Practical Photoshop May 2021

SUPERB SELECTIONS Our top selection tools and tricks explained PORTRAIT COMPOSITES Craft moody portrait composites with simple skills BLENDING MODE TRICKS Our favourite Blending Modes for instant effects SPECTACULAR SOAP BUBBLES Shoot and edit stunning soap bubble planets LIGHTROOM SKILLS Get to grips with vignettes in your photos 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/pho_122 FIND US HERE… http://bit.ly/practweet http://bit.ly/pracface Also available on: http://bit.ly/pp_pocketmags http://bit.ly/pp_app_store http:bit.ly/zinio_pp…

One of the best things to happen to Photoshop in recent years is its pair of automated selection tools, which use artificial intelligence to recognize and isolate either the subject or sky in your images. The two tools are so good that often you won’t need to use any of the other selection tricks mentioned over the next few pages; even if sometimes they don’t get the job done, they can still be a useful starting point for further selection tricks. Here we’ve used Select Sky to give the impression of a long exposure in the clouds. To do this, first go to Select > Sky then press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy to a new layer. Cmd/Ctrl-click the layer thumbnail to load it as a selection then go to Filter> Blur >…

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3sxoNfW The Object Selection tool is very similar to the Select Subject command on the previous page – but instead of the command searching image-wide for the subject, you start by drawing a box around the part of the image you’d like it to search. It’s helpful when you need to quickly select an object. Simply drag a box over the area and let the machine learning do the work for you. If it doesn’t pick up the entire area on the first pass, hold down Shift and drag a second box to add to the area. If it picks up unwanted details, hold down Alt and drag a box to subtract the details.…

This is Photoshop’s most powerful selection tool – a one-stop shop for all your selection needs. At first, selections are usually hard-edged, but real-world objects rarely have such jagged edges. The tools here let you improve your selections to make them more precise and hone in on the details you want to isolate. WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3gnBKa4 1 SELECT SUBJECT Select Subject uses machine learning to select the subject in your photo. If it’s a person or animal, you could try the Refine Hair button. 2 OBJECT SELECTION TOOL Drag a box over part of the image with this tool, and Photoshop will select the object within. 3 BRUSH TOOL This lets you paint freehand to make a selection, or you can hold down Alt and paint to erase parts of an existing selection. 4 QUICK SELECTION TOOL Paint over…

The Radius controls are the key to improving selections. By increasing the radius, we make the Select And Mask command seek similar pixels along the edge of the selection, to either include or exclude them. Say you’re trying to select a tree. The command analyzes the pixels within the selection edge, noting the colors of the branches and leaves; when you expand the radius, the tool seeks out those similar green and brown pixels outside the selection edge. At the same time, it recognizes the details outside the selection edge – in this case the surrounding blue sky – and seeks out similar blues within the selection to subtract them. We end up with a selection of the tree without the hard work. There are a few ways to control the radius:…

WATCH THE VIDEO https://bit.ly/3aFAyLB This trick lets you select pixels based on luminosity. Go to the Channels Panel (Window > Channels) then hold Cmd/Ctrl and click on the RGB channel to load the luminosity of the image as a selection (alternatively, Cmd/Ctrlclick on any other channel to load it). By selecting the brighter parts of an image, you can make precise tonal adjustments that are tailored to different parts of the tonal range. Here, after selecting the luminosity, we’ve added a Levels Adjustment Layer. When you add an Adjustment Layer while a selection is active, the selection will automatically be converted into a Layer Mask, so you can selectively adjust the tones in the isolated area. We’ve used the Levels layer here to enhance the details in the moon’s surface and add…