In this tutorial you will learn how to create a stunning effect architectural sketch. I will explain the process in great detail so that anyone can repeat it, even those who have opened Photoshop for the first time.

1. Let's get started

To get started, open the photo you want to work with. To do this, click File > open(File > Open), select a photo and click open(Open). Now, before we get started, check something:

1. Your photo must be in color mode RGB, 8 bits per channel. To check it out, click Image > mode(Image > Mode).
2. For best results, choose an image approximately 2000/4000 wide/height. To check it out, clickImage > Image size(Image > Image Size).
3. Your photo should be the background layer. If it's not, clicklayer > New > background from layer(Layer > New > Layers from Background).

2. How to create a background

Step 1

In this section we will create the background. Click Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color(Layer > New Fill Layer > Color) to create a layer filled with color, name it background color(Background color) and select the color #f0f0f0 as shown below.

Step 2

Right click on this layer, select Blending Options(Overlay Options), select gradient overlay(Gradient Overlay) and set the layer style as in the image below:

Translator's note: layer style settings in the screenshot: Blend Mode: Soft Light; Opacity: 50%; Gradient: Black, white; Inversion; Align to layer; Angle: 90 degrees; Scale: 100%

3. How to create a master sketch

Step 1

In this section we will create the main sketch. Select the background layer and press Control-J on your keyboard to duplicate it. Then drag this layer to the top in the layers panel.

Step 2

Now press Control-Shift-U on your keyboard to desaturate this layer. Next, click Image > Adjustments > Levels(Image > Adjustments > Levels) and enter the values ​​from the screenshot:

Step 3

Name this layer Temp(Temporary) and press Control-J on your keyboard to duplicate it.

Step 4

Now press Control-I on your keyboard to invert this layer and change its blend mode to color dodge(Clarification of the base). Next, click Filter > Other > Minimum(Filter > Other > Minimum), change Radius(Radius) by 2 pixels and Preserve(Save) to squareness(rectangularity) as below:

Step 5

Hold Control and click on the layer Temp(Temporary) to select both layers at the same time. Then press Control-E on your keyboard to merge the two layers into one.

Step 6

Multiply(multiply) and name it Main Sketch(Basic outline).

4. How to Sketch in Perspective

Step 1

In this section, we will create a sketch in perspective. Select the background layer and press Control-J on your keyboard to duplicate it. Then drag this layer to the top in the layers panel.

Step 2

Now click Filter > Stylize > Find Edges(Filter > Styling >

Step 3

Click Filter > Blur > Motion Blur(Filter > Blur > Angle(Angle) 90 degrees, and Distance

Step 4

Now press Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen(Filter > Sharpening >

Translator's note:

Step 5

Click Filter > Filter Gallery > Sketch > Photocopy(Filter > Filter Gallery > Sketch > Detail(Detail) by 2, and Darkness(Shadow) by 5.

Step 6

Change the blend mode of this layer to Multiply(Multiply) and Opacity set to 40%. Then rename this layer to Perspective_Sketch_1(Perspective_Sketch_1).

Step 7

Step 8

Brush

Step 9

Now select the background layer and press Control-J on your keyboard to duplicate it. Next, drag this layer below the layer Perspective_Sketch_1(Perspective_Sketch_1) in the Layers panel.

Step 10

Click Filter > Stylize > Find Edges(Filter > Stylize > Select Edges) and then Control-Shift-U on your keyboard to desaturate this layer.

Step 11

Click Filter > Blur > Motion Blur(Filter > Blur > Motion Blur), change Angle(Angle) to 0 degrees, and Distance(offset) by 1200px as shown below:

Step 12

Now click Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen(Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen) and enter the settings from the screenshot below:

Translator's note: Screenshot settings: Set: Custom; Effect: 500%; Radius: 64px; Reduce noise: 10%; Delete: Gaussian Blur; Shadows: Effect reduction: 50%; Tonal Width: 50%; Radius: 50px; Light: Effect reduction: 50%; Tonal Width: 50%; Radius: 50px.

