September 2016

T H E A D O B E® P H O T O S H O P

DYNAMIC RANGE

®

“ H O W -T 0 ” M A G A Z I N E › › S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 6

A close-up look at the many tools in Photoshop for removing distracting objects

how to re-create the PHOTOGRAPHY Learn mood and atmosphere from SECRETS classic pin-up photographs

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF

lightroom vs. capture one pro Some reviewers claim that Capture One Pro checkmates Lightroom when it comes to rendering RAW files. But is that true? We take an in-depth look at both programs to reveal the truth.

Visit our website at kelbyone.com

COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU Minneapolis, MN | Milwaukee, WI | Las Vegas, NV 09/21/16

09/23/16

11/16/16

For more information visit kelbyonelive.com

Kevin Newsome

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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September 2016

FEATURE

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Adobe Lightroom and Capture One Close-Up

Chess Pieces: Adobe Stock/JcJg Photography; Guitar Player: Martin Evening

There are some who claim that Capture One Pro by Phase One renders a sharper and better image than Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC, but is that really the case? Martin Evening takes an up-close look at both RAWprocessing applications and shows how the two programs are actually more similar than you might think. Martin Evening

Departments

From the Editor



Contributing Writers

About Photoshop User Magazine



KelbyOne Community



Exposed: Industry News



Photoshop World Guru Awards



Photoshop User Quiz



From the Advice Desk

How-To

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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.

024 DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS 034 DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS 040 BEGINNERS’ WORKSHOP 052 PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND 056 PHOTOSHOP TIPS 058 DESIGN MAKEOVER 062 INDESIGN TIPS 074 PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS Suicide Squad Text Effect

Use Face-Aware Liquify to Create a Caricature

Taming Whiskers with the Dust & Scratches Filter

Text Control for Graphic Effects

Boost Your Productivity and Creativity

Brand Development

Advance and Enhance Your InDesign Skills

Pin-Up Perfection

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 85 LIGHTROOM WORKSHOP 0 91 UNDER THE LOUPE 096 MAXIMUM WORKFLOW 1 04 LIGHTROOM Q&A 106 LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS

Creating 32-Bit HDR Images in Lightroom

Understanding the Role of the Folders Panel

DYNAMIC RANGE

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Dealing with Distracting Objects

Mark Heaps

Distracting objects can have a huge impact on an otherwise great image. There are many psychological explanations as to why viewers are drawn to those objects in images, but this is a Photoshop magazine, so we’ll focus on removing those objects instead. From the Clone Stamp and Healing tools to the Camera Raw filter, there are many ways to make unwanted distractions disappear. Mark Heaps

Reviews

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Tamron SP 85mm F/1.8 Di VC USD Lens Mola Solla 28" Reflector CalDigit T4

Extensis Suitcase Fusion 7 Atomos Shogun Flame DxO OpticsPro 11 Elite Hasselblad X1D

Photoshop Book Reviews

Sean McCormack

LandscapePro

A FEW WORDS FROM

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SCOTT KELBY

From the Editor

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lightroom vs. capture one

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We had an amazing Photoshop World Conference out in Vegas, but there’s a lot going on with Photoshop User, so let’s start with what I think is an important cover story from fashion photographer, author, and well-known Photo­shop and Lightroom expert, Martin Evening. His article (which is almost an exposé of sorts) shows how the initial look of your imported RAW images has everything to do with how you set your defaults in whichever program you use to process your RAW files. With that backdrop, Martin pulls back the curtain on Lightroom competitor, Capture One Pro from Phase One, which fans (and some reviewers) claim does a better job of rendering RAW images. He shows how you can achieve that same look in Lightroom by simply changing your default settings. It’s very eye-opening to say the least, and something a lot of folks in this industry need to read. This is going to sound like a little thing, but it’s actually a big thing to help with the readability of the mag. Starting last issue, we increased the point size by a full point, taking it from 8.5 to 9.5. If you print the mag, the type might seem a tad big (well, compared to the old size anyway), but it makes it much easier to read online and even more so on mobile devices. Let us know what you think. Another thing we’re all pretty excited about is that we’ve made more back issues of Photoshop User magazine (all the way back to the January issue of 2014) available for free to members online. There’s a ton of great info in these back issues (but I guess I don’t have to tell you that, right?), and they’re still relevant to users of Photo­ shop CS6 or CC, as well as Lightroom 6 or CC. Another big benefit of these back issues is that they use the new reader, so iPad and iPhone users can access all of them directly from the KelbyOne member site since they don’t use Flash (or, if you prefer, you can download the PDFs and read them offline). You can find these back issues by clicking on Magazines in the left sidebar on the member site dashboard. We’re very happy to be able to bring

these to you (and a big high-five to our managing editor, Chris Main, who did a ton of work to make these available for our members). As I mentioned earlier, Photoshop World in Vegas totally rocked (see page 12 for some highlights), but I want to talk about how we’re bringing the next show back to the East Coast for the first time in three years. That’s right! We’re back at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando next April (mark your calendars now for April 20–22, 2017). We’re planning the biggest and best conference yet! We have the entire South Concourse of the convention center— every meeting room from end to end—and we’re filling it with the most amazing classes taught by the best teachers in the world. Keep an eye on photoshopworld .com because we’ll be opening registration soon! (The connected Hyatt Regency Orlando will be our host hotel, so be sure to book your room when you register so you can stay in the same hotel as us.) Finally, I just announced my 9th Annual Worldwide Photo Walk (sponsored by the great folks at Canon), and you’re invited to join us Saturday, October 1, in photo walks organized in more than 1,000 cities around the world. It’s a social photography phenomenon and the world’s largest event of its kind, and I hope you’ll come spend the day with us. Join a walk near you and have a ton of fun (and maybe win some prizes in the optional photo competition). You can sign up for a walk and find out all the details over at worldwidephotowalk.com. There’s a lot more here in the mag, and lots of great things cooking for members at KelbyOne. (Have you noticed all the cool Photoshop and Lightroom classes coming out lately?) Hope you caught my 7 Photoshop Techniques Every Lightroom User Needs to Know class, along with all the live private Members-Only Webcasts we’ve been hosting just for you guys. It’s a great time to be a KelbyOne member, and we’re really glad you’re here with us. Your support, goodwill, and enthusiasm mean a lot to us. All my best,

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

The official publication of KelbyOne SEPTEMBER 2016 • Volume 19 • Number 7

EDITORIAL:

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

Contributing Writers

Steve Baczewski • Corey Barker • Peter Bauer • Larry Becker Tom Bol • Dave Clayton • Michael Corsentino • David Creamer Seán Duggan • Martin Evening • Mark Heaps • Sean McCormack Kirk Nelson • 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 • Melissa White

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 800-201-7323 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 2015.5 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 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.

TOM BOL is an editorial and commercial photographer specializing in adventure sports, portraits, and outdoor lifestyle photography. His images and stories are used worldwide. You can see more of his work at www.tombolphoto.com.

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.

DAVID CREAMER is the owner of IDEAS Training (www.ideastraining.com), teaching everything from Photoshop to FileMaker. He has more then 30 years of publishing experience, 18 years of Web experience, and 12 years of video experience.

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.

MARTIN EVENING is a photographer with a background in commercial studio photography. He’s also an experienced technical reviewer, who has over the last two decades authored 25 books on Photoshop and Lightroom.

MARK HEAPS is creator of Reactive Exposure for Lightroom, an Adobe Community Professional, Adobe MAX Master instructor, author, photographer, Executive Creative Director, and most importantly, husband and father. Based in Austin, he rides motorcycles and obsesses about food and culture.

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.

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. 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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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

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ABOUT PHOTOSHOP USER

Image: Adobe Stock/JcJg Photography

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.

MEMBER DISCOUNTS

Save anywhere from 2–3 times your membership cost by using our many industry-related discounts.

TECH SUPPORT

Fast, friendly Photoshop, Lightroom, and photo gear help; equipment advice; and more from certified experts at the KelbyOne Advice Desk.

MEMBER COMMUNITY

Member Benefits › › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › s e p t e m b e r 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.

MEMBERS-ONLY WEBSITE

KelbyOne members range from beginners to pros and love to lend each other a hand. Together, we have built the friendliest, most knowledgeable Photoshop and photography community on the Web.

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Unbiased coverage on the latest equipment, plug-ins, and programs in the marketplace.

Our extensive website features time- and money-saving content.

ONLINE CLASSES & EDUCATION

Thousands of Photoshop, Lightroom, and photography tutorials, full online classes, and quick-tip videos.

MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER

The KelbyOne Newsletter is your monthly connection to everything KelbyOne. It’s produced exclusively for members to keep you informed of everything new in the industry and at KelbyOne headquarters.

FIND KELBYONE MEMBERSHIP DETAILS AT kelbyone.com or call 800-201-7323 Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. EST.

KelbyOne Community › ›

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

Photoshop World Conference 2016 Is in the Books If you missed Photoshop World Conference 2016 in Las Vegas this past July, then you missed out on a ton of education and fun. We had an absolute blast this year. Don’t believe us? Check out the recap video below and see for yourself. From the pre-conference workshops; to the keynote; to all the classes on Photoshop, photography, design, and mobile apps; to the Partner Pavilion; to the parties and Midnight Madness; to the Conference Wrap-Up and Guru Awards, there was just no time for sleep.

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More Photoshop User Back Issues Now Online

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KelbyOne members have been asking for access to more back issues of Photoshop User, their alltime favorite Photoshop and Lightroom magazine. (Well, at least it’s our all-time favorite Photoshop and Lightroom magazine.) We’re happy to announce that members can now access issues all the way back to January 2014. Previously, we only had the last 12 issues online. Now we’re up to 27 issues. To make it even better, those issues will always remain online—the oldest issue won’t disappear when we add the latest issue. That means the Photoshop User archive will continue to grow and grow. To make it even sweeter, all the back issues have been converted to the new magazine reader so you can access all of your favorite issues directly from the KelbyOne website on any device, including iPhones and iPads. And if you need to read it offline, just download the PDF and take it with you. Visit the magazine page today to start reading.

The people who come to Photoshop World are creative and passionate artists and photographers. Just check out this year’s Guru winners starting on page 18. We also had a lot of amazing instructors this year. We know that because we kept hearing it from the attendees, who seemed to love every minute of the show. Photoshop World is a time to step away from the grind of everyday life and recharge your batteries with lots of new techniques, friends, and connections. If you were at Photoshop World, you know exactly what we mean. If you’ve never been to the show, then consider joining us in Orlando April 20–22, 2017. You won’t be sorry. And as a KelbyOne member you always get a great discount on the Conference.

Get Ready for Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk On October 1, 2016, thousands of people will gather in hundreds of cities around the world for Scott Kelby’s 9th Annual Worldwide Photo Walk. This is an amazing event where likeminded people will spend the day together shooting, making new friends, and learning from each other. Not only that, the photo walk supports a great cause, Springs of Hope Kenya. So visit worldwidephotowalk.com today to sign up for a walk, or register to lead your own walk. And don’t forget about the photo contest—you could win lots of great prizes.

KelbyOne ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> Sue Byrne MEMBER SINCE 2014

KelbyOne ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> Francesca Hughes MEMBER SINCE 2014

KelbyOne ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> Philip Decker > MEMBER SINCE 2014

KelbyOne ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> Mike Busch MEMBER SINCE 2013

KelbyOne ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> Dave DeBaeremaeker > MEMBER SINCE 2016

KelbyOne Community Who’s Who in the KelbyOne Community

Jocelyn Petruccio

Jocelyn Petruccio was this year’s Best of Show Guru winner at the Photoshop World Conference 2016 in Las Vegas back in July. (You can see her winning image on page 18.) Dave Clayton spent a few minutes with Jocelyn at the show to learn more about what drives her creatively when it comes to her photography and digital retouching. First, congratulations on your Guru award. Was this your first Photoshop World? Thanks! And yes, it was my first, but hopefully not my last. There were so many classes offered with knowledgeable instructors. The workbook is filled with so much useful information, and learning with so many other working professionals and creatives was really fun.

ing photography program they had. I took a slower pace, but eventually graduated cum laude. Halfway through my schooling, I got the opportunity for my first retouching job and ended up working full-time at a big commercial studio while finishing my degree. After two and a half years at that studio, I left to go freelance. I’ve now been a working professional in Cleveland for eight and a half years.

How did you come up with your Guru-winning idea? I’ve known of the Guru Awards for a few years from colleagues who have attended and submitted in the past. I decided to take a shot at it and brought the idea up to a studio I do freelance retouching work for, BurkleHagen Photography in Cleveland, Ohio. The owners, David and Andrew, decided this was a great idea. They’re exclusively a food photography studio, so we wanted to use food as our subject. We asked Lauren Parsells, another freelance photographer at the studio, to see if she would be interested in photographing it, and she jumped at the chance. We discussed the idea of doing an image that looked like it had been cut in half; it hit all of us instantly—take soup ingredients and make them look like coral in the ocean. Many Asian ingredients would be perfect to portray our vision. We shared our concept with a local food stylist, Melissa McClelland, who loved the idea. With her knowledge of ingredients and food, we knew she’d be able to come up with the best ingredients to achieve our vision. From there, it was a full day of shooting the individual pieces, and then compiling by me until it was just right.

What’s the favorite part of your creative journey? I love that I’ve been able to work with so many different photographers, doing all different kinds of commercial work, while being able to shoot my own jobs. I still enjoy shooting bands, but now it’s more promotional rather than live. I also like to shoot artsy/fashion concepts—anything moody and creative. Being a professional retoucher helps me take the images I shoot and push them even further.

What do you love about being a KelbyOne member? It’s about a community. It’s one thing to search online when you’re in a rut or can’t find a solution to a problem, but KelbyOne offers so much more. Their classes are an absolute must for working professionals. It’s important to keep learning, rather than finding yourself in the same routine. Which KelbyOne instructors have inspired you? I found myself very inspired by Glyn Dewis and Lindsay Adler when I attended Photoshop World. With Lindsay’s lighting/style, and Glyn’s inspiring retouching ideas, combining these techniques is my new goal. I attended Photoshop World on a bit of a creative roadblock but left feeling amazed and ready to get to work! ■ CLICK TO RATE

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How did you get started in photography? I began photographing my friends in high school bands with disposable cameras. Later on, my sister gave me an old Pentax and I continued to shoot bands. After passing up college for three years, I was finding myself in a rut, and my sister gave me some advice that changed my focus: “You love to shoot; you do it all the time. Why don’t you go to school for it?” I registered immediately for classes at Cuyahoga Community College because I had heard about what an amaz-

Is there anything you’ve yet to attempt in photography that you’ve been inspired to consider? I want to push myself with lighting more—take more chances, and create more drama and interest, challenging the post end of it to create really memorable pieces. I was extremely inspired during Photoshop World on how to achieve a new portfolio I’ve been thinking about doing.

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Exp sed: Industry News › ›

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

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Nikon Announces New Lenses and Entry-Level DSLR

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At the end of July, Nikon announced a new professional FX-format lens, the AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED. According to Nikon, this is the perfect lens for portraiture whether you’re in the studio or on the beach because it produces sharp images with beautiful bokeh. The AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED features Nikon’s electromagnetic aperture control technology; Flourine coatings for easily cleaning the front and rear elements; 14 elements in 9 groups, including 3 ED glass elements; a 9-blade diaphragm; and Nikon’s Crystal Coat technology. It’s also dust and moisture resistant. It retails for $2,199.95. Nikon also announced the brand-new Nikon D3400, a compact, lightweight, versatile entry-level DSLR. The D3400 features a high-resolution 24.2-megapixel CMOS sensor; Nikon’s EXPEED 4 image processing engine; an ISO range from 100–25,600; an 11-point Autofocus system; continuous shooting up to 5 frames per second; and SnapBridge for wirelessly transferring photos to compatible smart devices. To go along with the new D3400, Nikon introduced four new affordable lenses: the AF-P DX NIKKOR 18–55mm f/3.5–5.6G with and without VR, and the AF-P DX NIKKOR 70–300mm f/4.5–6.3G ED also with and without VR. The AF-P designation indicates that these new lenses use a pulse motor (which uses Nikon’s Stepping Motor technology) to provide faster and smoother autofocus (AF) than previous drive systems during live view (contrast-detection AF) and allow for whisper-quiet operation during video recording. For pricing and availability of the D3400, the new AF-P lenses, and the two different kit options visit nikonusa.com.

Topaz Releases Glow 2 Topaz Labs recently announced a major update to Glow, their application for creating everything from subtle to artistic lighting and glow effects in your images. Glow 2 features more than 50 new presets to give users more than 120 one-click effects. A new masking feature allows you to fine-tune your images with four masking options: spot, color, luminosity, and brush. Twenty-two new blend modes along with a precision opacity slider help you achieve perfect control over every effect. The latest version also includes unlimited undos/redos. Finally, Topaz announced the new Topaz Community, which is integrated into Glow 2. Members can search for, download, and share custom-created effects. Glow 2 retails for $69.99 but is free to current Glow owners. It works as a standalone app, as well as a Photoshop and Lightroom plug-in.

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PowerVision, a worldwide leader in robotics and big data technologies, has announced that the PowerEgg, their first consumer drone, is now available for preorder and is scheduled to ship in mid-October. The PowerEgg isn’t you’re average drone. It’s actually egg shaped and the blades and landing feet are tucked neatly away into its body. It comes with the world’s first gesture-based controller, the PowerEgg Maestro, which can be used with one hand. The remote has motion-sensing capabilities so users can control the drone by the movement of their hand. The PowerEgg also comes with a traditional two-handed remote. Other features include real-time video transmission up to 3.1 miles; a flight time of around 23 minutes; an optical positioning system for flying indoors, low to the ground, and in GPS-free areas; an integrated 4K UHD camera that can shoot photographs and videos with 360° views on a 3-axis gimbal; and automated flight modes that include Follow Me, Orbit, WayPoint, and Selfie mode. The PowerEgg has an MSRP of $1,288 and is available for pre-order until September 30. Visit PowerVision for more information.

Macphun Gives Sneak Peek of Aurora HDR 2017 Macphun, a California-based Mac app developer focusing on the consumer and professional photography and digital imaging markets, has given a sneak peek of what to expect in the next version of Aurora HDR, which will be called Aurora HDR 2017. First up is an updated tone-mapping algorithm, which

promises to deliver more realistic and natural results with less noise and detail loss—all while rendering the RAW files at a much faster speed. The new Polarize tool emulates a traditional polarizer lens filter to improve skies, saturate colors, and remove glare. Batch Processing will automatically group your brackets and apply the effects; all you have to do is pick the original photos and then click Save at the end. An updated interface places the focus on the image while keeping the familiar feel of the original version of Aurora HDR. All in all, there are more than 20 key improvements and features. Pre-orders for Aurora HDR 2017 begin on September 14 and it will launch on September 29. For pricing, visit Macphun.com.

