Photoshop articles by Merrifield Photographyhttp://www.merrifield-photography.com/index.htmlPhotoshop articles by Merrifield Photographyeninfo@seydoggy.comCopyright 2007 seyDoggy2007-12-04T10:59:30-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:16:48 -0500Open in Camera Rawinfo@seydoggy.comhow-to2007-12-04T10:59:30-05:00http://www.merrifield-photography.com/articles/photoshop-articles/files/087669f36998a339ec6dff26b432df37-2.php#unique-entry-id-2http://www.merrifield-photography.com/articles/photoshop-articles/files/087669f36998a339ec6dff26b432df37-2.php#unique-entry-id-2Scott Kelby and his 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3, not because it was an integral part of his system but because it was one of those "blinding flash of the obvious" moments for me. I found, as I am sure many people did, that the upgrade path to Photoshop CS3 was more out of necessity to get Photoshop running at reasonable speeds on my Intel Mac. I more or less overlooked any new features and hadn't really considered looking into seeing what was changed, new or otherwise. I just installed, opened it and continued where I left off more or less. Granted at higher speeds now that Photoshop was running natively.


As time went on I started hearing about, and learning about new tricks and features and what not and before I new it I was madly in love with all that was new in CS3. Then I started reading Scott Kelby's book and the first thing that Scott has you do in any lesson is open your images in Camera Raw... all images... all formats... Raw files, jpeg files, tiff files, png files... all of them! What? You can do that? In CS3 you can. Who knew?

Since I was never a big Raw shooter I had never had to open in Camera Raw before in CS2 so haw this was achieved I had no idea. I saw no options for it. So I went online to find out how. Apparently, if Bridge is up to date (which mine wasn't), you can just press command+r (or control+r on Windows), or right-click > Open in Camera Raw, or go to File > Open in Camera Raw.

To do this in Photoshop, it's a bit different. Go to your open dialogue window (File > Open) and from the "Format" drop down menu select "Camera Raw".
open Camera Raw

Why is working in Camera Raw important? It is a non-destructive way to fine tune your images exposure, contrast, warmth and tint, etc, without losing the original settings. It's that simple.]]>HDR imagery demystifiedinfo@seydoggy.comhow-to2007-08-07T07:52:13-04:00http://www.merrifield-photography.com/articles/photoshop-articles/files/51a690ea9a4421daa8e3fd10dde56138-1.php#unique-entry-id-1http://www.merrifield-photography.com/articles/photoshop-articles/files/51a690ea9a4421daa8e3fd10dde56138-1.php#unique-entry-id-1flickr. Every body is doing HDR photography, it seems, and it's generally becoming the new age way of doing things. So what is it:
(from wikipedia) → In computer graphics and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures (i.e. a large range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows.
In old school terms, it's no different than what Ansel Adams used to do in the field and in the dark room, burning and dodging until the sky's were black and clouds defined and landscapes sharp and perfectly exposed. Or in a little more recent terms, it's like shooting a landscape on slide film with a polarizing lens to cut the sky down 2 stops, leaving you with well exposed sky AND landscape. What you want is to be able to see the detail in the sky and the detail in the shadows, but to expose that without tricker is nearly impossible.


That's where HDR comes in. Via computer wizardry, you can take a set of bracketed exposures and marry them together to attain this miracle of perfectly exposed everything. Here is an example of a typical sunset, silhouetted horizon with a brilliantly painted skyline:
example of typical sunset shot

But what if you actually wanted to see the foliage in front of you? We can in real life and isn't that the scene the one the caught your eye in the first place, the REAL LIFE scene? The problem is that most films and sensors have a hard time collecting that 5 to 7 stop range that is presenting before you. Some digital sensors are coming close, especially in RAW mode but they just aren't going to match what the human eye and brain sees. What you may want is your scene to look like this:
example of HDR sunset shot

How do we do it? Lets start in the field. I'm not going to give a lecture of exposure right now (though I am sure I will in the future), so I am not going to tell you how to expose each frame in a given landscape but just to tell you that you will want about three bracketed frames; one that is under exposed or exposed for the shadows, one that is exposed somewhere in middle ground (in the above example I exposed for the foliage in the lower right hand corner), and one that is over exposed or exposed for the highlights.

