Begin with a photo in Lightroom or Camera RAW.  This is model, Lina that I photographed with a Canon 5D.

Step 1

Choose the develop module.

Step 2. Whitening teeth

Choose the Adjustment Brush.

Click at the very top of the adjustment panel, where you will see the presets.

Choose the teeth whitening preset (if you are on ACR, skip to the next step, as these presets aren’t in Camera Raw).

Choose these settings if you don’t have the preset.

• Exposure = .4
• Saturation = -60

Turn on Auto mask, so you don’t paint outside the teeth and desaturate the gums.

Paint on the teeth to make them bright and white, but natural looking.

Step 3: retouching the eyes

We want to remove the red veins and also brighten up the iris.

With the adjustment brush, reset everything, except for saturation. Reduce that to -60.

Carefully paint over the veins and red areas.

Brightening up the irises.

Click on the adjustment brush again to start a new brush.

Choose iris enhance in the presets, or use the following settings:

• Exposure .35
• Clarity 10
• Saturation 40

Using a small brush with Auto Mask off, paint in the iris of each eye to add some life

Step 4. Removing blemishes on the skin

This next step addresses blemishes such as pimples.

Choose the spot tool and adjust the brush size until its about double the size of the blemish.

Click just once to add the spot. Lightroom will sample the surrounding area and fix the blemish. If you don’t like the result, press the forward slash key / and Lightroom will sample from a different area.

Repeat this for each of the blemishes.

NOTE: If you want to fix individual wrinkles, drag with the spot tool across the wrinkle and lower the density.

Step 5, smoothen the skin.

Now we want to smoothen out the skin texture to make it silky smooth.

The first thing is to mask the face. Choose the adjustment brush.

Turn on “Show Selected Mask Overlay” at the bottom of the main window.

Using Auto Mask, paint over the face, being careful to avoid the eyes and mouth.

You should have the entire face selected now.

Reset all the settings on the adjustment brush by holding down Alt/Option and clicking on “effect” at the top of the adjustments.

Hide the mask overlay.

Now, adjust the texture to the left until it looks nice and smooth, but not so far that it looks unnatural.

Step 6. Adding shine to the hair.

Do you want silky smooth hair? A lot of people forget about this step.

Click on the adjustment brush to create a new brush. In the same way, we masked the face, now mask the hair.

Adjust the texture until it looks good. For some weird reason, a lot of people add sharpening to the hair, thinking that adding detail will look good. All that does is make hair look dry and stringy. Reduce the texture and it looks smooth as silk. A sheet of hair looks better than straw-like strands.

If you get stuck on any of these steps, please watch the video at the top, which goes step by step through everything.

If you want to really learn Lightroom, Check out my new Lightroom Classic training. Photoshop Secrets: Lightroom for Digital Photographers. It’s the most comprehensive training for Lightroom Classic out there and it’s one of those unicorn training courses. Very practical, plain English, easy to follow, lots of mind-blowing tips and super useful. If you have watched a course like this you will know what I mean, If not, you’re missing out 🙂

Thanks,

Colin

PS Don’t forget to join our mailing list and follow me on Social Media>

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(Ive been posting some fun Instagram and Facebook Stories lately)

You can get my free Layer Blending modes ebook here

The post How to retouch a face in Lightroom or Camera Raw appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

I hope you enjoy this photoshop tutorial!

Come back here to the CAFE for more new tutorials every week (currently 3x a week)

Thanks

Colin

The post Photoshop masking tools for easy cutouts appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

First of all, I created a test image. This contains, fine lines, thicker text, fine curved lines, gradients and an image so you can see the results on different types of images. Grab the image right here to test for yourself. (right click and save the image below).

How to resize an image in Photoshop

It’s very easy to resize an image. Choose Image>Image Size

You will see this dialog box.

1. Make sure resample is turned on
2. Turn on the chain link if you want the width and height to change together. If not, turn off the chain so that you can set your own width and height.
3. Choose your new size (you can choose choose different measurement units by clicking on “inches”)
4. press ok

That’s all you need to do to resize your images. Keep reading for more details on how to get the best results if you are ready for that info.

How is Resolution really measured?

