Winners of Fotolia Giveaway

In this post, we announce the winners who previously participated in a giveaway held on May 9th, 2012.


Winners of Fotolia Giveaway

This was a great giveaway thanks to Fotolia. Each winner will receive a free 30 day account for up to 5 downloads a day.

About Fotolia

Fotolia was founded in New York City in 2005 and is the first microstock agency to offer both crowdsourced and professional images on one site.

Fotolia has over 17 million images and vectors to choose from, as well as over 280,000 video footage clips available to download.

The Winners

Here are the 5 lucky winners of Fotolia giveaway:

1. Edward
2. Vladimir Sijan
3. DJ
4. Samantha
5. Viorel

Thank you to all for participating on this giveaway and congratulations to the winners.

All the winners will be contacted with more details thru email.

More Giveaways coming Up!

New giveaway contests are being prepared so if you want to keep updated follow Photoshop Star:

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3. Facebook

4. RSS

Warm Colors on the Photo

In this Photoshop tutorial we are going to add warm colors to one photo playing with color settings and layer blending modes.


Final Image Preview

Warm Colors on the Photo

Resources


Step 1

Open photo in Photoshop. Resize photo to 1000×664 pixels by going to Image > Image Size. Duplicate photo using Ctrl+J. On duplicated layer apply Image > Adjustments > Color Balance.

Warm Colors on the Photo 1
Warm Colors on the Photo 2

Update layer blending mode to Multiply.

Warm Colors on the Photo 3

Step 2

Duplicate background photo using Ctrl+J. Place layer above all other layers. On duplicated layer apply Image > Adjustments > Color Balance.

Warm Colors on the Photo 4
Warm Colors on the Photo 5

Update layer blending mode to Lighten.

Warm Colors on the Photo 6

Step 3

Duplicate background photo using Ctrl+J. Place layer above all other layers. On duplicated layer apply Image > Adjustments > Color Balance.

Warm Colors on the Photo 7
Warm Colors on the Photo 8

Update layer blending mode to Darken.

Warm Colors on the Photo 9

Step 4

Duplicate background photo using Ctrl+J. Place layer above all other layers. On duplicated layer apply Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

Warm Colors on the Photo 10

Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast.

Warm Colors on the Photo 11
Warm Colors on the Photo 12

Update layer blending mode to Darken.

Warm Colors on the Photo 13

Step 5

Duplicate background photo using Ctrl+J. Place layer above all other layers. On duplicated layer apply Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

Warm Colors on the Photo 14

Apply Filter > Other > High Pass.

Warm Colors on the Photo 15
Warm Colors on the Photo 16

Update layer blending mode to Overlay.

Warm Colors on the Photo 17

Merge all layers into one layer by going to Layer > Merge Layers or pressing Ctrl+E and rename layer to “Background”.


Step 6

Duplicate “Background” layer with Ctrl+J and apply Filter > Blur > Smart Blur to duplicated layer.

Warm Colors on the Photo 18
Warm Colors on the Photo 19

Select Eraser Tool and a soft round brush. Erase boys from this layer and with that we will have a clear picture of boys and blurred image around them.

Warm Colors on the Photo 20

Step 7

Duplicate “Background” layer again and move it above all layers. Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to duplicated layer. With Eraser Tool repeat process done in Step 6 but leaving more blurred areas on the image bottom.

Warm Colors on the Photo 21
Warm Colors on the Photo 22

Step 8

Create a new layer on top of all layers. Fill layer with color #987f3f.

Warm Colors on the Photo 23

Select Eraser Tool one more time to erase light brown color in a way similar to mine to get same effect as you can see below.

Warm Colors on the Photo 24

Step 9

Create a new layer on top of all layers. Press D to set foregound color to black and background color to white. Drag a linear gradient using Gradient Tool.

Warm Colors on the Photo 25

Update layer blending mode to Overlay.

Warm Colors on the Photo 26

Step 10

Duplicate “Background” layer again and move it above all layers. Desaturate duplicated layer by going to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

Warm Colors on the Photo 27

Apply Filter > Other > High Pass.

Warm Colors on the Photo 28
Warm Colors on the Photo 29

Erase layer background area with Eraser Tool (soft round brush with 400px).

Warm Colors on the Photo 30
Warm Colors on the Photo 31

Change layer blending mode to Overlay.

Warm Colors on the Photo 32

Reduce layer opacity to 60% and we are done.


Final Image

Warm Colors on the Photo

Giveaway: Win 5 Accounts from Fotolia

Photoshop Star and Fotolia have partnered to giveaway 5 accounts.


Giveaway: Win 5 Stock Photo Accounts from Fotolia

About Fotolia

Fotolia was founded in New York City in 2005 and is the first microstock agency to offer both crowdsourced and professional images on one site.

Fotolia has over 17 million images and vectors to choose from, as well as over 280,000 video footage clips available to download.

Customers can buy credits on as as-need basis or in bundles, or can take advantage of flexible daily and monthly subscription plans. Monthly subscription plans offer XXL download from $1.50. For more pricing information, visit www.fotolia.com.

Giveaway: Win 5 Stock Photo Accounts from Fotolia

Prize

Each winner will receive a free 30 day account for up to 5 downloads a day. That’s 150 downloads!

* Note: Giveaway not eligible for current Fotolia customers who already have credits or are using a promo plan.

How to Win

Leave a comment on this post telling us why you would like to win. Please use a valid email address so we can contact you in case you’ve won.

Giveaway details

This giveaway ends on Wednesday, May 16th 2012 after which the comments section on this post will be closed.
Only comment once.
The 5 winners will be randomly selected, as always.
Winners will be announced on a separate post and contacted directly by e-mail. To stay current, please subscribe to our RSS feed and follow us on our Twitter or Facebook page. And they will be contacted via e-mail.

Comments are moderated on this site and your comment may not show up right away. Comments that do not follow the instructions on how to participate (described above) may be subject to removal or may not be published.

Good luck to everyone!

Photoshop Channels and Color

Before you can properly use Photoshop you have to understand digital color and how Photoshop deals with it.


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Modern display devices (LCD, CRT) use the RGB color model. This is an additive color model which means that in order to create a certain color, light has to be added.

How digital color works

Let me explain to you how digital color works. As you know, monitor displays are made up of pixels which are little squares that emit light. Each pixel can emit red, green and blue light in various amounts. These amounts are measured from 0 for no light to 255 for maximum light.

So in order for the blue color to be displayed the pixel will emit 255 amount of blue light and so on for red and green. But what if we want some other color, like yellow? Well, like I told you before, RGB is an additive color model which means that color is created by combining different lights. So for yellow the pixels will emit 255 amount red light and 255 amount green light for a pure yellow color. For a magenta color then the pixels will emit 255 red light and 255 blue light. Of course it is not necessary to have exactly 255 of each light in order to create color.

We could have a reddish yellow by using 200 red and 100 green light. But what happens if we add some blue light to our yellow color recipe? Will the color became bluer? Not exactly, because we are dealing with light if we add a little blue then the color will became brighter. As you can see figuring out how color works from the numbers it is difficult so that’s why the HSB color model exists. Think of it as a chart, a reference which will help you understand digital color better.

Photoshop Channels and Color 1

You can see from the chart that hue is the actual color while saturation is the intensity of that color. Brightness is the lightness of that color. Let me explain to you how I see the chart. Think of color as recipes and lights as ingredients. Each recipe has to have at least 1 ingredient (1 light) in order to work except for black which is the absence of light. So in order to get yellow I will have to add to my recipe red and green and I will have a fully saturated yellow. If I add blue to the recipe then the color migrates towards the center of the color wheel making my yellow less saturated.

Let’s do an exercise. Let’s suppose that I have 50 red, 100 blue and 10 green. Can you guess which color will be displayed? It will be a bluish magenta, not fully saturated. That’s because its 2 main ingredients are red and blue which results in a magenta color while the third ingredient, in our case the green color determines the saturation. The less of the third ingredient the more saturated the color will be. The complete lack of the third ingredient will result in a fully saturated color.

Let’s take another example. Let’s say I have 150 green, 100 red and 80 blue. What color it will be? The 2 main ingredients (or the first 2 largest numbers) are 150 green and 100 red. The secondary ingredient is blue (the smallest number of the three). So we will have a greenish yellow very desaturated because the blue is pulling the saturation towards the center of the wheel. You get it? To resume let’s say that the main ingredients determine the hue (red + green = yellow, red + blue = magenta, blue + green = cyan), the secondary ingredient determines the saturation (more of the secondary ingredient means less saturated colors) and the sum of all numbers is the brightness.

This discussion brings us to channels. Think of channels as black and white representations of an image. For example the red channel of a picture is the black and white version of an image. If this black and white image is bright then we have a lot of red light in our image and if it is dark then we have a little red light. If there is 255 red light then we will have a white image and if there is 0 red light then we will have a black image. Think of channels as visual representations for each main color (red, green, blue). If the green channel is light then we know that we have a lot of greens. If the green channel is dark then we know that we have little green light in our image.

