Chromatic aberration is a frequent problem in digital photography. This problem occurs when the lens fails to focus all colors to the same point. Sometimes also called color fringing, you may have seen this problem in your photos before as a blue, red, or purple fringe around bright parts of the photo. Chromatic aberration is most common with backlit subjects, around bright highlights like the edges of a window, and other situations with strong or high-key lighting. Although it is more common with cheap lenses, even expensive lenses (like some Canon L series or Nikon pro lenses) can have problems with chromatic aberration.

In this short Photoshop tutorial I will demostrate one technique for removing chromatic aberration. This is especially useful when other methods won’t work.

Since I switched to digital five years ago I am shooting more photographs than ever before. Keeping those photos organized, editing the goods ones, and getting rid of the bad ones takes time.It has taken me years to develop my workflow and there is still room for improvement. Developing your own workflow as a photographer is one of the best ways to increase your productivity and turn-around time, cut the time you spend editing, and spend more time shooting.

1. The first thing I do after getting home from a shoot is take a shower and change my clothes. Usually I am pretty dirty after a long day shooting, so this is a good thing. Next I insert my memory card(s) into a USB card reader and import all of my photos into my Lightroom catalog.  I import the photos with the following custom settings…
• File Handling: Move photos to new location and add to catalog
• Organize photos into folders by date (ie. 2009/2009-03-01)
• Rename photos by date with a number sequence (ie.2009-03-01_001.NEF)
• Embed custom metadata which includes my copyright, name, email, and web site. This metadata will be added to every file I import or export, so every JPG I send out can be traced back to me. This is important for helping protect my copyright.
• Finally, I choose to have Lightroom render high resolution previews so I can easily and quickly zoom in and out without having to wait for Lightroom to render a new preview. This makes reviewing my shots much faster.

Introduction

I recently ran across this Russell Brown PhotoShop tutorial wherein he presents a technique to make what he calls a Faux HDR image. This doesn’t really have much to do with HDR other than taking a single image and giving it a surrealistic, over-the-top, tone-mapped HDR look. It does not take a scene and get more dynamic range out of it as is typical with HDR. It does take a scene with a compressed dynamic range and expands it to make it brighter while at the same time it boosts color brightness and saturation. You can go watch the video here or, if you’re like me and aren’t a fan of video tutorials, you can read about it below.

Best types of images

This technique works best on images that are not blown out but where the detail is tightly compressed. Typically this happens when a scene is exposed for a bright section, so it’s not over exposed, but has lots of dark areas causing important detail to be hidden in the shadows. For the purposes of this tutorial, I’ll be using this example image I took on a recent Photowalking Utah event.

As you can see from the histogram, this image has a large bump on the left and a smaller bump on the right indicating a lot of dark and light areas whereas the middle area does not have much going on. The dark areas are not underexposed nor are the light areas overexposed. This can be seen by the two triangles in the top left and right corners. The one on the left will change color when there are details lost in the shadows and the one on the right when the brightest areas are overexposed.

For comparison, here is a similar image that does not work well. It is exposed for the darker areas as evidenced by the wider and smoother bump on the left side. Unfortunately, this causes the highlights to be overexposed and the cloud detail to be lost as seen by the sharp spike on the very left side.

In Camera Raw

The majority of the work will be done in Camera Raw, prior to going into PhotoShop. First, open your image and verify there are no blown out details. As intimated earlier, look on the histogram for images without spikes going off either edge. If you click on the triangles at the top right and left corners of the histogram, Camera Raw will change all the overexposed sections to red and the underexposed sections to blue as a means of highlighting the areas that have lost detail.

Now to get into the main changes. We’re going to be manipulating primarily the Exposure, Recovery, Fill Light, Blacks, Clarity and Vibrance sliders. We’ll start at the top of the list and work our way down. When we get to the bottom, we’ll evaluate the image and possibly go back to the top to make some fine tuning adjustments.

Exposure

The exposure will typically need to be adjusted. If on the histogram, the dark area is larger, such as on this example image, then typically the exposure will need to be increased. On the other hand, if the bright area is larger, then it’ll need to be decreased. On this image, if I increase it at all I’ll start blowing out details in the bright areas, so for now I’ll leave it at 0.

Recovery

Recovery pulls the brighter parts of the image down and gives us some headroom on the right side of the histogram to additional changes. This technique typically works best with this set the maximum, so that’s where I’ll put it for now.

Fill Light

Fill Light brightens the dark areas without blowing out the highlights. Again, the images that work best with this technique usually like this set to the maximum.

Now that we’re about half-way through this first part, we can see our image is quite a bit brighter, but has sort of a flat appearance to it.

We can see in the histogram the data is spread apart rather than being bunched up on the two sides. The remaining steps in this section will help give the image some more depth.

