Getting Depth And Dimension Using Lightroom's Adjustment Brush

The first thing I'd like to do is thank Steve over at Photoshop: Senior Edition for picking up the posts here on the Gallery, giving proper credit and passing along the info.  I got a kick out of the video he did exploring adding a Luminosity Adjustment Layer to images in order to fine tune the colors.  Thanks Steve.  Let's get together to discuss how we can add benefit to both blogs.  BTW:  Photoshop: Senior Edition can be found by clicking this link.

Now, about today's image.  Basically it's a shot of a knot in a piece of sawn barn board.  It's a plain old flat chunk of wood.  The depth from the high spot to the lowest spot is probably no more than a sixteenth of an inch, but notice how it appears to come forward in the image and drop off on a completely different plane.  All images taken in a RAW space are pretty much flat.  A little interest can be added using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom's (LR) Highlights, Shadows and Contrast sliders, but it is kind of limited.  Back in the days of film and darkrooms people made print after print Dodging and Burning small areas to either bring the area forward of push it back in the print.  We "should be" doing the same thing today, but we don't have to blow several sheets of expensive photographic paper to see our progress.  To find out how to using LR's Adjustment Brush to Dodge and Burn, hit the "Read More"

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Adding Dramah With Photoshop Blend Modes

First, I know.  Drama is misspelled in the title, but there's a reason.  The shot is of Egg Rock Light in Frenchman's Bay Maine.  And "Mainer's" from down east put an upward tick of "ah" on almost any word ending a sentence. That's my justification and I'm sticking to it.  The "big question" posed by today's image is "how many shots does it take to make a dramatic image?"  Well in this case the answer would be three and it might not be the three you might think.  I'm kind of notorious for replacing uninteresting skies, but that "ain't" it.  That's the sky that was there when we were there.  It's not the lighthouse 'cause that's what I was taking a picture of.  There's a saying about once you rule everything else out the answer must be what's left, no matter how improbable that might be.  What's left, in this case, is the waves.  To find out how they got there, hit the "Read More".

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Taming The Sun Using Lightroom

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  (Hmmm, pretty catchy.  Someone ought to use that as the opening line of a book or something.)  Anyway, I was out shooting with some friends on Saturday.  One of the group had arranged for us to go to a horse farm here in Connecticut.  As far as the day goes (end of October) you couldn't ask for a better day to be outside in the fresh air.  As far as shooting goes, yuck!  Brilliant blue skies with the sun shining down mightily.  The only way (for me) was to shoot for the shadows and bring the hot areas back in post processing.  To find out what else went on, hit the "Read More".

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Using Photoshop Luminosity Blend Modes To Control Color

Where have we been lately?  There's been no posts in almost a month (give or take).  Well, for most of that time I've just been lazy, but for ten days we were running around the great state of Maine.  It helps to have friends.  Doris has reconnected with someone we went to high school (a long time ago) with.  She just happens to have a house in Maine, on the ocean, with a direct view of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park.  For the second year she's just tossed us the key to the front door and said "go have fun".  We did.  We spent seven days at her beautiful place.  (Thanks J.) We've been going to Maine every October for at least the past ten years and before that we'd go at other times of the year.  There's been two "bucket list" targets in Maine for a while now.  One was shooting West Quoddy Head Lighthouse and the other checking out (and shooting) Baxter State Park.  Got to do both this year and I'm guessing you can tell today's image is not from the lighthouse.  To see how the colors were drawn out of today's image, hit the "Read More".

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Using Photoshop Layers To Fill In What's Not There

I'm reasonably good at making Masks.  I use Adobe Photoshop's (PS) Quick Selection Tool (W) and Topaz Labs' Remask and PS's Calculations.  Whatever  is the best tool for the task at hand.  But, sometimes things slip through the cracks or are too much trouble to bother with.  Take a look at today's image. There's a lot of fringe down at the bottom of the dancer's regalia.  The background was a mess.  People standing around, other dancers, banners, tents, evergreen boughs, speakers, and all sorts of other "stuff".  The fringe wasn't a big problem to extract.  The big deal was tiny tips of the feathers and pom-pom in the headdress.  To find out what the solution was (at least the solution I used) to "getting" the detail, hit the "Read More".

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Scott Kelby's World Wide Photowalk

Well, it's that time of the year again.  Time for Scott Kelby's World Wide Photowalk.  I've participated in each year's walk.  Six as a walk leader (this will be the seventh) and last year we were attendees in two walks while we were in Maine.  One in the morning in Acadia National Park and an evening walk around Boothbay Harbor.  You can see the result of both places in one image if you look back through about a year's worth of posts.  This year I'm back to leading a walk.  A group that has been fairly faithful walkers asked me why I wasn't leading a walk last year and encouraged me to resume this year.  They've traveled a fair distance to be walkers, but I guess this year I pushed it too far.  Just in case you're curious and don't recognize the skyline in today's image, find out where our walk is this year by hitting the "Read More".

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What Do You Do On A Raining Day With Photoshop Lightroom?

I run into a lot (okay, some) people who are doing what's known as a 365 Project.  You can find many examples of such tasks on Flickr or some of the other social photography sites.  The trick is to take at least one photo every day for an entire year.  It is a good idea to live someplace that has beautiful clouds or sunsets every day, but most people don't live in Shangri-La or other Edenistic locales,  Most of us live in the real world.  Today's image gives those of us in not so pristine climates a chance to keep the momentum going.  It's simple to do and comes up with unique images.  I say unique because no two images are ever the same.  To learn what this "secret" technique might be, hit the "Read More".

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