Editing

Editing Firework Images

Editing Firework Images

Professional shows are quite expensive so, with the exception of a grand finale, the fireworks are sparingly launched one or two at a time. As much as I enjoy a nice image of a single firework, I really want an image that captures the spirit of the evening. So, let’s create a composite image that combines several of the single images into one spectacular photograph.

Make The Most of a Mediocre Image

Make The Most of a Mediocre Image

Now there are a lot of things you can do to polish an image like this. In Lightroom, you can adjust your white balance and tone until it looks right to you. You can also use a program like Luminar or Skylum’s Aurora to process the image. Remember it’s like cooking - do what you like until you like it. What I want to focus on today are two other changes that I made to the image that made a significant improvement to the image.

Data Driven Photoshop

Data Driven Photoshop

If you’ve ever wanted to make some good looking name badges for an event, chances are you created a nice Photoshop file and spent hours editing the text layer that had the persons name. Edit, print, edit, print, edit, print, and on and on.  But, there is a better way and it's been hiding in Photoshop for years. Create hundreds of variable images in just minutes!!

Is "Getting It Right In The Camera" Even Possible?

Is "Getting It Right In The Camera" Even Possible?

This is not an editing how-to post. But it is a little bit of a wake up call to remind us all that with a very slight bit of what I call "polishing", we can make improvements that we simply were never able to do in my film days. There were the usual filters we could stack in front of our lenses but we had no control over the amount of any filtration effect.

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The Portfolio - Never a Second Chance

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The Portfolio - Never a Second Chance

Regardless of your method of presenting your work, the fact is that nothing you can do is more important than your content. No one cares how much trouble it was for you to get a specific picture and nobody cares about the story behind the image. They simply care about the quality of the image. 

When Do You Choose to Convert to Black and White?

When Do You Choose to Convert to Black and White?

All photographers share thinking as to how we work, edit, compose our images, even camera technique from time to time. One of the other things we all share is the internal battle we often have as to when we convert to black and white and when we leave an image in color. Of course this is usually subject specific. But at times a black and white can simply make an image come to life.

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The World of PRE-touching Your Images

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The World of PRE-touching Your Images

Consider the image in which there is an exposure issue. Of course with today's high res RAW files we can correct enormous changes in exposure with controls available in post-production. But the habit of doing so and the time invested are two of the main reasons to make the correction at the time of capture. For each image you open in Photoshop to edit, you'll double or triple the time IF you have to continually make global adjustments for the exposure or color balance.  

Metadata

Metadata

The metadata in your image file provides many benefits. For example, the camera settings that are stored in the metadata help your image editor render a proper image. You can also include your personal copyright information in an effort to protect your image. Information about the image, such as keywords, a description and title can also be included. All this helps identify and organize your image library and supports archiving and preservation of the images.