PHOTOSHOP CS4 QuickSteps- P4 docx

As a rule, when you right-click a thumbnail in Bridge and choose Open, JPEG, TIFF, and Camera Raw file types are sent to the Camera Raw Editor before you can open them in Photoshop; Adob

4 In the New Filenames area, it’s best to rename the files using text, and not numerically (the other option in the first drop-down list) Type the new name prefix for your selected photos

in the entry field to the right of Text

5 The Date Time is probably best left at its default, unless you want to sort by month or other criteria in the future

6 You can remove other fields if you have no use for them by clicking the minus (–) button at the right of a row

7 The Sequence Number is usually the best option for file renaming; in Figure 3-7 you can see that the text for a group

of images is labeled with the location, Sackett’s Harbor, and

by starting at 1, and allowing four digits as the suffix for the

“Sackett’s Harbor” prefix, 9999 images can have the same prefix in the name

8 Click the Rename button The files are renamed, and you’re

returned to the folder in Bridge’s Content panel, with your newly renamed—and much easier to review—photos

Use Image Stacks

Creating stacks of images not only enables you to see more of a collection, but

is also terrific for thumbing through to see, for example, which photo out of a series has the best exposure or camera angle To make a stack:

1 CTRL / CMD+click several image thumbnails in the Content panel

2 Right-click and choose Stack | Group As Stack from the context menu.

To unstack a stack, Choose Ungroup from Stack from the right-click context menu or choose Stack | Ungroup From Stack

An image stack is readily identified by the unique number tag at the top left of

an image thumbnail.

You’ll note that in this section, the main menu in Bridge has not been thoroughly documented; this is for a good reason Almost all the commands you use and features at your disposal in Bridge can be accessed from the right-click context menu, or can be performed by dragging on an interface element or a thumbnail

Figure 3-7: Batch rename photos to make your time sorting images much easier.

You’ve just learned the smart way to work in Adobe Bridge and will be

hard-pressed to find a significant item on the menu (except for Help) that cannot be

accessed through the methods you’ve just learned in this chapter.

Travel from Bridge to Photoshop

It’s easy to open an image—or a number of selected images—in Photoshop

from Bridge: right-click over the image(s) and choose Open With | Adobe

Photoshop CS4 (Default) In seconds you have your selected images in a tabbed window in PS CS4 As you can see next, the Open With submenu includes other applications you can launch;

which programs are listed depends on the programs you own, and the operating system’s associations with the file type, such

as JPEG, TIF, and others.

You can also use the Open command on the context menu to launch Photoshop

with your selected image(s), but only if CS4 is the default application; an

application you’ve installed after you install CS4 might have made the

association, for example, for PNG file types, so to be sure you’re launching

Photoshop, use Open With instead of Open.

Raw file types have many different extensions because no two camera

manufacturers can agree on a common file format A Raw image is an

unprocessed image and therefore needs to pass through Adobe Camera Raw

Editor before it can be edited in Photoshop There are two ways to spot a camera

Raw image in the Content panel:

• The Metadata File Properties area states that the selected image is a Raw file in the

Document Type field

• For Windows users and others who use file extensions, a camera Raw file has an

unusual file extension such as CRW (Canon), NEF, NRW (Nikon), MRW (Minolta),

or any of more than 15 other popular ones Additionally, Adobe has an omnibus file

exchange format for Raw files with the extension DNG

As a rule, when you right-click a thumbnail in Bridge and choose Open, JPEG, TIFF, and Camera Raw file types are sent to the Camera Raw Editor before you can open them in Photoshop; Adobe specifies these files types as ones that can retain camera metadata internally.

Process Camera Raw Images

Chances are good that any digital camera model from 2002 and later will take camera raw images (in addition to JPEGs and TIFFs) Camera raw images produce the highest-quality images to date, but unlike JPEG and other file formats, you can define a raw image’s exposure, color temperature, and other properties, very much like the traditional darkroom enhancing you can perform

on a film negative when printing a photo.

