Digital_Photography_Workflow_Handbook_-_DOP2000_-_2004.pdf

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Contents
1 introduction............................................................................................13
1.1 Introduction to the Digital Photography Workflow...................................14
1.2 How to use this book / how this book is organized..................................15
1.3 Using PCs and Macs...............................................................................16
1.4 Computer configuration...........................................................................17
1.5 What are Raw files..................................................................................18
1.5.1 The raw file advantage?.............................................................18
1.5.2 Color Aliasing / Moirés...............................................................24
1.6 What about only using JPEG and not raw?.............................................25
1.7 Capturing photos in the field....................................................................27
1.7.1 Optimize exposure using your camera’s histogram...................27
1.7.2 Color channel clipping................................................................28
1.7.3 Correct white balance (WB) for optimal color quality.................30
1.7.4 Understand objective and subjective white balance...................31
1.7.5 Adjust your camera’s sensitivity: selecting the right ISO............31
1.8 Workflow Overview..................................................................................31
1.8.1 Principle Workflow Steps (The “What”)......................................32
1.8.2 Essential Digital Image Processing Knowledge (The “How”).....33
1.8.3 Advanced Digital Image Processing Knowledge........................34
1.9 Camera to computer: enter the digital darkroom.....................................35
1.9.1 Manage your image storage.......................................................35
1.9.2 Computer transfer and organizing your photos..........................35
1.10 Securing your valuable photos: Backup..................................................39
1.11 The digital negative/slide.........................................................................39
1.12 The digital light table...............................................................................40
1.12.1 Image previews with the Photoshop CS File Browser..............40
1.12.2 Image previews with the Capture One DSLR (C1)...................41
1.12.3 Image previews with ThumbsPlus (PC only)...........................43
2 Digital Darkroom Basics........................................................................44
2.1 Don’t be afraid of Photoshop...................................................................45
2.2 Understand the different Color Modes....................................................45
2.2.1 RGB color mode.........................................................................45
2.2.2 LAB color mode..........................................................................46

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2.2.3 CMYK color mode......................................................................46
2.2.4 Grayscale Mode.........................................................................47
2.3 Introduction to Color management..........................................................47
2.3.1 Why you need to understand color management.......................47
2.3.2 Color working spaces.................................................................52
2.3.3 Profiles for devices.....................................................................53
2.3.4 Photoshop color and monitor profile settings.............................54
2.4 Browse your photos.................................................................................57
2.4.1 Opening files by dropping them onto Photoshop.......................57
2.5 Simple image rotation..............................................................................58
2.6 Inspecting your image.............................................................................58
2.7 Know the difference between 8 and 16 bit per channel data..................60
2.7.1 Why use 16 bits per channel?....................................................60
2.8 Control image size and PPI.....................................................................63
2.8.1 Pixel dimensions........................................................................63
2.8.2 Document size............................................................................63
2.8.3 Scaling and resizing...................................................................64
2.8.4 Changing PPI.............................................................................64
2.8.5 Upsizing images.........................................................................65
2.9 select the right image file formats............................................................67
2.9.1 TIFF............................................................................................67
2.9.2 JPEG..........................................................................................67
2.9.3 JPEG 2000.................................................................................68
2.9.4 Photoshop PSD..........................................................................68
2.10 File Info and History................................................................................69
2.10.1 File Info.....................................................................................69
2.10.2 File History...............................................................................69
2.11 dynamic range, contrast AND BRIGHTNESS.........................................72
2.11.1 Improve your image with levels................................................72
2.11.2 Gain more flexibility using Curves............................................74
2.11.3 Photoshop CS Shadow/Highlight tool ......................................77
2.12 The art of sharpening..............................................................................80
2.12.1 USM (Unsharp Mask)...............................................................80
2.12.2 How Photoshop Unsharp Mask works.....................................80
2.12.3 The two step approach.............................................................83

