RSS FeedTip of the Day | Page 6
Making Your Photo Bigger? Do It In RAW!
Another advantage of working with RAW images comes when you need to make your image larger than the original. Of course, this is generally thought of as a big no-no because making a photo bigger than it’s original usually means a major loss of sharpness and quality, but if you’re shooting RAW, well…not so much. Well, not nearly as much. So, all you have to do is go to Camera Raw’s Workflow Options (in the bottom-left corner of the dialog), and from the Size pop-up menu choose a larger size (make sure you also choose 8 Bits/Channel for your depth), and you’ll get much better results from your forbidden upsizing than you would have if you tried to do the same thing in Photoshop using the Image Size dialog (under the Image menu).
Hiding Your Metadata From Others
If you’re providing photos to magazines, websites, or really just about anybody, you might want to strip out your metadata, or anybody with Photoshop will be able to learn a lot about you. For example, they’ll know what kind of camera and lens you have (including make and model), what day you took the photo, edited the photo, and so on. Luckily, stripping the data out is easy, because you don’t really strip it out. Just do this: Open the photo in Photoshop. Press Command-A (PC: Control-A) to select all, then press Command-C (PC: Control-C) to copy the photo into memory. Press Command-N (PC: Control-N) to create a new blank document in the same size, color mode, and resolution of your copied photo. Don’t change anything; just click OK. When the new document appears, press Command-V (PC: Control-V) to paste your copied photo into your new document. Press Command-E (PC: Control-E) to merge this image layer with your Background layer, and save the file. The embedded EXIF data is left behind, giving you a clean image with no personal data attached.
Don’t Change Your Camera’s Color Space For RAW
If you’re shooting only in RAW (and not RAW+JPEG), then you don’t have to worry about changing the color space in your digital camera to match the edit space in Photoshop. That’s because you’ll actually choose the color profile that will be assigned to the photo right before you process the RAW file—it comes in “untagged.” It’s RAW after all, right? So choose your color profile from the Space pop-up menu in the bottom-left corner of the Camera Raw dialog before you open the image in Photoshop. (Note: If you don’t see the Space menu, turn on the Show Workflow Options checkbox.)
How About A JPEG With The Raw File? Oh, A TIFF Too?
If you decide that you want to create JPEGs from all your RAW images, the entire process is automated in CS2, but you don’t do it from Camera Raw—you do it within Photoshop. You start by going under Photoshop’s File menu, under Scripts, and choosing Image Processor. When the dialog appears, choose your folder of RAW photos, then choose the folder where you want the new JPEGs saved. In the third section, you choose the file type and the size you want your images to be. Do you want just JPEGs, or also TIFFs and PSDs as well? It’s up to you. If you like, you can apply an action to your images and a copyright while you’re at it. Once you’ve entered your preferences and click Run, Image Processor automatically creates separate folders (inside the folder you indicated in section two) for each type of file (JPEG, TIFF, or PSD).
Make It Always Fit In Camera Raw
Here’s a new viewing option—it’s called Fit in View. It’s found in the Zoom pop-up menu in the bottom-left corner of Camera Raw’s preview window, and when you select it, it displays your entire photo as large as it can in the preview area.
Use Your Favorite Navigation Shortcuts In Camera Raw
If you want to change the size of your preview window in Camera Raw, you can use most of the same keyboard shortcuts you already use in Photoshop. For example, to zoom in press Command–+ (Plus Sign) (PC: Control–+), and to zoom out press Command–- (Minus Sign) (PC: Control–-). To jump to Fit on Screen view, double-click on the Hand tool. To jump to 100% size, double-click on the Zoom tool. To temporarily get the Hand tool, press-and-hold the Spacebar, then click-and-drag within the preview area.
Bigger Previews In Camera Raw
If you want a larger preview window in Camera Raw, you’re only one click away. Just turn off the Show Workflow Options checkbox in the bottom-left corner of Camera Raw, and those options will be tucked out of site, and your preview area will be expanded.
Last-Minute Renaming In Raw
If you haven’t renamed your photos, and you’re busy processing them in Camera Raw, don’t sweat it—you’ll have an opportunity to rename them when you save them. In fact, when you choose Save in the Camera Raw dialog, the Save As screen that appears lets you batch rename the photos as they’re saved. Just type the name you want in the first field, then the numbering scheme you want to use (after all, they can’t all have the exact same name, right?).
Cropping Multiple Raw Images At Once
Want to crop just one RAW image and have that exact same crop applied to a number of similar RAW images at once? In Adobe Bridge, just Command-click (PC: Control-click) on all the RAW images you want to crop, then press Command-R (PC: Control-R) to open them in Camera Raw. Next, click the Select All button in the top-left corner of the Camera Raw dialog. Now press C to get the Crop tool, drag out your cropping border within the image in the preview area, and as you drag it out for the current photo, all the other selected photos will get the same cropping treatment, which will be reflected immediately in the list of images on the left side of Camera Raw.
