YouTube member Cbrushphoto posted a fantastic, step-by-step set of tutorials showing a complete post processing workflow called, Photoshop CS3 Workflow for Photographers. It’s demonstrated in Photoshop CS3, but the steps are similar to this if you’re using CS4. In the nearly two hours of these free video tutorials, he begins with an image straight from the camera, and shows you how to edit it from start to finish. From Adobe Camera RAW to preparing it for printing, learn how a professional Photoshop teacher retouches his images.
It may be more complex than what’s needed for every photo, but he does a superb job of explaining many of the different image retouching techniques you could use. After watching all of these videos and practicing the tips & techniques provided, you should become a professional at post processing in no time. The set of videos is broken into 16 parts (after the introduction):
- Camera RAW part 1 – Introduction Adobe Camera RAW, and explanation of the basic tabs (especially “Detail”)
- Camera RAW part 2 – More about Camera RAW, including the “Basic” and “Tone Curve” tabs
- Workspace Setup – A bit about how to effectively set up your workspace with the tools & palettes you need
- Liquify Filter - Shows how to make small cosmetic changes to parts of the body with the liquify filter
- Cloning & Healing - Outlines basic uses of the healing and cloning tools to correct minor blemishes/spots in an image
- Shadows & Highlights - How to enhance the shadows & highlights of the image with the Shadows/Highlights tool
- Contrast with Unsharp Mask - A rarely mentioned use of adding realistic contrast to an image with Unsharp Mask based on the surrounding pixels
- Dodging and Burning – Explores some of the basic uses of the dodge & burn tools (i.e. accentuate hair, enhance eyes, etc.) in a non-destructive way
- Levels - Color correction using a levels adjustment layer, with a detailed explanation of how levels work
- Curves - Adding contrast with a curves adjustment layer, while paying close attention to the histogram
- Hue & Saturation - Correcting minor color issues, and enhancing the saturation & vibrance of your image’s colors to make them pop
- Local Adjustment Layers - How to make targeted adjustments to an image to improve its presentation
- Adding a Vignette - A simple method to add a subtle, effective vignette to your photo
- Reducing Noise & Sharpening - Using some of Photoshop’s filters to make your image cleaner
- Enhancing with Noise (yes, adding noise after removing the original noise) – Adding a bit of texture to your image with a subtle layer or two of noise
- Preparing for Printing - A short explanation of steps to go through before sending the image to a printer
Post Processing Workflow – Camera RAW (part 1)
In the first video, the author outlines his post processing method of using Camera RAW to make minor alterations that prepare the RAW image for editing in Photoshop. He gives an overview of Camera RAW, talks about color space, the tabs for image alteration options, 8-bit vs 16-bit editing, creating Camera RAW presets, and more. Throughout the video (and his others), he stresses making adjustments that don’t cause clipping or artifacts, and demonstrates many techniques for how to do that.
Post Processing Workflow – Camera RAW (part 2)
In his continuing coverage of Camera RAW, he goes into much greater detail on the Tone Curve tab, and Basic tab. Once in the Basic tab, he sets all the basic image settings (i.e. exposure, recovery, blacks, recovery, contrast, vibrance, etc) to zero to keep the histogram clean, and because he’ll tweak all these setting in Photoshop later. He also discusses the pros & cons of using the settings in the Tone Curve tab to set your photo’s contrast.
Post Processing Workflow – Workspace Setup
In the third part of his post processing video series, he covers the basics of setting up your Photoshop workspace for maximum efficiency. Topics such as how to arrange, show, and hide toolbars & pallets, set useful keyboard shortcuts, explains the different zoom modes, how to move around your document effectively, and more are covered. If you’re familiar with workspace setup in Photoshop, you can probably skip this, but you may still pick up some useful tips.
Post Processing Workflow – Liquify Filter
The liquify filter is an interesting and useful tool that can create some fun and useful effects. This video explains how to use the liquify filter, and he uses it to extend & reshape his dog’s ears. When you use liquify to post process your images, artifacts & oddies can easily arise, and the author cleverly shows how fix any abnormalities that may result from this tool.
Post Processing Workflow – Cloning & Healing
Which is better: the clone tool or the healing brush? Short answer: neither. They both have pros and cons, which are explained very well in this video. The author demonstrates stray hair removal with the healing brush tool (to preserve the texture of his dog’s hair), and removes rust on a metal chair with the clone tool. While using these tools (as you should with nearly every step in your post processing workflow), he makes separate layers for the edits to keep the changes non-destructive and easily reversible.
