Editing Skills Magazine

Understanding
and Beyond
Aug 11, 2021
£11.99
Adobe Creative Cloud writing from VIPPNG © Adobe logo from Seek Logo ©
Barcode from CFS ©

Letter from the
Editor
I am a 22 year old student who has been working with Adobe Creative
Suite for many years now. Although I have lots of experience with the
software to this day I am still learning tips and tricks that make my
work flow much easier.
This magazine will guide you through the basics of what you will need
to successfully create within the Adobe Suite. There are also some
extra tips to aid you in your journey.
Although I remember how daunting this software could be in the
beginning stages, the work I have created with it makes all the
challenging starts worth it.
So good luck and enjoy the journey.
4.
6.
12.
14.
File types, Folder Structure
& Backing up your work
What’s in the Tool Box
Building a page in Photoshop
Stock Image Photo Libraries
& Metadata
16. Tethered Capture
18. Altered Appearance
20. Taryn Simon Review
22. Getting Started –
What Kit do I need
24. Creating a Panoramic Image
26. Filtering Creativity
28. What is Colour Temperature
30. How easy is it to create
Fake News
32. The A-Z of
34. How you make an
A.V. Presentation
40. City Perspectives
60. References
62. Reflection

4

Grover ©
Protape ©
Adobe Photography Family ©
iCloud ©
Microsoft ©
Google ©
5

Setting up
your tool
box
What is in the tool box?
Setting up your toolbox is important. Some tools you may
never need so why have them visible, whereas others you
might use every time you open Photoshop. Starting your work
with a useful toolbox will help your work flow and efficiency.
Select Edit at the top of the page and choose Toolbar.. Once
selected a box will pop up with all your options. Here you can
hide and prioritise each tool to your own selection. You can
also view the keyboard short cuts for each tool.
6

Use of
opacity
What is in the tool box?
The use of opacity can help emphasize or downplay
certain parts of a project. When you have an image as
your background it is always good to lower the opacity to
somewhere between 50-70% so that it doesn’t distract the
viewer.
To do this go to the layers section and select opacity, here you
can lower and higher the opacity to see what looks the best.
7

Sky replacement
8. WHAT’S IN THE
TOOL BOX (3)
What is in the tool box?
GRADIENT TOOL
After Sky Replacement
Sky replacement tool is great when the sky in the original picture doesn’t do
the photo justice. To access this tool select Edit then Sky replacement, you will
then see this window where you can choose which sky you would like along
with other settings.
8

Eye dropper
What is in the tool box?
Oksana Latysheva ©
The Eye Dropper Tool allows you to select
a colour from the image or document open in
Photoshop which then creates a colour scheme
within the document.
Before Sky Replacement
9

10

Alamy ©
11

CREATING A PHOTOSHOP
DOCUMENT
2.
FILE > NEW
1.
Open Photoshop
3.
SELECT THESE SETTINGS
12

4.
Make sure you can see layers, history
and info by selecting them via window
5. Turn on rulers: Command r
6. Final page set up
13

Stock image photo libraries
& Metadata
What are photo libraries?
Photo Libraries are a great tool for photographers
and creatives alike. They offer creators copy
right free images at a price and allow creators
to upload their own work to produce passive
income.
Sometimes creators will need an image for a
project that they simply cannot take themselves,
whether this is due to time or possibly an our of
reach location the reasoning’s can vary, this is
when photo libraries come to hand. Say you’re
creating a presentation on the animals you
would see on a safari, its very unlikely that you
will have the time and money to go out on a safari to take these images yourself. Due to the restrictions of the task it is more time and cost effective to
use a service like Alamy or other photo libraries.
How to find what you are looking for & what will it cost?
When looking an image just type in keywords and all matching images will
show. For example you want an image of a lion on safari, you would type “lion
safari” and as seen in the screen-shot from Alamy you will see the results
along with extended preferences you can set. When you click on the chosen
image it will enlarge with a watermark and have a set price-list along side.
If we look at Almay for reference each image will range from £11.99 for
personal use up to £179.99+ for Large business commercial use (alamy,
2020).
14
Unsplash © Alamy © Getty Images ©