Blacks

Now to get rid of that flat look, we’re going to increase the Blacks slider. Adjust it so the dark regions are just starting to clip, as indicated by the blue highlights that Camera Raw shows us. For this image, a value around 40 works well.

Clarity and Vibrance

To get that surrealistic look characteristic of overly tone-mapped HDR images, we’re now going to slide both the Clarity and Vibrance sliders all the way to their maximum values.

Fine tune adjustments

Now that we have all the basic adjustments done, we need to evaluate where we are. At this point, this image is still pretty dark. To lighten it, I go back to the Exposure slider and find I can now push it quite a bit. In fact, I can increase the exposure by 2.5 stops without clipping. If I increase it more, then I start blowing out my sky which I don’t want to do. By leaving detail in the sky, even though it’s not too visible at this point, I’ll have something to work with later to improve it.

Now we’re done with the controls on the first panel.

The next step is to do some adjustments on individual colors. To do this we go to the HSL / Grayscale tab.

And once there, we click on the Luminance tab.

These controls allow us to change the brightness levels of various color groups. What we change and the amount we change it will vary from image to image. On this image, I find that decreasing the Blues and increasing the Purples significantly helps my sky. Based on this discovery, I go over to the Hue tab and find I can help the sky some more by sliding the Purples and Oranges over to the right to around 65. This brings out the colors in the sky and flowers even more. This is an area where experimentation on each image can yield dramatic results.

If you so desire, you can crop the image and apply a vignette. The cropping tool in the top toolbar works well to remove those parts of the image you don’t want and the vignette control on the Lens Correction tab allows you to highlight the center of the image. I choose not to do that on this particular one.

Open in Photoshop

We’re now done with our edits in Camera Raw. Just prior to opening the image, make sure the color depth is set correctly and smart objects is enabled. To do this, click on the label that is centered at the bottom of the Camera Raw screen containing information about the color mode, bit depth, image size and resolution. This will open a dialog. Make sure the Depth is set to 16 bits/channel and the checkbox for smart objects at the bottom is checked. Close the dialog and then click the Open Object button. Doing this will ensure there is no loss of color information in the transfer to Photoshop and the background will be configured as a smart object so edits will be non-destructive.

There are many things that can be done to the image at this point. One of the more common ones for this type of image is to adjust the Shadows and Highlights found on the Image / Adjustments menu. Quite often this type of image can be further enhanced by selectively adjusting contrast in different regions of the picture. I found on this particular one this didn’t help, but it has on others.

Sharpening is another thing that typically enhances most images. The use of either Smart sharpen… on the Filter / Sharpen menu or my High-pass sharpening action can be used. The Smart sharpen tool can give a very edgy look by pushing the controls to high values. My action will give a less edgy look.

After some tweaks to the sky, this is my final version of this image.

And here are a couple of other images processed with this technique.

Summary

In closing, here is an outline of the steps covered above.

Camera Raw
1. Exposure: over or under as dictated by image.
2. Recovery: typically 100%
3. Fill Light: typically 100%
4. Blacks: typically 30-50%
5. Clarity: typically 100%
6. Vibrance: typically 100%
7. HSL / Luminance: as needed for image

Photoshop
1. Image / Adjustments / Shadows and Highlights: as needed
2. Filter / Sharpen / Smart sharpen: as needed
3. Anything else: as desired

(Source: Hooked on Light)

Its amazing what you can do with some simple household items in the photography world. Product photography is a great avenue to explore the usefulness of these items. With product photography, you subject matter can be set up in a controlled environment; the ideal place to try out new lighting techniques and gear.

Finished bike photograph.

Today we’ll discuss what went in to producing a shot of my old mountain bike. In addition to the final shot you’ll see a lighting setup shot that you may refer to as you read through the article. To start things out, take a basic assessment of your shooting environment. In this case I was utilizing my living room. Any room with enough space for you to work can be made to function as a makeshift studio.

I also knew that I would be achieving the shot with artificial light from camera flashes; this saves me from having to spend time worrying about the amount/quality of the ambient light. With a space picked out you can begin to set up your shooting environment. The key to this shot lies in a common household item: bedsheets. There are two in this shot. First is a plain black sheet anchored to the bookshelf behind the bike and allowed to gently slope down to the floor. A second plain white sheet was anchored to the ceiling and stretched out above the black background anchored to a pair of lightstands. This white sheet forms a sort of awning over the area where our subject will be placed.

The purpose of this white sheet is diffusion. The white fabric will transmit light through it, but it the process it will spread out, or diffuse, the light we use. Diffused light equals soft light. Soft light equals flattering light that will illuminate our subject evenly and avoid bright reflective hotspots on the metal bike frame. As far as the camera is concerned, the sheet becomes one giant light source even though we may actually be firing multiple lights through it.

