The Digital Photo Guy

Quick Fill Flash Tip

While I was at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum in Campo, I used the opportunity to make some photos for teaching purposes. Here’s an example of why you want to always be thinking about fill flash.

This old AT&SF (Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe) caboose had been moved so I decided to try a new angle. Unfortunately, the sun was ahead and slightly camera right (notice the shadows). This caused lens flare (spots near bottom of door) in the first photo. I set up my Canon 550EX with a Paul C. Buff CyberSync Remote Trigger to add some fill flash. After a few trials, I got the middle photo which is evenly lit. Had I been more serious about this shot, I would have popped a second flash under the trucks to light up the underside.

The last photo is after I toned down the middle photo in Photoshop Elements. Bottom line, fill flash lit the dark areas and reduced lens flare in one swell foop. The ability to move the flash around until the lighting is even is another great reason for an external flash instead of the integrated pop-up doo-hickey. Click to read more

FREE Lens Webinar

Saturday, May 15 at 11AM CDT (noon EDT, 10A, MDT, 9AM PDT), Roger Cicala, the man who owns ~3000 lenses from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, Tamron, Sigma, Tokina, Panasonic, etc will explain what makes some lenses better than others. If you’re wondering which to buy and how best to use it, Roger has the answer, backed up with years of experience. When have you ever seen a company with a Lifetime Rating of 9.98/10 on ResellerRatings.com?

To dat, we have the following goodies as door prizes:

1. Photoshop World Workbook, over 800 pages of notes, PowerPoints and photos from every session at PSW Las Vegas 2009
2. Black Rapid camera strap – The newest innovation in camera access technology. Don’t just be fast, be Black Rapid fast.

Click here to register for the webinar.

Fantastical Topaz Deal

Topaz Labs has extended an education discount to my students at Palomar College as well as my private classes/workshops. In the future, all my students qualify for a 25% discount after the 3rd paid webinar or any $150+ Photoshoot Workshop (free webinars not included).

The discount applies to all Topaz products including single modules, multiple modules and the smokin’ Bundle. The Bundle of all 7 Photoshop/Photoshop Elements plug-ins normally costs US$179, a 47% discount off the single module price of US$340. With the extra 25% off, students can buy the Bundle for just $135.

The offer starts today but past students who have paid for 3 or more webinars or Photoshoot Workshops over $150 are eligible. Please send me the names and dates of your classes and I’ll send you the discount code. Before anyone asks, the discount is not retroactive to Topaz modules you purchased before today.

Topaz Labs FREE Webinar

Eric Yang of Topaz Labs will demonstrate tips, tricks and techniques for their most popular plug-ins. If you have registered, please check your e-mail for log-in instructions and log in early because we open the doors to everyone once the webinar starts. To register, please click here and follow the links.

It Makes Me Happy…

I love it when readers send me samples of their work using tips & techniques they’ve learned here. Below are Before and After photos fixed by Al from New York using techniques in this MMT.

  
Click to read more

Video Monday Morning Tip – 12/14/09

This week is a continuation of last week’s VMMT on Topaz Lab’s ReMask2 masking plug-in. However, in my enthusiasm, I skipped a few intervening steps so it’s a bit like Star Wars where later episodes were aired first, followed by earlier episodes. To quote Jean-Luc Godard, “A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end… but not necessarily in that order.” This VMMT shows how to use brushes to touch up a mask where fine, fly-away hair is too complex to mask. As usual, the Video MMT is in the Tips & News area. Registered users can use the password they received when they registered. To register, use the form to the right.

The above photo on the left is the original. You can see how the hairs are too fine to be easily selected. The photo on the right shows the final result after touch up with hair brushes. Click to read more

Monday Morning Tip – 12/07/09

If you’ve ever tried to cut a person or pet out of a photo and found it to be an exercise in frustration, you need to watch today’s Video MMT. Topaz Labs has released ReMask2 and it is an order of magnitude improved over the first version. Here’s a quick example of what ReMask2 can do for you.

The initial pass took about 3 minutes and I spent another 3 minutes cleaning up the edges. It’s still not perfect but much, much better and faster than previous manual methods. Click here to read the rest of this MMT