Julyaugust 2016 Photoshop Magazine

T H E A D O B E® P H O T O S H O P

®

“ H O W - T 0 ” M A G A Z I N E › › j u ly / a u g u s t 2 0 1 6

actions in Photoshop will DYNAMIC Using give your retouching projects a RANGE huge productivity boost

With Typekit, you have access to thousands of fonts in Photoshop to satisfy all your creative needs

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF

taking stock

overcome creative challenges by skillfully using stock assets

Visit our website at kelbyone.com

BEGINNERS’ WORKSHOP

This is a life choice. You choose to live creatively. You decide that any minute could be the moment that you capture and turn into something greater. Then you keep your camera at the ready and your designs in your head. Because if you only get one shot at something, you’re going to take it for all it’s worth. Fuel your creativity.

Easy training from the best in Photoshop, Lightroom & Photography

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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July/August 2016

FEATURE

64 Taking Stock

Images: Adobe Stock; Layout: Jessica Maldonado

Now that you can access Adobe Stock images directly in Adobe Creative Cloud apps, it’s easier than ever to create amazing images and designs. Jesús Ramirez, of the very popular Photoshop Training Channel on YouTube, shows how both photographers and designers can be more creative and get more out of every stock image they use. Not only that, he gives us ways to create better images that we can sell ourselves on Adobe Stock. Jesús Ramirez

Departments

From the Editor



Contributing Writers

About Photoshop User Magazine



KelbyOne Community



Exposed: Industry News



Photoshop User Quiz



From the Advice Desk

How-To

006 009 010 012 016 109 112

020 DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS 028 DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS 034 BEGINNERS’ WORKSHOP 050 PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND 054 PHOTOSHOP TIPS 056 DESIGN MAKEOVER 060 INDESIGN TIPS 074 PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Logo Effect

Create a Dragon-Fisted Fighter

How Typekit Works

Advanced Masking Workflow

Boost Your Productivity and Creativity

Website Management

Advance and Enhance Your InDesign Skills

The Long and Short of Focal Length

DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT Whenever you see this symbol at the end of an article, it means there are either downloadable practice files or additional content for KelbyOne members at http://kelbyone.com/magazine.

All lighting diagrams courtesy of Sylights

Click this symbol below to access the Table of Contents.

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KELBYONE.COM

Lightroom Magazine

0 81 LIGHTROOM WORKSHOP 088 UNDER THE LOUPE 092 MAXIMUM WORKFLOW 1 00 LIGHTROOM Q&A 102 LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS

Adding Contrast (& How to Use the Tone Curve)

Save Time with Auto Import

DYNAMIC RANGE

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Using Actions while Retouching Portraits Retouching images can take up a lot of your time in Photoshop. Kristina Sherk is a big believer in using actions to significantly reduce the amount of time she spends in Photoshop. She shows us how to create an action that she uses to help retouch eyes faster than you can read this.

Kristina Sherk

Kristina Sherk

Reviews

104 105 106 107 108

Platypod Pro Max Broncolor Siros 800 L and 400 L Monolights Chroma Mask

Sekonic LITEMASTER PRO L-478DR-U-EL Lexar Professional microSDHC/microSDXC Cards MOTA Wireless Charger for GoPro Fundy Designer v7

Photoshop Book Reviews

Scott Kelby

Perfectly Clear Complete

A FEW WORDS FROM

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SCOTT KELBY

From the Editor

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getting on track

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At the end of this week, we’re all heading out to Las Vegas for the Photoshop World 2016 Conference. This is such an exciting time for our entire staff because we don’t use a management company to run the event. We bring nearly our entire KelbyOne staff to work the show and meet the people we do it all for. It’s such an energizing, fun, thrilling week from start to finish, so I hope I get a chance to shake your hand in person and thank you for coming to spend a few days with us. Last issue I mentioned that we were getting ready to release a new feature on the KelbyOne members’ site designed to help you start learning a particular topic. Well, I’m happy to announce that our Learning Tracks are up and running, and they’re already a huge hit with our members. There are 40 different tracks you can choose from, including landscape, wedding, drone, and travel photography; Photoshop and Lightroom beginner’s and advanced techniques; how to use your camera; lighting; hot-shoe flash; copyright and model releases—and the list goes on and on. Each Learning Track leads you, in order, through a solid, handpicked curriculum so you can get really proficient on your chosen topic really fast. You can then branch out into all the other courses (we now have more than 600 full-length courses) and really take things up a big notch. We’re very excited about bringing you these new Learning Tracks, and we hope you’ll give them a try. Another thing I’m excited about is the amount of Photoshop and Lightroom training we’ve been releasing these past few months. This was spurred by reaching out to you, our members, in an email poll and asking you exactly what you wanted to learn next. Then in a separate poll, we asked you to break down exactly which type of classes you wanted. I said that whatever you chose as your #1 most-requested topic, we’d create that class next, and that’s exactly what we did. That class has already been released, and it’s my Adobe Photoshop CC In-Depth: Compositing and Masking Hair Made Easy class. The numbers were so strong on that topic that we wanted to create another class, as well, so we had Corey Barker record a class on Advanced Compositing Techniques, which will be released shortly. We’re also staying right on top of all the latest Photoshop techniques and developments. On the day Photoshop CC 2015.5 was released, we not only had video tutorials ready, but we also did another KelbyOne members-only Webcast with a live Q&A about all the new features. We followed that up with a new class from me on how to make the most of the new CC 2015.5 features, and that’s already online and ready for you to dig right in. By next issue, we’ll have a bunch of new stuff designed to make your KelbyOne membership more valuable than ever, and of course by then we’ll have lots of new classes, new features, more discounts, and more of the stuff you told us you want next, and we’re having a ball delivering it. Here in the mag, the cover story is by Jesús Ramirez and it’s on Adobe Stock, which is now actually integrated right into Photoshop. Jesús shows how easy it is to access Adobe Stock; how you can use comp images in your designs; and then how after you find the right images and license them, Photoshop will replace the comp images in your documents with the licensed images (how cool is that!). He also discuses how both designers and photographers can find and use the best stock images, as well as creating better photos and vector graphics that you can sell yourself on Adobe Stock. In the “Beginners’ Workshop,” Lesa Snider shows us everything we need to know about using Typekit. In “Dynamic Range,” Kristina Sherk teaches us how to create an action that will help us retouch eyes in a matter of seconds no matter what color the eyes are. In “Photoshop Proving Ground,” Scott Valentine demonstrates how putting a mask on its own layer allows you to use every single Photoshop tool at your disposal to create better masks. Also in this issue, we’re including a special video from me (that debuts first here in the mag) on how to get rid of those nasty glows and halos that sometimes appear in HDR images. I show the exact technique I use to keep them tamed (it’s on page 12). Well, I’ve gotta run—we have lots to do this week before we leave for Photoshop World. Hope I see you there! All my best,

Scott Kelby KelbyOne President & CEO Editor & Publisher, Photoshop User

Focal length: 85mm Exposure: F/2.2 1/60sec

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The official publication of KelbyOne JULY/AUGUST 2016 • Volume 19 • Number 6

EDITORIAL:

Scott Kelby, Editor-in-Chief Chris Main, Managing Editor Kim Doty, Associate Editor

Contributing Writers

Kevin Ames • Steve Baczewski • Corey Barker • Peter Bauer Larry Becker • Dave Clayton • Michael Corsentino • Seán Duggan Sean McCormack • Kirk Nelson • Jesús Ramirez • Kristina Sherk Colin Smith • Lesa Snider • Rob Sylvan • Scott Valentine Erik Vlietinck • Jake Widman

GRAPHICS:

Jessica Maldonado, Art Director Margie Rosenstein, Senior Graphic Designer Angela Naymick, Graphic Designer

MARKETING:

Kleber Stephenson • Lindell Stover

WEB:

Adam Frick • Brandon Nourse • Yojance Rabelo • Aaron Westgate

PUBLISHING:

Scott Kelby, Publisher Kalebra Kelby, Executive V.P. Jean A. Kendra, Business Manager

ADVERTISING:

Jeanne Jilleba, Advertising Coordinator 800-738-8513 ext. 152

HOW TO CONTACT KELBYONE:

U.S. Mail: 118 Douglas Road East • Oldsmar, FL 34677-2922 Voice: 813-433-5000 • Fax: 813-433-5015 Customer Service: [email protected] Letters to the Editor: [email protected] Letters to the Lightroom Editor: [email protected] Advice Desk: http://kelbyone.com/my-account/helpdesk

COLOPHON:

Photoshop User was produced using Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 and Adobe InDesign CC 2015. Roboto was used for headlines and subheads. Frutiger LT Std for text.

This seal indicates that all content provided herein is produced by KelbyOne, LLC and follows the most stringent standards for educational resources. KelbyOne is the premier source for instructional books, DVDs, online classes, and live seminars for creative professionals.

| fuel for creativity

All contents ©COPYRIGHT 2016 KelbyOne, LLC. 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 2470-7031 (online)

PHOTOSHOP’S MOST WANTED

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Contributing Writers 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

COREY BARKER is an award-winning designer and illustrator. A featured instructor at the Photoshop World Conference and an Adobe MAX Master Instructor, he has produced numerous training titles for KelbyOne. Look for his new book Photoshop Tricks for Designers.

PETER BAUER is an Adobe Certified Expert that does computer graphics consulting for a select group of corporate clients. His latest book is Photoshop CC for Dummies. He was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame in 2010.

LARRY BECKER is an author, trainer, speaker, and tech aficionado. He is the founder and lead trainer at LarryBecker.tv, where they teach small businesses and entrepreneurs how to create their own professional-looking videos in-house without hiring a video production team.

DAVE CLAYTON is a KelbyOne instructor, designer, and creative specialist with more than 30 years of experience. He specializes in creating branding projects and logos and has been published by Peachpit and KelbyOne. He’s also an Adobe Influencer and ACA in InDesign.

MICHAEL CORSENTINO is an award-winning wedding and portrait photographer, Photoshop and Lightroom expert, author, columnist for Shutter Magazine and Resource Magazine, and speaker and international workshop leader. Learn more at www.michaelcorsentino.com.

SEÁN DUGGAN is the co-author of Photoshop Masking & Compositing, Real World Digital Photography, and The Creative Digital Darkroom. He leads workshops on digital photography, Photoshop, and Lightroom. Learn more at SeanDuggan.com.

SEAN McCORMACK is the author of Essential Development: 20 Great Techniques for Lightroom 5. Based in Galway, Ireland, he shoots subjects from musicians, models, and actors to landscapes and architecture. Learn more at http://lightroom-blog.com.

KIRK NELSON is a professional graphics artist in the Washington, D.C., area. He has a B.A. from George Mason University and is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop. Kirk’s career has touched on a broad range of subjects in the design field from logo design to animation. He can be reached here.

JESÚS RAMIREZ is an Adobe Community Professional, speaker, and author for the Adobe Creative Cloud Blog. Jesús is best known as the founder of the Photoshop Training Channel, one of the most popular Photoshop YouTube channels in the world.

KRISTINA SHERK considers herself a software translator for those who don’t speak Photoshop and Lightroom. While majoring in digital art at Elon University, she received four years of uninterrupted Photoshop training and grew to love the software.

COLIN SMITH is an award-winning digital artist, photographer, and lecturer who has authored 18 books and has created a series of training videos. Colin is also the founder of the online resource PhotoshopCAFE.com and president of Software-Cinema.com.

LESA SNIDER is the author of Adobe Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC for Photographers: Classroom in a Book (2016), Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual, several eBooks, and more than 40 video courses. She also writes a weekly column for Macworld. For more info, visit PhotoLesa.com.

ROB SYLVAN is the Lightroom Advice Desk Specialist for KelbyOne, on staff at the Digital Photo Workshops, and the author of Lightroom 5: Streamlining Your Digital Photography Process. You can learn more at www.lightroomers.com.

SCOTT VALENTINE is an Adobe Community Professional and Photoshop author. His latest book is The Hidden Power of Adjustment Layers (Adobe Press). Keep up with him at scoxel.com.

ERIK VLIETINCK founded IT Enquirer in 1999 (http://it-enquirer.com). A J.D. by education, Erik has been a freelance technology editor for more than 20 years. He has written for Macworld, Computer Arts, Windows NT Magazine, and many others.

JAKE WIDMAN is a writer and editor who lives in San Francisco. He’s been covering the intersection of computers and graphic design for about 25 years now—since back when it was called “desktop publishing” and Photoshop was just a piece of scanning software.

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KEVIN AMES is a commercial photographer who writes and teaches too. Read about his take on photography at photofocus.com, and see his work and learn more about him on kevinamesphotography.com.

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ABOUT PHOTOSHOP USER

Images: Adobe Stock/Composite: Jesús Ramirez

Photoshop User Magazine Photoshop User magazine is the official publication of KelbyOne. As a KelbyOne member, you automatically receive Photoshop User ten times a year. Each issue features in-depth Photoshop, Lightroom, and photo­ graphy tutorials written by the most talented designers, photographers, and leading authors in the industry.

About KelbyOne KELBYONE

is the world’s leading resource for Adobe® Photoshop®, Lightroom®, and photography training, news, and education. Founded in 1998 as the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), KelbyOne has evolved from NAPP and KelbyTraining to create a singular hub for creative people to learn, grow, and inspire. From photographers to graphic designers, beginners to professionals, KelbyOne is open to everyone. There’s no faster, easier, and more affordable way to get really good at Photoshop and photography. You can join for only $19.99 per month or $199 U.S. for a full year of training. To learn more, visit www.kelbyone.com.

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MEMBER COMMUNITY

Member Benefits › › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › j u ly / a u g u st 2 0 1 6

PHOTOSHOP USER MAGAZINE

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Ten issues of the best Photoshop and Lightroom tutorial-based magazine in the industry.

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KelbyOne Community › ›

Inspiration, information, and member musings to fuel your creative think tank By Chris Main and Dave Clayton

Exclusive Video from Scott Kelby: Removing Halos from HDR Images Just before we published this issue, Scott Kelby recorded the video on the right showing a quick-and-easy way to remove unsightly halos from HDR images. Initially, you’ll only be able to view this video in the online version of Photoshop User magazine. Eventually this video will be online, but if you want to watch it before then, you have to be on this page that you’re reading right now. So click the play button to check it out, and keep an eye out for more exclusive videos in upcoming issues!

Adobe Photoshop 2015.5 Is Here and We Have You Covered As you probably already know, Adobe released a major update to the Creative Cloud on June 21, which included the Photoshop 2015.5 update. Within hours of that announcement, Scott Kelby presented a live Q&A members-only webcast to answer all of your questions about the new update. But that wasn’t enough. We also had Adobe’s own Terry White cohost an exclusive members-only webcast on July 6 to answer even more of your questions, and to take us even deeper into Photoshop 2015.5. If you missed those webcasts, don’t worry; we archive all of our members-only webcast on the KelbyOne site. Click here to find them. Scott also covered the new release on his blog, which included several videos showing all the major new features. Click the play button to the left to watch the video on his favorite new feature. But that still wasn’t enough! Scott also released a 55-minute course called Getting Up to Speed Fast with Photoshop CC 2015.5 on KelbyOne. It’s all part of our mission to bring you the latest and greatest training as quickly as possible.

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KelbyOne Class Tracks to Get You Up and Running Fast

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When you go to KelbyOne to watch a course or two, do you often struggle trying to decide which class to watch first? Well, we’re here to help. We’ve added a new feature to the site called “Tracks.” Just click on the Tracks link in the left-side navigation, and you’ll be presented with 40 different tracks from which you can choose. From wedding and fashion photography to retouching and compositing, it’s all there. These tracks will get you up and running fast in your field of interest, and when you’re done, you’ll be ready to explore our entire library of courses to take your skills and knowledge to places you never imagined. Or, you could just pick another track and expand your skill set. It’s completely up to you.

KelbyOne ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> DAVE LORD MEMBER SINCE 2014

KelbyOne ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> JAN NILSSON MEMBER SINCE 2008

KelbyOne ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> PETER TREADWAY > MEMBER SINCE 2014

KelbyOne ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> K AREN WORTLEY MEMBER SINCE 2015

KelbyOne ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> JOHN ASHTON MEMBER SINCE 2010

KelbyOne Community Amanda Glasspell is an award-winning portrait and lifestyle photographer and digital retoucher based in Manchester, England, offering both onsite and remote retouching. Amanda’s photography is her passion, and she takes great pride in capturing the “moment,” along with peoples’ emotions that will be treasured with a smile. Are you a photographer first or a designer? I’d say that I’m a photographer first then a retoucher/designer, mainly because I see things that most people don’t even notice. It could be due to my hearing loss that I use my eyes more. Then I became better at Photoshop. With this, I was able to create and turn my imagination into life, like the Viking composite I did of myself. I did some research on Viking history, what they wear and their environment. It took me three months to prepare this project with a fulltime job on the side. It’s amazing how imagination and Photoshop can bring it to life. I have to admit that I do look like a mean Scottish Viking warrior. How did your journey begin with KelbyOne? I have to go back to when I was watching Adobe Live on my laptop and Glyn Dewis came on. I was amazed by his way of teaching and how he makes it so simple in Photoshop. I decided to follow his work and attend his workshops. Then I met Dave Clayton, KelbyOne’s UK Evangelist. After chatting with Glyn and Dave, they both championed KelbyOne. I did some research and saw so many great artists and teachers all in one place. How fantastic is that? It’s like a book I’ve just opened with the light shining so bright in my eyes, wowing me with its information. I wanted to learn it all, and I still do. So here I am: a proud and happy member of KelbyOne. How do you think you’ve changed with KelbyOne? I became more confident in myself and in my work; however, I’m still learning. I usually watch KelbyOne videos during my lunch break to keep the creative juices going. My best experience was when Scott Kelby came to visit London for his Shoot Like a Pro tour. It was amazing to finally meet him after watching his training, reading his books, and seeing him on The Grid. You know, sometimes people may be really good at something and may not realize they could be great at something else unless they try. This is what KelbyOne does to help me expand my mind and learn as much as possible. Photography and design has changed so much over the past few years. What for you is the best thing about it? When my photography went quiet due to the recession, I took this opportunity to go back to college to learn graphic design, and this

is when retouching and design came to life. When things don’t go well, it doesn’t mean that I have to stop and wait for things to get better. Get out there, learn something, and network. I like the competition, as it’s inspired me to get better. What inspires you and what’s your ultimate aim in life? I have to say movie posters. Every time I look at one in the shop I tell myself, “One day my artwork will be there!” I could do the photography, retouching, and design the whole thing. Now I’m on my way to making it happen. We hear you’re coming to your first-ever Photoshop World. What made you want to come? Wow, this is going to be an amazing experience. Not only is it my first Photoshop World but also my first time visiting America. I don’t really know what to expect apart from what I’ve heard from the members and instructors that it’s going to be a mad, mad, mad week, and I’m going to come away with lots of useful tips. I attended the Photography Show in the UK and was disappointed that there weren’t enough Photoshop seminars, so I visited purely to network. I told myself that if I want to change something in my life I have to do something about it myself; sometimes you just have to make a leap of faith. I may be going alone but I know that I’ll make some friends at Photoshop World. It’s gonna be wicked! Which instructors are you most looking forward to seeing? Definitely Corey Barker, the wizard of Photoshop 3D; Dave Clayton for his down-to-earth InDesign teaching; and Glyn Dewis for his amazing keeping-it-simple-stupid (KISS) methods. It does work! Scott Kelby—needs no explaining really! Terry White, Frank Doorhof, Matt Kloskowski and many more to name a few. No doubt I’ll come away with many more!

What message would you give to anyone who hasn’t joined KelbyOne yet? Just join—don’t even think about it. Become a creative Jedi! Seriously though, you can learn so much, whether it’s photography, Photoshop, video, or design. Expand your skills. Who knows, you may discover a missing piece of the jigsaw that you’ve been looking for! Thanks, Amanda, for spending a few moments with us and inspiring us to become better and to try something new! To learn more about Amanda, visit her website at amandaglasspell.com, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. ■

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Who’s Who in the KelbyOne Community

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Exp sed: Industry News › ›

The latest news about photography gear, software, and services By Chris Main

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Adobe Releases Photoshop CC 2015.5

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On June 21, Adobe announced major updates to their Creative Cloud tools, including Photoshop and Adobe Stock. Starting with this update, Adobe has promised to increase the performance of Photoshop over the next few releases. In this 2015.5 release, for example, the font menu is up to 4x faster and Content-Aware Fill is up to 3x faster. It’s time to say farewell to the Refine Mask dialog, as Adobe has introduced a selection and masking space (Select>Select and Mask). The idea is to minimize clicks, mouse movements, and interface clutter. Most of the Refine Mask settings now appear in the Properties panel, and there’s a new View Mode option called “Onion Skin” with a Transparency slider to make it easier to see the edges and quality of the selection. You’ll also find a simplified Toolbox in this space that includes the Quick Selection tool, Lasso tool, Brush tool, and a new-and-improved Refine Edge Brush tool. The next major feature is that Content-Aware Fill has been added to the Crop tool. Now when you rotate or expand the canvas, Photoshop will fill in any missing gaps. Retouchers will rejoice with the new Face-Aware Liquify feature. Without making a selection, you can easily change the eyes, mouth, nose, and shape of a person’s face by simply moving sliders. You can change everything from the size to the height to the width of each of these features. Designers will be excited about the new Match Font (Type>Match Font) capability. Photoshop can use machine learning to analyze a picture that has some text in it to detect which font is used in the photo and then match it to similar fonts licensed on your computer or fonts on Typekit. Other font improvements include viewing fonts by family to reduce the length

of your font list and an on-canvas menu for selecting alternate glyphs. Creative Cloud Libraries have also been improved. Now when you share a Library, you can make it read-only so assets can’t be changed by others. Licensed Adobe Stock assets now have a badge for easy identification, and if you have a large monitor, Photoshop will present you with a larger Libraries panel for easier browsing. Colors can be saved into panels, plus styles can be dragged directly from the panel and applied to a document. Artboards have also been updated. You can now duplicate a layer or layer group and copy it into selected artboards, as well as easily change artboard backgrounds and view transparency within artboards. And finally, you can share patterns from the Capture CC app directly with Photoshop. As for Adobe Stock, new features include the ability to open images from the Adobe Stock website directly into Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. You can also license images from the Layers panel or via an on-canvas contextual menu. One thing you might want to know is that Photoshop 2015.5 is a full version update, so you’ll need to reinstall any plug-ins. For more info on that, plus to learn how to keep the previous version of Photoshop on your system if you so desire, click here. To learn about all the new features added to other Creative Cloud apps, click here.

