Practical Photoshop Nº 54 Septiembre 2015

LEARN PHOTOSHOP CC & LIGHTROOM THE EASY WAY! Issue 54 September 2015 www.digitalcameraworld.com

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ENHANCE YOUR PHOTOS WITH ESSENTIAL EDITS & HIDDEN TRICKS


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DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES To download this issue's files, type the following link into your web browser on your PC or Mac:

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Welcome to issue 54 of Practical Photoshop! If you enjoy the issue, why not subscribe and get a whole year for just $19.99 This issue we serve up a host of tips and tricks that will help you make the most of your camera’s raw format, from multi-processing raw files to mono effects. Also in this issue we reveal how to make a lovely bokeh portrait effect and how to start shooting tethered with Lightroom.

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HIGHLIGHTS: WHAT’S INSIDE… The World of Photoshop

44 secrets of Camera Raw

Multi-process your raw files

Beautiful bokeh Shoot tethered background effects with Lightroom

Q Get inspired by Photoshop art from around the globe

Q Become a Camera Raw pro with these tips and tricks

Q Tease out detail in your landscapes by combining images

Q Enhance your portraits with dreamy bokeh

Q Connect your camera for instant picture control

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1 Aquamarina 2 We Are Three 3 The Complexities of Bubbles By Vicki-Lea Boulter Using Photoshop CC

My creative portraiture is about capturing the very essence of a person’s character – revealing the story they wish to show to the outside world. For me, making these images is a way of communicating, and expressing myself and my ideas. www.vickiboulter.com

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1 Abstract summer 2 Nightfall 3 Stress By Martín De Pasquale

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Using Photoshop CS5 and CS6

Abstract summer reflects everyday situations in a twisted way. I love playing with the impossible under normal-life situations. This image is part3D, which required time and accuracy. Stress reflects a very stressful time of day: returning home after work. I used the sunset, and shot uphill to give a dramatic feeling. Dragging my own head is a good way to demonstrate this. www.martindepasquale.com

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Stress is an excellent demonstration of the benefits of shooting with consistent angles and lighting for compositing James Paterson, Editor

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Everything the Canon photographer needs!

A comprehensive reference guide to your Canon EOS digital SLR

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We delve deeper into Camera Raw than ever before to find the hidden delights, handy tricks and little-known features that will help to give your raw images the edge

WORKFLOW TIPS AND AFTER VIEWS 01 BEFORE The buttons in the bottom right corner of the image display give you a set of useful preview options for comparing the before and after of your edits. The left icon that looks like a Y gives you different splitscreen before/after views, such as horizontal or vertical comparisons and splits (hold your mouse button down on the icon to choose from the list, or click to toggle between each). The second and third icons enable you to toggle between before and after settings.

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CACHE SIZE

If you’re in the habit of bringing lots of images into Camera Raw at once, you might notice that the images take a second or two to display, in which case increase the cache size in the Preferences menu. The larger the size, the greater the number of image previews ACR can hold.

02

SCRUBBY ZOOMING

The latest CC versions of Camera Raw feature ‘scrubby zooming’, which means, as long as your graphics card can handle it, you can drag right or left with the zoom tool to fly in and out of your image. To make sure the feature is enabled, click the Preferences button in the toolbar at the top and check Use Graphics Processor in the Performance tab. When using another tool, such as the Spot Removal tool, you can hold Cmd/Ctrl to temporarily switch to the Zoom tool, so it’s easier and quicker than ever to retouch an image by jumping in close to different areas.

04 SYNC SETTINGS When several images are opened together in Camera Raw, you can edit them all at once in two different ways. Either select several in the filmstrip by Cmd/ Ctrl-clicking them, and then begin your edits. Alternatively, edit a single image first, then select several and use the Sync settings option in the top-left drop-down menu. This second option has the added benefit that you can choose exactly which edits are synced – useful if, for example, you need to batch-fix a recurring sensor mark, but leave the other settings untouched.

