8.2. Specific Types of Repair Projects The subsections in this section describe an oft-encountered retouching situation in which some specific routines can save time and angst. 8.2.1. Restoring Youth to Photographs No, this section isn't about glamour retouching. It speaks to restoring the youth of keepsake and collector's images that are beginning to fail the ultimate testthe test of time. The problems with old and worn images most frequently fall into the following categories: Spots Fading Discoloration Stains Scratches Cracks
Most of the retouching required for restoration can be done with the Healing, Spot Healing, and Clone tools. They should always be performed with all image layers turned off except the image being retouched and a transparent layer meant to show retouching strokes. Place the transparent layer immediately above the layer of the image being retouched. If you later create or lift other layers from the main image, place them above this retouching layer. All retouching that uses the Healing, Spot Healing, and Clone tools should be done with the Sample All Layers box checked on the Option bar. If the entire image has faded, then it's mostly a matter of restoring the original color and contrast, with Photoshop you can make it look pretty decent, pretty easily. Open the scanned image, duplicate it, copy the duplicate, paste the copy into the original file as a layer, and then use the following techniques as they apply to your image: Restore the overall color and contrast of the image before you fix any of the regional problems, such as spots and stains. Otherwise, your spot and stain correction may show up even more and in a different color. Of course, you probably won't have the original to compare, but you can do a pretty realistic job by following the Levels adjustment procedure described in Chapter 6. Figure 8-10 shows the image before and after color and contrast correction using that method. Figure 8-10. The aged and faded original on the left has had color and contrast restored with the Levels adjustment layer. Remove stains by using the Replace Color tool. Just be careful to stay within the area that belongs to the color that you are replacing. If the stains have dark or faded borders, or if they have darkened or lightened the image, you will have to do more. Most of the time, however, you can just remove the stain by using the Replace Color tool. To lighten some areas that are darker than others due to the stain, select each one. It is important to be very precise in making the selection. Once you're confident that is the case, feather the selection as needed and then raise the selection to a new layer (yes, that's Cmd/Ctrl-J again). Now use the Brightness/Contrast adjustment to match the brightness and contrast of the area(s) that were formerly discolored. If the outside perimeter doesn't quite match the brightness of the underlying layer, use the Burn and Dodge tools (not a Burn & Dodge layer unless it turns out to be a much tougher job than you expected). Figure 8-11 shows the results of the last three actions. Figure 8-11. Most of the work of stain removal can be done with the Replace Color brush, the Brightness/Contrast Adjustment, and a bit of burning and dodging. Remove smaller stains by painting in the surrounding area and textures with the clone tool. Clean up all of the small spots with the Spot Healing tool. Occasionally, a spot or smudge will be too close to a contrasting color. So you may find it easier to clean up with the Clone tool than to fence off the spot with a selection before healing it. If you get a border artifact, immediately undo and try one of the other techniques mentioned here. Most tears and cracks are easy to clean up by anchoring the Clone tool and dragging it along the path of the tear. Make sure your brush isn't much larger than the width of the tear or crack. Also, be sure to re-anchor the tool if the path of the tear changes direction. Figure 8-12 shows the end result of cleaning up the spots. Figure 8-12. Tears are cleaned with the Clone and Patch tools. Occasionally, you'll use the Healing tools to clean up small goofs.