Photoshop Channels and Color 2

Observe the reddish image above. Can you guess which color channel will be predominant? If not, look at the channels of this image below:

Photoshop Channels and Color 3

As you can see the Green and Blue channels are fairly dark but the Red channel is so white it is almost translucent. This means that we have a lot of red color in our image. You may wonder how this will help you with your own images. Well, I do a lot of photo retouching and when I first open an image, before doing any adjustments whatsoever I do the “Channel Walk”. No, it’s not the “Moon Walk”, it’s the “Channel Walk”. If you are imagining some kind of strange dance movement you’re wrong! The “Channel Walk” is the process of quickly viewing each Channel in part and analyzing the information I get from there. You may think that there’s not so much information in a black and white version of the image but you’re wrong.

Let me give you a practical example. Take a look at the image below. Can you tell what adjustments need to be made? If you are thinking that this image is noisy and needs color correction then you are right. But how should I color correct it? One could simply add a Curves Adjustment Layer and play with the curves until some (apparently) good looking results start emerging. Then a Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise would be the next logical step. But this is not the approach a Photoshop professional like yourself should take. Let me show the professional, right way to use your newly acquired knowledge about channels to tackle this problem.

Photoshop Channels and Color 4

Open photo. First, do the “Channel Walk”. This means to press Ctrl + 3 (Red Channel), Ctrl + 4 (Green Channel), Ctrl + 5 (Blue Channel) and use the information for further adjustments.

The Red Channel seems ok, except for the little black patches. Those little patches of dark are nothing else but noise. Hmm, I think to myself, I have a little noise in the red channel. Let’s move on.

Photoshop Channels and Color 5

The Green channel looks alright, and is less noisy than the Red Channel. Let’s move on.

Photoshop Channels and Color 6

Oh my. What an ugly thing to see. The Blue Channel is noisy as hell (this is common in digital imagery, the Blue Channel is usually the noisiest channel of all) and has some big, and I mean big areas of total darkness. This is not ok. How can I interpret this information? Because I (we) know that the darker the channel the less specific light it will produce, this means that where the image is dark in the blue channel there will be no blue color whatsoever. This means that in those areas the Red and Green channels will be the main suppliers of the color information. We know that Green and Blue colors are the recipe for fully saturated Yellow so the conclusion we draw is that we have a yellow color cast.

If you don’t get this the first time know you’re not alone. Channels and colors are a hard nut to crack at first, but once you experiment on you own a little bit this will be a walk in the park.

Let me quickly recap. The red channel is a bit noisy but ok. The green channel is less noisy, that’s good. The blue channel is very noisy and it has big black areas. Lack of color from the Blue channel means that that the color will be formed from the Green and Red channels and because Red + Green = Yellow we conclude that we have a yellow color cast.

Photoshop Channels and Color 7

In order to color correct this image we add a Curves Adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves) and slightly drag both the Red and Green curves downwards to lower the amount of light these channels contribute to the overall image.

Photoshop Channels and Color 8

So this is the image before adjustments. Now you can see that it has a pronounced yellow color cast.

Photoshop Channels and Color 9

And this is the image after the adjustment. The difference is subtle but noticeable.

Photoshop Channels and Color 10

In the next steps we could maybe use the Reduce Noise filter on the blue channel alone or we could make a new layer from all visible layers (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E) and then apply Reduce Noise filter to this layer alone and change the blend mode to Color so only the Color noise would be affected. However, noise reducing is a different topic so I won’t be covering it here (I am a fan of Lab color mode and this allows for some amazing manipulations of color and noise removal without affecting the luminance integrity of the image. But I digress.)

In the example above you saw a little practical example of how to use Channels to help color correct the image. Note that this barely scratched the surface of the usefulness of Channels, so don’t limit yourself to this, and learn as much as you can about them if you want to be a Photoshop Pro.

Photoshop Selections (Part 2)

Welcome to Photoshop selections part 2. If you didn’t followed Photoshop Selections Part 1 then do so before reading this tutorial.


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Quick Selection and Magic Wand Tools

The next selection tools on the toolbar are the Quick Selection and Magic Wand. Let’s talk Quick Selection first. Think of it as a brush not for painting but for selecting. You can change the brush size to select more or lower the brush size to select less.

You can see in the image below how the Quick Selection icon even resembles a brush. The brush with the + sign is used to add to the selection and the brush with the – sign is used to subtract from the selection. If you check Sample All Layers then it will make selections based not only on the actual layer but in conformity with all the layers. Auto-Enhance will make your selection edges better and Refine Edge will open the Refine Edge window.

Photoshop Selections Part 2 1

How it works? If you brush over an area then Photoshop uses an algorithm to determine where the closest edges are and snap to them. You can see in the image below by the red how I quickly selected the sky by dragging (or painting) with the Quick Selection tool in the red encircled area. Notice how the selection automatically snapped to edges. Notice that the selection didn’t snap around the edges of the Statue of Liberty. That’s because the color of the statue it is close to the color of the sky (blue-cyan) but it snapped around the buildings below the statue because they are a different color and have a pronounced edge. This tool it is good for quick and dirty working and when you are in a hurry. I find myself using this tool when I composite scenes from different images and I just want to see how an object from an image would fit into my composite scene without the time required to make a refined, precise selection. Experiment with it on different images and get the “feel” of how this tool works. One quick tip worth mentioning it is that you can press the Alt key and drag with the brush to subtract from the current selection.

Photoshop Selections Part 2 2

Next is the Magic Wand tool. The Magic Wand tool works like this: you click somewhere in the image and an area is selected based on the settings of the Magic Wand, the area you clicked on and the closest edges. You can see in the image the red encircled area is where I clicked once with the Magic Wand tool.

Notice how it selected an area and it snapped around the edges of the Statue of Liberty.

Photoshop Selections Part 2 3

Let’s take a look at the settings available for the Magic Wand tool. The 4 icons with squares at the left are in order from left to right: New selection, Add to selection, Subtract from selection and Intersect with selection. When one of these icons it is activated (like the New selection icon is activated in the image below) your further clicks with the Magic Wand tool act differently on the current selection. With Subtract from selection activated then you will be subtracting from the selection, with Add to selection you will be adding to the current selection and with the Intersect with selection you will have an intersection between the current selection and the area you just selected with the Magic Wand tool. You can also use shortcut keys to replicate the above behaviors. While clicking with the Magic Wand tool hold Alt to subtract, Shift to add and Alt + Shift to intersect.

The Magic Wand tool works like this: when click you somewhere on the image it will select a contiguous area of pixels based on the Tolerance setting. The Tolerance values range from 0 to 255. These values are familiar, aren’t they? We know from this previous tutorial that these numbers represent the luminosity values a pixel can have. Let’s say that you have a Tolerance of 10 and you click on a pixel with a luminosity value of 88. The Magic Wand tool will select all adjacent pixels with values that are between 98 (88 + 10) and 78 (88 – 10). If Contiguous is unchecked then it will select all the pixels in the image with values between 98 and 78. The Anti-alias checkbox makes your selection edges smoother. Sample All Layers and Refine Edge work the same way as with Quick Selection.

Photoshop Selections Part 2 4

Let’s take a look at a practical example. I clicked in the red encircled area with the Magic Wand tool. The Tolerance setting was 50. Notice how the selection snapped around the edges of the Statue of Liberty. That’s because the luminosity level of the sky is about 170 and the luminosity level of the Statue is 70. Because I clicked a pixel with a luminosity level of 170 it selected all the contiguous pixels within 220 (170 + 50) and 120 (170 -50) because the Statue of Liberty has a luminosity level of 70 it was not selected.

Photoshop Selections Part 2 5

Color Range

Let’s move on to yet another selection tool Photoshop provides, namely the Color Range. You can access the Color Range Dialog box by choosing Select > Color Range. It works similarly with the Magic Wand tool – it selects an area based on the clicked area luminosity value. It also has a preview black and white version of the image showing the selected areas. White shows the selected areas, black the unselected areas and gray the partially selected areas. You can click on the small black and white preview image or you can click on the actual image. Localized Color Clusters is similar to the Contiguous checkbox for the Magic Wand tool. Fuzziness and Range expand or contract the selected areas and the little pen icons with the + and – sign stand for Add to selection and Subtract from selection (you can also hold Alt for subtract and Shift for Add). You can get familiar with this window by giving it a try. Play with the Fuzziness and Range sliders, click on different parts of the image and notice how the selection changes. Remember, in the small black and white preview image white stands for selected areas, black for unselected areas and gray for partially selected areas.

Photoshop Selections Part 2 6

I use this tool for applying Image Adjustments to different parts of the image. Let’s say I want to change the color of the sea. I can make an approximate selection with the Color Range (look below) and then I can apply an Image Adjustment of my choice (Curves, Hue/Saturation, etc…).

Photoshop Selections Part 2 7

In this case I used a Hue/Saturation adjustment to change the hue of the selected area (Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation).

Photoshop Selections Part 2 8
Photoshop Selections Part 2 9

As I said before, just reading about this stuff isn’t going to teach you a great deal. Practice and experiment to learn how to use these tools.

Learn How to Select

Now it’s time to show the pro selection method. It is a bit more complex and it involves the use of the Pen tool but the results are worth the effort.

What is the Pen Tool? The Pen Tool creates vector shapes using Bezier Curves. Vectors are pixel independent and are rendered using mathematical formulas. I will not get into explaining vectors and Bezier Curves but I will give you a quick and dirty guide for using the Pen Tool to create amazing selections. The process of creating selections with the Pen Tool has 2 major stages:

1.Use the Pen Tool to create vector outlines.
2.Convert vector outlines to a selection.

