Dawn landscape - processing option and process. A simple example of landscape processing in Photoshop
This work will be done through Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and Photoshop. Basic knowledge of the world of photography and the meaning of the corrections made are also welcome. Keep in mind that all settings come from a specific image and in other photos you must take into account THEM characteristics (the dimensions of the original photo were 5616 on the 3744px). Below you can see how the picture was originally and how it will become after the corrections made:
Step 01 - Selecting a Photo
Select the photo you want to edit. it would seem an obvious action, but still some criteria are important here, because not every photo makes sense to mess with. Photoshop is good as an image enhancer, but still it is not the Messiah - it can turn good images into amazing ones, raise mediocre ones to good ones, and pull up bad ones only to mediocre ones (here we are talking about light and color correction without significant time and resource costs). ). A well-captured landscape retains as much digital color and dynamic range information as possible. The biggest problem in landscape photography is the exposure difference between the sky and the ground, unless of course you use special lens filters that can prevent this. in bright daylight, this difference can reach 12 steps, while the difference becomes much smaller at sunrise or sunset (up to six stops).
In this tutorial, we'll be working on a mediocre sunset photo. various operations will be performed to work with exposure, working out white balance, contrast, brightness and color saturation. But the important point is the fact that the exposure difference between heaven and earth should not exceed 6-7 steps. This shot was taken with a clean lens, without any polarizing or gradient filter. And note that we are working with the usual JPEG-om, not equal. Having equal, you will have even more opportunities:
Step 02 - Opening the Photo in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR)
Open image via ACR(File-Open as... - here we select the desired photo, and in the list of formats we select Camera Raw). First, study the image well and think about what could be done to achieve better quality. No Photoshop tool can replace a trained eye and the desired result, so spend some time evaluating the photo yourself. Even if your photoshop skills are not great, your intuition and evaluative ability can improve just by observing and analyzing. So, I noted several shortcomings in the analysis of this image. I circled in red 4th the main ones:
1. the difference in exposure between the earth and the sky (clearly visible on the histogram);
2. the plants are too dark and there is not enough light;
3. a pale and less contrasting area compared to the rest of the ground;
4. minimum visible detail of the sky.
In general, this image has very low contrast, it looks faded and underexposed. But in a small histogram available in ACR, you can see that there is no loss of information, as such, and it is available, which means that it can be pulled out:
Step 03 - Goal setting for the photo
Thus, in this tutorial we are going to ensure that all elements of the photo are in a wide dynamic range. Who's ringing the bell - wide dynamic range? Yes it HDR, but it will be done manually. The process we are about to do is the best alternative HDR, with a more natural look, at least more friendly to the eye. Automatic HDR there is such a WOW effect, but in the long run, this is not the method that he uses for his amazing landscapes national geographic. Our method does not repeat 100% quality recipe that u National Geographic, but he is closer to him than a simple building HDR.
So we'll start with two basic tools in ACR - Recovery(Restoration) and fill light(Fill light). With their help, you can bring heaven and earth to a common exposure. Recovery(Restoration) and fill light(Fill Light) at their value in 100 they will show on the histogram the exposure approach of the sky to the earth to the familiar, and beloved by some, middle of the brightness indicators. But a value of one hundred is an extreme for both instruments, and the result looks like a bad washed out pseudo HDR. In addition, their use with extreme combinations creates gray halos around details throughout the image, which look unnatural and bad. Therefore, we are going to use these sliders by small amounts in order to approximate the overall exposure of the frame gradually and without going too far:
Step 04 - Initial ACR Settings
Initial value Recovery(Recovery) = 40 , a fill light(fill light) = 20 - that's okay. We need to make small adjustments, because large changes will lead to a devastating effect, instead of the desired one. Photoshop is a great tool, if you're not too zealous in twisting its tools, you should make small changes - this is the main rule for all forms of its application to photos!