8.2.2. Glamour Tips Most people want to look as irresistible as possible in photographs, but we all have our flaws. Unfortunately, the high-resolution digital cameras and lenses that most pros are buying today will record these flaws with unforgiving accuracy. In glamour photography, this can be a real issue. Now look at Figure 8-13. What a change! The following tip makes use of the Healing and Clone brushes and the Patch tool that we described earlier and also discusses some filters and settings that can soften the look of a portrait and diminish skin flaws more or less automatically. You'll also see how to use layers to lessen the effect of the retouching tools by changing the opacity of the retouched duplicate layer. Figure 8-13. A bevy of glamour retouching techniques has been used on the image on the right. When you're glamour retouching, be very careful not to overdo it. For instance, if you set the Spot Healing brush at too large a size, you will end up with some very pasty-looking, almost posterized, skin tones that can make your subject look more mannequin than human. 8.2.2.1. Smoothing skin One of the best ways of smoothing skin is to simply take your time using the Spot Healing brush and make sure you zap all the blemishes. However, skin sometimes photographs a lot more textured than it looks in real life and Spot Healing all of it can take hours. There are several means of smoothing rough or heavily textured skin. The problem is that most of them involve blurring the image in one way or another. That can be a fine technique for a dreamy or glamorous look, but it's not always what we're after. There's one technique, however, that involves blurring but doesn't actually blur any details. You select and send the skin tones to a duplicate layer, blur the skin tone layer by about 6 pixels (the exact number will depend on the overall pixel size of the image), erase any of its areas that contain critically sharp elements, such as the eyes, and then put it into lighten mode. You still have a sharp image, but the blurring has obliterated all the little dark specs and creases. If there are still blemishes left over, at least you have fewer of them that need to be zapped with the Spot Healing brush. Figure 8-14 shows an example of this technique in a before and after. None of the other techniques in this chapter have been applied to the righthand image. Figure 8-14. Look carefully and you'll see that all the small, time-consuming blemishes are gone. Now there are only four or five areas you might want to heal. If this weren't a glamour portrait, you probably wouldn't even want to do anything more. 8.2.2.2. Credible eye emphasis The eyes are the focus of the image and there are a few things you almost always want to do to emphasize them (see Figure 8-15). However, take care applying these changes; you don't want the image to look unrealistic or overly made up. Obviously, you'd want to do far less of it in a business portrait, for instance, than in a cosmetic ad. The following are some techniques to emphasize the eyes in an image. Figure 8-15. Before and after our list of eye enhancing techniques have been applied.
Use the Patch tool to remove bags or circles under both eyes Make sure to select a large area around both eyes and lift it to a new layer so you can do your patching nondestructively. Be sure you have the Patch tool in Add mode so you can patch both eyes at the same time on lifted layer. Then use Edit Fade to keep the effect of the patching at a realistic level.
Whiten the whites (and the teeth while you're at it) Be very careful not to overdo it. I usually use the Dodge and Burn layer to do this. An alternative would be to choose the Burn and Dodge layer in the Layers palette, make a selection around the areas you want to whiten, and then fill them with a percentage of white. If you've over- or underdone it, undo and then change the Opacity in the Fill dialog after repeating the EditFill command.
Darken the pupils and outline the iris This is done just like whitening, but use Black instead of White on the Burn and Dodge layer.
Lighten the iris This is one of the few times when I prefer to use the Burn and Dodge Tools on the original layeror, if you've already lifted the eye, on the lifted layer. Then the irises will look better when you sharpen them.
Lengthen lashes I also do this on the layer that was lifted to do the sharpening. I simply use the Burn tool at about 50 percent Opacity with a very small brush. If you have a pressure-sensitive tablet, it will help a lot to stroke very lightly so you get hair-thin lashes. You could paint in Black, but that is often overkill and the Burn tool just darkens the existing colors, so the result looks much more natural.
Sharpen eyebrows and lashes selectively. This is done on a separate layer, which you can also use as a retouching layer if you need to use the Spot Healing brush. I find it very easy to mask the area I need to raise to a new layer by clicking the Quick Mask icon in the Toolbox then choose the Brush tool. Then make sure the Brush Hardness is only about 80 percent (pull down the Brush menu in the Options bar), and that the Mode is Normal and the Opacity is 100 percent. Then I paint over the areas shown in Figure 8-16. Figure 8-16. Painting a Quick Mask over the parts of the eyes that need sharpening. 8.2.2.3. Moistening, smoothing, and highlighting lips Lips, especially in fashion, glamour, and pin-up photos, can be very important in setting the desired mood. Oddly enough, they seem to make the model seem more relaxed and attentive. Go figure. Before you moisten the lips, there are a couple of techniques you should consider doing first:
Smooth cracks in lips One of the reasons models tend to go for lip gloss is to keep their lips from cracking since it makes them look harsh and stressed. Lip gloss also makes their lips look moist and saves us from all this work. If they didn't bring or use their lip gloss, don't despair. Just use a small brush size with the Spot Healing brush and stroke over each crack (see Figure 8-17). Figure 8-17. Look, Ma...no cracks.
