Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i Practical Photoshop

• james.paterson@futurenet.com www.digitalcameraworld.com HIGHLIGHTS: WHAT’S INSIDE… PHOTOSHOP 2023 TOP 10 The best new features ranked and explained OBJECT SELECTION TOOL TIPS Get to grips with this vastly improved tool NOISE FILTERS EXPLAINED Master key noise reduction tools in Photoshop MILKY WAY MASTERCLASS Shoot and edit stunning photos of the galactic core LIGHTROOM SKILLS Crop your photos like a pro with these essential skills…

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3S833Es Noise in photos causes them to become grainy and lack fine detail. It’s especially apparent in images taken at higher ISOs, and even more so in the shadow areas of these images. Heavy-handed image editing can also lead to increased noise, especially if you’re attempting to recover lost shadow details. However, there are tools that can help. In this project, we’ll explore some of the best on offer in Photoshop – and reveal some you should avoid. Noise reduction is always something of a balancing act, because it can come at the expense of fine detail. It would be easy to remove the noise from any image simply by blurring it, but we need tools that let us remove the noise while retaining sharpness. What’s more,…

01 PLAN WITH AN APP It’s easy to predict where the galactic core, the moon or constellations will be in the sky using an astrology planning app, so you can plan your shoot days, weeks or months in advance (although the weather on the night may scupper plans). An app like PhotoPills can overlay star positions on your phone camera view. 02 MINIMIZE MOONLIGHT The Milky Way is clearest at the new moon, as the sky will be at its darkest. But you can still go out at other times. The Moon was in its first quarter here. We waited until after the Moon dropped below the horizon at 1am (check your stargazing app for moonset), at which point the night sky became darker. 03 CAMERA SETTINGS A high ISO,…

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3gmcyCL Whether you’re just getting started with astrophotography or you’ve been fumbling around in the dark for years, the galactic core of the Milky Way is one of the most spellbinding areas of the night sky. And you don’t need specialized kit to capture it: all you need is your camera, a tripod and a decent wide-angle lens. In this project we’ll show you how to shoot for the core, which settings you need and how to add impact to the shot by light-painting the foreground. A shoot like this is all about the planning. We need to know where the cluster of stars that make up the core will be and when, and we need to know that they’ll be visible – otherwise there’s no point…

01 LIGHT-PAINTING While your camera stays open for typically 20-30 seconds during your exposure, you could try using a torch to paint over objects in the scene, like the tower here. The length of time you’ll need to paint will depend on the strength of torch and distance to subject, so a little trial and error will be needed to get it right. 02 PAINT FROM THE SIDE Don’t shine your torch from the camera position: this will leave the scene looking flat (like the left-hand image here). Instead, walk around to the side or behind the objects or buildings in the scene (watch your step!) and shine from here instead. A side-on angle will make the lighting more dramatic. 03 BLEND FRAMES You don’t need to get everything perfect…

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 are one of the key differences between Photoshop and Lightroom. They enable you to mask out selected parts to build up increasingly sophisticated images. ELEMENTS 15 £79.99/$99.99 WINDOWS, macOS Elements is the consumer variant of Photoshop, and contains many of its key tools and features within a simplified interface. It’s limited, but it does provide access to layers for those who have switched to a Lightroom workflow. LIGHTROOM CC FROM £9.98/$9.99 PER MONTH WINDOWS, macOS Lightroom CC combines professional imageprocessing tools with asset organizing. It keeps all its images online in the Creative…

1 BRING A TRIPOD Tiny vibrations can ruin star sharpness, which is why it’s vital to have a sturdy tripod. Prevent camera shake by setting mirror lockup or a two-second delay, so that (for DSLRs) the mirror doesn’t cause vibrations. A wireless shutter release can also help to prevent shake caused by touching the camera. 2 THE GALACTIC CORE The Milky Way appears as a band of stars across the night sky. The core is clustered around the Sagittarius A black hole, and it’s this that looks most impressive in Milky Way photos. The core is visible during March-October in the northern hemisphere, and February-October in the southern hemisphere. 3 CLEAR SKIES Cloud cover ruins your chances of seeing the stars, so check the weather to make sure it’s a…

When you edit your Milky Way photos, one of the key concerns is handling the noise that naturally occurs when using ISOs upwards of 3,200. A good noise reduction workflow is essential. While Adobe leads the way in most areas of image editing, the noise tools in Lightroom and Photoshop lag behind the very best. DxO PhotoLab offers the DeepPrime tool, which automatically clears up noisy photos. The results on high-ISO photos can be astonishing. Then there’s Topaz deNoise AI and On1 NoNoise AI. Like PhotoLab, these employ artificial intelligence for great results.…

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…