adobe photoshop tutorial - digital photo repair

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Repairing Digital Photographs Adobe Senior Creative Director Russell Brown shows you how to repair your digital images with Adobe ® Photoshop ® ADVANCED

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Adobe Photoshop Tutorial - Digital Photo Repair

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Page 1: Adobe Photoshop Tutorial - Digital Photo Repair

RepairingDigitalPhotographs

Adobe Senior Creative DirectorRussell Brown shows you how to repair your

digital images with Adobe® Photoshop®

ADVANCED

Page 2: Adobe Photoshop Tutorial - Digital Photo Repair

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REPAIRING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS, PART 1

In this demo, we will repair a photograph taken with a low-resolutiondigital camera—in this case, the Kodak DC50. Often these camerasproduce excellent results, but they have a few deficiencies that can berepaired digitally using layers. This technique is also quite useful forrepairing badly scanned images.

1. Open your digital imagefile in Photoshop. Zoom inon the image and take a closelook at the problem areas,especially noting the skintone in this image.

2. Go through the RGBchannels. Press Command/Ctrl+1 for the Red channel,Command/Ctrl+2 for theGreen, and Command/Ctrl+3 for the Blue channel.Notice the artifacting andextra noise in the Bluechannel. The Blue channelis the telltale channel of ascanned image and often willshow the errors of the scan.

Blue channelThe CCD (ChargedCouple Device) inthe camera is leastsensitive to the blues,and it is more difficultto interpret those colors.Also, when you capturean image with a digitalcamera, it’s compressedwith JPEG compression.The combination ofthese two factorscreates noise in theblue channel.

3. Zoom out of the imageand return to the RGBcomposite. Here’s how toeasily fix this image usingPhotoshop layers. Duplicatethe Base Layer by dragging itonto the New Layer icon atthe bottom of the Layerspalette. Double-click thisnew layer and rename itColor Blur.

PreferencesFor this demo, wechose Preferences >Display & Cursors, andselected. Brush Sizeand Precise.

ShortcutsThroughtout this docu-ment, “Command/Ctrl”means Command on theMacintosh® and Ctrl onWindows®. “Option/Alt”means Option on theMacintosh and Alton Windows.

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REPAIRING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS, PART 1

4. Choose Filter > Blur >Gaussian Blur. Choose valuesbased on the resolution ofthe image. You want to softenthe image—not lose theimage completely, but softenit—especially in the troubledarea of the blue channel.

5. With the Color Blur layerstill targeted, create anoverlay of the two layersusing Color mode from thepop-up menu in the Layerspalette.

6. Zoom in to the imageand look at the same area.Press Command/Ctrl+3 togo to the blue channel again.See how the noise has beensmoothed out. Amazing buttrue! But wait, there’s more...

Color modeColors are overlaid onthe existing pixels whilethe highlights andshadows of the basecolor are preserved.The base color is notreplaced, but is mixedwith the blend color toreflect the lightness anddarkness of the original.

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REPAIRING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS, PART 1

7. Let’s continue workingwith this image and give itmore of a portrait look bysoftening the focus of theimage, as if it were shotthrough a special filter.Duplicate the Color Blurlayer by dragging it to theNew Layer icon, and thendouble-click the new layerand rename it Soft Focus.

8. With the Soft Focus layertargeted, change the modeback to Normal and setopacity to 30%. This createsa nice soft look around theedges of the image, especiallythe face, hair, and hat areas.

9. The eyes are also beingsoftened, which is notsomething we want, so wewill create another layer tosharpen parts of the image.Duplicate the original BaseLayer, and then move it tothe top (above the Soft Focuslayer). Name this layerSharpen Details.

Opacity TipWhen a selection toolis active, pressing anyof the numeric keyschanges the opacityto the correspondingpercentage. Press 1 for10%, 0 for 100%, andso on.

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REPAIRING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS, PART 1

10. Create a new layer byclicking the New Layer icon,and then move it to thebottom of the stack. Option-click the eye icon for thislayer, and then choose SelectAll and fill the layer withwhite. Deselect. This newlayer is needed only topreview the effects of blend-ing layers—which you areabout to see.

Fill shortcutPressing Option/Alt+Delete fills the areawith the foregroundcolor. PressingCommand/Ctrl+Deletefills the area with thebackground color.

11. Click the eye icon forthe Sharpen Details layer sothat only the bottom and toplayers are visible. Target theSharpen Details layer.

12. Now we will isolate theareas of this layer that needto overlay the image. Double-click the layer to bring up theLayer Options dialog box.Make sure Preview is checked.Move the This Layer high-value range slider (whitetriangle) to the left. Noticethat areas of the face and hatare being eliminated.

Blending LayersThe sliders here let youdefine which pixels areblended by indicatinga range of brightnessvalues for the replace-ment pixels. In ourexample, the highlightrange was split tosoften the layer, givingit a semi-transparentand fogged look. Thefurther apart thetriangles, the softer theappearance of the layer.

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REPAIRING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS, PART 1

13. The transition is veryharsh and needs to besoftened. Option/Alt+clickthe white triangle slider, andmove half of the triangle tothe left. Splitting the trianglesoftens the transition. Movethe two half-triangles aroundto achieve a soft look, beingsure not to add back detailwhere you don’t want it.

14. The face has been ad-justed fine, but too muchof the red shirt is showing.Select the Red channel in theBlend If pop-up menu. Nowadjust the slider to isolate thereds. Remember to split theslider to soften the image. Goback to the Gray channel todo any final adjustments, andthen click OK.

