Adobe Photoshop CC - Custom Trees using Pattern Fill

Adobe Photoshop CC has a way to create a wide variety of 3D trees and shrubs that can be inserted into your images!  This is an awesome new feature that is customizable and easy to use.  As a Landscape Architect, I frequently use Photoshop as a visualization tool to help clients see the potential of their outdoor space.  I have found that many clients cannot fully understand a design simply by looking at an overhead plan view of their site.  Great photographs of the existing site combined with Photoshop compositing really help to get the design idea and intent across to clients.

Accessing and using the custom 3D trees in Photoshop is simple.  First, open the image you will be working on.  Next, create a new blank layer above the background layer.  Make the new blank layer active.  To add a new 3D tree onto our blank layer we need to ‘Fill’ the layer by pressing Shift + Delete.  There are several options here on how we can Fill the layer.  In the Fill dialog box, under the Contents section, choose ‘Pattern’.  The Blending section can remain as is.  Toggle on (check mark) ‘Scripted Pattern’.  Then click the drop down menu next to the word ‘Scripts’, select Tree.

The ‘Tree Pattern’ dialog box will now appear and gives you various ways the tree can be can customized.  From changing the direction of the light so shadows match the image to reducing or removing the leaves on the tree, this dialog box is where you would make those changes.  When you have made the necessary changes, click ‘OK’.

The tree will then be rendered and placed on your blank layer.  From this point the tree can be scaled and moved around the image.  It’s important to make sure the tree is placed on it’s own layer so you have the option to change the size and positioning of it later on if you need to. 

While I think it’s still necessary to have a large library of plant material images for anything your composite might need, this feature in Adobe Photoshop CC is really great and will help speed up the time it takes to make composite landscape images.

Before/After Image Processing - Bleeding Hearts

Before - RAW File Out of Camera, Canon 60D, 50mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec at f/2.0, ISO 200         

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After - Image Processed Using Adobe Lightroom & onOne Perfect Effects 8.                                                                                      

Ever have a chance to photograph a bleeding heart?  These are awesome plants!  The plants are beautiful when in bloom and I couldn't help but photograph this one.  This is a quick before/after tutorial to show you how I arrived at my final image.  After taking a few shots of this plant, I liked this one the best so lets get started!

Camera Setup & Settings

It was an overcast day with full cloud cover, just before a rain storm.  Cloudy days provide great light for photographs because the clouds cause the sky to act like a big soft box giving off nice even and diffuse light.  This image was shot with the Canon 60D using a 50mm f/1.4 lens.  The settings I used to create the image were 1/500 second at f/2.0, and and ISO of 200.  Every image I shoot is in RAW format.  I always recommend using RAW format since this will give you the highest quality and the best ability to modify images down the road if necessary.

Basic Panel Settings

Lightroom 

The first thing I did with this image was to bring the RAW file into Adobe Lightroom 5.  Next, I went into the develop module and applied some general adjustments to the image.  Starting at the top of the Basic panel, I worked my way down.  Exposure was increased by +.20 to help brighten the bleeding hearts a bit.  I reduced the contrast a because I love the dynamic contrast feature in Perfect Effects 8.  I'll use the dynamic contrast filter later on to bring back contrast in the image.  I pulled back on the highlights to insure there was no detail lost in the bottom section of the flowers.  Shadows were increased a bit to help bring out the entire flower.  Whites and blacks were adjusted a bit to help round out the image.  

Quick Tip:

When adjusting  Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks, you can hold the option key on Mac and alt. key on a PC to show you the clipping points for each slider.  It's helpful in determining how much of each slider you use.

Perfect Effects

With these few global adjustments made, I'm now ready to bring the file over into Perfect Effects.  In Lightroom go to File > Plug-in Extras > Perfect Effects 8.

