Digital Printing from A to Z

 presentation by Norb Veit ©
Click here to visit Norb's web site

Last updated  3/27/2004 (for print color management)

A.     Opening remarks:

i.                 This program is geared towards someone who is just beginning or thinking about getting into scanning, adjusting and printing their slide images.

a.              I will be discussing the use of Photoshop 7.0 for digital editing.

b.              I assume you have a basic understanding of a computer, know how to navigate in the folder / directory structure on your hard drive and know how to use a mouse.

ii.                Notes - Feel free to take notes if you like but,

a.              I have included the presentation outline and detailed instructions on the WOCC club website under Learning>Articles>Digital Prints. (http://www.westoaklandcameraclub.org/articles/Photoshop Presentation notes.htm)

b.              The notes are downloadable in both Microsoft Word format and, for Apple users Rich Text format.

c.              If you are unable to download the notes I will e-mail you the presentation notes if you leave your name and e-mail address on the sign up sheet at the back or you can e-mail me at norb.veit@capturedreflections.net

d.              Within the notes I use the convention of arrows > to denote a menu command sequence e.g. File>Save As

iii.               Given the amount of time:

a.              Please feel free to ask questions as we go.

b.              If your question is not answered by the end of the program:

1.                  Review the on line program materials at the WOCC web site

2.                  If your question is still not answered, E-mail me your question and I will put together a summary of all the questions and publish a response on the club’s site.  Send your e-mail to norb.veit@capturedreflections.net and be sure to put WOCC in the subject line otherwise I may delete the e-mail without opening it if I don’t know who it’s from.

2         Why image editing

i.                 Improve your images – Ansel Adams couldn’t be all wrong

ii.                Color correction

iii.               Repair the effects of scratched slides or negatives

iv.               Reduce the effects of film excessive film grain in continuous toned areas e.g. the sky

v.                Better color fidelity compared to current inter-negative to print processes

vi.               Color fidelity to what you saw vs. the camera

a.              Film brightness bandwidth limitations – merging same image different exposures

b.              Scanning and build up capabilities of the eye and mind vs. film capturing only a very brief moment in time.

c.              Selective focus of the eye versus the camera’s “objective” capture

vii.              Perspective correction without tilt shift lenses

viii.            Ability to increase detail in low light areas of image and maintain detail in highlights

ix.               Creative – hand tinting, simulated infrared, blending backgrounds, softening backgrounds

x.                Panoramic stitching

3         What is Photoshop?

i.                 Photoshop is a multipurpose package which is used widely in the following areas:

a.              commercial graphics and printing

b.              web development

c.              image editing

ii.                As a result of all of these capabilities rolled into one package, it can become difficult as a photographer to know which of Photoshop’s 1,000’s of tools or features you should concentrate on learning

iii.               This is sometimes further complicated because in Photoshop there are usually 3 or more ways to accomplish the same thing.  This plethora of capabilities can be confusing.

iv.               Finally, in Photoshop there are menus all over the place, many palettes, lots of tools, a confusing amount of control from the option bar which is tool specific and there are many, many keyboard short cuts and modifiers which, while expediting certain work, can add to the bewildering array of features if you don’t know which ones to use when.

v.                To this end there is an article on the WOCC site called "Why and How to learn Photoshop from a Photographer’s Point of View". This article provides a logical framework for building up PS knowledge

vi.               There are also a considerable number of tips already on our site in the Articles section titled “Digital Imaging and Photoshop Tips”. 

vii.              If you have Photoshop or digital tips please e-mail them to me for inclusion on the site.

viii.            There are many other links on the club site to Photoshop articles, tutorials, free downloads, recommended books, recommended associations and other tips to help you improve your digital image editing skills.

4         Other Comments

i.                 Please be patient if I don’t understand your question.

a.              I may not have heard you properly so please speak loudly and clearly

b.              If I don’t know I’ll say so.

c.              If you can’t hear me please ask me to speak up.

ii.                We are likely to get stuck a few times during this demonstration.  Each of these situations is really a leaning experience but they can slow you down and in some extreme cases, cause you to stop your work for up to a day until you figure out why Photoshop won’t do something.   There are about a half a dozen descriptions of these kinds of problems on the club’s web site in the “Digital Imaging and Photoshop Tips” article.

iii.               You may experience a bit of information overload given the new terminology and the subject matter.  Don’t be intimidated.  You can learn this stuff you just need to persevere and build on the lessons we’ve begun today.

