I find myself reading more and more discussions about technical skill vs. Photoshop. There is a certain amount of resentment from photographers who have spent considerable time and effort honing their skills only to see “poor” photographers cutting into their market by fixing their inferior work after-the-fact in Photoshop. (more…)
This is the fourth in a series of posts on digital darkroom techniques describing digital darkroom techniques that “combine” groups of images towards various ends. Previous parts covered focus blending and stitching, today we’ll talk about HDR (high-dynamic range) imaging. (more…)
This is the third of a series of posts on digital darkroom techniques describing digital darkroom techniques that “combine” groups of images towards various ends. Part two covered focus blending, this post will discuss stitching. (more…)
“So,” I said, “How do you feel about standing in traffic?”
A few weeks ago I had this idea for a shot. I wanted to shoot a couple surrounded by blurred movement while they stood frozen in time… in their own world. The first obstacle to overcome was how to shoot a long exposure on a sunny day. A neutral density filter solved that problem ( I used a 6 but really needed a 9). Next I had to get the couple. Lucky for me I was getting ready to shoot an engagement session at the University of Tampa which sits on Kennedy Blvd, one of the busiest roads in town.
So, after about an hour and a half with my clients I finally asked them to stand in traffic. They were totally on board with the idea and stood there without moving for about 15 minutes while I stood on my own little traffic island with my tripod, shooting away. (more…)
This is the second of a series of posts on digital darkroom techniques describing digital darkroom techniques that “combine” groups of images towards various ends.
Focus blending is a technique for combining a series of images of the same scene to create a resulting image with a wider depth-of-field. Focus blending is best-known to aficionados of macro photography, as depth-of-field at close distances is almost always razor-thin even at the tiniest apertures. While best known in macro circles, it could benefit any type of photography where it’s impossible or pragmatic to get enough depth-of-field. (more…)
The advent of digital photography has opened up an array of new techniques for working with and combining multiple images in pursuit of technical perfection. Three of the most popular techniques in this category are panoramic stitching, focus blending, and high-dynamic range imaging.
As of Photoshop CS4, Adobe now includes some level of support for applying all three of these techniques without external tools. In this post, I’ll provide a brief overview of the three techniques and the problems they’re intended to solve. In future posts, I’ll address each of the three techniques individually, provide an example or two, and discuss both Photoshop’s built-in tools for applying those techniques as well as talking about third-party solutions and other alternatives. (more…)