Julieanne Kost's Blog

If you’ve ever created a special style or “look” to apply to your images using multiple layer adjustment and blending options, then the ability to create and export Color Lookup Tables (LUTs) in Photoshop CC could potentially save you a significant amount of time. Although historically Color LUTs have been used primarily by the film industry, I believe that many photographers and designers will find the ability to remap any color in an image to any other color quite powerful.

These “looks” can be used to simply color correct an image, or they can be used to take an image to the extreme! Certainly we can use presets in Lightroom and/or Camera Raw to make creative color manipulations, but in Photoshop, we can use Color Lookup Tables to incorporate not only the entire range of Adjustment and Fill Layers (such as Curves, Selective Color, Channel Mixer, Gradient Fill, even other Color LUTs!) but even more features including blend modes, opacity, and the advanced blending sliders.

For example, the image below has three different “looks” applied using a variety of layer adjustments and blending options. (Click on the image to view it larger.)

Now, instead of having to apply each series of adjustments to another image,  these adjustments can be exported as a single Color LUT (File > Export > Color Lookup Tables). Note: I chose to save my LUTs as ICC Profiles because it isn’t dependent on a color space, but you can also export a 3D LUT file or a Device Link. Click here for more information on the types of LUTs.

To load and apply a Color Lookup Adjustment Layer to another document, choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Lookup and, in the Properties panel, load the custom LUT. And don’t forget, the Color Lookup Adjustment layer can then be selectively hidden/revealed using the Adjustment Layer mask as well as blended using blend modes and opacity for additional creative opportunities.

For those of you who might be asking “Why not just drag and drop the adjustment layers onto another file?” Well, color LUTs created in Photoshop can be used in Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, SpeedGrade and other applications that use 3D LUTs to help get the same look and feel across images and other media (like video), even though these applications don’t share the same math and color correction techniques. The Color Lookup Table can also include the results of dozens of adjustments, and apply those to images in different colorspaces (which doesn’t always work when dragging adjustment layers between documents).

Note: there is one caveat, you can not use layer masks to selectively hide or reveal any of the adjustments while making the color lookup table – they need to be applied to the entire image (canvas) area.

Click here for more information (as well as a downloadable file to quickly see your own image with each default LUT applied).

Chris Cox has also posted two additional color profiles for you to download and try.

Clicking on the adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layer’s panel quickly adds an adjustment layer while bypassing the New Adjustment Layer dialog box.  However, when adding Gradient and Solid Color Fill layers, I often want the option to change the blend mode of the layer (before choosing the colors). Fortunately, Option + (Mac) | Alt  + (Win) clicking the icon will display the Adjustment Layer’s dialog box where I can quickly make the changes I need.

Click here (2014 Favorite Layer Shortcuts) to download a compilation of some of the Layer shortcuts that I am going to share today in my compositing course at ADIM. Of course this isn’t a complete list, so feel free to search the blog for more in-depth tutorials, training, techniques and shortcuts for working with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.

I’m really excited to announce that my new class: The Art of Photoshop Compositing is now live  on www.lynda.com! 

“Join Julieanne Kost as she walks you through her creative thought process and explains how she transforms concepts and raw images into entirely new works of art using Adobe Photoshop. Discover how to select the images you need to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Master the tools used in compositing, including adjustment layers, masking, blending, and Smart Objects, so that the technology doesn’t get in the way of expressing your creative vision. Learn how to adjust scale and perspective and manipulate texture and focus to help viewers temporarily suspend their disbelief long enough to enter your world.”

Topics include:

If you select an area in your image (a person’s face for example), and then add an adjustment layer (such as Curves), clicking the Auto button, will make the adjustment based on the selected area. Then, you can always disable or delete the mask to apply the effect over the entire image. This produces a different result (based on the area selected) than if the Curve adjustment layer was added to the image without a selection and the Auto button clicked.

In this Quick Tip (Color Lookup Adjustment Layer in Photoshop CS6), Julieanne demonstrates the new Color Lookup Adjustment layer and walks you through how to download a template to quickly apply these new “looks” to your images.

You can find more detailed instructions for downloading the template file here.

