Black and White are Rarely Black or White

By: Herb Paynter

There are very few absolutes in this life. Most issues we face fall into more “gray areas” than the purely polar dictionary definitions of actual black and white. We use these terms rather cavalierly when expressing personal opinions even when real-life situations are anything but! This is also true in a number of photography-related issues. Since photography is the topic de jour, I’ll turn the conversation in that direction. I’ll explain to you how black and white are rarely black or white.

Total black and white can lose important detail. Occasionally this is appropriate for drama, but in general, even the darkest areas of an image should contain contrasting tones. f/9, 1/250, ISO 200, 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8.

The hard facts

Black is the total absence of light, as in a cave at midnight with your eyes closed. Nada, nothing, total emptiness. Nothing is quite as disorienting or scary as total blackness. Blackness is un-relational and unforgiving. Even our sense of balance is affected by our inability to orient ourselves to our environment. What we can’t see, we can’t relate to.

Opening up the darkest channel (unfortunately labeled “Black” in most software) can reveal a depth that otherwise gets buried in the D-max of the photographic medium.

White is at the other end of the light measurement scale, defined as a direct unobstructed blast of light from the Sun at noon. Blinding, blazing, searing, scorching light.
True white light would actually blow the rods out of our eyes and leave us (at least temporarily) blinded. Perhaps it is good that we don’t try to function either physically or psychologically in either of these two extremes.

Dark and light vs black and white

In the photographic film and darkroom world, “D-max” and “D-min” determined the total light range of photographic prints and transparencies. Actual black and white light measurements simply cannot (by definition) be replicated in photographic materials.
D-max refers to the maximum light blocking capacity (density) of a particular film or print. D-max is the point of maximum development for either film or prints in a traditional (chemistry-emulsion) darkroom environment.
D-max for an inkjet printer would be the darkest black that can be achieved by a particular ink on a particular paper (yes, some different inks and papers achieve different results).
D-min would be the highest light-reflective measurement possible from a particular paper with no ink.
In either case, neither “actual” black nor total white is possible. In truth, black and white cannot be expressed in the medium of photography, though we still employ the terms.

Actual original image (left) and adjusted image (right). No kidding. RAW files deliver! f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 1600, 35-100mm, f/2.8.

Real-life vision vs digital interpretation

By contrast, we live our everyday lives in the natural world where we can experience this “actual” extreme range of natural light. We occasionally witness these extreme lighting conditions, and this reference to reality keeps our lives in clear focus.
There exists a broad range of contrast in nature’s lighting that keeps our visual cortex amused and intrigued. We experience the extremes of light and dark almost every day, and our eyes adjust to these dynamics quite naturally. But in the subdued visual expression called photography, we are restricted to using a much more muted palette, which presents our minds with a different challenge.
Our brains insist on detail to help us navigate this world, both visually and rationally. We are a relational species, and we rely on the existence of distinct details in our surroundings in order to relate and negotiate our way through those surroundings. The very same issue determines how we relate to things photographic, which brings me to my point – finally.

Every physical item that we describe as “black” must be distinguished from actual dictionary-definition “black” if it is to be seen as a dimensional object.

Detail is all about contrast

Contrast is the determining factor in detail. Without contrasting tones, there can be no detail.
Our eyes get to experience the full dynamic range of light in real life. However, in photos, our perception is very limited by the whole visual D-max/D-min thing. We must learn to use what range we have to mimic the range that we don’t… get it? Pushing the internal tones around within an image will simulate the full range of tones that we normally see (and often take for granted) in real life.

Another example of extremes. The lighting was good on the female, but the male model was underlit. Some serious internal adjustments were made in one copy of the RAW file, and a masked copy of the correction was placed into the scene. Once again, tonal reproduction is key. f/3.2, 1/250, ISO 1600, 35-100mm, f/2.8.

