Digital Photographer - UK (2020-05)

Tweakexposure, contrast and more with local adjustments and layers

Moving into Photoshop

If LightroomandCapture One are so good

atprocessingRAWfiles, why do we need

Photoshop?Inpractice, many landscape

photographersdon’tuse Photoshop unless they

needtodospecifictasks, and perhaps the most

obviousoftheseiscreating composite images.

UnlikeRAWprocessors, Photoshop can’t work

directlywithRAWfiles. Instead, when you open

a RAWfileinPhotoshop, it automatically takes a

diversionintoAdobeCamera Raw (ACR) where

thefilecanbeconverted into a format like TIFF,

PSDorJPEG.Youcanmake many of the same

adjustmentsinACRas you can in Lightroom, so

thisstagewillfeelquite familiar.

InACR,youcansave the edited photo, and

thisissomethingyouneed to remember to

do.WhileLightroomand Capture One will

automaticallykeepallof your adjustments,

Photoshopwon’tunless you save them.

Furthermore,editingyour photos in Photoshop

canbe‘destructive’.Destructive editing means

thatwhenyousavechanges to your photo,

theyaresavedforeverand can’t be undone.

Sometimesthisisokay, sometimes it’s not,

so photographers generally prefer to work

non-destructively.

Photoshop’s non-destructivesolutionislayers.

You open up your phot

in Photoshop, andthen

instead of changingthe

photo directly youadd

adjustment layers on

top, which hold allyour

edits. The original phot

is left untouched at

the bottom of the layer

stack, so it is a non-

destructive workflow.

While Lightroom

and Capture One can

do selective edits

with their adjustment

brushes and layers,

many photographers

find that Photoshop’s

adjustment layers and

masks are more power

This is especially theca

thanjusta fewselectiveadjustments. In these

moments,theLayerspanelbecomes the hub for

editin p.

Photoshop’s key features

1

AdobeCameraRaw Photoshop takes

RAWfilesintoAdobe Camera Raw to

convertthem.If you’re in doubt about how

tosavea converted file, save as PSD, 16-bit,

AdobeRGBcolourspace.

4

Blend

modes

Blend modes

area different

way of editing

your photos

and are used

instead of tools

like curves and

levels. Although

advanced, using

blend modes is

very easy to do.

2

Adjustment

layers The key

to Photoshop’s

non-destructive

workflow is to use

adjustment layers.

The best part about

adjustment layers is

the attached mask,

which lets you limit

the adjustment to

specific areas of

your choosing.

5

Filters & plugins

In addition to

sharpening and

blurring filters,

Photoshop has

lots of textures and

special effects filters,

plus you can also

use plugins like Nik

Software (although

many of the plugins

are also available

in Lightroom).

3

Composite

layers There

are two types of

layer in Photoshop:

adjustment layers

and image layers.

When you add an

image layer into

the layers panel

with a mask, you

can merge or

‘composite’ two

images together.

6

Channels &

luminosity

masking When

creating precise

masks or selections,

so that you can

edit one part of the

image independently,

Photoshop excels

with both channel and

luminosity masking.

These are quite

advanced techniques.

y

o

n

e

r

to

r

rfulandeasiertouse.

aseifyou’re doingmore

p

TECHNIQUES