Photoshop

Automated Image Correction

June 22, 2018 by A. Cemal Ekin

Many image editors offer a button “Auto” to quickly adjust your photographs, but most of them generally fail and grossly misadjust the image. The latest version of Lightroom does a pretty good job, but I want to introduce a new piece of software in case you have not heard about it. Automated image correction by PhotoLemur yields surprisingly good results most of the time. I will also mention a few things to watch out for, but it is certainly worth downloading to experience first hand.

The software is small and its user interface is extremely sparse which is a good thing! There is nothing tempting to push or pull except the control slider that lets the user reduce the amount of correction applied. They claim the software uses artificial intelligence to analyze the image content, the time of the day it was taken, and other parameters and decides on the corrections. A “Before/After” slider allows for instant comparison and in case you find the adjustment a little too much there is a slider that will control that. The three images below show you how this one and only adjustment works.

PhotoLemur can handle the images in several different ways:

Drag and drop from Windows Explorer, single or multiple files
Open using its own interface which is called “Import”
Send files from Lightroom or Photoshop using the plugins that come with it

Try PhotoLemur For the First Time

You can either export the image you processed or send it back to where it came from, Lightroom or Photoshop. If you have not tried automated image correction PhotoLemur, I strongly suggest you download the free version and see it for yourself. I suggest you simply drag and drop a file from Windows Explorer (or File Explorer on a Mac I think) to see how fast it works and how good a job it does. It can handle, raw, JPEG, TIFF, PSD, … format files. So try a few different formats just for the heck of it!

After processing the first image, simply click on the X to close it and say you want to start again, then drag another image. This will give you a good idea of automated image correction by PhotoLemur and how well it seems to work. If you like the result you see, you can export the image in a myriad of formats with a selection of settings. You can open more than one image using any of the methods, drag and drop, Lightroom or Photoshop plugin, import using PhotoLemur interface. See the image on the right where I opened four files from Lightroom.

Install the Lightroom and Photoshop Plugins

On top of the PhotoLemur window, you will see its brand name and a drop-down menu indicator. Click on that to reveal the menu and click on Install Plugins. The Lightroom plugin will install without a fuss but Photoshop plugin installation will inform you that it will restart the program running it as an Administrator and then continue. Let it do its thing, it is quick and painless.

Lightroom Plugin

After the plugin installations, start, or restart Lightroom. In the grid view, pick an image in any format you see that you would like to edit. Right-click on the image and look for the options for PhotoLemur. You can either send the original image to PhotoLemur ignoring all the edits you may have done in Lightroom or send a TIFF file including all your Lightroom adjustments. When the automated image correction is finished, click on the button Done and it will send it back to Lightroom which you will see next to the file you started with.

Here are some caveats, I reported one of these during the beta testing period but it has not yet been fixed.

The exported TIFF file will be in ProPhoto RGB color space but in an 8-bit file format which is woefully inadequate to handle this colorspace. I hope they fix this either by giving the user some settings to choose it from or do it automatically in 16-bit file format. Still, you can do some more work on it so long as you do not expect to get the full resiliency of a 16-bit file in ProPhoto RGB color space.
Another anomaly is with a raw file round trip to PhotoLemur. The automated image correction by PhotoLemur returns the file back to Lightroom again in 8-bit format and retains Lightroom’s internal color space, Melissa! The color space is not a problem if you will use the file in Lightroom, but if you open it in another editing software you may get inaccurate color. Also, the 8-bit file format is not suitable for Melissa color space which is a variant of ProPhoto color space with a very rich color gamut. Interestingly, if the images are dropped on PhotoLemur or imported, there is an option to set the bit-depth and color space in different formats. The round trip from Lightroom must use 16-bit ProPhoto RGB files for better workflow.
PhotoLemur UI does not seem to be color-managed and on wide gamut displays, the colors may look far more exaggerated than they will look in Lightroom. I have reported this matter, let’s see if they receive it and fix the problem.
PhotoLemur applies lens corrections which is not a bad thing. But be aware that what you see in Lightroom and its PhotoLemur edited version of a raw file may slightly differ. See the sample comparison files.

[On 6/27/2018 I received an e-mail from PhotoLemur support with responses and questions. Their responses, on issue 1: We’ll fix it on our next update, the original format will be preserved. On issue 2: I reported this issue to our developers. We’ll consider changing that in future. And they had questions on issue 3 and 4; I provided further details with screen captures.]

[On 6/29/2018 I received an e-mail from PhotoLemur support in response to issues 3 and 4. Regarding issue 3: The issue with the preview image being different will be fixed soon. Issue 4: Regarding the lens correction, different software companies use different algorithms to correct lens distortion, that’s why the result may be different. We’ll test Photolemur and Lightroom results to see what we can do. Thank you PhotoLemur development team.]

