Photoshop cs5 cho nhiếp ảnh gia part 24 pot

135 ■ CUSTOMIZING SETTINGS Once you’ve established the preferred options in Color Management Settings, click OK to apply the settings. You don’t need to restart Photoshop for the changes to take effect. Preferences In addition to the color settings, there is a large number of preference settings you can establish within Photoshop. As the name implies, many of these are a matter of personal preference. However, we do have recommendations for some of the settings. Access the Preferences dialog box by choosing Edit > Preferences > General from the menu. (On a Mac, choose Photoshop > Preferences > General.) Note: Because the Preferences dialog box contains so many settings, we won’t cover all of them. Instead, we’ll focus on the settings we think are most important. Elements users will find a sidebar (“For Elements Users: Setting Preferences”) with specifics for them at the end of this section, but there is considerable overlap, and for full details they should read through this entire section. General Settings The General page includes a variety of settings that affect your overall experience in Photoshop, as you can see in Figure 4.2. Figure 4.2 The General section of the Preferences dialog box includes settings that aect your overall experience in Photoshop. 607343c04.indd 135 4/11/10 11:04:12 PM 136 c h a p t e r 4: FOUNDATIONS ■ Here are the settings you should be concerned with: Color Picker: Adobe Leave Color Picker set to the default of Adobe rather than using the Color Picker from the operating system. HUD Color Picker: Hue Strip Most photographers will rarely use the HUD Color Picker, but when they do we suggest starting with the Hue Strip. We find it slightly easier than a color wheel to use accurately. But if you find yourself using the HUD Color Picker, try both and see which style you prefer. To access the HUD Color Picker, with an image open, select a brush tool or an Eyedropper tool. Next hold down Command+Alt+Ctrl on a PC and Control+Option+F on a Mac while left-clicking and holding. You can immediately change the hue and then the luminosity by continuing to hold the keys and dragging the cursor. But to modify the hue after setting the luminosity you have to be a bit dexterous because you’ll also need to use your thumb to hold down the spacebar while continuing to depress the other keys. Don’t release the cursor; just drag it over to the hue you want. As soon as you release the keys or the cursor, the HUD Color Picker disappears. Image Interpolation: Bicubic This is the best general option for interpolation, while other settings are useful in specific situations. We’ll address the details of interpolation in Chapter 10, “Output.” Options Check Boxes The General page in the Preferences dialog box is dominated by a large number of check boxes that allow you to set a range of preferences. Here are some of the settings we find helpful in this section: Auto-Update Open Documents: O This option causes Photoshop to automatically update files that are opened and modified in another application. Since this rarely pertains to nature photographers, we leave it unchecked. Beep When Done: Personal Preference Turning on this setting causes Photoshop to beep when a task is completed. That way, you can turn your attention to other matters while wait- ing for a major task to complete, knowing you’ll be alerted when you’re ready to con- tinue. We find it annoying to have machines beep at us and prefer to check to see when a task is done. We rarely have to wait long enough for it to be an issue. Dynamic Color Sliders: On When selecting a color in the Color panel, it can be helpful for the sliders to change color as you adjust the color value so you can get a better sense of what color you’ll achieve by moving a slider in a particular direction. We don’t use the Color panel very often, but we keep this setting enabled for situations where we put the panel to use. Export Clipboard: O This setting determines whether anything copied to the clipboard in Photoshop will be exported so other applications can use it. We recommend turning off this feature to reduce the amount of memory being used. Use Shift Key for Tool Switch: On Each tool in Photoshop has a shortcut key associated with it, allowing you to activate the tool quickly. Some tools have more than one tool associated 607343c04.indd 136 4/11/10 11:04:12 PM 137 ■ CUSTOMIZING SETTINGS with the same shortcut. By default, to switch among tools with the same shortcut key, you need to add the Shift key. We recommend leaving this option set because other- wise you can get some unexpected changes in tools when you press the shortcut key. Resize Image During Paste/Place: On When you are compositing images, this setting causes components to be automatically resized to fit, which is often helpful. If you don’t com- posite images, you can leave this option unchecked. Animated Zoom: Personal Preference This determines whether zooming is animated. It’s nice to have but not essential, and it requires OpenGL drawing, which may not be avail- able on some older computer systems. Zoom Resizes Windows: On This determines whether a document window will automati- cally be resized as you zoom in or out in Standard Screen