Practical Photoshop

Profiles are found in the Basic Panel in both Camera Raw and Lightroom. They offer a range of starting points for your photos, with subtle differences in tones, contrast and detail. If your image is a raw file, you can choose from the excellent Adobe

Open a portrait and make two duplicates of the layer by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J twice. Name the top layer ‘Detail’, then click the eye to hide it. Name the layer below ‘Color and Tone’. Go to Filter> Blur > Gaussian Blur. Choose a blur strength that only

Now that you’ve separated the image into high and low frequencies, the next stage is to retouch each in turn. Begin by hiding the Detail layer and highlighting the Color and Tone layer. You want to smooth out any rough patches and create gentle trans

Once the colours and tones have been smoothed out, you can move to the Detail layer above. By now the skin tones should look much smoother, but there may still be fine details that stick out – like little blemishes, pimples or messy marks over the sk

WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/8y77uyf The Dodge and Burn Tools can be very useful for accentuating the contours in a person’s face, or for enhancing an expression. By selectively lightening areas with the Dodge Tool and darkening parts with the Burn

WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/4yadgb8 Sometimes a simple black-and-white conversion of a photo can leave you wanting more. So why not try a split-tone effect? This is very easy with Camera Raw and Lightroom’s dedicated Split Toning panel. Simple opti

WATCH THE VIDEO http://bit.ly/8Lzptvh Both Photoshop’s Camera Raw plugin and Lightroom have long offered separate HDR and Panorama features, but recently a new feature has been introduced that combines the two commands into one. Previously, you’d hav

Open Adobe Bridge and navigate to the set of images. Click on the first image, then hold Shift and click on the last to select them all. Then right-click them and choose Open In Camera Raw. (If you’re using Lightroom, import the photos and go to the

If you’re relatively new to editing in Photoshop, or you just don’t know where to begin, then this section is the best place to get started. Over the next 10 pages, you’ll find an overview of the different versions of Photoshop available; a breakdown

Photoshop has many types of layers and adjustment layers available, but there are six that you’ll find you need to use again and again. Learning how they should be used may seem a little daunting for beginners, but once you’ve got to grips with them,