Welcome to the 26th issue of the Digital Darkroom

Hi

Lots of great news this month! Our summer schedule of online photo courses keeps getting better and better. Leading the way are three new instructors teaching three new classes: David Bathgate ("Photojournalism: Telling the Story in Pictures"), Jon Canfield ("Digital Slide Shows"), and Bruce Smith ("Fashion and Beauty: Introduction to Fashion Photography"). For information on these and all other courses, go to:
http://www.betterphoto.com/photocourses/categories.asp

Just a few weeks ago, we launched Better Blogs, and these photography Web logs are going strong. Check out "Instructor Insights", "Notes from Team BetterPhoto", and "The BetterPhoto Digital Photography Show" at:
http://www.betterphoto.com/betterblogs.asp

Instructor Jeff Wignall teaches the awesome "The Joy of Digital Photography" course at BetterPhoto - plus, he wrote the book on the subject too! Jeff shares some excellent Photoshop tips in a new article at:
http://www.betterphoto.com/article.asp?id=66

Also in this issue of Digital Darkroom, don't miss the Before and After series, the Featured Photo, and a collection of instructional - and inspirational - 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, May 18, 2005

• Featured Photo: psycho-gin n' tonic
• Featured Article: Sky Swapping: Photoshopping Your Way to Great Landscape ... by Jeff Wignall
• Digital Before and After
• New Photo Discussion 1: A Mother's Love Will Never Die!
• New Photo Discussion 2: Always on the Lookout.....
• New Photo Discussion 3: Sunset Serenade
• New Photo Discussion 4: Screendoor Knob
• New Photo Discussion 5: Duckscrepancy
• New Photo Discussion 6: High Flight
• New Photo Discussion 7: The Bridal Party
• New Photo Discussion 8: Sparky
• New Photo Discussion 9: Senior Pics
• New Photo Discussion 10: Morning Reflections of Bob the Cat
• New Photo Discussion 11: Dark Days
• The Next Step: Where to Go From Here

Featured Photo: psycho-gin n' tonic

psycho-gin n' tonic 28-105 macro setting, 4000iso, 60 @f20, inversion in photoshop with poster edges and color variations. © Gena A. Tussey Nikon D70 Digital ...

Featured Article: Sky Swapping: Photoshopping Your Way to Great Landscape ... by Jeff Wignall
In the pre-digital days, unless you had lots of time to wait for a change in the weather (or you were a very clever darkroom technician), you were pretty much stuck with the sky you were dealt. But, says BetterPhoto instructor Jeff Wignall ("The Joy of Digital Photography" course), image-editing programs have made it easy to mix and match skies. In his new article, Jeff shares tips and tricks for sky swapping.
Read more...
 

Digital Before and After

They're Heerrrrreeeeee! Thought when I mirror imaged this shot to try to do one of the pinwheels that they looked like a little row of aliens so kept it in a row. I will add the original image in the discussion.

The origninal of 'they're here' Taken in dappled shade, auto focus, super macro mode, hand held