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Adobe Updates Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw A couple of weeks before the Creative Cloud update (see opposite page), Adobe announced the availability of Lightroom CC 2015.6, Lightroom 6.6, and Adobe Camera Raw 9.6. These updates provide additional camera RAW support, lens support, and bug fixes. Creative Cloud members will also enjoy a new Guided Upright feature in Lightroom CC and ACR. Upright was introduced in an earlier version to help users straighten images, fix horizons, and reduce or eliminate key­stone effects in buildings. The new Guided Upright feature allows users to provide hints in images that don’t have prominent vertical and horizontal lines. You simply

Original

draw the vertical and horizontal lines on the image to help Upright perform its magic. New camera support includes the Canon Power-Shot G7 X Mark II, the Leica M-D (Type 262), the Nikon COOLPIX B700, and the Panasonic DMC-GX85 (DMC-GX80/DMC-GX7 Mark II). Additional updates include smart preview support for Merge to Panorama and HDR, and a Pending Sync Activity section in the Lightroom Mobile tab in the Preferences. This feature helps to identify any issues related to image sync across the Lightroom family of products. For more information and a list of the new lens profiles supported in Lightroom, click here.

Upright

Guided Upright

Western Digital Corporation has introduced My Passport Wireless Pro Wi-Fi mobile storage and My Cloud Pro Series network attached storage (NAS). The My Passport Wireless Pro Wi-Fi lets you leave the laptop behind when on a shoot. Using the direct Wi-Fi connection, you can automatically back up files from compatible cameras, as well as save, edit, and transfer work seamlessly from up to eight other devices connected to the drive. It also includes a built-in SD card reader and a USB 3 port for faster transfers. With capacities up to 3 TB, the My Passport Wireless Pro also features up to 10 hours of battery life and a built-in battery pack that can be used to charge phones and other

devices. It’s also compatible with Adobe’s Creative Cloud for mobile photo and video editing, as well as Plex Media Server, which is capable of playing up to four streams of content while on the go. When it’s time for editing or studio work, the My Cloud Pro Series NAS device offers up to 32 TB of storage, and is optimized to import from cameras/memory card readers and other USB storage with a simple onetouch backup button. This fast, high-capacity drive also features a hardware accelerated video processor, which means it can ingest, edit, store, and stream content to and from popular formats, including 4K video. My Passport Wireless Pro storage has an MSRP ranging from $229.99 up to $249.99, depending on capacity. My Cloud Pro Series NAS devices begin at $399.99 and go up to $1,649.99, depending on configuration and capacity. Click here for more info.

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New WD Pro Series Designed to Simplify the Creative Professionals Workflow

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Phottix Introduces the Spartan Beauty Dish Phottix has released a new on-location light modifier called the Spartan Beauty Dish. Using eight flexible rods, this collapsible beauty dish is easy to set up, and it’s made from high-grade materials with a white interior that produces soft, even light. Included in the kit are a metal beauty dish disk, baffle, front diffuser, and fabric grid. Simply replace the metal diffuser with the internal baffle to quickly convert it into a traditional octa softbox. Add the outer diffuser to soften the light even more and the grid to control the direction of the light, and you have a versatile tool for capturing beautiful images anywhere you go. The 20" version is $120, and the 28" version is $145. Click here for more information.

Impression 2 Turns Your Photos into Art Topaz recently announced Impression 2, their standalone and plug-in application for converting images into art. New features include spot, color, luminosity, and brush masks; a larger Brush Browser that displays three rows instead of two; larger stroke previews; control over how many brush strokes it uses; and you can watch Impression as it paints your image. Undo/redo has also been added, along with 22 new blend modes for applying effects. Click here for more info.

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New LED Panels from Limelite by Bowens

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Manfrotto Distribution, Inc. announced Mosaic2 LED Panels from Limelite by Bowens. Available in Daylight (5600K) and Bi-Color (3000K–5000K), Mosaic2 uses 576 high-fidelity LEDs, dimmable from 100–0%, to create 1x1 panels that are extremely powerful (up to 4,000 Lux@1m) and significantly more color accurate than previous models. The new panels are designed for photo, video, and broadcast work, both in studio and on location (with optional battery mounting accessories). These metal-bodied panels, which weigh in at just three pounds, can be controlled remotely via an external DMX mixer, and multiple panels can be linked and used as a single panel. The Mosaic2 Daylight LED Panel is listed at $839.99 and the Mosaic2 Bi-Color LED Panel at $999.99. ■

#KelbyOneBooks

Ever feel like you’ve hit a wall in Photoshop ? ®

This book’s your tool to break through!

NEW from Scott Kelby, the world’s #1 best-selling author of photography technique books, and Editor and Publisher of Photoshop User magazine.

HOW TO › ›

Down &Dirty Tricks

the agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. logo effect BY COREY BARKER

In this project, we’ll explore the title treatment for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show. We’ll build this effect using a base texture, simple shapes, and layer styles. While the final result looks 3D, it’s achieved entirely using 2D methods.

› › DOWN AND DIRTY TRICKS

Step Two: Create a new document (File>New) that’s 1,455x800 pixels at 100 ppi. Press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to invert the background to black, switch to the Move tool (V), and then drag the open texture file into this new document. Add the Shift key when dragging so the texture lands centered in the new document. Once the texture is in place, set the layer Opacity to 75% in the Layers panel. Press Command-R (PC: Ctrl-R) to show the rulers, click on the vertical ruler on the left, drag out a guide, and place it in the center of the canvas. It should snap in place. If it doesn’t, make sure there’s a checkmark next to Snap under the View menu.

©PhotoArtTextures.com

Step One: First, open the texture image that will serve as the base for the overall design. If you’re a KelbyOne member, you can download the texture we’re using here, or feel free to experiment with one of your own. Just make sure it has a similar look to this one. Once it’s open, go to the Edit menu and choose Define Pattern to save the texture in Photoshop. Name it when prompted and click OK. [KelbyOne members may download the files used in this tutorial at http://kelbyone.com/magazine. All files are for personal use only.]

Step One

Step Three

Step Three: Go to the Toolbox, click-and-hold on the shape tools, and choose the Ellipse tool from the flyout menu. In the Options Bar, set the tool mode drop-down menu to Shape, then click on the Fill color swatch and choose a dark gray. Leave the Stroke color set to No Color. Step Four: Hold down the Shift key and draw out a circle in the middle of the canvas at the size shown here. It will automatically create a shape layer in the Layers panel. Once you have the circle drawn, press the letter A to switch to the Path Selection tool (the black arrow), and click-and-drag inside the ellipse to position it so the top and bottom control points align with the guide. Just like the guide, it should snap into place.

Step Four

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Step Five: With the circle still active (if it’s not, click on it with the Path Selection tool), press Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) then Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V) to paste a copy of the shape in place. Press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to activate Free Transform. Hold down ShiftOption (PC: Shift-Alt), click on a corner point, and drag inward to scale the duplicate circle down just a little. Press Enter to commit the transformation.

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Step Five

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Step Six: We’re still in the same shape layer, and we want to knock this duplicate smaller shape out of the bigger shape, so go to the Options Bar, click on the Path Operations icon (it looks like two overlapping squares), and choose Subtract Front Shape. This will create a ring shape.

Step Six

Step Seven: With the shape layer still active, click on the Add a Layer Style icon (ƒx) at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Bevel & Emboss. Use these settings shown here. Don’t click OK yet. Step Eight: Click on the words “Pattern Overlay” in the list of Styles on the left. Click on the Pattern thumbnail to open the Pattern Picker and locate the pattern we defined in Step One. It should be at the end of the list. Leave the other settings as they are. Don’t click OK yet.

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Step Nine: Activate Gradient Overlay in the list of Styles. Click on the Gradient preview strip and choose the standard Black, White gradient preset. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor. Then, use the settings shown here. Don’t click OK yet.

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Step Eight

Step Nine

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Step 10: Finally, Activate Drop Shadow in the list of Styles, and again use the settings shown here. Note that in this case we turned off the Use Global Light setting. You can click OK when done to apply the layer styles. Step 11: Now let’s add the custom shape logo element that’s also part of the downloads for this project. Once it’s downloaded, choose the Custom Shape tool (nested under the Rectangle tool [U] in the Toolbox). Then, in the Options Bar, click on the Shape thumbnail preview to open the Custom Shape Picker. Click on the gear icon at the top right and choose Load Shapes from the menu. Locate the Shield Shape.csh file, and click Open.

Step 11

› › DOWN AND DIRTY TRICKS

Step 12: Click on the horizontal ruler and drag a guide to the center. Go back to the Custom Shape Picker and select the new shape. Draw the shape starting at the point where the guides intersect while holding Shift-Option (PC: Shift-Alt). Shift will maintain proportions and Option (PC: Alt) will draw the shape from the center outward. But if you hold Shift-Option (PC: Shift-Alt) before you start dragging out the shape, the new shape will combine with the existing shape layer, which we don’t want. So, clickand-hold on the center first, then press-and-hold Shift-Option (PC: Shift-Alt) and drag out the shape to create a new shape layer. Leave a small gap between this shape and the outer ring.

Step 12

Step 13: In the Layers panel, hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key, click on the ƒx icon to the right of the Ellipse 1 (outer ring) layer, drag it to the new shape layer, and release to copy-and-paste the layer style. Step 14: Now click on the outer ring layer (Ellipse 1) in the Layers panel to make it active and then duplicate it by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Drag this layer copy (Ellipse 1 copy) above the custom shape layer in the layers stack. Then, activate Free Transform (Command-T [PC: Ctrl-T]), hold down ShiftOption (PC: Shift-Alt) again, and scale down this ring shape so it fits just inside the outer ring area. Press Enter when done. Step 15: Click on the original ring shape layer (Ellipse 1) in the Layers panel to make it active and, with the Path Selection tool (black arrow), click on the outer edge of the ring to select the outside path. Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to copy the selected shape to a new shape layer (Ellipse 1 copy 2). It will be a solid circle and it will also bring all the layer styles along with it, though we do need to modify those styles.

Step 13

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Step 16: Position this circle shape layer below all the other layers but just above the background texture (Layer 1) in the layer stack. Double-click the ƒx icon to the right of its name to open the Layer Style dialog. Activate Texture just below Bevel & Emboss in the list of Styles. Click on the Pattern thumbnail preview to open the Pattern Picker and locate the Woven Wide preset. If you don’t see it, load the Patterns preset group in the Pattern Picker’s flyout menu (gear icon), and click Append in the resulting dialog. Once applied, set the Scale to 10% and the Depth to 20%. Also, check Invert. Don’t click OK yet.

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Step 15

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Step 17: Click on Bevel & Emboss in the list of Styles and set the Highlight Mode Opacity to 10% and the Shadow Mode Opacity to 75%. Select Gradient Overlay in the list of Styles, set the Blend Mode to Overlay, and lower the Opacity to 50%. Then, choose Pattern Overlay and drop the Opacity to 75%. Finally, go to the Drop Shadow settings and bump up the Opacity to 60% and the Size to 20 px. Click on the image and drag the shadow down manually to give the illusion of a long shadow being cast on the background texture. Click OK to apply the layer styles.

Step 17

Step 18: Now we’re ready for the text. Here we’ve spoofed the original title with “AGENTS OF W.E.I.R.D.” set in a font called Eurostile Extended Bold. Once the text is set at the top of the layer stack using the Type tool (T), add the same layer styles that are applied to the rings and custom shape layers. As before, just Option-drag (PC: Alt-drag) the ƒx icon from one of those layers to the text layer. Once the styles are applied, go into the Layer Style dialog and choose Pattern Overlay. Drop the Opacity to 75%, and then manually drag the pattern in the image until the lighter areas of the Pattern Overlay make the letters stand out more. Click OK.

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Step 18

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Step 19: Make a duplicate of this text layer by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J), then click on the original text layer below to make it active. Right-click on the original text layer’s name and choose Convert to Shape in the menu. Step 19

› › DOWN AND DIRTY TRICKS

Step 20: With the paths of the text shape layer selected and the Path Selection tool active, go to the Options Bar and set the Stroke color to black and the size to 10 px. Then, click on the Stroke Type dropdown menu to the right to open the Stroke Options, click on the Align setting, and choose the bottom option, which aligns the stroke to the outside of the path. The layer style will immediately take effect on the stroke, which frames the text quite nicely. The only other adjustment we made was to increase the Size of the Bevel & Emboss layer style to 5 px.

©Adobe Stock/papa

Step 20

Step 21: Now for some final touches. First, we have a dust particle image from Adobe Stock (also available in the downloads). Remove the color by pressing Shift-Command-U (PC: Shift-Ctrl-U), then use the Move tool to drag it to the main image. Position it at the top of the layer stack, set the layer blend mode to Screen, and drop the Opacity to 40%. Use Free Transform to resize and reposition as needed. We set it to the left of the logo. Click the Add Layer Mask icon (circle in a square) at the bottom of the Layers panel, switch to the Gradient tool (G), and press X until the Foreground color is black. Click on the gradient thumbnail in the Options Bar to open the Gradient Editor, select the Foreground to Transparent preset, and click OK. Select the Radial Gradient icon in the Options Bar, and then draw gradients to mask out the dust particles from the center area of the logo.

©Adobe Stock/Alexander Marushin

Step 21

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Step 22: Next, we have another image from Adobe Stock, but this time it’s smoke. We’ll add this the same way we added the dust particles but on the other side of the logo. You can see here that, after we positioned it on the right, we added a layer mask with some radial gradients to mask it off the logo. Again, set the blend mode to Screen, but this time set the Opacity to 55%.

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Step 22

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Step 23: Create a new blank layer at the top of the layer stack. Grab the Rectangular Marquee tool (M), hold down the Shift key, and starting at the top edge of the document just beyond the left edge of the logo, drag a square the full height of the canvas. Go under the Filter menu to Render and choose Fibers. Use the default settings and click OK. Deselect the shape by clicking outside the selection. Go to the Layers panel and click the Lock Transparent Pixels icon (checkerboard) next to the word “Lock.”

Step 23

Step 24: Go to the Filter menu to Blur and choose Motion Blur. Set the Angle to 90° and the Distance to 500 Pixels. Click OK.

Step 24

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Step 25: Grab the Gradient tool with it still set to the Foreground to Transparent preset, choose the Linear Gradient icon in the Options Bar, and then set the tool blend Mode to Overlay. Press D to set black as the Foreground color, and then start at the bottom of the fibers layer and drag the gradient up. This will have more of a contrasting fade as the gradient has a various effect on the tones rather than just laying over it. Do it two or three times if needed. You can also add gradients coming in from each side if you want.

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Step 25

Step 26: Change the layer blend mode of the fiber layer to Screen and drop the layer Opacity to around 60%. Then, go under the Edit menu to Transform and choose Distort. Push the top corners closer together toward the center and pull the bottom corners further apart. This gives the illusion of a light source above the logo. Click-and-drag inside the bounding box if you need to reposition the light. Press Enter when done. Step 26

› › DOWN AND DIRTY TRICKS

Step 27: Now just run a simple 3-pixel Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur) to smooth out the light a bit more. Then, add a layer mask and fade out the bottom area of the light beams using the Gradient tool with the same settings that you used in Step 25, except change the tool Mode in the Options Bar back to Normal.

Step 29: Lastly, click on the topmost layer in the Layers panel (the light layer or Layer 4). Click on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon (half-black, halfwhite circle) and choose Hue/Saturation. In the Properties panel, check on Colorize and set the Hue to 228, the Saturation to 25, and the Lightness to 20. Set the adjustment layer blend mode to Soft Light and then drop the layer Opacity to 50%. This will add a unifying color grade for a finished look. ■

Step 28

Step 29

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Step 28: Click on the background texture layer (Layer 1) in the Layers panel to make it active, and add a Gradient Overlay layer style using the settings shown here. Manually position the center of the Gradient Overlay in the upper area of the finished logo. This will darken the background texture, which helps the illusion that the light is illuminating the logo.

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HOW TO › ›

Down &Dirty Tricks

create a dragon-fisted fighter BY KIRK NELSON

One of the features Adobe has included in recent upgrades to Photoshop CC is the Flame filter. Many users may have passed over this feature due to the highly specific situations that would require it. But with a bit of exploration and some creative application of stock images, blend modes, and layer masks, this filter can be quite useful in crafting a high-energy image with a lot of visual impact. In this tutorial, we make use of some excellent Adobe Stock images and the Flame filter to create this striking dragon-fisted fighter!

Step One: Open the fighter image and create a new layer with Layer>New>Layer, or with ShiftCommand-N (PC: Shift-Ctrl-N). Name the new layer “Fire1,” and click OK. Then, use the Pen tool (P) set to Path in the Options Bar to draw out several paths wrapping around the extended fist and forearm of the fighter as shown here. (Tip: After you draw one path, Command-click [PC: Ctrl-click] away from that path to deselect it before beginning another so you can create several sub-paths all on a single path layer.) After your paths are created, double-click on the Work Path in the Paths panel (Window>Paths), rename it “Fire1,” and click OK. (If you’re a KelbyOne member, you can download this image with the paths already drawn. Once you have the image open in Photoshop, just click on the Fire1 path in the Paths panel to make it active.) [KelbyOne members may download the files used in this tutorial at http://kelbyone.com/ magazine. All files are for personal use only.]

©Adobe Stock/Africa Studio

› › DOWN AND DIRTY TRICKS

Step One

Step Two: Go to Filter>Render>Flame. The goal is to get long tendrils of flame that wrap around the fist and arm. Feel free to experiment with the fire settings, but we recommend starting with these. In the Basic tab, set the Flame Type to 1. One Flame Along Path, the Width to 54 (if you’re using the lowres practice file, set the Width to 24), and the Quality to High (Slow). In the Advanced tab, set Turbulent to 24, Jag to 23, Opacity to 32, Flame Lines (Complexity) to 19, Flame Bottom Alignment to 29, Flame Style to 1. Normal, Flame Shape to 5. Pointing, and check the Randomize Shapes option box. Click OK, and then in the Paths panel, click below the Fire1 path to deactivate it.

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Step Three: Back in the Layers panel, convert the Fire1 layer to a smart object with Layer>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Object. Then, go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. Check the Colorize option and set the Hue to 241, Saturation to 68, and the Lightness to –2. Click OK. The smart object keeps these edits live so you can readjust them if you want to change the color later on. Set the layer’s blend mode near the top left of the Layers panel to Linear Dodge (Add) to intensify the flame effect.

Step Two

Step Three

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HOW TO › ›

Doodle Dragon: ©Adobe Stock/Dvarg

Step Four: Add the Doodle Dragon stock image through File>Place Embedded. Use the bounding box to scale and rotate the dragon image into position so the dragon’s head aligns with the fighter’s fist. Hold the Shift key when dragging corner points to maintain proportion, and press Enter to commit the transformation.

Step Four

Step Five: Go to Image>Adjustments>Invert, or use Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I), to change the dragon’s lines from black to white. Then, go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a Radius of 2 pixels to soften the lines (set the Radius to around 0.5 pixels for the practice file).

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Step Six: Use the Lasso tool (L) to draw a loose selection around the head of the dragon. Go to Layer>­Layer Mask>Reveal Selection to hide the rest of the dragon’s form with the mask. Press X until the Foreground color is set to black, and use the Brush tool (B) with a Soft Round tip at 50% Opacity in the Options Bar to paint on the mask and gently fade out the horns and neck along the fighter’s arm. (Tip: Use the Bracket keys on your keyboard to quickly change your brush size as you paint on the mask.) Set the Brush tool to 100% Opacity in the Options Bar to paint away the dragon’s tongue.

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Step Seven: Create another new layer named “Fire2.” Use the Pen tool again to draw out a few additional paths that are larger, longer, and more sweeping than the previous set, as shown here. When placing paths along the upper arm, roughly follow the curves of the dragon’s horns. Tip: Use the Paths panel to manage the path layers and ensure that all the sub-paths are on a single layer. When you draw the paths in this step, it should create a new Work Path in the Paths panel. Rename that path “Fire2.” (If you’re using the practice file, click on Fire2 in the Paths panel.)

Step Five

Step Six

Step Seven

› › DOWN AND DIRTY TRICKS

Step Eight: Use the Filter>Render>Flame feature again. The filter should retain the same settings as the last time, so you don’t need to adjust anything— unless you want to, of course! After the flames render out, convert this layer to a smart object with Layer>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Object and set the blend mode to Screen. Copy the Hue/Saturation adjustment from the Fire1 layer to this one by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key and dragging the Hue/Saturation filter from the Fire1 thumbnail onto the Fire2 thumbnail in the Layers panel. (Tip: Click the down-facing arrow at the far right of the Fire2 layer to reveal the layer effects on that layer.) Click below the Fire2 path in the Paths panel to deactivate the paths.

Step Nine: Click on the background or Layer 0 to make it the active layer and grab the Quick Selection tool (W). Disable the Sample All Layers option in the Options Bar and create a selection of the fighter’s fist and forearm to just past the elbow. Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to copy this selection to a new layer. Double-click the new layer’s name and rename it to “Fist.”

