AIM: Photoshop v 6.0, Blend Using Gamma 1.0

Accurate Image Manipulation for Desktop Publishing Photoshop

by Timo Autiokari

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AIM: Photoshop v 6.0, Blend Using Gamma 1.0

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The Coverage of the Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma -optionThe Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma option is a new feature in Photoshop 6.0 (in Advanced Color-Management, go to Edit/ColorSettings... and select the Advanced check-box). The description that Photoshop shows for this option is:

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The description is not fully correct since this option also enables correct colors all over the image, not just the fewest artifacts at the edges.

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This page demonstrates the effect of the Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 1.0 option and compares the result with a GaussianBlur filter that also blends RGB colors but is not covered by the option, that is the case at least for all the filter operations but possibly for many other editing operations too.

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Please download the examples (6kB zip archive) in case you want to duplicate the results on your own computer.

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Layer Blending in Normal mode using Opacity 50%

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Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 1.0 option set OFF
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Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 1.0 option set ON
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To reproduce the above on your computer:

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1 Download the material and extract it to a folder.

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2 Set your working-space to Adobe RGB (1998) in Edit/ColorSettings.

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3 Open the example01.psd.

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4 Go again to Edit/ColorSettings and select the Advanced check box, the dialog will expand a little. Drag the dialog so that you can see the example01.psd.

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5 Verify that the Preview check-box is selected.

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6 Now toggle the Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 1.0 option ON and OFF.

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Amazingly the colorimetricly incorrect blending (with the Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 1.0 option set to OFF) blends the colors from the two layers to rather dark gray values. The correct blending (with the Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 1.0 option set to ON) produces rather saturated hues.

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The colors for this example are naturally well chosen, they show how very large the hue error can be. This behavior, blending incorrectly to gray is not at all the only type of error that is induced by blending the colors in a non-linear working-space, all colors will blend incorrectly producing varying amount of hue errors.

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Gaussian Blur example

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The Gaussian Blur filter is an averaging function, in regards to the issue of blending the RGB colors the only difference to the above 50% layer blending is that the source data for the Gaussian Blur averaging is taken spatially from the single layer that the Gaussian Blur is applied.

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The below example shows the result of GaussianBlur when applied over the color pattern (shown by the background -layer) in in the non-linear AdobeGamma color-space and in the linear AIM RGB color-space. The colors of the pattern are the same colors as the leftmost section in the layer blending example above.

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Gaussian Blur results in AdobeRGB and in AIM RGB
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To reproduce the Gaussian Blur experiment on your computer:

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1 Download the material (in case you didn't do so already) and extract it to a folder.

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2 Exit Photoshop.

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3 Copy the linear AIM RGB.ICM profile from the archive to the c:\windows\system\color -folder.

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4 Start Photoshop.

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5 Set your working-space to Adobe RGB (1998) in Edit/ColorSettings.

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6 Open the example02.psd.

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7 Duplicate the background layer twice.

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8 Apply Gaussian Blur at 10px on the Background copy -layer. This is the result in the non-linear Adobe RGB (1998).

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9 Profile convert the image to AIM RGB (do Image / Mode / Convert-to-Profile... and select the AIM RGB -profile from the Destination Space dropdown.

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10 Apply Gaussian Blur at 10px now on the Background copy 2 -layer. This is the result in the linear AIM RGB.
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Now compare the results between the the Gaussian Blur operations and the above layer blending example (leftmost section).
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GaussianBlur applied while the data was in the non-linear Adobe RGB working-space results the same* incorrect gray as the layer blending with the Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 1.0 option set to OFF.
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Applying the GaussianBlur while the data was in the linear AIM RGB working-space results the same* correct hue as the layer blending with the Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 1.0 option set to ON.
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* small difference is due to round-off errors
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Conclusion: The Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 1.0 -option does not cover all the editing operations correctly.
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Blending black and white
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This example is a simple gray blending demonstrating the behaviour of the vision and how the working -space gamma affects to it.
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The example document bw-blend.psd is in the non-linear AdobeRGB(1998) color-space.
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The left section is on its own layer and is composed by alternating black (level 0) and white (level 255) lines.
The working-space gamma does not affect at all to the apperance of this dither since gamma does not affect to the end-points of the range. When this dither is viewed at a distance of about 1 meter (3 feets) the vision will blend it to 50% gray.
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The right section of the bw-blend.psd is composed by two layers, lower layer being black (level 0) and on top of it a white (level 255) layer in normal more and 50% opacity.
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So, both sections should appear to have the same luminance when the image editing (here layer blending) is correctly performed.
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Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 1.0 option set OFF

Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 1.0 option set ON

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To reproduce the black and white dithering example on your computer:

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1 Download the material (in case you didn't do so already) and extract it to a folder.

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2 Set your working-space to Adobe RGB (1998) in Edit/ColorSettings.

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3 Open the bw-blend.psd.

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4 Go again to Edit/ColorSettings and select the Advanced check box, the dialog will expand a little. Drag the dialog so that you can see the bw-blend.psd.

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5 Verify that the Preview check-box is selected.