Canon Introduces new Lenses and the EOS 5D Mark IV Canon recently announced the brand-new EOS 5D Mark IV. Highlights for this camera include a new 30.4-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor; an ISO range of 100–32,000, expandable up to 50–102,400; 4K Motion JPEG video (DCI cinema-type 4096x2160) at 30p or 24p; in-camera 8.8-megapixel still frame grabs of 4K video; Full HD up to 60p and HD up to 120p; Dual Pixel CMOS AF for responsive and smooth AF during video or Live View shooting; full touchscreen LCD monitor, including selection of AF area; up to 7 fps with high-performance DIGIC 6+ Image Processor; 61 AF points with AF possible at all 61 points with many lens and extender combinations effective at f/8; a 150,000-pixel RGB+IR metering sensor for precise exposure metering; Dual Pixel RAW, in-camera Digital Lens Optimizer during JPEG shooting and Diffraction Correction technologies; and built-in Wi-Fi, NFC, and GPS. The EOS 5D Mark IV will retail for $3,499 (body only). To learn more, check out this video by Scott Kelby. In addition to the 5D Mark IV, Canon announced the EF 16–35mm f/2.8L III USM Ultra-Wide Zoom Lens, the EF 24–105mm f/4L IS II USM Standard Zoom, the Canon Battery Grip BG-E20, the Wi-Fi Adapter W-E1, the Rain Cover ERC-E5S/E5M/E5L, and the Protection Cloth PC-E1. For more information, including availability and pricing of all of these products, visit Canon. CLICK TO RATE

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The PowerEgg Will Be Hatching Soon

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Best of Show > Winner JOCELYN PETRUCCIO PHOTOS: LAUREN PARSELLS/BURKLEHAGEN FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

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KelbyOne & Photoshop User magazine is proud to announce the winners of the Photoshop World 2016 Guru Awards. The winners in eight categories, including the Best of Show, were revealed on July 21 during the Guru Awards & Wrap-Up Ceremony at KelbyOne’s annual three-day Photoshop, Lightroom, photography, & design convention in Las Vegas. Sponsored by B&H, the ceremony featured images and photography from international entries in a wide variety of styles, techniques, and skill levels. Congratulations to all the Photoshop World 2016 Guru Award Winners!

Commercial > Winner

Artistic > Winner DIANA DAVIDSON

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ALEX MANFREDINI

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Illustration > Winner SE AN FERGUSON

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Photo Montage > Winner DAVID SCHL AT TER

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Photo Restoration > Winner PATRICK HACKENBERG

Photo Retouching > Winner DON CL ARK > PHOTO: VITALY DRUCHININ

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Before

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Photography > Winner JEFFREY DANNAY

ARTISTIC STEVE LARSON MARK RODRIGUEZ

COMMERCIAL VIVIENNE DANG ALEX MANFREDINI

ILLUSTRATION PAUL BARTELL ALEX MANFREDINI

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PHOTO MONTAGE

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DON CLARK SEAN FERGUSON

PHOTO RESTORATION DON CLARK CLARISSA COLLENZI

PHOTO RETOUCHING STEVEN LARSON ALEXANDRA LENZ

PHOTOGRAPHY ERIC ESTERLE LAURA MUEHL

HOW TO › ›

Down &Dirty Tricks

suicide squad text effect BY COREY BARKER

Just last month the newest comic book movie Suicide Squad hit theaters. In this exercise, we’ll take a look here in Photoshop at one of the many 3D type treatments done for the film. Inspired by the movie, and with a few embellishments of my own, you’ll see how to use type, shapes, textures, and 3D in creative ways!

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Step One: The first thing we need to do is find the right font. To do that we’ll use the new Match Font feature in Photoshop. Just open an image with the text that you’re trying to replicate and make a selection over some or all of the text. Be sure to include any special text characteristics in the selection. Step Two: Go under the Type menu and choose Match Font. A dialog will open showing you any fonts that you have in your system that are a close match to the selection. It will also show you any Typekit fonts that match. In this case, we’re going to use Anzeigen Grotesk Regular from Typekit. (Click here to watch a short video on how to load Typekit fonts.)

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Step Three: Once the font is identified and loaded, create a new document (File>New) that’s 2000x1100 pixels at 100 ppi and click OK. Press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to Invert the Background layer from white to black.

Step Five: We need to convert the text to a path, so Right-click on the type layer in the Layers panel and choose Create Work Path. Open the Paths panel (Window>Paths) and double-click the Work Path to open the Save Path dialog. Rename the path, Main Path, and click OK to save it. Press the letter A on your keyboard to switch to the Path Selection tool, and then in the Options Bar, set the Path Operations drop-down menu (the two overlapping squares) to Combine Shapes. Click on the black background to deactivate the path, and click on the Eye icon next to the type layer in the Layers panel to hide the white text.

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Step Four: Press D then X to set the Foreground color to white. Choose the Type tool (T) in the Toolbox, and click on the canvas to set a text layer. Here we’ve set the words “SUICIDE SQUAT” using the Anzeigen Grotesk Regular Typekit font we loaded earlier. Use the Character panel (Window>Character) to format the text so the ends of the two words line up. (Click here to watch a short video on setting the text.)

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Step Six: Select the Rectangle Shape tool (U) in the Toolbox. Go into the Path Operations drop-down menu again in the Options Bar and choose Subtract Front Shape. Make sure the Tool Mode on the left side of the Options Bar is set to Path, and then draw a very thin rectangle over the two Ss on the left side as shown here. With this path still selected, press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to activate Free Transform and click-and-drag outside the shape to rotate it counterclockwise just a little. Press Enter when done. Step Seven

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Step Seven: Now hold down Option-Command (PC: Alt-Ctrl) and click-and-drag this shape to duplicate it and move it to another part of the image. Enter Free Transform again, Right-click inside the bounding box, and choose Flip Horizontal. Press Enter when done.

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Step Eight: Using the Path Selection tool, clickand-drag around all of the shapes to select them, including the text shapes. Go into the Path Operations menu once again and this time choose Merge Shape Components. The rectangle paths will cut the text shapes and the rest of the text will be normal. Step Eight

Step Nine: We need to open a texture image that we can use for the front of the text. You can use the texture provided in the downloads, or try one of your own. Here we have a simple texture with a scratched surface; however we want it to be lighter. Here’s a cool trick for doing that: Since the texture is black and white, press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to invert the values, creating a negative of the image. [KelbyOne members may download the files used in this tutorial at http://kelbyone.com/magazine. All files are for personal use only.]

©Adobe Stock/antonel

› › DOWN AND DIRTY TRICKS

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Step 10: Using the Move tool (V), click-and-drag this texture into the main design document in which we created the paths. In the Paths panel, click anywhere below the path to deactivate it, and then use Free Transform to scale and position the texture where desired in the canvas so it’s large enough to cover the text. Press Enter to commit the transformation.

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Step 11: Make sure the texture layer is active in the Layers panel, and click on the path layer in the Paths panel to make it active again, as well. Then, go under the 3D menu and choose New 3D Extrusion from Selected Path. This will extrude the text and apply the texture to the front face in one move.

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Step 12: Open both the 3D and Properties panels (if they’re not already open) located under the Window menu. Select Layer 1 in the 3D panel, and then in the Properties panel, set the Extrusion Depth to 50 px. Step 12

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Step 13: Click on the third tab at the top of the Properties panel to enter the Cap settings, and set the Bevel Width to 5%. Step 14: Click back on the first tab in the Properties panel, and click on the Edit Source button at the bottom of the panel. This will open the original document from which the 3D object was created. Using the Direct Selection tool (the white arrow nested under the Path Selection tool in the Toolbox), click-and-drag around the inner shape in the letter Q to select that part of the path. Selected shapes will have solid control points whereas unselected will be hollow. Once the inner shape is selected, simply press Delete (PC: Backspace). Then, close the document and save the changes.

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Step 15: In the 3D panel, select the Layer 1 Front Inflation Material layer, which is a sublayer of Layer 1. Then, click on the page icon to the right of the Diffuse setting at the top of the Properties panel and choose Edit Texture. When the document opens, you should see the main texture and the outline of the text. If you don’t see the outline of the text, go to the Properties panel and check on UV Overlays.

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Step 16: Create a new blank layer, press D to set the Foreground color to black, and choose the Brush tool (B) in the Toolbox. Select a simple, round, hard-edged brush with a very small tip. Then, draw the face elements in the middle area of the Q where we deleted the inner shape. When done, close the document and save the changes. The graphic will be updated on the 3D text.

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Step 17: In the Properties panel, set the Shine to 50% and the Reflection to 75%. This may blow out the highlights in the text when you do this, but don’t worry; we’ll get to that. Step 18: Click on the folder icon to the far right of the Bump slider, and choose Layer 1. This will apply the same scratched texture as a bump map. Then, set the Bump amount to 3%.

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Step 19: Back in the 3D panel, select the Layer 1 Front Bevel Material layer. Go to the Diffuse property in the Properties panel and choose New Texture from the page menu. In the New dialog that appears, make the file 500x500 pixels, and click OK. When the new file opens, press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to Invert the white background to black. Close and save the changes. Step 20: In the Properties panel, set both the Shine and the Reflection to 75%. Also, add the Layer 1 bump map as we did in Step 18, and set the Bump amount to 2% Step 20

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Step 21: Select the Current View in the 3D panel. Then, with the Move tool selected, choose the Orbit the 3D Camera tool at the right of the Options Bar (it’s the first tool in the 3D Mode section). Use this to rotate your view of the text so you can see the extruded sides. Step 22: Select the Layer 1 Extrusion Material in the 3D panel. Go to the Diffuse property and again create a new 500x500-pixel document as we did in Step 19. This time you’ll need to fill it with a darkred color instead of black. So click the Foreground color swatch at the bottom of the Toolbox; set it to R: 140, G: 24, and B: 28; click OK; and press OptionDelete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the document with that color. Close and save document when done.

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Step 23: Set both the Shine and Reflection to 50%, and then add Layer 1 as a bump map again. Once done, go back into the Bump menu and choose Edit UV Properties to open the Texture Properties dialog. Step 24: Textures tend to stretch a lot on extruded sides, so we need to fix that in the Texture Properties dialog. If using a different texture, you’ll need to experiment, but for the texture we’re using, we set the U/X Scale to 10% and the V/Y Scale to 3000. Uncheck Apply to Matching Textures and click OK. When done, go back to the 3D panel and click on Default Camera (it’s the layer at the very bottom) to return to the main view.

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Step 25: In the download files, open the second texture image, which is a dust particle image. Using the Move tool, drag this texture into the main image. Make sure the layer is below the 3D text layer in the Layers panel, then use Free Transform to scale and position it in the main layout behind the text object. Press Enter when done.

©Adobe Stock/papa

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Step 26: With the dust particle layer active, click on the Add a Layer Style icon (ƒx) at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Color Overlay. Click on the color swatch and choose the same shade of red (or close to it) that we used for the extruded sides of the text in Step 22. Set the Blend Mode to Multiply and click OK. This will make the dust layer all red. Step 27: We’ve now arrived at the final phase, which is lighting. First, click on the 3D text layer in the Layers panel to make it active, and select Environment at the top of the 3D panel. In the Properties panel, you’ll see the IBL (Image Based Light) setting at the top. Click on the menu to the right and choose Edit Texture.

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Step 28: Once the Default IBL.psb document opens, go to the Image menu and choose Image Size. Set the Width to 1024 pixels (the Height should automatically change to 512 pixels), and click OK. Press D to set the Foreground color to black, then Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the entire canvas with black.

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Step 29: Switch to the Gradient tool in the Toolbox. (Note: If you’re in the 3D workspace in Photo­shop 2015.5, you won’t see the Gradient tool in the Tool­ box, and pressing the letter G shortcut will activate the Material Drop tool. To access the Gradient tool, click on the spot between the Zoom tool and the color swatches in the Toolbox and you’ll see it in a drop-down list of tools.) Press X to make the Foreground color white, click the gradient preview thumbnail in the Options Bar to open the Gradient Editor, select the Foreground to Transparent preset, and click OK. Choose the Radial Gradient icon in the Options Bar, and then draw a single white radial gradient like the one shown here. Close and save when done.

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Step 30: Switch to the Move tool, and you’ll see a small sphere in the middle of the canvas. Use the Orbit the 3D Camera tool in the Options Bar to clickand-drag this IBL light around the subject, and you’ll see the light reflection change on all surfaces as you drag it. Just rotate it until you see a lighting arrangement you like. You can always change it later. In the Properties panel, set the Intensity below the IBL to 75%. Also, go down to the Ground Plane settings and set the Shadows Opacity to 0%. Step 31: Click on Current View in the 3D panel. In the Properties panel, set the FOV to a 14- or 15-mm lens. This will make the lens a wider angle, giving a more dramatic look. The object will appear smaller because of the virtual lens change. Just grab the Slide the 3D Camera tool (the fourth tool in the 3D Mode section in the Options Bar), and then clickand-drag down to move the camera closer to the object, filling in the frame more. You can also use the Orbit the 3D Camera tool to slightly change the angle of the text.

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Step 32: Click on the Light Bulb tab at the top of the 3D panel. Here you’ll see the default Infinite Light that was created. Select it and click on the Type menu in the Properties panel and choose Point. Then, drop the Intensity to 50% and click on the Move to View icon. The light will appear as a small yellow wireframe ball. Use the 3D tools to position this light just in front and slightly below the letter “A” in the main text so the light is coming from the bottom.

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Step 33: Create a second Point light by clicking on the Add New Light to Scene icon (light bulb) at the bottom of the 3D panel and selecting New Point Light. In the Properties panel, click on the Color swatch and choose the same red color that we’ve been using in the Color Picker. Click OK, and set the Intensity to 250%. Now use the Slide the 3D Object tool to push this light behind the text. You’ll still see the wireframe but it will be dimmed when behind the 3D object. The point here is to enhance the sense of red light coming from the background texture. With this new lighting in place you may want to adjust the IBL position for a more dramatic effect. Just select Environment in the 3D panel and rotate it.

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STEP 34: Before we proceed, I’d suggest making a duplicate of this 3D layer. The next step will remove a lot of editability of the 3D object, so making a duplicate will save you time if you need to start over from this point. Just press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J), and then click the Eye icon next to the original layer in the Layers panel to turn it off. STEP 35: With the duplicate 3D layer active, go under the 3D menu and choose Split Extrusion. This will break the text into individual 3D letters, but it will keep all of the letters in the same 3D layer. Just use the 3D tools to select a letter and move it around separately. Remember those cut lines we created at the beginning? We can now move those elements so they look offset to the original. You can also select other letters and change their rotation slightly for more interesting angles. You can use either the 3D tools or the on-object widget controls. Just hover over different areas of the widget for tool tips, and then click-and-drag a setting to modify it.

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You can still adjust things like the lighting, but if you want to edit the texture properties you’ll need to do it to each letter individually. See now why you want to do all those things before you split the extrusion? When you’re done, just go under the 3D menu again and choose Render 3D Layer. Rendering times will vary. ■

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Down &Dirty Tricks

use face-aware liquify to create a caricature BY KIRK NELSON

One of the most interesting features of the Photoshop 2015.5 release is a helpful addition to Liquify, a filter that’s already heavily used by photo retouchers everywhere. This amazing new technology called Face Aware automatically detects faces in an image, assigns regions to recognizable facial features, and builds in controls to edit those features. This was developed to assist with portrait beauty retouching, but in this tutorial, we push it past its intended limits and use it to create a humorous photo caricature!

Step One: Selecting just the right portrait to use for a caricature is as important as the technique itself. The task is much easier and more successful if you choose an image that already has some slightly exaggerated elements to it. The art of crafting a caricature is to push those elements to be comically exaggerated. This stock image of a surprised man works well because his eyes are already wide and his mouth is hanging open. Begin by duplicating the Background layer with Layer>New>Layer Via Copy, or with Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J), then transform that layer into a smart object with Layer>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Object. [KelbyOne members may download the file used in this tutorial at http://kelbyone.com /magazine. All files are for personal use only.]

©Adobe Stock/olly

› › DOWN AND DIRTY TRICKS

Step One

Step Two: Go to Filter>Liquify to launch the Liquify dialog. Things are a little different now in Photoshop 2015.5. Notice there’s a new tool in the toolbox on the left, the Face Tool (A), which automatically detects facial features and even adds on-canvas controls. Mouse over one of the eyes to see an assortment of controls for the eye area. Drag the small rectangle to change the Eye Size, then drag on the dotted arc outside the eye to adjust the Eye Tilt. You can also move each eye individually.

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E yes—Eye Size: 100, Eye Tilt: 40, and Eye Distance: –38

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 ose—Nose Height: –20 and N Nose Width: 97

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 outh—Lower Lip: –100 and M Mouth Width: –24

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F ace Shape—Forehead: 75, Chin Height: –100, Jawline: –100, and Face Width: –67.

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Step Three: Look in the Properties panel on the right and click on the right-facing arrow next to Face-Aware Liquify to expand that section. Open each sub area and make adjustments using the sliders. Overall, the goal is to make the eyes and mouth large, the nose wider, and the whole head shape longer and narrower. Here are the settings we used:

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Step Four: The built-in features are intentionally limited to keep the proportions somewhat believable. We want to push them beyond that! Switch to the Forward Warp tool (W) and use the Bracket keys on your keyboard to size the tool to be about approximately the same size as the model’s chin. Then, gently pull his bottom lip downward causing the mouth to be cartoonish in proportion. If it doesn’t look right the first time, just press Command-Z (PC: Ctrl-Z) to undo and try again by either resizing the brush or clicking-and-dragging in a slightly different area.

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Step Five: Reduce the size of the brush a little more and push the model’s temples inward slightly. Also push his neck inward where it meets the base of his head, as this accentuates the wide-open mouth. Then, grab the Bloat tool (B) and give just a click or two on the round fleshy areas of his cheeks to pop them up just a bit. Click the OK button to apply the whole Liquify effect. Notice that the Liquify filter is a smart filter applied to the smart object. This is advantageous because it means you can readjust those settings at any time.

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Step Six: Now go to Edit>Puppet Warp. Click to place warp pins on the model’s pupils and outer ears. These areas shouldn’t move and the pins will serve as stationary points to “hold down” the image. Use several pins along his forehead and hairline to carefully pull the upper portion of his head upward, exaggerating the size of his forehead and his hairstyle.

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Step Seven: One of the hallmarks of a classic caricature is the extreme size difference between the person’s head and his body. To capture this effect, add more pins to the neck and shoulder area. Begin pulling these areas inward to significantly reduce the apparent size of his torso. Hit the Enter key to apply the Puppet Warp transformation. Don’t worry about the edges of the image being pulled into the visible area of the canvas; we’ll take care of that next!

