Photoshop Preferences, Image Input, and Business Issues General

Transcription

Supplemental Information for “Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, 3rd edition”
by Katrin Eismann and Wayne Palmer.
Photoshop Preferences, Image Input, and Business Issues
From discussion to print, the third edition of Photoshop Restoration & Retouching took a full year
to complete and was literally written on three different continents by a team of people who never
met face to face and due to time zone differences rarely spoke on the phone. Additionally, readers
from all around the world wrote us to share their successes and/or restoration techniques.
Unfortunately budget, time and editorial constraints keep us from featuring every aspect of
restoration and retouching in the printed version of the book. But to be quite clear, we love to hear
from you – the reader to see how you’re rescuing images, memories, and community history.
I do not restore photos on a day in and out basis, while Wayne does have a business that offers
image restoration, photography, and video services. We often had discussions of differing
strategies during the book’s development. Wayne often came from the point of view that restoring
an image wasn’t so much the real issue as to whether it could it be done within the customer’s
budget and expectations. When an image is severely damaged, there may only be a limited amount
of success in the repair. And of course there are images that can’t be repaired when there are
missing faces and information that can’t be borrowed from another image.
Image restoration is more than knowing how to use a specific tool and this addendum addresses:
•
Photoshop Preferences and Color Settings
•
Scanning, Care, and Handling of Sensitive Images
•
Essential Business Considerations
Preferences Information excerpted from Katrin’s next book “The Creative Digital
Darkroom” which she is writing together with Sean Duggan for O’Reilly Press. Email
[email protected] to be notified of its release in late 2006/early 2007.
Photoshop Preferences and Color Settings
The preferences of any software are never very exciting. It’s hard to imagine people getting a new version
of their favorite program and immediately opening up the preferences to see what’s new. But even if your
heart does not beat a little faster at the thought of this part of Photoshop (don’t worry, ours don’t either),
it’s important to know what options are available here and how they might affect your work in the rest of
the program. This is even more critical when it comes to the choices you make in the Color Settings dialog,
since this is where Photoshop gets its instructions on how to interpret the color in images as well as how to
handle color profile discrepancies.
In this section we’ll go over what we feel are the most important preferences and color settings for doing
the type of digital darkroom work that this book is concerned with. There are a lot of preferences and not
all of them are applicable to the work that photographers are concerned with, so we’ll only be covering the
ones that directly affect working with photographic images or that have an impact on the overall
performance of the program. If a preference is not mentioned then this is because it’s either selfexplanatory or we don’t feel it pertains to the digital darkroom.
General Preferences
You can access the Preferences from the Photoshop menu on a Mac (far left side of the menu bar) or the
Edit menu on a PC. You can also get to them via the shortcut of Command or Control-K. The first panel is
the General Preferences (figure 3), which contains several options. Some are important, some are
trivial, while others deal primarily with matters of convenience (i.e., saving the location of palettes when
you close the program). Here are the most critical ones you need to be concerned with:
All Rights Reserved – material may not be copied, distributed, or posted without express written
permission of Katrin Eismann [email protected]
Page 1
Figure 2-3. The General Preference panel.
•
Color Picker. The default Adobe Color Picker is the best choice here. It offers far more functionality,
control and subtlety than either the Apple or the Windows system color pickers.
•
Image Interpolation. Interpolation refers to the method by which new pixels are created or existing
pixels are thrown away when an image is resized larger or smaller. Of the five algorithms on the menu,
the three Bicubic flavors are the best to use for working with photographs. We recommend using
Bicubic as the setting here in the Preferences. These interpolation choices are also available in the
Image Size dialog, which is where we would normally make use of them on a case-by-case basis
depending on whether we are making an image larger or smaller. For upsampling images (making
them larger) Bicubic Smoother is the better choice. Bicubic Sharper will provide the best results for
downsampling (making an image smaller). It’s important to note that the interpolation method that is
specified in the Preferences will affect how interpolation is done in other areas of the program where
you don’t have the option to choose, such as when you scale or transform an image (or a portion of an
image) using the transformation commands, or if you resize by using the Crop tool.
•
History States. The History feature in Photoshop is an über-undo command that lets you move
backwards through individual editing steps to undo changes. Photoshop refers to each separate change
as a history state. A history state can be anything from a Levels adjustment to a retouching dab with
the Clone Stamp tool to an application of a sharpening filter. As you might imagine, this provides great
flexibility and insulation from “point of no return” mistakes. The default number is 20 history states,
and the maximum number is a whopping 1000. Whether you’ll actually be able to get by with the
maximum amount will depend on a number of factors, including image size, how much of the image
has been altered by each history state, how much RAM you have, and how much free disk space is
available for Photoshop to use as a Scratch Disk (we’ll address Scratch Disk issues later in this
chapter). If you want to free up some system resources and don’t need all the recent history states in
your image, you can do some pruning by either dragging individual states to the trashcan at the bottom
of the History palette, using the Clear History command found in the palette’s sub-menu, or by
accessing a similar command found under Edit→Purge→Histories. Until you get a better idea of how
many history states is a good number for you, we suggest starting at 100.
•
Automatically Launch Bridge. This is just a convenience setting but as conveniences go, it’s a very
useful one. This will launch Adobe Bridge whenever Photoshop is launched, making sure it is ready as
soon as possible or browsing through your images.
Page 2
•
History Log. This allows you to save a record of your activity in Photoshop, or the specific steps you
applied to an image. You can choose to save this information to a file’s metadata, to a separate text
file, or both. The details can be restricted to Session, which simply records when you open and close a
file (useful for client billing purposes); Concise, which tracks session info in addition to itemizing
every step you perform; and Detailed which tracks session info and keeps an extremely detailed record
of every thing you do to an image, including specific settings used for filters, color correction, and
other tools. For experimenting and remember exactly what you’ve done to an image, the Detailed
option can be very useful, especially for filter settings or precise transform amounts. Whether you use
it or not, and how you use it, is largely dependent on whether any of this information is useful to you.
If you do decide to use it, we feel the best way is to write the log directly into the file’s metadata, so
that the information travels with the file and you don’t have to worry about keeping track of a separate
text file.
If you will be delivering files to a client and you don’t want them to know your secret Photoshop recipes,
open a file and then choose File→File Info. Once in the dialog, select the Advanced option from the
choices on the left, then in center area click on the triangle arrow for Adobe Photoshop Properties.
Select the History line and press the Delete button in the lower right corner. Your History log will be
stripped from the metadata, but any other metadata that you want to leave in place, such as copyright
notices or licensing information, will not be touched.
File Handling
This section of the Preferences contains settings (figure 4) that control how Photoshop saves a file.
Some are fairly minor and inconsequential, while others are more significant.
Figure 2-4. File Handling Preferences
•
Image Previews. If you want Photoshop to create small versions of the image for your operating
system to use as icons or preview thumbnails, this is the preference that controls it. Note that this has
nothing to do with the thumbnail previews that are generated by Adobe Bridge. In the past we have not
recommended using the Full Size preview option since that added to the file size and was something
we never used. There are some file processing circumstances, however, where having a full size
preview might be highly useful. Some digital asset management programs can make use of these large
previews with automated functions that create files for proof prints or generate contact sheets and web
Page 3
galleries. Yes, this will add to the file size, but hard drive storage is very affordable at the moment. To
keep all your options open and be able to choose on a per-image basis whether these items are
generated, select the Ask When Saving option.
If you’re generating images for a Web site, then you usually don’t want to save either
previews or icons, since no one visiting a Web page will see them and they just
needlessly increase the file size.
•
Append File Extension. We feel this is always useful for the primary reason that it lets you see at a
glance what the file format is, even if you’re only looking at a list of files in a folder.
•
Ignore EXIF sRGB tag. Some digital cameras will automatically add an sRGB color profile to the
EXIF metadata of their images. While the sRGB profile may represent a correct interpretation for the
images a camera produces, it’s just as likely to be no more than a “default” tag by the camera
manufacturer that doesn’t necessarily reflect the best way to interpret the colors in the photos your
camera captures. You can use this preference to tell Photoshop to ignore the sRGB tag contained in a
camera’s EXIF data.