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6 Now toggle the Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma 1.0 option ON and OFF.

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7 Conclusion: also gray blending is correct only when linear image data is manipulated.

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Link: by © Timo Autiokari, 2001-2007

Link: Download AIM Profiles by © Timo Autiokari

Link: by © RETOUCH Pro

Luminosity Masks Part I

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I n t r o d u c t i o n
by © Tony Kuyper
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The first I heard of luminosity masks was in a spam email I received several years ago inviting me to sign up for a Photoshop seminar. Since I had little inclination to attend the pricey seminar, Google provided me with a general idea of what a luminosity mask was and how to create it. In the months and years that followed, I created several different versions of these masks that made them more useful. I'm now at the point that I use luminosity masks in every image I work on in Photoshop. (Note: Information on other Photoshop techniques I frequently use have also been added to this website: Saturation Masks, Digital Scheimpflug, and Cloning Color, Retaining Texture.)
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Luminosity masks are an excellent way to help define a personal vision of a scene. They have the ability to overcome shortcomings in the tonal values that were captured by the camera or film and to correct tones that shifted during image manipulation. While luminosity masks are created in Photoshop, they aren't available from the drop-down menus and can't be created with tools in Photoshop's Tools palette. The two primary masks, "Lights" and "Darks", are very easy to create. From there, however, it becomes more complex as the various selections are intersected and subtracted. But don't worry. This tutorial will tell you how to do all the necessary steps to create a wide array of very useful masks. In addition, the last page of this tutorial will tell you how to get the set of Photoshop actions I use to create the masks. The actions greatly simplify the process of generating the masks; a couple of clicks and you're done. Once you know the necessary steps, you can create your own actions or use mine There are also plug-ins and actions that you can find and download from the Internet if you're so inclined.
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Before going too far, I should mention that I work on a Windows-based computer using Photoshop CS. The instructions in this tutorial will be given with those parameters in mind. Some facility with Photoshop will be assumed. While the details of the processes will be explained, I won't attempt to provide definitions of every Photoshop term or how to perform common steps. There are many reference guides to Photoshop that can help you, including the User Guide and the embedded "Help" menu in Photoshop, but if you've worked (or played) with Photoshop, you're probably familiar enough with the program to do the necessary steps. Additionally, I prefer to use Photoshop shortcut keys whenever possible. These are a combination of the Shift, Ctrl, and/or Alt keys being held down at the same time and, while continuing to hold them down, hitting a letter, number, or symbol on the key board. The ones I list will be the defaults that come programmed into Photoshop. If you've altered your shortcut keys to change the defaults, it's assumed you're smart enough to know what your corresponding shortcut is or can at least restore the defaults. Mac users will hopefully know or can look up the corresponding key combinations for their computers. There are usually drop-down menu commands that correspond to the shortcut keys, but these often become more complex than the shortcut keys, so I generally don't use them. I also like the classic Windows look to my programs with neutral gray colors, so the screen captures might look a little old-fashioned.

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YOU ARE HERE — Introduction!!!
NEXT—The Basic Mask—"Lights"
Understanding Masks
Using the "Lights" Mask
Different Masks for Different Tones
Experimentation is the Key
Getting the Actions
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Link: by © Tony Kuyper
- For More Info on retouching go to » RETOUCH Pro 001
- For More Info on retouching go to » RETOUCH Pro 002

Luminosity Masks Part II

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The Basic Mask—"L i g h t s"

by © Tony Kuyper
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Luminosity masks are nothing more than selections based on the brightness values of the image. The basic luminosity mask, called "Lights", selects pixels in proportion to their brightness in the image. There are three different ways to create this basic luminosity mask (Figure 1). I'll list all three alternatives, but you only need to do one of them to create the selection.

1. Type Alt-Ctrl+~. Hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys and hit the "tilde" which is just to the left of the number "1" key on the keyboard.

2. Ctrl+click the RGB channel. Hold down the Ctrl key and click thumbnail image of the RGB channel.

3. Drag the RGB channel to the Load Selection button at the bottom of the Channels palette.

Figure 1

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The marching ants appear on the image to define the selection (Figure 2). Since Photoshop only puts marching ants around pixels that are at least 50% selected, and since this selection is based on the brightness of the image, the marching ants only appear around pixels that are equivalent to 50% gray or brighter. I'll discuss this in more detail later. For now it should be obvious that the marching ants are enclosing the lighter areas of the image.
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Figure 2

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Once you've created the selection of the light areas of the image, it's a good idea to save it.

To do this:

1. Click the Save Selection button at the bottom of the Channels palette. A channel called "Alpha 1" will appear in the Channels palette (Figure 3).
2. Double click on the name "Alpha 1" and type "Lights" and then hit the ENTER key to rename this channel (Figure 4).
3. Click the RGB Channel to make it active and to restore the color view of the image (Figure 4).
4. Type Ctrl+D to turn off the marching ants.
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Figure 3

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Figure 4

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That's it! This is all that's needed to create the luminosity mask for the light areas of the image. It took a bit of writing to explain, but once you try it you'll see how easy it really is.

