T H E M AG A Z I N E F O R L I G H T R O O M ® & P H O T O S H O P ® U S E R S  NOVEMBER 2023

Down & Using Generative AI to give a winter

makeover to a portrait that was
Designing in Create an old-school comic book ad
that looks so authentic that you can
Dirty Tricks originally captured on a sunny day Photoshop almost smell the yellowing pages

Cover Image by Jeff Dannay | KelbyOne Member

MAXED OUT
Explore the latest Lightroom
updates and AI advancements
announced at Adobe MAX
NOVEMBER 2023  VOL 26  NO 11

[016] [028] [034]

PSW 2023 GURU AWARDS LIGHTROOM LABORATORY UNDER THE LOUPE
Join Us in Celebrating Our Finalists and Winners How to Reduce Noise in Lightroom Get to Know Point Color in Lightroom Classic

[040] [052] [060]

MAXIMUM WORKFLOW VISUAL STORYTELLING LIGHTROOM Q&A
Boris FX Optics 2024 Walking the Tightrope of High ISOs Terry White Answers All of Your Lightroom Questions

[068] [064]
MAXED OUT: LIGHTROOM AND AI UPDATES FROM ADOBE MAX LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS
TERRY WHITE & SCOTT VALENTINE Learn to Work Faster and Smarter in Lightroom

[ 005 ]  A NOTE FROM SCOTT

[ 007 ]  CONTRIBUTORS

[ 008 ]  BENEFIT SPOTLIGHT

[ 010 ]  KELBYONE COMMUNITY

[ 026 ]  NEW ONLINE TRAINING

[086] [094]
DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS
A Quick Winter Makeover Using Generative AI Use Photoshop’s AI Tools to Build an AI Android!

[104] [112] [120]

BEGINNERS’ WORKSHOP PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP
Creating a Miniature Effect Let’s Do the Clone Stamp Spatter Creating Classic Comic Book Ads

[130] [134] [142]

PHOTOSHP Q&A REVIEWS PHOTOSHOP TIPS
Answers to Your Photoshop Questions Get the Scoop on the Latest Gear Learn to Work Faster and Smarter in Photoshop

ONLINE CONTENT
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KelbyOne
A NOTE FROM SCOTT

KEEPING UP WITH THE LIGHTROOMS

In last month’s issue, I wrote about all the new
Generative Fill and Expand features added to regular
Photoshop (no more Beta version required), and
between then and now we’ve had an Adobe MAX
conference (the annual conference hosted by Adobe).
This time we got updates for Lightroom and Camera
Raw, including more AI-powered features, such as
the new Lens Blur panel, as well as an HDR feature
that takes advantage of HDR monitors. I’ll say this:
Adobe has kept up their end of the bargain when
they said they’d add new features to Photoshop and
Lightroom as soon as those features were ready.
They now release multiple updates every year, rather
than making us wait for an entire year (or in some
cases, 18 months) like we used to, before we would
get a single new feature. It makes using Photoshop
and Lightroom a lot more fun, and it makes our job
of training on them more fun, too, so I’m all for it.
(For more on the new Lightroom features, check out
“Under the Loupe,” “Lightroom Tips & Tricks,” and
the feature article in this issue. We also cover all
the new Generative AI model updates in the feature.)
On my Lightroom blog (lightroomkillertips.com),
I asked an interesting question recently based on
something a friend asked me, which was, “What would
Adobe need to add to Lightroom’s ‘cloud’ version to
make you switch from Lightroom Classic?” There Coming up next issue is my “Annual Gonzo Holiday
was a lot of great feedback on my blog, but one thing Gear Guide,” where I’ll be sharing my favorite picks
I noticed in many of the comments was that people for the photographer on your holiday wish list. Until
listed a number of features missing that were “deal then, I hope you enjoy this issue (lots of great stuff
breakers,” and these are actually already in the cloud here again). Here’s wishing you a happy Thanksgiving
version of Lightroom; but they didn’t realize they were if you’re here in the U.S. or a happy November 23rd if
there. Now, that’s not their fault because, if you’re not you’re anywhere else!
using the cloud version, you wouldn’t be up to date
on all of its latest features. Adobe has added a lot to All my best,
the cloud version but, as the comments on my blog
pointed out, there’s still a long way to go before both
versions are at parity feature-wise. Still, I think it’s
really interesting to hear which features are important
to people, which are deal breakers if they’re missing,
KELBYONE .COM

and which ones they rely on. It also helps me guide

the future of that blog, which is a bonus for me and Scott Kelby
my readers. If you’d like to read that post (and see their KelbyOne President & CEO
comments), here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3SqpGYF. Editor & Publisher

5
THE MAGA ZINE FOR LIGHTROOM & PHOTOSHOP USER S

EDITORIAL:
Scott Kelby, Editor-in-Chief
Chris Main, Managing Editor
Kim Doty, Associate Editor
Barbara Thompson, Copy Editor

GRAPHICS:
Jessica Maldonado, Art Director

Cover Image: Jeff Dannay

Margie Rosenstein, Senior Graphic Designer
Angela Naymick, Senior Web/Graphic Designer

MARKETING:
Adam Frick
Ashley Fosse Each issue we feature cover art by a KelbyOne Member

Kleber Stephenson This issue’s cover image is by Jeff Dannay, who combines his
love for the land and its people with modern technology (he’s
a trained mathematician and computer scientist) to create
WEB: beautiful photographs. He often uses advanced photographic
Adam Frick
and post-processing techniques to arrive at images that fully
Yojance Rabelo capture the beauty of his subject. Jeff won a Photoshop World
Aaron Westgate Guru Award in Photography back in 2016. Most recently, he
won the Best of Show Guru Award at Photoshop World 2023,
and that winning image is on the cover of this issue. To learn
PUBLISHING:
more about Jeff, turn to page 15.
Scott Kelby, Publisher
Kalebra Kelby, Executive V.P.
Jean A. Kendra, Business Manager All contents ©COPYRIGHT 2023 KelbyOne, LLC. All rights reserved.
Any use of the contents of this publication without the written permission

ADVERTISING: of the publisher is strictly prohibited. Photoshop User is an independent

Kleber Stephenson, Vice President of Business journal, not affiliated in any way with Adobe Systems, Inc. Adobe, the

Development & Enterprise: kleber@kelbyone.com Adobe logo, Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, and Photoshop
are registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. in the
United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks mentioned
HOW TO CONTACT KELBYONE: belong to their respective owners. Some of the views expressed by
U.S. Mail: 138 Douglas Road East contributors may not be the representative views of the publisher.
Oldsmar, FL 34677-2922 ISSN 2470-7031 (online)
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Customer Service: info@kelbyone.com
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This seal indicates that all content provided herein is produced
COLOPHON: by KelbyOne, LLC and follows the most stringent standards for
Photoshop User Magazine is produced using Adobe Photoshop CC 2022 educational resources. KelbyOne is the premier source for
and Adobe InDesign CC 2022. Korolev, Factoria, and Priori Sans are used for instructional books, online classes, and live seminars for
headlines and subheads. Acumin Pro and Korolev are used for body copy. creative professionals.
NOVEMBER 2023  VOL 26  NO 11

COREY BARKER KIRK NELSON COLIN SMITH

is a digital artist and Photoshop instructor. He is the
author of Photoshop Down & Dirty Tricks for Design-
ers Vol 1 and 2, as well as numerous courses here at
KelbyOne. He has also been a featured instructor at
live events such as Photoshop World and Adobe MAX.
is a professional graphic designer and photogra-
pher in the D.C. area. With 25 years of experience,
he refers to himself as “Your Friendly Neighborhood
Graphics Geek.” You can find more of Kirk’s tutorials
and Photoshop resources at The Pixel Pro.
is an award-winning digital artist, photographer, and
lecturer who has authored 20 books and a library
of training videos. He’s the founder of the online
resource PhotoshopCAFE.com and runs a popular
YouTube channel.

PETER BAUER VICTORIA WHITE LESA SNIDER

is an award-winning photographer and author, and
does photo and video verification for a limited clientele.
His latest book is Photoshop CC for Dummies. He was
inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame in 2010 and
received the Pioneer of Photoshop Award in 2005.
was introduced to the magical world of art from her
childhood. Her first language was the language of
art. Victoria dedicated her professional life to digital
and traditional imaging and photography. She has a
passion for design and all things creative.
is the senior technical author and eLearning developer
for TAITTowers. She also authored Adobe Lightroom
CC and Photoshop CC for Photographers: Classroom
in a Book (2016), Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual,
TheSkinnyBooks, and more than 40 video courses.

DAVE CLAYTON IBARIONEX PERELLO ROB SYLVAN

is a UK-based graphic designer with over 30 years
experience; author of How Do I Do That In InDesign;
host of the successful He Shoots, He Draws pod-
cast; and a KelbyOne, Photoshop World, and Adobe
MAX instructor.
is an LA-based photographer, writer, and educator
with over 30 years of experience. He’s the host of
The Candid Frame podcast, and has written many
magazine articles and books, including Making Pho-
tographs: Developing a Personal Visual Workflow.
is a photographer, educator, and aspiring beekeeper. He’s
the author of many Lightroom and photography books,
eBooks, and videos, including Adobe Photoshop Light-
room Classic for Dummies. Rob can often be found in the
KelbyOne Community helping members with PS and LR.

SEÁN DUGGAN SERGE RAMELLI SCOTT VALENTINE

is a fine-art photographer, author of several books
on Photoshop and digital imaging, and creates edu-
cational content for companies such as Adobe and
LinkedIn Learning, where he has over 20 courses on
photography, Photoshop, and mobile image making.
is a landscape and urban photographer based in the
US and Paris. His work has been shown in more than
90 galleries worldwide, and he has 7 fine-art books.
Serge teaches photography, Photoshop, and Light-
room to students all around the world.
blends his education in physics with his love for art,
bringing a unique voice to teaching through exper-
imentation. His Hidden Power books (Adobe Press)
are used in colleges across the US. He wants you to
never let your tools get in the way of your art.

SEAN McCORMACK FERNANDO SANTOS TERRY WHITE

is a commercial photographer based in Galway, Ireland.
He shoots the three Ps: portraits, products, and prop-
erty. For fun he shoots landscapes. Writing about Light-
room since 2006, his most recent book is Essential
Development 3, covering LrC’s Develop module.
is a photographer, part-time trainer, and Adobe
ACE in Lightroom. Devoted to landscape and
travel photography, he’s now also focusing
on portraits. You can find him at the KelbyOne
Community where he’s a Leader and Moderator.
is a Worldwide Creative Cloud Design Evangelist
for Adobe Systems, Inc., an Adobe Certified Expert,
author of Secrets of Adobe Bridge, co-author of
InDesign CS/CS2 Killer Tips, runs Terry White’s Tech
Blog, and presents at conferences around the world.

MAXED OUT: EXPLORING THE LIGHTROOM

AND AI UPDATES FROM ADOBE MAX
Terry White & Scott Valentine
Join Terry White as he takes you on a tour of the main Lightroom updates that
were announced at Adobe MAX in October 2023. Then continue with Scott
Valentine as he explores the new Generative AI Models for Firefly to generate
images, for Adobe Express to generate layout templates, and Illustrator to
generate vector graphics. The power of AI-generation has increased expo-
nentially in the past couple of years, and its here to stay. So if you haven’t
boarded the train yet, it’s time to get on.
 KelbyOne
BENEFIT SPOTLIGHT
ARE YOU GETTING THE MOST OUT OF
YOUR KELBYONE PRO MEMBERSHIP?
As a Pro member, you’re receiv-
ing the ultimate experience with
KelbyOne. This is our complete
plan that includes everything
to immerse yourself in learning.
We want to make sure you know
about all of the added benefits
you’re getting as a Pro member
so you can take advantage of
them all! Pro members have
access to our entire course
library (800+ courses), including
a new course every week, taught
by world-class instructors who
8
you know and love. In addition,
you have hundreds of quick tips
and tutorials, guided learning
tracks, and the opportunity to
live-learn through private mem-
bers-only webcasts.
You can also get Photoshop,
Lightroom, and photography help
from the amazing members in our
Community. You get Photoshop
User magazine monthly along with
access to more than 150 back
issues, including all the issues of
Lightroom Magazine. Then there’s
the Creative Toolkit packed with
pre­
s ets, eBooks, and other fun
freebies. And last, but certainly
not least, there are significant
discounts available from our part-
ners, such as Apple, B&H Photo,
and Mpix.
Do you know someone who
should go Pro? Share the benefits
of a KelbyOne Pro Membership
with them to help accelerate their
learning today! n
 COMMUNITY
New KelbyOne Discount
on Astropad Studio
As a KelbyOne member you have access to some great
discounts on various products and services. If you weren’t
aware of that, you should really check out the Discounts
page under Perks on your Dashboard, or click this
link to head directly to the Discounts page. You’ll see
companies such as ON1, B&H, and Mpix; just click on
Get Discount to get more information about the discounts
each company is offering.
We just added a new discount for Astropad Studio,
which is an application that mirrors a bunch of different
creative apps, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Light-
room, to your iPad, turning it into a professional drawing
tablet for Mac and PC. Astropad Studio supports Magic
Gestures, and offers features such as a Shortcut Sidebar,
Quick Keys, Pressure Curves, Pressure Smoothing, and
Hover Support. Astropad is generously offering a 15%
discount off your first year.
Not only that, Astropad also sells accessories for the
iPad such as their Darkboard iPad Drawing Stand, and
Rock Paper Pencil, an iPad screen protector and Apple
Pencil tip that create a realistic pen-on-paper feel. Astropad
is offering 10% off on these accessories.
If you’d like to learn more about Astropad Studio,
check out Deb Pieti’s review in the October 2023 issue
of Photoshop User. Then head to our Discounts page to
take advantage of all the great discounts.
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
10
CHRIS MAIN | ASHLEY FOSSE | DAVE CL AY TON
©Valua Vitaly
Member Challenge 56
By the time you read this, we’ll have most likely announced
the winner of our 56th Member Challenge on the Insider,
our KelbyOne member blog. The theme of this challenge
was Vibrant Color so, if you’re into color, you’ll want to
check out the winner, runner-up, and honorable mentions.
Hopefully, you entered this contest yourself. The Chal-
lenge isn’t only about winning, it’s about motivating you
to get out there and practice all the new skills that you’re
learning at KelbyOne. We should be announcing Member
Challenge 57 soon (again, probably by the time you read
this), so be prepared to grab your camera and get out
there and start taking some photos that will blow us away.
If you’d like to see the winners of Challenge 56 as
well as all the previous Challenges, click this link to
visit the Insider. Keep an eye on that same page for all
of our upcoming Challenges. If you’d like to see all the
submissions for Challenge 56 so you can appreciate the
amazing work of your fellow KelbyOne members, click
this link.
The KelbyOne Community Help Desk
Do you have a question about Lightroom Classic, Lightroom
(cloud), Photoshop, photography, or gear? If yes, have you
tried out the Help Desk on the KelbyOne Community?
Just head to the Community and, in the All Categories
drop-down menu, select the Helpdesk category. Then, to
the right of that drop-down, you can drill down to your
specific topic. Click the New Topic Button and type out
your question.
But, before you do that, chances are that others have
had your same question, so either browse through the
topics, or use the search feature (magnifying glass) at
the top right.
The Community is full of KelbyOne members and
instructors just ready to jump in and help you. Everyone
is always extremely helpful and polite, so you don’t need
to worry about getting any rude responses to your inquiry.
The Community is a safe environment with like-minded
people, so it’s a great place to meet new people, make
new friends, and get help along your creative journey. n
  KELBYONE COMMUNITY

 Artist Spotlight  Kim Lawrie / member since 2023 / instagram.com/pixel_paint_photography

 KELBYONE COMMUNITY

 Artist Spotlight  Peter Szpakowski / member since 2010 / 2mmheadshots.com

  KELBYONE COMMUNITY

 Artist Spotlight  Thomas Pöhler / member since 2021 / thomaspoehler.myportfolio.com

 KELBYONE COMMUNITY

 Who’s Who in the KelbyOne Community  Jeff Dannay / member since 2012 / jeffdannayphotography.com

WHO’S WHO IN THE KELBYONE COMMUNITY
JEFF DANNAY
Jeff Dannay combines his love for the land and its people with modern technology (he’s a trained
mathematician and computer scientist) to create beautiful photographs. He often uses advanced
photographic and post-processing techniques to arrive at images that fully capture the beauty of
his subject. Jeff won a Photoshop World Guru Award in Photography back in 2016. Most recently, he
won the Best of Show Guru Award at Photoshop World 2023, and that winning image is on the cover
of this issue.
Congratulations on the Best of Show Guru Award.
Can you tell us a little about your winning image?
The cover image is called Balloons Over Bagan and it
was taken in February 2016 just after sunrise. As with all
temples in Bagan, Myanmar, shoes come off before you
enter. In our case, we scaled the outside, never going
inside. That didn’t matter, shoes off. With battered feet
we stood on top of a temple that no longer exists due
to the earthquakes that devastated Bagan in August
2016. The goal was to capture the temples with the
low-level fog. Suddenly, the sky turned orange and the
balloons appeared. It was just a matter of waiting until
the balloons formed a triangle, with the sun taking the
place of a missing balloon. This shot turned out a lot
better than my original plan.
The last time you were featured in these pages, back
in 2016, you were shooting with your trusty Nikon
D800E. What camera do you use these days?
I traded in my Nikon D800E for a Nikon D850, which
I used for many years. It’s a great landscape and portrait
camera, but fails as a wildlife camera. Since I was
shooting more and more wildlife with safaris in Kenya,
South Africa, Namibia, and Madagascar, it was time
for a camera that could shoot at least 20 RAW frames
per second. The Nikon Z9 had just been released but
it was too big and bulky for me. If the Nikon Z8 were
available a year ago, I may have just made the Nikon
switch. Instead, I switched all my gear to Sony. I now
shoot with the a1 and am getting excellent results at
30 RAW frames per second!
A lot has changed in the world of photography since
we last spoke. What has changed in your photogra-
phy life in the past seven years?
I believe every photographer evolves, their skills improve,
and their interests change. My interests have moved from
landscape (which I still love) to include wildlife and travel
photography. I suppose with the places we’ve visited
recently (Alaska, Costa Rica, Kenya, Uganda, Antarctica,
Falkland Islands, Japan, Madagascar, Seychelles, Venice,
and the Dolomites), change was inevitable. I’m now just
as happy walking the city streets as standing before
a mountain range.
 KELBYONE COMMUNITY
Much has changed in the world of Photoshop and
Lightroom, as well. I know you like to experiment,
so what are some of your favorite new features?
This is easy. In Lightroom, the Masking feature, especially
being able to intersect masks, has made processing
images much easier. For Photoshop, I really like the
Remove tool: Now I can clean up travel photos in
a snap. With the advances Adobe has made and is
making year over year, post-processing my images
is easier, quicker, and more fun, ultimately giving me
more time for shooting.
As a landscape and travel photographer, you’ve
certainly covered some territory. What’s next in
your travel plans?
We’ve been traveling a lot; more so than I could have
ever imagined. And we’re not slowing down. Over the
next nine months we’ll be traveling to Texas Bayou;
Antarctica; India; and then Norway, Svalbard, Greenland,
and Iceland via a cruise. While I’m young enough, and
have the time, energy, and the means, I want to see as
much as possible. We’ve never been to India or Svalbard,
both having a special interest for me. For India, it’s the
culture; for Svalbard, it’s the ice and polar bears. I’m
very excited about our upcoming travel plans.
You also work with your lovely wife Kathryn.
Can you tell us a bit about her work and the
best thing about working together?
Kathryn and I have been shooting side by side for the
last 10 years. She’s a wonderful landscape photographer;
I learn from her during every shoot. I’m dragging her
(sometimes kicking and screaming) to shoot more
wildlife and travel. We bounce ideas off each other
during each shoot and during post-processing. Having
someone so capable next to me, my image-taking and
processing improves each day (I hope hers does too).
It couldn’t be any better to have a hobby that we both
are passionate about. Life is great. n
KELBYONE .COM
15
Best of Show
BEST OF SHOW | WINNER
Jeffrey Dannay, Balloons Over Bagan
NEARLY 1,000 CREATIVES FROM ALL TYPES OF BACKGROUNDS took to the Internet and
Photoshop World website, September 5–7, 2023, for Photoshop World. With an array
of classes on photography, Photoshop, and Lightroom, there was no shortage of
knowledge, talent, creativity, and learning.
Since its humble beginnings in 1999, the Guru Awards have become the most
prestigious and coveted awards in the international digital imaging industry. Every
year since then, attendees have been encouraged to submit their work in various
unique categories in which we choose two finalists and one winner in each category.
From all of those entries, a Best of Show is also chosen. Best of Show winners
have gone on to do great things—some have even become KelbyOne instructors!
And boy we were absolutely overwhelmed with the creativity this year. So please join
us in celebrating the talented finalists and winners from Photoshop World 2023!

