mizuno USA, Carter’s, Genuine Parts Company, IBM, TEC America, Scientific-Atlanta, and Coca-Cola. Check out his website at www.divitalephotography.com. ALL IMAGES BY JIM DIVITALE


BARTER YOUR BRAINS OUT

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Jack Davis and Linnea Dayton

The WOW! Factor No Pixels Were Harmed in Creating This Image

When working with an image in Photoshop CS4 you can change the pixels directly with each step, or you can build up a set of instructions for change and let Photoshop (quite magically, it seems) analyze the instructions, and apply them to the file in the least destructive way.

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ere’s an example: If you turn an image into a smart object and then filter it, rotate it, scale it, and then rotate it a little more to get it exactly right, Photoshop will calculate all the changes before applying any of them. For instance, instead of rotating the smart object twice, Photoshop, working from the original image, adds the rotations together and rotates the image only once. One big advantage of this instruction-based—or nondestructive—approach is that you can freely change the instructions, now or in the future, without the unintended “softening” that can come from working and reworking pixels. To develop a promotional postcard, we used Adobe Camera Raw, a smart object, a pattern fill layer, and layer styles—all nondestructively. [NAPP members may download the Shell Card.psd file from www .photoshopuser.com/members/mar09-downloads.html and explore its “live” details as you follow along. Image is for personal use only.]


STEP ONE: From Adobe Bridge, open your photo in Camera Raw for optimizing. (Note: File>Open in Camera Raw opens JPEGs and TIFFs as well as RAW files.) For our PSD image, we improved the lighting using the Exposure, Contrast, Brightness, and Fill Light sliders, then increased Vibrance to bring the subtle iridescent colors to life, and added Clarity to sharpen the details. Lastly, we Shift-clicked on Open Image, which changes to Open Object when the Shift key is pressed, to open the file as a smart object.

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STEP TWO: In Photoshop, we dragged-and-dropped our shell photo into a file with a backdrop and text. We applied Noiseware Professional (a third-party filter by Imagenomic) to the smart object to reduce the noise, which was partly a side effect of the high Clarity setting in Camera Raw.

To silhouette the shell, we used one click of the Magic Wand (with Contiguous chosen and Sample All Layers unchecked in the Options Bar) to select the black background. Then, in the CS4 Masks panel (Window>Masks), we clicked the Add a Pixel Mask icon and Invert button to make the mask.

Looking at the masked image, we could see that the “elbow” area of the mask needed a stroke of white with the Brush tool (B) to reveal the dark brown edge of the shell. By Option-clicking (PC: Altclicking) the mask thumbnail, we could see some small white spots in the black. To eliminate them, we used the Dust & Scratches filter (Filter>Noise>Dust & Scratches) and in the dialog, set a Radius of 4, and clicked OK. Back in the Masks panel, clicking Mask Edge and using the default settings in the Refine Mask dialog smoothed the mask’s edges. STEP THREE: Now we’ll reorient the shell in the layout. Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) for Free Transform, Control-click (PC: Rightclick) inside the Free Transform bounding box, and choose Flip Horizontal from the contextual menu. Finally, we moved the cursor outside the Transform frame to get the curved rotation arrow, and dragged to rotate. In CS4, a smart object’s layer mask is linked to the image by default, so the mask flipped and rotated along with the shell. Press Return (PC: Enter) to commit the transformation. Exploring the layers in the download file, we noticed that the backdrop—originally created by clicking the Create New Fill layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, then choosing Pattern—has a layer style applied. (Tip: To see the settings for

The WOW! Factor

any effect in a Style, doubleclick its name in the Layers panel.) This style combines an Inner Shadow with an Inner Glow to darken the edges. By default, an Inner Glow is lightcolored and in Screen mode, but we used Multiply mode and a dark color sampled from the image instead. On the text layer, a more traditional Inner Glow lights the edges and a Pattern Overlay effect provides surface texture. A Drop Shadow is offset (from top left) to match the lighting in the backdrop.

STEP FOUR: When you import a smart object into Photoshop, the object remembers where it came from—in this case from Camera Raw. To match the shell’s lighting with the backdrop, we double-clicked the Smart Object thumbnail to return to Camera Raw for some local tone and color adjustments. Choosing the Adjustment Brush (K) from the tools at the top of the window and adjusting its size and other characteristics in the bottomright corner of the panel, we then increased Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, and Clarity and painted to brighten up the chambered part of the shell. Then, we clicked the New button to reset the sliders and start a separate adjustment, reducing the Brightness setting, and painting to create shading. Here the red mask shows where we painted to create the shadows.

STEP FIVE: Clicking OK returned us to Photoshop with an updated smart object. Then we clicked the Add a Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, and added a Drop Shadow and a dark Outer Glow to finish the layout.

A few exceptions Even though we used Camera Raw, a smart object, a pattern fill layer, and layer styles—all nondestructive methods—for our Fiji card, there were some steps that quietly involved pixels, such as:

Also, if you apply a third-party filter (such as the Noiseware Professional in our project) to a smart object and then open the file on a computer that doesn’t have that filter installed, Photoshop suspends the filter to do the transformation, but then can’t find the filter to reapply it once the transformation is done. It’s good to be aware of these little gotchas so you don’t stumble into them by accident. But watching out for a few exceptions is a small price to pay for the quality, convenience, and flexibility of using the brilliant, nondestructive methods that Photoshop offers. ■ Jack Davis, a member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame for his lifetime contributions to the fields of education and digital imagery, is the author of How To Wow: Photoshop for Photography. Linnea Dayton, with coauthor Cristen Gillespie, is at work on The Photoshop CS3/CS4 Wow! Book, coming from Peachpit Press in late spring/early summer. ALL IMAGES BY JH DAVIS PHOTOGRAPHY


• In Photoshop CS4, when you transform a smart object, its linked layer mask is pixel-based, so if you transform many times, the smart object will stay in great shape, but the mask might be degraded. • The patterns in the Pattern Fill layers or in the Pattern Overlay effect in a layer style are pixel-based, so they can get a little fuzzy if you shrink them to a size other than 25% or 50%.

065

Kevin Ames

Digital Photographer’s Notebook More Pro Printing…with Smart Objects

As useful as soft proofing is in Photoshop, there’s no substitute for evaluating the combination of adjustments on an actual print. In the next couple of issues, we’ll use smart objects to set up a ring-around of possibilities ready to print on a single sheet.

L

ast fall, during the closing ceremonies at Photoshop World Las Vegas, Julieanne Kost, Senior Digital Imaging Evangelist at Adobe Systems Incorporated, showed how to use smart objects to compare black-and-white conversions. So, here’s my take on making a one-sheet set of versions to zero in on the right adjustments. [NAPP members may download the files to follow along with this tutorial from www.photoshopuser.com/members/mar09downloads.html. All files are for personal use only.] STEP ONE: Open our starting file called 4x6.tif. Now open a new document (Command-N [PC: Ctrl-N]) and name it Smart Object Ring-around with the following settings: Width 12", Height 18", Resolution 320 pixels, Color Mode: RGB Color, Depth 8 bit, and Background Contents White. Click OK. Choose the Move tool (V), then in the Applications Bar (CS4), click the Arrange Documents icon and click the 2 Up button to position the tabbed windows side-by-side.


Start dragging 4x6.tif onto the Ring-around file and when a border appears over the latter, add the Shift key to center 4x6.tif in the Ring-around file. Close 4x6.tif and rename Layer 1 “Original.”

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STEP TWO: Press Command-Shift-N (PC: Ctrl-Shift-N), name this new layer “Grid,” and click OK. Zoom in to 100%. Choose the horizontal Single Row Marquee tool (nested under the Rectangular Marquee tool [M]), click at the very top-left edge of the black line. Scroll down until you see the bottom of the layer, press-and-hold the Shift key, and click again to add another row of selected pixels.

Go under the Edit menu and choose Stroke. In the Stroke dialog, click on the Color swatch to open the Color Picker, enter 127 for R, G, and B (middle gray), and click OK. Enter 10 px for Width and Center for Location, and click OK. STEP THREE: Choose the vertical Single Column Marquee next, click the left edge, add the Shift key, and click the right edge. Once again add a 10-px Stroke. Then press Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to select the entire document, choose Edit>Stroke again but this time, change the Width to 20 px. Click OK. As the stroke is set to Center, this will give a 10-pixel border around the document’s edge when it prints. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect, then Command-0 (PC: Ctrl-0) to fit the document to the screen. STEP FOUR: Control-click (PC: Right-click) next to the Original layer’s name and choose Convert to Smart Object from the menu. (Note: Any changes made to copies of the original smart object in the layer stack affect all of the copied smart objects.) Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) twice to make two copies of the Original layer. Drag Original Copy 2 below Original in the Layers panel. Click View>Show and ensure that Smart Guides is checked. Select the Move tool (V), press-and-hold Shift, and drag Original Copy 2 to the right edge of the document. When the right edges align, a magenta guide appears. Rename this layer R2 C3 (Row 2 Column 3). Then click on the Original Copy layer and Shift-drag it to the left until the Smart Guide highlights the left edge. Rename this layer R2 C1. STEP FIVE: Press-and-hold Shift and click on R2 C3 to select all three Smart Object layers. Now press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key and drag all three layers up until a bold line appears under the Grid layer. The double arrow indicates the selected layers will be copied. Now you have six copies of the smart object in the layer stack. STEP SIX: With the Move tool still selected, Shift-drag the new copy Smart Object layers up until a Smart Guide

Digital Photographer’s Notebook

STEP EIGHT: Rename the Curves layer C 13. Option-drag (PC: Altdrag) C 13 to both the R1 C2 and R1 C3 layers. Click the Clip icon (the third-left icon at the bottom of the Curves view in the Adjustment panel) for both layers you just made. Rename the layers to remove the words “copy” and “copy 2.”

appears at the top of the document. Rename R2 C1 copy and R2 C3 Copy to R1 C1 and R1 C3, respectively. Rename Original copy to R1 C2. Now highlight the three R1 layers. Press-and-hold the Option key and drag down until the line just above the Background layer becomes bold. Then Shift-drag these three layers from the top to the bottom until the Smart Guide appears at the bottom of the document and rename them R3 C1, R3 C2, and R3 C3, respectively. You should now have nine related Smart Objects layers in three rows and three columns (as shown here).

STEP NINE: Highlight the C 13 layer above R1 C1, then click the Return to Adjustment List icon (the arrow icon at the bottom of the Adjustments panel). Now click the Hue/Saturation icon (second from the left, second row), drag the Saturation slider to +9, and rename this layer S +9. Now highlight the C13 layer above R1 C2, click the Return to Adjustment List arrow and click the Hue/Saturation icon again. Drag the Saturation slider to +18, then rename the layer S +18. Repeat for R1 C3, making this Saturation setting +27 and the layer name S +27.

Highlight layer R1 C1. Click the Clip icon at the bottom-right corner of the Adjustments panel. This will automatically clip all new adjustment layers to the layer below, limiting their effect to only the pixels on their layer. Now click on the Curves icon in the Adjustments panel. Click to add a point in the center of the line. Enter 141 in the Output field and 128 for Input.