Photoshop Plugin

Photoshop plugin works a little more smoothly, thanks to the support team fixing the problems that created problems. In order for the plugin to start and complete the round trip to PhotoLemur, it needs a pixel-based layer. If you have an adjustment layer like Curves targeted, the round trip will start but there will be no content to work on. In that case, click on the X to close PhotoLemur and start over.

You can optionally make a copy of the pixel-layer and convert this new layer to a Smart Object before sending it to PhotoLemur. This will give you the option to relaunch it to tweak the adjustment a little if you like.

Things to Remember

While automated image correction by PhotoLemur generally works well, I have observed the following:

It loves skies! You may like what may emerge from a faint sky with no processing artifacts. Keep in mind that it tends to slightly oversaturate the skies for my taste. And, if you send a photograph of just the sky, it can royally botch it up!
Foliage is the other thing it loves and does a good job handling it unless you have some very bright foliage areas
It treats skin tones gently but may unduly increase the contrast on facial features, but you can use the slider adjustment to tame that to some extent.

Now the best part! PhotoLemur is very affordable. A single user license is $35 while a five-user family license is $49. Recently, PhotoLemur was merged with Skylum Software, makers of Luminar. I suspect some automated image correction by PhotoLemur features will eventually enter Luminar.

Enjoy. But remember, the result will reflect how automated processing handles the work which does not necessarily reflect your vision. This software may be a starting point for further editing or a quick way of handling a bunch of snapshots. When you look at the samples below note the differences between my edits and what PhotoLemur does. They range from subtle to very substantial because the automation software does not have a “vision” just pixel-to-pixel analysis. Make sure not to abandon your vision!

Below are some sample photographs. You will see a PhotoLemur processed version and, either my edits, or the original, or both. The original raw files are exported from Lightroom with no edits except for cropping or perspective correction for easy comparison.

What Is A Commissioned Project?

June 11, 2018 by A. Cemal Ekin

About a week ago I wrote a post, What Is A Project, which focused mainly on personal projects. But, I have had other kinds, commissioned projects by clients. We need to treat them quite differently from personal projects. Instead of having an idea and exploring whether it may work, in commissioned projects we need to focus on ideas that will work to satisfy the needs of the client.

Many years ago, I photographed on assignment for annual reports, print advertising, even billboards. Later, I got assignments for product photography to be used on clients’ websites, magazine ads, brochures, etc. These projects, although still require the photographer’s creative vision, must serve the needs of the client by communicating their intended message and must be suitable for the medium in which they will be used. Here are some questions to discuss with the client before undertaking an assignment.

What is the scope of the project?

It is important to understand whether there will be a few products to be photographed or dozens, even more. I did a considerable amount of work for a watch importer photographing watches to be presented on his Web catalog and photographed watches to be used in magazine ads. The catalog photographs were simpler as they all presented in a similar way, clear, crisp, detailed, face on. Where photographs for magazine ads needed to convey a style, an attitude, an implicit or explicit message. Some assignments even required that I completed the magazine page layout. Knowing the scope helped me to pace myself and make sure I did not miss any deadlines.

Are there special product requirements?

There may even be special product requirements in the photographs. For instance, I had no idea that the analog watches had to be photographed ten-passed-ten and stopped by pulling out the crown. In post-production, the crown is put in its natural position. This makes sure that the photographer can take all day if necessary adjusting the lights, props, etc. without worrying about the hands on the watch covering the logo or other important parts. This lesson cost me probably 5-6 hours of work at the beginning with nothing more than a mistake to show for it! I had to shoot them all again. Oh, also, watches have reflective surfaces at varying angles. Watch out!

This may be an issue in food photography as well. While we try to present an appetizing view we must not deceive the viewer, there are dos and don’ts in food photography and a little carelessness can bring a lot of grief to you and your client. It was in the old days when they used mashed potato for ice cream because it did not melt! Find out how Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold became a chef and a food photographer and learn from one of the best!

How will the photograph be used?

The requirements for a photograph for a website are significantly different from photographing for print, either photographic print or offset print. The range of brightness that print can accommodate is a good deal less than what we can show on the screen. The photographs need to be dimensionally larger and must conform to a particular line per inch the printing process can handle. We sharpen these images differently to the images we print on our own ink-jet printers. If in doubt, deliver unsharpened images for output. Keep also in mind that the permissions for use and fees for different photographs will also be different.

What is the product image to be conveyed?

For my watch importing client, some watches had to convey a “black tie” elegance, whereas others a more adventurer style. The brand images were quite different. For another client, a restaurant owner couple who built their building from the ground up, the architectural detail and style were as important as how delicious the food looked. I photographed the interior of a child care center to present it as a caring environment for the little children and I had to even know which kids could be in the photographs based on the parents’ consent.

What is the budget?

Clearly, your clients will not tip-off their hands before you give them a proposal but it is a good idea to get an idea of how much they may be willing to spend. Your time, travel, additional equipment, and props, even models necessary can affect the final cost. It is important to be able to work within the budget of the client or not get the project at all.

