Future memories

How To Change Eye Colour In SONY VEGAS PRO

2012-01-23T05:59:00.001-08:00

Sony Vegas Tutorial : Color what you want

2012-01-23T05:56:00.001-08:00

Drop in a Drop Shadow in Photoshop

2012-01-09T04:57:00.001-08:00

Nikon D4 a fost prezentat oficial

2012-01-06T05:05:00.001-08:00

Nikon D4 key specifications:

16.2 million pixel FX format sensor
ISO 100-12800, expandable 50-204,800
Full HD video recording at 30/25/24fps
720p HD video recording at 60/50fps
3.2 inch 921k dot resolution rear LCD screen
Up to 11fps shooting
51 AF points

http://www.techradar.com/news/photography-video-capture/cameras/nikon-introduces-d4-1052002

http://www.clubulfoto.com/nikon-d4-prezentat-oficial/

http://www.nikonisti.ro/articole/nikon-d4-cel-mai-performant-aparat-foto-dslr-din-lume-si-noul-obiectiv-af-s-nikkor-85mm-f1-8g/806

7 Free Firefox Plugins for Photography Addicts

2011-01-06T06:54:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipediahttp://www.lightstalking.com/photography-firefox-plugins

Photoshop tutorial - how to create amazing black and white photos

2011-01-06T06:52:00.001-08:00

THE MAN WHO SHOT THE SIXTIES

2011-01-06T06:51:00.000-08:00

THE MAN WHO SHOT THE SIXTIES from CHRIS DUFFY on Vimeo.
Duffy together with David Bailey and Terence Donovan is recognized as one of the innovators of “documentary" fashion photography, a style which revolutionized fashion imagery and furthermore the fashion industry. So influential were their images that in 1962 the Sunday Times dubbed Duffy, Bailey & Donovan the “Terrible Trio” and Norman Parkinson further added to their notoriety by naming them "The Black Trinity". Together they dominated the London photographic scene, constantly pushing each other to new heights. Even socially they would spend many hours together talking, living and breathing photography.

35 Conceptual Black and White Photography – Concepts captured!!

2010-11-30T06:54:00.001-08:00

http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/conceptual-black-white-photography/

Catalogue photography

2010-11-08T09:27:00.000-08:00

Companies have used catalogues for years to promote their products. For many it can be the primary medium in which to showcase their product range. An important part of catalogues are the photos used to visually display the product and its features. This lets potential customers see what the product looks like and can help them decide whether to buy them.

With this in mind, it is imperative that catalogue photography presents the product in a way that makes it appealing to its intended audience.

Product photo captured by Mark Thode (Click Image to See More From Mark Thode)

Catalogue photography can include food, fashion or everyday products such as groceries and books. However, which ever product you’re shooting, there are some important tips to follow so you can transform your shots into professional-looking catalogue photos:

Lighting – It’s vital you get this right in catalogue photography as poor lighting can make the image look amateur and the product look inferior. Determining the right lighting will depend on what you’re photographing. Organic food, for instance, often looks better in natural light so shooting outside, preferably on an overcast day when there’s not so much glare, will create a softer effect and help you get clearer shots. On the other hand if you were shooting beach fashion then a sunny day would be more appropriate in helping to create the right scene. A camera’s built-in flash can give off unnatural light and unwanted shadows so make sure you switch it off at the outset.

Background – You’ll need a clear focus on the product so choose a background that enhances it. A busy or detailed background will draw attention away from the product and its features. Using a white or clear background, or turning your camera to aperture mode to get a greater depth of field will vastly improve your photos and really make the product stand out.

"Product Shot" captured by Sean Nel (Click Image to See More From Sean Nel)

Camera equipment – Tripods give you stability and prevent any blur in catalogue photography – especially if you shoot the product up close. For close up shots, it’s recommended to use a special macro lens which is specifically designed for this purpose, letting you get in much closer than normal lenses do.

Composition – To achieve the ideal composition arrange your product in a position that gets the viewers attention. Use the rule of thirds principle which is based on dividing your image into nine equal squares and then add your product to one of the four points where the lines intersect. This helps create a well-balanced shot and lets the viewers eyes move naturally through the image. Most cameras’ LCD screens have a function which lets you divide up the image into these nine squares.

Post editing – There’s always more you can do to enhance your image. Photo editing software, such as Photoshop, can improve various elements of catalogue photography by letting you enrich the colours, crop the image more closely around the product, remove any imperfections from the photo or adjust the exposure.

"Blue" captured by Wesley Villarica (Click Image to See More From Wesley Villarica)

There are many different ways you can achieve professional-looking catalogue photos and for many it comes down to experimenting and experience. However, successfully mastering the basic techniques of catalogue photography will help turn your product images into sellable products that customers will want to buy.

About the Author
Neil Adams is Managing Director of Powerhouse, a UK creative commercial photography company based in Leeds. Powerhouse offers a range of commercial photography services including advertising, lifestyle, food, pack shot and catalogue photography.

http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/catalogue-product-photography-tips/

Changing Hair Color in Pictures

2010-11-08T09:19:00.001-08:00

So you want to try out new hair colors? Lets start!

Open up a photograph - I chose a beautiful Asian girl! =D

Choose a soft edge brush.

Press "Q" to enter in quick mask mode. Then mark the hair area with the brush. You do not have to be very accurate around the edges.

Press “Q” again to leave the quick mask mode.

Now we have a selection around the hair, however we need is the selection in the hair.

To do so, go to Select > Invert.

Now we dye the hair. Create a new Fill Layer by going to:

Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color

Under the basic properties of the new fill layer, change the mode to Soft Light, then click OK.

Next you pick the new hair color . For the example, I choose red.

And walla, done!

Source http://psd.tu-torial.com/photoshop-tutorials/changing-hair-color-in-pictures/

How to fake reflections in Photoshop

2010-11-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

http://improvephotos.net/fake-reflections-photoshop/

Desaturated Film Style Photos

2010-11-08T08:37:00.001-08:00

Final Image

Original Image

How To

Step One

Open your image and before anything, double click on the Background layer over at the layers palette to unlock it.

