Photoshop cs quickstep - part 6 doc

152 PC QuickSteps Getting to Know Your PC

1 2 34 5 6 78 9 10 1 2 34 5 6 78 9 10 1 2 34 5 6 78 9 10 Here’s a nice close-up photograph of some nachos , but the lighting is a little cold. Work with Lighten and Darken Modes Lighten and Darken modes are the flip sides of the same coin: in Lighten mode, the blend layer lightens only areas on the base (the bottom) layer—or multiple layers—that are darker, and in Darken mode, blend layer areas only darken underlying areas that are lighter than the corresponding area. Lighten painting mode is useful for brightening image areas without totally ruining image detail: 1. Pick a neutral, medium tone image color using the Eyedropper tool to sample. 2. Create a new layer above the base layer, and choose Lighten mode for the layer on the Layers panel. Areas darker than your brush color are lightened to the color of your foreground color, but areas lighter than this color are unaffected. USE LIGHTEN MODE Suppose you took a photo of a striking sky, but your framing was a little off and a water tower or trees invade the bottom of the photo. There is no need to crop to cope in this situation. You use Lighten mode in combination with the Clone Stamp tool—this is yet another painting tool—to clone away the offending items. You don’t even have to mask the image. 1. On the Layers panel, click Create A New Layer to create a new layer above your photo. 2. Choose Lighten mode from the Layers panel’s drop-down list. NOTE Overlay mode screens (bleaches; see “Know When to Use Screen and Multiply Modes) colors below the layer whose colors are brighter than 128 on the scale of 0–255 possible brightness values. At the same time, Overlay multiplies (deepens) underlying pixels whose brightness value is less than 128. It’s an interesting effect all by itself: Screen, Multiply, and Overlay modes are covered in “Know When to Use Overlay and Light Blend Modes” later in this chapter. UICKSTEPS ADDING GRIT AND WARMTH TO A PHOTOGRAPH Let’s make the nachos image—or just about any food photography image—more appealing for print and Web display. Follow these steps to add some stylizing, warmth, and a little Dissolve mode toning to an image: 1. With your image in Photoshop, click Create A New Layer on the Layers panel to create a new blank layer on top of the image. By default this is the current editing layer. 2. Press D (default colors) so your foreground color swatch on the Tools panel is black. 3. Choose the Gradient tool. It’s a painting tool, and it works in Dissolve mode. 4. On the Options bar, click the Radial Gradient button . Then click the Gradient Picker down arrow to the right of the gradient preset thumbnail and choose the second one, foreground to transparent. Then choose Dissolve mode from the Mode drop-down list on the Options bar. Continued . . .

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152 Photoshop CS4 QuickSteps Using Paint and Layer Blend Modes

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UICKSTEPS

ADDING GRIT AND WARMTH

TO A PHOTOGRAPH (Continued)

5. Click the Reverse, Dither, and Transparency

check boxes on the Options bar so that the

Gradient tool travels from transparent to black.

6. To display the gradient effect, drag from the

center of the image to the edge, and you’ll

get a somewhat unpleasant result, but this is

okay—you’re not done yet. Figure 7-1 shows the

two layers composited, and a close-up of what

Dissolve mode looks like when you paint.

7. Soften the pixels on Layer 1: click Filter | Blur |

Gaussian Blur, set the Radius to 1 pixel, and

then click OK.

8. On the Layers panel, click the Modes down

arrow and then choose Overlay. As you can see

in Figure 7-2, the nachos image has a pleasing

vignette effect; the overall image looks warmer

and a little stylized, and is perfect for a poster at

a fast-food restaurant.

Dissolve mode produces different results depending on

the Opacity setting you choose. Because a gradient can

travel from opaque to transparent, using Dissolve mode

creates an arrangement of single pixels that vary as the

opacity of the gradient decreases.

Figure 7-1: Dissolve blend mode spreads foreground color

pixels in a random arrangement.

Figure 7-2: Use Dissolve mode in combination with Overlay mode to

stylize images.

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3. Choose the Clone Stamp tool from the Tools panel. Set the size on the Options bar to

scale in relation to the area(s) you want to retouch. Uncheck the Aligned check box

and then choose All Layers from the Sample drop-down list.

4. To prevent stroking unwanted areas into your retouching areas, ALT/OPT+click a sample

area that is nowhere near the area you plan to stroke into.

5. When your sampling area runs out of room, release the mouse button and then

resume stroking—the Clone Stamp resumes cloning from your original point,

because it’s not aligned (bound to) the sample area. As you can see in Figure 7-3,

the retouching work is seamless because the Clone Stamp tool is not lightening

areas of clouds lighter than the sample area. The original cloud areas are more or

less retained.

USE DARKEN MODE

Darken mode is terrific for toning down background areas while still keeping some

detail, so the background doesn’t look like a solid color. Use this mode to get rid

QUICKFACTS

MERGING YOUR BLEND

LAYERS TOGETHER

When you decide to merge a layer down, any layer

takes on the blend mode of the layer to which you merge

beneath it. Therefore, if you merge a layer in Normal

mode to a layer that’s in Multiply mode, the combination

becomes a single Multiply mode layer, and that might

not be visually what you want. Therefore, don’t merge

layers until you’re satisfied with your composition, and it’s

a good idea—to retain all layer blend properties—to use

either Flatten Image or Merge Visible; both commands

are available when you right-click over a layer’s title on

the Layers panel.

If you don’t want a layer to be affected, you need to hide

it by clicking its associated eye icon on the Layers panel.

Once a layer is hidden, you can choose Merge Visible

from the context menu that appears when you right-click

over a layer title on the Layers panel. If you’re unhappy

with the result, press CTRL/CMD+D to undo the merge

operation. Then you can restore the hidden layer to

visibility and continue working on your image.

Figure 7-3: Lighten blend mode only looks at the layer data, and not

which painting tool you use.

TIP

Lighten mode when used with the Clone Stamp tool also

comes in very handy for removing telephone wires and

other obstructions from backgrounds.

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154 Photoshop CS4 QuickSteps Using Paint and Layer Blend Modes