KEVIN AMES

STEP SEVEN: Next, we’ll add curves and hue and saturation adjustment layers to eight of the smart objects. We won’t adjust the Original (in the middle) as it will form the base for the Ring-around and we’ll use it to compare to the other eight versions.

Kevin Ames creates evocative photographs for clients such as Westin Hotels, AT&T, and Coca-Cola. His fourth book, recently published by Peachpit Press, is The Digital Photographer’s Notebook: A Pro’s Guide to Photoshop CS3, Lightroom and Bridge. He teaches the digital arts worldwide.


To see the power of smart objects, Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the Original layer's name and choose Replace Contents. Find the Smoke Girl.tif file (downloaded from the NAPP member website) and click Place. Holy instant gratification! All nine boxes are filled with the Smoke Girl image. Along the top row are three versions each one brightened by 13 points and with increasing amounts of saturation. And, best of all, you can use any 4x6" file at 320 ppi Resolution. We’ll finish this next time, until then—keep shooting! ■

067

Classic Photoshop Effects The oldies but goodies that never seem to go out of style ■ BY COREY BARKER

Video Wall Effect This technique is a real classic. I saw Scott Kelby do this effect years ago. It has since become easier with the newer features introduced in Photoshop, so I thought it would be cool to revisit the video wall. Enjoy as you follow along. STEP ONE: Choose File>New to create a new 3x2.5" RGB document at 150 ppi. Click the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to create a new blank layer. We want to fill this layer with black, so press Shift-Delete (PC: Shift-Backspace) to open the Fill dialog, choose Black from the Use menu, and click OK. STEP TWO: Create another new layer above this layer. Press ShiftDelete (PC: Shift-Backspace) again to open the Fill dialog. This time, set Use to 50% Gray and click OK. Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to invoke Free Transform. In the Options Bar, click the Maintain Aspect Ratio (chain) icon to lock the proportions. Enter 80% for the Width and Height, then press Return (PC: Enter) twice. STEP THREE: Go under the Edit menu, under Transform, and choose Warp. In the Options Bar, click on the Warp menu and choose the Inflate warp preset. Set the Bend amount to 20%, then press Return (PC: Enter) twice to commit the change.


STEP FOUR: Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the gray layer’s thumbnail to load this shape as a selection, then click this layer’s Eye icon to turn off its visibility. Click on the black layer to activate it. Press Delete (PC: Backspace) to remove the selected area of the layer. The result should be a black frame (as shown).

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STEP FIVE: Click the Add a Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Bevel and Emboss from the list. The default settings should work fine here; we’re just defining the shape a little better so it doesn’t look so flat. Click OK. STEP SIX: Now reactivate the gray layer by clicking on its thumbnail and turn its visibility back on. Click the Add a Layer Style icon and choose Bevel and Emboss once again. This time, we’ll need to tweak the settings for this layer style because this creates the effect of the light glare on the video screen. Notice the settings we’re using here. In the Shading portion of the dialog, clicking-and-dragging the marker inside the circle adjusts the Angle and Altitude, as this determines the direction of light. Also, make sure you turn off Use Global Light. Click OK. In the Layers panel, set the Fill to 0% for this layer (Layer 2). This will make the layer pixels transparent but not the layer style.

STEP SEVEN: Click the Eye icon next to the Background layer to turn off its visibility and show transparency through the screen. You may not see it, but the light glare layer style is still there. This is critical because we need to be able to see through the screen. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect. Next, go under the Edit menu and choose Define Pattern. Give the pattern a name if you want and click OK.

STEP NINE: The pattern will be tiled over the whole file. Notice that the pattern runs off the right and bottom edges. Simply grab the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) from the Toolbox and select these excess areas (hold down the Shift key to add to the selection), then press Delete (PC: Backspace). Choose the Move tool (V) from the Toolbox. Press Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to select the entire document, click the Align Vertical Centers and Align Horizontal Centers icons in the Options Bar to center the graphic in the document, and deselect. STEP TEN: Click the Layers panel’s flyout menu and choose Convert to Smart Object. The reason for this is that we’ll need to modify this shape nondestructively. So once the smart object is created, double-click the layer thumbnail to open it.

©ISTOCKPHOTO/CHRIS PRITCHARD

STEP EIGHT: Choose File>New to create a new file, and make this one pretty big (ours is 13x9" at 150 ppi). Press Shift-Delete (PC: Shift-Backspace) to open the Fill dialog, set Use to Black, and click OK. Click the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, then click the Background layer’s Eye icon to hide it. Click back on Layer 1 to select it, then press Shift-Delete (PC: Shift-Backspace) to open the Fill dialog. Choose Pattern from the Use menu, then click the Custom Pattern preview, locate the pattern we defined in Step Seven (it’s probably the last one), and click OK.

STEP TWELVE: Return to your working file. Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to invoke Free Transform. Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the object and select Warp from the menu. In the Options Bar, choose Bulge from the Warp preset menu, set the Bend amount to –20%, and press Return (PC: Enter) twice to commit the change. This will give the video wall some dimension. Click the Eye icon to reveal the Background layer. Finally, just add some text and a simple gradient to the background and there you have it. Remember, you can change the appearance of the video wall by going back into the smart object and simply swapping out the image. ■


STEP ELEVEN: In the smart object file, we need to add the image that will appear on the video screens. Open the image you want to use and drag it into this document (we’re using a city scene from iStockphoto.com). Use Free Transform to resize the image, if needed. In the Layers panel, click-and-drag the image layer underneath the screens layer. Once this is done, close the document and save the changes. Don’t flatten the file just in case you want to change out the image later.

069

Ed Greenberg and Jack Reznicki

The Copyright Zone A Day at the Zoo and What You Can Do

So you want to go to the zoo and take some pictures. Here are four scenarios to help explain what you can and can’t do, and what to look out for—other than the droppings. Model release issues aside for this column, here’s the straight poop.

S

cenario One—The shooter takes a walk through the zoo, photographing what catches the eye: the wild kids, the tame animals, the monkey house, and the cotton candy. You can shoot all you can see. But what you can use it for becomes the fodder that photographers argue about endlessly and what lawyers litigate. While releases are needed with people, animals don’t have privacy rights or laws written to protect against the commercial use of their images. So with some exceptions, you don’t need releases for animals. A photograph of a giraffe that’s similar to thousands of other giraffes can be used by you for a throat lozenge ad or submitted to a photo competition. But if the animal is unique or symbolic of that zoo, such as an albino tiger or “Freddy the Friendly Chimp,” then you may need a release because you could be trading on the zoo’s intellectual property or trademark. Another key consideration is whether that particular animal is used or employed by the zoo in any trademarked or licensed manner, such as stuffed animals or T-shirts. Similarly, images that may incorporate animal enclosures or zoo buildings generally may be used without the necessity of obtaining property releases as long as there are no trademark issues involved. So, a photo at the monkey house that has a famous statue of Freddy the Friendly Chimp could be a problem for similar intellectual property concerns mentioned in the last paragraph. If you move your camera and crop out Freddy, however, shooting just the building should be no problem.

A simple phone call to the zoo’s public relations office and you’ll find out exactly what its policy and rules are. You may find out that they love doing photo ops, such as having 20 people at the zoo doing their wedding photos. A fee or a donation/contribution to the zoo, likely tax deductible, may be required or suggested. A donation may buy you priceless cooperation beyond your dreams. They may also require you to sign an agreement and provide proof of insurance. Don’t freak out: The process is actually a very simple and quiet routine. While the zoo may be a public space, like any other landowner, the zoo has a right and obligation to control crowds and ensure the safety of its patrons. That legal obligation is paramount in all of these scenarios. Scenario Three—If you’re a photojournalist with real press credentials—and we mean real and legitimate press credentials from a real news organization, not something that came from the back pages of a comic book— then you can photograph and use anything in a story that is newsworthy or of public interest. Let’s say you’re not a professional photojournalist, but rather a student, serious hobbyist, or just a concerned citizen worried about conditions at the zoo, then you have the very same rights to shoot and employ the photos as any fully credentialed, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer. Your place in the photo pecking order doesn’t matter in this respect. The images can be used in a public interest story concerning the zoo. Now let’s crank it up a notch: A zoo security guard comes up to you—a really big surly security guard, not the Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife type, but more the Arnold Schwarzenegger variety. Now’s the time for you to employ all the tact and diplomacy instilled in you by your parental units and religious figures. Now is not the time to dig in your heels and be aggressive.

“You can shoot all you can see. But


what you can use it for becomes the fodder that photographers argue about endlessly and what lawyers litigate.

070

Scenario Two—A bride and groom’s first date was at the zoo and they want you to shoot the wedding party there. This is easy. But don’t try and go commando. Don’t just show up at the zoo and shoot away. That’s trouble with a capital “T.”

”

©ISTOCKPHOTO/ANNA YU

Rule number one: Don’t make the first move or be the first to speak. Don’t act like you’re guilty of anything because… drum roll please…you’re not. While you should be prepared for a discussion, don’t anticipate or assume a problem. If you act as though there is a problem, there will be a problem. Tone is critically important—don’t raise your voice at any time. Remember, you’re in a public place and you ought to assume there will be witnesses or security cameras recording the entire incident. Who goes to a zoo and doesn’t have a camera or video camera—not to mention all the cameraequipped cell phones? Keeping in mind that preservation of life and limb should take precedence over legal niceties, you should permit the security guard to say what he has to say, uninterrupted and to completion. Be aware that the security guard may be coming over to you on his own initiative or at the direction of a superior. The guard may simply and innocently want to know what you’re doing. Your demeanor may be more important than anything you actually say. Understand that the guard is doing what he’s hired to do and you should express to him that you “appreciate what he’s doing.” By saying so, you’re substantially reducing the chance of the situation escalating. Nevertheless, he says in a menacing manner, “You can’t shoot here.” And tells you to get lost—but not in such nice words. At this point, you have to take a deep breath and decide how badly you need this shot. Do you really need it at that very moment or will shooting an hour or two later suffice? Even if you haven’t done anything wrong and you know you’re in the right, the practical and prudent path may be to move on and circle back later. Now let’s go even more negative. The guard is extremely abusive and unreasonable and does one or more of the following: He demands that you turn over your camera or digital card, implies that you’re not free to walk away, threatens or calls for his backup, or physically touches you or your equipment. Stay cool and collected, and remember that there’s no audio recording being made. If things have degenerated to this point, you want the intervention and assistance of the local police. You can even take out your cell phone—carefully— telling the security guard that you’re calling the police, as you believe it’s the “prudent” thing to do. Actually use the word “prudent,” as it has legal meaning and demonstrates that you’re cool and under control.

©ISTOCKPHOTO/ENGE

The Copyright Zone

Hopefully this information will keep you from messing your shoes in elephant poop. ■ Ed Greenberg and Jack Reznicki can be reached at Igotaquestion@ thecopyrightzone.com. Because of the large volume of questions, and shortness of time, not everything can be answered personally— but they still want to hear from you!

©ISTOCKPHOTO/S. GREG PANOSIAN

Scenario Four—You have a commercial assignment that needs to be shot at a zoo. Simple. Anything short of a written, comprehensive agreement specifying date, time, location, insurance, etc., signed by the parties won’t suffice—period.