What is the time frame?

Working on a deadline is very different from working for your own art. The latter may take years and you may not mind that at all. But, your client will most likely have a deadline to meet. Be realistic on how long it may take to complete the assignment and then add some safety buffer on top. If you cannot meet the deadline, don’t fool yourself and the client by taking on the assignment.

What are the deliverables?

This question may not get sufficient attention which may cause unnecessary ill will. Clearly tell the client what you will deliver to satisfy their needs. It may be presenting a half-dozen photographs for them to consider and deliver 2 images of their choice for use both on the Internet and also printed brochures. Be very clear on what they should expect. Some assignments may have a chargeable time component with no requirement for the client to buy any of the images. You need to clearly articulate them in the proposal that you and the client sign before you click the shutter.

Conclusion

While you can choose any idea or subject for a personal project, commissioned projects have a different agenda set by the client. The photographic engagement, enjoyment, and creativity can still be very satisfying in a different way. And, working under some time pressure, some stress may tickle the creative cells in the brain too. But don’t set unrealistic expectations for yourself and make similar promises to your client. I usually present the deliverables ahead of time because of sufficient buffer time I build into my time commitments. Being early delights the clients, being late annoys them. Take your pick.

On setting the bottom line of your work, don’t shortchange yourself. Inquire about, do research on the going rates for certain types of work. Equally important is what you deliver the client, a set of photographs they can use any way they want or for specific uses a given number of times. Of course, I will be glad to deliver the images for the client to use however they want so long as they are willing me to pay for that privilege. But again, this is not my livelihood!

Sample work

Below are some photographs from a couple of my assignments. I photographed many watches for Roger Bartley over the course of 6-8 years for various purposes. Roger passed away in 2010 but his memory still ticking in the watches I wear. The restaurant project was in 2004 as they were getting ready for a website launch and a promotional campaign.

I tried to add titles that refer to what I mentioned in the text when appropriate. If you like, share your experiences and points I might have overlooked to make the post more complete. Most of these photographs predate Lightroom and I processed them in Photoshop. This is partly a matter of timing and mainly due to the fact that Lightroom even today cannot handle at least some of the editing. Pushing the crowns of the watches is one such edit, so is taking a catalog photograph and creating a multi-layered representation of time as you will see in the Epos 8 Days watch photograph, not to mention creating a full page layout for a magazine ad. These are still beyond the capability of Lightroom.

The GNT Watches Collection (c 2003-2008)

Bay Leaves Restaurant Collection (2004)

Infrared Channel Swapping in Lightroom

April 13, 2018 by A. Cemal Ekin

Lightroom has had some weaknesses when it came to processing infrared images like channel swap and white balance. The primary problem has been and continues to be the range of white balance options not being wide enough into the blue end of the slider. That has had a fix for quite some time which I will quickly outline here for completeness. The second shortcoming, although not an issue for me, is the inability to swap the red and the blue channels which results in blueish skies and yellowish foliage. That had to be done in Photoshop, until the latest release of Lightroom.

The stacked images you see in the opening of this article are all done in Lightroom, including the one that has the blue sky. That is the result of the newly added capability to Adobe Camera Raw to create extensive and flexible camera profiles that can also optionally make use of the Lookup Tables (LUT.) It is this newly acquired capability allowed me to create a camera profile for my infrared-modified Canon M5 that allows me to swap the red and the blue channels without constantly going to Photoshop and retaining the workflow completely nondestructive because there is no need to open a pixel version of the image in Photoshop. Interested? Read on! Although the content may conceptually sound geeky, procedurally it is a breeze to follow, don’t let the jargon fool you. The steps are very easy to follow.

A Camera Profile for Better White Balance Control

Although the following part can be done without this first step, going through this simple procedure will give you much better control on the white balance of your IR images. Even if you create a custom white balance in camera by photographing green grass or foliage, the white balance sliders in Lightroom do not have the range of adjustment to display that or even tweak further. Follow these steps with no thinking, at least initially:

Take a photograph of a grassy patch or green foliage of a plant with good coverage
Using your camera controls, set this image to be used for Custom White Balance
Take a few photographs showing some foliage and other subjects
Download Adobe DNG Profile Editor from their site, Mac, and Windows versions, even a short tutorial available there. It is an oldie but goodie! We are interested in doing one thing here, extending the range of the Color slider in Lightroom, nothing else
If you have not yet done it yet, in Lightroom, select the image you want to use for this purpose and export it to DNG, note the file location on your drive.
Open the IR photograph you prepared in step 5 from your camera in the DNG Profile Editor, any photo you took in step 3 will do. Depending on your camera brand and the white balance settings you will see something similar but not exactly identical to what I show in the images below.
Look for a tab on the top right “Color Matrices” and click on it to show the sliders
Move the “White Balance Calibration” Temperature slider down to -100 (Note: My original instructions indicated to move the Blue Primary Saturation slider to -100 and I did my work that way. However, for some reason, that does not work anymore! Sorry for the confusion I might have created. The profiles I created at the time of writing the original article look and work differently from the one I created in this “corrected” process. I will further study what might have changed and will update the post accordingly.)
Click on the “Options” tab and write a descriptive name for this profile
Now, click on File/Export and export this profile to a known folder
Close the DNG Profile Editor
Open the File Explorer and go to the folder where you saved the new profile and highlight it by clicking on it once
Press Ctrl-C to copy it to the clipboard
Navigate to C:\Users\<your name>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles
Press Ctrl-V to paste the file into this folder
Restart Lightroom

