Welcome to the 20th issue of the Digital Darkroom

Hi

Lots of great news at BetterPhoto! First, the October contest results have just been posted, and once again, we are blown away by the caliber of the entries. If you have not yet seen them, the winners are absolutely stunning! Congratulations go to Kim Ashby for the awesome Grand Prize winning image, "Suburban Seascape." Kudos also go to Dan Holm, Angela Stevens, Anupam Pal, Heather McFarland, Nobi Nagase, Christina Wood, Jan Stadelmyer, Carolyn Baer, Adilson Ferreira, and Alan L. Borror for their First Place photos. View all the contest shots at:
http://www.betterphoto.com/contest/winners/0410.asp

Also, sign-ups for BetterPhoto's winter online photo school are well under way. And our schedule of courses has never been better! For details, visit:
http://www.betterphoto.com/online-photography-courses.asp

Lastly, in this issue of Digital Darkroom, don't miss my article on Photoshop's Healing Brush. Then, check out the Featured Photo, the Before and After sequence, and our usual collection of outstanding photo discussions.

To read the online version of the Digital Darkroom at our Web site, visit http://www.betterphoto.com/digitalpics/

Have a great month!
Jim Miotke
http://www.betterphoto.com/MG.asp?ID=124

In This Issue: Wednesday, November 17, 2004

• Featured Photo: Flaming Foliage
• Featured Article: Cure for Ailing Images: Photoshop's Healing Brush ... By Jim Miotke
• Digital Before and After
• New Photo Discussion 1: Chicago at Dusk
• New Photo Discussion 2: Impressions of Venice
• New Photo Discussion 3: Flower Baby
• New Photo Discussion 4: Fall Barn Bouquet
• New Photo Discussion 5: The Rain Is Coming
• New Photo Discussion 6: Thankful for What I Have!
• New Photo Discussion 7: Bookworm
• New Photo Discussion 8: First Lunar Epoch #2
• New Photo Discussion 9: Autumn Impressions
• New Photo Discussion 10: Sunset, Mt. Baker
• New Photo Discussion 11: Miriam 02
• The Next Step: Where to Go From Here

Featured Photo: Flaming Foliage

Flaming Foliage Original photo of leaves positioned on slightly larger leaves, then changed background using magic wand, liquify, reflection tool, blur and various brushes in PS Elements, then duplicated, reversed and pasted together. © Linda Ann Murphy Nikon Coolpix 4500...

Featured Article: Cure for Ailing Images: Photoshop's Healing Brush ... By Jim Miotke
The Healing Brush is an extremely powerful and time-saving Photoshop feature, says BetterPhoto founder and author Jim Miotke - even for those who have previously mastered the Clone Stamp tool. Whereas the Clone Stamp forces you to think about things like matching color and tonal values, the Healing Brush does most of the thinking for you. Learn all about this valuable PhotoShop tool in Jim's excellent article:
Read more...
 

Digital Before and After

Funny 57 Comical '57 Chevy 65mm 1/125 sec. f/5.6 Partial left side original image. Copied and flipped horizontally, then added both together. I then changed the image height to distort the proportions. Photoshop 7.0

'57 Chevy Original image of 1957 Chevrolet front end section.

Improve Your Photoshop Skills While Having a Great Time!

