Hi!
Welcome back to the PhotoshopTrainingChannel.com.
I'm Jesus Ramirez.
In this video, you're going to learn how the brand new texture slider and camera raw works
and how you can use it to add amazing detail to your photos.
You're also going to learn the differences between the texture slider and the other detail
enhancing tools in camera raw such as the sharpen slider, Dehaze and clarity.
Also, before we start I want to point out that all the information that you learn in
this video could also be applied to Lightroom CC or Lightroom Classic.
The tool works exactly the same way.
Okay. Let's get started.
This is the image that we're going to work with today, but before we get started with
it, we're going to start with a much, much simpler graphic to explain some of the technicalities
of how each of the detail enhancing sliders work.
So, first I'm going to go into filter.
Camera Raw Filter.
And this is where you're going to find all those sliders and they're right down here.
In the basic panel, you can see the Texture, Clarity, and Dehaze.
And Texture is the new slider found in Lightroom and in Camera Raw. Texture allows you to enhance
the details and texture of a photo.
And it's actually very similar to clarity. So, if you're wondering what the different
is, this video will explain it and I'm also going to compare it to Dehaze and Sharpen.
because they all do something that's very similar, which is enhance contrast where contrast
already exists in an image, but in different ways.
So, I'm going to explain the differences and we're going to start with the Sharpening slider.
So, I'm going to click on the Detail panel. And from here you have access to all the sliders
that control sharpening.
You got to realize, something you have to realize is that Photoshop can't actually add
detail to the image.
All you're doing is adding contrast and edges to create the illusion of detail.
Let me show you how that works. I'm gonna drag all the sliders to the right and if I
zoom in, you'll see that I've added a lot of noise to the image.
That's before and after. And what's happening here is that sharpening is adding contrast
to high frequency components.
And if you don't know what frequency means, that's okay.
We're going to come back to that in a moment, but just to put it simply, that's what this
tool is doing is trying to find edges and then adding contrast to those edges to create
the illusion of detail.
So, that's what's happening here.
I'm going to reset the settings and I'm going to fit the image in view and I'm going to
go back into the basic panel and now we look at texture, clarity and dehaze.
We'll start with dehaze. I'm going to increase the dehaze lighter so that you can see what
happens and this adds an overall contrast to the image.
This slider is designed to reduce the effect of haze in a photo so that contrast brings
out the detail and it also adds saturation.
We can't see that here of course, because this is a black and white image, but you will
see how this works in the actual photo in a moment.
But just notice how it increases the overall contrast. Basically the only things that remain
untouched are the blacks and the whites.
I'm going to double click on the dehaze lighter to reset it. And then I'll increase clarity.
Clarity adds contrast to the mid tones. See that how the contrast gets applied here in
the mid tones.
That's where we're applying contrast. Notice that it's not as strong as dehaze.
And then we have texture. Texture adds contrast to mid frequency areas.
And again, if you don't know what frequency means, that's okay.
We're going to look at that in a moment. But just know that texture increases contrast
in mid frequencies.
And notice that this image is pretty neutral in terms of frequencies.
So, not much happens.
If I zoom in all the way, you can see that I barely make a slight, slight adjustment there.
There's not a lot of texture in this image.
So, not much happens.
I'm going to cancel and I'm going to open this document to explain what frequency means.
So, we have two layers.
A low frequency layer and a high frequency layer.
First of all, what is frequency?
Frequency is how often tone changes in a given area.
So, if we're looking at the entire document, that's going to be our given area.
You can see that this document is 800 by 400 pixels.
So, that's our given area.
And you can see how we have these bars representing changes in tone.
In this second group, we have the same area, but now we have less frequent changes in tone.
So, we can say that the layer on the bottom is a low frequency image and the one on top
is a high frequency image.
In an actual photo, however, the image can be broken up into different frequencies.
There's high frequency details, mid-frequency features, and low frequency areas and together
they all make up the image.
So, texture is targeting the mid-frequencies, basically something in between low frequency
and high frequency. Somewhere in between there.
And that's what that slider is adjusting.
I'm going to right click on this layer and convert it into a Smart Object because you
always want to work non-destructively.
A smart object is basically a container that you can apply adjustments, distortions, and
filters non-destructively, which means that you can come back and make adjustments.
So, your adjustments are not permanent and that's the way that I recommend working, especially
when using camera raw.
Next, I'm going to go into Filter.
Camera Raw Filter. And we're going to start working in the basic panel.
That's where we have these sliders that we saw just a moment ago.
But before I get to those, I'm going to go back into the detail panel and from here I
can increase the amount to add sharpening to the image.
Also increase the radius and detail just to bump all those up and see what's going on.