Peter Bauer

From the Help Desk


To: Libby From: NAPP Help Desk With the introduction of Photoshop CS4, the folks at Adobe have indeed made a number of changes to the user interface that I’m sure you’ll eventually come to appreciate. (I admit that it took me a couple of months to make the adjustment, too.) The biggest change, especially for Mac users, is how images open. By default, each image opens into a tab rather than a floating window. (Even when no image is open, a gray background hides the Desktop and other application windows to provide a more color-neutral work environment.) The tabbed windows don’t prevent you from dragging-and-dropping between images, however. Simply drag a tab from the bottom of the Options Bar to convert it to a floating window. You can disable tabbed image windows by going under the Photoshop (PC: Edit) menu and selecting Preferences>Interface.

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Having trouble with the appearance of cursors or menus in Photoshop CS4? Then you may need to download and install an updated driver for your video card. (If you’re not comfortable with the concept, contact your computer manufacturer’s tech support folks for assistance.) You’ll find a list of video cards with which the Photoshop CS4 advanced display options have been tested at this Web address: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb405711&sliceId=2. If you continue to have problems or have a video card that’s not supported, go under the Photoshop (PC: Edit) menu, select Preferences>Performance and disable OpenGL Drawing. If you have a video card that works with the advanced features, here are some of the new capabilities: • Rotate View—This new tool (up in the Applications Bar) enables you to rotate the canvas rather than the image. Rotating the canvas is a boon to those who paint intricate masks and patterns in Photoshop, allowing for a more natural positioning of the hand and arm. (Think of it as rotating a sheet of paper on the desk while drawing a picture.)

• Pixel Grid—When zoomed in to 600% or more, Photoshop CS4 can display a non-printing grid that shows the edges of each pixel. This can be great when doing very precise work, especially in areas of solid or similar color. And, like other such visual aids in Photoshop, you can hide/show the pixel grid (View>Show>Pixel Grid), making it available only when needed. • Smoother Zoom—Photoshop CS4 zooms in and out more smoothly. It looks so natural and normal—and happens so quickly—you may not notice. • More Accurate Views—While Photoshop CS4 gives a more accurate view of your image at any zoom factor, you may want to continue making your most critical decisions at 100% zoom. Also new in Photoshop CS4 are the Adjustments and Masks panels. You add an adjustment layer as before, using the icon at the bottom of the Layers panel or by going to Layer>New Adjustment Layer, but rather than seeing a floating dialog, the various sliders and controls for the adjustment appear in the Adjustment panel. Just make the adjustment and move on to your next task; there’s no OK button to click.

PETER BAUER

To: NAPP Help Desk From: Libby The new interface for Photoshop CS4 is a bit confusing. Do you have any tips on working in the new environment?

When a layer mask is selected in the Layers panel, the Masks panel helps you do some fine-tuning. The Density slider can lighten the mask, making it more transparent, and the Feather slider helps you control the mask’s edges. You’ll also find buttons for: Mask Edge, to open the Refine Mask dialog (comparable to the Refine Edge dialog for selections); Color Range for making selections in a mask; and Invert to simply reverse the mask. When a vector mask is active in the Layers panel, the Masks panel offers the Density and Feather sliders, enabling you to use the vector mask as if it were a second, pixel-based layer mask. While these changes take some getting used to, once you’re comfortable in the new interface, you’ll find it to be a very worthwhile set of changes. ■

Peter Bauer is Director of the NAPP Help Desk and a featured columnist at PlanetPhotoshop.com. His latest book is Photoshop CS4 for Dummies.

Beyond Photoshop

Adjusting video globally After you finish rotoscoping even a short clip like this one (96 frames), you’ll appreciate the time saved if any adjustments can be made globally to all frames. We’ll now use adjustment layers to boost the saturation and shift selective colors, and then add a vignette using a smart filter.

around +50 and the Midpoint slider to the left to about +40 to burn out the outer edges of the environment. Click OK to close the dialog. Tip: If you don’t want the grid to show in the Lens Correction dialog, just click on the Show Grid checkbox to turn it off.

STEP SIX: To accentuate the difference between gray and colored areas, we’ll boost the saturation of pixels that have color. Click the Create New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Hue/Saturation. If you’re using CS4, open the Adjustments panel (Window>Adjustments), click the second icon in the second row, drag the Saturation slider to +25, and then click the left-facing arrow at the bottom left of the panel. In CS3, when the dialog appears, drag the Saturation slider to +25, and click OK.

Rendering output Press the Spacebar to watch your rotoscoped, adjusted, and filtered video and you’ll notice that the playback is much slower now that Photoshop has to do so much real-time processing. To get smooth and portable playback, let’s render the video to our hard drive.

STEP SEVEN: Perhaps the boy’s orange shirt would be more dramatic in red—and there’s no repainting required with adjustment layers, so let’s add a Selective Color adjustment layer by repeating the steps above, except this time choose Selective Color. Set the Colors drop-down to Reds, drag the Magenta and Black sliders to about +25%, and click OK. (We set ours to Cyan –2, Magenta +23, Yellow +2, and Black +27.) You don’t want to go too far with the color shift or it will adversely affect skin tone.

STEP EIGHT: Adjustment layers affect the whole video clip, but filters affect the current frame only. To make filters global, we’ll put the video layer into a smart object “container.” In the Layers panel, Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the Boy with plant video layer and choose Convert to Smart Object. Now, with this layer active, choose Filter>Distort>Lens Correction. In the dialog, drag the Vignette Amount slider to the right to

STEP NINE: Choose File>Export>Render Video. In the Render Video dialog, under File Options, choose QuickTime Export: MPEG-4 and click the Settings button. In the MPEG-4 Export Settings dialog, set File Format to MP4 and choose H.264 as the Video Format. Set the data rate to 256 kbits/sec. Set Image Size to Current, Frame Rate to 15, Key Frame to Automatic, and click OK. Back in the Render Video dialog, choose Document Size for Size, click the Render button, and wait a few moments as your video is saved to the hard drive very efficiently at only 396 KB.

Now you can enjoy your newfound pixel-pushing-through-time power. Photoshop Extended goes way beyond expectations with rotoscoped video. ■ Scott Onstott authors books and video tutorials for architects, engineers, and builders. Check out his Photoshop for Architects DVD and The Digital Architect video podcast at ScottOnstott.com.

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to

DNG

o that is rthenquoestt? ion (digital negative)

By Victoria Bampton

DNG.

Those three hours of deb little letter ate on forum s have spark s worldwide. ed should you c S o what is DN are? G ? Why DNG stands for Digital Negative. I another RAW t sounds li file format, ke yet but this on e is differ ent.

Images: iStockp

hoto.com Layo ut Design: Taffy

Orlowski

Finally, there’s backward compatibility. Have you ever been caught out? You’ve bought a brand-new camera, shot some fantastic RAW images, but then found that your old Photoshop or Lightroom version can’t open them? Again, DNG comes to the rescue. Simply use the free Adobe DNG Converter to convert the RAW files to the DNG format, and your older software will work with the files as normal RAW files.

The pros

The cons

Besides the fact that it’s a universal archival format, which is good enough reason in itself, why else should you consider using the DNG format? The DNG file is comprised of three different parts: the RAW image data, the metadata that describes that data, and an embedded preview. That means it’s all encapsulated in one safe, tidy wrapper—no more sidecar files to accidentally lose. Along with that XMP (sidecar) data in the DNG wrapper, there’s an embedded preview. You’re in control. You choose how big you want that preview to be, and you can also update it to show the develop adjustments you’ve made in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw. That means other programs that rely on the embedded preview will be looking at your processed image preview instead of the original camera preview. Updating that preview doesn’t touch the original RAW data, so it’s a nondestructive way of updating the files to look their best. The DNG lossless compression algorithms are better than those applied in camera, resulting in a smaller file size— between 5% and 40% smaller, depending on the camera. Hard drive space may be cheap these days, but it’s not free, and those savings add up. The conversion to DNG also offers an early warning of file corruption—if the file’s corrupted, it won’t convert and a warning dialog will appear, giving you the opportunity to download the files again before you reformat the cards. While not infallible, it’s an additional check worth having.

This sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch? Well, as with all things, there are a couple of disadvantages but the list is short. If you regularly use your manufacturer’s own software, DNG might not be for you. Until the manufacturers start supporting the DNG movement, their software will only read their own file formats. Lightroom does most


U

nlike proprietary RAW formats, such as Canon’s CR2 and Nikon’s NEF, the DNG format is publicly documented; there are no secrets. To you and me, this means that our greatgrandchildren will still be able to open our DNG files in 100 years’ time, long after the proprietary formats are forgotten and unsupported even by their own manufacturers. You think that won’t happen? Some of Kodak’s early digital formats are already unsupported by Kodak themselves. How long will it be before other formats start to go the same way? The DNG format is Adobe’s baby, but that doesn’t mean only Adobe is supporting it. The list of companies involved includes Apple, Canto, Corel, Extensis, Hasselblad, Leica, Pentax, Ricoh, and Samsung, among many others. It has also been submitted to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to become an ISO Standard, just like the Adobe PDF format many years ago. DNG is here to stay.

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things really well, but for some things, such as checking the focus point used, you might want to refer to the camera manufacturer’s own software. On the other hand if you, like most people, fall into the camp of, “One day I might want to…,” then DNG is still an excellent option. While we’re on the subject of manufacturers, there’s one other minor issue: MakerNotes. Never heard of them? Then you probably won’t care. All of the important data is carried over into the DNG file, but camera manufacturers also put some secret data in the file. There’s a proper specification that they can follow, but some choose not to. Helpful, eh? If you shoot CR2 or NEF, don’t worry as those are fully transferred, along with some other formats too. If you’re concerned about being able to use the manufacturer’s software or make use of those secret MakerNotes, don’t be! You do keep more than one copy of your RAW files, right? So make one of your backups a proprietary RAW file—that way you have the best of both worlds.

I’m hooked—what’s next?

So you’ve decided to use the DNG format, now comes that obvious question: how? There are numerous ways to convert to DNG, but let’s first take a quick look at your options. To find the DNG preferences for Lightroom, go to Lightroom (PC: Edit)>Preferences and click on the Import tab. The preferences for the standalone Adobe DNG Converter are accessed via the Change Preferences button in the main dialog.

Preview size: Your embedded preview size does affect the overall file size, so choose carefully: None creates a thumbnail of only 256 px along the longest edge; Medium Size creates a preview of 1024 px along the longest edge, which is ideal for general browsing; Full Size embeds a full-resolution preview, which is useful if you want to print or zoom into an image using DNG-aware software without having to render the RAW data. You can regenerate the previews and change the size at a later date by changing the Lightroom DNG Preferences, selecting the images in Grid view (G), and choosing Metadata>Update DNG Preview & Metadata. Preserve RAW Image vs. Convert to Linear Image: Preserve RAW Image uses the existing mosaic data straight from the sensor without applying any processing, and that’s usually the best option to choose, as it maintains flexibility for the future. There are a few programs that will read only a linear DNG format at the moment; however, that produces a much larger file size and you lose the ability to use a different demosaic algorithm in the future. Compression is simple because it’s lossless, so you have nothing to lose by turning it on. Embed Original RAW File embeds the proprietary RAW file format inside the DNG wrapper, and this can be extracted later by clicking the Extract button in the standalone Adobe DNG Converter. If you choose to embed the original RAW file, remember that your DNG file size will essentially be doubled in the process, so it might be better to keep your proprietary RAW file backup separate. Still unsure? Here are some sensible defaults to get started. Set JPEG Preview to Medium Size; Image Conversion Method to Preserve RAW Image; choose Compressed (lossless); and turn off Embed Original RAW File. Now, on to converting. You have at least four options, so you can choose which best suits you.

