1. Introduction
1.1 Fotopic
has given great opportunity for many railway photographers to
publish their work in "build your own galleries" and
it is sometimes very disappointing to see potentially great
images, taken on expensive SLR Digital cameras, spoilt by
the lack of basic editing skills. Editing software, if not
supplied with the camera can be purchased very cheaply and
will greatly enhance your images for minimal cost and processing
time.
1.2 Some
of the more common faults that I have seen are images that
are, not straight, unsharp, pixelated (over sharp), too
bright, too dark, lack of colour saturation, colour cast
or simply too large for the page, necessitating scrolling
and protracted downloading time.
1.3 Here
are some very simple, quick and easy to follow editing techniques
that I use in Photoshop CS5 to present my work on the web.
2. Camera Settings
3. RAW Conversion
3.1 The
image is converted through Adobe Bridge by selecting File>Browse in Bridge and navigating to the folder where the image is located.
3.2 Prior to carrying out the conversion, I rename each image file into a "number-location-date" format, i.e. 60015-margamd-220310
3.3 Double clicking on the selected image will convert the image and display it in the RAW conversion window.
3.4 I do not normally make any adjustments in the RAW conversion window except for temperature correction for night pictures. The lighting at Margam Depot threw a very heavy orange cast which was corrected by moving the temperature slider to the left thereby reducing the temperature from say 3500K to 2500K.
3.5 Clicking on the 'Open Image' button uploads the converted image into Photoshop CS5 for processing.
4.
Photoshop CS5
4.1 Processing
4.1.1 All processing work is carried out using Photoshop CS5 in the following order
4.2
Straightening & Cropping the Image
4.2.1 Check that the
foreground and background colours are set to default, black
and white respectively.
4.2.2 Open
up the Layers Palette and make a copy of the Background
Layer, renaming it, Editing Layer. Working on the Editing
Layer, Right Click on the Eye Dropper Tool and select the
Measure Tool. After carefully selecting a vertical or horizontal
line in the image, which is used as the datum for straightening,
magnify the image with the Zoom Tool in the Toolbox so it
stretches to say at least half the length of the screen.
Click and holding down the mouse on one end of the line,
drag it to the other end of the line and release it, which
will then display the path of the straightened line. Select
Image>Rotate Canvas>Arbitory and click OK. Select
the Crop Tool from the Tool Box and position the mouse inside
the image near to the top left hand corner. Click and holding
down the mouse, drag it towards the bottom right hand corner
of the image. This will then display the path of the cropping
tool and final adjustments for sizing the cropped image
can be achieved by clicking onto the handles midway along
each side and dragging them to the desired position. Click
on the tick adjacent the palettes docking area to commit
the crop.
4.3 Tonal Correction
4.3.1 Under bright lighting conditions, I would use levels to fine tweek the tones by selecting Image>Adjustments>Levels. The Levels dialog box lets you correct the tonal range and
color balance of the image by adjusting intensity levels
of image shadows, mid tones, and highlights. The Levels histogram
is a visual guide for adjusting the image key tones. Improving
the darker tones is made by clicking on the left hand black
marker below the histogram and dragging it towards the right,
to where the profile begins. Similarly by clicking on the
right hand white marker and dragging it towards the centre
where the profile finishes will improve the lighter tones.
Final adjustment to improve the mid range tones is made
by clicking on the centre grey marker and moving to the
desired position either side of its datum.
4.3.2 If levels does not achieve the desired tones, then colour correction may be the route to take.
4.4
Colour Balance
4.4.1 It's not normally necessary to make colour balance corrections except for fine tuning colour casts after temeprature correction in the RAW conversion stage (Section 3).
4.4.2 To fine tune a colour cast correction, select Image>Adjustments>Colour Balance and move the cyan / red, magenta / green and yellow / blue sliders as required. For example, Margam Depot, I would only have to move the slider to -20 on the cyan / red scale.
4.5 Colour Correction
4.5.1 Curves - When the image lacks that bit of punch, I use curves to improve the tones by selecting Image>Adjustments>Curves. Curves is a little more difficult to untertake and involves dragging the curve to optimize the distribution of pixels throughout the tonal range. For a contrasty / moody image, drag the curve into an 'S' shape thereby making the lighter pixels more prominate and the the corresponding darker pixels less prominate.
4.5.2 Threshold - For grey days, poor lighting conditions or straight off the scanner where the image is basically drab, I use threshold to improve the tones. This method looks quite challenging, but the end result is well worth the couple of minutes spent on doing it.
4.5.2.1 Click on the Layer Adjustment icon in
the Layers Palette and select threshold.
4.5.2.2 Move the slider
fully to the left, to whiten out the image and then slowly
move the slider to the right until some black pixels appear.
Click OK and right click on the Eye Dropper tool selecting
the Color Sampler tool. Click the Color Sampler tool over
the black pixels and a target will appear. The black pixels
are now selected.
4.5.2.3 Double click on the threshold layer and
move the slider fully to the right to blacken out the image
and then move the slider slowly to the left until some white
pixels appear. Click OK and right click on the Eye Dropper
tool selecting the Color Sampler tool. Click the Color Sampler
tool over the white pixels and a target will appear. The
white pixels are now selected.
