16 bits to the Rescue!

Ask any retoucher what their number one arch nemesis is and they'll probably say "Banding"!

You know them, those curving lines separating each band of color as the tones go from light to dark. These bands are caused when each step in color stands there screaming for attention. They taunt us while we endlessly work to chase them away.

Kind of like this:

Recently I was working on a series of images for a luxury lifestyle brand. The final step in working on these files was to give them a cool color treatment. Two of the images were very similar shots of the model, Amanda, in a kitchen setting. After applying the vignetting and color grading to these images the bands above popped up saying "Hi there!".

Here's where many retouchers would say, "Should have been working in 16 bits from the start!" But alas here we were, right at the final step when we're getting bitten by that 8 bit banding bug. Too late for such a simple fix, right?

Maybe not!

You see that was when I remembered a tip from one of my retoucher friends, Carolyn Winslow. While most folks would say it's too late to gain anything by converting the file from 8 bits to 16 bits per channel Carolyn had shown me this very cool trick that saved the day.

So I took my layered file, complete with all the adjustment and vignetting layers and converted it from 8 bits to 16 bits. At first there was no difference. Zooming into a 100% view gave me a nice smooth image, but any other view brought back those vicious bands.

But then I flattened the file and Voila! the bands disappeared, vanquished by the coolest, easiest trick of all.

This coolness works because as Photoshop converts the file from 8 bits per channel to 16 bits it adds just enough dithering to break up those bands. But while we're looking at the layered file Photoshop still gets hung up in the way it draws the image on the screen. Flattening the image completes the process and makes it much easier for Photoshop to reveal the nice smooth gradations we wanted all along.

With the bands gone we can convert the image back to 8 bits if we want, safe in the knowledge that our enemy, the evil bands, have been vanquished once and for all.

Layer Style Noise

Every retoucher knows that just the right touch of Noise can help hide various issues when working on an image. There's something about the random texture Noise adds that helps hide areas where there might be some artifacts left after working on extensive spotting or reconstruction of an image.

The most common way to add Noise is to create a new layer, set the Blending Mode to "Overlay", fill it with 50% gray then use the "Add Noise" filter. This method works well, but it can be a little in-flexible as well as adding considerable data to our files resulting in larger files.

Several years ago a retoucher friend tipped me on to the idea of using a Pattern Fill layer to add Noise. This method takes a bit of setup, but basically the idea is to create and save a series of patterns with different amounts of Noise and then use them in a Pattern Fill layer instead of the more common way described above.

Since this method is based on a Pattern and a formula it not only adds fewer Megabytes to your file size, but you can easily change the Pattern by simply clicking on it in the appropriate window and choosing a new Pattern.

This method works great and it's been my favorite way of adding Noise for several years.

But what if you're working on a file that has several layers and you just need to add Noise to 1 or 2 of these layers? How could we apply this same idea to these layers without having to set up Clipping Groups or doing careful masking?

That's where using a Layer Style to add Noise comes in!

Here's a closely cropped portion of a composited image I worked on with photographer Richard Radstone. This image has many, many layers that all needed to be blended into one seamless composite. The Layers palette on the left shows just a portion of the layers used in creating this image, but for this example let's suppose we needed to add Noise to the lamp (this layer is highlighted in Blue in the Layers palette.)

 

The usual method to add Noise to the Lamp would perhaps be to make a Selection surrounding the lamp, then making a new layer where the Noise is added. But with this new idea if you already have made the Noise Patterns all you have to do is go to Layer>Layer Style then choose Pattern Overlay as shown below.

Now all we need to do is choose the right Noise Pattern, set the Blending Mode to "Overlay", perhaps choose to scale the Noise (here I'm scaling it a lot so it will show more clearly in this example) and then click "OK".

 

Here's what the lamp looks like with our Noise Layer Style:

 

The advantage with this method really shows up if you've done extensive retouching and need to bring in a bit more texture to hide some artifacts, or make your work blend in a little better. Layer Style Noise can easily be added to layers that are in the middle of a Clipping Group without affecting the other layers in the Clipping Group making it lots easier to add the Noise only where you need it.

Cool, eh?

Green Screen Double Step

Here's a quick tip on using a 2 step process to create a Layer Mask for an image shot against a Green Screen using Photoshop's Refine Mask tool along with the History Brush.

In this process we'll combine a mask that works great on one part of the image with another mask that works better for another part creating a better overall mask.

Check Your Masks

Often when making Layer Masks with selections created by using tools such as Channel Pulls, Color Range, or even the Magic Wand holes can be left behind that can cause problems in your image.

