Browsing all posts in Editing.

Rescuing Grainy Film Photos

I made the complete switch from film photography to digital photography somewhere around 2003 or 2004. So you can imagine my surprise when, while recently digging through some old bags I had stuffed in the back of my closet, I came across several rolls of undeveloped film. I took them to my local one-hour developer [...]

Three Things I Wish I Knew Then

Sherry (who writes for PhotoBlog) and I were talking a couple of weeks ago about the things that we wished we knew, or that someone had told us, about photography when we first got started. Those tips or pieces of advice that would have helped us to avoid confusion or mistakes when we were [...]

Developing Custom Metadata in Adobe Bridge

Last week, in my post about establishing a post-processing routine, I mentioned that I would write some instructions on creating custom metadata to append to your photographs. Custom metadata is useful for a variety of reasons – to help categorize your photographs, to assign keywords and searchable tags, and to establish copyright and photo [...]

Make it Pop

This is an image that I shot of the Grand Tetons, with Jenny Lake in the foreground, during my vacation in Wyoming this past summer.

This is straight out of the camera and completely unaltered. It’s a pretty enough shot, but weirdly hazy, and certainly not representative of the sight I saw with my own [...]

Establishing a Post-Processing Routine

Having a post-processing routine is beneficial for many reasons, not the least of which is establishing consistency in the final proof of your photographs. I follow a fairly systematic approach when performing post-processing on a set of photographs – often times I’ll have a group of fifty photos or more from a photo shoot, [...]

Creating a Photo Montage

Recently I was invited to join the F.O.A.M. group on Flickr. F.O.A.M. stands for:
Food
Outside
Abstract
Myself
Participants in the group take daily photos of food, outside, an abstract shot, and a shot of themselves, then arrange the shots into a montage (a term often used interchangeably with “collage” and “mosaic”, but they’re really all quite different) and post to [...]

Straightening a Photo in Photoshop

I was recently hired to do the photography for a wine event at a local restaurant. Much to my chagrin I discovered that, in a couple of photos, my tripod wasn’t quite straight at the time, and I ended up taking a few slightly crooked pictures. What may have once been a BIG problem is [...]

Should You Upgrade to Photoshop CS4?

Adobe Photoshop came out with CS4 in late 2008, improving upon the immensely powerful CS3. I, like many other CS3 users I know, have been undecided about upgrading. It’s hard to imagine any functionality that I would need that is NOT contained in CS3. There is a ton of information (and opinions) out there, making [...]

Creating Textures

Following up on my previous entry about textures, creating textures of your own is a pretty easy process.
Everything has texture, some subtle, some overt. In creating your own texture to apply to photographs, the easiest way is to simply take a photograph of something that has texture, itself. Items with repeating patterns work well, too. [...]

Playing With Textures

Adding textures to photographs seems to be all the rage lately, doesn’t it? No fewer than five different photography sites that I’ve perused this week have featured themes relating to textures.
Being the joiner that I am, I thought I’d play around with some textures, myself. I’ve never worked with them before this, so I was [...]