Open the Camera Raw Editor

A camera raw image isn’t developed: you need to create a processed image based

on the raw “negative” file—which also makes it less likely you’ll accidentally alter your negatives To open one or more raw images for processing:

• In Bridge, select the images, right-click, and click Open In Camera Raw from the

context menu Camera raw files as well as file formats saved to your camera’s memory card, such as JPEG and TIFF, will open in the Camera Raw Editor

–Or–

• In Photoshop, click File | Open, select the image (alternatively, Marquee-select several

images or press CTRL / CMD and click nonsequential images), and then click Open

Note that Camera Raw will only open if you choose one or more raw files—JPEGs and TIFFs will not trigger the Camera Raw Editor

The “darkroom” for raw film processing is the Camera Raw Editor, shown

in Figure 3-8.

The elements in the interface are as follows:

• Tools panel Here you can find the tools for removing Red Eye, adding a graduated

tint, and many other features you can also use directly in Photoshop The tools are a convenience if you’re in a hurry and don’t have time to launch Photoshop for a minor correction or enhancement

No EXIF data Type of file

No ISO or other camera data

• Filmstrip To the left of the interface you’ll find one or more images you’ve chosen for

processing Click one to edit it and preview it in the main window

• Toggle Full Screen Mode This button offers alternative views between a normal and

a maximized interface onscreen

• Camera name and/or file format On the title bar (hidden when in Full Screen mode)

you’ll see the name of the camera when a camera raw file is loaded When a JPEG or other image file format is loaded, you’ll see the file format here

Figure 3-8: The Camera Raw interface

Navigation arrows

Click to display

Workflow

Options

Zoom levels

Histogram Toggle Full

Screen Mode Tools panel

Camera name and/or file type

Camera Raw Settings menu

Image adjustment tabs

Filmstrip

Adjustment sliders

• Image adjustment tabs By default, you can process images using the Basic

adjustment tab sliders and settings There are additional adjustment settings on the other tabs, described in the following section

• Histogram Here you can see how many pixels are at various brightness levels in the

selected image: the red, green, and blue channels are overlaid with a white composite channel You can adjust the distribution of pixels at different brightness levels using the Tone Curve tab in the adjustment tabs section See Chapter 4 for details on working with Levels, Curves, and other Photoshop adjustments for correcting and enhancing the shadows, midtones, and highlights in your photos

SAVE OR RESET YOUR PROCESSING WORK

Before you get too far into Camera Raw image processing, it’s good to understand what the buttons along the bottom of the interface do and mean:

• Save Image Click to save an image—with or without any adjustments The Save

Options dialog box opens If you want to save a copy of a camera raw image, choose Digital Negative (DNG) from the Format drop-down list You can also save to TIFF, JPEG, and Photoshop’s native file format To save with the most future editing options, choose Digital Negative Or PSD—saving a JPEG as a JPEG only allows further degradation of the file because JPEG is a lossy file format

• Open Image Click to open the file as a Smart Object in

Photoshop The image will need to be saved in Photoshop

using File | Save or File | Save As; Smart Objects do not

have a file format and they are not saved to hard disk

• Cancel Click to return to Bridge Alternatively, press

ALT / OPT and the Cancel button becomes the Reset button, which, when clicked, discards all your editing of the image in the Camera Raw Editor

• Done Click to apply the edits You’re returned to

Bridge Note that a small icon appears to the upper right

of an edited image Because edits are nondestructive

in the Camera Raw Editor, you can elect to remove all edits at any time within Bridge Here you can see an image that has been cropped To remove the crop, right-click the thumbnail in Bridge’s Content panel and then

choose Develop Settings | Clear Settings from the

context menu

Image has Develop settings

UNDERSTAND THE CAMERA RAW SETTINGS MENU

Say you’ve taken several raw images at about the same time, and they’re all consistently running colder than you’d like The Camera Raw Settings menu is invaluable for saving processing settings you perform on one image, and then applying the setting to several photos:

1 Make your corrections using the adjustment sliders and/or other controls on the image adjustment tabs

2 Choose Save Settings from the menu, check the boxes that you want to apply to other images, and then click Save.

3 Load an image to which you want to apply the saved settings

4 Choose Load Settings from the menu and choose the file you saved in Step 3.

Other options on the menu can be used to reset the defaults to a raw image (thus removing any custom processing settings), load the conversion you used previously, and write an external XMP file for an image you’ve processed that cannot store metadata internally, such as PNG images.