Now in Lightroom, navigate to one of your IR images taken in step 3. How it will look is anybody’s guess, but navigate to the Profile Browser in its new location of the Basic Panel. You should see under the “Profiles” group, the new profile you created similar to my screen capture shows. You will see in my screen capture other profiles, stay tuned for those. Click on the new profile you created and then on “Close” to exit the profile browser. You should now see a very usable set of white balance sliders most likely showing “As Shot” setting. The following images should help following the steps above:

Up to this point, we have converted the unusable white balance sliders to fully functional ones that reflect the camera settings. Now, let us see how we can do the red-blue channel swap. I will not go too much into creating and using camera profiles in Lightroom and ACR as plenty have been written on the subject. I will mainly focus on one specific profile creation that will bring the ability to swap the Red and the Blue channels to achieve results like the ones below. All three images are direct export from Lightroom virtual copies of the same raw file.

Color Lookup Tables (LUT)

The idea of using LUTs for various purposes has been around from monitor profile and calibration to applying particular looks to video files. A LUT consists of a series of color values that link the measured to desired with the necessary adjustment so that they look as desired. It is a color mapping process. The new profiling capabilities in Adobe Camera Raw along with the ability to export a series of adjustments in Photoshop as Color Lookup Tables give us the ability to apply a set of adjustments once in the exclusive domain of Photoshop to the images in Lightroom. Although I will focus on processing infrared images, the same concept can be used to create profiles for other purposes as well.

Let us create first the necessary lookup table in Photoshop. For this purpose, I used three different images with no visible difference in the exported LUT, a regular color photograph, an infrared photograph, a file with a simple black background. Photoshop seems to be exporting the changes contained in the adjustment layers rather than any image content which probably makes sense. That said, for the purpose of visual consistency, I will use the same infrared image shown above as my base image, either raw or any other format.

Open the image you want to use for this purpose in Photoshop
Add a Channel Mixer adjustment layer
Select the Red channel, lower the Red value to zero and increase the Blue value to +100
Select the Blue channel, lower the Blue value to zero and increase the Red value to +100
You should now see the image with the altered colors
Now go to File/Export/Color Lookup Tables
Add a description, optionally add a copyright notice, leave other options as you see in the screen capture
Click to save and give it a descriptive name in a folder you can easily locate. Congratulations you now have the Channel Swap LUT ready to use
Open the raw image in Adobe Camera Raw by noting the file name and directly opening it from Photoshop rather than sending it from Lightroom. This will launch ACR and load the raw image
Click on the Presets tab at the top, and while holding the Alt key, click on the New Profile icon (next to the trash can, be careful) at the bottom
In the pop-up dialog window, give the profile a name, leave the default location as User Profiles, and put a checkmark in the box next to Color Lookup Table in the bottom block
Navigate to the folder where you saved the LUT in step #8 and load that file
Click OK to save the profile, it is now ready to use instantly in ACR
Load Lightroom and find the raw file you have been working with
In the Basic Panel, click on Profile Navigator, scroll down to see User Profiles, locate the new profile
As you move your cursor over the profile preview thumbnail you will see your image assuming that look. Now, click on that thumbnail to apply the profile.
You are now working with the image with its Red and Blue channels swapped. Adjust to taste.

Here are the sequential screen captures that correspond to the steps in this section for reference.

Additional Notes

I have experimented with several options and would like to share my conclusions. You may or may not agree with them, but they may point you in some additional directions to try different settings.

