Compositing: Combining Images

When you combine elements from different images into one, it's called compositing. The main task in doing this is "Selection". You can select a certain area of an image to paste it elsewhere using several different methods. For items with hard defined edges (like a basket ball), you could use the magnetic lasso, magic wand or the (most precise) pen tool. The Pen Tool creates a path, which can then be turned into a selection.

For areas with fuzzy outlines, like a furry cat or someone's hair, making a selection using Refine Edge can be more successful.

Compositing with Quick Selection Tool:

1. Place the image of the subject on top of it’s new background
2. 2.) Using the quick selection tool, make a selection of the subject. Use a small brush for detailed areas and to be more precise. Hold down command for the “minus” tool.
3. Select > Refine Edge. Use the “On layers” view.
4. Use the refine radius tool ( next to edge detection” to go around edges, especially hair.
5. Export as a layer mask. Continue to refine the mask with black or white brushes as needed

Compositing with Channels:

Below, I used a Channels mask to select a bird and place it on a new background. The photo is by one of your fellow students, Dona Foster. The new background (her idea) is a scanned in piece of old paper. This image worked especially well because there was a monotone background.

Pen Tool:

The Pen tool is the most precise way to select an area of an image. For example, if you want to cut someone out of an image and place them on a new background, you can trace the outline of the person most accurately with the pen tool.

The Pen tool does not write, it is just used to make a selection. You use it to make a path: a path is created by making several points on the perimeter of a that person you want to cut out . You then "connect the dots" to create an outline. This series of "dots" or anchors that you make is called a path. To see your path as it's created, go to WINDOW > PATHS and make sure there is a check next to it.

I generally work clockwise around the perimeter of an object to make a path. Make sure you are zoomed WAY in (like to 200%). Click to make an anchor. Click and pull to make an anchor with 2 arms that will create a curve.

After tracing around the entire bottle with the pen tool, I turned the path into a selection by clicking the little dotted circle at the bottom of the paths palette. (Path and anchors must be live/visible for this to work. If it's not working, click on your path with the pen tool until you can see the anchor points. Then click the dotted circle).

Notice the order of my layers above. On new separate layer under the bottle, fill that same shape with gray. EDIT > FILL with 50% gray. Lower the opacity and FILTER > BLUR> GAUSSIAN BLUR to make the shadow look more natural. Command T (EDIT > FREE TRANSFORM) to make the shadow change position. You can also try EDIT > TRANSFORM > SKEW:

Curves Dodge & Burn

You can use a Curves adjustment layer to brighten (dodge) or darken (burn) selective areas of an image.

For example, in the image below, I added one Dodge layer to brighten select areas. The result is an image that looks more dynamic and less flat:

In your adjustments palette, choose the Curves icon. Drag from the middle up for brightening, or down for darkening:

This automatically makes a mask for you. Invert the mask (command i) and then paint with a WHITE SOFT BRUSH on the mask, just on the areas where you want to see the change.

Remember, on a mask: White reveals, Black conceals. Above, I have painted with white JUST where I want the change to show through.

Preparing your Photos for Print

General Retouching Checklist (before you print):
 -Be sure you are working from your "Master" image (the one you've retouched) that is saved as a TIFF with layers.
-Does your image look OK overall in terms of color? The best way to fix a color cast is with the color temperature slider in Camera Raw initially, but it can also be done later via the "color balance" adjustment layer. You can add a warming or cooling filter via the "photo filter" adjustment layer.
-Did you remove spots or dust using patch, healing, or stamp?
-Did you remove any unwanted objects by circling them with a lasso on a background copy layer and then filling with content aware?
-Did you add an "S-Curve" adjustment layer to slightly increase color and contrast?
-Do you need to selectively sharpen any areas? (see the previous post)
-If it's a landscape or architecture shot, do you need to straighten out any lines (lens correction)? This can be done on a background copy layer via EDIT > TRANSFORM > WARP
-Do you need to increase just one range of colors (like just the reddish hues in a flower, or just the bluish tones in the sky?). Adjustment layer "selective color" or "color balance" work well for this.
-Would you like to increase overall vibrance of colors with the Vibrance adjustment layer?

Color Management:
In Photoshop go to EDIT > COLOR SETTINGS to make sure that you have sRGB selected for your RGB working space.

 *More advanced Photoshop users who have a fancy inkjet printer at home with their calibrated monitor may choose to use Adobe RGB because it has a larger color gamut than sRGB. ProPhoto has the largest gamut of all, and includes colors that may exist in the future! This is for more advanced photographers working in 16bit.

