Topaz Labs recently released Lens Effects, a plug-in that offers the ability to add a wide variety of lens-type effects to your photos. This includes bokeh effects (shallow depth of field, blurry backgrounds); tilt-shift or creative blur (think Lensbaby); toy camera-like color and focus deficiencies; graduated neutral-density filters; or modifications like fixing geometric distortion, adding grain, or simple vignettes.

Lens Effects is available as a plug-in for Photoshop, as well as Lightroom and Aperture. The interface is very Lightroom-esque with effects and presets on the left, a center preview area, and specific controls for each effect on the right. There are several presets for many of the effects, or you can create you own presets.

For the Bokeh – SLR Lens and Bokeh – Selective effects, you can make a depth map to define what areas should be in focus. Overall, it does a good job at defining these areas and creating a mask of gray values from foreground (black) to background (white), though there are occasional inaccurate edges. The interface and procedure for creating and editing these masks is very promising, but on some images I found myself wishing that I could make fully manual edits to the depth map to address errors in the automated process (the edits you do make are user-directed, but the program computes the change, so the tools aren’t totally manual).

Lens Effects is a useful plug-in for those who want a wide variety of lens effects easily accessible in one place. It provides very good results for many of its offerings (the weakest in my opinion are the pinhole and toy camera effects). The focus and blur effects that don’t require a complex depth map all produce very good results. Creating selective blurring on images with more complex foreground to background relationships that do require precise depth maps is likely to still be a challenge.

Company: Topaz Labs, LLC

Price: $79.99

Web: www.topazlabs.com

Rating: 3.5

Hot: Multiple lens effects in one place

Not: Can’t access alpha channels

The new HDR Pro features in CS5 have greatly expanded the HDR capabilities in Photoshop. In addition to basic exposure blending, you can now apply tone mapping effects similar to those found in stand-alone HDR software. In this tutorial, we’ll use a landscape image to take a closer look at HDR Pro as well as applying HDR Toning to a single image.

Shooting for HDR

1 HDR OVERVIEW
If you’re new to High Dynamic Range (HDR), here’s a quick overview: The process makes use of multiple shots of the same scene exposed differently to cover the entire range of brightness in a scene. It’s particularly useful for high-contrast scenes where you can’t capture the entire brightness range in a single exposure. Multiple shots should ideally be exposed one stop apart with the aperture consistent for each exposure. Use as many shots as needed to cover the contrast range (3–7 shots is common, but some situations may require more).

2 TRIPOD/AUTO EXPOSURE BRACKETING
Using a tripod will ensure the shots line up perfectly, but in some cases you can carefully handhold the camera (or stabilize it by other means) and use the Auto Exposure Bracketing mode (AEB) to quickly capture a range of shots at a specified exposure difference (the illustration here shows a one stop range on a Canon EOS 5D). Check your camera’s manual for information on AEB. To get the most benefit from HDR Pro (or any HDR software), shoot in RAW to capture as much tonal information as possible.

HDR preflight check

3 PRE-HDR ADJUSTMENTS TO RAW FILES
Before beginning the HDR Pro process, open all the RAW files in Camera Raw or Lightroom and check for anything that needs fixing. This can include simple things such as white balance and dust spotting, to more “stealth” issues like chromatic aberration. To check for the latter, zoom in to at least 100% and scroll to the outer edges of the image. Look for the telltale red and cyan fringing along high-contrast edges. The image here does have chromatic aberration that can be seen along the rooftops on either side of the image.

4 FIXING CHROMATIC ABERRATION
Identifying chromatic aberration is the first step to fixing it, and fortunately, fixing it is pretty easy. Go to the Lens Corrections controls in either Camera Raw 6 or Lightroom 3 and use the Fix Red/Cyan Fringe slider (it’s just called Red/Cyan in Lightroom) to remove the problem. If you’re unsure of which way to move the slider, just move it drastically one way or the other and you’ll soon know which is the correct direction (here, we moved it to –25).

5 SYNCHRONIZING SETTINGS
Once you’ve made the changes to one file, you can apply the same settings to the other files in the HDR sequence. In Camera Raw, click the Select All button at the top left and then click the Synchronize button. In the Synchronize dialog click OK, and then click the Save Images button. Click the Done button to leave Camera Raw. In Lightroom, select the file you just adjusted and then Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the others in the filmstrip to select them. Click the Sync button in the lower-right corner of the Develop module and in the Synchronize Settings dialog click Synchronize.

Using HDR pro

6 GETTING IMAGES INTO HDR PRO
When you’re ready to dive into HDR Pro, you can do so from Bridge by Command-clicking (PC: Ctrl-clicking) each thumbnail from the HDR sequence to select them and going to Tools>Photoshop>Merge to HDR Pro. You can also do the same thing using the Mini Bridge panel (File>Browse in Mini Bridge) in Photoshop CS5. The basic procedure is the same: select each thumbnail you want to work with, click on the Tools icon (rectangle with arrow), and choose Photoshop>Merge to HDR Pro. If working in Lightroom 3, select each thumbnail and choose Photo>Edit In>Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop.

7 MERGE TO HDR PRO PRESETS
Once the Merge to HDR Pro dialog appears, you’ll see the source image thumbnails arranged below an initial preview of the merged image. Before we get into the controls in detail, open the Preset drop-down menu and take some of these settings for a test drive. Most of these are pretty useless without additional intervention and should only be considered as a starting point for further explorations. What they’re good for is seeing how the sliders are configured to achieve a certain type of look. This is information you can use to help you find the look you want.

8 CHOOSE A STARTING PRESET
Set the Preset to Photorealistic. Though fairly unremarkable, it’s a good place to start. In the two Mode drop-down menus, 16 Bit and Local Adaptation should be selected (if you select 32 Bit, the dialog will look like earlier versions of Merge to HDR; you don’t have all the cool new creative controls, but it’s useful if you want to create a 32-bit merged file to import into other HDR applications, such as HDRsoft’s Photomatix).

9 MODIFYING EDGE GLOW
In the Edge Glow section, move the Strength slider first to the far left and then to the far right and observe how this affects the “halo” edge around contrast edges. Strength controls the level of contrast in the glow effect. Set this slider to 1.00 and move the Radius slider back and forth to see how it affects the glow. Radius controls the size of the glow effect. Set the Radius to 125. The Strength should still be set to 1.00.

10 SET GAMMA AND EXPOSURE
As you did with the previous sliders, experiment with Gamma and Exposure by moving each one in turn to opposite ends. Gamma adjusts the difference between highlights and shadows, while Exposure adjusts the overall image tone and brightness. The Gamma slider is reversed in terms of how sliders normally work; moving it to the left results in higher values, while moving it right results in lower values. Set both the Gamma and Exposure to 0.70.

11 DETAIL, SHADOW, AND HIGHLIGHT
Detail sets the amount of contrast in the detail of the image. Low values create a dreamy, diffuse look, while high values render a stark, high-contrast effect. Set the Detail to 150%. Shadow and Highlight adjust the luminance (brightness) of those regions. Set the Shadow to 100% and the Highlight to –60%. Working with all of the sliders involves a lot of back and forth as they’re interdependent; changes to one may prompt you to make further refinements to sliders you’ve already set. That’s why getting a sense of exactly what each slider does is so important.

12 COLOR SETTINGS
Vibrance and Saturation are fairly self-explanatory, especially if you’re used to how they work in Camera Raw or Lightroom. Saturation affects all colors equally while Vibrance has a more refined approach, affecting less-saturated colors more and more-saturated colors less. Set both to 50% for this image. Next, click on the Curve tab (located next to the Color tab).