Step 13

Click Filter > Filter Gallery > Sketch > Photocopy(Filter > Filter Gallery > Sketch > Photocopy), change the setting Detail(Detail) by 2, and Darkness(Shadow) by 5.

Step 14

Change the blend mode of this layer to Multiply(multiplication), and Opacity(opacity) - by 55%. Then rename this layer to Perspective_Sketch_2(Perspective_Sketch_2).

Step 15

Step 16

Change the foreground color to #ffffff, grab the tool Brush(Brush) (B), select a soft brush and paint where you want to show the vertical lines of perspective.

5. How to create text

Step 1

In this section, we will create the text. Choose a tool Horizontal Type(Horizontal Text) (T), change font to Hijrnotes, size to 80px, left alignment, color to #000000. Next, click anywhere on the canvas and click Type > Paste Lorem Ipsum(Text > Insert Lorem Ipsum) to insert a random piece of text. You can also use your text and font settings.

Step 2

Double click on the thumbnail of this layer to make the text editable and delete part of it. Then, choose a tool move

Step 3

Now rename this layer to Text_1(Text_1). Then press Control-J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer.

Step 4

Double click on this layer's thumbnail to make the text editable, press Control-A to select all the text, and then press Type > Paste Lorem Ipsum(Text > Insert Lorem Ipsum) to insert a random piece of text. After that, delete part of the text, select the tool move(Move) (V), click and drag anywhere on the canvas to position the text as shown below:

Step 5

Name this layer Text_2(Text_2) and drag it under the layer Text_1(Text_1) in the layers panel. Then press Control-J on your keyboard to duplicate this layer.

Creating an image is a whole process and for me, pressing the shutter button is only a small part of the road to a photo of sufficient quality for publication. In this article, which is part of the second, which continues the material, I will show my photo processing process.

All photographers face problematic scenes with wide dynamic range. Landscape and architectural photography is no exception. I shoot as many frames as it takes to capture the entire dynamic range of the frame. For architecture and interiors, 3 frames is enough for most situations.

The photo above required 9 photos - with exposure bracketing -2, 0 and +2, plus an additional series for the lower half of the room and for the ceiling. The extra shots also help me get rid of the people in the frame.

You must not forget...

• Shoot in RAW to retain maximum source flexibility; we are not sports photographers taking a stream of shots where JPEG is much more appropriate.
• Keep your ISO low.
• Use one white balance setting for the entire series of photographs.
• Use the heaviest tripod and remote shutter, wired or wireless.

The photograph of the Canary Wharf tube station shown above is a composite of three frames. The challenge was to get a well-exposed dark interior, a bright metal escalator, and a surprisingly bright dome in this shot. Each layer contains a correctly exposed part of the composition.

Main camera

With tasks in architectural and landscape photography mine is doing great canon camera 5D Mark II with 17mm TS-E tilt-shift lens. I use exposure bracketing in large part because the front element of my lens is convex and does not allow the use of filters. I also always have EF24 f/1.4 and EF50mm f/1.2 lenses in my bag. My tripod is a bit odd - Gitzo legs with a Manfrotto ball head.

Computer and monitor

I do all my imaging work on a 24GB dual-core Mac Pro. random access memory. I often work with images larger than a gigabyte, so a lot of RAM is a must. I have a Dell 27″ Ultrasharp monitor that is calibrated with a Spyder 3 Elite.

Before any important work with the images I calibrate the monitor.

Import images

I understand that many of you use various automators such as Lightroom, iPhoto, Picassa and others. Call me a luddite, but I hate being out of control of the process, so I use a completely manual import procedure.

At the location, I merge photos onto 2 hard drives and, upon my return, copy about 100 gigabytes of information at a time to a pre-prepared place. The folder structure shown on the left has served me well for 10 years now.

