Digital Transformer Blog

Photoshop's Clipping Groups

2012-02-03T16:03:00.000-08:00

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

2011-10-24T17:29:00.000-07:00

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....

Roger Hagadone and GVC

2011-09-29T18:46:00.001-07:00

Earlier this year I collaborated with photographer Roger Hagadone on a series of ads for Grand Victoria Casino in the Chicago area.

The image shown here is one of ten images we created for the campaign. For each of these images Roger shot the background and foreground elements inside the casino and then flew out to Los Angeles to shoot the models that would be composited into the images.

Working on set with Roger as he shot the models I quickly dropped them into the backgrounds so he and the client could preview how the final composited images would look. Then once the final picks had been made I took copies of all the files and returned to my studio where I started to work on crafting the final composited images.

To keep the focus of the image on the model I used Photoshop's Lens Blur filter and to create the illusion of a short depth of field and then progressively darkened the deepest parts of the background. The table was added in front of the model and I brought in just a hint of her reflected in the wine glass. Then I retouched the model and added a touch of stylizing glamour to give her that special look Roger wanted.

Below are the before shots used to create the final polished image.

Digital Dissection - Photoshop Workshop Sept 24th, 2011

2011-09-22T18:29:00.001-07:00

Come join us on Saturday September 24th for the next in our series of Digital Workshops with Dennis Dunbar. For this event Dennis will cover some of his recent projects highlighting several special techniques giving you an insight into how he approaches the challenges that come up.

He'll demonstrate techniques for stylizing images using split toning and other tricks. He’ll also show his favorite techniques for Color Correction and he’ll give you tips on Masking, using the Pen Tool as well as Photoshop’s Refine Edge Brush to blend several images into a seamless composite. Then he’ll show you how to wrestle pixels using the Warp Tool. Along the way he'll discuss file structure, layer organization and retouching workflow.

Join us for what promises to be an informative and enlightening workshop with one of APA LA's very own retouching masters.

Saturday September 24, 2011
10am-2pm

At Strauss Studios
6442 Santa Monica Blvd.#204
LA, CA 90038-1513

To register or for more information Click Here

Sponsored by:

Great info from X-Rite & CMG

2011-08-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-19T17:08:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-10T16:40:00.000-07:00

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.

Choking a Path with Photoshop and Illustrator

2011-08-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

Every now and then a project will involve creating a Clipping Path which the client will then use in a layout program such as Quark Xpress or InDesign to make sure the background drops out completely.

Now creating a Clipping Path is simple enough, but what happens if the client needs the path to come in a little bit tighter, commonly called "choking"? Moving each point on the path in a few pixels can be very time consuming especially when you have a complex path.

Here is a video tutorial I created showing you how to easily accomplish this using Photoshop and Illustrator together.

Guess Mailer

2011-07-14T18:58:00.000-07:00

This past Spring I was called by photographer Emilie Harris who asked me to handle the retouching for a Guess ad campaign she had just shot.

The job involved working on 9 images that were to be part of their Spring Mailer. In addition to the usual retouching, color correction and cleanup this project involved an added twist. All of the images were shot using a cool idea, projecting an image onto the background over the models. In the end we wound up using a combination of 'Old School' and 'New School' techniques to create the finished images.

When the background images were projected over the models it created a very cool muted, slightly distorted image that spilled over the models tying them nicely into the scene. By combining the approved shots with the images that were projected onto the backgrounds I was able to bring a level of control to the project that could not be achieved 'in camera'.

Of course this meant laying the background images over the approved shot, matching the distortion and color then carefully masking out the models. For the image above this meant painstakingly masking out the spokes on the wheels as well. Now that's true masking fun!

Here are the Before and After shots:

A Really Cool Script

2011-07-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Beauty by Layers

2011-05-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

This Saturday I'll be teaching a workshop on retouching for the APA Chapter in Denver, Colorado.

Beauty Retouching with Dennis Dunbar

May 14, 2011
Beauty by Layers with Dennis Dunbar

Join us on Saturday, May 14th when Dennis Dunbar will be teaching a workshop on High End Beauty Retouching. In this workshop Dennis will cover his Beauty Retouching Workflow, and will go into detail describing his techniques for getting perfect skin, as well as Color Correcting, and Sharpening. He’ll also discuss working on hair, enhancing makeup, adding a “Healthy Skin Glow” and using Adjustment Layers to augment the lighting.

Users of all levels are welcome as this workshop promises to be an informative and interesting event where Dennis will share tips and tricks that will help both the beginner as well as the advanced user.

