Richard Curtis's Blog

Today’s post is all about revealing the texture of the image using a very different sharpening technique. It doesn’t actually use any traditional sharpening inside Photoshop, but uses blending modes instead.

Open the image inside Photoshop and make your adjustments (in the example supplied I have used a Gradient Map adjustment layer and applied a Selenium Tone 2 (available in the Photographic toning gradient maps, for a tutorial see this past post). When it comes to final sharpening, either make a final flattened image or a layer that contains all of the adjustments layers. To make the layer that contains all other layers, there is one keyboard shortcut that will really test the finger flexibility, press SHIFT+ALT+CMD+E (replace CMD with CTRL on a PC) (or Merge Visible upwards (including the ALT key will place the new layer above the others), this new layer is called “Consolidated Layer (Shift+CMD+ALT+E” in the example file (on Creative Cloud)).

Then duplicate this layer using CMD+J (MAC) or CTRL+J (PC), the example layer is called “Dup -Consolidated Layer (Shift+CMD+ALT+E copy)”.

Select both of these layers and place them into a group. Click on the fly out menu in the layers palette and choose new group from layers.

When you are making the new group, you can either set the blending mode here to be “Overlay”, or change it once the group has been created (directly on the layer in the layers palette)

Now change the upper most layer within the group to have a blending mode of “Vivid light”, then invert the layer using CMD+I  (MAC) or CTRL+I (PC). Before the Invert is applied to the image it will look very contrasty, after the invert it will look the same as when we started. If it does not go back to this look, then something went wrong.

Now we have inverted the “Vivid light” blending mode layer, we can then extract the details with a “Surface Blur” filter. This may sound strange, but remember we have inverted the “Vivid light” layer, so a Blur filter will sharpen.

To achieve the exact look that suits your image, you may need to adjust the sliders, making sure you are working at 100% zoom (to see the sharpening effect). I have used 15/15, and it works really well and will bring out some crazy details. But by experimenting i find that I actually prefer 5/15 (as shown above), it is not a crazy, but brings out some lovely texture in the image.

If you want to dial down the effect then you can reduce the opacity of the sharpen group, or you can place a mask on the sharpen group and paint in/out the effect.

History.

This shot was taken inside the Chernobyl 10km zone with the Leica Monochrom with a Leica APO-Summicron-M 90mm F2 ASPH lens. This lens has the ability to resolve amazing sharpness, and this technique really brings out the texture in the tones. The final image is available to view here, don’t forget you are able to turn on and off the layers to see the changes that the sharpening has.

Lightroom 5 Beta has been released to the public today, and it’s pretty amazing. I have recorded a deep dive session covering all the new features and why i think they are great, as well as some of the JDI’s that will certainly help the photographer in the task of image processing. You are able to download this exciting release from here. It is a free trial and you don’t need an existing version of Lightroom to try this beta version.

Most of us have been using levels in Photoshop to tighten up our shadow and highlight end points in our images. As an alternative to this we have the opportunity to explore the colour balance inside photoshop to achieve something similar but with another twist.

In this example we are using Levels to bring the tighten up the highlight and shadow end points. The Levels adjustment layer is available in the pull down menu, Layer / New Adjustment Layer / Color Balance, it is also available on the bottom row of the layers palette, 4 icons from the left (looks like a half black, half white circle).

Before applying levels

After applying levels

notice how the pointers at either end of the histogram have been moved slightly towards each other, this adds more impact to the image.

To make your photographs look more natural you may need to work the colour balance inside Photoshop. This technique is going to work using the colour balance adjustment layer. This example will show the values that i have been using, however, the idea is to show you the process and you can then experiment to find something that suits your style of image making.

To create a cleaner and more impactful look i will add some blue into the shadows (+8) and some yellow in the highlights (-8), using the colour balance adjustment layer (i have used two layers to show it in this example, but you can just use a single layer).

Before applying adjustments

After applying the Colour Balance adjustments

To see the final image and turn on and off the layer groups, please click this link.

It is worth trying different combinations in all areas of the image, including specifically highlights and shadows. The values that i use are dependent on my camera, lens and style. I would urge you to try different settings and choose your look and feel.

Yesterday was fun, had David Oduro from Wacom UK and Tigz Rice in the studio making another how to video. Can’t say what the video is about yet, but it’s going to be great and will be available (once i’ve cut it in Premiere Pro) shortly. All i can say is, get ready for a Wacom and Adobe product shower, connected workflows and some great tips from Tigz.

