Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2020 i Practical Photoshop

The angular lines, punchy contrast and strong shapes of this urban landscape work well, but they’re also a ripe subject for a creative treatment. To achieve an effect like this, we can get stuck in with Photoshop’s powerful Brush Tool and layer blending controls. These two features are great fun, and you’ll often be surprised and delighted by the results. WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/2R8emby 01 PAINT AND BLEND After converting the image to black and white, make a new layer set to the Color Dodge Blending Mode, then grab the Brush Tool and paint colors to build up a painterly look. Here we’ve added colored streaks, following the lines of the buildings and bridge. (Holding Shift while clicking between two points lets you paint a straight line.) 02 COMBINE WITH…

WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/2niq5pf A simple black border with a white keyline can give your landscape a classy finish, especially combined with a quick and easy black-and-white treatment. Go to Image > Canvas Size, check Relative, set Canvas Extension Color: White, then set Width and Height Units to Pixels. Choose a small pixel value for your white keyline; the right figure depends on your image resolution. 30px works for us here. Click OK then go back to Image > Canvas Size, set the color to Black and choose a high value for Width and Height – 300px works here. Go to Filter >Camera Raw Filter, then click the Profile Browser to choose a B&W preset.…

The image-editing process begins as soon as you’ve transferred your photos from your memory card to your computer. 1 The first stage is to begin sifting through your pictures to discover which are the keepers. The image organizer that comes with Photoshop is ideal for this task. Adobe Bridge has controls for keywording, rating and filtering your images, and there are handy tools for batch renaming files, creating panoramic stitches, making contact sheets and more. Launch Adobe Bridge and navigate to a folder containing new images. Use the cursor keys to quickly flick through the images and click below a thumbnail to add a star rating, or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl+1-5. You can then filter your photos by the star rating to group the ones you want to work…

Why not reduce a scene to a series of color blocks? This works best with layered landscapes, where the composition includes an easily definable foreground, midground, background and sky that can all be separated from one another… WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/2rdkrdc 01 SELECT THE FOREGROUND Open an image (we used a free image from pixabay.com; search for 833326), then go to Select > Select And Mask. Grab the Quick Selection Tool from the toolbar and paint over the foreground to select it, then increase the Radius as shown to pick out the fine details. Set Output: Selection and click OK to confirm. 02 FILL THE SELECTION Go to the Layers Panel (Window > Layers) then click the New Layer icon. Click within the foreground to choose a color; we used…

Here’s a quick tip to add a color wash over a landscape. Open an image (we used pixabay.com image 1993645), then go to the Layers Panel and make a new layer. Grab the Gradient Tool then choose a warm blend of colors. (We used the Violet/Orange preset here.) Set the gradient style to Linear, then drag a diagonal grad across the frame. Go to the Layers Panel and change the Blending Mode from Normal to Overlay or Soft Light. Adjust the layer Opacity to control the strength of the effect. If you like, you can go on to blend more colors. Here we’ve darkened the sky slightly by painting orange on a second layer set to Multiply.…

WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/30bpotn Here’s a trippy technique to try out on your landscapes. It works especially well with reflected scenes. Duplicate the background layer with Cmd/Ctrl+J, then press Cmd/Ctrl+T for Transform mode. Right-click and choose Flip Vertical. Next, grab the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Drag a selection over half the image, through the middle of the tree. Copy to a new layer with Cmd/Ctrl+J, then press Cmd/Ctrl+T to transform. Right-click and choose Flip Horizontal, then position the half on the other side of the frame. Open a texture, copy it into the landscape and set its Blending Mode to Overlay.…

The standard approach to landscape photography is to keep as much of the scene in focus as possible – but you can create an interesting look by altering the depth of field, for a shallow-focus effect. Open an image (we used pixabay.com image 4613926). Duplicate the Background layer. Hide the top layer, right-click the Background layer and choose Convert to Smart Object, then go to Filter> Blur Gallery> Field Blur. Plot three points as shown to create a sharp area in the middle, with a softer area above and below. Reveal the top layer, select the subject and click the Add Mask icon. Use the Clone Tool to tidy up.…

This is a quirky effect to try on empty scenes like the desert here. Here we’ve used the 3D tools in Photoshop to create a host of otherworldly floating spheres. You can quickly add simple 3D forms to give the landscape a surreal look, inspired by artist like Salvador Dali. If you haven’t used Photoshop’s 3D tools before, this technique is a gentle introduction to some of their key features, which you can take into other projects… WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/36c6grr 01 MAKE A 3D SPHERE Open the image (we used a free pixabay.com image; search for 1170031) then make a new layer. Go to 3D > New Mesh From Layer > Mesh Preset > Sphere. Next, go to 3D > Move Object To Ground Plane. Use the axis control…

WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/2tcu6xw One of the main reasons to use Photoshop for image-editing over Lightroom is its excellent selection tools. There is a host on offer, from simple freehand tools to clever features that do almost all the work for you. The Color Range command falls into the latter category. As the name suggests, it works by seeking out ranges of color within an image. So if you want to zero in on a blue area, for example, you can isolate it in seconds. In this way, Color Range is similar to the Magic Wand, which also works by seeking out similar colors within the frame. But Color Range gives you a finer degree of control: you can include or exclude any colors you like, keep the selection either…

Photoshop has many types of layers and adjustment layers available, but there are six that you’ll find you need to use again and again. Learning how they should be used may seem a little daunting for beginners, but once you’ve got to grips with them, you’ll find they play a part in the creative process of almost every image you make. 01 LEVELS This should be the first layer you add to an image, because it fundamentally alters the tonal range of the entire image. Create a Levels Adjustment Layer, drag the Black point slider inwards until it touches the left-hand edge of the histogram, and drag the White point slider inwards to the right-hand edge. This remaps the tones of the image to make more of the available tonal…