My shots of the weekend, squirrel and birds :)

[checklg]

Eric,

I'm more and more impressed. I'd appreciate some tips on your use of layers in Photoshop.

Regards,
Graham.

[eric s]

Graham

I don't know how good Eric CAN is with photoshop, but bcoultry is a wizard (a multi-gender term, in my book.) I could go for some layers tips too.

I've read multiple times that layers open up a whole new world in PS. I haven't touched them yet (I've got so much else to learn) but I'm starting to wonder if I'm learning the wrong way by not starting out with layers. Don't know...

Eric

[photosbyvito]

well.......i'm not bad with photoshop (the making graphics side)
but i'm not that great with the photo fixing side lol
by layers wat do you mean? layer modes? overlay multiply?

[eric s]

At least for me, I mean both adjustment layers and layers in general. There are things that just can't be done without layers (as far as I know, I'm no expert.)

For example, make two layers of your picture and apply different sharpening to each layer. Then flip back and forth and compare which you like better.

Or select the background, copy it to a layer, use gausen (sp?) blur and merge it back in at 10%. That way, you increase the emphasis on the forground/subject.

Those are the types of things that there is no way that I know of to do (because of the 10%) without layers.

It changes the way you think about picture editing. (I'm told!)

Eric

[bcoultry]

I'm not a wizard (nor even a wizardess) with Photoshop or with its layers. I'm still learning, believe me! I've got a couple of books, however, that have taught me a lot. One is Photoshop, Restoration & Retouching by Katrin Eismann. The other is The Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby.

[ohenry]

I think the greatest asset to using layers is the ability to step back when a particular method doesn't work as expected without damaging previous work. I know the history step works as well, but layers can be changed after saving and restoring the picture (assuming you saved in a manner that saves layers).

[Eric CAN]

Originally Posted by checklg

Eric,

I'm more and more impressed. I'd appreciate some tips on your use of layers in Photoshop.

Regards,
Graham.

Hi Graham, shall I post a personal workflow of mine here ?

It's something I've learnt in the past 3 months of using the DRebel and PS Elements. I did a lot of research, but I'm mainly a self-learner by nature. So I develloped some method that gives some nice results.

I don't always sharpens all my photo, but I will use the blur tool, or gaussian blur in part of an image, just to erase traces of unpleasant noise if for example I use ISO400 and the image is underexposed to start with. The DRebel is an awesome camera noise wise, but if you start with an underexposed photo, noise will show when you start to make EC. Most of the time, I'll do blur or gaussian blur in the area of Out OF Focus (OOF).

Last one, if you have a DSRL, I recommend strongly using RAW, there's a nice program called Capture 1 (LE, SE, Rebel and so on) where it saves you so much work in PS. It does marvel to correct WB, and you can adjust EC and CC easily from there, and save an output in TIFF with lets say a soft version for soft background, then save another TIFF with more sharpening.

Then you layer both image and keep the best of each image by using the eraser tool or Mask tool and when you're satisfied you combine both.

I'll post a complete workflow if there's desire for it.

Cheers

[checklg]

Eric,

I'll post a complete workflow if there's desire for it.

Please ! I work in RAW with my D100 and my post processing is currently limited to white balance, exposure adjustment and some Unsharp Mask in Nikon Capture Editor. I occasionaly adjust contrast depending on the lens I'm using. All advice greatfuly received.

Regards,
Graham.

[Frank Doorhof]

AMAZING.
Don't we all love RAW .

Greetings,
Frank

[MichaelE]

The capture 1 Raw engine is very good but also quite pricey. Before I got PS CS I was using a package called BreezeBrowser from Breeze Systems. I was very good at handling the Canon RAW files and had some great workflow tools built into it. Plus it was only about $40.00USD in Comparison to the 600+ for PS CS.

I'm more than lucky since our company buys Adobe Products (mainly acrobat) at enterprise rates so I got my copy very cheaply. That plus since I am in the IT trade I get a lot of Demo Not for Resale stuff from the vendors...

Layers are definitely the fix for stuff in PS. Have a look at the training series over at Software-Cinema. I am a self learner also but their stuff won me over. I bought a bunch of their tutorials and love refering back to them for the examples. Next I am going to see if I can get my nine year old to sit through the PS Basics stuff!