You can adjust the tonality of the photos using either Levels or Curves. But how to know which to use? And what are the differences anyway? Unmesh Dinda a.k.a. PiXimperfect shares a video about the differences between these two tools. He uses an interesting analogy, comparing them with different types of calculators. So if you’re wondering what exactly makes Levels and Curves different, this video should make it easier to understand.
An easy way to create luminosity masks for perfect landscape selections
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Luminosity masks are one of my favourite things about editing images in Photoshop. They offer so much more power than you can get in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw. Creating them, though, can often be a long winded affair. And a given set of actions to create them may not always work so well on any given image.
In this video, Photoshop wizard, Unmesh Dinda shows us a way to create luminosity masks very quickly and easily. It’s a method that also offers a lot more control over the “old way” of doing things, too. Unmesh does walk us through the old way, too, because it’s always good to know multiple methods. But it just goes to show how quickly the other process works.
How to fake realistic background blur in Photoshop in 3 simple steps
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Shooting with 200mm f/2, 135mm f/1.8 and 105mm f/1.4 lenses is the dream of many portrait photographers. But such lenses are not inexpensive. We may only have a kit zoom that will never give us the look we really want. But, there are other options. Stop down for sharpness, then simulate that shallow depth of field in post. It won’t look quite the same as doing it optically, but it’ll can get you pretty close with a little effort.
In this video, Unmesh Dinda from Piximperfect shows us an easy way to simulate a shallow depth of field in Photoshop. The technique involves using a depth map. This tells various plugins how far away something is. This allows us to get that blur falling off as we get further from the camera. It allows you to get that soft blurry background in just three simple steps.
An interesting way to create great black and white images in Photoshop
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There are so many ways to convert an digital photographs from colour to black and white it’ll make your head spin. Personally, if I know in advance I want black and white, I’ll just shoot it with film. But, sometimes, converting a digital colour image in post is your only option. The most common ways to convert images to black & white are through either Lightroom or Camera Raw or to use the Black & White adjustment layer inside Photoshop.
This tutorial from Unmesh Dinda at PiXimperfect shows another, rather novel, method of producing black and white conversions. It involves using Photoshop’s “Calculations” feature to look at the different colour channels in your image. Different blending modes are then used to produce a wide variety of options.
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