Photoshop User 08.2018

T H E A D O B E® P H O T O S H O P ® “ H O W -T 0 ” M A G A Z I N E › › august 201 8
Beginners’ Do you have any B&W photos

that you’d like to colorize? It’s
Turn a long-exposure image into
a frame-worthy B&W by locally
Dynamic
Workshop easier than you might think! controlling contrast and shading Range
Michael Petrizzo | KelbyOne Member
PHOTOGRAPHIC
CONVERSIONS
Shift your images into high
gear using the power of the
Mixer Brush to turn them
into unique works of art.
[ P H O T O S H O P U S E R • A U G U S T 2 0 18 • V O L 2 1 • N O 7 ]
CONTENTS
Background and tablet: Adobe Stock; Images: Victoria Pavlov; Layout: Jessica Maldonado
[052] DIGITAL PAINTING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
FEATURES
By Victoria Pavlov
Whether you have a passion for painting or you’ve never painted anything in your life, Photoshop
has the tools to help users of all levels create masterpieces. Victoria Pavlov shows how you can
start with a photographic image and use the Mixer Brush to turn it into a work of art that can far
surpass the original image. Give it a try. You just might find it a little addicting.
[062] PHOTOSHOP COLOR GRADING MADE EASY By Michael Corsentino

Color grading is the purposeful shift of an image’s color tones to create a specific mood, look, or feel.
It can make the difference between an above-average image and an exceptional image!
©Adobe Stock/snaptitude
©Adobe Stock/Aikis
[028] [040]
HOW TO
DEPARTMENTS
[007]
A NOTE FROM SCOTT
[028] DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS
Distorted Design Effects with Displace
[009]
CONTRIBUTORS
[040] DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS
Craft a Dynamic X-Ray Effect
[010]
BENEFIT SPOTLIGHT [070] BEGINNERS’ WORKSHOP
Colorizing a Black-and-White Photo
[012]
KELBYONE COMMUNITY [074] DYNAMIC RANGE
Long Exposure Black-and-White
[020]
[082] RETOUCHING MAGIC
HEARD ON THE TWEET Frequency Separation for Clothing Wrinkles
[022] [094] DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

Photoshop Variables
NEW ONLINE TRAINING
[118] COLUMNS
FROM THE HELP DESK
[088] PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND
Creating Brushes for Hair, Part 2
DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT [098] DESIGN MAKEOVER

Whenever you see this symbol at the Image Search
end of an article, it means there are either
downloadable practice files or additional
content for KelbyOne members at [102] PRODUCT REVIEWS
http://kelbyone.com/magazine. Get the Scoop on the Latest Gear
Whenever you see this button Discuss this Issue at
the end of an article, click it to go to the [114] BOOK REVIEWS
Online Community to ask questions or Reviews of Photoshop and Photography Books
make comments about this issue.
Click this symbol in the nav bar at the top [116] PHOTOSHOP TIPS
of the online reader to access the Contents. Boost Your Productivity and Creativity
Peter Treadway
©Adobe Stock/Mila Supynska
[070] [074]
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› › FROM THE EDITOR
> A Note from Scott
PHOTOSHOP USER READER SURVEY

Each year, Photoshop User Managing
Editor Chris Main and I reach out to
our member community to get your
feedback on the direction and con-
tent of the magazine, and we use your
feedback to help steer the course for
the coming year. We recently sent out
this year’s reader survey, but if you
didn’t get that email, don’t worry—
it’s not too late. The survey will still be
“live” for another few days, so if you
head over to this address, we’d love
to have your feedback.
We tried something different in
this year’s survey: To help make it
easier to see which column is which, That’s me with KelbyOne Instructor and UK-based photographer,
we included screen captures of arti- Dave Williams, on the set of my weekly photography show, The Grid
cle pages for nearly all the questions.
That way, when we’re asking about whether or not you way, even if you’re on CC, it’s worth looking at that page.
find a particular column or section useful (or if you even I’ll bet there are some features in there you might not have
read it at all), you’ll have that visual cue so it’s clearer as realized that Adobe even added. Photoshop keeps getting
to which column we’re talking about. I think you’ll find it better and better each year, and if history is any indicator,
makes completing the survey quicker, easier, and more it’s about to get even better.
fun. Thanks to everyone who has already taken the survey, Now that my Lightroom tour is wrapping up, I’ll be on
and for all you folks who’ll be completing it in the next the road in major cities with an all-new tour called “Photo-
day or so (also, thanks to Chris for all his hard work in shop for Portrait & Wedding Photographers,” and we’ll be
putting the survey together). Ya know, while you’re right announcing the first tour dates very soon, so keep an eye
here looking at the magazine, this would actually be an on the Photoshop Insider blog for all the latest. If you
ideal time to fill out that survey. Just sayin’. ;-) want to keep on top of everything we do here at KelbyOne,
In other news, the annual Adobe MAX conference is including what’s happening with Photoshop and Light-
coming up in October, and historically during the opening room, any new deals and discounts we’ve come up with,
keynote, Adobe reveals a bunch of new features across how to get your work featured in the magazine, member
all the Creative Cloud applications. Photoshop, of course, photo challenges, and so much more, make sure you’re
is usually the star of the show, so I’m hoping we’ll see also checking out the KelbyOne Insider blog every day.
another round of great new features released in Photo- Lots of stuff going on, but that’s a great thing. Until
shop CC very soon. next issue. :)
While I’m on the road with my seminar (my final
Lightroom seminar is coming up Friday, August 17, in All my best,
Washington D.C.—hope you can come out), I talk with
photographers who are still using Photoshop CS6, and
I hate to hear that, because they’re missing out on so
> K ELBY ON E . CO M
much. CS6 came out back in May 2012. Software that’s

six years old is really, really old software, especially these
days. For example, take a look at the list of features Scott Kelby
added in a four-month period last year—and that’s not KelbyOne President & CEO
four years of new features—it’s just four months. By the Editor & Publisher, Photoshop User
[7 ]
A U G U S T 2 0 18 • V O L 2 1 • N O 7
AN OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF
EDITORIAL:
Scott Kelby, Editor-in-Chief
Chris Main, Managing Editor
Kim Doty, Associate Editor
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:
Steve Baczewski • Corey Barker • Peter Bauer • Dave Clayton
Michael Corsentino • Kirk Nelson • Victoria Pavlov • Kristina Sherk
Colin Smith • Gilmar Smith • Lesa Snider • Peter Treadway
Scott Valentine • Erik Vlietinck • Jake Widman
GRAPHICS:
Jessica Maldonado, Art Director
Margie Rosenstein, Senior Graphic Designer
Angela Naymick, Senior Web/Graphic Designer
MARKETING:
Sarah Freeman • Jacque Johnson • Rachel Scott
Kleber Stephenson • John Warwick • Melissa White
WEB:
Adam Frick • Curt Husting • Yojance Rabelo • Aaron Westgate
PUBLISHING:
Scott Kelby, Publisher
Kalebra Kelby, Executive V.P.
Jean A. Kendra, Business Manager
ADVERTISING:
Kleber Stephenson, Vice President of Business
Development & Enterprise kleber@kelbyone.com
HOW TO CONTACT KELBYONE:

U.S. Mail: 118 Douglas Road East • Oldsmar, FL 34677-2922 Each issue we feature cover art
Voice: 813-433-5000 • Fax: 813-433-5015 by a KelbyOne member!
Customer Service: info@kelbyone.com
Letters to the Editor: letters@photoshopuser.com This issue’s cover image is by Michael Petrizzo, an award-winning fine-art photographer,
Help Desk: http://kelbyone.com/my-account/helpdesk portrait artist, and fine-art print artist based in Falmouth, Massachusetts. He was recently
recognized by the Professional Photographers Association of Massachusetts for photo-
graphic excellence in their annual print competition. Michael’s pieces can be found in art
COLOPHON: galleries in Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Connecticut, and Scottsdale, Arizona. Michael is
Photoshop User was produced using Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 adept at the marriage of traditional photography and digital techniques using the latest
and Adobe InDesign CC 2018. Korolev was used for headlines and technology to create beautiful works of art. He is also the owner of Fine Art Productions,
subheads. Frutiger LT Std for text. a giclée service for artists and photographers. Learn more about Michael on page 17.
All contents ©COPYRIGHT 2018 KelbyOne, LLC. All rights reserved. Any use of the contents of this publication without the
written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. Photoshop User is an independent journal, not affiliated in any way
with Adobe Systems, Inc. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, and Photoshop are registered
trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks mentioned
belong to their respective owners. Some of the views expressed by contributors may not be the representative views of the
publisher. ISSN 2470-7031 (online)
VICTORIAPAVLOV
was born into a musician family and started practicing music at the age of 3. At
age 6 she discovered painting. Victoria spent all of her time in a painting studio
to master her craft. At age 14 she had her first big exhibit. She was introduced
to the camera by her uncle and to Photoshop by her teacher. Since that time,
she became “The Photoshop Artist.” A canvas, a camera, a Wacom tablet, and
Adobe Photoshop are the clean canvases where she can create her art.
CONTRIBUTORS
STEVEBACZEWSKI COLINSMITH
is a freelance writer, professional photographer, graphic designer, is an award-winning digital artist, photographer, and lecturer
and consultant. He also teaches classes in traditional and digital who has authored 19 books and has created a series of train-
fine arts photography. His company, Sore Tooth Productions, is ing videos. Colin is also the founder of the online resource
based in Albany, California. PhotoshopCAFE.com and president of Software-Cinema.com.
COREYBARKER GILMARSMITH
is an award-winning designer and illustrator. A featured instructor is a self-taught photographer and Photoshop addict specializing
at the Photoshop World Conference and an Adobe MAX Master in creative portraiture and composites based in Orlando, Florida.
Instructor, he has produced numerous training titles for KelbyOne. You can follow her ventures at www.gilmarphotography.com
Look for his latest book Photoshop Tricks for Designers. and all around social media as @gilmarsmith.
PETERBAUER LESASNIDER
is an Adobe Certified Expert that does computer graphics con- is the author of Adobe Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC for
sulting for a select group of corporate clients. His latest book is Photographers: Classroom in a Book (2016), Photoshop CC: The
Photoshop CC for Dummies. He was inducted into the Photoshop Missing Manual, TheSkinnyBooks.com eBooks, more than 40
Hall of Fame in 2010. video courses, and the “Creaticity” column for Macworld.
DAVECLAYTON PETERTREADWAY
is a UK-based graphic designer, creative specialist, and KelbyOne/ started his photography career in his late twenties and wedding
Photoshop World instructor with more than 30 years of experi- photography quickly became his full-time love. Peter also trains the
ence. Specializing in all things design and marketing, Dave is also next generation of eager photographers, producing educational
an Adobe Influencer and Training Manager at Astute Graphics. videos and written tutorials under the moniker Hybrid Peter.
MICHAELCORSENTINO SCOTTVALENTINE
is an award-winning wedding and portrait photographer, Photo- blends his education in physics with his love for art, bringing a
shop and Lightroom expert, author, columnist for Shutter Magazine unique voice to teaching through experimentation. His Hidden
and Resource Magazine, and speaker and international workshop Power books (Adobe Press) are used in colleges across the US,
leader. Learn more at www.michaelcorsentino.com. and he’s a longtime member of Adobe’s prerelease team.
KIRKNELSON ERIKVLIETINCK
is a professional graphics artist in the Washington, D.C., area. He founded IT Enquirer in 1999. A J.D. by education, Erik has been
has a B.A. from George Mason University and is an Adobe Certified a freelance technology editor for more than 22 years. He has
Expert in Photoshop. Kirk’s career has touched on a broad range of written for Macworld, Computer Arts, and many others. He also
subjects from logo design to animation. He can be reached here. contributes to UK-based Red Shark News and Red Shark Sound.
KRISTINASHERK JAKEWIDMAN
is a high-end retoucher based in D.C. and has worked for clients is a writer and editor who lives in San Francisco. He’s been cover-
such as Time Inc. and Hasselblad. She loves “translating” Photoshop ing the intersection of computers and graphic design for more
for people and has written for Shutter Magazine, as well as authored than 30 years now—since back when it was called “desktop pub-
KelbyOne courses and PhotoshopCAFE’s Fashion Retouching DVD. lishing” and Photoshop was just a piece of scanning software.
[9 ]
> Benefit Spotlight
ARE YOU GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR

KELBYONE PRO MEMBERSHIP?
As a Pro member, you’re receiving the ultimate experience You can also get help from others in our Community or
with KelbyOne. This is our complete plan that includes every- from our one-on-one Help Desk. You have access to all the
thing to immerse yourself in learning. We want to make sure new issues of Photoshop User magazine and Lightroom
you know about all of the added benefits you’re getting as a Magazine, along with hundreds of back issues. You have
Pro member so you can take advantage of them all! access to a Creative Toolkit packed with brushes, presets,
Pro members have access to our entire course library eBooks, and other fun freebies. And last, but certainly not
(700+ courses), including a new course every week, taught least, there are significant discounts available from our part-
by world-class instructors who you know and love. In addi- ners, such as Apple, Adobe, B&H Photo, and Mpix.
> PHOTOSHOP USER > AU G U ST 2018
tion, you have hundreds of quick tips and tutorials, guided Do you know someone who should go Pro? Share the
learning tracks, and the opportunity to live-learn through added benefits of the Pro Membership with them to help
private members-only webcasts. accelerate their learning today! n
Discuss this Issue

[10 ]
NEXT STOP: WASHINGTON, DC
Washington, DC | 08.17.18
Walter E. Washington Convention Center
SARAHFREEMAN & DAVECLAYTON
> KelbyOne Community
Inspiration, information, and member musings to fuel your creativity
Get Your Work Noticed! Make sure to also check out The Grid Episode 342 where
Have you seen the featured work on Member Monday? Scott Kelby and Jeff Leimbach offer a blind critique of travel
You could be featured too—it’s easy! When you’re post- photographs submitted by our members! It’s a great chance
ing your photo on Instagram, all you have to do is add to pull tips and tricks from two talented photographers as
#KelbyOne to your post. Each week we review tagged pho- they provide feedback on images.
tos and choose one special image and artist to be featured
on The Insider. Then we ask a few questions to share with The Magic of Adobe Spark
our readers about the image, your background, and how Back in May, Terry White introduced us to the magic
more of your work can be viewed. We know it takes a lot of Adobe Spark in his latest course. And since then
of courage to submit your work but we love being able to we’ve been nothing short of obsessed! In our latest
bring attention to our talented members! So what are you Members-Only Webcast, Scott Kelby guided members
waiting for? Tag your next photo and have the chance to be through the steps of building their own Adobe Spark
featured. Here are a couple recent winners. pages with their vacation photos. It was a fantastic way
Jack Kosowsky
to relive travels through a beautiful web story using videos,
pictures, and text.
But don’t think Scott is just teaching you how to use Adobe
Spark—he uses it himself all the time! The KelbyOne team
headed out to the beautifully restored Rialto Theatre, just
outside downtown Tampa, Florida, for a fashion shoot—
Scott’s first shoot using Profoto USA’s B1X! Scott wanted
to show more than just the final photos and more than just
the set. He wanted to truly go behind the scenes and show
the lighting, stands, fans, backdrops—all of it.
He compiled all of the behind-the-scenes shots into an
Dave DeBaeremaeker Adobe Spark page to share the concept, the lighting, the
gear, the model, the clothing, the team—everything it took to
Get Better with Critiques capture this amazing story.
In Daniel Gregory’s newest class, The Craft of Photo

Critiques, he sits down with four photographers as he
teaches the methodology for approaching the analysis of
your photographic work. And as important as it is to be
able to feel confident about having intelligent conversa-
tions about photography, Daniel also reminds us that not
every photograph will appeal to everyone, so it’s important
not to overweigh negative feedback. Stay unique and true
to yourself and your style. At the end of the day, if you’re
[12 ] happy with your own work, then that’s just as important!
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> DOUG HUGHES
MEMBER SINCE 2014
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> ED BACHO
MEMBER SINCE 2006
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT >> DAVE STARRETT
MEMBER SINCE 2014
WHO’S WHO IN THE KELBYONE COMMUNITY >> MICHAEL PETRIZZO
MEMBER SINCE 2006
› › K E L BYO N E C O M M U N I TY
Who’s Who in the KelbyOne Community: Michael Petrizzo

Michael Petrizzo is an award-winning fine-art photographer, portrait artist, and fine-art print artist based
in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Michael’s pieces can be found in art galleries in Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard,
Connecticut, and Scottsdale, Arizona.
Looking through your portfolio, it looks like Without great light, you have very little chance of produc-
you love the outdoors. What first drew you ing anything of fine-art quality. I’d also recommend getting
to landscape photography? in front of something beautiful or with the potential to be
I was first drawn to landscape photography from an experi- beautiful. It sounds simple but truly, that’s half the battle.
ence shooting New York City scenes. I was a young man of Search for locations that have great potential. Where I live
about 20 years old, knew nothing about photography, and and shoot on Cape Cod, not every harbor offers the chance
just went out and shot whatever was visually interesting to for great imagery. You have to put in the time to research
me with a film SLR. The only experience with photography where the winning locations are and then learn how to
other than that was taking family pictures with Polaroid shoot them properly. Yes, there usually is a right way and
cameras, basically snapshots. I guess because snapshots a wrong way.
were so common and boring, I thought shooting land-
scapes offered a lot more possibilities for beautiful imagery.
What’s your typical approach to planning
landscape shoots?
As an award-winning fine-art photographer, what’s On a day that I hope to shoot landscapes, the planning
your process for critiquing your own work for your starts a day or two before. And to me, it’s all about
portfolio and print sales? predicting the weather. I’m constantly observing the sky.
My self-critique method is pretty simple: I have to love the I want to be able to predict if there are going to be clouds
image. If I don’t love it, it never sees the light of day. I will that will help produce spectacular sunsets. That’s my first
not show anything either digitally or in print unless the priority. I try and select the right location for the time of
work is excellent. Of course, this is subjective; what I love, year and weather. For example, some marsh landscapes
someone else may not. That’s the risk you take when you look more powerful in autumn when the marsh grasses
put yourself out there. The work has to be topnotch. It turn amber and golden. Yes, there are times when I see
has to be my very best work. I ask myself, “Will the viewer conditions developing that will produce great shooting
think that’s a nice picture,” or will the viewer say, “That’s possibilities, and yes, I’ll jump in my Jeep at the last minute
stunning!”? I’m always shooting for “That’s stunning!” and try and take advantage of them. But more often than
That’s my standard. not, observation and planning produce the best results.
You’re also an accomplished portrait photographer. How has KelbyOne helped you to become a
What do you enjoy about studio work compared to better photographer?
shooting outdoors? KelbyOne has been huge in my development into the
That’s a great question. Studio work excites me because photographer I am today. I was first exposed to KelbyOne
it’s different than shooting landscapes, which is really after winning a one-year subscription through an online
what I’m known for. The fact that I get to control and daily photo contest site. It was then known as the National
shape the light fascinates me. It’s very gratifying when a Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). I sat on it
client says, “Wow, that’s me?” I love to experiment with for six months before I opened the packet. I had no idea
different poses and light setups. I love postproduction, what I had. I was floored at what I discovered. The video
and I love making a subject look their very best. training was topnotch. I was like a kid in a candy store.
I couldn’t get enough. My skill level increased exponentially.
The “mysteries” of great photography were all laid out
What three tips could you share about getting the
so I could see and understand. I was able to leave a very

best landscape shots to anyone looking to try a successful career that I was tired of and start a successful
fine-art approach? photography business in its place because of KelbyOne. To
For anyone wanting to shoot fine-art landscapes, the three this day, I’m grateful for this training and the doors that it
things I’d preach would be light, light, and wait for it, light. opened for me. n
[17 ]
WHO’S WHO ON THE KELBYONE INSTRUCTOR TEAM >> KRISTINA SHERK
INSTRUCTOR SINCE 2015
› › K E L BYO N E C O M M U N I TY
Who’s Who on the KelbyOne Instructor Team: Kristina Sherk
Where are you from, and what kind of work do you do?
I’m a bit of a “mutt” when it comes to where I’m from. My father
was an economist for third-world countries, so while I consider
myself from the U.S., I spent most of my young childhood in Ivory
Coast and the Philippines.
[10]
RAPID-FIRE
I’m a photographer and retoucher based out of Washington QUESTIONS
D.C. I like to joke with people and say I majored in Photoshop (my
actual major was Digital Art but it allowed me to learn Photoshop
full-time for four years). Everyday photographers have no time for
KRISTINASHERK
this, so anything I can do to translate Photoshop for the end user 1. Favorite movie
so they can better understand it, is a win. Robin Hood: Men in Tights
2. What can’t you live without?