B.     Hardware which I use

Component / Feature	What I have	What I would do differently	If I were buying today
Computer	Dell Inspirion 8000 notebook / laptop		Dell - tower
Processor speed	887 megahertz		3.2 Gigahertz
RAM	512 Megabytes		2 gigabytes
Internal hard drive	30 Gigabytes		120 Gigabytes
Firewire & USB	Both		Yes, 3 Firewire 1394 ports
CD burner and DVD player	Both		Yes, maybe a DVD burner
Scanner	Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED with Digital ICE (automatic dust remover)		Same
Printer	Epson 1280		Epson 2200P
External Hard drive	Maxtor 160 gigabyte		Maxtor 200 gigabyte
Monitor	21” AlphaScan GL - CRT		LCD

1. Why does Photoshop use so much memory?
1. Multiple images
2. Each layer requires more memory
3. Each history state you save requires additional memory
2. When Photoshop runs out of memory what does it do and why is this so slow?

1. In this instance, Photoshop shifts some of the information from the RAM memory to the hard drive.  Utilizing the hard drive in this manner is referred to as a “scratch disc”.
2. When Photoshop needs information on the hard drive, it has take some of the information it is storing in RAM and write information it to the hard disc. This makes room for the new information that it is going to retrieve from the hard drive.  Photoshop then reads the hard drive to get the information it wants.
3. Since retrieving data from a hard drive is in milliseconds and getting information from RAM is in microseconds, using the hard drive is 1000’s of time slower than using RAM.
2. Hard drive space is important for image storage.  Make sure you have enough or buy a high capacity external drive to store and retrieve your images quickly.  I recommend using drives, which connect, to your computer through 1394 or Firewire connections.  These are many times faster than USB connections (which are many times faster than parallel connections which are many time faster than serial connections)
3. Monitor considerations:

1. LCD’s (flat panel Liquid Crystal Display) are more expensive than CRT’s (bulky Cathode Ray Tube) but the LCD’s take up much less space
2. Color fidelity – CRT’s still hold an edge in this area.  If you want the most realistic view of your scanned slide, for the time being CRT’s are still in front.  To quote George Lepp:

                                                     i.     “LCD monitors have made great strides in recent years, but they still don’t match CRT monitors for color fidelity.  CRT monitors are able to produce more saturated colors with a wider color gamut than an LCD display.  That means graduation of color will not be as smooth on and LCD, and the colors won’t be as vibrant.  This certainly is a limitation for photo editing.  LCD monitors are very good, but compared next to a CRT display they demonstrate a lack of color fidelity.”  (emphasis added)

3. Calibration – Until recently, home use calibration of LCD monitors was difficult.  Now, both Monaco 2.5 and Color View have attachments, which won’t damage your LDC screen. Keep in mind that the color gamut is still wider on CRT’s than on LCD’s so calibration will not solve the color fidelity issues as of this writing.
4. Offering alternative viewpoints are the following:

I work on both kinds of monitors, and I much prefer the LCD over the CRT. Also, I have the advantage of seeing the same exact file displayed on both types. They are virtually identical, except that the LCD is much sharper, and easier on the eyes.
-Greg Dunn

And why do LCD monitors have better color fidelity?

I'm not sure if I'd say it quite that way, but overall they are better (in
my opinion) than CRTs for color-critical work due to:
*   Higher brightness which means brighter working environment, less eye
strain and better shadow detail.
*   Greater apparent contrast which also contributes to better shadow
accuracy.
*   Extremely stable white point. No short-term or image-dependent drift and
no apparent 'burn-in' over longer periods.
*   Razor-sharp resolution. Pixels are not blurred together.
*   Zero flicker which means reduced eye strain.
*   Higher apparent color saturation (linked to greater apparent contrast)
which means better rendering of saturated colors (with a good profile.)

To make the most of all these benefits requires good profiles and a dimmable
viewing booth alongside the monitor.

