The Digital Photo Guy

Rob Sheppard to Teach Photoshop Elements

On Saturday, November 14 from 9AM until 1PM, Rob Sheppard will teach a 4-hour Photoshop Elements class jam-packed with tricks, tips and shortcuts used by professional photographers. Whether you are a complete newbie or an experienced PSE user, you will learn more about Photoshop Elements than you ever imagined possible. After this class you will be able to enhance and edit digital photos faster, easier and more precisely than ever before. Most of the material from this class also applies to Photoshop CSx.

If that’s not enough, you’ll receive 60 days of e-mail support after the class. That’s right, for 60 days, if you encounter a problem and just can’t figure out how to apply Rob’s tips, send me an e-mail and I’ll get you an answer. What class have you ever taken that offers that kind of help?

Anyone with the slightest interest in photography knows the name Rob Sheppard. He’s the editor of Outdoor Photographer magazine and editor/founder of PCPhoto as well as author of over a dozen books on photography.

I literally ran into Rob at the NANPA (North American Nature Photographer’s Association) summit earlier this year and asked him to teach a Photoshop Elements class for my readers. He was enthusiastic but, understandably, his schedule was filled.

Rob is now available to teach that class on November 14 via webinar. Even better, the cost is just $59.95 ($49.95 early bird special until Sept 30). If you had attended Rob’s class at NANPA, you would have paid $155 plus hotel, meals & travel to Albuquerque so this is a screaming deal!

Click below to register today. Seating is limited.

Monday Morning Tip

When I first converted to digital in 1998, almost everyone used JPEG. This was reinforced for me because I was a sports photographer who came home from events with upwards of 1000-1200 frames. All the frames except total disasters were quickly processed for levels and sharpness before resizing and uploading to my web site for people to order. As orders came in, I reprocessed each photo for printing but, during the initial rush, there wasn’t time for messing about with RAW files.

 

Today, one of the most frequent questions I hear is, “Should I shoot in RAW or JPEG?” Even rank newbies are pressured into thinking they should be shooting RAW because “that produces better photos.” Let’s set the record straight. It’s just as easy to capture crappy RAW photos as it is to capture crappy JPEGs.

 

Today’s MMT addresses this question head-on for newbies. This MMT will answer this age-old question once and for all. As always, the MMT is in the Tips & News page of this site.

Quick Tip

One of the trickiest things to do in Photoshop or PSE is selecting hair when you’re trying to knock out a person’s head from a photo. Let’s say you took a family photo at the reunion but Cousin Ernie couldn’t attend. You try to paste Cousin Ernie’s photo from last year into this year’s photo but it’s nearly impossible to get a good selection of Cousin Ernie’s curly blonde hair which was photographed against a white wall.

Whenever you have friends and family together, take several head shots against a contrasting wall. Cousin Ernie’s blonde locks will stand out nicely against a dark wall while Aunt Ruthie’s mousey brown hair contrasts with the standard Navajo White found on most interior walls.

Next time you want to knock out Cousin Ernie from a busy background, use hair from the easy photo. You don’t want to use too much because the light and angle probably won’t match but little wisps here and there will help fill out areas where his hair blends into a white object in the background.

A reader reported she visited this new website and registered. I didn’t even know the site had a registration system. Visitors to the site must see a different interface than me because I don’t see a registration form anywhere. To make things even funnier, I don’t know how to access the registration forms and files so I don’t know who’s registered.

Actually, I might use the registration system (if I can find it) to replace my e-mail Opt-In system. As the list of e-mails grows longer, it gets harder to manage. ‘m sure there are people on the list who have long forgotten why they receive my MMTs.

Speaking of MMTs, I plan to put them in a password protected area so anyone who is registered can access them at any time. I’m also trying to figure out how the YouTube viewer works so I can upload my videos to YouTube and have them display here.

My primary task right now is trying to get all my workshops on the Workshops page with separate icons. As it is right now, they would all be listed in a long document that would be difficult to read. I want viewers to click on a photo from Joshua Tree and be taken to a separate page with JTNP information. Also, PayPal has to be integrated so I can get rid of that weird dp-guy(asperand)thedigital… notation.

For those of you who are here because you read about the new site in my latest MMT, the major boo-boo I committed during the WAP Photoshoot this weekend was telling students that exposure compensation (EC) only worked in Av and Tv modes. It works in P as well. I was so fixated on the fact that the exposure program (aperture/shutter speed combination) could be changed that I got all turned around in my (tiny) brain. That’s why the recent MMT was written to clearly describe P Mode features and benefits.