Using Smart Filters on Smart Objects Cs5 has smart filters, meaning that filter effects can be readjusted repeatedly, even if you close and reopen the image.. for more explanation of sma
Trang 1Note: You can create customized brush tips to use when painting by going to Window > Brush and click-ing one of the preset bristle tips as shown here A Bristle Qualities dialog appears in which you can specify the various parameters of the bristle tip Experiment with the settings to get precisely the effect that you need
Filters
Photoshop includes a huge array of filters that make it easy to distort your picture in
all sorts of ways some of the filters correct problems in the image such as vignetting
or pin cushion/barrel distortion, while others are primarily to add artistic expression
it’s beyond the scope of this book to cover them all, but we’ll describe a few that we
find particularly useful However, the best way to get familiar with the filters is to
open an image and begin experimenting We’ll begin by describing how to use smart
filters and regular filters
Note: If you opt for the “experimental” approach, it’s a good idea to turn on the History Log in your General Preferences (refer to Chapter 4, “Foundations,” for details) so that you can remember what you did
if you stumble across something wonderful! In fact, any time you are being “creative” with your image, it’s smart to turn on the History Log You may think you’ll remember exactly what you did, but if you’re any-thing like us, at some later date you’ll be frustrated because you can’t recall how to replicate the effect
Since Elements does not provide a history log, we recommend using a notepad to keep track of what you’ve done to your image
Using Smart Filters on Smart Objects
Cs5 has smart filters, meaning that filter effects can be readjusted repeatedly, even
if you close and reopen the image this is a welcome feature, very similar to the
flex-ibility of the adjustments in adjustment layers By using smart filters, you can create
different combinations of filter effects that you can dynamically adjust as desired
Unfortunately, smart filters are available only for certain filter effects with 16-bit
Trang 2images but are available for all filters with 8-bit images (for more explanation of smart filters and smart Objects, refer to Chapter 5, “Workflows and first steps.”)
Note: The following filters can be used as Smart Filters with 16-bit images: all Blur filters except Smart Blur and Lens Blur; Lens Correction; all Noise filters; all Render filters except Lighting Effects; all Sharpen filters; and Emboss, Find Edges, and Solarize from the Stylize group Some third-party plug-ins, such as Noiseware Pro from Imagenomic (www.imagenomic.com) and Silver Efex Pro, are also compatible with 16-bit images
the ultimate in flexibility is to have a raw image placed as a smart Object at the beginning of your workflow, with smart filters applied to the raw image Cur-rently there are some limitations that will sometimes cause you to have to make some workflow choices for example, a cleanup or cloning layer will not update to reflect any further changes you make to the smart Object raw file if you do your dust cleanup in aCr, or the cleanup layer contains only a few pixels to cover some very small dust spots and the smart filters you want to use are for sharpening, you’ll be fine But if you readjust the color or tonality of the raw file in any way or use a filter that causes a dramatic effect, the clone layer will be outdated and need to be redone
We recommend that when you want to experiment with creative filter effects you create a duplicate version of your optimized image and then flatten it by choosing
Note: An alternative approach is to create a Stamp Visible layer at the top of your workflow by holding down the Alt/Option key and choosing Layer > Merge Visible Make certain to continue to hold down the Alt/Option key while clicking Merge Visible This will create a new composite layer at the top
of your workflow to use for your creative filter effects The advantage of this approach is that the entire file is stored together The downside is that you may have to convert the entire file to an 8-bit image If you have no use for the file without the creative filter effects, then this approach may be preferable
to use most of the creative filters, you’ll need to convert the image to an 8-bit
smart filters this will change the layer into a smart Object (that will refer to the image as it was originally opened in this file, but not the original raw file), and the fil-ters you apply will be editable then convert the image to an 8-bit file if necessary for
When you want all the filter effects to apply to the same areas of the image, you can use the smart filter layer mask and paint the mask white or black to show or reveal the effects, just as you did with adjustment layer masks
if you want one filter to affect part of the image and another filter to affect a different area, it gets a little more complicated in figure 9.11 we used a smart filter to make a highlight shadow adjustment on part of the image and then created a second smart filter to apply a texture to the overall image to make it appear as though it were printed on canvas to do this, after we applied the shadows/Highlights adjustment as
Trang 3a smart filter, we copied the smart Object layer by dragging it to the new Layer icon,
then we rasterized the new layer and then converted it back to a new smart Object and
applied the texture to the entire image to apply any smart filters to different parts of
the image (or just one smart filter to the entire image), follow these steps:
don’t want to be affected
on the previous layer
smart Object that includes the effects of the previous layer that way, you can apply additional filters and use the layer mask to apply the effects differently than you did in the previous layer Use the layer mask to reveal only the portion
of the image you want to be affected by this filter or to subdue the effects of the filter beyond what’s available in the filter settings
Figure 9.11 Using Smart Filters sometimes involves a series of steps.
