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This tutorial shows you to add contrast and extend the dynamic range of your B&W images by converting them into duotones, tritones, or quadtones. You can also add some artistic toning effects, like sepia or brown tones to add an antique appearance. Printing duotone images is tricky, too. This tutorial explains why and offers practical advice. You'll also find some duotone, tritone, and quadtone recipes you can try in your images, including my personal favorites: selenium and bronze. (690k .PDF download)
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Photography with a digital SLR is similar to photography with color slide film. Both allow the photographer to capture rich, saturated colors. Both also have a rather narrow dynamic range compared with color negative film. This tutorial describes a simple technique for using a single RAW image or, better yet, when circumstances allow, a pair of exposures: one for shadow detail and another for highlight detail. An HTML version of the tutorial is available on Harald Johnson's DP&I.com site. If your unfamiliar with Harald, he's the author of a great book on digital printing, "Mastering Digital Printing: The Photographer's and Artist's Guide to High-Quality Digital Output." (669k .PDF download)
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Uwe Steinmueller, the well-known photographer who runs www.outbackphoto.com, suggested that we collaborate on a series of tutorials that start from the basics and proceed to more advanced techniques for adjusting tonal balance, contrast, and brightness. It sounded like a good idea, so this is Part 1 in the series. This tutorial explains the concepts of tonal range, contrast, and brightness. It also demonstrates some of the common problems photographers face. If you prefer the HTML version, you can view it on Uwe's site. His version also includes Uwe's sidebar comments, which make for good reading. (458k .PDF download)
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Part 2 picks up on the discussion of the concepts of tonal range, contrast, and brightness by explaining how to make the adjustments in Adobe Camera RAW II. If you wanted to know what the difference is between the Exposure, Brightness, and Shadows sliders in ACR II, you'll find the answer here. If you prefer the HTML version, you can view it on Uwe's site. His version also includes Uwe's sidebar comments. (375k .PDF download)
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Part 3 continues the discussion of the concepts of tonal range, contrast, and brightness by explaining how to use the Photoshop Levels and Curves dialogs. The discussion goes beyond the basics of Levels and Curves to explain how layer masks can help you refine your tonality adjustments. If you prefer the HTML version, you can view it on Uwe's site. His version also includes Uwe's sidebar comments. (940k .PDF download) |
This discussion of tonal range, contrast, and brightness continues with an explanation of the Photoshop CS Shadow/Highlight command. Some photographers are reluctant to use the Shadow/Highlight command. It does take some practice and you need to understand how the various settings affect your photo. If you have photos that are underexposed because of backlighting or or overexposed because of fill flash, the Shadow/Highlight command can be the quickest way to restore them. Part 4 will give you a good foundation to use the Shadow/Highlight command without adding halos, softening details, or shifting colors. (532k .PDF download)
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Digital photography has adopted many of the techniques and tools of film photography. Some important differences remain. One big difference is in the use of photographic filters. Photoshop CS added support for warming and cooling filter effects. This tutorial shows you how to simulate those effects in earlier versions of Photoshop. It also explains how to implement some filter effects that are not even part of Photoshop CS, like graduated filters and polarizers. (469k .PDF download)
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Making selective adjustments to the contrast of an image is possible with Photoshop’s Burn and Dodge tools, but you cannot be certain of their effect until you actually brush a stroke, and then your only choices are to accept the adjustment or reverse it completely with an Undo operation. For more control over burning and dodging, you can use a combination of the Brush tool and an Overlay layer. This tutorial shows you how. (200k .PDF download)
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Want to add a truly defining touch to your image? Want to give your image a dreamy or romantic appearance? A diffuse glow can take a good photo and make it into a great photo. The idea is not to blur the entire image, but to add a halo or glow to to a desired range of tones. You can add richness and shape to your shadows or give your highlights a high key effect. "Giving Your Photo a Glow" shows you how to use a combination of blurs, layer blend modes, and blending techniques (in particular, the Blend If sliders) to add a diffuse glow. An HTML version of the tutorial is available on Michael Reichmann's Luminous-Landscape.com site. If your unfamiliar with Michael Reichmann or his site, he's one of the very best landscape photographers and his site is one of the most popular photography sites on the Web. The very first image in this tutorial is an example of Michael's photographic talent. (405k .PDF download)
