onvertigo.ca

Home :: About :: Archives :: Flickr :: RSS :: Contact

Smile if you masturbate( 05.09.06 )

I smiled, and then gave me him a 1$ for his creativity.

I went to photoshop school last week and took what was supposed to be an advanced class. We spent over 2 hours learning to set up and save our workspace, and way too much time learning Adobe Bridge and Colour Management but I did learn a few tricks.

If you are a little unbalanced like me, (the dude in chinatown said I had way too much yin, not enough yang) your photos come out slightly crooked, my horizons are always slightly tilted to the left. I use to manually rotate canvas until I learned this little trick. Under the eye dropper tool, there is a little ruler - the measure tool. Using the measure tool, draw a line across your photo as you would want it straightened. Go to Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary. The angle in which you drew will automatically be entered. Choose CW or CCW accordingly then press ok. Voila! Now supposedly after this, you can use Image > Trim and it will automatically crop your photo, but I could be lying as I have yet to get this to work. If anyone knows how to get this to work, please let me know.

One of the other things I learned is how to properly sharpen edges. I use to do this in about 2 steps, but our instructor taught us a 30 step process. I knew I would never remember it all, and I am not one to write things down, so I created an action. If anyone is interested in trying it out, you can download the action file here. (ATN 4 KB) To install and run this, copy the .atn file to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\Presets\Photoshop Actions. In the Actions window, select to the little arrow at the top right and then > Load actions > Christina.atn. (you may need to close and reopen photoshop) There are 2, well probably 5 ways to run this action. The easiest way is just to play. In the actions window, you should see the Christina folder or set, using the arrow, expand and click on sharpen edges and then press the play button at the bottom. You can also use File > Scripts > Image Processor to get this to work, but to explain Image Processor I would probably have to write another page. Try this first on a fresh photo without any adjustments and let me know how it works. I think it may be sharpening my photos a bit too much, but you can adjust the action script accordingly.

After deleting over 1000 e-mails and junk comments, I think my spammer may be gone by now. I will try opening up comments again.

More Montreal Photos :: Comments (12)
Ha! I'd have given them change too lol
Posted by: Krista on 05.09.06

nice capture. i like the framing and the indistinct background. we're you using you stalker scope or did you get up close and personal?
Posted by: marc on 05.09.06

For the tap measurer arbitrary rotate, it will set it to CW or CCW automatically. Also a good sharpening technique is to do the following: - finish editing your photo - create a duplicate layer - create a hue/saturation layer set saturation to -100 - merge the duplicate and hue/saturartion layer - other -> filter -> highpass (get a nice outline of your image) - switch the layer to "vivid light" - duplicate teh layer until sharpened - merge all the duplicated layers (keep the original background/edited layer by itself) - put a mask over the sharpened layer, paint in where you need sharpening, then adjust the opacity.
Posted by: brian on 05.09.06

Photoshop school eh? Well... Here is my secret for getting sharper images. I do all my adjustments first, then I merge them into one and convert to LAB colour. There I select the lightness channel and use smart sharpen to sharpen only the lightness of the image. I then reduce size by half and then to my desired dimension. After that I sharpen the lightness channel again. Convert to RGB mode and then save as JPEG to share with the world! I find this to be a very simple and effective way of doing it. I tried the Brian's method that he mentioned here and found that I had about the same results as my method. I was trying it on a close-up shot of a bird, so there were lots of edges on the feathers and such. Give it a try and you might like it. I actually tried the script that you posted, but found it didn't really adjust the sharpness well. In fact, I tried just doing an unsharp mask with the same settings as the last step in your script and the image came up no different than the one done through all those steps. Not sure what the issue it there. Give the methods I mentioned a try. I have found it very successful. Cheers! On another note, we should get out to shoot again sometime. I have ben talking to Andrew a bit, but he is very busy these days.
Posted by: Steve on 05.09.06

Thanks guys, this is helpful. I am sure there at least a dozen ways of doing things. I was at a friends house last night watching the game, I consider him somewhat of a photoshop/illustrator master and we were discussing... who actually thinks up these processes. How do the people at Adobe designing these applications decide that it's going to take you 10 layers, some blending modes, a few filters, change the slider one way or the next, enter this value, a couple masks, some paint and a change of opacity to get a photo to look good. I think I could use photoshop my entire life and never fully understand it's complete capabilities.
Posted by: christina on 05.09.06

I agree about using it all your life and never figuring it all out. I have only recently figured out many of the things I currently use and I have been using photoshop from the start. There are just so many thing you can do with it! I wish I could photoshop my life and my moods someimtes too! ;)
Posted by: Steve on 05.09.06

i don't think the people at adobe decide it's going to take 10 layers to do a certain task... i think they just provide the tools and we figure out how to use them.
Posted by: schmee on 05.09.06

Wow, a thirty step sharpening method! I guess I have a long way to go to become a photoshop wiz. I currently use the one step unsharpen mask feature. I'm definitely going to try the 'straigtening' trick - I always have crooked horizons.
Posted by: Joan on 05.09.06

Photoshop school? I think I might need to go to that, sounds like a great class. Love the shot lol. They've got a good idea going there.
Posted by: Gavin on 05.09.06

Steve you're hilarious! Photoshop really is the ultimate tool, you're only limited by your own creativity!
Posted by: Jono Cono on 05.10.06

Cool - photoshop has too many features.. SandyHill??
Posted by: pawel on 05.10.06

you got a bargain! that photo is worth more than a dollar. i think your spammer has decided to attack me now.
Posted by: paul on 05.11.06