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2.12.4 Sharpening Tools.....................................................................84
2.13 Improving Colors.....................................................................................85
2.13.1 Achieving white balance in your images..................................85
2.13.2 Photoshop Hue/Saturation tool ................................................89
2.13.3 Photoshop CS Photo Filter.......................................................92
2.13.4 A note on Saturation.................................................................93
2.14 Making Selections...................................................................................94
2.14.1 Marquee tool ............................................................................94
2.14.2 Adding and subtracting Selections...........................................94
2.14.3 Lasso tool.................................................................................95
2.14.4 Magic Wand tool.......................................................................96
2.14.5 Color Range.............................................................................97
2.14.6 Feather Selections...................................................................97
2.14.7 Invert Selections.......................................................................98
2.14.8 Selection Borders.....................................................................98
2.14.9 Saving and loading Selections.................................................98
2.15 Clean up images with Healing Brush and Patch tool ............................101
2.15.1 Retouching dust spots............................................................101
2.15.2 Patch tool...............................................................................102
2.15.3 Using Selection with the Healing Brusch................................104
2.16 Improve your workflow with Actions......................................................106
2.16.1 Your first Action......................................................................107
2.16.2 Open dialogs inside Actions...................................................108
2.16.3 Saving and loading Action Sets..............................................109
2.16.4 Adding new steps to your Action............................................109
2.16.5 Rearranging and deleting steps in Actions.............................109
2.16.6 Change the settings for a single step.....................................110
2.17 The power of Photoshop History...........................................................111
2.17.1 Snapshots..............................................................................112
2.17.2 Purge History..........................................................................112
3 Using Raw Converters.........................................................................113
3.1 The RAW Workflow...............................................................................114
3.2 Principle Workflow Steps.......................................................................115
3.2.1 RAW Converter Responsibilities..............................................115
3.2.2 RAW Converter Essentials.......................................................117

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3.2.3 Other important Features.........................................................121
3.2.4 Some MORE useful features....................................................123
3.3 Adobe Camera Raw 2.0 (ACR).............................................................125
3.3.1 Integration into the Photoshop CS File Browser.....................127
3.3.2 Camera Raw 2.0 User Interface Overview...............................128
3.3.3 Advanced File Browser integration...........................................146
3.4 Phase One’s Capture One DSLR (C1)..................................................149
3.4.1 Setup........................................................................................150
3.4.2 Raw file browser.......................................................................152
3.4.3 Image Processing.....................................................................153
3.5 Nikon Capture.......................................................................................160
3.5.1 Setup........................................................................................161
3.5.2 Main Features..........................................................................163
3.5.3 White Balance (WB).................................................................166
3.5.4 Save and load settings.............................................................167
4 Using Photoshop Layers.....................................................................168
4.1 Understanding the Layers palette.........................................................170
4.2 Your first layer.......................................................................................173
4.2.1 Changing opacity......................................................................174
4.2.2 Understand Blending modes....................................................175
4.3 Fine tuning with Adjustment Layers......................................................177
4.4 Work selective with Layer Masks..........................................................179
4.4.1 Understanding Layer Masks.....................................................181
4.5 Flatten images and merging layers.......................................................181
4.5.1 Flatten image............................................................................181
4.5.2 Merging Layers.........................................................................182
4.6 Apply actions and filters in new layers..................................................184
4.7 Smart cropping......................................................................................186
4.7.1 Using the Crop tool...................................................................186
4.8 Minimize S-Curve side effects...............................................................192
4.9 How to remove moirés..........................................................................195
4.10 Use Auto Colors to tune contrast..........................................................197
4.11 Optimize layers with Advanced Blending options..................................203
4.12 Dodge and burn using Layers...............................................................205

