Photoshop User, September 2008 Issue

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 8 ® 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 CRETS CT...

Author: Editors of PHOTOSHOP USER Magazine

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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

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Step-by-step instructions on how to clean digital-SLR camera sensors

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Making the most of your Photoshop skills for animation and video

.*31 Lightroom Feature: What’s new in Lightroom 2 u Take advantage of the History and Snapshots panels u Working between Lightroom and Photoshop u

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

DISPLAY UNTIL OCTOBER 21, 2008

Feature 38 | Freelancing 101

You’ve found your passion, your medium, and your niche. Someone recommends that you should start freelancing to get your work out there. You agree. But now what? Start by reading this.—Lisa Sage

Departments

84 | Clean Your Digital SLR’s Sensor

Sometimes you can’t heed the manufacturer’s warnings about sending your camera out to the shop to have its sensor cleaned. This is how the pros do it when sending it out isn’t an option.—Laurie Excell

Reviews

10 | About Photoshop User Magazine

108 | ArtRage 2.5 Full Edition

12 | From the Managing Editor

109 | ColorMunki Photo

16 | Contributing Writers

110 | Better Beamer

18 | Photoshop News

110 | Path Styler Pro 1.5.2

20 | NAPP Member News

112 | FontAgent Pro 4

80 | From the Help Desk

113 | Noise Buster 6

116 | Photoshop Q&A

113 | imagePROGRAF iPF5100

118 | Photoshop Design Showcase

114 | Photoshop Book Reviews

September 2008 | www.photoshopuser.com

Contents

Columns 24 | Down & Dirty Tricks Learn how to create a killer ice effect that looks hyperrealistic; re-create the type treatment used on the Iron Man movie posters; and always have your jelly within reach with this cool brush technique.—Scott Kelby, Felix Nelson, Corey Barker

46 | Photoshop Mastery This issue, Ben shows us how to bypass eight dialogs and speed things up by using Adobe Camera Raw instead of Photoshop.—Ben Willmore

70 | Photoshop in Motion *NEW* Corey’s always finding cool stuff to do with Photoshop, so we had to make a new spot for his more-animated experiments.—Corey Barker

74 | Digital Photographer’s Notebook You’ve probably seen lots of uses for the Screen blend mode in Photoshop, but have you thought of Screen’s dark side?—Kevin Ames

76 | Classic Photoshop Effects 48 | From Bert’s Studio Focusing on the process and experimentation throughout is paramount to Bert’s art philosophy. Here’s a great example.—Bert Monroy

50 | Photoshop Speed Clinic Matt shows us how to create presets in Camera Raw and then tells us where NAPP members can download his presets!—Matt Kloskowski

54 | The Fine Art of Printing Have you ever considered scale when printing? John Paul asks us to consider what size can do for our prints.—John Paul Caponigro

56 | Creative Point of View Break classic rules of photography and exaggerate your shadows to create stronger and more dramatic images.—Katrin Eismann

A certain message is conveyed when you see an image with the viewfinder effect; it’s a must for any designer’s toolbox.—Corey Barker

82 | Beyond Photoshop Add some spice to seemingly sterile computer-aided design (CAD) drawings using artistic vision and layer styles.—Scott Onstott

120 | Photoshop Quick Tips Comb your images for meticulous dust removal; sharpen for output; and enjoy Photoshop World-themed shortcuts.—Sherry London

146 | Photoshop Beginners’ Tips Create cool black-and-white shots in Camera Raw; explore alternate ways of opening JPEGs in Camera Raw; and more.—Colin Smith

60 | Deke Space Have you ducked and dodged Lab color, stricken with fear? After reading this, you’ll never be afraid of Lab color again.—Deke McClelland

62 | Beginners’ Workshop If you’ve never heard of the “make-better key” before now, you’ll definitely want to read this article and find out what it’s all about!—Dave Cross

66 | Digital Camera Workshop Recently there’s been quite a surge in the use of selective-focus photography. Jim compares some of the ways to get this effect.—Jim DiVitale

118 68 | The WOW! Factor There’s always more to learn about making selections, but after reading this one you’ll be left saying, “Wow!”—Jack Davis and Linnea Dayton

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

90 | The Revolution Continues: Lightroom 2 Has Arrived

Photoshop Lightroom 2 is here and this release feels like it was developed by photographers. Scott gives us a quick look at what’s new, how it evolved, what Adobe did right, and what still needs to be tweaked in “our program.”—Scott Kelby

94 | Lightroom News 96 | Featured Photographer Photographer/zoologist Ralph Clevenger shows us the natural world.

100 | Under the Loupe Take advantage of Before and After view modes and the History and Snapshots panels to aid you in developing your photos.—Rob Sylvan

102 | Under the Hood Matt explains the various file-format and color-setting choices you have when working between Lightroom and Photoshop.—Matt Kloskowski

104 | Working Creatively in Lightroom This issue, Angela shows us how to produce several different looks from one photo, using snapshots to keep track of our progress.—Angela Drury

106 | Lightroom Tips & Tricks 107 | Lightroom Q&A

96

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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

› › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › s e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 8

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. NAPP Membership Benefits: tAnnual subscription to Photoshop User magazine (eight issues annually) tMembers-only website with time- and money-saving content tR egistration discount to Photoshop World Conference & Expo—the annual NAPP convention and the largest Photoshop event in the world tMonthly 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 Our [Managing] Editor

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› › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › s e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 8

All in this issue and sooo much more…

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Recently, I had the pleasure of working with the Kelby Media Group’s video team—the folks who work behind the scenes to bring you Photoshop User TV and Layers TV—on The 48 Hour Film Project (www.48.tv) when it came through the Tampa/St. Pete area. Various Kelby Media departments converged on the studio (and Dave Cross’s home…poor Dave). What really took me by surprise was how much Photoshop fit into all this. While we were working the script and blocking the scenes, Corey Barker was staring deeply into his laptop. I asked him, “Wha’cha doin’ man? We’ve got less than 24 hours left to produce a film for this thing.” “I know,” he said. “I’m building the intro and putting the credits together.” A bit bewildered, I looked at his screen and sure enough, he had Photoshop CS3 Extended open, drawing an animated scene of rice falling behind the opening credits—everything from scratch. Incredible. Every day I see Photoshop being used in new and exciting ways and this was yet another fine example. (If you’d like to see what we submitted for the project, visit http://photoshopuser.blip.tv.) Speaking of Corey, beginning with this issue on page 70, he’s writing a new column that builds on his Kelby Training DVD, Photoshop in Motion. It’s a place where we can continue to experiment with the things Photoshop enables us to do in the worlds of animation and video. Our main feature for this issue, “Freelancing 101: How to Turn Your Passion into Profit,” by Lisa Sage, starts on page 38. At Photoshop World Orlando, I asked Lisa to keep track of the things laypeople would need to know if they received that fateful we-love-your-artwork-come-play-with-us-type email. Lisa is one of our many rock-star NAPP members who has been approached by some media juggernauts because of the work she uploaded to her online NAPP portfolio and the advice she gave in her posts on the NAPP forum. When companies such as Hysteria Productions and Oxford University Press ask you to freelance for them, you want to (at the very least) look like you know what you’re doing. But difficulties compound when you think about all the things—above and beyond the artwork itself—that are involved in running your own freelancing gig. This article will provide you with a solid learning foundation upon which the rest of your adventures in freelancing can be built. We have another feature beginning on page 84 by our photography equipment expert, Laurie Excell, on how to clean your digital SLR’s sensor. If you were ever afraid to really get in there and clean your camera’s sensor, you won’t be after reading this because it’s as thorough as it is accessible. In our Lightroom section, we have a great feature by our Editor-in-Chief, Scott Kelby, on what’s new in Lightroom 2. Scott just finished writing his most recent book, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers, so we picketed his office until he wrote a feature that filled us in on all the latest and greatest with Lightroom 2. (It was so good we decided to publish it! J) It’s truly an exciting time to be a digital photographer, what with Adobe’s Lightroom Team listening to folks and incorporating their requests to the point that, as Scott says in his article, “It feels like it was crafted by the wants and needs of real users.” Our very own Lightroom Killer Tips dude, Matt Kloskowski, is aware that not everyone has incorporated Lightroom into their workflow, so he took his Lightroom presets and converted them to Adobe Camera Raw for us. Turn to his “Speed Clinic” column on page 50 to learn how to achieve some very cool effects in Camera Raw and then save them as presets to use later. Additionally, Matt has provided all the presets he’s created over the past year as a download to NAPP members! This is a fantastic issue that you’ll want to keep within arm’s reach for years. There’s never been a better time to be a pixel pusher, and we couldn’t be happier to be your go-to learning resource. Now let’s get out there and show our NAPP pride by capturing and conveying the beauty we so often see but forget to share. You never know who might come calling. All the best to you and yours,

Issac Stolzenbach Managing Editor

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All contents ©COPYRIGHT 2008 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 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. 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. JACK DAVIS

Photoshop Hall-of-Famer and awardwinning designer, photographer, and writer, has contributed to more than 30 how-to books for creative professionals including his latest, How to Wow: Photoshop CS3 for Photography, published by Peachpit Press.

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LINNEA DAY TON

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has authored, co-authored, and edited many books, magazines, and newsletters for graphic designers, illustrators, and others who use computers in their art. Her most recent book with Cristen Gillespie is The Photoshop CS/CS2 Wow! Book, published by Peachpit Press. 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

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.

DEKE M C CLELLAND

is recipient of the Videographer Award for Excellence, the Omni Award (both 2007), and author of the full-color Adobe Photoshop CS3 One-on-One (Deke Press/ O’Reilly Media). He also hosts the online series, Photoshop Channels & Masks and Photoshop CS3 One-on-One (www.lynda.com/deke). 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.

KATRIN EISMANN

SCOTT ONSTOT T

is author of Photoshop Restoration & Retouching and Photoshop Masking & Compositing. Katrin is the co-founder and present Chair of the MPS in Digital Photography Department at the School of Visual Arts in NYC (www.sva.edu/digitalphoto). She was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame in 2005.

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.

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 1.1 for the Professional Photographer. Dave is a popular conference speaker in the U.S. and Europe.

CHRIS ORWIG

is a photographer, book and video author, and on the faculty at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. His publications include Adobe Photoshop CS3 How-Tos and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Beta How-Tos (Peachpit Press). For more, visit www.chrisorwig.com. COLIN SMITH

is an award-winning designer, lecturer, and writer, who has authored or coauthored 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 Lighroom 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.

SHERRY LONDON

BEN WILLMORE

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.

is the author of Adobe Photoshop CS3 Studio Techniques and Up to Speed: Photoshop CS3, as well as coauthor of How to Wow: Photoshop for Photography. Currently, Ben is on tour with his hit seminar “Photoshop for Photographers.” Check out his website, www.digitalmastery.com.

Photoshop News

All the latest on Photoshop-related gear and software

By Mark Fleming

Latest | Photoshop-related gear and software

Broaden your horizon with the new Nikon D700 With the release of the D3 earlier this year, Nikon took bold steps into the world of the full-frame, digital SLR. Its newly engineered 23.9x36mm, 12.1 megapixel, FX-format CMOS sensor features not only striking clarity from edge to edge but also the ability to achieve outstanding results in low light. The problem with this sweet machine, though, is the $4999.99 price tag that puts it out of the reach of many of today’s digital shooters. Should Nikon owners who want to enjoy the benefits of the FX-format be left to suffer in the world of conversion factors? Of course not! Coming off the production line, the Nikon D700 not only boasts the same 12.1-megapixel, FX-format sensor as the D3 but also an impressive 5 fps (frames-per-second) continuous shooting at full resolution (up to 8 fps with the optional MB-D10 Multi-power Battery Pack.) Nikon engineers designed this body to incorporate some of the best features of their two top-selling digital SLRs. On the outside, the D700 more closely resembles the D300, using the same durable and lightweight magnesium-alloy chassis, while the inner workings are almost identical to those of the groundbreaking D3. This camera body certainly doesn’t leave you wanting: From the 51-point AF (auto-focus) system to its ability to apply Nikon’s Active D-Lighting, the D700 uses the latest in camera technology. It even boasts two Live View shooting modes—handheld or tripod—that include a virtual horizon indicator. The Nikon D700 has the full-frame functionality and low-light performance of the D3, combined with the size and speed of the D300. Author and photographer, Rob Galbraith (www.RobGalbraith.com) goes so far as to say, “Pictures shot with the D3 and D700 are expected to look the same in every respect.” Selling for around $3,000, this combination of power and speed should appeal to discriminating Nikon users.

Quick on the draw: Canon EOS Rebel XS Canon has announced the latest addition to the popular Rebel lineup: The EOS Rebel XS at 10.1 megapixels enters just below the Rebel XSi. The controls and features of the Rebel XS make the transition from a point-and-shoot to a digital SLR camera a breeze. And action shots are easier to capture with the 7-point, wide-area AF and quick 3-fps continuous shooting mode. The XS also takes advantage of Canon’s patented Auto Lighting Optimizer. It detects dark areas in your image and automatically adjusts brightness and contrast to improve the exposure of your images. The newly adapted Live View function allows users to compose their shots easily through the bright 3" LCD monitor. Paired with Canon’s EF-S18-55mm image stabilized zoom lens, the EOS Rebel XS is expected to ship at an estimated retail price of $699.99.

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Exhibition quality at an affordable price

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Replacing the popular Epson R2400, the new Epson Stylus Photo R2880 has taken desktop printing to a new level. Equipped with Epson’s UltraChrome K3 ink with Vivid Magenta Technology, this printer offers an exceptional color gamut. Keeping the 13" format, the R2880 speeds up the printing process through an optimization process that not only improves color constancy but also allows for a much smoother transition between colors. For black-and-white image enthusiasts, the Advanced Black-and-White Photo Mode gives users precise control of the tonality of each print. This new technology makes the R2880 one of the most precise black-and-white printers on the market today. Maintaining the same eight color channels as its predecessor, the R2880 has a new built-in sensor that monitors each nozzle individually and automatically cleans each print head as needed. With two USB 2 ports, Epson’s latest addition connects easily to any desktop or laptop computer separately or in tandem. The Epson Stylus Photo R2880 prints on all Epson glossy, luster, and matte papers and also supports thicker media, such as Epson’s Exhibition Fiber Paper. Like the R2400, the R2880 can handle roll media, even canvas, up to 13" wide. For more information, visit www.epson.com.

Photoshop News

The third dimension Latest | News

DAZ 3D, an industry leader in 3D content and software, teamed up with Adobe to allow Photoshop users to easily integrate 3D rendering into their workflow. The DAZ 3D Bridge plug-in for Photoshop allows users to seamlessly import and export files between Photoshop and DAZ Studio. Whether rendering, modeling, or animating, the importance of a clean and unencumbered workflow is paramount. Available for a free, 30-day download, the 3D Bridge for Photoshop could bring your next project to a new level. Says Dan Farr, President of DAZ 3D, “Photoshop artists of any level may now discover the power of 3D by easily posing characters and objects three-dimensionally within DAZ Studio, and work with them—in real-time—within Photoshop.”

Do you suck at Photoshop? COURTSEY OF BIG FAT BRAIN

We're sure that many of you have heard about the latest Photoshop phenomenon to hit the Web: You Suck at Photoshop. It may come as a surprise, however, to learn who created Donnie Hoyle, the neurotically depressive Photoshop genius who teaches people Photoshop techniques using bits of his broken life. The real brains behind this two-time Webby Award-winning series are two friends, Troy Hitch and Matt Bledsoe from Covington, Kentucky. This pixel-oriented parody about an overworked, cubicle-bound, disgruntled Photoshop fellow has certainly turned some heads. Time Magazine reported that the first video had more than 400,000 page views in five days. In a little less than a year, this sarcastic take on teaching Photoshop has turned into a commanding hit. Encouraged by the success of their first episode, Troy and Matt have continued the series, adding episodes about everything from the clone stamp to working with 3D layers. As of this writing, these southern gentlemen have collaborated on more than 12 episodes with 8+ million hits. If you’re looking for a unique and humorous way to improve your Photoshop skills, tune in to Donnie Hoyle in his latest episode of You Suck at Photoshop on YouTube.com.

Red Boot Design teams up with SilverBack Imaging In the spirit of helping digital photographers move from behind their computer screens and into the field behind the lens, Red Boot Design, a division of Kubota Photo Design, and SilverBack Imaging and Design have teamed up to create a solution for today’s working photographers. We’re all familiar with the stress of coordinating clients, locations, and dates; all the while knowing that hundreds of images are sitting on a hard drive waiting for processing from our last shoot. Think about relieving your stress with this new service. With custom-designed albums in high demand, photographers can now send images to SilverBack for postproduction, then seamlessly transfer them to Red Boot for album design. This collaboration provides a muchneeded, quick, and easy solution for today’s event photographers. Visit www.redbootdesign.com or www.silverbackimaging.com for all the details.

Here comes the latest addition to Nikon’s Creative Lighting System, the SB-900 AF Speedlight. Dethroning the SB-800 as Nikon’s flagship flash unit, the SB-900 takes its place atop the podium with a plethora of new features. Nikon engineers took the SB-800—already a great flash—and gave it a complete overhaul. So what’s changed since the SB-800? Just ask National Geographic photographer and the undisputed master of flash, Joe McNally: “If the SB-800 is a real nice Chevy, this baby’s a Cadillac.” The first thing any Nikon shooter will notice is the easily adjusted Rotary Select Dial, which has replaced that annoying selector button on the SB-800. Other physical changes include the relocation of the master/remote mode selection to the outside control panel. The major improvements to this unit are technical. For example, recycle time has been cut to a mere 2.3 seconds and the light output has increased zoom range to an impressive 17–200mm. Another important improvement is that you can now select from three separate light distribution patterns: Center-weighted, providing the highest possible light output, is intended for use when light falloff at the edge of the frame won’t be a problem; Standard, similar to the quality of light we’re used to seeing with the SB-800, is ideal for most circumstances; and Even provides the most consistent light, covering the entire frame from edge to edge. The true test of any flash unit, however, is to use it in the field. After running the SB-900 during a live shoot, McNally says, “It’s bigger, stronger, sturdier. It has crucial additional features that will go a long way to making Nikon’s Creative Lighting System a more complete system.” His favorite improvement seems to be the 360º swivel capability. He calls it “the Linda Blair of strobe units.” Because of the full 360º swivel, there’s no need to angle the unit to maximize sensor reception. This feature eliminates the potential for compromising the approach of the light to the subject. According to McNally, “This feature alone is worth the price of admission.” ■

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Nikon's new go-to-flash

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NAPP Member News

All the Latest on Membership and Benefits

By Mary Laurinaitis

ALL THE LATEST ON MEMBERSHIP AND BENEFITS

Member News

How to do the things you want to do on your Mac Scott Kelby, NAPP President, best-selling author, and the Editor and Publisher of Photoshop User magazine, has recently released The Mac OS X Leopard Book. Scott wrote the book in his signature casual style, without all the technical explanations and technobabble. It’s as though you brought your Mac over to his house and he’s giving you tips, advice, and sharing the secrets he’s learned over the years—just like he would with a friend. NAPP members will receive a discount on the book from KelbyTraining.com, our e-retail partner.

“Where everyone learns Photoshop” ads spotlight members Our marketing challenge this year was to find the best way to show the value of a NAPP membership to an ever-growing audience of Photoshop users. The answer came like a bolt from the blue: Because NAPP is “where everyone learns Photoshop” (which ended up becoming the campaign tagline), the best way to communicate that to others is to showcase the truly exceptional Photoshop skills of NAPP members. Our creative marketing team selected stunning artwork and photography from the winning entries from past Photoshop World Guru and Photoshop User Award programs, plus NAPP member portfolios. You can see our campaign running in this magazine, as well as Layers, Communication Arts, Outdoor Photographer, Digital Photo Pro, HOW, Print, and Shutterbug. A special thank you to the following NAPP members who graciously shared their creative work with us to be part of our marketing efforts. Carol Rossi Greg Carter Ciro Marchetti Doug Landreth

Rich Nortnik John Doogan Adam Daniels Jared Martin

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Job Bank caters to creative types just like you

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If you find yourself on the hunt for a new job, don’t overlook the NAPP Job Bank—it’s free and a great member benefit. You’ll find it linked on the members-only website under Member Services. We’re working with CreativeHeads .net, an online placement service specializing in creative content companies, as well as companies in the video game, animation, and special effects industries, to bring you the best possible job opportunities. Even if you’re just curious about what jobs are open in your field, you can post a confidential profile showcasing your work experience that thousands of potential employers can access. You never know when and how that next big career break will happen!

Peter Christoph Brad Buttry Greg Sims James Quantz Jr.

Bobby Goodrich Kaycee Kennedy Rice Jackson Stephanie Thibaudeau

Refer-a-friend program launches for NAPP members

Two new DVDs by women who rock at Photoshop NAPP members get a special discount on all training DVDs offered at KelbyTraining.com (NAPP’s e-retail partner). A Celebration of Art! Weddings, Portraits and Faces (2-disc set) by Fay Sirkis Join masterful portrait artist Fay Sirkis as she takes you to the next level of photo painting by revealing her secrets for creating beautiful portrait paintings in detail. Using Photoshop CS3 and Painter X, you’ll learn how to transform your photos of brides, grooms, and children into beautiful watercolor and oil paintings. You’ll learn techniques that will have you painting like the masters in no time! Exclusive to this DVD set are eleven new brush categories created by Fay, including the da Vinci, Vermeer, Cezanne, Backgrounds, Five O’Clock Shadow, and many more. This two-disc set is only $179.99 for NAPP members. Color to Black and White Artistry by Katrin Eismann Join artist, author, and educator Katrin Eismann as she guides you through this step-by-step class that demonstrates the many options for transforming your images from color to black and white. Katrin also gives you an overview of the Advanced Black and White print option for Epson inkjet printers to ensure your finished images are as beautiful in print as they appear on your computer screen. It’s only $54.99 for NAPP members. 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].

Recent NAPP Discounts To take advantage of these discounts, NAPP members should go to the Discounts section at www.photoshopuser.com. Tatung—Buy televisions, monitors, and open-framed displays at a discount when you work with the NAPP liaison at Tatung. Check the discounts, product specs, and contact information in the Discount section of the site. Photomatix—If you’re into HDR photography, you can save 20% on the hot new HDR production tool— Photomatix. A unique discount code is required at checkout—get it from the Discount section of our website before you buy online. Glass and Gear—Now you can rent high-quality Canon and Nikon lenses, camera bodies, and accessories, plus get a 10% discount on all rentals. The gear is shipped to you in Pelican cases and orders placed before 3 p.m. can ship on the same day. Apple—You get a 0% lease for 24 months on a new Mac system and software (some restrictions apply). The special leasing offer to NAPP members will expire this November, so take advantage of this great offer soon. B&H—B&H offers free 3–5 business day 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. SiteGrinder—NAPP members enjoy 15% savings on this “must-have” Photoshop 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. iStockphoto—Save 10% off your first purchase of $50 or more, and get 30 images for free just because you’re a member of NAPP. iStockphoto has one of the best royalty-free stock collections available anywhere. ■

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NAPP is growing by leaps and bounds due to the wonderful recommendations members make to family, friends, and co-workers about the Association. With so many new members joining every day, we’re excited to kick off a new NAPP Referral Program that’s designed to give back to our members. If you get a friend to join, we’ll add two months to your NAPP membership. And, if you get as many as 11 friends, family, or co-workers to join, you’ll receive a complimentary pass to the Photoshop World Conference & Expo! There are different referral rewards available for three, five, seven, and nine members, too. To get all of the details on how you can participate, stop by the NAPP Referral Program page on the members-only website.

