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Posts Tagged ‘cleaning’

The top Still Life Photography Cleaning Techniques in Photoshop

08 Apr

The post The top Still Life Photography Cleaning Techniques in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darina Kopcok.

The top Still Life Photography Cleaning Techniques in Photoshop featured image

Photoshop is a powerful program with a great variety of tools to help you get the most out of your images. From simple cleaning techniques to complex composites, the software offers everything photographers need for photo manipulation at all levels.

There are a variety of tools to help you, depending on your subject and goals for your image. With the exception of product photography, there are only a few key tools that you’ll need 90% of the time in retouching still life photography. Cleaning techniques in Photoshop are the foundation of beautiful imagery in this exciting but challenging genre.

Let’s take a look at what they are.

cleaning techniques in Photoshop
Canon 5D Mark III, EF 100mm 1:2.8, 1/160 f/9 ISO 100 Manual Mode, Evaluative Metering

The cleaning tools in Photoshop

There are just a few key tools that you need for cleaning techniques in Photoshop. These are: the Spot Healing tool, the Healing tool, the Clone Stamp tool, and the Patch tool. These tools are all you really need to take your still life images from good to great.

Each tool has its strengths and weakness. Some will achieve desired results more easily than others. When you combine the tools together, the result is a clean and refined image.

The top Still Life Photography Cleaning Techniques in Photoshop
Canon 5D Mark III, EF 100mm 1:2.8, 1/250 f/5.6 ISO 100 Manual Mode, Evaluative Metering

The Spot Healing Tool

The Spot Healing tool is the quickest way to fix little blemishes in Photoshop because it doesn’t require you to select an area to sample pixels from. Photoshop’s algorithm looks at nearby pixels and replaces them with pixels that it determines to be a good match.

When using this tool, you have some choices that will help Photoshop make the best guess as to what pixels would be the best replacement.

cleaning techniques in Photoshop

You can find the Spot Healing tool by the icon that looks like a bandaid. The shortcut for this tool is “J“.

When using this tool, you have some choices that will help Photoshop make the best guess as to what pixels would be the best replacement.

First, you want to choose a very soft brush. Start with a hardness of “0” and increase it slightly if needed. When retouching in Photoshop, every image is unique, so you have to assess your approach on a case-by-case basis.

Proximity Match will only look at the pixels around the sample area.

The top Still Life Photography Cleaning Techniques in Photoshop

When you use this tool, it’s best to choose Content-Aware Fill. This will ensure that the tool chooses pixels that will give you a seamless result.

In still life photography, it’s a good starting tool to quickly clean up any dust or small bits and blemishes before moving on to bigger blemishes or imperfections. It’s better than using the Spot Removal tool in Lightroom because if you use this tool repeatedly, it will slow down Lightroom’s performance very quickly.

Although the Spot Healing tool is one of the best cleaning techniques in Photoshop, one drawback to note is that using it excessively in a given area can lead to a plastic-like look. You may have to layer your use of this tool with others.

The Healing Brush Tool

The top Still Life Photography Cleaning Techniques in Photoshop
Still life should look clean and refined. Canon 5D Mark III, EF 24-70mm f/2.8, 1/160 f/9 ISO 100 Manual Mode, Evaluative Metering

The Healing Brush tool is similar to the Spot Healing Brush tool. However, when using this tool, you choose the area that you want to sample from. This gives you much more control, but of course, it’s not as quick as simply using the Spot Healing tool.

Imperfections blend into the surrounding areas. the brush works by matching texture, lighting, transparency, and shading of sample pixels to the pixels in the area we want to heal.

To use this tool, pick a source point to sample from. Think about what is going to work in terms of color and texture.

Start with a hardness of zero. You need a soft brush, but can add a bit of hardness if needed, depending on what you want to heal

Choose Aligned and Current & Below.