Here's a quick tutorial discussing a technique I use to make sure my Layer Masks are clean.

ColorThink to the rescue! (Color Mapping for non-Color Geeks)

When it comes to working with digital images one of the most hotly contested topics can be: Which Color Space is best to work in? On some forums this is a question that can be sure to ignite quite the debate where sides are taken and defended with a religious ferocity that turns off all but the most devout color geeks. Flaming debates aside this is still an important question for photographers and anyone that works to produce high quality images.

Basically it comes down to this: each color space defines a particular range of colors that can be used. Among the usual suspects sRGB, which is based on the colors a typical lower end monitor can display, has the smallest gamut. On the other end of the scale is ProPhoto RGB which was designed to contain all the colors Kodak's Ektachrome slide file could possibly produce. In the middle lies Adobe RGB which many folks consider to be a good compromise between the 2 extremes.

The real answer is that what is best for you depends on the images you create and where you're planning to display them. And to help you visualize just how your images fit within the various color spaces I highly recommend doing a quick experiment using a great utility from my friend Steve Upton's company, Chromix, called ColorThink.



Steve and his crew are the kind of color geeks I love because they always strive to give you the straight story, making highly technical topics understandable by regular folks. In fact Steve is famous for comparing Color Management to the color of toast you get from your toaster. (Just how dark is dark?)

ColorThink is a very useful little program with a lot of cool tools for color geeks, but with regards to deciding which color space is best for you it has one tool in particular that let's us compare the colors contained in any particular image with the gamut of any particular color space.

So if you have a great shot of a landscape and you're wondering which color space is the best fit for this image you can use this tool to see just how it matches up with sRGB, Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB. As you test out more and more of your images you'll start to become more familiar with how any particular scene might match up with the color spaces and even be able to pre-visualize how you're going to process that image to get the result you're looking for. (Holy Ansel Adams!)

Here's how you do it.

1) Select a few sample RAW images and using your favorite RAW processor process one version of each image into each color space you want to compare it to. Save these test images as a JPEG or Tiff with the profile embedded. (If an image has already been processed into say sRGB of course all the colors will fit into sRGB. We're looking to see what happens to the colors as they're processed into the different color spaces.)

2) Open ColorThink, I'm using ColorThink 2.2, and bring up the 3D graph window.



3) Clicking on the Add button as shown above brings up a list of standard profiles. The standard RGB working spaces are already in this list so all you have to is click on the ones you want to use in the comparison. Below you can see that I've added Adobe RGB and have set it to show as a wire frame, (the easiest viewing method for our test here.)




4) To turn your image into a Color List that can be used for this test click on the Image Inspector button and navigate the "Open" dialogue to the image you want to use. Here is the image I used for my test:



5) As you can see this tool shows you the Embedded Profile and gives you a few options to get more info on the profile etc. From here instead of clicking on one of those options just click on the image preview and drag and drop the image onto your 3D graph window to add it to the graph.



You can see here that my image is now represented on the graph as a series of dots. These dots represent the various colors that are actually in the image. For this test I chose a version of the image I had processed into ProPhoto RGB and you can see there are just a few very light colors poking out above the wireframe of the Adobe RGB gamut.

6) When you move your cursor over the 3D Graph window it becomes a hand that lets you move the preview around in 3D space. To get a better view of just how the colors match up use the hand tool to spin the graph around watching as you do. Here is a different angle of view for that same graph that shows where those light colors poke out from the gamut of the Adobe RGB color space.



What we see here is that some very light colors on the red side are just beyond the gamut of the Adobe RGB space so now I have an idea of just what colors might be affected by using Adobe RGB compared to ProPhoto RGB.

One thing to keep in mind here is that this version of the image I used was processed out of Adobe's Camera Raw into the ProPhoto RGB space. The reason I did this was to see what colors may not fit into Adobe RGB. If I had processed the image into Adobe RGB from the Camera Raw then by definition all the colors would fit .

7) Now go back to Photoshop and open the ProPhoto RGB version and the Adobe RGB version and look to see what detail in the image might be represented by those light red colors and decide if the additional saturation you might get in those colors is important to you.

Note this does not mean you'll be losing detail in those areas, it just means the colors would have just a little more saturation. Whether that makes a difference is the question.

As an additional test open the ICC profile for your monitor in the 3D Graph window, (You have profiled your monitor, right?), and see how that lines up with both the colors in your image (just which colors are you not seeing?) as well as the gamut of the different RGB working spaces. Chances are that unless you have one of the extended gamut monitors the gamut of your monitor is very close to the gamut of the sRGB color space.

