Photo Image Processing in Photoshop

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

I worked on my own graphics project all morning. By evening I decided to go to a Canon Workshop on creating image composition on Photoshop. I have always enjoyed doing this on my own, since 2001, especially after going through one-year graphic design program at Platt. I did many promotional marketing materials for my first novel on Photoshop. Therefore, the ideas in this workshop were very familiar to me.

Photographer Ian Spanier displayed some marketing material you can do with your photographs and Photoshop.

But it all starts with taking good photographs. So, before a photo shoot, make sure you have a tripod, controlled lighting, aperture, shooting plates, and group shot.

Natural lighting involves sunlight changes, which is often unpredictable, uncontrollable and sudden. Be aware of the sunlight direction at all times so that you can better adjust your camera settings.

It is a good idea to have empty shooting plates sets before you go to the photo shoot.

Magazine assignment jobs don’t pay for anything you do. I guess they try to get their work as cheap as possible.

To create a shadow of a person or object in Photoshop, select the person or object, create a layer, make that layer black, and use Gaussian Blur effect. When processing an image, this feature smooths out the details in order to reduce the image noise and details.

It is best to start with a white frame base in Photoshop. In other words, the background should be white. White background is also good in ad copy because space as well as the image better. Then, place each person or object on a different layer to create depth with this overlapping technique.

Another effect involves using a dark base layer. Duplicate that dark layer. Create a layer for each subject. Work on different layers for each subject, doing different effects, such as dodge and burn, lighting, and shading.

There is also hair masking, which is probably like using a clipping mask. I actually used clipping mask last week. I realized that I need to practice my Photoshop skills because I am getting rusty. I used to do it a lot before. Creating a clipping mask involves selecting the subject on one layer, selecting the clipping mask on another layer, and then merging the two layers together.