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Photoshop Eraser Tool: A Comprehensive Guide (2021)

26 Aug

The post Photoshop Eraser Tool: A Comprehensive Guide (2021) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

Are you wondering how to use the Photoshop Eraser Tool? And more importantly, are you wondering when you should use it?

You’ve come to the right place. In this guide, I’ll show you how the Eraser Tool works – and I’ll give you some tips that’ll help you master it. You’ll also learn when to use the Eraser Tool, along with several helpful alternatives.

Let’s get started!

The Eraser Tool: 3 different versions

Nearly every tool in Photoshop comes in several different versions; to reveal these options, click and hold a tool icon. A menu will appear with each tool variation:

In the case of the Photoshop Eraser Tool, you’ll find three variations:

The regular Eraser Tool
The Background Eraser Tool
The Magic Eraser Tool

Let’s see what each can do and how they are different from each other, starting with the standard Eraser Tool:

1. Eraser Tool

The standard Eraser Tool is as straightforward as it gets. It erases the pixels underneath the cursor – whatever they are.

You can determine whether to use the Eraser Tool as a Brush, a Pencil, or a Block. For the Brush and the Pencil, you can choose the size, hardness, and opacity of your cursor’s brush.

Click once, and you’ll erase whatever is underneath the cursor (though a big brush will delete more than a small brush, of course).

Make sure the layer you’re working on is unlocked, and that transparent pixels are unlocked, too (the transparent pixels can be locked or unlocked via the checker icon on top of the Layers panel; see the circled icon in the image above).

2. Background Eraser Tool

The Background Eraser Tool tends to confuse and disappoint Photoshop beginners. The name suggests that it automatically erases the background of your image, thus eliminating the tedious work of selecting – but I’m afraid that’s not how it works.

Instead, the Background Eraser Tool samples whatever is underneath the middle of the cursor (marked with a +) and deletes areas that match the sampled color.

You can adjust how the Background Eraser Tool conducts its sampling. Continuous Sampling means that it will update the sample as you move the cursor. On the image above, for example, I can drag the Tool along the edge between the sky and the trees and it will delete only the blue from the sky. However, if I touch the branches, the Background Eraser will start deleting the trees.

Switch the sampling to Once, and the Background Eraser will erase anything with the color it sampled upon your first click. This is ideal when you want to remove intricate areas like sky between leaves.

Finally, the Background Swatch sampling mode will delete anything matching Photoshop’s current Background Color. This is best used with solid colors because a graduated blue – like the one in the sky, above – will leave a lot of areas untouched.

The Background Eraser Tool is only available as a brush, but you can adjust the Limits and Tolerance to fine-tune according to your needs.

3. Magic Eraser

using the Magic Eraser Tool — With one click on a sample point, the Magic Eraser deletes bigger areas where the pixels have the same or a similar color.

The Magic Eraser works like the Magic Wand selection tool, except it erases pixels instead of selecting them; one click, and it erases anything that matches the color under the cursor.

You can adjust the Tolerance to delete more or fewer shades of the sampled color. You can also determine if you want to erase only adjacent areas or if you want to delete anything with that color, regardless of its location in the image. Check the Anti-alias option if you want to minimize jagged edges.

How to use the Eraser Tool: the basics

Using the Photoshop Eraser Tool is dead simple. Just follow these steps:

Unlock the layer you want to eraser. Make sure transparent pixels are unlocked, too.
Select the Eraser Tool you want to use (regular Eraser, Background Eraser, or Magic Eraser).
Customize the tool. Depending on the type of Eraser you’ve selected, you’ll have different customization options.
Click and drag to erase the desired area.
Check for any remaining pixels. If necessary, go back and erase over areas again.
Save the image as a PNG file to preserve the transparency of deleted pixels.

Tips for using the Photoshop Eraser Tool

Now that you’re familiar with the Eraser Tool basics, I’d like to share some simple tips and tricks to improve your results:

1. Always keep an original backup

creating a backup layer — The Photoshop Eraser is a destructive tool, so *always* work on a copy.

The Eraser is a destructive tool. In other words, if you delete pixels, they’ll be gone for good. You can bring them back with the Undo command, but that’s only if you haven’t closed and re-opened the file.

So before using the Eraser, always, always, always make a backup of your work.

For instance, you can duplicate the layer you plan to Erase; that way, if you mess up, you can always delete your worked-on version and start over with the duplicated layer.

Another option is to work with a copy of your file, rather than the original. Then, when things go downhill, you always have the original to save the day.

2. Use the keyboard shortcuts

To move more efficiently through your editing process, you can use the ‘E‘ key to activate the Eraser Tool.

Then tap ‘Shift + E‘ to toggle between the different types of Erasers.

3. Erase to History

If you’ve saved a state or made a snapshot, the Erase to History option will erase the changes made since that last save.

You can find this feature in the Options bar of the Erase tool.

When should you use the Eraser Tool in Photoshop?

The Photoshop Eraser Tool has limited applications. But for those few times when you need it, you’ll be happy it exists!

Here are several situations when the Eraser Tool can make a big difference:

1. When you need transparency

Sometimes, it’s not enough to hide pixels in the current document – you actually need to keep the area empty and transparent for use on images elsewhere.

This can happen when you’re preparing several images for a photo composite, or when you’re creating a logo to place on top of other images.

(Remember to save your file as a PNG. Otherwise, the transparent areas will be filled with white pixels by default.)

saving as a PNG file — Always use a PNG format to save a partially erased image.

2. When you need to fine-tune channel masks

When you make a layer mask, you’ll notice that a new channel is created.

If you head to this new channel and use the Eraser Tool in Block mode, you can make adjustments to the black pixels to modify the mask (though make sure you zoom in for better results).

Eraser Tool alternatives

Not sure if the Eraser Tool is the right way to go? Here are several alternatives to the Eraser Tool that will help you achieve similar results.

Photoshop Layer Masks — Layer masks hide the pixels instead of deleting them.

1. Layer masks

Layer masks are a non-destructive way of “erasing” parts of your image. Technically, you’re not deleting those pixels – that’s why it’s non-destructive.

Instead, you’re just hiding the pixels you don’t want. If you change your mind and decide to make them visible again, you can disable the layer mask – or unmask the parts that you want visible.

2. Auto Erase

Despite the name, this isn’t a feature found as part of the Photoshop Eraser Tool. Instead, you’ll find it in the Pencil tool.

When you activate the Pencil and enable the Auto Erase option, you paint – with the background color – any pixels that have the foreground color. And if you paint over an area that doesn’t have the foreground color, you replace that color with the foreground color.

The Photoshop Eraser Tool: final words

I hope this article clarified your doubts about the mysterious and often underestimated Photoshop Eraser Tool. Go ahead and test it out the next time you’re in Photoshop. See how it goes. Yes, it has something of a niche effect, but it’s occasionally very helpful.

Now over to you:

Do you have any tips or advice for using the Eraser Tool? Share them in the comments below!

The post Photoshop Eraser Tool: A Comprehensive Guide (2021) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

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12 Tips to Master the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop

09 Jul

The post 12 Tips to Master the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jim Hamel.

The Clone Stamp tool is one of Photoshop’s most useful editing options. After all, it can get rid of all sorts of unwanted objects! Yet for beginners – and even more experienced photo editors – it can be intimidating, frustrating, and discouraging.

That’s why, in this article, I’m going to share everything you need to know about the Clone Stamp tool, including how it works, how to use it to remove unwanted items from your photos, and the simple tips and tricks that will make you a Clone Stamp master.

Let’s dive right in.

When should you use the Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop?

Photoshop offers several tools for making minor adjustments to your photos (e.g., the Healing Brush tool and the Spot Healing Brush tool). But while such tools are great for minor edits – such as removing spots and power lines – when it comes time for serious, intensive surgery on your photos, the Clone Stamp tool is the way to go.

You can use the Clone Stamp tool to:

Remove people standing in the background of a portrait
Remove people walking through your travel shots
Remove cars that are positioned in awkward places
Remove distracting street signs
Remove distracting shadows
Remove distracting reflections

And those are just a few of the many applications of the Clone Stamp tool.

Clone Stamp Tool example on the Palais Garnier interior — You will not often find the stairs of the Palais Garnier in Paris free of people, so you will need to put the Clone Stamp tool to work if you want a clean picture. This applies at many other tourist destinations, as well.

How to use the Clone Stamp tool: the basics

Getting started with the Clone Stamp tool is simple. You just tell Photoshop two things:

The area you want to target for removal (i.e., the target area).
The area Photoshop should use to supply replacement pixels (i.e., the source area).

So if you were removing a person from a staircase (as I did in the example above), you would set the source area as some nearby stairs, and you would set the target area as the person you wanted to remove.

Here’s the step-by-step process for using the tool:

Step 1: Select the Clone Stamp tool from the Tools panel

You’ll find the Tools panel on the left-hand side of your screen (the Clone Stamp tool looks like a rubber stamp):

Once you have the tool selected, click on the Brush menu dropdown:

And set both the Size and the Hardness.

Step 2: Select the source area

Remember, the source area refers to the portion of the image you will use to source replacement pixels.

So hover your cursor over the source area, hold the Alt/Option key (your cursor will now become a target), and do a single click.

Step 3: Paint over the target area

Release the Alt key and move your mouse over to the area you’d like to remove. Hold down the mouse button and carefully paint in the new pixels.

And that’s it. You’re done! But while the process sounds simple, there’s a lot to understand, especially if you want to become a Clone Stamp expert.

So let’s take a look at some tips and tricks to help you conquer this important Photoshop tool, starting with:

1. Work on a new layer

Before making changes with the Clone Stamp tool, always create a new layer. Then make sure your adjustments all happen on the layer (you can flatten the image when you’re done).

Why should you do this?

There are many reasons. First of all, Photoshop layers are nondestructive – so changes to the layer won’t change the underlying pixels of your image. In addition, if you don’t like where the changes are going, you can always delete the layer and start over.

And if you later decide there are portions of the Clone Stamp changes you don’t want, you can always use a layer mask to selectively delete those changes. Plus, you can apply adjustments specifically to cloned areas if they are on a new layer (as will be explored in more depth below).

Now, creating a new layer is easy. Simply press Ctrl/Cmd+J to create a duplicate of your current image layer, or press Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+N to create a new blank layer.

Working on a new layer with the Clone Stamp tool

Note: If you do create a new blank layer, make sure you have All Layers selected as your source in the Clone Stamp tool settings.

selecting All Layers for the Clone Stamp tool

I personally prefer working on a new layer (as opposed to a duplicate layer), but either way will work.

2. Zoom in (way in)

When working with the Clone Stamp tool, you should always zoom in – in fact, I recommend you zoom way in (potentially to 100% and beyond).

zoomed in image with Clone Stamp tool on the side — I tend to do my Clone Stamp work zoomed in to 100% or more.

Zooming in will help isolate the area you are working on, and it will allow you to work with far more detail and precision than would otherwise be possible. Make your changes look as good as you can with this higher level of detail, then when you zoom back out, the changes will blend in perfectly.

A shortcut for zooming quickly is to hold the Alt/Option key with your left hand while using the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out. You can also use Ctrl/Cmd and the + or – key on the keyboard. That way, you can zoom in and out with speed.

3. Set your brush size using shortcuts

When working with the Clone Stamp tool, you’ll need to change your brush size often.

Why? You should always make sure your brush size fits the changes you’re making. Big changes require a big brush, whereas small changes require a fine brush for detail work.

Unfortunately, changing the size through the Brush panel is cumbersome, but there are some easy keyboard shortcuts:

The left bracket key [ makes the brush smaller
The right bracket key ] makes the brush larger

Thanks to these shortcuts, you’ll be able to rapidly tailor the tool to your specific circumstances.

4. Set the proper brush hardness

The Clone Stamp tool can be set to whatever hardness you desire. Simply open the Brush panel, then adjust the Hardness slider:

Now, hardness determines the extent to which your cloning will blend in with the surrounding pixels. If you set the hardness toward 100%, the cloned edges will be hard and definite:

If you set the hardness toward 0%, the edges will blend in with the surroundings:

In general, keep the hardness at 0%. It will help you seamlessly blend in your effect. There will be times, however, where you are working near a defined edge, in which case you should increase the hardness. Even then, around 50% will usually do. Setting the hardness any higher creates harsh transitions, and these often look unnatural (they’ll also make it very clear you’ve used the Clone Stamp tool).

5. Clone before making other adjustments

Here’s a quick Clone Stamp tool tip:

Do your cloning before making adjustments (via adjustment layers) to contrast, color, etc. If you apply the Clone Stamp tool after creating those adjustment layers, you’ll bake the changes permanently into your picture when you clone – which can be a problem if you later decide you want to remove some of your earlier adjustments.

However, in some cases, you’ll need to clone, yet you will have already made changes on an adjustment layer. So what do you do? Photoshop actually lets you decide whether to include adjustment layer changes in your cloning, and I generally recommend you don’t include these changes.

Simply select the circle with a line through it in the Clone Stamp tool Options bar:

preventing the Clone Stamp tool from being affected by adjustment layers

And Photoshop will ignore adjustment layers when you clone.

6. Grab the low-hanging fruit

Most of the time, your pictures will have some easy items to clone out – along with some harder items.

Clone out the easy items first, such as small blemishes on a portrait subject, dirt in a landscape, trash in a street scene, etc.

For one, this will give you confidence in your Clone Stamp tool abilities (always a good thing!). Plus, removing unnecessary items will help when the time comes to make hard changes.

How will it help? When using the Clone Stamp tool, the cleaner the space you have from which you can draw pixels, the better. So by making the easy changes first, you’re cleaning up the areas that may feature in your more difficult clone jobs later.

Make sense?

7. Watch for patterns

Sometimes, it’s a good idea to include patterns in your cloning; for instance, if you’re removing a person from in front of a building, you’ll want to use a similar building as your cloning source.

However, there are often times when you don’t want discernible patterns in your cloned areas. For instance, if you get rid of a bird in the sky, you don’t want to replace it with an obvious set of repetitive clouds – that would look super unnatural and would immediately indicate to viewers that you used the Clone Stamp tool.

There is an easy way to avoid patterns: as you clone, frequently choose a new source point. Sample from one area and clone one part of your image, then sample from another area and clone another part, and so on. Keep it up until you’ve finished all the necessary cloning, and you’ll end up with an image featuring zero repetition and an invisible clone job.

removing distractions from a lighthouse photo without creating a pattern — The right side of this image was filled with distractions, and the Clone Stamp tool eliminated them. But I had to be careful not to create patterns in the rocks or in the trees/water!

8. Follow the lines

A key to the successful use of the Clone Stamp tool is making all the lines in your picture match. Even slight deviations from the correct lines will look fake and destroy the effect you are trying to achieve.

For example, if you’re cloning parts of a landscape, make sure the edges of the tree branches match up. In an urban context, follow lines on buildings such as roof edges, doorways, and brickwork.

When you’re using the Clone Stamp tool, I recommend you start with – and stay focused on! – the lines. Let the rest of the pixels fall where they may. Afterward, if you need to go back over other areas, you can do so.

removing a person from an interior shot — Here, I’ve zoomed in on a portion of an architectural shot. As you can see, I’ve used the patterns on the floor and door to recreate the space behind the distracting person.

9. Avoid selecting from adjacent areas

As previously mentioned, a dead giveaway of the Clone Stamp tool is repetition.

Of course, in a sense, the Clone Stamp tool is all about repetition – you’re repeating a part of your image to cover up a part you don’t like – but you need to do it in such a way that the viewer doesn’t notice. If you draw pixels from an immediately adjacent area, you risk the viewer noticing the repetition. So take the pixels from somewhere else in the image instead.

Inadvertently creating a pattern is an easy trap to fall into when using adjacent areas, but at the same time, using non-adjacent areas can be tricky. The immediately adjacent areas are usually the closest in color and tone to the area you want to replace, and as you move farther away, tones and colors change so the pixels get harder to match.

So work hard. Find a way to use pixels from somewhere else in your photo, especially when the adjacent pixels contain obvious patterns. It might take extra time, but it’ll be worth it in the end.

10. Muddle through (and accept the messiness)

Once you’ve made the “easy” changes to your photo, it’s time to tackle a bigger problem – a crowd of people, for instance, or a car that takes up a large portion of the scene. And I get it: it’s the scary part of using the Clone Stamp tool.

The key is to just dive in. Don’t try to figure it all out beforehand (you never will). You can use a couple of different approaches:

Go big first. Set your brush a little larger than is strictly necessary and just replace the entire area in one fell swoop. You should then go back and clean up with a smaller brush.
Go small and steady. Stick with the smaller brush and paint over the problem area gradually. Here, the key is to keep going. Remember that you can go over the area again if necessary. Whatever you do on your first pass, while probably not perfect, will undoubtedly look better than what you started with.

You’ve just got to do it. There is a tendency to freeze up and to try to map out the entire clone job, step by step, before actually doing anything. But this just causes you to stare at the computer screen for long periods of time and isn’t especially helpful.

Remember, you can always undo what you’ve done! In addition, because you hopefully followed the first tip in this article and are working on a new layer, you can always mask out certain areas or even delete them if you don’t get the result you want.

11. Mirror your source pixels

The Clone Source panel contains lots of adjustments you can make to your brush when cloning.

To access the panel, go to Window, then click on Clone Source:

Once in the panel, you can change the angle of the replacement pixels, you can give the tool an offset, and more.

One of the most useful features in the Clone Source panel is the Flip Horizontal option:

using the Flip Horizontal setting in the Clone Source panel

Click on this, and the pixels will be replaced in the opposite horizontal direction to the source.

Confused? Don’t be. You’re basically just mirroring source pixels. For example, in the crop below, I selected the road line on the right as my source, then cloned it off to the left. You can see how the pixels are flipped horizontally:

While this may seem like a pointless trick, it can actually be very useful. Imagine you’re dealing with a symmetrical object; instead of sourcing pixels from above or below the clone target, you can simply use pixels from its opposite (reflective) side.

Here’s a typical example: A person is covering one side of a doorway, and you want to get rid of them. By clicking on Flip Horizontal, you can use the other side of the doorway as your source, and you don’t have to scramble for pixels all around the frame.

12. Change the cloned areas with adjustment layers

Sometimes, your cloned areas just won’t look exactly like the surroundings. Perhaps the source areas you used were too bright or too dark, or perhaps the colors were just a bit off.

But don’t worry; you can fix this without affecting the surrounding pixels. You just need the power of adjustment layers.

Simply create a new adjustment layer (e.g., Levels, Curves, or Hue/Saturation):

Make sure it’s positioned above your cloning layer. Then hold down the Alt/Option key and click on the spot between the two layers:

clipping an adjustment layer to the cloning layer below it

This will clip the adjustment layer to your cloning layer. Now any adjustments you apply will only change the layer below it, and you’re free to brighten, darken, add contrast, adjust colors, etc.

Mastering the Clone Stamp tool: final words

Remember: Using the Clone Stamp tool can be a messy process. So don’t worry if you find yourself having to redo changes or make things up as you go along. There is no magical “clean” method – instead, the Clone Stamp tool involves a lot of experimentation, a lot of problem-solving, and a dose of determination.

Take your time and just keep moving. You can always undo your changes (or, if you are working on a new layer, you can delete the changes without losing the rest of your work).

And have fun!

Now over to you:

Do you have any tips or tricks for using the Clone Stamp tool? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post 12 Tips to Master the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jim Hamel.

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How to Create a Watermark with the Pen Tool in Photoshop

02 Dec

The post How to Create a Watermark with the Pen Tool in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

Did you know that you can create a watermark with the Pen tool? Watermarking images is one of those issues that sparks strong feelings; some people love it and others hate it.

I think the success of a watermark is a matter of knowing when to use it and how to make it.

This article will show you how to create a watermark – using only the Pen tool in Photoshop!

Watermark your images using the pen tool in Photoshop

What is a watermark?

A watermark is a digital “signature” that you add to your photographs. It doesn’t have to be a literal signature, though – you can use a logo, your name, or just the copyright symbol.

The purpose of the watermark is either to protect your work or to advertise yourself. But you’ll want to make sure that your watermark isn’t too distracting. Otherwise, you are defeating the point of showing your work online.

What is the Photoshop Pen tool?

The Pen tool is one of the most useful features in Photoshop, yet it’s very underused because it’s mostly associated with making selections.

Since there are many selection tools that have easier learning curves, a lot of people don’t really get to know the Pen tool’s full potential.

While the Pen tool is in fact a very precise tool for making selections, the biggest advantage of the Pen tool is that you can work with paths. From a path, you can make vector masks, strokes, shapes, and even fonts.

Why should you create a watermark with the Pen tool?

There are different ways of creating a watermark in Photoshop. I believe that using Pen tool is the most efficient.

For one, a watermark created with the Pen tool will be vector art. You can enlarge it or shrink it many times and never lose quality.

That way, you can use it for all your needs. Also, paths remain editable for you to come back to and modify any time you want.

Shapes in Photoshop are also vector-based. But with the Pen tool, you have full creative freedom. You can draw anything you want and convert it into a shape or use it to trace a brushstroke.

As you can see, you can combine a series of elements and techniques that will allow you to create the perfect watermark. In the following guide, I’ll be showing you how to do it.

Let’s get started!

How to create a watermark with the Pen tool

To quickly create a watermark, just follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Open a new document

Open Adobe Photoshop and create a new document. The size and resolution are not important because you’ll be working with vectors, so you can always scale it later.

The only thing that you need to remember is to set the Background Contents option as Transparent.

Step 2: Make a sketch

This step is optional, but I find it very helpful. What I like to do is add a new layer (though it’s important that it’s transparent).

Turn a sketch into a watermark using the pen tool

With the Brush tool set to a bright color, I start by drawing how I want my watermark to look at the end.

Unless you are a very gifted designer, the drawing won’t look very good. This is what always happens to me, and it’s one of the reasons why using the Pen tool is better than using the Brush tool to ultimately create your watermark.

In any case, doing a rough sketch will give you an idea of the size and proportion of the elements you want to include.

Step 3: Trace a path

I’m going to add a black layer to make the work more visible for you. You can do this, too, if it helps you, but remember to delete it at the end.

Grab the Pen tool from the toolbox on the left or activate it with its keyboard shortcut (the “P” key).

At the top of the screen, you’ll see how the options change. Make sure your Pen tool is set to Path. Then just click to add the first anchor point.

Create a watermark using the pen tool in Photoshop — You can move the anchor points to modify the path by holding the Ctrl/Cmd key. You can also adjust the handles by holding the Alt/Option key.

Continue creating anchor points, following the shape that you’d like to create. To curve the path, just drag the anchor point until the handles appear. You can use the handles to adjust the curvature.

If this is your first time using the Pen tool, you can check out this guide. Don’t worry if it doesn’t come out perfect on the first try.

Paths are always editable, so you can correct any mistakes. You can make the entire design in a single path, or make separate ones.

Step 4: Stroke the path

Open the Brush tool and choose the settings that you want for the design that you’re creating. This includes the color, the size, the hardness, and the shape of the brush.

Then open the Paths panel. If it’s not active, you can access it from the menu: Windows > Paths.

Now, right-click on your working path and choose Stroke Path from the menu. Make sure you select Brush in the Tool dropdown menu, then hit OK. This will apply the settings that you have set on your Brush tool.

If you’re not happy with the result, just hit Undo and change the settings on your brush until you’re satisfied.

Disable or lower the opacity of the sketch layer for better visibility.

Step 5: Make shapes

Create shapes using the Pen tool in Photoshop

Sometimes, instead of strokes, you need to make shapes. For that, grab the Pen tool and change it from Path to Shape in the Options bar.

Here, you can change the fill or the stroke as you need. It is also possible to create complex designs with a single path by combining or intersecting multiple shapes. This can also be set up in the Options bar.

Step 6: Convert strokes to shapes

If you go to the Layers panel, you’ll notice that the paths you converted to strokes are now rasterized. This means they are using pixels instead of vectors.

To change that, go back to the Paths panel and click on the corresponding path. Then activate the Pen tool and choose Shape:

how to create a watermark with the Pen tool in Photoshop select make shape

Step 7: Merge shapes and save

Once you’re done, delete all the rasterized layers, including the one with the sketch and the black background.

If you want, you can save a .PSD copy with all the layers before moving on.

Then select all the shapes, right-click, and choose Merge Shapes.

Then save your document as a .PNG, which will preserve transparency. This is important because other formats will fill the background with white.

Step 8: Watermark your photos

Open any image you want to watermark. Then go to File>Place Embedded. If you’re using Photoshop CS6, it will be called Place.

This will open a browser window. Choose your watermark file and click OK. This will open your watermark in Photoshop.

Resize it and position it to your liking. You can also reduce the opacity if you think the watermark is too distracting.

And that’s it! Remember that you can save this step as a Photoshop action to automate the watermarking process.

Other ways to create a watermark in Photoshop

I hope you enjoyed using the Pen tool to create watermarks. However, this is not the only way to do it. If you want to try different methods, check out any of these amazing tutorials:

How to Create Your Own Watermark using a Custom Shape in Photoshop
How to Automate Your Watermarking
How to Watermark Your Images Using Lightroom and Photoshop CC
How to Create Custom Brushes in Photoshop and use them for watermarking

The post How to Create a Watermark with the Pen Tool in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

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Adobe shows off prototype version of its Content Authenticity tool and ecosystem

21 Oct

In addition to its Lightroom and Photoshop updates, adobe has also revealed a prototype of its Content Authenticity Prototype, a key new tool that will play a key role in Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative first unveiled a year ago at Adobe MAX 2019.

A screenshot from the video showing the ‘Content Credentials’ toolset in the beta version of Adobe Photoshop.

As the above video demonstrates, the new opt-in tool provides a way for photojournalists, artists and other creatives to cyptographically sign and embed editing and attribution information to images that have been adjusted or altered in Photoshop (and presumably other Adobe programs). Creators can choose to include as little or as much data as they would like and export that information with the image(s).

A screenshot from the header video showing what information will be embedded with the edited image upon export from Photoshop.

When the image(s) are uploaded to websites with CAI compatibility, viewers will be able to see exactly who captured the image, what edits were made, what assets were used and more. Adobe is even launching a dedicated site (verify.contentauthenticity.org) that will serve as an original database of sorts to see every detail of every change made and asset used.

The verify.contentauthenticity.org website will break down the signed metadata for each asset used.

Currently, the prototype will only be available to a select group of beta testers. Eventually, we can expect the tool to roll out to the masses, but even then, adoption will come to be the greatest barrier to Adobe’s efforts to keep authenticity at the forefront of digital content creation.

Adobe says it’s working with ‘The New York Times Company, Twitter, Inc., Microsoft, BBC, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Truepic, WITNESS, CBC and many others,’ but it’s honest about what it will take to get the masses to adopt such attribution technology as the norm:

‘We believe attribution will create a virtuous cycle. The more creators distribute content with proper attribution, the more consumers will expect and use that information to make judgement calls, thus minimizing the influence of bad actors and deceptive content. Ultimately, a holistic solution that includes attribution, detection and education to provide a common and shared understanding of objective facts is essential to help us make more thoughtful decisions when consuming media. Today is a huge leap forward for the CAI, but this is just the beginning.’

While the companies Adobe is already working with are certainly leaders in their respective spheres, there are plenty of other agencies and organizations that will need to hop onboard the CAI train to truly make this a ubiquitous standard that’s the rule instead of the exception. Media empire Gannett, for example, would be a great opportunity, as the company owns over 90 daily newspapers, nearly 1,000 weekly newspapers and almost two dozen television stations. Getty, AP and others are obvious candidates as well.

You can keep up with the latest CAI developments on the Adobe Blog and the Content Authenticity website.

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Video: Adobe teases Advance Color Grading tool coming to ACR, Lightroom and Lightroom Classic

28 Sep

Adobe has announced a new Advanced Color Grading feature will soon be available inside Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom and Lightroom Classic.

The new Color Grading panel is inspired by the Lumetri Color panel used in Adobe’s Premiere Pro video editing software and replaces the previous Split Toning panel. Unlike Split Toning, which only allows you to adjust the highlights and shadows, the new Color Grading panel takes it one step further, allowing you to also adjust the coloring of the midtones.

In addition to adding midtones, the panel is also redesigned. It now uses a three-wheel system, not unlike the color wheels often seen in professional video editing programs. Each wheel works alongside a slider to provide complete HSL control for highlights, midtones and shadows. There’s also a global color wheel for more general adjustments, as well as a blending slider to help boost or reduce your adjustments, depending on the look you’re going for.

Adobe doesn’t mention when we can expect to see this filter in Adobe Camera Raw, Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Lightroom Classic, but does say it’ll be showing off more of this new panel at this year’s virtual Adobe Max conference, which is taking place on October 20–22.

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Library of Congress launches AI-powered, image-based Newspaper Navigator tool

26 Sep

The Library of Congress has launched a new AI-powered image-based tool for searching through old newspapers, enabling anyone to find historic images from more than 16 million scanned newspaper pages. Newspaper Navigator builds upon the LOC’s existing Chronicling America project, the result being a visual content recognition model capable of finding a variety of images in digitized newspapers, including maps, comics, photographs, illustrations, advertisements and more.

The Chronicling America project is the LOC’s historic newspaper archive. With this tool, anyone can use optical recognition technology (OCR) to search through a vast archive of digitized newspapers dating back to the late 1700s. Newspaper Navigator builds upon this, introducing the ability to search for images rather than text. The object detection model was trained using annotated newspaper pages from the Chronicling America project, enabling it to extract the visual content from 16,358,041 newspaper pages.

The new tool was created by LOC 2020 Innovator in Residence Benjamin Charles Germain Lee who detailed the project in a new video. In addition to offering a search tool online, the LOC has released the extracted visual content as prepackaged datasets available to download from Github. This prepackaged content is split up by year and includes a variety of metadata alongside the images.

Users can search through more than 1.6 million images sourced from newspapers dated from the year 1900 to 1963. The results are fairly accurate, though the use of optical character recognition for extracting descriptions of the content can be lackluster if the quality of the scanned newspaper text is poor.

The interface includes some useful options, including links for downloading the images, viewing the full newspaper issues, learning more about the newspapers and getting citations for images. This assumes one is using the online search tool and not the prepackaged downloadable image datasets available on Github, of course.

Newspaper Navigator is ultimately the largest single dataset of extracted visual content sourced from historic newspapers that has ever been assembled, according to the full study. Machine learning technology has produced an unprecedented way to rapidly sort through digitized materials that would otherwise be far too expansive to search manually.

As for using the images found through Newspaper Navigator, the rights and reproduction terms are found under the wider Chronicling America project. According to the project’s About page, the LOC:

…believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted.

This new tool joins the LOC’s vast digitized archive of photographs, prints and drawings, all of which are readily accessible through the LOC website. The Library provides a considerable amount of information on most of the digitized images, including everything from photo medium and genre to dates, photographers, location and image descriptions.

Via: PetaPixel

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Pixelmator Photo update adds AI-powered image upscaling tool, ML Super Resolution

22 Sep

Pixelmator, makers of the photo editing application Pixelmator Photo, has released Pixelmator Photo version 1.4. The new update includes ML Super Resolution, a new tool designed to enlarge low-resolution photos with a single tap. ML Super Resolution utilizes machine learning (hence the ‘ML’ in the name) and the processing power available in Apple iPad devices to enlarge photos, illustrations, paintings and designs while preserving and enhancing details, edges and textures.

ML Super Resolution was designed for the newly released iPad Air and was presented during Apple’s ‘Time Flies’ event last week. The app is powered by the new A14 Bionic chip and Pixelmator states that it is the first AI-powered image enlargement tool available on a mobile device.

To enlarge images, ML Super Resolution ‘creates a layered representation of the image that is over 100 channels deep, detecting features such as edges, patterns, textures, gradients, and colors.’ After this, the channels are upscaled individually and combined back into a single image. Pixelmator states that the process ‘requires up to 62 thousand times more processing power than traditional approaches,’ something that Pixelmator states is only possible on iPad thanks to recent advancements in iPad performance and the dedicated processor in the Apple Neural Engine.

Tomas Andrijauskas, lead developer of Pixelmator Photo, says, ‘The processing power of iPad has advanced in leaps and bounds over the last few years. With these advances, it is now possible to open up workflows that simply were not available in the past. One such workflow is using machine learning techniques to enlarge photos while retaining sharpness and enhancing intricate details.’

Pixelmator Photo 1.4 includes ML Super Resolution, a new AI-powered image upscaling feature. Image credit: Pixelmator

Of being able to show Pixelmator’s work during an Apple event, Andrijauskas continues, ‘Our team consists of 20 people and is based in a tiny Baltic country. So it is an incredible honor to be recognized by a company as respected and influential as Apple. It also shows that if you work hard to create powerful, beautiful, and easy-to-use products, your work will be recognized, no matter your location or size.’

In addition to the new ML Super Resolution tool, Pixelmator Photo version 1.4 includes a new split-screen view of original and edited images and support for the Apple Pencil’s double-tap gesture.

Pixelmator Photo 1.4 also includes a new before/after comparison tool. Image credit: Pixelmator

If you’d like to learn more about Pixelmator Photo and its RAW editing tools, check out the overview video below and head to the Pixelmator Photo website.

Pixelmator Photo 1.4 is available now from the App Store as a free update for existing users or for $ 7.99 USD for new customers. Pixelmator Photo requires iOS 11 or later and a compatible iPad device. A list of compatible devices can be found on the App Store product page.

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Adobe’s teases a new Sensei-powered Sky Replacement tool coming soon to Photoshop

21 Sep

Today, Adobe published a sneak peek video of its latest Sensei-powered feature coming soon to Photoshop, Sky Replacement.

Similar to the AI-powered sky replacement feature found in Skylum’s Luminar 4 editing program, Adobe’s new feature uses its Sensei AI to determine the foreground from the sky in an image and automatically masks the sky overlay to blend in seamlessly. While Photoshop will offer its own selection of presets, it’s also possible to import your own image of the sky.

Note how even the small details at the top of the structure are preserved and properly masked.

In addition to automatically masking out the sky, the Sky Replacement feature will also automatically tone the foreground of the image based on the color temperature of the sky being shown in the frame. As you can see around the two-minute mark of the above video, using a cooler part of the sunset in an image will result in a cooler foreground while using the warmer part of the sunset will give the foreground a warm, orange glow.

In addition to the automatic adjustments, there are also multiple parameters you can tweak yourself to ensure the sky looks exactly how you’d like. When you’re happy with the results, Photoshop will automatically create new layers for the masks and adjustments so you can further refine the image as you see fit.

Adobe doesn’t specify when we can expect to see this new feature in Photoshop.

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Nikon Z5 added to studio scene comparison tool, gallery updated with Raw conversions

17 Sep

Updated sample gallery

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The Nikon Z5 is a compelling entry-level full-frame mirrorless camera sporting a 24MP non-BSI CMOS sensor. We recently got our hands on Adobe Camera Raw support and have updated our sample gallery with a variety Raw conversions adjacent to their out-of-camera JPEG counterparts, for your viewing pleasure.

In addition, we’ve run the Z5 through our studio test scene and added it to our comparison widget. Take a look below and see how it stacks up against its 24MP peers. And keep your eyes peeled for our full review, coming soon.

Studio scene

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Microsoft unveils a new AI-powered tool for spotting deepfaked images and videos

03 Sep

On Tuesday, Microsoft introduced Video Authenticator, a new AI-powered tool that analyzes still images and videos to determine the likelihood that they feature digital manipulation. The tool is designed to address the growing problem of ‘deepfakes,’ a type of highly realistic manipulated content generated or modified by artificial intelligence systems.

Deepfake refers to images, videos and audio modified using AI tools. Though this technology can be used creatively, it is most associated with manipulating media to present something that didn’t happen in real life. This could include, for example, a video of a politician saying something they never said or doing something they never did.

Because these deepfakes are created using machine learning algorithms, the resulting content is typically very high quality and difficult (or impossible) for someone to discern from authentic media just by looking at it or listening to it. The solution to AI manipulation is another AI trained to spot the changes.

Microsoft has introduced Video Authenticator under its Defending Democracy Program, pointing out that dozens of ‘foreign influence campaigns’ targeting countries around the world have been identified in the past several years. These campaigns are intended to manipulate the public into certain beliefs or ideologies; others attempt to stir up debate and further polarize groups against each other.

Of 96 different campaigns identified (PDF) in part with support from Microsoft, 93% of them involved original content, which can be particularly difficult to detect. Microsoft explains that while ‘no single technology will solve the challenge of helping people decipher what is true and accurate,’ its Video Authenticator is an important tool that will help counteract disinformation by detecting subtle evidence of AI involvement in its creation.

Though Video Authenticator isn’t a long-term solution to what is inevitably an evolving technology, Microsoft explains that ‘in the short run, such as the upcoming U.S. election, advanced detection technologies can be a useful tool to help discerning users identify deepfakes.’

Video Authenticator works by analyzing every frame in a video, as well as still images, and assigning them a ‘percentage chance,’ also called a confidence score, that indicates its likelihood of having been manipulated. When analyzing videos, Video Authenticator presents users with a realtime percentage for each frame.

In a sample provided by Microsoft, the tool isn’t able to detect evidence of manipulation in every frame; some pass without triggering the system, while others may have enough greyscale elements, blending boundaries, subtle fading or other aspects to trigger the detection system.

Ultimately, Video Authenticator is just the start. Microsoft explains:

We expect that methods for generating synthetic media will continue to grow in sophistication. As all AI detection methods have rates of failure, we have to understand and be ready to respond to deepfakes that slip through detection methods. Thus, in the longer term, we must seek stronger methods for maintaining and certifying the authenticity of news articles and other media. There are few tools today to help assure readers that the media they’re seeing online came from a trusted source and that it wasn’t altered.

Microsoft isn’t making Video Authenticator available to the public in order to protect it against manipulation that may hamper the effort.

Video Authenticator is the latest example of a deep learning algorithm designed to counter the negative use of other AI algorithms. Last year, for example, Adobe Research and UC Berkeley introduced a method for detecting subtle face manipulations made using the Face Aware Liquify tool in Photoshop.

Conversely, we’ve also seen AI-based technologies that empower users to better protect themselves in this new digital landscape. Most recently, researchers with the University of Chicago SAND Lab released a free tool that uses AI to subtly ‘cloak’ images of one’s own face in order to poison facial recognition algorithms trained to recognize them.

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