Introduction to Photoshop CS5 Basics & Keyboard Shortcuts with Ed

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Grand Tetons photograph by Ed, editing by Jason - the lens correction filter in Photoshop CS5 sets things straight 

I received a phone call from Ed all the way in Jacksonville (about 3 hours away) asking about taking extended 1-on-1 Photoshop CS5 lessons.  I am not a certified Photoshop expert or anything like that so at first I wanted to make sure he was not looking to learn how to do something like someone's face and put it onto another person's body.  My Photoshop skills lie mostly in the areas that pertain to editing digital photographs, not graphic design.  After talking for a few minutes though I realized that what Ed wanted to learn I could most definitely teach.  We booked two lesson sessions, one for today and another for tomorrow.

Ed had his own photos to use during the editing lesson and I was pleasantly surprised to see the Grand Tetons.  Florida photographers of course have no local opportunities to photographs mountains of any kind.  Ed's photographs already looked good, but there is almost always something that can be done to improve any photograph, and for sure any published or portfolio photograph by a serious hobbyist or a pro has had at least some editing done to it.  I am not afraid to say that editing is often 50% responsible for the final look of a photograph.  

The example above did not need that 50% level of editing.  I showed Ed my workflow which starts with cropping (I cropped the photo even more here than I did during the lesson to better show the edits we made) and then removing any dust spots on the sensor that appear as dirt blemishes in the photo by using the healing brush (keyboard shortcut - j).  Then I taught how to use the quick select tool (w) to highlight only the mountains for a contrast adjustment.  Then the foreground grass and fence were selected for a color balance boost.  Lastly, we used unsharp mask to increase the overall sharpness of the image resulting in more defined blades of grass and details in the fence and mountains.  

Tomorrow we will move on to editing portraits and using layer masks.  

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    Sailboat reflections in St. Petersburg downtown harbor HDR

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    The marina across from the Vinoy Hotel sailboat reflections - Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens @ f/11 ISO 200 3-bracket HDR handheld

    One day I will have to go out and make fine art photographs like this on purpose, as this one was made while teaching a DSLR Photography Lesson.  I noticed the sailboats' masts reflecting in the water and thought this makes this spot look much more interesting than the other 198 times I have seen and walked by it.  I normally do not center the horizon so much in the frame, but for certain reflection shots it works.  I left the top of the sky and did not crop right to the top of the masts to let the sky itself have more of a place in the photograph instead of only featuring the boats themselves.  

    Taking three bracketed shots and using HDR processing allowed for a much more colorful and detailed image than the single exposure photo I took first.  I liked the scene, but I recognized that a single exposure may only leave me with a black & white choice for a final image, whereas also taking bracketed shots for HDR gave me an additional option to pick from once I returned home and looked at the photos on my 24" monitor.  

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    • DSLR Photography Lesson with Alok & his Canon 60D

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    Alok with his Canon 60D at the end of our DSLR Photography Lesson in downtown St. PetersburgWith the sun setting earlier and tempertures only at hot and not broil, DSLR Photography Lessons on weekday evenings are starting earlier.  I met new student Alok at 5pm in downtown St. Petersburg.  He was no longer happy with the results from his point and shoot camera so he went right from that to a Canon 60D!  My 1-on-1 private lessons are exactly designed to help someone bridge that large gap between using a camera on auto-everything to using a DSLR with auto-nothing.  Although there is a good amount to learn at first, it does not necessarily need to take a long time to go from brand new DSLR owner to skilled photographer using manual mode.  

    Case in point, Alok showed he was quick on the uptake on how to correct overexposed images by manually adjusting shutter speed and aperture.  We started out using aperture priority mode, but in the early evening light, a dark subject (a tree) and a very pale white-gray sky was too tricky for his Canon 60D's meter to expose correctly.  The sky was coming out blown out.  So by switching to manual mode and increasing the shutter speed from a glacial 1/20th of a second to 1/100th of a second, the sky was no longer blown out, though at a bit of a tradeoff in that the tree was now darker.  Still, as a photographer, I want to make that choice myself, not leave it up to the camera to decide for me.

    Alok only has one lens now for his Canon 60D, a Sigma 18-50mm f/3.5-5.6.  This lens is a good workhorse choice, but to get the kinds of photos he told me he would like, he will definitely need a longer lens around 70-200mm.  I also advised him to invest in an external flash since he will be doing so much indoor shooting.  

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    Photography Tip - strong photographs come from confidence

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    Photography strength, like many other things, comes from confidence - Nikon D300 with Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens @ f/2.2 ISO 200 1/1250thRecently I have had DSLR Photography Lesson students who have wanted to go beyond just knowing how to use the basic functions of their DSLR.  Yet, they are still at the very beginning of understanding photography and how to make images with confidence.  