Choose where you want to select from and head over to where you want to “paste” the pixels

When utilizing cleaning techniques in Photoshop, the Healing Brush is a powerful tool because of the control it gives you.

cleaning techniques in Photoshop
Using the Healing Brush to clean up small flaws. Canon 5D Mark III EF 100mm 1:2.8 1/160 f/5.6 ISO 100 Manual Mode, Evaluative Metering

The Patch Tool

Using the Patch tool in Photoshop is another important tool for cleaning techniques in Photoshop. It’s like a large, customizable Healing Brush tool. The Patch tool repairs a selected area with pixels from another area. It seeks to match, lighting, shade, and texture from sample pixels to the source.

The top Still Life Photography Cleaning Techniques in Photoshop

It basically works like a “cut and paste” tool. However, it doesn’t work very well on larger areas because there usually are differences in tonality.

If you need to work on a larger area, you should attack the area by working in sections. Also, note that it also doesn’t work well on edges. In this case, you may have to use another tool or combine it with another tool for more precision.

The top Still Life Photography Cleaning Techniques in Photoshop

To use the Patch tool, select it from the sidebar or use the “J” key. Also, decide on your blending parameters.

The Patch tool’s Content-Aware mode works on empty layers by sampling below. It shuffles the content around a bit as it acts like a patch. If you’re using normal mode, don’t worry about lightness or color, as there will be a healing calculation when you release the mouse.

Use your mouse or pen to draw a slightly loose selection around the problem area (as pictured above) and then drag it to an area that might work to replace the pixels. You can drag it several times until you find a proper match.

The top Still Life Photography Cleaning Techniques in Photoshop

The Clone Stamp Tool

Perhaps one of the most popular and often used tools in Photoshop, the Clone stamp tool may possibly be your best ally when employing cleaning techniques in Photoshop.

The Clone Stamp copies pixels to a new location. With this tool, you’re literally painting over one part of an image with another. You can do this in both very small and large amounts, depending on the brush size you use.

Unlike the Patch Tool, it works very well in areas where you have texture, pattern, or an edge. It doesn’t work as well in areas where you have conflicting exposures on colors.

Although it’s a fantastically useful tool, when it comes to cleaning techniques in Photoshop, it might not work perfectly in every situation; you’ll need to combine it with other tools and techniques.

To activate the Clone Stamp, use the shortcut > Cmd/Ctrl + S.

cleaning techniques in Photoshop
Use the clone stamp to clean up areas with texture.

You can also use “T” to Transform to adjust further. This means that you can alter the size and rotation of your cloned area to make it blend better.

One last tip

The top Still Life Photography Cleaning Techniques in Photoshop
Canon 5D Mark III, EF 100mm 1:2.8, 1/160 f/5.6 ISO 100 Manual Mode, Evaluative Metering

When working with cleaning techniques in Photoshop, it’s a good idea to work using a lot of layers. This will allow you to go back a few steps if you make mistakes.

Using these tools together in Photoshop will give you the best results and will cover most of your bases when retouching your still life photography.

Do you have any other tips you’d like to share with us on cleaning techniques in Photoshop for still life images? If so, please do so in the comments section.

The post The top Still Life Photography Cleaning Techniques in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darina Kopcok.


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Roger Cicala breaks down the do’s (and don’ts) of cleaning your camera gear and workspace

20 Mar

Roger Cicala, founder and owner of Lensrentals, is best known in these parts for tearing down, repairing and reviewing lenses. But not long ago (relatively speaking), it wasn’t just lenses Roger was mending; he was also a physician. As such, his experience in these two fields makes him uniquely qualified to talk about something we should all be mindful of — how to keep yourself and your camera gear disinfected through proper care and treatment of your equipment and workspace.

In the thorough blog post, Roger breaks down what cleaning supplies you should (and shouldn’t) use and what practices will help to ensure you’re being as safe as you can be during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (and beyond). From basic gear cleansing tips to advice for keeping your studio or office as clean as possible, he covers it all.

You can read the full blog post yourself over on the Lensrentals blog. If we’re lucky, Roger might even make an appearance in the comments below for those of you who have any additional questions.


