More About Photoshop

Sunday, February 26, 2012

More About Photoshop

(Getting to be Familiar with Some of the Features)

     I get complimented on my lighting a lot. Since I have been a photographer from the early 1970's, I still maintain the working habits  of a professional photographer from the film era. What I mean by that, is being able to know that "what you see does not equal what you get". Even in the digital era, the same principle holds true. By the way, I'm talking exclusively about lighting for now!

     The human eye can see a wider range of tones from light to dark, whereupon film or the CCD capture of a digital camera cannot. This is where all those features of image-editing software, including Photoshop come in to help out a lot.

    I usually use 2 lights when I take my toy photos. One light is called the "main", and it is the stronger and brighter one. It sets the direction, and mood of the photo. The second less-powerful (lower strength) light is called the "fill light", and it adds light to all of the dark areas that the main light does not illuminate. What you do is reduce the intensity of the light by using your "barn doors" or by using "neutral density" filters over the light. These are simply heat-resistant clear plastic (grey or called "neutral grey" that act like sunglasses. They reduce the intensity of light by anywhere form 1-4 f-stops of light.

   I also use small shiny-silver reflectors, white reflectors, or matte-silver reflectors to add small "highlights" to different parts of the toy and to add detail where the fill light cannot.

  1 More thing. When you place a fill light, it's important for it to be weaker that the main light, and also to be positioned so that it does not produce a second shadow. I mentioned this in previous instalments, but the reason is that since we have 1 sun which produces 1 shadow, it would be totally impossible to have 2 shadows in a scene or tabletop photo- it just wouldn't be "real" lighting.

Part I

Get the Lighting Right

Step 1:

1 light in the front to light the train

1 light for the background

The light in the back is TOO  BRIGHT!

Step 2:

Better now. The light  in the back is lower and there is a smaller area being lit.

However, the train is too 2-D (2 dimensional) or flat!

Step 3:

I turned the train at an angle for more depth (3-D).

I raised the background light to occupy a bigger portion.

I got a bit "fancy" with the light by aiming a small reflector on to the

"CN" logo . Being Canadian, 

you just got to be supportive of a Canadian Company-eh!

Step 4:

I decided to leave the "fancy lighting" out.

Part 2

Photoshop or any other Image-Editing Software

Step 1:

Make the image sharper. It's just a bit "soft-focused"

 Step 2:

The detail in the dark areas (shadows) is lost

Use the Shadows/Highlights command to try and lighten up the shadow areas.

Correspondingly, if the bright area were too bright and you had "hot spots", you could make then them less bright by using the highlights slider.

I The default amount of showing better shadow detail is 35%

That usually in NOT ENOUGH!

Step 3:

Adjust the shadow detail higher.

In this case I made it 92%

 Step 4:

Correct any off-colour problems

My photo lights are usually "warm", meaning that my photos come out a bit reddish.

I should so a "custom colour" on my camera, but I don't.

The Auto-Color Result

Personally, I find it is always too cold (too much blue or cyan), both of which are cold colours".

I therefore like to adjust the off-colour personally.

 A good idea is to make a duplicate copy of the image that you're working on.

In this way, it's easier to compare, rather than go back and forth with the history menu to see the changes.

 Here is a window capture of the default menu with the 3 sets opposite colours

I've removed 17 units of red (warm) or 

conversely (opposite), I've added 10 units of cyan (cold 

 Here is a close-up of the the before and after effects.

The corrected version might be a bit too cold in colour, so I could maybe remove only 12-14 units of red, instead of 27 above.

 The Remaining Railroad Cars

I try to keep the dialogue simple, and I know that I explain things well. It's a great resource for learning, but right now, my old antique toy blog is being read by 5x as many people. I guess Photoshop is too big a topic with too much competition in the blog world to expect more readers at this point. So if you know anyone who might be interested in this blog, please do me a favour and ask them to have a peek.

So thanks for dropping by, 

and have a pleasant remainder of the morning, afternoon, or evening wherever you may be.

An Exercise on Photography Lighting

Thursday, February 24, 2012

An Exercise on Photographic Lighting

     I purchased these 2 small Matchbox brand firetrucks to resell of course. However, they had lots of nice detail, which I know would be good examples of how to light  a product. Once you understand what light does, and how easy it is to work with, you'll be well on your way to creating great photos.

