Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i Practical Photoshop

“Welcome to issue 108 of Practical Photoshop! If you enjoy the issue, why not subscribe and get a whole year for just $19.99?” This issue we’ve been taking a look at some of our favourite Photoshop tools, and finding out how they can work harder for you. Elsewhere, we have an guide to quick selections, plus tutorials on how to tease out landscape details and create our car cover. james.paterson@futurenet.com www.digitalcameraworld.com WATCH THE VIDEO http://tiny.cc/h9bbjy DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES To download this issue's files, type the following link into your web browser on your PC or Mac: http://bit.ly/pho_108 FIND US HERE… http://bit.ly/practweet http://bit.ly/pracface…

You probably know that you can create all sorts of basic 3D shapes in Photoshop - but did you know you can also animate those shapes? 3D objects can be animated in much the same way as 2D objects with the Timeline Panel. Here are the basics… 01 EXTRUDE TO 3D Select the main fish shape layer and go to 3D > New 3D Extrusion From Selected Layer. Go to the Properties Panel, set Extrusion to 0, then highlight the Caps tab and set Angle to 90 and Strength to 40 to create a simple bulbous fish shape. Shift-click between the top and bottom materials in the 3D Panel, then choose a material for the object in Properties. 02 SET MATERIALS AND LIGHT Click Infinite Light and adjust the angle…

Available by clicking the gradient preview when the Gradient Tool is selected, the Gradient Editor is a great tool for customizing your gradients. Not only can you alter the colors, add color stops and fine-tune the transitions between them, you can also experiment with funs settings like Noise, which transforms your gradient into a random set of colored streaks. Here we’ve set Type to Noise and increased Roughness, then used Transparency and Restrict Colors. Next we used the Angle Gradient Style to make a starburst effect, then blurred the edges with Filter > Blur Gallery> Iris Blur, and finally used Filter> Distort > Twirl to bend the shape.…

WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/37HGejv Built in November 1969, this TVR Tuscan V6 has just celebrated its 50th birthday. We wanted to capture the beautiful flowing shape of this classic coupe. However, the car’s usual suburban home – in a garage in Wiltshire – didn’t really work as a backdrop for those gorgeous curves. So the plan was to bring the TVR into a huge studio and light it with a dozen flashes. But then we realized we didn’t have a huge studio or a dozen flashes. Instead a challenge was set: get the high-quality studio car look without a studio. At which point, enter two of a photographer’s most transformative tools: Photoshop and flash lighting. By lighting the car with flash, we’re able to overpower the natural light so that…

01 SOFTBOX LIGHTING Cars are like giant mirrors, reflecting the surroundings as well as any nearby light sources. At first we attached a softbox to the flash unit. The reflected rectangle of light from the softbox emphasizes the contours, but the car’s paintwork turned out quite dull. 02 HARD LIGHT We then switched to a smaller reflector modifier, which makes the light much harder and brings out the vivid color of the car. It made small specular reflections in the body that can look messy, but are easily retouched later on. We ended up using mostly hard light shots.…

PHOTO LIVE 10:30-10:45 15 minute image-editing workflow James Ritson 11:00-11:30 Creative location portraits Ben Bentley 12:00-12:30 From capture to print Rocco Ancora 13:00-13:30 Food stories: The inside scoop Kate & Brent Kirkman 15:00-15:30 Fine-art studio portraits Rory Lewis 16:00-16:30 A character portrait: Bringing the set to life with light! Hannah Couzens BEHIND THE LENS 11:00-11:40 Approaching wildlife photography trips like a pro Tom Mason 12:00-12:40 Being in the moment Vanda Ralevska 13:00-13:40 Bettertravel photos Laurence Norah 14:00-14:40 Portraits of mental health Alex Benyon 15:00-15:40 From weddings in Sussex to speedboats in Switzerland Lisa Beaney THE STUDIO 11:00-11:40 Raw video: Using compact system cameras for high-end video Richard Warburton 12:00-12:40 Wildlife filmmaking from the perspective of a photographer Tesni Ward 13:00-13:40 Doubling up Rick Bronks 14:00-14:40 Making your workflow work for…

PHOTO LIVE 10:30-10:45 15 minute image-editing workflow James Ritson 11:00-11:30 The key to relaxed children’s portraits Saraya Cortaville 12:00-12:30 Creative catwalk fashion Jay McLaughlin 13:00-13:30 Creating shallow depth of field portraits with minimal kit Gavin Hoey 14:00-14:30 Getting it right in-camera Scott Johnson BEHIND THE LENS 12:00-12:40 From Mandela to Clint Eastwood Keith Bernstein 13:00-13:40 How pictures can save a species Margot Raggett & Will Burrard-Lucas 14:00-14:40 How to become a successful destination wedding photographer Pippa Mackenzie 15:00-15:40 Fine-art self-portraits: the making of an unknown series Steven Neeson THE STUDIO 11:00-11:40 Audio for video 101: Pro sound explained Alex Theakston 12:00-12:40 Fashion film: All you need to know Jonathan Edwards 13:00-13:40 Storytelling for action and adventure filmmaking Ellie Cartwright 14:00-14:40 Building a career as a visual storyteller Lilla Nyeki 15:00-15:40…