mode. When this setting is turned on, as you zoom out on an image, the document window becomes smaller when the image no longer fills the screen; when you zoom in, the document window enlarges until the image exceeds the space available on the screen. This setting is a matter of personal preference, but we find it helpful. Zoom with Scroll Wheel: On If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, this setting can be helpful. It allows you to zoom in and out on your image by scrolling the wheel. We recommend turning this setting on. Zoom Clicked Point to Center: On When using the Zoom tool, this option will center the magnified version of your image around the point where you clicked. That’s a real time-saver. Enable Flick Panning: Personal Preference This option enables you to move within the docu- ment by “flicking” the Hand tool (click, drag, and abruptly let go). After you give a flick, the visible part of the image will continue to move and will drift to a halt. If you’re checking for dust in an image with very few dust spots, this can be a less tiring way of navigating through the image. Besides, the animation is fun! However, if you don’t have OpenGL, turn it off. Place or Drag Raster Images as Smart Objects: Personal Preference Most photographers will rarely, if ever, use this feature. Note: Use the Reset All Warning Dialogs button in this interface if you have opted to have Photo- shop not show some of the warnings while working, and then later you discover you’d prefer to have the safety cushion that some of these warnings provide. History Log The History Log section provides settings that can help you figure out how you per- formed a particular action on an image. When you enable this setting, you can have every step you perform on an image recorded in metadata so you can review the infor- 607343c04.indd 137 4/11/10 11:04:12 PM 138 c h a p t e r 4: FOUNDATIONS ■ mation later. We generally prefer to leave this setting unchecked because there isn’t an easy way to remove the information later. However, it can save the day if you apply a series of steps on your images and then want to know how to apply the same changes on another image. This option is particularly helpful, for example, when you’re apply- ing a series of filters to an image or experimenting with any creative technique. When you select the History Log check box, additional settings become avail- able. If you’re going to use this option, we recommend setting the Save Log Items To option to Metadata so the information will always be saved with the image file. We also recommend you set the Edit Log Items option to Detailed so the information you collect is actually useful. The other options—Sessions Only and Concise—don’t record the actual settings you used. Although they are helpful for other fields, such as forensic work, they are not useful for most nature photographers. Note: If you save the log information to a text file, the information for all images is saved in a single file, which isn’t very efficient. If you use the History Log option, you can review the saved information (which accumulates only after you enable the setting) by selecting File > File Info and clicking the History option in the left column (see Figure 4.3). Alternatively, you can view the information by selecting Bridge > Metadata > Edit History. Edit History will appear only if the History Log has been enabled. Figure 4.3 If you use the History Log feature, you can review everything that has been done to your image in the History dialog box (File Info > History). 607343c04.indd 138 4/11/10 11:04:12 PM 139 ■ CUSTOMIZING SETTINGS Interface The options in the Interface section of Preferences (Figure 4.4) relate to the appear- ance of your workspace. We’ll talk more about setting up your workspace later in this chapter; however, you establish some of the basics here. Figure 4.4 We recommend conguring these options as shown here. The first options are drop-down menus offering choices as to the background color for the interface. We suggest using Gray since it’s easiest to make the most accu- rate color and tonal adjustments against a gray background than against any other color. Black often looks dramatic, but it can mislead you about some of the contrast and tonalities within the image. For that reason we choose Black only for Full Screen mode, which we might use to showcase an image, but not for those modes we use when we’re actively working on an image. For similar reasons, we turn off the options for a border. Although a line or drop shadow can enhance the final presentation of an image, it can be disconcerting if you’re trying to create a drop shadow on your picture or when you’re making other decisions about the edges of your image. If you opt for a color other than black for Full Screen, you may want to use the drop shadow or line options for presentation purposes. The following are our preferences for the other options in this section. Show Channels in Color: O We prefer to view the individual channels in grayscale so we can easily assess what detail information is contributed by each channel, so we leave this option off. Turning this on causes the channels viewed through the Channels panel to be displayed in their actual colors (red for the