Ever wondered how ??
This is my place for tips and tricks, camera and photoshop.
I use Photoshop 7 (PS7) but most of the tips will also work in newer versions.. CS2 & 3..and LR. Good workflow will also be looked at.
Camera work will also be featured for both new photographers and the more experienced.
Your Camera.
Dust Spots ! If you begin to notice dark specks in your photos when you're using a digital SLR don’t become alarmed and wonder if you will need to shell out more money for a new camera. The problem is simply dust on your sensor.
Dust specks that collect on the camera sensor can create dark spots on your photographs.
When you switch lenses on an SLR it is easy for dust to get inside the camera and settle on the sensor, which will, in turn, create small dark spots in the pictures you take.
Your camera may already have a built-in sensor-dusting function, but most cameras will still require a careful manual cleaning.
Digital Photos - What to do with them! Once you actually start using your digital camera, you will undoubtedly find that digital pictures take up a lot of space on your computer. you'll either need to buy a gigantic hard drive or look into detachable storage options. (External Hard Drives that connect to USB ports are getting quite cheap and worth thinking about)
Personally I think that DVD-ROMs are the best way to go. Blank DVD-ROM disks are inexpensive and can be read by every computer made. (please do not use cheepo ones, buy good quality branded name if you don't want probelm).These days most computers come with DVD-RW drives for "burning" DVD-ROMs; if you don’t have a machine with an internal DVD-RW drive external drives are available. Always make 2 copies of your RAW or Jpeg files, one for achiving and the other as a working copy. Remeber these pics cannot ever be replaced so it worthwhile learning how to store them properly.
Before you decide to burn a DVD, it is important to know what kind of DVD you would like to burn. Depending on the type of DVD, will usually determine the process in which you burn it. Usually the three most common types of DVD's to burn are Data DVD's, Multimedia Files to a DVD and making a copy and burning a commercial DVD.
Burn Data to a DVD Burning normal everyday data is the easiest of the three ways to burn a DVD. The reason being is that ordinary data such as documents, spreadsheets, database files, back ups, etc only require general DVD burning software and you do not require any special kind of decryption or region specific software. The Data that you burn can easily be played on any type of computer with a DVD drive.
Usually you will need to purchase or download the many free DVD burning software titles. For many computer that are purchased new, DVD burning software already comes installed and configured for your machine and DVD burner. You just need to open up your DVD burner software, choose to burn a DATA DVD and follow the prompts. You can usually burn a full length DVD, which is about 4.7 GB of data in less than 20 minutes and even quicker with high speed DVD burners.
I personally use a program called DEEP BURNER PRO for all my copying its free and very easy to use.
Camera Storage Cards
Memory cards, also popularly known as media cards and flash cards, are small, detachable devices the main purpose of which is electronic data storage. You can compare them to diskettes in this regard. Moreover, memory cards can store multiple types of data. They can store games and other applications, music; videos, pictures, documents, and a lot more.
Memory cards have various applications. They are commonly used for digital photography. They are also used as data storage modules for personal digital assistants (PDA), cell phones, portable music and video players, television, computers, printers, etc. Memory cards are very popular because they are small and portable, yet they have big storage capacities. They are also quite cost-effective because they can be used and reused.
There are different types of memory cards. Following are the main memory card variants.
Compact Flash Cards
Compact Flash cards, more popularly known as plain CF cards, are typically 36mm x 43mm and weigh around 3.3g. They come in two types, a thin one (around 3.3mm) and a thick one (around 5mm). These two types of CF cards are non-interchangeable because they require different types of card readers. Their storage capacity range from 32 Mb to 32 Gb.
Smart Media Cards
Smart Media cards are typically 45mm x 37mm and weigh around 2 g. They are very thin at only 0.76 mm. They used to be popular in digital photography but they have now been superseded by other media cards. When they were first manufactured, they were styled as the successor to floppy disks. They are compatible with most devices and there are adaptors that enable their use with devices with which they're not directly compatible. However, Smart Media cards have limited storage capacities with the maximum currently at only 128 Mb.
Secure Digital (SD) and Multimedia Cards (MMC)
Secure Digital cards and Multimedia cards look the same as both are around 32mm x 24mm. SD cards, however, are typically thicker and heavier at 2.1mm and 2g, respectively. However, there are now smaller and lighter SD cards popularly known as miniSD cards. SD cards also offer better security for they come with a data write protection switch. Multimedia cards do not have this security feature.