Step Two

To get that medium format film effect we need to turn the rectangular image to a square. Do this by going to Image > Canvas Size. I chose to do 6.944 x 6.944. By doing this instead of readjusting the image size straight away, we can better control the crop later on.

Step Three

Since the canvas size is now smaller than our original image, scale it down using free transform (Command + t). And crop it however you wish.

Step Four

Now it's time to get that faded look. Go to create new fill or adjustment layer at the bottom of your layers palette, select Exposure and adjust according to your preference. The trick is to bring up the Offset and bring down the Gamma Correction a little.

Step Five

Go back to create new fill or adjustment layer at the bottom of your layers palette, select Brightness/Contrast this time. Check the Use Legacy box, bring down the Contrast and boost up the Brightness to your liking. This softens the image.

Step Six

Again return to create new fill or adjustment layer, select Photo Filter. Adjust according to the feel you want your image to have. I wanted a cold feel for this one.

Step Seven

Adjusting the Curves is just a personal preference of mine. Basically this is just a lot of experimentation and adjustment layers. Go to town with the adjustment layers option. Seriously, adjust layers to your heart's content, people. Most of the time I don't even know what I'm doing. I've found that sometimes you go in with something in mind but get something really different to what you wanted and really cool in the end, so just play around with it a little.

Step Eight

After that I just started repeating steps. Try adding some color fills like I did here (Create new fill or adjustment layer > Solid Color). Set the blend mode to Overlay and bring down the Opacity to around 30-40%. You can even go all out and add some fancy schmancy textures in there if you want. Maybe even some noise to reproduce that film grain effect. Have fun!

Source ; http://abduzeedo.com/photography-quick-tips-desaturated-film-style-photos

Capturing The Smoke – Amazing Smoke Photography Tutorial

2010-11-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

Capturing The Smoke – Amazing Smoke Photography Tutorial

Everyone has seen smoke in various forms. For some, smoke is an allergy and for some, smoke is an inspiration. If you belong to the latter category, welcome to the world of smoke photography. Today, we are going to tell you how you can make awesome creations from the very ordinary looking smoke that you encounter in your day to day life. But before that, have a look on what exactly we’re talking about. Here are some of the photographs that you’ll be able to take till the end of this tutorial:

Exited? So are we! So let’s take a look on what all would you need to get started:

Camera: Obviously, the most important thing. However, you have to use a camera that offers manual control over Aperture and Shutter Speed. Control over ISO is an added plus.
Incense stick and holder: You must have used incense sticks in ceremonies in your home. Here’ we’ll use then as the source of producing smoke. (Please note, you can’t use cigeratte in this experiment for obvious reasons). We would also be needing a holder to hold the sticks.
A Background: Background is very important. Make sure you have something black to make a dark background. A large black cloth or a big black char paper would do.
Tripod: A tripod is also required so that there are no accidental shakes while shooting the photograph.

SETTING UP THE STAGE

This is another important step in capturing the photographs as this only will decide the quality of photographs that you’ll get. This is somewhat tricky and you have to follow the following steps to make it work.

Put up your black background Place the incense stick about 3-4ft away from the background
Place the flash/strobe to the right (or left) of the incense about 1-2ft away
If using a reflector, place it on the opposite side, facing directly at the incense stick
Place the camera on a tripod in front of the incense about 2-3ft away

On a full note, here is a schematic diagram on how the whole thing should be set up:

Photo credits

Okay. You got it right? Great! If you have set everything up, you should be looking something like this:

Photo Credits

THE CAMERA SETTINGS

After you’re done with setting up the stage, it’s time for some action. But wait, you have to do some manual settings in your camera for that. Otherwise, you’ll end up with either very weird shots or nothing at all! Here’s what you have to do in camera settings:

Set up a fast shutter speed – You need to have a faster shutter because smoke is faster than your reaction time. And to capture it, your camera shutter should respond quickly.
Small Aperture – This would allow a greater Depth of Field (DoF) in your photographs.
Low ISO – This setting is to make sure your photographs don’t turn out to be grainy. A low ISO means better photographs.
Light – You need lots of it. With a combination of fast shutter speed, small aperture and low ISO, there is not enough light to expose the shot. Therefore, the smoke will need to be lit up appropriately.

FINAL WORDS

And you’re good to go. Now you can extend your creativity and shoot some amazing smoke photographs. Feel free to play with your camera settings, the stage, the lights and the smoke. You’ll need a lot of patience and it may happen you can’t get a single satisfactory shot in almost hundred clicks. But don’t lose hope. You’ll finally get that amazing smoke image which you always dreamed of. All the best

If you have any questions or suggestions, you can drop in @rish404 or at my Blog

source : http://www.designzzz.com/capturing-the-smoke-amazing-smoke-photography-tutorial/

A Perfect Lie in Photoshop™: Tutorial

2010-11-08T08:34:00.001-08:00

Tilt shifting miniature photography with Photoshop

2010-11-08T08:25:00.001-08:00

This Photoshop tutorial will teach you about simulating the tilt-shift lens effect that is used mostly in photography. The goal of this technique is to achieve a really unique feel to the image as everything is miniatured or modeled. A method that tricks the eye in a good way since the image is very pleasant to the eye and give the photo a real kick to the upper level photography.

What is a tilt shift lens?

A tilt shift lens is exactly as it’s name says. It tilts and shifts to deform the focus which creates a blurry image. It is used to point out a object in the photo with focusing it and making it sharp or hiding unwanted objects by blurring the part of the image out of focus. It also has a effect that when taken from the above angle, everything looks miniature, small and unreal. It’s used mostly on dSLR’s. With the help of Photoshop and some effects we can manipulate the photo so it looks as it was taken with a tilt-shift lens. Let’s start.

