ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Advisory, Editorial & Creative Inputs

• Smt. Nidhi Chhibber (IAS), Chairperson, Central Board of Secondary Education,

Delhi

Guidance and Support:

• Dr. Biswajit Saha, Director (Skill Education), Central Board of Secondary

Education, Delhi
• Dr. Joseph Emmanuel, Director (Academics), Central Board of Secondary
Education, Delhi
• Shri. R. P. Singh, Joint Secretary (Skill Education), Central Board of Secondary
Education, Delhi

Coordinator:

• Smt. Niti Shanker Sharma, Deputy Secretary (Skill Education), Central Board of
Secondary Education, Delhi

Content and Design:

• Mr. Gaurav Birla, Head - Standards & QA, Media & Entertainment Skills Council,
(MESC) Delhi.
• Mr. Ritik Kumar, Chief Designer, Ridosk Studios, India
Units Page No.

Unit 1:
Colour Theory .............................................. 9

Unit 2:
Digital Design .............................................. 25

Unit 3:
Composition and Lighting of
Photography ............................................... 135
 UNIT 1
COLOUR THEORY

1.1 HISTORY OF PRINCIPLES OF COLOUR THEORY

When most people think of color, the first thing that comes to mind is the color
wheel we were shown in elementary art class. This abstract representation is
meant to show the relationships between certain colors in the wheel, and de-
notes the “primary”, “secondary”, and “tertiary” colors, which can be combined
in various ways to create a broader spectrum.

What most people do not know is the vast history behind the color wheel and
the discoveries which were integral to its invention and standardization.

The first color wheel was presented by Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century
when he first discovered the visible spectrum of light. Around this time, color
was thought to be a product of the mixing of light and dark, with red being the
“most light”, and blue the “most dark”. Newton saw that this theory was flawed,
and while in isolation as the bubonic plague ravaged Europe, began testing
the properties of white light and “to try therewith the celebrated Phenomena of
Colour”. In his classic prism experiment, he noted that white light is composed
of a vari ety of colors. He then mapped these colors into an octave schema as
the first color wheel and the original ROY G BIV. His experimentations also led to
the discovery that all secondary colors can be made by mixing primary colors.
The mixtures of col-
ors in varying ratios
resulted in different
“hues” of novel colors
from the classic ROY
G BIV baseline, and
resulted in the first
hue wheel, which is
likely the color wheel
we are most used to
seeing.
TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Right: Newton’s color wheel. Note the arrangement of the colors within the pat-
tern of an octave. Left: Goethe’s color wheel.

Right: Isaac Newton, from Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions,
Inflexions and Colours of Light (London, 1704). Left: Wolfgang von Goethe, from
Theory of Colours. 1810

Well after Newton’s publication of Opticks in 1704, Johann Wolfgang von

Goethe began his own experiments with color. Like Newton, Goethe attempted
to “conceive nature in her simplest, most conspicuous creations,” although he
proposed to do so “without the aid of mathematics”. His experience as a paint-
er and artist led to a fascination with the phenomena of color much like that
of Newton’s, though he fervently disagreed with Newton’s idea that darkness
was just an absence of light. Instead, he insisted that darkness was an active
ingredient in the production of color. This questioning of the science behind
Newton’s discovery led many to believe him to be an opponent of the scienc-
es in general. However, Goethe himself claimed that “nobody can appreciate
[mathematics] more highly than I,” but that “to understand the phenomena of
color nothing is required but unbiased observation and a sound head”. Strik-
ingly, Goethe’s investigation of color mirrored that of Newton’s. The 1810 pub-
lication Theory of Colours, although not strictly scientific, was monumental in
its breadth of data and investigation. Goethe conducted numerous experi-
ments with color to address the gaps he perceived in Newton’s theory, a ho-
listically scientific approach similar to the rigor of Newton’s prism experiments.
Perhaps due to his background in poetry and the arts, Goethe also went into
detail about the psychological aspects of colors and their relationship to hu-
man emotions and behavioral traits. He especially hoped that his investigation
would aid painting, which he deemed “an art which has the power of produc-
ing on a flat surface, a much more perfect visible world than the actual one
can be”. His work was also in part a contemplation of the effects of light and
dark on human color perception, such as the way in which ratios of light and
dark produce differences in the color spectra. These observations led Goethe
to develop his own color wheel, which is more akin to the one we use today. In
his wheel, colors opposite each other have a visually antagonistic role. Surpris-
ingly, this observation later became the foundation for our knowledge of how
color is interpreted by the human brain.

Two more aspects of color were expanded upon by the research of American
painter Alfred Munsell in the early 20th century. As a teacher, Munsell recog-
nized the usefulness of a systematic method for communicating and teaching
color. This required a system where color was easily measurable and defin-
able, a system which was missing from arts education. To achieve this, Mun-
sell added the dimensions of “chroma” and “color value” as additions to hue.
Chroma is the purity or intensity of the color, and is now referred to as satu-

10
 UNIT 1: COLOUR THEORY

ration. Color value refers to the lightness or darkness of the color, and is now
referred to as value or brightness. These dimensions now defined the 3D “color
space”, represented by Munsell’s tree with color value as the y-axis, chroma
as the x-axis, and hue as the z-axis, He also defined a standardized method of
notating specific colors within this space. Variations in these properties are set
up within a 3-dimensional graph space, and a precise color can be relayed
by naming its specific coordinates. For example, 5PB 5/1 refers to Purple-Blue
5 with a value of 5 and a saturation of 1. This “color space” is still used for not
only arts education, as Munsell had intended, but also in the field of optics and
color mathematics.

Munsell’s color tree. Notice how the vertical

axis displays color brightness and the hori-
zontal axis shows color saturation, or chro-
ma. The circle around the verticl axis rep-
resents hue. Jacob Rus, 2007

The work of these men, as well as many oth-

er men and women, led to the standardized
color wheel and color space that are now
used across arts, science, and mathematics
in a multitude of color research. Their ap-
proaches, both scientific and artistic, set the
foundation for studies of color for genera-
tions to come. Color production is still standardized by hue, value, and satura-
tion, which have important implications for such things as production of paints
and dyes and coding of pixels in televisions for specific colors. Color perception
used the fundamentals of Goethe’s Theory of Color to further investigate the
role of color in psychology, ecology, and evolution, as well as the physiology of
human sight and color discernment.

These artists and scientists both desired to explore the nature of color in their
own mediums, and only through the synergy of their research can under-
standing the fundamental human experience of color vision move forward. As
famous color theorist Josef Albers said, “Ah, the creative process is the same
secret in science as it is in art. They are all the same absolutely.”

The First Color Organization Systems

Gautier’s color-printed picture accompanied one of his many anti-Newtonian

publications about color theories. The band of color at the center imitates an
illustration in Newton’s Opticks but “proves” Gautier’s assertion that all colors
cannot be found in Newton’s spectrum of light. What is the simplest design
that can communicate a relationship among colors? It might be no more than

11
TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

a bar or line, perhaps based on the shape that appears when light is passed
through a prism. Bars of colors convey two basic ideas: Color exists and it has
a regular order. A linear form hints at a progression that can be linked to wave-
lengths or cycles, but it does not accomplish much more. It does not suggest
complexities of color relationships and so does not validate other aspects of
either practices or ideas. The shape and the placement of color may not be
arbitrary, but the value of the system is limited.

Color Tables and Charts

Color tables expand the color bar, literally and figuratively. They offer a similar-
ly recognizable display of information, but one that suggests interior relation-
ships through size, shape, or placement of the colored areas.

Richard Waller’s Basic Chart

12
 UNIT 1: COLOUR THEORY

Richard Waller’s, 1686

Noting the lack of a standard for colors in natural philosophy, and inspired by
a similar table published in Stockholm, Richard Waller indicated that his “Table
of Physiological Colors Both Mixt and Simple,” (created in 1686) would permit
unambiguous descriptions of the colors of natural bodies. To describe a plant,
for example, one could compare it to the chart and use the names found there
to identify the colors of the bark, wood, leaves, etc. Similar applications of the
information collected in the chart might also extend to the arts and trades, he
suggested.

Waller offered the Society and, through its publication, readers, a grid contain-
ing 119 colors. He arranged his choices in a progression from lighter to darker
colors but did not claim to include all variations of all mixtures. From left to right
at top, there are seven colors, all pure (i.e., unmixed), ranging from Spanish
white through deeper blue colors—smalt and indigo—to atramentum siricum,
a dark blue-black. At left, from top to bottom, are first the pure yellows and then
the pure reds, moving from lightest (ceruse) through atramentum fuliginosti, a
dark redbrown. Mixed colors fill the balance of the grid; lighter shades are clus-
tered in the top left and in the lower right are the darkest blacks. Waller’s text
suggests the mixed colors represent equal mixtures of the pure color samples
at the top and left edges of the graph. He explains how to create these interior
colors, but the names suggest that they may have been purchased, or that it
was possible to do so.

Schäffer’s Table
Schäffer’s principal colors were red, yellow, blue, white, black, brown, and green.
Schäffer designed his method to ensure that illustrations in his own books
could be colored properly by anyone anywhere. As the author of volumes on
the classification of insects, mushrooms, and fish, he knew, through personal

13
TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

experience, of the problems of color and coloring.

Schäffer outlined his order for color in nine rules. The first few state gener-
al concepts. There are seven simple and natural principal colors (red, yellow,
blue, green, brown, white, and black), and colors may be made from a mixture
of two, three, or more of the principal colors. The remaining rules, based on
Schäffer’s own research, describe the construction of his classification aid and
explain its system.

Schäffer’s system relied on colors that could be found in an artist’s shop, and
it called for many mixtures, including combinations within a color group: reds
with reds, browns with browns, etc. Rather than attempt to include all colors
in a single sheet, he devised an initial page of principal colors, and separate
pages for colors made from mixtures.

Mayer’s Color Triangle

Lichtenberg’s replication of Tobias Mayer’s triangle has only seven chambers

per side, rather than Mayer’s suggested 12.
Mayer also conducted a study to guide the size of the triangle. His tests of visu-
al perception determined that the eye can distinguish only about twelve gra-
dations between any two colors.14 Accordingly, his triangle has thirteen com-
partments on each side. At each extreme, the angular color is a perfect or pure
color. Each is separated from the two other pure colors by eleven proportional
mixtures of them.

14
 UNIT 1: COLOUR THEORY

Mayer’s complete color system included other triangles made up of the pure
pigments mixed with progressively larger quantities of white or black. These
triangles had progressively fewer compartments as the colors approached
white (lightness) or black (darkness).

Mayer described how these triangles determined and defined colors. His
graphs were bidirectional, equally useful to describe a color at hand or to de-
termine the formula to make any color the eye could see. One could compare
a color found on an object to the colors in the triangle and, because location
on the graph was determined by the proportions of the preparation, know its
composition. Alternatively, one could choose a color from the schematic and
know immediately the combination of red, yellow, blue, black, and white need-
ed to recreate it.

Newton’s Color Circle

Newton took the bar of colors created by the pas-

sage of light through a prism and transformed
it into a segmented circle, where the size of each
segment differed according to his calculations of
its wavelength and of its corresponding width in the
spectrum. The placement and size of the colored
sections of Newton’s circle suggested other math-
ematical and harmonic relationships.

15
TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

An Early Eighteenth-century Color Wheel

C.B. 1708

Two color circles are included as illustrations in the 1708 edition of Traité de la
peinture en mignature, an artist’s manual attributed to “C.B.” (often assumed
to be Claude Boutet, or the publisher, Christophe Ballard). Connections be-
tween Newtonian theories about color and this pair of circles are apparent
in the design and the accompanying text. It is less clear, however, whether
those theories were a direct source of inspiration. The first circle contains sev-
en colors, violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, scarlet, and crimson. A second cir-
cle adds golden yellow, red, purple, sea green and yellow-green for a total of
twelve colors. Overall, their inclusion is somewhat mysterious. The treatise had
been issued in at least five editions without this portion; the color circles and
the accompanying text appear only intermittently in later editions.

The physical format of “C.B.”’s circle, and of circles more generally, offered
consumers information about color and color relationships that was difficult
to procure from charts or linear graphs. Waller’s table showed which two col-
ors could be mixed to create a third color. Mayer’s triangle indicated the same
information with three colors. The circle could simplify painting practices, be-
cause it is a convenient display tool for painters who wish to prepare or to
choose colors.

Other Color Circles

Ignaz Schiffermüller, 1772 & Goethe, 1810

An entomologist, Ignaz Schiffermüller wished to create a more nuanced color

wheel, one that would express the logical connections between musical and
chromatic harmonies but that would also prove useful in practical endeavors,
including natural-history classification and color production.

Goethe’s Theory of Colours provided the first systematic study of the physio-

16
 UNIT 1: COLOUR THEORY

logical effects of color (1810). His observations on the effect of opposed colors
led him to a symmetric arrangement of his color wheel, “for the colours dia-
metrically opposed to each other… are those which reciprocally evoke each
other in the eye.” (Goethe, Theory of Colours, 1810) - wiki:Color Wheel

Wilhelm von Bezold’s 1874

1.2 TERMS RELATED TO COLOUR THEORY

You see colors in everything around you, every moment of the day—but do
you ever stop to think about the impact each of those colors is having on you?
Whether it’s the calming effect of blue skies and fields of green, or the sali-
va-inducing red and yellow of your local fast food chain, each color is tapping
into an emotion. There’s a whole science (and art) in the meanings of different
colors. As an entrepreneur or designer, it’s essential to be aware of these col-
or meanings to help you choose your colors wisely and tap into the magical
power of color psychology.

Color Meaning

Red

Red is the color of love and passion. Boxes of

candies are red on valentines day. Some are
pink, which is a tint of red. Red is also the color
of anger and blood. Red, orange and yellow are
all found in fire. Red can also mean danger. Stop

17
TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

signs are red, which get our attention and tell us to be careful and look before
we proceed. Red is dominant, and when combined with colors such as black,
can create a very masculine look. Red commands attention and can set a se-
rious tone.

Orange

Orange represents warmth, but isn’t aggressive

like red is. Orange can portray a fun atmosphere
because it is energetic and creates a sense of
warmth without associated connotations of dan-
ger and blood, as with the color red. Orange can
be associated with health, such as vitamin C,
which is commonly found in oranges.

Yellow

Yellow is associated with the sun and warmth.

When used with orange, it creates a sense of
summer fun. Yellow can be associated with thirst,
and can be found on the walls of many refresh-
ment shops. Yellow can also be associated with
cowardice and fear, which comes from the old
expression of someone being “yellow.” When
combined with black, it can gain a lot of attention. A good example outside of
design would be a taxi. The combination gets a lot of attention.

Green

Green is the color of money, so in our culture

it is associated with wealth. Since most plants
are green, it is also associated with growth
and health. It is used to show that products
are natural and healthy, it also connotes profit
and gain. Combined with blue, green further
perpetuates health, cleanliness, life, and na-
ture.

Blue

Depending on the tint and shade of blue, it can

represent different feelings, thoughts, and emo-
tions. In imagery, dark shades of blue can give a
sense of sadness. An expression that goes along
with this is “singing the blues” when someone is

18
 UNIT 1: COLOUR THEORY

sad. Light blue is the color of the sky and of water, which can be refreshing, free,
and calm. Blue skies are calming and tranquil. Water washes away dirt and
cleans wounds. Blue can represent freshness and renewal, such as when rain
washes away dirt and dust. The calmness of blue promotes relaxation.

Purple

Associated from the color of the robes

of royalty, purple relates to royalty.
Purples with more red can be asso-
ciated with romances, intimacy, soft-
ness, and comfort. Purple can give a
sense of mystique as well as luxury.
A good example would be the wine
website shown below.

White

White can be associated with ste-

rility, due to doctors wearing white
and most hospitals being white. Be-
cause most artistic depictions of re-
ligious figures are completely col-
orless, white represents “good” and
holiness. White can represent clean-
liness, such as clean linens and clean
laundry. It can represent softness due
to cotton and clouds. It can reference
mental health due to the white coats
and uniforms, white walls, etc. White
is great for connoting health and
cleanliness, as shown in the optical
website shown below.

Black

Black is mostly associated with

death, especially in the United States.
It can represent decay — due to rot —
based on how food breaks down and
turns black. Black can represent evil,
because it is the opposite of white,
which often represents good. It can
represent anxiety due to darkness
and the unknown. A lot of black in an

19
TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

image can suggest depression and despair, as well as loneliness. However, de-
spite all of the negative connotations, when combined with other colors, such
as gold, it can represent luxury. Combined with silver or grey, it can represent
sophistication, such as in the timepiece website shown below.

Let’s talk about primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. They’re pretty import-
ant if you want to understand, well, everything else about color.

Primary Colors

Primary colors are those you can’t create by combining two or more other
colors together. They’re a lot like prime numbers, which can’t be created by
multiplying two other numbers together.

There are three primary colors:

• Red
• Yellow
• Blue

Think of primary colors as your parent colors, anchoring your design in a gen-
eral color scheme. Any one or combination of these colors can give your brand
guardrails when you move to explore other shades, tones, and tints.

When designing or even painting with primary colors, don’t feel restricted to
just the three primary colors listed above. Orange isn’t a primary color, for ex-
ample, but brands can certainly use orange as their dominant color.

20
 UNIT 1: COLOUR THEORY

Knowing which primary colors create orange is your ticket to identifying colors
that might go well with orange -- given the right shade, tone, or tint. This brings
us to our next type of color.

Secondary Colors

Secondary colors are the colors that are formed by combining any two of the
three primary colors listed above. Check out the color theory model above --
see how each secondary color is supported by two of the three primary colors?

There are three secondary colors: orange, purple, and green. You can create
each one using two of the three primary colors. Here are the general rules of
secondary color creation:

• Red + Yellow = Orange

• Blue + Red = Purple
• Yellow + Blue = Green

Keep in mind that the color mixtures above only work if you use the purest form
of each primary color. This pure form is known as a color’s hue, and you’ll see
how these hues compare to the variants underneath each color in the color
wheel below.

Tertiary Colors

Tertiary colors are created when you mix a primary color with secondary color.

From here, color gets a little more complicated. And if you want to learn how
the experts choose color in their design, you’ve got to first understand all the
other components of color.

The most important component of tertiary colors is that not every primary col-
or can match with a secondary color to create a tertiary color. For example,
red can’t mix in harmony with green, and blue can’t mix in harmony with or-
ange -- both mixtures would result in a slightly brown color (unless of course
that’s what you’re looking for).

Instead, tertiary colors are created when a primary color mixes with a second-
ary color that comes next to it on the color wheel below. There are six tertiary
colors that fit this requirement:

• Red + Purple = Red-Purple (magenta)

• Red + Orange = Red-Orange (vermillion)
• Blue + Purple = Blue-Purple (violet)
• Blue + Green = Blue-Green (teal)

21
TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

• Yellow + Orange = Yellow-Orange (amber)

• Yellow + Green = Yellow-Green (chartreuse)

The Color Theory Wheel

This is the impetus behind the color wheel, a circle graph that charts each
primary, secondary, and tertiary color -- as well as their respective hues,
tints, tones, and shades. Visualizing colors in this way helps you choose color
schemes by showing you how each color relates to the color that comes next
to it on a rainbow color scale.

When choosing colors for a color scheme, the color wheel gives you oppor-
tunities to create brighter, lighter, softer, and darker colors by mixing white,
black, and gray with the original colors. These mixes create the color variants
described below:

Hue

Hue is pretty much synonymous to what we actually mean when we said the
word “color.” All of the primary and secondary colors, for instance, are “hues.”

Hues are important to remember when combining two primary colors to cre-
ate a secondary color. If you don’t use the hues of the two primary colors you’re
mixing together, you won’t generate the hue of the secondary color. This is be-
cause a hue has the fewest other colors inside it. By mixing two primary colors
that carry other tints, tones, and shades inside them, you’re technically adding
more than two colors to the mixture -- making your final color dependent on
the compatibility of more than two colors.

22
 UNIT 1: COLOUR THEORY

If you were to mix the hues of red and blue together, for instance, you’d get
purple, right? But mix a tint of red with the hue of blue, and you’ll get a slightly
tinted purple in return.

Tints, Shades, and Tones

These terms are often used incorrectly, although they describe fairly simple
color concepts. If a color is made lighter by adding white, the result is called a
tint. If black is added, the darker version is called a shade. And if gray is added,
the result is a different tone.

Shade: adding black to a pure hue

You may recognize the term “shade” because it’s used quite often to refer to
light and dark versions of the same hue. But actually, a shade is technically the
color that you get when you add black to any given hue. The various “shades”
just refer to how much black you’re adding.

Tint: adding white to a pure hue

A tint is the opposite of a shade, but people don’t often distinguish between a
color’s shade and a color’s tint. You get a different tint when you add white to
a color. So, a color can have a range of both shades and tints.
Tone (or Saturation) - adding gray to a pure hue:

You can also add both white and black to a color to create a tone. Tone and

saturation essentially mean the same thing, but most people will use satura-
tion if they’re talking about colors being created for digital images. Tone will be
used more often for painting.

Adding and Subtracting Color

If you’ve ever played around with color on any computer program, you’ve
probably seen a module that listed RGB or CMYK colors with some numbers

23
TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

next to the letters.

Ever wondered what those letters mean?

CMYK

CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (Black). Those also happen to be
the colors listed on your ink cartridges for your printer. That’s no coincidence.

CMYK is the subtractive color model. It’s called that because you have to sub-
tract colors to get to white. That means the opposite is true -- the more colors
you add, the closer you get to black.

Think about printing a piece of paper. When you first put a sheet in the printer,
you’re typically printing on a white piece of paper. By
adding color, you’re blocking the white wavelengths
from getting through.
Then, let’s say you were to put that printed piece of
paper back in the printer, and print something on it
again. You’ll notice the areas that have been printed
on twice tend to colors closer to black.
Think about CMYK in terms of its corresponding num-
bers. CMYK works on a scale of 0 to 100. If C=100, M=100,
Y=100, and K=100, you end up with a black color. But, if
all four colors equal 0, you end up with true white.

RGB

RGB color models, on the other hand, are designed for electronic displays, in-
cluding computers.

RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue, and is based on the additive color model of
light waves. This means, the more color you add, the closer you get towards
white. For computers, RGB is created using scales from 0 to 255. So, black would
be R=0, G=0, and B=0. White would be R=255, G=255, and B=255.

When you’re creating color on a computer, your color

module will usually list both RGB and CMYK numbers.
In practice you can use either one to find colors, and
the other color model will adjust accordingly.

However, many web programs will only give you the

RGB values or a HEX code (the code assigned to color
for CSS and HTML). So, if you’re designing digital imag-
es, RGB is probably your best bet for choosing colors.
..............................................................................................................

24
 UNIT 2
DIGITAL DESIGN

1. DEMONSTRATE THE USE ADOBEPHOTOSHOP

1. Workspace of Adobe Photoshop

You create and manipulate your documents and files using various elements,
such as panels, bars, and windows. Any arrangement of these elements is
called a workspace. (The workspaces of different Adobe creative applications
share similar appearances so that you can move between the applications
easily.) You can adapt Photoshop to the way you work by selecting from sev-
eral preset workspaces or by creating one of your own.

Home screen

When you launch Photoshop, the Home screen appears, which includes the
following:

• Information about new features.

• A wide range of tutorials to help you quickly learn and understand the
concept, workflow, tips, and tricks.
• Display and access to your recent documents. If necessary, customize
the number of recent files displayed. Select Preferences > File Handling
and then specify the desired value (0-100) in the Recent File List Con
tains field.
The contents of the Home screen are tailored based on your familiarity
with Photoshop and your Creative Cloud membership plan.

NOTE:
• To access the Home screen at any point while working in a Photohop
document, click the Home icon in the Options bar.
• To exit the Home screen, simply press the Esc key.
TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Photoshop Home screen

The Home screen shows the following tabs and buttons on the left:
Home: Click this tab to open the Home screen.
Learn: Click this tab to open a list of basic and advanced tutorials on Illustrator
to get started with the application.
LR Photos: Click this tab to access your synced Lightroom photos and import
them into a Photoshop document.
Create New: Click this button to create a new document. You can create a
document by selecting one of the numerous templates and presets available
in Photoshop.
Open: Click this button to open an existing document in Photoshop.