Don Hutcheson
Hutcheson Consulting (Color Management Solutions) www.hutchcolor.com
11 Turnburry Rd., Washington, NJ 07882
Phone: (908) 689 7403 Fax: (908) 689 5305 Mobile: (908) 500 0341
don@hutchcolor.com

C.     Scanning

1         You can scan the images either by using the Nikon scanning software or by opening Photoshop and using the File>Import command and selecting your scanner software.  I prefer to scan  from the scanner software because it takes 23% longer to scan via Photoshop, probably owing to the amount of memory needed to run both Photoshop and the scanning software simultaneously.

2         Your life will be much easier if you start with a sharp, well exposed image.  If you start with a poor image, you will likely end up with a poor print.

3         If you have an ICC monitor profile from using a spectrograph analyzer, you should enter that profile in the Preferences area within the Nikon software to get a better idea in the image window of what your scanned image will actually look like on your monitor.

4         You should certainly consider getting your monitor calibrated with a spectrograph spider that attaches to your monitor.  I found that the Adobe Gamma adjuster did not do a very good job on my particular monitor.  I used Monaco Easy Color 2.0 to calibrate my monitor and my scanner.  I have not successfully used this software to develop ICC profiles for my printer and each of the varieties of paper, which I use.

5         Dust removal, canned air and Digital ICE (set to normal rather than fine)

6         Insert slide with the printed (emulsion) side of slide down, short end of frame into scanner first

7         Click the "Prescan" button

8         If the center of the image is not in a high contrast area perform the following to adjust the focus distance:

i.                 Hold the Ctrl key down and click on the checkerboard,

ii.                Now move your mouse (which will change to a cross hair) to a place in your image which has high contrast values for a given area of the image

iii.               Click the left mouse button.

9         Open the tools palette by clicking on the tools button, then resize the tools palette so it doesn’t overlap the image window.

10      Cropping – adjust the image crop border to eliminate the edges and corners of the slide holder (just click and hold a side of the white dashed crop box and drag the side to where you would like it).

11      Do most of your adjustments inside Photoshop but you should check the curves after a low DPI scan to make sure you are getting all the data out of the shadow and highlight areas.

i.                 You can see the effects of your Nikon curves adjustments by clicking back and forth on the Nature and Processed tabs in the image window

12      Under Crop in the tools palette set the resolution.   I usually just leave this at 4000 dpi.  You can always downsize your image data in Photoshop.  But if you want to get closer from the start what dpi do I need?

i.                 Multiply the width and length you want to end up with in inches times 240 dpi

ii.                For example if you have a slide and you want an 8x10 then you need to scan your slide at 8 x 240 = 1920 dpi

13      Over-sampling to reduce electronic noise 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x or 16x.  If you are scanning a slide with a significant amount of dark areas, when the scanning sensor passes over these areas, (because the signals received are so weak compared to a brighter area) electronic noise becomes more of a factor.  If your slide has modest amounts of dark areas you can get away with scanning at 1x.  Examine the dark areas of this 1x scan.  If there are a lot of white specks in the dark areas, just rescan at 8x or 16x to average the noise out of the scan. By using an average value, electronic noise is greatly reduced.  If you follow this practice, you can save a great deal of time because scanning at 1x is much faster than the other settings.

14      8 bit verses 16 bit scanning

i.                 Most PS 7.0 tools won’t work on 16 bit images so it may not be worth the extra scanning time.  If you have Photoshop CS and a powerful computer I’d scan images at 16 bits.

ii.                What’s all this bit stuff about?  It’s just the number of levels of brightness.  Note these levels are not f/stops it’s just from the lightest to darkest. In 8 bit you get 256 levels of brightness.  In 16 bits you get 65,536 levels of brightness

15      Now click on the “Scan” button

D.     While the slide is getting scanned let’s take some questions.

1         Once the image scanning in complete,

2         Save the scanned image in a TIFF file format (do not use a JPEG or GIF format)

E.     File formats

1         Scan in TIFF, open and save edited images in .PSD  (Photoshop’s native file format) because PS reads it faster.  Also be careful to save edited images to a different folder or as a different file name so that your original scan is always available.

2         If you’re saving for the web use the PhotoShop Save for Web command (Ctrl-Shift-Alt-S) and choose JPEG or GIF

3         JPEG images compress the image by throwing away detail,

i.                 Every time you resave a JPEG/JPG you throw away more detail.

ii.                Use JPEG for photographic images for the web because their compression algorithm works well with continuous tone images.