Post Processing Workflow – Shadows & Highlights Adjustment
This video, and the next several, all cover different aspects of color correction. In this one, he improves the look of the shadows & highlights using (go figure) the Shadows/Highlights adjustment. He explains how to best use the different options offered by this adjustment. Many photographers don’t use it in their post processing workflow, but it is a powerful tool when used correctly.
Post Processing Workflow – Adding Contrast w/ Unsharp Mask
Most people add contrast to an image with a curves or levels adjustment, but you can also alter the contrast with Unsharp Mask. I’ve never heard of any photographers using Unsharp mask to to this, but it’s a very effective way to add contrast (especially to the midtones) in a very realistic way. He also uses some layer blending options to fix some artifacts & clipping that can happen when you use this technique.
Post Processing Workflow – Burning & Dodging
Many photographers would say that burning and dodging is an essential step in their post processing workflow, so it’s a good technique to learn. Here, he explains how to effectively dodge & burn non-destructively using brushes (instead of the dodge & burn tools themselves) to do things like enhance eyes and accentuate details in hair.
Post Processing Workflow – Levels
This video covers one of the big three color correction tools: levels. He first gives a broad overview of what the levels adjustment does, how the individual color channels work, setting black & white points, and more. From there, he demonstrates how to effectively use the levels adjustment to lighten or darken your image, warm up or cool down the picture, and bring out colors without losing (clipping) any of your color data.
Post Processing Workflow – Curves
The next color adjustment covered is curves. He offers a great explanation of how the standard s-curve adds contrast, setting and manipulating points on your curve, and how to visually get your contrast correct. Also, if your image looks too saturated, you can fix it by changing the layer blending mode to luminosity to fix it (shown in the video).
Post Processing Workflow – Hue & Saturation
The final of the “big three” color correction adjustments: hue & saturation. He first sets the blending mode of the hue & saturation layer to “color” to avoid adding any color noise, and get away with boosting saturation more than you would normally be able to. Then, he gives a detailed explanation of how to use the hue & saturation dialog, what the options do, and even some tips & tricks about how to use it most effectively.
Post Processing Workflow – Local Adjustment Layers
After all the color correction is complete, the next step in the post processing workflow is adding some subtle local adjustments such as whitening teeth or brightening faces. There are many tricks you can use to enhance your image, and this video gives some ideas. Also, he shows how to save layer masks you create so they can be applied to other layers later in your workflow.
Post Processing Workflow – Adding a Vignette
This video teaches you how to add a vignette to your image to subtly darken the edges and help draw attention to your main subject. He selects the image focus, adds a solid black adjustment layer, blurs the edges to create a gradual vignette, then fades the effect to make it subtle. It’s a simple & effective technique for adding vignettes in Photoshop.
Post Processing Workflow – Reducing Noise & Sharpening
In this video, he combines two post processing steps into one: removing noise and sharpening. First, using the Reduce Noise filter, he shows how you can get rid of the majority of color noise and other random noise produced by your camera to improve the overall cleanliness of the image. After that, he sharpens the photo using the Smart Sharpen filter, and does a great job explaining both technically and visually how the different sharpening settings affect the effect of the tool.
Post Processing Workflow – Enhancing w/ Noise
It may seem strange to add noise to a photo after you just removed it in a previous step, but there’s a logic to it. Adding a slight amount of noise can be an effective way to add skin texture for portrait photography among other things. The author shows you how to add a bit of noise (without a plug-in) with the Add Noise filter, to give your photograph a subtle texture.
Post Processing Workflow – Preparing for Printing
In this final video of his professional CS3 workflow series, he outlines several steps to take to prepare your image for printing. Some of the topics he covers are how to resize your image, changing the print quality, correctly merging 16-bit color corections into an 8-bit file, converting from 16-bit to 8-bit, and more. You also get to see the completely retouched image after all the post processing is complete.
That’s it! Thanks a lot cbrush for posting this set of tutorials. Please visit cbrush photography’s YouTube channel and blog, and be sure to leave him lots of comments for such an outstanding set of Photoshop post processing tutorials.
your highlight/shadow video is not functioning properly and am unable to view it. I hope you are able to correct that…perhaps re-uploading the video. Kindest regards.