Tabla de contenidos para October 2020 en Practical Photoshop

We often think of cameras as tools for recording the world as we see it – but they’re also capable of capturing far more than the eye can perceive. Light-painting is a case in point. To the eye, a dark night is just that; but if we stick the camera on a tripod, open the shutter for a couple of minutes and waggle a torch around, then all of a sudden our camera starts to see things differently. To the camera’s sensor, light is accumulative, so when there’s minimal ambient light, we’re able to build up our own light gradually, in exactly the places where we want it. A single torch beam can light an entire scene and even an expansive landscape. With torch in hand, we’re free to light…

01 LONG EXPOSURES AT NIGHT-TIME If possible, turn up at twilight and compose the shot in the fading light. We used a wide-angle lens and a low angle to frame the trees against the orange glow in the sky. After focusing, switch to manual focus to lock it in place and prevent hunting in the dark. 02 GET IT JUST RIGHT When the camera’s in Bulb mode, the camera shutter stays open for as long as the button is engaged. Begin by setting Bulb mode with and aperture of f/11 and an ISO of 800, then take a test shot of around two minutes long. Check the results and – if necessary – adjust the aperture or ISO.…

1 QUICKLY COPY ANY THING This is one of the easiest ways to duplicate a layer, whether it’s an image, text or a shape. Hold Alt and drag the layer in the layer stack to make a quick copy. You can highlight multiple layers (Cmd/Ctrl-click them) then drag to copy several at once. 2 SELECT A LAYER OUTLINE To load the outline shape of any layer as a selection, simply hold down Cmd/Ctrl and click on the layer thumbnail in the Layers Panel. You can also do this for Layer Mask and Vector Mask thumbnails. 3 MAKE MORE THAN ONE MASK Sometimes you might want to add multiple Layer Masks to a layer - let’s say you have spent a while making an initial mask, then you want to make…

1 CAMERA Our camera is set to Bulb exposure with an aperture of f/11 and an ISO of 800. Just as if you were shooting in daytime, a medium aperture like this ensures enough depth of field in the landscape so that the foreground, trees and sky all look decently in focus. 2 REMOTE RELEASE It helps to have a wireless shutter release, so that you can set the camera up on a tripod, then trigger the shutter once you’re in position with your torch. We used a Hähnel remote, which lets us press and hold the remote to begin the two-minute Bulb exposure. 3 TRIPOD Our exposures will last minutes, and the camera needs to stay still, so a tripod is essential. Once the camera is set up and…

01 COMBINE YOUR SHOTS Open the set of light-painting images you’ve taken into Photoshop, then copy one onto another and experiment with Blending Modes. The Lighten and Screen Blending Modes are particularly suited to this kind of task. Alternatively, add a Layer Mask, then paint black to hide or white to reveal the best parts of each frame. 02 TWEAK WHITE BALANCE Don’t rely on auto white balance: it may be fooled by the dim light. Instead, shoot in raw and set the white balance in Camera Raw or Lightroom after the fact. You can make creative white balance tweaks by shifting the Temperature and Tint sliders one way or another. 03 DODGE AND BURN Selective lightening and darkening can help to emphasize areas – useful here, as it can…

Mist can enhance the atmosphere in a landscape wonderfully – but, more often than not, when we reach a stunning spot we’re met with bright sunshine instead… However, you can alter the atmosphere later on using this simple technique. It’s not the same as capturing a misty scene in the flesh, but it is a striking mood-changer and also introduces several key Photoshop skills, from isolating parts of an image with selections to using creative brush tips. The effect works best on landscapes that can be separated into a foreground, mid-ground and background, like Machu Picchu here. This way, we can paint in the mist so that it looks as if it’s floating behind parts of the scene, which helps to create depth. We’ve supplied a misty brush tip for…

01 SHIELD THE BULB We don’t want the torch bulb to show up in the shot, so it’s a good idea to shield the bulb from the lens – either using your hand, or placing your body between the torch and the camera. You could also try fashioning a hood for the torch out of card, like we’ve done here. 02 EXPERIMENT WITH GELS Why not add color to your light-painting? The bare torch left the trees in our scene looking too cool, so we taped an orange gel (from a Selens gel set) over the bulb. Of course, you can also mix colors – we switched gels mid-shot and used a blue gel to side-light the trees. 03 MOVE THE LIGHT AROUND If the scene is lit from the…

Photoshop has many types of layers and adjustment layers available, but there are six that you’ll find you need to use again and again. Learning how they should be used may seem a little daunting for beginners, but once you’ve got to grips with them, you’ll find they play a part in the creative process of almost every image you make. 01 LEVELS This should be the first layer you add to an image, because it fundamentally alters the tonal range of the entire image. Create a Levels Adjustment Layer, drag the Black point slider inwards until it touches the left-hand edge of the histogram, and drag the White point slider inwards to the right-hand edge. This remaps the tones of the image to make more of the available tonal…