NVMUG eNews 8/19/2003
Last updated 8/20/2003
Warren Walker Demonstrated Levels in Photoshop 7
Warren Walker demonstrated using Layers in Photoshop 7 and described some of the new features.
1. Macintosh Users Learn About Digital Image Editing Using Layers
2. More From Warren Walker's Presentation
3. Miscellaneous News From The Meeting
4. Learning Web Design
(in Reviews)
5. Google Pocket Guide,
see under Reviews button
6. iPod: The Missing Manual,
see under reviews button
7. Digital Video Pocket Guide
1. Macintosh Users Learn About Digital Web Design Using Layers
NVMUG members watch Warren Walker demonstrate digital editing using Photoshop 7, Saturday.
As reported in the Caledonian Record, Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Warren Walker demonstrated digital image editing using Layers in Photoshop 7 to the Northern Vermont Macintosh Users Group in St. Johnsbury Saturday. Some members had a bit of difficulty getting to the meeting.
Midge and Richard Lubot were caught in New York's blackout, but were able to get back in time to see Walker's demonstration. Midge Lubot was closing their booth at a show in a large auditorium when the power went out. Richard Lubot was outside. Midge said the first thought was terrorists, but there was no panic in the dark building. Richard said people seemed happy as though it was a snow day and they were let out of work.
Geof Gonter arrived late from Maine because four lanes of traffic stopped to watch a moose.
Photoshop 7 has a built in browser to find photo files. It display a hierarchical listing of file folders and images. The number of images displayed on a page is controlled by the size of image you select. It also displays information about the pictures, including the shutter speed and aperture setting. It is a wonderful way to retrieve photos.
It is also amazing to see the exposure choices a digital camera makes to get the pictures when on automatic.
Layers are like transparent plastic overlays over the original, or background, image. You can create these layers to make adjustments, additions to, or even subtractions from the original image as viewed with the layers without actually changing the original image.
You could, of course, apply adjustments directly to the image itself.
As long as you do not save the image, you can use undo
or the history palette to undo anything that is not right. But, if you decide you should not have done something before you made the last five adjustments, you have to undo the last five adjustments before you can undo the mistake.
Layers are independent unless you deliberately link them. You can look back to the layer with the mistake and correct just that one layer. It is a good idea to give each layer a descriptive name because you need to know what image is active and being worked on, and it is sometimes difficult to tell what is on a layer by looking only at its icon.
Text is often added by itself on a layer which has a transparent background. The text can then be moved or modified at will without affecting the underlying image.
Walker demonstrated layer masking. A layer mask protects sections of a layer from being edited. Suppose you have a picture of a flower with the background in sharp focus and you would like to blur the background a little to make the picture stand out better. You could paint a layer mask to preserve the sharp flower and then apply a blur filter to the background.
Use Save as...
to give the image a different name and to save the it with layers and any other changes leaving the original image unchanged.
Each layer can be tagged to be visible or invisible. Only those that are visible will show when you print. You can create different pictures by making different combinations of layers visible.
When you are satisfied with your edited image, Walker recommends saving it again with all of the layers. Then you may want to flatten it, getting rid of the layers, so you can resize and/or convert it for different uses. Save it with a different name each time.
Walker learned how to use Photoshop 5 by reading a book called Inside Photoshop 5
by Gary Bouton and working all of the tutorial exercises in the book. Now he has Inside Photoshop 7
which he uses as a reference, and to work the exercises concerning the new features in Photoshop 7.
This 1,000 page book is available through bookstores or online at http://www.newriders.com for $49.95.
2. More From Warren Walker's Presentation
Adobe describes their new file browser as a digital image management program which is a pretty good description of what it does. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 has a Browse feature under the File menu. Clicking on a photo in the browser gives you some information about the picture, but you have to double click on a photo to import it before you can find the photography information under File -->File Info --> EXIF (Change from General). If you use iPhoto to input and manage your digital images, you can display similar information about your photographs using File --> Show Photo Info and clicking on any photo without having to open
the photo first.
Warren showing flower pictures to Phyllis and Midge, snapped at 1/13 second.
This photography information is most interesting. A photograph of Warren showing his flower prints to Phyllis and Midge taken with the automatic exposure on my Nikon E775 has an exposure of 1/13 of a second at f2.8, but with a maximum aperture of f3.5. Obtaining a properly exposed image requires using Photoshop Elements 2 -->Enhance -->Quick Fix fill flash of +25, and I would never think of shooting people at 1/13 second without asking them to hold still and bracing the camera in some way.
Most of the time the directions for using Photoshop Elements 2 are similar to the directions for using Photoshop 7, but the reverse is not necessarily true because Photoshop 7 obviously has more features. For example, Warren mentioned using a short cut key X
to toggle between adding to a mask area or to the unmasked areas. Elements 2 does not have keyboard shortcuts, so the instructions are different, but if you have set Elements 2 to add to the mask when you paint, option clicking while you paint will subtract from the mask.