Without overly complicating things, the resolution is what you see on screen or in print. On screen you see pixels of light and in print you see dots of ink. This is where the terms DPI (dots per inch) and PPI (pixels per inch) come from. In an over simplification, you can think of them as the same thing, however dots refer to print and pixels are a digital display. Many people mistakingly talk about DPI on screen, this is incorrect, but now you will know what they mean. DPI and PPI are both a way to describe resolution.

You have heard the terms hi-resoluton, or low-resolution, or low-res. This means how dense are the pixels (or dots). More density = more resolution, or detail. If there is not enough resolution (image isn’t big enough) then you will see a noticeable softness to the image, or even jaggies (also called pixelization). Too much resolution, won’t affect the image display quality, you will just have an unnecessarily large file. So let’s find the best resolution for your needs.

The goal is to keep the quality as close to the original as possible and this article will show to how to do that. This is one of the big things that separate the pros from the amateurs, the quality of the final images.

Digital Resolution explained

Every screen has a native resolution, maybe its 750 x 1334 pixels or 326 ppi as the iphone retina. 326 refers to 326 square pixels fit into 1 square inch of the display to perfectly match the screen size. But a better way to measure screen resolution is with overall pixels.

• For example many monitors (HD) are 1920 pixels across by 1080 pixels high. 1920×1080.
• 4K (Ultra HD) is 3840 x 2160.
• A Canon 5d Mk4 camera is approx. 30 Megapixels (Mega = a million pixels). 6720 x 4480 pixels (6720×4480 = 30,105,600 pixels).

Print Resolution explained

Print is measured in dots per inch (DPI) (LPI Lines per inch or line screen is used in commercial printing). If you have more dots in a square inch, you will have more resolution or detail in your print. Typical print resolution is 300dpi (some inkjet printers print better at 360 or 240 for example, look at your specs). This means that there are 300 dots of ink per square inch or printed material. If your image is less, it will look soft, if its larger, there is no benefit as a printer can’t print beyond its maximum resolution. Ok, how to tell if it’s the right size?

1. In Photoshop choose Image>Image size
2. Turn OFF resample.
3. Enter your target resolution into the Resolution filed, in this case 300ppi (if you are targeting 300 DPI, PPI is the digital equivalent)

You will now see that a 939 x 932 pixel image can print at 3.13 x 3.1 inches and look nice and sharp at 300ppi/300dpi. If you need to it print larger you either need to select a larger image or scale the image up (resample).

The problem with sampling up (enlarging) is that you will lose image quality. The larger you make it, the more quality you will lose. If you need to scale the image down (reduce) then the quality loss isn’t so much as issue, although you may need to sharpen an image if you shrink it too much (more about that soon).

How to describe an image size

If someone asks for an image of a certain size, just saying “4×6 inches” or “at 300dpi” doesn’t give you enough information. Sometimes people even go as far as to say “300 dpi at 12Mb,” this doesn’t help either because the file size doesn’t really have bearing on the physical size of an image because file compression and file type all effect this. What you need to know id one of 2 things, either

1. The overall pixel dimensions. Say 3000, 4000pixels.
2. Provide the target size AND resolution. For example, 4×6 inches at 300DPI/300PPI. (See how to crop to an exact size and resolution)

Resizing an Image and Photoshop Interpolation

When you change the size of the image, Photoshop has to recreate the pixels. Photoshop needs to know how to jam the pixels together and which ones to throw away when you scale down. It also needs to know how to create pixels when scaling up. This process is called resampling. When you scale an image even by a single pixel, the entire image is resampled or rewritten. This is why creating the image at the correct size in the first place is great. However, don’t fear, Photoshop does a really great job of resampling and many times you will never be able to see the difference in quality.

In order to resample, Photoshop has to do some math to know how to recreate pixels. This math is called interpolation (in-terpol-ation). Interpolation is important because certain types of interpolation will give you better results for different types of images. I’m going to attempt to keep this as non-technical in simple language and guide you to the best options. There were originally 3 types of interpolation in Photoshop (here is a non-scientific way for you to look at them).

• Nearest neighbor – Think of this as looking at the nearest pixel and matching its color and tone.
• Bi-linear – Think of this as looking at the 4 surrounding pixels and finding the average
• Bi-Cubic – like looking at the 16 surrounding pixels and finding an average. But giving more weight to the 8 closest pixels.