BetterPhoto's Online School: Focus on Photoshop

New Photo Discussions

New Photo Discussion 1: A Mother's Love Will Never Die! A Mother's Love will Never Die! Taken yesterday in afternoon, but I had us stay in the shade. Natural lighting, exposure 1/640sec, F2.4 & ISO 80. Just added the dreamy effect from dreamsuites, the Vignette edging from Photo/Graphic Edges & the text from PSE2. We actually wanted the girls to walk by themselves on the railroad tracks, but Madelyn the youngest wouldn't let go of her mother's fingers:):) © Alisha L. Ekstrom Olympus Camedia E-... This is so beautiful Alisha!!! A classic!!! - Laurence Saliba See Laurence's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 1:This is beautiful Alisha! Isn't DreamSuites wonderful? Goes perfect with this photo! Well done! :) - Lisa Greer See Lisa's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 2:Very soft and easy to see the love!! Great capture and work!! - Kevin D. Burns Response 3:Alisha, The softness of this photo makes it so beautiful to view, the angle is great, the lighting and colors are perfect, well done! - Lani Allen Visit laniallenfotografia.com - Lani's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 2: Always on the Lookout..... Always on the Lookout..... ....for a great photo op! This is a self portrait I took of myself in the mirror.. then merged it with the picture of the Peggys Cove lighthouse using Paint Shop Pro 8.I was just having some fun today ;o) © Rhonda Smith Kodak EasyShare DX... I have been trying for YEARS to merge photos ... please tell me how you did this ... or possibly a tutorial on how to do so. - Shelly R. Edwards Response 1:Hi Shelley ... I use a program called Paint Shop Pro 9, but any editing program that works with layers will do. I took the picture of myself and converted it to a layer ... then I erased most of the background from it so it was mostly just my head showing. I set the eraser to a soft edge so there'd be no hard edges. Then I copied this and pasted it onto the lighthouse picture as a new layer. I then took the opacity down to, I think, 30 or 40 ... not sure on that but just enough to make my pic kind of 'see through'. I don't know if that helps any but if you have any questions, feel free to email me . I'll help if I can. - Rhonda Smith See Rhonda's Premium BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 3: Sunset Serenade Sunset Serenade The setting sun, the end of day for a pair of egrets... © Deborah Sandidge morningsongphotography.co... Nikon D2X Digital ... Deborah, you continue to come up with the most beautiful and most gorgeous water bird images!!! ... Wow, fantastic silhouette, fantastic colors, and another great composition... - Nobi Nagase See Nobi's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 1:Love your work on this image, Deborah!! Beautiful effects and presentation!! Love it!! - Sanjay Pindiyath (SJ) See Sanjay's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 2:WOW, WOW, WOW, so beautifully done, gorgeous, nice colors. How did you do it? - Nemil Chabebe Response 3:Thank you so much, Nobi, Sanjay and Nemil!! You're very encouraging, and I appreciate your kind words! :o) Hi Nemil, this composition was created in Photoshop (the sun and silhouettes are "real" photos). The egret pair silhouette was repositioned so the pair faced each other. The sun was yesterday's sunrise, the black background and watery reflections were added in Photoshop - all combined to create a new image! - Deborah Sandidge See Deborah's Premium BetterPholio™ Visit morningsongphotography.com - Deborah's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 4: Screendoor Knob Screendoor Knob Converted to sepia in PS. © Christy C. Snodgrass Fuji FinePix S5000... This image is beautiful! Love it! Love all the texture and the details. Great conversion to sepia too - not overdone at all! - Jessica Dittmer See Jessica's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 1:Thank you, Jessica! I appreciate your input. Glad you liked the sepia tone! I tried several tones, and this seemed to bring it to life. - Christy C. Snodgrass Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 5: Duckscrepancy Duckscrepancy 1/750s f/4.0 at 40.0mm iso100 Taken at a local art fair last weekend. The kids area had a rubber duck game which consisted of all these little duckies floating around in kid sized pool. The man was curious why I would want to take photos of his ducks, but said "go right ahead." There was full sun at the time, so in addition to coverting part of the image to B&W, I cloned out/ or healed out a few hot spots as well. Other than that, the photo is displayed as shot. © Charles L. Inglefield Canon EOS 10D Digi... Fantastic image! Good title! - Kevin Nugent Response 1:Love it. Great image. - Robert A. Simpson See Robert's Premium BetterPholio™ Visit rasimages.com - Robert's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Response 2:Thanks for the nice comments. I debated on the title for this one for about a week before posting it. My first thought was "Outstanding Bill", but that didn't work for me. Then my sister suggested "Discrepancy" ... and then I modified that to come up with this title. I find it difficult sometimes to get good titles for photos. I would almost prefer to let a photo stand on it's own (without a title) so the viewer can see what they see without any inference from having a title. - Charles L. Inglefield Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 6: High Flight High Flight This is a tribute I did for my Dad. He was a waist gunner on a B-17 stationed in England during WWII. He was very proud of his service for our Country, and I am very proud of him! He passed away in 1994. © Jeffrey Judd Canon EOS 10D Digi... Beautiful Picture Jeffrey! I do photo restoration as well as special-effects work. I've tried to bring people images into some of my work, but can't seen to get the effect that you've gotten. What I've done is crop as closely to the image as possible then paste it onto my picture, then I clone (using a more transparent effect) the area around to blend in. Is there an easier way? I'd appreciate some advice. Thanks. - Michele Garneau Response 1:Greetings, Michele and Jeffrey! First, great job, Jeffrey. Nice composite (I hope that is the right word)!Michele: Not sure how Jeffrey did it, but it looks like he used levels, not cropping and pasting. See how the clouds in the sky blend into the photo of his father? That tells me it was two layers (probably more for the whole picture) and the transparancy of the top layer was reduced from 100% to 50-60% or so (until it looked good - like it does). He also probably used a layer mask on the photo of his father. Hope this helps. - Robert Hambley Visit rlhambleyphotography.com - Robert's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Response 2:Thank you very much, Michele and Robert. Michele, Robert is right. I first opened up my background photo of the sunset/river and dragged the photo of my father into it. I then applied a mask to my father's photo and using a softer brush, I first set the brush to 100% opacity and removed the main background area around him. I zoomed in close and "fine-tuned" the area around my dad. Once I had him cut out, it was just a matter of "blending" him in with the clouds using an opacity of about 10% or so. It started out as an experiment for my using masks in Photoshop. I did the same for the B-17 in the bottom part to make it look like it was flying through the clouds. I hope this helps. Thanks, again! Jeff - Jeffrey Judd Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 7: The Bridal Party The Bridal Party © Natalie Howe Canon EOS Rebel XS... These are stunning, Natalie! I love this one. So, in all the "blurred" edges ... they were done in Photoshop? Did you just use the blur tool to manipulate the edges? What lenses did you use? This bride is going to love the pics. I'm anxious to hear what she says :). - Cynthia L. Wanyonyi Response 1:Hi Cynthia, I did a duplicate layer, then Gaussian blur of 20%, then with the tool at top left in tool bar. I can't remember the name of it - it cuts either squares or circles out, etc. I used that to cut out the majority of the top blurred layer to show the bottom layer ... then flattened. Very easy! - Natalie Howe See Natalie's Premium BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 8: Sparky Sparky Added yellowish glow using the gradient tool and PS CS and then a bit of lens flare (with the render/lens flare filter). Clear plug was lit with a green-gelled light on a red background. © Sharon E. Lowe photosbysharon.com Canon EOS D60 Digi... Outstanding work, Sharon!!!! - Charlene Bayerle See Charlene's Premium BetterPholio™ Visit PictureThisbyChar.com - Charlene's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Response 1:FANTASTIC !!!!! PLUG IT IN! - The Italian Eye See The 's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 2:WOW!!!! Thanks for sharing....let me see if I can find my vacuum cleaner....I left it someplace about 3 years ago when started shooting....darn, oh well! I love it, if I can find my vacuum, I'll never look at it the same!!!;-> - Gena A. Tussey Response 3:Awesome, Sharon- love the color! - Kathleen Clemons See Kathleen's Premium BetterPholio™ Visit kathleenclemonsphotography.com - Kathleen's Deluxe BetterPholio™ Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 9: Senior Pics Senior Pics ISO: 200; f/5.6; 1/125 sec; Changed to Sepia © Carol Dibble Canon EOS 10D Digi... Great portrait, Carol ... looks nice with the sepia filter, handsome senior :) - Lynn Crawford See Lynn's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 1:Love this. How'd you get that neato border? I would love to try it! - Meghan K. Norton Response 2:Thank you for your comments! Meghan, I generally use PS for all my photo editing, but I also have a Creating Keepsakes Program that has that ragged border, which I used in this photo. Thanks again! - Carol Dibble See Carol's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 3:Super senior pic! Very handsome boy and great job with DOF, etc! - Valarie Paris Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

