BetterPhoto Instructor Insights

Photoshop Tutorial: Revisiting Past Photographs

By Jim Zuckerman

(c) Jim Zuckerman

It's fun to go back over past images and come up with new treatments. Perhaps you can apply a Photoshop technique you've just learned, or you might try a new background on for size.

I did that recently with one of the favorite Venetian costumes I photographed during one of the Carnival in Venice workshops I conduct every year. I shot this model in front of the Doge's palace in the long arched corridor, and I cut her out using the pen tool in Photoshop because this is the most precise method of making a selection - although it's the most time-consuming.

I put her in front of a picture of San Giorgio Island and the famous gondolas lined up in San Marco Square. But before I pasted her in place I applied Topaz Adjust to make the background a little more interesting. These two components - the background and the model - were sitting in my digital photo files for two years just waiting to be combined.

You also have hundreds or thousands of such combinations of pictures waiting to be discovered. Go through your digital images with this in mind and see what you can come up with.

Editor's notes: Jim Zuckerman is a top stock photographer and published author who teaches Creative Techniques in Photoshop , Advanced Creative Techniques in Photoshop and his new Photoshop: Thinking Outside the Box at BetterPhoto.com's online photography training school and photographer certification program.

Silhouette Photography: Capture Mystery and Drama!

By Deborah Sandidge

"Good morning San Francisco" by (c) Deborah Sandidge

Sunrise or sunset can offer the photographer exquisite light conditions to create photographs with mystery and drama. A scene that we experience every day becomes somehow magical.

In San Francisco's financial district one day, I was concentrating on photographing the light warming up buildings, and turned around to see an equally beautiful scene behind me. The solitary figure enriches the photo, and makes me wish I was watching the sunrise too. The image wouldn't have quite the same impact without the human element.

Silhouette photography can be done with most any type of camera, no special equipment needed other than a tripod. My tip for you is to be there at the right time, at the right place, and look to see what else is happening around you. Scout out locations ahead of time, find the most dynamic composition and several alternatives as well.

Use an app that will help you define sunrise, sunset and twilight. If you are traveling, research locations online to find your best subjects. Just about everything looks wonderful bathed in golden light - trees, landscapes, cityscapes, people. Try it and see ... and make great pictures...

Editor's Note: Deborah Sandidge teaches two digital photography online courses - Photoshop - Enhancing Digital Images and Creating Works of Art and Digital Infrared Photography - at BetterPhoto's online photography school and photography certification program.

Multiple Exposures: Canon Cameras Can Do It Too!

By Brenda Tharp

So many of my friends have been showing multiple exposures with their Nikon DSLR cameras, assembled in-camera on the spot. I have admittedly been jealous of that feature, because it’s very nice to know you achieve what you wanted before you pack up and leave! But maybe that makes us Canon DSLR photographers better photographers because we have to be so good to get it right without getting a second chance in the field! Ooh, I can hear the replies flying in on this one :)

But in all good fun, no matter what DSLR camera you use, you can create cool multiple exposures!

10-frame multiple exposure - (c) Brenda Tharp

This one was done with ten frames. I moved the camera up the tree trunks for each frame, just a teensy bit, trying to keep positioned as close as possible to the original composition, so things wouldn’t ‘mush’ together. I exported them out of Lightroom as PSD files, opened them in Photoshop and then layered them on top of each other over the first exposure. So I had ten layers. The top layer got an opacity adjustment of 1/10 in percent, so it was set 10 percent. The second layer down got set for 11 percent, third layer 13 percent (rounded up).

The "formula" is to divide 1 by the number of the layer – so it helps to number your layers to keep it all straight! The last layer on the stack is 100 percent opacity. This all allows you to see the different positions you moved. You can vary this a lot – in my book, I didn’t use this formula, directly. I instead just adjusted the opacity until I could see the layer beneath it each time to my liking. So as with so many things, there’s more than one right answer!

It takes practice to get the movement right in the field, but once you have the files, putting them together in Photoshop or Elements is a snap. Once I finished, I applied a curve to boost the contrast a little and some sharpening.

NOTE: Brenda Tharp teaches two excellent online photo workshops - Travel Photography: Capturing the Spirit of a Place and Creating Visual Impact - at BetterPhoto's online digital photography school.

How to Solve DSLR Camera Autofocus Problems

By Peter K. Burian

Why does my digital SLR camera sometimes refuse focus?

No electronic system is 100% reliable and this applies to autofocus (AF) technology. Occasionally we all get a blinking signal (usually a circle) in a digital SLR camera's viewfinder data panel. This is an indication that autofocus is not possible in this situation. When that happens in Single Shot AF (the default mode) the camera will not take a photo. That's just as well because we would not want a picture where the subject is out of focus.

The inability to focus is most commonly encountered in low light. Any autofocus system can struggle in very dark conditions because it requires a certain amount of light to function. This is less of a problem when the subject is near the camera, roughly 10 feet or closer. In that case, the camera - or the flash - will provide a useful focus assist feature: it will project light, or a red near-infrared pattern onto the subject. That should allow the AF system to set focus on the bright area. Setting the AF mode that activates only the central focus detection point (instead of multi-point AF) can also increase reliability in low light photography.