•
Ask Before Saving Layered TIFF Files. This is primarily an issue for those who have developed a
file organization system where PSDs are the layered master file and TIFFS are used for flattened
versions, or if you’re using TIFF files in page-layout programs (earlier versions of some layout and
prepress applications had a tendency to get downright cranky, and often seized up entirely, if they
encountered a layered file). If you want a reminder that you’re saving a layered file in TIFF format,
turn this option on. We leave it off.
Either PSD or TIFF is fine to use for your master layered files. Both support any type of
“extra” you might choose to add in Photoshop (i.e., layers, layer masks, vector masks,
type layers, etc), and both use lossless compression (PSDs do this automatically and with
TIFFs you get a choice). In fact, with its LZW compression option TIFF files are
sometimes smaller on disk than if you had saved in the Photoshop format.
•
Enable Large Document Format (.psb). This preference allows you to save very large files that were
not possible in versions before Photoshop CS. These large files can be saved in either TIFF (up to
4GB) or the new PSB format with no file size limit. They can also be saved in Photoshop RAW (not to
be confused with Camera Raw), but we recommend that you avoid this format. The PSB format and
the image size limits (300,000 by 300,000 pixels) are not backward compatible with any version of
Photoshop prior to CS2. If you can’t see yourself working with such huge files, then we recommend
that you leave this option off, just as protection against accidentally creating a file this big. If you do
feel compelled to stitch together 50 or 60 8-megapixel photos into a single, monumental collage
however, then this is the option you need to turn-on to make that possible.
•
Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility. This option controls whether Photoshop will include a
hidden, composite version of the image along with the regular layers when you save a file. The
composite is essentially just a single layer that represents what the image would look like with all the
visible layers flattened. The primary downside to having this turned on is that the extra composite layer
will make your file size much larger—up to 33 percent larger—than it needs to be. While this is not
much of an issue with small files, it can quickly become a big problem with larger documents. In the
past, it was easy for us to tell people to turn this off and thus avoid needlessly bloated file sizes, but
cheaper hard disk storage as well as changes in the software landscape and how people work with their
images have caused us to reconsider this position. If you are working with your images only in
Photoshop, then we still feel there is no good reason to have this on; turn it off and save some disk
space. If you are working with 16-bit layered files, however, you don’t have the option to turn this off
in Photoshop CS2. The full resolution composite will always be created no matter what you may have
specified in the Preferences.
If you are using your images in other programs, however, there may be good reasons why you would
want to use this. The primary one is that it allows layered PSD files to be used in other applications,
such as InDesign and Illustrator, and ensure that the all of the layer compositing and blending is
Page 4
properly rendered. Although many other programs support the PSD format, they rely on the extra
composite layer in order to display the image properly. Of particular interest to photographers is the
fact that photo cataloging applications such as iView Media Pro and Extensis Portfolio will use the
hidden composite layer to create thumbnails and previews for their catalogs. If you are using
cataloging software to maintain a detailed catalog of your photo archive, then having accurate
previews for the layered files is a sound reason to use this option.
In a hypothetical future version of Photoshop, it is possible that some of the math behind
the layer blending modes may be updated to compensate for rounding errors or other
issues. This could conceivably cause the interaction of layers that use blend modes to
change, which in turn could result in your image looking a bit different than when you
last saved it in an earlier incarnation of Photoshop. Using the Maximize PSD and PSB
Compatibility option would provide a visual reference of how the image should look. As
logical as this sounds, we don’t think it is a particularly compelling argument since in our
workflow we usually archive a separate flattened file for this purpose.
Display and Cursors
This section contains options that influence the display of the pixels and the appearance of the mouse
cursor (figure 5). Not too exciting, but there are a couple of important ones here.
Figure 2-5. The Display & Cursors preferences
•
Color Channels in Color. We strongly recommend that this should be left unchecked. When turned
on, it displays the individual color channels with a brightly colored overlay of red, green or blue. The
problem with this is that the colored overlays actually make it much harder to evaluate the tonal detail
in the channels, particularly in the blue channel, where the overlay color is darker than the others. It’s
much better to leave this unchecked and view the default grayscale versions of the color channels.
•
Painting Cursors. From a usability perspective, this is arguably the most important setting in this
panel. By setting the painting cursors to Brush Size, it allows you to see a circular cursor that
represents the size of the brush tip you’re painting with. If the cursor is the default brush symbol icon,
then you won’t know how large your brush is until after you’ve painted on the image (very
inconvenient!). Sean uses the Normal Brush Tip, which shows the size of the brush out to 50% opacity
(soft-edged brushes have a feathered tip that gives coverage that gradually fades out at the edges).
While Katrin opts for the Full Size Brush Tip that shows the coverage of the brush out to 0% opacity.
•
Other Cursors. This preference lets you choose between standard, which is the tool icon, and a
precise crosshairs. Turning this on is purely subjective point and we do not use choose precise since
you can have a precise cursor tool at any time by simply pressing the caps lock key, which we do use
when working on very precise cropping.
Page 5
Transparency and Gamut
In the grand scheme of things, these preferences are not that important, and we’ve rarely had to change the
defaults here, but there may be times when you do need to change them, so having a basic understanding of
what they do is useful.
•
Transparency Settings. When you have an image element on a separate layer Photoshop uses a
checkerboard pattern to represent the transparent pixels that surround it. You’ll only see the pattern if
you turn off the eye icons in the Layers palette of any underlying layers. Essentially, the program
needs to have something there so that you can see there’s nothing there. We have found that the default
colors and grid size work fine for most images but we can envision situations where it might be useful
to change them. Clicking in the colored swatches will take you to the Photoshop Color Picker where
you can choose new colors for the grid.
•
Gamut Warning. When the Gamut Warning is activated (View→Gamut Warning), Photoshop will
place an overlay tone over any colors in the image that are out of gamut for the current CMYK setup as
specified in the Color Settings dialog. Although it’s initial purpose in Photoshop was for prepress
work, if you have selected an inkjet profile as the current proofing space, it will display the out-ofgamut colors for the printer and paper combination that the profile represents. For photographers
making their own prints this can be a very helpful tool for the final finessing of the image before
making a print. The middle gray color at 100 percent works pretty well for most images. Click in the
color swatch if you need to change it.
Units and Rulers
These settings are fairly obvious (not to mention moderately yawn-inducing) so there’s really no need to
explain what they do. But we can offer a few useful tips that relate to choosing ruler units in general and
how the chosen units might affect other areas of the program.
•
Units. A much faster way to change the ruler units is to right-click (PC) or Control-click (Mac onebutton mouse) inside the rulers on the top and left sides of your image window. You can also change
the units by clicking on the small crosshair in the XY section of the Info palette.
The measurement unit that is set for the program is used by default when you enter
custom values in the Options bar for the Crop tool. Be on the lookout for this to be sure
that you are not inadvertently about to crop an image to 8 by 10 pixels. If you do see this
in the Crop tool options, simply change the “px” abbreviation to “in” and then apply the
crop.
•
Column Size. If you need to resize images for a publication that uses columns for arranging text on a
page, then specifying the exact size of your columns in the Preferences will allow you to resize images,
or create new files, based on the column width used in your publication. If you want to resize a photo
so that it’s two columns wide, for instance, this Column Size preference tells Photoshop how wide to
make your image.
Plug-ins and Scratch Disks
Most people are aware that Photoshop can be a demanding program in terms of memory usage (RAM). The
most succinct words of wisdom we can impart regarding Photoshop and memory would be “the more the
better”! Apart from the amount of RAM you have, Photoshop also utilizes actual hard disk space as a
“scratch disk”. A scratch disk is like virtual RAM that Photoshop can use for its calculations. These
preferences control how Photoshop interacts with your computer in the vital areas of virtual memory as
well as the location of accessory plug-ins.
•
Plug-ins. Photoshop normally looks for filters in it’s own plug-ins folder (located inside the Photoshop
application folder). If you have third-party plugins that you want to keep in a different folder, this is
where you tell Photoshop where that folder is so that the additional plug-ins show up.
Page 6
•
Scratch Disks. When Photoshop runs out of RAM in which to do its calculations, it grabs some empty
hard drive space on your computer and uses that as a “scratch disk”, or virtual memory. This option
lets you assign a first, second, third, and fourth choice for which hard disks Photoshop should use as
scratch space as seen in figure 6. You should always assign your fastest drive, with the largest
amount of free space, to be the primary scratch disk drive.
