“Learn how to start with a everyday good image and then make it look like a prize winning photo. This will all be done with some tips and techniques found in Adobe Photoshop CS6. This project combines Adobe Camera Raw, Smart Objects, Adaptive Wide Angle, and finally Puppet Warp to enhance the image.”

View more Photoshop videos here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

Category: Video - Photoshop
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Julieanne Kost showcases the most exciting new features from Photoshop CS6 and Camera Raw.

Find more B&H Event Space videos here.

View more Photoshop videos here.

Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

Category: Video - Photoshop
Tags: , , , ,

Julianne Kost demonstrates the power of making selective adjustments like dodging and burning, color corrections and noise removal using the Graduated Filter and Adjustment Brush in Lightroom 4. Note: although this video was recorded in Lightroom, the same techniques are available in Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS6.

View more Lightroom videos here.

Learn more from Julianne Kost on her blog.

Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

Category: Video - Lightroom
Tags: , , , , , ,

Adobe has been releasing a series of Photoshop CS6 Sneak Peeks.

Above are the first 3.

Find Adobe’s Julianne Kost’s 8 part video series on Lightroom here.

Category: Video - Photoshop
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Adobe has released updates for Camera Raw (6.6) and Lightroom (3.6).

New cameras are supported.

New lens profiles have been added.

Bugs are fixed.

See the Lightroom Journal for a full list of details.

Download the updates here.

 

Category: Software
Tags: , , ,

X-Rites’ Color Checker Passport can be used to quickly deliver more accurate color in a variety of ways.

Set White Balance, White Point, and Black Point

The X-Rite Color Checker Passport is the industry standard target that can be used in several ways to render color in your digital images more accurately – setting white balance, creative enhancement, and visual confirmation.

It’s easy to use. Shoot the Color Checker once at the beginning of each shooting session and you can use that exposure as a target for all exposures made under the same light. The exposure of the target doesn’t have to be perfect. Just, roughly fill the frame with the target; it doesn’t even have to be focussed. To use the exposure of the target, use your choice of Raw conversion software to open it along with other exposures you’d like to apply the same measurements to; click on the appropriate color patches (black for black point, white for white point, gray for gray point); and sync all of the files. It’s that simple.

Create A Camera Profile

The X-Rite Color Checker Passport can also be used to make custom profiles for your individual camera. You can create a camera profile with the same exposure of the target that you use to set white balance. While camera profiles are generated with the same target, the resulting exposures are not used to set white balance, instead they are used to deliver significantly improved color rendition and saturation, providing the best starting point for any color adjustment strategy you choose. Camera profiles are created with the X-Rite software supplied with the Color Checker Passport, stored, and later applied with your choice of Raw conversion software, typically Adobe Camera Raw or Adobe Lightroom.

For optimum results, exposures used to generate camera profiles need to be made under the light (color temperature and spectral distribution) that subsequent exposures are made in. Using two exposures of the target made under different light temperatures, you can create a dual illuminant camera profile that can be used for all exposures made under a wide range of color temperatures. Single illuminant profiles are recommended for exposures made under very warm or very cool light temperatures – below 3600K (golden hours) and above 6800K (twilight).

How do you make a camera profile? First convert one or more exposures of the Color Checker Passport from the manufacturer’s proprietary Raw format to Adobe’s open standard Raw format – DNG. (Use either the free Adobe DNG Converter, Adobe Bridge, or Adobe Lightroom.) Open X-Rite’s Color Checker Passport software. Click DNG or Dual Illuminant DNG. Drag one or two DNG files into the open window. Once the software has identified the specific color patches it needs to build the profile, click Create Profile. The profile will automatically be stored for you in Camera Profiles and will be available for your use the next time you convert a Raw file in either Adobe Camera Raw or Adobe Lightroom. You’ll find it under the Camera Calibration tab/panel under Camera Profile. Save New Camera Raw Defaults and your new camera profile will be automatically loaded when you open Raw files and previews in Adobe Bridge will be rendered with it.

Using a Color Checker Passport target or a camera profile generated with it doesn’t mean that you are locked into the results they generate, they simply give you the best starting point possible for adjusting your images. Read more

Category: Color Management
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

adobeproductupdates

Adobe released multiple free updates today.

Camera Raw 6.2
Lightroom 3.2
Dreamweaver CS5 11.0.3
Bridge CS5 4.0.3

Download them here.

Category: CS5, Lightroom, Photoshop, Software
Tags: , , , , ,

Learn more about Photoshop and Lightroom in my DVDs and Workshops.

Category: CS5, Photoshop, Video
Tags: , , , , ,

Learn more about Photoshop and Lightroom in my DVDs and Workshops.

Category: CS5, Photoshop, Video
Tags: , , , ,

Using Star Ratings

June 12, 2009 | 5 Comments

It’s important to think about how you use star Ratings (in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom). Not everyone uses them the same way. However you decide to use them, you should use them consistently. Otherwise, when you browse multiple folders, you’ll have to interpret the same symbols differently in different contexts. That gets confusing fast!

I like the 5 star rating system. It helps make useful distinctions with only a touch more granularity than 3 levels of distinction – typically high, medium and low. It doesn’t get as granular at 10 levels of distinction, so you can cut to the chase fast. It’s used in other venues like restaurants and hotels so it’s familiar. Still, I don’t find using 1 and 2 star ratings useful for ranking the quality of images; I have no use for images that are below average. The images use are either good – 3, better – 4, or excellent – 5. So, I use 1 and 2 stars for something else. I use 1 star to identify a good idea in a substandard exposure or composition; I’ll try and use the idea later with better material. I use 2 stars to identify images that are good for composites; the exposures are fine but the composition is unfinished.

How do you use star ratings?
Comment here.

We discuss this and many other subjects in my field workshops.

Learn more about composition in my field workshops.

Upcoming dates include …

8/9-15 – Iceland … 10% discount ends June 20.

10/16-19 – Fall Foliage … 15% discount ends August 15.

Category: Lightroom, Photoshop, Technique
Tags: , , , ,

keep looking »

Subscribe

Get the RSS Feed  

Subscribe by Email


    Categories

  • Archives

    • Blogroll

    Topics & Friends