Beginners guide to adjusting contrast with Curves
If you’ve not played with curves you’ll want to have a listen to this clip from the 365 days video podcast as I’ll be running some more advanced photoshop curves tutorials soonish.
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Archive for the 'how to' Category
Managing the lighting in the Arizona Sun
Clerissa asks:I am shooting a new wedding in the courtyard Calle Independencia. I haven’t worked much with outdoor weddings and as you can see there won’t be much lighting. So I have a couple questions:
- What do you think would be the best type of lighting? Should I try and rent something? I have two camera flashes and a couple of strobes. The strobes are not wireless though… but there may be a way to get power to them. There is also a second level I may be able to use to be less invasive. I think there are some places for viewing of the second level.
- Is there a way to get that same kind of warm effect like you do with the gels on the flashes when shooting outside?
- Is there a way to make the daytime shots look more warm? I find a lot of outdoor weddings start around 1-2pm and in Arizona the lighting is usually so bright it washes everything out.
Answers from Neil:
- The best type of lighting is inspired lighting, you don’t need anything but your camera to find inspired lighting - just angles of approach. What controlled lighting can give you - is so many more angles and options to work with. But not forcing the shot when the lighting is so harsh is the first step to seeing more possiblities. Check out my options below for working in harsh outdoor light.
- A warm effect is not created by gels - a harmonious effect is created by gel on the strobe. If you gel the strobe to the same color temperature of your surroundings, you can process your images in a warm or cool fashion as you are inspired to do so - changing the color temperature will warm the image. So if you’re getting blue tones in your image, try a shade white balance in camera with this icon:
- As for lighting in bright sun or continuous light of any kind, one way to control your light is with a light panel:
Photoflex LitePanel 39×72″ kit from B+H Photo
If you combine the light panel with direct sun you can produce a blinding amount of light - so, be careful you don’ create squinters. My recommendation to achieve the summery tones in your image is to have your subjects sit in the shade, and then control the sunlight you push in with your panel(s). Taking this approach I’d suggest you ask your clients to get married in a shaded part of the court (if there is one) and then push some gentle sunlight into their ceremony from above with a panel. I know it may seem extreme, but to get unique pictures - that’s what it takes. Here are some panel illuminated shots:
The big benefit for beginners using a panel to redirect sunlight is that you don’t have to second guess your exposure or contrast levels as you will get what you see.
I believe we’re going to have an Arizona Make Light Real workshop in the near future so you can keep your eye on the workshop schedule
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Catching the color blue, photoshop tutorial
I realized again how much I love the color blue when VFXY had a blue theme week.
Ever wonder why blue is such a wonderful color?
Blue is the hardest color for camera sensors to capture, and the hardest color for CMYK printers to print.
So how we deal with it in Photoshop is of utmost importance.
We’re sitting here on this beautiful blue jewel hanging in the galaxy, wouldn’t it be great if you captured some of that uniqueness in your images?
If you’d like to continue learning about the possibilities to accentuate and control the blue channel, purchase the Beautiful Blues Screen cast Training video.
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- Color Theory , ONE Action , Photoshop , Tutorials , Video , how to
- Comments(4)
Mind like water: Practice the art of Meditation
Mind like water is a visual metaphor for a state of being. A nugget I hope you gain from watching this video is quoted “choice is a function of awareness, awareness comes as a function of meditation.”
So if no-one has ever taught you the goal of meditation let me help you “observe things from a place of non-reaction, which does not mean detachment, but means not attached to an outcome.” And this is my personal favorite photographic mode, allowing my own choices to be fully aware and scooping creative power from the natural surroundings….I hope you begin a practice of meditation into your life to help you create with a watchful eye and this article blesses you with the inertia to start that practice.
YouTube - Michael Beckwith - The power of Meditation
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- Creativity , Inspiration , Mind Like Water , Philosophy , The Zone , Video , Workshop , how to , learning
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Adding a realistic handmade border with PhotoShop tutorial
Final image result:
Download the fiberglass insulation texture used in this tutorial. Visit Texture King.com
This photoshop tutorial attempts to mimic the traditional printing processes such as Daguerreotype, wet plate collodion, hand painted emulsion and filing the negative carrier for full frame prints. These traditional photographic processes created printing effect that were generated as light passed through the negative, or print material leaving artifacts of hand made imperfection. Modern printing papers such as Innova, Hahnemuhle Paper, and Moab offer the digital artist a fast and tactile solution for creating wonderfully warm pieces in Photoshop.
So the object in Photoshop is to use layers and blending modes to create the effect of light passing through an imperfect emulsion. To do this you will need at least two layers, one in a darkening type mode such as Darken, Multiply, Hard light, or normal mode with light pixels erased. To finish the effect realistically, a second border must be applied over the darkening border so that the two borders interact three dimensionally.
Other shot’s I’ve created borders for:
You can download some border and edge effects from several Flickr Groups….