New Photo Discussions

New Photo Discussion 1: Chicago at Dusk "Chicago at Dusk" This was a series of three photos taken on Oct. 2nd 2004 about 7 o'clock or so (p.m.). I was on a student trip to Chicago with my college Art Club. That night we all went to Navy Peir. So I packed my tri-pod and camera hopeing to get a good shot of the cityscape. There was a building on the very end of the pier which was a parking garage about 6 stories high. I found my way to the top where it was open. I set my camera and took test shots with different settings on my camera. Then I waited a © Jonathan M. Brand Sony Mavica CD350 ... WOW!!!!! You did a splendid job, Jonathan!! Kathleen - Kathleen Parker See Kathleen 's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 1:Thank you very much, Kathleen. It seemed to me that Chicago was a very fast-paced city during my visit as most cities are. And my goal was to find a place where time seemed to stop. All I could hear was the wind. Not a cloud nor star in the sky. I'm so happy that this picture turned out the way it did and even more happy to share it with the rest of the world. Thank you, BetterPhoto.com. I will continue to share my vision with all of you again very soon. This was my first. - Jonathan M. Brand Response 2:Why don't you join us as a member? I would like that!!! This is really a good photo, Jonathan. I like your vision and the sense of wonder and gratitude I feel in your words. Nice guy; nice photo!!! Welcome to BetterPhoto, Jonathan. I have been a member for a couple of years. I love it. Kathleen - Kathleen Parker See Kathleen 's Premium BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 2: Impressions of Venice Impressions of Venice Mid-afternoon on a cloudy day in Venice, Italy, a city possessing more beauty than you could photograph in a lifetime. 1/320 sec. at F9. "Pencil" effect added through Microsoft PictureIt. © William B. Myers Nikon D100 Digital... I love the effect you've added! - Kim Helmick See Kim's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 1:I'd love to see this in the original state, I like the composition and I agree with your statement, this is my home town! - Lucia De Giovanni See Lucia's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 2:Like the old look. Well done ! - Ellen Zaslaw Visit elzaslaw.com - Ellen's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Response 3:Bill - the original you sent me is very dear to me, thank you very, very much for your generosity! - Lucia De Giovanni See Lucia's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 4:Excellent work, William! - Ellen Peach See Ellen's Premium BetterPholio™ Visit mycameraandeye.com - Ellen's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Response 5:Thank you all - Kim, Lucia, Erland, Ellen Z., and Ellen P. - for your comments. It's so nice to be able to share something with others. For you, Lucia, you're very welcome! I hope you enjoy it even half as much as I enjoyed taking it in your magnificent home town. Bill - William B. Myers See William's Premium BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 3: Flower Baby Flower Baby Haven't done one of these in a while, nothing new, just playing around. © Amy M. Parish Fuji FinePix S602Z... Aww, how neat and precious! LOVE IT!! - Kathryn Wolfe See Kathryn's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 1:When I cut out the baby, I left some space around her, I didn't cut it right to her outline. Then, I use the eraser tool, and erase the extra parts of the baby cutout that I don't need. As I get closer to her body, and things like hair, I just lower the weight of the eraser tool and erase lightly. You just play with the size and weight of that eraser until you get the right touch. On layer 1, the flowers, I selected and feathered areas of the flower that would be beneath and behind her and darkened them slightly to make shadows and hopefully make it more believable. Also, I make sure to adjust both layers for color and contrast to get them both kind of in the same color and light "zone". There are other ways to do it. Ask someone else and they will tell you something completely different!!!! - Amy M. Parish Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 4: Fall Barn Bouquet Fall Barn Bouquet F4, 1/160, no flash, saturation, unsharp mask gaussian. The last Cosmos of the season, picked by my son, and arranged in the weathered siding of the barn. Caldwell County, North Carolina. © Christian Harberts Canon PowerShot G5... Very nice, Christian..I like how these soft little flowers are up against a hard texture! The clarity is good, too! - Jane Summa Response 1:Thanks for the comment, Jane! I forgot to mention that the weather was overcast, slightly foggy, which makes for ideal close-up conditions (ie no special flash diffuser