Technically, what was actually created in the above steps was an alpha channel of the selection. It won't actually be a mask until it's applied to a layer in the Layers palette. However, masks and alpha channels look entirely the same, they just reside on different palettesaa, so I'll be using the term "mask" to describe both from here on.

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Introduction!!!
YOU ARE HERE — The Basic Mask—"Lights"
NEXT—Understanding Masks
Using the "Lights" Mask
Different Masks for Different Tones
Experimentation is the Key
Getting the Actions
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Link: by © Tony Kuyper
- For More Info on retouching go to » RETOUCH Pro 001
- For More Info on retouching go to » RETOUCH Pro 002

Luminosity Masks Part III

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Understanding Masks

2006 by © Tony Kuyper

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To appreciate the usefulness of this mask and other luminosity masks, it's important to understand exactly what masks are and how they work. Selections are normally created in Photoshop using the Marquee, Magic Wand, and Lasso tools. Typically these selection tools create pure black and white masks. That is, if you were to hit the "Save selection" button on the Channels palette after using one of these selection tools, the mask would be filled with only pure black and pure white with sharply defined edges. Blurring, feathering, and anti-aliasing can introduce some gray tones for a less abrupt transition, but for the most part, the mask remains mostly all black and white (Figure 5).
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Figure 5
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Masks are routinely used in combination with layers in Photoshop, and the rule for masks is that "white reveals and black conceals." Pure white in the mask allows the corresponding pixels on the layer to be completely visible in the image. Pure black on the mask blocks the corresponding pixels on the layer from appearing in the image. It's important to understand that the blocking effect of black in the mask only occurs on the layer to which the mask is applied. If pixels are blocked from appearing on one layer, Photoshop sequentially looks down to the layers below to find unblocked pixels it can display. Black areas of the mask essentially tell Photoshop to look lower in the layer stack for what the pixel should look like. Shades of gray in a mask allow pixels to appear in the image in proportion to how light or how dark the gray value is. A mask that is 50% gray, for example, allows pixels on that layer to be visible in the image at half their normal opacity. Photoshop will have to find the other half from unblocked pixels deeper in the layer stack. Darker gray values in the mask allow proportionally less of the layer to show and lighter gray values proportionally more.

So now let's take a closer look at the "Lights" luminosity mask that was created. By clicking on the thumbnail image of the "Lights" channel or on the word "Lights" to the right of the thumbnail, the mask itself is now visible on the main image area in Photoshop (Figure 6). You can see that it is a perfect grayscale positive of the image and contains very little pure white and pure black. It is composed of shades of gray that perfectly mirror the brightness values in the image. As such, when this mask is applied to an adjustment layer, it will reveal the effect of the adjustment most on the brightest pixels in the image (white reveals) and proportionally less as the pixels get darker (black conceals). This leads to one of the most important properties of luminosity masks: they are completely self-feathering. The effect on the image will be obvious, but there will be no way to tell where the effect begins and where it ends. There are no hard edges like with Photoshop's selection tools and no need to try and make a perfect selection. Because the luminosity mask was created from the image itself, it has the perfect gradation of shades to insure that each and every pixel will be affected in exact proportion to its brightness.

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Figure 6

Introduction!!!
The Basic Mask—"Lights"
YOU ARE HERE — Understanding Masks
NEXT—Using the "Lights" Mask
Different Masks for Different Tones
Experimentation is the Key
Getting the Actions
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Link: by © Tony Kuyper
- For More Info on retouching go to » RETOUCH Pro 001
- For More Info on retouching go to » RETOUCH Pro 002

Luminosity Masks Part IV

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Using the "Lights" Mask
by © Tony Kuyper

A good way to see how the "Lights" luminosity mask works is with an image called "Zion Narrows" that I posted in an online discussion/critique forum. There were several comments that it looked a little overexposed. This suggested that the light areas of the image might be a little too bright, so using the "Lights" mask was one possible solution. An adjustment through the mask would allow me to correct this perceived brightness by darkening the image's light areas since the mask would be correspondingly light and revealing of the adjustment. It would at the same time protect the shadows from getting too dark since the mask would also be darker and therefore concealing of the adjustment in these areas. In other words, the mask allows the adjustment to affect predominantly the light areas of the image while at the same time sparing the dark areas. The process for using the "Lights" mask is relatively straightforward and goes like this:

First create the "Lights" mask as previously described in the The Basic Mask—"Lights" section.

Then, and this is very important, make sure the mask is loaded as a selection. If you're using my actions (available at the end of this tutorial) to create a luminosity mask, the mask is created, placed on the Channels palette, and given the proper name. However, it is not an active selection; there are no marching ants. In order to actually use the luminosity mask with an adjustment layer, it is necessary to properly load it to make the mask an active selection. This is done using any one of the following methods (Figure 7):

• Type Alt-Ctrl+number. Hold down the Alt and Ctrl keys and type the number of the mask's corresponding channel in the Channels palette (Alt-Ctrl+4 in this case).
• Drag the channel to the Load Selection button at the bottom of the Channels palette.
• Ctrl+click the thumbnail image or the channel name. (NOTE: Do not Ctrl+click on the eyeball square to the left of the thumbnail image as this does not load the channel as a selection.)