Figure 2-6. Telling Photoshop which drives to use for Scratch memory.
Memory and Image Cache
This Preferences (figure 7) area controls more options for general memory allocation and the speed at
which Photoshop updates the display of images.
Figure 2-7. Memory and Image cache preferences
•
Cache Settings. The image cache is a way that Photoshop increases the apparent speed with which it
deals with large images. Using the number specified by this setting, Photoshop saves several smaller
versions of the image at different zoom percentages (25 percent, 33.3 percent, 50 percent, and 66.7
percent). When viewing the image at a zoomed-out view, such as 25% the program can apply the
changes to the smaller, cached 25%version first, which results in a speedier update of the screen
preview. The default setting for Photoshop CS2 is 6 cache levels, which works just fine for most
images from digital cameras. If you find that you’re working on really large images and you have a
good allocation of RAM and scratch disk space, then you might try increasing it to 8 cache levels,
which is the maximum.
Note for Photoshop CS Users: In versions prior to CS2, you will see a checkbox here
labeled “Use Cache for Histogram in Levels”. We recommend that this be turned off.
Page 7
Although the time it takes to build the Levels histogram is shorter with this option, the
reality is that you’re not getting the histogram from the full image, but rather a histogram
rendered from whatever cached version happens to be presently in use. We feel that if
you’re going to make the effort to understand what the histogram is telling you, then you
should be getting the accurate data. The Histogram palette will always use the cached
data until you tell it to do otherwise. It has its own interface and menu controls to render
a new histogram from non-cached data.
•
Memory Usage. This section shows you how much available RAM you have and how much of it
should be assigned to Photoshop. Both Windows and Mac OS X use dynamic memory allocation,
which means that the operating system is constantly adjusting memory usage in response to the needs
of the programs that are open. We generally use 75 percent of our available RAM for Photoshop. If
you are running a lot of programs, or you find your system getting cranky, then you may need to lower
this amount, install more RAM (always a good idea), or try closing some applications. Of those three
possible options, getting more RAM is the best one. You can never have too much RAM with
Photoshop. Remember also that Photoshop should have plenty of free disk space available to use for its
scratch disk requirements.
Photoshop Color Settings
A digital image is nothing more than a grid of numbers representing different color values (Seán likes to
think of it as an electronic paint-by-numbers kit). Unfortunately, those numbers are pointless unless there is
some standard definition of what they mean, and how they should be interpreted. The Color Settings dialog
is where you define what those definitions are and tell Photoshop how it should interpret the colors in the
images you bring into the program.
We feel it serves no purpose to just include a screen capture of the dialog that shows you which check
boxes to check, and which radio buttons to enable if you don’t also have an understanding of the “why
behind the how” of the Color Settings dialog and of Photoshop color management in general. So, before we
cover the specific options in the Color Settings dialog, let’s take a moment to get an overview of the terrain
we’ll be exploring.
How Photoshop Approaches Color Management
The core problem with having an image that is described by a grid of numbers is that it comes with a
certain amount of ambiguity. To use the paint-by-numbers analogy mentioned earlier, a picture would look
very different depending on whether you used watercolors, oils, acrylics, colored pencils, or chalk pastels.
Beyond those broad distinctions, there are the more subtle ones such as “what color is red”?; how many
different reds are there?; and which one do I want for the fire engine/classic corvette/blooming rose in my
image? With digital color, the actual color you get, whether displayed on a monitor or printed by an inkjet
or photographic printer, will vary from device to device, simply because different devices interpret the
numbers and render color in different ways.
Color management in Photoshop uses profiles to standardize how digital color is displayed and printed.
Profiles are simply information that is included with the file that defines how these colors should be
interpreted. The way that profiles are used revolves around three key principles:
1.
Having a properly calibrated display with an accurate profile that tells Photoshop how your specific
device renders color.
2.
Using an RGB Working Space that’s device-independent; that is, its interpretation of how a given set
of color numbers should be displayed is not constrained by the limitations of a particular device, such
as a monitor, printer, scanner or camera.
3.
Adding ICC (International Color Consortium) profiles, or color tags, to your image files that tell
Photoshop and other ICC-aware applications, how the color numbers in your file should be displayed.
These color tags give meaning to the color numbers in your image.
Page 8
Monitor calibration and profiling
The importance of having an accurately calibrated and profiled monitor cannot be emphasized enough. If
your monitor has not been properly adjusted (calibrated) and the profile that describes it is not accurate,
then no amount of color management diligence and use of image color tags farther down the line will give
you predictable color. If you have never calibrated and profiled your monitor then we recommend
postponing any serious printing of your images until you’ve dealt with that vital piece of the puzzle.
The actual nuts and bolts details of the calibration process are outside the scope of this book but there are
plenty of other books (Real World Color Management, 2nd edition by Bruce Fraser and Color Confidence,
2nd edition by Tim Grey are two popular and reliable choices) , as well as resources on the Web that do
cover it.
At the every least, you can use software calibration to get your monitor in the ballpark, but since this relies
on your subjective visual judgment we don’t recommend the software approach. On the Mac, use the
Display Calibrator Assistant, which is accessed through the Display Preferences. While not the best way to
calibrate and profile a display, it is much better than doing nothing and it’s free. As of this writing there is
still no display calibration utility built into Windows, but you can use the very capable Adobe Gamma
utility that is included with Windows versions of Photoshop CS2. We feel that the best way to calibrate
your monitor (read “Do not pass Go”) issue is by purchasing a 3rd party calibration product such as those
sold by Gretag Macbeth as seen in figure 8 or Xrite. Rather than rely on the subjective and fallible
calibration approach used by the Apple calibration utility or Adobe Gamma, these use colorimeters to
measure the actual colors on the monitor, which is much more accurate.
Figure 2-8. The GretagMacbeth EyeOne Display 2is very straight forward to use and
produces excellent results on both CRTs and LCD monitors.
Working spaces in Photoshop
A working space defines how Photoshop interprets the color numbers in any new file or in a file that you
have converted from another profile. It provides visual meaning and consistency to the numbers that make
up a digital image. The working space affects any new images you create in Photoshop and also images that
do not already have a profile associated with them (as is often the case with files from a digital camera).
The RGB working spaces that are available in Photoshop do not represent color as defined by a particular
device, such as a monitor or printer. Because of this they are referred to as being device-independent.
We’ll discuss the merits of the different working spaces a little later. As long as an you’re using an accurate
monitor profile and saving an image with a color profile (more on that in the next section), then the display
Page 9
of the image will be consistent when viewed on other calibrated and color-managed systems as well as
when printed using accurate printer profiles (printing issues will be covered in Ch. 10).
Color profiles: a digital guide print
If you have been photographing for a while, then at some point you probably have had to deal with photo
labs to have some of your work reproduced. In some cases, when ordering a an enlargement from a
negative that had been previously printed, you may have brought a guide print to the lab and included it
with your order to show the technician how you wanted the new enlargement to look. Without a guide print
the interpretation of a negative can be very subjective, but with a guide print, there is a reference for how
the image should appear.
A color profile is the digital equivalent of a guide print. It describes how the colors in an image should be
displayed or printed. Along with a monitor profile and a device-independent working space, it represents
the third component in how Photoshop manages the color in the images you work on. Every file should be
saved with an embedded color profile (this option can be found in the Save and Save As dialogs). The
presence of a profile, a digital guide print, tells Photoshop and other ICC-savvy applications how the colors
should look. We can’t stress enough the importance of having a profile associated with your image.
Without an embedded profile Photoshop has no idea how to display the colors, so it just interprets them
according to the working space. This may represent a correct interpretation, but then again it may not. It’s
like ordering an enlargement from a negative with no guide print; the technician will simply make what she
feels is a good print. This may be acceptable, but having a guide print ensures that the image will look
correct.
The Color Settings Dialog
Now that we have some of the important background information covered, let’s take a look at the actual
Color Settings dialog and discuss some of the options there. You can find the Color Settings near the
bottom of the Edit menu (Cmd-shift-K on Mac and ctrl-shift-K on Windows) as seen in figure 9.
Figure 2-9. The Color settings dialogue looks more daunting than it really is.
