20 tips for flawless photo edits
The Professional Photoshop Book 37
Clone away:metal cover, which was very Here on this wall was a
distracting, so to erase it I used the Clone tool. To do this non-
destructively, I used the tool on a new layer, set to Current and BelowPen tool cutouts :consists of three different images shot The SWAT team
in the studio and then each one separately cut out with the Pen tool
and arranged into position. It takes longer than the automated selection
tools, but gives far superior resultsAdd colour to shadows: Here
you can see where I added blues into the shadows using
Selective Color. Again this was non-destructive, this
time using an adjustment layer, so I can easily change
the amount if I need toLight flare: To get the small light flare, I
created a new layer on a Linear Dodge blending mode. I took a bright colour and
brushed it on with a small brush , and lowered the Fill slider a little- USE BRUSHES FOR
MORE THAN PAINTING
For each project, Photoshop offers tools that
are right for the job at hand. Andy McIntosh,
director at PSD Innovative (www.psd
innovative.com) says that the final image
that he is creating and for what purpose
determines the tools that he selects.
However, for him, the humble Brush tool is
one that proves immensely useful across a
range of projects: “My go-to tool would have
to be the Brush tool, as it is so diverse. I
always use a Wacom 24HD and find that the
Brush tool offers me huge flexibility for fast
accurate work. As there are almost infinite
ways to set up brushes, I can be sure that I
can get the look, feel and texture that I need
for any given project. I have many favourite
brushes and many custom brushes that I
use on nearly every project. Because I
started as a traditional airbrush artist, it
feels very natural to me to be using brushes
and a Wacom.”
14. RETOUCH LIKE A PRO
Photographer and retoucher Clinton Lofthouse
(clintonlofthousephotography.com) shares
some of the secrets of how to retouch any
image perfectly: “My most common tasks when
it comes to retouching would be the cleaning of
any blemishes, not just on the skin of a model,
but also on the background. My go-to tool for
this is the Healing Brush tool or the Clone tool.
The Healing Brush tool just makes the tidying
up of messy images so very easy. With the
Clone tool you can create whole new sections
of your image seamlessly without any
distractions, and no one would ever know that
you just cloned out a whole car!
“Another common task, on every image for
me would be the adding a little colour to the
darks – I do this on practically all my images.
My favourite method is to use a Selective Color
adjustment layer, switch to Blacks and add
some blue into the darks. It gives the images a
painterly feel, kind of like the great painters
who created their blacks from various dark
paints mixed together.
“The Pen tool is another common tool in my
retouching workflow. I create a lot of
composites, and nothing gives you a better
cutout than the Pen tool; the Quick Selection
tool and similar tools are okay, but nowhere
near as accurate.
My last commonly used tool would be a
Linear Dodge blending mode. I paint on this
layer with a bright colour to manipulate the
light of an image. I love creating stylised
images and adding lighting effects adds greatly
to this effect.”
© PSD Innovative 2015© Clinton Lofthouse Photography 2015030-039 Photo Editing Feature_PPB_07.indd 37 06/10/2015 16:04