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A magazine devoted to creative photography and Photoshop published by Jim Zuckerman.
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P H O T O I N S I G H T S Jim Zuckerman’s
• Exposing for the sun• Hyperfocal distance• Self-critiques• Fireworks• New online course• Student showcase
July 2013
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T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s
4. Exposing for the sun 9. Self-critiques13. Fireworks16. Hyperfocal distance20. New online course22. What’s wrong with this picture?24. Short and sweet26. Ask Jim28. The Photo Challenge30. Shooting the Milky Way32. Student showcase35. Back issues
It seems that every time we turn around, there is a new software program to learn. In many ways digital photography is much easier than shooting with film, but the learning curve (a term we never used with film photography) in the digital realm is daunting. Every program comes with an instruc-tion manual or book that makes your head spin, and it’s very easy to become so intimidated that it paralyzes you into doing nothing.
Photoshop, alone, takes months to master to a profficient level.
When I am faced with learning about a new piece of equipment or a new software program, I am re-minded of what a professor taught me many years ago when I wanted to learn how to use a scanning electron microscope (this is a complex machine that has a dizzying number of buttons, knobs, and dials). She explained the Law of Diminishing Knobs to me, and what this refers to is that the more commands or controls you know how to use, the less there seems to be.
For example, we all know how to work the controls in our cars. But if you had never seen or oper-ated a vehicle, there would seem like there are so many controls: defrosters, windows, AC and heat controls, music system, bluetooth, turn signals, gears, lock and unlock buttons, windshield washers, gas tank opener, etc. etc. Since all of these are familiar to us, it’s all like no big deal.
The same thing happens to Photoshop and the myriad programs that we use with our iPads, iPhones, computer, and cameras.
Don’t let new software programs be a burden. Take it one step, or one command, at a time. After a while, you’ll be using the program and it will seem like all those ‘knobs’ weren’t so numberous at all.
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How to Expose for the Sun
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therefore it dictates a meter reading such that the subject is underexposed because it wants to make the white subject gray.
(2). The built-in camera meter takes most of its information from the center of the frame. There are several metering modes, like spot, average, center weighted, matrix (for Nikon), and evaluative (for Canon), and although they ascribe different amounts of importance to the different portions of the image, most of the exposure data is based on the center of the frame where the subject is assumed to be.
(3). Blown highlights -- meaning areas of the picture in which the highlights have lost tex-ture and detail -- are almost always something you want to avoid. This is why photographers constantly look at their histogram. When the graph spikes on the right. that tells us that highlights are blown out. With the sun,
During my recent photo tour to Bo-tswana, I was asked many times by people in my group to help them get
perfect exposures of the sun. Every evening, we had beautiful sunset skies, and everyone wanted to capture them. Exposure inconsistencies are a constant problem when shooting the sun, so let me explain to you why this happens and what the correct approach is to capturing beautiful pictures of the sun.
First, you have to understand three important things. (1). All light meters are programmed to provide accurate readings based on middle gray, or middle toned, subjects. In the case of the built-in meter in your camera, when it de-tects light reflecting off of a gray rock, middle toned tree bark, blue jeans, a red sweater, etc., it will give you a correct exposure. If the subject is very bright, such as snow, a white dog, or the sun, the meter assumes this is middle toned and
though, you will never see texture or detail in the solar surface when photographing it with a conventional camera. If you are imaging solar flares using a telescope and special filters, that’s obviously very different. But with the cameras and lenses we use, the disc of the sun, excluding clouds, will always be devoid of detail.
Manipulating the exposure
We all know that exposure is controlled by the lens aperture, the shutter speed, and the ISO. There is another way to control exposure, too.
Look at the two photos below. I took these in Botswana with a 500mm f/4 Canon telephoto plus a 1.4x teleconverter, giving me 700mm of focal length. That’s why the sun is so large. The longer the telephoto, the larger it appears in the frame.
