Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2022 i Practical Photoshop

"Welcome to issue 133 of Practical Photoshop! If you enjoy the issue, why not subscribe and get a whole year for just $19.99?" Actions are one of the most powerful yet overlooked Photoshop features. Whether you want to speed up your own edits or use those created by others, Actions can be hugely useful. This issue we bring you an in-depth guide. Elsewhere, learn how to edit your videos in Photoshop and make misty effects. www.digitalcameraworld.com Editor James Paterson Art Editor Rosie Webber Production Editor Kyle Hearse Content Director Chris George Senior Art Editor Warren Brown DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES To download this issue's files, type the following link into your web browser on your PC or Mac: https://bit.ly/pho_133 FIND US HERE… http://bit.ly/practweet http://bit.ly/pracface Also available on: http://bit.ly/pp_pocketmags http://bit.ly/pp_app_store http://bit.ly/zinio_pp…

When it comes to playing back an Action, pressing the Play button in the Actions panel is rather a clunky way to do things, especially as the point with Actions is to speed up your workflow. There are a couple of ways we can speed things up. If you click the flyout menu at the top of the Actions panel and turn on Button mode, then the Actions will be shown as a list of buttons. Simply click on an Action button to play it. Another way to speed things up is to assign keyboard shortcuts to your favourite Actions. You can do this upon first making an Action (in the New Action dialog), or you can add keyboard shortcuts afterwards by double-clicking on the Action in the Actions Panel…

In some ways Actions can be infuriatingly literal. If, for example, you want to target the layer below the current layer then it’s best not to simply click on it as you normally would, as the Action step would assume you want to target ‘layer X’, rather than ‘the layer below.’ Instead if you want to target specific layers then it’s best to use keyboard shortcuts that let you move up or down the stack, as these leave no room for interpretation. To target the layer above or below hit Alt + [ or ]. To target the very top or very bottom layer press Alt + . (full stop) or , (comma). To highlight more than one layer press Alt + Shift + ] to include the one above,…

Scripts are similar to Actions, but they’re able to make intelligent conditional decisions during processing, and access Photoshop features that can’t be used with Actions. There are several scripts built-in that you may use already. For example, the Image Processor (Use File>Scripts, or to launch from Adobe Bridge use Tools>Photoshop> Image Processor) lets you batch-convert a whole folder of files from one format to another, which can be a great time-saver. There are also plenty of excellent free scripts online. For example, Photoshop guru Russell Brown makes a variety of handy scripts, including the excellent Paper Texture Pro (pictured, http://www.russellbrown.com/scripts.html). And check out this list of top scripts on our sister site, Creative Bloq (http://www.creativebloq.com/photoshop/free-scripts-4132388?page=1). You can also browse lots of free scripts, new panels and other handy plug-ins via…

Have you ever wished your toys and models were life-size? In this project we’ll look at how to make them appear so with a combination of shooting skills and editing tricks. One such skill is forced perspective. Used in all sorts of productions, from fun YouTube videos to big-budget Hollywood movies, forced perspective photography enables you to play with scale by combining objects of different size into a realistic whole. Best of all, it doesn’t require any fancy Photoshop skills, just basic items and time perfecting the angles. Another trick we’ll employ is the age-old technique of ‘smoke and mirrors.’ The term refers to the old magic trick of creating floating objects with mirrors while using smoke to obscure the tell-tale seams in tricks. But we’ll use a handful of…

01 SHOOT FOR A STACK The problem we often have with toy photos like the one we used is that the subject is close to the camera, which limits depth of field even at narrow apertures. Focus stacking is the answer. If your camera has this feature, try setting it up to take a series of focus-shifted frames. 02ALIGN THE LAYERS Go to the set of images in Adobe Bridge, highlight them, then go to Tools>Photoshop>Load files into Photoshop layers. Once loaded, hold Shift and click between the top and bottom layer in the Layers panel to highlight them all, go to Edit>Auto-Align Layers. Set Auto and hit OK. 03 BLEND THE LAYERS With all the layers still highlighted go to Edit>Auto-Blend Layers. Use the auto settings and hit OK.…

As you build up your collection of Actions – either by creating your own or downloading those made by others – your Actions panel can quickly become crowded and disorganised. Action sets are like folders for organising Actions. Make new sets by clicking the folder icon at the bottom of the Actions panel and then drag Actions to the set. You can also assign new Actions to a specific set when creating the Action in the New Action dialog. Another useful organising feature is colour coding, which works when in Button mode view. You can assign colours to actions in the Actions options (double-click an Action name) or in the New Action dialog. So you could, for example, colour all your cropping Actions red, and your tonal Actions blue.…

The ‘Allow Tool Recording’ feature in the Actions panel flyout menu records the position of any brush strokes or other points of contact you make on your image with Photoshop tools. As such it can be useful for saving regular brush strokes, cloning or other tool-based edits. Positioning of brush strokes will depend on the size and proportions of the image, so the feature works best on images of a similar size to the one you use to record the Action. It’s very useful if, for example, you need to remove recurring sensor marks from a set of photos. You can record an Action as you retouch one photo, then run the Action on the rest of the set using the Batch command. STOPS AND CONDITIONALS While recording an Action…

