Reyns Wim Photography Articles

Guide to matting mounting and framing photographs

Reyns Wim

      

GUIDE TO MATTING, MOUNTING AND FRAMING PHOTOGRAPHS

	To mat, mount and frame your photographs you will need to have a few basic
tools; 
 1) backing board, i like to use foamcore board for this
 2) glass or Acrylic glass, preferably with a anti reflex / uv protective
coating 
 3) a mat, either self cut or precut bought
 4) a frame, i prefer the metal Nielsen frames 
 5) acid free paper tape
 6) adhesive transfer tape, and applicator 
 7) a screwdriver for assembling the frame
 8) optional: a pen and pencil for signing the print / mat
 9) optional but recommended: antistatic dust brush
 and ofcourse your artwork 

 Also make sure you have a clean working space with quite a bit of table space, 

 The clean workspace  

	Ok so now with that out of the way, let's get started.
 The artwork we will be mounting is a photograph by myself, from an area
 in the Netherlands called the kampina. It was printed on Canon Fine Art Museum
Etching paper
 using a Canon Pixma PRO 9500. 

 The photograph that we will be framing  

	We start by laying a piece of foamcore board on the table, in my case this 
 piece was 40x55 cm. You can either cut the board yourself or buy them precut.
 I like to cut everything myself since its more cost effective that way.
 Lay your print loosely on it, make it so that you have a nice and even border
around it. 

 The print laying on the foamcore board  

 After this we will overlay the mat on the print, again the mat can be self cut
or bought precutted.
 If you cut the mat yourself you can use my online mat size calculator [1] to
figure out the correct sizes. 
 Straighten up the print and the mat, so everything lines up nicely. 

	 [2] 
Rollover to see the print staightned up 

 now without touching the print, remove the mat
 and make a hinge with the acid free paper tape.
 To make the hinge slide the tape under the print sticky side up
 and place it about a third or so off center.
 Then put a second piece of tape ( sticky side down ) on top of the first 
 large enough so it also has a nice contact with the backing board.

 You can do either two or three depending on the print size.
 try not to move the print, as everything is lined up and we would
 like to keep it that way. 

	 [3] 
 Rollover to see a drawing of the hinge 

 If you wish so, now is a good time to sign the print, I use a simple black pen
 which contains PH neutral ink. 

 The signed print  

	After signing the print we apply the adhesive transfer tape on the backing
board around the print ( no touching ! )
 I like to use the scotch ATG 700 tape gun [4], coupled with acid free adhesive
transfer tape [5]. 

	 [6]
 The adhesive transfer tape applied around the print on the backing board,
rollover to see red illustration lines 

	With the adhesive in place we overlay our mat, do this gently so you can still
move the mat around
 after you are satisfied with its placement, press firmly down.
 At this point i also like to sign the mat, this is best done using a medium
hard pencil.  

 The print, with the mat in place and signed  

	We can put our print aside for a bit, and start working on the frame.
 I use the metal Nielsen model 50 frame. They come with everything you need
 to assemble them as well.  

 The frame package  

	Assemble the frame but leave 1 side open. 

 Partitially assembled frame 

	Now take your piece of glass / acrylic glass.
 I like to use PLEXIGLAS Gallery(R) UV 100 AR [7], which is a anti reflex uv
protective acrylic glass.
 overlay it on the print and slide it in the frame. 

 Sliding the glass / print in the frame  

	Finish the frame by assembling the final side.

 Attatching the final piece of the frame  

	Put the springs behind the backing board and slide them under the frame. 

 The position of the springs that hold the artwork  

 and finally attach the hanging points. 

 The haning points attatched  

	Admire your artwork,
 DONE ! 

 Finished frame !  