Step Eight

Step Nine

Step 10: Drag the Fist layer to the top of the layer stack and change the blend mode to Linear Dodge (Add). Then, go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and enable the Colorize option. Set the Hue to 241, Saturation to 68, and the Lightness to –2, and click OK. This will give the fist a bright-blue hue that allows it to be clearly seen even through the fire and dragon. Step 10

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Step 11: Use the Add Layer Mask icon (circle in a square) at the base of the Layers panel to create a mask for the Fist layer. Grab the Gradient tool (G); click on the gradient preview thumbnail in the Options Bar to open the Gradient Editor; select the Black, White gradient preset; and click OK. Click on the Radial Gradient icon in the Options Bar. Start near the fighter’s elbow and drag the gradient past his fist. This should fade out the blue-colored fist layer.

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Step 11

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Step 12: Convert the Layer 0 background layer into a smart object, and go to Filter>Camera Raw Filter. In the Basic tab, increase the Clarity to +80 and decrease the Saturation to –31. Then switch over to the Effects tab (ƒx), set the Post Crop Vignetting Amount to –57, and click OK. This will give the background a darker appearance that makes the effect stand out even more.

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Step 13: In order for the effect to appear realistic, there should be a pale-blue light shining onto the fighter’s face and body and the wall. Create this with Filter>Render>Lighting Effects. Near the top of the Properties panel, set the drop-down menu to Point. Position this point light near the fighter’s fist, and click-and-drag the outer green ring to increase its size as shown here. Click on the Color swatch, set it to a pale blue (R: 146, G: 146, B: 247), and click OK to close the Color Picker. Set the Intensity to 62, Exposure to –11, Gloss to –41, Metallic to 93, and Ambience to –41. Click OK in the Options Bar.

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Step 14: Click on the Doodle Dragon layer to make it active, press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate it, and position the duplicate layer just above the Layer 0 background layer. Use Edit>Transform Scale to scale it up to about 110% using the Width and Height fields in the Options Bar. Press Enter to commit the transformation. Remove the Gaussian Blur smart filter on this layer by dragging that item to the Delete Layer icon (trash can) in the Layers panel. Then, go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and use an angle of 0° and a Distance of 103 pixels (set the Distance to around 26 pixels for the practice file). Click OK. Reduce the layer’s Opacity to 24%, and use the Move tool (V) to drag it slightly to the right of the original Doodle Dragon layer.

Step 12

Step 13

Step 14

Step 15: Add a new layer above the Layer 0 background layer and name it “Blue Glow.” Click on the Foreground color swatch near the bottom of the Toolbox, set it to a light blue (#5455c6), and click OK to close the Color Picker. Switch to the Gradient tool, and set the gradient preset to Foreground to Transparent and Radial shape. Start a gradient at the fighter’s wrist and drag past his shoulder. Set the layer’s blend mode to Soft Light to complete the glow effect. Step 15

› › DOWN AND DIRTY TRICKS

Step 16: Add another new layer above the Blue Glow layer called “Dragon Accents” and set the layer’s blend mode to Multiply. Grab the Brush tool and set the Foreground color to a darker blue color (#121338). Using the Soft Round brush tip and reducing the brush Opacity to 50%, gently paint in some darker areas behind the dragon’s eye, nostril, and brow. This small detail gives the sense of depth and solidity to the reptilian apparition.

Step 16

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Crafting high-impact visual effects is easier than ever in Photoshop with the inclusion of features such as the Flame filter. By assembling some creative stock resources and careful use of blend modes and layer masks, it’s not hard to create fun and dynamic effects. ■

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Beginners' Workshop how typekit works

LESA SNIDER

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One of the most under-utilized perks of a Creative Cloud subscription is access to Typekit, an online service Adobe acquired in 2011 that lets you access fonts for use on your computer and on websites. In this column, you’ll learn exactly how Typekit works and how you can access Typekit fonts in Photoshop.

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Let’s start by discussing why you should care about Typekit and what you get. Typekit is a collection of fonts in both print and Web format that you can download and use in your print and electronic documents, as well as websites. This is exciting for designers because the same font can be used across print and online marketing materials for branding consistency. It’s exciting for everyone else because more fonts mean more fun! While photographers may not set tons of text, Typekit fonts are useful if you design your own business cards, direct-mail pieces, sports-style templates, fine-art style prints, photo books, opening/closing screens in a video or slide-show project, and so on. Typekit includes fonts from 60 or so foundries (remember, type used to be made of metal). Any kind of Creative Cloud subscription (even a single-­app subscription) includes Typekit’s Portfolio Plan, which lets you use up to 100 fonts at a time. Unfortunately, each style or weight within a font family counts as a separate font (for example, Futura Semibold and Futura Heavy count as two fonts), so the actual number of font families you can use concurrently may be considerably smaller. And because Typekit is part of the Creative Cloud, you have access to all of its fonts from any computer that has Creative Cloud apps installed—simply log in with your Adobe ID and the fonts are available to you. Typekit fonts come in two flavors: Sync fonts and Web fonts. Sync fonts (previously called “desktop use” fonts) behave almost the same as other fonts installed on your computer. They live on your hard drive and you can use them in any program that supports a font menu (even nonAdobe ones), you can embed them into PDFs, convert their characters to paths in Photoshop or Illustrator, and so on. You can’t, however, use a font-management program to enable or disable them, nor can you include Typekit fonts when packaging an InDesign document to have it printed elsewhere (the workaround is to send the printer a PDF with the font embedded into it). In other words, you can’t share

Typekit fonts with anyone—ever. Because the font files are stored invisibly on your hard drive (weird but true), you simply can’t get at them, and neither can your font-management program. That said, if you need to share a Photoshop document that includes a Typekit sync font, the other person can open and print the document, but she can’t edit the text without encountering a font-substitution message. But if she has a standalone Typekit account of her own (or she has a Creative Cloud subscription), she can download those fonts from Typekit and then edit the text. If, for whatever reason, you stop paying for your Creative Cloud subscription, the fonts stop working. Web fonts are stored on Adobe’s servers and delivered to Web browsers when visitors access the web­page. You can use them with any website-creation tool, including Adobe Dreamweaver, Muse, WordPress, and so on. There’s a limit of 500,000 page views for each domain where the fonts are used, so if your website goes viral, you have to upgrade to a paid Typekit plan, which starts at $50–$100 per year for 1,000,000 page views. And, like Typekit’s sync fonts, if you stop paying for your Creative Cloud subscription, Adobe won’t serve the Web fonts to your server so they no

› › BEGINNERS' WORKSHOP

Glass: ©Adobe Stock/fotografiedk; Castle: ©Adobe Stock/Arndale

longer appear on your website (at which point your site substitutes a standard serif or sans-serif font instead). Not all Typekit sync fonts are available as Web fonts, but many are. Keep this in mind if your goal is to use the same font in print as you do on the Web.

HOW TO ACCESS & USE TYPEKIT FONTS Below are the steps for adding Typekit fonts from within Photoshop, though the process is (roughly) the same in other Creative Cloud apps. You can’t download new Typekit fonts from inside Lightroom, but any Typekit fonts you download appear in Lightroom’s font menus too (though without the cute green Typekit icon).

Step One

Step One: Create or open a document and press T to activate the Type tool. In the Options Bar, click the down-facing arrow next to the font family field and, from the panel that opens, click the green Typekit icon at the upper right. Step Two: Your Web browser springs open to the Typekit website, which offers several ways to find fonts. (If this is your first time visiting the site, you may see a welcome screen instead.) The buttons on the right let you filter your search by these parameters: Browse Mode (the Default or Japanese font sets and filters), Classification (Serif, Script, Decorative, and so on), Availability (Web and/or desktop use), Recommendations (Paragraphs or Headings), Properties (Weight, Width, and so on), and Language Support. Click any filter’s button to apply it (it turns green); click it again to turn it off. In this example, the Slab Serif, Web, Sync, Headings, and Weight filters are turned on.

Step Two

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Step Three: To see the font in use, click anywhere atop the thumbnail and a page opens showing the font used in a variety of weights and styles in sentence form. The Specimens tab on the same page displays the font in sentence and paragraph form at various point sizes. The Type Tester tab (shown here) lets you enter your own text; you can change styles and point size, too. Step Three

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Step Four: To return to the thumbnail grid of results, click your browser’s back button. When you find a font (or 20!) that you like, click the tiny heart at the thumbnail’s upper right to mark it as a Favorite (the heart turns red). To view your Favorites later on, click My Favorites at the upper left.

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Step Five: To download and use the font, point your cursor at the font’s thumbnail and, in the green menu that appears, click “Use fonts.” The resulting panel has two tabs: Sync and Web. Sync lets you pick which weights and styles (Regular, Italic, Bold, and so on) to install on your computer. (You don’t have to install them all; remember each style counts against your 100 fonts.) Turn on the checkboxes for the options you want and then click Sync Selected Fonts.

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Step Six: The next screen reminds you that, in order to download the fonts, you need to have the Creative Cloud app running and font syncing turned on (shown here at left). If you haven’t turned on font syncing, click the Launch the Creative Cloud Application button, and the app’s Fonts panel opens; follow the onscreen instructions to turn on font syncing. You can also turn on font syncing in the Creative Cloud app’s Preferences (shown here at top right). To access the Preferences, click on the gear icon at the top right. If you’ve already turned on font syncing and you click Launch the Creative Cloud Application, you’ll see all the fonts you’ve downloaded (shown here at bottom right). As you can see, you can also add fonts from Typekit using the Creative Cloud app. When you do, those fonts are available to all Creative Cloud apps.

Step Four

Step Five

Step Six

Step Seven: Either way, the new fonts instantly appear in Photoshop’s font family menu (complete with the green Typekit badge)—you don’t even have to restart Photoshop. To see only your Typekit fonts, click the Typekit icon to the right of the Filter field. To use the font in your document, click and then enter some text. Step Seven

› › BEGINNERS' WORKSHOP

Step Eight: Back in your browser, click the Web tab to use Typekit fonts on a website, and then click Create a New Kit. A kit is a collection of fonts designed for online use, along with the code that instructs Typekit to display those fonts when someone visits your site. Step Nine: In the screen that appears, name the kit something meaningful (it’s for your own use) and enter the domains on which you want to use the fonts (you can add up to 10 domains to a single kit).

Step Eight

Step 10: Click Continue and Typekit creates the kit and displays a few lines of JavaScript code for you to copy-and-paste near the top of the tag in your website’s CSS or HTML code. When a person visits your website, the JavaScript tells Typekit to deliver your fonts to that person’s Web browser (this is also how Adobe counts your page views). Step 11: Click Continue again and you triumphantly arrive at the final options screen, where you can pick which font weights and styles to include (each weight or style increases the size of the font file that Typekit delivers to your viewer’s Web browser), as well as which languages you want to support. The Default option includes characters for English, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese; to support any other language, choose All Characters (doing so significantly increases the size of the font file that Typekit serves to visitors). Click Publish and Typekit adds the kit to the domains you entered. After making all these choices (whew!), you can use the fonts in your kit when designing webpages in Adobe Muse, Adobe Edge, Dreamweaver, or any other website-creation tool—even WordPress.

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Just before this issue was published, Adobe released Photoshop CC 2015.5 with two additional ways to download Typekit fonts. Now when you click Show Similar Fonts (two squiggly lines) in the font family menu, Photoshop also shows Typekit fonts. Click the cloud icon next to a Typekit font and it will automatically download. There’s also a new Match Font feature that woks in a similar way. Until next time, may the creative force be with you all! ■ Step 11

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LEARN THE LATEST TRENDS IN PHOTOSHOP, LIGHTROOM®, PHOTOGRAPHY & MORE! Discover the ultimate venue where the classroom meets the playground. Where creative brainiacs are free to romp around the right side of the brain. It’s where you’ll find everything you wanted to know about Photoshop, Lightroom, photography, Adobe mobile apps, video, lighting and graphic design woven into three incredible days of hands-on learning action. We’ve created, with Adobe, an entire 3-day track dedicated to learning Adobe’s new mobile apps, such as Photoshop Fix®, Photoshop Sketch®, Adobe Comp®, Adobe Capture®, and Photoshop Mix®, among others. You’ll find the full schedule on the Photoshopworld.com website. More than 100 training sessions with eight different learning tracks, nine In-Depth Workshops*, and several Hands-On Labs, are designed to inspire you and make you more effective, more productive, and more creative than ever.

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photoshop WANT TO GET REALLY GOOD AT PHOTOSHOP?

The images you create have the potential to astound, inspire, and explode with personality. Photoshop World features over 20 hours of live, in-depth Photoshop training, and you could be learning it all from some of the world’s most experienced, storied, and respected Photoshop experts. Everything you could ever need to learn is taught right here, under one roof: retouching, special effects, design, compositing, lighting effects, 3D effects, and so much more. Whether you’re totally new to the software, or if you’ve been using it for years, we have plenty of track sessions, and In-Depth Workshops for every skill level. Learn to take your images from ordinary to extraordinary. Here’s just a sampling of some of the sessions that will make that happen: • Retouching Lab with Scott Kelby • Getting That Cinematic Wow Factor! Hollywood FX That You Can Use! with Corey Barker • Compositing: Don’t Get Stuck, Get Creating with Glyn Dewis • Master the Art of Magazine-Quality Skin Retouching: The Fundamentals with Kristina Sherk • The Newest 3D Design Tricks in Adobe Photoshop with Corey Barker • Photoshop Textures, Borders, Edges, and More with Dave Cross • The Photoshop Playbook with Bryan O’Neil Hughes • Photoshop and Lightroom for Photographers with Scott Kelby • Expert Selections in Adobe Photoshop with Rich Harringtom • The Newest 3D Design Tricks in Adobe Photoshop with Corey Barker • Photoshop Lighting Effects for Photographers with Glyn Dewis • Master FX Live with Corey Barker

WANNA DIG DEEP INTO LIGHTROOM? Between the In-Depth Workshops*, Hands-On Labs, and 20 hours plus of Lightroom sessions, you can totally immerse yourself, from morning to night, in learning every aspect of Lightroom. You’ll be discovering new, totally awesome stuff about Lightroom from real live professionals (who walk, talk, and breathe Lightroom) who will be helping you through each step, and answering all your burning questions. If you want to establish yourself as a Lightroom expert, then you can’t possibly miss these classes (just to list a few!): • Lightroom Lab with Matt Kloskowski • Lightroom for Absolute Beginners with Terry White • Lightroom Killer Tips with Scott Kelby • Lightroom and Photoshop for Landscape Photographers with Matt Kloskowski • Tack Sharp! Sharpening in Lightroom with Daniel Gregory • What’s New in the Lightroom Family of Products with Julieanne Kost • Organizing Your Photos with Lightroom with Matt Kloskowski • Harnessing the Power of Lightroom’s Develop Module with Katrin Eismann • The Creative Power of Selective Tools with Katrin Eismann • Dial It Up: Advanced Lightroom Techniques with Daniel Gregory • Unlocking the Power of Lightroom Mobile with Scott Kelby • Triple Exposure in Lightroom – Panoramics, HDR & Time Lapse Post Processing Tips with Rich Harrington *For In-Depth Workshops, separate registration and fee required.

Lindsay Adler

photography PHOTOGRAPHY: GRAB LIFE BY THE CAMERA

Good photography should stop people in their tracks, command their attention, and convince them that there’s still plenty of magic in the world left to discover. You can truly master your photography equipment, instead of just using it. Photoshop World boasts over 40 hours of stellar training in photography between our half-day In-Depth Workshops, hour-long sessions, and Hand-On Labs, for almost any skill level or set of equipment. Here’s a sampling of some of the sessions you’ll love during our 3-day conference: • In-Depth Workshop— La Circque Photographique’: A Mobile Photography Creative Workshop with Russell Preston Brown* • In-Depth Workshop— Ignite Your Photography Career: Get Focused, Build Your Brand & Get Booked with Tim Wallace* • Night & Low-Light Photography with Alan Hess • The Wildest Subject of All: How to Get the Shot in Wildlife Photography with Moose Peterson • Lightpainting – Light Up the Wolrd with Dave Black • The Secrets to Creating the Best Dog Photos Ever with Kaylee Greer • Concert Photography with Alan Hess • Posing Problem Solving with Roberto Valenzuela • Hot Shoe Flash - The First Steps with Joe McNally • Start Your Engines: The Secrets to Getting Started in Aviation Photography with Moose Peterson • Big Flash Done Fast with Joe McNally • Picture Perfect Lighting with Roberto Valenzuela *For In-Depth Workshops, separate registration and fee required.

HOW ABOUT CLASSES ON EVERYTHING ELSE We all need our creative juices charged, and Photoshop World is the perfect place to do that. You will be moved, challenged, and re-energized by many of our varied and inspirational tracks and sessions for creative lighting, videography, design, illustration, and more. We have sessions on Illustrator, InDesign, Muse, Premiere Pro, and an entire track on Adobe’s suite of mobile apps. We’ve got stuff for typographers, 3D artists, gear enthusiasts, film editors, and mobile device masters. Here’s just a taste of the variety of sessions Photoshop World offers this summer: • Editing Wedding Photos Lab with Roberto Valenzuela • Improving Lifestyle Photos with Adobe Mobile Apps with Terry White • Compositing On-the-Go with Photoshop Mix with Bryan O’Neil Hughes • Improv Photoshop & Illustrator Hour with Corey Barker • How to Take Advantage of Adobe’s Creative Cloud with Terry White • Smart Objects, Layer Comps, and Libraries — Oh My! with Dave Cross • The Creative Power of Selective Tools with Katrin Eismann • Showcasing Your Work with Behance, Adobe Portfolio, and Adobe Slate with Julieanne Kost • Combat from Behind the Camera with Stacy Pearsall • Light, Gesture & Color with Jay Maisel • DSLR Video Basics with Justin Wojtczak • The Power of Creating a Signature Brand with Joel Grimes

Mobile Apps

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Master FX Live

Wildlife Photography

Creative Cloud

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register JOIN US IN LAS VEGAS | JULY 19TH - 21ST

We hope this gives you a little insight into what your Photoshop World experience will be like, but to really get a feel for it, head over to the Photoshopworld.com website watch the video on the homepage, and you’ll see what we mean. There’s really no conference like it anywhere in the world. It has its own vibe—it has a real “we’re-all-family-here” kind of feel that just sweeps over you. When you go, you’ll see some attendees wearing a long row of ribbons along the bottom of their badges for all the times they’ve been to Photoshop World. Some have 20 or more. They keep coming, they keep learning, they keep laughing, and so can you. See you in Vegas!

For more info visit photoshopworld.com or call 1-800-201-7323 After June 10th, pricing will increase to full conference pricing. KelbyOne member discount cannot be combined with any other offer or discount. **Proof of student ID required at conference check-in. To qualify for the KelbyOne member discount you must provide your username & password at checkout. *In-Depth Workshops are on Monday July 18, 2016. Separate registration and fee required. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Photoshop, LIghtroom, Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Mobile Apps, Adobe Fix, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Slate, Photoshop Mix are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Incorporated. Photography courtesy of Brad Moore, Jim Sykes, Kaylee Greer, Corey Barker, Dave Black, Moose Peterson, Scott Kelby, Jeff Leimbach and Kevin Newsome.

› › DYNAMIC RANGE

Dynamic Range

using actions while retouching portraits

KRISTINA SHERK

If anyone reading this has attended or watched any of my classes, you know that I believe in working smarter, not harder, when it comes to Photoshop. That’s why I believe wholeheartedly in actions and what they can do to send your retouching into hyperdrive! Incorporating actions into your portrait workflow can make your retouching so much quicker. Actions not only do things faster and with less work from you, but they can also create an outline so that you don’t get sidetracked, thus keeping you productive. If you’ve never heard of actions before, they’re actually little recordings of the steps that you take in Photoshop. You can use an action to do something as simple as creating a new layer, or as detailed as creating an entire portraitretouching outline, all by clicking only one button. (I’ll be giving some free actions at the end of this article too, so be sure to keep reading!) For those of you who are aware of actions, I hope you’re using them in your workflow. You may feel like actions are a one-trick pony, but the true beauty of actions lies in when we create ones that can be customized while they’re playing. Immediately, this opens a whole new world when it comes to actions, making them even more valuable to your everyday retouching. We’ll learn how to do this in this article.

the drop-down menu, which will put a checkmark next to it. This means the window is now visible within Photoshop. You’ll see a few buttons at the bottom of the Actions panel. To the left of the Trash icon is the Create New Action icon (it looks just like the Create a New Layer icon that’s in the Layers panel). Clicking this icon will always be your first step when creating an action. Once you’ve named your action and it shows up in the actions list, you’re ready to start recording.

Before we jump in with both feet to explore actions, let’s talk about some of the best practices while creating them. Actions don’t respond well to freehand brushstrokes or drag-and-drop movements, so those won’t be recorded by your action and will mess it up.  When I’m creating an action, I try not to use a tablet pen (or mouse); I only use my trackpad. This seems to prevent me from mistakenly making movements that may not be recorded by the action. Also, don’t click-and-drag your layers to rearrange them in your Layers panel. Again, the action won’t record this move. Instead, select the layer you want to relocate by clicking on it once in the Layers panel, and then use the following keyboard shortcuts to move it in the layer stack: Command-Left Bracket (PC: Ctrl-Left Bracket) to move your selected layer down, and Command-Right Bracket (PC: Ctrl-Right Bracket) to move it up.

