Photoshop 101 – Lesson 5 – Working with a group picture

So far we have dealt with a few appetizers and a wad of theory. Now it’s time to get down and dirty. Here is the first real practical full-blown tutorial. It covers many Photoshop methods and tools in a very practical manner. We start off with an image which you download, and the objective is to end up with the final image shown. You do this by following along step by step and if you get stuck, you post a question here, and I’ll do my best to answer it.
IMHO this kind of tutorial is the best way to learn Photoshop. You won’t learn everything about any particular tool, most methods used could do with much more explanation, but at the end of the tutorial you will have gained a very good basis from which to build further skills.Some of the tasks I ask you to do are very tricky and awkward for beginners – please bear with me and battle your way through. what takes half an hour to do now will take 5 minutes to do in a month’s time and one minute to do in a year’s time.
Just to make sure that everyone can follow, no matter which version of Photoshop you have installed, this entire lesson will be executed using Photoshop 6. If you have a more modern version, like any of the “CS” versions (like CS3, CS4 or CS5) you will still be able to use these instructions – usually more modern versions are able to achieve the same thing either quicker, or more elegantly. I will supply by-the-way instructions for the CS4 version if the procedures differ significantly. However, the principles and methods that we learn here are what is important and are common to all versions of Photoshop.
Please make the effort to actually work through this tutorial and post any questions which in turn will help someone else embarking on the same road.

Part 1

Take a look at these two pictures. The first is the original image that we are going to work with, and the second picture is the end result.

This is the file that we start with.

This is what we want to achieve:

First of all, in order to follow along, you will need to download this compressed zip file and unzip it into a working folder.
Load up Photoshop and open the .JPG file by either dragging it into the Photoshop work area, or simply by going to the “File” pull-down menu and choosing “Open“.
Immediately when you start a new project, go to the File menu and choose “Save As” or type [Ctrl][Shift][S]

Give it a name of CoupleInGarden-1.PSD

Note:    You want to save it as a PSD file (Photoshop’s native format)    A working file should always have a meaningful filename.    Tack on the “-1″ at the end of the filename before the period to indicate that this was where you started.
Fill the available working area by typing [Ctrl][0] (that’s a zero not an uppercase “O”). This magnifies the image a large as possible without letting any part of the image go outside the Photoshop work area.
Now let’s look carefully at the image. What are our intentions?

• We want to completely remove the young lady in black from the picture and make a realistic believable picture of just the old couple.
• We want to correct any faults in the picture.
• We want to make an optimal image for a 13cm x 18cm enlargement.

What faults are there?

• There is a bit of distortion created by the camera viewpoint resulting in the upper torsos being too large while the legs are slightly foreshortened.
• The photographer (me, in a weak moment) wasted many pixels by shooting in horizontal format instead of vertical format.
• The background is too sharp and distracting.
• The image was shot in overcast conditions so the colour saturation and overall tonal range needs to be increased.

The first thing you always do in Photoshop is assume that you are going to make a mistake somewhere down the line.

So, step 1…

ALLWAYS make a duplicate image on a separate layer and work on that layer.

This is how it’s done:
Make sure that you can see the “Layers” panel. If you can’t, then click on the “Window” drop-down menu and choose the option “Show Layers” (in later versions just the option “Layers“)    In the panel, drag the “Background” Layer onto the icon that looks like a piece of paper with it’s lower corner curled up:

Photoshop will duplicate the layer creating another identical layer called “Background Copy“.
Click on the eye symbol of both the “Background” and “Background Copy” layers and the work area should turn white.

Now click the “eye” of the “Background Copy” layer and the image should re-appear again. Make sure that the layer “Background Copy” is active (i.e., it is Blue). If layer “Background” is blue, then just click the word “Background Copy” and it will turn blue.

UNDOing a step:

By the way, if you ever make a mistake and you notice it immediately, then typing [Ctrl][Z] reverses what you did. If you made a mistake a few steps back, look for the “History” panel tab, bring it to the front and you can go back to any step on the list by just clicking on a step.
Now let’s deal with the first fault. It’s fairly easy to correct perspective errors on Photoshop, but the strength of the effect is a bit deceptive so look carefully at the image and ignore the edges of the picture – it can mess with your mind.

