Scott Kelby’s 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3

Feb 202012
 

Author: Scott Kelby

Review – Steve Kingswell

If you have read Photoshop books from cover to cover, or more likely flicked from picture to picture, then you will already know that Photoshop books are complicated, detailed, and it wouldn’t be untrue to say that once you get to the end by either method, its hard to remember all that you have seen or read.

This book is different.

The premise of the book is that rather than trawl through 20 chapters of technical information on how to use each menu item in order, it looks at the things you would commonly or should commonly do to a range of photographs in post-production. Then it repeats those things say 21 times, with subtle & slightly more complex variations.

This approach is based on the common sense that you will forget 200 menu & process operations but will remember and actually use 7 key things. Its that old 80:20 rule again, but brilliantly applied.

Kelby applies his usual satirical, jokey style if slightly restrained in this book, to his teachings, keeping what is actually repetition to a very acceptable level of interest.

At the end of the day the benefit to your photographs will be the reason you read chapter after chapter & get to the end. You’ll be wiser, actually remembering Adobe Raw & Photoshop CS3 keyboard shortcuts, which is something for a mouse & menu user (that’s me). You will also get the idea of why you do things, the best order to do them in & the benefit of the specific features employed.

Kelby makes this obvious in the way each chapter ends, with a before & after view of the same shot. You will be surprised what you can do with your own shots you thought were a bit dull, after the processing they often have a new lease of life.

To that end the chapters very clearly show how RAW is a dull output & needs a whole set of measured operations on them to bring them to life – the book delivers!

In all, this is the best book on Photoshop I have read, yes actually read, no in fact used, I have used this book its a workbook, a workshop, that is very important in what is a practical subject matter. Not that other books aren’t essential, a full manual or similar is. But this is the best “better photographs for your money spent on a book” you will buy.

At least until the next one I find that betters it. Keep coming back cos I plan to find one!

Enjoy the read, enjoy the results more…

Steve

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500px

Nov 302011
 

This image is new on the 500px Website, which is an interesting alternative to Flickr. The quality of imagery is stronger, and you get a say in what gets ranked highly in their Favorites Section.

I can recommend the site highly take a look.

Steve

 General, websites No Responses »

What’s not to love Lensbaby!

Mar 182011
 

I have wondered for a while whether a Lensbaby is a serious lens or a toy. Having recently purchased one and had time to get initial impressions and results I think it is both.

The other question is as a serious lens how would it compare to a decent lens from Nikon or Canon for example. Well it doesn’t compare when you measure edge distortion, or perhaps finite details such as chromatic aboration, but then a Lensbaby throws things out focus at the edges so you don’t want money spent on those things, and the Lensbaby is cheap.

So why does the Lensbaby appeal? Did I say it was cheap, well at it’s basic level you have several versions worth considering, with the latest, the Composer being the most flexible and easiest to use coming in under £200. The accessories and various drop in optics add to that, but are also part of the evolving system that is Lensbaby.

The results from the lens are both easy to get and hard to master, you will get dreamy Holga-esque images at the press of a shutter, so for non-film fans you can imitate the real thing easily. But don’t be fooled, composition, focus & exposure (which is semi-automatic), and creativity is also challenging, great shots need practice, experience and some perseverance, which is fine, as we may as well give up if that isn’t part of being a photographer.

So far I can say it’s a good investment, it will stir your creative juices nicely, and will be an interesting and rewarding part of creating all manner of creative photography, for some time to come.

Keep an eye our for their new optics, they look very interesting. Check out this Lensbaby Project.

Steve

 Creativity, Education, Gear No Responses »

RSS Readers and Media Storage Apps

Oct 212010
 

So why would you want to explore RSS readers and media storage applications as a photographer? Well firstly one is likely to follow the other , so let’s start with the RSS reader.

An RSS reader enables you pull into one place all the links to web sites and blogs that you have interest in.  In this case it’s all things photography be it a site about technique and gear or individual historic or contemporary photographers.

The wonderful thing about these readers is that they automatically detect if the site that you have chosen is updated with new information by the author and it then pulls down the information from that site and alerts you that the new content is there to be viewed.

