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Processing of architectural photographs. How to Create an Architectural Sketch Effect in Adobe Photoshop

This lesson is suitable for those users who prefer Archicad to other drawing programs. The method is designed for confident users. I will make a reservation that I will not explain the elementary functions of the main buttons and talk about the technology for constructing the drawing, but I will describe the process of converting it from a standard one to an interesting sketch one.

Handmade graphics always look attractive and are appreciated by customers. But what to do when she doesn’t large quantity time, or perhaps you don’t have drawing skills at the proper level, but the usual appearance of a drawing developed on a computer has become boring? In this case, you can depict it in sketch style, using a computer and spending a minimum of time on it.

List of programs involved: ArchiCAD 16, ArchiSuite from Cigraph (add-ons or plugins for ArchiCAD).

Files used when working on the lesson: https://yadi.sk/d/uaSmIBICk3vR2 https://yadi.sk/d/INTF5eXxk3vF2

Before you start working in the ArchiCAD program, you need to download and install on your computer a font suitable for our task: control panel > fonts.

It's time to open our drawing in ArchiCAD.

Let's do one more preparation. Click: settings > extension manager. We register the path to the folder with ArchiCAD extensions in the extension manager window. This way the program will surely find its way to them. The check mark next to the add-ons we need indicates their availability.

Let's look at the drawing. When constructing it, standard tools were used: walls, windows, doors, lines, arcs, hatching, axes, etc. You can choose the width of lines, color and transparency of hatchings to suit your own taste.

You only need to change the default font to the newly installed one. It looks more hand-written than strict Arial. Click on the “Text” tool in the toolbar on the left, then Ctrl+A to select all the text in the drawing and change its font at once (the “font” field on the information board at the top).

Select all sizes using Ctrl+A, and in their properties change the font to the one specified earlier. Let's repeat this operation with marks.

All preparations are completed and we move on to the process of artistic design of the drawing. Let's go: Design > Design Add-on > ArchiSuite > Show ArchiSuite Palette.

Press Ctrl+A and click on the pencil button in the newly opened ArchiSketchy submenu.

The Conversion Settings window opens, in which you can view the ArchiSketchy parameters.

At the very top you can choose one of seven proposed stylistic solutions. These can be options with induced or wavy lines, with bold hatching or bright fills. The choice is yours.

The next parameter is the amount of line release at the edges, i.e. the size of the “tails” at the corners. It characterizes the degree of emphasis placed on the ends of lines by lengthening them and is measured in millimeters. The standard value is 500 mm. You can play with it for best result taking into account the scale of your drawing.

We will select all the modeling elements to convert them into a sketch, but we can also exclude some, such as the font.

Adjust the colors of the feathers used.

In addition, you can change the style of the lines: replace straight ones with wavy ones, for example.

In a similar way, we change the hatching for different design elements: walls - one hatch, floors - another, etc., instead of the previously installed ones.

Under the icon with the letter “A” you can change the font, but this will be unnecessary, because... we excluded it from the drawing earlier.

You can also select a background for the picture that imitates paper or cardboard by clicking on Open Picture in the lower right corner.

When all presets are selected, click on “OK”.

After this, your cursor will turn into a hammer, and when you hover over one of the points, it will turn into a pencil. Double-click on it with this “pencil” and wait a bit for the system to make changes in the appearance of the drawing.

Now click on the free field on the side and admire the result.

The lines look as if they were drawn by a human hand, and not as if they were created by a computer.

Thank you all so much for your attention! I hope you will like this simple but interesting method of drawing up drawings and you will find the lesson informative.

Creating a beautiful image is a rather labor-intensive and time-consuming process, and pressing the shutter button is only a small part of it. If you're ready to learn how to take photos that are worthy of publication, then the material below will help you with this.

Every photographer faces the challenge of wide dynamic range, and architectural photos are no exception, although they often require only 3 frames. But the photo given in the example required 9 source images with exposure bracketing of -2, 0 and +2. Also, many photographers deliberately take a larger number of frames in order to get rid of people in the pictures.