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Adobe® InDesign® CS3 Productivity Tour

Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 Creativity Tour

Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 Power Tour

featuring Terry White

featuring Bert Monroy

Unlock your hidden talents and raise your InDesign® skills to new heights. In one day of hard-hitting InDesign® training, Terry White will show you how to put sizzle in your layouts with advanced typography and graphics techniques. You’ll manage workflow better and more efficiently from pre-planning to prepress, and become the InDesign® power user you’ve always wanted to be!

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

featuring Scott Kelby Amplify the impact of your work with high-voltage techniques for Photoshop® CS3. This seminar, created by the #1 best-selling computer book author, Scott Kelby, will boost your Photoshop® skills with awe-generating effects used by today’s industry pros.

Maximum Adobe® Photoshop® CS3

Photoshop® World Conference & Expo

featuring Dave Cross

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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!

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Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom Live Tour

Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 for Photographers

featuring Scott Kelby

featuring Ben Willmore

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—rather than boring, repetitive production tasks.

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.

SEMINAR REGISTRATION INFORMATION 3FHVMBSBENJTTJPOJTt/"11NFNCFSTQBZ Call 800.201.7323 or register online at www.Kelbytraining.com.

Learn the most up-to-date techniques and hottest tips for Adobe® Photoshop® CS3, Photoshop® Lightroom®, and Photoshop® CS3 Extended from a team of the industry’s most talented and creative instructors. And don’t forget the Tech Expo where you can get an insider’s look at the latest products and technologies.

LAS VEGAS, NV September 4–6, 2008 Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino General admission is $699 NAPP members pay $599 Students (with ID) pay $149 Call 800-201-7323, or register online at www.photoshopworld.com. ■

Down & Dirty Tricks The hottest new Photoshop tricks and coolest special effects ■ BY CO R E Y B A R K E R

Creating Realistic Ice From Scratch This technique is a pretty cool way to create realistic-looking ice. The example here is done as a text effect but this method isn’t limited to just text; it can be applied to virtually anything with a little tweaking. So let’s get to it.

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STEP ONE: First is the file size. We need a good amount of resolution in the file for the detail in the ice, so create (File>New) a 7x4.5" file at 300 ppi. Also, since the effect will be more visible over a colored background go ahead and create a blue gradient. This will enhance the “coolness” of the finished effect. To create the gradient, grab the Gradient tool (G) and open the Gradient Editor from the Options Bar. Double-click the left Color Stop under the gradient bar, set the color to R:0, G:50, and B:105 in the Color Picker, and click OK. Repeat for the Color Stop on the right. Click below the gradient bar to add a Color Stop and drag it until the Location reads 75%. Change the color to R:0, G:100, and B:155. Click OK in the Gradient Editor, create a new layer in the Layers panel by clicking the Create a New Layer icon, then drag the Gradient tool from the top of the document to the bottom.

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STEP TWO: Select the Type tool (T) in the Toolbox and press the letter D to set your Foreground color to black. In the Options Bar, enter 210 pt for the size and set the font to Impact (or any really bold font you want to use). Click in the document area and set the text. Here we typed the word “HOT.” Once the text is set, center align it to the document by switching to the Move tool (V), pressing Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to select all, and then clicking the Align Horizontal Centers and Align Vertical Center buttons in the Options Bar. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect. (Hide the gradient layer for now by clicking the Eye icon beside it in the Layers panel.)

STEP THREE: Go under the Filter menu and choose Liquify. You’ll see a warning that the text needs to be rasterized before you can use Liquify. Click OK. Once inside Liquify, select the Forward Warp tool (W) at the top of the Liquify Toolbox. Set the Brush Size to around 150, leave the Brush Density at 50, and set the Brush Pressure to 75. Now just push the edges of the letters around so they look kind of bumpy. The point here is so the letters don’t have perfectly straight edges and they look more abstract. Once the letters look the way you want, click OK in the Liquify dialog. STEP FOUR: Go into the Layers panel and lock the transparency of this liquified layer by clicking the checkerboard icon next to the word “Lock.” With the Foreground and Background color swatches still set to their default black and white, respectively, go under the Filter menu to Render and choose Clouds. (Tip: If the clouds don’t turn out the way you like, press Command-F [PC: Ctrl-F] to re-render them.) STEP FIVE: Next, go under the Edit menu and choose Stroke. In the Stroke dialog, click the Color swatch, set the color to black in the Color Picker, and click OK to close the Color Picker. For the Width enter 5 px and set the Location to Inside. Click OK. This will ultimately help to define the edge effect a little more.

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STEP SIX: Now we need to apply a blur to help smooth out the detail for the next step. Go under the Filter menu to Blur and choose Gaussian Blur. Set the Radius to about 7, and click OK.

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STEP SEVEN: Create a duplicate of this layer by dragging it to the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Turn off the visibility of this duplicate layer for now by clicking on its Eye icon. Click on the original HOT layer in the Layers panel to make it the active layer. Go under the Filter menu to Artistic and choose Plastic Wrap. Enter 15 for Highlight Strength, 1 for Detail, and 15 for Smoothness. You’ll start to see the effect taking shape at this point. Click OK. STEP EIGHT: Make the duplicate layer visible again by clicking where the Eye icon used to be, then make it the active layer. Go under the Filter menu to Sketch and choose Chrome. Simply set the Detail to 0 and the Smoothness all the way to 10, and click OK.

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STEP NINE: Go ahead and make the gradient layer visible again, and in the Layers panel, change the blend modes of both HOT layers’ from Normal to Overlay. This will make the effect interact with the background and the ice effect will reveal itself a little, but it’s not quite enough—we need to enhance it more.

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STEP TEN: Drag the original HOT layer to the Create a New Layer icon in the Layers panel to duplicate it and change the new layer’s blend mode to Hard Light. Now duplicate the HOT copy layer (at the top) and change its blend mode to Hard Light as well. This will bring out the highlights and help define the ice detail. So at this point, you should have a Plastic Wrap layer and Chrome layer set to Overlay and a Plastic Wrap layer and Chrome layer set to Hard Light. continued on p. 28

STEP ELEVEN: To lessen the effect and make the text more readable, make the topmost layer active and drop the Opacity in the Layers panel to around 50%. This completes the ice effect.

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STEP THIRTEEN: In the Layers panel, click the Add Layer Mask icon to apply a mask to the reflection. Yes, you can actually put a layer mask on a layer group. This is a nice way to composite a layered image right inside the same document. Select the Gradient tool from the Toolbox and press the X key to switch your Foreground color to black. In the Options Bar, choose the Foreground to Transparent gradient in the Gradient Picker, and choose the Linear gradient. Hold the Shift key and draw the gradient from the bottom of the document to the bottom of the Group 1 text to finish the effect. Feel free to experiment. Try different blend modes, different layer arrangements, and even different subject matter. One effect always builds upon another. ■

COREY BARKER

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STEP TWELVE: With the effect done, we just need to finish with a reflection— gotta have a reflection! Shift-click the layers that make up the ice effect to select them, and press Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G) to put them into a layer group. Drag this layer group to the Create a New Layer icon to create a duplicate group. With the duplicate group active, go under the Edit menu to Transform and choose Flip Vertical. Then, holding the Shift key, use the Move tool to drag the graphic into position just beneath the original text.

Down & Dirty Tricks The hottest new Photoshop tricks and coolest special effects N BY SCOT T KELBY AND FELI X NELSON

Iron Man Text Effect You knew that as soon as we saw the promotional materials for Paramount Pictures’ Iron Man movie, we had to take a stab at re-creating the type effect that was used. The metallic-looking type treatment incorporates a warm, etched effect that can be replicated using simple Photoshop layer styles. STEP ONE: Create a new 14x5", 72-ppi, RGB document. Press D then X to set the Background color to black. Press CommandDelete (PC: Ctrl-Backspace) to fill the Background layer with black. Choose the Type tool (T) from the Toolbox, and enter your text (we used 246-point Iron Hero Solid). Click the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to create a new layer (Layer 1). Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the text layer thumbnail while Layer 1 is highlighted as the active layer. Go under the Select menu, under Modify, and choose Expand. Enter 3 pixels and click OK.

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STEP TWO: Click on the Foreground color swatch, choose a dark brown color (R:83, G:72, B:53), and click OK. Click on the Background color swatch, choose a bright yellow (R:250, G:244, B:115), and click OK. Now choose the Gradient tool (G) from the Toolbox and in the Options Bar, choose Foreground to Background from the Gradient Picker, then click on the Linear Gradient icon. Click-and-drag a gradient from the top toward the bottom of the selection. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

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STEP THREE: Click on the Add a Layer Style icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Bevel and Emboss. Enter 100% for Depth, uncheck the Use Global Light checkbox, enter 90° for Angle, 65° for Altitude, and choose Normal for Shadow Mode (don’t click OK). Choose Gradient Overlay from the Styles list on the left side of the Layer Style dialog. Change the Blend Mode to Color Burn and the Opacity to 100%. Click on the black-to-white Gradient thumbnail. Click on the black color stop at lower left, then click on the black Color swatch. In the Color Picker that appears, choose white as the color and click OK. Now, click on the white color stop on the right, then click on the Color swatch again. Choose a yellow color (R:248, G:215, B:33) and click OK twice. In the Layer Style dialog, choose Reflected as the Gradient Style and set the Angle to 0°. Again, don’t click OK just yet.

STEP FOUR: Choose Pattern Overlay from the Styles list, change the Blend Mode to Overlay, and the Opacity to 55%. Click directly on the Pattern thumbnail, then click on the right-facing arrow and choose Rock Patterns. When the warning dialog appears, simply click Append to add to your current patterns, or click OK to replace them. Choose Rock Wall from the Pattern list, enter 300% for Scale, and click OK to close the Layer Style dialog.

STEP FIVE: Create a new layer (Layer 2). Commandclick (PC: Ctrl-click) on the original text layer thumbnail to load it as a selection. Go under Select, under Modify, and choose Contract. Enter 2 pixels and click OK. Set the Foreground color to black and the Background color to orange (R:230, G:135, B:16). Choose the Gradient tool, select the Foreground to Background gradient from the Gradient Picker again, and make a gradient from the top to the bottom of the selection. Go under the Filter menu, under Noise, and choose Add Noise. Enter 2%, click OK, and deselect.

STEP SEVEN: Choose Pattern Overlay from the Styles list, change the Blend Mode to Overlay, and the Opacity to 25%. Click directly on the Pattern thumbnail, then click on the right-facing arrow and choose Reset Patterns. When the warning dialog appears, click OK. Choose Clouds from the Pattern list and enter 75% for Scale. Don’t click OK.

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STEP SIX: Click on the Add a Layer Style icon and choose Gradient Overlay. Change the Blend Mode to Screen, and click on the Gradient thumbnail. Click on the right color stop and change the color to yellow (R:251, G:216, B:94). Now, move the yellow color stop on the right toward the left (as shown). Click OK to close the Gradient Editor. In the Layer Style dialog, turn on the Reverse checkbox, set Style to Radial, Angle to 72°, and Scale to 150%. Don’t click OK yet.

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STEP EIGHT: Choose Stroke from the Styles list. Enter 1 for Size, choose Outside for Position, and change the Opacity to 15%. Click on the red Color swatch, choose a pale yellow (R:255, G:225, B:161), and click OK. Click OK to close the Layer Style dialog.

STEP NINE: Create a new layer (Layer 3) and drag it between Layers 1 and 2 in the Layers panel. Change the blend mode to Overlay. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the Layer 1 thumbnail. Press D then X to set the Foreground color to white. Choose the Brush tool (B) and with a soft-edged brush, paint in some highlights around the top, side, and bottom of the bevels on Layer 3. Create another new layer (Layer 4) above Layer 3, paint some additional highlights, and lower the Opacity to 75% (leave the blend mode set to Normal). Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

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STEP ELEVEN: Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on Layer 2 to load it as a selection. Choose the Brush tool and with a small, hard-edged brush (3 pixels or less), draw some random scratches on the surface of the letters. Choose the Smudge tool (nested under the Blur tool) and smooth out some of the scratches at the top of the letters (as shown) to complete the effect then deselect. N

FELIX NELSON

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STEP TEN: Create a new layer (Layer 5) and move it to the top of the layer stack. Click on the Add a Layer Style icon and choose Outer Glow. Choose Multiply as the Blend Mode, enter 50% for Opacity, and 3 for Size. Click on the color swatch, choose a dark orange color (R:181, G:115, B:39), and click OK. Choose Bevel and Emboss from the Styles list. Enter 150% for Depth, uncheck the Use Global Light checkbox, enter 144° for Angle, 42° for Altitude, and raise the Highlight Mode Opacity to 100%. Now choose Gradient Overlay from the Styles list and click on the Gradient thumbnail. In the Gradient Editor, click on the left color stop, then click on the Color swatch, choose an orange color (R:207, G:138, B:43), and click OK. Now, click on the right color stop, click on the Color swatch, choose a light orange color (R:245, G:216, B:138), and click OK. Click OK twice to apply the layer style.

Down & Dirty Tricks The hottest new Photoshop tricks and coolest special effects ■ BY CO R E Y B A R K E R

It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!! Well, it’s jelly time anyway. Yes, we’re going to create a really cool, realistic, jelly effect. But here’s the catch: We’re going to make it so that the effect is applied as a brush, which will give you much more creative possibilities, such as text effects.

STEP ONE: The inspiration for this piece stems from the eponymous YouTube.com sensation about a dancing banana…. Anyway, it all begins by creating a new RGB document (File>New). We used a simple square layout, 8x8" at 125-ppi Resolution.

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STEP TWO: The first key component in our effect is the brush, so we need to create a new custom brush using Photoshop’s brush engine. Click the Brush tool (B) in the Toolbox, then go under the Window menu and choose Brushes to open the Brushes panel (or you can click the Toggle the Brushes Panel icon at the right-hand side of the Options Bar). Click on Brush Tip Shape in the list at the left of the dialog and click on the 65-pixel, Soft Round brush.

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STEP THREE: Next, click on the words, “Shape Dynamics” to open that section of the dialog. Set the Size Jitter to 100%, click on the Control setting just below the Size Jitter slider, and choose Off from the menu. Then set the Angle Jitter to 25% and the Roundness Jitter to 50%, leaving both of those Control settings at Off.

STEP FOUR: Still in the Brushes panel, activate Scattering from the list. Make sure the Both Axes box is checked on and drag the Scatter slider to 275%.

STEP SIX: Now we’ve created our custom brush, we need to save it so we won’t have to go through these steps every time we need it again. In The Brushes panel, click on the down-facing arrow at top right and in the fly-out menu that opens, click on New Brush Preset, name that Brush (we called ours Jelly Brush 1), and click OK. And your new brush is added to the Brush Picker. Now when you select the Jelly Brush 1 from the Brush Picker in the Options Bar, all the settings will be in place.

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STEP FIVE: Activate the Dual Brush option and click on the 45 Sampled Tip brush. Set the Diameter to 50 px, set Scatter to 650, and turn on the Both Axes checkbox. Also, set the Dual Brush blend Mode at the top of the panel to Linear Burn. Finally click on the Wet Edges option to activate it. Don’t click OK yet.

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It’s jelly, jelly, jelly time! The second key component of our effect is a layer style. As we paint with our new brush, it will pick up the effect of the layer style to complete the effect. So let’s create our style now. STEP SEVEN: Go to the Layers panel and click the Create a New Layer icon. Then click on the Add a Layer Style (ƒx) icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Bevel and Emboss.

STEP EIGHT: In the Layer Style dialog, keep Inner Bevel as the Style and set Technique to Smooth. Change your depth to 325% and the Size to around 10 px. Uncheck the Use Global Light option. Set the Angle to 135º and the Altitude to 69º. Then drop the Highlight Opacity to 55%. Don’t click OK yet.

STEP NINE: Just as with our custom brush, it’s a good idea to save this layer style as a preset. Simply click on the New Style button, give your style a name, and click OK. Then click OK to close the Layer Style dialog. In the future, when you open your Styles panel (Window>Styles), you’ll see your Jelly style—it should be the last one in the panel.

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And there you have the technique to create a brush and effect; now it’s up to you what you do with it. Here’s our PB&J sandwich. ■

©ISTOCKPHOTO/OBSCURE PHOTO & BLUESTOCKING

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STEP TEN: All we need before we use our custom brush is to choose a color—this effect will work with any color. Just click your Foreground swatch in the Toolbox, choose a color in the Color Picker (we chose raspberry for our jelly—R:113, G:7, and B:7), and click OK. Just choose your new jelly brush and start painting in the document. To get an effect that’s a bit more realistic, release the mouse and paint over the area again. You can also narrow the Scatter setting in the Brushes panel to achieve a more refined line—useful for drawing text.

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e n it came time to mak he w , er ev w ho ; ns io r good decis ow the research od research makes fo tter teacher. Someh be e I’ve always believed go th be to ed ov ce, experience pr visiting my research, Re . es nc rie pe ex y m my decision to freelan t of sync with til they were safely g always seemed ou un d te ai w ho w ts tis I found on freelancin ritten by ar of what I read was w nces. As a newcomer rie pe ex r ei th n w I realized that most do writing e freelancers before the things they often tly ac ex e er w ow kn employed as full-tim wanted to ancing, the things I writings. to the world of freel ipped entirely in their sk or n, te ot rg fo d an rned glossed over, already lea

By Lisa Sage

Human memory, being fallible and subject to change over time, isn’t always the most reliable resource. So when Photoshop User asked me to keep notes along the way on those foreheadsmacking, ah-ha moments, I jumped at the chance. While this is by no means everything I’ve learned, it’s my sincere hope to help you get started on your own freelancing adventure— before I too forget what’s important for the novice to know. If the thought of starting your own business doesn’t bring the word “lawsuit” to mind, you’re indeed a rare, and far-tootrusting bird. For my own peace of mind I wanted a measure of legal distance between my personal property and my business. As with anything else there are a number of different ways to do this depending on the business structure you choose. (Your state’s website is a great source of information.) I chose to form a Limited Liability Company (LLC), which is an easy process. In general, the steps are:

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The third item in the list is the key to protecting your limited liability status. By creating an operating agreement and adhering to it, you help ensure that courts will respect your limited personal liability for business debts. You’ll also need to fund your LLC adequately, behave fairly and responsibly, and be very careful never to co-mingle business and family assets to ensure the legal separation between your business and your family. As always, if you’re not comfortable reading or creating legal documents, you should consult with a lawyer and get your business off to a good start.

%>MMBG@RHNK?HHMBGMA>=HHK The art world has its own hierarchy and it helps to understand it if you want to get your foot in the door. I had to ask a lot of questions before finding out that the art director is the person to send samples of my work to. Some art directors will accept samples by email, others prefer snail mail; always find out which they prefer before sending anything. In monthly publications, the art director’s name can be found listed in the masthead (usually a box on one of the pages near the Contents’ page). Don’t overlook trade magazines and regional publications: These may not be as glamorous as national consumer magazines but most pay fairly well and the competition isn’t nearly as fierce. As an artist, if you’re more interested in targeting a particular industry, such as banking or healthcare, start by researching which departments within that organization use graphic art services, and then follow up with direct mailings. Even if your contact accepts samples by email, it’s never a good idea to assume someone in the art world is tech-savvy. The first time I emailed samples of my paintings, I was so excited. I sorted and separated my favorite paintings into folders and promptly ZIP’ed and attached them. Two weeks later, I received an email simply stating, “I can’t view .zip, can you send .jpg?”

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Large projects, such as those with textbook publishers, usually have an art buyer who actively searches for artists who use the particular style agreed to for the project. This is where that highly visible NAPP portfolio really pays off. It provides easy access to a multitude of artists and is much more likely to be found by search engines. (I’ve been contacted this way a number of times.)

5A>GRHN`K>?BG:EERHG;H:K= Once you’re contacted and accepted for the project, your direct contact will be one of several image editors. They function as go-betweens for the art director and a group of artists. These projects are also controlled by art directors who have absolute say over what type of images they want, what colors and tones can be used, and what the composition of each image will be. Don’t be surprised if you’re given a spec sheet that spells out in excruciating detail what each image needs to be. Read the description and be ready to produce it. In the end, the project has to look like one collection of very coordinated artwork. On any project, large or small, try to remember that your job is to help bring the art director’s idea(s) to life. After all, it’s her project; the artists have only been brought in to help. You’ll have plenty of time to work on your own personal projects after the paying gigs are done. One of the nice things about a large project is that the payment and delivery schedule is figured out for you, as part of the contract. The downside of this is that it’s very typical for a contract to hold the freelancer legally responsible for any/all claims of invasion of privacy or infringement brought against the artist’s work. (It’s been in every contract I’ve signed so far; the wording may vary but it’s always there.) Even though every

state approaches privacy issues differently, the general result is the same: public and private individuals have the right to prevent unauthorized commercial use of their name, likeness, or other recognizable aspects of their persona. To protect yourself, you either need to obtain a signed model release or negotiate a licensing fee for the intended use. If you’ll be using stock images, be sure your intended use is allowed by the licensing agreement. If there are terms to be met, comply with them (see “Copyright and Trademark [Briefly]” below).

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!-.70'%&2,"20"#+0) 0'#$*7 Copyright law is entirely too much to cram into one article but let’s face it, one copyright infringement suit could wreck a freelancer! There’s a common misconception that content on the Internet is in the public domain; however, the truth is that only common themes (the alphabet, the numeric system) and common images (triangles, circles, and basic shapes) are in the public domain. And these may be used freely. For anything else to be in the public domain, the creator would have to specify in writing (attached to the work) that he/she was intentionally forfeiting all rights and claims

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to the work. In the absence of this notice, it’s wise to assume that an image is protected by copyright and cannot be

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used without permission. According to U.S. Copyright laws, however, for purposes such as criticism, parody, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, the fair use of a very limited portion of a copyrighted work isn’t an infringement of copyright. If, like me, your art includes residential and historic property, you’ll want to educate yourself on trademark law (privacy law doesn’t pertain to animals or inanimate objects) because it has become common for these structures to be trademarked by the owners. In a nutshell, trademark protection of a building prevents the competition from creating an identical structure in order to confuse the public. It doesn’t stop a citizen from making or selling a photograph or painting of the building from a public vantage point. (The test case for this can be found online, just search for “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Inc. v. Charles Gentile and Gentile Prods.” It’s a landmark case and a landmark win for photographers, artists, and tourists everywhere.)

$BG>KMIKBGML:G=I:BGMBG@L If you’d like to approach boutique owners or cafe owners about displaying your art, make an appointment to speak with the owner or the general manager, then arrive with a few samples, a brochure/business card, and a consignment agreement in hand. The consignment agreement is a must. In the real world, “stuff” happens; there could be a break-in or a fire, or a customer might accidentally damage your artwork. A good contract will have all of this spelled out, covering who is responsible and to what extent. Working with small boutiques and cafes is a good way to start growing your sales. If there’s a chance that you’d like to work with a gallery someday, you’ll need to have very accurate sales records. Galleries have long been the accepted path into the art world but when it comes to business, they’re pretty much like any other: They’re only interested in goods (art) already in demand, and selling at a price that will allow them to make a profit. My experience is that a 40/60 split is standard. The artist’s 40% includes the cost to produce, ship, and market the work to the gallery and the gallery’s 60% includes costs involved with selling to the art world and its markup. Before approaching any gallery, be sure to do your homework to find out what art styles the gallery represents. And be objective about whether your work will be a good fit. Take time to visit the gallery to ensure there’s adequate space, good lighting, and no obvious signs of poor maintenance. Once you’ve narrowed your list, you have two options: (1) Have an artist friend who is already represented by the gallery introduce you—not surprisingly, this will carry the most weight; or (2) cold-call the gallery to request an appointment to meet with the director and discuss your work. On the day of the meeting, be prompt. Bring with you 3–6 original pieces (do not leave these unless you have a signed agreement) as well as 6–12 samples and a biography to leave with the gallery. If you’ve established your market and have kept accurate sales records, now is the time to make them work for you. (You’re marketing your art as a saleable commodity and sales figures add credibility.) Also, be ready to talk intelligently about your art. Then follow up with a phone call within two weeks.

Perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned is that freelancing isn’t about doing what you want. It’s about doing everything that everyone else around you used to do, in addition to developing your artistic talent. I’ve been revisiting my accounting and project management texts, as well as burning the midnight oil on legal sites. I know that doesn’t really sound like such a good deal—and some days it’s not—but then there’s that moment when a complete stranger views your work, a look of total recognition and clarity crosses her face, and a sincere compliment touches your heart! That’s the moment you know you’re hooked. There’s no other choice for you after that. ■

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Wrapping up my first year freelancing, my client list includes Oxford University Press, Gallery One, Hysteria Productions, and Cascade films. I’m a two-time Photoshop Guru finalist in the Illustration and Artistic categories and also an active member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), the Graphic Artist’s Guild, and the Maine Arts Commission. And I’m looking forward to my first exclusive showing in January. I live in Maine with my husband and our four sons and currently, I’m working on my Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology. Visit us at http://sagefamilystudios.com.

Ben Willmore

Photoshop Mastery Replace Eight Dialogs with Just One! If you adjust JPEGs or TIFFs using features such as Brightness & Contrast, Levels, Shadow/Highlight, and Hue/ Saturation, consider replacing all those adjustments with just one: Adobe Camera Raw. Let’s take a look at which sliders in Camera Raw can be used to replace adjustments in Photoshop. o access Camera Raw, select an image in Bridge and choose Open in Camera Raw from the File menu. If the menu item is grayed out, choose Tools>Cache>Purge Cache for Folder. The adjustment sliders in Camera Raw have different names than the ones in the adjustment dialogs in Photoshop, but they act much the same. All you have to do is figure out which slider corresponds to the type of adjustment you’re used to working with in Photoshop, then you can save loads of time by applying your adjustments in a single dialog.

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of the same name in Camera Raw. If you’re used to applying Levels adjustments in Photoshop, then use the Exposure, Blacks, and Brightness sliders as if you were working with the upper-right, upper-left, and middle sliders in Levels, respectively (you can even hold the Option [PC: Alt] key to get a clipping warning, just like in Levels). Replacing Shadow/Highlight The Recovery and Fill Light sliders in Camera Raw can be used as a replacement for the Shadows and Highlights sliders in the Shadow/Highlight dialog. Replace Hue/Saturation The Saturation slider in Camera Raw is much like the one found in the Hue/Saturation dialog in Photoshop. But you also have the bonus of the Vibrance slider, which has no equivalent in Photoshop. The Vibrance slider concentrates on areas of your image that aren’t all that colorful and lets you make them more, or less, saturated. The Hue and Lightness sliders found in the Hue/Saturation dialog in Photoshop aren’t very useful unless you isolate a color within your image via the Edit drop-down menu at the top of the dialog. You can replace much of the functionality found in that menu by clicking on the HLS/Grayscale tab (found in the bar of icons above the adjustment sliders in Camera Raw—it’s the fourth icon from the left. That’s where you’ll find separate Hue, Saturation, and Luminance sliders for eight individual colors (two more than you have available in the Hue/Saturation dialog).

found under the HSL/Grayscale tab in Camera Raw. If you like the Tint checkbox in the Black and White dialog, you should enjoy exploring the settings found under the Split Toning tab (fifth icon from the left) because it gives you much more control over tinting a grayscale image. If you explore all of the other tabs in Camera Raw, you’ll find replacements for many of the controls found in Curves as well as the Lens Correction and Unsharp Mask filters. Camera Raw can’t replace every single control found in the dialogs that I’ve mentioned but it can go a long way to making the process of applying adjustments much more efficient. I start all of my images in Camera Raw and only bring an image into Photoshop when I run into one of the limitations of Camera Raw (such as not being able to isolate an area via a selection). ■

Main adjustment sliders in Camera Raw

Replacing Brightness/Contrast and Levels You can replace the sliders found in the Brightness/Contrast dialog with the sliders

Replacing Black & White You can replace the Black & White adjustment (that was new in Photoshop CS3) with the Convert to Grayscale checkbox

Camera Raw HSL/Grayscale sliders

Ben Willmore is the best-selling author of Adobe Photoshop CS3 Studio Techniques and Up to Speed: Photoshop CS3, as well as co-author of How to Wow: Photoshop for Photography. 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.

Bert Monroy

From Bert’s Studio Study the Technique There’s one thing that I like to stress when I teach seminars or do podcasts and that is to study the technique that I’m demonstrating for the process and not necessarily the end result. You might wonder, “What’s the point of the technique if not the end result?” ell, the point is that everything in Photoshop is a series of steps and a slight deviation in any of those steps can dramatically alter the end result. My main purpose is to encourage you to experiment: Follow the steps shown, then give them a twist, and see what happens. What we’ll discuss here is a good case in point: We’re applying effects to a layer but not to the layer itself. We’re applying the effects to a mask for the layer, thus dramatically altering the result of the effect.

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Everything old is new again… For the image used here, I decided to update an old Pixel Paint image created more than 20 years ago. The original image was based on an Illustrator file that I created even earlier—before Illustrator supported color! Hard to believe how time has passed …but enough with the nostalgia, let’s get to the technique. We start by opening an image of a train locomotive that I called Classic. Then we’ll add smoke billowing from the smokestack.

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to suit your texture (we chose 4 pixels), and click OK. Note: Our settings are based on an image that’s 72 ppi. If you’re working on an image with a higher resolution, then your settings will be higher. STEP THREE: Scale this layer containing the texture to a shallow rectangle. To do that, choose Edit>Transform> Scale, then drag the top- and bottom-center handles to make a rectangle. Press Return (PC: Enter) to commit the transformation. We want to change the shape of this rectangle into a cone, so choose (Edit> Transform>Perspective) and drag the bottom-right corner up until it looks like the shape shown below, and commit the transformation.

STEP ONE: First, set your Background color to black. Then choose File>Canvas>Canvas Size so we can add room at the top of the image. In the dialog, add about 1/3 more to the Height, click on the bottom-middle Anchor to make the addition to the top of the image, and click OK. Add a new layer by clicking on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel then fill this layer with black by pressing Shift-F5, choose Black from the Use menu, and click OK. STEP TWO: Now press D to change your Foreground/Background colors to their default, black and white, respectively. Select the Fibers filter (Filter>Render>Fibers) and in the dialog, modify the Variance and Strength to create a texture (we used Variance 15; Strength 4, as shown above right). Now add a Gaussian Blur to this texture by going to Filter> Blur>Gaussian Blur. In the dialog that appears, choose a Radius

STEP FOUR: And now it’s time to make this cone-shaped texture look like a trail of smoke. Choose the Polygonal Lasso tool from the Toolbox and select a shape that travels along the inside edges of the cone shape.

From Bert’s Studio

to this point, the layer’s mask has been selected). Choose Edit>Transform>Warp and use the warp points to “twist” the smoke stream into the shape needed to complete the effect. When you’re satisfied, commit the warp by pressing Return (PC: Enter). Here’s our Warp mesh being altered to distort the shape.

With this area selected, click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, which will create a mask that has white inside the selected area and black everywhere else, thus exposing the central portion of the cone shape. STEP FIVE: Click on the mask thumbnail, then choose Filter>Brush Strokes>Spatter to apply this filter to the layer mask. In the Spatter dialog, change the Spray Radius and Smoothness settings (we used 25 and 7, respectively) to make the edges of the mask as rough as possible (check the preview), and then click OK.

STEP SEVEN: For the finishing touches, we set our Foreground color to white and used a large soft-edged Brush (B) to add a couple of dots here and there to make the smoke stream denser in appearance. And here’s our end result with smoke billowing from the smokestack!

Now add a Gaussian blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur) to the mask to soften the edges. STEP SIX: And now we have our smoke trail! But we need to distort it to appear as if it’s streaming from the top of the smokestack. So click on the layer to select it (remember, up

What I want most of all to leave you with is the concept of manipulating the layer’s mask rather than the layer itself. This technique opens the door for a wide range of possibilities. Play with it and have fun! ■

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

Matt Kloskowski

Photoshop Speed Clinic Camera Raw Presets Before we get started, let me tell you how this article came to be. See, I’m a huge fan of Lightroom and use it for all of my photo management and developing tasks. And one of the things I really like about Lightroom is its presets when developing a photo. n fact, I’m so much of an Adobe Photoshop Lightroom fan that I’ve started creating my own presets. But not everyone uses Lightroom, so I’d like to show you how to do the same exact thing in Adobe Camera Raw. There are some really neat effects you can accomplish by adjusting the settings in Camera Raw, and then you can save them as a preset to reapply whenever you need. Plus—to really top off the tutorial—I’m going to tell you how you can get all of the presets that I’ve created over the past year and install them onto your computer so you can use them.

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STEP FOUR: Once that’s done, I’ll add any special effects to the photo. I have a pretty cool effect that I first created in Lightroom, which gives photos that Sin City look. So to apply the effect to this image, let’s switch to the HSL/Grayscale panel (fourth icon on the right), choose the Saturation tab, then drag all of the sliders, except for Red and Orange, all the way to the left to –100. This should remove all of the color saturation from the photo except in the reds and oranges, and that’s pretty much what we want from a Sin City-style effect.

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STEP ONE: First, open a photo in Camera Raw. I find it easiest to navigate to the file in Bridge and choose File>Open in Camera Raw. (Note: It doesn’t even have to be a RAW photo, as you can use JPEGs and TIFFs too.)

STEP TWO: Now look over at the upper-right side of the screen above the panels. The icon furthest to the right is Presets (circled). Click on it and just look because we’re not ready for it yet. (I wanted you to see where it is to make sure we’re on the same page.)

STEP FIVE: Now go back to the Basic panel and decrease the Saturation slider to around –40. Then increase the Vibrance to around +35 to pump a little more color into those really saturated colors in the photo (the reds in our example). You should start seeing a really neat effect about now.

STEP THREE: Click back on the Basic icon. The first thing to do is apply the settings to your photos. Here’s how I go about starting to “develop” the photo. What this means is that you go through and apply the correct exposure and tone settings as well as the white balance. These settings are specific to your photo and usually won’t be saved as part of the preset, as most of your other photos won’t need the same exposure and white balance settings.

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Photoshop Speed Clinic

STEP SIX: Next, we’ll push the Clarity slider up to around 50–70 and the Contrast slider to around 50 to really boost the contrast.

adjustments you want to save in the preset. For example, back in Step Three, we mentioned that you should develop your photo first (white balance, exposure, contrast, etc.) then move on to adding the special effects. As a personal preference, I try to keep these settings as separate as possible so for our example, we checked only Contrast, Clarity, Vibrance, Saturation, HSL Adjustments, and the Lens Vignetting checkboxes, which means that the preset will leave all of the other settings alone when it’s applied to another photo. When you’re done assigning adjustments to your preset, give it a descriptive name, and click OK. STEP NINE: Everything is saved at this point. Now, the next time you want to apply this effect to a photo, just open it in Camera Raw, switch over to the Presets panel, and click once on your preset. The neat thing I like about these presets, over an action that you’d create in Photoshop, is the fact that all of the settings are changeable, which means that you can tweak them whenever you need if the effect doesn’t look quite right for a particular photo. Here’s an example where we used the preset we just saved.

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STEP EIGHT: Okay, cool effect, right? But who wants to go through that every time you want to apply these settings to another photo? So, this is when we switch to the Presets panel that I teased you with in Step Two. At the bottom of the panel, you’ll see a little page-curled icon (Create New Preset). Click on it to open the New Preset dialog. This is where you tell Camera Raw what specific

©ISTOCKPHOTO/STEPHANIE PHILLIPS

STEP SEVEN: As a finishing touch, click on the Lens Corrections icon (sixth icon on the right) and in that panel, move both of the Lens Vignetting sliders to the left—Amount to –30, and Midpoint to 30—to add some edge darkening.

Finally, as mentioned earlier, I’ve been creating presets in Lightroom for nearly a year. Well, I’ve created a tutorial on the NAPP member website where I’ve converted all of these presets into Camera Raw presets. But the trick is knowing how to install them into your Camera Raw so I’ve also included a video that shows just how to do that—search the website for “Matt’s Camera Raw Presets.” In the download you’ll find more than 20 presets, ranging from killer black-and-whites to some really cool special effects. Enjoy! [NAPP members may download Matt’s presets from www.photoshopuser.com/members/sep08-downloads.html.] ■ If you have an idea for an action that you’d like to see in the “Speed Clinic,” please send it to [email protected].

John Paul Caponigro

The Fine Art of Printing Scale: Size Matters When you’re talking about scale, size does matter. The scale of a print has a significant impact on the statement it makes, how and where it’s displayed, and how it’s received. Every artist would do well to consider carefully what size is appropriate for his/her images. mall, medium, or large? When it comes to size, now more than ever, you have many choices. Small prints are often perceived as offering more intimate experiences; for example, you might be tempted to hold a small print in your hands. The objects represented within them are typically represented at greatly reduced size—rarely at life size. Miniatures tend to be received affectionately and approached with greater care. Smaller scales may make subjects more manageable, in some cases giving the viewer more control or power over them. Optically, small prints tend to appear slightly darker, “contrastier,” and sharper. Medium prints neither draw a viewer closer nor push them further away. They fit in most spaces. The subjects in them may or may not be life-size, but representations of scale are comparatively less distorted. In medium prints, attention to scale is generally deflected to other concerns. Large prints are more expansive. There’s a power in the scale itself. Large prints can overwhelm the viewer (especially when they’re larger than the viewer), filling their entire field of vision. Where you might be tempted to hold a small print, you’d rarely think of doing this with a larger print; you might perhaps be tempted to touch its surface instead. Larger prints appear lighter, slightly less contrasty, and often display process artifacts—such as noise and sharpness—more readily. Spatial relationships may become accentuated in large prints, as vertical and horizontal distance is increased, complementing an image’s perceived depth or virtual space. When it comes to scale, at least two factors are at work: perception and convention. Perceptually, images are compared to the viewer’s direct visual experience of the objects (or similar objects) represented. Conventionally, images in print are compared to what the viewer routinely sees in other print media (particularly similar print media). Conventionally, today’s images in print present objects at reduced scales. Convention changes with culture and time while perception is comparatively stable.

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Scale changes ideal viewing distance But how important is scale psychologically? Very. Consider this: Viewers move differently in front of images presented at different scales. Scale changes ideal viewing distance. To see a 4x5" print, for instance, you have to get close to it. You can’t see anything but its shape and color from the end of a long hall. To see a 6x10' print in its entirety, you’d have to stand well away from it, because if you stand very close to it, you won’t be able to see the whole image, much less anything else.

The rule of thumb for determining ideal viewing distance is to stand at three times a print’s diagonal dimension. This helps to place the entire image well within a viewer’s field of vision in such a way that overall general detail can be resolved at once, minimizing panning and scanning. And, of course, there’s zooming. Artists and viewers alike tend to view works of art from many different distances: examining details closely while evaluating a total composition distantly. Viewing distance changes perceived scale, subtly changing the quality of the viewing experience. Viewers therefore tend to compare a variety of experiences, ultimately dynamically forming a total impression of a work of art. Scale impacts handling and display Practical issues may influence the size you choose to make your prints. Producing, handling, storing, transporting, presenting, and displaying larger prints is more difficult: It not only takes more materials (sometimes special materials), it also takes more space. Past a certain point, larger prints become unwieldy and require extra care and handling, thus incurring additional costs. And very large prints may require uncommonly large spaces. By comparison, small prints are relatively easy to produce, handle, store, present, and display. Scale impacts market trends Market trends may also influence the size you choose to make your prints. For example, service bureaus typically charge their customers based on the time to produce the print and the size produced. But artists rarely do. Material costs generally represent a small percentage of the final price of a work of art. When artists produce very costly prints, they may not be able to sell them for enough money to recoup their materials. Conversely, artists may also sell their works for many times more than the cost of materials. (Note: Most shipping companies won’t reimburse you for damaged work at full market value; most only cover material costs.) When it comes to art, price is based on perceived cultural value. Tradition in photographic practice, now more than 150 years old, favors small-scale prints. That precedent has been increasingly challenged over the last three decades. There’s been a trend in the photographic market favoring larger and larger print sizes, which parallels trends within the painting market (albeit much later). In part, this is due to cultural concerns (including changes in architecture) and evolving technology. Individual artists and printmaking services now have easier

access to equipment that will produce larger-scale prints. At least two factors are involved here: First, it exists; and second, it’s less expensive. (For the first time ever, I can make 64"-wide prints in my studio with an Epson 11880. If I collaborate with other printing houses, I can produce even larger prints.) For contemporary work on the whole today, larger prints sell for more money. Scale isn’t everything though and larger doesn’t necessarily mean more valuable. Try and sell the next billboard you find on the side of the road for the same amount you can sell a small contact print of an historic photographer’s work. For example, Edward Steichen’s small-scale, vintage print, The Pond Moonlight, recently sold for almost $3 million. And for the first time ever, living photographers are now commanding these kinds of prices: Andreas Gursky’s very large-scale print 99 Cent II Dyptich recently sold for more than $3 million. Certainly there are other factors involved, chiefly scarcity due to a variety of factors including limited editions and mortality. Still, scale plays a role in value: Try finding an example of a contemporary artist getting these kinds of prices for small prints. Current trends favor large-scale prints, with increasingly small, limited editions, and quickly escalating prices. Market trends should by no means become the final determining factor for your work, however, because market trends change at least every decade. And your work will most likely last longer than the current market trend.

Test scale Clearly, when it comes to scale, there are many factors involved: aesthetic, practical, and commercial. To determine what scale is most appropriate for your work, you need to weigh all of these factors and their importance to you. Only you can determine this. My recommendation is to test your work by viewing it (in both projected and printed forms) at many different scales. If possible, make side-by-side comparisons. Do this and you and your work will benefit in many ways. There’s no substitute for actually experiencing what scale can do to or for your work. Do you have to settle on one size? Certainly not. If you choose to present your work in multiple scales, that’s a statement in itself. An artist makes many choices in order to craft a total statement with his or her work. Your choices determine what your work becomes. Make your work even better by making conscious, informed choices. ■

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.

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The Fine Art of Printing

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Katrin Eismann

Creative Point of View Burning Visual Impact The classical attributes of a high quality photographic print includes maintaining shadow and highlight details. But questioning and breaking the standard rules often allows you to create stronger images. In fact, exaggerating shadows and darkening graphical elements creates a more effective and stronger visual foundation in your images. n black-and-white film photography, the Zone System is a way of controlling the tonal characteristics of the scene by following precise film exposure and development procedures. By exposing and developing a photo so that certain areas of the scene were assigned specific zone values, you would end up with a negative that contained all of the information needed to make a good print. One of the characteristics of a good Zone System print is maintaining detail in the shadows and it’s something I always look at when printing. Recently, I had the opportunity to teach two workshops with Greg Gorman (www.gormanphotography .com) and Greg opened my eyes to the power of contrast and the idea of making beautiful prints with deep, rich blacks. In fact, when the image calls for it, Greg doesn’t—simply for details’ sake—obsess about maintaining shadow detail. Greg’s attitude challenged my assumption that lightening an area is the best way to attract the viewer’s eye. By adding rich blacks to an image, you and I can create stronger and more dynamic images. In the following images, let’s explore the concept of delineation and transition within a walk I have taken dozens of times near my mother’s home in the Black Forest in Germany. By burning down the shadows, I was able to strengthen the initial photographic interpretation.

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Selective burning To create the effect seen in this before-and-after example, experiment with selecting the shadows and then darkening them with black as described here:

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STEP ONE: To select the darkest colors, start by pressing the D key to reset the Foreground and Background color swatches to their default black and white, respectively. Go to Select>Color Range and, without touching the Eyedropper, the darkest areas will have automatically been selected. Click OK. STEP TWO: Add a new layer by clicking the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Edit>Fill. Use Black set to Normal at 100% Opacity and click OK. Go to Select>Deselect. STEP THREE: In the Layers panel, adjust the layer Opacity as desired (in most cases I use 50% layer Opacity to create the initial effect). If there are areas that are darkened that shouldn’t be, you can simply erase them with the Eraser tool (E) or add a layer mask and paint with black to hide undesired darkening. The darkening layer above, shows which areas are being impacted. Painted burning Burning image areas with black brushwork allows you to sculpt the tonal character of an image as seen in this before-and-after example, which also uses multiple Soft Light layers and sharpening to strengthen the sculpted effect.

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Creative Point of View

STEP ONE: To create the initial burn layer, choose Layer>New> Layer. Name it Burn, change the Mode to Soft Light, click the Fill with Soft-Light-Neutral Color (50% gray) checkbox, and click OK. STEP TWO: Choose the Brush tool (B) with a soft-edged brush that’s as wide as the area you need to darken and press the D key to reset the color swatches to their defaults. With the brush Opacity set between 25–50% in the Options Bar, brush over areas that need to be darker. Adjust the brush size to fit into smaller or larger areas. (In this example, I painted over the tractor marks and in-between the rows of corn to emphasize the graphical aspect of the image.) STEP THREE: To further emphasize the detail and contrast, press Option (PC: Alt) and select Layer>Merge Visible. Select Filter>Convert for Smart Filters and use Filter>Sharpen>Smart Sharpen. In the example of the cornfield, I used 150% as the Amount and a low Radius of .8 pixels with Remove Lens Blur selected. STEP FOUR: Duplicate the Burn layer from Step One (Command-J [PC: Ctrl-J]) and move it to the top of the layer stack. Adjust the layer Opacity to 50% and continue burning with a soft-edged black brush or if areas need to be lightened, you can use a soft-edged brush with white to lighten or dodge areas to create the final effect.

paint in the darkening and lightening effect. Press the X key to switch your Foreground color swatch from black to white if you need to lighten an area. STEP THREE: To darken the sky, press D to ensure that the Foreground color is black and activate the Gradient tool (G). The secret to an effective sky burn is to select the second gradient from the Gradient Picker in the Options Bar, which by default is Foreground to Transparent (access the Gradient Picker by clicking the second downward-facing arrow in the Options Bar). In this case this means the gradient will be black to transparent. STEP FOUR: Add a new layer and drag with the Gradient tool from the top of the image to the start of the horizon to darken the sky. Change the layer blend mode to Soft Light or Overlay. (In this example, I used Overlay to strengthen the effect.) Developing a good understanding of how tone and contrast affect a photograph and what you can do to manipulate those qualities to find the image you see in your mind’s eye is crucial to achieving your creative vision. Practice the previous techniques with your own images and you too will appreciate the power of black. ■

STEP ONE: To create the burn and dodge layer, select Layer>New>Layer with Mode set to Soft Light and the Fill with Soft-Light-Neutral Color (50% Gray) option checked—the same settings we used in the previous example— and click OK. STEP TWO: Select the Brush tool and use large, soft-edged, black or white brushes to

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Katrin Eismann is the author of Photoshop Restoration & Retouching and Photoshop Masking & Compositing and co-author of The Creative Digital Darkroom. In 2005, she was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame. Katrin is the Chair of the MPS in Digital Photography department at the School of Visual Arts in NYC (www.sva.edu/digitalphoto). ALL IMAGES BY KATRIN EISMANN

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Burning & dodging Adding additional contrast with neighboring dark and light tones creates a visual difference, which better expresses why the photograph was taken, as seen in this beforeand-after example.

