Digital Photographer - USA (2019-07)

1

Duplicate the background To

make the process as non-

destructive as possible and ensure

wecanadjustanyautomatic

changesfromPhotoshop,make

a copyofthebackgroundlayer

(Cmd/Ctrl+J)andworkonthis.

Theabilitytouselayermasking

willbeusefullater.

4

RepairseamsPhotoshop

willautomaticallyattempt

topatchandfillthespace

leftbythemove.Herethe

patternofthetreeiscomplex

sowemaskedouttheareasof

mismatchingskycolouronthe

duplicatelayerusinga medium

brush,withmoderatehardness.

2

Make a selection Useoneof

the Lasso tools to make

a selection of the objectyou

needtomovewithintheframe.

WeusedthePolygonalLasso

heretoroughlydrawanoutline

aroundthetree.Makesureyou

trytofollowtheobject’sshape

asmuchaspossible.

5

ExtendthecanvasTofurther

balancethecompositionwe

willaddmorelandandskyto

theleftofthetree.UsetheCrop

Tool(C)toextendthecanvas

andfillit withtheBackground

Colour.Selectthisnewcanvas

withtheMagicWand(W),goto

Edit>Fill.

3

MovetheobjectHerethe

treeisa littletoocloseto

theframeedge– a placement

thatwasnecessarytocompose

outvisualdistractions.Tomove

it furtherintothescene,we

usedtheContentAwareMove

Tool(J)todragtheselectionto

theright.

6

FillemptyspaceChoose

ContentAwareasthe

methodundertheUse

dropdownmenu.Photoshopwill

samplethesurroundingcanvas

toderivecolourandtexture.This

imagehasa uniformskybutin

morecomplexscenes,some

retouchingmaybenecessary.

Use Content Aware Tools

Apply quick compositional fixes using Content Aware Move and Fill

1

Open your image Load an image suffering

from camera shake. This image

had to be shot handheld due to newly

introduced restrictions on tripod use. Use

Filter>Sharpen>Shake Reduction to load the

filter dialogue to improve apparent detail.

2

Adjust filter strength Move the Blur Trace

Boundary slider to change the radius

of the filter effect. For stronger blur use a

higher setting. For the best results add more

blur sources to customise the effect on a

more local basis.

3

ReducenoiseSincetheShakeReduction

Filterisessentiallya sharpeningtool,

theprocesscanintroducegrain.If this

occurs,ashappenedonthishighISOfile,

movetheSmoothingSlidertocompensate.

Becautiousnottoblurtoomuchdetail.

Reduce camera shake

Put Photoshop’s Shake Reduction filtertoworkwhereyou’re

unexpectedly forced to work handheld

Unbalanced framing

This image does not adhere to the

standard rules of composition,

with too much space to the right

side of the tree

Betterproportions

In caseswhereyouareunabletoframeyour

imagesideallyatthetimeofshooting,the

ContentAwarefunctionsin Photoshopgive

somecontroloverrecomposition

All images © Peter Fenech

MASTER LOCATION SCOUTING