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Step Eight: Go to Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All to add a mask to Layer 1. Press D then X so the Foreground color is set to black, and use the Brush tool (B) with a Soft Round tip to paint on the mask and gently fade out the visible edges. (Tip: Use the Bracket keys on your keyboard to quickly change your brush size as you paint on the mask.)

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Step Nine: Puppet Warp will frequently introduce unwanted distortions and irregularities to the image. These are easy enough to correct with another run of the Liquify filter. (Note: Don’t double-click Liquify in the Layers panel to reopen the filter because it won’t show you the changes you made with Puppet Warp; you’ll need to go to Filter>Liquify again so you can see all of your changes. Also, before you go into Liquify, click on the layer thumbnail for Layer 1 so the image is active and not the layer mask.) Use the Forward Warp tool (W) again to help smooth out any odd surface bumps. Take care to ensure that the eyes are large, but still round, especially the irises and the pupils. Then, gently pull down on his teeth to extend them just slightly. Click the OK button to apply these latest edits.

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Step 10: At this point the structural edits to the caricature are complete; the rest of the steps are aesthetically oriented. Let’s begin by intensifying the eye color. Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer through Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation. Set the Saturation to +58 and the Lightness to –4. Click on the mask thumbnail for the adjustment layer in the Layers panel and tap Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to Invert the mask from white to black. Press X to switch the Foreground color to white and use the Brush tool (B) with a Soft Round tip to reapply the adjustment effect only to the irises.

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Step 11: Add a new layer with Layer> New>Layer. In the New Layer dialog, set the Name to “Dodge – Burn” and the Mode to Overlay. Check the option for Fill with OverlayNeutral Color (50% Gray), and click OK. Grab the Burn tool (nested under the Dodge tool [O] in the Toolbox) and set the Range to Midtones and the Exposure to 11% in the Options Bar. Use this to darken the hair shadow areas and the darker eye socket. Switch to the Dodge tool with the same settings and work on brightening the highlights of his face.

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Step 12: Add a new layer by using the Create a New Layer icon (it looks like a square with a folded corner) at the base of the Layers panel. Double-click the name of this layer, rename it “Eye Whites,” and set the blend mode to Color. Grab the Brush tool (B) with a Soft Round tip and set the Opacity to 30% in the Options Bar. Hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key to access the Eyedropper tool and click to sample a color from the brightest portion of the eye whites. Gently paint over any pinkish areas of the eyes to whiten them and create a cleaner look. Use the Bracket keys to resize the brush as needed.

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Step 13: Create a merged layer at the top of the layer stack by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key and going to Layer>Merge Visible. Rename the merged layer to “Merged” and convert it to a smart object with Layer>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Object. Step 14: Go to Filter>Camera Raw Filter to launch the filter’s dialog. In the Basic tab, increase the Shadows to +68, decrease the Whites to –16, and boost the Blacks to +23. Increase the Clarity to +54 and the Vibrance to +61. Don’t click OK yet.

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Step 15: Switch to the Effects tab (ƒx) and set the Dehaze to +19. In the Post Crop Vignetting section, set the Amount to –20. Click the OK button to apply the filter and finish the final effect.

THAT WAS EASY! While the Face-Aware Liquify feature isn’t designed to complete the full-on caricature, it does a lot to shorten the process. Just the fact that it identifies facial features and can add some exaggeration is a tremendous help for making the creative decisions on what features to fully exaggerate. Never before has crafting a photo caricature been so easy or so much fun! ■

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Beginners' Workshop

LESA SNIDER

taming whiskers with the dust & scratches filter

©Adobe Stock/nyul

A wonderful yet overwhelming truth about Photoshop is that there are several ways to do most things and sometimes the least obvious method works the best. In this column, you’ll learn how to use the Dust & Scratches filter to tame distracting whiskers quickly, realistically, and without harming your original photo.

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Step One

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Step One: To use the Dust & Scratches filter nondestruc­ tively, run it on a smart object. Doing so puts a protective wrapper around your layer content so the filter happens to the wrapper, so to speak, and not what’s inside it. In Photo­ shop, choose File>Open as Smart Object. If the portrait is already open in Photoshop, convert the image layer into a smart object by Right-clicking near its name in the Layers panel and choosing Convert to Smart Object, or by choosing Filter>Convert for Smart Filters (these two commands do the same thing). Either way, you see a special smart object badge at the bottom right of the thumbnail (circled). Tip: If you use Lightroom, you can send a photo from Lightroom to Photoshop as a smart object by choosing Photo>Edit In>Open as Smart Object in Photoshop.

If, when working with your own files, the portrait con­ sists of multiple layers, activate the layers in the Layers panel first and then convert them all into a single smart object as described above. To access the original layers later, double-click the smart object thumbnail in the Layers panel and Photo­shop opens them in a new, temporary doc­ ument. Make your changes, choose File>Save (not Save As) and close the document. The original document is updated with your changes. [KelbyOne members may download the file used in this tutorial at http://kelbyone.com/magazine. All files are for personal use only.]

› › BEGINNERS' WORKSHOP

Step Two: Choose Filter>Noise>Dust & Scratches. In the dialog that opens, zoom in on an important area of the photo so you can see it in the filter pre­ view window (say, his neck). The goal is to increase the Radius enough to soften the whiskers and then adjust the Threshold to control the point at which the filter kicks in. Keep the Threshold as low as pos­ sible but high enough to preserve your subject’s skin texture. You’ll need to experiment with these settings on your own photos to find a balance that works. We set the Radius to 9 and the Threshold slider to 8 in the high-res version of this image, but you’ll have to try lower values for the low-res prac­ tice version. Click OK to close the dialog. Step Two

Step Three: To hide the filter from everywhere except the man’s whiskers, use the filter mask that Photoshop automatically added when you ran the filter. In the realm of masks, black conceals and white reveals. Since you’ll hide the filter from the majority of the photo, it’s quicker to start with a mask that’s filled with black and then reveal it in certain areas by painting with a white brush. Click to activate the mask (circled here) in the Layers panel and then press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to invert it from white to black. Photoshop hides the filter from the entire photo.

Step Four: Press B to activate the Brush tool. In the Options Bar, click the brush preview to open the Brush Preset Picker and choose a soft-edged brush (one that has fuzzy soft edges) and enter a size of around 90 px (40 px for the low-res practice file). Make sure the Mode drop-down menu is set to Normal and that Opacity and Flow are 100%. The Foreground color chip at the bottom of the Toolbox controls what color the Brush tool uses. To reveal the filter, paint with white. Press D on your keyboard to set the color chips to their default values of black and white, and then press X until white is on top.

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Step Five: Mouse over to the photo and brush across the stray whiskers on his face and neck. Zoom into the photo by pressing Command-+ (PC: Ctrl-+) and then Spacebar-click-and-drag to reposition the photo so you can see the man’s beard. Be careful not to brush across any areas that you don’t want blurred (say, the edge of his chin). Adjust brush size as you go using the Left and Right Brackets on your keyboard: Press the Left Bracket ([) to decrease brush size or the Right Bracket (]) to increase it. If you reveal too much of the filter, press X on your keyboard to swap the color chips so black is on top and then brush across that area again to hide the filter. To soften whiskers that are too long within the beard, use a small brush and click once atop them. Step Six: When you’re finished, assess your work by turning the filter off and on. To do that, click the visibility icon to the left of the filter’s name in the Layers panel. If the subject’s skin looks too blurry, you can change the filter’s settings. To do that, double-click the filter’s name (circled) and the Dust & Scratches dialog reopens. Here we increased the Threshold to 14 to preserve more texture. Click OK.

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Step Seven: Press Command-S (PC: Ctrl-S) to save the document and in the resulting dialog, choose Photoshop from the Format drop-down menu. As you can see in this before and after version, the whiskers are far less distracting.

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Who knew the Dust & Scratches filter was so useful for this kind of thing? You can also use the same technique on wrinkles to soften them. And by using a smart object, your original photo remains fully intact and you can easily experiment with the filter’s settings to produce the result you want. Until next time, may the creative force be with you all! ■

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Dynamic Range dealing with distracting objects

MARK HEAPS

A long time ago at Photoshop World, Jay Maisel gave a talk about his photographs. Jay is always a great speaker and his images are spectacular. One thing Jay said that stood out while he was giving advice that day was, “Don’t put words or letters in your pictures unless you want people to read them.” This was a simple, but very true, piece of advice. The human brain has a tendency to want to read the words that it sees. We are conditioned for it, and it’s almost impossible to look at a group of letters and not try to make words out of them. But what if those letters, or words, aren’t things you want the viewer to focus on? They become a distraction, a part of the visual noise that hurts the story you’re trying to tell. There are lots of things in images that can be distracting. Over time, image-makers have found various techniques to help the viewer focus on the intended target within the image; for example, shallow depth of field, vignettes, leading lines, contrast, saturation, and more, all help create a target focus for an image. This is key, because in today’s media culture, we have nothing more than a glance from a viewer to tell him or her a story.

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THE CLONE STAMP TOOL

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Thankfully, Photoshop has some very powerful tools to help us remove distracting elements from images that maybe couldn’t have been eliminated while taking the photo. First, let’s explain the foundation of these tools. The oldest tool used for this sort of work is the Clone Stamp tool (S). The Clone Stamp tool allows you to copy from one source location to another target location using a brush interface. This is a direct copy from the source location. The basic premise for removing distracting elements in an image is to simply replace or reduce the value that makes it stand out.

In recent years, the Clone Stamp has received some upgrades and now you can store up to five various source points in the Clone Source panel (Window>Clone Source) while you’re working. This is useful if you have several various source points from which you want to clone. One useful feature of this tool (and others like it) is that it allows you to sample through all layers in your document. Just create a new blank layer at the top of your layer stack and make sure the Clone Stamp is set for All Layers in the Options Bar above. Now the tool will clone from all the visible information contained in the layers below. The duplicated pixels end up on the empty layer. This way the edits are nondestructive and contained in a new layer above the image.

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The next set of tools that are often used are the Spot Healing Brush, Healing Brush, and Patch tool (J). The Patch tool is the only one that doesn’t allow you to duplicate onto an empty layer so it’s more destructive than the others.

often a mix of using the old and new tools together to get the best solution to problem areas in photographs.

PUTTING THE TOOLS TO THE TEST

Each of these three tools, which are advancements on the foundation that the Clone Stamp tool offered us, add various forms of auto-blending. With the Clone Stamp, you get an exact replica from your source point; the Healing tools blend patterns, textures, geometry, colors, luminosity, and more. The removal of distracting elements is

In this shoot for a custom Triumph motorcycle, we applied a basic vignette to help frame the image, which allows us to reduce the “noise” from the texture and scene, but boost the attention to the center of the frame toward our subject. But, we have some other distractions to remove. Let’s tackle issues that these tools can easily handle: the big blob stain on the back wall that jumps out because of its size and darkness against the lighter surrounding panel, and the tall vertical line that shows a seam in the wall. [KelbyOne members may download the files used in this tutorial at http://kelbyone.com/magazine. All files are for personal use only.]

Source image

Tone adjusted image

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THE HEALING TOOLS

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Step One: By creating a new layer above the image, the photograph is protected from the edits that are made until the image is finalized. Doubleclick the name of the new layer and rename it “Healing Brush.” Step Two: With that layer active in the Layers panel, choose the Healing Brush tool from the Toolbox. Set it to work with All Layers. This works the same as the Clone Stamp tool option mentioned earlier in the article and is found in the same place in the Options Bar at the top of the screen.

Step Two

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Step Three: With the Healing Brush selected, and the empty layer targeted in the Layers panel, use the Bracket keys on your keyboard to quickly resize the brush, then hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key to set the target point from which to copy by clicking on it. Choose a spot that’s similar in texture to the surrounding area that’s being repaired. As you begin to brush, you’ll see it cloning, but also auto-calculating the tonal adjustments and textures for you. This is something the regular Clone Stamp can’t do.

Step One

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Final result: Distractions removed

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It’s always a good idea, if possible, to pick an area that’s not close to the repair site to ensure that no obvious cloning or repetition occurs. The human brain can very quickly identify repeated details. One way to help this is by cloning from multiple smaller source points. Simply repeat the process by building up detail from various areas of the surrounding pixels. Be sporadic and scatter your source details. The Spot Healing Brush will give you similar results but it doesn’t allow you to set a source point to clone from; instead, it looks for similar areas within the image from which to pull detail. This is great for small spot details, but for larger areas, the Healing Brush gives the editor all of the control.

USING HUE & SATURATION TO REDUCE DISTRACTING ELEMENTS

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Here’s a second image from the motorcycle shoot that requires a slightly different approach to removing a distracting element. In this image, there’s a recycling bin in the background that’s visible through the spokes of the rear wheel.

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The detail of the bin being there isn’t as problematic as the fact that it’s a distinct blue color. Because of the depth of field from the lens, it’s a detail that isn’t clear, but the blue color being framed by the black tires and frame really makes it stand out. In this case, rather than stamping, cloning, or patching, it’s just as effective to alter what makes this detail a problem: the color itself. Step One: Make a basic selection around the problem areas. This doesn’t have to be precise, as it would be in a compositing task, it just needs to frame the color area we want to make less distracting. We used a combination of the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and the Lasso tool (L). After you select the first area, hold the Shift key to add the second area to the selection.

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Step Two: With your selection active, create a Hue/ Saturation adjustment layer. This is found by clicking the half-filled circle icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Navigate down through the list and click on Hue/Saturation. With your new Hue/Saturation layer created, the Properties panel should automatically appear; if it doesn’t, then go to Window>Properties. That will bring up the Properties for whatever is actively targeted in Photoshop. You can also double-click on the Hue/Saturation layer thumbnail. You’ll see a layer mask attached to the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer in the Layers panel. The mask is filled with black except where you made your selections; those selected areas appear in white. The Hue/Saturation adjustment will only affect the photo through the white areas on the mask.

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Step One

Step Two

Step Three: In the pull-down menu that’s labeled Master in the Properties panel, choose the color of the detail you’re trying to edit. In this example, the value of the recycling bin is Blues. To make sure you’re aligned to the exact hue that’s being altered, use the Eyedropper near the bottom left of the Properties panel for Hue/Saturation and click on the blue pixels in the image being changed. This will move the brackets at the bottom of the Properties panel to align with that exact hue. Step Three

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Step Four: Now drag the Hue slider until you find a color that pops out less from the background. Also, reduce the Saturation to make the color less vibrant, and consider altering the Lightness to help reduce the contrast against the foreground detail. In this example, by making the recycling bin green, less saturated, and slightly darker, it no longer stands out against the details of the motorcycle.

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Step Four

Before and after detail view

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USING THE CAMERA RAW FILTER TO REMOVE DETAILS

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This image of the custom Triumph motor­cycle has some signage in the background along with a few other distracting details that should be dealt with. If the image being edited is provided in the RAW format, you’ll have more edit controls available. The great thing about the RAW editor is that it’s completely nondestructive when used with a RAW source file; however, if the image being edited is something like a stock image provided in JPEG or TIFF format, it can still work with the RAW editor controls. Just make your layer a smart object first by Right-clicking on the layer and choosing Convert to Smart Object. Once the source image is prepared, you can access your Camera Raw engine either with ACR (Adobe Camera Raw), Lightroom, or by going to Filter>Camera Raw Filter. Within the Camera Raw engine there’s a tool called the Spot Removal Brush. Step One: Access the Spot Removal Brush by pressing the letter B. This is very similar to the tools

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found within Photoshop, but the advantage is that, after painting the target area, the distraction should be removed. Step Two: The area being cloned from can be dragged around to different target areas until you find the best result. Simply click-and-drag the green position marker to a new area and it will clone from within that area. Look for details like patterns, vertical lines, etc., that can be lined up to match the surrounding target area. Step Three: Repeat this again and again by simply painting into new areas that you want to remove. Each click will create a new target to repair. For larger areas, press-and-hold the mouse button to paint over the distracting element. Step Four: Once you’ve completed the edits, click OK, and this will update the image back in Photoshop. From here, apply further edits by adding a new layer above the image and using the techniques described earlier in this article. Look at the edges where you used the Spot Removal Brush because there are often little artifacts that appear where Camera Raw blended the edges. The Spot Healing Brush or regular Healing Brush in Photoshop are good for removing those small details.

Before

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Step Five: After you’ve removed all the distracting signs, you can use Hue/Saturation to tackle the gas can and make it less noticeable. When the distracting elements are removed, we have a nice clean image that gives negative space for headline or article copy to support the story of this photo. ■

Step Two

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Photoshop Proving Ground text control for graphic effects

SCOTT VALENTINE

This fall, I’ll be teaching Photoshop typography tools at the Adobe MAX conference in San Diego. This is a milestone for me, so I thought I’d share a sneak peak of my talk with you, my favorite readers. It turns out that there are lots of things you can do with type in Photoshop, and you know how I love to push tools to their limits! Let’s start with some simple ways you can control type, and then I’ll demonstrate a really fun

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way to spice up your titles and designs using some simple tricks.

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Step One: This is kind of a follow-along, so open your copy of Photoshop and create a new document (File>New). I’m using a simple 1000x1000-pixel square at 300 pixels per inch (ppi) and a solid white background. If you’ll recall from my May/June column on resolution [see Photoshop User, May/June 2016, p. 42.], remember that if you want to print, you should use 300 ppi—with type, that’s really important because Photoshop rasterizes type, and lower resolutions may result in jagged edges. When you first create a type layer in Photoshop, it exists as a vector layer, which is essentially a mathematical description of the outlines of the font. But when you print from Photoshop, those smooth lines get converted to dots on a grid. I’ll talk more about raster versus vector in a future article, but for now just remember that you should print type at 300 ppi whenever possible.

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recommend getting in the habit of selecting the Type tool when working on your text layer. While you can use the panel with other tools active, it might cause some confusion, for example, if you try to edit the text when the Marquee tool is selected. Step Three: With the Type layer and Type tool selected, let’s see how to adjust the spacing between the letters in our word. When you adjust all the text at once, this is called “tracking,” and there’s a field dedicated to changing it. Clicking on the Tracking drop-down gives you a range of preset values, both positive and negative. Positive numbers will increase the space between letters, and negative moves them closer together. Making sure the text in your layer isn’t currently selected and your cursor isn’t inserted anywhere in the text, try a few values to see how this behaves. (Note: If your text is selected or your cursor is inserted somewhere in the text, you can either click the checkmark in the Options Bar, press the Enter key, or click on the text layer in the Layers panel to commit the text.)