KELBYONE .COM

17
 AI Enhanced Photography
AI ENHANCED PHOTOGRAPHY | WINNER
Suzanne Robinson, Halloween
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

Janet Efrati, Amir

Andrew Kavanagh, Goddess Dreams of Light

18
Creative Photography
David Schlatter, Midnight Dreams

Marianne Barnett, Bird Bomb Freya

KELBYONE .COM

CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY | WINNER

Rob Gale, Untitled

19
 Landscape Photography
LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY | WINNER
Diana Davidson, Untitled
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

Stephen Brkich, Road to Chisos Rob Gale, Untitled

20
 Macro Photography

Robert Norris, Water Lens

Dodie Ross, Untitled

KELBYONE .COM

MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY | WINNER

Nell Cant, Portrait of a Red Footed Cannibal Fly

21
 Mobile Photography

Bob Shor, Back to the Present

MOBILE PHOTOGRAPHY | WINNER

Amy De La Vega, Bilbao Serra Exhibition
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

Lisa Vasatka, Untitled

22
Portrait Photography

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY | WINNER

Karen J. Oshaughnessy, Jesus Jimenes

David Schlatter, Braids Ron Van Rooden, Afghanistan

KELBYONE .COM

23
 Photoshop Artistry
Stu Greenberg, Gringotts Bank Day-to-Night

Andrew Kavanagh, Ocean Dreams

PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

PHOTOSHOP ARTISTRY | WINNER

David Schlatter, The Player

24
 Wildlife Photography

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY | WINNER

Diana Davidson, Untitled
Natalia Shaw, Bornean Orangutan

KELBYONE .COM

Diana Davidson, Untitled

25
 Here Are Your Latest Online Courses

How to Create a Personal Connection

with Your Travel Images with Scott Kelby
Join Scott Kelby in London, England, as he shows you how he created a personal connection to the photographs
he created on this trip. The idea is to tie together your travel photography and something you are passionate
about to tell a more personal and meaningful story of your trip. As Scott travels around London he shares tips and
techniques to help you get the most out of your next trip and then puts it all together in an Adobe Express page.

Making Your Skies Look Fantastic

with Photoshop with Scott Kelby
Have you ever taken a photograph only to find that the sky has problems? Or, have you taken an outdoor portrait but the
sky doesn’t look all that interesting? In this class you’ll learn how to make the sky look amazing in all kinds of situations.
From taking the sky you have and enhancing it to repairing it to completely replacing it from scratch. By the end of the
class you’ll have a complete toolkit of techniques for making your skies look their best in all your photos.
 Every week, we publish at least one new training course.
Check out these brand-new courses below:

Mobile Photography: Capturing the

American West with Jefferson Graham
Join Jefferson Graham on an epic tour of national parks, old towns, and scenic western byways as he teaches you how to capture
amazing photos and videos with your mobile devices. From the best light to the worst, good weather and bad, Jefferson teaches you
how to treat your mobile device like a pro camera to get pro shots. With lessons on video capture, drone photography, timelapse,
post processing, and more you’ll come away with a new appreciation for what you can create with mobile photography.

Get the Most Out of Your

Raw Files in 5 Steps with Serge Ramelli
Learn five key steps for creating natural drama in your photographs! Join Serge Ramelli in this
session from the Lightroom Conference as he breaks down the five steps he takes on every one
of his RAW photos. Through a series of demonstrations you’ll learn exactly what you
need to do to get the most out of your RAW photos.
 SERGE RAMELLI
LIGHTROOM LABORATORY

HOW TO REDUCE NOISE IN LIGHTROOM

In this article, we’ll show you how to reduce the noise in your photos using a very noisy image taken in
Paris, which was shot handheld at night at 4000 ISO. We’ll first show you the old way to reduce the noise
in a photo and then the new way with a great AI-based feature in Lightroom. We’ll also go over a couple
of recent updates that are very practical. Let’s get to it!

ALL IMAGES BY SERGE RAMELLI

THE OLD WAY TO REDUCE NOISE

First, we’ll show the old way of removing noise from
photos in Lightroom Classic. Start by going to the Manual
Noise Reduction section in the Detail panel. For this
image, we’ll set the Luminance to 26 and then go up to
the Sharpening section and set the Amount to 78 (in my
old personal formula, my goal was to get the sum of the
Noise Reduction and the Sharpening Amount close to 100).
Next, set the Masking for the Sharpening. Here we set it
to 67 to remove the sharpening from the water and sky.
As you can see, the noise is much better in the image
(shown above) but it’s now super blurry. It wouldn’t look
good if you were to print it and, honestly, it’s borderline
for posting on social media. Original image

28
  L I G H T R O O M L A B O R AT O R Y

THE NEW WAY

TO REDUCE NOISE
Now let’s get into the new way
of removing noise in your photos
that uses AI. Click on the Denoise
option in the Detail panel, and
you’ll see the Enhance Preview
dialog. If you click-and-hold in
the preview area, you’ll be able to
see the before and after of your
photo, giving you an idea of how
much noise will be removed and
how sharp the photo is going
to be. Here, the photo was so
blurry that we set the Amount of
Denoise to 70, checked on Create
Stack, and clicked Enhance.

You can compare the two

techniques by selecting the two
photos, pressing C for Compare
view, and then pressing Shift-Tab
to hide the panels for a larger
view. You can really see just how
incredible the AI Denoise is.
Select: Manual Noise Reduction; Candidate: Denoise

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Closeup of original image Closeup after Denoise

29
  HOW TO

ANOTHER EXAMPLE
Here’s another photo shot at
6400 ISO and underexposed.
Let’s first do a quick retouch
so that you can better see
the detail in the photo.

STEP ONE: In the Basic panel,

we’ll open the Shadows to
+100, and set the white points
(Whites) to +65, Highlights
to –100, Tint to +38, Temp to
4289, and the Contrast to +40.

STEP TWO: The brightest part

of the photo is where the
eyes of the viewer will be
drawn and, in this case, it’s
at the bottom right where we
don’t want people to look. To
fix this, you can click on the
Masking icon (gray circle with
dotted outline) and select
Linear Gradient. After draw-
ing a Linear Gradient on the
lower-right corner, we low-
ered the Exposure to –0.66
to darken that area.

STEP THREE: To guide the

viewer’s eyes in the photo,
you can use a Radial Gradi-
ent. So click on Create New
Mask in the Masks panel,
select Radial Gradient, draw
a gradient where you want
to focus the viewer’s atten-
tion, and boost the Exposure.
Here we drew the gradient in
the sky area near where the
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

setting sun would be, and set

the Exposure to 1.48. Now
everything in the gradient
is brightened, but we only
want the sky to be brighter
to make it more natural. So
let’s click on the three dots
next to the mask in the Masks
panel, and select Intersect
Mask With>Select Sky.

30
  L I G H T R O O M L A B O R AT O R Y

STEP FOUR: Let’s boost the overall

Exposure to +0.70 so you can see
how noisy the photo is.

STEP FIVE: For this photo, let’s

apply the old Noise Reduction
technique with the Luminance
set to 30 (try never to go above
30, otherwise, your photo will be
blurry), the Sharpen Amount at 65,
and Masking at 52. As you can see,
this photo is still unusable.

STEP SIX: Now let’s select the De-

noise option and set the Amount to
70. After clicking Enhance, it takes
about 25 seconds to render. You
can again compare the two options,
selecting the two photos, pressing
C, and then pressing Shift-Tab. It’s
incredible how amazing the photo
looks (below). Denoise works really
Step Five
well for night photos.

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Select: Manual Noise Reduction; Candidate: Denoise

31
  HOW TO

Closeup of original image Closeup of final image

KEEP YOUR EYE

ON THE CURVES
A cool feature that was recently updated
is the eye icon next to each panel in the
Develop module. When the eye is lit up, it
means you’ve used settings in that panel
and, if you click-and-hold on one of those
eye icons, you can see the before version
of your image for that specific panel.
Another great recent addition is the
ability to use curves in your masks. In this
photo, let’s click the Masking icon and then
click on Sky to create a mask for the sky.
We can now really tailor-make our edits to
the sky mask by using the Curve. We’ll start
by clicking the white circle (Point Curve)
next to Adjust. After clicking on the curve to
add a point, we’ll set the Output to 88 and
the Input to 43, and then we’ll add another
point at 186/174. Next, we’ll select the red
dot, which is the curve for the red channel,
and set a point at 115/119. Then, we’ll add
a point on the green curve at 126/112, and
finally, a point on the blue curve at 113/114.
This makes the sky spectacularly natural
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

and beautiful.

There you go! I hope that this has inspired

you to recover some old noisy photos with
this new technique. Now you have even
more tools to have fun and create great
images with some of the latest features
in Lightroom! n

32
Visit Platypod.com to pre-order
your Platypod Handle today!

Exclusively at platypod.com
 ROB SYLVAN
UNDER THE LOUPE

GET TO KNOW POINT COLOR

IN LIGHTROOM CLASSIC
With the Adobe MAX release of Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, and Camera Raw, we got a few new editing
tools to add to our workflows. In this article we’re going to learn the ins and outs of the new Point Color
tool, which can be found in all desktop versions of those products.

The first thing to note is that the HSL/Color

panel has been modified and renamed to
Color Mixer, which brings it into line with the
panel of the same name in Lightroom. The
controls for the old HSL/Color panel that
allowed for adjusting the hue, saturation, and
luminance of a single color (within a fixed
range of similar colors) is now accessible
via a drop-down menu under the Mixer tab
within the Color Mixer panel.
The real news is that we gained the Point
Color tab that allows for much finer control
over a customizable range of color. The HSL
panel remains unchanged and is still quite
useful. So, what does Point Color do that
the HSL panel can’t? There are two key
functions of Point Color that differentiate
it from HSL: First, the Point Color allows
you to fine-tune the range of affected colors
with a high degree of control, whereas each
specified color in the HSL panel affects an
unchangeable range of similar colors. We’ll
look at some example photos to show why
that’s important.
The second key difference is that Point
Color is available as a global adjustment
(affecting all selected colors in the entire
photo at once) and as a local adjustment
in the Masking panel. Taken together it
means that, while HSL can be quite useful
when you’re happy with adjusting the pre-
determined range of colors affected by
each slider, we now have a tool that gives
us far more control to narrow in on a very
specific range of colors, and make desired
adjustments both globally and locally. Let’s
look at some examples to see how this works.

34
  UNDER THE LOUPE

GETTING ORIENTED
When you first view the Point Color
panel, there’s not much to see but,
as soon as you grab the Sample
Spot Color tool (Eyedropper) and
click on the color you want to
sample, it comes to life. Note:
I’ve expanded all the disclosure
triangles in the panel to reveal
all the options.
Next to the eyedropper you’ll
see a color swatch representing
the selected color; as you adjust
the color, this swatch will change
to show both the original selected
color and the adjusted color. Below
that is a large color field displaying
the selected color (indicated with a
black pin) within the range of hues
that will be affected. Below the
color field is a color bar displaying
ALL IMAGES BY ROB SYLVAN a larger view of the selected color
(this also changes to show the
original and adjusted color). To
the right of the color field is a
color rectangle that shows the
selected color within a range of
luminance values.
With the color selected you can
now adjust that color’s hue, satu-
ration, and luminance, as desired,
by dragging within the color field
or color rectangle, or by moving
the Hue Shift, Sat. Shift, or Lum.
Shift sliders. Dragging left or right
within the color field adjusts the
Hue Shift. Dragging up or down
in the color field adjusts the Sat.
Shift. Dragging up or down in the
color rectangle adjusts the Lum.
Shift. As you make adjustments by
dragging in the color field, you’ll
see how the corresponding sliders
move in concert. Likewise, moving
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any of the sliders results in seeing

a white circle move in the corre-
sponding color field to represent
the resulting change.

35
  HOW TO

PUTTING IT
INTO PRACTICE
Let’s say we wanted to shift
the color of this young wom-
an’s dress from a very satu-
rated red to a less saturated
pink. If we were to use the
Targeted Adjustment tool (TAT)
in the Mixer tab, we could try
to shift the hue, saturation,
and luminance toward a more
pink color but, because the
original color was so similar
in hue to her skin tone and
lips, the end result is less
than desirable. There’s no
way to constrain the range
of affected hues with this
tool or use it with Masking.

Let’s reset those adjust-

ments, switch to the Point
Color tool, and use the eye-
dropper to sample the color
of the dress. Looking at the
colors in the color field we
can tell we’re going to run
into the same issue we had
before, so let’s use the Range
controls to see if we can limit
the range of affected color to
avoid affecting her skin and
lips. The Range slider can
be shifted right to expand
the range of affected color
or shifted left to decrease
the range. With the Range
disclosure triangle expanded,
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

you can access more granular

controls for fine-tuning the
hue, saturation, and luminance
range you want to adjust. In a
case like this, it can be helpful
to check the Visualize Range
box, which changes the unaf-
fected colors to grayscale and
leaves only the affected range
in color.

36
  UNDER THE LOUPE

Now we can clearly see

areas of her arms and face
that will be affected if we
don’t constrain the range of
affected colors (see image on
previous page). Each of the
Range sliders has a point rep-
resenting the sampled color
with a box around that point.
You can reposition the box
around the point, or extend or
contract the range to either
side of that point to zero in
on the color.

With the range dialed in

to affect just the dress, we
can now make the desired
shifts in hue, saturation, and
luminance to change the color
of the dress without affecting
her skin.
That type of adjustment
wasn’t possible before using
just HSL, because we had no
way to customize the range
of hues being affected. As
close as the color in the dress
was to some of the color in
her skin tone, we were able
to limit the affected range
of hues narrowly enough to
isolate the dress from her skin;
but there’s even more power
in Point Color than in just
limiting the range.
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37
  HOW TO
“T hat’s where Point Color’s
other difference over the
Mixer (HSL/Color) can
be found, which is
in Masking.”
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
38
POINT COLOR IN MASKING
In that example we were just (barely)
able to isolate the color we wanted
to adjust from the subject’s skin
tones, but what if limiting the range
of colors wasn’t possible, or the same
color existed in more than one place
within the photo, and you only wanted
to adjust it in one location? That’s
where Point Color’s other difference
over the Mixer (HSL/Color) can be
found, which is in Masking. Let’s
reset/remove the global Point Color
adjustment by double-clicking the
Point Color label at the top of the
panel. Alternatively, you can Right-
click a color swatch and choose to
delete the swatch (or all swatches)
from the contextual menu, which
does the same thing.
Next, click the Masking icon (gray
circle with dotted outline) to enter
that tool. Since we have a person
in this photo, we can leverage the
AI-based masking ability to select
just her dress with a single click on
the Clothes checkbox under Person
Mask Options, and then clicking
Create Mask.
With her dress masked, we can
expand the Point Color panel and
use the eyedropper to sample the
color of her dress as we did before.
With Masking, you’ll likely see the
overlay by default at first but, as
soon as you select the eyedropper,
the mask is hidden so you can see
what you’re sampling. Thanks to the
mask we don’t need to worry about
  UNDER THE LOUPE

constraining the color range, as this adjustment

(and any other adjustment we decide to apply to
this mask) will only affect her dress. That means
we can focus on only adjusting the color of the
dress right away.

There’s often more than one way to achieve an

adjustment, and the right way will depend on the
photo and what you’re trying to achieve. With Point
Color, you have such a fine level of control that just
wasn’t possible before in Lightroom, and you can
still utilize the HSL/Color controls too. This opens
wonderful possibilities for fine-tuning skin tones,
removing color casts from shadows, adjusting
product photography to match the desired color,
and so much more. n
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Before

39
 SEAN MCCORMACK
MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

BORIS FX OPTICS 2024

There are very few plug-ins that make us giddy at “Maximum Workflow.” Sure, there are plenty we love
and use all the time, but there’s only one where we can lose hours just playing. That plug-in gets subtly
added to most final photos and outrageously added to others. The name of the plug-in is at the top of
this page, so you don’t need to guess what it is. It’s Optics , which Boris FX just updated to the 2024
version. Without even waiting until the conclusion of this article, let’s just say it’s worth getting.

ALL IMAGES BY SEAN McCORMACK

There are no surprise additions to the 2024 edition of the
plug-in, such as Particle Illusion in Optics 2023, but it still
has a load of tricks that make it worthwhile. For a start,
there are eight new filters, Particle Illusion gains things
such as masking and force turbulence, and you have more
than 100 new presets added to the existing cornucopia.
If you’re new to Optics, this is Boris FX’s still-photog-
raphy application. Normally, Boris FX resides in the video
space with many VFX Oscar winners using their plug-ins.
Optics takes this magic and uses it for photos instead of
moving pictures. Saying Boris FX does great light leaks
is like saying the Avengers have someone good with a
bow. Sure, it does great light leaks, but that’s the tiniest
bit of power in the program. You can check out previous
articles in Photoshop User to see more on the inter-
face and the general use of the plug-in. In this article,

40
  MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

we’ll concentrate on the filters, their
parameters, and occasionally their
presets. Boris FX Optics’ greatest
asset is fun, so let’s go have some!
THE SMART SOLUTION
Run the installer with Lightroom
Classic or Photoshop closed. While
both applications will run Optics
2024 fine, we recommend that you
work through Photoshop for better
post-editing options. Even if you have
no skill in Photoshop, the process
is straightforward.
the Layers panel and choose Convert to Smart Object. That’s the hard part
done. With the smart object layer selected in the Layers panel, go to the Filter
menu, and select Optics from the Boris FX section.
LET’S PLAY!
There’s a large range within the new features, so we’ll show them here used
in a few different photos. We’ll start with this London evening scene from
along the Thames. While the photo was shot at f/11 at 21mm, the background
is definitely on the edge of sharpness. While there’s good sharpness in the
foreground, it wouldn’t hurt to have more. You can also add to the atmosphere
by using the new Smoke and Fog filter.

STEP ONE: From Lightroom Classic,

use the shortcut Command-E (PC:
Ctrl-E) to open your file in Photoshop.
Next, use the shortcut Command-J
(PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate the Back-
ground layer. You can also drag the
Background layer down to the Create
New Layer icon (+) at the bottom of
the Layers panel to duplicate it.

STEP TWO: From there, you’ll convert
this new layer to a smart object, which
allows filters to be edited again after
saving and closing the filter or plug-in.
One handy feature of Optics is the search bar for Filters. If you know the
name of the filter you want, simply enter it in the bar. It’s much faster than
scrolling to the category and then to the effect. Magic Sharp is located in the
Image category, but it’s faster to type “Magi” or “Shar” and pull it from the
filter search.
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This is useful when you’ve made a

mistake, want to tweak settings, or
even add more, without degrading
the file. Right-click on the layer in

41
  HOW TO

Magic Sharp
Magic Sharp is like Photoshop’s Unsharp
Mask on steroids. You have the obvious
Amount, Radius, and Threshold sliders, but
they’re only the start. You’ll see there’s also
an Edge Sensitivity slider.
Sharpen Amount controls the overall
sharpening across the whole range of low to
high detail in a proportional manner. Sharpen
Threshold allows you to apply sharpening to
areas that need it, ignoring areas that are
already sharp. Moving the slider reduces
the areas with added sharpening. Sharpen
Radius sets the area out from the edge that’s
affected by the sharpening. Edge Sensitivity
determines how much of an edge is altered
by the other settings. A setting of 0 means
the image has more sharpening applied
while 100 makes it a lot more subtle.
Below this are three further sets of
controls for determining where the sharp-
ening is applied. These are Detail Tuning,
which controls Fine, Small, Medium, and
Coarse details; Channel Tuning for RGB,
Chroma, and Luma (meaning sharpening
color, or sharpening just the brightness);
and Range Tuning for Shadow, Midtone,
and Highlight areas.
Each of these sets has further controls to
refine for each area, which means you can
target different parts of a photo and apply
different sharpening settings to them. Each
separate area needs its own layer.
For this photo, we’re only looking for the
high-frequency detail. You should always
check sharpening at 100% view as well as
in Fit view. Because there’s so much inter-
action between settings, don’t be afraid to
refine as you go. Always remember that,
even if it looks too sharp, you can use the
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

layer Opacity control to reduce the effect.

