IntroductionWelcome| 00:00 |
Hi, I'm Tim Grey, photographer, author
and educator.
| | 00:11 |
I've authored over a dozen books, written
hundreds of magazine articles and taught
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numerous workshops around the world.
And yet, like so many photographers, I
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got my start with a black and white
photography class in high school,
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capturing images on film and printing
them myself in the wet darkroom.
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I still have great memories from that
experience and I'm sure that has a lot to
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do with my fondness for a great black and
white image.
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In these lessons, I'll show you a variety
of methods for creating a black and white
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interpretation of a color photograph
using Photoshop.
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I'll also talk about why I would use a
particular technique for specific images
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or to fill a particular need.
From very basic gray scale conversions to
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advanced multiple channel blending using
Layer Masks, you'll see a wide variety of
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methods you can use to produce the best
black and white images.
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I'll also share a variety of creative
techniques.
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Including the addition of a color tint,
adding film grain, vingetting and more.
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After you've learned all of these skills,
we'll tackle a set of real world projects
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that combine a variety of techniques to
produce the final image.
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The images I use in each lesson come with
this course, so you can use those same
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images while you follow along and
practice the techniques you'll learn.
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The images are organized into folders by
chapter name.
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And the file names reflect the content of
the photo, matching the same file names
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you'll see in the lessons.
When it comes to creating black and white
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images, the key is to focus on what's
important and impactful in the image
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beyond just color and to find ways to
emphasize those elements.
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In the lessons included in this workshop,
I'll help you achieve exactly that, so
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you can create incredible black and white
images from your color originals.
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(music playing)
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1. Basic ConceptsBlack-and-white concepts| 00:02 |
In this lesson we'll explore some of the
concepts related to creating black and
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white images from a color original.
I realize it's a bit of a cliche but
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photography is all about light.
Generally speaking that means capturing
| | 00:13 |
not just the intensity of the light but
also the color of the light.
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In a black and white image, however,
we're focusing exclusively on the
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tonality, or luminance levels, of the
light in various areas of the image.
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Without color to provide a creative
element or a distraction within the
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image, the focus becomes purely about
texture and tonality.
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The relative brightness and contrast play
a much larger role in the overall
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interpretation of the photo.
Texture can take on a leading role,
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sometimes even being more important than
the overall composition itself.
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When deciding which images might work in
a black and white version, it's important
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to think about the role of color within
the image and about the potential for a
| | 00:50 |
black and white version to perhaps be
more impactful.
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In this case, I have an image that
contains a reasonable amount of color.
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While working on the photo, I felt I
wanted an interpretation that was a
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little more brooding.
I also really like the texture in the
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gravel and sand, so I played with a black
and white interpretation.
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I've already added a black and white
adjustment here.
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So I'll turn it on so you can see what
I've come up with so far.
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It seems to me, after seeing both the
color and the black and white versions of
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this image, that the color in the
original is actually slightly distracting
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from the mood of the image.
I like the texture as it's presented in
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black and white, and I like that the
photo takes on something of a more somber
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tone once the color is removed.
The process of converting an image to
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black and white is simply a matter of
taking the existing color information and
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translating it to represent specific
tonal information.
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There's a wide variety of ways you can go
about this process, and by exploring a
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number of those methods, you'll find
there are potentially countless options
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for creatively interpreting your
photographic images.
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Chances are, along the way you'll have a
lot of fun too.
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| The value of color| 00:00 |
It might strike you as a bit odd that
we're even focused on creating black and
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white images from a color original rather
than just capturing in black and white
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from the start.
After all in the days of film, you could
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choose between black and white or color
film.
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As you'll see in this lesson, even if you
have no interest at all in color
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photography, there is still tremendous
value in using a color photo as the basis
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of a black and white image.
A grayscale image contains only luminance information.
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Here we have a grayscale version of the
image, and it looks reasonably good as a
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black and white, but there's not a lot of
information here.
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What that means, is that we're not going
to have very much flexibility when it
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comes to interpreting this image, or
optimizing it to make it looks its best.
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When we have a color image, there's
actually three times more information,
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let's see what that looks like.
If we go to the channels panel, we'll see
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that this grayscale image has only one
channel.
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This is the only interpretation of the
image when it comes to a black and white version.
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If I switch to my color version of this
exact same photo, you can see right away
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that there's much more information.
We have shades of green, of yellow, of
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blue and other colors throughout the
image.
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Each of those colors has their own
luminance information.
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And so we can use that information to
create a wider variety of creative
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interpretations of the image.
Looking at the Channels panel, you can
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see that we have a red channel, a green
channel, and a blue channel.
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Three channels, rather than the single
channel for the grayscale image.
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And looking at each of these channels,
you'll see that they each look different.
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They're each contributing something else
to the image.
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Granted, certain areas of some of the
channels may not look very good, but the
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point is that we have a lot more
information to work with.
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We can blend this information together in
varying degrees and in different areas of
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the image in order to create an
interesting and pleasing grayscale
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version of the image.
In other words, even when our intent is
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to produce a grayscale image, we're
gaining an advantage by starting with
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color information.
Even when your sole focus is on creating
| | 02:01 |
a black and white image, starting with a
color photo can help you achieve the very
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best results.
As you've seen in this lesson, even when
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you only want to share a black and white
version of the image it's still best to
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make full use of the RGB color mode.
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| Understanding channels| 00:02 |
A color photo in the RGB color mode
consists of three individual color
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channels: red, green, and blue.
Of course, the reality is that these
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color channels actually don't contain
color information per se, rather they are
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each a gray scale image that represents
the amount of each color that should be
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included for each pixel in order to
produce the final color image.
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By understanding the information
contained in the color channels for a
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given image, you can greatly improve your
ability to produce the best black and
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white image possible.
Let's take a look at these channels.
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If the channels panel is not already
available to you, you can simply choose
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window, channels, to bring it up.
We'll have an RGB tile at the top of our
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channels panel, which represents the
composite of the individual channels
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contained within the image.
You can view the channels individually by
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simply clicking on the thumbnail for that
channel.
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For example, we'll start with the red
channel.
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The red channel, as you can see, doesn't
really contain red information exactly.
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It contains black and white information.
But that black and white information
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represents the relative luminence of red
within the image.
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In other words, we can look at a
particular pixel and determine,
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relatively speaking, how much red is
contained in that pixel.
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If we look up in the sky, which is mostly
blue and cyan, you'll see that the red
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is dark in most areas.
That means there's very little red in the
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areas of the image that appear blue, and
that makes perfect sense.
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There is some red in the petals of the
poppy and since the the poppy is orange,
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and red is very close to orange, it makes
sense that there would be some red light
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contained within the poppy.
Of course it might seem confusing then
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that we have what appears to be a fair
amount of red in portions of the sky.
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But looking back at the color image, you
can see that that's where the image
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appears white because of the clouds in
the sky.
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And of course white light represents a
maximum or nearly maximum degree of all 3
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colors of light, red, green and blue
blended together.
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Of course in the real world there are
more than just three colors of light, or
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what we have done is separated light into
several ranges of colors and we have
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given those names red, green and blue and
when we mix all of the colors together we
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get white.
So, white areas of the image you would
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expect to see is relatively bright on all
of the channels.
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Of course beyond just reading the channel
to get a better sense of which color
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appears in a various areas, hopefully you
can get a sense that this represents some
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information we might use in a black and
white version of the image.
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The red channel is going to show most
contrast when there's a difference
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between relatively red and relatively
non-red or more green and blue areas of
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the image.
So for example, for a portrait, typically
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the red channel will be fairly contrasty.
Let's move on to the green channel.
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You might be aware that most digital
cameras use an imaging sensor where there
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are twice as many green pixels as there
are red pixels or blue pixels.
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That's because the green range of color
values are those that are most readily
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present in the natural world.
As a result, more often than not, you'll
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find that the green channel represents
the best starting point for a black and
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white photo.
That's because it will usually contain
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the maximum amount of detail, texture,
and other information that is useful in
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that final image.
Next we'll take a look at the blue channel.
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And as you can see here, it's a very
contrasty channel.
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That's of course because we have a blue
sky, and so those areas of the image
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appear nearly white.
And we also have an orange poppy.
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Well, orange is very, very close to
yellow, and yellow of course is the
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opposite of blue.
And the poppy, which contains a fair
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amount of yellow, looks nearly black in
this particular channel.
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The blue channel is the one you're least
likely to use in most situations.
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It is usually the channel that contains
the most noise and other problematic
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artifacts within the image.
Of'course it can be very helpful, and in
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many situations will provide a good
degree of contrast for certain areas of
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the image.
The key is to be aware that there are
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differences among these channels and that
we can use all of them in taking our
| | 04:04 |
original color image and converting it to
black and white.
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When it comes to producing a great black
and white image, I can stress enough how
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important it is to have a slid
understanding of what channels are and
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what information they contain.
Channels are at the heart of most
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techniques for creating a black and white
image from a color original.
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So when you understand color channels,
you'll have a much greater understanding
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of black and white.
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|
2. Black-and-White ConversionBlack-and-white in RAW| 00:02 |
As a photographer, hopefully you're
taking advantage of the option to capture
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in raw mode with your digital camera.
There are a variety of benefits to
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capturing in raw and among those is the
ability to apply a number of adjustments
| | 00:12 |
to optimize the appearance of the photo
when converting the raw capture to actual pixels.
| | 00:19 |
As you'll see in this lesson, that
includes the ability to create a black
| | 00:22 |
and white interpretation of a raw capture
right from the start.
| | 00:25 |
Let's take a look.
The first step, of course, is to open a
| | 00:28 |
raw capture.
So, I'll choose File > Open from the menu
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to bring up the Open dialog.
I'll navigate to a folder that contains
| | 00:35 |
the image I want to work with, and then
choose that raw capture and click the
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Open button.
Because this is a raw capture, it will
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automatically be opened in Adobe Camera
Raw.
| | 00:46 |
This is something of an intermediate step
in between the actual image and the final
| | 00:49 |
pixel values.
Because it's a raw capture, Photoshop
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needs to do some additional work and it's
allowing me some flexibility in that process.
| | 00:58 |
Now, of course, as a raw capture I'm
going to want to apply a number of
| | 01:01 |
adjustments right from the start.
I might correct my temperature and tint.
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Although, in this case, I'm obviously
intending to produce a black and white
| | 01:08 |
interpretation of the image, so I'll
leave that alone for now, but only for now.
| | 01:12 |
We'll actually come back to it in a
moment.
| | 01:14 |
I do want to adjust my exposure to help
maximize the tonal range, basically
| | 01:18 |
brightening up the exposure as much as
possible without actually clipping any
| | 01:21 |
highlight detail.
To do that, I'll hold the Alt key on
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Windows or the Option key on Macintosh,
increasing the value until I start to see
| | 01:29 |
pixels appearing.
Those pixels indicate areas of clipping.
| | 01:34 |
In other words, areas where highlight
detail is being lost.
| | 01:37 |
In this case, I want to maximize the
tonal range without actually losing any information.
| | 01:42 |
So, I'll adjust this just to the point
right before those pixels start to appear.
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I'll then do the exact same thing for the
blacks.
| | 01:49 |
Again, holding the Alt key on Windows or
the Option key on Macintosh, and
| | 01:52 |
increasing the value for blacks until I
start to see pixels appear.
| | 01:57 |
Once I see those pixels appearing, I'll
back off a little bit, but then release
| | 02:01 |
the Alt or Option key, so that I can
check to make sure the effect in the
| | 02:04 |
image is actually a good one.
In this case, I think we got a much
| | 02:08 |
better result by maximizing the tonal
range within the image.
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Now at this point, I'm ready to take a
look at the black and white
| | 02:15 |
interpretation of the image.
And so, I'll move my saturation slider
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all the way to the left.
You can see that I still have a good
| | 02:22 |
amount of information within the image,
but the histogram has changed rather dramatically.
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That's because I've simply stripped out
the color in the image.
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Now I'm looking only at luminance
information, which is actually quite a
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bit different from the information that
was contained on each individual color channel.
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So now, if I hold the Alt or Option key
once again and adjust my Blacks point,
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you'll notice that I can increase the
slider even further before I start to
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clip any shadow detail.
Let's take this to an extreme, in fact in
| | 02:50 |
this case, I'm going all the way up to
the maximum value, and I've still not
| | 02:53 |
clipped any detail.
But releasing the Alt or Option key, I
| | 02:56 |
can see that the image is actually still
looking reasonably good.
| | 03:00 |
I might have expected things to look a
little bit troublesome at this point, but
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I actually have nice contrast within the
image.
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The key thing to keep in mind is that
color information is different from tonal information.
| | 03:11 |
The luminance data is not exactly mapped
to the color channels that you find in
| | 03:15 |
the original image.
And therefore, once we desaturate,
| | 03:19 |
everything else about the adjustments may
very well change.
| | 03:23 |
In fact its not a bad idea to double
check your exposure setting to make sure
| | 03:26 |
that that's still producing the best
results.
| | 03:30 |
Of course, I can continue to fine tune
for example you'll see that while I've
| | 03:33 |
not lost any highlight detail, some areas
of the clouds don't seem to have all that
| | 03:36 |
much information in them.
It's just that all these pixels are very
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close to white, although, they haven't
actually clipped to pure white.
| | 03:45 |
I can fine tune by reducing my Brightness
value.
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And of course, I can also adjust my
Contrast value, either decreasing or
| | 03:52 |
increasing contrast, based on my
preference for the image.
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Now, it's worth noting by the way, that
even if you capture it in black and white
| | 04:00 |
mode on your digital camera, if you
capture it in raw, you didn't really
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capture a black and white image.
The JPEG preview embedded in your raw
| | 04:08 |
capture would have been a black and white
conversion based on the camera's
| | 04:11 |
interpretation, but the actual raw data
is unchanged by that black and white mode
| | 04:15 |
in your camera.
Therefore, while you might initially see
| | 04:20 |
a black and white preview for your raw
capture, that's based on the embedded JPEG.
| | 04:24 |
Once you open the original capture in
Adobe Camera Raw, you'll see the full
| | 04:27 |
color version.
But all you need to do to get back to a
| | 04:30 |
black and white interpretation is
decrease the saturation.
| | 04:34 |
And then of course, fine tune all of the
other settings for the image.
| | 04:38 |
Now we skipped over the Temperature and
Tint sliders.
| | 04:41 |
Let's take a look at what happens if we
actually adjust those sliders.
| | 04:45 |
Notice that even though this is a black
and white image, by virtue of the fact
| | 04:48 |
that I reduced saturation, I can still
have an affect the image by fine-tuning
| | 04:52 |
the Temperature and Tint sliders.
In this case, the image contains a whole
| | 04:57 |
lot of blue, and therefore, the
Temperature slider is going to be a
| | 04:59 |
little bit more effective, since that
shifts the balance between blue and yellow.
| | 05:04 |
The key point is that by adjusting the
Temperature and Tint sliders, we're
| | 05:08 |
actually affecting the underlying color
information, which affects how the image
| | 05:11 |
appears when we desaturate those colors,
leaving only luminance information.
| | 05:17 |
With black and white images, it's
particularly important to work in 16 bit
| | 05:20 |
per channel mode.
Therefore, I'm going to click on the
| | 05:23 |
Workflow Options link at the bottom of
the preview and make sure that my depth
| | 05:27 |
is set to 16 bits per channel.
I'll also set the color space.
| | 05:32 |
In this case, simply using Adobe RGB.
Even though this is a black and white
| | 05:36 |
interpretation of my image, it still is
in an RGB color mode, and so I want to
| | 05:39 |
assign a specific color space.