DON’T EVEN NEED TO OPEN PHOTOSHOP! 05 YOU Bridge can ‘host’ Camera Raw, so there’s no need to have

SLIDERS 06 RESET Double click

Photoshop open. Simply open Bridge, then right click an image and choose Open in Camera Raw.

any slider to reset it.

SNAPSHOTS 07 AND PRESETS Use the Snapshot panel to save noteworthy points in your workflow, and the Presets panel to save settings for use on other images.

RAW 08 CAMERA DEFAULTS

NAVIGATION SHORTCUTS 09 MUST-KNOW Use Cmd/Ctrl + or – to zoom in or out, and hold down the space bar to drag around the image when zoomed in.

Sometimes you just want to get rid of everything you’ve done to an image and start afresh. Click the flyout menu next to the panels and choose Camera Raw defaults.

TOOL TIPS 10

SPEEDY SPOT COLOUR

The Targeted Adjustment tool can give you a rough-and-ready spot-colour effect in seconds. Right click with the tool, choose Saturation, then drag down over the colours you want to remove.

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FIX THE WHITE BALANCE

One of the great advantages of shooting in raw mode is that the files hold more colour information than JPEGs, which means you can use the raw colour data to adjust the white balance after taking the shot to correct colour shifts and inconsistencies. To do this, simply grab the White Balance tool, then look for a colour in the scene that should be either white or grey, such as the rocks in this picture.

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CHECK FOR MARKS

The Visualise spots check box in the Spot Removal tool settings is ideal for those with dirty sensors. Check it for a clear black-and-white view of the marks.

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JUMP TO 100% VIEW

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TOGGLE CROPS

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CUSTOM CROPPING

Double click the Zoom tool to jump to a 100% view – useful for judging sharpening and noise reduction – then double click the Hand tool to jump back out and fit the whole image on the screen.

When using the Crop tool, press X to toggle between a vertical or horizontal orientation.

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REMOVE WIRES

When using the Spot Removal tool to get rid of wires in a landscape, click one end, then hold Shift and click the other end to draw a straight line and fix the whole thing in one go.

When using the Crop tool, right click the image to choose a proportion such as 2:3 or 1:1. Tap A to switch to the Level tool, then drag along the horizon.

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MONOCHROME IN A SPLIT SECOND

Grab the Targeted Adjustment tool from the Tools panel, right click and choose Grayscale Mix for a speedy mono conversion, then finetune the image by dragging up or down over points in the image to lighten or darken them.

SELECTIVE ADJUSTMENT TIPS

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SAVE ADJUSTMENTS

If you find that you make a similar adjustment lots of times, then save time by storing the adjustment as a New Local Adjustment Setting in the flyout menu at the top right of the Adjustment Brush settings. When you want to make the same edit, choose the adjustment from the menu to quickly load up the brush with the right settings.

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DOUBLE DOSE OF CLARITY

If you’re a fan of crisp details, sometimes setting +100 Clarity in the Basic panel just isn’t enough. In which case, grab the Graduated Filter tool, load it with extra Clarity, then click the space outside the image and drag away from it. This will double the amount of Clarity added.

20 SMOOTH SKIN For soft, silky skin in seconds, grab the Adjustment Brush, click the minus icon next to the Clarity slider on the right to dial in negative Clarity to about -50, then paint over the skin, being careful not to go over areas of detail like the eyes and lips.

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QUICK VIGNETTE

Cmd/Ctrl-double click with the Radial Filter tool to add a circular blend that extends to the edges of the image. This is perfect for quickly adding vignette effects to the corners of your pictures.

GRADS 21 STRAIGHT Hold down Shift to snap graduated filter lines to horizontal, vertical or at 45 degrees – helpful when darkening a sky.

A PIN 22 COPY Hold down Cmd/ Ctrl+Shift+Alt and drag an adjustment pin to make a copy – ideal for copying adjustments from one eye across to the other, for instance.