+1 exposure compensation was used for this photo. (c) 2010 Peter K. Burian

Any camera's autofocus system can struggle in low light with a distant subject. It's likely to be most reliable if you use only the central focus detection point and if you focus on the brightest part of the scene. If that fails, switch to manual focus.

But when the camera/lens simply fails to focus automatically, switch AF off, and focus manually. Rotate the narrow ring on the lens while looking through the viewfinder. When the subject is sharp, stop rotating. (It is now in focus.)

Of course, you may find it difficult to see the subject adequately well to know when it's sharp in a dark location. After a few minutes however, your pupils will dilate (open wider) and you'll be able to see whether the subject is in focus.

Note: Both autofocus and manual focus are impossible when you are too close to the subject: closer than the lens' minimum focus distance. (Digicams with a built-in lens can usually focus much closer when set to the Macro focus mode.) When this occurs, move further back from the subject and try again.

This image was made with a 100mm Macro lens capable of focusing as close as 12.2 inches. (c) 2010 Peter K. Burian

If you want to make images with extremely close focus, use a lens with close-focus ability. Check the specs for its minimum focus distance, but remember, that's measured from the sensor inside the camera, not from the front of the lens.

NOTE: Peter Burian teaches two excellent online photography workshops - Mastering the Digital Camera and Photography and Mastering the Canon EOS Digital Rebels - at BetterPhoto's online digital photography school. Also see Peter's Pro BetterPholio website: www.peterkburian.com.

Perfection in Photography or Nature

By Rob Sheppard

In classes, I often see photographers who feel they need to be "perfect" and don't like to make mistakes with assignments. I think this will not help a photographer become a better photographer, even though I will hear things like, "I am really serious about this and I want to become better, so I strive to make every assignment perfect." And I will hear photographers trying to do something similar with all of their nature photography. It is like they think mistakes and "failure" somehow dishonor the "perfection" of nature.

We could get into a long philosophical discussion about perfection, but there are some things that are important. First, I don't see any photograph to ever be a failure as long as you learn from it. That goes back to one of the great things I love about digital photography, the LCD review. Even when I am in the field, I look at my images to see both the good and the bad, and I learn from both while I am still shooting. That helps me get better photos as I go.

It is true that the "better" photos usually get more comments from other people, so they stroke the ego, but it is the less than "perfect" photo that often gives more to think about or the instructor to talk about. I don't think anyone needs to feel badly about any photographs. So one was not as successful as the others, so what? It gives a great opportunity to think about new possibilities to correct that challenge.

I mentioned the "perfection" of nature. I often hear that, too, yet nature may be a better model for photographers than that. Nature simply is -- it cannot be perfect because that implies no change, yet nature always changes. Nature has beauty and ugliness, it has elements that can inspire wonder and also disgust. Nature is far too complex to be "perfect" and it is actually in its imperfection that it is able to adapt to changing conditions.

As photographers, we can relax and adapt to conditions, including our "state of photographic mind", as we photograph, and that can lead to better images than stressfully trying for perfection that can never really be achieved.

Editor's Note: Rob Sheppard teaches for BetterPhoto's online digital photography school and photographer certification program.

Photoshop Art - Painting a Picture!

By Deborah Sandidge

(c) photo by Deborah Sandidge

An early morning walker created a wonderful photographic opportunity along San Francisco's waterfront. I like the way she held her umbrella as protection from the bright sun. She was bathed in golden light that was more suggestive of a painting than a photograph.

This idea was something I wanted to explore further with a little creativity in Photoshop. There was rust from the chains that caught my attention, and inspired the warm toned texture layers throughout the composition. I wanted to give the image a painterly look, which is the feeling I had when I made the picture.

Try adding a texture layer or two to your photographs to give your images more depth and drama! A texture layer can be any photo of a texture that you like. For example, aged peeling paint from the side of an old building, rusty metal from a vintage car door, fading paper or a love note written long ago. Anything goes with texture layers! Start with a photo and a texture layer that are relatively the same size and experiment with various blend modes.

Tip - Hold down the shift key, and use the plus or minus keys to scroll through the Blend Modes to see the effect each has on your image.

Be a photographic artist!

Note from the Editor: Get creative with Deborah Sandidge in one of her online photography workshops - Photoshop - Enhancing Digital Images and Creating Works of Art and Digital Infrared Photography - at BetterPhoto's digital photography school.

Get Creative with Oil & Water: Macro Flash Photography

By Jim Zuckerman

photo (c) Jim Zuckerman

I had some fun recently photographing oil and water mixed together. I used a shallow glass bowl with a flat bottom and filled it partially with water. Then I placed it about two feet above a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 compute paper on which I had smeared various colors of paint. I dropped a tiny amount of vegetable oil in the water, and positioned a single flash off-camera pointing to the paint.