THE ACTIONS PANEL If you can’t locate the Actions panel in Photoshop, simply click on Window at the top, and then click on Actions in

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BEST PRACTICES

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CREATE A SIMPLE ACTION Let’s start by creating a simple action. In this action, you’ll create a black layer mask on whatever pixel-based layer (non-adjustment layer) is highlighted in your Layers panel. Step One: With your document open, and the requisite layer selected, click the Create New Action icon at the bottom of the Actions panel. Let’s name this action “Add Black Mask” in the New Action dialog and house it in the Default Actions Set. Click Record to start recording.

action that will make our client’s eyes look amazing in his/ her portrait, but we’re going to create it in a very smart way, which will let us use this same action no matter what color the client’s eyes are in the current image (and every future image on which we run this action). But to be able to do that, we need to instruct the action to ask for input from the action user. Photoshop isn’t smart enough to know what color our client’s eyes are, so we need to give it a little help. Let’s get started. Step One: As before, we’ll start by clicking the Create New Action icon at the bottom of the Actions panel. Let’s name this action “Amazing Eyes” and click the Record button.

Step Two: Without clicking on any of the layers in the Layers panel, hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and click the Add Layer Mask icon (circle in a square) at the bottom of the Layers panel. This will automatically create a black mask over whichever layer was selected in your Layers panel. Step Three: Back in the Actions panel, click the Stop Recording icon (square). Congratulations, you’ve created your first action!

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Step Four: Look at your Layers panel and you’ll see the black mask that you created. To test your action to see if it works, you’ll first need to delete this layer mask: Simply click-anddrag the black mask layer thumbnail to the Delete Layer icon (trash can) at the bottom of the Layers panel, and then click the Delete (not Apply) button in the resulting dialog.

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Step Five: Now that you’re back to the beginning, you can test your action. Go to the Actions panel, click on the Add Black Mask action, and click the Play Selection icon at the bottom of the Actions panel. This should automatically create a black layer mask on the layer that was active when the action was told to start playing. In one quick step, you were able to create a black mask on the current layer that you were working on.

LET’S GET ADVANCED Let’s move on to the advanced section of this article where the true beauty of actions lies. We’re going to create an

Step Two: With your portrait image open, click on the Create a New Layer icon, double-click the new layer’s name in the Layers panel, and label it “Eye Color.” Next, go to the flyout menu located in the upper right of the Actions panel and choose Insert Stop. In the Message section of the Record Stop dialog, write yourself a little note, something like, “Fill next area with exaggerated version of subject’s eye color.” Check on Allow Continue at the bottom of this dialog and click OK. Step Three: Go back to the same flyout menu and choose In­ sert Menu Item. With the Insert Menu Item dialog open onscreen, go to the Edit menu and choose Fill. The Fill dialog won’t actually open, but you’ll see that menu item appear in the Insert Menu Item dialog. Click OK in the Insert Menu Item dialog to close it. This means that when you play the action, it will pause at this point so you can choose the correct eye color—no matter

› › DYNAMIC RANGE

Step Four: Here’s where it gets tricky—so please pay attention. Press the Stop Recording icon at the bottom of your Actions panel. Now, click on your Eye Color layer in the Layers panel to make sure it’s active, and then actually fill it with color using the Edit>Fill command. This part should not be recorded in the action. Once the layer is filled with color, you can start recording your action again, so click the Begin Recording icon (circle) at the bottom of the Actions panel. Step Five: Make sure your Eye Color layer is still active and press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate it. Double-click this new layer’s name and rename it “Dimension.” Press Command-U (PC: Ctrl-U) to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog, and set the Saturation to –100 to desaturate the layer. Step Six: Click back on your Eye Color layer and change its Layer blend mode (near the top left of the layers panel) from Normal to Overlay. Then decrease the Opacity of your Eye Color layer to 40%. Next, click on the Dimension layer and change its blend mode to Color Dodge.

Step Seven: For this next section, Photoshop will need a little help from you again, so let’s insert another Stop by clicking the flyout menu located in the upper right of the Actions panel and choosing Insert Stop. Step Eight: Write yourself another note in the Message section. Here’s what my note looks like: “Photoshop needs a little more help from you! In the bottom section of the Layer Style dialog (coming up in the next screen), you’ll see the Blend If sliders. On the Underlying Layer bar, drag the black arrow to the right until you begin to see the dimension effect on some of your client’s iris, but not all of it. Then, hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and click on the same black arrow to split it down the middle. Pull the right portion of the arrow to the right about 20, and pull the left portion of the same arrow to the left about 20, widening the space between the two sides of the black arrow.” After you enter you message, click the Allow Continue checkbox, and then click OK. Step Nine: Next, go up to the same flyout menu and choose Insert Menu Item. With the Insert Menu Item dialog open onscreen, go to the Layer menu at the top and choose Layer Style>Blending Options. Then click OK in your Insert Menu

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what color eyes your client has. This makes this action more valuable because now you can use it on a client with blue eyes one day, and on a client with brown eyes the next.

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Item dialog. Now you’ll need to stop recording your action again, so that you don’t actually record the Blend If slider settings that you’re about to input. Note: Remember, you want this action to work on all eye colors and lightness/ darkness values. This is complicated; but it will be worth it in the end.

both layer effects under a black mask. You can now stop your recording at the bottom of the Actions panel. Finally, you’re finished with the action!

Step Ten: Press the Stop Recording icon at the bottom of your Actions panel and then double-click the empty space to the right of the Dimension layer’s name in the Layers panel to open the Blending Options in the Layer Style dialog. Adjust the Blend If Underlying Layer black arrow slider just as the note instructs in Step Eight above. This part should not be recorded in the action. Once you’ve changed the sliders and clicked OK in the Layer Style dialog, then you can keep recording your action, so click the Begin Recording icon at the bottom of the Actions panel.

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Step Thirteen: To reveal the effect, just paint over the subject’s eyes with the Brush tool (B) set to white (press X until the Foreground color is white) and 0% Hardness. If the effect is too strong, simply click on the Amazing Eyes folder in your Layers panel and decrease the Opa­city. Now you can play your Amazing Eyes action on any image, follow the prompts to pick your eye color and Blend If settings, and simply paint on the mask and lower the Opacity to create amazing eyes.

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Step Eleven: We’re almost finished. Great job so far! Now, we’ll create a layer group using the Create a New Group icon (folder) at the bottom of the Layers panel, and name it “Amazing Eyes.” Click on the Dimension layer and press Command-Right Bracket (PC: Ctrl-Right Bracket) to move the layer into the layer group. Then do the same thing for the Eye Color layer. Step Twelve: Lastly, click on the Amazing Eyes layer group folder, hold down Option (PC: Alt), and click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. This will hide

› › DYNAMIC RANGE

THE FINAL LOOK To the left, you’ll see three close-up versions of the same image: the original eye color, the eyes with the Amazing Eyes effect at 100% Opacity, and the eyes with the Amazing Eyes effect at 29% Opacity, which I thought looked good. Original eye color

Amazing Eyes effect at 100% Opacity

If you take the time to really learn more than just the basics of actions, they can become an exceptionally powerful part of your retouching workflow. I know the second action above was a long and advanced one to learn, so for those beginners out there, I’ve included the Awesome Eyes action as part of this issue’s downloads! Just click on the Tutorial Files link for this issue found here. And if you’d like more free, awesome actions and presets, check out SharkPixel! ■

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Amazing Eyes effect at 29% Opacity

Before

After

049 ALL IMAGES BY KRISTINA SHERK

HOW TO › ›

Photoshop Proving Ground

SCOTT VALENTINE

advanced masking workflow

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Dancer: ©Adobe Stock/Alexander Y; Watercolor Background: ©Adobe Stock/donatas1205

Some of the most popular Photoshop tutorials involve selections and masking. There are entire books dedicated to this topic, some written by your favorite authors. (I got my start with masking by watching Katrin Eismann teach at Photoshop World.) Most of these books focus on photographic masking, and go from manual, painted selections to using image information with a few tweaks from adjustments and filters, which is incredibly powerful. Let’s look at how to isolate your mask for robust, detailed editing. In the end, you’ll have a seriously flexible way to work with complex masks using nearly everything Photoshop has to offer.

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PUT THE MASK ON ITS OWN LAYER You’re no doubt familiar with many selection techniques, but no single one is complete and perfect for every situation. When you find that you need extra oomph and can’t get Refine Edge to cooperate, or you can’t paint the changes you want directly, it might be time to put your mask on its own layer for detailed work. To get your mask onto its own

layer, simply hold Option (PC: Alt) and click on the layer mask you want to edit—that shows your mask on the canvas as a grayscale image. Press Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to select all and Command-C (PC: Ctrl-C) to copy the mask. Create a blank layer, then paste into that layer with Command-V (PC: Ctrl-V). Double-click the new layer’s name and rename it “Working Mask.”

Now, a mask isn’t very useful if you can’t see the image you’re working with, so here’s the secret sauce: Put the new Working Mask into a layer group (drag the Working Mask layer down to the Folder icon at the bottom of the Layers panel) and then Shift-click the original layer mask to turn it off. Change the name of the group to Working Mask as well. Finally, change the blend mode of the group itself to

Multiply. This causes anything white to become effectively transparent, and everything else is just black so you can see your subject in isolation. Turn off everything else except the Working Mask group and your single-image layer so you can work on it in isolation. You can now add adjustment layers, convert the Working Mask layer to a smart object, and add other filters as you like within that group. Note: This specific approach is best for masking objects to be composited with other image elements, for example replacing a background. All other layers in your document should be turned off to avoid confusion or distraction. When you’re done editing your mask, set the group blend mode back to Pass Through, then create a blank layer above the Working Mask group. With the blank layer selected, press Command-Option-Shift-E (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E) to Stamp/Merge a flat copy of the mask to the blank layer, and finish by copying-and-pasting the new flattened mask back to your image layer’s mask (you’ll have to Option-click [PC: Alt-click] the mask thumbnail as you did before to show the image layer mask before pasting; Option-click [PC: Alt-click] to reveal the image again). Turn off the Working Mask group and the flat merged mask layer, and you’re done! Is this a lot of work? You better believe it. Is it worth the effort? Oh, my, yes! There’ll be a point when you just can’t seem to get the results you want by working on a mask traditionally, or you need to be able to see the mask while you’re working on it. And sometimes you’ll need to make multiple versions of your mask with slight variations. If you do a lot of illustrations or special effects, it can really help to work with your potential mask directly rather than guessing at what’s happening by applying adjustments and filters directly to a layer mask. By promoting your mask to a real layer, you can use virtually every tool Photoshop has: filters, adjustments, blend modes, plug-ins, whatever. And the results don’t have to be just for traditional photography uses. Let’s try out a couple of basic adjustments so you can get a feel for how this actually works.

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› › BEGINNERS' WORKSHOP

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CRITTER EXPERIMENT

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Remember that my goal for you is to build solid foundations by tearing away context and bias so you can see what’s happening in the details. In this case, that means splitting off “selections” from the topic and focusing only on manipulating masks. To that end, I have built a little creature outline that will let us see what’s going on with various mask operations without worrying to see the effect on an image. [KelbyOne members may download the file used in this tutorial at http://kelbyone.com/ magazine. All files are for personal use only.] Open the file sjv_Critter_Mask.psd, then expand the Model group in the Layers panel. You’ll see I’ve set you up with the Critter basic shape in a smart object, which has all the basic features we want to look at: inside and outside curves, sharp points, and straight lines. There’s also a 10-px Gaussian Blur set as a smart filter on the Critter that should be turned off for the moment. Turn on the Gaussian Blur filter by clicking to the left of the name so its Eye icon appears. The Critter is unsurprisingly blurred. Turn on the Curves adjustment layer. Notice the blur is slightly less? Finally, turn on the Levels adjustment layer. Boom! We’re back to a smooth edge! But wait—what’s different? Notice all the sharp corners are softer, and the little triangle “nose” is gone completely. Now turn off the Gaussian Blur smart filter and the original edges are back. We’ve taken advantage of the fact that Levels and Curves ignore pure black and white, except where there’s a transition. By giving the Critter a little blur, Levels and Curves have something to work with. If you have a mask that’s slightly rough, you can apply a blur then smooth things out with Levels and Curves. You can even change the size of the mask itself along with the overall amount of smoothing by using more or less blur and tweaking the adjustments. Turn the Gaussian Blur filter back on. Double-click on the Levels adjustment layer thumbnail to make it active and to show the Properties panel. Notice the three triangle sliders

Scott Valentine

HOW TO › ›

› › PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND

are grouped in the middle below the histogram. Move all of them to the left (one at a time, keeping the basic relationship between them) and the mask gets bigger. Moving them to the right makes the mask smaller. Tip: Toggle the Outline layer on and off in the practice file to compare your changes with the original shape’s outline. Click on the Curves adjustment to see the small S-shaped curve. Try moving those points around; what happens when you invert the curve? What if you really bend the curve and invert it?

As you tinker, turn off the various pieces—smart filter, Levels, or Curves—and check the results. This will let you see how they interact. More importantly, it will give you a feel for the tradeoffs when making your own masks. Smoothing too much may lose important details, so you’ll have to work on a selection of your mask rather than all of it at once. You can do this by adding more adjustment layers and using their masks to target specific elements. And you can combine multiple masks together using the Stamp/Merge technique above. Of course you can use any of Photoshop’s tools that don’t directly use color to work on your mask. Some filters, such as Add Noise or Render Clouds, don’t work as smart filters, so you’ll have to either forego the conversion to a smart object, or open the smart object to use those filters. To keep your original, just make a copy of the original layer and do your work on the duplicate. That way you can use destructive techniques and still have a place to which to get back. Don’t forget that you can also use classic tools such as Dodge and Burn (O) for cleaning up edges, the Smudge tool (nested under the Blur tool in the Toolbox) for pushing little bits around, the Blur or Sharpen tool for specific edges, etc. By now it should be clear that you can treat your masks like grayscale images by putting them into regular layers. The possibilities really are endless here, so get to masking! ■

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EVERYTHING GOES

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Photoshop Tips

boost your productivity and creativity

COLIN SMITH

I have a saying when it comes to Photoshop: If you have to do the same thing more than once, you’re probably doing it wrong. Do you know that feeling when you discover a better way of doing something in Photoshop? For example, you’ve done some things one at a time and manually for ages, and then find a way to do it that’s so quick you almost want to weep. I hope you discover one of those little gems in this issue’s column. Happy weeping.

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ARROWHEADS Photoshop can do so much more than just editing photos; it’s a great tool for creating charts, diagrams, and different types of graphics. Did you know that you can create arrows in Photoshop? When you select the Line tool (nested under the Rectangle tool [U] in the Toolbox), click the little gear icon at the top in the Options Bar. You’ll see a drop-down dialog that says “Arrowheads.” You can choose Start, End, or both. Now when you draw with the Line tool, an arrowhead will appear on your line. You can also save this as a tool preset so arrows are just a click away. To save it as a tool preset, click on the down-facing arrow next to the icon of the current tool at the far left of the Options Bar. In the Tool Preset Picker that appears, click on the gear icon at the top right and select New Tool Preset.

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SMART MODES As you probably already know, an alternative to applying filters directly to photos is to use smart filters. To do that, Right-click on a layer’s name and choose Convert to Smart Object; now when you apply a filter to a smart object, it becomes a smart filter and can be edited at any time. Here’s

another benefit to smart filters: You can apply different blend modes to them. Once you’ve applied a filter, doubleclick the double-slider icon to the right of the filter’s name in the Layers panel. A Blending Options dialog will open where you can change the blend mode and Opacity. Just think of the possibilities.

STACKING FILTERS IN PHOTOSHOP Many moons ago, there were all kinds of filters listed under the Filter menu in Photoshop. Then one day, they all disappeared. Or did they? What happened was that a lot of the filters were clustered together in a single tool called the Filter Gallery. It was a stroke of genius really. When you launch Filter Gallery (Filter>Filter Gallery), you’ll see the old familiar (to some) sets of filters, such as Artistic, Stylize, etc., grouped in folders to the right of the image preview. You can select your filter from these different folders and make adjustments with previews. If you click on the page icon at the bottom right of the Filter Gallery dialog, you can add more than one filter and stack them on top of each other. Each time you add a new filter layer, it duplicates the currently active filter layer at the top of the stack. Just change the settings, or click on a different filter in one of the folders to change it to that filter.

› › P H O T O S H O P T I PS

As a bonus tip, you can drag these filter layers to change their stacking order. (Note: If for some reason you really miss having all of these filters appear in the Filter menu, go to Photoshop [PC: Edit] >Preferences>Plug-Ins, and turn on Show All Filter Gallery Groups and Name.)

checking. You didn’t? Well, it does and you can find it under Edit>Check Spelling. You might have missed it if you were looking under the Type menu. There’s also a Find and Replace Text option under the Edit menu, where you can change words, individual characters, or the case of characters.

VIEWING YOUR DOCUMENT Here are a couple quick-fire tips: Double-click the Zoom tool (the magnifying glass) in the Toolbox to quickly view your image at 100% or actual size. This is the preferred size for working with sharpening and noise reduction. Doubleclick the Hand tool (H) in the Toolbox to fit the entire image onscreen. Don’t you hate it when you’re working on an image and realize that you missed a bit because it wasn’t visible onscreen? Never again.

FLOATING COLOR SWATCH When you’re using the Eyedropper tool (I), you can use it to change the Foreground color right inside your Photoshop document. It’s a great tool for matching or picking complementary colors and setting them as the Foreground color. If you hold down Control-Option-Command and click-andhold in the image (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Right-click-and-hold), a floating Color Picker will appear right under your cursor where you can select any color. Oh yeah, this works with the Brush tool too. Super useful!

PREVIEW TEXT Did you know that you can preview different fonts for your text right in your document? Click on your text layer in the Layers panel to make it active. Choose the Type tool (T), and pull down the font menu in the Options Bar. The text onscreen will change to reflect whatever font you’re hovering your cursor over in the menu. This is really useful, but more often than not, the font menu will cover a part or all of the text that you’re trying to preview in your document. A better way is to use the Character panel (Window>Character). The panel can be positioned anywhere onscreen, even on a second monitor, to get it out of your way. Now, scroll through the font list in this detachable panel. Oh, look! It also activates this same preview, but now it’s out of your way. SPELLCHECK This is another one of those tiny, fast tips. Did you know that Photoshop has a spellchecker? You did? That’s great, just

FILLING THE PIXELS, NOT THE TRANSPARENCY What if you have a layer that has both pixels and transparency and you want to fill the pixels with a new color while protecting the transparent areas? You could make a selection around the pixels by holding down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key and clicking on the layer thumbnail in the Layers panel to load it as a selection. Now when you fill with a color it only fills the selected areas. Another way is to lock the transparency of the layer. You know, that little checkerboard icon to the right of the word “Lock” near the top of the Layers panel. I’ll wait while you check; it’s the one you probably never use. Or you could try this instead: When you fill with the Foreground color using the keyboard shortcut Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace), or the Background color using CommandDelete (PC: Ctrl-Backspace), add the Shift key. Adding the Shift key will lock the transparency so you don’t fill it.

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CONVERTING IMAGES Do you have a ton of images that you need to convert? Perhaps you have PNG screenshots that you want to convert to JPEGs for uploading to your website? (Yes, PNG-24s are way bigger than JPEGs, unless they’re line art or flat color.) You could open and save each image, or you could create an action and run it in batch mode. Instead, try using the Image Processor (File>Scripts>Image Processor). Here you can access a tool that will save your images to a different format, compress them, and change their sizes. You can even run actions on the images that you’re converting and add copyright info. This is a big timesaver and one I use a lot!

055 ALL IMAGES BY COLIN SMITH

COLUMN

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DesignMakeover JAKE WIDMAN

CLIENT

ScottMadden Management Consultants www.scottmadden.com

website management before

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Original website

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“The amount of content, already large, had continued to increase since the last site refresh, and it wasn’t as accessible as it could be.”

ScottMadden, with offices in Atlanta, Georgia, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Westborough, Massachusetts, is a general management consulting firm with four main practice areas: energy, clean technology and sustainability, grid transformation, and corporate and shared services. “We started in 1983 focusing on the energy industry, and then expanded into our other practice areas,” explains senior marketing specialist Mary Tew. The company offers an array of services ranging from strategic planning through implementation to improving operations. The firm’s clients come from higher education, government, entertainment, and more. ScottMadden put up its first website in the ’90s and a more robust site in 2009, according to Titi Ellis, the company’s marketing strategist. The site serves as the firm’s calling card to potential clients: the traffic comes from about 40% organic search and 30% paid, says Tew, plus a lot of referral traffic. It contains a lot of content—“much more than most companies in the management consulting field,” says Ellis. By this past spring, however, the site was no longer representing ScottMadden the way the company wanted. The last redesign had been seven years ago, and “seven years in Web time is a lot of time,” Ellis adds. The amount of content, already large, had continued to increase since the last site refresh, and it wasn’t as accessible as it could be. “We wanted to make sure that people were able to get to that content and see the thought leadership pieces we’ve put so much energy into producing,” Ellis continues. “We also wanted to make sure that when people came to the site, it was clear that we have several practice areas. We were an energy consulting firm to start with, and the old design reflected that focus, so the other services were not as prominent.” To satisfy these concerns, and to keep the site fresh, ScottMadden embarked on a site makeover that culminated in a launch this past April.

makeover submissions We’re looking for product packaging or labels, print advertisements, websites, and magazine covers that are currently in the marketplace for future “design makeovers.” So if you or someone you know has a design that you’d like us to consider making over, or if you’re a designer and you’d like to be considered for a future “Design Makeover,” send us an email at [email protected]. (Note: This is purely a design exercise and the designers do not work directly with the client, create functioning websites, etc.) We also cover real-world makeovers in this column, so let us know if you recently had a branding makeover or if you did a branding makeover for a client that you’d like us to consider.

› ›

DESIGN MAKEOVER

CLIENT

ScottMadden Management Consultants www.scottmadden.com

Original website

“The old site still looked good, but the company was hearing more and more…that potential clients didn’t pick up on the corporate shared services aspect of the business.”

