Category: Blogs

Converting Photos to Black and White

Using Lightroom to edit your photos is definitely a lot simpler than using Photostop. Lightroom is more streamlined, and organized (at least in my opinion). However, there are times when it can be difficult to figure out how to do something in Lightroom. Converting your images to a good black and white can sometimes be confusing if you are not familiar with the way Lightroom works, or if you are simply new to editing photos in general.

There are a few ways to get a black and white photo when using Lightroom. There are some presets that you can use that will just automatically convert your image. However, sometimes these don’t look the way that you want them to. There just isn’t enough contrast, or something just looks off. Along with that, you can set your camera to shoot in black and white, which will give you a black and white image from the get go. OR you can just slide the saturation and vibrance sliders all the way down (depending on your picture this won’t give you a complete black and white result). While these might be the easiest ways to get a black and white photo, it isn’t necessarily the best.

To get the best black and white photo, you are going to want to adjust everything individually. In “Develop” on the third panel down, you should see something that says “B&W”. This is where you can change the individual colors in your photo to get the desired black and white effect without getting a super flat and dull result. There are sliders for basically every color, so you should have no trouble getting a black and white photo.

If you still aren’t really liking the way that your image looks after adjusting each color individually, changing the clarity might help add a little depth to your photo. The best thing to do is to simply adjust the sliders until you find that sweet spot that works the best for your personal preferences! Personally, I am very picky when deciding what images I want to have in black and white. I tend to select the ones that have the most contrast in them because I find that they work better as black and whites. But again, photography is all about personal preferences, so do whatever works best for you!

I hope that this will provide some help when it comes to getting a nice black and white image. Be sure to stop back again tomorrow for another blog post! Feel free to share your thoughts with me, and to share my thoughts with the world!

Clipping

Clipping is a very common problem when working on photos in Lightroom. It happens when there are areas in the photo with no information. Typically, this is caused when the lighting is either too bright or too dark. Most of the time, photographers call these areas “blow outs”. Having small areas with clipping isn’t really an issue, but when there are large areas of highlight or shadow clipping it would be in your best interest to fix it.

There are a few ways to fix clipping in your images. You can find presets made by other people and download them (sometimes these options cost money), or you can use the sliders in the Tone Curve Panel. However, the easiest and most cost efficient way to solve clipping is by using the highlights and shadows slider in the basic panel.

Lightroom will use either the color red or the color blue to show you that there is clipping in your photo. Red indicates highlight clipping, while blue indicates shadow clipping. Press the “J” key on your keyboard to turn these on if you do not already have it turned on. Along with that, there is a way to turn them on and off individually. On the histogram in the top right corner of Lightroom, there are two little triangles, one on either side. Simply clicking on those will turn the clipping indicators on and off. The one on the left is shadows and the one on the right is highlights.

Once you have the indicator turned on, you will just need to move whichever slider to up or down until you do not see the color anymore. If you fix all of the clipping and are not satisfied with how your photos looks, then just stop the slider in a place where you have most of the clipping gone but still like the way the image looks. Like I said before, having some clipping isn’t a problem, it’s just the large areas that you should be on the look out for. Along with that, when it comes to editing pictures, a lot of what you do depends on personal preference. It is important that you are satisfied with your work!

Be sure to stop back again tomorrow for another blog post! Feel free to share your thoughts with me, and to share my thoughts with the world!

Disappearing Tools

What do you do when you are editing something in Photoshop, and your brush tool (or any tool for that matter), just stops working? This is a problem that many people face when they are working in Photoshop. You were busy working on a project, painting away, and your brush tool just isn’t marking on the canvas. So, you switch to something else, and still have the same problem.

Now, there are a few ways to fix this. You can try saving the project and opening it again (the good old “have you tried turning it off and on again” technique. You should also check to make sure that you do not have CAPS LOCK on. CAPS LOCK will only cause the brush cursor not to work though, so if you are having trouble with a different tool, this isn’t the problem. Another thing that you can try is simply resetting the tool.

However, I think that one of the best ways to solve this problem quickly and efficiently is to go to Select and then Deselect to make sure you have nothing selected by accident that you cannot see. After that, go to the channels panel and make sure that you are working in the combined RGB or CMYK channel.

If that does not solve your problem, then you are most likely working in Quickmask mode and simply need to use the shortcut (Q key) to fix it.

Banners

Good afternoon! While at my internship today, I was required to make a banner to use on the team’s website. I’ve made banners a few times, and oddly enough, it took me a while to figure out the best way to make one. Now, everyone is going to have their own personal preference when it comes to making banners, but I’m going to explain I like to make them.

The first thing that you are going to want to do is open Photoshop. Then, select ‘File’ and then ‘New’. Now, it is time to choose the dimensions that you want to use. Typically for banners, I use 700 pixels by 100 pixels. However, depending on what you will use it for, you might need to make some adjustments.

Once you have decided on the dimensions, it’s time to start designing. The banner that I made today was extremely simple. The dimensions that I used were 500 pixels by 100 pixels (this was so it would line up with everything else on the webpage). Now, it’s time to decide what you want the background to be. For this example, I just put a blue rectangle over the background, just in case I wanted to do a gradient effect later one.

After deciding on a background you will use the text tool to make the banner say what you need it to say. I used a free font that I found online called Impact, but use whatever will be best for your needs. Once you have the text done, it is time to format it and make it look a little bit nicer. You can add an arch, or any other text designs that you want by going to the layer section in the bottom right corner. Once there, click on where it says ‘fx’ and decide what you want to do.

If there are any graphics that you would like to use, simply add them once you are finished with the text. For my banner, I used the Tomahawks logo to make it look a little more complete. I duplicated that layer in order to have it go completely along the bottom. Sometimes, when making a banner less is more. Because of this, I just used a white font on mine without any fancy edits.

When you have finally designed your banner the way you like it, it is time to save! I always save my work as a JPEG and then save the Photoshop file as well. That way if I want to go back and change it, I have that option.

Here is my final product for reference!