Tutorial

Layers Magazine Adobe Creative Suite 4 Learning Center

2008-09-27T08:05:24-04:00

CS4 is on the way! If you want to get a look at some of the many many new features, the guys over at Layers Magazine have put together some stunning videos covering the various applications. Stop by and learn!

Adobe Creative Suite 4 Learning Center | Layers Magazine: For Everything Adobe

Selecting Images Not in a Collection

2008-01-06T22:32:47-05:00

One of Lightroom's great features is the ability to put images into collections. An image can appear in several collections so you can build groups of images that make sense to you. If you click on a collection name you can see and select all the images in that collection and create a web gallery or prints.

But what do you do if you have a large number of images and you need to find out which ones are not in a collection? Here is a step-by-step way to select all your non-collected images.

While in the Library module, open your Collections panel on the left.

Now click on the first collections in the list to highlight it.

While holding down the shift key click on the last collection in the list. You should now have all your collections selected and all the images in them appear in the grid.

To select all these images either press Control-A (Command-A on the Mac) or go up to the Edit menu and click Select All.

What's that you say? You're right! Now you have all your collected images selected. Here's how we get to our goal of select all images not in a collection.

Go to the Library panel and click on All Photographs.

Now the grid shows all your images with the collected ones selected. To finish off got to the edit menu and click Invert selection.

Viola! Now the grid shows a selection of all your images that are not in any collection!

The Rule of Thirds

2007-08-12T17:20:30-04:00

Probably one of first and most well know principle of composition is the Rule of Thirds. It has been used by photographers since photography began and by the great artists for centuries before. So what is it?

Simply stated, the Rule of Thirds divides your image into three columns and three rows. Just like a tic-tac-toe grid.

The focal points of the image are where the lines intersect. By placing your subject at or near one of these intersections you can add interest to your image. Now, while it is called the Rule of Thirds it is still only a suggestion. By that I mean, if your composition calls for breaking the rule, by all means do so. You as the photographer are the artist and the ultimate judge of how your image should be composed.

Let's look at the Rule in practice!

Here is a picture of a seagull. As you can see, it looks like he is flying and has some space to fly to.

That interest and sense of movement and space it enhanced by my choosing to crop the photo so as to place the bird at one of the intersections.

Our eyes are drawn to the seagull and we sense that he has some place to go with plenty of room to do it. If I had instead cropped the photo placing the seagull right in the center the image loses some impact.

Now he looks cramped.I don't get the same sense of movement from this subject in the center of the frame. Rick Sammon , renowned photographer and author, has a saying that "dead center is deadly" and in most cases he's right! Of course if there is a subject that just begs to be placed in the center and you feel that is the best composition go ahead and break the rule!

Aside from the four intersections you can use the horizontal and vertical lines as placement guides. For example, in the case of a landscape shot try not to let the horizon line fall at the center and cut the image in half. If the sky is more interesting, place the horizon at the lower horizontal line. If the subject is the land or water, place it at the top line.

In this shot I wanted to emphasize the silky ripples on the lake surface and the reflection of the colors of sunset. The sky was relatively boring so I set the horizon at the top line letting the lake fill two thirds of the frame.

So keep the venerable Rule of Thirds in mind the next time you shoot. Remember that you can crop in Photoshop to arrange your image on one of these lines or points. I've included a free Photoshop Action that places guides at the Rule of Third points so you can experiments. Just load it into Photoshop and run it against a file before you start working on it. Make sure Guides are visible or you won't see them.

Understanding Color in Photoshop

2006-10-28T19:24:07-04:00

Photoshop has many tools and techniques that allow you to work with color. In order to get the most out of these tools, however, it's important to understand how Photoshop deals with color.

The two color modes that most of us are familiar with are RGB and CMYK. While we can produce the same colors (for the most part) in both modes we need to understand that color are made in very different ways in these two models. The RGB model produces color by the addition of colors but CMYK produces color by subtracting colors.

This difference really comes from the nature of the medium producing the color. On a monitor color is projected or emitted. On paper, color is reflected.

If we look at a color wheel we can see both models.

If we look closely we notice that there is a relationship between the RGB and CMYK models. Red is opposite to Cyan, Green to Magenta, and Blue to Yellow. Why is this important?

When you open a photo in Photoshop and see a color cast, knowing this relationship will help you. For example, if the color cast is yellow then moving the photo more towards blue will remove that yellow cast. Photoshop helps you remember the relationship. Take a look at the info palette and notice how the RGB and CMYK colors are arranged.

The Color Balance dialog is obvious about this relationship but it is hidden away in every tool that deals with color in Photoshop.

The next time you are faced with a color cast problem remember the Color Wheel and how these two different methods of generating color are intimately related. It will make your color correction tasks much easier.