Step 05 - ACR Graduated Filter
It's time for the first trick! I've been muttering enough about the difference in exposure between heaven and earth, so let's start correcting this situation. Photographers usually use polarizing or gradient gray filters to reduce the amount of light in the sky, why are we worse without one? AT ACR there is also a filter Graduated Filter(Graduated filter / in CS3 it is not there yet), go to its settings (G), swipe it from top to bottom, holding down the key for evenness Shift, and lower the parameter exposure(Exposure) to -1 :
Step 06 - ACR Graduated Filter
Here we can add another gradient filter with different properties. Turn on the checkbox New and draw another gradient from the bottom to the center (without hitting the sky), but this time we will increase the exposure for the ground to +0.30 (in this case, this amount was enough to eliminate excessive darkness on the plants). Remember that we are now only imitating the capabilities of the human eye with this processing to adapt to different lighting of objects in its field of view and distinguish all the details, " eliminating» there is a difference in exposure when the camera cannot. According to our histogram, we can see that those two small hills are no longer the same and far from each other:
Step 07 - Overview
Let's look back and consider the beginning of our work. we smoothed out the difference in exposure between the sky and the ground using the tools Recovery(Restoration) and fill light(Fill light), and also applied two gradient filters that brought us even closer to what we wanted. Now we can work on the overall dynamic range of the image by flattening the histogram even more by bringing the lighting closer together across the frame. As a reward, our manipulations have made the colors in the image a little brighter and more juicy compared to the original photo - and we get all this from a single shot (and not from 3rd or 5, how in HDR). We can now see more details both in the sky and on the ground. But we still have a pale area, marked in the second step under the number 3 . We'll take care of her in a bit. But the important thing is that this photo has all the necessary range, and we will help it to manifest itself. Our image still lacks contrast, vibrant colors, and applying a few color techniques that will change the photo for the better, as we've only completed the first preliminary steps to get a good result:
Step 08 - ACR, Clarity (Clarity)
AT ACR we will use a couple more tools - this is Clarity(Clarity) and noise reduction. We will perform the rest of the steps already in Photoshop, since the subsequent actions there will be more effective. So change the value Clarity(Clarity) to +40 , which will add some contrast to the image...:
Step 09 - ACR, Noise Reduction
In the tab Detail(Details) adjust the sliders included in the group noise reduction. (Luminance +30 ; color +50 ), thereby reducing the amount of color noise. Change these settings when 100% the photo display scale to visually monitor the level of noise reduction and their brightness. color noise reduction will even out the color in the image. Both values for the sliders are not rooted and should be selected according to the image being processed:
Step 10 - Going to Photoshop
Time to transfer our creative process to Photoshop. On the left side, for your convenience, I expanded the general histogram and its three channel-by-channel options so that you can easily read information about the current state of brightness:
Step 11 - Curves (Curves)
In Photoshop, we'll start with curves. Our first goal will be to get the White Balance right by identifying the most " white"and the most" black» dots, which will change the colors to more natural ones. There are several ways to determine and configure the WB, up to automatic ones, we will use one of them. OK, create an adjustment layer Curves(Curves) and enable the function Show Clipping for Black/White Points(Show clipping for black/white points):
Step 12 - Curves (Curves), Black Point (Black point)
Now, by shifting the curve, we will be able to see the darkest pixels in the image appear to mark them. First, start moving the black slider to the side until the first black pixels appear (see screenshot). Revert this slider back since you already know the location of the darkest point:
Step 13 - Curves (Curves), Black Point (Black point)
Now, here, select the black pipette and click it on the previously identified point (for convenience, it could be marked with the tool color sampler(Color standard)). This operation will affect all channels of the image and recalculate them according to the new data, after which the specified point will become really black:
Step 14 - Curves (Curves), White Point (White point)
We are going to do the same operation for white recalculation, only this time we need to move the white slider:
Step 15 - Curves (Curves), White Point (White point)
With a white eyedropper, click on the found, lightest point:
Step 16 - Overview 2
Let's look at the work again. The conducted method of working with curves is relevant when working with each processed image. However, you will notice that we did not use a pipette to determine the neutral gray. yes, we won't do that in this case, because the gray dot is somewhere in the clouds, but the picture was taken during sunset with some reflections of red sun rays on them in some places and some blue reflections from the sky in others. And the attempt to select a gray point in such conditions can shift our achievements and destroy the natural beauty in this frame. Our goal is the opposite. Below is a photo before and after applying the curves - this action made the image more contrast and, by correcting the WB, removed the reddish tints throughout the frame, due to which the colors became brighter.