In a practical sense, the detail is created when a visual relationship is established. The greater the contrast between tones, the sharper the detail becomes.
In order to express detail in a dark area, there must be a distinction between black and “almost black.” Without that distinct separation, there can be no detail.
There is a cardinal rule when printing a photo on a printing press… “there are no absolute blacks and only specular (reflections) pure whites in print.” Even pure white must contain a tonal element to maintain dimension and texture – neither black nor white express detail.
Black must be implied more than stated. Even a black hat or garment must contain tones of dark gray to carry the illusion of detail.

Black is a relative term. Total black loses important detail and dimension. f/4.5, 1/50, ISO 1600, 35-100mm, f/2.8.

Delivering the impression

When a photo lacks internal contrast, it lacks detail. The tension of contrast creates both detail and definition. Of course, even detail is a relative thing. Not all images require the same dynamic appearance. If all pictures contained the same degree of (internal or overall) contrast, the monotony of sameness would probably drive us to boredom.
The point I want to make here is that in order to keep the human mind amused, engaged, and involved, we must learn to use all the tone dynamics at our disposal.
Fortunately, the human mind (and it’s willing accomplice, the visual cortex) provide us with a very forgiving and creative instrument that interprets (and believes) the limited dynamics of printed photos. When this tonal orchestration is successfully accomplished, the result can be breathtaking.
We were designed to be very creative. Start believing that and watch the magic happen.

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How to Do Digital Scrapbooking – A Fun Activity to do Indoors

By: Ana Mireles 

Have you heard of digital scrapbooking? It probably sounds a little weird because a scrapbook is associated with crafts and handiwork. But it’s also a way of preserving and displaying your memories with a specific look that can be recreated digitally.

It’s also a fun activity for the whole family, and you can do it indoors. Keep reading to learn how to do it and even keep the crafting involved if you like.

Prep work

Selection

As you would do with any kind of album, you need to go through your photos and select the ones you want to include. Sometimes it’s easier if you choose a topic for it, especially in scrapbooking as the embellishment will be guided by it. For example, you could choose your first trip to the beach.

If you want to make the most out of this exercise, you can even organize all those files that you’re reviewing. There are many programs dedicated to this, some of the most popular are Lightroom or ACDSee.

Decoration

The most characteristic thing about scrapbooking is the embellishment.
You can add notes, frames, and all sorts of decorations around the photos. Digital scrapbooking is not different, what changes is the way you do it. However, if you want to keep some of the craftings, it’s also possible.
Let me give you some examples and ideas.

• Stock Images: This is the fully digital version. You can buy or download images from different websites. Unsplash and Pexels are great sites for free stock images. If you’re just using Google, always keep an eye on the licensing permissions of each photo so you don’t infringe any laws.
• Photograph objects around the house: This is not exactly crafty, but it does involve your own creativity. Do you have flowers, fruits, or any home decors that can match the topic you’re working on? Photograph them! Best if you can put it in a neutral and contrasting background, as you are going to cut them out later. This is great when you want to involve more people in the activity – that way everyone can go find their favorite objects to include.
• Make your own: This is just like the one before, except that you don’t use things that you already have. Instead, you make them, especially for this project. You can do some origami figures or ‘age’ a piece of paper with tea and coffee stains to use as background. This version is the one that includes more crafting and stays closest to the original tradition. It’s especially fun if you have kids. Once you have everything done, photograph it to use in your digital scrapbook.

• 

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Digital Scrapbooking

I’m going to do my scrapbook in GIMP because it’s free software, and this way, anyone can follow. You can also use Photoshop as the main feature you need is to work with layers. Just keep in mind that the individual tools and effects would be different.

