Hi & welcome to my PS blog! This blog is for full PS although some steps will also work in PSE. Most actions, unless stated are not PSE compatiable. I do try to make an action for PSE from time to time. I hope you have fun here and learn some things along the way. If you have any questions, just drop me a comment! :O)

Friday, October 23, 2009

PSE & full PS B&W Cream action...

Are you tired of dull gray b&w conversions or conversions that are too blue? Well this action may help you. I personally do not care for gray b&w's most of the time & I truly dislike blue b&w conversions. This action is a simple action with only 3 layers. This action will give you a clean, bright white b&w. Yet it will keep the details in your darks without washing them out. It will lift the darks yet keep them rich. This works great on darker images, or subjects with darker hair. It will lift the highlights in the darker hair giving nice detail while still keeping the richness in the hair. This is now my go to b&w conversion.
Since I recorded this with PSE in mind, it is not a set but a single action and it will not group the layers in a folder since PSE does not have folders. If you are using full PS and really want the folder, start recording a new action, then hit play on this action in your layers panel (you will have to keep the original in your panel for this to work) then once my action runs, select all the layers from my action, hit ctrl/g to group the layers into the folder and stop recording. Now you'll have an action that does my steps but groups them into a folder. I'm a folder freak, so it may be worth the time to do if you are an odd ball like me! Lol!

Here are some examples.

Nugget after eating strawberries this morning. Yes, I leave the food on the faces of my girls. I like to keep it real! Lol!



And here is after the conversion and tweaking the layers...


Here is another example. Obviously this is not SOOC. But it also shows you that you can run this on an already edited image and still get a great result...


I did mask the lighten layer at 50% opacity out of the image on the left because it was already pretty bright....


Some detail shots that I edited... {oops, forgot to resize}


the action with the layers tweaked just a little...

A few options that are fun to try with this actions is...
*For a nice creamy bright color edit, run the action and turn off the b&w layer
**Lower the b&w layer for a creamy fadded look
***For a deeper rich more urban creamy look, change the blend mode of the b&w layer to soft layer and play with layer opacity....lowering it to around 30% or lower usually
**** For a brighter more washed out creamy look, change the blend mode of the b&w layer to screen and lower the opacity also to around 30% or so.
*****And of course with any action, play with all the layers until you have the desired look. Make sure to play with the Lighten layer if it's too bright, or raise it if it's still too dark and if the cream is too much, lower the opacity!
So give it a try and tell me what you think! Download the zipped file HERE! I included the atn, png & psd so that it can be used in all PSE versions. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Looking ahead...next couple of posts...

Hi everyone! I just wanted to check in and let you know the next 2 posts I have lined up. I'm working on the RAW Part 3, the final of my little RAW series and I also was the LUCKY winner of MCP's new action set...Magic bag of tricks. So I will of course be doing a review on her new set. It truly is amazing and a MUST HAVE! Her best set yet! So that is what is in the works. I'm second shooting a wedding with a friend this weekend, so I HOPE to have a new post next week...not sure which of the 2 it will be yet! So please stay tuned! Hope everyone has a great weekend! And since no post is complete without a pic...here are some I took in Vegas last weekend...







Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Winner of my PSP9 editing software is...

***Sharon aka SGiles***


There were 7 entries and I had Haylee choose a number between 1 & 7 and she picked 5! So Sharon you win! Email me your address to momaziggy @ yahoo . com and I will get the program out to you before Friday! Congrats and I hope it helps you get started the way it helped me!
Sorry it took me so long to post this. I've been editing all day and the time got away from me!
CONGRATS! :O)

Monday, October 5, 2009

Why I shoot RAW ~ Part 2...

I'm back with Part 2 on why I shoot RAW. Today I'm just going to go over the basic tab in ACR. I grabbed Haylee right after school and took three shots. The first will be basic good exposure which means good skin tones! :O) The second I purposely under exposed a bit. The third I took in my bathroom which has almost no natural light and had both of my overhead lights on. And I show you the steps for each in ACR and include a final edit.

