337 ■ CREATIVE EFFECTS 9 Creative Effects For some nature photographers, the goal is simply to take the best shot they can to document what they see and then to optimize it in Adobe Photoshop. That’s fine. Other photographers are latent artists at heart but may believe (rightly or wrongly) that they have no inherent ability to create art from a blank canvas. But given a camera as the starting point and a digital darkroom, they can make magic. Of course, creativity is an artistic form; not every technique appeals to every photo- grapher, and some images are more suited for one approach than another. As you read through this chapter, consider each technique as a jumping-off point for your own ideas rather than a cookbook approach to creative imagery. Chapter Contents Black and White Painterly Images Filters Digital Montages Digital Multiple Exposures Content-Aware Scaling 607343c09.indd 337 4/11/10 11:07:16 PM 338 c h a p t e r 9: CREATIVE EFFECTS ■ Black and White Some images lend themselves to black and white, to say nothing of the fact that right now black-and-white images are very popular. In fact, there is a timeless quality to many black-and-white prints. Converting to Black and White Digital sensors capture images in color, but there are a variety of ways that you can easily convert them into black and white. Although some folks may opt to simply desaturate their images by creating a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and sliding the Saturation slider all the way to the left, or by choosing Image > Mode > Grayscale, we don’t recommend those approaches because the results are often very flat and bland (see Figure 9.1). Instead, we recommend using the HSL options in ACR that we cov- ered in Chapter 3, “Adobe Camera Raw,” or using a Black & White adjustment layer or a Channel Mixer adjustment layer in Photoshop. We find that with some images we prefer the Channel Mixer and with others, the new Black & White tool. Both offer the ability to allow partial color to appear wherever desired. Figure 9.1 Simply desaturating, or just changing the mode to grayscale, often converts an image to a rather bland black-and- white version. Ph o to by Ell En Anon Converting Using the Black & White Adjustment Photoshop CS5 has a powerful Black & White adjustment. To access it, click on the icon in the Adjustments panel. We’ve found that this method is both robust and easy to use. It’s our favorite method of converting to black and white without using third-party software. 607343c09.indd 338 4/11/10 11:07:18 PM 339 ■ BLACK AND WHITE We often begin by clicking the Auto button. We can honestly say it’s one of the few times we check out an “auto” anything routinely! But Adobe did a good job figur- ing out the Auto algorithms. The Auto settings tend to be a little conservative for our taste, so we often proceed to tweak the sliders. An easy way to do this is to use the On-Screen adjus- tor. Click the On-Screen adjustor icon, and position and drag the cursor over the image to lighten or darken an area. Dragging to the right will make the area lighter, and dragging to the left will darken it. Of course, you can also manually tweak the sliders. At first glance, the order of the sliders may seem to be a bit random (see Figure 9.2), but if you envision a color wheel, it’s easy to see that each slider represents a portion of the color wheel, and neighboring sliders are adjacent on the color wheel. When you adjust these sliders, you think in terms of the individual colors in the color version of the image. If you want a color to be lighter in the black-and-white image, you increase the setting for the corre- sponding slider, and if you want it to be darker, you decrease it. The sliders can range from –200 to +300. Using extreme settings can sometimes lead to clipping, so be sure to check the histogram. Figure 9.2 Each of the sliders works on a particular range of colors to lighten or darken the tonality of those pixels. Note: The sliders in the Black & White tool do not work in conjunction with their opposites, as do some types of adjustments. So to darken a blue sky, you would decrease the settings for the blue and possibly the cyan sliders, but you would not need to change the yellow or red sliders (the opposites of blue and cyan). The Black & White adjustment also offers a choice of presets to create certain effects. You can select any of these presets and then continue to adjust the individual sliders to suit the particular image (see Figure 9.3). Black and White Some images lend themselves to black and white, to say nothing of the fact that right now black-and-white images are very popular. In fact, there is a timeless quality to many black-and-white prints. Converting to Black and White Digital sensors capture images in color, but there are a variety of ways that you can easily convert them into black and white. Although some folks may opt to simply desaturate their images by creating a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and sliding the Saturation slider all the way to the left, or by choosing Image > Mode > Grayscale, we don’t recommend those approaches because the results are often very flat and bland (see Figure 9.1). Instead, we recommend using the HSL options in ACR that we cov- ered in Chapter 3, “Adobe Camera Raw,” or using a Black & White adjustment layer or a Channel Mixer adjustment layer in Photoshop. We find that with some images we prefer the Channel Mixer and with others, the new Black & White tool. Both offer the ability to allow partial color to appear wherever desired. Figure 9.1 Simply desaturating, or just changing the mode to grayscale, often converts an image to a rather bland black-and- white version. Ph o to by Ell En Anon Converting Using the Black & White Adjustment Photoshop CS5 has a powerful Black & White adjustment. To access it, click on the icon in the Adjustments panel. We’ve found that this method is both robust and easy to use. It’s our favorite method of converting to black and white without using third-party software. 