The Gradient Map Adjustment layer has over 35 new presets to emulate traditional darkroom techniques for toning and split-toning photographs. In this video (Photographic Toning Presets in Photoshop CS6 ) you will learn how to load and apply gradient maps to a single image as well as how to download and use Julieanne’s template to quickly see what each preset would look like on your own photograph through the magic of Smart Objects.

The Gradient Map Adjustment layer has new presets for toning and split­‐toning photographs,  however they are not loaded by default. To load this set, add a Gradient Map Adjustment layer and, on the Properties panel, click on the downward facing triangle to the right of the gradient. Click the gear icon and choose Photographic Toning from the list. To add these gradients to the default gradient set, choose Append. To replace the default set, choose OK. Note: you can always reset the Default gradients by clicking the gear icon and selecting Reset Gradients.

Click here to download the ColorToninGMAL.psd template to quickly preview your image with each of the Color Toning presets applied. To replace the lighthouse image with your own photograph, double click on the layer thumbnail for the Lighthouse layer so that it displays in it’s own window (Layer 1.psb). Then, copy and paste your own photograph into that document. You will most likely need to resize your image by choosing Edit > Transform >  Scale so that it fits (centered) within the canvas area. Then, hide the lighthouse layer (Layer 1) or delete it. Save and Close the Layer 1.psb file. and the multiple instances of the original “lighthouse” smart object will be automatically updated.

After selecting the gradient that you prefer for your image, you will want to apply that gradient map to your original. You can do this in a variety of ways including:

• Opening your original, adding a new Gradient Map adjustment layer selecting the gradient that you prefer.

• Selecting the adjustment layer in the template and dragging and dropping that layer to your original file.

Note: the last 3 gradients, I added just for fun. Click here to download these gradients. Double click on the jkost_3ToningGradients.grd.zip file to unzip it and then double click again on the jkost_3ToningGradients.grd to install them.

The new Color Lookup Adjustment Layer in Photoshop CS 6 has several options (3DLUT File, Abstract, and Device Link) that are used to load different “looks”. These looks are achieved by remapping every color in the image to a different one using a lookup table (LUT). I think that many photographers and designers will find their resulting color shifts quite interesting.

Note: historically, LUTs have been used primarily by the film industry as they’re an excellent way to apply  color adjustments from one application in another application that may not share the same math. For instance, a film workflow may involve 6 different compositing and rendering applications — some with good color adjustments and some without. If they create one 3DLUT that contains all of their adjustments, then they can use that LUT in all the applications to get their desired look. In the film and video industry, they may have LUTs for source normalization, scene color correction, creative color appearance and output simulation.

Here are some examples of the LUTs that Chris Cox included in Photoshop CS6. You can think of these tables as a sort of meta-adjustment, a way to apply pre-packaged adjustments (sometimes lots of adjustments together) in one step.

Of course Chris provided more “looks” than appear in the illustration above, so I created a downoadable file (LUTimage_replace.psd) that you can use to quickly see your own image with each look applied:LUTimage_replace.psd

To replace the Venice image with your own:

• Open YOUR image and crop it to 1500 x 1000 pixels at 150 ppi (it can be either horizontal or vertical).

• Choose File > Save As to save your cropped version of the file with a new name (please don’t save over your original).

• Open the “LUTimage_replace.psd” file and in the Layers panel, select the “JKOST_original” layer.

• Choose Layer > Smart Objects > Replace Contents, navigate to your cropped image, and choose Place.

• Voila! All copies of the original image are updated and are displayed with the appropriate LUT (through the magic of Smart Objects).

Note: The Mac operating system includes 6 Abstract profiles  (Black & White, Blue Tone, Gray Tone, Lightness Decrease, Lightness Increase, and Sepia).  The last row of images in the “LUTimage_replace.psd” image (Abstract Mac) show these  profiles. Windows users will be able to see the LUT in this file, and the profiles will display in the Abstract list for this file, but the 6 profiles will not be available in the Abstract list to apply to other images.

If you have your own LUTs, you can copy them here to have them appear in Photoshop’s Color Lookup adjustment layer’s options:

• Abstract and Device Link profiles are stored in Library > Application Support > Adobe > Color Profiles.

• The 3DLUTs are stored in Applications > Photoshop CS6 > Presets > 3DLUTs.

