photography learning

Need to have end goal and vision

1st thing to do:

Lightroom

• adjust for white balance and temperature
• if human don’t do clarity cept for landscape
  • use negative clarity for babies
• always add vibrance – usually bout 15-20 depending on picture
• don’t use saturation
  • orange and red are usually what makes up skin tone – control via saturation
• noise reduction
  • goal: get rid of most noise without making image look like plastic barbie doll
  • 15-20
• Use adjustment brush
  • can apply whole layer exposure down tick, saturation up tick to whole image
    • decrease exposure -0.5 to 0.6
    • saturation – + 15
    • shadow – +10
  • use negative adjustment to clear area not wanted on and around subject
• import into photoshop

2nd thing to do:

Photoshop

• Use ProphotoRGB
• TIFF file -16bit
• 1st thing to do- Clean up skin
  • clean up skin issues
    • healing brush
    • patch tool
• 2nd thing mask specific things you want to affect
  • quick selection tool
    • positive tool
    • negative tool- if any you don’t want in what’s already select you can clear those area out top left quick selection tab
  • after selection made click on select and mask at top
    • smart radius – 2-3 –> go around the edges  to help pick up things they may be missed
  • create a layer can use levels if you want to help save the selection
  • to reuse for another layer – ctrl click the mask layer and then pick the layer type
  • when doing fantasy edit crucial to separate subject from background
• to mask subject from layer created
  • ctrl click on the mask then select Inverse and add layer mask
• to create or clip certain part of image for background to adjust –rectangular tool – outline – then right click new layer via copy and then transform
  • if want to blend or clean up layer mask specific areas then click paint brush and paint with black with low hardness –make sure to select mask layer not the layer itself
• Ways to remove object you don’t want — Circle it – edit – fill – content aware
• Levels
  • increase highlight by pulling slider in
  • add to blacks = helps contrast
  • 3 things main opposites  (color balance)
    • green and magenta
      • decreasing green = add more magenta = helps red redder
    • red and cyan
    • yellow and blue
  • / key to help see mask
• Soft light
  • create a curve layer –>
    • going into curve and raising the blues will raise the blue to overall picture of shadow
  • create background soft light
    • make curves layer  –> change blending mode to soft light –> opacity 15-20%
    • mask off of areas you don’t want
  • create levels on top of mask– raise highlights and blacks more then paint on outer edge of selection to give a glow
• how to adjust color of certain thing
  • create hue saturation layer
  • pull to specific color you want on image
  • Ctrl I to invert mask
  • go back to image with mask and reactivate so you can color within lines – control click the mask – go in with white brush and paint specific area you want to go to specific color
• Example skin too red
  • create hue layer
  • click eye dropper at bottom left and click on area where its too red
  • your master color will change to red 2
  • click minus dropper and click on area where skin is okay
  • adjust saturation and lightness to change the color
  • adjust hue slider if needed – pull left more green right more magenta
  • Crtl + I — to invert mask and use white brush to color areas needed
• Example: How to get ride of green color cast
  • use hue saturation layer
  • go to drop down menu under preset and select blues –> click left most eye dropper and click on area of skin or object most affected by green
  • click on minus eye dropper and click on area where color cast doesn’t exist – drop sat by minus 10 then increase lightness by 6 and if there is too much yellow head towards magenta by 5ish–> ctrl I –> paint with soft white brush
• Working on face or skin color or bags under eyes
  • say skin is too yellow on face but want to match arm color
  • create curves layer- make sure click on layer itself and not the mask –> go to properties click on top eyedropper –> select color that you want sampled  (click on area of picture you want color to be) –> click okay – don’t save color as default –> then click on location it will color whole picture –> go back to layers and click on mask and invert the mask. Click on the brush tool (white) and drop opacity to 10-15% and go over areas you want specifically to be colored
• add saturation to color of eyes
  • create hue/saturation layer
  • raise sat to 15
  • invert mask
  • color eyes
• dodging and burn
  • create new layer
  • hit D to black and white
  • change opacity to 5% and brush
  • black to burn
    • around the iris, pupils, eyebrows
  • white to dodge
• Bright face up (create contrast) -dodging-highlights
  • create level increase midtone to 1.07 highlight to 240 and blacks 2 (so it isn’t washed out)
  • change blending mode to luminosity
    • when working on skin if leave on normal (default) it will add red –> change to luminosity to only affect amount of light coming in or out
    • hit ctrl I to invert
    • take brush and paint (white)
• Shadows- burning
  • create level
  • drop midtone to .91 darks to 1
  • change to luminosity
  • inverse layer mask
  • target shadow areas
• Make something look like its glowing or lit– add lense flare – need to create pixel layer
  • ctrl shift alt E – creates new pixel layer ( takes into account everything else you adjusted) –filter–render –lense flare– 105mm prime brightness 68% – put ins area you want
  • to remove things you don’t want — add layer mask – Ctrl I- then paint in where you want it
  • if you want to change the color of the light -create a solid fill layer and clip it to that specific layer –Alt and click the funny box and it clips together- change blending mode to preference
• Liquefy (help with adjusting hair/adjust reshaping)
  • ctrl alt shift E – create a pixel layer of background
  • 2 things to use
    • first the freeze mask over on left hand side – use it to freeze facial features or anything you don’t want affected
    • click on forward warp tool
      • use bigger brush otherwise you’ll have ripples
  • how to remove double chin
    • put warp tool at bottom of second chin and shove it up once you have it up
    • create mask of the layer and drop opacity to 50% so you
• Create contrast
  • Hit D to make black foreground color and white background
  • create gradient map- change blending mode to overlay–> desaturates and add contrast
  • use only at opacity of 6-7%
• how to make lighting more dramatic
  • create level layer
  • drop midtone to bout 0.9 increase dark to 2
  • change layering to luminosity
  • brush to area where its usually shadowed
• Create vignette
  • create levels
  • RGB- midtone .68 output 13
  • Red  output 2
  • Blue  output 6
  • then mask out the subject

Gaussian blur for soft look

1. Duplicate your layer.
2. Apply a gaussian blur of about r=20-60.
3. Set the blend mode to Soft Light.
4. Bring the opacity down to 15-30%.

Lightroom

short cuts

• zoom in or out -ctrl + or –
• E- eraser tool
• ctrl + alt + right click and drag –> changes brush size

Photoshop retouching

• file format = TIFF
• color – PROphoto RGB
• hit F for fullscreen

Healing brush tools

• Spot healing brush tool
  • removes blemishes –> fills in with surround sample points
  • con- not always gives the skin texture you want
• healing brush tool
  • chooses sample point – affects texture not color
• opacity- as you go over an area it stays constant – doesn’t get more paint or color- not smooth transition
• flow- builds up as you go over and over keep flow low 5-10%

Dodge and burn

• dodge- makes things brighter
• burn- makes things darker

Lux effect

In photoshop, duplicate the base layer image,

change the blending mode to overlay,

it should get really dark and contrasty and overall ugly so dont stress.

Go to the drop down menu filters, there is one called high pass filter under i think the other tab

Select high pass filter obvi, then play with the radius, keep it lower closer to 1-3 sometimes 5-10 range do not go over 25 or itll look like shit when you print.

This is increasing the localized contrast index ie where darks and lights meet, rather than the entire documents contrast curve.

Should give you a similar effect to “lux”