4         GIF compresses by reducing the number of colors that will be used.  They throw away information once; subsequent resaving will not by itself degrade the image. The GIF compression algorithm is best suited for reducing the file sizes of images, which have fewer colors and for each color that is present, the pixels are next to each other.

F.     Converting a color profile:

1         If you have an ICC profile for your scanner, choose Image>Assign Profile and select your scanner.  (I have a bad habit of forgetting to do this but if you are going to color manage the workflow / image this procedure is advisable)

2        Next,  use the command Image>Convert Profile and choose Adobe 1998 RGB for print purposes.  If the image will be used for the Web I choose sRGB, which better preserves the color when the image is displayed on the web.

3         More about color management and monitor calibration later.

G.     Color correction and brightness

1         Why Image>Adjustment should rarely be used

i.                 They permanently throw image data away and you can’t replace the information without rescanning and starting over again.

2         How do we get around this? Our friends – adjustment layers

i.                 What’s a layer – think of several sheets of transparent vinyl stacked one on top of another.  You can draw on different sheets or “Layers” within the stack of vinyl and see all the way through the stack

ii.                Advantages of adjustment layers

a.              You don’t throw away image information.  It’s all still there.

b.              You can fine tune or undo a layer adjustment

c.              You can blend your adjustments to reduce the overall effect using the Layers Opacity slider

d.              You can change the blend mode

e.              You can add masks to adjust only those portions of the image, which you want to effect.

iii.               Making an Adjustment Layer - Go to the layers palette and click on the half white / half black circle icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette or choose Layers>Adjustment Layer> make your choice of the type

3         Using Levels to increase or decrease contrast and adjust overall brightness:

4         The best way I’ve been shown (so far) to color correct and adjust tone and brightness.

i.                 Find and mark lightest and darkest areas with threshold adjustment layer and the eyedropper color sampler tool, which you can select by clicking and holding the  eyedropper tool or Shift-Clicking while in the Levels or Curves dialog boxes.

a.              Create the threshold adjustment layer by clicking on the adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette (It’s the half white half black circle at the bottom of the Layers palette).

b.              Pull the left slider all the way to the right and then slowly pull it left until dark areas begin to show up. 

c.              Press the shift key to call up the eyedropper color sampler tool  to mark this area by clicking over it

d.              Now pull the threshold slider all the way to the left and then slowly pull it to the right.

e.              When the lightest areas begin to show stop moving the slider and

f.               Press Shift to get the color sampler tool and mark the light area by clicking on it.

ii.                Delete the threshold adjustment layer by dragging it to the little garbage can icon at the bottom of the layers palette

iii.               Create a Curves adjustment layer

a.              Click on the left (shadow) eyedropper then click on the dark target,

b.              Click on the right (highlight) eye dropper then on the light target

c.              Click the middle eye dropper then click on neutral toned gray to remove color cast

iv.               Get rid of targets by Alt-clicking on them

Hue and Saturation adjustments.  You get a feel for this after a while if you are not using ICC profiles.  I find that on my monitor at home I generally need to move the slider to between 17 and 35 depending on the image.

H.     If you are going to apply further adjustment layers or masks they should be put in place before you go to the next step.  (We can create a mask if there is time.  Otherwise, just demonstrate the effect of a mask by using one of the existing adjustment layers.)

I.       Before printing the image we need to resize the image but before we do that use the Save As command to save your work so far.  Also before we proceed it might be useful to talk about image sizes in general.  The dimensions of a 35mm slide are about 24mm by 35mm.  So if you would like to have an 11 x 14 print you would be increasing the 24mm height to 11 inches.  Photoshop handles this conversion and does the math for you but, to get a better understanding let’s look at the underlying math.  The “magnification” to get a 24mm height increased in size to 11 inches is:

            25.4mm/inch / 24mm x 11inches = 11.64 increase in size.