At the top of the Color Settings dialog is the Settings menu, which contains some preset configurations that
are tailored for different purposes. If you’ve never changed these settings, then it’s likely they are still set at
the defaults, which are not the best for serious photographic work with Photoshop. In Photoshop CS2, the
Page 10
default settings are North America General Purpose 2. The use of these default settings doesn’t portend the
end of the world in terms of color quality, but if you do care about tonal and color quality in your images
they’re not ideal. As we shall explain shortly, the primary downside to these defaults is the use of sRGB as
the RGB working space.
As a shortcut to get to most of the settings that we recommend for photographic work, you can choose
North America Prepress 2 from the Settings menu. In the following section, we’ll address what these
settings mean and explain why we think you should use them, and cover situations where using a different
setting might make sense.
RGB Working Spaces
For the purposes of this discussion, we are going to focus on two types of RGB working spaces that you
can use in Photoshop. The first of these are what we will refer to as the standard working spaces. These are
the four working spaces that are available in the Color Settings dialog when it is in Fewer Options mode.
The other working spaces are known as wide-gamut spaces because they encompass a much larger gamut
than the standard spaces. These only become available when you press the More Options button. Although
a larger gamut might sound like the way to go (after all, more is better, right?), larger gamut working
spaces come with their own set of challenges and caveats. We will start off with the standard spaces and
discuss the wide-gamut alternatives in a bit.
Standard RGB Working Spaces
In the default arrangement of this dialog (Fewer Options), you have four choices for RGB Working Spaces
in the pop-up menu. Of these, only two are serious contenders for photographers who care about good color
reproduction. Unfortunately, neither of them is used in the default settings. Let’s take a look at these
choices in greater detail in the order in which they appear.
•
Adobe RGB (1998). Of the four standard RGB working spaces this is the one we recommend for most
photographers (if you chose North America Prepress 2 from the Settings menu, Adobe RGB (1998) is
already selected for you). This working space has the largest color gamut of any of the four standard
spaces. For printed output of your photographs on RGB devices, whether on inkjet printers or
photographic printers such as a LightJet 5000, Adobe RGB (1998) encompasses a good portion of the
color gamuts of those devices and we feel it is the best choice of the standard vanilla RGB working
spaces in Photoshop.
•
Apple RGB. This is legacy working space. In Photoshop 4 and earlier, the only color space the
program used was based on an Apple 13-inch monitor, hence the inclusion of Apple RGB in the list of
choices here. There is no reason to choose this as a working space.
•
ColorMatch RGB. This is based on the gamut of an actual device, the Radius PressView monitor that
was once ubiquitous in prepress shops. Although the gamut of ColorMatch is much smaller than that of
Adobe RGB (1998), it does include most of the common CMYK gamuts and it can be a logical choice
to use in certain situations, especially if you’re preparing images specifically for press reproduction.
We also know some portrait photographers who prefer this working space because skin tones do not
appear as saturated as they do in Adobe RGB (1998).
•
sRGB. This is Photoshop’s default RGB working space, so if you’ve never changed it, or if you just
accepted the defaults when you installed the program, it’s probably still set to this. Microsoft and
Hewlett-Packard developed the sRGB space to represent the gamut of the “typical” monitor. Since the
“typical” monitor is probably an inexpensive one that is not designed for imaging work, sRGB is less
than ideal for people who are concerned about working with color photographs. For the casual photo
hobbyist, sRGB is fine, but if you have purchased this book, your interest in photography and the
digital darkroom is likely more serious than that of a casual hobbyist. We do not recommend sRGB as
a working space.
sRGB clips substantial colors in the blue/green range that can be reproduced on even
matte surface inkjet prints (matte papers have a smaller gamut than glossy). To be fair,
Adobe RGB also clips some colors that are within the gamut of some matte papers, but
the clipping is minimal compared to sRGB. For more on printing issues, see Ch. 11.
Page 11
Wide-Gamut Working Spaces: ProPhoto RGB
If you press the More Options button on the right side of the dialog, you can see a list of every RGB profile
installed on your computer. Although seeing so many potential choices may be a daunting prospect, the
good news is that nearly all of them are entirely inappropriate as an RGB working space because they are
device profiles (i.e., profiles that represent a specific monitor, scanner or printer).
There is one RGB working space in this list, however, which you may want to consider as an option,
especially if you are shooting RAW files and are interested in retaining all of the color and tonal range that
can be captured by your camera. ProPhoto RGB is a wide gamut space that was originally specified by
Eastman Kodak as a way to describe all of the highly saturated colors that could be produced by E6
transparency films. It is much larger than Adobe RGB and encompasses nearly all of the colors in the
visible spectrum (as well as some colors beyond it). Before you rush off and start using it, however, you
need to be aware of the special handling that it requires. Although it is a very powerful color space, to lift a
quote from “Spiderman”, with great power comes great responsibility.
Advantages of ProPhoto RGB for Raw Files
The reason ProPhoto RGB is of interest if you are shooting RAW is that it encompasses nearly all of the
color information that your camera’s image sensor can capture. Even though Adobe RGB is the largest of
the four standard working spaces in Photoshop, converting a RAW file into that space will clip significant
amounts of color information that the camera is capable of capturing in some scenes, especially in the deep,
saturated colors. This does not mean that you can’t get a great print from a RAW image that has been
processed into Adobe RGB, but it does raise this issue: why throw away all of this information if you don’t
have to as illustrated in figure 10? Several years down the road, we might have output options that will
allow for larger color gamuts. Even today the newer Epson inkjet printers and K3 inks are capable of
printing saturated cyans, magentas and yellows that lie outside the gamut of Adobe RGB. By intentionally
clipping the file at the beginning, as it is converted to Adobe RGB for your master file, you are closing the
door on those possibilities. You can always return to the original RAW capture and re-process it, of course,
but any work done to the layered master file will have been already forced into a much smaller color
gamut. If the image is converted into the ProPhoto RGB color space at the beginning of the process,
however, virtually all of the original color and tonal range will be preserved in the master file (figure
11). This makes it ideal to use as an archive color space so that your master images are stored with as
much potential information as possible. Working with your RAW files in ProPhoto RGB allows you to
“future-proof” your images.
Page 12
Figure 2-10. The grid represents Adobe RGB working space and the color shape
represents the color profile of the Epson 2400 when printing to Luster paper. Notice how
the essential greens and yellows fall outside of the working space.
Figure 2-11. In ProPhoto RGB all of the possible colors of the Epson 2400 printing to
Luster paper are maintained.
ProPhoto RGB Disadvantages: Here There Be Dragons
When judged by the basic comparison that ProPhoto RGB preserves a much fuller range of the captured
information whereas Adobe RGB clips significant amounts, it might seem like a no-brainer to use ProPhoto
RGB all the time. Although this is certainly a compelling reason to consider this color space, there are good
reasons to proceed with caution. Pro Photo RGB as a working space is not for everyone or every image.
While it does offer more possibilities for preserving all the color and tonal information of a RAW capture,
when used incorrectly, there is also the potential for mistakes that can make an image look very bad. Let’s
take a quick look at some of the potential downsides and other issues to be aware of.
Page 13
•
Using it with 8-bit files significantly increases the risks of posterization or banding, especially when
major edits are performed. To get the most out of what ProPhoto has to offer, you need to be
converting your RAW images as 16-bit files (don’t even bother using it with JPEGs). We should point
out that we do not consider working in 16-bit to be a downside at all (in fact, we prefer it!), but some
people might and you do need to be aware of this as it relates to this color space.
•
ProPhoto RGB encompasses most of the visible spectrum, but it also exceeds it in some areas of deep
blues and deep greens (some have referred to these as “imaginary” or “science fiction colors” because
they do not really exist). When editing an image, it is possible that colors can be shifted into these
fictional ranges, which cannot be seen or reproduced, and this can cause major problems in the colors
you can see.
•
Because wide gamut spaces are so wide, they are far larger than what can be displayed on a monitor.
This being the case, some changes you make to an image in the ProPhoto RGB, especially shifts in hue
or saturation, may not be able to be distinguished on a display.