Get your images ready

Okay, now that you have the photos of your elements, you need to have them ready for use in digital scrapbooking. That means that each one is cut-out so that it can interact freely with others.
For this, you can do the work right inside GIMP, or you can use any of the many free tools to remove backgrounds that are on the market. I’ll show you how to do one here in GIMP.
Open your image and make a selection around your subject using any of the selection tools from the panel.
There is no right or wrong when choosing the tool; it depends on the image you’re working and your skills. For example, here, it’s easier to use the Rectangle because of the shape of the object. However, I could also use the scissors or the path tool to draw the edge manually.

Once you have it, go to Select > Invert so that it’s the background that gets selected. Then right-click on the Layers dock and choose Add an alpha channel from the menu to allow the transparency and finally go to Edit > Clear.

Now save your image in GIMP’s file extension by using Save As or Export to save as .png, which will make it available for other programs while preserving the transparency. Repeat the process for all the images you’re going to use and save them in the same folder for easy access.

Create your layout

To create the layout for your scrapbook, you need all the elements in the same document. To do this, you need to go to File > Open as Layers. Select all the files and click Ok. This will open one document with each photograph as an independent layer.

You can now use the Move, Scale, and Rotate tools to arrange your layout.
Keep in mind the order of your layers, as the ones on top will cover the ones below. So, if you want things to overlap, you can drag and drop the layers to change the order.

Once you’re happy, you can start adding notes, which is another important component of a scrapbook.

Add some text

There are many experiments you can do to play with your text. Here are a couple of simple ideas to get you going.
Use the Text tool to write a title, note, date, or whatever you want to include. If you click and drag, you can create a specific area where the text will fit. Then choose the font you like.
In my opinion, the ones that simulate handwriting are the best for digital scrapbooking.

You can later change the Blending Mode to incorporate it more naturally into the image or create different effects. You’ll find this menu on top of the layer panel.

Another choice is to type directly in the background. Then use the Rectangle Select Tool and draw a selection around it. Then go to Filters > Light and Shadow > Xacht Effect which is a default script included in GIMP – 2.10, which is the latest to the time of this article.
This will create a 3D effect that simulates a tag for your text.

And there you go, add as much or as little as you like.
You can use it as a template and just change the image, or you can follow the same steps to create different layouts.
Have fun using digital scrapbooking to design albums, screensavers, wallpaper for your computer and so much more. I hope you enjoyed it!

Try digital scrapbooking out at home and share your results with us in the comments!

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8 Core Lightroom Retouching Techniques to Enhance Your Photos

By: Darina Kopcok 

Adobe Lightroom is the preferred RAW editor for many photographers. It’s user friendly, yet has many powerful features to help you get the most out of your photos. Here are the core Lightroom retouching techniques to get more out of your photographs.

1. Start with your histogram

The histogram is the first step in retouching using Lightroom. It mathematically represents the tonal range of a given photograph. The tonal range considers all the tones between the darkest part and the lightest part of your image.

The histogram maps out the brightness area in the photo in grayscale. Black is situated on the left side of the histogram, while white is on the right. You can find all the shades of grey in between. Every shade has a scale of brightness values. For a standard JPG image, there are 256 different recorded values of brightness, “0” being pure black and “255” pure white.
Learning how to read your histogram is important because it will tell you whether your photo is properly exposed or not. If you have pixels touching the very ends of your histogram, your photo is either underexposed or overexposed
Unfortunately, you can’t recover these missing details with Lightroom retouching techniques.

2. Choose the correct Color Profile

Before you start the retouching process, you should decide on a color profile, as it will make a significant difference in the color and contrast in your photo.
You can find the Color Profiles in the Basic panel. You can choose from Adobe profiles or from color profiles from your camera.

3. Get a base with the Tone Curve

Before making exposure adjustments in the Basic panel, it’s a good idea to get a base with the Tone Curve.
The Tone Curve is a graphical representation of the tones found throughout your image. By making tweaks to the curve, you can influence the look of the shadows and highlights.
I recommend starting by lifting the curve at the midpoint when in the Point Curve. This will boost the midtones and contrast, which looks attractive in most images.
Pull the curve down in the bottom quarter of the curve to deepen the shadows. These simple tweaks can make your image immediately look more dynamic.

