Canvas is great!

I often see photographers on forums saying "I'm thinking about getting a canvas printed - is this photo good enough?"

There's a very simple rule here:  If you like it on screen, you'll LOVE it on canvas.

Canvas is wonderful.  Nothing beats a great photo enlarged on your wall.

New action: Rule of Thirds cropping guide

I just posted a new addition to my actions page:

Rule of thirds cropping guide

Hope it helps somebody!

Some test prints for resizing and sharpening

A couple of years ago I wrote a broad explanation of Unsharp Mask, and recently I discussed my method for sharpening for web.  Many people have told me they found these useful, but I'm often implored for a tutorial about print sharpening.

I'm sorry to say it can't be done.  Not properly.  It's impossible to write a list of sharpening steps or settings that will work for everyone.  There are just too many variables - your camera, your subject, your shot settings, your crop, your monitor, your chosen print size, your lab, your chosen media, and ultimately, your taste.

So if people ask for advice about print sharpening, I invariably tell them "do your own testing".  And that's what I want to talk about here.

Colour modes vs colour spaces

Sometimes, in my virtual travels, I see this question: "I thought I was working in sRGB, but it still says RGB at the top of the window in Photoshop!"

This refers to the title bar, where it says "RGB/8":

At the heart of this question is a common and lamentable problem - people refer to Adobe RGB as simply "RGB".  This is bad.  Adobe RGB is a type of RGB.  RGB is a colour mode, whereas Adobe RGB is a colour space.  Let me explain with an analogy ...

When I'm out driving, I see several modes of transport - eg cars, buses, motorcycles and trucks.  Each of those transport modes have their own purposes, their own benefits, and their own drawbacks.  Within those modes are various types - if you drive a car you could choose a Toyota, a BMW, a Hyundai, a Porsche, etc, etc.  If a motorcycle is your preferred mode, you could choose a Ducati, a Honda, etc.  And so on.

Fixed an action

Thanks to Crystal S for making me aware of a small imperfection in my Clipping Warning action.  I've fixed it now, and it shouldn't give you any more grief, Crystal :)

If anyone hasn't tried my action, give it a go.  It's a simple way to check for clipping and near-clipping while you're processing your images in Photoshop.  (It doesn't work in Elements, but I've provided a PSD which serves the same purpose).

I've only tested it in a couple of versions of Photoshop, so if anyone finds any problems with it, please let me know immediately.

Ps - I'm working on another handy little action too.  Stay tuned!

Some more recent before-and-afters

So, you've discovered you're in Adobe RGB ...

Frequently, on photography forums, I see people lament that their photos look too dull when printed or uploaded to the web.  The reason, invariably, is that they've used the Adobe RGB (or even ProPhotoRGB) colour space.  The sRGB colour space must be used for the web, and is preferred by a lot of labs, too.

I seem to write these instructions at least half a dozen times per week in various threads, so I'm simplifying my life by putting it all in one post.

How do you check the colour space of your images?

There are numerous ways, but my favourite is simply to turn this on to check the profile of any image I have open in Photoshop.

If it's not sRGB, is that bad?

No, of course not.  Some people choose to edit in a larger colour space such as Adobe RGB, then convert to sRGB at the end of the workflow.  I'll discuss this shortly.

Choosing house paint colours

Our poor old house hasn't been painted for a long time, I'd say.  It's fading and peeling and sad; and frankly, the colours are daggy:

Time to reach into the savings and get it done.  We've more or less settled on a painter, but choosing colours is HARD!  Luckily, I know a guy who knows Photoshop ;)

I guess there are numerous ways to do this, but I found I like using Hue/Saturation with Colorize.

Another restoration

This is a photo that I was given to restore recently.  Well, actually, I was given two copies of it.

The first one was the original print, and was in poor, but salvageable, condition.  But it had been cut down to fit an oval frame:

The second one was a pretty awful reprint, but it was, at least, whole:

So I used both copies to create this:

Sure, I cheated a bit by using a heavy vignette to hide some tricky parts of the suit.  But I don't think anyone is going to sue me for that :)