In creating the initial camera profile using the DNG Profile editor, the recommended setting for the Blue Primary saturation is -100 in many articles I have read. I did try other values, -50 and -75 and have seen subtle differences. Simply create three different DCP profiles and see how they behave in Lightroom for your taste. The only cost is the few extra minutes of saving them.
Read the DNG Profile Editor tutorial, it has many other paths to follow for different and even better results in your IR camera profiles. There is a very short segment about this in the manual/tutorial.
The creation of a Color Lookup Table in Photoshop will accommodate multiple adjustment layers and their impact on the image. I thought it might be a good idea to add a curves adjustment layer and apply different levels of contrast on top of the Channel Mixer. I found this to be helpful with moderate and strong contrast curves for quick results.
Additional settings may be applied in the ACR to be saved as part of the same profile such as pulling all the saturation sliders in the HSL panel to -100 to save time in Lightroom to convert the image to B&W. I found this to be a little confusing because all the sliders will remain in the middle but there will be no saturation. To regain the saturation they need to be pushed to +100 essentially shortening the slider travel distance. Sliders remaining unmoved in Lightroom may be of benefit for some sliders but not all, at least not for me.
If you apply the Channel Swap profile and then want to adjust the darkness of the sky or other color channels, remember they are no longer where they were before. To darken the sky you will most likely use the Red, Orange, and Yellow sliders. Likewise, the foliage may be found in the Blue, Purple, or Magenta.

Summary

The new Lightroom and ACR updates provide additional capabilities in creating and using camera profiles. The few simple features explored in the article will be welcome by most infrared photography fans. The following photograph is a panoramic stitch done in Lightroom and then adjusted using the processes outlined above without opening it in Photoshop.

Add Title and Caption Metadata to JPEG Files

April 14, 2016 by A. Cemal Ekin

Embedded metadata in image files is not limited to EXIF recorded by the camera. You can, and more often than you think, you should embed simple information like your name, copyright notice, the title of the image and the caption. Depending on the operating system and the photo editing software you use there are simple ways of doing this. Before going any further, I should make it clear that I will mainly talk about what I know, Windows, Lightroom, Photoshop, although I am sure there are counterparts in Mac OS and Mac-specific software.

Add Your Copyright in Lightroom

You can and should do this every time you import new images. The process is easier if you first create a preset and then apply that preset to all your imports. Take a look at the Metadata panel below. You will see my name, copyright notice, and the image is “Copyrighted.” Although I can enter this information one file at a time it will clearly be very tedious. Now, note the field next to the red dot at the top, “Preset.” You do this once, click on that drop-down, choose “Edit Presets,” and locate the fields shown in the Create/Edit Presets pop-up. After you fill in the field contents, substitute your information for those I have blurred, save this preset with a name. You can now select this metadata preset during your import to embed this information into every image Lightroom catalogs.

Lightroom Metadata Panel — Metadata Panel

Lightroom Metadata Presets — Metadata Presets

Enter Title and Caption in Lightroom

This is the easy part, in the same metadata panel you see above, there are two fields, Title and Caption. Whatever you want them to be, simply enter them one field and one image at a time. Here is a parenthetical note for NextGEN Gallery users like me as a plugin for WordPress. When the images are uploaded NextGEN uses these fields into the same fields in the gallery. Depending on the image viewing plugin that may be in use and from which field it may read to display along with the image one of these fields will show up. To be on the safe side, I enter the same information into both fields, so no matter which one is picked it will display the correct title.

Enter Title and Caption in Photoshop

If you edit your image in Photoshop, you can still enter the title and caption using the File Info panel. From the menu, select File/File Info, and you will see the multi-panel pop-up. If it is not showing, you may need to flip through the panels using the arrows at the top, including a drop-down selector. You want to see the panel “Description.” There you will see the fields to fill, Title and Description (Caption). In the image, they show the text I entered for this image in Lightroom. I included the field label in my text to show what they are. Enter the information you need, and while you are at it, you can also add the copyright information on this panel as well.

Enter Title and Caption In Windows File Manager

If you do not use Lightroom or Photoshop, your software may also allow entering various metadata including a title and a caption. But, there may be times when you may not have access to any of the tools, but the commonly available File Manager in Windows can do the same. Find the file you want to annotate, and right-click on the file name. From the pop-up menu, select “Properties” and click on “Details” to see the window below. There, you can enter the title and caption information as well as a copyright note and your name in the Author field.

Other Software

Adobe Photoshop Elements, EXIFTool and EXIFToolGUI, Breeze Browser, and quite possibly other image handling software are capable of adding the needed metadata to your files, especially those you show on the Internet and possibly those you may enter in competitions. Adding copyright information to all your images is also an excellent idea. If it is there, nobody can claim ignorance. Although not all image handling software may support writing metadata, more of them, even Windows Explorer can read the copyright notice.

What to Write Into These Fields

Your copyright information needs to contain the information that the image is copyrighted, and the kind of use, if any, may be allowed. My statement reads “May not be used for any purpose without prior written permission.” You also need to include some form of contact information for interested users to contact you.

What about the title and caption fields? That is to a great extent your decision. A title may add a lot to a photograph but it is not a panacea. If you submit photographs to competitions, they may place the winning photographs in image galleries where your title or caption may display. In all likelihood, the competition organizer will indicate what else you may enter and how many characters these fields may include. May I suggest a template like below for this purpose:

Title (50 characters or less) – First Name MI Last Name – Date

Hagia Sophia Narthex – A. Cemal Ekin – 2009

This is not the file name, so there should be no concern over periods being present in the title.