From the “Edit” pull-down menu select “Perspective” from the “Transform” section:

Edit –> Transform –> Perspective

Eight small handles will appear around the edge of the picture. Grab the top left hand handle and drag it inward and the corresponding handle on the right hand side will also move inward.    When the image looks like the one below, press [Enter], Photoshop will make some calculations and eventually give you back control.

Just for fun, click the “eye” in the layers panel opposite the “Background” layer and part of the original image will appear in the transparent area. Click the eye again to turn off the visibility of the “Background” layer and make sure that the “Background copy” layer is the current layer – i.e., highlighted in blue.
Straightening the Image.    You will notice that the old couple seem to be falling over towards the right a bit. It’s time to straighten them up.    In early versions of Photoshop, we use the “Measure” tool for this. You will find it as an icon that looks like a ruler, and it is usually buried in the “Eyedropper Tool” fly out. (A tool fly-out is activated by clicking the tiny black arrow in the parent tool.)
Click the “Measure Tool” option:

In later versions of photoshop (like CS4) the tool is the same and you’ll also find it in the eyedropper flyout – it just as a different name – viz., “Ruler Tool“:

After clicking the tool, the cursor changes to a ruler icon with a cross. Click on the old man’s nose and drag the cursor down (not letting go) and release the button when the crosshair is exactly in the middle between his white takkies. Photoshop draws a line between the two points:

Now click in the “Image” pull-down menu and hover over the “Rotate Canvas” option. (It’s called “Image Rotation” in Photoshop CS4).    Click “Arbitrary…” and a “Rotate Canvas” Dialogue box appears with a number already inserted into the text field.
(Your value should be somewhere between “3″ and “5.5″. If not, repeat this step.)    Press “OK” to accept the number and Photoshop rotates the whole picture so that the temporary line that you drew in the last step is now precisely orthogonal. The couple should now be standing straight up.

Now it’s time to remove the young girl and replace her with some garden foliage. To do this, we will select the right-hand part of the image with the old man’s profile forming the left-hand edge of the selection.

Selecting an Area.

In Photoshop, one of the most challenging tasks is to accurately select a designated area. Photoshop has many varied tools to accomplish this, and hundreds of books have been written about just this one task. For the moment, we will just take a look at one tool to do this. It’s called the “Polygonal Lasso Tool“. You select this tool by clicking the fly-out arrow on the Lasso tool and selecting the “Polygonal Lasso Tool“:

A strange looking cursor appears.
The business end of this cursor (the actual precise click point) is the little tail that I have shown with a red arrow.

• Click at the very top (in the “checkerboard” area) of the picture above the old man’s head. Photoshop starts drawing a line from the point you clicked.
• Click carefully now on the top of his hair (but not in his hair). If you miss, press the [Backspace] key to unclick and then click more carefully.
• Click around his hair taking about 4 clicks before reaching his ear. (If you miss, press the [Backspace] key to unclick…)
• Click three clicks around his ear (not onto the ear but just shaving around it).
• Click the edge of the shirt collar, and carry on “tracing” around the shirt (say about 10 clicks) until you reach the point where the young lady’s arm intersects with the shirt.
• Now it’s guesswork time… click over the black cloth of her arm where you estimate his shirt would have been if she was not there.
• Carry on clicking down the cuff and about five clicks over the edge of his hand.
• Now carry on down the edge of the trousers until you get to the white shoes.
• Click down the side of the shoe until you get to where his small toe would be.
• Now move the cursor directly down to the bottom of the picture in the checkered area.
• Then click right across to the right hand bottom corner of the image,
• Then all the way to the top right-hand corner.
• And finally double-click join up with the starting pointand complete the selection.

