Little Photoshop » Black & White

Creatively Creating Mood with Lightroom

Stuart Little — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:00:03 +0000

I have been using Lightroom since the first beta launch way back in the day… I didn’t like it much when it first came out for various reasons. But needless to say those reasons dissolved away when Lightroom 2 came out in the summer of 2008, but I did not go back to Lightroom until late 2008 when I started on the Big Picture project.

We are now on version 2.6 and version 3 is currently available on beta and it wasn’t until around the middle of last year that I truly started to appreciate the power of this software and I am really excited about the revisions that will be added to the 3rd version of software. But it was only the other day that I was able to make a subtle, but significant change to my workflow that I notched things up a gear.

You see I was never really into using collections before now. I was a folders kinda guy! I would make sure that my image folders were neatly arranged so that I never lost an image but I did lose something else. Creativity! What do I mean? Well by sticking to an evolution of my tried and tested digital workflow. I was missing out a big part of how Lightroom works creatively and it wasn’t until the middle of last year that realised there was a better way of working by using collections and in particular collection sets.

But, I was locked into my existing workflow until the end of 2009, where by I could back everything up and start a fresh. Last Saturday was the first day I got out to take some shots in 2010. It was just for an hour and I thought I had better capture some of the snow before it went away. I need not have worried. It has hung around and only got a bit thicker!

So in the screencast above I thought I would demonstrate how Lightroom can be used creatively and you will also get a glimpse of how I am now working in an organised but creative manner with collections and collection sets.

You will be seeing a lot more of Lightroom in 2010. Its going to be the cornerstone of a lot of what we will be doing in the studio as well as Adobe Photoshop of course. Don’t worry though if you only have Adobe Bridge CS4. Much of the same can be done there as well. Maybe with not the same style and finesse. But you will be not too far away. As for Lightroom well, I am over the half way point in creating a training series that covers the essentials and a heck of a lot more… It will be interesting to see which way our new poll swings.

Finally…

If you haven’t already watched the new screencast. Get the popcorn on. Its over 20mins long and covers more of the creative aspects of using Lightroom. As well as non-destructively recovering details in the sky that the RAW file had captured but were not seen by the initial preview. This is a good example of why you should shoot RAW, if you are not already doing so… Enjoy! >

Creating a Floating Print with Photoshop

Stuart Little — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:59:03 +0000

I thought saying as we are heading towards the holiday season I thought it was time to do some techniques that you can have a play with whilst enjoying the Christmas break. Today I am going to show you how to create a floating border effect that is both non-destructive and very flexible to use with your photos.Examples

The adjustment layer can be anything you choose… I went for the Black & White Adjustment layer, but you can go for one that suits your own image and the great thing is by creating a group, you can move the whole effect onto another image.

A Different Film Grain Effect With Photoshop

Stuart Little — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:00:36 +0000

I felt that the Black & White Infrared Effect achieved with Lightroom 2 needed a helping hand with a little film grain. So, with this in mind I am going to teach you a new way to add noise to a Black & White image using Adobe Photoshop CS4, that is first of all non-destructive and secondly emulates actual film grain really well. Enjoy!

The image above contains 2 film grain layers as well as another scratch layer thats built from a similar layer filled with 50% grey but thats another screencast for another day. So remember to experiment with the amount of initial noise and the size you transform it to, until you get a level of film grain that suits your images. Enjoy! >

Black & White Infrared Effect in Lightroom

Stuart Little — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:00:11 +0000

In this screencast I will show you how to do a non-destructive Black & White infrared technique in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2. The secret to this techniques is to choose an image that has a lot of foliage and grass etc in the shot. So this is one for landscape photographer inside you! Nothing can ever replace an actual infrared image shot with either a DSLR converted for the purpose or infrared film, but this technique comes pretty close. Enjoy!

I was thinking of a soft sepia image when applying the infrared effect to the image above and although it is a little flat, it has a pretty cool aged effect. The image below was put through the same process but to finish it off I brought it into Adobe Photoshop CS4 and added some film grain non-destructively using a really neat little technique that I will be demonstrating in the next screencast.

As with any image it comes down to the lighting and in my opinion if you are going to fake an infrared shot, choose an image with a lot of foliage and also make sure it was shot on a bright day, so that there is a little more contrast in the image in the first place. This will help give you the best results. Oh! and it does not do any harm to shot RAW either…Enjoy! >

6 ways to go Black & White in CS4

Stuart Little — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:00:17 +0000

I constantly get asked which is the best way to convert an image to Black & White? The answer is the one that suits your images the best! In this screencast I will show you 6 ways to make your image Black & White. There are actually 9 different techniques available, but I thought I would stick to the ones that focus on Photoshop directly, rather than dipping into Adobe Camera RAW or converting to Greyscale. Enjoy!

Although doing a straight desaturation is not the most pleasing Black & White technique out of the box. It does give you a degree of flexibility that converting to greyscale won’t mainly because by desaturating your image you are staying within the RGB colour and mode and this opens up all of Photoshop’s potential as it is an RGB Bit Map editor after all.

So don’t discount using a straight desaturation technique, especially if you are doing a composite and require to work on the image a lot more then going for a good Black & White. Remember the shortcut is Shift+Command+U (MAC) or Shift+Control+U (PC).

I used to prefer creating my Black & Whites with a colorized Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer because it allowed me to get a warm tone within the image. (Not quite sepia but not that neutral either). Now, however, I can do the same style of Black & White and have even more control with the Black and White Adjustment layer technique. You do have to be mindful of the specular highlights but thats easy to tame and you have a full color spectrum of tones to dip into.

Now before all you fans of ACR and Lightroom start commenting that you convert via the RAW converter! and its better, I know, me to, but today this post is focusing on what can be done within Photoshop, rather than solely Adobe Camera RAW.

There are no real rights or wrongs to how you convert your image to Black & White, all the methods demonstrated in the screencast are valid. But just remember that non of them are a one click effect and every image will always need further tonal adjustments via curves or levels etc…Enjoy! >

Popping Color in Bridge

Stuart Little — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:00:48 +0000

The first video tutorial I ever uploaded to the web demonstrated the “Old School” way of creating a popping colour effect in Photoshop 7. So I thought it fitting that the first of our new screencasts should feature the same technique but with a twist. You can now create the same effect non-destructively in Adobe Bridge or Lightroom using Adobe Camera RAW. Enjoy!

If you wish to try this technique in Adobe Photoshop CS4, then one of my favorite ways to create the effect is by using a Black & White adjustment layer. This gives you the option of fine tuning the Black & White element of the effect whilst still retaining a layer mask for revealing the colour element below the adjustment layer. This kind of effect is a bit over done these days but I think it still has its place if used sparingly and detail shots like this one are good place to tuck it into a wedding album.

Remember to set your (B) brush colour to black to reveal the colour in the background layer or if you go too far, white to hide the colour effect and revert to the Black & White adjustments. As a final finishing touch, you can add a little vibrance (Note the difference between the top shot and below) and and maybe some curves to suit your taste but remember to do them as adjustment layers to keep your pixels intact. The settings of both the Black & White adjustment layer and the vibrance are up to you as each image is different, but on this occasion I lightened the red channel of the Black & White adjustment layer to make the liquid in the glass contrast a little more with the background. Enjoy! >