Readers vary in their format and features but usually allow you to organize the sites into categories so that you can easily locate the particular interest that you have at any point in time.  One other key feature that is often present is the ability decide how many articles posted by the author should be indicated on your application at any point or another way to look at it is how far back in time you would like the listing to be.

Having this ease of access to sites of interest is extremely convenient and as you surf the Internet and come across new exciting sites you can add them to your feeds.

The media storage applications many of which are beginning to appear on the apple store are great for amassing material that you find on the web into one place, within the application you can apply some rudimentary database tools.  The objective here is that you could quickly build a reference library to contain the articles , images and in some cases videos relevant to the subject and apply various queries to the data to. You may for example want to sort photographers into American contemporary photographers of the last 50 years. The variety of permutations are endless and the uses are varied but the process if nothing else is educational and informative.

Malc

 blogs, Education, General, websites No Responses »

Resolution made clear!

Oct 052010
 

Resolution can be confusing, especially as there are 3 commonly-used resolution terms in everyday use.  They mean subtly different things, as we shall see.

1.  Camera Megapixels / PPI and DPI

Pixels are tiny points of light that when put together make up your digital image. These images are the ones you see on your display, or computer screen, driven by your computer or mobile device. At this stage they are not printed. One megapixel is equal to 1 million pixels.  So a camera that has a resolution made up of 3000 by 2000 pixels (multiply 3000×2000), is a 6 megapixel camera.  The more pixels you have, the higher the resolution your camera is, so it is recording more detail. This also means the image file size will be larger, and your print will be able to be printed larger if you wish.

PPI stands for pixels per inch.  This relates to screen images because pixels are seen on screen.

DPI stands for dots per inch.  This relates to printed images.  Otherwise these mean the same thing when we are talking about image resolution.  Some articles interchange these terms when writing about resolution, but now you know the difference and what they mean. Your computer screen is capable of showing 72 to 96 ppi.

2.  Output resolution (meaning from your software)

OK, so what is this?  Well, it’s the resolution you set in your printer software to send your image to be printed, you do this either as a file like a JPEG for a print shop to use or as a file to your own printer for it to print.  You can decide how many pixels to the inch you want to output, so why does this matter? It matters for two important reasons:

a) detail & smoothness of your image (quality)

b) size of your print

These two items work against each other, so for example if your image is captured at 3000 x 2000 pixels, and you output at 300 ppi or dpi (the term is interchangeable here), then you will get a print of 10 inches by 6.7 inches (just divide 3000 by 300 and 2000 by 300). That is how you determine the size of your print.  If you print at 150 ppi then you will get a print at 20 inches by 13.4 inches, i.e. twice the size, as it’s half the resolution, easy eh?  In other words you have spread the pixels out over a larger area.  So how do you know what is good quality?  Well as you can see in the above example if you print (output) at a lower resolution you get bigger images, but with spread out pixels, or vice versa.  Of course logically, the more you spread your pixels out the more chance you have of seeing the individual pixels in your final image.  This is bad, as seeing pixels means your image is not smooth, jagged edges appear (called jaggies).  The is commonly called pixelated, and is a digital fault caused by your decision to process at this ppi.

The eye cannot see individual pixels, no matter how close you look, at 300 ppi (dpi) or over! In fact at normal viewing distances you can get away with 200 ppi but it does depend on the image, the paper and the quality of your printer at these low levels, so I recommend 240 dpi or 300 dpi.  If you tell your printer to print to a certain size it will compress the dpi to fit that size, you will not lose quality doing this. You will if you print too big for the number of pixels you have.

Note:

You should save an image in its original size out of the camera as this will maintain it at its highest quality you have. Going from small to large size results in quality loss, even if your software has the ability to create new pixels by a process called interpolation, which is never as good as the original.

