U3A Photography 2 Group Leaders: Sue & Richard Butler
Taking photos on the Embankment June 2010 (If anyone has better photo with more of Group, please send)
To see monthly competition photos click links above
Scroll down for latest lesson 10 and 11
Sue's Lesson January As far as I can remember it Audrey (Sue in Italics)
Correct Perspective
Click the icon LHS that looks a bit like a nazi swastika (Crop)and select the area of photo you want
Go to top of browser and click 'perspective '
Move your dotted lines to align with the slope you wish to correct and when ok, left click and save.
OR as Sue presented it in Lesson 1:
LESSON 1 - CROPPING AND CORRECTING CONVERGING (leaning) VERTICALS
Cropping
1.Select MY DOCUMENTS
Go to MY PICTURES
Right click on the relevant photo icon and select OPEN WITH: Photoshop 7
2.Maximise the photo (click square box at top right of image)
3.Select CROP TOOL # from Tool Bar on left of screen
In the boxes at the top of the screen Type in the required Width and Height
(e.g. 7 in and 5 in)
4.Position the crop cursor at the top left corner of the image and drag down and right as far as it will go (having entered the finished size, the selection will be restricted in the correct proportions).
5.With the arrowhead cursor in the centre of the selected area (all other areas will be greyed out) hold down the left mouse button and move the frame around until you are happy that you have selected the part of the image you wish to keep. Release the mouse and “Click the Tick” at the top of the screen (just right of centre) to confirm the crop.
6.Select FILE SAVE AS and type in File Name ending with the .jpg extension.
From the Format options Select JPEG. Ensure the destination is where you want
it to go, and click SAVE.
7.If you then see the JPEG Options screen,
Select:QUALITY12 (Large file)
FORMAT OPTIONS:Progressive
SCANS3
Click OK
Correcting converging verticals
1.Proceed as above as far as step 4. You will now see a check-box labelled
PERSPECTIVE on the top menu bar. Check this box.
2.Drag each corner marker in turn until each side of the bounding box line is parallel with the
straight edges in your image. Each side moves independently to give an exact match. When you are happy with the alignment release the cursor. Click the Tick at the top of the screen and the image will crop, straighten and fit the frame.
3.SAVE or SAVE AS in the normal way.
If at any time you make a mistake, click EDIT STEP BACK to undo the previous action.
Cloning
Select clone stamp (looks like a square bucket with a lolly on top) Go to top and select your brush. Move to area on your photo that you wish to use to clone out whatever offends you.You can increase size of brush by altering numbers by the brush at top (Sue said you can use the brackets but I couldn't do this) Press 'Alt' to select the area you want to copy. click to accept when you decide it is right colour and size, move to area you want to obliterate , and clone away.When complete Save. I usually save my alterations with a different file name.
Changing contrast using levels
Choose the photo you wish to tackle.
In the Layers box on right, click the 2nd icon from right at bottom of levels box to make a duplicate layer. Then click the 3rd icon from right to get up your selection list. Click 'Levels' You will get a chart showing contrast distribution.At the bottom you will see a line with triangles either end , these will adjust your high and low tones. The line above, choose middle triangle to change mid tones. Keep twiddling until you like it better than originaland then click OK
Save as before with different file name in case you decide you like the original better.
Tutorial March 2009
Tutorial - Printing and sizing difficulties:
Sue had brought her printer and demonstrated how to crop to a specific size and proportion by entering the sizes in the relevant boxes at the top of the screen once the crop tool has been selected. Also, how the selection can be moved around to arrive at the best final result and then printed on the same sized paper. There was plenty of discussion on how to get multiple prints on one sheet of paper. It is possible by selecting multiple images from the opened file list and exporting them to the print screen, or by making a separate file for all required images.
Tutorial May/June.....
LESSON 8 - HOW TO MERGE TWO IMAGES IN PHOTOSHOP
1 . Import Image 1 File -> Open -> navigate to your chosen image
2. Erase Background:
From the Tool Bar (LH side of screen) select Magic Eraser Tool (click on bottom RH corner of eraser tool icon and select) - Tolerance 10 to 15 or dependant upon subject being selected.
or
Background Eraser tool and Opacity 100%
Adjust size of brush for speed and/or delicacy of detail to be erased then "rub" out usingmouse to move the eraser over the unwanted areas.
Finish with eraser tool
3.Import Image 2 (as for Image 1)
4.Change Background Colour if necessary:
Image -> Adjustments (Play with various settings from sub-menu until desired effect is achieved.)