13 ADJUST THE CURVE
The Curve is where you can have a great deal of control as to how the image looks. If you know how curves work in Photoshop, then this will be familiar to you. Move the lower-left point on the curve (the shadow point) to the bottom-right corner of the first square in the grid. Then click on the curve three times to place three additional points and adjust as shown here (to remove a point, simply drag it to the left outside of the grid box). This curve lightens the shadows but makes the highlights a bit too bright; change the Gamma setting to 0.50 to compensate for this.

14 SAVE HDR PRESETS
If you’ve created an HDR look that you like, and that you feel might work well on other images that are similar in overall tone and contrast (i.e., such as landscape images), then it’s a good idea to save your settings as a preset so you don’t have to start from scratch every time. Click the Preset Options icon just to the right of the Preset drop-down menu and choose Save Preset. Name your preset and click Save. Your new preset will now appear in the Preset drop-down menu.

15 DOUBLE-CHECK EDGES AT 100%
Before clicking OK in the Merge to HDR Pro dialog, be sure to zoom in to 100% or more and scroll around the image to check the edges. Some combinations of settings can create hard and jagged pixilation along contrast edges. Low Strength settings are often to blame for hard “crackly” edges, so if you see any, try increasing the value of this setting. And, keep in mind that changes to Strength may require slight modifications to Radius, Detail, and other settings. After you click OK in the next step, inspect the edges again as Photoshop provides a much better view than the low-resolution preview in HDR Pro.

16 REMOVE GHOSTS
If your image contains elements that might have traces of motion in them, such as moving water or tree branches, enable the Remove Ghosts checkbox near the top of the dialog. HDR Pro will select the source file that’s best for the motion-affected areas in the image (the thumbnail will be highlighted in green). You can also make your own choice simply by clicking on a thumbnail. After checking for ghosts, now you can click OK.

17 CUSTOMIZE WITH ADJUSTMENT LAYERS
One very important thing to remember is that simply running a series of files through HDR Pro doesn’t necessarily make a finished image. At best, you’ll have a really good combination of all the source exposures that gives you a solid platform on which to continue enhancing the image. The use of additional adjustment layers with layer masks can greatly improve the overall look of the final image. In this example, we adjusted the Levels for the buildings and bridge, added Curves for more contrast in the sky, used Hue/Saturation to change the color of the river, and finished with Vibrance to saturate the overall colors.

HDR toning

18 TONE MAPPING A SINGLE IMAGE
Photoshop CS5 also has a great new HDR Toning feature that let’s you create an HDR look for a single exposure. This is great for those shots where you either don’t have multiple exposures, or making them doesn’t work for the subject (such as people). You can find this by going to Image>Adjustments>HDR Toning. The controls are exactly the same as those in HDR Pro, and you can even use saved HDR Pro Presets. It’s not the same as real HDR, however; the tonal range will be limited to the single exposure you’re using.

ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

1 THE ADVENT OF MOTION SEQUENCES
Although motion sequence images are very familiar to us today, the first high-speed motion studies by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878 represented a stunning technical achievement that revolutionized photography and revealed aspects of movement that had never before been seen. Using multiple cameras loaded with wet glass plates arranged along a racetrack, his motion studies of a running horse finally settled the long-debated question of whether all four of a galloping horse’s hooves left the ground at the same time (they do).

Photo by Eadweard Muybridge

2 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MUYBRIDGE
With modern cameras, high-speed motion is easily captured without having to go to all the trouble and expense that Muybridge did to record his images. The use of Photoshop layers and layer masks provides ways of blending these images together that extend the photographs beyond a simple, side-by-side sequence. In Adobe Photoshop CS4, additional features such as auto-align layers and auto-blend layers further expand the possibilities for creative blending of sequenced photos.

3 TECHNIQUE OVERVIEW
The technique we’ll explore works well with certain types of images for combining different poses of a moving figure into one shot. Results will vary depending on the images you use; some may require more mask editing than this example. A tripod isn’t necessary but a consistent distance between camera, subject, and background is essential so that the depth of field matches. When photographing the girl, I panned the camera to follow her as she ran. The length of the pan was fairly short, which is important so that the background isn’t distorted once the images are assembled.

combining the source images

4 LOAD FILES AS PHOTOSHOP LAYERS
The first step is to bring all of the source photos together as layers in one file. You can launch this process from either Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Bridge. In Bridge, Shift-click all of the image thumbnails and choose Tools>Photoshop>Load Files into Photoshop Layers. In Lightroom, the corresponding command is Photo>Edit In>Open as Layers in Photoshop. When this process is complete, you’ll have a single file open in Photoshop with each of the source images as separate layers.

5 CHOOSE AND LOCK REFERENCE LAYER
The next step is to have Photoshop align the layers for us so that all of the background details match up. Before beginning the alignment process, choose one of the layers—we selected the Girl-2 layer—as the alignment reference around which the other layers are adjusted and then lock it by clicking on the Lock All icon (circled) at the top of the Layers panel. Now click on the top layer and Shift-click the bottom layer to select all layers.

6 AUTO-ALIGN LAYERS
Next, choose Edit>Auto-Align Layers. In the Auto-Align Layers dialog, click on the Auto radial button to set the Projection method to Auto, leave the Lens Correction options unchecked, and click OK to align the selected layers.

7 ALIGNMENT INSPECTION
Once the auto-alignment is done, click on the Eye icon in front of each layer except the bottom one (Girl-4) to turn off the visibility of all layers but that one. Now turn each layer on again (click the Eye icon), one at a time, and inspect the accuracy of the auto-alignment. For this particular image, the cobblestones and the background line up remarkably well across all four images.

8 AUTO-BLEND LAYERS
All of the layers should still be selected. If they’re not, click on the top one and then Shift-click the bottom one to select all. Choose Edit>Auto-Blend Layers. In the Auto-Blend Layers dialog, set Panorama as the Blend Method and enable the checkbox for Seamless Tones and Colors. Click OK to begin the blending process.

9 AUTO-BLEND LAYERS RESULT
When the auto-blend layers process is done, you’ll see that it has created precise layer masks for all of the layers. It has also has altered the brightness of the layers so that the tonality in the background now matches perfectly. Three of the girls are visible, but the second one from the left (Girl-3) is completely hidden by the layer mask that was created for that layer. In the next steps, we’ll edit the layer masks to reveal the missing girl.

editing the layer masks

10 USING GUIDES TO MARK LOCATION
Click the Eye icons beside the top two layers in the Layers panel to turn off their visibility. Shift-click on the layer mask thumbnail for the Girl-3 layer to temporarily disable it. Choose View>Rulers. Click on the vertical ruler and drag guides into the image to mark the Girl-3’s location so you can see where to edit the layer mask in the next step. Now you’ve marked the location in the composite where the figure from the Girl-3 layer should be.

11 EDITING THE GIRL-3 LAYER MASK
Shift-click on the Girl-3 layer mask thumbnail again to turn it back on. Choose the Brush tool (B) and open the Brush Preset Picker in the Options Bar. Select a 200-px brush, and drag the Hardness slider to 100%—a hard-edged brush will blend best with the existing hard-edged layer masks—and then set the brush Opacity to 100%. Now set your Foreground color to white and paint on the layer mask for Girl-3 in the area between your guides where the girl should be. You don’t need precise brush strokes and it’s okay to reveal extra background around her.

12 TURN ON GIRL-2 LAYER
Now turn on the Girl-2 layer in the Layers panel. This will probably cover up most of the Girl-3 layer that you just revealed, which means that you must now edit the layer mask on the Girl-2 layer. Click on the Lock All icon at the top of the Layers panel to unlock this layer and then click on the layer mask thumbnail to make it active.

13 EDITING GIRL-2 LAYER MASK
Press the X key to exchange the Foreground/Background colors so the Foreground swatch at the bottom of the Toolbox is now black. We’ll use black—because black conceals and white reveals—to paint on the layer mask for Girl-2 to hide those areas that are obscuring the girl’s figure on the underlying layer (Girl-3). If you inadvertently reveal transparent areas, we’ll fix it in the next step by re-editing the layer mask for the underlying layer.