Shortcut For Rotating Images In Camera Raw
Save yourself a trip up to the Camera Raw’s Toolbox the next time you need to rotate an image. Just press L on your keyboard to rotate to the left or press R to rotate to the right. To rotate completely around, just keep pressing either letter.
Adding Points To Camera Raw’s Curve
Camera Raw in CS2 has its own curves adjustments (under the Curve tab), but adding a point to the curve is different in Camera Raw than it is in Photoshop. To plot a point on your curve in Photoshop, you just click the Eyedropper on the spot in your image you want plotted. But in Camera Raw, you have to Command-click (PC: Control-click) the Eyedropper instead.
How To See The Sharpening Now, But Not Apply It
Many pros prefer to apply their sharpening in Photoshop itself, using Unsharp Mask or the Smart Sharpen filter, rather than in Camera Raw. If that sounds like you, wouldn’t it be nice to just see what the sharpening would look like, even if you don’t apply it? Of course, you could simply adjust the Sharpening slider (under the Detail tab) for a moment, look at the image, then slide it back—but there’s a better way. While you have an image open in Camera Raw, press Command-K (PC: Control-K) to open the Camera Raw Preferences. When the dialog appears, change the Apply Sharpening To pop-up menu so it shows Preview Images Only. That way, any sharpening you apply in Camera Raw will only be applied to the preview you see onscreen in Camera Raw, and not the photo itself, so you can apply it later in Photoshop.
Removing A Straightening In Camera Raw
The Straighten tool (A) and the Crop tool (C) in Camera Raw are pretty much tied together. So much so, in fact, that if you want to cancel your straightening, you have to first click on the Crop tool (if it’s not active by default after dragging with the Straighten tool), then press the Escape key on your keyboard.
Cancelling A Crop In Camera Raw
If you’re using the Crop tool (C) in Camera Raw, and decide you want to cancel your Crop, just click on the Crop tool, then press the Escape key on your keyboard.
Shortcuts For Highlight And Shadow Warnings
If you’re going to be using CS2’s new Highlight and Shadow clipping warnings, here are two shortcuts you’ll need to know: Press the letter O to turn on the Highlight clipping warning (everything that appears highlighted in red is clipping), and press U to toggle on/off the Shadow clipping warning (everything that appears in blue is clipped to solid black with no detail).
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Photoshop Tutorials
-
Wild West Grunge
Corey shows you how to recreate this rugged, weathered look using a couple of filters, blending modes, and layer masks.
-
Wall of Text
Use a clipping group to place an image inside of a background of text, with another layer of text placed in front to create depth.
-
Natural Brushes
In this tutorial Corey shows you how to take an existing image and turn it into it’s own custom brush.
-
Custom Coins
In this tutorial Corey creates a realistic-looking coin effect using the channels palette and the lighting effects filter.
Text Shape Layers
Converting text into shapes allows you to distort the text as you like while retaining straight, clean edges.
Borders Under a Minute
Create really cool borders in under a minute to use on virtually any one of your photos or even video for that matter.- Custom Coins
In this tutorial Corey creates a realistic-looking coin effect using the channels palette and the lighting effects filter. - Natural Brushes
In this tutorial Corey shows you how to take an existing image and turn it into it's own custom brush.
-
Creative Contrast in Photoshop CS3
In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at some interesting techniques for improving contrast using the Shadow/Highlight command, empty adjustment layers, blend modes, and the Blend If sliders in the Layer Style dialog. -
Enhanced Workflow in Lightroom 1.1
In this article, we'll focus on techniques that will strengthen your workflow skills and simultaneously reveal some of the new features in Lightroom 1.1. -
Handlin’ Photoshop and Illustrator Content in Flash
we’ll take a look at how things work across Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash-specifically, some features and techniques for getting rasterized Photoshop content and vector Illustrator content into your Flash movies. -
Understanding Channels in Photoshop CS3
Photographer Chris Alvanas wants to go over Channels, because understanding what they are and what they do is key to understanding what their potential is.
Removing Those Typographically Incorrect Spaces
If you’re trying to set type that looks typographically correct in Photoshop, there’s an old habit you’ll have to break, and that’s the curse of putting two spaces at the end of every sentence. This is a holdover from people who at one time used traditional typewriters, where adding two spaces was necessary, but in typesetting that’s a huge no-no. About 70% of the text I copy-and-paste from text files that people give me has two spaces, but I use this Photoshop tip to fix the problem in just seconds. First, go under the Edit menu and choose Find and Replace Text. In the Find field, press the Spacebar twice (entering two spaces), then in Change To, press the Spacebar just once. Click Change All, and every time Photoshop finds two spaces at the end of a sentence, it will replace it with just one, making you typographically correct.
- Chicago, IL
Photoshop CS3 for Photographers Tour May. 19 - Nashville, TN
Photoshop CS3 for Photographers Tour May. 22 - San Francisco, CA
Photoshop CS3 for Photographers Tour May. 28 - New York, NY
Maximum Photoshop Tour May. 30
