CIE's Lab
RGB isn't the only mode that responds quickly and provides a bountiful range of colors. Photoshop's Lab color space comprises all the colors from RGB and CMYK and is every bit as fast as RGB. Many high-end users prefer to work in this mode, and I certainly advocate this if you're brave enough. Whereas the RGB mode is the color model of your luminescent computer screen and the CMYK mode is the color model of the reflective page, Lab is independent of light or pigment. Perhaps you've already...
Building your own seamless pattern
The following steps describe how to change a scanned image into a seamless, repeating pattern. To illustrate how this process works, Figures 7-22 through 7-25 show various stages in a project I completed. You need only two tools to carry out these steps the rectangular marquee tool and the rubber stamp tool. Those of you reading sequentially may notice that these steps involve a few selection and layering techniques I haven't yet discussed. If you become confused, you can find out more about...
Creating layer-specific masks
In addition to the transparency mask that accompanies every layer except the background , you can add a mask to a layer to make certain pixels in the layer transparent. Now, you might ask, Won't simply erasing portions of a layer make those portions transparent The answer, of course, is yes. And I hasten to add, that was a keen insight on your part. But when you erase, you delete pixels permanently. By creating a layer mask, you instead make pixels temporarily transparent. You can return...
Creating noise gradients
Adobe describes a noise gradient as a gradient that contains random components along with the deterministic ones that create the gradient. Allow me to translate Photoshop adds random colors between the defined colors of the selected gradient. Did that help No Then take a look at Figure 6-18, which shows examples of three noise gradients based on a simple black-to-white gradient. You could create these same gradients using the regular Solid gradient controls, of course, but it would take you...
STEPS: Brushing to a Parallel Time Line
1. Open the image you want to warp into the fourth dimension. I begin with a map of Japan Figure 7-34 . Japan is a wacky combination of 17th-century cultural uniformity, 1950's innocence, and 21st-century corporate imperialism, so it strikes me as a perfect subject for my compound-time experiment. 2. Apply a couple of filters. I choose Filter Pixelate Mosaic and set the Cell Size value to 20 pixels. Then I apply Filter Stylize Emboss with a Height of 5 pixels and an Amount of 200 percent....
Physical memory usage
Windows 95, NT 4, and later offer dynamic memory allocation, which means that each application gets the memory it needs as it needs it. But Photoshop is something of a memory pig and has a habit of using every spare bit of RAM it can get its hands on. Left to its own devices, it might gobble up all the RAM and bleed over into Windows' virtual memory space, which is less efficient than Photoshop's own scratch disk scheme. The Physical Memory Usage option helps you place some limits on...
The Brushes palette
Unless you were completely asleep at the wheel when you launched Photoshop 6 for the first time, you no doubt noticed the Options bar stretching across the top of the program window. In computer lingo, the Options bar is known as a context-sensitive toolbar, meaning that the options on the bar change depending on what tool you're using. When you work with the paint and edit tools, the Options bar gives you access to a choice of brush shapes. To browse through the available brushes, open the...
The Bold New Layer Styles
Photoshop 5 introduced a series of layer effects that automate the application of shad ows, glows, and beveled edges. Now, Version 6 takes the metaphor several steps fur ther. In addition to dramatically improving the quality of the existing effects now you won't find yourself cursing at them half the time the new Photoshop adds effects that overlay colors, stroke outlines, and create textures and contours. Plus, you can define exactly how effects are blended with background layers. And you can...
Creating a metallic coating
The edge-tracing filters are especially fun to use in combination with Edit Fade. I became interested in playing with these filters after trying out the Chrome filter included with the first Gallery Effects collection. Now included with Photoshop as Filter Sketch Chrome, this filter turns an image into a melted pile of metallic goo. No matter how you apply Chrome, it completely wipes out your image and leaves a ton of jagged color transitions in its wake. It's really only useful with color...
Gamut Warning
If Photoshop can display a color on screen but can't accurately print the color, the color is said to be out of gamut. You can choose View Gamut Warning to coat all out-of-gamut colors with gray. I'm not a big fan of this command View Proof Colors Ctrl Y is much more useful but if you use View Gamut Warning, you don't have to accept gray as the out-of-gamut coating. Change the color by clicking the Gamut Warning Color swatch, and lower the Opacity value to request a translucent coating.