The debate about whether ProPhoto makes sense in real world situations (as opposed to the purely
theoretical) continues to rage on in the photographic community. Many photographers question the
relevance of using a color space that is vastly larger than your eventual output space. While this point has
some merit, the following is also true and worth consideration: There are some camera and “scene” gamuts
that can contain colors that fall outside of Adobe RGB (this is especially true with highly saturated yellows
and greens that are often found in flowers and foliage on a bright, sunny day as seen in figure 12). If
you convert a RAW file to Adobe RGB as you bring it into Photoshop, the original character of those
colors is lost when they are compressed into the smaller gamut Adobe RGB space. With the newer Epson
K3 inks and printers, there are also colors that can be reproduced on those printers that fall outside of the
Adobe RGB space. And it is not improbable to think that future printers and inks will be capable of larger
color gamuts than what is possible with today’s models. If your goal is to capture and reproduce as many
colors as faithfully as you can, then for some images, Adobe RGB may not be the best choice, and
ProPhoto RGB may provide a way around this. You will not be clipping those colors at the beginning
during the RAW conversion process and you can exercise greater control over how the 16-bit ProPhoto
image is converted into the printer space at the end of the process.
Figure 2-12. A raw file form a Canon 20d as mapped into Adobe RGB working color
space reveals clipping in the greens and some yellows.
We do not recommend ProPhoto for everyone. If you do not have a good understanding of working in 16bit, color management fundamentals, profile conversions, rendering intents and soft-proofing, this is
Page 14
probably not the color space you should be using at this time, and Adobe RGB would be a safer choice. But
if you are interested in preserving as much of the original color captured by the camera as possible, and
have the requisite Photoshop experience to navigate the potential pitfalls, then ProPhoto RGB may be
worth considering for your high-bit images that originate from camera raw files.
CMYK Working Spaces
You only need to be concerned with choosing a CMYK working space if the images you’re working on
will be reproduced on a commercial printing press and you will be applying edits and color corrections to
the actual CMYK files. If you are only working with RGB files then you don’t need to trouble yourself
with this setting and you can leave it at the default. Some people think they need to use CMYK for their
desktop inkjet printers but this is not the case. Even though desktop inkjet printers do use various
combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks, they are considered to be RGB devices because they
do such a great job of converting the RGB information you send them and making excellent prints.
While RGB working spaces are device-independent, CMYK is rigidly output specific. The flavor of
CMYK that you use is influenced by the type of inks and paper being used for a given project, and, in some
cases, the characteristics of the individual printing press. For these reasons, it’s not as easy to give a onesize-fits-all recommendation for the best CMYK space to use. For general purposes, the default U.S. Web
Coated (SWOP)v2 is probably as safe a choice as any for a default setting. Since CMYK settings are so
tied to how the job will be reproduced, however, any setting you choose here should be thought of as no
more than a placeholder that will suffice for the most common printing situations. Depending on the work
you do and the type of publications in which it appears, one of the supplied presets may be just fine, but
you should always maintain good channels of communication with your publisher or printer and verify if
you are using the right setting.
We believe that color images should be kept in an RGB working space as long as possible and flattened
copies only converted to CMYK for specific purposes (i.e., it makes no sense to have a “generic” CMYK
file that you provide to your stock agency because it might not be suitable for all types of CMYK
reproduction). If you find that you need to delve into this area further, we highly recommend Real World
Adobe Photoshop CS2 by David Blatner and Bruce Fraser (Peachpit Press, 2005) as an excellent resource
for anyone who needs to use Photoshop with CMYK.
Gray Working Space
Gray working spaces can be selected to reflect specific dot-gain characteristics or to display gammas. Dot
gain percentages refer to the fact that when printed on a press, a dot of ink will increase in size, and
therefore become darker, as it is imprinted and absorbed into the paper. The gamma settings are designed
for images that will be viewed on a monitor, but they also work well for images that will be printed on an
inkjet printer.
If your primary output is to a printing press, then choose a dot gain that matches the same figure in your
CMYK setup. A setting of 20 percent is a common percentage for coated paper stock, for instance, and is
the default in Photoshop CS2. As with CMYK, however, dot gain may vary depending on the particular
inks and paper being used, so consult your printer to get as much information as possible.
If you’re printing black and white images to a desktop inkjet printer, we recommend setting the Gray
working space to Gray Gamma 2.2. This is true even if you’re on a Mac, which still uses a default display
gamma of 1.8. A gamma of 2.2 (here and in your monitor calibration) will produce smoother gradients than
a gamma of 1.8 and more closely matches the tone response curve of most displays.
If you’re on a Mac and open an earlier grayscale file created using a gray gamma of 1.8,
you will be notified that the embedded profile does not match the current Gray working
space of 2.2. In that case, just choose “Convert document’s colors to the working space”
and the tones in the photo will be converted with an eye towards preserving the
appearance of the image.
Page 15
Spot Working Space
This refers to very specialized prepress situations where custom inks (also known as spot colors) or
varnishes will be used. This is even more of a prepress concern than basic CMYK and unless you find
yourself having to deal with custom inks and varnishes (perish the thought!), the default setting of 20
percent is fine. If you need to use it at all, then do check with your printer about the specific dot gain
characteristics of the ink, paper and press that will be used to print the job.
Color Management Policies
This section of the Color Settings dialog tells Photoshop how to behave when it encounters images that
don’t have a profile (untagged) or images that have an embedded profile that does not match the currently
selected working space (mismatched). This is the place that controls those annoying messages that
sometimes appear when you open an image in Photoshop. Well, some people feel they’re annoying, but
once you understand what they’re telling you, they’re not so bad.
There are three separate pop-up menus for setting the policies for RGB, CMYK and Gray working spaces.
All contain the same three choices: Preserve Embedded Profiles, Convert to Working RGB (or CMYK, or
Gray), and Off. These choices are the same ones that appear in the warning dialogs when you open images
(though the exact wording is a bit different). What you select here just determines which radio button is
selected by default when the warning dialog pops up (you can still change it if you want to). Let’s take a
close look at exactly what these choices mean. We’ll look at them in order of appearance:
•
Off. Before we get into the nitty gritty about what this does, let us state up front that choosing this is a
bad idea (cue: foreboding and scary music). If you open a file that contains an embedded profile,
Photoshop will discard the profile and regard the image as untagged. The color numbers in the file will
be interpreted according to the currently selected working space, even though that may not be a correct
assumption. Remember the analogy we used earlier about a profile being the digital equivalent of a
guide print? Selecting “Off” here would be like the photo lab throwing away your guide print after you
had placed the order! Since we believe that profiles (if they are accurate) are a good thing that can
help you control the color in your images, it’s probably no surprise that we don’t recommend this
option. By stripping the profile from the image, you are flying blind as to the true meaning of the color
numbers and Photoshop can only display the file according to the specifications of your working space.
Apart from obscure color management testing purposes, there is no good reason to choose this setting.
•
Preserve Embedded Profiles. When opening a file with a color tag that is different from your
working space, this option will honor the embedded profile and no conversion will be performed on
the color numbers in the file. The image opens into Photoshop, and you can work on it in its own color
space without having to convert to your working space. Assuming that you have a properly calibrated
and profiled monitor, the display of the image should be correct. This setting is useful if you get files
from different sources and only want to make a conversion to your working space after you’ve had a
chance to inspect the file.
•
Convert to Working RGB. When you open a file that has a different color tag than your working
space, this choice will convert the image from the embedded profile into your currently selected RGB
working space with the goal or preserving the appearance of colors in the image. If you’re working in a
closed loop system (in other words, you’re generating all of your images with your camera) and you
know where all of the files are coming from, you know that they have accurate profiles, and you’re
using a working space such as Adobe RGB (1998) or ProPhotoRGB, then this is probably the best
choice for most photographers.
Of the above options, we recommend Convert to Working RGB (or working Gray) as the best choice in
most circumstances. Remember that all these settings do is determine which button is pre-selected for you
in the profile messages that appear when you open a file; you can still make a different choice if it is
appropriate for a specific image. For the CMYK working space it probably makes more sense to choose
Preserve Embedded Profiles.
Page 16
Profile mismatches and missing profiles
These three check boxes control whether or not you see those vexing “missing profile” or “mismatched
profile,” notices when you open a file (figure 13). If you never want to be bothered by them again (and
we hear this sentiment a lot!), you can turn them off here. We recommend that you leave at least two of
them on, however, since we feel it’s always good to be informed about what’s happening with the color in
our file or how it’s being interpreted. The most important are the Ask When Opening options that trigger a
notice if you open a file that either has no profile or that has a profile that doesn’t match your working
space. The Ask When Pasting option we feel you can safely turn off. This triggers a notice when you paste
from one image to another and the profiles of the two don’t match. In nearly all cases you will want to
convert the color numbers so that the image appearance is preserved. Since that is the default choice for this
warning, we feel it’s fine to leave this option unchecked and let Photoshop do the conversion without
bugging you about it.
