Cosmetic Surgery with The Spot Healing Brush

This Photoshop tutorial will show how to remove small glare spots, scratches, fuzz, cat hairs, and other boo boos (think of this as the 'cosmetic surgery' of Photoshop).

final edited image at left, Cuppa Black, 10" x 10"

First, a nice compliment: Here's a really great quote (Thanks Doug!) from the very fine painter Doug Hoover:
"R. I just wanted to tell you, as a 20 year recovering creative veteran, your Photoshop posts are spot-on. You know your PSD stuff. For a full-time artist, I think Photoshop is invaluable. And the only way to get good at this is to do it over and over. I started using Photoshop in 1995 and haven't looked back... You rock... D.

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So, onto to today's tutorial:

Repairing small glare spots, scratches, fuzz, and other boo boos with the Spot Healing Brush.

First, I've opened the usual set of two matching images, and then used the Zoom Tool to magnify what I want to correct: primarily the cat hair (how'd that get in there??). To use the Zoom tool, click on the icon in the bottom of the side tool box that looks like a tiny magnifying glass. Holding down your Ctrl Key, (Cmmd for Mac users), click on + to enlarge, and - to reduce. (that's the 'plus' and minus' keys respectively.

Photoshop (CS2 and up) has a great little tool called the Spot Healing Brush; it is located on the main toolbox and the icon looks like a little bandaid. For small repairs on photos you can't beat this tool.


The Spot Healing Tool is very easy to use. Click on the tool, and then set the size as needed in the toolbar above: click on 'Brush' and a drop down palette will let you size the tool. To use the tool to take away dust motes, tiny raised spots that caught the light, etc., simply click on the offending spot. It will automatically blend into the surrounding area.


For scratches or hairs on a straight line, click on one end of the line (the circle below indicated that starting point of the tool); then hold hold the shift key, and click again. The whole line should correct. If you get color crossover, undo the step (Ctrl+Z) and do in shorter segments.

Below is the corrected photo (on the left) line gone!

Reducing the appearance of glare in dark areas with Contrast/Brightness

(Final edited image: Parrot Tulips, R. Garriott, oil, 24"x24")

The best way to avoid having to deal with glare in photo editing is to avoid it when photographing. Try some of the photo suggestions posted here to eliminate or reduce this issue.

Occasionally, though, you'll be in a hurry, photograph without checking, the painting goes out the door, gets sold... and the only record you have is a photo with glare-- as in this sample in the tutorial below. For those instances, here's a method that might help minimize the effect of glare a bit.

The Magic Wand Tool

With the Magic Wand tool, select the areas of glare that are most noticeable. (As in past tutorials, I've included a second 'control' image to the right, to help show the change.) In this case, it's the upper and left background. Select 'contiguous' on the upper toolbar to select only pixels that touch each other (otherwise it will select pixels all over the image). You can adjust the tolerance as needed; 32 is the default, it is set at 20 here. You'll see a dotted line around the area as you select it. To select more area at the same time, hold down your shift key while continuing to click on areas with the Magic Wand.

In the top toolbar, choose Image/Image Adjustment/Brightness-contrast. To darken, move the brightness pointer to the left. In this case I've reduced the brightness by -14. This allows the background to blend in with the dark areas at bottom and left with no noticeable line.

Release the selected area, and you'll have your result. If you get a 'line' or the fix doesn't blend in smoothly, undo (Ctrl+Z), try again, and adjust your increments.

If the glare covers a large portion and is noticeable over areas of light and dark, I would suggest rephotographing as a first step.

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Here's one more little tip that may help you-- when you use the Magic Wand in an image with mixed shades, it may not pick up all the pixels in an area. So while holding down the Shift Key, click the Magic Wand a few times, moving around to pick up more pixels, and then if you need to pick up strays, switch to the 'Lasso' tool (while still holding down the Shift key)-- it's right next to the Magic Wand. Move your mouse in a loop around the stray pixels, and then make your adjustment with Brightness/Contrast or Levels.

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I hope you find this tip useful! Happy photo editing!