Typically bi-linear is best for line art and simple graphics, where are bi-cubic is best for photos and graphics containing gradients, but wait, it doesn’t stop here.

Adobe added 2 more types of Bicubic (In Photoshop CS3). They added:

• BiCubic Smoother: Smoothens out artifacts created in enlargements
• Bicubic sharper: Sharpens to bring back lost details while reducing a file

(See what features were added in which versions of Photoshop in our free superguides)

There are 2 more options what are they?

Automatic (Photoshop CS6) , it selects Bicubic Smoother (CS6) / Preserve Details (CC) when enlarging and it chooses BiCubic Sharpener when reducing images. Automatic is easiest most of the time, but keep reading because it might not best the best option all the time.

Stair Step Interpolation

There is a “secret squirrel handshake” for experienced Photoshop users “in the know.” This secret is often credited to Fred Miranda, for discovering the stair step interpolation. It works like this, when you enlarge or reduce an image, rather than just jump to the final amount, scale it up or down at 10% at a time. You will see a marked improvement in your image sharpness and final quality IF you are using CS6 or the older interpolation algorithms.

However, on testing I have found that Preserve Details produces the same result as stair step and I hazard a guess that some of that is built into the newest algorithm. This was one of the unsung heroes in the first release of Photoshop CC.

Ok Colin, enough! Which is the best resizing method to use?

Ok, this is where the rubber hits the road and it’s a good time for you to open the test image into Photoshop and test for yourself. You can also see me test it on the video above.

I have found for upscaling that Preserve Details works really well for for many images, especially line art and graphics images (although for simple line art, sometimes bi-linear yields better results). However, sometimes for photographs bi-linear smoother can produce a more natural (although softer) results which has less halos and artifacts. You can always apply some sharpening to the result. The results depend on how much you are scaling up the image and also how detailed the image is vs large gradient areas such as skies in photos. So, don’t just reach for auto. Try a couple of variations to see if you can coax better results out of Photoshop, sometimes you can.

Understanding resolution

Check out this article I made that explains resolution. Its a simple explanation of why describing a images as 300DPI, 72dpi etc doesn’t mean anything.

Tips for scaling images in Photoshop

Ok, if you are still reading you are either a bit more advanced, or hungry to learn all you can. When you are scaling up or down images here are some tips to keep in mind.

• Always view images at 100%, there is no other way to tell the true quality as this is the only magnification that gives true feedback.
• Consider resizing the image twice, once for graphics, and another for photos and then combine the results.
• Use resize presets if you are scaling images to a set size often
• You can use Image Processor pro to batch process a lot of images. File>Automate>Image Processor Pro
• Remember the interpolation methods are available for Image Processor Pro, Save For web, export as, as well as resize.
• If you are needing to really enlarge an image look at some 3rd party plugins such as Alien Skins Blow up or OnOne’s perfect resize (formally known as Genuine Fractals) who claim they can scale images up to 1000x and still keep quality.

Thanks for checking out this tutorial / article. Don’t forget to subscribe to our mailing list (on the top right of the toolbar) to be informed whenever I post a new tutorial. I usually do a tutorial each week which has BOTH a written and a video component to it for your learning pleasure.

The best way to Learn Adobe Photoshop

If you are really wanting to get a good grasp of all the goodness in Photoshop, don’t waste time with tons of disjointed tutorials from “experts” that overlap and sometimes disagree with each other. Your time is YOUR most valuable asset. This is why I put together a comprehensive Photoshop course that teaches you A-Z all in 1 place. I first started this in Photoshop 5 and have re-recodred this course 10 times over the past 17 years, perfecting it each time. I believe its the best way to learn Photoshop and thousands of people would agree with me. Have a look at Photoshop CC forDigital Photographers (It’s really for anyone working with images in Photoshop) Over 100 lessons and 13 hours of valuable inside information. It’s plain-english so anyone can understand it as well as the real-world techniques used by experienced pros. All the lesson files are included so you can follow along with me, step by step. Full 60 money back. Grab in the instant Download or DVD right now.

Thanks guys!

Check out more tutorials on PhotoshopCAFE!