    PHYSICAL CONFIDENCE

    I was surprised to find that for some people there is even a lack of confidence in holding (and using) their gear at a physical level.  From the very first photography lesson with anyone, I teach how to properly hold a DSLR.  Then I show them how to properly stand.  Then I often tell them to get rid of the flip-flops and where proper shoes (like these).  Having a confident grip on your DSLR and maintaining a strong stance are the very first things needed in order to achieve an overall confidence level.

    When I grip my Nikon D300 and pull it up to my eye and look throug the viewfinder, something clicks inside of me.  It makes me feel stronger.  Just before doing this, I was only standing somewhere.  With camera to my eye, now I am going to be looking for and making photographs.  To give an example, a few weeks ago I was at a networking event, a place I do not feel confident at all and mostly feel uncomfortable.  I enter a room filled with people I do not know and am only there because hopefully I can meet someone who needs my photography services or can refer me to someone who does.  It is my least favorite aspect of being a professional photographer, the "hustle" to book jobs.  After semi-painfully making small talk with a few people, I went off to a corner of the room and pulled out my D300.  Instantly I had purpose and confidence and felt totally comfortable.  I only took three shots of the room, but that was enough.  

    The rest of physical confidence with your gear comes from being able to make a wholesale change of settings (aperture, shutter speed, white balance, ISO, focus mode) in 5 seconds (or so, depending if your camera has the ergonomics to do it).  I can change any of those five settings without really even looking, or better stated without having to remove my eye from the viewfinder.  If you have to hunt around your DSLR body to change any of those five things, then you cannot have confidence in using your gear.  You must learn how to change any and all of those settings as quickly as you can until you can do so almost without looking.

    EXPOSURE CONFIDENCE

    To be able to quickly change the above five settings, one must also have exposure confidence.  This type of confidence will take much longer to achieve than physical confidence, though it need not.  What is needed to produce a good exposure can be explained in one minute.  To be able to produce consistently well exposed images may take thousands of practice shots.  Students often ask me, how do you know to start out at such and such settings.  I answer, "because I have shot in light like this many times before."  The more time spent shooting, the more experience gained, then the more your exposure confidence will grow.  If you are not confident about your settings before you push the shutter, then you will never on purpose create a great shot.  If it happens, it will only be by luck.  This does not mean that a confident photographer always produces a great exposure on the very first shot, but it does mean that within 2 more shots he/she will.  

    CREATIVE CONFIDENCE

    Once you no longer have to worry about how to hold and use your gear, and how to get a good exposure, the last area of confidence to work on is creative confidence.  It is extremely hard to be able to produce creative photographs while searching for how to change your aperture and then not even being sure what aperture you should change it to.  Creative confidence starts when you approach a shot with physical confidence, then within 2 or 3 shots get your exposure and other settings locked in so you are confident in your exposure, which now frees you to just focus on composition, posing, framing, etc.  At this point, you will be able to consistently and repeatedly produce satisfying photographs. 

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    • 50mm DSLR Photography Lesson at a St. Petersburg Florida Marina

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    Pam showing very good portrait orientation holding technique with her Canon 60D during our 7th photography lesson!For our seventh DSLR Photography Lesson I met Pam in the usual downtown St. Petersburg spot, but thanks to her mother-in-law, who has a sailboat docked at a nearby marina, we were able to shoot from a unique spot on the southern waterfront area.  A huge thunderstorm also passed harmlessly by at the start of the lesson, leaving us free to explore new shooting locations among the long and narrow piers of the marina.  

    This was a 50mm only lesson, and Pam kept it secret from me that she upgraded her Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens for a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens since our last 50mm only lesson!!  When a student gets new gear for me it is almost as exciting as if I got some new gear myself!  Pam wanted a 50mm lens with better build quality, which the Canon 50mm f/1.4 provides with a metal housing and an silent focusing motor.

    A unique vantage point for photographing the new Dali Museum - Pam with her Canon 60DThe marina provided unique views of both The Pier and the new Salvador Dali Museum.  The setting sun had plenty of clouds around it producing great dusk light for us to photograph both of them in.  Pam now has all the photography gear she needs to produce the shots she wants and during our thirteenth and fourteenth hours of instruction she is beginning to understand and realize the settings she needs to change in order to correct exposure mistakes, while developing her own composition style.  

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    Palm Tree Horizon Twilight Pink to Blue Fine Art Photograph St Petersburg Florida

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    A low angle view of The Pier with a palm tree horizon & pink to blue twilight sky - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens @ f/11 ISO 200 1/60th mounted on Induro CT214 tripod with Nikon MC-30 cable release

    The most interesting period of the 24 hours we call a day, for me, is the transition from day to night.  Surprisingly, this is something that can be captured in a photograph.  The blue sky of day first turns pink (as seen above) in twlight before sinking to complete black at night.  What if the Earth always faced the sun as the Moon always faces the Earth?  What type of creatures would have evolved on a world with constant sunlight?  Everything on Earth is so cyclical.  I wonder about a world where everything is constant.