Get More From Smart Objects

May 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment

“Any “object” that needs the ability to adjust size and rotation without the normal limitations of layered images is an excellent candidate for Smart Objects … When doing a traditional multilayer composite, the resizing and rotation of a layer can cause image degradation. Positioning and sizing an object has to be a precise operation because if you use Free Transform to make a layer smaller and then find out you actually need it back at the original size (or bigger), you basically have to start over. The way to deal with this situation when doing a complex composite is to make those layers into Smart Objects. Smart Objects are embedded image objects that allow resizing, rotation and other select editing without changing the pixels in the object. The image layers are actually treated as a separate file embedded within the master file. You can’t do all editing on the Smart Object, but you can open the original layers as a temporary file and do pixel-level editing there and then save the changes back into the Smart Object; the changes will auto-update in the image in which the objects are embedded.” – Jeff Schewe

Category: CS5, Photoshop, Technique
Tags: adobe, cs5, CS5 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop, digital photo pro, Jeff Schewe, Photoshop, smart objects

Blend It Out

January 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment

It’s a perfect shot! If only those unwanted moving objects (UMOs, i.e., a person or a crowd) in the scene would disappear. As long as the unwanted elements in your frame move, even just a little, you can make them disappear from your image by taking two or more shots and using Photoshop’s layering and blending capabilities.

You don’t have to retouch your image. Blending is different than retouching. The unwanted elements aren’t covered over with new information by hiding them with replacement information similar to the surround, either from the same source or another. With blends, the information behind the moving subject is revealed. How? It’s contained in the other shot(s).

You even can do this with exposures that are made with slightly different angles of rotation or framing, so you can use this technique with handheld exposures, not just those made with a tripod. Camera motion may make manual registration difficult, but Photoshop automatically will align and, in some cases, distort the separate exposures so that they register precisely …

Crop or Retouch ?

December 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment

As visual communicators, we’re responsible for everything that’s in the frame; we’re also responsible for everything that’s not in the frame. Deciding what’s in the frame and what’s out is a critical decision that can make or break an image. Here are two essential framing strategies.

1.?Use the frame to eliminate distracting information around a subject.

Take extra care with image information that touches the frame, as it will draw extra attention. Do this with significant compositional elements.

2.?Eliminate space around a subject to focus a viewer’s attention.

A lot of space between the subject and the frame can be used to call on psychological associations with space, such as freedom or isolation. Some space between the subject and the frame can give the appearance of the subject resting gracefully within the frame. Touching the subject with the frame strongly focuses the attention of the viewer and may seem claustrophobic. Cropping the subject with the frame can focus the attention of the viewer on specific aspects of the subject and/or give an image a tense quality, evoking evasion and incompleteness—this often seems accidental if less than half the subject is revealed.

There’s more than one way to apply these strategies. While cropping techniques are simple to practice, the reasons for their application and the choices made about how to apply them, as well as the final effects, may be exceptionally complex. You have two choices ..

1. Reposition the frame before exposure.

2. Contract the position of the borders of an image after exposure

If you plan to retouch, you’ll frame and crop differently …

Noise – Reduce It At Capture

November 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment

noise-capture

Noise comes in three types or patterns:
1) Random noise 2) Fixed-pattern noise 3) Banding noise

Noise often has two components—brightness and color:
4) Image noise 5) Luminance noise 6) Chrominance noise

Knowing the type and kind of noise produced will help guide you to solutions to reduce it. There are three types of noise: random noise, fixed-pattern noise and banding noise.

Random noise appears as both luminance (light and dark) and chrominance (hue/saturation) variations not native to an image, but produced by the electrical operation of a capture device. The electrical signal produced in response to photons is commingled with electrical variations in the operation of the capture device. Random noise patterns always change, even if exposure conditions are identical. Random noise is most sensitive to ISO setting. Again, digital cameras have one native ISO setting; higher ISO settings artificially boost the signal produced by the sensor and the noise accompanying it. The results? You get a brighter picture from less light and exaggerated noise. Since the pattern is random, it’s challenging to separate the noise from the image, especially texture, and even the best software used to reduce it through blurring may compromise image sharpness; how much depends on the level of reduction.