Step Five: Photoshop allows you to get even trickier, though. With the Type tool active, click-and-drag over two adjacent characters to highlight them. Now the Tracking

Step Four

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Step Two: We have a fresh, new document that’s just begging for some cool text. Select the Type tool (T), and then show the Character panel (Window>Character). The Character panel has some really cool features for dialing in the look of your text. For the moment, click on the Font dropdown menu and choose a simple font such as Arial Black. In this case, I chose a point size of 36. Press D to set your Foreground color to black, and click on the canvas and type something short, like a single word. We’ll use this to explore some of the tools in the panel. Many of the options in the Character panel will apply to your text so long as the Type layer is selected, but I also

Step Four: You can also type a value directly in the Tracking field if you want more precision than what’s provided in the drop-down. Or, you can change the values by clicking over the Tracking icon and dragging left or right. This changes the values rapidly, but you don’t see the result of those changes until you release the cursor. If you ever want to get back to the original tracking value set by the font’s creator, you can choose or type in 0 to reset the spacing. I used a value of –45 for my starting point.

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Step Six: Another way to get a little spark in your type is to change the baseline of some of your characters. Baseline is the imaginary line on which your type sits, except for characters like lowercase y or g that have descenders. Letters like o and s sit on the baseline, while letters with descenders have tails that drop below the baseline. As you type text in Photoshop, it shows you the baseline of the font you’re using. In the Character panel, the Aa icon denotes the Baseline Shift control. If you change this value from zero, the entire block of text will shift up or down; however, you can do this with single characters as well. Step Seven: Choosing the first letter in our word, let’s simulate a drop-cap effect by increasing its point size to 48, and then going to the Baseline Shift field and entering –7. This moves the P down 7 points. (I’m not going to explain points in this article, so just think of them as units of measure, like millimeters or inches.) In this case, that aligns the top of the capital P with the top of the h and the bottom of the descender on the lowercase p at the end. I love using this effect for simple titles, especially with fancier script fonts.

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field becomes a Kerning field! Well, it won’t say that, but you’re now controlling the space between two adjacent characters instead of the whole body of text. So “kerning” is used for adjacent characters, and may differ throughout a piece of text, while “tracking” is used for the overall body of text. Once you’ve applied kerning to a pair of letters, you can then go back and select just the left character of the pair to continue adjustments. Adjusting the kerning and tracking of text is a great way to change the feel of a given font, and can help adjust the graphical look or readability without using transform or scale tools. Below are three versions showing the original tracking at top, my preferred manual kerning in the middle, and a tightly kerned title at the bottom. (Note: There are two types of kerning methods, Metric and Optical. Metric is the assigned kerning between character pairs that the designer intended, and it’s what I generally use by default. Optical evaluates several pairs of characters and develops spacing based on that evaluation and the letter shapes themselves. The regular Kerning option is in the Character panel, just to the left of the Tracking control.)

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Step Five

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Step Eight

Step Nine

Step 10

PAINTING TEXT

Step Eight: Create a blank layer above your Type layer by pressing Command-Shift-Option-N (PC: Ctrl-Shift-Alt-N), then hold Command (PC: Ctrl) and click on the Type layer’s thumbnail. Turn off the visibility of the Type layer by clicking on its Eye icon. The blank layer should be active, and you should have an outline of your text loaded as a selection. Step Nine: Press G to load the Gradient tool, and then D to set your Foreground and Background colors to their default of black and white, respectively. In the Options Bar, click on the gradient preview thumbnail to open the Gradient Editor, select the Foreground to Background preset, and click OK. Choose the Linear Gradient icon in the Options Bar. On the blank layer, click-and-drag up from the bottom of the selection to some point above it. You should end up with a black to gray gradient in your text. Step 10: Press B to activate your Brush tool, and choose any kind of textured or patterned brush from the Brush Preset Picker in the Options Bar. I’m using a basic Grass brush that

comes standard with Photoshop. I like this one because it has some randomized color changes. Lightly paint back and forth across the bottom of the text and you’ll see the grass appear. Finish by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect. I added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation) and chose the Colorize option in the Properties panel to give it a green color. The opening image for this month uses this same basic handpainting technique to simulate a rounded 3D font. The takeaway from this effect is that you can fine-tune your type pretty easily, and then use the outline of that type for some really great effects. While the selection is active, you can paint and add gradients in any way you like. With a little care, you can add layer styles such as Drop Shadows, or create cool titles for motion-graphics projects. When you treat type as a graphical element, pay attention to legibility and make a conscious choice whether the type should be read clearly and what meaning it should convey. Tighter kerning may feel crowded as simple text, but may provide more continuity for a design. Looser kerning can work well for powerful headlines that need to fill space. Don’t be afraid to play with lots of variations! ■

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Now that we have some interesting text, let’s kick it into high gear and have some fun with painting.

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Photoshop Tips

boost your productivity and creativity

COLIN SMITH

I have some quick-fire tips for you in this issue. These are fast-and-simple tips that, if you start using them, you’ll see an increase in productivity with less fiddling, and you know how annoying fiddling can be; that’s unless you’re a fiddler and play the actual fiddle. So, Photoshop is not the place for fiddling—a fiddle is.

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PIVOT POINT When you’re transforming layers—you know, rotating and scaling—they usually transform from the center. Have you ever had a corner exactly where you wanted it before you scaled an object, but then you had to reposition it because the corner moved? I bet there have been a ton of times where you wished that objects rotated or scaled from a different point. You can actually have it transform from any point you like, even outside your object. Here’s how: With your object’s layer active, press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) for Free Transform. In the center of the Transform box you’ll see a little point, known as the pivot point. (This point is always in the center unless you move it.) So, click-and-drag it to a different location and watch how everything now revolves around that point.

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WHERE IS MY DELETE HIDDEN LAYERS FEATURE IN PHOTOSHOP CC 2015.5? If you’re like me when you’re experimenting, you can end up with a ton of layers that you don’t need. You can turn them off by clicking the little Eye icon next to them in the Layers panel, and then, when you get tired of endlessly scrolling through layers in the Layers panel, you start to delete

the hidden layers because they’re not needed. Or, you can use a great little feature in Photoshop to clean up all those unwanted layers in your Layers panel: Right-click in the Layers panel and choose Delete Hidden Layers. Well, you could do that until you upgraded to 2015.5, and that option is now gone from the contextual menu! Don’t fear though, as it’s still there; Adobe just did a little spring-cleaning. Go under the main menu at the top and choose Layer>Delete>Hidden Layers. QUICK PATHS When you’re working with the Pen tool (P), there are actually five different Pen tools. There are also two path selection tools, so that makes seven in total! The good news is that you can access most of them by using keyboard modifiers. Choose the regular Pen tool, and hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key to change to the Convert Point tool to change direction, convert lines to curves, and vice versa. Hold down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key to switch to the Direct Selection tool. Make sure Auto Add/Delete is turned on in the tool Options Bar and you can click anywhere on the path to add a point, or click a point to remove it. There, now you don’t have to keep changing tools. NONDESTRUCTIVE STRAIGHTENING OF PANORAMAS If you stitch together images into panoramas (File> Automate>Photomerge), you may have noticed that the horizons are often bent. Here’s a nondestructive way to fix that. When you first create the panorama, all the layers should automatically be selected in the Layers panel. Right-click any of those layers and choose Convert to a Smart Object. Now, use Filter>Adaptive Wide Angle (yes, it works on a smart object!). If you hold down the Shift key while drawing along the crooked horizon, it will be adjusted to a perfect horizontal position. Here’s the catch: Trying to get it right using only one line usually doesn’t work. While holding down Shift, draw a line on the left half and then draw another line on the right half.

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WHAT’S WITH THESE PESKY SMART OBJECTS? While smart objects are wonderful, whenever you File>Place something into Photoshop, it automatically comes in as a smart object. There are times, however, when you might want rasterized files instead of smart objects. You can just tell Photoshop to stop placing as smart objects. Go to Photoshop CC (PC: Edit)>Preferences>General and turn off Always Create Smart Objects when Placing. You’ll see another option there that will allow you to Skip Transform when Placing if you just want to get it done! SELECTING THE LIGHTS AND DARKS Many people are aware that the Color Range tool enables you to make selections based on colors or tones. What a lot of people don’t realize is Color Range is also a great place to select the brightest or darkest pixels in your image. Choose Select>Color Range. In the Select drop-down menu you’ll see the options Highlights and Shadows. Use these options to make your selections, and then use the Range slider to finetune what’s considered a highlight and a shadow.

FULL-SCREEN TOGGLE In Photoshop there are three viewing modes. The default is Standard Screen Mode. If you press the F key, you can go into Full Screen Mode with Menu Bar. This provides more working space. It also allows you to move the entire canvas by holding down the Spacebar and dragging. Press F again to go into Full Screen Mode. This will hide everything except for your artwork. Many people use this as a way to present their artwork. Tap the Tab key to show and hide the panels and Toolbox. Press Shift-Tab to show and hide the panels by themselves. Press F one more time to return to Standard Screen Mode. MOVING LAYERS Keyboard shortcuts are a good way to speed up your work in Photoshop. Here’s a great one for layers: Rather than take the time to visit the Layers panel, press Command-[ or ] (PC: Ctrl-[ or ]) to move the currently selected layer down or up, respectively, in the layer stack. If you want to quickly move a layer to the bottom of the stack, press Shift-Command-[ (PC: Shift-Ctrl-[); or to instantly move a layer to the top of the stack, press Shift-Command-] (PC: Shift-Ctrl-]).

CUSTOM WORKSPACES This one is really simple, but it’s surprising how many people don’t use workspaces, or maybe have just forgotten about them. At the top right of Photoshop (at the far right of the Options Bar) is a pull-down menu; use this to choose a workspace. You can also move your panels around, close the ones you don’t need, and open the ones you do. When you have everything set up the way that you like, you can save this workspace so it can be used again. Just choose New Workspace from the workspace drop-down menu, give it a name, select the options you want to save in the workspace, and click Save. ■ CLICK TO RATE

ALL IMAGES BY COLIN SMITH

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USE BUTTON MODE FOR ACTIONS When you want to run an action, you have to open the action set that it lives in, and then select the action you’re looking for. If you have a lot of actions loaded, that means a lot of scrolling. Hopefully, the actions aren’t expanded, because that means even more scrolling. By the time you’ve launched your action, you could have performed the task manually. Here’s a tip: Click on the flyout menu at the top right of the Actions panel (Window>Actions) and choose Button Mode. In Button Mode, you’ll see all the actions as colored buttons. Click the button and the action runs, nice and simple. Bonus tip time: You’re probably wondering how to change the colors on the buttons. Turn off Button Mode (you can’t edit actions in Button Mode), hold down Option (PC: Alt), and double-click an action’s name. The Action Options dialog appears with Color options at the bottom.

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DesignMakeover JAKE WIDMAN

CLIENT

Prescott Realty, Inc. prescottrealty.com

brand development before

Original Logo

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“As part of the resurrection, Rocha convinced his partners that they needed to up their marketing game.”

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Prescott Realty, Inc. serves the home-buying needs of Prescott, Arizona, located about an hour and a half north of Phoenix. It was founded in 1991 when the firm’s broker, Richard Hanna, moved to the area with an eye to retirement. Richard had been in the realty business since the ’70s, following in the footsteps of his father, Lyle, who had founded D & H Realty in Phoenix in 1973. The retirement plans, however, were put on hold. Richard’s investor and builder friends urged him to keep developing new housing in his new location, and so instead of retiring, he launched a new company, Prescott Realty. The firm started developing four subdivisions in 1992 and has been selling those lots ever since. The new company needed a new logo, and Richard came up with one himself. “He loved the marketing side of real estate,” recounts co-owner and sales specialist Jon Rocha, “and he drew it out when he founded the company.” Over the years, the logo mostly appeared on the firm’s printed collateral. “Out here in Prescott, our median age is about 57 or 58, mostly higher-income retired folks,” says Rocha. “They’d call us and say, ‘I really like those subdivisions outside of town; can you send us some information?’” So Richard would put together packets of information, all using his handmade logo. Rocha bought into the firm in the summer of 2015, joining Richard and his daughter Lorinda. “Now, instead of winding down, we’re revving the company back up,” he says. As part of the resurrection, Rocha convinced his partners that they needed to up their marketing game. For one thing, he spearheaded the creation of Prescott Realty’s first website. For another, he launched a project to modernize the longstanding logo.

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’ll also be covering 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.

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DESIGN MAKEOVER

CLIENT

Prescott Realty, Inc. prescottrealty.com

Round One

Rocha is very conscious of how a company’s visual presentation affects consumers’ perception. “You buy into a certain brand because of how it looks or what story it conveys. There’s so much power now in the branding of a company and what it stands for,” he says. When he joined Prescott Realty, though, Rocha felt that the existing logo would hold the company back in its efforts to address a new generation of homebuyers. “We needed to make a logo that communicates things we’re actually about rather than things that happened 20 years ago,” he says. “The old logo may have communicated experience, which is not a bad thing, but it conveyed too much of that and not enough relevance, innovation, and growth.” He did encounter some emotional reluctance to change the firm’s longstanding image, though. The founder and old logo’s originator, Richard Hanna, is still involved with the business, and it was hard for him to hear that the company’s look needed to become more relevant to today’s consumers. But Rocha wasn’t talking about a complete overhaul but rather just some “fine-tuning,” he says. “We still wanted to convey authority and experience.” In collaboration with the designer, they decided to build the new logo around the company’s initials, as with the old one. From a design standpoint, Rocha says, if a real estate company uses something like an icon of a house for its logo, that has an expiration date. “But if you start with the ‘PR,’ you can create a timeless look. We wanted to take that piece and progress with it.” Retaining the company’s initials also helped ease the founder’s concerns about the rebranding project.

about the client The actors in Prescott Realty’s story are fourth-generation Arizonians and third-generation real estate brokers. The story begins when Richard Hanna’s (Prescott Realty’s Broker) father, Lyle Hanna, founded D & H Realty in 1973 in Pinetop-Show Low, Arizona. Shortly thereafter, Richard Hanna and his wife Dorinda Hanna stepped into the real-estate scene and began marketing and selling property in “East Valley” Phoenix, in cities like Mesa, Tempe, and Chandler. After selling the business in Phoenix, Richard and his father Lyle saw an opportunity to bring the same level of real-estate services to the Prescott area and proceeded to build a new company—Prescott Realty, Inc. Today, Prescott Realty continues to embody and operate on the principles and values laid out by individuals such as Lyle Hanna, Richard Hanna, and Dorinda Hanna, who have always believed in unfaltering integrity, a strong work ethic, and exemplary client services.

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the project

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DESIGNER

Amie Baker Creative amiebakercreative.com

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the process

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Round Two

Given the go-ahead, Rocha spent a month researching designers and finally got in touch with Amie Baker of Amie Baker Creative in Washington State. “I have a specific webpage that I put out there just for real estate clients,” says Baker, “so he found that page on my site.” The process started with deep discussions about the reasons for the rebranding. “I really appreciated that she asked the big ‘whys’ of what we’re doing,” says Rocha, “instead of just me saying, ‘Hey, Amie, make something really cool and modern-looking.” “They told me they have a broad base of older clients based on where they’re located but that they’re trying to get new business as well,” recalls Baker. “So the logo needed to be something that could be well received by two generations.” Baker suggested that retaining a focus on the company initials would retain brand recognition while still moving the brand forward. “So my focus became playing with the two letters [P and R] and how they work together to create more of a monogram look.” Baker explored several approaches, including some she never showed to the client. She winnowed them down to three for the first round (see previous page): the two letters combined into a single glyph, the letters overlapping in a triangle, and the R wrapping around the P. The clients liked the last, so for the second round, Baker presented variations on it: with thin strokes and thick ones, standing alone and contained inside different shapes. The third and final round (see next page) explored finer variations on ways to contain the letters inside a square— including a new approach that started with a sketch by Rocha. “After I sent the second round, Jon had this idea and wanted to see how it looked,” Baker says. He drew it by hand and Baker vectorized it, but that was enough. “Nine times out of ten, when I vectorize a client’s idea into a real logo for them to look at, they don’t pick it.”

› ›

DESIGN MAKEOVER

DESIGNER

Amie Baker Creative amiebakercreative.com

the result

Round Three

The new logo hasn’t yet made its debut at the time of this writing. “We’re still figuring out the best date to launch the new look so we can sync it with our Web developer, who’s working on tweaking our website,” says Rocha. “That way we can rebrand all our stationery and also have a strong presence online.” Inside the company, though, the new look is a hit. “We all loved it,” Rocha says, “even the founder. As soon as he saw it he said, ‘I can see how this makes us look like 2016.’” For her part, “I’m really happy with the logo,” says Baker. “I think it’s going to serve them well.” She highlights the fact that its simple geometry gives it the ability to be used in many different ways. “Sometimes it’s hard to get businesses to simplify their logo,” she says, “but when you help them see they’re going to need to use it in all these different contexts, it shows how well the logo can do.” Besides Prescott Realty’s printed collateral and website, the logo can be easily scaled up for use on signs and billboards, and the monogram can be used without the words as the firm’s profile picture in its social media endeavors. The successful outcome also lays the groundwork for future projects. “I’m a firm believer in working with people I like,” says Rocha. “When I approached Amie, I said we’ll give it a go with this one project first, to see if it works and if we like each other. Down the road, she already understands what we like and don’t like and what we want to convey to the consumer.”

Final Logo

about the designer Amie Baker is a graphic designer, entrepreneur, and mother of two based in the South Puget Sound area of Washington State. After graduating in graphic design from the Art Institute of Seattle in 2004, she held a range of in-house positions, where she enjoyed managing a wide range of projects that supported the brands while clearly communicating the goals of each brand’s marketing efforts. She gained an understanding of the reach of marketing, from the simple touches of a business card through the complex information compiled in a sales presentation, and of how all of those things work together. She drew on this foundation when launching her business, Amie Baker Creative, in 2010. Amie now serves clients by offering identity and logo design, branding, print design, and Web design through a balance of insightful creative vision and strategic thinking. She partners with small businesses as a resource for efforts in continuously developing and growing their brands. ■

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061

HOW TO › ›

InDesign Tips

advance and enhance your indesign skills

DAVE CLAYTON

COMPOUND PATHS (OR COMBINING SHAPES INTO ONE SHAPE): THIS IS A GREAT TIP IF CREATING A TRIPTYCH-STYLE LAYOUT IN A DOCUMENT This tip is really useful when you want one image to fit into multiple shapes without needing multiple versions of the same image in each shape. Start by creating your first frame/shape, switch to the Direct Selection tool (A), hold the Option (PC: Alt) key, and click-and-drag to create a duplicate shape. Repeat once more to create a triptych-kind of layout.

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If you were to select all the shapes with the Direct Selection tool and try to File>Place an image, it would only place the image into whichever shape you click on. To enable the image to span all three, you first need to combine the shapes. With all the shapes selected, you can either go to Object>Paths>Make Compound Path or press Command-8 (PC: Ctrl-8) to convert the three shapes into one frame.

