Photoshop Tutorial

It is amazing how photographers will take a photo and shelve it based on small little errors when in reality you can use editing software to create something wonderful that makes your subject truly stand out. In this blog I will do my best to give you a blow by blow blog about a Photoshop edit from a recent photo I created.

This photo was taken at recent shoot I did for a city council hopeful and the venue was amazing. I want to first thank The Royal Hotel for allowing me to shoot in their lobby. I am really looking forward to going back there to capture more photos. I would also like to thank my subject Menu who is a super lady and a whole lot of fun. Now onto the edit.




This first photo is the original shot. I have said it before and will again a great edit starts from a great photo and I really like how this turned out. It has all the sharpness I need, the skin tones are nice and even and there is an interest that has been captured. That being said there are some negatives about it as well. I find the leaves dangling in front of the window very distracting, I don't like the sign poking out from her shoulder and lastly the phone cord drives me nuts. Finally there will be a little enhancing of Menu's already perfect smile and hair. Let's get into it.






Whenever I am editing a photo I always change what I dislike the most so for this photo I didn't like how contrasty it was. When this photo was shot I was using a flash with a 6x8 inch soft box which mounts to my speedlight. Even with the flash I still shot quite high ISO so the flash did not have to fill in so much light as to make the photo overly bright.

Step 1 the first thing I did was soften it a bit with a bit of noise reduction.

Step 2 was to bump up the exposure about 1 stop of light; it was just a bit dark but still had so much detail in the highlights and lowlights.

Step 3 was to replace the window I had a photo of this window in my catalogue of stock photos and I thought this would dramatize the photo just a bit more. Replacing the window is just a matter of cutting it from the original pasting into this photo and blending to make it look right.

Step 4 I used the clone tool to remove the phone cord

Step 5 grab the brush tool, sample the colour of her lips and "fix her lipstick" Now this step could have been done before the shot was taken but it was spur of the moment and neither of us thought about the fact her makeup was fading that late into the evening.

Step 6 is perhaps the most important. I used levels to brighten the photo and then with a layer mask I blocked out the section I didn't want brighter. What that equates to is just highlighting her hair and face.

That is pretty much it, now some purists will say that I changed the photo and they are not wrong. What they will fail to recognise is that I could have done the same things in a darkroom with film and hours upon hours of dodging and burning. Photos have always been manipulated to one degree or another and even the most amazing photographers in the world spend time cleaning up irritations in their photos. The difference between film and digital is time. What I can do now in my post editing software is instant, whereas what I did in film could take hours if not days.

Anyway here is the after post photo. As I said before, this photo had all the elements of a good photo to start with; I just perked it up a little. Hope you enjoy and please comment below and like my Facebook page to follow everything I do.

Focus Behind the Camera? Sure.

Ever hear of back button focus? No? What is it? Is it important? Why would I use it? Answers to these questions and more will be answered in this week's blog. Read on for 100 reasons why back button photography is the way to go and how to set it up.

When you are composing a photograph you as the photographer have the ability to choose where your camera will focus. If you are using a canon you will most likely have nine different points to choose from and three different focus types.

First let's address the focus types. The most common one to use is single shot. When using this mode you depress the shutter part way down your lens auto focus takes over and you press the shutter button all the way and presto a perfect photo:) The next option is AI focus. Much like single shot depress the shutter part way and the camera will auto focus on the point or points you have chosen. The nice thing with this mode is if you continue to depress the shutter part way and you subject moves you auto focus continues to track that subject and stay focused till you snap the shot. Last is AI Servo. In this mode your auto focus will track the subject constantly and even "learn" what it should be focusing on. Now this technology sounds amazing, and it is, until you start recomposing your shot and your camera tracks everything except the subject you want to shoot. Step in back button focus.

Through your camera menu settings you can disable the shutter button for focus and use one of the buttons on the back to focus with. Now you may ask yourself "why would I do that shutter focus is obviously the best way and that's why the camera company uses this default" right? Wrong. Camera companies use this feature because using a shutter button is normal practice and has been since cameras were invented, but remember the camera of our fathers and grandmothers did not have auto focus. Focus was gotten by turning a dial on the lens to bring the elements into alignment thereby achieving a crisp clean focus. Now with the flip of a switch and a press of a button a little red light appears in your view finder telling you the focus is perfect on your subject. So enough history, why use back button focus?

Look through your viewfinder at your subject, press your shutter part way down, look at the little red light in your viewfinder flash as your auto focus locks on to your subject, recompose, shoot. Now shot two. Look through your viewfinder at your subject, press your shutter part way down, look at the little red light. Get my point? This is very time consuming. Now change your camera to back button focus. Look through the viewfinder, press your back button, recompose and shoot. As long as your subject stays the same distance away from your lens you can recompose and shoot to your heart's content. This is the true beauty your shutter no longer has any use except what it should be for, activating the shutter, not focusing. If you choose to use your AI Servo mode you will find that again because it is independent of your shutter tracking your subject will be smoother and pressing your shutter button will be more fluid and controlled.

Anyway sorry for the lack of recent blogs. I hope you go out and try this new style of using your camera and as always I look forward to hearing your comments and getting your emails. Till next time.

Getting Social Media in Gear

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been talking with friends and colleagues about blogging and its importance. A couple have been surprised to learn that I blog about my work, but I'm more stunned to discover how many professionals don't use social media at all, and the excuses they have. No time, poor writing ability, the infamous writers block. In reality, there are a ton of things that can stop you from using social media to its full potential. Excuses have never been more easy to come by.

But a social network is just that, a network, and if you're willing to use it that way it will only benefit you.

Today, having a social media presence is so very important and is often underused. Personally, I've been working pretty hard at improving this aspect of my work, and you're right -- it's not always easy. But it is important. Anyone who believes starting up a photo business is just taking a few shots will soon learn how much more there is to the business the second they try to market their work. Clients want to know what to expect, they want to know what you've worked on, they want to know you're both serious and passionate about what you do. and perhaps most of all they want to know if they're going to get along with you. These are all elements that social media is practically designed to help you ace.

That being said, it can easily get overwhelming; there are many social media sites begging for new members, and the first task is differentiating the useful ones from the ones that will just waste your time. Social media is important, but by no means should it be taking up the majority of your time.

My three go-to must-haves are Facebook, Twittter, and this personal/professional blog. I try to give the three of them my attention at least weekly, Twitter and Facebook probably even more frequently.

The thing you'll want to work towards (something I'm only putting together now, myself) is a dedicated website. It goes without saying that this is a ton more work than just updating a Facebook status once in a while -- you'll want galleries of your work, an incorporated blog, contact and pricing information, and not to mention the fact that content needs to stay fresh and current so clients are interested in going back to see it and search engines will continue to monitor it.

I recommend sticking mainly to those three: Facebook, Twitter, and a blog/website. If you're a social media whiz, you can dive into Instagram, Pinterest, 500px, Reddit -- the list goes on. Just remind yourself that updating social media isn't your job, although it is a great excuse to procrastinate doing any real photography work.

Even if you hate taking advice and you hate change and you hate social media, I still highly recommend that you make the leap into it if you're serious about your business. I was a stubborn hold-out for quite a while, and when I decided to finally get into the game I felt (and still do, some days) that I was a long ways behind. There's definitely a learning curve, and I stumbled sometimes and took a while to catch on to the way some things worked. But in the end, it's absolutely worth it -- even if you hate it, it's a great way to keep eyes on your work, including your own. You'll find yourself keeping to a schedule and multitasking better, not just within social media but also in your photography projects.