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O’REILLY DIGITAL STUDIO
Professional Tips & Workflow Strategies for Using
Photoshop to Enhance Your Digital Photography Skills
Digital Photography
Expert Techniques
Ken Milburn
Best Picture
3
So you’ve taken the shot. Is that it? Certainly not. In the world of digital
photography, you can use a wide variety of techniques to “bring out” the best
picture possible from the shot you’ve taken. You might be wondering, “How
is that possible?” Well, in order to explain that, we should provide some back-
ground on how cameras differ from our own brains.
In this chapter
The human brain can process more color range at any given instant than a
computer monitor or a digital print can display. Our eyes don’t actually see
more range than film or digital sensors; rather, our brain instructs our eyes
to composite different areas of the image into a single whole. The brain does
this “multiple-exposure” blending so quickly that we think we are looking at
only one image.
Using the Photoshop File Browser
Using image management
programs
Making accurate corrections
The camera, on the other hand, doesn’t have our brain inside. It records only
one instant in time, which is why we are often so disappointed when we look
at a base picture. (“That’s not how I remember the color and the details!”)
And it gets worse: cameras are notorious for losing all the little details in the
highlights and shadows of a shot. Thankfully, we can use the camera and
the computer to minimize these deficiencies, and bring out a wider range of
brightness and colors in each of our digital photographs.
Keeping original images intact
Using layers
Minimizing duplicate files
Using special names
Maintaining file information
Archiving
For example, compare the differences between
Figures 3-1
,
3-2
, and
3-3
.
Figure 3-1
shows a landscape shot using the color range that you would
expect from a camera that saves to JPEG. As we mentioned in the previous
chapter, RAW files capture a far greater range of colors—you can see an
immediate difference in the color range of
Figure 3-2
.
Figure 3-3
shows what
the same photograph looks like after applying several of the techniques in
this chapter to bring out more detail.
59
Bringing Out the
Getting Started
Figure 3-1.
A landscape photo as a JPEG image sees it.
Figure 3-2.
The same image as a RAW file sees it. Again, look to the darkest and lightest
areas to see more detail.
60
Digital Photography: Expert Techniques
Getting Started
Figure 3-3.
The same image after applying some of the exposure techniques below. This picture has a tremendous
amount of detail.
Getting Started
Here are two tips that will get you the best results in any situation:
Super CCDs
The “Super CCD” sensor, pioneered
by Fuji and featured in several of
their latest prosumer cameras and
the new S3 Pro, uses two sensor
cells for each pixel position—one to
record highlights and the other for
shadows. These two “exposures”
are then blended by the camera
to automatically produce dynamic
range similar to that described in the
procedures on these pages.
1. If you use RAW files (and I hope you do), get in the habit of slightly
underexposing your shot. Then, adjust the RAW image using computer-
based software to show the widest range of brightness possible.
2. No matter what file format you use, make Photoshop exposure correc-
tions before any other image modifications.
Let’s look at these tips one at a time.
Underexposing and adjusting RAW images
If you shoot in RAW mode,
you always want to underexpose the shot
. This
may seem counterintuitive, but when you set the camera for slight under-
exposure, you minimize the chances that important details—such as the
highlights in backlit hair or the brightest clouds in the sky—will be washed
out to solid white. See
Figures 3-4
and
3-5
for a nice example of this. In that
case, I set my camera to underexpose by a half-stop. With this underexposed
shot, I can then bring up details in the shadows by using either the Levels
(Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Elements) or the Curves (Adobe
Photoshop only) tool when first opening an image.
Chapter 3, Bringing Out the Best Picture
61
Getting Started
Figure 3-4.
An image shot using the cameras
recommended exposure. Note the lack of detail in the
whitest petals.
Figure 3-5.
An image shot at -.5 exposure compensation.
Although the shot may appear a bit dark, the RAW file
converter can correct the overall exposure without losing
detail in the highlights.
Figure 3-6.
An image saved from the RAW file
converter with no adjustments.
Figure 3-7.
The same image after choosing settings in the
Photoshop Camera RAW plug-in.
62
Digital Photography: Expert Techniques
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