Chapter Eleven

1
Chapter Eleven

• Digital Darkroom Expert Techniques

2
Sharpening

• All digital images benefit from some degree of
  sharpening
• Increase contrast of pixels at edgesadjacent
  pixels with big differences in contrast,
  brightness, or color
• Sharpening is destructive!
• Apply sharpening towards the end of editing

3
Unsharp Mask

• Amount amount of increase in contrast at edges
• Radius width of sharp edge
• Threshold 0-255, minimal tonal difference for
  sharpening
• Images with higher resolution can normally
  benefit from more sharpening

4
Blurring the Background

• Often used to create soft focus in digital images
• Steps
• Select the background and save the selection
• Open the alpha channel and soften its edge with
  Gaussian Blur
• Return to the image and load the selection
• Copy and paste the selection into a new layer
• Soften the new layer with Gaussian Blur

5
Dodging with adjustment layer

• Lighten the image with a Levels or Curves
  adjustment layer
• Invert the white layer mask to black (Ctrl-I)
• Use Paintbrush to whiten (50 opacity) those
  areas of the layer mask for dodging
• To reduce dodging effect later, use paintbrush
  with black color (50 opacity) to paint over the
  layer mask

6
Burning with adjustment layer

• Darken the image with a Levels or Curves
  adjustment layer
• Invert the white layer mask to black (Ctrl-I)
• Use Paintbrush to whiten (20 opacity) those
  areas of the layer mask for burning
• To reduce burning effect later, use paintbrush
  with black color (20 opacity) to paint over the
  layer mask

7
Burning with a layer mask

• Select the center portion with an elliptical
  selection
• Invert the selection
• Add a Levels adjustment layer and darken the
  image
• Apply Gaussian Blur to the layer mask

8
Using a gradient mask

• For images that need progressive burning/dodging,
  e.g. an image with a bright sky and a dark
  foreground
• Steps
• Add a Levels/Curves adjustment layer and lighten
  the image
• Use the Gradient Tool to give the layer mask a
  gradient

9
Converting Color to Black and White

• Standard Grayscale Conversion
• Image -gt Mode -gt Grayscale
• Red 30, Green 59, Blue 11
• Channel Mixer
• Add a Channel Mixer adjustment layer
• Adjust the Red, Green, Blue percentages

10
Toning with a Hue/Saturation Layer

• Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer
• Check Colorize to add a color tint
• Move the Hue slider to adjust the color of the
  tint
• Move the Saturation slider to adjust the
  richness of the tint