247 ■ TARGETING ADJUSTMENTS USING A LAYER MASK Let’s consider an example to see how these panels work when you’re optimiz- ing your image. Figure 6.14 shows the panels for an image where we want to lighten the subject. Rather than making a selection beforehand as you might have done in earlier versions of Photoshop, open the Adjustments panel and click on Levels. Adjust the sliders to approximately where you think you want them. Then click the Masks panel and choose Color Range. Click on the subject and use Color Range to make the best selection you can. Then use Mask Edges to tweak the edges. Now go back to the Adjustments panel and finalize the settings. Figure 6.14 Since CS5 is nonmodal, you can have an adjustment dialog open while you are tweaking the mask and easily alternate between the mask and the dialog. Painting on a Mask In some situations you don’t want to create the adjustment layer mask based on a selection. When the edge of the area you want to adjust isn’t well defined, it’s often easier and more efficient to paint directly on the mask to control where the effect is visible. The concept is that you paint with white or black on the mask to control the visibility of the effects of that layer. Almost all of us have been using a paintbrush since we were preschoolers, so creating a mask by painting is usually a very natural and intuitive approach. To use this approach, take the following steps: 1. Create an adjustment layer, in this case a Levels adjustment layer. 2. Make an adjustment so you can see an effect in the image. Concentrate on making the particular section of your image look the way you want, and don’t worry that the rest of the image may be “ruined.” We’ll use the layer mask to restore those areas to their “before” states. Note: We recommend making an exaggerated adjustment when you’re first learning to use an adjustment layer so it’s easier to see exactly where in the image the adjustment layer applies. 3. To modify the mask for an adjustment layer, select the Brush tool. We usually use a soft brush (0% hardness), but in some instances you will want to use a harder brush or even a totally hard brush to make a discrete edge. 4. Press D to set the colors to their defaults of black and white, and then press X as needed to switch foreground and background colors. Figure 6.13 By making adjustments using layer masks, you can help emphasize your subject by applying one type of adjustment to the subject and a dierent one to the background. Using the Color Range Option The Color Range option, which is part of the Masks panel in CS5, offers an efficient method to create a selection for the layer mask even if you’ve already begun setting the adjustment layer. You can use the options within the Masks panel at any time. Ini- tially the adjustment is set to affect the entire image unless you began with a selection. If you began the adjustment process by first creating a selection and then opening an adjustment layer, the Color Range control will operate only within that selection, not across the entire image. Color Range becomes a way to limit the effect to a subset of your original selection. When you click the Color Range option, the Color Range tool appears. Use it the way we discussed in Chapter 4 to define the area you want the adjustment to affect. Think of this as an automated way of controlling where to apply the adjust- ment. The ability to use the Color Range tool while in the midst of making an adjust- ment is extremely helpful. 607343c06.indd 247 4/12/10 11:42:44 PM 248 c h a p t e r 6: EXPOSURE ADJUSTMENTS ■ 5. Zoom in so you can easily see the area you want to change. 6. Place your cursor on the image, and begin painting with black as your fore- ground color to remove the effects of your adjustment from that area. 7. If you make a mistake, reverse your brush colors by pressing X so that white is your foreground color. Then paint over the area to correct the mistake. Layer masks are very forgiving! To help you see exactly where you have masked the image and where the effect will appear, press the \ key. This will create a type of quick mask over your image. A transparent red layer will appear over the masked areas, as shown in Figure 6.15. As you paint with black, the red area will increase; to remove the red from an area and allow the effect to be visible there, paint with white. We know it’s a little confusing to paint with black and have it appear red, but remember you’re not really painting on the image. You’re painting on the layer mask, and the red is there as a superimposed version of the mask that’s easier to see. To remove the quick mask, press the \ key again. This is one of our favorite tricks! Figure 6.15 Pressing the backslash (\) key makes a red mask appear over the parts of your image that are masked, helping you to see whether you need to rene the mask. 607343c06.indd 248 