I'll go ahead and click OK on my Workflow
| | 05:44 |
Options, and then click Open Image, and
the image is processed and opened in Photoshop.
| | 05:49 |
While the controls in Adobe Camera Raw
don't provide you with a tremendous
| | 05:53 |
amount of control in creating a black and
white image, it does offer a reasonable
| | 05:57 |
degree of control, that might be just
enough for those situations where
| | 06:01 |
workflow efficiency and time savings is
the highest priority.
| | 06:07 |
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| Desaturating| 00:02 |
As the name implies, the Desaturate
command in Photoshop will desaturate your colors.
| | 00:06 |
And we're not talking about just reducing
the intensity of the colors, but rather
| | 00:10 |
with completely removing color so you're
left with a basic black and white
| | 00:13 |
interpretation of the image.
In this lesson, I'll show you how to use
| | 00:17 |
an extremely simple approach to creating
a black and white image.
| | 00:21 |
Let's start with the Desaturate command
just to gain an understanding of the
| | 00:24 |
concept we're employing.
Here, you can see I have a color image,
| | 00:27 |
and it's one that contains a fair amount
of texture so it might be interesting as
| | 00:30 |
a black and white interpretation.
To very simply create that black and
| | 00:35 |
white interpretation, I could simply
choose Image > Adjustments, and then Desaturate.
| | 00:41 |
This will completely remove all of the
color information from the image, leaving
| | 00:45 |
only the luminance information.
In other words, we now have a black and
| | 00:49 |
white version of the image.
The problem is, we don't have a lot of flexibility.
| | 00:54 |
If I later decide I want to see the image
in color or that I want to see partial
| | 00:57 |
color or color in certain areas, I don't
have that flexibility.
| | 01:01 |
As a result, even when I want to use a
particularly simple method for creating a
| | 01:05 |
black and white interpretation, I will
take one additional step.
| | 01:10 |
Let me show you what that looks like.
I'm going to choose File > Revert in
| | 01:13 |
order to revert this image to the
original version.
| | 01:17 |
I'll then add a new Hue Saturation
Adjustment layer.
| | 01:20 |
I'll simply click on the Add New
Adjustment Layer button, the half-black,
| | 01:23 |
half-white circle icon at the bottom of
the Layers panel.
| | 01:27 |
And then I'll choose Hue Saturation.
This will add a new Hue Saturation
| | 01:31 |
Adjustment layer and show me the Hue
Saturation controls on the Adjustments panel.
| | 01:37 |
Now, instead of using the Desaturate
command, I'll simply apply the same
| | 01:40 |
thing, but with a little bit more
flexibility.
| | 01:43 |
All I need to do is reduce the Saturation
slider completely for hue saturation, and
| | 01:47 |
I end up with the same result.
The benefit here is that I'm working on
| | 01:52 |
an Adjustment layer.
I've applied the same final effect to the
| | 01:55 |
image, but now I have the flexibility of
turning off this Adjustment layer so that
| | 01:59 |
I can see the before version, for
example.
| | 02:02 |
And I could also fine tune the
adjustment, if, for example, I don't want
| | 02:05 |
to remove all the color from the image.
The bottom line is that I'm able to
| | 02:10 |
exercise a lot more flexibility even with
such a basic adjustment.
| | 02:14 |
The options for simply desaturating color
in an image are obviously somewhat
| | 02:17 |
limited, but exploring these options will
give you a better understanding of what
| | 02:21 |
it means to convert an image to black and
white.
| | 02:26 |
And will also give you a greater
appreciation of some of the more powerful
| | 02:29 |
techniques for converting a color photo
to black and white.
| | 02:34 |
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| Using the Lab color mode| 00:02 |
One of the unique attributes of the Lab
Color mode, is that it separates
| | 00:05 |
luminance information, from color
information.
| | 00:08 |
As a result, the Lab Color mode can be
helpful in producing a baseline black and
| | 00:11 |
white interpretation of an image.
Let's take a look at what Lab has to offer.
| | 00:16 |
We'll get started by reviewing some of
the information contained within our RGB
| | 00:20 |
color image.
We'll switch to the Channels panel and
| | 00:23 |
then I'll click on each of the thumbnails
for the Red, Green, and Blue channels.
| | 00:28 |
These channels contain information about
the relative amounts of each color
| | 00:32 |
contained for each pixel.
So we can see which pixels have a lot of
| | 00:36 |
red information, which have a lot of
green information and which have a lot of
| | 00:39 |
blue information.
Each of these channels, however,
| | 00:43 |
represents color information.
In the Lab Color mode, Luminance
| | 00:46 |
Information and Color Information are
separated.
| | 00:49 |
Let's go ahead and convert this image to
the Lab Color mode, so we can see what
| | 00:52 |
that looks like.
I'll simply choose Image > mode Lab
| | 00:56 |
Color, from the menu, and the image is
converted to the Lab Color mode.
| | 01:00 |
As you can see on the Channels panel, now
we have a lightness Channel, which
| | 01:04 |
contains Luminance Information, as well
as A and B channels.
| | 01:08 |
The A and B channels contain the amount
of color on a blue-yellow axis and a
| | 01:12 |
green-magenta axis.
But what we're really interested in is
| | 01:16 |
the Luminance Information.
And as you can see, this represents a
| | 01:19 |
pretty good starting point for a black
and white image.
| | 01:23 |
To get to this information and be able to
use it as the basis of an image, we'll
| | 01:26 |
simply split out the channels so we can
work with only the lightness information.
| | 01:31 |
To do so simply click on the panel pop-up
menu at the top right of the channels
| | 01:35 |
panel and then choose Split Channels.
This will separate our image into three
| | 01:40 |
individual images based on the three
channels that we had available.
| | 01:44 |
We don't need the A or B channels so we
can simply close those without saving.
| | 01:49 |
As you can see, we now have the Luminance
Information separated out as an
| | 01:53 |
individual image.
Now this image is in the gray mode, or
| | 01:56 |
gray scale and we do prefer to work in
RGB whenever possible, especially if
| | 02:00 |
we're going to add color information in
any way at a later date.
| | 02:05 |
So I would choose image mode, RGB for
this image in order to convert it to an
| | 02:09 |
RGB image.
Again, this just gives us the option of
| | 02:13 |
working in color down the road.
I can then go back to my layers panel and
| | 02:17 |
start adding additional adjustment layers
or other effects as I see fit in order to
| | 02:21 |
optimize the final image.
Because the L channel in Lab is focused
| | 02:25 |
exclusively on Luminance Information, it
very often represents a great starting
| | 02:29 |
point for a black and white image.
With just a little bit of refinement, a
| | 02:35 |
conversion based on the L channel in Lab
mode can result in a great image.
| | 02:42 |
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| Adding a Black and White adjustment layer| 00:02 |
In most cases the best way to convert an
image to black and white in Photoshop is
| | 00:05 |
to use the aptly named black and white
adjustment.
| | 00:08 |
And the best way to apply a black and
white adjustment is via an adjustment layer.
| | 00:12 |
In this lesson you'll see how to add a
new black and white adjustment layer to
| | 00:15 |
get started with the process of removing
color from an image.
| | 00:19 |
Now I should point out the wrong way to
go about applying a black and white
| | 00:22 |
adjustment layer before we take a look at
the right approach.
| | 00:25 |
That wrong method is to apply the black
and white adjustment directly to your image.
| | 00:30 |
In theory you could do so by choosing
image, adjustments, and then black and white.
| | 00:36 |
This will allow you to apply the exact
same adjustment that you could apply via
| | 00:39 |
the adjustment layer but without the
flexibility of using an adjustment alter.
| | 00:44 |
In other words, it will take out all the
color, but then you wont have any
| | 00:47 |
flexibility for making changes later.
Instead, we're going to create a new
| | 00:51 |
black and white adjustment.
There are two ways we could accomplish this.
| | 00:55 |
The first method is to go to the layers
panel, and at the bottom of the panel,
| | 00:58 |
click on the half black, half white
circle icon, which is the add adjustment
| | 01:01 |
layer button.
We can then choose black and white from
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the pop up menu, to To add a new black
and white adjustment layer.
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The other method is to go over to the
home page of the adjustments panel.
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As long as I don't have an adjustment
layer active, the adjustments panel
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itself will show me a list of options
related to the addition of a new
| | 01:19 |
adjustment layer.
In this case, the half black and half
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white square icon, is the black and white
adjustment.
| | 01:27 |
So I could simply click on that option,
and a new black and white adjustment
| | 01:31 |
layer is added.
And note, that all of the controls for my
| | 01:34 |
black and white adjustment, are now shown
on the adjustments panel, ready for me to
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get started working on this image.
And because I'm working on an adjustment
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layer I'm not permanently committing the
changes to the image.
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I can always return to this adjustment
layer and make refinements or even remove
| | 01:50 |
the adjustment layer altogether if I
decide that this is just not the
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direction I want to take an image.
Using an adjustment layer for your black
| | 01:58 |
and white conversion will ensure maximum
flexibility in your workflow.
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In fact, it is rare that I create a black
and white interpretation of an image
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without starting from a black and white
adjustment layer.
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| Using presets with the black-and-white adjustment| 00:00 |
Presets are available for a variety of
adjustments in Photoshop, including the
| | 00:04 |
black and white adjustment.
As you'll see in this lesson, using
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presets can be a great way to establish
an ideal starting point for a particular
| | 00:11 |
image and they can also provide some
creative inspiration.
| | 00:16 |
On the Adjustments panel, you'll see that
there are actually a list of presets for
| | 00:19 |
various adjustment options.
One of those is a list of black and white presets.
| | 00:24 |
To view the individual presets, simply
click on the triangle to the left of the
| | 00:28 |
label to expand the list.
I'll scroll down, so we can see more of these.
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And as you can see, there are a variety
of presets to choose from.
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Some of these relate to color filters you
might use to interpret a black and white
| | 00:39 |
print in the wet dark room.
Others are simply presets that may or may
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not work for a particular image.
To get started, simply choose one of
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these presets.
And as you'll see, it doesn't really
| | 00:49 |
matter which one you choose here, because
we'll be able to change it in just a moment.
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I'm going to go ahead and choose the high
contrast blue filter, just to see what
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that gives me.
And I'm not liking that decision too much.
| | 01:00 |
This is not a good interpretation for
this particular image.
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So, that wasn't really the best preset to
choose.
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However, now that an Adjustment Layer,
based on that preset, has been created, I
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can change the preset.
Simply click the pop-up at the top of the
| | 01:15 |
Adjustments panel and I can choose a
different preset.
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In fact, if I choose the first preset
from the pop-up.
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I can then simply navigate up and down
the list using the arrow keys on the keyboard.
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So, in this case, since I've chose the
first, I'll press down arrow, down arrow,
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etcetera, to cycle through all the
available presets.
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And of course, I could go back up by
pressing the up arrow key.
| | 01:37 |
In this way, I could navigate among the
presets, so I can determine which one
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represents the best starting point for
the image I'm trying to ultimately produce.
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As you can see, the presets included in
Photoshop for the black and white
| | 01:49 |
adjustment provide a great variety of
options to help you get started with any
| | 01:52 |
black and white conversion.
| | 01:55 |
| | 01:58 |
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| Making a basic black-and-white adjustment| 00:02 |
The black and white adjustment in
Photoshop is deceptively simple.
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There are only six sliders to choose
from, and yet with those sliders, you can
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create dramatic and varied results, as a
you'll see in this lesson.
| | 00:13 |
The first step, of course, is to add a
new black and white adjustment layer.
| | 00:16 |
So, on the Adjustments panel, I'll simply
click the button for Black and White, and
| | 00:19 |
a new adjustment layer for black and
white will be added.
| | 00:23 |
And here, you can see the various sliders
that are available.
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These represent the primary colors both
additive and subtractive for the image.
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We have reds, yellows, greens, cyans,
blues and magentas to choose form.
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Now, each of these relates to particular
areas of the image.
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Specifically, the sliders will lighten or
darken pixels based on the original color
| | 00:45 |
value of any given pixel.
Let's take a look.
| | 00:49 |
The beer in the center of the frame here
is mostly yellow.
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So, if we adjust the Yellows slider,
we'll be lightening and darkening any
| | 00:55 |
yellow values within the image.
This should include the beer, but
| | 00:59 |
probably some other areas of the image
that also contain yellow.
| | 01:03 |
Any area of the image that was originally
yellow will be lightened or darkened
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based on the movement of this slider.
So, I can brighten up all the yellows in
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the image or darken down all the yellows
in the image, but of course, that
| | 01:15 |
lightening and darkening is translating
into a shade of grey.
| | 01:19 |
Obviously, this gives us tremendous
flexibility as we fine tune the image.
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Let's take a look at another example.
The meats and the table cloth contain a
| | 01:27 |
variety of shades of red, so increasing
or decreasing the value of red should
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lighten and darken those areas of the
image as well.
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And the bottle of water was predominantly
green, so we can brighten or darken that
| | 01:40 |
water bottle and any other areas of the
image that were also green by adjusting
| | 01:43 |
the Greens slider.
Now, of course, part of being able to
| | 01:48 |
apply an effective adjustment is knowing
what color particular areas of the image were.
| | 01:53 |
But if at any time you need to refresh
your memory, you can simply turn off the
| | 01:56 |
Black and White Adjustment layer to view
the image in color.
| | 02:00 |
In so doing, I can see for example, but
this woman's purse is pink as is her shirt.
| | 02:05 |
And so, adjusting the Magenta slider, we
would expect to brighten or darken her
| | 02:08 |
shirt and her purse.
So, I'll turn on my Black and White
| | 02:11 |
Adjustment layer once again, and adjust
my Magenta slider.
| | 02:15 |
And sure enough, you can see that we're
affecting those areas of the image that
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had in pink.
Now, in this case, there's no sky in the
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image, so you might not think the cyans
and blues are going to be very effective.
| | 02:25 |
But actually, there is some sky in the
image, specifically the sky that appears
| | 02:29 |
in some of the paintings that are on
display in this piazza.
| | 02:32 |
So, if we increase or decrease the value
of cyans for example, we'll see those
| | 02:36 |
areas of the image affected, and blues of
course, will have a similar effect.
| | 02:41 |
The key is to experiment around with the
various sliders.
| | 02:45 |
Look for different interpretations of the
image.
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For example, the bottle of water was
relatively dark in the original image.
| | 02:52 |
But it might look a little bit more
interesting if we brighten that bottle up
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a little bit.
We can emphasize or de-emphasize
| | 02:58 |
particular areas of the image based on
how we brighten or darken.
| | 03:03 |
In this case, I'll want to brighten up
the reds just a little bit.
| | 03:06 |
Because I think those meats are looking a
little too dark.
| | 03:09 |
And of course, I don't want a dark beer
when it was really a Pilsner so maybe
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I'll brighten that up a bit, just to
improve the overall appearance of the image.
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But the key is to move through all of the
sliders and see what effect they'll have
| | 03:20 |
on the overall image.
In fact, I encourage you to swing those
| | 03:24 |
sliders through their extremes so that
you'll get a better sense both of which
| | 03:27 |
areas of the image are being effected and
how you might possibly interpret the
| | 03:31 |
image in a more creative way.
The key to making full use of the Black
| | 03:36 |
and White Adjustment is to explore all of
the sliders and experiment with various
| | 03:40 |
settings for each.
As you'll quickly discover, the
| | 03:44 |
possibilities are truly endless when
using this powerful tool.
| | 03:49 |
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| Using the On-Image option| 00:02 |
The black and white adjustment provides
six sliders that create an incredible
| | 00:05 |
amount of flexibility.
Even better, you can manipulate those
| | 00:08 |
sliders by working directly on the image
rather than with the sliders themselves,
| | 00:12 |
as you'll see in this lesson.
Let's get started.
| | 00:16 |
First I'm going to add a new black and
white adjustment, of course, so in this
| | 00:19 |
case I'll click on the Create New
Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of
| | 00:21 |
the Layers panel and then choose Black
and White from the popup menu.
| | 00:27 |
As you can see I have a baseline black
and white interpretation of the image and
| | 00:30 |
I could immediately start working with my
sliders.
| | 00:33 |
For example I know the wheat fields are
green maybe with a little bit of yellow
| | 00:36 |
in them.
And the sky is going to mostly be cyan
| | 00:39 |
and blue.