APA Member $25

Non members $50

9:30 Doors Open

10am-2pm Presentation

lunch included

at Denver Pro Photo

235 S Cherokee St
Denver CO 80223

Door Prizes and Sponsored by:

Beauty Retouching with Dennis Dunbar

2011-03-16T17:15:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Cowart and Taylor Swift

2011-03-07T17:03:00.000-08:00

As a digital artist/retoucher I love collaborating with photographers producing beautiful images like this one of Taylor Swift, shot by Jeremy Cowart. This image called for careful retouching and subtle techniques to enhance her natural beauty.

In working on Beauty shots like this one my standard workflow is to first go through the image cleaning up any out of place bits, then I carefully worked on her skin using a combination of the Heal Brush, the Clone Tool and a little paint here and there balancing just the right amount of texture with an overall smoothness to make sure her skin looked perfect. Then I removed the stray hairs that always seem to show up in closely cropped shots like this.

After the basic cleanup was done I then focused on bringing just the right sense of light to her eye with a gentle Curves adjustment. Keeping in mind that the viewer's eye tends to go to the sharpest part of the image I always like add just a little more sharpness in the eyes. For this part I usually make use of the HiPass sharpening technique combined with a layer mask to limit the effect to just the eyes.

After applying the sharpening to her eyes I then added a subtle Glow to her skin by manipulating a copy of the Blue Channel to create a selection I could add the Glow through. The next step was to add a couple of "Bling" highlights on her earrings. And finally the lighting was enhanced with a Curves Adjustment Layer that added just the right sense of drama.

Here's a closer look:

After Effects Animations

2011-02-15T17:34:00.000-08:00

Over the last year I've been working on adding some After Effects skills to my capabilities. It's been a pretty natural transition as the basic concepts are very similar to what I've been doing in Photoshop for the last 20 years.

Recently I was called on by the talented team of Tom and Miriam Gundred at Soular Creative to help create some graphics animations for a project they were working on. This particular project involved creating two graphics animations that were to be part of a presentation highlighting some innovative technology one of their clients provided for their trade show clients.

In working on this they provided me with the Illustrator files and some directions indicating what they were looking for. After breaking out the various parts of the files that needed to move I then worked on creating the animations. This one in particular was designed to highlight how the client's technology allowed a presenter to control who could view the presentation.

Double-Click on the image below to see the final animated piece.

Recreating the Hipstamatic Look in 6 Steps

2011-02-09T16:00:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-21T14:53:00.000-08:00

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

2010-10-07T16:45:00.000-07:00

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.

Top Chef and the Free Desserts

2010-09-16T16:24:00.001-07:00

Last month I worked with the good folks at Arsonal, www.arsonalla.com, to create the final artwork promoting Bravo's new cooking show, "Top Chef Just Desserts". In addition to the usual magazine ads this campaign entailed a tie-in with the current Food Truck craze by hiring trucks in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles on the day of the shows premiere, September 15th. Basically the idea was that by following a Twitter Feed fans in these cities could track down the trucks and be rewarded with a free dessert. Yum!

For the Art Director, Tony, and I this meant creating artwork to wrap around the sides of the trucks. With 4 different trucks each with 4 different sides this meant creating 16 separate pieces of high resolution finished art, Whew!

Since the various designs were built around the cast members I first created separate files for each of the cast members and did all the stripping out and retouching there saving each one as a Smart Object. The biggest challenge, though, was in working with the Frosting that created the border for each of the images. Since the frosting had been shot using a couple of hot lights and a hand held camera there weren't many sections that had the nice, sharp detail we wanted. Add in all the twisting, warping and distorting Tony had done to the shots and you can imagine what it all looked like.

The biggest problem was that the frosting part of the image was going to be seen big and up close by all the folks waiting in line to get their free desserts so it had to look good. After working through all the noise reduction & sharpening techniques I normally used I found I still needed to find a way to bring out the subtle detail in the frosting. That's when a conversation I'd had long ago with a photographer friend, Jim McHugh, came to mind. Jim had come to one of my workshops a few years ago and he often reminds me how much my tip about using the Find Edges filter has helped him when he's working on his own images.

The Find Edges filter is often used as a way masking off sharpening effects so you can go a little heavier with the sharpening without worrying about creating problems in the areas you don't want sharpened. That's because the Find Edges filter creates something that looks like a white image with dark lines wherever it finds the edges in the image. Here's an example of what Find Edges did to the Frosting layer I was working with:

Normally retouchers use this to create a mask for a layer they've used some other sharpening technique on. But as I thought about different ways to use this I realized that if I made a copy of my smoothed, sharpened layer and ran this filter on it I could get an interesting effect by using the Multiply Blending Mode. You see the Multiply Blending mode will darken everything below that layer using the tones of the layer to determine how much darker to make the layers below. In this case White would have no effect, light tones would have a little bit while darker tones moving to Black would have the strongest effect.

