ADOBE PHOTOSHOP FOR UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHERS- P1 doc

When a jump plug-in is selected, Photoshop is minimized, and these very large and memory-intensive programs process and prepare your images for creative printing output.. If you find tha

should set the media type, the color mode, and check ink levels If you try the Auto-matic mode and are dissatisfied with the print quality, try selecting the Custom set-ting It has a submenu that will offer more

advanced options Below—When you are

in the Custom or Advanced printing menu, you are given controls for image quality, printer speed, color adjustments, contrast, and saturation controls Once you have a test print that looks good, save the settings to a file name that best describes the type of print job.

G AMUT W ARNING

If you have a colorful image that is giving you fits when you try to print it, then you just might be out of gamut Many very colorful images look great on your RGB monitor—but not when they come off your printer The Gamut Warning can be turned on by going to

View>Gamut Warning or pressing the

Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+Y key combination

to show areas that will be difficult to

print The out-of-gamut areas of the

image will be indicated by the color that you have preselected in the Photoshop Preferences>Transparency & Gamut section

If the image you wish to print indicates a large out-of-gamut area, then just convert it to CMYK, and Photoshop will fix the problem during the conver-sion When you convert the file back to RGB, the image will look the same but should print better

P HOTOGRAPHIC E DGES AND F RAMING

In our first book, Digital Imaging for the Underwater Photographer, we

provid-ed an extensive discussion on the File>Automate>Package Printing command This function allows you to select from several multi-print formats, and load either one or several images on a page This program is really great, but there are even more options available with Photoshop-compatible third-party print-ing plug-ins

Jump Plug-ins. Many of the printing plug-ins that are available are jump plug-ins When a jump plug-in is selected, Photoshop is minimized, and these very large and memory-intensive programs process and prepare your images for creative printing output

More Plug-ins. To really appreciate how much these programs have to

offer photographers, pick up a copy of our book, Plug-ins for Adobe ® Pho-toshop ® , and read the chapter on output Also, be sure to visit www.Auto

FX.com for information on the DreamSuite and Photographic Edges plug-in,

or go to www.extensis.com to learn more about Photo Frame These three programs combined have over 10,000 different formats for your printing options

We’ve provided a few examples of some of the effects you can achieve on the following pages

MANY VERY COLORFUL IMAGES LOOK GREAT

ON YOUR RGB MONITOR—BUT NOT WHEN

THEY COME OFF YOUR PRINTER.

correctly display on output devices like printers Above—The problem can easily be solved by

going to the Mode command at the top of the editing screen and converting to CMYK to change the color display of the image You can then print the CMYK file directly to a printer or con-vert it back to RGB to print.

graphic Edges plug-in, you can copy and paste images into special premade templates The program masks and then feathers the selec-tion for quick and easy creative print output The images can also

be scaled, rotated, and flipped in-side these templates.

in was applied When the image was pasted into the 2 1 / 4 film template, it automatically

creat-ed a negative and positive of the image and placcreat-ed them side by side Above—You can select

from thousands of image frames when you load the onOne Image Frame plug-in This plug-in creates a layer frame with a mask and allows you full blending control over the frame’s edges.

D IGITAL S LIDE S HOWS

A very popular method of presenting images today is with a computer-driven slide show program like ProShow Gold from www.photodex.com These pro-grams enable you to take your still images, put them on a timeline, add transi-tions, music, narration, and then burn a DVD so you can present them on a

TV screen or video projector These programs make easy work of replacing the ol’ slide projector shows

The downside to computer-driven shows is that the large files used in the presentations can bog down the computer and cause it to run slow The key is not using your full-resolution files, but rather to scale your images to match the required output resolution Since the most common image size today for out-put from a comout-puter is 1024x768, we highly recommend that you create a new slide show image directory called 1024

Resize Your Files.Create an Action that will resize your image down to a width of 1024 pixels and save it as a JPEG file directly into the new 1024 direc-tory Run the Action on a second file, and recheck its file size If everything is alright, then go to the File>Automate command and process all the image files from your main directory that you intend to use in your show When you

If you want to do a wide-screen video presentation, set your Crop tool to a Width of 16 and a Height of 9, crop your images, and save them to a wide-screen directory.

assemble your show, use these 1024 images, and this will maximize your com-puter speed, without compromising image quality

If you find that you want to zoom or pan an image, you will need to work with a larger file to maintain quality Just go back to your main directory and select the image with the larger file size This will allow you to zoom in on just

a section of the image and still not sacrifice any resolution

V IDEO O UTPUT

Sizing Your Files.If you are editing images for video output to programs like Adobe Premiere and Encore DVD, large files will tend to slow your workflow

will be presented with a library (upper left) where you keep your working images, the preview monitor (middle right), and the timeline (bottom) While working on your project, if you find

an image needs adjustment, just right click on the image in the timeline and you will bounce

to Photoshop for editing When you are done, the image will be updated and put you back into Premiere.

down Some video programs will even choke if the files are too large Since video resolution is 720x480, you might assume that you would rescale the image to match that size Since most video productions using still images have plenty of zooming effects, we recommend that you increase the size of the file

to 1440x960 This will give you maneuvering room for zooms and pans but will maintain maximum quality

NTSC Colors.Because the television does not have as wide a color range

as the computer, you must limit the image files’ colors for proper viewing You can correct the colors for previewing on television by going to Filter> Video>NTSC Colors Since you may have dozens of files to correct, we sug-gest that you make a Video NTSC Action filter so you can batch process an entire directory

If you plan on using your images in a video production, you should consider looking at the Image>Pixel Aspect Ratio menu The pixel aspect ratio is different on a computer screen than with video, so you need to apply the appropriate pixel size to your image If circular objects in your video look flattened, then these settings will solve the problem.

