I always love to learn a new technique or trick in Photoshop or Lightroom. I also like to share the stuff that I learn. In this section you can find articles, ideas, and video tutorials about some of the things I’ve learned. I also plan to set up a suggestions and question page, where you can ask me stuff. I love getting mail.
My tutorials are not exactly a tour of Photoshop. Rather, my approach is to demonstrate tools and techniques by using them in real-world situations. I also like to keep tutorials short and to the point, focusing on a narrow range of techniques in each one. As I work, I will try to drop helpful hints and insights into what I’m doing and why, as well as including any related information and resources elsewhere in the post. Please let me know how you are liking these tutorials – your comments and suggestions will help me to refine the way I do this. Thanks for watching. -m
Sensitivity Training
The ISO capabilities of current camera models is remarkable. Sometimes I’ll go out late at night just for the fun of shooting at 25,600. But while it’s great to have the possibility of capturing a low-light shot that would not have been possible only a few years ago, many people overestimate the implications. While an expanded ISO range allows us to capitalize on a lower quantity of light, this does nothing to help us toward better quality of light. Case in point: I was asked to take a few photos at a Sunday...
read moreExposure Explained–Part I
Exposure is the concept most fundamental to photography. It is simple and complex at the same time. First, to put it simply, exposure is the total amount of light that is allowed to strike the camera sensor to create an image. There it is – simple, huh? But when we talk about exposure in photography, we usually aren’t just talking about an abstract concept, but rather the means by which we control exposure. It is rather useless to state that we “exposed a sensor to light” unless we can somehow express how much light the sensor was...
read moreThe Long Breath Before The Plunge
In my previous post I used the simple analogy of filling up a bath tub to illustrate the concepts of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. I said that aperture is comparable to how far the faucet is turned on, shutter speed compares to amount of time the water is left running, and ISO is like the size of the tub. I also made the points that light levels vary depending on where we are and when and that not just ANY exposure settings will do. Remember, our bath tub is a certain size and “correct exposure” depends on filling it the “right”...
read moreA Before & After
For the photo below, I had found a high vantage point that allowed me a downward view of the concrete staircase. This was important to the composition because it allowed me to exclude many other background elements along the grassy hillside, such as trees and other people. This greatly simplified the composition, but it still contained no real center of interest. So I waited with my camera poised until this guy came along. I took a few shots as he passed through the scene, but this is the one I liked best. So now my photograph contains a...
read moreGet In Close
Long before I was a photographer, I watched the movie Sabrina. Not the old one, but the one starring Harrison Ford as Linus and Julia Ormond as Sabrina. In the movie, Sabrina is something of an amateur photographer and Linus asks her to take a few shots of his apartment for sale. So she asks him what shots he wants, and he says something like, “Everything. All of it.” I never forgot her response: “You know, sometimes MORE isn’t better. Sometimes it’s just MORE.” I didn’t know that one day I would be applying the same principle to...
read moreRemoving Blemishes
Before getting your hands dirty with skin softening, it is essential to be sure that the skin is free of undesirable blemishes. In this basic tutorial, I’ll show you how to use Photoshop’s Healing Brush to take care of this routine task. ▶ JavaScript required to play this video.
read moreMetering Modes
Getting comfortable with the three elements of exposure – aperture, shutter speed, ISO – is the fundamental first step in learning photography. But many do not fully appreciate the importance of understanding their camera’s metering system. Your camera’s built-in light meter is a valuable tool to help you make decisions about your exposure settings. Any DSLR or advanced compact camera will have a variety of metering modes that can help in various shooting situations. Try an experiment: set your camera on a tripod in Av mode and compose...
read more10 Things You Need To Learn About Photoshop
I’m obsessive about telling photographers to approach Photoshop AS photographers. About 90% of the stuff in there is not going to be very useful to you, so start by learning a handful of things that WILL be. This makes the process of learning much more manageable. Imagine learning arithmetic by throwing in a couple of trigonometry problems here and there. Another upshot is that once you’ve got a handle on some fundamentals, you’ll be more comfortable working with the interface, and you can then explore a little more easily on your own....
read moreTop 10 Keyboard Shortcuts For Photoshop
I used to think that learning keyboard shortcuts was a waste of time because I didn’t believe they could actually speed up my work in Photoshop. But once I took the time to learn a couple, I realized that they aren’t difficult to remember and they really are fast when you find yourself running a particular command repeatedly. While PS allows you to create custom keyboard shortcuts for your most-used commands, I’ve found the default ones to be about all I need, and I’ve compiled a list of my top 10 shortcuts to share with you because...
read moreKeep It Simple
Starting out in photography can be difficult when your head is spinning with concepts and techniques whose relationships you haven’t even begun to understand yet. Shutter speed, f-stop, focal length, depth-of-field, composition… Trying to put all the pieces together into one photograph can be overwhelming, so here’s my advice: Don’t bother. Try breaking all of this down into projects and spend a chunk of time on each concept. If you’re trying to get a handle on depth-of-field, for example, spin your mode dial to Av and go for a walk....
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