Colin

The post How to resize an image in Photoshop and keep best quality appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

We begin by using the different shape layers in Photoshop to create the basic logo and an awesome tip for centering things that you will love. We then jump into layer styles and add a shiny bevel to the logo as well as giving it a metallic sheen. Then we will make a brushed metal backdrop.

This is where the tutorial gets interesting. I actually branch it off into 2 options. I will show you how to use the 3D tools in Photoshop to make a 3D version of the logo. I also show you how to do a 2D version of the same thing for those of you who don’t have a version of photoshop that does 3D, or you just want to see a different way of doing it. This first video shows the 3D version, while the second version shows the 2D version. Check out the one that interests you, or watch both! (The first half is the same on both, but the second part is completely different).

Then I will finish off the effect by adding a shadow and some light glints. I really hope you enjoy this tutorial.

How to Make the 3D X-Men Logo in Photoshop + How to convert any logo to 3D

How to Make the X-Men Logo in Photoshop (2D version)

I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I had a lot of fun making it.
Check out all the other free tutorials here on PhotoshopCAFE

See you at the CAFE

Colin

The post How to make the X-Men logo in Photoshop, 3D and 2D versions appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

All the CS6 information and more is available as a PDF magazine called the CS6 Superguide. If you’re on our list, you will receive it free by email as soon as it’s available. If not, sign up now and get the CS6 Superguide for free. Or click the image below.

The post How to Place text behind an object in Photoshop appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

If you are confused about Adobe’s new naming of Lightroom Classic v Lightroom CC read here. 

Lightroom for Beginners

The video will get you up and running in Lightroom in 15 minutes. Here is a quick guide to get you started really fast and easy, it will only take a couple of minutes to read this information. This is a no BS Lightroom turbo start!

Non Technical Lightroom Getting Started Guide

Lightroom is broken up into Modules. There are currently 7 Modules in Lightroom, here is a secret, you only have to know 2 of them!  It’s a good idea to learn the rest later, but to get started, all you need is the Library and the Develop module.

You can get Photoshop and Lightroom for $9.99 mo in the Creative Cloud Photography Program

The Library Module

This is exactly what it sounds like. This is where all your photos live. This is where you import the photos and do all the boring stuff like keywords and collections etc. It might be boring, but a little effort here will pay off in spades later on down the road, You’ll see. You can sleep at night knowing that all your photos are safely tucked away and labeled so you can find them in a rabbits blink. When you get a bit more experienced, you’ll also find that most of this can be automated.

The Develop Module

This is where the party’s at after everyone has left the library.  The develop module is where you take those dull images and turn them into works of art. This is your digital darkroom (Lightroom) where you can be creative. A lot of this can also be automated if you are in a rush. But you may want to hang out here for a while, because this is fun!

Lightroom Workflow

Ok, here we go. In as few words as possible, here is how to work in Lightroom. I’ll give you details about the stuff that really matters and skip the boring details.

Get your photos into Lightroom 

You’ll start in theLibrary module: Click the import button in the lower left

The importer will open. Click the Arrow in the lower left corner to expand it. It’s useless to you collapsed

This is what the expanded Importer window looks like. Don’t worry about all the options for now, we will walk through the steps you need. Look on the top and you will see 3 options for the import workflow.: 1. Grab Photos From | 2. What to do with them | 3. Copy photos To somewhere

Look at the top and you will  see “FROM” This is where we grab the photo to bring into Lightroom

Under Source, you will see all your drives. You can bring them in from your computer if you like, but for the sake of this tutorial, I’m going to assume that you want to bring them in from your camera card reader. Click that option (EOS_DIGITAL is mine.)

Note: If you can’t see the photos from your subfolders, click on the panel that says “to” and choose the Include Subfolders option at the bottom

In the middle top, choose an option from importing. Copy and Copy as DNG are the only options from a camera or card. To keep it simple, we are going to use Copy.

At the top right, you will see an option that says “TO” This is where we are copying the photos (and videos) to.

Under the “to” options, I recommend choosing the subfolder and Into One Folder option and giving it a name. (this will prevent those horrible nested folders by date, that are a pest later on)

Next, locate the folder that you want to put your photos. If you are just starting, it’s a good idea to have a strategy and stick with it, because you will be using this structure for a very long time.

What do I do for a digital asset management strategy?

