Digital Photography Expert Techniques - Photoshop (fragment książki).pdf - Fotografia cyfrowa - NewConnect

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.

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.

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

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.

Digital Photography: Expert Techniques

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