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Figure 7

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Once the ants of the selection are marching again, move to the Layers palette. At the bottom of the layers palette is a half white/half black circle which is the "Create new adjustment layer" button. Click it and choose "Curves . . ." from the pop-up menu that appears (Figure 8).
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Figure 8

A new layer immediately appears on the Layers palette with a mask in place that matches the "Lights" mask, which was the active selection. Simultaneously a Curves dialog box appears (Figure 9).

Figure 9

Make the adjustment in the Curves dialog box to darken the highlights and click "OK". Figure 10 shows the curve I chose and the results with the mask in place. The "white reveals" rule for masks insures that the adjustment occurs mainly in the light areas of the image. For comparison, I've also shown the results with the mask disabled. Although it might be difficult to see on a monitor, if you look closely you should be able to make out that without the "black conceals" moderating effect of the mask, the dark areas in the image get significantly darker as a result of the adjustment.
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Figure 10
Introduction!!!
The Basic Mask—"Lights"
Understanding Masks
YOU ARE HERE — Using the "Lights" Mask
NEXT—Different Masks for Different Tones
Experimentation is the Key
Getting the Actions
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Link: by © Tony Kuyper
- For More Info on retouching go to » RETOUCH Pro 001
- For More Info on retouching go to » RETOUCH Pro 002

Luminosity Masks Part V

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Different Masks for Different Tones

by © Tony Kuyper

The self-feathering feature of the luminosity masks makes them incredibly useful. It's like making the perfect selection each and every time with no effort at all. No zooming-in to make sure all the necessary pixels are included in the selection and no need to go back and touch up the edges of selections after the adjustment is made. The luminosity mask takes care of all that. In addition, the "Lights" mask is only the starting point for the different types of luminosity masks that can be created. The "Lights" mask is useful if you want to adjust the light areas of the image, but the shadows and mid-tones frequently need adjustment too. From the basic "Lights" luminosity mask, a large number of additional masks can be generated that target these other brightness levels in the image. I'll list them below and describe how they are made. Using this information you should be able to make a series of Photoshop actions to create the various masks. Information on how to obtain a set of actions for all the luminosity masks is available on the last page of the tutorial. With an action set, you simply need to run the action for a particular mask and it's ready to use.

I've chosen a different image to illustrate the various luminosity masks, one that is less abstract and therefore easier to see the features in the masks. As you look at the various masks, you will always see a grayscale outline of the original image. Selections from these masks, as a result, will have the perfect tonal gradation so that adjustments made using the masks will blend in seamlessly.

Figure 11 shows the four masks that target the bright areas of the image:

• "Lights"
• "Light Lights"
• "Bright Lights"
• "Super Lights"

They are created by progressively intersecting selections of the same mask. Intersection is when Photoshop creates a new selection by finding the pixels that two selections have in common. To use it, load a mask as a selection as described in Figure 7 in the Using the "Lights" Mask section. Once the ants are marching, Shift-Alt-Ctrl+click on the same mask to do the intersection operation. In this way, the "Light Lights" mask comes from intersecting the "Lights" mask with itself. The "Bright Lights" mask comes from intersecting the "Light Lights" mask with itself, and so on. Each gradually narrows the pixels selected to brighter and brighter areas of the image. Check the "Super Lights" mask in Figure 11. Dark values in the mask are essentially black. Details can only be seen in the lightest values of the image, so only the very lightest areas will be affected on an adjustment layer with this mask in place. Still, the light areas of the image can be seen as a grayscale positive in the mask which tells you that the selection generated from this mask will be perfectly feathered for whatever adjustments are made using it.

Figure 11

The "Light" Luminosity Masks. From Left to Right, masks when loaded as selection will restrict adjustments to lighter and lighter areas of the image.

While the "Lights" mask would seem like a good one to use in adjusting the light areas of the image, "Light Lights" and "Bright Lights" often work better. There is a lot of gray in the dark values of the "Lights" mask, so adjustments through this mask significantly bleed into the image's dark values. The "Light Lights" and "Bright Lights" frequently do a better job of isolating the adjustment to just the light values since the dark values of the image are darker gray or even black in these masks.

Now for the darks. The primary "Darks" mask is simply the inverse of the "Lights" mask (Shift-Ctrl+I after loading the "Lights" mask as a selection). Then once again progressively intersect the masks with themselves to create narrower and narrower selections of the dark areas of the image. The resulting masks are called:

• "Darks"
• "Dark Darks"
• "Shadow Darks"
• "Super Darks"

Since the "Darks" luminosity mask is the inverse of the "Lights" mask, these are all negatives of the image. Each progressively restricts the selection to darker and darker image pixels (Figure 12). In the mask for the "Super Darks", bright areas in the image are essentially black meaning they'll remain unaffected by any adjustment applied using the mask. In a manner similar to the masks for the light areas, "Dark Darks" and "Shadow Darks" often work best for isolating adjustments to the dark values in the image.