*CMYK is only for commercial offset printing and doesn't generally apply to photographic printing we are likely to use. If you are doing work for a magazine or book and working directly with the printer, they will give you CMYK instructions specific to whatever printer they are using. As photographer, we are really just concerned with RGB settings.

Calibration:
To ensure that the images look as close as possible to your screen when they print, it's best to make sure your computer monitor is calibrated.  The ColorMunki Display (approx $175) allows you to write a custom color profile for your specific monitor. Professionals (and printing labs) often re-calibrate every week or month.

Other things to think about: your ambient light in the room, the brightness you have your monitor set to, and the color your walls are painted.


Print-Ready Checklist:
For the best results,  start with your hi-res retouched TIFF (that was shot RAW). Or the JPG that you saved from the RAW file. View Image on medium monitor brightness.

1.) Output Sharpening: It's good to give your image a bit of overall additional sharpening before printing (even if you've already done some selective sharpening on eyes, etc..)
On a merged layer on top of the stack (Select > All, Edit > Copy > Merged,  Edit > Paste)
go to FILTER > SHARPEN > SMART SHARPEN. Depending on your file, you will likely want an amount of 100 to 200, and a radius of 1-3. But use your own judgement- you want it to be just slightly sharper overall when making a print, because the printing process often blurs the image just a touch. Select "Lens Blur" from the remove menu:

 

 *Smart Sharpen is an alternative to Highpass sharpening which we did last week.

2.) Is your image 300dpi? (IMAGE > IMAGE SIZE). Be sure that this image wasn't formally web size (you cannot make a small image big again to print- it's stretches it and looks bad). Be sure this image came from a hi-res JPG or RAW file.

IMAGE > IMAGE SIZE: Your document size should match the dimensions (in inches) of your paper size for the print. If your image cannot be exactly the size of the paper offered. For example, most images coming off a DSLR would need to be cropped to become 8x10". So you can crop it, or add white borders.

*You can make the image slightly smaller than your paper size, then add borders evenly by going to IMAGE > CANVAS SIZE. Make sure you add white borders and keep your image centered.

*Another way to do it is to go to FILE > NEW. Make it the size of your paper. Then copy and paste your picture into this new document. EDIT > FREE TRANSFORM (while holding down shift and pulling from the corner) to make your image fit the "paper". This way you can control the white borders and not let the printing website arbitrarily do it for you (or accidentally crop your image!).


 3.) Save your layered TIFF or Raw file as Hi-Res JPG... then print from this Hi-Res JPG. If you have been retouching a layered TIFF, make sure you go to FILE > SAVE AS and save as a "quality 12" JPG before printing. This will make a duplicate flattened version of your file that's ready to print.

4.) ICC Color Profile: Most commercial printing services will give the best results when you leave your image in the "sRGB" color space. If your camera and Photshop are set to this, your image will probably already be sRGB. To double check, go to EDIT> CONVERT TO PROFILE. If the Source space says "sRGB...." you can just hit cancel- you're good to go.

Each paper/printer has it's own profiles. If you're using an Epson printer and paper, download the Epson profiles. To play it safe, it's best to use the same manufacturer's printer and paper. There's also the option to write your own profiles if you have a calibrator like the ColorMunki.

When downloading ICC profiles, on a PC you will need to put them in this folder to be able to apply them (EDIT > CONVERT TO PROFILE) in Photoshop:
Computer > Win (C:) > Windows > System32 > spool > drivers > color
On a Mac:
Library > ColorSync > Profiles

 A Note On Paper:
Think about the type of paper that would best suit your image. Is the subject matter better suited to something highgloss and shiny (like a shot of a race car?) or a more matte art paper (perhaps a portrait with a vintage filter applied).
Does your image have a lot of dark areas with detail? If so, you might want to choose Lustre or glossy.
*Glossy Paper shows more detail in shadows
*Matte paper is more absorbent of pigment and shows less detail in shadow areas

Print Lab Suggestions:
I suggest you avoid places like CVS and Kinkos when making digital prints and enlargements. The color quality you can get for a similar price from the places below is significant.

Adorama (based in NYC)
http://www.adoramapix.com/app/products/prints
Upload online on their website and prints are mailed to you. Fairly quick turnaround and affordable.
Color Profile: sRGB delivers fairly good results, but downloading their ICC profiles for specific paper types can produce even better results. Here's a tutorial on downloading and applying their ICC profiles. *Be sure not to check the box that lets Adorama make auto color corrections- this overrides the ICC profile.