A first look at the Photoshop working area

A: Tools panel | B: History panel | C: Color panel | D: Creative Cloud Libraries

panel | E: Layers panel
Interactive image | Click the highlighted areas in the image to view more infor-
mation about them

Workspace overview

• The Application bar across the top contains a workspace switcher,

menus (Windows only), and other application controls. On the Mac for
certain products, you can show or hide it using the Window menu.
• The Tools panel contains tools for creating and editing images, artwork,
page elements, and so on. Related tools are grouped.

26
 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

• The Options bar Control panel displays options for the currently selected
tool.
• The Document window displays the file you’re working on. Document
windows can be tabbed and, in certain cases, grouped and docked.
• Panels help you monitor and modify your work. Panels can be grouped,
stacked, or docked.
• The Application frame groups all the workspace elements in a single, in
tegrated window that lets you treat the application as a single unit.
When you move or resize the Application frame or any of its elements, all
the elements within it respond to each other so none overlap. Panels
don’t disappear when you switch applications or when you accidentally
click out of the application. If you work with two or more applications, you
can position each application side by side on the screen or on multiple
monitors.

If you are using a Mac and prefer the traditional, free-form user interface, you
can turn off the Application frame.

Usability features

The Photoshop workspace is easy to use and includes a number of usability

features:
• Different brightness levels: Choose Edit > Preference (Windows) or
Photoshop > Preferences (Mac OS) and select a Color Theme swatch in
the Interface section.
Note:
To quickly decrease brightness, press Shift + 1; to increase brightness,
press Shift + 2. (On Mac OS, it’s necessary to also press the FN key.)
• On-image displays: Stay informed as you use your favorite tools. On-im
age displays show selection dimensions, transformation angles, and
more. To change the placement of the displays, choose an option from
the Show Transformation Values in the Interface preferences.
• Maximized screen space: Click the button at the bottom of the toolbar to
switch between Standard and Fullscreen display modes.
• Set UX color: You can customize the interface to sport one of the
following color themes: Black, Dark Gray, Medium Gray and Light [Link]
do this, follow these steps:

1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Interface.

2. Choose the desired color theme.

Available Color Theme options

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Hide or show all panels

• To hide or show all panels, including the Tools panel and Control panel,
press Tab.
• To hide or show all panels except the Tools panel and Control panel,
press Shift+Tab.
Note:
You can temporarily display hidden panels if Auto-Show Hidden Panels is se-
lected in Interface preferences. Move the pointer to the edge of the application
window (Windows) or to the edge of the monitor (Mac OS) and hover over the
strip that appears.

Display panel options

• Click the panel menu icon in the upper-right corner of the panel.
Note:
You can open a panel menu even when the panel is minimized.
Note:
In Photoshop, you can change the font size of the text in panels and tooltips. In
the Interface preferences, choose a size from the UI Font Size menu. Too scale
the entire Photoshop UI based on the UI Font Size you’ve chosen, select the
Scale UI To Font.

Reconfigure the Tools panel

You can display the tools in the Tools panel in a single column, or side by side
in two columns.
• Click the double arrow at the top of the Tools panel.

Manage windows and panels

You can create a custom workspace by mov-

ing and manipulating Document windows
and panels. You can also save workspaces
and switch among them.

Rearrange, dock, or float document

windows

When you open more than one file, the Docu-

ment windows are tabbed.
· To rearrange the order of tabbed Document
windows, drag a window’s tab to a new loca-
tion in the group.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

· To undock (float or untab) a Document window from a group of windows,

drag the window’s tab out of the group.

Note:
You can also choose Window > Arrange > Float in Window to float a single Docu-
ment window, or Window > Arrange > Float All In Windows to float all of the Doc-
ument windows at once.

• To dock a Document window to a separate group of Document windows,

drag the window into the group.
• To create groups of stacked or tiled documents, drag the window to one
of the drop zones along the top, bottom, or sides of another window. You
can also select a layout for the group by using the Layout button on the
Application bar.
• To switch to another document in a tabbed group when dragging a se
lection, drag the selection over the document’s tab for a moment.

Dock and undock panels

A dock is a collection of panels or panel groups displayed together, generally

in a vertical orientation. You dock and undock panels by moving them into and
out of a dock.

• To dock a panel, drag it by its tab into the dock, at the top, bottom, or in
between other panels.
• To dock a panel group, drag it by its title bar (the solid empty bar above
the tabs) into the dock.
• To remove a panel or panel group, drag it out of the dock by its tab or
title bar. You can drag it into another dock or make it free-floating.

Navigator panel being dragged out to new dock, indicated by blue vertical highlight

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Navigator panel in its own dock

Move panels

As you move panels, you see blue highlighted drop zones, areas where you can
move the panel. For example, you can move a panel up or down in a dock by
dragging it to the narrow blue drop zone above or below another panel. If you
drag to an area that is not a drop zone, the panel floats freely in the workspace.

Note:
The position of the mouse (rather than the position of the panel) activates
the drop zone, so if you can’t see the drop zone, try dragging the mouse to the
place where the drop zone should be.

· To move a panel, drag it by its tab.

· To move a panel group, drag the title bar.

Narrow blue drop zone indicates Color panel will be docked on its own above the Layers panel
group.

A. Title bar B. Tab C. Drop zone

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Note:
Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) while moving a panel to prevent
it from docking. Press Esc while moving the panel to cancel the operation.

Add and remove panels

If you remove all panels from a dock, the dock disappears. You can create a
dock by moving panels to the right edge of the workspace until a drop zone
appears.
• To remove a panel, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) its tab
and then select Close, or deselect it from the Window menu.
• To add a panel, select it from the Window menu and dock it wherever
you want.

Manipulate panel groups

• To move a panel into a group, drag the panel’s tab to the highlighted
drop zone in the group.

Adding a panel to a panel group

• To rearrange panels in a group, drag a panel’s tab to a new location in

the group.
• To remove a panel from a group so that it floats freely, drag the panel by
its tab outside the group.
• To move a group, drag the title bar (the area above the tabs).

Stack floating panels

When you drag a panel out of its dock but not into a drop zone, the panel floats
freely. The floating panel allows you to position it anywhere in the workspace.
You can stack floating panels or panel groups so that they move as a unit
when you drag the topmost title bar.

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Free-floating stacked panels

• To stack floating panels, drag a panel by its tab to the drop zone at the
bottom of another panel.
• To change the stacking order, drag a panel up or down by its tab.

Note:
• Be sure to release the tab over the narrow drop zone between panels,
rather than the broad drop zone in a title bar.
• To remove a panel or panel group from the stack, so that it floats by it
self, drag it out by its tab or title bar.

Resize panels

• To minimize or maximize a panel, panel group, or stack of panels,

double-click a tab. You can also double-click the tab area (the empty
space next to the tabs).
• To resize a panel, drag any side of the panel. Some panels, such as the
Color panel cannot be resized by dragging.

Collapse and expand panel icons

You can collapse panels to icons to reduce clutter on the work-
space. In
some cases, panels are collapsed to icons in the default work-
space.

Panels expanded from icons

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

• To collapse or expand all panel icons in a column, click the double arrow
at the top of the dock.
• To expand a single panel icon, click it.
• To resize panel icons so that you see only the icons (and not the labels),
adjust the width of the dock until the text disappears. To display the icon
text again, make the dock wider.
• To collapse an expanded panel back to its icon, click its tab, its icon, or
the double arrow in the panel’s title bar.
• To add a floating panel or panel group to an icon dock, drag it in by its
tab or title bar. (Panels are automatically collapsed to icons when
added to an icon dock.)
• To move a panel icon (or panel icon group), drag the icon. You can drag
panel icons up and down in the dock, into other docks (where they
appear in the panel style of that dock), or outside the dock (where they
appear as floating icons).

Prevent accidental panel moves with Lock Workspace

Introduced in the October 2018 release of Photoshop CC (version 20.0)
Use the Lock Workspace option to prevent accidentally moving workspace
panels, particularly when you’re using Photoshop on a tablet/stylus. To access
this option, choose Window > Workspace > Lock Workspace.

Use simple math in number fields

Introduced in the October 2018 release of Photoshop CC (version 20.0)

You can also perform simple math in any input box that accepts numeric values.

For example, if you want to want to increase the canvas size by an additional
50 pixels, you can simply type ‘+50’ to the current width or height field value in
the Canvas Size dialog.

To calculate values in any text box that accepts numerical values:

1. Do one of the following:
• To replace the entire current value with a mathematical expression,
select the entire current value.
• To use the current value as part of a mathematical expression, click
before or after the current value.

2. Type a simple mathematical expression using mathematical operators,

such as + (plus), (minus), x (multiplication), / (division), or % (percent).

33
TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

For example,
3 cm * 50% equals 3 centimeters multiplied by 50%, or 1.50 cm.
50 pt + 25% equals 50 points plus 25% of 50 points, or 62.5 points.

3. Press Enter or Return to apply the calculation.

Comprehensive search

Photoshop features powerful search

functionality that lets you search
across UI elements, documents, Help
& learning content, inspiring Stock as-
sets, and much more—all from within
a unified dialog. You can search for
items right after launching Photoshop
or when one or more documents are
open.

Create documents

When you create a document in Photoshop, instead of beginning with a blank

canvas, you can choose from a wide variety of templates, including templates
from Adobe Stock. Templates include stock assets and illustrations that you
can build on to complete your project. When you open a template in Photo-
shop, you can work with it just as you would work with any other Photoshop
document (.psd).
In addition to templates, you can also create a document by selecting one of
the numerous blank presets available in Photoshop.

New Document dialog | Templates from Adobe Stock and blank presets

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Save and switch workspaces

By saving the current size and position of panels as a named workspace, you
can restore that workspace even if you move or close a panel. The names of
saved workspaces appear in the workspace switcher in the Application bar.

Save a custom workspace

1. With the workspace in the configuration you want to save, choose
Window > Workspace > New Workspace.
2. Type a name for the workspace.
3. Under Capture, select one or more options:

Keyboard shortcuts
Saves the current set of keyboard shortcuts (Photoshop only).

Menus or Menu Customization

Saves the current set of menus.

Display or switch workspaces

Select a workspace from the workspace switcher in the Application bar.
Note:
In Photoshop, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to each workspace to navi-
gate among them quickly.

Delete a custom workspace

• Select Manage Workspaces from the workspace switcher in the
Application bar, select the workspace, and then click Delete.
• Select Delete Workspace from the workspace switcher.
• Choose Window > Workspace > Delete Workspace, select the workspace,
and then click Delete.

Restore the default workspace

1. Select the Default or Essentials workspace from the workspace switcher
in the application bar.
2. Select Window > Workspace > Reset [Workspace Name].

Restore a saved workspace arrangement

In Photoshop, workspaces automatically appear as you last arranged them,
but you can restore the original, saved arrangement of panels.
• To restore an individual workspace, choose Window > Workspace > Reset
[Workspace Name].
• To restore all the workspaces installed with Photoshop, click Restore De
fault Workspaces in the Interface preferences.
Note:
To rearrange the order of workspaces in the application bar, drag them.

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Rich tooltips

Figuring out what Photoshop tools do is now easier than ever before! When you
hover the pointer over certain tools in the Tools panel, Photoshop displays a
description and a short video of the tool in action.
You can choose not to view rich tooltips. To do so, deselect the Preferences >
Tools > Use Rich Tooltips preference.

Rich tooltip: Crop tool

Rich tooltip: Quick Selection tool

Hide tooltips

When you position the pointer over most tools and options, descriptions ap-
pear in tooltips by default. If you find tooltips visually distracting, you can hide
them.
In the Interface preferences, deselect Show Tooltips.
Note:
Tooltips are not available in some dialog boxes.

Windows | High-density monitor support and per-monitor scaling

On Windows 10 Creators Update and later versions, Photoshop offers a full

range of choices for UI scaling—from 100% through 400% in 25% increments.
This enhancement makes the Photoshop user interface looks crisp and sharp
regardless of the pixel density of your monitor. Photoshop automatically ad-
justs its resolution based on your Windows settings.
In addition, you can adjust per-monitor scaling across monitors with differ-
ent scaling factors. This flexibility ensures that a high resolution (HiDPI) laptop
works seamlessly alongside a lower-resolution desktop monitor, or vice ver-
sa. For example, one of your monitors can have a scale factor of 175%, while

36
 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

another monitor can have a scale factor of 400%. So, you can choose either
the highest-end 13-inch laptops with 4k screens, the more affordable 1080p
models, or tap into 8k desktop monitors, and still have an uncompromised
experience within Photoshop. In Windows, select Start > Settings > System >
Display. Now, under Scale And Layout, choose a scaling factor for each of your
displays.

Note:
On Windows 10 Creators Update and later versions, the UI Scaling setting in
Photoshop (Preferences > Interface > UI Scaling) still applies to some com-
ponents, such as the File Info and Camera Raw dialogs. On earlier versions of
Windows, this preference applies to all Photoshop components. When the UI
Scaling option is set to Auto, scaling defaults to the value closest to the prima-
ry monitor’s OS scaling factor—100 or 200.

Use Photoshop with the Touch Bar on MacBook Pro

Windows | Modifier Keys palette

The new Modifier Keys palette lets you access frequently-used key-
board modifiers— Shift, Ctrl, and Alt—on Windows-powered touch
devices, such as the Surface Pro.
• Select Window > Modifier Keys.

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

2. DEMONSTRATE THE USE DIFFERENT DRAWING

AND PAINTING TOOLS

1. Selection and manipulation of tools

Understand shapes and paths

38
 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Drawing in Adobe Photoshop involves creating vector shapes and paths.

In Photoshop, you can draw with any of the shape tools, the Pen tool, or the
Freeform Pen tool. Options for each tool are available in the options bar.

Before you begin drawing in Photoshop, you must choose a drawing mode
from the options bar. The mode you choose to draw in determines whether
you create a vector shape on its own layer, a work path on an existing layer, or
a rasterized shape on an existing layer.
Vector shapes are lines and curves you draw using the shape or pen tools.
Vector shapes are resolution-independent—they maintain crisp edges when
resized, printed to a PostScript printer, saved in a PDF file, or imported into a
vector-based graphics application. You can create libraries of custom shapes
and edit a shape’s outline (called a path) and attributes (such as stroke, fill
color, and style).

Paths are outlines that you can turn into selections, or fill and stroke with color.
You can easily change the shape of a path by editing its anchor points.
A work path is a temporary path that appears in the Paths panel and defines
the outline of a shape.

You can use paths in several ways:

• Use a path as a vector mask to hide areas of a layer.
• Convert a path to a selection.
• Fill or stroke a path with color.
Designate a saved path as a clipping path to make part of an image transpar-
ent when exporting the image to a page-layout or vector-editing application.

Drawing modes

When you work with the shape or pen tools, you can draw in three different
modes. You choose a mode by selecting an icon in the options bar when you
have a shape or pen tool selected.

Shape Layers
Creates a shape on a separate layer. You can use either the shape tools or
the pen tools to create shape layers. Because they are easily moved, resized,
aligned, and distributed, shape layers are ideal for making graphics for web
pages. You can choose to draw multiple shapes on a layer. A shape layer con-
sists of a fill layer that defines the shape color and a linked vector mask that
defines the shape outline. The outline of a shape is a path, which appears in
the Paths panel.

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Paths
Draws a work path on the current layer that you can then use to make a selec-
tion, create a vector mask, or fill and stroke with color to create raster graphics
(much as you would using a painting tool). A work path is temporary unless
you save it. Paths appear in the Paths panel.

Fill Pixels
Paints directly on a layer—much as a painting tool does. When you work in this
mode, you’re creating raster images—not vector graphics. You work with the
shapes you paint just as you do with any raster image. Only the shape tools
work in this mode.

Drawing options
A. Shape Layers B. Paths C. Fill Pixels

Drawing and Type Tools

1. Pen Tool (P)

• Pen Tool (P)

• Freeform Pen Tool (P)
• Anchor Point Tool (P)
• Delete Anchor Point Tool (P)
• Convert Point Tool (P)

2. Horizontal Type Tool (T)

• Horizontal Type Tool (T)
• Vertical Type Tool( T)
• Horizontal Type Mask Tool (T)
• Vertical Type Mask Tool (T)

40
 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

3. Path selection Tool (A)

• Path selection Tool (A)
• Direct Selection Tool (A)

4. Rectangle Tool (U)

• Rectangle Tool (U)
• rounded Rectangle Tool (U)
• Ellipse Tool (U)
• Polygon Tool (U)
• Line Tool (U)
• Custom Shape Tool (U)

Pen Tool (P)

I mentioned this tool above for creating paths, in this we use the Path Selection
Tool to select the path and we can use Paths in a few ways, mostly to create
clipping paths or to create selections. We use the tool by clicking to add a
point. If we will click and drag, it will change the shape of your path, allowing
bend and shape the path for accurate selections and such.

Freeform Pen Tool (P)

We can easily draw vector shapes and paths by using a Freeform pen tool
since it automatically adds anchor points. The Freeform Pen Tool creates ma-
trix shapes as well as paths (shape outlines) in just the same manner as if we
are making a sketch with the pencil upon paper. The tool automatically adds
anchor points while drawing.

Anchor Point Tool (P)

The Add Anchor Tool adds a point in the path. You can simply click anywhere
along the path to attach a new point.

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Delete Anchor Point Tool (P)

You can use the Delete Anchor Point Tool to delete anchors and it can also be
used to reshape the existing vector shapes / paths (shape outlines).

Convert Point Tool (P)

Convert Point tool is a part of the Pen Tool. The Convert Tool allows us to see the
jumble of lines and points of the path that we have created by the other pen
tools, and we can adjust a point of the path also.

Horizontal Type Tool (T)

Through this tool we can write text in Photoshop when you click a single point, it
is put in a separate layer and a bounding box. You can drag the bounding box
to increase the text size and click on the move tool to move the text around.

Vertical Type Tool (T)

This tool is denoted by this type “ “

• In the Toolbox, select the Vertical Type Tool.
• On the Options bar, set the font size font family and color.
• Click on your image and type.
• Your typing style will be vertical.

Horizontal Type Mask Tool (T)

The Horizontal Type Mask Tool creates type-shaped selections.

• Select the Horizontal Type Mask Tool which is denoted by this type •
On the Options bar, set the font size font family and color
• Click on your image and type.
• Your typing style will be horizontal with shape • Select any other tool to
return to standard editing mode.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Vertical Type Mask Tool (T)

This tool is denoted by this type:

• Select the Vertical Type Mask that is under the pen tool.
• On the Options bar, set the font size font family and color.
• Click on your image and type.
• Your typing style will be vertical with shape.

Path Selection Tool (A)

The path selection tools make shape or segment selections showing anchor
points, direction lines, and direction points.

Direct Selection Tool (A)

Select the Direct Selection tool and click on the Fill of the object to select the
entire object., press the “v” key on your keyboard to switch to the Selection tool
and click to select the entire object.

Rectangle Tool (U)

When you click the Rectangle Tool and drag in a new document then by de-
fault a new layer is created and the color is whatever foreground color you
have selected.

Custom Shape (U)

First, select the Custom Shape tool, then select the shape in the Option Bar.
Many types of shape icons are available in shape. Select the Shape Icon and
drag in the new document, you can write text according to the shape icon.
When you click a shape, a new layer is automatically created and the text also
can be removed/adjusted in your new document.

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Painting tools

1. Brush Tool (B)

• Brush Tool (B)
• Pencil Tool (B)
• Color Replacement Tool (B)
• Mixer Brush Tool (B)
2. History Brush Tool (Y)
• History Brush (Y)
• Art History Brush ( Y)
3. Gradient Tool (G)
• Gradient Tool (G)
• Paint Bucket Tool (G)

Brush Tool (B)

This tool is used to paint any image, first of all a selected color and size. There
are various options of the Brush Tools sizes and shapes that can be found in
the options bar.

It is also used on layer masks for showing or hiding parts of the image.

Pencil Tool (B)

The Pencil tool is limited to hard brush tips of any size or shape, and it creates
freeform lines using the current foreground color.
The major difference between the Pencil and Brush Tools is that the Pencil tool
can draw only a hard-edged line. The pencil tool is a part of the Brush Tool.
The Pencil Tool has a unique feature named Auto Erase that can be used to
switch between the Current Foreground and Background colors.

Color Replacement Tool (B)

This tool can be used to change the color, saturation, hue and luminance val-
ues. In this tool we apply changes manually with a brush. This tool can also be
used to specify mode, sampling, limits and tolerance parameters for a tool. It
is different from the Brush Tool since it preserves the original texture when the
color is changed.

Mixer Brush Tool (B)

Through the Mixer Brush Tool we can mix colors . You can change the wetness
of the brush and how it mixes the brush color with the color already on the
canvas. In Photoshop CS5, brushes

44
 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

have more realistic bristles as well, so you can add textures that resemble
those in paintings you might create in the physical world.

While this is a great feature in general, it’s particularly useful when you’re using
the Mixer Brush. Combining various bristle settings and brush tips with differ-
ent wetness, paint-load, and paint-mixing settings gives you opportunities to
create exactly the look you want.

History Brush Tool (Y)

This tool works in a similar way as the Brush Tool, except the information that
it paints with is from the original state of your image. If you go to “Window” >
“History” then you will see the History Palette. The History Brush Tool paints with
the information from whatever History State is selected.

Art History Brush ( Y)

This tool can be used to apply paint styles to your image using a history state.
This tool is available under the History Brush Tool. There are several options
available for this tool that will affect how the pixels will look, the opacity, paint
stroke style, fidelity, area, and tolerance. This tool will probably not fool anyone
into thinking you have created a watercolor in the traditional way, but it’s fun
to use and can create nice images.

Gradient Tool (G)

You can use this tool to make gradient colors. It creates a blending of your
foreground color and background color when you click and drag it.

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Paint Bucket Tool (G)

This tool fills the area with the Active Foreground Color and Pattern. You can
select two options in this tool but before that you must click the Fill List Arrow.
The two options are as follows:
• Foreground: It can be used to fill the selected area with the current
foreground color.
• Pattern: It can be used to fill the area with a pattern.
The Paint Bucket Tool can fill areas with a selected foreground and pattern. The
fill area can be controlled by the shift in brightness of image pixels.
• Click the Pattern list arrow, and then select a pre-defined fill
pattern. This option is available if you select Pattern as a fill option.
• Click the Mode list arrow, and then select a blending mode.
• Enter an Opacity percentage value (1 to 100).
• Select a Tolerance value (0 to 255). The Tolerance value influences
the range of the Paint Bucket used to fill a given area.
• Select the Anti-aliased check box to create a visually smoother
line.
• Select the Contiguous check box to restrict the fill to the selected
area.
• Select the All Layers check box to fill all the color range information
from the image’s layers.
• Click the Paint Bucket Tool on the area to be changed.

Before After

46
 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Retouching Tools In Adobe Photoshop

The retouching tools in Adobe Photoshop are: Clone Stamp, Pattern Stamp,
Healing Brush, Patch and Color Replacement.

These tools repair damaged images, apply repeated patterns, or replace col-
ors in an image.

The following illustration shows the arrangement of these tools in the toolbar.
If two or more tools
occupy the same cell
(the icon for the tool
last used is always
shown), in order to
choose another tool,
right-click the mouse
on the arrow next to
the icon and choose
another tool from the menu that appears. This menu will also appear if you
click on the icon and press it for some time.

The Clone Stamp tool and Healing Brush clone (copy) pixels from one part of
an image to another, to another layer or even to another image. The difference
between the Healing Brush and the Clone Stamp tool is, the Healing Brush
in Photoshop takes into account the texture, illumination and shadows of the
processed image. As a result, the fragment processed by the Healing Brush
blends more easily into the rest of the image.

To clone an area with the Clone Stamp or Healing Brush, follow these steps:

• Step 1. Choose the tool from the Toolbar.

• Step 2. Set the parameters for the tool in the Options panel: size,
blending mode, the amount of opacity and others.
• Step 3. Check Use All Layers, if you need to work with several layers
at once.
• Step 4. Check Aligned to create one clone selected from the area
around a starting point. The mouse button can be released and
new fragments selected. Also, the mode and size of the tool can be
changed. If Align is unchecked, then each application of the tool
will create a clone from the same starting point.
• Step 5. Set a starting point. Do this by holding ALT, and then
left-clicking on the point from which the clone will be taken.
• Step 6. Move the cursor to the location where you want to copy the
fragment.
• Step 7. Press the left mouse button and the clone will be applied. If

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

the Healing Brush is used, then the cloned fragments, texture,

luminance, and shadows, will be processed in relation to the pixels
of the background image.