Converting while importing into Lightroom

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VICTORIA BAMPTON


This is really complicated so listen very carefully...okay, it’s not really. In fact, it couldn’t be any simpler! In the File Handling menu at the top of the Import Photos dialog, select Copy Photos As Digital Negative (DNG) and Add to Catalog. The rest of it is a standard Lightroom import, as any other. The DNG options used are those that we’ve just set in the Preferences dialog, so you don’t even have to remember which options you prefer. Don’t forget that if you check the Backup to: checkbox, the backup will be of the original proprietary file with its original filename, not a backup of the DNG file.

Converting existing Lightroom files

Why would you want to convert files that are already in your Lightroom catalog? Let’s say you were in a hurry and just wanted to import your images without stopping to convert them. You can come back later and have Lightroom run the DNG conversion overnight. Perhaps you want to edit or rename before conversion, so that your proprietary backup copies have the same names as the working DNG files. Or maybe you want to convert photos that were in the catalog before you decided on a DNG workflow. Simply enter Grid view, select the photos you want to convert, then choose Library>Convert Photos to DNG. Select the DNG options as discussed above, and click OK. The progress will be shown in the status bar. You have two additional options in this dialog but they’re not rocket science. Only Convert RAW Files will, fairly logically, only convert the RAW files. That’s useful if you’ve accidentally included other formats, such as JPEGs in your selection. Delete Originals after Successful Conversion will move the proprietary RAW files to the Trash (PC: Recycle) once the DNG file has been created.

The standalone DNG Converter

That’s it for Lightroom, but what happens if you don’t have Lightroom around at the time or you’re using an older version of Lightroom that doesn’t support your camera? Not a problem. Adobe provides a free standalone DNG Converter that’s updated at the same time as each Adobe Camera Raw release. You can download it from www .adobe.com/products/dng. The Adobe DNG Converter now comes with a standard installer. Once installed, it’s available in Hard Drive/Applications/Adobe DNG Converter (PC: Start\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe DNG Converter). It will take any Adobe Camera Raw-compatible RAW format and convert to DNG. First, select the folder containing the proprietary RAW files and choose where to save the resulting DNG files; set the renaming options if you want to rename at the same time; and click the Change Preferences button. Now press Convert to begin the conversion, and a second dialog will keep you informed of the progress. When you’ve finished, simply quit the program.

Converting when exporting from Lightroom

What will

do?

Now you have all the information you need, it’s just up to you to make the decision to DNG or not to DNG! ■

Victoria Bampton is the author of Adobe Lightroom 2: The Missing FAQ, a 426-page compilation of the Lightroom questions people are asking in real-world situations. She’s a familiar name across numerous photographic and Lightroom forums, where she’s always willing to lend a helping hand. Check her websites for more details at www .lightroomqueen.com and www.photoshopservices.co.uk.


Lightroom has one more DNG conversion option at the opposite end of the workflow. You can convert to DNG when you export the files. But why convert on export? Perhaps you prefer to work on proprietary RAW files in your own workflow but then archive as DNG, or you want to send a DNG format to someone else. Go to File>Export and the DNG options are under the File Settings section. All of those preferences are no doubt quite familiar by now!

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Matt Kloskowski

LIGHTROOM News . . . .

▼ THE LIGHTROOM 2.2 UPDATE IS OUT The Lightroom 2.2 update includes support for a number of new cameras but let’s get to the juicy stuff. For starters, Adobe has improved performance of the Adjustment Brush. Although my issues with the Adjustment Brush were sporadic and hard to reproduce, the buzz on the street is that it definitely works better now. There are a few other fixes included but, to me, the major one is that the camera profiles (which were in beta before) are now prime time and included in the Camera Calibration panel by default. This is huge! There are a lot of people who are still hesitant of beta software and wouldn’t download the profiles from the Adobe Labs website (plus, they were buried there anyway). I think they’ll become a lot more useful now that they’re included in the software. The update is free and available at www.adobe.com/downloads/updates. If you’re not sure if you have Lightroom 2.2 or not, just open Lightroom, go to the Help menu, and choose Check for Updates. It will let you know if there’s anything newer out there.

▼ THE TURNING GATE RELEASES LIGHTROOM iPHONE PORTFOLIO The Turning Gate (TTG) has been bringing us cool-looking Lightroom portfolios for a while now. With the growing popularity of mobile devices, they’ve recently released the TTG iPhone Portfolio. This is the first Lightroom Web photo gallery engine to address the mobile phenomenon. Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch are among the topselling mobile devices on the market, and the TTG iPhone Portfolio creates light portfolio sites tailored specifically for viewing on Apple’s devices, complete with a Gallery, About page, and Contact form. For a demo gallery, direct your iPhone or iPod touch to www.theturninggate.net/iphone. The gallery costs $5. For more information about TTG Web galleries for Lightroom, visit www.theturninggate.net.


▼ LIGHTROOM KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS GALORE

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Anita Dennis (from Adobe) heads up the Lightroom Help files online and she recently posted a keyboard shortcut page for Lightroom. Now, I’ve seen keyboard shortcut pages before but they’re usually created by module, so you have to know what module you want to work in and what command you want before you can find the shortcut. But these shortcuts are also listed by task, so it’s a lot easier to find things. You can check out the shortcuts at http://help.adobe .com/en_US/Lightroom/2.0. Just click on Keyboard Shortcuts on the left-hand side.

Make sure you stop by www.lightroomkillertips.com for updated news, free presets, Lightroom how-to videos, and tips. ■

By Mike Mackenzie

FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

Doug Levy

“Movement defines my work, which is fitting considering that I spend almost two hundred days a year on the road,” says Boston-based photographer Doug Levy. “My friends would also say that it fits with my personality and attention span.” A 2003 graduate of Syracuse University, Levy’s taken a bit of an unconventional, self-taught route to photography. Levy umpires professional baseball during the summer, a career full of 7:05 starts that leaves plenty of time for photographing sunrises in the small towns that minor league baseball calls home. He fills his off-season shooting New England landscapes, weddings, and portraits. Q. Can you give us a short list of the equipment you use? Nikon D700 and D300 bodies; NIKKOR 10.5mm, 14–24mm, 17–55mm, 50mm, and 70–200mm lenses; Nikon SB-800, SB-600, and SB-80DX flashes with PocketWizards; SLIK carbon fiber tripod with a Manfrotto ballhead and quick-release plate; a BlackRapid camera strap; and a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop.

Q. When did you know you wanted to be a photographer? Umpiring leaves me with a lot of downtime during the day, and I’d been searching for an outlet for my time. Then in 2006, umpires and baseball had a labor issue and we were on strike for the first two-and-a-half months of the season. As the strike went on, I saved money to pay for my health insurance. Thankfully, things were resolved at the last minute, leaving me with a spare $1,000 in the bank. I used that money to buy a Nikon D70s with the 18–70mm kit lens and I’ve been hooked ever since. I sold my first print later that summer and I’ve been shooting professionally since 2007.

Q. What’s your favorite feature of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom? The Clarity slider because it gives my images that extra kick in the midtones that I’m looking for. I’ll say that the entire Library module has made my life so much easier. I was never a Bridge user, so before Lightroom I kept track of my images using Windows and a convoluted filing and folder system I’d developed—a total nightmare.

Q. Most of your photos exhibit a calm, tranquil quality. Is that a signature style or does it just happen naturally? I’d say those are the images I’m most drawn to. They’re my favorites so there’s a level of continuity there—but to say that I plan it that way would probably be an overstatement. I think it’s good to have an idea going out, but not necessarily a plan. You can’t be afraid to throw out your ideas and start over. If you go out with too much of a regimented plan in mind, you can miss a lot of opportunities for great images trying to make your image.

Q. The way some of your shots are composed and lit tends to hide as much as is revealed, creating intrigue. How do you decide what to show (or hide) in a photo? As photographers, we talk a lot about bouncing light. Recently, I had a conversation with a friend about bouncing shadows. It’s essentially the same, but I try to think about where the shadows are going to fall first and figure out the light from there. Bright is easy—anyone can do bright—the nuance is in the shadows.


Q. You’re adept at many photographic styles. Is there a subject you’d like to explore more?

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I’ve done some work with athletes, and it’s definitely something I’d like to do more of. There are so many possibilities to make really dynamic images that yank the viewer into the frame. I have a friend who says, “Beautiful women are aplenty— it’s the stunning ones that are rare.” I try to create stunning photographs.

Contact Doug Levy at http://douglaslevyphotography.com Folders/Doug Levy

Nikon D300, NIKKOR 17–55mm, 1/250 at f/11, 31mm, NEF

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Section

Nikon D300, NIKKOR 14–24mm, 1/250 at f/5.6, 16mm, NEF




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Nikon D300, NIKKOR 14–24mm, 5 min. 1 sec. at f/18, 22mm, NEF

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Lightroom users, if you’d like to be considered for the “Featured Photographer,” email [email protected].

Reviews by Rob Sylvan

LIGHTROOM


Book Reviews

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The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers

BY MARTIN EVENING

BY SCOTT KELBY

If you’re looking for a single in-depth reference book on Lightroom 2, then look no further. This is a beautiful book full of large color images that not only illustrate the inner workings of Lightroom, but also the author’s skill as a talented working photographer. While complete newcomers to Lightroom may be a little intimidated by the heft of this book (it has the highest page count of any Lightroom book on the market), it would also make an excellent companion to a more introductory-level text. The author covers topics ranging from the most basic Lightroom operations to selecting and calibrating your display to working with GPS metadata. I have no doubt that anyone owning this book will turn to it over and over as their experience with Lightroom increases and their desire to dig deeper grows.

This is a fun book! If you learn by doing and enjoy following a step-by-step approach from an expert who not only knows the application but understands the needs and concerns of photographers, then this is your book. If you’re starting out, then its start-to-finish approach will help move you toward creating an efficient Lightroom workflow. If you’re an intermediate-to-advanced Lightroom user, then the tutorial-based layout makes it easy to jump around and learn the specific feature you need without going through the whole book. The book is well illustrated with excellent examples. Scott Kelby has an accessible writing style that’s sure to keep you engaged as you move through each step. Don’t skip the Introduction and be sure to download the example photos so you can follow along.