needed). The clarity comes in part from increasing contrast in the photo-editing software. Christian - Christian Harberts See Christian's Premium BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 5: The Rain Is Coming The Rain Is Coming © Marilyn K. Lincecum Nikon N90/N90s (F9... Hi Marilyn, I really like what did with this picture. Is it a photo you dressed up in Photoshop? Please tell me what you did. Thx. - Lawrence Slater Response 1:Thank you, Lawrence, for your kind comments. I actually did very little to change this photo. It was taken on a very cloudy day, so the clouds looked just like they do in the photo with the little patch of blue showing through. I metered off the lighter gray to make it a silhouette and added a border to the edge of the picture, giving it an airbrushed look. - Marilyn K. Lincecum See Marilyn's Premium BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 6: Thankful for What I Have! Thankful for what I have! Time goes by us fast...learn to appreciate and share the moments with your children! © Kip T. Berger Olympus Camedia C-... Wonderful image and sentiment, Kip! - Dan J. Holm See Dan's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 1:Thank you very much for your nice comments, Dan, Diana, Jane, Karen, and Kathleen! My girls are 6 and 12 now, but seems like they were only little tikes a very short time ago. With work, life, and personal activities ... seems like there's never enough time to share with them. So I try to make the time I do have with them fun, yet meaningful. I'm thankful for whatever time I get to spend with them; they are the inspiration to always try to do things better, whether at work or play. The picture was a composite of the girls I took a couple weeks ago, and my camera the other day. The girls were shot in natural light, center-weighted average metering, ISO 100. The 35mm camera was shot using digital's flash bounced of ceiling to fire my studio strobe with a softbox attachment. Background and composition made in PhotoImpact. Quote by Maureen Hawkins. - Kip T. Berger See Kip's Premium BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 7: Bookworm Bookworm Desaturated color; crosshatch filter and grain applied in PSE2. © Carol Brill brilliantproductionz.com Canon EOS Elan 7/7... Wonderful image ... really works in b/w ... and great presentation Carol!!!! - Charlene Bayerle See Charlene's Premium BetterPholio™ Visit PictureThisbyChar.com - Charlene's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Response 1:What a great composition and the effect is perfect. Outstanding job, Carol. - Darren K. Fisher See Darren's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 2:This would make a cool poster! - BARBARA GORDON See BARBARA's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 3:Charlene, Donna, Darren, Mike, Rob, Barbara, Karen, Dan, Dale, Colette, Nobi, Brinn, Ellen, and Colleen: Kind of a different shot for me, so I appreciate all your positive feedback! Thanks! - Carol Brill See Carol's Premium BetterPholio™ Visit brilliantproductionz.com - Carol's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 8: First Lunar Epoch #2 First Lunar Epoch #2 This photo could have been taken billions of years ago; or billions of years from now. We don't know if civilizations with power lines and car headlights have come and gone, and will come again. At least, I hope not. © Art Rosch artsdigitalphoto.com Canon EOS 20D Digi... Fantastic image, Art. Composition, color and detail are excellent ... now how did you accomplish this? :) - Pat Borowicz See Pat's Premium BetterPholio™ Visit p-bphotography.com - Pat's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Response 1:Thanks, Pat. I had to take the original picture apart, insert the moon photo (taken through my telescope and put it back together. The landscape image is a stack of three images but one image would have sufficed. I would like to have had longer star trails, but that may have overwhelmed the photo, so I left it as is. A car came through the shot and left the light streaks. This is just a spot five minutes from my house. - Art Rosch See Art's Premium BetterPholio™ Visit artsdigitalphoto.com - Art's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Response 2:Oh, and the airplane. And the fog. Just a lucky moment. - Art Rosch See Art's Premium BetterPholio™ Visit artsdigitalphoto.com - Art's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 9: Autumn Impressions Autumn Impressions Thanks Marcie for help on the Title. This was taken along the Blue Ridge Parkway in thick fog and a slight misty rain. I really liked the feeling of this image. So I have added the buzz and some texture to it. Hope you all enjoy. © Darren K. Fisher Canon EOS Rebel 20... Hey, category neighbor! :-) I love this! The warm tones and