July 30th, 2008 Rob Sheppard
I have been increasingly using Lightroom as my main way of working with digital images. With Lightroom 2 now fully part of my workflow, I probably go to Photoshop 10% of the time I used to spend with it. This workflow is so great that when I went to do an HDR (high dynamic range) image, I really lost the flow. It was almost disruptive to go to a new program, Photomatix, even though the results were great.
Then I discovered a brief note in Photoshop User about a plug-in for Lightroom that gives HDR type of results directly from Lightroom. It is LR/Enfuse from Timothy Armes photography (www.timothyarmes.com). I had heard about the enfuse products from a participant in a program I was doing at a NANPA Road Show this spring (www.nanpa.org). He had said they do a better, more natural job than Photomatix.
I had to try this! HDR results directly from Lightroom! That means you could tweak the original files in Lightroom before making the jump to HDR. I found the LR/Enfuse plug-in works quite well — and all in a great workflow. The results are very natural and definitely not as saturated as Photomatix. You cannot actually get the funky “HDR-look” that some people are using. I actually prefer the more natural look.
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July 29th, 2008 Rob Sheppard
In my classes with BetterPhoto.com, I continually run into students who are really hard on themselves. They think they should be perfect and only submit perfect assignments. I really think that can be counterproductive to learning to be a better photographer. It certainly wasn’t true of me as I was learning. I would constantly try things, screwing up all sorts of images, but I learned. If I wanted to learn about a new lens, for example, I would take it out and shoot lots of good, bad and even dumb photos. That was in the days of film, too, when it actually cost you a bit to do that (cost of film and processing). I learned from my mistakes and the dumb things as much as the good pictures.
Learning to be a better photographer will mean learning some new things. You don’t have to understand everything to try. I often tell my Photoshop and Lightroom workshops that if you aren’t sure of something, try it! Think of a child. No child asks for permission to do stupid things as he or she learns something extremely difficult such as walking or talking.
Often in my beginning classes and workshops I will start with what I call the four letters to success in digital photography. They are I…C…A…N. They turn into “I can!” I have taught hundreds of people these ideas and everyone of them gets these ideas and incorporates them at some level into their photography. I have to believe anyone can, too! It may require you to try some new things, even fail at new things, but if you do, I guarantee your photography will improve.
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July 16th, 2008 Rob Sheppard
Layer masks are an important part of Photoshop (and Photoshop Elements, too, with adjustment layers — the attached photo is actually from Elements, but everything is identical in Photoshop). Layer masks are not intuitive, however, and take some practice (this is why I am so excited about Lightroom 2 which gives local control without you having to use masks). They are, to me, absolutely vital if you want to get the most from adjustment layers and your photograph. If you are add an adjustment layer, you automatically get a layer mask.
I am going to give some tips on what you can do in order to start working with those layer masks and understand how they work. It is important to understand that layer masks can only do one thing — affect what is happening on that layer. They can turn the effect of a layer on or off, actually allowing the effect or blocking it. So if you don’t want something to happen, say too much brightness on part of a subject when you use Curves to brighten the image, you can block that effect just in one area.
Black in the layer mask blocks the effect, while white allows it. It doesn’t matter what the effect is, black blocks it, white allows it. If you lighten a photo, putting black in will block the lightening and make that part of the photo darker (make it revert to a different state). If you darken a photo, putting black in will block the darkening and make that part of the photo lighter. I know this is not intuitive, but if you keep the idea clear that the layer mask can only affect the layer, it is less confusing.
Here is something you can do in order to better see how layer masks work. Add a Hue/Saturation layer mask to your photograph. Then click on Colorize at the bottom right. Your photo will now be colored. You can adjust the color with hue and saturation.
Now set your foreground color to black (this is the top color of the two colors at the bottom of the Toolbox at the left — the little arrow icon and black/white squares will help you get to black on top, the foreground color). Pick a large paint brush (adjust brush size in the options bar below the menus) and paint over the photo. The black will block the effect of the Hue/Saturation layer as it works on the layer mask. You can make X’s, designs, whatever you want, and you will see the effect directly because the color will disappear wherever the black is applied. Bring the color back by changing the brush to white and painting with that.
You can also do something similar with a Brightness/Contrast layer. Add this layer and darken the photo a lot by moving the slider a bit to the left. Now use a black brush to remove that darkening. Play with it, see what happens with large and small brushes. Then use white to paint it back.
Do this and you will now likely be able to work with layer masks. It does take some practice to master, however, so be persistent and stay with it.
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July 15th, 2008 Rob Sheppard
I just had one of my BetterPhoto.com publication photography students ask me about digital techniques — what do publications find acceptable or not acceptable. This is not a simple question and I could spend a lot of time on the answer. I have talked a bit about this in my columns for Outdoor Photographer (Digital Horizons), which are available on the OP website (www.outdoorphotographer.com). Also, I have talked about this issue and HDR in this blog.