The Patch tool repairs an area with pixels copied from another area or image.
Like the Healing Brush, the Patch takes into account the texture, luminance,
and shadows of the background image.

This tool can be used in one of two ways:

Define the place where the clone will be applied, then drag the tool to the
source point.

Follow these steps:

• Step 1. Choose the Patch tool from the Toolbar.

• Step 2. Choose the shape and size of the tool in the Options panel,
and select Source in Patch’s options.
• Step 3. Draw a line with the Patch tool around the part of the image
that needs to be restored.
• Step 4. Drag the selected area to a new spot, from which the clone
will be created.

Define the source, then drag the tool to the damaged area.

Follow these steps:

• Step 1. Choose the Patch tool from the Toolbar.

• Step 2. Choose the tool’s size and shape in the Options panel, and
in Patch’s options select Destination.
• Step 3. Draw a line with the Patch tool around the part of the image
that will be cloned.
• Step 4. Drag this area over the part of the image that needs repair.

The Pattern Stamp tool works by drawing with a repeating pattern. This tool
can be used to created a frame or design for wallpaper or for retouching the
texture of part of an image. A pattern is selected from the Pattern Palette in the
Options Panel.

To use this tool, follow these steps:

• Step 1. Choose the tool from the Toolbar.

• Step 2. Set a pattern, by choosing it from the Pattern Palette in the
Options Panel.
• Step 3. Choose the size and shape, blending mode, amount of

48
 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

pattern opacity and other parameters for the tool in the Options Panel.
• Step 4. Press the left mouse button and drag the tool into the image.

A repeating pattern can also be used with the Healing Brush and Patch tool. To
do this with the Healing Brush, in the tool’s options select Pattern for the Source
and choose a pattern from the Pattern Palette. To do this with the Patch tool
- begin by using the tool to draw a line around an area (or use a previously
selected area), then choose a pattern from the Pattern Palette and press the
Use Pattern button.

The Color Replacement tool replaces one color in an image with another. This
tool can be used, for example, to repair the “red eye” effect.

Follow these steps to use the tool:

• Step 1. Choose the tool from the Toolbar.
• Step 2. Set the color which will be used to replace the intended
color in the image.
• Step 3. Set the parameters for the tool in the Options Panel, such
as: size and shape of the brush, the color’s blend mode, color
choice mode, opacity, etc.
• Step 4. Click on the color in the image to be replaced.

Text Tool

The Type tool allows you to add text to your file. You can use text on a variety of
projects, such as adding it to your images to create a poster, holiday card, or
invitation. You’ll also be able to customize the text to suit your needs.

To use the Type tool:

1. Locate and select the Type tool in the Tools panel. You can also press the
T key on your keyboard to access the Type tool at any time.

2. In the Control panel near the top of the screen, choose the desired font
and text size.

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

3. Click the Text Color picker, then choose the desired color from the dialog
box.

4. Click and drag anywhere in the document window to create a text box.

5. A new text layer will be added to your document. You can start typing to
add text to the layer.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

If you want to add a lot

of text to your document,
you may find it easier to
work with multiple text
layers. This will give you
more control over the
apperance of your text.
In the example below,
we’ve added a second
text layer for the word
mountains.

Type tool tips

• If you want to edit a text layer, you’ll need to double-click the layer icon
in the Layers panel. You can then change the text, resize the text box, or
use the options in the Control panel to choose a different font or modify
text size and color.

• For even more text formatting options, go to Window, then select Char-
acter to view the Character panel.

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• If you want to move the text, you’ll need to select the Move tool and click
and drag it to the desired location in the document window.

Rasterizing text

If you try to use certain tools with a text layer, such as Filters, you’ll receive a
warning message asking if you want to rasterize the text.
Rasterizing means the text
will be converted into pixels,
allowing you to make image
adjustments that normal-
ly don’t work with text. The
downside is that you’ll no
longer be able to edit the text,

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

change the formatting, or convert it back to a text layer. Therefore, you should
only rasterize your text if you absolutely need to. If you don’t want to rasterize it,
simply click Cancel to keep the text layer in its current format.

BASIC SHAPE TOOLS IN PHOTOSHOP

Photoshop offers basic shape tools for working with your images and artwork.
Rectangles, rectangles with rounded corners (rounded rectangles), circles
and ovals, multisided polygons, straight lines and arrows, and a whole boat-
load of special custom shapes are all at your command with a simple click-
drag.
Select the appropriate tool in the Toolbox, select the desired options in the
Options bar, and click-drag to create your object. (The various shape tools are
nested in the Toolbox, as shown in this figure.) Sounds simple, right? It is — no
tricks. Here are some additional features to make things even easier for you:

Use the Shift key. Pressing the Shift key

(both Mac and Windows) while you drag
constrains proportions (maintains the
width-to-height ratio). With the Shift key,
the Rectangle tool creates squares; the El-
lipse tool creates circles; the Polygon tool
creates proportional polygons; the Line tool creates horizontal or vertical lines
(or diagonal lines).

When using custom shapes, pressing the Shift key ensures that the shape re-
tains the width-to-height ratio with which it was originally defined.

• Use the Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) key. The Option/Alt key creates
the object centered on the point at which you click. Without the Option/
Alt key, the object is created in whichever direction you drag.
• Use the Shift and Option/Alt key. Pressing Shift and Option/Alt together
helps you create a proportionally constrained object, centered on the
point at which you click.
• Click the shape tool. If you click rather than drag, you’ll open a small di
alog box that allows you to enter precise dimensions for your new shape.
Click the OK button and the shape is created to the lower right of (or
centered on) the point where you clicked. The dialog box is visible in the
figure.
• Use the spacebar. While you’re dragging a shape, keep the mouse but
ton down and press the spacebar. You can then drag to reposition the
object while you create it. Still keeping the mouse button down, release
the spacebar and finish dragging the object.
• Check the Options bar. When you switch from shape tool to shape tool,
the Options bar changes to fit your needs. For example, with the

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Rounded Rectangle tool active, you choose the radius of the rounded
corners.

The Polygon tool offers a simple field in which you choose the number of sides
for the shape. When you’re using the Line tool, choose the thickness (weight) of
the line in the Options bar. Click the button to the left of the Weight field in the
Options bar to add arrowheads to the lines.

• Change the layer content. With a shape layer selected in the Layers
panel, select any shape tool and change the shape’s attributes in the
Options bar. You can easily change (or remove) both the fill and the
stroke.
• Edit the vector path. You can use the Direct Selection tool to change the
course of the path, customizing the appearance of the shape.
• Create work paths or pixel-filled shapes. Using the three options in the
menu to the left on the Options bar, you can elect to create shapes, work
paths (temporary paths used to make selections or masks), or add
pixels in the selected shape to your currently active layer.

You can easily spot a shape layer in the Layers panel — especially when the
default layer name starts with the word Shape. (You can, of course, change the
layer name by double-clicking it in the Layers panel.)

You can see in the Layers panel shown in this figure that the shape layer thumb-
nail includes the shape badge in the lower-right corner. When a shape layer
is selected in the Layers panel, that shape’s path is visible in the Paths panel.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

3. Describe the use of colour correction

Color Adjustment

Basic Color Theory

RGB (short for Red, Green, Blue) An RGB color
space is any additive color model. The main
purpose of the RGB color model is for the sens-
ing, representation, and display of images in
electronic systems, such as televisions and
computers.

CMYK (short for cyan, magenta, yellow, and

key (black), and often referred to as process
color or four color) is a subtractive color mod-
el, primarily used in color printing.

The major difference is that in a RGB color space, all the colors information are
resulted from the mixing of red, green, and blue; but in a CMYK color space, all
the colors are results of the mixing from cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. RGB
color space is also more accurate to human color sensory than CMYK.
When the same amount of contrast colors such as yellow/blue, red/cyan, and
green/magenta mixing together, it will produce a neutral gray tone. In color
adjustment, to reduce the intensity of one particular color is to add in the con-
trast color.

Levels
In this and the next chapter, we are going to use week2_ColorAdjustment.psd
To access the levels dialogue box, you simply go to Image>Adjustments> Lev-
els. After you select Levels, it will bring up the dialogue box with a histogram on
it. In photography, a histogram is basically a bar chart that shows all the tonal
levels from the darkest point to the lightest point that the image is made up of.
The chart also shows amount of different tones are presented in the image. For
example, if it is a tall bar, that means there are a lot of that particular tones are
in the image.

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A. Darkest tones/shadows slider

B. Midtones slider
C. Brightest tones/highlights slider
D. Auto color correction
E. Auto color correction setting

With Levels, we can correct the color, contrast, and brightness of parts and the
entire image.
Here we want to adjust the white balance and exposure of this street scene
photo.

Correcting Underexposure
Move the midtones slider to the left to bright up the dark tones;

Correcting White Balance

To neutralize the redness, select the red channel from the Channel dropdown
menu; then move it to the right to reduce the intensity of redness in the image.

You can go to different channel to micro-adjust all the color value until you get
the result you want.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Curve
Curve is another powerful tool for adjusting color and contrast. You can use
it to create different color shifts and special effects such as solarization and
color reversal. The main advantage of using curve is that it allows to re-map
colors and tones in several different levels. So you can make precise changes.
Close and re-open week2_ColorAdjustment.psd. Next, go to Image>Adjust-
ments> Curve to bring up the curve dialogue box,

A. Adjust curve by adding points

B. Draw a curve with the pencil.
C. Brightest tones/Highlights
D. Midtones
E. Darkest tones/Shadows
F. Black and white point sliders
G. Curve display options
H. Set black point by sampling a
point which representing the
darkest tone in the image
I. Set gray point by sampling a
point which representing the
midtone in the image
J. Set white point by sampling
a point which representing
the brightest tone in the im
age
K. Show clipping while some
tonal information are edited
out through adjustment

Let’s try to adjust the same photo with curve and experience the difference
between levels and curve

Brighten Up The Photo

First, click on the top-right curve segment (which representing the bright tones)
to setup several anchor points which will fixate the bright tones. Next, click on
the lower-left curve segment and move the anchor point a bit up to increase
the brightness of the dark tones.

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Correcting White Balance

Similar to what we did in the levels dialogue box; select the red channel first;
then drag the red curve lower to decrease the red value.

Also, you can hit Auto to let Photoshop do the adjustment for you but it could
be inaccurate.

Hue, Saturation and Lightness (HLS)

Hue, saturation and lightness are commonly referred as the three main attri-
butes of perceptual color. Hue is that aspect of a color identified with names
such as “red”, “yellow” and etc. Saturation is related to the intensity and color-
fulness of one specific color. Lightness is a property of a color which is defined
in a way to reflect the subjective brightness perception of a color for humans.

Change The Overall Color Scheme Of A Photo

Select Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation, it brings up the Hue/Saturation
dialogue box.
You can move the three sliders around to try to get different looks of the photo.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Change One Specific Color In A Photo

In this exercise, we want to shift color of the beak to red only without affecting
rest of the color.

1. Since the crane’s beak is reddish yellow, let us try to select the red channel.
Then move the hue slider to the right end; now you can see part of the bird’s
peak changed to blue while rest of image remains the same color.

2. Part of the peak is still yellow; using Add to Sample (Shift + Click) on the yel-
low part to add that part into your selection. Once you have done that you will
find the background was affected as well which is not the result you want to
have.

3. To restore the background color, we can

accurately adjust the color range with the silder in the bottom of the dialogue
box.

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A. Hue slider values

B. Adjusts fall-off without affecting range
C. Adjusts range of color and fall-off
4. Move both sliders B and C to micro-adjust the color till the background looks
normal, then move the hue slider to the left till the beak appears in vibrant
scarlet.

Non-Destructive Editing: Adjustment Layer

The main advantage of using adjustment layer is it allows you to adjust the
content with altering the original pixels so you can delete them or disable them
anytime you want. You can treat an adjustment layer the same as a regular
pixel layer; you can adjust the opacity and blending mode of an adjustment
layer. As well, you can save your adjustment layer in your PSD file; you can al-
ways revisit any particular filter or effect you applied before and reset the at-
tribute at anytime. Whereas, the changes you made from the Image>Adjust-
ment menu will permanently alter the pixel information, and if you ever want
to redo one of the many steps you have done so far, you have to restart again.
So it is highly recommended to use the adjustment layer all the time.

Hue/Saturation Alteration With Adjustment Layer

1. Open week2_ColorAdjustment.psd.
Click on the black-white circle icon( as the screenshot showed) at the bottom
of the layer penal to add an adjustment layer to the image and select Hue/
Saturation

2. After you add the Hue/Saturation as an adjustment layer you can dou-
ble click on the little chart icon (on the adjustment layer) to bring up the Hue/
Saturation dialogue box; rest of steps are the same with what you have done
before.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Non-Destructive Editing: Layer Mask The

advantage of using layer mask for erasing
is similar to adjustment layer. You can sim-
ply eraser tool to paint away the pixel in a
photo and make them invisible; however,
this is a permanently pixel alteration, you
will not be able to get it back unless you re-
open
the file without saving it. With layer mask,
you can still do the same thing but leaving
the original pixels unharmed and you can easily painted it back

Erasing With Layer Mask

1. Select the layer mask icon at the bottom of layers panel

2. Pick the brush tool with color set to black and start to erase the pixel
around the crane.

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3. Alt + Click on the layer mask to view merely the layer mask.

4. Anytime and anywhere you want to paint back the original pixels, you
can brush the black color out with a white color in the layer mask, and
the erased content will showed up again.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

5. You can even unlink the layer mask with the layer and move the erased
area around.

HOW TO USE COLOR BALANCE CONTROLS IN PHOTOSHOP

With an understanding of Photoshop and color theory, you can probably use
the Color Balance controls to make some simple changes to the
color in your image. The difficult part is recognizing exactly which color you
need to add or subtract from your image in the first place.
Colors are subtler than you might think. For example, a slight colorcast toward
cyan can look a lot like a slightly green or blue colorcast. Is your image too red,
or does it have too much magenta?

To use the Color Balance controls, follow these steps:

1. Choose Image→Adjustments→Color Balance or press Ctrl+B

(Command+B on the Mac) to access the Color Balance dialog box.
2. Choose the Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights option to select the tones
of an image you want to work on. Usually, Midtones is the best choice,
unless your image has a colorcast in the shadows or highlights that
doesn’t affect the overall image. That can sometimes happen when a
subject is close to a colored wall or other object that reflects light onto,
say, the shadowed side of a subject.

3. Select the Preserve Luminosity option. When this option is selected,

Photoshop modifies the colors of the image, but the brightness and
contrast of the tones stay the same. If you’re not happy with the results,
deselect the option.
4. Move the Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green, or Yellow/Blue slider to add or
subtract color, watching the effects of your adjustments on the original
image.

The Color Levels boxes show the amount of each color that Photoshop adds
and subtracts while you move the sliders. Here’s an example of subtracting
yellow and green to improve the color in an image.

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The colors are arranged by their opposites on the color wheel. Dragging the
slider toward Cyan adds cyan to the image and subtracts its complement,
red. Dragging toward Green adds green to the image and subtracts magenta.

CORRECT IMAGES WITH COLOR VARIATIONS IN PHOTOSHOP

The Color Variations command is a digital color-correction feature that’s been

around for years and is largely unchanged. That’s probably because it’s one of
those great features that’s easy to use and easy to understand, and it works.
The command enables you to make corrections by visually comparing thumb-
nails of color variations of your image. You may use this command when you’re
not quite sure what’s wrong with the color or what kind of colorcast your image
has.

Here’s how to use the Color Variations command:

1. In Full Photo Edit or Quick Photo Edit mode, choose Enhance→Adjust

Color→Color Variations.

The Color Variations dialog box appears, displaying a preview of your original
image (before) and the corrected image (after).

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

2. Select a tonal range or color richness (if you’re unsure which range to
select, start with the Midtones): o Shadows, Midtones, Highlights.
These adjust the dark, middle, or light areas in the image, respectively.

o Saturation. This adjusts the color intensity or richness, making colors

more intense (saturated) or less intense (desaturated). If your image is faded
from time, be sure to increase the saturation after you correct any colorcast
issues.

Usually, just correcting the midtones is enough to get your image’s color in
order, but if it’s not, you can always adjust the shadows and highlights, as well.

3. Specify how much adjustment you want with the Adjust Color Intensity
slider. Drag left to decrease the amount of adjustment and drag right to
increase the amount.
4. If you selected Midtones, Shadows, or Highlights in Step 2, adjust the col
or by clicking the various Increase or Decrease Color buttons.

Click more than once if your initial application wasn’t sufficient to correct the
problem. Be sure to keep an eye on the After thumbnail, which reflects your
corrections while you make them.

5. Click the Darken or Lighten buttons to make the colors a little darker or
lighter, respectively.
6. If you selected Saturation in Step 2, click the Less Saturation or More
Saturation buttons.

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7. If you make a mistake — or several mistakes, for that matter — click the
Undo button. The Color Variations dialog box supports multiple levels of
undo. If you botch something, you can always click the Reset Image
button to start again. Keep in mind that you can’t undo the Reset Image
command after you click it. Click Cancel to bail entirely.
8. To apply your color adjustments and close the dialog box, click OK.

The Color Variations command is a great tool to correct those old, faded,
green- (or some other unwanted color) tinted circa-yesteryear photos. The
Color Variations command allows you to easily correct the color and satura-
tion of these precious, but damaged, images. Remember to either decrease
the offending color or add the color that’s the opposite of the cast in the im-
age. If it’s too red, add cyan, and vice versa.

4. Identify the steps for Digital Painting and Matte Painting

Steps of digital painting

Step1
First, let’s take a look at the brushes that we will use. We only use two basic
brushes here, brush 1 is used to soften hard edges and make gradient tran-
sitions, its advantage is no need to pick color when paint in grayscale, you
can gradually build up a gray scale of any level with a pressure tablet using
pure black and white. Brush 2 is actually a basic hard round brush with shape
dynamics option on. Brush 2 has very vivid edge. We use brush 2 mainly as a
texture brush and sketching pen. You can see the detailed settings in the fol-
lowing images.

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Advertisement

Step 2
The concept of this painting is a crys-
tal swan bathing in a glass of water, light
shines directly from top. There are three
materials in the painting: crystal swan,
water, and glass. Before painting, we need
a swan photo for reference.

Step 3
We will not just copy the outline of the
swan in the photo. But extract the shape of
the neck and mouth. We will draw a swan
out of the two curves mostly. Wing and tail
is minored to avoid competing with the
curves that I chose.
Let the audience focus on the neck and
mouth. This is my initial intention.

Step 4
Create a new layer. Press “D” to set foreground/background
color to black/white. Draw a basic shape of swan and glass
with brush 2. The line doesn’t need to be perfect, just enough to
bring your idea down on paper.

Step 5
Let’s do more on the sketch layer. Create a new layer on top of
the sketch layer. Now we add more detail to the glass shape,
and add a water level, also notice the mouth tip in the edge of
glass rim, it’s the detail I want exactly in my mind.

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Step 6
Here is the final version of my sketch, detailed and cleaned
for grayscale tone and coloring.

Step 7
Now we will do our sketch in another way, you can see the
route of sketching is really not important, no matter which
way you take, the most important point is where to go, you
must have the image in your head first. Know what you de-
sire most. The decision making stuff is in the whole process of
painting. We will begin with brush 2 but bigger brush size to
draw a black curve block like this to indicate swan shape in
pure simple way. Notice the beautiful curve of neck, mouth,
belly, and little wings and tail, which I keep small to avoid dis-
tracting audience’s attention.

Step 8
Detailing the shape.

Step 9
Pick a lighter value to paint glass shape.

Step 10 Clean the edge.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Step 11
Go to Filter > Stylize > Find Edges.

Step 12
Now you have the sketching layer in a
different way.

Step 13
Before we block the sketch layer, use
the image below to demonstrate the
light and value of this painting. The
widest light path shows the main
light stream coming from top, travel-
ing through semi-transparent swan,
water and reflected mostly in the
bottom of the glass, then reflected all
the directions out, make a bright light
source in the image. It’s the first and
brightest spot in the image. Some
light goes through the bottom to light
the glass holder. The other four light paths light the head of swan and wings
and tail just emerged from the water. Create a beautiful highlight on them.
Keep these light positions in mind, we will use it later in blocking and coloring.

Step 14
This is another demonstration made only by
brush 1. We can see the tone mainly lies in three
levels, 0, 50, 90. It transfers the idea clearly
enough, though lots of brush strokes makes the
image a little dirty.

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Step 15
Now we start blocking the image on the sketch layer. Acti-
vate sketch layer, use Magic Wand tool (W) to click on the
background, we will select the background area, then create
a new layer on top of the sketch layer with the selection on.

Step 16
Choose Gradient Tool (G) to make
a line as indicated below. This fills
the background with a gradient
look.

Step 17
This is more detailed version of
the value we used to fill some of
the blocks. But you have no need
to copy it exactly as I do. Just play
around the value I mentioned in
Step 14.

Step 18
Here are the block layers we will make. Note we
put them in separate layer for future selection and
coloring.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Step 19
Now we select the head of swan as
in step15, and use Paint Bucket Tool
(G) to fill the value. These blocks are
more flat than the blocks filled with
Gradient Tool, so Paint Bucket Tool
is preferred and also we can use
brush 2 with big brush size.

Step 20
Here we have an image showing the exact value we
choose. Again you don’t have to copy the numbers
exactly, just pick around the number I demonstrated
step 14.

Step 21
Make all the layers we have so far made visible in-
cluding the sketching layer which will be at the bot-
tom of these layers. Image like this will come out as
below. Group all the layers. Name it whatever you
want. Press Command/Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E to emerge
all the layers, yet saving the original layers. It’s use-
ful when you want to go back to do some correction.
This layer group will be used frequently later in selec-
tion for coloring and adjusting.

Step 22
Now we have the basic valued laid on the sketch
layer. Every tool will be taken to make it more realis-
tic and eye-catching. Look at the image, we will find
the circled areas are a little bit too bright, so darken
the areas.

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Step 23
We will use a curve adjustment layer to darken the areas
we mentioned above, this is how we do it. Activate the
background layer, click the adjustment icon on the bot-
tom of layer panel, or go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer
> Curves, it will pop up a window as indicated below, click
the hand icon and move it to the area you want to dark-
en, then drag down a little bit. You will see the result come
out. Stop at where you think is proper. Press “D”, set color
to black/white. We will use brush 2 painting on the darken
areas to mask.

Step 24
Then press Command/Ctrl + I to
reverse selection.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Step 25
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, Radius 56.1, you can put in any number you
like just make sure it’s big enough to soften the edges. This blur technique will
be used frequently afterward in any situation, which makes hard edges or bor-
ders.

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Step 26
Apply the same technique to the other two blocks. And at last we have this im-
age, no big change but you can see the difference.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Step 27
Now look at the belly part of swan in the
water. How dull it is. In real world, distinctly
separated blocks are unusual, let’s make
these part flow into the neighborhood a lit-
tle bit, create some motions to let it look like
more realistic and alive. Look at the arrows
in the image, that’s where brush works.

Step 28
Use brush 1 to lighten or darken the areas
spotted in the image. Press “D” to set color
to black/white. Press “X” to switch between
black and white. Use white to lighten and
dark to darken. That’s the advantage of
brush 1, no need to pick color during paint-
ing. All you need to do is press “X” to switch.
Use very little pressure, make small alter-
ation.

Step 29
Result seems not so good, but not bad
either, so we will just keep it.

Step 30
Now we are going to make the sketch line
emerge into the surrounding areas. Activate
sketch layer, make foreground color to pure
white by pressing “D”, then press “X” to switch.
Then Select > Color Range, fuzziness 30, click Ok.
As the color picker is already set to pure white,
which is the background color, so Color Range
command will select the background area.
Then activate the swan layer we are working
on. Press Command/Ctrl + Shift + I, make reverse select. Now we have the
sketch line selected.