You may notice that my finished files are prefixed with pixel sizes for different sites; at 500px it is 900px wide and for 1x.com it is 950px wide. I also add "bw" to black and white filenames. This naming system makes it easy to find desired images on the hard disk.

Selection

Of the many photo apps I have installed, I use Adobe CS5 on a daily basis. It's a solid workhorse for image manipulation.

Previewing and selection is fastest in Bridge. On the right, I select the images that interest me. Once satisfied with the selection, I use the filter on the left panel to show only the selection.

Camera Raw

If you are like me, then all your camera settings are off or set to 0. Here in Camera Raw, I'm making multiple settings for all the photos intended to make up one image.

• Make sure you import your photos in the same color space as the camera. In my case, this is Adobe RGB, which is wider than the web standard sRGB. Work with the highest quality source, and then convert to the target format, for example, for the Internet.
• Edit photos in 16 bit mode
• Choose the best and most correctly exposed frame and set the white balance according to it
• If hot pixels are present, use the Recovery slider to compensate. Press + at the same time while moving it and you will see the position of these points on a black background!
• If the "Return" slider had to be moved too much - compensate for this with the "Exposure" slider by pressing the + again at the same time.
• The same combination can be used when correcting the black level - raise the black level so that there are no overhangs.
• Then select all images and synchronize the white balance for all images in the series through the menu in the upper left corner.
• Then open all images in Photoshop

Working in Photoshop

I'm pretty strict working space in Photoshop and the editing process is quite simple.

I have a number of actions (actions) for different tasks, such as resizing, color space, etc. The individual tasks I perform can be divided as follows:

• Combining Exposure Bracketed Images into One Layer
• Joining images that make up a panorama
• Saving the Composite Image as a Photoshop PSD File
• Use masks to highlight parts of an image that require separate color, contrast, or exposure adjustments. An example would be processing the sky separately from the building in the foreground
• Saving this image with all created layers
• Merge layers and crop if needed
• Sharpening
• Preservation new version finished image in Photoshop PSD format
• Resizing for intended use, for example up to 900px for 500px.com
• Convert to sRGB color space and 8bit color depth
• Save in JPEG format. Don't forget to prefix "900px" to the file name for easier searching later.

Manual layer blending

First, put your differently exposed frames into one project as layers. You can do it automatically through the menu File - Scripts - Load Files on Stack(File > Scripts > Load Files Into A Stack).

Many Photoshop users are intimidated by the use of masks, selections, and the like, but it's actually quite simple. I will show!

Choose a selection tool of your choice. I used the Quick Selection tool marked on the left side of the picture. Then, to add a selection, press , and to remove - . As you can see, I've highlighted the correctly exposed dome of the Canary Wharf tube station.

This selection is very jagged and it would be better if we make it smoother and more elegant. To do this, click on the button "Refine Edge"(Refine Edge), also marked at the top of the picture above.

The red mask is very handy for viewing the selected and unselected, but you need to enable this option. Click on the drop down menu "View"(View) at the top of the dialog "Edge Refinement" and select "Overlay"(Overlay).

We use the brush (Refine Radius Tool brush) indicated on the left. It will draw the edge of the selection and Photoshop will refine the boundaries of what should and shouldn't be selected.

Increase brush size in option "The size"(Size) and generously "paint over" the space near the border. Walk along all borders!

The edge of the mask looks much more gradient now! Click OK to save this selection.

Now we need to create a layer mask. The mask will make part of the layer visible and other parts invisible.

Click the button "Add vector mask"(Add Vector Mask), indicated in the figure.

You can see a black and white thumbnail appear next to my layer thumbnail (below). Black is invisible. Everything is simple. Anything non-black will skip the image of the corresponding layer. In my picture, the dome mask is white, so only the dome will be visible. This is good because the underlying layers will remain visible in addition to the dome from that layer.

