Wednesday 3 April 2013

Review Digital Camera World 04-04-2013

Blogtrottr
Digital Camera World
34 Photoshop effects every photographer must try
Apr 3rd 2013, 23:01

Tired of using the same tools in your photo editing? We’ve rounded up the 34 best Photoshop effects you can use with minimal effort to give new life to your images.

34 Photoshop effects every photographer must try

One of Photoshop's strengths is that many common photo editing tasks can be achieved in several ways. Which Photoshop effects you choose may depend on the time you have, the look you want, or more likely, whichever you're most familiar with.

Our aim in this tutorial is to provide you with 34 killer tips, tricks and need-to-know Photoshop effects that you can use to make the most of your photos.

So the next time you're faced with a photo editing task that you're unsure how to solve, don't just reach for the first tool you can think of that could possibly do the job, or go to the trouble of flicking through back issues for a particular tutorial, simply refer to this article and take your pick!

Whether it's retouching portraits, adding textures or making a multiple exposure effect, you'll find all the answers right here!

Killer Photoshop effects 1-5

Best Photoshop Effects: 01 Camera profiles in Adobe Camera Raw

Best Photoshop Effects: 01 Camera profiles in Adobe Camera Raw
The colours and contrast of images opened in Adobe Camera Raw can sometimes look subdued compared with JPEGs, which are processed in-camera.

The fact is that Adobe's generic conversion profile is quite conservative – but it's possible to get much closer to the camera's own rendition using the Camera Calibration tab. This contains a Camera Profile menu.

Adobe Standard is the default option, but you can also select alternatives such as Camera Standard, Camera Landscape or Camera Vivid. These are a much closer match to the camera's own Picture Styles (Canon) or Picture Controls (Nikon).

 

Best Photoshop Effects: 02 High Pass filter sharpening

Best Photoshop Effects: 02 High Pass filter sharpening
High Pass sharpening works on a similar principle to Photoshop's regular Unsharp Mask or Smart Sharpen tools, increasing the contrast around object edges, but in a different and highly controllable way. First, duplicate the image layer, then use the Filter>Other>High Pass filter.

Best Photoshop Effects: 02 High Pass filter sharpening

Choose a small Radius, for example, 2 pixels, for sharpening, or a large Radius, for example, 30 pixels, for a local contrast boost.

Desaturate this High Pass layer and set the Blend Mode to Overlay. To reduce the sharpening effect, reduce the layer's Opacity. To increase it, apply a Levels adjustment to the High Pass layer to increase the contrast.

 

Best Photoshop Effects: 03 Blitz zits and wrinkles with
 the Spot Healing Brush tool

Best Photoshop Effects: 03 Blitz zits and wrinkles with
 the Spot Healing Brush tool
It can take a long time to clone out spots and blemishes in portrait shots. The regular Clone Stamp tool can do a good job, but it takes time and practice.

Best Photoshop Effects: 03 Blitz zits and wrinkles with
 the Spot Healing Brush tool

Instead, use the Spot Healing Brush tool – and check the Content-Aware button on the Options Bar.

You won't need to choose a clone source, since Photoshop will automatically select surrounding pixels for the repair – just set a brush size slightly larger than the blemish and dab it out.

The Content-Aware technology is uncannily good at preserving the shapes and objects in the areas you're repairing.

 

Best Photoshop Effects: 04 Perfect tricky selections with
the Refine Edge tool

Best Photoshop Effects: 04 Perfect tricky selections with
the Refine Edge tool
You can't always get selections right first time, especially with tricky edges such as with human hair. So click the Refine Edge button in the Options Bar.

The Refine Edge Panel enables you to smooth, feather or move the selection edges, but the Edge Detection tool is the important one.

Set a Radius value roughly equivalent to the width of the 'ambiguous' area around the edge of your subject, and paint along the edge to perfect the selection.

At the top, choose a different background from the View drop-down menu and check the Show Radius box to help judge the effect.

 

Best Photoshop Effects: 05 Smooth skin using the Adjustment Brush in Adobe Camera Raw

Best Photoshop Effects: 05 Smooth skin using the Adjustment Brush in Adobe Camera Raw
The Clarity slider in Adobe Camera Raw is mostly used to increased local contrast and make objects and outlines stand out more clearly.

It's like sharpening applied over a much wider radius, and unlike regular contrast adjustments, it doesn't affect the overall contrast, so you can use it on images that already have a full tonal scale without the risk of clipping.

The Clarity slider operates around a zero point in the centre, so you can apply negative adjustments as well as positive ones. And if you apply negative clarity, you get a localised smoothing effect that works wonders on skin.

To ensure the slider doesn't affect other detailed areas such as hair, use the Adjustment Brush to select only the areas of skin you would like to smooth.