Where do you look for inspiration? Halo Top ice cream
I draw most of my inspiration these days from surreal composites.
3. Favorite type of music
I just wish my mind went to those types of places, but sadly it
Electronic/Chill
doesn’t. So at the moment, most of my retouching lives in the
“realm of realism.” I hope to someday create fun, surreal compos- 4. What do you do in your spare time?
ites! Maybe they’ll include my new daughter. Play with my new baby
5. What’s your favorite place to travel?

What do you enjoy most about teaching? The Bahamas
I enjoy helping others to be less frustrated with Photoshop. I also
6. What are three things you always
like “translating” it into plain English for them. Photoshop is take with you when you travel?
inherently incredibly complex. My motto is, “Work smarter, not Blow-up pillows, tripod, camera
harder,” so most of my teaching centers around how to do things
easier and faster. 7. What’s your favorite new app?
LUCiD by Athentech
Do you have any work rituals? 8. What’s the best advice you’ve
ever received?
Use actions—they save time. Who wants to spend hours doing
Don’t take yourself too seriously.
the same set of mundane tasks over and over when Photoshop
can do them for you? If you do something more than five times 9. Who would you recommend some—
in Photoshop, you should have an action for it. And then if you’d one to follow on social media?
like to be even more proficient, try applying a Function key to your Jenna Martin and Brooke Shaden
action. Then every time you tap that Function key, your action will
10. What’s the one thing you wish
automatically run! somebody would ask you?
Question: How did you overcome your
dyslexia in school? Answer: I majored in
Are there any hardware or software tools Pictures. LOL! n
you just couldn’t live without?

My Wacom tablet, for sure! I also use Perfectly Clear Complete for
some of my headshot photography.
[19 ]
> Heard on the Tweet
A Quick Glance at Some Highlights from our Twitter Feed
> P H O T O S H O P U S E R > A U G U S T 2 0 18
[20 ]
› › HEARD ON THE TWEET
Follow KelbyOne and Scott Kelby on Twitter!
[21 ]
Here Are Your Latest Online Courses
Pro Tips on Growing Your

Family Photography Business
Join Elena S. Blair and Sandra Coan to learn how to build your family photography business into something
that will prosper and thrive! Family photographers create memories and heirlooms for their clients, and
you should value what you do for your families. In this course you’ll get off on the ground floor with some
business basics, then move on to learning how to build your brand, develop a social media presence, get
your website working for you, and put it all together to execute a solid marketing strategy.
The Craft of Photo Critiques: How to

Give Meaningful Insights on Photography
Join Daniel Gregory as he teaches you a methodology for approaching the analysis of your photographic
work. Daniel is accompanied by four photographers who engage in the entire process with their own
photography as each step in the process unfolds. One of Daniel’s goals for this course is to give people
[22]
the tools to help them have more intelligent conversations about their photography, and by
the end you’ll be prepared to join in that conversation.
Every week, we publish at least one new training course.
Check out these brand-new courses below:
How to Make Beautiful Prints

in Lightroom Classic
Join Scott Kelby as he takes you through all the steps for creating beautiful prints in Lightroom. Lightroom
has an amazing print engine, and once you learn the process there’s no turning back. From choosing your
image settings to sharpening and soft proofing, Scott teaches you everything you need to know. He not
only shows you the right steps to take, but he even demonstrates how to solve the most common problems
you’re likely to encounter. Printing is a craft, and you’ll only get better with every print you make.
Travel Photography:
Capturing the Essence of a City
Join Scott Kelby as he shows you how to capture the essence of the locations you visit when you travel. Though
this is set in Venice, this is not a class on photographing Venice as the tools and techniques you’ll learn can be
applied to any city that you visit. Scott shares his big picture perspective on how his travel photography has
evolved, the gear and camera settings he uses, tips for scouting locations before you go and after you arrive, [23 ]
tips for shooting exteriors and interiors of buildings, how to photograph people, and so much more.
> PHOTOSHOP USER > AUGUST 2018
[24]
As an added value to your Pro membership, we host
special members-only webcasts featuring cutting-edge
technology and informative new tutorials.
[25 ]
Our live weekly talk-show about photography, Photoshop & industry-related topics
Travel Photography Critique with Jeff Leimbach

On this episode Scott Kelby and Jeff Leimbach blind critique travel
photographs submitted by you, the viewer!
How to Build Your Own Portfolio with Skip Cohen

[26]
Skip Cohen co-hosts alongside Scott Kelby as they show you HOW to build your own portfolio in
7 easy steps. Scott and Skip will also explain WHY you need to have a portfolio.
Here are some of this month’s array of The Grid episodes—filled
with photo critiques, portfolio tips, retouching techniques, and tips
on how to get great shots even while in tricky situations.
Guest Mike Kubeisy with Erik Kuna

Erik Kuna & Mike Kubeisy discuss how to get good photos even when you can’t control all aspects of the
photo shoot. As a bonus, Tom Cross and Ryan Chylinski reveal their best tips and tricks for tricky situations.
Photo Retouching with Kristina Sherk & Scott Kelby

Kristina Sherk of Shark Pixel joins Scott Kelby and shows
you how she retouches photos.
COREYBARKER
DISTORTED
DESIGN EFFECTS
WITH DISPLACE
Have you really pushed displacement maps as far as they
can go? In this exercise, you’ll learn to use displacement
maps to achieve colorful design effects using abstract images.
We’ll also combine these effects with some puppet warping
and some cool masking tricks.
[28 ]
› › DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS
Step One: Start by opening the image
©Adobe Stock/snaptitude
of the main subject to which the effect
will be applied. Here, I have a great shot
of a player jumping on a solid white
background, which I found on Adobe
Stock. Of course, you can use any shot
you want, but having the subject on a
white background makes it much easier
to extract them.
To download the watermarked
JPEG previews of the images used in
this tutorial to your Libraries panel
(Window>Libraries), click on the links
for the images below. When the
Adobe Stock web page opens, make
sure you’re logged in to your Adobe
account, then to the right of the
image, you’ll see the option to Save
Preview to My Library (you can click
on My Library to select a different
library or download option). Click on
the cloud-with-an-arrow icon, and the
preview image will automatically be
downloaded to your Libraries panel in
Photoshop. Double-click the “young
man” image in the Libraries panel to
open it in Photoshop. (Note: For this
particular technique, using the low-res
comp image will result in some exag-
gerated distortion effects compared
to the high-res version, but they will
give you the general idea of how
everything works.)
• oung man exercising hand-

Y
ball player silhouette
• glitch noise distortion

A
background
Step Two: Since the subject is on a

white background, select the Magic
Wand tool in the Toolbar (or press
Shift-W until you have it), then go up to
the Options Bar and set the Tolerance

to 10. Now, click on the white back-
ground in the image to select it.
[29 ]
› › HOW TO
Step Three: Go under the Select menu

and choose Inverse to flip the selection
from the background to the subject. It
isn’t necessary to adjust the selection
since this is a design effect, so go ahead
and press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to copy
the selected subject to a new layer.
Step Four: At the bottom of the Lay-

ers panel, click on the Create a New
Layer icon to create a new blank layer,
and then click-and-drag this new layer
beneath the extracted subject layer.
Press D to set your Foreground and
Background colors to their defaults, and
then press Command-Delete (PC: Ctrl-
Backspace) to fill the new layer with
white. This will be the background for
our final effect.
Click on the subject layer in the
Layers panel to reselect it, and then
press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) for Free
Transform. While pressing-and-holding
the Shift key to keep the image pro-
portional, scale the subject down and

position him more in the center of the
canvas. Press Enter when done.
[30 ]
Step Five: Now we need an image
©Adobe Stock/James Thew

to use for the displacement map. Here,
I have a cool graphic image of video
distortion. I found this among a wide
variety of distortion images over at
Adobe Stock. You want an image that
has a lot of varying shapes and tones of
light and dark areas.
If you downloaded the comp version
of this file to your Libraries panel using
the instructions in Step One, click-and-
drag the file from your Libraries panel
to your working file. (Because this is a
vector file, if you double-click it in the
Libraries panel, it will launch Adobe
Illustrator, if you have it installed.) The
image will appear with a bounding
box on its own layer. Resize and posi-
tion the image so it fills the working file
as shown here, and press Enter. Right-
click on the layer in the Layers panel,
and choose Rasterize Layer. Double-
click the layers name and rename it
“Layer 3” so it matches the Layers panel
we’re showing here.
If you’re using your own file, get
the Move tool (V) and drag the distor-
tion image into the working subject
image. Use Free Transform to position
and scale the image to fill the canvas
and press Enter when done.
We don’t need the color information,
so just remove it by pressing Command-
Shift-U (PC: Ctrl-Shift-U).
Step Six: Go to the Layers panel and set

this layer’s Opacity to 60%. This allows
you to see the subject underneath so
you can make sure the distortion covers
the whole subject. If it doesn’t, use Free
Transform to resize and reposition the
video distortion layer. When done, set
the layer Opacity back to 100%, then go
under the File menu and choose Save As.
Name the file “disp.psd,” or whatever

you like. Turn off the Layers checkbox in
the lower section of the Save As dialog
so it will save a flattened version of the
image, and then save it to your desktop. [31 ]
› › HOW TO
Step Seven: Now turn off the distortion layer (click on the Eye
icon to the left of its thumbnail in the Layers panel), click on the
extracted subject layer (Layer 1) to make it active, and then make
a couple duplicates by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) twice.
Step Eight: With the top subject layer (Layer 1 copy 2) active,
drop the layer’s Opacity to 25% so we’ll be able to see the sub-
ject layers below while we’re altering their poses. Turn off the
visibility of the bottom extracted layer (Layer 1). Now, click on
the first duplicate subject layer (Layer 1 copy), and use the Move
tool to position it down and to the right a bit as shown above.
Step Nine: Go under the Edit menu and choose Puppet Warp.
In the Options Bar, make sure the Show Mesh checkbox is
turned off. Click on the subject at the joint areas, as shown here
in the top left image, so you can warp the subject more naturally
(you’ll see small control points appear wherever you click). Once
in place, you can click-and-drag the control points to change
the subject’s position, just to add some variation to the origi-
nal. When you’re adjusting a control point, all the other control
points lock (or pin) those areas in place so they won’t move.
You can also rotate areas around a point by clicking on it to

make it active (you’ll see a white dot at its center), pressing-and-
holding the Option (PC: Alt) key, and clicking-and-dragging
outside the circle that appears—I used this to bend his left hand
at the wrist a bit. I also dragged the point near his left shoulder
to pull his head forward and down a little, and then pushed his
hips back a bit. When you adjust one point, you might have to
adjust nearby points to keep it looking natural. Press Enter when
done. Don’t worry if it gets a little too distorted, because it will
[32 ] Step Nine change when the displacement map is applied.
Step 10: Now make the original

extracted subject layer (Layer 1) visible
again, and click on it in the Layers panel
to make it active. Move it down and to
the left, and then use Free Transform to
rotate it to the left. Again, use Puppet
Warp to change the pose of the subject
as shown here.
Step 11: Once the two underlying

subject layers are altered, increase the
Opacity of the top subject layer (Layer 1
copy 2) back to 100%, and then adjust
the position, size, and rotation of the
two underlying subject layers in relation
to the top subject layer for a more pleas-
ing composition. Now, convert each
subject layer into a smart object, so we
can apply smart filters, by Right-clicking
on each layer and choosing Convert to
Smart Object.
[33 ]
› › HOW TO
Step 12: Once the layers are con-

verted, select the middle duplicate
layer (Layer 1 copy), then go under
the Filter menu, under Distort, and
choose Displace. Set the Horizon-
tal Scale to 200, the Vertical Scale
to 75, and then click OK. You’ll be
prompted to open a displacement
image, so locate the displace file you
saved to your desktop in Step Six, and
click Open. You’ll see the result is a
cool dispersion effect based on the
distortion image, and Displace was
applied to the layer as a smart filter.
(Note: As noted earlier, if you’re using
the low-res comp files, the distortion
will be exaggerated here.)
Step 13: Select the original subject

layer (Layer 1) that’s positioned on
the left, then go under the Filter menu
and, at the very top, choose Displace
to apply the filter again. Since it’s a
smart object, you’ll be prompted to
adjust the Displace settings again, but
keep them set to where they are and
proceed to add the displacement map.
Because this layer is positioned on
the other side, it will have a different
result from the displacement on the

other layer.
[34 ]
Step 14: Click back on the other

displaced layer (Layer 1 copy) in the
Layers panel to make it active, and
let’s apply a layer style to it. Click
on the Add a Layer Style icon (fx) at
the bottom of the Layers panel, and
choose Gradient Overlay. In the mid-
dle of the Layer Style dialog, click on
the downward-facing arrow to the
right of the Gradient thumbnail and
choose the gradient selected here
(these are presets; feel free to experi-
ment with others, or one of your own
to get a different look). Next, set the
Blend Mode to Linear Dodge (Add),
drop the Opacity to 75%, set the
Angle to 148°, and then lower the
Scale to around 50% (for the low-
res comp file, set the Sale to 150%).
You can also click-and-drag on the
image directly and move the gradient
around manually, as I did here. Once
done, click OK.
Step 15: Right beneath this layer,

in the Layers panel, you’ll see the
Displace smart filter (if you don’t see
it, click the down-facing arrow on the
far right of the layer to reveal it). You’ll
also see that it has its own layer mask.
Click on the Smart Filters layer mask,
and then get the Gradient tool (G).
Press D then X to set your Foreground
to black. In the Options Bar, click on
the Radial Gradient icon, and then click
on the down-facing arrow to the right
of the Gradient thumbnail and choose
the Foreground to Transparent gradient
in the Gradient Picker.
Apply this simple black-to-transpar-
ent gradient to the left of the far-right
subject’s head to hide some of the
distortion, partially revealing the origi-
nal head on this layer. Draw another
gradient near his left forearm. Now

you can adjust the density of the mask
by double-clicking on it to open the
Masks Properties panel, and dropping
the Density to around 55. [35 ]
› › HOW TO
Step 16: Now do the same thing

to the other distorted layer: add a
Gradient Overlay layer style, but use
a different gradient configuration,
like I have here. Also, don’t forget
to experiment with gradients on the
Smart Filters’ layer mask to reveal the
subject’s original head on this side of
the image. It’s a cool way to blend
effects with smart filters. Finally, drop
the layer’s Opacity to 85%.
Step 17: Select the top subject layer

(Layer 1 copy 2) in the Layers panel,
then go under the Filter menu, choose
Displace again, and run the Horizontal
Scale at 100 and the Vertical Scale at 75.
Use the same distorted displacement
map image as before.
[36 ]
Step 18: You can see it distorts the

image quite a bit. So, use the Brush
tool (B) set to black on this layer’s
Smart Filters mask to bring back
the subject around the head and
arm areas.
Step 19: Remember the distortion

image layer (at the top of the layer
stack) we turned off earlier? Click on
it and then turn it back on. Open the
Channels panel (Window>Channels),
press-and-hold the Command (PC:
Ctrl) key, and click on the RGB
thumbnail preview. This will load a
selection based on the luminance in
the image.
Step 20: Turn this layer off again in

the Layers panel and reselect the top
subject layer just below it. Press-and-
hold the Option (PC: Alt) key and click
Step 19 on the Add Layer Mask icon (circle in

a square) at the bottom of the Layers
panel. This will apply the selection as
a mask, adding to the effect but with
Step 20 no distortion. [37 ]
› › HOW TO
Step 21: Now, to add another color

element, create a new blank layer
above the original subject layer (Layer
1) in the Layers panel. Then, click on
the Foreground color swatch, choose
a color, and click OK to close the
Color Picker. Use the Gradient tool
again set to Foreground to Transpar-
ent and Radial to add a color gradient
in the middle of the image.
Step 22: Finally, we’ll add a text

element to finish the design (make
sure this text layer appears above the
subject layers). Here, I added the word
“xtreme” in all lowercase using a font
called Dameron Italic (which can be
found over at Dafont.com). I simply
set the type with the Horizontal Type
tool (T) at around 27 points using a
yellow-orange color. I then enlarged
the X to around 92 points and lowered
its baseline to around 15 points in the
Character panel (Window>Character).
I then selected all the letters with the
Type tool and set the tracking (space
between letters) in the Character

panel to –40.
[38 ]
Step 23: Click on the Add a Layer

Style icon at the bottom of the Lay-
ers panel and choose Stroke. Set the
Color to white, the Size to around
3 px, and the Position to Outside.
Next, click on Drop Shadow, under
Styles on the left, and use the settings
I have here. Be sure to click on the
color swatch near the top and set it
to blue, and note that I also set the
Blend Mode to Normal. Again, this
is one of the areas where you can
experiment. Click OK.
Step 24: Finally, set the text layer

blend mode to Linear Burn, and then
just tweak the final position of the text
in relation to the rest of the design.
I also added a layer mask to the sub-
ject layer on the far right (Layer 1 copy)
and drew a couple black-to-transpar-
ent radial gradients to hide some of
the clutter below the text and to fade
out his left arm. There you have it!
Remember the distortion image is the

key to getting an entirely different
look. Since the layers are smart objects,
you can just double-click on a layer’s
Displace filter in the Layers panel and
apply a new displacement map with-
out starting all over again. n
[39 ]
KIRKNELSON
CRAFT A DYNAMIC
X-RAY EFFECT
X-rays are one of those miracles of modern technology that
still fascinate us. The idea that there’s a macabre skeleton
hiding inside each of us that we’ll probably never see is a
curiously provocative idea. Of course, there’s no Photoshop
process that actually lets you see the skeleton of a person in an
image; but, by using some clever filters and a bit of compositing
know-how, you can make it seem that way!
[40 ]
Step One: The primary image for this
©Adobe Stock/Aikis
project comes from Adobe Stock. To
download the watermarked JPEG pre-
view of this image to your Libraries
panel (Window>Libraries), click on the
link for the image below. When the
Adobe Stock web page opens, make
sure you’re logged in to your Adobe
account, then to the right of the image,
you’ll see the option to Save Preview to
My Library (you can click on My Library
to select a different library or download
option). Click on the cloud-with-an-
arrow icon, and the preview image will
automatically be downloaded to your
Libraries panel in Photoshop. Double-
click the image in the Libraries panel to
open it in Photoshop.
• Man break dancer
The original image includes quite a

bit of empty space at the top. Use the
Crop tool (C) to crop the image down to
a tighter composition as shown here.
Step Two: Find the Polygon tool in the

shape tool set (it’s nested under the
Rectangle tool [U] in the Toolbar). In the
Options Bar, set the Sides to 6, the Stroke
to null, and the Fill to any color of your
choice. Also make sure the drop-down
menu near the left is set to Shape. Draw
out the polygon so it’s just large enough
to cover the model’s head and portions
of his right shoulder. As you’re dragging
out the polygon shape, you can press-
and-hold the Spacebar to reposition it as
needed. Then grab the Move tool (V), hold
down the Option (PC: Alt), key and click-
and-drag a copy of the shape out from
the original. Position the copy so one side
aligns with the first shape with a narrow

margin in between them as shown here.
You can use the Arrow keys on your key-
board to nudge the copy into place.
[41 ]
› › HOW TO
Step Three: Continue copying and placing

polygons to cover the figure with a honeycomb
pattern. To speed up the process, after you cre-
ate the first angled row of four polygon shapes,
click the top shape layer in the Layers panel
and Shift-click the bottom shape layer to select
all four layers. Press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to
copy the shape layers. With the four copies still
active in the Layers panel, use the Move tool
and Arrow keys to reposition the copies. Press
Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to repeat the process
until the subject is covered.
Select all the shape layers in the Layers panel,
and press Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G) to group
them all together. Double-click the name of the
group and rename it to “Honeycomb Pattern.”
Step Four: With the group selected in the Lay-

ers panel, hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key
and go to Layer>Merge Group. This creates a
combined layer of all the shapes. Command-
click (PC: Ctrl-click) the combined layer’s
thumbnail in the Layers panel to create a selec-
tion, and then hide both the combined layer
and the Honeycomb Pattern group by clicking
their Eye icons in the Layers panel.
[42 ]
Step Five: Use the Create a New Layer icon at

the bottom of the Layers panel to create a new
layer above the merged honeycomb layer, and
name it “Blue Lines.” The selection should still be
active, so go to Select>Modify>Expand. Enter in
a pixel value that will cover the distance between
the shapes. For the full-resolution project 10–15
pixels should work, but for the lower-resolution
comp file you’ll only need to use around 5 pixels.
Click OK.
Click the Foreground color swatch near the
bottom of the Toolbar, set it to a bright blue
(#0054ff), and click OK to close the Color Picker.
Hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key and press
Delete (PC: Backspace) to fill the selection with
the blue color.
Step Six: Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) the

layer thumbnail of the merged honeycomb shape
again to create a selection (this will replace the
current selection). Then hold down the Option
(PC: Alt) key and click the Add Layer Mask icon
(circle in a square) at the bottom of the Layers
panel. Photoshop uses the selection as an inverse
mask for the layer. That means the shapes are
masked out but the blue color behind the shapes
is visible, creating an outline effect. > K ELBY ON E . CO M
[43 ]
› › HOW TO
Step Seven: Make sure the layer mask thumb-

nail is still targeted in the Layers panel. Press the
D key to reset the colors to the default white and
black, and then the X key to swap them so black
is the Foreground color. Grab the Gradient tool
(G), click on the gradient preview thumbnail in
the Options Bar, select the Foreground to Trans-
parent preset in the Gradient Editor, and click
OK. In the Options Bar, set the gradient shape to
Radial and check the Reverse option. Now draw
out this gradient starting at the model’s head
and ending at the top edge of the canvas. This
will fade the blue lines as they radiate outward.
Step Eight: Click on the dancer layer in the