USE ZOOM LEVELS

Choose from the drop-down list to increase and/or decrease your view in the main image window Also, to the left are + and – buttons; if you want to zoom

in or out by predefined multiples, you click either of these buttons.

WORKFLOW OPTIONS

Eventually you’ll want to perform a little advanced editing in Photoshop, even with the best of photos When you click the blue underscored label beneath the current image, the Workflow Options dialog box appears, in which you can define the color space, color depth, size, and resolution of the image as it will open in Photoshop.

Checking the Open In Photoshop As Smart Objects check box sends your processed image to Photoshop as a Smart Object Smart Object layers display a unique identifier in the corner of their thumbnail on the Layers panel You can also click Open Object to open the raw image in Photoshop as a Smart Object

DEFINING THE PROPERTIES OF

A PROCESSED RAW FILE

To get the most out of your Photoshop editing work,

it’s important to save a copy of your Raw image in a

color space and color depth that allows high-fidelity

corrections with the least loss of original camera data

Here are the steps to ensure that every pixel of your

photo arrives in Photoshop with as much editing potential

as you need:

1 Click the Workflow Options text label below the

current image

2 Choose Adobe (1998) RGB for the color space

This is the largest color space available; the

larger the color space, the more freedom you

have to create dramatic changes to image areas

in Photoshop—such as burning and dodging—

without creating flat, super-saturated areas that

look unnatural

3 Choose 16 Bits/Channel as the depth A 16-bit

image contains a broader range of tones than

standard 8-bit-per-pixel photos, enabling you to

play with exposure without introducing banding

or other artifacts The trick is to create smooth

areas when you edit in Photoshop; 16-bit-per-pixel

images provide the capability

4 It’s best to leave the Size setting of your image at

the size at which it was taken; when an image is

resized, pixel color values are reassigned and this

sometimes leads to blurring the photo

5 It’s also best to leave the Resolution setting at its

current value Changing resolution can create the

same image softening as changing the image’s

size Size and resolution are both best changed

using Photoshop’s advanced features

Smart Objects are in a special “wrapper”; some but not all edits can be performed on Smart Objects The purpose of a Smart Object is to retain all the original properties of the file, to make edits nondestructive Figure 3-9 shows an example of the Workflow Options dialog box and the identifier for a Smart Object as displayed on Photoshop’s Layers panel.

NAVIGATION ARROWS

These arrows take you from the current image to the previous and next ones only if you’ve loaded several images in the Camera Raw editor for editing—a single loaded image doesn’t call these arrows and, in this case, they’re hidden You can manually navigate through your images by clicking their thumbnails

in the Filmstrip panel.

ADJUSTMENT SLIDERS

This is the area where the most significant global changes are made while you process your images in the Camera Raw editor It’s often best to make adjustments starting at the top of the panel, working down.

• Use the White Balance drop-down list to make a baseline correction to the image Then use the sliders to refine the color and tone corrections

• Use the Temperature slider to change the color casting of the photo Drag left to cool the image, and drag right to warm up a cold image

• Use the Tint slider to compensate for Temperature corrections Add a green tint by dragging the slider left, and add magenta by dragging to the right

• Click the Auto button to allow the Editor to estimate the parameters for the sliders below; click the Default button to reset the sliders

Figure 3-9: Use the Workflow Options dialog box to

save the raw image for editing at custom resolutions

and depth.

Click to open image

in Photoshop as a Smart Object

Photoshop Layers panel Smart Object tag

Click to set depth

and other properties

• Drag the Exposure slider to the right to increase the global brightness of the image (most noticeably in the lighter areas) Drag to the left to darken the image Use the number box to enter precise values: every whole value you type in is equivalent to a camera’s f-stop

• Drag the Recovery slider to the right if your Exposure setting is making white areas too brilliant (called “clipping to white” or “whiter than white”) Drag the slider to the left to diminish the effect of Recovery

• Drag the Fill Light slider to the right to add detail to shadow areas of your photo without brightening the absolute blacks in the image Drag left to lessen the effect

• Drag the Blacks slider to the right to add overall contrast and punch to the photograph;

doing this expands the areas in the photo that are mapped to absolute black Drag to the left to contract the areas in the photo that are mapped to absolute black (0,0,0)

