If you really want to up your photography or editing skills, set aside a few hours each week to watch videos or read articles on areas you want to improve on and stick to the schedule. The time you invest will teach you to become proficient, saving you time on photo shoots and editing. Want to learn more? Check out this article, “How to Apply a Little LUCK to Your Photography” … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Set aside a time to learn each week
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Using the Luminar 2018 Sunrays Filter on Your Drone Photographs
Luminar 2018 has some very cool filters. In this article, I'll show you how I use the Sunrays filter with my drone photographs and how to use Luminosity, Gradient, Radial, and Brush masks with the filter, to control how the filter is applied to photographs. The best way to understand the Sunrays Filter is to watch the videos, see what it does to the photograph and then experiment with your own photographs. To follow along you will need Luminar 2018. If you are new to working with Luminar 2018 filters and masks, you will find my articles … [Read more...] about Using the Luminar 2018 Sunrays Filter on Your Drone Photographs
Improve Your Photography Skills For $0 – $5 with these Essential Tools
As a beginner photographer, we don't always have a killer budget to invest in education. I found some very useful tools over the years that helped me along the way without breaking the bank. Here are 5 totally FREE options to improve your photography skills! 1) YouTube This is such a powerful one. We have access to thousands of hours of free content right at our fingertips. Everything is in there. I can't tell you how many times I looked for video tutorials and how many times I found the answers in a matter of seconds. There are … [Read more...] about Improve Your Photography Skills For $0 – $5 with these Essential Tools
How to Use Luminar’s Brushes, Filters and Masks – Part 3
Welcome to Part 3 of this series. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. In this article I'll show you how to: Use the Gradient mask with the Dehaze Filter to enhance the sky Use the Luminosity mask with the Dehaze Filter to enhance the sky Use the Radial mask with the Tone Filter to enhance a portion of the image To follow along you will need Luminar 2018. Using the Gradient mask with the Dehaze Filter In this video, I am going to show you how to use the Gradient Mask with the Dehaze Filter to enhance the sky. Using … [Read more...] about How to Use Luminar’s Brushes, Filters and Masks – Part 3
Flowers Made Easy
Here is an easy way to photograph flowers indoors, without using fancy lighting techniques requiring studio lights or off camera flash with modifiers. All you need is indirect light through a window, a shooting table, and a silver or white reflector. Impact Desktop Shooting Table Shooting tables are great for photographing products, food, and small objects. I recently used my Impact Desktop Shooting Table to photograph flowers. The table is convenient and easy to use (and affordable). When photographing the flowers I actually placed the … [Read more...] about Flowers Made Easy
Adobe Spark Page Adds a Sparkle to Your Storytelling
Adobe Spark Page is an amazing story-telling platform. It can be used as a travel journal to share adventures, a means to display a portfolio, or as a marketing or training tool. I am just getting my feet wet, having created a couple of on-line journals to share with friends, and am very excited by future possibilities. In a nutshell, Adobe Spark Page allows you to blend together different communication tools--photos, text, videos, links, and “glideshows," in one presentation on a “Page”. Once your Page is completed, you create a link to … [Read more...] about Adobe Spark Page Adds a Sparkle to Your Storytelling
Instant Replay: Getting Organized in Lightroom
This webinar will introduce you to many of the features of the Library Module in Lightroom, as well as some of the great features the pros use to stay organized. Best of all, we help you conquer the panic you may feel when you see the 'question mark of death.' https://youtu.be/rDEIsMXVANU … [Read more...] about Instant Replay: Getting Organized in Lightroom
New Camera? Now What?
Its exciting getting your very first digital camera. Whether you have a DSLR, Mirrorless or even a point and shoot, learning it can be overwhelming. At times, its okay to put it in auto mode. As long as you are taking pictures, you are going to keep getting better. In fact, as I was learning my camera, I would set it to auto mode and see what settings the camera picked. Then I would switch to manual and set those exact settings and eventually learned to adjust what I felt was better. Heres a few tips on how you can learn more about taking … [Read more...] about New Camera? Now What?