Now, get going! Title those images, even if it is for titling sake. Who knows when that will be necessary.

Your Display Profile May Be Wrong

March 24, 2016 by A. Cemal Ekin

How is that for a bold statement! But it may very well be true, even if you do it regularly on schedule. Display calibration and profiling is a must for all digital photographers. There is no escaping that if you want to produce an accurate representation of your work not only on your monitor but on the Internet, in competitions, on your friends’ monitors, mobile devices, and so on. Clearly, you cannot control the quality of the displays in front of the millions of users all over the world. But you can do your best and provide accurate information. This becomes particularly important and immediately visible if you print your work, yourself or printed at a lab.

Monitor Calibration

There are many devices in the market, presumably all capable of bringing the colors on your monitor where they are supposed to be. I have been using a calibration device for 18-20 years, starting with Monaco Optix XR, then a ColorMunki Photo, finally an i1Display Pro. They are all in the X-Rite products stable. There are other models and other brands, the prices have come down considerably and there is no excuse for not using one anymore. They all come with their drivers and calibration software which, in a layperson language, display a series of known color values and reads the displayed value. If they differ, the software creates a profile, something like a lookup table, that makes the corrections on the fly. This part is familiar to everyone.

Luminance Setting for Screen

One of the adjustments, in fact, one of the critical choices in this process is the luminance level of the monitor. This is worth looking for in a calibration device before picking one up, make sure it allows different luminance levels for the monitor. If you use a calibration device and do not see this in the interface, try first switching to “Advanced” mode even though this could be a little more involved process. The screen luminance is measured in candela per meter squared (cd/m²). When you find a drop-down selector with this unit next to it, you have found a critical piece of adjustment in your calibration process.

The question is what is the right level of monitor luminance? The definitive answer is: It depends. Depends on your environment, how bright a room you work in, whether there are windows in your view or behind you, the wall colors, etc. I have a post discussing your digital work environment that is worth a look. If your monitor luminance is too bright, a properly exposed image will look too bright and you will make it darker to look correct on the screen. This will make your image project darker in competitions, and produce darker prints. The opposite is also true. If your monitor is too dark, a normally exposed image will look too dark and you will brighten it, resulting in too bright a projection in the competition or lighter than normal prints will result.

Print Viewing Light is Essential Equipment

This adjustment will take a little empirical effort to get it under control. First, make sure that your environment is as controlled as you can make it, shade the windows, use monitor hoods, etc. Then, this is also very critical and often ignored, get yourself a proper viewing light for your prints. There are lights color experts swear by, Solux is one of them. If you are handy you can build a print viewing booth using Solux lights. I have been using several Ottlite daylight balanced lights for quite a few years and, although their spectrum may not be perfect, they are close enough for my purposes. The important things to remember are:

It should be daylight balanced or very close to it
If possible, a dimmer will help
You use this light to view and evaluate ALL your prints

The next hurdle is: how do we compare the screen to a print and make the luminance adjustment on the monitor? By using a standard image, not one of yours. There are many images on the Internet, the Kodak Imagedisc test image is a good one to download and use for this purpose. I downloaded one from Dry Creek Photo Web site, follow this link to download it and unzip the file. You will find a couple of PDF files and a JPEG image file which will be the standard we will use. (The image on the left is reduced for screen display, do not use it for print testing.)

Open the test image in Photoshop or other software you use to edit images. Make sure that there are no adjustments are applied by way of autoprocessing on import or the like. Now, print this image on an 8×10″ paper with proper workflow and color management. When the print is finished take it to your viewing light, if possible next to your monitor while shielding it from the light. Look at the print, look at the monitor. Do they look the same? Is one brighter or darker than the other?

If the print is darker, then your monitor is too bright
If the print is lighter, then your monitor is too dark

Get your calibration device, start the software and look for the luminance adjustment. If you left it at its default and you are using an i1Display Pro, it may be at 120 Candela /m². You may need to adjust this up or down. In the case of #1, lower the luminance by 20-40 units, calibrate the monitor and look at the print again, no need to produce another print. After a couple of iterations, you will get them to look sufficiently similar if not outright identical.

Empirical Luminance Measurement (imprecise but useful)

There are measurement instruments that will give a precise answer to this question, they are not easily accessible. So, I have improvised yet another empirical approach to assess the luminance levels.

Bring your camera out, take a picture of the image displayed on the screen in manual mode. Try ISO 800, f/5.6 at 1/60 second exposure, or what your camera indicates while you are in the manual mode. Then, with exactly the same setting photograph the print under the viewing light making sure that the light is at a distance of normal viewing. My viewing light was at about 18″ and at a slight angle and it is not as even as I would like. You can see a little glare on the right side of the print photo, no problem though. Try to set this distance that makes the print look the same as the screen, within reason of course. It will be somewhere between 1-2 feet from the print. These are my results, not bad if I may say so myself!