Highlight lips Once you've removed cracks from the lips, the highlights may seem diminished. Not to worry. Just use a wide (in relation to the width of the lips) brush at max softness and paint about 1015 percent white onto the Burn and Dodge layer (see Figure 8-18). Figure 8-18. On the right, a bit of glow added to the lips. Now here is a trick that is downright inappropriate for some images, such as business portraits, guys, and young girls. I think you get the idea. On the other hand, it's a great way to moisten lips as well as give a "juicy" look to many things. The secret lies in a little-used filter that's been with Photoshop over the long haul. In fact, it's used so little, you'd think they might have dumped it by now. This is how I use it to moisten lips and maybe even dampen the surface of a street: Select the lip or lips you want to moisten using the Quick Mask mode at a 100 percent, and about an 85 percent Hardness Brush. Size the brush appropriately and paint over the lips. Click the Standard Mode icon in the Toolbox and then press Cmd/Ctrl-I to invert the selection, then Cmd/Ctrl-J to lift it to a new layer. Choose Filter ArtisticPlastic Wrap. Youll see the Plastic Wrap dialog. Check the Preview box and lower the settings until the image looks interesting. It always produces an overdone effect for what we're trying to do, so don't throw up just yet. Instead, just click OK. Immediately choose EditFade. In the dialog, scrub the Opacity slider (probably all the way down to about 10 percent) until you like what you see. It should look something like Figure 8-19. Figure 8-19. Moistened lips.
8.2.2.4. High- and low-key techniques for glamour shots When it comes to getting a viewer's attention, it's all about the drama. One way to create this drama is to give the image a different look, such as deviating from the usual striving for a full range of brightness and just go for the brightest or darkest tones. Doing this also seems to set a definite mood. If you shoot RAW, I've already shown you how to get as high- or low-key as possible outside of Photoshop (see the "Using Camera Raw for Creating Effects" section in Chapter 4). Generally, though, you'll want to do some fine-tuning in Photoshop. And if you chose not to shoot RAW, you'll want to use similar adjustments in the Levels adjustment layer as you would have used in Camera Raw to at least get the tonalities in the image into the high-key "ballpark." Now I'll explain the tricks you can use to get the same effects in your own images. Here's the step-by-step for a low-key rendition: Make sure you output the image from Camera Raw using low- or high-key settingssee Chapter 4. You'll probably be more pleased with the end result because you're starting with all your tones in the right basket, so to speak. Basically, what you want to do is lower the Exposure, then raise the brightness so that you can see more detail in the midtones. Don't raise the Brightness so much, however, that you loose the low-key effect. Drag the Shadow slider all the way to the left so you can see as much detail in the shadows as possible. Open your image in Photoshop and run the Workflow Layers Action. You can see the Workflow Layers and one I added as the Layers palette appears in Figure 8-20. Figure 8-20. The workflow layers for the low-key image, before I renamed Layer 1 Skin Smooth. Optional: If there are any highlights in the background of the image that you don't want to be any brighter, use the Lasso tool to make a selection that fences them out, then feather the selection. This is more likely to be the case if you're working with a portrait than with a landscape. In the Levels layer bar, click the Mask icon (which currently contains no mask). You'll see a frame appear around it. Now click the Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette and the selection you just made now masks the layer. Double-click the Levels adjustment layer's Levels icon. The Levels dialog will open and the adjustments you make will be masked so they affect only the area within what was formerly your selection. The Histogram is probably pushed off the left end and hits the ground well ahead of the Highlights slider's arrow. Move that arrow to where the highlights start to rise significantly. Smooth the skin as explained earlier in the "Smoothing skin" section of this chapter. Because the skin tones (or the midtones in another category of images, such as landscapes) are so much darker than normal, blemishes have a tendency to be especially noticeable. Spot retouch as required. Select the Levels command. There's already a mask in the Levels adjustment layer, but there's nothing in it. Select the mask (a frame appears around it when selected) and then use EditFill and select Black from the menu in the dialog. There will almost always be areas of the image that have become too dark to show much detail. In this case, its the area around the model's eyes. Burning and Dodging isn't really appropriate for these areas because you not only want to change the brightness of the area, but the contrast within it as well. There even will be times (this isn't one of them) when you want to change the color balance at the same time. Choose the Brush tool, set the color to 100 percent white, set the Brush's Hardness to about 75 percent, and paint into the dark areas in the image. It will appear that nothing is happening, but if you look at the Curves adjustment layer's mask, you'll start to see little white specs appearing where the mask should be. Make a Curves adjustment that will brighten the eyes (or whatever else you want to brighten). Double-click the Curves layer icon, make sure the preview box is checked so you can see what's happening, and adjust your "too dark" areas to your liking. Use the Burn and Dodge layers to adjust areas that are too dark.
