Practical Photoshop January 2023

“Welcome to issue 142 of Practical Photoshop! If you enjoy the issue, why not subscribe and get a whole year for just $19.99?” Whether you’re just getting started with Photoshop or you’ve used it for years, there are certain tools that you simply can’t do without – so this issue we look at our top 10 favorite photo-enhancing features. Plus: find out about amazing AI-powered portrait masks and make fun snow globe effects. james.paterson@futurenet.com www.digitalcameraworld.com Editor James Paterson Art Editor Rosie Webber Production Editor Richard Hill Content Director Chris George Senior Art Editor Warren Brown DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILES To download this issue’s files, type the following link into your web browser on your PC or Mac: https://bit.ly/pho_142 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…

It’s only been around for a few weeks, but we’re already finding that the Sky Masking Tool in Camera Raw and Lightroom is one of the most useful image-editing tools ever for enhancing our outdoor photos. Here’s how it works… 01 MAKE A SKY MASK Open an image into Camera Raw, or import it into Lightroom. Click the circular Mask Panel icon in the toolbar on the right, then choose Select Sky. An automated mask will be created for the sky. Check that the mask is successful. If it needs refining, you can add or subtract with the Brush Tool (press Shift+K to add, Alt+K to subtract). 02 ENHANCE THE SKY Once you’re happy with the mask selection, head to the tonal sliders on the right and adjust them to boost the sky. Try…

Whether it’s within the Curves Panel in Camera Raw or Lightroom or the Curves Adjustment Layer in Photoshop, this tool is one of the all-time greats. It might seem a tad difficult to use to begin with, but persevere and you’ll be rewarded with the best tonal tool there is. The curve line represents the tonal range of the image, from shadows on the left to highlights on the right. Drag points of the line up to lighten parts of the tonal range, or down to darken. Any parts of the line that are shifted above the original diagonal means that part of the tonal range will go brighter than before. Any parts of the line that end up below mean that section will become darker. 01 ADD CONTRAST An S-shaped curve…

There’s more to white balance than getting the whites balanced; it’s about every color in the image. There are two ways to do this: you can set the white balance in the camera, or shoot in raw and set it afterwards with the same results. The best practice is to set it in-camera, but sometimes this isn’t practical. By shooting in raw, you can leave your white balance set to Auto WB, safe in the knowledge that you can tweak it afterwards if necessary. Camera Raw and Lightroom offer near-identical white balance tools, either in the Basic Panel in Camera Raw or the Develop Module in Lightroom. The tools are very simple, but there are some essential tricks to learn that can help you get the most out of them. One of…

Few tools offer the chance to improve and enhance your image like the Crop Tool. Of course, you needn’t use it if your image is perfectly cropped in-camera, but often a little refinement can go a long way. Here are a few tips to help you make the most of the tool… 1 While cropping, press X to switch the crop box orientation between horizontal and vertical. 2 Hold Alt while dragging the corner of the box to resize it from the center point, rather than inwards from one corner. 3 Hold Shift and drag the corner to constrain the horizontal and vertical proportions as you resize the crop box. 4 Hold Shift plus Alt to resize from the centre and constrain the proportions. 5 To quickly access the Straighten Tool while cropping, press A…

Color Balance ticks a lot of boxes. Not only is it simple and intuitive to use, it lets you create subtle but powerful color shifts – whether you want to fix an unwanted color cast or make a creative change to the mood of the photo. To begin, go to the Layers Panel in Photoshop, click the Create Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom and choose Color Balance, then start experimenting. The great thing about Color Balance is how you can shift the colors in either the shadows, midtones or highlights (using the dropdown at the top of the settings) so you can tint each part of the tonal range independently of the others.…