September 5th, 2008 by Stephanie Chan
Tricks of the Trade for the Commercial World – Photoshop World 2008
File Organization
Example folder structure:
- Master Job folder
- 01_Raw Camera files
- 02_RBG files
- 001 Selects
- 002 Layered files
- 003 Flattened
- 004 Not Used
- 03_(ie. LAB, JPG, etc.)
Color Calibration
Use a gray card (white, gray, black) to adjust the levles according to the RBG # seen on the Color Window
- Adjust the levels until all 3 RBG # match
- Take a picture of a gray card for each lighting condition
- Can save the level setting and load it for all images with that same lighting condition
Cut-Out Image with Pen Tool
- Cut out image and select
- Select > Modify > Border > 2 pixels
- Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur > 1.2 pixels
- Select image and create new layer and fill with black
- Deselect and apply the Gaussian Blur
- Adjust with Transform tool and Move tool
Shadow & Highlight Tool
Can be used to bring back details into shadows
- Shadow Amount: Around 30% is usually good
- Highlight Amount: Move to right to add light
Photographing Green Food
- Very hard to photograph – usually comes out really dark
- Use the Shadow & Highlight Tool to brighten the green
Shooting Products Proportionally
- Shoot the biggest product first & keep shooting in the order according to size from biggest to smallest
- Keep the camera in one position and do not move it throughout the photo shoot
- Instead of taking group product images, shoot individual product shots then create a collage out of them. This way you can easily swap out individual images.
Food Photography
- Traditionally, a View Camera is used and the technique is to pull it back to the take the image in order to create a closer, eye-level perspective to make it more appetizing.
- Photoshop can duplicate this effect by using the Transform > Perspective Tool