Practical Photoshop October 2020

“Welcome to issue 115 of Practical Photoshop! If you enjoy the issue, why not subscribe and get a whole year for just $19.99?” Layers are the reason why Photoshop has been the best image editor for over 25 years. They’re the cornerstone of almost every workflow we can think of – so it pays to know the hidden tricks and top techniques that will help you make the most of them. www.digitalcameraworld.com DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES To download this issue's files, type the following link into your web browser on your PC or Mac: http://bit.ly/115_pp FIND US HERE… http://bit.ly/practweet http://bit.ly/pracface Also available on: http://tiny.cc/4dw9ky http://tiny.cc/rew9ky http://tiny.cc/8ew9ky…

1 QUICKLY COPY ANY THING This is one of the easiest ways to duplicate a layer, whether it’s an image, text or a shape. Hold Alt and drag the layer in the layer stack to make a quick copy. You can highlight multiple layers (Cmd/Ctrl-click them) then drag to copy several at once. 2 SELECT A LAYER OUTLINE To load the outline shape of any layer as a selection, simply hold down Cmd/Ctrl and click on the layer thumbnail in the Layers Panel. You can also do this for Layer Mask and Vector Mask thumbnails. 3 MAKE MORE THAN ONE MASK Sometimes you might want to add multiple Layer Masks to a layer - let’s say you have spent a while making an initial mask, then you want to make further parts of the layer…

Mist can enhance the atmosphere in a landscape wonderfully – but, more often than not, when we reach a stunning spot we’re met with bright sunshine instead… However, you can alter the atmosphere later on using this simple technique. It’s not the same as capturing a misty scene in the flesh, but it is a striking mood-changer and also introduces several key Photoshop skills, from isolating parts of an image with selections to using creative brush tips. The effect works best on landscapes that can be separated into a foreground, mid-ground and background, like Machu Picchu here. This way, we can paint in the mist so that it looks as if it’s floating behind parts of the scene, which helps to create depth. We’ve supplied a misty brush tip for you…

We often think of cameras as tools for recording the world as we see it – but they’re also capable of capturing far more than the eye can perceive. Light-painting is a case in point. To the eye, a dark night is just that; but if we stick the camera on a tripod, open the shutter for a couple of minutes and waggle a torch around, then all of a sudden our camera starts to see things differently. To the camera’s sensor, light is accumulative, so when there’s minimal ambient light, we’re able to build up our own light gradually, in exactly the places where we want it. A single torch beam can light an entire scene and even an expansive landscape. With torch in hand, we’re free to light objects…

1 CAMERA Our camera is set to Bulb exposure with an aperture of f/11 and an ISO of 800. Just as if you were shooting in daytime, a medium aperture like this ensures enough depth of field in the landscape so that the foreground, trees and sky all look decently in focus. 2 REMOTE RELEASE It helps to have a wireless shutter release, so that you can set the camera up on a tripod, then trigger the shutter once you’re in position with your torch. We used a Hähnel remote, which lets us press and hold the remote to begin the two-minute Bulb exposure. 3 TRIPOD Our exposures will last minutes, and the camera needs to stay still, so a tripod is essential. Once the camera is set up and the composition is finalized, don’t…

01 SHIELD THE BULB We don’t want the torch bulb to show up in the shot, so it’s a good idea to shield the bulb from the lens – either using your hand, or placing your body between the torch and the camera. You could also try fashioning a hood for the torch out of card, like we’ve done here. 02 EXPERIMENT WITH GELS Why not add color to your light-painting? The bare torch left the trees in our scene looking too cool, so we taped an orange gel (from a Selens gel set) over the bulb. Of course, you can also mix colors – we switched gels mid-shot and used a blue gel to side-light the trees. 03 MOVE THE LIGHT AROUND If the scene is lit from the position of the camera, the…