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Burkholder Tips

Burn and Dodge - Softlight

  1. Layer on top – click on New – click on Layer
  2. Give the layer a name, select color, change mode to soft light; check 50% gray
  3. paintbrush, flow 17% or so, soft edge brush on top toolbar.
  4. color boxes in tool menu on the left should have black on top for darkening (burn). Use white for lightening (dodging).
  5. Use ‘X’ key to change back and forth between black and white
Quick Mask

  1. Quick mask icons are below the foreground and background squares in the tool menu. Letter ‘Q’ to switch back and forth between black and white.
  2. Lasso tool to surround object of interest. Feather at 5 in top toolbar.
  3. Quick Mask lets you: view selections graphically instead of marching ants Modify selections using any tool or tonal control (curves) lets you create selections from scratch (sky burn).
  4. Control M to bring up curves. Raise curve to lighten. Control H to hide the ants. This is just for info.
  5. Click the quick mask icon. Double click on the icon to change the red color and it’s strength. The dot should be in the masked areas.
  6. Under Channels click on the RGB eye; so everything goes black and white.
  7. Filter - Blur - Gaussian blur at a radius of about 30 pixels. This modifies the selection.
  8. Click on the Channels and return the eye to RGB. Hit letter "Q".
  9. Now use Control M to get curves and raise the curve to lighten.

New Image - change the sky (A selection from scratch #3)

  1. Select quick mask immediately
  2. Select the gradient tool and use the shift key to lock it to a particular 45 degree angle. Start at the bottom of the sky.
  3. Quick ants will be in the mid point of the selection. Use curves to lighten.
  4. He got out of quick mask and then made a new quick mask to show more techniques.
  5. Using reflected gradient he clicks in the middle of the sky and drags up.
  6. Leave quick mask. Go to the top toolbar and pick Select and click on Inverse.
  7. Now you can use curves to lighten the middle of the sky or select a color channel on the top of the box to add a bit of color.
Curves

  1. Make a rectangle using the upper left tool. Make sure the foreground is black and the background is white. Then select the gradient tool and drag across the rectangle.
  2. Image - Adjustment - Curves. Both axis should be black in the lower left corner. You can switch it using the double triangle on the bottom of the chart.
  3. If you do not want a point on the curve, just drag it off.
  4. Moving the mid-point up remaps middle gray to a light gray. Pulling it down remaps it to a darker gray.
  5. S curve by bringing the left quarter of the curve up and the right quarter of the curve down will reduce contrast. Opposite will increase contrast.
  6. In Layers menu click on the little triangle in the upper right corner to get a menu; click on Palette Options and select the middle thumbnail size. OK.
  7. Click on a curve icon to actually see the curve.
  8. You can mask some of the image so a new curve only works on the part that is not masked.
Colorizing Grayscale Images

  1. Image - Mode - Grayscale
  2. Image - Mode - RGB now you can see the change in the channels palette.
  3. Layer - New Fill Layer - Solid Color. In the New Layer menu change the mode to Color. When you select Ok it brings up the Color Picker. Make sure the "H" button is chosen. To make a Platinum look pick brown near orange. Then go to the layers menu on the right and bring down the opacity.
  4. Using the fill layer (colored box) drag and drop on other grayscale photos to quickly change them to a platinum look.
Glamour

  1. Portrait lighting shoot on the shadow side of the face.
  2. Duplicate the background by dragging the icon in the layers menu down to the new layer icon on bottom (next to the trash can). Double click on the name 'background layer' and type in a new name. Called it blur.
  3. Filter - Blur - Gaussian blur. In the dialog just move the radius until the image is blurred enough for you. Click Ok.
  4. Layer - Add Layer Mask - Reveal All. This results in an empty mask on the layer box. Be sure the frame is around the white mask and not the image.
  5. Select the brush and move the flow down around 20. Leave the opacity at 100%. Click the brush icon at the extreme right of the toolbar to get a menu and move the hardness all the way to the left. Paint with black on the mask to hide the blur.
  6. Alt click on the mask to see the mask in detail and do it again to get out of it.
  7. Layer - New Adjustment Layer - Hue/Saturation. Click ok and you get the Hue/Saturation menu. Push the saturation down to -100. Click Ok. Tweak it using the opacity slider for the layer.
  8. Layer - New Adjustment Layer - Curves.

modified December 2009 by Donn