Photography

My son carrying the flag in remembrance of those w ...Remembrance

by Sarah Hipwell What is compositing? Simply, it means to combine two or more images to make a single picture. As a photographer, I’m constantly coming up with different concepts that I feel might make a good photo. But it is not always possible to get the perfect shot in one session. There have been numerous occasions while on a shoot where the light was not bright enough for the particular shot that I had in mind. On other occasions the background was too distracting. This is where the ability to create composite imagery in Photoshop is a huge advantage. To produce a composite image in Photoshop, you need to isolate the subjects from the background of your various source photos. When I started out, I used the pen tool to help isolate my subjects. Now, I use the ‘quick selection’ and ‘refine edge’ tools which are superb and are a much faster way of doing extractions, especially for isolating hair! But for this tutorial, I’m going to use the pen tool to create a path which I then save this as an alpha channel selection. I believe the pen tool should never be overlooked as an excellent way for beginners to increase their proficiency level with Photoshop. If you are new to using the pen tool, it does take a bit of getting used to but after time, you will pick up speed and accuracy. The big plus side to creating paths in this way is that they are re-editable and non-destructive. I have highlighted three key features: Selection. Good selections are critical for compository work Composition. Uniform color balance and light. Here’s the method: The Pen Tool – With the Pen Tool selected in the toolbar, choose a starting point on the photo, click and drag around the area to be selected. This will create a path outline to be saved in the Paths Palette. Place the images – When I want to bring other images into a composite, I prefer to Place them into the file. What this means is that the image is brought into your psd file on a separate layer as a Smart Object. The photo can be moved into position, made larger or smaller without affecting the quality. Match Color – When all the elements of the photo are edited and in place, I use Match Color tool as an effective way to balance the color between the two images. I took the photo above for a concept shot titled ‘Recycled toilet paper’. I wanted a bright blue sky with white fluffy clouds as the background. The above shot did not have the background that I wanted. So I waited a couple of days and I got the shot I wanted. See below: I made my selection using the pen tool to isolate the toilet rolls and clothesline. Zoom in up to 300 – 400% to get a good outline, as shown below. Holding down the Alt/Ctrl key enables you to move anchor points and direction lines and again make any edits to your lines and curves. When you have finished plotting your anchor points, you can then save this outline in the Paths Palette. This selection can then be added as a layer mask. It should resemble the black and white image on the right below. I imported the new sky background by going to the File menu and select Place. The image then appeared as a Smart Object and on a separate layer. I had to reduce the size but the quality of the image was maintained. When I was happy with the position of the new sky background, I merged all the layers onto one. I used a keyboard shortcut (Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E) to achieve this. The reason for this is that the next adjustment isn’t non-destructive so that if I want to redo this edit, I would have to delete the layer and repeat the above step again. The final adjustment was to go to Image menu and select Match Color to make sure the color is balanced between the two images. Using Image>Adjustments>Match Color I played with the two sliders to get the color of the image more uniform in appearance. See the link below where I uploaded the final composite image to iStockphoto.com http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-6231026-recycling-toilet-paper

Dormant Oaks, Winter Mists Dormant Oaks, Winter Mists. Yosemite Valley, California. February 23, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved. Dormant oak trees silhouetted against winter morning mists and cliffs, Yosemite Valley, California This is an alternate version of a photograph that I shared earlier. Back in February I was in Yosemite Valley briefly for the opening of the annual Yosemite Renaissance exhibition, and this gave me one day to photograph there in interesting conditions. While the most familiar images of the Valley for most people probably involve waterfalls and spring or summer sunshine on granite (with a few well-known exceptions!), my favorite conditions involve snow, clouds, mist, and perhaps even a bit of rain. All of those were present on this day! I was up quite early, and since we stayed in the Valley it was only a matter of taking a short walk and I could begin shooting. For a place that can be impressively or even depressingly crowded at certain times of the year, it is possible to find near-solitude on a cold and wet winter morning just before dawn, even in places that would typically be quite crowded during popular times of the year. In fact, this photograph was made from a shuttle bus stop not far from Yosemite Falls! I had been photographing nearby meadows and trees when the mist turned to sprinkles and then to rain, and I went to the shuttle stop to find temporary cover under its roof – only to realize that some interesting shots might well be possible from under this shelter! G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell. Photographs, text and other media in this RSS news feed from the G Dan Mitchell Photography blog are © copyright G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved. This web site news feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.

A warm, sensual and evocative 70's-ish story by Fashion Photographer Debora Barnaba to take in and enjoy...

This was one of my first lightning pictures, and t ...Lightning strike!

NEW: Minolta MAXXUM AF 20mm f/2.8 Review. Minolta 20mm f/2.8. Works great on Sony Alpha!

This weekend only: save 20% off your entire purchase at Luminescence of Nature Press when you use code: memorial13 at checkout. More details here. Offer expires at midnight MDT on Monday, May 27th.

Understanding a camera's shutter speed will improve your photography. This explanation of fast and slow shutter speed, and how they work with the aperture, really will help you take better photos!

system camera? Why not - they offer great flexibility, but without the bulk of a digital SLR. The best system cameras offer top quality images in a small package. Advice on whether they are suitable for you