I shouldn't have to tell you that all three images need to be identically composed so it goes without saying that a tripod is paramount. I should also mention that this is not strictly a digital technique. If you shoot film and scan your photos or negatives, this technique will work for you also. Which brings me to the next stage; get your images on a computer. Once in there, in the old magic number cruncher, open photoshop.

Now you don't actually need open any file in particular with Photoshop, you just need to go to File → Automate → Merge to HDR.

HDR-panel

In the resulting window you'll select the files you wish to merge, where a minimum of two are required but more often then not, three or more would be used. Now all that's left to do is click "OK" and watch the magic.

Be warned that your results may vary and the resulting file may need further tweaking with contrast, gamma, saturation etc, but it is a start and takes a large brunt of the work off of you. Just as an experiment I tried to attempt a manual merge of these images myself and in the hands of a proper graphic artist, the task would not be impossible, but to accomplish the same results in the 30 seconds that Photoshop can spit these things out would be.]]>Auto levels and other things to do first.info@seydoggy.comtips and tricks2007-07-24T18:03:12-04:00http://www.merrifield-photography.com/articles/photoshop-articles/files/990f8810d6a9bd7533a8a89c89c92cab-0.php#unique-entry-id-0http://www.merrifield-photography.com/articles/photoshop-articles/files/990f8810d6a9bd7533a8a89c89c92cab-0.php#unique-entry-id-0

Here is the reality; if your pictures seem a bit off, whether film or digital, they will lack one or both of two things: 1) contrast, 2) white balance. For this reason, most pictures can be corrected by addressing these two areas before mucking about with any other settings. Here is why. Both film and digital camera sensors are engineered to react to light in a very predictable manner. If you are shooting in a color range of 5500K, then whites run at one frequency, reds at another, greens at another and so on... In theory then, all you have to do is find your white* and the rest mathematically fall into place. And the contrast? That'll just make the first job easier when it comes time to find white*.

So before mucking about with any other settings here is what I suggest you do first. Run an auto adjust on all levels (Images ~ Adjustments ~ Auto Levels or shift+command+L). The results might seem extreme at first but hit command+z back and forth a few time to really get a feel for what's changing. Chances are you will like what you see and leave it at that. If this is what you had hoped for, then undo this first step and try just adjusting the contrast. Again, the quick and dirty method, Image ~ Adjustments ~ Auto Contrast (Shift+Alt+Command+L). This at a minimum will be a good starting place, but with any luck your done.

Not done? Ok, here is step number 3. What is it about the picture that is putting you off? Here are a few typical scenarios that both film and digital sensors tend to have trouble with. You shoot a couple sitting in the grass on a sunny day... their faces are an unhealthy shade of green. You shoot a bride and groom against a blue sky, late afternoon with a low sun and you have them facing directly into the sun so you can that popular, shadowless, flat light, healthy glow effect... and their faces come out orange. If you can recognize what color throwing you off the most, all you been to is go into the hue and saturation panel (Images ~ Adjustments ~ Hue and Saturation or Command+u) and lighten it up a bit, perhaps drop it's saturation a smidgen.

Here's a few examples:
example1-07-24-07

In this example we see the unaltered image, scanned film, FUJICOLOR PRO 160S which is designed for warm, natural skin tones and a softer contrast. Not typically well suited to nature shots with lots of green.


example2-07-24-07

With a quick auto contrast adjustment (Shift+Alt+Command+L) you can already see a great deal of improvement in the definition of the stem against the background and greater detail in the petals of the tulip. The background foliage also pops with life without detracting from the composition in the foreground.


example3-07-24-07

For this final frame I simply applied an auto level adjustment (Shift+Command+L) which increases the contrast for greater definition but also cools off the hues considerably to give a more natural look to the vegetation,closer to the tone you would expect on the overcast day this was shot on. More impotantly, the whites are white, the pinks are pink, and the greens are green!

All in a matter of seconds I was able to fine tune the colors and tones without once opening the color balance pane.



* { In actual fact to make life easier we look for middle grey, otherwise known as 18% grey, but you get the idea. }]]>