Category Archives: Photography

No Photo Is Better Left Untouched!

No Photo Is Better Left Untouched!

Most photographs, even professional ones, can benefit from some retouching.  Some need to be put through a thorough workflow to correct white balance, exposure issues or some may just need little tweaks here and there.  Lightroom and Photoshop offer a myriad of ways to correct problems and allow photographers to be creative with their photos.  I enjoy working with MCP Actions for Photoshop – I recently picked up Jodi’s Fusion and Eye Doctor Actions and played around with them a bit.

I decided to try something subtle on this picture of my son Ryan from his first trip to Disney World at the age of 18 months:

The tweaks enhanced his eyes and the catch lights, while smoothing his skin and making it more creamy.

I’ll be playing around with these actions to see what other recipes I can come up with to enhance my photos!

Now You See It, Now You Don’t – Photoshop CS5′s New Content Aware Fill

Probably one of the most frustrating aspects of photography is annoying distractions in your candid photos. How many times did you snap that perfect shot of your kids only to notice later that there was a pole, a miscellaneous person or some unsightly thing marring your masterpiece. Photoshop users had some decent tools to deal with these blemishes but they were by no means perfect..until now.

Photoshop CS5 features “content aware” fill technology. Content Aware Fill uses the image details to recreate areas that are removed to match its surroundings. For example, if you have a tree branch extending over the side of building, then you can select the tree branch and use the content aware fill feature to replace the tree branches with a pattern that matches the building’s bricks. This amazing feature lets you easily remove unwanted details from images such as wires, trees and even buildings without leaving a gaping hole where the object used to be. It virtually eliminates the time consuming touch up work required after removing items.
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The Magic of Miche