Tutorials
Lightroom Quickie: Soften Skin
This tip is actually specific to Lightroom 2 – as it uses the Adjustment Brush, which of course wasn’t present in Lightroom 1. If you’ve yet to upgrade from 1 to 2, I personally think the Adjustment Brush alone is reason to do so – it’s such a versatile, easy-to-use and yet powerful tool!
Soften Skin in action with overlay
Soften Skin is one of the presets on the Adjustment Brush – and it’s quite well hidden, which is a shame as it’s a great feature!
Open a shot to work on, and go to the Develop pane, then click on the Adjustment Brush tool (the far right one of the five icons under the histogram – looks kind of like a thermometer on its side).
Once selected, a new set of menu options appear below – click on the arrows next to the current Effect to get a drop down list of effects and presets. Select Soften Skin from the list.
Now you could just go ahead and paint over the areas of skin you want to soften – but it can be difficult to see which areas you’ve selected. So instead I recommend that you press O before you start painting, as this will turn on the Overlay option, which makes everything MUCH easier! Now go ahead and paint the areas you want to soften – obviously just select skin, not hair, eyes or lips – if you go over the edge and want to delete a small area of selection, just press and hold the Alt key and paint over the area you want to delete.
Once you’ve finished your selection press O again to turn off the overlay and see the effect applied. The default full Amount of 100 can be a little obvious at times, so try lowering it until you get the desired combination of softened and natural (I find a figure of around 60 to 80 looks natural, but flattering).
Less is More & Another Wedding Tip!
Figaro by the Sea
“Less Is More”: It’s not a new concept or suggestion, but when it comes to the visual arts it’s one that should never be far from your mind. A cluttered frame is not a frame that’s pretty to look at – in fact, it’s pretty much an instant turn-off. Most of the photographs of my own making that I’m happiest with tend to be the most simple and unfussy.
Take this ‘environmental’ shot that I took at a recent wedding. In essence it’s just a car in a field by the sea – but I think it’s actually quite an evocative shot (feel free to disagree!). Even if you don’t know that it’s a Nissan Figaro (a car built by Nissan in the early 90s, styled very much on a 50s design – which has since acquired a huge cult status, mostly due to the limited run of 20,000), and that it’s the bride’s car parked up at the reception venue. Despite it’s simplicity there’s a lot here to stimulate visually, and plenty of space to allow the eye to circulate around the frame – with the early evening sunlight helping the whole ambience.
Which leads me to another pointer: if you’re shooting a wedding, don’t just get caught up photographing the people, make sure you get plenty of shots of the surroundings (landscapes, details, signs, etc) as when everything is put together in an album, book or slideshow at the end of the day it all serves to evoke quality memories of the occasion.
Night Photography – 5 Quick Tips
View Point by Disco~Stu
So you want to maximise your shooting opportunities and get some shots once the sun has finished setting? Well here are five tips to help you get some good results.
1. To take a photo when there is little or no light about you need to keep the shutter open for a long time to let what light is available into the camera to create an exposure. This means you’ll need to keep the camera rock solid for the length of time the shutter is open or you’ll end up with blurry results. So the you need a sturdy tripod/gorillapod or a stable surface to rest your camera on (such as the floor or a wall).
2. You’d be surprised how much movement you create by pressing the shutter! use the timer mode, a cable release or wireless remote trigger for your camera so that you won’t introduce blur into the final result.
3. Pack a torch! Getting good results at night is difficult enough without trying to set-up and use your camera in the dark the last thing you want to do is break or lose equipment so be prepared. A powerful torch is also really useful for creating highlights over a long exposure by almost painting in lighter areas of the frame.
Forbidden Planet by Myles Smith on Flickr
Reader Query: External Canon Flash
“I am just about to buy the 430ex flash. Now that can go straight onto my camera, right? I guess its going to take a heck of a lot of fiddling to get that thing working right. Do i need a remote for it while its on my camera, or will it work in sync?
As for off-camera flash, well I’ve started reading the strobist blog but I guess I will have to compile a list of what I need to buy… What do you recommend? Stand and umbrella? What kind of remote system do you have for using your flash off-camera?
I’m guessing that I need to purchase a hot shoe adaptor as I dont have the socket on my 400D …or do I? lol.. are these specific for Canon only or can i get one on eBay? I think that’s my main question for now 
” - Kerrie.
How To Survive Your First Wedding Shoot
So your friends have heard about your photography habit; they’ve seen what wonders you have presented to the world via your Flickr page, and now they’ve gone and done it… they’ve entrusted the most important day of their lives to you and you alone, and have asked you to take their wedding photos!
Don't worry - we'll do what we can to get you through the day! (Photo by Stuart Mackenzie)
Before you had the time to see sense you agreed, and now as the day draws near the vague niggling worry has built to a palpable gnawing of panic in your gut. There’s no getting out of it now, so let’s see if we can’t help relieve some of the worries and get you focused on the important things: › Continue reading
Another Five Tips to Add Interest to Your Portraits!
Five more liberating techniques from the people who brought you Five Quick Tips to Add Interest to Your Portraits, and the acclaimed follow-up Five More Tips to Add Interest to Your Portraits… This time we’re looking at mixing things up a bit. Ways to break from the norm in order to blow off the cobwebs and reconnect with your mojo… All of these are tried and tested by me, after my mojo recently went walkabout and I had to track it down. (I found it in a pub drinking a pint of Mild and eating peanuts…).
1) Focus Schmocus!
Try rebelling against that photographic instinct to ensure that focus is precise and perfect. Instead try setting your camera (or lens) to Manual Focus, open up the aperture and take a purposely out of focus photo! The results can be surprisingly good (especially with some back-lighting…)
Photo: P.Broome; Camera: 400D; f/5.0, 1/200sec, ISO100
Faking a Tilt-and-Shift Effect in Photoshop
This is a really effective and deceptively simple process that is most commonly used to create a distortion of scale – makes any shot with buildings and people in look like a model village! But it’s also really effective for creating a false depth of field, and forcing a point of focus.
Basically you make a selection of the whole image, apart from a stripe across where you want the image to remain in focus. It works best with shots taken from a high viewpoint, with people and buildings in. …but I haven’t got any of those handy so I’m going to demonstrate on something completely different! A photo of two people walking down a canal tow path!
Open the image in Photoshop...
Open the unprocessed image in Photoshop. Work out where you want the in-focus strip to be in the photo and create a Selection with it. › Continue reading
Flash Light: Direction Equals Mood!
1: 5º angle from camera
55º angle from camera
100º angle from camera
140º angle from camera
I thought I’d have a very quick play around today, with my Speedlite 580EXII flash handheld (fired by the Canon ST-E2 IR transmitter – which, of course, you won’t need if you’ve got a Nikon with it’s fancypants built in flash control system…). I just wanted to show how much the direction of your off-camera flash – in relation to the subject – impacts on the mood of a shot.
The shots here were taken one after another, with exactly the same exposure settings (“cabin crew, set cameras to Manual – thank you”) – f/5.6 and 1/160sec – the only difference is that I moved the flash about 30-50º between shots (holding it in my right hand). But, I think you’ll agree, that one small difference makes a HUGE difference to the final outcome! So think carefully above your flash placement 
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