I went ahead and repeated the masking steps for the escalator and the dome environment, as you can see in the image below. Layers at 100% visibility are too hard, so I lowered the opacity of the dome layer to 80% and the escalator and dome environment layer to 70%. This takes a little longer, but is a very flexible method of presenting the wide dynamic range of a frame.

An important takeaway from this section is the power and flexibility of layers and masks. In the same way, I will handle colors and contrast in the next section.

Merge your differently exposed layers via "Layers -> Merge Layers"(Layer > Flatten Image) and save as a Photoshop document. You now have a properly exposed version of your frame. Base to which you can return. This is useful if you later want to convert the photo to black and white.

Editing: Colors and Contrast

I will demonstrate this work with a frame from Kolmanskop, Namibia. I overlay the processed frame on top of the original to show the advantages of the RAW format for processing.

If you try to process this frame as a whole, it would probably be a mess and improving color and contrast in one area would worsen them in another. Working with individual parts of the image is closer to me and is achieved again with the help of layers and masks.

Create image layers using masks.

• Select part of the main layer.
• Refine Edge
• Copy selection
• Paste in a new layer, name it something understandable
• Repeat for all areas requiring special attention

I'll show my color and contrast workflow using sand as an example.

Saturation

Select the layer you will be editing. I selected the "Sand" layer. Adding an Adjustment Layer "Hue/Saturation" like on a picture.

Check the box next to (Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask) to limit your edits to the Sand layer only. You'll get a new layer with a little downward arrow to show it.

I chose the preset option "Increased Saturation More"

The sand should turn warm orange, so I'll add another one. adjustment layer - Photo filter(Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Photo Filter), selecting the "Sand" layer first and not forgetting the checkbox "Use previous layer to create clipping mask"(Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask).

I selected the Warming Filter (85), setting its Density to 50 for a fuller effect.

Finally, I added a layer of curves for contrast. Select the “Sand” layer and from the already familiar menu add a layer of curves with the “Strong Contrast (RGB)” parameter (Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Curves… - select "Strong Contrast (RGB))

In this place, you should save the file with all layers in Photoshop Document format.

alignment

I have 2 ways. Using the ruler shown on the left is very convenient and fast. It is enough to highlight an important horizontal or vertical line in the image. Or it can be done using rotate mode - "Edit" - "Change" - "Rotate"(Edit > Transform > Rotate)

framing

A simple task, but hard to undo once the image is saved. So I advise you to save the file before cropping.

sharpness

On the issue of choice best method sharpening a lot of copies are broken and I personally tried probably all the methods, but in my opinion the most elegant method is the "High Pass filter" color shift method. The result is sharp, but without artifacts and bumps. I don't sharpen after resizing.

• Duplicate the layer "Image" - "Duplicate"(Image > Duplicate)…
• Apply a color shift filter. A radius of 1.0 is sufficient for a well-focused image of the order of 10-20 megapixels. "Filters" - "Others" - "Color Shift"(Filter > Other > High Pass)…
• Set the blend mode to "Overlay"(Overlay).

Preservation

“Merge Layers” in the “Layers” menu (Layer> Flatten Image) and save as a new Photoshop document with the appropriate name.

You now have your edited full resolution image. When you prepare a photo for publication or for participation in a competition, this is the version you will return to for resizing, saving as a JPEG, and transferring.

Change of size

I downsize JPEGs to various sizes for Blogs, Flicker, 500px and 1x sites, and contests.

Preservation

Final saving as JPEG requires conversion to sRGB color space and 8-bit color depth. These attributes are standard for the Internet. If you do not do this, your images simply will not look the same to other people as you have prepared them on your computer.

• « Image" - "Mode" - "8 bit/channel" ( Image > Mode > 8 Bits/Channel)
• "Edit" - "Convert to Profile"(Edit > Convert to Profile)…

That's it, that's it in general terms my photo editing process.

I'm about to prepare part 3 on professional B&W conversion, so stay tuned!