Publisher: Adobe Press

Publisher: Peachpit Press

Pages: 624

Price: $49.99

Pages: 448

Website: www.peachpit.com

Website: www.adobepress.com Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Price: $44.99

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2: A Digital Photographer’s Guide

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 For Digital Photographers Only

BY DAVE HUSS AND DAVID PLOTKIN

BY ROB SHEPPARD

Living up to its name, this book serves a worthy guide to keep at your side while learning to use Lightroom 2. It’s well-organized, filled with good example images, and does a nice job of explaining features clearly. All the essentials of Lightroom operation are covered, including an excellent in-depth focus on making local adjustments using the Adjustment Brush and Graduated Filter. While this book is targeted at all user levels of Lightroom experience, I do think the beginner-to-intermediate user will be the most satisfied. Some Mac users may be confused in the chapters that lack Mac-specific keyboard shortcuts and neglect some of the nuanced differences found in the Mac version of Lightroom (such as the location of the Preferences and Catalog Settings menus and the integration of iTunes in the Slideshow).

The emphasis in this book—for digital photographers only— may seem a little odd when you wonder who else would use Lightroom but after reading, I understood it to mean that this book is primarily aimed at people who are earning their living from photography, who are shooting RAW, and who want to learn how to integrate Lightroom into their existing digital workflow. This is clearly a book written by a photographer for photographers. This is not to say a semi-pro or even a hobbyist photographer wouldn’t find this book useful, but it may not resonate as strongly. Whatever your background may be, you’ll find a solid introduction into using Lightroom in these pages. And don’t skip any of the Pro Tips highlighted in bright green.

Publisher: Focal Press, Inc.

Pages: 384

Price: $39.95

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Pages: 368

Website: www.wiley.com

Website: www.focalpress.com Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆

Price: $34.99

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆



091

UNDER THE HOOD

Using the New Camera Calibration Profiles Matt Kloskowski

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This issue, we’ll delve into an area of Lightroom that was rarely mentioned until a few months ago—the Camera Calibration panel. I admit that the only time I touched this panel for the first two years of my Lightroom experience was to click the triangle to collapse the panel so I didn’t have to see it.

T

. . . .

hen Adobe released one of the most clever additions to Lightroom—camera profiles. If you’ve ever looked at the back of your camera and thought your photo looked great and then opened the same photo on your computer and been disappointed at how flat and lifeless it was, then you’re gonna love ’em. STEP ONE: The first thing you need to do is download the Lightroom 2.2 update if you haven’t already. (The camera profiles are part of the update.) The best way to do this is to go to the Lightroom Help menu and choose Check for Updates. The update addresses a few bug fixes but it also automatically installs these new camera profiles, so it’s definitely worthwhile to upgrade.

Note: One important point to mention is that these camera profiles work only for RAW or DNG files, not JPEGs, TIFFs, or PSDs. STEP THREE: To use a camera profile, simply choose one from the Profile drop-down menu to apply it to your photo. In this example, we’re using Camera Vivid, which makes the sky bluer and gives more saturation to the reds.


INTERMISSION

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STEP TWO: Once the update is installed, select a photo that you’d like to edit (preferably something you’ve never edited before). Press the letter D to enter the Develop module and scroll down the right-side panels area until you get to the Camera Calibration panel. The profiles are located in the Profile drop-down menu at the top.

So what are these profile things anyway? Here’s the easiest way to explain them: Lightroom applies a profile to the photo that reads the colors and tones in that photo and displays them a certain way. The problem is there really isn’t an official rule for profiles. For example, if you look at your photo using your camera manufacturer’s software (say Capture NX if you’re shooting with Nikon), you may like the way that the photo looks better in the manufacturer’s software than you do in Lightroom. But why? Because Nikon is applying a different profile that reads the photo (and its color and tones) in a different way. Maybe it’s more saturated. Maybe the skin tones look better, or maybe it has more contrast. In a nutshell, these new Lightroom camera profiles match the appearance given by the camera vendors’ software. After all, they’re applying a profile to it too, just like Lightroom, only theirs looks better somehow—until now that is.


STEP FIVE: You’ll notice that these profiles are camera specific, but this is seamless to you. Lightroom automatically recognizes the camera you used and shows you the correct profiles for that camera, so you’ll never see the others that are available. If you’ve ever used your camera vendor’s software, you’ll notice that these profiles are named the same as in the manufacturer’s software. Again, using Nikon as an example, Capture NX (shown in the screen capture here) has something called Picture Controls—they’re the same thing as camera profiles. One is called Vivid, another is called Neutral, and so on.

STEP SIX: Make sure you experiment with the different profiles and you’ll see some fairly drastic results. Some are definitely more punchy than others. The inevitable response when people see these profiles in action is, “I love ’em. Now how do I apply them to a bunch of a photos without having to do each one individually?” The first step is to copy the Camera Calibration settings from this photo. To do that, go to the Settings menu and

choose Copy Settings. This opens the Copy Settings dialog. Because you don’t want to copy anything but the calibration settings, click the Check None button at the bottom. Now check the Calibration checkbox to turn it on, and click Copy to close the dialog.

STEP SEVEN: Now select all of the photos you want to apply the camera profile to (I usually select them down in the Filmstrip area at the bottom of the interface). Then choose Settings>Paste Settings and your camera profile setting will be applied to all of the photos selected.

Pretty cool stuff, huh? So before you consider getting really mad at your camera (or your software) because you like the photos on that tiny LCD screen better, check out these profiles. I think you’ll find you can get the same great look with very little effort. ■ ALL IMAGES BY MATT KLOSKOWSKI


STEP FOUR: You should immediately see a change in the photo. In this case, the colors look much more vibrant and vivid (hence the name of the profile). What’s really neat is that this profile hasn’t changed any of the settings for this file in Lightroom yet. If you look through your panels, all of the settings (Exposure, Blacks, Clarity, Vibrance, Saturation, etc.) are all at their default settings, as if nothing were touched. It’s basically giving you a better starting point.

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Chris Orwig

X X Y Y

LIGHTROOM Tips & Tricks

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or press Shift-Command-U (PC: Shift-Ctrl-U). While these auto options won’t always provide the best results, they’re handy when you’re in a hurry or need a starting point. Copy settings To speed up the process of copying Develop module settings from one image to others, click on the image in the Filmstrip from where you’d like to copy the settings. Press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) to copy the settings, open the Copy Settings dialog, and choose what you’d like to copy. You can also press Command-Option-C (PC: Ctrl-Alt-C) to copy settings without opening the Copy Settings dialog. Next, select one or more images in the Filmstrip and press Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to paste the settings.

CHRIS ORWIG


Clipping warnings To prevent unnecessary clipping or loss of image detail, turn on the clipping indicators before you make tonal adjustments. To do this, click on the triangle icons located at the top of the Histogram, or press the J key to Show Clipping. With this turned on, colored clipping indicators on the image mean one or two channels are clipped. You can make corrections to prevent clipping of important details in the image. If the clipping indicators on the image become distracting, press J again to turn off Show Clipping. For an even less-obtrusive view of clipping, press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key as you modify the Exposure, Recovery, or Blacks sliders to temporarily view the clipping indicators.

Faster retouching The Adjustment Brush tool works incredibly well for making corrections, enhancements, and basic retouching. But one of the problems with this tool is that every time you want to create a new adjustment effect, you need to click on the word New. This can really slow down your progress. To speed things up, try making an adjustment and then press K twice—once to exit the tool and a second time to access it again and create a new adjustment. Now you can use your shortcut keys: To make the brush smaller or larger, press the Left or Right Bracket ([ ]) keys, respectively. To change the brush Feather, press Shift-[ or Shift-]. To change the Flow amount, press 1–0. Next, you’ll notice that it’s possible to have two different Adjustment Brushes: Brush A and Brush B. To toggle between these two brushes, press the Forward Slash (/) key. If you’d like to quickly access and use the Erase brush, press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key and paint away the adjustment.

Blue indicates the shadows are clipped

Auto corrections Select one or more images, then click the word Auto in the Tone section of the Basic panel, or press Command-U (PC: Ctrl-U) to automatically correct the tone. Lightroom will set the sliders to maximize the range of tones while minimizing highlight and shadow clipping. To automatically correct the white balance, click on As Shot in the WB: section of the Basic panel and choose Auto,

Faster gradient adjustments The Graduated Filter allows you to make gradual adjustments to localized areas of your photo but sometimes when you use this tool, you’ll discover that you’ve accidentally added an effect that’s in the wrong direction. If only you could change this on the fly. Well, you can! While you’re dragging out a Graduated Filter gradient, press the Apostrophe (’) key to quickly change the direction of the gradient. ■

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Rafael “RC” Concepcion

LIGHTROOM Q & A

Q. I made a lot of adjustments to an image. Is there a way to see what the image looked like before to make a comparison? Press the Backslash key (\) or choose View>Before/After> Before Only to see a Before view of the image. Press the Y key to see a side-by-side Before and After view. You can also change the way Lightroom displays the beforeand-after view. In the Toolbar below the image preview area, click the down-facing triangle next to the Cycles between Before and After views icon (second icon) and make your selection from the drop-down menu.

will take all of the entries and sort them by name. Sort by Kind will also alphabetize by name, but it will place your collections first.

RAFAEL “RC” CONCEPCION

Q. What’s the difference between the Grayscale mode in the Basic panel and the Grayscale mode located in the HSL/Color/ Grayscale panel? Choosing Grayscale from either location does the same thing to your image: It attempts to make the best grayscale conversion based on the image data. Click Grayscale in the Basic panel and note how the sliders move, then look in the HSL/Color/Grayscale panel and notice how those sliders have changed. Now click Color to set the image back to color, then click Grayscale in the Grayscale panel. The sliders move to the same position, and the settings in the Basic panel are the same as well. Clicking Grayscale in the Basic panel gives you easier access to the tonal adjustments, while choosing Grayscale in the HSL/Color/Grayscale panel gives you quick access to the powerful grayscale mixer and Target Adjustment tool.

Q. Every time I try to export pictures from Lightroom 2, my CD/DVD burner opens as if I’m trying to write a DVD. Is there a way to avoid this? It seems like you haven’t changed the setting at the top of the Export dialog. Don’t worry, I couldn’t figure this one out for the longest time until Scott Kelby pointed it out to me. At the top of the Export dialog, you’ll see a drop-down called Files on CD/DVD. This is causing your problem. If you switch this to Files on Disk, the CD-burner program won’t launch. Yes, I thought that was a really weird place to put a dropdown, as well.

Q. I have a bunch of collections that aren’t in alphabetical order. How can I sort them by letter? Click on the plus icon (+) in the Collections panel header, and you’ll see that there are two sort options. Sort by Name

Q. How can I mark more than one photo as rejected? Click on the first image in the group you’d like to reject, then Shift-click on the last image in the group to select all of the images in between (or Command-click [PC: Ctrl-click] to choose noncontiguous images). Press the letter X and those images will be marked as rejected. ■ If you have a Lightroom question you’d like to see published in this column, please send it to [email protected]. If, however, you’d like your question answered immediately, go to the Help Desk at www.photoshopuser.com.


MIKE MACKENZIE

Q. Would you explain how to import images from another catalog into my current catalog? Sure. Choose File>Import from Catalog and navigate to the desired catalog. When you select the catalog (it will have a .lrcat extension), a list of images will appear in the Import from Catalog dialog for you to move into your current catalog.