607343c09.indd 339 4/11/10 11:07:18 PM 340 c h a p t e r 9: CREATIVE EFFECTS ■ In addition to controlling the tonality of each color range, the Black & White tool makes it easy to tint the image by checking the Tint option box. This automati- cally applies a sepia tint to the image. Click the color swatch icon to access the Color Picker dialog, and choose any color you wish to use as the tint. We often move the Color Picker selection a bit to the left toward a less saturated color to create a more subdued sepia tone. Converting to Black and White via the Channel Mixer Recall from Chapter 8, “Composites,” that when you wanted to make a selection of part of an image, you could look at the Red, Green, and Blue channels and see what information was in each. You can use this same information to help convert to black and white. The Channel Mixer allows you to specify how much information you want each channel to contribute to the final image. It’s a good idea to begin by opening the Channels panel and clicking each channel individually to see what detail is present in each (see Figure 9.4). That will give you an idea of where to begin in the Channel Mixer. Figure 9.3 We converted this image to various black-and-white renditions by beginning with several of the presets and tweaking the slider values. Ph o to by Ell En Anon 607343c09.indd 340 4/11/10 11:07:22 PM 341 ■ BLACK AND WHITE Red channel Green channel Final image Blue channel Figure 9.4 Check each channel to see what information it is contributing to the nal image. Ph o to by Ell En Anon To convert an image to black and white using the Channel Mixer adjustment, take the following steps: 1. Return to the Adjustments panel and choose the Channel Mixer adjustment . 2. Check the Monochrome box. 3. Begin with the default settings or click in the Preset drop-down menu to try the various presets. 4. Modify the percentages from each channel to create a more dramatic black- and-white version of your file. You can choose settings from –200% to +200% for each channel. As you adjust one, you’re likely to need to tweak the other settings. Usually it’s best to have the percentages from the three channels total close to 100%. Sometimes we go a little beyond 100% for a more contrasty image with a lot of punch, but you have to make sure you’re not sacrificing image detail for increased contrast (see Figure 9.5). When you go above 100%, a warning triangle with an exclamation point appears by the Total percentage. 5. Usually we leave the Constant option at its default of 0, but moving it to the left darkens the image, and moving it to the right lightens it. 607343c09.indd 341 4/11/10 11:07:25 PM 342 c h a p t e r 9: CREATIVE EFFECTS ■ Figure 9.5 Experiment with the settings for each channel to create a black-and-white image with considerable impact. When you first open a Channel Mixer adjustment layer and check the Mono- chrome box, the default values are Red = 100, Green = 0, and Blue = 0. Although this is a good starting place for many images, most of the time you will want to further adjust the sliders. Often the Red channel provides the most contrast, but it’s likely you may find some information in the Green or Blue channels that you want to emphasize; if so, you may increase those channels somewhat. When you increase one channel, you may need to decrease the other channels. You may even choose to increase one channel dramatically and then use a negative value for the other channels. Make these deci- sions based on your taste and the characteristics of the individual image. Often noise is more prominent in the Blue channel, so if noise is a problem in your image, you may opt to use a negative value there. There really are no typical values that apply to most images. After a little experimentation with the settings for each channel, you’ll have a dramatic black-and-white image. With the presets that are available in Photoshop CS5, we often find it helpful to consider several versions of an image. If you’re not certain that the values you have selected are the best possible combination, click the Snapshot button in the History panel to take a snapshot of the image this way. Then readjust the sliders in the Channel Mixer and try a new combination of values or one of the presets. You can repeat this process as many times as you desire. To go back to an earlier snapshot, return to the top of the History panel and click the desired snap- shot, as shown in Figure 9.6. Note that snapshots disappear when you close the image. Figure 9.6 By taking snapshots of previous combinations of settings in the Channel Mixer, you can try a variety of settings and choose which one you prefer. Note: Because you used an adjustment layer to convert the image to black and white, as long as you save the image with the layers intact, you can go back and modify the settings. 607343c09.indd 342 4/11/10 11:07:26 PM 343 ■ BLACK AND WHITE For Photoshop Elements Users: Converting to Black and White Photoshop Elements has its own Convert to Black and White tool, which works similarly to the Channel Mixer. Open it by choosing Enhance > Convert to Black and White. Ph o to by Jo sh An o n At the bottom of the dialog, you will find various presets on the left and sliders on the right to adjust the amount that each channel contributes to the image, as well as a contrast adjustment slider. Hold your mouse over a slider to access a tooltip that will indicate the percentage value for the given slider. Click OK when you are pleased with the results. Colorizing Black-and-White Images You may be quite content with the black-and-white rendition of your image, or you may want to experiment with adding color back into your image, depending on the effect you’re after. For example, you may decide that you’d like to emphasize one particular aspect of the picture by having it in the original color while the rest of the picture remains black and white. This look—popular in greeting cards—is incredibly easy. All you need to do is select the Brush tool, set it to black, make sure the Channel Mixer or Black & White adjustment layer is active (highlighted) and that the mask is selected (has a little outline around it), then paint over the areas you want to be in color (see Figure 9.7). Use the sliders and options within the Masks panel to perfect the edges of the area you’re masking. It’s that simple! 607343c09.indd 343 4/11/10 11:07:26 PM . WHITE For Photoshop Elements Users: Converting to Black and White Photoshop Elements has its own Convert to Black and White tool, which works similarly to the Channel Mixer. Open it by choosing. black-and- white version. Ph o to by Ell En Anon Converting Using the Black & White Adjustment Photoshop CS5 has a powerful Black & White adjustment. To access it, click on the icon in the Adjustments. adjustment also offers a choice of presets to create certain effects. You can select any of these presets and then continue to adjust the individual sliders to suit the particular image (see Figure