My viewing light was at about 18″ and at a slight angle and it is not as even as I would like. You can see a little glare on the right side of the print photo, no problem though. Try to set this distance that makes the print look the same as the screen, within reason of course. It will be somewhere between 1-2 feet from the print. These are my results, not bad if I may say so myself!

Now, compare the photographs. Your eyes are extraordinarily adaptable to changing light levels. Using the camera in the manual setting will record different images that you can compare on your screen. Viewing them side by side will allow reading values from the same locations of each to compare. Now, before you jump on my neck that this is imprecise, let me say “this is imprecise” as a measurement. It is only a tool that is at our disposal that removes part of the subjectivity of our eyes because of their huge adaptability. But ultimately you will make a judgment using your eyes every time you make a print, this is only to find the optimum level of luminance for your monitor and editing environment.

Get to work! This will take a little time. But, you will love the results and know that the results of your edits are going to be accurate.

Free Photoshop Course

March 1, 2016 by A. Cemal Ekin

Adobe Photoshop has been around for decades and has become an indispensable tool for photographers and other content creators. It offers an extremely rich feature set which can be an obstacle to learning the critical parts. Now, you have an opportunity to take a 13-hours of Photoshop course totally free of charge. There is no payment, credit card information, just login with your Adobe, facebook, or Google+ account and start learning the tool. You can learn at your pace and stop at any point, rewind, review, practice, and move forward.

To learn more about this free offer, visit ProDesign Tools Website and sign up for the free Photoshop course. While there, take a look at the other offers they make available. I have not looked at those and am not sure if the other offers may want your credit card number or not.

Haze – Dehaze 2

August 5, 2015 by A. Cemal Ekin

In the previous installment of this two-part post, I explained how you may attempt to reduce or remove the haze in your photograph using a simple Photoshop tool, Layer Blend Modes. In this second part, I will show a more flexible, albeit slightly more complex process to deal with unwanted haze in a photograph. This approach, with its many variants, has been around for quite some time for Photoshop users, here it is for your editing pleasure! (Without the LR 6 CC Dehaze Slider!)

A more complex and flexible method

If the simple one-step adjustment does not produce the desired results we can resort to a little more complex but more flexible method. Don’t worry about the complexity, I will include a Photoshop Action that you can download and use. With a single layer blend-mode solution, we are a little limited. Here is an alternate approach which involves making the new layer a smart object so that the adjustment we apply to it changeable. After that, we will apply a large-radius High Pass Filter to increase the mid-tone contrast and augment all this with a curves adjustment layer at the top. First thing first:

Download this action file Remove Haze (compressed ZIP)
Extract it to a known folder on your computer
Find the extracted copy and double-click on it to load it to Photoshop, you may need to have Photoshop open before double-clicking on it. If you cannot load it that way, you can always do it from the Actions palette by clicking on the small menu icon on the top right and choosing Load Actions then pointing to the extracted file.

This time, we will use a different photograph. The photograph on the left shows the Golden Horn in Istanbul near Eyup district. I was enjoying the view and a nice lunch with a friend when I took the photograph. I am showing the original with no adjustments and then various stages of haze removal. Yes, it is too warm but I wanted to show the image the way it came out of the camera. Normally, I would adjust the white balance before other steps, I will show you what I consider to be my preference for this image at the end of the article.

When your image is open and you are ready to process, open the actions palette, making sure that “Dehaze” is highlighted, click on the “Play” button and let Merlin wave his wand! The result will most likely be overdone, which is on purpose. As the stop message says, you can adjust a variety of factors to make the result suit your taste and needs. Here they are and they are optional depending on your needs. You can do some, all, none:

Change the layer blend mode of Dehaze 01 layer to increase or decrease the effect. The default is Vivid, Overlay will reduce the impact and Linear will increase it.
Turn the Dehaze Curve layer off and on, or adjust the curve to your taste
Change the opacity of either layer or both, they are set at 80% and 70% respectively, lowering the opacity will reduce their impact on the result
Double-Click on the High Pass filter under Dehaze 01 to adjust its radius. The default is 100, but your image may need less or more. It is a fully visual adjustment, as you change the radius you will see the effect on the image
Add a luminosity mask to the Dehaze Curve layer. To do that, turn off the curves layer, switch to the Channels palette, Ctrl-Click on the RGB channel to load the luminosity as a selection. Now, switch back to the Layers palette, turn on the Curves layer, target the layer mask, press D to load the default foreground-background colors as Black-White and press Alt-Backspace to fill the selection with black. This will allow you to adjust the curves while protecting the highlights.
In step 5, you can optionally press Ctrl-Backspace a second time to double the density to make a stronger mask. Or, adjust the contrast of the mask to suit your needs.
Repeat the action once more. This may go over the top. Now, select the two new layers and press Ctrl-G to put them both in a group. Add a layer mask to the group and fill with a gradient from black at the bottom and white at the top. Select the start and the endpoints depending on the image and the level of haze.
Add a Selective Color adjustment layer and tweak the colors to your satisfaction. Hue and Saturation adjustment will do the same if you are more comfortable with it, however, I find the Selective Color adjustment to be a better tool for two reasons. First, it is a kinder and gentler H&S tool. Second, and more importantly, it offers additional channels of Whites, Neutrals, and Blacks which are quite handy. Take your pick.