Red channel, for example), 607343c04.indd 139 4/11/10 11:04:13 PM 140 c h a p t e r 4: FOUNDATIONS ■ rather than as grayscale images. Although this sounds like a good idea in terms of being able to interpret the color values for each channel, it actually becomes a chal- lenge, because each of the component colors has a different perceived tonality, making comparison (and even viewing at times) difficult. Show Menu Colors: Personal Preference This option is useful if you are new to Photoshop and use some of the preset workspaces that make certain menu items more obvious. We rarely take advantage of these features. Show Tool Tips: On We recommend turning on this option so that as you hover the cursor over an icon in the workspace, a brief explanation of the function associated with that icon appears. Enable Gestures: Personal Preference If you’re using a multitouch track pad and find that you are inadvertently rotating your images, you’ll want to turn this preference off. It can make many users crazy (Ellen is one of them), but some people do like to use the gesture controls in Photoshop. Auto-Collapse Iconic Panels: O Although it can be handy to save space on your monitor by collapsing the panels, when we expand a panel, such as the Layers panel, we prefer it to stay open. Note: Only one panel at a time can be expanded when the panels are set to the collapsed mode. Auto-Show Hidden Panels: Personal Preference When this option is checked, panels that are hidden are temporarily visible as the cursor rolls over them. We don’t often use hidden panels, so we don’t often use this feature. Open Documents as Tabs: Personal Preference Checking this option causes new documents to open as tabs in the window rather than as individual floating windows. We have become accustomed to using the tab view for most of our work, but if you prefer float- ing windows, leave it unchecked. Enable Floating Document Window Docking: Personal Preference Checking this option makes it possible to dock a window into the tab by dragging it. This can be convenient, but we’ve found it’s quite easy to accidentally dock images when you’re trying to move them on the monitor. We prefer to leave this option unchecked. Then if we want to dock the floating window we right-click/hold down the Ctrl key while dragging. UI Font Size: Medium or Large This setting provides relief from the tiny text size that results from running our monitors at extremely high resolutions. You’ll find it very helpful from a readability standpoint to set this to Medium or Large. Note that this setting does not take effect until you restart Photoshop. File Handling Settings When you’re finished with the General settings in the Preferences dialog box, click Next to continue to the File Handling section, shown in Figure 4.5. This section con- tains options related primarily to how files are saved. 607343c04.indd 140 4/11/10 11:04:13 PM 141 ■ CUSTOMIZING SETTINGS Figure 4.5 The File Handling section of the Preferences dialog box contains settings that aect how les are opened and saved. Two topics appear under File Saving Options: Image Previews: Always Save The Image Previews setting determines whether a small pre- view thumbnail will be stored as part of the image file. We leave this setting on Always Save and check the option to save an icon for use in the Finder. We don’t feel that it’s worth the extra memory space to store a full-size preview, but an icon is useful. Append File Extension: Always The File Extension drop-down enables Photoshop to auto- matically append the filename with the correct extension. In addition, you can choose between uppercase and lowercase file extensions. This is not a significant concern because either will work fine with current software. Several options appear under File Compatibility in addition to a link to the Camera Raw Preferences (which we cover in Chapter 3, “Adobe Camera Raw”). Prefer Adobe Camera Raw for Supported Raw Files: On This option causes all supported raw files to be opened in the ACR interface. We recommend using this option because we think ACR does an excellent job with most raw files. However, if you are using other raw conversion software (including Lightroom, your camera manufacturer’s proprietary software, or other third-party software), you should leave this box unchecked. Ignore EXIF Prole Tag: O Unless Necessary We recommend you leave this option off unless you’re encountering problems with the color space embedded in your captures. This option shouldn’t be an issue for most photographers. If activated, it causes Photoshop to ignore the embedded color space in your digital captures. It’s an issue only for images that have problems caused by their embedded profile, which is rare. 607343c04.indd 141 4/11/10 11:04:13 PM 142 c h a p t e r 4: FOUNDATIONS ■ Ask Before Saving Layered TIFF Files: Personal Preference This setting controls the display of the TIFF Options dialog box. This option is based on your particular workflow. If you usually save TIFF files flattened (saving the master file with layers as a PSD instead), leave this option turned on to be reminded if you’re starting to save a TIFF file with layers. We tend to save TIFF files with layers (or flatten them manually), so we turn off this option to avoid the extra click on the OK button in the dialog box. Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility: Personal Preference This option essentially controls whether a full-resolution composite image will be saved as part of the image file in Photoshop’s native formats. The primary reason to enable this feature is to ensure that you’re able to open the image as you intended it to appear with other versions of Photoshop—even if the algorithms determining how adjustments are applied get changed—or to enable applications that aren’t able to build a thumbnail or preview from the layered file to utilize the full-resolution composite instead. It also provides a solution for situations where you have created a PSD file in a recent version of Pho- toshop and are sending that file to someone using an older version that doesn’t sup- port all the latest features. The disadvantage to using this setting is that file sizes are increased considerably (potentially doubled) when this option is used. Note: The PSB file format can be opened only with Photoshop CS or later. You’ll see one check box under Adobe Drive: Enable Adobe Drive: O Unless Necessary Adobe Drive is used to connect to Version Cue CS5 servers. The final option in the File Handling settings deals with the Recent File list: Recent File List Contains: 10 Files This option allows you to specify how many files should be listed on the Open Recent list found on the File menu. We find the default of 10 is usually adequate. Performance The Performance section of Preferences controls some of the behind-the-scenes issues that help Photoshop run smoothly and quickly. There are four sections in this part of Preferences: Memory Usage, Scratch Disks, History & Cache, and GPU Settings, as shown in Figure 4.6. Memory Usage The Memory Usage setting is quite important for overall system perfor- mance. As you have no doubt figured out, Photoshop wants to have access to as much memory as possible. The Memory Usage setting determines how much memory Photo- shop reserves for its use. Although you would generally expect to benefit from setting this to the maximum value, that can lead to problems. Very high settings can lead to stability issues, and on many computers, setting the value to 100% can even prevent Photoshop from loading. 607343c04.indd 142 4/11/10 11:04:14 PM 143 ■ CUSTOMIZING SETTINGS Figure 4.6 The Performance dialog box enables you to control computer memory–related options. Photoshop assesses the amount of RAM that’s available on your computer after the operating system and other programs stake out their portion, and then it suggests an ideal range for how much to allocate to it. We recommend setting the value at the high end of the recommended range to provide as much memory to Photoshop as possible without running the risk of system-stability problems. Note: For best performance, your computer should have a minimum of 2GB of RAM, and, realisti- cally, more—lots more. With CS5 supporting 64 bit, Photoshop can take advantage of increased RAM in your computer, so we recommend at least 8GB RAM. Although Photoshop can operate with less, you’ll find yourself spending time waiting for things to process. Scratch Disks In the Scratch Disks section of the Preferences dialog box, it’s important to establish appropriate settings to ensure optimal performance for Photoshop. When- ever Photoshop doesn’t have adequate memory to perform a task, it depends on hard- drive space to simulate additional memory; the hard-drive space used is referred to as a scratch disk. (Think of it as providing a scratch sheet of paper for Photoshop to use for figuring out complicated problems.) When Photoshop must resort to scratch-disk space, you want to make sure it’s work- ing optimally. If you have more than one internal or external fast hard drive, you can specify the order in which Photoshop tries to use each drive. For the best performance 607343c04.indd 143 4/11/10 11:04:14 PM 144 c h a p t e r 4: FOUNDATIONS ■ Adobe recommends that the scratch disk not be the disk that your operating system boots up from, but if that’s the one that has the most free space, then you’ll need to choose it anyway. If you have more than two drives installed, you can also establish settings for the third and fourth, keeping in mind that you want to set these in order of optimal per- formance, with the fastest drive first and the drive used by the operating system listed last. Double-check the speeds of any external drives, as many offer much slower per- formance than internal drives, so they either should not be used for this purpose or should be last in the order. If you have a drive separated into multiple partitions, you won’t achieve a benefit by making these changes. You achieve the benefit by using a separate physical drive for the scratch-disk usage. History & Cache The three buttons Tall and Thin, Default, and Big and Flat—despite sounding like they belong in some weird personal preferences (perhaps Adobe engi- neers’ humor?)