There are a few monitors that have a gamut that covers almost all of the Adobe RGB space. These include some higher end NEC's, Eizo's and a few Dell's (great bargains these Dell monitors). But as far as I know there are no monitors made yet that come close to the gamut of the very large ProPhoto color space. This means that if you're working in ProPhoto the colors you see poking outside the Adobe RGB gamut above will also be invisible to you as you work. But that's another debate entirely.

One last note: if you decide to work in the ProPhoto RGB space do make sure you work in the 16 bit depth. This space is so large that you'll definitely need the additional value steps the 16 bit depth gives you.

Photoshop's Clipping Groups

When Photoshop introduced Layers (way back in Version 3) organizing the Layers used in the course of compositing or retouching an image has become somewhat of a challenge. And if you work like I do the numbers of Layers in any particular image can really add up. For some of the movie posters and more complex images I've worked on I can easily use more than 100 Layers.

Luckily there are a couple of great tools available to help us keep those numerous Layers in line. Clipping Groups is one of those very useful tools that I use constantly. While it's not really a tool per se (you won't find Clipping Groups on your Tools palette) I use it so much that I consider it one of the more valuable tools in my arsonal.

So just what is a "Clipping Group"? Simply put it's an option used in the Layers palette that allows you to control where and how a Layer shows up based on the Layer it's "clipped" to.

Here's an example to show you just what I mean. In the image below you see there are 4 Layers: Background, Square, Circle and Triangle.



Here you can see how the 3 shapes all overlap each other. So far so good.

But supposed we only wanted the Red Circle to show up where it overlaps the Square and no where else? How would we do that? While some might suggest using a Layer Mask to hide the parts that spill out beyond the Square there is an easier way. What if we could use the Square Layer itself to control where the Red Circle shows up?

This is exactly what Clipping Groups do as you can see from the image below:




By clipping the Circle Layer to the Square Layer we're able to easily have the Square Layer control where the Circle Layer shows up. If you look at the Layers palette you'll see the bent arrow pointing from the Circle Layer to the Square Layer. This means it's now clipped to that layer as a Clipping Group.

So far so good for the Circle. But now what about the Triangle Layer? Can we clip that to the Square Layer too? The answer of course is:



As you can see from this image we're now using the Square Layer to control both the Circle and the Triangle Layers. And all of this is being done without using Layer Masks. Pretty cool, eh?

Now the question is just how can we create these Clipping Groups? The first thing that is needed is to make sure the Layers are arranged properly in the Layers palette. Since a Clipping Group is sort of like a stack of Layers the Layer that will be the base of the Clipping Group needs to be immediately below the Layers that will be clipped to it. As you can see in the Layers palette in this example the Circle and the Triangle Layers are right above the Square Layer. If we wanted just the Triangle to be clipped to the Square we'd have to move that Layer so it was the one immediately above the Square Layer.

Once we have the Layers arranged properly in the Layers palette there are 3 easy ways to create the Clipping Group. The first one is to hover the cursor right over the line separating the 2 Layers in the Layers palette while holding the Option Key (if you're on a PC machine that would be the Alt key) and when you see the cursor turn into the overlapping circles like you see below click on that line:



Clicking on the line then creates the Clipping Group like this:




An alternate way is to go to the Menu and choose Layers>Create Clipping Group as shown below:



Looking at the menu as shown here you can also see the third way to create the Clipping Group, by using the Shortcut Command + Option + G. (Or Control + Alt + G for those PC folk).

Now that we know how the basics of Clipping Groups work imagine that instead of basic shapes like used in the examples above we're working on something more complex like the image shown below:



If I could fit the entire Layers palette into the screen capture you'd be able to see this image has just over 50 Layers. As it is the Clipping Group for the girl uses 23 Layers by itself. In this image I used both regular Layers as well as Adjustment Layers all in one Clipping Group. And by using a Clipping Group I can leverage the mask for the girl which means for many of the Layers no other mask is needed.

Imagine the difficulty of working with this image if each and every Layer needed to use the same mask over and over and over. Besides the complexity one problem that would come up is that any little errors or feathered edges in the Mask would be multiplied many times over making it far more likely we'd see the problems it might cause which would then mean fixing that mask over and over and over.

Now that we've seen how Clipping Groups can work with both simple and complex images how will you use it to make your work easier?

Russell Brown's Sun Rays

As an artist I enjoy the challenge to continually grow in my skills and abilities. There is so much more to learn that it keeps the work fun and fulfilling, and it's one of the reasons I enjoy sharing and teaching so much.