Figure 8-21 shows the end result. Figure 8-21. The portrait as it looked after modifying the low-key image as it came out of Camera Raw. The high-key version of the same image will look like what you see in Figure 8-22 on the right. Figure 8-22. The high-key version of Osher's portrait on the right. On the left, you see the image as it looked straight out of Camera Raw. Here are the steps that took me to that high-key image: In Camera Raw, I dragged the Exposure slider as far to the right as I could without blocking any highlight in the skin tones. There are some blocked highlights in the background, but they seem to simply add to the atmosphere in the image. In Photoshop, I ran the Workflow Layers Action. I immediately went to the Levels layer and dragged the Midtone slider to the right to brighten the skin tones even more. If you're starting here because you didn't have a RAW shot, use the Levels adjustment layer to get a high-key result similar to the one on the left of Figure 8-22. I performed the smooth skin layer action. I used the Burn and Dodge layer, mostly to take out the intense shadows under the eyes, but also to further lighten skin tones in the hand and shoulders and to darken the knee just enough to see some color and texture. I also burned to darken the color of her lips a bit. I used the Curves layer for a gentle S-curve that raised overall contrast just a touch.
8.2.2.5. Using Multiply and Screen modes Two favorite attention-getting tricks in photography, especially glamour, involve creating a high- or low-key version of the image, duplicating the layer, and then using Screen mode for a high-key result or Multiply mode for a low-key result. This technique is most useful when you want to lighten or darken the image without losing as much highlight and shadow detail as you would by simply using a Levels or Curves command. This technique works so well that I often simply use it instead of the adjustments. It also works extremely well when you want to brighten or darken only masked areas of the image. To lighten or darken the image using Screen or Multiply Blend Modes: Using Diffuse Glow Filter One technique that has become almost too popular is the use of Photoshop's Diffuse Glow filter or third-party filters such as Andromeda's ScatterLight filter. I've seen it used to "define the style" for certain gallery and portrait artists. |
Select all the layers that make up the current version of the image and drag them to the New Layer icon. This will duplicate them and the duplicates will stay selected. From the Layers palette menu, choose Merge Layers; now you now have a flattened version of the image as the top layer. If you want a higher-key version of the image, choose Screen from the Layers palette Blend menu. If you want a lower-key version of the image, choose Multiply from the Layers palette Blend menu. Figure 8-23 shows both effects on the same image. Figure 8-23. The original image (left), with a Screened layer (middle), and with a Multiply layer (right).