The point, though, is that the picture on the left is much darker than the picture on the right. For both shots, I used Program mode so the camera’s meter chose the shutter speed as well as the f/stop. The reason why the left picture is so much darker is because I placed the sun very close to the center of the frame. The meter takes most of its information from this portion of the composition, and it assumed the subject was very, very bright. Hence, the f/stop - shut-ter speed combination gave me a dark picture
in an effort to make this brilliant scene middle toned.
The picture on the right shows the sun off-cen-ter. The middle of the image consists of dark trees, and the meter determined that the im-age needed to be lighter in order to make those dark areas middle toned. The meter was still influenced by the sun, but to a much lesser de-gree.
The exposure, then, can be manipulated -- pro-viding you are using one of the automatic ex-posure modes (Program, aperture priority, or shutter priority) simply by composing the pic-ture such that the sun is positioned in different parts of the viewfinder. If the sun is in the mid-dle, the picture will be quite dark. If it is off to the side, it will be lighter. If the sun is off to the side and partially obscured by the horizon, by trees, or by some other object, like the picture at the bottom of the next page, then the sun will have a decreasing effect on the meter reading.
If you use a wide angle lens and the sun is very small in the frame and it’s composed away from the center, like the Namibian landscape at the top of the next page, the sun will have very little effect on the meter reading.
The correct metering approach
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The obvious question, then, is with all this var- iation in exposure depending on the composi-tion, how can you ever get a good exposure?
In the digital realm, the answer is simple. If we were still shooting film, my answer would be completely different, but with the advent of immediate feedback on the LCD monitor on the back of the camera, you can see what your exposure is after each picture is taken.
Therefore, note where you want the sun’s po-sition in the frame, take a picture, and if you want the image lighter or darker, simply ad-just the exposure compensation in 1/3 f/stop increments. All digital cameras have an ex-posure compensation feature, and if you don’t know where this is, read the manual and find out. It’s one of the most important functions on your camera because it allows you to tweak the exposure until it’s exactly what you want.
In this way, you can consistently take pictures with perfect exposures without knowing a lot about metering. Can you still use a hand held light meter to read the incident light? Sure. Can you use a spot meter once you’ve identified middle gray in the scene. Absolutely.
But . . . the method I’m suggesting you use is much faster and there is no guesswork at all.§
UPCOMING PHOTO WORKSHOPS
Winter Wildlife WorkshopHinckley, MinnesotaJan. 31 - Feb. 2, 2014
Baby WildlifeWorkshopHinckley, MinnesotaJune 13 - 15, 2014
Frog & Reptile WorkshopSt. Louis, Missouri
October 26 - 27, 2013
Two back-to-back Carnival Workshops, Venice, Italy
Feb. 21 - 27 - 23, 2014Feb. 27 - March 5, 2014
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Self-critiquesthe fastest way to dramatically improve your work
Having your family and friends tell you how great your pictures are doesn’t help you at all -- as I’m
sure you know. They will either tell you what they think you want to hear, or they have no clue what makes a great picture and their input feels good but there isn’t any expertise in their assessment.
A critique by a professional photographer is a lot more helpful, but ultimately you have to learn to critique your own work. You can’t have a pro at your side all the time, and there is no question that the fastest way to better photography is via honest self-critiques of your images. When I say honest that doesn’t mean unnecessarily brutal such that you find fault with every aspect of your work. It simply means that you have a goal in mind -- to im-prove the artistry in your work -- and you are
looking for problems in your picture taking that, when addressed, will lead to better photographs.
As you assess your photos, there are specific things to look for. Below is a check list I’d like to offer that will serve you well in looking at your work with a critical eye. Art is certainly in the eye of the beholder, and artistic-minded people can disagree on what makes a successful image, but I’m sure the following questions will help you take great pictures by anyone’s standards.
1. Is the subject compelling? Does it hold one’s attention? One of the most important concepts in photography is this: Great subjects make great pictures. Conversely, boring or mundane sub-jects usually make unimpressive pictures. When I lead photography tours, I only take my groups to places with awesome subjects because the pictures will be outstanding. The wildlife ba-
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bies workshop I do in Minnesota is an example. Baby bears, wolves, foxes, skunks, and moun-tain lions are incredible subjects.