Once the image is opened in Perfect Effects, The first filter layer I'm going to add is Dynamic Contrast - Natural.  There are a few modifications I want to make on the Dynamic Contrast layer.  On the right side of the window, under Filter Options, there is a section called 'Detail'.  Here you have the ability to adjust how the Dynamic Contrast is applied to the image.  'Small' makes contrast adjustments to all of the small or fine details within the image.  I used a setting if 10.  Next, 'Medium' effects the contrast of the medium or mid size-details within the picture.  Most of the areas I want to see more contrast in are within the medium range.  Therefore I used a setting of 25 to get the amount of contrast I liked without over doing it.  'Large' effects the larger areas and textures in your image.  Here I don't want to add much contrast to the background, so I use a setting of 2.  You might be thinking - how do I know what settings to use?  The best thing to do is play with the sliders and see what you like.  Experimentation is the best way to see how things work and are affected by different settings.

Perfect Effects 8 - Bleeding Hearts Image with Dynamic Contrast Applied.

Next, add 2 new filter layers by clicking the '+' in the filter layer stack.  I want to enhance the color of the image, so I'm going go to the Filters on the left side of the window, then find 'Color Enhancer'.  For the first filter layer, lets choose 'Increase Color'.  Reduce the layer opacity to 40% so the effect is not over done.  On the next filter layer, again go to 'Color Enhancer' and choose 'Red Enhancer' to help bring out the magenta in the bleeding hearts.  Reduce the layer opacity to 20%.  I also made some adjustments in the filter options of the 'Red Enhancer' layer.  Under 'Color Range' I increased the saturation of both Magenta and Green just a touch to help it all pop a little more.     

Perfect Effects 8 - Color Enhancer Filters

The next adjustment is to add a 'Sunshine Filter'.  The sunshine filter really helps warm everything up and gives it a slight glow.  It helps convey a warm, happy feeling through the image.

Next we need to apply some sharpening to the image to help tighten everything up.  To do this, add a new layer in the Filter Stack.  Then, look under 'Sharpening' in the Filters list on the left hand side.  Select 'Amazing Detail Finder'.   Reduce the layer opacity to 90%.  Finally I think a vignette will finish off this image nicely.  Again, add a new layer in the Filter Stack.  Choose 'Vignette', then select 'Subtle'.  Now the image is complete.  Click 'Apply' at the bottom right hand side of the window and the filters will be applied and brought back into Lightroom. 

I hope this tutorial helps you to further understand how Adobe Lightroom and onOne's Perfect Effects can be used together to create great images.  If you have any questions, leave a comment below.  Thanks!

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Lightroom 5 - Creating Metadata Presets

Metadata Presets

Setting up a metadata preset in Adobe Lightroom 5 is not only a timesaver, but it allows you to easily apply additional metadata information to any image file.  What is metadata?  Metadata is all of the information associated with your photograph.  For example, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, location, capture date/time and more.  Creating a preset is easy and only takes a few steps. 

In the Library Module, select an image.  Look on the right hand side of the screen for a tab titled ‘Metadata’.  Expand the tab.  Here you see all of the information that is associated with your images.  Take a look through all of the fields and fill out the ones that you would like to apply to your images.  Generally, the metadata information that I add includes my name, address, email, website and copyright information.  Once you have your information filled out you are ready to save it as a preset. 

Go to the top of the Edit Metadata Presets dialog box you’ll see the word ‘Preset’.  Click the pulldown menu and select ‘save current settings as new preset…’.  Name the preset and click ok. 

Now your metadata preset is all set up and ready to be used.  You can apply the preset on your images as you import them into Lightroom or to images that are already in your Lightroom library.

Thanks for watching!

Lightroom 5 - Creating Import Presets

Looking to speed up your Lightroom workflow?  Creating import presets is going to help you do that.  Import presets allow you to make all of the choices about how to import your images and where to store them and then save those settings as a preset.  Each time you import photos simply select your preset and all of your settings are applied automatically!  It’s a great time saver and prevents you from having to make all of the same choices and selections each time you import photos.   If you have any questions about setting up import presets in Adobe Lightroom, leave me a comment. 

Thanks for watching!