Links:
------
[1]
http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Photographic_Technique/html/../extra/mat_size_app.php
[2] http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Photographic_Technique/html/#
[3] http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Photographic_Technique/html/#
[4]
http://www3.3m.com/catalog/us/en001/office/mounting/node_GSJ0B6T9G4be/root_GST1T4S9TCgv/vroot_GSRCJ327Z3ge/gvel_GSPDJGVQ33gl/theme_us_mounting_3_0/command_AbcPageHandler/output_html
[5]
http://www3.3m.com/catalog/ca/en001/architecture_construction/-/node_KW22C0LPL4be/root_VJ3G0N3T7Ngv/vroot_8HML2LL1M1ge/gvel_QKT5TKK8MJgl/theme_ca_en_archconstruction_3_0/command_AbcPageHandler/output_html
[6] http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Photographic_Technique/html/#
[7]
http://www.plexiglas-shop.com/DE/de/plexiglas_gallery_/4f8kuxsd74k-plexiglas_gallery__farblos_0a570_ar_424s1hyi8pg~p_artikel.htm

Photoshop Actions inside Lightroom

Reyns Wim

      

PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS INSIDE LIGHTROOM

	In this rather short article i'm going to show you how to use Photoshop Actions
together with Lightroom.
 As it stands now (LR 1.3) you can't play actions inside of Lightroom but you
can play it when exporting photographs,
 this can be very handy when exporting large volumes of photo's for lets say
printing or web usage. 

 So to use this function we need to make our actions into droplets, 
 we do this by going to FILE > AUTOMATE > CREATE DROPLET
 In the create droplet dialogue box you will need to select the required set and
action you want to use.
 In this case i'm using an action to prepare my files for printing on a inkjet
printer at 300ppi. 

 The Create Droplet dialogue box. 

	You want to save the droplet in: 
 Windows XP: C:DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS"USERNAME"APPLICATION
DATAADOBELIGHTROOMEXPORT ACTIONS
 Windows Vista: USERS_USERNAME_APPDATAROAMINGADOBELIGHTROOMEXPORT ACTIONS
 Mac: /LIBRARY/APPLICATION SUPPORT/ADOBE/LIGHTROOM/EXPORT ACTIONS/ 

	That's really all there is to it, now all you have to do is go to Lightroom,
select a couple of photographs,
 export them and in the export dialogue select the droplet you just made under
the POST-PROCESSING > AFTER EXPORT dropdown 

 Lightroom Export. 

 Then hit the export button, and after Lightroom finishes exporting, 
 Photoshop will execute the droplet and voilla, youre file's are ready to go.
 A real time saver !

Create a soft focus effect using the High Pass filter

Reyns Wim

      

SOFT FOCUS USING HIGH PASS

	In this short article i'm going to show you how to create a soft focus effect
using the High Pass filter found in photoshop (under FILTER > OTHER > HIGH
PASS). 

	First we are going to open up the image that we want the effect applied to,
Then we'll duplicate the image using command (or control on a pc) + J . Then we
are going to invert the new layer using command (or control on a pc) + I 

 The inverted image and the image after setting the blend mode to soft light 

	After this set the blend mode of the inverted layer to "soft light" this will
make your image look washed out (dont worry this will be fixed in the next
step).
 Next we are going to apply the high pass filter to the image, I strongly
suggest that you experiment with the radius setting, between 10 pixels and 60
pixels are useally good starting points. 

 The high pass filter and the image after the filter was applied 

	I found that 30 pixels gave me the "soft focus" look that i was after, you
could stop here but i found that this image needed a little bit of sharpness
back in the center. To do so i'm going to use a layer mask and mask out the
parts that i dont want the effect. To get a layer mask you can go to LAYER >
LAYER MASK > REVEAL ALL or you could click on the "washing machine" icon on the
bottom of the layer's pallete 

 The layer mask button on the layers pallete 

	All that's left to do now is to make sure that the layer mask is selected and
then paint out the area's of our picture that we dont want the effect applied to
with black. 

 The painted layer mask looks like this 

	And here we have our final image:

Quick Tip 2 Non-Destructive Dodging and Burning in Photoshop

Reyns Wim

       

PHOTOSHOP QUICK TIP 2: 
 NON-DESTRUCTIVE DODGING AND BURNING IN PHOTOSHOP

	Most of you will have used the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop and will have
found them
 to be very beneficial to a lot of images. One problem with the dodge and burn
tools though is that it's destructive 
 (it changes your pixel data) and we usually don't want this, so in this tip
I'll show you a way around this problem. 

	First thing we are going to do is create a new layer by going to LAYER > NEW >
NEW LAYER ( SHIFT + CTRL + N ) 
 or you can click on the new layer icon in the layer palette.  