Bay Photo (based in Santa Cruz)
http://www.bayphoto.com/bayweb/pro_standardsizes.htm
They have a wider variety of printing surfaces (including canvas) and a lot of mounting options. You have to download their ROES application to your computer to be able to order from them which is a small downside, but offers many additional options.
I suggest downloading the Economy Version of Bay ROES because it's for people (like you!) who know how to do your own color correction.

For Photo Books:
Both Bay Photo and Adorama make books that are good quality, with the option to have the pages actual photo paper.

Blurb is more economical, and colors generally come out good, although the pages are not made from Photo Paper (they are a bit thinner). This service is perhaps more equivalent to a book you might make on Shutterfly, but the color quality is better, and there are more sizes and layout options when you download their application to your computer.
www.blurb.com





    

Sharpening

There are different methods to sharpen an image. My 2 favorite ways to sharpen are the Highpass Technique and Smart Sharpen. You can sharpen certain areas of an image during retouching (like the eyes, or the hair, or the flower, or whatever you want to be the center of attention). Before you print, it's a good idea to do a light "output sharpening", as printing can add just a slight blur to images.

Remember that all sharpening needs to be done on a merged layer on top of the layers stack, ideally after you are done with all other retouching (Select > All, Edit > Copy > Merged,  Edit > Paste)

Smart Sharpen: 

Go to FILTER > SHARPEN > SMART SHARPEN. Depending on your file, you will likely want an "amount" of 100 to 200, and a "radius" of 1-3. But use your own judgement- you want it to be just slightly sharper overall when making a print, because the printing process often blurs the image just a touch. Select "Lens Blur" from the remove menu:

Selective Sharpening- High Pass Technique:

*for portraits, it’s often good to sharpen just the eyes, lips and hair a bit.

1.) After you are done retouching an image, click on the top layer and go to

Select > All (shortcut: command a).

2.) Edit > Copy Merged. Then go to Edit > Paste (pasting shortcut is command v)

This makes a new “flattened” layer on the top of the stack that incorporates all your layers below. (the entire shortcut for making this new layer is “command shift option e” all at the same time, on a Mac)

3.) On this new layer, go to FILTER > OTHER > HIGHPASS. Choose a radius of 2 pixels.

       

Now, on the layers palatte, change the blending mode of your new “Sharpening Layer”  from “NORMAL” to “OVERLAY”

If this is too sharp, lower the layer opacity of the layer. If it’s not sharp enough, re-do the process with a radius of more like 3 or 4.

4.) Make a layer mask (icon at the bottom that looks like a square with a circle in the middle). Invert the mask (Command i). The mask should be black. Paint with a soft white brush JUST on the areas you wish to sharpen.

Skin Softening- Inverse High Pass Technique:

Follow  steps 1 through 3 above. After you change the blending mode to overlay, and BEFORE you make the mask, hit “Command I” (or control I on a PC) to invert the layer. This changes the effect from sharpening to softening.

You can then make a mask, invert the mask to Black, then paint with a soft white brush just on the areas of the skin you wish to soften. Be careful not to make eyes, hair and lips too soft. And zoom in and paint carefully around the hairline.

What Makes a Cohesive Series of Photos?

In thinking about your final projects due June 6th, here are some examples of cohesive photo series surrounding a specific theme:

Amy Elkins' Wallflower series features portraits of men and explores ideas of gender identity and the male psyche. Notice how the lighting and composition adds cohesion throughout the series, bringing the viewer's attention to the expressions and gestures of the subjects.

Photos by Amy Elkins

Dina Kantor's series "Finnish & Jewish" takes a different approach to portraiture by showing each person's surroundings. Still the lighting and composition adds to their cohesion as a group:

photos by Dina Kantor

Kelly Neal's photos of still life images taken (mostly) on beds:

photos by Kelly Neal

This series of landscape photos by Matthew Baum shows modern day locations that were the sites of important events during the Civil War:

photos by Matthew Baum

This series of images by Erica Allen show found portraits of men from barber shop posters, and using Photoshop, she adds faux context to each picture (photos below are by Erica Allen):

Rachel Barret's Bolinas series is a portrait of a place that includes a mixture of portraits and landscapes, but shot in a way that looks cohesive in terms of style, lighting, color palette and composition. (Photos below by Rachel Barrett):

Intro to Portrait Retouching

Basic Portrait Retouching **be sure to zoom in to 100% or 200%

We work from the bottom layer up. Each time you add a new layer, it should get added to the top of the layer stack. It's important to work in this order and add new layers to the top of the layers stack as you move along. 