14 FINAL MASK EDITS
To fix any remaining transparency holes, click on the layer mask thumbnail for the Girl-3 layer to make it active. Press the X key to exchange the colors to make your Foreground color white. Paint with white to cover up the transparency holes by revealing that layer. Turn on the top layer (Girl-1) and zoom to 100% (View>Actual Pixels) and carefully inspect each of the girls to ensure that there are no rough edges that need to be fixed. If you do find rough edges, determine which lay
er mask needs to be edited, and then make the appropriate edits.

15 FINAL CROPPING
As a final step, use the Crop tool (C) to remove the transparent edges and create a more centered composition of the “four” girls. With these particular images, using auto-align layers and auto-blend layers produced an excellent result. It’s important to understand, however, that when using images of different scenes, your mileage may vary and you may run into problems that require additional editing or using different images. We’ll go over a few of these potential glitches in the rest of this article.

potential problems

16 BEWARE OF STACK IMAGES MODE
Before we get into potential image problems, I’d like to point out that when you’re making this type of blend, you should not use the Stack Images option in the Auto-Blend Layers dialog. It will create a strange blending between the layers that, while possibly interesting, can’t be edited, because the color and tonality of the actual layers is changed in the blending process.

17 FOCUS AND DEPTH OF FIELD ISSUES
In the running girl photos we used in this tutorial, the distance from camera to subject and camera to background was the same for all four shots, which meant that the depth of field in all the shots was consistent. In this example, however, the focus and depth of field change as the girl moves away from the camera, which results in obvious problems where the focus doesn’t match. A subject that moves away from or toward the camera, as opposed to moving parallel to the camera, will create more potential problems.

18 BUSY OR MOVING BACKGROUNDS
You may also run into alignment problems on images with particularly busy or complex backgrounds. And moving elements in the background create their own set of issues that present tricky problems for the auto-alignment and auto-blending features. In this example, the masks created by the auto-blend layers don’t do a good job with the differences in the ocean behind the girl. For this, we created a manual mask that used the water from only one of the images, thus creating a background with no mismatched waves.

Sharpness is an important element in any photograph, but a creative use of blur—whether from shallow depth of field, motion blur, camera motion, or applied with the Lens Blur filter in Photoshop CS4—can also work to enhance an image. In this article we’ll take a look at several ways to take advantage of the beauty of the blur.

Controlling Sharpness in the Camera

1 KNOW YOUR MINIMUM SHUTTER SPEED
Creative use of blur begins in the camera, but before you can effectively use “unsharpness,” you need to know how to control sharpness. So let’s begin with a look at a few ways to ensure that the photo is sharp. For handheld shots, use a fast enough shutter speed so that camera shake doesn’t render an unsharp image. A common rule of thumb is to calculate minimum shutter speed using the focal length of the lens. For example, with a 100mm focal length, the shutter speed should not be less than 1/100 second.

2 VIBRATION REDUCTION TO THE RESCUE!
Lenses that have image stabilization or vibration reduction let you get by with much slower shutter speeds than lenses without this feature. As the old saying goes, your mileage may vary, so you should test your lenses to get an idea of what the slowest usable speed is. Any form of camera motion is more likely to be apparent in shots made with a telephoto focal length, so brace yourself or the camera as much as possible when taking the shot. If it fits the situation and your photographic style, a tripod is often an essential component.

3 DEPTH OF FIELD PREVIEW
Regardless of what the aperture is set to, when you look through the viewfinder of an SLR, the widest aperture is used to allow as much light as possible for composition. It doesn’t stop down to the specified aperture until the moment of exposure. So you may think that you have a soft, shallow depth of field, only to find later that much more is in focus than you intended. Fortunately, most DSLRs have a Depth-of-Field Preview button that will preview the actual depth of field using the current aperture setting. Find this button and use it!

Creative Use of Subject and Camera Motion

4 SLOW SHUTTER SPEEDS TO BLUR SUBJECT MOTION
The combination of a tripod-mounted camera and slow shutter speeds can create intriguing motion blurs from the movement of the subject. Night photography is well suited for motion blur since the lower light levels require longer exposures. During the day you can use a solid neutral density filter to cut back on the amount of light entering the lens and force a longer exposure. In Dresden Streetcar above, the image was exposed for 10 seconds as the illuminated streetcar passed by, creating a ghostly blur. Because the camera was on a tripod, other elements in the scene remain in focus.

5 SLOW SHUTTER SPEEDS + CAMERA MOTION
Slow shutter speeds can also create interesting motion blurs through the purposeful movement of the camera during the exposure. In Cowboy Poet above, both camera motion and subject movement were used. The exposure time was 4 seconds and the camera was panned to the right during the exposure to follow the man as he walked through the scene. Sharpness isn’t a part of this image but the unexpected combination of subject and camera motion made it the most interesting photo I took that night.

Creating Shallow Depth of Field with Lens Blur

6 [LENS BLUR: CONTROL BLUR WITH A DEPTH MAP]
The Lens Blur filter provides a way to create the look of shallow depth of field after the fact. To control how the blur is gradually applied to the image, you first have to create an alpha channel that can be used as a depth map. The intricacy of the depth map will vary depending on the needs of each image, which makes the Lens Blur feature as much about good masking as it is about blurring. Open an image where you want to add a gradual blur to the background or you can download the image used in our example.

7 DEPTH MAP 1: QUICK MASK
Select the Gradient tool (G); click on the Gradient Picker in the Options Bar; and choose the Black, White gradient (third swatch from the left in the top row). Set the style to Linear Gradient (the first icon), Mode to Normal, and Opacity to 100%. Click the Quick Mask icon at the bottom of the Toolbox or simply press Q on the keyboard. Click-and-drag in the image to apply the gradient. Where you begin is where the blur will begin and where you end is where the blur will be applied at full strength.

8 DEPTH MAP 2: COPY THE QUICK MASK
The red overlay that appears indicates the black areas of the mask. The area where it fades to clear is where the blur will begin to appear. The totally clear areas will be fully affected by the blur. In the Channels panel (Window>Channels), copy the Quick Mask by dragging it to the Create New Channel icon at the bottom of the panel (or you can choose Duplicate Channel from the panel’s flyout menu). Return to standard selection mode by pressing Q and then choose Select>Deselect. Double-click on the Quick Mask copy channel’s name and rename it (ours is Background Blur Mask).

9 DUPLICATE THE BACKGROUND LAYER
Click on the RGB channel to make it the active channel and turn off the visibility of the new alpha channel by clicking on its Eye icon. Normally, to keep a filter effect flexible and protect the original version of the image, we’d apply it as a smart filter; however, Lens Blur isn’t available as a smart filter. So, let’s go to the Layers panel and make a copy of the Background layer by clicking on that layer and using the Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) shortcut, then choose Filter>Blur>Lens Blur.

10 APPLY LENS BLUR
In the Lens Blur dialog, open the Depth Map Source menu and choose the channel you created. If the blurred areas are reversed, click the Invert checkbox. You can also click in the preview where you want the image to be in focus. In the Iris section, the Radius slider will control the amount of blur (in this example, we used 30). Blade Curvature, Rotation, and the Shape menu will determine the visible characteristics of the virtual lens iris, but this will only be apparent in images with bright points of specular highlights. Click OK if you like the effect.

11 EDITING THE DEPTH MAP CHANNEL
If you decide the depth map isn’t creating the exact effect you want, click Cancel and return to the Channels panel. Click on the depth map channel to activate it and then turn on the RGB channel’s Eye icon so you can see the mask as a red overlay. Use the Gradient tool to create a new gradient to replace the existing one. When you’re satisfied with the new gradient, click on the word RGB at the top of the Channels panel and then apply the Lens Blur filter again to preview how the mask edits affect the blur.