What we are doing right now, is creating a folder structure on your disk drive. Lightroom doesn’t care where the photos are to nicely catalog them. But this structure is for you, to help you keep your photos organized, trust me, it’s worth the extra effort.  I normally create a top level folder called photos. Under this a create categories that I’ll use such as:

• Places
• People
• Events
• Clients
• etc

I’ll then create folders as I import photos under these categories, as subcategories: Places

• Boston
• California
• New York
• London
• etc

Use whatever categories you think you’ll need. You can always add more later or change them

WARNING! If you do change folder names or image locations, do it through Lightroom or you will break the file association. In other words, if you change a location through Lightroom, the image will move on your computer = good! If you move it directly on your computer, Lightroom won’t know where it is = bad!

Ok, back on track, I think you needed that bit of extra info if you are new to DAM ( Digital Asset Management AKA Managing your photos) Choose a folder where you want your photos to go to

You have now set up: Where from > What to Do with photos > Where to go In the main window, choose the photos to add to Lightroom. Usually you will go with the default, which is all the photos on the card.

If you turn on the option “Don’t import suspected Duplicates and photos are already in Lightroom, they will be greyed out.

Click the import button

Your photos will now be copied into Lightroom and you will return to the Library module where you can watch your photos getting sucked into Lightroom.

All your photos are now safely tucked into Lightroom. Next step is finding them.

Organizing your Photos in Lightroom

At the top left you’ll see the Navigator which is a thumbnail of the selected photo. Under that is the Catalog. The options that you’ll use are either Previous import, which will limit the view to just the last batch of photos you bought into Lightroom. Or you can choose All Photographs, to show every photo currently in Lightroom. If photos seem to be missing, click All Photographs.

The next block down shows the Folders View. You will see a list of drives that have photos in them that Lightroom is managing (in the Library). Currently attached drives are lit up. The Folder structure is the same as on your computer, because this is what you are actually browsing right now.

Here you can see our Folder called Colorado that we just made when we imported from the card.

Lightroom Collections are good

We want to make our own folder structure just for Lightroom, this will make things easier to use for us. For this, we use Collections. Collections have tons of advantages because they don’t actually contain photos, just a reference to the photos, this way we can have the same photo in different Collections without making multiple copies of the same photo. Trust me, multiple copies of the same photo is a bad thing and can get very confusing as well as quickly filling up you drive with duplicate photos. Select all the Photos that you want to put in the collection. Click in the Grid and press Cmd/Ctrl+A to select all. Click the + button and choose Create Collection as shown.

Name this Collection something that is descriptive. Optional: Nest it in a Collection set if you want. Check the box, Include Selected photos. Click create

Bang! You now have a Collection with your selected photos in it. For way more reasons than I’ll list here, I like to organize my photos into Collections and work on them from there. I almost never go into Folder view unless I have lost something.

Metadata in Lightroom

Now its time to do all the metadata work. At a bare minimum, I add some keywords to help find the photos later. You can select an entire Collection and add simple keywords to them all in just a few seconds.

You’ll see little badges on photos that have metadata.   There is a lot of other metadata stuff you can do to your photos now if you like. If you want to sort through them and find the good ones, you can use things like ratings, flags and labels. I have touched on this on the 15 minute video, so you can watch that when you’re ready to do more organization. When you want to go more advanced you can add meta data on import etc. You can even create metadata templates that add a ton of info to a photo in a single click. (All of this is explained in my 13 hour comprehensive Lightroom training video)

Let’s select a photograph and have some fun with it, enough of this organizational stuff.  Click a photo in the Filmstrip. It will appear nice and big if you double click it.

Using the  Develop Module in Lightroom

Click the word Develop at the top of Lightroom and the currently selected photograph will now appear in the digital dark room. This is where you make all the image adjustments that could be as simple as cropping, lightening or darkening photos or as advanced as localized dodging and burning, black and white, special effects and even retouching. Once again, covered in depth in my Lightroom for Digital Photographers video training  and also some free tutorials here on PhotoshopCAFE. 

The develop Module

Let’s make some adjustments to the photograph.

Here I grabbed the white balance tool and clicked on an area that should be neutral gray or white in the photo.  This removes the color cast. White balance is usually the first thing I do to a photo. 