4/12/10 11:42:45 PM 249 ■ TARGETING ADJUSTMENTS USING A LAYER MASK Note: Another way to view the mask is to Alt/Option+click directly on the adjustment layer mask in the Layers panel. That way, the mask appears in place of your image preview, making it easy to clean up small areas that may have been missed in painting. One of the benefits of using layer masks is that if you decide you need to further revise the layer mask, you can simply click the adjustment layer to make it active, and paint as needed to change the areas where the adjustment is blocked or revealed. Note: Some people find it easier to paint an outline of the area that they want to mask while looking at the image, then Alt/Option+click on the mask in the Layers panel to see the mask preview in place of the image. That way they can more easily fill in the area within the outline. When done, Alt/ Option+click on the mask icon again to return to the image preview. At times, you’ll want the adjustment layer to apply to a very small area of your image, but that area won’t be conducive to making a selection. In such situations, it may seem that the only solution is to paint with black throughout most of the image. An easier way is to begin with a layer mask that is already filled with black and then paint with white on the areas where you want the effect to show. To do this, take these steps: 1. After creating the new adjustment layer, choose Edit > Fill from the menu. 2. Select Black from the Use drop-down list, and click OK (see Figure 6.16). This fills the layer mask with black, blocking the effect of the adjustment from the entire image. Figure 6.16 You can use the Fill command to ll a layer mask with black and then paint with white to apply the adjustment to specic areas of the image. 3. Use the Brush tool with the foreground color set to white to paint the adjust- ment in the areas where you’d like it to be applied. Note: You can also use Alt+Delete/Option+Delete to fill a layer mask with the foreground color and use Ctrl+Delete/F+Delete to fill a layer mask with the background color. So far you’ve seen how you can paint with black or white on an adjustment layer mask to target specific areas where the adjustment should be blocked or revealed. 607343c06.indd 249 4/12/10 11:42:45 PM 250 c h a p t e r 6: EXPOSURE ADJUSTMENTS ■ If you’d like to only partially block or reveal the effects of an adjustment layer, then the layer mask will need to be a shade of gray. The darker the gray, the more the effect will be blocked, and the lighter the gray, the more it will be revealed, as shown in Figure 6.17. Rather than using the Color Picker to select a shade of gray (because it’s easy to accidentally select a non-neutral gray, which can lead to unexpected results), we recommend continuing to use the default colors of black and white but reducing the opacity of the brush. To reduce the opacity of the brush, use the Opacity box in the toolbar Options bar (not the Layers panel). And, as we mentioned earlier, paint with a soft-edged brush if necessary to produce a gradual transition between the areas that are and are not affected by the adjustment layer. When using a brush with lowered opacity, be careful because if you release the cursor and paint over the same spot again, the effect will be cumulative. At times this may be exactly what you want to happen! But at other times it could result in unexpected results if you accidentally overlap the edges of your brush strokes. Figure 6.17 You can use shades of gray on an adjustment layer mask to have the eect partially revealed within the image. Note: An easy way to reduce the opacity of the brush is to press the number keys. The 1 key will yield an opacity of 10%, 2 will give 20%, and so on. Pressing 0 returns the opacity to 100%. Note: Graphics tablets such as the Wacom tablets are particularly helpful when painting on a layer mask. You can set the pen so that the pressure you use determines the opacity of the brush. That makes transitions smooth and intuitive. 607343c06.indd 250 4/12/10 11:42:45 PM 251 ■ TARGETI NG ADJ US TME NT S U SIN G A LAYE R M AS K Of course, you can also combine the two approaches to creating a mask. You could start by creating a selection that defines the area you want to adjust, and then paint on the layer mask to fine-tune the area you want to have affected by the adjust- ment. This allows you to utilize the best of both techniques to achieve the best results possible in your images. Try It! Open the image SelectiveLevels at www.sybex.com/go/photoshopnature, and create a rough selection of the interior of the flower using the Lasso tool. Then create a Levels adjust- ment, lighten the interior of the flower, and click OK. Then use the Brush tool to refine the initial selec- tion edge, painting with white where you want the selection to apply and painting with black where you don’t