Sometimes we just like to make nice photos; e.g. some carefree shooting on a weekend trip. Hence it would be contradictory to invest too much time for image editing. So I was trying to set-up a procedure which would deliver just nice images without great effort. In the ideal case, the very first result on screen would please me like Provia film did on the light desk. Well, I’m not there yet; and sure there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. However, the following approach turned out to be quite useful.
In case that someone around here would like to give it try, I’d be pleased to receiving your comment. A good starting point would be a Raw capture of a scene including green grass, blue sky and maybe a person in the foreground (which is not meant as a basic limitation):
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Initial settings in Camera Raw (PS CS / CS2):
/> Open the Raw file in ACR (2.4 to 3.x)
/> ProPhoto RGB at 16 bit maintained through all processing steps
/> Size should be about 6 to 8 MP with regard to some adjustments done later on in PS.
/> White-balance: Classic film had a fix white-balance for daylight conditions. The Daylight setting in ACR might need some respective calibration: Shoot a ColorChecker at somewhat standard daylight conditions. In ACR, set the Color Temperature to 5500°K. While keeping an eye on the second gray patch, adjust the Tint slider in a way that the Green channel gets placed well in-between Red and Blue. Save and further use these Own Daylight settings.
/> Set Brightness, Contrast and Saturation to zero (no kidding)!! Curve tab linear.
/> Adjust Shadows and Exposure based on the histogram and Alt-key clipping preview. Exposure correction shouldn’t exceed +/- 0.75 EC. Actually, Shadows & Exposure are the only image-specific adjustments done in ACR.
/> Apply some Color noise reduction and Luminance smoothing depending on needs (for your camera + ISO setting). Sharpening in ACR should be kept low (zero to 5).
/> Proper ACR calibration would be a chapter on its own…
The following steps are meant to be recorded as an Action in Photoshop which then allows to batch-process files (after initially checking and updating the Shadows & Exposure in ACR as outlined above):
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Some basic Sharpening:
/> Duplicate the background layer, set Opacity to 80% and change to Luminosity blend mode. Among the Blending Options, address the Blend-If controls for This Layer: split the black triangle to 0/35 and the white one to 220/255 (via Alt/click & moving the half slider).
/> Apply an USM filter with Amount/Radius/Theshold = 200, 1.5, 4. Apply another USM filter with Amount/Radius/Theshold = 10, 50, 0 for Local Contrast Enhancement.
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Tonal enhancements:
/> Add a Hue/Saturation adjust layer. Customize a yellow-green range from 45/75 to 105/135° hue, in order to boost Saturation by +80.
/> Add a Selective Color adjust layer. For the Yellow and Green ranges, reduce the Black component by -80%. At this stage, yellow-green hues should appear very bright.
/> Ctrl + click on the RGB composite channel to select everything visible.
/> Ctrl + Shift + I to invert the selection.
/> Delete both previously created adjust layers (Hue/Saturation and Selective Color).
/> Add a Curves’ adjust layer named ‘Brightness’ (80% Opacity, Normal blend mode) with 6 anchor points for input/output= 31/40, 56/78, 83/124, 114/172, 147/212 and 180/240.
/> Apply a strong S-curve via the Curves’ tool (input/output= 64/50, 150/196) in order to steepen the B/W gradient of layer mask. Further, apply a Gaussian Blur of broad 8 pixel width.
/> Add another Curves’ adjust layer named ‘Contrast’ – now in Luminosity blend mode - with 2 anchor points for input/output= 28/24 and 228/232.
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Saturation and Hue preferences:
/> Add a Selective Color adjust layer. For all color ranges (R, Y, G, C, B, M) reduce Black by -80%. For the White, Gray, Black ranges increase Black by +80% (everything absolute).
/> Add an Invert adjust layer
/> Ctrl + click on the RGB composite channel to select everything visible.
/> Delete both previously created adjust layers (Selective Color and Invert).
/> Add a Hue/Saturation adjust layer in Color blend mode. Set the Saturation master to +16. For red-yellow hues ranging from 345/0 to 60/75° reduce saturation again by –16. For green hues ranging from 60/75 to 120/135° reduce the hue by –8.
/> Apply the Levels’ tool with the Shadows slider set to 85 in order to make the mask darker and more effective. Further, apply a Gaussian Blur of broad 8 pixel width.
/> Go to Selections > Color Range selections, address the dropdown bar and select the Shadows. Further, enable the Invert checkbox (to get everything selected but the shadows).
/> Add a Selective Color adjust layer. For the Yellow range reduce yellow by –4% and increase Black by +8%. For the Green, Cyan and Magenta ranges increase Black by +8%. For the Blue range increase Black by +16%. Then, apply a Gaussian Blur of 4 pixel width.
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Some All-layer Sharpening:
/> Add a new layer via Layer > New > Layer. Now, hold down the Alt key – and while also holding down the left mouse button, select Layer > Merge Visible. This should fill the new layer with the merged content of all previous layers. Set the Layer Style / Blending Options to 80% Opacity and Hard Light blend mode.
/> Apply the High Pass Filter with 1.5 pixel width. Then, apply a slight Gaussian Blur of just 0.8 pixel width.
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If everything went well, there should now be just 6 adjust layers left; three of them having a layer mask. Needless to say that there are many ways to edit and change this layer structure. But that wasn’t the original intention. Adjustment of the Opacity of the Brightness layer might be among the most often occurring needs. In case that 100% Opacity is not enough, it’s anytime possible to reduce it e.g. to 60% and to duplicate the layer (if possible, don’t change the special shape of this tone curve).
Finally it should be noted that many techniques as included above are pre-described in literature. Others, like the yellow-green enhanced contrast mask probably origin with me. Anyway, as a complete list of references would have become too long, I’d be happy to provide respective links depending on subject of discussion.
Peter
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