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11
Advanced Techniques
There is no denying that Photoshop Elements has many features that make it easy to use. In fact, I know from first-hand experience that the development team at Adobe HQ spend a lot of time and effort ensuring that you, the user, can edit and enhance your photos quickly and easily.
But this is not where the Elements story ends. Behind the glossy interface of the program lies all the power and sophistication of Photoshop itself. Thatās right, the core coding that drives Photoshop also gives life to Photoshop Elements. This means that for those users who want to delve a little deeper into the editing process, Elements has the power to support their quest.
In the next few chapters we will look a little closer at the tools and features inside the Elementsā Editor workspace.
The best quality edits and enhancement of tone and color are made on 16-bit files.
Depth Changes
Pictures that have been imported into the Organizer space or opened in the Editor as 16-bit files can be converted to 8 bits per channel via the Image > Mode menu.
The Importance of Bit Depth
Each digital file you create (capture or scan) is capable of representing a specific number of colors. This capability, usually referred to as the āmodeā or ācolor depthā of the picture, is expressed in terms of the number of ābitsā. Most photos these days are created in 24-bit mode. This means that each of the three color channels (Red, Green and Blue) is capable of displaying 256 levels of color (or 8 bits per channel). When the three channels are combined, a 24-bit image can contain a staggering 16.7 million separate tones/hues.
This is a vast amount of colors and would be seemingly more than we could ever need, see or print, but many modern cameras and scanners are now capable of capturing up to 16 bits per channel or āhigh-bitā capture in either Raw or TIFF file formats. This means that each of the three colors can have as many as 65,536 different levels and the image itself, with all three channels combined, a whopping 281,474,976 million colors (last time I counted!). But why would we need to capture so many colors?
More Colors Equals Better Quality
Most readers would already have a vague feeling that a high-bit file (16 bits per channel) is ābetterā than a low-bit (8 bits per channel) alternative, but understanding why is critical for ensuring the best quality in your own work.
Comparing Bit Depth:
The higher the bit depth of an image the more levels of tone and number of colors it can display.
Here are the main advantages in a nutshell:
- Capturing images in high-bit mode provides a larger number of colors for your camera or scanner to construct your image. This in turn leads to better color and tone in the digital version of the continuous tone original.
- Global editing and enhancement changes made to a high-bit file will always yield a better quality result than when the same changes are applied to a low-bit image.
- Major enhancement of the shadow and highlight areas in a high-bit image is less likely to produce posterized tones than if the same actions were applied to a low-bit version.
- More gradual changes and subtle variations are possible when adjusting the tones of a high-bit photograph, using tools like Levels, than is possible with low-bit images.
Redistributing the tones on an 8 bits per channel file (2) can lead to loss of levels of gray (white spikes) and noticeable ābandingā in the image. 16 bits per channel files (1), by contrast, maintain their appearance of continuous tone even after quite drastic editing and enhancement actions.
Photoshop Elements is 16-bit Enabled
But why all this talk about 16 bits per channel files (48-bit color in total)? Well, since the version 3.0 release of Elements, the program has been 16-bit enabled. This means that if you have a camera or scanner that is capable of capturing in this mode you can now take advantage of the extra color and tone it provides. āFantastic!ā you say. āNo more 8 bits per channel (24-bit image) tweaking for me, Iām a 16 bits per channel fanatic from here on in.ā But there is a catch (you knew there had to be).
Despite the power and sophistication of Elements, only a subset of its features is available for working on 16-bit files. Of the tools, the Rectangular and Elliptical Marquee and Lasso, Eye-dropper, Move, Crop and Zoom tools all function in this mode. In addition, you can rotate, resize, apply auto levels, auto contrast or auto color correct or use more manual controls such as Levels, Shadows/Highlights and Brightness/Contrast features. The Sharpen, Noise, Blur and Adjustment filter groups also work here. Does this mean that making enhancement changes in 16-bit mode is unworkable? No, you just need to use a different approach. Read on.
Global Versus Local Enhancement
Because of the limitations when working with a 16 bits per channel file in Elements, some digital photographers break their enhancement tasks into two different sections ā global and local.
Global, or those changes that are applied at the beginning of the process to the whole picture. These include general brightness and contrast changes, some color correction and the application of a little sharpening.
Local changes are those that are more specific and are sometimes applied to just sections of the picture. They may include dodging and burning in, removal of unwanted dust and scratches, the addition of some text and the application of special effects filters.
This separation of enhancement tasks fits neatly with the way that the 16-bit support works in Photoshop Elements. Global changes can be applied to the photograph whilst it is still in 16-bit mode; the file can then be converted to 8 bits per channel (Image > Mode > 8 Bits/ channel) and the local alterations applied. This is the process that the professionals have been using for years and now Elements gives you the power to follow suit.
Common High-bit Misconceptions
Elements canāt handle high-bit images. Not true. Previous versions of the program couldnāt handle high-bit pictures but since Elements 3.0, the program has contained a reduced feature set that can be used with 16 bits per channel images. And even with this limitation there are enough features available to ensure quality enhancement of your images.
High-bit images are too big for me to handle and store. Yes, high-bit images are twice the file size of 8-bit pictures and this does slow down machines with limited resources but, if this is a concern, put up with the inconvenience of a slow machine whilst you make tonal and color changes then convert to a speedier 8-bit file for local changes.
I canāt use my favorite tools and features in high-bit mode so I donāt use high-bit images at all. You are losing quality in your images needlessly. Perform your global edits in 16-bit mode and then convert to 8-bit mode for the application of your favorite low-bit techniques.
16-bit Workflow:
The aim is to perform as many of your standard editing tasks on the Raw and 16-bit file as possible as this will give you the best overall editing results. Once these changes have been made it is then time to convert the file to 8 bits per channel to finish your enhancement techniques.
- Create 16-bit files from raw format pictures.
- Perform all possible enhancement steps whilst the image is in 16-bit mode.
- Convert to 8-bit mode and complete editing and enhancing the photo with tools and techniques that are only possible with 8-bit files.
Manual Tonal Control
The Brightness/Contrast feature that we looked at in the last chapter is a great way to start to change the tones in your images, but as your skill and confidence increase you might find that you want a little more control. Adobe included the Histogram feature and the Levels function from Photoshop in Elements for precisely this reason.
Editor: Window > Histogram
The first step in taking charge of your pixels is to become aware of where they are situated in your image and how they are distributed between black and white points. As we have seen in the Raw Shooting chapter, a Histogram is a graph of all the pixels in your image. The left-hand side represents the black values, the right the white end of the spectrum. As we already know, in a 24-bit image there are a total of 256 levels of tone possible from black to white ā each of these values is repre...