PAGE 1: Killer Photoshop effects 1-5
PAGE 2: Killer Photoshop effects 6-10
PAGE 3: Killer Photoshop effects 11-15
PAGE 4: Killer Photoshop effects 16-20
PAGE 5: Killer Photoshop effects 21-25
PAGE 6: Killer Photoshop effects 26-30
PAGE 7: Killer Photoshop effects 31-34

READ MORE

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10 common camera mistakes every photographer makes
99 common photography problems (and how to solve them)

Nikon D7100 review
Apr 3rd 2013, 12:25

Nikon D7100 review: along with a 24.1MP sensor and a new 1.3x crop mode, Nikon has removed the camera’s optical low pass filter. Our head of testing, Angela Nicholson, put these features and more to the test in her NIkon D7100 review.

Nikon D7100 price confirmed

The big news about the Nikon D7100 isn’t that it has a 24.1 million pixel sensor – that was fairly predictable.

Instead, the big news about this new Nikon camera is that Nikon has decided to omit the anti-aliasing element from the camera’s filter above the chip.

In her Nikon D7100 review video, our head of testing Angela Nicholson discusses the camera’s performance, image quality and whether this is the right DSLR for you.

Nikon D7100 Review Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Angela Nicholson head of testing for Future's photography portfolio and I'm going to take a look at the Nikon D7100 in this video.

Like the Nikon D3200 and D5200, the D7100 has a 24MP sensor, but Nikon has left off the low-pass filter.

Low-pass or anti-aliasing filters are usually put over a camera's sensor to reduce the risk of moiré interference occurring when photographing subjects with fine patterning that is close to the camera's resolution limit. The downside of using them is that the image is softened and needs sharpening post capture.

So does omitting the filter from the sensor make any difference to the images? Our tests indicate that it does. At the lower sensitivity settings the D7100 can't resolve any more detail than the D3200 or D5200, but the images look a little sharper straight from the camera.

And when the sensitivity is pushed up a little, the D7100 can resolve more detail than either of these two Nikon cameras – although the images are also a bit noisier.

Another interesting feature of the D7100 is that the central point of it's 51-point AF system is sensitive down to f/8. This mean if I mount this 70-200mm f/4 lens via this 2x teleconverter, the camera will still focus the lens automatically despite the fact that the maximum aperture is reduced to f/8.

The focus takes place while the aperture is wide open – in this case at f/8 – and the aperture closes down to the selected aperture for the exposure just before the shot is taken.

The focus mode is set using these controls on the side and this dial.As we've seen before with Nikon SLRs, in continuous AF mode the camera can be set to track the subject using 51, 21 or 9 AF points once you've selected the starting AF point.

There's also the 3D-tracking mode, which works well provided the subject colour contrasts well with the surroundings – it's not a good choice for shooting team sports where the payers have matching shirts.

With a decent lens the focusing is fast and accurate in most situations – even in very low light.

Inside the D7100 is the same EXPEED 3 processing engine as Nikon's other recent SLRs, including the D4 and D800. This allows a sensitivity range of ISO 100-6400 which can be expanded to ISO 25,600 if necessary – although I wouldn't recommend it.

This engine also enables a maximum continues shooting rate of 6 frames per second. However, this can be pushed to 7 frames per second if the 1.3x crop mode is employed.

When this mode is activated the crop area is indicated in the viewfinder and the crop is applied to both raw and JPEG files. It's useful if you want to frame a distant subject tightly and reduce files sizes, but many users are likely to prefer to crop post-capture.

Like the D7000 the D7100 has a collection of JPEG-only special effects that can be accessed via this option on the mode dial. These effects can be previewed on the main LCD screen and are selected by rotating the thumbwheel. As you can see the screen image lags a little, but it's not too bad.
Helpfully, the word EFFECTs is visible in the viewfinder so you can't forget which mode you have selected.

The D7100 feels nice and solid in the hand and this silky-textured grip gives good purchase. All of the most important controls are within easy reach and you can check setting by pressing this Info button.

This button here allows you to change some key features such as the image area and noise reduction settings. It seems off that this also give a quick route to customising the use of the preview and function buttons though.

The D7000 is capable of producing superb images with lots of detail and natural colour. It's worth keeping an eye on the image histogram view though as the Matrix Metering doesn't always do what you expect.

PAGE 1: Nikon D7100 Review Video
PAGE 2: Our original hands-on Nikon D7100 review
PAGE 3: Our original Nikon D7100 launch story

READ MORE

Nikon D7100 vs D7000: 13 things you need to know
Nikon D7100 vs D600: which DSLR should you choose
16 new cameras we’d like to see in 2013
10 common camera mistakes every photographer makes

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