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Deke McClelland

Deke Space Don’t Fear the Lab Mode Much has been made in this publication and elsewhere about the outstanding power of the Lab color mode in Photoshop—and rightly so. Editing in Lab provides you with more control, privileges, and freedom than in RGB: all that, plus greater reliability when compared with CMYK.

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uite simply, Lab is the color space of the pros. (The only feature available to Photoshop that holds a candle is Adobe Camera Raw.) The purpose of this article is not to rehash what has already been written. (In particular, Dan Margulis’s Photoshop LAB Color is about as detailed a treatise on the topic as anyone could ask for.) Rather, my job is simply to demystify the approach to working in Lab. Because inasmuch as Lab can safely be described as massively powerful—permitting you to invoke color transformations that are otherwise impossible in Photoshop—it’s not actually all that hard to use. In this article, we’ll take a lifeless and frankly mundane image— the kind, as a non-photographer, I excel at capturing—and turn it into exactly what I thought I was shooting in the first place. And we won’t use Curves or masking or anything terribly complicated. We’ll use Levels and—brace yourself—Brightness/ Contrast. In Photoshop CS3, Brightness/Contrast has not only turned into a respectable command but it’s elevated to pro status when combined with Lab—and it remains easy as ever to use.

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DEKE McCLELLAND

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STEP ONE: Open an image that needs help. In our example, we’re working with a dim, drab photo with little contrast and even less color saturation. This happens to be my own home and backyard as captured through the window of my separated office. I shot this image with a Nikon digital SLR, but I was treating it as a point-and-shoot, letting it determine all the settings automatically. This, combined with the fact that cameras just see the world differently than you and I (this was actually a beautiful, tranquil day), makes for a disappointing picture.

STEP TWO: Choose Image>Mode>Lab Color, which just changes the color space but doesn’t apply any corrections. If you check out the Channels panel (Window>Channels), you’ll see that you’ve gone from Red, Green, and Blue to Lightness, a, and b. Lightness conveys the luminance info from black to white. Both a and b are opposing axes across the color wheel. As diagrammed here, the a channel varies from turquoise to lavender (generally known

as tint) and the b channel varies from a cobalt blue to yellow (temperature). The circled colors show the relative positions of the standard RGB and CMY values.

STEP THREE: Click on the Create a New Adjustment Layer icon (the half black/half-white circle) at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Levels, which—believe it or not—is the best tool for enhancing hue and saturation values in Lab. Go to the Channel option at the top of the dialog and choose the a channel. Make a symmetrical adjustment to the first and last Input Levels values, which lets you darken the darkest shades and lighten the lightest ones. When working in the a or b channel, this means increasing the color contrast, which in turn boosts saturation. For this image, we raised the a channel’s first value to 80, which added turquoise, and then reduced the third value to 175 (the default 255 minus 80) to infuse the image with lavender. Next go to the b channel and repeat the process. The result is a more intensely colored image. Don’t click OK yet. STEP FOUR: Our photograph suffers from a slight bluish, almost violet color cast. To adjust for the blue, we stayed in the b channel and reduced the third Input Levels value to 172, which added yellow, blue’s color complement. (In other words, yellow is equivalent to “anti-blue.”) A little lavender remained so we went to the a channel and increased the first Input Levels value to 81. That tiny adjustment made a subtle but noticeable difference. Click OK to close the Levels dialog and apply your changes.

Deke Space

altogether. That’s because there’s an easier way to adjust Lightness. Again click the Create a New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel but this time choose Brightness/ Contrast. Make sure the Use Legacy checkbox is turned off (very important). If your image is dim, increase the Brightness value; if it’s washed out, lower it. Then increase the Contrast. We went with Brightness and Contrast values of +20 and +40, respectively, to achieve a much brighter, more cheerful image (as shown). Click OK to apply.

No, really, Brightness/Contrast? At this point, a few questions might occur to you: If Brightness/ Contrast was such a dog in the past, why is it great now? Because the Brightness values affects midtones without clipping shadows or highlights; and Contrast locks down the extreme shadows and highlights, focusing on the quartertones. Okay, so what makes Brightness/Contrast so well suited for Lab? It invariably affects just the Lightness channel—it can’t even see the contents of the a or b channels—so the command affects luminance without harming chroma. And finally, does it do as good as job as Levels or Curves? Yes, given its obvious two-slider limitations. In fact, what we just saw was a classic Curves contrast enhancement, but applied far more simply. And here’s the kicker: My experience is that Brightness/Contrast in Lab produces better results than Curves in RGB. Yes, I’m serious. If you compare the first image to the last, you’ll see that we’ve made a lot of progress. But our work is not completely done. In the next column we’ll show you how to resolve chromatic aberrations, sharpen the image, and smooth away color noise by working within Lab and around it. As you’ll see, this takes us into more advanced territory, but it’s worth the journey. ■

STEP SIX: Notice that, so far, we’ve skipped the Lightness channel

Deke McClelland is author of the full-color book Adobe Photoshop CS3 One-on-One (Deke Press/O’Reilly Media) as well as the in-depth video Photoshop CS3 Lab Color (www.lynda.com/deke). His videos have won nine international awards in the last year.

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STEP FIVE: The saturation is undoubtedly enhanced, and for the better. But in some places, we went too far. In particular, the reds and oranges (most evident in the wood and bricks) are too hot, almost radioactive. To pull them back, let’s make them “invisible” using the advanced blending options in Photoshop. First, Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the Levels layer, choose Blending Options, and then select the a channel from the Blend If pop-up menu near the bottom of the dialog. Drag the white triangle for the top slider (This Layer) until the value above it reads 150. Then press Option (PC: Alt) and drag the right half of that same triangle to the right until the values read 150/210. Next, set Blend If to b and repeat the process, except this time try a slightly different adjustment of 150/220. Photoshop dropped out some of the more intense lavenders and the yellows, as you can see here. Again, click OK to apply your changes and close the dialog.

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Dave Cross

Beginners’ Workshop The Make-Better Key Years ago I had a student who decided to come up with her own names for tools—somehow that helped her remember what the tools did. One of her more interesting ideas was calling the Option (PC: Alt) key the “makebetter” key.

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hen asked why, she simply said, “Every time I hold down Option (PC: Alt), it makes things better.” Although the name might be odd, she was dead-on with her evaluation of the importance of the Option (PC: Alt) key. Just to clarify, using the Option (PC: Alt) key isn’t going to magically improve your photo: That’s not what she meant by “make better.” The role of the Option (PC: Alt) key is to improve or add to the performance of a tool or function. Here are some of the more important examples: Open adjustments with last settings Anytime you run an adjustment such as Curves, Levels, Hue/ Saturation, etc., it’s possible to run the adjustment again using the last used settings. You do this simply by adding the Option (PC: Alt) key to the keyboard shortcut. For example, if you press Command-M (PC: Ctrl-M) to open the Curves dialog, the dialog will open with the default settings (no settings applied). If you’ve already used Curves and then press Command-Option-M (PC: Ctrl-Alt-M), the Curves dialog will open with your last settings already applied. This can be a big time saver when you need to apply the same adjustment to a series of photographs.

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Cancel to Reset In just about every dialog that has a Cancel button, holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key will change the Cancel button to the Reset button. By clicking Reset, you can simply start over in the dialog, rather than clicking Cancel to close the dialog and then reopening it.

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Drag to make a copy If you have an object selected on a layer and need to make another copy of that object, don’t copy-and-paste, as that will create a new layer. Instead, use the Move tool (V), hold down Option (PC: Alt), and drag to create a copy on the same layer. (If you want the object on a separate layer, make sure the object is deselected and then Option-drag [PC: Alt-drag] with the Move tool). Center outward Most drawing and selection tools work from corner-to-corner— meaning that you drag diagonally to create a shape or selection. Sometimes it’s easier to create the shape or selection from the center outward and you do this by holding down—you guessed it—the Option (PC: Alt) key. Hide all layers except one This is a great time saver for when you have a multilayered document and want to see what the original image looked like before you added all the layers. Hold down Option (PC: Alt) and click on the Eye icon beside the Background layer, and all the other layers will be hidden. Press Option (PC: Alt) and click again to show all the layers. Note: This works with any layer, not just the Background layer.

Temporary Eyedropper When you’re using the Brush tool (B) and want to switch to the Eyedropper long enough to pick a color, just hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key. (The Eyedropper will remain active as long as you’re holding down the key.) Pick a color and then let go continued on p. 64

Beginners’ Workshop

of the Option (PC: Alt) key to return to the Brush tool. This also works with the Gradient tool (G) and Paint Bucket tool. Pick the Background color Use the Eyedropper tool (I) to click on a color in your image and that will become your Foreground color. If you hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key as you click on a color with the Eyedropper, it will become your Background color.

Step backward One of the first shortcuts many people learn is Command-Z (PC: Ctrl-Z) to Undo the last operation they did. To perform multiple undos in Photoshop, you can use a command called Step Backward (Edit>Step Backward); the shortcut is Command-Option-Z (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Z). (Note: You can step backward as many times as the History panel allows.) Threshold mode in Levels You can change the way your preview is displayed in the Levels dialog (Command-L [PC: Ctrl-L]) by holding down Option (PC: Alt) as you drag the highlight or shadow sliders for the Input Levels values. When you press the key, the image changes into Threshold mode and shows you a posterized version. Use this mode to more easily see which areas are being affected as you drag the sliders.

©ISTOCKPHOTO/RICH LEGG

©ISTOCKPHOTO/ALEXANDER YAKOVLEV

Layer Mask Clicking on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel will add a layer mask in “reveal-all” mode, which means that the mask is filled with white, revealing the entire layer. Adding a layer mask in “hide-all” mode means the mask is created filled with black, which will hide the entire layer. Do this by holding down Option (PC: Alt) as you click on the Add Layer Mask icon. When you want to reveal only a small area of a layer, this is often the quickest way: Add a mask in hide-all mode and then paint with white over the areas you want to show.

ground and Background colors. Pressing Command-F (PC: Ctrl-F) will generate a new random pattern of clouds, but if you press Command-Option-F (PC: Ctrl-Alt-F), the new cloud pattern will be much more dramatic (for some reason, around here we call them “angrier” clouds).

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Reapply same filter but change settings After you apply a filter, you can reapply the same filter with the same settings by pressing Command-F (PC: Ctrl-F). If you want to reapply the last filter you used but with changed settings, throw Option (PC: Alt) into the mix, making the shortcut Command-Option-F (PC: Ctrl-Alt-F). The dialog opens and then you can make your changes to the settings, and click OK.

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Angrier clouds When you apply the Clouds filter (Filter>Render>Clouds) there’s no dialog or options: It generates clouds based on your Fore-

And there are more cases where using Option (PC: Alt) adds functionality to a command or tool. Try it: Just hold down Option (PC: Alt) with any tool, function, or dialog and see what happens. You’ll be surprised how often the Option (PC: Alt) key really is the “make-better” key. ■

Jim DiVitale

Digital Camera Workshop Getting Better Selective-Focus Images Selective focus isn’t new to digital photography but with so many different ways to achieve the look, what’s the better way to do it? Should you do it in camera or in Photoshop? Let’s do a test with some of the popular procedures and compare the results. oming from a traditional, large-format, view-camera background, my first thought would be to use the lens-tilt effect. Being able to tilt the plane of focus by tilting the lens board of a view camera, combined with a selective aperture choice, gives some very precise control. Since the view camera has taken a back seat to the more popular digital SLR cameras, and medium-format cameras with digital capture backs, camera manufacturers have come up with specialty lenses to help give photographers options. For our test, we compared four different ways to achieve the effect—two of them on camera and two using Photoshop.

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Testing, testing… For the camera tests, we used the Canon EOS-IDs Mark III digital SLR and set up a handmade, TV-shaped clock on a bark paper background. We also used a single Aurora Uni-Lever PRO 300 with the standard silver reflector as the light source (provided by www .boothphoto.com). Test #1 is with the Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 tilt-shift lens—my first choice in lenses for studio product photography. And our first step is to determine the proper exposure and white balance using a PhotoMasterTarget (www.photomastertarget.com). (After measuring the gray area of the target in Adobe Camera Raw, I decided to make the white balance on the warm side rather than neutral for a more pleasing look.) We took some straightforward shots with most of the subject sharp so we could use Photoshop techniques on them later. Next, using the 90mm, tiltshift lens, we tilted the lens plane forward to its maximum position to throw the bottom of the subject out of focus. Using the f/2.8 aperture keeps the depth of field to a minimum to exaggerate the shallow focus effect.

For Test #2, we switched the lens to the Lensbaby 3G and inserted its widest aperture ring (www.lensbabies.com). Tilting the lens forward in a similar angle as the Canon tilt-shift lens, we focused on the front of the clock and shot the next image. Preparing for Test #3, we opened the first sharp image in Photoshop and tried the Lens Blur effect to see if we could achieve a similar effect as with the lenses. Here’s how: First, using the Elliptical Marquee tool (nested under the Rectangular Marquee tool [M]), make an oval selection around the area you want to keep sharp. Next, fine-tune the selection using Refine Edge (Command-Option-R [PC: Ctrl-Alt-R]). (You can also access this dialog by choosing Refine Edge from the Select menu.) In the dialog, set the Feather slider to 250 px to maximize the feathered effect and then click OK. Next, save the selection as an alpha channel by opening the Channels panel (Window>Channels) and clicking the Save Selection As Channel icon at the bottom of the panel. Then select Blur>Lens Blur from the Filter menu. In the Depth Map section, pick Alpha 1 from the Source menu to use the selection you saved as an alpha channel earlier and prevent that area from being blurred. Drag the Radius slider to its maximum level of 100 to increase the Lens Blur effect and click OK. (I prefer this filter to the Gaussian Blur for a more realistic and photographic blur effect.)

Digital Camera Workshop

Test #1

Using Canon’s TS-E 90mm f/2.8 tilt-shift lens

Test #3

Processed with Lens Blur filter in Photoshop

At the end of the day… Okay, here are the results: Doing the lens blur in camera is great but what you see is what you’re left with—not too much room for changing anything after the fact. This just means that you need to get it right in the camera—a good thing to do, according to most pro photographers. The Canon 90mm tilt-shift lens creates a very sharp image with Test #2 a very gradual and simple, focus fall-off. The Lensbaby 3G has a much more extreme blur and faster transition into the blurred area. It has the ability to control its focal depth by changing out the aperture rings; in general, it adds a much stronger effect to the image. As for the software effects, the Photoshop Lens Blur filter’s pretty good but it’s not what you’d call a fast workflow. Using a loaded, brand-new MacBook Pro, it took almost 15 minutes to run the Lens Blur filter at its highest settings on this Canon, 8-bit, 60-MB TIFF file. Saving the alpha channel didn’t help speed things up either. On the other hand, the onOne Software FocalPoint plug-in was Using the Lensbaby 3G selective-focus SLR lens just amazing. It had all the realistic effect of doing it in camera, with the flexibility of control at hand. Test #4 It was fast too—really fast. If we had a bunch of these to do at one time, we’d be done and burning the final DVD before the Lens Blur filter ever got the first one finished. The ease of using the control panel and the fast processing speed was a big factor here.

Processed with onOne Software’s FocalPoint plug-in

Each of these techniques had their own special characteristics to make them unique. I really like the Lensbaby for its very different and extreme effect when needed, and I love the FocalPoint plug-in for going back to images and trying the selective focus after the fact for an easy, fast, and highquality blur effect. They all have their place in my toolbox of digital imaging. ■

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

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For Test #4, our last test, we used FocalPoint, a new plug-in from onOne Software (www.ononesoftware.com). This opened up the image in its own dialog with what’s called a “FocusBug” grid over the image preview and then you use handles to control the position and amount of the blur transition—very easy.

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Jack Davis and Linnea Dayton

The WOW! Factor Quick Select, Refine Edge, and Masking Secrets For quick, accurate selections, the Quick Selection tool is as good as its name. For even more control, use it in conjunction with the Refine Edge feature, add the Border command, and choose one of the new blend modes added to Photoshop CS3.

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Radius and Contrast sliders. The Radius setting determines where Photoshop looks for the edge. To pull in wispy hair, increase the Radius; for an image with hard-edged transitions, keep the Radius lower. Contrast removes subtle elements and halos that can appear when the Radius is high. The trick is to strike a balance between Radius and Contrast. Use other sliders to fine-tune the balance. For fine detail, try setting your Smooth and Feather as low as possible, and then Contract/ Expand to taste. When you’ve refined the edge, click OK to close the dialog. The Refine Edge dialog offers five ways to preview your developing selection (at the bottom of the dialog): Standard “marching ants”; Quick Mask provides a semi-transparent red overlap that makes it easy to see where you’ve missed selecting something; On Black exposes “halos” that can happen at the edges when you select a subject from a light background; On White reveals dark edges left over from selecting from a dark background; and a black-and-white Mask view.

he Quick Selection tool seems to know what you’re trying to do, even when it’s something complicated, such as selecting around skin, hair, and a tiara to isolate our bride and groom so we can place them on a romantic background.

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JHDAVIS PHOTOGRAPHY

STEP ONE: Choose the Quick Selection tool (W), nested with the Magic Wand tool in the Toolbox. For accuracy, go to the Options Bar and select a fairly small Brush size and use a Hardness setting of 100%. Then click-and-drag in the area you want to select. Simply click additional areas to include them. To remove an area, click the Subtract from Selection icon in the Options Bar or press Option (PC: Alt) as you click on the area you want to exclude. You can quickly get an accurate selection. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but exclude at least some of the area in each hole where the background peeks through.

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STEP TWO: The Refine Edge feature lets you clean up a selection efficiently. Click the Refine Edge button in the Options Bar (it’s available when any selection tool is active) to open the Refine Edge dialog. To begin, click the Default button then adjust the

On Black preview of selection

STEP THREE: Now use your selection to create a layer mask to further finetune the edge. Click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. The black area of

The WOW! Factor

the mask hides the image, revealing any layers beneath—in this case, a sunset we’ve layered behind the happy couple. (Note: The Add Layer Mask icon will be grayed out if your image is a Background layer. Simply double-click the Background name and click OK; now the layer will accept a mask.) Clean up the mask using the Brush tool (B) or the Dodge and Burn tools. Use the Dodge tool (O) to lighten and the Burn tool (nested under the Dodge tool) to darken. In the Options Bar, when Range is set to Shadows, the Burn tool affects only dark grays. When Range is set to Highlights, the Dodge tool affects only light grays, which is very useful for contracting and expanding specific areas of a mask edge!

remove it. (Note: Erasing instead of masking means you won’t be able to change your mind and get it back, but we’re never going to need that pole.)

STEP FOUR: When working with wispy hair, fringe, or other intricate edges, creating a separate border layer that contains these complexities can help you capture the detail quickly. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the layer mask in the Layers panel to load the selection again. Choose Select>Modify>Border and enter a Width that will catch the stray bits you want to add: half the border Width extends inside the selection and half outside. If your first guess is off the mark, undo (Command-Z [PC: Ctrl-Z]) and try again.

To copy the border to its own layer, with the image portion of the layer active (not the mask), choose Layer>New>Layer Via Copy. Now apply a blend mode that captures the detail you want in the border but doesn’t show the background tones. The two blend modes added in Photoshop CS3 are ideal for this: Choose Darker Color to keep the darker bits (that is, if the surrounding color in the border is lighter, as in our photo), or choose Lighter Color if the detail you want is lighter than the surroundings. If the border selection has picked up something unwanted, such as the piece of the pole coming out of the groom’s head in our example, you can use the Eraser tool (E) to Jack Davis (with Brie Gyncild) is the author of How to Wow: Photoshop CS3 for Photography (Peachpit Press). Linnea Dayton, author (with Cristen Gillespie) of The Photoshop CS/CS2 Wow! Book, is at work on the next dual-version edition of The Photoshop Wow! Book (Peachpit Press, 2009).

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STEP FIVE: Adding a vignette also starts with a refined selection. Choose the Rectangular Marquee tool (M), set the Feather to 0 px in the Options Bar, and draw a rectangle just inside the edges of the image. Click the Refine Edge button and adjust the Feather value. When you like the edge (try previewing it On White), click OK. Then choose Select>Inverse to invert the selection. Finally, click the Create New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, choose Levels, and drag the black Output Levels slider (at the bottom-left of the Levels dialog) far to the right to lighten the edge. ■

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Corey Barker

Photoshop in Motion Clipping Video in Text New video capabilities in Photoshop CS3 Extended have made it possible to create pretty impressive motion graphics without the need for really complex animation applications. For our first column, let’s create a cool animated text effect using a single video file and one text layer. ll we need to get started is a video clip. We’ll be using a QuickTime file of a guitar player. Some of you may recognize the clip: it’s Tony Llanes, the lead guitarist from the Big Electric Cat band playing at Photoshop World Orlando last spring. [NAPP members may download the file to follow along with this tutorial from www.photoshopuser.com/members/sep08downloads.html. Files are for personal use only.]

STEP THREE: Create a duplicate of this video layer by dragging the layer to the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel (or press Command-J [PC: Ctrl-J]).

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JASON “THE SCRIV” SCRIVNER

STEP ONE: Simply open the MOV file in Photoshop. While it looks like a normal Photoshop file, notice the video icon (circled) in the Layers panel indicating that it’s a video layer.

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STEP TWO: While it’s not always necessary to do this step, I’ve made it a habit to convert video layers into Smart Objects, as this allows me to apply effects and such to the entire clip rather than to one frame. To do this, just click on the layer to select it, then click on the little down-facing arrow at the top right of the Layers panel, and in the flyout menu that appears, choose Convert to Smart Object. You’ll notice that the Smart Object icon replaces the video icon (see next column).

STEP FOUR: Now select the Type tool (T) in the Toolbox and click in the document to begin setting your text. Up in the Options Bar, we chose the Impact font because it’s thick and will show more of the video clip that we’re going to put inside it. Then we set the Size to 500 pt—almost the entire height of our document—and set the Text Color to white. For our image we entered the text, “ROCK ON!” After entering your text, click the checkmark in the Options Bar, and press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to bring up Free Transform. Position the text so that the top and bottom fits within the document and then press Return (PC: Enter) to commit the transformation. Note: If you can’t see the handles of the bounding box, clickand-drag the edge of the document window or press Command-– (PC: Ctrl-–; minus sign) until you do.

Photoshop in Motion

STEP FIVE: In the Layers panel, drag the text layer between the two video layers, and now we’ll create a clipping group with the top two layers. Here’s how: Hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and click on the line between these two layers when you see the overlapping circles (as shown below).

STEP EIGHT: Click on the words, “Outer Glow” in the list on the left-hand side of the dialog. Click on the color swatch (circled) and in the color picker, set the color to white (255 for R, G, and B), then click OK. Set the Size to about 15 px and click OK to close the Layer Style dialog. STEP SIX: Next, we’ll go to the Window menu and choose Animation to open the Animation panel. Click at the right-end of the green strip of the top video layer (Layer 1 copy) and drag it to the left until the right-end of the clip is at the 6-second mark (06:00f). (Tip: Press the Shift key to make it easier to align the edge with the marker.) What this does is offset the video clips to differentiate the video clipped inside the letters to the background.