Figure 12

The Mid-Tones" Luminosity Masks. From Left to Right, masks when loaded as selection will restrict adjustments to wider and wider areas of Mid-Tones in the image.

The mid-tones are a little trickier to get at, but lead to some very useful masks. You have to first select the entire image (Ctrl+A) and then subtract off one light and one dark mask. Subtraction is accomplished by an Alt-Ctrl+click on whatever mask you want to subtract. When you remove the light and dark tones of an image, you're left with mid-tones. For the masks included in the downloadable actions, I've chosen to progressively subtract the masks in the order they're listed above. Here are the mid-tone masks:

• "Basic Mid-Tones" = "Lights" and "Darks" subtracted from the entire image
• "Expanded Mid-tones" = "Light Lights" and "Dark Darks" subtracted from the entire image
• "Wide Mid-tones" = "Bright Lights" and "Shadow Darks" subtracted from the entire image
• "Super Mid-tones" = "Super Lights" and "Super Darks" subtracted from the entire image

Figure 13 shows that the masks for the mid-tones get progressively lighter as more and more pixels are included in what the selection defines as a mid-tone. You could obviously choose a variety of ways to make a mid-tones mask since there are four each of the dark and light masks to choose for subtraction. The ones listed here are a good starting point. To target different tones, you can always subtract or add (Shift-Ctrl+click) additional dark and light masks to the initial mid-tones selection. My experience is that the "Basic Mid-tones" and "Expanded Mid-tones" masks work well for most mid-tones adjustments. The "Wide" and "Super Mid-tones" can be useful when creatively combining masks.

Figure 13

Photoshop: Christian Schmidt Look

portfolio series by © Christian Schmidt

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portfolio series by © Christian Schmidt
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portfolio series by © Christian Schmidt
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portfolio series by © Christian Schmidt
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portfolio series by © Christian Schmidt
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portfolio series by © Christian Schmidt
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portfolio series by © Christian Schmidt
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portfolio series by © Christian Schmidt
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portfolio series by © Christian Schmidt
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For all the lazy peeps, a recap of post #42:

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I am way too helpful with this- Download this www.aim-dtp.net/aim/download/aim_profiles.zip

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- Unzip

- Right click the profiles, and choose "Install". This makes them avail. in PS. (it's the AIM RGB we're looking for)
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- Open a picture

- Edit - Convert to profile -> Adobe RGB (1998)

- Edit - Assign profile - AIM RGB
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-.and again
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- Edit - Convert to profile -> Adobe RGB (1998)

- Edit - Assign profile - AIM RGB

- Duplicate Background layer
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- Set copy to Multiply- Still on copy -> Blending Options - Alt-click "Underlying Layer" and drag the white(on the right) slider to about 112

- Add a Curves layer, and drag the black slider to about "Input 25".
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- Take a bow!!!
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- For More Info on retouching go to » RETOUCH Pro 001

..re: © pixelhunter
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----------------------------------> Additional tips

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Surely. It's really nothing more than a series of small tweaks pushing towards the end result by correcting what I see is "wrong" with the photo. Here's what I did:
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Profile conversion: Convert, Apply, Convert, Apply, dupe, multiply, blend if, curves.
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Result is too warm - Color balance layer: -15, -2, +55
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Walls are too dark - Levels layer: 0, 1.25, 236 (input)
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Still too warm - Curves layer: R midpoint 128/132, B midpoint 128/113 (Output/Input)
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Highlights blown out - Dupe b/g, levels within duped layer, 0, 232 (output)
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Shadows too green - H/S layer, Greens -100 saturation, all colors with the exception of blue and cyan pulled down somewhat, overall saturation -23.
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Done.
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All the numbers stated above are the exact numbers from the layers in my PSD. They work for this image (and by work I mean got me the result I was looking for), but they'd be completely different for a different image. I arrived at each value by seeing what I didn't like about the current state of my image and moving sliders and bending curves until it looked "right." This may not be the fastest, easiest, or even the best way to go about it, but that's the approach that I often use and I've found that it often gets me the results I want.
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Best of luck!

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- For More Info on retouching go to » RETOUCH Pro 001
...re: © Michael Bonner

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----------------------------------> Additional tips

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1. Create blank layer. Fill with pure white. Apply in Colour blending mode. Back down opacity a little so that the result is not B&W. Mask the layer, and use a very faint grey brush to bring back some of the colour in the stairs and anywhere else you feel needs it (like the black handrails and the aluminium below it).

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2. Create a curves adjustment layer and tweak the shadows and highlights to even out greys and prevent burn out in the whites.

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3. Use a graduated neutral density layer (i.e. dark grey to light grey) with dark at the bottom and light at the top applied in soft light blending mode. Adjust opacity to taste. This reverses the acutal lighting and makes the image steadily brighter towards the top of the escalator.

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4. Merge all of this, make a duplicate and apply in soft light blending mode (just a few % opacity) to increase contrast a tiny bit more.

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5. Using whatever method you prefer to make a very slight "soft focus" glow to give the whites and metal a slight pearly look.
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Thats it.

