Parallel Track↔ Recipes III

Blur or resize in linear light

When blurred highlights go gray or thin lines darken on downscale.

1. Duplicate the file (or work on a copy), then Image ▸ Mode ▸ 32 Bits/Channel. In 32-bit, Photoshop filters and resampling work in linear light.
2. Blur / resize; highlights now stay bright, like real optics.
3. Image ▸ Mode ▸ 16 Bits/Channel for normal perceptual edits. In the HDR Toning dialog choose Exposure and Gamma with Exposure 0 and Gamma 1.00 so nothing is re-toned.

Note: Edit ▸ Color Settings (Advanced Controls) ▸ Blend RGB Colors Using Gamma: 1.00 changes only how layers blend and composite. It does not change how blur filters or Image Size resample.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 1.1: Scene-Referred, Display-Referred & Gamma

Develop a raw in the right order

When a develop comes out inconsistent or overcooked.

1. Profile then White Balance first.
2. Set a rough Exposure, anchor Whites/Blacks, recover Highlights/Shadows, then refine Contrast.
3. Add Color Mixer + Vibrance; Texture/Clarity/Dehaze last and sparingly. Keep it a Camera Raw Smart Filter.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 1.2: Camera Raw / ACR at Depth

Merge a bracket to HDR

When one exposure can't hold the scene's range.

1. File ▸ Automate ▸ Merge to HDR Pro, Mode 32 Bit; tick Remove Ghosts if anything moved.
2. Save the 32-bit result as your untouched master (PSD or OpenEXR).
3. Image ▸ Duplicate the master, then on the copy Image ▸ Mode ▸ 16 Bits/Channel to open HDR Toning; compress with restraint (no crunch).

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 1.3: 32-bit, HDR & Blend-Mode Math

Pick the right blend mode by math

When you're cycling modes hoping one works.

1. To darken (shadows) → Multiply (b×s).
2. To lighten (glows) → Screen (1−(1−b)(1−s)).
3. Real added light (flares) → Linear Dodge (Add), in linear/32-bit so it blooms. (Screen is not available in 32-bit; Linear Dodge (Add) is the 32-bit choice.)

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 1.3: 32-bit, HDR & Blend-Mode Math

Add a light wrap

When a cutout edge reads as a hard silhouette on a bright plate.

1. Blur a copy of the background plate. Ctrl/⌘-click the subject's mask thumbnail to load it, Select ▸ Inverse, then Select ▸ Modify ▸ Feather 3–6 px so the selection bleeds inward across the edge.
2. Use that selection as a mask on the blurred background, set the layer to Screen (or Lighten), and clip it to the subject (Alt/⌥-click between the layers), so only a thin edge band survives.
3. Keep it strongest on the lit side and absent on the shadow side; keep it thin.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 2.1: Light Wrap, Edges & Color Bleed

Match grain to a plate

When a clean element sits on a grainy background.

1. At the top of the stack, Layer ▸ New ▸ Layer, Mode Overlay, tick Fill with Overlay-neutral color (50% gray).
2. Filter ▸ Noise ▸ Add Noise (Gaussian, Monochromatic), matched to the plate's shadows at 100%.
3. One unified grain over element + plate erases the texture seam.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 2.2: Matching the Capture

Match depth of field

When a sharp element floats against a shallow-DoF plate.

1. Decide the element's distance / focal plane.
2. If it sits off the focal plane, apply Filter ▸ Blur ▸ Lens Blur (Depth Map Source: None) until it matches the plate's softness at that distance; if it sits on the plane, leave it sharp.
3. Blur its shadow and reflection by the same amount.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 2.2: Matching the Capture

Add matching chromatic aberration

When the plate has edge fringing and the element doesn't.

1. Offset the element's Red and Blue channels a pixel apart on high-contrast edges.
2. Keep it subtle: a whisper reads as "same lens", a lot looks broken.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 2.2: Matching the Capture

Wrap a graphic onto fabric

When a decal sits flat on a folded/textured surface.

1. Image ▸ Duplicate the surface (same pixel size), desaturate, slight blur, save as its own .psd map.
2. Rasterize the placed graphic (keep a hidden Smart Object copy), then Filter ▸ Distort ▸ Displace it against the map with Stretch To Fit, so the map lines up with the canvas.
3. Shade it: Multiply (or Linear Burn) for dark art. For light art, keep it on Normal and clip a desaturated copy of the surface above it on Multiply, with Levels pushing the lit areas to white, so only the folds darken it.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 2.3: Surfaces & 3D

Comp a CGI render's passes

When you receive a multi-pass render to integrate.

