LEARNING GALLERIES

Welcome to the learning galleries section of the site. While some may have the tone of a tutorial, what you will find in each case is a step-by-step explanation of how I went about my work with various images. I hope these learning galleries will make your work with Adobe Photoshop more efficient.

The pages in the learning galleries contain multiple images. Download with slower connections can take several minutes.

If you find the resources helpful, please consider a donation or the purchase of a print from one of the galleries. Your support will help keep the resources in the Digital Darkroom free to all.
 


image
Adding A Gallery Frame Edge Effect to Your Images

Are you interested in the gallery frame effect you see on this site. I learned the basics from Scott Kelby, the popular author and president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. This learning gallery will walk you through the steps for adding this "touch of class" to your images.

 

image
Adding Artistic Edges to Your Images

Would you like to add some artistic effects to the edges of your photographs? My TLR Edge Effects action set lets you add various brush, distortion, and texture effects to your image. This learning gallery will explain how to put the action set to work on your images.




image
Low Key Lighting Effect

Photography is the art of painting with light. The automated tools in Photoshop CS make routine work in the digital darkroom quick and easy. Crafting a fine art requires control over light. The traditional darkroom techniques of retouching with brushes has its equivalent in the digital darkroom, too. Even if you have little or no skill for drawing and painting, this Learning Gallery will show you how to selectively add, remove, and refine subtle highlights and shadows for a digital low key lighting effect.

 

image
Making a Digital B&W Fine Art Image

Photoshop offers lots of flexibility when converting from color to B&W. The quick and easy way is to flatten the color image and then apply Image|Mode|Grayscale. One of my preferred methods for B&W conversion employs a Selective Color adjustment layer paired with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. The first is used to mix the color information in a controlled way to emphasize desired tonal relationships. The second desaturates the image, leaving you with a B&W image that has all three RGB channels intact.




image
Put a Fine Edge on Your Sharpening Skills

Sharpening is an essential part of image editing. All images captured by a digital camera or a scanner can benefit from digital sharpening. My TLR Sharpening Toolkit is a set of Photoshop CS actions that make it easy to get professional sharpening results. This learning gallery walks you through the sharpening process with the tools in the TLR Sharpening Toolkit.

 

image
Skin Softening

Want to learn how to soften skin in a way that looks natural? This learning gallery show you how to pair a Darken layer with a Lighten layer to soften skin. To really make this one worth the price of admission, you will also learn how I removed wrinkles, reduced bags under the eyes, and knocked back glare on teeth.

 






image