Photo Noob: This is for a few people I know who are newer to editing and are just figuring it all out. This is not the only way to get the results I am after just my normal work flow. Probably the single most powerful and essential tool to good photo editing is layer masks. A layer mask essentially is just an image that is over the top of your image (a white layer mask), or an image underneath image (a black layer mask), or partially integrated into your image (a grey layer mask). Once you have created a layer mask you can paint away the layer mask of expose the layer mask using a paint of the opposing color. (White paints through black, black through white and adding white onto white brings the original image, and black onto black does the same. So if you start off with white on white you will make no changes to your image.) While simple sounding this tool is what makes almost all of the cool Photoshooped images in the webs and gives editors the edge we need to nondestructively edit an image making large changes in a non global way. (global changes change the entire image.) Why would you want to do this? We’ll let’s look at my normal edit of subjects eyes for what I consider a fashion shoot. 1. Using gimp I load my image and make three copies of the image. The copy on the bottom I turn off. (That is going to be neutral picture that does not get touched.) 2. The top image I lighten using curves, levels, or changing the layer type to screen (these are all methods to get the same result and it largely depends on preference as to what you use. I am lazy and usually just change the type to screen.)I then change this into a black layer mask. (This next part will not look good out of the gates and that is ok right now. I am just drawing in the lines we will adjust to our actual settings in a second.) Using a very soft (50% hardness, 100% opacity) brush with white paint I paint over just the eyes. Then I change my brush to a black (which puts the original image back in) and put a dot over just the pupil. I want the pupil to remain as dark as possible so lightening it is counterproductive. Then using the opacity slider at the top of the layer mask I adjust the amount of the top image showing until I am happy with the actual value of light. (If you used screen starting at 35% seems common the other two methods should get you pretty close out of the gates.) Be careful here. A dab will do and too much makes the subject look like something out of Sci Fi. 3. I then merge the layer mask with the layer below it, make two copies, and turn the bottom one off. You should still have two copies on. (Basically we are making bookmarks as we go forward in case we mess up or just don’t like where we get to.) 4. Next I go to the top layer of the two layers I still have active, and and set that layer to “burn” (it is just a different style of light which works well for what we are about to do) I turn this into a black layer mask. I use the same brush as before. I zoom up very close to the eyes. And I paint white just over the top of the catch lights in the eyes to make them pop. I adjust the opacity of my layer mask once again and merge when I am happy with the result. Then I create two copies, turn the bottom layer off. (5 layers at this point. Two active and three bookmarks) 5. There are a couple other things I might do here depending on what I am seeing. I may raise the saturation of just the eye by a bit but making a saturation layer, I may blacken the pupil further using a “multiple” layer, or I may even get creative and draw in a ring light using a black canvas layer all of which I would faithfully turn into a black layer mask and paint onto the eye. For now though let’s just say we have options that are really only limited by our creativity. 6. The final thing I do with an eye is sharpen it. I select my top active layer and apply an unsharp mask to it. I usually just use the default settings. Then I turn that layer into a black layer mask. Using the same white paint brush as before I bring forward the sharpened layer. (On females I usually sharpen the mouth and hair as well. Soft skin on females is good and I may even blur just the skin a little more later on. On guys I like a little more contrast so I may sharpen their entire face and then do a second “soft” sharpening just over the eyes.) You know you are doing this process correctly when people don’t acknowledge that you have worked on the image. Having said that I think we all do entirely too much before we learn to dial it back to an acceptable level. Experiments have fun and no worries
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 02:32:27 +0000
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