A ROUGH 23 ADD BORDER

WITH GRADS

For a rough-andready border effect that mimics the look of old film borders, load the Graduated Filter tool with -4.00 negative exposure, then drag a few short lines inwards at the edges of the frame to add dark, thick lines to the image.

YOUR 25 RESET ADJUSTMENTS When using the Adjustment Brush, the tool remembers the previous settings. To simultaneously load the tool with a new setting and also reset everything else, simply click the plus or minus icon next to any slider.

SHORTCUTS 26 FEATHER When using the Adjustment Brush, press ] or [ to resize the brush tip, and Shift+] or [ to adjust the size of the feathering around the brush tip.

A CIRCLE 27 SHIFT While dragging a circle with the Radial Filter tool, holding down the space bar will allow you to shift its position while you drag.

A MASK 28 ERASE Hold Alt while painting with the Adjustment Brush to erase parts of a mask.

29 AUTO-MASK The Adjustment Brush Auto-Mask feature transforms the brush by making it seek out and snap on to colours that are similar to the first colour you click when using it, making it much easier to isolate objects and shapes for adjustment.

SETTINGS TIPS THE OLD FILL LIGHT SLIDER 30 USE If you find the Basic panel’s Shadows slider just isn’t lifting your shadows as much as you’d like, then there’s a hidden cheat you can use. Go to the Camera Calibration panel and change the Process version to 2010, then go back to the Basic panel, and you’ll find the Fill Light slider. For some reason, the old Fill Light slider is more extreme than the Shadows slider that replaced it.

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INTERACTIVE HISTOGRAM

The histogram is interactive, so you can drag different parts of the graph to adjust those areas of the tonal range, from the blacks on the left to the whites on the right – useful both for fine-tuning tones, and also for understanding how histograms work.

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CHECK FOR CLIPPED PIXELS

Clipped pixels are either pure white or pure black, and are entirely lacking in detail, so it’s usually best not to have too many in your photos. To check for clipped pixels in the highlights or shadows of an image, press either O (for over-exposed) or U (for under-exposed) to toggle the clipping warnings on and off. Alternatively, Altdrag any of the Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Whites or Blacks sliders for a view of the image that displays the clipped pixels very clearly.

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MASK YOUR SHARPENING

Often we don’t want to sharpen all of our images, just the areas of detail. After applying sharpening in the Detail panel, hold Alt and drag the Masking slider. The black areas that appear will be excluded from the sharpening effect.

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AUTOMATIC SLIDERS

Shift-double click any of the first eight Basic panel sliders to apply an auto correction to each individual setting.

CAMERA 36 TRY PROFILES

SPLIT-TONE COLOURS 34 PREVIEW When using the Hue sliders in the Split Tone panel to add tints, hold Alt while dragging to preview the colour at 100%. This makes it easier to judge the colour first.

The Camera Calibration panel can be a useful first stop in the editing process. Try different camera profiles to change the look of tones and colours.

PORTRAITS 37 DESATURATE If you want to give your portraits

MONOS WITH TEMP AND TINT 38 TWEAK After converting an image to

a trendy desaturated look, try lowering Saturation, then increasing Vibrance in the Basic panel. Or vice versa if you prefer more vibrant colours.

monochrome with the HSL/Grayscale panel, you can go back to the Basic panel and experiment with Temp and Tint to finetune the look of the black-and-white effect.

HAZE TO LANDSCAPES 39 ADD Found in the FX panel, the new Dehaze command enables you to cut through atmospheric haze in your landscape scenes, but it also does a great job when used in reverse to add haziness to scenes. This is useful when you want to add a dreamy atmosphere to your landscapes.

OUTPUT TIPS PROOF FOR PRINTING 40 SOFT The workflow options (accessible via the blue link below the image) not only enable you to choose a colour space, but also to soft-proof your image by displaying different ICC print profiles in the Color Space options. You can also choose to simulate the paper and ink you’re using to get a more accurate idea of how your print will look.