And if I zoom in, you'll see that I've added a whole bunch of noise to the image. Before
and after.
And the only way that I can stop it from affecting the entire image is if I use the masking slider
and I'll fit in view just so you can see how that works.
This slider, if you hold Alt, Option and the Mac and click and drag it to the right, you
can see the mask.
White reveals.
Black conceals.
So, when I drag to the right, Photoshop starts finding the edges of the image and it starts
making the non-edges or the low frequency areas darker so that we can apply the detail
or the illusion of detail to the areas that are found near edges.
So, you can use that if you want.
The tools in the basic panel don't have that feature. So, they're an overall adjustment
to the image and let me just reset those lighters.
So, I'm going to go into the Camera Raw Defaults.
And we're going to look at Dehaze. And when I increase Dehaze, this is also going to apply
a contrast effect and Dehaze was designed to reduce haze in photos or at least create
the illusion of less haze in a photo by applying a strong contrast and also increasing the
saturation.
You can see how we saturated her face.
If I reset this lighter by double clicking on it, you can see how we definitely adjust
the saturation of the image and create a strong contrast over the entire image.
Clarity is contrast in the mid tones.
So, again, you have your darks, highlights, and right in the middle you have your mid-tones.
We're adding contrast to the mid-tones with clarity and it creates that illusion of more detail.
It makes the image pop.
Notice how we're not affecting saturation.
So, I can bump this all the way to one hundred and that saturation remains.
I'm just making pixels darker.
I'm creating more contrast and that's contrast in the mid-tones.
And finally we have texture, which is a brand new slider in Camera Raw and in Lightroom.
And texture adds contrast in mid-frequency areas.
So, when I click and drag this to the right, you can see how I can make the details pop.
And it adds just a tiny bit of saturation.
If I zoom in and double click to reset the slider, you can see how I'm just adding a
tiny bit of saturation, not much.
And I'm only affecting those mid-frequency areas which creates the illusion of more detail and texture.
So, all these sliders are adding contrast, and one simple way of thinking about it is
that the further down you go down the list, the stronger and broader the effect becomes.
So, I'm going to fit the image in view so we can see the entire image.
And the way that you would use this new slider texture is by obviously clicking and dragging
to the right to add more texture to the entire image or click-and-drag to the left to reduce
the texture and the image.
It's up to you how you're going to use the slider.
It all depends on the image that you're working with and the effect that you're trying to apply.
One thing that I would recommend doing is working with this feature using any of the
local adjustment tools. Either the Radial Filter, the Graduated Filter, or the Adjustment
Brush.
So, what you can do is select the Adjustment Brush, reset all the settings, and then paint
over the areas that you want to add detail to.
So, for example her hair.
And just so that I can see where I'm painting, I'm going to click on the Mask and I'm going
to paint it's going to show me a red overlay and I'm painting over her hair.
And I'm not being very precise and that's okay.
This is just for the example.
Obviously in your image you might want to adjust your local adjustment a little bit better.
Make sure that you only get the areas that you intend to adjust, but for the purposes
of saving time, it's not necessary to get a perfect mask for this tutorial.
But anyway, I've selected her hair and now I can disable the Mask and I can simply increase
the texturing. You can see how I create the illusion of more texture and it looks great.
Another thing that you can do is click on New to create a new adjustment and enable
the Mask and I'm simply going to paint over her face.
And we can do one of two things.
We can either give her face more texture or smooth it a bit.
So, I'm painting over her face and now I can disable the Mask.
Notice that the texture is still active at 58, which was my previous setting and that's okay.
So, I can reduce the texture to soften her skin or increase it to add more detail to her skin.
Obviously, these examples are very extreme.
I would never go all the way to negative 100 or positive 100 on a portrait.
In my opinion, it's usually better to stay with subtle effects when working with skin.
So maybe something around negative 30 at most and positive 30, but of course, it all depends
on the image that you're working with.
So, in some cases you may need to go jut a little bit further, but usually not all the way.
And what I would recommend now is to open up a photo in Photoshop and just try this
tool out. I think that it works great.
I've gone back and edited some of my old photos and added just a little bit of texture and
it really makes a huge difference. I think it's a great addition.
So, I highly recommend you trying it out now.
If you want to learn more about adding detail to your photos, then I highly recommend watching
my crash course on sharpening.
I'll place a link right below in the description so you can watch it if you want.
And also, if you want to learn how Lightroom works, then I have a free course on Lightroom
CC here on YouTube.
I'm also going to place the link right below under description.
And if this is your first time at the Photoshop Training Channel, then don't forget to click
on the Subscribe and Notification buttons.
Thank you so much for watching.
I'll talk to you again in the next tutorial.