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GET THE SCOOP ON THE LATEST GEAR › › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › m a r c h 2 0 0 9

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Nikon D700 ▼

SMALLER, LIGHTER, FULL-FRAME DIGITAL SLR CAMERA Review by Steve Baczewski

Positioned between Nikon’s D300 and D3 is the Nikon D700. It uses the same 12.1-megapixel full-frame sensor as the D3 but the D700 is smaller, lighter, has a dust-removal system, and is less expensive. It lacks the D3’s shutter life, dual memory card slots, and continuous burst speed; however, the D700 has a pop-up flash, which is very practical to use as a fill light or to wirelessly trigger remote Nikon Speedlights. The D700 can shoot up to 5 frames per second (fps) RAW or 8 fps with a battery grip. Although packed with features and buttons, it’s designed to appease the professional photographer’s need for simplicity and allow for quick adjustments in changing light. Instead of searching the menus, pressing the new Info button brings up a comprehensive list on the LCD of frequently used features that can be highlighted and adjusted. All this attention to ease of use adds up to less fumbling with buttons, labyrinthian menus, and flipping pages of the included 444-page manual. First, what counts: The image quality is excellent. The D700 produces smooth-toned, 14-bit RAW files. The sensor is capable of capturing a wide dynamic range with lots of highlight and shadow detail, and it’s especially amazing in low light. It has an ISO range of 100–25,600 and its ability to produce quality usable files even at ISO 25,600 (with some postproduction work) is simply miraculous—I’ve never seen anything like it. The D700 has a solid, heavy (2.3 lbs) but balanced, magnesium alloy body, with a comfortable rubberized handgrip. Its compartments are sealed for moisture and dust. The control layout will look familiar to Nikon camera owners. Near the shutter release is the Mode button for changing between the standard Program, Manual, Aperture, and Shutter priority. There’s a slide door, single-slot CF memory card compartment that can use the faster UDMA cards and can record RAW, JPEG, and TIFF formats. Right below the depth-of-field preview button on the front right is a programmable function button. The 3" LCD’s 920,000-pixel resolution sharply displays type and images in Live View, even in bright light. One annoyance is Nikon’s design that requires you to simultaneously press a button to release and rotate a dial to make an adjustment. Having said that, left of the viewfinder is a convenient arrangement of three buttons for changing image quality, ISO, and white balance.

Underneath these buttons is a rotating wheel that lets you simply dial in single, continuous, continuous highspeed shooting, Live View, self-timer, and mirror lock-up. It’s not new to Nikon users but it’s brilliant, efficient, and deserves mentioning. The D700 performs quickly whether focusing, firing the shutter, or writing to a memory card; however, Live View is still too slow to focus to make it meaningful in situations other than on a tripod in a studio. The D700’s Live View now has handheld and tripod modes—the distinction is in focusing. In tripod mode, it’s achieved by using a contrast-based autofocus. This avoids interrupting the image on the LCD when pressing the AF On button and necessitating flipping up the mirror, as in the handheld mode. Still focusing in either mode is too slow. For precision focusing, Live View’s focusing rectangle can be moved and magnified to zoom in on an area. Pressing the new Info button alternately displays shooting data, a grid, and a wonderful virtual horizon feature for leveling your shots. Of all things to omit in Live View, Nikon left out a live histogram for precision exposure! Bottom line: In a hot, digital SLR market, the D700 sizzles. It’s a well-thought-out, top-end, professional camera. ■

Company: Nikon U.S.A.

Price: $2,999.95 (Body only)

Web: www.nikonusa.com

Phone: 800-645-6689

Platform:


PLUG-IN FOR CONTRAST ENHANCEMENT Review by Dave Huss

ContrastMaster is a plug-in for creating complex contrast enhancement of images. The potential results range from enhanced contrast to visual effects that border on the surreal. ContrastMaster isn’t limited to Photoshop; it works with almost any photo editor that supports Photoshop plug-ins. The latest release works with Mac OS X as well as Windows, and supports 8-bit and 16-bit (per channel) RGB images. What is ContrastMaster? It’s four methods of contrast control—S/H-Contrast, Stretch, Equalize, and Polarize—controlled from a single dialog with more sliders than my old graphic equalizer. To help those of us with slider phobia, ContrastMaster offers six modes ranging from Novice to Expert. The first time I opened ContrastMaster, a message advised me that, because this was my first time, I was starting in Novice mode— a wise choice. Fortunately, there are multiple presets that can be applied to an image to see what this tool can do. So what can it do? It can provide selective and global contrast adjustments to an image to a degree not possible using standard Photoshop tools. What it’s really good at is pushing the contrast settings beyond reason, thereby creating some pretty cool photorealistic effects. Understanding how to use ContrastMaster is easier to grasp than quantum physics but not by much. There are no tutorials and only a brief online user guide, but those brave souls willing to invest the time to comprehend the interactions of the myriad controls will enjoy the endless combinations of effects that can be produced. While I enjoyed experimenting, from a professional standpoint I don’t usually encounter clients looking for such effects. Still, ContrastMaster might be just the creative tool you’re looking for. So download the trial version and take it for a spin. ■

Company: The Plugin Site

Price: $69.95

Web: www.thepluginsite.com

Phone:

Platform: Mac and Windows

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ContrastMaster ▼

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆

WWW.BLACKRAPID.COM

Reviews

Lensbaby ▼


THREE NEW LENSBABY SLR LENSES Review by Dave Huss

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Everything you knew about the selective-focus lens system known as Lensbabies has changed—including the name of the company. Lensbaby, LLC (new name) offers three separate SLR lenses named Muse, Composer, and Control Freak. All three lenses have an Optic Swap System that allows quick switching of optics without removing the lens from the camera—for those who do outdoors location shooting, this is a godsend. Basically, the selective-focus lens system is a manual lens that replaces your regular lens. This lens provides a creative tool that can isolate the focused area of the frame to a single spot—a sweet spot—with the rest of the frame out of focus. The first time I used the Composer I had a flashback to the time I used my first 35mm camera, which was manual everything. On top of that, you control the aperture of the Composer by replacing metal discs (each one marked with a different f-stop). The device that holds all the different discs is also part of the tool used to interchange them. Years of shooting with a highly automated system meant it took a little time to get accustomed to this system. But within 30 minutes, it felt comfortable and using the camera’s LCD, I was soon shooting some pretty artsy photos. Once I had the exposure settings correct, it was time to explore the Optic Swap System, which has four interchangeable lens options: Double Glass (50mm multicoated optical glass lens); Single Glass (50mm uncoated optical glass lens); Plastic

(50mm f/2 plastic lens that produces a hazy blur); and The Pinhole/Zone plate. This last one has an aperture hole (equivalent f-stop of 177) for pinhole photography. Now that’s truly retro when you can use a camera costing several thousand dollars to create the same image quality that I made back in the ’60s using a cardboard box! Why three SLR lenses? The Muse and Composer are similar in their operation but different in design. Muse (similar to the original Lensbaby) uses a flexible body that you squeeze and hold in place while taking the photo. On the other hand, the Composer is based on a ball-and-socket arrangement that allows you to move the lens until you get the desired composition, and then it holds the lens in that position while you fiddle with the camera settings. Composer has a locking ring that makes sure the lens doesn’t move and I had to overcome the habit of trying to adjust it like an aperture ring. At the time of this review, the Control Freak wasn’t available; but it looks exactly like the Lensbaby 3G and it seems appropriately named, as it allows precision adjustments of the sweet spot. The real test came at a wedding: I mounted the Composer on my backup camera, dusted off my trusty old light meter, and took as many shots (mostly under low-light conditions) as the assignment allowed. When I reviewed the photos after the wedding, I had to admit that some of the Composer shots of the bride looked really fantastic. In some cases, I had set the sweet spot wrong, but the resulting photo looked better than I had envisioned (the client thought I was an artist). I also tried the Plastic optic on “Grandma” and it was an instant glamour shot! Overall, the Composer and the additional optics are pretty impressive. It will take some time to get the hang of it, but I consider it time well spent. ■

Company: Lensbaby, LLC Price: Composer $270; Muse $150; Control Freak $270; Optic Kit $94.95 Web: www.lensbaby.com Platform:

Phone: 877-536-7222 Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited 2009 ▼

PHOTO-STITCHING SOFTWARE Review by Dave Huss Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited 2009 is photo-stitching software for producing panoramas and more. I’ve made hundreds of panoramas using the Photoshop Photomerge feature and have been happy with the results, so my main questions are: Will Stitcher Unlimited “play well” with Photoshop, and is it worth the extra money? Stitcher uses a photo-stitching engine that stitches, aligns, and color-corrects automatically, and it’s easy to use their five-step process to create a panorama. The acid test of their alignment feature (where most stitching programs fail) was some handheld photos I took of the Golden Gate Bridge with all its suspension cables. The resulting panorama was seamless; every cable between the individual photos matched. Another Stitcher feature I like is Double Shot, where you can stitch together two fish-eye lens shots into a single panorama. And Stitcher Unlimited even allows you to make panoramas using HDR images. (I didn’t test this last feature…I will as soon as I successfully make my first HDR image. Hope springs eternal!) So how does it work with Photoshop? You can import and export an image from Photoshop (it supports PSD files, images, and masks), and Stitcher can create a panorama in PSD format that contains separate layers for each individual image. All of the professional tools are also included, allowing you to create environment maps for 3D rendering and Web-based virtual tours using the Apple QuickTime, Adobe Flash, or Java-based viewers. The Autodesk Stitcher Unlimited 2009 is a lot cheaper than the cost of a digital panoramic camera and you can download a fully functional 15-day trial version from their website. Stitcher is a professional tool that produces stunning panoramas. If you’re serious about making panoramas, try Stitcher Unlimited. You’ll be impressed. ■

Company: Autodesk, Inc.