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16-BIT TIFFS

If you’re planning on taking the photograph further with heavy editing in Photoshop, and you want the best possible image quality with the most colours, choose to output the file as a 16-bit Tiff in the workflow options.

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BYPASS CAMERA RAW

If you’d rather bypass Adobe Camera Raw and open a raw file straight into Photoshop, hold down Shift and double click the file in Adobe Bridge. This will process the raw file with the default ACR settings.

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OPEN AS A SMART OBJECT

To open an image in Photoshop from Camera Raw as a Smart Object, hold Shift and the Open Image button changes to Open Object. Once done, you can double click the Smart Object layer in the Layers panel to send the image back to Adobe Camera Raw.

AND 44 CROP PRINT You can prepare images for printing directly from Camera Raw. Use the Crop tool to crop to specific dimensions, then go to the Image Sizing options, check Resize to Fit and choose the width, height and resolution.

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AFTER

BEFORE

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Pull detail out of your raw files by processing them several times Multi-processing raw files is a great way to squeeze extra detail out of landscapes and high-contrast scenes. All you do is process the image a number of times, focusing on different areas – such as land or sky – then blend them together in Photoshop. This gives us the best of both worlds.

We can use Camera Raw’s tonal controls to tease out detail in different areas of the image, and use Photoshop’s superior selection and compositing controls to bring everything together seamlessly. What’s more, with Smart Objects we can easily send the image back and forth between the two.

PROJECT INFO You’ll learn How to process a raw file several times, then combine the versions in Photoshop You’ll need Photoshop CS5 or above It’ll take 10 minutes

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CREATE BEAUTIFUL BOKEH IN PORTRAITS

AFTER

Spice up your portraits by adding out-offocus effects, and learn amazing brush techniques while you’re at it!

BEFORE

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PROJECT INFO You’ll learn How to make a background bokeh effect, and create and customise your own brushes You’ll need Photoshop CC It’ll take 30 minutes

DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES HERE http://tiny.cc/2o0w1x ON YOUR PC OR MAC

01

MAKE A NEW BRUSH

Go to File>New, choose A4, set Background Contents: Transparent, and click OK. Grab the Elliptical Marquee tool. Shift-draw a small circle, go to Edit>Fill and use black. In the Layers panel, set Fill 50% and go to Layer>Layer Style> Stroke. Set Size 8px, colour black. Click OK.

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DEFINE YOUR BRUSH

Go to Edit>Define Brush Preset. Name it and click OK. Create a new layer, press Alt+Delete to fill it, go to Layer>Layer Style>Gradient Overlay. Click the preview bar, then double click the little squares under the gradient and choose two colours (blue and purple here). Click OK.

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CUSTOMISE THE BRUSH

Grab the Brush tool. Toggle the Brush panel in the options bar. Use Brush Tip Shape, set Spacing 100%. Use Shape Dynamics, set Size Jitter 100, Minimum Diameter 50. Use Scattering, set Scatter 1000, Count 3. Use Transfer, set Opacity and Flow Jitter to 50%.

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PAINT AND ADD BLUR

Make a new layer, click the blending mode drop-down menu in the Layers panel, and choose Color Dodge. Pick a light grey colour and paint scattered bubbles. Pick Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Blur the bubbles using a Radius of 40px, then click OK. Repeat on another layer, with a lower amount of blur.

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BUILD UP THE EFFECT

Continue painting and blurring on more layers (set to Color Dodge), varying the brush size and blur amount. Go to File>Place Embedded and choose bokeh_ cutout.png to drop in the subject. Add more bokeh layers on top. Press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to merge a layer.

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ADD TONAL EFFECTS

Select Filter>Blur Gallery>Iris Blur, and blur the edges of the frame. Go to Filter>Camera Raw Filter. Grab the Radial Filter tool, set Exposure -3, and drag to darken the corners. Create an adjustment layer, choose Color Lookup and select a tonal preset, such as 2 Strip, used here.

