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5 Ways to Use Layer Groups in Photoshop

July 20, 2013 By Eric Reagan

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwITfIidzC0&w=640&h=360]

Do you use layer groups in Photoshop just for organizing your layers?

In this quick 10-minute video, Julieanne Kost demonstrates 5 ways to make use of layer groups in Photoshop that go well beyond organization. All of these techniques can be used in Photoshop CS6 or Photoshop CC.

Here’s a quick summary of the 5 ways to use layer groups.

  1. Blending modes apply to group of layers to make the effect appear as if the layers have been merged.
  2. Styles for layers (e.g., drop shadows, etc.) in groups are applied as if the layers have been merged.
  3. The ability to restrict how the layers interact within the group versus the layers in the rest of the document. For example, a black and white adjustment layer can be restricted to layers within group.
  4. The ability to clip a texture or another color to a group by using a clipping mask.
  5. Mask multiple layers within a group with a single mask.

Watch the video to see how to make these work in the Photoshop interface.

Filed Under: Learn, Photoshop Tagged With: groups, how to, layers, Photoshop, tutorial, video

 

Grungy Athlete Photoshop Tutorial

July 8, 2013 By Eric Reagan

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0E09tuuRs1s&w=640&h=360]

Glyn Dewis put together a solid tutorial on his post production of a sports scene, for which he created a grungy feel. Dewis uses a combination of Lightroom, Photoshop, Topaz Detail and Topaz Clarity to achieve this look. Additionally, he shows alternative methods to get effects from third-party plug-ins with only Photoshop.

[via FStoppers]

Filed Under: Learn Tagged With: editing, grunge, how to, lightroom, Photoshop, post-processing, Retouching, Topaz, Topaz Clarity, Topaz Detail

How to Use Exposure Compensation

July 7, 2013 By Eric Reagan

Exposure Compensation Dial

Exposure compensation is a setting available on most cameras today.  Generally, only the simpler point and shoot cameras fail to offer exposure compensation adjustments.

It is an adjustment that a lot of folks fail to ever understand or use.  For those of you in this category, I’m going to try to help you understand what it does and when you should use it. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Tagged With: exposure compensation, how to, Learn, photography basics

Camera Settings for Shooting Fireworks

July 4, 2013 By Eric Reagan

Camera Settings for Shooting Fireworks

Whether you are out on a dedicated mission or on a family outing celebrating a holiday, getting a great shot of a fireworks show is a nice feeling. While there are many different ways to capture fireworks, there are a few basic starting points for those who have never nailed that fireworks shot.

Check out these quick tips below. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Tagged With: camera settings, fireworks, how to, Learn, manual mode, manual settings, photography

Free Lynda.com Course: Black & White with Photoshop and Lightroom

June 13, 2013 By Eric Reagan

Lynda-com Photoshop

Lynda.com has a free post-processing course, Black and White with Photoshop and Lightroom, now through June 21 from Photoshop Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Adobe, Learn, Photoshop Tagged With: lightroom, lynda.com, Photoshop

Lighting Bill Gates and Bono for Time – BTS with Greg Heisler

April 14, 2013 By Eric Reagan

Time Cover - Bono Gates

Check out the below BTS video for Profoto Master Series with Greg Heisler as he talks his way through the his approach to shooting Bill & Melinda Gates and Bono for the cover of Time’s Person of the Year cover for 2005.

Lots of good pre-production thoughts and then curve ball adjustments once people started arriving on his set. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Tagged With: behind the scenes, Bill Gates, Bono, bts, cover, Heisler, how to, Learn, Lighting, magazine, photography, Profoto

Three Ways to Change Your Image by Adjusting Exposure

February 28, 2013 By Lin and Jirsa Photography

slrlounge-hdr-mastery-dvd-exercise-files-0013_5_6-Edit

The following is from HDR Photography | A 3 DVD Comprehensive Guide to HDR Photography by SLR Lounge. We cover bracketed HDR, in-camera HDR, single-shot faux HDR, single-shot bracketed HDR, panoramic HDR and more! (more info).

What is a “Stop” of Light?

The concept of a “stop” of light is probably the most important concepts in photography, yet it’s widely misunderstood. In this article, we want to take you back to the basics to help visualize a stop of light and changes in exposure.

A stop of light is not a quantifiable unit of light entering the camera but rather a relative one. Therefore, increasing by one stop doubles the amount of light let into the camera while decreasing by one stop cuts the amount of light in half. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Tagged With: aperture, hdr, iso, shutter speed

Canon Hosting Free Time Lapse Seminar w/ Vincent Laforet Coming Up Next Week

February 27, 2013 By Eric Reagan

Laforet Canon USA

For those of you in the Hollywood, CA area, Canon Live Learning is putting on a free seminar next week (March 6, 2013) with Vincent Laforet on creating time lapse sequences with DSLRs.

The seminar takes place at Canon’s Hollywood Professional Technology & Support Center. It is free, but advance registration is required.

Details here on Canon’s website.

[Image credit: Canon USA]

Filed Under: Canon, Learn Tagged With: Canon, dslr, hdslr, seminar, Time Lapse, Vincent Laforet

Fine Art Nature Photography and Topaz – Free Webinar

February 11, 2013 By Eric Reagan

Topaz Adjust

Topaz Labs will be hosting a free webinar on Fine Art Nature Photography. The webinar will be presented by Tony Sweet on Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST.

Join Tony Sweet for an inspiring session on how he uses Topaz plug-ins in his fine art nature photography workflow.

Tony is a highly-recognized professional nature photographer whose work has been published worldwide in every medium. Tony is a Nikon Legend Behind the Lens, lecturer, co-owner/operator of the Visual Artistry Workshop Series and is represented by Getty Images. He is also the author of 5 books in his Fine Art Photography Series and co-producer of 5 instructional DVDs.

You can register for the free webinar here through Topaz Labs.

Topaz Labs’ product lineup includes the following plugins: Adjust, DeNoise, ReMask, B&W Effects, Simplify, Detail, Lens Effects, Clean, InFocus and DeJPEG. All are available here on Topaz Labs’ website.

Filed Under: Learn Tagged With: fine art, nature photography, Tony Sweet, topaz labs, webinar

Making Sense of Memory Card Read/Write Speeds and USB 3.0 / Thunderbolt Data Transfer Rates

December 6, 2012 By Eric Reagan

Making Sense of Memory Card Read/Write Speeds and USB 3.0 / Thunderbolt Data Transfer Rates

A common problem for many photographers is understanding memory card speeds, hard drive speeds and data transfer rates. It seems we’ve got all kinds of numbers, specs and measurements to look at when it comes to sizing up the speed of our memory cards and computer peripherals.

I recently received a question from a reader about a slow import process from his memory cards into Adobe Lightroom. He was using a USB 2 card reader and wondered whether that could be the culprit. And, if so, would upgrading to a new iMac with USB 3.0 and a Thunderbolt fix the problem if he had a USB 3 or Thunderbolt card reader? (To my knowledge, there are no Thunderbolt CF or SD card readers shipping at the time of this article. There is a Thunderbolt SxS card reader for the pro video market; however, it is currently listed as discontinued.)

Now, onto the specifics of his questions and to breakdown the technical jargon so we can make sense of how to get the fastest memory card transfers for our ever-growing file sizes… [Read more…]

Filed Under: Learn Tagged With: MB/s, memory card

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