1.) Retouching Layer/Blemishes: Duplicate background layer by dragging it down to the little icon at the bottom of the layers palette that looks like a page with the corner folded. This duplicate layer is where you should do your blemish and spot removal using a combination of healing brush, clone stamp and patch tool.

2.) Decreasing Wrinkles: Make a new empty layer (click icon at the bottom of the layers palette that looks like a page with the corner folded). Using the healing brush, option click a "good" source area and heal over the wrinkles. Make sure "all layers" is selected from the drop down menu at the top (otherwise it won't work to heal on an empty layer). The advantage of healing on an empty layer is that it won't increase your files size too much. The advantage to working on wrinkles on a separate layer is that you can decrease the layer opacity without affecting other retouches.

3.) Stray Hair Removal: On a new empty layer (see how-to above), use a combination of healing and stamp tool. Remember that stamp tool makes a direct copy of any texture that may be in the background, whereas healing tool blends a little. So depending on the texture of your background, you may want to use stamp tool so you don't see little blurry spots.

4.) Decrease Redness: You may need to selectively decrease redness in certain parts of the face. To do this, make a new "Hue/Saturation" adjustment layer from your adjustments palette. Change "Master" to "Reds" and move the slider to the left on the Properties panel. Invert the mask that has been created for you on the layers palette (command i for a Mac/ control i -PC). Paint with a big, soft white brush (B) on the mask to reveal the change (and decrease reds in certain areas).

5.) Brightening with Curves. This is great for brightening under eyes, brightening shadow areas and adding highlights to hair. Make a new curves layer, push the curve slightly from the middle to the top left corner (see below), invert (command i) the mask and paint with a soft white brush on the areas you want to become brighter. You can always decrease the opacity of the layer if the effect is too strong.

6.) Teeth: you can take some yellow-ness out of teeth and brighten them up a little using a Hue Saturation layer. See step #4, except change "Master" to "Yellows". And move the "Lightness" slider to the right to make the teeth brighter. (*note: you can select the teeth first using the lasso tool, or you can simply paint over the teeth on the mask)

Here's an overview of the final layers palette:

image source: Lynda.com 

Masking

Masking comes in useful when you want to alter just one part of an image, such as brightening just the under eyes with curves, or bringing in the detail of a sky by processing a raw file twice.

Most of the time, we make a new mask and invert it (or fill it with black) to cover up the change. Then we bring the change back, just in the part of the image that we want to see that change (such as under the eyes). To invert an image, hit "command i" on a Mac or "control i" on a PC. (You can also just click on your mask and go Edit > Fill with black.)

DOUBLE PROCESSING A RAW FILE FOR EXPOSURE:

In this image of the barn, the foreground is dark and the sky is bright. I could try to balance the 2 areas in camera raw, but I can only get so much detail out of it by processing it once. If I want to get even more detail, you can process it twice in Camera Raw, adjusting the "exposure" slider. Once for the highlights and once for the shadows:

When you open the image up into the regular Photoshop interface from Camera Raw, you can layer the same image on top of each other like this screenshot below.

Choose the version with the "good sky", then paste it on top of the other one:
Select > All
Edit > Copy
Edit > Paste

your layers should look like this:

Make a mask on the top "good sky" layer by clicking the mask icon at the bottom of the layers palatte. Invert the mask (command i). Choose a soft white brush and paint with white over the sky area to reveal the "good sky".

CURVES BRIGHTENING LAYER:

You can use Adjustment layers to change just certain parts of an image. This is a non-destructive way of editing, because you can always just turn this layer off next time you open it, as long as you've saved the image as a TIFF or PSD (to maintain layers). When making an adjustment layer, a mask is automatically created for you, so you don't have to click that little icon at the bottom of the layers palate.

Before & After (with curves brightening layer):

I inverted the mask (command i) and then painted back with white on the mask over the area I wanted to brighten (the candle). In this case,  painted with a gradient (G on keyboard) to get a smooth blended transition to the background, but you could also just paint with a soft paint brush (B on keyboard).

Other Adjustment Layer masks we went over in class are the "black and white" and "hue/saturation" adjustments. 

Hue Saturation can be great to take out just the reddish tones of an image (such as in someone's complexion when retouching a portrait). Instead of adjusting your camera to shoot in B&W, use this adjustment layer to convert the image instead. That way you'll be able to change your mind later if you want.