Photoshop CS3 Tip - Photomerge tool that really works !
The interface changes are not that different to CS2 and so I am able to quickly find my way around. The improvements are many and I will not list them here as I plan a separate CS3 review a a later date.
What I want to highlight is the much improved, and now very useful, Photomerge tool. Photomerge is Photoshops action driven image stitching solution.
It has been available in previous Photoshop versions, via the Automate menu item, but has never been good enough. It nearly always resulted in a final image with some form of visible banding. I have had to resort to either stand-alone stitching software or to the time consuming use of Photoshop's layers and blending.
Photoshop CS2 - Photomerge result, visible
blending!
Photoshop CS3 introduces
two new commands; "Auto-Align Layers" and "Auto-Blend
Layers" which both used by the Automate/Photomerge
tool. Plus you now have a choice of settings and
options as to how to merge the files.
New Photomerge layout settings in CS3
The results are very
impressive. I have returned to a number of my
panoramas and recreated them with CS3 and have been
very pleased. Here is the final version of the merged
images above using CS3.
Photoshop CS3 Photomerge result using the Automate
command and the Auto layout setting
Third party stitching
tools could be a thing of the past for me!
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NoiseWARE Professional Photoshop Plug-in Review
Slide scanning is quite a steep learning curve and even when you do master it you often suffer from significant amounts of noise in the scanned image. The grainy effect of slide scanning was something I lived with until I discovered NoiseWARE from IMAGENOMIC.
NoiseWARE is a sophisticated Photoshop plug-in which allows you to remove noise from your image but will minimize the noise reduction on the less-noisy and other areas of critical detail.
The plugin allows you to see both before and after views of the effect of noise removal. There are lots of viewing options to choose from including horizontal and vertical before and after screen views. Also the work area of the plugin can be resized to fit what ever screen area you want.
NoiseWARE Photoshop Plugin - sky selected as area
for noise removal
The image above is a
particularly noisy in the sky. Selecting one or more
areas of the image allows noise removal to be based
on the chosen areas. If you don't want to get in to
that level of complexity you can just have Noiseware
do the removal process automatically.
There are a whole host of presets including ones for
Landscape, Portraits etc. If you really want fine
control you can fine tune the removal process by
noise frequency, colour and tonal range. Sharpening
can be turned off altogether or set as you want.
NoiseWARE vs Photoshop built in Dust and Grain
filter
I compared using
NoiseWARE with the built in Photoshop "Dust and
Grain" noise filter and you can see that NoiseWARE
preserves the fine detail as well as the detail in
the non sky area.
NoiseWARE is fast in operation and can take advantage
of dual processors. It claims to process an 8 MPixel
image in under 4 seconds. My images are usually start
at about 64MB in photoshop and typically take 7
seconds to process.
Other product features include:
- Self-learning noise profiles
- Bracketing and Multiple previews
- 16 bit supported
- batch processing via Photoshop Actions
Conclusion
I have no association with IMAGENOMIC. It's a great product which has improved my workflow. I would score it 5 out of 5.
Good luck and good shooting.
NoiseWARE professional lists for $69.95 and is available in both Mac and Windows versions.
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Link to NoiseWARE product page on the IMAGENOMIC website.
Technorati Tags: adobe, photography, Photoshop, workflow
Make sure you keep your image colours in Photoshop when saving for the Web
When preparing your images in Photoshop for web use make sure that you convert your profile to sRGB before saving. Otherwise your colours will look washed out.
Lets assume you are
working in AdobeRGB colour space and you just save
for the web. You will imeadiately lose a huge amount
of colour information as the colour space of AdobeRGB
will not fit into sRGB and the result is a very
washed out image. See example below.
Left - Original 'adobe98' Image, Right - Image
saved without profile conversion to sRGB prior to Web
Save.
The trick is to use the
'Convert to Profile' which can be found under the
main 'Edit' menu and to select sRGB before you save
for Web. Your colours will be preserved.
It's really easy to miss this vital step when saving
your images for the Web. Hope this helps.
Lightroom
tips.
Aperture and
Photoshop tips.
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weblog
Akvis Enhancer Photoshop Plugin
An image enhancement plugin for revealing detail. Enhancer allows detecting details from underexposed, overexposed and mid tone areas of an image. It is really useful when the image lacks detail in either foreground or background.
Enhancer can reveal details in the highlights or shadows without the risk of affecting other areas that you wish to leave unchanged. It works by intensifying the colour transition between adjacent pixels with different colour gradations.
I have been stunned by
the difference it can make to an otherwise flat
looking image.
Read the excellent review at the Digital
Outback Photo Website.