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Step 31
Choose brush2, with a brush size just a little bigger than the sketch line width.
Press
Command/Ctrl + H to hide the selections. Then pick color from both sides of
the line then draw on the line. This will make the line disappear into surround-
ing blocks.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Step 32
Adding highlight. Use brush 2 with pure white. Highlight position is indicated in
Step 13.

Step 33
Next is the detailing stage. In the image below we spot three areas need fur-
ther improvement. Water level is flat, no reflection, and the part between wing
and body is not filled yet. Light at the bottom has a very ugly edge. Use brush
1 to improve.

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TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

Step 34
Enlarge the image we will see
some irregular white dots, let’s
eliminate these by median filter
in a quick easy way. Go to Filter
> Noise > Median, Radius 1 pixels,
this is important; radius should
be 1 pixels exactly.
More will change the shape of
swan.

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 UNIT 2: DIGITAL DESIGN

Step 35
Still some dark dots left. This time we will use brush 2 to cover it. Just pick the
colors around the dark dots by color picker. Then paint on it.

Step 36
Now we are going to work on the edges as shown below. Edges are quite im-
portant if you want to paint something realistic. Look at the mountains far

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away, you will notice that textures, details are lost first, then color lost in further
distance, vivid edges still survive even at the farthest place. Interestingly, that’s
just how we paint reversely, edge with basic shape, color, then details. Look
how I work on the edge of glass and its holder. It’s a quick tip to make your pic-
ture convincing.

Step 37
Let’s review our original concept, which is a bathing swan in a glass of water.
Now the swan is in good shape and also glass. But water is just flat. It’s time
to work on “Water”. As a swan is bathing in the water, the wing and tail must
be wet. It should have more reflections, which means more highlights. And the
left neck part of swan should receive more light reflections from glass. And we
need more contrast below the wing. Again using brush 1 to improve. Note that
all the changes we have made in every step are all very subtle separately,
zoom in and out of the image frequently will help you to “see” the difference
you made.

Step 38
In this step we work on three parts. Part one is cleaning some minor strokes
in left part of glass, part two is softening the light bottom more, part three is
smoothing the brush stroke part on the right and drag it along the rim of glass

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mouth to the left. Use Smudge Tool to work.

Step 39
Now work on the negative space to make glass step out from background. Use
the curve adjustment technique mentioned in the previous steps to darken the
space around the glass. Don’t forget to mask and blur after curve adjustment.
It’s another way to bring a sharp edge.

Step 40
Remember the mouth I mentioned in the very first beginning of the tutorial.
The mouth tip under the glass is a very small yet exciting part of this image. So

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let ‘s highlight it. And the crack in the back part of the belly. It seems not bright
enough, but we don’t want to break the balance we have already created so
far, So let’s darken the part around it to make it look more bright.

Step 41
Now let’s take a little break. Try to move our eyes to other part of the image
rather than swan. We will notice the two parts we found do not fit into the im-
age really well. Again, use curve adjustment technique to darken it.

Step 42
Finally, look at our image, everything seems so perfect, all we need to do is col-
oring now. But wait, our initial intention is a realistic swan bathing in a glass of
water. Realistic, The swan is beautiful and do have a shape which is convincing
enough to make people believe it is a swan.
But texture is missing. In a real world there is no perfection. Use brush 1 with
brush size 1 pixel and color pure white to make these white dots over swan. And
brush 1 to paint some cracks and shadows as indicated below.

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Step 43
It really seems perfect now. We’ve done all we could. Use the technique in the
previous steps, move your eyes from the part you want to perfect. Usually it is
not the part you focus on causes the problem but the part you ignored. So let’s
try to unfocus the swan, move our attention to the water and glass. Yes, Water,
glass is as transparent material as swan, or even more, yet they have no little
highlight reflection, that’s the weird part of this image. So use brush 2 with the
same settings as previous step to add highlight. Note the highlight dots on the
glass, the position is well chosen not randomly picked. It doesn’t conflict with
the edge of glass, yet implies the curve of the glass.

Step 44
Now let’s go to the coloring part. When working with
color, keep color temperature knowledge as indicat-
ed below in mind is important. It means that a col-
or makes hue shifts as it goes lighter or darker. And
middle tones are often more saturated than lightest
or darkest part. So if you pick color from color wheel
to paint, let the color goes in a curve as indicated
below, also make sure hue changes as value and
saturation changes. It’s the key of coloring.

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Step 45
Pick color and use selection we have
already made separated layers for
selections. You can use Paint Bucket
Tool (G) to fill or brush 2 with proper
brush size. The color layer will look like
this finally. Pick color as mentioned in
the previous step, you can see a clear
hue shifts from yellow to red, and
saturation goes higher in the middle
tone in the image below. A tip in real-
istic coloring is: most colors in real life
are rather dull. Don’t make mistake of
over-saturation. Keep it low at first. This is the principle of traditional painting.
But in the digital painting era, it’s always easy to go back. And over-saturation
can help you identify the part you dislike quickly. If you don’t like it, just de-sat-
urate it. So next, we will go the step of oversaturation, lower it if we dislike, raise
it if it’s too desaturated. Until we find balance in color.

Step 46
Make the color layer on top of the grayscale layer. Change layer mode to “col-
or”.

Step 47
Let’s over-saturate it by click on the adjustment icon on the bottom of layer
panel, choose Hue/Saturation. See more detailed settings in the image below.

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Step 48
Use the sketch layers to select background, then acti-
vate image we are working on with selections on. Go to
Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Radius 41.1 or any number it
seems proper. Just to make image seem smooth.

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Step 49
Now the whole image seems too saturated, we need to lower saturation down
except the swan. Swan is the part we want our audience focus on. Good paint-
ing are always coming out from good contrast. When you find something
wrong in your painting, don’t blame the wrong part first, try to work the part
around it. That’s the negative space painting way. And in the following color
adjustment steps, the exact color code will not be given. Actually, it’s the fun
part of painting, you could try for yourself under the tips mentioned in the pre-
vious step. Let your eye be your judge, if you dislike it, then just modify it. Eye
tells you everything.

Step 50
Now we will de-saturate the part indicated in the
previous step. Create a new layer, layer mode
set to saturation. Pick any color just on the left of
current color of the image that means a de-sat-
urated color. With background and glass holder
selections on, we paint it by brush2. And blur it if
there are any hard edges. Final results will look like
this. Don’t worry about the ugly look of the results,
it only affects the saturated part.

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Step 51
Merge the layer using Command/Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E, we will have a de-sat-
urated look. The left part seems not fully de-saturated. Let’s do it again, using
same technique. Pick a less saturated color and paint on a new layer with
brush 2, layer mode set to saturation, blur it if there is any hard edges. As we
are use hard brush 2, so a Gaussian Blur is always in need.

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Step 52
Now it looks Ok with the whole image. But we
still need some color highlight to make the
image come to life. Select brush1 with brush
mode “Linear Dodge (Add)”, pick the color
where you paint as pointed out in the image
below. Then paint with pressure gradually
increasing.

Step 53
Press Command/Ctrl + J to duplicate the im-
age. Layer mode “overlay”, down the opacity
to 33% to make more contrast.

Step 54
Go to Hue/Saturation adjustment as in the
previous steps.

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Step 55
Paint some shadows on the glass holder with brush 1 to compensate the vol-
ume loss during the process of color adjustment.

Step 56
Zoom in/Out the image a little bit to observe. Find out the glass part is far sat-
urated than we want. Ok, I confess I forgot this part in the de-saturation step.
Let’s do it again as in step 50.

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Final Image

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Photoshop Matte Painting

Introduction
Ever wonder how those incredible scenes of panoramic vistas, impossible fu-
turistic cities, or fantastic alien worlds come to life? It’s all through the magic
of matte painting. If only I had a dollar (hey, inflation!) for every time someone
responded, “Map painting?” But you know what I’m talking about, right? If you
don’t, a brief history lesson is in order.
Ages ago, extremely talented artists painted these realistic scenes on large
sheets of glass. It really is a lost art nowadays. The painting included blank ar-
eas that would get filled in with live action. The filmed segments were optically
composited with the painting for the final result. A matte is a solid shape that is
used to block out areas of the film frame so that no image gets exposed there.
A simple matte shot would require a shot of the painting with a matte to block
out the live area, the film sequence with a matte to block out everything but
the live area, and a final piece of film for everything to be exposed onto.

The Digital Revolution

With the invention of Adobe Photoshop, things began to change. What used to
require laborious work in a film studio with several lengths of film and expen-
sive, specialized cameras can now be done on a home computer with easily
available software. No matter how you approach it, Photoshop has become an
integral part of the process. The simplest matte paintings are ones in which the
camera is stationary throughout the entire sequence. This is called a locked-
off shot. Creating a matte painting for this kind of shot can be fairly easy. Only
one frame, or plate, of the footage is needed. It can be opened in Photoshop
and the new areas painted right on top.

How to do it?

Step 1 – Size
Open the background stock. The size of the stock is width: 2250px and Height:
1500px.

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Step 2 – Smart Object

Transform the background into a smart
object. Pressing right click in the layer
thumbnail and selecting the option Con-
vert to smart object.

Step 3 – Smart Object

Press double click in the smart object thumbnail.

Step 4 – Edit
Now a new window will pop up. This allow you to edit the smart object. So press
ok.

Step 5 – Duplicate
Now press Ctrl+J to duplicate the
layer in case you need to go back to
the original [Link] this layer you
will use the patch tool to hide unde-
sired parts of the image.

Step 6 – Duplicate and Change color

Press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer and then press Ctrl+U and in the option sat-
uration put -70. The image will have this color.

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Step 7 – Save
The the changes you made to the smart object press ctrl + S and close the
window.

Step 8 – River
Now go to folder you have the stocks and grab
the image of the river. You will see that the image
is an smart object itself, you can change the size
clicking in the corners.

Step 9 – Layer Mask

Create a layer mask to erase the undesired parts of the
image. Pick a soft round brush to paint over the parts
you want to remove. You will have something like this:

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Step 10 – Hue and Saturation

Go to Create a new fill or adjustment layer and click in the option Hue/Satura-
tion.

Reduce the Saturation to -60.

Step 11 – Apply to one object

To Apply the changes only in the layer of the river you
have to press right click over the Hue and Saturation
layer and select the option Create Clipping Mask.

Step 12 – Duplicate
Now go back to the Background image and duplicate the layer pressing Ctrl+J
and then change the layer mode to soft light.

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Step 13 – City
Grab the image of the city, and repeat the process of creating a new layer
mask to blend the layer to the background

Layer mask:

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Step 14 – Blur
Now go to filters – blur – Gaussian blur and add 2 radius pixels to get this result:

Step 15
Now pick a castle and resize it to fit the mountain like this:

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Step 16 – Layer Mask

Create a layer mask and like you did before hide with the brush tool the parts
you don’t want to use of the image.

Step 17 – Layer mode Change layer mode to overlay.

Step 18 – Waterfall
Add a image of the waterfall and resize it to fit the mountain.

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Step 19 – Layer mask

Use the layer mask technique once again to blend the waterfall.

Change layer mode to soft light

Step 20 – More Elements

Now add more elements to the image,
can be mountains, castles, ruins, all of this
to give to the image a better look. Use the
layer mask technique you learned in the
steps before in each of the elements and
remember to change layer mode to soft
light or overlay.

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Step 21 – Add a Stone

Pick a stone stock and add to the image, resize
it pressing Ctrl+T.

Step 22 – Select the stone

Now with the Polygonal lasso tool select the stone.

Step 23 – Layer
Add a layer mask to the image to have the selection.

Step 24 – Duplicate
Duplicate the layer pressing Ctrl + J
and then change the layer mode to
multiply with 60% of opacity.

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Step 25 – Moss
Add a moss layer, create a layer mask and hide the undesired parts.

Result:

Step 26 – adjustments
Use the layer mode in soft light and reduce the saturation to -40.

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Step 27 – Model
To hide the original background of the model, you have to use the polygonal
lasso tool and select only the model.

Step 28 – Layer Mask

Now add a layer mask to the image, In that way the selection you made is go-
ing to be the only thing you see.

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Step 29 – Dress
Duplicate the layer and select only the
model’s dress using the same technique
as before. Using layer mask and with the
brush hide the undesired parts.

Step 30 –
Now go the the layer mask and choose the
option add mask to the selection to have
an editable layer of the dress.

Step 31 – Change size and color.

Now press Ctrl +T give a right click and
choose the option warp to modify the dress,
press enter when you are done to save the
changes.

Step 32 – Converting
Convert the dress layer into a Smart Object
pressing right click in the layer thumbnail
and then selecting the option Convert Smart
Object.

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Step 33 – Black dress

To make the model’s dress black you have to reduce the saturation to -100.

Step 34- make up

Now for the make up I just paint over the model’s face with pink tones in the
cheeks and lips and some brown in the eyebrows. Also add some eye shad-
ows.

Step 35 – Hair
You can paint the hair with the help of some hair brushes pen tool or tablet.

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Step 36 – City lights

Now to make the city lights, create a new layer and with a soft round brush
paint to create lights. You can use the brush in 5 px or less.

Step 37 – Blur
Go to filter – blur – Gaussian blur
and select 2 px radius to give a
softer look. Also you can use the
eraser with 30% of opacity in
some parts to blend the lights.

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Step 38 – Sky
Put a layer of a sky and add a layer mask to it.

Step 39 – Hide
Hide all the blue parts and just leave like this:

Step 40 – Layer mode

Change layer mode to soft light and reduce the opacity to 60%

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Step 41 – Light
Paint light effects with a soft round brush with 50% of opacity and 50% of flow.

Step 42 – Soft Light

Change layer mode to soft light and the opacity to 60%.

Step 43 – Shadows
Create a new layer and use it
in soft light mode. Paint with
a soft round black brush with
50% of opacity and 50% of flow.

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Step 44 – Freeform Pen Tool

Nowpick the freeform pen tool to make details stand out.

Step 45 – Paths
After you make all of the strokes give a right click and press the option stroke
path

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Then select brush pressure:

The result is this:

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Step 46 – Blur
Pick the blurand also the smudge tool and pass over the stroke you just made
to give a softer look. Also reduce the opacity of the layer to 60%.

Step 47 – Lights
As you did before pick a soft round brush in a white or yellow tone and paint
around the model to create lights, make sure the brush have 50% of opacity
and 50% of flow.

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Step 48 – Layer mode

Change the layer mode to soft
light, if you think is necessary
you can reduce the opacity.
Repeat the process with warm
tones around the image. In this
way you will be creating the di-
rection of the light. Start in the
left corner of the image with
more intensity and less intensi-
ty in the right area of the image.

Step 49 – Dark
Now in a new layer in soft
light mode paint with a
black brush with 50% of
opacity and 50% of flow to
get this result:

Final Results
That’s it

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5. Use different blending modes

The blending mode specified in the options bar controls how pixels in the im-
age are affected by a painting or editing tool. Think in terms of the following
colors when visualizing a blending mode’s effect:

• The base color is the original color in the image.

• The blend color is the color being applied with the painting or
editing tool.
• The result color is the color resulting from the blend. Blending
mode descriptions

Choose from the Mode pop-up menu in the options bar. Note:

• In the Blend Mode pop-up menu, scroll over different options to

see how they look on your image. Photoshop displays a live pre
view of blend modes on the canvas.
• Only the Normal, Dissolve, Darken, Multiply, Lighten, Linear Dodge
(Add), Difference, Hue, Saturation, Color, Luminosity, Lighter Color,
and Darker Color blending modes are available for 32-bit images.

Normal
Edits or paints each pixel to make it the result color. This is the default mode.
(Normal mode is called Threshold when you’re working with a bitmapped or
indexed-color image.)

Dissolve
Edits or paints each pixel to make it the result color. However, the result color
is a random replacement of the pixels with the base color or the blend color,
depending on the opacity at any pixel location. Behind
Edits or paints only on the transparent part of a layer. This mode works only in
layers with Lock Transparency deselected and is analogous to painting on the
back of transparent areas on a sheet of acetate. Clear
Edits or paints each pixel and makes it transparent. This mode is available for
the Shape tools (when fill region is selected), Paint Bucket tool , Brush tool
, Pencil tool , Fill command, and Stroke command. You must be in a layer
with Lock Transparency deselected to use this mode.

Darken
Looks at the color information in each channel and selects the base or blend
color—whichever is darker—as the result color. Pixels lighter than the blend col-
or are replaced, and pixels darker than the blend color do not change.

Multiply
Looks at the color information in each channel and multiplies the base color

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by the blend color.

The result color is always a darker color. Multiplying any color with black pro-
duces black. Multiplying any color with white leaves the color unchanged.
When you’re painting with a color other than black or white, successive strokes
with a painting tool produce progressively darker colors. The effect is similar to
drawing on the image with multiple marking pens. Color Burn
Looks at the color information in each channel and darkens the base color to
reflect the blend color by increasing the contrast between the two. Blending
with white produces no change.

Linear Burn
Looks at the color information in each channel and darkens the base color to
reflect the blend color by decreasing the brightness. Blending with white pro-
duces no change.

Lighten
Looks at the color information in each channel and selects the base or blend
color—whichever is lighter—as the result color. Pixels darker than the blend col-
or are replaced, and pixels lighter than the blend color do not change.

Screen
Looks at each channel’s color information and multiplies the inverse of the
blend and base colors. The result color is always a lighter color. Screening with
black leaves the color unchanged. Screening with white produces white. The
effect is similar to projecting multiple photographic slides on top of each other.

Color Dodge
Looks at the color information in each channel and brightens the base color to
reflect the blend color by decreasing contrast between the two. Blending with
black produces no change.

Linear Dodge (Add)

Looks at the color information in each channel and brightens the base color to
reflect the blend color by increasing the brightness. Blending with black pro-
duces no change. Overlay
Multiplies or screens the colors, depending on the base color. Patterns or colors
overlay the existing pixels while preserving the highlights and shadows of the
base color. The base color is not replaced, but mixed with the blend color to
reflect the lightness or darkness of the original color.

Soft Light
Darkens or lightens the colors, depending on the blend color. The effect is simi-
lar to shining a diffused spotlight on the image. If the blend color (light source)
is lighter than 50% gray, the image is lightened as if it were dodged. If the blend
color is darker than 50% gray, the image is darkened as if it were burned in.

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Painting with pure black or white produces a distinctly darker or lighter area,
but does not result in pure black or white.

Hard Light
Multiplies or screens the colors, depending on the blend color. The effect is sim-
ilar to shining a harsh spotlight on the image. If the blend color (light source)
is lighter than 50% gray, the image is lightened, as if it were screened. This is
useful for adding highlights to an image. If the blend color is darker than 50%
gray, the image is darkened, as if it were multiplied. This is useful for adding
shadows to an image. Painting with pure black or white results in pure black or
white.

Vivid Light
Burns or dodges the colors by increasing or decreasing the contrast, depend-
ing on the blend color. If the blend color (light source) is lighter than 50% gray,
the image is lightened by decreasing the contrast. If the blend color is darker
than 50% gray, the image is darkened by increasing the contrast.

Linear Light
Burns or dodges the colors by decreasing or increasing the brightness, de-
pending on the blend color. If the blend color (light source) is lighter than 50%
gray, the image is lightened by increasing the brightness. If the blend color is
darker than 50% gray, the image is darkened by decreasing the brightness.

Pin Light
Replaces the colors, depending on the blend color. If the blend color (light
source) is lighter than 50% gray, pixels darker than the blend color are re-
placed, and pixels lighter than the blend color do not change. If the blend color
is darker than 50% gray, pixels lighter than the blend color are replaced, and
pixels darker than the blend color do not change. This is useful for adding spe-
cial effects to an image. Hard Mix
Adds the red, green and blue channel values of the blend color to the RGB val-
ues of the base color. If the resulting sum for a channel is 255 or greater, it re-
ceives a value of 255; if less than 255, a value of 0. Therefore, all blended pixels
have red, green, and blue channel values of either 0 or 255. This changes all
pixels to primary additive colors (red, green, or blue), white, or black.
Note:

For CMYK images, Hard Mix changes all pixels to the primary subtractive colors
(cyan, yellow, or magenta), white, or black. The maximum color value is 100.

Difference
Looks at the color information in each channel and subtracts either the blend
color from the base color or the base color from the blend color, depending on
which has the greater brightness value. Blending with white inverts the base

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color values; blending with black produces no change.

Exclusion
Creates an effect similar to but lower in contrast than the Difference mode.
Blending with white inverts the base color values. Blending with black produc-
es no change.

Subtract
Looks at the color information in each channel and subtracts the blend color
from the base color. In 8- and 16-bit images, any resulting negative values are
clipped to zero.

Divide
Looks at the color information in each channel and divides the blend color
from the base color.

Hue
Creates a result color with the luminance and saturation of the base color and
the hue of the blend color.

Saturation
Creates a result color with the luminance and hue of the base color and the
saturation of the blend color. Painting with this mode in an area with no (0)
saturation (gray) causes no change.

Color
Creates a result color with the luminance of the base color and the hue and
saturation of the blend color. This preserves the gray levels in the image and is
useful for coloring monochrome images and for tinting color images.

Luminosity
Creates a result color with the hue and saturation of the base color and the
luminance of the blend color. This mode creates the inverse effect of Color
mode. Lighter Color
Compares the total of all channel values for the blend and base color and dis-
plays the higher value color. Lighter Color does not produce a third color, which
can result from the Lighten blend, because it chooses the highest channel val-
ues from both the base and blend color to create the result color.

Darker Color
Compares the total of all channel values for the blend and base color and dis-
plays the lower value color. Darker Color does not produce a third color, which
can result from the Darken blend, because it chooses the lowest channel val-
ues from both the base and the blend color to create the result color.

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Blending Modes or Blend Modes?

Officially they are known as Blending Modes, but you can use the names inter-
changeably. I sometimes refer to them as “Blend Modes,” so no worries as to
which name you use. As longs as you know how they work!

Opacity vs. Fill With Blending Modes

19 out of the 27 Blending Modes behave the same way when Fill is adjusted,
compared to when Opacity is adjusted. However, eight Blending Modes give
you a different result when Fill is changed compared to Opacity.
It is crucial to understand the difference because this additional method of
blending pixels extends the capabilities of Blending Modes. More importantly,
the blend tends to be more aesthetically pleasing when using Fill rather than
Opacity with these eight Blending Modes. In the example below, you can see
how a graphic with different luminance values and a photo of Venice were
blended using the Hard Mix Blending Mode. The image in the center is set at
Opacity at 50%, while the image on the right is set to Fill at 50%.

The Blending Modes that are part of this group of 8 are Color Burn, Linear Burn,
Color Dodge, Linear Dodge (Add), Vivid Light, Linear Light, Hard Mix, and Difference.

“Transparency Shapes Layer” Check Box

The 8 Blending Modes in this group, also give you an extra level of blending by
un-checking the “Transparency Shapes Layer” checkbox in the Layer Style panel.

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In the example below, you can see how Linear Light blends differently when
“Transparency Shapes Layer” is unchecked. Notice how the edges of the cir-
cles blend differently on the example on the right.

Base + Blend = Result

You should remember these three terms to understand how Blending Modes
work.
The “Base” color is the original color in the image.
The “Blend” color is the color applied with the painting or editing tool to the
Base layer.
The “Result” color is the color resulting from the blend.
How the Base and the Blend colors mix depends on the algorithm or Blending
Mode that you select.

Blend Mode Math

For those of you who are interested in how the math behind Blend Modes work,
I’ve created a simplified explanation.
Photoshop uses “Standardized” values to calculate the blend. The luminance
values in Blending Mode math range from 0 (black) to 1 (white). However, Pho-
toshop uses 0 (black) to 255 (white) to represent luminance values in RGB.
Photoshop has to convert the values, so black is still 0, but white becomes 1.
50% gray which is 128 becomes 0.5.

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To convert an RGB luminance value to a standardized value, dive it by 255. For

example, divide 192 (light gray) by 255, and you get 0.75 (192÷255=0.75).
Math Sample:
A = Blend Layer Standardized Value B = Base Layer Standardized Value
Multiply:
AxB = Result
Color Dodge:
B÷(1-A) = Result

Adobe provides descriptions on each Blending Mode, but they do not provide
the mathematical equations behind them. If you would like to find out more
about Blending Mode math, check out the Wikipedia page on Blend Modes.