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Now when you place your image, it drops into the three shapes as one image. This means you can move the image around until satisfied with the placement. If you were to edit the image in Photoshop and return to the InDesign

document, the image would update and remain in the three frames. But what if you wanted to move one of the shapes? Okay, a couple of steps will rectify this. Select all the shapes again and go to Object>Paths>Release Compound Path. This releases the shapes/frames and the image will only appear in the first shape. Now move the shapes into a different position, select them all, hit Command-8 (PC: Ctrl-8), and the image fills all the shapes again. Here’s an extra cool design tip: Make two shapes and overlap them. Make a compound path as before and place the image. This time, the overlap area is blank and the other areas are filled with the image. You can then place some text in the blank area but still be able to move the image around in the rest of the frames.

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Using this tip means you can’t use the standard Master Page, which is sized for the first layout, but that’s okay. Just click on each of the pages in the Pages panel and drag it up to the master section to create a master for that size. Then, Right-click on that page in the Pages panel, and select Apply Master to Pages. In the Apply Master dialog that appears, choose the master page that you want to use in the Apply Master dropdown menu, and click OK. You’ll see a Master Page Size Conflict dialog pop up; just click Keep Current Page Size. This way, if you’re creating multiples of each of the sizes in this document, the appropriate master style will apply to each layout. Now when you start placing other assets, such

as images or text, which you have obviously saved in CC Libraries, you can use them across all the layouts with ease. That way, if you were to edit one asset, it would update across all the pages. Once finished, you can export as a PDF that your print company can use. GLYPH OPTIONS One of the newer features in InDesign CC 2015 is the ability to see alternative character glyphs instantly onscreen instead of the old way where you had to open the Glyphs panel (Window>Type & Tables>Glyphs) to find the one you needed. Now you just type your text and highlight the character. If there are alternative glyphs available, there will be a blue line at the bottom of the highlighted letter. Hover you cursor over the highlighted letter and the glyph options will appear underneath. Just click the one you prefer and it automatically changes. Speaking of shortcuts, if only you could download a shortcuts cheat sheet from Adobe. Well, you can! Just click here.

SAMPLING COLORS Let’s say you’ve placed an image and added some text and you want to select a specific color from the image to apply to the text. First, highlight the text with the Type tool (or if you want to change the color of a shape instead, select it with the Selection tool [V]), and double-click the Fill icon (square with a T) near the bottom of the Tools panel to open the Color Picker. In the bottom right of the Color Picker you’ll see a little eyedropper icon. Just click-and-hold on that icon, drag it over the image, and move the cursor around until you find the color you want. If you simply click OK in the Color Picker, it will change the color of the text, but if you click the Add RGB Swatch button in the Color Picker first, it will add that color to your Swatches panel for that document. Then, you could click on that swatch in the Swatches panel and click the Add Selected Swatch to My Current CC Library icon (cloud with arrow) at the bottom of the panel to use that color with other projects where you might need it again. ■ CLICK TO RATE

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MAKING MULTIPLE-SIZED DOCUMENTS IN ONE FILE One of the biggest problems of creating multiple-sized documents (e.g., letterheads, business cards, flyers, comp slips, etc.) is keeping track of all the files. If I’m working on something like this for a client, I use the multiple-page feature already in InDesign; the very same one you use for creating multiple-page documents. Using a feature in the Pages panel, we can add additional pages and resize them, maintaining all document settings (character styles, margins, bleeds, etc.). Start by creating the first page as normal (File> ­New>Document). Choose your settings in the New Document dialog, making sure you have Facing Pages unchecked, and click OK. Now open the Pages panel (Window>­Pages) and click the Create New Page icon at the bottom. The new page appears, but before you do anything else, click the icon to the left of the Create New Page icon called Edit Page Size, and choose a size. By clicking Custom, you can create your own specific-sized pages, such as a square flyer, business card, or any size document you require. Do this action for each different-sized page you need to add to the document.

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A Comparison of Lightroom and Capture One’s Image Processing and How First Impressions Can Sometimes Be Deceptive

BY

MARTIN

E VENING

How Sharpness Is Defined

Are Lightroom users getting the most out of their RAW files and can they be sure the RAW-processing software they use is as good as Lightroom’s leading competitor? It’s a worrying thought, yet this is the claim being made by some reviewers in head-to-head comparisons between Adobe Lightroom and Capture One Pro. If you were to count up all the hours you’ve spent processing your files in Lightroom, you’d want to be reassured your creative efforts haven’t been wasted. So earlier this year I spent some time comparing the RAW-processing controls in both programs in detail. From this, I concluded Capture One is indeed a solid RAW processor that has a number of unique features that are missing in Lightroom; however, these don’t include better sharpness and color/tone rendering. This article takes a close look at the image processing in Capture One and Lightroom and shows how the two programs are actually more similar than you might think. Although the comparisons shown here were done in Lightroom, you’ll see the same kinds of results if you work in Adobe Camera Raw.

Capture One with default sharpening and noise reduction

In this Lightroom-processed version, the Sharpening and Noise Reduction settings were adjusted to match the Capture One look. In the Detail panel, Amount was set to 55, Radius to 0.9, Detail to 15, Masking to 0, and Luminance Noise Reduction to 35. In the Basic panel, Clarity was set to +15.

Close-up view of the Capture One default settings version

Close-up view of the Lightroom-adjusted version

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© Martin Evening, Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III

The reason why Capture One is perceived to be sharper than Lightroom is mainly due to the default settings used. By default, Lightroom applies a 25 Amount sharpening to all RAW images (on a scale of 0–150). The actual amount of underlying sharpening that’s applied varies from camera to camera, but Adobe’s aim is to apply a base-level amount of sharpening that makes all RAW files appear equally sharp at a 25 setting. It’s actually a rather conservative amount, and all images will benefit from having at least this much sharpening without the risk of seeing ugly artifacts. The intention is to let photographers decide how much further they wish to adjust the Amount, Radius, Detail, and Masking sliders to fine-tune the sharpening effect. Capture One meanwhile, applies higher default sharpening settings, where the indicated values vary from camera to camera. With Canon sensors, the default Amount setting is usually 180 (on a scale of 0–1,000), while for the Fujifilm X-Pro1, the default Amount is 140.

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Luminance Noise Reduction is most likely necessary to prevent noise artifacts from being sharpened. Compared to Lightroom, the Capture One Luminance Noise Reduction produces smoother results; therefore, there’s a slight loss of fine-detail texture, as can be seen in close-up views of this pine forest image below. When the sharpening and noise reduction are zeroed (see images next page), there’s very little difference and both appear equally un­sharp. When the default sharpening and noise reduction settings are compared, the Capture One version appears to be sharper; however, when the Lightroom Detail panel controls are adjusted to match the Capture One default settings, and a small amount of Clarity is added, the Lightroom version matches the sharpness of the Capture One version more closely.

This is a full-frame view of the image used to carry out the following sharpen and noise reduction tests

© Martin Evening, Canon EOS 650D

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In all cases, the Capture One sharpening setting is roughly double that applied by Lightroom. If you increase the Amount sharpening slider in the Detail panel in Lightroom to around 45–55, you’ll see a closer match in sharpness. In case you think this is cheating, you can check to see what happens when the sharpening is disabled. At a zero setting, images appear equally unsharp in Capture One and Lightroom. Increase the sharpening settings in Lightroom and most images will appear to be just as sharp. [Note: All the closeup views throughout this article were taken at a magnification of 800% on a HiDPI display.] The image above shows a comparison of the Capture One and Lightroom renderings (see previous page). In Photoshop, I placed the Lightroom-adjusted rendered version as a layer above the Capture One default-rendered version and set the blend mode to Difference near the top left of the Layers panel. I then added an Invert adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Invert), plus a Levels adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels) set to Auto to amplify the difference. This emphasized the difference in edge detail such as on the contours of the guitar. There are other factors to consider here though. Capture One appears to apply what can best be described as a wide-edged, Clarity-type enhancement that can make the high-contrast edges stand out more. This isn’t always evident, but is most noticeable on certain types of images, such as in the photo of the guitarist, where the contours of the guitar had slightly better definition in the Capture One rendered version. This can be matched to some extent in Lightroom by adding a small amount of Clarity. It so happens that Capture One applies by default a 50 Luminance Noise Reduction, whereas the default in Lightroom is zero. Because Capture One applies a more aggressive sharpening, the

Lightroom: Close-up view with zero sharpening and zero noise reduction

Capture One: Close-up view with default sharpening and noise reduction

Lightroom: Close-up view with default sharpening and noise reduction

Capture One: Close-up view with default sharpening and noise reduction. [Note: This is the same image as above. It’s repeated here to make it easier to compare it to the Lightroom image on the right.]

Lightroom: Close-up view with sharpening set to Amount: 55, Radius: 0.9, Detail: 15, Masking: 0, and Luminance Noise Reduction: 35. In the Basic panel, I added +15 Clarity.

Essentially, the Capture One approach applies a stronger, more aggressive sharpening and adds a small amount of Luminance Noise Reduction to compensate for any noise increase. Once you balance out these differences by increasing the sharpening, noise reduction, and midtone contrast in Lightroom, it’s apparent that the Lightroom approach seems to preserve more micro detail. So while Capture One processing can produce images where the contrast edge detail is enhanced, this is done at the expense of fine-detailed texture. These

differences are very minor, though, and you have to go pixel peeking to really appreciate them. Most of the time the extra sharpening that’s applied by Capture One is pleasing, and where it’s too strong, can be tamed by reducing the sharpening settings. Capture One has Amount, Radius, and Threshold sliders to control the sharpening, whereas Lightroom has Amount, Radius, Detail, and Masking sliders. The Detail slider in Lightroom is excellent for enhancing the sharpness (especially with low ISO captures), and the Masking

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Capture One: Close-up view with zero sharpening and zero noise reduction

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©Scott Kelby, Nikon D3S

slider is useful for concentrating the sharpness on the sharp edges only. These extra controls provide Lightroom users with additional scope to fine-tune the sharpening in ways Capture One can’t.

Color Rendering

Lightroom default settings using the Adobe Standard profile for a Nikon file

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Capture One default settings using the default camera profile for a Nikon file

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Lightroom-adjusted tone settings using Camera Portrait profile, plus minor HSL adjustments

The color appearance is determined by how the RAW-processing software interprets the color data. When you shoot in JPEG mode, the camera processor converts the colors to whatever color look or picture style you’ve chosen in the camera settings menu. When you shoot in RAW mode, you have the option to select the type of look you prefer afterwards via Lightroom’s Camera Calibration panel before applying any further color edits. If you have never before explored this menu option, it’s worth checking out the different color looks you can apply, including Camera Standard (which will match the camera JPEG color rendering). The point is that any of these options can be considered a suitable starting point. Which you should choose depends on whether you’re looking for color fidelity, a saturated color look, or something else. By default, Lightroom applies the Adobe Standard camera profile to all newly imported images. This is designed to provide the best color accuracy and is created from images shot of X-Rite color targets. The Capture One color rendering differs from Lightroom’s in a number of respects. With some cameras, such as Canons, the colors will appear notably warmer and the skin tones richer in color. While the Adobe Standard profile in Lightroom will achieve a fairly good match when processing Phase One and Fuji files, the Adobe Portrait profile generally works best for

©Martin Evening

Canon and Nikon files. To achieve a more exact match, it’s often necessary to tweak the HSL panel controls. Basically, if you want an image processed in Lightroom to precisely match a Capture One look, you’ll also need to use the HSL panel. It can be done, but it’s more likely users will want to stick with the default color look and use this as the base starting point from which to make further color edits.

Tone Editing

Default Capture One settings

Capture One processed version with the Highlights set to –100 and the Shadows set to +50

This shows a Lightroom processed version with the Highlights set to –100 and the Shadows set to +100. Although these two sliders are set to their maximum setting, they don’t compress the tones as much as Capture One does.

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The interesting thing about Capture One is how the tone settings are adaptive. For the most part, Capture One applies an extra amount of contrast that adds more of a kick to the shadows compared to Lightroom’s default Linear Tone Curve setting. I would describe Capture One’s contrast setting as producing a more film-like look. When Capture One encounters high-contrast subjects, however, it adaptively applies a softer contrast curve. This is kind of similar to the way the Auto tone function in Lightroom works, except when you click Auto, the tone adjustments in Lightroom can sometimes work well, but other times look awful. Capture One appears to have a built-in auto contrast adjustment that is, by comparison, tamer and more often than not spot on. That said, the default option is to apply a fairly strong tone curve, one that’s similar to selecting a Medium Contrast setting in Lightroom’s Tone Curve panel. This is why comparison tests tend to show Lightroom images looking softer and less punchy. With the Exposure slider adjustments, I noticed Capture One allows the highlight tones to compress as you increase the Exposure. Lightroom does this too, but does a better job of preserving the tonal separation in the highlights without requiring a separate Highlights slider tweak.

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©Martin Evening

Default Capture One settings

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Capture One processed version with the Highlights set to –100 and the Shadows set to +100

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Lightroom processed version with the Highlights set to –100 and the Shadows set to +100. In this instance, the range of the Lightroom sliders is greater.

A more obvious difference be­tween Capture One and Lightroom tone adjustments is the way the Highlights and Shadows sliders respond and the types of halos they generate. In the example on the previous page, you’ll notice how when editing a regular image, the tone width range for the Capture One controls is narrower (which can lead to less flattening of the midtone contrast). With this type of image, the Capture One Highlights and Shadows sliders are more effective at darkening the highlights and lightening the shadows. If you take an image that features a wider dynamic range scene (see the example on this page), the Lightroom sliders have a more concentrated lightening and darkening effect compared to Capture One.

©Martin Evening, Sony A7rII

HOW TO GET THE CAPTURE ONE LOOK As you’ve seen, it’s possible to tweak the settings in Lightroom to achieve results that are more like the Capture One default look. You can do this by adjusting the Develop module settings each time you open an image, but you can best do this by making Develop presets, or creating new default settings. The actual settings will vary from camera to camera, but as a rough guide, I suggest you try the following: Step One: In the Detail panel, increase the Sharpening and Luminance Noise Reduction settings. Set the Sharpening Amount slider as follows: Nikon: 75, Canon: 55, and Sony and Fuji X-Trans: 45. Set the Radius slider to 0.9 and the Detail slider to 15 and leave the Masking slider set to 0. In the Noise Reduction section, set the Luminance slider to 35.

Step One

Step Two

Step Three: Next, go to the Tone Curve panel and select Medium Contrast from the Point Curve dropdown menu. Repeat Step Two, but this time only check the Tone Curve and Process Version boxes and save as a “Medium Contrast” preset to the same Capture One Simulation folder. Step Three

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Step Two: Now, go to the Presets panel and click on the plus icon to create a new preset. Click Check None; check on only the Sharpening, Luminance Noise Reduction, and Process Version boxes; and click OK to create a new “Sharpening and noise reduction” preset. You’ll notice I also created a “Capture One Simulation” folder to which to save the preset. Just click on the Folder drop-down menu, select New Folder, name your folder, and click Create in the New Folder dialog. Click Create again to close the New Develop Preset dialog.

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Step Four: Go to the Camera Calibration panel and select Camera Portrait from the Profile drop-down menu. Once again you’ll want to create a new preset. Check the Calibration and Process Version boxes only and save as “Camera Portrait” to the same Capture One Simulation folder. Step Five: Having done that, reset all of the above settings to their defaults and save as a “Reset Settings” preset. You’ll need to check all the items shown here in the New Develop Preset dialog. This preset can be used to reset the Detail panel sharpening, noise reduction, Tone Curve panel, and Calibration panel settings.

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Step Six: Now open an image and click to apply each of the presets in turn to see which combination improves the appearance of the image. If necessary, click the Reset Settings preset to start over, especially since not all images will benefit from a contrast boost or Camera Portrait profile.

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Step Five Step Four

Step Seven

Step Six

Step Seven: There’s also the option to save any of the above adjustments as a default setting. In the Develop module Develop menu, choose Set Default Settings. This opens the dialog shown here where the currently applied settings will become the new default for this particular camera. It’s important that no other settings are applied other than those you wish to make the defaults. Step Eight: As an optional step, go to the Quick Develop panel in the Library module and click on the Temperature single-right-arrow button. This will apply a small warming white balance adjustment relative to the current white balance setting. Step Eight

These suggested settings are a guide to the kind of settings needed to simulate the Capture One look. I’ve found Capture One’s default sharpening settings for Nikon to be more aggressive than the amount applied for other cameras, so I’d suggest using a 55 Amount sharpening setting. For images that are already quite contrasty, I suggest leaving the Tone Curve setting as is. You could also include a Basic panel +10 or +15 Clarity adjustment. In some instances, this can help match the Capture One look, but this adjustment doesn’t suit all images, and I recommend you manually add Clarity only where you feel it’s necessary to do so.

Two Different Philosophies In conclusion, if you simply compare default settings, the results will look different. If you go beyond the basics and actually edit in Capture One or Lightroom, you can make your photos look similar, or make them look however you want. Having worked in Capture One, I have full confidence in the program’s image-editing controls, just as I have in Lightroom. The perceived wisdom that Capture One is sharper is mostly based on a superficial analysis of the default settings. Capture One does outshine Lightroom in some respects though. The color editing sliders offer better fine-tuning control, particularly for skin tones. The Shadows and Highlights sliders have a greater range of tone control when editing regular dynamic range images. The new Luma Curve is useful for precise control of luminance and color contrast. The global moiré removal is faster, and the blackand-white conversion process is good at suppressing halos along areas of color contrast. Lightroom, meanwhile, has extra controls to fine-tune the sharpening and noise reduction. The Vibrance slider

offers better control over the color saturation. GPU support means Lightroom’s Develop sliders are more responsive. Lightroom has superior retouching tools, plus more effective lens correction and perspective controls. It also has fully integrated DNG support to enable things such as Panorama and HDR Photo Merges. The biggest difference between the two programs, though, is a difference in philosophy. Lightroom aims for a standardized result where the tone and color rendering is deliberately made more conservative. This reminds me of the time I spent at art school learning to print in black and white. I was taught to produce the contact sheets on a softcontrast grade of paper, because this would reveal the full extent of tones captured by the negative. In Lightroom, the initial rendering is meant to be a starting point, and Lightroom provides the color, tone, and sharpening controls you need to realize your vision. Capture One’s philosophy is to produce a more optimized look that doesn’t necessarily require further editing. This may have led to the perception that Capture One is sharper and punchier, but in reality neither program is inherently better than the other when it comes to actually working on your images and adjusting the settings to suit individual tastes. I am disinclined to criticize Capture One’s approach. If Capture One customers find the optimized approach gives them the end result they’re after quicker, are they wrong if they happen to like what they see? Capture One certainly has the professional-level tools to produce great-looking images, but Lightroom users shouldn’t be sidetracked by claims for Capture One’s superiority. Fundamentally, the two programs aren’t as different as some might have you believe. ■ CLICK TO RATE

Martin Evening is a UK-based photographer with a background in commercial studio photography with more than 20 years experience writing about all things to do with Photoshop, Lightroom, and photography. In 2008, Martin was inducted into the NAPP Photoshop Hall of Fame in recognition for his work as a Photoshop and Lightroom instructor. He continues to work as a writer and technical

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reviewer and has a particular passion for landscape photography.

