Lens to Life Images

Photoshop Frames

sgiandubh — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:41:32 +0000

Make a Photo Frame in Photoshop

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How do we do it? Well, there are a few steps to follow and a few things you should keep in mind. Such as…1) Keep in mind what color(s) in a frame works best with the colors of the photograph/image. I feel that the frame helps people digest the photograph sometimes. If I have a very dark image, I might choose to have a black frame to help the mind transition from the background of the web page or wall to the image. But if the image doesn’t have pure blacks in it, a totally black frame will make the image look washed out. Alternatively, an all white frame will make a washed out image look a little better sometimes. So experiment.

2) Have an idea of what you want to accomplish. And remember that ideas are guidelines. If you can’t make your vision work exactly the way you envisioned it, try something else.

3) Making a frame will increase the file size of the image. So if you have a slow computer, resize the image to approximately the final output size, then make the frame. This is especially true with Photoshop CS.

OK, now on to the frames. My apologies to the dial-up members. This tutorial is graphics-intensive. I have tried to lower the image quality as far as possible in order to keep the file sizes low.

We will start with our original image we want to work on.

Next we will resize the image closer to the final output size. For web pages, I like to make the image no larger than 550 or 600 pixels tall. And no more than 600 pixels wide. People on dialup or who are running 800 x 600 screen resolutions will have problems with files larger than that.

Once we have done that, we will change the canvas size. Enlarging the canvas size will create a larger space to work with. Contracting the canvas size will crop the image. Don’t worry, if you select the wrong one, you will be warned.

I like to use the “relative” option, so I can enlarge a certain number of pixels without having to add the new number of pixels to the image size. Math. Who needs it?

In PS CS, a new nice feature is being able to change the canvas extension color. You have several options. For now, I am going to choose white.

This gives us a little white border.

If we do this a few more times, alternating between black and white canvas extension colors, we will get something like this.

These new border colors are applied to the bottom layer of your image.

OK, this way works. But there is another way we can do this which will give us a few more options. And remember, this is Photoshop. So there are a few ways to do everything.

Let’s go back to our original image and start making a new frame. This time, let’s make the full size frame that we will want.

We end up with something like this. This could work on its own as a frame. But let’s add that inner border.

Select the rectangular marquee tool and make a selection inside the boundaries of the frame. You can’t hit Control + A (select all) because the options we will want later won’t be available. So carefully try and make a box selection that parallels the edges of the frame.

We end up with the “marching ants” or marquee selection like this.

Hit Shift+Control+N (or Layer > New Layer) and name the new layer, “Inner Border”. Place this layer all the way at the top of your layer palette.

Now we will fill this selection box. Hit Shift+F5 (or Edit > Fill) and fill the selection box with black.

Our image is now covered up. But don’t worry. We will delete that part. First we need to contract the selection a certain number of pixels before we remove the excess. So to do this, we can right click in the selection box, or we can just go to Select > Modify > Contract. I will contract the selection box 4 pixels for this demonstration, in order to get a 4 pixel inner border.

Like so…

Hit Control + X or Edit > Cut to remove the selected part of the black. We end up with something like this…

Now we have our inner border. Because it is a separate layer, we can move it around, change its color easily, resize it, do blending options (for drop shadows or whatever), apply filters to it, etc.

To make a blending option, right click anywhere on the image with the marquee tool, or right click on the layer in the layers palette.

You have a lot of options. After adding a drop shadow, and adding an outer-most border to the frame, I ended up with the following final image. Don’t forget to add your circle c. And if you have an account with a digital watermark company like Digimark, that is a good additional safeguard to help prevent people from stealing and posting your images as their own.

Hopefully you found this tutorial helpful and complete. Frames are not necessary, or sometimes even desired. I feel they can add something to an image to make it look a little more like a real printed and framed print. I sell my images on my website and have found that the presence of a frame helps people to visualize how it will look when up on their wall. For more frames, check out some of my posts on this website, or go to my website (click the www button below) and check out my gallery. I am adding new images daily and a lot of them have frames.

Good luck and keep shooting!

Photoshop Elements 5 (Photo Merging)

sgiandubh — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:08:08 +0000

The following will allow you to take two separate images and combine them into one composite image ( useing Photoshop Elements 5 on a PC ).

To start, open the two images that you want to combine. Make sure that you can see the photos in the photo bin.

Select the image that you want to be on the bottom so that is now on screen. Double click on the background in the Layers Palette to convert to a layer.

Next add a blank layer, by clicking on the New Layer icon or go to Layers > New > Layer.

Use the Move tool to drag the other image on to your active image. You should now have three layers showing.

Select the middle blank layer.

Select the Gradient tool and select the “Foreground to Transparent” gradient on the default gradient. Select the Linear gradient.

With the middle layer selected, drawing from right to left, draw the gradient from one side to the other.

If the Layers Palette looks like this and nothing has happened to your on-screen image, GREAT, you are right where you need to be.

Select the top layer and do one of the following:
• Select Layer > Group with previous
• Press CTRL+G at the same time
• Press the Alt key and place the cursor between the top and middle layer so a lock appears and then click.

The top layer in the layers palette will be indented and you can see both images on your screen. If you need to see more of the top image, paint the middle with BLACK to allow more of the top image to show. Need more of the bottom image use the eraser tool on the middle layer to allow more of the bottom image to show.