     I usually work with only 2 small LTM brand 100 watt lights. I'm working in an area of about 10' x 12' x 10' (3.05 M x 3.5 M x 3.05 M) which is small. Also, My wife let's me keep my lights in a busy part of the house basement, so I don't want to "push my luck" with 2 more light!

    The basic lights that I work with are called a main light and a fill light. The main creates the mood and direction of the light, while the fill adds light to the dark or shadow areas. I also work with 1-3 small reflectors to add more detail into the shadows and to add reflections.

 1. Main light high,in back, and to the left of the truck

2. The fill is high and to the right of the truck.

The fill is kept high, so that you don't create 2 sets of shadows!

All studio lighting is based on nature: 1 light source (the sun) and 1 shadow.

 1. Main light high,in back, and to the left of the truck

2. The fill is  to the right of the truck and is a reflector.

3. I added a light to the back, which is called the background light.

The background light adds depth to the photo.

 1. Main light high,in back, and to the left of the truck

2. The fill is high and to the right of the truck.

In this case I made a major faux-pax (French for mistake).

Notice that I have 2 shadows running in 2 different directions!

  1. Main light high,in back, and to the left of the truck

2. The fill is high and to the right of the truck.

I've purposely kept the main in the same position.

I've used the fill to the right, and sometimes as a background light.

I've placed the small reflectors in slightly different positions and angles to illustrate to you the subley (small) changes that lighting does on a subject.

  A composite photo so that you can see the lighting subtleties much easier, 

and compare the different photos.

The other fire truck composite

Thanks for visiting, and have a

good morning, afternoon, or evening, 

whereever you may be.

Photographing Toys for Art

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Photographing Toys for Art

     I purchased the rusted old train engine and caboose because shipping was expensive on another item that I had purchased. So I figured that I might as well fill the box for the cost of the shipping. Postage (mailing) usually works by the size of the package and the weight, so a few more toys wouldn't make a difference.

    Of course, I'll try and sell these toys, but as I started to photograph them, I started to think about them as art forms. The photos below are nicely-lit, but if they don't sell next week, I think I'll work on them some more to try and make them more interesting in terms of adding some props. A prop is simply an accessory item in a photo that enhances the main item.

    So for today, here are some photos of a train engine and a caboose that I thought you might like.

There is an  old expression that says:"beauty is in the eye of the beholder", and so there are infinite possibilities that you can do with your toy photos to make them interesting.

If you go to the site below that is located on my other blog, you will see just some of  a few special effects that were done using a very interesting software called Photomatix.

http://prophotographylearning.blogspot.com/2011/09/photomatix-having-some-fun.html

Thanks for dropping by, and have a nice morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you may be.

GIMP - A Free Image-Editing Software

Thursday, February 23, 2012

GIMP

A Terrific and Free

Image-Editing Software

     Gimp is a terrific free and downloadable image-editing software. For various reasons, not everyone in the world has a purchased image-editing software such as Photoshop CS. There is the less-expensive Photoshop Elements, but even that, many people don't have.

      So what's the answer when you need to work on your photos and don;t want to buy a program?

Well, the first answer is to use the software that came with your camera. Most people don't use that either, but Canon, Nikon, and other camera manufacturers supply you with a good-enough software of their own to edit your photos.

      However, if you want all of the "bells and whistles" (an expression for "really fancy" and sophisticated), but don't want to spend the money, then try GIMP. It's free, and with a little learning will help you create photos that  rival the more-expensive programs.

      Below, I've divided the instructions for creating a 4-image photo composite into parts. Try to Lean each part  1 at a time. Once you can master 1 part, then move on to the other. And don't worry. It looks harder than it is. Once you're familiar with GIMP, you'll be able to do improve on many of your photos.

     However, if all you want is a 4-image composite like mine, then so be it. I use these images to place on E-Bay. They save me money, as the first upload to a listing on E-Bay is free. After that each additional image is 15 cents and a special group of 6 image uploads is less-expensive that 6 x 1 is 

75 cents. Luckily E-Bay accepts this montage (a grouping of photos) of 4 images as a single upload.

     The main reason is to save on costs. If I list 50 images per month free on E-Bay and were to add more than 1 photo, then the costs would start to get high. E-Bay charges for almost everything. A 51st listing can cost anywhere form 35 cents to $ 1.50, and the final sales fee is about 3-8.5% including shipping. Multiply that by 50 and you can see how expensive things can become!

Part I

Part 2