Rangefinder Magazine
September 2006
Photoshop CS2 How2 by Peter Eastway
Digital Landscape Workshop—Milford Sound, N.Z.
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The final image
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1
I photographed this image in Milford Sound, New Zealand,
and the light was ideal for the location. A bright blue sky
would not have had the same atmosphere or mood.
It was low tide, and I was able to walk out onto the mud flats.
Taking my shoes and socks off, I reached a small islet of sand on
which to place my tripod. I attached a 16–35mm zoom, set at
16mm. I selected an aperture of f/5.6, which, in combination with a
very strong neutral density filter, gave me a two-minute exposure.
The long exposure produced the beautiful sheen in the water
surface and also allowed the clouds some movement. This type of
effect can be produced in Photoshop, but is a lot easier to capture
directly with your camera.
However, the sky is particularly bright and will need to be dealt
with. I need to darken it, but not lose the luminosity in the reflections
around the fallen tree trunk. I also feel the color balance is a
little cool and clammy, so I will selectively add some warmth.
The RAW photo was processed in Phase One Capture One and
brought into Photoshop. Before doing anything else, I use PhotoKit
Sharpener from PixelGenius to give the image a low-level
sharpen.
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2
Make a copy layer, and select the new layer. To control the
sky, open the Shadow/Highlight controls (Image > Adjustments
> Shadow/Highlight). This feature allows the highlights
and shadows to be adjusted easily, but there are a few tricks
you need to know.
First, check the Show More Options box (bottom left) so the
dialog looks like the example shown here.
Second, don’t be afraid to experiment with this control and see
what happens to your image. It’s best to observe up close (at 100%
display) because some odd edge effects can appear.
Third, after you’ve set the shadow and highlight settings, adjust
the Midtone Contrast as well—this can produce a more natural
result. Usually you move the contrast up slightly, but not always.
And finally, play around with the Tonal Width and Radius controls
(for both Shadows and Highlights) when faced with difficult
situations.
In this scene, an ugly halo appeared along the edges of the mountains
(see example above), but after reducing the Radius setting to 0
pixels, it was effectively eliminated.
3
While the Shadow/Highlight control
has produced an excellent range of
tones in the sky, the bottom of the
image has suffered. We need to bring back
the original image, which is lying hidden on
the layer below.
A mask is added to the top layer by clicking
on the Add Vector Mask icon at the bottom
of the Layers palette. Select the mask, select
the Brush Tool and paint over the foreground
(set the brush color to black).
By using a brush with a soft edge and by
changing the brush size appropriately, the
transition from one layer to the other can
be softened. While a hard edge transition
is appropriate on the horizon line between
the water and the mountains, it’s not appropriate
between the dark sky and the
mountains.
You can see how the mask has been softened
or hardened depending on the transition
required.
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4
The image now has a
good range of tones,
but some of the brilliance
and sparkle is gone.
More contrast is needed, and
several more steps will be required
to fine-tune selected
areas. As a first step, a Curves
Adjustment layer is added on
top of the two existing layers
(see diagram).
To add, click the Adjustment
Layer icon at the bottom
of the Layers palette
and select Curves from the
drop-down menu. When
the Curves dialog opens, increase
the angle of the curve
(which increases the contrast)
by selecting two points
on the diagonal line and
dragging them to produce a
curve similar in shape to the
one shown in the diagram
reproduced here.
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5
The image is cropped using the Crop tool. The foreground is
considered unnecessary for a strong composition, and the sky is
cropped to rebalance the image.
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6
Two steps will
be made to incease
warmth
in the image, the first
using the Replace
Color dialog (right).
If an overall color
adjustment is made,
the clouds and water
would be affected
just as much as
the foreground and
mountains, so instead,
it is decided to
select just the greens
of the algae covering
the foreshore
and tree tunk and
change these colors
to a warmer hue.
Using the Replace
Color dialog (Image
> Adjustments >
Replace Color), use
the color picker (eye
dropper) to select
the greens. You can
adjust how much of
the scene is selected by using the Fuzziness slider control, then
use the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders below to change
the color to taste.
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9
Three more adjustment layers are added, but this time they are added to the top of
the stack so they affect the entire image. Their purpose is to further lighten the area
around the tree trunk and darken the surroundings.
It is often better to make adjustments in a series of small steps, each with slightly different
masks, so there are no tell-tale lines in the final image. A single, heavy-handed adjustment
can appear too obvious. Note how each adjustment layer has a different mask. The masks
are created by making a selection before adding the adjustment layer—refer to the instructions
in Steps 7 and 8 above.
Both Curves and Levels commands have been used—in theory Curves can achieve everything
you can do with Levels, but sometimes Levels just seems to be easier to work with. |
Peter Eastway is one of Australia’s most successful professional photographers. He is also an author, publisher and business adviser, providing him with a truly unique
background. Peter is also the editor and publisher of Better Photography magazine, a top Australian photography monthly. He may be reached at: eastway@
betterphotography.com. This article first appeared in Better Photography magazine.
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