Have you noticed that we haven't done any targeted actions specifically on working with color as such yet, but they still keep getting brighter bit by bit? All this result came from a simple work with dynamic range, the potential of which we unfolded a bit:
Step 17 - Channels Light Masks
The still light sky hides some of the details that can play out more and we use one advanced method to get them under control. The method is similar to using Shadows/Highlights(Shadows/Lights) but much more controlled and advanced. Now we are going to work directly in the channels palette (), so go to it:
Step 18 - Channels Light Masks
Click on the icon button Load Channel as Selection(Loads the contents of the channel as a selection), which is located at the left at the bottom of the palette (or hold ctrl and click on the composite channel; or use the keyboard shortcut) - this will highlight all the pixels lighter 50% gray and equal to it:
Step 19 - Channels Light Masks
Now click on the button Save Selection as Channel(Saves the selected area in a new channel), which is located to the right of the previous icon - as a result, we get an alpha channel 1 The created from the selection. Click this button again 3 times to get alpha channels 2 , 3 and 4 (do not deselect):
There is one remark: having some experience, I can say that some users, when performing this step, may not get exactly the results they need. It depends on one nuance, which is discussed below. And here I note that the desired result, with all the nuances, can be achieved in the following way: instead of the above icon, click on the creation of a new empty alpha channel (it will be black), make four of them, as needed. After making sure our foreground color is white, select the first alpha channel and click Alt+Backspace(in the presence of the selection that was created in step 18) and so on with the rest of the created alpha channels. There are other ways, but this will suffice.
About the nuance: in order to check for the presence of a nuance that will lead to the wrong results, double-click on the icon of the quick mask mode to get into its settings. If you have the top item selected, then this step can be performed as described at the very beginning. If the second option then - either change it to the first one, or before pressing the button Ctrl+Shift+I(invert selection):
To be sure, the mask should look like this:
Step 20 - Channels Light Masks
With the current selection by 18th step, select alpha channel 2 and click once Alt+Backspace(the front color should be white). Select alpha channel 3 and double click Alt+Backspace, and on the fourth alpha channel - three times. With each such press, the selected channel will become lighter:
Step 21 - Channels Light Masks
Now we will create 4th adjustment layers Levels, which will be masked by our alpha channels. Select a channel Alpha 1 and click on the icon Load Channel as Selection(Downloads the content of the channel as a selection) (or, Ctrl+click on the selected channel), then go to the palette Layers(Levels) and create an adjustment layer Levels(Levels) - the desired mask will be created automatically. Repeat this step for the rest of the alpha channels. After creating adjustment layers, the alpha channels themselves in the corresponding palette can be deleted, because they already exist as masks:
Step 22 - Channels Light Masks
Based only on the highlights of this photo, in this case the clouds, I adjusted all four adjustment layers to bring out the details of the sky more fully. Below are the values of the three sliders for each layer:
Levels 1: Black=90, Gray=0.72, White=227
Levels 2: Black=40, Gray=0.87, White=255
Levels 3: Black=12, Gray=0.96, White=244
Levels 4: Black=8, Gray=1.09, White=255
The settings were brought out by my own feeling to pull more detail out of the sky, although I overdid it a little to show a huge difference after making adjustments. As a result, the clouds turned out very well and voluminous, as in the figure, but all the light on earth was destroyed, and with it the visibility of objects with details was natural:
Step 23 - Restoring the Earth (Beginning)
Merge all layers into a separate layer by pressing the key combination Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E. Add a mask to this layer and hide all adjustment layers. Levels(Levels):
Step 24 - Land Restoration (Finish)
Once on the mask, draw a black-to-white gradient on it from the bottom up, or paint the bottom part, where the ground is, with a soft black brush. I used a gradient to smooth the transition in the middle, at the junction between the two elements. With this step, we mask the underexposed view of the bottom half of the photo of the current layer to reveal its appearance before the sky adjustment with levels:
Step 25 - Review 3
We are already close, although not yet the final. Let's revisit and analyze all the steps taken up to this point and the difference between them:
Step 26 - Compare to HDR
Version shown below HDR based on the original photo. Granted conversion to HDR actually brought nothing to the colors themselves. although the brightness of the entire frame is close to ideal (we have a “slide in the middle”), with good midtone contrast, but in general the frame looks flatter compared to our processing, although the ground turned out to be quite detailed, and it could be transferred to our work. but in general this HDR does not match our image. The methods used in ACR, With curves and levels with masks, brought original colors to the photo already at the stage of working with dynamic range:
Step 27 - Color Boost (Slopes)
It's time to "boost" the colors in this photo. The addition of green hues will work well for the hills. Create a New Adjustment Layer color balance(Color Balance) and adjust it as shown below:
Midtones(mid tones): 0R, +25G, 0B;
Shadows(Shadows): 0R, +10G, 0B;
Go to the mask of this layer, invert it Ctrl+I to make it black, choose a soft brush with white color (the size depends on the needs, Opacity(Opacity) = 40% ) and walk it in places of greenery. Then apply a filter to the mask (Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur) in 80-100 px to soften the edges. Lower the opacity of the layer itself to 56% or higher:
Step 28 - Color boost (clouds)
Since the sunset was captured in the photo, we will add warm reddish and orange hues to the sky. Create another corrective color balance(color balance):
Midtones(mid tones): +30R, 0G, -17B;
Shadows(Shadows): -12R, -8G, +1B;
Highlights(Light): +24R, 0G, -61B.
