Cropping

It’s always best to fill your camera frame with as much of the image as possible. Most digital SLRs have an aspect ratio of 3:2.  Without cropping, your images can be printed 6×4, 12×8, 24×16. This aspect ratio doesn’t fit our standard sizes.If you want an 8×10 print, shoot a little wider and your crop will not delete any key elements in your photograph.

Matting and Framing

If cropping your image isn’t an option, have a custom matte made. This will make it easier to select a cheaper standard size frame. Select the size of your frame, then have the matte cut to the opening of your image.

Custom print size

Wouldn’t it be better if you could concentrate on creating your work of art and not have to worry about the output? This is where we benefit from custom printing. To keep the print affordable, develop a relationship with your printing company. Know their standard sizes and keep that in mind when you shoot. Some companies have a complete solution, meaning the mounting of the image is part of the art work. You see this in gallery canvas wraps by Artistic Photo Canvas and metal products from Metal Mural.It takes practice to format your images for these companies.Once you get the hang of it, you will be as creative in your output as you are with your photography!

Specialty Printing Companies

Metal Mural, Artistic Photo Canvas

Printing Labs Standard and Custom print sizes

Bay Photo, Mpix, EZ-Photo

Create a custom print for Metal Murals

Metal Mural reproduces high quality images on metal in a modular design, perfect for reproducing art, portraits, wedding photos and more on a durable, scratch resistant metal.The standard size panel is 12×12.

This tutorial will teach you how to create a custom size panel to reproduce artwork at any size. You will also learn how to increase the size of your image without losing image quality. The prefer software of choice for image enlargement is onOne’s Genuine Fractals. As an added bonus, we will learn about actions.

Click here to view the video.

Downloads

Grid Action for Photoshop.

Installation: Download the action file. Launch Photoshop. Make sure your action panel is active: Windows->action. From the drop down menu inside the action palette select Load Action. Select grid.atn

Using this same advice, I started to review a few of my favorite photographers. I wanted to see how they blended their photography talents with their editing skills. Notice I said editing skills? It doesn’t matter if they used Photoshop, Lightroom or another image editing software. I was looking for artist to emulate and then one found me!

I received a compliment from Trey Ratcliff on my post, “Adding Texture to an Image“. I was feeling pretty good. He mention he did a video series on textures and offered me to check it out. Being a HUGE fan of his work, of course I had to. Applying Larry’s advice, I dissect Trey’s technique. To say I’m excited is an understatement!

Trey blends several simple Photoshop tricks together to create a unique piece of art. He walks you through his entire work flow from choosing the textures to applying them in Photoshop. Some textures and techniques worked, some didn’t. He didn’t edit anything out of the video. You see exactly what he was thinking while creating his image. As an added bonus, he supplies all the textures for you!

My quick notes:

• look for textures with colors that will enhance your image.
• apply as many textures to an image as you want without over doing it.
• major use of layer mask, look for elements in the photo you want to keep and edit out the rest.
• merge the final layers, keeping the original as the top layer and use opacity to dial in the effect.
• Review Trey’s Video

Click here to view the video.

Skills taught: Layer mask, Layer blend mode

Video Level : Beginner to Intermediate

For more tips on textures, Click here to visit Stuck In Customs.

Click here to view the video.

Skills taught: Cropping, color cast, sharping, cloning, noise reduction and artistic interpretation.

Video Type Available : Novice to Advance-Speed Clinic and Beginner- In-depth (coming soon)

Click here to view the video.

It all starts in the camera

While in Boston, a group of us went on a photo shoot of  the city. I saw a father and daughter standing on the subway holding hands. I quickly took a shot. Sounds simple?  Let’s explore the thought process and technical issues I had to face in a matter of seconds.

I was dealing with poor lighting, a moving platform, lots of people in the way and TIME. I calmly observed the situation and set the camera to ISO 1250, F/2.8  at 1/60 of a second using my 80-200 lens. Well if I were Joe McNally that’s what I would have done. Instead, BEFORE I entered the subway, Sandy Foster suggest I try a great feature found on most Nikon cameras, auto ISO. Now before you judge me, let me finish. On Pro and Pro/Consumer Nikon cameras you are able to dial in when to change the ISO. In my example, I programed the ISO to start at 200. If the shutter falls below 1/60 of a second, then the ISO changes but won’t go any higher than 1600. I kept the camera in Aperture Priority and steady myself against a pole. This feature is amazing. It let’s the photographer focus on composition while still allowing creativity by changing the aperture. A plus or minus EV (exposure value) can also be used.

You are probably wondering why not just keep the camera in the AUTO mode. Although you can, you are now letting the camera make ALL your creative choices for you. As a photographer, it’s always best if we can decide when to make a change to our settings. By using the method I just described, we would have come up with those setting IF we had an abundance of TIME.

This brings me to our tutorial, how to fix a really bad photograph. It’s always best to get the shot right in the camera. Under the difficult situation I was faced with, this was the best I could do. With a few tweeks in Photoshop, Lightroom and the help from a few plugins I was able to save this photograph.

Before the digital age, photographers were making incredible images. Don’t get caught up in the tools I’m using; Lightrrom, Photoshop, ect.., Try to focus on the concepts and work flow I’m demonstrating. Understanding these  concepts will enable us to work faster.

This tutorial will be available as a video and written instructions Monday, April 26, 2010.

A few quick notes.

• set your image size to 100 ppi.
• use Adobe RGB 1998 as your color space.
• save your image to jpg at the highest setting.
• be creative!
• template download

Click here to view the video.

Skills taught:

• increase canvas size
• drag an image in place using Shift key as you click with the mouse and drag
• use of Photoshop’s animated window
• saving the file as a GIF

(OK I said a little mistake, the Shift key is the same on a PC as it is on a MAC )

Click here to view the video.

Click here to view the video.

Model Acknowledgment
Dina Pezzimenti
Melbourne, Florida

Model Mayhem # 1040336

Click here to view the video.

Model Acknowledgment
Dina Pezzimenti
Melbourne, Florida

Model Mayhem # 1040336

Click here to view the video.

Click here to view the video.