Combining Hard and Soft Masks

12 COMBINE HARD AND SOFT MASKS 1
The key to an effective use of the Lens Blur filter lies in the accuracy of the masks you create for the depth map. Each image will have its own challenges, depending on the area that needs to be masked. For photos where a foreground object extends up into an area to be blurred, you’ll need to create a depth map mask that combines both hard and soft edges. In this rough road example, we started by making a gradient mask using the Quick Mask method shown earlier.

13 COMBINE HARD AND SOFT MASKS 2
Using the Pen tool (P), create a precise path around the sign and then click on the Load Path As a Selection icon in the Paths panel. With the gradient mask alpha channel active in the Channels panel and black as your Background color, press Delete (PC: Backspace) to fill the selected area with black, then deselect (Command-D [PC: Ctrl-D]). This creates a mask with both precise and gradual transitions that can then used for the depth map in the Lens Blur filter.

Creating a Fake Tilt-Shift Effect

14 THE TILT-SHIFT EFFECT
The Lens Blur filter can also be used for creating a fake, tilt-shift effect. To create this optically, you need to use a tilt-shift lens—a fairly pricey purchase. These lenses are commonly used for architectural images to control perspective. On the right type of scene, such as looking down on a city or landscape, the very shallow depth of field can create a sense of looking at a miniature scene. If used too much, it can become gimmicky, but I’ve seen it used to good effect on fine art photographs and even in editorial illustrations.

15 CREATE A WHITE ALPHA CHANNEL
To try this, you can open one of your own images looking down on a scene or you can download our example. First, hold down the Option key (PC: Alt key) and click on the Create a New Channel icon at the bottom of the Channels panel. In the New Channel dialog, under Color Indicates, choose Selected Areas, and click OK. This will create a white alpha channel. Turn on the visibility for the RGB channel by clicking where the Eye icon should be. Since the new alpha channel is all white, no red overlay will be visible.

16 ADD TWO GRADIENTS
Select the Gradient tool, make sure that the Black, White swatch is selected in the Gradient Picker, and Opacity is set to 100%. Drag the cursor from the bottom of the image about one-third of the way up. Where you stop dragging, the image will be in focus once the Lens Blur is applied. Now, change the blend Mode of the gradient to Darken and drag down from the top about one-third of the way. The Darken blend mode lets you add a new gradient to the channel while preserving the first one.

17 WHY NOT USE THE REFLECTED GRADIENT?
You could also use the reflected gradient style to get this same effect, but it doesn’t offer as much control. I often have to drag it several times to get it right, and the areas that will be rendered in focus (the white areas) are typically much narrower than what I want. I prefer to use the method shown in the previous step because it gives me maximum control over which areas will be in focus and which areas will be blurred.

18 APPLY LENS BLUR, INCREASE SATURATION
Click on the RGB thumbnail in the Channels panel to make it active and turn off the alpha channel’s Eye icon. In the Layers panel, copy the Background layer (Command-J [PC: Ctrl-J]) and then choose Filter>Blur>Lens Blur. In the Lens Blur dialog, choose the new alpha channel as the Depth Map and adjust the Radius slider to taste. If the wrong areas are blurred, simply click in the preview on the area that you want in focus. Click OK to close the dialog. Finally, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and increase the Saturation to make things look a bit more plastic and toy-like.

ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

1 A PANORAMA ALIGNMENT GLITCH
In most cases, the seams created by Photomerge are very successful, but sometimes it may have “issues.” This panorama was made from three horizontal images taken in Santa Fe, New Mexico. And no matter how many times I’ve tried to get Photomerge to blend these images, it always creates an alignment glitch at the top of the locomotive, just above the windshield. In this section of the article, we’ll create the initial panorama—glitch and all—and then explore a few different ways to try and fix the problem.

2 CREATE THE PHOTOMERGE
To experience the steps from the beginning, launch the Photomerge process. In this tutorial, we’ll launch it from Adobe Bridge by selecting the three thumbnails and choosing Tools>Photoshop>Photomerge. In the Photomerge dialog, leave the Layout set to Auto and make sure that Blend Images Together is checked. Click OK.

3 INITIAL EVALUATION
At first glance it might seem that the most straightforward way to tackle the problem would be to edit the layer masks that Photomerge has created. The problem with this approach, however, is that there are three layer masks and each one is precisely aligned with the other two. Although it’s not immediately apparent in the blended result, there’s also a problem created by the auto blending, which has changed tonal values in the sky to match the layer masks. Editing these masks will reveal this tonal mismatch and create additional problems.

4 TURN OFF THE LAYER MASKS
To see the potential problems created by the auto blending, Shift-click on each of the layer masks to temporarily disable them. You can see an obvious variation in the sky tones just above the cab of the locomotive (in this illustration, the image was darkened with a curve to make these tonal changes more visible). The tonal variation in this area is in the exact shape of the same area of the layer masks for the Train Middle and Train Right layers.

5 PHOTOMERGE, TAKE 2: NO BLENDING
Before we try any complicated patching or cloning repair jobs, let’s see if we can coax a better result from Photomerge. Close the first image without saving it and return to Bridge. With the three thumbnails selected, choose Tools>Photoshop>Photomerge. In the Photomerge dialog, leave the Layout set to Auto but uncheck the Blend Images Together option. Click OK.

6 TAKE 2: REARRANGE LAYERS
For this image, Photomerge has definite ideas about how the layers should be arranged. But one obvious way to try and fix the problem is to simply rearrange the layers so that Train Right is above Train Middle. Hopefully, this will address the problem of the alignment error on the roof of the locomotive. In the Layers panel, rearrange the stacking order of the layers so that Train Right is the top layer, Train Middle is in the middle, and Train Left in on the bottom.

7 MANUALLY ALIGN LAYERS
Even though we turned off the blending in the Photomerge dialog, there are still a couple of automated features left for us to try. To nudge these features in the right direction, we’ll manually align the layers. Make the Train Right layer active. Double-click the Zoom tool to zoom to 100%. Select the Move tool (V) and use the Up and Left Arrow keys on the keyboard to nudge this layer up and left until the “A” in the word RAIL aligns with the same letter on the middle layer. This will also align the top of the train.

8 CUSTOM LAYER TRIMMING
The letter “A,” which we just aligned, could conceivably still cause some problems, so let’s fix that. Make sure the top layer (Train Right) is active, choose the Lasso tool (L), and set the Feather value in the Options Bar to 0 px. Make a lasso selection around the letter “A” in RAIL and press Delete (PC: Backspace) to delete this chunk of pixels. Press Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.

9 MODIFY THE LEFT SIDE
Now let’s inspect the left side of the image. Creating a seam through the back of this older train car makes no sense. It’s better to choose a less-complicated seam: on the far side of this car in the background of the image, where the newer RAIL RUNNER cars can be seen in the distance. Use the Lasso tool with the Feather set to 0 px and make a selection of the part of the Train Middle layer that overlaps onto the Left side layer. The right side of this selection should be placed in the distance through the new train cars (see illustration).

10 MORE CUSTOM LAYER TRIMMING
Make sure that the middle layer—Train Middle—is active and press Delete (PC: Backspace) to delete the selected pixels. (In the illustration we hid the bottom layer—click on its Eye icon—to clearly show what areas were deleted.) Deselect.

Now zoom in for a closer view and make the Train Left layer active. Use the Move tool (V) and the Down and Right Arrow keys to align the layers along the seam in the background where the train cars converge.

11 AUTO-ALIGN LAYERS
In the Layers panel, click on the Train Right layer. Turn this layer’s Eye icon off and on several times and you’ll see how the locomotive isn’t aligning with the same areas on the underlying layer—this is what’s causing the alignment glitch.