A major driver of the site makeover was that “we wanted people to know as soon as they came to the site who ScottMadden is and what we can do for them,” says Ellis. “Our site is more for branding than for lead generation.” The old site still looked good, but the company was hearing more and more from potential buyers and from representatives in the field working on business development that potential clients didn’t pick up on the corporate shared services aspect of the business. “That was the first indication that we needed to do something,” says Ellis. They’d been hearing this feedback for a while, but it really started to ramp up in 2014 and 2015. ScottMadden began looking into revamping the website in late fall 2014. In early 2015, they started researching vendors and soon selected the design and marketing firm Atlantic BT, also located in Raleigh. The referral came through a third party who worked with both, according to the project manager for Atlantic BT, Andrea Osborn. Tori Pratt, senior digital marketing strategist at Atlantic BT, explains that the redesign started with interviewing Scott­Madden users, well before any actual design decisions were made. “We interviewed eight sample users, some of them people who actually were evaluating them to become a client and some current clients,” Pratt says. “We got a lot of feedback saying that ScottMadden’s Web presence didn’t match what working with them was actually like.” Clients didn’t feel that the website showcased the knowledge and expertise that are present in their interactions with ScottMadden and in the quality of the company’s work. “People were overwhelmed by the amount of information on the homepage and had difficulty identifying who ScottMadden was and what they did,” Pratt continues.

about the client

ScottMadden Management Consultants ScottMadden’s tagline is “Smart. Focused. Done Right.” The company’s self-description says those words serve as a reminder to every employee of the firm’s high standards and the expectations of their clients. “It is this results-oriented focus that has earned us the trust and confidence of our clients and helped expand our business beyond the energy industry,” the statement continues. The company prides itself on “consistently delivering an exceptional consulting experience that addresses the unique challenges of each client.” To achieve that, ScottMadden works with its clients in small, hands-on consulting teams, relying on active collaboration to facilitate an open exchange of ideas. The company vows to “hold ourselves to high standards through a belief that client success is the best measure of our own success. Meet with ScottMadden, and meet the future with confidence.”

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the project

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DESIGN MAKEOVER

DESIGNER

Atlantic BT www.atlanticbt.com

the process Insight Library - ScottMadden V2.1

Insights Library

Insight - Gated Content Desktop

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Insights >

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energy

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Strange Brew: Adapting to Changing Fundamentals

Case Study

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energy

case study

56 results found for energy

report

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webinar

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organizational change

shared services

Gated resources (indicated with an icon) will open a modal with a gradient overlay requesting the users’ contact information in order to proceed.

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Article

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Coal’s Slow Burn

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EEI Strategic Issues Survey

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Organizational Placement and Governance of Sustainability Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor indidunt…

Coal’s Slow Burn

DOE Loan Guarantee Program

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Standard navigation and header elements will be determined in page design. This header is a placeholder only.

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Breadcrumbs will show the user where they are within the site navigation and provide an alternate means of navigation via backtracking.

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Search results will be summarized and will include the term(s) used and the number of results found.

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Insights will be displayed on a “tile,” which will include enough information that the user can judge whether they are interested in viewing the insight in more detail. Information will include: • Title • Date published • Summary statement • Resource type (icon and label) • Indicator if the resource is “gated”

Report Video Webinar White Paper

Capabilities General Management Organizational Change Change Management

April 2010

EEI Strategic Issues Survey

An IT Value Creation Framework

Summer 2010

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White Paper

Performance Management Shared Services

April 2010

Energy Industry Update

Organizational Placement and Governance of Sustainability

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Regulatory Minute

February 2015

Proactively Plan and Shape Your Global Business Service

Coal’s Slow Burn

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November 2013

Article

Area of Focus

White Paper

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Filtering options will be displayed in a right sidebar. When scanning a page, users often scan in an “F” pattern down the left side of the page. Placing the filters on the right will draw the users attention to the available insights first.

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Detailed information about the gated resource will be displayed in a modal. Providing a description or abstract up-front will help the user determine whether the resource is of interest to him/her before requiring the user to provide personal information.

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Filter options will be categorized and organized in accordions, which will expand to display all options underneath. Accordions allow the user to expand the option(s) they are interested in exploring without overwhelming them with all available options.

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The user may cancel the request and return to the full insight library via the “x” icon at the top.

Wireframes

Sustainability Minute February 2015

DOE Loan Guarantee Program

October 2011

Resources that are not gated will take the user directly to the insight.

Note: iconography (e.g., resource type, gated resources) will be created custom during the visual design. Icons used here are placeholders only.

Merger Integration Process Redesign Project Management

Setback for Demand Response in Organized Markets

January 2014

Technology Services

July 2010

EEI Strategic Issues Survey

Sustainability Minute

Proactively Plan and Shape Your Global Business Service

White Paper

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Energy Industry Update

Setback for Demand Response in Organized Markets

Article

October 2011

Traditional Energy

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EEI Strategic Issues Survey

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November 2013

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Grid Transformation

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Case Study

Case Study Report

White Paper Proactively Plan and Shape Your Global Business Service

Energy Industry Update Minute

OurKreb View on Climate Tina Change

DOE Loan Guarantee Program

Presentation

Featured

Type of Insight:

Case Study

To access this content, please provide your email address and November 2013 Video White Paper March 2015 we will send you the link to download the file.

White Paper

Our View on Climate Change

Article

Performance Improvement

Refine Insights Requires contact information

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January 2014

Coal’s Slow Burn Proactively Plan and ShapeEmail Address: Your Global Business Service

Video

technology services

Innovative Ratemaking: Multiyear Rate Plans

Trends in Manning HR Analytics Scott

Downsizing: Fairly, Legally, Ethically, and Respectfully

Read More

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Refine Insights

March 2012

Natural Resource Planning Innovative Ratemaking: North Carolina Charges Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor Multiyear Rate Plans Annual Fee for All-Electric indidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipicing elit, sed do eiusmod Vehicles tempor indidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipicing elit, sed do eiusmodLorem tempor indidunt. sit amet, ipsum dolor sitLorem amet, ipsum dolor Lorem ipsumconsectetur dolor sit amet,adipicing elit, sed consectetur adipicing elit,Lorem sed ipsum dolor consectetur adipicing elit, sed adipicing elit, do eiusmod tempor indidunt. sit amet, consectetur do eiusmod temporindidunt. indidunt…Lorem ipsum do eiusmod sed do eiusmod tempor dolor sittempor amet,indidunt… consectetur adipicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor indidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur March 2012 December 2010 February 2015 White Paper Report Clean Tech Minute adipicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor indidunt.

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Energy Industry Update

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April 2010

Fleet Optimization

Functional Areas Author

Titi Ellis recalls the extensive interview process as well. “We went through a substantial amount of discovery that included user interviews as well as meetings with our stakeholders and brainstorming on the goals we had for the site.” In response to what was gleaned from the meetings and interviews, Atlantic BT produced a series of wireframes depicting the taxonomy and navigation of the site. Those led to further meetings in which the ScottMadden team would go through the wireframes and give feedback. “The approach we have for any site is to identify who the users are and why they go to the site,” explains Ricardo Cortes, UI designer at Atlantic BT. “If you look at ScottMadden, users go there to read a lot.” That meant that a big part of the redesign was going to be organizing the content. “We started the process assuming the content would be siloed,” says Pratt. “But when we got into what the site currently contained and what they wanted it to contain, we realized that their practice areas and topics and people are all really closely tied together, and that it wasn’t going to work if we built it with silos.” Not until the site organization and flow was established did the actual visual design begin. “We built a 1920-pixel canvas with 1175 pixels of living page, and we established a 12-column grid,” says Cortes. “That way, when you move from desktop to mobile, everything syncs with the same parameters, and the responsiveness of the whole site is never compromised.” ScottMadden chose to go with Google fonts for the layouts and expressed a preference for sans serif. “They really liked Montserrat,” says Cortes, “but we decided that wasn’t suitable for body copy. We used that for the H1 through H3 titles, and for the body copy we’re using Open Sans.” The text was all carefully leaded to provide enough breathing space that it would be easy for readers to digest the content.

“In response to what was gleaned from the meetings and interviews, Atlantic BT produced a series of wireframes depicting the taxonomy and navigation of the site.”

› ›

DESIGN MAKEOVER

DESIGNER

Atlantic BT www.atlanticbt.com

the results

After all the brainstorming and wireframe work, there wasn’t a lot of back-and-forth about the actual visual design. ScottMadden already had branding guidelines, and they informed Atlantic BT’s design decisions. “It started with a brand standard that they had already established, so we had a good foundation to work with when it came to fresh design,” says Osborn. Moreover, “our design process, from discovery into design, really tries to get a lot of the visual and content elements solidified before we go into design,” explains Pratt. “We aim to produce one mockup that hits the nail on the head the first time. We try not to produce the visuals until we’re as close to final as possible.” The new site was launched in April of this year. It hasn’t been long enough to really acquire metrics on how well it’s performing, but ScottMadden had about a month of data at the time of this writing. That initial data shows that traffic has at least held steady, and the company is getting a lot of positive feedback from clients and staff. “We don’t hear that people don’t know who we are any more,” says Ellis. ”I think that the look and feel fits our brand and tone. You can clearly see our search capabilities and the various ways you can browse the content.” For its part, Atlantic BT is satisfied as well. “The end result was a really good collaboration on both ends,” says Cortes. Pratt agrees: “Looking back on what we ended up creating, and on what we learned from our surveys with the users at the very beginning, I think we achieved a lot of our goals for the way people perceive ScottMadden. The result is a lot better at communicating what they do and their expertise.”

about the designers

Atlantic BT was founded in 1998, when “the Internet was an upstart technology,” according to the company site. Over the past 18 years, Atlantic BT has “helped more than 1,000 clients achieve their digital potential.” That wording points to the way the company positions itself. “We’ve been called a Web design firm, a technology consultancy, and a marketing agency,” reads its About Us page. “All these labels are true, but it’s only by bringing them together that you grasp who we are: digital problem solvers.” The firm’s vision is to serve clients with solutions that continue to work for years into the future. “To accomplish this, we empower our employees with autonomy, mastery, and purpose. This means striking the right balance between work and play, treating everyone at Atlantic BT as a trusted family member.” The company’s ultimate goal is to inspire themselves, their clients, and their community toward a better and smarter future. ■

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Final website

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HOW TO › ›

InDesign Tips

advance and enhance your indesign skills

DAVE CLAYTON

This issue we’re going to look at some tips on working with objects, color options, grids and guides, and print templates, and then we’ll finish up with a couple of fun InDesign Easter eggs! MAKE MULTIPLE OBJECTS THE SAME SIZE This is a cool trick when you quickly want to make all the images or objects in a document the same size, especially when you resized one and forgot to resize the others at the same time. First, after you’ve set the height and width of the first object using the Selection tool (V), select the remaining objects, and choose Object>Transform Again>Transform Sequence Again Individually. All of the selected objects will resize to the same dimensions.

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ROUNDED CORNER EFFECTS To create a rounded corner effect, click on a frame with the Selection tool (V) to select it, then click the yellow square that appears near the top right of the frame to activate Live Corners. Yellow diamonds will appear in each corner of the frame. Click-and-drag any of these yellow diamonds to increase/decrease the rounded corner effect. If you clickand-hold for a second or two before you start dragging, you’ll get a live preview of the corners changing. If you want a different corner style, just hold down Option (PC: Alt), then

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THE EFFECTS PANEL—JUST LIKE PHOTOSHOP! There’s a special panel in InDesign that you’ll like if you use blend modes in Photoshop; it’s called the Effects panel (Window>Effects). In the drop-down menu at the top left of the panel, you’ll find most of the same blend modes that are available in Photoshop. This is especially useful if you’d like to blend text over a photo. Here we have an example ©ADOBE STOCK/BENJAMINJK

HIDING OBJECTS To hide a selected object or objects without having to jump into the Layers panel, just press Command-3 (PC: Ctrl-3). To make them appear again, press Command-Option-3 (PC: Ctrl-Alt-3).

click any of the yellow diamonds to cycle through the styles. If you only want to change one corner at a time, hold down Shift-Option (PC: Shift-Alt) and click-and-drag the yellow diamond in the corner that you want to change (or click to cycle through the styles).

with four versions of the word “Photography,” each with a different blend mode to show how it reacts with the image below: (from top to bottom) Multiply, Hard Light, Difference, and Normal. You can play around with different blend modes to get the best effect depending on the color of your text and the image you’ve used. You can also apply other effects (such as Drop Shadows, Inner and Outer Glows, and Bevel and Emboss) from the Effects panel either by clicking the flyout menu at the top right of the panel and going under the Effects option, or double-clicking on the object in the Effects panel to open the Effects dialog. COLOR IN INDESIGN: QUICK TIPS To quickly swap the stroke and fill colors of an object without going to the Tools panel, just select the object or objects with the Selection tool (V), hold down Shift, then press X, and the two colors will swap.

› › I N D E S I G N T I PS

SAVING TIME WITH PRINT TEMPLATES One of the things I get asked a lot is what size documents are needed for business cards, letterheads, compliment slips, and flyers. You could Google these to find your answers but many online print companies supply free templates. MOO Inc, for example, offers InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop templates to help you create your artwork for all of their products. Just follow their instructions on how to use them. You can always ask your preferred online printer or local print company if they have templates of their own. GUIDES IN INDESIGN: QUICK TIPS Command-Option-G (PC: Ctrl-Alt-G) selects all the guides on a page or spread. If you want to draw both a horizontal and vertical guide at the same time, just Command-drag (PC: Ctrl-drag) from where the rulers intersect at the top left of the document window. If the rulers aren’t visible, press Command-R (PC: Ctrl-R) to make them appear and the same shortcut to hide them again. If you’re dragging out a vertical guide but quickly want to change it to a horizontal guide (or vice versa), just pressand-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key and it switches between the two. If you want to delete all the guides, just Right-click in either ruler and choose Delete All Guides on Spread. CREATING CUSTOM GRIDS When setting up a new document, more often than not we use grids and guides to assist us with laying out objects on the page. It makes for a more structured and tidier layout. I prefer to set up my grid before placing any content. Let’s take a look at how to do that. Create a new document (File>New>Document) with an A4 Page Size, 6 Columns, 5 mm Gutters, and a 3 mm Bleed all the way around. Click OK. Next, go to Layout>Create

Guides. In the dialog that appears, tick the Preview checkbox so you can see what you’re creating. Depending on your project, choose how many rows and columns you think you need. Because we created 6 columns when we created the document, we’ll set Columns to 6 and Rows to 5 in this example. Before you click okay, look at the two choices for Fit Guides To: Margins or Page. By checking Margins, the guides line up with the margins, but they don’t line up if you check Page. Because this will be a document for print, I want to work within my margins and this is how my columns are set up. You can still place content to the edge of the page; just ensure you allow for the page bleed with images. INDESIGN EASTER EGGS Do you want to create a rainbow stroke on an object? Who wouldn’t? Pull up the Stroke panel (Window>Stroke) and select Stroke Styles from the flyout menu at the top right. From the Stroke Styles panel that appears, click the New button. Name the new style “Rainbow,” select Stripe in the Type drop-down menu, and click OK. Now click OK on the Stroke Styles dialog. The Rainbow stripe will now appear at the bottom of the Type drop-down menu in the Stroke panel or Control panel. You can do the same with “Rasta” for a red, yellow, and green stripe. This extra tip is for the Dash stroke option, and one that Kaylee Greer is going to love. Just follow the same steps as above, but this time select Dash as the Type and name it “Woof”—instant dog paw stroke! Try the same with “Feet” for footprints.

One last little extra tip: If you want to quickly preview all the different types of strokes that you can apply to an object in your document, select the object, hover your cursor over the Type drop-down menu in either the Stroke panel or Control panel, and then use the scroll wheel on your mouse to quickly apply all of the different strokes. ■

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If you want to quickly reset the stroke and fill to their defaults of no fill and a black stroke, just select the object and press D on the keyboard. If you create a shape and apply a color, and then create an additional shape and want to apply the same color, just hit the Comma key on your keyboard and it will make it the same. If you use the Type on a Path tool (Shift-T) to add type inside a shape, and you want to quickly jump between the two in the Swatches panel to change their colors, just press J on the keyboard and it will jump back and forth between the color of the text and the color of the shape.

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NEXT TOUR STOPS IN 2016 Nashville, TN | Minneapolis, MN Milwaukee, WI | Las Vegas, NV For more dates and information visit kelbyonelive.com

Kevin Newsome

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A Look at Using, Creating, and Selling Stock Imagery

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By Jesús Ramirez

Stock images are an essential tool for creative professionals. Many of the challenges we face as creatives can quickly and easily be overcome by using stock assets in our projects. Whether you’re a designer

replacing a background, stock images can help you complete your projects without having to spend the time and money on a custom photo shoot.

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mocking up a website, or a photographer

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HOW TO USE ADOBE STOCK WITH ADOBE PHOTOSHOP

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The biggest difference between Adobe Stock and its competitors is that Adobe Stock directly integrates with Photoshop (and several other Adobe applications). Best of all, this integration allows you to download free lowresolution watermarked versions of the images before you actually have to license them. Once you license an image, Photoshop will automatically update the watermarked file with the high-resolution version, and all nondestructive edits will be applied to the licensed version. This is a huge time and money saver, because now you only need to spend money on the images that you know will work for your project. You also don’t have to spend time saving the images to your computer and importing them into Photoshop. I recently created a personal project, used in the opening spread of this article, after watching the movie The Jungle Book using only Photoshop and Adobe Stock images. I wanted to create something like what I’d seen on the big screen. Of course, I couldn’t just go out to the jungle and start shooting images for my project, but I could use Adobe Stock to bring my idea to life.

This composite isn’t your typical project because all of the images that were used are from Adobe Stock, but this project did give me the opportunity to push the Libraries panel and Adobe Stock to their limits. Through the Libraries panel in Photoshop, I searched for assets as I needed them, and downloaded quite a few low-resolution watermarked versions. In total, I download 76 image previews, but only ended up licensing eight of them since I knew exactly which images would work for my project. Using this workflow allowed me to spend less time searching and downloading images, and more time compositing. Adobe Stock

Back in 2014 Adobe took the first step in making the process of finding stock images quicker and easier by acquiring Fotolia, a world-leading image bank hosting more than 50 million assets. Soon after the acquisition, Adobe quickly integrated Fotolia into the Creative Cloud as Adobe Stock. This game-changing addition to the Creative Cloud instantly revolutionized the workflow of many artists by adding a built-in stock library directly into Photoshop, where you can search, browse, and license images without ever leaving the app! This integration makes Adobe Stock far more efficient than competing services such as iStockphoto or Shutterstock, where you have to take many more time-consuming steps to find and download your images. Having a Creative Cloud account isn’t necessary to download and use Adobe Stock assets; all you need is an Adobe ID, which can be created for free at accounts .adobe.com. Then, you can search and download images directly to your computer from the Adobe Stock website. Without a Creative Cloud account, however, you won’t be able to take advantage of the Libraries panel feature in Photoshop. In this article we’ll discuss how you can get the most out of Adobe Stock, and how you too can start contributing your content and get paid for it!

Before you can start using and taking full advantage of Adobe Stock, you first have to understand what Libraries are and how they work. Creative Cloud Libraries allows you to create, categorize, share, and store assets such as brushes, color swatches, text styles, vector images, and Adobe Stock images in one easily accessible place. In Photoshop, you can access the Libraries panel by going to Window>Libraries. Then in the drop-down menu at the top left of the panel, select Create New Library and enter a name for it. Anything that you add to this library will be accessible to you from any desktop or mobile app that supports Libraries, as long as you log in with the same Adobe ID. These libraries support Adobe Stock, and you can save your image previews directly to them.

Now that you know about the Creative Cloud Libraries and Adobe Stock, the next step is to learn how to search and download previews into Photoshop.

SEARCHING AND BROWSING FOR IMAGES ON ADOBE STOCK You can search for stock images on Adobe Stock in two ways: at the Adobe Stock website , or in the Libraries panel inside Photoshop. The Libraries panel not only shows you the libraries and assets that you have on your Creative Cloud account but it also allows you to search for stock assets by entering any search term in the Adobe Stock search bar; for example, you can search for the keyword “Jungle.” You’ll then see the results of your query right inside the panel. You can hover over any image to reveal two icons. Clicking on the icon to the left will license and save the high-resolution image into your library, while clicking on the

icon to the right will save the watermarked preview image to your library.

Although you could stay in this panel and find all your assets through it, sometimes it’s best to use the Adobe Stock website if you’re looking to download multiple preview images from the same search results. With the Libraries panel, once you click to either download a preview or license an image, the panel will exit out of the search, forcing you to repeat the search if you want to download more images from those same search results. Through the Adobe Stock website, you can download as many preview images as you like without having to restart the search. To search on the Adobe Stock website head over to stock.adobe.com, or from Photoshop go to File>Search Adobe Stock. On the homepage, you can start your search by entering a keyword in the search bar.

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CREATIVE CLOUD LIBRARIES

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From the search results page, you can browse and find images that you think will work for your project. When you hover over an image in the search results, you’ll see three icons. The first one from the left allows you to license the image immediately and download it to a Creative Cloud library. The middle icon allows you to save a watermarked preview to a Creative Cloud library. Clicking on the icon at the right will create a new search for similar images.

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Hover your cursor over the middle icon and click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the Library label to open a display that will give you several options to save the preview. If you don’t have the Creative Cloud you can select Download under Save to Device to save the file directly to your computer. You can then open the preview in Photoshop as you would open any other image.

If you have a Creative Cloud account you can use the Open In feature to open the preview directly in Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere, or After Effects. In this example, I will save the preview in a library called “Jungle Book.” Once you save a preview, either through the Libraries panel or through the Adobe Stock website, you can head back to Photoshop and open your Libraries panel and find the library where you saved your preview. You can then click-and-drag the watermarked preview image from the Libraries panel directly onto your canvas. You can also double-­click it to open it.