Tilt shift effect Photoshop tutorial

So here’s the tilt shift effect. For this tutorial you will need:

Adobe Photoshop
a image that is shot from above down on people/trees/cars etc.
some time

First open your image in Photoshop. For this tilt shift tutorial i will be using the daily free one from IStockPhoto.com. Go there and download the big version of the image for free.

Here is what it look like:

Now you will nee to duplicate the image and hide the original bottom one. On the above layer, add a mask using the mask button in the layer window.

Select the Gradient tool and use these settings for it:

Now draw in the mask with the gradient tool so you get a similar look like the image below. The transparent part will be sharp after we finish, so have that in mind when you work on your own photos.

We will now apply a filter but first make sure you have the image selected in the layers window(a white square over the image, not the layer mask), then go to Filter -> Blur -> Lens blur…. This will bring up a filter interface.

Now i’ll explain the settings for this interface. For the tilt shift effect you need to select the Depth map source to Layer mask. You can play width the blur focal distance to get a different effect or just leave it at 0.

The iris is the shape of the aperture in the lens pf a dSLR photo camera. It’s usually the Hexagon so go with this option and play with other settings until you find something you like.

Specular highlights are the hexagon dots the iris makes when the image is blurred. Pretty nice effect that really simulates the real camera lens. The brightness should be low and the threshold should be really high. This settings depend on the image you apply this effect to so start experimenting at threshold 250 and lowering it and brightness 0 and going up. Don’t overdue it though, keep it clean.

Noise is the setting you usually don’t want, it simulates errors that are made when using high ISO setting on a digital photo camera,use 0 here.

That’s it, hit OK and see what you get. Also delete or hide the Mask of the image layer. This is what it should look like.

And these are the buildings at 100%. They already look like they were made of cardboard and painted. But the next step will make that feel even better, we’re going to adjust the colors.

We will use 3 adjustment layers. The first one is Hue/Saturation. Bring up the Saturation, but not too much, around 20-30 is usually ok.

The next one is Levels. This helps bring the picture a better exposure etc. Use the lover triangles to define the histogram like below:

The last one is Curves which will bring up the contrast more. Make the S line like the image shows.

Try not to overdue everything and keep it balanced. Now we’re done! Here are the final images, the original one, the one with til-shift effect and the one with the tilt-shift and adjustments layers.

As you may notice, this effect is best when you have buildings etc. so crop the image there for best results.

Now start enjoying the little things in life and don’t forget to subscribe to my rss feed! ^^

http://www.darjanpanic.com/tutorials/tilt-shifting-miniature-photography-with-photoshop/

Add Dynamic Lighting to a Flat Photograph

2010-11-08T08:24:00.000-08:00

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

In this tutorial, I will show you how to spice up a fairly dull and flat photograph. It’s very easy and fast! Go from flat photo to a uniquely lit style.

Source Photos

For this tutorial, we’ll need two photos that I took. You can download them to follow along. These are my photos: castle photo and clouds photo.

Step 1

First of all, my apologies for this step. I waited for a good 20 minutes but that car didn’t move, so I had to take the photo with it!

Anyway, just use the Patch Tool (J) to remove the car and the Clone Stamp Tool (S) to recreate the pattern of the bricks where it used to be.

If you’ve never used the Patch Tool, there are a couple of ways to use it. First, make a selection as you would if you were using the Lasso Tool, then click inside the area and drag with your mouse. Depending on whether you are using Source or Destination as your checked option you will either move the image inside the selection, or move the whole selection around. The Patch Tool will blend-in the area you’ve chosen when you let go. You can also use patterns and transparency. All in all, it’s a great tool.

Step 2

Once the van has been removed, apply Filter > Render > Lighting Effects to make the light come from the top right.

Step 3

With the tool that you prefer, create a selection of the part that you want to hide. For example, I used the Pen Tool (P) to select the sky and the buildings around the castle. With the selection active, add a Layer Mask.

Step 4

Duplicate the background layer, desaturate it with Ctrl+Shift+U, apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with 4-pixel Radius, and set the Blending Mode for the layer to Overlay.

Step 5

Now we need a photo with clouds and the rays of the sun coming from the right. I used this photo of mine that was perfect for this situation.

Send it to the back of the other layers.

Then duplicate it and set the copy layer Blending Mode to Lighter Color.

Step 6

Duplicate again the original background photo (Layer 1) and put the this new layer below the Layer 1 copy.

Set the Blending Mode to Multiply.

Step 7

Now turn off the visibility of the two castle layers, go to the Layer 1 copy, and merge the visible layers into a new layer with Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E.

Then desaturate it with Ctrl+Shift+U, set the Blending Mode to Overlay, and the Opacity to 50%.

Step 8

Make a new layer on the top of the other.

With a large, white, soft brush that matches the size of the light of the sun, just make a round spot.

Then apply the Luce filter that you can download free or use the previous tutorial about Lighting Through Clouds here on Psdtuts+, to make this light coming through the clouds. Set the Blending Mode to Overlay.

This is an example with black background to demonstrate the effect.

Step 9

Just Burn the dark side of the castle and Dodge the light part of it with a large, soft brush. By doing this, we make it seem as if the light is coming from the clouds and hitting the right side of the castle, leaving the other side in darkness.

At this point we’re almost done, but the image is overall quite dark and our blur earlier has left it slightly too blurry, so we’ll fix that next.

Step 10

To finish the image, create a new layer above the rest and go to Image > Apply Image, use the settings "Merged", "RGB" and "Normal" for blending. This will create a new layer above the rest holding a copy of the image. Set this layer to Screen and about 70% Opacity. Then go through each layer and apply Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask and use the settings Amount: 250% and Radius .2px (Use a larger radius for larger images). This should sharpen the image back up to give us a good final result.