Layers panel and press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J)
to make a copy of it. Switch to the Quick Selec-
tion tool (W) and press the Select Subject button
in the Options Bar. Photoshop will create an
automatic selection of the dancer. Check the
edges and use the Quick Selection tool to add
to or subtract from the selection as needed.
(To subtract from the selection, press-and-hold
the Option [PC: Alt] key while using the Quick
Selection tool.) Then click the Add Layer Mask
icon in the Layers panel to isolate the dancer.
[44 ] Select Subject

Step Nine: Create a New Layer, go to Edit>Fill,

select Black in the Contents drop-down menu,
and click OK to fill the layer with black. Rename
this layer “Black,” and place it beneath the copy
of the dancer. Group the Black layer and the
dancer copy together into a group called “X-ray
Effect.” Reduce the dancer copy layer Fill to 0%
near the top of the Layers panel. This means the
layer pixels won’t be visible, but any layer styles
we apply will still be seen.
Step 10: Click on the Add a Layer Style icon (fx)

at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose
Inner Glow. Set the Opacity to 38%, color to
a rich blue (#1963a2), Choke to 10%, and the
Size to 38 px (for the smaller resolution image
use a Size of 8 px). Click the Contour preview to
open the Contour Editor, choose Rolling Slope
– Descending from the Preset drop-down menu
at the top, and click OK. Set the Range to 50%.
Don’t click OK yet in the Layer Style dialog. > K ELBY ON E . CO M
[45 ]
› › HOW TO
Step 11: Click on Satin in the list of Styles on

the left of the Layer Style dialog. Set the color
to black, Blend Mode to Soft Light, Opacity
to 52%, Angle to 90°, Distance to 36 px, and
Size to 38 px (for the lower-resolution file, set
the Distance to 9 and a Size to 16). Don’t click
OK yet.
Step 12: Add a Color Overlay layer style with

a bright-blue color (#6e9acb), the Blend Mode
set to Normal, and the Opacity set to 38%. Now
you can click OK in the Layer Style dialog. The
combined layer styles will provide a base visual
for the final x-ray effect.
[46 ]
Step 13: Expand the Honeycomb Pattern group

and locate the polygons that cover the model’s
head, hips, bottom hand, and extended right leg.
Hold down the Command and Shift keys (PC:
Ctrl and Shift) and click on the layer thumbnails
of those polygons to create a selection of those
areas. Then collapse the Honeycomb Pattern
group again and click on the X-ray Effect group.
Add a layer mask to the group and Photoshop
uses the selection to define the visible areas.
PixelSquid/AdamO_TS
Step 14: A critical element of x-rays is being

able to see the skeleton beneath the flesh. An
easy way to add the skeletal element is to use
the PixelSquid plug-in and then download the
Skeleton Break Dance model. If you’re not a
subscriber to PixelSquid, their website allows you
to download watermarked PNGs with full trans-
parency that will work for this project. You just
need to sign up for a free account. Before you

download the free PNG, click-and-drag on the
skeleton on the web page to change its position
until it matches the image shown here. Then
download that version of the skeleton. [47 ]
› › HOW TO
Step 15: Insert the skeleton model into the

composition. If you downloaded the PNG, go to
File>Place Embedded, navigate to the skeleton
image that you just downloaded, and click Place.
Scale, rotate, and position the skeleton until the
skull aligns with the model’s head. Then create a
selection from the polygon covering the head by
Command-clicking (PC: Ctrl-clicking) its thumb-
nail in the Honeycomb Pattern group. With the
skeleton layer still active, press Command-J (PC:
Ctrl-J) to copy the skull pixels to a new layer, and
rename it “skull.” Hide the skeleton model layer
for now.
Step 16: Turn the skull layer into a smart object

with Layer>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart
Object. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, set the
blur Radius to 0.6 pixels, and click OK. Reduce
the layer Fill to 0% in the Layers panel. Add an
Inner Glow layer style and set the Blend Mode to
Linear Dodge, Opacity to 23%, color to a pale

blue (#b9dbf7), Technique to Softer, Choke to
10%, and Size to 16 px (for the lower-resolution
file use a size of 9 px). Don’t click OK yet.
[48 ]
Step 17: Add a Satin layer style and set the

Blend Mode to Screen, the color to a light blue
(#79a4e4), Opacity to 39%, Angle to 45°, Dis-
tance to 22 px, Size to 73 px, and the Contour to
Rounded Steps. (For the lower-resolution image,
use a Distance of 10 px and a Size of 21 px.)
Click OK to apply the layer styles.
[49 ]
› › HOW TO
Step 18: Copy the skull layer, Right-click on

the name of the copy in the Layers panel, and
choose Clear Layer Styles from the contextual
menu. Right-click on the words “Smart Filters”
below the copy, and choose Clear Smart Filters.
Set the layer’s Fill to 100% and the blending
mode to Linear Dodge. Then go to Filter>Filter
Gallery. In the Stylize folder, select the Glow-
ing Edges filter. Set the Width to 4 (use 2 for
the comp image), Edge Brightness to 3, and
Smoothness to 4. Click OK.
Step 19: Copy the filtered skull layer, and on

this second copy, reduce the Opacity to 55%,
then add a Gaussian Blur filter set to 1.6 pixels.
This simply adds a bit of extra glow to the x-ray
lines and enhances the overall effect. Group
all the skull layers together into a group called
[50 ] “Skull Group.”
Step 20: Reveal the skeleton model

layer again, click on it to make it the active
layer, then reposition it as needed to create
the layers and effects for the hand, hips,
and leg using the same technique we used
for the skull starting at Step 15. (Tip: You
can hold the Option [PC: Alt] key, and
then click-and-drag layer styles and
smart filters in the Layers panel to copy
them from one layer to another. That
way, you don’t have to re-create each
layer style and smart filter for each sec-
tion of the skeleton.) After that, sit back
and enjoy your cool X-ray Dancer Effect!
The fundamental idea of this tutorial is

to help inspire you to think of unique
ways to use the digital resources at
your disposal. Just because the skeleton
is a quasi-3D stock image doesn’t mean
it has to be implemented that way. The
3D aspect is just an easier means of
getting the graphic in the right angle
to create the desired effect. So think
about what resources you have that
Final Image could be used in an unexpected way to
produce something unique. n
[51 ]
BY V I CTO R I A PAV L OV
As long as the world has existed, people have been expressing their emotions, feelings,
events, and sights around their villages and homes through art. We all have our favorite
color that represents our happiness, or colors that represent our sadness. I believe that
all of us can paint. We all painted when we were children. Painting is an expression of
ourselves, sharing our heart, soul, and vision with the rest of the world. We’re lucky
enough to live in a modern world where we have everything we need to bring our
creativity to the next, better level.
We have cameras, mobile devices, and digital working on postproduction, adjusting exposure,
applications with which we can create art. We white balance, and crop to bring the focal point
have all the canvases, brushes, paint, pastels, on a specific object. So my response will be, “Yes,
and pencils we need. So why not combine you can paint!”
everything to create something very special The biggest mistake people make in digital
and unique? If you say, “I want to paint, but painting is that they treat the application with
I’m a photographer and I’ve never trained to which they’re working as if it’s supposed to be
be a painter, so I can’t paint,” then I’ll disagree complicated, and they need to have deep training
with you. to be able to paint digitally. If you forget about
You’re a photographer; you make decisions the technical aspect of digital painting and treat
about white balance, composition, and the your layer as a canvas and the digital brushes as
light every single time you take a picture with physical ones, you’ll be more confident in what
your camera or mobile device. After that, you’re you’re doing. You’ll enjoy the painting process,
[52 ] ALL IMAGES BY VICTORIA PAVLOV

and you’ll create unique art
that represents who you are
and what you feel.
To create an original paint-
ing, you don’t need to be a
painter or have any previous
painting experience. With my
“Digital Painting for Photogra-
phers in Adobe Photoshop CC”
technique, you’ll be able to create
unique and beautiful pieces of art
using only one tool: The Mixer
Brush. You’ll only need to follow
the original image’s line flow; for
example, if a subject’s hair flows in
an upward direction, you need to apply
the brushstroke in that same upward Also, to make the painting workflow more enjoyable,
direction; you can’t apply a brushstroke you’ll need to have a graphics tablet. Any tablet that you
from left to right on hair that flows upward, can afford will be more helpful than the most expensive
because it just won’t look right. This is rule mouse. Using a tablet, you’ll paint more quickly, with less
number one in my painting workflow. stress, and you’ll have the full power of pressure sensitivity.
he lower
In this tutorial, we’ll work with three different images: a Step Two: Before you start painting, check for any dis-
flower, a portrait, and a still life. Let’s start with the flower. tractions in your image that will take the focus away
[KelbyOne members may download the files used in from your main subject; for example, if you’re painting
this tutorial by clicking this link or at http://kelbyone.com a landscape, you’ll need to remove any electrical wires
/magazine. All files are for personal use only.] that might appear in your image. Also, keep in mind that
busy images take a lot of time to paint. So if you know
Step One: Open an image in Adobe Photoshop CC that you that you’re not patient or you don’t have a lot of time
want to convert to a painting. to finish your painting, just start with one or two objects,
such as a still life painting. One or two apples
will give you different color palettes with which
to work and a nice composition with the fastest
painting time.
Step Three: Choose The Mixer Brush tool from

the Toolbar. You can press Shift-B on the keyboard
until you see the Mixer Brush in the Toolbar, or
click-and-hold the Brush tool in the Toolbar and
click on the Mixer Brush tool in the flyout menu.
[53 ]
Tip: For painting, you can use any of the default brushes in Step Six: Continuing in the Options Bar, set Wet, Load,
Adobe Photoshop CC, download any third-party brushes, Mix, and Flow to 100% each. Think about this ratio as a
or download more than 1,000 brushes created by Kyle T. wet-on-wet method of panting.
Webster from Adobe’s website. To find Webster’s brushes,
go to either the Brush Preset Picker or the Brushes panel
(Window>Brushes), and choose Get More Brushes from
the flyout menu at the top right. After you download a set Step Seven: Set Smoothing to 9% and the Smoothing
of brushes, simply double-click the ABR file to load them Options (gear icon) to Stroke Catch-Up and Adjust for
into Photoshop. You can also create your own brushes in Zoom. Smoothing is a new, highly appreciated feature in
Adobe Photoshop CC or Adobe Capture CC, which is a Adobe Photoshop CC that reduces any shakiness in your
free Adobe mobile app. If you’re a CC member, you’ll be brushstrokes. The value
able to sync the brushes you create in Capture CC with of the smoothing can
any Adobe application that supports CC libraries, including range from 0 to 100%,
Adobe Photoshop CC. [For more on creating custom with higher values cre-
brushes, check out the three-part series in “Photoshop ating smoother results.
Proving Ground.” Part 1 appeared last issue, and part 2 is With this technique, the
on page 88 in this issue. Part 3 will appear in the September best value is somewhere
issue of Photoshop User.—Ed.] between 5% and 11%.
Step Four: Double-click the Background layer’s name in Step Eight: Check the
the Layers panel to open the New Layer dialog. Type “Original Sample All Layers box,
Image” in the Name field and click OK. which will give you the
ability to use all the layers in your image as your source.
This helps to make your workflow more productive without
significantly increasing the size of your file.
Step Nine: You can use any brush tip with which you’re
comfortable from the Brushes panel, but in the Brush Set-
tings panel (Window>Brush Settings) uncheck all boxes
on the left except for Smoothing. This way you’ll have full
Step Five: With the Mixer Brush tool active, set the Fore- control over each stroke, including the blending of colors
ground color to black and the Background color to white and the transparency of brushstrokes, using the pressure
by simply pressing D on your keyboard. In the Options sensitivity in your tablet pen. (Note: If you downloaded and
Bar, select the Clean the Brush after Each Stroke icon (the installed any of the Kyle T. Webster brushes, you’ll find each
brush with a line through it). Yes, it will clean the brush set in a folder at the bottom of the Brushes panel.)
after each stroke, removing any color that was picked up
during the previous stroke.

This way you’ll have a clean
brush with every stroke.
From the preset drop-down
menu just to the right of the
Clean the Brush after Each
Stroke icon in the Options Bar,
specify Custom to give you full
control over your painting.
[54 ]
Step 10: Create a new layer above your Original Image
layer. Double-click this layer’s name in the Layers panel, and
rename it “Painting.”
Step 11: Now it’s time to

start painting. Zoom into
your image as much as is
comfortable for you to
work (make sure you’re
not zooming in to the
point where you can see
the pixels in your image).
Zooming into the image
will help you to see all the details more closely so you can painting over the water, you can use a bigger brush, but
avoid applying brushstrokes in the wrong direction. continue to follow the original image’s flow of lines.
Using the Mixer Brush tool with all the settings listed Before you start painting the background in your image,
above, apply the first brushstroke. Use a small brush size and you need to make a decision: Do you want to have a more
apply short brushstrokes (don’t try to cover a lot of pixels with or less photorealistic image? If you want a photorealistic
a large brush or long brushstrokes). Follow the flow of the image, continue using a small brush size. If you’d like to
lines of the original image. The best practice is to apply a have it look like a traditional (non-digital) painting, use a
short brushstroke and then lift your pen away from the tablet. bigger brush for painting the background (e.g., the water
Tip: To quickly change the size of your brush, use the in this image) than you used for the flower. A bigger brush
Bracket keys on your keyboard. will give it a more depth-of-field (DOF) feeling, where the
background is out of focus.
Step 12: Paint the flower first. From time to time, zoom out
for a better preview of the entire image, and try not to leave Tip: Remember, smaller objects in your image need to be
any pixels in your flower unpainted. painted using a smaller brush size. If you use a bigger brush,
you’ll lose some, or a lot, of image detail.
Tip: The type of brush you choose will affect your style.
If you use a soft brush, you’ll have a romantic and well- Step 14: After painting
blended painting. In combination with a small brush size the entire image, zoom
you’ll create a painting in the Leonardo da Vinci or Michel- out to double check to
angelo style of painting. A smaller size brush will also give see if you’ve left any pix-
you the most photorealistic painting. If you’d like to cre- els unpainted. You can do
ate your art in an Impressionist style, use any texturized that by clicking the Eye icon
brush at a larger size. next to the Original Image
layer to temporarily hide it.

Step 13: After you’ve painted the entire flower, continue
to paint over the other objects in your image (the water, Step 15: Create a new layer
the lily pad, and don’t forget about the reflection). When and rename it “Details.”
[55 ]
Step 16: In the Options Bar, set Wet
to 19%, Load to 19%, Mix to 47%,
and Flow to 47%. Step 16
Step 17: We’ll use these settings to

apply the finishing details to the image
by blending the colors and creating
smoother transitions between objects.
Zoom in again and paint over the
parts of the image where you need
to smooth any transitions between
objects and colors. Spend some time
on this step of your painting. At this
stage, it’s even more important to
apply very short brushstrokes. Com-
bined with the pen pressure on your
tablet, you’ll create a beautiful work
of art preserving all the details and
beautiful colors of your original image.
[56 ] Final painted image

Portraits
Now let’s talk about how you can
level up your portrait painting. The
image we’ll be working on here is
blurry, overexposed, noisy, and abso-
lutely unusable from a photography
perspective (the image was adjusted
like that on purpose). An hour later,
you’ll look at the same image and say,
“Wow, this is so beautiful!”
Step One: Open the image, and

rename the Background layer to “Orig-
inal Image.” First, we need to change
the background because it’s white
and has no color information, there-
fore painting it won’t give you any vis-
ible results. To fix it, create a new layer
above the “Original Image” layer, and
rename it “Background.” Now click
on the Foreground color swatch near
the bottom of the Toolbar, pick any
color you like in the Color Picker, and
click OK. Press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-
Backspace) to fill the layer with the
Foreground color.
Step Two: Click on the Add a Layer

Style icon (ƒx) at the bottom of the
Layers panel, and select Pattern Over-
lay. In the Layer Style dialog, click on
the Pattern thumbnail, and choose
any pattern style you like from the Pat-
tern Picker. To load different sets of
patterns, click on the gear icon at the
top right of the Pattern Picker, select a
set at the bottom of the flyout menu,
and click Append in the resulting dia-

log. Once you select a pattern, set the
Blend Mode to Normal, Opacity to
53%, Scale to 100%, and click OK.
[57 ]
Step Three: Now with the Back-
ground layer selected, click the Add
Layer Mask icon (circle in a square) at
the bottom of the Layers panel. Using
the basic Brush tool with a soft edge
and the Foreground color set to black,
paint in the general area of the subject
to reveal her on the new background.
You’ll most likely reveal some of the
original white background; simply
press X to swap your Foreground
color to white, and paint to hide
those areas again. It’s not important
that the edges of the mask be perfect
because you’re going to paint over
the image anyway, and the edges will
blend in. This is just a simple way to
give the image a background that can
be painted.
Tip: Feel free to exchange the back-

ground using any method you like, but
remember, using a very busy back-
ground will take attention away from
your subject and you’ll spend more
time painting the image. Before you
start working on this project, take
some time to think about whether you
want to have strong DOF or an all-in-
focus background.
Step Four: Press Command-E (PC:

Ctrl-E) to merge your layers, and then
launch the Camera Raw Filter from
the Filter menu. Apply a few adjust-
ments to the image as shown here to
add contrast and to bring more details
to life. Click OK.
To create a beautiful painting,
you’ll need to have a lot of contrast in
your image. Don’t think about it from

a photography perspective (some-
times moving the Contrast slider in
the Camera Raw Filter all the way to
the right will bring more colors and
details to the image). Yes, from a pho-
tography perspective, you probably
can’t use this image, but for painting,
this is what you need.
[58 ]
Step Five: Create a new layer, set the
Mixer Brush tool to the same settings
we used in Steps Five–Nine above for
the Painting layer in the flower paint-
ing, and start painting your image.
Tip: When painting the eyes, eye-

brows, and the hair, use a very small
brush size and follow the original flow
of lines exactly.
Step Six: Remember, if you prefer to

have a background with DOF, use a
larger brush. If you want to have an
all-in-focus painting, use a smaller
brush (the all-in-focus technique will
take longer to paint).
Step Seven: As before, after you fin-

ish the first step of your painting, create
a new layer, and rename it “Details.”
Apply the same changes to the Mixer
Brush tool that we used in Step 16
when we painted in the Details layer in
the flower above. Using these settings,
apply the final touches to your portrait
painting by creating smooth transitions
between the lines, and blending all the
colors together.
This last step is very important in
portrait painting. Using the Mixer
Brush tool with these settings will
allow to you to create perfect transi-
tions between the subject’s hair and
forehead, as well as the eyebrows and
all the areas around them. It’s very
important to have natural-looking
transitions in these particular areas of
portrait paintings.
Tip: You can also apply this method in

your pet painting workflow. Pet paint-
ing will take much longer than any
other type of painting. If you’re work-

ing on a pet painting and you have
limited time to deliver your project,
start to paint earlier than usual.
Final painted image [59 ]
Still Life
Now it’s time for a still life painting.
You can use an image with one sub-
ject or as many subjects as you like.
Step One: Open the image, rename

the Background layer “Original
Image,” and apply any adjustments
you want to create more contrast
and bring more details in focus
(Adobe Camera Raw Filter is the
best way to work at this stage of the
painting workflow).
Step Two: Now think about which

background you want to have: DOF
or all-in-focus. Create a new layer,
and rename it “Painting.” Apply
the settings to the Mixer Brush tool
that you used in the Painting layers
for the flower and portrait paintings,
and start the painting process. Take
your time; this image has a lot of
information. Again, try not to leave
any pixels unpainted.
Step Three: When you’ve painted

the entire image, create a new
“Details” layer.
Step Four: Change the Mixer Brush

tool settings as you did with the
Details layers in the flower and por-
trait paintings, and smooth all lines
and blend all colors.
Step Five: When you think you’re

finished with the painting, take a
break. Go have some coffee, go for
walk, etc., and come back to your
painting in an hour or so. Look at
the image with a “fresh” eye and
you’ll see that you left some pixels
unpainted here and there. You can
[60 ]
fix everything using the same Mixer
Brush tool with your last-used set-
tings. Zoom in and use the Hand tool
(H) to move around the document
and check every single pixel. Don’t
try to start and finish your painting in
one sitting (unless you’re working on
something very simple).
Tip: After you’ve finished the painting,

if you want to add some color or light
adjustments, use the Adobe Camera
Raw Filter.
inal houghts
Try to paint every day. Paint anything
that you feel at the moment, and don’t
try to impress anyone. Painting is the
language of your heart and soul. Use
this language to speak beautifully. n
Final painted image [61 ]

A well-done color grade can make the
difference between an average image
and an above-average image; it can take an
above-average image and make it exceptional!
Color grading, the purposeful shift of an image’s
color tones, is used to create a specific mood,
look, or feeling. B Y M I C H A E L C O R S E N T I N O
We’ll be using adjustment layers for the majority of the work on the image featured
in this article. Adjustment layers make enhancing and fine-tuning images easy and
flexible by keeping your workflow nondestructive. You can tweak adjustments to your
heart’s content, and none of the changes are irreversible or baked into the image
until you flatten and save the file. Even then, if you haven’t closed the image yet, you
can backtrack substantially via the History panel, if needed. But once you close that
saved, flattened file, your changes are forever locked in, so proceed with caution.
(If you need to preserve the layers for future editing, save a PSD version of the file
before flattening any of the layers.)
For the retouching and sharpening steps, I’ll be using Retouching Academy’s
Beauty Retouch Panel plug-in. If this plug-in isn’t on your radar, it should be.
At around 69 bucks, it’s amazingly affordable given what it does. But if you don’t
own it, no worries; you don’t need it to work with the included exercise files. If you
need a refresher on retouching and sharpening, I’ll refer you to one of Scott Kelby’s
and Kristina Sherk’s many awesome courses here on KelbyOne.

In the download section for this article, you’ll find three 16-bit, high-res TIFF
exercise files: one straight out of the camera and unretouched, another straight
out of the camera and retouched (for those of you who prefer to focus solely on
color grading), and a third that’s the final color graded retouched image you’ll be
striving to match.
[KelbyOne members may download the files used in this tutorial by clicking
[62 ] this link or at http://kelbyone.com/magazine. All files are for personal use only.]
Step One: The first step in any color grade is to assess
Estelle Ruchniewski Nester

the image, or series of images, and decide where
you want to take it. If you’re working on a series of
images, typically you’ll want a consistent look for the
entire set. Color and tone shifts impart mood, drama,
and emotion, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
Ideally, your color grade should support the image
rather than distract from it by being overt or obvi-
ous. In other words, subtlety and a lighter touch go
a long way.
Before we get to the meat and potatoes of the
color grade itself (in Step Four), we have some build-
ing blocks to lay down in order to assure a great
result. In Steps Two and Three, we’ll first boost the
overall contrast and then desaturate the image to
give it the beginnings of its eventual cool, edgy,
editorial look.
Step Two: To increase the contrast, create a

Curves adjustment layer by clicking on the Create
New Adjustment Layer icon (half-black, half-white
circle) located at the bottom of the Layers panel
and choosing Curves. In the Properties panel (Win
dow>Properties), click on the Preset drop-down
menu and select the built-in Increase Contrast (RGB)
preset. The effect will be way too strong out of the
gate. Dial it back by simply adjusting the layer Opacity
to 40% in the Layers panel.
Now you’ll have a pleasing increase in the overall
image contrast, and you’re ready to move on to the
next step. Keep in mind that any effect applied glob-
ally using an adjustment layer can also be applied
locally by simply painting in black on its layer mask to
hide the effect where needed.
Step Three: We’ll start our color grade by actually

removing some color from the image. This will help
lay the foundation for the cool, edgy, editorial look
desired for the final edit. To do this, we’ll use another
adjustment layer, so click the Create New Adjust-
ment Layer icon and choose Hue/Saturation. In the
Properties panel, make sure the Preset drop-down
menu is set to Default and the Color Selection
drop-down menu is set to Master. You can modify
individual colors if desired; however, for this image
we’ll work globally with Master selected. Enter a

value of –30 into the text field for Saturation and
press the Enter key to exit the text field (or you can
adjust the Saturation using the slider). Things are
beginning to take shape! [63 ]
› › HOW TO
Step Four: It’s time to color-grade the image. This is where

the real magic happens! Great color grading doesn’t need to
be complicated or onerous. You’ll see how, with just a few
simple adjustments, we’re able to take the image to another
level. With Photoshop, there are numerous ways to approach
the same task, and it’s no different with color grading. For
this image, we’ll use one of my favorite methods, Curves.
The great thing about working with Curves is that it
allows you to make individual adjustments to the red, green,
and blue channels using one or more Curves adjustment
layers. What makes Curves even more powerful is that you
can separately adjust and shift the color for each channel’s
highlights, midtones, and shadows by simply dragging the
corresponding points on the curve.
Begin by clicking the Create New Adjustment Layer icon
and choosing Curves. In the Properties panel, make sure
the Preset drop down-menu is set to Default, and click on
the drop-down menu below it to reveal the individual color
channels, with RGB at the top. If we leave the Curve set to
RGB, any changes made will affect the red, green, and blue
color channels in the same amounts and at the same time—
this isn’t what we want. For our color grade, we want to
work individually on the red, green, and blue color channels.
Select the Blue channel from the drop-down menu.
You’ll see the same curve and histogram sliders you had
when RGB was selected except that now any changes you
make will only affect the curve for the Blue channel. The
color of the curve and the histogram changes to reflect
the channel you’ve selected. I can’t overstate how power-
ful this separate color control is: It only takes a few subtle
moves to create something really special.
In the Properties panel, grab the curve control point
at the top right of the curve and drag it straight down until
a value of 200 is reflected in the Output value field. Be
careful to move the control point straight down, and not to
the left. Or you can just click on the point to make it active
and type the value in the Output box. The image’s color
will now shift to warmer greenish-yellow; don’t worry this
is only our first step!
Step Five: Next, we’ll adjust the Blue channel’s shadows.

Select the Curve control point at the bottom left and drag it
straight up until a value of 48 is reflected in the Output field.
(Again, make sure to move the control point straight up and
not to the right.) Now we’re getting closer! With color grad-
ing, it’s always a balancing act. With this adjustment, we’ve
shifted the image’s shadows back into cool territory, while
maintaining what we did with the highlights. We have an
edgy, cool-toned look and we’re almost done.
[64 ]
› › PHOTOSHOP COLOR GRADING
Step Six: The final step in our

color grade will take place on
the Red channel. Head back to
the color drop-down menu and
select Red. Here, a small move
on the shadow end of the curve
(Output value of 8) will give us
the warm red haze we need to
put the cherry on top of our
image color grade. Now we’re
talking! We have one super-
cool, edgy, editorial-style color
grade created simply, quickly,
and easily. Switch the Curves
color drop-down menu back to
RGB to see all of your changes
reflected on one curve.
Step Seven: Create a layer

group for your color-grading
layers—it’s easy! Layer groups
not only help you stay orga-
nized but they also allow you
to toggle on/off all of your color
adjustments at the same time.
You can adjust individual layers
as needed. Simply Shift-click to
select all the layers you want
to add to a group, Right-click
on any of the selected layers,
and choose Group from Layers.
Name your group, click OK, and
you’re done! You now have
a layer group folder in your lay-
ers stack containing all of your
color-grading adjustment layers.
Click the Eye icon to the left
of the group in the Layers
panel to turn the entire group

on or off; click the disclosure
triangle to collapse or expand
the folder group.
[65 ]
› › HOW TO
Step Eight: The next step is

a quick skin retouch via Beauty
Retouch Panel’s 16-bit Frequency
Separation tool. This plug-in does
the heavy lifting for you by setting
up all the layers needed for fre-
quency separation. Unlike tightly
framed close-ups and beauty
images, the level of retouching
doesn’t need to be as extreme
for this editorial-style 3/4-length
shot. Use the Healing Brush to
make adjustments to the tone
layer and the Clone Stamp tool
(S) to clean up the detail layer.
Here you can see the final skin
retouch. [For more on frequency
separation, check out “Retouch-
ing Magic” on page 82.—Ed.]
Step Nine: The lens used, pose,

and angle of the model’s body
in relationship to the camera
position made her appear thicker
than she actually was. Using the
Rectangular Selection tool (M),
drag a marquee selection around
her body from just below her
chin to the bottom of the image.
Make sure the image layer is
active in the Layers panel, and
duplicate the selection onto a
new layer by pressing Com-

mand-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Note: In my
workflow I like to flatten the
image as I go, to reduce file size
and expedite processing, but
again, if you need to preserve
the layers for future editing or
client approval, keep the layers
and save the file as a PSD.
[66 ]
› › PHOTOSHOP COLOR GRADING
Step 10: With this new layer

active, invoke Free Transform by
pressing Command T (PC: Ctrl-T).
Hold down the Option (PC: Alt)
key and move the middle con-
trol point on the right side of the
transform bounding box toward
the center of the selection. This
will contract both the left and
right sides of the selection, and
in the process create a thinner
appearance for the model’s
figure. Press Enter to commit
the transformation.
Step 11: Next, hold the Option

(PC: Alt) key, and click the Add
Layer Mask icon (circle in a
square) at the bottom of the
Layers panel to apply a black
mask to the layer. This will hide
the transformation. Select the
Brush tool (B), and press D to set
the Foreground color to white.
In the Options Bar, choose a
soft bristle brush from the Brush
Preset Picker and set the Opac-
ity to 100%. Start brushing in
the duplicated and reshaped
body layer. Make sure not to
reveal any of the areas where
the duplicate layer transitions
to the original layer below, and
that everything lines up and
looks natural. If you do reveal

too much, press X to switch the
Foreground color to black, and
paint those areas away.
[67 ]
› › HOW TO
Step 12: For darkening or “burning” down

bright areas in an image, my preferred method
is using a Levels adjustment layer and then paint-
ing on its layer mask. The same technique can be
used for brightening or “dodging” sections of
an image as needed. Apply a Levels adjustment
layer, and in the Properties panel, slide the left-
most triangle below the histogram to the right;
this will darken the image globally. I dragged the
midtones slider slightly to the left as well. Most Step 12
of the time, you’ll only want to darken small
trouble spots in an image, so click on the Level
adjustment layer’s mask thumbnail and press
Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to invert the mask to
black and conceal the changes you just made.
Next, choose a soft bristle brush set to 20%
Opacity and loaded with white paint. Make
sure the layer mask thumbnail for the Levels
adjustment layer in the Layers panel is high-
lighted, and brush in the correction where
needed. Use multiple brushstrokes to build up Step 13
the effect. For this image, I darkened the

model’s jeans, arms, and the lower portion
of her neck. When changing tone like this,
unwanted color shifts can occur. To avoid this,
set the layer blending mode (near the top left
of the Layers panel) to Luminosity.
Step 13: The Beauty Retouch Panel also

includes a really good one-button Sharpening
tool. With sharpening, you definitely want to
season to taste, with less-is-more serving as your
guideline. For tightly framed close-ups, you’ll
typically want to add a mask and apply sharp-
ening where needed in the correct amounts
by painting it in on the mask. For 3/4-length
images like this one, I often apply sharpening
globally and knock it back with a layer Opac-
ity setting somewhere between 25–50%. The
sharpening sweet spot for this image ended up

being 50%.
That’s the whole enchilada! In the final image

shown here, it’s easy to see the impact subtle
color grading can have on an image’s look
and feel. n
[68 ] Final image ALL IMAGES BY ESTELLE RUCHNIEWSKI NESTER

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NOTHING fancy. EVERYTHING useful.
The Quickest Ways to Do the

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The fully updated second edition of this best-seller is now available at RockyNook.com or your
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you need are…well…kinda hidden or not really obvious. That’s why this book was created: to get
you to the technique, the shortcut, or exactly the right setting, right now. Just one “thing” per page.
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LESASNIDER
> BEGINNERS’ WORKSHOP
COLORIZING A BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTO
We spend a lot of time talking about color-correcting images, though there will also be times when
you want to add color that wasn’t originally part of the photo. Happily, Photoshop gives you a couple
of easy ways to do that, and you won’t harm the original in the process. Read on!
Due to the expense of color film, full-color images didn’t photo, it also adds the hue and saturation values from the
become commonplace until the late ’60s. So chances are paint you’re about to add, letting the details of the image
good that you have some vintage black-and-white pho- show through. Make sure the paint layer is the topmost
tos lying around, just dying to be scanned. You can use layer in your layer stack.
Photoshop to give them a little color, which, by the way,
can be a nice side business if you get really good at it. Color-
izing a black-and-white photo seems straightforward—just
grab a brush and paint the image. Unfortunately, while that
method will indeed add color, it also covers up all the pho-
to’s details. Fortunately, you can use blend modes to add
color while keeping an image’s details intact. Here’s how:
Step One: Before you colorize a black-and-white image,

choose Image>Mode and make sure the document’s color
mode is set to RGB Color. If it’s in Grayscale mode, Photoshop
won’t let you add any color no matter how hard you try.
You can download a comp of the photo we’re
using here at Adobe Stock. To download the water-
marked JPEG preview of this image to your Libraries panel
(Window>Libraries), click on the link for the image below. Tip: The Color blend mode is also useful for colorizing a color
When the Adobe Stock web page opens, make sure you’re image. The difference is that it changes the image’s color
logged in to your Adobe account, then to the right of the and saturation but leaves its brightness alone.
image, you’ll see the option to Save Preview to My Library
(you can click on My Library to select a different library or Step Three: Press B to grab the Brush tool (circled), and
download option). Click on the cloud-with-an-arrow icon, from the Brush Preset Picker in the Options bar (also circled),
and the preview image will automatically be downloaded to pick a soft-edged brush. Make sure the Opacity and Flow
your Libraries panel in Photoshop. Double-click the image in settings in the Options bar are set to 100%.
the Libraries panel to open it in Photoshop.
• Pretty little girl (retro)

> PHOTOSHOP USER > AUG U S T 2018
Step Two: To avoid messing up your original image by

painting directly on it, let’s put the color on a new, empty
layer. Press Shift-Command-N (PC: Shift-Ctrl-N) and, in the
New Layer dialog, name the layer “pink paint,” set the
Mode drop-down menu to Color, and click OK. This blend
mode not only keeps the brightness of the gray tones in your
[70 ]
› › BEGINNERS’ WORKSHOP
Step Four: Pick a color for the dress by clicking the

Foreground color chip at the bottom of your Tool-
bar. In the Color Picker that opens, click within the
red range in the vertical color bar, and then click an
area at the upper left of the larger square at left to
produce a pastel pink. Click OK, and Photoshop loads
that color as the Foreground color chip.
Tip: The Color panel can actually serve as a color

picker that’s always open. If the panel isn’t already
visible in the upper right of your screen, choose
Window>Color and then, from the Color panel’s
flyout menu at its upper right, choose Hue Cube
(if it’s not set to that already). Poof! You have your- ©Adobe Stock/Mila Supynska
self a mini color picker that you can use to quickly

change your Foreground color chip without having
to click it first.
Step Five: Drag the brush across the part of the

image you want to colorize. It’s a good idea to zoom
into the image for this kind of detailed work. To
zoom in/out, press Command-+ or – (PC: Ctrl-+
or –) repeatedly. Use a large brush in the middle of
the dress and a small brush around the edges. To
adjust brush size, tap the Right Bracket key (] ) on
your keyboard to make it bigger or the Left Bracket
key ([ ) to make it smaller. Spacebar-drag to reposition
the image onscreen when necessary.
Step Six: To fix any mistakes, press E to grab the

Eraser tool (circled). In the Options Bar, set the Mode
menu to Brush (also circled) and pick a soft-edged
brush from Brush Preset Picker. Then, to fix your mis-
take, mouse over to your document and paint across
the areas that don’t need painting. The keyboard
shortcuts you learned in the previous step work with
the Eraser tool, too. When you’re finished, press B to
switch back to the Brush tool. (Alternatively, you can
add a layer mask to the paint layer and then hide your
mistakes using a brush set to paint with black.)
Here the Eraser tool is being used to remove the
paint from the strands of hair on her shoulder. To han-
dle the extremely fine strands, zoom way in, reduce

brush size, lower the Opacity setting in the Options Bar
to around 45%, and then paint across them.
[71 ]
› › HOW TO
Step Seven: Now let’s pretend you decide to

change the little girl’s dress to blue instead of pink.
To do that, load the paint layer as a selection by
Command-clicking (PC: Ctrl-clicking) its thumb-
nail in the Layers panel (circled). You should see
marching ants around the area you painted. Be
careful where you click: if you click the right side
of the layer, you won’t produce a selection.
Step Eight: Click the half-black/half-white circle

at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose
Hue/Saturation. Photoshop uses your selection to
create a layer mask for the Hue/Saturation adjust-
ment layer so any changes you make will only
affect the areas you had selected. In the Proper-
ties panel that opens, turn on Colorize and then
experiment with the sliders to produce the color
you want (here the Hue slider was dragged to
the blue range).
Step Nine: When everything looks good, save the

document as a PSD file to preserve your layers. To
colorize other areas in a different color, repeat the
above steps to create another paint layer. Here’s
the final version with the Layers panel.
ALTERNATIVE METHOD
Another way to colorize an image is to use one of
Photoshop’s selection tools to select the area you
want to paint first. Then, click the half-black/half-
white circle at the bottom of the Layers panel to
add a Solid Color fill layer, and change its blend
mode to Color (or Hue).
The benefit of this method is that you can easily
experiment with paint color—simply double-click
the fill layer’s thumbnail to reopen the Color Picker.
To adjust the area in which the paint is visible, click
the fill layer’s mask in the Layers panel and use the
Brush tool set to paint with black (to conceal the
paint) or white (to reveal the paint).
The downside to this method is that selecting
> PHOTOSHOP USER > AUG U S T 2018
the area you want to paint can be quite challenging,

especially if you’re a beginner. As an alternative, you
could skip making a selection first. Just add a Solid
Step Nine
Color fill layer set to the Color blend mode, activate
the layer mask, and press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) Which method should you use? If you’re proficient with Photoshop’s
to invert it to black, which completely hides the fill selection tools and layer masking, go with the Solid Color fill layer method.
layer. With the layer mask still active in the Layers Otherwise, stick with the hand-painting method. It’s time-consuming,
panel, use a Brush set to paint with white to reveal but also meditative and enjoyable—especially if you own a Wacom pen
[72 ] the color in certain areas of the photo. tablet! Until next time, may the creative force be with you all. n
11 Years and Counting
On the first Saturday of October each year, photographers and enthusiasts around the world get out their c
ameras and
meet up at a designated location in their town to walk around and take photographs, socialize, make new friends, win prizes,
and be a part of a great cause during Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk®. Last year marked our ten-year anniversary and
was our largest walk yet – and we are ready to top it! N
o matter what continent you’re on, where you are in your photogra-
amera or phone you use, you can take part in this year’s event! Join us October 6, 2018!
phy journey, or what type of c
Wear, Share & Walk for a Cause