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- For More Info on retouching go to » RETOUCH Pro 001

..re: © Verywierd

Photoshop by © Amy Dresser

Originally Posted by Amy Dresser

For the record, I get asked about my methods pretty regularly. I'm not opposed to sharing my them, but i think most are underwhelmed by my approach. They expect me to say "blippity blap layer at whatever mode= voilà!" When in reality, i don't have much for short cuts. The images i work on is purely labor over.

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There's nothing cool about clients showing me a blurry raw image and saying "make this look like THAT" while pointing to a photo that has completely different lighting and shot with a super high-end camera. My approach is far from beeline, and much more touchy-feely and gradual. Unfortunately, the more a photographer gets used to the idea of retouching, the lazier some of them get. The example I'm sharing was a fantastic photo to start with, so it didn't need any damage control-- just the fun stuff.

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Before i do any retouching... I adjust the overall color of a photo (no point in retouching anything that will be blown out or hidden in shadows in the end). Most of my color adjustments are through curves (i adjust the individual channels) and an occasional hue/sat layer--- just personal taste. typically desaturate the reds a bit... as most peoples' flaws are reddish in nature, this diminishes some the areas vs. actual bumps. Also, i'm a bigger fan of desaturated images vs. saturated ones... i think i can control the shape of things better when i don't have to worry about weird saturation drop-offs.I usually work an image up in an all over and gradual manner... kind of general to specific. I refine color as i go along, carve features and remove blemishes sort of all at the same time. This way, if don't spend as much time as i'd like, the image should be fairly presentable if the deadline is sooner rather than later.

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Here are the general things i do:Rubber stamp out major stuff (on a copy of the original layer of course) at 100% on normal mode. I make sure that all the cloning i do is completely unnoticeable. No big blur blobs all over the place or step-marks. Not a fan of the healing brush either. Dodge and burn small light and dark spots and areas... anything that distracts and jumps out at me-- always set on midtones at about 3-4% with the fuzziest brush you got with "other dynamics" selected so the pen pressure is in effect. This is where i spend the bulk of my time. To speed this up, i have programmed the 2 buttons on my pen to be the short cuts for decrease brush size and increase brush size. Even out the skin tones to be basically the same hue, saturation through out a figure/face/image. i'll use the lasso with a fat amount feathering on it and circle/trace areas that i want to adjust. Again, i favor curves. These typically will be very subtle in nature... with the middle of a channel's curve just pulled up or down a notch or 2.

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Carving and painting highlights:

I refer to already existing highlights and exaggerate and/or simplify them. This is one of those things that will come naturally if you've done a lot of figure drawing, otherwise, it just takes practice. I have a few methods of doing this and sometimes i use one... sometimes more.

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1 » more dodging and burning! I almost always do some amount of carving directly on the retouched image by dodging and burning– pure and simple. 0% hardness brush, still at about 3%. It's a good idea to do this on a second copy of the retouched layer just in case i get carried away and something starts to look weird. In case the client says "woah, too much!"-- it's easy to lightly mask out what's overkill.

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2 » make 2 curves layers... one curve pulled down, the other pulled up. I fill both masks black and then paint in areas on the individual layers that i want to carve down or up (0% hardness on the brush, 100% opacity, 1% flow). This is method make a low-impact on your file size, but i dislike it because i have to switch back and forth between layers.

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3 » make a new layer, fill with 50% grey and set that layer to "overlay" and paint black or white (again, 0% hardness on the brush, 100% opacity, 1% flow) to carve down or up. This method sometimes adds more saturation to the carved shadows than i would prefer.

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4 » plain old painting white on an empty layer set to "normal"-- 0% hardness on the brush, 100% opacity, 1% flow, "other dynamics" selected. I do this to every image i work on.

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5 » this may possibly be my only "trick." This has to be done as a final step or it will magnify any so-called-flaws that are white in nature. Make a new empty layer on top of everything. with pure white selected as the foreground color in the tool bar go to Select > Color Range. The whites of the image should already be selected by default. Move the fuzziness slider so the slightest dusting of selection will be made (click selection radio vs. image radio), hit OK. Fill this selection with white. Mask or erase out what is too much. sometimes i blur this layer a bit.

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And that's it.

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For More Info on retouching go to » R E T O U C H Pro

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Speedlite 580EX II's External Automatic Flash Exposure Sensor And Your EOS Camera

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Speedlite 580EX II's External Automatic Flash Exposure Sensor And Your EOS Camera

Canon’s latest high-end Speedlite 580 EX II has a couple of features long requested by serious amateurs and professionals. One of these is an external automatic flash exposure sensor, which provides the option of automatic flash – but not TTL (Through The Lens). Instead, the flash controls its output similar to older “thyristor” flash units many pros used in years past.

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The Speedlite 580EX II now has an external automatic flash exposure sensor - a great option for different types of shooting

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Far from being a throw-back to the good old days, this is a viable option for different types of shooting. One example is providing automatic exposure when a flash is positioned off-camera, especially if it’s triggered by a third-party radio or infrared remote system. Likewise, it will provide automatic flash when triggered by conventional flash slave. Additionally, some users may find that it provides less fussy and more consistent flash exposures for ordinary on-camera flash with indoor scenes where you aren’t trying to balance flash and ambient light.

