Use Lightroom to Enhance the Sky

This week I wanted to write about a Lightroom technique to enhance the sky in your photos. Sometime when you are out shooting landscapes you might get a fantastic shot, but when you get home to post process, you find the sky is kind of blown out, looking more white than blue with clouds. How can you fix this and not end up scrapping the image all together, or having the shot look ho hum, enter the Gradient Tool in Lightroom.

Blah sky with some clouds

 The Lightroom Gradient tool in the Develop Module can really help improve your sky, especially if you capture a shot at a lake or river and you can see the blue of the sky and white of the clouds in the reflection on the water. Select the Gradient Tool, which looks like a rectangle and then take the little + crosshair and hold it at the top of your image, now hold down the shift key, which will make your pull down go straight and drag to the bottom of the sky portion.

Some blue added in with Gradient Tool

Next go to the Adjustments for the Gradient Tool and use the Highlight slider or Exposure slider and pull out more of the details in the sky. Generally the Highlight slider will get the job done and I tend to always shoot my landscapes especially with my Light meter in the camera about two ticks before the mid center tick mark. Then, when I edit, I use the Highlight slider and the Shadows slider to pull in more details in those areas, but sometime, you need just a bit more to get that nice looking sky, and thats when the Gradient tool comes in handy.

Finished image

You can even take your adjustments when you are done and save them as a custom adjustment, name it, and then use it over and over again. Lightroom is without a doubt one of, if not THE best post processing software on the market for photography, which is why so many Pros use Lightroom worldwide. Now one thing to remember is shoot in RAW, so you can actually get those details to pull out in Post Processing. You can use Lightroom to work JPG files, but those file types don't allow nearly as much improvement without the file going to crap in the process.

I know what you are thinking, "But RAW files are so BIG"! They are, but memory cards are fairly cheap these days and if you are shooting landscapes, you don't need a large FPS like you would for sports. So, next time you get a nice landscape, but the sky is blown out, don't despair, just grab that Gradient Tool and work some "magic".

Comments/Questions

Great Plugins

One of the items that can come in handy for your Post-Production is plugins or add-on software for your Photoshop and Lightroom. These can be handy little programs that can give your images a little extra “pop” to make them really stand out.

The ones I want to talk about today are the Creative Kit 2016 pack by Macphun software. Macphun makes software for Macs only and their plugins are very good and can really take your images to the next level.

Creative Kit 2016 comes with six programs, which are Intensify, Tonality, Snapheal, FX Photo, Focus and Noiseless.

Intensify will help with powerful Structure, Sharpness and Details using Pro contrast and comes with dozens of built in image presets.

Tonality is a Black & White photo editor, which allows you to reimagine your monochrome image editing with hundreds of presets, layers,unique digital controls, authentic grain effects and more.

Snapheal allows you to remove unwanted objects and strangers from your photos. You can cut any odd or excessive details. It also features a Clone & Stamp tool to help you replace them with something nice. I like this one as I think it does a better job at removing objects than Photoshop alone.

FX Photo Studio allows you to experiment with styles and looks for your images. Use the large selection of filters to create customized, unique images, you can combine or apply them selectively for some really “special” images.

Focus allows you to add Pro lens effects without the expensive gear. Use smart blur controls and powerful lens effects, including adding your own bokeh in Post Production.

Noiseless will get rid of digital noise and preserve details in your structure and save your night shots by turning them into crispy & clear images. Have Noiseless work on your images pixel by pixel to make them smooth and vibrant instead of deleting them because of noise.

You can buy the entire Creative Kit 2016 on sale for $129.99, marked down from $339 and you can buy it in installments of $25 over 5 monthly payments. If you search the web you might be able to find it even cheaper, I got a deal through Stack Social and I paid only $53 for the entire kit and the nice thing is you can install it on as many Macs as you want with one license.

One final note, some people Love the new “Photos” app in OS X that replaced Aperture, some people hate it and want Aperture back. I prefer Aperture myself and bought it years ago so I will always have it. But if you do like using the “Photos” app for even minor post production, Macphun has updated Creative Kit 2016 so their plugins will even work in “Photos” as “Extensions” or plugins in the Apple world.

All of these plugins will install into Aperture, Photos, Lightroom, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements so you can use them on whichever of these programs is your favorite.