Firstly select the Pen Tool by pressing P. Make sure option Paths is selected. You can start creating straight vector outlines by simply clicking in different places. The last click should overlap the first starting point to obtain an outlined vector shape. If you don’t want to enclose the outline simply Ctrl-click anywhere at any stage of drawing with the Pen Tool to finish drawing the vector path. The term “path” and “vector outline” are roughly equivalent and I use them interchangeably. “Vector outline” suggests an enclosed area while “path” is more of a freeform line. The little squares in the image below are called Anchor Points. When you click with the Pen tool you create an Anchor Point. If you click again in a different position you create a new Anchor Point and a path that connects the two Anchor Points. That’s the bread and butter of paths: Anchor Points connected by paths.

Photoshop Selections Part 2 10

To create curved paths click once anywhere on the image and then click and drag to some other point. When you do that notice that the straight lines become a curve and its curvature is in the opposite direction to the dragging. The more you drag the more pronounced the curve. Notice the new elements: Handles. You can drag the handles after you have created the path to modify the curvature of the path.

Photoshop Selections Part 2 11

In the image below I clicked and dragged again to continue my path.

Photoshop Selections Part 2 12

And finally I clicked on the starting point to enclose the path.

Photoshop Selections Part 2 13

T o transform this path into a selection simply press Ctrl + Enter. This may seem like a lot of overkill for a simple selection. Believe me, it is not. This is a very simple and limited example of the Pen Tool and is for demonstration purposes only. You can create precise and intricate paths and convert those paths into selections. This comes in handy when you are dealing with objects that have a color close to the background color, making the use of the common selection tools (Magic Wand, Quick Selection) impractical. Heck, even this simple example below is hard to replicate using the simple selection tools. I dare you to create the perfect teardrop form shown below with the Lasso Tool. You will find out that it is not an easy task.

Photoshop Selections Part 2 14

Conclusion

This concludes the Photoshop Selection tutorial series. This is just an introduction to the wonderful world of selections and it barely scratches the surface of the more advanced capabilities of Photoshop regarding selections (Channels and Layer Masks) but I hoped it served its purpose and made basic selections easier for you.

Photoshop Selections (Part 1)

Understanding Photoshop selection tools and how to the selection works is essential for a powerful Photoshop user.


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Selection Tools Inner Workings

Sure, you may use the software just to color correct your images with the various Adjustment layers, or maybe you just like playing with the Liquify Tool or maybe all you do in Photoshop is paint. This may be fine if you’re using Photoshop for personal use only, after all, your friends and family aren’t the greatest Photoshop experts and you can impress them with what you know already. But if you are working for a client or maybe you want to go to the next level in Photoshop expertise then you really should master (at least the basics) selections. Before you even touch a selection tool you should know the inner workings of the process.

Photoshop doesn’t know a thing about colors. It doesn’t see the orange, blue or red colors. Strange, huh? One of the best raster (and implicit color) image manipulation tools, it’s complete unaware of the colors it works with. But how does it do adjustments, selections and so on if it is color blind? Well, it may be color blind, but it is not Luminance blind. It works only with shades of black and white. Or grayscale. Know that Photoshop sees each channel as a grayscale image with 255 shades of black and white. So when it makes a selection it does so based on the difference between these 255 shades of black and white.

But wait, this is just one channel, and when I make selections all three channels are involved and that’s more than 255 shades of black and white, right? Wrong. Well, in a way! You see, concerning selections what Photoshop does is that it calculates the overall “grayscale image” by preserving the lightest pixel. Let me put it in another way. Let’ say a pixel is 100 levels red, 20 levels green and 240 levels blue. In the final grayscale composite that Photoshop uses for selections the pixels will be 240 levels luminance. The lightest channel wins. If you want to emulate this behavior simply press Ctrl + Shift + U to desaturate the image and make your selections using the Quick Selection Tool or the Magic Wand tool. The results will be the same as if you were using a colored image.

Ok, so let’s recap. Regarding selections Photoshop only sees 255 shades of black and white. Some selection tools use this model to select different parts of the image based on the difference between adjacent pixels (more on this later). You will also meet this number in many Adjustment tools (Levels, Posterize, Curves) and now you know why. These tools work with 255 shades of black and white as mentioned above.

Photoshop Selections Part 1 1
Photoshop Selections Part 1 2
Photoshop Selections Part 1 3

Now it’s time for you to meet the selection tools. Below you can see the Marquee selection tools.

To make rectangular selections we use the Rectangular Marquee Tool and to make elliptical selections we use the Elliptical marquee tool. Pretty obvious, huh? The Single Row Marquee Tool and the Single Column Marquee Tool are pretty useless and I seldom use them. They select a single pixel row or column.

Photoshop Selections Part 1 4

Let’s go back to the Rectangular and Elliptical marquee tools. You can see in the image below some selections I made using these tools. They may not seem of great use, but trust me, with the little tricks I am going to show you they are.

Photoshop Selections Part 1 5

To use the above mentioned tools simply Left-click and drag. When you are happy with the selection release the mouse button.

First trick it is the use of the Shift and Alt keys. Let’s say you made a square selection but you want to modify this selection by adding another selection to it. If you simply drag again the previous selection disappears. To add to a current selection hold Shift then make your selection. This way the previous selection is still in place and we just added another selection to it. The Alt key works like the Shift key except it allows us to extract from the selection instead of adding to it. So if I have a rectangular selection and I want to subtract an area from this selection I simply hold the Alt key and drag with the selection tool of choice to subtract from the selection. Note that this technique works with all selection tools. Let’s say you have to select a perfect circle, like a planet (below) or a perfect square. Then you would hold the Shift key while dragging with the Rectangular or Elliptical Marquee tool for a perfect circle or square.

Note that in the image below I didn’t center my selection because the selection would’ve been more difficult to see and because I want to introduce you to the second (little known) valuable trick

Photoshop Selections Part 1 6

Some of you may be familiar with the Quick Mask Mode but nevertheless a quick description is required. Basically when you enter the Quick Mask Mode (Q) your selected areas (or unselected areas) are shown with a red overlay. Like below (Note: If the red overlay in your image looks different than in the image below continue reading, I provide a solution in the following lines).

Photoshop Selections Part 1 7

Now if you select a brush and paint with white you will erase the red overlay and painting with black adds to the red overlay. Painting with a 50% brush will partially erase or add to the red overlay. When you exit the Quick Mask Mode (press Q again) the area with a previous red overlay will be selected. The partial red overlay (like when you paint with a 50% Opacity brush) will be partially selected. This behavior may be different on your machine so the red overlay may be representing the unselected areas. In order for the following trick to work double click the Quick Mask button and choose Selected Areas.

Photoshop Selections Part 1 9
Photoshop Selections Part 1 8

Time to show you this little trick I have been talking about. Ok, so you’re in the Quick Mask mode, you have a selection (like the planet image above). How do you center and tweak the circle so it fits the planet? You can’t do that with the Elliptical Marquee tool (at most you can make a flatter ellipse, but that’s all) so what is to be done. Simple. While in Quick Mask Mode with a selection press Ctrl + T to enter Free Transform mode and voila, you can tweak your selection to your heart’s desire. In the case of the planet, I would simply Alt-drag the corners to make it fit perfectly and because I selected previously Selected Areas I transform the selected area and not the unselected area (that will be weird). After you’re done press Enter to apply the transformation and the press Q to exit Quick Mask Mode and voila, you have free transformed the selection.

Photoshop Selections Part 1 10

These kind of selections would be very hard to make without this technique. Of course when you are in the Quick Mask Mode you can Warp the selections or apply Filters. This is very powerful and it struck me first when I found out this was possible. You can apply a huge variety of filters to your selections for creative effects. In the example below, after I applied my transformation I applied Filter > Distort > Ocean Ripple to my selection.

Photoshop Selections Part 1 11

Then I exited the Quick Mask Mode (Q) and I made a new layer from selection by pressing Ctrl + J. Then I added a layer below and filled it with a light blue for the purpose of the demonstration. Crazy, right?

Photoshop Selections Part 1 12

Next we have the Lasso tool family. To make a selection with the Lasso Tool simply draw your selection (or “lasso it”) and release the mouse button. Personally I don’t use this tool very often because it lacks precision. Next we have the Polygonal Lasso Tool. This tool helps us draw polygonal selections and may be useful in certain situations. To use it simply click and move your mouse multiple times. This is easier done than said so go ahead, select it and use it on an image. A quick tip: you can temporarily access the Polygonal Lasso Tool while using the Lasso Tool by holding the Alt key.

Photoshop Selections Part 1 13

Next we have the Magnetic Lasso Tool. To use this tool simply click once somewhere on the image and then drag across the margins of the object you want to select. You will notice some lines and points that snap to the edges of the object you want to select but not always. It works by analyzing the contrast between the adjacent pixels and draws lines according to the settings shown below. When you’re done simply double click to transform these lines into a selection. I will not be covering this tool mainly because I consider it bulky and imprecise. And I know much better ways to make selections. And mostly it is a noob’s choice (and we want to do it the professional way, right?). Of course, if you feel lazy you can use this tool for quick results but for advanced selections it will simply not be enough.

