This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Creating a more convincing composite
When compositing multiple images, the images may not be consistent in tone and color. Some Neural Filters can help resolve this.
In Bridge, double-click the 15Composite.psd to open it in Photoshop. If the Embedded Profile Mismatch dialog box appears, click OK.
Save the document as 15Composite_Working.psd in the Lesson15 folder. Click OK in the Photoshop Format Options dialog. This image will become a thumbnail image for a video, but the color palette and subject need to be closer to the look of the art director’s concept.
In the Layers panel, make sure the Planet layer is selected, and then choose Filter > Neural Filters.
In the filters list, scroll down to the Creative category, and click to enable the toggle switch next to the Landscape Mixer filter (if needed, download it first). The Landscape Mixer filter can apply the look of one landscape image to another. Depending on the landscape images you mix, you can even change a scene from summer to winter or fill a desert image with green foliage.
In the Landscape Mixer options, click different Presets to experiment with how each of them alters the landscape attributes of the layer.
Click the fourth preset. That’s the one to use for this project.
For Output, choose Smart Filter, and then click OK to apply the changes.
In the Layers panel, click the eye icon for the Heroine layer to make it visible. Its tone and color doesn’t quite match up with the landscape, so let’s improve that.
With the Heroine layer selected, choose Filter > Neural Filters, and in the Color category in the filters list, click to enable the toggle switch next to the Harmonization filter (if needed, download it first). The Harmonization filter helps match the color and tone of a layer to another layer in the document.
In the Reference Image section, click Select A Layer, and select Planet.
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The color and tone of the Heroine layer change to better match the color and light of the Planet layer, but it could be improved.
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In the Harmonization options, drag the Cyan/Red slider about halfway toward Red, drag Saturation to about +15, and reduce Brightness to about –30. Make any other adjustments that make the composite more convincing. Remember to use the Show Original button to check your work.
For Output, choose Smart Filter, and then click OK to apply the changes.
In the Layers panel, click the eye icon for the Guardian type layer to make it visible.
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You’ve completed the video thumbnail …nice work! You used Neural Filters to transform the look of both images in just a few steps, making them work together to match the mood and the look of the production.
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Save your work, and close the document.
You’ve learned the basics of using Neural Filters. The results created in this lesson required only a few steps each; for example, retouching the old images was almost no work compared to the steps you learned in Lesson 2 and Lesson 5.
You’re ready to explore the possibilities of the Neural Filters with your own images!
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Neural Filters gallery
In addition to the Neural Filters you try in the lesson, this gallery shows examples of other Neural Filters included with Photoshop. Some are useful for restoring and correcting images; others are fun ways to explore creatively. Adobe may update or change the available Neural Filters, so the exact list of Neural Filters in Photoshop may depend on the version installed on your computer.
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Smart Portrait lets you tune details of portraits such as emotions, facial expressions, facial age, and gestures such as which way the eyes are looking. In this example, the head was turned slightly forward.
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Skin Smoothing can reduce acne, blemishes, and other skin irregularities, while preserving the overall character of the skin and maintaining the sharpness of facial features such as eyes.
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Super Zoom is a convenient way to enlarge part of a photo to use as a portrait. For example, you can pick out one person in a group photo and create an enhanced, sharpened enlargement for a profile picture. Or, if a person’s face is too small in the middle of a smartphone photo, you can fill more of the frame with their face. Unlike many scaling methods, Super Zoom offers detail enhancement, noise reduction, and JPEG artifact removal powered by machine learning. Super Zoom is optimized for portraits, but you can try it with other types of subjects.
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JPEG Artifacts Removal helps reduce unsightly side effects produced by applying JPEG image compression at a low quality setting. JPEG artifacts are typically seen as banding or blocks in areas that should be smooth. Although it’s always better to use the highest quality version of an image, JPEG Artifacts Removal might save the day when a low-quality JPEG image is all that’s available to you.
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Style Transfer lets you apply the artistic style of one image to another image. You can choose from a range of Artist Styles presets and then customize the look further using the filter’s options. You can even apply your own style by clicking the Custom tab and selecting an image from your computer.
Improving Photoshop with your usage data and images
An important way that software developers improve features based on machine learning is to train them using examples of good results and bad results. Any company that uses machine learning needs a way to train the models that their software uses, ideally using examples that represent the interests of the customers of the software. But many software developers don’t have very large data sets of actual customer files, and even if they store customer files in the cloud, they typically do not have customers’ permission to use their files to train software.
To make it easier to improve Photoshop, Adobe added a Product Improvement pane to the Preferences dialog box in Photoshop. The purpose of the Photoshop Improvement Program is to request permission to use your images and usage data to help improve Photoshop features; this is not necessarily limited to machine learning. The “Yes, I’d like to participate” option is disabled by default, but if you want to participate, you can enable it. When it’s enabled, Adobe researchers may collect usage data, cloud documents, and other images you edit in Photoshop.
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Whether or not you participate in the Photoshop Improvement Program is partly a personal decision. You may want to participate if you think your usage data might help improve how well Photoshop handles the kinds of image editing that you do.
However, if you work for a company or organization that handles confidential documents, if you need to protect the privacy or proprietary data of your clients, or if you are legally bound by nondisclosure agreements, you should be aware of the potential consequences of participating in the Photoshop Improvement Program.
For more information about how your usage information is handled, see the Adobe Product Improvement Program web page at adobe.com/privacy/apip.html.