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Your quick-start guide and reference to image editing in Photoshop

If you’re relatively new to editing in Photoshop, or you just don’t know where to begin, then this section is the best place to get started. Over the next nine pages, you’ll find an overview of the different versions of Photoshop available, a breakdown of the

typical image-editing workflow in Photoshop, an overview of raw file editing, a guide to the six most useful layers, and a glossary of the most useful shortcuts. This guide condenses most of the tools and techniques you’ll use every time you import a new roll of pictures.

LIGHTROOM 6 £100.07 OR INCLUDED WITH CREATIVE CLOUD WINDOWS, OS X

PHOTOSHOP CC £8.78/$9.99 PER MONTH WINDOWS, OS X Photoshop is the software of choice for most professional and non-professional photographers. Beyond the standard photo-editing features, it boasts a vast array of more creative tools and filters. Layers are one of the key differences between Photoshop and Lightroom. They enable you to mask out selected parts to build up increasingly sophisticated images.

Lightroom combines the professional rawprocessing tools in the more expensive Photoshop CC with the asset-organising powers of the cheaper Photoshop Elements. Lightroom is available as a traditional boxed copy (Lightroom 6), and as part of a Creative Cloud subscription (Lightroom CC). Essentially, the applications are the same, except Lightroom CC has Creative Cloud support, ongoing updates, and access to the mobile and web workflows.

LIGHTROOM MOBILE INCLUDED WITH CREATIVE CLOUD IPHONE, IPAD, ANDROID

ELEMENTS 13 £66.43/$99.99 WINDOWS, OS X Elements is the consumer variant of Photoshop, and contains many of its key tools and features within a simplified interface. It’s limited, but it does provide access to layers for those who have switched to a Lightroom workflow.

Lightroom Mobile is the lightweight iPad, iPhone and Android version of the application, integrated with Lightroom CC but not Lightroom 6. To use Lightroom Mobile you need to sign up for an Adobe ID so that you can access the Adobe Creative Cloud. This enables you to create a collection of photos on your desktop copy of Lightroom and sync them via the Creative Cloud to Lightroom Mobile on your portable devices. You can then use Lightroom Mobile to edit or add ratings to your pictures.

ADOBE SHAPE FREE IPHONE, IPAD, ANDROID

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP MIX FREE IPAD, ANDROID Mix enables you to merge two photos together to create a composite image. It offers a simplified compositing process that makes it easy for beginners to start combining an object from one image with a background from another. You can then send the composite to Photoshop for further edits. If you like you can also use Mix to edit a single image. It offers a few simple tonal adjustments and more complex edits such as Content-Aware Fill.

ADOBE COLOR FREE IPHONE, IPAD, ANDROID If you ever need help selecting coordinated colours for your designs, try using Adobe Color. It enables you to create colour themes from photos taken on your mobile device. This could be anything from a scene in your local park to a famous painting. So if you come across an inspirational scene, capture the colours and save them.

Adobe Shape enables you to turn photos and sketches into beautiful vector shapes for use in your designs or artwork. The app smooths out jagged edges in images, resulting in gorgeous vectors that are endlessly scaleable, just as if you’d drawn them by hand with the Pen tool. Make a shape with the mobile app and the next time you open Photoshop on your desktop, the shape will sync to your Library. Drag it in to any document to add colour and make further adjustments.

ADOBE BRUSH FREE IPHONE, IPAD, ANDROID Adobe Brush enables you to make your own custom brushes from photos or sketches for use in Photoshop, Illustrator or the Sketch app. The most successful subjects are usually those that can be easily isolated, such as a splash against white, or a leaf against the sky. You can capture objects for your brush tips using your device’s camera, choose from your camera roll, or use your Creative Cloud library. Once captured, you can then finetune the look of the tip and apply brush settings.

