Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Photo Editing Tutorial Pdf

[Yoshi Heffernan]

Helpyour photos and your subjects look their very best with our easy-to-follow, step-by-step Photoshop photo editing and retouching tutorials! Use our Quick Links to jump to popular topics, or scroll through our complete list of Photo Editing and Retouching tutorials.

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The most common photo enhancement after a shoot or travel is to adjust lighting and apply a flattering filter, however, I had a different kind of fun in photo editing last week. I rarely open photoshop for editing but after seeing the outputs of an illustrator from BoredPanda, I wanted to try it on our own travel photos and the result was ultimately hilarious.

The order of the processing steps will evolve over time as you begin to see where each action falls into place. The best part is, you can always come back to your raw data and try out new techniques you have learned.

The image used in this tutorial is of the Lagoon Nebula taken using a Canon DSLR camera through an Explore Scientific ED80 telescope. This is a typical beginner deep-sky setup that includes a tracking equatorial mount to compensate for the rotation of the Earth.

There are a number of choices when it comes to image processing, but my personal favorite route to take is Adobe Photoshop. This application is well equipped with all of the tools and actions needed to produce an incredible deep-sky astrophoto.

If you would like to practice image processing on a pre-stacked image, you can download my Autosave.tif file below. It is a photo of the Rosette Nebula with over 2 hours of total exposure. It is the same 32 bit TIFF file that was used in the video tutorial above.

If you prefer a step-by-step guide to my techniques, you can follow along with the astrophotography tutorial on the Lagoon Nebula below. The techniques used can be applied to many deep-sky objects but will work best on wide-field nebulae like the one in this tutorial.

The process involves stacking multiple images of your deep-sky object together and processing the high-resolution .TIF file created by DeepSkyStacker. The more exposures you have captured on your target, the better your signal-to-noise ratio will be.

Those of us who shoot in a light-polluted city backyard can compensate for a washed-out sky by collecting hours and hours worth of data. Support files such as darks, flats and bias frames also play a large role in correcting the data.

To start, you will need enough signal on your deep-sky object to create a quality astrophoto. A healthy amount of signal (light) provides you with good data to work with. In the beginning, just focus on collecting as much exposure time as possible on each project.

Centering the target in the field is important, so take the time to orient your camera and telescope properly during acquisition. This will help avoid situations such as cutting off portions of the target and losing details do to vignetting or gradients.

To help create a smooth image with an adequate signal-to-noise ratio, I took dark frames of the same exposure length and temperature, with the lens cap on. This is a very important step in my stacking process, and it does a great job of removing much of the noise in my images taken using such a high ISO.

It is important to keep all of your RAW files in order. With so much time and effort put into collecting good data, it would be a shame to lose any frames because your files are unorganized. It also makes the stacking process much faster and easier when you have taken the time to create separate folders and name your work.

You can see your total number of light, dark, flat and bias frames listed above the stacking list. In this case, I have 17 light frames and 15 dark frames. I have not used any bias or flat frames for this project.

Once finished, DeepSkyStacker will create a 32-bit stacked master file, and autosaves it to the directory containing your light frames. In fact, the file it produces is by default named Autosave.tif.

The details of your final image are displayed in the top left corner of the screen including ISO, Exposure and the location of the created .tif file on your computer. My image ended up being exactly 1 hour of total exposure.

Now the real fun begins as we find our Autosave.tif file in our light frame folder, and open it up in Photoshop. It will look very similar the preview you just saw in DeepSkyStacker. There are many ways we can bring out the true beauty of this deep-sky treasure.

Now on to the fun part of this astrophotography tutorial, the processing. Using the 9 steps below, I will show you how to turn your dull original file into a colorful cosmic work of art.

Before we get started, I should note that the order of the processing actions you take can have a substantial effect on your results. The image processing reference graphic below outlines the order I take when using Adobe Photoshop.

The very first task I must perform to each of my images is a slight crop. I do this to trim away the edges of the image where any stacking and registering artifacts may have occurred. This is why framing your target in the center of the image is so important, you do not want to be cutting into any of your precious data. The crop tool in Photoshop handles this tasks with ease.

There are several ways to accomplish this task, and every astrophotographer will tell you their way is the best. I prefer the ease and simplicity of a handy Photoshop plugin known as Gradient Xterminator. Once installed, this life-saver performs all of the in-between steps for you with the click of a mouse.

Some experimentation with the exact areas that have the vignetting issues may have to take place. Notice that I did not select the Balance background color option. Hit OK when you are ready to get rid of those nasty dark edges of your photo. I will say, that this example has little to no vignetting or gradient issues because this photo was taken under dark skies.

This where we start to separate the gorgeous pink nebulosity from the sea of stars and dark sky. You can find the levels adjustment tool under Image Adjustments > Levels. The initial levels adjustment should look like the histogram below, bringing the left-hand slider just to the edge of the data. You will also do the same with the right-hand slider, in towards the bright details of the image.

We have reached the limit to where we can take this image in its current state. We will need to convert this .tif file into a 16-bit image to make further adjustments. You can accomplish this by selecting Image > Mode > 16/Bits Channel. When the HDR Toning dialogue box appears, make sure you change the Method from the default Local Adaptation to Exposure and Gamma.

You may want to experiment with the Local Adaptation method later, as it can produce some interesting results as well. Once you have selected the Exposure and Gamma method, press OK. You will not see any noticeable changes to the image, but it is now in 16-bit mode, and you will have access to a number of new editing options

Sometimes, this action can create an odd color cast on your deep-sky image. It displays a defined separation line of background color, usually in about 1/3 of the image. This can be hard to detect at first but becomes evident when viewing your image on a bright monitor or mobile screen.

After the latest action has run its course, I like to increase the Saturation of the image and make another Curves Adjustment. This tames the now gray background sky back to a more natural black while preserving the details of the nebula.

By adjusting the individual channels in the Levels panel, we can match each value to an even amount. For example 30, 30, 30, for a dark gray sky background. It is useful to add 1 or 2 more Color Sampler points on your image to get a better overall idea of which channels are overly present in your image.

My image of the Lagoon Nebula was very red, and by stepping down that channel, I was able to produce a more natural look for the subject, and the starry sky around it. You may find that you prefer your sky background to have a higher value in a certain channel. Often I will purposely have a higher value in the blue channel.

Make sure your computer monitor is calibrated accurately to display your astrophotography images as the rest of the world will be seeing them on their various devices. Monitors can vary greatly, both the one you are processing on and the ones that other people are viewing your images on.

I experienced this issue for years, simply because I processed my images on a horrible monitor that displayed everything WAY darker and contrasty than the average monitor. I know that other astrophotographers have experienced it as well, just look at this tweet from @chris_grimmer

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