Before/After Image Processing - Old School Gas Pump

Recently I was looking through some old images and I came across the image below.  It is a photograph of an 'old school gas pump' in front of a vintage hardware store.  I liked the photograph, but I thought it looked flat, dull and needed some cleaning up.  The photograph was taken in Lancaster Pennsylvania back in 2008.  

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Canon Powershot A80, 7.8mm, 1/500 sec at F/5.0, ISO 50

Step One

First, some background information on this photograph - it was taken with a Canon Powershot A80.  Yes a point and shoot camera!  Regardless of the kind of camera you use, great images can be made with any camera.  You just have to put your mind to it and be creative.  

Adjustments made in Adobe Lightroom's 'Basic' panel

After finding this image, the first thing I did was to bring it into Adobe Lightroom.  As I've mentioned, I keep all of my images in Lightroom.  The first thing I did with the image was to go into the Develop module and make some global adjustments.  I increased the contrast, reduced the highlights, opened up the shadows, subtly reduced the whites and increased the blacks.  I also added a hint of clarity to help tighten everything up a bit.  Be careful with the clarity sliders.  Drastically increasing the clarity can create an unrealistic looking image.  Of course there are always exceptions - for example if you are trying to go for an HDR look for your image, the clarity slider will help you achieve that look.

Original Image out of camera

Image after being processed in Lightroom

Step 2

After some quick global adjustments in Lightroom, it's time to bring the image over to Adobe Photoshop for some retouching and enhancements.  I brought the image over to Photoshop using the Cmd + E shortcut.  You can also select the image, go to the menu bar and select Photo > Edit In > Edit In Adobe Photoshop CC (or the version you have).  

First I created a new layer above the background layer titled 'Retouching'.  I went through the entire image and removed all of the distractions, wires, pavement markings, imperfections in the gas pump, and shadows I didn't want to see. 

Image with Lightroom adjustments in Photoshop.  Yellow arrows indicate the major areas to be retouched.

Image in Photoshop after retouching is complete.

Step 3

Next, I combine the background image and the retouching layer using Shift + Opt + Cmd + E on the Mac (Shift + Ctrl + Alt + E on a PC).  This shortcut makes a new flattened layer of all the layers below it.  

Step 4

The next thing I'd like to do is make some adjustments to help the overall contrast of the image.  I added a curves adjustment layer and created a slight 'S' curve to help darken the shadows a bit and lighten the highlights a little.  Next I added an additional curves adjustments layer to open the shadows up just a little bit.

Curves 1 Adjustment Layer 

Curves 2 Adjustments Layer

Step 5

After the curves adjustment layers, I added a new layer to do some dodging & burning.  The layer was filled with 50% gray and set to the Soft Light layer blend mode.  By using the Soft Light blend mode, the gray will be invisible.  However, any areas that are dodged and burned will appear.  I then used the dodge and burn tools on that layer to darken and lighten various areas of the photo.  This helps bring back some depth into the image.  After the dodging and burning is complete, I lowered the layer opacity to 55%.

Retouched image after Dodging & Burning

Gradient Map Adjustment layer added in Step 6

Step 6

Once I was finished with dodging and burning, I added a gradient map adjustment layer.  I reduced the gradient map adjustment layer opacity to 10% and changed the blend mode to Soft Light.  I felt that it added a little more contrast/punch to the image and gave it that little extra boost. 

High Pass Filter Settings

Step 7

At this point, I felt the image process and retouching were complete.  The second to last step was to add some sharpening to the image.  To do this, I used the High Pass filter.  First, create a merged layer using Sift + Opt + Cmd + E on a Mac.  Next, go to Filter > Other > High Pass to bring up the High Pass filter window.  I used 1.5 pixels for the radius size, but you can play with different amounts to see what works for your image.  Click OK.  The layer blend mode should be set to either Overlay, Soft Light or Hard Light.  Each blend mode will give you a varying amount of intensity of the High Pass layer.  In this case, I chose Hard Light and reduced the opacity to 50%. 

