Renee Keith's Blog

While inspecting images for iStockphoto, I come across several images with “poor lighting”. I would love to bring up some specific examples to explain what is wrong and how to fix it. Histograms can be a helpful clue to exposure and I highly recommend studying them. Here is one tutorial that I found online that you might find interesting: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/histograms1.htm, you can find more by googling “photography histogram tutorial”.

I exaggerated some of the examples, but you will get the basic idea of what I am trying to explain (please click thumbnails to see bigger images).

(Image to the left) First we will take a look at “Flat Dull Lighting”. Just looking at the image, you can see that the brights are not very bright, and the darks are not very dark. The histogram shows that as well. This can be fixed by changing the”levels” using Photoshop and sliding the right arrow slightly to the left, and the left arrow slightly to the right. If you move it too far, you will end up crushing blacks and blowing out the whites.

*Note for beginner photographers: You might have noticed that point and shoot camera’s have a lot of in camera processing and images can come out fantastic on auto settings (in certain lighting situations). Switching over to a manual DSLR camera can be tough at first! You really have to know what you are doing with the settings and that’s when you can get much better photos than a point & shoot. When shooting RAW files, it does not hold any in-camera processing (contrast, etc) so you will need to do it in an editing program. If you shoot JPEG files, you have the option to set in camera processing, stylizing your images, which you may not need to edit as long as you take the photos with the correct exposure.

This next image (to the right) shows just that… Crushed blacks and blown highlights. Notice that the histogram shoots upward off the chart and off the right side of the histogram. This shows that you have lost detail in your highlights and your image is not properly exposed. As far as the black goes, *sometimes* you can get away with crushing your blacks a little… but it can also look good on your computer and bad when printed, so be careful and think of the designers that will be using your images. Afterall, they are your customers as much as the stock agencies.

The image to the left has better exposure, one that I would use. As you can see by just looking at it, it has a pretty good exposure. You can also see that the histogram does not have a perfect mountain shape, which is also fine. I have not lost any detail in highlights or shadows. Again, if the right side of the histogram shot off the top like the last image above, that would be a good indication that I have lost detail in the highlights. I double checked by opening my levels tool and sliding the arrow all the way to the right. Blown out areas will stay completely white.

*Another Tip: Try to NEVER take images with the attitude that you know you are making errors, and that you will just fix it in Photoshop. You will notice a big improvement in your work if you get everything right when you take the image, including lighting, exposure and composition.

Incorrect white balance can be another reason for a “Poor lighting rejection.  Some shoot more on the warmer side, and some are cooler. Sometimes you can do this on purpose making it a part of your style (a rejection would show you are not doing it well). First of all, you absolutely need a calibrated monitor to view the color of your images correctly. If you are getting a ton of white balance rejections, you may be seeing your images completely different than what they really are. If you want to get correct white balance you can buy a gray card at a photography store, and also ask them how you use it because that is a whole different tutorial, lol.

And last but not least, there is using an on-camera flash. I don’t have any examples, but will update this post once I create some.

I hope that you found this tutorial interesting, and would love to hear your comments. The more I hear the more tutorials I will post! Thanks!!

Using Photoshop CS3 *intermediate Photo: (c) Shalee Cooper 2009

I actually picked up this tip from my good friend Doug Sims a few years ago and it has been really helpful, so thanks Doug!

“Purple fringing” is that annoying colorful glow that you sometimes see in your pictures. Here is a shot of some purple fringing so you can see exactly what it is. I circled the areas we are going to fix… and yes, pruple fringing is not always purple. Sometimes it is blue or pink, etc. You will need to click on this image to see a larger version.

Step 1. Always duplicate your layer in photoshop. Keep your original file as the bottom background layer. It is good to flip the visibility on and off of your edited layer so you can see it against the original version. This will help you see exactly what you are doing and will help develop your eye.

Setp 2. Blur the top layer with Gaussian Blur. You don’t want to do this too much or too little, but as you can see in the image to the left, the purple fringing is no longer visible.

Step 3. Set the layer mode to color. The blurred layer will not look as blurred anymore. You don’t want to keep this image as your final image because you have lost some detail around some edges. We are going to use only part of this top layer to get rid of the fringing.

Step 4. I use this technique a lot, so you may be familiar with it from some of my other tutorials. Add a layer mask to your top layer. You will see a white layer box appear next to your image in your layer pallet. It is selected and white by default… when it is white, you can see through it, when it is black it hides the image. So click ctrl i to invert the mask from white to black. Then use your paint brush to paint white over the area’s with fringing.