ADOBE COMP CC FREE IPAD

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP SKETCH FREE IPAD As the name suggests, this app enables you to paint freehand using a selection of brushes, colours and other tools. However, Sketch is more than just a painting app. It also enables you to connect with like-minded creatives, so you can follow artists and see their work updating. Once you’re done sketching the image on your iPad, you can upload to the Sketch community or continue working on the image in Photoshop CC. You can also bring in brushes made with Adobe Brush, and for those who can’t paint, there’s an option to overlay images so you can trace over a photo. Sketch is compatible with Adobe’s pen and ruler hardware, Ink and Slide, but you can get great results with your finger.

ADOBE SLATE FREE IPAD Slate enables you to create visual presentations by making it easy to bring together words and images in interesting ways. It offers a selection of themes and fonts that will give your story the look of a magazine without the need for advanced design tools.

If you’re a designer who wants to build a quick layout for a web or print page, then Comp is the ideal place to start piecing ideas, images and text together. You can draw common design elements such as text or image boxes with quick gestures. For example, a couple of squiggly lines with a dot makes a header, and a cross makes an image box. It makes it easy to mock up a layout in seconds. You can then add words and graphics. The app even spits out a Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign document.

BEHANCE CREATIVE PORTFOLIO FREE IPAD, IPHONE Behance is the online social space for creatives to share and showcase their portfolios, connect with one another, and find work. With work from the best photographers, digital artists and designers out there, it’s also a great place to find inspiration for a new project. If you’re a Creative Cloud subscriber you can set up a Behance page in minutes. The Behance app for iOS devices enables you to manage your page, while the Creative Portfolio app provides a polished portfolio.

Manage your photos from capture to output in three stages The image-editing process begins as soon as you’ve transferred your photos from your memory card to your computer. 1 The first stage is to begin sifting through your pictures to discover which are the keepers. The image organiser that comes with Photoshop is ideal for this task. Adobe Bridge has controls for keywording, rating and filtering your images, and there are handy tools for batch renaming files, creating panoramic stitches, making contact sheets and more. Launch Adobe Bridge and navigate to a folder containing new images. Use the cursor keys to quickly flick through the images and click below a thumbnail to add a star rating, or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl+1-5. You can then filter your images by the star rating to group the ones you want to work on. 2 The next step is to open the images from Bridge into Adobe Camera Raw. ACR is the best place to make initial changes to your images to boost tones and correct any problems with exposure and so on. It doesn’t enable you to combine images – you’ll use Photoshop for that – but it does enable you to make the kind of edits photographers need. 3 In Photoshop, you can further refine the image with layers and adjustment layers, which offer a much more flexible way of working than ACR. Once you’ve finished, it’s time to share it with a wider audience. Go to File>Save, and your image will be saved as a Photoshop document (PSD). This keeps all the layers intact, which means you can go back and retweak the image at a later date. However, PSD files are large and take up lots of hard drive space. If you want to share your images online or via email or social media, save them as JPEGs.

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Discover how to process your raw files to perfection The latest version of the raw file processor included with Photoshop is so powerful that most photos can be processed entirely in the raw processor, with no need for further editing in Photoshop. And by making your adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw

rather than in Photoshop, you’ll ensure the best possible image quality, because raw files contain more picture information than bitmap images such as un-layered PSDs and JPEGs. Here’s our reference to the features you’ll use the most in the Basic panel.

THE BASIC PANEL IN ACR

CONTRAST Makes light pixels brighter and dark pixels darker

HIGHLIGHTS

TEMPERATURE

Controls the brightness of the lightest pixels

Use this slider to warm or cool an image if the White Balance tool fails to correct a colour cast

SHADOWS Controls the brightness of the darkest pixels

TINT This slider enables you to correct a green or magenta cast, again, if the White Balance tool fails

WHITES Sets a point on the tonal range at which pixels should be pure white

EXPOSURE

CLARITY

Controls the overall brightness of the image

BLACKS Sets a point on the tonal range at which pixels should be pure black

Controls the amount of midtone contrast

SATURATION

VIBRANCE

Controls the overall colour intensity of the image

Adjusts the intensity of the less-saturated colours

The six most frequently used Photoshop layers for image editing, and how to use them to improve almost any photo Photoshop has many types of layers and adjustment layers available, but there are six that you’ll find you need to use again and again. Learning how they should be

used may seem a little daunting for beginners, but once you’ve got to grips with them, you’ll find they play a part in the creative process of almost every image you make.