***my normal disclaimer...I'm not a pro! Just a MWAC who loves taking snaps and loves editing. I will also say that I am still not great at color correcting. I'm still learning. I still do it by eye and not numbers, but I am learning little bits. My goal is to know how to edit by numbers so I have a good foundation and starting off point and then be able to adjust to taste after. My last example is not the best and does still need some work. But I have to find some balance and if I go through everything and pick it apart, I'll never hit the power button on my laptop! Ha! I'm also due to re calibrate, so my colors are a bit off right now. Also know that I'm not a super picky person. I'm okay with some things that others are not. I don't over analyze my shots and pick them apart. Okay I do, but then I get over myself and just edit to what *I* like. Okay...end of excuses...I mean disclaimer***

I still prefer to do the bulk of my editing in CS4. I like the control of layers. I use ACR for a few very important things. WB, Exposure & recovery. For me, it's a way to get my image as clean and correct as possible so I can go into CS4 to enhance. When I have a good SOOC shot, I do less in ACR. When I have a mess of a shot, I do a lot more in ACR. But I always do the good stuff in CS4. So there is much much more that ACR can do for you if you want to. I will go over some of the more advanced and extra tools that ACR has in post three. That is probably about 2 weeks away.

So here is number 1. Not the best but the overall exposure is good. The only blown section is a reflection on the mirror behind her. So I'm not too worried about that. And taking the time to set up the shot and reposition could've completely removed that element in the image. But I'm not keeping any of these images. Just for the blog...lol.



So I opened my RAW file into ACR. Here is the screenshot...


As you will see, the little circle is the Basic tab.

*The first thing I did was adjust the WB to get her skin tone a bit more close. The top slider is your temperature. If you slide to the left it will add blue (cool) and if you slide to the right it will add yellow (warm). This is for overall WB which is global and not to be confused with selective color casts. This is pretty close to what she looks like IRL. When shooting in natural light (no indoor lights on) your WB will be much more accurate. Shooting in the shade can be a bit cool and need some warming up. Shooting at sunset may be too warm and need some cooling. But overall, AWB in good clean natural light is pretty accurate.

*Then I held down my alt key and clicked on the recovery slider to check where I'm blowing any highlights. As you can see in the screenshot below, anywhere you see color you are blown but not completely. Where you see white you are completely blown. You can usually recover the color areas very nicely but will have less luck with the white sections. You also have to gauge what is important in the shot. The recovery slider attempts to bring down the brightness in your highlights, in return giving you back some detail in your highlights. If it's completely blown, there are no pixels to bring back. If you slide too far to the right the image will start to go gray. So don't go too far. And since there are no blown areas on her skin, I go far enough to the right to get some detail back in the blown section, but not too far that I make the image muddy. Here is the screenshot of the recovery slider while holding down the alt key. I should also say (hate when I forget things in the screenshots) that if you look at the histogram on the top right of the screen, there are two arrows at each top corner. The top left is for shadows and the top right is for highlights. If you click on either, they will warn you when you are clipping either. It will show up directly on your image. Try it. Click on both to see how it looks. I personally prefer to alt click on the slider itself because I find the clipping warning on the image to be a bit annoying. If you like it, leave it on. If you don't, just click each again and it will turn the warning off.


*Then (I will be saying then a LOT) I go to the blacks slider. Since her shirt is black, I don't want to go too dark and lose all detail there! So I only bumped it from 5 to 7.

*Now I use the clarity slider. I use this on most images. I never go over 30 on people shots. Many might say that's even too much. Basically the clarity slider acts as a defog. It makes your images appear more sharp without actually sharpening the pixels. It will add contrast and if done with a heavy hand will leave you with a harsh over contrastY image. I like typing contrastY! :O)

After looking at the shot I decided to bring down the exposure just a tad. Knowing that when I pull it into CS4 to finish it up, I don't want to have to mask a bunch of layers preventing blown skin. But I make sure not to bring down the exposure so much that I undo the WB work by going too dark. Under exposed images will appear muddy as well. Here is the exposure slider after bringing it down a tad...