Softening selection outlines
You can soften a selection in two ways. The first method is antialiasing, introduced in Chapter 5. Antialiasing is an intelligent and automatic softening algorithm that mimics the appearance of edges you'd expect to see in a sharply focused photograph. Note Where did the term antialias originate Anytime you try to fit the digital equivalent of a square peg into a round hole say, by printing a high resolution image to a low resolution printer the data gets revised during the process. This...
Free-form outlines
In comparison to the rectangular and elliptical marquee tools, the lasso tool provides a rather limited range of options. Generally speaking, you drag in a free-form path around the image you want to select. The few special considerations are as follows Feathering and antialiasing Just as you can feather rectangular and elliptical marquees, you can feather selections drawn with the lasso tool by selecting the Feather check box on the Options bar. To soften the edges of a lasso outline, select...
Fuzziness
The problem with hiding and forcing colors with the slider bars is that you achieve some pretty harsh color transitions. Both Figures 13-19 and 13-20 bear witness to this fact. Talk about your jagged edges Luckily, you can soften the color transitions by abandoning and forcing pixels gradually over a fuzziness range, which works much like the Fuzziness value in the Color range dialog box, leaving some pixels opaque and tapering others off into transparency. To taper the opacity of pixels in...
The State of Type in Photoshop 6
Photoshop 5 gave us something you don't see often editable bitmapped type. Long after you created a line or two of text, you had the option of changing the words, typeface, size, leading, kerning, and so on, just as you could in other graphics and electronic publishing programs. You could also mix and match formatting attributes inside a single text block, something you couldn't do in Version 4 and earlier. In only one upgrade cycle, Photoshop made a quantum leap from grim Stone Age letter...
Creating a reference window
In the ancient days, paint programs provided a cropped view of your image at the actual-pixels view size to serve as a reference when you worked in a magnified view. Because it's so doggone modern, Photoshop does not, but you can easily create a second view of your image by choosing View New View, as in Figure 2-12. Use one window to maintain a 100-percent view of your image while you zoom and edit inside the other window. Both windows track the changes to the image. Figure 2-12 You can create...
Actual pixels
Photoshop calls the 100-percent zoom ratio the actual-pixels view. This is the most accurate view size because you can see the image as it really is. Reduced view sizes drop pixels magnified view sizes stretch pixels. Only the actual-pixels view displays each pixel without a trace of screen distortion. You can switch to this most accurate of view sizes at any time using one of the following techniques Choose View Actual Pixels. Press Ctrl Alt 0. That's a zero, not the letter O. Double click the...
Distorting an image inside out
The following exercise describes how to achieve a sizzling Parting of the Red Sea effect. Although it incorporates several distortion filters, the star of the effect is the Polar Coordinates filter, which is used to turn the image inside out and then convert it back to polar coordinates after flipping it upside down. No scanned image or artistic talent is required. Rumor has it that Moses puts in a guest appearance in the final image. This effect is the brainchild of Mark Collen, easily the...
Reordering layers
What good are layers if you can't periodically change what's on the top and what's on the bottom You can reorder layers in two ways. First, you can drag a layer name up or down in the scrolling list to move it forward or backward in layering order. The only trick is to make sure that the black bar appears at the point where you want to move the layer before you release the mouse button, as illustrated in Figure 12-11. Figure 12-11 Drag a layer between two other layers to make the all-important...
Motion blurring
The Motion Blur filter makes an image appear as if either the image or camera was moving when you shot the photo. When you choose Filter Blur Motion Blur, Photoshop displays the dialog box shown in Figure 10-23. You enter the angle of movement into the Angle option box. Alternatively, you can indicate the angle by dragging the straight line inside the circle on the right side of the dialog box, as shown in the figure. Notice that the arrow cursor actually appears outside the circle. Once you...
Geometric selection outlines
Tools for creating simple geometric selection outlines occupy the very first slot in the Photoshop toolbox. By default, the rectangular marquee tool has the stage. You select the elliptical, single-row, and single-column marquee tools from the flyout menu that appears when you drag from the marquee tool icon. Tip Press M to select the tool that's currently visible in the toolbox. Press M again to toggle between the rectangular and elliptical marquee tools. Alternatively Alt click jF the tool...