4.5.2.4 Create an empty layer beneath
the threshold layer, naming it grey layer and fill it with
50% grey by clicking Edit>Fill>Use selecting 50% grey.
Select difference as the blending mode.
4.5.2.5 Double click on
the threshold layer and move the slider fully to the left,
to whiten out the image and move the slider slowly to the
right until some black pixels appear. Click OK and right
click on the Eye Dropper tool selecting the Color Sampler
tool. Click the Color Sampler tool over the black pixels
and a target will appear. The grey pixels are now selected. Delete the 50% grey and threshold layers. C
4.5.2.6 Create a Curves
Adjustment layer by clicking on the Layer Adjustment icon
in the Layers Palette and select curves. Click on the left
hand eye dropper for selecting the black point and click
onto the first target in the image which then sets the black
pixels for the image. Click on the right eye dropper for
selecting the white point and click on the second target
in the image which then sets the white pixels for the image.
Click on the middle eye dropper for selecting the 50% grey
point and click on the third target in the image which sets
the 50% grey pixels for the image. This now completes the
colour correction for the image. Click onto the curves line
in the centre and holding the mouse down move the line tangentially
upwards to increase brightness and tangentially downwards
to decrease it.
4.6
Vibrance Adjustments
4.6.1 Colour
intensity / saturation can be improved by selecting Image>Adjustments>Vibrance.
Clicking on the vibrance and saturation markers individually and moving them to the right
will improve the colour intensity / saturation in the image.
4.6.2 If the image was destined for the web, I would apply vibrance adjustment to the resized image.
4.7
Sharpening the Image
4.7.1 There
are many techniques for sharpening the image and Unsharpen
Mask is my preferred method, being very careful not to oversharpen
and pixelate it.
4.7.2 Select Filter>Sharpen>Unsharpen Mask, setting the Radius to 1 pixel, Threshold to zero and the amount
is selected to suit the image whilst viewed at full size.
4.8
Saving the Image
4.8.1 Saving the RAW image as a TIFF file will prevent any loss of quality, although saving it as a high qulaity JPEG will normally suffice. Select File>Save As> select format
as TIFF or JPEG.
4.9
Resizing the Image for the Web
4.9.1 Having
had some of my earlier images pirated off my website, resized
and printed for sale on e-bay, I have very strong views
on how images should be presented for quality viewing on
the screen without scrolling, but of low resolution with relatively small file size to prevent
downloading and printing.
4.9.2 Select
Image>Image Size and ensure that the Scale Styles, Constrain
Proportions and Resample Boxs are all ticked before setting
the height to 650 pixels with a resolution of 96 pixels/inch.
This will ensure that the image fills a 19" screen
(1440 x 900 pixels) without scrolling and allows enough space for a 20 pixel frame to be added later.
4.10
Creating a Black Border Around the Image
4.10.1 Make
a copy of the Background Layer and working off this select
Edit>Stroke, setting the width to 2 pixels, colour
is black and location is set to inside.
4.11
Resharpening the Image
4.11.1 Resizing
of the image to a height of 650 pixels will require the
image to be resharpened as shown in Section 4.7 for maximum sharpness.
4.12
Copyright and Author Text
4.12.1 Inserting
a copyright symbol and your identity on to the fully processed image makes it all the more
difficult for someone to pirate your work.
4.12.2 After selecting a font type and size, Arial Black with a size of 8 pt works very
well, hold down the "Alt" key and type in the numerals
0169 which produces a copyright symbol ©.
Follow on by inserting whatever text you wish before clicking
on the tick adjacent to the Palettes Docking Station to
commit the text. Text can be outlined by selecting Add a
Layer Style at the bottom of the Layers Palette and select
stroke from the drop down menu. Set the colour of the stroke
to white and the size to 1 pixel. It looks anaesthetically
pleasing if the text is moved to the bottom right hand corner
of the image.
4.13
Creating a Frame Around the Image
4.13.1 Creating a white 20 pixel frame around the image adds impact and prevents it being lost in the page background. Many
authors use background images for displaying their gallery
and more often than not the imapct of the image is lost
in the background.
4.13.2 Working on the
Background Layer, select Image>Canvas Size> setting
the width and height to 40 pixels, not forgetting to tick
the Relative Box and setting the Canvas Extension Colour
to white. Click OK. Select Ctrl+Backspace to fill the Background
Layer with white. Working back on the Background Copy Layer,
click on the Add a Layer Style at the bottom of the Layers
Pallette and select Drop Shadow from the drop down menu.
Once again set the angle to 120 degrees and click OK.
4.14
Saving the Image for the Web
4.14.1 The
"Save for Web" facility will ensure that your
image is saved at a low resolution which is unsuitable for
pirate printing, requiring minimum downloading time and
bandwidth, yet providing viewers with a quality image.
Select File>Save for Web> setting JPEG as the File Format and Quality is 60. Click Save.
5.
Happy Editing!!
I
hope this tutorial will be of some use. Please
do not hesitate in contacting me if I can be of any further
assistance.
