TranquilPhotos.com

In case you’re already running 12, there were some serious updates out.  You may want to check for updates.  I myself turn off all the adobe updaters so this was news to me.

The most significant fixes in the Photoshop 12.0.1 update include the following:

• A number of issues that could cause slow performance have been addressed.
• Top crashers found in the field have been addressed.
• 3D refractions, Ray Tracing and IBL workflows improved.
• Out of memory error opening some TIFFs has been addressed.
• A crash in Content Aware Fill has been addressed.
• Font related crashes have been addressed.
• Scroll wheel issue addressed.
• A number of user interface and workspace issues addressed.
• A number of painting issues addressed, including video layer issue.
• Droplet issues addressed.

http://www.tranquilphotos.com/blog/?p=326&preview=true

At times I want a color in Photoshop to match something else on my desktop.

An example:

In Lightroom 3 you can use a graphical identity place in place of the Adobe one.  But I wanted the gray of the lightroom to match my logo.

Yes, you can take a screen shot and cut-n-paste it into an image, than use the color picker to pick the image, but there is a much more accurate and fast way — although in Mac world this is automatically done you can do the same thing in window.

1. Open the application that the color you need, if you can move it to the left or right side of the image.
2. Open Photoshop, now exit the maximize view (The button next to the “X” on the top right).  It’s a window in window mode, denoting maximized window.  If you press this and nothing seems to happen (but the icon changes to a single window), you window is no longer maximized but it’s still set to the maximum size of the screen.   Just move your moues to the corner and you should get a handle.
3. Either have a image open, or just create an empty file.
4. Reduce the size of the Photoshop window so that the color in question is visible under your Photoshop window.
5. Click inside of the Image or file that you created (don’t let go of the button).
6. Drag the Eye Dropper in Photoshop, as you do the color will change in the color selection and your eye dropper remains working even if you move outside of the Photoshop window so you can pickup the color of the other application.

Recently I did a photography job at the Stony Brook Staller center.  It was my first time doing a concert — along with the limitations and restrictions that you get along with doing a live event.   With not being able to move around too much I decided to do some creative shots.  Here is the end result:

This is a combination of two separate images, one done with a relatively slow shutter speed and one done normally.

Image #1: Canon EOS 50D, 100mm f/2.8 Macro – 0.5 second @ f/32, ISO 3200, + 1/3 EV

Image #1 - Master Layer

Image #2: EOS 50D, 100mm f/2.8 Macro – 1/400th second @ f/2.8, ISO 3200, + 1/3 EV

Now, to combine the two images, we’ll take them both into photoshop. There are a million ways of doing this, but this is how I usually do it:

1. The “master” is the image that more than 50% of we’ll keep. In this case, image #1 since we’ll keep everything but the violinist.
2. Duplicate the background layer, so that we have a duplicate copy of the background in the master. This is more of a precaution so that we always have an original layer that we can go back to.
3. Click on Image #2, double click on the “Background” layer so that it turns into a regular layer. Drag the layer across to on top of Image #1.
4. I renamed the new layer “Violinist”, and attach a mask to that layer.
5. I tried to use the “Auto-Align” feature of Photoshop at this point, but it didn’t work (and I really had no hope that it worked, just wanted to see if it could).
6. So I used the eraser tool and erased as much as I could on the layer. I really should have done this with a second mask but there was absolutely no information that I wanted to keep.
7. Now that I could see the layer underneath, I reduced the opacity of the layer to 30% and moved it so it roughly matched the original layer. The parquet floor pattern was very helpful in this case. (Zoom in as much as you can, it makes life easier).
8. Increase the opacity back to 100% on the “Violinist”. Now use the mask that we attached earlier with a very soft brush and erase the outline.
9. I also added a Levels adjustment to the “Violinist” layer (clipped it in fact) so that I could lighten up the floor a bit to match the “master”. This way I didn’t have to hide all of the floor.
10. Final result is posted above.

    

    Image #2 – Violinist

Smart Objects was introduced back in CS2.  At the time, I did not find much use for it, but recognized that it can come in handy in some occasions.  They do make certain types of changes harder, some functions are not available when using Smart Objects, but they are an excellent tool for non-destructive changes.  Here is a case where they came in extremely handy:

I have started doing a lot more with Photobooks lately.  The first “real” wedding book that I did, took about 12 hours total from scratch (no templates).  If I had not started with objects that time would have been doubled or even tripled.  The time savings comes from being able to move images around, resize, and reposition them easily and without having to go back to the source.

What is a smart object?

A smart object is a “copy” of an image, be it a photograph, vector art, or just about anything that can be its own file and layer.   The object is inserted, as is, into a layer which can be acted upon without modifying the source.

Why use Smart Objects?

The easiest way to tell you is to show you.

1. Find a small image that you would like to test with.  Create a file in Photoshop that is the same, or slightly larger.  Use “White” as your background.  Please note the size of the “test” image.  We’ll assume 400 px X 400px.
   1. Open your image, and Copy its content.  Select All (CTRL+A), Copy (CTRL+C).
   2. Switch to your newly created empty file, and Paste (CTRL+V)
   3. Notice the smoothness of the image.
2. Edit -> Free Transform or CTRL + T
3. In the toolbar for the Transform change, change W: 100px, and H: 100px (25% of the original), and Click the Check Mark.
4. Now increase the size of the layer back by reversing the process.
5. Edit-> Free Transform or CTRL+T
6. In the toolbar for the transform tool, change W: 400px and H: 400px back to the original size of the image.
7. Notice how badly the image is pixilated. This is because the act of reducing the image is destructive.  All extra data after the change is lost.  So if you try to increase the size or get a color or part of the image back – it’s gone.

Now repeat the process, except:

Instead of 1a, 1b, 1c … use File -> Place, and insert the “test” insert as a smart Object. Also instead of using “px” as the size you can use 10% as the scale option.  When you go back to try to increase the size of the layer again, it knows that it is at 10% and you can use 100% to go back to the original size.