Click on the image below to see a larger version:

source : http://psd.tutsplus.com/photo-effects-tutorials/add-dynamic-lighting-to-a-flat-photograph/

Glisten In The Sunshine

2010-11-08T08:23:00.000-08:00

The final result of this tutorial:

The first you open the picture below

Name stock is "layer 1", press Ctrl+J to duplicate layer 1
Choose "layer 1 copy" and press Ctrl+B to open Color Balance, set properties like this:

Change blend mode of "layer 1 copy" to Screen

Open this texture

Put the layer of that texture over "layer 1 copy" and then change blend mode of texture to Soft Light

Press Ctrl+J "layer 1" and you have "layer 1 copy 2", change blend mode to Overlay, opacity 50%

Continue to use this texture (remember to put it on the top of layer palette at this time)

Change blend mode of texture to Screen. Add mask layer to erase unnecessary areas as shown below

Now create a new layer, fill it with original black.

Go to Filter-Render-Lens Flare

Move it to the place as shown below

Change blend mode to Lighten, opacity 85%

You've done!

Here is the final result

http://www.photoshop-garden.com/view_tut.php?id=68

Add A Realistic Rainbow To A Photo In Photoshop

2010-11-08T08:21:00.001-08:00

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/rainbow/

Improving Wedding Photography

2010-11-08T08:20:00.001-08:00

Basic exposure blending in Photoshop

2010-11-08T08:18:00.000-08:00

One problem you can encounter in photography is lack of dynamic range. The dynamic range is the range of light levels that can be seen from black to white. You will often find that while a photo has well exposed shadows and mid-tones, the light parts of the image are far to light or even blown out (pure white). On the other hand you may have exposed for the highlights in which case the shadows will look overly dark and underexposed. The problem this leaves is that what you see with your eye is certainly not what you get using your camera. The solution here is to take multiple exposures and blend them together to increase the dynamic range of the shot. You can use as many shots as you like but for the purposes of this tutorial it will be done using 3 shots.

There are 2 ways to get the multiple exposures. The first is exposure bracketing. This is when you set your camera up to take multiple shots of the same scene at different exposures. How you would do this depends on your camera. Many DSLRs and also advanced point and shoots have an option for this to be done automatically. You just hold the button down and the camera will take 3 shots, each time adjusting the exposure. You can normally set how much to do this by. If you set it to +/- 1 then it will take 3 shots, one at the original exposure, one a 1 stop above this and one at 1 stop below.

If your camera does not have this option then you will need to use a manual or semi manual mode to do this. For example you can use aperture priority, take the shot then use the exposure compensation to create the other 2 shots needed.

The second method is to use just one shot and create the exposures manually in post processing. This method is technically worse as you aren’t really increasing the dynamic range, you are just extracting what is already there a lot better than the camera can. For this method shooting in RAW is really a must because the jpegs just don’t have enough information left in them to achieve decent results. It can be done but you are much more likely to encounter problems regarding IQ and unrecoverable highlight detail.

Both methods have plus and minus points. The advantage of exposure bracketing is that you get 3 shots full of information. This will mean you actually increase the dynamic range and for the most part will give you better results. The downside is that a tripod or place to keep your camera perfectly still is a must. As well as this you need your scene to be static as any movements will be shown through the 3 images. Method 2 gets rounds this option because only 1 shot was used. Its downside is that the dynamic range isn’t actually being increased, you are merely extracting every last bit of information out of the shot. Saying this, the results can be perfectly decent in many cases and you would be hard pushed to tell the difference.

Seeing as I don’t tend to carry a tripod around with me I use method 2. If I had more free time to do so then I would use method 1 more often but I find method 2 means I spend more time enjoying my environment and stopping to take a picture doesn’t take so long I end up annoying the wife.

So which ever method you use you will end up with 3 exposures that need to be blended together using masks. If using method 1 then just open all three shots into Photoshop. If using method 2 then you first need to create your 3 exposures. To do this you open up the shot in your RAW editor (I currently use DPP but any will work). Then I make 3 versions of the RAW at different exposures. You can use the brightness slider in DPP or the exposure slider in ACR to do this. Then they need to be transferred into Photoshop. A safe way to do this is to save each exposure as a TIFF file because it is a loss-less file type.

Exposure 1. This was the original shot. The sunset looks great but the rest looks rather dark.

Exposure 2. Using DPP I increased the brightness. This made the blue parts of the sky and the water near the sunset better exposed.

Exposure 3. This was made by increasing the brightness even further. The sand and wave at the bottom and the very tops of the sky look a lot better here.

Now all 3 exposures need to be opened into the same document (page) in Photoshop.

With them stacked so that the darkest exposure is at the bottom and lightest at the top you can now add a layer mask to the top and middle layers.

Now make the top layer hidden by clicking the eye symbol.

You can now use the mask on the middle layer to lighten the sky above the sunset. Your mask should look like the image bellow. To view a mask like this hold down the Alt key and click on the mask.

This mask will bring out the well exposed sky that the second exposure offers. Now you can reveal the top layer again (click the square where eye symbol lives).

Now you can edit this layers mask to show the tips of the sky as well as the sea and sand closer to the shore.

You will now have 3 layers. With one being used as a base the other 2 have used masks to show off only the parts of the shot that we need.

The result is a single image with a very balanced exposure and only the best parts of each exposure being used.

Blending while Exposing for the highlights and using advanced masking.

I have used this method for several other landscape shots I have made. In the below 2 images I used a single shot that had the best exposure for recovering the highlight detail. The key is to get a shot that is over exposed to the point that the sky (brightest part) can still be recovered. This will give you the greatest amount of detail in the shot. While exposing for the highlights and recovering the shadow details can work (as in the tutorial), if you can do this the other way round the results will often look better. These shots also used a more complex masking technique and only 2 exposures. Both these issues will be covered in a future tutorial.

source : http://www.digidiversity.co.uk/2010/08/basic-exposure-blending-in-photoshop/

Digital Photography 1 on 1: Episode 10

2010-11-08T08:16:00.001-08:00

Photoshop™ Quick Tip

2010-11-08T08:10:00.000-08:00

Remove a Person From a Photo With Photoshop CS5’s Content Aware Feature

2010-11-08T08:06:00.000-08:00

With the launch of the new Adobe Suite of programs comes the long awaited Adobe Photoshop CS5. Packed with new features to speed up your workflow it truly is the most advanced edition of Photoshop to date. One of the new features we will be looking at today is called Content Aware. This feature allows you to quickly fill in a selection with surrounding content making it look like a part of the original image. In this case we will choose to remove a person from a photo, this can be done in less than five minutes. With the additional image enhancements this tutorial will take you less than 10 minutes to complete.