want it to apply. Try this exercise a second time using the new Color Range option. Rening the Layer Mask We highly recommend that you take advantage of the vastly improved Mask Edge dialog accessible from the CS5 Masks panel to fine-tune the edges of your mask if you began the layer mask from a selection. Otherwise the transition between the areas you adjusted and those you didn’t will be relatively harsh, as you can see in Figure 6.18. Sometimes this works well, but other times you may want a more natural transition. Of course, if you created the mask by painting it or from Color Range, it may still benefit from the Mask Edge controls. The Mask Edge dialog is identical to the Refine Mask dialog we covered in Chapter 4; only the name is different! Figure 6.18 When you use a nonfeathered selection or a hard-edged brush with a layer mask, the transition between adjusted and nonadjusted areas will be relatively harsh. Using Rene Mask leads to a more gradual, and often more natural, transition. For Photoshop Elements Users: Smart Brushes Photoshop Elements provides two tools, the Smart Brush and the Detail Smart Brush, which combine the Quick Selection and the Selection Brush tools, respectively, with an adjustment and a layer mask. They let you pick an adjustment and paint over the part of the image that you want to adjust. Since they automatically create an adjustment layer, you are able to easily change the adjustment settings at any time. Continues 607343c06.indd 251 4/12/10 11:42:45 PM 252 c ha p te r 6: E XPO SUR E ADJ US TME NT S ■ For Photoshop Elements Users: Smart Brushes (Continued) The Detail Smart Brush diers from the Smart Brush in that the Smart Brush uses the Quick Selec- tion tool algorithms so that the areas that you paint are intelligently selected and expanded. The Detail Brush uses the regular Selection brush so that any areas you paint over, but only those areas, are aected. To use the Smart Brushes follow these steps: 1. Select the Smart Brush icon in the toolbar. 2. Choose an adjustment from the pull-down menu in the tool Options bar as seen here. We find that the All Purpose, Lighting, and Nature categories tend to have the most useful options for nature photographers. 3. Adjust the brush size and paint over the image to apply the adjustments. Elements will drop a “pin” onto the image that connects to the controls for the adjustment. 4. Right/Ctrl+click on the pin and choose Change Adjustment Settings to open the Adjust- ments panel containing the adjustment. Tweak any of the settings and the area you ini- tially brushed over will update immediately. 5. Use a combination of the Add to Selection and Remove from Selection icons , as well as the Refine Mask dialog to refine the mask. The tool Options bar also has controls to refine your brush settings. 6. If you’re not happy with an adjustment, right-click/Ctrl+click on the pin and choose Delete Adjustment. 7. To make additional Smart Brush adjustments, click the triangle on the left edge of the tool Options bar and choose Reset Tool. Start painting on an area to create a new adjustment. As you make additional adjustments, you can switch between them by either clicking on the appropriate pin or by right-clicking/Ctrl+clicking on any pin and choosing the desired pin from the context menu. 607343c06.indd 252 4/12/10 11:42:46 PM 253 ■ CURVES Curves The Curves adjustment in Photoshop has a reputation for being one of the most difficult controls to master. Although becoming comfortable with it can take some time and practice, it provides an incredible level of control over your images. It enables you to change the brightness values and contrast within your image by applying vary- ing degrees of adjustments to pixels of different tonal values. Simply put, you can con- centrate contrast or brightness modifications in certain tonal ranges. As with Levels, you can accomplish similar effects within ACR, but the Curves tool in Photoshop has some features that make it more convenient. The key to understanding the Curves adjustment is the concept of “before” and “after” values. All adjustments in Curves are based on shifting the value of all pix- els at (or near) a particular tonal value. Therefore, think in terms of brightening the midtones or darkening the highlights, for example, when working with Curves. The Curves dialog box shows a “curve” overlaid on a grid (see Figure 6.19), all of which is superimposed over the histogram. Of course, at first the curve isn’t a curve at all, but a straight line at a 45° angle. As you learn to “read” the curve, you’ll see that this 45° line represents no change in the image. The gradient along the bottom of the grid represents the before tonal values, and the gradient at the left shows the after values. If you follow a vertical line up from a specific tonal value on the gradient below the grid to the point that