Memory Stick Memory
Sticks are so-named because they look like sticks of chewing gum. They come in a variety of sizes and were originally launched by Sony for use with the company's portable electronic devices and mobile phones. There is a Memory Stick Standard, the slimmer Memory Stick Duo, and the more advanced Memory Stick Pro. Commercially, Memory Sticks have a capacity of around 128 MB but Memory Sticks with 8-Gb capacity are already in the works. Their maximum storage capacity is pegged at 32 Gb.
xD Picture Cards
xD Picture cards were popularized by Fujifilm and Olympus. They are mainly used in digital cameras but are also used for digital voice recorders and more recently Fuji's MP3 player. They are typically 20mm x 25mm x 1.78mm in size and weigh around 2.8g.
What is a digital camera Raw file?
RAW is not an acronym for anything. If you think of the traditional meaning of raw, which means something that is unprocessed, and in a natural condition then you will have no trouble remembering what a RAW image is: an image containing unprocessed data. Think of RAW as the digital equivalent to a photo negative.
A Raw image is a true digital negative that has much more "data" than a jpg image at 12 or 14 bits instead of 8 bits, so it captures more tones and colors than a jpg file. It is not processed in the camera as to white balance, sharpness, color saturation, etc. as are jpg files. Raw offers more dynamic range from black to white and is less likely to clip highlights than jpg. Since you process the photos yourself, you can set the white balance and fix color casts, apply sharpening, adjust color saturation and you have more ability to salvage under- or over-exposed images. Jpg images area already "baked" when they come out of the camera so there is not as much leeway for making corrections to the image.
If you take a picture and save it as RAW data, you cannot view the image before it has been processed. It is necessary to move the RAW data image onto a computer and then convert it to an image file. This conversion process is referred to as the development process, similar to the development process for film.
When using film, a chemical development changes the light caught on the film into an image. However, when using RAW data from a digital camera, this development process is done digitally. Each digital camera maker has its own development engine with different characteristics, and image quality is greatly affected by this development engine. Some high-quality compact digital cameras and most SLR digital cameras have a function for saving RAW data that has not been converted to either JPEG or TIFF format. This means you can use other RAW develop software, allowing you to have more control over how your pictures are developed (converted to JPEG or TIFF).
Tips and Tricks. Photoshop.
Convert to Black and White in Lightroom (14 step routine)
STEP 1 Color or Black and White
In digital capture, one of the most important steps in black-and-white (B&W) conversion is making the decision to go with color or black-and-white. It takes vision to see beyond the complexity of color and imagine what the image would look like without color. Lightroom has a built-in shortcut that speeds up this process: Press the V key for a quick B&W conversion (and press it a second time to return to color). The B&W conversion may not be exactly what you want, but it will help you decide quickly if B&W is a good option.
STEP 2 Take a Snapshot
Before we begin the B&W conversion, we’ll take a snapshot of the color image. This will provide a built-in “history” that will give us the ability to jump back to color if the B&W conversion doesn’t work out. To create a snapshot, go to the Develop module, expand the Snapshots panel, click the + (plus sign), and name the snapshot “Color.”
Note: If you haven’t integrated snapshots into your photographic workflow, now’s the time to try it. Snapshots will speed up your workflow, helping you to accomplish more creative results.
STEP 3 Exposure
After pressing V to convert the image to grayscale, the next step is to dial in an initial exposure setting in the Basic Grayscale panel. For our example, we want to make sure we have good tonal range with detail in the shadows and highlights. We’re not interested in creating the ideal image, yet we want to set the stage for the more intense adjustments that we’ll be making later with the Grayscale and other sliders.
STEP 4 Darken the Sky
In many cases, when I convert to grayscale, my intent is to add a bit of drama, depth, and intrigue to the image—and this is definitely the case here. So, let’s begin by going to the HSL/Color/Grayscale panel and clicking on the word “Grayscale.” Next, we’ll click on the icon at the top-left corner of the Grayscale Mix panel (circled). This little tool is amazing! It allows us to adjust a grayscale image by clicking-and-dragging in the image. We then clicked in the sky near the horizon and dragged down to darken the sky.