Our sheet set up, two softboxed Alienbees strobes go up on stands. Placed up high and angled down, these two lights pass through the large white sheet to illuminate the bike below. You might ask why use the softboxes if the bedsheet is diffusing the light for us? Double diffusion baby. The softboxes give the light some direction to keep from shooting unwanted spill everywhere, but they also provide their own soft light which will make the final output through the sheet even better for our subject.

Lights up, its time to bring the subject in. With the bike positioned on our black background, position your big lights where you think appropriate and shoot some test shots. Play with aperture and power levels of your strobes to get the desired amount of light on the subject. The final lighting issue on the bicycle was the seat. The black seat on a black background disappeared into nothing. To solved it I placed a small hotshoe camera flash with a narrow grid on it directly above and behind the bike (but below the big white diffusing sheet). The flash provides a little kiss of light to the top edge of the bike seat and the spot grid prevents the light from spilling to other areas.

The final problem with this shot was the limitation of space in my room. My black bedsheet background was almost too small to accommodate the bike on it and when shot with a wide angle lens, I was left with a lot of distracting background elements in the completed picture. In photoshop I painted out the unwanted background images leaving me with a simple, clean, black environment for my finished bicycle shot.

Nikon D300, 70-200mm f/2.8, SB-80DX camera right and high on 1/2 power, second SB-80DX through beauty dish on-axis at 1/16 power, third SB-80DX camera left and behind as rim light.

This week we’ll be taking a look at a little lighting technique for opening up harsh shadows in portraiture. Directional light (like off camera flash) is almost always more visually interesting but can often create a problem of very dark areas on your subject’s face. This may be desirable in some situations but usually you will want to bring some detail back into those areas.

To understand what on-axis fill flash is, let’s break the term down. On-axis refers to the lens axis in relation to your subject. The pop up flash on your camera is an excellent example of a flash that is on the same axis as your camera lens. You’ve no doubt noticed that if you use an on-axis flash like your pop-up as your primary light source you are left with a photograph that often appears flat and is prone to red eye. But an on-axis flash used to simply inform a little more detail into your subject can work wonders. Here’s how:

This technique assumes a few things from get go: you are comfortable with your camera and shooting with flash off camera. You will need 2 camera flashes for this technique to work properly, however your camera’s pop up can act as this second light source.

For the shot in this article I used my D300 with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, and 2 old Nikon SB-80DX flashes. My old flashes only operate in manual power setting modes, but you could accomplish this same look with fancier flashes and Nikon’s Creative Lighting System, or Canon’s infrared flash triggering system.

The first light went on a Manfrotto light stand with a 43 inch Westcott shoot-thru umbrella. I placed the light slightly camera right of the subject and above him, so the light came down from above which can cause harse shadows in the eye sockets of your subject.  This is where on-axis fill can step in and save your day. My second SB-80DX was placed on another light stand and fired through my homemade beauty dish (learn how to make your own here: http://tinyurl.com/65mz3a). The flash-beauty dish combo was positioned immediately below my lens.

The real key with this on-axis fill stuff is to mind your power ratios. Whether you set your flash powers manually or with some fancy remote system its important not to overdo it. The umbrella-ed light from up high is our primary light (read: key light) and we want it to stay that way. So with our key light at a 1/2 power setting we dial in a power on the fill light that is several stops under our key. If memory serves the on-axis fill for this shot was on 1/16 power; just enough to bring some detail into the shadows of his face and especially to bring a little light into his eyes.

If you find yourself minus a second speedlight you can replace it with your camera’s built-in flash, simply bring the power level down to keep from competing with your key light. You could also use a ringflash unit to get some truly on-axis fill, however these units tend to be expensive.

The observant among you will notice that this shot has one additional light source. Once I had my two light key/fill combo working well I placed a third SB-80DX on the book shelf behind and camera left of my subject. On minimum power the third light placed a nice little separation light on the left side of Max’s face completing the shot.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this little look into flash photography, hit the comments with questions and if you decide to try this technique out be sure to add your shots to the Pixels Photo Pool on Flickr.

I’ve always wanted to be able to take high speed photographs, you know, those amazing shots of strawberries exploring or water balloons rupturing. Photographer Karsten Stroemvig writes, “[f]reezing fast motion (aka High Speed Photography), can give some pretty special photographic effects. High Speed Photography is used in physics, health research, sports and more. This guide describes how to capture super fast movements using ordinary camera gear and a little home made electronics. I will describe the setup I used the problems I encountered and what I did to solve or work around them.” Continue reading his article on DIY – High Speed Photography at Home.

Welcome to part two of our introductory look into Photoshop actions. Last time we covered the basics of what an action is, how to run one, and how to make one. Today we’ll start with a look at a few more features within the Actions Palette in Photoshop.