I also used the spot removal brush to remove the feather from her pillow off her shirt. But I forgot to add that screenshot. Oops. It's also easily done in PS with the patch tool...my personal favorite! But I'll also go over the spot removal tool in post three, so I'm not too worried about it now. Lol! For this image, that was all I did in ACR. And here is the SOOC & ACR only edit side by side...



I'm pretty happy with this edit so far. My main goal is to make sure her skin tone looks balanced and real. I want to make sure I'm not blowing sections of the image. Then the blacks & clarity give it a bit of pop. I will from time to time use the Vibrancy slider if it's an outside shot with lots of color and scenery. I never use the saturation slider. It can go neon and unnatural very quickly. The Vibrancy slider takes colors that are dull in the image and brings them to life while leaving the properly saturated colors alone. I use it a lot of macro/still/landscape type shots. And I will go higher on the clarity slider for those type of shots as well.

And here is the image after having a quick run through CS4 for a standard edit...




Here is the shot I purposely under exposed. I didn't go too far because with everything in life, ACR has it's limits. But with that said, it can really clean up a shot worse than this...trust me!



You can see what under exposure does to skin tones. Not pretty. And it adds more noise. These were shot at ISO 800 which on my camera is bad enough. But now with the under exposure, the noise is even worse. One of the many reasons it's so important to get it as close to correct/perfect in camera.

Here is my ACR screenshot and it's not too different than the first. I do the same basic steps with just about every image...


Still in the basic tab the first thing I do is up the exposure. Watching that I don't wash out the image or blow any highlights. Then I start working on the WB. I use the temp & tint slider to get it where I want it. You can also try the drop down menu and select a preset. Most times tho, you will still need to slide a bit with the presets. I used the recovery slider again to lessen some of the blowouts in the background. But again it's not on her skin, so I'm not going too far to the right. I brought the blacks slider back to keep some detail in her shirt. On normal shots, I usually up the blacks slider to about 10, a bit more if it's a very flat image or has a lot of background and colors I want to be richer. Then I upped the clarity slider a bit! I rarely play with any of the other sliders. Once in a while I'll bump up the fill light slider, but most times I do it in CS4 with a curves layer and black mask, then paint where I want it. What can I say...I LOVE layers!

And here is the SOOC & ACR only...



As you can see, there is a big improvement over the SOOC shot. The exposure and WB look much better now.

And after a quick standard edit in CS4...



Now for the NOT so fun example. I will say in advance, I'm not happy with my final edit and think it's needs some color work. But I need to go to bed to get up at 5am and exercise for 2 hours, so I'm leaving it as is! Ha!

Here is the shot taken in my icky bathroom with 2 overhead lights on...



And because I shoot in RAW, I shoot with a AWB. Can you say BLECH! So the first thing I did was take a shot of my gray card, then took the shot of Haylee. I will use this to get my WB to a more accurate color.

So I open both shots in ACR. The first shot as you'll see is Haylee looking quite annoyed while holding my gray card! Oh kids! Right below that you will see the actual shot. Here is the screenshot and below I'll go over what I did step by step...


The first thing I did was select the WB picker tool on the top bar. Then I clicked on the gray card. There is an instant difference. It's not perfect, but much closer to what I want. Then I use the temp & tint slider to get it where I want it. Also knowing that I will be working in layers to polish it in CS4. So I am mainly looking at her overall skin tone, whites of her eyes etc and the wall behind her. I also know that because I have tungsten lights on, the wall won't be perfect and I'll clean it up in CS4 with layer masks. Then once I have the WB where I want it I hit Select All, then Synchronize. A pop up menu comes up allowing me to choose what options to sync. Right now I'm only worried about WB. So I click that and ok. Instantly the WB is copied onto the actual shot of her. Now I click on the shot of her and go to work. Here is the screenshot...


I brought the exposure up a bit and didn't need the recovery slider. I brought the blacks slider down a bit to keep some detail in her black shirt and upped the clarity slider a bit. And now I have a much cleaner more accurate image to bring into CS4. Not perfect mind you, but it's MUCH better. See for yourself...