This challenge also means that I'm continually looking through various blogs and websites perusing articles and tutorials hunting for those gems that might be found by exploring some new idea. For me it's less about the specific task the tutorial is covering and more about the ideas being presented. Quite often there will be something discussed that catches my attention and gets me exploring some new idea.

One of the best presenters on the web has to be Adobe's Russell Brown. As one of Adobe's top evangelists he's part wizard and part showman always presenting tips and techniques in an entertaining way.

In the video below Russell talks about adding some drama to an image by creating fake Sun Rays. It's a cool effect, but the particular techniques that I thought you would be interested in was his use of the Polar Coordinates Filter along with the Overlay Blending mode. This Polar Coordinates Filter is used to take a series of vertical lines and turn them into a series of lines radiating out from the center. Now what else could we use this filter for? Hmmm....

Great info from X-Rite & CMG

Ever since Photoshop 5 debuted Color Management has become an essential part of any digital workflow. Back then, in the dark old days of Color Management, it was a challenge just to find any good info on what we needed to do to get our color under control.

And the tools for profiling printers and monitors were difficult to work with as well. The first printer profiling package I used, ColorBlind, required a two day training session just to learn the basics.

We've come a long way since then and the latest offerings from X-Rite have taken the ease of use even higher while also delivering some very powerful tools that allow you to get your color under control like never before!

I recently upgraded my profiling package to X-Rite's i1 Profiler and I have to say I'm very impressed. This software is easier to use than any I've used before and yet it also gives me some very advanced options that make it easy to get everything dialed in whether it's calibrating and profiling my monitor, or it's creating a profile for that new paper I've been looking to try in my Epson printer.

As I've explored this new tool I came across a great resource for information from X-Rite and my friends at the Color Management Group. If you're looking for tips on how to make great printer profiles, or how to produce Contract Level Proofs on your inkjet printer these folks have the info for you.

You can read some great tips on the cool new features in i1 Profiler in the Tech Corner section of their site as well as find links to downloads and more info here: http://www.i1upgrades.com/category/tech-corner/

Adusting a Layer Mask with the Dodge-Burn and Blur Tools

Here's a technique I developed for quickly finessing a Layer Mask using the Dodge/Burn & Blur tools. The idea is to use the Burn Tool to bring the mask in tighter to the object and the Blur Tool to give the edge just the right amount of softness.

With a little practice you'll find this method works very quickly because it does not require you to be as careful as you would need to be with the Brush Tool.

Take a look at the video and let me know what you think.

3 Steps to Optimize Your Brush Settings for Wacom Tablets

As an experienced retoucher one of the most valuable tools available to me is my trusty Wacom Tablet. The ability to use hold the Stylus in my hand as I would a paint brush or a pencil makes the whole work of retouching and masking so much easier.

For me using a mouse for painting feels like I'm using a brick. I simply can't imagine how it would be possible to get my work done that way. Yet I am constantly surprised by the number of Photoshop users I meet who just can't seem to get the hang of working with the Wacom Stylus.

After speaking with several folks like this I realized that often times there are just too many variables happening at the same time when they try to use a Wacom or other pressure sensitive tablet. And in many regards this makes a lot of sense to me.

The default Brushes in Photoshop have a lot of power behind them and it seems like Adobe keeps adding in more power with every update. But these many of these default Brushes have overlapping controls that can make working with them very difficult, especially for users who are not used to being able to control so many factors at once.

For instance many of the default Brushes use the pressure sensitivity of the tablet to control the opacity of the Brush, but it controls the sizing of the Brush as well. In other words pressing harder or softer affects how much paint you're adding as well as how big the Brush is. Here is an example of the kind of effect this can create:



As I painted with this Brush I started out in the middle with a very light pressure and gradually used a harder pressure and then a lighter pressure as I finished the stroke. You can see how the size of the Brush and the hardness of the edge changes as I varied the pressure.

For many users this can make for some unpredictable effects that are harder to control. No wonder many of them want to just keep painting with their brick, er Mouse!

As I said in the beginning of this article Photoshop gives you a lot of control over the way the Brushes work. Let's take a look at our example again, but this time we'll also take a look at the Brush Setting as well.




Looking at the Brush palette you can see there are several controls available. Right now we're only going to be concerned with 2 of them.

Step 1) Just below the "Brush Tip Shape" name is a control labeled "Shape Dynamics". This setting is where you can control the shape and size of the Brush. Turning that control off (by un-clicking) allows you to keep the size of the Brush constant no matter how much pressure you apply. Now your Brush will act exactly the same way when you use the Stylus or the Mouse.