Here is an example of before and after:

Using Photoshop CS3 *advanced

I am trying to get this style down, and feel like I still have a ways to go… but thought it would be cool to share anyways. There are a few things you must get right in order to pull it off, the first thing is lighting. These type of shots look awesome in studio where you are controlling the light. Be aware of where your key light is, and then maybe set a light behind your subject to create  some rim lighting. I threw together a quick lighting set up… sometimes our lighting set ups involve a few more lights (hair light and bg light):

The next thing you need to develop is an eye for what looks good when editing. In my opinion this is the hardest part. You can spend hours learning techniques, and think it looks great by the time you are done with it… but 6 months down the road you might shake your head and laugh because you will finally be able to see just how much you over filtered it.  Time, and experience will definitely help develop your eye and style, and everyone has to start somewhere, right?

Part of this editing style is to really pay attention to the small details. Slight adjustments will make an extreme differences. I am showing them in this post side by side, but really the best way to see it is through hiding and viewing layers in photoshop. As you edit your own work, I suggest duplicating your layer, making adjustments and then viewing the difference by hiding the layer. Sometimes I adjust the opacity of an edited layer until I feel it is just the way I want it.

Lets view the first and last image side by side so you can see unedited vs edited:

And now for a few Photoshop editing tips… (image below is step one.. different from the image above… look close!)

I actually did a few things in step one (always remember to duplicate your layer at every step)…. I started out with using the shadow highlight tool located under Image>Adjustments> Shadow Highlight. I would give you numbers, but it is really different for each file, and you will never figure out how to eyeball stuff if you don’t just jump in and do it. It’s okay to over filter it because you will be able to change the opacity to this layer until you get it just where you want it after we are done. After adjusting the shadow/highlight, I always go to the levels tool to get my darks a little darker, mid-tones and highlights just right. Levels is a super important tool when editing, you can really add some awesome contrast to your images without blowing out highlights. Please be aware that when using levels, or curves, etc… it really boosts your colors as well. The reds really came out in the example above.

Step 2

Can you see the difference? Look at the highlights and shadows in his jacket, goggles and hair… I also brightened the highlight on the right side of his face a little. This is where you learn to push and pull the shadows and highlights. Okay so there are two ways to use the curves tool in Photoshop. One is through Image>Adjustments in your top navigation bar, and the other is below your layer pallet. It looks like a little circle that is half black and half white. The difference is, the first one will make adjustments to your actual image, and the other will add an adjustment layer (on a separate layer) with a mask. You will want to use the one in your layer pallet to create an adjustment layer. If you are unfamiliar with this tool, please read up on it! Google “adjustment layer in photoshop” etc.

So  click on the adjustment layer tool and select curves, then grab the middle and pull it up a bit… rename this layer : “light”. Click ctrl I  to invert the layer mask (selected by default). This should hide the bright layer you just created by turning the mask black. Then repeat the same step except pull the curves down to create a dark layer and label “dark”. Now both layer masks should be black and hidden. Select your light layer mask, grab your white brush and paint over the already existing highlights. Do the same with your shadows… and you have just learned to push and pull your shadows and highlights!  Oh, and when you are done, always use your gaussian blur tool on your layer mask to smooth out brush strokes.

Step 3

The main difference in this shot is in his face. On most fashion/glamour portraits I use this technique to smooth out any wrinkles, shadows, and bags under eyes, etc. It is pretty slight adjustments, but makes a huge difference. This step is way to easy to overdue… so use your opacity tool to tone the layer down if needed and always view your image at 100%. Don’t forget to duplicate your layer before each step. Okay, so on the top layer, use your clone stamp tool, change the opacity of your clone brush to 15-20%, and clone areas on his face next to the lines, close to the same color of skin, etc. Stamp over wrinkles, lines and shadows.

Step 4

The only thing I really did here was repeat the pushing and puling of highlights and shadows (step 2) for a more dramatic effect. Make sure that you don’t blow out and loose any details during this process.

Step 6

So after you get it to where you like it, just make sure you like the colors. They are easy to bring out using your adjustment layer with selective color or color balance the same we used it above.  I slightly toned the reds down in this last step.

So let me know what you think, and if you liked my tutorial… maybe I will post some more, in the future, hehe.