Tag: tip

Borders and Logos, it's Photoshop, Oh My!

Jason4 Comments

That’s right, we’re back to a photoshop tip again on the blog, and this one comes courtesy of question I read in the NAPP community forums.  The person there had asked about pricing on some photography for a large company’s set of employee photos and his concern was about the post production time in creating the border and logo that the company wanted on each.

The community quickly sprung to action, pointing him in several directions, and it occurred to me that I had never done this sort of tutorial before!  It’s not too difficult but there are some pitfalls to be aware of when dealing with borders and logos in photos, especially if you are trying to program these steps into an action or script.  Suffice to say, I figured this was as good a time as any to jump back into Photoshop and keep the digits (and brain) fresh!  So, here’s a new video tutorial on creating borders and logos!  Enjoy!

Your thoughts and feedback are welcome and encouraged as always!  Thanks for stopping in, have a great week, and be sure to stop back in tomorrow for more photo goodness!  Oh yeah, and don’t forget the March contest is in full swing where the winner will go home with one of these super cool Cheetah Quickstands – the theme is wild and the link for submissions is here!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you tomorrow!

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Go soak your gear!

Jason5 Comments

It pays to review your web traffic periodically because I just learned a way that your bathtub can be used for photography!  Not only is it a good place to mellow out after a stressful shoot, but it also makes a heckuva softbox!  I was on a forum that had referenced the blog and a guy had some product that he placed in his tub.  I thought it was an interesting idea, and decided to give it a try.  As it turns out, the tub is a great place to put your gear!  Granted, not to soak it (sorry, but I had to tease the title that way), but to act as a great background and softbox combined in one.

Here’s a few sample shots.  For all the tech-types, these are pretty much straight out of camera (or sooc) – all I did was adjust the WB for Flash and adjust the ACR sharpening from 25 to 75.  All are resized to 650px wide for the blog.  Here’s the setup:  I took the Canon kit lens (18-55) on my 40D, threw on the 550EX, and set everything to default values.  Shutter at standard sync speed of 250, aperture at f8 and ISO at 100.  I powered the 550EX at it’s standard setting, on camera (relax strobists – I can hear you shuddering from here),  and started firing a few shots.  I pointed the flash to camera right and got this:

ruler1

Yup, that’s a God-awful shot, with a nasty shadow.  Perhaps I could ditch the shadow.  Since we’re not exactly using conventional wisdom here, let’s try it with the flash pointed straight at the subject:

ruler2

Hey!  That’s actually not too bad.  It’s not that great, and still definitely a “Meh” kind of shot as it’s still got something of a shadow.  So, I spun the flash to fire above me and bounce off the ceiling:

ruler3

Voila!  You know what?  For being a spur of the moment thing, and without a lot of pre-planning or preparation, that’s not bad at all.  And, it was shot in a bathtub!  Anyone else out there have a bathtub?  Try some shots in it for different items.  I used a tape measure, but what about a pen, or a microphone, or a printer, or even a lens?  I bet you could get some pretty cool results with very little setup!  Anyone else have some odd or unusual ways to get clean backgrounds and even lighting on the cheap?  Feel free to share your thoughts, ideas, and feedback in the comments.  Feel free to link your own efforts there too!  Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Look out behind you!

Jason4 Comments

We’re always looking forward, upward and downward to find a unique perspective or angle on things – to create something unique and interesting.  Well, today, I’ve got an example of how sometimes the interesting shots are behind you!  In this particular case, it’s doubly true.

This is also from the photo walk out in El Dorado from last weekend, and what makes it doubly true is because we were out looking to capture the beuaty of the mountains, the trees, and the amazing Colorado skies.  At one waypoint between hiking trails, we took a rest stop and used some of the provided *ahem* facilities.  On returning to the vehicle, I saw this reflection in the rear window of the Expedition:

Rear View

So, the view was created from the back window reflection, and I only caught it by turning my eyes away from the mountains, landscapes, and opportunities in front of me!  When’s the last time you turned 180 degrees to get a shot?  Got any fun stories of when it did?  Share them in the comments!

Don’t forget to stop over and pick up the new feed in iTunes for the podcast and share your thoughts about the new show format!  Here’s the link:  iTunes feed Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Take your camera with you!

Jason4 Comments

I was driving home from work yesterday with my camera bag in the seat next to me when I saw this on the opposite side of the road.  So, I swung around, popped out of the car, set up and used the roof of the car for stability and snapped off a few shots wide open and about 800 ISO.  As a full-size image it is a bit noisy, but here it looks pretty good.  To me, that’s proof positive that it always pays to have your camera with you.  That’s the “Tuesday Tip” for this week.  Enjoy and Happy Shooting!  We’ll see you back here again tomorrow.

Just under the wire…

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enver did mighty fine yesterday in their handling of the Raiders, so hats off to them for getting the season started on the right note. Go Broncos!

As you may have guessed from yesterday’s post, today is Tutorial Tuesday, and since time is ticking away from me here, I’ll get right to it. The tutorial today does a comparison of reducing noise from the built in settings inside Photoshop versus a third party plugin. Granted, I went through it pretty quick and didn’t go into a lot of detail on the various settings, but I did want to give you the upshot of applying the different types of nosie reduction, so you can see how superior a 3rd party plugin is to pretty much any native reduction method.

The plugin I am using is for Noise Ninja, but I am sure that the others mentioned in yesterdays comments (thanks go out to Michael Palmer, Jen Rinaldi, and Brian Reyman for their contributions) perform equally well. So…without further ado:

Noise Reduction Tutorial (Web based)

Noise Reduction Tutorial (Quicktime)

So, that’s it for today. Tune in tomorrow for the latest edition of What’s This? Until then, happy shooting and watch those apertures!

Oh yeah, one final thing – for those picking up the blog in their feed readers: Is this podcasting plugin that I am using working? (I am trying a switch from Podpress to Podcasting on the blog, and am curious how the feed crawlers and readers will pick this up). Don’t forget too, the poll on the right hand panel has another few days left, so be sure to chime in and share your thoughts on casual shooting trends.

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Tuesday Two Minute Tip

Jason2 Comments

Clouds Filter
That’s right, I’ve finally gotten back in the saddle for some good old fashioned Photoshop fun. Today, it’s a quickie, but then again, that’s how we like our information on the web: short, sweet, and to the point. Today I give a little tip on how you can use the Clouds filter in Photoshop. This technique works in pretty much any of the last 3 iterations of the software (I am assuming it works in CS – I got into the game in CS2 worlds…).

Anyway, take a gander on the download feed listed at the end of the post. The result of the tip is actually at the top of the post so you kind of get a little teaser there! (Yes, I am a tease!) Not much else today, as I am still swimming in a sea of boxes. I’m hopefully a little ahead of the game now for video tips and tricks, as next weeks is set to auto publish Tuesday morning.

I do have my “Shoot the Day” pics for Photoshelter, and will hopefully have those processed (at least a quick process in DPP) and ready to share tomorrow, so stop on back to check those out. In the final news tidbit – don’t forget the Photo Contest here at CB. Stop over and share some pics along the lines of a “Freedom” theme, and you could win a $25 gift card to B&H! 2nd place and 3rd place prizes will be awarded too!

So, until next time, happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Wed Edit: The linked video is not displaying for some reason so for the time being, it can be downloaded directly here

CB Episode #48: Clouds Filter

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