Watermarks & Copyright
All images visible on photo library websites have watermarks. Watermarks are used to deter people from stealing the images and using them without
the correct licensing. The watermark will be across the entire image rendering it unusable or at least that’s the idea. These watermarks also link back to
the copyright of the image, the name displayed on the watermark will tend to be the person who owns the copy right of the image. Copyright refers to
who legally owns the image and to who can use copies of the image and in what capacity (CLA, 2021). The copyright owner may licence out the image
as personal use only and if that licensing is broken the holder of the original copyright has the right to sue or take further action against the user as
they have breached their copyright licence.
Can you get rid of a watermark without paying?
The short answer is yes. Although it is not ethical there are ways to use an image that has a watermark without paying. This does time some time and
will require you to remove the watermark yourself in Photoshop. To do so you would be using the clone stamp tool and a lot of effort to remove the
watermark to a point where nobody would know. Refer to page 11 where there is more information specifically about the clone stamp tool and how to
use it. There are other steps you will need to follow for this method to be most effective, see below for a step by step guide.
Step 1:
Search the image you would like by using key
words that link to the image. Once you have
selected the image you would like, make it as
big as you can on the screen and then screenshot
it. To do this on Mac click Command, Shift
+ 4 which will then allow you to select the part
of the page you would like to capture. On some
Windows devices there is a specific screen-shot
button, if there is not you click Shift, Windows
key + S.
Step 2:
To import the screen-shot to Photoshop you
can simply drag the screen-shot over the
Photoshop icon and it will open up. First thing
you do is flatten the image by clicking Layers >
Flatten image. Now resize the image by going to
Image > Image size, you want to make sure that
the resolution is no less than 300dpi. You can
select or deselect the Re-sample box in order to
achieve this when choosing your size.
Step 3:
Now it comes down to removing the watermark.
This is also explained on page 11. When doing so
we suggest making small adjustments rather
than large ones as they will look more natural.
After you have removed all watermarks you
can go ahead and adjust things like levels and
brightness and contrast to make the image look
better again.
Importance of Metadata
Metadata is very important when it comes to ownership of an image. Most images will come with a
form of Metadata, this will normally be the owners name along with some data about the camera it
was taken on (ITPC, 2021). Each will be different but you can set preferences within the camera for
this which we suggest you do straight away. You can also do this on Photoshop, to do so select File
> File info. Here you will have sections to fill in, you want to put as much information as possible in
these sections, for example using key words that describe the image so that if you were to upload
it to one of the photo libraries it will come up more frequently in different searches the more key
words are attached. You also want to add your name and any other information tying the image to
you.
Pexels © Adobe © Shutterstock ©
15

16
Tom Pitts ©

ArneTorp ©
17

Altered appearance
It is very common to see altered images in media, especially magazine covers and billboards. Most of the time what you see is very clear smooth skin
and sometimes even changes to someone’s body type / shape. This use of alteration can cause an abundance of ethical issues which can result in
body dysmorphia within the public. It has also been known for people to alter images to create fake news which is further explained on page 30-31.
Altering appearances can also be fun, you can start to create new faces out of a couple of portraits, this is displayed below and on the right hand
page. In these images there are aspects from other images as well changes to sizing in the original images.
To make the altered images more believable you can desaturate then which will change them to black and white so that the mix of skin tones and
colours are less noticeable. These images have also had grain added to them to even out the textural differences. In some cases you will need to use
the dodge and burn tool to match the lighting of each image. For example one of the images may have a harsh light to one side creating shadows but
the other you have added doesn’t, you would then create that shadow with the burn tool.
18

• Background image • Secondary image on top of • Background image hidden
background
• Erased chin area
• chin erased on secondary image • Clone stamped eyes
exposing background image • Quick select shirt and enlarge
19

