"Layers and masks" program Candlewood Camera Club

We gave our "Layers and masks" program to Candlewood Camera Club last night.

If you have not been over to Tom Peterson's Candlewood Blog you certainly should, it is one of the best New England camera club Blogs around! I follow it via RSS (and wish that they would also include an email subscription option so that the new posts would go right to my mailbox as I do not always get to look at my RSS feeder as often as I'd like. For example I missed this great example of before and after -- photoshopping done 114 years ago! http://candlewoodcamera.blogspot.com/2009/10/club-mantra-only-what-can-be-done-in.html

You can see this previous blog entry to learn more about this program.
http://lifethrulisaslens.blogspot.com/2008/07/nhcc-members-lisa-tom-cuchara-present.html

“White Reveals, Black Conceals: Masking Your Way to a Better Photograph”by Lisa and Tom CucharaIntroductionMasking is extremely simple; this one mantra “white reveals, black conceals” will work for almost all of your Photoshop editing. From exposure to contrast, dodging & burning, blurring the background, selective coloring, selective focus (even creating a Lensbaby effect in Photoshop), etc. “Non-destructive” editing in Photoshop is a critical component to the digital darkroom; this includes the use of layers and masks to enhance your images. Adjustment layers and filters can be applied to an entire image, but sometimes you just want to tweak part of an image, which is where masks come in. The advantage of using layer masks is that you can refine both the effect and the area being changed at any point, even after you save and re-open an image. White reveals, black conceals and shades of gray provide a variety of opacities -- this one simple concept is essential for anyone using the digital darkroom to enhance their images!

Layers, Adjustment layers, Masks – these are simpler then they sound. You may have even used masks and didn’t know it. If you have ever selected part of an image and then performed Levels (or any other adjustment) you actually created a mask without even attempting to do so. Adjustment layers are superior to working on the “background layer” which is often equated to the “negative”. Adjustment layers are more powerful because you can go back and change then at any time – masks too! They are not “permanent” in the sense that you can change them or even delete them at any time.

What are layers?
Layers allow you to work on parts of your photo without affecting other areas. Think of layers as a stack of transparencies, where each sheet is a different layer and the layers can appear in different orders with varying opacities. Plus using layers means that you can edit or adjust each sheet individually. You can edit a particular feature of your photograph (saturation, levels, etc.) using Adjustment layers. All of these are examples of non-destructive editing.

Here are also some of my favorite Photoshops shortcuts, there are MANY shortcuts.
Ctrl Z = UNDO (a VERY good shortcut to learn)
Ctrl Alt Z = multiple UNDO (even better)
Ctrl 0 (zero) --> maximize the photo
Ctrl J --> Create a new duplicate layer
The "[" left square-bracket key will decrease brush size
The "]" right square-bracket key will increase brush size
Shift and [ or ] will soften/harden the brush edges.
B --> selects the Brush tool (this is what you will paint with)
D --> sets the color palette back to Black and White
X --> switches between Black and White
te a new layer
C --> Crop tool
S --> Clone tool
V --> move tool

Another one of my favorites. First, create a new empty layer (Ctrl Shift N) on the top layer. Then select that new layer and use this command (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E); we use this for editing that can’t be done non-destructively (USM, filters, etc). We actually have an action that does this for us in one step because we use it so often.

Download our notes here.