NOTE There are a couple of ways to further adjust Multiply and Screen layers and they usually are used in conjunction with one another. You can interactively reduce the intensity of the effect by lowering the Opacity slider. To increase the intensity of the effect, drag the screened or multiplied layer to the New Layer icon in the Layers palette. This will double the intensity of the effect, so you'll probably need to use the Opacity slider. 8.2.3. Portrait Enhancement Tips The techniques for enhancing portraits are much the same as for glamour, but more realistic. Use the same techniques for smoothing skin and brightening eyes and teeth, but be careful to keep it realistic. Men, specifically, should look more "weathered" especially if they're in outdoor or sports businesses. 8.2.3.1. Re-lighting for emphasis From a workflow point of view, lighting effects are more in a category of special effects than of retouching. There are several ways you can "re-light" a photo to make it more interesting, to make it stand out from the background, or to make it a more natural match when combined with other photos. Check out Chapter 9 for lighting methods suited to compositing and Chapter 10 for a number of lighting effects that are traditionally applied with special effects filters. There's one useful re-lighting trick that can be done using the Burn and Dodge layeror a "lighting" layer that is also a layer filled with 50% gray in Screen mode. Best of all, thanks to this gray layer technique, you can modify your results endlessly without any damage at all to the Background Layer (the original image). The differences between these techniques and those done on the Burn and Dodge layer are that you'll be using a larger brush and often limiting your lighting effect by adding a selection or layer mask. Earlier in the "Moistening, smoothing, and highlighting lips" section of this chapter we brightened lips in an image using a certain technique, which is really a junior version of something I call the Glow technique (see Figure 8-24). You can use it to give depth and a kind of shininess to almost any type of subject. Since glamour is one of my specialties, I'll show you how it's often done with a facethough the same technique could be used in a car or liquor ad. Figure 8-24. A low-key portrait out of Camera Raw (left) and a glow stroke or two on a Burn and Dodge layer (right). Here's all it took to produce that magical glow: After you made the low-key interpretation of your RAW file, open it in Photoshop. If you must shoot JPEG, simply underexpose for about a stop and a half and then work a bit with Levels and Curves adjustment layers to get the dramatic tonalities you really want. In this instance, you see the result on the left in Figure 8-24. Apply any necessary healing techniques on the Retouching layer in your Workflow layers. Brush glows into place (may take a bit of practice); if there are large areas, such as the Highlights on the face that you really want to make glow, draw that area with the Pen tool (see Chapter 9). Edit the resulting path so that you have a very smooth-edged shape in which to center the glow. Convert the path to a selection. Open the Paths palette and click the Make Selection icon. You have a selection. Choose SelectFeather and enter a moderately large number of pixels so that the glow blends smoothly. Press Cmd/Ctrl-H to hide the selection whenever you want to see what youve done, then press Cmd/Ctrl-H again to toggle it back on to position your brush. Press D to make the color swatches turn to the default Black and White, then press X to make White the Foreground Color. Choose a large, soft brush and paint inside the feathered selection. If you feel you've overdone it, paint 50 percent gray back onto the Dodge and Burn layer and try lowering or raising the Brush Opacity and then do it again. Drop the selection (Cmd/Ctrl-D) when you're satisfied with what you've done in that area. If you want to make some other areas glow a little, try using a brush for smaller areas. Just be sure to undo quickly if you don't like the results of a stroke. Practice makes perfect.
Of course, you can easily do the same thing in reverse to bring up shadow areas in an image. It can be a good way to add mystery to the shot. The steps are the same, except you press X to change the Foreground color to black. 8.2.3.2. Killing eyeglass glare People who wear eyeglasses can be tough to photograph in bright sunlight or with flashespecially on-camera flash. If you have a photo with glasses and there is hardly any detail, you may have to do a fair amount of hand-painting. If you can plan ahead, be sure to take several pictures of the person without their glasses and with their heads at different angles and tiltsthere's a pretty good chance you can match up an eye from another photograph. In the photo in Figure 8-25, the subject's left lens caught the reflection from a sunstruck window on the other side of the street. (Actually, that's bull. I made the reflection from a combination of filters because I didn't have any other shots I could use to demonstrate this process.) To correct eyeglass glare: Figure 8-25. Luckily, I had the subject pose without his glasses, too. Good thing he wasn't driving the motorcycle. Place the photograph with the eye in it on a separate layer above the original layer. Temporarily reduce the transparency of that layer to around 50 percent. You're reducing transparency to scale and position the "replacement" eye. Make sure the new layer is still selected and press Cmd/Ctrl-T. You'll see Transform handles appear on the corners and midpoints of a thin frame. Move the new layer so that the eye is positioned immediately above the flared eyeglass frame. Drag a rectangular marquee around the area that contains the eye so that the frame leaves a fair amount of room around it. When it's in place, press Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-I to Invert Selection, then press Delete/Backspace. Since the eye layer contains little more than the eye, it won't take up a lot of extra memory and transformations will be much faster. Place the cursor just outside one of the corner handles. The cursor will turn into a curved, double-headed arrow. Rotate the eye so that it's in the same position as the eye that was flared out. Since the original eye is somewhat blocked by the flare, zoom out to make sure the position of the new eye has the proper orientation. While the Transform marquee is still in place, proportionately scale the eye so that it matches the size of the original eye. Scale proportionately by pressing Shift and dragging a corner handle. You must be very precise about sizing the new eye to match the other eye, or the image will look downright scary. Drag the Opacity slider until the new eye is the same brightness as the old. Remember, it's supposed to look like it's behind glass, so it shouldn't be as bright or as contrasty as it originally was. Change the brightness and contrast of the new eye by using a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and Clipping Mask on the eye layer. Blend the edges of the new eye with its new background. If you have one, use a pressure-sensitive tablet for this and check Shape Dynamics in the brush presets. This will let you interactively broaden or narrow your brush by varying the stylus pressure, so you can more easily shape the erasure. Be sure none or very little of the flare shows through. Figure 8-26 shows the end result. Figure 8-26. The results of the steps taken above (right). Looks pretty natural, eh?
