Photoshop tips
Just recently I found two Photoshop tips on the Cambridge in Colour website which are the absolute best tips I've seen in ages. I shall summarise here.
The first tip concerns the Curves layers. I normally do initial raw file processing in Canon's DPP then export to Photoshop for clever edits. Something I noticed is that changing the contrast in DPP does exactly what you'd expect - the picture gains contrast. But if you use the same contrast curve in Photoshop, the image becomes way over saturated - this is especially nasty on skin tones. The solution is obvious in hindsight - change the Curves layer blend mode to "Luminosity" and the contrast changes without the saturation. I was kicking myself when I saw this - all this time I've done contrast adjustments followed by saturation corrections...
The other tip concerns the Levels tool. If you drag the edges of the histogram in a bit, you run the risk of clipping highlights or shadows. But, and here's the cunning part, if you hold down the Alt key while dragging the edges, the preview shows you which areas will be clipped instead. Adobe seem to be keen on the Alt key - you never know where it's going to do something new (like turning the Cancel buttons into Reset buttons).
I was pretty excited to discover these as they'll save me a bundle of pain. Many points to Cambridge in Colour (which as an aside is full of good information).
I refer you now to my favourite Photoshop comment:
There are two people writing Photoshop at Adobe. One of them spends all day putting in all the functions I could ever want. The other spends all day hiding those functions.
The first tip concerns the Curves layers. I normally do initial raw file processing in Canon's DPP then export to Photoshop for clever edits. Something I noticed is that changing the contrast in DPP does exactly what you'd expect - the picture gains contrast. But if you use the same contrast curve in Photoshop, the image becomes way over saturated - this is especially nasty on skin tones. The solution is obvious in hindsight - change the Curves layer blend mode to "Luminosity" and the contrast changes without the saturation. I was kicking myself when I saw this - all this time I've done contrast adjustments followed by saturation corrections...
The other tip concerns the Levels tool. If you drag the edges of the histogram in a bit, you run the risk of clipping highlights or shadows. But, and here's the cunning part, if you hold down the Alt key while dragging the edges, the preview shows you which areas will be clipped instead. Adobe seem to be keen on the Alt key - you never know where it's going to do something new (like turning the Cancel buttons into Reset buttons).
I was pretty excited to discover these as they'll save me a bundle of pain. Many points to Cambridge in Colour (which as an aside is full of good information).
I refer you now to my favourite Photoshop comment:
There are two people writing Photoshop at Adobe. One of them spends all day putting in all the functions I could ever want. The other spends all day hiding those functions.