Each Blend Mode Explained

In the examples below, we will explain each of the 6 Blend Mode categories
(Normal, Darken, Lighten, Contrast, Inversion, and Component) as well as all
the Blend Mode in within each category.
The graphics in each section will show the outcome of each Blend Mode at
100% opacity unless otherwise noted.
Each example contains two Blend layers, a grayscale luminosity layer, and a
color layer. The photo of Venice, Italy will be the Base layer.

Normal Blending Modes

The Blending Modes in this category do not have algorithms that blend pixels.
Instead, the Opacity slider controls the blend between layers.

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Normal
“Normal” is the default Blending Mode for Photoshop layers. Opaque pixels will
cover the pixels directly below them without applying any math or algorithm
applied to them. You can, of course, reduce the opacity of the layer to reveal
the pixels below.

Dissolve
The Dissolve Blending Mode also does not blend pixels. Dissolve only reveals
the pixels below when the Opacity of the layer is reduced. The pixels below
are revealed through a dither pattern (noise) whose intensity is based on the
Opacity.

Darken Blending Modes

As the name implies, the Blending Modes in the Darken category will turn the
“Result” colors darker. Anything that is white in the blend layer will become in-
visible, and anything that is darker than white is going to have some darkening
effect on the pixels below it.

Darken
The Darken Blending Mode looks at the luminance values in each of the RGB
channels and selects either the base color or blend color depending on which
is darker.
Simply put, this Blending Mode does not blend pixels, it only compares the base
and blend colors, and it keeps the darkest of the two. If the blend layer and the
base layer color are the same, then there is no change.

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Multiply
Multiply is one of the most popular Blending Modes in Photoshop. I’m sure that
you have used it many times before.
This Blending Mode multiplies the luminosity of the base color by the blend
color. The resulting color is always a darker color. White produces no change,
while the black pixels remain. Multiply can produce many different levels of
darkening depending on the luminosity values of the blend layer, which make
it a great Blending Mode for darkening images or creating shadows.

Color Burn
Color Burn is the first of the eight unique Blending Modes in Photoshop that re-
act differently when Opacity is adjusted compared to Fill.
The Color Burn Blending Mode gives you a darker result than Multiply by in-
creasing the contrast between the base and the blend colors resulting in more
highly saturated mid-tones and reduced highlights. The result is very similar to
the effect you would get when you use the Burn Tool to darken an image.

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Linear Burn
Linear Burn decreases the brightness of the base color based on the value of
the blend color. The result is darker than Multiply but less saturated than Color
Burn. Linear Burn also produces the most contrast in darker colors than any of
the other Blending Modes in the Darker group. Linear Burn blends differently
when Fill Opacity is adjusted, compared to when Opacity is adjusted.

*Introduced in Photoshop 7.

Darker Color
The Darker Color Blending Mode is very similar to Darken. This Blending Mode
does not blend pixels. It only compares the base and blend colors, and it keeps
the darkest of the two. The difference is that Darker Color looks at the compos-
ite of all the RGB channels, whereas Darken looks at each RGB channel individ-
ually to come up with a final blend.

Lighten Blending Modes

The Blending Modes in this category and re opposites, or complementary col-

ors from the Darken category.
TheLighten Blending Modes will turn the “Result” colors brighter. Anything that
is black in the blend layer will become invisible, and anything that is brighter
than black is going to have some darkening effect on the pixels below it.

Lighten
The Lighten Blending Mode takes a look at the base color and blend color, and
it keeps whichever one of the two is the lightest. If the blend colors and the base

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colors are the same, then no change is applied. As with the Darken Blending
Mode, Lighten looks at the three RGB channels separately when blending the
pixels.
Check out my tutorial on creating a Glass Window Reflection Effect in Photo-
shop to see a great example of how you can use Lighten Blending Mode.

Screen
Screen is another of Photoshop’s most popular Blending Modes. The resulting
color is always a brighter color. Black produces no change, while the brighter
pixels remain.
Screen can produce many different levels of brightening depending on the
luminosity values of the blend layer, making Screen, a great Blending Mode for
brightening images or creating highlights.

Color Dodge
Color Dodge is the third of the eight special Blending Modes, which blends dif-
ferently when Fill is adjusted, compared to when Opacity is adjusted.
The Color Dodge Blending Mode gives you a brighter effect than Screen by de-
creasing the contrast between the base and the blend colors, resulting in sat-
urated mid-tones and blown highlights. The effect is very similar to the result
you would get when using the Dodge Tool to brighten up an image.

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Linear Dodge (Add)

Linear Dodge (Add) produces similar but stronger results than Screen or Color
Dodge. This Blending Mode looks at the color information in each channel and
brightens the base color to reflect the blend color by increasing the brightness.
Blending with black produces no change. Linear Dodge (Add) blends different-
ly when Fill Opacity is adjusted, compared to when Opacity is adjusted.

*Introduced in Photoshop 7.

Lighter Color
Lighter Color is very similar to Lighten. This Blending Mode does not blend pix-
els. It only compares the base and blend colors, and it keeps the brightest of
the two. The difference is that Lighter Color looks at the composite of all the
RGB channels, whereas Lighten looks at each RGB channel to come up with a
final blend.

Contrast Blending Modes

The Blending Modes in this category are a mixture between the Darken and
the Lighten Blending Modes. They create contrast by both lightening and dark-
ening the result colors by using complementary Blending Modes to create the
blend.
Photoshop checks to see if the colors are darker than 50% gray or lighter than
50% gray. If the colors are darker than 50% gray, a darkening Blending Mode is
applied. If the colors are brighter than 50% gray, a brightening Blending Mode
is applied.
Except for Hard Mix, all the Blending Modes in this category turn 50% gray trans-
parent.

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Overlay
Overlay is another of Photoshop’s most widely used Blending Modes. It is a
combination of
Multiply and Screen with the base layer always shining through. Overlay uses
the Screen Blending Mode at half strength on colors lighter than 50% gray. And
the Multiply Blending Mode at half strength on colors darker than 50% gray.
50% gray itself becomes transparent.
Also, note that “half-strength” does not mean, Opacity at 50%.
Another way of thinking about Overlay is by thinking of shifting mid-tones. Dark
blend colors shift the mid-tones to darker colors, light-tones shift the mid-
tones to brighter colors. One difference between the Overlay Blending Mode
and the other Contrast Blending Modes is that it makes its calculations based
on the brightness of the colors in the base layer. All of the other Contrast Blend-
ing Modes make their calculations based on the brightness of the blend layer.
Overlay, alongside Hard Light, is part of the first set of Commuted Blending
Modes in Photoshop. A set of commuted Blending Modes will give you the
same result when you apply one Blending Mode to the blend layer, as when
you apply the corresponded Commuted Blend Mode to the base layer, and
then reversing the order of the layers.
In other words, if you apply the Overlay Blending Mode to the blend layer, you
will get the same result, as when you apply the Hard-Light Blending Mode to
the Base layer, then reverse the order of the layers.

Soft Light
Soft Light is very much like Overlay. It applies either a darkening or lightening
effect depending on the luminance values, but in a much more subtle way. You
can think of Soft Light as a softer version of Overlay without the harsh contrast.

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Hard Light
Hard Light combines the Multiply and Screen Blending Modes using the bright-
ness values of the Blend layer to make its calculations. Overlay uses the base
layer.
The results with Hard Light tend to be intense. In many cases, you will have to
reduce the Opacity to get better results.
Hard Light sounds like it would have something in common with Soft Light, but
it does not. It is much more closely related to Overlay, and they are both part
of the first set of Commuted Blending Modes.

Vivid Light
You can think of Vivid Light as an extreme version of Overlay and Soft Light.
Anything darker than 50% gray is darkened, and anything lighter than 50%
gray is Lighten.
Vivid Light is one of those Blending Modes where you may want to adjust the
opacity since 100% opacity is generally too strong.
Vivid Light is the fifth Blending Mode of eight that give you different results when
you reduce the fill compared to opacity.

*Introduced in Photoshop 7.

Linear Light
Linear Light uses a combination of the Linear Dodge Blending on lighter pixels
and a Linear Burn on darker pixels.
Typically, the resulting colors are extreme, and you may want to use the Opac-
ity or Fill sliders to adjust it.
Linear Lights blends differently when Fill Opacity is adjusted, compared to when

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Opacity is adjusted.

*Introduced in Photoshop 7.

Pin Light
Pin Light is an extreme Blending Mode that performs a Darken and Lighten
Blending Mode
simultaneously. It can result in patches or blotches, and it completely re-
moves all mid-tones.

*Introduced in Photoshop 7.

Hard Mix
Hard Mix is the seventh Blending Mode in the contrast group and the seventh of
the special 8 Blending Modes. It applies the blend by adding the value of each
RGB channel into the blend layer to the corresponding RGB channel in the base
layer.
The resulting image loses a lot of detail, and the colors can only be black, white,
or any of the six primary colors. Red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, or yellow.
Vivid Light is an extreme Blending Mode, but you can use Opacity and Fill to
reduce the effect. Fill will probably be your better option for reducing the effect
of this Blending Mode since it generally gives you better results than Opacity.

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*Introduced in Photoshop CS.

Inversion Blending Modes

The Inversion Blending Modes look for variations between the base and blend
layers to create the blend.

Difference
The Difference Blending Modes uses the difference of the base and blend pix-
els as the resulting blend.
White inverts the colors of the base layer. It is the same result as inverting the
colors of the base layer by pressing Command I (PC: Ctrl I).
Black Produces no change, while dark grays apply a slight darkening effect.
This blending mode can be extremely useful for aligning layers with similar
content. Difference is the eighth and final Blending Mode that react differently
when Fill is reduced compared to Opacity.

Exclusion
Exclusion is very similar to Difference. Blending with white inverts the base color
values, while blending with black produces no change. However, Blending with
50% gray produces 50% gray.

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Subtract
The Subtract Blending Mode subtracts pixel values from the base layer. This
Blending Mode drastically darkens pixels by subtracting brightness.
Black has no effect. Only as the blend values get brighter, does the result get
darker. Notice how the light areas of the gradient are almost pure black, while
the dark areas of the gradient produced a minimal change.

*Introduced in Photoshop CS5.

Divide
Divide produces the opposite effect as Subtract.
White has no effect. Only as the blend values get darker, does the result get
brighter. Dark areas of the blend layer produce bright colors, while the light ar-
eas of the blend layer produced a very small change.

*Introduced in Photoshop CS5.

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Component Blending Modes

The Component Blending Modes use different combinations of the primary

color components (hue, saturation, and brightness) to create the blend.

Hue
The Hue Blending Mode preserves the luminosity and saturation of the base
pixels while adopting the hue of the blend pixels.
Hue can be used to change hues in a layer while maintaining the tones and
saturation of the original.

Saturation
The Saturation Blending Mode preserves the luminosity and hue of the base
layer while adopting the saturation of the blend layer.
A black-and-white blend layer also turns the image into grayscale because
none of the pixels in the luminosity layer have saturation.

Color
The Color Blending Mode preserves the luminosity of the base layer while
adopting the hue and saturation of the blend layer. Color is the ideal Blending
Mode for coloring monochromatic images.
Also, Color, along with the Luminosity Blending Mode, is the second pair of
Commuted Blending Modes.
If you apply the Color Blending Mode to the blend layer, you will get the same
result, as when you apply the Luminosity Blending Mode to the Base layer, then
reverse the order of the layers.

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Luminosity
Luminosity preserves the hue and saturation of the base layer while adopting
the luminosity of the blend layer.

Pass Through Blending Mode

When you select a group, you will notice that the default Blending Mode is
not Normal. Instead, it is “Pass Through.” The Pass Through Blending Mode tells
Photoshop to treat all the layers within a group to behave as if they were just
part of a regular layer stack and not part of the group. The group is only used
as an organizational tool and all the layers all blend as you would expect.
However, if you changed the Pass Through Blending Mode to any other blend-
ing mode, Photoshop will first blend the layers in the group, then it will blend
the resulting composite with the layers below it using the Blending Mode that
you selected.
This is the same result as merging all the layers in a group and then applying
a Blending Mode. For this reason, you can use it to create some great effects
especially when compositing. You can set a Group’s Blending Mode to Normal,
and all the adjustment layers inside of the group will only affect the contents
of that group.

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Blending Modes with 32-Bit Images

Only 15 blending modes are available when you are
working with
32-bit images. They are: Normal, Dissolve, Darken,
Multiply,
Lighten, Linear Dodge (Add), Difference, Hue, Satu-
ration, Color, Luminosity, Lighter Color, Darker Color,
Divide and Subtract.

Commuted Blending Modes

There are two sets of Commuted Blending Modes,
Overlay and Hard Light, and Color and Luminosity.
A set of Commuted Blending Modes will give you the
same result when you apply one Blending Mode to
the blend layer, as when you apply the correspond-
ed Commuted Blend Mode to the base layer, and
then reversing the order of the layers.
For example, if you apply the Overlay Blend Mode
to the blend layer, you will get the same result, as
when you apply the HardLight Blend Mode to the
base layer, then reverse the order of the layers.

Blending Mode Keyboard Shortcuts

You can change the Blending Mode of a layer by clicking on the drop-down
and selecting one from the list. Alternatively, you can use the Photoshop key-
board shortcuts for Blend Modes.
Press, Shift + to go down to the next Blending Mode. Or, Shift – to move up the list.
If you have a painting tool active, this shortcut will change the Blending Mode
of the tool instead of the layer. To prevent this from happening, get in the hab-
it of pressing the V key to select the Move tool, then press Shift + or Shift – to
scroll through the Blending Modes.
If the focus, the blue highlight, is around the Blending Mode drop-down menu,
these shortcuts will not work. Simply hit Enter, or Return on the Mac to remove
the focus from the drop-down, then apply any shortcut that you would like.
Except for Subtract and Divide, the two Blending Modes added in Photoshop
CS5 in 2010, each of the Blend Modes has a keyboard shortcut that you can use
to apply it to a layer.
However, I don’t recommend learning all of them. Only learn the ones you use
most often. Most of the time I only use Screen, Multiply, Overlay, Soft Light, Col-
or, and Luminously. Those are the only blend mode keyboard shortcuts I have
memorized.
To select a Blending mode press Alt Shift on Windows, or Option Shift on the
Mac, then press the corresponding letter to get you the Blending Mode that
you would like to use.

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6. Describe various colour modes Different color modes:

1. RGB mode (millions of colors)

2. CMYK mode (four-printed colors)
3. Index mode (256 colors)
4. Grayscale mode (256 grays)
5. Bitmap mode (2 colors)

The color mode or image mode determines how colors combine based on the
number of channels in a color model. Different color modes result in different
levels of color detail and file size. For instance, use CMYK color mode for imag-
es in a full-color print brochure, and use RGB color mode for images in web or
e-mail to reduce file size while maintaining color integrity.

RGB Color mode

Photoshop RGB Color mode uses the RGB model, assigning an intensity value
to each pixel. In 8-bits-per-channel images, the intensity values range from 0
(black) to 255 (white) for each of the RGB (red, green, blue) components in a
color image. For example, a bright red color has an R value of 246, a G value of
20, and a B value of 50. When the values of all three components are equal, the
result is a shade of neutral gray. When the values of all components are 255,
the result is pure white; when the values are 0, pure black.
RGB images use three colors, or channels, to reproduce colors on screen. In
8-bits-per-channel images, the three channels translate to 24 (8 bits x 3 chan-
nels) bits of color information per pixel. With 24-bit images, the three chan-
nels can reproduce up to 16.7 million colors per pixel. With 48-bit (16-bits-per-
channel) and 96-bit (32-bits-per-channel) images, even more colors can be
reproduced per pixel. In addition to being the default mode for new Photoshop
images, the RGB model is used by computer monitors to display colors. This
means that when working in color modes other than RGB, such as CMYK, Pho-
toshop converts the CMYK image to RGB for display on screen.
Although RGB is a standard color model, the exact range of colors represented
can vary, depending on the application or display device. The RGB Color mode
in Photoshop varies according to the working space setting that you specify in
the Color Settings dialog box.

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CMYK Color mode

In the CMYK mode, each pixel is assigned a percentage value for each of the
process inks. The lightest (highlight) colors are assigned small percentages
of process ink colors; the darker (shadow) colors higher percentages. For ex-
ample, a bright red might contain 2% cyan, 93% magenta, 90% yellow, and
0% black. In CMYK images, pure white is generated when all four components
have values of 0%.
Use the CMYK mode when preparing an image to be printed using process
colors. Converting an RGB image into CMYK creates a color separation. If you
start with an RGB image, it’s best to edit first in RGB and then convert to CMYK
at the end of your editing process. In RGB mode, you can use the Proof Setup
commands to simulate the effects of a CMYK conversion without changing the
actual image data. You can also use CMYK mode to work directly with CMYK
images scanned or imported from high-end systems.
Although CMYK is a standard color model, the exact range of colors represent-
ed can vary, depending on the press and printing conditions. The CMYK Color
mode in Photoshop varies according to the working space setting that you
specify in the Color Settings dialog box.

Lab Color mode

The CIE L*a*b* color model (Lab) is based on the human perception of color.
The numeric values in Lab describe all the colors that a person with normal vi-
sion sees. Because Lab describes how a color looks rather than how much of a
particular colorant is needed for a device (such as a monitor, desktop printer,
or digital camera) to produce colors, Lab is considered to be a device-inde-
pendent color model. Color management systems use Lab as a color refer-
ence to predictably transform a color from one color space to another color
space.
The Lab Color mode has a lightness component (L) that can range from 0 to
100. In the Adobe Color Picker and Color panel, the a component (green-red
axis) and the b component (blueyellow axis) can range from +127 to –128.
Lab images can be saved in Photoshop, Photoshop EPS, Large Document For-
mat (PSB),
Photoshop PDF, Photoshop Raw, TIFF, Photoshop DCS 1.0, or Photoshop DCS 2.0
formats. You can save 48-bit (16-bits-per-channel) Lab images in Photoshop,
Large Document Format (PSB), Photoshop PDF, Photoshop Raw, or TIFF formats.
Note:
The DCS 1.0 and DCS 2.0 formats convert the file to CMYK when opened.

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Grayscale mode

Grayscale mode uses different shades of gray in an image. In 8-bit images,

there can be up to 256 shades of gray. Every pixel of a grayscale image has a
brightness value ranging from 0 (black) to 255 (white). In 16-and 32-bit imag-
es, the number of shades in an image is much greater than in 8-bit images.
Grayscale values can also be measured as percentages of black ink coverage
(0% is equal to white, 100% to black).
Grayscale mode uses the range defined by the working space setting that you
specify in the Color Settings dialog box.

Bitmap mode

Bitmap mode uses one of two color values (black or white) to represent the
pixels in an image. Images in Bitmap mode are called bitmapped 1-bit images
because they have a bit depth of 1.

Duotone mode

Duotone mode creates monotone, duotone (two-color), tritone (three-color),

and quadtone (fourcolor) grayscale images using one to four custom inks.

Indexed Color mode

Indexed Color mode produces 8-bit image files with up to 256 colors. When
converting to indexed color, Photoshop builds a color lookup table (CLUT),
which stores and indexes the colors in the image. If a color in the original im-
age does not appear in the table, the program chooses the closest one or uses
dithering to simulate the color using available colors.
Although its palette of colors is limited, indexed color can reduce file size yet
maintain the visual quality needed for multimedia presentations, web pages,
and the like. Limited editing is available in this mode. For extensive editing, you
should convert temporarily to RGB mode. Indexed color files can be saved in
Photoshop, BMP, DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine),
GIF, Photoshop EPS, Large Document Format (PSB), PCX, Photoshop PDF, Photo-
shop Raw, Photoshop 2.0, PICT, PNG, Targa®, or TIFF formats.

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Multichannel mode

Multichannel mode images contain 256 levels of gray in each channel and
are useful for specialized printing. Multichannel mode images can be saved in
Photoshop, Large Document Format (PSB), Photoshop 2.0, Photoshop Raw, or
Photoshop DCS 2.0 formats.
These guidelines apply when converting images to Multichannel mode:
• Layers are unsupported and therefore flattened.
• Color channels in the original image become spot color channels in the
converted image.
• Converting a CMYK image to Multichannel mode creates cyan, magen-
ta, yellow, and black spot channels.
• Converting an RGB image to Multichannel mode creates cyan, magenta,
and yellow spot channels.
• Deleting a channel from an RGB, CMYK, or Lab image automatically con-
verts the image to Multichannel mode, flattening layers.
• To export a multichannel image, save it in Photoshop DCS 2.0 format.
Note:
Indexed Color and 32-bit images cannot be converted to Multichannel mode.

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 UNIT 3
COMPOSITION AND LIGHTING
FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

3. 1. DESCRIBE COMPOSITION-1
Photography is a complicated art form. The elements of exposure, compo-
sition, light, subject matter, moment, and many others all come together to
make a single two-dimensional image that is presented to a viewer. Learning
all of this is time-consuming and difficult. Taken step-by-step, however, each
of the elements can be methodically learned and combined to form your own
photographs. Once you know how to operate your camera an extremely pow-
erful tool you can add to your kit is a starting knowledge of composition.

Composition is the arranging of elements within the frame of a photograph.

Despite what many articles or videos may tell you, it’s less about following rules
and more about utilizing a set of guidelines to find an appropriate way of de-
scribing the scene you have in front of you with the camera in your hand. Every
scene is different. Some will be simple, some will be much more complex. With
that being said, here are five elements of composition you can draw on to help
your viewer see what you want them to in your photographs.

Cut out the Unnecessary Elements

This may not classically be included in lists of techniques for composition, this
is one of the most important concepts to grasp when approaching a photo-
graph. Composition in most forms of photography is the art of exclusion. You
have a limited space within the borders of your photograph which can only
contain so much before you dilute your message.

Your goal when composing a photograph should be to point to something.

You want your viewer to look at what you’re trying to show them. One way you
can do this by cutting out all the clutter of the world and just showing them
what you want them to see. A few ways you can achieve this in photography
TEXTURING ARTIST : CLASS - IX

include getting closer to your subject, using a longer focal-length lens for a
narrower field of view, using depth-of-field to isolate your subject from other
elements in the scene, or using shadow to hide things that do not contribute to
the message you are trying to give.

The scene below was extremely cluttered. There were hundreds of people
around at this ceremony. By looking down at a puddle and using only the re-
flection of the elements , the photographer wanted to show, he was able to cut
out that clutter and point you towards what he wanted you to see.

Leading Lines

When you break the elements of a two-dimensional photograph down, the

people, buildings, trees, lakes, and everything else in your frame simply be-
come lines. Our eyes reconstruct these lines and equate them to things we
know as we view an image. As a photographer, learning how you can use lines
is very powerful.

One simple way to use lines is for their drawing power. Lines that are simply
graphic can be used to lead the viewer around your image. These are called
Leading Lines. When you’re looking at a scene and deciding how to compose
it, consider what your subject is first and then consider what elements in the
scene might draw the viewer towards that subject. Can you find a receding

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line, like a fence that draws you to the old house on the hill? Maybe there’s a
crack in the concrete leading to a flower growing at the base of a wall. The
viewer’s eye will naturally follow lines so they can be very useful in directing
people to what you want them to look at.

Rule of third and balancing element

One of the most popular ways to compose your photographs is to use the
“Rule of Thirds”. Although this compositional rule is frequently used by pho-
tographers, not everyone understands exactly what it is or when it works. This
article introduces the rule of thirds and explains when to use it for composition
(or not). Keep in mind that this rule is a suggestion for beginners and those
who struggle with properly composing their pictures, and it is far from the only
way to take good images.

The Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds is a type of off-center composition where important ele-

ments of a photograph are placed along a 3×3 grid, which equally divides the
image into nine parts. For many photographers, this type of composition is a
basic way to give structure to photographs and make them more appealing.
With the rule of thirds, photographers envision four lines across their photo-
graphs, which also create four intersecting points. Take a look at the illustration
below:

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The important elements within a frame should be placed at the intersection

points of these lines, as shown in the above diagram. Or, when photographing
subjects like a tree or horizon, which are comprised of straight lines, the rule of
thirds suggests placing them along one of the four lines instead. Take a look at
the below photograph:

NIKON D5100 + 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 32mm, ISO 100, 6 seconds, f/22.0

As you can see, both the horizon line and the primary subject are placed along
this grid:

Rule of thirds grid overlaying the previous image

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You can apply the rule of thirds to any genre of photography. In the portrait
example below, the subject’s eyes are placed about two thirds up the photo-
graph, and her nose aligns with the rule of thirds grid as well:

The bride’s eyes and nose in this image align with the rule of thirds grid.