STEP NINE: All that’s left now is to animate our text. Back in the Animation panel, select the text layer (ROCK ON!) and click the down-facing triangle next to the name to reveal the animation properties—Position, Opacity, Style, Text Warp. Up in the

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STEP SEVEN: And now we’ll add some effects to really separate the layers using layer styles. In the Layers panel, click on the text layer to make it active, then click on the fx (Add a Layer Style) icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, and choose Color Overlay. In the Layer Style dialog, change the Blend Mode to Overlay. Now click on the color swatch to open the color picker, enter R:173, G:0, B:0, and click OK to close the picker. Don’t close the Layer Style dialog yet.

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Photoshop in Motion

Timeline, drag the Current Time Indicator (or playhead) to the 1-sec mark. (If you don’t see the 1-sec mark, click on the Zoom In icon at the bottom of the Animation panel—it looks like two overlapping triangles). Click the Time-Vary Stopwatch icon next to Position to set a Keyframe at the 1-sec mark. Now select the Move tool (V) in the Toolbox, hold down the Shift key, and drag the text in the document to the right—out of frame.

STEP ELEVEN: The last thing we’ll do is give our background layer a color overlay by adding a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. In the Layers panel, click on Layer 1, then choose Layer> New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation and click OK. In the dialog that appears, click the Colorize checkbox, and set the Hue to 220. Set the Saturation to 40 and leave the Lightness at 0. Click OK.

STEP TEN: Go back into the Timeline and move the playhead to the 5-sec mark. Then hold down the Shift key again but drag the text from the right side to left side until it goes out of frame. Now the text should animate from the right side to the left in a 4-sec time span. Press the Spacebar or click the Play button at the bottom left of the Animation panel to see a real-time preview. Wait for the playhead to run through all the way once so the footage can load into the cache before making adjustments.

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There you have a seemingly complex effect using just one video clip and a little text. But don’t forget to experiment with different styles and colors as you go through the tutorial to see what other results you can come up with. Have fun! ■

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If you have a question about using Photoshop in your animation or video project—or if you simply have a challenge for this column—please send your ideas to [email protected].

Kevin Ames

Digital Photographer’s Notebook Screen Shots Screen is the “en-lightening” blend mode in Photoshop. Its effect is often described as two perfectly aligned projectors showing the same image on a single screen. The result is a much brighter display. Screen’s dark side opens up even more and different possibilities… he blend modes in Photoshop are complex algorithms that alter the appearance of layers by changing the way they interact. Whew! Let’s take a look at the Screen blend mode and how it can be used in unexpected ways. I use Screen in two very different ways in my work as a commercial photographer. The first is to selectively brighten dark portions of a photograph that I wasn’t able to light at the time it was made. In the following example, I was street shooting in New York City’s Bowery when I happened upon a fireman standing in the open door of the station. I walked up, introduced myself, and asked if he would pose. He smiled and agreed. I metered for his face knowing that the interior would fall somewhat dark—too dark as it turned out. [NAPP members may download the files to follow along with this tutorial from www.photoshopuser.com/members/sep08-downloads .html. All files are for personal use only.]

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STEP ONE: Open the file named 2233-0323.tif in Photoshop. The photograph is in 16-bit, which is twice the size of an 8-bit file. The additional bit depth helps the following corrections work smoothly and reduces the possibility of banding or posterization. Click the Create a New Adjustment Layer icon (it looks like a half moon) at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Curves. When the Curves dialog opens, click OK without making any changes. Change the blend mode of the Curves 1 layer in the Layers panel from Normal to Screen. The entire photograph gets much brighter. Press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to invert the layer mask on Curves 1 from its default white to black. The image returns to normal brightness.

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STEP TWO: Switch to the Brush tool (B), and choose a 40-pixel, soft-edged brush in the Options Bar. Set the Foreground color to white by pressing the D key for default colors (for a mask). Carefully paint white over the area behind the fireman’s left shoulder and around his head up to the ceiling, avoiding the ladder. Then paint over to the left above the window. Notice how these shadow areas open up as you paint.

STEP THREE: The shadows are still too dark, so press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate Curves 1. The new layer doubles the lightening effect. If you think the shadows are too bright, lower the Opacity of Curves 1 copy to taste. The fire coats hanging on the wall in the background add to the scene’s realism. Details do count. Done.

Light my fire My other favorite use for the Screen blend mode has to do with “lighting fires.” This interior is all set to go to the client except the candles on the table aren’t lit and the fireplace looks like a black pit. Uninviting and cold is how this feels. When photographing rooms, I never light the candles or worry about building a fire in the fireplace. It saves time and after-shoot cleanup. Besides, how do you explain packing firewood as part of a photographic kit? Fire is more efficiently done using Screen’s dark side.

Digital Photographer’s Notebook

STEP ONE: Open the room scene (2380-0041.tif ), the candle flame (1907 flame.tif), and the bonfire (2402-0270.tif) in Photoshop. Press V to select the Move tool. Click on the candle flame image and drag it onto the room. Double-click Layer 1’s name and change it to “flame.” Press the 5 key to set the layer’s Opacity to 50%. Close the file 1907 flame.tif. STEP TWO: Size wise, the flame is more of a blowtorch. Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) for Free Transform. Drag the flame so the reference point in the center of the bounding box is over the wick of the middle candle. Hold down Shift-Option (PC: Shift-Alt) then drag one of the corners of the bounding box inward until the flame is more realistic in size. Adding the Option (PC: Alt) key shrinks the image toward its center. Click the Commit checkmark in the Options Bar.

(PC: Ctrl-T) for Free Transform, hold down Shift-Option (PC: ShiftAlt), and then drag a corner until the fire is close to fitting in the fireplace. Release the keys, then drag the flame until the coals are on top of the gray stones. Adjust the width of the fire by dragging the side handles. It’s okay for the flames to go over the top of the fireplace opening. Commit the transformation, and close the file 2402-0270.tif. STEP SEVEN: Change the blend mode to Screen then press the 0 key to make the bonfire’s Opacity 100%. Zoom in to 100% view by pressing Command-Option-0 (PC: Ctrl-Alt-0). Press M for the Rectangular Marquee tool. (If the Elliptical Marquee tool is selected, hit Shift-M until you get the Rectangular Marquee.) Drag a selection starting at the top left-hand corner of the mantle down and across until the bottom of the marching ants aligns with the top of the firebox. Drag to the right until all of the flames above the top of the firebox are in the selection.

STEP THREE: Press the 0 (zero) key to return the flame’s Opacity to 100%. Everything is good except for the pesky black box around the flame. Either change the blend mode to Screen, using the drop-down menu at the top left of the Layers panel, or enter the realm of total Photoshop nerdhood by using the keyboard shortcut that works when the Move tool is active: ShiftOption-S (PC: Shift-Alt-S). STEP EIGHT: Hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Ta-da! Now the room is warm and inviting. Who doesn’t love a roaring fire? And believe me, this technique saves time, money, and lighting headaches, and keeps the photographer from making an “ash” of himself. Until next time, keep shooting! ■

STEP FIVE: Using the Move tool, hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and drag the flame to the next candle to light it. The Option (PC: Alt) key tells the Move tool to duplicate the active layer. Use the wick to align the flame on the candle. Repeat for the third candle. STEP SIX: Drag the bonfire onto the room. Holy incineration, Batman! The entire room’s on fire! (Theme music: The Prodigy’s “Firestarter.”) Rename the layer “bonfire.” Press the 5 key to set the Opacity of the bonfire to 50%. Press Command-T 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. ALL IMAGES BY KEVIN AMES

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STEP FOUR: In the original flame image, the candle is visible in the glow of the flame below the wick. If you can’t see it, press ShiftOption-N (PC: Shift-Alt-N) to put the flame layer’s blend mode back to Normal. Get a soft-edged brush 30 pixels in size and paint black over the visible part of the candle below the wick to hide it. After painting, set the mode once again to Screen.

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

Video Viewfinder Effect You know there’s very little that you can’t do in Photoshop. And there are some classics that rotate in and out of the public eye; for example, a viewfinder effect that’s recently re-emerged. It’s something we’ve all seen and it’s pretty simple to achieve. STEP ONE: Start by creating a new RGB document (File>New) that’s 8" wide and 5" high with a resolution of 100 ppi. Note: This size is of course for demo, but if you’re preparing a piece for print, you’ll need to increase the resolution and tweak some of the settings as we go. STEP TWO: Press the D key to set your Foreground and Background colors to their respective black and white default colors. Then press the X key to flip the colors so that the Foreground color is white. Select the Gradient tool (G) from the Toolbox then in the Options Bar, open the Gradient Picker by clicking the second downward-facing arrow (circled). Choose the first icon, Foreground to Background gradient, and in the next section, click on the Radial Gradient icon. Start at the center of the document and click-and-drag out to any one of the outer corners.

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STEP FOUR: Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to bring up Free Transform. Control-click (PC: Right-click) inside the bounding box and choose Warp from the contextual menu. In the Options Bar, click the Warp menu and choose Inflate. The default setting for the Bend is 50%, but we’ll want to take that down a bit— maybe around 15%. This will give the frame more of an old-TV look. Click on the checkmark in the Options Bar to commit the transformation. STEP FIVE: At this point, open the image that will be displayed on your “screen,” select the Move tool (V), and simply drag-and-drop it to your working file. Tip: Press-and-hold the Shift key as you drag the image and it will drop in the center of the document. Use Free Transform to scale the layer so that it fits, or rather covers, the defined screen area. Press the Option (PC: Alt) key to scale the image from the center registration point and press the Shift key to constrain proportions, then press Return (PC: Enter) to commit the transformation.

©ISTOCKPHOTO/PETR MAŠEK

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STEP THREE: Click-and-hold on the Rectangle tool icon in the Toolbox and when the menu flies out, choose the Rounded Rectangle tool. In the Options Bar, click the Shape Layers icon to make sure you’re drawing a shape layer, and then enter .25 in for the Radius. Press the D key to set the Foreground/Background colors back to their defaults and draw a box in your document about a half-inch from the outer edges. (Tip: Press Command-R [PC: Ctrl-R] to turn on your Rulers for more accurate placement.)

continued on p. 78

STEP SIX: Now we’ll just clip this image inside the frame layer (Shape 1) by simply holding down the Option key (PC: Alt) while clicking between the layers. You’re in the right spot when the overlapping circles appear, so just click when you see that symbol. Notice that the thumbnail indents with a down-facing arrow to indicate a clipping mask/group. STEP SEVEN: Let’s enhance this video screen with some scan lines to make it look more realistic. Click the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and clip this new layer (Layer 2) to Layer 1 (as we did in the last step). Press Shift-Delete (PC: Shift-Backspace) to bring up the Fill dialog, select 50% Gray from the Use menu, and click OK. Select Sketch>Halftone Pattern from the Filter menu and in the dialog, set the Size to 1 (the lowest setting), Contrast to 0, choose Line from the Pattern Type menu, and click OK. STEP EIGHT: Go under the Filter menu again but this time select Noise>Add Noise. Set the Amount to 50%, check the Uniform button under Distribution, and click OK. This will give us that old-TV-noise effect we can all remember. When you change this layer’s blend mode to Soft Light, voilà, your image appears onscreen again.

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STEP NINE: Now we need to add some light effects using layer styles. Click the Shape 1 layer to select it, click the Add a Layer Style icon (ƒx) at the bottom of the Layers panel, and select Bevel and Emboss from the menu. Enter 60% in the Depth field, 60 px in the Size field, and 3 px for Soften. Go down to the Shading section, change the Angle to 117°, uncheck the Global Light box, and change the Altitude to 79°. (Note: These settings will most likely vary with subject and resolution.) This will apply a nice reflection of light on our screen. Don’t close the Layer Style dialog yet.

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STEP TEN: Next click the words “Inner Glow” from the Styles list on the left and apply the settings you see here. This will darken the area around the edges making the screen seem more rounded. Activate Inner Shadow next: Change the Blend Mode to Screen; click the color swatch and select white; change the Angle to –45°; and change Distance, Choke, and Size to 2, 0, and 7, respectively. This will apply a bit of a side glow, giving the screen more definition and enhance its rounded edges. Lastly, click Drop Shadow—we’ll use this to make it look as if the screen is raised somewhat—and enter the settings shown, above right. Now click OK. Finally, use the Horizontal Type tool (T) to add some text and complete the effect so it looks like a real viewfinder. And here’s ours. Now the cool thing about this technique is that you can use it on an actual video clip inside Photoshop CS3 Extended. Just replace the picture that was used in Step Five with an imported video clip and you’ll have a real video viewfinder. Pretty cool! ■

Peter Bauer

From the Help Desk

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To: NAPP Help Desk From: Henry I’ve become a custom shapes and brushes junkie, collecting as many as I can find but here’s the problem: I’m now getting paranoid about losing my custom items. How can I back up all of the stuff I’ve collected? BTW, thanks for the tip on making custom shapes from dingbat fonts. (See Photoshop User, June 2008, p. 80).

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To: Henry From: NAPP Help Desk One of the great things about working with Photoshop is its flexibility. It’s quite customizable, allowing you to streamline your work and improve your efficiency by using features tailored to your needs. You can use brushes, custom gradients, layer styles, actions, and more to increase your efficiency and express your creativity. But creating (or collecting) these custom items can be timeconsuming and it would be a shame to have them disappear, wouldn’t it? Until you actually save your custom items to your hard drive, they exist only in the Photoshop Preferences file. If the Preferences become corrupted or are replaced, poof! There go your custom items. To save your custom Actions, use the Actions panel menu command Save Actions. Note: You must click on a set of Actions, not an individual Action, to use this command. To save other custom items in the various Photoshop panels and pickers, use the Save command from the menu for that panel or picker or use Edit>Preset Manager. In Preset Manager, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) to select individual items from which to create a set or to select a series of items, click on the first and Shift-click on the last. Then click the Save Set button,

assign a name (make sure to retain the appropriate file extension), choose a location, and click Save. When saving, the Preset Manager’s default takes you to the Presets folder at the user level but rather than saving into that folder, you might want to create a new folder within the Applications (PC: Program Files) folder. For example, you might name the folder _CustomStuff (using an underscore at the beginning of the name makes that folder appear at the top of the list). Inside _CustomStuff you could have separate folders for actions, brushes, styles, and so on. Once you’ve saved all of your goodies to their respective folders, burn the _CustomStuff folder to a CD or other backup device. And don’t forget to update that backup now and again as you collect more goodies.

came with Photoshop, such as the Duotone presets, you’ll need to navigate from the empty Presets folder at the user level to the Presets folder inside the Photoshop folder.

THIRD-PARTY PLUG-INS You could also create a separate folder for your third-party plug-ins in your _CustomStuff folder. Install your plugins into that folder, Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the folder and create an alias (PC: shortcut), then move the alias (or shortcut) into the Photoshop Plug-Ins folder. This ensures that you’ll never have to reinstall those plug-ins on that computer again. In the future, should you need to reinstall Photoshop (or upgrade the program), you simply create a new alias (or shortcut) and move it into the new Plug-Ins folder. In the future, when you need to reload your custom items into the various panels and pickers after a reinstall or upgrade, just use the Load command in the panel/picker menu. Or again, return to Edit>Preset Manager, navigate to your _CustomStuff folder, select the appropriate subfolder, and load the set(s) you want. Remember, too, when using the Load button that Photoshop, by default, takes you to the Presets folder at the user level. If you’re looking for presets that

Other custom settings Actions and elements you save through Preset Manager aren’t the only custom items you can save in Photoshop. Other commonly created custom settings include: color-management settings, workspaces, Image>Adjustments dialog settings, Adobe Camera Raw settings, as well as custom keyboard shortcuts and menu arrangements. But wait, there’s even more you can save and back up! Textures for the Texturizer filter, meshes from Liquify, Save for Web settings, PDF presets, custom layouts for Picture Package, Duotones, Color Range selections, and adjustments made in Variations can all be saved for future use. You can even save third-party plug-ins (see “Third-Party Plug-Ins). As a general rule-of-thumb, if it took you more than a minute or two to create, it’s worth saving—even if it’s just to remember how you accomplished a certain technique years later. ■

Peter Bauer is Director of the NAPP Help Desk and a featured columnist at PlanetPhotoshop.com. His latest book is Photoshop CS3 for Dummies.

Scott Onstott

Beyond Photoshop Enhancing CAD Drawings with Layer Styles Anyone who draws plans, sections, or elevations in their work can transform these kinds of abstract computeraided design (CAD) drawings into attractive presentation imagery with Photoshop layer styles. The first challenge of working with a CAD drawing in Photoshop lies in converting vectors to pixels. ne route is to import a DWG file into Illustrator, save it in AI format and then place this file into Photoshop as a smart object. This method preserves vector editability in Illustrator, but ultimately pixels will have to be filled in between the lines in order to enhance the drawing in Photoshop. The route we’ll take here (and the one that I took in my book Enhancing CAD Drawings with Photoshop, published by Sybex) is to output single-pixel-width lines directly to file from the CAD program. The “plot” or output file is then opened in Photoshop and enhanced with layer styles.

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Creating and filling boundaries Enhancing CAD drawings is very much a painting-between-thelines activity. You’ll usually have to draw some lines in Photoshop to define a few floor material boundaries that weren’t present in the CAD drawing before you can start pouring in paint and filling boundaries with pixels. [NAPP members may download the CAD drawing and textures used in this tutorial from www.photoshopuser.com/members/ sep08-downloads.html.] STEP ONE: Press the U key to select the Custom Shape tools and then choose the Line tool in the Options Bar. Click the first of the three mode icons to create Shape Layers. Set the line’s thickness to 1 px by dragging left over the word Weight in the Options Bar. Make sure Style is set to none and the Color swatch in the Options Bar is black. STEP TWO: Position the cursor over a floor transition (these usually occur in doorways or along wall edges), hold down Shift to keep the line straight and drag horizontally or vertically as needed. It’s okay to overshoot a doorframe or wall edge because you can turn off this layer after the floors are filled.

STEP THREE: After you draw your first line, click the Add To Shape Area (+) icon in the Options Bar. This way you can keep adding lines and they’ll all stay on a single Shape layer. Doubleclick the layer name, rename it Transitions, and keep drawing all the lines you need to separate any spaces intended to show differing floor materials.

STEP FOUR: Click the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and give it a room name—such as Living, Kitchen, Bathroom, etc. Press Shift-G to select the Paint Bucket tool. In the Options Bar check Contiguous and All Layers, uncheck Anti-alias, and set Tolerance to zero. Pick a bright color from the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches) and click inside the floor boundary to flood that room with paint. It doesn’t matter what color you use because layer styles operate wherever there are pixels on a layer. Repeat this step with different colors and room names for as many floor materials as are in your design.

Beyond Photoshop

Defining and overlaying the patterns Patterns are what allow you to texture layers that have boundaries filled with pixels. You can use any tiled pattern as a texture.

the Blend Mode menu and choose a brown hue in the Select Color Overlay dialog. Change the Blend Mode of this effect to Overlay and the tile is instantly colored.

STEP FIVE: Open CeramicTile.jpg from the Textures folder and choose Edit>Define Pattern. Type Ceramic Tile as the pattern name and click OK.

STEP EIGHT: Click on Inner Shadow effect and set Size at 10 px. Click-and-drag in the document window to set the Distance and Angle values interactively. Setting Distance to 4 px with an Angle of 135° keeps the inner shadow subtle. Click OK to close the Layer Style dialog when you’re finished.

STEP SIX: Double-click beside the Bathroom layer name to open the Layer Style dialog. Click on Pattern Overlay and then choose Ceramic Tile from the drop-down menu. Change the size of the pattern by adjusting the Scale slider. Scales of 25%, 50%, 100% and so on keep the pattern sharp; other scales blur the pattern. Click-and-drag the cursor in the document window to move the pattern—this is especially helpful when aligning a grout line to a wall. Click OK when you have your pattern in position.

Adding layer style effects There’s no end to the enhancements you can make with layer styles. Knowing which effects to use comes naturally with practice. In this example, we’ll colorize the grayscale pattern with the Color Overlay effect and give the ceramic tile depth with an Inner Shadow, but we’re only scratching the surface here. STEP SEVEN: Open the Layer Style dialog for the bathroom layer again and click on Color Overlay. Click the color swatch next to 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. ALL IMAGES BY SCOTT ONSTOTT

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Enhancing the rest of the drawing uses more of the same set of skills you’ve learned here. Walls, counters, equipment, and furniture each use different patterns, gradients, and layer style effects to bring CAD drawings to life. Fill. Style. Rinse. Repeat. ■

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By Laurie Excell

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ensor dust is the bane of many a digital photographer’s existence. We take every precaution to avoid those pesky dust bunnies, stray fibers, and other debris that collects on our sensors and yet, when we begin editing our images after a day’s shoot, there they are again: annoying distractions on our images taunting us, driving us to distraction, creating extra work in postproduction, as we so painstakingly work to remove them. These days, some of the newer cameras have built-in sensor cleaners that help reduce the amount of dust through a process of ultrasonic vibration that shakes the dust loose from the surface of the sensor. But, dust that has adhered to the sensor won’t vibrate loose, so more aggressive methods are in order.

Fear Not… Most people are afraid of cleaning their sensor for the first time. In fact, manufacturers offer up dire warnings against consumers’ cleaning their camera’s sensor, suggesting that you send your camera out for cleaning. But when I’m out in the field shooting for several days (sometimes weeks) at a time, I often have to clean my sensor nightly. Sending it away to be cleaned is just not an effective time or cost option. Truth be known, it’s not the actual sensor that you’re cleaning, but a low-pass filter over the front of the sensor (for this tutorial, however, we’ll call it the sensor). Even so, it can be costly to replace the lowpass filter if it gets damaged. If care is taken, cleaning your sensor can be a quick-and-easy process that you can perform as needed, without the least bit of apprehension.

Then I begin the process of cleaning my camera equipment and sensor. Here’s how: STEP ONE: First, remove the lens and shine a small flashlight with a gooseneck toward the bottom of the mirror box, looking for little metal particles that may come from attaching and removing the lenses.

Looking for metal particles If I see anything in the bottom of the mirror box, I take a dry cotton swab and gently roll it along the bottom of the mirror box to pick up the loose particles—we don’t want to blow them onto the sensor in the next step. (Caution: Don’t wipe or drag the swab along the bottom of the mirror box, as it will leave small fibers that can get on your sensor.)

There are a variety of products and steps for cleaning your sensor and no one product or method is the only option. The important thing is to find the process that works best for you to keep your sensor clean. I’ve tried several different products and methods over the years and here’s the technique that works best for me in keeping my sensor clean.

Establish a workflow In the field, I’ve established a workflow that I go through every time after a day shooting. First, I put the camera batteries on the charger and begin downloading my CF cards into the computer.

Gently roll cotton swab along bottom of the mirror box Once you’ve removed any unwanted debris from the bottom of the mirror box, you’re ready to move to the next step.

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Cleaning supplies

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STEP TWO: Make sure you have a fully charged battery or an AC adapter (if the battery becomes exhausted during the cleaning process and the mirror drops down, you can damage either the shutter or the mirror). Also, have an empty memory card in the camera. Then put the camera in Manual mode and set the shutter speed to Bulb. Some cameras have a Sensor-Clean setting that holds the shutter open while you check for dust and clean your sensor. If you feel nervous about holding the shutter open manually, then by all means use this setting on your camera, but you’ll need the AC adapter for this method. If you use the VisibleDust Sensor Loupe (as I do), open the shutter and place the loupe over the mount on the body. What’s a sensor loupe? It’s a lighted 7x magnifier that allows you to see particles that aren’t visible to the naked eye.

using gravity to blow the dust off the sensor. (Caution: Do not let the bulb touch the sensor at any time during this process.) Turn once again to the Sensor Loupe to see if all the dust has been removed. If some dust still remains on the sensor, go to the next step. Note: One reason to check your sensor often is that, as the CCD heats up during use, any particles on the sensor can adhere to your sensor. STEP FOUR: For the next step, I use VisibleDust’s Arctic Butterfly sensor brush. It’s a battery-powered brush that spins when turned on, generating a charge on the brush that’s the opposite of the sensor’s charge, which allows the brush to pull dust away from the sensor.