2. Is the background distracting? Is it messy, is it overexposed, is there something sticking up behind the subject, are there colors that are so bright they eclipse the subject? Is your eye drawn to something in the background that has more visual impact than the subject?
The photo of the cheetah, above, is an example of a distracting element in the background. By removing the bush behind the haunches of the cat, below, the picture is much improved. I had no choice at the time, of course, because when you see a cheetah in Africa, you have to cap-ture the moment. Sometimes you can change the shooting angle, the lens, or wait for another moment in order to improve a background, but when shooting fast you have to fix problems like this in Photoshop.
In the photo of the Ndebele women in South Africa, below, one could argue that the color-ful graphic designs of their traditional houses make a busy and distracting background. In this particular case, though, I would say that’s not the case. The background is part of the subject in this shot. Sure, the colors and the design are bold and attention-grabbing, and our eyes move all over the frame. But this pic-ture really has two subjects -- the women and the architectural motif -- and therefore this composition works.
With the cheetah photo, there is only one sub-ject, and that’s why I had to clone out the bush.
3. Are elements in the foreground out of fo-cus? If so, they are usually distracting. In art, there are always exceptions to rules, but I feel in most cases you should avoid out of focus foregrounds.
Let me show you two pictures, one where out of focus elements are very distracting and one where an out of focus foreground is acceptable. At the top of the next page you can see a mac-ro shot of a flower, and the structures of the flower closest to the camera are blurred. This is bad. There is no debate about this. They are distracting and, to be honest, visually annoy-ing. This picture was not taken from a tripod, and therefore the lens aperture was too large.
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More depth of field was needed here. Instead of f/5.6 I should have used f/32.
The picture of the ring-necked parakeet shows leaves in the foreground that are out of focus, but in this case the foliage is so blurred that it appears as a haze of color. This kind of out of focus foreground is acceptable.
4. Are there bright highlights in the back-ground that take attention away from the subject? For example, in the picture of the egret, below, the patches of the light sky seen through the trees ruin the shot. The breeding plummage is beautiful, the soft light is excel-lent, but the background is so distracting that this picture can only be called a failure.
5. Are there two subjects in the picture but
only one of them is in focus? This is not good. If you have two subjects, such as the lions be-low, both need to be sharp. Use a smaller lens aperture, use a wider angle lens, or physically move back from the subjects to increase depth of field.
6. Are there bold graphic lines behind the subject that take attention away from it? I see this all the time in the online critiques I do, and it’s almost never a good idea.
When defined horizontal, vertical, or diagonal lines are not part of the subject and they are seen behind a subject, such as in the shot of the costumed model in Venice, Italy on the next page, the results are not attractive. The back-ground is much too distracting; in fact, our eyes constantly move away from her.
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7. Did you photograph people outdoors in the middle of the day with direct sunlight? This is perhaps the worst way to photograph people as you can see in the photo below. Peo-ple squint from the bright sun, which looks ter-rible, and the contrasty shadows on their face are extremely unflattering. Do whatever you can to avoid this kind of lighting. Bring them
to the shade if possible, turn their back to the sun so their face is shadowed, use a diffusion panel, wait for a cloud, or shoot when the sun is low enough in the sky that it is no longer a factor.
If you are taking snapshots where quality isn’t important -- like at a child’s outdoor birthday party -- then don’t worry about the sun. You’re just documenting a family milestone, and no one is looking at the pictures with a critical eye.
But for meaningful portraits of people, the best outdoor illumination is soft and diffused day-light typical of a cloud cover or shade. Just make sure that your shaded subject is standing or sitting in front of a shaded background. If the background is sunny and the subject is in the shade, the background will be overexposed.§
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S h o o t i n g
FIREWORKS
I encourage you to photograph fireworks this coming July 4th. It’s fun, the images are striking, every shot is a surprise, and you can use the photographs for com-posite work if you like to put pictures together in Photoshop.
The equipment you need is basic: A camera, a zoom lens somewhere in the range of 24 - 105mm, and a tripod. Nothing more. Because the sky is always dark when fireworks shows begin, the technique is simple. You open the shutter and let the digital sensor capture the action.