3. Printer Resolution

Your printer software converts pixels into drops of ink and hence printer resolution is measured in dpi, or dots per inch. This is where there is a catch, and a marketing term called ‘resolution’ used to persuade you to buy higher model printers.  Printers can print more ink dots in a pixel than just one.  So a printer might print 4 ink dots into the space of one pixel or image dot.  Let’s take an example.  If an image is 3000 x 2000 pixels and is output at 300 ppi, then your printer takes the file and prints it with 4 ink drops per pixel, it will be printing 4 times 300 ink drops per inch (a resolution of 1200 dpi – A PRINTER RESOLUTION), this is still only 300 dpi in image terms.  The printer may make a smoother job of it, with less ‘banding’ than older low resolution printers.  So high printer resolution is a good thing but don’t confuse it with ‘real’ image resolution.  The higher the dpi of the printer, the more ink is put down in a given pixel, and therefore more detail/smoothness shows on the paper.

Steve

 Education No Responses »

Black & White Photography

Sep 302010
 

Black & white photography, often called monochrome, is as old as photography itself, this is where it all started.

The question is whether in today’s digital/colour era we’ve lost the ability to translate what we see in the outside world into what will be printed in a black and white photograph.

We need to train ourselves to see in black and white. What we need to look for in black and white is subtly different to what we see in colour. When looking at a colour image we see tones of colour, warm versus cold etc, you see these in priority to shapes and patterns.

What you see in monochrome is dark & light, patterns, shapes, lines, blocks, & tonal graduations.

So what makes a great black and white image? Composition in black and white imagery is directed by where the eye goes in terms of lines & patterns. The highlights show us the details and the shadows create the structure of the picture. The initial best tip is to get contrast into your image, that way you are making a statement about the components in the scene.Leave it too wishy-washy and the viewer will loose interest sooner.

You can experiment with B&W to create often more dramatic images than in colour. Here is an example.

20110626-154659.jpg

Steve

 Creativity, Education, Technique No Responses »

Photo Workshop – Bluebell Woods

Sep 112010
 

There are a number of great photography projects that are related to seasonal events in nature or around the time of year the event occurs.  In mid April to mid May in the UK it is Bluebell season. Bluebells are at their most photogenic in a woodland scene, with the trees forming part of the environment & strong verticals in your compositions.  The season is about 2 to 3 weeks, before they start to fade, it also moves according to the weather, so plan a few weeks in advance.  You can get locations from photography magazines, on the web, or by asking around.

Bluebells - soft focus

So what can you expect on the day?  Well, firstly the scenes can look a bit repetitive at first sight, but don’t be put off, its a full day to get the best out of the opportunities. You can be quicker than that and take some great shots in a hour or two.

I recommend you start by taking a walk round, look for different view points.  Some areas are carpeted with Bluebells others are sparse, they provide different moods. Look for the light, shafts of light often radiate through the leaves creating beautiful lighting, in other places there is moody dim light. Also look for patterns in the trees, some are very uniform others work in great compositional groupings.

Pick out some individual Bluebells, choose some that are in full bloom, and select others that are in bud, this affords both macro and close-up shooting.  Likewise you will often see Ferns, Fungi, and other flora worth shooting. Together these other flora will make a nice complementary subjects for your Bluebell images and can increase the variety in a slideshow.  Think about how you can get higher up, climb a tree or a stump maybe, but also lay down to get the low shots.  Before you go, I recommend you create a shot list, you should be able to come up with some 15 to 20 variants to capture on the day. You may not get all of them but you will also find a few more you didn’t think of on the day. Take a look at our Workshop Gallery for some ideas of what is possible.

This is a day out not to be missed from the seasonal calendar, whether you are into macro, nature, flora, or fancy yourself with Ansel Adams type shots, there is something for everyone.

Happy shooting.

Steve

 Creativity, Education, Locations, Nature No Responses »

What’s the single best way to improve your photography?

Aug 222010
 

Simple, look at lots of other people’s work.  The best way to improve your work is look at others’. You can do this in many ways, however probably the best source is books on photography from many genres and periods of history. You can look at the great photographers across many subjects, photojournalism, landscape, travel, etc.  Much of the historic photographers work can be hugely inspiring.  Eugene Agtet’s views of Paris, Julia Margaret Cameron’s inspiring high-art portraits of the late 19th century, Andre Kertesz who in my opinion set a trend that Cartier-Bresson continued.