Now her skin isn't glowing, the whites of her eyes are white and the wall, with the exception of the blue/cyan color cast (that I always have ugh) look like they do IRL. I did however make this image too cool. I will have my hand at this image again tomorrow because now it is the thorn in my side. I think I'll be trying my NEW MCP Bag of tricks action set! Teeehee! If anyone can fix this shot...Jodi's actions can! Have I told you just how ECSTATIC and GRATEFUL I am to have won them! THANKS AGAIN JODI! Okay...back to regular scheduled programing...

Now after my crappy edit in CS4...




And remember that although WB is VERY important, there is also room for personal preference. Some people like their skin tones warmer, some cooler. As long as you don't have a lemon or lobster there is some room for personal taste. Know HOW to correct it, then make it your own. And please do not do what I've done and still do on occasion and did with the bathroom shot and try to over correct skin tones. When you are first learning, you tend to try to find casts where they may not exist and try so hard to correct one issue that you create 10 more...like I did above. Lol!

So that's it for today. Those are the basic steps I personally do in ACR and why I love RAW so much. As you can see in the last shot, editing that mess in PS directly would've been a disaster and the final image would not be NEARLY as nice and clean if shot in JPEG. And you aren't masking for hours on tons of different layers. I actually attempted to edit the converted SOOC jpeg and gave up after about 2 layers. Also remember that you CAN open a jpeg in ACR. You won't have nearly the amount of control had you shot in RAW nor the cleaner final image. But it's still MUCH MUCH MUCH better than if you bring the jpeg straight into PS. If you are too scared to jump into RAW, then start opening your jpegs in ACR to get a feel for it. Then once you've got your feet wet you can switch that dial on your camera!

If you have any questions, PLEASE don't hesitate to ask. And please excuse the color of the screenshots. They are always a bit wonky when loaded! I'll do my best to answer any questions this week. But I'm going to Vegas for the US Open this weekend to watch my Stewart! WAHOO! So I'll be a bit busy this week getting the girls & I packed...laundry etc!

Hope everyone is having a GREAT week!

I won MCP's NEW "Bag of tricks" action set...

and I could not be more thrilled! I LOVE Jodi and her actions. She's an extremly talented photographer and editor and a wonderful person! I have several of her action sets and LOVE them! So when I saw this morning that I was one of the LUCKY winners of her new set, I was over the moon with excitement. With my recent loss of income this came at a GREAT time! THANK YOU JODI of MCP Actions!
So as always, once I've had a couple weeks to really play with them and learn to use them to the best of their and my ability, I will post about them! I cannot wait to start playing. I hope I can do them justice!

I also will start working on the Why I shoot Raw Part 2 this week! I apologize for the delay. I'm taking a step back from the computer and spending more time with my family! So I haven't forgotten, but need to find more balance in general! And my husband just bought the family the Wii game, so we are having so much fun playing it and spending time together!

I hope everyone is doing great and I will post the Raw Part 2 this week! Hope you had a good weekend and have a FAB week! :O)

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About my PS Blog

Hi, my name is Crystal and I am addicted to Photoshop. I have PSCS4 and it's my other half. I love photography, but sometimes I think it's a means to edit!

So I thought it would be fun to have a place to post the free action sets I record, tips and tricks that I learn in PS and tuts for various different types of photo editing.

I hope you enjoy and find my PS blog helpful and if you have any questions, leave me a comment with your questions and your email address and I will get back to you!

Happy editing!

About Me

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I am a stay at home to 2 great girls. My older daughter Haylee just started middle school and my younger daughter Avyree is in 1st grade! I have been married 11 years to my hubs Eric. I got my first DSLR June 31, 2008 and have been hooked ever since! My style is primarily Lifestyle! I like to take a natural and real life approach to my images! I want them to remind me of WHO my girls were when they were little, not just what they looked like. I love to edit and my editing style is always evolving and changing! I like variety and photography is a means to edit! I shoot Canon (full frame) and almost only primes. I pull out my wide angle zoom from time to time! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like our story...
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