The Merge Panorama command in Camera Raw and Lightroom is one of the best ways to stitch several files into a detail-rich panorama, but sometimes the edges of the frame can look messy. For a while now the Merge Panorama command has offered a handy Boundary Warp feature that stretches the edges of the frame to fill in any areas of transparency. Recently a feature has been added that, rather than stretching the existing pixels, instead uses Content-Aware Fill to generate new pixels based on the surroundings. It’s a handy new feature that offers greater control over crafting panoramas.…

01 LENS FLARE This filter lets you add flare, as if shooting into a bright light or the sun. Apply it to a non-destructive Smart Object layer so you can alter the position later if you need to. If you want to add it to a multi-layered document, first make a new layer, fill it with black and set the Blending Mode to Screen, then go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare. WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/2skzjip 02 FLAMES Grab the Pen Tool from the Tools Panel and draw a path by click-dragging points along the line you’d like to create the flame. Once done, make a new layer and go to Render > Flames. Experiment with the preset flame types like candle or multiple flames, and use the Advanced…

WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/326ilrz The Quick Selection Tool is arguably the best selection tool Photoshop has to offer. It works like a paintbrush, snapping on to objects and shapes in your photos. It means you can isolate part of an image – a sky, a person, or anything else you can think of – in seconds. Once the shape is selected, you can make all kinds of changes. Perhaps the aim is to make a local adjustment to colors, or you want to replace part of the photo with another image. The tool isn’t perfect. It’ll occasionally pick up the wrong area or snap to the wrong line in your image – especially if the area you want to isolate is against a backdrop that’s similar in color or has…

1 TRIPOD We need to take several shots of the car while moving our flash and reflective board around, so the camera needs to stay static throughout, making a tripod a must. With everything in alignment, piecing the frames together later is easier. 2 BLACK BACKDROP It’s a combination of exposure settings and lighting that keeps the surroundings dark, but a dark pop-up sheet placed behind the car helps keep the background clear. We move the backdrop over several frames to cover the length of the car. 3 REFLECTIVE BOARD A subtle reflection helps to ground the car in the final shot, but most of us don’t have a huge piece of Perspex to sit our car on. So instead we’ve used a reflective board, created by sandwiching a piece…

01 LOAD INTO LAYERS After picking the frames that we want to piece together, we can begin by opening them all up as a layered document in Photoshop. This can be done either by selecting the files in Bridge, then going to Tools > Photoshop > Load Into Layers, or in Photoshop by using File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack. 02 ADD A MASK Choose an image to use as a base and drag it to the bottom of the layer stack, then hide all but the layer above. Toggle this layer on and off to determine the lit area of the car that you want to blend, then hold Alt and click the Add Layer Mask icon to hide the layer completely behind a full black mask.…

PHOTO LIVE 10:30-10:45 15 minute image-editing workflow James Ritson 11:00-11:30 Fast-paced editorial portraits, featuring a Team Jamaicagymnast! Ki Price 12:00-12:30 Cinematic lighting: One light, two lights, three lights Tommy Reynolds 13:00-13:30 Streamlining your newborn shoots Elli Cassidy 14:00-14:30 Off-camera flash techniques made easy Steven Neeson 15:00-15:30 He shoots, he draws: Live Dave Clayton & Glyn Dewis 16:00-16:30 Explosive lift-off! David Lund BEHIND THE LENS 12:00-12:40 On the road: Life in sports photography Russ Ellis 13:00-13:40 Eyewitness: A global movement to preserve memory through print Fabrizia Costa 14:00-14:40 Through the night Lara Platman 15:00-15:40 Creating a pictorial legacy as a wedding and social photographer Kevin Mullins 16:00-16:40 100 tips for prize-winning close-up and macro photography Tracy Calder THE STUDIO 11:00-11:40 Understanding video-based timelapse technologies Lee Fairbrother 13:00-13:40 Building a career as…

BEGINNERS’ MASTERCLASS: PHOTOGRAPHY Saturday, 14 March or Sunday, 15 March (repeated), Masterclass Stage £10 Start your photography journey by learning some essential lessons from the experts. There’s a charge of £10 for this four-part programme, in addition to the show entry fee – choose either Saturday or Sunday morning. 10:30-11:05 Settings and exposure de-mystified A jargon-busting session covering the fundamentals of camera settings and theory. Ross Grieve 11:05-11:40 Zero to flash An introduction to flash, plus budget-friendly kit ideas and techniques to start using straight away. Chris Ord 11:50-12:25 Getting started editing photos Editing techniques for beginners to help you get the most out of your photos, and how to get started in Lightroom. Lisa Beaney 12:25-13:00 The art of seeing: Crafting and composing your images Different approaches to image-making,…