5.Merge Images 1 and 2:
Click on Image 1 to copy it - Select -> All then Edit •> Copy
Click on Image 2 and click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette
Then select Edit -> Paste
6.Rescale Image 1:
Edit -> Transform -> Scale then use the "handles" ajrthe colter of the box created and move in until the desired size of image is achieved(ENTER)
7.Flatten the Images (combine into one image permanently):
Select Layer -> Flatten Image.
8.Save Final Image:
Select File -> Save as and name your new file.
** New layer icon 2nd from right in layer box
Lesson 9 Layer Masks to Merge Images
1. Import Image 1 (background) File Open navigate to your chosen image
2. Import Image 2 (as for Image 1), and using the Move tool (top rt of Toolbar)
drag this layer over the background layer.
3. Apply a Layer Mask to this top layer: Layer Add Layer Mask Reveal All
4. Check on the Tool Bar (LH side of screen) that the icon near the bottom like
two overlapping squares, one black, one white has the black on top. If it is
reversed, click on the double-ended arrow to the right to swap them over.
5. Choose the paintbrush tool
Choosing an appropriate sized brush, (use square brackets next to the ‘P’ – ] to
increase or [ to reduce size) paint over the areas of the picture that you wish
to remove. This will reveal the background picture beneath.
If you accidentally paint over a part you wanted to keep, click on the ‘reverse’ arrow by the black&white squares, and ‘paint’ that part back in. Using the
black on top reveals the lower picture, using white restores the top one. Adjust
the brush size down for more accurate work around the edges of your selected
top image.
6. To reposition the top image at any time, revert to the MOVE tool and adjust its
position.
7. When you’re satisfied with the new image, you need to save it as follows:
8. Combine into one image permanently: Layer Flatten Image.
9. Save Final Image: File Save as and name your new file as a jpg
file.
You can have so much fun with this and the first Merge technique, and produce some really surreal results. Do try it, even if you feel it may not be a procedure you will use often.
PHOTOGRAPHY 2 GROUP MEETING – 25th JUNE 2010
Present: Sue, Richard, Audrey, Jackie, Betty, Gill, Maureen, Norman, Frank and Roy T (with Ann)
Apologies: Roy and Sheila, Yvonne and Val
We met at the Bandstand by the river on a gloriously hot and sunny day for a picnic lunch, and then went off to photograph various aspects of the river, embankment and surrounding area.
We agreed that for our July meeting we would again forsake St Marks and have a day out to Cambridge, travelling on the X5 using our bus passes, to get plenty of shots of buildings and architecture for our September topic.
We will meet at Bedford Bus Station Bay 12 in good time to catch the
10.15am bus (not 10am, as we originally thought) which arrives at Cambridge
Parkside at 11.25. (Return buses go at 10 and 40 mins past each hour.)
We will find lunch out, and Ann Trundley promised to let us know of a website
where we can print off special offer vouchers for various restaurant chains.
We agreed that as it was a whole day out, and not our usual 2hr meeting, we would invite “other halves” to join us for the trip. This being the case, it may be advisable to get to the Bus Station early to try and ensure we can all get on one bus together.
As we are again “on tour” we will not need a subject for July. So the rearranged topics now are:
August 27th: “Landscape” and “The Embankment area” (2 of each subject from everyone)
September 24th: “Buildings and Architecture”. Any offers for someone to lead the 2nd half of this meeting would be gratefully accepted.
We hope to see most of you at the Bus Station on 23rd July and hope for more good weather.
Happy Snapping,
Sue & Richard
Lesson 10 and 11
LESSON 10 – HOW TO PRODUCE A GHOSTLY IMAGE
1.Take two identical photos, except that one will have a figure or person in it. It is recommended that you use a tripod to ensure the two images are identical in all other ways.
2.Import Image 1 (without the person) first in Photoshop, then import Image 2.
3Using the Move tool, (top right of the Tool Bar) click on the ‘person’ image and hold the left mouse button down while you drag this image exactly over the ‘non-person’ image.
4Near the top right of the Layers Palette, click on Opacity and slide the bar to the left until you achieve the ghostly effect you want.
Save the image as a .jpeg file with a new name and then close down all images.
LESSON 11 – USING THE ‘PATCH’ TOOL
This is an alternative way to cloning or removing an unwanted section of an image.
1.Open your image in Photoshop
2.Click on the Patch tool (4th down on LH side of Tool Bar). It could be showing the Healing Brush (like a sticking plaster) so you need to right click on the little up-turned corner and select Patch if this is the case.
3Move to the area you wish to change, and mark round it to get the ‘marching ants’.
4.Drag this selected area to a part of the image you want to replace it
with and release the mouse. The selected area will copy into the area originally selected.
5.Go to Select on the toolbar across the top of the screen and move down to Deselect to remove the marching ants.
This action can be repeated several times in an image, using different areas of the image to copy as required.