Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________. Art 114 Textbook Assignment Anatomy and Process Copyright 2003 Kenji Tachibana

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Art 114 Textbook Lab Work 28 of 16 Step 1 - Levels  Start by selecting the Auto button. It works well for most images  If the improvement goes “overboard”, just lower the adjustment from 100% (Fill) to a lower number. Step 2 – Brightness/Contrast  Don’t try to make it perfect with the step 1 change  Brighten dark image by +3 to +9 adjustments  Darken light image by -3 to -9 adjustments  The usual Contrast change ranges from -9 to +9 Step 3 – Color balance  Look for white, gray, or skin tone  Neutral – go for this most of the time  Warm – sometimes good for skin tone  Cool – sometimes good for scenery …

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop – Example Camera Original: This is an un-touched camera original, the ‘negative’. This is a close representation of what I saw but it’s not what I experienced… I only shoot images which strikes me as special, something that has visual energy.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab – Step 1 Levels Adjustment: I applied the simplest Levels adjustment which was Auto. Compare this Auto adjusted image with the previous ‘camera original’ by using the keyboard Up and Down arrow keys. Notice that it gains a little in ‘Contrast’ and becomes cooler reflecting the original overcast lighting.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab – Step 2 Brightness/Contrast The Contrast was further increased and the Brightness was decreased for a punchier look. This step change happens to be more dramatic. Although, the Step 1 change is usually the more dramatic. Flip-compare this image with the previous 2 images by using the keyboard Up and Down arrow keys…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab – Step 3 Color Adjustment: I warmed up the image to look more like the camera original, the negative. The cooler image is more accurate but the warmer image appeals to my sense- of-rightness. Translate the scene based on your story, aesthetics, and your sense-of-rightness.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab Digital Magic All the changes that you saw were ‘filter’ affects. Turn off the filters to get back to the camera original image. This can only happen in the digital realm. The ‘non-destructive layer adjustments’ are a new feature introduced in Photoshop version 7. It’s now at version 10 with the product name CS3, which stands for Creative Suite 3.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab: Beyond the Basics Better Telling the Story 1.Spotting – eliminate light and dark spots in an image. 2.Dodging – lighten an area for detail. 3.Burning – darken an area for depth. 4.Retouching - image alteration as needed.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab: Burn Darken for Depth: The top and the top right corner was burned-down to increase the illusion of depth in the image and to make the focal point stand out. Darken here... here… and Darken here... here… and here too.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab: Retouch Retouch: This is an image with an extremely high dynamic range that’s also suffering from a barrel distortion caused by the wide angle focal length. Barrel distortion is common to extreme and standard wide angle lens in compact digitals and DSLR kit lenses.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab: EXIF Metadata: Image facts & decisions Shutter:1/1000 sec – extreme speed based the fact that my body was shivering. I wasn’t prepared for below freezing temperature and high winds. Aperture:f/4.0 - deep enough dof for the scene. Lens:6mm maximum wide angle field of view. Accepted the optical barrel distortion which bowed the horizon line. WB:Daylight – custom setting to match the lighting condition. Bias:“0” – accepted the idea that the highlight areas would get blown-out (washed-out). Contrast:Hard – counter intuitive decilsion because of the extremely high dynamic range. I made the decision based on my story need to capture the green glow in the wave.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab: Reference Image Before: Optical barrel distortion blown out highlight

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab: Comparison Image After:

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab: Recap Reminder: Most digital camera images will require Photoshop basic processing. Important guide to lab work is your own internal image and story requirement. My Story – I am guided by my inner desire to add the appearance of depth, space, and color vibrancy without looking fake. And to present a simple but punchy visual story.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab: HDR High Dynamic Range: HDR HDR issues commonly afflict direct sunlight shots. The extreme contrast range causes the image to lose highlight and/or shadow detail. One technique of dealing with HDR is to under expose to retain the highlight detail and bring up the shadow detail in Photoshop using ‘Image > Adjustment >Shadow/Highlight…’. The powerful adjustment was added to Photoshop with CS1. Although, it’s not a simple one-button-press solution.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab: HDR Better Solution: In the camera Photoshop lab fix is great but I would rather have the fix earlier. Sony designed their HDR fix into their ‘Camera of the Year’ DSLR Alpha A100. And that same technology migrated down to their superzoom digital H-7 and H-9. Except for the missing RAW image processing option, I highly recommend all the Sony H series superzoom compact digital cameras.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab: Change Inevitable: Change I started my digital photography career using Nikon Coolpix prosumer compact digitals. Their ED glass lens offered amazing resolution. And the focal length range was a very good 4X covering from 28 to 118mm. It also offered RAW image file option. Form there, I moved to the Olympus Optio MX4 and then to the Sony H series. My current favorite is Panasonic’s latest DMC-FZ18 which has an 18x optical zoom range covering from 28 – 504mm with a tight aperture range from f/2.8 to f/4.6. I finally have the RAW image file option again.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Photoshop Lab: Reservation Inevitable: Reservations I would not have purchased the Panasonic DMC-FZ18 if it didn’t have the RAW capability. Without the RAW, the Panasonic images tend to be flat and somewhat grainy looking. Using the RAW format bypassed Panasonic ‘Venus’ engine which tend to over process the digital image. I process the RAW image data myself in Panasonic’s SLKYPIX Developer application. This way, I get to take advantage of the extremely high resolution Leica lens.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Class Manual Lab Work 7 of 16 P hotoshop: Digital miracles 1.Layers. 2.Adjustable Layer transparency control. 3.Nondestructive image adjustment filter Layers. 4.Adjustable and changeable layer Masks. 5.Selection Tools – multiple types. 6.Image and mask Selection with feathering (soft edge) control. 19

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Class Manual Lab Work 8 of 16 P hotoshop: Required lab work Make the following ‘processing adjustments’ to all assignment image files after the mid-term. And do so in the precise order listed below: 1.Levels – Auto is recommended starting point. 2.Brightness/Contrast – the usual move is to increase brightness and contrast slightly. 3.Color – the usual move is to add a little red to compensate for the cyan of the Skylight. 20

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Class Manual Lab Work 9 of 16 P hotoshop: Layer names Layers are named by default. You will leave some names ‘as is’. Others will be changed as needed for practical and future reference purposes. Some of the basic processing steps may not need any adjustment. In that case, re-name the layer to ‘No Change’. 21

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ Class Manual Lab Work 10 of 16 P hotoshop: Other routine lab work 1.Spot using a small brush size clone tool. 2.Retouch using larger brush size clone tool. 3.Dodge and burn using layer masks. 4.Localized tone and color manipulation. 22

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Digital Photography I __________________________________ x End