01

LEVELS

This should be the first layer you add to an image, because it fundamentally alters the tonal range of the entire image. Create a Levels adjustment layer, drag the Black Point slider inwards until it touches the lefthand edge of the histogram, and drag the White Point slider inwards to the right-hand edge. This remaps the tones of the image to make more of the available tonal range.

02

CURVES

Curves is one of the most powerful adjustment layers. An S-shaped curve brightens the highlights and darkens the shadows, resulting in extra contrast. Create a Curves adjustment layer and click the middle of the diagonal line to add a central control point. Drag down on the lower part of the line and drag up on the upper part of the line to improve image contrast.

03

HUE/SATURATION

This adjustment layer is best used for altering the intensity and brightness of individual colour channels in an image – greens and blues in landscapes, for instance. Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, click the Master menu and choose the colour channel you’d like to adjust. Small changes are usually the most effective.

04

HEALING LAYER

Most photos contain unwanted marks or blemishes. The Spot Healing Brush tool is effective at removing these. The best way to apply the healing is on a new blank layer, so that you can easily tone down or remove selected healing work later without having to start from scratch because you healed directly on the background layer. To do this, create a new blank layer, choose the Spot Healing Brush tool from the Tools panel and tick Sample All Layers on the Options Bar, then continue as normal.

AFTER

05

BEFORE

DODGE AND BURN

One of the best ways to enhance a photo is by lightening or darkening selected areas of the image. This can be done with the Dodge and Burn tools, but rather than use them directly on the image, a separate grey layer gives you greater control. To create a Dodge and Burn layer, hold down Alt and click the Create a new layer icon in the Layers panel. Give the layer a name, then choose Mode: Overlay. Check Fill with Overlay-neutral color and click OK. Now use the Dodge and Burn tools (with Range set to Midtones) to work on the new layer.

06

SELECTIVE SHARPENING

Once all other adjustments have been made, you need to sharpen the image for output. The traditional way is to create a merged layer at the top of the stack, apply Unsharp Mask, then paint on the mask to remove the sharpening from those parts of the image you want to remain soft. However, the Sharpen tool enables more control over the process by enabling you to build up the effect by brushing repeatedly with a low opacity brush. Create a new blank layer, select the Sharpen tool, tick Sample All Layers and set a Strength of 50% or lower.

14 keyboard shortcuts that will massively improve your speed and efficiency while working in Photoshop

D

X

Reset the foreground and background colours to black and white

Switch the foreground and background colour swatches

ALT+[SCROLL WHEEL]

[ OR ]

Zoom in or out of the image

Resize the brush tip

CMD/CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E

SHIFT+[ OR ]

Create a merged copy of all the layers in the layer stack

Cycle backwards or forwards through the layer blend modes

SPACE BAR

CMD/CTRL+ALT+Z

Temporarily switch the current tool to the Hand tool, for moving around the image while zoomed in

Undo the last change made to the document. Works multiple times

ALT+[EYE ICON]

CMD/CTRL+[LAYER MASK]

Switch off the visibility of all other layers in the layer stack, for before-and-after comparisons

Load the currently active layer mask as a new selection

CMD/CTRL+I

CMD/CTRL+T

Invert the colour of a layer mask to black

Activate the Free Transform tool

SHIFT+[LAYER MASK]

CMD/CTRL+J

Disable the effects of a layer mask

Duplicate the current layer

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Practical Photoshop Nº 54 Septiembre 2015

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