New Photo Discussion 10: Morning Reflections of Bob the Cat Morning Reflections of Bob the Cat This is Bob, one of my cats. Using PS 7.0, I cut him out of the original and pasted him into a new file. Next I pasted him again into a new layer and flipped vertical, being careful to align the paws. Next, I created a new layer and applied KPT Sky Effects to create a sunrise. I copied, pasted and flipped vertical the sunrise. I stacked the layers properly. Then I slightly reduced the opacity of the reflected cat. I next made the upper 2 layers invisible, so only the reflecton layers were v © Michael S. McCook Nikon N90/N90s (F9... Very cool! Bob's a star! Nice work, Michael. - Beth Fishkind See Beth's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 1:Terrific effects, Michael....love it!! - Margot Petrowski See Margot's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 2:Very, very creative. Love the effects and the amount of work you put into this image. BTW - Bob is beautiful! - Marsha S. Smith See Marsha's Premium BetterPholio™ Response 3:Very original use of technique and color here, Michael, this makes an eye-catching image! - 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 11: Dark Days Dark Days Another in a series I took for a friend's band. Manipulation done in photoshop; threshold to make it monochromatic, graphic pen filter done to background. Feedback is welcome. © James P. Hildebrandt Canon EOS Digital ... Wow, excellent photo! Professional and confident job, James. Did they like it? - Piotr M. Organa Response 1:Thanks, yes, they did like them. It's funny that you mention professional and confident, in this case that almost could not be further from the truth. I was shooting in a parkade and had to set my ISO to 1600 to get a properly exposed shot. When I got home, I found that all the shots were underexposed (the LCD was deceiving), and when I adjusted the levels, it was way too grainy. This is when I had to get creative. I'm kinda glad they didn't turn out at first, though, because it pushed me to try some new things. I was really happy with how everything turned out in the end. - James P. Hildebrandt Read this discussion online Respond to this discussion

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