Homage to Martin Parr

These photographers amongst many others not only set trends they also produced art of the highest order, also as most of their photography was using older darkroom chemical processes the forms of the images, produced looks which today are unusual, due to the constraints of the technologies they appear as tints, or monochromes, or sepia, with faded or washed out skies. Early lens technologies means there were more vignettes than we see today, at least straight out of the camera.

So to emulate these looks can provide inspiration, creativity & make you think about technique & post-production processes. You may even buy an old camera off eBay & put some film through it to get even closer to the original looks.

However, creating a collection of classic books can be expensive, my tip is buy one or two, but otherwise read photo magazines, go on Flickr, or just look at the still images in newspapers, any type of magazine and think about how it was done, the camera position, the depth of field used, the colouring, framing of the subject.

The learning opportunities are endless.

Read on!

Steve

 blogs, Creativity, General, websites 2 Responses »

Camera Position

Aug 212010
 

One easy way to make your shots look different is to change your camera position. I don’t know the statistic, nobody does, but maybe 90% of all photographs are taken from between 5 foot & 6 foot, the average eye level height of a person.  To create a different look raise or lower the height of your camera when you take the shot.  Have you ever thought ‘I don’t know where to shoot today’, or ‘all the best places have been done’, well take a look on Flikr or other photo site, and you will see if you type in Tower of London, that many shots are taken from some very common angles & heights.

The best way to get a new angle is to lower your camera to about a foot off the ground, it changes the foreground perspective.  Alternatively find a location where you can get some height, go up in the lift of a nearby building, or find some similar vantage point.

A way that is often used to differentiate your shots from others is some form of foreground interest.  I am not sure about you but I am finding ‘foreground interest’ a bit clichéd.  How many more landscapes will we see with a rock sitting nicely in the foreground. You must try it, some work, but many look contrived to my mind.

Try some leading lines that give a dynamic to the image, play with highlight & shadow rather than lines, patterns can produce a more interesting lead in to an image. Also layers of foreground, mid-ground, & background, offer other opportunities.

All of these come from judicious positioning of the camera.  So get out there, set yourself a target of say 30 shots from unusual heights, locations or with some form of lead in, to your subject.

Unique is good.

Steve

 Creativity, Technique No Responses »

Exposure compensation why & how to!

Aug 172010
 
As a beginner I never new when to use exposure compensation.  Also it was normally hidden away in the depth of a menu somewhere, especially on a compact camera.  But now I find I use it a lot.
Incidentally you have a choice whether you shoot in manual, where under & over exposure compenasation is done by you setting your own choice of aperture & shutter speed which by definition will be either neutral exposure, under exposed or over exposed.  Or you shoot in aperture priority mode, where you now have a choice to use the exposure compensation facility or not.
A question you may ask is, ‘under or over exposure compared to what?’
Well, it is compared to the exposure calculated by your meter in your camera, depending on what exposure mode you have chosen, matrix/evaluative, centre-weighted, or spot, your camera will try to set the apeture or shutter speed to get an 18% grey image over the average ligting across the meter.  So the under/over exposure facility on your camera is forcing your camera to expose above or below this level.
So why is it there & how do we use it?  The easiest example is say when you are shooting in snow. The snow is bright & it will reflect light onto everything around it.  So when you meter on it, the camera will see overall a very bright image & will want to shut the light down to create the 18% grey image.  So it will speed up the shutter or shut down the aperture to let less light in.  This makes your snow scene look a bit drab, a bit grey, the meter has done its job, it thinks, but you know snow is bright white.  So you need to dial in some over exposure compensation, +1.5 stops is about the average you will need for a snow scene.  This has the effect of fooling the camera to open up the exposure more, so it will either open the aperture wider, or slow the shutter speed down depending on what mode your camara is in.
Likewise in a dark scene your camera will tend to try to lighten it up. You do the opposite to the above to retain the darkness assuming that is what you want, i.e. dial in some under exposure. After some practice you will get a feel of what amount you need to dial in. If you have a camera with live view you will see the effect in the monitor.
Try it, if you make a mistake and shoot in Raw, you can always reverse it in post.
Have fun trying.
Steve
 General, Technique No Responses »
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