Original Image

Before we begin, download the image that we will be working with. As you can see, there are two individuals in this photo. In today’s tutorial, we will use Photoshop CS5′s Content Aware Feature to remove the man on the left.

Step 1

Using the content aware tool on different images produces different results. An image with a gradient background such as the sky in this image is quite tricky to work with. Open beach.jpg in Photoshop.

Step 2

We are extracting the person on the left from this photo. Using the Pen Tool, (P) Begin by making a path around the subject. The nice thing about using content aware is that you do not have to be exact when making a selection. In fact, do your best not to cut too close to the subject.

Notice in the image below how far I am drawing the path from the subject. Try to keep this distance all the way around. If you go too close, Content Aware will take pixels from the subject. If you cut too far it will take pixels from the woman on the right.

Step 3

Once you complete the path around the subject, turn it into a selection. This can be done by right clicking on the path and selecting Make Selection.

A dialog box will pop-up, make sure the feathering is set to 0px. Leave all other options as they are. Click OK.

Step 4

Now we have an active selection around our subject. In this step we will make the subject disappear from the image using Content Aware Fill. To do this, go to Edit > Fill.

A dialog box will pop-up, make sure the Content Aware option is selected. Blending mode is set to normal and the opacity is at 100%. Hit OK.

You can cancel the selection at any time by making another selection or just clicking anywhere else on the page with any selection tool.

Step 5

In this step we will remove some of the other artifacts in the image using the same process. The content aware tool did miss a spot where the subject’s foot originally was. To do this, draw a rectangle around the area using the rectangle selection tool. And use the content aware fill as we have done in the previous steps.

Now let’s remove the people towards the right of the image. Create a rectangle selection around them and use the steps we just demonstrated to remove them.

Step 6 (Optional)

Using the Crop Tool (C) lets crop the image so that the focus is drawn to the woman jumping. To do this, just crop out an area of the image that you would like to keep. Beware of the shadow that is left behind from the person that we have removed. You can use the Content Aware feature to remove this shadow but I have decided to crop it out altogether.

Click the checkmark at the top to keep this area. Photoshop will discard the content that is outside of your crop area.

Step 7 (Optional)

In this step we will enhance the photo by giving it a more vibrant look. The colors currently appear somewhat dull. There are many ways to accomplish this but we will use Color Curves. To do this, go to Image > Adjustments > Curves, (Cmd + M). A dialog box will pop-up and we will select each of the channels, R, G, B and work on them separately. Select the Red channel from the dropdown menu.

We are going to make two points on the graph. One in the bottom of the top right square, and one in the top of the bottom left square.

Once you have made these points, make sure you enter the values for each. For the top right point the Output value is 199, and the input value is 185. For the bottom point the values are 56 and 68, respectively. You can play around with these setting and adjust them to whatever you feel is appropriate. Repeat this for each of the colors, Green and Blue.

Final Image

Your image should now look something like the one seen below. As you can see, we have removed the man on her left with very little effort using Photoshop CS5′s new Content Aware Feature.

Source : http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/photo-effects-tutorials/quick-tip-remove-a-person-from-a-photo-with-photoshop-cs5%E2%80%99s-content-aware-feature/

10 Steps To Taking Your Own Simple Stock Photos

2010-11-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

Good, Simple Stock Photography

What we’re going to cover today is how to create a simple high-key photograph. High key, means a photography of a subject on a predominantly white background. Why do we want the subject on a predominantly white background?

Well aside from the fact that most content areas where you might want to use a stock photograph have a white background, they also make your subject very easy to cut out completely using something like the magic wand tool in Photoshop. Being able to cut your subject out means that you can transpose it onto a transparent background, which can then be used absolutely anywhere within a design. Handy!

What You’ll Need

The first thing you’ll need is obviously a camera. Now, a Digital SLR will work best for this but you should still be able to use a high-end digital compact camera (such as the Panasonic Lumix) and achieve very good results. Alternatively, if you know someone who does own a Digital SLR, then now would be a good time to beg, borrow, or steal it from them.

The next main thing we’re going to need is light, lots of it. The ideal component here is an external flash for a Digital SLR but bright lamps, especially desk lamps with adjustable heads, will work very well too. If you do use lamps then you want the brightest bulb you can find, not one of those dim yellow ones.

It pretty much goes without saying that you’re going to need some space for this, so your cramped office may not be the best location. Getting outdoors into the sunlight would be ideal if you have a garden or maybe some sort of bachelor pad with a roof terrace.

Next you’ll need a (clean!) plain white bedsheet, table cloth, curtain, or anything else similar. This is going to serve as the backdrop for the shots. The cleaner and whiter it is the better, as this will be the easiest to work with later on.

You’ll also need some sort of support to drape your backdrop over. Modified cardboard boxes can work very well for this, as we’ll look at in a moment, however pretty much anything that can support your backdrop both horizontally and vertically in an L shape should do the trick.

Of course you’ll also need a subject, the thing which you want to photograph. Doing things the cheap and cheerful way like this means that you can’t select anything too big. Your subject needs to be able to sit on top of your backdrop and be totally surrounded by it.

Finally, you’ll need a copy of Adobe Photoshop. CS3 or higher should be fine, we’re not going to be doing anything too fancy.