Step 2) Now go to the control labeled "Transfer" (In Photoshop CS4 and before this is called "Other Dynamics"). Clicking on that control will show you a few more options. The one we're concerned with here is called "Opacity Jitter". Click on the Control button right below that and you'll see a pop up menu like the one shown below:



Setting this control to "Pen Pressure" will allow you to control the opacity of your brush by changing the pressure you apply with your Stylus. The harder you press the more paint the Brush will apply. And the softer you press means the more transparent your paint stroke will be.

This control gives you a lot of power that can be pretty easy to master. With just a little practice now you should be able to easily control how much paint you're applying. If you want a softer, more transparent effect just use a lighter pressure. If you want more paint to be applied just press harder. It's really that simple.

Step 3) Once you have set your Brush up as you like it be sure to click on the "Brush Presets" button, then click on the "Create New Brush" button to save your brush as shown below:




Since many of Photoshop's tools, like the Rubber Stamp Tool, make use of Brushes you'll find it's now easier than ever to get just the effects you want. Many Photoshop Pros make a variety of Brush Presets with different sizes and hardnesses so they have a wide range of handy settings available to them. To make these various Brushes just go back to your Brushes palette and click on the "Brush Tip Shape" control shown below:



Here by changing the Size and the Hardness options and then saving each Brush you can create your own variety of Brush Presets that will be easily available to you whenever you work in Photoshop.

A Really Cool Script

Naming your Layers has always been one of my pet peeves when it comes to retouching. When working on a multi-layered image there is nothing quite so confusing as trying to figure out what "Layer 39" is for.

And "Naming your Layers" starts with the Background Layer. A great deal of the images I work on involve compositing several images together. Whether it's adding a new cherry to the top of a tasty milk shake, or it's replacing someone's head it always helps to know where each part came from. By putting the original file name in the Layer Name of each Layer I can easily keep track of where that cherry or head came from.

This way when my client asks "What shot did that head come from?" I can just look in my Layer's Palette and see right away giving me an easy way to confirm I used the right shot.

In the workshops I teach I make a point of this and I've written about an easy way to put the name of the source image in the Layer's name in a previous blog post, Workflow Tip #1. In short that post described a method for copying the original file's name and then turning the background into a Layer and pasting the name into the Layer Properties dialogue for that Layer.

It sounds a little complicated but once you get used to it it's possible to do this in 3 or 4 mouse clicks so it's actually pretty easy.

At least I thought it was pretty easy until a reader, Jim Koch, turned me on to something really cool that automatically does this for you by using a little script you can load into Photoshop. Very Cool!

This script was created by one of the propeller heads from Adobe's Photoshop engineering team, Thomas Ruark. If you're a big user of Photoshop as I am these guys are among your heros. And Thomas just rocketed to the top of the list in my book!

For those of you who aren't familiar with the use of Java Scripts in Photoshop rest assured these can be very cool little items. A script is basically a set of commands that can automate various actions within Photoshop. They are similar to the more familiar Actions that so many people use constantly, (I have one friend that regularly uses something like 150 Actions in his daily work.)

But unlike Actions which require you to click on something, or invoke some key commands scripts can be set up to run automatically. I've not experimented too extensively with scripts before (though I plan to play with them more in near future), but I understand scripts can even do things not possible with Actions. All in they're promising to be pretty handy tools for any busy retoucher.

The script Thomas wrote is called "OpenAsLayer.jsx" and once loaded into Photoshop it completely automates the process of adding the file's name to the Background Layer when you open the file. After installing this and working with it for a few days I've come to really love this cool little script.

You can find the script here on Julieanne Kost's blog, This link will take you to the blog post where she explains how to download, install and use the script.

Now after waxing so enthusiastically about this cool script I do want to mention one thing, once you've installed the script it will automatically name any Background Layer with the file's name so if you regularly use any Actions etc that look for a Layer named "Background" you'll need to remember to re-convert that Layer back into a Background Layer before using the Action.

To restore your Background Layer all you have to do is go to the PS menu bar and click on Layer>New>Background from Layer. Come to think of it you could even create an Action to do this, or modify the Actions that need a Background Layer to make this even easier.

For now my thanks go out to Jim Koch and Thomas Ruark for making my work just a little bit easier.

