One Handed Photoshop – Basic Retouching
Well, it’s Monday and I have another One Handed Photoshop Tutorial for you! I apologize for the length of time it takes to make these. The videos themselves only take a few minutes its the typing the blog post that takes time. I am typing one handed after all. Drat! Now its Tuesday!
Anyway, I got such a positive response from the first 1 Handed tutorial I just had to keep going. That and the fact that I will be one handed for at least 3 more weeks. This time I took the same image and removed a few distractions and cleaned up a little razor rash.
You can view the full tutorial right after you click the link! Continue reading
One Handed Photoshop – Make The Image Pop!
You probably know already that ice is slippery, but did you know it’s sneaky too? It is when its black ice. It was hiding in my driveway last week and it took my feet right out from underneath me. I remember hearing a distinct snap too. Then I realized that snap was my wrist. So here I sit typing a blog post with one hand. The other is in a cast and itching like mad!
I was due to write my weekly post over the weekend but now I can only type so much and its less than half as much when using only one hand. So I got to thinking, what can I do one handed that I can put on my site? 1 Handed Photoshop Tutorials were born!
Below is the first in what I hope will only be a short series of tutorials that can be done quickly and easily, and with only one hand, in Photoshop. This first one is on how to use the High-Pass filter to make your images pop out at the viewer. Click the link to watch the video and take a look!
HDR In Photography
Unless you have been living in a vacuum for the last few years you have heard of the latest trend in still photography, HDR (High Dynamic Range). Everything from real estate to portraits to advertising is using HDR as a way to grab the viewer’s attention. Even I have written a couple of pieces on HDR and how to get the effects that really make an image pop.
Is it a trend or the future of photography? I believe that the trend has passed and that HDR is here to stay. More photographers are using HDR everyday and with that, more ways to get ‘the look’ are being used and discussed.
Is there a best way to get the HDR look in your images? I don’t feel that any one technique has yet emerged as the single ‘best’ way. Clearly HDR soft’s (http://www.hdrsoft.com/) Photomatix and Photomatix Pro are the current choice of the majority of users today. Of course many are using the HDR component in Photoshop as well. It just seems that Photomatix is a better tool for tone-mapping than what is included in Photoshop, so far.
Click the link to read more Continue reading
“True” HDR Portraits (You Know, with Bracketing?)
On my last tutorial I received many comments on how changing the exposure level of a single raw file then creating an HDR image is not a ‘true’ HDR image. So I shot a bracketed self portrait and generated a new tutorial. This is the image that resulted.
I am not sure how letting the computer in my camera do the bracketing is any less ‘true’ than doing the same thing manually in Lightroom or Photoshop. But, I come from a purist photography background; as in I shot film, developed film and have lost years of my life in a dark room (go into the darkroom at 7 in the morning and come out and it’s still 7am, on a different day!), and I am actually fond of the smell of fixer.
To watch the tutorial Click the Link: Continue reading
HDR Portraits
By now I am sure you have heard of HDR or High Dynamic Range Photography. Usually the images are done for landscapes or architecture where there is little or no movement from the subject. This is because you need to blend several images, taken at different exposures, together to show the full dynamic range of color. Doing this with portraits has been difficult or impossible because of the (however so slight) movement of a portrait subject. Not anymore.
In the tutorial below I show you how I got to the dramatic image above from an everyday image that is well exposed but is nothing special.
Click the link to find out how. Continue reading
Retouching Parts 1 AND 2!
I have been asked many times to retouch images or to “make me look perfect” by clients. Personally I prefer 100% natural images straight out of the camera. The thing is, I’m not paying me, my clients are. Now it is possible to help someone lose a few pounds, or at least take off the “10 pounds a camera puts on you” but is it necessary? With just a little retouching you can make someone look fantastic! You would be amazed at how far just a little bit of skin softening can go.
The problem in magazines today is that many of the people responsible for the content don’t know and they go too far. Way too far. Don’t blame the photographer or even the retoucher, they both know what reality is; however, often the person paying them doesn’t.
To learn how far is not too far, click the link. Continue reading
Faded Old Photo? Easy!
When I did the tutorial on the image of my father I was reminded of a task he gave me before he died, restore as many of the old family photos that I could.
Being the good son that I am I gladly took the box of old photos and brought it home with great in tensions. I was going to restore the images and make them available online to all aspects of my family. Also being the typical son, the box sat in a closet, untouched, for a long time. Then I did the tutorial and remembered my promise.
I can tell you that my family is much more complicated than I ever thought it was. I was looking at the photos saying to myself in a voice like Jack Palance, “I don’t even know who the hell you are!” I spent hours putting older faces to the younger versions and then trying to match them to the faces I had never seen before.
Selective Color In Photoshop CS4
Although many people liked the James image, almost as many like the image of the older man with the flag in the background. Well that old man, he was my father.
Although he passed away this year at age 84, I look at the image often and I wonder what I could have done better. Of course I am my own critic and I do that with a lot of images. This image though for obvious reasons gets a gander a bit more often.
As my father was very much the ‘Navy Man’ I often wonder what I could do to make that subtle reference pop out more. After all, If you ever met my father and let him talk, and trust me it was hard to stop him from doing that! He would have let you know rather quickly that he was in the Navy.
To make the image pop I decided to add a little selective color.
Follow the link to find out how. Continue reading
The James Effect
By far the most popular image on my site is James – The Mystery Man. I have been asked if it is a drawing, a painting, everything. It is a photograph.
I shot Jim about a year and a half ago and we spent the better part of the day shooting. The image that first loads on the site is an image that was done in the early part of our day. We were in the shadow of a building and this allowed me to control the light completely. I used one SB800 flash unit to light the area behind him and one to light Jim. The light is about waist high and a grid spot used to light only his face.
After the image was captured I used Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to convert the image to what you see on the site today. The technique is a variation of Scott Kelby’s grunge effect. If you are a member of NAPP you can see Scott’s tutorial at www.photoshopuser.com and search on Grunge. I did alter the tutorial a bit and you can see how by clicking the link below.
Is Photograpghy Art?
What is photography? Many say it is taking a picture, capturing a moment in time or creating an image. All of the images you see, whether made with a still camera, movie camera or even the images you see with your own eyes, are just reflections of light captured on a light sensitive surface. Even the computer screen you are looking at right now is just a bunch of different lights cast in patterns that create shapes, but still just light. Photography is all of these things but at its most basic, photography is just the capturing of light. It is that simple… or is it?
Photography without light is black, or the absence of light. So what is it about photography that captures our imaginations? Every time you take a photograph you are trying to capture the emotion of the moment whatever that emotion happens to be. But how many times have you been disappointed because it didn’t have the same ‘mood’ or feeling as when you were there?