First off, you will find a lot of folks in the business (like me) separate enhancement from manipulation. The distinction is important. Enhancement optimizes or brings out the best from a photograph. Manipulation changes it from the original scene. Most publications are fine with some sort of enhancement. Some publications will use manipulated images, too, though they will often call these “photo illustrations.”
Publications really vary as to what they will or won’t accept. Partly this is due to digital being so new. This is also due to the fact that many editors and art directors are baby boomers (my generation) who were never comfortable with computers, never got into the business to deal with digital stuff, and still don’t completely like it. Not knowing better, or even fearful of the technologies, they will often put arbitrary restrictions on digital photography that have no basis in reality. But these become rules that a photographer has to pay attention to if he or she wants to work for individual publications.
I think photo enhancement techniques including photo-stitching, multiple exposure blending techniques and HDR are not only acceptable, but actually allow us to show reality. They offer us the possibility of truly capturing images from the world as we see the world, not simply limited by camera technology. This has the potential of really helping us as photographers better communicate about the way the world really is, as compared to the limited world that is captured by traditional photographic techniques. Still, there are a lot of fears by the above-mentioned baby boomers, and therefore, added restrictions.
There is the question, should a photographer “disclose” these things at the time of submission? I think if you are doing severe manipulation of the image, yes, that should be disclosed. However, if you are bringing a photo closer to the real world, I don’t see the point. There are those who disagree with that, but I believe if we are to always disclose techniques just because they are techniques, then all photographers must disclose any artificial techniques, which would include flash and graduated neutral density filters (have you ever seen flash in nature? or graduated neutral density filters?).
We will be dealing with these issues for years as digital technology gradually becomes more a part of photography … and frankly, when baby boomers retire!
Posted in Digital Photo Techniques, Photoshop | 2 Comments »
July 9th, 2008 Rob Sheppard
I just got back from a great trip to the Eastern Sierras. This also turned out to be a trip through the smoky mountains. All the fires of northern California are putting a lot of smoke into the air and it is drifting into Owens Valley. Route 395 goes up the valley and normally provides great views of the mountains on both sides (the Sierras on the West, the Inyos on the East), but at times on this trip, you could hardly see them. It did make for some challenging photography of the mountains, although when you went to higher elevations, the smoke was gone. Fire is a challenge for people. It is also an interesting part of nature and affects our photography. Now it is making the mountains hazy. Later, it will change the landscapes where it burned, sometimes offering very interesting opportunities for photography. There are some dramatic photo possibilities with fire, but it is also very dangerous, so I would not suggest that. I grew up with Smoky Bear telling us all that we needed to prevent forest fires. Well, now we are discovering that fires are important parts of many ecosystems. The problem comes when people build houses into fire prone areas. I could not believe it when I heard about people building homes in the Lake Tahoe area and their attitudes. They were building right where a fire had wiped out houses and had deliberately exploited a loophole in building permits so they could build houses that were not adequately protected from fire! They said it was too expensive! Now I suppose they will expect all of us taxpayers to bail them out when fire comes again — their callous attitude makes it too expensive for us! These are lands that burn naturally. We cannot afford to provide fire protection for people who are idiots, I believe. As a nature photographer, I believe I should be photographing all parts of nature, not just the pretty postcard shots. Fire is part of that and I will be looking to find ways to capture the effects of fire, good and bad, in my photography. I have done some fire photography in Florida, and I have shot the resprouting chaparral of California. The burning is dramatic, but I don’t see a lot of photography of the way nature responds to fire. 
This shot is from a prescribed burn in Sequoia National Park. It is interesting that Smoky the Bear has made most people think fire is bad, yet in this case, it is critical to keeping the ecosystem healthy. A problem with fire is that a lot of wild fires across the country are started by people, sometimes by accident, sometimes maliciously. This means that natural areas sometimes burn more often than they should, and this always tends to increase problems with homes being threatened. My hope is that we can find ways of living with fire as it naturally affects ecosystems, that we can build homes that are safe from fire, and that as photographers, we can find ways of photographing all parts of this natural process.
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July 8th, 2008 Rob Sheppard
My friend, Bill Neill, recently completely rejuvenated his wonderful book of landscape photography, Landscapes of the Spirit, as an e-book. Landscapes of the Spirit — Digital Edition has been created as a high quality PDF from the original book. This beautiful book first came out in 1997, but now Bill has revitalized it, getting even better renditions of the original images because of new, high res scans and optimization work in Photoshop.
The book is available for $15 from Bill’s website, www.williamneill.com/books/spirit3.html. This is really a bargain for seeing some wonderful nature photography that will inspire you both in terms of the photography and Bill’s sensitivity to the natural world.
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