Adding Adobe Stock Images to Your Libraries
A little while ago Adobe acquired the stock image website Fotolia and integration with the Creative Cloud was inevitable, but just how easy is it to get images from Adobe Stock to Photoshop? Finding an Image Right now images have to be searched and added to your account through a web browser. Although it's easy to open thanks to a hyperlink inside Photoshop it does seem a little jaded but today's 1-click expectations. Searching Adobe Stock The front page of Adobe Stock is the search page which helps, and a quick search here gets you … [Read more...] about Adding Adobe Stock Images to Your Libraries
Why I Attend Workshops and Tradeshows?
Editor's Note: Photoshop World is next week. We're holding a reader's breakfast there and some other events you'll have to ask about in person. Ive written a version of this article several years ago but I want to update and share why going to Photoshop World has changed my life. All I wanted to do was learn and better my craft. I never in a million years knew what would happen next. I believe it was 2010 that I came across a Photoshop World ad on Facebook. Im not one for ads at all but this caught my attention. It was in the spring time and I … [Read more...] about Why I Attend Workshops and Tradeshows?
Organize Your Portraits and Group Shots: Using People View in Lightroom CC
This option is new to Lightroom CC, and Im still finding the right way to use it in my workflow. Basically, it gathers pictures together based on the faces it can recognize in the image. The more I think about it, the more I see some powerful uses for it. Enter the People view using the icon at the bottom of the Library screen (press T to show the tool bar) or by pressing the O key (P is already taken for flagging a picture as a pick). Lightroom begins automatically recognizing faces and stacking pictures together with the same faces; the same … [Read more...] about Organize Your Portraits and Group Shots: Using People View in Lightroom CC
Lightroom Hangout: Special Saturday Q&A Episode
You gotta join us live for our next Google+ Hangout, totally free of charge. Not only will you learn terrific techniques, but if you tune in live, you can be entered to win a Creative Cloud subscription from Adobe. (Note: MUST BE TUNED IN LIVE TO WIN). We kick of Saturday 2/28, 11:00am Eastern, 8:00am Pacific. RSVP here and it'll show your local time. During the Live broadcast you can ask questions and be entered to win a subscription to the universe's most powerful software for photographers: Photoshop and Lightroom. Brought to you by … [Read more...] about Lightroom Hangout: Special Saturday Q&A Episode
New Camera, Now What?
You have a camera now what? I came across this meme on Facebook recently and it made me laugh yet reminded me of questions Ive recently been asked. Being the resident photographer among friends, Ive been asked the following questions several times over the past couple weeks. I picking out a new camera, whats the best camera to get? My husband/partner/wife/girlfriend got me a camera, whats the best way to learn how to use it? Let me address the first question: I picking out a new camera, whats the best camera to get? To many this question … [Read more...] about New Camera, Now What?
Harnessing Library Filters in Lightroom & Bridge
The initial act of sifting through a bulky project can be a daunting task. When a shoot is complete, thoughts are typically confined to the stack(s) of material awaiting our review. One simple approach to initially reviewing a project is to take advantage of the filtering power of Lightroom to aid in the selection process. When faced with a folder of work to analyze and compare, Library Filters are a close ally in making informed selections and establishing a firm direction for organizing and storing each project. Let's take a quick tour of … [Read more...] about Harnessing Library Filters in Lightroom & Bridge
Setting up Photoshop to Edit Video
Are you interested in video? Welcome to our series on how to edit video using Adobe Photoshop. In this first episode, you'll learn how to set up Adobe Photoshop CC so it's ready to edit multiple video files together. https://vimeo.com/80585979 Over the next two weeks, we'll walk you through the complete editing process. ______ … [Read more...] about Setting up Photoshop to Edit Video
Sammon’s Short and Sweet Shooting Tip #2 – Levels of Learning
Image and Post by Hey! I can't take full credit for this post. I got the idea from one of my students at a seminar. (I added the sucky part.) Its about learning how to become a good photographer. 1. Unconscious Incompetence (We don't know we suck.) 2. Conscious Incompetence (We know we suck.) 3. Conscious Competence (We know we don't suck but have to work at it.) 4. Unconscious Competence (We know we don't suck and taking good pictures is almost effortless.) ____ … [Read more...] about Sammon’s Short and Sweet Shooting Tip #2 – Levels of Learning
