The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers part 29 docx

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261Chapter 9Fixing Common Problems
Continued
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step 13:
We need a selection around this layer
again, so press-and-hold the Command
(PC: Ctrl) key and click on the top layer’s
thumbnail to load it as a selection. Once
the selection is in place, we’re going to
need to get a blend of all the background
colors, so go under the Filter menu, under
Blur, and choose Average.
Step 14:
It doesn’t bring up a dialog or anything,
it just does its thing, and creates a blur
that averages all the colors in the select-
ed area together (as shown here). Press
Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to Deselect.
It doesn’t look right yet, but it will in
just a moment.
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Step 15:
To make this blend, there are two things
you need to do: (1) change the layer’s
blend mode from Normal to Color (so
just the color shows through, instead

of being solid); and then (2) lower the
Opacity to around 15%, so a hint of the
Average blur color from the background
appears as a tint over your subject, and
this ties the color of the two together (as
seen here, where her overall color is more
muted, like the background colors).
Step 16:
This last step is totally optional and is
based on the-depth-of field project
we did earlier in this chapter, but
you can add a blurred effect to the
background image to make it look like
the photo was taken using a wide-open
f-stop to get a very shallow depth-of-
field. You do that by clicking on the
layer that has your background image
(Layer 1 here), then going under the
Filter menu, under Blur, and choosing
Lens Blur (this gives a more realistic
depth-of-field blur than a standard Gauss-
ian blur). In the Iris section in the middle,
set the Radius amount to 44 (that’s the
amount of blur), then click OK to get the
final effect you see here.
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263Chapter 9Fixing Common Problems
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Continued

Step One:
First, let’s look at the problem: Here’s a
shot I took at sunset using an off-camera
flash (the flash is up high and to the right
of my camera position, aiming down at
the subject and firing through a shoot-
through umbrella). At this point in the
shoot, I didn’t remember to add a CTO
gel to warm the light, so the light from
the flash is bright white (which looks really
out of place in a beach sunset shot like
this. The light should be warm, like the
light from a setting sun, not a white flash).
Step Two:
To warm the light from the flash, go to the
Adjustments panel and click on the Photo
Filter icon (it’s the second icon from the
right in the middle row). The Photo Filter
controls will appear, and from the Filter
pop-up menu, choose Orange (as seen
here), then increase the Density to around
55%. So, how did I know 55% was right?
I opened a photo from a few minutes later
in the shoot, when I had added a CTO gel
to my flash, and matched the color and
amount, but actually the amount doesn’t
matter as much, because we’ll be able to
lower it later if it’s too much. The whole
image gets the Photo Filter, and it changes
the color of the sky, and well…everything,

but we just want to change the color of
the light.
When using an off-camera flash on location, most pros put an orange gel
over the flash to warm the color of the light, so it doesn’t stand out as arti-
ficial light. This plastic gel is called CTO (for Color Temperature Orange) and
you can find it at most large camera stores (and a lot of small ones, too). So,
the problem is that not everybody has these gels, and if they do, they don’t
always remember to tape them over their flash head, but luckily, we can
warm the color temperature of the light after the fact in Photoshop.
Fixing On-Location
Flash Photos
SCOTT KELBY
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Chapter 9 Fixing Common Problems
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Step Three:
What we need to do is hide the overall
orange color, and then just apply it where
we want it (where the light is actually
falling on the subject). To do that, just
press Command-I (PC: Ctrl-I) to Invert
the layer mask attached to your Photo
Filter adjustment layer, so your orange
filter is hidden behind a black layer mask.
Now, get the Brush tool (B), press D to
switch your Foreground color to white,
and paint over your subject’s skin, hair,
clothes, and anywhere the light from the

flash is falling (as shown here). That way,
the orange only affects where the light
from the flash lands.
Step Four:
Remember in Step Two where I said
I wasn’t worried about the amount
because I could change it later? That’s
now. Because we used an adjustment
layer, we can just go to the Layers panel
and lower the Opacity to lower the
amount of orange (I lowered it to 64%
here). If, instead of needing to lower the
amount, you need more orange, then
just double-click directly on the adjust-
ment layer itself (in the Layers panel)
and it reopens the Photo Filter controls
in the Adjustments panel, so you can
increase the Density amount. Here’s the
final image, with the orange gel effect
added in Photoshop.
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265Chapter 9Fixing Common Problems
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Continued
Step One:
Here’s a shot near the Temple of Heaven
in Beijing (I know, the lens perspective is
off terribly, but that’s handled in the next
project). I tried to get a shot without the

tourists, but even though I was pretty
darn patient, I just couldn’t come up with
a shot where there were no tourists at least
somewhere in the shot. The trick is to take
a few more shots, and hope that when all
is said and done, you can combine them,
with a layer mask or two, to hide those
tourists (it’s easier than it sounds).
Step Two:
Here, I took another shot of the same
building, and as long the tourists in this
photo are in a different spot than the
tourists in the photo in Step One, we’ll
be able to mask them out in seconds. But
first, we’ll need to get the two photos
into the same document, so switch to the
Move tool (V), press-and-hold the Shift
key, then drag the second image over onto
the first image. This second image appears
as its own layer above the first image (as
seen here), and the two photos will be
kind of close to being lined up with each
other (using the Shift key centers the
second image over the first).
The nemesis of the travel photographer is the tourist, because nothing
looks worse than a beautiful, iconic tower, palace, cathedral, or statue with
a bunch of tourists roaming around. Although there’s nothing we can do to
stop tourists from walking into our photos while we’re taking them, there is
something we can do after the fact in Photoshop (as long and we do just a
little preparation in advance, which makes our retouching job super-simple).