However I don't need to work with those
| | 00:41 |
sliders directly.
Instead, I'm going to turn on the on
| | 00:45 |
image adjustment capability.
By turning on this option, I'm able to
| | 00:49 |
sample various areas of the image and
then apply adjustments by working
| | 00:53 |
directly on the image.
Let me show you how it's done.
| | 00:57 |
We would assume that the wheat in the
foreground is green, maybe with a little
| | 01:00 |
bit of yellow in it, so let's click on
that area and we'll see that the yellows
| | 01:04 |
value lights up.
That indicates that the pixel I clicked
| | 01:08 |
on is predominantly yellow.
If I drag my slider to the right that
| | 01:12 |
area will be brightened up.
Notice that I'm adjusting the yellow
| | 01:16 |
slider without actually touching the
yellow slider.
| | 01:19 |
I'm working directly on the image.
Continuing to hold the mouse button down,
| | 01:23 |
I can drag to the left.
To darken up those areas.
| | 01:26 |
In this case I think I'd like to brighten
them up just a little bit so I'll drag to
| | 01:29 |
the right to an appropriate level.
Then I'll simply move my mouse up over to
| | 01:34 |
the sky and click and you can see that
this area is mostly blue.
| | 01:38 |
My blues value has been highlighted, and
now, continuing to hold the mouse button
| | 01:42 |
down, I can click and drag to the left to
darken up the blues.
| | 01:47 |
This allows us in this case to get a
tremendous amount of drama up in that sky.
| | 01:51 |
I can continue working in this way,
clicking and dragging in areas that I'd
| | 01:55 |
like to brighten or darken.
Working directly on the image.
| | 02:00 |
I don't even have to think about my
sliders over on the adjustments panel.
| | 02:03 |
Notice for example I click on the house
here and it's mostly red but as you can
| | 02:07 |
see there's not a tremendous amount of
red.
| | 02:10 |
And so we're not going to have a strong
influence.
| | 02:13 |
And in fact, this house is rather
weathered and very neutral.
| | 02:17 |
Almost perfectly gray, and so not any of
the sliders is really going to have a
| | 02:20 |
significant effect on the house itself.
For most photographers, the notion of
| | 02:25 |
working directly on the image rather than
adjusting a series of sliders makes
| | 02:29 |
perfect sense.
By leveraging the power of the on image
| | 02:34 |
adjustment for the black and white
adjustment layer, you can work more
| | 02:37 |
efficiently and in a way that makes more
sense for most photographers.
| | 02:43 |
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| Adding a color tint| 00:02 |
Strictly speaking, a black and white
image lacks color.
| | 00:05 |
And yet by adding color to a black and
white image, you can produce a much
| | 00:08 |
better final result in many situations.
Fortunately, as you'll see in this
| | 00:13 |
lesson, adding a bit of color to an
otherwise black and white image is
| | 00:16 |
remarkably easy.
The way I think of this, is as a black
| | 00:20 |
and white image, but one that is printed
using ink that is of a particular color
| | 00:23 |
other than black.
Let's get started.
| | 00:27 |
In this case of course, my image contains
color, because it is a color image, so
| | 00:30 |
I'm going to start by converting it to
black and white.
| | 00:33 |
I'll go on and Click on the Create New
Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of
| | 00:36 |
the Layers panel, and then choose Black
and White from the popup.
| | 00:40 |
This adds my Black and White Adjustment
Layer and I can continue to refine my
| | 00:44 |
image based on this conversion.
For example, I'll turn on my own image
| | 00:48 |
adjustment feature and then go through
the image, and perhaps lighten and darken
| | 00:52 |
up a variety of different areas, within
the image.
| | 00:56 |
Once I've created a baseline black and
white conversion that I'm happy with, I'm
| | 00:59 |
ready to add my color tint.
And that's done through the Black and
| | 01:03 |
White Adjustment Layer.
I'll simply turn on the Tint check box,
| | 01:07 |
which will apply the default color tint
to the image.
| | 01:10 |
In this case, a nice sepia that actually
suits the image quite well.
| | 01:14 |
If you'd like to change the color of this
tint though, you can do so by simply
| | 01:17 |
clicking on the Color Swatch associated
with the Tint checkbox.
| | 01:21 |
Clicking on this Color Swatch will bring
up our Color Picker, and here, we can
| | 01:25 |
choose any color of the rainbow.
I generally start by adjusting the Hue,
| | 01:29 |
using this Vertical Gradient slider.
Once I've established a Hue that I'm
| | 01:34 |
happy with, I can adjust the overall
saturation and brightness of that color.
| | 01:39 |
The left to right axis is our Saturation
level.
| | 01:43 |
To the left is less saturated and to the
right is more saturated.
| | 01:47 |
The vertical axis is brightness.
Up is brighter and down is darker.
| | 01:51 |
Generally speaking, you'll get the best
results by using a color that is
| | 01:55 |
relatively subtle in saturation.
A vibrant color is going to look
| | 02:01 |
artificial and somewhat cartoonish.
Instead, look for colors toward the left
| | 02:06 |
end of the scale here, that are not very
saturated.
| | 02:09 |
And of course, as you continue working,
you can Click throughout the color
| | 02:12 |
gradient to try out different color
interpretations.
| | 02:16 |
The color will generally impart some
level of mood to the image.
| | 02:19 |
If it's a cold subject, either literally
or figuratively, then you're generally
| | 02:24 |
going to want to work with a blue or cyan
tone.
| | 02:27 |
A typical example would be a winter
scene.
| | 02:30 |
If its an image that connotates warmth.
Again, either literally or figuratively,
| | 02:34 |
then you'll tend to favor colors
somewhere in the yellow to orange and red values.
| | 02:38 |
And some images will benefit from other
colors.
| | 02:41 |
For example, bits of industrial
machinery, locomotive engines and things
| | 02:45 |
like that, actually look quite nice with
a very subtle magenta color cast.
| | 02:50 |
But in this case I'd like to impart a
sense of timelessness about this image.
| | 02:55 |
I'd like to harken back to an older time,
so something in the vein of a sepia tone
| | 02:58 |
is actually what I'm going to be going
for.
| | 03:01 |
Generally speaking, the sepia tone has a
value of somewhere between about 45 and
| | 03:05 |
50 on the hue scale, that's degrees
around the color wheel.
| | 03:10 |
But of course, feel free to fine tune
this to the value that you feel works
| | 03:13 |
best for your particular image.
In this case, I think this tone is
| | 03:17 |
looking pretty well, maybe I'd like to
make it just a little warmer, a little
| | 03:20 |
closer towards the oranges and reds.
But again, not too terrible saturated so
| | 03:26 |
the color is just a subtle little tint.
I think that's looking pretty good, so
| | 03:30 |
I'm going to go ahead and Click OK in the
Color Picker.
| | 03:33 |
But keep in mind, at any time, you can
change the color tint simply by clicking
| | 03:36 |
on the Color Swatch once again.
And of course if you decide you don't
| | 03:41 |
want the color tint at all, you can turn
off the Tint check box.
| | 03:44 |
So we have maximum flexibility here, when
working with our black and white
| | 03:47 |
interpretation and adding the color tint.
But in this case, I much prefer the image
| | 03:52 |
with the color tint, so I'm going to
leave that option turned on.
| | 03:55 |
A touch of color added to a black and
white image combines the focus on
| | 03:58 |
luminance of a black and white image with
the emotional response we often have to
| | 04:01 |
any given color.
As a result the color you add becomes
| | 04:06 |
potentially more powerful than the
original color in the image.
| | 04:10 |
| | 04:13 |
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| Applying a Curves adjustment| 00:02 |
When you create a black and white
interpretation of an image you have
| | 00:04 |
tremendous control over how the various
color and luminance information in the
| | 00:08 |
image is translated into a black and
white result.
| | 00:12 |
Even so, in most cases the image will
benefit from additional adjustments.
| | 00:16 |
And as you'll see in this lesson, the
curves adjustment provides exceptional
| | 00:19 |
value in this regard.
To get started I'll convert this image to
| | 00:23 |
black and white.
So I'll add a new black and white
| | 00:25 |
adjustment layer and then fine tune it as
I see fit.
| | 00:29 |
I might brighten up some of the greens in
the background, here, and I could darken
| | 00:32 |
up other areas of the image.
When I'm happy with the overall result, I
| | 00:37 |
can continue to fine tune using other
adjustments.
| | 00:41 |
Let's take a look at the use of the
curve's adjustment for this type of purpose.
| | 00:45 |
I'll go ahead and add an additional
adjustment layer.
| | 00:48 |
In this case, obviously, curves, which
will go above my current black and white
| | 00:51 |
adjustment on the adjustments panel.
So both of these adjustment layers are
| | 00:55 |
going to work in concert with each other
in order to affect the overall appearance
| | 00:59 |
of my original background image layer.
There are a couple of key things that I
| | 01:03 |
would focus on in curves when working
with a black and white image.
| | 01:07 |
The first is to check my black and white
values.
| | 01:10 |
I want to make sure that the darkest
pixels in the image are black and the
| | 01:13 |
brightest pixels are white in most cases.
That will help maximize the overall tonal
| | 01:17 |
range within the image.
I'll take advantage of the clipping
| | 01:21 |
preview in applying these adjustments.
To do so I'll hold the Alt key on Windows
| | 01:25 |
or the Option key on Macintosh while
adjusting the sliders for black or white points.
| | 01:30 |
I'll start with black here and as you can
see right off the bat I have an
| | 01:33 |
indication of clipping in the darkest
areas of the image.
| | 01:37 |
So I don't want to move the slider any
further to the right, because I don't
| | 01:40 |
want to lose any more information in the
dark shadow areas.
| | 01:43 |
I'll then turn my attention to the
highlights, again, holding the Alt key on
| | 01:46 |
Windows or the Option key on Macintosh,
and clicking and dragging the white point
| | 01:50 |
slider over to the left.
Once again, you can see that the
| | 01:54 |
brightest areas of the image were already
white.
| | 01:57 |
And so, I don't want to lose anymore
information by moving that slider over to
| | 02:00 |
the left.
But this clipping preview display allows
| | 02:03 |
me to get a sense of where and to what
degree I'm losing information if I take
| | 02:06 |
the adjustment too far.
Once establishing those end points it's
| | 02:11 |
time to focus on the rest of the curve.
Now in general, if we move a curve
| | 02:15 |
upward, we're brightening the image and
if we move the curve downward we're
| | 02:18 |
darkening the image.
But we can focus that darkening or
| | 02:21 |
lightening effect on a particular tonal
range.
| | 02:25 |
For example having added an anchor point
by clicking on the curve, I can drag that
| | 02:28 |
anchor point to a different position.
In this case emphasizing the effect in
| | 02:32 |
the darkest areas of the image.
Whether I want to brighten the dark areas
| | 02:36 |
or darken them in order to produce the
desired effect.
| | 02:40 |
In this case I'd like to get a little bit
more drama in the image, so I'm going to
| | 02:43 |
darken down the shadows just a little
bit.
| | 02:46 |
Now this has darkened the overall image,
so I want to brighten up the other
| | 02:49 |
portion of the curve.
In fact, I think most of this curve I
| | 02:53 |
would like to have representing a
brightening adjustment.
| | 02:57 |
In other words, for most of the tonal
values within the image, I would like to
| | 03:00 |
brighten them relative to where they were
before I applied a curves adjustment.
| | 03:05 |
So I'll simply click on my curve and drag
upward, fine-tuning the position so that
| | 03:09 |
I'm brightening a relatively broad range
of tonal values within the image.
| | 03:14 |
So for example, you can see that the
curve has moved downward for the darkest
| | 03:17 |
portion of the image, and the curve has
moved upward for the brightest portion of
| | 03:21 |
the image.
This is actually a variation on a
| | 03:24 |
standard s-curve, where we're brightening
the bright areas and darkening the dark
| | 03:28 |
areas in order to enhance contrast, but
with a tremendous amount of control over
| | 03:32 |
the image.
Using curves allows you to apply
| | 03:36 |
incredible power in fine tuning your
initial black and white interpretation of
| | 03:39 |
an image.
In fact, because curves is first and
| | 03:43 |
foremost focused on luminance values in
an image, it is an ideal tool for
| | 03:47 |
optimizing your black and white images.
| | 03:52 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Beyond the BasicsUsing the Gradient Map adjustment| 00:02 |
The Gradient Map Adjustment focuses on
luminance in a photo, translating pixels
| | 00:06 |
to a particular tone or color based on
the original luminance value.
| | 00:11 |
The new pixel values can be shades of
grey, making this adjustment useful for
| | 00:14 |
black and white conversions.
And because the pixel values can also be
| | 00:18 |
colored, you have quite a bit of
flexibility in creating the final image.
| | 00:23 |
In this lesson, I'll show you just how
powerful the Gradient Map Adjustment can
| | 00:26 |
really be.
We'll use an Adjustment Layer, of course,
| | 00:29 |
and I want to point out that when you add
a new adjustment layer, we're not looking
| | 00:33 |
for the Gradient Adjustment Layer, but
rather the Gradient Map down at the
| | 00:36 |
bottom of the list.
The Gradient Adjustment will simply place
| | 00:41 |
a gradient over your image, covering up
the photograph.
| | 00:44 |
The Gradient Map Adjustment allows us to
redefine the pixel values in the image to
| | 00:48 |
create a new interpretation.
So, I'll click Gradient Map to add my
| | 00:53 |
Gradient Map Adjustment.
As you can see, the default in this case
| | 00:57 |
is a black to white gradient.
So, the darkest pixels in the image
| | 01:01 |
appear black, the brightest pixels appear
white, and all the other tonal values in
| | 01:05 |
between are remapped to shades of gray.
And of course, this creates a basic black
| | 01:10 |
and white conversion.
We can also use other presets to create a
| | 01:13 |
different look for the image.
I'll click the popup for the preset and I
| | 01:17 |
can choose one of the other values.
As you can see, many of these are colors
| | 01:22 |
that generally speaking won't work all
that well for most photographic images.
| | 01:27 |
They're interesting, but not exactly good
interpretations for a photograph.
| | 01:32 |
Fortunately, we can define our own
gradient.
| | 01:35 |
To do so, simply click on the gradient
itself.
| | 01:38 |
Not on the pop-up, but on the Gradient
Preview in the pop-up.
| | 01:42 |
This will bring up our Gradient Editor.
Here, we can redefine the transition
| | 01:46 |
between tonal values and color values to
determine what the image will actually
| | 01:49 |
look like.
I'll start off with a basic black to
| | 01:53 |
white adjustment.
The gradient is defined by gradient stops.
| | 01:58 |
In this case, a simple black stop at one
end and a white stop at the other end.
| | 02:02 |
I can change the value of these stops if
I'd like to though.
| | 02:05 |
So for example, I'll click on my black
stop at the left here.
| | 02:08 |
And then, I'll click on the color swatch,
to bring up the color picker.
| | 02:12 |
I'll just choose a dark shade of blue.
Maybe something like this.
| | 02:16 |
And click OK.
Then I'll click on my white gradient
| | 02:20 |
stop and click the color swatch once
again.
| | 02:23 |
And perhaps, I'll use a shade of yellow
for this one.
| | 02:26 |
Clicking OK to apply that.
You can see that I now have a blue to
| | 02:29 |
yellow gradient.
And the tonal values within the image
| | 02:32 |
have updated accordingly.
Based on the luminance of a pixel, it
| | 02:36 |
will be mapped to a particular color
along this gradient.
| | 02:40 |
And of course, I can change the behavior
of that gradient by shifting the
| | 02:43 |
distribution of these gradient stops.
So, if I drag my yellow gradient stop
| | 02:48 |
inward, for example, you'll see that I'm
redistributing the values within the image.
| | 02:53 |
In this case, that would cause some
clipping of the highlights because I've
| | 02:56 |
specified that much of the image is going
to be the exact same shade of yellow.
| | 03:01 |
The point is that I can change the
position of these gradient stops and I
| | 03:04 |
can also change the transition between
gradient stops.
| | 03:08 |
By dragging the diamond that falls
between the two stops, I can adjust where
| | 03:12 |
the midpoint for that transition is.
