Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [164]
Blend modes are in effect a shorthand for applying different, set-value curves adjustments. For example, the late Bruce Fraser devised a semi-automated workflow in which he recorded separate Photoshop actions to apply a Screen, Multiply of Overlay neutral adjustment layer, filling the layer mask with black. All he had to do then was select a paint brush or gradient tool to paint on the layer mask with white to reveal the adjustment effect.
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This shows a photograph processed using the default Camera Raw settings.
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I started by adding a neutral adjustment layer (in this case, Levels) and changed the layer blend mode to Screen. This step lightened the whole image, but since I was mainly interested in lightening the water, I applied a linear, black to white gradient to the adjustment layer mask to fade the adjustment from the horizon upwards.
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I then wanted to darken the sky, so I added a second neutral adjustment layer. At this stage I could have used a Multiply blend mode to darken the image, but instead I used the Overlay blend mode to apply more contrast. Again, I used the gradient tool to add a linear, black to white gradient to fade the adjustment, this time from the horizon downwards.
Cropping
The image you are editing will most likely require some kind of crop, in order to focus more attention on the subject. To crop a photo, select the crop tool from the Tools panel and drag to define the area to be cropped. It often helps to zoom in on the corners of image as you make the crop. Here, I find the default scrubby tool option to be an annoyance, so prefer to have this disabled. You can then use the following zoom tool shortcuts: first, hold down the Spacebar followed by the key and marquee drag over the area you want to magnify. To zoom out, use the Spacebar plus or use (which is the shortcut for View Fit To Window). You can then zoom back in again to magnify another corner of the image to adjust the crop handles.
Front Image cropping
If you want a crop to match the dimensions and resolution of a document that is already open in Photoshop, click on that document to make it active. Then click on the Front Image button in the crop Options bar. This loads the document dimensions and resolution into the Crop Options settings. Now select the image you wish to crop and as you drag with the crop tool, the aspect ratio of the front image will be applied. When you OK the crop, the image size will be adjusted to match the front image resolution.
If the crop tool does not behave as expected try clicking on the Clear button in the tool Options bar, which resets the crop tool. In the normal default mode the crop tool allows you to set any rectangular-shaped crop you like and merely trims away the unwanted pixels without changing the image size or resolution. Figures 5.61 and 5.62 show examples of the normal and modal states for the crop tool options. You will notice that in the modal state we now have a choice of crop guide overlay options. The ‘None’ option is the same as the previous default mode. The ‘Rule of Thirds’ mode applies a 3 × 3 grid overlay, which can be useful when composing an image, while the ‘Grid’ option can be helpful when aligning a crop to the straight lines in an image.
Figure 5.61 Here are the primary options for the crop tool. If you mouse down on the triangle button next to the crop tool you will see a list of any preloaded crop tool presets. If none are visible, try going to the Tool Presets panel and load the Crop and Marquee tool preset. New individual custom presets can be added by clicking on the New Preset button in the Tool Presets panel (circled in red). To set a custom crop, enter the crop unit dimensions in the Width and Height boxes followed by: mm, cm, in or px to denote the desired unit dimensions. In this example the crop tool was set to a fixed crop of 8 inches wide