Figure 2-13. Checking Profile Mismatches and Missing Profiles informs you when a
profile conflicts with your color settings.
Opening Files: How to Deal with Profile Warnings
One of the most common questions we get from students and new Photoshop users is what to do about the
missing profile and profile mismatch warnings that often pop up when you open a file. If you don’t know
what they’re telling you, or what the right answer should be, encountering these can be very frustrating. To
make matters more perplexing, they use language that is slightly different from that used in the Color
Management Policies section of the Color Settings. In an effort to clear up some of the confusion
surrounding these warnings, here are some recommendations on what choices are appropriate when you run
into them.
Profile Mismatch
These are the easiest to deal with because Photoshop detects that there is a profile associated with the
image and this gives it the necessary information to convert the color numbers from the image’s existing
profile to match your current RGB working space. Of the three choices presented to you, only the first two
are really an option as seen in figure 14:
Page 17
Figure 2-14. A profile mismatch is a common occurrence that should not induce cold
sweats or uncontrollable panic.
•
Use the Embedded Profile will honor the existing color tag and you will be able to edit the image in
it’s native space, as if your working space had been temporarily changed to match the profile of the
image. This choice is the same as the Preserve Embedded Profiles menu option in the Color
Management Policies.
•
Convert Document’s Colors to the Working Space is probably the more logical choice for most
photographers. In terms of digital photography, the most likely scenario you will encounter is opening
a digital capture where the camera has tagged it with an sRGB profile. Since it’s far better to edit an
image in the Adobe RGB (1998) space than in sRGB, converting to the working space makes a lot of
sense. The conversion will preserve the image’s appearance, so while actual color values in the image
may change, it should look exactly the same as if you had opened it by choosing to preserve the
embedded profile. This choice is the same as the Convert to Working RGB option in the Color
Management Policies.
•
Discard the Embedded Profile (Don’t Color Manage), the final choice, should not be used. This is
the same as the Off option in the Color Management Policies. The profile is removed from the image
and the colors in the file are interpreted according to the working space, which is essentially just
Photoshop shrugging and saying, “I dunno, let’s try this”. The only reason we can think of to ever use
this is if you know for certain that the embedded profile is wrong and you want to remove it so you can
assign a new one.
Missing Profile
If you open an image that has no embedded profile, Photoshop has no reference to go on and so it asks you
how you want it to interpret the color numbers in the file. If you are only opening files from your digital
camera, then you can usually figure out the right choice with a little testing. Consumer-level digital
cameras create files that look good when opened as sRGB. While film scans can be opened into Adobe
RGB files as seen in figure 15 or ProPhoto RGB.
Figure 2-15. Files without profiles are thankfully becoming rarer and rarer.
Page 18
Here are the three choices:
•
Leave As Is (Don’t Color Manage) is similar to Off in the Profile Mismatch warning dialog, with the
exception that, since there is no profile to start with, nothing gets stripped from the image. Photoshop
leaves it alone and opens it up, interpreting the colors according to how the working space thinks they
should be displayed, whether that is correct or not. We use this option quite a lot in conjunction with
Photoshop’s Assign Profile dialog (Edit→Assign Profile in CS2; Image→Mode→Assign Profile in
earlier versions of Photoshop), when we want to explore how an untagged image might look when
interpreted through a different profile.
•
Assign Working RGB essentially does the same as the previous choice, with the only difference being
that it formally assigns the profile of the current working space onto the image. Since no color numbers
have changed, and the image is being displayed based on the specification of the working space, the
appearance of the image will be identical to how it would look if you had chosen Leave As Is. The
only difference is the addition of the working space profile. This choice is appropriate only if you
know that the file matches your working space.
•
Assign Profile lets you choose a specific profile if you know what it is and also allows you to then
convert to the working space after the profile has been assigned. This is a good choice if you know, for
example, that sRGB, works well for your camera’s images but they still open up as untagged. You can
choose sRGB from the pop-up menu and then click the convert to working RGB check box. The
momentary presence of the sRGB profile gives Photoshop enough information to make a correct
conversion to the working space. The only thing missing for this choice is a preview so you can see
how a different profile is affecting the image. But, since the image isn’t even open yet, there’s no way
to see a preview (Photoshop can do a lot, but even that is beyond it’s capabilities!).
Conversion Options and Advanced Controls
These settings will only be visible if you have clicked the More Options button (or the Advanced checkbox
in versions prior to CS2). There’s a reason why these are tucked away and not immediately visible in the
dialog and that is that most people don’t need to worry about them. In terms of general settings, the defaults
are fine. They control the “engine” that is used to make the conversion from one color space or mode into
another, as well as the rendering intent (how the conversion is made) and a couple of other items. The
engine should be set to ACE, the rendering intent to Relative Colorimetric, and Black Point compensation
and Use Dither for 8-bit images should be on. There are other places in Photoshop where you can initiate a
profile conversion or explore how a different conversion method will affect your image and the rendering
intent and black point compensation settings, which are the two you would be most likely to change, can be
changed in those places including when Soft Proofing and when using Edit > Convert to Profile that will be
covered in more detail in Chapter 11, “Printmaking”.
Figure 2-16. The behind the scenes settings influence how profile conversions are
performed.
The Advanced Controls for desaturating the monitor colors by a certain percentage and choosing a different
gamma for blending RGB colors are, as the name states, advanced options that should be left off unless you
have specific reasons to use them and you know what you are doing. In the several years that these settings
have been available in this dialog, we have never once had to use them.
Page 19
Saving Your Color Settings
After you’ve gone to all the trouble of customizing the color settings, you can save them so that they appear
in the settings pop-up menu as a choice you can easily select later on. This is useful if you need to change
color settings to work on different projects. We created special settings for preparing the images in this
book, for instance, and we also have a special configuration for working with RAW photos in ProPhoto
RGB. To do this, click the Save button in the Color Settings dialog and give your settings a descriptive
name, such as “Adobe RGB-General Use” or “ProPhoto for RAW”. In the Color Settings Comment dialog
you can enter some text to give further information about the settings that will show up in the Description
area at the bottom of the dialog as you roll your mouse over a settings option. When you’ve finished
configuring and saving the color settings, you’re ready to go to work in Photoshop.
Figure 2-17. Saving the color settings with a descriptive name is especially helpful if you
work with a variety of color spaces.
The Well Stocked Studio
Retouching and restoring photographs efficiently requires a few more tools than just a computer
and Photoshop. Let's run down the items that would make for a well-stocked studio.
•
Flatbed and/or film scanners: Probably the most useful and most used item for image restoration is
the scanner. Over the past few years, scanners have increased in quality as well as equally dropping in
price. Some of the images for the book were scanned with a $50 scanner. Only a few years ago, I
would have recommended that you would probably want to have a separate flatbed and dedicated film
scanner. However, improvements in scanners have reached a point where a dual-purpose flatbed/film
scanner might serve your all your needs. Older negatives and slides tend to be very grainy, so the use
of a high-end film scanner will probably not yield better results than a less expensive one. Consider a
model that can handle a number of films sizes. A client may present you with a negative size that will
require special handling or even require you to design a temporary film holder. If you are mainly doing
retouching with photographers who are still shooting film, you should probably consider a high-end
film scanner.
Most flatbed scanners accommodate an image up to 8 x 10 or legal size. You will eventually encounter
pictures that are larger and the consideration of a scanner that has a larger bed, like an 11x17, would be
beneficial. Steps on how to handle prints bigger than your scanning bed are addressed later in this
chapter.
•
Digital Camera: No professional studio would be complete without having a digital camera. You
eventually encounter images that will be too large to fit a scanner or will not lie flat on a scanner and
photographing them becomes the most practical way of digitizing the image. 8 megapixel cameras are
now the norm. In the last edition of the book we mentioned that you could make perfectly acceptable
8x10 prints from a three-megapixel camera. With a six or eight megapixel camera you cam make
wonderful 11 by 14 inch and larger prints. In many cases, older pictures are not tack sharp or highly
detailed, so a high-resolution copy of it will not add that much to the final product. If the camera you
use is a SLR, consider using a normal to slight telephoto lens for shooting to avoid lens distortion. Also
a true macro lens will come in handy for very small images.