Post Crop Vignette Settings

Step 8

Finally to complete the image, I added a Post Crop Vignette.  To do this, I again merged all the layers together using Shift + Opt + Cmd + E, then went to Filter > Camera Raw Filter.  I then went to the Effects panel and added the vignette.  With the vignette added, the image is complete.  I simply saved it and closed it to bring it back into Lightroom.  Below is the final image I ended up with.  Overall I am happy with the end result.  

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Final Image - 'After'

Original Image - 'Before'

Gloomy Morning Photographs

Foggy, wet, a little cool outside.  May not seem like ideal conditions to get out and shoot some photos, but I bet if you venture out you will find some interesting things.  That's exactly what I did late last week.  It was a cool, damp, foggy morning here in New Jersey.  As I looked at the fog in the morning light, I thought that there has to be some interesting images I could create.  So I ventured out in search of some interesting things to take pictures of.  

Below are a few of the images I captured during my 1 hour or so of being out and about.  All of the images are taking with the Canon 60D using an 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 IS lens.  Images were imported into Adobe Lightroom for cataloging and post processing.  Some of the images were then also brought into onOne's Perfect Effects for finishing touches.  

How often do you take photographs when the weather is less than ideal?

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One Way to Become a Better Photographer

Go out and take pictures!  That's right, the more you pick up your camera and go take pictures, the better a photographer you will become.  Like so many things in life, the art of photography requires practice.  There are many advantages to shooting more often.  Not only will you learn your camera better, you will also further develop your 'eye' for photographs.  Before you know it you will be 'seeing' photographs even when you don't have your camera with you.  Then again we all usually have our phones with us, so why not take the photograph you just saw with your phone?  Even on a rainy day like it was yesterday here in New Jersey, there's always something interesting to take pictures of.  Here is one of the shots I took today:  

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Canon 60D  1/160th at F8.0, ISO 800, 135mm

Here are a few things that you can look for and think about in your daily travels to help develop your photographic eye:

• Patterns
• Textures
• Lines
• Diagonals
• Shadows
• Highlights

• Filling the Frame
• Framing the Subject
• Forms
• Shapes
• Reflections
• Colors or Lack of Color

• Rule of Thirds
• Leading Lines
• Zoom in
• Zoom in some more!
• Go Wide Angle
• Shallow Depth of Field

The best way to learn is to get out there any practice.  Play around with settings, angles, motion and depth of field.  You never know what you might create!

Getting Started in Lightroom - Importing Photos

I'm a big fan and advocate of Adobe Lightroom.  Lightroom is a fantastic program that I use for importing, organizing, and developing all of my photographs.  It took some learning to get up to speed on the program and how to use it, but now I could never go back to using simple folders or other methods of organizing my photographs.  Below is a quick tutorial of how to import photos into Lightroom 5.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or email me.

Recent Projects - Photographing Joely Rae

Recently I had the opportunity to photograph Joely Rae who is about to turn one in May.  Joely is a sweet little girl who did an excellent job during our photoshoot!  I always enjoy photographing children because you never know what is going to happen.  Children also keep you on your toes.  Sometimes you get amazingly funny faces and other times you get tears.  Regardless of what happens, I'm there to capture moments from our time together and I enjoy every minute of it.  

Here are a few tips I find useful to keep in mind when photographing children.  

• Go with the flow!  With children being unpredictable at times, you never know what will happen.  Have a plan, but be ready to change directions at any moment.  
• Use a fast shutter speed.  You want to be sure to freeze the moment.  Some children are quite fast, so make sure you use a faster shutter speed.  Bump up you ISO if you need to.
• Focus on the eyes!  Yes, the eyes say it all.  When photographing people make sure the eyes are tack sharp
• Talk and work with the parents.  Set expectations so the parents know what you are thinking and how you plan to capture the images.  Ask the parents if they had any particular props they want to use or if they have seen photos somewhere else that they like.
• Have fun!

