Editor's Note: Lee presents a very powerful way of enhancing color and sharpening an image in this post. The video that concludes this post is an excellent tutorial with step by step instructions and explanations. These are advanced techniques. Here I submit, for your consideration, this step-by-step video on using Lab channels as the source for luminosity masks. This type of masking is all the rage right now, and you can find many tutorials about the general procedure all over the internet. There are even action that automatically generate … [Read more...] about Lab Luminosity Masks
Lee Varis
Owner at Varis PhotoMedia
Lee Varis is a Boston based photo-illustrator whose career in commercial photography spans four decades. His work includes movie posters (Star Trek,) albums, CDs, and magazines (Nat Geo, Fortune, PDN.) Lee is the author of the best selling Photoshop book “Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing and Retouching Faces and Bodies."
Latest posts by Lee Varis (see all)
- Lab Luminosity Masks - October 14, 2017
- Two Heads Are Better Than One – How to Deal with Bad Expressions - September 14, 2017
- Apple’s Automator – The Ultimate Workflow Tool - September 2, 2017
Two Heads Are Better Than One – How to Deal with Bad Expressions
How to deal with the unfortunate facial expression in group portraits Ah... it's that time again! The time when we are challenged to capture the idealized family portrait to send out to friends and family. To help you along, I'd thought I'd share a technique for a common problem with group portraits. Most of the time, but especially with shots including babies, if you have more than one person in the shot, someone is not going to look as good as the others in the shot. The example below shows two images from a recent photo shoot I did of my … [Read more...] about Two Heads Are Better Than One – How to Deal with Bad Expressions
Apple’s Automator – The Ultimate Workflow Tool
Imaging Workflow Beyond Lightroom & Photoshop Most of the time, photo-imaging workflow can be completely managed within the familiar applications of Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge, Photo Mechanic, etc... but occasionally it becomes necessary to go beyond the capabilities of these programs to automate more complex series of steps that involve multiple applications. Such was the case for me, when my friend Eduardo Angel asked me for a particular workflow solution – he wanted to have something he could drag a bunch of images onto, that would … [Read more...] about Apple’s Automator – The Ultimate Workflow Tool
How to Use a Digital Projector as a Glamour Spotlight
An Alternative to Focusing Fresnel Spot Light with the Benefit of Easy Custom Shapes I have been experimenting with digital projectors as a light source in my Glamour Photography Workshops. If you don't have access to large movie hot lights with focusing fresnel lens systems, a digital projector provides a wonderful simulation! You can create any imaginable shape to project in Photoshop and use the projector like a light source. The example below was created by strapping the projector to a platform attached to a light stand - this accessory … [Read more...] about How to Use a Digital Projector as a Glamour Spotlight
Architecture Interiors — The Broad Stage
Creating Panorama Scenes in Photoshop I did an exterior shoot for the Broad Stage back in 2011 (see the blog post here) and the next assignment was to document the interior for use on their website and in printed promotional materials. Besides its use in school programs the swank 500 seat theater is available for rent and is often used for major public performances. My job was to produce wide angle panoramas to show the space with and without crowds. I did quite a bit of other shooting as well, details, musicians and instruments but the main … [Read more...] about Architecture Interiors — The Broad Stage
Oben TT-100 Table Top Tripod
There some times when even a travel tripod is just too much to lug around, and sometimes you need to get really low, or switch quickly between tripod steady, and hand held without leaving a valuable full-size tripod unattended. Thats where a good table top tripod can come in handy—a table top tripod can also be easily stuffed into a camera bag for emergencies without jeopardizing the carry-on status of your gear. I submit for your approval, the Oben TT-100 Table Top Tripod: This little gem is a great addition to any photographers kit—it … [Read more...] about Oben TT-100 Table Top Tripod
How to Light Close-up Flower Photos with a Flashlight
Summer is Here - Time for Flower Photography I just thought I'd share a quick little lighting technique for your flower photography. Now that spring is past and summer is here, it is almost mandatory that, as photographers, we document the emergence of dormant life in the form of flower portraits. I have some lovely Amaryllis, just now blooming at my windows, and these make great subjects for close-up photography... It is very easy to get great close-up shots with limited depth of field, soft pastel colors, and gorgeous semi-abstract … [Read more...] about How to Light Close-up Flower Photos with a Flashlight
Gear Review: Oben Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod
Just Enough Tripod & Then Some At some point every photographer needs a tripod. How much tripod depends on the specific needs of the photographer—are you a landscape photographer, portrait photographer, still life, nature, or street photographer? Maybe you're all of these at one time or another. What kind of camera do you use? Do you favor big DSLRs, medium format, or are you old school, with a big-ass view camera? If you shoot with a giant , heavy camera, you probably already know you should have a big tripod—if you are in full-on Ansel … [Read more...] about Gear Review: Oben Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod
Lee Varis’ 10-Channel Workflow – Part-3
Picking up where we left off in part-2... Now for the really fun stuff... make a new empty layer at the top of the layer stack. Then select Image-> Apply Image... from the menu bar at the top... We are going to grab a copy of the b channel from the Lab document and put it into that empty layer. Set up the resulting dialog as shown... The grayscale "b" channel has a unique tonal rendering that makes it especially well suited to applying it in Overlay blend mode... This final Overlay blend darkens the sky … [Read more...] about Lee Varis’ 10-Channel Workflow – Part-3
Lee Varis’ 10-Channel Workflow – part-2
Picking up where we left off in part-1... Now lets look at enhancing the color saturation. Of course this could be done with a Hue/Saturation adjustment, but we will do this another way to gain access to the channels of the Lab version of this image. Duplicate the document (Image-> Duplicate...) check the Merged Layers checkbox & rename with Lab... Convert this duplicate to Lab... Now we will use a little trick to boost the saturation. First apply a Curves adjustment layer, but don't make any changes to the curve. Then … [Read more...] about Lee Varis’ 10-Channel Workflow – part-2
Lee Varis’ 10-Channel Workflow – part-1
Despite the wishes of most avid photographers, the photographic image is not really finished at the moment of capture. Every image can benefit with some level of post processing, even if it is just a modest adjustment in white balance or contrast. Most people never realize the potential of a captured image because they stop well before exploring all the enhancements that are possible. It is my belief that you don't know how good an image can be until you've pushed it too far! Meet the 10-channel Workflow I have a basic image enhancement … [Read more...] about Lee Varis’ 10-Channel Workflow – part-1
Channel Blending: From Color to B&W and Back again
Channel Blending for Tone Control I'd like to share an advanced concept for tone control in Photoshop. This channel blending idea forms the basis of my 10-Channel Workflow for digital photography. Lets start with this colorful image of a sunflower... It is important to realize that all digital photographs are captured as three B&W images representing the Red, Green and Blue channels. If we examine the individual channels of this image we can see three radically different B&W renderings: Red Green Blue We … [Read more...] about Channel Blending: From Color to B&W and Back again
Fujifilm X100F – Star of the Street
The Camera that's Just Enough for Most Everything I had the great fortune to beta test the newest iteration of Fujifilm's X100, the X100F — the little camera that could! This camera occupies an odd niche in that its a fixed lens mirrorless, that is much more than just a point-and-shoot, but not an interchangeable-lens "system," with a cool, retro "old school" vibe reminiscent of the Leica rangefinders. The new X100F is pretty much the same size as the original, with the same 23mm ƒ2 lens. Most of the changes are under the … [Read more...] about Fujifilm X100F – Star of the Street
Lightening Dark Skin with Luminosity Blending – part-2
This is part 2 of a detailed article. Be sure to also check out part 1. We saw how to lighten dark skin using the red channel luminosity in my last post. This post explores an additional technique to "Pop" the highlights for further lightening. The idea here is to emphasize just the highlight portion of the skin tones and add a bit of 3D pop! Start by selecting "Merge Visible" from the Layer options flyaway menu WHILE holding down the Option/Alt key (very important!) As long as you have the top layer selected when you do this, … [Read more...] about Lightening Dark Skin with Luminosity Blending – part-2
Lightening Dark Skin with Luminosity Blending – part-1
When you intent to print photos, its often a good idea to lighten skin tones a bit. Dark skin tone can often pose a problem in print. Skin can get a muddy, plugged up look even with a high quality inkjet print. The trick is how to lighten it in a natural way that doesn't look forced or too contrasty! Lighten Skin with Channel Blending Here is a practical application of Channel Blending for a common problem with dark skin tones. Often, the client will want to lighten skin tones so that an image will print correctly or be easier to see … [Read more...] about Lightening Dark Skin with Luminosity Blending – part-1
How to Desaturate Shadows in Photoshop, for 3D Contrast
Digital capture technology is really awesome and has truly changed photography, improving it in a multitude of ways. But sometimes, digitally captured images have a certain exaggerated colorfulness, that just looks a little off, for those of us raised on the old fashioned film days! I have found that this has to do with the way color gets saturated as contrast increases. Even standard rendering presets increase contrast a bit through a global RGB composite curve, often indirectly. It seems that when contrast increases this way a … [Read more...] about How to Desaturate Shadows in Photoshop, for 3D Contrast
Color Correction for the Best Skin Tone
Editor's NOTE: Photofocus is proud to welcome master photo educator Lee Varis to our roster of authors! Subtle Adjustments Make all the Difference Every photo needs some amount of adjustment to enhance its presentation, even really good photos can benefit with the right adjustment. However, if you ask 5 different people what needs to be done, you'll get 5 different answers, or worse, no answers, simply, "it looks fine!" Things become really difficult when there is no obvious problem. There are simple things to check for, like making … [Read more...] about Color Correction for the Best Skin Tone