For this image, we’ll set Fine Sharpen in
Detail Tuning to 200 to affect only the small-
est edges. An Edge Sensitivity of 98 reduces
the edges affected. Radius and Threshold
should be set to 1. The Sharpening Amount
is to taste, but 60 looks good here. Channel
Tuning is left at 100 in each section to affect
the entire image, while Range Tuning is left
off for the same reason.

42
  MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

Smoke and Fog

Create a new layer using the shortcut
Command-L (PC: Ctrl-L). From the
filter bar, find Smoke and Fog. What’s
the difference? Well, smoke is more
defined, while fog is more diffuse.
Most smoke- and fog-related effects
tend to be based on one look, but
Optics 2024 has two unique controls
that bring evolving smoke and fog to
still photography. The first is Time,
which effectively makes the effect
video-based. Click-and-drag on Time
to progress the movement of the
smoke and fog. Here’s the Time
setting at 563.
The second control is for Fog,
and that’s Random Seed. Try dif-
ferent numbers to see what suits
the photo best. A Random Seed of
27 suits this photo, as it reduces
the fog around the lamp.
There’s a third option under
Smoke called Smoke Sprite, which
you’ll probably use less. This
changes the base shape of the
smoke. The default is Fuzzy and
looks more natural than the others.
Most of the controls in the
Smoke and Fog sections are fairly
self-explanatory, such as Color and
Contrast. Coherence controls the
randomness of the smoke with
higher values giving more direc-
tion to the smoke. Scale in Smoke
doesn’t change the size of the
smoke, but it does change the size
of the particles that make up the
smoke. It looks better at 65 here. In
Fog, Scale does increase the size of
the fog. We’ll leave this at 25, but
set Opacity to 60. Level sets the
gamma of the fog so, unless you’re
looking to create a whiteout, leave
it at lower values. The only other
potentially confusing item is Use
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Source Alpha, which uses an alpha

channel from the original file only
if one is present. If not, this setting
changes nothing.

43
  HOW TO

Prism
While Prism is part of Smoke
and Fog, it’s also a filter. As
part of Smoke and Fog, it
offers optical distortion, like
shooting through a glass
prism or with a poor lens. The
only control that’s not obvi-
ous is Weight, which controls
smoothness. At low values, it’s
more stepped, while at high
values, it’s much smoother.
Here’s a Weight setting of 35
with Prism turned on.

ORBS
Let’s move to a new image
for Orbs.

STEP ONE: Open your photo

in (or into) Photoshop. Dupli-
cate the layer and convert it
to a smart object as explained
above. From the Filter menu,
choose Optics under Boris
FX. Once again, from the
Search option in Filters, make
a search, but this time look
for Orbs. You can also find it
in the Light category.
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

STEP TWO: What’s wonderful

about Orbs is that it creates
bokeh-based light sources
to overlay on your photo. No
more late nights out shooting
out-of-focus lights to layer
on your photos! Pop over
to the Presets panel on the
left and look for Flicker Flies,
then select it.

44
  MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

STEP THREE: This places the orbs

over the entire image and, while it’s
cute, we need to mask it out over our
subject. Click the mask icon (frame
with a +) and choose EZMask.

STEP FOUR: Left-click to paint green on

the areas you want to keep; Right-click
to paint red on areas you don’t want.
Finally, select the icon of a person with
the pen on the edge to Paint Unknown.
Left-click and paint blue on the hair
edges. Finally, click the cog icon at
the end to generate the mask.

STEP FIVE: To view the image, click

on the thumbnail in the layer stack.
To edit the mask again, click on the
mask. Onscreen there’s a small target
icon, which is the Light Source, visible
in the Parameters, but much easier to
manipulate by dragging around the
image. As you move and release the
target, the parameter updates, and
each orb light direction changes. For
this, we’ll place it on the headlight.

STEP SIX: There are a lot of settings

in Parameters, but there are a few
that really impact the look. Count
is the number of orbs on the image.
Illumination Radius controls how far
from the Light Source position the
orbs appear. For this photo 165 covers
the entire photo. Invert Illumination
means the orbs appear outside the
Illumination Radius. To see this in the
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photo, you’d need to lower the radius.

Here’s how our image looks when we
set Count to 525, Illumination Radius
to 75, and turn on Invert Illumination.

45
  HOW TO

STEP SEVEN: Falloff allows further
orbs to soften, so we’ll increase this to
66. Depth, Intensity, Scale, and Color
are obvious, while their Randomness
sliders allow you to add more variety
around the base setting. The only
change here is setting Depth Blur to
31 and Depth Blur Randomness to
73. The other settings look great as
they are. The only other change is to
click-and-drag on Time to move along
the timeline. As the Flicker Amount
is set to 100, orbs should come and
go on the timeline. At 24, the balance
looks perfect. You can also change
the Random Seed for a different look.
A final note is that Prism is turned on,
giving colored edges to the orbs. Turn
this off if you want a cleaner orb, but
it works for this photo.
STEP EIGHT: If this is all you need,
click Apply to return to Photoshop,
then Save to get your edit back to
Lightroom Classic. We’ll use this photo
to show another of the new filters:
Super LED.

SUPER LED
Super LED has a basic premise: make the photo look like it’s on an LED screen;
but you choose how the LEDs manifest as you have full control over them.
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

46

Scale changes the size of the
LEDs. For LED Shape you can choose
between a square, a circle, and a
polygon (3–9 sides available). Other
controls allow you to vary brightness
and even randomly include dead pixels.
It’s a neat tool, but is probably more
useful for designers than photog-
raphers; unless you’re compositing
 MAXIMUM WORKFLOW
in TV screens in your latest sci-fi 11, positioned by a Seed of 4. Gap is
world design. at default.
Here’s our shot where the closed
sections in Parameters (including
Prism) are off. Scale is set to 5, and
Gap is at 0, with the relevant XYs
at 100. The shape is Square, Bulb
Fade is off, and Stagger is set to Col-
umns. For Dead LEDs, we selected
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Before
47
  HOW TO

ATMOSPHERIC GLOW
This wonder filter actually contains
nine separate smaller filters from
glow to orbs. For this photo, we’ll
focus on the glow and the light rays.

Before

STEP ONE: Open your forest scene

into Optics. Search for Atmospheric
Glow and apply it. From the Presets
choose Just Warm Rays Screen
Left. The filter loads with rays
clearly in the wrong place.

STEP TWO: It’s easy to change this:

just grab the red target and move
it over the sun. This is moving the
Volumetric Rays Position.

STEP THREE: This is already a huge

change from the original, but let’s
play a little more. Expand Orbs and
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

Enable it. Using the eyedropper in

Color, click on the edge of the sun
area to pick a matching color. Color
Randomness should be set low to
keep it this color match, so use 10.
Set the Count to 48. If you want the
orbs to be around the edges only,
Invert Illumination should be on,
with an Illumination Radius of 40.
For orb size, set Scale to 33. The Step Two

48
  MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

final change from the default is

a Depth Blur of 18, with a Depth
Blur Randomness of 55. Light
Source is left in the center for
the orb positions.

Step Three

STEP FOUR: Turn on Smoke/

Fog and leave the settings at
their defaults to add haze to
the shot.
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Final

49
  HOW TO

AND THE REST…

There are a few more filters in
there, but space only allows
for so much. S_PrismLens is
interesting, as it replaces hand-
held glass prisms and crystals
with real ones. There are a lot
of controls in it, so as awkward
as it is to get the position on
a prism in real life, it still takes
work to get the perfect look
in Optics. That said, you can
save this as a Preset for reuse,
something that’s much harder
in real life.
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

S_UltraGrain gives a way to

fully customize grain, allowing
you to not only emulate the
digital noise of any camera, but
also emulate film. You can fully
control grain in the RGB chan-
nels, as well as by brightness.
It’s a perfect tool for building
your own grain, reflecting your
personal style.

50
  MAXIMUM WORKFLOW

USE YOUR ILLUSION

Particle Illusion had updates as well.
These mostly add to motion-graphics-
based workflows with things such as
force turbulence. To access this you
need to select a Particle Illusion preset.
Here we’ve taken Turbulence Tester and
clicked into Launch PI 2023.5 to open
the Particle Illusion interface.
From the Action menu, we chose
Add Force. By playing back on the
timeline we could observe the changes
we were making. For more detail, we’d
need to give a full tutorial on Particle
Illusion, and that’s beyond our scope.
You can hit Render to make a video of
the timeline and effectively create a
Cinemagraph. Otherwise, click Apply
to go back to Optics and make any
additional changes. We’d previously
set Master Scale to fill the photo. Other
settings we used are visible in the
panel just by way of example.
Other new features in Particle Illu-
sion include particle trails, new gradient
colors with a gradient editor, emitting
particles from masks, and general
speed and usability enhancements.

I SEE THE LIGHT!

While we’re not seeing as big a jump
as the addition of Particle Illusion in
the previous version, the new additions
are very targeted and should appeal
to creative photographers. That, after
all, is where Optics is aimed. It may
seem as if you can only use these for
stylized portraits, but they also work for
product photography, as graphic design
elements, and even on landscapes.
As we said at the start, it’s a worthy
update. If you’re on a subscription
package, the new version is free. New
subscription-free licenses are $149.
KelbyOne members get a 15% discount
from the Discounts section under Perks
KELBYONE .COM

in their member Dashboard. n

51
 IBARIONEX PERELLO
VISUAL STORYTELLING

WALKING THE TIGHTROPE OF HIGH ISOs

Over my life as a photographer, I’ve owned a variety of tripods, ranging from inexpensive, plastic tabletop
models to ones with high-quality carbon fiber legs. One cost as little as $20, while another was valued in
the high hundreds. They had in common not how they were used but how rarely they were used.

ALL IMAGES BY IBARIONEX PERELLO

52
  V I S UA L S T O RY T E L L I N G

It’s not that tripods don’t play an essential role in the

photographic process. There have been situations when
they proved invaluable, such as when practicing macro
photography or still life; however, my favored genres of
photography, street and travel photography, make a tripod
a burdensome add-on.
I’ve made the effort to include it as part of my
process, but I’ve spent more time making space for the
device in my luggage and carrying it through airports
than I’ve ever used it. I recently purchased a compact
tripod for my most recent vacation to France but found
myself leaving it in the hotel room rather than including
it in a small camera bag. I decided to forgo wearing a
backpack this trip to keep things simple. As we walked
through the city, it quickly became evident that there
was no simple way of carrying this compact tripod
without adding yet another item. I must admit to being
a slow learner.
Thankfully, most of my photographs didn’t require a
tripod. I usually had an abundance of light with which
to work. When the light was overcast, I could increase
my ISO and, with my Fujifilm X-T5’s image stabilization,
I could produce a sharp and well-exposed digital file.
There were circumstances, though, when lighting proved
to be a challenge.

SHOOTING IN LOW LIGHT Original image

The beautiful cathedrals in Paris and Bordeaux are stunning
examples of architecture, design, and artistry. A lovely
sense of awe is experienced when passing through the
large wooden doors and entering a world from a very
different time. The woodwork, paintings, and stained-glass
windows produce an experience unlike anything else in
the world. It’s a special invitation for both an experience
and a photograph.
The former is easier to do. Sitting on a pew allows
your senses to take in the space, thinking of the tens of
thousands of workers, artisans, and parishioners who
made this house of worship a special place.
Yet, despite their beauty, these cathedrals are
photographic challenges. Even with a shaft of light
passing through stained-glass windows, the light is
insufficient for using a low ISO and a small aperture.
Usually, these are the exact circumstances for using a
the look of a photograph rather than relying on the
phone’s algorithm. Thankfully, we live when it’s possible
to produce a great result, even when hand-holding a
camera and using a high ISO.
I produced this image by using an ISO of 6400, because
I wanted to use a small aperture to maximize the depth of
field. The camera’s image stabilization made hand-holding
the camera viable, but I still braced my body against a
pillar to ensure a sharp result.
A few years ago, I wouldn’t have tried this; but the
improved sensors and the recent improved noise-reduction
of Adobe Lightroom has made the impossible possible.
Adobe’s recent addition of noise reduction is nothing
short of miraculous. In a fraction of the time, it provides
significantly better results than the traditional manual
control. For photographs with high ISOs of 3200 and
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tripod, but many locations prohibit it. It’s often easier higher, the new Denoise feature becomes the first step
to produce an image with a smartphone, creating a of a digital workflow. [KelbyOne members can click here
pleasing result that looks better than the RAW file from to download a smaller DNG version of this image to follow
a digital camera; however, many of us prefer to control along for practice purposes only.—Ed.]

53
  HOW TO

STEP ONE: Let’s begin by reduc-

ing the presence of noise in
the RAW file. Go to the Detail
panel in the Develop module
and, in the Noise Reduction
section, click Denoise. In the
Enhance Preview window,
change the Denoise setting
from its default of 50 to 40,
and then click on the Enhance
button. This process creates a
new DNG version of the RAW
file. (Note: Denoise has already
been applied to the download-
able practice file, as it won’t
work on the downsized DNG
version of the image.)
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

54
 V I S UA L S T O RY T E L L I N G

STEP TWO: Next, you’ll begin a

standard workflow for enhanc-
ing the RAW file in the Basic
panel. In the Tone section, set
Exposure to +1.10, Highlights
to –50, and Shadows to +14.

STEP THREE: Tweak the midtone

contrast by using the controls
in the Presence section of the
Basic panel. Set Texture to +24,
Clarity to +9, Dehaze to –5, and
Vibrance to +19.

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55
  HOW TO

STEP FOUR: The scene’s wide

dynamic range demands more
precise control than the stan-
dard Contrast slider. In the Tone
Curve, select the Parametric
Curve tool (first icon to the right
of Adjust) and set Highlights
to –13, Lights to –13, Darks to
+31, and Shadows to –10.

STEP FIVE: The cathedral show-

cases many colors, including
direct and reflected lights, and
a kaleidoscope of color on the
floor from the stained-glass
windows. The HSL/Color panel
controls allow for a more real-
istic rendering of the scene.
In the Saturation tab, set
Red to +5, Orange to –40,
Yellow to –10, Aqua to +11,
Blue to +18, Purple to +9, and
Magenta to +7. In the Lumi-
nance section, set Red to –18,
Orange to +10, Yellow to –15,
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

Green to –16, Aqua to –7, Blue

to –10, and Magenta to +4.

56
 V I S UA L S T O RY T E L L I N G

STEP SIX: There’s a slight dis-

tortion due to the placement
of the camera. This is easily
corrected in the Transform
panel. In the Upright control,
select Auto, and the distortion
is immediately corrected.

STEP SEVEN: This image ben-

efits from the addition of con-
trolled grain, which mimics the
look of a high-ISO film and
is especially pleasing when
making a print. Create this
by going to the controls for
Grain in the Effects panel. Set
Amount to 20, Size to 19, and
Roughness to 26.

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57
  HOW TO

The result is a testament to

the advances of both camera
manufacturers and software
developers. Images I’ve made
in the past, even when bene-
fiting from my photo-editing
skills, didn’t produce a file that
I would have enlarged beyond
an 8x10" print; however, I’d
print this image at 20x30" with
complete confidence.

This doesn’t mean that I’ll never

use a tripod again; there are
still moments where it will be
necessary. What’s important
is that I don’t have to ponder
whether to add it to my next
travel kit. n

Original image
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

Final image

58
 TERRY WHITE
LIGHTROOM Q&A
Q. I have a Creative Cloud subscription.
Is it possible to have LrC on my main
computer (as I already do), and download
Lr to my iPad to use just for travel? How
do you keep them separate?
I get this question a lot. Let’s start with the fact
A. 
that your Lightroom Classic catalog is unique to
Lightroom Classic. Installing Lightroom on your
iPad, iPhone, Android phone, or even the same
computer doesn’t impact your Lightroom Classic
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
catalog; however, if you enable syncing in Lightroom
Classic, any albums created in Lightroom will be
synced to Lightroom Classic. To turn on syncing
in LrC, click on the cloud icon at the top right and
click Start Syncing. Any collections in Lightroom
Classic that you enable for syncing will sync smart
previews of any of those photos up to Lightroom
Cloud and down to your mobile devices and Light-
room desktop. Any edits you make anywhere, will
appear everywhere.
60
ALL IMAGES BY TERRY WHITE
Q. 
I recently received an email from Adobe
stating that it plans to discontinue Creative
Cloud synced files starting February 1, 2024.
Does that mean that we’ll no longer be able
to sync photos from LrC to other devices?
First off I’d like to apologize for the confusion this
A. 
email caused. I wish it had been worded a little better
with specific examples. Rest assured that this does
not impact your Lightroom or Lightroom Classic
photos in any way either locally on your hard drive
or those you have synced to the Lightroom cloud.
What this email refers to is the Creative Cloud Files
folder that’s on your desktop computer. When you
installed Creative Cloud way back when, it created
a folder in your Users area of your hard drive that
worked similarly to Dropbox, Google Drive, and
other cloud-based folder sync services. This is the
folder that will no longer sync. The items that you
currently have in it, if any, will simply remain in the
folder, but will no longer be synced to the cloud at

Q. 
assets.adobe.com. For even more information, you
can click here. I hope that helps clear things up.
A. 
Q. H
 ow do I activate the Search feature
in Lightroom Classic?
T his question came up during one of my Lightroom
A. 
classes at Photoshop World 2023 when I showed
the AI-based Search feature in Lightroom. As your
photos are synced to the cloud in Lightroom, this
AI-based feature can use the cloud to identify various
aspects of your photos automatically, based on
machine learning, without you having to keyword
them first. In my example, I searched for “waterfall,”
The AI-based Search feature in Lightroom is not available in Lightroom Classic
 LIGHTROOM Q&A
and it found hundreds of waterfall shots that I’ve
never keyworded because the AI knows what a
waterfall looks like. Because your photos are stored
locally in Lightroom Classic, it doesn’t have this
Search feature.
I noticed in one of your classes that you have
more than 78,000 photos in Lr. How do you
decide which images to import into Lr and
which ones into LrC? Are your 78,000 images
in Lr a subset of your LrC images? Are they
a total overlap, no overlap, partial overlap?
My Lightroom Classic catalog currently has 271,803
photos in it; however, I only have 76,791 of those
photos synced to Lightroom cloud. This is by design,
because I don’t need every photo I’ve ever taken
to be synced to the cloud. In Lightroom Classic,
you get to decide which photos are synced to the
cloud by putting them in a collection and syncing
that collection. This works out great for me as I can
control what goes to Adobe’s Cloud and what doesn’t.
Remember, though, that any photos synced from
Lightroom Classic to Lightroom cloud are only syncing
a smart preview; therefore, you still need to back
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61
  HOW TO
up all of your photos. I find myself importing most
of my new shoots into Lightroom desktop so that
I have that full-resolution version in the cloud, and
the originals sync down to Lightroom Classic, so
I genuinely have the best of both worlds.
Q. 
If I choose Edit Original (because I forgot to
do something to a TIFF in Photoshop), when
I save the changes, it makes me write over
the original. It should automatically do that.
It doesn’t do that when using a PSD. So, other
than changing to using a PSD for external
editing, is there anything I need to change?
If I understand the question, you’ve edited a photo
A. 
in Lightroom Classic, sent it to Photoshop, and then
saved it back to LrC. The resulting edit created a TIFF
file. Then you wanted to make further edits to that
TIFF file back in Photoshop, so you chose Photo>Edit
In>Edit In Adobe Photoshop 2024. In the resulting
dialog, you selected Edit Original so the TIFF opened
in Photoshop again with all the layers intact. You did
your edits and hit save.
If that’s the workflow, it should just automatically
save over the same TIFF file back in LrC. As you
noted, this is the way it works with PSD files as well.
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
62
I did a test and temporarily switched my default to
TIFF instead of PSD and I never got a TIFF dialog
when I made two round trips to Photoshop and back.
When I tried the same thing in Lightroom (cloud),
however, I got a TIFF Options dialog for the first
time I saved the file in Photoshop, but not for any
subsequent edits.
Q. 
If I have a bunch of photographs and use Auto
Tone on the first picture, then synchronize
Auto Tone across all the remaining photos,
will the exact same settings that were applied
to the first picture be applied to all the photos?
T hat’s a great question. I love being able to edit
A. 
multiple similar photos in Lightroom Classic via
Auto Sync; however, I also love using Auto Tone.
The good news is that Auto Tone is AI-based, so it
actually looks at each photo individually and applies
the best settings for each. To test this, I selected two
drastically different photos in the same collection,
turned on Auto Sync at the bottom right, and hit
Auto Tone. Then I looked at the Basic Tone sliders
for each and they were in fact different. n
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 SEÁN DUGGAN
LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS
One of my favorite new features in Lightroom is the ability to work with files that are stored locally on your
computer or hard drives. While Lightroom is still primarily a cloud-based app, this creates new workflow
possibilities for photographers who don’t need, or want, all their images to be synced to the cloud. This
month, we’ll look at working with the new Local Storage feature, as well as a useful tip for updating a
Lightroom Classic catalog.