Removing Tourists
the Easy Way
SCOTT KELBYSCOTT KELBY
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Step Three:
If you’re handholding the images (and
chances are, at a tourist spot, you prob-
ably will be), then you’ll need to have
Photoshop perfectly align the two pho-
tos first, so the layer masking will work.
(Note: If you did take your shots on a
tripod, you can skip this step altogether,
along with Step Four and Step Five,
because your photos will already be
in perfect alignment.) Go to the Layers
panel, press-and-hold the Shift key, and
click on the Background layer to select
them both. Then go under the Edit
menu and choose Auto-Align Layers
(as shown here).
Step Four:
This brings up the Auto-Align Layers
dialog (shown here). Auto should be
selected by default, but if it’s not, click
on the Auto radio button, then click OK,
and Photoshop will perfectly align the

two images (it does an amazing job of it,
too). To see the results, go to the Layers
panel and click on the Eye icon beside
the top layer toggle it on/off—you’ll see
that everything is the same, except the
tourists, and that’s just what we need.
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267Chapter 9Fixing Common Problems
Continued
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step Five:
You’ll notice that, in most cases, there will
be a gap at the top and/or sides of your
image, and that’s normal because Auto-
Align Layers has to tweak your images a
bit to make them line up (that’s because
they weren’t taken on a tripod—they
were handheld), so at this point, you’ll
need to crop away these areas. Get the
Crop tool (C) and drag it out so the gaps
on the sides, top, and bottom will be
cropped away. Press the Return (PC:
Enter) key to complete your crop.
Step Six:
Click on the top layer, then click on
the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom
of the Layers panel (it’s shown circled
here in red).
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Step Seven:
Next, get the Brush tool (B), make sure
your Foreground color is set to black,
choose a soft-edged brush tip (from the
Brush Picker up in the Options Bar), and
set your brush size so it’s just a little
smaller than the tourists you want to
remove (use the Left and Right Bracket
keys on your keyboard to change the size
of your brush. They’re to the right of the
letter P on your keyboard). Now, paint
over the tourists (and their shadow) on
the left side of the photo (the ones in
front of the sign), and as you paint, it
covers them up, revealing the sign on
the layer below it. This works so well,
because the two photos have been
perfectly aligned.
Step Eight:
Anywhere you see a tourist, just paint
right over them, and they’re gone
(as shown here). If you make a mistake,
switch your Foreground color to white,
and paint over your mistake. Once you
try this, and realize how easy it is, you’ll
see fewer and fewer tourists in your

travel photos in the future. Just keep
in mind, the more photos you take, the
better chance you’ll be able to find two
(or more) photos you can stack in layers
(like we did here), and then layer mask
the tourists away.
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SCOTT KELBY
269Chapter 9Fixing Common Problems
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Continued
Step One:
Here’s a problem image. Look at the
columns on either side, which are bowing
outward, and leaning outward, as well.
Adobe figured you’d be using this filter
a lot now (since it’s so much better than
in previous versions), so they put Lens Cor-
rection right up at the top of the Filter
menu (rather than its previous home,
hidden under Distort on the Filter menu).
So, go ahead and go under the Filter menu,
and choose Lens Correction now.
Step Two:
When the dialog opens, there are two tabs
on the right: Auto Correction and Custom
(Custom means “do-it-yourself”). I always try
Auto Correction first, because that way, it
does all the work for you. To turn it on, turn

on the checkbox for Geometric Distortion
(if I see edge vignetting [darkening of the
edges], I turn on that checkbox too, and
it’ll fix that at the same time). It looks at the
embedded camera data to find out which
camera make and model, and lens you took
the photo with, then it matches that against
its built-in set of correction profiles to fix
the problem (it did a pretty decent job here,
as you can see). If it doesn’t instantly come
up with a profile (or the camera data is
missing from the file), you can help it along
by choosing your camera’s make, model,
and even lens from the pop-up menus
on the right.
Photoshop CS5 definitely has some overlap with the included Camera Raw 6
that comes with CS5 (and is part of Photoshop), in that you can do a lot of the
same things in Photoshop that you can do in Camera Raw. If you shoot in RAW
mode on your camera, you’re better off doing things like lens corrections right
within Camera Raw (see Chapter 3), because it’s faster and does less harm to
your pixels. However, if for whatever reason, you don’t want to use Camera Raw’s
Lens Corrections panel (it works for JPEGs and TIFFs, too. Hint, hint), then
you can use the vastly improved Lens Correction filter in CS5.
Fixing Problems
Caused by Your
Camera’s Lens
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Chapter 9 Fixing Common Problems

The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step Three:
If, after choosing your camera make and
model, no profiles show up in the Lens
Profiles listing box, try clicking the Search
Online button. It will go to Adobe’s own
servers, and check to see if any additional
profiles for your camera make and model
have been added by end users (as long
as you’re connected to the Internet, of
course). If it does find some, they’ll be list-
ed there, and all you have to do is click on
one to apply it. In this case, it found two
additional profiles for my lens, but with
a different camera. I tried them both, but
neither was better than the original pro-
file that was already there, so I stuck
with it. Hey, it was worth a try, right?
Step Four:
Although it did a pretty good job of fixing
the barrel distortion caused by the lens
(the bowing out of the columns), they’re
still bowing out just a tiny bit, so that’s
when you switch to the Custom (manual)
settings. These settings are added to any
corrections applied in the Auto Correc-
tions tab, so you don’t lose what Auto
Corrections already did for you. At the
top, you’ll see a slider for correcting
geometric distortion, and on either end

of the Remove Distortion slider is an
icon that shows how the image will
be affected if you drag in that direction.
Since the photo was bowing outward,
you drag toward the icon bowing inward,
so I dragged to the right just a little, until
the columns stopped bowing (in this
case, I only need to increase it by +2).
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