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PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS › ›

One thing I love about being a portrait photographer is experimenting with different styles. One day I might be shooting edgy sports portraits, and the next day photographing film noir. Recently, I was at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona, and noticed that some of the old military planes had pin-up models painted on their fuselages. Studying this colorful nose art, I was struck by the distinct style and feeling of these paintings. Even though this era was before my time, I was intrigued by the photography style that inspired these paintings. My challenge was to re-create the mood and atmosphere so evident in these early pin-up photographs.

› › PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS

Step One: Production Ask any photographer what the key is to a successful shoot and chances are they’ll say production. Producing a shoot includes all the specifics leading to the actual photograph. If you don’t pay close attention to the details, then your final image won’t be as successful. I spent a full day researching pin-up styles, props, and models. I noticed some pin-up models were posing with bicycles from the 50s. Fort Collins is a big biking town, and cruiser bikes are very popular. I found a beautiful yellow cruiser bike at a local store, and bought it on the spot. Next, I purchased red and pink “bubble-gum” balloons to add a whimsical feel to the image. Finally, my wife (who is also a photographer) located our model. She knew a girl who was a dancer in a burlesque show, and would perfectly fit the part for pin-up model.

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Cree Bol

Many would call Betty Grable the original pin-up model. Her bathing suit pin-up photograph hung in countless GI lockers during WWII, and Life magazine included this shot in “100 Photos that Changed the World.” But what caught my eye with these early pin-up shots was the classy, tasteful style. Pin-up models from this era wore colorful dresses and skinny shorts. To be successful, I needed the right model, props, and location. I live in Fort Collins, a small city in northern Colorado, and one advantage of being a photographer in this city is Old Town, a historical district with many buildings dating back to the early 1900s. A brick building with a 50s Coke mural oozes nostalgia from this era. I spent a half day walking around Old Town looking for the perfect location, and discovered an old auto repair store that had closed down. The gritty feel combined with the red building exterior had a nostalgic feel. I had my location.

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PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS › ›

Step Two: Start With One Light photo shoots. I chose a 39" Rotalux Deep Octabox to be my main light. The Deep Octa adds a little more contrast and stronger shadows to the subject, which would create better separation for my model. I triggered the lights using the new EL-Skyport Plus HS wireless transmitter, and underexposed my ambient exposure one stop to slightly mute the background. We placed our model, Emma, in front of the old garage with the cruiser bike and took the first shot. And that’s when I saw a big problem.

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Cree Bol

Even if I envision many lights for a portrait, I generally start with one light. Starting simple allows me to build in more flash as I need it instead of over-illuminating a shot that doesn’t need it. Lighting brings my portraits to life by supporting the subject and concept, not by distracting the viewer. For this shoot I used Elinchrom Rangers with Free Lite S Heads. These 1100-watt battery-powered flash packs are my workhorses for location lighting. Eleven hundred watts is enough power to overpower midday sun, and these packs have plenty of battery life for long

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› › PHOTOGRAPHY SECRETS

Step Three: Roll With The Punches

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Cree Bol

On almost every shoot I do, some snafu comes up. Reviewing my first shot of Emma, I realized the garage doors in the background were highly reflective. Even though they appeared dull gray in color, the doors perfectly reflected my softbox in the image. In essence, we were photographing against a giant mirrored background and would have to be careful to avoid reflections. I shot with my 35mm f/1.4 lens to blur the background and create more separation. Shooting at f/1.8 required a shutter speed of 1/4000. Since I was using the slow flash duration Free Lite S heads combined with the EL-Skyport Plus HS transmitter, I was able to use Hi-Sync and shoot at any shutter speed I needed. Hi-Sync retimes the shutter and flash to enable the use of shutter speeds much faster than my normal 1/250-sync speed. The single light image looked nice, but felt too edgy for a pin-up. I wanted a light-and-airy feel to the image, and that meant adding a second light.

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Cree Bol

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Step Four: Add Lights As Needed To create more highlights and illuminate Emma’s left side, I used a second Ranger and Free Lite S Head shot through a standard 39" Rotalux Octa. We feathered this light (aimed it up) from the left to illuminate Emma but not cast strong shadows on the ground. Opposing shadows never look good in a portrait. Emma was the perfect model for this shoot; she seemed to transform into a real pin-up girl as the shoot progressed. I still didn’t like the dark garage wall behind her, so we added a third Ranger and Free Lite S Head to illuminate this area. I placed a 20° grid on the flash to focus where we needed it in the background. These images were looking terrific. I loved the bike and balloons as props, and Emma’s red makeup and yellow headband nicely accented the image.

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Step Five: Mix It Up

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Once we had the bike shot, we decided to try something a little different. Photographing multiple scenes and looks is important to getting the right shot. I’ve found on portrait shoots that the synergy with the model only develops over time, and often my best images are near the end of the shoot. With this in mind, Emma switched into a new outfit and we changed the color of the balloons. And then it happened. Totally unscripted, Emma lifted her heel up and looked over her shoulder toward the light. And that moment was the shot. Her surprised look and classic pose just nailed the 50’s pin-up feel. We were back to one light, the Deep Octabox, shooting at f/1.4 at 1/5000. To further enhance the vintage look in postprocessing, I used ON1 Effects 10 to add a warming tone to the image.

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Cree Bol

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I was feeling really good now, and Emma was having a good time, so we decided to try one other image in a nearby alley. To compress the final image and create nice bokeh, I switched to my 85mm f/1.4. For lighting, I set up one of my favorite softboxes, the Elinchrom Rotalux Indirect 75" Octabox. This softbox creates silky-smooth soft light, a nice look for almost any photograph. We worked through some different poses, but as I reviewed the shots on my LCD, I knew I already had my shot from the garage location. A few days of production, hours of shooting, and one unscripted moment resulted in my nostalgic pin-up portrait. And it all started by walking through a plane graveyard in the scorching Arizona sun. Go figure. But I’m already planning my next pin-up shoot. ■

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Step Six: Don’t Stop Now

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What happens when your brain goes out of bounds? What happens when you push the boundaries of your imagination? The answer is obvious. You take your ideas to places they’ve never been before. You’re in new territory now. And if it’s up to you, you’ll go into new territory again tomorrow. Fuel your creativity.

Easy training from the best in Photoshop, Lightroom & Photography

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For information or to register visit www.worldwidephotowalk.com

LIGHTROOM THE ADOBE PHOTOSHOP LIGHTROOM HOW-TO MAGAZINE ISSUE 23 ®

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MAGAZINE

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LIGHTROOM WORKSHOP

Creating 32-Bit HDR Images in Lightroom will give you much more tonal control of your photos. p85 PHOTO BY SEAN McCORMACK

SEE HOW THE LANDSCAPEPRO LIGHTROOM PLUG-IN CAN IMPACT YOUR LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHS

MAXIMUM WORKFLOW UNDER THE LOUPE

The Folders panel is probably the most-used panel in Lightroom, but are you taking full advantage of its capabilities? p91

Scott Kelby

Sean McCormack

Rob Sylvan

Scott Kelby

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BY SEÁN DUGGAN

Tips Tricks

BY SCOTT KELBY

Questions Answers

Maximum Workflow BY SEAN McCORMACK

landscapepro

Under the L oupe

B Y R O B S Y LVA N

understanding the role of the folders panel

Lightroom Workshop

BY SCOTT KELBY

creating 32-bit HDR images in lightroom

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Seán Duggan

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Lightroom Workshop Excerpted from The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC Book for Digital Photographers

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creating 32-bit HDR images in lightroom BY SCOTT KELBY

Lightroom lets you take a series of shots that were bracketed in-camera and combine them into a single 32-bit HDR image (something we used to have to jump to Photoshop for in the past). But, I'll tell you up front—it doesn’t create the traditional tone-mapped HDR “look” (like Photoshop’s HDR Pro does). In fact, the 32-bit HDR will look a lot like the normal exposure. But, when you edit it, this 32bit image has increased highlight range and better low noise results when you really have to open up the shadows, so the image has a greater tonal range overall to work with from the start.

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step one: Select your bracketed shots in the Library module. Here, I selected three shots: the regular exposure, one shot that is two stops underexposed, and one shot that is two stops overexposed. Then, go under the Photo menu, under Photo Merge, and choose HDR (as shown here; or just press Control-H [PC: Alt-H]). Note: If you have Adobe Photoshop, you still have the option to jump over to it from Lightroom and use its HDR Pro feature instead. To do that, just select your images, then go under the Photo menu, under Edit In, and choose Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop.

step two: This brings up the HDR Merge Preview dialog you see here, and it looks gray like this while it’s building a preview of how your combined single HDR image will look. Note: This dialog is resizable—just clickand-drag the edges of the dialog to resize it.

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tip: faster hdr processing

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If you want to skip this dialog altogether and just have Lightroom combine your bracketed images into a 32-bit HDR in the background, using the settings you last used, just select the images, then press ControlShift-H (PC: Ctrl-Shift-H) and it’ll do the rest. Adobe calls this skipping-the-dialog feature “Headless” mode. I am not making this up.

SCOTT KELBY

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step three: After 20 or 30 seconds (or so), a preview of the combined HDR image will appear. Like I said up top in the intro, it’ll probably look very much like the normal exposure. But, depending on the image, it can have more detail or it can look brighter in the shadow areas, but it won’t look a whole lot different (with Lightroom’s brand of 32-bit HDR, you don’t really see the benefits until you “tone” the image in the Develop module using the Basic panel). tip: less bracketed image is more

step four: Before you click Merge, I would recommend turning the Auto Tone checkbox on/off to see how it looks (this is the same Auto Tone checkbox found in the Basic panel). In nearly all the HDR images I’ve tested (and it’s a bunch), Auto Tone has looked at least a little, if not a lot, better, so it’s worth toggling it on/off to see what you think. You can see the difference here between this one with Auto Tone turned off and the auto-toned image in Step Three. If you ask me, that one looks quite a bit better (and I usually leave Auto Tone turned on when I’m processing my own HDR images). While we’re talking checkboxes, the Auto Align checkbox is on by default, but what it helps with (mostly) are shots you handheld while bracketing. If the alignment is off a little (or a lot), it’ll fix that automatically. If you shot your HDR on a tripod, it doesn’t need to align anything, so you can skip it and it’ll process faster.

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For the type of math Lightroom’s HDR Photo Merge does, you don’t need a lot of bracketed images. In fact, according to Adobe, not only are three bracketed images enough (one normal, one two stops under, one two stops over), you can even skip the normal exposure and just use two images and have lots of detail (versus using more bracketed images). Pretty wild, I know.

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step five: The Deghosting feature helps if something was moving in your photo (like someone walking in your frame, who now appears like a fully or semi-transparent ghost, but it doesn’t look cool, it looks like a mistake). By default, Deghosting is turned off (only turn it on if you have visible ghosting). To turn it on, click either Low (for mild deghosting), Medium (for more), or High (if there’s a lot of ghosting in the image), and it does a pretty amazing job of basically pulling a non-moving area from one of the three bracketed exposures and seamlessly displaying it, rather than the ghosted movement. I always start with the Low setting and only move up to Medium or High if the ghosting is still visible. By the way, when you turn this on, it has to re­build the preview again, so it’ll take a few seconds (and you’ll see a “Building Preview” message appear).

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step six: If you want to see the areas that are being deghosted in your image, you can turn on the Show Deghost Overlay checkbox and after a few seconds (it has to rebuild a new preview), the areas that are being deghosted will appear in red, as seen here, where I turned on Medium deghosting. There’s not a lot moving in this image, which was shot on a tripod, but you can see a guy on the far left who was moving and the deghosting helped a bit here. Since it didn’t do much, I turned it off again.

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step eight: Normally, you can drag the Exposure slider to +5.00 or –5.00. Well, because of the hugely expanded tonal range in 32-bit images, that range is now +10.00 (as seen in the inset) or –10.00. Hopefully, you’ll never take an image whose exposure is off by 10 stops, so I’m just letting you know the 32-bit HDR image has a greatly expanded range, and that helps us by giving us some highlight headroom and better results when it comes to noise when you open up the shadow areas a lot. Aside from that stuff, if you look at the image, you can see some lens problems (take a look at the long horizontal sign up top—the whole thing is arcing down on the right). It’s not fully level, either.

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step seven: So far, you’re looking at a preview of how your merged HDR will look, but it’s just a preview. When you’re finished making your checkbox choices, click the Merge button and it starts processing the actual HDR image in the background. It takes a minute or so (depending on how many bracketed images you used, the size of your images, the speed of your computer, etc.). When it's done merging, this new 32bit HDR appears as a RAW DNG file in the same collection you started in, as seen here (you read that right—your combined HDR image is a RAW file, which is pretty amazing unto itself). By the way, if you didn’t start this process from a collection, then it saves the single 32-bit HDR image in the same folder as the bracketed images. Let’s go ahead and take a look at our HDR image. Click on its thumbnail and go to the Develop module.

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step nine:

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Luckily, these lens problems are an easy fix using the Lens Corrections and Transform panels (so scroll down to them in the right-side panels). On the Profile tab in the Lens Corrections panel, turn on the Enable Profile Corrections checkbox (Lightroom reads the camera data embedded in the file and chooses the proper lens profile for you), and just doing that helps a lot. If, for whatever reason, it can’t find a matching lens profile, then choose your lens Make and Model from the pop-up menus. Once that’s done, in the Transform panel, turn on the Constrain Crop checkbox and click the Auto button to apply an automatic lens correction. As you can see, it’s dramatically better (compare it with the original in the previous step).

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step 10: Okay, now we can start toning the image in the Develop module’s Basic panel, and in this particular image, there’s just not that much to do (especially since we already applied an Auto Tone when we created the HDR image in the first place). In fact, all I did here was to crank up the Clarity amount to +42 (chrome and metal love Clarity—it really makes them “pop”), then I went to the Detail panel, and in the Sharpening section, I increased the Amount to +50. That’s it, your first 32-bit HDR image in Lightroom. ■

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Under the Loupe

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understanding the role of the folders panel B Y R O B S Y LVA N

The Folders panel may be one of the most-used panels in all of Lightroom, but it may also be one of the least understood. There’s actually quite a bit of functionality in this little panel, and it puts a lot of data at your fingertips.

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One of the most important distinctions to make is that the Folders panel is not a file browser. You will only see folders that have actually been through the import process. Just like the photos that reside within them, nothing appears in Lightroom unless it was introduced to the catalog first.

The Folders panel consists of two elements—Folders and the Volume Browser. Folders are exactly that, the folders on your hard drive(s) that you’ve imported into Lightroom. You can import any number of folders and subfolders, and they’ll always be sorted alphanumerically. Subfolders will nest under their parent folders, which mirror the structure you see in your file browser (i.e., Finder or Windows Explorer) when looking at your disk because they’re one and the same set of folders.

In addition, you can open that disk in Windows Explorer or Finder and even access information about that disk. Another nice aspect of the Volume Browser is that it’s collapsible, which makes the Folders panel much easier to navigate, especially if you have multiple drives with multiple folders on each. The previous screen captures showed both of my volumes collapsed, but once they’re expanded, I can see my folder structure underneath.

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the volume browser

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I have two Volume Browsers, labeled Macintosh HD and DroboPhotos (see image above). Macintosh HD is my internal drive and DroboPhotos is an external drive. These are the names I gave these drives on my Mac. On Windows, you would see the relevant drive letter. With a glance at the Volume Browser I can tell a few things about my drives. First, the Macintosh HD drive shows a green indicator, which means that the drive has ample free space. In fact, it shows that 115 GB out of 465 GB are free. Second, I can see that DroboPhotos is offline since it displays a gray indicator and the name is faded out. Since it’s offline, Lightroom can’t display how much free space it has. Once that drive is reconnected to my computer and comes online, the Volume Browser will change from gray to green, and any question marks on folders will go away. Just so you know, the color indicator will turn yellow as free space gets down to 10 GB, orange as the free space gets down to 5 GB, then red when the disk has only 1 GB free remaining (hopefully, you won’t let your drive get that full). Free space isn’t the only information the Volume Browser reveals. If you Right-click the Volume Browser, you can choose to display Disk Space, Photo Count, Status, or nothing at all.

Remember, you’ll only see imported folders displayed in the Folders panel. I find it preferable to always import the top-level or parent folder that contains all the subfolders where my photos are stored. This provides the benefit of being able to collapse that group of subfolders so the list doesn’t run on forever, and it makes it much easier to move that entire tree of folders to a new drive if necessary just by dragging-and-dropping the top-level folder. Don’t worry if you haven’t imported the parent folder containing your photo subfolders because it can be done right from the Folders panel. Just Right-click the topmost

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the panel, and Imported_Photos will appear nested underneath, just like it exists on my drive. Alternatively, if you have a top-level folder that you don’t want to see displayed in Lightroom, you can Rightclick that folder and choose Hide This Parent to make it go away. I don’t want to see the Pictures folder showing at the top of my Folders panel, so I will hide that parent to keep Imported_Photos at the top.

find your folders and photos on disk It’s very important for all Lightroom users to know how to find exactly where a given folder or photo resides on their drives from inside Lightroom. There are a few ways to identify where your folders and photos exist on your drive. The easiest is the good-old Right-click contextual menu. Go ahead and Right-click any folder in the Folders panel and choose the Show in Finder (PC: Show in Explorer) menu item. This will open your file browser to that folder and show you where it exists on your drive. Similarly, you can Right-click any photo and access that same Show in menu to take you right to that photo in your file browser. You don’t have to

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folder in the panel and choose Show Parent Folder. The parent folder will automatically appear in the Folders panel, and all of its subfolders that were showing previously in the Folders panel will be nested underneath. For example, you can see that my top-level folder is named Imported_Photos, but I know that folder is stored inside my Pictures parent folder. If I Right-click the Imported_Photos folder and choose Show Parent Folder it will add the Pictures folder to

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go that far to find that information, though. If you just hover your cursor over a folder, you should see its path revealed in a tooltip pop-up. So take a moment to make sure you know exactly where all of your photos are located on your drive.

adding new folders

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In typical Lightroom fashion there are a couple of ways to create new folders. Let’s imagine a common scenario where you buy a new external drive with the intention of storing photos on it because your existing drive is filling up. To start, you can go to the Library menu and choose New Folder, or click the plus sign at the top of the Folders panel and choose Add Folder to launch the Choose or Create New Folder dialog (below). From here you can either choose an existing folder you may have created in your file browser or you can create a brand-new folder. In this example, I’ll select the drive where

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I want this folder to exist, click the New Folder button, give the new folder a name in the New Folder dialog, and click Create. I like to have a parent folder named Imported_Photos on each drive I use to contain photos managed by Lightroom, so I’ll use that name to create this folder (you can do what makes sense for your setup). The new folder will be created on that drive, and I can now click the Choose button to return to Lightroom where I’ll see I’ve added a new drive (note the new Volume Browser) and folder to the Folders panel. Now I can use that as a destination during future imports, or I can use Lightroom to move photos and folders from other locations to that folder.

