Photoshop

Last year, Sequim Arts hosted a great series of workshops on “Photographing Artwork” by local artists Deb Jones. Since several of us took the course, I’m building on similar information here to outline a method for processing the images. If you’ve done the lighting and camera setup correctly, these steps should be reduced to a minimum.

Please note that I’ve re-ordered some steps and modified others (from Deb’s class):

  1. Load images into computer. The camera comes with its own software to do this, but we recommend you work directly with your version of PhotoShop (professional or elements). We use a USB 2.0 card reader; they are cheap and fast.
  2. Open your file and immediately save as a .psd (PhotoShop) file. Safely store the original jpeg files — burn a CD of the original jpeg files. Do NOT work off of jpg files!!! File quality will deteriorate with each successive jpg save and re-open. Add meaningful titles to the photos as you work with them. Keep your original at FULL SIZE. Do not downsize until step 4.
  3. Working off a .psd copy of the original,
    1. Rotate as needed, leveling horizon and to correct for keystoning. Use keyboard shortcuts. With the image open, select ctrl-A to select “all” of the image, then ctrl-T to “transform” it, then use the mouse to free rotate (pointer turns to curvy arrow). Holding ctrl key, drag corner “blocks” to free transform and correct keystoning. Use shift key when rotating, if you need to move by 90 degree increments. When you’re happy with the results, press “enter” to accept the image, then deselect using ctrl-d.
    2. Re-save your work, renaming it based on artist’s name and title.
    3. Remove color cast. Instructions here vary somewhat, depending on the version of PhotoShop you are using. Deb suggests enhance>adjust color>remove color cast (using Elements). If you’re using professional PhotoShop CS2, use the set gray point eyedropper in the Levels dialog box. Then, click eyedropper on a neutral (hopefully gray) area to remove color cast. You can see the advantage of actually photographing a gray card as part of your initial setup. There are at least three other ways of doing this, experiment with your version of PhotoShop to see what works best. If you do the white balance step correctly as part of the “setup” phase, color should already be pretty much OK.
    4. Adjust exposure. Again, many ways to do this, using levels, curves, auto levels, contrast, brightness. If lighting was done correctly, this should be already OK.
    5. Remove artifacts. You may want to zoom (just plain z) the image to get a better look. Using the stamp tool is more mindless fun than endless games of solitaire. Set spot size and opacity, then hold alt key while clicking “donor” area. Then click on the image to “paint” the artifact away. Use ctrl-z to “undo” when you make mistakes.
    6. Crop, by pressing just plain c. Press enter when done. For web work, we usually crop directly to the artwork, eliminating mats and frames, unless they are added value to the presentation.
    7. Save as .psd, using the title of the piece, or a combination of artist and title.
  4. Save for web as .jpg. Use the ctrl-shift-alt-s combination to bring up the “save for web” dialog. Use 2-up viewing to see the results of image compression (choosing a compressed jpg setting will make the image load faster and look worse). I never go lower than 30, and never higher than 80. Remember: gifs are for graphics, .jpgs are for photographs. For WordPress, the images will be about 200 to 400 pixels maximum on a side. For Coppermine, images will be no greater than 700 pixels on a side. 400 is acceptable. Save the results to a separate folder to make uploading really easy.