Tip 1. Black and white for better color.

Here is a photograph with a lot of color that I shot during the super-bloom. Let’s make the individual colors pop by adjusting their underlying tones.

In the Layers panel, choose a Black and White Adjustment Layer.

The image will become black and white.

Just above the Adjustment layer, where it says normal. Change the blending mode to Luminosity.

The image will become color again.

As you move the different sliders (In the Properties panel) you can now affect how the individual colors look.

Tip 2. Filling the borders of a panorama.

Photoshop can make some pretty neat panoramas, and there are some powerful tools packed in there too.

Chose File>Automate>Photomerge.

Select Auto for the layout

Click on Browse and find some photos that you shot for a panorama. 

Once you click ok, Photoshop will stitch the images together.

Notice that edges have a scalloped look. Typically, you would crop the image and lose some of the information around the edges.

Instead, before you click ok in the photo-merge panel, Click the newly added (in Photoshop 2020) checkbox. Content Aware Fill Transparent Edges.

Click, and Photoshop will stitch the images as before.

But now, you will see a new progress bar for fill.

Photoshop will automatically apply Content Aware Fill to the transparent edges.

And it works pretty good too. This is the unaltered image.

Tip 3. Refine Edge in Photoshop 2020.

That was a typo right? Didn’t I mean to say Select and Mask? Refine Edge hasn’t been in Photoshop for years… or has it?

Choose the quick select tool

Click on Select Subject to select the person in the photo.

Typically, you would click on Select and Mask to finish off the selection.

What if you are a fan of the old Refine Edge? I’ll show you how to make it work (it’s completely hidden).

Choose the Select Menu and go down tp Select and mask, don’t click yet.

Hold down the Shift Key and click on Select and Mask

And boom! Refine Edge opens instead of Select and Mask. It’s nice to have options. 🙂

Tip 4. Reset ACR

When you are working in Camera Raw, and you want to undo all the sliders in the basic panel, you can hold down the option/Alt key to change the cancel button into a reset button.

Here is a way you can do it without having to touch the keyboard.

Under Edit, click on the auto button twice. The first time applies Auto corrections, the second time, it undoes them and resets all the sliders.

Tip 5. Color Grading video in Camera Raw

If you choose File>open and select a video file (H.264) it will open in Photoshop. More on video in Photoshop here. 

Right click on the name of the layer (Layer 1) and choose Convert To Smart Object. This makes sure all the video frames get edited and not just a single frame.

Filter>Camera Raw filter

You will see the video open just like a regular image.

Make your adjustments and click ok.

Now your video has cinematic color grading, from Camera Raw!

I hope you enjoyed these 5 tips. Lots more to come.

I want to thanks PPA Professional Photographers of America for sponsoring this video. If you aren’t a member of PPA, it’s really worth checking out.

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Thanks for checking out this tutorial

Great to see you here at the CAFE

Colin

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Great to see you here at the CAFE,

Colin