LIGHTROOM LOCAL STORAGE: BRIDGE FUNCTIONALITY

NO NEED TO ADD OR IMPORT
In the Photos panel (P), you’ll find two tabs at the top:
Cloud and Local. Up to now, to work with your images
in Lightroom, you had to click the Add Photos button, or
choose File>Add Photos. In the illustration shown here,
notice that the option to Add Photos only appears in the
Cloud tab. If you want to work with images on your local
hard drives, there’s no need to add or import them into
Lightroom. Simply click on the Local tab, click Browse,
navigate to a folder of images, and then select the photo
with which you want to work.
IN LIGHTROOM
The Local option in Lightroom functions pretty much
the same as Adobe Bridge. Essentially, it’s a file browser
that allows you to view all the folders and images on
your system. In Bridge, you can choose to open a photo
directly into Adobe Camera Raw or Photoshop to apply
edits that change the appearance of the image. In
Lightroom you can also process the image using the
controls in the Edit panel, as well as apply flags, star
ratings, and keywords. And these changes can be made
even if the image isn’t synced to the Lightroom cloud
(more on selective cloud syncing in a bit).

XMP UNDER THE HOOD

Just like with Bridge, when you work with a RAW file in
the Local view and make any change (e.g., Edit panel,
flags, ratings, etc.), an XMP sidecar file is created
that contains a record of the changes you made. This
file is saved in the same folder as the image and can
be interpreted by other Adobe apps that read Adobe
XMP files. If you’re new to the concept of an XMP file,
it’s just a text file that contains a record of how the
file has been edited. If you delete the XMP file, all the
changes you made to the associated image will also
be removed.

ADD FOLDERS
TO FAVORITES
Next to the Browse option at the top of the Local tab,
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

you can also select Favorites. The default choices are

typically the Desktop and the system-level Pictures or
Photos folders, but you can add other folders to this list
simply by Right-clicking a folder, or clicking the three-
dots icon to the right of the folder’s name, and choosing
Add as Favorite. In the Favorites view, you can use the
same shortcuts to remove a folder from the Favorites list.
And while you’re looking at the photos in your folders, note
that you can see the folder path (i.e., the “breadcrumbs”)
above the thumbnails.

64
  LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS

ALL IMAGES BY SEÁN DUGGAN

Copying photos to the cloud

COPY PHOTOS
TO THE CLOUD
When working in the Local tab,
the images and changes you make
to them will only be visible in
that tab in the desktop version of
Lightroom. If you want an image to
be synced to the Lightroom cloud,
so it’s available in Lightroom for
mobile or Lightroom on the web,
you can click the Copy to Cloud
button at the upper right above
the photo, or you can Right-click You will find newly uploaded photos in the Cloud tab
on an image to access the same
option. This also works if you’ve
selected several photos. You can
find the newly uploaded photos in
the Cloud tab of the Photos panel
under Recently Added in the All
Photos section.
If you want to copy an entire
folder of photos to the cloud,
Right-click the folder name in
the Folders panel on the left or
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click the three-dots icon. You can

also Right-click the folder name
in the folder path/breadcrumbs
above the thumbnails. Copying an entire folder of photos to the cloud

65
  HOW TO
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
UPDATE EDITS TO CLOUD
When you copy photos to the cloud, the operative word
here is “copy.” It uploads a copy of the file, including all
the edits you’ve made up to that point, to the Lightroom
cloud. It doesn’t remove the file from the folder on your
local hard drive. At this point, any additional changes
you make to the cloud file won’t be synced to the local
file, and changes to the local file won’t be automatically
66
synced to Lightroom in the cloud. If you do make new
modifications to the local file, you can use the button at
the upper right to Update Edits to Cloud. The new edits
you applied to the local copy of the photo will be added
as a new version to the Lightroom cloud photo. This
ensures that you won’t accidentally overwrite any edits
you made to the cloud version of the photo.
  LIGHTROOM TIPS & TRICKS

FEATURES NOT AVAILABLE

WITH LOCAL FILES
Speaking of versions, though they’re
very useful for exploring different
creative directions for a photo in the
cloud Lightroom, they’re not avail-
able when working with files that
are stored locally. Taking advantage
of this feature is one reason why
you might choose to upload a copy
of a photo to the cloud. There are
also a few other features that aren’t Upgrading Lightroom Classic by accepting the prompt
currently available with locally stored
files, such as:
• O
 rganizing multiple photos
in a stack
• People view
• T
 aking advantage of the
AI-powered search engine (orig-
inally known as Adobe Sensei)

WORKING WITH
LOCAL FOLDERS
We’ve already seen that you can
Right-click on a folder for a range of
options such as Add as Favorite and
Copy to Cloud. You can also rename
a folder, create a new subfolder inside
an existing folder, and drag a folder
onto another folder to move it inside
that folder.
One thing to be aware of is that
you may experience a temporary
hiccup if you rename or move a folder
outside Lightroom. In the test that
I did with both renaming a folder and
moving it into another folder in the
Mac Finder or Windows File Explorer,
I did run into an error message about
this in Lightroom’s Local tab; but, after
clicking OK to dismiss this message,
the folders panel updated to show the
correct name, as well as the correct
location of the recently moved folder.
Your mileage may vary, of course, but
Setting the newly updated catalog as the default catalog
the cloud-based Lightroom: you don’t
have to worry about folders!
UPGRADING YOUR LIGHT-
ROOM CLASSIC CATALOG
Let’s switch gears now and turn our
attention to Lightroom Classic. The
annual Adobe MAX conference was
recently held in Los Angeles and, as
is often the case during this event,
many of the Adobe apps, including
all of the Lightroom apps, released
a major update.
After you update the Lightroom
Classic app on your computer, the first
time you open the image catalog that
you’d been using, you’ll be informed
that it needs to be upgraded to take
advantage of the new features and
improvements in the latest Lightroom
will be assigned to the new, upgraded
copy of the catalog. The difference
is that the new version number for
the current Lightroom (i.e., -v13),
will be appended to the previous
catalog filename.
If you had configured the Default
Catalog setting to open your previous
catalog, the upgrading process should
automatically update this setting in
the General Preferences (it did on my
system). But if you find that clicking
on the Lightroom Classic icon tries
to open the previous version of your
catalog, here’s how to fix that: Locate
your new upgraded v13 catalog (it will
be in the same folder as your previous
catalog) and double-click on it to open
it into Lightroom Classic 13. Once
the catalog is open, go to Lightroom
KELBYONE .COM

I wanted to let you know about this Classic. This is a normal part of Classic (PC: Edit)>Preferences and,
in case you run into it while working the annual updating of the program. in the General tab, go to the Default
with local folders in Lightroom. Of You’ll see the filename of the current Catalog section and set the v13 catalog
course, that’s another advantage of catalog, as well as the filename that as the default catalog. n

67
Every year at Adobe MAX in the month of October, Adobe announces a ton of new updates and technologies.
And every year we cover all the latest features in Lightroom and Photoshop here in the pages of Photoshop
User. This year, however, Adobe released the Photoshop update several weeks before MAX, so this time around,
we’re covering the Lightroom updates, plus the advancements in the Generative AI models. We’ll start with
Lightroom, which is covered by Terry White, and then we’ll move into the AI features with Scott Valentine.

© Associated Press

INTRO AND BACKGROUND GRAPHICS © ADOBE STOCK


NEW LIGHTROOM AND
LIGHTROOM CLASSIC
FEATURES RELEASED
AT ADOBE MAX 2023
By Terry White
I recently got back from Adobe MAX in L.A., where
Adobe took the wraps off new versions of Lightroom,
Lightroom Classic, Lightroom on mobile, Lightroom on
web, and Adobe Camera Raw. Here are the highlights
and main new features:
LOCAL STORAGE IN LIGHTROOM
Lightroom Only
This is a major change for Lightroom that many users have
been requesting. With Local Storage, you now have the
choice to either store and work on your images and videos
in Lightroom’s cloud, or work locally. Working locally means
clicking on the Local tab and having immediate access to
your local drives and network storage. You can click on
any folder to see its images and videos. You can click on
ALL IMAGES IN THE LIGHTROOM SECTION BY TERRY WHITE
any locally stored photo or video and immediately start
editing it, without first adding it to Lightroom or syncing
it to the cloud. The Local tab is essentially a file browser.
If at any time you decide to sync your photo/video to
the cloud to back it up and have it available on all your
devices, you can click the Copy to Cloud button at the top
right. The photos/videos will still be stored locally in your
folders, but a copy with the edits will be synced to the
cloud. You’ll have the option to continue working locally
and sync any future edits that you make. [For more on
Local Storage in Lightroom, check out “Lightroom Tips
& Tricks” in this issue.—Ed.]
HDR OPTIMIZATION
Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom
for Mobile (iOS & Android), and Lightroom for Web. Requires
a Display that Supports HDR.
Lightroom and Lightroom Classic have been able to
Merge to HDR for a while now; however, up until now, the
HDRs you’ve merged or imported as single images have
been displayed in SDR (standard dynamic range). As of
the Adobe MAX releases, you can now edit and display
HDR on your HDR displays, and export HDR images to
69
 JPEG, JPEG XL, and AVIF. HDR-capable displays have
been around for a while. As a matter of fact, iPhones have
had HDR-capable displays ever since iPhone X. The latest
MacBook Pros and iPad Pros also have HDR-capable
displays. On the Windows side, there are options from
LG and other display makers.

Lens Blur before

LENS BLUR: EARLY ACCESS

Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom for Mobile (iOS &
Android), Lightroom for Web, and Adobe Camera Raw

This is one that I’m pretty excited about: the ability to apply
Lens Blur to your existing photos and any new ones you
take. Lens Blur uses AI to determine your photos’ depth,
allowing you to blur the background selectively. You can
add beautiful, realistic bokeh to your photos and even
change the shape of the bokeh. There’s a Focal Range
slider to control where the focus is and isn’t, as well as
a brush to paint in focus or blur. Lens Blur after
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

Lens Blur interface

70
Point Color in masking

POINT COLOR
Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Adobe
Camera Raw, and Lightroom for Web
The HSL/Color panel has been renamed
the Color Mixer panel to bring it in line
with Lightroom. There are two tabs in
the Color Mixer panel: Mixer and Point
Color. Under Mixer, you’ll find the usual
HSL and Color controls. The new Point
Color option gives you a new way to
selectively edit colors in your photos.
The best part is that it works within the
masking features to get the ultimate
control or color changes/corrections
to your subjects. [For more on Point
Color, see “Under the Loupe” in this
issue.—Ed.]

AND MORE
Lightroom Classic now supports teth-
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ering to the Nikon Z8! Also, the new

editing experience in Lightroom on the
phone is streamlined and easier.

71
 FAQ
While these new Lightroom features are welcomed by
most, there are some common questions that I’ve been
getting, especially on Lightroom’s Local Storage. So, rather
than you having to wait another month for the answers
in my Q&A column, let me answer them here.
Q. With the introduction of Local Storage, does this spell
the end of Lightroom Classic?
A. We still have a full team of people working on Light-
room Classic, which is an application beloved by many
customers, all of whom we wish to keep happy.
Q. L ocal Storage in Lightroom on desktop is great.
I don’t see the same feature on iPhone and iPad. Will
we get Local Storage on mobile, too?
A. When you use Local Storage in Lightroom on desktop,
the edits you make are stored locally either in the files
themselves, if they’re a compatible file type such as JPEG,
or as an XMP sidecar file stored locally right next to the
RAW file. These .xmp files contain the actual edits and
metadata changes.
On mobile, specifically iOS, there’s no centralized file
system where your images/videos are stored; they’re
stored in the Apple Photos app. This makes it tough to
store the edits locally. This is why there isn’t the same
functionality for Local Storage on mobile. With that said,
Lightroom on mobile did get BYOCR (bring your own
camera roll). This means you’ll now see a Device tab in
Lightroom on your mobile device. You can tap Device
and see all the photos and videos on your camera roll
without first importing them into Lightroom. If you edit
any photos and videos, they’ll be imported automatically
into Lightroom, where they’ll be synced to the cloud and
backed up.
Q. I want to try Local Storage in Lightroom. Is there a way
to use it on my images that are in Lightroom Classic?
Is this feature coming to Lightroom Classic?
A. I’ve gotten this question a few times now, and it usually
stems from people trying to do a few different things.
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
First, with Lightroom Classic, although your images are
stored in folders on your drives, the edits are stored in
your Lightroom Classic catalog. Therefore, if you point
Lightroom for desktop to a folder of images/videos that
are being managed by Lightroom Classic, Lightroom
won’t see the edits. You can save the edits to the actual
files while in Lightroom Classic, but this isn’t a workflow
I’d recommend if you intend to continue using LrC. You’d
likely create metadata conflicts. If you plan to move to
Lightroom, and not use Lightroom Classic anymore, then
72
yes, this would be the way. I don’t think we’ll see Local
Storage come to Lightroom Classic anytime soon.
WHAT FEATURES HAVE WE GOTTEN
SINCE THE LAST ADOBE MAX?
Adobe MAX is usually every October, and that’s when we
typically see some major Lightroom updates. But Adobe
also releases performance updates, bug fixes, new lens
and camera support, and other new features throughout
the year. Let’s take a brief look at what Lightroom features
were introduced at last year’s Adobe MAX in October
2022 and what we’ve gotten since then.
OCTOBER 2022
Last year’s Adobe MAX brought us the following features:
X The Content-Aware Remove tool
X  eople Masking made it onto the scene, including
P
AI masking for selecting Face Skin, Body Skin, Eye-
brows, Eye Sclera, Iris and Pupil, Lips, Teeth, and Hair
X  couple of my favorite new AI masking features
A
were the Objects masking tool and the ability to
select Backgrounds
X  ightroom mobile got Adaptive Presets for Portrait,
L
Sky, and Subject.
APRIL 2023
Here’s what we got in the April 2023 release:
X AI Denoise
X The use of Curves in People masking
X The ability to easily edit video in Lightroom
X  dditions to People masking, including Facial Hair
A
and Clothes
X  he ability to choose which version of Photoshop
T
opens when using the Photoshop>Edit In command
in LrC.
JUNE 2023
Summer releases are usually the last major releases
before MAX. Last June we got the following:
X Create Edit Replay on Lightroom mobile
X  Refine Saturation slider in Point Curve in LrC
A
and Lr desktop
X  e also got the ability to add grain to a photo while
W
in Masking.
I’m really enjoying this year’s releases and can’t wait to
see what the team comes up with in 2024.
kintsugi

AI AT ADOBE MAX
By Scott Valentine

Adobe MAX 2023 wrapped up in October

and, traditionally, we’d use this space to
talk about new features released in Pho-
toshop. This year, Adobe changed things
up and released all of Photoshop’s new
features in September. So, what shall we
chat about?
The big buzz at MAX 2023 was, of
course, AI and, in particular, generative
tools that extend the already impressive
capabilities of your Creative Cloud account.
Things are changing quickly and now
that Adobe Firefly has been moved out
of public beta, it’s time to round up the
newest AI goodness!

FIREFLY IMAGE 2 MODEL

Firefly Image 2 Model is only available
through the web apps at the moment.
There’s no official timeline for releasing
it to in-app use, which currently relies on
the original model. If you want the best
quality generative work, you should stick
to the web version for now.
ALL IMAGES GENERATED FROM ADOBE FIREFLY EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

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73
 How’d you like this crew to lead your next business?

IMAGE QUALITY
I’m just going to dive in and say “Wow!”
The new model adds a few controls, but
the standout update for me is photore-
alistic people rendering. That’s it. Adobe
has really done their homework in this
area and developed natural imaging
results that are truly outstanding.
I’m blown away by the quality of how
Firefly renders skin, hair, and eyes, to
say nothing of the fabrics and depth of
field. It’s just gorgeous! And, in some
cases, you’ll even get skin blemishes
and other irregularities. Adobe claims
that the new model has been given
more “knowledge” about skin, hair, eyes,
body structure, and everybody’s favorite
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

giveaway AI artifact, hands! No, I’m not

kidding. Check this image out.

74
 Maybe portraits aren’t your thing. How
about some flowers? Let’s have them sitting
on a reflective table.
I’m not sure how you get more realistic
than having an AI-generated image that you
have to “spot” remove dust from glass! The
new Image 2 Model renders larger and more
detailed pictures and does so in roughly
the same time as the prior version. There’s
also enhanced support for longer prompts
so you can give more expressive, detailed
descriptions to Firefly.
Oh, and you’re also getting much larger Firefly can supply prompt suggestions
images, up to 2,688x1,536 for widescreen
and 2,048x2,048 for square. That’s a lot of Tip: There’s an Advanced Settings box at the bottom of the controls,
pixels coming at you! with a text entry box. Use this to exclude certain elements from your
If you’re feeling stuck with writing your image, like people, clouds, or blue. This is called “negative prompting”
prompt, Firefly can suggest additional ele- and it’s meant to help set boundaries on the image-generation process.
ments. Prompt guidance is a way to help Some training image subjects may generally be associated elements
users expand or reword their prompts for that you don’t want, and so the engine will try to include them. If you
better results. find these elements showing up, you can try to remove them here.

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75
 NEW CONTROLS
Firefly’s new image model has been updated with
more information about landmarks and public areas
as well as cultural references, and some new training
sets that help increase realism for photographic
output. But “new” isn’t always “better,” and Adobe
seems to have remembered this: there’s an option
to use the older Image 1 Model. At the top of the
controls sidebar is a button for Model Version.

If you’ve saved old prompt links and want to

get back to those earlier styles, choose the Image
1 Model. Note that this removes the new features
and controls, and reverts the Content Types back
to Photo, Art, Graphic, and None. Under Firefly
Image 2, you only get Photo or Art, but there’s an
Auto switch that makes an intelligent guess of your
output style based on the language in your prompt.
Speaking of controls, you now have a Visual
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

Intensity slider that appears to govern stylization

and uniqueness of the output. Compare these two
images on the right. The top one is the result with
the slider all the way to the left; the bottom one
is from the slider moved all the way to the right.
I just said “Wow!” again.
Okay, there’s a lot more to get to here. The
next slider is Style Strength and it’s tied to the
next new capability called Style Match (sometimes

76
called Generative Match). From here you can choose a Clicking on the Reference Image Gallery button brings
reference image from the gallery, or you can upload your up a thumbnail gallery of available styles on which Firefly
own image to use. Most image models require hundreds has already been trained. Choose from various painting
to thousands of images to identify a style, and some only and watercolor styles, sketches, 3D looks, illustration,
require a handful. In this instance, Firefly attempts to and graphic looks, as well as a few popular photographic
extract a characteristic style directly from a single image. themes. What you won’t find are named styles or artistic
I’ve had mixed results with Style Match, but it’s defi- movements. This is another step Adobe is taking to help
nitely an exciting feature, as it allows you to skip much preserve artists’ intellectual property rights, which supports
of the prompting that would otherwise be necessary to ethical use of AI training and application.
describe a particular look.
Artists will be happy to know that uploading an image
causes the new Content Authenticity feature to kick
in. Your image’s metadata is scanned for any copyright
restrictions, and a brief search is run against an online
database to try and prevent people from stealing other
artists’ unique styles.

Left ©Scott Valentine

Original on left with output on right

Any image you upload will be stored as a thumbnail

and used to build a library to help prevent theft of more
specialized looks.
I uploaded one of my stylized portrait effects
and asked for a portrait facing to the right.
As you can see in the image above, the overall
look is pretty good, but the details in texturing and
brushstrokes are completely missing. I suspect that in the
future we’ll be able to upload multiple images to train the
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model on specific styles to get better results. That being

said, I could easily use these results as a starting point
and then manually complete the effect.

77
 Here’s a much more interesting
result using one of the built-in styles.
Beautiful!
You don’t have to choose a style
that’s specifically related to your
image. For example, there’s nothing
that holds you to applying only por-
trait effects to a portrait; try using
a Neon style with a landscape!

If you’ve selected Photo as

the Content Type, down near the
bottom of the controls, you have
an additional module called Photo
Settings (also with an Auto switch).
These give you some basic sim-
ulated camera controls such as
Aperture for depth of field, Shutter
Speed for motion blur, and Field of
View for focal length.
A feature I’d really like to see is
preserving the same image content
and subject but revisualized with
the new lens settings, as if you were
on location and “zooming with your
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

feet,” as Ansel Adams might say.