Make sure the visibility for all three layers is turned on then select all three layers by clicking on the top one and then Shift-clicking on the bottom one. Choose Edit>Auto-Align Layers. In the dialog that appears, choose Auto for the Projection method and click OK.

12 AUTO-BLEND LAYERS
Now when you turn the top layer off and on, you should see that the locomotive is much more closely aligned with the layer underneath. Make sure that all three layers are still selected in the Layers panel and choose Edit>Auto-Blend Layers. In the small dialog that appears, choose the Panorama option and make sure that the Seamless Tones and Colors box is checked. Click OK. This time, the blend is successful and the alignment glitch on the top of the locomotive is no longer present.

13 RAIL RUNNER DEBRIEFING
As a final step, use the Crop tool (C) to crop the transparent areas surrounding the image.

Most of the time Photomerge works great but for those times when it doesn’t, the techniques that we’ve covered in this tutorial are some things you can try to get a better panorama merge from multiple images. For some images you may need to go even further to touch up alignment problems, for example: using the Clone Stamp (S), the Healing Brush, or creating patch layers. All are good skills and techniques to be aware of when these issues arise.

HOW TO GET GOOD MOVING WATER IN HDR

14 A SOLID NEUTRAL-DENSITY FILTER
One of the most common questions I’m asked about HDR photography is how to deal with the strange artifacts that commonly appear in moving water. I use a solid neutral-density (ND) filter to cut back several stops of light: Less light coming through the lens means the camera must use a much slower shutter speed than would normally be feasible in daylight conditions. With long shutter speeds of one second or slower, rushing water is rendered as a smooth, silky blur. Not only does this look cool, it also hides the usual HDR artifacts that often appear in moving water.

15 CREATE THE INTIAL HDR IMAGE
Let’s explore how good water can look with an HDR image made from four exposures taken in Camden, Maine. I shot the images using a 5-stop, solid ND filter with shutter speeds ranging from 1/4 second to 2 seconds.

In Bridge, select the four source exposures and choose Tools>Photoshop>Merge to HDR. When the Merge to HDR dialog appears, make sure that the Bit Depth is set to 32 Bit/Channel and click OK.

16 CONVERT TO 16 BITS
After the merge is done, choose Image>Mode>16 Bits/Channel to bring up the HDR Conversion dialog. For the Method, choose Local Adaptation from the drop-down menu. Set the Radius to 16 px, the Threshold to 0.50, and adjust the Toning Curve and Histogram curve as shown in the illustration (if you don’t see the curve, click the down-facing triangle to show it). Click OK to apply the conversion.

17 ADD SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS SMART FILTER
Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the Background layer and choose Convert to Smart Object from the menu. Then choose Image>Adjustments> Shadows/Highlights. In the dialog that appears, click the Show More Options checkbox to reveal all of the sliders and set them as shown in the illustration. This will help to balance out the tones between the bright sky and water and the rest of the image. Click OK when you’re done.

18 FINAL CURVES ADJUSTMENTS
Open the Adjustments panel, click the Create a New Curves Adjustment Layer icon, and slightly increase the contrast as shown in the Overall Contrast illustration. Add a second Curves layer and adjust the curve as in the Darken Sky illustration. Open the Masks panel and click the Invert button to invert the mask to black. With this layer mask active, use the Brush tool (B) to paint with white at 30% Opacity in the sky, trees, and rocks to darken those areas. As you can see from the detail view of the stream, the slow shutter speeds make the water look great with no visible HDR artifacts.

I recently returned from a trip to Hawaii with lots of new photos. In this article, I’ll cover how to integrate the images and Lightroom catalog information from a trip or a location shoot into your main Lightroom catalog back home. We’ll also take a look at synchronizing Develop settings, launching a panorama merge from Lightroom, and essential “round-tripping” techniques for moving files between Lightroom and Photoshop.

1 [CATALOG TRAVEL STRATEGIES, METHOD 1]
There are two ways to work with your images while you’re traveling and I’ll cover both in this article. First, if your laptop is your main computer, you can add any new images you take on your trip to your main Lightroom catalog. Then once you return home, all you need to do is transfer the image files to the primary hard drive where your image archive is stored (more on that below). To ensure that your files are protected when you’re on the road, you should have at least two copies on separate hard drives.

2 [CATALOG TRAVEL STRATEGIES, METHOD 2]
If your laptop is used only for travel and isn’t your primary imaging computer, then an easy way to keep track of your images while you’re traveling (or on a location shoot) is to create a new catalog just for that trip (File>New Catalog). Once you return home, this separate catalog can be integrated into your main Lightroom catalog, and in addition to your images, any work you’ve done in Lightroom, such as virtual copies, collections, ratings, keywords, Develop module settings, etc., will be preserved.

3 [MOVE FOLDERS USING THE LIBRARY MODULE]
If you’ve used Method 1 as described above, once you return home you need to move the images from the external hard drive to the primary drive where your image archive is stored. The easiest way to do this so that Lightroom sees the move and keeps track of where your images are is to move them within the Library module. To do this, open the Folders section in the left Panels area of the Library module and drag the folders to the correct location on the primary storage drive. You can only move one folder at a time.

4 [UPDATE FOLDER LOCATIONS]
If you choose to move the image folders outside Lightroom, or have inadvertently done so, then you’ll see a question mark next to those folders, as well as on the thumbnails of the images in that folder. This means that Lightroom can’t locate the folder. Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the folder icon and choose Find Missing Folder to re-establish the link between the catalog and the folder. In the subsequent dialog, navigate to the actual location for the folder, highlight it, and click Choose.

5 [IMPORT NEW CATALOG INTO MAIN CATALOG]
If you’ve used Method 2 as described above, and have created a separate catalog for all of the photos you created while on your trip, then you can import this catalog into your main catalog. From the File menu, choose Import from Catalog. Navigate to the location of your Lightroom catalogs, select the one from your trip or location shoot, and click Choose.

6 [CHOOSE LOCATION FOR CATALOG IMPORT]
In the File Handling section of the Import from Catalog dialog, choose Add New Photos to Catalog without Moving if you’ve already moved the image folders from the travel hard drive to the primary storage drive (as described in Step 3). If you want Lightroom to move the images for you, choose Copy New Photos to a New Location and Import. Click Choose to specify the folder where you want the photos copied (in the case of this example, this is my 2009 folder). Click Import and Lightroom will create a copy of the folder that the images are currently in.

7 [MAKE TIME ZONE ADJUSTMENT]
I rarely remember to change the date in my camera to the local time zone when I’m traveling, and if I do, then I usually forget to change it back to my home time zone when I return. Fortunately, Lightroom has a fix for this. In the Library module, open a folder of images that need a time zone adjustment. Choose Edit>Select All, and then Metadata>Edit Capture Time. Select the Shift By a Set Number of Hours (Time Zone Adjust) option, and in the New Time drop-down menu, select the correct time difference adjustment.

8 [ROUND-TRIPPING WITH PHOTOSHOP]
Although you can use Lightroom to apply a lot of adjustments to your images, for some tasks you still have to use Photoshop. To make this transition easier, Lightroom provides several menu commands that lead to specific Photoshop features. In the rest of this tutorial, I’ll cover a scenario for using Lightroom to launch a panorama process and “round-tripping” the files from Lightroom to Photoshop and back again.

9 [PANORAMA PREFLIGHT: GLOBAL ADJUSTMENTS]
Several of the images from my Hawaii trip were photographed specifically to make panoramas. Before the panorama is assembled, however, global (overall) adjustments are needed. For this image of the view taken from Makapu’u Point looking up Oahu’s windward coast, the file was brightened with the Exposure slider, Clarity and Vibrance were increased, contrast was boosted with a Tone Curve, and changes were made to the Luminance section of the HSL controls to brighten the foliage colors and darken the blues. (Note: You can download the DNGs from www.layersmagazine.com to follow along. Only one of the images has been adjusted as described above.)