Step 1

So the first thing we’re going to do is set up our backdrop. Essentially you want the sheet to be partially on the floor, then curve up and hang from something vertically. This means when we place the subject on top of the sheet it will be white underneath and white behind.

Make sure you set this up somewhere with a lot of light, remember the roof garden which we discussed. I used a towel for this tutorial, which works fine but does leave a littl ebit of texture just underneath the subject.

If you want to be a bit more fancy about it, you can grab a cardboard box, a piece of white card, cut some bits out of your sheet, and create a light tent like this:

Step 2

Now we’re going to to arrange the lights, ideally you want to have two lights but three would be even better. Set the brightest light which you have to point at the backdrop.

Then set the other light to point at where the subject will go. If you built the fancy little light tent depicted above, then you want to put both lights outside it, pointing in through the side panels.

If you have a third light source, then try to find a way of placing this above where your subject will go, pointing down.

Step 3

Next we’re going to place our subject. You want to put the subject as close to the center of the backdrop as possible and in line with the light sources. This step was pretty easy, wasn’t it? Let’s move on!

Step 4

Now it’s time to do some test shots, so grab your camera and get snapping. You can experiment with using the built in flash on your camera as well as the other lights but the chances are that it will create a nasty dark shadow around the subject – we don’t want that!

The images don’t need to look perfect by any means, what we’re aiming for here is simply a sold block of white behind the subject which is as smooth as possible.

Step 5

In order to get the best out of the setup which we’ve created, try photographing from different angles, move the lights around a little and adjust the backdrop for smoothness.

Keep tweaking the setup a little bit at a time until you’re getting the best images which you can.

Step 6

Now that you’ve got everything working at peak performance (which is very much a relative term), it’s time to take your full set of shots. Feel free to swap several subjects in and out, preferably of things which you think might come in handy as stock photographs later.

Tip: A good photo of a cup of coffee in a nice mug can come in handy all over the place, especially on blogs.

Step 7

Once you’re happy with your photos, or just tired of taking them, pack everything up and download the photos on to your computer.

Delete all the test shots and the ones which are out of focus or have poor lighting. Try to crop down to a small final set, otherwise it will take forever to post-process them all.

Step 8

Now, open up the first photo which you want to work with in Photoshop. We’re going to start out by doing three things: tone, contrast, and curves. From the Photoshop menu, select:

Image > Auto Tone (or ‘Auto Levels’ in older copies of Photoshop)

Then

Image > Auto Contrast

Then

Image > Adjustments > Curves

Recreate this shape:

Step 9

Now we’re going to make the white in the background… whiter! This is where it doesn’t matter if your lighting was perfect when you took the photographs, because most of that is about to be fixed.

In the Photoshop menu, go to: Image > Adjustments > Selective Color

Select White from the dropdown menu, and move the slider for Black all the way to the left, -100%. Press OK, then do the same thing again, but this time select ‘Neutrals’ instead of White, and drop that one down about half way. You need to use your own discretion here: you want to get the white background as pale as possible but you don’t want to totally drain your subject of color.

Step 10

Now if your whites still aren’t perfect, don’t worry too much, we’re going to clean that up now. The final step is to simply take a soft white brush and run it around the image to iron out those last little kinks. The brush is the least precise tool, so ideally we want to do as little work with it as possible. It should be used as the final touch rather than the main process.

Final Images

So there we have it, our final images. They’re not perfect but it’s pretty high quality for something that cost you no money at all and didn’t take very long to produce.

Now that you know the technique, you’ll also be able to improve on it the next time that you try it out. In particular try different (brighter) lights, try creating a little light box if you didn’t do that this time round. Of course if you really wanted to bump it up a notch then you could even get a an external flash unit for some serious power.

This post was authored exclusively for WDD by John O’Nolan, a seasoned web designer, writer and entrepreneur based in Surrey in the United Kingdom. John loves to talk to people, so why not @JohnONolan on twitter too?

original article on http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/11/10-steps-to-taking-your-own-simple-stock-photos/

Dual View Photo Editing In Photoshop

2010-11-08T07:59:00.000-08:00

Written By Steve Patterson

If it's true that two heads are better than one, it's also true that two views of the same image are better than one, especially when it comes to photo editing. In this Photoshop tutorial, we'll look at how to give ourselves two different views of the same image by opening it in two separate document windows, each set to a different zoom level, making it much easier to judge the effect our edits are having on the overall image. This is really more of a Photoshop tip than an actual photo editing technique, but it's so incredibly useful and I find myself using it so often that it really deserves to be included in with our other photo editing tutorials.

Want an easier way to follow along with our tutorials? Download them as printable PDFs!

Have you ever found yourself zoomed in close to a specific area in a photo, maybe brightening someone's eyes or whitening their teeth, or you may have been panning around an image looking for minor skin blemishes or dust marks on an antique photo, and you're having trouble judging how effective your edits really are because you're too close to the image? Wouldn't it be great if you could see the entire photo as you're working no matter how zoomed in you are? Sure, you could always zoom in to make a few edits, zoom out to the 100% view size to judge the results, zoom back in to make a few more edits, zoom out, back and forth, on and on, but who wants to do that, especially when there's a much better and easier way! Just open the same image in a second document window!

Here's a photo I currently have open in Photoshop. I'm using Photoshop CS4 here but this tip works with any version:

The original image open in Photoshop.

Let's say I wanted to work on the woman's eyes, either lightening them or changing their color. I'll need to zoom in on her eyes, so I'll grab the Zoom Tool from the Tools palette and drag a rectangular selection around her eyes. When I release my mouse button, Photoshop zooms in on the area I selected:

Drag a selection with the Zoom Tool around the area you need to zoom in on.

The problem is, I'd still like to be able to see the rest of the photo as I'm working so I can get a better sense of how the changes I'm making are impacting the overall image. As I mentioned, I could zoom in and out as I'm working, but a much better solution would be to open a second view of the image in a separate document window. To do that, simply go up to the Window menu at the top of the screen and choose Arrange. You'll see an option called New Window for, followed by the name of the image you currently have open. In my case, the name of my image is "knitted_cap.jpg", so my option shows up as "New Window for knitted_cap.jpg":

Go to Window > Arrange > New Window for (insert the name of your image here).