Price: $350

Web: http://usa.autodesk.com

Phone: 800-964-6432


Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Reviews

Casio Exilim EX-Z300 ▼ EZcube Light Box ▼


TOP-ACCESS LIGHT TENT Review by Laurie Excell

102

Diffused light is great for photographing so many subjects. I love the soft light of an overcast day, and I wanted that same soft light when photographing products. I could invest in a lighting kit with softboxes or wait for an overcast day but neither of those options suited my particular needs. So, I went investigating and that’s when I found the EZcube Light Box. The EZcube is a diffusion tent in which you can place items and get that wonderful diffused light—softening hard light and shadows, and removing unwanted glare from shiny objects. It can be used with natural or artificial lighting and it collapses to an easy-to-store and -transport package. I found the EZcube easy to set up and use right out of the gate and have been using this light box for all my product shots. There’s a zipper flap for easy access to the product or you can place the EZcube over stationary objects that cannot be moved. Replaceable sweeps allow me to change the background, as desired, to a variety of colors. Risers are available on which to place products, giving a beautiful reflection. It even has grommets strategically placed in the EZcube, along with a suspension system to hang products from, for a completely shadowless image. The EZcube is available in five sizes: 12", 20", 30", 40", and 55" to accommodate products from jewelry to large items. Included with every EZcube is a handy guide, as well as a DVD tutorial to help you get started. ■

Company: TableTop Studio LLC

Price: $55–149.95

Web: www.ezcube.com

Phone: 805-566-0315

Platform:

COMPACT POINT-AND-SHOOT WITH 4X OPTICAL ZOOM Review by Steve Baczewski The Casio Exilim EX-Z300 is a 10.1-megapixel point-and-shoot with a zoom range of 28–112mm (35mm equivalent). The thin metal body easily slips into a shirt pocket, but getting a good grip can be an issue. The new image processor enables you to shoot at higher ISOs (range is 64–3200) with relatively low noise levels. I shot at night and indoors at ISO 1600 and, although there was noise and loss of detail, I was impressed with overall dynamic range and image quality. Camera movement is minimized by mechanically shifting the sensor or raising the ISO to allow faster shutter speeds. Also new is shooting 720p HD movies with a dedicated Movie button for added spontaneity. Sadly, the zoom becomes disabled in movie mode. Face recognition stores up to six faces as references for future shots. Press the dedicated Make-up Shot button before taking a shot, and the EX-Z300 applies 12 degrees of airbrushing to smooth blemishes, wrinkles, and remove harsh shadows without oversoftening. The EX-Z300 uses SD cards and records JPEG, MOV, and WAV formats. The 3", 230,400-pixel LCD screen holds up well in bright outdoor light. To the right of the LCD is an intuitive five-button control panel and a four-way navigational pad whose right- and left-navigational arrows can be programmed to adjust ISO, EV compensation, etc. Pressing the Set button brings up a panel of frequently used features on the LCD that can be adjusted quickly, sparing a trip through the menus. This is a totally automatic camera with no aperture or shutter priority modes. There are 38 Best Shot preset scene modes that can be used as a workaround: Landscape gives you maximum depth of field; Sports gives you a fast shutter speed; etc. Image quality is very good up to ISO 400, but general performance suffers with a 3-sec. lag between shots. ■

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ Company: Casio America, Inc.

Price: $299.99

Web: www.exilim.casio.com

Phone: 800-836-8580

Platform:

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆

Reviews

Nik Sharpener Pro 3 ▼ PHOTOSHOP IMAGE-SHARPENING PLUG-IN Review by Daniel M. East

Getting that razor-sharp look can make all the difference for those who earn their living as photographers. Some plug-ins fall short of this task because they create something too edgy and harsh, or simply apply a global effect to your entire image, but Nik Sharpener Pro 3 is a huge leap forward in image enhancement. With your image open on your display, the process is fairly easy without any need for a manual or tutorial to get started. Select either the RAW (presharpening) or Output (printing) option under the Filter menu, and you’re presented with a stunningly simple window. In Aperture, go to Images>Edit with and select your choice of Sharpener use. One of my favorite features is the Selective tool, which allows you to “brush in” the effect. I found this excellent for adding a bit of sparkle to the eyes or for certain product photography. The effects can be fine-tuned with the control features of the Selective tool, so you won’t overprocess your image. Making use of the different preview modes allows you to see what kind of results you can expect. The Soft Proof preview is a reasonable way to see what your final output might look like. With that said, and after some time with Nik Sharpener Pro 3, saving user

presets and “dialing in” for your own style happens easily and quickly. This is an excellent bit of progress for an already fine product. Nik Software continues to improve their products for both usability and functionality, while also making them easier to use and more intuitive. Nik Sharpener Pro 3 is my favorite sharpening plug-in to date and the results prove my point—and theirs. ■

Company: Nik Software, Inc.

Price: $199.95

Web: www.niksoftware.com

Phone: 619-725-3150


Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

SANYO PLV-Z700 ▼ 1080P HOME ENTERTAINMENT PROJECTOR

Back in the September 2008 issue of Photoshop User, John Paul Caponigro asked us to consider scale when contemplating our images’ intended impact. This prompted me to find a way to see shots as big as they could possibly be—on the cheap. This might sound oxymoronic but bear with me. This full HD, 16:9-aspect-ratio projector is rated at 1,200 lumens with a 10,000:1 contrast ratio and is, at a glance, impressive; however, if you look closer and take into account that it was the first 1080p projector to clock in under two grand, it’s extraordinary. I could spew all the numbers in the world but what really counts is how it performs. I tested SANYO’s projector extensively: hooked up to a Sony PS3 via HDMI with CF card installed, it wowed the family with photos from a Nikon D700 using the onboard 3D color management system (then I popped in a Blu-ray of Ironman and really knocked their socks off ). In preparation for the national analog-to-high-definition switch, the cable guy came out to upgrade our service to HD by linking directly with the projector using one of the two component cable inputs and he couldn’t believe it was a projector and was “dumbfounded” by how crisp the picture looked at 100+ inches (and this was with all the

living room lights on). Finally, with the Xbox 360 hooked up to the second HDMI port, Halo 3 astonished the pizza-delivery guy (so much so that he flashed his Halo 3 tattoo and refused a tip). Even with all this stuff hooked up, there’s still room to grow the entertainment center with remaining component, S-Video, and analog RGB and video inputs; thus, you can get by without upgrading to an HDMI-compatible receiver. Alas, I couldn’t find a single flaw to complain about other than the usual fine-tuning for whatever room it’s in; meaning, for the price, this projector has reached a mythical ideal and comes highly recommended. Just keep in mind that at this price, it’s to be expected that the contrast levels are a bit lower than your boss’s projector that costs three times as much. ■

Company: SANYO North America Corporation Price: $1,995 Web: www.sanyoprojectors.com Platform:

Phone: 888-337-1215 Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆


Review by Issac Stolzenbach

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Book Reviews by Peter Bauer


Photoshop CS4 All-in-One for Dummies

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Photoshop CS4 Workflow: The Digital Photographer's Guide

BY BARBARA OBERMEIER

BY TIM GREY

The question I regularly hear about Photoshop CS4 All-inOne for Dummies is “Other than price, what’s the difference between this book and your Photoshop CS4 for Dummies?” My answer? Length. With almost 300 more pages than mine, this book has room for numerous step-by-step instructions and “Putting it Together” exercises that don’t fit in a more streamlined reference book. You’ll find thorough coverage of all of the major features in Photoshop CS4 (but nothing on the additional features of Photoshop CS4 Extended). Easy-to-read, suitably illustrated, and comprehensive in what’s covered, this is an excellent choice for someone self-teaching Photoshop who isn’t interested in a lesson-based book. It’s also great for someone who occasionally has to delve into parts of Photoshop with which he or she is generally unfamiliar. Have a new task looming on the horizon? Pull out the book, look it up, read about it, confidently fulfill your assignment.

If the word “workflow” conjures up images of “Do this, then do this, then do this, then do that,” the title of this book might scare you off, but there’s far more here than simply cookbook-style procedures for processing images. You’ll find a wealth of information on how to work in Photoshop. Note the subtitle, however: This is a book for digital photographers. No mention here of the Type or Pen tools (not that digital photographers never need those tools), and the only reference to CMYK you’ll see is in a discussion of how to use Selective Color with RGB images. The coverage of Adobe Camera Raw is a bit limited and the author seems to prefer adjusting composition (cropping and straightening) in Photoshop rather than taking advantage of the nondestructive capabilities in Camera Raw. But, whether they shoot RAW or JPEG, this book has lots of great Photoshop information for digital photographers.

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Publisher: Sybex

Pages: 696

Website: www.wiley.com Price: $39.99

Pages: 382

Website: www.sybex.com Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Price: $39.99


Rafael “RC” Concepcion

Photoshop Q & A Q A

I design my webpages at 1024x768 (because anyone looking for my work couldn’t possibly be looking at it with a smaller screen!). But it’s important to note that this doesn’t mean you should also place buttons and banners throughout all that real estate. When you think of a 1024x768 screen, keep in mind that the browser window, status bars, application bars, and scroll components will also occupy that space, so it’s actually a lot smaller. If you go to www.webdesignerstoolkit.com, you can download screenshots of browsers at various resolutions to get an idea of just how small that main window is. If you design to this, you generally won’t have a problem. Remember that this smaller space will also contain some of the copy and images for the website, so you’ll have to take that into consideration as well. If you keep your navigation elements within 175 pixels horizontally and vertically, you’ll ensure that the important portions of your page will be seen.

RAFAEL “RC” CONCEPCION

I want to show my photos on the Internet. Someone told me that she can open the file and see all of my camera settings. Is there a way to delete that information? When you take pictures, data about each photo is recorded into something called EXIF data. In Photoshop, you can see this information when you choose File>File Info and click on Camera Data, or in the Metadata panel in Bridge. Normally, this is good, but some photographers are a little protective of this information because it’s technically the “recipe” for the shot. When you use File>Save for Web & Devices, this information is stripped from the file. I recommend that you create an action that includes File>Open, File>Save for Web & Devices, and File>Close steps. Once that’s completed, make a droplet of the action and have the droplet save the files in the already existing folder. When you want to remove this information from the files, just drag the files onto the droplet.


Q A

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Q A

What are the correct dimensions for designing a webpage? I’ve heard many conflicting answers! The reason that there are so many answers is because there are so many different preferences for computer screens these days. Not too long ago, we counted on computerscreen resolutions being 640x480, 800x600, or 1024x768. As technology advanced, screen resolution improved, and we started seeing sizes such as 1280x800 (widescreen monitors) and 1440x900. So…you need to think of your design and how to make it appeal to the largest audience possible, then plan toward that.

How can you change where Adobe Camera Raw makes its changes to the RAW file? If you choose Photoshop (PC: Edit)>Camera Raw Preferences, you’ll see a dialog that allows you to change where you want to save image settings. If you select Sidecar “.xmp” Files, then all changes are saved to the XMP sidecar file and you’ll need to copy that file with the image to any new location where you want to see the changes. If you select Camera Raw Database, the file’s image settings will be saved on your computer.

Q

Q. Photoshop CS3 Extended allows you to work with video. Does this mean that I can add layer styles and masks to it? How does this differ in Photoshop CS4? Absolutely, you can add layer styles and masks. One of the coolest things that you can do with Photoshop CS3 Extended is play around with video; however, there are a couple of caveats.

A

Photoshop Q & A

Add to Shape Area, Subtract from Shape Area, Intersect Shape Areas, and Exclude Overlapping Shape Areas tools in the Options Bar. One of my favorite options is Subtract, where you take a new shape and use it to cut out (or subtract) from the original shape. Select the second shape you want to use, and when you draw on the shape, it will cut out that shape from the original.

©ISTOCKPHOTO/OLGA GROMOVA

If you want to apply a specific mask to a video in Photoshop CS3 Extended, you’ll need to convert the video to a smart object and from there, you can apply your styles and masks. Photoshop CS4 Extended allows you to mask the video and apply styles without first making a smart object of the video layer.

Q A

How do you duplicate a layer group? There’s a couple of ways to do this. You can either Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the group and select Duplicate Group, or drag the group onto the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. This gets a little complicated when you try to copy groups to other files. It’s easy in Photoshop CS3: Simply grab the group folder and drag it into the window of the second file. To make this work in Photoshop CS4, use the Move tool (V) to move the object from the document onto the tab of the other file. The other window will appear and you can drop the layer group in that window.