Comments/Questions

Preparing Photographs for submission

Good morning everyone.

I know quite a few of you have been hard at work photographing your Giving Back to the Community projects. Well now as we start wrapping up all our shooting projects we have to think about getting those photographs into the market place.

Well, nobody is going to see them on your hard-drive so we have to get them developed and processed so that your peers can choose their favorites and we hopefully can choose some great photographs for our final project submissions.

This short blog post is all about where you can find additional resources to get your photographs developed.

The best place to find some great resources on how to use some of the applications that we use everyday would be from the Tutoring center in our Campus Common area.

Here you can find great tutorials on how to learn the applications that will become the foundation of your business in the future.

I also found a few paying websites that you can use to learn how some of the professionals in the business do it.

FREE

Hop on over to Creativelive for some really great videos. They offer free training for all their live courses and they cover a wide range of genre's and creative processes. 

Our own Lynda.com access can be found under our online library section of the campus common area. Just go to your online library and choose Photography icon. You will find it under the Industry Information section.

Another great site is Petapixel. They some of the best resources in the business and you are always getting some really good professional information. 

Paid

Then of course you can invest some additional money into your education and get some paid training. I use Kelbyone Training

There are so many different options to choose from so make sure you choose something that you are comfortable with.

We will be creating a special visual celebration of all the photographs that are chosen.It will be a selection of some of the best photographs from our Month of Giving Back and something that I know you will be proud to be a part of.

All final submission deadlines will be posted in the coming weeks so please make sure that you have all your photographs edited and ready for submission.

If you have any questions or thoughts then please leave a comment for me here and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Have a great week of shooting and editing and I will speak to you soon.

Denzil

#AIOvolunteer

Don't be a Cliché! Editing Trends that are Past their Prime

As an 80s child, I have my share of family portraits shaped into an oval by a white vignette. Why that was the style I'll never understand, but at least it's a thing of the past... right? Well, it seems to pop up now and then in some circles, and it's usually a newcomer to a Facebook group centered on photography that falls victim to such outdated trends. Here, I'd love to share three editing clichés that are past their prime. Please feel free to add to the list in the comments! My subject for this little trip through time is Patrick, an adoptable dog through Peace for Pits in Chicago. I will not be watermarking the edited images since they do not reflect my actual photographic style, but it is an image I took for the rescue. Here's the original for reference:

1. The White Vignette. Is it just me, or does this really never ever look good? It could be that only people who lived in the 80s and early 90s that see this as cheesy, but I can practically hear Bananarama when I see this:

2. Spot Color/Selective Color. Sure, this can add a cool effect to the right image when done well. However, that usually doesn't happen. Spot color for the sake of spot color is not a good idea.

3. Majorly Decreased Clarity. It can be tempting to smooth the skin (or in this case, the fur) of your subject in post-production, but please - don't take it too far! When a photograph looks more like a digital painting without intending to be one, there's a problem.

Of course in photography, as in life, there's always a reason to break a rule after it's been ingrained in your brain. Maybe a white vignette can help you brighten up the natural dark vignette that your 50mm creates in camera. Perhaps the colorful lasers at a high-energy event would make for a unique spot colored capture. If you have an image that you think makes an editing cliché work once again, head on over to the Google+ community and share it, or link to it in a comment below!

-Friday Ambassador

Have Your Photos Tell a Story for a Big Impact!

When you share images on social media, are you telling a story? While one image may speak for itself, sometimes it makes sense to create a diptych, triptych, or collage of images to make more of an impact. I shared the diptych above on my Facebook page instead of adding each one individually because I think they make each other stronger. The contrast in color, focal length, and composition when juxtaposed in such a manner make me look closer at each panel. At the same time, each image emphasizes the closeness of the couple, which is the goal of an engagement session. That aspect, as well as the warmth of the images, relates them to one another so that they are able to work together.

Do you have a preference in how you share images, or what you are drawn to when other photographers share theirs? If you're interested in displaying your images in groups, you can create templates in Photoshop really easily. Using the same border thickness from one template to the next and adding your logo or name to each template will make the process of inserting your images and exporting for web sharing super fast!

-Friday Ambassador

Sunday Spotlight On: Editing

Once upon a time there was an art student who became undecided about her editing process. She was unsure if she should try color, black and white or the fancy filters that are sold online by the dozens. In the process of being undecided, she left images to sit and sit for days without any attention at all….