—actually give you options for how to structure the cache most effi- ciently for the types of documents you create. We leave ours set to Default because although we use layers, we don’t often create dozens of layers, so we don’t want Tall and Thin. Default seems to provide the best balance for our workflow. If you work with extremely large files that have only a few layers, you may find that Big and Flat offers slightly better performance. History States: 40 to 60 This determines how many steps you’ll be able to undo in the History panel. In other words, if you’ve made a mistake, how many indi- vidual steps can you undo in order to get back to the point where you actually made the mistake? The default setting of 20 is relatively low, especially for cer- tain tasks, such as image cleanup with the Clone Stamp tool. However, setting the value too high consumes a relatively large amount of memory when you are doing a lot of work on your images. Therefore, we recommend that you strike a compromise, using a value of 40 to 60. This is usually adequate for being able to go back and correct a mistake, even if it takes some time to realize what you’ve done, while not consuming a huge amount of memory. Cache Levels: 4 The Cache Levels setting determines how many zoom settings are stored in memory for your image so the image and histogram can be drawn more quickly when zooming in and out on your image or performing adjust- ments. The performance difference here is minimal, so we generally leave the setting at the default value, which is 4. Cache Tile Size: 1024K This refers to the amount of data Photoshop can store or process at once. Adobe recommends choosing larger tile sizes for documents with larger pixel sizes and not many layers, and smaller tile sizes for files with smaller pixels and lots of layers. GPU Settings We check the option to Enable OpenGL Drawing. If you click the Advanced Settings button, you may have the option to choose various modes for the GL Settings, depending on the type of graphics card you have. 607343c04.indd 144 4/11/10 11:04:14 PM [...]... panes are quite similar to those in CS5 Views and Zoom With Photoshop set up just the way you like it, you’re ready to start looking at your images Photoshop provides a variety of ways to do just that, including ways to display images with Photoshop and ways to navigate within your images using various tools some of these are new to Cs5 Application Bar the Windows Cs5 application bar, as shown in Figure... additional Plug-ins Folder option unchecked For Photoshop Elements Users: Setting Preferences The Elements Preferences dialog, seen here, is similar to the Photoshop Preferences, but Elements generally has fewer choices We’ll highlight any options that are noticeably different Otherwise follow the choices selected in the preceding figures and detailed earlier in the Photoshop section 147 ■ C ustoM i z i nG... Files Its options are similar to those in Photoshop CS5, but it does not have support for Camera RAW for JPEG files, saving layered TIFF files, or Version Cue Continues 607343c04.indd 147 4/11/10 11:04:17 PM For Photoshop Elements Users: Setting Preferences (Continued) Performance The Memory Usage, History & Cache, and Scratch Disk options are similar between CS5 and Elements 8, but Elements does not... you can opt to store them in a separate folder and have Photoshop automatically access the folder to use it, click the additional Plug-ins Folder check box, navigate to the appropriate folder in the dialog box that appears, and click Choose if you have an older Photoshop serial number associated with these plugins, you can add that to the Legacy Photoshop serial number box note that you can still use... between CS5 and Elements 8, but Elements does not have options for OpenGL drawing or 3D acceleration Display & Cursors In addition to CS5- like cursor preferences, the Elements Display & Cursors preference pane has options for the crop shield The crop shield is what hides the part of the image being cropped If Use Shield is checked, Elements will darken that area with whatever color you set in Shield Color... Otherwise follow the choices selected in the preceding figures and detailed earlier in the Photoshop section 147 ■ C ustoM i z i nG sEt t i nG s General The Elements 8 General preferences are quite similar to CS5 s However, one Elements-specific preference we recommend checking is Allow Floating Documents in Full Edit Mode If checked, this will let you tear off the tabs for each image so that each image gets... precisely where you are creating the effect on the image In the Painting Cursors area of the Cursors section, you can adjust the cursors used for your mouse pointer when working with Brush tools within Photoshop The following are our preferred settings 145 ■  C u s tom i z i ng Se t t i n g s Figure 4.7 ​The Cursors section of Preferences is used to control the appearance of the pointer so that it is . some of the settings. Access the Preferences dialog box by choosing Edit > Preferences > General from the menu. (On a Mac, choose Photoshop > Preferences > General.) Note: Because. realisti- cally, more—lots more. With CS5 supporting 64 bit, Photoshop can take advantage of increased RAM in your computer, so we recommend at least 8GB RAM. Although Photoshop can operate with less,. the default value, which is 4. Cache Tile Size: 1024K This refers to the amount of data Photoshop can store or process at once. Adobe recommends choosing larger tile sizes for documents with larger