When working with Photoshop CC it is often important to start by selecting and appropriate canvas size. Unfortunately not all your images will translate easily to the selected size.
In this case you may need to resize the image itself before opening it in your canvas. Check out these ideas and options from the Adobe knowledge base.
I recently received an email from Emil Pakarlis that reminded me of attitudes, questions and bias I see on a daily basis about capturing content with a mobile device.
While there is no question that there are more things you can do with “pro line” cameras, it doesn’t mean the “device you have with you” isn’t worthy of consideration. This preconceived notion tends to color our judgement.
Consider Emil’s thoughts on the subject.
The best camera is “the one you have with you.”
The one thing that holds back 98% of people taking photos with the iPhone has nothing to do with talent, experience or megapixels. And it’s affects new photographers as well as seasoned professionals coming from traditional photography.
When most people pick up a DSLR or dedicated video camera, they generally treat it seriously. They spend a few seconds composing the shot. They walk around to find the best angle. They make sure that their subject is well exposed and in focus. That may take a few seconds, but it’s time well spent.
Most iPhone users however casually capture the first thing they see without even thinking about composition, angle and exposure, because they think the iPhone is only good for taking quick snapshots.
And guess what? They never get anything other than quick snapshots out of their iPhone’s camera.
Fortunately, there’s another group of iPhone owners, albeit a smaller one, who recognize that the iPhone is a powerful camera so they give each shot the attention it deserves.
The iPhone is their preferred camera and it’s often the only camera they use. They think about subject, composition, focus and exposure before they press the shutter.
These people constantly capture amazing images with the iPhone.
Of course, attitude is not the only thing that makes a difference in iPhoneography but without the right attitude, you’ll never move past the snapshot mentality.
With so many social media platforms, how do you remember the various image size optimization guidelines?
A cool tip is to bookmark this blog post from websitehub and the related infographic to stay updated with any changes to the social media image size optimisation rules.
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Adobe Lightroom is a very powerful tool, especially when combined with high quality presets.
Downloading and installing Lightroom presets is easy – this quick and handy guide will show you how.
The very first step is to download some Lightroom presets. Good news for you, we offer a free sample pack of 20 presets to our newsletter subscribers. Simply enter your email on this page and you’ll receive your sample presets within minutes. Then, simply download the pack to a location on your computer that is easily accessible (like on your desktop).
Most Lightroom preset packs come bundled in a ZIP file. Simply unzip the file and you will then have a folder that contains all the Lightroom presets.
Now that you have a folder with the presets on your computer, open up Lightroom. Then, find the preferences menu item and open up the Preferences panel.
At the top of this window, you should see a few tabs. Click the “Presets tab“.
Then, click on “Show Lightroom Presets Folder“. This will open up your Lightroom Presets folder, inside it you will find a folder named “Develop Presets“. This is where you will install your Lightroom Presets, like the ones you purchased or downloaded from the Contrastly Store.
Open this folder. Inside of it you will find a few existing presets as well as any other presets you have installed already.
Now, simply move the presets you have downloaded (the ones from Step 1, they should be on your desktop or in your Downloads folder) into the Develop Presets folder.
Then simply quit Lightroom and re-open it. You will then see all your new Lightroom presets under the Develop module, in the Presets panel on the left.
Enjoy!
So what is Three-point lighting really all about. Consider this re-blogged post by Richard Harrington and James Ball.
This article was cowritten with my friend James Ball
Three-point lighting is the basic starting point for film and video. It can also be used well as a portrait lighting approach for photography. What’s ideally happening is that the subject is light in a way that illuminates their face (with one side more dominant) and some separation from the background. This method utilizes three light sources focused on the subject from different angles. Mastering this technique is the foundation for more advanced lighting strategies. This approach is the basis for portrait lighting, but it can be used in other situations as well.
The key is generally your most intense light and is placed 15–45 degrees to the side of your subject. The main purpose of the key is to wrap the face in the appropriate quality of light based on the subject’s features and the story you want to tell.
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The alphabet soup of acronyms and codecs can often be as confusing as the work itself. As usual Richard Harrington does a great job of demonstrating and explaining the benefits and pitfalls of acquiring JPEG vs RAW images.
Understanding Photoshop is a biweekly column that takes an in-depth look at how digital photographs are built and manipulated. It is a college-level course in plain English for free at Photofocus. To learn more see this article.
When digital cameras became commercially available, the memory cards used to store pictures were very expensive. Many photographers couldn’t afford multiple or high-capacity cards, so they wanted more images to fit on a single, smaller card. Many users also emailed their pictures to friends and family. Small file sizes enabled consumers who lacked an understanding of digital imaging to attach photos to emails with minimum technical headaches. With these two scenarios in mind, manufacturers turned to an Internet-friendly format, JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group). It was a proven technology and one that was familiar to many users.
The JPEG format…
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Whenever you have a high contrast area, it’s easy to end up with chromatic aberration in a photo. This often results in a purple or green fringe along the edges of some objects in the photo. When merging HDR photos, this problem can become event worse. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to fix the problem in both Photomatix Pro and then use Adobe Camera Raw to clean up spots.
In this excerpt from my new lynda.com class Up and Running with Photomatix Pro, you’ll learn how to quickly get results. Remember, you can pull down a fully functional demo version of Photomatix Pro as well.
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Flickr vs Instagram: Which is Better and Why (via BloggingPro)
Editor’s Note: This post was written by Camille McClane, a writer, researcher, and editor, who blogs about web hosting and social media. Her favorite subject to focus on is emerging technology trends and its overall effect within…
As you work with HDR processing, it’s not uncommon to have an area of the image that frustrates you. Perhaps it’s an over-processed sky that’s just too dramatic. Or maybe its an area of high motion. Fortunately, Photomatix Pro has an advanced option that makes it easy to replace a selection with the original source image.
You can learn more about Photomatix in our HDR Learning Center as well as in this lynda.com class of mine.
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This Post Sponsored by:
LensRentals.com Be a kid in a camera store. Rent lenses, cameras, lighting and more from the original and best online photographic and video equipment rental company. Use PHOTOFOCUS15 in the checkout special instructions to receive 15% off any April rental.
Mosaic A complete solution for photographers using Lightroom who want to manage and share their photos. You can easily view images with their iOS app or web service…
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Apple Distinguished Educators continue to create comprehensive support and training materials for educators. One of the most recent is the Photography Guidebook for iPad, iPhone and iPod. Continue reading
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