While waiting for this video, why not review our others on the Adobe YouTube channel or the other videos that we have made locally.

Are you using Photoshop Elements 11 or Premiere Elements 11? If so, then don’t forget to run the software update inside the application (for both Windows or the Mac) to get the newest version of Camera Raw 7.4. This is a free update and will add more RAW supported cameras and other things. You are able to read more about this update here.

If no update is waiting for you in the updates section, then you can download the Camera Raw 7.4 manual updater from here and run the AdobePatchInstaller file.

This weeks post is more fundamental than post processing and is linked to the  new highlight recovery algorithm that was released in Lightroom 4. This version of Lightroom is able to extract more information from the highlights of an image than was ever possible in previous version of Lightroom. This post is a summary of the extended document written by Bruce Faser (Document is available here and is referred to from the Camera Raw In Depth article here).

When you are creating the image inside the camera, the best thing you can do is to make sure that you expose the image based on the histogram data. The job of the histogram is to show the Highlights, Mid-tones and Shadow areas of the image. The image below clearly shows a correctly exposed histogram and and all tones are nicely distributed across the whole range.

If we analyse the information that is shown here, we can see that the highlights of the image are to the right hand side  mid-tones in the middle and shadow information to the left.

If an image is under exposed then the histogram will look something like this

If an image is over exposed then it will look like the following

Both of above examples are considered to be not correctly exposed (unless of course you are using this for a creative purpose).

The objective here is to make the image with a fully distributed histogram. To make sure that we do this, we want to capture the maximum number of pixels for the range of the image, In fact,  we are trying to ensure that we include as many highlights as posible, otherwise known as “Exposing to the right”.

The reason why we shoot for the highlights in digital photography is that we want to record the most pixels possible for every frame taken. Taking the example in the document referenced above, if there are 4096 levels of image data in a 12 bit image, then half the levels are in the upper mid tones (i.e. 2048), in the lower mid tones there are half as many (i.e. 1024), in the shadow there are half of this again (i.e. 512) and in the extreme shadows there are half again (i.e. 64). Images that are biased for the shadows are represented in many different ways.

• 1. Shadow areas are murky and have no detail and may contain a lot of noise (sensor dependent)
• 2. File sizes are different for each image, as not all data is used.
• 3. Images are dark out of the camera and look noisy when the exposure is increased.

The best thing to do is when in the camera make sure you are shooting RAW (later inside Lightroom 4 or Camera RAW we can make sure that the image data is fully maximised). Also, i would recommend that you turn on Shadow and Highlight Clipping in the camera settings (most cameras have this and if you are not sure where to find it, please consult the manual). Once this feature has been turned on, any shadow clipping/highlight clipping will most likely appear as flashing images/part of an image on the back of the camera’s LCD screen.

To make sure that we always capture the most amount of data possible, you need to make sure that all highlights are captured but not blown out (you have a little flexibility with Lightroom 4 here by using the new algorithms).  It is most likely that you will need to either to a Manual mode in the camera when shooting your images and this can take practice to get right. Or you may need to alter the amount of additional exposure that camera applies to it’s metering (typically you will use this when in camera modes (A and P)). This information will be covered in your cameras manual.

When you are taking the picture, check the histogram and alter the exposure so that the recorded highlights are just below the clipping point (you will see flashing in the LCD if they are clipping), so just dial down the exposure a little and re-shoot). Lightroom 4 with it’s new Highlight recovery is able to pull back highlight information even when a little over exposed. The best way to test this is to take a few shots and try the new sliders in Lightroom 4 to see how much you can push the camera.

Shooting this way has a few pro’s and con’s

Cons

• It can be a little frustrating, but my opinion is that you will get more detailed shots and have more information to work with in Lightroom 4. 
• You may miss the shot! this is a big one, but remember there are many other shots to focus on.

Pros

• It will slow your picture taking down and allow you to focus on the craft of photography.
• You will get more pixels for your shot and ultimately cleaner images.
• Final images will have more punch and feel brighter.
• Your image making will improve as you start to think about exposure.

I hope this helps your image making process.