8.2.3.3. Punch out the paunch Subjects will almost always want to see an image of perfection. For example, the subject in Figure 8-27 really wanted her picture to look more like the photo on the right. If there's even a hint of a chubby thigh, oversized derriere, or saggy upper arm, you're likely to have an unhappy subject. Figure 8-27. From certain angles, especially using the wide-angle lenses that are so popular in fashion, certain parts of people appear to gain weight. On the right, the Liquify filter has been used to remove those extra pounds. If you suspect that you'll be dealing with this problem, shoot your subject in the studio against a seamless backdrop using a knockout color. This way, you can easily knock out the subject's silhouette without having to worry about cloning in background. You can then use the Liquify filter to reshape the person's silhouette. If your shooting situation forces you on location, you can still use one of the more sophisticated knockout tools, such as Extract or the more versatile Corel Knockout 2. It will just take a bit more time and effort to clone the background over the parts that were formerly hidden by the subject's shape. That's what I did in the example shown in Figure 8-27. Here's how to slim down your subject: Decide how extensive the changes need to be. If just one small area needs work, clone it into a carefully made selection on the original layer. For a bigger job, you should start by duplicating the background layer and then using the Extract filter or one of the knockout plug-ins (Ultimatte AdvantEdge and Corel Knockout 2 are my favorites) to isolate the subject onto its own layer. Use the Pen tool to carefully outline the area(s) you want to whittle away from the body. Be sure you have the Paths option chosen in the Options bar. You want to draw a path that's outside the main shape of the body. Convert the paths to selections by clicking the Convert to Path icon at the bottom of the Paths palette (see Figure 8-29). Save this path (SelectSave Selection) just in case you need it again in the future. Figure 8-29. The Lens Correction dialog, as it appeared after all distortion corrections were made. As a finishing touch, you would want to correct any camera tilt with the Angle icon and drag the Scale slider to push any transparent areas outside the limits of the picture. If the subject's edges were a bit soft in the original, you will want to keep them that way. Feather your selections just enough to soften the edges very slightly. Often, feathering by one pixel is enough. If your subject is on its own layer, press Delete/Backspace. The contents of the selections will evaporate. If the subject wasn't knocked out of a plain background that you are substituting with another, keep the selection active to protect the subject and use the Clone Stamp tool to clone in the surrounding background details. Of course, the less detail filled the background, the easier this will be. To "light" the edges you trimmed so they seem rounded rather than flat, recall your selections by choosing SelectLoad Selection. If youre lighting with a highlight, brighten the selection on the shadow side. If you're lighting with a shadow, lighten the selections on the highlight side. Feather your selection enough to make the drop-off in lighting look natural, and use the Brightness/Contrast command to adjust the highlight or shadow edge's luminosity. Fine-tune the edges of the lighting fall-off with the Dodge and Burn tool, since the edges of the lighting are likely to be a bit too regular.