If you want to keep the same proportions as your original slide (if you want to avoid distorting your image) this 11.64 “magnification” would also be applied to the width of 35mm.  Hence, 35mm x 11.64 magnification = 407mm or close to 16 inches.  So what do you do with the extra 2 inches (you’re going to get 16 inches but you wanted it to be 14 inches)?  If you want to avoid distortion you have to crop the width a bit.  If you aren’t worried about the distortion you can force Photoshop to apply a different “magnification” to the width than it applies to the height.   

Another consideration is the resolution of the print. What resolution should you choose? Generally 200 to 300 works best.  I use 250 pixels per inch (ppi) 99% of the time.  Keeping these considerations in mind let’s work through two methods of resizing your image the first on introduces distortion but it’s a tiny bit easier to do.  The second example is preserves the image ratio but requires cropping just as you would in a commercial print or darkroom setting.

1)     Image Sizing with distortion.  From the Photoshop command menus choose Image>Size and if it’s already checked, un-check the “resample image” box (near the bottom).

a)      In the middle boxes (width and height) enter one of the dimensions you’d like to control (either the height or width).  For example if you want your image size to be 11 x 14, enter either the 11 or the 14.   In this example I suggest you enter 11 for the height.

b)      Next, check the “resample image” box then,

c)      Enter the printer resolution (250) in the “Resolution” box.

d)      Next, enter the other dimension (either the height or width).  In this example enter 14 in the width box.

e)      Click ok to proceed.

f)        Photoshop has forced the original dimensions to conform to the final size you desired but in effect it distorted the width by squeezing 16 inches into 14 inches.  This works great if your subject is a tad overweight because it will slim them down a bit.  If you want to preserve the original ratios you will have to crop as set out in example 2 below.

2)     Image sizing without distortion.  From the Photoshop command menus choose Image>Size and if it’s already checked, un-check the “resample image” box (near the bottom).

a)      In the middle boxes (width and height) enter the dimension you’d like to control   In this example enter 11 for the height. .  Notice how Photoshop has now set the width to about 16 inches.

b)      Next, check the “resample image” box then,

c)      Enter the printer resolution (250) in the “Resolution” box.

d)      Now click ok to proceed.  (So now you have an 11 by about 16 inch image)

e)      Now select the Crop tool  by clicking on it.

f)        Using the Crop tool, select the portion of the image you want to keep but make sure that you keep the entire height of 11 inches.  What you’re trying to accomplish is to drop 2 inches from the width.  You can chop 2” off the left or right or 1” off both sides or some combination .5 inches on the right and 1.5 inches on the left, to get rid of 2 inches of the width. You can modify the area to be cropped by clicking and dragging one the right and/or left crop border.  Once you’re happy with the selected area,

g)      Press the enter key or click on the “checkmark” in the upper right section of the option bar.

h)      Now Photoshop crops the image to the sizes you specified using the crop tool.  If you’ve cropped too much go back to the step before last in the history palette and try again.  If you haven’t got the width down to 14 inches either go back in history or just crop again until you get an even 14 inches for the width.

IMPORTANT! When you resize an image in Photoshop and you decrease the resolution, you are throwing out image information.  Once you perform your resize, you should either not save the file again or save it as another file name.  That way you still have your initial image with 100% of the data intact.

 

J.      Sharpening the scanned image.

1.      Most scanned images need a bit of sharpening.

2.      Since the image gets re-sampled when you do the Image>Image Size command some folks feel that the sharpening should take place after you resize your image.  While I’ve had fairly good results with sharpening before the Image>Resize command, I have noticed that the final prints appear sharper if I do the sharpening after the resize command.

3.      There are many methods of sharpening.  I advise you to avoid using the other Photoshop sharpen filters, they do not provide as much control as Unsharp Mask.

4.      You can also buy a plug-in sharpening software like NIK Sharp if you like.

5.      Keep in mind that you can experiment with the Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp mask command until you find the proper sharpening level.

6.      Avoid over sharpening!  The sharpening commands locate edges within your image and on the either side of the edges Photoshop converts existing pixels to light pixels around dark edges or dark pixels around light edges.  If you over-sharpen, your image will begin to look grainy and unnatural and have color fringes around the edges.