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Give Your Pictures A Velvia Touch Want to get the rich, saturated colors that Photographers associate with Fuji Velvia film? The quick and easy solution is to use the Hue/Saturation command in Photoshop. Simple is not necessarily better. In this case, it can add unwanted artifacts to your image and amke JPEG artifacts and digital noise more evident. There is a better way. This tutorial shows you how. Uwe Steinmeuller published an HTML varsion of this tutorial on his OutbackPhoto.com site. (682k .PDF download)
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Adobe Photoshop is a very flexible tool. This is especially true when you get ready to convert a color image into a high contrast B&W image suitable for a fine art print. This tutorial describes a simple yet flexible technique for converting color images into B&W using a pair of adjustment layers to control the effect. (1.15 mb .PDF download)
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Have you ever wanted to make an adjustment to an image but limit the effect to just the highlights or the shadows in an image? Tone-based masks allow you to separate elements of an image, using tones to target areas for change or isolating them from change. You can use those as layer masks for more precise retouching of your digital images. "Masking by the Numbers" shows you how to use this technique in your photographic work. Michael Reichmann has made an HTML version of the tutorial available on his site, Luminous-Landscape.com. Michael Reichmann is one of the very best landscape photographers and his site is one of the most popular photography sites on the Web. I'm proud to be associated with him. (1.56mb .PDF download) |
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Sharpening is a skill that requires patience and experience. Certainly, my skills have evolved, and as they have, I've gone back and reworked some of my images. The advice used to be to sharpen once and do it at the end of your workflow. Now the advice is to sharpen up front and again at the end, with maybe a round of creative sharpening, too. This tutorial explains how to give your images extra sharpness. Be sure to visit the Learning Gallery, "Put A Fine Edge On Your Sharpening Skills" for more examples and discussion. (1.38mb .PDF download) |
“Expose to the right” is a popular refrain among digital photographers these days. Follow the advice, and you can end up with pictures that have a clipped channel. No highlight warning. The histogram does not indicate a problem, either. It's only when you get back and load your images into your RAW converter that you learn about the clipped channel. Saturation masks allow you to make smooth saturation adjustments in order to bring back some highlight detail from the precipice and reeestablish smoother tonal transitions. You can also use their inverse to boost muted colors without oversaturating portions of the image that already have saturated colors. Read this tutorial to learn how to use saturation masks in your color correction. The TLR Saturation Mask action set makes it easy to generate saturation masks. An HTML version of the tutorial is available on Michael Reichmann's Luminous-Landscape.com site. If your unfamiliar with Michael Reichmann or his site, he's one of the very best landscape photographers and his site is one of the most popular photography sites on the Web.
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Overcast weather can provide a photographer with very even lighting. If you shoot images of flowers or do macro work, you'll likely find overcast light to be some of the best outdoor lighting. For the landscape photographer, however, an overcast day can be very disappointing. You can end up with a dull, flat image. One solution is to use a tripod and bracket your shots so you can later make a composite photo that stitches together different features of each. The sky from one. Brightened background from another. Etc. If you carry a graduated neutral density filter, you can pop that on your lens to reduce the dynamic range and build up those midtones. On the other hand, if you know some Photoshop basics, you can use a pair of duplicate layers to restore those midtones to your image. Read the tutorial to learn how. An HTML version of the tutorial is available on Harald Johnson's DP&I.com site. If your unfamiliar with Harald, he's the author of great book on digital printing, "Mastering Digital Printing: The Photographer's and Artist's Guide to High-Quality Digital Output." (389k .PDF download)
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Adobe Photoshop is a very flexible tool when it comes to converting from color to B&W. There are several techniques. Some quick and simple. Others that give the digital photographer a lot of control. "Split Your Channels For Improved B&W" describes how to use a little-known Photoshop feature to convert to B&W with maximum control. (3.13mb .PDF download)
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Getting the right Depth Of Field (DOF) for an image can be a challenge. Often, you want to get the subject in sharp focus and still blur details in the background and/or the foreground so they do not compete for attention. The Lens Blur filter is a new feature in Photoshop CS, and it is not all that well understood. Forget about the Gaussian Blur filter and read the tutorial to learn all about this powerful new tool for narrowing DOF in your images. There is an HTML version on OutbackPhoto.com, a site run by the wel-known photographer, Uwe Steinmueller. (312kb .PDF download) |
You can brand your images with an embossed, see-thru effect that displays the entire image while rendering it useless to anyone else for reproduction. There are just a few simple steps, perfect for automating with a Photoshop action. This tutorial explains how to prepare your proofs for the Web. (352k .PDF download) |
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