 The new layer icon in the layers palette  

 Now we will fill this new layer with 50% grey by going to EDIT > FILL... (
SHIFT + F5 ) also make sure you set the 
 blending mode to SOFT LIGHT. 

 The fill layer dialogue box 

 Pick a soft brush ( B ), put it in airbrush mode by pressing on the airbrush
logo in the top bar 
 and set its flow rate to about 10%. 
 This will make it so that you can build up the amount of dodging / burning. 

 All that's left now is to start brushing where you want the effect, 
 use WHITE IF YOU WANT TO DODGE use BLACK IF YOU WANT TO BURN. 

 The brush selection 

 There you have it, a non-destructive and easy way to doge and burn. 

	 [1]
 Rollover to see before / after 

  

Links:
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[1] http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Post_Processing/html/#

Quick Tip 1 Expanding selections without rounding corners

Reyns Wim

      

PHOTOSHOP QUICK TIP 1: 
 EXPANDING SELECTIONS WITHOUT ROUNDING CORNERS

	If you have a selection in Photoshop that you want to expand, but you don't
want to have 
 the rounded corners you get with the expand command ( SELECT > MODIFY > EXPAND
).

 Then you can use this quick tip to keep the corners straight.

 Make your selection like you would otherwise make. 

 The initial selection  

 Go into the quick mask mode ( SELECT > EDIT IN QUICK MASK MODE, OR PRESS Q ) 

 The selection in quick mask mode 

 then either use the Maximum ( FILTER > OTHER > MAXIMUM ), 
 or the Minimum command ( FILTER > OTHER > MINIMUM ) 
 to expand or contract your selection. 

 The Maximum dialog box 

 After you have modified your selection you can exit the quick mask mode
 by again going to SELECT > EDIT IN QUICK MASK MODE, OR BY PRESSING Q.
 Your selection will have expanded/contracted without rounded corners. 

 The final expanded selection with square corners ! 

	 Another plus of this method is that you can easily see the amount 
 with which you are expanding / contracting the selection with.

Digital cross-processing C-41 as E-6

Reyns Wim

      

DIGITAL CROSS-PROCESSING C-41 AS E-6

	Cross-processing is developing color print or slide film in the wrong chemicals
for example, 
 color negative film in slide chemicals ("C-41 as E-6") or slide film by the
color negative process ("E-6 as C-41"). 
 It is no surprise that this causes wild color and contrast shifts and this is
usually a process of extensive trial and error.
 With so many possible permutations of film and processing techniques, 
 there is no right or wrong for that matter cross-processed appearance. 
 The most common combination is C-41 as E-6 and luckily for us, there is a quick
and easy way 
 to replicate this effect in Photoshop. 

 These images usually have high contrast and blown out highlights, 
 and because of that we are going to use Curves as our primary tool here.
 We will make a new Curves adjustment layer ( LAYER > NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER >
CURVES ) 
 and select the red channel in the dropdown box of the Curves dialog box.
 On the red channel we move the upper right point (the red highlights) a little
to the left,
 we are also going to create a bit of an S-curve on the red channel.
 By doing this we have darkened the red shadows and pushed the red highlights
towards being blown out 
 (which is image dependent really).

 After the red Curves channel it is time for the green. Here we are simply going
to make a slight S-curve 
 and that is all we are going to do here.

 The red and green channels in the curves dialog box 

 Next we have our final channel, blue. 
 On the blue channel we are going to push the lower left point (blue shadows) up

 and the upper right point (blue highlights) down, 
 in effect lowering the contrast of the blue channel. 

 The blue channel in the curves dialog box 

 After this you could make a decision (this will be on a image to image basis)
to create a second Curves adjustment layer to push the global contrast of the
image even further,
 however this layer should be set to _Luminosity _blend mode, otherwise it will
cause a unwanted color shift.

 Hop over to my photoshop actions pack [1] if you want this cross-processing
technique 
 along with several others in actions format.  

 The second Curves adjustment layer

  [2]
 The final image, rollover to see a before and after 

Links:
------
[1]
http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Post_Processing/html/70_Photoshop_Actions.php
[2] http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Post_Processing/html/#

70 Photoshop Actions

Reyns Wim

      

70 FREE PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS TO ENHANCE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS

	I've written a Photoshop Actions pack for you to use on your photographs.
 The pack contains 70 free actions in several categories and sub categories.