The actual settings I recommend are these --
Shutter speed: 1.3 to 1.6 seconds; lens aperture: f/8; ISO: 200; white balance: daylight. Dur-ing the finale when the sky is made brilliant by multiple bursts, f/11 should be used.
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If you want the streaks of firelight to be lon-ger, use a longer shutter speed such as two or three seconds. This will not affect the exposure. Shooting fireworks is unique in that the shutter speed has nothing to do with exposure; rather, it determines the size of each burst, and it also allows you to capture multiple bursts. For ex-ample, a 20 second exposure will include all of the bursts that occur within that time frame.
Autofocus is useless when shooting fireworks. Turn it off completely. Focus on a distant street lamp or an office building window several hun-dred feet away. Once focused, don’t change that setting for the duration of the fireworks display.
You can use a wireless or wired cable release to trip the shutter, but I never do that when shoot-ing fireworks. I simply push the shutter button with my finger, and the results are tack sharp.
Not all fireworks displays are spectacular. I’ve
photographed many where even the finale wasn’t impressive. Therefore, you may want to make your images more robust by combining two or more images into a single composite as I did in the picture below. This is a simple pro-cedure in Photoshop. Here are the steps:
1. Open both images on your desktop.
2. Select one of them with Select > all, and then Edit > copy. This puts the image in the temporary holding place, the clipboard.
3. Activate the other photo and use Edit > paste. This pastes the clipboard image over the background image.
4. In the layers palette, click on the submenu that shows the word ‘normal’. In that drop down menu (these are the blend modes) choose lighten. The two images will be perfectly com-bined -- no selecting, no cutting anything out.§
E-books to help you take better pictures
Click on any ebook to see inside
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HYPERFOCAL DISTANCE? W h a t i s t h e
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You have probably heard references to the hy-perfocal distance but never really understood or used it. The HFD refers to how much depth of field you’ll have in a photo given a particular f/stop and lens and where exactly you focus in the composition. This concept is usually ap-plied to landscape work.
The definition of HFD is:
The closest distance from the point of focus to the lens where objects at infinity are acceptably sharp.
(The hyperfocal distance is entirely dependent upon what level of sharpness is considered to be acceptable. The criterion for the desired accept-able sharpness is specified through the circle of confusion diameter limit. This is the largest ac-ceptable diameter that an infinitesimal point is allowed to spread out in the picture. It is usu-
ally considered to be .03mm.)
What all this comes down to in simplified terms is where to focus in your picture for maximum depth of field.
What the hyperfocal distance does not take into consideration is that if you have to choose between the foreground being slightly out of focus or the background being slightly soft, it’s best to make the foreground tack sharp and sacrifice the background. This is my opinion, and I base it on the fact that a dominant fore-ground is so prominent, so eye catching, that it must be sharp or the picture will be visually annoying. The photo of Keukenhof Gardens below and the landscape in Chile on the previ-ous page are examples. Sure, I would like the entire image from front to be tack sharp, but if that’s not possible, then it’s the foreground that needs to be as sharp as possible.
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Let me give you a very easy method of de-termining the focus point that will give you the most depth of field given a chosen point of focus, and at the same time guarantee that the foreground will be as sharp as possible.
You take the focal length of the lens you’re using, such as a 24mm, and convert the mil-limeters into feet: 24 feet. Divide this by 3, and this equals 8 feet. This, then, is the criti-cal point of focus. When using a small lens aperture, you will get as much depth of field as possible (not withstanding the technique of focus stacking).
If you are using a 16mm wide angle, the math would be: 16 feet divided by 3 equals 5 1/3. So, you would focus about 5 feet from the camera position -- exactly as I did in the two landscape shots you see at right and below.
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Costa Rica Photo Tour Nov. 30 - Dec. 6, 2013
Hummingbird shoots Reptile shoot Mt. Arenal Waterfalls
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The ability to ‘see photographically’, to re-ally grasp how your camera and lenses cap-ture a subject or scene (which is different than how we see with our eyes) underlies successful picture taking. It is the bottom line that you’ve been looking for to take that quantum leap forward in your pho-tography.
