Since posting my original Quick Reef Tank Photography Guide, I’ve received quite a few questions about how people can improve their reef tank pictures. In many cases, I’ve found that what’s more important than taking better pictures is properly processing those photos.
This video was made with those people in mind. (Click “Read More” to get to the video…) Continue reading »
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In this video, I show a couple of different techniques for using the gradient tool to create more interesting graphics. Starting with a blank canvas, I create the two simple web-style banners shown here.
To download the full length, HD version of this video (about 20M), click here. If you experience any trouble playing it, I recommend downloading Media Player Classic which is a small, free program with native support for virtually every video format that exists.
In this video, I explain the differences between the Spot Healing brush tool and the Healing Bush tool.
Download the High Definition version of this video here in mp4 format, which can easily be played with Media Player Classic.
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Rather than attempting to type everything out, I’ve created a video tutorial which I hope will be more helpful. For this subject, I strongly recommend watching a high definition copy, which you can download here in mp4 format. If you have any trouble playing the video, I recommend downloading Media Player Classic (a free, lightweight but fully featured player) to play it.
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A Quick Workflow for Landscape Photography
In fact, I made this video as a test to see how the software would work, but it’s complete enough to be worth posting. I’ve learned that in future videos, I’ll want to work closer in.
In any case, this workflow is very simple and quick, but flexible and generally produces bright, vibrant results, which is exactly what we want with stock and landscape photos.
I’ve uploaded this video to youtube so it can be seen by anybody, but I’ve also created a high resolution version of the file, which you can download by clicking here: Quick Landscape Workflow . If you have any trouble playing this video, I recommend watching it with Media Player Classic, a free and excellent video player, which you can download in a matter of seconds.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this video, or if you have any suggestions for future videos. Part two of the “Sharpening” series will mostly likely be a video tutorial as well.
[If you don't care how sharpening works (you really should...), then you can skip this and read Part Two: Techniques. ...JMG.]
We’ve all seen the cop shows in which the hero has discovered some video footage or a traffic camera photo (etc) that shows the perpetrator in the act, and the resident computer guru zooms in on the perp’s face, revealing a pixelated mess. At this point in the story, the hero says “Can you enhance that?” and the guru replies “Of course!” and after a few keyboard clicks, the image suddenly resolves into perfect clarity.
Anyone who has spent any time with digital images probably already understands that this scenario is (unfortunately) complete nonsense. There is nothing that you can do to a photo that will give you more information than you had when you started. If the face is described by 4 pixels, you’re never going to distinguish the eyes. The only way to get more information in an image is to take a better photo.
That said, there are limits to what information the human eye (and brain) can detect. One point of sharpening is to highlight that detail which exists in the image but is not immediately discernible. It is also true that we are much better at visually detecting edges when there is strong contrast between the edge and the background (eg, black on white rather than grey on grey). The second goal of sharpening, then, is to increase edge contrast in an image, which consequently makes the image appear sharper. How is this done? Continue reading »
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