10 [PANORAMA PREFLIGHT: SYNC SETTINGS]
Once the adjustments have been applied to one of the panorama source images, they can be applied to others in the series if the exposure of the different shots is similar, as was the case for the two files in this Hawaii panorama. With the corrected image thumbnail selected in the Develop module, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the second image of the panorama series to add it to the selection, then click the Sync button on the lower right. In the Synchronize Settings dialog, check all the settings that apply (Local Adjustments settings such as the Brush should probably be unchecked), and click Synchronize.

11 [LIGHTROOM TO PHOTOSHOP: MERGE TO PANO]
With the source thumbnails for the panorama selected, choose Photo>Edit In>Merge to Panorama in Photoshop. When the Photomerge dialog appears you can choose the type of layout for the merge. If you’re unsure, leave it set to Auto. For scenes with obvious near-to-far relationships, Perspective works best, and for landscape panoramas such as this example, I usually choose Cylindrical. Make sure that Blend Images Together is selected. Click OK to create the panorama. (Note: Panoramas can also be launched from Bridge by selecting the thumbnails and choosing Tools>Photoshop>Photomerge.)

12 [STRAIGHTEN HORIZON WITH RULER TOOL]
Once Photomerge has created the panorama, you can decide if you want to keep it or return to Lightroom for further fine-tuning of the RAW files. In this image, the horizon isn’t straight. To fix it, use the Ruler tool in Photoshop (grouped with the Eyedropper) and draw a line along the tilted horizon. Then choose Image>Image Rotation>Arbitrary. The angle measured by the Ruler tool is already entered in the Rotate Canvas dialog, along with the correct direction needed to create a level horizon. Click OK to apply the correction.

13 [APPLY NONDESTRUCTIVE CROPPING]
If you want the image shape to be more of a standard rectangle, the next step is to crop the panorama. Use the Crop tool (C) to define a rectangular crop box around the image, then click the Cropped Area: Hide radio button in the Options Bar, and press Return (PC: Enter). This will allow you to undo the crop at a later time if you decide to go with the original “organic” Photomerge edges. (This only works if your image has layers with no Background and isn’t re-sized.) To restore the hidden cropped areas, choose Image>Reveal All.

14 [APPLY ADJUSTMENT LAYERS]
Overall, I was pleased with the way the image looked, but it still needs some tonal fine-tuning in Photoshop. Select Curves in the Adjustments panel and set the layer blend mode in the Layers panel to Screen without making any changes to the curve. In the Masks panel, click the Invert button to change the Curves layer mask from white to black. Then use the Brush tool (B) and paint with white at 30% Opacity over the lighter areas of the mountain. At this point, Save and Close the file and return to Lightroom.

15 [ADD PANORAMA KEYWORDS]
Since this image, as well as the two original files that created it, is either a panorama or panorama components, let’s add the keyword “panorama” to these files, as well as any other files in this folder that qualify as pano source images. This makes it much easier to find potential panorama images in your catalog in the future. To do this, find the Keywording panel in the right Panels area of the Library module and enter the keyword “panorama.”

16 [BRING THE PSD FILE BACK TO PHOTOSHOP]
The layered PSD file is now a part of your Lightroom catalog. At this point you can apply further edits in Lightroom, or reopen the current file into Photoshop and work on it there. To do this, select the thumbnail of the PSD file and choose Photo>Edit In>Edit in Photoshop CS4 (you can also get this option by Control-clicking [PC: Right-clicking] on the image or thumbnail). A dialog will appear giving you three options of what data will be brought into Photoshop. Let’s take a closer look at these choices.

17 [EDIT IN PHOTOSHOP OPTIONS]
Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments: Lightroom edits you have made to the PSD file will be applied to a flattened copy (i.e., no Photoshop layers) and opened into Photoshop. Edit a Copy: Does what it promises—opens a copy of the file into Photoshop with all layers preserved (but no Lightroom adjustments are visible). This is useful if you want to take the file in a different direction than the original PSD file. Edit Original: Preserves all the layers but no Lightroom adjustments are visible. This last option is what I use most of the time.

18 [EDIT AS SMART OBJECT]
A fourth option appears in the Photo>Edit In menu: Open as Smart Object in Photoshop. This works well for RAW files where you want to embed the original RAW file within a layered PSD file. Once the file is open in Photoshop, you can double-click on the Smart Object layer thumbnail to open up the Camera Raw dialog. But for a file that already has layers, it doesn’t open up an embedded file with all of the layers preserved, which is how this would function if you made a group of layers into a smart object in Photoshop.

ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Disappearing Act

Let’s face it: no matter how carefully you try to compose your image, in some photos there’s something in the shot that just has to go! In this tutorial, we’ll review some key techniques for removing elements from a photograph using cover-up layers and the new live brush preview for the Clone Stamp in Photoshop CS4.

1 [CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW]
The Clone Stamp and the Healing Brush are both great for retouching and, in some cases, removing smaller objects from an image. But for larger items, especially in areas of more complex detail, you often have to use another approach that involves copying sections of the background onto separate layers. In order for this technique to work, there needs to be enough “extra” background information that can serve as a patch to cover up the unwanted object. Both the Clone Stamp and the Healing Brush can be used to fine-tune rough edges after the main cover-up layers have been created.

2 [SELECT THE AREA TO BE COVERED]
In the image of the girl walking through rain puddles, our goal is to remove the white fence post. It’s a bit distracting and the image will be more pleasing without it. Fortunately, there’s plenty of background that we can use to cover the post. It’s also slightly out of focus, which will make it easier to blend over the post. Use the Lasso tool (L) with a 2-pixel Feather in the Options Bar to drag a loose selection around the fence post. It’s okay to have irregular edges, as this will help camouflage the cover-up. (Note: You can download this image from www.layersmagazine.com.)

3 [MOVE SELECTION TO GOOD DETAIL]
With the Lasso tool still active, click inside the selection, hold the Shift key down, and move the selection over to the left to an area of background detail that will provide good image information for covering up the fence post. The use of the Shift key will constrain the movement of the selection to keep it aligned horizontally with the original position. In some images, such as this one, this is not that critical, but in others it may be important to have precise alignment of the data you’ll be copying.

4 [CREATE THE COVER-UP LAYER]
To create the cover-up layer, choose Layer>New>Layer via Copy, or use the handy shortcut Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J). Select the Move tool (V) and, holding down the Shift key again to constrain the movement horizontally, move the new cover-up layer back to the right until it covers the fence post. So far, so good. Now we need to zoom in for a closer look, adjust the positioning so that the fence wire matches up as well as possible, and touch up other areas with the Clone Stamp or Healing Brush.

5 [FINE-TUNE THE LAYER ALIGNMENT]
Double-click the Zoom tool to view the image at 100% (you can also choose View>Actual Pixels). It’s clear that the fence wire does not line up perfectly in some areas. Make the Move tool active (V), and use the Arrow keys on the keyboard to nudge the layer in 1-pixel increments until the wire mesh is better aligned.

6 [ADD LAYER MASK TO REFINE EDGE]
With the cover-up layer active, click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel (it’s the third icon from the left). Choose the Brush tool (B), press D to set the default colors, and then X to exchange them to place black in the Foreground color swatch. In the Brush Picker in the Options Bar, choose a 45-pixel, soft-edged brush. Double-check to make sure the layer mask is active. Now check for any hard, obvious edges on the cover-up layer and brush over them to add black to those areas of the layer mask and hide or soften those edges.