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Traditional non-TTL automatic flash:

The Canon Speedlite 580EX II can perform this with any EOS camera, film or digital. We’ll explain how to set the speedlite to this mode in a moment. With yesterday’s “thyristor” type auto flashes, the photographer would dial-in his or her ISO setting on the flash unit, and in some cases, would also choose one of a few available distance range settings (for instance, the popular Vivitar 283 flashes had a red color-coded range, good from about 3 to 30 feet for direct flash). A little scale told the photographer where to set the lens aperture when the flash was set to a particular distance range. The flash would vary its output by literally using its front-facing sensor to read reflected flash illumination as it returned from the subject. When the sensor “thought” enough light had returned, it instantly sent a stop signal to the flash. The result was brief flash durations when close to a subject, and longer, brighter durations when shooting something farther away.

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This type of automatic flash has worked for many photographers for several decades. While there is no question a modern TTL flash and camera can combine to perform tasks simply not possible using an external flash sensor (like automatically balancing ambient and flash exposure), auto flash using an external sensor is a proven method of flash exposure control. The Speedlite 580EX II now gives users this option.

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Setting external auto flash with the 580EX II using the EOS-1D Mark III:

This can seem tricky, since simply pressing the flash unit’s Mode button will not call up the external flash options. To do this, you must activate the 580EX II’s flash custom functions. With the EOS-1D Mark III camera, this is easy – you can do it from the camera’s Menu (2nd Set-up Menu > External Speedlite Control > Flash C.Fn settings > 3: External metering: Manual.). Don’t be fooled by the wording on the Mark III’s menu; this is still automatic exposure flash, using the flash’s external metering sensor. It’s not manual flash exposure – that’s done with the flash’s Manual mode!

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(Simulated Displays) Follow these three easy steps to set External Auto Flash on the Speedlite 580EX II while using an EOS-1D Mark III
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Setting external auto flash on the 580EX II with other EOS cameras:

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1. Press the illumination/C.Fn button on the back of the 580EX II for at least two seconds until the speedlite’s display changes.

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2. Turn the flash unit’s control dial until “Fn 05” (speedlite Custom Function 5) appears.

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3. Press the speedlite’s SET button to make the second digit blink on and off; while it is blinking, turn the control dial on the flash unit until option 3 appears (Fn 05-3). By doing this, you have now set the flash to perform standard, traditional external flash metering. This can be done with any EOS SLR, film or digital.

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Using the standard External Metering -- Manual mode:

in spite of “Manual” appearing in the wording, this mode does indeed provide automatic flash exposure, using the 580EX II’s external flash sensor. “Manual” means that most communication between flash and camera no longer takes place, and the user must make the settings detailed below.Once set, a letter “E” appears in the upper-left corner of the flash’s LCD panel (if “E-TTL” still appears, you didn’t set external automatic flash control...try again). You’ll also see an ISO indication, and the aperture (“F-5.6” or whatever aperture number the flash is currently expecting). Below this is a distance range scale, in either feet or meters (change it to feet with flash Custom Function 0-1).
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A letter "E" appears in the upper left corner of the LCD display when setting the Speedlite 580EX II to External Metering: Manual Flash Mode

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Like traditional auto flashes, when the 580EX is set to the External Metering: Manual, the flash has almost no communication with the camera body. The only exception is that you’ll still get a ready light in the finder, and the auto zooming of the flash head to match the lens in use still functions with EOS digital SLRs.

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The photographer must set the following manually:

a) ISO on the speedlite

b) Aperture on the speedlite’s LCD display

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Once these are set by the user to match the camera’s settings, the flash’s distance scale will update to show you the distance range you can shoot with automatic flash control. The flash’s zoom head will adjust automatically to match the focal length of the lens in use. The camera should be set to its Manual exposure mode in most circumstances. Since the flash and camera are not working in tandem to control overall exposure automatically, it is risky to set Av mode and hope to properly expose the ambient light along with flash illumination. Generally, a fast sync speed like 1/200th or 1/250th of a second is used; it is impossible to set faster shutter speeds if the speedlite is on. Hi-speed flash sync mode will not operate in external automatic flash mode. Ignore the camera’s analog metering scale in the viewfinder – it is reporting how your current settings would expose ambient light, not flash.

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Manual mode on the EOS-1D Mark III is the primary choice for non-TTL auto flash, using the speedlite’s external sensor
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Other EOS camera settings to consider:

Do not use the P-mode or Tv mode, since these set aperture automatically, and the flash has no way of knowing what aperture the camera is using.The External metering: Manual mode is the only type of external sensor auto flash that will work if the Speedlite 580EX II is used off-camera, and triggered with either a PC cord or a non-dedicated type of remote controller or standard photo slave unit.