Such significant parameters are used to show the effect more strongly, because you can always lower the opacity of the layer. here also fill the mask with black and reveal the cloud area with white + blur the strokes to smooth the edges:
Step 29 - Color Boost (Ground)
Add a third adjustment layer color balance(color balance):
Midtones(mid tones): +15R, +5G, -17B;
Highlights(Light): +12R, 0G, -65B.
On the mask, reveal only the ground + blur and lower the opacity to 75% :
Step 30 - Color Review
This photo breathed an essential breath of life! Not only does the histogram show an overall balanced exposure across the frame, but we have both the sky and the ground looking wonderful with the ability to see their details. Warm atmosphere in a good combination of colors of the sky with the earth. This is actually the view that I saw, perceived and felt live when I took this picture. The sky with a contrasting transition from cold to warm tones, from left to right, catches the eye and creates an amazing picturesque image that awakens the viewer's imagination. It remains only to take the last final step - increasing the overall clarity of small details, in order to achieve greater clarity, bringing this moment closer to that of HDR:
Step 31 - Sharpness
We use a standard filter for sharpening, although Photoshop offers many sharpening options. in this lesson, a fairly full-fledged method for working with exposure and color was shown, so we will not be overloaded and use the filter unsharp mask(Sharpening). Merge all existing layers into one new one by clicking Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E, and run (Filter - Sharpening - Peaking), the values \u200b\u200bof which depend on the size of the image and the degree of sharpening (remember that the dimensions of the original image are 5616 on the 3744 px):
Step 32 - Sharpen Control
In this case, the increased clarity of detail is appropriate and only looks good on the ground, not on the clouds, so add a mask to this layer and mask the sky area with a gradient. Also, due to the fact that at full size the landscape became too clear, I lowered the opacity of this layer by half:
End
Well, almost everything, except for one pleasant little thing. If you suddenly did not quite understand any settings or nuances, then below is a link to the archive to the source, with a reduced photo ( 1500 on the 1000 px) and all the adjustment layers that were described in the lesson, starting with 10th step- places of work transition in Photoshop, and the first layer is the result of the photo output from ACR. Enjoy and increase your skills.
Final result 
Hello. In this tutorial, I'll show you how you can dramatically improve your photos in 9 steps. It is better to process landscapes or cityscapes in this way.
For example, I took this photo:
The first photo looks dull, inconspicuous. In real life, this landscape looked very different.
So, let's start processing.
Step 1. Let's start by leveling the horizon line. To do this, duplicate the photo layer (Ctrl + J) and apply to it Edit - Transform - Rotate(Editing - Transformation - Rotate) and rotate the photo in the right direction, holding the corner of the frame that appears, then press the key on the keyboard Enter. If there is a body of water in the frame, such as the sea, then it is better to align the horizon line along the water's edge. You can also align the horizon line with the trees, and in the urban landscape with the pillars and walls of houses.
Step 2 Crop the image with the tool Crop(Frame). Look carefully at your picture. Maybe there is too much sky on it, or something superfluous got into the frame from the edge. Or just want to draw attention to any one object in the photo.
If in your opinion there is nothing superfluous in the photo, just cut off the stripes left after rotating the image along the edges:
Step 3 Now let's make the photo more contrast, lighter or darker, depending on what your picture needs. The command is suitable for this. Levels. Let's go to the menu Image - Adjustments - Levels(Image - Correction - Levels). We move the sliders until we achieve the best result. In my case, to increase the contrast, I moved the extreme black and white sliders closer to the middle:
Instead of Levels, you can also use the command Curves(Image - Adjustments - Curves (Image - Correction - Curves)). The curve for my photo in this case would look like this:
Step 4. Expand the dynamic range. Simply put, we will lighten the shadows and darken the highlights of the photo. Let's go to the menu Image - Adjustments - Shadow/Highlight(Image - Correction - Highlights / Shadows). Each photo has its own settings. While looking at your photo, move the sliders until you're happy with the result and the photo looks better. I darkened the sky and brightened the greens in the shadows. My settings look like this:
Result:
Step 5 Now let's do the white balance. You can move the sliders and set it "by eye" using Image - Adjustments - Color Balance(Image - Adjustment - Color Balance), but I prefer the method from the lesson How to find a neutral color.