The Navigator palette
I saved the best for last. Shown in Figure 2-13, the Navigator palette is the best thing to happen to zooming and scrolling since Photoshop was first introduced. If you routinely work on large images that extend beyond the confines of your relatively tiny screen, you'll want to get up and running with this palette as soon as possible. Figure 2-13 The Navigator palette is the best thing to happen to zooming and scrolling since Photoshop 1.0. Figure 2-13 The Navigator palette is the best thing to...
The mainstream formats
The formats discussed so far are mighty interesting and they all fulfill their own niche purposes. But two formats JPEG and TIFF are the all-stars of digital imagery. You'll use these formats the most because of their outstanding compression capabilities and almost universal support among graphics applications. The JPEG format is named after the folks who designed it, the Joint Photographic Experts Group. JPEG is the most efficient and essential compression format currently available and is...
The shape drawing process
The act of drawing a shape can be as simple as dragging with a tool. When you're done, Photoshop creates a new shape layer. However, should you decide to invest more time, the program offers you a wealth of additional controls. Just for the record, here's the long way to approach the process of drawing a shape layer. 1. Specify the foreground color. Select the color for the shape from the Color palette. If you want to fill the shape with a gradient, pattern, or image, you can do that after you...
Building a Mask from an Image
So far, everything I've discussed in this chapter has been pretty straightforward. Now it's time to see how the professionals do things. This final section in this chapter explains every step required to create a mask for a complex image. Here's how to select the image you never thought you could select, complete with wispy little details such as hair. Take a gander at Figure 9-28 and see what I mean. I chose this subject not for her good looks or her generous supply of freckles, but for that...
STEPS: Creating the Crystal Halo Effect
1. Select the foreground element around which you want to create the halo. Then choose Select Inverse to deselect the foreground element and select the background. 2. Press Q to switch to the quick mask mode. 3. Choose Filter Other Minimum. As I explained in Chapter 10, this filter enables you to increase the size of the deselected area around the foreground element. The size of the Radius value depends on the size of the halo you want to create. I entered 15 because I wanted a 15-pixel halo....
STEPS: Creating and Using an Edge Mask
1. Duplicate one of the color channels. Bring up the Channels palette and drag one of the color channels onto the little page icon. Ike is a grayscale image, so I duplicate the one and only channel. 2. Choose Filter Stylize Find Edges. As I explain in Chapter 11, the Find Edges filter automatically traces the edges of your image with thick, gooey outlines that are ideal for creating edge masks. 3. Press Ctrl I. Or choose Image Adjust Invert. Find Edges produces black lines against a white...
Setting up the grid
Photoshop offers a grid, which is a regular series of snapping increments. You view the grid and turn it on by choosing View Show Grid. Turn the snapping forces of the grid on and off by choosing View Snap To Grid. You edit the grid in the Guides amp Grid panel of the Preferences dialog box which you can get to by pressing Ctrl K and then Ctrl 6 or by Ctrl-double-clicking on a guide . I explain how to use these options in the Guides amp Grid section of Chapter 2. But for the record, you enter...
Working in Quick Mask Mode
Selection masks give you an idea of what masks are all about, but they only scrape the surface. The rest of this chapter revolves around using masks to define complex selection outlines. The most straightforward environment for creating a mask is the quick mask mode. In the quick mask mode, a selection is expressed as a rubylith overlay. All deselected areas appear coated with red, and selected areas appear without red coating, as shown in the top examples of Color Plate 9-1. You can then edit...
Blending layers
Photoshop lets you blend layers like no other program in the business. In fact, Photoshop does such a great job that it takes me an entire chapter Chapter 13 to explain these options in detail. I offer this section by way of introduction so that you're at least aware of the basics. If you have bigger questions, Chapter 13 is waiting to tell all. The Layers palette provides three basic ways to blend pixels between layers see Figure 12-15 . None of these techniques changes as much as a pixel in...
Transforming layers and selected pixels
To transform a layer or selection, you can apply one of the commands in the Edit Transform submenu. Nearly a dozen commands are here, all of which you can explore on your own. I'm not copping out it's just that it's unlikely you'll use any of these commands on a regular basis. They aren't bad, but one command Free Transform is infinitely better. With Free Transform, you can scale, flip, rotate, slant, distort, and move a selection or layer in one continuous operation. This one command lets you...