Mid-tone lift in Tone Curve.

If you’re new to the Tone Curve, you might be more comfortable starting with the sliders in the Region Curve. This won’t give you as much control as the Point Curve but will help you make significant changes to the aesthetic of your image.
Once you’ve made other edits to your image, you can come back to the Tone Curve for further tweaks.
Retouching is a process of building and assessing, so you’ll most likely have to jump around from one panel in Lightroom to another until you get a look that you’re satisfied with.

Tone Curve for apricots image.

4. Tweak the Basic Panel

the Basic panel

The next step is to correct your White Balance.
Keep in mind that White Balance can be set in-camera to be 100% accurate, or can be used creatively if you’re not striving for a correct white. For example, if your style is warmer in tone, you can push your white balance above 6000+ to give it a golden look.
I kept my image on the cooler side because I wanted to bring out the blue and emphasize the complementary color choice to make my apricots pop.
Once you’ve made the best white balance, make any necessary edits to the Highlights, Shadows, and Whites and Blacks in the Basic Panel.
If your image doesn’t look correctly exposed in these areas, you can then adjust the exposure. However, I don’t recommend starting there. It’ll boost the exposure in all those areas, which may not be what the image needs.

5. Layer Contrast and add Vibrance in the Presence Panel

When retouching in Lightroom, I recommend using the Vibrance slider instead of Saturation.
Vibrance lifts the mid-tones. Saturation boosts all the color in the image, which can make it look unnatural and clownish. If you do choose to use the Saturation slider, watch how it affects your picture as you move the slider. A maximum of +10 is usually more than enough.
Be sure to add a bit of Clarity, which will boost the contrast in the image. The best retouching is often the result of layering various effects at low numbers, rather than adding a high amount of any one tool, such as Contrast.
To create contrast, you can use a combination of Contrast, Clarity, Texture, and the Tone Curve. Even a touch of Dehaze works great for a lot of images.

6. Adjust color in the HSL Panel

Color has a huge impact on your image. Color is an aspect of composition and crucial to the aesthetic of your photography. The HSL panel in Lightroom is where you will do the most color treatment.
Unless your aesthetic is quite warm, you might want to bring the orange saturation down a bit in your photos. It tends to look too strong. Also, pay attention to the Luminance sliders and use them instead of Saturation to control brightness, as they control the brightness of individual colors.

Before and After Lightroom Retouching – Shot at F9 on 50mm at 1/200 1SO 100

7. Try Split Toning in the highlights and shadows

Split Toning is a Lightroom tool that you can use to great effect when it comes to Lightroom retouching techniques. Split Toning adds color toning to the highlights and shadows individually, based on luminance.
However, note that a little goes a long way.
To add split toning, hold down the Alt/Option key while you move the sliders for Highlights and Shadows. This will allow you to see the variations for each color and pre-visualize how it will look applied to the image.
Dial-in as much saturation as you feel appropriate for the image. This is usually a low number. A small amount is often all you need to make your images more dynamic.
Split-toning is sometimes overlooked or used with too heavy of a hand, but with a subtle approach, it’s a very effective Lightroom retouching technique.

8. Enhance with local adjustments

Local adjustments are applied to a localized area in an image rather than globally. They only affect the part of the image selected. This allows you to fine tune your photo and have more control over your final result. You can use them to correct problem areas or to create a certain effect.

The local adjustment tools are:

• the Graduated Filter

The Graduated Filter is for filtered effects and creating evenness throughout the image.

• the Radial Filter

The Radial Filter helps you easily isolate subjects for retouching.

• the Adjustment Brush

Layer your local adjustments to create targeted and powerful results.

The Adjustment Brush helps you create masks for localized retouching by brushing them on.

