Adobe Photoshop CC Bootcamp

Lesson 50 of 118

Introduction to Cleanup Tools

Lesson Info

Introduction to Cleanup Tools

Cleanup tools, what I mean by this and the importance of these is that, the word 'cleanup' is used to define the process of concealing, replacing, or moving unwanted objects, blemishes, or imperfections in our photographs. So if you have something in there that doesn't look like it belongs, we can take it out. And I often feel like I have to justify this, but let's say you're shooting a waterfall, and a lot of times around waterfalls we have trees that fall down because they're so close to that water that they erode away and the tree is right there in the middle of that waterfall. That waterfall would look a lot better if that tree wasn't there. So we can use the data around that image to move that tree that has fallen in front of your image. I'm not He-Man, so I can't pick It up myself and move it out of the photo to take the photograph, but I know in post-production that's something that I could possibly do. And why would I do that? I want to do that to make the image more visually a...

ppealing for the viewer. Now when we do this we're not necessarily trying to degrade the integrity of the photograph or degrade the integrity of us as a person working on this image. I don't want you to confuse this with adding something that wasn't there. This is mainly if there's something in the photograph that needs to be cleaned up, we can do it. Perfect example, you're shooting in a city and there's some trash on the ground. Well, obviously there's trash in the city, but if it's right in there and it's white and it's stark and it's blowing right in front of someone's face, you're gonna want to remove that. Especially if it's trash in the city, white, specifically, because our eyes will naturally go to highest highlights first and then navigate around the image. So if that piece of trash is the whitest thing in the photograph, the viewer is gonna go directly to that and it's gonna ruin the entire image for you. So it can be a way that we can ensure that the viewer is getting the best possible view of the photograph that we are giving them, because we are the artist, they are the viewer, and we wanna give them the best experience possible. Here are some interesting stats. On my website I do a lot of critique sessions. I do 12 critique sessions a month, and in each one of those critique sessions I talk about things that work, things that don't work, and things that can be fixed, and a lot of times I fix them right in Photoshop. Interestingly enough, four out of five images during critique sessions have dust spots on them. So a dost spot is something that is on our sensor that when we take the picture, our sensor is actually reading the dust that's on the sensor. They're hard to visualize, but once you see them and once I show you what they look like, you know exaclty what they are and exactly how to fix them. And this is kind of an irritation for someone who does critiques for people. Because I teach this stuff all the time, and I just want you to just fix the dust spot 'cause it's a beautiful photograph and you got this spot in the middle of your sunset. Same thing with a portrait. If you're doing portrait work and we have a beautiful subject in front of us but they happen to have a pimple. Well that pimple wouldn't be there a week from now, so just go ahead and get rid of it. So pimples and dust spots are pretty close to one another. Two out of five images have something distracting in them that should be removed in order to make that a more pleasurable scene. Now when I say this I'm not talking about removing things that are important. So a lot of times we might look at a scene and we might see something that we think doesn't belong in there so we go ahead and remove it, or someone suggests that we remove it, but that object is actually something that-- Maybe a placard or something that actually is part of that scene. So if you remove it, that's kind of removing the integrity from that photo. A lot of times we do this with landmarks. If you're Photoshopping, I hate that verb. But if you're in Photoshop and you're going, and you're removing dust spots or removing things from your images and it happens to be something that is iconic for that scene, let's say cityscape or something like that, you might wanna leave those types of things in. But there's other things that we can remove. Like this image for example. You might not think that there's a whole lot in here that can be fixed, but there's actually seven things that I see in here that can be fixed and could all be fixed very easily using cleanup methods and cleanup tools. So first right off the bat, there's a little electric plate on the wall. If I'm doing real estate photography and it's for actually documenting the room, and it's not necessarily about where the electrical outlets are, we can go ahead and take those things out, 'cause they're just not, they get in the way and they distract the viewer's eye. There's another one on that wall in the back corner towards the middle. There's another right down here. If we look at the locks on the door, that just kinda creeps me out. (laughs) I'm like wait a second. I get it, you wanna be safe and all, but, you know, for the sake of the image, we can remove those things. And then we have the chandelier, if I'm not gonna show the whole thing, I should probably just remove it. And all these things can be done with the clone stamp tool. And even down there, you barely even see it, but that vent. That vent right there can be replaced too. And you think to yourself, maybe you're thinking, "Well I know the clone stamp tool "and how on Earth would I remove that?" Well sometimes it's not about using the healing tools but it's about using other parts of the image to our advantage, and I'll show you how to do that. But if we remove all those things, if we take all seven of those things and we take them outta the image, we get a more visually appealing image. You're the viewer at this point and you're seeing this. If I just gave you this, you would be none the wiser that there was a plate on the lower left hand corner, you know, the air plate, you wouldn't see the electrical plates, you don't see the locks, that are gonna bolt you in and keep you there forever, and the chandelier, look at that. Perfectly replaced. Here it was before. Here it was after. There is data within this image that we can use to our advantage to replace other areas within the photograph. We just have to know what tools to use, how to use them, and what to avoid. So I'm gonna tell you right off the bat the things that you want to avoid, right off the bat, if you're taking notes, avoid repeating patterns at all cost. Period. Avoid repeating patterns at all cost. And the reason why is that while you're using the clone stamp tool you might think you're doing a pretty good job with it, back out of it. Take a look at it, take a step back, look at it again, if there's any repeating patters, the viewer is gonna see it right away, and be a dead give away that you did something. There's a story about this. So, my wife and I are about to get married, and we're sourcing a bunch of different photographers, and one of them was actually a pretty good photographer. And they showed me their portfolio, and like, "Yeah, my wife's really good in Photoshop. "You can't even tell that the chair has been removed here." And I looked at it 'cause he showed me where it was and I said, "Well you know, chairs have four legs." And he goes, "Yeah." I said, "This one has six." And he goes, "Oh, yeah. "Well, I guess we need to doctor that one up." So, keep those things in mind that yeah it might look like just by taking an automated process that you're gonna see here with these tools, you can't always go with the automated process and sometimes you have to use your own intuition to take different parts of the photograph to fill in the areas that we need to fill in. So let's go ahead and migrate over to Photoshop and we're gonna start off in the most basic of all the tools to do this, and that's gonna Adobe Camera Raw.