Here is the result:
Step 6 Let's increase the saturation of the photo. This can be done in a simple way, through Image - Adjustments - Hue/Saturation(Image - Correction - Hue/Saturation). My settings are:
And the result:
Step 7 Minor retouching. Take a close look at your picture, is there anything superfluous that spoils the beauty of the photo? For example, debris lying on the grass or the edge of a passer-by's sleeve that accidentally fell into the frame. With the help of tools Healing brush tool(healing brush) patch tool(Patch) or Clone Stamp Tool(Stamp) remove unnecessary details from the photo. In my photograph, I smeared overexposed areas in the sky - "white holes". I made it a tool Clone Stamp Tool(Patch) in Darken mode
Result:
Step 8 We increase the sharpness. This can be done using Filter - Sharpen - Unsharp Mask(Filter - Sharpness - Unsharp Mask) or Filter - Sharpen - Smart Sharpen(Filter - Sharpness - Smart Sharpen). I used the filter unsharp mask, here are my settings:
Step 9 We remove noise. Often, after such processing, noise appears, especially in the sky. Duplicate the photo layer and apply the command to it Filter - Noise - Reduce Noise(Filter - Noise - Reduce Noise). If you want to remove noise, for example, only in the sky, you can add a black mask to this layer. To do this, on the layers palette, click on the icon at the same time, holding the key alt on keyboard. And then paint with a white brush over the sky in the photo. There are some very good special plugins for removing noise from a photo.
Here we come to the final result. Thank you for your attention. I hope my lesson is useful to you!
Good day! In that photoshop lesson you will learn handle the landscape. We will make an atmospheric, unusual landscape out of gray and boring.
And here is our ward:
Of course, you can (and it is even desirable) take a different photo. I will show everything with this example. You can see the result of landscape processing right now:
Let's get started!
1. First of all, let's give our boring image a variety of colors. Create a new layer (Shift + Ctrl + N) and go to Layer (Layer) -> New Fill Layer (New fill) -> Gradient (Gradient). In the first window, you only need to change the parameter Opacity (Opacity) by 40%:
We press OK. A window with gradient settings appears. Click on the strip and choose colors. I took #4c2600, #94b318 and #1e8bde. Of course, you can take others:
The landscape should now look something like this:
2. Create another layer, go to Image (Image) -> Apply Image (Apply image) and select any of the 3 channels: red, green or blue. This action will create an atmosphere for the landscape, so pay special attention to it. My photo looks best in the green channel:
3. Copy the scenery (Ctrl+E). For the original, set the blend mode to Luminosity (Glow) and lower the opacity to 70%. For a copy, apply Hue / Saturation (Hue / Saturation) (Hot key for this tool Ctrl + U) and by checking the Colorize checkbox, set the desired color tone. I chose brown
Set opacity to 70%. Now, after a little processing, the landscape looks a little better:
But the desired effect is still far away, so let's move on 🙂
Improving the sky for landscape
4. Take any suitable sky texture (at least from) and transfer it to the canvas:
5. Rasterize the newly inserted image and create a mask. Now with a black soft brush erase all unnecessary:
6. Blending mode Multiply (Multiplication). Opacity 60%. Go back to the mask again, and with a brush at 50% opacity, mask out the transition:
7. Apply the mask (Layer -> Layer Mask -> Apply). Go to Image -> Adjustment -> Color Balance (Color balance) and adjust the colors of the clouds according to the color scheme of the rest of the image:
8. Now press Ctrl+U and apply the following options:
This completes the processing of the sky for the landscape. Move on.