The Worldwide Photowalk® proudly supports The Springs Of Hope Kenya
Orphanage, an organization that feeds, houses, educates, and empowers young
orphans so that they can grow up to not just survive but succeed. We’re asking
each person who participates to donate to help make a difference in these children’s
lives. In addition to this, we sell an official Worldwide Photowalk® T-shirt and we are
able to give 100% of the profits from the t-shirt sales to Springs of Hope Kenya.
Win Awesome Prizes

This year we’ll have a Grand Prize winner and 10 Finalists. Here are just a few of
the prizes you could win: Canon Camera, 1-Year Adobe Creative Cloud: All Apps, B&H Gift
Certificates, 1-Year Membership to KelbyOne, Think Tank Bag, Apple TV, and much more.
Walker Registration Opens August 6, 2018 | worldwidephotowalk.com

PETERTREADWAY
> Dynamic Range
LONG EXPOSURE BLACK-AND-WHITE

When first starting out in black-and-white photography, it’s easy to think that you just need to
desaturate a color image in Photoshop to get a great result. While that’s one option, there’s a lot
more that should be done to really get the most out of your images. In fact, black-and-white photog-
raphy almost always benefits from a heavier editing style, due to the fact that, once converted to
monochrome, images already look “otherworldly” because of their lack of color. For instance, adding
a large amount of contrast to a color image can often make it look too saturated; but with black-and-
white images effectively being just various shades of gray, they can sometimes look a little flat or
dull without additional postprocessing.
ALL IMAGES BY PETER TREADWAY

> PHOTOSHOP USER > A UG U ST 2018
Monochrome conversion can be applied to pretty much If you add black-and-white postprocessing to images
any type of image. The type that really sticks out for taken with neutral-density filters for long exposures, your
me, though, is architecture. The way we can use various shots have an even more ethereal feel. The image we’re using
editing techniques to sculpt and manipulate the light here was taken using a 10-stop neutral-density (ND) filter
that hits a building’s many angles and facets to create an with an exposure time of 141 seconds at f/22 and ISO 100.
almost 3D effect has always fascinated me, which is why It’s important to mention that the following process
I always find myself drawn to man-made structures when can take hours to complete because of the many selections
out shooting. you’ll need to make. Less busy images or those with fewer
[74 ]
› › D Y NAM IC R A N G E
buildings will be faster. That said, once you see the final result
from using this technique on an image, I think you’ll find it
incredibly rewarding.
You’ll end up with multiple adjustments and many dupli-
cated layers, both of which can greatly increase your file size.
Having previously saved similar images as PSD or PSB files, I’ve
found that for file sizes more than 2 GB, the TIFF format works
best. Be sure to save your image often throughout the process!
[KelbyOne members may download the file used in this
tutorial by clicking this link or at http://kelbyone.com/maga-
zine. All files are for personal use only.]
Step One: First, we’ll need to set the correct white balance, so
open the RAW image in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), and change
the white balance settings to suit your personal taste, depending
on the image. For this image, the As Shot values with a Tem-
perature of 5300 and a Tint of –10 work quite well as they are.
Step One (Top), Step Two (Above)
It may seem odd to change the overall color of the image
when we’ll just be converting it to black and white anyway, but
different tones and hues in your color image can have a huge
effect on your monochrome conversion. (We’ll go into this in
greater detail later.)
Step Two: Next, we want to ensure that we have a well-exposed

image by changing our global settings to the following: Exposure
–0.20, Contrast +13, Highlights –100, and Shadows +22. Just
like white balance, these settings have an effect on the result of a
black-and-white conversion. There are no right or wrong settings
though so, while the above numbers are provided as a base,
play with the sliders until you’re happy with the image.
Step Three: Next, we need to change our Whites and Blacks

sliders to guarantee that the brightest and darkest parts of the
image aren’t clipped (either too bright or too dark that they
lose detail). To make it easier to define how much you should
change either setting, simply hold down the Option (PC: Alt)
key and drag the sliders. When dragging the Whites slider, the
image will turn mostly black; when dragging the Blacks slider,
the image will turn mostly white. For the most correctly exposed
images, you’ll want to slide the Whites toward the positive end
and Blacks toward the negative end until you see some part of
the image burn through, and then stop.
You should now have the full spectrum of white and black
in your image without any loss of detail. For this image, the set-
tings should be somewhere around the following: Whites +40
and Blacks –40.
[75 ]
› › HOW TO
Step Four: Hold down the Shift key to change

the Open Image button to Open Object in ACR.
Now when you click this button, the image
will open in Photoshop as a smart object. This
allows you to come back to ACR at any time by
double-clicking this layer’s thumbnail in the Lay-
ers panel. From there, you can change any of the
above settings, should you wish. You’ll note that
your layer now has a symbol in the lower-right
corner of the layer thumbnail, indicating that it’s
a smart object.
Step Five: This next step is purely personal

preference, but if you’re like me, you’ll want to
rid the image of any distracting elements, such
as cranes and things floating in the water. You
can do this using the Clone Stamp tool (S) and
the Spot Healing Brush tool (J).
To do this nondestructively, press Command-
J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate your layer and work
on the duplicate layer. To use the Clone stamp
tool, press-and-hold Option (PC: Alt) and your
cursor will change to a small crosshair. Position
the crosshair in an area of your image near the
element you wish to remove, and then click to
sample that area. Make sure that your sample
area has a similar background to the unwanted
element, or otherwise matches the area you’ll
be cloning over.
For the red crane in this image, zoom in,

sample along the top edge of the building,
and then use the preview inside the cursor as
a guide to clone out where the crane meets
the building. When you first click to paint away
the crane, Photoshop tells you that you need
to rasterize the smart object layer. Just click OK.
Keep brushing and resampling as necessary
[76 ] until the distraction is gone.
Step Six: To use the Spot Healing Brush tool, you don’t guide along the water’s edge where it meets the docks, and
need to specify a sample area. You simply brush over the ele- a horizontal guide along the right edge of the tallest building
ment you want to remove, and it uses content-aware fill to in the image. ACR will automatically straighten the horizon.
guess the best place from which to sample. This obviously Click OK to return to Photoshop.
gives you slightly less control than the Clone Stamp tool, but
it works well for elements in your image that don’t have busy Step Seven: In the Adjustments panel (Window>Adjust
or complicated backgrounds. Once you’ve removed all of the ments), click on the Black & White adjustment layer icon
distracting elements, your image should now look much less (half-black, half-white square in the second row), and your
cluttered, ready for you to convert to black and white. image will immediately convert to a default monochrome
setting. You’ll also notice that the Properties panel appears.
Click on the Preset drop-down menu and you’ll find a
number of color options.
Remember that in Step One I mentioned that different
colors and tones could affect your converted image? Click
through the presets, and you’ll see just how much they do,
as each preset highlights one color over another. I settled on
the Red Filter.
Hearkening again back to the start of the article, at this
stage you could just say you’re done, save your image, and
walk away; however, that wouldn’t make for a very good
article and, more importantly, wouldn’t give you a particu-
larly memorable image. So, here comes the good stuff!
Blue Filter
The horizon could use a little straightening before we

convert it, though, so go to Filter>Camera Raw Filter. Press
Shift-T to select the Transform tool. Select the Guided icon Red Filter
near the top right of the Transform panel. Draw a horizontal [77 ]
› › HOW TO
Step Eight: If you’ve your image, encompassing the water. When you get back
been afraid of using around to where you started, click again on the first node
the Pen tool, now’s the to complete the path.
time to face your fear. To really get the most out of your Pen Tool Tip: As you move along creating more path
image, you’ll need to mark out all of the individual ele- nodes with the Pen tool, you’ll find that parts of the image
ments to edit them separately. With an image like this, require a curved rather than straight path. Click-and-hold
the most accurate way of doing that is with the Pen tool, past the curved section, and drag the node outward. Two
which you can find in the Toolbar by pressing the P key. handles will appear from the node, and by moving the one
Once you’ve selected the Pen tool, make sure that the that you’re holding, you’re able to affect the shape of the
drop-down menu at the left of the Options Bar at the top bend. The more you pull the arm up or down, the more
is set to Path. the line will bend.
It’s always best to start with the largest part of the Once you’ve bent the path suitably to line up with the
image first, so with this shot, we could choose either the curve in the image, you’ll need to clip one of the two arms
sky or the water. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll start with coming out of the node; otherwise, you’ll find the Pen tool
the water. trying to guess where you want the path to go with your
It usually makes sense to start your path at the edge of next click—it never gets it right. So, just hold down the
the image, so click the cursor once on the left-hand side of Option (PC: Alt) key and click the central node to which the
the image where the water meets the quayside and a small arms are attached, and one of the handles will disappear.
blue square, or path node, will appear. Now you can continue creating straight lines until you need
Keep clicking along the bottom of the quay, making another curved one.
sure to stick to the line between the water and the land
as closely as possible. You may have to zoom in to around
200% at times to do this with precision.
Step Nine: Once you’ve clicked the whole way across the
image, it’s time to select the rest of the water. To save
time, however, you don’t need to click precisely around the
edge of the image. Zoom out, and drag out the bottom-
right corner of the image window so you can see the canvas Step 10: Press Command-Return (PC: Ctrl-Return) and the
around your image. Click crudely around the outside of path will turn into a marching ants’ selection.
Step Nine
[78 ]
Step 10
Step 11: Finally, with your selection still active, go to Select> Step 13: Repeat Steps 8–12 for every individual element
Modify>Feather, set the Feather Radius to 2 pixels, and click in the image; that means the sky and every building. This is
OK. This will reduce the likelihood of there being any harsh where the majority of your time will be spent (as I mentioned
edges to your adjustments when you add them later. You’ll at the beginning of this article). It may take upwards of an
also notice that the selection snaps to the edges of the image. hour, but it’s an essential part of the process. You can see
my list of selections below left. Once you’ve made and saved
all of your selections, you’ll generally only use three things:
Curves, Levels, and the Gradient tool.
Step 14: Reselect one of your saved selections by going

to Select>Load Selection, choosing one of the areas you
Step 12: It’s likely that you’ll be making multiple adjust- previously saved in the Channel drop-down menu, and
ments with this same selection, so you’ll want to save it clicking OK (I’ve selected the tall building with the tri-
by going to Select>Save Selection and then naming it to angular roof). Select the Create a New Curves Adjust-
make it easy to identify later. As this is the River Thames, ment Layer (the icon with the curve in the top row of
I named it “Thames,” and clicked OK. the Adjustments panel). In the Layers panel, you’ll see that
Photoshop has generated a mask for the Curves adjust-
ment layer using your selection. In the Properties panel,
create a slight S curve to add a little contrast, as shown
Step 12
here. To change the settings of this layer at any time, sim-

ply double-click the Curves layer thumbnail in the Layers
panel to reopen the Properties panel. [79 ]
Step 13
› › HOW TO
Step 15: Reselect the same area as before, either by

going back to Select>Load Selection or by press-
ing Shift-Command-D (PC: Shift-Ctrl-D). Now,
create a Levels adjustment from the Adjustments
panel (second icon in the first row). In the Proper-
ties panel, you’ll see a histogram with some slider
handles underneath it and another slider below.
Levels is another way of changing the white and
black points (as well as midtones) in your image,
allowing you to stretch brightness, contrast, and
tonal range values. Presuming the white and black
points were correctly set in ACR at the beginning,
we can largely leave the Input sliders (the ones
under the histogram) alone, and concentrate on the
Output Levels sliders at the bottom. Move the white
end of the slider to around 225. This will have the
effect of reducing the stark brightness of the previ-
ous Curves adjustment, while retaining some of the
contrast in the tall building.
Step 16: The last of the three adjustments that

you’ll be making to each of your selections is a gra-
dient. This is what really brings the image together,
giving it an almost 3D effect. Press Command-Shift-
N (PC: Ctrl-Shift-N) to create a new blank layer, and
then select the Gradient tool (G) from the Toolbar.
Press D to set your Foreground color to black.
In the Options Bar at the top, click on the gradi-
ent preview to open the Gradient Editor, select the
Foreground to Transparent preset, and click OK.
With these settings, we’re now able to add direc-
tional shadows to each building, as though mimick-
ing light falloff.
Step 17: Making sure you still have your new blank
layer highlighted in the Layers panel and your chosen
building selected from your list of saved selections,
click a point somewhere southwest of your building
and drag a line up at a 45° angle across the building.
Adding this effect can take a few goes, as you
work out which direction you want your gradient

to go and how much of the building you want it to
cover. As such, judicious use of the Undo command
(Command-Z [PC: Ctrl-Z]) is advised.
Once you’ve nailed it, though, your building
should look something like this. Now you just need
to repeat this process of adding Curves, Levels, and
a Gradient for every element in your image. It may
[80 ] take some time, but it’s as simple as that!
Step 18: The final step of the edit is the thing that’s
so often seen in fine-art images, and I think it really
finishes the shot. Of course, I’m talking about a stark,
black sky. Achieving this is no different than adding the
same Curves and Levels adjustments as you’ve been
using on the buildings, just with more extreme editing.
With your sky selected, create a Curves adjustment
layer and make a deep downward curve, which will
drag a lot of the highlights out of the image.
Then, reselect your sky using Command-Shift-D
(PC: Ctrl-Shift-D) and add a Levels adjustment layer.
Similar to before, we’ll drag the whites on the lower
(Output Levels) slider to 225, but this time we’ll also
drag the blacks on the Input slider to around 50 and
the midtones to 0.70. This will drag the last of the
highlights out of the sky, but leave the brightest high-
lights in interesting elements, such as the clouds,
showing through.
As one last touch, I created a new layer and added
a gradient using the same settings that we used on the
buildings at the bottom of the river.
And there you have it! This is an undoubtedly labor-

intensive edit, but one that will leave your friends and
peers awe-inspired. n
[81 ]
Final image
KRISTINASHERK
> Retouching Magic
FREQUENCY SEPARATION FOR

CLOTHING WRINKLES
Frequency separation—we’ve all heard the term and immediately associate it with skin retouching.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing; as long as you know that this technique has much wider applica-
tions than just making skin look pretty. Over the past decade, this technique has been working its
way into all sorts of other areas of retouching: you can use it to clear off surfaces, fix flyaway hairs,
completely overhaul textures of products, and also eradicate wrinkles from clothing (one of the most
frustrating things to retouch in Photoshop)!
The simple idea of separating the color/lightness/darkness like the cross section of the earth’s crust or the layers of a
values of an image from the texture has revolutionized cake—it would be nice if we could change the cake filling
the way many retouchers work. Let’s dive in and see why without touching the icing that surrounds it on the outside—
this technique, even after so many years, continues to be same concept. By dividing the color data in my image from
a staple of retouchers around the globe, no matter what the texture through frequency separation, I can remove the
type of retouching they’re doing. red tonality of the model’s skin without even touching the
Here, you’ll learn how to go from frumpy to well-ironed detail, because I’m working underneath the detail layer on
in a few quick minutes by using frequency separation to the color layer.
eradicate wrinkles in clothes! In frequency separation, the color/lightness/darkness
First, let’s talk about what it does. All images have layer is considered the low frequency and the detail in the
color/brightness/darkness data and detail data. When we image is considered the high frequency.
divide the two, we can more easily modify certain things
without affecting areas that we may want to protect. For A DEMONSTRATION
example, if you have a model with rosacea, but perfectly Let’s move on to a visual demonstration. Below I have two
fine skin without blemishes, you’d ideally like to modify images: one is an image of white fabric with a small, pinhole-
the color of her skin without touching any of her pore like texture, and in the second image, I have grass. The
structure/detail, because, well, there’s nothing wrong grass is green and has the texture of, well, grass.
with it, so why change it. I’m going to run my frequency separation action on both
What if there was a way to slice the image into differ- images (don’t worry, I’ll take you through how to do this step
ent layers, which took care of different things? Think of it by step later on in this article). Through using the frequency
©Adobe Stock/Kwangmoo
©Adobe Stock/blackzheep
[82 ]
› › RETOUCHING MAGIC
separation technique, I was able to switch the texture and

color between my images. Now, we have grass that looks
white (texture from the grass image paired with color data
from the fabric image) and fabric that has a green army-like
coloration to it (texture from the fabric image paired with
color data from the grass image).
Fabric image layer snapshot
Hopefully, the demonstration above shows you how

you can isolate the high and low frequencies in an image
and modify them independently—and even completely
replace the texture of an image using this technique.
A WELL-IRONED TECHNIQUE
Here’s the image where we need to clean up the wrinkles on
the model’s shirt. You can download a comp of this photo at
©Adobe Stock/Africa Studio
And here’s what the layers look like in both images.
Adobe Stock. To download the watermarked JPEG preview

of this image to your Libraries panel (Window>Libraries),

click on the link for the image below. When the Adobe
Stock web page opens, make sure you’re logged in to your
Adobe account, then to the right of the image, you’ll see
the option to Save Preview to My Library (you can click on
Grass image layer snapshot [83 ]
› › HOW TO
My Library to select a different library or download option). the Adobe Stock preview file, try a Radius of around 2.)
Click on the cloud-with-an-arrow icon, and the preview A good thing to remember is that everything you’re cur-
image will automatically be downloaded to your Libraries rently removing from the blur layer will be what you fix
panel in Photoshop. Double-click the image in the Librar- on the texture layer. Once you’ve chosen your blur Radius,
ies panel to open it in Photoshop. click OK.
• Portrait of stylish male

Step Three: Moving on, turn the visibility of the High
Texture layer back on, click on that layer to select it, and
Step One: Let’s start by duplicating the Background layer
then under the Image menu up top, choose Apply Image.
twice (press Command-J [PC: Ctrl-J] twice), and then put-
For Layer, choose your Low Tone layer, Channel should be
ting those two layers in their own layer group (select both
set to RGB, Blending should be set to Subtract, Opacity
duplicate layers and press Command-G [PC: Ctrl-G]). Then,
should be set to 100%, Scale should read 2, and Offset
double-click on the name of the layer group and rename it
should read 128.
“Frequency Separation.”
Rename the bottom layer in the Frequency Separation
layer group “Low Tone” and rename the top layer “High
Texture.” Lastly, turn off the visibility of the High Texture
layer (click on the Eye icon to the left of its thumbnail in
the Layers panel).
Step Four: Now, we can click OK to bring us back to the

main Photoshop window. Make sure your High Texture
layer is still selected and, near the top left of the Layers
panel, change the blend mode of that layer from Normal
to Linear Light.
Step Two: Next, click on the Low Tone layer, and then
from Photoshop’s Filter menu up top, under Blur, choose
Gaussian Blur. While in the Gaussian Blur dialog, your
objective is to blur the image just enough to remove the
texture—no need to go overboard with your blur Radius.
For this image, I used a Radius of 9. (Note: If you’re using
[84 ]
› › RETOUCHING MAGIC
Step Five: The way to know if this was done correctly is can use multiple strokes to build up the color. Option-click
by turning the visibility of the Frequency Separation group (PC: Alt-click) as needed to sample different areas.
on and off and you should see exactly the same image Here’s a screen grab of the cloning work that I’ve done
(no change). when I turn off all layers other than the Fix Color Here layer.
Step Six: Moving on, I make a few more layers to remind

myself what to do next. So, select the Low Tone layer, and
press Command-Shift-N (PC: Ctrl-Shift-N) to create a new
layer right above it. In the New Layer dialog, let’s name this
layer “Fix Color Here,” and click OK.
Lastly, we’ll select our High Texture layer and press Com-
mand-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate the layer. Rename the sec-
ond texture layer “Fix Texture Heal Here,” change the blend
mode from Linear Light back to Normal, and then, with the
Fix Texture Heal Here layer selected, choose Create Clipping
Mask from the Layer menu, which will clip the duplicated
texture layer to the layer beneath it.
And, here is the before and after of the work I’ve done
thus far. Remember, I’ve only addressed the color; I haven’t
fixed the texture yet.
Step Seven: Now it’s time to get to work! I like to turn

off the High Texture layer while working on evening out
the highlights and shadows of the wrinkles. But, it’s your
choice if you’d like to do that or not. Let’s use the Clone
Stamp tool (S) on our Fix Color Here layer to clone over the
wrinkles. Make sure this tool is set to Sample: Current &
Below up in the Options Bar, since the layer we’re currently
working on is blank. I’m using a Clone Stamp Opacity of
20%. You can also use the Healing Brush tool, too, for
smaller wrinkles.
With the Clone Stamp tool, Option-click (PC: Alt-click)

a wrinkle-free area of the shirt near a wrinkle to sample
that area, and then paint over the wrinkle to clone the
sample area over it. Since we’re using a low Opacity, you
[85 ]
› › HOW TO
Step Eight: Now, let’s address the texture problems.

