NYU Photoshop Intensive: August 2012

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Friday 8/3/12: Retouching

"There are 3 key things for good photography: the camera, lighting and... Photoshop." - Tyra Banks

"Retouching had become controversial ever since Franz Hanfstaengl of Munich showed at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris a retouched negative with a print made from it before and after retouching. It was, Nadar recollected, the beginning of a new era in photography." - Beaumont Newhall, History of Photography by Newhall, Beaumont Newhall

"Photoshop is useful in many ways but must NEVER be used for the altering of photographs. My assistants and my agency do whatever Photoshop work for me that may be required as it is too complicated for my brain. - Elliott Erwitt - On the question; Do you use Photoshop in your workflow? "

Retouching Tools

Burn and Dodge = To selectively lighten and darken areas of an image
Clone Stamp = Copies pixels from a target source area (via option-clicking) and pastes them in a new location
Healing Brush = Same as Clone Stamp, but it also blends with the existing pixels
Spot Healing Brush = Same as Healing Brush, but you do not have to target a source area which makes it great for spots.
Patch Tool = Combines the Healing Brush with the characteristics of the Lasso Tool so that you are not constrained by a circular brush area. *Must be performed directly on an image layer - can not use the trick of retouching onto a new blank layer.
*Use Edit>Fade command to reduce the opacity of your last retouching tool stroke! Or simply use the Eraser tool at any opacity (set in Options Bar) to reduce the retouching... as long as you placed your retouching strokes on a new blank layer!

Retouching Tools - See "Layer Modes" Handout describing layer and tool blending modes

New Retouching Layer


Portrait Retouching Checklist

Type Tool Options

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Project #5: Class Portrait / Layer Masks

Layer Masks Portrait Project

The goal of this project is to create a wacky portrait utilizing a fun mixture of facial features with your portrait as a base image and adding elements from your classmate portraits. To complete this project, an understanding of layer masks and image transformation (scale, size, rotation, etc.) is required and will be learned.

Begin by opening your image from the appropriate folder found in your class folder on the transport ffs system. Once opened, use Adobe Bridge to browse through the images of your other classmates. Choose at least 3 other images to combine with your own. Maybe you like one person's eye, or another person's nose, etc.

Once you have the images open, move the image windows next to each other (click, drag, and release the tab at the top of the image window to separate it into a new window) and use the move tool to copy the new layer of your classmate's face to the document window with your image. Select the move tool and simply click in one of your classmate's image windows, or on the layer icon in the layers palette. Hold down the mouse and drag the image into your image window and release the mouse to automatically create a new image layer above your background image.
Then lower that new layer's opacity to 50% or so in the layers palette. This will allow you to see through that new layer which makes it easier to line up the faces.
Go to the Edit > Free Transform command and use the options bar to resize, move, and rotate the image until the features pretty well line up. Use the trick of repositioning the center pivot point (option click where you want it) to not only rotate around, but to scale up and down from that point that you lock in. Commit the transformation by pressing the return/enter key, or by clicking the check mark in the options bar.
In the layers palette, put the opacity of the top layer back to 100%
Go to Layer > Add Layer Mask > Hide All to add a layer mask which hides the entire layer by filling the new mask with black.
Then be sure the layer mask thumbnail is chosen for that layer in the layers palette (not the image thumbnail!), and paint in the document window with "white" for the facial elements that you want to "reveal" from that hidden layer. Also remember that you can select to paint with a soft edged brush set to a lower opacity in the options bar in order for smoother transitions between the facial elements on the two separate layers. You should also get in the habit of locking the image pixels in the Layers Palette so as not to accidentally paint on the image when you meant to paint on the layer mask (Brush icon in the lock choices atop the palette).
Finally, add Clipping Masks if you need to adjust color and tone (to match skin possibly) for individual layers without effecting the rest of the layers.

Continue adding elements until you are complete and have a smooth, albeit goofy looking!, portrait image.

Thursday 8/2/12: Layer Masks

“My passport photo is one of the most remarkable photographs I have ever seen - no retouching, no shadows, no flattery - just stark me” - unknown

"If you want reality take the bus." - David LaChapelle

"People say photographs don't lie, mine do." - David LaChapelle

Layer Masks

White = Reveals elements of the layer

Black = Masks elements of the layer

Layer Masks - Tips and Tricks:

· Make a Selection and create a new Adjustment Layer = automatic Layer Mask

· Paint with White or Black or even Gray on a Layer Mask. When a layer mask is selected in the Layers Palette, painting in the image window with White Reveals the pixels of the layer the layer mask is linked to, while painting with any opacity of Gray partly shows the layer, and painting with Black Masks the pixels of that layer. Pixels are never erased, they are just temporarily masked. You can always reveal them again by painting with white! Nondestructive and infinitely editable!!!