VisibleDust’s Arctic Butterfly

VisibleDust Sensor Loupe

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STEP THREE: If there’s any dust on the sensor, I hold my camera tilted slightly downward and use the Giotto’s Super Rocket-Air Blower. Just trip the shutter and while holding the shutter open, place the bulb nozzle into the mirror box, and squeeze the bulb several times,

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To use, simply flip the switch and let the brush spin for a few seconds, then turn it off and you’re ready to brush the remaining dust off the sensor. Follow the same steps as above: Make sure the camera is still in Manual mode on the Bulb setting. Trip the shutter, then holding the shutter open, take the sensor brush, and starting at the left edge, swipe it once from left to right across the sensor. Then turn the brush over to the unused side and starting at the right edge, swipe from right to left across the sensor—one swipe in each direction. Tip: Be careful not to wedge the brush too far into the left or right edges or you’ll get a greasy substance on the brush that will streak the sensor. STEP FIVE: At this point it’s very likely that your sensor is sparkling clean! The dry method will remove approx 90% of any particles from your sensor. But to be sure, I simply take the Sensor Loupe and once again check the sensor to see if there’s any remaining dust to contend with.

Giotto’s Super Rocket-Air Blower

STEP SIX: If there are still some stubborn particles on my sensor, I’ll resort to the wet method of cleaning. This includes sensor swabs and just a couple of drops (you don’t want to get the swab too wet)

of sensor-cleaning fluid on the end of the swab and then I follow the same process as with the brush: Make sure your battery is still fully charged, camera in is Manual mode and on the Bulb setting. Once again trip the shutter, then holding the shutter open, take the sensor swab and brush it once from left to right across the sensor. Turn it over to the unused side and repeat the process one time from right to left.

Wet process If there’s some really stubborn dust or residue on the sensor, I’ll repeat the wet process with a new swab until my sensor is clean. (Caution: Never use a swab more than once on each side.) It’s rare that I have to use more than one wet swab when cleaning my sensor.

lights that’s similar to the VisibleDust Sensor Loupe 5x. Copper Hill Images offers an inexpensive 3x, lighted SensorView. There’s no substitute for the Giotto’s Super Rocket-Air Blower: It’s a must-have for every digital photographer’s cleaning kit. Air comes in through the bulb of the blower and expels through the nozzle with no dust getting inside the bulb. Sensor swabs are available in a variety of sizes (1.3x, 1.5/1.6x, and 1x) to fit specific sensors from a variety of manufacturers. VisibleDust has two types of swabs that work with different solutions. Photographic Solutions, Inc. also offers a variety of swab sizes at a similar price. A company called GREEN CLEAN offers swabs that are pre-soaked in a nonflammable solution as well as dry swabs. And for the do-it-yourselfers, you can save money with the Copper Hill SensorSwipe and PEC*PADs where you wrap your own swabs. When we have to resort to wet solutions for cleaning sensors, it’s important to have a solution that cleans without leaving a residue and for those photographers who use air travel, we need to know that our cleaning solutions will arrive at our destination when we do; therefore, I use the VisibleDust solutions for their excellent cleaning and nonflammable properties. While Eclipse (from Photographic Solutions) is also an excellent solution, I’ve had it confiscated by the TSA. If you don’t plan on traveling with it, Eclipse works great. Hopefully you’ll no longer feel fear when you’re faced with cleaning your sensor. Remember: Take care of your camera and it will take care of you!

Available products

Resources Here are the websites for the various companies mentioned in this article: Copper Hill Images www.copperhillimages.com Delkin Devices www.delkin.com Giotto’s Industrial Inc. www.giottos.com/Rocket-air.htm GREEN CLEAN www.green-clean.at/index.php?id=15&L=1 Photographic Solutions, Inc. www.photosol.com VisibleDust www.visibledust.com ■

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. ALL IMAGES BY LAURIE EXCELL

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Now that you’ve seen how easy it is to clean your sensor, let’s look at some of the different products that are available. As mentioned throughout the tutorial, I use VisibleDust products, which do an outstanding job at keeping my sensor clean. And their solutions aren’t flammable, so I never have to worry about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confiscating them and leaving a nastygram in my suitcase. In the past, I used the f/22 method of checking for dust on my sensor: Aim the camera at a solid-colored light object, throw the lens out of focus, dial the aperture down to f/22, and click the shutter. Then, depending on how well you could see the rear LCD, you could zoom in and scroll around the image looking for dust or you could download the card and view the image on a large screen. The much-better method nowadays is using a sensor loupe. VisibleDust has a 5x and a 7x Sensor Loupe with six LED lights. Delkin Devices (www.delkin.com) also sells a SensorScope with four LED

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Photoshop User magazine

Library

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Lightroom Adobe® Photoshop®

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104

2

i htroom g L Has Arrived The Revolution Continues:

By Scott Kelby

Lightroom 2, the final shipping version, is here and with it you’re witnessing the evolution and a revolution in the way software is developed. It feels like it was developed by photographers. It feels like it was crafted by the wants and needs of real users. It feels like “our program.”

Adobe also continued something they did with Lightroom 1. The last public beta was Lightroom Beta 4 and between that public beta and the shipping product, they snuck in some extra features that turned out to be really significant. Well, they’ve done that same thing in Lightroom 2, so if you downloaded the public beta and thought you’ve seen Lightroom 2, you’re once again in for a pleasant surprise. Here’s my quick look at what’s new in Lightroom 2, how it evolved, what they did right, and what they still need to tweak.

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The biggies There are a lot of new features in Lightroom 2 but in every release of software, I’m always looking for that one “killer” feature—one that’s so brilliant or necessary that if it were the only new feature added, it would totally be worth the upgrade price by itself. Not every update of every program has this, but Lightroom 2 has one, big time: the Adjustment Brush. It kills! The obvious thing about the Adjustment Brush is that it brings nondestructive dodging and burning to Lightroom (which was at the top of so many photographers’ feature wish lists), but we can do so much more than just simple dodging and burning. We have a new power, flexibility, and a whole new workflow that keeps us from having to jump over to Photoshop as often. Although the concept (and

changing eye color—things you could only do in Adobe Photoshop until now. Because of space constraints, I’ve only scratched the surface of what you can do with the Adjustment Brush, and before I go on, module by module, let’s go over some general stuff.

A better Lightroom experience New features are necessary (and that’s what gets the big buzz, right?), but if you’ve been reading my daily Photoshop Insider blog (www .scottkelby.com), you know that I’m an advocate of making our everyday experience better. Well, I’m happy (actually, relieved) to tell you that Adobe has been working on fixing and enhancing the “little things” that we deal with (and gripe at) every day. First, they’ve addressed the issue of having to jump back and forth between the Library and other modules by putting the Collections panel in the Slideshow, Print, and Web modules. Now you can get to your images without jumping back—a bigger boon to your workflow than it sounds. Adobe has also streamlined the interface throughout the program in ways that just make sense. Buttons are where you think they ought to be, and actually large enough to find. They’ve added little features, preferences, and thoughtful tweaks throughout the program that will just make you smile. Also (and this is really big), it’s the first version of Lightroom (or any Adobe app) that’s 64-bit compatible on both Mac and Windows, so now it can access insane amounts of RAM to keep your workflow screaming along (provided that you have insane amounts of RAM on your computer). Multiple-monitor support—another huge feature on everybody’s wish list—has been very cleverly implemented too. Now…onto the modules.

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the brush) was introduced in the Lightroom 2 Public Beta, Adobe snuck in a number of additional features in the shipping version that takes it over the top. Now, under the Histogram there’s a new horizontal Toolbox, and when you click on the Adjustment Brush (K), an options panel pops down. It works a little differently than you might think because you choose which Effect you want to “paint” onto your photo. For example, you’d choose Exposure for dodging and burning, then decide how bright (or dark) you want the area you’re going to affect, and start painting directly on the image. What makes this so slick is that when you’re done painting (let’s say you dodged [brightened] an area of grass in the foreground of your photo), you can change the Exposure and dial in exactly the right amount. So what it’s really doing is masking the area for you as you paint, and if you turn on the Auto Mask option (I leave it on most of the time), then it helps you by sensing the color and texture of what you’re painting and keeps you from accidentally spilling paint “outside the lines.” It works much better than you might think. If they’d just added this digital dodging and burning, I’d be plenty happy, but that’s just one effect you can paint onto your image. Imagine being able to “paint” Clarity, Sharpness, Brightness, Saturation, or even a color tint. It does all that and once you’ve painted over an area, you can apply one or more of these effects without repainting—just drag the slider and it’s there. It’s a totally nondestructive way to work—if you don’t like an adjustment, you can remove it in one click. You have the standard brush controls you’d expect (brush Size, Feather, Flow, and Erase). Because you have all this power, you can actually do portrait retouching in Lightroom, including brightening eyes, smoothing skin, removing blemishes, enhancing makeup, adding highlights to hair,

Decreasing Exposure (burning) in the sky by painting with the new Adjustment Brush.

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Library module Filtering was kind of funky in Lightroom 1, and it was relegated to the top-right corner of the Filmstrip. I bet it caused more calls to Adobe’s tech support than all the other stuff combined because it was so easy to leave a filter on and suddenly, “All my images are gone!” (I’ve seen it happen again and again in my online classes.) Well, not only did Adobe address that by adding a Library Filter bar across the top of the Preview area, they implemented it in such a way (consolidated filters and the Find function) that people who never used filters before will now use (and love) them. Also new, under the Library menu are Collection Sets (for grouping connected collections) and Smart Collections, which create collections automatically based on a set of criteria you choose and then they update live automatically any time a photo fits that criteria (much like Apple iTunes’ Smart Playlists).

feature: the ability to open a Lightroom image as a smart object in Photoshop. It’s just a click away and works perfectly: Simply go under the Photo menu to Edit In and choose Open As Smart Object in Photoshop. If you shoot panos, you can now select your images in Lightroom, jump directly to Photomerge in Photoshop to stitch them together, and come right back to Lightroom with the finished pano. And (dig this), it doesn’t make copies of everything like back in Lightroom 1. Instead, it kind of “loans” the images to Photoshop just long enough to make the pano, then it closes all the images without making copies. Plus, Lightroom has broken the 10,000-pixel limit and you can now work with panos up to 30,000 pixels. In addition, there’s a direct Merge to HDR jump to Photoshop and the ability to select multiple photos and have them appear as layers in a single Photoshop document. Okay, back to the modules.

Develop module We’ve already talked about the star of the show, the Adjustment Brush, but new since the public beta is the Graduated Filter (M), a tool that lets you add a neutral-density gradient filter to your images—landscape photographers will love this. While it doesn’t actually paint, it works kind of like the Adjustment Brush: You can apply more than just darkening to a sky; you can add that same list of effects to your gradient mask and change all the settings after the fact. (This is another of my favorite Lightroom 2 features.) The new Post-Crop vignetting in the Vignettes panel is another big wish list feature, so now you can maintain the burned-in edge look even after you’ve cropped a photo. And, they’ve added more controls since the public beta that let you get more natural-looking vignettes. Keywords are consolidated into one area, and the new Keyword Suggestions, which suggests keywords based on keywords you’ve assigned to other photos, is incredibly handy and works better than you might think. The export process, which keeps getting refined, is the best yet in Lightroom 2. It includes what many feel is a “sleeper” killer feature: Output Sharpening (really smart output sharpening) that you can apply as you export the images. Sharpening is applied based on the file’s resolution and how the image is going to be presented (onscreen or in print)—and if it’s in print, on which type of paper. This rocks!

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Tighter integration with Photoshop

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Technically, integration with Photoshop may be part of the Library module stuff but it’s so important and has come such a long way, I had to pull it out separately. Here’s another “top-of-the-wish-list”

Here’s one that might have snuck by a lot of people: The Auto correction feature in the Basic panel (which I avoided like the plague in Lightroom 1— I used to joke that it was the “clip-my-highlights” button) is vastly improved. It now does a pretty darn decent job in many cases. One more thing that sounds little until you use it: You can navigate from slider to slider in the Basic panel with the period and comma keys. Use the period to move down the list and the comma to move up. Try this once and you’ll use it all the time—it’s crazy fast.

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i htroom g L Has Arrived The Revolution Continues:

Slideshow module

What I don’t like in Lightroom 2

I didn’t get everything from my wish list in the Slideshow module but the two main additions are huge. The new Titles panel allows you to add an Intro Screen and an Ending Screen, and you can use your Identity Plate in each to create text. Now your slide show can start with either a black fade-in or custom titles. There’s also a nice integration with the dual-monitor support that makes the slide show seriously usable for client presentations. And mercifully, Adobe added a Repeat checkbox that lets you stop the looping of the slide show.

I honestly think everything Adobe did in Lightroom 2 was a move forward, with one big exception: In my opinion, they broke the workflow for collections. Smart Collections are great, Collection Sets are great, but you can no longer easily create a collection that’s a child of another collection (subcollections of individual collections), without going back and creating a Collection Set. This is a step backward. It’s now a four-step process, which isn’t as functional as in Lightroom 1. (There’s more to this issue than I have space to go into here, so make sure you read my blog post on this topic at www .scottkelby.com.) And I know it’s impossible for Adobe to add every feature everybody wants in just one release, but I was surprised that a few simple things didn’t make it. For example: Lightroom still has to restart to change catalogs; you can’t change the background color behind your prints; and you can’t save a slide show with music embedded into the PDF (or export your slide show as a QuickTime movie with music as you could back in one of the early betas of Lightroom 1). Lastly, I can’t believe we don’t have a decent watermarking feature. That one seems so doable. Again, I didn’t expect to get everything, but with the entire cool, user-requested additions Adobe made, I’m surprised these didn’t sneak their way in. Of course, compared to what we did get in Lightroom 2, I feel kind of bad whining about anything, because this is a pretty amazing update. Once you use it for even one day, you’ll be totally hooked.

In the Print module, the big addition is a version of the Picture Package feature from Photoshop—but the one in Lightroom is more powerful. You can create prints with one photo repeated at multiple sizes, using controls to add borders and strokes. It not only has an Auto Layout button for maximizing print arrangement to fit as many on the paper as possible, it also automatically adds pages as you need them. It’s a simple push-button process that makes picture packages fun. Another huge feature here is Print Sharpening. Like Output Sharpening in the Export dialog, it’s based on the paper stock, resolution, and level of sharpening you want to apply. The sharpening algorithm is based on PixelGenius’s excellent PhotoKit Sharpener, and the implementation (and quality of sharpening) is right on the money. If you’re on a Mac, using Mac OS X Leopard, you can also take advantage of 16-bit printing (if your printer can do 16-bit printing, of course). The reason that it’s only available on Mac at this point is a computer OS thing, not an Adobe or Lightroom thing. Lastly, you can now take your print layouts and save them as JPEGs, so you can send these layouts to a photo lab, email them to a client, etc. In the Print Job panel, just choose Print to: JPEG File.

Web module The Web module didn’t get a bunch of new features but it did get a very important one: output sharpening for the Web (in the Output Settings panel). The fact that the Collections panel is now in the Web module is huge, but the output sharpening is the biggie here.

The bottom line Lightroom 2 is such a step forward that the thought of using Lightroom 1 now send chills down my spine. You just can’t “go back.” This is a better, faster, more streamlined product, and because Adobe listened to users at the level they did, it feels much more like Lightroom 5 than Lightroom 2. It’s a well-thought-out, user-driven upgrade, and it shows throughout the program. It takes the serious photographers’ workflow up a big notch by letting them spend less time behind the computer and more time behind the camera. And at the end of the day, I think that’s the mark of a truly great update. ■

"It’s a simple push-button process that makes picture packages fun—you have to try it."

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Print module

093 ALL IMAGES BY SCOTT KELBY

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Matt Kloskowski

LIGHTROOM News . . . .

▼ ADOBE RELEASES LIGHTROOM 2

CARMEN MARTÍNEZ BANÚS

Adobe Systems Inc. has released Lightroom 2 and if you haven’t seen it yet, you owe it to yourself to take a look at some of the features, as I think this version is going to become a must-have upgrade for photographers. One of the biggest enhancements is called the Adjustment Brush. It lets you selectively lighten, darken, saturate, desaturate, and sharpen specific areas of a photo, while leaving other areas untouched. Oh, and did I mention that it’s all nondestructive? For me, that feature alone makes the upgrade worth it but there’s definitely a lot more. The enhancements for editing in Photoshop, plus some of the new printing features, really help make this a complete upgrade. I won’t spoil it for you here, so check out Scott Kelby’s “The Revolution Continues: Lightroom 2 Has Arrived” feature on page 90 of this issue. We’ll also have coverage in the magazine in coming issues, as well as complete (and free) video coverage of all the new features at NAPP’s Lightroom 2 Learning Center (www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom2). To find out more about Lightroom and purchase it online immediately, visit www.adobe.com/lightroom. Lightroom 2 will retail for $299, and the upgrade price is $99.

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▼ LIGHTROOM ADOBE CERTIFIED EXPERT EXAM AVAILABLE

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For those of you who work in fields where having certifications helps your business or your status in a company, you’ll be happy to know Adobe has released an Adobe Certified Expert (affectionately known as ACE) for Lightroom. The exam tests your proficiency at using Lightroom in all aspects of a photography workflow, and it covers everything from sorting and cataloging, developing, and working with all of the output modules. I can say from personal experience with the ACE exams that they’re difficult, but fair. I’ve never walked out of an exam and thought it was easy; however, Adobe is very good at giving you exactly what’s on the exam in their free prep guides, which can be found on their website. Exam Aids, a Photoshop ACE exam study aid that I’ve been recommending for years, has recently released a Lightroom exam study aid. These are practice exams that you can take right on your computer. If you’re serious about the exam, it’s worth taking a look at. The exam costs $150 and can be taken at Pearson VUE or Thomson Prometric exam centers, which are just about everywhere. You can find out more about the exam itself and even download the free prep guide at www .adobe.com/support/certification. You can also find out more about the Exam Aids study software at www.examaids.com. Make sure you stop by www.lightroomkillertips.com for updated news, free presets, Lightroom how-to videos, and tips. ■

By Mike Mackenzie

FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

Ralph A. Clevenger Ralph Clevenger grew up on the coast of North Africa and began diving in the Mediterranean Sea at the age of seven with his father. He studied zoology and worked as a diver/biologist for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, before attending the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. He holds a B.S. degree in zoology and a B.A. in photography. Ralph worked as an associate with renowned nature photographer George Lepp and in 1983 was offered a teaching position at Brooks Institute. He teaches courses in Natural History Photography, Stock Photography, Video Production, and Undersea Photography. Q. Can you give us a short list of the equipment you use? I have a Nikon D2X and a D300. For lenses, I use NIKKOR 12–24mm, 28–70mm, 105mm macro, 70–200mm, and 200–400mm. For underwater, I have the D300 in a SEA&SEA housing and use the Tokina 10–17mm for my wide-angle work. I use four wireless SB-800 flashes for much of my commercial work and several tripods with Arca-Swiss and Really Right Stuff ballheads.

Q. When did you know you wanted to be a photographer? Who influenced you? From an early age I knew I wanted to work in the natural world, and when I was working as a zoologist I was searching for an area of specialization to get my higher degrees in. Photography ended up being my specialization. Going to a school such as Brooks Institute, which is very focused, helped me learn commercial photography in a short time. My dad always had a camera so I was comfortable with the ideas of photography and filmmaking, and the combination of zoology and photography opened a lot of doors for me. Ernst Haas, George Lepp, Ernie Brooks, Craig Aurness. I’ve worked with all these photographers and they’ve had a major influence on my style, passion, and accomplishments as a photographer.

Q. What’s your favorite feature in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom? Keyword searching and everything associated with it, from the ease of adding keywords on import to quickly finding the exact images I need by using the search functions.

Q. How does your zoology background aid your photography? It has helped a lot, especially in my early years as a photographer. My education gave me credibility and access to scientists working in the field, and my first big wildlife assignment to Alaska was a direct result of my zoology background. It also helps to know how to research and understand where to find my subjects and what they might do next during a shoot.

Q. You use a shallow depth of field in your close-up photography. What determines how much of your subject will be in focus? The subject usually determines my point of focus. Our eyes usually look at the brightest thing in a picture first and then search for what’s in focus. By using shallow depth of field, I can direct the viewer to what I want them to look at.

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Q. Your impressive client list includes the National Marine Sanctuary, The Nature Conservancy, Fox Sports Network, and the National Park Service. Do you query them or do they contact you for assignments?

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Most of my clients hear about me from other people or publications. I rely a lot on word of mouth. Sometimes I’ll approach a client with an idea for an assignment—this works pretty well for my eco-travel business. I run a small marketing campaign directed to drive new clients to my website.

Contact Ralph A. Clevenger at www.ralphclevenger.com Folders/Ralph A. Clevenger

Nikon D2X, NIKKOR 105mm, 1/250 at f/16, 105mm, NEF

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Section

Nikon D200, NIKKOR 12–24mm, 1/10 at f/4, 24mm, NEF

Nikon D2X, NIKKOR 70–200mm, 1/160 at F/4, 200mm, NEF › › w w w. p h ot o s h o p u s e r . c o m

Nikon D2X, NIKKOR 105mm, 1/400 at f/4, 105mm, NEF

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Nikon D2X, NIKKOR 200–400mm, 1/1000 at f/4, 400mm, NEF

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Nikon D200, NIKKOR 12–24mm, 30 sec. at f/4, 12mm, NEF

Nikon D2X, NIKKOR 12–24mm, 1 sec. at f/16, 24mm, NEF

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

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Other Great DVDs:

Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 for Digital Photographers DVD by Scott Kelby

Adobe® Photoshop® Extended Photoshop in Motion by Corey Barker

Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 & Adobe® Illustrator®CS3: Creative Integration

Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 Layer Essentials by Matt Kloskowski

by Dave Cross

For more information on these or other outstanding training DVDs… visit us online at www.kelbytraining.com/DVDs or call 800-201-7323 This seal indicates that all content provided herein is produced by Kelby Training, Inc. and follows the most stringent standards for educational resources. Kelby Training is the premier source for instructional books, DVDs, online classes, and live seminars for creative professionals. All prices listed in US dollars. Adobe, Photoshop, Illustrator, Photoshop Camera Raw, and Dreamweaver are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Produced by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.

UNDER THE LOUPE

Looking Back with History and Snapshots X Y

Rob Sylvan

Seeing where you came from can help get you where you’re going. By taking advantage of the Before and After view modes in conjunction with the History and Snapshots panels, Lightroom provides a powerful set of tools to aid you in the process of developing your photos. . . . .

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y design, all the editing you do in the Develop module is stored in the Lightroom catalog as a set of instructions to be applied during output. This instruction set isn’t carved in stone, and because Lightroom never applies these adjustments to the pixels in the source photo, you can always go back to a previous point in time—whether it’s for a peek or to take your adjustments in a different direction. Walk back through time via the History panel (at the bottom of the left-side panels area), where each adjustment is recorded as you work in the Develop module. Just click on an entry (all the way back to import) and you’ll jump back to that point in the history. As you click through the history states, Lightroom updates the photo preview on the fly to reflect the settings at that time. (Just remember to click back to the top history state to return to where you left off, unless you’re deliberately starting over from a previous state.)