We’ll use the Healing Brush tool (press Shift-J until it’s
active in the Toolbar) on the Fix Texture Heal Here layer
to remove the wrinkles. Important note: This tool must
be set to Sample: Current Layer up in the Options Bar to
work correctly. If it’s set to Current & Below, you’ll see a
weird effect like the example shown here when you try to
heal away a wrinkle.
As with the Clone Stamp tool, Option-click (PC: Alt-click)
to sample a clean area, and then paint over the area you
want to heal.
Now that we’ve finished fixing both the color and
the tone independently of one another, we can see how
beneficial this technique really is! It’s also important to
leave a few wrinkles here and there to make sure your
work still looks realistic. Below is the final shirt after the
wrinkle removal.
I hope you can start to see why frequency separation, no

matter what type of photographer you are—landscape, por-
trait, product, or food—should be a technique you know
well and use on a regular basis. It has the potential to help
you in so many ways and on so many projects. The trick is
just taking the time to really learn what it can do! n
[86 ] Final image

SCOTTVALENTINE
> Photoshop Proving Ground
CREATING BRUSHES FOR HAIR, PART 2

Last issue, we saw how to create a very simple brush and use supporting tools, especially with
blending modes, to get expressive control over the final look of a painting. Creating the brush, however,
was not the point of the exercise; neither was painting hair, though it’s a useful skill. The real purpose
was to put the tools to use in a way that lets you focus on the experience and outcome rather than
the tool itself. Do you remember my hidden agenda? Never let your tools get in the way of your art!
Thinking about the results of using

just a single brush, I now feel that I
can make some decisions about both
the workflow and the brush behav-
iors. For example, painting the fills
was tedious, and I didn’t really like
the way every stroke tapered because
I had both opacity and size set to vary
with brush pressure using my Wacom
Intuos Pro tablet. I’d also like some
intermediate-sized details for more
differentiation in the hair, and per-
haps some random variations.
Let’s think about the brush shapes
we may want by breaking down the
task of painting into smaller parts. For
painting hair, we’ll lay down a base
color, then work in the intermedi-
ate structure to set some of the key
features, and finally add detail on
top. To create a base for our hair, a
broad brush with a little speckling for
Comparison of different brushes
variation would be nice, and it should
be a reasonable size to work quickly
Sorrow by Alexxa Grace/Model: Olivia Preston
without looking too blocky. Interme-

diate features need to show direction
and allow a moderate buildup, so
> P H O T O S H O P U S E R > A U G U S T 2 018
maybe something a little blotchy that

gives different effects as the brush is
rotated. And the detail brush needs
to show multiple strands to give some
depth and still have a little mess here
and there. (The painted hair in the
example on the far right is based on
Alexxa Grace’s Sorrow image to the
left of it.)
[88 ]
› › PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND
USING IMAGES TO CREATE BRUSHES

Deviant Art/hatestock
Last time, we created a brush using a marquee

fill and the Eraser, but it lacked any real personal-
ity or flare. Creating new brushes from photos is
easy and can be a little addicting, but it also gives
an element of the unexpected as you tinker. For
hair, let’s use a couple of wispy smoke pictures
to create a new set of brushes.
Step One: Load up two or more smoke images,

each on their own layer. Change the blending
modes of everything above the Background
layer. Since these are plain black backgrounds
with white smoke, Multiply, Overlay, and Hard
Light are good starting points to get some inter-
esting combinations. I’m keeping things simple
with two layers, and the top is set to Multiply.
After a little rotation and transforming using Free
Transform (Command-T [PC: Ctrl-T]), I found a
section that gives me a more or less solid center
with some ragged edges.
Deviant Art/hatestock
Step Two: Remember that when you create a

Example smoke images
brush, black is the stamp, and white is transpar-
ent, so put an Invert adjustment layer (Layer>
New Adjustment Layer>Invert) on top of the
photo layers.
This may take some trial and error, but you’re

generally looking for some sparse, random marks
with varying degrees of brightness. If you see a
pattern you like, but it needs some tweaking, add
a Levels adjustment layer above everything and
tune it up. You don’t have to (and should not!)
use the entire layer for your brush—just take what
you need for the moment. Here’s how:
Step Three: Once you get the right contrast

and pattern, create a blank layer above every-
thing, and press Command-Option-Shift-E (PC:
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E) to stamp a merged copy.
Entire layer after blending and transforming [89 ]
› › COLUMN
Step Four: Finally, grab the Lasso

tool (L) and select a region of inter-
est. Generally, you want the biggest
brush you’ll ever need, but that’s not
always reasonable or useful. For this
article, I’m capturing regions around
400–600 pixels across. Make a com-
plete loop around your selection,
then create the brush as we did in
the last article: Edit>Define Brush
Preset. Give your brush a meaningful
name and click OK.
Selected region with marching ants
Step Five: The settings will be a little

different this time, though. Open the
Brush Settings panel (Window>Brush
Settings), and under Shape Dynam-
ics, turn off the Size Jitter Control.
We only want the opacity to change
with pressure this time. Ensure Rota-
tion and Transfer are set up correctly
for use with your pen. In the Brush
Tip Shape section, set the Spacing as
low as possible, and set an appropri-
ate Size for the project—here, I’m
using about 500 px.
Step Six: Once you’re good with

the Brush Settings, ensure the Blend-
ing Mode in the Options Bar is set to
Normal, and save your new brush by
selecting New Brush Preset from the
Brush Setting panel’s flyout menu.
Here are some example strokes made
with the same brush, but rotated a
little between each.
[90 ] Rotation samples
Step Seven: Using the same smoke

images and a little more tinkering,
I created a handful of brushes for each
basic stage of painting. Now, I’d love
to tell you that I know exactly what
I’m looking for and every selection
is intentional, but that’s just not
true. Mostly, I just create a bunch
and try them out, then toss the ones
I don’t like.
PAINTING WORKFLOW
Now we have a pack of brushes to
work with, let’s think about work-
flow. While we’re creating, we want
to focus on the creative act; things
like drop-down menus and choosing
colors get in the way. There are sev-
eral ways to make it easier to get to
options and settings, including writ-
ing actions and using the Button
Mode in the Actions panel to get to
them directly. If you need to learn
about or get a refresher on creating
actions, check out RC Concepcion’s
video lessons here.
With Button Mode activated, you
can quickly set things like tool blend-
ing modes without having to remem-
ber shortcuts or run through menus.
If you’re using a newer Wacom tab-
let for painting (which I highly recom-
mend), you can create small, custom
panels called On-Screen Controls
that hold basic keystrokes and other
commands. While you can trigger Progression of work in Sorrow by Alexxa Grace
actions with these Wacom panels, be
aware that if you load new actions in Photoshop with the can erase with whatever brush
same assigned shortcut, you’ll trigger that new action. For is currently loaded, giving a
this reason, I prefer loading up the On-Screen Controls with more natural look to the strokes
default Photoshop keyboard shortcuts whenever possible. you’ve already painted.
In the panel shown here, I’ve loaded the stuff I use con- Behind is useful for filling
stantly when painting: open the Brushes panel, Clear the in areas that you might have
current Layer, and my top six painting Brush tool blending missed without creating a new
modes. Notice Clear and Behind? Clear lets me use the layer beneath the current one.
current brush as if it were an eraser. If you switch to the This button’s really helpful when
Eraser tool, you’ll get whatever you last used, which may you’re painting photorealistically
not be the same as your current brush. Using Clear, you on a composite.
Wacom On-Screen Control [91 ]
› › COLUMN
We talked last time about Multiply

and Screen, and I added Overlay to my
panel. I use Overlay mostly with unsat-
urated gray tones for dodging and
burning without shifting the hue.
For even more real-time expres-
sion, I’ve started using a Palette Gear
Expert Kit, which I’ll cover in detail in
an upcoming review. In short, this is a
configurable hardware platform that
lets you control most of Photoshop’s
features with knobs, buttons, and
sliders. For painting, I have a custom
profile with Opacity and Flow set to
sliders, with Brush Size, Foreground
Saturation, and Foreground Bright-
ness set to dials.
When using this kit, I have the key-
board completely off to one side, my
Wacom Intuos Pro in front of me, and

the Palette Gear under my left hand.
As I’m painting, I don’t even need to
look away from the canvas while I dial
in my brush character with the hard-
ware controls. This represents nearly
the ultimate experience for expres-
sion and control without breaking my
painting mojo.
[92 ] Palette App profile
Final Sorrow hair painting
So my current workflow involves creating purpose-built In the third and final part of this series, we’ll look at
brushes from stock images and setting up my work environ- more brush controls and how to use them to solve various
ment to minimize interface distraction. I want to emphasize kinds of problems. Don’t forget the goal of this series is
that this is an evolving process! I didn’t sit down to paint the to work through a project and deliberately make choices
first time and know that I wanted something different than about setting up and using your tools. Pay attention to
the default. I had to just dive in and think about what would what you enjoy and what bothers you, and mix it up! n
make the work faster or easier.
ALL ILLUSTRATIONS BY SCOTT VALENTINE EXCEPT WHERE NOTED
[93 ]
DAVECLAYTON
> Designing in Photoshop
PHOTOSHOP VARIABLES
Over the past few tutorials, we’ve been looking at ways to help your design workflow using smart
objects, artboards, and templates. In this tutorial, we’re going to take things a step further with
a powerful tool in Photoshop that’s actually been there for a while. Many designers are tasked
with repetitive work, whether it’s retouching, resizing, recoloring, or many other tasks that involve
processing more than one image.
When we find ourselves having to create multiple versions These are the elements affected by the variables. In the
of the same project—be it web banners, social graphics, Photo column, enter the exact filenames of the images you
ads, etc.—as usual, there are always more ways to do the want to use (in this example, the Adobe Stock filenames).
same thing in Photoshop. But when you find a great process This is important, as the variable process will search for the
that makes these repetitive tasks less painful, it can shave lots image by name in the folder where it’s stored. You can have
of time off your workflow, leaving more time to play! as many variables in the spreadsheet as you need.
As with most good processes, you often need to put time
in at the beginning to get the most out of it later, much like Step Two: Once your spreadsheet is ready, and everything
setting up actions for repetitive tasks, and this is that type is labeled correctly, it’s time to save it. Save it as Tab Delim-
of technique. We’re talking Photoshop Variables (some- ited Text in the same folder as your images so it’s easier to
times known as data-driven graphics). What are they? Well, locate. Once it’s saved, you can open the file in a text editor
it involves using data from a text file to control the content to see what it looks like.
of layers in a Photoshop document.
This tutorial example is going to create trading cards—
just for fun. We’ll need to add the squad number, the name,
the player field position, and the photo for each card. While
working through this tutorial, think of other ways you could
possibly use something like this, and then work out which
variables would need changing. Let’s get cracking!
Step One: We’ll begin with our data set: our variables. For
this, I’m using a good ol’ spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel (you
can use any spreadsheet app you like). In the spreadsheet,
we have a series of columns that will correspond to the
layers in our Photoshop file:
A. Photo
B. Player Name
C. Number
D. Position
[94 ]
› › DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP
Step Three: Next, we need a template PSD file. For this, Everything is now set up correctly for this project. As
we’ll use a template I created that KelbyOne Pro members with most exercises, preparation is always important and
can download, but you’ll need to use your own images. You makes life much easier when trying to source or change
can also use your own fonts. elements later.
[KelbyOne members may download the template used in
this tutorial by clicking this link or at http://kelbyone.com Step Four: Next, we need to set up Photoshop to run the
/magazine. All files are for personal use only.] variables process, so go up to Image>Variables>Define.
Open the template file, and you’ll see the following
layers: NUMBER, POSITION, NAME, CARD TEMPLATE, and
PHOTO. It’s important that the layers are named similarly
to the columns in your spreadsheet so they’re easy to iden-
tify in the following steps. The artwork we’re using for the
card is a smart object (if you double-click the smart object
thumbnail in the Layers panel, you can take a look at all
the layers that make up the artwork).
Step Five: When the Variables dialog opens, click on the

Layers drop-down menu near the top, and you’ll see all the
layers in your PSD document, including the CARD TEMPLATE
layer (which we won’t be using in the Variables dialog).
Tip: Here’s a tip that will make life easier for this process.
Once you’ve selected your images, open them in Photoshop,
make them the same size and orientation as your destina-
tion artwork, and then save copies of them (don’t overwrite
the original images). This allows the variable process to make
them fit correctly in your document. You could also run
File>Scripts>Image Processor to resize all your images.
Step Six: Select PHOTO from the drop-down list. Next, we

need to assign a Pixel Replacement, so check that box, and

in the Name field, type “PHOTO.” Remember to type in the
exact name and case of the column from your tab delimited
text file.
[95 ]
› › HOW TO
As mentioned in the Tip above, we already resized our Step Eight: Now you’ll see that all the Layer variables
images, so we can choose Fit in the Method drop-down have an asterisk next to their names (except for the CARD
menu. There’s also an Alignment grid to decide where to TEMPLATE LAYER) to show that a variable has been set.
place the images, but we’ll stick with center for this project.
Before we click OK, we need to define the other variables.
Step Nine: Now click on Define at the top left of the dia-
log, choose Data Sets in the drop-down menu, and you’ll
see a new set of instructions that you can apply. (Note: If
you happened to click OK after Step Eight, you can also
access Data Sets by going to Image>Variables>Data Sets.)
We now need to tell Photoshop what the variable details
Step Seven: Choose NUMBER in the Layer drop-down are from the spreadsheet data we created, so click Import
menu, check the Text Replacement box, and type “NUM- on the right-hand side of the dialog. In the Import Data
BER” in the Name field. Next, select POSITION in the Layer Set dialog that appears, click Select File, navigate to where
drop-down menu, check the Text Replacement box, and you saved your tab delimited file, and click Open. Leave
type “POSITION” in the Name field. And finally, repeat for Encoding set to Automatic and Replace Existing Data Sets
the NAME variable. checked, as there’s nothing to replace anyway.
Step 10: Once you click OK in the Import Data Set dialog,
you’ll see a preview of the data in the Variables dialog.
If you named anything incorrectly, you’ll get a warn-
ing. If you do get a warning, just go back to the PSD
or spreadsheet file, make the necessary changes, resave,
[96 ] and re-import.
› › DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP
Check the Preview box, and you’ll see the first image
©Adobe Stock/olezzo
appear in your Photoshop workspace along with all the
appropriate text changes. Click the right-facing arrow to
the right of the Data Set drop-down menu to scroll through
each of your image variables to check placement and text.
©Adobe Stock/lordn
©Adobe Stock/urbans78
Step 11: Now that you’ve completed these tasks, go ahead
©Adobe Stock/Michael Ireland
and click OK. All your info vanishes in the Photoshop docu-
ment—but that’s okay! Go to File>Export>Data Sets as Files.
You now have a dialog where you can decide how and where
to save your files. First, we’ll choose where to save them.
Click Select Folder, navigate to the source folder where all
your original images are stored, create a new folder named
©Adobe Stock/WavebreakMediaMicro
“EXPORT VARIABLES,” and click Choose.
We need all our data sets, so leave the Data Set drop-
down menu set to All Data Sets. Then you can customize
the names of the files. Change Document Name to “Foot-
ballCard,” and you’ll see an example of your new filenames
just above. Leave the file extension as PSD.
Variables is such an underused function in Photoshop, but if

set up correctly, it can really speed up your workflow when
creating large batches of a similar design. After experiment-
ing with the PSD I created, try some of your own designs
using different fonts (I used League Gothic and Voltage
Step 12: Now click OK, and the magic happens. Photoshop from Typekit, which is part of a Creative Cloud subscription).
processes the batch; just keep in mind that the more sets
you have, the longer it will take to process. Once this is I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. Thanks for following
done, jump over to the folder where you saved the new along, and we’ll see you next issue for another “Designing
files, and voilà! You have a full set of sports cards to print. in Photoshop” tutorial! n [97 ]
JAKEWIDMAN
> Design Makeover
CLIENT
Skillsearch
skillsearch.com
image search
[ before ] Skillsearch, based in Brighton, England, is a recruiter and
job search site for high-tech employers and job seekers.
Since its founding in 1990, the company has placed more
than 7,500 candidates into permanent, fixed-term, and
contract positions worldwide.
“We’ve always been a niche tech recruiter, mainly
Original logo
around HR and finance,” says Managing Director Richard
Fisher. “We still do that, but over the past five years we’ve
transformed into being a games recruiter as well.”
As the business became more game-oriented, Skill-
search’s website was beginning to show its age, even
though it was only about four and a half years old. “We
first developed it with a really strong idea of what we
wanted to do,” says Fisher. “The theme was very much
like 1960s movie-style graphics, like the intro to the
movie Catch Me If You Can. It was like a secret agent
being given a brief.”
To reflect its evolution, though, Skillsearch needed a site
that would tell game developers at a glance that they were
in the right place, “but still manages to tick a box for the
existing technology business,” Fisher continues. “I was
trying to find that balance, but as the game industry is
much more social than the slightly stuffy tech space we
otherwise work in, I wanted to make it slightly more in
favor of the games industry.”
Finding someone to redesign the site was fairly easy.
“Where we work, in Brighton, it’s a creative hub,” recalls
Fisher. “A guy that does a lot of the code bits of the web-
site gave us an introduction.”
The introduction was to Nick Carter, owner of Studio
Gallant in Brighton. “I was introduced to the founder of
Skillsearch, Stuart Gillespie, via a mutual contact at The
Brighton Farm, a local networking event,” says Carter.