You wind up with a selection area which is bounded by a line which glistens. Photoshoppers call thisgstening effect “Marching Ants” and it indicates an active selection area:

If, after double-clicking, you wind up with no selection at all, then you probably triple-clicked by mistake. Don’t panic, just type [Ctrl][Z] to go back one step and the selection should appear.    The first time you do this sort of enormous selection you will find it cumbersome and frustrating and all of a sudden it will not be a easy to precisely control that mouse as you had hoped. You’ll often lose your selection or prematurely close your selection polygon by accident.
Vasbyt...
It takes many, many hours of practice before you begin to do this effortlessly. However it’s a skill that can be mastered and must be mastered…
Start again if necessary.

Saving a Selection

After all that hard work, we don’t want to lose that selection, so let’s save it. We do so by clicking on the “Select” pull-down menu and choosing “Save Selection“. A Dialogue box appears and the cursor is positioned in the “Name” field.    We now type in a name – let’s call it “First“. Ignore the other options and click “OK“.

Incrementally Saving a Project

Now it’s also time to save the Photoshop file.    Go to the File menu and choose “Save As” or type [Ctrl][Shift][S] Give it a filename of “CoupleInGarden-2.PSD” so as not to overwrite the “CoupleInGarden-1.PSD” file.

Part 2

If you shut down Photoshop after doing Part 1, then you will have lost your selection when you re-open “CoupleInGarden-2.PSD“.
So to get our selection back again, go to the “Select” pull-down menu, and choose “Load Selection“. A dialogue box appears. There is a drop down arrow next to “Channel” source – you select “First” and click “OK“.
The short form notation which I’ll use in future looks like this:

Select –> Load Selection –> Channel –> First

Refining the Selection

So you think your selection was pretty good. You’ll actually be surprised at just how bad it was! (Sorry, no offense…)

We’ll use the “zoom” tool to get a magnified view of part of our selection edge. Click the tool and then imagine a rectangle encompassing the old man’s head that you would like to see greatly enlarged (zoomed up). Click one corner of that imaginary rectangle and drag the virtual rectangle to the other corner and release. A magnified image appears similar to this:

If the “Marching Ants” selection disappears because you clicked somewhere, just re-select with:

Select –> Load Selection –> Channel –> First
Wow … that selection is really bad! Ok, so we fix it…

Adding to the Selection

We can add to a selection by pressing down the [Shift] key while making another polygonal lasso selection and the results will be added. Now your results will be different so just follow along here. The first thing that you must always have in mind in a zoomed-up selection refinement, is which side is selected and which side is not. Well in our case, we know that anything to the right of the Marching ants is already selected, so if we add to the selection, only those pixels to the left of the “Marching Ants” will be added to the selection. I’ll click the Polygonal Lasso tool and click out another polygon which adds to the selection while holding the [Shift] Key down as shown:

I then double click to close the polygon and the path of the “Marching Ants” changes to fit the shape of the head much closer:

Yours will be different to mine. You can use the scroll bars to go up and down at the same magnification. Try adding a few selections to the large one.
Don’t forget… To ADD to a selection, press and hold the [Shift] key while clicking with the Polygonal Lasso Tool.
If you make a mistake, you can either Undo [Ctrl][Z] if you catch it early enough or you always get the saved select in back by

Select –> Load Selection –> Channel –> First
When you have finished adding to the selection, save it as a new selection called “2nd” as in:

Select –> Save Selection –> Name –> 2nd
Subtracting from the SelectionWe can subtract from a selection by pressing down the [Alt] key while making another polygonal lasso selection and the results will be subtracted from anything already selected. Again, your results will be different so just follow along here.Don’t forget, in a zoomed-up selection refinement you must keep track (in your head) which side is selected, and which is not. Well in our case, we know that anything to the right of the Marching ants is already selected, so if we subtract from the selection, only those pixels of our new selection polygon tha fall into the area to the right of the “Marching Ants” will be subtracted from the selection. I’ll click the Polygonal Lasso tool and click out another polygon which removes a piece from the selection while holding the [Alt] Key down as shown:

I then double click to close the polygon and the path of the “Marching Ants” changes to fit the shape of the head much closer:

Now you start correcting your own selection. Using the scroll bars (and the Zoom tool if necessary) go right down the man’s right side, making the selection much more precise by adding small selections and subtracting small selections. Watch what you are doing, and if you make a mistake you can unpick with [Backspace] or go back one step with [Ctrl][Z] or use the history pallette to go back a few steps. It is better to carry out and complete small selection additions or subtractions rather than trying to do one large complicated edit.
Once you have completed his entire side, zoom out to an overall view with [Ctrl][0] (a zero, not an “O”) and save your section as “3rd“:

Select –> Save Selection –> Name –> 3rd
There are a few other more advanced techniques to do this even better, but that would really make this tutorial too long!

Shifting Partial Images using Layers

Copy this selection to the clipboard with [Ctrl][C].
Delete the pixels in the selection with [Delete] (This could have been done in one step with [Ctrl][X] )
The screen should look like this:

 

Paste the contents of the clipboard back into the picture with [Ctrl][V] and you will see that another layer has been added in the layers panel and that it is active. Photoshop has given this layer a name of “Layer 1“.
The screen should now look like this:

In the layers panel, “Layer 1” is the topmost layer. Now, in the layer panel, drag “layer 1” below “Background Copy” and the young woman disappears as if by magic. No, she is still there, she is just hidden behind the image of the older folks.

Activate the “Move” tool by simply clicking it. :

Then use the arrow key to move the contents of “layer 1” so that the result looks like this:

After moving

Proportional Cropping

If you recall, this picture is intended as a 5″ x 7″ (13 cm x 18 cm) enlargement. In Photoshop terms, the word “enlargement” is misleading so let’s rather say we want to crop it proportionally to fit a 13 cm x 18 cm ratio.

Click the “Crop” tool

and fill in “13 cm” in the width text-box and “18 cm” in the height-box:

Click the approximate left hand top corner of the proposed picture and drag downwards. You will see that the crop indicator is constrained to a 13 x 18 proportion. Click the lower right hand corner and the surrounds darken. You can now move the handles of the crop rectangle to adjust the size and position.

When you have a picture that looks like the image below, press [Enter] to carry out the crop:

You’ll wind up with an image at the correct proportion which looks like this:

At this stage, it would be a good idea to save. We do this incrementally as before:

Go to the File menu and choose “Save As” Type [Ctrl][Shift][S]

Give it a filename of “CoupleInGarden-3.PSD” so as not to overwrite the other working files.

Layer Merging

We now want to merge the “Layer 1” and “Background copy” layers so that we can work on them both as just one layer.
To do this, first we activate the layer whose layer name we want to keep and then we merge all visible (with the eye icon) layers as follows:

Activate “Layer 1” in the layer panel. Then we simply merge all the visible layers by going to the layer pulldown menu:

Layer –> Merge Visible
Or alternatively by typing [Ctrl][Shift][e]

The layers combine to a single layer with the name “Layer 1”

More Selecting

We want to increase the selection area by selecting the entire background leaving only the outline of the couple unselected. The right hand side of the man is already selected so we can use that by using the saved selection.
If the selection has disappeared, reload it:
Select –> Load Selection –> Channel –>3rd
Sometimes it’s easy to forget what is the selected area and what isn’t. Just to test which was the selected area, just press [Delete] and the area selected disappears. Immediately type [Ctrl][Z] to get it back.
Now we’ll add to the selection by activating the Polygonal Lasso tool and (with the [Shift] pressed down) click above the old man’s head in the already selected area and start working anti-clockwise selecting:

• The left hand side of his face,
• His left shoulder and arm
• Her Black sweater and right side of her face
• Her black hair and left side
• Her hand and left pants edge
• Cut horizontally across her knees and carry on up her pants (You’ll see why later)
• His hand and left pants edge
• Cut horizontally across his knees into thealready selected area (You’ll see why later)
• Then down to the bottom edge of the picture
• Left to the left hand bottom corner
• Up to the left-hand-top corner
• Along the top edge to the right
• And finally double click to close the polygon and complete the selection.