Image credits: photos used with kind permission from Lensrentals.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Apple’s ‘nano-texture’ Pro Display XDR monitor requires special cleaning cloth

17 Dec

Apple’s incredibly expensive Pro Display XDR monitor is offered with an optional nano-texture glass that costs an extra $ 1,000 and must, it turns out, be cleaned using only a special cloth provided by Apple. The unique cleaning requirements, which don’t apply to the version of the monitor that features standard glass, were recently spotted by MacRumors in an Apple support document.

According to the support document, Apple includes a special ‘dry polishing cloth’ with its Pro Display XDR with nano-texture glass monitor. Owners are told to use this cloth to wipe smudges and dust from the display. Apple warns that the nano-texture glass cannot be cleaned using any liquids. If it’s anything like the various ‘nano’ coatings we see in modern lenses, this isn’t a surprise. Such coatings are so fragile that they are never used on the outside (environment-facing) sides of glass elements at all.

The polishing cloth can be cleaned using dish soap and water (it must be thoroughly rinsed and left to air dry for at least 24 hours), but replacing the cloth isn’t simple. Apple says customers must directly contact the company in order to get a replacement cloth, the cost of which hasn’t been specified.

Given that the nano-texture glass costs $ 1,000 on top of the Pro Display XDR’s $ 4,999 price (not including the $ 999 Pro Stand and $ 199 VESA mount adapter), you might expect the cleaning cloths to be free. Whether that turns out to be the case is unknown at this time, but seems unlikely considering Apple’s track record.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Man v Dust: video highlights trials of Leica’s in-house sensor cleaning service

12 Jan

The International Leica Society has posted a video of a camera sensor being cleaned at the Leica service centre in the Wetzlar factory in Germany.

The video, taken by member Hari Subramanyam on his iPhone, shows the process of checking for dust on the sensor of his M (Typ 240) and then its removal. Well, that was what it was supposed to show, but after 20 minutes and 25 seconds the video finishes with the dust victorious and the Leica service engineer frustrated and wishing he wasn’t being recorded.

The engineer starts by cleaning the mount of the camera before using a vacuum cleaner to suck dust and debris from the shutter blades. Once that is done the in-camera dust checking function is used to detect a number of dust spots. The rubber-on-a-stick Pentax Sensor Cleaning kit is used to remove the dust as the engineer explains the process needs patience and can take anything from ten minutes to an hour.

We don’t get to see the sensor finally dust-free, as it takes a few goes and the cameraman has less patience than the engineer, but the video shows some useful steps in the process.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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VSGO Camera Sensor Cleaning Kit Review

08 Jul

Cleaning your camera sensor for the first time can be a scary thing! But the fact of the matter is that it’s not as scary as many people make it out to be. Indeed if you get the chance to watch a professional sensor your camera, they’re pretty stress-free and just get on with the job, and while there is a (mostly!) good level of care, they’re not carrying on as if they’re performing open-heart surgery.

Yes, our cameras are our babies. But they’re also tools and despite what we may think, they can handle a little bit of hard work and a good cleaning, too. In this article, I’m going to tell you about my experience cleaning my own sensors and using the VSGO sensor cleaning kit.

VSGO sensor cleaning kit

See below for the video demonstration.

VSGO Sensor Cleaning Kit

The first time I ever tried cleaning my own sensor was on my new Canon 5D MarkII. I remember being super nervous and thinking that I was going to cause some irreversible damage!

Well, as it happens, I managed to put a big streak of cleaning fluid on the sensor and when I took a test shot I was horrified. I thought I’d scratched the sensor right down the middle! So I did a little bit of Googling to find that almost all modern sensors have some sort of protective layer in front of them to protect them from fools like me! I added a tiny dot of cleaning fluid, did it again and my sensor was sparkly and clean!

It is scary, but it’s not hard to effectively clean your own sensor.

I’ve used other sensor cleaning kits before. They worked fine, but they were just bigger and bulkier than this simple VSGO kit so I left them at home. With the VSGO sensor cleaning kit, I chuck a couple of swabs and a little bottle of cleaning fluid in my camera bag and I’m always ready should the need arise.