Photoshop Selections Part 1 14

Learn How to Improve your Photos using LAB Color Mode

Many of you may not be familiar with LAB color mode so I will share with you some quick but advanced techniques to color correct and improve your photos FAST. We could try to achieve the same results in RGB but it will take longer and may not yield the same great results as in LAB.

Below it is a short introduction to LAB color mode but you can skip it and jump to the practical techniques of using LAB although a basic understanding of the theory behind it helps.


A quick introduction to LAB color mode

So what’s the difference between LAB and RGB? Some of you may know that in RGB color mode we have three color channels: red, green and blue. These channels combine to produce all the colors on the RGB color wheel. Red and green combine to produce yellow, green and blue form cyan, blue and red form magenta.

Learn How to Improve your Photos using LAB Color Mode 1

What about LAB? Well, L is the luminosity channel, A is the green-magenta channel and B is the blue-yellow channel. “L” channel contains all the luminosity information and is basically the black and white version of a photo with no color whatsoever. “A” channel has all the greens and the magentas while “B” has all the blues and yellows. You may wonder where is the red cyan channel. There is no red cyan channel because these colors are formed by combining the “A” and “B” channels. Red is formed when equal amounts of magenta and yellow exist in the “A” and “B” channels while cyan is formed when equal amounts of green and magenta exist in the “A” and “B” channels.

Learn How to Improve your Photos using LAB Color Mode 2

You may notice that the colors are somehow wrong. Yellow has a brownish look, green has a “cyanish” look, while blue is very close to cyan. That is because LAB color mode it is designed to reproduce colors the way humans see them while RGB is the way the machines sees color. It has something to do with simultaneous contrast and that we perceive and judge specific colors according to the colors that surround them. This is not a very scientific definition of LAB color mode but is enough to get you started. If you want to know more about the scientific side of LAB color mode check out this Wikipedia article.


5 steps photo enhancement

Select one photo similar to mine and let’s open it in Photoshop. At our first look we notice that it is a fairly dark picture with some bland colors and what seems to be a light blue color cast. I would normally do a “channel walk“ and see how each color channel looks like, then I would make some color samples in the darkest and the lightest places of our image to see if there is a color cast. But these steps require time and let’s assume that I have to improve and color correct this photo in 3 minutes. Well, good luck doing that in RGB! Let’s LAB this picture.


Step 1

Choose Image > Mode > Lab Color. You shouldn’t see any change.

Learn How to Improve your Photos using LAB Color Mode 3

Step 2

Choose Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Curves. Your histogram of the lightness channel may be different to mine but follow these following guidelines:

  • Make a so called “S Curve”. Click to make a point in the upper part of the histogram (highlights) and drag it upwards. Click in the lower part of the histogram (shadows) and drag it downwards. Don’t overdo the adjustments, aim for a balanced tone distribution (equal amounts of light and shadow). The “S Curve” adds contrast to the middle tones while flattening the highlights and shadows. Look at the histogram and if you see an empty space at the right drag the highlights slider until it is positioned below the histogram values. This move will set the white point and increase the contrast in the middle tones. You could do the same thing for the shadows slider but to a lesser extent because this usually introduces ugly black artifacts.
  • Change to “a” channel and drag the left and right slider to the center in equal amounts. It helps if you have a more detailed grid ( Alt + click to make the grid more detailed) ). I dragged the sliders all the way to the first vertical line. Change to “b” channel and repeat.
Learn How to Improve your Photos using LAB Color Mode 4

Step 3

Convert the “Background“ layer to a smart object. To do this right click the layer and choose “Convert to smart object“.


Step 4

Choose Filter > Blur > Surface Blur. Apply some high values. Remember that a big threshold and radius value means more blur. Don’t worry if your image looks blurry, we will fix that. Double click the little icon to the right of our surface blur smart filter to enter the blending options and choose color as our blending mode. This step will drastically reduce or completely remove any color noise or color fringing from our image.

Learn How to Improve your Photos using LAB Color Mode 5

Step 5

Choose Filter > Other > High pass and apply a rather small radius, just until the details start to emerge from the grays. Double click the blending options icon and change the blend mode to soft light.

An alternative step would be to apply a Smart Sharpen or an Unsharp Mask and change the blend mode to luminosity. This would apply sharpening only to our luminosity channel, while our color channels will remain free of noise. I choose not to apply these filters to our photo because they tend to add noise and we already have a bit of a noisy image. And I think the amount of clarity provided by the High Pass filter is enough. But If you have a rather blurry image feel free to apply some amount of sharpen using the filters I mentioned above. Don’t forget to change their blending mode to Luminosity.

Learn How to Improve your Photos using LAB Color Mode 6

These steps are much faster than they seem when you get to grips with them. It took me 3 minutes to make all the adjustments above and I think we transformed this bland image into a pretty decent looking photo. The changes are subtle but effective and the image now has some natural, rich colors. Some images will benefit more from these techniques while others will require a more time consuming approach.

I hope you will start to use LAB color mode as part of your workflow and benefit from doing so. Remember that the techniques described above are not absolute ways of doing things. Adapt them to your needs and make your photos look great in a short amount of time.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect

In this easy but useful Photoshop tutorial I’m going to show you how to make a golden shiny skin effect.


Final Image Preview

Golden Shiny Skin Effect

Resources


Step 1

Download and open photo in Photoshop. We start by changing background. Duplicate background layer with Ctrl+J. On duplicated layer go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and apply following settings:

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 1
Golden Shiny Skin Effect 2

Desaturate layer by going to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 3

Increase contrast by going to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 4
Golden Shiny Skin Effect 5

Step 2

Duplicate again background layer and move it above all other layers. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 6
Golden Shiny Skin Effect 7

Change layer blending mode to Linear Light.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 8

Select Eraser Tool. With a soft round brush clear all layer contents while leaving a little radiance on the girl’s face.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 9

Step 3

Duplicate again background layer and move it above all other layers. Change layer blending mode to Hard Light to make photo clearer.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 10

Select Eraser Tool and start cleaning again. This time leave girl’s hair and dress straps but remove background of the dress below the chest.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 11

Step 4

Duplicate again background layer and move it above all other layers. With Polygonal Lasso Tool select girl’s skin, then invert selection by using Select > Inverse. Press Delete to clear selected area.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 12
Golden Shiny Skin Effect 13
Golden Shiny Skin Effect 14

Remove selection by pressing Ctrl+D. Clear eyes and lips area still using Polygonal Lasso Tool.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 15

Finally use Eraser Tool with soft round brush to make edges of the fragments softer.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 16

Change layer blending mode to Hard Light.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 17

Step 5

Duplicate again background layer and move it above all other layers. With Polygonal Lasso Tool select girl’s skin, then invert selection by using Select > Inverse. Press Delete to clear selected area and we will have only skin on this layer. Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 18

Change layer blending mode to Multiply.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 19

Skin now looks smoother. We still need to strengthen shining a little.


Step 6

Duplicate current layer and move it above all other layers.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 20

Change layer blending mode to Screen on duplicated layer.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 21

Reduce opacity to 40% for this layer.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 22

Step 7

Create a new layer above all other layers. Change layer blending mode to Soft Light. Select Brush Tool (opacity between 10%-40%) with soft round brush, black color and being to darken the cheeks, neck and eyes area. Change foreground color to white and create a glare on her forhead, shoulder, tip of the nose, hair, clothes, etc. (opacity between 70%-100%).

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 23

Duplicate current layer (Ctrl+J) to increase effect.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 24

Change layer blending mode to Overlay on duplicated layer.

Golden Shiny Skin Effect 25

Reduce opacity to 30% for this layer.


Final Image

Golden Shiny Skin Effect

Photoshop Interface Explained (Part 2)

Now let’s move to the 3 vertical “Bars” (Tools Panel, Image Window and Docked Panels) of the Photoshop interface.


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Vertical Bars

But the thing is that they are not really bars, I used this term so you better understand the overall picture. But what are they then? Well, imagine all the area below the 3 horizontal bars as a sticky area (a glued area that is) or a sticky box. You can stick the Image window, the Tools Panel and the Docked Panel to this area but you can also “unstick” them. Once they are “unstuck” they are floating above the sticky area and you can move them freely. After you stick them to the sticky area however they remain still and cannot be moved.

Take a look at the image below.

Photoshop Interface Explained 1

You can see that the Tools Panel, the Image window and the Docked Panels float above the sticky area and I can move them freely. To move these around click on the highlighted black box area area and drag. Also note that the Image Window can only be stuck to the upper sticky area and the Tools and Docked Panels can only be stuck to the either the left or right side of the sticky area.

Now let’s try something crazy and stick the Docked Panels to the left side of the sticky area. Simply click on the highlighted area than while holding on click drag it to right side until a blue vertical line appears. Release and voila, we stuck the Docked Panels to the left side.

Photoshop Interface Explained 2

Try to move the Image Window over the Docked Panels and you will see that it stays above the Docked Panels area but below the Tools Panels. That is because the Docked Panels are stuck to the sticky area while the Image Window is floating over the top. But why is the tools panel above the Image Window? Well that is because the image window has a lower priority than the tools panels (it is more important to have access all the time to the Tools Panel).

Photoshop Interface Explained 3

In the image below you can see that I stuck the Tools Panel to the right and the Image Window to the upper part of the sticky area.