TARYN SIMON
TED Talk Review
Taryn Simon, born 1975 is a well-known photographer who has worked for publications such as The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker
(MoMA, 2003). Simon has worked on many projects which force people to look deeper into the truths of certain circumstances. An example of this is her
photograph of Kenny the White Tiger, many may not know that the White Tiger is created by selective inbreeding mother and son or father and daughter
tigers which can not only result in the white fur and blue eyes but also a long list of other abnormalities that inevitably result in the death of said tiger.
This death can either be naturally due to the long list of abnormalities or it can be by the person who has bred them as the tiger is not in a sellable state
(Simon, 2009).
To start the TED Talk Simon shows an image of a letter she received from Disney world in reply to asking for permission to photograph the site. In the
letter she is denied access as Disney believed that the “magical spell cast on guests who visit out theme parks is particularly important to protect”
suggesting that Simon bringing her camera in would ruin this magical spell through telling the truth about the theme park (Simon, 2009). She explains
that by having a camera she is photographing the truth and allowing people to see the facts rather than what they want to see.
Simon then shows images from her series An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar where she explores places that the average American would
not have access furthermore educating Americans on parts of their country, they have no knowledge of. Some of these images include a site where
nuclear waste is collected and stored in water, the layout of the waste capsules looks rather like the outline of the United Stated of America. A Jury
simulation room where mock trials can be held and viewed in order to help create the outcome lawyers and clients would like in their real trial. Another
showed the contraband room at JFK airport where you can see a table of seized foods such as apples and a pig’s head, Simon said that for this image
she did go in and move some of the items around in order for the image to look similar to a renaissance painting while still keeping the integrity of the
image (Simon, 2009).
20

She then goes on to talk about her series The Innocents, where she photographed men and women who had been wrongly convicted of crimes at the
place of the crime or place of arrest. Simon talks about the power of photography within the police conviction process and how people can be easily
manipulated to believe someone committed a crime when showed an image of the same person multiple times over different occasions. For example,
one of the men had his image shown in a line up to the victim of a violent crime, the victim showed some recognition to him but did not make a positive
identification, she was later shown another pack of images all different men plus the one she had initially been drawn to. She then made a positive
identification as that image had replaced the memory she had leading to the wrongful conviction of this man. Similarly Troy Webb was convicted of a
crime he did not commit because when the victim saw his image in a line up and claimed he looked similar but too old, the police went back and found
a younger image of him to which the victim made a positive identification on (Simon, 2009). This series shows how powerful the use of imagery is and
how one’s mind and memory can be changed with the repeated viewing of certain images. It also highlights the flaws in the criminal justice systems use
of images to identify criminals and how possibly the police use this to manipulate convictions.
This TED Talk highlights the power of imagery and the power a photographer can hold when taking photos. Simon takes images and uses them to evoke
change and start conversations about topics that may otherwise be left unheard. She finds topics that need explorations and uses her power through
photography to do that, in doing so her audience is intrigued and shocked by the content leaving them wanting to learn more.
Taryn Simon TED Talk (2009) Photographs of secret sites. [online] TED Talks. Available from: < https://www.ted.com/talks/taryn_simon_photographs_
of_secret_sites/details?language=en#t-989587> [Accessed 20 July 2021]
21
Taryn Simon ©