This opens the exact same image in a second document window. If you're working in Photoshop CS4 as I am here, the default behavior of Photoshop CS4 is to open new windows as a series of tabbed documents. Go up to the new Application Bar at the top of the screen, click on the Arrange Documents icon, then click on the 2 Up two column document layout:

In Photoshop CS4, select the "2 Up" two column layout from the Arrange Documents option.

In Photoshop CS3 and earlier, choosing "Window > Arrange > New Window for (name of your image)" opens the image in a second floating document window. To place the document windows side by side each other, simply click on the tab area at the top of the document windows and drag them into position. Or, go up to the Window menu, choose Arrange, and then choose Tile Vertically:

In Photoshop CS3 or earlier, go to Window > Arrange > Tile Vertically.

Whichever version of Photoshop you're using, you should now see both document windows side by side showing the exact same image. The only difference is that both windows are set to a different zoom level:

Two views at two different zoom levels of the exact same photo.

Many people get tricked here into thinking that they've just opened a second copy of the image, but we actually have the exact same image appearing in both document windows. We've given ourselves two separate views of the same image, but it is the same image in both document windows. If you think of how your eyes work, each eye sees an object from a different angle but both eyes are seeing the same object. With our document windows, each one is showing us a different view of the image but it's the same image in both windows.

Since both windows are showing the same photo, anything you do in one of them will be instantly reflected in the other. As a quick example, I'll desaturate the image by going up to the Image menu, choosing Adjustments, and then choosing Desaturate:

Desaturating the image is a quick way to convert a photo to black and white, although certainly not the best way.

This instantly removes all color from the image, leaving me with a black and white photo. Notice that regardless of which document window I had selected, both windows are showing the desaturated version, and that's because both are showing the exact same photo:

Anything you do in one document window instantly appears in the other.

Just for fun, I'll grab Photoshop's History Brush from the Tools palette (I could also press the letter Y on my keyboard to select it with the shortcut):

Selecting the History Brush from the Tools palette.

The History Brush is like Photoshop's version of a time machine, allowing us to paint previous history states back in to the image. For example, I can restore the original color of the woman's cap by painting over it with the History Brush. I'll select the document window on the left (the zoomed in view) and begin painting over her cap with the brush. Even though I'm painting in the document window on the left, both document windows are showing the results of what I'm doing:

The History Brush paints previous history states back in to the image.

Hopefully you now have a sense of just how useful this dual view mode can be when editing images, and the nice thing is, it doesn't require an expensive dual monitor setup. Simply open the image in a second document window, do all of your editing work in the original window, zooming and panning as needed, and leave the second window set to either the Actual Pixels or Fit on Screenview modes, both of which can be accessed from the View menu at the top of the screen. Be sure to check out our full Zooming and Panning in Photoshop tutorial in our Photoshop Basics section for lots more information on how to navigate around images in Photoshop.

article from http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/dual-view/

70+ Examples Of Beautiful Night Photography

2010-11-03T08:32:00.001-07:00

http://www.webdesignbooth.com/beautiful-night-photography/

Wedding Video Pueblo Bonito Los Cabos

2010-11-03T08:31:00.001-07:00

Great Migration - BEHIND-THE-SCENES — FILMMAKER INTERVIEWS

2010-10-27T14:06:00.001-07:00

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/great-migrations-behind-the-scenes-crew

30 Most Amazing Shots Captured Photography in 2010

2010-10-25T06:56:00.001-07:00

http://smashinghub.com/most-amazing-shots-captured-photography-in-2010.htm

Photo Tips And Tricks - Night Photography

2010-10-25T06:46:00.001-07:00

http://www.photopoly.net/night-photography/

Beauty of Sun Photography with 60+ Sunrise and Sunset Photos

2010-10-25T06:34:00.002-07:00

http://www.onextrapixel.com/2010/01/07/beauty-of-sun-photography-with-60-sunrise-and-sunset-photos/

20 Wonderful Full Moon Photographs

2010-10-25T06:34:00.000-07:00

http://photoity.com/20-wonderful-full-moon-photographs/

20 Wonderful Full Moon Photographs

2010-10-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

http://photoity.com/20-wonderful-full-moon-photographs/

This Damn Beautiful Autumn – Fall in Photographs

2010-10-25T06:23:00.001-07:00

http://daddu.net/this-damn-beautiful-autumn-fall-in-photographs/

22 Absolutely Brilliant Birds Photography Examples

2010-10-25T06:22:00.000-07:00

http://photoity.com/22-absolutely-brilliant-birds-photography-examples/

Create Beautiful Hair-like Abstract Lines to Decorate Your Design in Photoshop

2010-10-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.psdvault.com/abstracts/create-beautiful-hair-like-abstract-lines-to-decorate-your-design-in-photoshop/

8 Photoshop Tutorials for Retouching Your Profile Pic

2010-10-19T08:25:00.001-07:00

http://mashable.com/2010/10/17/photoshop-retouch-profile-pic/

How To Give Your Photos a Dark Processed Lomo Effect

2010-10-19T08:23:00.002-07:00

http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-give-your-photos-a-dark-processed-lomo-effect

Changing Hair/Eye Color in Photoshop!

2010-10-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

35 Surreal Examples of Multiplicity Photography

2010-08-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

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http://www.noupe.com/photography/35-surreal-examples-of-multiplicity-photography.html

10 MORE Quick Composition Tips

2010-08-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

http://digital-photography-school.com/10-more-quick-composition-tips-illustrated?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DigitalPhotographySchool+%28Digital+Photography+School%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Top ten DIY photography tips

2010-05-04T07:55:00.001-07:00

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/digitalcameras/0,39029429,49304077,00.htm?s_cid=96&utm_source=Photojojo+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c82cd3e9ab-60_second_snoot5_4_2010&utm_medium=email

Food Photography Techniques and Tips

2010-04-27T07:39:00.000-07:00

Today food photographer Jonathan Pollack shares some wonderful food photography tips (and some positively mouth watering photos. Also check out our previous Food Photography Tips..

Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/food-photography-techniques

30 New Tutorials for Manipulating Photos in Photoshop

2010-04-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

Photo manipulation is one of the most common practices of photoshop users and designers. Aside from faking images, This type of technique can create unique and outstanding art designs. Learning how to manipulate photos could be fun and that’s why we compiled a list of photo manipulation tutorials for you to learn.

Here is a collection of 30 New Tutorials for Manipulating Photos in Photoshop. These tutorials are for beginners and advanced users alike. Start browsing and learn these fascinating techniques.

http://www.youthedesigner.com/2010/04/20/30-new-tutorials-for-manipulating-photos-in-photoshop/

Make smoke trail art with your digital SLR

2010-04-19T08:06:00.001-07:00

http://www.photoradar.com/techniques/technique/make-smoke-trail-art-with-your-digital-slr

20 essential Photoshop tutorials

2010-04-19T08:05:00.001-07:00

Photoshop is now 20 years old, so to celebrate we've put together a package of 20 brilliant Photoshop tutorials – perfect for honing your picture-editing skills.
From sharpening and boosting colour to creating multiple exposure and HDR shots, these 20 easy-to-follow Photoshop tutorials are an essential read...

http://www.photoradar.com/techniques/technique/20-essential-photoshop-tutorials

50 free photo frames and borders for Photoshop

2010-04-19T08:04:00.002-07:00

http://www.photoradar.com/techniques/technique/50-free-photo-frames-and-borders-for-photoshop?page=0%2C2&t=1269006451

Photoshop tutorial: fake tilt-shift photography

2010-04-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.photoradar.com/techniques/technique/photoshop-tutorial-fake-tilt-shift-photography
http://www.photoradar.com/techniques/video/photoshop-video-fake-tilt-shift-photography

Enhance sunset photos in 10 minutes!

2010-04-19T08:03:00.001-07:00

http://www.photoradar.com/techniques/video/enhance-sunset-photos-in-10-minutes

50 free Photoshop Actions for Portraits

2010-04-19T03:08:00.001-07:00

http://www.photoradar.com/techniques/technique/50-free-photoshop-actions-for-portraits

Tips and tricks pentru Lightroom

2010-04-02T01:32:00.000-07:00

http://digital-photography-school.com/5-more-lightroom-panel-tricks
Tone Curve Thursday

Razoooma Project

2010-03-20T03:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.razooma.net/projects/

TOP TEN PHOTO GALLERIES: Most Viewed of 2008

2010-03-20T03:47:00.001-07:00

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/

Bluhour.com

2010-03-20T03:46:00.003-07:00

Have you ever wanted to create beautiful night photos but it was completely dark when you found the right spot and subject? Well this web site will help you by detecting your location, and estimating the best time frame for taking blue hour pictures at your location. Blue hour refers to the hour experienced between the hours of daylight and darkness.http://bluhour.com/

Todays pictures Slate

2010-03-20T03:46:00.001-07:00

Professional Photographic Retouching Tutorial - 40 min

2010-03-20T03:43:00.002-07:00

This is the second tutorial in a series on photographic retouching. The first part was all about evening skin tonal values and removing blemishes. In this part I will take you through everything else. So, as a result it's a long video (40 Mins)

.- Colour Correction

- Reshaping Features (Figure, Eyes, Lips, Cheeks, etc)

- Adjusting tonal values

- Grading the image

- Simulating a Realistic Depth of Field Simulation

- Selective Enhancement of areas

Professional Photographic Retouching Tutorial (40Mins, Start-To-Finish) from Youssef Sarhan on Vimeo.

How to Make Moving Pictures (Just Like Harry Potter!)

2010-03-20T03:43:00.000-07:00

http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/harry-potter-moving-pictures/

Outdoor Fill Flash/Exposure Compensation Combo

2010-03-20T03:42:00.001-07:00

Image by βεεπσ ◕‿◕ via Flickr

http://www.shutterbug.com/newsletter/033109howto/

90+ Online Photography Tools and Resources

2010-03-20T03:41:00.003-07:00

http://mashable.com/2007/06/23/photography-toolbox/

ShutterCal

2010-03-20T03:41:00.001-07:00

ShutterCal is a free, calendar-based photography project where you can document your life and improve your photography skills at the same time.
http://shuttercal.com/

50 Design Tutorials for Mastering Gimp

2010-03-20T03:40:00.002-07:00

http://creativenerds.co.uk/tutorials/50-design-tutorials-for-mastering-gimp/

Create Lady Birds Insect Tutorial Using Adobe Illustrator

2010-03-20T03:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.tutoriallounge.com/2010/01/create-lady-birds-insect-tutorial-using-adobe-illustrator/

Photo of the Day: Best of February 2010

2010-03-16T07:47:00.001-07:00

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photos/best-pod-february-2010?source=email_photo#flamingo-foot_12099_600x450.jpg

Painting the Sky

2010-03-15T09:17:00.001-07:00

The colorful bee-eater bird wings across three continents.

Visions of Earth

2010-03-15T09:16:00.001-07:00

Each month, National Geographic magazine features breathtaking photographs in Visions of Earth. Browse through visions of the world as seen through a photographer's eye.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/visions-of-earth/visions-earth-2008

Women In Art

2010-03-15T09:15:00.001-07:00

Women In Art from Philip Scott Johnson on Vimeo.

Future memories

How To Change Eye Colour In SONY VEGAS PRO

Sony Vegas Tutorial : Color what you want

Drop in a Drop Shadow in Photoshop

Nikon D4 a fost prezentat oficial

7 Free Firefox Plugins for Photography Addicts

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