Once again, the Actions Palette is located up under the Window menu across the top of the program. If it isn’t already open, pull it up and bring up a list of some actions. You’ll notice two little check box-like things next to each action name that we didn’t discuss last time. The left box toggles a particular action on or off. Alternatively, clicking the arrow next to an action’s name shows all the steps contained within and you can toggle individual steps on or off as desired.

The right check box toggles dialogues on or off. Turning dialogues on will pop up any prompts required as Photoshop runs through an action. This will require user input to run through an action; you will have to hit okay at each dialogue window that appears. This is handy if you want to make slight deviations from an action’s default behavior or simply want to see what a particular action is doing. Leaving this box unchecked will not display dialogues and Photoshop will run the selected action on autopilot.

Also in the Actions Palette, if you expand a particular action to view its contents, you may select individual steps and delete them as needed. This is especially useful if you make a mistake while recording and want to remove the unwanted step; simply hitting undo while recording an action will result in the action recording the undo command.

One of the most exciting things about actions is the ability to download user created actions and load them into Photoshop. A simple Google search for actions will return thousands of results, some good, some bad. When you’ve found an action that you want to try, download it to a convenient place on your computer. Open Photoshop and pull up your Actions Palette once again. The upper right of the palette will have a drop down menu with the option to “Load Actions.” Simply navigate to where you saved the new action(s), select them, and they will appear in the palette ready for use.

Finally, actions can be applied to a whole group of photos by tapping into Photoshop’s batch processing capabilities. The batch feature is accessed under the File menu under the Automate heading. Select Batch and the batch processing window appears. From here you can select a desired action and specify how Photoshop should deal with saving the newly processed files. Let it go, grab a sandwich, and come back to a completed group of photos.

This concludes our look into actions in Photoshop. Hit the comments on either article with questions and start exploring the potential with these powerful tools.

Ever wish you could record a set of Photoshop commands and repeat them at a later time? Welcome to the world of Photoshop actions. So what is an action?

An action is a recorded set of image editing commands that can be performed at a later time without having to re-enter each change manually. Actions can provide a handy way for editors to speed up commonly used tasks and are compatible with the Batch function in Photoshop (allowing you to automatically apply commands to hundreds of images with only a few keystrokes).

Like most features in Photoshop, actions have their own palette within the program. Palettes are located along the right side of the Photoshop interface, but their configuration will change from user to user. Thankfully all palettes are located within the Window menu located on the top of the program. Remember, if you ever lose a palette you can ALWAYS find it in that handy Window menu.

Selecting “Action” out of the Window menu will open up the Action Palette if it is not already out.  With it you will see folders with actions grouped into them. Folders are simply a way to organize actions as you see fit. You should see a folder named Default Actions that are included in the program when you install it. An action will have a little arrow to the left of its name that when clicked will display, or hide, all the commands contained within. To run an action simply highlight its name and either double click or select the Play button from the bottom of the palette. Feel free to try to some of the default actions out and get a feel for how they work, but the real power here is the ability to make your own.

Making a new action is a straightforward process: begin by selecting the new icon from bottom of the palette (the one that looks like a little sheet of paper). A command box will immediately open allowing you to name the action, organize it into one of the folders, and optionally assign the action to a keystroke. When you’ve configured this box how you want hit the Record button and your shiny new action will be created. You’ll see your new action highlighted in the palette and the red record button active along the bottom of the palette.

Now its time to enter some commands. These can be whatever you want, contrast adjustments, color tweaks, sizing changes, etc. Since your new action is currently recording, anything you do in Photoshop is going to be logged into the action. Start with something simple, maybe only a command or two to get an idea of how this process works. When you’ve done your editing hit the stop button next to that red record button along the bottom of the Actions palette. Your action is no longer recording and you are ready to test it out. Open a new image and highlight your action and press the play button. The same commands you just recorded will be applied to this new image exactly as you performed them the first time. Cool huh?

By now you should start to see the potential for how you can tap into the power of Actions in Photoshop. Tune in next time for a look into more advanced features of actions.

Photo by Sam Scholes

“Layer masks are one of Adobe Photoshop’s most powerful, yet least understood features. In this tutorial, I’ll demystify layer masks by highlighting the benefits of incorporating layer masks into your image correction workflow and demonstrating the use of these tools in common, real-world situations. This tutorial is designed for photographers who are comfortable working with layers in Photoshop and have at least a basic familiarity with Photoshop’s painting and drawing tools, including the Marquee selection tools, the Brush and Gradient tools.” Continue reading Harnessing the Power of Layer Masks.

I love old family photos! They are like little windows into the past, as if you jumped into a time machine and rewound the clock. Unfortunately old family photos are often damaged over time, scratched, spilled on, and just out right mistreated. In this Photoshop tutorial I show you how to restore your old family photos using multiple techniques.