Some tips:

shoot in RAW format, because the source should be of the highest quality and flexible when proofreading;
use low light sensitivity;
use one white balance value for the entire series of photographs;
Bring along the heaviest tripod and a remote control for the shutter button to ensure there are no vibrations.

Camera

Cameras like the Canon 5D Mark II are well suited for architectural photography, which in combination with, for example, a 17mm TS-E tilt-shift lens gives excellent results. It's a good idea to have a couple of spare optics with you. If the last element of your lens is convex and limits the ability to use a filter, exposure bracketing will come to the rescue.

Computer and monitor

The computer must be powerful, with sufficient random access memory(it’s not bad to have about 24 GB), because RAW images sometimes “weigh” up to a gigabyte. The monitor is calibrated before any serious correction for the best color reproduction and, as a result, an objective assessment of the image.

Importing images

For import, many people like to use Lightroom, iPhoto, Picassa and other applications, but professionals prefer complete control over the situation, which is what they achieve by manually importing images.

On-site, it’s convenient to dump all the footage onto hard drives, the material from which can later be transferred to a pre-created location. It is very convenient to think over a system of folder hierarchy, labeling images of different formats and sizes with corresponding names that you understand, such as bw - for black and white photographs.

Selection photos

A good workhorse for many professionals is Adobe CS5. Preview is most convenient in Bridge, where the files you have selected among all are marked on the right, and on the left, using a filter, you can display individually selected material.

Camera Raw

The camera settings in the example under consideration are set to zero. This makes it more convenient to work by setting specific values for each new edited series of photos.

Some more tips:

Make sure you are working in the same color space as the camera. Adobe RGB is most often used. Use the highest quality sources; you can convert them to the format you need later;
Edit in 16-bit mode;
Set the white balance according to the most successfully exposed photo;
With hot pixels, the “Recovery” slider will help. When you press the + combination while moving the slider, you will see pixels on a black background;
If you were forced to push the return slider too far, compensate by pushing the Exposure slider up.
Use a similar algorithm when working with the black level to avoid crashes
Having selected all the pictures after the above manipulations, synchronize the white balance on them using the menu
The last step is to open all the images in Photoshop.

Working in Photoshop

The retouching algorithm in Photoshop is quite simple. So:

Combining exposure bracketed images into one
Joining the images that make up the panorama
Save in psd format our result
We use masks to further process individual parts of the photo
Save the image with all layers
We combine the sievs, if necessary, crop them
Working with sharpness
Save the new version in psd under a different name
Change to desired size
Convert the space to srgb and change the depth to 8 bits
We save it in raster format and use our own designations for convenience.

Manual layer blending

First, let's insert all the frames exposed differently into one project. Using File - Scripts - Load files into a stack (File > Scripts > Load Files Into A Stack) you can do this automatically.

Don't be afraid of highlighting and working with masks! The example shows the Quick Selection Tool. It is inaccurate at first, so it’s worth adjusting the selection area as follows: click on the “Refine Edge” button, in the View context menu at the top of the “Refine Edge” dialog, select “Overlay”. This enables the use of a red mask, convenient for viewing both the selection and the area not included in it.

Using the Refine Radius Tool brush, we will manually refine the edge of the selection by boldly moving the cursor with the brush over it. Click OK.

Create a mask by clicking “Add Vector Mask”. In the dialog window we see the appearance of a black and white miniature. Black is invisible, and everything else is missed by the corresponding layer's image. We create similar masks for all photo elements with which we will work. To avoid excessive rigidity, we will reduce the transparency of the various layers. This will also add flexibility to our method of working with image dynamic range.

Save, in your opinion, the correctly exposed version of your photo with preliminary merging of layers in the menu “Layers -> Merge Layers” (Layer> Flatten Image) and save as a Photoshop document.

Working with color and contrast

Here, another image is used as an example. Here you can clearly see the difference between the corrected and original RAW image.

Processing an entire frame while improving color and contrast in one part would lead to a worse situation in another.