So, in this case, for example, I can have
| | 03:17 |
more yellow within the image or more blue
within the image.
| | 03:21 |
In this case, I would probably want to
keep it at about the center point.
| | 03:25 |
Of course, in this case, I don't really
like the colors or what they're doing to
| | 03:28 |
the image.
So, let's take a look at a more realistic example.
| | 03:31 |
We'll, create a sepia tone version of the
image.
| | 03:34 |
I'm going to start off with my black to
white gradient.
| | 03:37 |
And in most cases, that's exactly what I
want to do because I want the darkest
| | 03:41 |
pixel values to be black and the
brightest to be white, in most cases.
| | 03:46 |
It's everything in between that I might
assign a different color to.
| | 03:50 |
I'll go ahead and click below the
gradient in order to add an additional
| | 03:53 |
gradient stop.
I'll then, click on the color swatch to
| | 03:57 |
bring up the color picker and I'll go
find a nice dark shade that's something
| | 04:00 |
along a copper color.
I need something fairly dark, since we're
| | 04:05 |
working on the shadow areas of the image,
but I want to make sure there's at least
| | 04:08 |
a little bit of color to it.
That's looking reasonably good.
| | 04:12 |
So, I'll go ahead and click OK.
I'll then, click below the gradient,
| | 04:16 |
further up toward the white end to add
one more gradient stop.
| | 04:20 |
I'll then, click the color swatch to
bring up the color picker and go find a
| | 04:23 |
lighter shade that will work for this
particular image.
| | 04:26 |
I think I'd like the light areas to be
just a little bit warmer, so I'll shift
| | 04:30 |
my hue down toward a little bit more
orange and maybe find something in that region.
| | 04:36 |
right about there looks okay.
So, I'll click okay.
| | 04:40 |
Of course, in this case, I've got a
little bit of a flattened, lifeless
| | 04:43 |
appearance to the image.
But I can fine tune that by shifting the
| | 04:46 |
position of my gradient stops.
Simply dragging left to right as needed
| | 04:51 |
to change the overall appearance of the
image.
| | 04:54 |
In this case, making the image appear
with a little bit more contrast is going
| | 04:57 |
to be key.
At any time, I can change the color value
| | 05:01 |
for a given gradient stop by clicking on
that gradient stop, and then clicking on
| | 05:04 |
the color swatch, to bring up the color
picker.
| | 05:08 |
I can also change the location, either by
dragging or by changing the percentage
| | 05:12 |
for location.
And of course, if I add an extra gradient
| | 05:15 |
stop by mistake or I decide that it's
just not working, I can click on that
| | 05:18 |
anchor point, and then click the Delete
button.
| | 05:22 |
When you're happy with the gradient
you've created, you can save it for
| | 05:25 |
future use.
So, let's call this copper, since this
| | 05:28 |
has something of a copper appearance to
it, and then I'll click the New button.
| | 05:33 |
That will add that gradient as a preset
on the list.
| | 05:36 |
And in fact, I can then, use that preset
directly within the Adjustments panel.
| | 05:41 |
I'll go ahead and click okay here.
And then, I'll delete my Gradient Map
| | 05:45 |
Adjustment Layer and add a New Gradient
Map Adjustment Layer, just to demonstrate
| | 05:49 |
this concept.
Here's my default gradient, but as you
| | 05:53 |
can see the gradient I just created is
one of the presets that's available.
| | 05:57 |
So, I could use this preset with any
image just be adding a Gradient Map
| | 06:01 |
Adjustment Layer.
As you can see, the gradient map
| | 06:04 |
adjustment blends a focus on luminance,
which is perfect for creating a black and
| | 06:08 |
white image, with the ability to add
color, which is wonderful from a creative perspective.
| | 06:14 |
The result, is a remarkably powerful way
to interpret your photographic images,
| | 06:20 |
with flexibility and creativity.
| | 06:23 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding a vignette effect| 00:02 |
By darkening the edges of an image,
you'll help ensure that the viewer stays
| | 00:05 |
within the photo, rather than wandering
outside and perhaps losing interest.
| | 00:10 |
In this lesson, I'll show you my
preferred method for applying a vignette effect.
| | 00:14 |
The key in my mind is to utilize a
separate layer to maximize your
| | 00:17 |
flexibility in finetuning the effect.
In this case, I have an image that I've
| | 00:23 |
already converted the black and white and
that has had a sepia tone effect added to it.
| | 00:28 |
However, I'm working with a flattened
version of the image just to keep it
| | 00:31 |
simple here.
The first thing I need to do is to add a
| | 00:34 |
new layer that I'll use to apply the
vignette effect on.
| | 00:38 |
However, I want that layer to have
special properties.
| | 00:41 |
So I'm going to click on the Create New
Layer button, the blank sheet of paper
| | 00:45 |
icon at the bottom of Layers panel, but
I'm going to hold the Alt key on Windows
| | 00:48 |
or the Option key on Macintosh while I do
so.
| | 00:53 |
This will cause the New Layer dialog to
appear, rather than just creating a
| | 00:57 |
default layer.
I can give this layer a name, and I
| | 01:00 |
highly recommend doing so, so that it
will always be clear exactly why any
| | 01:04 |
given layer is added to the image.
In this case, I'll simply call it Vignette.
| | 01:09 |
Next, I'll change the Blend mode for this
layer to Multiply.
| | 01:13 |
This is one of the darkening blend modes
and one that has a relatively strong effect.
| | 01:18 |
But that's going to be helpful, because
it will give us more flexibility when we
| | 01:22 |
decide on exactly how strong a vignette
effect we want in the final image.
| | 01:27 |
I also want to turn on the check box to
fill this layer with the neutral color
| | 01:30 |
for the multiplied blend mode which
happens to be white.
| | 01:34 |
With these settings established, I'll
click OK, and as you can see, my new
| | 01:37 |
layer is created.
The layer is called Vignette, it is
| | 01:41 |
filled with white and the blend mode is
set to Multiply.
| | 01:45 |
And because white is the neutral color
for the Multiply blend mode, this layer
| | 01:49 |
is currently having absolutely no effect
on the image, but we're going to change that.
| | 01:54 |
Let's choose Filter > Lens Correction
from the menu to bring up the Lens
| | 01:58 |
Correction filter.
Now, we'll turn off all of the automatic
| | 02:02 |
correction adjustments, and instead, move
straight to the Custom section.
| | 02:06 |
Here, we'll find sliders for vignette
amount and the midpoint.
| | 02:10 |
I'll drag to the left to darken, and in
fact, I'm going to darken by the maximum
| | 02:14 |
amount, even though, I might want to tone
that down a little bit later.
| | 02:19 |
I can also adjust the midpoint, which
determines how far into the center of the
| | 02:23 |
image this vignette effect will appear.
In this case, I'm going to pull it a
| | 02:27 |
little bit more toward the center, just
because I want to create a little bit of
| | 02:30 |
a larger framing for my image.
With these settings established, I'll go
| | 02:35 |
ahead and click OK.
As you can see, the effect is a little
| | 02:38 |
too strong at this point.
But that's because we've used a strong
| | 02:42 |
vignette effect and we use the multiply
blend mode, which itself is relatively strong.
| | 02:47 |
But I can adjust the degree of this
vignette by changing the Opacity setting
| | 02:51 |
for my Vignette layer.
I can click the pop-up associated with
| | 02:56 |
this option in order to adjust the
slider, or, I could simply point to the
| | 02:59 |
word Opacity and then click left to
reduce the opacity or right to increase
| | 03:03 |
the opacity.
I can then adjust the overall effect as I
| | 03:08 |
see fit.
And by turning off the visibility of my
| | 03:11 |
layer, I can get a better sense of just
how strong the effect really is.
| | 03:16 |
Now, it's also possible to apply a
lightening effect for the edges of the
| | 03:19 |
image if you prefer.
Let's take a look at the variation that
| | 03:23 |
we would use in order to apply that
effect.
| | 03:26 |
In this case, I'll turn off my Vignette
layer so that we don't have the darkening
| | 03:29 |
of the edges taking hold.
And I'll again, hold the Alt key on
| | 03:32 |
Windows or the Option key on Macintosh
while clicking on the Create New Layer
| | 03:35 |
button at the bottom of the Layers panel.
I'll give this new layer a name.
| | 03:40 |
In this case, we'll call it lightening
since I'm lightening the edges of the image.
| | 03:46 |
I'll change the blend mode in this
particular case to Overlay.
| | 03:49 |
This is a blend mode that allows us to
either lighten or darken the image.
| | 03:53 |
And then, I'll turn on the Fill with
Overlay Neutral Color check box, which
| | 03:56 |
will fill this later with neutral gray.
I'll go ahead and click OK, and then,
| | 04:02 |
we'll go to the Filter > Lens Correction.
Now, I'll go to the Custom tab, and
| | 04:07 |
increase my amount for vignette, so that
I'm brightening the edges of the image.
| | 04:12 |
And once again, I can adjust the midpoint
as I see fit.
| | 04:16 |
When I'm happy with the result, I'll
click OK.
| | 04:19 |
And as you can see, I have a very strong
brightening vignette effect for the
| | 04:22 |
image, but I can tone that down by
reducing the opacity for this particular layer.
| | 04:28 |
In this case, of course, I much prefer
the darkening effect, but the point is
| | 04:32 |
that we can apply either lightening or
the darkening to any image as we see fit.
| | 04:37 |
A vignette effect doesn't have to be
strong to be effective.
| | 04:40 |
In fact, in most cases, it's best to use
a very subtle effect.
| | 04:45 |
And even a very subtle vignette effect
can help the viewer focused within your image.
| | 04:50 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding film grain| 00:00 |
So these digital cameras produce
incredibly smooth images.
| | 00:05 |
And even when film was the primary method
of capturing images, most photographers
| | 00:09 |
tried to avoid the texture caused by film
grain.
| | 00:13 |
And yet, there is a certain appeal with
film grain in an image.
| | 00:16 |
Let's take a look at how you can add film
grain to any photo.
| | 00:20 |
In this case I have an image that I've
already converted to black and white, and
| | 00:23 |
I've flattened that image just for the
convenience of this lesson.
| | 00:27 |
You might be aware that there's actually
a film grain filter, found on the Filter,
| | 00:31 |
Artistic menu.
However, that can create some problems in
| | 00:34 |
the highlights, especially if you're not
careful with the settings.
| | 00:38 |
So I prefer to use a different filter
with a different techniques.
| | 00:42 |
To get started, I'm going to add a new
layer on top of this background image layer.
| | 00:48 |
Now I want that new layer to have special
properties so I hold an alt key on
| | 00:51 |
Windows or the option key on Mcintosh
while clicking the create new layer
| | 00:54 |
button, the blank sheet of paper icon at
the bottom of the layer's panel.
| | 01:00 |
When I do so, the new layer dialog will
appear.
| | 01:03 |
I'll go ahead and call this layer film
grain since that what I'm doing with this
| | 01:07 |
new layer.
And changing that name will help make
| | 01:10 |
sure that I never forget why that
particular layer is there.
| | 01:13 |
I'm going to change the blend mode,
labeled just mode here to hard light.
| | 01:18 |
Which is a contrast blend mode that's
very strong in it's effect.
| | 01:22 |
I also need to turn on the check box to
fill this layer with the hard light
| | 01:26 |
neutral color which is 50% gray.
With those options established we can
| | 01:31 |
click okay and the new layer is created.
Now we'll go to the filter menu and
| | 01:36 |
choose noise, add noise.
This will bring up the add noise dialog.
| | 01:42 |
I'll turn on the monochromatic check box.
In this case it's actually not an issue,
| | 01:45 |
but I prefer to turn this option on
regardless.
| | 01:48 |
And I'll use the Gaussian rather than
uniform method of distribution.
| | 01:53 |
This will give us a somewhat random
pattern to our noise, which is going to
| | 01:55 |
simulate the appearance of film grain.
Then I can simply adjust the amount.
| | 02:01 |
Now keep in mind that we're going to be
reducing the opacity in this effect, so
| | 02:04 |
it's not quite as harsh in the image.
So think more about the grain structure
| | 02:09 |
here, rather than about the intensity of
the effect.
| | 02:13 |
So let's say somewhere around here looks
like a good grain structure to me.
| | 02:16 |
I'll go ahead and click Okay.
Finally we can reduce the opacity of this
| | 02:21 |
film grain layer so that the film grain
is much more subtle.
| | 02:25 |
In fact we generally want the effect to
be incredibly subtle.
| | 02:29 |
I can use the pop-up slider for the
opacity control at the top right of the
| | 02:33 |
layers panel, or simply click at the
label opacity and drag left to reduce the
| | 02:36 |
opacity or right to increase the opacity.
As you can see, we need to reduce the
| | 02:43 |
opacity rather significantly, to produce
a pleasing effect in the image.
| | 02:48 |
In this case, I think I'll go down to
about 5% on the opacity.
| | 02:52 |
If I turn off the visibility for my film
grain layer, you can see the original
| | 02:56 |
image, without the film grain.
Clicking once again will enable that film
| | 03:00 |
grain layer so we can see the texture
that has been added to the image.
| | 03:05 |
Film grain certainly isn't an effect
you'll want to add to every image,
| | 03:10 |
however in many cases it can be
incredibly effective in adding to the
| | 03:14 |
mood of a photograph.
| | 03:18 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Dodging and burning| 00:02 |
Dodging and Burning is by far, one of my
favorite techniques in Photoshop.
| | 00:06 |
That's in part because it allows me to
exercise great control over the tonality
| | 00:09 |
of an image.
And partly because it just feels more
| | 00:12 |
creative than typical adjustments that
involve sliders and buttons.
| | 00:17 |
While Photoshop does include tools
specifically designed for Dodging and
| | 00:20 |
Burning, I prefer to use a different
method, that provides a bit more flexibility.
| | 00:25 |
Allow me to show you how it works.
In this case I'm working with an image
| | 00:28 |
that I've already converted to black and
white, and I've flattened it, just for
| | 00:31 |
convenience for this lesson.
I'll create a new Layer for Dodging and
| | 00:35 |
Burning, but I want that new Layer to
have special properties.
| | 00:39 |
So instead of simply clicking on the
Create a New Layer button at the bottom
| | 00:43 |
of the Layer panel, I'm going to hold the
Alt key on Windows or the Option key on
| | 00:46 |
Macintosh while clicking that button.
This will cause the new Layer dialog to appear.
| | 00:53 |
I do recommend giving the Layer a name,
if for no other reason then it will help
| | 00:56 |
you avoid any confusion later about why a
particular Layer exists.
| | 01:01 |
In this case I'll just call the Layer
dodge and burn, since that's what I'm
| | 01:03 |
using it for.
The most important thing to change here,
| | 01:07 |
is the blend mode.
We want to use the overlay blend mode,
| | 01:11 |
which is one of the contrast blend modes.
You can also use soft light, which a
| | 01:15 |
little bit more subtle than overlay, but
I prefer to use overlay so I have a
| | 01:18 |
little more leeway with my adjustment.
I then want to turn on the fill with
| | 01:23 |
overlay neutral color, 50 percent gray.
That will cause the Layer to be filled
| | 01:28 |
with gray, but that gray won't have an
influence on the image initially, because
| | 01:32 |
of the overlay blend mode as you'll see
in a moment.
| | 01:35 |
With these setting established, I can
click OK, and as you can see, I have a
| | 01:38 |
new dodge and burn Layer, which is filled
with gray, and the blend mode is set to overlay.
| | 01:44 |
Next I'll choose the Brush tool from the
toolbox and press the letter D on the
| | 01:48 |
keyboard to make sure the colors are set
to the default values of black and white.
| | 01:54 |
You can also set the defaults by clicking
on this small representation of the color
| | 01:58 |
picker, directly above the actual color
picker.
| | 02:01 |
On the options bar, we'll make sure that
we're working with a soft edge brush,
| | 02:05 |
with the hardness set to 0%.
