Photoshop Editing

Fotopic has given 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.

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.

Here are some very simple, quick and easy to follow editing techniques that I use in Photoshop CS2 to present my work for printing and publishing on the web. Start off by ensuring that the foreground and background colours are set to default, black and white respectively.

1. Camera Settings

The camera is always set for shooting in RAW, ISO speed 100 unless lighting dictates otherwise, AWB, exposure -2/3 stops (which enables me to shoot at a higher ISO speed/ shutter speed when the light is poor during the winter months.

2. RAW Conversion

The image for converting is uploaded through Adobe Bridge after renaming the file in the format "number-location-date". The sharpness is set to 50 in the 'detail' tab and initially an adjustment is made to the exposure in the 'adjust' tab. For night images, an adjustment is made to the temperature, to remove as much of the the colour cast as possible. For daylight images an adjustment is made to colour saturation. Normally no further adjustments are made and the image is opened up into Photoshop CS2.

3. Photoshop CS2

3.1 Straightening & Cropping the Image

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 dispay 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.

3.2 Colour Balance

For night images, even in spite of addressing the colour cast with temperature correction in the RAW conversion, an adjustment to the colour balance is normally required. Select Image>Ajustments>Colour Balance and for low temperatures move the slider to -20 on the cyan / red scale and for other colour casts adjust the other two sets of colours as required.

3.3 Colour Correction

Whilst adjusting the tonal range with Levels (Image>Adjustments>Levels) is a simple and quick method, colour correction by defining the black, white and grey points through curves provides the best results. Click on the Layer Adjustment icon in the Layers Pallette and select threshold. 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. Double click on the threshold layer and move the slider fuilly 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 apear. The white pixels are now selected. 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. 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 and create a Curves Adjustment layer by clicking on the Layer Adjustment icon in the Layers Pallette 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.

3.4 Tonal Adjustments

Tonal Adjustments do not need to be made if you have carried out colour correction as Section 3.3 Tonal adjustments with Levels can be made 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, midtones, 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.

3.5 Colour Saturation Adjustments

Colour saturation can be improved by selecting Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. Clicking on the Saturation marker and moving it to the right will improve the colour saturation in the image. Final adjustment for lightness can be made by clicking on the Lightness marker and moving it to the desired position either side of its datum.

3.6 Sharpening the Image

There are many techniques for sharpening the image and Unsharpen Mask is my preferred method, being very careful not to oversharpen and pixelate it. Select Filter>Sharpen>Unsharpen Mask. Set the Radius to 1 pixel, Threshold to zero and the amount is selected to suit the image whilst viewed at full size.

3.7 Saving the Image

Whether you've taken the image in RAW or JPEG, saving it in TIFF will prevent any loss of quality, although the file size will be much larger. Select File>Save As> select format as TIFF.

3.8 Resizing the Image for the Web

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 to prevent downloading and printing. This strategy works hand in hand in minimising file size and its associated downloading time, and bandwidth.

Select Image>Image Size and ensure that the Scale Styles, Constrain Proportions and Resample Boxs are all ticked before setting the height to 600 pixels with a resolution of 96 pixels/inch. This will ensure that the image fills a 1024x768 pixel screen without scrolling. If the image is to be dispalyed within a web page set the height to 530 pixels maximum.

3.9 Creating a Black Border Around the Image

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.

3.10 Resharpening the Image

Resizing of the image to 530 / 600 pixels height will require the image to be resharpened as shown in Section 3.6

3.11 Copyright and Author Text

Inserting a copyright symbol and your identity makes it all the more difficult for someone to pirate your work. Initially select a font and size, Arial Black with a size of 8 pt works very well. Holding down "Alt" and keying in the numerals 0169 will provide you with the 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.

3.12 Creating a Frame Around the Image

Many authors use background images for displaying their gallery and more often than not the imapct of the image is lost in the background. A white 30 pixel frame with a drop shadow is a real nice way of presenting your work. Working on the Background Layer, select Image>Canvas Size> setting the width and height to 30 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.

3.13 Saving the Image for the Web

The "Save for Web" facility will ensure that your image is saved at low resolution which is unsuitable for pirate printing, requiring minimum downloading time and bandwidth, yet providing your viewers with a quality image. Select File>Save for Web> setting JPEG as the File Format and Quality is 60. Click Save.

4. Happy Editing!!

I hope this tutorial will be of some use to someone. Please do not hesitate in contacting me if I can be of any further assistance.