Recreating the Hipstamatic Look in 6 Steps

Last summer I finally broke down and got an iPhone. Beyond all the cool phone stuff it does my favorite part has been playing with it's camera. Somehow the simplicity of the camera and the fact that it's always with me makes photography much more spontaneous and fun for me.

And of course I had to check out various photo apps as a way of making it easier to get cool looks from the photos. Pretty quickly the Hipstamatic app became one of my favorite photo apps for the iPhone. I really like the way it re-creates the plastic lens look that has become so popular these days. Here are a couple of shots I took while playing with this app when I was on a beach walk with my family over this past Christmas Holiday.



Of course it didn't take me long before the retoucher side of me wanted to figure out how to replicate this look with "Normal" shots. I love the spontaneity of these Hipstamatic iPhone shots, but also really like being able to use my Photoshop abilities to create just the look I want.

With that in mind I opened up a shot taken on one of these beach walks with my Canon DSLR and started to experiment until I felt I had successfully matched the look I was getting with my iPhone and the Hipstamatic app.

Here are the Before/After shots showing where the image started and where it wound up:




Now while it's fun showing you all some of my photos, the real fun lies in sharing just how I created this look and in seeing how it inspires others to play and create new images on their own. With that in mind here's a short tutorial on how to achieve this cool effect.

First let's take a moment to talk about what characterizes the look we're after. Looking at the beach shots above of my wife and daughter you can see there is some blurring, some color shifts and some vignetting all working together to create the look. With this in mind we can start to see what what steps will be necessary to re-create the look in Photoshop.

Step 1: open your "straight" image



Step 2: Copy the Background Layer so you have 2 copies of this layer, one on top of the other like below:




This layer will get a small amount of Gaussian Blur that we'll use to recreate the soft focus part of our look. The specific amount depends on the resolution of the image you're working with. For this image let's use an amount of 2 pixels.




Since we don't want the Blur over all of our image we'll use a Layer Mask to control where the blurred layer shows. To do this add a Layer Mask and then using a large Brush paint Black in the Layer Mask to hide the effect where you don't want it to show. (Hint: using the Scatter Settings in the Brush Controls can help give this a more organic transition.)

Here is a shot of the Layer Mask I used with my Blur Layer:



This should give you something that looks a bit like this:




Step 3: Add a Vignette effect to darken the edges of the image. To do this create a new Layer and name it "Vignette". When you create this layer set the Blending Mode to "Multiply". Then again using a Brush with the Scatter Settings turned on paint Black around the edges of the image taking care to allow for a soft transition where the Vignette effects the image.

Here's what the Vignette Layer I painted looks like:



And here's what the image looks like with the Vignette Layer added:




Step 4: Now comes the fun part, adjusting the color. Studying the look of the Hipstamatic images we're trying to replicate we can see that typically the color shifts more towards Cyan and Blue while the Blacks of the image get pushed darkening the shadows and the Whites get pushed just a little bit providing some punch to the image along with the Color shift.

To do this we're going to use a variation on my preferred Color Correction Technique. This technique involves using 2 Curves Adjustment Layers, one set to Luminosity Blending and one set to Color Blending. By separating the Luminosity adjustments from the Color adjustments we can more easily control the contrast and tonality of the image independently of the color. And using the Color Curves you'll find you can not only affect the overall color balance of the image but you can easily control the saturation of the image as well. It's a very powerful technique that let's you control so much so easily.

If you're interested in learning more about this technique please feel free to send me an email by going to the Contact Dennis page of this site. I'll be happy to send you an article I've written on this technique that explains it in more depth.

For now create 2 Adjustment Layers and set one to Luminosity Blending and the other to Color Blending. (It doesn't matter which one comes first.) To help you keep them straight name the one set to Luminosity Blending "Luminosity Curves" and the other "Color Curves". Now click on the Color Curves layer and bring up the Adjustments panel, then adjust the Curves in the dialogue so they look something like the adjustments shown below:



Looking at the panels above you can see the RGB, or Master Curve has been pulled up at a point just about 3/4 of the way where the highlights are. This tends to increase the saturation in the highlights just a touch.

Moving on you can see the Red Curve has been pulled down in more or less a straight line, the Green Curve has been left alone while the Blue Curve shows we've pulled a little more Blue out of the shadows than the highlights. (Of course you can adjust these settings to your own taste as needed.)

Here's our test image with these Color Curves:



Now this is starting to look pretty interesting but there are still a few more tweaks yet to do.