Pixel Aspect Ratio. Another problem with video is the pixel aspect ratio Computer screens use square pixels, which generally work fine on computer monitors and for printing output Video output devices use a variety of other

pixel aspect ratios that will distort still images that are imported into Adobe Premiere In Photoshop CS2, Adobe introduced a large selection of pixel aspect ratio corrections that can be applied to your images before saving them for video usage An Action should

be made so you can batch process images and speed up the process

COMPUTER SCREENS USE SQUARE PIXELS,

WHICH GENERALLY WORK FINE ON COMPUTER

MONITORS AND FOR PRINTING OUTPUT.

Many times on our dive trips we have heard photographers utter the

phrase, “I’ll just fix it in Photoshop.” Photoshop is a very power-ful tool, but we don’t consider it an excuse to take bad images You should always do your very best to get the shot right in the camera before con-sidering what you can do with the image in Photoshop The human eye—not Photoshop—is the most important part of underwater photography To become a good underwater photographer, you must become a master of both shooting and editing

The big advantage of working digitally is that you can see what you are shooting while still underwater Be

sure to take advantage of that, but

don’t rely on it completely What you

see on the LCD monitor may not

exactly match what you see in

Photo-shop This means that you will need to synchronize your shooting and editing process so that what you see is what you get You will need to calibrate your computer monitor and then adjust your camera until it matches

One of the downsides to digital technology is that it changes so rapidly It becomes very difficult to keep up, but nothing says you have to constantly upgrade your camera systems If you are getting great shots, then stick with your current system, even if it’s a bit out of date One of our best images was taken on one of the first 3-megapixel cameras ever made, and its 16x20-inch prints can easily hold their own against any taken with today’s technology

So what about upgrading your Photoshop versions? We have been involved with Adobe’s beta testing on all Windows versions of Photoshop and can hon-estly say that each addition brings new innovations in image editing We think you should upgrade with each new version, but if cost is a factor, upgrade every other version If you stay too many versions back, you’ll miss out on all the cool new features Most upgrades are designed to make your image editing faster and easier, resulting in higher productivity

1 8 C O N C L U S I O N

THE BIG ADVANTAGE OF WORKING DIGITALLY

IS THAT YOU CAN SEE WHAT YOU ARE

SHOOTING WHILE STILL UNDERWATER.

Another advantage to image editing with Photoshop is that it allows you to reminisce about your diving days, all year long You can relive the thrill of div-ing with that cuttlefish as you work on your computer when the snow outside

is two-feet deep This year-round interest in underwater photography gener-ates increased excitement for the sport and keeps diving on your mind Working with Photoshop can also be a frustrating experience It takes quite

a bit of practice to master even the easiest of image corrections Just when you

think you have mastered a tool or effect, you see that there is another way to accomplish the same task The power of Photoshop seems endless Because we have seen how often it is difficult for photographers to master these editing skills alone, we founded the Oregon Coast Digital Center, a facility offering personalized Photoshop train-ing For further information, log on to www.oregoncoastdigitalcenter.com Finally, we see many new digital photographers getting so wrapped up in all the newly evolving technologies that they forget the real reason for taking pic-tures underwater is to just have fun That said, close Photoshop for now—let’s

go diving!

ANOTHER ADVANTAGE TO IMAGE EDITING

WITH PHOTOSHOP IS THAT IT ALLOWS YOU TO

REMINISCE ABOUT YOUR DIVING DAYS .

Actions, 37, 53–55

Adjustment Layers, 51–68

Adjust tab, 92–95

Adobe Bridge, 35, 36

Adobe Gamma Loader, 17

Adobe Illustrator, 203

Alpha channels, 163

Artifacts, 109

Aspect ratio, 203, 218

Automatic functions

Auto Color, 71

Auto Contrast, 71

Auto Guides, 193

Auto Exposure, 71

Auto Select Layers, 193

B

Background color, 137

Backgrounds, changing, 153–67, 176

Backscatter, 103–9

Batch process, 35, 40, 49, 217, 218

Bevels, 201

Bitmap images, 197

Black & white conversions, 83–85

Blending modes, 60, 61, 63, 195

Blooming effects, 136–50, 174–76

Blur filters, 68, 109–14, 142–44, 145

Bridge, see Adobe Bridge

Brightness/Contrast, 126, 184

Brush tool, 22, 29, 34, 37, 44, 52,

53, 56, 57, 60, 63, 64, 78–79, 84, 85, 91, 103, 104 Burn tool, 29, 60, 61, 63, 68

