Photoshop CS for Restoration and Retouching

Practicing and improving your imaging skills is an ongoing process and just as we better our

restoration and retouching techniques Adobe Systems is also constantly refining and improving

Photoshop. With each new release of Photoshop people wonder, “do I really need to upgrade?”

or “I just figured out how to do something and now the software is being changed again”. That

frustration is understandable, as we prefer to work with the known, but the release of

Photoshop CS will make your restoration and retouching work better and more efficient. The

following chapter addresses the most important features in Photoshop CS so you can get back to

work without missing a single mouse click.

Preferences, Automation, and Keyboard Shortcuts

Viewing and Organizing Files

Improved Camera RAW

Working in 16-bit

New Color and Tone Correction Tools

Improved Healing, Patching, and Redeye Reduction

Numerous books have been released that address Photoshop CS in great detail. In this

overview, I’ll point out the most important features for photographers and retouchers,

presented in the order you would see them when working with Photoshop CS for the first time –

from preferences and automation to working with Adobe Camera RAW to fine-tuning files with

the new shadow/highlight and color correction features.

Note: Sections of the following addendum are excerpted and quoted by

permission from “Real World Digital Photography, 2 nd edition” by Katrin

Eismann, Sean Duggan, and Tim Grey for Peachpit Press, November 2003, the

Adobe Help pages, and www.imagingrevue.com

Preferences and Custom Keyboard Shortcuts

Photoshop CS requires a fast computer with a lot of RAM. On the Macintosh platform you’ll

need a G3, G4, or G5 running OS 10.2.4 or later Adobe recommends OS 10.2.6 or 10.3. On the PC

you’ll need Intel® Pentium® III or 4 processor Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 3

or Windows XP. Adobe recommends a minimum of 192 MB of RAM for either platform, but I

recommend a minimum of 512 MB since adding more RAM is the best way to increase Photoshop

performance. Visit

There are a lot of preferences, and I won’t be discussing each one in minute detail. Many of them

are specific to tasks and workflows that are more for graphic design and web-related fields.

Instead, I’ll address the most important new preferences (figure 11.1) in Photoshop CS that

impact the work of restoration and retouching professionals.

Addendum to Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, 2 nd edition by Katrin Eismann

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http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html for complete

system requirements.

figure 11.1

The General Preferences

General Preferences Settings

Image Interpolation refers to the method by which new pixels are created or existing

pixels are thrown away when an image is sized up or down. Choosing an interpolation

method here will affect how interpolation is done when you change the size of an

image with Image Size or scale a piece of an image with the transform options.

Photoshop CS introduced two new interpolations schemes Bicubic Smoother and Bicubic

Sharper. For upsampling images (making them larger) Smoother is the better choice.

Sharper provides the best results for downsampling (making an image smaller). All of

the interpolation options are available in the Image Size dialog (Figure 11.2), and can

be chosen for specific images as the need arises.

figure 11.2

Choose an interpolation method in the Image Size dialogue before scaling an image up or down.

For my general interpolation setting I choose Bicubic and when I am scaling images up or

down I select the best interpolation for the task at hand - smooth for upsizing and sharp

for downsizing images. In the past some photographers used the ‘Step Up’ method

made popular by Fred Miranda to size images up in 10% increments. With the new

interpolation schemes there is no need to go through this slow process any longer.

Addendum to Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, 2 nd edition by Katrin Eismann

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The new image interpolation algorithms are available in the main Photoshop CS

preferences and the Image Size dialog. If you choose to scale an image larger or smaller

using the Free Transform tool, however, there is no way to specify and interpolation

method and the default one will be used.

The History Log allows you to save a record of your activity in Photoshop, or the

specific steps you applied to an image. You can choose to save this information to a

file’s metadata, to a separate text file, or both. The details can be restricted to basic

session information, which simply records when you open and close a file; concise,

which tracks session info plus keeps a record of every step you perform; and detailed

which tracks session info and keeps a surprisingly detailed record of every thing you do

to an image, including specific settings used for filters, color correction and other tools.

If you want to remember what you have done to an image, the detailed option can be

very useful. Additionally, the History Log is a fantastic way to keep track of how long

you’re worked on an image and can be useful for client billing and production

management.

File Handling

Ignore EXIF sRGB tag. Color tags are used to give meaning to the color numbers in a

digital image so that the appearance of an image will be consistent on different color-

managed computers. Some digital cameras will automatically tag their images with an

sRGB color profile, even if you have specifically chosen Adobe RGB in the camera’s

setup menu. While the sRGB profile may represent a correct interpretation for the

images a camera produces, it is just as likely to be no more than a “default” tag by the

camera that does not necessarily reflect the best way to interpret the colors in an image.

If you determine that another color profile, such as Adobe RGB or ColorMatch RGB

works better with the images from your camera, you can use this preference to have

Photoshop ignore the sRGB tag contained in a camera’s EXIF data.