15. Click the eye icon to viewthe other layers and turn offthe bottom layer eye icon.Looks pretty good! On tothe next phase.

Before and afterTo see the effects ofsharpening, click theeye icon on and offnext to the SharpenDetails layer. This trickcan be used on any ofthe layers.

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16. Another thing we can doto this image is to bring backsome of the white in the eyes,which was dimmed when thesoft blur was applied. Zoomin on the eye and target theSoft Focus layer. To bringback the detail, we will makea layer mask. Press Comand/Ctrl-click the New Layermask icon at the bottom ofthe Layers palette to add alayer mask.

REPAIRING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS, PART 1

17. Choose a small brush,set the opacity to 50%, makesure the foreground color isblack, and begin painting inthe area of the eye where youwould like to bring back thatnice white highlight. Noticethat you are painting on thelayer mask, and not directlyon the image.

18. Zoom out to view thelarger image. Very nice!

Add Layer MaskA layer mask can beadded to any layer toisolate particular areasyou don’t wantaffected.

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REPAIRING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS, PART 2

Continuing to work with the same digital image, I’d like to alter thefocus range. Low-resolution digital cameras offer no control of depthof field, but we can add a professional quality to the image—as ifthere were a depth of field control. To do this, we will first separate thelittle boy from the background, and then we’ll blur the background.

1. With your digital imagefile still open in Photoshop,save a version with all thelayers. For this exercise, weneed to flatten the image sothat it becomes one compositelayer. After saving, chooseFlatten Image from the LayersPalette pop-up menu.

2. Now we need to create aselection mask so that the littleboy in front can be separatedfrom the background image.Zoom in on the edge of thehat. Double-click the paint-brush tool to bring up thePaintbrush Options palette.Select 100% opacity, and onthe Mode pop-up menu,choose Dissolve. Select a largehard-edge brush from theBrushes palette.

3. Make sure the defaultforeground and backgroundcolors are black and whiterespectively (press D on thekeyboard). Then choose theQuick Mask mode on theTool palette, just below thebackground color.

Dissolve modeDissolve gives thebrush a ragged, rough,dissolving qualitywhich takes on someof the quality of theedge of the hat in theimage. This allows usto simulate the samegrain of the photo sothe mask will not lookfake.

Quick Mask modeWith Quick Maskmode on, you canpaint directly on thesurface of the image,without affecting it, tomake a mask. Press Qto toggle betweenQuick Mask mode andStandard mode.

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4. Begin painting on theinside edge of the hat. Noticethat you are painting withthe Quick Mask paintbrush.Paint all the way around theedge of the hat in Dissolvemode to get the roughtexture of the hat. You couldnever achieve the samequality of selection with thelasso tool. This gives you amuch more natural selection.

REPAIRING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS, PART 2

5. Choose Normal mode, andcontinue painting along theedge of the shirt and overalls.The Normal brush workshere because the edge issofter and smoother.

MaskYou can add andsubtract from themask while paintingby switching yourforeground color fromblack, which adds tothe mask, to white,which subtracts fromthe mask. Pressing Xon the keyboardtoggles between theforeground andbackground color.

6. Make sure that there is acontinuous outline of thequick mask around the littleboy, and then select thebucket tool from the toolbar. Click in the middle ofthe Quick Mask outline tofill the area with the quickmask.

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REPAIRING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS, PART 2

7. Return to Selection modeby clicking the icon to theleft of the Quick Mask iconor by pressing Q.

8. Go to the Channelspalette, and click the Selec-tion icon at the bottom tosave the selection as achannel.

9. Deselect. Click the newchannel to view it and makeit active.

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REPAIRING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS, PART 2

10. Because we used a hard-edge brush, the edge of thischannel needs a little soften-ing. We will give it just a littlebit of blur. Choose Filter >Blur > Blur More.

11. Click the RGB compositechannel, and then Command/Ctrl+click the Mask channelto load the selection.

12. Return to the Layerspalette. Now choose Layer >New > Layer Via Copy toplace a copy of the back-ground selection over theimage. Double-click the newlayer and name it Back-ground blur.

Blur More filterThe Blur More filtersmooths transitionsby averaging thepixels next to thehard edges of thedefined lines andshaded areas. It doesthis three to fourtimes more than theBlur filter.

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REPAIRING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS, PART 2

13. With this new layertargeted, turn off the viewof the Background layer byclicking the eye icon. You cansee that the background hasbeen isolated from theforeground (the little boy).

14. Now we will blur thebackground, yet make itlook realistic against theboy. Choose Filter > Blur >Gaussian Blur. Your blurvalue will vary, depending onyour resolution. Click OK.

15. Click the eye icon on theBackground layer to view itagain. There is a problem;the blur is blurring into thehat. To fix this, choose Layer> Matting > Defringe. Theamount of defringe you usewill depend on the resolu-tion of your image and thequality of the edge. Viewyour results. Excellent!

DefringeDefringe will push theblur back to meet theedge of the hat. Thisgives a more solid andresolved edge againstthe hat and bleedsunderneath the hat.

Adobe, the Adobe logo, andPhotoshop are trademarks of AdobeSystems Incorporated. Macintosh isa registered trademark of AppleComputer, Inc. Windows is aregistered trademark of Microsoftin the U.S. and other countries.

©1996 Adobe SystemsIncorporated. All rights reserved.

Special thanks to Russ Sparkmanand Etsuro Endo.

PS4.0 11/96