C

Calibrate tab, 98 Channel Mixer, 82, 84 Channels, 83, 84, 163 Character palette, 198 Check spelling, 198 Classes, Photoshop, 19, 220 Clipping Mask, 200, 201 Clone tool, 22, 55, 68, 117, 118,

128, 155 Collages, 187–203 Color cast, 64, 79–80, 183, 185 Color management, 206–7 Color Range menu, 64, 148 ColorVision Spyder 2, pg 17 Crop tool, 27–29

Curves editor, 72–74 Curve tab, 97

D

Depth of field, 153, 171 Detail tab, 95–97 Dodge tool, 29, 60, 61, 63, 68 Drop shadows, 201, 182–83 Dust & Scratches filter, 27, 104–8

I N D E X

Enlargements, 180

Equipment

hard disk, 15

monitors, 16–17

processors, 14

RAM, 15

software, 19, 168–86, 219

Eraser tool, 159–61, 193

Exposure issues, 69, 77, 184

Extract filter, 157–61, 176

Eyedropper, 70–71, 137

F

Faded images, 185

Falloff, light, 197

Font menu, 198

Foreground color, 137

f/stop, 153

G

Gaussian Blur, 63, 86, 102, 144, 148

Glow effects, 201

Gradient fill, 140–41, 165, 197

Grayscale, 83

Grid alignment, 192

Grouping photos, 41–42

H

Hand tool, see Move tool

Healing Brush, 23, 55, 68, 117,

118–120, 128, 144,

150–151, 155, 179

Spot Healing Brush, 23, 55, 103,

128

High Dynamic Range, 79

Highlighter pen, 157

High Pass filter, 88–91 Histogram, 69

History palette, 42–46 Hue/Saturation, 65, 85, 134

J

Jump plug-ins, 211

K

Keyboard shortcuts, 33–34

L

Lasso tool, 64, 115, 129, 176, 193,

194 Magnetic lasso, 64, 153–54, 162 Polygonal lasso, 64, 65, 115, 124,

131, 153, 162 Layer Mask, 63, 64, 78–79, 91,

195–96 Layers, 51–68, 91, 129, 187,

189–90, 193, 198, 201 arranging, 193

grouping, 68 moving, 189–90 Layer visibility, 56, 58, 107 Lens Blur, 161–67

Lens Flare, 126, 144, 151, 174 Lens tab, 97

Levels Editor, 21–22, 69–71,

133–34, 154

M

Magic Wand tool, 64, 118, 131,

136–37, 153, 176 Midtone adjustments, 77–78, 154,

185 Move tool, 136, 159, 193

Naming files, 48–50

Noise, 141, 185

Nondestructive image editing, 56,

120

O

Options button, 72

Output, 172–74, 180, 204–18

P

Pen tool, 199

Photo grouping, 42

Pinch, 145

Plug-ins, 123, 151, 168–86, 211

R

Radial blur, 145

Raster images, 197

RAW image editing, 92–102, 146

Removing objects, 115–23

Replace color, 81–82

Rotate, 125

S

Saturation, 23–24, 154–55

Scripts, 40

Selections, 63, 64

feathering, 64, 194

Selective color, 85

Shadow, 190–91

Shadow/Highlight, 75–76

Shapes, 203

Sharpening, 24–27, 57–60, 86–91,

169 High Pass Filter, 88–89 Smart Sharpen, 86, 169 Unsharp Mask, 24–27 Slide presentations, 172–74 Smart Objects, 188

Software, 19, 168–86, 219 Spot Healing Brush, 23, 55, 103,

128 Step Backward, 71, 151, 194 Stroke effect, 201

Styles palette, 201, 203

T

Text, adding, 197–201 Text tool, 197, 198, 199 Transform, 31–32, 124, 129, 136

U

Undo, 71, 151, 194 Unsharp Mask, 24–27, 57, 169

V

Variations menu, 29 Vector graphics, 198, 203 Versions, Photoshop, 19, 187, 219

W

Workflow, 46–50 Workflow options menu, 98

Z

Zoom, 129, 193

Amherst Media®

P U B L I S H E R O F P H OT O G R A P H Y B O O K S

PO Box 586

Buffalo, NY 14226

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$39.95 USA

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INCLUDES :

Using Levels and Curves to cor-rect color problems and improve exposure and contrast

Techniques for removing back-scatter, artifacts, and other distracting image elements Creating Actions and keyboard shortcuts for high-speed under-water image editing

Working with RAW image files for the ultimate in quality and control

Compositing image elements, creating collages, and much more

Jack and Sue Drafahl show you how to use

Adobe Photoshop—and a whole host of

plug-ins—to solve a wide range of unique

image problems that underwater

photogra-phers often face Ample before-and-after

images and screen shots make it simple to

learn each technique

UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHS IN ADOBE PHOTOSHOP