Digital InfraRed Photography

sgiandubh — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:55:10 +0000

June Newsletter
Greetings from
Porter’s Camera Store!

Infrared photography has always been fascinating and now digital
photography makes it easier. Before, using Kodak infrared film was
expensive to both purchase and process – especially given the
hit-or-miss nature of exposing the film. With a digital camera that
has all changed.

There is some expense involved with shooting infrared (IR from this
point forward). First, the process requires a pricey Hoya R72 infrared
filter, most cost between $40 and $80. This filter is nearly opaque
and blocks most visible light while allowing infrared to pass. Next,
you’ll need an editing program like Photoshop. Though other software
will likely work, Photoshop will be used in this discussion.

The single biggest challenge may be your camera. Digital cameras use
CCD or CMOS imaging sensors to capture images. A sensor is unusually
sensitive to IR light, and that would seem to make it ideal for our
purposes. However, IR can cause a “ghost” fringe around objects in our
everyday pictures so camera manufacturers install a glass filter
inside the camera to block IR wavelengths. Some cameras have very
effective IR blocking filters and others are less effective. The only
way to know for sure if your camera can take an IR picture is to try
it!

Taking the Picture
The middle part of the day is usually avoided for most conventional
outdoor photography, but that is the best time to shoot infrared.
Objects that reflect IR (such as foliage and grass) will show as white
or mostly white in the finished photo. Clear sky and calm water don’t
reflect IR and will be black or tones of dark gray. Keeping these
tones in mind, select a subject to shoot. (By the way, most skin will
photograph pure even white).

To shoot IR images a tripod is required and a remote release is a good
idea too. Set the camera to manual exposure mode, use manual focus and
set the ISO to 400. Leave your camera set to take color images, don’t
select monochrome or black and white for this experiment.

Now the educated guesswork begins. 400 ISO was selected as a starting
point, but your camera’s results may cause you to shift this to a more
sensitive 800 or a less sensitive 200 depending on your results. Next,
set the lens aperture to f11 and the shutter to 10 seconds. Not 1/10th
of a second, but 10 seconds! Because of the various IR blocking
filters used by camera manufacturers, this exposure is only a starting
point. After some experience, you’ll be able to establish a more
accurate starting point for your camera.

Since infrared wavelengths don’t focus at the same plane as visible
light, focusing for IR photography needs a little compensation. Old
style manual focus lenses had a red index mark that showed where to
focus for IR imaging; most lenses today don’t have that aid. You’ll
need to focus by eye and then re-set the focus on the short side of
the scale. As an example if you focus on a point that the lens scale
says is 40 feet away, shift your focus toward 30 feet. Using a best
guess approach coupled with a small aperture like f11 can help you get
sharper images.

Take several pictures, bracketing the shutter speed and aperture up
and down until the image review shows an image with the best exposure
value. Be aware that the images will look very red! The goal is an
image with good tonality from dark to light. Favor an exposure that
may seem a little overexposed.

Make a note of your camera setting and then continue shooting. The
note you make will give a good starting point for another day’s IR
shooting. Just remember that each shoot will require some
experimenting with the exposure until you get an image that works.
Cloud cover, haze and airborne pollutants will make each day’s
exposure settings unique.

On the Computer
Open one of the better IR files into Photoshop. Generally you will see
a very red tinged image that seems to have lower than normal contrast.
Following these steps yields a very good false-color IR image.

When you first open your digital infrared photo, it has a strong red
tint.

First open Image / Adjust / Channel Mixer. On the top pull-down menu
select the Red channel. You will see that the Red channel is at 100%
and the other two are at 0%. Change Red to 0% and change Blue to 100%.

From the top pull down menu select the Blue channel. Do the opposite
here and set Red to 100% and Blue to 0%. Click OK to return to the
main image window. Your image should look fairly blue at this point.

Next, select Image / Adjust / Levels. Select the Red channel from the
drop down menu and move the rightmost marker below the graph until it
just touches the foot of the black graph shape. We will next choose
the Green channel and do the exact same process.

The final gross adjustment to make is to open Image / Adjust / Curves.
At the bottom of dialog box, on the right side is an eyedropper for
grays or mid-tones; click to select it. Move the mid-tone eyedropper
over your image and use it to select a middle gray part of your image.
With this click your major color balancing is finished. Save a copy of
the file at this point before you begin any minor adjustments to
brightness, contrast and color tone.

After making the adjustments, foliage appears very light while water,
sky and other surfaces that absorb infrared are dark

Sharpening should be your last step. My favorite method is to convert
the image file into a LAB format Image / Mode / LAB. Then select the
Channels tab behind the Layers palate. In the box you will see four
channels, we only want the “Lightness” channel to be highlighted. To
this channel apply your favorite sharpening method, I like to use
“Unsharp Mask”. Once the sharpness is dialed in the way you like it,
select the RGB channel to see the full sharpness effect. Convert your
file back to Image Mode / RGB and your image is ready to print.

Why use LAB mode to sharpen? The vast majority of image noise appears
in the blue sky portion of a shot. If we simply choose a “Sharpen”
filter or apply a technique to an entire image, we also sharpen noise
and make it more pronounced. By selecting only the “Lightness” channel
in LAB Mode to sharpen, only the black tones in our image are
affected.

If you choose to make a Black and White image as your final output you
should still follow all of these steps before converting the image to
monochrome. These adjustments will allow you to pull out the best
contrast and tonality from your image file before converting to Black
and White.