Make a selection with the magnet lasso when there is a distinct contrast between what you want to select and the background.
It is important to keep track of the active layer, the one you work on. For example, using a clone tool to repair a spot when you are in the wrong layer you could try to pick up the clone copy from a translucent spot in that layer thinking you are picking up the color from a layer underneath. You might stamp this translucent clone where you want to cover a spot and that spot might also be on the layer below. You would be left wondering why nothing happened.
Give layers a descriptive name so you can quickly find the layer you want in the layers table, or so you can pick the layer from a control-click pop-up menu.
Warren Walker demonstrates Layers. Photo by Gordon Alexander.
You can use a layer mask to make part of an image transparent. This allows you to show an object on a different background without erasing any of the original background. If you want you could set the opacity for the layer making the image translucent. You can drag a layer from one picture to another.
You can do a series of steps and save them as an Action so afterward you can do them with one click. (This is the basis of the One Click WOW!
books which contain prerecorded actions that you can apply with one click.)
Brushes can be selected with different shapes, different sizes, and with hard abrupt edges or edges with varying softness or feathering. Selection tools can also have feathered edges to make it less noticeable. A layer mask can be black, white or any shade of gray in-between for varying degrees of translucence.
Warren talked about and quickly demonstrated so many features that, if I could, you would not want me to report them all here. If you want to know what a feature does, try it. You can undo it. For example under the Image menu, Adjustments shows all the possible adjustments. Try them. Try changing the opacity of the layer to modify the effect.
Warren mentioned layer sets, a folder in the layer palette that you can drag images into, and channels in Red, Green, Blue and Alpha (grayscale) which you can modify separately. These are not available in Photoshop Elements 2.
Warren masked out a flower, a Blue Vervain. You could see why it can take hours to mask out such a complex image. He applied a gradient blur to the background to make the flower stand out. He did a general level adjust to brighten the flower a bit, and applied two separate hue saturation layers - one for background and one for the flower itself. You wouldn't usually do all this work if you did not have an excellent image to start out with.
Warren uses OS 9.2 for printing because the Epson printer driver has an option to print up to a 1/8 inch border maximum. In Mac OS X at least one 1/2 inch border is required. He could print in Mac OS X using Mac Gimp, but there are so many options to set that it is easier just to reboot into OS 9.2.
Warren's G4 has a 60 gig hard drive, and he has not filled 20 gigs yet. He uses an external 120 gig FireWire hard drive for backup. He also burns to CDs for backup to save off site.
The book Warren recommends, Inside Photoshop 7
by Gary David Bouton, $49.99 1.000 pages with CD is published by New Riders and is available at
http://www.newriders.com/
RonLay-Sleeper listens, Hartley Jim Jackson considers what to write, and Warren Walker concentrates on what he will present next.
3. Miscellaneous News From the Meeting
From their window Midge & Richard Lubot could see where the lights of the city used to be. Erie! Everyone's attitude during the power outage was so good, it was really amazing.
Phyllis will be showing her art work in Stowe next weekend.
Midge advised her to save the original AppleWorks document with another name before she starts experimenting with it. They would like to see a presentation on AppleWorks.
Hartley brought in new library books. Learning Web Design
and Google Hacks
were added to the library. Midge will add iPod: The Missing Manual
to the library as soon as she is through with it. And, Hartley will bring to the next meeting because it was still in his computer carrying case.
The Nikon 4500 seems to be the most popular digital camera among NVMUG members. Geof said the learning curve on the camera is very steep. He asked if anyone knew why flash shots taken with his have a red tint.
Gordon Alexander photo of Warren demonstrating. Note more professional composition and better flash lighting.
Gordon Alexander has an external flash attached to his with an attached white card which he uses for bounce lighting. He says it reduces the light by about 2 f-stops, but it provides a flatter even light. He used it to take pictures at the meeting which will be on our web page.
Geof knows a famous photographer with a french name who is unhappy unless he has shot several rolls of 35 mm pictures a day. He could save a lot on film with a digital camera.
There is rumor that Lyndon State College is going to get rid of its G4 computers and go all Dell. Someone is justifying the move by saying that Adobe is not going to develop programs for the Mac anymore. It is true that Adobe was not happy when Mac OS X came out with the ability to print to PDF. It is also true that Adobe is stopping development on one movie program because it is not profitable for them to compete with Final Cut Pro. But it is not true that Adobe is cutting back development of other Macintosh programs.
One article claimed IT managers in schools are Apple's greatest enemy. The claim is that it would simplify their life if they only have Dells to deal with. One of the problems Apple has in selling their new Xserve business machines is that they are too simple and too reliable. They reduce the need for IT staff