misty mood are perfect. And the effects give it a real masterpiece painting feel! Great title, too, Marcie! - Janet L. Detota See Janet's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 1:Nice autumn image design Darren! Love the placement of the foreground tree and the golden tone of the light on the grasses!! - Murry Grigsby See Murry's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 2:You are welcome on the title. Fabulous image. I love the combination of yellow leaves and the orange tone glow of the grasses. The texture and buzz work great together to give it a painted almost impressionist feeling. Awesome work as always!! - Marcie Fowler See Marcie's Premium BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 10: Sunset, Mt. Baker Sunset, Mt. Baker © Lewis Kemper Photographer's Toolbox for Photoshop: Toolbox #1 Photographer's Toolbox for Photoshop: Toolbox #2 Photographer's Toolbox for Photoshop: Toolbox #3 Canon EOS 1Ds Digi... This is such an awesome pano, Lewis. Your work is truly amazing! - Paula M. Showen See Paula's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 1:Thank you! It is made up from 5 shots. Of course, the location was so nice it was hard to take a bad picture! - Lewis Kemper See Lewis Kemper's Premium BetterPholio™ Visit Lewis Kemper's Web Site - LewisKemper.com Take an Online PhotoCourse™ with Lewis Kemper: Photographer's Toolbox for Photoshop: Toolbox #1 Photographer's Toolbox for Photoshop: Toolbox #2 Photographer's Toolbox for Photoshop: Toolbox #3 Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 11: Miriam 02 Miriam 02 © Oscar J. Martinez maravideos.com Nikon Coolpix 5700... Awesome Picture! I would love to know how you kept the flowers in colour. Did you recolour a B&W or cut and paste - or what!!! THUMBS UP!! - David J. Ebert Response 1:David: Thanks for your comments. It is very easy to do this effect with Photoshop. Just open the picture, duplicate the layer, go to Image, then go to adjustments, then go to Hue/Saturation and make the picture black and white. Then take the eraser and start erasing the object you want in color. What happens here is that you are erasing the layer you have in black and white, and you will see the layer behind (in color). Save it, and that's it. More questions? Do not hesitate to write. Maybe somebody expert in PS can tell us how to do this better that I am explaining. - Oscar J. Martinez Visit maravideos.com - Oscar's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Response 2:There are several ways to "Colorize" in Photoshop. Here's one more. This method results in a smaller file and a little better Black and White image: Open your image in Photoshop (full version). Click on the "new adjustment layer" icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. (It looks like a circle that is half white/half black). Choose "Channel Mixer". A dialog box will come up. Look to the bottom left of the box and click "monochrome". Click OK and your image is now Black and White. Open your Layers Palette and note your new adjustment layer. It comes with a Layer Mask. Simply put: A white mask allows the adjustment to show. A black mask turns the adjustment off. The colors on your Tools Palette should be black and white. Press D on your keyboard if they are not. Now choose a soft brush about the size of the area you want to bring color back to. Look at the top toolbar for the brush properties. If you want to bring back the color completely, leave the brush opacity at 100 percent. Lower the opacity if you want only part of the color to come back. If you make a mistake, just switch your color to White and paint over the area again. When working with Masks, don't think of the Black and White as color but as "On and Off". White is ON. Black is OFF. Switch back and forth between black and white until your image is as you'd like. Use a hard brush when you want a very precise edge. Masks are wonderful because they add very little to your file size and they leave your original in tact. Almost every adjustment in Photoshop can be done with an Adjustment layer. You can then use the attached Mask to undo portions of your adjustment that might have been too strong in some areas. Have fun! - Marianne Wallace Response 3:Thank you, Marianne. This is why I like BetterPhoto.com, you always learn something new. Let me tell you that the little I know of Photoshop, I have learned it by myself. I never received a lesson until now, from you. Thanks. By the way, what do you think about my picture above? - Oscar J. Martinez Visit maravideos.com - Oscar's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Response 4:Oscar, I think your composition is very creative! - Marianne Wallace Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

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