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Images shot with Canon 60D using the Canon 17mm - 55mm F2.8 USM and the Canon 50mm F1.4 USM

Here is some technical information about this shoot for those who are interested:  

• All of the images were taken with the Canon 60D using both the Canon 17mm - 55mm F2.8 USM and the Canon 50mm F1.4 USM.  
• Images were taken around 3:00 pm using available light.  There was a pretty good cloud cover with the sun only shining through occasionally.
• Images were brought into and developed in Adobe Lightroom.
• The composite image above was created in Adobe Photoshop CC. 

Getting Started in Lightroom 5

Adobe Lightroom 5 Logo

Getting started in Adobe Lightroom can be a little intimidating.  When I first got started using Adobe Lightroom I remember thinking 'how am I going to figure all this out?'  I literally spent days researching, learning and sorting through all the information I could find to help me understand the program and how to use it.  Little by little I learned the program, how to use it, how to set it up and how to take advantage of the tools that are available to me.  By sharing my experience and knowledge of Adobe Lightroom, my hope is to help others just as I have been helped along the way.  

In my experience, there are no great 'secrets' to all of this stuff - its really just techniques, settings, styles, creativity, interpretations etc. that you may not have thought of or may not have learned yet.  I love to learn and I learn something new every day.  All the information that I plan to provide is the way I use Lightroom and what works for me.  I'm not saying this is the only way to do things, it's just what I found to work for me.  So, lets get started!

Adobe Lightroom 5 - File Locations

First Things First

I'm assuming that you have already installed Lightroom on your computer and are ready to go.  I use a Mac, so my setup will be based on the Mac system.  There are a few things you should know as you get started using Adobe Lightroom (Lightroom).  

• Lightroom is a program that allows you to import, organize, manage, develop/process and export images.  It is a database for all of your images.
• The more information you input about your images through metadata, ratings, keywords, etc. the better you will be able to search for specific images later on.
• The Lightroom catalog houses all of the information related to your images - file locations, organizational structural, develop settings, ratings, keywords, etc.   
• Image files are separate from the Lightroom catalog and can be stored in a different location than the Lightroom catalog file.  
• Lightroom provides non-destructive editing of photos. 

With these few things in mind, we can get started on setting up Lightroom.  First, you want to think about where you would like to store your Lightroom catalog and where you would like to store your images.  

The Lightroom Catalog (.lrcat)

What I do and would recommend is to place the Lightroom catalog file (.lrcat file extension) on your local hard drive.  This will allow your computer to have the fastest access to the catalog.  Each time you load your catalog in Lightroom, all of the information contained in the catalog must be called up.  The quicker the computer can access the catalog file, the quicker Lightroom will be up and running.  I store my Lightroom catalog on my hard drive under Pictures>Lightroom>Focus Photography & Design>Learning Catalog_LR5.lrcat.  You can name your catalog anything you would like.  In this case, this will be the catalog I use for various tutorials, learning and teaching to help keep the program moving efficiently. 

Image File Location

Next, think about where you want to store your image files.  If you will not have a lot of images or if you have a large internal hard drive, it might make sense to save the images on your internal hard drive.  I use an external hard drive to store my images.  I use a Drobo that contains 4 bays of hard drives.  The Drobo has been a great system for me that offers tons of storage and I would recommend them if you need a large external hard drive system.  

On my external hard drive I created a folder called 'Lightroom'.  Inside the 'Lightroom' folder, I created another folder called 'Photos Go Here'.  This will be the main location for all of the images.  It is important to keep all of your images inside one main (or parent) folder.  This method of storing your files will be helpful later on should you decide to move all of your image files within Lightroom.  

From this point forward, it is best to create your organizational system/file structure directly in Lightroom.  As you import your images into Lightroom, the Lightroom catalog creates a link to your images within the catalog.  The image files are not stored physically inside the catalog file, rather the catalog remembers where they are by saving a linked to them.  You never want to move the image files around in Finder or Windows Explorer because the link to the image in the Lightroom catalog will be 'broken'.  You will then need to 'relink' the file (you will see a little question mark in the top corner of the image preview letting you know that Lightroom can't find the file).  The best way to move and/or organize your images is directly in Lightroom.  By moving items in Lightroom, the Lightroom catalog will automatically update the links for the new image file location.