Fine-tuning landscape details
9. We need a new black layer. Create it, select the rectangle in the middle and delete it. This will result in a black border:
10. Deselect (Сrtl + D) and go to Filter (Filter) -> Blur (Blur) -> Gaussian Blur (According to Gauss) with a radius of 60-65 px:
Blending mode Overlay (Overlap) and Opacity (Opacity) 50%. At this stage of processing, the landscape takes the following form:
11. Right-click on any layer, select Flatten Image (Glue image). Thus, all layers will merge into one. Duplicate the resulting landscape, go to Image -> Adjustment -> Shadow / Highlights (Light / Shadows), check the box Show More Options (Show more options) and set the following settings:
Pay special attention to Midtone Contrast (Midtone Contrast), it gives quite an interesting result. Reduce the opacity to 80% and admire the result of processing the landscape:
12. However, that's not all. Create an adjustment layer Selective Color (Selective color):
Overcast weather can either make for a very atmospheric photo, or a dull, mediocre shot. If your photos are more of the second option, don't worry. With some image processing skills, you can turn a sad landscape into a dreamlike painting. It usually takes no more than 20 minutes to edit a picture.
Processing is very simple and clear, but there will be a lot of steps. Starting to read this article, you should already be able to work with masks, adjustment layers and know the basic controls in Photoshop.
We start processing
We launch Adobe Photoshop and open the selected photo, which should become fabulous and charming.
The first step is to select all the light areas. To do this, press the key combination Ctrl + Alt + 2 if you have Photoshop version CS4 or older, or Ctrl + Alt + ~ if your program is older. let the selection remain. Create a new empty layer and add a mask to it. The buttons for this are at the very bottom of the layers panel. There will be no changes in the image itself, but pay attention to the mask. It will be painted black and white according to the outlines of the selection.
Now open the color palette and select yellow. You can choose the shade yourself, or you can use the color #c2be7a as in the example. Next, activate the new layer. To do this, simply click on it in the layers panel. The selection will move from the mask to the layer. Fill with yellow color. To do this, you can use the appropriate tool, paint with a large brush, or simply press the Alt + Backspace keys. Change the layer blending mode to Chroma (Color).
Add an adjustment layer Selective Color (Selective color). Now let's adjust the red hues. Select the color of the same name and set the following values:
- Blue (Blue) -47
- Purple (Magenta) +66
- Yellow +19
- Black +26
Your settings may differ. Do everything by eye.
The next adjustment layer will be Channel Mixer (Mixing channels) with the following settings for the red channel:
- Red +40
- Green +40
- Blue +20
Change the blending mode of this layer to Overlay (Overlap). Switch to the mask of this layer by clicking on it with the mouse. Select the brush from the toolbar and make it soft. Make the diameter bigger. Change the opacity of the brush to 35-40%. Draw all the dark areas on the mask.
Now let's create another empty layer. Go to the menu Image (Image) and select the item External channel (Apply Image). Change the blend mode to Normal and click OK. This way you can get a combined version of all layers. The same can be done by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E.
Now go to section Filter (Filter) and in the menu Blur (Blur) select filter Gaussian blur (Gaussian blur). The radius can be set arbitrary. The value should not be too big, but not too small either. Approximately 3-5 pixels. If the resolution of your image is high, then you can try using higher values. Change the blending mode to Multiply (Multiplication). Adjust the Opacity to 80%. Now add a mask to this layer and hide all the dark areas with a brush. To soften the transitions, you can blur the mask with filters or select feathering in the mask parameters and specify the required value.
Duplicate the layer we just worked on. Apply a Gaussian blur of about 5-10 pixels to it. Change the blending mode to Color dodge (Lightening the basics). You can delete the mask and create a new one or fill the copied one with white. Now with a brush hide all the light areas. Pay attention to the sky and water.
Now the picture should be as if in a haze. Try changing the opacity of the layers for best results.
Now let's focus on sharpening. To do this, copy the bottom layer and move it up. Go to the menu Filter (Filter), then the section Other (Other) and select the filter High pass (Color contrast). The radius must be chosen arbitrary, but such that the outlines of the objects are clear. Change the blending mode of this layer to Overlay (Overlap). Edit the opacity to taste. You can decrease the value up to 50%. In this case, the sharpness will not be very striking.
Create another adjustment layer Levels (Levels). Let's work with halftones. Move the middle slider to the right to about 0.78. Change the blending mode to Soft light (Soft light). Lower the opacity to about 70-80%. The darkest areas can be made lighter by hiding the Levels action with a mask.
Now it should be something similar to this:
Let's do color balance. Add an adjustment layer Color balance (Color balance). In the settings, select the shadow mode (Shadow). Red is adjustable to -57, Blue to +53. Now let's move on to setting Highlight (Light). Change Blue to +40. Remove the influence of this adjustment layer from the middle section of the image. We do it with a mask. You can paint with a brush, or you can use a gradient fill. Try different tools. So you can work more flexibly with the graphic editor.