22
Clifton Cameras ©

Damien Demolder ©
23

Shooting a large file panoramic shot can take a lot of work, but
the results will be incredibly rewarding especially when you
realise the image you shot can now be printed out tack sharp
the size of a billboard. If you follow the instructions below, you’ll
be on your way to shooting a 180-degree image like this.
Equipment you need:
1. Tripod
2. Camera with standard lens at least 50mm
3. Level (something to check your camera is level,
whether that is built into your camera, tripod or just an external
level)
Camera Settings
1. First you need to be using the correct camera settings,
your camera needs to be on manual focus so that the image
focus looks believable, IOS 100 to keep the grain low, F8-11 so
that everything is sharp and set your white balance manually
so that the colours match in each image.
2. Now when you are at your location set up your tripod
and place your camera on making sure that you are shooting in
portrait.
3. Start by taking the middle of your image. Choose the
correct shutter speed that will give you the best exposure, it
doesn’t matter if this is slow as you will have the tripod to keep
the camera steady. Line up your centre and set your focus to
this point. After this, do not change the focus of the image.
4. After you take the centre image keep your tripod where
it is and keep all of your settings the same.
5. Rotate the camera to the left or the right and continue
to take images, making sure you level the camera each time
and overlap the images until you reach where you want the end
of the image to be.
6. Repeat on the opposite side.
24

Editing your image together
1. Start by bringing your centre image into Photoshop. DO
NOT correct any of the colours yet.
2. Once open check the image size by going to: Image >
Image Size. Remember the width of the image as that is needed
in the next step.
3. Work out roughly how many images you are going to
stitch together and multiply the width of your image by the
number of images. Select Image > Canvas size and change
the width to this number. You should now have a very long and
skinny document.
4. Starting from the left or the right drop the next image
into Photoshop in a separate window.
5. Find a section of the image that you know should be
level and drag from the rulers on the side and see if it is level. If
you find its not level, you can fix this by using the marquee tool
to select the entire image then going to Image > Image Rotation
> Arbitrary. Here you can adjust the image by putting in how
many degrees you think it needs to rotate. This will be trial and
error until you get it straight.
6. If there is a large overlap in the images use the marquee
tool to select the part of the image you want to add then drag it
over to the panoramic document.
7. Line up the image the best you can. If it’s not quite
right, click on the image then select: Edit > Free Transform >
Distort. Now you will be able to move each corner of the image
in different ways in order to best align it with the image next to
it.
8. Continue to do this with each image as you add them
trying to line them up as good as possible.
9. If you find some of the colours don’t match refer to page
28 where you can see how to change the colour temperature.
25

Filtering
Creativity
Within Photoshop there are many options for filters. Some are used very
regularly and others you may never use. Bellow are 10 examples of filters
you can use on Photoshop.
As you look through you will see which work best with the image and
which would be used in a different context. For example the lens flare
could be believable whereas the solarize filter is much more unnatural to
look at.
Lens flare
mosaq
pointillize
26
solarize

Add noise
Gaussian blur
Motion blur
Pinch
spherize
Wave
27

28

UKFR ©
29

30
Andrea Minoia ©

31

32

QR Code from Wikipedia ©
Album covers from Apple Music ©
33
Background by Hyponik ©

How to create an
A.V. Presentation
What is an A.V. Presentation
A.V. stands for audio visual. An Audio-Visual Presentation is an instructional or informative presentation made up of photos and videos along with an
audio descriptive voice over. Along the next couple of pages you will find out about how to make an A.V. Presentation, specifically one to do with a
families history.
Planning and Researching
The first thing you want to do when creating an A.V. Presentation is to collect all the information you may need in order to then plan out how you would
like the video to go and what topic it will be based around. For example let’s talk about creating an A.V. Presentation about a family’s history. In order to
do this you need to talk to someone within your family who has the most information, maybe a grandparent.
When talking to them you want to find out specific dates for certain things like the births and deaths of relatives, or when they moved house or country,
what year they got married. When asking these questions you are likely to get other stories along side the answers, these are useful as they can help
you decide a theme for the video.
Taking notes and writing talking points is a good idea so that when it comes to filming your video you have prompts to help you guide conversation.
Another great way to find out stories you may have never heard is to ask to look at old family photos. This will jog relatives memories and get them
talking about what is happening in photos. If something comes up that will help your presentation keep it to the side to use again when filming as a
visual aid.
It is good to talk to as many family members as you can so that you can get different perspectives of stories, this may also help you produce questions
to ask the narrator of the story.
1. Planning & Research 2. Collect old images and videos
3. Film audio voiceover 4. Import into Premiere Pro
& start editing
34

