Great Glamour Starts with Light but Finishes with Luminosity One of the concepts I stress most with my students is that photography is all about the play of lights and darks; tonal value is more important than color! I find that, most of the time, the path to a great color image runs through a B&W conversion, at some point. It is much easier to make tone and contrast decisions when you are not being distracted by color. Once an ideal B&W is achieved, you can apply the B&W luminosity to the original color. The following example, … [Read more...] about Evolution of a Glamour Image in Post
digital photography
Adventure in Color and Tone – Lightroom vs Photoshop
Editor's Note: This is an advanced tutorial. For a detailed explanation of these techniques, Lee is sharing see his post on LAB Masking. Everyone would agree that a great photo starts with a great capture—good composition, good light, good exposure, and a certain ineffable quality of magic that comes together at the moment the shutter is released. However, a great photo is not really finished at the moment of capture. That capture, however great it is, exists as pure potential until it is rendered viewable to an audience. Many times the full … [Read more...] about Adventure in Color and Tone – Lightroom vs Photoshop
The Color Calibrated Workflow, Part 3: From Digital Darkroom to Printed Piece
Editor's Note: A special thanks to our partner Datacolor for helping us to bring more information about color calibration to you. You have great photos coming in, now let’s get great photos coming out! In Part 1: Uncomplicating Color, we explored the concept of Color Management. In Part 2: Getting it Right in the Camera, we learned about the right choices to make with your camera for accurate colors. Now, in Part 3, we will cover how to get your beautiful photos out of your system as beautiful prints. A note, with my photography, I … [Read more...] about The Color Calibrated Workflow, Part 3: From Digital Darkroom to Printed Piece
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
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
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