So by making a copy of the Frosting I had worked on, using the Find Edges on that layer, setting this new layer to Multiply Blending I could get a layer that just emphasized the edges of the detail I wanted to bring out in the Frosting. To finesse the effect I added a Layer Mask that blocked all of my Find Edges Multiply layer and just selectively painted in the detail where needed. It added a very subtle touch that really helped it look like delicious frosting, not soft mush. Here's a Before/After comparison showing just a small cropped bit of the Frosting.

Dumplings and D.A. Wagner

2010-07-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

I became a fan of D.A. Wagner's work when I came across his website last year. Balancing deliberation and spontaneity with great concepts D.A. creates some fantastic still life images of food. To see for yourself just take a quick visit to his website here: www.dawagner.com.

After looking through his work I sent him an email letting him know how much I liked his work. One thing led to another and soon we were working on a few portfolio images together. The image below is one of these new portfolio images.

Being an experienced shooter, D.A. knew that trying to actually photograph the dumpling in boiling oil would probably lead to a few nasty kinds of disasters. So instead he used water in the tank along with a bubble making attachment from an aquarium. But this also meant the shot would need something 'extra' to really make it pop.

And as a retoucher I liked how D.A. made the process of collaborating with him easy. As we worked on this image he sent along suggestions about what he was looking for and was open to any ideas I had about how to really make this image sing.

After cleaning up the little floaty bits that inevitably come with this type of food, and after removing the pins that prevented the dumpling from floating by itself I started to work on pushing the color and the contrast of the image to get the rich look D.A. was looking for.

In the end it was one of those "Hey, Cool!" moments that led to the final adjustment the image needed to achieve the look D.A. had been after. Now that's a dumpling I'd like to eat!

Be sure to catch D.A.'s side of the story at: blog.dawagner.com

What's the most important skill for a retoucher?

2010-07-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

In reading various blogs and articles by and about retouchers I see lots of folks focus on the dramatic before/afters as proof of a particular retoucher's skill.

Sure, that can be pretty impressive. But on some level that seems like we're focusing on the sizzle and not what's actually the more important skills a retoucher needs to have.

For instance when I'm working with a photographer such as Matthew Jordan Smith, or Jeremy Cowart, or Bob Stevens they give me a really good starting place and aren't looking for the dramatic difference in the final image.

What they're looking for is a collaborator who can help them get an image that really expresses their vision. After all as the retoucher, I'm working for them. And it's important for me to keep this in mind: in the end it's their vision and their image that we're working to perfect.

So for me Listening is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the skills I need to have as a retoucher.

Listening to my clients to gain a thorough understanding of what they're looking for and where they're looking to take a particular image will help me in working through all those little subjective decisions that come up along the way.

And it's only by listening will I be able to make sure I'm helping my clients get just the image they're looking for which will help me gain a happy client. And that's what I'm looking for.

So what do you think is the most important skill a retoucher needs to have? I'd love to read your comments and see where this leads.

Betty White is Hot In Cleveland

2010-06-23T18:01:00.001-07:00

Recently I had the pleasure of working with Brad Johnson and all the great folks at Arsonal Design in Los Angeles creating images for the ad campaign promoting TV Land's latest new show "Hot In Cleveland."

With three women featuring long, wind-blown hair this project was quite the masking challenge. As Brad said this design was all about the hair and it had to look perfect.

For those who have worked on high end retouching you'll know that most of the masking plug-ins don't hold up well to close scrutiny. The edges usually need so much work after using the plug-in shortcuts that it's not often worth the trouble. But as I worked on this image I decided to try Photoshop CS5's new Refine Edge Brush and was pleasantly surprised to find that in this particular case it gave me a much better starting point than my usual method of carefully painting out each fly-away hair. Here is an example of one of the images that was used for Jane's hair, (yes there were several.)

On the right is the mask I created for her hair, and what the Refine Edge tool helped create here was the softer transitions necessary for the hair to properly blend with the other shots behind it. If the mask did not blend properly we'd have problems with the gray background adding a nasty fringe around the flying hairs.

Of course the mask as generated by the Refine Edge Brush did need some massaging before it worked properly, but in just a couple of hours using this tool I was able to get a much better result than spending many, many hours masking and painting the 'old school' way.

Subsequent experiments with this new feature showed it helped in some cases and did not in others. I'm still getting a good feel of when it will and when it won't be worth the time spent. But for this project it was truly a Life Saver. Thanks Adobe!

To see more about the complete campaign created by Arsonal go to: http://news.arsonal.com/ and read their blog post about it.