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Using Templates to Set Up Business cards, postcards, and other printed materials

Ordering business cards, postcards, and other printed promotional material for promoting your art is easy and cost effective. For ideas on printing companies to try, see the earlier post on Affordable Business Cards. Most of the information you need is available on any of these print sites. Look for the terms:

• Download Template
• Artwork specifications
• Preparing Artwork files

Tips for setting up your own invitational postcard.
Note: virtually the same method applies for business cards, with the exception of the mailing information.

1. DOWNLOAD A TEMPLATE
   When setting up digital files, check with your chosen printing company for Templates; they will almost always be available for download on the website, often under the term: Artwork Specifications.
   
   Here's a sample view of a VistaPrint.com template for a standard size postcard, front. all vital information should be well within the Safe Margin (blue outline)
   
   ...and here's the template for the back of the postcard. Note that it takes postal regulations into account.
   
   
   
2. SAVE THE TEMPLATE TO A NEW NAME
   such as, 'mypostcard2009.psd'
   
3. EDIT AND SAVE YOUR PHOTO IMAGE
   in a separate document, save the photo of your artwork you'd like to use on your card. You'll want to use 300 dpi, with a color mode of CMYK.
   For best results, make this image the same dimensions as it will print on the final card. See other tutorials on this blog if if you need more information.
   If you want the image to cover the entire card, be aware that some of your image will be cropped off.
   
4. COPY AND PASTE YOUR FINAL PHOTO IMAGE
   Add your photo to the downloaded template.
   
5. ADD TYPE TO YOUR LAYOUT
   Making sure again that your file is 300 dpi (from the top toolbar, click on image/image size; look for the the number in the 'resolution' box); add type using the Type tool in Photoshop (It looks like a capital 'T').
   
6. CHECK YOUR TRIM AND SAFE MARGINS
   Make sure you don't have any type or important parts of your image outside these lines or they may get cut off.
   
7. DELETE THE ORIGINAL TEMPLATE LAYER
   If you leave this layer in, it may get printed. Oops!
   
8. SAVE THE FINALIZED FILE
   You may find it useful to save a copy as a .PDF; this is a smaller file but is accepted by most printing companies.
   
9. UPLOAD THE FILE
   After you complete both the front and back files, you should be ready to upload your file for ordering. Follow the online directions at the printing company of your choice.

I realize this is kind of a loose overview; please let me know if you think more detail would be useful. As I said, most of this information is available at each printing site, along with their own specific directions.

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Editing Photos for Print: When to Convert to CMYK?

Thank you for the great comments and suggestions on my posts about printing your own Artist Business Cards on my painting blog. I hope that some of you will be inspired to have cards printed (and I would love to see your results!).

Loredana asked a really great question this week: "When you work on your photos to correct levels or balancing or anything else, do you work on RGB and after you modify it, you switch to CMYK to print?; or you switch to CMYK directly and you modify it later? I noticed a big difference from one to another when I watch the folder's preview and find the CMYK quite uncomfortable to watch!"

The simple answer (with a few extra details):

For Print:

• Start with RGB, and do all or most of your editing in RGB.
  RGB is the native format for most digital files.
  Some editing procedures are not available in CMYK.


• Convert to CMYK as the last step only if the file is being sent to a print house.


• If you are printing from your home or office printer, you can use RGB or CMYK. Try both and see which you prefer.

For Internet images (blogs and websites):

• Images to be used only for onscreen viewing (websites, blogs) should NEVER be converted to CMYK.

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For a more thorough explanation of CMYK vs. RGB try this link:
http://www.printernational.org/rgb-versus-cmyk.php

(You may want to review the earlier post on File Types, too.)
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Color Balance: Removing unwanted color cast in your images

What follows is a repost of one of the most popular tips in this series thus far.
(final edited photo below: 3 Tangerines, oil, 9" x 12")

So, you've tried the Levels and maybe the Hue/Saturation tricks, but your image is still not quite there: maybe you've got a decidely 'cool' or 'warm' cast that is not present in the actual artwork. This is where Color Balance can be of use. I tend to use this one near the end of the editing process, as it seems more subtle to me. This is the tool for when your values are right, your contrast is correct, but the color is just a little off.

The image below has been edited for contrast and levels already; it does have a bit of a 'milky' look in real life, but the red of that tablecloth is off.