This character in this story sounds really familiar. Matter of fact, it sounds like me! I am so bad about creating images and once I pull them up onto my iMac I become so undecided about the editing process that I just walk away only to come back weeks or months later and still no process. Here is what my workflow consists of:

1.     Plan, plan and plan

I like to get a concept when I shoot for my creative psyche down to hair and makeup, styling, location and I always need to have a theme. It makes me follow through without having to continuously change the entire shoot. I always like to have control and know what I am doing so that I can just go in, set up and shoot.

Quiana P Jackson. Untitled, 2014

2.     Shoot

So today is the big day! After I already used up a lot of time when it came to planning, I just go in and jump right into it. Although there is more that goes along with this step such as checking the lighting and doing some warm up shots, it goes pretty smooth. Occasionally I have to tell the model how to pose if she is not use to it, but I have been lucky that these last past years since moving to Hawaii, these girls know their stuff!

3.     Transfer images to the computer

This is my giddy moment because I really want to see these on the “big screen.” After I back up the images in Lightroom, my external hard drive and then onto another hard drive, I pull the images up in Bridge and select the ones that I want to use.

4.     Halt

Okay why does my workflow always seem to stop here?

5.     Halt again (a week later)

Still stuck

6.     Halt again (a month later)

Still stuck

Quiana P Jackson. Untitled, 2014 

It seems that I can never just get past step four. This never happens when I am doing my documentary work nor my photojournalism work. It's always when I am shooting something for myself to remain creative. After this last shoot that I done in March, I finally got around to editing the photos and yes I know it is now May. My problem is postproduction because I can never decide if my work is good enough, or the direction that I want the image to go in. Due to being so busy working on my thesis, I finally put the finishing touches on the selected images and I must say that I am happy with the way that I went with them. I had to rearrange my workflow to include postproduction in the planning section. If I am shooting bright vibrant colors then I know that I will work in color, and if I am shooting an emotional image, then probably black and white. In the end the image will speak for itself and let you know what it should look like.

Since my time is winding down at the school I want the new students to know that the instructors are not just here for you when you are their students. I guarantee that if you reach out to them and ask for their opinion through a phone call or email, they will give you all the help that you need. All you have to do is reach out and ask for help. I was given advice on the images that I posted with this blog from an instructor that I had months ago! He was willing to help and I was willing to listen. 

I wish that you all could see the rest of the photos from this collection! Due to nudity I had to crop a lot from the above photo.

I am your Sunday Funday Ambassador!

Happy Shooting! 

Adobe Photoshop - The Professional's Resource

Saturday Ambassador

Creating art is a very personal endeavor, even when it is at the behest of a client and involves their input. The outcome is a representation of the artist's vision, as it applies to that project. As artists, we have myriad tools at our disposal with which to create, particularly in this day and age, and it is both sensible and productive to utilize them.

One of the most powerful resources available to the contemporary photographer is Adobe Photoshop.

Many students, and even some professionals, feel intimidated by the complexity of the program and, thus, avoid it. As students, we have a remarkable advantage in that we may purchase software such as this through Journey Ed at an incredible 85% discount. Also, the Art Institute offers a free short course, which addresses the fundamentals of Photoshop.

Perhaps an even greater advantage is access to the Lynda.com tutorials. The Art Institute maintains a subscription with Lynda.com that allows students full access to this resource.

1.    From any assignment page, click the tutorial link:

 

2.    Select a tutorial from the Lynda.com section. Any link will do, as you may search for a specific program or topic on the site.

3.    Create a user name and password so that you may access all the features of the site.

4.    Search for a topic or program and experience the wealth of information contained within this site.

Learning the basics will place you on the road to success with Photoshop, and practice will allow you to refine your skills. This remarkable tool will facilitate transforming the mundane into the extraordinary with minimal effort.

Transport Power, Deva Mayorga-Malone, 2013, Digital Composite

 

 

~Saturday Ambassador

Sources:

"Adobe Photoshop CS6 Logo". Photoshop Travel.com. 2013. Web. August 2, 2013. <http://www.photoshoptravel.com/ how-to-change-background-in-my-template/>

"Software Purchase". Journey Ed.com. 2013. Web. August 2, 2013. <http://www.journeyed.com/dept/Software/284008>