Class Description

Adobe® Photoshop® CC® is a valuable tool for photographers, but it can also be intimidating. In this all-inclusive 20 lesson course, you’ll go from opening the program for the first time to creating images that really stand out. Join Blake Rudis, Photoshop expert and founder of f64 Academy, as he shows you how to maximize your use of Photoshop. Topics covered will include:

Week 1
• Class Introduction & Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw, Setup Interface, Cropping and Layers
Week 2
• Layer Tools, Masks, Selections, Clean-Up Tools and Shapes & Text
Week 3
• Smart Objects , Transforming, Actions, Filters and Editing Video
Week 4
• Custom Creative Effects, Natural Retouching, Portrait Workflow, Landscape Workflow, and Composite Workflow

Don’t let the many aspects of Photoshop prevent you from maximizing your use of this amazing app. Blake will help you develop the confidence to use your imagination and create the images that you will be proud to share with your clients.

Software Used: Adobe Photosho® CC 2018

Lessons

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Reviews

a Creativelive Student

Amazing course, but don't be fooled into thinking this is a beginner's course for photographers. The problem isn't Blake's explanations; they're top. The problem is the vast scope of this course and the order in which the topics are presented. Take layers for example. When I was first learning Photoshop (back when we learned from books), I found I learned little or nothing from, for example, books that covered layers before they covered how to improve/process photographs. These books taught me how to organize, move, and link layers before they showed me what a layer was actually for. Those books tended to teach me everything there is to know about layers (types of layers, how to organize them, how to move them, how to move them two at a time, how to move them two at a time even if there are other layers between the two you're interested in, useful troubleshooting tips, etc. ) all before I even know (from a photographer's point of view) what it is the things actually do. The examples of organizing, linking, and moving mean everything for graphic designers from Day One, but for photographers not so much. Blake does the same thing as those books. Topics he covers extremely early demand a lot of theoretical imagination for a photographer who doesn't already know quite a bit about what he is talking about. Learning about abstract things first and concrete things later only makes PS that much harder to understand. If you AREN'T a beginner, however, this course is amazing. I thought it would be like an Army Bootcamp, taking you from zero and building you into a fit, competent Photoshop grunt. Now I think it's more like Army Bootcamp for high school varsity jocks. It isn't going to take you from the beginning, but the amount you'll get out of it is nonetheless more than your brain can imagine. I've been using PS for years to improve my photographs, and even to create the odd artistic composite or two. The amount I've learned in the first week is amazing, and every day I learn something -- more like many things -- which I immediately implement to improve my productivity and/or widen the horizons of what I can achieve. If you ARE a photographer who's a Photoshop beginner, I'd take very seriously the advice Blake gives in the introduction: Watch one lesson, and practice the skills and principles you learn in that one lesson for two weeks. THEN watch the next lesson. You can't do that of course without buying the course, so it's up to you to decide whether you'd like to learn Photoshop and master Photoshop all from the same course. Learning it first and mastering it later will cost more money, but I think you'll understand everything better and have a much more enjoyable ride in the process. As for me? I'm going to have to find the money to buy this course. There is simply way too much content in each lesson for me to try to take on all at once, but on the other hand I don't want to miss anything at all that he has to share.

Esther Gambrell

WOW!!! I've been purchasing CL classes for several years now and have watched HOURS of "How-To Photoshop" classes, but this is the first one I've actually purchased because of the AWESOME BONUS content!!! SERIOUSLY??!!?!? A PLUG-IN??? But not only that, Blake is SO easy to understand, and he breaks down concepts in different ways to connect with different people's learning styles. I REALLY appreciated this approach because I am a LEFT-BRAINED creative that has an engineering background, so I really connected to what Blake was saying. THANK YOU FOR THAT! There are TONS of Photoshop courses out there, but I found this one to be the most helpful in they way Blake teaches concepts so that you know WHY you're doing what your doing. I feel like he taught me how to fish with Photoshop to feed me for a lifetime instead of just giving me a fish to feed me for one day. This is the BEST overall PS course out there!!! Thank you!!!!

Sonya Messier

I'm been using Bridge, Adobe Raw and Photoshop for 12 years. I thought I knew those programs until I started to follow Blake and do this Photoshop CC Bootcamp. This course is AMAZING. I love the way Blake teach, brakes down concepts and tools... excellent teaching qualities! I'm half way in this course and I change all my workflow already. Much better results and better use of what Adobe offer me. This course is an investment! When I will be done, I will listen it again. Great job and congratulations on your success Blake!

1,500+ classes ranging from fundamentals to advanced techniques.

Adobe Photoshop CC Bootcamp

Introduction to Cleanup Tools

Class Description

Lessons

a Creativelive Student

Esther Gambrell

Sonya Messier