Demystifying Photoshop

I have searched earnestly for a series of tutorials on Photoshop and have spent literally thousands of hours being led on wild goose chases by people who confuse rather than enlighten. I've purchased courses, subscribed to freebies and devoured YouTube videos but have still not found a series which is both sequential and not either confusing or frustrating. Either they miss out vital steps, digress or jump all over the place. Today it took me a while to track down how to deselect a tool. Not many people who create tutorials know how to dumb it down to the simplest form and this is what learners need. Another frustration with PS is the constant software updates which means that the tutorials are always put of date. Then there's the annoyance of the unpleasant voices many demonstrators possess.

I thought it was worth noting some of the really helpful tuts or links I've uncovered which may be of use to future learners or a method of personal revision. Layers are the basis of the PS program and if you don't have a grip on how they work, you're pretty much sunk.

Vince Opra is so far one of the best at explaining the basics. So much knowledge in one so young.

1.  PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL FOR BEGINNERS 2022

2.  ALTERNATE PHOTOSHOP BEGINNER TUTORIAL from Learnit Training

( lengthy but worth the watch as the presenter has a pleasant voice and exercise images are provided)

3. PHOTOSHOP LAYERS: A BEGINNERS GUIDE FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

(Christopher O'Donnell has a great voice and also provides a practice pack of images)

4. PHOTOSHOP TOOLS EXPLAINED  ( easy listening with Josh McDarris)

A New PS Trick - Removing Colour Cast

Have been spending a lot of time culling images over the break. For a variety of reasons some of them have a distinctly blue cast. I spent a fair bit of time playing with some sliders in an endeavour to rectify the problem and not being particularly pleased with the results, called on Google. A natural language search revealed a simple trick in PS 4 which does the job pretty well with a menu scroll and one click of the mouse. Happily it is still an option in the current CC version.

Stitched Panoramas

I've seen many stitched panoramas and although most effective I've never felt the desire to emulate the photographic feat.
Some amazing shots can be found at the 360 Cities blog

However I was most impressed to discover a site (PTgui) promoting its  stitching software which claims to work even with rotated and tilted images. The site had  some awe inspiring images in its gallery, including the world's largest indoor photograph ( March 2011) taken at Strahov Library Prague, created from about 3,000 individual photos into a single image 280,000  x 140,000 pixels. If printed it is estimated that it would be 23 metres long.

Image above promotes the release of the "Strahov 40 Gigapixel" photograph
"Image by Jeffrey Martin, www.360cities.net"   © Jeffrey Martin 2011

When Photography Becomes Art

I believe manipulating photos using software is transformational and moves both photographic skills and the science of photography into the realm of art - the creation of something new. It is not simply interpereting reality, it is redefining it.

5 Things I Do To Every Portrait by Terry White

 THANKS TO A COLLEAGUE

One of my Flickr contacts ( Edwin Jones) has been instrumental in my learning so much about post processing. He very generously posts 'before and after' images on his blog as well as outlining the process he followed. I never tire of looking at his work which is sometimes large skyscrapers which normally have no soul at all IMHO.  Many thanks Edwin.

 

Image Stacking

One of the reasons I love Flickr is its educational aspect - I learn so much from other photographers. This learning encompasses photographic techniques, software, composition, special effects and specific facts about other countries,their way of life and fauna and flora.  Today I discovered a new technique from 'Thystine' who posted the most amazing image of an egg sac which appears to belong to the 'Pirate Spider'.

 image courtesy of Sarefo under GNU licensing  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sarefo
The technique is called stacking and Thystine used Helicon Focus to achieve the effect.  Helicon Focus Software reportedly "...... creates one completely focused image from several partially focused images by combining the focused areas. The program is designed for macrophotography, microphotography and hyperfocal landscape photography and solves the shallow depth of field problem........"

Alternate software which has received great reviews from some other contacts on Flickr is "Zerene Photostacker" . Their website provides a most effective explanation of the process and combined with a great Video has encouraged me to place photo stacking on my bucket list to be done sooner rather than later.