5. Create ruff cut of video 6. Create music in GarageBand
7. Import music to
Premiere Pro
8. Make final touches to
video, Export & Upload
Below shows talking points for narrator in video
35

Using GarageBand to
create a soundtrack
Setting up your page
1. Open GarageBand and create a new project. Select the microphone under the audio section
and click create.
2. An empty project will appear ready for you to start creating music.
3. If you are creating music for a video you can insert the video onto the project so that you
can edit along with the correct timings. To do this select File > Movie > Open Movie. This will
import your film into the first audio channel and give you a small pop up box for the visual
side of the film.
4. Now its time to start creating.
Below shows finished timeline for the soundtrack
38

Choosing and adding stock sounds
GarageBand comes with a selection of free sounds to use when creating a track. To
access them go to the top right hand corner where you will see two symbols, one a little
box with lines in and the other like the loop of a roller-coaster.
Click on the loop which will bring up a long list of sounds with
subcategories such as genre, instrument and descriptors. If you know the genre you
would like to use you can go to that subheading and pick out which you would like and
then the sounds will be filtered down, similarly you can choose an instrument and go from
there. There are also sound packs that are all from the same family, meaning they will fit
well together always to make a song.
Spend some time looking through the sounds until you find something that you like. Once
you have sound that sound drag it onto the timeline and it will start your track. If you
would like to extend the loop to last longer you can drag it from the right end and it will
multiply as a longer loop.
This next stage can be very trail and error but that’s the fun of the process, select a
second sound that you think will go with your fist one and place it on the timeline, if they
go well together you can continue to do this step until you have built a stronger track.
Sometimes individuality loops will sound like they go together but once you layer them
they are completely wrong, in this case just delete the track that doesn’t work by clicking
the backspace while selecting the track.
Sometimes you will need to change the volume of just
one sound/instrument. To do this head to the sliders
on the left hand side and reduce the volume, this is
a good tool as sometimes you want the drum in the
background to be very subtle and the guitar to shine
through vice versa. Continue to play with the audio
levels until your track sounds the most natural.
Saving & Exporting
When you are ready to export your track head over to Share on the top bar and choose Export song to disk. This will save your song to your computer
as an MP3 file. Once you have the saved audio file you are ready to import it to your timeline on Premiere Pro.
39

Putting it together
Assembaly of your A.V. Presentation
When you create a new project in Premiere Pro it’s important to stay
organised in the assembly section. We suggest creating folders for
different sections of the video. For example when creating a video with
photos its good to section them off into each family member. To make
these folders click the small folder icon at the bottom right corner of the
assembly box.
Once you have created the folders you want to import the videos and
photos you have collected. You can do this in two ways, one way is to
double click in the box which will then pop up and ask you what you would
like to import. Then you can look through your folders on your laptop and
select what you would like to import. Alternatively you can find the items
you want to import on your laptop and then drag and drop them into the
selected folder in the assembly section.
You will want to start by editing the audio part of your A.V. Presentation.
Drag and drop the video or audio to the timeline, preferably V1, A1. To cut
out sections you may not need change to the cutting tool by selecting it
on the side or clicking ‘C’ on the keyboard. Here you can slice the video at
the point you want to remove and to get rid of a section you can simply
click the backspace button on the key board while the video is selected.
Continue to do this through the video until the audio sounds fluid and how
you would like it. We suggest cutting out any deep breaths or ums and
ahhs.
Below shows finished timeline for A.V. Presentation
Within Premiere Pro there are
different video and audio layers.
It is best to keep each layer for a
specific task to help your work-flow.
V5 - Text
V4 - Photos
V3 - Photos/Secondary Video
V2 - Back video background
V1 - Primary video/ Narration
A1 - Primary Audio/Narration
A2 - Secondary Audio/Music
36