Zoom in and start adding and nipping away at the selection until it is a close fit to the edge of the couple.
Check the selection by pressing [Delete] and the couple (except their feet and calves) should disappear. Immediately type [Ctrl][Z] to get it back.
Once you are happy, zoom out to an overall view with [Ctrl][0] (zero, not “O”) and save your section as “4th“:

Select –> Save Selection –> Name –> 4th
Now we will invert the selection, so that what was selected is now unselected and what was not, is now selected.

We invert a selection by selecting “Inverse” from the “Select” pull-down menu, or simply [Ctrl][Shift][I].
Save this selection as “Body“:

Select –> Save Selection –> Name –>Body

Cloning
Now before we carry on, we want to fix up the man’s arm which still has a bit of the younger woman’s elbow showing.

Zoom in close with the Zoom tool like this:

Make sure the “Marching Ants” are still drilling, and pick the clone tool:
The clone tool samples an circular area and copies the pattern to another area where you “stamp” (click). When the Clone tool is selected, a circle appears at the cursor position. The “[" and "]” keys control the size of the circle. Experiment with these two keys and see how many times you must press them for a certain increase or decrease in circle size.

Possible Problems with the Clone Sampling part of the Tool:

• If you just see a dot and small cross made of 4 dots, then the circle is much too small – start tapping the “]” key until the circle grows
• If you don’t see any circle or dot then the circle may be too large. Press the “[" key until the circle gets smaller
• If [Caps Lock] is on, you will just get a broken cross with no circle no matter how hard you try to increase it’s size. CAPS LOCK MUST ALLWAYS BE OFF WHEN USING THE CLONE TOOL.

 

Once you get the circle to the approximate size shown, then you are ready to clone.

Hold the [Alt] key down and the circle disappears and is replaced by a Rubber Stamp. You are in sampling mode. Now, move the rubber stamp picture to the area on the shirt where the circle is shown (in the picture above). While still holding that [Alt] key down, click once and release the [Alt] key.

Now that particular area has been sampled. Now Photoshop get’s very clever… It is waiting for you to click somewhere, whereupon it will do two things:

• It will copy the pixel pattern to the position where you click, and
• It will record the angle and distance between the sample point and this very first click.

Click the area marked “Stamp Area” and a bit of the shirt pattern is copied.
Now just click next to it and some more shirt is copied.
Click again nearby and more Shirt is copied.
Now click and drag and a whole streak of shirt is copied.
But wait, what is happening?
These copies are not all the same. Indeed not. What is happening is that every time you click, Photoshop is sampling a piece of shirt are that is the same distance and angle away as the original sampling and first click was.

Play around with this and use [Ctrl][Z] or the history panel to undo what doesn’t look good.
Now that you understand just what is happening, make another sampling (by clicking while the [Alt] key is depressed) and carry on slowly building new shirt material and repairing the shirt.
Because the selection “Body” is still active, when you click over the marching Ants border, only the area within the selection (the two people) will be editable. The background will not receive any shirt pixels.
Here is a series of images of how the shirt is gradually built up:

I cloned this far and then it was time to sample a bit of shirt (using [Alt] click) from just above the cuff this time:

This covers the whole area, but notice the typical “waves” in the fabric that comes from too much cloning from one (relative) source point. We now must break those wave patterns up by sampling in 5 or 6 different places and each time cloning just a few clicks. Try to re-create some of the material folds. This is now squarely in the realm of artistry:

Above is my offering.
Please note, you never finish cloning this sort of thing, and it’s a wonderful time-waster. Just stop when it will just about do. No one will notice anyway.

Part 3

Blurring the Background.

Now it’s time to blur the background so that the attention is drawn to the couple. You may have wondered why we only selected the couple up to their knees. The reason for this is that we want the grass around their feet to be sharp while the background behind their shoulders should be blurred.
So, before we blur the whole background, we need to create an image on a new layer which comprises the grass, feet and calves – this layer will be totally sharp but will gradually fade into transparent at the top and sides.