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ROB SYLVAN

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View your images Before/After To make comparisons between where you are and where you’ve been, use the Before and After view. There are several ways to use Before and After, but the easiest way to see your photo at the import state is to press the Backslash key (\). Press it again to toggle back to the After view.

You can also go to View>Before/After to access the Left/Right, Top/Bottom, and Split Screen before and after view modes (and their keyboard shortcuts). These modes are also helpful for making comparisons between two states of development. Typically, almost anything you do after import is going to improve the look of the photo, so always comparing against just the import state is of limited value. Thankfully, Lightroom allows you to change the Before state to any point you choose in the development history! Here’s how: First, click the disclosure triangle to expand the History panel. Next, Control-click (PC: Right-click) the history state you want to use as the Before state and select Copy History Step Settings to Before from the contextual menu. Then choose a Before and After view to compare. Create a snapshot As you work, you can continue to set the Before state to any history state you want; however, the contents of the History panel can get quite long. While you can see a preview of each history state as you move your cursor over it in the Navigator panel, it’s hard to tell the difference between one adjustment and another. When you want to preserve a moment in history with a descriptive name, create a snapshot in the Snapshots panel; for example, create a snapshot after making basic tonal adjustments. You can click the Create Snapshot icon (+) in the Snapshots panel header or Control-click (PC: Right-click) any state in the History panel and select Create Snapshot from the contextual menu. A bonus to using snapshots is that they can be written to the source photo’s XMP metadata (unlike the develop history or even virtual copies), which can be handy for archival and sharing purposes. Another great benefit of snapshots is that they can be used as a new Before state in the same manner as the history states. Just Control-click (PC: Right-click) any snapshot and select Copy Snapshot Settings to Before. Now you can use a series of snapshots like stepping stones as you move through the process of developing a photo. Each time you want to preserve a state before moving further, create a snapshot, and set that snapshot as the new Before state. After making new adjustments, you can quickly toggle between that last snapshot and your latest adjustment with a Before and After view. If you’re not pleased, click back on that last snapshot and start over from there. ■

UNDER THE HOOD

Making the Jump to Photoshop X Y

Matt Kloskowski

If you’re going to be working between Lightroom and Photoshop, it’s good to know the various choices you have when it comes to file formats and color settings. That way, you’ll get off on the right foot and ensure you get the best photo possible. . . . .

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fter developing this photo in Lightroom, for example, I want to remove the metal drain on the ground, so I’ll need to do some retouching in Photoshop.

any Lightroom changes to the photo before moving to Photoshop. So in this case, we’re going to select Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments. Don’t click OK yet. And stay tuned, because in Step Seven, I’ll tell you when I choose another option. STEP THREE: Now we come to the Copy File Options part of the dialog. If you don’t see them, just click the little “twirly” triangle icon beside it to view the settings.

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STEP ONE: At this point, we’ve already set WB (white balance) and Tone settings in the Basic panel, as well as the Tone Curve settings, so we’re ready for Photoshop. All we have to do is press Command-E (PC: Ctrl-E) to open the Edit with Adobe Photoshop [version] dialog.

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STEP TWO: Now we need to make a few decisions, such as what to edit. The first choice is to Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments (which is what I generally choose). If you’re shooting RAW, then this is your only option but I think it’s a good idea anyway even if you shoot in JPEG. The next is Edit a Copy, which does just that—edits a copy of the photo in Photoshop—but your Lightroom adjustments won’t be applied to the photo first. The last option is Edit Original, which does just that but again, doesn’t apply

File Format: The options here are pretty simple: TIFF or PSD. Normally, I choose PSD because the file sizes are smaller and because it’s the native file format for Photoshop. Color Space: There are two ways to go with this one: 1. If you shoot RAW files, Adobe recommends (as I do) that you keep the Color Space set to ProPhoto RGB (because that’s the native color space of Lightroom). Keep in mind that, as a RAW file, your color profile isn’t actually applied to the photo until this point. It’s not done in camera, which is why we have this option. 2. If, however, you shoot in the JPEG format, your camera has already applied a color profile to it (hopefully you’ve set this to Adobe RGB [1998]) and you should choose that setting here also. Bit Depth: About 80–90% of the time, I’ll choose 8 bits/component when I have only some basic retouching or minor changes to make to the photo. If you’d like to know a little more about this setting and why you may want to choose the 16-bit option, make sure to read “8-Bit vs. 16-Bit” on page 103 before making your choice. STEP FOUR: Lastly, notice the Stack with Original checkbox at the bottom left of the dialog. Make sure you turn on this option because Lightroom will stack your Photoshop-edited file with the original photo in Lightroom, making it easier to

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Section see and find both later. Now you’re ready to move to Photoshop, so go ahead and click the Edit button.

the PSD file, then choose Edit Original because you don’t want another copy.

STEP FIVE: In a moment, your photo will appear in Photoshop just as a regular Photoshop document would. At this point you’d make any Photoshop corrections to your photos. As mentioned above, I want to remove the drain in front of the building, so I choose the Clone Stamp tool (S), Optionclick (PC: Alt-click) on an area of the bricks, and brush away the drain. Oh yeah, notice that I created a brand-new layer and did the retouching on that layer so I can always change it later if necessary.

STEP EIGHT: Once you click Edit, the PSD file will reopen in Photoshop and you’ll see that all of the layers are intact. Essentially, the PSD file is just as it was. Now you can add more layers and change it just like any other PSD file. When you’re done, just go to File>Save again and Lightroom will update with the new PSD file.

STEP SIX: When you’re done, choose File>Save. Don’t try to manually save the image or change where Photoshop saves it. Lightroom has already taken care of that. Just hit File>Save and let Photoshop do the work. You can even close the image once it’s done and go back to Lightroom where you’ll see that it did indeed stack the Photoshop file with the original image in Lightroom.

STEP SEVEN: Your journey to Photoshop and back is pretty much done now. If you’re wondering whether or not you can reopen this file in Photoshop, the answer is absolutely. Just select it in Lightroom and press Command-E (PC: Ctrl-E) again. You’ll see the same dialog you saw before, but if you were working on a RAW file, you’ll notice the PSD file now has the other two options enabled. Remember in Step Two, I mentioned that there’s one circumstance where I don’t choose Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments; well, this is that one circumstance. If it’s

We mentioned Bit Depth in Step Three, and I often get questions as to which setting is best. Here are my thoughts: As you saw in the Edit Photo with Adobe Photoshop [version] dialog, the bit-depth setting has two choices: 8 bits/component or 16 bits/component. Here’s why I choose 8 bits about 80–90% of the time. Bit depth basically controls how much information is in each pixel in your photo. The lower the bit depth, the less information. Where does this “information” come into play? Well, if I have a very poorly exposed photo or a photo with a horrible color cast and it’s an 8-bit image, then it has less information in it; thus it’s less likely that I’ll be able to salvage it before degrading the photo quality with major adjustments. If that same photo were a 16-bit image, however, it would have more information in it and I’d have a much better chance of being able to bring it back to an acceptable image (recovering details from the shadows or neutralizing the color cast). So why don’t I choose 16 bits/component all the time? Because these files are nearly double the size of 8-bit files, they use up more disk space and take longer to process in Photoshop. Since I’m generally not way off on exposure or color balance, I stick with the 8-bit setting instead. In those cases where I think I’m going to need to do some heavy pixel pushing, then I’ll change the setting to 16 bits/component. ■

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8-BIT VS. 16-BIT

ALL IMAGES BY MATT KLOSKOWSKI

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WORKING CREATIVELY IN LIGHTROOM

Creative Image Processing

X Y

Angela Drury

In a recent Lightroom workshop, I was reminded of the power of the Lightroom Develop module and what an incredible creative tool it is for working with RAW images. The variety of creative ways images can be processed is amazing. . . . .

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hile the students worked on their images in a hands-on practice session, I decided to see how many looks I could produce from one image during that period of time. My intent was to illustrate to the class how easy it is to use Lightroom creatively and how dramatically you can alter an image. I was surprised by the number of looks or treatments I achieved in a very short period of time. It was fun and really interesting to aggressively push sliders around and experiment without having a set vision for the image in mind. I tried settings that I might not have tried if I’d had a specific vision in mind. To work with multiple treatments applied to one image file, take advantage of the Snapshots panel by clicking the Create Snapshot icon (+) to create a snapshot of each new look. Snapshots are an awesome way to experiment and keep track of your progress by saving the various states and keeping them within the image file. If you make changes to a snapshot while experimenting and want to update it, Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the snapshot and choose Update with Current Settings.

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Where to begin? The original image is okay, but a few adjustments are needed. The petals are way too pink and saturated. For this image, the first step is to adjust the Exposure to increase the brightness, move the White Balance Temp slider toward the cool side to a setting of 4200, and move the Tint down to –74.

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It might seem like the wrong direction, but by making a few other changes, including adding a split tone to the highlights, the image takes on a soft painterly quality. Next, I’ll increase the Blacks and Brightness sliders to add contrast, then lower the Saturation to –66, which has a softening effect. But it’s the split tone that makes the image look great. The image needs some warmth, but I don’t want to increase the Temp slider because it will brighten the image too much. So I’ll move to the Split Toning panel and add a warm yellow tone to the highlights, which adds just the right amount of warmth to the petals. The final step is an adjustment to the tone curve to add brightness in the petals and darken the background just a bit. Now make a snapshot.

Second look The next treatment is achieved mainly by using the Camera Calibration panel and adjustments to the White Balance Temp and Tint sliders. Because I’m experimenting to see what I can get out of this image, I’ll make some random adjustments to the Camera Calibration panel sliders. It changes the look of the image in an interesting way, but it needs additional adjustments to liven it up. Notice how moving the Shadows Tint slider changes the color of the background (opposite page, top). This slider is very effective in altering darker colors in graphic images, and it works great on dark backgrounds. Now the image is too cold and needs white balance adjustments to warm it up and give it a softer look. I’ll move

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Section ing Highlights, and the addition of Split Toning Shadows. It’s amazing how different the image looks. I’ll go slightly colder with the White Balance Temp slider (5936) and the Tint slider (0)—again a random visual adjustment. The colder Temp and neutral Tint settings really soften the image.

Take three The last image features only a few slight adjustments to the Basic panel settings, lower Split Ton-

Now it’s back to the Camera Calibration panel to make slight adjustments. I’ll move Red Primary Hue and Saturation sliders each to +100, and lower the Green Primary and Blue Primary Saturation sliders to –100. To complete the image, in the Basic panel increase the Saturation and Brightness and add Fill Light to lighten the background. Split Toning adds extra softness or glow to the colors of each image, and it’s a great way to add depth.

As you can see, with relatively few changes an image can take on new life. There are so many creative possibilities and with some experimentation and daring slider adjustments, you can achieve some amazing effects. Using the Camera Calibration and Split Toning panels are great ways to push the creative boundaries with color images. And it’s a lot of fun. ■

Angela Drury is an award-winning photographer who specializes in floral, travel, kids, and stock images. Her work has received many awards and has been featured in numerous group and solo shows. Angela is working on several stock projects in addition to teaching workshops about Lightroom. To see her photography, visit www.angeladrury.com. ALL IMAGES BY ANGELA DRURY

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the Temp slider around (settling on 7319), which adds just the right amount of warmth to the petals, then do the same with the Tint slider (settling on +54). These settings are based on the visual impact they have on the image, so there’s no particular technique or thinking at work—just having fun pushing the possibilities. Finally, I’ll make some changes to settings in the Basic panel to adjust for Exposure, Contrast, and Saturation. Changing the Blacks setting from 22 to 12 has a big impact. This image is still using a split tone for the highlights, but it’s lowered slightly from the first treatment. Create another snapshot.

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X X Y Y

Chris Orwig

LIGHTROOM Tips & Tricks areas of your images. Because it’s such an integral tool, let’s learn a bit more about some of the brush options. Once you’ve chosen a brush (A, B, or Erase), you can use the sliders to control different aspects of the brush: The Size slider controls the overall brush size; the Feather slider controls the hardness (low value) or softness (high value) of the brush edge; Flow controls how quickly the effect is applied; and Density controls the overall intensity (or more technically, the transparency) of the effect. If you need to quickly erase an adjustment you made while painting with the brush, press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key to change the brush to an eraser. When you’re finished erasing, release the Option (PC: Alt) key to continue adding or painting the adjustment. To quickly change the Size of the brush, press the Left or Right Bracket keys ([ ]) to decrease or increase it, respectively. To change the Feather, press Shift-[ or Shift-] to decrease or increase the amount. To change the Flow, press 0–9 (where 1=10%, 2=20%, and 0=100%), or press the Left or Right Bracket keys ([ ]) to decrease or increase the Flow, respectively.

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Post-Crop effects The Post-Crop effects in the Vignettes panel were created in response to photographers who want to apply vignetting effects to their images after they’ve been cropped. (The Lens Correction controls work only on the original edges, not the cropped edges.) With the Post-Crop effects, Adobe provided a solution and gave us even more with a set of creative and versatile new controls, as you can see in these images. Here’s how the controls work: The Amount slider darkens or brightens the corners. Use the Midpoint slider to extend the effect toward the center or to limit it to the corners. The Roundness slider controls the round-to-oval shape of the vignette. The Feather slider creates a soft or sharp edge. While the name Post-Crop implies that you need to crop the image to use the effects, this isn’t the case. You can apply these settings to your photos with or without cropping them.

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Toolbox The Toolbox (located under the Histogram) contains the sharpest tools in the shed. Here, you can access the following tools by clicking on them or by pressing the shortcut key: Crop Overlay (R), Spot Removal (N), Red Eye Correction (no shortcut here), Graduated Filter (M), and Adjustment Brush (K). Press the shortcut key once to open the tool; press it again to close the tool.

Adjustment Brush The Adjustment Brush is the most exciting new feature in Lightroom 2, providing you with the ability to paint effects in specific

CHRIS ORWIG

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has quickly emerged as one of the most essential workflow and creative tools for photographers, and the improvements in Lightroom 2 are worth their weight in gold. Whether you’re an amateur or seasoned professional photographer, you’ll learn something in the few tips below.

Advanced split toning tips If you want to get even more out of the Split Toning panel’s Hue and Saturation controls, try this: While selecting a Highlights color, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) then click-and-drag in the color picker to choose a color for the Shadows. If you’re selecting a Shadows color, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) then clickand-drag in the color picker to choose a Highlights color. This is a fast way to switch between Highlights and Shadows without closing one color picker and opening another. In addition, you can sample a color from the image. Simply click in the color picker and then drag the cursor out of the box and onto the image. When you release the mouse button, Lightroom will sample the color from the image. While this is helpful with split toning, keep in mind that this technique can be used with the color pickers in the Web and Slideshow modules as well. ■

X Y

Rafael “RC” Concepcion

LIGHTROOM Q & A

Q. When would I want to convert my images to a DNG format? Digital cameras use a variety of proprietary formats for creating RAW files and because of that, you continuously run the risk of your RAW data being out of sync with a specific program, or (worse) unsupported in the future. That’s why Adobe created the DNG (digital negative) as a specific, standard format, allowing for a more stable solution because manufacturers and users would be using the same format. Most camera companies, however, haven’t adopted it as a standard. If you go to the Adobe web-

Q. In the Develop module, there’s an eyedropper to the left of the WB drop-down menu. Can I use this to white-balance pictures quickly? The White Balance Selector—I call it the help-me-find-the-gray eyedropper—allows you to choose what you think is a neutral color in the image. When I’m going to use this eyedropper, I first scan the image for any gray colors. In this example, I noticed the plastic sword to the right (your left) of my buddy, Miguel. While I might want to do some tweaks to the image later, this is a great place to start. Click on the White Balance Selector (shortcut W), click on the gray, and your image is adjusted. If you’re not sure what this will look like, you can always check the Navigator area for a preview as you mouse over the image.

Q. A couple of issues ago, I noticed that you have your name in the Lightroom 1.3 section at the top left of the interface. How can I do that? Click on Lightroom (PC: Edit)>Identity Plate Setup and in the dialog that appears, you can set up your own text on the top panel. In addition, you can add a graphic to this to really make your version of Lightroom stand out! ■

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Q. I clicked on Auto Advance and nothing seems to happen? What’s wrong? Auto Advance is something you can only take advantage of when ranking or flagging your images. Click on Photo>Auto Advance and select one image from your catalog, then flag or rank that image and Lightrooom will automatically advance to the next image in the series. This is a great timesaver when you want to pick only the keepers in a photo shoot.

site, you can download the Adobe DNG Converter for all of your existing RAW files (www.adobe.com/products/dng).

RAFAEL “RC” CONCEPCION

Q. The Auto Import dialog has a drop-down menu for Initial Previews that includes Minimal, Standard, and 1:1. Why would I choose one vs. another? It all depends on what you’re trying to achieve. Think of it this way: You’ll always pay for it somewhere in the chain. Lightroom requires you to have at least a Standard size for viewing and a 1:1 if you’re going to zoom in to see some detail, but if you need to get your images quickly into the catalog, then Minimal will work. Once the images are imported, you can click on Library>Previews>Render Standard-Sized Previews to get the previews you need, but at a cost in speed. If you choose to render Standard previews, you’ll pay for it on the import side but on the plus side, Lightroom will work reasonably well because it already has the previews it needs. Zooming into an image will still cause you to generate a 1:1, making you wait. If you have the time and disk space, rendering a 1:1 will take the longest initially, but give you the biggest image file to sort or rank.

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G8@EK$@EReview by Dave Huss ArtRage 2.5 is the latest version of Ambient Design’s natural media painting program designed to provide realistic simulation of paint, pens, pencils, crayons, and other tools. When first introduced to this program at Macworld this year, I wondered if there was room for another painter program in this narrow market. Then I saw it demonstrated and I noticed that it offered two important advantages: tools that looked and acted exactly like the real thing and an unbelievably low price. That got your attention. (I assume you just looked at the price at the bottom of the review, so welcome back!) While the tools are realistic, there are other products that can make the same claim. What makes ArtRage unique, other than the price, is its interface. Ambient Design has shed the standard menu bars and toolboxes and in their place is a simple canvas with the main tool and color palettes tucked away in the corners. Everything that’s not being used (such as palettes) moves out of the way when you get close to them with a tool, making more room on the canvas. All of the expected natural media tools are provided: pencil, paint, chalk, roller, airbrush, felt pen, and eraser. Also included are some cool tools, such as the paint tube that lays down an oil paint that can be smeared using the palette knife. Most importantly, for those of us who take wedding and portrait shots, is the ability

DAVID MANUEL

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to add painterly effects to our photos with a feature called Tracing Image. When you load a Tracing Image, it appears with the original photo so you can use your original as a guide. A neat feature is how you can select the correct color from the original, so that when you paint over the original, the brush color matches the original image, which is a real time saver. ArtRage also recognizes and supports Photoshop layers. You can use ArtRage with a mouse but it worked best for me when I hooked up my Wacom tablet and pen because both the pressure and tilt information enhanced the natural media experience. It also offers multimonitor support, which was very handy when adding painterly effects to a photo. This is because you can post a copy of the original photo, which allows you to take full advantage of the Tracing Image feature. ArtRage is available for Mac OS X and Windows XP and Vista in several versions: The free Starter Edition gives you eight painting tools, it’s fully functional, there’s no timer, and doesn’t limit image size. ArtRage 2.5 Full Edition (the subject of this review) is $25, contains four additional painting tools, and adds the ability to paint on multiple layers, metallic paint, stencils and rulers, and many more cool features. At $39.95, the ArtRage 2.5 Plus–CD Edition includes: the Full Edition; an excellent 80-page, full-color manual; video tutorials; and other goodies. ■

Company: Ambient Design Ltd.

Price: $25

Web: www.ambientdesign.com

Phone:

Platform: Mac and Windows

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

:fcfiDleb`G_fkf ▼ ColorMunki Photo is a deft, all-in-one solution for simplifying color management. It can calibrate and profile monitors (except CRTs) and digital projectors, build ICC paper profiles, and sample colors to create custom palettes. ColorMunki is a spectrophotometer housed in a protective zippered cloth case with a weighted strap that serves as a counterbalance for anchoring it to your display. The software is designed with the beginner in mind. Self-guiding menus lead you through the steps and instructional movies help illustrate what to do. There’s an advanced and beginner’s mode for monitor calibration. The advanced mode has more options but I found the automatic beginner’s mode worked very well. After building the profile, a window shows the results with a before-and-after calibration image and then saves your new profile. ColorMunki simplifies the process for making ICC paper profiles. All you need to do is print two A4-size targets consisting of 100 color patches and then scan the patches with ColorMunki. The software lets you know if your scanning technique needs correcting. I made profiles of Epson’s

Enhanced Matte and Premium Luster papers and compared them to Epson’s canned paper profiles. ColorMunki’s profiles came up short. Neutral tones had a slight color cast and shadow details were a little blocked up. I believe the ColorMunki software would produce better results if the printed targets had more color patches to sample. I loved the unique ability to sample colors from images or objects, create a palette from these colors, and then import it for use to an application such as Photoshop. ColorMunki isn’t perfect but its simplicity and versatility are compelling, especially for beginners. ■

Company: X-Rite, Incorporated

Price: $499

Web: www.xrite.com

Phone: 800-248-9748

Platform: Mac and Windows

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

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Fill flash is a powerful technique for nature photographers. It can fill in shadows on contrasty days or remove a color cast from your subject on overcast days. But, what do you do when the subject is beyond your flash’s range? Enter the Better Beamer from Walt Anderson. Better Beamer has a Fresnel screen that attaches to the front of your flash, extending its range and adding up to two additional stops to its output. While that’s an advantage when trying to reach a subject just beyond the range of your flash, its added power allows you to shoot at smaller apertures. My favorite use of Better Beamer is to remove the bluish color cast that’s prevalent on overcast days. Systems with a through-the-lens (TTL) flash work great with Better Beamer—simply attach it, set your desired aperture, and fire away. However, I prefer my images to have a more natural appearance instead of the flashed look that straight TTL gives. So I dial my flash down to somewhere between –11/3 to –21/3 on the output to give just enough light to remove the color cast or to slightly fill in shadows without overpowering my subject with light. Better Beamer is designed to work with lenses that are 300mm or longer. It comes in six sizes to fit the wide variety of flash heads on the market. Its compact, lightweight design makes it easy to have Better Beamer in your bag at all times. It comes in four pieces: two rigid side attachments, a Velcro band to attach it to the flash head, and the Fresnel screen. It’s easy to assemble and within seconds you’ll be ready to come out shooting. Better Beamer is a must for serious nature photographers. ■

Company: Walt Anderson

Price: $38.95

Web: Available through online retailers Phone: 847-438-3587 Platform:

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Path Styler Pro 1.5.2 is a plug-in that creates paths in Photoshop and applies special effects to them. Granted, many of the effects are similar to the tutorials that appear in almost every issue of Photoshop User, but for those who don’t have time to memorize every tutorial (or, like me, don’t have the memory capacity to even remember what issue the effect was in), this plug-in can create many effects quickly and efficiently. (Also, it uses a more advanced method of altering the path before applying effects, such as bevel.) The plug-in works only on paths, so type must be converted to paths before running the plug-in. You can easily convert the type to paths; however, Shinycore makes it easy and saves a few steps with the Convert Type to Path Styler Pro Effect feature (under the File>Automate menu). The plug-in works also on nontype shapes, as long as they’re paths. Adjusting the settings isn’t hard, but you might have to scan the Help file for the best results. Basically, it comes down to adding surfaces (there’s a default Main Surface) and changing the settings on the surface, such as surface texture. One of the best things about the plug-in, and a great learning tool, is the presets (168 by my count). After applying a preset, you can look at the settings used to create it. Another nice feature is that Path Styler Pro comes with a companion plug-in called Fill Styler. This plug-in is actually the same as Path Styler Pro texture settings, but it can be used separately for fill layers or selections. An Illustrator version of Path Styler Pro is also available. Because the bundle of the Photoshop and Illustrator plug-in is only $129, it makes sense to get both plug-ins. ■

Company: Shinycore Software

Price: $99

Web: www.shinycore.com

Phone:

Platform: Mac and Windows

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

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Insider Software’s FontAgent Pro has made a reputation for itself as a workhorse in the font management world. Version 4 builds on that solid foundation and even makes a few things easier than before, making a powerful font-management application even stronger. As with earlier versions, FontAgent Pro 4 is a versatile font manager for Mac OS X. Insider Software did a good job of maintaining the application’s focus on transparent font management, but also squeezed in a few new features that enhance the product without detracting from the key goal: efficiently managing fonts. It integrates seamlessly with the Adobe Creative Suite applications; includes support for multiple font libraries, font previews, and activating individual typefaces instead of complete suitcases; and yes, it still auto-activates fonts in Photoshop. Plug-ins are included for InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop CS3, and they can be installed automatically thanks to the new Setup Assistant. That’s a pleasant change since earlier versions left users on their own for plug-in installation. Auto-activation is more flexible, too. Users can enable or disable auto-activation for libraries or individual fonts, and can set the feature to work with all applications or just the Creative Suite, making it easier to avoid font conflicts. Another bonus is that FontAgent Pro doesn’t have to be running for auto-activation to work, which means if you aren’t manually activating fonts, or adding or managing fonts, you can get away with shutting down the application. Version 4 makes it easier to see the metadata in your font files as opposed to just seeing what your fonts look like. It sports classification tools that let you browse fonts based on categories and styles, plus profiling tools that let you view more information about specific fonts including weight and slant, proportion, and version number. All of that information is searchable, and FontAgent Pro supports Spotlightlike Smart Searches for dynamically updating font sets. While the search features are leaps and bounds beyond what was available in earlier versions (because you can now create searches based on almost any font trait including

details like slant weight), you can’t search by classification. The Font Classifier window handles that task, but it would be nice to perform regular searches based on classification data, too. The application interface received a much-needed overhaul that drops the gray-and-purple theme in favor for a more colorful one. The redesigned buttons are easier to identify, and it’s easier to tell when fonts are active. Long-time users will appreciate the changes and first-timers should be able to pick up on how things work fairly quickly. Automation fans get a special surprise, thanks to the addition of AppleScript support. Tasks such as modifying font sets and verifying font health can be automated, and a handful of sample AppleScripts are included. The built-in Help system doesn’t offer any scripting tips, but the included AppleScript dictionary documents the commands well enough for most scripters. Application stability isn’t an issue: It never crashed when running on Tiger or Leopard, and was very responsive when auto-activating fonts. The new version seems to be more robust at handling damaged fonts, too, which should eliminate many of the headaches associated with bad client fonts. FontAgent Pro 4 does its job well without getting in the way. It’s reliable and fast, and font auto-activation in Photoshop is the icing on the cake. If you’re ready to take on font management, this is worth a look, and if you’re ready to upgrade, it’s worth the price. ■

Company: Insider Software, Inc.