Note: Text to Image and Gener-

ative Expand are both available
through Adobe Stock. In the top
menu, click on Generate to open a
reduced-feature version of Firefly.

Top: 14mm; Bottom: 300mm

78
EDITING AND OUTPUT
Now that you’ve generated some amazing images, it’s time
to do something with them! New to Image 2 is the ability
to apply Generative Fill directly in the web interface. It’s
available under the Edit button along with Show Similar
and Use As Style Reference (previously Use As Reference).
Choosing Generative Fill opens up a new view where you
can make selections with a brush or automatically remove
the background. On the left of the interface, you have the
option to Insert or Remove content as well as panning
your image. Just as in Photoshop, you paint where you
want to replace content (or use it like the Remove tool). Brush controls
Some images will come with artifacts that need to
be healed or removed, or backgrounds that need to be
replaced. Firefly makes this relatively simple.
Removing the background doesn’t leave you with a
transparent PNG, which would have been really helpful.
Instead, it’s meant to allow you to replace the background
with Generative Fill. Even sending the image to Express

Background removed

doesn’t preserve the transparency. Interestingly, using

Download results in a 16-bit PNG file that supports
transparency, but the background isn’t actually removed.
You’ll have to do that in Photoshop!
Once you’ve completed your selection and started
the Generative Fill process, you’ll get the familiar three
versions as thumbnails below your image. Select one
and continue working or use the Download button at
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the upper right to keep a copy.

New to Image 2 is the ability to apply Generative Fill directly

in the web interface

79

You can also share from this screen,
but the options are limited to: Submit
to Firefly Gallery, Copy Image, and
Edit in Adobe Express. In the main
workspace you also get options to
copy a link to the image or to save
to your own CC library.
The Copy Link option creates a
shareable link that can be used to
invite others to remix your image,
or they can use the result as a style
reference for working on their own
images. Content Credentials are
automatically applied to protect your
original image, while allowing others
to build their own creations. Try it
out on this castle! Here’s the link
to the image.
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
Tip: Place the share link in Alt text on
social media sites to let your followers
start on their own remix journeys.
80
Share button expanded
in main workspace
HEY, MOBILE USERS! Alternatively, you can save images
Adobe didn’t forget about you. With straight to your device for immediate
most current devices, you can use social media sharing, and all Content
Firefly just as you would on a desktop. Credentials are preserved.
Open a common browser such as Wow! (Another one!)
Safari, Chrome, or Firefox and go
to firefly.adobe.com, log in with
your CC credentials, then describe
your image. You’ll have all the same
controls placed at the bottom of your
screen for phones, while tablets will
look more like your desktop.
In both cases, you have similar
sharing options, but this is a great
opportunity to send images straight to
your CC Library. Then you can open
your creations in any application that
supports library access.
The headshot gallery that you saw
earlier in this article was generated
on my iPhone and saved to my library.
I then opened Bridge and selected
the files I wanted. Finally, I went to
Tools>Photoshop>Contact Sheet II to
create the 3x3 grid. Since Firefly and
Libraries rely on Creative Cloud, the
process was fast and easy.
ADOBE EXPRESS
There are additional options under the Edit menu that
open your image in Adobe Express, Adobe’s online
template-based design suite (the Firefly Design Model).
Express may be your one-stop solution for creating
social media campaigns, explainer videos, and even print
collateral. Integration with Firefly means you can fire up
and manage a new campaign entirely from your browser
but, for non-AI artists, it’s also a boon for all kinds of
marketing needs.
Using the share button, choose Edit in Adobe Express
to send your image over to the new workspace and get
going. Your image will show up as a background layer
in Express, ready to accept additional elements, type,
shapes, video, audio, and whatever else you can find!
One of the coolest features is being able to resize your
piece for several different platforms or uses. Tap or click
the Resize button, choose all the formats you need, and
then use the Duplicate and Resize button to generate
properly sized template starting points.
You can also start off in Adobe Express and use
Generative Fill or Text to Image directly. This approach
lets you dive right in using the correct media sizes right
away, and you can simplify things by having Express
create some templates for you to start.
Template sizes
Part of the new Firefly Design Model, Text to Template,
lets you tell Express what you generally want to produce,
and it will draw from tens of thousands of examples to
provide you with starting points that are ready to go.
Replace images, color themes, and text easily while
preserving the layout and overall look.
At the bottom of this page is a quick example created
with the prompt “portrait photography class.”
When you choose a generated template, you can edit
everything about it, including using it as a foundation for
other media assets for different sites and output. Within
Express, under the Media button on the left, you’ll find
a simplified version of Firefly Text to Image in case you
need to add more elements to your creation.
Yep, that’s another “Wow!” from me.
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81
 SEND TO LIBRARY
When using Firefly, if you’d prefer to
go straight into your suite of desk-
top or mobile apps instead of using
Express, the best method is to send
your Firefly-generated image to your
CC Library. From the Share button,
choose Save to library. I created a
specific library for Firefly Experiments
to try this.
Your image comes in as a smart
object named for the prompt you
entered. There’s more informa-
tion embedded in the image, too.
Right-click on the thumbnail in your
Libraries panel and choose Get Info.
You’ll see an enhanced view of what
data goes along with your image.
There are two icons in the upper
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
82
left: the pencil icon opens the image
in Photoshop; the sparkle icon tells
you the image is generated content.
If you hover your cursor over the
name of the image, you’ll see another
pencil icon that allows you to edit
the description text.
For those of you who share your
libraries or work in content teams,
Libraries can be amazing collabo-
ration tools. If you work in a team,
consider copying the shareable
link in Firefly and pasting it into the
Description field in the Libraries panel.
This way your teammates can remix
the image and add to the library,
helping to build a folio of related
images from Firefly.
TEXT TO VECTOR
One more Firefly model needs to be
pointed out: Text to Vector Graphic.
This is only available within Illustrator,
and it’s pretty amazing. Choose a
Type (Subject, Scene, Icon, or Pattern)
of object to generate, enter your
prompt, and select a variation. You
can add all the variations to the art
board if you like.
Here, I generated a snowy moun-
tain scene, then generated some
reindeer as subjects.
Keep the Match Active Artboard
Style toggle engaged to generate
elements that use a similar look and
feel, so everything harmonizes.
I haven’t used Illustrator in years
and, even at my peak, this would have
taken me a couple of hours. Every
piece of the image is editable, just
like all vector objects in Illustrator.
Add text, recolor, scale, etc. It’s all
ready to go.
The results are immediately useful
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for any number of purposes, including

taking back to Adobe Express for
more social media goodness!

83
 NOW, THE BAD NEWS
(SORT OF)
All of this shiny new capability
comes at a price, of course.
Firefly’s heavy lifting is done
on Adobe’s servers, and that
means computing time, elec-
tricity, facilities, and equipment
all need to be covered. Gener-
ating images with AI comes at a
heavy overhead cost in terms of
computer power, but fortunately
Adobe has been pretty generous
to Creative Cloud subscribers.
At the time of this writing,
Adobe charges a single credit
for most uses of generative AI,
whether in applications such
as Illustrator or Photoshop, or
through online applications such
as Firefly web or Adobe Express.
This can add up quickly, so let’s
take a brief look at how you’ll
access these credits.
There are several ways to
obtain Generative Credits. The basic-use plan is free and less compute overhead and may be using spare cycles
comes with 25 credits. All you need is an email to log in, so, all things considered, this seems like a reasonable
and you’ll get access to Firefly online at no charge. At the solution for the dedicated customer base.
end of the month, you’ll be topped up, but credits do not For those on Express and Firefly only plans, they
accumulate or carry over. Free plan images come with a can only use two credits per 24-hour period until the
watermark to identify them as being made with Adobe Firefly. plan resets. Again, these daily overage allowances do
Alternatively, you can purchase a Premium monthly not stack up.
plan if you’re not already on another Creative Cloud plan. If you’re on a free plan, you have the option to upgrade
For $4.99 US per month, you’ll get 100 monthly credits to paid or simply wait for the next cycle to start. Hey, what
as well as access to a selection of Adobe Fonts. do you want for free?
There’s an Adobe Express Premium plan for $9.99 US Adobe has more detailed information available at the
per month that comes with 250 credits, access to tons following links:
of stock, nearly all Adobe Fonts, and 100 GB of storage. X https://helpx.adobe.com/firefly/using
This is clearly aimed at social media movers and shakers /generative-credits.html
and is a really tempting deal if you don’t already have a
https://helpx.adobe.com/firefly/using
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

Creative Cloud plan.
Speaking of CC subscribers, the CC Single App
Photography or Lightroom plans come with 100 credits.
Those with the 1 TB Photography, Adobe Stock, Illustrator,
and other plans get 500. If you’re a CC All Apps subscriber,
you’ll get 1,000 credits per month.
What happens when you hit your limit? Again, it varies
by plan. For CC subscribers at all levels, your AI generation
gets slower until your plan resets. Slower generations take
X
/generative-credits-faq.html#commercial-use
On the plus side, you’re only charged a single credit
per generation, not per image. That means a set of four
images generated online only costs one credit. Similarly,
Generative Fill creates three variations, but you’re only
charged for a single generation inside Photoshop. Keep
in mind that all paid accounts can use Generative AI
images for commercial work.

84

CONCLUSION & INSPIRATION
Adobe has gone full tilt at AI generation this year, helping
us create beautiful results and explore new ideas at (nearly)
lightning speed. Personally, I’m excited to start learning
to use Illustrator again after having barely launched it in
nearly a decade. Text to Vector means that I can get a leg
up on my designs and have something to work with right
away. Express has also renewed my interest in developing
social media content because it’s become so much easier
and, with the template generation function, I no longer
feel overwhelmed trying to decide on assets and formats.
For those worried about intellectual property protection,
embedding Content Credentials in the generated works
is a solid first step in securing your valuable ideas and
concepts. Look for that to grow as more tools adopt the
framework, and it becomes more common in the industry.
But my absolute favorite development is the advance-
ment of the Firefly Image 2 Model that’s turning out simply
breathtaking results. I already have a list of projects with
which Firefly will help, such as planning photoshoots,
mocking up designs, compositing elements, and just
tinkering with new ideas.
If you haven’t started already, I highly recommend
searching for #AdobeFirefly on X (formerly Twitter) for
©Lee Brimelow
examples of outstanding artists using Adobe’s Generative
AI tools. You can also search for work made with Firefly
on Bēhance by clicking here. You’ll find prompts, hints,
hacks, and use cases all over. For those of you still looking
for whimsy and nuttiness, Firefly still has you covered, as
shown above in this one final example from Lee Brimelow,
Interim PM for Model Quality for Adobe Firefly.
We’re in a new mode of inspiration, and there’s a lot of
incredible energy to absorb. Once you’ve had a chance
to explore, I’m confident you’ll join me with a “Wow!” or
two of your own! n
“Adobe has gone full tilt at AI
generation this year, helping
us create beautiful results
and explore new ideas at
(nearly) lightning speed.”
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85
 COREY BARKER
PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

A QUICK WINTER MAKEOVER

USING GENERATIVE AI
I finally wanted to add a quick effect using those popular new AI features in Photoshop that everyone is
talking about. In a few short steps, I’m going to show how you can completely redress a sunny day photo
into an entirely new winter setting. This is both wildly impressive and scary, as the technology is still in
its infancy. The generative engine is random so, as you go through the exercise, you’ll undoubtedly get
different results every time even when using the exact same prompts.

STEP ONE: The image we have here is a great shot with

©Adobe Stock/paultarasenko

the position of the subject and the lighting, but let’s

pretend this was your favorite photo from a recent shoot,
but the subject needs to be in a winter scene and without
the sunglasses. In the past, such a request would have
demanded a complete reshoot. Instead, let’s exploit some
Generative AI to turn an existing photo into something
totally new.
If you’d like to download the low-res watermarked
version of this image to follow along, click this link,
log in with your Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library

86
  PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

button. Double-click the image

in the Libraries panel (Window>
Libraries) to open it in Photoshop.
To make it easier to work with
the image, increase the resolution
of the practice file. (We normally
don’t recommend enlarging images,
but this is only for practice pur-
poses.) Go to Image>Image Size,
turn on the Resample checkbox,
select Preserve Details 2.0 from
the Resample drop-down menu,
set the Width to 2,000 pixels, and
click OK.
Step Two
STEP TWO: In this case, let’s begin
with expanding the scene. Select
the Crop tool (C) in the Toolbar
and, up in the Options Bar, you
should see the Fill method set
to Generative Expand. Since the
subject is on the right, let’s expand
the scene to the left a bit to make
room for some text or other design
element. Grab the middle handle on
the left side and drag it to the left
to expand the cropping boundary.
We also raised the top edge a little
to restore the top of the subject’s
head. Once done press Enter.

Step Three STEP THREE: Once the AI is done

processing, you’ll see the result
in the image. If you look at the
Properties panel (Window>Prop-
erties), you’ll find three different
Variations have been generated.
Simply click on each one to view
it in the main canvas. In this case,
the first one looks pretty good. You
can see it generates an impressive
blend with little effort. But let’s go
further. First, click on the original
Background layer in the Layers
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panel, which is now called Layer 0

after using Generative Expand, and
go to Layer>New>Background from
Layer so the layer is locked again.

87
  HOW TO
STEP FOUR: With the shot expanded, let’s take a look at
the subject, specifically the eyes. We want to be able
to see the subject’s eyes but in the old days, this would
have been a nightmare to composite manually. Start by
clicking on the Generative Expand layer in the Layers
panel to make it active.
Using the Lasso tool (L), draw a selection around the
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
sunglasses making sure they’re completely contained
inside the selection. Click Generative Fill in the Contextual
Task Bar then enter “remove glasses” in the prompt field,
and click Generate. Eyes can be tricky even for AI so it
may take a few rounds to land on the right pair of eyes. In
the Properties panel shown above, the first result (in the
bottom row) isn’t bad but it could be better; the other two
are just terrible. So we’ll select the first result and click
the Generate button to generate a new set of results (the
top row). This first one in the new set will do for now. It
88
Step Five
blends well but the one eye is slightly bigger. We’ll revisit
this later, but for now, let’s build out the rest of the image.
You may have gotten a good result on your first pass, or
you may need to continue generating additional results
until you get something you like.
STEP FIVE: In the Layers panel, click on the top layer,
which is the remove glasses Generative Fill layer (you’ll
notice that it took on the name of your prompt). Hold
down the Option (PC: Alt) key, go to the Layer menu, and
choose Merge Visible. This will create a merged version
of the image on a new layer at the top of the layer stack.
We’ll keep the original Generative Fill layers below in
case we need them.
 PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

STEP SIX: Now with this merged

layer selected, use the Lasso
tool to draw a loose selection
around the edge of the sub-
ject. Notice we’re keeping the
selection just a little bit inside
the area of the subject. Once
done, press Shift-Command-I
(PC: Shift-Ctrl-I) to inverse the
selection to the background
area. Click Generative Fill in
the Contextual Task Bar and
enter “winter landscape.”
Note: Whether you try the
same words for the prompt or a
combination of different words,
you’ll get a different result every
time. So try various prompts
as you experiment.

STEP SEVEN: You’ll see three

variations of outdoor winter
scenes in the Properties panel.
I really like the way the last
one looks in our example,
especially the way the hair is
picking up the light along the
sides. This places her into the
scene nicely. Again, your results
will be different, so pick the
variation you like, or try again.

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89
  HOW TO

STEP EIGHT: With the winter land-

scape Generative Fill layer active,
press Command-A (PC: Ctrl-A)
to select the entire canvas areas.
You should see the marching ants
around the canvas edge. Click Gen-
erative Fill again and this time type
“falling snow overlay” or something
similar. Once again you’ll be given
three results. They all look pretty
good in our example but I think
I like the third one most. Once
chosen, Right-click on the layer
in the Layers panel and choose
Rasterize Layer. This converts it to
a regular Photoshop layer, allowing
you to freely adjust the layer.

STEP NINE: Start by removing the

color from the snow by pressing
Shift-Command-U (PC: Shift-Ctrl-U),
and then set the layer blend mode
to Screen near the top left of the
Layers panel. Press Command-L
(PC: Ctrl-L) for Levels, and use
the sliders below the histogram
to boost the contrast of the snow
to blend it better with the image.
Click OK, and then click the layer
mask thumbnail on the snow layer
in the Layers panel.
Choose the Gradient tool (G) in
the Toolbar, click on the gradient
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

thumbnail preview in the Options

Bar, and select the Foreground to
Transparent preset in the Basics
folder. Select the Radial Gradient
icon in the Options Bar, and press
X until the Foreground color is set
to black. Then draw a couple of
gradients in the area where the
subject is located to reveal her
through the snow.

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 PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

STEP 10: To put our own color

back in the snow layer, press
Command-U (PC: Ctrl-U) for Hue/
Saturation. Activate Colorize in
the dialog, then adjust the Hue
and Saturation to get a sky-blue
glow on the snow layer. Click OK
when done.
Finally, lower the layer Opacity
to around 75%, giving it an almost
winter fantasy glow.

STEP 11: So far it’s looking pretty

good, but it feels like we can add
one more thing to the winter
theme here: a red scarf. Click
on the merged subject layer just
below the snow layer to make it
active, and then use the Lasso
tool once more to draw a selection
around the area where a scarf
would be visible. Click Generative
Fill in the Contextual Task Bar,
enter “red winter scarf,” and click
Generate. We generated two sets.
Just pick your favorite.

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91
  HOW TO

STEP 12: Let’s revisit those

eyes. You could try to use the
Filter>Liquify tool to adjust
the one larger eye but let’s
try generating another set of
eyes and see what we get. In
the Layers panel, hold down
the Option (PC: Alt) key and
click on the Eye icon next to
the Background layer. This will
turn off all the other layers so
you only see the Background
layer. Click on the Background
layer to make it active.
Draw a selection around
the glasses just as we did
before. Click Generative Fill
in the Contextual Task Bar, type
something different this time
like “remove sunglasses,” and
click Generate. As expected,
we got completely different
results from before, and this
new set of eyes seem to work
much better. Drag this layer
just above the merged subject
layer in the layers panel, and
then turn all the layers back on.

STEP 13: We need one last final

touch on the masking of the
snow layer. If you double-click
the layer mask itself in the
Layers panel on the snow layer,
it will open the Masks settings
in the Properties panel. Just
lower the Density to 90% to
allow some of the snow layer to
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

show through over the subject

just a little bit more.

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  PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

You can see how very different

the images are looking from
when we started versus what
we ended with. As I mentioned,
this is both impressive and scary
and, as these features become
more and more sophisticated,
it will be nearly impossible to
distinguish normal photography
with AI-generated imagery. Good
thing, bad thing? Who’s to say?
Time will tell. In the meantime,
have fun but tread carefully. n

Before

After
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93
 KIRK NELSON
PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

USE PHOTOSHOP’S AI TOOLS

TO BUILD AN AI ANDROID!
One of the more visually interesting films to come out this fall was The Creator, which was a refreshingly
original science fiction story about AI and its struggle against humanity. The Synthetics in the film have a
unique aesthetic using mechanical parts at the back of the head with a hole passing completely through.
With some of the exciting new AI tools in Photoshop, such as Generative Fill, we thought it would be the
perfect project to have the AI tools construct an AI character inspired from the film. AI creating more AI,
what could possibly go wrong?

94
  PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

STEP ONE: Open Photoshop 2024 to

©Adobe Stock/Coetzee/peopleimages.com

make sure you have access to the

new Generative Fill features. Go to
File>New and set the document to
a Width of 2000 pixels and a Height
of 2000 pixels. Keep in mind that
Generative Fill can only produce
pixels for areas that are 1024x1024 or
smaller. If the area is larger than that,
Photoshop will stretch the results
over the selected area. Set the Res-
olution to 300 ppi, and click Create.
Then use File>Place Embedded to
place the image you wish to use,
such as the Adobe Stock image
we’re using here of a woman’s profile
against a solid white background.
If you’d like to download the
low-res watermarked version of this
image to follow along, click this
link, log in with your Adobe ID, and
click the Save to Library button.
Drag the image from the Libraries
panel (Window>Libraries) into the
new document. Resize and position
it as shown here, and press Enter.