“I have worked with their sister brand, G2Legal, since
2010, and now with Skillsearch for the past three years.”
Original website
makeover submissions
We’re looking for real-world makeovers for future installments of the “Design Makeover,” so let us know if you recently had a branding makeover or if you did
a branding makeover for a client that you’d like us to consider. We cover everything from product packaging or labels, print advertisements, websites, logos, and
magazine covers that are currently in the marketplace. So if you’d like to be considered, send us an email at letters@photoshopuser.com.
[98 ]
› › DESIGN MAKEOVER
CLIENT
Skillsearch
skillsearch.com
[ the project ] For the new website design, Fisher wanted something
that would set Skillsearch apart. “If you look at recruit-
ment websites in the UK, they all look the same,” he says.
“They all look lovely and slick, but the majority come from
the same templates, and I wanted something that was
uniquely us. I wanted something that felt maybe a little bit
like a game, something that was reflective of our market
but also pretty simple.”
Fisher also wanted site visitors to have a slightly differ-
ent experience every time they land—again, something
that would recall playing a game. And since Skillsearch now
works with companies in the virtual and augmented reality
fields too, he wanted the redesign to reflect that as well.
Skillsearch also told Carter about some issues with the
site’s functionality. For one, the site offered three different
points of entry—skillsearch.com, skillsearch.com/technol-
ogy, and skillsearch.com/digital—which made for a confus-
ing user journey. In addition, the job search tool was clunky.
Those were all general guidelines, though. Fisher
didn’t bother to give Carter much in the way of specific
directions. “My basic view is, if you’re the MD of a recruit-
ing business, you’re good at recruitment,” Fisher says. “If
you’re a creative technologist, you’re a creative, so there
was no point in my giving Nick creative advice. I just gave
him the headlines.”
To help focus the project, Carter held a series of work-
shop meetings with Skillsearch to discuss how they’d rede-
fine the user journey of the website and what that would
mean in practice. “We also discussed a new approach to
the brand language and overall desired tone for the use
of all marketing materials,” Carter recalls. Carter set out
to “refresh the brand through evolution rather than revolu-
tion, incorporating all-new brand assets, tone of voice, and
Variations of the logo throughout the design process colorways,” he says.
about the client

For more than 25 years, Skillsearch’s mission has been to source top talent in niche sectors: technology, games, and interactive. They call their approach the “iceberg”
methodology, because most of the work goes unseen. They appreciate that finding the right job can take months or more, and they engage with their candidates to make
sure they know their exact needs around company type, location, and career ambitions.
Similarly, they ask to spend time with their clients, ideally face to face if practical, to get a full understanding of everything from company culture and staff roles to
how workers get to their offices. All this background work means that when a client asks for a referral or when a job goes live, much of the sourcing is already taken care of.
That lets Skillsearch provide candidates more accurately and usually quicker than other recruitment firms.
[99 ]
› › COLUMN
DESIGNER
Studio Gallant
studiogallant.com
[ the process ] Among the new brand assets are a series of character ava-
tars, seven in all, representing a cross-section of key Skill-
search employees as well as the gremlin-like brand mas-
cot, Pyxel. In addition, Carter produced variations on each
character wearing AR and VR headsets—Google Glass,
Microsoft HoloLens, and Oculus Rift. The various models
are in random circulation on the Skillsearch front page so
that every time someone revisits the site, they’re greeted
by a different pair of avatars.
Carter produced the avatars by drawing them as vec-
tors in Adobe Illustrator with a faux 3D effect. He then
took the drawings into Photoshop to add texture and
color grading and for final file composition.
Revision of the logo was also part of the branding
development package (see previous page). “We set out to
make the brand more relevant to its audience and stand
out as an industry innovator,” Carter says, “and the evo-
lution of the logo marque was central to this.” The old
logo used two colors of blue to create an S shape that
also suggested a curving road, paired with the company
name in a dated “hi-tech” font. Carter experimented with
different colors and patterns on either side of the S, and
Pyxel, the brand mascot with versions that only suggested the letter, and with a
few different sans-serif fonts. In the end he settled on a
version that was more refreshed than transformed, and
set the company name in a custom font.
The brand colors are an evolution of their existing
palette, “with a brighter, more vibrant approach,” says
Carter. He also used a color system to help differentiate
between the Enterprise jobs section and the Games &
Interactive section. “Color-coding a system for the num-
ber of job categories and presenting it in a way that was
intuitive and structured was by far the greatest hurdle dur-

Final logo ing the web design process,” he says.
[100 ]
› › DESIGN MAKEOVER
DESIGNER
Studio Gallant
studiogallant.com
[ the result ] For the rollout of the site across different devices, Carter
also produced a series of responsive templates. When
asked what he thinks of the way the whole project came
out, he’s cautiously positive. “I am always my worst critic,”
he says. “I’m satisfied that we achieved what we set
out to do, and Skillsearch certainly stands out in a very
crowded industry.” But, he says, it hasn’t been that long
since the revised site was launched, so he won’t know for
a while how well the redesign has been received by its
intended audience.
Fisher is less guarded. “The internal reaction’s been
really good,” he says. “The feedback externally has been
really good too.” The site’s performance echoes that: “The
core thing for me is that we’ve seen maybe an eightfold
increase in the number of candidates looking at the site
and registering for opportunities,” he says. “There’s been
a massive increase in people applying through the site
compared to where we were before.”
All in all, Fisher concludes, “I could not be happier
with it.
Final website
about the designer

Nick Carter is the owner of Studio Gallant, a creative communications agency based in Brighton, England. He has more than 18 years in the creative industry and has
worked with leading brands internationally. He also calls on a network of talented designers and developers as needed to make sure a project gets completed efficiently
and with reliability.
Studio Gallant is devoted to helping its clients stand out from the crowd. They also promise a clear and transparent service that lets clients know what to expect every step
of the way. Realizing that client relationships should be long-lasting and meaningful, they focus on the things that clients value the most, including the little touches they didn’t
even know they needed. Their website reads, “From an exquisite site which lets the design do the talking, to mind-boggling complex arrangements with bells and whistles,
crafted to impress, we create with one thing in mind: You.” n [101 ]
> Reviews
GET THE SCOOP ON THE LATEST GEAR
Nikon D850
The D850 is Nikon’s highest resolution DSLR with a 45.7 mega-
pixel, full-frame, BSI CMOS sensor and an ability to capture detail
that’s on par with larger sensors of medium-format cameras. Its
lineage is from the 800, 810 series, and while some buttons have
High-Resolution, Full-Frame DSLR been relocated, and there’s no pop-up flash, the D850 will pro-
vide previous owners with a keen sense of familiarity. It’s not
Review by Steve Baczewski
perfect: It’s big, heavy, and expensive, but you save on film, and
it delivers. Quite the performer!
The weather-sealed magnesium body weighs over 2 lbs and,
Company: Nikon while weight might be an issue for some, the D850 has a deep-
textured grip that provides a reassuring balance even when using
Price: $3,299.95 (body only) large lenses.
The D850’s ability to record detail is in part due to the newly
Rating: designed sensor, a new processor, and Nikon’s not using a low-
pass filter—I never encountered a problem with moiré patterns.
Hot: Battery life; expanded focusing area; In addition, a menu feature called Fine Tune lets you optimize
transfer speed with XQD card the focus of each lens for increased precision. The ISO range is
64–25,600, extendable to 32 and 102,400, and while noise is
Not No phase detection in Live View; slow noticeable above ISO 3200, both Adobe Lightroom and Photo
SnapBridge wireless technology shop mop it up without losing detail.
This DSLR camera is a solid performer whether you’re shoot-
ing landscapes, weddings, or sports. Particularly impressive for
landscape photography is the color, detail, and dynamic range
at ISO 64. If shooting moving subjects is a priority, whether
keeping up with your dog or a bicycle rider, the D850’s high
continuous AF records at 7 fps (9 fps with Nikon’s vertical grip),
and it does a good job tracking. Shooting at low continuous AF
[102 ] has the added benefit of being able to select and control the
› › REVIEWS
shooting rate from 1–6 fps. A joystick has been added Composing with either the optical viewfinder or in Live
for quickly moving the focus point. View is very useful. The large, bright, optical viewfinder has
Nikon no longer uses compact flash cards; instead, a 0.75 magnification, 100% coverage, and all the pertinent
the D850 has two memory-card slots specifically for SD shooting information is displayed along the bottom edge,
or XQD cards. The XQD card reads and writes at 400 making it easy to read. I became a big fan of the Nikon
MB/sec and, when shooting at continuous bursts, I was D850’s 3.2" articulated, high-resolution, touchscreen
able to capture approximately 40–50, 14-bit RAW files LCD: It holds up well in bright outdoor light, and makes
before filling the buffer. Quick note: I saw no appreciable shooting above your head and from waist height practi-
quality difference when recording at 12-bit or 14-bit, or cal. Particularly helpful in Live View is the ability to enlarge
whether it was compressed or not. and assess image sharpness by using the playback mag-
The menu is long, comprehensive, and well worth tak-
nification button, and when you add on Focus Peaking,
ing the time to go over for maximizing the performance
the resulting precision is remarkable. I’m left scratching my
of the D850. The body has several customizable buttons
head, however, wondering why Nikon doesn’t use phase-
that go a long way to help avoid scrolling the menus.
detection technology and instead relies solely on contrast
Among the menu’s useful features are multiple exposure
detection for Live View.
and time-lapse photography; however, there’s one feature
Nikon’s implementation of its LCD touchscreen tech-
that needs to be highlighted: Nikon names it Focus Shift,
nology is notable. In playback mode, you can swipe to
or what’s more commonly known as “focus stacking.”
advance to the next file, enlarge images by spreading
Nikon’s implementation automates what can otherwise be
a tedious process and reduces it to a simple set of well- your fingers, and then navigate the enlarged view with
thought-out options. Focus Shift records multiple files at one finger. In shooting mode, you can focus and trigger
different focus points and, when combined in programs the shutter by touch and add in a time delay to avoid
like Helicon Focus or Photoshop, the result is a single file vibration. But perhaps best of all is the use of touch tech-
with maximum depth of field. This is a great tool for land- nology to quickly navigate the menu items, which adds a
scape photographers who want to avoid diffraction; but lot to the overall performance.
it’s the holy grail for macro photographers who are con- The D850 shines and reflects Nikon’s awareness
stantly challenged by narrow depth of field when shooting and commitment to the needs of the professional
at close camera-to-subject distances. Kudos to Nikon! photographer. n [103 ]
REVIEWS › ›
BlackRapid
Neck and shoulder straps are sometimes a little uncomfortable
when carrying a backpack, and I’ve been curious about hand
straps for a while, so I decided to give the BlackRapid’s Hand Strap
Hand Strap
Breathe, Lightweight Series, a go. I’ve been a fan of BlackRapid
products for years. In fact, my go-to strap was a BlackRapid that I
bought in 2011 when I got my first camera; however, it went miss-
Breathe
ing after my last move. (I still hope it will eventually show up in a
packing box.)
All BlackRapid products come with great presentation, and
this Hand Strap Breathe is no different. It comes in a cute, small,
polyester dust bag. Inside the bag, you’ll find the hand strap, a
Camera Hand Strap with Wrist Support wrist support strap, a triangle key ring, and one fastener. When
Review by Gilmar Smith you first open the little bag and see all these pieces, you’ll prob-
ably scratch your head as I did. Now, I’m the kind of person
that rarely reads a manual, but this time I felt the need to find
answers somewhere. The strap does come with instructions,
Company: BlackRapid but I recommend that you head over to the Hand Strap Breathe
product page on blackrapid.com, scroll down the page, and
Price: $49.95
look for the “How to Set-Up BlackRapid’s Hand Strap” video.
Setting up the hand strap will take a few minutes. You can
Rating:
stop there, as you can use the hand strap without the wrist
Hot: Good quality; comfortable strap; however, the wrist strap helps to distribute the weight
of your camera, and the camera will be secure even when you
Not: Hard to set up have no grip around it. Both straps feature breathable padding
and are adjustable.
I love how I can let go of my camera to give my hand a rest,
and the camera is still there firmly supported by the hand and
wrist straps. The BlackRapid Hand Strap Breathe does a great job
and it’s very comfortable to wear. n
[104 ]
› › REVIEWS
KUVRD
Lens technology marches on with amazing advances and
breakthroughs in speed, optics, coatings, weight, and size.
The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for the lens and back
Universal
caps we use as our first line of defense against unwanted grit,
grime, scratches, moisture, and other environmental enemies.
Hard-plastic lens cap and back cap design and functionality has
Lens Cap
remained relatively unchanged for as long as I can remember—
until now!
KUVRD’s highly popular crowd-funded Universal Lens Cap
changes all that with a stretchable one-size-fits-all lens cap/
back cap solution. By abandoning the traditional hard-plastic
Stretchable-Rubber Design design that for so long necessitated different appropriately
Fits All Camera Lenses sized lens caps for every piece of glass in your bag, KUVRD
Review by Michael Corsentino uses a stretchable high-performance rubber cap that fits
virtually on every lens (with or without a lens shade). The
KUVRD Universal Lens Cap can just as easily be used as a
Company: KUVRD back cap or a cap to protect a speedlight! In fact, they sell
a two-bundle set that’s perfect for protecting an entire lens
Pricing: $25 (Bundles from $40–$150)
from front to back.
More than just a new take on an old design, the Universal
Rating: 5
Lens Cap breaks new ground by giving your lenses the added
Hot: High-performance stretchable rubber; protection they deserve. Its rubberized, swimming-cap-for-
multipurpose use; one size fits all; water- your-lens design is not only waterproof but dirt-proof and
proof; dirt-proof; shock absorbent shock absorbent as well. The cap stretches over your lens,
tightly sealing and protecting it from the elements when you
Not:
need it, and folds down into a soft compact shape when you
don’t. This malleable rubber design also makes it easy to store
in a pocket or tight space when not in use—very clever.
With the Universal Lens Cap, the folks at KUVRD have actually
managed to invent a better mousetrap. Well done! n
[105 ]
REVIEWS › ›
ColorSynth
Currently available for Final Cut Pro X, ColorSynth is an elaborate
pre-wired network of color-processing nodes. The color-grading
tool, which is based on Final Cut Pro X’s Effect and Title Genera-
tor paradigm, has more than 60 items arranged in an eight-layer
Color-Grading Plug-In for Final Cut Pro X
stack with several sub-layers. ColorSynth is touted as having all
Review by Erik Vlietinck
the features and the power of Da Vinci Resolve and FilmLight’s
Baselight, while the interface should be simpler than the one that
comes with those tools.
Company: Codex Regardless of the complexity of the grade, ColorSynth’s render-
Price: $295 ing speed is instant—even on my lowly mid-2011 iMac. There’s

a learning curve, but if you have a good grasp of color manage-
Rating:
ment as it applies to video and film, you’ll be flying through the
Hot: Complete feature set; accuracy; job in no time.
ease of use; very fast rendering The interface is a success in terms of user-friendliness. You’ll
Not: start by applying corrections, Input Grade, and then move on to

changing the look of the video in ways I haven’t seen in any other
color-grading system.
The color-grading tools don’t use the traditional wheels but
rely on curves and color cubes. Color eyedroppers are found in
almost every modifier tool, making it easy to select the color
you’re targeting.
[106 ]
› › REVIEWS
In Input Grade mode, you can work with color temper- The remapping capability isn’t unique by itself, but the
ature, linear adjustments (Lift, Gamma, Gain, and Offset), interface and accuracy of the selections are. For instance,
exposure (to change RGB balance, actual exposure, satu- when comparing hue-to-hue remapping in Resolve,
ration, and contrast), and a tone curve. The RGB controls I found that using the ColorSynth layer was easier and
follow the Printer Lights model (the way film labs would more intuitive.
control exposure and white balance), and allow adjust- The sub-panel called Color Mixer does more or less the
ment of the relative densities of red, green, and blue for same as the mixer in Photoshop. Finally, the Shading EQ
the layer. sub-panel allows you to target a very specific color for the
By the way, I noticed throughout my tests that most of modification of hue, saturation, luminance, or RGB tint-
ColorSynth’s controls work only on the parameter you’re ing. This panel allows you to narrow the range of colors
changing and nothing else. For example, if you’re using the affected by the change to a much smaller area than is pos-
Luma curve to increase contrast, you won’t be changing sible with the Main EQ panel.
saturation in any way (as many other systems do), which My test version of ColorSynth 1, although still lack-
may severely limit your grading choices downstream. ing some of the functionality that will be in the actual
In Output Grade, the modifiers you have access to are release version, really did turn Final Cut Pro X into a full-
Color Tone and Special Tools, in addition to the ones men- blown, color-grading environment. The interface is novel
tioned above. and allows people from outside the video or film indus-
A unique layer is Color EQ, which allows the adjustment try to color-grade footage. The quality of the feature set,
of hue, saturation, and luminance relative to each other the rendering speed, and the results you can obtain with
or themselves. Three sub-panels allow different types ColorSynth can easily compete with Resolve. In some
of adjustment: Main EQ, Color Mixer, and Shading EQ. areas, in my opinion, it’s even better. n
[107 ]
REVIEWS › ›
MindShift
I recently put the MindShift Gear BackLight 18L backpack to the
test on one of the most demanding adventures: a long day with
kids in a crowded theme park during a hot and humid summer
Gear Back-
day in Florida!
This backpack may look small (10.6" W x 18.5" H x 7.1" D),
but its padded rear compartment holds lots of gear. My camera
Light 18L
with my 70–200mm lens, three lenses, plus a few accessories fit
comfortably in it. If configured differently, it could fit two camera
bodies and three or four lenses (up to a 300mm lens). The bag has
lots of storage options. Inside the rear compartment, there are two
Backpack Allows You to Replace Items zippered pockets for small gear or accessories, such as batteries,
Without Removing the Bag memory cards, cables, remotes, etc. On the main front pocket, you
Review by Gilmar Smith can fit up to a 13" laptop and a large tablet, all kind of personal
items, a change of clothes, and snacks. For those personal items
I’d need handy, such as my 360 camera, EpiPens, car keys, park
Company: MindShift Gear
passes, I used a small zippered pocket on the front of the pack.
The Gear BackLight 18L comes in two colors, Charcoal and
Price: $199.99
Woodland Green, and it includes a rain cover. I thought the green
Rating: one was a great break from the collection of black camera bags
I have at home. (It also comes in two larger sizes: the 26L for
Hot: Perfect size; comfortable
$249.99 and the 36L for $289.99.)
You could either mount a tripod in front of the bag or in one
Not:
of the side pockets, as I did, which gives you more use of the
front compartments. I was concerned at first about carrying
my tripod this way in case I bumped anybody with it, but after
I strapped in the tripod, it was clear that wasn’t going to be a
problem. It was secure, and it wasn’t sticking out to the side of
the bag.
[108 ]
› › REVIEWS
ALL IMAGES BY GILMAR SMITH
In the other side pocket, I fit two bottles of water and, even
with all of this stuffed in, I was able to fit the bag in the theme park
lockers while I went on the rides. This Gear BackLight 18L bag is a
good size to take as a carry-on on an airplane. [Always check with
your airline.—Ed.]
One of my favorite features is that you can access your gear
without taking it off. Just make sure you have the waist belt on,
“One of my favorite features take the shoulders straps off, and slide the bag to your front.
As you unzip the bag, put on the neck strap to keep the bag flap
is that you can access your open as you get your camera or change lenses. Easy! Not having
to take off the backpack to access my camera was a huge plus for
gear without taking it off. me, especially when I’m out and about with my kids.
I carried this bag all day long in a really crowded theme park on a
Just make sure you have sweltering summer day, and so far, it’s been the most comfortable
the waist belt on, take the and easy-to-carry bag I’ve ever had. I usually stay in the parks until
closing time to get shots of the fireworks and pictures with no
shoulders straps off, and people in the frame, and I was able to carry everything I needed
all day comfortably. The MindShift Gear BackLight 18L holds just
slide the bag to your front.“ the right amount of gear, and it’s the perfect size for me. I’m about
5.1', so other bags aren’t as comfortable on my back because
they’re usually too big. The padded waist belt also made a dif-
ference because the weight was well distributed so all the weight
wasn’t on my shoulders. The airflow channels in the back panel did
their job well too; I felt my back was getting some air and it was
moisture-free—unlike when wearing other backpacks.