One of the most popular ways to compose your photographs is to use the
“Rule of Thirds”. Although this compositional rule is frequently used by photog-
raphers, not everyone understands exactly what it is or when it works.

In this photo, the lizard’s eye aligns exactly with the Rule of Thirds.
NIKON D800E + 105mm f/2.8 @ 105mm, ISO 100, 1/640, f/3.2

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The Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds is a type of off-center composition where important ele-

ments of a photograph are placed along a 3×3 grid, which equally divides the
image into nine parts. For many photographers, this type of composition is a
basic way to give structure to photographs and make them more appealing.
With the rule of thirds, photographers envision four lines across their photo-
graphs, which also creates four intersecting points. Take a look at the illustra-
tion below:

The important elements within a frame should be placed at the intersection

points of these lines, as shown in the above diagram. Or, when photographing
subjects like a tree or horizon, which are comprised of straight lines, the rule of
thirds suggests placing them along one of the four lines instead. Take a look at
the below photograph:

NIKON D5100 + 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 32mm, ISO 100, 6 seconds, f/22.0

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LIGHTING FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

As you can see, both the horizon line and the primary subject are placed along
this grid:

Rule of thirds grid overlaying the previous image

You can apply the rule of thirds to any genre of photography. In the portrait
example below, the subject’s eyes are placed about two thirds up the photo-
graph, and her nose aligns with the rule of thirds grid as well:

The bride’s eyes and nose in this image align with the rule of thirds grid.

When to Use the Rule of Thirds

So, when should you use the rule of thirds? The basic value of this rule is to re-
mind yourself that off-center compositions can work well and be successful.
Most of the time, beginner photographers will place their subjects in the dead
center by default, forming central compositions. Although central composition

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can be a very strong way to compose photographs, using it for every photo
can be boring. If you find that you are doing this, you can add more interest
and variety by using the rule of thirds.
To use the rule of thirds, start by imagining a 3×3 grid (or use one that is built
into your camera) and place your subjects along those lines and intersections
points. When you evaluate the result, you may find that you like it more than
with your subject in the center.
So, if you are struggling to compose your images, you might find that the rule
of thirds can be a quick way to make your photos more dynamic.

When Not to Use the Rule of Thirds

The biggest problem with the rule of thirds is that it doesn’t change, even when
your subjects do. It simply does not take into account what you are photo-
graphing. For example, in some scenes, you might be compromising your
composition and excluding important elements just to adhere to the rule of
thirds. So, in a way, it is a cookie-cutter composition.
The whole idea of the rule of thirds is that it introduces beginners to off-center
composition. However, it might lead you to think that your subjects always (or
often) need to be placed along the exact lines and intersections of the 3×3 grid
in order to capture a successful composition.
In reality, any type of off-central composition – not just the rule of thirds – can
work well. Instead, try framing your subject just slightly off center, or even in the
extreme corners. Sometimes, the scene itself will dictate the type of composi-
tion which will work best for your photograph. In the image below, you can see
that the photographer purposefully placed the subject close to the edge of the
frame in order to convey a sense of isolation with a negative space composi-
tion:

NIKON D7000 + 24mm f/1.4 @ 24mm, ISO 100, 1/640, f/4.0

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While taking this photo, he wanted it to be somewhat striking and unexpect-

ed. If he had framed it using the rule of thirds, it would not have conveyed that
emotional message.

Along with that, do not underestimate central composition. Although it can be

boring if you use it too much, it also can be the most powerful way to compose
and frame photographs.

No rule of thirds, no problem.

NIKON D800E + 70-200mm f/4 @ 200mm, ISO 100, 1/160, f/9.0

Repetition and Patterns

The root word of repetition is “repeat”. When you repeat a certain size or shape
or color you add strength to the overall image. Repetition is a basic concept in
the world of art. If you want to make a statement, you repeat certain elements
again and again. If you repeat something once or twice it becomes more in-
teresting. If you repeat something many times it becomes a pattern and takes
on a life of its own.

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photo by whologwhy

Patterns give us order in an otherwise chaotic world. There’s something funda-

mentally pleasing about seeing order in such a way that we know what to ex-
pect. In most cases, repetition is a tool used to calm the viewer, making them
feel comfortable and at peace while enjoying the view.
A single, simple subject with a plain non-distracting background definitely has
its strengths, but it is NOT the only way to keep a viewer’s attention. Patterns are
to photography what rhythm is to music. Without the limitation of just a single
point of interest, repetition helps your eye dance from point to point with pure
delight. You are not asked to make a judgment of the subject, simply to explore
it. Like music, you are not expected to just listen to a single note, but to take in
the high notes, low notes, the movements, and the beat. The goal here is not
to just witness a good photograph but to experience it. Thus, when repetition
is used correctly, it can greatly increase the emotional impact of your images.

photo by Anssi Koskinen

Patterns and repetition can be found all around us: a row of trees, a field of
sunflowers, or a line of children waiting for a bus. When you get into the world
of close-up photography, you will start to discover a whole new world of pat-
terns. Often things that you perceive as solid or even as a single texture are
made up of much smaller patterns.

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Look at the surface of an orange, for example. Each dimple, each bump, each
hill or valley contributes to what most viewers consider one smooth surface.
Of course not all repetition is 100 percent uniform. Think of a choir in concert;
every individual may be wearing the same robe, or suite, or dress to represent
their organization, but they are still all individuals.

Like most things on earth, too much of a good thing can become bad (or stale
or boring). It’s like when you first start taking pictures using a star filter. Occa-
sionally, it makes some really cool effects and you have some unique images.
But if you used it ALL the time; what at first seems unique now becomes com-
mon place, or worse yet—out of place.

photo by Travis Wise

A shot of a race car, doesn’t really need a star shining off his front windshield
to be interesting. A horse leaning down for a cool drink in a stream doesn’t
need little stars shining in the water. There is a time and place for everything,
and repetition will not cure all boring shots. In fact, if you’re not selective about
when you use it, it could make things worse.

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photo by antifluor

The most common way to keep repetition from becoming boring is to deliber-
ately break the pattern. Think of a fruit stand with an entire box of big red juicy
apples. Now take one of those apples out and replace it with an orange. This
technique is often referred to as creating a “spot.” A spot is nothing more than
the deliberate use of opposition to force the viewer to look again and again. It
may seem overly simple, but changing a single element in your shot can often
make the difference between boring and fascinating.

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photo by Joe Mazzola

Keep patterns and rhythm in mind when you line up a number of people for a
group portrait. Here you will be dealing with similar shapes. Try to place them
in a pleasing pattern. Start with three people and have them line up so that
their heads form a triangle. As you add people form another triangle. You are
adding to the pattern by creating a rhythm of triangles that dance together. A
group of nine people on their own could form an ugly mob or they could form
a very pleasing family portrait if you use the concept of repetition. Remember
what we said at the beginning. Repetition is a tool. What you build with it deter-
mines if people consider you a master photographer or weekend warrior who
just takes snapshots.

The Golden Ratio In Photography

Some argue that the rule of thirds is an oversimplification of a more advanced

mathematical equation known as the golden ratio (also known as the golden
mean). The golden ratio is a ratio which has continued to surprise artists, sci-
entists, musicians and mathematicians for centuries. The reason being is that
the golden ratio seems to pop up everywhere. Not only does the golden ratio
pop up in everywhere, it also seems that the human eye is very attracted to the
results of the ratio.

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For example, there are certain measurements on models faces which equal
surprisingly close to the golden ratio. In nature we see the golden ratio in plants
and the branching of trees, the spirals of shells, the curves of waves, in our DNA
and the solar system. It has also been used in architecture, art and music. The
golden ratio seems to be everywhere.

It was used in architectural masterpieces such as the Greek Parthenon, the

pyramids and later in such great works of art such as Notre Dame. There is
also cause to believe that it was used by the great artists Michelangelo and
Leonardo De Vinci.

It is debated as to whether the Mona Lisa was intentionally created using the
proportions of the golden ratio. See below

A golden rectangle is a rectangle whose side lengths are in the golden ratio.

Simply put, the golden ratio is a ratio of approximately 1.618 to 1. This proportion
creates a sense of harmony and balance.

Although this ratio has been rediscovered throughout time, one undisputed
milestone in its history was the Fibonacci number series. In the 12th century
Fibonacci produced a series of numbers by adding together pairs of numbers.

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144,

(0+1=1, 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8)

The ratio between each successive pair gets closer and closer to Phi as you

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progress through the series.

Once you start splitting a golden rectangle by the ratio, you can keep sub-split-
ting it down forever. The spiral this produces exactly matches the growth of the
Nautilus shell in nature.

Let’s just say it’s a mathematical equation of aesthetically pleasing composi-

tion.
Below see how Cartier-Bresson used the proportions of the Golden Rectangle
to form his composition.

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The Phi Grid

To apply the golden ratio in photography, you can imagine that spiral over the
top of your image. Or you can create a grid from the 1.618:1 ratio. This is the phi
grid, which is another way of considering proportion in photography.

The golden ratio or phi grid, golden spiral and the Rule of Thirds are all three
separate composition techniques. The ‘right’ answer as to which one to use
depends on the subject and the look you are going for.

How To Use The Golden Ratio in Photography

Both the golden spiral and the phi grid can drastically improve composition.
But how do you get from a spiral or grid pattern to a better photograph?
Now that you know what it is, you can learn how to use the golden ratio in pho-
tography.

Step 1: Evaluate the scene

Exactly how you use the golden ratio depends on the scene in front of you.
Composition techniques are there to help you think about the scene instead
of just pointing and shooting. Now that you know three different composition
techniques, you need to determine which one is the right fit. To do that, start
asking yourself questions about the potential image in front of you:

• What is the subject of the photo? That’s where you’ll want to lead the eye.
• What other elements can you include in the scene? Look at everything
else in the scene and determine if it distracts from the subject or
enhances it.
• Are there any leading lines or natural curves in the image? Leading lines
work well for the phi grid, while natural curves are just asking for a golden
ratio spiral.

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Step 2: Determine whether to use the golden ratio or the golden spiral (or
even the Rule of Thirds)
Next, choose between the golden spiral and the phi grid. You can’t contort a
straight object to fit inside a spiral, so if your scene has great leading lines, try
the phi grid. If your scene has more natural curves from the shape of a tree to
the curve of a cheekbone, the golden spiral is likely a better fit.
The golden ratio is considered a more advanced version of the Rule of Thirds,
but it’s still okay to call on the Rule of Thirds again. If the scene works best with
that composition technique, use it!

Step 3: Imagine the overlay and shoot

Imagining a complex spiral aligned over your photo can be tricky at first. If you
simplify the concept, it’s a bit easier to manage.
First, check and see which grid overlays your camera has built-in by viewing
the options in settings. If your camera has a phi grid or spiral option, turn that
feature on. Most will have the Rule of Thirds. Even when that isn’t the composi-
tion guide you are using, it’s helpful to enable that feature.
If you have an optical viewfinder (as opposed to an electronic one), you’ll have
to imagine the grid as you shoot and check with Live View.
Next, choose which corner of the image to use. You’ll want to place the sub-
ject on the intersection of the lines with the phi grid, or in the smallest part of
the spiral. Using the Rule of Thirds grid overlay on your camera, approximate
where the subject should be with the golden ratio technique.
If you opted for the Phi Grid, place the subject closer to the centre of the image
compared to that Rule of Thirds intersection. If you’re working with that golden
spiral, place the subject slightly farther out than that Rule of Thirds intersection.
Unlike the Rule of Thirds, placing the subject at the intersection isn’t the end.
Adjust your composition aligning any leading lines or curves that you iden-
tified in the scene on the remaining grid lines or along the spiral. Remember,
composition is more than just cropping with the viewfinder.
Lines and angles can be exaggerated by adjusting your position. You can cling
to a higher vantage point, kneel or lay down on the ground, move closer, move
farther away or move to one side.
Explore the composition possibilities! Your goal is to place other elements of
the scene either on that spiral out from the subject or on one of the unused
lines in the phi grid.
Then, you shoot.
If you’re unsure (and you’re not working with a fast subject) take a few varia-
tions with slight composition adjustments between each one.

Step 4: Edit
Picturing the phi grid or golden ratio spiral as you shoot is one thing, but what
if you want that exact 1.618 magic number? Thankfully Photoshop (and several
other photo editors) have tools for that.

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Using the Golden Ratio in photography: example of photo editor context menu
showing golden ratio guide options
With the image open in Photoshop, select the crop tool and draw a crop box
over the image. Next, click the overlay options and select the composition tool
you want: the golden ratio (phi grid) or the golden spiral (Fibonacci spiral).
Adjust the crop box to fine-tune your composition. If the golden spiral isn’t in
the right corner of the image, you can select the cycle orientation option from
the same drop-down menu you selected the composition tool form, or you
can press Shift + O.

Putting Things in the Way

Two-dimensional nature of photographs is important when considering our

compositions. One technique for adding depth to our images is layering things
over the top of other things. Simply put, you can cover part of your frame with
something closer to the camera in order to give the illusion of depth.

You can use the leaves of a tree to frame a couple in the park, empty beer
glasses on a bar while the bartender pours fresh ones in the background, or
an audience listening to a speaker on stage at a corporate event can make a
good frame that doesn’t simply show the speaker out of context. All of these
things not only fill your frame with interesting elements, they further the story
you’re trying to tell. In the case of the frame below, photographer don’t want
you to simply see that there is one temple out on this plane, he want you to see
that there are others and that it is a huge expanse. By using a wide-angle lens
and including the foreground, he has achieved all three of those things but is
still pointing you to the beautiful structure in the background.

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3.2 DEMONSTRATE COMPOSITION-2

The Significance of Depth, Background and Color

Photographers often make the final call on deciding the life span of an image
according to our own perception, imagination and expertise. Being able to an-
alyze each shot before it is taken eventually will become a second nature as
you photograph. The below steps will help you get there a little faster.

Depth

Mastering the depth of the story and being able to translate it into a visual
prospect is very important, so it certainly helps to have a solid understanding
of how depth of field can affect your images and the story you are working on.
Whether it is a portrait or a landscape shot, the right amount of bokeh should
be able to transport the viewer into your story. You can choose a longer lens
with a large aperture (small depth of field) to pinpoint one element in an im-
age that your viewers could concentrate on, or use a small aperture (large
depth of field) to portray the melting pot of action, with many elements to the
story.

NIKON D700 + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 27mm, ISO 1600, 1/100, f/4.5

Background

Background of a photograph is a very big information carrier. Choosing an

appropriate background will make your post-processing job a whole lot eas-
ier. Who wants to sit and spend precious hours editing out unnecessary dis-
tractions on the background? Instead, look for a cohesive environment to work
with your story. Background can work hand in hand with your lens aperture to

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save or ruin your image as an information carrier and storyteller. So, being able
to utilize your depth of field efficiently with the background is an art in itself. Ask
these simple questions: Is the background relevant to the story that I want to
portray? Are the any extra elements in the background that I want to change
or eliminate? Should I recompose my shot so that nothing looks out of place?

NIKON D700 + 50mm f/1.4 @ 50mm, ISO 1600, 1/13, f/1.4

Here are some simple things you can do with the background that will imme-
diately help you get better results when photographing portraits:

1. Find a different background that is less busy, more or less colorful (see
below on color), etc
2. Learn to crop in camera to avoid irrelevant content. Move yourself or
your subject to a slightly different location or use a different angle.
3. To get the best bokeh, make sure to give plenty of space between your
subject and the background. Having a good fast lens like the Nikon
50mm f/1.8G (see our Nikon 50mm f/1.8G Review) or a solid portrait lens
like the new Nikon 85mm f/1.8G will certainly help with getting good
bokeh.
4. Don’t be afraid to bring your subject close, but watch out for distortion.
Wide-angle and short focal length lenses are known to greatly distort
images. Unless your intent is to make your subject’s face look out of
proportion, use longer lenses for better compression. That’s why
telephoto lenses are ideal for portraiture.
5. Pay attention to lines and curves in the background that could enhance
the composition and overall feel of the image.
6. If there are any vertical lines in the background, place your subjects in
such a way, that the lines are not directly behind the head of your
subject. A great image could be ruined by things growing out of a
person’s head.

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Color

Color and tone are among the main conveyors of mood and character in any
photograph – it can be both distracting and amazing. Although tonality could
be more of a post-processing topic, color is most definitely not. You should
be able to see the color before you take a photograph, regardless if you wish
to alter it later or not. Just like the background, color can make your shot look
cohesive or all over the place. Positioning your subjects against a background
with lots of different blues, reds and greens may not be a good idea. When you
want the eyes to rest on one spot, over your subject, choose a background with
a less distracting color palette.

NIKON D3S + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 80mm, ISO 800, 1/100, f/2.8

Then again, there are always exceptions to these guidelines, so do not be afraid
to experiment.

Framing and Cropping in photography

How to use framing in photography for pleasing compositions

Framing in photography might not be what you think it is. When you hear the
term framing, you most likely think of the typical wooden frames in which you
mount your photos before you hang them on the wall. In this, framing is not
the solid frames but how you can use framing techniques to compose better
photos. It is the framing you do in your viewfinder or LCD screen.
Composition is about creating pleasing photos that draw the viewer’s atten-
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subject. There are a lot of composition rules, and most of them come from
the great painters back in history. Despite how important it is, a lot of beginner
photographers don’t know or pay composition enough attention when they
photograph.

Why is composition so important in photography?

Composition techniques work well because our brain of some reason is pro-
grammed to react a certain way to different stimulus. As an example, bright
areas or white spots in photos is where the eyes move to first. If this spot is not
the main interest point in your photo it will have a disturbing effect and distract
the viewer.

If you want to attract the viewer’s attention, you can either brighten the main
subject or darken the surrounding areas that are not important in the photo-
graph. This is where frames come to play.

Furthermore, framing in photography composition is important as it creates

depth in a photo and makes it more interesting. Last but not least framing as
a composition technique in photography will help to put the main subject into
a context.

Techniques for framing in photography composition

Physical elements

You can use different physical elements as frames. There is always something
you can use as a framing element even if it’s not obvious at first. Being aware
of the importance of framing in photography composition and taking the time
to look around you before you push the shutter is very important. As you prac-
tice, you will get better at recognizing suitable frames. Physical elements as
frames can be divided into architectural or natural frames.

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Architectural framing elements

Archways
Arches are a great example of how you can use man-made structures as
framing in photography.
When you compose your shot, it is important you spend some time to look
thoroughly through the viewfinder. Because now you have two frames to con-
sider. You want to make sure nothing disturbing is included in the frame (the
arch). And you want to make sure your main subject is well positioned within
the frame (the arch). Moving your camera slightly up/down or left/right can
make a big difference.

Other man-made elements

Other objects you can use for framing are doorways, fences, bridges, windows,
mirrors and more. It is all about being creative and look around you when
you’re at a scene. What might not look as an obvious framing element can be
after a closer look. Just give it a try.

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Natural framing elements

Trees and tree branches

In landscape photography, the most obvious and common framing elements

are trees and tree branches. While arches often frame all four sides of the
main subject, trees not necessarily need to frame the subject on all sides. Tree
branches can frame only the top of the composition.
If you have a clear blue sky with no clouds or an overcast sky you can use tree
branches to cover some of this boring sky. A bright sky tends to draw the at-
tention in a photograph. In landscape photography, a too bright sky is a com-
mon problem. You can improve the sky when editing your photos, but why not
do it in camera by masking parts of the boring sky away with a “frame.”

Stones and rocks

Stones and rocks are great framing elements in photography. The challenge
can often be to sort out and avoid introducing clutter in your composition. Too
many rocks included in the framing, and you lose the effect.

Water

Small water ponds isolated can act as a frame. The water is bright and draws
attention. Placing a subject within the water can result in a perfect framing
effect.

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Other natural elements you can use for framing in photography

Tall grass and flowers can be great elements to use as framing. Because these
are smaller, they work best for framing the foreground and lower parts of the
photo.

None physical framing elements

Shadows and light

Using shadows and light as framing in photography composition might not

be obvious for everyone. Our eyes are attracted to the brightest parts in your
photo. If you frame and position your main subjects in the brightest parts, it will
draw the viewers eyes there.

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Texture and patterns as framing elements

Textures draw the viewers interest but because of the simple form of textures
the eyes tend to lose interest quickly. You can use this as a framing technique.
By surrounding the main subject with texture, the eyes are automatically drawn
to the subject.

Focus and sharpness

The eyes will first recognize objects that appear sharp in a photo before they
move to objects that are not sharp or out of focus. You can create frames by
using Depth of Field or simply by making sure less important parts of a photo
are not in perfect focus.

Negative space

Negative space is the areas that surround your subject. Negative space helps
your subject to stand out in the composition. Negative space can be space
with basically nothing of interest in it. Even a white or blank space have visual
weight in a photograph and will balance the composition.

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It can seem strange for beginner to leave a lot or empty space in a photo. You
have probably heard the problem with beginners is they are not going close
enough to the subject. That’s right, but as long the elements around the main
subject are not disturbing or drawing attention, it can have a nice overall effect
to the composition.

Tight crop

The opposite of using negative space as framing in photography is to use a

tight crop. A tight crop makes it clear what the main subject is. The framing in
such a photo is basically the edges of the frame. The advantage is you remove
anything disturbing around your subject.

Such a composition leave the viewer to interpret the whole context of the pho-
to. Using a telephoto lens is one method to crop tighter and to isolate the main
subject.

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Vignettes

Post processing vignette is a common technique to draw the viewers eyes to

the main subject in a photo. By darkening the sides slightly, the eyes are drawn
to the brighter parts.
Vignettes are often mistakenly overdone making them a clearly visible dark
frame around the edges of a photo. Vignettes done correctly should have a
subtle effect you hardly recognize. Too strong and the vignette will have an
opposite effect - you draw the viewers eyes to the overly dark edges instead.

Cropping

It may at first seem simple. You took the shot a little wide, or a sneaky branch
that you didn’t notice found its way into the edge of your photo. In Lightroom
(LR) it’s just a quick press of the R key to activate the crop tool, hold down the
shift key to constrain the crop so you don’t get a weird aspect ratio, and your
task is complete.

The crop tool – simple, yet powerful.

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On the contrary, cropping is one of the more powerful tools that you have at
your disposal to dial in the composition of your images. Prime lens users will
also find that the limited versatility (compared to zoom lenses) can result in
the need for cropping more often.
In many respects cropping echoes the fundamental principles of composition.
Luckily, if you didn’t get what you wanted the first time around, when you took
the photo, you get a second chance, albeit limited, to recompose your images
in post-production for maximum impact.

The Basics

The very first thing to look for, and correct, in any photograph that you edit is
straight lines. Horizon lines and any vertical lines that are near the edges of the
image, should be straight. That being said, lines can be crooked, but it better
be obvious that was the intent, otherwise it just looks like careless composition
or lazy editing. In the right context a skewed horizon can add drama, and make
an image more dynamic.

Crooked horizons can make viewers cringe unless the intent is obvious.

With the crop tool activated in LR (keyboard shortcut R) there are a few ways
to straighten out an image:

• Drag the Angle slider left or right

• Click on the value to the right of the slider and drag left or right (scrubby
slider)
• Click on the numerical value and enter whatever you want
• Hold the CTRL key while dragging along a straight horizontal or vertical

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line (will correct on either axis) and LR will fix it automatically

• Also new in LR6 (LR CC) is the “Auto” feature for the crop tool. Just click it
and see how it does – then tweak as necessary.

Elimination

Fight the urge to become attached to pixels. Crop out half of the photo if need
be. Unimportant areas of a photo are not precious real estate.

You can’t always get as close to the action as you would like (or it is safe
to do so) and heavyhanded cropping can make all the difference.

The fact of the matter is that simple is better. We all suffer from attention defi-
cit disorder, and viewers usually don’t want to spend too much precious time
analyzing a photo to get the story. Consider the allure of silhouette images.
When cropping look for simple compositions and try to distill the scene down
to its essence.