Now we get this result:
You can see that the photo is too flat despite such deep shadows. You need to add bright accents that will attract attention. Create another empty layer. Choose a soft brush with a large diameter of red. We find areas in the photo that can attract attention and just put a spot there. Don't put spots randomly. Point them to elements that have some meaning. Use a large brush size. Colour: #fc9388. Change the blending mode to Overlay (Overlap). Opacity (Opacity) reduce to about 60%.
Create another empty layer and do the same, but with yellow (#ffde7a) color. Set the same blending mode and edit the opacity in the range of 40-80%.
In the final, we will work with contrast. This can be done in various ways. We will use the Curves tool. Slightly lower the middle of the curve and slightly raise the right edge. Should get an S-curve. This will enhance the contrast. To soften the effect of the curve, reduce the opacity to 50-60%. If some areas are heavily shadowed, you already know how to work with helmets.
Mysticism can be added with haze. It is not difficult to create it. Paint on a new empty layer with a soft white brush. Blur the drawing and change the opacity of the layer.
Many people who take a landscape photo of a beautiful place wonder why it looks not very good in the picture. How to get such a result that you see with professionals on different sites in the social network VK, Instagram, etc.? The answer is obvious, any photo of any professional undergoes this or that processing. If you see a beautiful photo and the author says that he did not process it, do not believe it! In this Photoshop tutorial, we will look at a landscape photography technique that many professionals use.
But first, a few words about the editor. Think of Photoshop as your personal photo lab. During the era of film photography, some photographers had black-and-white darkrooms at home. In this way, they could control the entire process of creating an image. A very select few had color photo labs, as it was much more difficult and expensive. We currently have full color photo lab functionality installed on a computer (or even an iPad) called Photoshop or Lightroom (it's not named that by mistake, it's the opposite of "darkroom" - a darkroom). If you have Photoshop or Lightroom, then you have a very powerful tool with which you can edit images.
After
Let's make your photos stand out!
What does it mean to make photos expressive? This can mean a number of characteristics, but mostly it's more color, contrast and drama. As always, this means having a good image to work with. Here we are not talking about improving the average quality image. Make sure you choose a good source image to work with, then move on to the next steps.
Shoot only inRAW
Shooting in RAW format is a good start. I know you don't want to shoot in RAW because the file size is very large or you don't see the benefits, but RAW is really different. First, you are working with a complete uncompressed data file. The JPEG image already has camera settings that compress it to the right size. Some information is lost entirely, which means that you are working with less information about the image, which in turn means less flexibility in the editing process. Of course, RAW is only useful if you're going to spend time processing your images in Photoshop or Lightroom.
Let's say you are going to edit and photographed in RAW format. Open the file in Photoshop and you will see the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) editor. It is indeed a very powerful tool. Recent updates have made the ACR editor in Photoshop almost a separate post-processing tool, it's so powerful. When it opens, you'll see a set of tools on the right side of the panel, mostly sliders such as: White Balance, Hue, Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Burn, Sharpness, Vibrance, and Saturation.
EditorCamera RawinPhotoshop CC
The camera raw editor contains some very powerful tools. The following steps will be done mostly in the RAW editor, then the image will be opened in Photoshop and edited further. Many of these adjustments are similar to those you can make in Lightroom's Adjustments module, so you can make the same adjustments there as well.
EditorCamera RawinAdobe Photoshop CC
Basic Editor SlidersRAWclose-up
Settings inRAWeditor
Temperature- First of all, pay attention to the color in the scene. You can adjust the temperature to make the scene warmer (move the slider to yellow) or colder (move the slider to blue). In this way, you can correct the color cast or add some drama to the image. In this scene, I decided to move towards warmer shades.
exposition– look at the exposure, the image may be very dark or too light. Use the sliders to adjust this.
Contrast– Adjust the contrast so that the dark areas of the image are dark enough without losing detail.
Sveta- in this image, the red indicator in the highlights shows me where there is very little detail. To compensate, move the slider to the left. If your highlights are underexposed, move the slider to the right, but be careful not to overexpose them.
Shadows- Shadow slider can help you bring back details in shadows or darken them. Be careful with this and don't overdo it as the shadows can look noisy (or the image will look like HDR).
White- This slider adjusts each white or partially light pixel in the image.
Blackout– this slider adjusts every black pixel.