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Another common scenario is the need to create subfolders within existing folders to help with your organizational needs. This process works in a similar fashion, but you start by selecting the parent folder within which you want to create the subfolder. In this case, I’ll select the new Imported_Photos folder I created on the drive named Sparta, Right-click to open the contextual menu, and choose Create Folder Inside “Imported_Photos” (or whatever the name of the folder is that you Right-click). This opens a smaller Create Folder dialog where you can give the subfolder a name and click Create to complete the process. The subfolder will then appear in the Folders panel. These folders are ready to add photos and even new folders as your organizational needs demand.

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panel (and the Lightroom catalog). In that situation, Lightroom will open a pop-up warning you that the photos will be removed from the Lightroom catalog, but the folders and files will remain on disk. This is generally not something you’d want to do because you don’t want to end up with folders full of photos that aren’t being managed by Lightroom and are just taking up disk space. If you want to delete the photos, you need to delete them first using Lightroom, then you can remove the empty folder as described.

renaming folders You’ll eventually come to a situation where you need to change the name of a folder. This can be accomplished easily by Right-clicking the folder and choosing Rename from the contextual menu. From there, simply enter the new name in the Rename Folder dialog that appears and click Save to commit the change. The folder is renamed on the drive and that change is reflected in the Folders panel.

Knowing how to remove folders is important too. The most common situation for removing a folder is when you’ve deleted all of the photos from the folder for some reason or you’ve moved the photos into a different folder. In either case, there’s no need to keep an empty and unused folder around. Simply Right-click on the empty folder and choose Remove. The folder will be removed from the Folders panel, and if it was empty, Lightroom will also delete the folder from your drive. What if the folder isn’t empty? Well in the case, when you Right-click a folder that has some files in it and choose Remove, the folder will only be removed from the Folders

I hope these suggestions help you stay in control of your Lightroom library! ■ CLICK TO RATE

ALL IMAGES BY ROB SYLVAN

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Maximum Workflow

landscapepro BY SEAN McCORMACK

LandscapePro is a new plug-in from Anthropics, the makers of PortraitPro. It’s designed to make enhancing landscapes a breeze using an internal masking system to separate the sky, trees, mountains, rivers, etc., allowing you to work on each part of the image individually. By labeling each part of the photo, you can replace skies or even relight the photo. It can also cope with people in the landscape. It’s especially great for beginners, as you don’t have to understand complex masking. Let’s get it installed and get to working on our landscape mojo.

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installation Run the installer to get LandscapePro on your machine. It doesn’t create the usual Edit In preset, so you’ll need to create your own. Open Lightroom (PC: Edit)>Preferences and choose the External Editing tab. In the Additional External Editor section, click Choose at the far right of Application. Navigate to the LandscapePro app and select it. Next, choose either TIFF or JPEG for editing. Then, from the Preset drop-down menu, choose Save Current Settings as New Preset, name it LandscapePro for ease of recognition, and click Create. You can now run the app from the Edit In option in the Photo menu.

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There is one other setting that you’ll need to change so that any images you edit and save will appear back in Lightroom. Launch LandscapePro from the Photo>Edit In menu, and then click the Home button at the top left. Home goes out of image view into an area where you can access the Settings, Full Screen mode, or get help and tutorials. Click on Settings at the top left, turn on the Auto Plugin Mode option, and click OK. Close out of LandscapePro and relaunch it. The Save button next to the Home button now says Save and Close. Now when you save your edited file in LandscapePro, it will appear in Lightroom. [KelbyOne members may download the file used in this tutorial at http://kelbyone .com/magazine. All files are for personal use only.]

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layout and labeling The layout for this plug-in couldn’t be simpler. You have the image on the right and a single panel on the left with various labels. The panel will expand with more options after you label an area and click Continue. Let’s take a closer look at how this works.

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Add & Edit Areas: Begin by dragging a label such as Sky to the relevant area of the photo. If you’re just doing a sky replacement, this is the time to click Continue to get to the Selection Editing Tools. We’re going to label the image as much as possible first and then refine the settings after all the labels have been placed. With all the labels in place, click Continue to show the areas as a set of colored masks. To fix mislabeled areas, or to extend an area, click on the text label in the image to lock into that area only. Next, click-and-drag the cursor over the corresponding parts of the photo to apply that label to them. You can always go back at any point to change where areas are labeled using this Pull tool. You can refine the edges of the masks, as well as deal with smaller objects, using the tools below the labels in the Selection Editing Tools; for example,

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editing The Add & Edit Areas panel closes down and multiple new panels appear. You’ll see panels for each label that you used in the image, plus panels for making global edits.

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Fixing mislabeled areas

Global Presets: You could begin by going through the Global Presets and choosing from one of the factory presets to get a quick look for your image, but that would make this a pretty short walkthrough! Do have a look at the presets, though, to get a feel for what the app can do. To expand the Global Presets, just click the right-facing triangle to the left of its name.

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Soften could be used along the mountain edge in this image. Tree & Sky helps mask trees sticking into the sky (the tools are all well-named), and Horizon Line lets the app know where the line is in the composition for light properties among others. Object in Sky is for poles, pylons, or anything that breaks the line of the sky and needs to be removed from the sky mask. The final option is Small Objects, so things like boats in a river can be protected. Depending on the tool that’s currently active, you’ll also have a slider, such as Strength or Radius, to fine-tune the amount of effect the Selection Editing Tools have. Once you’ve refined the labeled areas, it’s time to start working on the image properly. Click Continue to reveal all the editing options.

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Whole Picture: Instead, let’s begin with the Whole Picture section, where we can do a range of edits on the image. Expand the Whole Picture panel and click on the Sliders tab. The settings we used here are subtle, but they have a big impact on our image. We set Auto Levels at 0.22, Exposure Recovery at 0.34, Exposure at 0.2, Fill Light at 0.23 to open shadows, and Blacks at –0.16 to decrease contrast in the darker parts of the photo. We’ve increased Vibrance to 0.10 to pop the color more and added a hint of Colorfulness (the latter slider is easy to overdo so we only set it to 0.07). We also added 0.22 of Contrast, which adds a little saturation, and increased Dehaze to 0.53 to remove the haze in the photo. The final step in this section was warming the image a little by setting the Temperature to 0.20. A little goes a long way here.

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Style: The Style section allows you to change Depth of Field, convert to black and white with sepia toning, or add a Vignette. Each setting initially has a single slider, but if you move the slider for the desired section, you gain access to other controls. Depth of Field creates a blur based on the Radius. Higher values increase the blur. Focus Distance moves the position of the sharp area in the image, and Sharp Range controls the height of the sharp area. You can easily create a tilt-shift effect using these sliders. The Black & White and Sepia section lets you convert to black and white with toning. Set Opacity to 1.00 for a full black-and-white. From there, choose a color swatch for the Blacks, Midtones, and Whites. The first swatch in each allows a standard black-and-white setting. Vignette allows a darkening of the edges. Set Opacity to 1.00 for the strongest setting. Radius controls the size of the vignette, with the image almost completely covered at the lowest settings. You can also choose a color for the vignette from the swatches. We’ve opted not to use any of these settings for this photo. Depth: The Depth section creates a linear vignette; it darkens or colors the top and bottom of the image. Set the strength of the effect with the Opacity slider. Mid Distance sets the position that splits the image into Near, Mid, and Far. Use the swatches to color each area separately.

labeled areas With the overall image settings done, it’s time to edit the areas we’ve labeled. Instead of going in order of appearance,

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I’m going to start with the Sky. After all, a sky replacement is something that users are most likely to tackle with this software.

Mountain: We’ve made a few small adjustments in the Mountain panel, but before we go over those settings, it’s worth mention­ing that each section has a flyout menu with presets. It shows a tiny preview of the masked area with the settings applied. And if you

hover your cursor over any of those previews, it will appear in the main image as well. In this example, we’ve gone with a Hi/Low Key of 0.04, an Exposure Recovery of 0.04, Blacks at –0.10, Vibrance at 0.24, and Saturation at 0.28. Again, apply subtle changes because it’s really easy to do too much here.

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Sky: You have two options with Sky: Separate Clouds from Atmosphere or not. By turning this button On, you can choose a color look for the sky, which will be mixed with the clouds. This is done via the Atmosphere section that opens when the switch is flicked. From the Clouds section, you can choose a new sky from the built-in clouds (or click Add to use your own). Here’s an extreme example. It’s not the one I’m going to use though! If you’re happy with a look and want to save it to use again, click Save Preset.

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Grass: As with the Mountain label, you can choose presets from the flyout menu, but again we’ve made subtle changes. We reduced Blacks to –0.41 to decrease contrast, added 0.05 of Vibrance, and increased Temperature to 0.13 to warm it up. I know it sounds small, but these changes are making a big difference. One other thing that you can do with each section is use presets instead of sliders. Just click on the Presets tab at the top of each panel. These are larger previews of factory settings for a quick fix. Other Labels: By now it should be fairly clear that each section is reasonably similar. Simply repeat the process until you’re happy. For Rock, we’ve increased the Contrast and darkened the area, as well as cooled it slightly. For Tree, we’ve just used the Improver from the flyout menu. For Ground, we’ve added Contrast and cooled the look to balance it against the grass.

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Lighting: The Lighting section lets you relight the scene. It’s very dependent on your labeling to create good shadows. There’s such strong shadow in this image already that it doesn’t work as well as it might work in other scenes.

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Fixes: In Fixes, you can remove noise with De-Noise, or use the Straighten tool to fix perspective issues. One thing that’s important to note is that you can go back at any point and edit your areas. Often there can be sections of the image that are tied to the wrong label—sometimes your edit can look okay with these; other times they stick out like a sore thumb. Just go back to Add & Edit Areas to rectify these.

save and close To save, click Save and Close to return the edited file to Lightroom. From here you can also Undo or Redo, as well as show the original file (click-and-hold on Show Original). LandscapePro is surprisingly versatile, but it’s easy to overdo it. The more I use it, the more I like it. If you’re into landscape photography, it’s definitely worth downloading the trial and giving it a go on a few different photos. You might find yourself liking it quite a lot! ■

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ALL IMAGES BY SEAN McCORMACK

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Questions Answers

SCOTT KELBY

I use both Lightroom and Photoshop. Where should I do my sharpening?

Is there a way to change the color of the area around my photo in Loupe view?

Well, I can tell you what I do. If I wind up taking a file over to Photoshop, then I sharpen it there, simply because I like the way Photoshop displays sharpening onscreen (it seems easier to see the effect of the sharpening there than it does in Lightroom—at least to me anyway). If I stay in Lightroom, however, and don’t take the image into Photoshop, then I just sharpen the image right within Lightroom itself. The sharpening is actually probably better in Lightroom; it just doesn’t display as clearly as it does in Photoshop (again, to me anyway).

Well, if by changing color you mean, “Can I change it to a different shade of gray, or white, or black?” then the answer is yes. Just enter Loupe view (E) then right-click out in that gray area around your photo. A pop-up menu will appear where you can choose from a few different background colors (as shown here).

In the Print module, none of the templates let me print edge-to-edge. Even the Maximize Size template still has a white border around it. Is there a checkbox somewhere where you can turn on borderless printing?

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There’s no checkbox per se (that would be too easy, right?). Instead, what you have to do is click on the Page Setup button at the bottom of the left side panels, then in the Page Setup dialog, from the Paper Size pop-up menu, choose Manage Custom Sizes. Click on the + button near the bottom left of the dialog that appears, type in the size that you want for your print, and set the margins on all sides to zero (as show here). Double-click the name “Untitled” in the list on the left, rename the custom size, and click OK. Then, click OK to close the Page Setup dialog.

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What is “stacking” and why would I use it? Stacking is just another organizational tool (you can use it in Collections or Folders), and it’s really handy when you’re shooting things like panos or multi-frame HDRs where you don’t need to see all the individual frames all the time. For example, let’s say you shot a 16-frame panorama. In the Library module, select all 16 images then press Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G) to group all 16 images under one single thumbnail. You’ll know it’s a stack because you’ll see the number 16 in the upperleft corner of the thumbnail (to expand the stack and see all the images inside that pano stack again, just click on the number 16). Now imagine if you shot a number of 16-frame panos in that shoot. Each one takes up 16 thumbnails in your collection (or folder), so you wind up doing a lot of scrolling, but when you stack them, now each pano takes up only one thumbnail, and it’s much easier to navigate through a shoot. Also, you can ask Lightroom to Auto Stack and it will automatically put images shot together (by time) into stacks for you (you can determine the length of the time; for example, you can tell it “If I shot these images within

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5 minute of each other, they’re all from the same place”). To turn on Auto Stacking, go under the Photo menu, under Stacking, and choose Auto-Stack by Capture Time.

What does it mean if I click on a thumbnail and the histogram doesn’t show up at all in the Histogram panel, and right below it, it says, “Photo is Missing”? Obviously, the photo isn’t missing or I wouldn’t see it, right?

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At the bottom of the View menu in the Library module it says, “Enable Mirror Image Mode.” What does that do? That’s been in Lightroom since version 1, and it does something that’s actually kind of cool (well, for portraits anyway). It flips all the images horizontally, and the reason you’d ever want to do this is because people are used to seeing their image each day in the mirror, but when you shoot them, it’s not a flipped image (like the mirror), which is why so many people look at images of themselves and say, “That doesn’t look like me!” When you have Lightroom flip it, then they see the image the same way they see themselves in the mirror, so it looks right to them (and they think you’re a genius photographer, since you’re the only one that ever made them look “right”).

I heard that when you use the White Balance Selector eyedropper tool (W), there’s a way to see a preview of the white balance as you move the tool over your image. How do you turn this on? It’s already on—you just have to make sure the left side panels are open, and that the Navigator panel is visible. As you move your cursor around the image, you’ll see the changes appear in that small preview window in the Navigator panel. ■

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Well, kinda. What you’re seeing is the low-resolution preview of your image, so while you can see it, even at a large size in many cases, that’s all you’re seeing—the low-res preview. In order to edit the image in the Develop module, you need to relink it to the original high-resolution version of the image. Maybe it’s on a hard drive you don’t have connected, or maybe you moved it to a new place on your computer, or whatever. Luckily, relinking is easy— click directly on Photo is Missing in the Histogram panel (as shown here). A dialog will appear telling you where the photo used to be, and asking if you’d like to locate where it is now. Just click Locate, navigate to where you moved that photo (or plug in the hard drive where you’re storing it), click on the original file to highlight it, and click Select to relink it.

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ALL IMAGES BY SCOTT KELBY

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TipsTricks Lightroom has a very useful filtering system that can help you find the images you’re looking for. This can satisfy the immediate need of locating a specific photo that you want for a project. It can also lead to discovering images that are organized in the wrong folder, allowing you the opportunity to move the misplaced images into the proper folder location. In this column, we’ll take a look at ways you can use the filter system in Lightroom.

accessing the library filters Filters in Lightroom aren’t like filters in Photoshop. They don’t change the appearance of the image, but they allow you to “filter” the view of what you see in the Library module Grid view, hence their name: Library Filters. To access the filters, you need to be in Grid view (G). The Filters can be found in the top center part of the interface, immediately above the image thumbnails. There are four types of filters, which we’ll get to shortly.

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know which part of the catalog you’re searching

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Before you begin a search, make sure that you’ve targeted the right folder, or your search may come up with no results, or not the ones you were expecting. The filters will only search the contents of the folder or collection that is active in the left-hand Folders or Collections panels. To search the entire catalog, click on All Photographs in the Catalog panel. If you do get a message that no photos match the filter, check that you’re searching the right folder or collection.

text filters The Text filters are quite useful for searching the library for text that’s associated with image files. Click the Text menu and choose the type of text for which you want to

SEÁN DUGGAN

search. Of the choices here, the ones I use the most are Any Searchable Field and Keywords. Any Searchable Field is useful because it will also consider folder names in the search. This is another excellent reason to modify the default date-based folder names that Lightroom applies upon import. Adding descriptive information such as subject, event, or location to a folder name ensures you can find it easily when you’re looking at a list of folders in the Folders panel, or that it will turn up when Any Searchable Field is used. To rename a folder, Right-click on it in the Folders panel and choose Rename. For my own naming convention, I remove the first two digits of the date in the folder name,

leaving a six-digit expression in the YYMMDD format. Then, I add a few words to further identify the subject matter or location of the images in the folder. For example, if I add the word “steampunk” to the folder name, even though the images don’t have keywords referencing “steampunk,” they will show up when Any Searchable Field is used. Using Searchable Metadata can also be useful for finding images that may have been tagged by the software you used to edit the shot. For example, searching meta­ data for the term “slow shutter” finds all the iPhone images that were shot with the Slow Shutter Cam app, even after they’ve been modified in another app. (Note: Not all apps are created equal in how they handle metadata and some will strip the metadata added by earlier apps when they save a new copy of the file.)

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attribute filters

metadata filters

The Attribute filters let you search for images based on flags, star ratings, or color labels. The Kind icons on the far right of the Filter Bar also let you search by file type: Master Photos, Virtual Copies, or Videos. Using the pick flag and star ratings is a practice I highly recommend. It immediately adds important information to the file that indicates it has some level of quality value (tap P to add a Pick flag, X for a Reject flag, U to remove a flag, 1 through 5 to add star ratings, and 0 to remove all ratings from an image or selected images in Grid view). Images you’ve tagged with a positive quality rating (i.e., a pick flag or a star rating) are most likely ones you’ll want to find easily in the future. User-added metadata such as this will help to reduce the size of the image haystack significantly when you’re looking for the elusive needle.