If you decide that the image is appropriate for your project, you can license it by Right-clicking on the thumb­ nail in the Libraries panel and choosing License Image. Once the image is licensed, all linked instances of the file are automatically updated to the high-resolution versions without the watermark. This update will also include all non­destructive adjustments made to the layer.

you visit. One way of avoiding this issue is to skip over the images that are found on the first page of the search results when you sort by popularity since those images are likely to have been used in many other projects. When selecting stock illustrations, always search for and download vector files, ideally vectors that include Adobe Illustrator files, which will make it easier for you to edit parts of the illustration if needed. You can filter your search results to show only vector files. Click the sliders icon to the right of the Search field on the search bar in Adobe Stock, make sure Images is selected at the top, and then click Vectors under Sub-category followed by the Update button.

©Adobe Stock/Kaikoro

If you’re working on a user interface for a website or mobile device, download stock elements that are part of a kit, or set, that includes multiple designs so that the individual pieces you use throughout your design will match in look and style.

GETTING MORE OUT OF ADOBE STOCK

How Designers Can Get More Out of Adobe Stock When working on a design project, you may need to use several design elements such as textures, photos, illustrations, and icons. Many times the budget and time isn’t there for you to create them all yourself, and that’s where Adobe Stock comes in. When searching for photos to use in your design, remember that you may not always find the perfect fit, but you can sometimes make an image work with your design by making edits to it, such as changing the background or changing the color of objects in the photo. The uniqueness and style of the photo that you use is really important as well. Avoid using images that have been used by many other designers. You don’t want to use a photo that can be found on every other website that

How Photographers Can Get More Out of Adobe Stock As a photographer, you may only think of Adobe Stock as a place to find vector graphics to help you with your marketing materials, but it can actually be a great tool to help improve your photos. I recently traveled to the Mayan Pyramids of Teotihuacan, near Mexico City. One panorama that I shot during this trip was a photo that I loved, but that day the sky was plain and gloomy. I knew that adding a more interesting, but nondistracting sky would enhance the image as a whole. Using Adobe Stock, I searched for “sky clouds panorama” and quickly found an image that matched my scene perfectly.

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Now that you know how to search and download Adobe Stock assets into Photoshop, let’s talk about how you can better utilize those assets in your projects.

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SELLING YOUR WORK THROUGH STOCK

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Whether you’re a photographer or designer, you can quickly start selling your images through Adobe Stock, making your work available to the world’s largest creative community. The process of becoming a contributor is quite easy; all you need to do is set up your account and submit your content to the Fotolia.com website. Your content must meet the strict quality standards, of course, but the setup and upload process is very simple. Click here for more information on creating an account.

©Adobe Stock/science photo

Jesús Ramirez

With a few color and brightness adjustments I was able to match the color of the original sky, and the stock image fit right in. It added more interest and detail to the photo without overtaking or disrupting the original shot. When working on your photos, look for elements that are missing from your shot. Are there any small details that you can add that will make huge improvements to your image? If so, take a look at Adobe Stock, and I’m sure you’ll find what you need. If you’re not familiar with compositing or combining images, then you should check out the courses on compositing from Glyn Dewis and Joel Grimes, both on KelbyOne.com.

Once your content has been uploaded and approved, your images will become available on both the Fotolia and Adobe Stock websites. You’ll be paid any time one of your images is licensed. The payout is 33% of the cost of the image, which gets you $3.30 on a photo that’s sold on demand, and about $1 for a photo licensed to a user under an annual plan. (Source: fotolia.com/Info /Contributors/Royalties.) As with every other creative field, there’s an immense amount of competition between Adobe Stock contributors, and your work needs to be high quality and really stand out in order to make significant sales. The key is to remember that you’re always selling to another creative, who is looking for a solution to a creative problem. Your goal is to solve that problem. In the next few sections, you’ll learn how photographers can create better stock images that will sell to designers, and how designers can create better stock images that will sell to photographers.

HOW DESIGNERS CAN CREATE BETTER STOCK IMAGES If you decide to sell your graphics and vectors on Adobe Stock and you want to be successful, you have to think about what types of images will sell commercially and how designers and photographers will use them.

©Adobe Stock/jackie

©Adobe Stock/123levit

©Adobe Stock/Vjom

©Adobe Stock/VIGE.co

Create Sets of Graphics For designers, a kit, or set, of graphics files tends to sell better. If a photographer is creating a marketing piece, he’ll want to use a set of graphics that have a similar style and design to keep things cohesive. Think about how you can provide solutions to photographers. Consider creating a complete set of brochures or flyers that they could use and customize for their business. The important thing is to offer many solutions for the problems that they face.

Don’t just copy currents trends, though; mix them with your own style and make something unique that people will love.

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©Adobe Stock/shuruev

Design Graphics that Use Popular Trends and Styles When you create your graphics, think about the design styles that are popular right now. Photographers looking for graphics to include in their projects don’t want to use those 90s glossy pill buttons, so avoid creating these old clichés at all costs! Instead, focus on creating designs with a style that’s trendy and popular now. Currently, that would be Flat Design: a minimalistic design approach that re­moves unnecessary clutter, and features clean, sharp edges, with bright colors and a two-dimensional style.

©Adobe Stock/drakulita05

©Adobe Stock/haller

Another current popular design style is the Low Poly style, which is a design created by using simple geometric shapes to create angular, minimalist graphics.

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©Adobe Stock/Andrey Popov

HOW PHOTOGRAPHERS CAN CREATE BETTER STOCK IMAGES There are so many paths that you can take to be a successful stock photographer, but no matter which path you take, one thing is certain—your final image is not the final image. Whether you’re photographing people, city­ scapes, or isolated objects, something you need to keep in mind is that the photos you sell will always be part of a larger project, which may include text, logos, and other design elements. When taking photos for stock photography, don’t just shoot things that you think might sell, photograph what you enjoy, what you’re passionate about. If you don’t enjoy shooting the images, then it’s probably not worth the time, and that disinterest will definitely show in your final images. If you’re not sure where to start, pick a niche that interests you, and create a lot of content in that area. You might be surprised and stumble onto something that’s in high demand with little or no competition. No matter where you decide to start, here are a few tips that will help you stand out from the crowd and create better stock images.

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©Adobe Stock/kuznetsov_konsta

The Importance of a Good Background The background is one of the most important elements of a stock photo. It helps you provide the setting of the scene and set the overall feel of the image. Generally speaking,

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©Adobe Stock/Alen-D

aren’ t a solid color, the relationship between the focal point and the negative space becomes really important. The key is to keep the background from overpowering the focal point.”

Create a Series of Photos—Don’t Do One-Offs As a designer, I can tell you that there’s nothing worse than finding a photo that would be perfect only if it were in a different orientation or different angle. Make sure that you don’t ever cause that pain for a designer, and maximize every opportunity when you’re shooting for stock images

by capturing multiple and varied images of the same subject that can meet the widest range of needs. Shoot both horizontal and portrait views. Shoot low angles, high angles, close-ups, and wide angles. Shoot anything a potential artist might use, and think of the wide range of needs of different buyers.

FINAL THOUGHTS I hope that you enjoyed this overview of Adobe Stock! If you haven’t tried using it in one of your projects, then give it a shot. At least try the free watermarked previews and see how using stock content can enhance your work. To learn more about Adobe Stock, you can visit adobe stock.com or visit their FAQ page. ■ Jesús Ramirez is a digital graphics expert, speaker, and educator specializing in Adobe Photoshop. He’s an Adobe Community Professional, and a content creator for the Adobe Creative Cloud Blog. Jesús is best known as the founder of the Photoshop Training Channel, one of the most popular Photoshop YouTube channels in the world.

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there are two types of backgrounds that you can have when dealing with stock photos: An isolated background, which is a plain solid color (usually white); and the original background from where the photo was shot. When shooting photos with backgrounds that aren’t a solid color, the relationship between the focal point and the negative space becomes really important. The key is to keep the background from overpowering the focal point. In the examples above, the image on the bottom really doesn’t have a great background and it uses negative space very poorly. Can you imagine a logo or text around that image? As a designer you’d be more likely to choose the image on the top. Notice how that top image contains no unnecessary or disrupting background elements. The background helps isolate the subject, while not distracting from her. There’s also great use of negative space, leaving plenty of room for logos and text.

©Adobe Stock/mocker_bat

“When shooting photos with backgrounds that

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PHOTOGRAPHERS TALK ABOUT THE FOCAL LENGTH OF THEIR LENSES, BUT WHAT IS FOCAL LENGTH AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? THIS MONTH’S “PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS” ANSWERS THESE TWO QUESTIONS AND EXAMINES THEIR RAMIFICATIONS. HOWEVER, BEFORE JUMPING INTO THOSE ANSWERS, LET’S BEGIN BY DEFINING THE TERM FOCAL LENGTH. 

IMAGE COURTESY OF ADOBE STOCK

› › PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS

FOCAL LENGTH DEFINED Focal length is the distance measured in millimeters from the optical center (also known as the center nodal point) of the lens to the sensor when the lens is focused at infinity. Let’s break this definition down: ♦♦  Optical

center or center nodal point is the place in a lens where the light inverts the image.

♦♦  Infinity

is the point where the optical center is closest to the sensor while producing a sharp image of a distant subject.

The normal focal length is specific to the camera’s sensor or film size. It’s the measurement in millimeters of the diagonal of the camera’s sensor or film. Normal lens focal lengths rarely exactly match the diagonal measurement of the sensor. This is one place where “closies” do count. The chart below right shows format sizes, diagonals, and the nearest normal lens for common digital and film formats.

THE NORMAL LENS DIVIDING LINE Knowing the normal lens for a camera is important. The normal focal length is the one between wide-angle and telephoto lenses. Any focal length shorter than the normal focal length is considered a wide-­ angle. Focal lengths longer than normal are telephoto.

Format

Dimensions

Diagonal (mm)

Normal Lens (mm)

APS C

15.1 x22.7

27.3

28 or 30

Full Frame (35mm film)

24 x36

43.3

50 or 55

6 x4.5cm

56x42

71.8

75

6 x 6cm film

56x 56

79.2

80

4x 5" sheet film

93x 118

150.2

150

8 x10" sheet film

194x 245

312.5

300

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NORMAL FOCAL LENGTH & THE CAMERA’S FORMAT

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PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS › ›

FORMAT MATTERS The normal lens for an APS C sensor camera is 28mm. Normal on a full-frame is 50mm. The 50mm on an APS C camera is a telephoto while the APS C normal (28mm) on a full frame is a wide-angle. Normal on an 8x10 view camera is 300mm. On a fullframe DSLR, that lens is a telephoto with a 6x magnification.

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FOCAL LENGTH & DEPTH OF FIELD

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As focal length shortens, the apparent depth of field increases. The APS C sports a shorter focal length normal lens. These cameras have inherently more depth of field than the full frames because shorter focal lengths do equivalent work of larger formats. This makes them great for weddings and photojournalistic work. More of a scene is in focus at larger apertures. The downside is difficulty in throwing backgrounds out of focus. A 24mm lens at f/22 will give acceptable sharpness from about 2' to infinity. A 28mm normal lens on an APS C camera has almost that much depth of field too. The opposite is also true: The longer the focal length, the less the apparent depth of field. Notice that I use the word “apparent.” Depth of field is a function of the circle of confusion created by the size of the aperture in a lens. The smaller the apertures the more depth of field is created. Wide-angle lenses are physically much smaller than telephoto lenses. It goes to reason that their apertures are physically smaller as well. Since depth of field is a function of the actual diameter of the aperture of a lens, a deeper discussion of it is not appropriate here.

FORMAT & FOCAL LENGTH Let’s look at a photograph made on a 4x5" large-format on film compared to a fullframe sensor on 35mm film. A 90mm lens on the 4x5 is a wide-angle. On the full frame, it’s a telephoto. This photograph I made of Atlanta’s Westin Peachtree Plaza with a Sinar 4x5 camera with a 90mm lens shows the entire building, the sky, and the

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horizon. A 90mm lens on a 35mm camera delivers exactly the same subject size for the area it covers as shown by the 35mm frame overlay. That shot on a frame of 35mm film or a full-frame DSLR shows only a small section of the entire image that the large-format 4x5 camera recorded. The bottom line is that a 90mm lens is a 90mm lens no matter what format it covers.

36 x 24

22.5 x 15

CROP FACTOR: BUSTING THE MAGNIFICATION MYTH At the dawn of the DSLR, the only sensors that could be economically manufactured were the APS C size. They were smaller than the standard 35mm (24x36mm) format. The camera manufacturers marketed these cameras by telling the world the focal length was “magnified.” For APS C sensors, the “magnification” factor was 1.5. That means that a 100mm lens would have the effect of a 150mm lens. The truth was (and still is) that the APS C sensor produced a cropped version of the image that could be realized with a full-frame camera. Remember, the focal length of a given lens and therefore its magnification is the same no matter what format camera it’s on. This photograph of a cross-country skier (top right) in Alaska was made with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and 17–40mm f/4 lens at ISO 100, 1/200, and f/13. The full frame reveals the curve of ledge and the triangle of blue sky that the APS C sensor crops out.

PERSPECTIVE & FOCAL LENGTH

♦♦ Wide-angle distortion: Every photogra-

pher who has moved in close on a person with a wide-angle lens has experienced extension distortion. The face becomes super big while the body shrinks the farther away it is from the lens.

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There are two types of perspective distortion: extension and compression. Extension distortion is also called wide-angle distortion; compression distortion is known as tele­ photo distortion.

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PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS › ›

 Extreme wide-angle lenses (top-right) push scenes away from the camera. ♦♦ Telephoto

distortion: Long lenses compress subjects. The result looks like someone has smashed everything onto the background. Compare this photograph of the escalators made with a 400mm telephoto to the previous wide-angle version made with a 14mm.  A receding line of objects appears to stack on top of each other. A row of tombstones photographed at a small aperture on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Sigma 120–300mm f/2.8 lens with a Sigma 2x teleconverter at ISO 100, 1/20, f/18, and a 600mm focal length demonstrate compression distortion.

ONE LAST SECRET

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The focal length of the human eye is about 22mm-ish. The “ish” is because the retina that forms the image from light coming through the eye is curved. Its angle of view is about 53°. Normal lenses, interestingly, mimic the angle of view of human vision. The photograph of the escalators in the San Diego Convention Center (bottom right) shows how it looks to our eyes. Consider what the extreme focal lengths did to the same scene photographed from exactly the same place. Lenses today are better than anytime in the history of photography. Lenses with the shortest and longest focal lengths, unfortunately, are quite costly. There’s a solution to being able to use these lenses: rent them for a project. Owning a 600mm lens or a fish­eye makes little sense of the cents they cost compared to the price of renting them. Imagine a project, then Google “lens rentals.” Any focal length you can imagine for the major DSLR brands—Canon, Nikon, or Sony—is available to satisfy your creative explorations. ■

078 ALL IMAGES BY KEVIN AMES EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

LIGHTROOM THE ADOBE PHOTOSHOP LIGHTROOM HOW-TO MAGAZINE ®

®

MAGAZINE

®

UNDER THE LOUPE

Add new photos to Lightroom with Auto Import—this often-overlooked asset is surprisingly efficient. p86 PHOTO BY SCOTT KELBY

ISSUE 22

ADDING CONTRAST (AND HOW TO USE TONE CURVE)

LIGHTROOM WORKSHOP

TIPS & TRICKS

Understanding how to transfer and manage your camera phone images using Lightroom Mobile. p100

Scott Kelby

Sean McCormack

Rob Sylvan

Scott Kelby

&

&

BY SEÁN DUGGAN

Tips Tricks

BY SCOTT KELBY

Questions Answers

Maximum Workflow BY SEAN McCORMACK

perfectly clear complete

Under the L oupe B Y R O B S Y LVA N

save time with auto import

Lightroom Workshop

BY SCOTT KELBY

adding contrast (& how to use the tone curve)

lightroom magazine › contents › ›

Rob Sylvan

81 88 92 100 102

› ›

Lightroom Workshop

lightroom magazine

› ›

adding contrast (& how to use the tone curve) BY SCOTT KELBY

If I had to point to the biggest problem I see in most people’s images (we get hundreds sent to us each month for “Blind Photo Critiques” on our weekly photography talk show, The Grid), it’s not white balance or exposure problems, it’s that their images look flat (they lack contrast, big time). It’s the single biggest problem, and yet it’s about the easiest to fix (or it can be a bit complex, depending on how far you want to take this). I’ll cover both

Excerpted from The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC Book for Digital Photographers

methods here (the simple and the advanced):

› ›

lightroom magazine

› ›

Here’s our flat, lifeless image. Before we actually apply any contrast (which makes the brightest parts of the image brighter and the darkest parts darker), here’s why contrast is so important: when you add contrast, it (a) makes the colors more vibrant, (b) expands the tonal range, and (c) makes the image appear sharper and crisper. That’s a lot for just one slider, but that’s how powerful it is (in my opinion, perhaps the most underrated slider in Lightroom). Now, for those of you coming from a much earlier version of Lightroom, the Contrast slider used to have so little effect that we really didn’t use it at all—we had to use the Tone Curve to create a decent amount of contrast. But, Adobe fixed the math behind it back in Light­ room 4, and now it’s awesome.

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step two:

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Here, all I did was drag the Contrast slider to the right, and look at the difference. It now has all the things I mentioned above: the colors are more vibrant, the tonal range is greater, and the whole image looks sharper and snappier. This is such an important tweak, especially if you shoot in RAW mode, which turns off any contrast settings in your camera (the ones that are applied when you shoot in JPEG mode), so RAW images look less contrasty right out of the camera. Adding that missing contrast back in is pretty important and, it’s just one slider. By the way, I never drag it to the left to reduce contrast—I only drag it to the right to increase it.

SCOTT KELBY

step one:

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step three: Now, there’s a more advanced method of adding contrast using the Tone Curve panel (this is what we used to do before Adobe fixed the Contrast slider. But, before we get into it, I just want to let you know up front that I no longer use this method myself—the effect of the new Contrast slider is all I need for my own image editing—but I wanted to include it here for anyone who wants to learn it). If you scroll down past the Basic panel, you’ll find the Tone Curve panel (shown here). Look in the bottom of the panel, and you’ll see that Point Curve is set to Linear (shown circled here in red), which just means the curve is flat—there’s no contrast applied to the image yet (unless, of course, you already used the Contrast slider, but in this case I didn’t—the Contrast slider in the Basic panel is set to zero).

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The fastest and easiest way to apply contrast here is just to choose one of the presets from the Point Curve pop-up menu. For example, choose Strong Contrast and look at the difference in your photo. Look how much more contrasty the photo now looks—the shadow areas are stronger and the highlights are brighter, and all you had to do was choose this from a pop-up menu. If you look at the curve, you can now see a slight bend in it, almost like it’s forming a slight “S” shape. You’ll also see adjustment points added to the curve. The bump upward at the top third of the line increases the highlights, and the slight dip downward at the bottom increases the shadows. (Note: If you see sliders beneath your curve graph, you’re not quite in the right section of this panel, and you won’t see these points on your curve. To get to the right section, click on the Point Curve button to the right of the Point Curve pop-up menu to hide the sliders and see the points.)

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step five: If you think the Strong Contrast preset isn’t strong enough, you can edit this curve yourself, but it’s helpful to know this rule: the steeper you make that S-curve, the stronger the contrast. So, to make it steeper (and the image more contrasty), you’d move the point near the top of the curve (the highlights) upward and the bottom of the curve (the darks and shadows) downward. To move your top point higher, move your cursor over the point, and a two-headed arrow appears. Click-and-drag it upward (shown here) and the image gets more contrast in the highlights. Do the same at the bottom to increase the contrast in the shadows. By the way, if you start with the Linear curve, you’ll have to add your own points: Click about ¾ of the way up to add a highlights point, then drag it upward. Click about ¼ of the way up the curve to add a shadows point, and drag down until you have a steep S-curve and lots more contrast (as seen here).

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step six:

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There’s another way to add contrast, or stack more contrast on top of what you’ve already done, and that is by using the other section of the Tone Curve panel. To get to this, click on the little Point Curve button (shown circled here) to reveal the curve sliders. These sliders adjust the curve for you, and each represents part of the curve—dragging to the right increases the steepness of that tonal area and dragging to the left flattens out the tone curve in that area. The Highlights slider moves the top-right part of the curve and affects the very brightest parts of the image. The Lights slider affects the next brightest area (the ¼-tones). The Darks slider controls the midtone shadow areas (the ¾-tones). And, the Shadows slider controls the very darkest parts of the image. As you move a slider, you’ll see the curve change. Note: If you created an S-curve for contrast earlier, moving these sliders adds more contrast on top of what you’ve already done.

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step seven: Besides using the sliders, you can also use the Targeted Adjustment tool (or TAT, for short). The TAT is that little round target-looking icon in the top-left corner of the Tone Curve panel (shown circled here in red). It lets you click-and-drag (up or down) directly on your image and adjusts the curve for the part you’re clicking on. The crosshair part is actually where the tool is located (as shown on the right)—the target with the triangles is there just to remind you which way to drag the tool, which (as you can see from the triangles) is up and down.

You can have even more control over how the curve works by using the three Range slider knobs that appear at the bottom of the curve graph. They let you choose where the black, white, and midpoint ranges are that the tone curve adjusts (you determine what’s a shadow, what’s a midtone, and what’s a highlight by where you place them). For example, the Range slider knob on the left (circled here in red) divides the shadows and darks—the area that appears to the left of it will be affect­ ed by the Shadows slider. If you want to expand the Shadows slider’s range, clickand-drag that left Range slider knob to the right (as shown here). Now, your Shadows slider adjustments affect a larger range of your photo. The middle Range slider knob covers the midtones—clicking-and-dragging it to the right decreases the space between the midtone and highlight areas. So, your Lights slider now controls less of a range, and your Darks slider controls more of a range. To reset any of these sliders to their default position, just double-click directly on the one you want to reset.