7 [CHECK FOR REPEATING ELEMENTS]
The cover-up layer is now working quite nicely; however, because we copied a section of the background, we now need to double-check to see if there are noticeable repeating elements. In this case, there are¬ some grass patterns at the base of the fence that are obviously the same in two places. This needs to be retouched to hide the fact that it’s the same chunk of grass. You can choose to retouch either the cover-up layer or the original place from where the data was copied. For this example, let’s retouch the cover-up layer. Click the layer thumbnail to make it active instead of the layer mask.

8 [RETOUCH REPEATED ELEMENTS WITH CLONE STAMP]
Choose the Clone Stamp tool (S), set the Sample drop-down menu to Current & Below in the Options Bar, and Option-click (PC: Alt-click) to sample some of the dark green grass. Now retouch the lighter yellow strands of grass to hide the fact that it’s the same image information as elsewhere in the image. In Photoshop CS4 the Clone Stamp cursor will show you a preview of the data that you’ll be stamping, which makes it very easy to correctly align the data you’re cloning with existing image information. For this photo this is not that critical due to the slightly out-of-focus background.

9 [REMOVE OTHER ELEMENTS]
As a final step you can use the Clone Stamp tool to remove the short white pipe near the upper center of the image. Keep the cover-up layer active so the retouching can be added to this layer and separate from the Background layer. Because the Sample drop-down menu is still set to Current & Below in the Options Bar, you’ll be able to clone the information from the Background layer to the cover-up layer.

10 [SHOOTING TIPS]
So the key is to look for background detail that can be copied onto cover-up layers. When photographing, if you notice something that needs to be taken out, be sure to take extra shots containing good source material that can be used for a cover-up. For wedding group shots, take a shot of the background with no one in front of it. That way you can use it as source material in case someone needs to be removed from the group (hey, it happens!)

ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

If you’d like to download the images used in this tutorial to practice these techniques, visit www.layersmagazine.com and navigate to the Magazine section. All files are for personal use only.

Creating the Source Images

1 OVERVIEW
This technique is for those times when you need extended depth of field in a scene, but for some reason you can’t quite get what you need in a single shot. Now, I know what some photographers might be thinking; just put the camera on a tripod and stop the lens down to the smallest aperture. But sometimes you might not have a tripod. And even with some lenses, stopping all the way down might not get you all the depth of field that you need. The beauty of this feature is that you can take the range of different shots handheld!

2 TAKING THE PHOTOGRAPHS
The exact number of exposures that works best will depend on what lens aperture you’re using, the focal length of the lens, and how deep the scene is in terms of the area that needs to be in focus. For this example, I took six handheld shots using an aperture of f/6.3 on a 100mm macro lens. Shutter speeds ranged from 1/125 to 1/200. I started with the leading edge of the scene in focus and then gradually refocused on different areas moving toward the back. The different parts that I focused on are circled in red.

Batch Apply Adobe Camera Raw Adjustments

1 APPLY ADJUSTMENTS TO ONE IMAGE
If the images need any adjustments in Camera Raw, then you should apply the adjustments to all of the exposures before the Auto-Blend process. Double-click on the first of the files in Bridge to open it in Camera Raw. For these images, I used the White Balance tool, clicking on the white background to set a white balance, and then adjusted the Exposure, as well as a few other settings in the Basic panel, to brighten the image a bit. Then I clicked Done to apply the changes but not open the image.

2 APPLY SAME SETTINGS TO OTHER IMAGES
Now that we’ve adjusted one image, we can quickly apply those same settings to the other five images. Click on the second image and then Shift-click on the last image in the sequence. You should now have five images selected in Bridge. Control-click (PC: Right-click) on one of the thumbnails and from the contextual menu, choose Develop Settings>Previous Conversion (you can also find this same command in the Bridge Edit menu). The Camera Raw settings from the first image will be applied to all of the selected files.

Bring Images Into Photoshop

1 MAKE IMAGES INTO ONE PHOTOSHOP FILE
Now it’s time to bring the images into Photoshop as layers in a single file. Select all six of the thumbnails by clicking on the first one and then Shift-clicking on the last one. Choose Tools>Photoshop>Load Files into Photoshop Layers. When this operation is finished, we’ll have a single file open in Photoshop and each of the original source exposures will be on a separate layer.

2 AUTO-ALIGN LAYER
If you zoom in close and turn off the Eye icon for each layer, starting from the top down, you’ll see that each layer has a different area that’s in focus. You’ll also see the position of the image shift around a bit. Since these images were shot handheld, we need to make sure that they’re properly aligned before we begin the blending process. Click on the top layer and then Shift-click on the bottom layer to select all the layers in the stack. Choose Edit>Auto-Align Layers. Leave the Projection set to Auto and click OK.

3 IT’S TIME FOR THE MAGIC
After Auto-Align Layers is finished, the layers have obviously changed position but when your turn off the Eye icons in order, you’ll see that the actual subject in the photo is much better aligned than at the beginning. Now it’s time for the magic! Make sure that all of the layers are still active in the Layers panel. (If not, select them as we did in the previous step.) From the Edit menu, choose Auto-Blend Layers. Set the Blend method to Stack Images and make sure that Seamless Tones and Colors is checked. Click OK.

4 CHECK OUT THE MASKS
Some pretty intense math is going on under the hood for this process. The size of the image, how many layers have to be blended, the complexity of the blend, and the bit depth will all influence how long it takes. When the process is done, you’ll see that a very precise and intricate layer mask has been added to each layer to create the blend into a single image. Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on one of the mask thumbnails to see the mask view. Click back on a layer thumbnail to return to a view of the image.

5 CROP ANY UNEVEN EDGES
The accuracy of the blended image will vary from scene to scene. The result will be affected by how complex the details are, as well as how many images need to be blended and the depth of the blend. Overall, it’s quite impressive. Even on this still life, with all its intricate, high-frequency detail, the blend is nearly perfect. The only minor glitch is a slight fuzziness at the top of the right-hand lens of the glasses.

The final step is to use the Crop tool (C) to crop off the uneven edges created by Auto-Align.

6 TIPS AND NOTES
Here are some things to consider when shooting for and using the Auto-Blend feature:
• Images for this technique can be shot on a tripod or handheld.
• Sometimes you can get by with fewer shots; it all depends on the type of lens you’re using and the aperture. For this example, I tried using only three exposures but found that the result was more accurate when I used six.
• To ensure accurate layer alignment, always use the Auto-Align layers command before applying Auto-Blend Layers.
• Check for errors at 100% zoom (View>Actual Pixels).

If you’d like to download the image used in this tutorial to practice these techniques, just click here. All files are for personal use only.

Creating New Masks with Color Range

1 OVERVIEW
I recently visited my old junior high school in Boise, Idaho. A new school had replaced it and only the entrance of the original building was left standing. My nostalgic pilgrimage occurred in the late afternoon, shortly before sunset and the edifice was backlit. These challenging lighting conditions meant that in order to get a decent exposure of the wonderful educational graphics over the window, the late afternoon sky would be blown out. We’ll drop in a new sky using the Color Range command and the new Masks panel in CS4. (The new sky has already been placed in the practice file as a separate layer.)

2 ADD A PIXEL MASK
Click on the Building layer in the Layers panel to make sure it’s active. In the Masks panel (Window>Masks), click on the Add a Pixel Mask icon in the top-right corner of the panel (it’s the icon on the left). You’ll see that a layer mask has been added to the Building layer in the Layers panel. Now click on the Color Range button near the bottom of the Masks panel to bring up the Color Range dialog.

3 SAMPLE COLORS WITH EYEDROPPER
In the Color Range dialog, make sure that the Invert box is checked on and the Fuzziness is set to 40. Use the Eyedropper to click on the sky above the building. Most of the white sky is immediately masked, revealing the new sky layer underneath. This is very useful because you can see the mask being created live. In previous versions (and if used apart from the Masks panel in CS4), the result from using Color Range is always a selection, not a mask. Use the plus Eyedropper to click in the lower-left windows to make those areas totally black in the Color Range preview. Click OK.