• Drag the Brightness slider to the right to compress the highlight range and expand the shadow range in the photo

• Drag the Contrast slider to the right to narrow the range of midtones in the image Drag left to lessen the effect, broadening the midtones primarily, with secondary, less impact

on the shadow and highlight tone regions

• Drag the Clarity slider to the right to apply sharpening to the midtone region of objects

in the scene You might see an improved sense of depth in photos where fine details are bunched together, for example foliage or a plate of pasta If objects visibly begin to display a halo effect while you’re viewing the main preview at 100% viewing resolution, back the slider to the left a little

• Drag the Vibrance slider to the right to add saturation to dull image areas without oversaturating areas that already are quite “juicy.”

• Drag the Saturation slider to the right to add saturation; drag the slider to the left to eventually create a black and white photo at –100

Work with Camera Raw Editor’s Tools

Many of the tools you’ll find in the Camera Raw Editor are also available within Photoshop, and in several cases you have more options for performing tasks with precision within Photoshop However, the Editor’s tools, shown

TIP

If after adjusting Brightness the image still isn’t exactly

the way you envision it, readjust Exposure and Blacks

Tonal controls in the Camera Raw editor are interrelated

in Figure 3-10, are an excellent starting point for photographers; learn these tools and you’ll feel more at home in Photoshop.

The tools offered in Camera Raw are quite similar to those in Photoshop Here is what they perform:

• Zoom into the current image by clicking

it with the Zoom tool Press ALT / OPT and click to zoom your view out; you can also Marquee-drag to zoom into a specific area of the image

• Shift your view of a magnified image by dragging in the image window with the Hand tool Hold the spacebar to temporarily toggle to the Hand tool from other tools such as the Zoom tool

• Change the color temperature and tint of an image by clicking with the White Balance tool an image area you think should be a completely neutral color

• Mark specific image areas for future reference using the Color Sampler tool This is a terrific feature to see the true value of a color pixel so you can better evaluate the white balance of an image Click the Clear Samples button to get rid of the markers You can drag a marker anywhere in the image by click-dragging To remove only one marker, hold ALT / OPT and click over it

• Crop an image using the Crop tool:

• By default, the aspect ratio of the Crop tool is unconstrained; click-drag to create

a crop

• To choose a preset crop aspect ratio, drag on the Crop Tool button to

reveal a menu

• To create a custom aspect ratio, choose Custom from the drop-down

list, and then type the ratio numbers you want

• To rotate the crop area you’ve defined, hover the cursor around a corner until it turns into a bent double-arrow, and then click-drag any

of the four handles bounding the crop area

Figure 3-10: The adjustment tools available in the Camera

Raw Editor

Take new sample

Move color sample

Color Sampler tool Color value

Hand tool

Zoom tool

White Balance tool Crop tool

Spot Removal tool Adjustment Brush Preferences

Click the Rotate Image 90° Counter Clockwise button (or press L)

Click the Rotate Image 90° Clockwise button (or press R)

Color Sampler tool

Straighten tool

Red-eye Removal tool

Graduated Filter tool

Rotate 90 degrees

Delete adjustments

• To scale the area you propose to crop, hover the cursor around a corner until it turns into a straight diagonal double-arrow, and then click-drag any of the four handles bounding the crop area

• To move the crop area, drag inside of the crop area

As shown in Figure 3-11, you can perform significant editing through cropping, but the beauty of Camera Raw is that these are nondestructive edits; you can undo a crop or a rotation at any time in the future.

The following list offers practical uses for the other tools:

• Straighten the horizon of a photo by click-dragging with the Straighten tool After performing the correction, the tool changes to the Crop tool—the image needs to be cropped after straightening; see the previous section

• To repair noise, unwanted spots, or other visual debris in a photo, use the Spot Removal tool Beginning at the unwanted area, click-drag to create a circle, which appears as a dashed red outline (see Figure 3-12) A dashed green outline of the same size appears—this is the sample area for replacing the damaged area

Figure 3-11: Adjust the angle, size, and position of your

crop after you’ve defined it by click-dragging with the

Crop tool.

Scale crop Move crop Crop area Rotate crop

Figure 3-12: Use the Spot Removal tool to repair image areas.

Sample area Area to be healed