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step nine:

Another thing you’ll want to know is how to reset your tone curve and start over from scratch—just double-click directly on the word Region and it resets all four sliders to 0. Also, to see a before/after of just the contrast you’ve added with the Tone Curve panel, toggle the Tone Curve adjustments off/on using the little switch on the left side of the panel header (shown circled here). Just click it on or off.

tip: adding mega-contrast If you did apply some Contrast in the Basic panel, using the Tone Curve actually adds more contrast on top of that contrast, so you get mega-contrast, when needed.

step 10:

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As we finish this off, here’s a before/after with our original image and after adding a nice bit of contrast. Adding contrast is important and is a powerful way to give your images some life. ■

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Under the Loupe

save time with auto import B Y R O B S Y LVA N

Lightroom’s Auto Import function is an often-overlooked asset with a lot of potential for increasing your efficiency and providing an alternative means for automatically adding new photos to your Lightroom catalog.

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The Auto Import function has been around since the beginning, and was originally the only way to shoot tethered. Now that Lightroom has a built-in Tethered Capture feature, Auto Import has faded from the limelight. There is, however, more to Auto Import than just shooting tethered, and as useful as Lightroom’s built-in tethering can be to your workflow, it still doesn’t support all of the cameras being used out there today (you can find a complete list of supported cameras here). Do you ever scan film or negatives? Do you use some kind of wireless file transfer to copy your photos to your computer (like an Eyefi card or similar)? Do you ever create images in other programs and would like an easy way to automatically import them into Lightroom? Well, you guessed it! Auto Import can help in each case. If you want to use the Auto Import function to shoot tethered then you’ll need an alternative way to transfer the images to a designated folder on your hard drive while you shoot (check with your camera manufacturer to see if they provide some kind of camera control software). I regularly hear from people who want to shoot tethered, but who use cameras that don’t have software for transferring images to a computer while shooting. Another option in those cases is wireless transfer from your camera to your computer using an Eyefi or similar Wi-Fi memory card, or maybe you have a camera that has built-in Wi-Fi functionality. An Eyefi card wirelessly transfers the images from your camera to a folder on your computer (check out eyefi.com for all the details).

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computer and have it appear in Lightroom (YMMV) using an Eyefi card. It’s wonderful not to have a cable attached to the camera, though. The fundamental operation of the Auto Import function is very simple. You choose (or create) an empty folder on your hard drive and you tell Lightroom to watch that folder and automatically import any photos that get saved into it. Let’s walk through an example setup to help bring this home.

step one: Go to File>Auto Import>Auto Import Settings to launch the Auto Import Settings dialog.

step two: In the Watched Folder section, click the Choose

A word of advice on wireless: It’s not nearly as fast as shooting tethered via a cable, and it’s not a great substitute for tethered capture if you’re using a camera that supports tethering, but it does open up possibilities when tethering isn’t an option. On average, it took between 20–30 seconds to wirelessly transfer a 30-MB RAW image from camera to

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button and select an existing folder, or create a new folder, to serve as the location into which new images will be saved. In my example, using the Eyefi Center software, I created a folder named “Watched” in my Pictures folder as the location to put all photos transferred from my Eyefi card.

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Note: The watched folder is actually a temporary location. During the Auto Import function, Lightroom will move each imported photo into a different destination folder (see next step) of your choosing. It’s critical that this folder start out completely empty, and that you don’t create any subfolders within it; otherwise the Auto Import won’t work.

step eight: Configure Initial Previews. This allows you to determine the rendering of previews after the photo has been imported. I find it helpful to set this to 1:1 because I usually want to check focus in this type of shooting scenario, and you need to do that at 1:1.

step three: Choose a Destination folder. Lightroom has to move each photo out of the watched folder as part of its normal operation, so you need to choose a folder to serve as the new destination. I created a folder called “TempTransfer” within the parent folder on my main drive for this purpose. After import, I can easily find the new images, process them, and move them into my regular organizational structure. step nine: Check the Enable Auto Import box at the top, and click OK. You’re ready to go! Note: There isn’t an option to convert to DNG using Auto Import, but you can always convert to DNG after import via the Library>Convert Photo to DNG menu.

step four: Choose a File Naming option.

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step five (optional): Apply a Develop preset, if desired.

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Here’s a bonus tip: You may not want to do this when you first configure the Auto Import, but if you’re shooting in a controlled environment (studio, office, spare bedroom, etc.), you could consider taking your first photo under the lighting setup you’re using, bring that photo into Develop, set the white balance and any other setting you know you want to apply to the rest of the photos from that shoot, then save those settings as a Develop preset. Then, you can update the configuration of the Auto Import dialog to include that new preset. Now, all the rest of your photos from that shoot will automatically be imported and have these develop settings applied at the same time.

step six (optional): Choose your Metadata preset. step seven (optional): Add any Keywords you want applied to all photos from this shoot. I prefer to leave it blank and keyword after the shoot.

From this point on, as long as Lightroom is open, when a photo appears in the watched folder it will be moved to the destination folder, added to the catalog, and have any settings applied to it that you configured in the Auto Import Settings dialog. A real nice feature of Auto Import is that the newest photo automatically becomes the active image in Lightroom, so when shooting tethered this way, I select either the destination folder in the Folders panel or the Current/Previous Import collection in the Catalog panel, press E to go to Loupe view, and then I can easily see each new photo as it’s imported. I’ll use my sad dog wearing his “cone of solitude” (poor guy will never be a father!) as a subject and take some photos using the Eyefi card to show it in action (see the image at the top of the next page). Notice that, with Previous Import selected, I can see the photos appear after they’ve been transferred, and I can also see them starting to appear in the TempTransfer folder in the Folders panel. I don’t want to keep those photos in that temporary folder, so here’s how I easily move them to a new (more permanent) location:

step one: Press G to switch to Grid view, then press Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A) to select all photos.

step two: Right-click the parent folder where you want

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Now that I have that watched folder created and Lightroom’s Auto Import configured and enabled, I can use my scanner software to save photos into that folder, have my Eyefi card wirelessly save photos to that folder, or just plain ol’ drag-and-drop photos into that folder, and in each case Lightroom will do the rest. Pretty cool! ■

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this new folder to be created, and choose Create Folder Inside from the contextual menu that appears. Enter a name for the folder in the Create Folder dialog that appears, and since we already selected all of the photos we want to move, check the Include Selected Photos box, then click Create. In that one move, Lightroom will create a new folder within the parent folder I selected and move all selected photos into that folder.

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Maximum Workflow

perfectly clear complete BY SEAN McCORMACK

Athentech has been going from strength to strength with Perfectly Clear since our last look at them here in the magazine two years ago. As well as having a great plug-in, Athentech’s underlying technology is used in loads of commercial printing houses, plus they have dedicated mobile apps. As a Lightroom plug-in, it gives you access to fast batch processing, applying presetbased automatic corrections to your image. You can even modify the presets and create your own unique looks. These personal presets can then be batch-applied to save you even more time.

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Auto corrections could easily strike fear into your heart if you’re basing them on Lightroom’s Auto button, which is a bit hit-or-miss, but Perfectly Clear is in a different league. It’s suited to a broad range of images, so as well as a rundown on the controls, we’ll run both a landscape and a portrait through it. Download the fully functioning trial and let’s get going.

The Athentech Perfectly Clear Complete installer now adds both the Lightroom and Photoshop plug-in to your system, as well as including the Perfect Eyes and Perfect Exposure options in the plug-in. To install, run the DMG or EXE file and restart Lightroom. Perfectly Clear Complete will be available in the Photo>Edit In menu (or via the Right-click>Edit In menu). As with all plug-ins that generate a file before editing, you can choose what format file is used: TIFF or JPEG (PSD isn’t supported). For large batches of images, it’s better to use the Export plug-in version rather than using the Edit In option. At the top of the Export menu, choose Perfectly Clear Complete in the Export To drop-down menu. In the screen capture shown here, the first drop-down menu next to Use Preset has only one option: System Presets. As you create your own sets of presets, you get more options. In the right drop-down menu are the presets that are available in the System Presets, which we’ll see shortly in the main interface. Speaking of the interface, you can opt to hide it completely in batch mode via the Hide Perfectly Clear Window checkbox. Choose a preset to apply to all the exported images and click Export.

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installing and running

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the layout The main interface is pretty basic, most of which is taken up by the imagepreview area on the left, with the Presets and Adjust panels on the right, and a few tools scattered around the image. Let’s look at it in more detail. 1. Image preview with preview tools: There are several split views, which we’ll look at separately in just a moment.

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2. The Presets and Adjust panels: Here you can opt to use available presets, or tweak the currently selected preset.

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3. The presets: There are actually three of these panels, accessed by clicking the arrows to either side of the Perfectly Clear Complete box. This toggles through the Perfect Exposure and the Perfect Eyes presets. At the bottom of this section is a drop-down menu containing all the presets. 4. The presets manager: Here you can Create, Modify, or Remove presets. 5. The zoom slider: This sets the size of the preview. Some of the settings, such as Sharpening, need to be previewed at 100%. In the Lightroom version, there’s also an image navigation section where you can move between the current batch of images if you opened more than one image. 6. The Help section: Here you can watch tutorials or open the manual. 7. Save and Cancel buttons: Click Save to return the modified images to Lightroom and close. Press Cancel to abort the program. The rendered file with no settings will remain in Lightroom.

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previews The preview in the main image area is an after view; click-and-hold on the image to get a before view. To see the before and after, select one of the options at the top right of the image. For this image, I’ve selected the Landscapes preset in the Presets panel and the Double View preview icon, which shows both the before and after side by side. To change to a top/bottom view, click the H/V (Horizontal/Vertical) view button that appears to the right of the preview icons. There’s also an overlay Split View, which shows the image with a moveable white bar that you can drag back and forth to see the difference the preset is making. One side of the bar shows the before, and the other side shows the after. Again, the H/V button alternates the preview. In this case, the white bar switches orientation.

presets With the number of presets available, it’d be hard to show all of them, so let’s just go through the basic set.

• V  ivid: Adds contrast to give more pop to the image. • B  eautify: This applies a selection of settings from the Adjust menu, specifically the Portrait and Eyes section.

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• D  etails: Adds high-definition contrast to the image, which brings detail to shadows and highlights, as well as working on skin tone. To me, it looks mildly tone-mapped.

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• B  eautify+: The same as Beautify, but with more corrections and higher settings. • Fix Dark: Fixes underexposed images. • F ix Noise: Applies noise removal to clean up the image. • Fix Tint: Applies a white balance correction. • L andscapes: We’ve seen this above, but it creates vibrance and depth in landscapes. Perfect Exposure and Perfect Eyes presets: As you can probably guess from the name, these presets either do a range of exposure or eye corrections. Just give them a try to see what they do.

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Beautify

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adjust The presets hint at the underlying power of this plug-in, but the Adjust panel is the nitty-gritty heart of Perfectly Clear. I’ve looked at a lot of plug-ins here in the “Maximum Workflow” column, and while I’ve never seen a bad plug-in, nothing has impressed me more than what can be done in such a small amount of settings, especially bearing in mind that we don’t have to refine a mask or tell the plug-in where the face is. If you hover over the name of any control, a tool tip will appear explaining what that control does. At the top of the panel is an Opacity slider that allows you to fade the overall effect of all the settings on the original image. Here’s a quick look at each of the sections in the Adjust panel: Tone: Exposure allows a change of brightness of the image. Use the slider or the Low, Medium, or High options. Depth changes the contrast level. Choose an amount on the slider and then select either High Contrast or High Definition. To brighten just the skin, or add depth to the image, use the Skin & Depth Bias slider and buttons. Color: Vibrancy brings saturation back to colors with less saturation in order to balance the saturation and richness of the colors in the image. Fidelity remaps colors to what the eye normally sees, versus what a sensor records. Choose from Standard or Vivid. Tint Correction allows you to change the image white balance.

Portrait: The Portrait section is fabulous for quick beauty retouches. Perfectly Smooth smooths skin out while retaining all facial features. Skin Tone removes redness from the skin, and Teeth Whitening lightens the teeth. Face Slimming

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Clarity: Sharpening increases the detail in the image. You do need to view this at 100% because it does more than you’d expect. Noise removes noise based on a menu of profiles. Choose from Default, Portrait, Night Scene, Camera Phone, or Strongest. Below the menu is a message that indicates the amount of noise detected.

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pushes the cheeks and mouth in but leaves the eye area intact. It can appear fake at high levels and seems to introduce some gray into the lips when overdone, so go for smaller amounts. Blemish Removal removes spots and lines, but leaves the facial features alone. Shine Removal reduces the specular highlights and glare from the skin. Light Diffusion adds a warm glow to the image, which also reduces the contrast. Eyes: This section has a great selection of tools to improve the eyes and the area around them. Auto Red-Eye removes the pupil redness caused by light reflecting in the retina of the subject. Eye Enhance brightens and adds depth to just the eyes. Eye Enlarge increases the size of the eyes, but is a little Mangalike at high levels, so be subtle. Dark Circles lightens the area directly under the eyes. The final option adds a new catchlight to the eyes; choose from Umbrella, Ringlight, Softbox, Beauty Dish, or Outdoors. One thing to note is that Eyes works best with the face straight on to camera.

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Below Adjust is the Preset manager. Click Create to make a new Preset. Click Modify after editing a preset to update it, or even just replace text in the Description area. Click Remove to delete the Preset. Any new preset you create appears in the drop-down menu in Presets, and in the Export preset options.

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batch We’ve mentioned the two methods of batch processing: either send a few images directly to the plug-in via Edit In, or use the Export plug-in. You can then edit each image using the image navigation at the bottom right of the preview image.

it’s perfectly clear…

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…that the additions to Perfectly Clear make it a usable batch editor for jobs that need to be done quickly but don’t need the personal touch. For wedding and baby photographers, the new tools will shave hours off editing. ■

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Questions Answers I have a printing question: Is there an easier or faster way to put my image right where I want it on the page, without dragging the Cell sliders around? There has to be an easier way, right?

Right! In the Print module, up in the Layout Style panel at the top, click on Custom Package, then scroll down to the Cells panel and click on any of the Add to Package buttons (let’s say, for the sake of this example, you clicked on 5x7; but it doesn’t matter which one you click on). This adds a 5x7 cell to the page, but you’ll notice it’s selected and has resize handles active on all sides. Just grab one of those resize handles, make the frame whatever size you want, and drag it right where you want it. Once it’s in the shape and position you desire, drag-and-drop an image from the Filmstrip up into that container, and you’re done.

SCOTT KELBY

plug-in from the Preset pop-up menu (in this case, I chose Macphun’s Intensify plug-in—it does high-contrast tonal effects), and then close the Preferences dialog. Now, anytime you want to take an image over to that plug-in, just press Option-Command-E (PC: Alt-Ctrl-E) and it will open in that plug-in.

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I downloaded a preset from the Web, but I’m not sure how to install it. Is it complicated?

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I use a set of plug-ins with Lightroom quite a bit and was wondering if there’s a way to assign the plug-in to a keyboard shortcut so I don’t have to go digging through the menus every time I want to take an image over to the plug-in? Well, kinda. Depending on the plug-in, you could assign it as an Additional External Editor, which already has a built-in keyboard shortcut, so you could do that. Here’s how: Go to Lightroom’s Preferences under the Lightroom menu (PC: Edit), and click on the External Editing tab up top. Then go to the Additional External Editor section, choose your

Thankfully, it’s really easy. Go to the Presets panel in the Develop module, scroll down to User Presets, and Rightclick. A pop-up menu will appear where you can choose Import. Navigate to your preset and click the Import button. That preset will now appear in that User Presets section.

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You bet! In fact, you can have Lightroom do it automatically for you. In the Basic panel, just hold down the Shift key and then double-click on the little slider nub for the Whites to set the white point, then double-click on the little slider nub for the Blacks and it auto-sets your Black point, too.

I like using the Library module’s Quick Develop panel, but every time I need to crop my image, I wind up having to jump over to the Develop module anyway. Do you think Adobe will ever add the ability to crop in Quick Develop? Well, while it’s not the Crop tool itself, there’s a way to apply the standard crop ratios that come with Lightroom, and even enter a custom ratio, from right within the Quick Develop panel. Just click the little black “flippy” triangle (more technically known as the disclosure triangle) just to the right of the Saved Preset pop-up menu at the top of the Quick Develop panel, and you’ll see two new fields appear: one for Crop Ratio, and one for Treatment. Click-and-hold on Crop Ratio and a pop-up list of choices will appear. You can apply a crop ratio (even a custom one) from right there.

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I like the White Balance Selector tool but it’s tedious using it because when I click it on my image, it immediately returns back to its home base in the Basic panel. If the first time I clicked wasn’t the perfect spot, I have to go get it again to click somewhere else. Is there a way to have it not snap back to the Basic panel? There sure is. You can turn this “feature” off by first getting the White Balance Selector tool, then going to the Toolbar at the bottom of the preview window just below your image (if you don’t see the Toolbar, press the letter T on your keyboard). You’ll see a checkbox turned on for Auto Dismiss, which is the feature that dismisses the tool immediately after you click it in your image. To turn that off (I sure would by the way), turn off the Auto Dismiss checkbox. Now you can click to your heart’s content and the tool will stay active the entire time. When you’re done with the tool, click in the circle where it lives in the Basic panel to put it back.

When I go to the Lens Corrections panel and turn on Enable Profile Corrections, absolutely nothing happens. Why is that? It’s just because, for whatever reason, Lightroom can’t figure out what make and model of lens you used when you took the image, which is odd, because Lightroom reads the EXIF data from your camera that’s embedded into your image no problem—you see it all listed in the Metadata panel, including the make and model of your camera and lens. Go figure. Anyway, all you have to do to remedy Lightroom’s memory lapse is to tell it the make of your camera lens in the Profile tab of the Lens Corrections panel, and suddenly it wakes from its temporary amnesia and finds the model of your lens, and usually the exact lens profile to fix your lens problem (well, at least to fix most of it). Give that a try next time, and unless you used some exotic lens, you’ll most likely be all set. ■ › › k e l b yo n e . c o m

I’m coming to Lightroom as a longtime Photoshop user. Is there a way to set your white and black points in Lightroom like there is in Photoshop using Curves or Levels?

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TipsTricks In this article, we’ll take a look at some useful tips for using Lightroom Mobile to automatically add your camera phone images into your Lightroom catalog on your computer. Lightroom Mobile can do a lot more than that, of course, but for this article, our focus will be on understanding how to manage the images you shoot with your phone so they’re seamlessly transferred to your computer’s hard drive and your Lightroom catalog.

transferring phone images via lightroom mobile

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If you have the Creative Cloud version of Lightroom, you can transfer your camera phone images into your Lightroom catalog via Wi-Fi with the Lightroom Mobile app. The app is free and is available for both iOS and Android. You can use it without a Creative Cloud subscription for enhancing images on your phone or tablet device, but if you want to take advantage of the full integration with your Lightroom catalog on your desktop computer, then you do need to be signed up for Creative Cloud (the Photography Plan, which includes the latest versions of Lightroom CC, Photoshop CC, the Adobe mobile apps, and an Adobe Portfolio website, costs $9.99 a month). To get started, you simply have to turn on Lightroom Mobile syncing in your Lightroom catalog on your computer. To do this, mouse over the identity plate on the upper-left side of the interface (this will show Lightroom CC if you haven’t customized it to show your name or logo), click the small white triangle that appears, and turn on Sync with Lightroom Mobile.

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mobile device. I’ll return to this topic with some workflow suggestions toward the end of this article.

specify a destination folder for lightroom mobile images In the desktop version of Lightroom, there’s a very important Preferences setting that controls the download location for the mobile images. You can find the Preferences in the Lightroom menu (PC: Edit menu). Click on the Lightroom Mobile tab, and then in the Location section of the dialog, you can designate a specific folder for the images that Lightroom Mobile will transfer via Wi-Fi. This is very important if you want the location of the transferred images to make sense in relation to where the rest of your photos are stored. If you don’t specify a folder, Lightroom will place them in a folder with a really long and meaningless name that’s hidden in a Mobile Downloads. lrdata file in the Lightroom folder inside the Pictures folder (PC: My Pictures folder). Trust me on this: You don’t want Lightroom to organize your camera phone images this way! In addition to choosing a folder for the images that will be transferred from Lightroom Mobile, you can also choose a folder naming scheme for the subfolders that will be created based on the capture date of the photos. The choices here are the same as what you can choose for date-named subfolders in the Lightroom Import dialog. I typically like to create a folder for my iPhone images that’s within the same folder as the rest of my image folders. Having the subfolders created based on the date the image was captured makes it easy for me to reorganize them later once the original images have transferred to my primary image archive hard drive. You might also choose to organize images that are centered around specific projects instead of using date-named subfolders.

setting up lightroom mobile on your phone Important Note: Lightroom Mobile can only sync with one catalog at a time. Changing the catalog with which it’s synced will remove all images and data from the current catalog that’s synced with Lightroom Mobile on your

Of course, you do need to have the Lightroom Mobile app installed on your phone or tablet device. Once this is done, you’ll have to sign in using your Creative Cloud ID in order to activate the other half of the sync relationship with your Lightroom catalog on your computer.