At this point, make some adjustments using the basic adjustments panel. Most of your adjustments can be made in this panel and it’s certainly a good place to get started. There are a ton of other option that you will learn later as you go deeper into the rabbit hole. For now, just get familiar with the basic adjustments. If you have used Camera Raw before in Photoshop, these settings are identical. Why Lightroom? At it’s most basic, the Library module. Or see a more detailed video on why Lightroom. 

Basic Lightroom Adjustments

The sliders are broken into 3 groups

• WB: White balance
• Tone: Making the photo or portions of the photo lighter and darker
• Presence: Grittiness and color

I usually start with white balance, then move on to Exposure to set overall brightness. Then grab Highlights and shadows to recover details in the highlights and shadows (Expand the dynamic range). Set whites and Blacks to give contrast to the photo. Nice crisp clean whites and deep rich shadows.

Here is the result of moving a few sliders, a much more realistic and cleaner photograph.

Now, Lightroom is capable of much more than just basic adjustments, you can use it to create a lot of mood and drama, You can add color looks and be very creative with Lightroom, and I’ll teach you that on other tutorials.

Lightroom presets

What you can also do is save all of these adjustments as presets. Presets are like little recipes that can be applied to any photograph in a single click. You can make your own, or add in ones that you get from other people.

Saving a preset

Click on the + on the Presets panel

You will see the New Develop Preset panel.   Give it a name and a folder, default id User Presets. Notice you can choose which adjustments to include in the preset. Most of the time, I add them all even if some settings aren’t in the preset, it won’t cause any harm.

Click create and your preset will be saved. You can access it from the presets panel and use it anytime without having to re-apply all the adjustments.

Here is the same photo where I am applying some presets that I created at an earlier time. See how they dramatically change the appearance of a photo in a single click. A lot of people get Lightroom just to use presets. We will email you some free presets and a free ebook to get you started right now. 

Or here is a completely different preset for a different feel to this photograph.

Exporting photos from Lightroom

When you have finished making your adjustments, you will want to share your photos with the world. While you can create web galleries, slideshows, print and even make books in the different modules in Lightroom, let’s do a simple task. Export a Photo that we can share online on Social Media. (Lightroom can also integrate with your favorite social media site directly from within Lightroom)

Let’s look at a simple photo export.

Choose File>Export

You will see the Export Dialog box. There are a ton of options in here including the option to create export presets and multiple images. I actually created a Facebook preset, Ill break it down.

File image format choose jpg and a medium quality.

I limited the size to 1600 on the longest edge, thats big enough for people to enjoy without becoming so huge it bogs down the entire internet.

I also include a watermark. I think it’s always a good idea to protect your public images with watermarks. They also make it possible for people to find the copyright holder (you) when they are hot linked on different pages.

Click export and the photo will be exported for your use.

Go from zero to hero in Lightroom Classic

If you enjoyed this quick start guide and you’re ready to take your skills to the next level, this is for you! This is THE award-winning A-Z guide to using Lightroom that will help you to master Lightroom (Or just get really good at it).  One of the most-loved training resources is new for Lightroom Classic CC2019 (Lightroom 8)! Learn all the new features and workflows. No matter your level, you can quickly master Lightroom Classic with effortless ease.

This is the most comprehensive video on the market for Lightroom. This 7th edition is recorded in beautiful Full HD from the ground-up for Lightroom Classic CC. Learn how to import, organize, develop and output all your captures with effortless ease. Enjoy in-depth coverage, pro techniques, secret tips and Colin’s way of breaking down even the most complex tasks into quick and easy to understand techniques. You’ll spend less time in front of the computer and more time behind the camera!

Available as an instant download

• Learn it all from one instructor, (no overlapping information or conflicting opinions)
• Workflows included where you use the tools together
• Everything in one place (no hunting through un-trusted tutorials to find what you need)
• Over 130 videos, easily find what you want with our interactive interface (PhotoshopCAFE exclusive!)
• All instructors’ images included, follow along step by step
• Learn at your pace! Watch all the videos in succession, or keep as a reference guide
• 30 Lightroom Classic presets included
• Battle tested! Named Video of the year 2x from PPA (Professional Photographers of America)
• 60 day! Money back guarantee
• One time payment, no ongoing “pay as you go” subscription that ends up costing much more than you planned.