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Deliberately under- or over-exposing flash in External metering:

Manual modeIf you want flash exposure to intentionally be greater or less, you have to do one of two things: set a different camera lens aperture than the one you’ve set on the back of the flash, or change the camera’s ISO to a different value than the one you reported to the speedlite.In other words, if you take a picture with all flash settings matching the camera settings, and the first shot looks too dark, you can brighten flash exposure by:1) Setting a wider lens aperture than what you set on the flash (example: flash says f/8; you set the camera to f/5.6 to brighten exposure one stop).2) Raise the camera’s actual ISO above what you’ve set on the flash (again, to lighten the exposure, if the flash’s LCD panel is set to ISO 100, setting the camera’s ISO to 250 would deliberately over-expose by 1-1/3 stops).

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EOS-1D Mark III and the Speedlite 580EX II:

The newest Canon EOS digital SLRs* add another method of using the external flash sensor on the 580EX II. In this instance, the flash and camera do communicate extensively, so the aperture and ISO you set on-camera are immediately relayed to the speedlite. Automatic flash is still controlled by the flash’s external sensor; the user still sets shutter speed and aperture (as well as ISO) – on the camera body only. Manual mode on the camera is again ideal; theoretically, the aperture-priority Av mode can be used, but there’s the risk of problems with exposure balance as well as shutter speeds that are too slow for safe hand-holding when indoors.

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(Simulated Display) EOS-1D Mark III menu navigation C.Fn 05-2 allows a user to set external metering for Automatic External Flash
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Using the EOS-1D Mark III, this is the 580EX’s Custom Function 05-2 – External metering: Auto. In this case, “Auto” means that the camera can communicate its settings directly to the speedlite as you set them. Once set (you can also use the camera’s External Speedlite Control menu to set flash C.Fn 05-2), the ISO read-out disappears from the 580EX II’s LCD panel (it’s always the same as that on the camera).

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(Simulated display: Manual Mode) When setting the Speedlite 580EX II to External Metering: Auto mode, the ISO read-out disapears and is not accessible
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Unlike the External metering:

Manual setting, the Auto option with the Mark III does allow you to use the P-mode or Tv mode on the camera. Automatically-set apertures in these modes are instantly communicated to the speedlite. This only happens, however, if the flash is either mounted on the camera, or attached via the optional Canon Off-Camera Shoe Cord. With External metering: Auto, the distance display is updated in real time as you change ISO or aperture on the camera. One fundamental difference, though is that you cannot intentionally over-expose or under-expose flash by simply changing aperture. Unlike with the “External metering: Manual” option, as you change apertures, speedlite power adjusts to keep flash exposure constant. Opening up the lens aperture means you increase the possible maximum distance you can shoot out to, but does not simply lighten the overall flash exposure. Instead, you must use Flash Exposure Compensation (either on the camera body, or at the speedlite). The procedure is the same as if you were using E-TTL and applying Flash Exposure Compensation.

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One other note:

Neither type of external sensor auto flash can be used in Canon’s Wireless E-TTL mode. As soon as you set a 580EX II into either “slave” or “master” settings, the External Auto setting immediately reverts back to E-TTL on the flash’s LCD panel. External sensor auto is impossible to set.

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(* EOS-1D Mark III only, as of July, 2007)

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Switching back to E-TTL:

Once External flash metering has been set with the 580EX II’s flash Custom Function 05-2 or 05-3, to revert back to E-TTL, you cannot just push the flash’s mode button. Instead, you must re-set Flash Custom Function 05 to option “0” (E-TTL II). Do not set the “TTL” option with digital SLRs. With the EOS-1D Mark III, you can again do this using the camera’s menu, under External Speedlite Control. With other EOS digital SLRs, you must engage the flash’s Custom Functions via the speedlite’s C.Fn button, navigate to Fn 05, and set it to “Fn 05-0” on the speedlite’s LCD panel.

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(Simulated Display) To change from External Sensor auto back to E-TTL, user must set Flash Custom Function 05 back to "0"

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The External flash sensor:

One thing for experienced users to keep in mind is that the external sensor on the 580EX II measures a relatively narrow 20-degree angle of view. This never changes, regardless of the lens that’s on the camera (a fundamental advantage of TTL flash metering). The 20-degree view means the flash measures an area that’s about the same as that covered by a 135mm lens (on a full-frame camera). This may be a “tighter” metering area than what users may be accustomed to with previous-generation “thyristor” flash units. Keep this in mind when evaluating flash exposures in external sensor mode.

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Summary:

The external automatic sensor option with the 580EX II flash is one that many photographers will want to experiment with, at least from time to time. It will certainly prove useful in some circumstances, such as removing a flash from the camera to light up backgrounds or other subjects from an angle. And some users may find they prefer its exposure characteristics in general to those of E-TTL in ordinary indoor candid situations. E-TTL is still going to be vastly preferable for balanced-fill flash outdoors, or for balancing ambient light and flash indoors in Av and Tv modes. And the external sensor auto mode, as discussed previously, will not work at all with Canon’s Wireless E-TTL flash system. Whether you own the latest EOS cameras or not, external sensor auto flash is easy to experiment with using the 580EX II speedlite, and adds a new versatility that EOS users have requested for some time.

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Links » CANON USA

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