•
Copy Stand with Lights: Using a copy stand to hold the camera steady allows you to capture a truly
square picture. Working with fixed lights allows you to preview and correct for any possible
reflections
Page 20
•
Lights: Whether studio strobes, or traditional hot lights, which are now being used more again due to
the white balance correction features on digital cameras, having auxiliary lights can be helpful in
digitizing large images.
•
Tripod - you may eventually encounter an image that will be too large to fit on a copy stand. You can
then opt to shoot the image against a wall or on a floor.
•
Gretag MacBeth Color Checker: Provides a known reference when doing copy work, which will
later simplify color correction in Photoshop.
•
Proportion wheel: Is an inexpensive device that can be found in most art supply stores. Even though
you can perform the same task using a Photoshop's image size dialog box, the proportion wheel allows
you to simultaneously display all the various combinations of sizes in a given aspect ratio. I find
myself educating clients on a regular basis showing them that a 4 x 6, 5 x 7, and an 8 x 10 are not all
the same aspect ratio. This can be very helpful when the client wants the final print to fit a
conventional sized picture frame.
Links to Proportional Wheel Sites
http://www.schmitzpress.com/proportionater.html
http://www.dickblick.com/zz554/73/
•
Cropping guide: To quickly show a client different aspect ratios. Many a customer thinks that a 5 x 7
and 8 x 10 are the same aspect ratio and just a naturally larger progression.
•
White cotton gloves: If you are working with many negatives, truly archival images, or perhaps just
delicate images, a pair of white breathable cotton gloves can be helpful. With them, you can handle
originals and not worry about leaving behind fingerprints and oily residue. They are also great for
picking up images off your scanner, as you don't have to worry about leaving behind fingerprints on
the scan bed. One reader wrote us recently and mentioned that he prefers using surgical gloves
(without talcum powder) – and this decision all depends on what you are comfortable working with.
•
Canned air: Used to blow off dust from negatives and slides. If you use a lot of canned air, consider a
small air compressor, which ultimately will be cheaper to run and more environmentally friendly. Be
sure to include a filter in the air compressor system, which traps the oily water vapor that you don’t
want to spray on your client’s originals or scanner bed.
Image Input
If you are restoring images professionally, you must handle the customers’ originals with utmost
care. You may advise clients that you will give the image the best of care, but don’t imply any
guarantee. This is particularly true if you have to remove an image from its frame. This simple
step may make the image very susceptible to being damaged. Wayne once had an image form a
large crack while it was sitting on a copy stand before he was able to take a digital copy negative
of it.
Never try to open a Daguerreotype, which is a black-and-white image on glass that has a mirror
like quality. Doing so may end up destroying the image. Digitizing the image may take a little
imagination. You may need to tilt the picture for scanning or shoot it an angle to get rid of the
silvering affect. For more information on how to handle a daguerreotype visit
http://www.daguerre.org
The ideal scan is one that doesn’t exaggerate image damage, dust, or texture. Using the notion that
you can fix anything in Photoshop is counterproductive to getting good results. Scanning software
may produce good results in automatic modes, but the wise Photoshop user knows when to turn
them off. Oftentimes automatic settings can add unwanted sharpening artifacts or contrast changes
to an image at the cost of valuable image information. Scanning software can often make or break
a scanner. In my personal experience using third party software, such as Silverfast has saved a
scanner from the trash heap.
Page 21
Scanning Resolution
One of the frequent questions I receive is at what resolution do you scan an image? There is not an
easy answer as a lot depends upon what type of original you're working with. Scanning a slide or
negative, which contains microscopic information, requires a much higher resolution scan than a
scan from a print.
When scanning slides and negatives, it would be the best use of your time to scan at the highest
optical resolution of your scanner regardless of what the final size result is. My personal
philosophy is to only scan a negative or slide once. It is easier to downsize a file than to spend the
time to rescan it for a different use or size later. Scanners in recent years have climbed in the
amount of resolution that they are capable of capturing, with some reaching resolutions of 8000
ppi (pixels per inch). Once you have captured the grain in the slide or negative, there is NO reason
to scan at higher setting. I have seen the grain in 35mm slides and negatives become quite
apparent at a resolution around 2700 ppi. Scanning at higher resolutions has only produced a
larger file without providing any additional detail. This would be something you would need to
determine with your own scanner and film originals.
Prints are by nature softer and contain less information than the original film. Scanning at 300 ppi
is a safe rule to follow and if you were making a 1:1 ratio print, in theory you would only need to
scan at 300 ppi. However if you are making an enlargement or need to crop the file, it would be
wise to scan at a higher resolution.
It was not until recently that; Wayne came across an exceptionally sharp contact print from a glass negative
of the Brooklyn Bridge that benefited from a scan higher than 300 ppi. In doing several test scans, he
realized that there was a small increase in quality of the cables on the bridge. This was truly an exception to
his normal results. Overall, scanning at a higher resolution usually does nothing more than produce large,
unwieldy files.
Additional information on print resolution
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/332271.html
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/332270.html
Scanning Tips
•
The first step in correcting a photograph is getting a good scan. Don’t rush
through the scanning process and tweak the scanner’s software to get the best
possible image before tackling it in Photoshop.
•
Scan in 16-bit to capture additional tonal information.
•
If the scan shows bothersome reflections try slightly tilting the print on the
scanner bed. This may require placing a small object, such as a coin, along the
edge of the photo to apply a tilt. Avoid adding too much tilt as this could
introduce uneven exposure and perspective problems.
•
If the lid of your scanner is black, use a piece of white foamcore board on the
scanner lid can produce a better scan on prints that are on very thin paper.
•
Have your scanner in a working position that you can easily move it to
accommodate oversize pictures and learn how to possibly remove the scanner’s
lid in the event the hinge is in the way.
•
When you have an image that is in a frame or behind glass that truly can't be
removed, scanning through the glass may produce acceptable results. I have
successfully scanned images inside frames that held the image off the glass as
much as an inch and obtained good results.
•
If you find that one scanner setting does not produce satisfactory results for the
entire picture, consider doing multiple scans with different scanner settings and
recombining the image in Photoshop.
Page 22
Working with Oversized or non-flat images
In doing restoration work, sometimes the process of digitizing the image can be the most difficult
part of the job. No matter what size of scanner you have, you eventually may encounter in image
that is larger than your scanner bed. To accommodate such large images you can do one of two
things. Either scan or photograph the image in pieces and reassemble it in Photoshop.
Scanning Large Images
•
Scan in as few pieces as possible. If you can’t get the image scanned in less than
four pieces, you may want to consider a different method.
•
Leave enough overlap that you can take into account slight angle differences
between the pieces and light fall off that you may encounter from the scanning
bed – this is especially true if there is a slight raise in the edge of the scanner
glass when it meets the edge of scanner housing.
•
If possible plan your scans so that the break in the individual section does not
run through a crucial part of the image, like the face which is harder to align
than a shoulder.
•
Scan in the entire scan bed and after you scan the first piece, do not make more
pre-scans of the remaining pieces. Just reposition the image and scan the entire
bed again. Often, scanning software tries to auto correct the exposure and you
do not want the exposure to change from one piece to the next.
•
Sometimes moving the scanner to where it can be accessed from all sides, think
floor, and removal of the scanner lid can helpful.
•
For prints that have been stored in a rolled position, consider placing them
between sheets of cardboard larger than the image, held together with tape or
rubberbands. After a few weeks or months, the image will probably lie flat
enough to be able to record it.
•
Sometimes an easier alternative to scanning oversized images is to take a picture
of the image with a digital camera, creating a digital copy negative. You will
need to balance your need for resolution against the type of original image being
recorded and the size needed for final output. If you are photographing a large
painting, you will find that you can make a very good reproduction through
upsizing the file. If you are photographing a highly detailed photograph, you
may quickly learn the limits of what your camera is capable of recording.
•
Shooting a large image in pieces with a camera to gain resolution is more
difficult than scanning. More care must be taken in the recording process to be
sure the image is square. A slight tilt or distance difference between shots will
make it difficult to align the sections so use a tripod and easel. Use a normal or
slight telephoto lens that does not distort the edges of the images.