Photoshop Interface Explained 4

Docked Panels

Photoshop Interface Explained 5

In the image above you can see a panel group. Layers panel, Channels panel and Paths panel are grouped together. If you want to ungroup let’s say Layers panel then simply click and drag the tab then release. You can see the results below.

Photoshop Interface Explained 6

Now let’s say I want to put the Layers Panel in the group with the Adjustments panel and Masks panel. Click the upper dark grey bar (but not the buttons on the far righ ) then drag until near the Adjustments panel. If you see a blue box line surrounding the group then release and the Layers panel will be now in the group with the Adjustments and Masks panel. If a horizontal blue bar appears then you have put the Layers panel in between the 2 groups. You can also change the order of the panels in a group by simply dragging their tabbed names to the left or right.

Photoshop Interface Explained 7

The best way to get the hang of it is to experiment. Go ahead, drag and drop panels and panels groups, stick them to each other or to the right part of the sticky are. Really, go crazy with them! You can always choose Window > Workspaces > Reset “Workspace Name” to make it nice and clean again.

Ok, a few more things about Docked Panels. The little 2 arrows button which points to the right is the Expand Panels button and the same button but with the arrows pointing left is the Collapse Panels button. A collapsed panel is an iconic representation of the panel and it is used to save some space. If you click on one of the icons representing a panel you will open that panel in “full mode”. If you click anywhere else on the image window or another panel the panel you opened previously remains opened. But if you want the iconic panel to go back to it’s initial state after you click somewhere else then right click somewhere in the panel’s upper gray bar and choose “Auto Collapse Iconic Panels”.

Photoshop Interface Explained 8
Photoshop Interface Explained 9

Tools Panel

The collapse button behaves differently to the tools Panel. If you click on it it will arrange all the tools in a 2 column panel. If you click it again it will return to it’s default 1 column state. Take note that in older versions of Photoshop the 2 column panel is the default and the expand/collapse button is missing. We will analyze the Tools Panel in detail in a future article.

Photoshop Interface Explained 10

Image Window

Photoshop Interface Explained 11

Next to image name (Koala.jpg) you can see some other info. “66.7%” is the actual zoom level. “(RGB” is the color mode and “/8#)” is the number of bits per channel or the image mode. Don’t worry too much about this info, you will get to know better what they mean in some later articles. And lastly “ * ” means that the image is not saved. If you save it that asterisk sign will disappear.

Lower, in the status bar (the red box) you can see the same zoom level as above (actually it’s 66.67% and above it is 66.7%. This is because Photoshop has rounded off the number 66.67 to 66.7).

Next to the zoom level you see some info about our image. In this case it is the image size. The number to the left of the slash sign (“/”) is the initial size” 2.25M” and the number to the right of the slash sign is the actual size “2.25M”. Because our image hasn’t been subject to any modifications the initial size and the current size are the same, but if we were to modify our image and add layers and stuff then the actual size would grow considerably. M means megabytes so 2.25 M is 2.25 Megabytes. If we click on the black arrow on the right of the info we will open an options window from where we can select what info is to be displayed. You can check out what the other options do in the manual. Because I use a lot of different images I tend to choose “Document Profiles “ as the default info but for now you can leave it in it’s default state.


Conclusion

Ok, let’s make a quick summary of what we have learned so far. The Photoshop interface is composed of 3 horizontal bars (Application bar, Menu bar, Options bar) and a “sticky area” where the Image window, the Docked panels and the Tools panels live.

The only thing we can change about the upper bars is to make the Application bar smaller so it fits on the same line with the Menu bar and we can select Workspace > Options to make the Options bar disappear. We can also make these bars disappear when in “Full Screen Mode”. That’s it. We cannot drag these bars to the left, right or bottom and we can’t change their size (at least, as far as I know ).

We can float the Image window so it is above the image area and we can move it around as we want. The only place we can stick it back is the upper area.

We can float the Docked panels and the Tools panel as we want, we can move them to the left or right and stick them to the left or right ( but not the upper part ). Also we can ungroup panels from the Docked panels and create our own groups which we can stick and move to the left or to the right.

Remember, if you screw your workspace and you want to go back, simply choose Window > Workspace > Reset “Workspace Name “.

That concludes this Photoshop interface tutorial. I hope you had fun and learned useful stuff. And don’t forget to experiment and make mistakes, as this is the quickest way to learn.

Photoshop Interface Explained (Part 1)

I remember when I opened Photoshop for the first time I was dazzled by all the buttons, options and tools. It took me some time to get accustomed to the interface and when I was familiar enough with it I modified it so it would meet my specific needs. Don’t worry, I will guide you through the interface so at the end of this article you will have a pretty good understanding of the Photoshop interface.


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Take a look at the image below. You can see that there are 3 horizontal bars (Application Bar, Menu Bar, Options Bar) and 3 vertical “bars” (Tools Panel, Image Window, Docked Panels). Ok, the last 3 are not really bars, but let’s call them bars for the sake of explanation. First thing to know is that you cannot modify, move or resize the 3 horizontal upper bars (except for the Application Bar which can be “squeezed” so it fits on the same bar with the Menu Bar, thus gaining us some precious space ) and you can move, resize and modify the 3 vertical “bars” (Tools Panel, Image Window, Docked Panels).

Photoshop Interface Explained 1

Application Bar

Well, because it is an application bar you can close, minimize or maximize your main application (Photoshop) and you can open other applications by clicking a button (Bridge), change a workspace, change the zoom level, change the screen mode and show extras. I personally find most of the features of the Application Bar useless because I have some better ways to get access to them without taking my eyes from the image I am working on and those ways are keyboard shortcuts. They are a huge time saver and make navigation a breeze. Once you will learn the shortcuts you will find it very clumsy to go back to pushing various buttons so hang on with me as I reveal them to you.

Photoshop Interface Explained 2

Ok, so the only useful buttons I ever use are (highlighted with red):

  • Close, Minimize, Maximize. That is when I am lazy and I don’t use the keyboard shortcut for Close ( Ctr+q);
  • Show more workspaces and options. This is especially useful when you resize the Application bar until it fits on the same line with the Menu Bar (I will show you this feature next);
  • Workspaces Area. Here you can see what your working space is and the other available workspaces;
  • Resize button. When you put your mouse over this button a specific drag icon appears and if you drag it to the left you will extend the Workspace Area showing more workspaces. If you drag to the right it will reduce the Workspace Area. Drag it to the maximum extent to the right and the Menu Bar will magically go up to sit on the same line with the Application Bar. Well, not really magically, but once you make enough room Photoshop will do this for you. This feature is great because it will give you some more space to view your image. You can see below how the Application and the Menu Bar on the same line. Try to do this yourself and then leave it this way.
  • Photoshop Interface Explained 3
  • Arrange Documents. This button is useful when you have two or more images opened and you want to see them both in the same window. When you click this button you are presented with a list of self explanatory icons which when clicked arrange your windows one way or another. Below the icons you will see a bunch of commands which perform some tasks.
    • “Float all in Windows” will remove the images from their tabbed environment (we will get to this later in the article) and floats them in separate windows;
    • “New Window” makes a duplicate of the current window (all the changes you make in one window are automatically applied to the second window. If you want to apply different changes to each window you should use Image > Duplicate or you can click “Create new document from current state” button from the History panel);
    • “Actual Pixels” matches the zoom level of the image to the actual resolution of the screen (we will learn about that in a future article);
    • “Fit on Screen” modifies the zoom level so the whole image is visible on the screen;
    • If you have at least 2 images tiled on the screen and you are zoomed in at let’s say 500% in the first image then “Match Zoom” will zoom the second image at the same level. If you zoomed in in the first image and you are viewing the lower left corner then by pressing “Match Location” than you will be seeing the lower left corner of the second image. “Match Zoom and Location” modifies both the location and the zoom of the second image. When I say first image I mean the active image, or the image on which you are working on. The second image represents the inactive image or the out of focus image. That is you are not actively working or viewing this image. Of course these 3 commands (“Match Zoom”, “Match Location”, “Match Zoom and Location”) work on more than 2 images. Just remember that the image you are working on or viewing is the active image and the rest are inactive (or out of focus) images;
  • To return to the default image view just press “Consolidate All”.

Photoshop Interface Explained 4

Below you can see “Arrange documents” in action. In this specific case I choose the “Tile all in a grid” icon (second upper icon from left to right).

Photoshop Interface Explained 5

Ok, now for the less useful ( or less used ) buttons:

  • Screen Mode. You can use the keyboard shortcut ( F ) to cycle through the 3 screen modes. Standard Screen mode it is as its name suggests the standard, default screen mode.
    “Full Screen Mode With Menu Bar” gets rid of the Windows Taskbar (I don’t know the exact behavior on a Mac but I presume it is basically the same), the tabs bar, the status bar and the scroll area.
    “Full Screen Mode” gets rid of everything but the image. It usually displays a black background but you can right click and choose a custom background. If you are in “Fullscren mode” and you want to bring up the Tools panel, the Docked panels and the 3 upper bars then press Tab. If you want to bring up just the Docked panels then press Shift+Tab. Also if you go with your mouse near the left or right edge the Tools or the Docked Panels will temporarily appear and disappear when you move your mouse away.