Fine-tuning with the Masks Panel

1 CONTROL DENSITY OF MASK
The Masks panel offers two dynamic sliders (Density and Feather) that can be adjusted and readjusted at any time. Density controls the black areas in the mask: 100% is total black and anything less than that becomes gray. This functions like an opacity setting for the black areas of the mask. Choosing a lower Density will allow more of the original white sky to show through, and thus minimize the brightness of the new sky layer underneath. In the past, this type of mask editing had to be made using Levels or Curves. For this example, we left Density at 100%.

Mask Density 100% (image on left); Mask Density 50% (image on right)

2 CONTROL FEATHER OF MASK
Feather controls the hardness of the mask edge. In previous versions, this was accomplished by either feathering a selection before you turned it into a mask (not ideal, because you couldn’t see how much feathering you might need) or by using the Gaussian Blur filter on the layer mask. As this is a dynamic control, meaning it can be changed at any time, it’s a welcome masking improvement in CS4. For this example, we need to apply the edge modifications another way, so leave the Feather set to 0 pixels.

Feather = 0 px (on left); Feather = 5 px (on right)

3 THE REFINE MASK DIALOG
There are a few errors on the mask edges in some areas, particularly along the vertical window frames. To fix this, click the Mask Edge button in the lower portion of the Masks panel. The controls in Refine Mask are the same as Refine Edge, but they affect a mask and not a selection, allowing you to see in real time how the edges of an adjustment layer’s mask are affected. If you’re creating a selection that will be used to create a layer mask, apply your edge modifications in the Refine Mask dialog where you have a better view of what’s happening—see next Step.

4 ADJUST SETTINGS IN REFINE MASK
Choose View>Actual Pixels to zoom the image to 100%. In the Refine Mask dialog, click on the Standard preview icon (circled above). This shows the mask as a selection edge, which is totally useless if you’re working on a mask because it obscures the very edges we need to see, so choose Command-H (PC: Ctrl-H) to hide the selection edges. Set the Feather to 0.8 pixels to slightly soften the edge, then set the Contract/Expand slider to –35 to “fit” the mask edge tighter to the building. Finally, set the Contrast to 20 to further fine-tune the edge. Click OK.

Note the difference in the Before (on left) and After (on right)

5 SELECT THE SKY IN THE WINDOWS
The adjustments we made in the Refine Mask dialog did a good job at creating a better fit for the layer mask, but we still need to do some manual touchups. For this photo, we’ll use the Brush tool to fill in areas of bright, specular highlights on the vertical window frame that were initially selected by the Color Range command. Click on the Eye icon at the bottom of the Masks panel to temporarily disable the layer mask. Use the Quick Selection tool (W) and drag across the sky area inside each of the window frames while holding Shift to select those areas.

6 PAINT WHITE ON MASK
Choose Select>Inverse to select everything except those sky areas. In the Layers panel, click on the layer mask to be sure that it’s active and also to enable the mask. Use the Brush tool (B) and paint with white at 100% Opacity. Depending on the selection, you may need to apply further edge feathering.

7 ADD CURVES
As a final touch, I added a Curves adjustment layer that applied a slight contrast boost to the building layer. With the Curves layer active, I clicked the third icon from the left at the bottom of the Adjustments panel to clip the adjustment so that it only affected the building.

ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

If you’d like to download the images used in this tutorial to practice these techniques, just click here. All files are for personal use only.

Fixing a Blown-out Sky

1 ADD A CURVES ADJUSTMENT LAYER
Click the Create New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Curves from the list. In the Curves dialog, click on the Display Detailed Grid icon to display a 10×10 grid. Open the Channel pop-up menu and choose Red. Move the point at the top-right corner down along the right side about one and a half grid boxes. This will add cyan, the opposite of red. Most of the change will affect the lighter areas of the image (the sky). Other tonal regions will be affected, which we’ll fix in a later step.

2 CHANGE THE GREEN CURVE
Now choose Green from the Channel menu. Move the highlight point of the Green channel curve down the right side the same distance as you did with the Red curve. You can also take note of what the Output value was for the Red adjustment and simply enter that for the Output value in the Green curve (in this case, it was 216). Depending on the image, you may also choose to slightly lower the highlight section of the main RGB curve to darken the sky area a bit. Click OK to apply the Curves adjustment layer.

3 MODIFY THE BLEND IF SLIDERS
The sky looks much better, but the rest of the image is also affected by the blue color cast from the Curves layer. Double-click to the right of the layer name in the Layers panel to open the Layer Style dialog. We’ll be working with the Blend If sliders in the lower part of this dialog. Click on the shadow slider (on the left) for This Layer and move it to the right until the first number is at about 140. This prevents the curves adjustment from affecting any tonal value of 140 or lower.

4 SPLIT THE BLEND IF SLIDER
The transition edge of the new sky tone is much too rough and obvious in the lower-left part of the image. To soften this and create a more natural transition, hold down the Option key (PC: Alt key) and click on the shadow slider to split it into two halves. Move the right half until the second number above the sliders reads about 170. This creates a feathering effect: No values below 140 are affected, then they’re gradually affected more until value 170, when the curve affects the image at full strength. Click OK.

5 FINE-TUNE WITH A LAYER MASK
This effect works very well in an image where the sky is lighter than anything else in the shot. On some images, you might need to modify the Curves layer mask if there are areas that are still affected by the blue tone that was added. If you see any areas like this on the back of the boat, press D then X to set your Foreground color to black and use the Brush tool (B) to paint on the layer mask to prevent the blue curves adjustment from affecting those areas.

6 FINE-TUNE THE HORIZON LINE
For this particular image, we painted on the layer mask with a large, soft-edged brush to further fine-tune the horizon line on the left side. Using just the top edge of the brush, we painted with black to slightly fade back the blue effect just above the distant hills. This looks more natural because the sky is often a bit lighter near the horizon than it is higher up. We also lowered the Opacity of the Curves 1 layer to 80%.

7 WRAP UP
For a surprising number of photographs that suffer from a blown-out sky, this effect works remarkably well without having to delve into the intricacies of creating a precise layer mask to control where the sky tone is visible. Just be aware that if any other tonal regions in the image are similar to the blown-out sky, then you’ll have to edit the Curves layer mask.

Using the Blend If Sliders for Split Toning

1 ADD A HUE/SATURATION LAYER
In addition to controlled layer blending for fixing blown-out skies, the Blend If sliders can also approximate a toning effect that’s similar to the Split Toning controls in Lightroom and Camera Raw. Begin with an image that’s in Grayscale mode or that has had a grayscale effect applied. If it’s in Grayscale mode, choose Image>Mode>RGB Color. Choose Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation and click OK. In the Hue/Saturation dialog, turn on the Colorize checkbox, adjust the Hue slider to 38, and the Saturation to 15. This adds a sepia tone to the entire photo. Click OK.

2 CREATE SPLIT TONE WITH BLEND IF SLIDERS
Double-click to the right of the Hue/Saturation layer name in the Layers panel to open the Layer Style dialog. As in Steps 3 and 4 above, move the shadow slider for This Layer to the right, then Option-click (PC: Alt-click) to split the slider to create a softer feathering of the toning effect. The values we used for this example are 120 and 160. This creates a split between the original grayscale tonal values (below 160) and the sepia tone (above 160).

3 ADD A SECOND TONE
To add another tone, add another Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Click the Colorize checkbox and move the Hue slider to find a tone you like (we used a Hue value of 220 and a Saturation of 12 for a cool-blue tone). Click OK and then adjust the Blend If sliders to only apply this tone to the darker areas. Do this by moving the highlight slider (on the right) for This Layer to the left and then split it as shown in the previous steps. Our highlight slider values are 70 and 130 for this image.

ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED