31.03.10
Guy Gowan Answers Your Photoshop Questions
Q. My client has seen images that have been created using the high-dynamic range (HDR) technique and likes them, but I’ve heard that they are not easy to reproduce. Is this true and is this a technique I should be using as a pro?
A. We need to look at why HDR was created, and that was to overcome a dynamic range deficiency in the camera.
Obviously the camera doesn’t have the ability to record the images in the dynamic range of how we physically see the image. The HDR solution of splicing together various exposures of the same scene expanding the dynamic range of the image has nothing to do with output, but everything to do with overcoming the lack of dynamic range within a camera. I don’t see any difference between printing HDR or a regular image – HDR is a photographic enhancement tool and has nothing to do with printing. The issue of whether you can print all of the data in an image file still applies to a regular image and is a completely separate subject. Is HDR hard to use? No. Is HDR a technique you should use as a pro? Yes. Using HDR is fairly straightforward, the Adobe solution is where you shoot three or four images and splice them together using their technology. Or you can use my action set which has an extended dynamic range feature within it, which, coupled with changing how you shoot, offers a perfect solution to using HDR with just one image. With this technique, you can overcome many common image problems, for example if the sky is missing but you’ve got the land. My Retouching Workflow action set is based around HDR because I want to capture what I see. So for me, every image needs HDR. I want to print the image as I see it, not as the camera sees it.
Q. What would you suggest is the safest way to store my archive? If on DVD, what sort should I use?
A. The issue of archiving is a minefield of paranoia. The principle of an archive is to keep the information away from the hard drive the original file is on as a fail-safe protection against loss. The thing with DVDs is they aren’t 100% fail safe. They can be corrupted and you may lose data. DVDs are still the most cost-effective way for most people to manage their archive, and one way to increase their efficiency is to burn the transfer of data onto your DVD at the slowest speed you possibly can, as this massively reduces the risk of corruption. If the DVD is passing over the laser slowly, the depth and integrity of the burn is a lot higher. It takes a bit longer, but it’s worth it. We use a system where my archive is stored on hard drives but I also back up my compact flash cards on DVD. When I finish a shoot, I back up the flash cards on DVD as soon as I get into the studio, before I even start to work on the images. The back-up of the final work goes on the hard drive. In this way, I have a record of the shoot and the finished images and can always go back to the original shoot if I need the images. You could also use an old computer as a server. Most people buy a couple of new computers in their professional life, so using one of the older ones is perfect as a server. This is what we do and I find it very effective.
Q. How do I reduce the resolution of shots en masse? It has been suggested that Adobe Lightroom could be the answer, but I don’t want to fork out on this if it doesn’t solve my problem. It sounds like an easy question, but if only I could find an easy answer.
A. A quick and easy solution would be to use Photoshop, go to the File menu, then Script, then go to the Image Processor. Then you have four stages: 1) Choose the folder of the images you want to make low res. 2) Choose a folder in which you want them to be stored. 3) Choose the file type (JPEG probably) and quality setting (probably high). Resize to fit – this is the important one! Check this box on and put in a dimension, say 500 x 500. This creates a matrix in which your landscape and portrait images will fit. All you are basically saying is that the longest edge of your image will be 500 pixels. All your files will then have a uniform size in their longest edge, whatever the crop you’ve chosen. 4) Add an Action. You can also run an Action on this process so you could build one that say, puts a watermark on your image, or your metadata into the file.An alternative method would be to make a Droplet. This means you don’t even have to go in and set up Image Processor; you just set up a Droplet on your desktop, drop your folder in, walk away, have a cuppa and come back to all your images downsized and ready to show to your client. The way you make a Droplet is to put in the same dimensions of fitting within a pixel dynamic. You open up a file, go to your Actions palette, build a brand new Action, call it ‘rescale’. Then go to File, Automate, Fit Image, and then type in the pixel size you want. When you’ve sized the image just once, you then stop the Action and you can then simply turn the Action into a Droplet that sits on your desktop and does the resizing for you – fully automated and perfect every time. Hope this helps.
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