Inside your 'Photos Go Here' folder (or whatever the name you choose), you can then create any kind of organizational structure you'd like.  Below are the top level folders that I have created to organize my images:

I currently have my images broken down by year, then 7 primary categories.  Inside those 7 primary categories I have additional folders with specific events, places, etc.  I have a separate directory for iPad and iPhone images as well as a separate directory for all business/work related photography.  Inside the work folder, I further break it down into clients, projects, etc.  

This is the system that works for me, but it might not be the best for you.  Think about what you need and what you think will work for you.  I do find my organizational structure evolving over time, however with the setup I have, it is easy to move images and folders directly within Lightroom.  Keep in mind, the more images you have, the longer it will take to move them all around if you decide to change your organizational structure.  

I hope these basics help when getting started in Lightroom.  If you have any questions about the file locations and setting up a directory I'd be happy to help you further.  Please leave me a comment below.

Before/After Image Processing - Train Car

Post Processing

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Canon 60D:  1/250th @ F5.0, ISO 800                            Out of Camera Raw File

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Image Developed in Adobe Lightroom

Many images can benefit from some general retouching and color enhancing.  When shooting in RAW format, it is always necessary for some level of post processing.  Above is an example of a photograph I shot in the winter of 2012.  The image was shot with my Canon 60D with an 18-135 Kit lens.  On the left you see the original RAW file as it came out of the camera.  To the right, you see the same photograph processed in Adobe Lightroom.  Modifications made in Lightroom include adjusting contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, a touch more vibrance and lens corrections.  

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Image Retouched in Adobe Photoshop

After making some global adjustments in Lightroom, I used Cmd+E on the Mac to take the image over to Adobe Photoshop for some retouching.  In this case, I removed the people, the car and evergreen tree from the photograph.  I also had to reconstruct the train rail where the people were removed.  I wanted the focus of the photograph to be the old rustic train car and I felt the items I removed were distractions to my overall vision for this image.  The tools of choice in Photoshop were the clone tool, healing brush, layer masks and adjustment layers.  With the retouching work in Photoshop complete, I saved and closed the file, which brings it back into Lightroom.  

Now that I essentially had the image I wanted, it is time for some finishing touches.  I have been using onOne Software's Perfect Effects 8 and I have found it to be a great tool.  To bring the image from Lightroom into Perfect Effects, in Lightroom go to File > Plug-in Extras > Perfect Effects 8.  I then added some dynamic contrast, color enhancers, and sharpening.  Once I was happy with the final product, I applied the settings and sent the image back to Lightroom.  Below is the final image after all of the processing is complete.  Many times the image I see in my mind when I press the shutter button is not what comes straight out of the camera.  With the help of some great tools, the image in my mind becomes a reality.

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Final image after being processed through onOne's Perfect Effects 8.

What is this blog all about anyway?

Welcome to the Blog!

Who am I and what is this all about?  

My name is Jason Yadlovski.  I am a husband, father, photographer and landscape architect.  I’m driven by the need to help others by providing honest, quality photography and landscape design services and information.  Seeing the smile on a persons face when they receive their photographs or design is priceless.  I also love to learn new things and share the knowledge I have with others. 

 My goals are two fold – First, I want to be able to share information I know about photography and landscape architecture though this blog.  Everything from how I do various tasks and the tools I use to what I'm currently working on.  Second I want to be able to provide great quality photography and landscape architectural services for anyone who has a need for either service.  Photography is my passion and I truly enjoy making images that capture emotion, beauty, and the world around me.  For more information about me and my background, take a look at my About Me page.  You can also see samples of my work using the links on the left side of this page.

This is my first post as I get this blog going.  I'm looking forward to being able to share things I'm working on as well as my knowledge in Photography, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, Landscape Architecture and more through tips, techniques, and the way in which I complete tasks.  Thank you for stopping in!  I hope you check back soon for updates!