When you register for this course, you are given download links to eight easy-to-un-derstand lessons that look like beautiful mini ebooks. At your convenience, you can study the material and then upload your photos for a professional critique by Jim. Included in the course is a phone call once a week to discuss your submissions or any other aspect of photography you want -- what new equipment to buy, advice about carrying gear on an airline, problems with flash, or anything else.
This course can be purchased directly from Jim’s website by clicking HERE.
The great thing about online courses is that they can fit into any schedule. Life gets in the way at times, and Jim puts no limit on the time you can submit your work for his critiques.
New OnLine Course: LEARNING TO SEE by Jim Zuckerman
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LEARNING TO SEE online courseThe 8 lessons that comprise this course are: Graphic design, Backgrounds, Depth of field, Patterns, Natural light, Color, Composition, and Motion. These lessons are beautifully illustrated and full of concrete steps to dramatically improve your photography.
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What’s wrong with this picture?
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During my Carnival in Venice photo workshop, I set up a gondola shoot. I arrange for the participants in my group to photograph two spectacular costumed models in a gondola,
and everyone shoots them from a bridge, from the edge of the canal, and also from inside the gondola. While we were setting up, another model -- a jester -- came by and spontaneously posed with the other models in the background. It was a classic shot . . . except for these three issues:
1. The piece of paper in the immediate foreground should have been removed.
2. Due to the contrast in the scene, the gondola models and the gondolier are too dark. The bridge caused a deep shadow that obscured important detail in the picture.
3. The biggest problem, of course, is the white sky and the washed out buildings in the upper left section of the image. The sun came out and caused this problem, and while most of the shots my group took were composed from a different shooting perspective to eliminate this, a wide angle composition that included the jester also encompassed the sunlit architecture. As is, this picture is a failure in my opinion.
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Since I shoot everything in RAW, I was able to open up the detail in the shadows by using the shadows slider in Adobe Camera Raw. Lightroom has the same tool.
Next, when I opened the image in Photoshop, I cloned out the white piece of paper with the clone tool.
The background took the most time, but it only took me about eight minutes or so. I carefully selected all of the overexposed background using a combination of the magic wand tool and the lasso tool. This included the sky, the overexposed building in the upper left corner, as well as the spaces inside the wrought iron design in the ornate railing. I worked at 200%. I then expanded the selection with Select > modify > expand (and in the dialog box that opened, I chose one pixel), and finally I feathered the selection with Select > modify > feather (also with one pixel).
Then, I searched through my shots of Venetian architecture and found one where the angle and the lighting matched what I wanted for this picture. I then copied that photo to the clipboard with Se-lect > all, Edit > copy, and then pasted it into the selected area with Edit > paste special > paste into. That instantly fixed the problem, and now the background is entirely complementary.
SHORT AND SWEET
1. To add color to old photographs, use the brush tool in Photoshop or Elements. Use it on a lowered opacity so the color doesn’t come out too strong. The range of 20-40% opacity is ideal. This allows you to have better control over the color. These are my parents in 1945.
3. When you travel either domestically or interna-tionally, choose hotels that offer great photo opportu-nities. It might be a view from a rooftop restaurant, a great lobby, ultra modern design, etc. This shot is the Mariott Marquis Hotel in downtown Atlanta taken from the 17th floor with a 15mm fisheye.
2. When telling a story with your pictures, whether for friends or for a magazine article, step back and take an establishing shot. The fountains at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas make a beautiful image, but with the silhouettes of the people, you’ll tell a story.
4. I recommend using daylight WB for all outdoor photography, even when shooting in the shade where images have a bluish bias like this wild dog in Botswana. You can easily eliminate the blue color later in post-pro-cessing. Using only daylight WB saves time, and it’s too easy to miss pictures when fiddling with the camera. §
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Photography Tours 2013/2014LONDON/PARISAugust, 2013
NAMIBIANovember, 2013
COSTA RICADecember, 2013
TIGERS, PANDAS, ICE FES-TIVAL in CHINA. Jan. 2014
Check out the itineraries and photo galleries from these and other tours: www.jimzuckerman.com.