Check it out here

The post Lightroom crash course. Ultimate beginners guide to Lightroom Classic appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

If you are new to High Dynamic Range Photography, AKA HDR Photography, see the very popular, detailed tutorial I have written on it here: Colin Smith’s HDR Tutorial.

I am a huge fan of HDR and have been for quite a while now (about 10 years). If you haven’t looked at it before, or it’s been a while, there really has been an evolution in this technology.

The limitation of megapixels

While a lot of people are still chasing megapixels, the real innovation is in dynamic range. Megapixels give you a larger image, but that doesn’t means it’s better, just larger. If you need to print larger, or crop in tighter than your camera allows, you need more megapixels.  mp is just pixel dimensions, nothing more.

The advantage of dynamic range

When you want your photographs to encompass more of what you see, that is called dynamic range. Dynamic range is the amount of details that can be captured in the shadows and in the highlights at the same time. A small dynamic range will allow perfect capture of shadow, but lose all the detail in highlights, or vice versa. A photograph that is said to have a wider dynamic range is able to capture more of the shadows and highlights at the same time.

HDR explanation for beginners

Cameras are getting better and RAW has opened up the ability to capture a much wider dynamic range than was possible in the past. The camera still falls short of being able to capture all the detail that you can see. To get around this we “bracket” our photos. This means shooting the same thing but with different settings to capture the darkest shadow detail and the brightest highlight detail on separate photos. Most cameras can be set up to shoot this automatically by using AEB (Auto Exposure Bracket) mode. Hold down the shutter button and allow the camera to capture all the frames. Typically 3 shots. -2EV, 0 and +2EV. You can do a minimum of 2 and much more, usually never more than 7 or 9 are ever needed.

At this point the photos are merged together. In the past, I would use Photoshop Merge to HDR or Photomatix (still great options). Now we can use Lightroom for HDR Photography or Camera Raw to do the actual merging.

Here is a video that I have put together (from the Photoshop CC for Digital Photographers training). This will show you step-by-step how to do HDR in ACR. Don’t forget to read the additional information and resources on this page after watching.

HDR in ACR Video

(see a sneaky tip at the end in converting to true 32 bit files)

Tone Mapping, the key to beautiful HDR Photography

Tone mapping is the 3rd step of the process. This is where you actually style the image. In the past, it was very popular to do a stylistic tone mapping that almost looked illustrative. This takes a lot of practice and know-how to get something that looks very good and is easy to botch up and has been botched a lot! Because a lot of early HDR images were poorly processed, sadly it turned a lot of people away from HDR prematurely.

3 HDR Sins

There is still a place for stylistic HDR if it enhances the story, such as my HDR Times Square photo below. This photo is very busy, but so is Times Square, so it helps with the story -telling. Notice that:

1. The colors are clean and not muddy
2. There aren’t halos (glows) around the large areas of detail.
3. You will also notice that there is good contrast in this image.

These 3 HDR sins are the major pitfalls that many beginning HDR photographers fall into.

A return to HDR

What is becoming increasingly popular in modern HDR photography is going for a more natural result. Adding in the Shadow and highlight detail without the photograph looking so artificial.

Here is one of my more recent HDR creations, looking more like what my eye saw when I was at the location. The tone-mapping tools in Lightroom and Camera RAW can really help produce a more natural result.

See Colin Smiths HDR Gallery here

HDR Resources

Check out our free HDR resources at PhotoshopCAFE

Colin Smith’s HDR tutorial

Basic HDR explaination (Video)

Written tutorial on HDR in Camera Raw (What’s new)

HDR in Lightroom

Tone Mapping HDR in Lightroom and ACR

If you are ready for deeper learning see my Premium training on HDR as well as Photoshop and Lightroom which cover these topics in greater detail for those of you who really want to master the subject.

Thanks for reading / watching and don’t forget to share these resources with your friends.

See you at the CAFE!

Colin

HDR, Panorama and Timelapse. MULTI SHOT MAYHEM Colin Smith If you want to learn exactly how to make HDR, Panorama and Timelapse images, this is the training for you. Even if you have never created these amazing (but complex) images before, you will learn exactly what you need to do, start to finish in this new course by Colin Smith.  The crazy thing is, he breaks it down and makes it so easy, that you will wonder how you didn’t do this before. You will very quickly learn how to shoot these images, and more importantly, get in-depth, step by step instructions on how to process and make your masterpieces in Photoshop. Get ready for the next chapter of your photography. Instant download Available now!