The Last Airbender

2010-06-17T17:13:00.002-07:00

Next week the 'other Avatar' movie, "The Last Airbender", is due out hoping for a big debut weekend. Here in Los Angeles one of the local ad agencies I work with, BLT & Associates (www.bltomato.com), did a great job with the print campaign for this movie. Over the last couple of months I had the opportunity to help them out with doing the final retouching (Finishing) on several of the posters and billboards for this project. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Shadow Work

2010-04-01T17:43:00.000-07:00

A recent discussion on ASMP's email list touched on creating realistic shadows so I thought I'd post a quick tip here describing one of my favorite ways of creating realistic shadows when creating composited images in Photoshop.

The most important things to remember about creating shadows are: 1) Proper shadows tend to be subjective - imagining what the perfect shadow looks like will drive you nuts. Everyone will have a different idea of what looks right. 2) Studying real light and shadows will help you 'see' what a realistic shadow looks like more accurately, making your subjective opinion just a little bit better bit by bit.

When painting a shadow it also helps to remember that 'real' shadows tend to have different parts. If the object casting the shadow is resting on something (like the ground) it will tend to have a core shadow right where it lands on the ground. And there will be a softer, gradating shadow as it blocks the light from hitting the ground.

The image above is from a series of images I worked on with photographer Richard Radstone last year. In this particular one of the challenges was to wrap the accordion around the palm tree. That particular task generated my first tutorial on the website, www.psd.tutsplus.com, which can be found here: http://bit.ly/3YEVfT

And of course after wrapping the accordion around the tree it needed to have some shadowing added to make it look like it really belonged there which brings us back to the topic at hand.

Adding the shadows involved creating 2 layers, one for the core shadow, and the other for the cast shadow. In this case I used the Multiply blending mode for both shadows because I like the way the colors of the shadows blend more naturally with the objects in the image.

The way the colors of the shadows blend is very important because shadows do have their own color and this is affected by the color of the ambient light and the color of the object the shadow is landing on. Using the Multiply mode while sampling 'real' shadow colors tends to work pretty well for me.

So for these shadows I sampled a darker color from the palm tree and experimented with a few strokes before deciding on a final color. Remember the darker the color the stronger, darker your shadow will be - but you can easily adjust that with the opacity of your shadow layers.

After settling on the right shadow color I made one layer, called it "Core Shadow", set the blending mode to "Multiply" and then using a smallish brush I painted along the area where the accordion was touching the palm tree. To keep this shadow layer from splashing over onto the sky I clipped it to the palm tree's layer as a clipping group.

After painting the core shadow I then made another layer set to Multiply blending and called it "Cast Shadow". Then I used a much larger brush and painted in the softer cast shadow keeping in mind the shape of the accordion and the direction of the light the accordion would be blocking to cast the shadow.

To get the gradating effect of the cast shadow you can either use a low opacity brush and build up the strokes closer to the object, or use a layer mask, or use the Eraser tool (set to a low opacity) to erase it away until you're happy with the result. I alternately use all 3 methods at times depending on what strikes my fancy that day.

The point here is that the shadows are painted with 2 layers, one for the core and one for the larger cast shadow. By making them independent I can then play with the opacity of each one and use the Move tool to nudge them into the right place if needed.

Using this method I've found it's much easier to create shadows for everything from accordions on trees to vitamin bottles on white. Simple eh?

Steve Austin and Damage

2010-03-05T19:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a recent image I worked on with the good folks at BLT & Associates. This version is a poster sized crop of the overall image which was built to also accomodate billboards as well.

Just to give you an idea of the work that went into this image Steve's head was stripped onto another body (there are 2 guys with a build like that? Yikes!). Detail was added to the neck showing more collar bone & muscle definition etc. Since the shot of Steve's head was pretty blurry & low res looking detail had to be added along with lots of sharpening. Thanks to Joseph at BLT for a new sharpening technique involving the HiPass filter and the Linear Light blending mode. Cool new trick!

The background is built from various shots of crowds. Finally the smoke and color treatment was added overall to create the dark moodiness of the overall image.

Jeremy Cowart and the Blue Girl

2010-02-15T14:27:00.001-08:00

As a digital artist/retoucher I love collaborating with photographers producing beautiful images like this one from Jeremy Cowart. From the dramatic backlighting he used to the inviting look in her eyes Jeremy created a great shot and it was a pleasure to work with him in creating the finished image shown here.

In working on this image with Jeremy I wanted to keep everything very subtle. The model had this beautiful, enchanting look and I loved the dramatic lighting Jeremy used to make her seem almost angelic. With such a great starting point I mostly worked on eliminating many of the stray, fly-away hairs that were highlighted by the backlighting or that ran over her eyes and face. I also worked on showing off her beautiful skin by smoothing out the extra texture picked up by the side lighting. Then I added just a little more light in her eyes and added just a touch of highlight to her lips.

Before -- After

Click here to see more of Jeremy's work.