    Photoshop Interface Explained 6
  • Zoom Level. Here you can select a zoom level. I never used this button because I do all my zooming from the keyboard. I will detail navigation in a future article but here’s the fastest way to zoom around in Photoshop: Hold Ctrl+Space than click and drag. For “zoom in” drag to the right and for “zoom out” drag to the left.
  • View Extras. Another button I never use. There are faster keyboard shortcuts for the rare occasions that I actually need extras. Or I go to the View menu (on the Menu Bar) and choose my options from there.
  • Launch Mini Bridge and Launch Bridge. These buttons do exactly what they say: one launches Bridge (Bridge is an application for managing your pictures) and the other launches the Mini Bridge Extensions. Let me be honest and tell you why I almost never use these buttons. I used Bridge in the past and I can say it is a pretty solid photo management software and it works great if you have no more than 1000 pictures. But good luck managing 50000+ pictures in Bridge! It is a slow, tedious and annoying process, with huge loading times and slow reaction times. If you have a huge picture library like me then I warmly recommend Adobe Lightroom. It has most of the features of Bridge and much more. You can do some basic editing to your photos, export your gallery to the web, batch rename-edit-tag your pictures, easily modify keywords etc. But the most important aspect for me it is that it doesn’t choke on a large library of photos like Bridge does.

Menu Bar

Photoshop Interface Explained 7

This is where you can save any open files, set options, choose panels etc. Take a look at all the menus and try to familiarize yourself with them. Don’t be afraid to experiment and make mistakes because this is the only way you will learn. The ones you should really know about are:

  • File > Save. Save your files in any of the different formats available. If you are not sure what format to choose go with .psd or .tiff.
  • File > Save for Web and Devices. Save your files as .png, .jpeg or .gif.
  • File > Open. Open a file.
  • File > New. Create a new file.
  • Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts. Change keyboard shortcuts and menus.
  • Window > Workspace > Reset Workspace. If you screw your workspace this option will reset it to it’s default state. Also accessible from the “Show More Workspaces and Options” button from the Application Bar. Also note that when you open the “Window” menu you will see some little check marks next to some names. The check marks indicate what panels (or panels groups) are opened. Try it for yourself and check or uncheck panels. Lower down you will see a check mark next to “Options” and “Tools”. Uncheck “Options” to get rid of the Options bar or uncheck “Tools” to get rid of the tools panel. I never use this option because I know a keyboard shortcut for it. While in “Standard Screen Mode” press Tab to get rid of the Tools panel and the Docked Panels or press Shift+Tab to get rid of the Docked Panels only.
  • Photoshop Interface Explained 8
  • Help > Photoshop Help. Don’t be shy to use help when you don’t know something. Use the search bar to find your topics. If you have a poor internet connection then you will do better if you download the help file in .pdf format to have it available all the time. Here’s the link to the .pdf file (CS5). Just let it load then save it to your computer. Also beware that due to the size of the file (40 mb) some old browsers might crash so use a modern (good) browser like Firefox or Opera.

Options Bar

Photoshop Interface Explained 9

This bar will look different depending on which tool you have active. Here you will find options for the active tool. For example in the image above you can see the brush options because I have selected the brush tool. We will get into more detail in future articles when we will be describing each tool from the tools panel.

Ok, so far we have reviewed the 3 upper horizontal bars. You cannot move them or resize them ( except for the little trick when we squeeze onto the same line the Application and the Menu Bar) and you can only make them disappear when choosing the “Full Screen Mode”. Also you can hide the Options Bar by choosing Window > Options ( choose again to make the Options Bar show ).


On Part 2 we will look at the 3 vertical “Bars” (Tools Panel, Image Window and Docked Panels).

Create a Ghost in the Landscape

Learn how to create a ghost in the landscape with this Photoshop tutorial.


Final Image Preview

Create a Ghost in the Landscape

Resources


Step 1

Download and open both photos in Photoshop. Start by working on Deer photo. With Polygonal Lasso Tool make selection of deer. When you have completed, press Ctrl+C to copy deer. Paste selection on scenery photo with Ctrl+V to have something similar to what I have.

Create a Ghost in the Landscape 1

Step 2

Update deer layer opacity to 45% so we can see background.

Create a Ghost in the Landscape 2

With deer layer selected go to Select > Load Selection. Hide deer layer (click on layer eye to turn layer visibility off). Select background layer and press Ctrl+J to duplicate layer selection into a new layer.

Create a Ghost in the Landscape 3

Turn back layer visibility on in deer layer. Select Polygonal Lasso Tool and create a selection like mine.

Create a Ghost in the Landscape 4

Go to Edit > Transform > Warp to change the shape and perspective.

Create a Ghost in the Landscape 5

Begin to stretch the content of the layer to create the impression of the distortion of space.

Create a Ghost in the Landscape 6

Apply same technique to other parts of body.

Create a Ghost in the Landscape 7

Delete deer layer by selecting it and pressing Del. With background fragment layer selected Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast.

Create a Ghost in the Landscape 8
Create a Ghost in the Landscape 9

Step 3

Apply following layer styles by going to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options.

Create a Ghost in the Landscape 10
Create a Ghost in the Landscape 11
Create a Ghost in the Landscape 12

Step 4

Go to Select > Load Selection to load selection. Create a new layer on top and change layer mode to Hard Light. Select Brush Tool (black color, hard round brush with opacity at 30%-50%) and apply to bottom parts of selection.

Create a Ghost in the Landscape 13

Step 5

Create a new layer above all and update layer mode to Hard Light. Select Brush Tool again and highlight upper parts of selected area with white color.

Create a Ghost in the Landscape 14

To finish this tutorial, reduce layer opacity to 50% and deselect selection by pressing Ctrl+D.


Final Image

Create a Ghost in the Landscape

Create Space Fantasy Composition (Part 2)

In Part 2 this tutorial we keep creating a space fantasy composition using some basic techniques.


Part 1

Part 1 of this tutorial has been published here.

Final Image Preview

Create Space Fantasy Composition

Step 1

Open file “Yosemite Park” and make a selection of right mountain side. Copy and paste it to our document. Add a layer mask (Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All). Now you will see the real power behind the blend if sliders. Go to Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options. We want to make the clouds partially cover the mountain so we will drag the lower sliders to the left (Hold “Alt” or “Option” keys to drag the two halves of the slider). This way the white colors from the layers below will “force” themselves through. Finally add a clipped Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves) to color correct the mountain.

Create Space Fantasy Composition 1
Create Space Fantasy Composition 2
Create Space Fantasy Composition 3

Step 2

Create a layer group by going to Layer > New > Group. Create a new layer group inside this one were we will place all cow related layers. Open file “Cows 1″ and make a selection of the cow. Copy and paste it to our document and inside our newly created group. Add a clipped Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves) to color correct the cow.

Create Space Fantasy Composition 4
Create Space Fantasy Composition 5

Step 3

Create a new layer under cow layer (inside layer group). Select Brush Tool and with a soft brush paint some shadow beneath the cow’s feet. Change the layer mode to Multiply and lower the layer opacity if needed. Add a layer mask to the group (Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All). Paint with a black soft brush at 50% opacity to reveal some clouds.

Create Space Fantasy Composition 6
Create Space Fantasy Composition 7

Step 4

Create a layer group inside first group by going to Layer > New > Group. Open file “Yellow air balloon” and make a selection of the baloons. Copy and paste it to our document and inside our newly created group. Add a clipped Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves) to color correct them.

Create Space Fantasy Composition 8
Create Space Fantasy Composition 9
Create Space Fantasy Composition 10

Step 5

Create a new layer above baloons layer (inside layer group). With Pen Tool and a brown color paint the rope that ties the cow to the baloons. Finally apply Layer > Layer Style > Inner Shadow to layer.z

Create Space Fantasy Composition 11
Create Space Fantasy Composition 12
Create Space Fantasy Composition 13

Step 6

Time for last tweaks. Add a Hue/Saturation layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation) and use settings below. Use Gradient Tool in the layer mask to protect the upper part.

Create Space Fantasy Composition 14
Create Space Fantasy Composition 15

Step 7

Let’s darken the image and increase contrast a little. We can do these both things by adding a Black and White adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black and White) and use settings below. Change blend mode to Multiply and lower opacity to 83%. Select Brush Tool and with a soft brush mask away the dark areas.

Create Space Fantasy Composition 16
Create Space Fantasy Composition 16a
Create Space Fantasy Composition 17

Step 8

Add a Vibrance adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Vibrance) and use settings below. Use Gradient Tool in the layer mask to protect the lower part.

Create Space Fantasy Composition 18
Create Space Fantasy Composition 18a
Create Space Fantasy Composition 19

Step 9

Add a Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves) and drag the curve upwards to lighten the image. Fill the layer mask with black color and use Gradient Tool (Radial) to reveal the top right area.

Create Space Fantasy Composition 20
Create Space Fantasy Composition 21
Create Space Fantasy Composition 22

Step 10

Add another Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves) and use the settings below. Select layer mask and apply Filter > Render > Clouds. Lower layer opacity to 50%.

Create Space Fantasy Composition 23
Create Space Fantasy Composition 24

Final Image

Create Space Fantasy Composition

Photoshop Selections Part 2

Welcome to Photoshop selections part 2. If you didn’t followed Photoshop Selections Part 1 then do so before reading this tutorial.


