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Self portrait 3/04/06

Here's what
I've been
doing at
work lately...

Want to improve
your photography?

Check out the
Photozo:

the Photozo
A fun, informative place.
I hope to see you there!

My Digital
Photo Gallery

on PhotoZo
You can have one too.

Links to
others' photography & Photoshop
tutorials

Links to others' articles about choosing a digital camera:

Steve's
Digicam Reviews

Digital
Photography
Review

Shutter Lag Test

See others' zany Photoshop images:
Worth 1,000.com
Lots of pop-ups, though

Put your photos
on postage stamps!

Users'
Manuals:

Canon EOS
5D Mk II Manual

6.07MB PDF

Canon EOS
5D Manual

4.9MB PDF

Canon EOS
30D Manual

6.15MB PDF

Canon EOS
20D Manual

4.4MB PDF

Canon EOS
350D Manual

4.24MB PDF

Canon 580EX
Flash Manual

4.5MB PDF

A whole
education
about
Canon
EOS
Flash
Photography!

 

I enjoy dealing with the companies listed below, and using their products. I've been working with them for long enough that I've dealt with their customer service departments which have quickly resolved any issues I've had.These are not paid endorsements.

Alien Bees Studio Flash Equipment B&H Photo-Video Canon USA Flash Zebra Lastolite Photoflex OnOne DSLR Remote Pocket Wizard Think Tank Photo

 

 

 

ImageReady Rollovers More Photoshop techniques & tips Combining Two Exposures Photoshop Techniques & Tips The VERY Basics of Photoshop Applying an Adjustment Layer to a Selection Creating Cast Shadows Masking and Select>Color Range Getting the most out of your Digital Camera
... and MORE! (16 in all... see the list below)

Here are a few free tutorials Combining the best of two exposures Applying an Adjustment Layer to a selection More Photoshop tips Photoshop techniques The VERY basics of Photoshop Creating cast shadows Digital Camera Tips
Use the Zoom Tool to see the details of the screen captures & palettes!

Since I take pictures and use Photoshop in my job, people often ask me about these topics, so I've written a few tutorials as the areas of interest have come up. A couple of the more advanced tutorials I've written in answer to questions from fellow members of the Photozo Digital Photography Forum.

If you have any questions when you've read one of the tutorials, please email me and refer to which tutorial and what page, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

They're only a few pages each, and not nearly as thorough as the many terrific books available on the topics. I've listed my favorite Photoshop books on their own page. If you're using an earlier version of Photoshop, you may find books about that version in used book stores or Google it on the internet.

(Best viewed using Adobe Reader 6 or 7)

Get the Most out of Your Digital Camera (2 MB PDF) includes:
  • How to choose a digital camera
  • What's a megapixel?
  • Exposure options... you decide!
  • Deep or shallow depth of field
  • Shutterspeed choice
  • Picture taking tips
  • Composition tips
  • Easy professional portrait lighting

The Very, Very Basics of Photoshop (3.25 MB PDF) includes:
  • For real newbies! (others, too!)
  • Basics of the Layers palette
  • Painting on a layer
  • Some selection methods
  • Basic exposure modification
  • Layer masking
Photoshop Techniques (2.25 MB PDF) includes:
  • How to straighten your photos
  • Cropping made simple
  • Selectively lightening and darkening areas of you photos
  • Making areas disappear and reappear!
  • Blurring foreground & background
  • Saving for Web
The Stuff I Left Out -More Photoshop tips (2.6 MB PDF) includes:
  • Who your friends are
  • Shortcuts I use a lot
  • Keyboard shortcuts made easy
  • Let Actions do the boring stuff
  • Fixing perspective distortion
  • "Why won't this work?"
Masking Made Simple and Select>Color Range! (6.5 MB PDF) includes:
  • Making parts of a layer "dissappear"
  • Masking an adjustment layer
  • Selecting using Color Range
  • Working with transparent objects
  • Painting on a mask
  • "Dedicating" an adjustment layer
Creating Cast Shadows  for isolated subjects (5.4 MB PDF) includes:
  • Perspective shadows
  • Making it more subtle
  • Using an existing shadow
  • Enhancing the shadow

Adjustment Layers for a Selection  (2.5 MB PDF) includes:

  • Requested by Robin Underhill
    for one of her students.
  • Your selection creates
    a mask on your layer!
Combining Exposures  (5 MB PDF) includes:
  • A way to capture extremes of
    lighting in your photo
  • Demonstrated in Camera Raw,
    but can be two exposures.
Written at the request of Robin Underhill on the Photozo:
ImageReady Rollovers (1.8 MB PDF) for versions prior to CS3 - includes:
  • Creating rollover links for your web site
  • ImageReady: The "other side" of Photoshop
From the November/December 2006 Photozine
A Cloning Tip (192KB PDF) includes:
  • Making distracting things disappear
  • Continuing the lines in the background
Written at the request of Landis Major on the Photozo:
Adobe Camera Raw (3MB PDF) includes:
  • Using the other third of the twelve bits your camera is capturing
  • Recovering highlight areas you thought were too overexposed
From the January/February 2009 Photozine
Creating Animations in Photoshop (1.24 MB PDF) includes:
  • Create animations for your web site
  • Attract your viewer's eye with motion
Repetitive Task Escapes (118KB PDF) includes:
  • Let your computer do the boring stuff
  • Assign complex tasks to a single key
Portrait Lighting - a VERY short explanation (174KB PDF) includes:
  • Showing texture and the depth
    of your subject's features

  • Avoiding "flat" light
My Eye in the Sky - a higher perspective (772KB PDF) includes:
  • Methods of raising your camera
  • Ways of triggering your shutter remotely
  • Using an iPod as a remote viewfinder
  • Creating an ad hoc network
PocketWizard™ asked to use this tutorial for their customers:
Using a Ray Flash with a PocketWizard™ MiniTT1 (379KB PDF) includes:
  • Two terrific lighting accessories which
    seem to be physically incompatible
  • A workaround using two other
    commercially available accessories.

...and here's a copyright-free, 2010 Calendar
for you to use with your own images.

These PDFs may be Saved to your own computer by clicking Save to Disc in the upper left of the Adobe Reader screen.
Feel free to
Print these articles for your own private use. They are Copyrighted, however, and may not be used for profit.

If you do not have Adobe® Reader,
click here:
Get Adobe Reader to download it for free.
 

Please let me know if you find any errors in these publications:

 
Photoshop Techniques Digital Photo Tips Photoshop Techniques More Photoshop Photoshop Techniques The Very, Very Basics Digital Photography Tips More Photoshop tips