7.      Generally, since adjustment layers alter the appearance of edges within your image you should first flatten your image before you sharpen.  You can do this by going to the Layers Palette then clicking on the little right pointing triangle to bring up the Layers Palette menu.  Choose “Flatten”.  Photoshop will now create a composite image incorporating all the effects of the layers then Photoshop discards the original layers and replaces them with one composite image.  Just remember not to save this flattened image over the old filename of your image or you will lose the ability to “tweak” your adjustment layers and you would have to start over with the original scanned image.

8.      While you are experimenting with the Unsharp Mask filter you can click and hold the mouse button down inside the Unsharp mask preview window to see the preview before sharpening.  When you let go, the preview window will return to it’s sharpened state.

9.       I generally use the following values for Unsharp masking:

a.        90% for the amount of sharpening (which is how much of a difference in brightness between and edge and the background should be applied),

b.      1 to 3 pixels for the radius (which is the distance from an edge that Photoshop will lighten and darken pixels to make the edge look sharper) and

c.       8 to 20 for Threshold (which is the difference in brightness at an edge before Photoshop will apply sharpening).

  

10.  In the Unsharp mask dialog box try to avoid sharpening more than 150% at a time, i.e. sharpen the image a couple of times and undo over sharpening with the History palette.  Use the History palette to view before and after once the sharpening is complete.

11.  The history palette is a really nice feature for undoing things.

12.  You just click on the history state that you would like to take a look at.

13.  The default number of history states retained by Photoshop is 20.  You can increase this up to 100 history states by choosing Edit>Preferences or by pressing Ctrl-K.

14.  Keep in mind that if you save too many history states, image editing is likely to slow down because Photoshop will have to use a scratch disc and this will slow down the processing of your images since the extra history states will be written on your hard drive which is slower to access than having the image information in RAM.

K.     Printing the image

1         Now that the image is properly sized and sharpened, choose the File>Print with Preview command.

Now follow either the Color Management or the Do It Yourself procedures below:

Color Management:

a.         Under the image fitting preview window is a box that says “Show more options”  Check this box.

b.         Just below that box is another box, click on it and choose Color Management.

c.         In the boxes below this click the circle next to document in the source space box.

d.         Below that area is the Print Space box.  Locate your printer’s profile and choose it from the drop down list. (if you don’t have a profile for your printer you can usually download one from the manufacturer’s web site.

e.         Below that box choose Perceptual from the drop down list.

f.      Now skip down to step 2 below.

Do It Yourself:

a.    If the color management boxes are visible at the bottom of the screen uncheck the “Show more options” box.  Now follow the procedures below.

2         Now over to the right click on Page Set Up button and on the next dialog box specify landscape or portrait, specify the paper size, then click on the Printer button.

3         Specify your printer, in my case Epson 1280, then click on Properties.

4         Under the Main Epson settings set the paper type and select Photo Enhanced and Nature.

5      Make sure you have enough ink.

6      Click the page tab and specify the paper size if you forgot to do it in step 2.  Then specify maximum in the print area (down towards the bottom of the dialog box) then be sure to click the center image box.

7      Now click OK, OK, OK, Print.

8      If you get a message that some clipping will occur then you have to go back and check your settings.  If the settings appear correct (after you’ve double checked them) ignore the clipping warning.

9      Before you click on the last OK button make sure your printer is on and you have loaded the specified paper (white side up).

10      Now click the OK button.

L.      Go have a cup of coffee while the printer is busy doing its job.

M.    Examine the print for dust, oversharpening color halos around edges, proper color balance, proper saturation, centered printing ect.  Make adjustments or corrections and reprint.

N.     How do we bring out the detail in dark areas – an introduction to layer masks.

O.     If masks are so important what are some different methods for creating masks.

1         Channel method – saved selections (AKA alpha channels).

2         Threshold method – blow out the brightness values you don’t want.

i.                 This is under the adjustment layer icon or Image>Adjust>Threshold.

3         Selection method – can sometimes be very time consuming but often it is the only way.

P.     Before we talk about selection methods we need to know a little about image types. Demystifying the difference between bit mapped images vs. vector images.

1         Bitmapped = every darn point for the entire height and width of the image is described.

§         This image type is very memory / storage intensive because all pixels must be described.

§         Photographers use this format 99.99% of the time.

2         Vector = mathematics which describe lines, curves and turns.

i.                 Very compact in terms of data needed to store a shape or path.