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Resources


Quick Selection and Magic Wand Tools

The next selection tools on the toolbar are the Quick Selection and Magic Wand. Let’s talk Quick Selection first. Think of it as a brush not for painting but for selecting. You can change the brush size to select more or lower the brush size to select less.

You can see in the image below how the Quick Selection icon even resembles a brush. The brush with the + sign is used to add to the selection and the brush with the – sign is used to subtract from the selection. If you check Sample All Layers then it will make selections based not only on the actual layer but in conformity with all the layers. Auto-Enhance will make your selection edges better and Refine Edge will open the Refine Edge window.

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How it works? If you brush over an area then Photoshop uses an algorithm to determine where the closest edges are and snap to them. You can see in the image below by the red how I quickly selected the sky by dragging (or painting) with the Quick Selection tool in the red encircled area. Notice how the selection automatically snapped to edges. Notice that the selection didn’t snap around the edges of the Statue of Liberty. That’s because the color of the statue it is close to the color of the sky (blue-cyan) but it snapped around the buildings below the statue because they are a different color and have a pronounced edge. This tool it is good for quick and dirty working and when you are in a hurry. I find myself using this tool when I composite scenes from different images and I just want to see how an object from an image would fit into my composite scene without the time required to make a refined, precise selection. Experiment with it on different images and get the “feel” of how this tool works. One quick tip worth mentioning it is that you can press the Alt key and drag with the brush to subtract from the current selection.

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Next is the Magic Wand tool. The Magic Wand tool works like this: you click somewhere in the image and an area is selected based on the settings of the Magic Wand, the area you clicked on and the closest edges. You can see in the image the red encircled area is where I clicked once with the Magic Wand tool.

Notice how it selected an area and it snapped around the edges of the Statue of Liberty.

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Let’s take a look at the settings available for the Magic Wand tool. The 4 icons with squares at the left are in order from left to right: New selection, Add to selection, Subtract from selection and Intersect with selection. When one of these icons it is activated (like the New selection icon is activated in the image below) your further clicks with the Magic Wand tool act differently on the current selection. With Subtract from selection activated then you will be subtracting from the selection, with Add to selection you will be adding to the current selection and with the Intersect with selection you will have an intersection between the current selection and the area you just selected with the Magic Wand tool. You can also use shortcut keys to replicate the above behaviors. While clicking with the Magic Wand tool hold Alt to subtract, Shift to add and Alt + Shift to intersect.

The Magic Wand tool works like this: when click you somewhere on the image it will select a contiguous area of pixels based on the Tolerance setting. The Tolerance values range from 0 to 255. These values are familiar, aren’t they? We know from this previous tutorial that these numbers represent the luminosity values a pixel can have. Let’s say that you have a Tolerance of 10 and you click on a pixel with a luminosity value of 88. The Magic Wand tool will select all adjacent pixels with values that are between 98 (88 + 10) and 78 (88 – 10). If Contiguous is unchecked then it will select all the pixels in the image with values between 98 and 78. The Anti-alias checkbox makes your selection edges smoother. Sample All Layers and Refine Edge work the same way as with Quick Selection.

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Let’s take a look at a practical example. I clicked in the red encircled area with the Magic Wand tool. The Tolerance setting was 50. Notice how the selection snapped around the edges of the Statue of Liberty. That’s because the luminosity level of the sky is about 170 and the luminosity level of the Statue is 70. Because I clicked a pixel with a luminosity level of 170 it selected all the contiguous pixels within 220 (170 + 50) and 120 (170 -50) because the Statue of Liberty has a luminosity level of 70 it was not selected.

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Color Range

Let’s move on to yet another selection tool Photoshop provides, namely the Color Range. You can access the Color Range Dialog box by choosing Select > Color Range. It works similarly with the Magic Wand tool – it selects an area based on the clicked area luminosity value. It also has a preview black and white version of the image showing the selected areas. White shows the selected areas, black the unselected areas and gray the partially selected areas. You can click on the small black and white preview image or you can click on the actual image. Localized Color Clusters is similar to the Contiguous checkbox for the Magic Wand tool. Fuzziness and Range expand or contract the selected areas and the little pen icons with the + and – sign stand for Add to selection and Subtract from selection (you can also hold Alt for subtract and Shift for Add). You can get familiar with this window by giving it a try. Play with the Fuzziness and Range sliders, click on different parts of the image and notice how the selection changes. Remember, in the small black and white preview image white stands for selected areas, black for unselected areas and gray for partially selected areas.

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I use this tool for applying Image Adjustments to different parts of the image. Let’s say I want to change the color of the sea. I can make an approximate selection with the Color Range (look below) and then I can apply an Image Adjustment of my choice (Curves, Hue/Saturation, etc…).

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In this case I used a Hue/Saturation adjustment to change the hue of the selected area (Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation).

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As I said before, just reading about this stuff isn’t going to teach you a great deal. Practice and experiment to learn how to use these tools.

Learn How to Select

Now it’s time to show the pro selection method. It is a bit more complex and it involves the use of the Pen tool but the results are worth the effort.

What is the Pen Tool? The Pen Tool creates vector shapes using Bezier Curves. Vectors are pixel independent and are rendered using mathematical formulas. I will not get into explaining vectors and Bezier Curves but I will give you a quick and dirty guide for using the Pen Tool to create amazing selections. The process of creating selections with the Pen Tool has 2 major stages:

1.Use the Pen Tool to create vector outlines.
2.Convert vector outlines to a selection.

Firstly select the Pen Tool by pressing P. Make sure option Paths is selected. You can start creating straight vector outlines by simply clicking in different places. The last click should overlap the first starting point to obtain an outlined vector shape. If you don’t want to enclose the outline simply Ctrl-click anywhere at any stage of drawing with the Pen Tool to finish drawing the vector path. The term “path” and “vector outline” are roughly equivalent and I use them interchangeably. “Vector outline” suggests an enclosed area while “path” is more of a freeform line. The little squares in the image below are called Anchor Points. When you click with the Pen tool you create an Anchor Point. If you click again in a different position you create a new Anchor Point and a path that connects the two Anchor Points. That’s the bread and butter of paths: Anchor Points connected by paths.

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To create curved paths click once anywhere on the image and then click and drag to some other point. When you do that notice that the straight lines become a curve and its curvature is in the opposite direction to the dragging. The more you drag the more pronounced the curve. Notice the new elements: Handles. You can drag the handles after you have created the path to modify the curvature of the path.

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In the image below I clicked and dragged again to continue my path.

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And finally I clicked on the starting point to enclose the path.

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T o transform this path into a selection simply press Ctrl + Enter. This may seem like a lot of overkill for a simple selection. Believe me, it is not. This is a very simple and limited example of the Pen Tool and is for demonstration purposes only. You can create precise and intricate paths and convert those paths into selections. This comes in handy when you are dealing with objects that have a color close to the background color, making the use of the common selection tools (Magic Wand, Quick Selection) impractical. Heck, even this simple example below is hard to replicate using the simple selection tools. I dare you to create the perfect teardrop form shown below with the Lasso Tool. You will find out that it is not an easy task.

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Conclusion

This concludes the Photoshop Selection tutorial series. This is just an introduction to the wonderful world of selections and it barely scratches the surface of the more advanced capabilities of Photoshop regarding selections (Channels and Layer Masks) but I hoped it served its purpose and made basic selections easier for you.

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Understanding Photoshop selection tools and how to the selection works is essential for a powerful Photoshop user.


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Resources


Selection Tools Inner Workings

Sure, you may use the software just to color correct your images with the various Adjustment layers, or maybe you just like playing with the Liquify Tool or maybe all you do in Photoshop is paint. This may be fine if you’re using Photoshop for personal use only, after all, your friends and family aren’t the greatest Photoshop experts and you can impress them with what you know already. But if you are working for a client or maybe you want to go to the next level in Photoshop expertise then you really should master (at least the basics) selections. Before you even touch a selection tool you should know the inner workings of the process.

Photoshop doesn’t know a thing about colors. It doesn’t see the orange, blue or red colors. Strange, huh? One of the best raster (and implicit color) image manipulation tools, it’s complete unaware of the colors it works with. But how does it do adjustments, selections and so on if it is color blind? Well, it may be color blind, but it is not Luminance blind. It works only with shades of black and white. Or grayscale. If you don’t know about channels check this tutorial, but as a quick resume know that Photoshop sees each channel as a grayscale image with 255 shades of black and white. So when it makes a selection it does so based on the difference between these 255 shades of black and white.

But wait, this is just one channel, and when I make selections all three channels are involved and that’s more than 255 shades of black and white, right? Wrong. Well, in a way! You see, concerning selections what Photoshop does is that it calculates the overall “grayscale image” by preserving the lightest pixel. Let me put it in another way. Let’ say a pixel is 100 levels red, 20 levels green and 240 levels blue. In the final grayscale composite that Photoshop uses for selections the pixels will be 240 levels luminance. The lightest channel wins. If you want to emulate this behavior simply press Ctrl + Shift + U to desaturate the image and make your selections using the Quick Selection Tool or the Magic Wand tool. The results will be the same as if you were using a colored image.

Ok, so let’s recap. Regarding selections Photoshop only sees 255 shades of black and white. Some selection tools use this model to select different parts of the image based on the difference between adjacent pixels (more on this later). You will also meet this number in many Adjustment tools (Levels, Posterize, Curves) and now you know why. These tools work with 255 shades of black and white as mentioned above.

