Tag: image editing

Ultimate Guide To Blending Modes in Photoshop

By Melanie Mayne
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The blending modes feature is one of Photoshop’s most undervalued tools for Photographers. Blending modes can be used to alter the ways in which each layer interacts with the layers below it, allowing for endless possibilities when it comes to setting the right tone or adding artificial lighting.

How to Master Blending Modes in Photoshop

Graphic designers and digital illustrators use blending modes all the time to create interesting lighting effects or textures; however, most digital photographers don’t realize that blending modes can be useful when working with photographs, too. The right combination of blending modes can set a dramatic tone that is otherwise difficult to achieve.

… Continue reading Ultimate Guide To Blending Modes in Photoshop

Retouching with Cloning Tools: Part 3

By Melanie Mayne
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In Part 1 and Part 2 of the Retouching with Cloning Tools series, you learned what cloning tools are used for and the differences between each tool. In this part of the series, you will follow a step-by-step tutorial to learn how to remove power lines (or other unwanted objects) from an otherwise beautiful photograph.

This particular image contains distracting power lines on the left side of the stylish building, but the photo is oriented in such a way that simply cropping them out would look strange.

… Continue reading Retouching with Cloning Tools: Part 3

10 Ugly Things You Don’t Want to See in Your Images

By George Bailey
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Laziness is the first motive of progress – it makes us optimize our workflow to work less and rest more.
But prior to some chilling out, we need to do our job really well, just to avoid correcting our own mistakes over and over again.

ugly-things-preview

Here are some hints for lazy photographers like me, who want to save time on retouch and devote more time to the fun of shooting. Or just to sleep more, or whatever.

… Continue reading 10 Ugly Things You Don’t Want to See in Your Images

Free photo editors for Linux, Mac, and Windows

By John Watson
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Can’t afford Photoshop? Can’t justify the expense? What do you need in a good photo editor anyway? To me, the absolute essential features necessary for any photo editing app are:

  • Layers and layer masks (alpha editing). These features let you selectively apply edits and filters to portions of the image that you control.
  • Painting tools. Brushes in varying sizes and hardness. For painting masks, mostly.
  • Curves. Essential. A curves adjustment tool lets you control color, color saturation, contrast, brightness, and black white points. Curves is often the only tool I use.
  • Color adjustment. Hue and saturation adjustments.
  • Channel mixer/B&W converter. Some way to make black and white photos.
  • Filters. Blur and sharpen. You don’t need page curl or lens flare.

Without further ado, and in alphabetical order, some free apps that fit the bill:

Aviary Phoenix (Web app–All platforms)

The only web/online app in the list that supports layers and masks. “From basic image retouching to complex effects,

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Black and White Conversion: Channel Mixer Recipes

By John Watson
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Black and white conversion is a mysterious process. There are many ways to do it and none is objectively any better than any other for every photo. So, these are guidelines, really, in the spirit of a recipe. But unlike following a recipe for baking a cake, we are not all trying to create the same photo. Keep in mind that every photo is different and will require slightly different values for any image editing technique.

Here’s a photo I took on a hike recently with my kids:

Meadow path

To compare with the channel mixer conversions below, first I’ll show the results from a simple average color desaturation. This is a simple conversion, it’s fast, and it’s very easy to do. In Photoshop it’s Image | Adjustments | Desaturate. In GIMP it’s Color | Desaturate.

deasat1

Many people, myself included, feel that this method often results in lifeless photos. If you’re going to convert this way, you’ll be doing yourself a favor if you also boost the contrast after the fact:

deasat2

I think the simplicity of just desaturating a photo and boosting the contrast has a lot of appeal.

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Black and White with a Splash of Color Photosop Tutorial

By Ray Davis
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One of the techniques people most often ask me to teach them is making a photograph like the one on the right that is black and white with one other colour.

There are a few ways to achieve this effect but here are two ones I find easiest for Photoshop users.

… Continue reading Black and White with a Splash of Color Photosop Tutorial

Review: Wacom Bamboo Fun graphics tablet

By John Watson
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I'd purchased one of the original Wacom Graphire tablets a long, long time ago and it served me well. I remember I'd tried a different brand first because it was cheaper but returned it immediately because writing on it felt like crap. The Graphire had a very natural pen on paper feel which I liked a lot. As I said, that was a long time ago. The buttons had fallen off the pen and the surface was heavily scuffed and, let's face it, it was the only patch of light blue in my manly, all-black office space. An upgrade was in order.

So a couple of months ago I decided to try one of the new Bamboo Fun models. I simply can’t justify the expense of the large Intuos tablets for myself (though I’d love to have one if you, kind reader, are feeling generous).

The Bamboo line from Wacom essentially replaces the old Graphire line except for the Graphire Wireless 6×8. The Bamboo comes in two models: The Bamboo Fun and the Bamboo (business version). They are identical except that the Bamboo Fun comes with a wireless mouse and with some old software: Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 Win/4.0 Mac,

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“Photoshopped.”

By John Watson
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My photo blog (shameless plug: lightproofbox.com) has been getting some traffic from StumbleUpon lately which brings with it little waves of attention. 99% of it is positive. But invariably there are a few people who don’t seem to have anything better to do than to say trite, mean things (anonymously, natch).

Hey, I’ve been around long enough to know there are jackasses out there who, while not doing anything risky or creative of their own, will always be willing to bash what everyone else is doing. I let it roll off my back.

But the one that makes me laugh is when they claim a photograph has been “photoshopped.” Well, duh. That’s like looking at the ocean and denouncing it by saying, “Wet.” Photoshopped? Let me think… Um, yes, please!

I modify 99% of my published photos. Of the thousand I’ve posted to Flickr there are maybe a half-dozen that I posted as-is from the camera. My earliest photos had the least “work done.” Later, as I became more experienced with digital post-processing, I edited quite heavily (probably too heavily in many cases).

… Continue reading “Photoshopped.”

Poll: What software do you use to edit your photos?

By John Watson
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As one of our most recent polls shows we have photographers of all skill levels here from beginners to experts. We all have different reasons for taking photographs and a different workflow. Part of virtually every digital photographer’s workflow is editing photos in software. So I’m curious what software you use (primarily) to edit your photos. If you don’t see your favorite app in the list, click the link to add it.

{democracy:3}

… Continue reading Poll: What software do you use to edit your photos?

Review: Adobe Photoshop goes online with Photoshop Express

By John Watson
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Photoshop Express featured Adobe has finally opened up the beta of Photoshop Express, the long-awaited online version of Adobe Photoshop. I’ve just finished running it through it’s paces and I am impressed.

Photoshop express requires registration to use. You get access to the online editing tool and a relatively meager 2 GB of space for photos at a custom URL which you can organize into a slick public gallery and slideshows. It won’t replace dedicated photo sharing like Flickr (no comments, limited interaction) but for casual users just being able to share a few albums and slideshows may be enough. By default, photos you upload to the service are private until you move them into your public gallery.

Photoshop Express

The interface should be immediately familiar to anyone who has used Adobe Lightroom. The default view of your photos mimics Lightroom’s browse mode and even includes the ability to rate and caption your uploads. Unfortunately it does not support RAW editing. That would have been killer.

Editing is also very much like Lightroom. Unlike Photoshop, it does not support layers, masking, or really any of the features that make Photoshop,

… Continue reading Review: Adobe Photoshop goes online with Photoshop Express

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