Step 5: As mentioned above part of achieving the look we're after calls for pushing the Black and White points of the image a bit to deepen the shadows and add some "pop" to the highlights. To do this click on the Luminosity Curves Adjustment layer to bring up the curves dialogue. Then pull the Black point over to the right and the White point over to the left as shown in the screen grab below:



And here is what the image looks like with both the Color Curves and the Luminosity Curves:




Step 6: This is looking very close now, but it still looks just a little too clean. The plastic lens look that characterizes the Hipstamatic photos has some out of focus scratches and textures that old lenses might impart to the images. To re-create that we'll use a texture placed on top of our image and use a Blending Mode that gives us a cool look, then use a Layer Mask to control just where we want this effect to show up.

Over the years I've built up quite a collection of textures I've shot and found on stock image sites that come in very handy for times like this. Here's one such texture I found on one of the sites where artists share various textures and brushes they've created for use in Photoshop:



To use this texture in our image we'll just drag a copy of it over our beach scene and make sure it's at the top of the layer stack in the Layers Palette. Then set the Blending Mode to Soft Light and slide the opacity down to around 50%. Finally create a Layer Mask for this layer and again using a Brush with the Scatter Settings turned on (to help give it an 'organic' look) paint Black in the Layer Mask to hide the texture where ever you don't want it to show. Here's what the Layer Mask I painted looks like:



With the Texture in place and the Layer Mask finished the image looks like this:



With all the flexibility Digital Photography provides we're freed up to play more with various color treatments and styles in an effort to express our artistic vision. Photoshop fits in very neatly into this equation as the more we play with shifting colors and adding textures etc the more control we have over the final appearance of our images.

A Few Thoughts on Banding in Images

The other day I was browsing through the APANet discussion list and came across a question from a photographer about banding issues they were seeing in the skies of some images. After responding there I thought this would be a great topic for a Blog post so here we are.



Here's a shot of the sky over Lake Powell in Arizona. Like most shots of skies this image shows a nice gradation over a large, fairly open area and is a good example of where you're most likely to run into banding issues. If you look closely there are subtle bands running in a rough diagonal direction following the gradation in the sky.

Upon first glance they don't look too bad, but as soon as we add a little drama to the sky they start to become more apparent. In the image below I darkened the upper part of the sky by adding a Curves Adjustment Layer along with a mask that has a gradation in it so the darkening eases in keeping the lower part of the sky the way it was.



Now sometimes the web isn't the best place to see these bands so here's an image with some red lines indicating where the bands are showing up.



Of course once we see the bands in the image we can see the problems they can present. We know scenes like this should have nice, smooth gradations so the steps of color we see (banding) become very distracting and threaten to ruin our image.

For the sake of our discussion let's take a look at another image. Like our sky the image below features a gradation (you'll only see banding in areas of gradation) but this time it's easier to see the banding.




The bands show up when the steps in between the colors in the gradation become visible. Basically if there are only 10 steps between the beginning and ending colors in the gradation it becomes pretty easy to see each step of the gradation if you look closely enough.

Sometimes the banding is naturally occurring in the image and sometimes the adjustments made to the image exaggerate the banding issues. For instance the Hue Saturation tool is known to exaggerate both banding and noise/grain in an image. Here is the same gradation with a Hue Saturation Adjustment Layer added to turn the grays into blues.



Here you can see that the Hue Saturation Adjustment Layer not only changed the colors, it made the banding worse! With over 24 million possible colors in a 24 bit image (8 bits/channel times 3 channels) you'd think there are more than enough to choose from.

But as we see with skies sometimes the colors the image HAS to be just don't allow for that much room. Right about here I can tell some folks are thinking "Ah, then the solution is to work in 48 bit depth!" (48 bit images have 16 bits per channel allowing for thousands of steps per channel not just the 256 found in 8 bit/channel images.)

But experience seems bound to defeat this easy solution. Every time I've tried to solve banding by working in this higher bit depth it's never made a difference. The reasons for this seem to be mired in the endless debates among computer engineers and geeks. The best explanation I've heard for this actually came from a computer engineer who used to work for one of the big software companies who told me the pipeline from the computer to the monitor was limited to 8 bits per channel.

Whatever the reason we're still left with apparent banding in our images and thus we need to figure out how to deal with it.

The first thing to look at is to see if any of your adjustments are creating the problem. The most common times this happens is when using several Adjustment Layers that push and pull the image leading to the posterization evident in the banding. Sometimes, as with the Hue Saturation example above, the tool we're using is the cause of the problem, I've also seen this happen with some Gradient Map layers as well. If that's the case then we need to find other ways of manipulating the image to get the result we want.