Ask Before Saving Layered TIFF Files. In the old days of Photoshop 6 or earlier, only

Photoshop’s native PSD format could save layers. Now the club is not so exclusive and

as the TIFF specification has matured, it, too, has developed the ability to support

layers. This is really only an issue for those who may be using TIFF files in page layout

programs. In the past, some layout applications would get downright cranky if they

encountered a layered TIFF. Photographers and production artists would also use the

TIFF format for the flattened (non layered) images that were placed in the layout

program and reserve the PSD format for the master layered image. The different file

formats were another way to keep it clear that the correct, non-layered file was placed

in the page layout. Although the ability of programs like InDesign to handle layered

TIFFs and PSDs is allowing modification to the previous workflow of only using non-

layered TIFFs, such changes are being adopted slowly. If you want a reminder that

you’re saving a layered file in TIFF format, turn this option on. I leave it off.

Enable Large Document Format (.psb). This preference is new to Photoshop CS and it

allows you to save very large files (300,000x300,000 pixels) that were not possible in

earlier versions. The previous 30,000 pixel limit is still the largest size that can be

saved using the PSD format, but larger files can now be saved as TIFF (up to 4GB) or the

new PSB format, or in Photoshop RAW (which is not the same as Camera Raw and I

recommend you avoid it) with no file size limit. This new format and the new image

size limits are not backwards compatible with earlier versions of Photoshop. The

number of people who have a need for such gargantuan files is very small. If you feel

compelled to stitch together 97 6-megapixel photos into a single, monumental image,

however, then this is where you need to go to make that possible.

Addendum to Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, 2 nd edition by Katrin Eismann

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Maximize PSD File Compatibility. This option has been around in Photoshop under a

variety of names for several versions, and it controls whether Photoshop will include a

hidden, composite layer along with the regular layers when you save a file. The

composite layer is essentially just a single layer that represents what the image would

look like with all the visible layers flattened. This preference is primarily for people

who need to use their layered PSD files in other applications that claim to read PSD

files, but that really need that composite layer in order to do so. The main problem

with this option is that the extra composite layer will make your file size much larger

– up to 33% larger - than it needs to be. While this is not much of an issue with small

files, it can quickly become a big issue with larger documents. If you’re only working on

your images in Photoshop, then I feel that you should leave this off and save some disk

space.

Version Que is used in conjunction with Adobe Illustrator, Acrobat, InDesign, and

GoLive. Allowing you to track, find, share, and edit images from within each

application. If you’re just using Photoshop, Version Que will not play a role in your

production, but if you use the other Creative Suite applications and/or work in a

production team it can be a real life saver to identify which file is being used where

and who changed it last.

File Browser Preferences

The File Browser has been completely reworked in Photoshop CS and it is an essential feature

for digital photographers to view, edit, and organize files. Working with the File Browser is

addressed later in this chapter.

figure 11.3

The dedicated File Browser Preferences.

Do Not Process Files Larger Than… If you have certain folders that contain really large

image files and you don’t want the browser to get bogged down in generating high-res

previews and thumbnails, then you can specify a file size cap here.

Custom Thumbnail Size allows you to determine how large image thumbnails should

be. After typing in a value you’ll need to tell the File Browser to use the custom size

thumbnail. Within the File Browser window choose View > Custom Thumbnail Size

(as seen on the following page) and Photoshop will create large thumbnails according

to your specification.

Addendum to Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, 2 nd edition by Katrin Eismann

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After determining the custom thumbnail size in the Preferences > File Browser, use the pull down menu to ‘tell’

Photoshop to display thumbnails with the custom size.

Allow Background Processing. This tells Photoshop to grab onto any extra available

processing power and use it to generate previews and thumbnails for the selected folder

of images, even when you are not currently working in the File Browser, or in

Photoshop. This is very useful for setting the File Browser up to work on a large folder

of new images before you actually start browsing the files. I like to target the folder in

question and then work on other tasks (or just go have dinner) and when I come back, all

the thumbnails and high quality previews are ready for us.

Keep Sidecar Files with Master Files. The sidecar files contain the additional

information about images that is generated by the File Browser. The default is for this

to be turned on and it allows that such data be moved, copied, deleted, renamed or

batch renamed along with the associated image files. I suggest leaving this on.

Improved Automation

Photoshop CS includes improved automation settings accessed in File > Automate, File >

Script, and in the File Browser Automate menu. You can automate and batch process individual

images, folders of images, all open images, or best of all images selected in the File Browser

thumbnail pane.

From File > Automate

Crop and Straighten automatically straightens crooked scans (figure 11.4 a and 11.5)

and separates multiple scans into individual documents. For the best results make sure

that multiple scans are not touching one another and that there is at least 1/2 inch

between each image.

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