You can't always plan ahead, but if you know you're going to have to do some trimming after shooting on a set or on location, try to remember to take a shot of the setting in the same light and at roughly the same time as you shot the model. Then, if you have a really tough time cloning in the background, you can just knock out the model and substitute the unpopulated background. If you are careful to adjust the brightness and color balance of both layers so that they look like they belong together, it should all look perfectly natural. If it turns out that you don't need the saved paths after you've finished your retouching, it's a good idea to delete the channels to save file space. Open the Channels palette and drag the selection channels to the trash can at the bottom right. 8.2.4. Architecture Tips Although you can buy (or rent) digital camera backs that will work on traditional view cameras, even most of today's pros are only able to afford DSLRs. So being able to correct perspective in-camera just isn't affordable. Neither is correcting the barrel distortion that tends to occur when lenses are zoomed in to accommodate the widest angle of view. 8.2.4.1. Lens correction From a strict workflow standpoint, lens correction should be done at the same time as other full-screen special effects. Just make sure you duplicate your image file, flatten it, and copy it to the original image file on its own layer. That way the destructive processes that you're about to do will be on a separate layer. If you have to redo this, just throw out the layer that contains your last attempt, then duplicate, flatten, and copy again. There are three facets to lens correction: perspective correction, pincushion, and barrel distortion. You can use Photoshop CS2's new Lens Distortion filter to correct all threeand more. You can remove any chromatic fringing that you didn't get in Camera Raw or that you haven't been able to clean our of a JPEG image. You can rid yourself of the vignetting that often occurs when you use very wide angle lensesa common practice in architectural photography. You can also crop and resize your image to fit the original space. Figure 8-28 shows an image that has all these problems and the result of fixing it with the Lens Correction filter. Figure 8-28. You have to look closely, but in addition to the obvious perspective distortion that resulted from tilting up with a 28mm equivalent lens, there is a slight amount of barrel distortion and vignetting in the original image. Here's how the corrections to Figure 8-29 were made: After opening the image in Photoshop, and making other corrections, I duplicated, flattened, and copied the duplicate image. Then it was pasted into the original image, where it became a new layer, which is the target layer for this technique. Be sure it remains the selected layer for the remainder of this exercise. I chose FilterDistortionLens Correction. The result was the dialog you see in Figure 8-29. This dialog lets you combine a number of corrections that, before Photoshop CS2, had to be made with separate commands, interfaces, and even third-party filters. The next easy correction is the barrel distortion that also happens when zoom lenses are zoomed out to wide angles. How much of this distortion exists will depend on the focal length of the zoom, the size of your image sensor, the aperture used (wider is more), and the quality (which often translates to cost) of the lens. In this case, you had to look at the grid to really judge the distortion. That's hard to do before you've corrected Horizontal and Vertical perspective (camera tilt and swing), but you can do it better on an image that hasn't already been distorted. This image needed no horizontal correction, but there was noticeable keystoning of the vertical lines as a result of having to tilt the camera upward to get the right perspective. Once again, this adjustment is totally interactivejust drag the slider until you like what you see. This photo was shot on a tripod with a level, so there was no side-to-side tilt. If the photo you want to correct does have side-to-side camera tilt, correct it by placing the cursor on the tip of the Angle dial and dragging until the image looks more or less level. This dial is a bit oversensitive, so you have the option of typing an exact angle in the field to the immediate right of the Angle icon. Also, you'll have more control if, after clicking inside the icon, you keep the button down and drag your cursor some distance from the icon before you start dragging from one side to the other. You'll be able to make your adjustment with much higher resolution.