General preferences
The General panel, shown in Figure 2-15, contains a miscellaneous supply of what are arguably the most important Preferences options. Figure 2-15 The General panel provides access to the most important environmental preference settings. I agree with many, but not all, of the default settings shown here. Figure 2-15 The General panel provides access to the most important environmental preference settings. I agree with many, but not all, of the default settings shown here. Color Picker Adobe When...
Sharpening grainy photographs
Having completed my neutral discussion of Unsharp Mask, king of the Sharpen filters, I hasten to interject a little bit of commentary, along with a helpful solution to a common sharpening problem. Figure 10-12 The results of applying nine different Threshold values. To best show off the differences between each image, I set the Amount and Radius values to 500 percent and 2.0 respectively. Figure 10-12 The results of applying nine different Threshold values. To best show off the differences...
Saving an EPS image
When preparing an image for placement inside a drawing or page-layout document that will be printed to a PostScript output device, many artists prefer to save the image in the EPS format. Converting the image to PostScript up front prevents the drawing or page-layout program from doing the work. The result is an image that prints more quickly and with less chance of problems. Note that an image does not look any different when saved in EPS. The idea that the EPS format somehow blesses an image...
Filling paths
After you finish drawing a path, you can convert it to a selection outline as described in the upcoming Converting paths to selections section or you can paint it. You can paint the interior of the path by choosing the Fill Path command from the Paths palette menu, or you can paint the outline of the path by choosing Stroke Path. In either case, Photoshop applies the fill on the active image layer. The Fill Path command works much like Edit Fill. After drawing a path, choose the Fill Path...
Plunging Headlong into Color
Most artists react very warmly to the word color and a bit more coolly to the word management, especially those of us who have made the mistake of taking on managerial chores ourselves. Put the two words together, however, and you can clear a room. The term color management has been known to cause the sturdiest of characters to shriek and sweat like a herd of elephants locked in a sauna. It's no exaggeration to say that color management is the least understood topic in all of computer imaging....
The history brush
Painting with the history brush tool gives you results similar to Option-dragging with the eraser or selecting the eraser's Erase to History option . Just drag with the history brush to paint down to the source state targeted in the History palette. You also can vary the opacity of your strokes with the Opacity setting on the Options bar. But the history brush offers two advantages over the eraser. First, you can take advantage of brush modes. By choosing a different brush mode from the Mode...
Painting and Editing Inside Selections
Before we immerse ourselves in masking techniques, let's start with a warm-up topic selection masking. When you were in grade school, you may have had a teacher who nagged you to color within the lines. I didn't. My teachers were more concerned about preventing me from writing on the walls and coloring on the other kids, or so I'm told. If so, your teacher would have loved this incredibly straightforward feature. In Photoshop, all selection outlines act as masks hence the term selection...
Rotating the crop marquee
As I said, you can rotate an image by dragging outside the crop marquee. Straightening a crooked image, however, can be a little tricky. I wish I had a certified check for every time I thought I had the marquee rotated properly, only to find the image was still crooked after I pressed Enter. If this happens to you, choose Edit Undo Ctrl Z and try again. Do not try using the crop tool a second time to rotate the already rotated image. If you do, Photoshop sets about interpolating between already...
The color sampler tool
Found in the same toolbox flyout as the eyedropper, the color sampler tool looks like the eyedropper with a little crosshair target. But where the eyedropper lifts foreground and background colors, the color sampler merely measures the colors of pixels so that you can monitor how the pixels react to various color changes. Select the color sampler and click somewhere inside the image window. Photoshop adds a crosshair target to indicate the point you clicked. The program also brings up the Info...
Photo CD YCC images
Photoshop can open Eastman Kodak's Photo CD and Pro Photo CD formats directly. A Photo CD contains compressed versions of every image in each of the five scan sizes provided on Photo CDs from 128 x 192 pixels 72K to 2,048 x 3,072 pixels 18MB . The Pro Photo CD format can accommodate each of the five sizes included in the regular Photo CD format, plus one additional size 4,096 x 6,144 pixels 72MB that's four times as large as the largest image on a regular Photo CD. As a result, Pro Photo CDs...