Definition- The clarity slider is responsible for the contrast in the midtones. This can add some structure to the image, but don't overdo it.
colorfulness– this slider affects any unsaturated pixel. This is a good start to add a little expression to the scene.
Saturation- This slider adjusts all pixels, making them saturated or desaturated.
Basic settings inCamera RAW
Panel settingsHSL
This tab contains three tools: Hue, Saturation, and Lightness (HSL). These settings will make changes to the image based on the color channels. For example, if you click on the saturation tab, you can make reds more or less saturated, the same goes for oranges and all other color channels. You can also make a specific color brighter using the Brightness tab. In this image, I wanted to intensify the reds, yellows, and oranges, as well as some of the blues.
Panel settingsHSL
gradient filter inCamera Raw
Along with using the filter on your lens while shooting, you can also add a gradient filter to Camera Raw. The beauty of using it in Photoshop is that you can make very fine adjustments to your image depending on where you place the Gradient Filter Tool.
Click on the Gradient Filter icon at the top of the screen and you'll see a new dialog box with very similar features to the core Camera Raw module. The difference here is that you will be clicking and dragging the filter down to highlight the sky. You can also click and drag from bottom to top to highlight the foreground. I'll do both (Gradient filter is applied to the image from the edge inwards).
Starting at the top, I click and drag the filter to just over half of my image. This limits the effect to the top half. It's a gradient filter, so the effect will blend properly and you won't see a hard line where it ends (the more you drag it, the wider the blend area, you can tweak that later too). I make some adjustments and you can see the difference in the sky area. Once you're done with one filter, click New (at the top of the dialog box) and repeat the process, but this time drag from bottom to top to edit the foreground. Once you've made all the settings, you can click Open Image at the bottom of the Camera Raw window to open it in Photoshop.
Gradient filter icon highlighted
One of the key settings to mention here is the Remove Haze tool. It does exactly what it says - removes haze and creates better contrast. Use it with care, it can easily go too far and your image will suffer as a result. This tool is really very useful for landscapes and seascapes as they often get misty, as was the case in my case. With its help, the haze was easily removed, and the image became better.
You will notice that you can also remove the haze in the Gradient Filter window. Choose when to apply it to your liking, but keep in mind that using it without a selection will apply the effect to the entire image. Using it here in the Gradient Filter means you'll have finer control over how it affects the image.
Click and drag the Gradient Filter from top to bottom to select the sky. Then select settingsthat you want to apply.
Foreground selection by dragging from bottom to top.
Open your image inphotoshop
Once you've made all the adjustments in Camera Raw, the final touches can be done in Adobe Photoshop. Once again, the sky and foreground of this image will look different, so they need different settings.
To make a softer selection of the sky, click on the Quick Mask Tool at the bottom of Photoshop's left sidebar. You can then use a soft brush to paint on the selected sky as a mask. Once you're satisfied with the selection (you'll see a red mask), click on the Quick Mask Tool again to activate this selection. There is one Quick Mask trick that should be mentioned. The mask means that you select everything that is NOT red. So when you click on the Quick Mask, you'll see a blinking selection around the bottom of the image, not around the red area. This is good because you can switch between these two areas very easily and apply settings to each selection.
First of all, make the necessary foreground adjustments with Levels. In this image, I would like to make the foreground a little brighter, so I turned up the highlights. Next, I selected the opposite side (ie the sky). You can do this by holding down CTRL>SHIFT>I at the same time. This will switch the selection from foreground to background.
Red indicates the area to be masked
Flashing dots show where the current selection is.
Setting Levels for the Foreground
CTRL>SHIFT> I toggle selection, here the sky has been selected and a Levels adjustment layer applied to correct the sky
Use Hue/Saturation to make final color adjustments
You can use the toggle function (CTRL>SHIFT>I) to select the sky and foreground alternately. Once you've made a selection, select the adjustment tool and the changes will only be applied to the selected area. In this example, I used the Hue/Saturation function to further refine the image. I again do the correction of each channel. This gives me control over the range of colors I want to saturate, and possibly desaturate the others that are slightly oversaturated. Go through each channel and make the necessary settings.
Hue/Saturation for final color adjustment
When you're done, you can sharpen the image as much as you want and save it for printing. The steps above will help you make any image look better. Done right, your image will become more expressive and dramatic, just like you wanted.
Try it by learning the process, these settings are really fast.
final image
Translation: Tatyana Saprykina