Price: $99.95

Web: www.insidersoftware.com

Phone: 866-366-8778

Platform: Mac

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

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EF@J<$I<;L:K@FEJF=KN8I<Review by Daniel M. East

In terms of reducing the unwanted noise caused by exposure issues, lower pixel size, or higher speed settings, sometimes the controls in Photoshop CS3 aren’t quite enough. After having reviewed nearly all previous versions of Noise Buster by AKVIS, the results from version 6 are very good. There are quite a few noise-reduction plug-ins available, but AKVIS has taken the lead for performance this time. Previews are quick to render—even on an older PowerBook G4—and the full rendering is at least three times faster than the previous version. On a Mac Pro, the results are nearly instantaneous and it’s easy to get on with your other corrections, should you need them. This is a great plug-in for some older systems, as well as the newer models. All of the favorite features from previous versions of Noise Buster remain, including previews, a surprisingly accurate autofiltering, and color/luminance noise-level adjustments. Noise Buster 6 allows for batch processing via Photoshop actions, should you find yourself with a series of images from the same shoot that need the same adjustment. While Noise Buster 6’s interface is clean and easy, an update to the look and feel of it seems overdue, but that doesn’t affect the performance or quality of the results. It’s available as both a plug-in and a standalone application, both of which are included in the package. This continues to be a great title worthy of a home in your virtual bag of tricks. ■

Company: AKVIS Software Inc.

Price: $49

Web: http://akvis.com

Phone: 206-309-0821

Platform: Mac and Windows

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

The next generation of Canon’s imagePROGRAF large-format printers takes a lot of lessons into account based on the company’s previous models in the class. So many of the best features that started out as accessories are now integrated into the design, along with improvements in the inks and performance of the printer. The biggest visible change in the iPF5100 is that the 17"-wide paper roll feeder is now incorporated into the hardware. Producing banners and poster prints is faster than ever. With a 4-picoliter ink-drop size, colors are rich and vivid, and prints are sharp. Although Canon’s new Kyuanos advanced color-management system is solely Windows-based, Mac users will achieve excellent results from either the profile library or their own color profiles. The iPF5100 comes standard with 192 MB of RAM and has Canon’s new LUCIA ink set, comprised of 12 color cartridges that include photo gray, gray, and matte black to reproduce even the most subtle tones. For designers and photographers, it’s important that the image quality is properly maintained in terms of sharpness, balance, density, contrast, saturation, and overall visual appeal relative to the original. Canon offers a Photoshop CS3 plug-in for this printer that makes its use fairly seamless for photo printing; however, one of the best things in terms of output is how well it performs printing 2D or 3D posters from Illustrator CS3. The output was impressive and easily one of the best printers tested in this class. In every test, Canon’s own papers produced the best results and were the most balanced overall. This is a great large-format printer that produces archivalquality output and shows that Canon’s hindsight is 20/20. ■

Company: Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Price: $1,995

Web: www.usa.canon.com

Phone: 800-652-2666

Platform: Mac and Windows

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

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BY PHILIP ANDREWS

114

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BY LISA DaNAE DAYLEY

BY FERRELL McCOLLOUGH

When the preceding edition of this book was reviewed in September 2006, it received three stars, primarily because of quite a few quirks. Well, the quirks are still there, as is the three-star rating. You still won’t find a cross-reference from the Hue/ Saturation entry to the entry that actually explains how to use the adjustment (listed, strangely, under “M” for “Modify range of Hue sliders”). And if you want to learn about Edit>Transform>Rotate, you still need to look under “F” for “Free rotate layer.” Still not great, primarily due to nonstandard terminology, but perhaps it’s okay for self-teaching beginners.

About 25% 3D and 75% animation/ video, this book takes an in-depth look at those features of Photoshop CS3 Extended not found in Photoshop CS3. If you received Photoshop CS3 Extended as part of a Creative Suite package and are intrigued by its capabilities, this book holds the key to the new kingdom. The format makes it both a good book for beginners and a handy reference for experienced users. Step-by-step lessons, using files you already have on the Photoshop/ Creative Suite DVD, are nicely supplemented with cross-references, tips, and general information. A bit pricey, but worth it!

Beautifully illustrated with excellent reproduction values, this book is a joy to browse! You’ll see outstanding images from a number of HDR (high dynamic range) photographers. But if you’re interested in imagery, don’t get lost in the photos and forget to read the text. McCollough presents an excellent overview not only of HDR photography, but also of the tools available for producing HDR photos. He describes and works with a variety of programs, some of which offer capabilities that can’t be matched by the Photoshop Merge to HDR feature. If you’re interested in HDR photography, this book is an excellent value.

Publisher: Focal Press Pages: 314

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pages: 442

Publisher: Lark Books Pages: 176

Website: www.focalpress.com

Website: www.wiley.com

Website: www.larkbooks.com

Price: $29.95

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Price: $49.99

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Price: $24.95

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Rafael “RC” Concepcion

Photoshop Q & A Q A

shortcut, Command-Shift-Y (PC: Ctrl-Shift-Y), to toggle this setting off and on. That should take care of it.

©ISTOCKPHOTO/TAN KIAN KHOON

I’ve been wondering how to insert copyright information into my images to protect them. How do you do this? When you copy your images to your computer, Adobe Bridge provides great ways to rank, sort, and add information to the file to make retrieving easier. Open Bridge and navigate to the folder containing the images with which you want to work. Click on the image to select it and you’ll notice a panel on the right-hand side called “Metadata.” In there, you’ll find a category called IPTC Core, which has a bunch of owner fields that you can fill out, including copyright information.

Q A

When I’m drawing a shape or a path, I find it tedious to switch continuously to the convert tool to change the curve handle of a path. Is there an easier way to do this? Click-and-drag out your first point in the curve (with the Pen tool). Normally, when you click on the second point of the curve, you’re going to drag away from the curve to readjust, specifying a new direction and slope for that point. But, before you let go of the mouse, hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and this lets you change the curve handle and eliminate a series of steps in your path-making process.

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What is Bridge Home? Bridge Home is located under the Favorites panel at the upper-left corner of the Bridge screen. Clicking on Bridge Home brings you to a page where you can get a variety of resources aimed to help you solve creative problems. From tutorials to forums and magazines, it’s a resource that’s definitely up there on my list. Make sure you check it out.

Q A

An image that I opened has this weird gray overlay on some portions of it. What do I do? In the View menu, there’s an option called Gamut Warning that allows you to check out what regions of an image are outside its current printable color space (RGB, CMYK, etc.). Press the

Q A

I’d like to start playing around with the 3D capabilities in Photoshop CS3 Extended. Can I create a 3D design in Photoshop and manipulate it there? These days, Photoshop has a great feature set for manipulating 3D, but it’s important to note that it’s not a 3D-creating tool. Photoshop CS3 Extended can open U3D, 3DS, OBJ, KMZ, and COLLADA file formats, so you’d be creating these files from programs such as 3D Studio Max, Alias, Maya, and recently Poser Pro announced that they’re offering increased support for Photoshop CS3 Extended using the COLLADA file format. If you don’t want to create these shapes, the Google 3D Warehouse (http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse) is also a great place to check. From this site, you can download a variety of 3D forms and play with them right inside Photoshop.

Q

When I’m using the Brush tool and I click on the downfacing arrow beside the tool in the Options Bar to open the Tool Preset Picker, I get a message that says No Tool Presets Defined for Current Tool. What is this and how can I use it? This is the Tool Preset manager. Think of it this way: You can use a brush to paint a specific color on an image or you can use it to create a vignette, and you can even use it to “paint”

A

Photoshop Q & A

images in the folder window. After you’ve selected your images, Control-click (PC: Right-click) and select “Batch Rename” from the contextual menu. A dialog will appear giving you several options for renaming your files, as well as options for moving or copying your files. The New Filenames section also allows you to specify a custom name, number, and date.

©ISTOCKPHOTO/CHRIS INCH

on a layer mask, revealing a specific effect. All three of these brushes will use a combination of opacity, flow, size, and type to achieve that effect and this would cause a problem if you continuously switch from one setting to another. Enter Brush Presets. You can now save all of these settings as a preset and have multiple presets available to you at the click of a button. You can even save these presets using the Preset Manager.

Q A

Is there a faster way to get to the maximized screen than clicking the menu command View>Screen Mode> Maximized Screen Mode? Yes, pressing the F key lets you toggle through all of the settings in the View>Screen Mode menu. You can also change these by clicking-and-holding the icon at the bottom of the Toolbox, which opens the flyout menu.

Q

When I’m slicing an image, I notice that the slice number automatically jumps pretty high. If I create five slices, I see that I have slices with numbers like 10, 15, or higher. Is there something wrong? When you use the Slice tool (K) to create slices of a PSD file for use on the Web, there are two types of slices that will be created: Auto slices and User slices. The User-based slice is what you create when making squares around your image using the Slice tool. Auto slices are what Photoshop creates automatically based on your User slices. Auto slices tend to fill up your entire canvas as Photoshop needs them so if you have a problem slicing an image to the edge, Photoshop will automatically fill it in for you. If you find yourself having excessive slices, the best thing for you to do is zoom in and take a look. Chances are you’ll be able to see the Auto slice that's giving you a problem. Once you find it, you can use the Slice Select tool (nested under the Slice tool) to grab that individual slice and drag it to the area that it should’ve originally snapped to. While you make sure that those slices are snapping to the other user-generated slices, the slice numbers will go down. To prevent this autoslicing problem, you can slice from the edge of an already existing User slice, or click on the Hide Auto Slices button in the Options Bar when the Slice Select tool is active. ■

Q A

When I use Quick Mask, it always shows up as red. Can I change that? Double-click on the Quick Mask icon at the bottom of the Toolbox and you’ll open the Quick Mask Options dialog where you can change the Color of the mask as well as the Opacity.

Q A

I have a series of images in a folder that were named from the camera. Is there a way that I can change their names without having to work on each one? There sure is, but you’re not going to find it in Photoshop. For this, Bridge is going to be your go-to application. Fire up Bridge and navigate to the directory where the images are. You can either click on one image or Shift-click to select a series of

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.

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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 Photoshop Design Showcase, submit samples of your artwork to [email protected].

Sam Gray Sam’s talents as an accomplished artist in the Raleigh, North Carolina area, have spanned four decades. His wide range of artistic training has led him to enjoy working best with mixed media. He’s been frequently commissioned to create portraits for private and public collections but also enjoys painting landscapes, which are available for purchase as well. “I’ve received national and international awards,” Sam says, “for my ability to ‘see light.’”

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www.samgrayportraits.com

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RONKIMBALLSTOCK.COM

▲ Bill Henderson

▼ Colleen Farrell

In 1989, Bill traded his Amberlith and X-Acto knife for a Macintosh. His nationally recognized art reflects an eclectic nature and commitment to purity in design. As art director at Tangerine Press (an imprint of Scholastic, Inc.), Bill considers himself a graphic designer first and a digital artist second, stressing the importance of design on design students and interns by stating, “A monkey with a Macintosh…is still a monkey.”

Colleen began shooting seriously in 2004, so she’s a relative newcomer to photography and Photoshop. As an avid gardener, Colleen finds flowers her most accessible subjects, taking their natural beauty to a new level of art with Photoshop. “I upgraded to CS3 last year,” she says, “and I just can’t get enough of it! I’ve had some success in online contests and juried art shows and recently made my first sale.”

www.billhendersondesign.com

www.colleenfarrell.com

Sherry London

Meticulous dust-spotting method How can you dust spot an image, making sure that you’ve not missed anything? I recommend that you click the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and add a layer named “Healing” above the original image, and then zoom to 300%. First, look for any areas to heal on the current view of the image, starting at the top right. Then methodically work your way down to the bottom of the image (still on the far right of the zoomed image). When you get to the bottom of the image, press-and-hold the Spacebar to temporarily switch to the Hand tool, click as far to the left of the screen as you can, and drag the image to the right. This gives you the second “column” to check. Begin from the bottom where your last column ended and drag back up to the top of the image. Repeat this process until you reach the left side of the image. This way, when you get to the left side of the image, you know you’ve looked at every pixel. The 300% zoom works well because it lets you see imperfections clearly while still making sense of the image content.

TOWNSEND PRESS/MARK WEBER

Photoshop Quick Tips

color correction above the Smart Object layer. That way, if you need to adjust the colors, you won’t destroy your dust spotting. If you’d color corrected below a dust spotting layer, all of the changes would need to be redone; with this workflow, they won’t. In the example above, you can see the separation of the image corrections and healing from the colorcorrection layers. Output sharpening All images need some type of sharpening, but the amount depends on the

output method. Web images need much less sharpening than those destined for traditional four-color printing. The new smart filters in Photoshop CS3 let you quickly convert the same art for different output methods. As you’ve seen in the previous two tips, I separate the image corrections from the color corrections. My image layers are all in a single smart object so all I need to do is apply a sharpening filter to the smart object.

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QUICK KEYSTROKES

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This month, the keystrokes honor Photoshop World Las Vegas. 1. Pressing P selects the Pen tool. Press Shift-P to switch between the Pen tool and the Freeform Pen tool. Use the Command (PC: Ctrl) key with P to open the Print dialog.

Editing scanned images If you have scanned images that need a lot of edits in addition to color correction and dust spotting, then do the restoration, changes, and dust spotting first and save the corrected image as a smart object. Now, all of your changes are localized but no color work has been done. You can then add all of the adjustment layers needed for

2. Pressing W selects the Quick Selection tool. Press Shift-W to toggle the Quick Selection tool and the Magic Wand tool. Press Command-W (PC: Ctrl-W) to close a file/window. 3. The shortcut for the Lasso tools is L and Shift-L switches between the Lasso, Polygonal Lasso, and the Magnetic Lasso tools. Press Command-L (PC: Ctrl-L) to bring up the Levels dialog. 4. The V key selects the Move tool, which is the only tool in this slot. Press Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to Paste content from the Clipboard. Press Shift-Command-V (PC: Shift-Ctrl-V) to Paste Into a selection and add a layer mask. ■

Photoshop user

September 2008

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]

[F]

Nik Software, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 www.niksoftware.com

[O]

Fotolia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC www.fotolia.com

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 www.kelbytraining.com Adobe Photoshop Seminar Tours. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 www.kelbytraining.com Adorama Camera, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 www.adorama.com Alien Skin Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 www.alienskin.com AMC Colorgrafix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 www.amc-color.com

[B] B&H Photo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 www.bhphotovideo.com BigStockPhoto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 www.bigstockphoto.com BOSS LOGO Print & Graphics Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 www.5000cards.com

[C] Canon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4–5 www.usa.canon.com CDW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 www.cdw.com Clipart deSIGN USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 www.ClipartdeSIGN.com Copy Craft Printers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 www.copycraft.com Corel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 www.corel.com Create Chaos 2008. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 www.createchaos.com Creative Juices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 www.bigposters.com

[D] Dahle North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 www.dahle.com

[G]

onOne Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 www.ononesoftware.com

[P]

Graphic Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124–125 www.graphicauthority.com GridIron Software, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 www.gridironsoftware.com

Peachpit Publishing Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 www.peachpit.com

Growll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 www.growll.com

PhotoPlus Expo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 www.photoplusexpo.com

[H] Hewlett-Packard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 www.hp.com

[I]

Photos.com/JupiterImages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 www.photos.com PhotohopCAFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 www.photoshopcafe.com Professional Photographers of America (PPA). . . . . . . . . . . . 141 www.ppa.com

iStockphoto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC–3 www.istockphoto.com

Print Factory, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 www.GoPrintFactory.com

I.T. Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 www.itsupplies.com

PrintFirm, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 www.printfirm.com

[J]

PrintRunner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 www.printrunner.com

Jakprints, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 www.jakprints.com Jane’s Digital Art School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 www.janesdigitalart.com

[R] Really Right Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 www.reallyrightstuff.com

[K] Kelby Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 99, 142 www.kelbytraining.com

[L] Layers Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 www.layersmagazine.com

[S] Shortrunposters.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 www.shortrunposters.com Shutterstock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 www.shutterstock.com Smith Micro Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC www.mysmithmicro.com

Layers TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 www.layersmagazine.com/tv LC Technology, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 www.lc-tech.com

[T] Tenba. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 www.tenba.com

[M]

[W]

Media Lab, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 www.medialab.com

Wacom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 www.wacom.com/americas

Digital Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58–59 www.digitalroom.com

Microsoft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 www.microsoft.com

Westcott. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 www.fjwestcott.com

DigitalPhotoshopRetouching.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 www.digitalphotoshopretouching.com

Midwest Photo Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 www.midwestphoto.com

Western Digital Corporation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 www.westerndigital.com

Mpix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 www.mpix.com

www.RawWorkflow.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 www.RawWorkflow.com

Data Robotics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 www.drobo.com

Photoshop [E]

®

user

eprintFast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 www.eprintfast.com

[Z]

[N]

ExpoImaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . .of . . . .products, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . services, . . . . . . . . . . . 109andNational Association of Photoshop Professionals. . . . . . . . 115 A collection the hottest Photoshop gear www.expodisc.com www.photoshopuser.com

Zoo Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 www.zooprinting.com

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

› › w w w. p h ot o s h o p u s e r . c o m

4 Over, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122–123 www.4over.com

121

Colin Smith

Photoshop Beginners’ Tips Cool black-and-whites in Camera Raw Here’s an unconventional way to get really good black-and-whites from Adobe Camera Raw. Open your photo in Camera Raw, drag the Saturation slider all the way down to –100, then start dragging the Temperature and Tint sliders to find some really interesting results. You’ll be surprised at the level of control and ease of use of this method. Don’t forget to set all the luminosity sliders (middle sliders) to get the contrast and clarity you want.

› › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › s e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 8

COLIN SMITH

Open JPEG in RAW I’m sure that all the cool new options in Camera Raw haven’t gone unnoticed by you. Don’t you wish that these options were available for all your images? Good news, they are! In case you didn’t already know, you can open JPEG and TIFF files inside Camera Raw. Ready for all the cool tools? Here’s how: From Photoshop, Choose File>Open and select your image, but don’t click Open just yet. Change the Format to Camera Raw and then open your file. The JPEG or TIFF will open in Camera Raw ready for all the cool tools. From Bridge, it’s even easier: Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the image thumbnail and choose Open in Camera Raw from the contextual menu.

146

Use document presets Do you find that you’re creating the same type of document a lot? Perhaps you feel as if you’re spending too much time filling out dialogs. Why not save custom document presets? Choose File>New and in the New dialog, enter your settings—even the color profile—then click on the Save Preset button and choose a name for your new document preset. Make sure to check all the relevant boxes and click OK to save the preset. From now on, any time you create a new document, just click on the Preset menu, choose your preset from the list, and avoid all that typing. Easy sizing When you’re creating a Web banner, it can be quite a challenge to get the file size just right. Although many websites will tell

you maximum file size allowed, stop wasting your time experimenting. When you’re ready to export your Web graphic, choose Save for Web & Devices from the File menu. In the dialog, click on the little arrow to the right of Preset and choose Optimize to File Size from the menu.

Then in the dialog that appears, enter the desired size and choose either Current Settings or Auto Select GIF/JPEG for the file format. Tip: Use Current Settings and GIF if you’re creating an animated banner, because JPEG doesn’t support animation. Trash all unwanted layers Quickly delete any unwanted layers by turning off their display: In the Layers panel, click the Eye icon to the left of the layer. Then press the right-facing arrow at top right of the Layers panel and choose Delete Hidden Layers. (If this option is grayed out, select a visible layer as your working layer and try again.) You could also Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) all of the layers to select them first and then delete, but I think you’ll find the first method is faster. Nesting layers Photoshop allows nested layer groups? A nested layer group is a group within a group and it’s very useful when working on a complex image. Start by grouping all the related layers together: Select the first group of layers in the Layers panel, then click on the arrow at the top of the panel and choose New Group from Layers, give it a name, and click OK. Do this for the other layer groups, then take all the related groups and group them together. Drag one group onto another group’s name to “nest” it. You can nest layer groups up to five levels deep. This is especially useful if you’re going to import Photoshop documents into Flash CS3, as a closed group will render as a single symbol. ■

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.

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