You can also attach other MindShift gear accessories to the
padded waist belt, such as the Tripod Suspension Kit, Filter Nest,
Filter Hive, and Switch Case. n
[109 ]
REVIEWS › ›
Illuminati
A month or so ago, Illuminati Instrument Corp. released its
Illuminati Wireless Light and Color Meter. The Illuminati Meter is
the first-ever Bluetooth light meter created, and it comes with an
Light Meter app that supports more than one meter.

The light meter is a relatively flat, pyramid-shaped device that
runs on two AAA batteries and fits in the palm of an average
First-Ever Bluetooth Meter for iOS & Android man’s hand. Its three corners are home to the on/off switch, a
Review by Erik Vlietinck mini-jack interface for corded flash triggering, and holes for a
lanyard. There’s also a 1/4" thread for mounting the meter on
a tripod. At the apex of the pyramid shape, the white dome can
be raised for measuring light levels, and lowered for color-related
Company: Illuminati Instrument Corp.
measurements. The LEDs on top change color depending on the
Price: $299 information the unit is communicating. A strong magnet on the
Rating:
back of the light meter can be attached to either the Offset-T
Finger Magnetic Holder or the Alligator Clip Magnetic Holder that

Hot: Accuracy; freedom of Bluetooth;
come in the small carrying case.
multiple meters possible; can replace
a traditional high-end light meter The Illuminati Meter app works on iOS devices, including the
Apple Watch, and on Android devices, and it’s cleverly designed
Not: No flash curve
around the ability to use multiple meters simultaneously. You start
with a tile screen, where each tile represents a specific measure-
ment set up for a particular meter: for example, you can have a tile
[110 ]
› › REVIEWS
that tells you the correct exposure at ISO 100 and another allows you to determine the exact temperature in Kelvin
one that tells the same at ISO 1600. You can also have a and Duv, and the CIE Chromaticity diagram. The latter
tile showing the color temperature, and another measur- will also tell you the illuminance in lux and foot-candles.
ing video light settings. All of them update automatically Color temperature measurements are especially bril-
when the meter is set for continuous measuring. liant when you’re working with continuous lights and
The tile system gives you an instant overview of light you need to adjust for a light in an awkward place.
characteristics—very efficient and user-friendly. The You can just hold the meter in the sweet spot, make
parameter interface that opens after tapping a tile has changes, and see the results on your device change in
three tabs: Exposure, Color Temp, and Chromaticity. The real time.
Exposure tab has a dial with ISO, f/number, and shutter To match color temperature between two light
speed, one of which is ranged. In my opinion, this is the sources, the Illuminati app has a gel section with an
least attractive of all the elements, as the numbers jump impressive number of gel filters from different manufac-
if the measured value is between the two shown on the turers. The color-temperature graph will show you the
app’s value wheels. I’d rather see the exact measured gel’s location vs. the location of your measurement.
values, even if that means using fractions. I tested the Illuminati Meter thoroughly, in all kinds
If you’re going to measure flashes, the Illuminati app of lighting environments, and it’s just as accurate as the
will automatically offer you a slider with the percentage most expensive Sekonic. In 99% of the test cases I threw
of flash light vs. ambient. In addition, there’s a corded at the Illuminati, it was spot-on. When it wasn’t, the
flash capability that’s simply perfect. meter erred on the dark side. With two (or more) Illumi-
The meter also measures flash color temperature with nati Meters, you can quickly tell the exposure difference
the value shown on the color-temperature graph, which between the main light and fill or background light. n
[111 ]
REVIEWS › ›
hahnel
The original PROCUBE was a charging cube with multiple wired
charge trays and a separate tray to charge four AA NiMH cells
at a time. The new PROCUBE2 is a smaller cube, but the battery
PROCUBE2
tray system has changed and the unit shows more information
on its clearer LCD display.
Hahnel’s PROCUBE2 exists for various camera brands, including
Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Sony, Olympus, and Fujifilm. Some of
Cute as the Original, Even Better these brands have many different camera types with their batter-
at Charging ies sharing the same charging requirements, which made Hahnel
decide to bundle multiple trays together with the same cube.
Review by Erik Vlietinck
In the original PROCUBE, the system to switch the trays was
not very simple nor was it easy to switch those trays; it involved
Company: Hahnel fiddling with a couple of thin, breakable wires.
The new version of the PROCUBE has wireless trays that you
Price: $79.90 can just click in place. This saves time, but it’s also more difficult
to break an essential part of the device. And there’s more. Once
Rating:
you start charging a single battery or two of them, the PRO-
CUBE2 will now show you how much power has been added,
Hot: Highly visible LCD screen; easily exchange-
able battery trays which allows for a quick top-up charge.
Strangely enough, it won’t show you how much power you
Not: AA batteries don’t enjoy the same benefits still had upon inserting the battery. It will check your battery’s
health with a pretty accurate result, though (I checked with a
multimeter). The new model will also charge with more specific
care for your brand’s batteries, although the first version was
good in this respect as well.
The PROCUBE2, which comes with a 12 V car adapter and
2.4 Amp USB charging port, is a bit smaller than its predecessor,
but there’s still a AA battery tray that will charge four AA cells
at a time. n
[112 ]
› › REVIEWS
Nik Collection
When Google took over Nik Software, a lifetime ago in Silicon
Valley years, Google released the much-lauded Nik Collection for
Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop as free-
2018 By DxO
ware: an astonishing move at the time, given what this collection
of highly developed and regarded software was capable of and
what it previously cost. Despite the initial excitement over Google’s
involvement and the lure of free software, continued development
Powerful Suite of Photoshop Imaging Plug-Ins of the Nik suite never materialized. The software lay dormant for
years as the technology around it moved on.
Review by Michael Corsentino
The good news is that French imaging powerhouse DxO has
recently picked up the mantle and revised and updated Nik’s
venerable collection of plug-ins. The entire suite is now able to
Company: DxO fully leverage the power of current operating systems, host soft-
ware, and the hardware that runs it. None of this comes free!
Price: $69 Nik Collection 2018 By DxO costs $69, still a steal, and some-
thing I’m happy to pay to assure continued development and
Rating: 5
support of software that delivers so much for so little.
Nik Collection 2018 By DxO is comprised of seven imaging
Hot: U-Point technology; continued
development by DxO; free 30-day trial plug-ins: Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Dfine, HDR Efex Pro, Silver
Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro, and Viveza. It’s also now fully compatible
Not: with the latest 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X,
has improved stability, and an integrated auto update engine.
Additional developments include a fully operational Selective Brush
tool, plus filters and dynamic objects that can be freely modified.
I’m still gobsmacked that so many apps with that much power
and functionality can be had for only $69!
The update of the Nik Collection and its continued develop-
ment in the capable hands of DxO is a big win for the imaging and
photography community. n
[113 ]
R E V I EWS › ›
Adobe Photoshop CC for

Photographers, 2018 Edition:
A Professional Image Editor’s
Guide to the Creative Use of
Photoshop for Macintosh and PC
We usually publish the list prices for each format of a book,
By Martin Evening
but you can usually find them for much less at a place spelled
Review by Peter Bauer
“Amazon.” Interestingly, the eBook from the publisher (Routledge
.com) is substantially cheaper than the Kindle version at Amazon.
Publisher: Routledge Press

(And can you believe that there’s actually a hardcover version of
a Photoshop book? Flashback!) Regardless, this is a fully updated
Pages: 744
(at time of publishing) and extremely comprehensive guide to
Price: $32.48 (eBook); $64.95 (paperback); Photoshop CC 2018. And, as one expects from this author, it’s
$225.00 (hardcover)
extremely well written and accessible to every level of Photoshop
Rating:
user. Whether you’re a beginner who needs to read through the
entire book, front to back, or an experienced image manipulator

who uses the Index to find info on a rarely-used feature, this book
is a great choice. Although you might not need it right now,
having a copy readily available in times of deadline crisis makes
it a very nice insurance policy. n
[114 ]
› › R E V I EWS
Advancing Your Photography:

A Handbook for Creating
Photos You’ll Love
The paperback measures a mere 8x5" and is less than one inch
By Marc Silber
thick, to fit right in your camera bag as an on-the-go reference.
Review by Peter Bauer
(Of course, the eBook or Kindle version fits on whatever device
you put it on, so it’s as portable as your phone. Or as “un-
Publisher: Mango Publishing Group

portable” as your desktop.) This book is basically a distillation
of information accumulated over years of interviews with top
Pages: 255
photographers. (The author also provides info about an associ-
Price: $7.39 (Kindle); $19.95 (paperback) ated website that includes a series of subject-related videos,
Rating: including interviews with well-known specialists.) The author

recommends—and I highly concur—that (1) you have your
equipment nearby so that you can work hands-on while read-
ing, (2) you start at the beginning and read all the way through,
and (3) you continue to create images with your camera every
day as you work through the book. n
[115 ]
COLINSMITH
> Photoshop Tips
BOOST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY & CREATIVITY
Hi, everyone, and welcome to another exciting “Photoshop Tips” column. This is the column where you
learn new tips and secret handshakes. This time I have a nice grab bag of tips for everyone. Let’s see
how many of these are new to you.
SHINING A FLASHLIGHT ON PARAGRAPH & CHARACTER

YOUR RETOUCHING STYLES EVERYWHERE
Here’s a useful retouching trick that I use a lot. Sometimes you A very laborious task is reproducing the appearance of
can miss subtle details when you’re retouching, or smooth type in multiple documents. Getting the font, size, spacing,
areas can get a bit patchy on a high-contrast screen. Create and color to match exactly can take a lot of time and noo-
a new Curves adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment dling. The good news is that you don’t have to do this every
Layer>Curves) on top of your layer stack. Set the curve to a time. Define paragraph and character styles from the first
very steep s-curve in the Properties panel. The image won’t document using the Paragraph and Character Styles panels
look good after this, but that isn’t the point; what you’re (found under the Window menu). Start by selecting several
doing is shining a virtual flashlight into all the corners of your letters with the Type tool (T), and then click the Create
image so that you can clearly see any subtle details. You’ll only New Character/Paragraph Style icon at the bottom of the
turn this layer on when you’re checking the details of your panel. Double-click the name of the style, give it a mean-
retouching; you’ll turn it off the rest of the time. ingful name in the Options dialog, and click OK. Save your
document somewhere on your computer.
USE NEW LAYER WHEN CLONING In a different document, choose Load Character/Para-
When it comes to retouching and removing blemishes, graph Styles from the flyout menus in the Character and
nothing beats the good old-fashioned Clone Stamp tool (S). Paragraph Styles panels. Navigate to the document that has
One thing that isn’t old-fashioned (although it’s been pos- the style you want to use, and click Open. All the defined
sible for a few years now) is the ability to clone onto a new styles in that document will be imported to your current doc-
blank layer. This is the way to go, because you can always ument, without having to actually open the other document.
use a layer mask to brush away areas that aren’t working
or when you’ve gone overboard. Create a new layer and
choose the Clone Stamp tool. If you start cloning on the
new layer, you’ll notice that nothing happens. The key here
is to set the Sample drop-down menu in the Options Bar to
Current & Below.
PASTE LOREM IPSUM

When you’re mocking up a design, it’s very common to
use placeholder text. These paragraphs of text don’t mean
anything; they’re just nonsense, but they’re a good way to
see what different weights, styles, and colors look like in a

mock-up design. This placeholder text is commonly called
“lorem ipsum,” because these are the first words in our ficti- ASK PHOTOSHOP FIND-A-FONT
tious text. You can search the web for some, and trust me, Have you ever seen a font you really liked, but you didn’t
you’ll find some interesting and funny ones. I’m surprised know what it was? There are two ways to identify the font
how many people don’t know that Photoshop has a built- (assuming you don’t have a friend who can identify any font
in lorem ipsum generator. Just select the Type tool (T), just by looking at it). First, you could take a picture of the
click-and-drag in the document to define a paragraph font, post it on social media, and wait for all the guesses; or
box, and choose Type>Paste Lorem Ipsum. second, you could ask Photoshop. Open the image with the
[116 ]
› › PHOTOSHOP TIPS
ALL IMAGES ADOBE STOCK
font you wish to identify, and choose Type>Match Font. The object, hold the Option (PC: Alt) key, and simply click-
Match Font dialog will appear, as well as crop boundary on and-drag the filter to the other smart object layer in the
your image. The dialog instructs you to adjust the crop marks Layer’s panel. Now you’ve duplicated it—it’s that simple.
to outline a single line of text that you wish to identify. After You can even drag the smart filter to another document
you adjust the boundary, give Photoshop a few seconds to without holding any modifier keys at all.
analyze it. The possible matches will appear in the Match Font
dialog. Photoshop will do its best to find fonts on Typekit that AUTOMATICALLY ALIGN LAYERS
closely match the font in the image. If there are multiple fonts There may be times when you’ll use layer stacks of similar
in the same image that you want to identify, resize the crop photos, such as masking out objects, focus stacking, etc.
boundary over each line of text and wait for the results. One thing is important, and that’s getting all the layers pixel-
perfectly aligned. You could eyeball it (using the Difference
DRAW OR ERASE IN A STRAIGHT LINE blending mode) or you can let Photoshop do all the work.
Just in case you didn’t know, the Eraser tool (E) is just a Isn’t that why you bought a computer? Command-click
brush with a fixed shape. The same is true with tools such (PC: Ctrl-click) to select all the layers that you want to align
as Dodge and Burn; they all work like brushes. So this tip in the Layers panel, and then choose Edit>Auto-Align Layers.
applies to all brushes. Sometimes you want to draw, paint, Choose the Auto option and click OK. Now all your layers
or erase in a perfectly straight line. Click where you want will be perfectly aligned. Go ahead, turn off the layer visibility
the line to start, hold down the Shift key, and click where for the top layer and see for yourself.
you want the line to end. A straight line will be created
between the two points. STACK UP STROKES
A great way to add legibility to headline text is to add a dou-
REUSING SMART FILTERS ble stroke using both a dark and a light color to cut through
Smart filters are really useful because they’re nondestructive; any contrast combination. This is a feature that quietly
they don’t damage your image, and you can change the made its way into Photoshop and not everyone noticed.
settings anytime you like. There’s another benefit: You can When you’re in the Layer Style dialog, you’ll see a little
easily reuse them on other layers. To apply a smart filter, just + icon by some of the effects on the left. In this example,
Right-click on a layer and choose Convert to Smart Object. make your first Stroke, and then click the + icon to dupli-
Now apply almost any filter as you normally would, and it cate it. I usually like to make the lower one a bit wider.
will be “smart” because it’s on a smart object. To reuse Change the color and now you have a double stroke. This
it, all you need to do is convert another layer to a smart is so much easier than it used to be. n
[117 ]
PETERBAUER
> From the Help Desk
ANSWERS TO PHOTOSHOP AND GEAR-RELATED QUESTIONS
Thanks to your article in this year’s April issue of Photoshop User, I know how to make an image
grayscale or black and white. But I want to go one step further—how do I create a charcoal or pencil
sketch look?—Denise
How about a one-step approach? Open a copy of your opens the door for quite a few other ways to convert a
image (we never want to work with the original image), go color photo to the look of a pencil or charcoal sketch. While
to the Image>Mode menu, and make sure the image is in 8 typically used with color images, the Artistic and Brush
Bits/Channel color depth since you can’t use the Filter Gal- Strokes filters may be just what you need for certain images.
lery with 16-bit images. Next, press D to set your Foreground (And, like Conté Crayon, filters such as Rough Pastels and
color to black because the filters we’ll be discussing use the Underpainting benefit from a change in lighting. If you
current Foreground color. Now go to the Filter menu and look closely, even the thumbnail for the Rough Pastels filter
open the Filter Gallery. In the Sketch section, you’ll find a doesn’t use its default Bottom setting for Light.) You may
number of options, including the aptly named Charcoal, find that applying multiple filters in the Filter Gallery gives
Graphic Pen, and Chalk & Charcoal filters. Settings for each you the pencil or charcoal appearance you seek. Just click
will depend on the usual three things: image content, pixel the New Effect Layer icon at the bottom right of the Filter
dimensions, and—most importantly—your personal taste Gallery to add layers. You can also reorder those layers for
and requirements. different effects.
Some of the other filters in the Sketch section are also And, for a completely unintuitive approach that produces
quite useful for creating such a look, but typically need a a look like none other, consider the Oil Paint filter. Open a
bit of extra tinkering or an additional step. For example, copy of your image, add a Black & White adjustment layer,
the Conté Crayon filter can produce very nice results, but convert your image layer to a smart object (Layer>Smart
not with the default settings. After selecting the filter, go Objects>Convert to Smart Object), and then apply several
to the right-hand panel in the Filter Gallery and change filters. Start with the Stylize>Oil Paint filter. Depending on
the Light setting. The default Top option rarely produces a the content and pixel dimensions of your image, you’ll prob-
good look. Start with Top Left and try each of the options ably want each slider near the middle. Click OK. Apply the
to see which works best for your image. (Changing the Filter>Sharpen filter of your choice, using rather high settings,
Light setting may require re-balancing the sliders in the then blur and sharpen a second time. Since you’re using
upper part of the panel.) smart filters, you can double-click each in the Layers panel
When working with the Chrome, Photocopy, Plaster, and change settings to fine-tune your masterpiece.
Reticulation, Stamp, and Torn Edges filters, you may need After some experimentation with the various filters,
to use the Image>Adjustments>Invert command afterward. you’re likely to hit upon a filter, or combination of filters
Many of the filter results can be greatly improved by adding and adjustments, that work best for most of your images.
a Curves or Levels adjustment layer to control the luminosity You can, of course, make a selection so that only part of the
of the result. image looks like a sketch, leaving the rest in full color. (As
Desaturating an image (Image>Adjustments>Desaturate) usual, copy that selection to a new layer so that you have the
or converting to grayscale prior to entering the Filter Gallery flexibility to change your mind at a later date.) n
[118 ]
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T H E A D O B E® P H O T O S H O P ® “ H O W -T 0 ” M A G A Z I N E › › august 201 8

Beginners’ Do you have any B&W photos

Michael Petrizzo | KelbyOne Member

[062] PHOTOSHOP COLOR GRADING MADE EASY By Michael Corsentino

[022] [094] DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT [098] DESIGN MAKEOVER

Log on to KelbyOne’s website:

420 Ninth Ave, NYC

> A Note from Scott

PHOTOSHOP USER READER SURVEY

much. CS6 came out back in May 2012. Software that’s

HOW TO CONTACT KELBYONE:

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Discuss this Issue

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Who’s Who in the KelbyOne Community: Michael Petrizzo

so I could see and understand. I was able to leave a very

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2. What can’t you live without?

5. What’s your favorite place to travel?

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Step One: Start by opening the image

•  oung man exercising hand-

•  glitch noise distortion

Step Two: Since the subject is on a

the Options Bar and set the Tolerance

Step Three: Go under the Select menu

Step Four: At the bottom of the Lay-

portional, scale the subject down and

Step Five: Now we need an image

©Adobe Stock/James Thew

Step Six: Go to the Layers panel and set

Name the file “disp.psd,” or whatever

You can also rotate areas around a point by clicking on it to

Step 10: Now make the original

Step 11: Once the two underlying

Step 12: Once the layers are con-

Step 13: Select the original subject

result from the displacement on the

Step 14: Click back on the other

Step 15: Right beneath this layer,

gradient near his left forearm. Now

Step 16: Now do the same thing

Step 17: Select the top subject layer

Step 18: You can see it distorts the

Step 19: Remember the distortion

Step 20: Turn this layer off again in

Step 19 on the Add Layer Mask icon (circle in

Step 21: Now, to add another color

Step 22: Finally, we’ll add a text

between letters) in the Character

Step 23: Click on the Add a Layer

Step 24: Finally, set the text layer

Remember the distortion image is the

Step One: The primary image for this

• Man break dancer

2. What can’t you live without?

5. What’s your favorite place to travel?

• oung man exercising hand-

• glitch noise distortion

• Man break dancer