I'll also generally use a standard, round
| | 02:09 |
brush, rather than one that has a funny
shape to it.
| | 02:13 |
On the options bar, we'll leave the blend
mode set to normal.
| | 02:16 |
All of the magic is happening on our
Layer with the overlay blend mode set for
| | 02:20 |
that Layer.
The brush itself, we want to behave normally.
| | 02:24 |
We'll return to the opacity setting in a
moment, but note that if you're using a
| | 02:28 |
tablet, you can turn on this option, to
enable pen pressure to determine the
| | 02:31 |
opacity for your brush.
The flow setting is not important because
| | 02:36 |
I recommend leaving the Airbrush feature
turned off.
| | 02:40 |
And finally, we have the option to use
the pen pressure, to determine the size
| | 02:43 |
of the brush.
Again, that would only be applicable, if
| | 02:46 |
you're using a tablet.
So at this point, we have everything
| | 02:50 |
configured, except for our opacity.
But I want to use a 100% opacity setting
| | 02:54 |
initially, just to demonstrate what's
going on with this Layer.
| | 02:59 |
Because the blend mode is set to overlay,
the 50% gray that is contained in this
| | 03:03 |
Layer, is not having any effect on the
image.
| | 03:06 |
That's because 50% gray is the neutral
color for the overlay blend mode.
| | 03:11 |
But if I paint with black, I'll have a
strong darkening effect on the image.
| | 03:15 |
And if I paint with white, I can switch
the foreground to white by pressing X on
| | 03:18 |
the keyboard, then I'll be lightening the
image.
| | 03:22 |
In this case, because I'm working at a
100 percent opacity, I'll be having a
| | 03:25 |
very significant effect on the image.
When you're Dodging and Burning, you
| | 03:30 |
usually want the effect to be very, very
subtle.
| | 03:33 |
So I'm going to undo those last couple of
brush strokes.
| | 03:36 |
And now I'll reduce my opacity setting,
to usually around 10 to 20%.
| | 03:41 |
20% is a rather strong setting, but I'm
going to use 20% here, just so that the
| | 03:45 |
affect will be a little more obvious as
you're following along.
| | 03:49 |
You can use the slider for the Opacity
control, or simply click on the word
| | 03:53 |
Opacity and drag left to right.
But I also like to use a keyboard
| | 03:57 |
shortcut to adjust the opacity value.
Pressing 1 will give you 10%, and
| | 04:02 |
pressing 2 will give you 20%.
If you need 15%, you can just type 1 5
| | 04:07 |
relatively quickly.
In this case, I'll press 2, for 20%.
| | 04:12 |
Now keep in mind that I can switch back
and forth between lightening and
| | 04:15 |
darkening, based on which color is my
current foreground color.
| | 04:19 |
White will lighten and black will darken.
Right now white is my foreground color
| | 04:24 |
but again I switch at anytime by pressing
letter X on the keyboard.
| | 04:28 |
I'll be lightening the image since I'm
painting with white.
| | 04:30 |
So let's go ahead and lighten up the area
around the eye of the bird.
| | 04:34 |
I'll adjust my brush size, using the left
square bracket key to reduce the brush
| | 04:37 |
size, or the right square bracket key to
increase the brush size.
| | 04:41 |
In this case something just a little
larger than the eye will probably work
| | 04:44 |
out reasonably well.
I can then click and paint around the
| | 04:48 |
image, in this case just over the eye, to
brighten things up a little bit.
| | 04:52 |
Now, one thing that's very important to
keep in mind, is that when you're working
| | 04:56 |
with this technique, you'll want to paint
over an area completely, without
| | 04:59 |
releasing the mouse button.
If you release the mouse button, and
| | 05:04 |
paint in multiple strokes, you'll have an
overlapping buildup effect in various
| | 05:07 |
areas of the image.
And this can create problematic patterns
| | 05:10 |
in the image.
So whenever you're working on one area,
| | 05:14 |
click and hold that mouse button down
don't release until you've painted over
| | 05:17 |
the entire area you want to affect.
So for example I might want to darken the
| | 05:22 |
bill of the bird to bring out some more
of the texture, so I'll press the letter
| | 05:25 |
X, and then adjust my brush size as
needed with the left and write square
| | 05:28 |
bracket keys.
And then I can click and paint down the
| | 05:32 |
bill of the bird.
However, notice that down at the end I'm
| | 05:35 |
going to have a problem, because it's
relatively small down there.
| | 05:40 |
So I'll adjust the size of my brush so
that'll work well in that area and then
| | 05:43 |
click and drag across the bill of the
bird.
| | 05:47 |
I'll keep that mouse button down while I
continue to paint over the entire bill.
| | 05:51 |
Being careful to pay attention to where
I've painted and where I've not yet
| | 05:55 |
covered, so that I'm able to get a
consistent result across the entire area.
| | 06:00 |
I can also use this technique to apply
something of a vennette effect to the image.
| | 06:04 |
I'll use a larger brush and then I can
paint into the edges and the corners of
| | 06:07 |
the image, in order to give a little bit
of a darkening edge, which can help keep
| | 06:10 |
the viewer's eye focused more toward the
center subject of the image.
| | 06:16 |
Now the most important thing to keep in
mind when Dodging and Burning, is that
| | 06:19 |
subtlety is everything.
When someone look sat your images, they
| | 06:23 |
shouldn't think wow, I see you've learned
how to use a dodge and burn technique.
| | 06:27 |
Instead, they should just appreciate the
image for what it is.
| | 06:30 |
But if you turn off the visibility of
your dodge and burn Layer, you should see
| | 06:34 |
a nice change in the image.
Well, a nice change when you turn on that
| | 06:38 |
Layer anyway.
When we turn off the Layer, you'll see
| | 06:41 |
the before version, and when we click
again to turn on the Layer, you'll see
| | 06:44 |
the after version.
And hopefully you like the after version
| | 06:48 |
better than the before version.
You can continue painting around various
| | 06:51 |
areas of the image, lightening and
darkening as you see fit.
| | 06:55 |
I sometimes like to emphasize certain
areas, so for example darkening shadows,
| | 06:58 |
and then lightening highlights, so that I
get a little bit more contrast.
| | 07:03 |
Just keep in mind that you're painting
with light, and so you can determine
| | 07:06 |
where you want to lighten the image, and
where you want to darken the image.
| | 07:10 |
If you make a mistake, or you otherwise
want to undo any of the effects you
| | 07:14 |
applied, I recommend painting 50% gray at
a 100% opacity.
| | 07:19 |
You could erase, but then you're not able
to go back to your dodge and burn Layer,
| | 07:22 |
and see what sort of work you've done.
You'll have erased pixels where they
| | 07:27 |
would have otherwise been middle gray,
for example.
| | 07:29 |
So instead what I do is click on the
foreground color, and set my brightness
| | 07:34 |
value, the b in hsb, to 50%.
This gives me middle gray.
| | 07:38 |
Then I'll set my opacity back up to 100%,
and I can paint in areas of the image
| | 07:42 |
that I want to undo the effect that I've
applied.
| | 07:47 |
For example, I feel that I've lightened
up these feathers just a little bit too
| | 07:50 |
much, and I'd like to take them back to
their original appearance.
| | 07:53 |
So painting with middle gray at a 100%
opacity, I can effectively erase my work
| | 07:58 |
in specific areas of the image.
When I'm done cleaning up my work, I can
| | 08:03 |
press the letter D on my keyboard, to get
back to my default values of black and white.
| | 08:07 |
And then of course I'll want to remember
to reduce my opacity as well.
| | 08:11 |
I can then continue to dodge and burn in
various areas of the image.
| | 08:15 |
For example, I think I'll darken up this
shadow just a little bit more, to add
| | 08:19 |
some contrast, and drama to the image.
When Dodging and Burning, you're
| | 08:24 |
literally painting with light in an
image.
| | 08:26 |
The result is an ability to draw out
detail in specific areas of an image, as
| | 08:31 |
well as to emphasize or de-emphasize
specific portions of an image.
| | 08:38 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Partial black-and-white adjustments| 00:02 |
Converting an image to black and white is
the process of removing color from the image.
| | 00:06 |
But as you'll see in this lesson,
sometimes allowing a little bit of the
| | 00:10 |
original color to show through, can be
incredibly effective.
| | 00:14 |
I'll get started in this case by adding a
black and white Adjustment Layer to my image.
| | 00:19 |
I can then fine tune the image.
In this case, I'll use the on image
| | 00:22 |
adjustment in order to adjust the overall
appearance.
| | 00:26 |
My overall luminance values in different
areas of the image.
| | 00:30 |
When I'm happy with the overall black and
white version of the image, I'm ready to
| | 00:33 |
reveal a little bit of color.
And that process is actually remarkably simple.
| | 00:39 |
All I need to do is reduce the opacity
for my black and white Adjustment Layer.
| | 00:44 |
Now, it's important to point out that
we'll be revealing some of the color, but
| | 00:47 |
we don't want to take this too far.
For example, if I reduce my opacity
| | 00:52 |
significantly, all I'm really doing is
toning down the colors, effectively
| | 00:55 |
reducing the saturation of the colors
within the image.
| | 01:00 |
What I'm trying to accomplish here is a
black and white image that has just a
| | 01:04 |
hint of the original color.
To produce that effect, almost often work
| | 01:08 |
with an opacity setting of somewhere
around 90 to 95%.
| | 01:12 |
Now, sometimes on your monitor display
that might not produce the most obvious effect.
| | 01:17 |
But if you make a print of the image, I
think you'll find that it's particularly pleasing.
| | 01:23 |
One of the things I love most about the
notion of revealing just a little bit of
| | 01:26 |
color from the original photo, is the
impact it can have on the viewer.
| | 01:31 |
The tendency is for such an image to be
interpreted as black and white, and yet,
| | 01:35 |
one where the viewer knows, what color
each object is.
| | 01:40 |
The result is a greater level of
engagement on the part of the viewer,
| | 01:43 |
which only adds to the impact of the
image.
| | 01:46 |
I find that this technique works
remarkably well on portraits as well as
| | 01:50 |
on relatively subtle objects, such as
flowers.
| | 01:54 |
Try it on a variety of images and see if
you don't find it to be an incredible way
| | 01:59 |
to interpret a black and white image.
| | 02:04 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Isolating color with a Hue/Saturation adjustment| 00:02 |
In the context of a black and white
photograph, sometimes a single color can
| | 00:05 |
be incredibly impactful.
As you'll see in this lesson, allowing
| | 00:09 |
only one color to be revealed while the
rest of the image appears in black and
| | 00:12 |
white can produced a great and very
interesting result.
| | 00:16 |
In this case, I'm going to use a
Hue-Saturation Adjustment Layer to
| | 00:19 |
produce the black and white version of
the image rather than the black and white layer.
| | 00:24 |
It is possible to produce a similar
effect by the use of a layer mask, but
| | 00:27 |
that requires creating a selection and
working with a few more complicated techniques.
| | 00:33 |
In this case, we're going to use a very
simple approach to this particular
| | 00:35 |
creative interpretation of an image.
So I'll go ahead and add a Hue-Saturation
| | 00:40 |
Adjustment Layer by clicking on the
Create New Adjustment Layer button at the
| | 00:43 |
bottom of the Layers panel and then
choosing Hue-Saturation from the pop up menu.
| | 00:49 |
Now, in this case, what I'd like to do
make only these magenta flowers appear in
| | 00:52 |
color, and the rest of the image a pure
black and white.
| | 00:57 |
In the case of hue-saturation, we remove
color by reducing saturation.
| | 01:01 |
But by default, that affects the entire
image.
| | 01:05 |
What I'd like to do is to work
specifically on a range of colors that
| | 01:08 |
happens to include everything except that
range of magentas that define those flowers.
| | 01:15 |
To get started, I'll simply choose one of
my color channels.
| | 01:18 |
In this case, I think I'll work with
greens, because that's relatively
| | 01:21 |
dominant in the rest of the image.
Now, you can see that at the bottom of my
| | 01:25 |
Adjustments panel, we have some controls
that indicate the range of colors being affected.
| | 01:31 |
Having chosen greens, I'm now affecting
only the greens in the image.
| | 01:35 |
The vertical bars here indicate the range
of colors that will be completely
| | 01:40 |
affected by any adjustment I apply.
The trapezoids indicate the extent of
| | 01:45 |
feathering, in other words, transition
between areas that are being affected and
| | 01:49 |
areas that are not being affected based
on their color value.
| | 01:54 |
So what I'd like to do is have the range
inside the two vertical bars include
| | 01:58 |
everything except magenta.
That means I need to drag the right set
| | 02:02 |
of controls here off the right edge, so
that it will appear over on the left edge
| | 02:06 |
of these controls.
So I'll click in between the two so that
| | 02:10 |
they move in sequence with each other and
then drag over to the right until I can
| | 02:14 |
see that the trapezoid has appeared on
the left side.
| | 02:19 |
I can now point in between these two
controls, once again, recognizing that
| | 02:22 |
they're sort of hanging off on opposite
sides of the color gradients here, and
| | 02:25 |
then, click and drag to continue moving
those controls.
| | 02:30 |
Now, in order to be able to see the
change in this color range, I need to
| | 02:33 |
apply an exaggerated adjustment.
In this case, I'll go ahead and reduce
| | 02:37 |
saturation completely since that's what I
ultimately aim to do anyway.
| | 02:42 |
In this case, we're really only affecting
the greens and cyans, which are not very
| | 02:47 |
present in the image.
Even though we can see a lot of green,
| | 02:50 |
that actually consists of a lot of
yellow.
| | 02:52 |
But as I continue expanding the range of
colors by moving these controls, I'll be
| | 02:56 |
affecting more and more color values
within the image.
| | 03:00 |
By finetuning these controls to just the
right positions, I'll be able to adjust
| | 03:04 |
the color range, so that all colors
within the image are being converted to
| | 03:08 |
black and white, except for those
flowers.
| | 03:13 |
Now, of course, I could take a variety of
approaches to the image in this case, but
| | 03:17 |
here, I just want to try to make sure
that the flowers appear in color and the
| | 03:20 |
rest of the image appears black and
white.
| | 03:24 |
That looks to be pretty good.
I'd like to make a few more adjustments, though.
| | 03:28 |
I noticed that the yellows here have
gotten a little bit drab.
| | 03:32 |
So I'm going to choose my yellows channel
and increase the lightness just for the yellows.
| | 03:37 |
That will help to increase contrast for
the image, giving us a much better
| | 03:41 |
overall look.
And of course, I could continue to apply
| | 03:44 |
adjustments to finetune the overall
appearance of the image.
| | 03:48 |
The Hue-Saturation Adjustment makes it
relatively easy to create an image where
| | 03:54 |
the overall photo is black and white, and
yet, a single color or range of colors is
| | 03:59 |
still presented in color.
| | 04:03 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Selective black-and-white adjustments| 00:02 |
It seems photographers tend to think of
an image as being either black and white
| | 00:05 |
or color.
However, as you'll see in this lesson,
| | 00:08 |
sometimes you can create a more
interesting image by blending color and
| | 00:11 |
black and white in the same image.
Here, I have an image that contains a
| | 00:16 |
fair amount of color.
We have some bright oranges in the
| | 00:19 |
foreground with these rocks and the sky
is a reasonably vibrant blue.
| | 00:24 |
In fact, in large part, this picture was
taken because of the color.
| | 00:28 |
But I want to emphasize that texture in
the rock without drawing so much
| | 00:31 |
attention to that color.
I think it might be interesting to
| | 00:35 |
convert the rocks to black and white, but
to leave the sky in color.
| | 00:39 |
To get started, I'm going to create a
selection of the rocks.
| | 00:43 |
So I'll choose my Quick Selection tool,
and then, click and drag across the rocks
| | 00:47 |
in a variety of areas, sampling various
portions of the rock so that Photoshop
| | 00:51 |
gets a sense of exactly what I want to
create a selection of.
| | 00:57 |
If I drag around enough areas, Photoshop
will be able to create a great selection
| | 01:01 |
of the rocks.