•
When you have your pieces digitized, create a new in Photoshop file large
enough to accommodate the ability to move all the pieces. For example, make
the file twice as large as one of the scans in you have two pieces. Open the
different sections and drag them into the master large file. To get them to align
and blend in properly, you will need to use a number of the tools and techniques
presented in the book; nudge, transform, rotate, distort, rulers, guides, grids, and
gradients on layer masks. Layer masks particularly will help you to hide any
seams.
The Digital Camera as a Scanner
Using a digital camera for image capture can be just as practical and many times preferred to using
a scanner. Especially when working with images that are not flat or cannot fit the scanning bed.
Although you may get satisfactory results just hand holding the camera and taking a quick snap
Page 23
shot, to make a good recording, some effort should be made in trying to square up the camera with
the picture. This is where a tripod and easel or copystand are very helpful.
Lighting the image can take as much time to set up as getting the image to be square in the
viewfinder. On camera flash will not produce good results, so the use of external lighting is often
needed. Often “hot lights”, lights that are on all the time, can be more useful than using studio
strobes as you will be able to see and avoid reflections before pushing the shutter. With truly
problematic reflective surfaces, the solution may be to bounce the lighting off the wall or ceiling.
If your camera supports shooting in RAW, getting the correct white balance will not be an issue if
you take test shots with a Macbeth Color Checker in the initial image.
The Print
In most cases, the final stage of restoration is to produce a print. Printing technology has made
great strides in recent years to produce prints that will outlast any conventionally made silver
based print. This is particularly encouraging, as we see the color images of just a few decades ago
showing significant fading.
The ink jet printer is the most widely used method for making a print. Be advised that not all ink
jet prints create long lasting prints. If you are looking at producing a final image that can be passed
on to the next generation, you need to use a printer that has archival life. A number of companies
have addressed the archival issue and make ink and papers that will last a lifetime. You will need
to do a little homework to find out which combinations are best. Also note that the claims of
extensive print life have changed as more and more testing is done on them. The Wilhelm
Institute, www.wilhelm-research.com, has been a reliable source for determining what papers and
ink yield the longest life.
•
Always recommend that your customer use a archival mat and framing
materials, when displaying their restored image. The mat holds the print back
from the glass, which reduces the chances of it adhering to the glass.
•
Another way to be of service to your clients and also increase revenue is to offer
custom framing of the final print. With custom framing you can overcome any
odd size print obstacle the client would have if they try to buy a store bought
frame.
•
Avoid the use of aftermarket inks and papers. The printer companies do a lot of
research in making their products work and substantiating print life. Use of third
party inks usually voids the warranty on your printer and ultimately may
negatively impact print life expectancy.
File Storage and Back-up
If you have spent a fair amount of time restoring or retouching an image, you will probably want
to hold on to the file indefinitely. One good reason is that your client may ask for a reprint at a
later date. Clients respond favorably knowing that their valuable image is now part of an archive.
File management has become the hot topic. As your archive grows, coming up with an organized
system to retrieve those images is important. Gone are the days of throwing the negatives in the
drawer.
But what is archival? It would seem that media formats change quickly with a few decades being
the longest any of them survive. With the arrival of the digital age, media formats and life spans
have come and gone at an even faster pace, with some lasting barely more than a year. Remember
the Syquest EZ-135? The storage capacity of digital media has been continually increasing. The
CD is losing it’s appeal as it’s pricing is now similar to DVD.
We work with many different media formats besides photographs and often find it surprising the
difference in media stability. Wayne has reel-to-reel audiotape from the seventies that sound as
good as the day it was recorded and cassettes that have quite literally shed their metal particles like
dust. However one thing is certain, magnetic media formats are vulnerable. Fortunately in the
Page 24
evolution of computer media, with the exception of the hard drive, we have moved past most
magnetic forms of media.
One of the discussions we had while writing this book was how to handle long-term storage.
Katrin is a fan of redundant hard drive storage. Wayne favors optical storage such as DVDs. Hard
drives are mechanical and eventually will fail, and often at a very inconvenient time. At the first
sign of a hard drive problems move or copy your important information to another drive.
Although there are many programs to assist in file management, Wayne uses a spreadsheet
program listing the client’s name and invoice number. With the Find command in the spreadsheet
program, locating the CD/DVD that contains the desired file is relatively easy.
CDs and DVDs have both have their advantages and disadvantages. The CD is probably reaching
the end of its life with DVD now costing about the same making them a more efficient storage
method. Check the DVDs before deleting the original files with the file checking in the burning
software. Don’t assume your files are safely written without it
Using both hard drive and optical storage is a good compromise. Storing your duplicate your files
in a different physical location is also recommended. Consider on-line storage as a backup.
Whatever format you decide to use for storage, think redundancy – as what can go wrong – will.
The Next Step
You’ve developed retouching and restoration skills and word of mouth has had friends and family bring
you their heirlooms for retouching. If you have been working through the examples of the book or have
been doing your own restoration for some time, you might consider offering restoration services
professionally.
As a small business owner, let me (Wayne) share a few thoughts before you embark on what can
be a very rewarding path. It takes a big commitment to turn a part time business into a full time
one. Photoshop skills alone will not ensure a successful business. Keep in mind that going into
business for oneself is taking a risk. If you like the comfort of a regular paycheck, than selfemployment may not be the path for you.
Here are some tips for going out on your own….
•
Research and plan. Will the market support a person offering full time
restoration services? When I started 12 years ago, the market was untapped.
Since then, restoration has become available through many outlets including
mass merchandisers. Photo restoration services are even being marketed as a
franchise through such companies as Hollywood FX who offers very low prices,
as the work is outsourced to countries outside of the cost of doing business in
the USA.
•
With very few exceptions, most of your customers will be not be repeat
customers unless they have a box full of images that have suffered some form of
tragedy like fire or flood. So you generally will always be recruiting new clients.
As that may sound daunting, almost everyone has a picture that is in need of a
little help.
•
Many of your clients will not be young people. It is often the middle aged or
older that have an interest in family history and want to pass it along. You will
need to be able to communicate with these clients and listen to their needs.
Inevitably each picture has a story the client wants to share.
•
If you are small outfit, that may be your single greatest asset. People appreciate
leaving their family valuables with someone they can see and trust. This can be
your one true advantage in the business, spending a few moments with the
client, ensuring them that their image will be well taken care of and that you will
give it personalized attention.
Page 25
•
Advertising can become very expensive very quickly. Before committing to any
form of promotion, be sure your business can support it. Personally, I have only
found print advertising to be effective. I find it amazing when a client pulls out
an advertisement that I have run years ago. It was clipped it and saved it, with
the plan of one day having an image repaired.
•
Study the competition. Find out what it is you can offer to make your service
different or better. Don’t try to get established by undercutting the competition.
It will only haunt you when you try to raise your prices later.
•
Be aware of the weekend warrior, the individual who has a full time job and
does this type of work for the fun of it. Pocket money, not true profit is their
goal.
•
Consider diversification…you probably are using equipment that could serve
other purposes.
•
Avoid doing too much work in front of the client. If they think that changes are
easy, it will open the door to more and more requests.
•
Make sure it is legal to operate a business where you plan to operate. Local
regulations may not allow you to set up shop in the extra room in your house.
•
Get up a web site showing your work. It is one of the most effective ways to
communicate your skills to the public.
•
Don’t be surprised if most of your work only comes from a local market. Clients
are reluctant to send their heirlooms to an unknown entity.
•
Save your work, it is not uncommon for a client to ask for another copy of an
image you have restored.
•
Know your abilities. Avoid difficult jobs just for the “challenge”.
•
One of the joys of being successful is seeing the reaction on the client’s face
when their precious memory has been restored.
Page 26

Photoshop Preferences, Image Input, and Business Issues General

Transcription

Similar documents

l2-impressionismmono_ws _1_

Graphic Designing

Figure Poster Directions

Professional Experience Education Profile

trenholm forrest

Tips for using the Alioscopy Trigger for Adobe Photoshop Extended

job description - Cherokee Global Brands

showreel breakdown

Canon Scanner and ScanGear Driver - MarioC