STEP TWO: To create the appearance

of an android, the skin should look
more like a manufactured element
as opposed to actual human skin.
Go to Select>Color Range and
set the Select drop-down menu to
Skin Tones. Adjust the Fuzziness
slider to isolate the skin as much as
possible, around 40. After clicking
OK to create the selection, use the
Quick Selection tool (nested with
the Object Selection tool [W] in
the Toolbar) set to Subtract from
Selection (the brush with the minus
icon) in the Options Bar to remove
the eyes, eyebrows, lips, ear, and
nostrils from the selection. Change
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the tool to Add to Selection (the

brush with the + icon) and make
sure any other skin areas that aren’t
fully selected are now selected.

95
  HOW TO

STEP THREE: Click the Generative

Fill button in the Contextual Task Bar
and use the prompt “very smooth
skin.” Click Generate. It’s likely that
the selection area is larger than
the 1024x1024 boundary, but we’re
aiming for a very smooth appear-
ance so the upsampling won’t have
much impact. In the Properties
panel (Window>Properties), look
through each of the three generated
results. When you’ve decided which
one to use, remove the others to
save file space by clicking on the
small trash can on their thumbnail
images. Depending on the results,
it might be necessary to reduce the
layer Opacity in the Layers panel or
use the Brush tool (B) to paint on the
layer mask to remove some of the
generated pixels, remembering that
white reveals and black conceals.

STEP FOUR: Defining a good selection area is critical to to Shape as well. Click to add points, and loosely draw
the generation of the android parts. Start by grabbing out an irregular shape to define which areas to replace
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

the Ellipse tool (nested with the Rectangle tool [U] in
the Toolbar) and make sure it’s set to Shape up in the
Options Bar. Press D to set the Foreground color to black
and, while holding down the Shift key to constrain it to a
perfect circle, draw out a circle that fully encompasses
the ear area of the model (press-and-hold the Spacebar
while drawing the circle to reposition it).
Then switch to the Pen tool (P), click on the square
icon in the Options Bar, and choose Combine Shape (two
solid overlapping squares). Make sure the Pen tool is set
with metal android technology, following her jawline then
down along the back of her neck and head. To create
curves, click-and-drag when adding a point. Click on
your starting point to close the shape, and then press
Enter to hide the path around the shape.
When finished, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on
the shape thumbnail in the Layers panel to create a
selection from the shape, then hide the shape layer by
clicking its Eye icon.

96
 PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

STEP FIVE: Use Generative Fill

to create the android elements
by using the prompt “Android
metal parts that appear worn
and dirty, including joints and
cables, hyper realistic, science
fiction style” and look through
the results in the Properties
panel (Window>Properties).
If you don’t like any of the
generated results, click the
Generate button again to gen-
erate more. Consider altering
the prompt with other terms like
“Highly detailed,” “LED lights,”
“mechanical,” or “robotic.”

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97
  HOW TO

STEP SIX: To better fit the aes-

thetic of the Synthetics from
the movie, there needs to be a
hole going straight through the
cranium where the ear canal
would logically be. Use the
Elliptical Marquee tool (nested
with the Rectangular Marquee
tool [M] in the Toolbar), and
hold down the Shift key to
create a perfect circular selec-
tion inside the main rounded
area of the mechanical area
(don’t forget you can use the
Spacebar to reposition your
selection as you’re drawing
it). Then use Generative Fill
again with a prompt like “hole
going all the way through the
metal parts with a blank white
background visible on the other
side.” There’s a good chance
that the generated options
won’t actually include a hole
that goes completely through
the android head, or you just
can’t generate a hole that looks
right. In our case, it didn’t give
us a hole that went all the way
through, so we’ll continue to
work on that.

STEP SEVEN: To simulate this,

we will combine a couple of
the generated options from
the previous step. Select one
of the Gen Fill variations that
looks like it could be the
“inside of the hole” and create
a circular selection around that
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

area. Press Command-J (PC:

Ctrl-J) to copy those pixels to
a new layer. Command-click
(PC: Ctrl-click) on the new
layer’s thumbnail to create the
selection again and click the
Add Layer Mask icon (circle
in a square) at the bottom of
the Layers panel to use that
selection as a layer mask.

98
 PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

STEP EIGHT: In the Layers panel,

click on the small chain-link icon
between the layer thumbnail and
layer mask to unlink the layer from
the mask. Then click on the layer
thumbnail to make it the active
element and use Command-T (PC:
Ctrl-T) to get the Free Transform
handles. Scale the layer up and
reposition it so the rounded
elements give the impression
of the inside area of the android
head. Press Command-L (PC:
Ctrl-L) to get the Levels dialog
and slide the middle handle to
the right to dramatically darken
the layer. When satisfied with
the appearance, go back to the
“hole going all the way through”
Generated Fill layer and change
to the original preferred option.

STEP NINE: Click on the top layer

to make it active. Click the Create
New Layer icon (+) at the bottom
of the Layers panel, double-click
the name of the new layer, and
rename it “White Circle.” Create
a circular selection smaller than
the previous layer. Then click
on the Foreground color chip
at the bottom of the Toolbar to
open the Color Picker. Click on
the background area around
the subject to sample that color,
and click OK to close the Color
Picker. Hold down Option (PC:
Alt) and press Delete (PC: Back-
space) to fill the selection with
the Foreground color. Then click
Deselect in the Contextual Task
Bar. Go to Layer>Create Clipping
Mask to clip the white circle to
the layer beneath it. Switch to
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the Move tool (V), and drag the

circle down and to the left until
the perspective aligns properly to
complete the illusion of the hole.

99
  HOW TO

STEP 10: Grab the Rectangle

tool (U) and, in the Options
Bar, set the radius (curved
line icon) to 25 pixels so it
will create rounded corners.
Change the Tool Mode from
Shape to Pixels, and press D
to set the Foreground color
to black. Create a new layer
just above the Android metal
parts… layer, and name it “Tab
Edge.” Draw out a rounded
rectangle, making it approxi-
mately the size of the hole but
position it forward of the ear
area, as shown. Go to Edit>
Transform>Perspective and
click-and-drag the top-left
control handle to widen the
left edge of the rectangle so
it looks more like a plastic tab
that fits into the larger head
surface. Now use the Rectan-
gular Marquee tool to create
another circular selection that’s
just a few pixels larger than the
round metallic part, and fill the
selection with the Foreground
color. Click Deselect in the
Contextual Task Bar to cancel
the selection.
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

10 0
 PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

STEP 11: The shape we just

created is really just a vehicle
for creating an edge effect with
layer styles. In the Layers panel,
reduce the Fill setting to 0%,
which renders the layer con-
tents invisible but allows any
layer styles we apply to still
be seen. Click on the ƒx icon
at the bottom of the Layers
panel and select Stroke. Set the
Size to 2 pixels and Position to
Inside. For the color, click on
the Color swatch to open the
Color Picker, and sample one
of the darkest shadow areas
of the mechanical parts. Click
OK to close the Color Picker
but don’t close the Layer Style
dialog yet.

STEP 12: Click on Bevel &

Emboss in the list on the left
side of the Layer Style dialog,
and set the Style to Outer Bevel,
Depth to 200%, Direction to
Down, Size to 4 pixels, and
Soften to 0 pixels. In the Shad-
ing area, set the Angle to 46°
and the Altitude to 32°. Set
the Opacity for the Highlight
and Shadow Modes to 95%.
Click OK.
Duplicate the layer with
Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) and
double-click the word “Effects”
below the copied layer to open
the Layer Style dialog. Turn off
the Stroke effect and change
the Bevel & Emboss settings
so the Style is Inner Bevel and
the Direction is Up. The com-
bination of these two layers
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with “reversed” bevel settings

creates the appearance of a
plastic style tab built into the
head of our android. Click OK.

101
  HOW TO
STEP 13: Often Generative Fill struggles to create per-
fectly round circles. In this case, the outer edges of the
central round element look a bit distorted and dented.
To compensate for this, make the Android Metal Parts…
layer active, and find one of the generated results that
has the smoothest outer edge to the circular area. Create
a perfectly circular selection around that area and press
Command-J (PC: ctrl-J) to copy those pixels to a new layer.
Rename that layer “Rim” and move it to the top of the layer
stack. Change the Android Metal Parts… layer back to your
original generated result.
With the Rim layer active, Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click)
its thumbnail to select it. Click on the Modify Selection
icon (brush) in the Contextual Task Bar and choose Select
Border. Set the Width to 10 pixels and click OK. Click on
Modify Selection again, but this time select Transform
Selection. Hold the Option (PC: Alt) key, and drag a corner
point inward until the selection is completely inside the
Step 13
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
Step 14
102
rim object. Press Enter, and then click the Create Mask
from Selection icon (circle in a square) in the Contextual
Task Bar to create the rim of the rounded parts.
Use Free Transform to scale the rim up and position
it to the inside edge of the Tab Edge circular area, and
press Enter.
STEP 14: Add a Bevel & Emboss layer style to the Rim
layer and set the Style to Inner Bevel, Depth to 100%, Size
to 8 pixels, and the Soften to 0 pixels. Click OK. Then, if
needed, use the Dodge tool (O) to enhance the highlight
areas of the Rim layer and the Burn tool (nested with
the Dodge tool) to deepen the shadow areas. Before
continuing to the last step, double-check each of the
Generative Fill layers to ensure they’re displaying the
preferred generated result. Remove unused Variations in
the Properties panel by clicking the trash icon on each
of them to help save on file space.
 PHOTOSHOP DOWN & DIRTY TRICKS

STEP 15: Hold down the Option (PC:

Alt) key and go to Layer>Merge
Visible to create a merged layer at
the top of the layer stack. Name this
layer “Merge.” Turn this layer into
a smart object with Filter>Convert
for Smart Filters, and then go to
Filter>Camera Raw Filter. In the
Color panel, push the Vibrance
up to +64. In the Effects panel, set
the Clarity to +36, Vignette to –32,
and the Grain to 44. Click OK and
enjoy your AI-assisted creation of
an AI robot!

The best takeaway from a project

like this is to realize that the new
Generative Fill tools are just that:
tools. Ultimately, they’re still limited
in many aspects, and we need
to use classic Photoshop skills in
conjunction with them to get the
final results we want. Viewing the
Generative Fill as another resource
to create pixels to use, similar to
how we use stock imagery, just
gives digital artists another powerful
option when it comes to expressing
artistic vision. n
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103
 LESA SNIDER
BEGINNERS’ WORKSHOP

CREATING A MINIATURE EFFECT

The ability to shrink a person or object and blend them into another background image creates an
eye-catching and whimsical effect. The hardest part of the technique is matching colors between the
two images, but Photoshop’s Harmonize Neural Filter makes that a breeze! In this column, you’ll learn
how to miniaturize a family into a library.

©Adobe Stock/utah51

STEP ONE: Choose File>Open and navigate

to the background photo, such as this library
image that’s free from Adobe Stock. This image
has moody lighting, which will show off the
magic of the Harmonize Neural Filter later on.
If you’d like to download this image to follow
along, click this link, log in with your Adobe ID,
and click the License for Free button. This will
download the image to your computer as well as
add it to your Libraries panel (Window>Libraries).
Double-click the image in the Libraries panel
to open it in Photoshop.

10 4
  BEGI N N E RS’ WORKSHOP

STEP TWO: Now add the family photo

©Adobe Stock/Africa Studio

(also free from Adobe Stock). You can

find that image by clicking here. Choose
File>Place Embedded and, in the dialog
that opens, navigate to the photo you
want to miniaturize, and click the Place
button. (If you downloaded the free Adobe
Stock image, you can drag-and-drop
it from the Libraries panel.) When the
photo appears in Photoshop, press Enter
to dismiss the bounding box resizing
handles. You could resize the photo
now, but first we need to mask out the
white background.
Tip: If you’re starting in Lightroom,
select two thumbnails in the Library
module and then choose Photo>Edit
In>Open as Layers in Photoshop. In the
Layers panel, activate the layer you’ll
miniaturize and choose Filter>Convert
for Smart Filters.

STEP THREE: Choose Select>Select and

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Mask. In the Options Bar at the top,

click Select Subject (circled). Press M
on your keyboard to set the View to
Marching Ants.

105
  HOW TO

STEP FOUR: To remove the floor

between the parent’s feet from
the selection, press R to grab
the Refine Edge Brush tool
(circled). In the Options Bar,
open the Brush Preset Picker
(also circled) and set both
Size and Hardness to around
80. Mouse over to the image
and brush across the offend-
ing area (circled); it’s okay to
brush along the edges of the
shoes and jeans. Keep going
until the area is removed from
the selection. At the bottom of
the Properties panel, set the
Output To menu to Layer Mask
(circled) and click OK.
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

106
 BEGI N N E RS’ WORKSHOP

STEP FIVE: If you end

up with fringe around
the edges of the image
(leftover pixels from the
original background),
you can tighten the
mask with a filter. With
the mask active in the
Layers panel (circled;
notice the white brack-
ets around it), choose
Filter>Other>Minimum.
In the resulting dialog,
set the Preserve menu to
Squareness and Radius
to around 1. You can
toggle the filter Minimum
filter ’s Preview check-
box (also circled) off and
back on to see a before
and after preview of your
settings. Click OK.

STEP SIX: To shrink the

family, press Command-T
(PC: Ctrl-T) to summon
Free Transform. In the
Options Bar, ensure the
Maintain Aspect Ratio
icon (chain link) is
turned on (circled), then
drag the top-left corner
handle inward. When
you’re happy with the
size, point your cursor
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inside the bounding box

and drag to reposition
the family. Press Enter
when you’re finished.

107
  HOW TO

STEP SEVEN: In the Layers

panel, activate the layer
thumbnail (circled) of the
family. Choose Filter>Neural
Filters and, in the workspace
that opens, locate the Color
section and activate Har-
monization (circled). Next,
click the tiny cloud icon next
to its name or click the big
blue Download button on the
right. When the download is
complete, the tiny cloud icon
turns into an on/off switch
and the filter’s settings appear
on the right.

STEP EIGHT: From the menu in

PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

the Reference Image section

at the upper right (circled),
pick the Background layer.
Notice the immediate color
change to the family photo,
which is amazing! Feel free
to tweak the sliders to your
liking but for this image, you
can leave them alone and
simply click OK.

108
 BEGI N N E RS’ WORKSHOP

STEP NINE: The photo looks

good, but we need to darken
the family a little. To do that,
click the half-black/half-
white circle at the bottom
of the Layers panel (circled)
and choose Curves. In the
Properties panel that opens,
click on the first icon at
the bottom (also circled) to
clip the Curves adjustment
layer to the layer below it;
now the adjustment will only
affect the family. Drag the
shadow slider (also circled)
at the bottom left of the
curve rightward so the Input
field is around 15.

STEP 10: Now let’s add a

drop shadow to the family.
In the Layers panel, activate
the family layer thumbnail
(circled). Click the ƒx icon
and choose Drop Shadow.
In the Layer Style dialog,
set Opacity to around 80%
and Size to around 40 px.
Mouse over to the image
and drag downward and to
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the right to reposition the

drop shadow (the cursor is
circled). Click OK to close
the Layer Style dialog.

109
  HOW TO

STEP 11: To hide the drop

shadow from the man’s left
arm and leg, we need to put
the drop shadow onto its
own layer. To do that, Right-
click the effect in the Layers
panel (circled) and choose
Create Layer.

STEP 12: Activate the new

layer and click the circle-
within-a-square icon (circled)
at the bottom of the Layers
panel to add a layer mask.
Step 11
Step 12

STEP 13: Press B to grab

the Brush tool (circled). In
the realm of masks, paint-
ing with black conceals and
painting with white reveals.
So press D to set the color
chips at the bottom of the
Toolbar (also circled) to the
default colors of black and
white, and then press X to
flip-flop them so black is on
top. In the Options Bar, click
to open the Brush Preset
Picker (circled) and choose
a soft brush. Set the size to
around 150 pixels.
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

110
  BEGI N N E RS’ WORKSHOP

STEP 14: Mouse over to the

image and paint to hide the
drop shadow along the man’s
left shoulder, arm, and leg
(circled). Notice your brush-
strokes appear on the mask
in the Layers panel (also cir-
cled). If you mess up and hide
too much, press X to flip-flop
color chips so white is on top,
and then paint back across
that area.

Here’s the final result.

How fun was that? This is

a useful technique to have
in your back pocket, plus
you learned a ton of slick
Photoshop tricks. Until next
time, may the creative force
be with you all! n

Final
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111
 SCOTT VALENTINE
PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND

LET’S DO THE CLONE STAMP SPATTER

Ready for a little chaos? Try out this neat RGB glitch portrait effect! We’re going old school to create
a fresh, stylized look.

112
  PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND

SET UP THE SOURCE DOCUMENT

©Adobe Stock /Valua Vitaly

STEP ONE: Start off with a new, blank document (File>New)

in 8-bit RGB. I’m using a square 3000x3000 pixel document,
with a black background. Bring in your source photo and
scale to fit. If you’d like to download the low-res watermarked
version of this image to follow along, click this link, log in
with your Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library button. Drag
the image from the Libraries panel (Window>Libraries) into
the new document. Resize and position the image as shown
here and press Enter.
If you’ve imported or placed your image and it’s now a
smart object (SO), Right-click on the SO layer in the Layers
panel and choose Rasterize Layer. Duplicate the rasterized
layer with Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J).

Original Image

Left: Base; Middle: Blurred; Right: Blurred/dark

STEP TWO: We need a soft base

to start with, so blur the dupli-
cate layer: Filter>Blur>Gaussian
Blur. About 38 pixels works for
this image; you need enough to
soften and remove any details,
but still make out large features
such as eyes or mouths.
Duplicate the blurred layer,
then darken it by adding a
Curves adjustment (Com-
mand-M; PC: Ctrl-M). Drag the
center of the curve downward,
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then reduce the curve near the

shadows to avoid solid black
areas. Click OK to close the
Curves dialog.

113
  HOW TO

STEP THREE: We need to add a reference layer from which the Clone Stamp
can sample. At the top of the layer stack, add a blank layer, press Shift-Delete
(PC: Shift-Backspace) for the Fill dialog, and fill the layer with any solid color.
Double-click the name of the new layer and rename it “Reference.” Lower the
Fill value to zero to make the layer effectively transparent.
This step is necessary because the Clone Stamp won’t set a reference point
on a blank layer. Using this method, we can add any adjustments, effects, blends,
or even new layers without having to resample. The trick is to add everything
below the Reference layer.
Your layer stack should look something like this.

STEP FOUR: Select the Clone Stamp tool (S) and set it up as follows: Start
with a large round brush at 100% Hardness. In the Options Bar at the top,
choose Linear Dodge (Add) for the Mode, 50% Opacity, and 50% Flow.
Ensure Aligned is selected and Sample is set to Current & Below. The special
blending mode allows more interaction between brushstrokes and helps add
depth to the results.

STEP FIVE: Finally, open the Clone Source panel (Window>Clone Source).
Make sure the Reference layer is the active layer, then hold Option (PC: Alt)
and click anywhere in the canvas. This sets the source point for painting into
our target document.

SET UP THE TARGET DOCUMENT

STEP SIX: In order for the Clone Stamp to place everything properly, we need
to paint into the same size document as our source. An easy way to do this is
to duplicate the Background layer, so Right-click on the Background layer in
the Layers panel and choose Duplicate Layer. From the Destination Document
drop-down menu in the Duplicate Layer dialog, choose New and click OK. This
guarantees you’ve created a duplicate of the same size, depth, and color space
as your source document; everything should be aligned. Now we can finish
setting up the Clone Stamp itself.
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

114

STEP SEVEN: In the new document create a blank layer
and click one time with the Clone Stamp tool anywhere
on the canvas, then immediately Undo (Command-Z; PC:
Ctrl-Z). The Clone Stamp has no way of knowing that the
two documents are identical, so it thinks wherever you
start painting is where it should align. If you look in the
Clone Source panel you’ll see that the Offset indicates
something other than zero, and it represents the actual
offset you would be painting with if you continued from
here. Go ahead and enter 0 in both the X and Y fields to
reset it and align everything with your original document.
Now if you were to paint, you’d see whatever is visible
on the source document being applied to your new layer.
We’re going to do something a little weird to start.
Open the Layer Style dialog by double-clicking on the
Deselecting the G and B Channels in the Advanced Blending section
forces the layer to show only the contents of the Red color channel
 PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND
blank layer’s thumbnail in the Layers panel, then deselect
the G and B Channels in the Advanced Blending section.
This forces the layer to show only the contents of the Red
color channel even though the layer actually contains
full color information from the source. We’re using this
as part of the effect but, because it’s a layer effect, you
can change it later if you wish. Click OK.
STEP EIGHT: Name the blank layer “Red” to remember
these settings. Create two new blank layers in the same
manner, but use only the Green channel for one layer
and the Blue channel for the other layer (and name them
accordingly). This is how we’ll get the color registration
effect without having to create separations. Neat, huh?
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115
  HOW TO

Step Nine: Adjust the Brush Tip Shape, Shape Dynamics, and Scattering for a spatter brush effect from a hard, round brush

READY TO PAINT (ALMOST)

STEP NINE: With the Clone Stamp tool
still active, open the Brush Settings
panel (Window>Brush Settings). For
this effect I like to use a spatter brush
made up of a few small dots with lots
of scattering and rotation. You can
achieve a similar look by using a hard,
round brush with the settings shown.
If you use a spatter brush, change
the Angle Jitter under Shape Dynamics
to mix things up even more.