STEP 5 Modify Grass
Now that the sky is in a good place, we need to work on the grass and the path. Our first plan of attack is to deepen the tones of the grass and here’s why: Our eyes are attracted to brightness and we want the path to become more dominant. To accomplish this, we can brighten the path or darken its surroundings. We’ll click on the grass using the same tool as in the previous step and drag down to darken the grass and the hills.
STEP 6 Brighten Path and Hills
To brighten the path and the distant hills, we’ll manually drag the sliders, so we need to click on the icon at the top-left corner of the Grayscale panel to turn off the click-and-drag functionality. It’s important to experiment because at times clicking-and-dragging works best because it can affect more than one slider. At other times, you’ll need to focus in on a particular color/tone with an individual slider.
STEP 7 Contrast with Tone Curve
I like to use the Tone Curve panel to fine-tune contrast; the intensity of the contrast is going to depend on the final output. In this case, I’m planning to print the image on one of my favorite papers—Epson Velvet Fine Art—so I’ve increased the contrast a little, knowing that when printed, the contrast will be backed off a bit due to the gamut of velvet papers. To achieve the desired contrast, we increased the Lights and Darks by clicking-and-dragging on the Tone Curve (or sliders).
STEP 8 Noise Reduction
For the next step—reducing the noise in the image—we need to focus on the sky because of its gradations in color and tone. When gradations “fall apart” in the sky, there’s nothing to hide them. In comparison, many potential problems are hidden by the texture of the grass. For this particular image, we went to the Detail panel and increased the Noise Reduction Luminance to 79.
Note: Before printing at a specific size/resolution, you’ll want to add a final touch of sky noise reduction in Photoshop (Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise).
STEP 9 Discovering Exposure Problems
In this next image, we’ll start by making some important corrections with the Exposure setting. The overexposure may not have been noticed because the vehicle is white. To train your eye to see exposure problems, go to the Develop module and press the J key to show/hide clipping (or click on the clipping icons at the top of the Histogram). The color-highlighted areas warn you of clipping and, as you can see, the front of the vehicle is overexposed.
Tip: Always press J at least once per image even if you think the exposure is okay.
STEP 10 Correcting Exposure
With the clipping warning visible, it’s now time to correct the exposure. Here, there are a number of paths that will lead to the same destination. (That’s one of the nice things about Lightroom: There’s no one prescribed way to achieve quality results.) For this image, we first lowered the Exposure and then increased the Recovery to 100. While making these adjustments, watch the clipping warnings. Next, we brought up the Fill Light and then increased Brightness and Contrast.
STEP 11 The Grayscale Mix
If you’ve ever mixed paint, you know that it’s a very fluid, give-and-take process. And so it goes with the Grayscale Mix (in the HSL/Color/Grayscale panel). To achieve the best mix, you need to modify one slider, then another, and then go back to the original slider. For this image, we’re interested in creating a high-contrast, moody effect so we’re going to keep things relatively bright and build up the contrast and tone. Thus, you can see the sliders mix and the resulting image at this stage.
STEP 12 The Tone Curve
The next step is to build up some contrast with the Tone Curve. Here, we’ve brought the Highlights down because we don’t want to lose highlight detail. Then we increased the Lights and decreased the Darks and Shadows.
STEP 13 Adding a Vignette
The Lens Corrections panel is where we’ll add the final dash of dramatic tone. Because we want to create a strong vignette, in the Lens Vignetting section we decreased the Amount to –55 and the Midpoint to 0—Amount controls intensity and Midpoint controls how far the vignette “reaches” toward the center of the frame. This tool was created to fix vignetting problems when shooting with a wide-angle lens, but here we’re using it for creative results. Typically after applying a vignette, you’ll need to go back to the Basic panel to increase Exposure or Brightness, which we did for our image.
STEP 14 Split Toning
For the final step, we decided to add some color using the Split Toning panel, which provides you with the ability to add color in the Highlights and Shadows. Click-and-drag the Hue slider to a specific color and then control the amount of color with the Saturation slider. Tip: When you first try Split Toning, it may seem a bit awkward because the Hue selection is difficult. Try this shortcut: Option-click (PC: Alt-click) and drag on the Hue slider and it will show you the Hue at 100%.