Once the image is rotated and you’ve been forced to chop off some of the
edges, look for elements that detract, distract or add little to the image. You
may not have a choice but to include them, but it’s good practice to be cog-
nizant of them and it may help guide the rest of your editing process or future
compositions.

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Cropping in very tight can sometimes create a more powerful image.

Negative space can play an important role, especially if shooting for a publica-
tion where they need space for text. But, the nice thing about having post-pro-
cessing options is that you can always revert back to the original. If you com-
pose your images super tight in camera, you can’t get that negative space
back.

Leading Lines

Although thoughtfully composing your shots through the viewfinder is one of

the more rudimentary skills in photography, there are often distractions. You
may find surprises when you pull up the final image on your computer screen.

In photography, as well as painting and other forms of art, you should always
be thinking about the arrangement of elements in the image that are going to
draw in the viewer’s eye. A compelling subject is just that, but it is your job as
photographer to strive to portray that subject in the most powerful, or striking
way possible.

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It’s easy to overlook compositional elements while shooting moving sub-

jects. Post -processing cropping reveals additional possibilities for fram-
ing your shots like using leading lines to draw in
the viewer’s eye.

When we talk about leading lines it’s not always an obvious straight line. Of-
ten it is an invisible thread that takes the viewers’ gaze hostage and leads it
through the scene. Think of a series of elements that create a pattern.

Diagonal lines which stretch towards the subject are a common, and effective,
way to create interest and tension in an image.

Before venturing into the cropping universe, it is good to keep the following
points in mind:

• Cropping is not permanent and you can always go back to the original
frame, as long as you use a non-destructive editor such as Lightroom.
Photoshop Camera RAW also will not alter the original RAW file, since it
behaves just like Lightroom. If you use Photoshop for cropping and you
use non-RAW file formats such as JPEG and TIFF, make sure to preserve
the original image before saving the cropped image.

• If your aim is to get these photos printed later on, the proportions or “
aspect ratio” of your crop should be compliant with print sizes. Labs
often prefer to work with standard print sizes, which might make
cropping a little restrictive (more on this at the end).

• Avoid over-cropping photos to small areas of the image, as it will

decrease resolution significantly. If you crop too much, it will also
magnify all problems with the image. For example, if you had a little bit
of blur on your subject, that blur will get magnified more after cropping
is applied. Remember, if the resolution of the image is too low, you will
no longer have the advantage of down-sampling.

• If you want to apply cropping aggressively, it is best to start with an

image that is sharp at 100% view. If the image is noise-free and very
sharp, you could crop it to pixel level without worrying about potentially
decreasing the quality of the final image.

Use of CRAP Designing Technique for Pattern and Textures

All design starts from four basic principles, abbreviated as CRAP (they come
in no particular order, so the more squeamish can rearrange them to form

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“CARP”, if you like). These are Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity.

Contrast

Contrast focuses our attention and should be used to highlight the most im-
portant points that the audience should take away. Designers should use col-
ors, bold type, and size to distinguish parts of text or an image and create
contrast. Contrast is used in all aspects of life. For example, jewelers usually
display their diamond pieces on a background of black velvet to let the jewels
stand out. The page you are reading uses headings to create contrast with the
text.

Formatting, including the use of a blue shape, creates contrast, drawing at-
tention to important data points in the Excel graph.

Formatting headings for the title and subtitles creates contrast..

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Contrast Through Visual Weight

Another way to create contrast is by using visual weight. You create a focal
point and then lead the reader’s eye around the page. The main focal point is
the picture. The next “heaviest” item on the page is the headline, followed by
the date, followed by the logo, followed by the body text. The reader’s eye is
led from one item to the next based on these “weights.” The greatest mistake
that most students make in flyer design is to make all the text the same size
as though it needed to be readable from 20 feet away. As long as the picture
and headline capture interest, a reader will move in closer to read the rest of
the flyer. Also, if every item is the same size then nothing stands out and it looks
unprofessional. Variation of font sizes and weights is critical to focus attention.

Visual weight in action. Note how your eye travels around this flyer in the
numbered sequence depicted.

Contrast with Fonts: Type Design

When working with type, aim for a contrasting layout. Contrasting layouts cre-
ate visual interest and energy. For example, when you wear clothes of con-

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trasting colors, such as red on navy blue, the outfit can be quite eye catching.
Our examples will follow the conventions Robin Williams sets out in her book.
Williams’ book, The Non-Designers Design Book discusses design principles for
the novice designer.

The opposite of contrast is affinity. Layouts demonstrating affinity show subtle

variations in color or brightness. The overall effect is pleasing, though not par-
ticularly remarkable. For example, a person wearing a dark suit with a dark tie
would be wearing an outfit that shows affinity.

In type design, a layout showing affinity is best for formal documents, such as
wedding and graduation invitations. For most other documents, use a con-
trasting style to make your documents really pop. However, tailor the contrast
to suit the audience and the occasion for the document. For example, a busi-
ness plan prepared for a bank should have less contrast than the layout of this
text book. When in doubt, be conservative.

The one type of layout that you must avoid is a conflicting layout. In a con-
flicting layout the type is very similar but different. For example, never use two
different serif fonts on the same page. Think of wearing an outfit that has two
different shades of red that are very similar but different. The combination
looks like a mistake—as though part of the outfit had faded in the wash. In the
same manner two serif fonts side by side will look like a mistake. Fonts should
be identical or very different.

The text on the next page is taken from The United States Declaration of Inde-
pendence and demonstrates some type contrasting techniques. By increas-
ing the font size and changing the text color, you can highlight certain words or
information that you want to stand out. The goal is to make “Creator” stand out
as the most important word in the sentence. You can also boldface to drama-
tize the weight of the text or italicize to accent the text. Direction refers to add-
ing space between letters to make text stand out. Structure, using serif or sans
serif fonts, can also differentiate text and will be discussed in the next section.

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Contrast with Fonts: Serif/Sans Serif

The two main categories of font are serif and sans serif. Serifs are the orna-
mental strokes at the end of the letters, which all serif fonts have. Sans serif
means without serifs, therefore sans serif fonts do not have these decorative
additions.

Serif and sans serif fonts can be used together to create contrast within text.
Typically sans serif fonts are used for headings while serif fonts are used for
body text.

Note that you should avoid combining two fonts that are from the same cate-
gory. For example, two serif fonts that look similar, such as Georgia and Gara-
mond, should not be used together.

Serif fonts are best used in text heavy books because the serifs quickly guide
the reader’s eye from letter to letter. Sans serif fonts are the best choice for
online text because serifs can blur in the pixels on a screen. The resolution of
most computer screens is not sufficient to precisely draw the serifs in a body
of text. The result tends to look blurry. Therefore, most websites use a sans serif
font. An exception is sometimes made for the page title, which because of its
greater font size, can show serifs much more clearly. To allow for serifs online,
Microsoft developed a series of ClearType fonts designed to accurately repro-
duce serifs.

Though font options are limited online, other techniques such as size, weight,
color, form, and direction can be used to create contrast within online material.
Color is especially powerful on a website as most viewers have a color monitor.
Please see the Appendix for additional font categories. These include slab serif,
modern, script, and decorative.

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Contrast with Fills and Outlines

A fill is the color, gradient, or pattern the occupies the inside of a drawn object.
An outline is the color, gradient, or pattern that borders the drawn object. Pow-
erPoint has extensive fill and outline options.

Different fills, same outline

Same fill, Different outlines

Repetition

Repetition is one of the most basic principles of design. It is used to keep a

constant in a piece of art or poster. It is often used by creating one shape that
is repeated in different sizes throughout the picture.

Repetition is just keeping with a theme, choosing a shape and repeating that
shape over and over throughout your pictures and posters. This is used mainly
for the onlooker’s eye. It will find a constant in the picture, and immediately be
able to find the subject, which, using contrast, will be obvious.

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Repetition Unifies an Image

Repetition ties objects or images together. For instance, we know which foot-
ball players are on a team because of the repetition of their uniforms. This
text uses repetition of fonts, styles, and sizes to unify the design. On the facing
page, repetition of graphic elements draws an image together.

The repetition of formatting in the text headings creates a unified profes-

sional look.

This ad uses repetition with the colors in the text, arrow, stain, and back-
ground to reflect the colors in the logo and nachos.

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Repetition with Color

Adobe has a wonderful free web-based application called Kuler, which helps
you choose a color palette. One of its most spectacular features is the ability
to upload an image and have Kuler automatically generate a color palette
from that image. You then use that palette for fonts, fills, and so forth in your
composition, and you are virtually guaranteed that the colors will all work well
together.
To use the more interesting features of Kuler you must first create an account
at: [Link]. Now you can save your color palettes. Once saved, you
can reveal the numerical values that correspond to your color palette. These
numeric values may be imported into PowerPoint (under custom color).

Kuler helps create a color palette. You can create a color palette by up-
loading a picture. After saving your palette, Kuler will allow you see the RGB
values associated with each color. You can then type these values into Pow-
erPoint. Adobe product screenshot reprinted with permission from Adobe
Systems Incorporated.

Alignment

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Alignment indicates organization, polish, and strength. Text on a page is eas-

ier to read and understand if it is properly aligned to the margin. Alignment
should be applied to every design or page layout to show order. Alignment on
this page is created by left aligning all of the text and graphics.

The alignment of text organizes the categories on the resume.

The alignment of text and images in this ad creates a polished and profes-
sional look.

Proximity

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Proximity creates relationships within objects in an image. Placing objects close

together shows their connectedness and focuses the audience’s attention. For
example, captions placed near photos on a page layout show that they de-
scribe the photos they are near. The page you are reading places headings
next to the text they introduce to signify their relationship.

Proximity helps to organize this spreadsheet in Excel. The title and subtitle are
separated from the rest of the spreadsheet.

Proximity is used to group the links on the navigation bar. Similarly the im-
age, title, and price of each bottle are grouped together.

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3.3. USE EFFECTIVE LIGHTING FOR

PHOTOGRAPHY-1

Significance and importance of lighting in photography

Photography lighting can be the difference between a breathtaking photo and

a terrible one. The science behind photography lightings really what photog-
raphers use each time they take a picture, whether they know it or not. Without
good lighting, a photograph can be grainy and blurred. Professional photog-
raphers understand the relationship between their camera settings and the
light that they have available. Different kinds of light can create different ef-
fects in a photograph. If a photographer knows how the light will change the
picture, he or she can create the exact photo that they want.

Sunlight at Different Times of Day

Natural sunlight is one of the best light sources a photographer can use. On a
clear day it is bright and covers everything equally from the same direction.
Photos taken during the middle of a sunny day will have sharp, bright colors
and plenty of detail. Sunlight creates a different effect during the first few hours
of the day and the last few hours before it sets. When the sun is low on the hori-
zon it shines through the atmosphere at a different angle. Photographs taken
in early morning and late afternoon will be permeated with a soft and hazy
atmosphere because of the quality of the sunlight.

Low Light Situations

Taking photographs in low light can be a challenge. If you use a typical flash,
the subject of the photo may be too washed out because of the harsh lighting.
Taking a photo without a flash in low light can give you a grainy image that is
blurry and filled with indistinct objects. When you know you need to take pho-
tos in a dimly lit room or at night, you can change the settings on your camera
to compensate for the dim lighting as much as possible. Set the ISO to a higher
setting so that the camera shutter will be able to take advantage of any avail-
able light in the room. If possible, mount your camera on a tripod to avoid any
camera movement. Before you take your pictures, though, you should under-
stand that it is very difficult to get sharp images in dim light.

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What Reflected Light Does to a Photograph

Reflected light is a tool that photographers use to avoid glare in photos. When
the light shines directly on someone or something, there is always a chance
that there will be a bright “hot spot” in the picture. Reflected lighting is created
by shining the light onto a white wall or board so that the light bounces toward
your subject and covers the subject in an even, diffused lighting. You can ad-
just the angle of the light so that it creates the exact look that you want. Moving
the light closer and further away from your subject will change the quality of
the shadows and create a different atmosphere for your photograph. Many
photographers who specialize in taking portraits prefer the control that they
have when they use reflected and diffused lighting instead of sunlight.

In order to get high-quality pictures, you need the right lighting. You don’t just
need sufficient lighting, but you need the right light to help capture the narra-
tive for your image. The temperature, the intensity, and whether it’s soft or hard
light play a crucial role in your photography.

Let’s look at the four primary aspects to consider when examining your light:

1. Intensity (intensity usually comes from how strong it is)

2. Angle (what angle it is coming from)
3. Hard or Soft (how much difference between bright and shadow)
4. Warmth or Coolness (colour)

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY LIGHTING TECHNIQUES

Photography is not completely about settings. Photography is not totally about

settings. We need the settings, sure, but the story goes deeper than that. As
photographers, we use lighting to express emotion. If we want a photo to con-
vey a feeling of romance and an engaging mood, we might use a yellowy-or-
ange light. If we want to convey a problematic, tough, and challenging story,
then we might use hard light with deep shadows. This creates intense contrast.
It’s the way you utilize light that matters.

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Photo by Neusa Quaresma; ISO 50, f/3.5, 1/800-second exposure.

There are certain things you can achieve to enrich your story such as using the
flash, not shooting with the flash, or using window light instead and making use
of different temperatures of daylight.
Let’s look at what particular types of light tell us.

LOW LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY WITHOUT FLASH

Many photos that have low light (dim and soft light with no strong shadows)
have been used in stories that represent sadness, bereavement, secrets, or
even intimacy. Lighting like this can reflect introversion of some sort.

Photo by ™ Pacheco

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ARTIFICIAL LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Artificial light may come in the form of uninterrupted light, like lights in a pho-
tography studio. This light is often used to reproduce daylight conditions. Bril-
liant, white light can stand for optimism, pleasure, sociability, and energy. Flash
is also artificial light. Depending on how you utilise this light (i.e. the direction
and angle you fire it from) you can recreate these feelings.

Photo by Baba G

MORNING LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Morning light is generally soft and doesn’t have as much brightness as the
light we see at high noon. It appears warmer in photographs. Keep in mind that
the seasons play a crucial function in the intensity of light as well. On a bright
day in the summer season the light is very intense and very white. This means
that there may well be a lot of contrast in your scenes, such as vivid areas and
deep shadows. This might be suitable if you want to include shadowed areas
to tell your story.

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Photo by Sam; ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/80-second exposure.

DRAMATIC LIGHTING PHOTOGRAPHY

Dramatic lighting usually relies upon intense light and deep shadow. This is a
high contrast situation where the light creates and impacts the mood. It is also
very dependent on the number of light sources and at what position the light
is coming from. If you place one light source next to a person’s face, you can
produce a lot of hard shadows across the face. This will generate a very differ-
ent feeling from a softly lit portrait at sunset.

Photo by casch52; ISO 100, f/10.0, 1/250-second exposure.

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HARD LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Using hard light can capture many intense areas and dark shadowed areas
that can be employed to tell us a story, just as dim light can. You can use this
kind of light to enhance quietness, secrets, and desolation. Alternatively, you
may want to photograph a black and white portrait with strong shadowed ar-
eas in the background and keep your subject well lit. This style will mean that
that there might be another facet to the subject’s life or situation.

Photo by Wil C. Fry; ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/200-second exposure.

Lighting is not just about better exposure; it’s about mood and feeling. As you
understand light you can then move forward and capture many different
types of moods for your shots. When you take pictures of a similar thing with
changed light, that thing takes on an entirely different emotion. The way you
feel about it alters, and that’s the strength of photography.

This is why photography is not just about settings. It’s about creating power-
ful, emotive pictures. You use settings like aperture and shutter speed to have
power over the light. You control the light to direct the emotion and story.

Start examining lighting today. Look at the lighting you see right now and ask
yourself about its qualities. Awareness of lighting will change your photogra-
phy for the better

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Main objectives of lighting in photography

Lighting has nearly infinite permutations and variations. There is certainly no

one “right” way to light a scene. As a result, there is no chance that we can just
make a simple list of “proper” lighting techniques. What we can do, however,
is try to identify what it is we want lighting to do for us. What jobs does it per-
form for us? What do we expect of “good” lighting? Starting this way, we have a
better chance of evaluating when lighting is working or us and when it is falling
short. Naturally, these are generalizations. There are always exceptions, as
there are in all aspects of filmmaking — staging, use of the lens, exposure, con-
tinuity, editorial, and so on.

Many people think all you have to do in a digital 3D scene is put a light here
or there, or just turn on the lights that are in the shot and my work is done. But
there is so much more involved.

You have to understand on a deep level how real world light interacts and
reacts in different situations. You have to study the play of light on a surface,
how light will interact with different materials, what qualities the light takes in
different situations, how the color of the light affects the scene, and that’s just
scratching the surface of it. Without knowledge of these things, any 3D work
you do would be an unrealistic, jarring scene with bad lighting. It can be very
math heavy the more you get into it.

Why light?
Lighting is used to:
1. Establish a setting
2. Enhance or creating the mood of a scene
3. Direct the eye
4. Create the illusion of depth
5. Create the illusion of volume
6. Reveal the substance and qualities of materials
7. Maintain continuity
8. Integrate visual elements
9. Set a visual style
10. Create visual interest

What are the Goals of Good Lighting?

So what is it we want lighting to do for us? There are many jobs, and they in-
clude creating an image that has:
• A full range of tones and gradations of tone
• Color control and balance

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• Shape and dimension in the individual subjects

• Separation: subjects stand out against the background
• Depth and dimension in the frame
• Texture
• Mood and tone: emotional content
• Exposure

Key Lights, Fill Lights, Hair Lights and More: Different Lighting Uses For Studio
Strobes

Light is a requirement in photography. Heck, without light, you have no photo-

graph. There are many different ways to light a subject as you shoot in a studio
and as you begin to work with lighting patterns and light setups, you will find
that there are many different lighting uses for strobes in a studio. Let’s jump
into some of the main types of uses when shooting any type of people images
in the studio.

KEY OR MAIN LIGHTS

A key light can be better described as your main source of light on a set. It
should also be the light with the highest intensity of all of the lights being used.
Your key light will be what shapes your subject in the image and should fall
on your subject’s face no matter the position your subject is posed. It can be
positioned to the side, at an angle above or below or straight on your subject
depending on the desired result you are looking to achieve.

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One of many positions for a key light.

Positioning Your Key Light

You will want your key light to be close to your subject, but just far enough out
of the frame of your image. A good starting point is usually to the right of the
camera at a 45-degree angle, but it really depends on the result you are aim-
ing to achieve. Just remember, the key light should light your subject’s face,
so it may need to be repositioned throughout a shoot depending on a desired
pose.

Key lights without fill can cause harsh shadows depending on the modifier
and positioning used.

FILL LIGHTS

A fill light is a light source used to fill in shadows caused by other lights (mainly
a key light), but without creating harsh shadows of its own. This is why your fill
light should always be diffused. You have several options for a fill light source
depending on your budget, the size of your space and the key light modifier
you are using.

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Fill light (left) and key light (right).

Fill Light Sources

• Reflectors. This type of modifier is an inexpensive and convenient way

of creating another light source. You can use a reflector as an additional light
source by bouncing light from another light onto your subject. One of the perks
to using a reflector as your fill light is that it does not take up the space that a
strobe on a lightstand would – precious space that is needed in a home studio.
The downside to using a reflector as a fill light is that they cannot be used with
anything that directs light only onto your subject, such as grids and honey-
combs, as those leave no light spill to hit your reflector.

• Another Strobe. While more expensive and a not-so-portable option,

using a strobe for a fill light does have its benefits. Since it doesn’t require an-
other light hitting it to make it a light source, a strobe can be placed anywhere
on the set when used for fill. The amount of light desired for fill can be adjusted
and said light can be diffused with a variety of modifier choices.

A fill light helps to fill in harsh shadows without causing shadows of its own.

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Walls/Ceilings. Your walls and ceilings can act as a large reflector of light
bounced from your key or other light source onto your subject. Since it’s such
a large light source, the light will be very soft and produce less harsh shadows.

Your Clothing. If you wear lighter colored clothing, the lighter surface color can
also become reflective, not much, but it can be noticed.

Positioning Your Fill Light

If you choose to use a reflector as your fill light, it must be placed opposite of
a light source, usually the key light. If you choose to use a strobe as a fill light,
depending on the modifier used, you can place it just about anywhere based
on preference to fill in unwanted shadows in your image.

RIM LIGHTS

A rim light is a light source placed behind your subject to cast light on the back
of your subject, allowing for some spill to leak around parts of their body, cre-
ating a “rim” of light or “lighted outline” around their body. This is typically used
to separate a subject from a background of the similar color to what the sub-
ject is wearing, to separate multiple subjects when they are all wearing similar
colors and to give depth to your image.

Positioning Your Rim Light

A rim light should be positioned behind your subject, but can be positioned in
a few different ways partly depending on the length of the subject that you are
desiring to include.

Behind and to the Side of Your Subject

If you are shooting anything other than waist up, without having to take out
your light stand in post-production, it’s usually good to position your rim light
at a 45 degree angle behind your subject and raise and tilt it at a height that
will cast light where you need the separation, without the light hitting the front
of your subject. This will create a subtle rim around at least the side of your
subject.

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If not done right, side rim lighting can produce unwanted lens flare or un-
even rim lighting.

The rim light is off to the back-right of the subject.

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Directly Behind Your Subject

For waist-up portraits and headshots, where your subject’s body and head
can block the strobe, try placing the light directly behind your subject and you
will get an evenly lit outline of light on both sides of your subject’s hair and
body, depending on angle of placement.

Positioning a rim light directly behind a subject can make for an even rim
around your subject.

Below is a nice soft result using a 16” beauty dish with a sock diffuser to cover
the light…

Rim light is located behind the subject.

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Rim light can be seen even more pronounced in the picture below where pho-
tographer had a red gel on a set of barndoors placed behind subject’s head.

Blue gel on the background and barndoors with a red gel aimed at the back
of head.

Great (and fun!) Modifiers to Use for Rim Lights

You can use several different modifiers for rim lights, depending on where you
place them and how much area you want to cover.

• Small Strobe Reflectors. Unlike a portable reflector, these are hard metal
reflectors that actually attach to the strobe, the type you get usually depends
on your light make and model. A good example of these are the Elinchrom
Standard Reflector which works with, you guessed it – Elinchrom strobes.

Elinchrom Standard Reflector

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• Beauty Dish. Beauty dishes come in a few sizes. If you have a smaller
beauty dish, like the one at 16 inches in diameter, it can fit behind the body of
a person when positioned below the neck or it can work well at the side with a
grid on it.

Bowens BW-1900 20.5” Beauty Dish for Bowens Lights

• Snoot. A really great tool for rim lights when you only want to put a rim
on a particular area of a person without spill is a snoot. Add a grid to the snoot,
which sometimes comes together in a set with the snoot, for more direction
control.

Flashpoint Snoot Kit for Flashpoint Mount Strobes

• Barndoors. Barndoors are one of the best light shapers, literally! With
four flaps that each individually move 180 degrees from their start position,
there are many combinations of ways to shape the light.

Flashpoint Barndoors Set

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• Gels. Some of the modifiers above already come with gels, but if they
don’t and you want to play with gels, or even if they do and you want more
color options, you can buy sheets individually.

Rosco Color Effects Pack

HAIR LIGHTS

A hair light is also a light used for separation, but one that is positioned to only
light the top of a subject’s head to create depth in an image.

Image by Yann Bizeul

Positioning a Hair Light…

A hair light should be positioned directly above and slightly behind your sub-
ject’s head to put a nice light on the top of the hair. It should not spill onto your
subject’s face.

Image by Yann Bizeul

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Recommended Equipment

• Boom Stand. Since a light has to be placed hanging over your subject’s
head, this is one of those times a good sturdy boom stand comes in handy.

SIDE LIGHTS

Side lights add drama to a portrait as the light sweeps across the face, it works
like a gradient and gets darker the further across the face it goes. As it does
this, it can reveal every imperfection of the skin as it goes from light to dark,
which is why: unless a woman has porcelain skin (like the mannequin below),
it is not flattering for women when going for a beauty shot. In those cases, you
want as much light as possible. While it can be used for terrific dramatic por-
traits of any gender, side lighting (also known as “split lighting”) is especially
amazing for shooting male portraits as it enhances character of the face.

A sock and a beauty dish lessens the harshness of the shadows of this dra-
matic lighting.

