The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Photo Editing Workflow Helen Bradley © |
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Helen Bradley provides a Photoshop photo editing workflow that ensures your fixes aren't damaged by subsequent image edits. |
There's a right and a wrong way to go about image editing. Without attention to
the order in which you apply fixes, those that you make at the end of the
process may cancel out the effect of those you made at the beginning. To ensure
that your fixes play well with each other, here's my suggested image editing
workflow for Photoshop.
Back it up
The first step in editing any image is to ensure you're not working on the
original image. Make a backup of the image and open the duplicate to work with.
To do this choose File > Save As and save the image with a new name. Check to
make sure that the image title bar shows the new name - if not, close the image
and open the duplicate.
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Straighten the image Straighten it so that the important horizontal and vertical lines in the image are truly horizontal or vertical. To do this select the Ruler tool which shares a toolbar position with the Eyedropper. Click and drag the Ruler along a line which should be vertical or horizontal. Choose Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary and the required angle will already be entered into the dialog for you. Click OK and the image will be rotated into position. If your image has perspective problems, first display the grid on the screen by choosing View > Show > Grid. To adjust the spacing, choose Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grid, Slices and Count and set the gridline options to an appropriate value. Double click the background layer in the Layers palette and click OK to convert it to a regular layer. Choose Select > All and then Edit > Free Transform. Press the Control key (Command on the Mac), and drag a corner to adjust it. By dragging on each corner in turn, you can fix perspective problems. When you're done, double-click the image to commit the changes, then hide the grid by choosing View > Show > Grid. |
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Crop the image
While you might think cropping the image is something best done later on, it's
better to do it before you perform colour fixes. When you do, you'll only see
the image data you're actually concerned with in dialogues such as Curves. The
one time I'll avoid cropping this early in the image processing workflow is if I
need to clone something out of the image and if the piece of image I'm about to
crop away contains helpful data that I could use when cloning. To crop the
image, select the Crop tool and select over the area of the image to keep and
double click to commit the changes.
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Colour fixing It's best to make any colour fixes to the image before you clone-out problems. Often you'll find that the cloned areas, while not visible to the eye, become more apparent when you colour-fix the image. If you fix colour first and clone second the results are much better. To fix the colour, choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels (use Curves in Photoshop CS3). Drag the left and right sliders immediately under the chart inwards to meet the ends of the chart to improve the tonal range and colour in the image. Adjust the middle slider to lighten or darken the image or, if you're using the Curves dialog pull up on the middle of the curve to lighten the image or down to darken it. To fix a colour cast, use a Levels adjustment by choosing Image > Adjustments > Levels. Locate the three eyedroppers at the far right of the dialogue. Click the left-most eyedropper and click on the blackest part of the image. Click the rightmost eyedropper and click on something in the image which should be white. If desired you can click the middle eyedropper and click on something that should be mid grey. As you click using each eyedropper, the colour cast in the image should be neutralized. If you don't click in the right position the first time, click again to find a better position for the fix. If you need to undo the changes and start again, hold the Alt key (Option on the Mac) and press the Reset button to reset the dialogue. |
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Clone-out problems To remove problem areas of the image use the Clone Stamp tool or copy and paste a piece of 'good' image over the problem area and blend the edges. If you're using the Clone Stamp tool work on a new layer so you can finetune the fix. Choose Layer > New > Layer and click the Clone Stamp tool. On the tool options bar set the Sample option to All Layers - this lets you work on the new layer and sample image data from all layers below. By cloning onto a new layer you can blend the fixes into the image, erase them and even adjust the colour of the fixed portion to better match the surrounding image. These options won't be available if you clone directly onto the image. This is also a time to remove skin imperfection using Photoshop's Spot Healing Brush tool. Select the tool, choose a brush the same size as the problem area and click on it to fix it. If you're using an earlier version of Photoshop, use the Healing Brush or Patch tool and sample an area to use for the fix. |
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Save and size the image Before you resize and sharpen the image save it with its layers intact so you can edit it later if desired. To use the image for web or print, flatten and resize it. To flatten the image choose Layer > Flatten Image and to resize it choose Image > Image Size and select the size and resolution to use. For web use choose a small image and a resolution of 72 pixels per inch. When you're reducing an image, from the Resample Image dropdown list choose Bicubic Sharper as it gives the best results. Sharpen the image Sharpen an image slightly for web use and more intensively for print use. To sharpen the image, first zoom to 100% so you can see what you're doing and choose Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Set the Radius to between 0.5 and 1 pixel, set a low Threshold value of 2 or 3 and adjust the Amount to give a result that's subtle but not over the top. Save this version of the image in the appropriate format, such as JPEG for web use - taking care not to overwrite your layered file. By following this photo editing workflow you'll have a plan in place for working with every image in your collection. In addition, you'll ensure that the correct fix is applied to your image at the appropriate time, and later fixes won't undo the benefits of earlier ones. |
Note: Helen Bradley © Permission to copy or quote extracts from this article may only be done with the written permission of the author.
Reprinted from the October 2008 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
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