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When you log in to Lightroom Mobile on your phone for the first time, the app will create a collection called Lightroom Photos. If you tap the three dots next to this, you can choose to add images that are already on your phone’s camera roll. In the Add Photos screen, tap individual thumbnails, or drag across several thumbnails to select them (images with the LR logo on them are already in this collection). Then tap the blue bar at the bottom of the screen to add the images to Lightroom Photos.

lightroom magazine

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camera app you use, will automatically be added to the collection, and synced back to your Lightroom catalog.

to auto add or not to auto add… Auto Add can be very useful, or it may be a mixed blessing. It all depends on how many images you shoot, and how many of them are keepers that you want to add to your Lightroom catalog. For instance, when I park in the long-term lot at the airport, I always take a shot of the section sign so I can easily find my car when I return. Or sometimes I’ll take a photo of a home-repair project so I can get the right replacement part at the hardware store. I really don’t need images like that in my Lightroom catalog. So, depending how you shoot, what you shoot, and the ratio of good shots to random images you don’t really need, it may make more sense to leave Auto Add turned off, and just use the Add Photos option to add only the images you really want in your Lightroom catalog.

removing and deleting images

creating a synced collection on the phone In the Lightroom Mobile app on the phone, tap the plus symbol (upper right) to add a new collection that will sync with the Lightroom catalog that’s connected to Lightroom Mobile. Open the collection menu by tapping the three dots. You can either choose which photos are added to this synced collection, or you can turn on Enable Auto Add, and any image you shoot with your phone, no matter what

mobile-specific catalog vs. your main catalog As mentioned earlier, Lightroom Mobile can only sync to one catalog at a time. If you only use a single catalog for all your images, then this isn’t an issue, but it’s important to keep in mind if you routinely use a different tripspecific catalog for travel. I choose to maintain a separate mobile travel catalog on a small external drive I connect to my laptop. This makes the most sense for me based on my travel schedule. Occasionally I’ll merge this catalog with my main catalog to consolidate the images from the mobile downloads folder that’s populated by Lightroom Mobile. Understanding how the file transfer and syncing in Lightroom Mobile is working under the hood will help you decide on the best way to use it with your own mobile photography workflow. ■

› › k e l b yo n e . c o m

If you use the Lightroom Mobile camera, any shots you take with it will be automatically added to the Lightroom Photos collection. Photos taken with other camera apps will not be added automatically to this collection, but they can be added later using the method described above. This collection will appear on the Lightroom Mobile app only; it won’t show up as a collection in your Lightroom catalog on your computer. The files in it, however, will be automatically transferred to your Lightroom catalog, and to the hard-drive folder you specified in the Mobile Preferences, when you’re connected to Wi-Fi. The Lightroom Mobile app must be running on your phone, and Lightroom needs to be open on your computer, for any file transfer or synchronization to happen.

Removing an image from Lightroom Photos on the mobile device will remove it from that collection, as well as from any synced collection it’s a part of. The image will still be in your phone’s camera roll, however, as well as in the download folder on your hard drive (assuming that it has had time to transfer over Wi-Fi). Removing an image from a synced collection will remove it from that collection on both the mobile device and the corresponding collection in your Lightroom catalog on the computer, but it will remain in Lightroom Photos, and on your phone’s camera roll. It will also remain in the download folder on the hard drive that you specified in the Lightroom Mobile Preferences.

103 ALL IMAGES BY SÉAN DUGGAN

Product Reviews Platypod Pro Max Versatile Mini Camera Mount for Large Cameras

› › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › j u ly / a u g u st 2 0 1 6

Review by Larry Becker

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A few years ago when I saw the Platypod Pro at a trade show demo, I was impressed by the clever design for this little, but remarkable, rugged camera mount. Now there’s a new model called the Platypod Pro Max, and it’s ready for heavyduty assignments. In the world of small, professional camera supports, the Platypod Pro has earned the respect of pros for travel use, because of its compact size and thoughtful, versatile design. It’s essentially an aircraft-grade aluminum plate with machined holes and special screw mounts for attaching a ballhead. It also comes with threaded feet that are spiked on one end and rubber-tipped on the other. Those threaded feet are screws that allow you to precisely adjust how long each foot will be, and the included, finger-friendly nut allows you to lock the exact position of each foot. One of the great things about the Platypod Pro is the small, flat, form factor so it fits in slim pockets (I can put it in the back pocket of my jeans) for easy travel. The new Platypod Pro Max is physically larger and less able to fit in those smaller pockets, so I appreciate that the new design includes a pair of 2" slots intended for camera straps and pole mounting. The original Platypod Pro came with three threaded, spiked/rubber-tipped feet, and the Pro version comes with four redesigned feet. The rubber-tipped ends are now flat, so setting your Platypod Pro Max on a flat surface seems even more stable. The larger form factor and additional foot means that a rig like my Canon EOS 6D, with a 70–200 f/2.8 lens, isn’t pushing the weight or stability limits. With the original Platypod Pro, you carried the spiked feet separately from the plate, but now there’s a special box that’s solidly affixed to the plate; however, it’s removable if you want. That box has little magnets to hold all four feet in place until you need them. Along with graphically pleasing logos and lines, the plate has laser-etched graphics beside each of the various holes and slots, so you know which holes can be used for the threaded feet and which are intended for mounting the plate to a wall or board with wood screws. (Yes, you could use drywall or sheet-metal screws for attaching the plate to other surfaces as well.)

Assuming your ballhead is securely mounted on your Max plate and you need to use a tripod, you don’t have to remove the ballhead. You just use the threaded mounting hole and spin the plate onto the mounting screw of your tripod. The 3/8" bolt for attaching your professional tripod ballhead is titanium and, rather than a lab test with a digital torque wrench, I tested it like an end user, cranking by hand as tightly as I could on my RRS ballhead, and it felt rock solid. I didn’t do any official measured lab tests, but the Platypod website tells us that it has been tested to over 300 lbs. of torque. I have no problem trusting my gear on this platform! Our review unit came with a nice letter from the Platypod Pro folks inviting constructive criticism; but in using the Max plate and looking for ways it could be improved, I couldn’t come up with a thing. If you like the idea of a truly solid, amazingly low-profile platform for your favorite ballhead, or if you ever need to screw your ballhead securely to a wall, you should look into the Platypod Pro. And if you’re using a larger full-frame rig with some big glass, the Platypod Pro Max is just what you need. The new Platypod Pro Max was officially introduced and available via their Kickstarter campaign beginning June 1, with delivery for early buyers projected for some time in August, followed by retail store availability projected for late fall. ■

Company: Platypod Pro, LLC

Price: Est. Street price $99

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ Hot: Clever design; quality materials; built-in instructional icons

Not:

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GET THE SCOOP ON THE LATEST GEAR

Broncolor Siros 800 L & 400 L Compact, Battery-Operated Monolight Review by Michael Corsentino

Chroma Mask Cutting out Objects While You’re Shooting Review by Erik Vlietinck

Hundreds of tutorials have been written on how to cut out a subject from a background in Photoshop, but Picture Instruments claims you can do a better job with Chroma Mask. The app automates much of the process and adds a unique feature: mask as you shoot. Chroma Mask requires a blue, green, or red backdrop. Blue and green are to be used when shooting people. Masking is always the most difficult when it involves hair, fur, etc. Much to my surprise, Chroma Mask was exceptionally good at masking my gray hair. To ensure none of the background stays behind and you don’t have to painstakingly erase the lot, you can crop the foreground image. To manipulate the opacity of the mask’s boundary elements, you get two handles on a histogram. If playing with those doesn’t do the job, you can brush-paint the half-masked areas to full opacity. So far so good, but

Wireless remote control is easy and reliable using the bronControl app via smartphone or tablet. The app establishes its own Wi-Fi network and differentiates between lights/groups using color-coded symbols that are easy to discern under any lighting conditions. Inclusion of a 25-watt LED, 3200 K modeling light provides a low-consumption constant light source that’s powerful enough to get the job done without unnecessarily draining precious battery power. The modeling light’s 3200 K color temperature means pairing the Siros 800 L and 400 L with their mains-powered Siros cousins is also easy. For some, the lack of TTL may be an issue; however, it shouldn’t be. There’s nothing more predictable, consistent, and straightforward than manual. ■ Company: Bron Elektronik AG

Price: 800 L: $2,395; 400 L: $2,095

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆



Hot: Li-ion battery; 70-min recharge; 220 full-power pops; compact



Not: Lack of TTL may be objectionable for some

getting rid of color spillage is another matter. Some of my hair remained bluish after adjusting the Color Correction knob slightly. Cranking up the numbers turned it green. What sets Chroma Mask apart from everything else I’ve seen is the ability to set a watch folder and apply the entire masking workflow applied to your “prototype” image to all of the subsequent images you shoot. This saves a lot of time. Chroma Mask’s trick is to save your settings—including the painting—to a file for later use. All it has to do when you’re shooting photos in an identical setup is to apply the settings to the images your camera drops when shooting tethered, or which you save to the watch folder. The automation goes as far as offering an output option that will automatically add transparent space to fit the final background, if you cropped the foreground image tightly. ■ Company: Picture Instruments

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆

Price: $189





Hot: Auto-recognition; defines subsequent masks perfectly; saves time



Not: Unusual interface; some UI elements awkward; color spillage

› › k e l byo n e . c o m

Swiss-based lighting manufacturer broncolor has turned up the heat with the introduction of their new Siros 800 L, the most powerful battery-operated, compact strobe available on the market today. Also introduced is a less-powerful little brother, the Siros 400 L. Capitalizing on the feature set and success of their mainspowered Siros line of compact monoblock strobes, broncolor is now providing photographers with an equally robust battery-operated, highly portable tool for location work, as well as studio applications. The “L” in its name stands for its stateof-the-art lithium-ion battery power source, noteworthy for the 220 flashes it’s able to deliver at full power. You read that right, 220, 800Ws pops at full power. Now that’s impressive! The Siros 800 L and 400 L lithium-ion batteries can be fully recharged in just 70 minutes—impressive given the number of pops possible with one charge. Incorporating the same ECTC technology that’s made their Move packs a hit, the Siros 800 L and 400 L deliver lightning-fast flash durations of 1/19,000 (t0.5) along with guaranteed color-temperature stability across the entire power range.

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REVIEWS

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Sekonic LITEMASTER PRO L-478DR-U-EL Wireless Light Meter for Elinchrom EL Skyport Review by Michael Corsentino

Hey, Elinchrom fans, if you’re a handheld meter geek like I am, your wait for a wireless meter with a modern digital interface and tons of killer features that work with your Skyportenabled Elinchrom strobes is finally over! Sekonic’s new LITEMASTER PRO L-478DR-U-EL Light Meter has a built-in Skyport radio and a touchscreen interface designed to assure virtually no workflow interruptions. Grabbing a meter reading is as simple as pushing the meterreading button and watching the flash wirelessly trigger— no wires, no waiting, no fuss. Way more than your average flash meter, the new L-478DRU-EL is part of an eco system created through an impressive and well-implemented partnership between industry leaders Elinchrom, Sekonic, and Phottix. With a built-in feature set that dovetails seamlessly with Elinchrom’s new EL-Skyport Plus HS wireless controller (developed with Phottix), you get not only a powerful handheld meter but also a complete control center in the palm of your hand for your Elinchrom strobes. The L-478DR-U-EL meter has been designed from the ground up to function as a multipurpose device allowing not only wireless meter readings (a first for Elinchrom users using Sekonic meters), but also as a handheld control center for any of your Skyport-enabled Elinchrom strobes.

You can control up to four groups of lights, either individually or together, and you can quickly see exactly what the power is for each of your lights/groups at all times. Power for each light/group, or all of the lights together, can be increased or decreased wirelessly in 1/10-stop increments using the touchscreen’s plus or minus buttons. Additional amenities include full control of modeling lights, easy access to frequency, channel, and speed mode settings, with an interface that lets you know exactly what you’re doing. This one’s a winner; I recommend it! ■ Company: Sekonic

Pricing: $399

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆



Hot: Wireless control of Skyport-enabled Elinchrom strobes



Not: Optional spot meter attachment only available in 5º model

L exar Professional 1000x & 1800x microSDHC/microSDXC UHS-II Cards The Fastest, Most Reliable Memory Cards

› › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › j u ly / a u g u st 2 0 1 6

Review by Erik Vlietinck

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In the 4K video era, memory cards should be blazingly fast, but even more so: dependable. The Lexar Professional microSDHC UHS-II 1000x and 1800x are both extremely fast and they won’t break that quickly. I first ran a couple of speed tests and then recorded 4K/30fps video with a GoPro in its housing for five hours continuously each day for a period of four days. The method isn’t scientific, but it should at least give an idea of these cards’ durability. The cards are claimed to have read speeds of 150MB/sec and 270MB/sec, and write speeds of 45MB/sec and 250MB/ sec respectively. (Note: The 128-GB 1800x card is rated at a write speed of 100MB/sec.) The claims for the Lexar 1000x were spot on. The higher rated 1800x was about 5% slower than claimed. The Lexar Professional 1000x microSD cards have completed the Works with GoPro verification process, which is a testament to their ability to sustain high speeds. At 4K/30fps in its waterproof housing, I knew the GoPro would get really hot after half an hour or so. That gave me

a good idea of how resilient the Lexar cards are with respect to a hostile environment. I have lost other brand cards from overheating, but both of these Lexar cards hummed along fine. I expected little else as I have Lexar cards that I purchased five years ago, all of which are still working without a glitch. There’s no reason why these new cards would be any different. For 4K recording, the microSDHC 1000x will do; however, if you plan to use cameras that record 4K to high-bit-rate codecs like ProRes, you can probably save money by going with an 1800x. It’s fast enough to accommodate the higher transfer rates that these cameras need. Both cards come in sizes from 32–128 GB. ■ Company: Lexar by Micron

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆



Hot: Speed; reliability



Not: 1800x cards are expensive

Price: $31.99–$273.99

› ›

GET THE SCOOP ON THE LATEST GEAR

MOTA Wireless Charger for GoPro Enabling Continuous Recording Review by Erik Vlietinck

Fundy Designer v7 Professional Auto Album Design Software Review by Michael Corsentino

The clever minds at Fundy Software are back with a slick new version of their award-winning album design software, Fundy Designer v7. This version is a beautifully implemented evolution and a true game changer, incorporating three revolutionary core technologies: a first-­ of-its-kind professional-grade, intelligent, autodesign tool; a completely revamped, redesigned, image browser that can recognize image tags and star ratings via Adobe Lightroom, Photo Mechanic, and Bridge; and 150 new template-free layout options via the new Quick Design Picker. It’s no joke when I tell you that, with Fundy Design v7, you can import all of your event images, click the Auto Design button, and have a complete album layout in a matter of seconds! If you’re like me, it’s this first rough draft that takes the most time. Designer v7 does all that work for you, and does it amazingly well. Layouts are stylish, classic, and contemporary—no stale templates here.

The wireless power transmission was quite good. Even when I removed the GoPro from the MOTA base, the charging process kept going until I was about half an inch away from the attachment recess. All in all, you’ll be able to shoot for about five to six hours with the GoPro mounted on top of the MOTA. Of course, mounting the camera on the charger rules out action filming. To compensate, you can simultaneously charge another GoPro and a spare battery. ■ Company: MOTA

Price: $139.99

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆



Hot: Battery stamina; charges three devices simultaneously; design



Not: Not waterproof; receiver not designed for frequent removal

If absolute control is your thing, Designer v7 has you covered: Application tags for Main Image, Cover Photo, Panorama, and its ability to group images into sets destined for automated layout, all speed the custom design process into a whiz-bang affair. After the initial design is complete, you can adjust individual layouts and spread order to your heart’s content. The Quick Design Picker in Designer v7 puts a dizzying array of 150 new template-free layout options at your fingertips, giving photographers and designers millions of possible combinations. When your album is complete, you can either export your design or send it to many of the industry’s top album manufacturers directly from within Fundy Designer v7. This makes designing and printing albums easy no matter what album company you’re using. Time is money and nobody wants to spend his life designing albums. Fundy Designer v7 gets you back where you want to be, behind your camera! ■ Company: Fundy Software

Pricing: Suite: $499.00; Album Builder: $299

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆



Hot: Auto design tool; image browser; 150 new template-free layouts



Not: Improved Text tool doesn’t support center and right-aligned text

› › k e l byo n e . c o m

The MOTA Wireless Charger for GoPro is a nicely designed, glossy black-and-white charging station with a battery inside that can hold and charge a case-mounted GoPro, as well as an extra GoPro battery and a USB device. The charger works with a HERO3/3+/4 on the principle of inductive charging. It comes with a wireless receiver and a micro-USB to USB charging cable. No USB-to-power adapter is delivered with the unit. The receiver connects to the GoPro’s USB interface and wraps around the base of the device. Its metal parts are enclosed by a thin sheet of plastic to allow the GoPro to be kept inside its mounting case while charging. The receiver looked flimsy to me, but the miniUSB interface swivels to prevent it from breaking when you pull it out. The MOTA is resistant to light rain, so it can be used outdoors. Charging the MOTA Wireless Charger from empty to fully charged took more than six hours. I could then place my HERO3+ or 4 in the charger’s slot. The slot is only meant to grab the GoPro housing’s “feet”—where you fix the actual buckle—and optimally position the wireless receiver. Once mounted and active, the MOTA will charge the GoPro from displaying one battery block to fully charged in less than an hour.

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BOO K RE V I E WS › › P E T E R B A U E R › ›

108

Photoshop: Absolute Beginners Guide to Mastering Photoshop and Creating World Class Photos

Picture Perfect Lighting: An Innovative Lighting System for Photographing People

By Andrew Mckinnon

By Roberto Valenzuela

The first one-third of this book is devoted to basic Photoshop tools and the interface. The author provides short and succinct explanations and covers the bases well. The other two-thirds are devoted to various Photoshop tips and tricks, as well as some of Photoshop’s more complex features, including high-dynamic range (HDR) imaging and video. The tips are generally very useful and will help speed your work in Photo­shop. Keep in mind, however, that this book is for beginners—if you have decent knowledge of the program, there’s not much here for you. But for beginners (or perhaps classrooms), this is a very good choice. It would also be a valuable gift to someone very new to Photoshop. (Note: At the time of review, the Kindle edition was incomplete. Amazon assures me that will be fixed ASAP. If the Kindle isn’t longer than 122 pages, don’t purchase it.)

Much of the information about light and lighting here can be found in a variety of other books; however, when was the last time you read something similar to this? “It is counterintuitive to keep your camera settings locked and find the light that fits those settings. Common practice would be to go anywhere and change the camera settings to get the exposure right, regardless of the quality of the light.” But what about that beautiful background that would require you to adjust your aperture, shutter speed, or ISO? Forget about it—it’s not the background you’re shooting, it’s the person. Find a location where the lighting is most flattering for your client and appropriate for the selected camera settings. (Don’t worry about those settings, the author provides his, um, “suggestions” in a couple of locations.)

Publisher: CreateSpace

Publisher: Rocky Nook



Price: $15.95 (paperback); $2.99 (Kindle) Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Pages: 232 (paperback)

Pages: 340 (paperback)

Price: $49.95 (paperback); $39.99 (eBook); $23.49 (Kindle)

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

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2016

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From the Advice Desk

answers to photoshop & gear-related questions

PETER BAUER

I have a basic layout that I like to use with multiple clients. Of course, the content has to change from client to client, but I don’t like spending time re-creating the basic layout from scratch each time. Is there some way that I can use a single template with multiple clients, personalized for their own business?—Mary

› › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › j u ly / a u g u st 2 0 1 6

To: Mary From: KelbyOne Advice Desk

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Smart objects and layers are two ways to simplify your workload. You can create a template that contains everything that doesn’t change from client to client, perhaps such things as a background image, copyright information, and borders. Make sure that this working document is the size and resolution at which you’ll typically use it. When creating the original working document, you can use guides and the grid (View>Show>Grid) to ensure precise placement of not only the elements you’re already creating, but also for the client-specific content to be added later. Guides can be dragged from the rulers, which you can show/hide with Command-R (PC: Ctrl-R) or, for exact placement, create Guides with the View>New Guide command. The Position field in the New Guide dialog uses the unit of measure specified in the program’s Preferences; however, if, for example, the unit of measure is pixels and you want to add a guide at a precise location using a different unit of measure, simply specify it in the Position field. (Follow the numeric value with the appropriate abbreviation: “in” for inches, “px” for pixels, “%” for percent, and “cm” for centimeters.) Create each of the client-specific elements as separate Photoshop documents, including any images, logos, text elements, etc. These elements can be added to the working document by using copy-and-paste to create a new layer in the working document or added as smart objects with Photoshop’s File>Place command. Position the smart object, resize as necessary by Shift-dragging a corner, then press the Enter key. You have the option of embedding the placed file, which creates a copy of it right in the working document (and increases the file

size) or linking to the file from which the smart object is created. Linking keeps the file size of the working document smaller, but once linked, you shouldn’t move or rename the file from which the smart object was created. In addition, if you send out the working document to anyone else, you’ll need to include copies of all the linked files. It’s even possible to have all of the client layouts in a single document, simply showing and hiding layers and/ or smart objects for each project. When you add a new client, you can add new layers or smart objects for their individual content. To make things even easier, put all of the content (layers) for each client in a separate layer group (naming the group for the client perhaps). To create a layer group, click on the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and drag your layers into the group folder. Then, with a single click on the Eye icon to the left of the folder in the Layers panel, you can show/hide all of the content of the folder. Now with two clicks you can switch between clients: one to hide the current folder, one to show the next folder. If you use this one-file-fits-all approach, make sure to make a copy every time that you add a new client’s content to your working document. Remember that putting all of your eggs in one basket can lead to disaster if the file becomes corrupted or unreadable, so make copies. And, of course, you’ll want to store each client’s content in a separate folder on your hard drive for both organizational and access purposes. (And—needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway—don’t forget to make copies of those folders too and store them away somewhere safe.) ■

KelbyOne Member ADVICE DESK

Are you taking advantage of the Advice Desk at the KelbyOne member website? This is the place where you can get all of your Photoshop and Lightroom questions answered by our Advice Desk experts. Not only that, you can get photo and computer gear help and advice, as well. What are you waiting for? Visit the Advice Desk section under My Account on the KelbyOne member site today! ■

Photoshop User magazine is the official publication of KelbyOne. Each issue features in-depth Photoshop tutorials written by the most talented designers, photographers, and leading authors in the industry. As a KelbyOne member, you automatically receive Photoshop User delivered digitally ten times a year.

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