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- Free stuff , ONE Action , Photoshop , Tutorials , Video , how to , learning
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Create a Faux Tilt Shift Effect in Adobe Photoshop Tutorial
Create a Faux Tilt shift Effect in photoshop, originally uploaded by Neil Shot with Sigma 24mm 1.8 on Canon 1Ds mII.
If to understand the light we must know the darkness.
Then to understand the power of sharpness we must fully emphasize the soft.
Enter the wonder of Tilt Shift lenses, but with the wonder comes the price of their increased difficulty to use.
Oh you say, photoshop can do that fast and dirty. Sure there’s a great plugin called Melancholytron, that’ll do it in a flash.
But at it’s most fundamental, a basic photoshop action will only add blur - not emphasize sharpness over a 3 dimensional plane. Once you’re accustomed to looking at real tilt-shift images the extra blur methods of simulation won’t interest you much.
The emphasis on the 3 dimensional is a great way to improve your photographic thinking and seeing.
To take this thinking to the next level you’ll need to take a closeup look at a real tilt-shift lens’ image reproduction so you know where you should go in photo shop: Example 1
Here you’ll see the plane of focus is shallow enough and tilted enough to have their faces in focus - but their shoulders blurry…but notice the bokeh (blur produced by the optics of a lens) see how the reflections are in a teardrop shape? Now that’s funky - but also organic and it a good part of what gives the images their frentic tonal energy.
Photoshop steps
So starting again in photoshop, you’ll actually need to shoot two (or more) images at differing distances of focus. A tripod could help but I never have one and just shoot hand held from about the same perspective. Here is one of my final images shot with a standard 50mm lens merged from more than one image.
She was pointing at the flowers going up and I shot that image sharp, then pulled in some of the focus on the falls.
- The basic step is to make a new layer in PhotoShop,
- put your second focal distance on it and create a layer mask.
- Now you might at first think that a simple gradient blur will work on that mask to push the focus around, but it rarely does for me. You’ll want to create a custom mask, probably painted in. You can start with a gradient, then paint over it for a quick start.
- Focus your attention on drawing connections between foreground and or background elements using the two layers. Add in any other elements or additional layers with the Lens Blur filter applied in differing amounts.
Voila - now it’s done and is close to looking realistic and or magical - your choice.
Photoshop’s Lens Blur Filter - second best method
Well if you didn’t have time to shoot two images and only have one….you can resort to using Photoshop’s lens blur filter. The benefit of using the Lens-Blur filter is that it actually creates a bokeh like distortion instead of a flat, and low contrast Gaussian blur technique.
The level of artistry that you achieve using the lens blur filter will be equal to the level of artistry you put into creating a ‘depth map’. To create a depth map simply create a layer mask. The layer mask can be used by the Lens Blur filter to apply a faux sort of depth which is adjustable by the slider titled “Blur Focal Distance” to create a nice mask for youself just Gaussian blur a copy layer to preview what areas you really want your blur to be applied. Move that layer mask back to a layer with all the original sharpness and apply your lens blur filter.
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- Creativity , Inspiration , On Art , Photoshop , how to , learning
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Overpowering the sun with photo flash
Strobist has been discussing hard light lately and I remembered I’d shot these to talk about later.
Here’s a photo of the setup with my Alien Bee 800 - 11inch reflector, and here’s a photo of the intended result
Read on to hear my comments on the setup and lighting motivation behind it. Continue Reading »
Available Light vs. Off Camera Lighting
Available Light vs. Off Camera Lighting, originally uploaded by usedfilm.
During this weekend’s One Light Workshop, I shot a few side by side examples. One shot was made with available light and then one with off camera lighting. Off camera lighting is important to me for two main reasons… I want options and control. If I rely exclusively on available light, I have no other options than whatever light is in front of me. These were shot with a Sunpack 120j with a 28″ Westcott Apollo softbox triggered with PW’s.
-Zack: One Light Workshop
I saw this nice before & after in Zack’s photo-stream and thought I’d chime in to say that if you’re starting out trying to make the photographic thing a career my friend Zack’s seminar will be a big eye opener. His approach shows you a great way to learn starting from not knowing how to use your camera in Manual mode and takes you through steps to increase your knowledge and ability to deliver a quality photograph.
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FlashFlavor features a behind the scenes look at Madison Park
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DIY Remote Controlled Dimmer for hot lights
Here’s the exact unit I purchased from Home Depot, even though they don’t have it on their site. This unit I saw on Amazon, might be easier to not have to do any wiring, and you would be able to leave it in any outlet or be able to separate your outlets further! Heath Zenith Wireless Kit with Indoor Plug-In Receiver, White, and Remote Control, Black #RH-6008-WH5-A Either way you’re only out $35 for a gadget that will allow you to control the light output from your camera position and during shooting without moving.Here’s the link to the video on Cutframe.tv
I’m using standard halogen work lights ($10 at any hardware store), and a Lowel Pro light focusable spot light.
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