A few Photoshop questions

Submitted by ItalianMike on Sat, 2007-01-13 14:48.

Member's Forum

I've recently set forth on a mission to better learn Photoshop, something I've always put off, for one reason or another. I've gotten pretty into it and am having a good time going through years of photographs and making them look much better. But I do have some questions ...

1) I want to bring up some kind of thirds grid, so I can examine the composition and use it to crop better. I checked out View - Show - Grid but it adds a an enormous grid to the image. I'd really just like it to show a thirds grid. I'm certain this is possible somewhere in Photoshop, but can't seem to find the option to make it so.

2) My second question is in regards to some correction work. I have a lot of images where the sky is pretty blown out and nearing white in color. I think they would look much better if I made the sky more blue, but have yet to find a satisfactory way to do it. I'd really to know about this, especially as I also have images where I want to remove items in the background and replace it with a realistic looking sky. Can't be too difficult can it?

Thanks in advance

1. The easiest way is to do

Submitted by Ivan on Sun, 2007-01-14 18:13.

1. The easiest way is to do this is to select All. Then Transform selection. Put 33.3% and 33.3%. Don't apply. Move two guides from the ruler on the side to snap to the edges of the transformed selection.

2. Select the sky roughly with a big feather. Create a new layer. Fill it with a gradient of sky colors. Apply a multiply blending option to the layer.

Any more questions! I'm enjoying this :)

Thanks for the reply Ivan,

Submitted by ItalianMike on Sun, 2007-01-14 21:20.

Thanks for the reply Ivan, I'll try those out. I've been learning so many different aspects of Photoshop that it's hard to keep up with everything and remember to practice all things.

I do have another question, is there some type of tool hidden in this beast to simplify cleaning photos that are scanned or old?

I took a ton of photo when Italy won the world cup this summer on a 35mm camera. I had them developed and took them on a CD. The pictures look great, but there are a lot of scratches and marks on them. One could spend days with the clone stamp tool. Was wondering if there was something automated. Leaving me only to fine tune with the clone stamp.
-------------------------------
Infinite Style

'Dust and Scratches' will

Submitted by natobasso on Tue, 2007-01-16 16:05.

'Dust and Scratches' will probably work, but you'll end up losing some sharpness in your image as a result.

----
natobasso

Use the 'Rubber Stamp' tool

Submitted by natobasso on Mon, 2007-01-15 20:08.

Use the 'Rubber Stamp' tool to clean up photos. You grab from one area of an image to 'fix' another area. Create a duplicate layer and only use the bits you need; create a Layer Mask on that layer, 'hide all' and only 'reveal' the stamps that you absolutely need. Reveal by painting on the layer mask in white. Black covers things up in a Layer Mask.

----
natobasso

Think we are talking about the same tool

Submitted by ItalianMike on Tue, 2007-01-16 14:57.

I went looking for the "Rubber Stamp" tool and couldn't find it. I think we are talking about the same thing, which is the "Clone Stamp" tool (keyboard shortcut S). I've been using that, I was just hoping for some trick to clean up all the little specks, some automate process. Leaving to only have to go in and fill in scratches with the "Clone Stamp" tool.

Interesting about doing it on a layer mask, I hadn't though of that. I've started doing color correction, levels, and curves on layer masks recently and am really liking the non destructive nature. I'll have to try out doing cloning with a layer mask.

-------------------------------
Infinite Style

I've been using photohop

Submitted by natobasso on Tue, 2007-01-16 16:06.

I've been using photohop since 1996 so I must have the old term stuck in my dusty brain. ;)

----
natobasso

You can also get thirds by

Submitted by JimD on Tue, 2007-01-16 01:58.

You can also get thirds by doing this:

Go to the View menu and select New Guide - enter 33% then repeat it and enter 66% (don't forget the percent signs or it won't work).

Then make an action out of

Submitted by natobasso on Tue, 2007-01-16 16:18.

Then make an action out of those commands and you've got something awesome. ;)

----
natobasso

Dust & Scratch Filter

Submitted by Mintsauce on Tue, 2007-01-16 15:05.

Hi ItalianMike,

You can try Dust & Scratches under filters/noise/dus... See how that works for you.

Francois.

dust and scratches might be

Submitted by walks_in2_trees on Sat, 2007-01-20 04:17.

dust and scratches might be ok for very high res images, but almost never leaves me satisfied... however the smart blur filter can be of some use for this but you have to be careful and play with the settings at first... and always work on a new layer via copy so you can use layer effects like "multiply", "if darker", and "if lighter" in combination with "fade last command"
other than that, you can use the healing brush tool and the clone stamp tool with a soft brush for the best quality.

for altering the sky, you need to mask it off with the selection tools and paste your new sky in. to just alter the color, use [image][adjustments][curves]you can then select each color seperately to modify the balance of each or use the default method and modify the brighness/contrast of the entire piece.

most people don't think to use "curves" or perhaps don't understand how it works, but I use it on every image almost and since I discovered it, I use it in place of a lot of the more specific and better known tools because of it's flexibility