To open the color Balance dialog box, click Cntrl+B (Cmnd+B for Mac users, or Image/Adjustments/Color Balance in the top toolbar). As in previous tips, I've used a 'control' image duplicate on the left so you can see the change.

Starting with the Midtones, move the sliders to add more color as needed; like many of the Photoshop tools, you will need to trust your eyes and experiment. It's also very handy to have the artwork right where you can see it as you make these adjustments.

In this case I could see that the tablecloth photo had too much purple (blue) in it, and needed to be more red. (I had painted it with a warm red earth, Blockx Capucine Yellow Deep.) The sliders were moved toward red and yellow, respectively.

In a separate step, I adjusted the 'highlight' colors, again choosing to move toward red and yellow, but also a bit toward green. (Another mini tip: For each adjustment you make, copy the previous layer and adjust on the new layer. Then if you really get lost, you can back up).

As a final step, I adjusted the Shadows, this time moving toward Magenta and Blue. This step was more logical than intuitive; shadows are often cooler shades. This is so close to original painting, I've amazed even myself.

Hue: How to Correct Color with the Hue/Saturation Command

Just to show that the pros don't always get it right, either! I took this painting to a professional photo lab and paid to have a good image of it put on CD. I have to admit I was dismayed when I got it back-- my lovely chartreuse dahlia (seen at left in the final edited image: Sunny Mandahlia, 30"x30") was now leaning seriously into orange-- (see below)!
(I have the feeling that digital cameras are programmed to shoot a full spectrum of color; when given a monochromatic image, it 'confuses' the interface and it tries to make up the difference, with sometimes odd results.)

Using Hue to edit and refine your artwork photos.
In the sample below, I've opened the original file and made a duplicate layer to edit on, as before. For the purpose of the tutorial, I've made a second 'control' image to help show the changes in progress.

To begin, click Ctrl + U (Cmnd+U for Mac users, or Image/Adjustments/Hue-Saturation on the top toolbar. This will bring up the Hue Saturation dialog box.


For this image, which I want to be less red and more green, I've moved the Hue slider to the right. Notice it doesn't take much; I've only gone from 0 to 10.

Note that the Hue adjustment method tends to work better on predominantly monochromatic images like this one; if your artwork encompasses more than a short range of color you may get some surprisingly interesting (if not useful) results.


Originally when I set this tutorial up, it was to show how to correct the color shift using the Green and Red Channels in Levels. While this can be done, I found that in this instance, using Hue was much more expedient. I'll revisit the issue of color adjustment with Levels at a later date, with a different image.

Levels Part 2: Correcting a Black and White Image with Set Point in Levels or Curves.

In Photoshop, there are often different ways to accomplish similar goals.

In this tutorial, I've referenced the 'Levels ' function, but you can also try this with 'Curves'. And in addition to working on black and white images, either of these tools may help in editing your color images as well.

When you are in Levels (or in Curves), you can use the eyedroppers in the lower right corner of the box to set your black and your white. Just click on the "white" eyedropper, and then click on a place in your photograph that you know is white... then do the same thing with black... and it virtually color-corrects for you.

Diagram A.

Here's the step by step: I've opened the original dark file (as you can see, the same funky sketch from last time), and made a copy of it for on screen comparision.

To begin, Click on Ctrl + L (Cmnd+L for Mac) or from the top toolbar, Image Adjustments/Levels to bring up the Levels dialog box. (for Curves, substitute + M; the dialog box will look different but the eyedropeers will be in the same position.)

Note the eyedroppers in the lower right hand corner as shown in Diagram A above. Click on the farthest right one, the 'Set white Point' dropper. Choose an area on your image that you know to be (in life) true white (in this case I clicked on the lower lefthand background), and click on that area with the dropper. Voila!

If the image didn't turn out quite how you wanted, click Ctrl + Z for undo, and try the step again with another 'white' area of the image. (Notice the middle graph, called a Histogram, and how it changes in these steps. The histogram measures the relativve amount of light and dark across your image).

As Carrie pointed out, do the step again using the left hand dropper to set your black point; I've done it here, using the shadow under the babushka's lower lip.

Big Thanks to Carrie Jacobson who emailed me her photographer-husband's Photoshop Tip --

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