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With the light source right, this creates more shadow as it falls off toward the
left.

How to position a side light and what effect does it create?

A side light can be positioned on either side of your subject, but must be lined
up with their body to create the half dark, half light effect. The more you move
the light toward in front of your subject, the less shadow on the opposite side
of the face.

Using a grid on a direct side light can make for a much more dramatically lit
image.

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Throwing a grid onto a beauty dish, snoot or reflector helps direct the light ex-
actly where you want it to go with much less spill.

Using a grid on a side light helps direct light in one straight direction creat-
ing a more dramatic image.

BACKGROUND LIGHTS

Background lights illuminate a background and help eliminate unwanted

shadow, which is extremely helpful when you do not have the space to bring
your model forward 6-12 feet from the seamless.

Without the benefit of a background light when 4 feet from the background.

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How Many Lights Do You Need?

For an evenly lit background, you can get away with one light to light a back-
ground when positioning the background light directly behind your subject.
The problem with this is that while your subject can block most of what’s be-
hind him/her, you will have to get rid of your light stand legs in post or shoot
only thigh-up.

Background light positioned directly behind the subject.

Positioning Your Background Lights

It can be optimal, if you can spare the extra money, to invest in a second back-
ground light if you want even lighting on your subject while taking a full length
shot. I usually place one a little higher than the other to cover both the lower
and upper halves behind my subject, which works great on white seamless. On
colored seamless, it can make for an interesting background design.

One light on each side aimed at the background at different heights.

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Nice even background light.

FLOOR LIGHTS

Floor lights are great to use when you need to illuminate the entire body, in-
cluding the feet/shoes. Due to light falloff and your lights usually being posi-
tioned waist-level and higher, the floor can usually go dark by the time the light
gets to the ground. This is where 4- and 5-light setups start to come into play.

Illuminates thigh to foot.

Key, Fill and Floor Light without Background Lights

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Positioning Your Floor Lights

If you have background lights, you can position your lights anywhere in front of
your subject where they illuminate the area needed to be it. If you are limited
on background lights or are not using any at all, it’s better to place the floor
lights head-on with your subject to cast the least amount of shadow.

When positioned at the side, illuminates thigh to foot but can throw shadow
to the side of the subject without background lights.

Use effective lighting forphotography-2

Direction

Where is the light coming from—the front, the side, or behind?

The direction of light has a tremendous amount to do with creating a sense

of shape and texture in your images. To be a bit more precise, the direction
of light controls the width of the shadows. And it’s the shadows that create a
sense of shape and texture in your photographs.

“If you want to create interesting light, you have to create interesting shadows.
So, look at the light and think about the shadows.”

Why are shadows important? When we look at a scene, we see depth because
the separation between our eyes gives us the ability to see stereoscopically.
We see in three dimensions: height, width, and depth. Yet, when your photo-
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has two dimensions: height and width. Since the screen or paper is flat, the
sense of depth in your photographs is created by geometry and shadows. In
terms of geometry, we assume that larger objects are closer and smaller ob-
jects are farther away. In terms of shadow, the shapes of the shadows go a
long way to informing the viewer about the shape of the objects.

The Lighting Compass

The placement and width of shadows in a photograph is created by the angle

between the camera and the light source. To keep the discussion simple, we’ll
only consider what happens as the light moves in a circle around the subject.

You, the photographer, control how the camera sees the direction of light
through the framing of the shot. If you move your camera in a circle around
your subject, you will see that the direction of the light changes as you move.
For now, as shown in Figure 1.1, let’s think of direction as being one of four pos-
sibilities:

• On-Camera or Aligned with the Camera (red): This means that the sun
is coming straight over your shoulders or the flash is parked right on top
of your camera. Typically, you will have flat light that lacks significant
shadows. Photos with flat light often fall short of capturing a scene as
you experience it because they lack depth.

• Angled Towards the Subject (green): When the light approaches the
subject from either side of the camera, shadows are created, and shape
texture become more apparent. The width of the shadows increases as
the direction of the light moves from the camera out to the side. You’ll
find that 45° is a great angle for many lighting situations.

• To the Side of the Subject (orange): When the main light comes at the
subject directly from the side, you’ll have very dramatic light—perhaps
too dramatic. Unless there is a fill light or reflector on the other side of the
subject, the camera will record the subject as being lit on one side with a
dark shadow on the other side. This can be good if you want to create a
headshot that conveys mystery, but not so good if you want to convey
glamour.

• Behind the Subject (blue): Unless you want to create a silhouette shot,
light coming from behind the subject should be considered a secondary
light. Figure 1.1. The lighting compass is a view seen directly above the
subject. It shows the angle between the camera and the light source.
As you move the light from on-camera out to 90°, the shadows become
more pronounced because they become wider. When you move the

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light behind the subject, you are creating an edge of light that will
separate the subject from the background.

Filling Shadows

As good as our cameras are, they cannot record the full range of human vision.
If the difference in your scene between the brightest brights and the darkest
darks is too much, then some of the details in either the highlights or the shad-
ows (or both) will be beyond the range of the camera. To show details in the
dark areas, you can bounce light in with a reflector or add a fill light.

Lighting Lingo

Key light: The main light hitting the subject, typically coming from the front,
often angled in from one side.

Fill light: Light that is added to the shadows, can be created by bouncing light
off a reflector or by adding a secondary light, such as a flash.

Rim or hair light: A light that comes from behind the subject and is seen by the
camera as a thin outline of light along the edge of the subject.

Sometimes you have no control over the location of the light source, such as
when shooting outdoors under the sun. In this instance, try circling around the
subject so that the camera sees the light falling on the subject from a different
angle.

Direct, Diffused, and Reflected Light

Direct light flies straight from the light source to the subject (Figure 1.4). Direct
light typically creates shadows with high contrast and hard edges. Sunlight
on a clear day is direct light. Light from an on-camera flash can also be direct
light. While direct light has many uses, photographers often prefer the softer
look of diffused and reflected light.

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Figure 1.4. Light coming directly from a source to the subject will have dark
shadows with a hard, defined edge.

Diffused light passes through a semi-transparent material on the way from

the source to the subject (Figure 1.5). Diffused light creates shadows with low-
er contrast and softer edges than direct light. Depending upon the amount of
diffusion, it is possible that the shadows will be so light that you can barely see
them. Clouds are a great example of how sunlight can be diffused. The water
vapor causes the light to bounce around and come at the subject from many
angles rather than directly from the sun. A sheer curtain over a window is an-
other example of a light diffuser.

Figure 1.5. Light that passes through a semi-transparent material, like a cloud
bank or diffuser panel, will come at the subject from many angles. This light will
have soft shadows.

Reflected light bounces off of an opaque surface before it hits the subject (Fig-
ure 1.6). Sunlight bouncing off the concrete wall of a building is reflected light.
Sunlight bouncing off of clouds can create reflected light. Photographers can
use white foam core panels or fabric reflectors in a variety of colors to bounce
light. Hotshoe-mounted flashes often have the ability to tilt and pan so that the
flash can be bounced off a nearby wall or ceiling. Like diffused light, reflected
light is softer than direct light.

Figure 1.6. Light that bounces off a surface, like a white wall or ceiling, will also
come at the subject from many angles and have soft shadows.

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The difference between diffused and reflected light comes from the location
of the diffuser and reflector. With diffused light, the diffuser is between the light
source and the subject. With reflected light, the light hits a nearby surface and
then bounces onto the subject. This is why clouds can be both diffusers and
reflectors. When the sun’s light goes through the clouds, they are a diffuser.
When the light reflects off of the clouds—such as when the sun is setting low in
the sky—then the clouds serve as reflectors.

Diffused and reflected light is softer because the diffusion or bounce increases
the apparent size of the light source. You should think about whether the light
is direct, diffused, or reflected.
If it is direct, then you may have options to create softer light by using a diffuser
or reflector.

One/Two/Three/Four Point Lighting Techniques

One-Point Lighting

Most of us experience one-point lighting in nature every day. Yes it is sunshine.

In many occasions, a single source of light creates a very natural, sometimes
dramatic look that will draw people’s attention to the single lighted person or
surface. And if it’s good enough for nature, there are times it might be good
enough for you. The catch? As anyone can see with a walk around the park, a
single source looks two dimensional or flat, and rarely hits people straight on,
so it creates shadows.

Two-Point Lighting

When you want the subtleness of a single light source but want your people
to stand out in 3D, two-point lighting can be a great way to add dimension-
ality without going overboard on your lighting. Photographers often use this
approach for bands in churches that like a more aggressive lighting vibe by
taking a single light source from straight on in front of the lighting zone, about
30-40 degrees up. They then add a top light above and slightly behind the
zone (about 60-70 degrees) in order to define the head and shoulders of the
people in the zone, creating a three-dimensional look without using too much
light. There is still quite a potential for shadowing if a person turns their head
either direction, but where a little shadowing is okay, this can be an effective
way to bring focus.

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Three-Point Lighting

Not everyone is happy with the shadows that two-point lighting can produce,
so the logical solution would be to add two light fixtures from the front, still 30-
40 degrees up but having each fixture hitting your zone from 45 degree angles
off center. Add that same top light from above and slightly behind, and you’ve
got three fixtures giving you light on both sides of the face (regardless of the
direction it faces) and a multi-dimensional look. This approach is commonly
used in theater and worship stages where cameras aren’t used, or at least ar-
en’t a big focus.

Four-Point Lighting

When cameras are being used, especially HD cameras, three-point lighting

can actually fall short of providing even lighting across your lighting zones.
Think of a 10-foot wide circle as your lighting zone. As you move to the right,
the right side of your face will become brighter as you get closer to the right
fixture and farther from the left fixture. Turn around and head back the other
way and the opposite happens. Cameras tend to pick up on this more than
our eyes, because our brains compensate where a camera does not. In order
to fix this, in places where cameras play a critical role, artists tend to use four-
point lighting. That means a front light straight-on the lighting zone, providing
the primary light, and two fill lights 45-60 degrees off center to fill in the sides
of the face. The straight-on light is my primary source, so for example you may
have that intensity at 80%. If that’s true, your fill lights might be at 60% and then
of course you have your top light providing the dimensionality you want from
behind. All three of the front lights would still shoot at a 30-40 degree angle
and your top light would be above and behind at 60-70 degrees.

Creating Zones

Lighting is most effective when you have good control of what your light is
hitting and not hitting, and the best way to make a plan of attack for your
stage is to divide it into zones. Most lighting pros will divide their stages into
zones of 8-12 foot diameter circles with a slight overlap of zones to make sure
there are no holes in the coverage. If your stage is 30 feet wide and 30 feet
deep, you would likely end up with 3 zones across down-stage, 3 zones across
mid-stage, and 3 zones across up-stage. Breaking your stage into these zones
not only helps make lighting them evenly more manageable but also allows
for greater control of special lighting. For example, perhaps you want to draw
attention to a speaker down-stage left for one part of your service and then
immediately cut to down-stage right for the next part. By lighting each zone
individually at the right times, you draw everyone’s attention to the right place
at the right time.

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Chroma background (Green-Screen) Photography

Green screens or blue screens are used as backdrops in chroma key pho-
tography, which is a process that replaces a solid-colored background from
behind the subject of a photo (or video) with a new background. When you
watch the weather forecaster on TV standing in front of a map, or Spiderman
climbing down a building, you, my friend, are seeing chroma key photography
at work!
You may be wondering, “Why use a green screen or a blue screen?” Because
separating a background from a human subject in a photo or video is much
easier if the background is made of a solid color which is not found in human
skin tones, like the colors green and blue.
The practice of chroma keying can seem daunting at first, so be sure to read
through this guide to green screens to get started on the right track.

Tools for Getting Started with Green Screens

Can a beginner really do this?

Removing and replacing photo backgrounds does sound complicated, doesn’t
it? Not to worry! With digital photography and software designed specifically
for this purpose, you can be swapping backgrounds with the best of them in no
time. Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

1. Digital camera. You’ve got one already, right?

2. A computer. Either a PC or a Mac is fine.
3. A cable to download images from camera to computer. (Duh.)
4. Chroma key photography software. As with most software, you’ll run into
a lot of green screen programs that are only compatible with PCs. But
there are some made for both types of operating systems. For example,
the Green Screen Software by Savage is compatible with both PCs and
Macs.
5. Green screen background. There are many on the market, so before
you buy, carefully consider how you’ll be using yours. For an occasional
fun shot, or as a frequently used tool for your photography business? For
studio shots only, or mostly for outdoor sessions? Here are the
differences to consider:

• SIZE: For example, 5’ x 7’ for photographing individuals, or

10’ x 12’ or 10’ x 20’ for group shots or full-body pictures.
• PORTABLE vs. STATIONARY: a collapsible pop-up screen or
a rolled-up backdrop.
• MATERIAL: If you’ve taken a look online at green screen
backdrop options, you’ve no doubt seen them in several
types of material.

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• paper
• fabric (muslin, polyester)
• vinyl
• foam-backed
• paint (to color a wall in your studio)

Photo by Ryan Walsh, Featuring Tech Green Seamless Paper 53″ x 12yd

Whatever you choose, stay away from glossy or shiny materials since one of
the issues with chroma key photography is the bounce-back color from re-
flective backdrops.

6. Background stands: If you have a studio and have been using other
backgrounds, you may already own a stand to hang backdrop rolls from.
But if you don’t have a studio set up, or the money or space for
background stands, look for one of the smaller, collapsible green screens
that comes with hanging hooks or a portable stand.

7. Studio lighting: Getting the best possible contrast between your

background and your model is key for chroma key work, so you’ll need a
well-lit green screen. For outdoor shooting in brightly lit areas, you’ll
probably be fine with natural light. But for indoor shots, you’ll need
professional equipment.

8. Digital backgrounds: Here’s the fun part! Selecting a new photo back
ground for your subject. Let’s say you want the look of a studio backdrop.
You can select digital backgrounds that look just like muslin. Or if you
prefer your subject in a more natural setting, look for digital backgrounds
with trees, mountains, or waterfalls. For fun shots, there are backgrounds
of famous landmarks, or you can put your subjects in a frame with a
holiday greeting on it. The available choices seem to be endless! The
Savage Photo Creator Kit comes with an extensive image library of
3,500+ digital backgrounds to choose from!

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How to Green Screen: Steps for Completing Your First Project

Ready to get started? Here are the steps!

1) Set up your green screen background. If you’re using a portable stand,

figure out how to stabilize it so it doesn’t flap in the breeze or move around
as your model moves around.

2) Get the wrinkles out. Foam-backed screens are virtually wrinkle-free, but
more costly. If you have opted for a fabric green screen, you can get
rid of wrinkles by spraying it with water or a handheld steamer. Try to
stretch it tight as it dries to reduce the lines that may cause shadows in
your background.

3) Set up your lighting for the green screen. You need to light the screen
separately from your subject, taking care that your lighting is even and
doesn’t create shadows or hot spots. Chroma key software works best
when the background has uniform color across its surface.

4) Select your digital background for the shot you are planning.

5) Set up your lighting for your subject. Study the direction of the light in the
digital background you have selected for your new backdrop. Which
way do the shadows fall? Try to mimic this angle of lighting on your
model. Matching the intensity of light will also help make your composite
photograph look much more realistic.

6) Position your subject. Avoid shadows falling on your green screen by

putting some distance between model and screen. Experiment with your
own lighting and subject until you don’t see any dark shadows on the
backdrop. More distance from the screen will also cut down on any re
flection you might get if green light bounces off the screen. This can help
avoid an unpleasant other-worldly green glow around your model—un
less perhaps you’re going for that look.

7) Keep the model fully in front of the green screen. Any part of the body or
costume that doesn’t have the green screen background will have a dif
ferent background which the chroma key software cannot remove.
Knocking out that unwanted background on your own can be a long,
frustrating process with your photo editing software. So, keep those arms
and legs inside the screen, kids!

8) Download your image to your computer.

9) Select your photo, then follow the directions on your software.

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When are green backdrops used?

Green backdrops are used in any situation where you are intending on adding
a background (different from the one where you are when you are taking the
photos) at a later date.

Green backdrops have been used in the following situations

• Cruise ships
• Weddings
• Portraits
• On location
• When it is raining
• Films and TV
• Weather men/ women

The most quoted use of green backdrops is TV weather forecasters. Despite

the leaps in technology when you watch the weather forecast on the TV the
presenter is actually standing in front of a green screen. The weather maps
and all that good stuff is being added by the behind the scenes production
staff.

Using the Camera Raw File Format for your Digital Photos

The RAW file format is digital photography’s equivalent of a negative in film

photography: it contains untouched, “raw” pixel information straight from the
digital camera’s sensor. The RAW file format has yet to undergo demosaicing,
and so it contains just one red, green, or blue value at each pixel location. Dig-
ital cameras normally “develop” this RAW file by converting it into a full color
JPEG or TIFF image file, and then store the converted file in your memory card.
Digital cameras have to make several interpretive decisions when they devel-
op a RAW file, and so the RAW file format offers you more control over how the
final JPEG or TIFF image is generated. This section aims to illustrate the tech-
nical advantages of RAW files, and makes suggestions about when to use the
RAW file format.

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Overview

A RAW file is developed into a final JPEG or TIFF image in several steps, each
of which may contain several irreversible image adjustments. One key ad-
vantage of RAW is that it allows the photographer to postpone applying these
adjustments — giving more flexibility to the photographer to later apply these
themselves, in a way which best suits each image. The following diagram illus-
trates the sequence of adjustments:

RAW: Bayer Image

RAW Image

→ RAW: Debayerized image

Demosaicing
White Balance

→ Final Image from RAW

Tone Curves
Contrast
Color Saturation
Sharpening

→ Conversion to 8-bit and JPEG Compression

Demosaicing and white balance involve interpreting and converting the bayer
array into an image with all three colors at each pixel, and occur in the same
step. The bayer array is what makes the first image appear more pixelated
than the other two, and gives the image a greenish tint.

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Our eyes perceive differences in lightness logarithmically, and so when light

intensity quadruples we only perceive this as roughly a doubling in the amount
of light. A digital camera, on the other hand, records differences in lightness
linearly — twice the light intensity produces twice the response in the camera
sensor. This is why the first and second images above look so much darker
than the third. In order for the numbers recorded within a digital camera to be
shown as we perceive them, tone curves need to be applied (see the tutorial
on gamma correction for more on this topic).

Color saturation and contrast may also be adjusted, depending on the set-
ting within your camera. The image is then sharpened to offset the softening
caused by demosaicing, which is visible in the second image.

The high bit depth RAW image is then converted into 8-bits per channel, and
compressed into a JPEG based on the compression setting within your cam-
era. Up until this step, RAW image information most likely resided within the
digital camera’s memory buffer.

There are several advantages to performing any of the above RAW conversion
steps afterwards on a personal computer, as opposed to within a digital cam-
era. The next sections describe how using RAW files can enhance these RAW
conversion steps.

Demosaicing

Demosaicing is a very processor-intensive step, and so the best demosaic-

ing algorithms require more processing power than is practical within today’s
digital cameras. Most digital cameras therefore take quality-compromising
shortcuts to convert a RAW file into a TIFF or JPEG in a reasonable amount of
time. Performing the demosaicing step on a personal computer allows for the
best algorithms since a PC has many times more processing power than a
typical digital camera. Better algorithms can squeeze a little more out of your
camera sensor by producing more resolution, less noise, better small-scale
color accuracy and reduced moiré. Note the resolution advantage shown be-
low:

JPEG
(in-camera)

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RAW

Ideal

Images from actual camera tests with a Canon EOS 20D using an ISO 12233
resolution test chart.
Differential between RAW and JPEG resolution may vary with camera model
and conversion software.

The in-camera JPEG image is not able to resolve lines as closely spaced as
those in the RAW image. Even so, a RAW file cannot achieve the ideal lines
shown, because the process of demosaicing always introduces some soft-
ening to the image. Only sensors which capture all three colors at each pixel
location could achieve the ideal image shown at the bottom (such as Fove-
on-type sensors).

Flexible White Balance

White balance is the process of removing unrealistic color casts, so that ob-
jects which appear white in person are rendered white in your [Link]
casts within JPEG images can often be removed in post-processing, but at
the cost of bit depth and color gamut. This is because the white balance has
effectively been set twice: once in RAW conversion and then again in postpro-
cessing. RAW files give you the ability to set the white balance of a photo *af-
ter* the picture has been taken — without unnecessarily destroying bits.

High Bit Depth

Digital cameras actually record each color channel with more precision than
the 8-bits (256 levels) per channel used for JPEG images (see “Understanding
Bit Depth”). Most current cameras capture each color with 12-bits of precision
(212 = 4096 levels) per color channel, providing several times more levels than
could be achieved by using an in-camera JPEG. Higher bit depth decreases
the susceptibility to posterization, and increases your flexibility when choosing
a color space and in post-processing.

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Dynamic Range & Exposure Compensation

The RAW file format usually provides considerably more “dynamic range” than
a JPEG file, depending on how the camera creates its JPEG. Dynamic range
refers to the range of light to dark which can be captured by a camera before
becoming completely white or black, respectively. Since the raw color data
has not been converted into logarithmic values using curves (see overview
section above), the exposure of a RAW file can be adjusted slightly — after the
photo has been taken. Exposure compensation can correct for metering er-
rors, or can help bring out lost shadow or highlight detail. The following exam-
ple was taken directly into the setting sun, and shows the same RAW file with
-1 stop, 0 (no change), and +1 stop exposure compensation. Move your mouse
over each to see how exposure compensation affects the image:

Apply Exposure Compensation:

-1.0 none +1.0

Note: +1 or -1 stop refers to a doubling or halving of the light used for an expo-
sure, respectively.

A stop can also be listed in terms of eV, and so +1 stop is equivalent to +1 eV.

Note the broad range of shadow and highlight detail across the three images.
Similar results could not be achieved by merely brightening or darkening a
JPEG file — both in dynamic range and in the smoothness of tones. A graduat-
ed neutral density filter could then be used to better utilize this broad dynamic
range.

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Enhanced Sharpening

Since a RAW file is untouched, sharpening has not been applied within the
camera. Much like demosaicing, better sharpening algorithms are often far
more processor intensive. Sharpening performed on a personal computer can
thus create fewer halo artifacts for an equivalent amount of sharpening (see
“Sharpening Using an Unsharp Mask” for examples of sharpening artifacts).

Since sharpness depends on the intended viewing distance of your image,

the RAW file format also provides more control over what type and how much
sharpening is applied (given your purpose). Sharpening is usually the last
post-processing step since it cannot be undone, so having a pre-sharpened
JPEG is not optimal.

Lossless Compression

Compression:

Lossless Lossy

The RAW file format uses a lossless compression, and so it does not suffer from
the compression artifacts visible with “lossy” JPEG compression. RAW files con-
tain more information and achieve better compression than TIFF, but without
the compression artifacts of JPEG.

Note: Kodak and Nikon employ a slightly lossy RAW compression algorithm,
although any artifacts are much lower than would be perceived with a similar
JPEG image. The efficiency of RAW compression also varies with digital cam-
era manufacturer. Right image shown at 200%; lossy JPEG compression at 60%
in Adobe Photoshop “Save for Web” mode.

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Disadvantages

RAW files are much larger than similar JPEG files, and so fewer photos can fit
within the same memory card.

RAW files are more time consuming since they may require manually applying
each conversion step.

RAW files often take longer to be written to a memory card since they are larg-
er, therefore most digital cameras may not achieve the same frame rate as
with JPEG.

RAW files cannot be given to others immediately since they require specific
software to load them, therefore it may be necessary to first convert them into
JPEG.

RAW files require a more powerful computer with more temporary memory
(RAM).

Other Considerations

One problem with the RAW file format is that it is not very standardized. Each
camera has their own proprietary RAW file format, and so one program may
not be able to read all formats. Fortunately, Adobe has announced a digital
negative (DNG) specification which aims to standardize the RAW file format. In
addition, any camera which has the ability to save RAW files should come with
its own software to read them.

Good RAW conversion software can perform batch processes and often auto-
mates all conversion steps except those which you choose to modify. This can
mitigate or even eliminate the ease of use advantage of JPEG files.

Many newer cameras can save both RAW and JPEG images simultaneously.
This provides you with an immediate final image, but retains the RAW “nega-
tive” just in case more flexibility is desired later.

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