Let's create layer masks:

Select the desired part of the main layer
Adjusting the edge of the selection
Copy the selection
Paste it as a new layer, giving it a clear name
In the same way we create several layers

Saturation

Select the working layer. Add an adjustment layer (see picture) to work with hue and saturation. In order not to go beyond the boundaries of our layer, be sure to click “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask”. Give room to your imagination, you can use filters to add warmth, etc.

To work with contrast, we can add a layer of curves. It is convenient to use the “Strong Contrast (RGB)” parameter (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves… - select "Strong Contrast (RGB)).

Adjustment layers applied to one image can be conveniently grouped together using Layer Grouping (Layer > Group Layers). By turning this group on and off, you can see with your own eyes the effect of your manipulations. Tip: If you want to adjust the exposure by a stop, add a curves layer with an opacity of about 38%. To add stops, set the blending mode to “Lightening” (Screen), and to reduce them, set the blending mode to “Multiply”.

We use the algorithm discussed above for all layers of interest to us.

Photoshop lesson

Photoshop photo lessons

Alignment

There are only 2 methods: the ruler, or the menu “Edit” - “Change” - “Rotate” (Edit > Transform > Rotate).

Cropping

Sharpness

duplicate image
Apply a color shift filter to the copy with a radius of, for example, 1.0. sequence of commands “Filters” - “Others” - “Color shift” (Filter > Other > High Pass).
set the Overlay mode.

Preservation

We combine all the layers into one and save the image under the next name in psd format. It is this file that you will work with later to resize the image for publication. When finally saving, we convert the space to srgb, and change the depth to 8 bits.

The algorithm is below:

“Image” - “Mode” - “8 bits/channel” (Image > Mode > 8 Bits/Channel)

“Edit” - “Convert to Profile” (Edit> Convert to Profile)

Creating an image is a whole process and for me, pressing the shutter is only a small part of the journey to a photo of sufficient quality to publish. In this article, which is part two, continuing the material, I will show my photo processing process.

All photographers face challenges with high dynamic range scenes. Landscape and architectural photography is no exception. I shoot as many frames as necessary to cover 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, as well as additional series for the lower half of the room and for the ceiling. Additional shots also help me get rid of people in the frame.

You must not forget...

Shoot in RAW to maintain maximum source flexibility; We're not sports photographers shooting a stream of images where JPEG is much more appropriate.
Hold on low level ISO.
Use one white balance setting for your entire series of photos.
Use the heaviest possible tripod and a remote release, wired or wireless.

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

Main camera

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

Computer and monitor

I do all my image work on a dual-core Mac Pro with 24 gigabytes of RAM. I often work with images larger than a gigabyte, so a large amount of RAM is a necessity. I have a Dell 27″ Ultrasharp monitor that is calibrated using a Spyder 3 Elite.

Before any important image work, I calibrate my monitor.

Importing images

I understand that many of you use various automation tools such as Lightroom, iPhoto, Picassa and others. Call me a Luddite, but I hate being left without control over the process, so I use a completely manual import procedure.

At the location, I merge the photos onto 2 hard drives and upon returning, I copy about 100 gigabytes of information at a time to a pre-prepared location. 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 a pixel size for different sites; at 500px - 900 pixels wide, and for 1x.com - 950 pixels. I also add "bw" to the filenames with black and white images. This naming system makes it easier to find the images you need on your hard drive.

Selection

Of the many photo apps I have installed, I use Adobe CS5 on a daily basis. It's reliable workhorse for working with images.

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

Camera Raw

If you're like me, you have all of your camera's settings turned off or set to 0. Here in Camera Raw, I make multiple settings for all of my photos designed to compose a single image.

Make sure you import your photos in the same color space as in camera. In my case, this is Adobe RGB, which is wider than the Internet standard sRGB. Work with the highest quality source, and then convert to a target format, for example for the Internet.
Edit photos in 16-bit mode
Select the best and most correctly exposed frame and set the white balance based on it
If there are hot pixels, use the Recovery slider to compensate. Press + simultaneously 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 + 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 dropouts.
Then select all the images and sync the white balance for all the images in the series via the menu in the top left corner.
Then open all the images in Photoshop

Working in Photoshop

I have a pretty strict workspace in Photoshop and the editing process is pretty simple.

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

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