As you can see, there are many ways to alter the final look of the image using any combination of the above suggestions. The original action will most likely yield an aggressive look which is intentional. I want you to make the final artistic judgments rather than taking my vision for one particular image. Using the same action and process I may change the elements differently for different images and what I want that image to look like. No, “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” here! Take a look at the variants of the same image with dehaze action steps applied along with my final edit to the image.

Let me know how you like the process and what parts you may or may not like.

Original photograph

Action applied as is

Blend mode changed to overlay

Action with luminosity mask on curves

Action applied again for the top

My final adjustments

Haze – Dehaze 1

August 1, 2015 by A. Cemal Ekin

Since Adobe Lightroom 6 CC introduced the “Dehaze” slider, there is a new dehaze-craze. The slider has gained the status of Merlin’s wand to cure many ailments. Like all the other adjustment tools, “it is a tool” and not a particularly new one. A process that I will outline in this two-part post and its countless variants have been used for the same purpose and perhaps with greater flexibility.

First thing first, what is wrong with haze? You were at a location, looking out through the haze, and brought your camera to your eye (or stretched your arms) to take a photograph. It was your choice to take the photograph of the hazy scene, presumably because you liked it. Haze adds certain qualities to a photograph, weather, atmosphere, depth, distance, tonal structure. All these can actually improve an otherwise dull scene. Now that there is a tool to remove the haze, you rush to chastise yourself for taking such a hazy photograph and jump to the Dehaze slider. OK, I got it, be it! Now, you changed your mind, the seduction of the slider was too strong. Or, you had no choice in the matter, you took the photo and hoped for the best, now is the time to fix that.

I have the full Adobe CC collection but have long decided not to get sucked into the subscription model. So far, I have managed perfectly well with Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CS6. A day may come when I may not have a choice to be corralled into the world of subscribers but I will hold out for as long as I can, and will help those who are on a similar path of not becoming Adobe Captive Consumer (CC). So, let’s get on with the dehaze, the old-fashioned way.

How to remove haze from your photograph?

To remove haze from your photograph you need to fully understand what it does to the image. Then, we can take the necessary actions to counter those visual changes.

Haze reduces contrast, from mild to serious
Haze also reduces color saturation
As a result of some combination of the above, the haze will also hide detail

A simple approach for mild to moderate level of haze

When I ran a workshop at New England Camera Club Council conference a couple of years ago the topic was Photoshop Blend Modes. One of the things I offered to the workshop attendees was to use the blend modes to adjust the contrast and help reduce haze in a scene. It is really very simple:

If you have multiple layers in your Photoshop document, target the top layer by clicking on it and press Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E to create a merged layer. If you only have the Background, press Ctrl-J to create a duplicate layer.
Click on the Blend Modes drop-down on the top left corner of the Layers palette. It should be reading “Normal” now and change it to “Soft Light”. This should provide a good level of improvement.
If Soft Light is not strong enough, change it to “Overlay” blend mode and see if you like it. After that, you can get progressively stronger results from “Vivid Light” and “Linear Light”. With any of these blend modes, you can adjust the strength of the adjustment by reducing the layer opacity from 100% downward.
Hint: This process may be useful even if you don’t have haze in your photograph but it may lack the desired level of contrast due to other factors and is totally non-destructive.

Here is a series of photographs I took from the air around Newport, RI. I had no choice in the weather and I was shooting behind the window glass or plastic. In this instance, I had a choice to shoot or not to shoot and I chose the former to deal with the haze later.

Original Photograph

Duplicate layer set to Overlay

Duplicate layer set to Vivid Light

Duplicate layer set to Linear Light

The second part of this series will present a more complex (don’t worry, I will provide a Photoshop action) yet more flexible method of dealing with removing the haze. But, for goodness sake, don’t remove haze from all the photographs as I see many tutorials on the Internet show in their tutorials. That deep haze, fog, is hard to capture right and it adds depth, abstraction, and a sense of mystery to your photograph.

Stay tuned …

Addendum: August 2, 2015

My friend Haluk sent me a couple of photographs, before/after versions of an aerial photograph to share. As I understand, he used the “Dehaze” slider in Lightroom, but similar results can be achieved in Photoshop with the action I will provide in the second part. I am adding a comparison file, but please keep in mind that I used an already compressed and reduced file to process, there are artifacts magnified. However, it will give you a general idea, in fact, I might have gone over the top while trying to match Haluk’s version.