Actions let you automate everyday tasks like preparing images for printing. If you find that you regularly print images at specific sizes – like A4 – then you can set up an Action that will not only resize your image to those proportions, but also quickly access other printpreparation tools like sharpening. Here’s how… 01 CROP AND RESIZE Click the New Action Set icon in the Actions panel and name it Print Sizes, then click the new action icon and name it A4 Print, then hit Record. Grab the Crop tool from the Tools panel. Click the top left dropdown and choose Width, Height and Resolution, then input Width 297mm, Height 210mm, 300 pixels per inch. Make a crop. 02 UNSHARP MASKING Go to Filter>Sharpen> Unsharp Mask. Apply sharpening to…

A misty morning is one of the most magical times to head out and shoot. However, if the conditions aren’t right for fog then it is possible to create, or boost, your own. In our scene the mist is rolling in over the landscape below, but the tree is clear. As such, this can be a good time to paint in a little more mist to intensify the atmosphere. In visual terms, mist and fog are simply light, blurry patches of air. This is easily recreated with Photoshop brush skills. But it can be tricky to get the shape of the mist right, so we’ve supplied 10 mist brushes for you to use to enhance the atmosphere of photos. All you have to do is make a new layer, choose…

1 TRIPOD A tripod will allow you to set up your composition and then leave the camera in place while you arrange the toys. It also enables you to take a sequence of photos then combine the best parts from each. What’s more, it gives you the option to shoot for a focus stack and extend your depth of field. 2 PLATFORM To create a forced perspective look for a suitable scene with a road or other surface that will be easy to mimic, then create a platform that looks similar. We drilled a hole into a piece of wood and attached it to a tripod plate, then fastened sandpaper on the top to look like the surface of the road. 3 SNOW Atmospheric details like snow, rain or fog…

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…

Go to the Actions panel and click the plus icon at the bottom to make a new Action. Give it a name and hit Record. From this point until you press the stop button in the Actions panel, every edit, command, brush stroke and setting you change will be recorded in the Action. You’ll see steps appear in the panel for each change you make. Some of these can be expanded to give you more info on what is included in the step. After pressing the Stop button, you can repeat the sequence on other pictures by highlighting the Action name and pressing play.…

Often you’ll want to include steps in your action that require you to input a setting, as a sort of manual override. After making the action click the little box next to the step in the Actions panel. Now the action will pause at this step to let you tweak settings manually. If after making an Action you want to tweak the automatic settings that are applied in a certain step, then there’s no need to go back and record the whole thing. Just, double-click the step in the Actions panel and only that step will play. If it involves a command with a dialog – like a tonal change or filter effect – then you can tweak the settings in the command dialog, then apply them. The new settings…

You’ll find lots of excellent Actions and Action Sets available for download, some of which are free, and others that will require a small fee. Here’s a good place to start looking for free Actions: https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/uk/features/free-photoshopactions-for-photographers Once downloaded, simply double-click on the ATN file to load it into Photoshop. If you want to share Actions you’ve created yourself with others, then you can export Action Sets (if you want to export individual Actions, first make a set and copy the Action to it). Highlight the set in the Actions panel, click the flyout menu at the top right of the panel and choose Save Actions. This generates an ATN file that can be shared with others.…

Actions can be put to all kinds of creative uses. In this project we take an in-depth look at how they can be used to create a stunning timestack image. The technique for this is rather simple – we copy images on top of one another and then change the blend mode to Lighten, so that the lighter parts of the clouds show through, creating a staggered cloud pattern. However, if we want to blend hundreds of photos then it’s not practical to load them all into layers at once and then blend them all. The solution is to use an Action that opens each image in the sequence, then copies and blends it with our base image. This involves a neat trick with the Batch command. WATCH THE VIDEO…

Even though Photoshop has offered video tools for several years, many users still don’t know they exist – and those who do may assume that Photoshop is unsuited to editing videos. But not only is it possible to edit video in Photoshop, it can also be a sensible way for photographers to work with moving images. The great thing about using Photoshop for video is that you can take lots of the things you already know about editing, and apply them to video. You can use brilliant tools like the Camera Raw filter to tone your footage, and even add layer effects, like Blending Modes, to combine videos in creative ways. That being said, just as many of us are photographers who dabble in a bit of video shooting, Photoshop…

01 FINE-TUNE THE COMPOSITION Finesse the position of the platform and the tripod until the foreground matches up with the perspective of the background. Camera height is important, as it’s often best to be looking slightly upwards at the toy to make it appear larger than life. A wide-angle lens will help to exaggerate the perspective. 02 TAKE SEVERAL FRAMES For the forced perspective effect to work we need to take one shot with the toy on a platform, then a second with the toy and platform removed. It’s also worth firing off a few more frames if you’re scattering snow, as this will give you the option to combine shots later. 03 ALIGN THE IMAGES Highlight all the pictures that you want to combine in Adobe Bridge, then go…