Q.     Selection tools – bit mapped images (see screen shot two pages ahead).

1         Marquee  tool including the elliptical marquee.

2         Tragic wand .

3         Lasso tool  including the polygon lasso and the magnetic lasso.

4         The background eraser tool, which is under the  eraser tool.  This tool is good for removing uniform colored backgrounds.

5         Magical keys – press and hold the Shift key to add to an existing selection, Alt key=Subtract from existing selection.

6         Quick Mask mode  where the paintbrush, eraser, pencil and gradient tools all turn into selection tools.

7         Feathering.

8         Modifying – Expand, contract etc.

9         Inversing selections.

10      Deselecting = Ctrl-D.

11      Inversing a selection = Ctrl-Shift-I.  Sometimes it’s easier to select what you don’t want then inverse it.

12      Saving selections and loading selections.

i.                 Don’t let another poorly named feature scare you, ALPHA channels = saved selections.  That way you can use them over again.

R.     Selection tools – Vector images.

1         Pen tools – freeform pen, path/pen, add point, subtract point, convert point .

2         Direct selection tools .

S.     Some more information about selections:

1         You can convert selections made on bit-mapped images to vector paths and vice a versa. This is done in the Paths Palette.

2         There are other selection tools for bit mapped images including the:

i.                 The Filter>Extract command and dialog box.

ii.                The Select>Color Range command.

3         Now that we have a selection for a mask what do we do?

T.      Our very best Photoshop friends the Layer, the Layer palette, the Layer palette menu and a bunch of keyboard shortcuts to make your image editing easier.

1         Take a look at the Layers palette below:

2         In addition to the capabilities of the layers palette you can use a number of keyboard short cuts with layers, masks and images to effectively speed up your work.  Many of these short cuts are in the WOCC website Article “Digital and Photoshop Tips”.  Here are a number of these:

i.                 If you Ctrl-Click on the thumbnail for a layer, a selection will be placed around whatever is on that layer.

ii.                If you want to edit a layer mask just click on it and the “Edit layer mask Icon will appear as above.  Any editing you do will be on the mask as opposed to the contents of the layer.

iii.               To make the Layer mask visible above the image, press the backslash key above the Enter/Return key on your PC “\”.  Press this key again to make the rubylith overlay disappear.

iv.               To turn a layer mask off Shift-click on the layer mask thumbnail.

v.                To make only the layer mask visible but not the image Alt-click on the layer mask.

vi.               To make the image visible again, click on the image thumbnail.

vii.              Ctrl-J will take whatever is selected on the current layer and make a copy of it and put it on it’s own layer.

viii.            You can change the layer order by clicking and dragging layers.

ix.               You can delete a layer by clicking and dragging it to the little garbage can icon.

x.                You can duplicate a layer by clicking and dragging the layer to the new layer icon,

xi.               If you click on the opacity box you can move the slider 10% by pressing Shift and Left Arrow Key.  Also if you just press the Left or Right Arrow keys, the opacity will change by 1%.

xii.              You can fill a layer with the foreground color by pressing ALT-Backspace.

xiii.            You can fill a layer with the background color by pressing Ctrl-Backspace.

xiv.             If you move your mouse over the image (which has multiple layers in it) and you Ctrl-Click, the layer that contains the element, which you click over will become the active layer.  This can save you a lot of time if you are trying to figure out which layer something is on if you have 30 layers in your image.

xv.              Ctrl-A selects everything on the active layer.

xvi.             Ctrl-C will copy a selection into the “Clipboard”.

xvii.           Ctrl-V will paste the contents of the “Clipboard” into the current active layer.

U.     To wrap up the Photoshop section of the presentation I’d like to show you a few images which demonstrate a few things you can do with Photoshop:

1         Bring out shadow detail – Canyon Sculptures.

2         Change the color / texture of particular image elements – N.E. Covered Bridge.

3         Remove telephone poles and power lines – Silverton Durango.

4         Stitch together separate images to create a panorama (the money you save on a panorama camera will pay for your scanner, computer or a bunch of software) – Bear Tooth Highway.

5         Repair effects of damaged or scratched negatives – borrowed image.

V.     About color management.

1         How can you make sure your scanner is accurately reporting color information?

2         How can you make sure what you see on the screen is the correct color information?

3         How can you make sure what you see on the screen is what you will get when you print the image on your printer?