• the Spot Removal tool

The Spot Removal tool gets rid of blemishes or small objects in the image. The Adjustment Brush is for creating free-form masks, while the Radial Filter is used to isolate subjects.
Range masks have been added to three of the local adjustment tools to allow you to target color and luminance.
The key to enhancing your images with local adjustments is to use a combination of the tools for subtle adjustments, as well as adjusting the opacity or feathering of the tool to create subtle transitions.
Using local adjustments is one of the most powerful Lightroom retouching techniques.

Conclusion

You’ll get the best result in Lightroom by layering the different tools. For example, don’t just use the Contrast slider to add contrast and call it a day. Layer the contrast with small adjustments to the Tone Curve, Dehaze, and Clarity for a subtle and effective look.

Every photographer develops a workflow that works effectively for them. Hopefully, these core Lightroom retouching techniques will help you fine-tune your editing process.
If you have any other Lightroom retouching techniques you’d like to share, please do so in the comments section.

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A Beginner’s Guide to Layer Masks in Photoshop

By: Simon Ringsmuth 

Adobe Photoshop has so many buttons, tools, and options it can seem overwhelming and intimidating to beginner photo editors. Rather than diving into the deep end and trying to learn every possible tool all at once, I recommend a more measured approach. Pick one thing and learn that, and then move on to the next tool or technique. And learning Layer Masks in Photoshop is one of the most important and useful tools for any editor.

High school senior, class of 2017. There is no number 17 on his shirt. I added it in Photoshop with layer masking. Nikon D200, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/90 second, ISO 200.

In 1994, Photoshop Version 3 introduced a concept that blew the doors off the image editing industry: layers. This allowed editors to stack multiple image elements on top of each other to form a complete picture. This is all well and good, but what if you put one layer on top of another layer and still want to see something on the layer below?
You could use the Eraser tool to remove part of the top layer, which is what I used to do when I first started using Photoshop years ago.
A much better solution is to use a Layer Mask, which lets you show and hide any part of a layer. Instead of using the Eraser tool, you use the Paintbrush (or other tools) to make any part of a layer visible, invisible, or transparent.
As an example, here’s a picture of a truck on a farm. It’s alright, but the sky behind the truck isn’t very dramatic.

Nikon D750, 95mm, f/2.8, 1/3000 second, ISO 100

What if I replaced the boring blue sky with this dramatic sunset? Surely that would be a much more interesting photo, and maybe help the farmer sell his truck too.

Fuji X100f, 23mm, f/16, 30 seconds, ISO 200

If the pictures of the truck and sunset are stacked in Photoshop, the truck is visible but not the sky. This is where Layer Masks in Photoshop can save the day! You can use a mask on the truck layer and then edit it to remove the sky. This would leave the truck visible but the sunset showing through.

Layers are fundamental to the image editing process in Photoshop. Layers are on top are visible, whereas layers underneath cannot be seen unless some parts of the layers on top are visible.

To add a Layer Mask, click the top layer (in this case, the truck) and choose Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All.
Alternatively, click the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.

The rectangle with a circle icon will add a layer mask to the selected layer.

At this point, nothing in the picture has changed because the entire layer is still visible, and nothing has actually been masked out. This is why the menu command is “Reveal All.”
The layer mask shows the entire layer to which it is applied. At this point, you can use any number of methods to remove portions of the layer you are working on.

The white rectangle is your layer mask. Click on it to select the mask, and then you can start hiding portions of the layer which it is attached to (in this case, the Truck layer).

My preferred method to show and hide Layer Masks in Photoshop is to use the Brush tool. Press the ‘B’ key on your keyboard or click the Brush tool icon on the left-side toolbar. Then start brushing the portions of the layer that you want to make invisible, just as though you were using an eraser.

Brushing the layer mask will reveal whatever is beneath the layer. Here you can see how, after a few brushstrokes, the sunset layer is starting to show through.

