7 Deadly Sins of Photoshop

5 Deadly Sins of Photoshop

I found this article online and thought it might be useful for new Photoshop users!

The 5 Deadly Sins of Photoshop Compositing

By Sean David Baylis

Photoshop is a wonderful program that allows you to edit a photograph in as many ways as you can imagine. It allows you to control every aspect of a photograph and gives you editing tools that a traditional photographer could only dream about. With this wide range of editing and compositing tools comes the ability to create fantastic works of art. With the rise in popularity of photography and personal computers, the door has been thrown open, now anyone with a half decent PC and a few spare dollars to buy PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS can and are calling themselves RETOUCHERS.

In the hands of a skilled user Photoshop can produce awe inspiring work; in the hands of a novice it can produce images of extremely poor quality. Unfortunately, as the popularity of the program grows and people become more and more exposed to these poor images, this lack of quality is becoming accepted as the norm. Here are the things to watch for when creating Photoshop compositions:

1) Feathered edges. When you make a selection, using the dancing ants around an area you wish to move, change, colour or otherwise edit, you have to feather the edge by at least 2-3 pixels (depending on the resolution of your image), in order to avoid the jagged edges we so often see in photo montages. Feathering creates a soft edge that blends the area of the selection with the area it abuts. Feathering an edge by a high value is also a useful way to fade out a selection.

2) Correct Perspective. If you have one element in an image that has a different geometrical perspective that does not match the rest of the image the whole image will look odd. A viewer will generally not know what is specifically wrong with the image, they will just know that it looks odd and generally undesirable. This is generally seen in buildings or cars that have been composited in from other images and not had their perspective adjusted to match the greater image as a whole. This would happen if two images shot at different focal lengths were then combined. An image from a 28mm lens combined with an image from a 200mm lens will need perspective adjustment to look right.

3) Correct Depth of Field. Images that have one object or area in focus and then behind that an object out of focus, and then behind that another object in focus will look very odd and be completely unbelievable. Like perspective, combining images shot with differing depth of field will require you to adjust the focus of the elements to correct the Depth of Field. One draw back, while it is possible to soften objects to make them appear out of focus or have short depth of field, it is next to impossible to sharpen soft objects to make them appear to be in focus. Depth of Field problems are one of the most common mistakes made in Photoshop compositions.

4) Direction of Light. When montaging images it is important to combine images shot with the same lighting conditions. The play of light on an object creates a series of shadows that have a specific directional play depending on where the light source was in relation to the object. If you montage together two images with differing light sources the image will look unreal and undesirable.

5) Colour cast. All images have a colour cast otherwise know as WHITE BALANCE, this is the HUE of the white areas. Also know as the colour temperature of an image. Be careful to adjust the colour cast of montaged images so that the white areas look the same, doing otherwise will render your images unreal and undesirable.

The human eye has an amazing ability to spot subtle changes in what it considers normal. Stare at a picture of a pink banana, after a short while the banana will start to appear yellow, but you will still have the feeling that something is not right. This also applies equally to Colour, Focus, Perspective and Light Direction. When creating montage images in Photoshop it is important to watch for mistakes in these areas as you will want to have your images look as real as possible and thus as desirable or aesthetically pleasing as possible. I have seen far too many images used in big advertising campaigns with blatant disregard for these basic principles. Done right Photoshop can create compelling compositions; done wrong and it just looks, well… wrong!

Sean David Baylis is a professional photographer who has been using the popular photo editing program Adobe Photoshop since 1994 version 2.5. He is considered by many an expert user and is called on to retouch major national ad campaigns and art books in addition to his own commercial and editorial work. Examples of Sean’s work can be seen at http://www.sdbphoto.com

 

I dont use photoshop but isnt the title saying 7 deadly sins.

 

Cool...but i personally believe art depends on its viewers, so this opinion is only true for himself, others may consider the new style of photographs a beauty of art.

 

he says

so he still admits it's a wonderful program lol so yeah it prob is......

and CS3(photoshops newest version, which cost over £500)) is even more cooler!!!!

one bad thing about CS3 is, it eats up a lot of your ram when u run it so it could to slow down your PC, apart from that it's perfect!!! n yeah it's expencive but it's ok as long you can download it and crack it like I did :p

 

Well m using adobe photoshop from the last one year so i dont in need og any such theory or u can say article !
I know how to use photoshop very well !

 

i dont use PS anyway,
i dont have money to buy it
maybe i will get one neext year

 

I use photo shop only for some times.I don't use it more complicated features.

 

Photoshop is a wonderful program that allows you to edit a photograph in as many ways as you can imagine. It allows you to control every aspect of a photograph and gives you editing tools that a traditional photographer could only dream about. With this wide range of editing and compositing tools comes the ability to create fantastic works of art. With the rise in popularity of photography and personal computers, the door has been thrown open, now anyone with a half decent PC and a few spare dollars to buy PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS can and are calling themselves RETOUCHERS.

 

Photoshop is a wonderful program that allows you to edit a photograph in as many ways as you can imagine. It allows you to control every aspect of a photograph and gives you editing tools that a traditional photographer could only dream about. With this wide range of editing and compositing tools comes the ability to create fantastic works of art. With the rise in popularity of photography and personal computers, the door has been thrown open, now anyone with a half decent PC and a few spare dollars to buy PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS can and are calling themselves RETOUCHERS.
I will return to this site to continue to share with everyone on this issue. Please wait me.

 

I have been photoshop for a long time. But, I was still unaware of few of the things that you have shared in this article.

 

Hi webmaster, commenters and everybody else !!! The post was absolutely fantastic! Lots of great information and inspiration, both of which we all need!b Keep 'em coming... you all do such a great job at such Concepts... can't tell you how much I, for one appreciate all you do! and We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on.You have done a marvellous job!

 

Defiantly useful for designers looking for quality information.

 

Hi!
This information is really useful for me,as i am very curious to know about photoshop and want a career in this field.

 

What a surprise. The post is so old! And I've never seen it before, but i'm not a new one in photoshop. And it was interesting for me to read what kind of mistakes could be seen as deadly sins. Well... nice approach, but i think some points are quite strange, cause everyone has one's opinion what to do in his design, thus breaking some basic rules!

 

I don't think there is a web designer out there who didn't use Photoshop at least once.
Adobe managed to provide to us "site creators" a tool which if mastered correctly can prove everything you could ever need.

 

Photoshop could be a wonderful program that permits you to edit a photograph in as many ways as you'll imagine.

 

We provide services like photo restoration, Photo retouching and logo design. Syrup Technologies has best designing professional.

 

this is why i always try only to program things and not to make them in Photoshop :P

 

like most of you i have used Photoshop so many times and i have found that not letting your mind flow is maybe the worst thing and sin you could commit

 

Hi,

Thank You!!
All of you guyzz,...very helpful info

Thanks and rocks guyzZ