I can then create an Adjustment Layer.
| | 01:05 |
Now, you might not have been aware that
each Adjustment layer automatically
| | 01:08 |
includes a layer mask.
That layer mask determines where the
| | 01:12 |
affect of the Adjustment layer takes
effect.
| | 01:15 |
By default, the Layer Mask is completely
white, and in the context of a Layer
| | 01:19 |
Mask, black blocks, but white reveals.
So a white layer mask causes the
| | 01:24 |
Adjustment Layer to be visible
everywhere.
| | 01:27 |
If we have a selection active when we
create our Adjustment layer, that layer
| | 01:31 |
mask will reflect the selection that was
active at the time.
| | 01:35 |
So in this case, the layer mask will
reflect white in the area for the rocks
| | 01:39 |
and black for the sky.
White for the selected areas and black
| | 01:43 |
for the deselected areas.
What that means is the adjustment I add
| | 01:47 |
will only effect the rocks.
So I'll go ahead and add a black and
| | 01:52 |
white adjustment layer and that
Adjustment Layer will automatically have
| | 01:55 |
its layer mask reflect this selection.
Therefore, causing this Adjustment layer,
| | 02:01 |
in this case, the black and white
adjustment, to only effect the rocks.
| | 02:05 |
So now, when I apply an adjustment to the
setting for my black and white
| | 02:08 |
adjustment, you can see that I'm only
effecting the appearance of the rocks.
| | 02:13 |
I can finetune to my heart's content.
In this case, the reds and the yellows
| | 02:17 |
are really the only colors I need to
concern myself with, since the rocks were
| | 02:20 |
largely orange.
But notice that the sky remains blue.
| | 02:25 |
Now, in some cases, with a selection that
was not feathered, you may have a little
| | 02:29 |
bit of a harsh transition between the
area that was affected and the area
| | 02:32 |
that's not affected.
If you need to finetune that transition,
| | 02:37 |
you can use the Masks panel.
If it's not visible, simply choose Window
| | 02:42 |
> Masks from the menu.
You can then adjust the Feather setting.
| | 02:47 |
Now, I'll increase the feather setting
significantly and you can see that we
| | 02:50 |
start to see a transition between the
area we're effecting, the rocks, and the
| | 02:54 |
area we're not effecting, the sky.
So here, the transition has been made so
| | 02:59 |
large that we're starting to see a little
bit of color at the edges of the rocks.
| | 03:04 |
In most cases, you'll only need to
feather by one or two pixels to produce a
| | 03:07 |
nice transition between the areas you're
affecting and those areas that you're not effecting.
| | 03:14 |
Layer masks provide tremendous creative
potential in Photoshop.
| | 03:18 |
As you've seen in this lesson, one
potential use of Layer Masks is to
| | 03:22 |
produce an image that combines both black
and white and color working together to
| | 03:27 |
produce a more interesting final result.
| | 03:31 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Color tinting by hand| 00:02 |
It may seem silly to consider the notion
of adding color back to an image that was
| | 00:05 |
originally in color, but was then
converted to black and white.
| | 00:10 |
But as you'll see in this lesson, hand
tinting an image to apply Custom colors
| | 00:13 |
in a selective way, can provide a
creative outlet that's a lot of fun as well.
| | 00:18 |
In this case I have an image that I've
already converted to black and white, and
| | 00:21 |
for simplicity in this lesson, I've
flattened the image.
| | 00:24 |
Normally of course, I would leave all my
layers intact, but for learning purposes,
| | 00:28 |
this is a little bit more convenient.
I'm going to paint onto a separate layer
| | 00:33 |
affecting only the color in the image.
The underlying texture will remain.
| | 00:38 |
So I'll add a new layer by clicking on
the Create New Layer button, the blank
| | 00:41 |
sheet of paper icon at the bottom of the
Layers panel.
| | 00:45 |
I'll also double-click on the name of
this layer and give it a more meaningful
| | 00:48 |
name, for example, Color Painting.
I'll then use the pop up at the top of
| | 00:53 |
the left of the Layers panel, to change
the Blend mode, to color.
| | 00:57 |
With the Color blend mode, this layer
will only affect the color of the
| | 01:01 |
underlying image, not the actual tonal
variations.
| | 01:05 |
In other words, we'll still see all the
texture, we'll just be adding color.
| | 01:09 |
I can then click on the Foreground color
to bring up the Color Picker and choose a
| | 01:12 |
New color I'd like to paint with.
Let's start off for example with the water.
| | 01:17 |
I'll choose a Shade of Cyan that I think
might work well, using something that has
| | 01:21 |
a relatively low degree of saturation.
We don't want to overpower the underlying image.
| | 01:27 |
I'll go ahead and Click OK here, and make
sure that my opacity is set to 100% on
| | 01:31 |
the Options bar.
Also notice that I'm using the Normal
| | 01:35 |
blend mode, for the brush on the options
bar.
| | 01:38 |
The color blend mode is only set for the
actual layer that I'm working on.
| | 01:42 |
I can also make sure that I'm using a
soft edge brush and generally speaking I
| | 01:45 |
would use a round brush for this
technique.
| | 01:48 |
Although, you could certainly use a
variety of different brushes, if you'd prefer.
| | 01:52 |
With the brush and my layer configured as
needed and a foreground color set that I
| | 01:56 |
want to use to color the image, I can
simply start painting over the image.
| | 02:01 |
Right off the ****, I see this is a
little bit too saturated.
| | 02:05 |
So I'm going to press Ctrl+z on Windows,
or Cmd+Z on Macintosh, to undo that step.
| | 02:10 |
I'll then Click the Foreground color once
again to bring up the Color Picker, and
| | 02:14 |
choose something a little bit less
saturated.
| | 02:17 |
I'm going for something of a watercolor
effect and that's looking much much better.
| | 02:22 |
In fact, I'm thinking this almost looks
like an old nostalgic postcard, which is
| | 02:25 |
an effect I'm actually kind of liking.
So I'll continue painting here.
| | 02:29 |
In this case, just painting over all of
the water.
| | 02:32 |
Okay, I'm ready to work on this sand now.
So I'll Click on the Foreground Color
| | 02:36 |
Swatch to bring up the Color Picker and
let's go find a shade of sort of
| | 02:39 |
yellowish brown that looks like it might
work well for the sand.
| | 02:43 |
And let's see how that looks.
Awe, that looks great actually.
| | 02:46 |
I like that a lot.
So I'll go ahead and paint that in.
| | 02:49 |
Now keep in mind I don't need to
necessarily cover the entire area.
| | 02:53 |
I could let the painting blend off into
the edges of the image and maybe leave
| | 02:56 |
some areas in the original gray scale.
In this case though, I think I'm going to
| | 03:01 |
paint all the way out to the edge of the
image.
| | 03:03 |
Just keep in mind that you can be as
flexible and creative as you'd like, when
| | 03:07 |
using this technique.
I'll go ahead and choose a Shade of Green
| | 03:10 |
that might work well for the mountain
there in the background.
| | 03:14 |
That's Diamond Head in Hawaii.
So, I want something relatively kind of
| | 03:18 |
deep and almost jungle like.
That looks kind of interesting.
| | 03:22 |
Again, going for that sort of water
color, old post card sort of look.
| | 03:27 |
All right, so we'll paint into the rest of
the greenery here.
| | 03:31 |
Notice that I'm not worried about all the
various objects that we find in the
| | 03:34 |
background here.
For this technique we're not trying to
| | 03:37 |
produce a photo-realistic result.
It will obviously be an image that has
| | 03:42 |
been painted, so I don't need to worry
about all the fine details within the image.
| | 03:47 |
At this point I'm ready to go find a
shade of blue for my sky.
| | 03:51 |
Something that's a little bit deep, and
not too purply.
| | 03:55 |
No, that's way too saturated, so let's
undo that with a Cmd+Z on the Macintosh,
| | 03:59 |
or Ctrl+Z on Windows, and let's go find
something that's less saturated.
| | 04:04 |
No, that's still a little bit too
saturated, so I'll chose one more time here.
| | 04:09 |
Let's see.
that looks pretty good, so we'll go ahead
| | 04:12 |
and paint that into the sky.
No, I'm still not happy with it actually.
| | 04:17 |
So I'm going to go choose a Shade of
cyan.
| | 04:19 |
I think that might work out just a little
bit better for our sky.
| | 04:22 |
But a cyan that's reasonably close to
blue.
| | 04:25 |
I don't want it to look the same as the
water of course.
| | 04:29 |
Awe, that looks pretty nice.
And so we'll paint that into the sky
| | 04:32 |
areas of the image.
Now at any time if I decide that I don't
| | 04:36 |
like the effect I've produced, I can of
course go back and paint again.
| | 04:41 |
I can choose a different color and paint
over the same area as needed.
| | 04:46 |
But it can be helpful at times to go
sample an existing color, or to take a
| | 04:49 |
look at your work.
I'm going to turn off my Background Image
| | 04:53 |
Layer, and you can see where I've
painted.
| | 04:56 |
You can also see all the areas that I've
missed.
| | 04:59 |
Now in this case, I like that effect
because it gives me some streaks that
| | 05:02 |
don't have quite as much color in the
final image.
| | 05:05 |
But if you don't like them, you could
certainly fill them in.
| | 05:08 |
By turning off the Background Image
Layer, I can now see this layer a lot
| | 05:11 |
more easily, and I can fill in all of my
little gaps.
| | 05:16 |
I can also sample a color from here if
needed.
| | 05:19 |
For example, let's see I need to get back
to this shade of green, but I don't know
| | 05:22 |
how to accomplish that just through the
Color Picker.
| | 05:25 |
I will need to figure out what the
particular RGB values are for this color.
| | 05:30 |
I certainly could do that but when using
the Brush tool, it's much easier to
| | 05:33 |
simply hold the Alt key on Windows or the
Option key on Macintosh and Click on the
| | 05:37 |
color that I'd like to use.
I can then continue painting with that
| | 05:42 |
color, anywhere I would like.
When I'm finished cleaning up my work, I
| | 05:46 |
can turn on the Background Layer once
again, so that I can see the actual image.
| | 05:51 |
Painting color into a black and white
photo, allows you to make your own
| | 05:54 |
decisions about which colors are best for
a given image.
| | 05:58 |
It also allows you to create an image
that takes on the feel of a painting,
| | 06:03 |
more than a photograph.
| | 06:06 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Channel masking| 00:02 |
Most techniques for converting an image
to black and white, involve blending
| | 00:05 |
individual Color Channels at varying
percentages, but across the whole image.
| | 00:10 |
However, through the use of layer masks,
you can actually create an image that
| | 00:13 |
blends different channels through
different areas of the photo.
| | 00:17 |
In this lesson, I'll show you how it's
done.
| | 00:19 |
This technique utilizes the individual
color channels found in the image.
| | 00:24 |
So first, let's go to the Channels panel.
You can choose Window > Channels from the
| | 00:27 |
menu if it's not visible, and then we'll
click on the thumbnails of each of the
| | 00:30 |
individual color channels in turn.
Starting with red, then green, and then blue.
| | 00:36 |
As you can see, because different areas
of the image contain different
| | 00:40 |
percentages of each of these primary
colors, each of the channels looks quite
| | 00:43 |
a bit different.
The red and the green channels, in this
| | 00:47 |
case, are relatively similar to each
other, but there are some differences and
| | 00:50 |
the blue channel looks dramatically
different.
| | 00:53 |
I think I'm going to use the blue channel
as the basis of my final black and white
| | 00:56 |
image, and of course, I'll blend in
Elements of the green and the red
| | 00:59 |
channels as well.
I'll click on the RGB Thumbnail to get
| | 01:03 |
back to my color image, and then I'll
click on the panel pop-up menu at the
| | 01:06 |
top-right of the Channels panel, and I'll
choose Split Channels from the pop-up menu.
| | 01:11 |
This will split my image into three
separate images.
| | 01:15 |
Each of these is a grayscale image
representing one of the original channels.
| | 01:19 |
You can see the names of the images now
reflect the R for red, G for green, and B
| | 01:23 |
for blue.
So these are each of my individual channels.
| | 01:27 |
I'll switch my view, so that I can view
all three of these images at once, and
| | 01:31 |
then I'll choose the Move tool from the
toolbox holding the Shift key so the
| | 01:34 |
image will be centered.
I'll drag my green channel into the blue channel.
| | 01:40 |
I'll then go to my red channel, and drag
it, again, holding the Shift key, and
| | 01:43 |
drop it on the blue channel as well.
At this point, I can close my green and
| | 01:48 |
my red channel and I don't need to save
either of those.
| | 01:53 |
I'll go back to my Layers panel, and as
you can see, I have a background image
| | 01:56 |
layer, a Layer 1 and a Layer 2.
These represent the various channels
| | 02:01 |
within the image.
Now I want to use a layer mask, so that I
| | 02:05 |
can only see the background image layer,
but then, I can paint in certain elements
| | 02:09 |
from Layer 1 or Layer 2.
So I'll click on the thumbnail for Layer
| | 02:13 |
2, and then hold the Alt key on Windows
or the Option key on Macintosh, while
| | 02:17 |
clicking on the Add Layer Mask button,
the circle inside of a square icon at the
| | 02:20 |
bottom of the Layers panel.
By holding Alt or Option while clicking
| | 02:25 |
this button, the layer mask will be
filled with black by default.
| | 02:29 |
That means that this layer is hidden,
because black blocks and white reveals.
| | 02:34 |
I'll then click on Layer 1 and do the
exact same thing, holding the Alt Or
| | 02:37 |
option key while clicking on the Add
Layer Mask button.
| | 02:41 |
Now, I've blocked both Layer 1 and Layer
2, so all I'm seeing is the background
| | 02:45 |
image layer.
If I want to take a look at one of these
| | 02:49 |
other channels, I can temporarily disable
the Layer Mask.
| | 02:53 |
For example, I'll hold the Shift key and
click on layer 2, and then Shift+Click
| | 02:56 |
once again, and the same thing with Layer
1.
| | 03:00 |
This allows me to temporarily view that
particular layer, because I'm no longer
| | 03:03 |
blocking it.
As you can see, this layer has a good
| | 03:06 |
sky, and actually, the mountain looks
better here, too.
| | 03:10 |
So I'd like to use this layer in
conjunction with my original background
| | 03:13 |
image layer, the blue channel in this
case.
| | 03:16 |
So click on the Layer Mask, for Layer 2,
I'll choose the Brush tool from the tool
| | 03:20 |
box, and then press the letter D on the
keyboard to set the default colors.
| | 03:25 |
When working with a Layer Mask, those
defaults are white for the foreground and
| | 03:28 |
black for the background.
I'll then make sure that I'm using a
| | 03:32 |
brush with a 0% hardness, so I have a
nice, gradual transition for the painting
| | 03:35 |
I'm about to do.
Then I can paint directly on the image.
| | 03:41 |
What I'm really painting on, is the layer
mask, which means I'll be blocking or
| | 03:44 |
revealing specific areas of the image.
Using the left square bracket to reduce
| | 03:48 |
the size of the brush or the right square
bracket to increase the size of the
| | 03:52 |
brush, I can finetune the size of my
brush and then start painting.
| | 03:57 |
When I paint on the image with white, I'm
actually affecting the layer mask, and
| | 04:00 |
so, I'm revealing this portion of the
current image layer.
| | 04:04 |
In other words, I'm blending portions
from various channels.
| | 04:07 |
I've used my blue channel as the
underlying basis of the image, but then,
| | 04:11 |
I'm painting in areas from the other
channels.
| | 04:14 |
I think I'd also like to reveal a little
bit more detail for the flowers.
| | 04:18 |
I've disabled the layer mask for Layer 1
and it looks like that might be a better
| | 04:21 |
choice for my flowers.
However, I don't want to bring that in at
| | 04:26 |
full strength.