The flash was triggered with a wireless unit, the Pocket Wizard. With a 50mm macro lens and one extension tube, I took some shots at f/16 but didn't like the results because the paint in the background was too defined due to the extensive depth of field. When I used f/8, I liked the results much better.

I hand held the camera and made sure the back of the camera was as parallel as possible to the surface of the water. When the camera back (i.e. the plane of the sensor) is parallel, you can have complete depth of field of the water's surface at any lens aperture.

photo (c) Jim Zuckerman

For a variation, I pointed the flash up to the water bowl from below and created space-like images that I thought were pretty cool.

photo (c) Jim Zuckerman

Tech note for all three photos: I used 100 ISO and a daylight white balance.


Notes from the Editor: Jim Zuckerman teaches many excellent online photography courses - such as Taking the Mystery Out of Flash Photography and Developing Your Creative Artistic Vision - at BetterPhoto's online photography training program and photographer certification program.

Get Perfect Camera Exposure Settings with a Dark Background

By Doug Steakley

We just completed a very successful macro photography workshop where we had access to perfect lighting conditions. We were able to set up in an old barn that was dark on three sides with light coming in from an open door. This sidelight was soft and easily controlled. By being in the barn, we were out of the wind and were able to work more carefully with manual focus and trying different aperture settings to give different effects by varying the depth of field.

One thing we learned about shooting against a dark background was to underexpose the image. We were underexposing by as much as one to one and a half stops to get the correct exposoure. The reason for this is that the camera's light meter wants to lighten the black background to a mid-tone gray, so it overexposes the image. Now if the pictures are not underexposed sufficiently while shooting them, you can make some corrections to the Raw files in the digital darkroom. However, these corrections only go so far.

photo (c) Doug Steakley

In the image of the calla lily above, the correct exposure was critically important. White areas in images are easily overexposed, which results in a loss of detail in the light areas. Once this detail is lost, it cannot be recovered in Photoshop. When I am not certain of the correct exposure, then I shoot several images and adjust the exposure compensation while I am shooting - for instance, one at 1/2 stop under, one at 1 stop under, and one at 1 1/2 stops under, etc.

You can also look at the histogram on the back of the camera while shooting or turn on the overexposure warning indicator, which shows white blinking areas on the camera's monitor if areas are too light.

Learning to control and adjust exposure for different types of images in various lighting conditions is a key element to successful photography.

Editor Notes: Doug Steakley teaches two his online photo workshops: Photographing Motion and Basic Masks In Photoshop. Also check out the other excellent online photo courses at BetterPhoto's digital photography school online and photographer certification program.

The Magic of Smoke - Photoshop Composite Image

By Jim Zuckerman

Inspired by a number of my on-line students at Betterphoto.com, I started experimenting with photographing smoke.

I bought some incense and used a single, off-camera flash placed about 90 degrees to the lens axis to shoot the smoke coming from the incense. I hung a piece of black velvet on the wall as a backdrop, and using the LCD monitor on the back of the camera as a gauge, I adjusted the exposure accordingly by tweaking the flash output (using the exposure compensation feature on the flash).

I got a number of wonderful abstracts, but then I wanted to add other elements to make the images a lot more interesting.

First, I added color to the smoke by making a duplicate layer in Photoshop (Commmand/Ctrl J) and then I applied the gradient tool. When the gradient tool is selected, in the tool bar you can select various multi-colored patterns that become the gradient. After the color was placed on the duplicate layer, I used the 'overlay' blend mode (found in the submenu within the layers palette) to merge the color with the smoke. Second, I used Photoshop's powerful ability to combine images, and one composite is seen below.

photo (c) Jim Zuckerman

I photographed the costumed model during my Carnival in Venice workshop last February. It was an arranged setup and my entire group photographed her in front of a gilded mirror in an elegant, medieval-adorned suite. I separated her from the background using the pen tool, so the edges were absolutely precise.

Jim Zuckerman is a top stock shooter who teaches many terrific online Photoshop courses at BetterPhoto.com, including Creative Techniques in Photoshop , Advanced Creative Techniques in Photoshop and his new Photoshop: Thinking Outside the Box.

Beach Photography Hints: How to Get Creative!

By Deborah Sandidge

photo (c) Deborah Sandidge

This couple looks as if they are walking on clouds. The sky and and its reflection surrounds them, creating a picturesque scene. There's nothing quite as romantic as walking along the beach, listening to the sounds, and seeing the beauty of the ocean.

This photo was taken after an intense storm that left the sky beautiful. To capture an expressive sky, try using a wide angle lens with a DSLR camera to take in all the wonderful color and detail. Or, you can do what I did here, and use a compact digital camera.

Compact cameras are lightweight, fit in your pocket, and you can carry one everywhere - no excuses for missed opportunities!

Make great pictures!

~ Deb

Note from the Editor: Deborah Sandidge teaches at BetterPhoto's online photography school. Check out her online photography workshops: Photoshop - Enhancing Digital Images and Creating Works of Art and Digital Infrared Photography - that she