Graphics and Rulers
On the graphics section of Premiere Pro you can work on the
movement and placement of things like texts and photos. We suggest
using rulers when in the graphics tap as they can help you align your
text and photos.
In the screen-shot to the right you can see rulers being used to line
up photos and text of family members. There is also the section that
allows you to edit text size font and alignment. You can also make
key frames in this section for text to appear and disappear at certain
times.
Adding photos & positioning them
A big part of the A.V. Presentation is the visual side, photos and videos. For this video on
family history it was important to gather historical family photos. To add these to the
video you can simply drag and drop them onto one of the visual layers. This will simply
add the photo on-top of the video below, if you do not want to see the video bellow
you need to add a black video section to create a background, this can be found in the
effects panel.
When importing the photos they may come in at the wrong size, to change this go to the
graphics tab and then double click on the photo in the timeline. You will see the screenshot
to the left. Here you can change the scale and position of the photo, you can also
add key-frames here too.
37

City Perspectives
40
By jodie Chamberlain

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References
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[Accessed 13 June 2021]
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13 June 2021]
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[Accessed 7 August 2021]
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of_secret_sites/details?language=en#t-989587> [Accessed 20 July 2021]
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Taryn Simon (2002) The Innocents by Taryn Simon [Online Image] Available from: <https://www.janus-books.com/products/taryn-simon-innocents>
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61

Personal Reflection
When initially looking through the module handbook for Editing Skills I was filled with fear, the thought of creating a magazine of this size with so many
specifications seemed impossible. Now looking back and reflecting on that initial fear I can understand why I felt that way but would no longer feel that
way if such task was asked of me again.
Throughout this module I have learnt a lot about the technical processes of the adobe software, previously I would often use the easy short-cut
method. For example, I have previously taken panoramic landscapes while travelling but when putting them together I would use the short-cut built into
Photoshop, and although this method works there is far less satisfaction in the process of creating the final image. Knowing the long way to do things
means that if you are ever in the situation where you must use the method you already know how to do it.
Result after matching images manually
Result after using automate funtion on Photoshop
Throughout the process of creating the magazine I found I learnt more about processes I already
knew by writing about them in an instructional way. Previously when creating documents like
this they have been journals in which I write in the first person about how I did each task, due to
not being able to do this I had to become more creative in the process.
Originally when creating the document, I had decided I wanted to
only use my own photos and I would only use stock photos for the
A-Z page as I thought using stock images and screen-shots would
make the magazine look tacky. It wasn’t long before I realised this
was the complete wrong way to look at the task in hand. The entire
point of using stock photos is to help the creator with images they
may not be able to take themselves and time constraints. Once I
realised this was the better option my work-flow became more fluid
as when there was a specific photo holding me back from finishing
a page, I could simply find it online and credit the creator. A good
example of this is the ‘What kit do you need?’ page where I had
photographed the kit I personally owned but hadn’t completed the
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page for days as I couldn’t get a good photo of my bag.
When it came to the A.V. Presentation there was a lot of procrastination for me. I had put an abundance of pressure on myself to make this film perfect
to honour my grandparents, as a result I could never bring myself to start filming as none of the ideas I had fit this perfect image I had created in my
head. Once I was able to shake this pressure and sit down with my grandmother, I found it a lot easier to get on with the task. The days spent looking
at photographs and talking to here where the most useful, these days helped me decide that I wanted to base the theme around out families love for
travel. Once I had decided on this theme, I was able to complete the entire video in just over a week. Knowing this now, going forward I need to put less
pressure on myself and push through the initial fear of starting a project as then I can spend more time creating rather than thinking about it.
Overall, I feel this module has taught me a lot about the value of time and knowing the correct process when creating something in the adobe suite.
Going forward I have more knowledge about work-flow and the importance of image processing, as well as the ethical implications of using software
like Photoshop. I also have the skills to know when it’s important to be quick and use the short-cuts or when quality is priority and how to manually do
the task.
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