	Home :: About :: Archives :: Flickr :: RSS :: Contact

Smile if you masturbate( 05.09.06 )	PREVIOUS :: CURRENT :: NEXT
I smiled, and then gave me him a 1$ for his creativity. I went to photoshop school last week and took what was supposed to be an advanced class. We spent over 2 hours learning to set up and save our workspace, and way too much time learning Adobe Bridge and Colour Management but I did learn a few tricks. If you are a little unbalanced like me, (the dude in chinatown said I had way too much yin, not enough yang) your photos come out slightly crooked, my horizons are always slightly tilted to the left. I use to manually rotate canvas until I learned this little trick. Under the eye dropper tool, there is a little ruler - the measure tool. Using the measure tool, draw a line across your photo as you would want it straightened. Go to Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary. The angle in which you drew will automatically be entered. Choose CW or CCW accordingly then press ok. Voila! Now supposedly after this, you can use Image > Trim and it will automatically crop your photo, but I could be lying as I have yet to get this to work. If anyone knows how to get this to work, please let me know. One of the other things I learned is how to properly sharpen edges. I use to do this in about 2 steps, but our instructor taught us a 30 step process. I knew I would never remember it all, and I am not one to write things down, so I created an action. If anyone is interested in trying it out, you can download the action file here. (ATN 4 KB) To install and run this, copy the .atn file to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\Presets\Photoshop Actions. In the Actions window, select to the little arrow at the top right and then > Load actions > Christina.atn. (you may need to close and reopen photoshop) There are 2, well probably 5 ways to run this action. The easiest way is just to play. In the actions window, you should see the Christina folder or set, using the arrow, expand and click on sharpen edges and then press the play button at the bottom. You can also use File > Scripts > Image Processor to get this to work, but to explain Image Processor I would probably have to write another page. Try this first on a fresh photo without any adjustments and let me know how it works. I think it may be sharpening my photos a bit too much, but you can adjust the action script accordingly. After deleting over 1000 e-mails and junk comments, I think my spammer may be gone by now. I will try opening up comments again.
More Montreal Photos :: Comments (12) Ha! I'd have given them change too lol Posted by: Krista on 05.09.06 nice capture. i like the framing and the indistinct background. we're you using you stalker scope or did you get up close and personal? Posted by: marc on 05.09.06 For the tap measurer arbitrary rotate, it will set it to CW or CCW automatically. Also a good sharpening technique is to do the following: - finish editing your photo - create a duplicate layer - create a hue/saturation layer set saturation to -100 - merge the duplicate and hue/saturartion layer - other -> filter -> highpass (get a nice outline of your image) - switch the layer to "vivid light" - duplicate teh layer until sharpened - merge all the duplicated layers (keep the original background/edited layer by itself) - put a mask over the sharpened layer, paint in where you need sharpening, then adjust the opacity. Posted by: brian on 05.09.06 Photoshop school eh? Well... Here is my secret for getting sharper images. I do all my adjustments first, then I merge them into one and convert to LAB colour. There I select the lightness channel and use smart sharpen to sharpen only the lightness of the image. I then reduce size by half and then to my desired dimension. After that I sharpen the lightness channel again. Convert to RGB mode and then save as JPEG to share with the world! I find this to be a very simple and effective way of doing it. I tried the Brian's method that he mentioned here and found that I had about the same results as my method. I was trying it on a close-up shot of a bird, so there were lots of edges on the feathers and such. Give it a try and you might like it. I actually tried the script that you posted, but found it didn't really adjust the sharpness well. In fact, I tried just doing an unsharp mask with the same settings as the last step in your script and the image came up no different than the one done through all those steps. Not sure what the issue it there. Give the methods I mentioned a try. I have found it very successful. Cheers! On another note, we should get out to shoot again sometime. I have ben talking to Andrew a bit, but he is very busy these days. Posted by: Steve on 05.09.06 Thanks guys, this is helpful. I am sure there at least a dozen ways of doing things. I was at a friends house last night watching the game, I consider him somewhat of a photoshop/illustrator master and we were discussing... who actually thinks up these processes. How do the people at Adobe designing these applications decide that it's going to take you 10 layers, some blending modes, a few filters, change the slider one way or the next, enter this value, a couple masks, some paint and a change of opacity to get a photo to look good. I think I could use photoshop my entire life and never fully understand it's complete capabilities. Posted by: christina on 05.09.06 I agree about using it all your life and never figuring it all out. I have only recently figured out many of the things I currently use and I have been using photoshop from the start. There are just so many thing you can do with it! I wish I could photoshop my life and my moods someimtes too! ;) Posted by: Steve on 05.09.06 i don't think the people at adobe decide it's going to take 10 layers to do a certain task... i think they just provide the tools and we figure out how to use them. Posted by: schmee on 05.09.06 Wow, a thirty step sharpening method! I guess I have a long way to go to become a photoshop wiz. I currently use the one step unsharpen mask feature. I'm definitely going to try the 'straigtening' trick - I always have crooked horizons. Posted by: Joan on 05.09.06 Photoshop school? I think I might need to go to that, sounds like a great class. Love the shot lol. They've got a good idea going there. Posted by: Gavin on 05.09.06 Steve you're hilarious! Photoshop really is the ultimate tool, you're only limited by your own creativity! Posted by: Jono Cono on 05.10.06 Cool - photoshop has too many features.. SandyHill?? Posted by: pawel on 05.10.06 you got a bargain! that photo is worth more than a dollar. i think your spammer has decided to attack me now. Posted by: paul on 05.11.06 Post a comment Name: Email: URL: Comment: Remember info?