1. Ask for each pass as its own EXR. In 32-bit, Multiply the AO for contact shadow and Linear Dodge (Add) the specular (Screen is not available in 32-bit).
2. Paste the depth pass into an alpha channel and use it as Lens Blur's Depth Map Source; if Lens Blur is grayed out in 32-bit, do this on a 16-bit copy after the pass comp.
3. Then match edge, grain, and grade to the plate.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 2.3: Surfaces & 3D

Even skin with micro dodge & burn

When skin is blotchy but you must keep pores.

1. 50% gray Soft Light layer (or dodge/burn Curves) + a temporary B&W check on top.
2. At 100%, 1–3% flow: lighten each dark blotch, darken each bright one.
3. Even the transitions, never blur the texture.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 3.1: Beauty Pipeline — Micro D&B & Color Zones

Unify skin color zones

When the forehead runs warm, cheeks red, chin cool.

1. Add a Hue/Saturation check layer (Saturation +60 to +80) to expose the zones; toggle it off to judge.
2. On masked Hue/Saturation or Color Balance layers, pull each zone into one hue family.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 3.1: Beauty Pipeline — Micro D&B & Color Zones

Finish eyes at agency standard

When eyes look flat and muddy.

1. Masked Curves to lift the iris; dodge the catchlight, gently darken (never lose) the limbal rim.
2. Clean sclera veins, lift the white only slightly (never paper-white).
3. High Pass (1–3 px) on a stamped layer set to Overlay or Soft Light, masked to the iris and lash line.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 3.2: Hair, Lips & Eyes at Agency Standard

Rebuild chrome/glass reflections

When a reflective product's reflections are a mess.

1. Heal physical flaws on a cleaned base.
2. Clip a masked layer; lay gradient reflections that follow the form (dark-light-dark).
3. Add crisp speculars (Screen) + thin edge highlights.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 3.3: Product Retouching

Make a foliage brush from a photo

When you need to paint believable leaves/texture fast.

1. Desaturate a foliage photo, boost contrast to a clear shape, Edit ▸ Define Brush Preset.
2. In Window ▸ Brush Settings add Shape Dynamics, Scattering, Transfer, and Color Dynamics (two related colors as Foreground/Background, Apply Per Tip checked).

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 4.1: Photobashing & Custom Brushes

Unify a photobash

When assembled fragments still read as a collage.

1. Match each fragment in scale/perspective; one grade over all.
2. Overpaint the seams sampling scene colors; paint silhouettes, photo the detail.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 4.1: Photobashing & Custom Brushes

Paint atmospheric depth

When a painted scene looks flat.

1. Solve light in value first (one committed direction).
2. Glaze sky/atmosphere color over the background, stronger with distance.
3. Keep the foreground dark, saturated, and crisp; detail only the focal point.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 4.2: Painting Light, Depth & Texture

Extend a plate seamlessly

When a real photo stops too soon.

1. Read the plate's anchors: horizon, vanishing lines, light, grade — and extend them.
2. Bury the seam with an occluder + irregular mask + carried grain.
3. Grade the painting to the plate; one unifying grade last.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 4.3: Set Extension & Concept-to-Final

Convert to CMYK for a press

When delivering photography to print.

1. Soft-proof + Gamut Warning; pull impossible colors in.
2. Edit ▸ Convert to Profile to the press's CMYK profile (Relative Colorimetric + Black Point Compensation), once, late.
3. Check shadow total ink (Info panel ▸ Total Ink readout) within TAC (~300%); trust the profile's GCR to hold it.
4. Overprint small 100% K type: set it to Multiply in Photoshop, or use Overprint Fill in InDesign/Illustrator.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 5.1: CMYK, Separations & Ink

Build a duotone

When a monochrome image needs richer tonal depth.

1. Image ▸ Mode ▸ Grayscale, and make sure it is 8 Bits/Channel (Duotone is available only for 8-bit Grayscale), then Image ▸ Mode ▸ Duotone.
2. Ink 1 Black (shadows), Ink 2 a warm/cool Pantone (midtones); shape each curve.
3. Save as PSD, EPS, or Photoshop PDF (TIFF doesn't support Duotone mode).

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 5.2: Spot Color, Duotone & Halftone

Add a spot channel

When you need a Pantone, metallic, or spot varnish.