Because this feature was designed for the film and video industry that have their own LUT files, there currently is no way to create LUT files in Photoshop. You can currently, create LUTs in products such as Adobe SpeedGrade CS6. If you would be interested in such a feature within Photoshop, then we could consider it in a future release. I would suggest posting your comments/requests to one of these locations:

http://forums.adobe.com/community/lightroom

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family

Sometimes it’s easier to make a selection of an object if the contrast between the subject and the background is greater. In order to temporarily add more contrast, try adding an adjustment layer (such as Curves or Levels), and boost the contrast significantly. Then, then make the selection and, when finished, discard the adjustment layer.

In a recent presentation I was asked to share some “lesser” known features from Photoshop CS5. I have noted all of the following in my blog at some point, but here are a dozen of my favorites all together:

1) Changing Brush Size – With a painting tool selected, Control + Option (Mac) – drag left/right in order to decrease/ increase brush size. To decrease/ increase brush hardness, drag up/down. On Windows, Shift + Alt -drag left right to decrease/ increase brush size and up/down decrease/ increase brush hardness.

2) On Screen Color Picker – To access the new HUD color Picker, with a painting tool selected, Control + Option + Command (Mac) -click and drag to select a color. On Windows, Shift + Alt + right-click and drag to select a color. Or, if that shortcut is too much to remember, to display the color picker using a keyboard shortcut, choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. Under the Shortcuts for “Tools” scroll to the bottom to locate the “Foreground Color Picker ” line item and enter in your own custom keyboard shortcut.

3) The Eyedropper Tool – Clicking in the image area with the Eyedropper tool now displays a sample ring. The “new” color (the one being sampled) is displayed in the upper half of the ring while the current (or foreground color before sampling) is displayed in the bottom half. The ring is surrounded by grey to help neutralize surrounding colors that may influence color choices. The sample ring can be toggled off/on by unchecking/checking Show Sample Ring in the Options bar. Or, if you’re an avid user of Tool presets, make one with the ring turned on, the other with it off. In addition Control (Mac) / Right Mouse (Win) -click to select the Sample Size or Copy the Color as Hex Code or HTML

4) Scrubby Zoom – With the Zoom tool selected, click-drag to the right to zoom in, click-drag to the left to Zoom out. This new feature adds the benefit of being able to quickly zoom in AND zoom out to a specific location, however, if you prefer the legacy behavior (click-drag over the area to zoom into), disable Scrubby Zoom in the Options Bar. In addition, when viewing multiple images simultaneously, Shift -drag with the Hand tool to pan all open documents. Similarly, shift -clicking with the Zoom tool will zoom all images simultaneously. To set this as the default behavior, with the Zoom or Hand tool selected, check the “Zoom all Windows” and/or “Pan all Windows” in the Option bar.

5) Saving 16 Bit Images as JPEG – If you’re working with 16 bit files and want to save them as a JPEG, you can now select the JPEG file format from the list in the Save As dialog box. However, you need to know that saving as a JPEG will convert the file from 16 bit down to 8 bit (as the JPEG file format does not support 16 bit). Note: it is also important to note if you’re saving a layered file as a JPEG, Photoshop will flatten the file as the JPEG file format does not support layers.

6) Saving Files to Their Original Folders  – By default, when saving files, Photoshop will automatically navigate to the folder where the last file was saved. To save files to their original folder, select Preferences > File Handling > and check on the “Save As to Original Folder” option.

7) Auto-Select Parameter for Adjustment Layers  – In order to automatically put the keyboard focus onto the first field in the Adjustment panel, use the fly out menu in the Adjustments panel, and select Auto-Select Parameter (this behavior was added as it is similar to the legacy way of working with image adjustment dialog boxes – as oppose to the adjustment panel). Return (Mac) / Enter (Win) + Shift is another way to put the keyboard focus onto the first field in the Adjustment panel. You can also use a keyboard shortcut to select the Targeted Adjustment Tool while using a Hue/Saturation, Curves, or Black & White adjustment layer, choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. Under the Shortcuts for “Tools” scroll the towards the bottom of the list to locate the “Targeted Adjustment Tool” line item and enter in your own custom keyboard shortcut.