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Now it’s time for you to meet the selection tools. Below you can see the Marquee selection tools.

To make rectangular selections we use the Rectangular Marquee Tool and to make elliptical selections we use the Elliptical marquee tool. Pretty obvious, huh? The Single Row Marquee Tool and the Single Column Marquee Tool are pretty useless and I seldom use them. They select a single pixel row or column.

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Let’s go back to the Rectangular and Elliptical marquee tools. You can see in the image below some selections I made using these tools. They may not seem of great use, but trust me, with the little tricks I am going to show you they are.

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To use the above mentioned tools simply Left-click and drag. When you are happy with the selection release the mouse button.

First trick it is the use of the Shift and Alt keys. Let’s say you made a square selection but you want to modify this selection by adding another selection to it. If you simply drag again the previous selection disappears. To add to a current selection hold Shift then make your selection. This way the previous selection is still in place and we just added another selection to it. The Alt key works like the Shift key except it allows us to extract from the selection instead of adding to it. So if I have a rectangular selection and I want to subtract an area from this selection I simply hold the Alt key and drag with the selection tool of choice to subtract from the selection. Note that this technique works with all selection tools. Let’s say you have to select a perfect circle, like a planet (below) or a perfect square. Then you would hold the Shift key while dragging with the Rectangular or Elliptical Marquee tool for a perfect circle or square.

Note that in the image below I didn’t center my selection because the selection would’ve been more difficult to see and because I want to introduce you to the second (little known) valuable trick

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Some of you may be familiar with the Quick Mask Mode but nevertheless a quick description is required. Basically when you enter the Quick Mask Mode (Q) your selected areas (or unselected areas) are shown with a red overlay. Like below (Note: If the red overlay in your image looks different than in the image below continue reading, I provide a solution in the following lines).

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Now if you select a brush and paint with white you will erase the red overlay and painting with black adds to the red overlay. Painting with a 50% brush will partially erase or add to the red overlay. When you exit the Quick Mask Mode (press Q again) the area with a previous red overlay will be selected. The partial red overlay (like when you paint with a 50% Opacity brush) will be partially selected. This behavior may be different on your machine so the red overlay may be representing the unselected areas. In order for the following trick to work double click the Quick Mask button and choose Selected Areas.

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Time to show you this little trick I have been talking about. Ok, so you’re in the Quick Mask mode, you have a selection (like the planet image above). How do you center and tweak the circle so it fits the planet? You can’t do that with the Elliptical Marquee tool (at most you can make a flatter ellipse, but that’s all) so what is to be done. Simple. While in Quick Mask Mode with a selection press Ctrl + T to enter Free Transform mode and voila, you can tweak your selection to your heart’s desire. In the case of the planet, I would simply Alt-drag the corners to make it fit perfectly and because I selected previously Selected Areas I transform the selected area and not the unselected area (that will be weird). After you’re done press Enter to apply the transformation and the press Q to exit Quick Mask Mode and voila, you have free transformed the selection.

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These kind of selections would be very hard to make without this technique. Of course when you are in the Quick Mask Mode you can Warp the selections or apply Filters. This is very powerful and it struck me first when I found out this was possible. You can apply a huge variety of filters to your selections for creative effects. In the example below, after I applied my transformation I applied Filter > Distort > Ocean Ripple to my selection.

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Then I exited the Quick Mask Mode (Q) and I made a new layer from selection by pressing Ctrl + J. Then I added a layer below and filled it with a light blue for the purpose of the demonstration. Crazy, right?

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Next we have the Lasso tool family. To make a selection with the Lasso Tool simply draw your selection (or “lasso it”) and release the mouse button. Personally I don’t use this tool very often because it lacks precision. Next we have the Polygonal Lasso Tool. This tool helps us draw polygonal selections and may be useful in certain situations. To use it simply click and move your mouse multiple times. This is easier done than said so go ahead, select it and use it on an image. A quick tip: you can temporarily access the Polygonal Lasso Tool while using the Lasso Tool by holding the Alt key.

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Next we have the Magnetic Lasso Tool. To use this tool simply click once somewhere on the image and then drag across the margins of the object you want to select. You will notice some lines and points that snap to the edges of the object you want to select but not always. It works by analyzing the contrast between the adjacent pixels and draws lines according to the settings shown below. When you’re done simply double click to transform these lines into a selection. I will not be covering this tool mainly because I consider it bulky and imprecise. And I know much better ways to make selections. And mostly it is a noob’s choice (and we want to do it the professional way, right?). Of course, if you feel lazy you can use this tool for quick results but for advanced selections it will simply not be enough.

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Learn How to Improve your Photos using LAB Color Mode

Many of you may not be familiar with LAB color mode so I will share with you some quick but advanced techniques to color correct and improve your photos FAST. We could try to achieve the same results in RGB but it will take longer and may not yield the same great results as in LAB.

Below it is a short introduction to LAB color mode but you can skip it and jump to the practical techniques of using LAB although a basic understanding of the theory behind it helps.


A quick introduction to LAB color mode

So what’s the difference between LAB and RGB? Some of you may know that in RGB color mode we have three color channels: red, green and blue. These channels combine to produce all the colors on the RGB color wheel. Red and green combine to produce yellow, green and blue form cyan, blue and red form magenta.

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What about LAB? Well, L is the luminosity channel, A is the green-magenta channel and B is the blue-yellow channel. “L” channel contains all the luminosity information and is basically the black and white version of a photo with no color whatsoever. “A” channel has all the greens and the magentas while “B” has all the blues and yellows. You may wonder where is the red cyan channel. There is no red cyan channel because these colors are formed by combining the “A” and “B” channels. Red is formed when equal amounts of magenta and yellow exist in the “A” and “B” channels while cyan is formed when equal amounts of green and magenta exist in the “A” and “B” channels.

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You may notice that the colors are somehow wrong. Yellow has a brownish look, green has a “cyanish” look, while blue is very close to cyan. That is because LAB color mode it is designed to reproduce colors the way humans see them while RGB is the way the machines sees color. It has something to do with simultaneous contrast and that we perceive and judge specific colors according to the colors that surround them. This is not a very scientific definition of LAB color mode but is enough to get you started. If you want to know more about the scientific side of LAB color mode check out this Wikipedia article.


5 steps photo enhancement

Select one photo similar to mine and let’s open it in Photoshop. At our first look we notice that it is a fairly dark picture with some bland colors and what seems to be a light blue color cast. I would normally do a “channel walk“ and see how each color channel looks like, then I would make some color samples in the darkest and the lightest places of our image to see if there is a color cast. But these steps require time and let’s assume that I have to improve and color correct this photo in 3 minutes. Well, good luck doing that in RGB! Let’s LAB this picture.


Step 1

Choose Image > Mode > Lab Color. You shouldn’t see any change.

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Step 2

Choose Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Curves. Your histogram of the lightness channel may be different to mine but follow these following guidelines:

  • Make a so called “S Curve”. Click to make a point in the upper part of the histogram (highlights) and drag it upwards. Click in the lower part of the histogram (shadows) and drag it downwards. Don’t overdo the adjustments, aim for a balanced tone distribution (equal amounts of light and shadow). The “S Curve” adds contrast to the middle tones while flattening the highlights and shadows. Look at the histogram and if you see an empty space at the right drag the highlights slider until it is positioned below the histogram values. This move will set the white point and increase the contrast in the middle tones. You could do the same thing for the shadows slider but to a lesser extent because this usually introduces ugly black artifacts.
  • Change to “a” channel and drag the left and right slider to the center in equal amounts. It helps if you have a more detailed grid ( Alt + click to make the grid more detailed) ). I dragged the sliders all the way to the first vertical line. Change to “b” channel and repeat.
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Step 3

Convert the “Background“ layer to a smart object. To do this right click the layer and choose “Convert to smart object“.


Step 4

Choose Filter > Blur > Surface Blur. Apply some high values. Remember that a big threshold and radius value means more blur. Don’t worry if your image looks blurry, we will fix that. Double click the little icon to the right of our surface blur smart filter to enter the blending options and choose color as our blending mode. This step will drastically reduce or completely remove any color noise or color fringing from our image.

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Step 5

Choose Filter > Other > High pass and apply a rather small radius, just until the details start to emerge from the grays. Double click the blending options icon and change the blend mode to soft light.

An alternative step would be to apply a Smart Sharpen or an Unsharp Mask and change the blend mode to luminosity. This would apply sharpening only to our luminosity channel, while our color channels will remain free of noise. I choose not to apply these filters to our photo because they tend to add noise and we already have a bit of a noisy image. And I think the amount of clarity provided by the High Pass filter is enough. But If you have a rather blurry image feel free to apply some amount of sharpen using the filters I mentioned above. Don’t forget to change their blending mode to Luminosity.

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These steps are much faster than they seem when you get to grips with them. It took me 3 minutes to make all the adjustments above and I think we transformed this bland image into a pretty decent looking photo. The changes are subtle but effective and the image now has some natural, rich colors. Some images will benefit more from these techniques while others will require a more time consuming approach.

I hope you will start to use LAB color mode as part of your workflow and benefit from doing so. Remember that the techniques described above are not absolute ways of doing things. Adapt them to your needs and make your photos look great in a short amount of time.