Notice how any part of the mask that you erase is also reflected in the thumbnail. Black portions are where the mask has been eliminated, which is a subtle but useful indicator of the work you are doing on the mask.

As you apply the brush to portions of the mask, the mask thumbnail is updated accordingly.

To completely remove the sky behind the truck, I used the Quick Selection tool to select the sky. Then I switched back to the Brush tool and brushed over the entire selected area.

It worked! The original sky is gone, replaced with a dramatic sunset. But there are some errors that I still need to fix.

At this point, a Layer Mask probably seems much more complicated than just using the Eraser tool. If you want to erase part of an image, why over-complicate the matter with masks and brushes and selections? Layer Masks provide an enormous advantage in that you can un-erase whatever you want just as easily.
With the Brush tool selected, press the ‘X’ key to invert your brush, and you can now put everything you erased back. Use the ‘[‘ and ‘]’ keys to change the size of the brush, and the ‘Z’ key to zoom in on portions of the image to get the finer details.

Invert the brush tool by pressing the X key to un-erase any part of the layer.

All the normal controls for brushes can be used when working with layer masks – opacity, smoothing, etc. This makes Layer Masks in Photoshop incredibly powerful and exponentially more useful than just using the eraser tool.

It still needs some touch-ups, but it’s a lot better than before thanks to the flexibility of layer masks.

Layer Masks can do so much more than replacing the sky. They can be used to combine any number of images, layers, and effects.
I created the picture at the top of this article with Layer Masks in Photoshop in just a few minutes. It started with the picture below of a high school senior wearing a blue shirt. Since this young man graduated in 2017, I wanted to put a 17 on his shirt. Photoshop made it easy.

A high school senior, Class of 2017. A nice big 17 would look good on his shirt.

I started by using the Fyra font for the number 17. I set the color to white and used the Soft Light blend mode to make the number look like it was part of the shirt, not just sitting on top of it. The young man’s crossed arms presented a challenge, but one that was easily solved in seconds thanks to layer masks.

What to do about his arms? Layer Masks to the rescue!

With the base layer selected, I chose the Lasso tool and selected the portion of the picture containing the arms. Then with that selection active, I right-clicked on the image and chose “New Layer via Copy.” This created a new layer in my Layers panel, which I moved to the top of the list by clicking and dragging.

With the new layer selected in my Layers panel, I went to the Layer menu and selected Layer Mask>Reveal All. This created a new masking layer, much like the truck and sunset example, that I could use to show and hide whatever portions of the arms I wanted to.

Click the white box next to Layer 1 to edit the layer mask for the top layer.

With the new Layer Mask in place, the rest of the operation was fairly simple.
I zoomed in on the image to get a closer view by pressing ‘Z’ and then clicked on the arms. Then I pressed the ‘B’ key to select my Brush tool and used the [ and ] keys to get the right size. As I brushed out the part of the top layer I did not want, I pressed the ‘X’ key to switch back and forth between erasing and un-erasing. This makes it very simple to perform fine adjustments to your layer mask.

Brush options such as Opacity and Smoothing can be used to perform edits to your layer mask with surgical precision.

With one hand on your mouse and another hand on the X key, you can quickly show and hide whatever part of your layer that you want.

Using layer masking instead of just erasing portions of an image means you can continue to manipulate your image as separate layers even after you have made your edits. Watch how the number 17 can be moved and resized without any additional editing or erasing. This is possible because the arms are a separate layer in front of the number, and the blue part of the arms layer has been erased or masked out.

Reading through all these steps to learn Layer Masks in Photoshop might seem kind of overwhelming. If you follow along step by step, it’s a lot easier than it seems. Also, there are hundreds of ways to edit layer masks to create compositions you probably thought were previously unattainable.
If you have never tried using layer masks in Photoshop, I recommend giving it a try, and see where your creativity takes you. You might find that it opens up a door to entirely new types of artistic expression and editing possibilities.
Share your results with us in the comments below!

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