Trang 4Using Filters without Smart Objects
Just as with smart filters, since most of the creative filters work on 8-bit images only,
we recommend that you duplicate your optimized master file and create a separate file
to do your creative work that way, the master file remains a 16-bit file, and the cre-ative file is 8-bit
if you have no use for the original file without the creative effects, you may pre-fer to create a Merge visible layer at the top of the workflow by holding down the alt/
the alt/Option key while clicking Merge visible apply the filter effects to this layer
then you can reduce the effect later by adjusting the opacity of the layer, or you can add a layer mask to apply the filter to specific parts of the layer only
if the filter effect you want to apply is grayed out, it means that you’ll need to
Note: Many filters take considerable time to process If you are going to experiment with different effects, a useful trick is to duplicate your image by choosing Image > Duplicate and significantly reduce the size of the duplicate file Then experiment with the filters on the smaller file When you have estab-lished a combination of filters and settings that you are satisfied with, apply the same combination to your original file
Some filters are processed only using RAM If a filter requires all your available RAM to process an effect, you may get an error message Try closing other running programs to free up some RAM
For Photoshop Elements Users: Applying Filters
Elements does not have Smart Filters When you want to have the convenience and power of a layer mask with the filtered version of the image, we recommend following Steps 1–4 from the
“For Photoshop Elements Users: Colorizing Black-and-White Images” sidebar earlier in this chap-ter to create a layer with an adjustment mask Then, once you’ve applied a filchap-ter, if you are going
to continue to work on the image, create a Stamp Visible layer before moving on
Lens Correction Filter
the Lens Correction filter is used to correct distortions that appear in your image due to limitations of various lenses it has been dramatically improved in Cs5 and is worth becoming familiar with so you will immediately know how to proceed if you find chromatic aberration or vignetting in any of your images in addition it can help correct for distortion due to not holding your camera on a parallel plane with your subject (that’s what often causes buildings to look as though they’re falling over), to straighten the image, or to add a vignetting effect
the Lens Correction filter can be used on 8-bit or 16-bit images, as well as
on smart Objects, and is best applied before you crop or distort the image in any
For Photoshop Elements Users: Applying Filters
Elements does not have Smart Filters When you want to have the convenience and power of a layer mask with the filtered version of the image, we recommend following Steps 1–4 from the
“For Photoshop Elements Users: Colorizing Black-and-White Images” sidebar earlier in this chap-ter to create a layer with an adjustment mask Then, once you’ve applied a filchap-ter, if you are going
to continue to work on the image, create a Stamp Visible layer before moving on
Trang 5way therefore to use it we recommend converting your background layer to a smart
top of your workflow
When you choose the Lens Correction filter, a new window opens as shown
in figure 9.12, featuring a tab that offers automatic corrections of a variety of lens
related issues as well as a Custom tab that has settings that are closer to what was
present in earlier versions of Photoshop (the elements version is very similar to the
Custom tab and has fewer options.)
Figure 9.12 The Lens Correction filter offers both automatic and manual correction of various types of image distortions caused
by lenses
the auto settings last used in the Lens Correction filter are “sticky.” that means that each time the filter opens, it displays the settings that you used the last time so if
you applied an auto adjustment, the auto settings will be applied to the new image as
well You may well need to choose a different profile for the auto settings for the new
image, or to turn them off all together by unchecking the auto Correction tab
the auto Corrections are new to Cs5 and are dependent on profiles for each specific lens and camera combination to use the auto features fill in the search
crite-ria with the details of your camera make and model, along with the lens from the
fly-out menu, be sure to check Match sensor size, but you will usually not check Prefer
raw Profiles for a given lens profile, there can be both raW (generated with raW
image files) and non-raW (generated with non-raW images, usually JPeGs, but
pos-sibly tiffs) versions of the profile since images are already past their raW stage
show the available non-raW profiles for a given camera make/model/lens
combina-tion if a non-raW profile does not exist for a certain combination but a raW profile
Trang 6does exist, the plug-in will display the raW profile if profiles for your lens appear, choose the best one (adobe is rating the profiles based on the number of parameters taken into consideration while developing the profile) and proceed as needed to fine-tune the lens corrections on the Custom tab
although adobe is supplying some profiles, they are unable to create every pos-sible combination of camera body and lens the hope is that camera lens manufactur-ers, and othmanufactur-ers, cooperate and also offer profiles therefore they’ve created free Lens Correction Profiler software so users can develop their own custom profiles, available from the adobe website to access it, open the fly-out menu in the Lens Profile section
of the interface, and choose “Browse adobe Lens Profile Creator Online.” Creating custom profiles takes some time, so adobe has also made it possible for people to upload profiles to a website the easiest way to access the additional profiles is to click the “search Online” button in the Lens Correction interface
to use online profiles, take these steps:
camera-body model, and lens model metadata to gain use of the online profile search feature
profiles these feature a globe icon next to their names
(make sure your auto Correction check boxes are checked) You can even Ok the dialog and apply these corrections without having to save the online profile
to your computer
Online Profile Locally this will save the online profile onto your computer so you can use it anytime from the same fly-out menu, you can select a profile and choose show in finder (or show in explorer on a PC) to see the location
of the profile, and delete it if you decide you no longer want it You can also choose the Browse adobe Lens Profile Creator Online command
With the correct profile selected, check the boxes to correct Geometric Distor-tion, Chromatic aberraDistor-tion, or vignetting as needed if you check auto scale image, Photoshop will fill the space with the image after the image is stretched or pulled to remove the distortions We prefer to initially leave auto scale image unchecked and have the edge drop-down set to transparency that way we can see how much of the image will be modified near the edges We often then check auto scale image and visually inspect the results, particularly near the edges Choosing edge extension from the edge drop-down menu will cause Photoshop to automatically fill in the transpar-ent edges, but in our experience this is often not done well if there is significant area to
be filled if the area is very limited, then it may work reasonably
to manually correct barrel or pincushion distortion, click on the Custom tab
Trang 7place the cursor over the image and drag left or right the icon beneath the barrel is
accu-rately reduce the various distortions the Hand tool and Zoom tool icons work as
they do elsewhere in Photoshop
Use the Custom tab shown in figure 9.13 to manually apply any corrections you choose, or to tweak the auto corrections note that in the Chromatic aberration
area you have the option to control green/magenta fringing in addition to the red/
cyan and blue/yellow fringing sliders that are available within aCr Whenever you
are removing chromatic aberration, it’s a good idea to zoom in to at least 100%
mag-nification then adjust the sliders one at a time to remove the color halos as shown in
figure 9.13
Figure 9.13 Zoom in to at least 100% magnification as you adjust the sliders to remove chromatic aberration.
You can apply or remove vignetting as you wish by using the vignette controls
in some cases you may opt to leave some vignetting to subtly draw the viewer’s eye
into the image, while in other cases you may want to add vignetting for that purpose
note that when creating a vignette you can create a dark vignette or a light one Both
ways can be effective it’s up to your creative vision to decide which you prefer
similarly, using the Custom tab, you can transform the vertical and/or horizon-tal perspectives to correct for distortions caused by not having your lens parallel to the
plane of focus of your subject although perspective distortion is most often evident in
buildings that appear to be leaning forward or backward, it can be an issue for nature
photographers in some situations and results in slight distortion of your subject matter
rather than setting the angle directly, we find it easier to use the straighten
Trang 8along a surface that should be horizontal or vertical and let Photoshop automatically determine the angle
at times scaling is helpful to retain some parts of your image that become hid-den due to the distortion correction that’s applied scaling gives you the option to include extra canvas around the image or to move in on the image, thereby eliminat-ing the blank canvas On the auto Correction tab you can opt to leave extra canvas transparent or have Photoshop try to fill it in by choosing edge extension that way the additional canvas may come close to matching surrounding areas of the image
However, most of the time you’ll still need to do some additional cloning and healing
to make certain the new canvas blends seamlessly with the rest of the image
although many of the Lens Correction controls are also available within aCr, some offer more options within the Ps interface, as well as the ability to use a mask in conjunction with the filter
For Photoshop Elements Users: Removing Distortion in Elements
Elements has a similar filter for eliminating distortion, which you access by going to Filter >
Correct Camera Distortion The interface, as seen here, is very similar to the custom tab in the CS5 version of the filter; however there are fewer controls and no automatic controls We do not advise using the Angle control here to straighten an image, because it’s difficult to accurately set the correction angle Rather, we prefer to use the methods we discussed in Chapter 5
Trang 9Blurs
Photoshop Cs5 has an impressively long list of blurs, but we’ll cover only the ones
that are particularly applicable to nature photographs We find that Gaussian blurs,
and occasionally lens blurs, are the main ones we use You may want to explore other
blurs, such as smart blurs, motion blurs, and zoom blurs as well
Gaussian Blurs
Gaussian blurs produce a hazy effect and blur the image by an adjustable amount
they’re quite useful when you want to blur a section of your image However, it’s
important to remember that if you make a selection of the area you want to blur, a
Gaussian blur considers that selection a general guideline, but not an absolute
man-date, for the boundaries of the blur this transition area between blurred and not
blurred sections is more apparent the more blur you apply at times it can create a
glow around your subject, as it does in the photo in figure 9.14
Figure 9.14 Although the background was selected when the Gaussian blur was applied, it included some of the pink
from the spoonbill, resulting in a pleasant glow around the bird
to apply a Gaussian blur, take the following steps:
selection tools, or you may prefer to rely completely on painting a layer mask