Introduction to Image Transforming

Lesson Info

Introduction to Image Transforming

When I talk about image transformation, I'm not talking about manipulating the image to the point that it's transformed into something else. Its not like a transformer. This is mainly going to be about... There's things that are gonna happen in our photographs that are due to either lens or barrel distortion or things that are outside of our control that happen inside the camera that would just look a little better for our viewer if we fixed 'em. This is the process of manipulating the pixels in a photo to make it more visually appealing. As I said before, when it comes to landscape photography this would be things like perspective correction, or lens and barrel distortion correction, and when it comes to things like portrait photography this would be like wrinkled clothing with something like the liquefy tool or minor feature retouching in something with the liquefy tool also. What we're gonna be focusing on specifically for this lesson is gonna be landscape-driven things. Not portrai...

t-driven things. When we get into the portrait workflow series where we talk about natural retouching, we'll touch on some of these ways we can transform an image and still maintain the integrity of the photograph. But for now, we'll be talking about things that are gonna be perspective correction, and lens and barrel distortion correction for the things that happen within our camera that we need to fix in order to make the viewer find that image more appealing or more attractive. Now with that being said, there are times when a very nice forest perspective with the huge wide-angle lens is perfect but then there's other times where it just looks better if you fix it. So this would be one of those examples. Where this is inside the Nelson Atkins museum. We have the sides of the image where the perspective is forcing back to kind of narrowing down like this. Now we do want the forced perspective in there but when we have another perspective line that's meeting down here it kinda makes it feel like we're warping down into the back of the image. Where, as if we do something like this, just a very simple fix, very quick and easy fix, just snap those lines back to where they were, it gives us more of that symmetry . Now, this is where symmetry, I would say, doesn't necessarily work so well. This is where it's a symmetrical image but there's something that's throwing it off that doesn't allow me to enjoy it as a viewer. When I look at this image, I like the symmetry here. The symmetry is working the symmetry with the forced perspective is coming in here and because the vertical line ends are now straight, it's more visually appealing and I can enjoy it a little bit more. If it was something that required a really forced, warped perspective from a wide-angle lens then I'd say don't do that, just go ahead and keep it if you're doing it for effect but this is not an image that I would do that for effect. Here is another example. We're shooting some buildings in, I should say, photographing some buildings in Chicago and they're just like shooting right up into the sky. And I prefer, my vision for that was I liked the way it looked when I was staring at it but no lens that I chose was going to get me that option other than using a wide-angle lens, but then we can use some of the things that are in Photoshop to fix that for us and straighten those buildings up a little bit. This same thing happens with an image like this. We've seen this image a couple times before, we've played with this a little bit before but look at this barn. It's leaning. And the reason why it's leaning is because it might be a combination of the fact that it's falling over but it's also the fact that this is a wide-angle lens and I really wanted to get everything in this image. Especially because during the post-production of this image, this is not the actual finished image. I like the relationship between the sun and you can barley see it, but that's a sliver of a moon. So I like that, I wanted to get all of that in the same frame but in doing so, with the wide-angle lens, I start warping things that are at the edges. So because this is at the edge, everything just starts to fall inside the canvas. So with an image like this, instead of worrying about modifying the whole image, you can just grab this one little section here and just fix it. Just tilt it back up a little bit. Just, He-Man style. Go up to that barn and (explosion sounds). Push it back up to where it belongs. So let's go ahead and jump in first. We're gonna go into Adobe Camera Raw and talk about how we can use Adobe Camera Raw and some of the lens corrections that are in there to try to fix our image before we have to do the tedious things in Photoshop.

Class Description

Lessons

1. Bootcamp Introduction
2. The Bridge Interface
3. Setting up Bridge
4. Overview of Bridge
5. Practical Application of Bridge
6. Introduction to Raw Editing
7. Setting up ACR Preferences & Interface
8. Global Tools Part 1
9. Global Tools Part 2
10. Local Tools
11. Introduction to the Photoshop Interface
12. Toolbars, Menus and Windows
13. Setup and Interface
14. Adobe Libraries
15. Saving Files
16. Introduction to Cropping
17. Cropping for Composition in ACR
18. Cropping for Composition in Photoshop
19. Cropping for the Subject in Post
20. Cropping for Print
21. Perspective Cropping in Photoshop
22. Introduction to Layers
23. Vector & Raster Layers Basics
24. Adjustment Layers in Photoshop
25. Organizing and Managing Layers
26. Introduction to Layer Tools and Blend Modes
27. Screen and Multiply and Overlay
28. Soft Light Blend Mode
29. Color and Luminosity Blend Modes
30. Color Burn and Color Dodge Blend Modes
31. Introduction to Layer Styles
32. Practical Application: Layer Tools
33. Introduction to Masks and Brushes
34. Brush Basics
35. Custom Brushes
36. Brush Mask: Vignettes
37. Brush Mask: Curves Dodge & Burn
38. Brush Mask: Hue & Saturation
39. Mask Groups
40. Clipping Masks
41. Masking in Adobe Camera Raw
42. Practical Applications: Masks
43. Introduction to Selections
44. Basic Selection Tools
45. The Pen Tool
46. Masks from Selections
47. Selecting Subjects and Masking
48. Color Range Mask
49. Luminosity Masks Basics
50. Introduction to Cleanup Tools
51. Adobe Camera Raw
52. Healing and Spot Healing Brush
53. The Clone Stamp Tool
54. The Patch Tool
55. Content Aware Move Tool
56. Content Aware Fill
57. Custom Cleanup Selections
58. Introduction to Shapes and Text
59. Text Basics
60. Shape Basics
61. Adding Text to Pictures
62. Custom Water Marks
63. Introduction to Smart Objects
64. Smart Object Basics
65. Smart Objects and Filters
66. Smart Objects and Image Transformation
67. Smart Objects and Album Layouts
68. Smart Objects and Composites
69. Introduction to Image Transforming
70. ACR and Lens Correction
71. Photoshop and Lens Correction
72. The Warp Tool
73. Perspective Transformations
74. Introduction to Actions in Photoshop
75. Introduction to the Actions Panel Interface
76. Making Your First Action
77. Modifying Actions After You Record Them
78. Adding Stops to Actions
79. Conditional Actions
80. Actions that Communicate
81. Introduction to Filters
82. ACR as a Filter
83. Helpful Artistic Filters
84. Helpful Practical Filters
85. Sharpening with Filters
86. Rendering Trees
87. The Oil Paint and Add Noise Filters
88. Introduction to Editing Video
89. Timeline for Video
90. Cropping Video
91. Adjustment Layers and Video
92. Building Lookup Tables
93. Layers, Masking Video & Working with Type
94. ACR to Edit Video
95. Animated Gifs
96. Introduction to Creative Effects
97. Black, White, and Monochrome
98. Matte and Cinematic Effects
99. Gradient Maps and Solid Color Grades
100. Gradients
101. Glow and Haze
102. Introduction to Natural Retouching
103. Brightening Teeth
104. Clean Up with the Clone Stamp Tool
105. Cleaning and Brightening Eyes
106. Advanced Clean Up Techniques
107. Introduction to Portrait Workflow & Bridge Organization
108. ACR for Portraits Pre-Edits
109. Portrait Workflow Techniques
110. Introduction to Landscape Workflow & Bridge Organization
111. Landscape Workflow Techniques
112. Introduction to Compositing & Bridge
113. Composite Workflow Techniques
114. Landscape Composite Projects
115. Bonus: Rothko and Workspace
116. Bonus: Adding Textures to Photos
117. Bonus: The Mask (Extras)
118. Bonus: The Color Range Mask in ACR