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
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)
- Oben TT-100 Table Top Tripod - July 17, 2017
- How to Light Close-up Flower Photos with a Flashlight - July 11, 2017
- Gear Review: Oben Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod - June 30, 2017
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