Closing thoughts

We all check our images on the back of the camera to check that we “got the shot”, i feel that can lead to removing images prematurely and judging quality and composure and removing based on the time screen. Once thing that i have started to do is to shoot the JPG’s in Black and White. So when the image is viewed on the LCD you will see a Black and White image and not a colour one. This for me, allows me to think about the image as an object as opposed to the actual colour image that i just shot, it disconnects me and allows me to think about composition and form of the image as opposed to the picture. To try this technique there will be a setting in your camera that will allow your camera to take RAW and JPG, then preview in Black and White. Why not try for a few frames to see what you think.

Remember that when you shoot in Black and White, the actual RAW file will contain all of the colour, however the JPGs will be in Black and White and not convertable back to colour.

As part of the Adobe Creative Cloud you will get full access to the Behance Platform ProSite. The ProSite solution will enable you to create your online portfolio, web site etc. There is more information about ProSite here. Also the Behance guys have put together a beginners guide, available below.

To get some inspiration and see what others have done with ProSite, head over to the main site here.

If you have an Adobe Creative Cloud account you can now fully leverage and use the Behance network to promote, connect and discover creative work. As of this morning you are now able to link your Creative Cloud Adobe ID to your existing Behance /or create a brand new account.

When you log in or create your Behance account (make sure you use your Adobe ID), the platform will ask if you want to connect to your Adobe ID.

By enabling this feature in the Behance platform, you will then be able to access sharing from within the Creative Cloud.

Once you publish to the Behance platform you will be asked to complete more metadata data for the image, this will enable other creatives to find your work, so it’s well worth spending the time to ensure you have enough tags associated with your images.

You can mange the privacy who will see your work

You are then able to create a thumbnail image for your piece of work.

Then of course you may want to promote your work across other social platforms that you have enabled within your Behance account.

As soon as the process is complete, you are able to see your work on the Behance platform under the My Work tab / Work in Progress.

If you need to refine your work presence, you are able to edit the details under the Work in Progress tab.

The editing experience is the same as the original share from the Adobe Creative Cloud.

You may also want to show the progress of your work by adding a new revision to your work.

Clicking on the + sign at the bottom of this panel allows you to add a new revision for your peers/fellow community members to review.

The call to action here is two fold :-

• If you are an Adobe Creative Cloud user then all of this is available to you as part of the platform that you already have subscribed to.
• You are also eligible to the Pro Site. The Pro Site will allow you to create your front facing portfolio.

If you head over to the Adobe Creative Cloud Apps tab, you will see some the new features

Here you are presented with the Behance Service and the Pro Site. there are also two touch apps available for the iPhone (Behance for iPhone and Creative Portfolio for iPhone).

Don’t forget you can try this for your self by signing up for the free 30 day Adobe Creative Cloud trial.

Where did this week go! I can’t believe it’s Creative Friday already….

Today’s post is around an eSeminar that i ran this week. The objective of this demonstration is to show you how to use the Adobe Photoshop touch apps (available on iOS as well as Android devices (both tablet and Phone)) to sketch up an idea.  Once the sketch is complete and has been saved in Photoshop Touch, we will use the Adobe Creative Cloud to synchronise to the desktop, ready for processing in Photoshop CS6. Once inside Photoshop CS6 we journey through the new 3D tooling and explain how to make your sketch come alive. I hope you enjoy this eSeminar, and if there is anything that you want to see more of then please let me know!

As you know Adobe UK are in full swing with it’s highly popular eSeminar series. If you would like to review the previous sessions or sign up for upcoming ones, then please head over to the web site for either on-demand playback or registration for future ones. I would like to point out that there maybe a couple of sessions that are relevant to Digital Image makers as well as Photographers but on first sight may have been overlooked.

I would like to draw your attention to two that have been created by my colleague Rupert Knowles. Rupert is Adobe UK’s solution consultant for the Digital Publishing Suite (DPS). The DPS platform is available to everybody with a Creative Cloud account, and each and everyone of you is able to create as many Single Edition Applications for use across multiple digital devices as you like (including iPad’s and iPhone’s as well as Android devices). In fact the only extra thing you need is an Apple Developer Account. Rupert has kindly created a session that introduces you to DPS and is worthwhile viewing, you can view the content here. Or more specifically for Photographers wanting to represent themselves on digital platforms (portfolios, body of work, image gallery etc) there is a session on making a digital photo book, available here.

We hope that these sessions give you an insight into what can be achieved as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud service. If you don’t have an account, then you are able to get a free 30 day trial here.