NEW - Ken Gilbert

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FROM PAGE 32
Adding a shadow
There was no shadow at all in the photo
of the orange slice. But if you look at
the original apple, you can see that there was a
shadow on the apple. So I had to transfer that
to the orange. I used the Pen tool to draw a path
where I wanted the shadow to be, and converted it
to a selection. Then I used brightness and contrast
in the Multiply Blend mode to darken it. Because
the shadow wouldn’t have a hard edge in reality,
I went into Quick Mask mode and drew a quick
selection around the top side, and blurred it with
Gaussian Blur. Then I pulled down the layer’s
Manage your
open fi les. If you’re using
Photoshop CS4, take advantage of the
new interface to better organize your
fi les. When you’re cloning from multiple
images, check the box for Match Zoom
and Location (or Match All)—it’s easy
to revisit possibilities and compare
your options without having to move
windows all over the place.
Return to the
Clone Stamp tool.
CS4 makes it easy and effi cient
to use the Clone Stamp—the new
version shows you a preview of your
change before you commit to it. I used
to waste a lot of time of trying to get
just the right clone, always undoing
and retrying. Though confusing at fi rst,
this change in CS4 is magnifi cent.
Clone on
new layers. Always clone
onto a new, blank layer. Switch
between Sampling Current,
Current and Below, and All Layers in
the pulldown menu in the Options
Bar. I recommend that you become
very familiar with these distinctions
because they are extremely useful
when creating complex composites.
Label your layers
effi ciently. I like to name
layers that only have cloned
and healed fi xes in them “f”
for fi x. This makes them easier to fi nd
again later and group together.
Make merged
copies. The merged copy
(Shift + Ctrl [Command on a Mac]
+ C, followed by Ctrl [Command] +
V) is a lifesaver for a warping adjustment,
such as Liquify, that must take place on
top of a fi le stack on which you’ve already
done a lot of work in terms of Adjustment
Layers and cloning clean-up layers.
Take advantage of
Quick Masks.
Developing the ability to work
simultaneously with Quick Masks
and selections is critical to refi ning your
compositing workfl ow. Just hit the Q key
on your keyboard to enter Quick Mask
mode. With Quick Masks, you can paint a
mask directly in the working space. Most
often, I use Quick Mask in conjunction
with the Lasso tool. I’ll load an already
created alpha channel for an entire
object, switch to Quick Mask mode, and
quickly select and delete areas that I
don’t want in my current selection. You
opacity until the shadow looked natural. I chose
to make the shadow fall a little lower than the
one in the original apple photo, simply because
it worked better aesthetically.
Between apple & orange
Where there’s a slice, there will be an
edge—and the look of that edge is important
for a convincing composite. In this case, the pith
between the orange fl esh and the apple edge was
brought in from the orange shot. I used the Warp
tool to carefully match it to the contour of the apple
slice. For fi ne adjustments, I used the Liquify brush.
can also Ctrl [Command] + click on any
layer thumbnail, layer mask thumbnail,
channel thumbnail, or path thumbnail to
turn it into a selection. Once selected,
go into Quick Mask Mode and then alter
the selection to make a new mask, or
combine multiple selections.
Use “scrubby
sliders.” Instead of manually
inputting numerical values—such
those for selection feathering,
opacity, or font size—mouse over the
word or icon labeling what you want to
change, and you’ll see a pointed fi nger.
Click and drag left or right to decrease or
increase the numerical value in the box.
Hide your selections.
Typing Ctrl [Command] + H
hides or shows the crawling ants
selection. I use this all the time.
When, say, you have an area selected
and you want to increase contrast, it’s
important to see how it transitions at the
edges. Hiding the noisy ants while you
adjust gives you an idea of the real effect
of your fi x. This same key command
can even hide the warping grid. It’s
unbelievably useful, because it allows
you to see what’s going on at the edges
of the area you are working with.
34 WWW.POPPHOTO.COM POP PHOTO MAY 2009