1. Channels panel menu ▸ New Spot Channel, pick the ink (for a varnish, set Solidity to 0%).
2. Paint where the ink/varnish prints; save a spot-preserving format (PSD/TIFF/PDF).
3. Confirm the plate count with the printer.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 5.2: Spot Color, Duotone & Halftone

Set up bleed & a dieline

When prepping packaging or a card for cutting.

1. Make the canvas oversize: trim + 3 mm (0.125 in) bleed on every side; View ▸ Guides ▸ New Guide Layout for trim and an inner safe margin.
2. Background fills to bleed; text stays inside safe.
3. Put the dieline on its own spot channel named Dieline; design panels to it. Spot channels print on their own plate and overprint automatically, so there is nothing to set: tell the printer the plate is for the die, not ink. Many printers prefer the dieline as vector art from Illustrator, so ask.
4. Crop marks don't come from the canvas: add them in the layout app that places the file, or from File ▸ Print ▸ Printing Marks.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 5.3: Packaging, Large-Format & PDF/X

Export a press-ready PDF/X

When delivering final art to a printer.

1. Build bleed into the canvas (oversize), then File ▸ Save As, Format Photoshop PDF, tick Spot Colors, preset PDF/X-4 (or X-1a).
2. Set the press profile as the output intent. Photoshop's PDF export has no crop/bleed marks: add them from the Print dialog's Printing Marks, or place the art in InDesign.
3. Preflight the PDF in Acrobat Pro (the Preflight tool under Print Production; the exact menu path varies by Acrobat version) or the printer's tool, and fix every flag before sending.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 5.3: Packaging, Large-Format & PDF/X

Run & adapt a script

When a task needs a decision or loop an Action can't do.

1. Think in the DOM: app → documents → layers → properties.
2. Save a .jsx (ExtendScript) or a .psjs (UXP, Photoshop 23.5+, with document edits inside executeAsModal); run either via File ▸ Scripts ▸ Browse.
3. Edit its values; add an if for per-file logic; wrap in try/catch.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 6.1: JavaScript / UXP Scripting in Depth

Scaffold a UXP panel

When a script should be a one-click docked tool.

1. Three files: manifest.json (manifestVersion: 5, panel + minimal permissions), index.html (UI), index.js (logic).
2. Click handler → executeAsModal → DOM (use batchPlay only where the DOM falls short).
3. Turn on Preferences ▸ Plugins ▸ Enable Developer Mode (on recent Mac versions this may read Photoshop ▸ Settings ▸ Plugins) and restart Photoshop. Load the folder with the UXP Developer Tool, then choose Watch from the plugin's ••• menu to reload on save.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 6.2: Building a Panel / Plugin

Write a QA gate

When automated output must be checked before it ships.

1. A function per deliverable spec: dims, color mode + profile, size, not-blank (a print gate adds total ink and ppi).
2. Return pass/fail with reasons; route passes on, log fails loudly.
3. Add retry/backoff and a run summary; never fail silently.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 6.3: Pipelines — Headless Batch, APIs & QA

Generate with control

When a bare prompt keeps missing your intent.

1. Pin composition (structure), look (reference), palette (style ref); keep the prompt short. Structure and style references live in Edit ▸ Generate Image / Firefly on the web.
2. Generative Fill into a selection (with a Reference Image, where your version and model offer it) so it uses the scene's context; check resolution at 100% and note the model used.
3. Curate the best, then integrate (Module 2) and hand-fix specifics.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 7.1: Generative at Pro Standard

Use a Neural Filter safely

When AI can do a fast heavy-lift (colorize, harmonize, depth blur).

1. Run it non-destructively (Output ▸ New Layer, or Output ▸ Smart Filter on a Smart Object; Super Zoom outputs a new document).
2. Audit at 100%; mask, reduce, clone, and re-grade its artifacts.
3. Match grain/sharpening; if fixing takes longer than doing, do it by hand.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 7.2: Neural Filters & Hybrid Workflows

Ship AI work with provenance

When delivering AI-assisted work to a client.

1. Confirm the model/source (Firefly or a partner model) is commercial-safe with clear output rights.
2. Turn on Content Credentials (C2PA) in Window ▸ Content Credentials; include them via File ▸ Export ▸ Export As.
3. Add a context-appropriate disclosure; keep your own source/AI-use log.

🔗 Deep dive: Lesson 7.3: Licensing, Content Credentials & Disclosure