4         One way is to do the trial and error approach.  This will actually work but it can be a painful learning curve.  You can develop a feel for how you have to over or under correct what you see on your monitor to get the desired result in the print. Another way is to color manage your images is set forth below in an overview:

5         Reducing the learning curve.  Calibrate your scanner.

i.                 This is done by purchasing and installing color management software, which has an IT8 slide target of known color values.   (I use Monaco Easy Color 2.0 which works on CRT’s not LCD flat panel screens. Monaco v2.5 works on LCD and CRT monitors)

ii.                This slide is scanned by your scanner and written to a file.

iii.               The software opens this file and compares all of the different color data in the image file to what the software knows are the correct color values for the IT8 target slide.

iv.               The software produces a “profile” for your scanner, which is nothing more than a table, which translates scanner colors into the correct color values.

6         Calibrating your monitor.

i.                 Adjusting your scanner output is a tremendous help but what if the picture looks funny on your monitor?  Ideally you’d like to see on your screen, the same colors from your slide, which, is assured by having created a profile for your scanner.

ii.                You can use Adobe Gamma, which comes with Photoshop (but my experience with this produced very disappointing results).

iii.               You can use some other gamma setters such as those, that come with color management software (but I found that these did not work very well either).

iv.               To solve this problem you can purchase a spectrograph monitor analyzer.  It is a sensor, which attaches to your screen.

v.                The color management software will send a number of known color values to your computer monitor, which then displays them on your screen.

vi.               The sensor reads the light from your screen and creates another table of color conversion factors (called a profile) for your individual monitor.

vii.              When you boot up your computer, the monitor profile will automatically load and adjust your screen to display true color versions.

viii.            A few other notes,

a.              The room should be darkened and remain darkened when working on editing images in order for the WYSIWYG to work.

b.              You’re supposed to recalibrate your monitor every so often (far more than the once a year which I currently employ).

c.              The color management software and spectral analyzer cost me about $500 a year ago.  Prices may have come down and there are attachments for trying to calibrate an LCD screen.

7         Developing color profiles for each ink and paper combination that you use on your printer.

i.                 You can then calibrate your printer by printing a target page for each combination,

ii.                 Then you scan each of the printed targets.

iii.               Then the output files from the scanner are analyzed by the color management software to produce the last conversion table which modifies the color values sent to the printer to make what you see on the screen come out on the printer.

iv.               I have had disappointing results developing printer profiles and maybe I should try again.  Instead I have found that there are certain saturation and brightness adjustments, which I make in Photoshop and view on my monitor.  When applied, these adjustments usually produce a print, which is very close to the original slide, but these manual adjustments are not an exact science.

v.                The above instructions work well for me in when I’ve set the color management dialogue box in Photoshop (Ctrl-Shift-K) as follows:

W.   Closing comments - I believe that digital image editing is little more than adding a skill to your current photographic knowledge. 

1         It’s like learning more about exposure, bird photography, macro photography or other aspects, which photographers choose to master.

2         There is nothing wrong with foregoing the benefits of digital imaging just as I forego learning or participating in bird or glamour photography.

3         Each photographer must decide for themselves, what they are interested in learning or mastering.

4         Digital image editing is basically just another batch of tools or methods to put into your photography bag of tricks.

5         Personally, I feel the benefits of digital image editing and printing are wonderful and I enjoy enhancing my images without a chemical darkroom.  Moreover, chemical darkrooms for the hobbyist will become a thing of the past since it is becoming difficult to obtain the needed chemicals.

6         I suggest that if you have an interest in furthering your studies of the digital darkroom, you should obtain hands on instruction from a knowledgeable instructor. 

i.                 With the right instructor can save you months and months of frustrating home study time. 

ii.                I would also suggest you look for training or courses which are geared towards photographers.

iii.               I would also suggest you visit the Articles section of the WestOaklandCameraClub.org website.

X.     Thank you for your patient attention.

Y.     Q&A Section. If you have questions after this session feel free to e-mail me at norb.veit@capturedreflections.net

Z. Further reading - Please visit the West Oakland Camera Club web site under the "Learning" section for a list of recommended reading.

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