April 1st, 2008 Rob Sheppard
A few notes about some of my books. My book, Outdoor Photographer Landscape and Nature Photography With Photoshop CS2, is not specifically about CS2, nor is it an encyclopedia of Photoshop tools. It is a book specifically done to help nature and landscape photographers use Photoshop better for their type of photography. It applies to CS3 and also earlier versions of Photoshop. It even applies to a large degree to Photoshop Elements. I even was able to include some work by Ansel Adams and talk about how his approach to photography affects how we use Photoshop. I have a chapter, for example, about layers that relates layers to Adams work in the darkroom.
My book, National Geographic Field Guide to Photography: Digital, is a little older and the equipment section is outdated. However, that is a small part of the book and I am very pleased with the rest of the book. It is a good, short book on digital photography.
Also, I am quite pleased with my new book, The Kodak Guide to Digital Photography. I put a lot of effort into this book to make it accessible and helpful for most photographers. It is not meant to be an advanced guide, but it is a good overview, I believe, of things photographers need to know about digital photography, and a good start for anyone who wants to photograph seriously with a digital camera.
Posted in Books, Photoshop | Comments Off
April 1st, 2008 Rob Sheppard
Question: I followed the Photoshop Elements adjustment layer technique that you described. I am not sure exactly what is happening, especially with the screen layer over a darker image. Is the white brush masking the darker pixels with the screen just allowing certain pixels to be affected? Just wondering.
Karen H.
I know layer masks can be confusing. My website, www.robsheppardphoto.com, has some additional information on using adjustment layers and layer masks in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements (actually, they are the same thing). One thing you have to do is practice. Don’t worry if everything works perfectly at first. Just keep trying and you will get it. Adjustment layers and layer masks are so very, very useful for photographers.
It helps to look at what the specific tools are doing. First, you can always use an unadjusted adjustment layer (sorry if that seems confusing, but that is exactly what you do — use Levels, for example, but don’t apply any adjustments) with layer modes Screen and Multiply. Those modes are accessed from the drop down menu that comes from clicking on the Mode: Normal button at the top of the layer palette. Screen makes everything brighter because it is a layer mode that is telling the layers how to communicate with each other. In this case, that communication makes things brighter. Multiply makes them darker.
The layer mask, shown as the white box at the right of the adjustment layer icon, is something that only affects what is on a given layer. It has no effect on anything else. This is why you can do the same thing in a layer mask and get different effects on the photo, such as paint black on a layer mask and make the image darker one time, lighter the next. I know that seems confusing, but the layer mask is really only affecting what the layer is doing. So if a layer is making the photo lighter (Screen), then the layer mask can only change that effect of lightening. If a layer is making the photo darker (Multiply), then the layer mask can only change that effect of darkening.
White in a layer mask is like a clear window on that effect — it allows it. Black is like paint on that window — it blocks the effect of the layer. So if you have a screen adjustment layer, for example, and the layer mask is filled with white, it is the same as “allow”, so the effect is allowed. When the layer mask is filled with black, the effect is blocked so that nothing can happen with that layer. Any addition of white to a black layer will allow the effect at the location you added that white (such as from the paintbrush). Any addition of black to a white layer will block an effect at that location.
By painting in white on a Screen layer, you allow the effect to occur, which in this case lightens the photo. However, if the effect darkened the photo, painting white would allow that effect, which would then allow the photo to be darkened. Conversely, painting in black blocks the effect, which in this case would darken the photo. Why? Because it blocks the Screen effect of lightening.
By painting in white on a Multiply layer, you also allow the effect to occur, but in this case, it darkens the photo. Conversely, painting in black blocks the effect, which in this case would lighten the photo. Why? Because it blocks the Multiply effect of darkening.
White or black in a layer mask have no direct effect on what a photo will look like — they can only turn on or off the effect that the layer is causing.
Posted in Photoshop | Comments Off
April 1st, 2008 Rob Sheppard
A challenge for any nature photographer comes from dull, gray days that just don’t photograph well. The subject still is interesting, but it just does not translate well into a photograph. An interesting use of flash is just for such conditions where the flash becomes your main light and the gray or blah landscape becomes darker than the subject. This is actually a pretty trendy technique that can be used any time you want to make the subject look good in challenging light and keep the background a little darker.
This can be a really cool effect and it has become pretty easy to do with digital photography because you can take a picture with flash and immediately see the results. I recommend using an accessory flash with a dedicated flash cord so you can get the flash off camera. The off-camera flash really “dresses up” the look by allowing some dimensional qualities to the light. You can hold the camera off camera and point it at the subject. Wireless flash don’t always work well for this type of shooting.
The easiest way to do this is to use Manual exposure and set your exposure to underexpose the scene. Take a test shot without the flash to be sure you are underexposing the scene. Then use the flash normally so it gives the proper exposure to your subject. On most cameras that just means using the flash set to normal E-TTL auto — the flash and camera will work together to create an exposure based on the f-stop used for your exposure. Then check your LCD to see the results.
Posted in Digital Photo Techniques, Nature | 3 Comments »
April 1st, 2008 Rob Sheppard
Sometimes photographers will want to try to match the original subject in a photograph. There is nothing wrong with that, but it can cause some unneeded problems for many photographers. First, unless you are doing advertising product photography, no one in the world will ever ask to see the original subject. Second, all photography is an interpretation (including the photo as it comes straight from the camera) — you have to decide if an interpretation is appropriate to your subject AND your intent. Third, what a subject looks like in the real world is never what it looks like in a photograph simply because the photograph is not the subject, but a representation of it. And one more — the subject itself changes in color and appearance throughout the day because of light, background changes and so forth, so what exactly is “real?” I am not one for changing the world in a photograph, but I am also realistic that a photograph is not the same thing as the world. The reason I say this is because as a photographer, you will really limit yourself, even if you do perfectly realistic work, if you start thinking what is in a photograph is “real.” Andreas Feininger talked about these issues in his classic photo books that were very popular 30-40 years ago — way before the computer. Plus, if “being real” were the main thing to think about, no nature photographer could have shot with the very popular Velvia film (which all pros used).
Posted in Digital Photo Techniques, Nature, Photoshop | Comments Off
April 1st, 2008 Rob Sheppard
Photodigitary is my (Rob Sheppard’s) blog about digital photography. I will be offering ideas, tips and analysis about digital photography, from digital cameras to Photoshop to Lightroom to digital nature photography and more. Much of this will be based on questions I get from students of my workshops and seminars as well as questions I get from people reading my books. I love photography, especially digital photography and nature photography, plus I have a bit of experience with it from 12 years of experience in the industry as editor of Outdoor Photographer magazine, one of the founders of PCPhoto magazine (and the first editor), and now editor-at-large for Outdoor Photographer. I have done nearly 25 books and hundreds of workshops and classes around the country. I try to bring that experience to folks through my books, classes and articles, but I get so many questions (and there is so much misleading information about digital), that I decided to start this blog. Hope it helps!
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