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5 Basic Digital Workflow........................................................................209
5.1 Pre raw conversion steps......................................................................210
5.1.1 Capturing photos in the field.....................................................210
5.1.2 Transfer images to you computer.............................................211
5.1.3 Backup your images.................................................................212
5.1.4 Preview Images........................................................................212
5.2 RAW conversion phase (not for JPEGs)...............................................214
5.3 Processing after the raw conversion.....................................................215
5.3.1 Removing Noise.......................................................................215
5.3.2 Remove moiré or aliasing artifacts...........................................216
5.3.3 Crop Now, if You Need To Save Some Time...........................216
5.4 Improving and Retouching using Photoshop Layers.............................217
5.4.1 Improve Levels.........................................................................217
5.4.2 Remove Colorcast (WB)...........................................................217
5.4.3 Improve exposure with the Photoshop CS Shadow/Highlight tool218
5.4.4 Recovering Shadow Detail.......................................................218
5.4.5 Improve Contrast using S-Curves in a Curves Adjustment Layer218
5.4.6 Correcting Brightness with Curves...........................................220
5.4.7 Improve Saturation...................................................................221
5.4.8 Selective Color Corrections......................................................221
5.4.9 Retouching and removing dust spots.......................................222
5.4.10 Perspective Correction...........................................................222
5.4.11 Lens Correction......................................................................223
5.4.12 Sharpening.............................................................................224
5.4.13 Save the Result AS A layered 16Bit Master PSD or TIFF......224
5.4.14 Printing & Publishing..............................................................224
5.4.15 Archiving.................................................................................224
6 Advanced Photoshop Workflow Techniques....................................225
6.1 Selective saturation improvements.......................................................226
6.2 More Saturation and Contrast Tricks.....................................................231
6.3 Digital Perspective Corrections.............................................................240
6.4 Refined Perspective correction.............................................................242
6.5 Correct your Lens Distortions................................................................246
6.6 Handle Blue Shadow Casts...................................................................248
6.7 Using Luminosity masks........................................................................256

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6.7.1 Sample session with luminosity mask......................................256
6.8 Contrast Masking..................................................................................262
6.9 Refine your image with Painting Techniques........................................267
6.9.1 Painting using Layer Masks.....................................................267
6.10 Gain higher Resolution through Stitching..............................................271
6.11 Stitching in Photoshop CS.....................................................................272
6.12 Advanced sharpening with layers..........................................................280
6.12.1 Advanced sharpening tricks...................................................281
6.13 Adding some digital “sun”......................................................................293
6.14 Brushing off your noise..........................................................................297
6.15 Reduce Chromatic Aberration (CA).......................................................300
7 Useful Photoshop Tools......................................................................304
7.1 iCorrect Editlab: Controlling color cast..................................................305
7.2 Overview on third party sharpening tools..............................................305
7.2.1 Nik Sharpener..........................................................................305
7.2.2 Fred Miranda’s Sharpening Plug-ins........................................306
7.2.3 FocalBlade...............................................................................306
7.2.4 Photokit SHARPENER.............................................................306
7.3 Color Mechanic: Selective Color Correction..........................................307
7.4 Remove the Noise and Keep the Detail................................................307
7.4.1 Neat Image...............................................................................307
7.4.2 Noise Ninja...............................................................................307
7.4.3 Fred Miranda’s Noise Removal plug-ins..................................308
7.5 Fred Miranda’s Photoshop Tools..........................................................308
7.6 Pixel Genius..........................................................................................308
7.7 Nik Multimedia.......................................................................................308
7.8 Powerretouche......................................................................................308
8 Printing & Publishing...........................................................................309
8.1 Lightjet Printing......................................................................................310
8.2 Inkjet Printing.........................................................................................311
8.2.1 Note on Metamerism................................................................311
8.3 Setup for Epson Printers and use with Photoshop................................313
8.3.1 Setup the Epson Drivers..........................................................313
8.3.2 Printing in Photoshop...............................................................315

8.4 Upsizing.................................................................................................316
8.5 Other Printing Applications....................................................................317
8.5.1 ImagePrint RIP (Mac and PC)..................................................317
8.5.2 Qimage (PC only).....................................................................318
8.6 Present your Photos on the Web..........................................................320
9 Creating B&W Photos from Color Images.........................................325
9.1 Turn Color Images into B&W.................................................................326
9.2 B&W using Channel Mixer....................................................................327
9.3 Advanced B&W conversion...................................................................331
9.4 B&W using a Photoshop Plug-in...........................................................336
9.5 Colorizing your images..........................................................................341
9.6 B&W Workflow with ARC and C1.........................................................345
9.6.1 Color Conversion techniques...................................................345
9.6.2 B&W with ARC 2.0...................................................................346
9.6.3 B&W with Capture One DSLR..................................................349
10 Backup and Archive Your Images......................................................355
10.1 Backup..................................................................................................356
10.1.1 What do you need to backup?...............................................356
10.1.2 Backup media.........................................................................356
10.1.3 Backup Storage......................................................................357
10.1.4 A note on Raw Files...............................................................357
10.2 Archiving................................................................................................358
10.2.1 ThumbsPlus Pro (PC only).....................................................358
REFERENCES.................................................................................................360