So now, I'm going to paint with white,
| | 04:30 |
but I'll do so at a 50% opacity.
So I'll set my opacity down to about 50%,
| | 04:35 |
and now, when I paint, I'm only adding
half of this layer to my underlying image layer.
| | 04:40 |
In this case, that will give me just a
little bit of detail without losing that
| | 04:44 |
nice bright effect in the flowers.
In fact, I think it works pretty well for
| | 04:48 |
the foliage and I might even brighten up
the trees just a little bit as well.
| | 04:53 |
I can continue working with any of my
layers here, painting with black to block
| | 04:57 |
a particular area or white to reveal the
area.
| | 05:00 |
And I can work at a reduced opacity as
needed if I want to partially reveal a
| | 05:04 |
particular area.
Blending channels through the use of
| | 05:07 |
Layer Masks affords you much more
flexibility compared to simply blending
| | 05:11 |
those channels based on their relative
contribution to luminosity values.
| | 05:16 |
There's no question this involves a fair
amount of work.
| | 05:19 |
But for some photos, that extra work can
result in a huge pay off.
| | 05:25 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Black-and-White ProjectsBlack-and-white portraits| 00:02 |
With a portrait, the focus tends to be,
of course, on the person that is the
| | 00:04 |
subject of the photo.
Quite often, removing the color element
| | 00:08 |
can help emphasize the person in the
image.
| | 00:11 |
In this lesson, we'll explore some of the
ways you might transform a color portrait
| | 00:15 |
into a black and white image.
Perhaps, even only with the partial black
| | 00:19 |
and white element.
We'll start off by converting this image
| | 00:22 |
to black and white.
I'll click to Add a New Adjustment Layer
| | 00:25 |
and choose Black and White from the
pop-up.
| | 00:27 |
And then, I'll adjust my controls here.
In this case, I think I might darken down
| | 00:31 |
the reds just a little bit and perhaps
brighten up the yellows.
| | 00:35 |
This will help give us a little bit more
contrast in those skin tones.
| | 00:38 |
Now, I am thinking at this point that
maybe it might actually be interesting if
| | 00:42 |
only the person went black and white and
the back were in color.
| | 00:47 |
So, I'm going to click on the Layer Mask
for my black and white adjustment.
| | 00:51 |
And then, I'll choose Image, Adjustments,
Invert from the menu.
| | 00:55 |
This will invert the Layer Mask, not the
image.
| | 00:57 |
So, the Layer Mask is now filled with
black.
| | 01:00 |
That means it's blocking the effect of
the adjustment.
| | 01:03 |
So now, the black and white conversion is
not visible.
| | 01:06 |
However, if I choose the Brush tool from
the toolbox, and then press the letter D
| | 01:10 |
to set my default colors, so that white
is the foreground color.
| | 01:15 |
I can paint using a soft brush, a
hardness of 0% and the opacity at 100%.
| | 01:21 |
This will allow me to paint into the
image where I want the effect to be visible.
| | 01:25 |
In this case, my black and white
conversion.
| | 01:27 |
So, I'll paint into the person here, so
that I can only see black and white where
| | 01:31 |
the person is and the rest of the image
appears in color.
| | 01:35 |
Now, obviously I'm just going to do a
quick job here, so that we don't waste a
| | 01:38 |
lot of time trying to paint into the
image.
| | 01:41 |
And I'm actually going to paint around
the perimeter of the person here first,
| | 01:45 |
and then use a larger brush to sort of
fill in the details.
| | 01:49 |
As you can see, painting in white is
revealing the effect of this Adjustment
| | 01:52 |
Layer, so that in this case the person is
black and white and the background is
| | 01:55 |
still in color.
And to me, that seems to emphasize the
| | 02:00 |
person all the more.
It sort of draws attention to the person
| | 02:03 |
because it looks unique.
It's what jumps out at us as being
| | 02:07 |
something special.
There, that looks pretty good, I think
| | 02:10 |
I've gotten just about the entire area
here painted properly.
| | 02:13 |
So, we have black and white for the
person and color for the background.
| | 02:17 |
Now, I think we could also use a little
bit more contrast.
| | 02:20 |
If we experiment around with some of the
sliders here, we might find some better
| | 02:23 |
interpretations of the image.
For example, the yellows are helping to
| | 02:27 |
brighten up certain areas and the reds,
you know, there's a lot of reds in the
| | 02:30 |
skin tones here, so I don't want to go
too bright or things will start to look a
| | 02:33 |
little bit artificial.
I think that's a pretty good starting
| | 02:38 |
point, but I'd like a bit more contrast.
So, I'm going to add a Curves Adjustment
| | 02:42 |
Layer, and then we'll brighten up the
highlights and darken up the shadows a
| | 02:45 |
little bit to give ourselves a bit more
contrast.
| | 02:49 |
I'd also like to fix a few blemishes
here.
| | 02:51 |
So, I'm going to click on my Background
Image Layer.
| | 02:54 |
And then, I'll create a new layer.
Double-clicking the name of the layer,
| | 02:57 |
I'll give it a different name.
Instead of layer 1, which isn't exactly
| | 03:01 |
meaningful, I'll call this clean up.
I'll then choose my Spot Healing Brush
| | 03:05 |
and I'll Zoom In a little bit on the
image.
| | 03:08 |
Now, to use the Spot Healing Brush on a
separate layer, I need to make sure that
| | 03:11 |
I have my Sample All Layers check box
turned on.
| | 03:15 |
However, in order to ensure that
everything will match up, I need to turn
| | 03:18 |
off my other layers.
So, in this case, I'll have only my
| | 03:22 |
Background Image Layer and my Cleanup
Layer as active.
| | 03:25 |
I can then use the Content Aware feature
of the Spot Healing Brush to simply paint
| | 03:29 |
over areas that I would like to remove.
And they'll be cleaned up automatically.
| | 03:35 |
So, I can get rid of a few blemishes here
and there.
| | 03:38 |
And there's a couple of hairs here, some
whiskers that are a little bit
| | 03:40 |
distracting, so I'll get rid of those.
And I can continue cleaning up anything
| | 03:45 |
I'd like.
When I'm happy, I'll Zoom back out here.
| | 03:49 |
And of course, I'll turn on my Adjustment
Layer, so that we're back to the image as
| | 03:52 |
we last left it.
Now, I like that color effect in the
| | 03:55 |
background, but it's a little bit too
cool.
| | 03:58 |
So, I think I'm going to add a Color
Balance Adjustment Layer, so that I can
| | 04:01 |
shift the color just a little bit.
I'll take the Yellow Blue slider a little
| | 04:05 |
bit toward yellow.
And we'll take cyan red over toward the
| | 04:09 |
red and ooh, that's looking much, much
nicer.
| | 04:12 |
It is a little bit too vibrance though.
So, I'm going to reduce the vibrance, the
| | 04:16 |
saturation of the image using the
Vibrance Adjustment Layer.
| | 04:20 |
In this case, a simple reduction of
vibrance will help to tone those colors
| | 04:23 |
down just a little bit.
Now, keep in mind, by changing the color
| | 04:27 |
in the image, you are impacting the black
and white conversion.
| | 04:30 |
So, you might want to revisit your black
and white adjustment after applying any
| | 04:34 |
color changes.
In this case, I think the overall
| | 04:37 |
conversion is fine, I just need a little
bit darker dark areas in the image, so
| | 04:40 |
I'll go back to curves and make a
refinement there.
| | 04:44 |
Well, I think that's looking a lot more
interesting.
| | 04:47 |
I'll scroll down to the bottom of the
Layers panel and hold the Alt key on
| | 04:50 |
Windows or the Option key on Macintosh
and click the Eye icon, so that only the
| | 04:54 |
original background color image is
visible.
| | 04:58 |
I can then, continue to hold the alter
option key.
| | 05:00 |
And click again to reveal all layers.
As you can see, we've got an image with a
| | 05:04 |
little bit more impact here.
By exercising some flexibility and
| | 05:08 |
control over your portraits, you can
create a unique result, that may resonate
| | 05:13 |
better with your intended audience.
| | 05:17 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| A classic car| 00:02 |
Sometimes, a subject just begs for a
black and white interpretation.
| | 00:05 |
That tends to be especially the case when
a subject is something that harkens back
| | 00:09 |
to an older time.
In this case, I have an image of an old
| | 00:12 |
car set against the backdrop of a classic
hotel.
| | 00:15 |
And so, a black and white interpretation
seems a natural fit.
| | 00:18 |
In fact, to me, this image conveys the
mood of an old classic movie.
| | 00:22 |
So I'll keep that vision in mind as I'm
working.
| | 00:25 |
To get started, I'll add a Black and
White Adjustment Layer, which of course,
| | 00:28 |
is the first step in making a black and
white image in most cases.
| | 00:32 |
And I'll start working with the various
sliders here to see what it might do to
| | 00:35 |
the image.
I want to pay attention to which areas
| | 00:39 |
are affected by each of my sliders as I
adjust them.
| | 00:42 |
I could also use the On-Image adjustment.
But in this case, I think I'll just
| | 00:46 |
explore around with the different sliders
and see what it does to the image.
| | 00:50 |
Now, I definitely like the brightening
effect of the white walls, but I need to
| | 00:53 |
be careful that the chrome doesn't get
too hot.
| | 00:56 |
So I don't think that I can get the white
walls as bright as I like.
| | 00:59 |
So we'll come back and use a different
technique for that.
| | 01:02 |
And finally, taking a look at the
magentas, not much influence there.
| | 01:05 |
And so, this seems to be a pretty good
starting point for my basic conversion.
| | 01:09 |
I would like a bit more contrast though,
so I'm going to add a Curves Adjustment
| | 01:12 |
Layer, and then I'll apply a bit of an
S-curve here.
| | 01:15 |
Darkening up the dark areas and
brightening up the brights, but I need to
| | 01:19 |
be careful about the specific adjustment
I apply.
| | 01:22 |
Again, I don't want to produce too bright
an area in the chrome, and I don't
| | 01:25 |
want to darken the overall shadows too
much.
| | 01:28 |
So I think I'm going to add an extra
anchor point to keep the shadow areas
| | 01:30 |
from getting too dark and I might
actually brighten up some of the other
| | 01:33 |
shadow areas.
That's looking a little bit better.
| | 01:37 |
We're getting something that looks a
little bit more contrasty.
| | 01:41 |
I'll turn off the eye for the Curves
Adjustment later so we can see the
| | 01:43 |
before, and then, click again to see the
after.
| | 01:47 |
As you can see, it's a relatively subtle
change, just increasing contrast a little bit.
| | 01:52 |
Now, I would like to brighten up the
white wall just a little bit, and I think
| | 01:55 |
I might darken this portion of the
fender, so I'm going to add a Dodge and
| | 01:57 |
Burn layer.
I'll hold the Alt key on Windows or the
| | 02:02 |
Option key on Macintosh while clicking to
create a new layer button.
| | 02:06 |
I'll call this layer Dodge and Burns
since that's what I'm using this layer
| | 02:09 |
for and I'll change the blend mode for
the layer to overlay.
| | 02:13 |
I'll then check the box to fill this
layer with the overlay neutral color of
| | 02:16 |
50% gray.
I'll click OK, and then press the letter
| | 02:20 |
B to access my Brush tool, and the letter
D for my default colors, and the letter X
| | 02:24 |
to swap those colors, so that white is my
foreground color.
| | 02:29 |
I'll work with a Soft Edge Brush, but
I'll set my Opacity down to probably
| | 02:33 |
about 10 or 15%.
I'll use 15% in this case.
| | 02:37 |
I'll use the left and right square
bracket keys to reduce or enlarge the
| | 02:40 |
brush as needed, and then in this case,
I'll paint across the white wall.
| | 02:45 |
Actually I think maybe we can go a little
brighter with that, so I'll take another
| | 02:48 |
swipe with my brush tool here, painting
with white to lighten it up a little bit.
| | 02:52 |
And then I'll press X to switch the
foreground and background colors, so that
| | 02:55 |
black is my foreground color and I'll
paint with black across the top of the
| | 02:58 |
fender here to darken that up just a
little bit.
| | 03:02 |
And maybe I might darken up underneath
the car here just a hair.
| | 03:06 |
But otherwise, I think we're in pretty
good shape.there.
| | 03:08 |
I think I'd like to add a vignette effect
for this image, so I'll hold the Alt key
| | 03:11 |
on Windows or the Option key on Macintosh
while clicking to add a new layer.
| | 03:16 |
We'll call this one Vignette, change the
blend mode to Multiply,and click to turn
| | 03:20 |
on the check box to fill with the
multiplying neutral color.
| | 03:25 |
I'll then choose Filter > Lens
Correction, and I'm going to go to the
| | 03:29 |
custom tap and then apply a darkening
vignette.
| | 03:33 |
Now I only want this vignette to appear
right in the corners of the image just at
| | 03:37 |
the very, very edges, and so, I'll
actually increase the midpoint value a
| | 03:40 |
little bit so that the midpoint spreads
out and only the extreme edges of the
| | 03:43 |
image are affected.
I'll then click OK, and I can reduce the
| | 03:49 |
Opacity to tone down the effect just a
little bit.
| | 03:53 |
Turning this layer on and off, you can
see that I've actually had a pretty
| | 03:55 |
strong effect on the image helping to
pull you down into the center.
| | 03:59 |
Now I like the direction I've taken this
image but I think actually what would
| | 04:02 |
give it a little bit more of that classic
feel would be a sepia tone effect.
| | 04:07 |
So I'll scroll down on my layers panel to
my Black and White Adjustment Layer and
| | 04:10 |
click on it, so that I can see the
controls for the Black and White Layer on
| | 04:13 |
the Adjustments panel.
I'll click to turn on the tint check box,
| | 04:17 |
and then I'll click on the color swatch
to bring up the color picker.
| | 04:22 |
Now, I want something that's not very
saturated and maybe just a little bit warm.
| | 04:27 |
I don't want it to be too yellow or too
orange, something like that, but a little
| | 04:30 |
less saturated.
Right about in there I think.
| | 04:34 |
It's not going to take too much color to
give just a little hint of color to the
| | 04:37 |
image and give it a nice sort of Dusty
old appearance.
| | 04:42 |
That's looking pretty good, so I'll click
OK.
| | 04:44 |
And as you can see, by thinking about how
the subject would be best represented,
| | 04:48 |
you can often produce a black and white
interpretation that is more impactful
| | 04:53 |
than might otherwise be possible with a
color image.
| | 04:58 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| A landscape| 00:02 |
In this lesson, we're going to take a
look at an image that was captured in
| | 00:04 |
large part because of the color.
And then we'll remove that color in an
| | 00:08 |
effort to find a more creative and
interesting interpretation of the image.
| | 00:12 |
Let's get started.
We'll go ahead and add a Black and White
| | 00:15 |
Adjustment Layer, and we'll start to
adjust the various colors.
| | 00:19 |
But in this case I think I'm going to
work directly on the image.
| | 00:22 |
So I'll turn on the On-Image Adjustment
and then I'll point to various areas of
| | 00:25 |
the image that I want to lighten or
darken, and Click and Drag left to darken
| | 00:28 |
or right to lighten.
So for example, I'd like to darken the
| | 00:33 |
sky, so I'll point to the sky, and Click
and Drag leftward.
| | 00:36 |
And I think I'd like to brighten up the
wheat just a little bit, so I'll Click
| | 00:39 |
and Drag on the wheat, over toward the
right.
| | 00:42 |
And then I can play with some of the
other sliders here, just to see if
| | 00:44 |
they're going to have any real
contribution to the overall image.
| | 00:48 |
And that's looking pretty good.
Magentas are not present too much at all,
| | 00:52 |
it looks like, so I think that gives us a
pretty good starting point.
| | 00:56 |
I would like to have a little bit more
contrast, so I'll go ahead and add a
| | 00:59 |
Curves Adjustment, and maybe darken up
the deeper shadows just a little bit.
| | 01:04 |
Don't want to take that too far, and
brighten up the brighter areas, but
| | 01:07 |
really probably just taking those bright
areas back to where they were before I
| | 01:11 |
started darkening up the darker areas.