8)The Crop Tool Overlay – With the Crop tool selected, drag out the crop marquee and then, in the Options bar, choose Between Rule of Thirds, Grid or None for the Crop Guide Overlay. Note, you must first drag out the crop in the image area for this setting to appear in the Options bar.

9) Control Change the Opacity/Fill of Multiple Layers  – Simply select multiple layers in the Layers panel and use the Opacity and/or Fill slider to change the Opacity/Fill of all selected layers at once.

10) Layer Styles – In order to customize the default Layer Style settings, select Layer > Layer Style (or click the fx icon at the bottom of the Layers panel). In the Layer Style dialog, make the desired changes, and click the Make Default button. If you make changes to the style and want to reset the changes to your custom default, click the Reset to Default button.

11) Panorama Stitching  – When using the Auto-Align Layers command Photoshop now leverages lens correction profiles (if applied).

12) Non-rotating Brushes with Rotate View – When using the Rotate View tool to rotate the canvas for easier drawing and painting, the brushes will no longer rotate with the canvas rotation; instead they remain at the orientation of the original artwork regardless of the viewing angle.

In this Episode of The Complete Picture (Posterizing Images with Control and Flexibility) I will demonstrate how to reduce the color palette of an image to create a posterized effect with the most control and maximum flexibility possible.

A great way to ensure that a change you make to an image is only affecting the tonal (not color) values is to set the blend mode to Luminosity. For example, if you have an area in an image that is too dark and you want to lighten it without changing the colors, add a Curves Adjustment Layer and set the blend mode to Luminosity. Then raise or lower the curve as necessary – without affecting the color values. This can be especially helpful when dodging or burning skin-tones. If you want to affect the colors and not the tonal values, simply change the blend mode to color.

Layer Groups have a unique blend mode called Pass Through which is only visible when a Layer Group is targeted in the Layers panel.   It allows any adjustment layers, blend modes, advanced blending options, opacity and fill values applied to layers within a Group, to affect layers below the Group in the layers panel.  To restrict the blending of layers to only happen within a Group, change the Layer Group’s blend mode to Normal.

In this example, I added a Black and White Adjustment Layer to make the two layers - the hat and coat and tie, in the Layer Group to display a black and white. However, because the Layer Group’s blend mode was set to it’s default “Pass Through” blend mode, the Black and White Adjustment layer passed through the bottom of the Layer Group and affected the Background layer as well. Changing the Layer Group’s blend mode to “Normal” restricted the Black and White Adjustment Layer to only affect those layers within the Layer Group - allowing the Background layer to appear in color.

The sixth group of Blend modes have no neutral colors. They work in a hue, saturation, luminance space that is similar to but different from both HSB and HSL. In particular, while hue is the same in all three spaces, all of the spaces define saturation and brightness/lightness/luminance somewhat differently. All of the combinations described below are subject to clipping to keep the values in the valid RGB range.

• Hue – Creates a result color with the luminance and saturation of the base color and the hue of the blend color.

• Saturation – Creates a result color with the luminance and hue of the base color and the saturation of the blend color. Painting with this mode in an area that has no (0) saturation (gray) causes no change.

• Color – Creates a result color with the luminance of the base color and the hue and saturation of the blend color. This preserves the gray levels in the image and is useful for coloring monochrome images and for tinting color images. Color yields a result with the same hue and saturation as the upper color and the luminance of the lower color.

• Luminosity – Creates a result color with the hue and saturation of the base color and the luminance of the blend color. This mode is the inverse of Color mode.

One of the common uses of the Color blend mode is for selective coloring effects using the painting tools, gradient fill layers and layer effects. For example, you can select the paint brush, set its blend mode to color and paint directly on an image (but this isn’t very flexible if you make a mistake). For more flexibility, you can choose to create a new layer and set it’s blend mode to Color and set the paint brush’s blend mode to Normal to paint any part of an image.

With the Color blend mode I find that I’m often having to guess how the color will appear (on top of the original image). Sometimes the resulting color is much lighter or darken than you may expect based on the content of the layers underneath. So, I find the following method a bit more predictable: Start by converting the image to B/W, then select the area that you want to add color to and then choose Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color. In the New Layer dialog box, set the Mode to Color and click OK. Then, you can interactively select the right color in the Color Picker - taking the guesswork out of the process. I also find that the Hue blend modes works better at times so be sure to give that a try.