QuarkXPress DCS
Quark developed a variation on the EPS format called Desktop Color Separation DCS . When you work in QuarkXPress, PageMaker, and other programs that support the format, DCS facilitates the printing of color separations. Before you can use DCS, you have to convert your image to the CMYK color space using Image Mode CMYK Color. DCS 2.0 also supports grayscale images with spot-color channels. Then bring up the Save dialog box and select Photoshop DCS 1.0 or 2.0 from the Format pop-up menu....
The edit tools
The edit tools don't apply color rather, they influence existing colors in an image. Figure 5-4 shows each of the six edit tools applied to a randomized background. Future sections cover the tools in more detail, but here's a brief introduction Blur The first of the two focus tools, the blur tool blurs an image by lessening the amount of color contrast between neighboring pixels. Sharpen The second focus tool selectively sharpens by increasing the contrast between neighboring pixels. Generally...
Entering numeric color values
In addition to selecting colors using the slider and color field, you can enter specific color values in the option boxes in the lower-right region of the Color Picker dialog box. Novices and intermediates may find these options less satisfying to use than the slider and field. These options, however, enable artists and print professionals to specify exact color values, whether to make controlled adjustments to a color already in use or to match a color used in another document. The options...
Generating Masks Automatically
In addition to the quick mask mode and selection masking, Photoshop offers a few tools that automate the masking process well, automate some parts of the process. You still need to provide some input to tell the program exactly what you're trying to mask. Photoshop 5.5 added a trio of tools designed to select the foreground of an image while cutting away the background the background eraser, magic eraser, and Extract command. I cover the two erasers along with the plain old eraser tool in...
Placing an EPS illustration
If you want to introduce an EPS graphic into the foreground image rather than to render it into a new image window of its own, choose File Place. Unlike other File menu commands, Place supports only EPS illustrations and PDF files. After you import the EPS graphic, it appears inside a box which Photoshop calls a bounding box with a great big X across it. You can move, scale, and rotate the illustration into position before rasterizing it to pixels. Drag a corner handle to resize the image drag...
Fading the paint (and other effects)
In earlier versions of Photoshop, you could create a fading paint stroke by selecting the Fade check box in the Options palette and then specifying whether you wanted the stroke to fade from the foreground color to the background color or to transparency. In Version 6, you have the same choices, but they're handled a little differently. When you work with the paintbrush or pencil, setting the Color option in the Brush Dynamics palette to Fade enables you to paint a line that fades from the...
Applying arrowheads
The one function missing from all the operations in the preceding list is applying arrowheads. The fact is, in Photoshop, you can apply arrowheads only to straight lines drawn with the line tool. The line tool no longer shares a toolbox flyout with the pencil tool in Version 6, the line tool is grouped with the drawing tools. You can cycle between the tools by press ing U or Shift U, depending on whether you select the Use Shift for Tool Switch check box in the Preferences dialog box . As I...
Painting along a path
Unlike the Fill Path command, which bears a strong resemblance to Edit Fill, the Stroke Path command is altogether different from Edit Stroke. Edit Stroke creates outlines and arrowheads, whereas the Stroke Path command enables you to paint a brush stroke along the contours of a path. This may not sound like a big deal at first, but this feature enables you to combine the spontaneity of the paint and edit tools with the structure and precision of a path. To paint a path, choose the Stroke Path...
Removing noise with Despeckle
Now for the noise removal filters. Strictly speaking, the Despeckle command probably belongs in the Filter Blur submenu. It blurs a selection while at the same time preserving its edges the idea being that unwanted noise is most noticeable in the continuous regions of an image. In practice, this filter is nearly the exact opposite of the Sharpen Edges filter. The Despeckle command searches an image for edges using the equivalent of an Unsharp Mask Threshold value of 5. It then ignores the edges...
How to switch and view channels
To access channels in Photoshop, display the Channels palette by choosing Window Show Channels. Every channel in the image appears in the palette including any mask channels as shown in Figure 4-15. Photoshop even shows little thumbnail views of each channel so that you can see what it looks like. To switch to a different channel, click a channel name in the Channels palette. The channel name becomes gray like the Blue channel in Figure 4-15 showing that you can now edit it independently of...