The Metadata filters let you search 28 attributes that are contained in a file’s metadata. With the Metadata filter activated, click on the name of an attribute at the top of one of the columns to display the menu of different choices. Searching by metadata is a great way to find images made with a specific camera or lens, or even camera settings such as shutter speed. I often like to find images made with a slower shutter speed, or a specific ISO, and this search filter lets me do this easily. In the multi-column filter interface, if you only want to search for one parameter, make sure that all the other columns are set to None. Searching by date recently revealed image downloads from my iPhone that I accidentally placed in the wrong

searching multiple attributes When using the Attribute filter, keep in mind that it’s possible to have more than one attribute selected for the search. This can sometimes cause confusion if you don’t realize it. For instance in the example below, the filter is searching for images where the rating is less than or equal to 3 stars and that have a green label.

folder (2012 files nested inside the 2014 folder). This allowed me to find these misplaced files and move them to the correct location in my image archive folder structure (remember that any moving of files or folders needs to be done from within Lightroom so the program doesn’t lose track of the files).

searching with multiple filters You can also search using multiple filters, which is another thing to keep in mind to ensure that you have the right filters activated. For example, the search results can be based on a Text filter set to Keywords, and a Rating filter equal to three stars. If you have multiple filters active, click on a filter (e.g., Text) to turn it off and search only with one filter. ALL IMAGES BY SÉAN DUGGAN

Finally, if you configure a filter in a certain way that’s useful for your search workflow, you can save it as a preset so you can select it easily in the future. Click the small menu button in the top right of the Filter Bar to either select one of the default filter presets, or to save a new one. Clicking on the lock icon will keep the chosen filter parameters even when you change the source (e.g., a folder or collection) for the search. ■ CLICK TO RATE

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Product Reviews Tamron SP 85mm F/1.8 Di VC USD Lens Affordable Prime Lens for the Professional

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Review by Larry Becker

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I had the pleasure of interviewing a couple of Tamron representatives for a video report when this lens first came out, and I immediately wanted to get my hands on one, so I was thrilled to be selected as the reviewer. I can tell you that the Tamron SP 85mm F/1.8 Di VC USD Lens was all I had hoped it would be! It captures beautiful images that are color-accurate across the entire frame. I found that all of the colors, not just skin tones, were true, and chromatic aberrations were practically nonexistent, even in my shots of a colorful, almost rainbow bouquet of flowers shot wide open at f/1.8. Over the years, I’ve really zoomed in and analyzed images at the pixel level for my reviews, and found myself being a little forgiving because only pixel-peepers would notice some of the nuances of certain lenses. But these days, with high-megapixel, full-frame camera offerings, lens anomalies are even more important. I’m happy to report that the Tamron SP 85mm F/1.8 Di VC USD Lens really delivers accurate and high-quality images at the pixel level. This 85mm full-frame prime lens is in Tamron’s SP class of lenses, which means it’s designed for pros. The lens I tested was a Canon mount but it’s also available with a Nikon mount (a Sony A mount version will be shipping soon, possibly by the time this review is published). The aperture range goes from f/1.8 to f/16, and of course, I was excited to push the limits using the wider aperture settings. Considering that this is an ideal portrait lens and people looking for the artistic performance will want nice bokeh (outof-focus areas), I shot quite a bit at f/1.8 and looked closely at the blurry areas. They were beautiful and smooth. The Tamron SP 85mm F/1.8 Di VC USD Lens has a number of the latest lens coatings designed to deliver great images, including eBAND (Extended Bandwidth & Angular-Dependency) designed to cut flare and ghosting, and the front lens element has a Fluorine Coating to protect against dirt and

smudges. André Costantini from Tamron even does a demo where he writes on the lens face with a Sharpie and he’s able to wipe it off because of the Fluorine Coating. I didn’t have the guts to try that particular test but I assure you, my fingerprints were no problem at all. A feature you might not expect from an 85mm f/1.8 prime is vibration compensation (VC). Tamron’s VC allows for more than three stops of compensation so you can handhold this lens in low-light situations. The auto-focus (AF) performance was snappy and accurate with my Canon EOS 6D, and the focus motors were very quiet, though not completely silent. Both VC and auto AF can be turned off with their respective switches on the side of the lens barrel. The build quality is first-rate and the all-metal construction makes it appropriately heavy. The feel of the focus ring and the travel should be comfortable for most shooters. The lens is considered to be moisture-resistant. Finishing up with a couple technical specs, I should mention it has a 9-blade aperture and there are 13 elements in 9 groups. The new Tamron SP 85mm F/1.8 Di VC USD Lens is not only a great contender at its price point, it’s an impressive performer in the 85mm prime category at any price! ■ Company: TAMRON Co., Ltd. Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Hot: Color accuracy; bokeh; VC; quick AF; price

Not:

Price: $749

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Mola Sollo 28" Reflector Silver Reflector Creates Unique Contrast and Quality Review by Michael Corsentino

Good lighting is all about modifiers. At the end of the day, light is light. But it’s how you modify and shape that light that makes the difference between mediocre and exceptional lighting. Choosing the right tool for the job is the secret to lighting with purpose rather than relying on one-size-fits-all solutions. A softbox produces a different quality of light than a reflector, which produces a different quality of light than an umbrella, and so on. Toronto-based Mola Softlights produces a line of best-inclass reflectors of which I’m particularly fond. As Mola points out, their reflectors are made by a photographer for photographers. This, along with factors such as quality of light, versatility, and build quality, are some of the many reasons I use the Mola range of reflectors in much of my work. In this review I want to focus specifically on the Mola Sollo, a 28" (app. 71 cm) silver-interior reflector with Mola’s signature undulating design. When your concept calls for the ultimate in contrast, nothing will get you there faster and

more beautifully than the Mola Sollo. Its deep, narrow profile delivers increased contrast and the unique, hard-edged quality of light that has made it so popular. With its silver interior, the Sollo produces a narrow beam of light with heightened shape; a sharper edge than its white interior counterpart; and significant, distinct light falloff. Accentuated levels of contrast, rapid transitions between shadows and highlights, added light efficiency, and cool color tones are also key Sollo characteristics. Mola does one thing and they do it extremely well. Their family of reflectors are all standouts, but when it comes to edgy fashion and punchy portraits, the Mola Sollo is the perfect choice. ■ Company: Mola Softlights Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Pricing: $773.50





Hot: Ultimate contrast; quality of light; sharp-edged; rapid falloff; build



Not: May be too specular for some

CalDigit T4 Fast and Silent Four-Bay RAID 5 Solution CalDigit is a supplier of storage solutions for creative professionals, including photographers and video producers. The T4 is their hybrid Thunderbolt 2 RAID-capable storage solution. T4’s have a tightly fitting die-cast aluminum enclosure aimed at silent operation and good thermal management. They have four lockable removable drives that carry a three-year warranty. The unit itself carries a five-year warranty. The T4 is an SSD- or HDD-based hybrid RAID solution, combining a programmable chip and a macOS menu applet to configure it. The uncommon support for SSDs allows CalDigit to ship a T4/4 TB that has throughput speeds of up to 1370 MB/sec in RAID 0. You can set the unit to RAID 0, 1, 5, or JBOD. Unique about the T4 is that you can set up two different RAID 0 or RAID 1 configurations—each using two drives. A RAID 5 takes all four. Finally, you can set up one RAID 0 or 1 configuration and have the two other disks function as independent drives. The T4 dissipates heat efficiently. The drives in my unit never ran warmer than 98.6°F with an ambient room temperature of 77°F. I was wary of the ventilator’s sound levels,

though, but although it wasn’t completely noiseless, the fan’s sound was low enough even after an hour of editing not to interfere too much with normal audio levels. To give you an idea, before turning the unit on, the sound level in my room reached 36 dBA. After turning it on, it rose to 38–39 dBA. The T4’s speed is downright exemplary. Before copying files to the T4, I tested its performance with both Blackmagic Design’s and AJA’s speed utilities. The write speeds were pretty impressive at 430 MB/sec on a Thunderbolt 1 port. That’s RAID 5 writing—RAID 0 is even faster. ■ Company: CalDigit, Inc.

Price: $899–1,999 (4 TB–20 TB)

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ Hot: Enclosure; speed; price; customer care; warranty; low noise

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Review by Erik Vlietinck

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REVIEWS

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Extensis Suitcase Fusion 7 Syncing Fonts with Multiple Computers and Users Made Easy Review by David Creamer

At first glance, the latest version of Suitcase Fusion appears to be unchanged, with all the handy features users have learned to depend on; however, there are some really nice new features that make it a worthwhile upgrade, or if you don’t already use a third-party font manager, a worthwhile purchase. One upgraded feature is TypeSync, which uploads fonts to the Extensis cloud service and now works cross-platform between Mac and Windows computers. When activated (the feature is an option), desired font libraries are uploaded. When logging in from another system or during a reinstall on the same computer, compatible fonts are downloaded (to be available offline) and stay synchronized. This new version handles its installation and activation just like the Adobe Creative Cloud—each user of a single license of Suitcase is allowed two activations. They can be on the same platform, or one Mac and one Windows. If a third activation occurs, the user is given the option to log out of other activations; logically, any cloud-synced fonts are uninstalled from deactivated systems. This new service requires

that you log into an Extensis account during install rather than type in a serial number. For those needing to sync to multiple computers, TeamSync is available for a reasonable subscription cost. This can be for small groups of users or a single user with more than two computers. The TeamSync manager can activate and deactivate users as required, plus libraries can be assigned to certain users and not others. TeamSync includes Suitcase and future version upgrades, so in the long run, it could be a more cost-effective option. Another new feature is the addition of an After Effect activation plug-in. While a welcome addition, it would have been nice to include a Premiere Pro plug-in to round off the video software. Hopefully, that will come in a future update ■ Company: Extensis

Pricing: $119.95 (Upgrade: $59.95); TeamSync: $8/month per user

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆



Hot: CC 2015 support; FontDoctor 10 included



Not: No Premiere Pro activation

Atomos Shogun Flame Set Your Video Projects on Fire

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Review by Erik Vlietinck

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With its 10-bit/1500-nit 7" screen, the new Atomos Shogun Flame focuses on giving you an accurate view of the 10+ stops of dynamic range from Log-curve cameras. The Shogun and Ninja Flame are also more robust than the previous generation. The SDI-capable Shogun Flame’s 1500-nit screen instantly proved its worth in direct sunlight. Even in Rec.709 mode, everything on the screen was clearly visible. I doubt if you’re ever going to use the included sun hood, except perhaps for color evaluation. On the HDR video front, the Shogun Flame even supports Dolby’s Perceptual Quantization (PQ). The PQ output is for play-out to HDR displays and televisions. In addition, you can have a supported NLE send its PQ output to the Shogun’s HDMI input. You can then adjust the Shogun’s display from 100 to 10,000 nits to mimic a Dolby PQcompatible screen. Except for PQ, the Shogun Flame supports a pretty complete list of Log-curve cameras: Sony, Arri, Canon, JVC, RED, Panasonic, etc. Within each camera brand, the Shogun supports several curve types, but also several ASA settings, for example, for Arri.

The Shogun Flame’s AtomOS 7.1 delivers a simplified HDR wave­ form system. It includes a reticle to easily optimize the slider position for the dynamic range when in AtomHDR mode. Also included is the ability to let the Shogun decide on the HDR level for the scene’s maximum brightness. The waveform monitor will display a percentage scale based on the input log mode as well. The reason why you’ll want to buy an external recorder that supports 4:2:2 codecs and 10-bit hasn’t changed since the first Ninja Atomos was released: even with gorgeouspicture-capable cameras such as Sony’s A7 series, 4:2:2 chroma subsampling gives you more detail in dark areas than 4:2:0. ■ Company: Atomos

Price: Shogun Flame: $1,695; Ninja Flame: $1,295

Rating: ◆◆◆◆

Hot: HDR capabilities; screen; quality of build; RAW support



Not: Top air vents potentially expose internals to rain

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DxO OpticsPro 11 Elite Taking Lighting Adjustments to the Next Level Review by Erik Vlietinck

DxO OpticsPro 11 incorporates three major improvements: Spot Weighted Smart Lighting, PRIME 2016 noise reduction, and full-screen mode. There’s now also an automatic redeye correction; however, DxO Optics Pro still lacks a full-scale management module and support for IPTC metadata. Spot Weighted mode is said to deliver the same results as in-camera spot metering with the added benefit of postcapture fine-tuning capabilities. The default Spot Weighted setting detects faces in a photo to optimize the exposure without radically changing the rest of the image. The face-detection feature only works when faces take up enough space in the image. I found it to work well with portraits, but not at all with a photo containing subjects at some distance. Luckily, Spot Weighted mode works without faces as well. DxO Smart Lighting will apply a “Slight” correction by default, but you can change that. Each spot area can be shown surrounded by a rectangle that can be moved and removed. With no faces to detect, the algorithm will automatically create a more balanced lighting scheme based on the manually created zones. It’s as if you’re using a softbox.

PRIME was a stunning noise-reduction algorithm, but it had its minor problems. PRIME 2016 gets rid of these and better preserves bokeh, smooth transitions, fine details, dark colors, and textures in your image. It’s also much faster than before. The app now has a full-screen mode for browsing through your photo library with EXIF data in a sidebar. Basic data and rating fields are displayed at the bottom if you want. The new red-eye remover is based on face and eye detection. Red eyes are automatically identified and corrected. Difficult cases still need manual intervention to specify the location of the eye within the image. ■ Company: DxO Labs

Price: $199

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Hot: PRIME is faster; Spot Weighted Smart Lighting works well



Not: Still no support for IPTC metadata; no management module

Hasselblad X1D The Power of Medium Format in a Compact Size In the stream of never-ending press releases that come across my desk, first-of-its-kind product announcements are rare. Hasselblad’s new X1D mirrorless medium-format digital camera is truly a first-of-its-kind groundbreaking product! The X1D brings together the best attributes from both mirrorless and medium-format cameras: the compact form-factor of mirrorless with less moving parts to worry about, and the incredible resolving power and dynamic range for which medium-format digital is known. The X1D is less than half the weight of conventional digital medium-format cameras. Trust me as a medium-format shooter, I can tell you weight matters. Handmade in Sweden, Hasselblad’s X1D is based around a 50-MP CMOS sensor able to capture up to 14 stops of dynamic range, and it sports an impressive 100–25,600 ISO range. A 1/2000 to 60-minute shutter-speed range with full flash synchronization throughout provides plenty of creative flexibility for strobe users. More than just a powerhouse palm-sized still camera, the Hasselblad X1D captures HD video as well. Built-in Wi-Fi, GPS, and robust exterior dust- and weatherproofing make the X1D ideal for travel and location applications.

Dual SD card slots, a high-quality XGA electronic viewfinder, high-resolution rear display with touch functionality, multiple image format options, and compatibility with all 12 lenses and lens accessories from the Hasselblad professional H System (adapter required) are also noteworthy. A new line of XCD lenses with integral central shutter will also be available when this camera ships. The XCD f/3.5 45mm lens will retail for $2,295, and the XCD f/3.2 90mm lens will retail for $2,695. Expected availability of the X1D is the first week of September 2016. ■ Company: Hasselblad

Pricing: Body: $8,995

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Hot: Mirrorless medium format; HD video; high-resolution rear display



Not:

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Review by Michael Corsentino

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

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Photoshop Tricks for Designers: How to Create Bada$$ Effects in Photoshop

Photoshop for Photographers (Box Set)

By Corey Barker

By Edward Bailey

If you’re a designer, or a photographer, who wants to add something special to your arsenal, here’s a book for you. The author, a longtime instructor at Photoshop World, is an awardwinning designer and photographer. The nine chapters each contain several different but related techniques. You’ll find chapters on type, commercial effects, graphics, photo effects, textures, light effects, color, “Hollywood-style” effects, and 3D. It’s not intended to be an instructional manual read cover to cover, but rather a special effects reference. Decide what you want to do, flip to that chapter, and follow the instructions. Many of the images used in the book are available for practice so you can follow along using the image Corey used. (These downloadable images are copyrighted, low-resolution versions, not for use in your own work, although many are available for purchase from their source.) This is a book for intermediate to advanced users.

Two—two—two books in one! Book 1, 20 Photo Editing Tech­niques Every Photoshop Beginner Should Know, discusses the history and evolution of Photoshop and presents a basic introduction to working with Photoshop. It looks at tools and panels and presents basic Photoshop techniques, such as color and exposure correction, adding text, cropping and straightening images, transforming images and selections, and layers. Book 2, 7 Ways to Use Adobe Photoshop Like a Pro, discusses more advanced techniques, including turning a photo into a painting, pencil drawing, or comic book art, as well as repairing damaged photos and colorizing black-and-white photos. There’s more on cropping, a look at the History panel, working with the Patch and Art History brushes, and some of Photoshop’s filters. Also, sections on creating flaming objects and an “exploding light” text effect. The author also offers a free copy of another of his Photoshop books, available to download.

Publisher: Peachpit Press

Publisher: CreateSpace

Pages: 192 (paperback)

Price: $29.99 (paperback); $14.39 (Kindle)

Price: $3.99 (Kindle); $27.74 (for both paperbacks)





Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Rating: ◆ ◆ ◆

Pages: 140

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September

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From the Advice Desk

answers to photoshop & gear-related questions

PETER BAUER

I have a very hard time selecting hair and other fuzzy edges when trying to extract somebody or something from a similarly colored background. Any tips?—Olson

› › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 6

To: Olson From: KelbyOne Advice Desk

116

If you know ahead of time that you’ll be extracting a person or object from a photo, plan ahead and shoot against a contrasting background. Green/blue screens are great and many are foldable and spring-loaded to make them portable; but plain white or plain black are also usually good. If you don’t have such luxury or the image has already been taken with the subject against a very similarly colored background, you can use channels to help create a mask, an alpha channel that will be used as the basis for a selection. My teaching image for this technique is usually a blond in front of a beige wall—we can even select the stray hair with this technique—but it also works with a variety of other such photos. In a nutshell, we’ll find the channel that has the most contrast along the edges of the subject. (We’re looking only at the edges of the subject.) That channel will become the basis for the alpha channel from which a selection will be made. The focus needs to be on the edges because the edge is where the selection will be made. If you don’t have good contrast elsewhere in the subject, it’s not a problem. Later you can use the Brush tool (B) to paint other parts of the subject and the background away from the edges. Remember that you have 10 channels from which to choose—that’s right 10 channels. With an RGB image open, use the Image>Duplicate command, then Image>Mode to convert to CMYK. Duplicate again and convert to LAB mode (although I’ve rarely found any benefit to LAB channels for selections). If one of the CMYK channels in the Channels panel (Window>Channels) has the best contrast along the edges, drag it from the

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Channels panel to the RGB image window to create the alpha channel. If the channel you want to use is in the RGB image, Right-click on the channel and choose Duplicate Channel to create the alpha channel. Once you have an alpha channel and make it the active channel in the Channels panel, use Levels or Curves to maximize the contrast; again, looking only at the edges of the subject. If the subject is black and the background is white in the alpha channel, use the Invert command or its shortcut Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I). Once the edges are properly established, including any stray hairs or other fringe elements (that you want to keep), use the Brush tool to clean up the rest of the image. Paint with black to hide areas of the background and paint with white inside the subject. Make sure to paint over areas of gray both within the subject and background; gray areas will be partially selected (selected with reduced opacity) when you make a selection based on the alpha channel. Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the thumbnail of the alpha channel to load it as a selection, make sure the RGB channel is active in the Channels panel, and select Edit>Copy. You can then open another image and paste (Edit>Paste) into a different background as desired. Remember, too, that if there are different parts of the subject where the edges have better contrast in different channels, you can create multiple alpha channels. With the RGB channel active, load the first alpha channel as described above and then use Photoshop’s Select>Load Selection with the Add to Selection option to load each of the other alpha channels into a single selection. ■

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