But luckily for the great majority of images the answer is pretty simple. If the cause of the banding is that we can see the borders between the distinct steps in the colors of the image we can usually solve the problem by breaking up those borders with a bit of Noise. Here is our same Blue Gradation image with 2% Noise added.



Here you can see how the Noise acts to dither, or break up the borders of the bands making them harder to see. The trick when adding Noise like this is to view your image in Photoshop at 100% while using the Add Noise filter. Look for the minimum amount that will break up the bands. Most often you'll find it just takes a very small amount to hide the bands and solve your problem. Checking the individual Channels in your Channels Palette can help make sure you've fixed the problem.

As a last note one of the most common ways high end retouchers like to add Noise to an image is to make a new Layer, fill it with 50% Gray and then set it's Blending Mode to Overlay and finally use the Add Noise filter on this layer. By doing it this way you can easily experiment with different amounts of Noise (just fill with 50% Gray and try again) and you can vary the opacity of the Layer, or hide parts of it with a Layer Mask etc etc.

Quick Tip: Burnin' and Dodgin' made easy

One of the more common techniques retouchers use is named for an old darkroom technique, Burning and Dodging. Back then we'd use our hands or some other device to either expose a part of an image longer (Burning) or to keep the light out of an area on the image (Dodging).

While it's been a long time since I was in a darkroom doing that kind of work I still use the same idea frequently in my retouching work. Since it can be so useful I wanted to take a moment to share one of the easier ways I've found to apply this technique.

Here is a close up crop of an image supplied to me by photographer Richard Radstone. Richard's a great photographer and a good friend, check out his website to see more of his work here.




So far so good, now while there are lots of ways to darken (Burn) and lighten (Dodge) an image in Photoshop as a retoucher I greatly favor methods that allow for greater flexibility. So while many folks might just jump right in with the Burn and Dodge tool and start working away I like to do my work on separate layers which makes it lots easier for me to go back and fine tune what I've done without worrying about harming the image itself.

With this in mind what I like to do is to create 2 new layers and use their Blending Modes to accomplish the effect I'm looking for. For Dodging I'll make a new layer and set it to "Overlay" blending. Here's where I depart from the many folks who would then automatically fill this layer with 50% gray (which is neutral, or invisible in this kind of layer), I've never found much reason to do so. Instead after making this layer and naming it something like "Overlay Lightening" (ALWAYS name your layers!) I'll just select white, or a very light color from the image and then take the brush tool and start painting.

Since Overlay layers are basically contrast adjusting layers light colors in the Overlay layer make the image lighter and dark colors make the image darker. The closer to White or Black the color is the stronger the effect shows up. Depending on how much control I need I'll often set the Brush Tool to a low opacity, maybe 30%, so I can slowly work the image until I get the result I'm looking for.

Here is a shot of the image with the Overlay Lightening applied.




Looking carefully you should be able to see the pupil of her eye has been lightened up a bit giving the eye a little more 'life', the white part of her eye has also been lightened up just a touch. Less obvious, but still there is the subtle dodging I did to the darker texture of her skin near the bottom of the image. While I tend to prefer other methods for cleaning up skin sometimes a little bit of careful lightening can help.

Now for the Burning part of this technique. For this part I like to use a second layer set to "Multiply" blending and then I'll name this layer something like "Multiply Darkening". Multiply Blending will darken an image based on how dark the color in the layer is. So White will have no effect, while Black will have the maximum effect. When using this technique to darken skin I'll sample a bit of darker, shadowed skin tone from the image. This tends to produce a much more natural result than just using Black. In this case I sampled a darker part of her eye lid and again painted using the Brush tool set to a low opacity, around 30%.

Here is a shot of the image with both the Dodging and Burning layers turned on.



The areas worked on here are the little shadowed area right above and to the left of her eye, (just a little), the edge of her pupil (to add definition), the edge of her lower eye lid (digital eyeliner) and her eyelashes (digital mascara).

To make it easier to see where I painted in the effects here is a shot where I filled the Overlay layer (lightening) with Green and the Multiply layer (darkening) with Blue.




The advantage with doing this on separate layers is that working this way gives me more control, (I can easily tweak just the highlighted areas) and it plays to each Blending Mode's strength. Overlay layers can work very well for lightening an image but can also tend to shift colors in an objectionable way when used to really darken an image. Whereas when we combine Multiply blending with a sampled shadow color we can get a very effective tool for darkening. Pretty cool, eh? (Just remember that subtlety is very important a good retoucher knows his work should never scream out at the viewer, but instead should compliment the photographers' vision.)

Finally here is a Before and After side by side.