STEP 10: Back in the source document,

ensure the darker blurred layer is
active, then go back to your target
document. Now you’re ready to go!
Start making a few strokes in the
Red layer and get a feel for how the
brush works, and try not to build
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

things up too quickly. Feel free to

lower the Opacity and/or Flow in the
Options Bar if you want to build more
slowly. Try not to fill up too much of
the canvas; you just want enough to
give you a reasonable base.

116
 PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND

STEP 11: Continue by

selecting the Green then
Blue layers and repeating
until you have something
like this:

STEP 12: Add another

blank layer at the top
of your layer stack and
name it “Full 1.” In the
source document, turn
off the dark blurred layer
so that the lighter blurred
layer is visible. Go back to
the target document and
paint gently around the
highlight areas to start
hinting at where you’ll
add more detail, such
as around the eyes and
mouth, or skin highlights.
Things should still
look pretty vague and
unformed at this point,
but never fear! We’re
about to add some detail.
KELBYONE .COM

117
  HOW TO
Step 13
STEP 13: In the source document,
turn off the blurred layer so that the
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
original image is showing through.
In the target document, add another
layer and name it “Full 2.” Reduce
your brush size and start scrubbing
in the important features: eyes, lips,
skin highlights, etc. It’s tempting to
increase the Opacity and Flow, so go
ahead if you’re not patient. Otherwise,
just keep working! Eventually, you’ll
get something like this.
118
STEP 14: To finish off the look, we
need more dynamics. Below the Full
2 layer, add a blank layer and call it
“Lights - Color Dodge.” Set its blending
mode to Color Dodge to enhance
and brighten what’s below it. Now
switch to the regular Brush tool (B)
for painting and choose White as
the Foreground color (press D then
X), and again lower the Opacity and
Flow to 50% each in the Options Bar.
I like to use the same scatter brush
that I used with the Clone Stamp, but
you can also use a soft, round brush
for more direct control.
Begin painting to emphasize the
highlights, and don’t be afraid to go a
little overboard. Lower the Fill setting
for the Lights - Color Dodge layer to
get Color Dodge to blend with the
colors: it’s one of eight special blend-
ing modes that behaves differently
with Fill than it does with Opacity.

STEP 15: If you still need more brightness, add
another Full layer and continue adding detail, then
consider adding a Highlights layer at the top of
your stack. This should be set to Screen or Overlay
blending. Paint on this layer with white and a soft
round brush, just like you’d add highlights during a
traditional portrait enhancement.
Here's my final layer stack and image.
As with most effects, there are tons of possible
variations! The opening image was done by skipping
the Red/Green/Blue channel filters and instead
building layers with Drop Shadow styles applied
 PHOTOSHOP PROVING GROUND
(set to Color Burn instead of Multiply). Adding a tiny
Bevel & Emboss to them would make it look more
like droplets. Generally, it works best to move from
larger brush sizes to smaller as you refine details.
And don’t be afraid to go back to earlier layers and
add or remove more detail as needed.
Change up the brush used with the Clone Stamp
to find even more texture looks, and apply filters to
the source layers. Maybe even offset a few to get a
more retro glitch effect!
Check out some examples of where this technique
can go by visiting my Bēhance project page. n
KELBYONE .COM
119
 DAVE CLAYTON
DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

CREATING CLASSIC COMIC BOOK ADS

I recently attended Adobe MAX in Los Angeles, a conference full of inspiring speakers, classes, and
updates on the latest technology. One thing I look forward to is seeing the designers who inspire me and
the work they produce. Two of my favorites are Aaron Draplin and Annie Atkins, accomplished designers
who make cool artwork that looks like the pre-computer days, but using modern-day techniques. Aaron
creates a vintage style of mid-century graphics you’d find on old packaging and logos; Annie specializes
in making authentic-looking documents and graphics you’d see in old films.

If you know me by now you’ll know that this is something
I’d want to share in these pages. Taking those two as
inspiration I’m going to create an old-style ad you’d
commonly see in the back of a comic book, focusing on
simple techniques to make new look old with some basic
Photoshop features. There’s no fancy generative AI in this
tutorial; we’re going old school. Our final piece of artwork
will be just three colors, black, red and white, with some
texture. So strap in and let’s get creative!
STEP ONE: We’ll treat this like a print job, so set up
a new document (File>New) at 7x4.5" with a white
background and a Resolution of 300 ppi. We’ll stick
with RGB. Click Create.
STEP TWO: Now let’s open the main image for our design.
If you’d like to download the low-res watermarked ver-
sion of this image to follow along, click this link, log in
with your Adobe ID, and click the Save to Library button.

120

Double-click the image in the Libraries panel (Window>
Libraries) to open it in Photoshop.
To make it easier to work with the image, increase
the resolution of the practice file. (We normally don’t
recommend enlarging images, but this is only for prac-
tice purposes.) Go to Image>Image Size, turn on the
Resample checkbox, select Preserve Details 2.0 from
the Resample drop-down menu, set the Width to 4,000
pixels, and click OK.
We’ll turn our photo into a black-and-white grungy
looking halftone image. First, go to Image>Adjustments>
Desaturate. Press D to set the Foreground and Background
colors to black and white, respectively, and then go to
Filter>Filter Gallery. In the Sketch folder, select Stamp
©Adobe Stock/deagreez
Step Two
Step Three
 DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP
and set Light/Dark Balance to 25 and Smoothness to 5
(in the low-res Adobe file try a Smoothness of 1). Don’t
click OK yet.
STEP THREE: Then click the + icon at the bottom right of
the Filter Gallery to add a filter layer, and select Halftone
Pattern from the same Sketch folder. Set Size to 8 and
Contrast to 32 (feel free to play with these settings if you
use your own image; with the low-res Adobe file, try a
Size of 4 and a Contrast of 16). Click OK.
Then click the lock icon on the Background layer in the
Layers panel to unlock it, and go to Edit>Transform>Flip
Horizontal as we want him pointing toward the type when
we add him. Now save this version of the image.
KELBYONE .COM
121
  HOW TO

STEP FOUR: Go back to the new doc-

ument and we’ll begin by drawing
some simple rectangle shapes. Grab
the Rectangle tool (U), and make sure
it’s set to Shape up in the Options Bar.
Set the Fill to black and the Stroke to
No Color. Draw out a black rectangle
in the top left about two thirds of the
width across and about one third of
the way down. We aren’t using guides
as this needs to look hand made, so
the exact size isn’t important. Then
draw two slimmer rectangles, the first
below the one we just drew and the
second more toward the bottom right
as shown here. Again, precision isn’t
important, just location. Tip: Press-
and-hold the Spacebar while drawing
a shape to reposition it.

STEP FIVE: The first custom shape we

need is a crest for the top rectangle
shape, so grab the Custom Shape
tool in the Toolbar; it’s usually at the
bottom of the flyout for the shape
tools. Go to the Shapes panel (Win-
dow>Shapes) and look for a folder
called Legacy Shapes and More. If
you don’t see it, click on the Shapes
panel’s flyout menu and select Legacy
Shapes and More. This will add the
set to the panel.
Up in the Options Bar, click on
the Shape preview thumbnail to open
the Custom Shape Picker. Expand
the Legacy Shapes and More set
followed by the All Legacy Default
Shapes folder. Scroll down and look for
the Symbols folder. Inside this folder,
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

select the shield (Sign 6) as shown

here and, draw out the shield shape
on top of the rectangle shape, and
set its Fill set to white. Note: Either
create a new layer before drawing a
new shape, or change the Fill and
Stroke of the new shape after you
draw it; otherwise, you’ll change the
Fill and Stroke of the currently active
shape layer.

122
 DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

STEP SIX: Then go to

the Arrows folder in the
Custom Shape Picker,
and select the large,
wide arrow (Arrow 12) as
shown. Draw this shape
out below the top rect-
angle shape and make
it white with a black
Stroke of 10 px. Move
the cursor just outside
one of the corner control
handles and click-and-
drag to rotate the arrow
so it’s pointing down at
a slight angle. Hold the
Command (PC: Ctrl) key,
and click-and-drag the
arrow so its tip is just
above the thinner rect-
angle shape.
Press Command-J
(PC: Ctrl-J) to make a
copy of it, and set the
Fill of the second arrow
to black. In the Layers
panel, drag this shape
layer below the white
arrow layer. Switch to the
Move tool (V) and tap the
Right and Down Arrow
keys on the keyboard
several times to make
an offset shadow of the
white arrow as shown.

STEP SEVEN: Now choose

the stamp shape (Shape
1) from the Objects folder,
set its Fill to black, and
draw it out to cover the
top of the arrows as
shown here. It doesn’t
need to be perfect so no
need to hold the Shift key
to constrain it; we want
KELBYONE .COM

imperfection all the way!

Drag this layer to the top
of the layer stack in the
Layers panel.

123
  HOW TO

STEP EIGHT: Our final shape is another rectangle at the bottom left. After you
draw the rectangle using the Rectangle tool, set the Fill to No Color, and the
Stroke to black at 5 px. In the Appearance section of the Properties panel
(Window>Properties), select the dashed line in the drop-down menu next to
the Stroke width field.
Then go back to the Custom Shape tool and select the scissors (Scissors 2),
also from the Objects folder in the Custom Shape Picker. Draw out a pair of
scissors along the top dashed line of the rectangle as shown. Set its Fill to
black and Stroke to No Color. You’ll now have a base layout of shapes. It’s time
to add some text.

STEP NINE: For this step we’re going

to use white and red (#ba0101)
type, with a mixture of Futura and
Futura PT, which is available from
Adobe Fonts as part of your CC
subscription. If you don’t already
have Futura PT installed, you can
go to Type>More from Adobe Fonts
and, when the Adobe Fonts website
opens, search for the font you want
to use. Click its Add Family button
to sync all the versions of that font
with your Adobe apps, and then
return to Photoshop.
Add the type as shown for each
of the rectangle areas. The sizes
aren’t critical; the words just need
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

to fit. You can slightly rotate some

of the type so that it’s not all hori-
zontally straight. Remember, imper-
fection is key! We’re also going to
make some offset adjustments to
make it look even more irregular.
(If you don’t want to spend time
adding all the type, click here to
download a PSD of the file with
the type already in place.)

124
  DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP

STEP 10: Before we start scuffing up our design, use

the Set Baseline Shift field in the Properties panel on
various parts of the text. If you don’t see that field, click
the three-dot icon below the Color swatch to reveal it.
Start to adjust the text, either by selecting individual
letters, multiple letters, or whole words with the Type
tool. Baseline shift will move the letters above or below
the baseline. I recommend keeping it between 1 and 1.9
to make the type rise, and no more than –0.9 to lower
the type. This will make the type look imperfectly laid
out as if set by hand.

STEP 11: The last addition is to place the halftone image

we made at the start. Before we do this, select the Frame
tool (K) from the Toolbar and draw out a frame in the
empty space at the right in which to place your image.
Then, with the frame layer selected in the Layers panel, go
to File>Place Embedded, navigate to your saved halftone
image, and place it into the frame. You can click-and-
drag the image inside the frame to position it, or use
KELBYONE .COM

Free Transform (Command-T [PC: Ctrl-T]) to resize and

position it inside the frame. In the Layers panel, drag the
frame layer below any text or shape layers on that side
of the image.

125
  HOW TO

STEP 12: The first thing to do is select all the layers (except the Background
layer) in the Layers panel and press Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G) to group them.
Double-click the name of the group in the Layers panel and rename it “ORIGI-
NAL ARTWORK.” Right-click on the group and select Convert to Smart Object,
which will protect our artwork should we ever want to go back and change
anything. The next steps we’re about to take are destructive. Make two copies
of the smart object by pressing Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) twice and rename them
“BLUR AND LEVELS” and “NOISE AND LEVELS.” Turn off the visibility for the
NOISE AND LEVELS layer by clicking its Eye icon in the Layers panel. We’ll
work on BLUR AND LEVELS first.

STEP 13: Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 3 pixels; just enough
to blur it but keep the text legible. Click OK. Then go to Layer>New Adjustment
Layer>Levels. In the Properties panel, drag the shadows and highlights sliders in
from each side, and then adjust the midtones back to the left. This brings clarity
back to the image, and makes everything slightly more irregular, which we want.
The smaller text that’s in the bottom-right rectangle shape may be too distorted Step 12
to read but don’t worry; the next step with noise and levels will make that text
clear and we’ll be using a mask to paint back some of the image.
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

126

STEP 14: Now turn on the NOISE AND LEVELS layer and
make it active. Go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise and add
some Monochromatic Uniform noise as shown here. Play
with the Amount setting until that small text is barely
legible, then click OK. Once you have it somewhere
balanced between noise and visibility, add a Levels
adjustment layer and drag the shadows and highlights
in toward the middle and adjust the midtones until the
details are visible but scrubbed up.
 DESIGNING IN PHOTOSHOP
Next, change the blend modes for the top Levels adjust-
ment layer and the NOISE AND LEVELS layer to Hard mix.
Set the BLUR AND LEVELS layer to Multiply. Click on the
layer mask thumbnail for the first Levels adjustment layer,
grab the Brush tool (B), set its Hardness to around 75%
in the Options Bar, and press X until the Foreground color
KELBYONE .COM
is black. Use the Bracket keys on your keyboard to change
the size of your brush and click around the document. This
allows some of the details from each layer to stack to get
that grungy, misprinted look.
127
  HOW TO

Final

STEP 15: Now group all the layers together

(except the Background layer) and press
Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to make a copy.
Select the top group and hide the original
group. Now press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T),
transform and shrink the image, and press
Enter. Do this a couple of times to add a
little more distortion to the final image.
Finally, add a paper texture at the top
of the layer stack, set its blend mode to
Image by rawpixel.com
Multiply, and reduce its Opacity to about
75% to give a proper old comic paper
feel to the ad. You can find the texture
image we’re using here on Freepik.com
by clicking here. Then save the file and
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

you’ve created an old comic book style

ad with simple shapes and text.

You can try this with any design that uses

text and images. Google “comic book ads”
to see some examples and to find some
great resources for adding even more
effects. Just have fun experimenting! n

128
 VICTORIA WHITE
PHOTOSHOP Q&A
Q. 
I recently saw someone make multiple
selections in Photoshop without holding
the Shift key. How did they do it?
A. 
It’s true that you can make multiple selections with-
out holding the Shift key. Make any selection tool
active that you want to use. On the left side of the
Options Bar up top, you’ll see a group of four icons
consisting of squares. Click the second icon (the
two solid overlapping squares), which is the Add
to Selection option. Now you can make multiple
selections without holding the Shift key when using
that selection tool. This works especially well with
the Lasso tool (L).

Selecting the Subtract from Selection option (empty

square overlapping a solid square) in the Options
Bar will allow you to subtract multiple areas from the
selection without holding the Option (PC: Alt) key.

Q. 
I want to change a subject’s outfit to
multiple outfits using Generative Fill.
Do I need to make a new selection for
each new outfit in the same image?
A. 
No, you don’t have to make a new selection each
time you want to generate a new outfit in the same
image. After you select the outfit, click Generative Fill
in the Contextual Task Bar, type in your text prompt,
and click Generate. It will create a new Generative
Fill layer in your document with three variations of
the outfit, based on your prompt. You can preview
and choose any of the variations in the Properties
panel (Window>Properties). If you want to generate
another set of three outfits using the same prompt,
simply click on Generate in the Properties panel or
the Contextual Task Bar.
If you want to generate a different outfit, type a
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
Tip: Remember that you can pick any of the
Generative Fill variations in the same document until
your layers are merged or flattened. If you need to
export each outfit as a separate document, the best
practice is to save the original document as a PSD
file and save each outfit as a separate document.
Because you saved the PSD, you can always return
to the original document with all the generated layers
to select or generate a new variation.
Q. 
I have a Photoshop paid subscription.
Do I need to pay extra every month to
use Generative Fill?

new prompt describing a new outfit in the Properties A. 

N o, you don’t need to pay extra. Your subscription
panel or in the Contextual Task Bar in the text/
prompt field. Generative Fill will generate a new outfit
based on your prompt. The key is to make sure the
Generative Fill layer is active in the Layers panel.
Even after you make other edits in the document,
you can always come back to this Generative Fill
layer to generate more variations. In the example
shown here, I generated several different hats for a
giraffe using the same selection.
includes Generative Fill credits, which reset each
month. The consumption of generative credits depends
on the generated output’s computational cost and
the value of the generative AI feature used. Each
time you hit Generate, it uses one of your gener-
ative credits but, even after you’ve used up all of
your generative credits, you can keep generating;
it just might be at a slower speed, depending on
the server usage.

130

Q. 
I saw that we can use the images
we create using Generative Fill and
Firefly for commercial purposes. Will
the images in which I use Generative
Fill have a watermark? Can I sell my
image or part of the generated image
if I’ve used Generative Fill?
A. 
N o, the image generated by Generative Fill won’t
have a watermark; however, because the image
or part of the image was made with Generative AI,
Content Credentials will be applied to the image
during the document export. You can sell work that
utilizes Generative Fill. You can click here to learn
more about Content Credentials.
 PHOTOSHOP Q&A
ALL IMAGES BY VICTORIA WHITE
Q. 
I have a few images I need to restore.
With the release of Generative Fill
for commercial use, I plan to use it
in my photo restoration workflow.
I have three questions:
1. D
 o I need to select separate parts of
the image and use Generative Fill for
each selection?
2. How can I save my selection to use later?
3. G
 enerative Fill can’t change the color of
the photo. I want to colorize my photo after
I run Generative Fill. Does Photoshop offer
a quick option to color photos?
A. 
T hese are all good questions. Here are my answers:
1. No, you don’t have to make separate selections
and run Generative Fill for each selection. Generative
Fill is smart enough to analyze multiple selections
KELBYONE .COM
simultaneously and make generative images for each.
As the resolution for each Generative Fill is currently
limited to 1024x1024 pixels, however, it might make
sense to do separate selections and generations.
131
  HOW TO

Plus, having separate Generative Fill layers gives

you more flexibility in making any necessary edits.
It’s up to you.
2. You absolutely can save the selection for future
use. After you make a selection go to Select>Save
Selection, give your selection a name, and click OK.
Photoshop saves selections as separate channels.
To load/open a previously saved selection go to
Selection>Load Selection.
3. To colorize the photo in Photoshop using AI, you
can use the Colorize filter from the Neural Filters
library. First, create a merged copy of all your layers
at the top of the layer stack by pressing Shift-
Command-Option-E (PC: Shift-Ctrl-Alt-E). Then go
to Filter>Neural Filters and turn on Colorize in the
Color filters. The AI-based Neural Filter will analyze
and colorize the image. It’s a great way to colorize
the image just with a few clicks.
Tip: You can always add your own personal-touch
settings in the Colorize filter, as well as color the
image manually. To do that, uncheck the Auto Color
Image box right under the Focal Point preview image.
Click on an area in the image (using the Focal Point
window) and the Color Picker will open. Pick any
color you’d like to apply to that specified area. When
you click on another area to add a Focal Point, click
the Color swatch to select a new color. When done,
I recommend specifying the Output drop-down menu
at the bottom to New Layer.

