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[stasber]

February 22, 2007 at 3:59 pm

Expresbro wrote:

Stas has a way with the words alright Graham… :wink:

LOL I just need to put all them words into practice on me own pics like!!! :lol:

[ciaran]

February 22, 2007 at 7:50 pm

Geesh… haven’t you guys ever heard of drip feeding your photos :lol:

Nice shot again Robbie. I’m not overly fond of the toning again, I think it’s a tad heavy. I’d rather it applied to the shadows only rather than the current wash across the whole tonal range.

It’s nice to see people have managed to get some shots from the day (way more than me)

[Expresbro]

February 22, 2007 at 8:01 pm

:D

I’m trying Ciaran..honest.. :D But I had such an abundance of shots after the day that I just can’t help throwing some out there in a haphazard fashion… :wink: ..I guess the real problem is..that I’m not overly fussy about what I put out ..within reason of course..as anything I’m shooting now is purely for learning and growing my skills. Give me a year or so and I’ll be jealously hoarding my masterpieces in government strength encrypted files in a dark part of my hard drive….waiting till the clamouring reaches fever pitch before unleashing my …er…okay..getting carried away there…

Thanks for the comment anyway Ciaran…any tips on how I apply toning to shadows only? Do I do that using the Highlight/Shadows tool?

I’m still at the bottom of the steps when it comes to editing…and it shows sometimes…

[ciaran]

February 22, 2007 at 11:12 pm

Expresbro wrote:

any tips on how I apply toning to shadows only? Do I do that using the Highlight/Shadows tool?

All of my B&W shots have some sepia in them, with varying degrees of strength. I can think of quite a few different ways of adding sepia to a shot, where it gets added to the shadows more so than the highlights. The simplest one and the one I tend to use the most is “Colour Balance”

Colour Balance

1. When you have monochrome conversion, add a Colour Balance adjustment layer.
2. Select the “Shadow” option in the Tone Balanc box at the bottom of the form. This will add the colour balance to only the shadow detail.
3. Enter in the following values for sepia “20, 10, -10” for the RGB values
4. You can then vary the effect by simply varying the layers opacity. I usually have it down and around 25% which is very subtle

Another option (and there’s a trick here which can be used to apply an effect to shadows/highlights on any adjustment layer)

Sepia Photo Filter

1. Go to the channels tab
2. Control click on the RGB channel. This selects all the highlight tonal values in the design. It actually does a background conversion to greyscale and then selects all values from 128 through to 255
3. Invert your selection (Control-Shift-I). All shadow detail is now selected (0 through to 128)
4. Add a photo filter adjustment layer with the selection still active
5. Choose Sepia
5. Sepia will be added propotionally to the shadows in comparison to the highlights.
6. Strength of the effect can be adjusted by varying the opacity of the adjustment layer.

Solid Colour Layer

1. Same technique as above to select only the shadow detail. Go to the channels tab and control click on the RGB channel (select highlights)
2. Invert your selection – Control-Shift-I (select shadow)
4. Add a “solid colour” adjustment layer. In this case you can pick any colour you want, but for sepia usually the RED channel has to be twice the BLUE
5. Change the mode of the new layer from “Normal” to “Colour”
6. Once again vary the opacity to determine the strength of the effect

(Addition)

Sometimes there isn’t enough contrast between the shadow details and the highlight (i.e. most tonal ranges are in the highlight section or in the shadow range) in which case the sepia effect wont be as strong. One way of generating a “better” mask where there is clearer seperation between shadow and highlight is to use “Calculations”

1. Image -> Calculations
2. Lets assume for now you have one flat layer for the monochrome image. This will work on layered images, but it’s more complex to explain. Ensure Source image #1 is your current image. Change the channel to Grey
2. For source #2 change the channel to Grey again (this is equivalent to Control clicking on the RGB channel in the other 2 methods)
3. Change blending mode to “Multiply” and Result to “New Selection”
4. Rather than inverting the selection by hand, click the “Invert” button beside each source option
5. Click OK

You now have a selection where most of the highlight detail is masked out and the shadow is clear – no hard edges and a nice transition in between. This selection can be used for loads of different reasons, including blending images where two exposures have been made (one for shadow/one for highlight). It can also be used for the sepia photo filter adjustment layer or solid colour adjustment layer

I thought it maybe useful to show the output of each conversion method.

1. Image top left is the original.
2. Top right is converted via the colour balance layer, set to only affect shadow detail
3. Middle left is via the sepia photo filter, with a normal greyscale selection for the shadow detail
4. Middle right is via the sepia photo filter with calculations used to generate a more contrasty shadow detail mask
5. Bottom left is via the solid colour layer using normal greyscale selection for the shadow detail mask
6. Bottom right is via the solid colour layer with calculations used to generate a more contrasty shadow detail mask

All adjustments can be toned down by varying the opacity of the adjustment layer

Hope this helps

[Expresbro]

February 22, 2007 at 11:43 pm

It will take me a while to digest that little lot Ciaran… :wink: I’ve seen that tutorial on your website actually. I think i just used the sepia toning in colour balance…and probably applied it to the whole image. I’ll give that go tomorrow..when i’m more than half awake.

Cheers

Robbie

[GrahamB]

February 23, 2007 at 9:01 am

Have you ever thought of writing a photoshop book Ciaran

[ciaran]

February 23, 2007 at 12:05 pm

byrne5012 wrote:

Have you ever thought of writing a photoshop book Ciaran

Erm nope, can’t say it’s top of my list :? Besides, what ever amount I know or think I know about the program, it’s not even close to being 5% of what it can really do. I think I’ll leave the books to the real experts.

[GrahamB]

February 23, 2007 at 12:08 pm

Funny you should say that Ciaran.
I was talking to a guy a few weeks ago at one of DB courses.
He is a graphic designer who spends all day using PS and considered
to a PS Pro. he estimates that he understand about 20% of the entire application.