Rectangular Selections

Now we are going to make a new rectangular selection which comprises the entire picture width and includes the grassbackground and legs up to the calves.    Click on the Rectangular Marquee tool (nice word, eh) – the icon looks like a dashed rectangle:

Click on the lower left corner and drag up and to the right until thigh height.    If it goes wrong, type [Ctrl]D to delete the selection and try again until it looks like this:

Feathering

To make the edges of a selection soft (soft means that the the selection area takes more than 1 pixel to go from “selected area” to “not selected area”), we apply an effect called feathering. This makes the effect of the selection boundary a gradual edge extending over a large area instead of a hard edge which uses only one pixel.

• In Photoshop 6, we apply feathering by going to the “Select” pull down menu and choose “Feather…”
• In Photoshop CS4, we apply feathering by going to the “Select” pull down menu and choose “Modify” –> “Feather…”

 

Let’s apply a feathering value of 35 pixels. Some or all the corners will change from sharp corners to curves.
Now lets copy the selection : [Ctrl][C] And paste it [Ctrl][V] and it comes in on a new layer.

Take a look our effect by temporarily switching off layer 1 (click the eye) and you will see a copy of our marquee with the edges faded:

Make layer 1 visible again (click the eye).

Blurring

Now we blur the background a bit. Reload the “4th” selection.
Select –> Load Selection –> Channel –>4th
Switch off “layer 2″ (click the eye) and make sure the current (active) layer is “layer 1″ by clicking on it in the layer panel.

Feather the selection by 1 pixel:
In Photoshop 6 the shortcut is : [Ctrl][Alt]D
In Photoshop CS4 the shortcut is: [Shift]F6

Then go to the filter menu pull-down and choose
Blur –> Gaussian Blur… 6 pixels.
The background will blur quite a bit.    De-select the selection with [Ctrl]D
Now look at the couple’s feet and turn on “layer 2″ and compare the difference:- the grass in the front and the takkies come into focus:

Next, we want to combine “layer 1” and “layer 2” .    Activate “Layer 1” in the layer panel and we simply merge all the visible layers by going to the layer pulldown menu:
Layer –> Merge Visible

 

Adjusting the Image

Now we need to tweak the contrast and saturation.
Go to the Layer pull-down and choose
New Adjustment Layer –> Levels…
You will be invited to create a layer called “Levels 1“. Press OK
A graph appears called a “Histogram” which is a graphic representation of the amount of shades there are in the picture between black and white.

• The left arrow on the baseline controls the dark levels. Move it and observe the effect in the dark tones. Adjust it so that the blackest blask is really black, but that the very dark tones do not block up to solid black.
• The Right arrow on the baseline controls the highlights. Move it and observe the effect in the light tones. Adjust it so that the highlights are bright but not washed out.
• The middle arrow controls the overall darkness of the picture. Move it so that the whole picture looks pleasing. This is where precision and art meet (and sometimes clash !).

My settings are shown here:

NEVER NEVER NEVER use the Image –> Adjust –> Levels option from the Image pull-down menu if you can possibly get the same effect using an adjustment layer. Why? Because an adjustment layer can be modified at any time and can be switched on and off. The Image adjust option is permanent and pretty irrevocable.
Finally,    Go to the Layer pull-down and choose:
New Adjustment Layer –>Hue/Saturation… You will be invited to create a layer called Hue/Saturation 1. Press OK

Amongst a whole lot of other more advanced stuff, you are presented with the sliders: Hue, Saturation and Lightness.    Increase the “Saturation” slider and watch the effect in the picture and adjust this to what looks good. I wound up choosing a value of +20.
And that’s it. I would not add any sharpening to this picture.

Finally go to the File menu and choose “Save As“  (or type [Ctrl][Shift][S] )
Give it a filename of “CoupleInGarden-Final.PSD”

The final result:

Note the slight edges around certain parts of the couple (particularly the black edges) that you can still see. These are caused by my sloppy selection. The more carefully you select, the more hours you spend and the better the result.    There are also other advanced ways to make quicker, more accurate selections, but we’ll leave those for another day.