The post HDR Photography, Merge to HDR in Adobe Camera Raw Tutorial appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

Once you have learned the basics of working with layers, you can use the to greatly expand your creative potential. Here is a great free tutorial to get you started. Learn how to blend layers creatively in Photoshop. When you are ready to go advanced, check out our premium training on the Sky City Project. 

If you are looking to cut out images from their background, see our tutorial here. 

Compositing in Photoshop: Sky City Project

I have been asked countless times for more in depth training on Compositing, layers, masks and blending photographs. I did it! 2 hours of video that will show you exactly how to build stunning composites in Photoshop. What I have learned in 18 years, revealed here.

Colin builds a real-world compositing project with you. The great thing about a project is that nothing is skipped in the workflow. This is where you put together everything that you have learned about Photoshop.

You will learn how to combine different photos together to create a piece of art in Photoshop. You will learn different ways of extracting photos from the background and how to seamlessly blend them all together. You will learn how to add atmosphere, and cinematic coloring and implied lighting.

See everything that you will learn here

CS6 Superguide

All the CS6 information and more is available as a PDF magazine called the CS6 Superguide. If you’re on our list, you will receive it free by email as soon as it’s available. If not, sign up now and get the CS6 Superguide for free. Or click the image below.

The post 5 fast ways to select layers in Photoshop. appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

What Are Crop Marks?

Crop Marks come from the commercial printing world (but read on, everyone can use them).

When you send your work off to a printing press, they are going to trim the final piece, even if it’s a standard size. The reason for this, printers use larger sheets of paper, or even huge rolls to print from. On an offset (big rolls) or sheetfed printer, the final is going to be trimmed. If you have designed all the way to the edge, there is a possibility that some of your work will be cut off, or some white edges will be showing. Neither of these are a good thing.

To combat that, there is usually a safe region where the design “bleeds” over. You usually create a 1/8″ border all the way around and let your design fill the larger size. Keep all your elements within the bleed area so it will look nice and clean when trimmed. Because there is a 1/8 border, the trim will look really nice even if the paper slips a little bit. This is where crop marks come in. Crop marks show the printer where to trim the final piece. Photoshop doesn’t have the ability to create crop marks by default. This quick video will show you how to make your own crop marks in Photoshop.

Please note, that it’s preferable to create the bleed area and crop marks BEFORE you begin your design. However, this video shows you a work-around if you have already created your design.

See this great article from Gregg on preparing files for going to a commercial printer.

Also bear in mind, if you are printing at home on your inkjet printer and need to make a little trim, you can also use crop marks.

CS6 Superguide

All the CS6 information and more is available as a PDF magazine called the CS6 Superguide. If you’re on our list, you will receive it free by email as soon as it’s available. If not, sign up now and get the CS6 Superguide for free. Or click the image below.

The post Creating Crop Marks in Photoshop appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

Recently, Adobe did some big updates to Lightroom, Camera RAW and Photoshop.

One feature that isn’t necessarily brand new, but went largely unnoticed is the ability to use an adjustment brush directly on gradient and radial filters. This simple tool revolutionizes local adjustments in Camera Raw.

Imagine this, add a gradient to darken down the sky a bit. This always looks great right? After all, it simulated a split neutral density filter. The problem is, when a mountain, roof of a building or some other object sticks up into the gradient, it too gets darkened. With the Filter brush, click on “brush” and paint away the adjustment where you don’t want it. It’s that simple. This same feature was added to Lightroom CC and Lightroom 6 recently. Check out our learning center on all the new features in Camera Raw 9 as well as in Photoshop CC 2015.

If you are ready to learn Photoshop, I mean really learn (not of the faint of heart, but a 13-hour masterclass that takes you from beginner, all the way to mastering the most difficult  photographic challenge ion Photoshop) then check out Photoshop CC for Digital Photographers. If all of this seems a bit much, browse and enjoy all the free training that we have here at PhotoshopCAFE. 

The post Filter brushes Adobe Camera Raw 9 Tutorial appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.