Dodging And Burning In Photoshop Using Curves

How would you like to have ultimate control of your dodging and  (D&B) in Adobe Photoshop (PS)?  I have to confess, lately I've been doing a lot of D&B using the Adjustment Brush in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (LR).  You can go either way, but last night I was asked about D&B in PS.  I've written about the technique a few times before, but I guess it's time to revisit it.  A buddy of mine has the "Photographer's Bundle" from Adobe.  She pays her $9.99 (in the US) each month and doesn't use LR at all.  She says she looked at it and thought it looked complex.  Complex?  Compared to PS it's simplicity itself.  Another friend in the conversation said he now uses LR for 90 - 95% of his work.  I agree, I probably use LR 100% of the time that I'm not doing composites or things that require Layers.  The only reason to go to PS is to do things that absolutely can't be done (or are easier to do in PS) in LR.  To find out how to use Curves Adjustment Layers in PS to do your D&B, hit the "Read More".
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Light Slashes As Lead In Lines In Photoshop

I've shown today's image to a couple friends and the reaction has been "nice composite".  The problem is --- it's not a composite.  It's the way it was actually taken. There was a guy walking up along the crest of the rocks.  The clouds were moving by at a pretty fast clip and the rocks at Pemiquid Light are that fantastic. You can find any shade of gray you'd like and the shades repeat and repeat.  The out building are painted the color red that you'd pick if you were creating a set for photography.  You can plant your tripod at any degree of a complete circle and get a good shot.  If you're travelling on Route 1 up the Maine coast you need to make Pemiquid one of your "must see" (must photograph) stops.  Stay at the Pemiquid Hotel and eat at Shaw's Wharf.  You'll have your dinner, sunset/night shoot, night's rest and sunrise shoot all laid out in front of you.  We've done it a couple times and it's a photographer's dream.  The hotel is a hundred yards from the gate of the lighthouse grounds and the lighthouse is a hundred yards past that.  To get to the site of today's image is another hundred yards past that.  You can definitely walk it, but if you have a truck full of gear like I do, you might want to bring the car down to the parking area and save yourself some huffing and puffing if you've left anything in the car.  If you're a frequent reader you probably know I can't leave well enough alone.  To see what was done to today's image, hit the "Read More".

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Playing With Luminosity Masks In Photoshop

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Today's image comes from the Wild Gardens of Acadia National Park in Maine.  We were walking in the Sieur de Monts Spring area along one of the boardwalks when we came upon this scene.  Since it was literary "off the beaten path" we thought it must have been the result of some of the wild life of the region tramping through.  You know wildlife, they don't read the signs.  Anyway, it was obvious that something big had been in the area.  The laid over grasses gave a clear path to the eye.  But, not so much in the camera.  My normal work flow just wasn't bringing out the detail I knew was there.  I've recently been reading about a technique I haven't used before, so I gave it a try.  To find out a little about "Luminosity Masks" (LM), hit the "Read More".

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What If Winston Link Had Photoshop?

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I'd guess I'd want to start this post with a little explanation of who O.Winston Link is.  He's a photographer and a chronicler.   Most of his train work was done between 1955 and the end of the great steam train era in 1960.  He lived just over the border from here in New York state.  The "focus" of his attention was the last large scale railroad to use steam, the Norfolk and Western in Virginia.  If you've followed the link above you saw that many of his B&W images were night shots of trains on the move.  Some of his shots involved fifty or more large flash bulbs to illuminate the trains as they sped by.  In today's image I used a somewhat simpler technique that can be revealed by hitting the "Read More".

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Hurray For Hollywood...and Photoshop

Today's image is just a little goof on the fact that the Academy Awards were last night.  Just in case some readers are too young to figure out what it's supposed to represent, it looks sort of like film did back in the day.  You'd have to thread some plastic (celluloid) through the camera on sprockets.  (Little wheels with teeth on them to engage the holes you see.)  Another limitations the young folks might not realize is that you had to change out the film after either twenty four or thirty six shots.  You couldn't shoot all day and then dump everything anywhere.  There was no preview screen and you didn't know if you got the shot until the slides or negatives were "developed" using chemicals.  My, how things have changed.  To get an idea of the steps used to make today's image, hit the "Read More". 
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A Little Automation In Photoshop

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I've done images similar to today's in the past.  A different cyclist, a baseball batter, a soccer goalie and at least a half dozen others.  I do like to do much of the work on an image "old school".  Rather than running wild with Adobe Photoshop's (PS) built in automations.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for automating things in day to day life.  While I was at Intel I gave a talk (probably about ten years ago) about how we had just bought a new washer and dryer and it was the last appliance I planned to buy that wasn't connected to the internet.  Since then we've bought a condo, redid the kitchen with new stove, refrigerator and microwave.  The clothes washer and dryer are also new.  None are a part of what came to be called "The Internet of Things".  It's still "just around the corner".  If you want to be entertained, get a copy of Bill Gates book "The Road Ahead".  It was written in 1995.  Twenty years ago.  You can see how wrong Gates was with his vision of what "tomorrow" would be like.  If you get a kick out of that, try Michio Kaku's book "The Physics of the Future".  He looks ahead one hundred years (in twenty five year increments) in several fields.  One thing I can tell you about either work.  They're both wrong.  You can grab any book that speculates about "the future" and you'll see --- they're wrong.  Not in concept or vision.  They'll be wrong in time.  Some things will get here slower than estimated and others will get here sooner.  To continue on this ramble, hit the "Read More".
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Simplicity Via Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

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Simplicity often should be honored in life and in photography.  I did another "simple" image a few posts ago.  It probably wound up being one of the top ten posts ever viewed on this blog.  So, simplicity is of interest to people following The Gallery.  I was flipping through some images this morning and came across this one.  It's a reed/branch/stick hanging above a frozen over pond.  To get an idea of how it was reduced down to it's simplest form, hit the "Read More"

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