CARNIVAL IN VENICEFebruary, 2014
BURMA (Myanmar)April, 2014
AM SOUTHWESTApril, 2014
GREENLANDJune, 2014
SOUTH INDIAMay, 2014
WHITE HORSESApril, 2014
KENYAAugust, 2014
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ASK JIM Every month Jim will answer a question from his online students, from people who participate in his tours and workshops, or from subscribers to this magazine. If you have a question you’d like Jim to answer, please drop him a note at [email protected].
Q: I know that you are a big proponent of using maximum depth of field. Many times I am in an environment that does not allow me to use complete depth of field. For example, in wildlife shots often the subject is moving and there’s not a lot of light on the subject. In those situations, do you prefer(1) a higher ISO or (2) a larger lens aperture? Shana Shoblaska, Two Rivers, Wisconsin
A: Wildlife photography doesn’t usually allow the luxury of complete depth of field unless the situationis completely controlled, such as when I conduct my frog and reptile workshop. In this case, the subjects are placed where I want them and I use flash, which provides so much light that f/32 is feasible.
Having said that, many times a background that is completely out of focus forces all of the attention onthe subject. This is one of the guidelines of both art and photography that a viewer’s attention should bedirected to the subject without distration. Backgrounds that are completely out of focus with no definitionare great. Backgrounds that have some defintion due to a certain amount of depth of field often are dis-tracting. Therefore, I usually photograph wildlife with a large lens aperture for two reasons. First, thispermits a fast shutter speed to freeze movement, and second, I like backgrounds that are just a haze of color so the subject stands out dramatically.
Jim
© Shana Shoblaska 2013
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China Photo Tour January 4 - 16, 2014
Tigers Pandas Harbin Ice Festival Culture
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THE PHOTO CHALLENGE
This picture was taken during the pho-to tour to Botswana I conducted last month. When my driver recognized
what the movement was under the bush, his whole demeanor changed. He was scared to death . . . and with good reason. These are mat-ing black mambas, and one bite from this spe-cies of snake means certain death in 20 minutes.
None of the drivers had ever seen this. Before we were allowed to take pictures, though, my driver turned the land rover around and backed into the clearing near the snakes. They are very aggressive, and in the event they approached the vehicle, he wanted to make a fast get-a-way.
This was an extremely tough image to take for a variety of reasons. First, although the mam-bas were about six feet long, their heads were
relatively small. We couldn’t approach them, obviously, so the lens I needed to create visual impact such that I didn’t have to do any crop-ping had to be quite long. The best option was a 500mm f/4 Canon telephoto plus a 2x tele-converter, giving me 1000mm of focal length.
This presented two more problems. On the Canon 5D Mark II body I was using, autofo-cus works with any lens aperture f/5.6 or larger. Two f/stops of light were lost when I used the 2x teleconverter, making the effective aperture f/8. Therefore, I had to manually focus the large, heavy lens.
Next, the open vehicles used for all safaris in southern Africa don’t permit a convenient win-dow sill to rest a large lens. The best I could dowas to lean down and rest an elbow on the arm
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rest while I focused using the other hand. This was really awkward and very challenging.
The mambas were situated under a large, thick bush. That meant the light level was very low. I had two choices. I could raise the ISO quite high -- perhaps to 4000 -- or I could use flash. I didn’t like the idea of unsightly digital noise ru-ining this incredible scene, so I opted for flash. One of the advantages of using artificial light was that I could use a fairly small lens aperture for depth of field. The 1000mm focal length, especially when used so close to the snakes, of-fered extremely shallow depth of field. To make sure both snakes were sharp, which was very important, I closed the lens down to f/14.
In order to use the automatic flash metering function and still get the lens aperture I wanted, I had to use manual exposure mode on the cam-era. If I chose aperture priority, which on the surface made sense, the shutter would become
very slow to make the darker background the same exposure as the mambas. Therefore, I used manual exposure mode on the camera and the ETTL function on the flash. This pro-duced a perfect exposure with enough depth of field so both heads are sharp.