Vanishing Point Vanishing Point is a new tool in Photoshop CS2 that allows you to magically clone in perspective so that, if you want, you can completely repaper a wall or repeatedly copy a window to a whole row or column (or both) of windows. Although it's another one of those programs within Photoshop, much like the Extract and Liquify Filters, Vanishing point is amazingly quick and easy to use. And, like those other filters, the way it works implies that you should do it later in the workflow process. Like Liquify and Extract, this program is covered in depth in the "Vanishing Point filter" section in Chapter 9. |
8.2.5. Still Life Retouching Tips In this chapter, I'll discuss only a few things that you might want to do to enhance the appearance of the objects in a still life. I'm going to show you a few techniques you should consider at this stage by using a simple still life of some pottery. 8.2.5.1. Adding water drops Believe it or not, you can make water drops out of Photoshop even when you don't happen to have any glycerin around the studio. Frankly, I recommend glycerin because it's cheaper and faster. But I don't recommend putting glycerin on your computer. So here's the deal: draw some water drops in different shapes with the Pen tool and then turn them into a selection by clicking the Make Selection icon at the bottom of the Paths palette. Lift them to their own layer. Make another layer and fill it with a radial white-to-gray gradient, then use the Layer Styles icon to turn the water drop into three dimensions, with a glow on the highlight side and a translucent shadow on the opposite side. In Figure 8-30, you can see the water drop and the pen path, along with the Layer Styles palette and the settings used. Figure 8-30. The Layer Styles palette and a water drop made with it. Be sure to use the same or similar settings as shown here. Make a variety of water drops in different sizes and shapes. Make them about twice the size that you're ever likely to need them. That way, you won't have to remake the set because you'll always have enough resolution. Keep the water drops in their own layered file so if you need them, you can just open the file alongside the target image and drag their layers to the target image. If you're really wise, turn them into Smart Objects. Then you can transform a single water drop in many different ways and do it completely nondestructively. Of course, you could do the same thing with bugs, butterflies, flower petals, confetti, etc. Many of those images are available as stock photos. Figure 8-31 shows the same product shot, before and after being covered with water drops. Figure 8-31. A photo of a glass of water decorated with handmade water drops. The first water drop was placed by dragging the water drop layer shown in Figure 8-30. It was then transformed to the desired size and proportion and copied and placed a few times. All the water drop layers were then merged and the Opacity of the merged layer adjusted to about 40 percent. 8.2.5.2. Adding glow lighting This technique is the same used in the "Re-lighting for emphasis" section earlier in the chapter. However, there's one more thing to add when it comes to still life images: put the glow inside a pen path made selection, just as I did on the model's shoulder earlier in this chapter. The reason is that the objects in still life photos are generally much less "organic" than other types of subject matter. The glow or shadow will look a bit unnatural if it also doesn't contain a geometric shape. Also, the brightest part of the highlights in geometric forms are usually very obvious and geometric, so either use the Fill command when you're putting white or paint onto the Burn and Dodge layer. 8.2.5.3. Adding lighting from behind translucent objects This also follows the same technique as a glow, with some exceptions: if the translucent objects have a textured shape, you'll have to make selections to match each of the texture shapes. You'll have select any shapes that are inside the translucent object if that object is something like a glass of iced tea. Your best bet is to backlight the object when the picture is taken. Then you can add a bit of glow later if you like. Enhancements Later in the Workflow Some of the things you're most likely to want to do to enhance still life or product photos will be found much later in the workflow due to their highly destructive nature. Simplifying the background is something you will likely do most frequently for still life photos. One of the primary reasons for shooting still life is to show a product and you won't want anything distracting from it. In fact, you usually don't want anything at all around that product. If you can't shoot it in a circumstance where you can set up a tabletop studio, perhaps the best option would be to simply knock it out. If you have to do that for an object such as a teddy bear, it is best to use the Extract filter (see the "Using the Extract filter" section in Chapter 9). However, most products are machine-made and have very smooth and regular edges. I find it much easier to knock them out by using a vector path made with the Pen tool. In fact, even when it's not perfectly accurate, you can easily edit it by dragging the anchor points and re-adjusting the curve handles. Chapter 9 covers the use of the Pen tool pretty extensively, as well as shadow casting if you have to emulate a seamless edge or just want to make the product look like it's actually sitting on something (see the "Lighting and Casting Shadows" section in Chapter 9). Most of the work done for "retouching" scenic images is covered elsewhere in this book for workflow reasons (see the "Using Blend Modes on Regional Adjustment Layers" section in Chapter 7 and "Where to Find the Pieces for Your Collage or Montage" in Chapter 9). In those chapters, you'll learn to bring out detail, contrast, and to put skies and other elements into the image to "correct" the composition or to add interest to an otherwise empty landscapeor sky. The Vanishing Point filter, which can be very useful for doing things such as extending a grassy meadow over a pile of garbage, is covered in the "Vanishing Point filter" section in Chapter 9. Also, you'll want to make generous use of HDR images and the various techniques that can be employed to put them together. You'll find a technique for making an HDR image from multiple RAW exposures in the "Increasing Dynamic Range by Making Multiple RAW Renditions" section in Chapter 4. You'll also find HDR covered thoroughly in Chapter 11. |
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