Fixed-pattern noise (“hot pixels”) is a consistent pattern specific to an individual sensor. Fixed-pattern noise becomes more pronounced with longer exposures. Higher temperatures also intensify it. Since the pattern is consistent, it easily can be mapped and reduced or eliminated.

Banding noise is introduced when the camera reads the data produced by the sensor; it’s camera-dependent. Banding noise is most visible at high ISOs, in shadows and when an image has been dramatically brightened. This type of noise is obvious and objectionable; the regular row and column patterns from the sensor quickly call attention to the presence of banding noise, and it’s challenging to reduce without severely compromising image sharpness …

Read the rest of the article in the current issue of Digital Photo Pro.

Learn more with my free Lessons.

Learn even more in my Workshops.

Category: Magazine, Technique
Tags: digital photo pro, noise, reducing noise

Layering Noise

June 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Here’s an excerpt from my column in the current issue of Digital Photo Pro.

“When adding noise to digital files, keep noise separate from the image so you can control both independently of one another. This way you’ve got extraordinary control and flexibility. When noise is placed on its own layer you can eliminate or change it at any time in the future, reduce its opacity, localize it, desaturate it, target it into specific channels, move it, scale it, blur it and much more …”

Category: Magazine, Technique
Tags: digital noise, digital photo pro, noise, noise effects, Photoshop

HDR Aesthetics

March 18, 2009 | 1 Comment

HDR imagery is expanding today’s photographic aesthetics. Identifying the characteristics of contemporary HDR images will help classicists and pioneers alike. The basic ingredients are desirable for both sensibilities, but in varying combinations and to different degrees. As with solving any problem, it’s easier if you break it down into it’s component pieces and then learn what each one does and how they interact with one another. First know what to look for. Second, know what a tool can do. Third, know how to apply a tool. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be well along the way to crafting a unique style that’s all your own.

Pronounced Shadow and Highlight Detail
Accentuated Edge Contrast
Accentuated Texture
Increased Noise
Smoothed Texture
Saturation Distortions

Learn these and other techniques in my workshops.

LDR

Half HDR

HDR Simulated

HDR Simulated With Photomatix

Category: Magazine, Photoshop, Technique
Tags: digital photo pro, hdr, photomatix

Color Theory

March 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Color theory can help describe what is perceived more precisely. It offers a language that is shared and reasonably precise. Color theory can help make perception more precise. Language encodes thought and a more precise and nuanced language can lead to more sensitive perception. Color theory can help analyze what makes some color relationships particularly successful and what makes others less successful. It illuminates the dynamic interactions between the elements of color, which can be used to guide decisions in selecting and adjusting color relationships.

Color theory is best used to inform color choices rather than to make them. Theory lays a foundation for exploration (guiding inquiry toward areas with greater potential and away from areas with less potential). It is not a substitute for discovery. Jazz musicians Keith Jarrett and Theolonius Monk mastered music theory, but even they were surprised by their most original compositions; their compositions were informed and empowered by theory but not determined by it. Theory is the sum of what we know, but it does not contain what we do not yet know. It can prime conditions for a breakthrough, but it cannot make one. It can be used to empower a unique or authentic sensibility, but it is not a substitute for one.

Find out more in the current issue of Digital Photo Pro.
Find out more in my color theory ebooks.

Category: Technique, Workshops
Tags: color theory, digital photo pro, Photoshop, Workshops

Adobe TV – Colin Smith – HDR Photoshop and Photomatix

October 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Colin Smith quickly details his recommended workflow for integrating Photoshop and Photomatix’s plug-in for HDR images in this useful excerpt of his HDR DVD.

Check out Colin’s HDR DVD here.

Check out my articles on Extending Dynamic Range at Digital Photo Pro.

Check out my upcoming seminar on HDR at PhotoPlus.

Check out my workshops here.

Category: Photoshop
Tags: adobe tv, colin smith, digital photo pro, hdr, high dynamic range imagery, photoplus, Photoshop