If you have the shapes on separate layers, use the Path Selection tool (A) to select a given shape. Press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) then Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to copy-and-paste that shape into the second shape layer. Highlighting each of the paths, select one of the shape options in the Options Bar. Finally, select both shapes and click the Combine button in the Options Bar, and your new shape will be created. ■

What’s the difference between Vibrance and Saturation in Adobe Camera Raw? Saturation uniformly decreases or increases the colors in an image, from monochrome (desaturated) to twice the color intensity that the image would normally have, respectively. Vibrance is very selective about what it saturates, however. With Vibrance, colors that aren’t very saturated become more saturated; colors that are already very saturated are left alone. Any color that appears to be skin-related is left untouched, because who wants orange skin?

Q A

How do I create new shapes with already existing shapes in Photoshop? You have two ways to go about this. First, with a shape tool selected in the Toolbox, use the Create New Shape Layer,

If you have a Photoshop question you’d like to see published in this column, please send it to [email protected]. If, however, you’d like your question answered immediately, go to the Help Desk at www.photoshopuser.com.


Q A

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NAPP Photoshop Design Showcase Where NAPP members get to exhibit their artwork

If you’d like to have your work considered for publication in the NAPP Photoshop Design Showcase, submit samples of your artwork to [email protected].

Isabelle Green Isabelle lives in rural Vermont where each summer some of the most beautiful horses enter dressage and hunter-jumper competitions. She photographs them in their dusty warm-up arenas and then, “shows off their power and grace in her own landscape photos, using Photoshop to paint the skies and foregrounds.” Isabelle agrees with Arthur C. Clarke that, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and says, “Photoshop is magic at our fingertips.” www.flickr.com/photos/isabelle_ann

Brian Bastinelli

▼

Andie Styner

Brian is an emerging photographer in the York, Pennsylvania area. At present, he’s a career firefighter, transitioning to full-time photographer. One of his passions is shooting images of firefighters in action. According to Brian, “My close relationship with area departments and knowledge of the job allow me close access to dramatic emergency scenes where I can create these unique images.” Check out his website to see more of his work.

Having attended the School of Visual Arts in NYC, Andie became a freelance illustrator/graphic designer, opening Roobiblue Studios in 1986. Recently, she returned to her two loves—painting and photography— creating unique imagery with more depth and texture than the original photograph. She remarks, “I’m enthusiastic about experimenting with layers, opacities, and filters in Photoshop to accomplish my goal of a more painterly style of photography, that keeps folks guessing…Is it a photo?”

www.brianbastinelli.com

www.roobiblue.com


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109

Sherry London

Photoshop Quick Tips


Reinstalling presets You can reinstall your presets (Brushes, Gradients, Shapes, etc.) when you upgrade to a new version of Photoshop. If you don’t mind that the presets won’t appear in the various menus, you can always browse for them in the older Photoshop version when you go to apply or load them again. To get your presets to appear in the various menus, however, just drag a copy of each preset to the same location/folder (see above tip for default location) in your new version of Photoshop. I also keep a duplicate (read: “safety net”) Presets folder outside the Adobe folder on my hard drive and keep it updated. It’s a good idea to periodically save your presets to an external drive or CD as well. (But then again, you do back up your system regularly, don’t you?)

110

Moving multiple layers To drag multiple layers from one document to another at the same time, select each layer you want in the Layers panel. They don’t need to be contiguous; for example, you can click on the top layer, then press Command (PC: Ctrl) and click on the bottom layer of a five-layer document to choose just those two layers. Then use the Move tool (V) and drag the layers from their image directly into the new image. So long as the multiple layers are highlighted in the Layers panel, they’ll all follow the Move tool. Make it fit If you drag a layer into a different image, the new layer appears wherever you release the mouse. If you want to center the dragged layer in the new image, however, simply hold the Shift key as you

drag-and-drop. If your two images are the same size, you’ll register them so they fit together perfectly. Add a quick sepia tone You can give an old image a quick sepia tone via the Black and White adjustment dialog. Just check the Tint box and drag the Hue and Saturation sliders to find the color you like. Adjust the various sliders to bring out the best in the image. For my example, I cropped this 1973 image of my son and added a slight vignette (Filter>Distort>Lens Correction) at the edges.

SHERRY LONDON

Save custom settings In Photoshop, you really need to be observant, especially with regard to its interface buttons and icons. Recently, I wanted to create a preset to apply the same blackand-white adjustment (Image>Adjustments> Black & White) to several different images, but I saw no obvious way to do so. I finally noticed the tiny “I’m a menu” Preset Options icon to the right of the Preset drop-down list in the Black and White dialog and bingo! One click and you can Save or Load any custom preset you want. Once you’ve saved your preset in its default location, the Presets folder, your new setting will then appear in the dropdown menu of available Presets. The default location for a Black and White adjustment preset is as follows: Macintosh—Hard Drive/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS(version)/Presets/Black and White Windows—C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS(version)\Presets\Black and White

Before

After

QUICK KEYSTROKES This issue, I’m rounding up the keystrokes I use most often. 1. Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) copies the active layer into a new layer. If you have an active selection, it only copies the selection into the new layer. 2. Command-L (PC: Ctrl-L) activates the Levels command. One of the more useful variations of this command, Command-Option-L (PC: Ctrl-Alt-L) shows you the last settings used with the command. You can recall your Curves settings the same way—Command-Option-M (PC: Ctrl-Alt-M). 3. Shift-Command-E (PC: Shift-Ctrl-E) is the Layer>Merge Visible command and copies all visible layers in a selection. 4. Command-F (PC: Ctrl-F) repeats the last filter you used at its most recent setting. If you want the last filter you used but need to change the settings, use Command-Option-F (PC: Ctrl-Alt-F), which will open that filter’s dialog. 5. Command-W (PC: Ctrl-W) closes the current file and gives you a chance to save it, if necessary—instead of first saving then closing the file. ■

Photoshop user

March 2009

I N D E X

O F

A D V E R T I S E R S

For advertising information, please contact Melinda Gotelli, Advertising Director, at 916-929-8200. email: [email protected]

[A]

[G] Graphic Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114–115 www.graphicauthority.com

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 www.kelbytraining.com

[O] onOne Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 www.ononesoftware.com

[P]

[H]

Adobe Photoshop Seminar Tours. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 www.kelbytraining.com

Hewlett-Packard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 www.hp.com

Peachpit Publishing Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 www.peachpit.com

Adorama Camera, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 www.adorama.com

Hill & Usher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 www.hillusher.com

Photos.com/JupiterImages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 www.photos.com

Airbrush Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 www.airbrushaction.com Alien Skin Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 www.alienskin.com AMC Colorgrafix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 www.amc-color.com Axiotron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 www.axiotron.com

[B]

[I] iStockphoto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC–3 www.istockphoto.com I.T. Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 www.itsupplies.com

[J] Jane’s Digital Art School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 www.janesdigitalart.com

B&H Photo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 www.bhphotovideo.com BlackRapid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 www.blackrapid.com BOSS LOGO Print & Graphics Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 116–117 www.5000cards.com

[C]

[K]

PhotoshopCAFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 www.photoshopcafe.com Photoshop World Conference & Expo . . . . . . . . .41–46 www.photoshopworld.com Professional Photographers of America (PPA) . . . 126 www.ppa.com Print Factory, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 www.GoPrintFactory.com PrintRunner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 www.printrunner.com

[R]

Kelby Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76, 95, 105 www.kelbytraining.com

[L]

Really Right Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 www.reallyrightstuff.com

[S]

Layers Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 www.layersmagazine.com

CDW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 www.cdw.com Copy Craft Printers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 www.copycraft.com Corel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 www.corel.com Creative Juices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 www.bigposters.com

[D] Dahle North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 www.dahle.com

[E] eStudioLighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 www.estudiolighting.com

Layers TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 www.layersmagazine.com LC Technology, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 www.lc-tech.com

Shutterstock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 www.shutterstock.com Smith Micro Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 www.mysmithmicro.com

[U]

Lens Pro To Go. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 www.lensprotogo.com

[M]

UPrinting.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 www.uprinting.com

[W]

MacMall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC www.macmall.com Media Lab, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 www.medialab.com Mpix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 www.mpix.com

Westcott. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 www.fjwestcott.com www.RawWorkflow.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 www.RawWorkflow.com

[Z]

[N]

[F] Fotolia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .IBC www.fotolia.com

Nik Software, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 www.niksoftware.com

Zoo Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 www.zooprinting.com

While every attempt has been made to make this listing as complete as possible, its accuracy cannot be guaranteed.


4 Over, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112–113 www.4over.com

111

Colin Smith

Photoshop Beginners’ Tips Too big to see Have you ever copied a layer into a document then noticed it’s way too big to see? You want to resize it but you can’t see the corner handles either. There are several ways to address the problem, but here’s a new way to resize the layer: Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to enter Free Transform; click the Maintain Aspect Ratio icon (the chain) in the Options Bar to constrain the proportions; and click-and-drag over the W or H to resize. That was easy!


Drag and select Many people don’t know you can click-and-drag to select layers from the document window. Choose the Move tool (V), Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click), and drag the cursor from the surrounding pasteboard into the canvas. (Note: If you don’t see the pasteboard, click-and-drag the corner of the document window until you do.) You’ll notice that a marquee selection will appear around the area where you’re dragging. Whenever you touch the pixels of a layer while the key is pressed, it will be selected in the Layers panel. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the pasteboard to deselect.

130

and choose Duplicate Layer from the list. In the Duplicate Layer dialog that appears, in the Destination section, set the Document menu to New, Name it (if you wish), and click OK. Your layer will now appear in a new document. Scrubby slider speed control You’ve probably noticed that if you move your cursor over the name of most settings in dialogs and panels, you see a double arrow, called a scrubby slider. Click-and-drag in either direction to adjust the setting. How about some real control? Press the Command (PC: Ctrl) key while hovering over a field (not the name) to invoke the scrubby sliders. Hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key to slow down the adjustment speed to 1/10 of its normal sensitivity or hold down Shift to speed up the sliders to 10 times their normal speed. Adjust kerning Kerning is the technical term for the space between letters. You’ll often need to adjust this, especially when using uppercase letters. The easy way to adjust the kerning when using the Type tool (T) is to insert the cursor between two letters. Then hold down Option (PC: Alt) and tap the Left or Right Arrow keys to decrease or increase the spacing, respectively. Extra Tip: To help visualize kerning, look at three letters at a time and adjust them as you go.

Add or remove layers from the selection You can select multiple layers from the Layers panel: Just click the top layer, hold down the Shift key, and then click a lower layer or the bottom layer to select all contiguous layers between. To add or remove a layer from the selection, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the layer’s name.

New document from layer Have you ever wanted to move a single layer to a brand-new document? Select the layer, click the Layers panel’s flyout menu,

Grouping layers When you have several layers selected, you can group them together into a subfolder in the Layers panel. Click the Layers panel’s flyout menu, choose New Group from Layers, make your necessary adjustments from the ensuing dialog, and click OK. All the selected layers will be moved into a group folder. This group can be expanded or collapsed by clicking the triangle to the left of the Group folder icon in the Layers panel. ■

Colin Smith, an award-winning designer, lecturer, and writer, has authored or co-authored several books on Photoshop, and has created a series of Photoshop training videos available from PhotoshopCD.com. Colin is also the founder of PhotoshopCAFE.com. ALL IMAGES BY COLIN SMITH

Photoshop User Magazine[March 2009]

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