Q. 
What is the best practice for expanding
an image using Generative Expand? For
example, if I need to expand the image
by a lot, should I expand it all at once or
in incremental steps?
A. 
A s of today, when you need to expand an image
“dramatically,” I recommend expanding it incrementally
using Generative Expand with the Crop tool (C). This
is helpful in many ways:
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

1. Using smaller areas for Generative Expand will

give you better image resolution.
2. Using small areas, you can change the image’s
composition. For example, suppose the subject in
your original image was positioned in the center. In
that case, you could reposition the subject to the left
by expanding the document to the right. So using
Generative Expand, you can “move” the object to a
different part of the image. n

132
 ARE YOU READY FOR AN AMAZING
NEW EDITION OF THE PHOTOSHOP BOOK
THAT BREAKS ALL THE RULES?

This update to Scott Kelby’s award-winning book does something
for digital photographers that has never been done before—it cuts
through the bull and shows you exactly “how to do it.” It’s not a
bunch of theory; it doesn’t challenge you to come up with your
own settings or figure it out on your own. Instead, Scott shows
you step by step the exact techniques used by today’s cutting-
edge photographers, and best of all, he shows you flat-out exactly
which settings to use, when to use them, and why. That’s why
editions of this book are widely used as the official study guide in
photography courses at colleges and universities around the world.

| kelbyone.com | peachpit.com | #kelbyonebooks

 REVIEWS GET THE SCOOP ON THE LATEST GEAR

Affinity Suite 2.2

 Important Upgrade with ColorIO v2 Support | Review by Erik Vlietinck

Serif just recently upgraded their Affinity bundle to version 2.2 and, as far as I can tell,
Affinity apps are currently the only ones to support OpenColorIO v2. That’s great news
for VFX, film, and 3D artists whose config files (including the more advanced features
available in OpenColorIO v2), can now be used.
OpenColorIO (OCIO) is a complete color-management solution geared toward Company: Serif (Europe) Ltd.
motion -picture production, with an emphasis on visual effects and computer animation.
As such, OCIO helps enforce a color-management methodology that’s required for the
Price: Universal License
high-fidelity color imaging in modern computer graphics. (all platforms): $164.99
Because OCIO is a color-management library, its only knowledge of color science
Individual Licenses:
comes from its execution of the transforms defined in the OCIO configuration file. In Desktop: $69.99; iPadOS $18.49
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

Affinity apps, the 32-bit Preview panel contains a Display Transform option, which only
becomes available with a valid OpenColorIO configuration. This can then be used to
Hot: ColorIO v2 support; Publisher
achieve a nondestructive, color-managed workflow.
almost on par with InDesign;
The three apps (Affinity Designer 2, Photo 2, and Publisher 2) in the suite got more one-off license fee; many
integrated in this update with new synchronized items across all Affinity apps, including timesaving features based on
favorite fonts and Grid presets. user input

Most of the other interesting new features and improvements are great timesavers.
For example, holding down any tool shortcut will now put you in that tool until you Not:
release the shortcut key, at which point you’ll return to your previous tool. If you switch
between tools all the time, it’s going to be a huge timesaver.

134

When in the Move Tool, as well as other object creation
tools, pressing Return or Enter will now show a new dialog
to specify the precise distance that you want to move your
current selection. You can also choose to duplicate an object
to the new position and specify how many copies of it you
want to make. The dialog will remember its previous values,
meaning you can move multiple objects one by one by the
same amount. A Reset button lets you quickly zero all the
values in the dialogs to start from scratch.
In Affinity Photo and Designer’s Layers Panel, if you
Option-click (PC: Alt-click) Add New Layer after having made
a selection, all items in your selection will automatically be
moved to the newly created layer.
I regard Affinity Publisher as the least powerful app
of the triad, but it’s just become far more sophisticated.
For starters, it now has the ability to define custom text
variables as fields, which allows you to add new fields and
assign whatever value to them you wish. You can now
also (finally) insert cross-references from one part of a
document to another.
 REVIEWS
Now, you can include URLs, file locations, email addresses,
and anchors in your data-merge dataset, and use those fields
to create an active link in your merged result. You can then
set up a data-merge layout using those fields and, once
you’ve done that, you can select the “Twitter Handle” (yes,
Twitter...) field and “Insert Hyperlink.”
When you insert a hyperlink in a data-merge document,
you’ll get an additional option to take the URL from a data-
merge field, which will activate a drop-down to select from
which field you want the URL to come. Also new is that
you can choose a data-merge field “link to anchor” in your
document or create anchors from your data, which enables
you to have links from one record to another.
A minor improvement, but one that shows how serious
Serif takes customers’ needs is that you can now apply your
own custom formats to any date field. I counted a whopping
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25 different parameters you can set.
There’s much more Serif has added and improved, too
much to cover here; but there’s a complete list on their
website that you can find by clicking here. n
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  REVIEWS

Pocket Support Large Mp3-Bk

 The “Invisible” Tripod | Review by Fernando Santos

We all know and love the Platypod, don’t we? Well, I do; however, I have a new
love, and if you keep reading you may fall for it too, so continue at your own risk.
Picture this: a tripod so small that it can always be attached to your camera and
can barely be noticed by others. A tripod that doesn’t need a tripod head, making
Company: Manfrotto
it lighter and even more convenient to carry. I know this is almost impossible to
imagine, but that’s exactly what Manfrotto has created.
Price: $35.99
The Pocket Support, as it’s called, looks like a small plate that attaches to your
camera. It has three tiny, collapsible legs that are held in place by strong metal
Hot: Tiny size; strong; barely visible;
springs. You pull them out and adjust to the angle you want to shoot, and that’s
light; metal construction
it. When you’re done, just collapse the legs back to the plate, and it becomes
barely visible again.
Not:
The Manfrotto Pocket Support attaches to your camera body using the standard
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

1/4" thread hole and, if you don’t use an L-bracket, you can leave it there all the time.
Locations that won’t allow you to use a Platypod will probably say nothing
about the Manfrotto Pocket Support. Also, if you must shoot really close to the
ground, this goes even lower than the Platypod. (You still want to keep your
Platypod, though, because it’s a much more versatile platform, doing things that
you won’t be able to do with the Pocket Support.)
The Manfrotto MB3-BK Pocket Support (large black) weighs just 2.39 oz
(68 g) and fits inside your closed fist. With a price tag below $36, it’s hard to
imagine anything smaller in any conceivable way. I highly recommend it. n

136
  REVIEWS

2-Section Single Arm With Camera Bracket

 Simple, Effective Solution for Flexible Accessory Positioning | Review by Fernando Santos

Have you ever felt the need to mount a speedlight, or maybe an LED light, a small
screen, a microphone, or any other similar accessory in some unusual angle or
position? It can be hard to do without the proper equipment, so let me tell you about
the Manfrotto 2-Section Single Arm with Camera Bracket.
As the product name says, this is a versatile, 2-section, articulated arm that’s Company: Manfrotto
surprisingly strong. Even though both sections, as well as the 5/8" spigots, are metal,
Manfrotto was able to keep the arm very lightweight at just 1.1 lb (530 g). It can extend Price: $69.99
to 23.8" (60.5cm) and hold up to 2.2 lb. (1 kg).
Both sections of the arm can rotate and slide in and out of the locking knobs, allow-
Hot: Strong; lightweight; flexible
ing extremely flexible positioning. Each end of the arm has a 5/8" spigot, one with a
1/4" threaded hole and the other with a 3/8", allowing you to attach it to corresponding
bolts. Both have a flat surface to prevent twisting when mounted. Not: Plastic knobs

With all these features, this arm really shines when you pair it with a Manfrotto
SuperClamp, or equivalent from other brands. With a strong clamp attached, your
positioning options are almost limitless.
Inside the box, you’ll also find a camera bracket, which can be attached and
detached easily from the arm, depending on your needs. While I only recommend
you use a small lightweight camera with this arm, the included camera bracket can
be particularly useful to mount a full-sized camera, if you use a C-stand boom arm
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or similar.
I was surprisingly pleased with the performance of the Manfrotto 2-Section Single
Arm with Camera Bracket, and if you do product or macro photography, or if you need
overhead or low-angle shots, you may find many uses for it. n

137
  REVIEWS

MS QT 1 B Quick-Tilt Mic Adapter

 Tiny Useful Ballhead that Can Be Used for Camera Accessories | Review by Fernando Santos

It may be hard to guess just by its name, Quick-Tilt Microphone Adapter, but what
if I tell you this is a very small ballhead with a $19.99 price tag that you can use for
your photography?
How many times have you wanted to set up some speedlights, modifiers, and
Company: Gravity Stands
maybe a very small reflector, and you wished you had a ballhead that you could use
for positioning it? Typical tripod ballheads can be expensive, from a few hundred
Price: $19.99
dollars to more than a thousand dollars; however, there are inexpensive items that
you can use from other industries that will solve your photography problem. That’s
Hot: Small size;
exactly what you can do with this item from Gravity.
inexpensive; effective
I have used small inexpensive ballheads to place items that I need to adjust easily
(speedlights, for example), but even the cheap ones cost at least twice the price of this
Not: Locking knob should
Gravity model. Made from aluminum and steel, it was conceived to orient microphones be higher
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

in any possible way. It has a 3/8" thread and includes an adapter to 1/4", making it
perfect to use by photographers, because we use those two sizes all the time.
This is not a ballhead I’d recommend for a full-sized camera body. It could be done,
if your camera and lens combination is exceptionally light; but I’d use it mostly for
positioning speedlights and LED lights. There’s no clamp, so you have to attach and
eventually adapt the 3/8" thread to whatever you want to attach to it, but again, that
should be very easy to do.
At just $19.99, the Gravity Quick-Tilt Microphone Adapter is worth its price. I even
keep a couple of them in my home studio because I can always find a use for them n

138
  REVIEWS

MS TM 1 B Mic Table Clamp

 A Microphone Clamp for Your Photo Gear | Review by Fernando Santos

Sometimes useful little things can come from where we least expect them. You
probably wouldn’t expect that accessories for your photography would come from a
manufacturer of equipment for musicians, right? This MS TM 1 B Microphone Table
Clamp from Gravity, while conceived to be used as a microphone clamp, can be very
useful for photographers. Let me explain why. Company: Gravity
This is a very simple table clamp, made of steel, so it’s strong and sturdy. You can
attach it to any tabletop up to 1.77" (45mm) thick. The interior side has EVA foam Price: $9.99
to protect your tabletop from any scratches. On the top side (and this is why it’s so
interesting), you’ll find a 3/8" thread, which is a very common size for photography
Hot: Strong; inexpensive;
items, for example, tripod heads; but goosenecks for lights, clamps, and rods, also well built
frequently use 3/8" threads.
What this means is that you can use a $9.99 Gravity Microphone Table Clamp
Not: Locking knob could
to create a nice setup for your tabletop macro photography. Using some gooseneck be slightly improved
extensions, you can add LED lights and small modifiers, and get it all done without
having to use tripods and horizontal extension arms for your tripod. You just add
a small inexpensive ballhead (see the review of the Gravity Quick-Tilt Microphone
Adapter on the opposite page) and mount a camera, or a speedlight, to your table (or
any other horizontal flat surface).
I found the Gravity MS TM 1 B Table Clamp to be very strong, and well built. Even
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though it was designed to hold microphones, it will easily take some of your camera
gear (as long as you use common sense and don’t try to defy gravity and physics).
At $9.99, this Table Clamp is very inexpensive, and I’d recommend that you have a
couple of them around, because they may come in handy sooner than you expect. n

139
  REVIEWS

Adobe Firefly Reference Example Part 1.

Generating Images
 Miru Ken | Review by Peter Bauer
Publisher: Self Published

It looks like a typo, but this Kindle is almost 3,000 pages; and all but a few intro
Pages: 2,894
pages contain two images, each one different. Some are similar, but contain

major elements that vary, and some are very individualized. Here’s the deal: The
Price: $3 (Kindle)
author told the generative artificial intelligence (AI) in Adobe Firefly to generate

images based on the keywords “a portrait of a beautiful woman in a tight T-shirt.”

Thousands of individual images were generated; some are very realistic and
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023

some very stylized. (Interestingly, it seems that the AI equates “beautiful” with

“young;” as there didn’t seem to be many, if any, images of mature women in the

thousands of images.) Remember that you have “generative credits,” so generating

thousands of images will eventually produce a slowdown. The one key takeaway

from this book might be this: Use more keywords to create an image closer to

that which you imagine.

14 0
  REVIEWS

Getting Started with Adobe Firefly 2023

 Isaiah Wealth | Review by Peter Bauer

The long version of this book’s title continues with “Convert your ideas into clear Publisher: Independently Published
realities, and unleash your creativity with Adobe Firefly.” There’s one quirk about

this Kindle: It’s a reproduction of the print book and doesn’t fit an entire page on Pages: 75

a laptop screen. (I reviewed it using my iPad in portrait mode.) This book doesn’t
Price: $5.99 (Kindle);
just address generative AI as a way to create images, it also looks at Firefly within $14.99 (paperback)

Adobe Express and Illustrator, as well as some other ways to reach your creative

goals. In addition, it walks you through “generative credits,” the number of “free”

uses of generative AI that come with your various Adobe subscription plans.

(And, I should note, AI doesn’t cease to function when you reach your monthly

limit, but it may slow down.) Another important aspect of Adobe’s generative

AI is Content Credentials, which receives a very good overview in this book. n

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141
 COLIN SMITH
PHOTOSHOP TIPS
THE BEST OF THE BASICS
This month, I want to do something different. I’m going to give you the very best of my basic, quick
tips that I’ve shared in this column over the past 20 years. These are the simple gems that everyone
should know; but they’re game-changing if you don’t know them. You may already know some, and
others you may not. Next month, I’ll continue this theme, but with more advanced tips.
FOREGROUND AND BACKGROUND COLORS
By default, the Foreground and Background colors
on the Toolbar are black and white, respectively. You
can reset the Foreground and Background colors by
pressing the D key. Tap the X key to swap them. This
is also the fastest way to get to these colors when
creating gradients, etc.
FILL TRICKS
To fill a layer or selection with the Foreground color,
press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace). To fill with
the Background color, press Command-Delete (PC:
Ctrl-Backspace). If the layer contains transparency, you
don’t have to make a selection before filling the layer with
the Foreground or Background color; just add the Shift
key to those keyboard combinations and the transparency
will be preserved. For example, Shift-Option-Delete (PC:
Shift-Alt-Backspace) will fill with the Foreground color
while preserving the transparency.
MAKING CIRCULAR & SQUARE SELECTIONS
To make a rectangular selection, use the Rectangular
Marquee tool (M). To make an oval selection, use the
Elliptical Marquee tool (nested with the Rectangular
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
Marquee tool). To constrain these to perfect squares or
circles, hold down the Shift key. To create them from the
center outward, hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key. To
move the selection while you’re creating it, hold down the
Spacebar. You can also combine all of these shortcuts.
If you want to transform a selection in a different way,
such as rotate it, after you draw the selection, go to
Select>Transform Selection.
142
MASK TIPS
Layer masks are so useful for nondestructive editing.
They’re even more fun with these tips. To temporarily
hide a mask, hold the Shift key and click on the mask’s
thumbnail in the Layers panel; you’ll see a big red X
appear over the thumbnail. Shift-click it again to reveal
the mask. To view the mask by itself in the canvas, hold
Option (PC: Alt) and click on the mask’s thumbnail.
Option-click (PC: Alt-click) the mask again to see
the layer. To see the mask as a red overlay, press the
Backslash key (\).
SHARING CONTENT WITH OTHER LAYERS
When you create masks, layer styles, and even smart
filters, you can share them with other layers. To move
them, click on their names (or thumbnail for a layer mask)
and drag them to a different layer in the Layers panel.
To copy them to another layer, hold down the Option
(PC: Alt) key and drag-and-drop them onto that layer.
You can even drag them between documents by
choosing the Move tool (V) and dragging the layer into
the tab of another document. Wait a second and the
document will take focus. Drag the cursor into the canvas
of that document and release the mouse button to add
that layer. If you look in the Layers panel, any masks,
layer styles, or smart filters that were attached to that
original layer are replicated. You can even drag paths
between different documents.
As a bonus, when you drag like this, you aren’t
putting them into memory, so it’s also the best way to
copy images between docs (no more Command-C [PC:
Ctrl-C] and Command-V [PC: Ctrl-V]).

TRANSFORMING A LAYER
To transform a layer, press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T)
for Free Transform. You can scale the object using the
handles on the bounding box, and you can rotate it by
clicking-and-dragging outside the box. Right-click in the
document for more options such as Skew and Distort.
If you want these free transform controls whenever you
have the Move tool (V) active, turn on Show Transform
Controls up in the Options Bar.
If you’ve added a really large image to a layer and
activated Free Transform, you may not see the control
handles because they’re offscreen. Press Command-0
(PC: Ctrl-0) to show the entire document, and you’ll now
see the handles.
NONDESTRUCTIVE CROPPING
If you want to crop the document size, but not delete
any of the content, choose the Crop tool (C) and turn
off Delete Cropped Pixels up in the Options Bar. The
extra pixels will be hidden, but still on the overflow of
the document edges. Choose the Move tool (V) and drag
 PHOTOSHOP TIPS
ALL IMAGES BY COLIN SMITH | PHOTSHOPCAFE.COM
to reposition the image and you’ll see that everything is
still there. If you want to see the boundaries of the extra
pixels, press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) for Free Transform.
SELECTING LAYERS
Something you’ll do a lot in Photoshop is selecting layers.
My favorite way to select layers is to grab the Move tool
(V), hold the Command (PC: Ctrl) key, and click on the
layer that I want to make active. Another way is to Right-
click on the layer in the document, and you’ll see the layer
names of any layers that are directly under the cursor in
the contextual menu. Choose the layer name to make it
the active one. If you turn on Auto Select in the Options
Bar when the Move tool is active, you can select layers
by simply clicking on them, just as you do in Illustrator.
RULERS AND UNITS OF MEASUREMENT
To show and hide the rulers, press Command-R (PC: Ctrl-R).
This is also where you change the units of measurement.
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Right-click on either the vertical or horizontal ruler and
you’ll see Pixels, Inches, Centimeters, Picas etc. To create
143
  HOW TO
guides, drag them out from one of the rulers. If you want
to change them from horizontal to vertical, or vice versa,
hold down the Option (PC: Alt) key as you’re dragging them.
ADDING NEW TEXT NEAR EXISTING TEXT
Has this ever happened to you? You’re working on a
document with multiple text layers, and you click with
the Type tool to add new text but, instead of making new
text, it selects an existing text layer, even if it’s buried 10
layers deep. This is very annoying. But, if you hold the
Shift key while clicking, Photoshop will create a brand-
new text layer every time.
HIDING STUFF
Speaking of text layers, you know when you have text
selected, it highlights the text, which can make it really
hard to see the result of any changes you make to it.
Press Command-H (PC: Ctrl-H) to hide the highlighting,
but you’ll still be able to apply the changes. This also
goes for selections. You can hide the marching ants with
PHOTOSHOP USER > NOVEMBER 2023
Command-H (PC: Ctrl-H) but still work with the selection
even though it’s hidden. Press Command-H (PC: Ctrl-H)
again to reveal what you’ve hidden.
HIDING MORE STUFF
If you press the Tab key you’ll hide all the panels as well
as the Toolbar and top Options Bar. Press it again to bring
them back. If you press Shift-Tab you’ll toggle just the
panels off and on. You can change the screen mode by
14 4
tapping the F key. The default is Standard Screen Mode,
so the first time you press F you’ll enter Full Screen Mode
with Menu Bar. Tap F again for Full Screen Mode, where
your artwork is front and center. Press F again to go back
to Standard Screen Mode.
MISCELLANEOUS TIPS
Here are a few more useful basic tips:
• Press Caps Lock to toggle between regular
cursors and Precise Cursors.
• To turn off a selection, press Command-D (PC:
Ctrl-D); press Shift-Command-D (PC: Shift-
Ctrl-D) to activate the last selection.
• W hen you’re using a brush and want to sample
a color in the image, press-and-hold the Option
(PC: Alt) key and you’ll see the cursor change to
the eyedropper.
• Choose the Eyedropper tool (I) and change the
Sample Size in the Options Bar to change every
eyedropper in Photoshop, including the ones in
Curves and Levels.
• Press Command-0 (PC: Ctrl-0), or double-click
the Hand tool (H), to fit content to the screen.
• Press Command-1 (PC: Ctrl-1), or double-click the
Zoom tool (Z) to zoom in to 100% size, which is
best for sharpening or noise reduction. n
LEARN WHAT IT TAKES TO CREATE STUNNING PORTRAITS
’s N o t
(Hint: It e Lighting)
Just t h

Here’s the completely re-written 2nd edition

of the first photography book of its kind.
There aren’t any sketches or drawings—
you see the actual lighting setup, taken
from above during the live shoot, so you can
see exactly where everything’s positioned
(the subject, the photographer, the lighting,
the background, you name it—you see it
all). Plus, you’ll see side, over-the-shoulder,
and more behind-the-scenes views (with
all the exact measurements), so you can
absolutely nail the lighting every time.
You see everything from the complete flash
and softbox setup, to the shoot, to the
all-important part that most books don’t
dare include—the post-processing and
retouching in Lightroom and Photoshop.

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