WATCH THE VIDEO bit.ly/2pqdlsz The Pen Tool is the go-to choice for smooth, precise cutouts, which makes it useful for numerous design and photographic tasks. But tucked away within the tool is a handy option called the Curvature Pen Tool, which offers a much gentler learning curve than the standard Pen Tool. A simple combination of clicks and double-clicks makes the tool very easy to master, and you can create wonderful customizable shapes – like the fish here – in seconds. Here’s how it works… 01 MAKE A SHAPE Grab the Curvature Pen Tool from the toolbar. Choose Shape in the tool options. Click twice to make two points, creating a straight line with the tool. Click a third time to begin making a curve from the line. Continue clicking…

The Brush Tool offers far more than just the simple circular brush tip that many of us use day to day. There are all kinds of wonderful features hidden within. Here are three of our favorites, used in combination to create an eye-catching pattern. 01 CREATE CUSTOM BRUSH TIPS You can turn any shape, any image, or any part of an image you like into a brush tip. All you need is an object against a pure white backdrop, so either shoot an object like the moth here against white or use the selection tools to isolate an object then fill the background with white. (It needs to be completely white, otherwise the rectangular edges of the frame will show up in the brush tip.) Once the image is prepared,…

Hidden beneath the normal Crop Tool in the toolbar is the Perspective Crop Tool. This lets you crop in perspective. So if you want to flatten out a surface in an image that has been photographed from an angle, you can do so with this handy tool. Simply click four points with the tool over the corners of the surface to create a plane. Adjust the points until you’re happy, then click the tick to crop into the angled surface.…

WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/2syhrsl Have you ever shot a landscape under glorious conditions and rushed home to look at the results, only to find they are slightly underwhelming? This doesn’t necessarily mean you did something wrong: it might simply be that the image needs a little coaxing into life. Often the challenge with landscapes is in recording detail in both the brightest and darkest parts of the scene. When the sun is low in the sky, this can be doubly difficult, as the highlights will be strong and the shadows can be very deep. As such, on initial inspection the scene can be a disappointment, with detail-less dark areas or blown-out skies. However, just because the detail isn’t visible at first, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not there. As long as…

01 SET AN EXPOSURE After setting the camera up on a tripod, composing and focusing on the car, we work out a manual exposure that underexposes the natural light so that it barely registers. On an overcast day, like we had here, we used 1/200 sec, f/11, ISO 100. This resulted in a near-dark image. 02 FIRE THE FLASH Next, we set up a single studio flash, powered through the mains. The flash is set to optical slave, triggered wirelessly and set to full power. By popping the flash at different angles, we can pick out various parts of the car and emphasize the delightful flowing lines in the body. 03 MOVE THE FLASH Try lighting the car from different angles with the flash. Experiment with backlighting from behind the…

If you’re relatively new to editing in Photoshop, or you just don’t know where to begin, then this section is the best place to get started. Over the next 10 pages, you’ll find an overview of the different versions of Photoshop available; a breakdown of the typical image-editing workflow in Photoshop; an overview of raw file editing; a guide to the six most useful layers; and a glossary of the most useful shortcuts. This guide condenses most of the tools and techniques you’ll use every time you import a new roll of pictures. PHOTOSHOP CC FROM £9.98/$9.99 PER MONTH WINDOWS, macOS Photoshop is the software of choice for most professional and non-professional photographers. Beyond the standard photo-editing features, it boasts a vast array of more creative tools and filters. Layers…

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 lefthand 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…

PHOTO LIVE 10:30-10:45 15 minute image-editing workflow James Ritson 11:00-11:30 Quick set-ups for beauty portraits Rosella Vanon 13:00-13:30 How to shoot epic location photography Drew Gardner 14:00-14:30 Three portraits, one light Urs Recher 16:00-16:30 Colouring in for added flavour andkaboom! Jakob Gronkjaer BEHIND THE LENS 11:00-11:40 Making a living from leading photographic tours and safaris Toby Jermyn 12:00-12:40 Photography as adventure Karl Holtby 13:00-13:40 Light painting with a drone Carys Kaiser 14:00-14:40 The wonders of the night skies Alyn Wallace 15:00-15:40 Prime landscapes Jeremy Walker 16:00-16:40 As free as a bird Caron Steele THE STUDIO 11:00-11:40 Audio for video 101: Pro sound explained Alex Theakston 13:00-13:40 Understanding codecs, compression and colour Richard Warburton 14:00-14:40 Average to exceptional: Easy stepstotransform your dronefootage David Lund 15:00-15:40 Wedding videos, but not as we…

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