 - Presharpening (contains sharpening actions to take on a photograph that just
came out of the camera )
 - Noise Reduction ( contains actions to reduce noise in your photographs )
 - Color Correction ( contains actions to counteract a color cast )
 - Midtone Contrast ( contains actions to enhance/increase midtone contrast in
photographs )
 - Creative Sharpening ( contains actions which will give you creative/local
sharpening possibilities )
 - Neutral Density ( contains actions which will mimic the effect of a local ND
filter )
 - Effects ( contains actions for several effects; soft focus, painterly
effects, glow effects )
 - Cross Processing ( contains actions which will mimic the old film cross
processing techniques )
 - Output Sharpening ( contains actions which will prepare your photographs for
your desired output )

 A preview of what all actions do is available by starting the preview actions
app [1], there 
 is also more specific information about each action when you click on them, and
there is a 
 readme.txt file included with the download which contains the same info.
 Please note that you will need Javascript for the Actions Preview App to
function properly,
 there will also be quite a bit of preloading so it might take a few seconds
before the application launches. 

 For information about how to install these actions in Photoshop please click
here. [2] 

	Start the preview app [3] / Download the Actions Pack [4] 

Links:
------
[1]
http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Post_Processing/html/../extra/70_Photoshop_Actions_loader.php
[2]
http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Post_Processing/html/../extra/install_actions.html
[3]
http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Post_Processing/html/../extra/70_Photoshop_Actions_loader.php
[4]
http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Post_Processing/html/../downloads/70_Photoshop_Actions.zip

Sharpening strategy for web

Reyns Wim

      

SHARPENING STRATEGY FOR WEB

	As you probably know most (if not all) digital images can benefit from a good
bit of sharpening,
 now there are several ways that you can accomplish this by using the sharpening
tools in photoshop.
 However I'm only going to show you my favorite way to sharpen an image for web
purposes.
 This is a fairly easy and straight forward approach but it grants very good
results!
 Do keep in mind that sharpening should be your final step _before_ saving the
image and _after_ all color 
 and contrast adjustments have been made!

 First thing you'll have to do is to figure out at what size you want your final
image, 
 then add 25% of the size of the longest side to that number. 
 So for example if I wanted my final image to be 1000px on the longest side,
 then I would add 25% which is 250, this would then give me 1250px.

 Now we'll resize (found under IMAGE > IMAGE SIZE)our image to the size that was
calculated, 
 just make sure that you leave the Constrain Proportions checkbox on so that you
only have to 
 type in the longest side. 

 The Image Size window and the image after it has been resized 

	Then we will sharpen the image with Unsharp Mask (found under FILTER > SHARPEN
> UNSHARP MASK) 
 using these settings:
 - Amount: 300%
 - Radius: 0,5
 - Threshold: 0
 And then a second round of sharpening with Unsharp Mask using these settings:
 - Amount: 200%
 - Radius: 0,6
 - Threshold: 0
 After this you will end up with a oversharpend/unnatural looking image, don't
worry though this will be fixed next. 

 The Unsharp Mask windows

 The image after the sharpening was applied 

 Then you will want to fade this last Unsharp Mask filter by 50% in Luminosity
mode. 
 (found under EDIT > FADE UNSHARP MASK ) 

 The Fade window 

 Now it is time for the final resizing to the size you had originally in mind,
in my case this was 1000px.
 You will end up with an image that is sharp, crisp, has no haloes and is ready
to use for web purposes. 

   [1]
 The Image Resize window and the final image (rollover to see a before) 

	If you regularly resize and sharpen images for web then i have made this action
set [2] for you, it includes resizing and sharpening images to 1000px, 750px,
500px, 250px and it also contains a generic action where you can dial in the
numbers yourself. Download here! [3] 

Links:
------
[1] http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Post_Processing/html/#
[2]
http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Post_Processing/html/../downloads/web_sharpen.zip
[3]
http://www.reynsphoto.com/articles/Post_Processing/html/../downloads/web_sharpen.zip