That looks a bit more interesting.
| | 01:17 |
You know, the interesting thing here, is
that I've got a black and white Image,
| | 01:20 |
and I'm starting to like the way this is
going, but the image was really all about color.
| | 01:24 |
So it might be interesting to bring back
some of that color.
| | 01:27 |
In other words, we're really then fading
back the color, to give the image
| | 01:30 |
something of a, maybe weathered
appearance, which seems suitable for the scene.
| | 01:35 |
So I'll go to my Black and White
Adjustment Layer, clicking to make sure
| | 01:38 |
it's active, and then at the top of the
Layers panel, I'll adjust my opacity control.
| | 01:43 |
right about there, maybe 84% it looks
like might be a good value.
| | 01:48 |
Where I'm letting that color show though,
but it's really been faded back rather significantly.
| | 01:53 |
Now I also think I might like to lighten
the outer edges of the image.
| | 01:57 |
So I'll click on my Background Image
Layer to make it active and then I'll
| | 02:00 |
hold the Alt key on Windows or the Option
Key on Macintosh while clicking on the
| | 02:03 |
Create New Layer button at the bottom of
the layers panel.
| | 02:08 |
I'm going to call this layer, Lighten
Vignette, because I'm going to apply a
| | 02:11 |
vignette effect, but one that lightens
rather than darkens the outer edges of
| | 02:15 |
the image.
I'll change the Blend mode to overlay,
| | 02:19 |
and turn on the Check Box to fill this
layer with the overlay neutral color of
| | 02:22 |
50% gray.
I'll click OK and then I can choose
| | 02:26 |
Filter Lens Correction, from the menu, to
bring up the Lens Correction Dialog.
| | 02:32 |
Going to the Custom Tab, I'll increase
the amount for Vignette to lighten up
| | 02:36 |
those edges and I can also adjust the
midpoint.
| | 02:39 |
In this case, I think I might pull it
into the center a little bit more of the image.
| | 02:43 |
That looks pretty good so I'll click OK,
and then I can adjust the opacity as needed.
| | 02:48 |
In this case, just taking it down a tiny
little bit, so I'm not brightening quite
| | 02:52 |
as much.
But if you notice, if I turn off the
| | 02:54 |
visibility of my lightened Vignette
Layer, I'm actually having a rather
| | 02:57 |
strong effect on the image.
And that helps add to that sort of faded
| | 03:01 |
look that we've got going on here.
Sometimes it's helpful to think beyond
| | 03:05 |
your original intent for a photo, and
instead, think of all the possibilities
| | 03:09 |
that might exist.
Including the potential for some
| | 03:12 |
variations on a black and white version
of the image.
| | 03:15 |
For example in this case, the color was a
primary motivation for taking the photo
| | 03:18 |
in the first place.
And yet, in some ways, I find this black
| | 03:22 |
and white version of the image to be more
reflective of the environment of the photo.
| | 03:29 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Sepia prayer sticks| 00:02 |
In certain situations, the best approach
to a photo involves a variety of effects,
| | 00:05 |
that work together to create the right
mood.
| | 00:09 |
In this lesson, we'll take a look at an
image that needs a bit of work to convey
| | 00:12 |
the emotion behind the original
photograph.
| | 00:16 |
I captured this image on a trip to Japan.
I was wandering around Tokyo and found a
| | 00:20 |
courtyard with several Buddhist trans and
a small cemetery.
| | 00:23 |
I'm fascinated by foreign cultures and by
cemeteries, so I proceeded to take some pictures.
| | 00:29 |
I was feeling a bit self conscious, not
wanting to offend anyone, and being very
| | 00:32 |
respectful of my surroundings.
When I captured this image, I had the
| | 00:37 |
feeling, I was going to be very happy
with it.
| | 00:39 |
Moments later, an elderly Japanese woman
got my attention in the courtyard.
| | 00:44 |
She motioned me over to her.
I thought for sure, I was going to be in
| | 00:47 |
big trouble.
Instead, she lead me over the one of the
| | 00:50 |
shrines, and proceeded to teach me how to
pray.
| | 00:53 |
All this, despite the fact, that she
spoke no English, and I spoke just about
| | 00:56 |
no Japanese.
It was an incredible experience and I
| | 01:00 |
couldn't wait to get back to the hotel,
and start working on this photo.
| | 01:04 |
When I did get back to the hotel, I was
rather disappointed in the image.
| | 01:07 |
It just didn't convey the magic of what I
had experienced earlier in the day.
| | 01:12 |
So I set about working with the image in
Photoshop, in an effort to get close to
| | 01:15 |
the emotion of my experience.
I started off thinking that this photo
| | 01:19 |
represented an older time, so it seemed
black and white was a good start.
| | 01:23 |
That involved of course adding a black
and white adjustment layer, and then fine
| | 01:27 |
tuning the sliders, in order to see if I
could acheive a little bit better
| | 01:30 |
starting point for this interpretation of
the image.
| | 01:34 |
In large part that meant trying to find
good contrast within the image.
| | 01:39 |
Of course the image itself is relatively
monochromatic, and so as you can see
| | 01:43 |
here, adjusting most of the sliders
doesn't have a very significant affect on
| | 01:46 |
the image.
But I still wanted to explore each of
| | 01:50 |
them, to try to produce the best overall
result.
| | 01:54 |
I also decided that black and white by
itself didn't quite give me that somewhat
| | 01:58 |
ethereal feel, that, you know, sense of
an older time, and so I decided that
| | 02:01 |
maybe a sepia tone effect might be good.
Turning on the tint check box, I can then
| | 02:08 |
click on the Color Swatch and choose a
color that seems to be most appropriate
| | 02:11 |
for this image.
In this case, a warm sepia that's not too
| | 02:16 |
overly saturated, seems to be the best
result.
| | 02:19 |
Clicking OK to apply that color tint, you
can see that now we have a reasonably
| | 02:23 |
good result, but it's still looking a
little flat, and almost lifeless.
| | 02:28 |
So I added a curves adjustment.
With curves, I was able to increase
| | 02:32 |
contrast, without sacrificing any
highlight, or shadow detail.
| | 02:36 |
I wanted the image to be a little bit
more impactful, and so I added an S
| | 02:39 |
curve, in order to really give the image
a little bit of impact.
| | 02:44 |
Of course at this point things are
starting to look reasonably good.
| | 02:47 |
I think maybe a vignette effect might
help frame the image, helping to keep the
| | 02:51 |
viewer's eye focused on the image itself
and not drifting outside.
| | 02:56 |
To do that I'll hold the Alt key on
Windows or the Option key on Macintosh,
| | 02:59 |
while clicking on the Create New Layer
button at the bottom of the layers panel.
| | 03:04 |
I'll call this layer vignette, and change
the blend mode to multiply.
| | 03:09 |
That will allow me to apply a darkening
effect, via this layer.
| | 03:12 |
I'll then turn on the Fill with Multiply
Neutral Color, which happens to be white.
| | 03:17 |
Clicking OK, you can see that the new
layer is added.
| | 03:20 |
I can now go to the filter menu and
choose Lens Correction.
| | 03:24 |
Going immediately to the Custom tab, I'll
reduce the amount setting, which will
| | 03:28 |
darken the edges of the image and then I
can fine tune the midpoint.
| | 03:32 |
In this case, I don't want the effect to
come too far into the image, but I do
| | 03:35 |
want a very dark effect, which I can of
course fine tune after the fact.
| | 03:40 |
I'll click OK here to close the lens
correction dialog, and as you can see I
| | 03:43 |
have the darkening effect around the edge
of the image.
| | 03:47 |
To get a better sense, we can turn off
the visibility of that vignette layer.
| | 03:50 |
I think this is a little bit too strong,
so I'll reduce the opasity for that
| | 03:54 |
vignette layer.
In fact, I'll reduce it enough that at
| | 03:57 |
first glance it almost seems like I've
eliminated the vignetting.
| | 04:00 |
However, again, turning off the vignette
layer and then turning it back on, we can
| | 04:04 |
see that we've darkened up those sort of
background areas and some of the
| | 04:07 |
foreground that really aren't critical.
And this helps to keep the viewer focused
| | 04:12 |
on the primary subjects in the center.
At this point, I was feeling much better
| | 04:16 |
about the image.
And in fact, I went on to use it in
| | 04:19 |
several different books.
I learned later that these are prayer
| | 04:22 |
sticks, that are used to honor someone
who's passed away on the anniversary of
| | 04:26 |
their death.
By focusing on the mood that existed when
| | 04:29 |
the image was originally captured, you
can often create a much more impactful
| | 04:33 |
file result.
As you've seen in this lesson, that often
| | 04:36 |
involves several steps as you make your
way toward the final image.
| | 04:40 |
And keep in mind we can get an overall
before and after view of the image by
| | 04:43 |
holding the Alt key on Windows or the
Option key on Macintosh and clicking the
| | 04:47 |
Eye Icon associated with the background
image layer.
| | 04:51 |
This will make only that layer visible.
Holding the Alt or Option key and
| | 04:55 |
clicking again, all layers becomes
visible.
| | 04:58 |
This allows us to get a good before and
after view of the image, with all of the
| | 05:01 |
adjustments turned off, and then all of
the adjustments turned on.
| | 05:06 |
And hopefully you'll agree that from the
before to the after, represents an image
| | 05:11 |
that really conveys a much better sense
of the experience that I had.
| | 05:17 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| An infrared zen garden| 00:02 |
Sometimes there simply isn't a way to
capture in color the impact of a
| | 00:05 |
particular scene.
In this lesson we'll explore just such an image.
| | 00:09 |
This photo of a zen garden in Kyoto,
Japan represents a very ethereal and
| | 00:13 |
peaceful experience.
And yet the full color photo doesn't
| | 00:17 |
convey that mood.
Let's take a look at how we might achieve
| | 00:20 |
the emotion of the experience in the
final image.
| | 00:23 |
When I think about the experience I was
having when I photographed this image, I
| | 00:26 |
think the main word that comes to mind is
ethereal, and so I wanted to convey
| | 00:29 |
something of a more ethereal experience
here.
| | 00:34 |
To start with I felt that that required
me to remove the color from the image and
| | 00:37 |
so the first step here will be to add a
new black and white adjustment layer.
| | 00:41 |
Now black and white image by itself is
certainly interesting but in this
| | 00:44 |
particular case I think an infrared
interpretation will produce something
| | 00:47 |
that's a little bit more dream like and
ethereal.
| | 00:51 |
So I'll increase the value for the green
slider in order to brighten up the foliage.
| | 00:55 |
Of course, most foliage contains a lot of
yellow so I'll also increase the yellow's slider.
| | 01:01 |
Now I'll find tune each of these
adjustments so that I don't end up with
| | 01:04 |
an image with blown out highlight detail.
I just want glowing foliage, but without
| | 01:09 |
sacrificing detail in those areas.
I can then fine-tune the other sliders to
| | 01:13 |
produce a more interesting effect, mostly
looking for opportunities to enhance
| | 01:17 |
contrast just a little bit.
Now if there were a sky in the image, I
| | 01:21 |
would also want to further the infrared
experience by darkening that sky,
| | 01:25 |
reducing the value for cyans and blues as
needed.
| | 01:29 |
At this point I think my basic result is
looking pretty good so I am ready to move
| | 01:32 |
onto the next phase of enhancing this
overall appearance.
| | 01:36 |
With an infrared and any dream like type
of image to me a nice, soft glow really
| | 01:40 |
seems to be impactful.
So I'm going to create a copy of my
| | 01:44 |
background image layer.
To do so, I'll simply click and drag that
| | 01:48 |
layer onto my create new layer button.
The blank sheet of paper icon at the
| | 01:53 |
bottom of the layer's panel.
This creates a background copy layer
| | 01:56 |
which I can adjust as needed.
In this case that involves applying a blur.
| | 02:01 |
But I don't want to make the image simply
appear out of focus.
| | 02:04 |
Rather I just want an ethereal glow.
So to start with I'm going to reduce the
| | 02:09 |
opacity for the layer down to about 50%.
That won't actually change the appearance
| | 02:14 |
of the image at the moment because I'm
just revealing the same image down below.
| | 02:18 |
But this will make it easier to preview
the effect I'm about to apply and that is
| | 02:22 |
to apply a blur to this layer.
So I'll choose filter blur Gaussian blur
| | 02:27 |
from the menu which will bring up the
Gaussian blur dialog.
| | 02:31 |
I'm going to set this to about ten pixels
for the moment just so that we can see
| | 02:34 |
the effect.
Notice that in the preview for the
| | 02:37 |
gaussian blur dialog I'm actually
making the image appear out of focus.
| | 02:42 |
Focus.
But in the actual photo, the effect is
| | 02:44 |
more of a halo, a glow to the image.
The image still appears to be in sharp
| | 02:49 |
focus; it just has a little bit of
haziness to it.
| | 02:53 |
That's because I'm blurring my background
copy layer, but it's at a reduced opacity
| | 02:56 |
so I can see the sharp image.
Down below.
| | 02:59 |
i can continue to fine tune the radius
setting to determine how much of a glow
| | 03:02 |
and how much apparent detail I want to
remain visible.
| | 03:06 |
Generally speaking somewhere around ten
pixels works pretty well for most images.
| | 03:11 |
I'll go ahead and click OK, and then I
can fine tune the opacity in order to
| | 03:15 |
adjust how visible that glow will be.
At a 100% setting, of course the image
| | 03:20 |
will appear out of focus, and at a 0%
setting, the image will appear as its
| | 03:23 |
original, in crisp focus.
I can adjust to taste.
| | 03:28 |
Generally speaking, a more subtle effect
is good, but you can fine tune based on
| | 03:31 |
what you think looks best for the image.
Finally I think I'll add a film grain
| | 03:36 |
effect to this image.
I'll go ahead and hold the alt key on
| | 03:39 |
Windows or the option key on Macintosh.
And then click on the create new layer
| | 03:43 |
button at the bottom of the layers panel.
I'll call this layer, film grain and then
| | 03:48 |
change the blend mode to hard light.
I'll also turn on the check box so that
| | 03:52 |
this layer will be filled with 50% gray,
which is the neutral color for the hard
| | 03:55 |
light blend mode.
I'll click OK to create this layer and
| | 04:00 |
then I'll choose filter, noise, add
noise.
| | 04:02 |
With the monochromatic check-box turned
on, and the Gaussian option selected for
| | 04:07 |
distribution, Ill adjust the amount to
taste.
| | 04:11 |
Now in this case of course I'm adjusting
the film grain which I'll later tone down
| | 04:14 |
a little bit so you need to focus more on
the structure of the grain than on the
| | 04:17 |
actual effect in the image.
This looks pretty good, so I'll click,
| | 04:22 |
Okay, and then I'll reduce the opacity
for this film grain layer.
| | 04:26 |
In this case, I'll take it down very,
very low, because I'm really am just
| | 04:30 |
trying to add a little bit of texture to
the image.
| | 04:33 |
I also think the image would benefit from
a little bit more contrast, so I'll click
| | 04:36 |
on the topmost layer, which happens to be
my black and white layer, and then add a
| | 04:39 |
curves adjustment layer, to the stack on
the layer's panel.
| | 04:44 |
I'll focus more of my attention on the
brights here, basically adding an S curve
| | 04:47 |
where I'm boosting the highlights more
than I'm darkening the shadows.
| | 04:52 |
But I'll fine tune as I see fit, trying
to produce a nice ethereal effect that
| | 04:56 |
isn't too contrasty but still has a
little bit of impact to it.
| | 05:00 |
It can often be helpful to think about
the emotion behind the experience of
| | 05:04 |
capturing an image when it comes to
interpreting that image in Photoshop.
| | 05:08 |
By thinking about what the original
experience was like, you'll be able to
| | 05:13 |
interpret that experience and create a
meaningful image.
| | 05:18 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
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