Category Archives: Tutorial Update
Portraits and HDR
I made a New Year’s Resolution that I would fix the HDR and people problem. You know the nasty gritty look people get when you HDR them? My wife says they look dirty, I even did an HDR of our newborn son and she said he looked dirty, so even the cleanest people appear dirty in HDR! Well I think I may have solved the problem… Unfortunately for you, you have to stare at my ugly mug being doctored up for the next 5 minutes or so. Take a look at the before and after:
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Cataloging Tutorial Update
My buddy Matt over at Redbubble pointed out a flaw in my cataloging post processing tutorial. I forgot to mention the program I use to see my raw images as a viewable picture thumbnail. This is actually a huge flaw in my tutorial and Matt was kind enough to point it out tactfully! Thank you Matt 
It is nice to know someone reads my tutorials!
I use a program called “Fast Picture Viewer” Codec Pack. This is one of the most valuable pieces of software in my arsenal! I can actually see my .orf (Olympus Raw Format) images as thumbnails! At the low cost of 14.99. While that seems like a lot of money for a raw codec, I see it as an invaluable resource. If you look at time as money, this application just paid for itself in 18 minutes, I charge $55 an hour.
Installation is extremely simple. Run the app after downloading, select your cameras RAW format, and you are free to view your RAWs!
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Even Clearer HDR Skies
A while ago back in October I posted a tutorial on how to clean up HDR skies. It turns out that I am not pleased with it at all, and would almost say it sucks, however, it does have it’s uses at times. I will leave it up. The new and improved method is much easier, and yields much more satisfying results with edge glow, horizon halos, sky flares, or just damn annoying white areas. Whatever you want to call them, I figured out a really quick, “DOLT! Why didn’t I think of that?” method for fixing them. Many times I will process two HDR images from the same exposure set, one for the detailed landscape, and another for the tricky skies. Sometimes I forget, sometimes I am lazy, and sometimes I really like that sky going on except for the glow around the horizon. If you have ever had this problem this method is for you!
Even Better HDR Skies
Here is another image from Yosemite that I loved but the horizon flare was killing me. Now you could cut and paste a sample from above or use the stamp tool, but all of those are difficult to get as natural looking as possible. I prefer to use the stamp tool for very small details, this one isn’t so small.
How it is done:
- Open your image in Photoshop, you know the one with the bad nasty sky flares.
- Make a selection for the sky on your background image. I like to use the Quick Selection Tool (W on the keyboard), but by all means, use the lasso, or the “Anything BUT Magic Wand”.
- Right click the Background layer with the selection still made and select Duplicate Layer.
- Once the Background Copy is present, add a layer mask to it.
- You have just put a layer mask on your background copy, the land and water mass have now been replaced with a black mask. Removing the background from view will show your background copy is just the sky.
- Right click the background copy and once again select duplicate layer.
- You can de-select the selection now, we have 2 layers with masks.
- Press and hold Alt (Option key for the inferior Mac users), and in between layers Background Copy 2 and Background Copy, left click the little line.
- This should bring an arrow on the Background Copy 2 layer that points down to the Background Copy layer.
- You have just told Background Copy 2, “Hey, whatever I do to you, no matter what it is, move you or increase your size or skew your perspective, make you so big you go off the screen…. absolutely no matter what I do to you, you MUST stay within the boundaries of the Background Copy. HA….Ha“
- This is where the magic happens, I am excited for those who have never used this capability. Really, I am, you should see the smile on my face.
- With Background Copy 2 selected, press Edit>Free Transform, or ctrl+T (command+T for Mac aliens).
- Now pull down the middle box on the bottom, just enough to cover up those ridiculous Horizon flares.
- Press Enter or double click in the transform box when you are done, and… oh wait, you are done!
- Well you could always put some adjustment layers on there too.
- There she is, complete. This may not be new to you, but I thought it was worth the tutorial.
- That took me about an hour and 20 minutes to create the tutorial, it should only take you 3 minutes to do the steps, no reason not to try it eh?
Have a great, but safe, Holiday weekend everyone! And while you are up for the Black Friday Sales, can you grab me a Zuiko 9-18mm Lens please?
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Something Different!
So I did some more research and decided I needed to update an old tutorial with some new information. I updated the Black and White conversion tutorial to show the conversion techniques effect on a custom made CMYK/RGB/WK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue, White, Black) color wheel. I was astonished by some of the results. I hope it helps you make the appropriate decision when converting your images to the grayscale. For me, it really cleared my blurry eyes on such a seemingly simple task. I have also attached the color wheel to the end of the post, if you make it that far.
All of the new content will be posted in BLUE for those of you who have already read it through.
Convert me to Grayscale....Go ahead, make my millennium!
