The Digital Photo Guy

Sharpening Photos in Photoshop Elements

On the San Diego Photography Meetup Group, I commented that a photo was a bit soft and could benefit from sharpening. The photographer replied she didn’t know much about sharpening. That got me to thinking that sharpening is something most experienced digital photographers do automatically without a lot of thought but it could be baffling to many newbies. I’ve embedded a Video Monday Morning Tip that explains basics of sharpening.
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There are several more videos covering sharpening in the Video section as well as a PDF article in the Monday Morning Tips section. I hope you’ll take a moment to review these resources so you can make your photos the best they can be.

Most of my videos and articles are basic enough that the instructions work for either Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Rob Sheppard HDR Webinar

REGISTER today for Rob Sheppard’s HDR Tools, Tips and Techniques webinar on Saturday, May 7 at 9AM Pacific Time. Rob is editor of Outdoor Photographer magazine, a National Geographic contributer and author of over 30 photography books. Learn from the man who edited Galen Rowell’s articles. I’ve taken classes with Rob and my photography has improved in immeasurably due to his teaching skills.

2011 San Diego Fair Entries

Here are my entries for the 2011 San Diego Fair. It’s your turn to critique my work. Let me know if you see anything you would have done differently in either making the photo or post-processing it for competition. Entering a competition is a good way to validate your work and ensure you’re not “drinking the Kool Aid.” Just because your mother says you’re a good photographer doesn’t mean anyone else thinks so!

Desert Spring Wildflower Season

The desert spring wildflower season was weak this year. To top it off, the wind blew at about 25 mph the whole weekend. Even tiny flowers just 1/4″ off the ground were bent at 90 degrees. I’ve learned over the years that a good flower season doesn’t always mean a good flower season for photography. If you were willing to hike 2-4 miles into the canyons, there were some nice blooms but, there, the venturi effect increased the wind speed even more.

Sometimes, PDL (pure dumb luck) intervenes like this field of desert marigolds along San Felipe Valley Road on the way home. I got down low with my Canon 7D and Sigma 10-20 ultra-wide angle lens at f/22 and 20mm on a Gitzo 1228 tripod. I knew if I focused about 20 feet away (the second fence post,) my depth of field would be from about 2.5 ft to infinity.

At home, using DP-HDR by Mediachance, I confirmed what I suspected. There was too much wind for the usual 3-frame HDR. The flowers were just a mass of yellow. Opening it in Photoshop Elements, I added “pop” to the sky and mountains with Topaz Adjust. Popping the background did funky things to the marigolds in the foreground so I added a layer mask and revealed the original foreground in the layer beneath. Voila, instant fake, single frame HDR. More

Old Guyz Rule! (Except When They Don’t)

Did a shoot this past weekend that definitely took me outside my comfort zone. Anyone here ever heard of steampunk? As one of the models explained to me, “It’s how people in the 1800s might have imagined the 21st century.” Yeah, OK, is this a hint that she thinks I was around in the 1800s?

Here, I used a single Canon 550EX on-camera with a Stofen Omnibounce diffuser. The strobe was set to 1/4 power in Manual and bounced off a very low (dingy) white ceiling.

For my newbie readers, this is a good example of why I like to shoot in Manual Mode. In this shoot, I wanted a dark, edgy look with enough depth of field (DoF) to keep everything sharp. Had I relied on the auto exposure (AE) meter, the image would have been brighter, not in keeping with the dark, post-Apocalyptic theme. More

Why Manual Flash is Sometimes Easier

This past weekend, I photographed Celestina, Pinup Model, Makeup Artist (MUA) and Hair Stylist. This was the third time I’ve photographed her and I should have the lighting down pat by now. Yet, I still managed to make rookie errors that ruined many images and will require a reshoot. BTW, notice the cool NBA blouse. That’s Natonal Bowling Association, not basketball.

First, the excuses. We only had two hours so I was rushed. Celestina was delayed getting there so now we only had 90 minutes. I tried two poses which required moving the backdrop and wasted more time. And, the biggie: I took a shortcut and let E-TTL handle the intricacies of a four-flash set-up. This isn’t to say E-TTL couldn’t have handled it but it takes a lot more smarts on my. I would have been better off manually setting each flash instead of letting E-TTL try to figure out what I wanted.

Here’s a finished photo of Celestina striking a pinup pose. I wanted a white background in the tradition of true pinups. The BG isn’t pure white as I wanted but it’s better than the original (after the jump.) My first thought was to mask Celestina and drop in a white BG. I immediately realized that was a dumb idea because of the fine hairs where I was backlighting her beautiful red hair. More

Learning to Print on a New Printer

Physically installing the Epson 3880 was a snap. The hardest part was finding all the little pieces of blue tape manufacturers seem to love to hold down various moving and mechanical parts. I have to admit, Epson does a pretty good job of identifying all the locations where the tape can be found. Some spots are pretty ingenious and actually require reading the quick start guide.

For the first test print, through the USB port (the 3880 is also network ready,) with a known, good print, I chose the photo of Celestina (left.) I set all the color management settings to what I thought were the proper settings and let ‘er rip. Oops! The colors were all wrong. After a few more tries, I printed to the old Epson R1800 to be sure the file was OK. Even with some serious clogs, the R1800 was much closer to the screen. Celestina’s red hair looked just like it does to the left and her green dress wasn’t blue like the 3880.

Scratching my head, I decided to postpone the test print and hook up the network connection. This turned into an unmitigated disaster as I didn’t read the manual. After a day of frustration, I decided I didn’t really need the network connection since I’m the only one who will print to the 3880. I just wanted to hook it up because I had paid for it! More