Sensor cleaning demo

I’ve put together this quick video to show you the exact procedure I use with these VSGO cleaning swabs, take a look!

As you can see in the video above, it’s easy to see the bigger dust spots, they’re sitting there waiting to be wiped away. Many people like the idea of blowing those right off, but I prefer not to do that. I don’t like the idea of blowing the bigger bits of dust off of my sensor and straight into the shutter box or sensor cavity to blow around at a later date and make your sensor clean mostly invalid! Kinda like driving through a car wash that’s just had its washy bits coated in dirt, no thanks.

In my few months of testing the VSGO cleaning system, I’ve found that with most camera sensors, you will only need one VSGO brush with a wipe from left to right. Then one more back from right to left using the opposite side of the brush and you’re done. But there have been one or two sensors that have required a couple of extra wipes!

How do you know when to clean your sensor?

When you’re out taking photographs and you close down your aperture (bigger f-number, for those of you that are newer to photography) for a deeper depth-of-field, you may notice little dark smudges, particularly around the edge of your photographs. Those cheeky little things are dust spots on the sensor (unless you had a pack of rabid pigeons flying around you looking for chips!)

They’re not very obvious when you’re taking a photograph with a shallow depth of field, and many photographers are prone to using our lenses as wide as they will go for the most part, so it’s not an issue. But from time to time, given the right situation, you will notice them.

In the photo below, I’ve bumped up the Contrast and Clarity in Lightroom to make the little smudge stand out a bit – pretty sure you’ll spot them!

 

My experience with the VSGO sensor cleaning kit was a very positive one and I have a couple of swabs and a bottle of cleaning fluid in both of my camera bags. (Thanks to Jeff at ProTog in Melbourne for telling me about these kits!) There is no downside to buying and having the VSGO cleaning kit with you, so I award it five out of five stars!

The post VSGO Camera Sensor Cleaning Kit Review by Sime appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Cleaning your DSLR Sensor

07 Jan

Howdy folks! We get a lot of questions here at SOPHA, and high on the list is how to clean your camera. In this video, Bud will show you how to clean your camera, and specifically, the methods he uses to clean DSLR sensors. Yes, this is service we have here at SOPHA – we clean cameras and sensors. But folks asked for a video, so here it is. If you have ideas for more videos, send us a line. You can find out more about SOPHA at theSOPHA.com.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

 
 

Cleaning up the background of a photograph | lynda.com tutorial

26 Oct

This Photoshop tutorial discusses how to clean up the background flaws in a photograph using the Patch tool. Watch more at www.lynda.com This specific tutorial is just a single movie from chapter two of the Photoshop CS5: Athletic Retouching Projects course presented by lynda.com author Chris Orwig. The complete Photoshop CS5: Athletic Retouching Projects course has a total duration of 6 hours and 9 minutes, and covers removing blemishes from the subject and the background, adding motion blur, enhancing muscle tone, making adjustments to photos shot in an outdoor setting, and more. Photoshop CS5: Athletic Retouching Projects table of contents: Introduction 1. Outdoor Portrait 2. Simplicity 3. Strength 4. Speed 5. Gym Workout 6. Energy 7. Pushup 8. Indoor Track Sprint 9. Enhancing Strength 10. Surfer Portrait 11. Underwater Portrait 12. Jump 13. Father and Son Portrait Conclusion

 
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Proper Sensor Cleaning Tutorial

25 Oct

Questions? Go here: www.youtube.com Tutorial on how to clean the camera sensor for dust-free images. See below for cameras with built-in Mirror Lock Up option available. Download the list of required supplies here (PDF): tinyurl.com D1-Series: EH-5 AC Adapter Required D2-Series: Mirror…

 
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Nikon D300 sensor cleaning using MXD-100 from Visibledust

24 Oct

Nikon D300 sensor cleaning using MXD-100 Swab (green) from Visibledust

 
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