· Click the Link Icon between the image layer thumbnail and the Layer Mask thumbnail to move the pixels or layer mask independently from one another

· Select > Refine Mask - with a Layer Mask selected in the Layers Palette, you can refine the edges of a layer mask (not just a selection!)

· Command H to Hide your marching ant selection edges temporarily while using Standard Mode in the Refine Mask dialogue box

· Command-Click any image layer or layer mask to automatically select the pixels on that layer, or the white area of a layer mask. (Shift+Command-Click to add, or Option+Command-Click multiple image layers or layer masks to add or subtract from a selection.

Replacing Color and Converting to B&W

Project #4: Venice / Curves

Wednesday 8/1/12: RGB #s + Quick Masks + Selections

"I do not object to retouching, dodging. or accentuation as long as they do not interfere with the natural qualities of photographic technique." - Alfred Stieglitz

"Sitting over a hot computer ain't my idea of fun. My creativity goes almost completely into picture taking. (But) I suppose if I ever retired, I would enjoy learning the Photoshop craft far more than playing golf." - Herbert Keppler - On going digital. (Popular Photography & Imaging, January 2005)

Understanding the Digital RGB #s

To have an understanding of Photoshop, you must first learn how the program "sees" your image. The most basic picture element of a digital photograph is a "pixel" and an image is made up of a lot of these. Photoshop simply manipulates the color, tone, and position of these pixels in order to achieve the photographer's desired results. But before you start retouching, I want you to understand how the colors and tones of each pixel are interpreted by Photoshop, and ultimately by you as a Photoshop user!

As in photography, it all starts with light and specifically the mixing of 3 primary colors together to achieve all the other colors we can possibly see.

The Additive Process involves mixing Red, Green, and Blue light together in varying proportions to produce any color. The RGB color method is used in today's digital camera sensors, television sets, and computer monitors, and was was used in early color film photography. Adding red, green, and blue light together in equal amounts will produce white light. Mixing just 2 of the additive primaries together will produce one of the subtractive primaries (see below).


RGB = Additive Primaries (CMY = Subtractive Primaries used in printing along with black or K)

Equal amounts of RGB light mixed together = White light

Most of the color images you will be working on in PS are 8bits/channel. Your images have 3 total channels -- Red, Green, and Blue, which can be viewed independently in the channels palette and in the info palette. And 8 bits when multiplied by the 3 channels gives you a total of 24bits of information per pixel, or 16.7 million colors. This is known as the bit depth, or color depth, of your image and describes how many colors each individual pixel can have!

Back to 8bits/channel though, which is to say 256 tones/channel. This gives you a tonal scale of 0 to 255 for each channel (Red, Green, and Blue). When all channels are set to 0, and turned off, you have a black pixel. All channels turned on to 255, results in a white pixel. And as long as the RGB numbers are equal, you are looking at a neutral gray pixel (darker if the numbers are closer to 0 and lighter if they are closer to 255!).

The RGB numbers for each pixel in your image can be viewed in the Info Palette, and the information can be used in Levels or Curves to properly balance the color and tone in your image. In fact, having an understanding of these numbers is one of the most useful things I can teach you in this class. With this knowledge, you can almost guarantee yourself proper printing results and accurate color with most of your images.

Please take a look at the below handout for more information on RGB numbers:

Editing Selections:

Standard Mode = Once a Selection Tool is used (such as Magic Wand or the Marquee Tool), "marching ants" display your selected area in the image window.

Add to a selection = Shift key (or choose the "add to selection" button in the Options Bar)

Subtract from a selection = Option key (or choose the "subtract from selection" button in the Options Bar)

Quick Mask Mode = (icon just below Foreground/Background colors in the Tools Palette) Visual color overlay of your selection - useful to view how soft or hard your selection edges are. (Switch to Quick Mask Mode by clicking the button at the bottom of the Tools Palette)

Add to a selection = with Brush Tool, paint with White in image window

Subtract from a selection = choose Brush Tool with Black as foreground color

Select > Refine Edges – to refine Selection Edges, or to refine the edges of a Layer Mask!

· Radius = Increasing will improve the edges in areas of soft transitions (similar to Feather)

· Contrast = Will make soft edges crisper and remove artifacts along the edges of a selection

· Smooth = Will smooth out jagged selection edges (Use radius to help restore some of the detail)

· Feather = Will uniformly soften the edge of the selection and help produce a soft edged mask

· Contract/Expand = Shrinks or Expands a selection size

Select > Save Selection to save a selection as an Alpha Channel

Select > Load Selection to load an Alpha Channel (simply reselects a saved selection)

Select > Color Range to select similar colors within the entire image

How to properly adjust for color and tone with a Curve Adjustment Layer