intersects the curve line, and then you follow in a straight line to the left until you reach the after gradient, at this point the before and after values are exactly the same. Changing the shape of the curve alters the relationship between the before and after values, resulting in a change in the appearance in your image. Figure 6.19 The Curves dialog box shows a “curve” that by default is actually a straight line at a 45° angle. The grid behind the curve line is provided simply for reference, and you can set it to either a 16-square grid or a 100-square grid. In general, the 16-square grid is preferred by those working in prepress, because they tend to think about quarter tones, midtones, and three-quarter tones. However, most photographers prefer the 100-square grid, and that is the setting we recommend. To toggle between the two settings, hold the Alt/Option key, and click the cursor anywhere within the grid. 607343c06.indd 253 4/12/10 11:42:46 PM 254 c h a p t e r 6: EXPOSURE ADJUSTMENTS ■ Keep in mind that changing the increments has absolutely no effect on the actual adjustment being applied. Clipping Preview To check for clipping, go to the Curves y-out menu and toggle on Show Clipping for Black and White Points, then click and drag the white or black points—that is, the points at either extreme of the curve. The image turns either nearly or all white, or nearly or all black. A white background is used to check for clipping in the shadows, and a black background is used to check for clipping in the highlights. Any areas where there is clipping will appear in color to indicate the particular channel that’s being clipped, and if all three channels are clipped, then the area will appear black or white—whichever is the opposite of the background color. This makes it easy to see where there’s any clipping and to decide whether you need to modify your adjustments to try to eliminate it. Sometimes the clipping will be in dark shadows that should be black or in specular highlights that should be pure white. At other times the clipping preview may show you that you’ve unintentionally lost detail in your subject. You can use the clipping preview to accurately set the white and black points in your image. Click the small white triangle on the bottom right of the histogram. The image will turn black. Then drag the triangle to the left until colored pixels begin to appear in the preview. Back the slider off until there is no clipping, if possible. That sets the white point. Repeat the process with the small black triangle on the bottom left of the histogram to set the black point. Dragging the triangles toward each other will increase the contrast in the image and eventually introduce clipping. Again, for the maximum amount of contrast in your image, drag these sliders toward the center until colored pixels appear, and then back off slightly. Then, to change the overall brightness of the image or to refine the contrast within a certain range of tonalities, apply anchor points to the curve. Anchor Points You use anchor points for changing relationships between the before and after values in your image, which in turn creates the actual tonal adjustment. Anchor points allow you to place a handle on a particular point on the curve and adjust its position. When you do so, Photoshop automatically smoothes out the curve to connect all the anchor points, providing a seamless transition in your adjustments. The curve always starts off with anchor points at the extreme ends. You can adjust the position of these points by setting the black points and white points within your image as we just described in the “Clipping Preview” section. To see the basic functionality of anchor points, position your mouse at about the middle of the curve, and click. This places an anchor point at that position; then you can drag it around to change the shape of the curve, as you can see in Figure 6.20. Move the anchor point upward to lighten the image and downward to darken the image. The result is similar to adjusting the midtones slider in Levels. It differs in that the tones closest to the point you moved on the curve are altered more than tones far- ther away from that point. In fact, the effect tapers off toward the ends of the curve. 607343c06.indd 254 4/12/10 11:42:46 PM . Anchor points allow you to place a handle on a particular point on the curve and adjust its position. When you do so, Photoshop automatically smoothes out the curve to connect all the anchor. or to refine the contrast within a certain range of tonalities, apply anchor points to the curve. Anchor Points You use anchor points for changing relationships between the before and after values. Rene Mask leads to a more gradual, and often more natural, transition. For Photoshop Elements Users: Smart Brushes Photoshop Elements provides two tools, the Smart Brush and the Detail Smart