The biggest headache was critical focus. Re-member that I had to manually focus the huge lens, and due to its weight it was tough to hold it steady. I kept focusing back and forth un-til the snakes appeared sharp, and then after every shot I checked the LCD monitor to see if, in fact, I was taking sharp pictures. I didn’t know how long the intertwined snakes would stay in this position, so I had to shoot fast -- as fast as the recycle time on the flash would al-low.
I used 1000 ISO because that extended the range of the flash at f/14.§
Shooting the Milky WayStar trails are fun to shoot, but captur-
ing the Milky Way in all its beauty requires a unique approach. I wrote
about this three years ago, but so many people have asked me how to do it that I wanted to revisit the technique for you.
Due to the Earth’s rotation, exposures longer than 6 seconds turn point light sources, i.e. stars, into oblong lines and eventually streaks. The Milky Way is completely blurred, and that defeats the purpose.
The technique required to capture the night sky as you see it -- or even better due to the accummulation of light from a long exposure -- is called focus stacking.
The technique
1. Use a lens with an aperture of at least f/1.4, such as the 50mm f/1.4.
2. From a tripod, take 10 separate exposures at f/1.4, 3200 ISO, and 6 seconds long. The night must be moonless.
3. Open the images in Photoshop CS5 or CS6 Extended, and use: File > scripts > load files into stack.
4. Then use: Layer > smart objects > stack mode > mean. Photoshop aligns all the stairs and eliminates the noise completely. The im-age below is a composite of the star field with a landscape in Namibia.
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Get professional critiques of your work with Jim’s online courses
Betterphoto.com
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Get professional critiques of your work with Jim’s online courses
betterphoto.com Learn composition, exposure, Photoshop, beginning fundamentals, techniques
in low light photography, flash, making money in photography, and moreat your convenience and on your schedule.
The perpetual rainbow at Victoria Falls,Zimbabwe
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Student ShowcaseEach month, Jim features one or more students who took beautiful and inspiring images on one of his pho-tography tours or workshops. It’s really fascinating how photographers see and compose such different images even though we may go to the same place. Everyone gets great images on my trips.
Alexander Decoster, Dilbeek, BelguimTurkey photo tour, Botswana photo tour
32© Alexander Decoster
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Alexander Decoster, Dilbeek, Belgium
© Alexander Decoster
PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP Sat. & Sun., Sept. 21, 22
Photoshop is a photographer’s best friend, and the creative possi-bilities are absolutely endless. In a personal and ‘homey’ environ-ment (I have a very cool classroom setup in my home), I start at the beginning -- assuming you know nothing -- but I quickly get into layers, cutting and pasting, plug-ins, using ‘grunge’ textures, modifying lighting, and a lot more. I promise to fill your head with so many great techniques that you won’t believe what you’ll be able to do. I go over each technique several times to make sure you understand it and can remember it.
Photoshop instructors approach teaching this program from dif-ferent points of view. My approach is to be as expansive in my thinking as possible in creating unique, artistic, and compelling images. In addition to showing you how to use the various tools, pull down menus, layers, and so on, I spend a lot of time giving you
creative ideas that will inspire you to produce amazing images with the pictures you’ve already taken.
I live in the Nashville, Tennessee area, and if you fly into the airport (BNA) I will pick you up. If you drive, I’ll give you my address and you can find my home on Mapquest. For the $450 fee, I include one dinner in my home (prepared by my wife who is an amazing cook and hostess) and two lunches, plus shuttling you back and forth from my home to your nearby hotel.
Contact me if you would like to participate in the workshop and I will tell you how to sign up ([email protected]). All you need is a laptop and a lot of your pictures. If you don’t have a laptop, I have two Mac Book Pro laptops I can loan out for the duration of the workshop. §
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PHOTO INSIGHTS®published by Jim Zuckerman, all rights reserved
© Jim Zuckerman 2013 email: [email protected]
physical address: P.O. Box 7, Arrington, TN 37014
