What is this photoshop process called?

[c_k17]

<p>Ok, so there's more to a photo than considering new lenses when one thinks a more expensive one will do better photos. First you have to know your camera, how it responds to different situations and understanding that with even the most limited lens you can get good results as long as you know what you're doing. Then comes photoshop, its used to enhance a photo, to make it look clean and organized when needed, but what is that process called so I can read about it?<br />I've seen some great photos, clean sharp look and even skin tones. Taking into account the first step is how the camera takes the photo, how can I learn how to use photoshop tools to its best?<br />Just one keyword will help me so much.</p>

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[Matt Laur]

<p>Good skin tones and sharp features on your subject come from using good light, a proper exposure (no blown-out highlights, no noisy shadows), and good technique (a solid tripod if needed, adequate depth of field to get what you need in focus and to make the most of the lens), and so on.<br /><br />No amount of Photoshopping can make up for the lack of these things. And if you've done these things, you need only minimal post production work. <br /><br />It's possible that you are asking to create something other than an accurate photograph, though. Perhaps if you were to link to (not post) an example of the look you're after?</p>

[mikael_karlsson]

<p>CK:<br /><br />I agree with Matt that it's sounding a little bit "wide" as in you're asking for a lot of different things. But, digital post processing is generally the term used to describe pretty much anything that is done to the digital image once the camera is done with it. <br /><br />Various parts of the process have different labels though so the more info you can give on what you're looking for the more accurate answers people can provide.<br /><br />For a general book on Photoshop I think Adobe's Classroom in a Book series is excellent. Not a literary masterpiece by any stretch but pretty much any info you'd ever need for anything that has anything even vaguely to do with Photoshop, you'll find it in that book. Just get the appropriate book for the version of the software you're running.</p>

[c_k17]

<p>An example is this picture .. <a href="http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7500/image10q.jpg">http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7500/image10q.jpg</a><br>

it was taken with a Canon 30D.<br>

It looks nice, this is what I'm really looking for. Personally the colors are sharp and well balanced. The detail of her shirt and skin is what I mean when I say clean and organized. No muddy feel to it. Tell me what you think.</p>

[mike dixon]

I think it doesn't require any particular Photoshop skills or processes to produce such images. See Matt's initial reply.

[Matt Laur]

<p>Things to note about that photograph:<br /><br />1) The light is low and coming from camera left. Notice how the shadows are being cast to the right, almost completely horizontally. This looks to me like late afternoon or early morning light (when the sun is low, close to the horizon, and produces nice warm tones). <br /><br />2) There could be a bit of fill flash being used. Notice the single small catchlight in the subject's eyes. That small specular reflection isn't in the right place (or the right color) to be caused by the sun that's casting those shadows, so there's either a flash or a reflector adding a bit more light to the scene.<br /><br />3) The lens was used at a fairly wide aperture. Enough to produce at least a foot of in-focus area to capture from her elbow to the back of her head. But notice that the branch just behind her head, and the twig that the photographer left sticking out of her head, are already just starting to go out of focus. The structure behind her is even more out of focus. I'm guessing f/4 or so, probably around 50mm and from about six or seven feet away, if this was on an APS-C format camera. Lot's of possibilities, there - could be a longer lens from farther away, too - but I don't think it was any shorter than 50mm, or we'd be seeing perspective issues making her elbow look bigger.<br /><br />None of those things depend in any way on using Photoshop. However: when an image is scaled down to the size of the one to which you linked, certainly a bit of light sharpening is applied in order to regain the appearance of sharpness since detail is lost when that much data is thrown away.<br /><br />Some people shrink perfectly good photographs down to small e-mail-friendly shots like that 320-pixel-wide example, and are disappointed because things have gone a bit soft at that size. <em>How</em> you re-sample for small on-screen viewing does require an understanding of sharpening, and how to do it right. Search this site's forums for phrases like "sharpening for web" and you'll see many discussions along those lines.</p>

[mikael_karlsson]

<p>I agree with Matt (again!). This is about photography technique. One good book on the basics of photography that I have recommended to many photographers over the years is published by National Geographic. The series is called National Geographic Photography Field Guide. Here's one example: http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Photography-Field-Guide/dp/0792264991/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b</p>

[dan_south]

<p>The corners of the photo have been darkened (burned) to accentuate the face.</p>

[charlesheckel]

<p>And if you compare the shadows and skin tones on the subject's hands to those on her face, they're quite a bit darker. Likewise, the contour around the hair is darker than the face. This picture is Photoshopped, and not all that convincingly--hang around and the mavens in the Digital Darkroom forum will show you how to do the same thing a zillion times better, and if you want answers in depth try lynda.com.<br>

The short answer you asked for is a masked Curves adjustment layer. Now for the long one.<br>

Parts of your original are too bright, too dark, off in color or tonality, and you want to fix them and leave the rest, or skew part of your image one way and the other in a completely different direction. <br>

Your straight original has sidelighting with some fill light, but the facial shadows are too dark and you want to add transparency, the hand is a little awkward and distracting and needs bringing down, and ditto for the somewhat cluttered background. Add a Curves adjustment layer and tweak the curve up until the face shadows look good and everything else has gone to hell.<br>

Clicking the eyecon on that adjustment layer will turn it off, restoring the original and its dark shadows, and clicking it again will turn it back on. Likewise clicking on the blank mask icon (add a mask if needed) with black and white as foreground and background colors and then keying ctl-Backspace or alt-Backspace will fill the mask alternately with black and white, doing the same thing. Aha.<br>

You can now paint on your image window with a soft brush in white or black or any shade of gray in between, revealing or concealing that Curves manipulation in any degree you see fit. Could be it's a little strong and hard to blend into your original image. No problem. Click on the adjustment layer again, the edit window comes up with your original adjustment, and you can modify it to make it more convincing, eyeballing the result as you go.<br>

Hand, background, new layer, same thing--stack 'em up and paint 'em in, humming and making the good Michelangelo noises. You wanted these areas darker, so you've tweaked the curve down. Incidentally, for local color correction in highlights or in shadows, you can add or subtract red, blue, or green in any part of that curve merely by tweaking the Blue, Red, or Green Curves.<br>

You can localize the effect of any Adjustment Layer in the same way, and these are non-destructive edits which preserve your original, allowing you to edit and re-edit endlessly. Adding smarts to your image will allow you to use filter effects as Smart Filters in the same way. Saving in some formats will flatten the image, destroying the layers and setting the edits in stone. Saving in Photoshop format will preserve them for future edits.<br>

New Photoshop users seeing this in action will usually say, "<Bleep>, this is easy." It is in fact easy, until you start getting picky. Then it gets hard again. Sorry.</p>