Tag Archives: seminar

What I learned at the CS3 Power Tour Part 3

I was so impressed with the discovery that flawed photos can be salvaged that it was naturally the first thing I posted in this mini-series. But another thing I found really interesting was that adding drama to an otherwise ordinary picture can be so easy and oh-so-worth-it that a great bonus is that I’m learning to train my eye to see beauty where it isn’t readily obvious.

So my third entry will be semi-philosophical. Why? Because I said so, and I need to feel smart and profound for once in my life. (Oh great, now I’ll be hearing both Sinatra’s and Stevie Wonder’s voice in my head all day.)

What I learned at the CS3 Power Tour:

3. If you can perceive something beautiful or visual interesting hidden in a photo somewhere, CS3 can readily help you unearth and expose it.

So here’s a small yellow flower I snapped this summer while vacationing in Trinidad. It was a pretty little thing, but the wall there prevented me from taking a frontal shot. I know, I know. I could have walked in there and taken it anyway. But we were visiting some relatives, and I don’t think they would have liked it if I stepped on their nice cordoned off garden to take a picture of this little flower. I should also note that I was starving at that time, and was more than mildly distracted by the smell of lunch cooking.

small-yellow-flower-before.jpg

Oh, and I used my trusty videocamera to take this shot, so I know it won’t win any awards for quality or clarity. But that’s what makes this so great. (Frankly, I would have forgotten all about this photo if Scott Kelby hadn’t used a similar flower shot to demonstrate how to artfully use lighting effects.)

First, I cloned out the other stems and the little bud on the lower right. And while I liked the little bit of orange in the background, I cloned that out too because it just didn’t really belong there. (Although now I’m thinking maybe it does, but that’ll be another experiment.) Then I hit Auto Levels (hey, he said I could!) and already it started looking a lot better.

small-yellow-flower-2a.jpg

Nice, I thought. Then I added some lighting effects (I followed the workbook and used flashlight), sharpened it up a bit here and there. Then, for good measure, I slapped it on a poster. Just because I can (thanks to the seminar), and because I never know when to stop myself. Which is fine when it comes to Photoshop with the undo levels, but not so fine when it comes to chocolates and home-baked pies. Or cookies. Or cinnamon rolls.

So here’s the before and after comparison:

small-yellow-flower-before.jpg

small-yellow-flower-3a.jpg

Now it actually looks like art. Doesn’t it?

Please tell me it does.

What I learned at the CS3 Power Tour Part 2

Okay, I’m reasonably recuperated from my early morning porch shoot, so here’s my second installment in this series. (Ooh, look at me, sounding all important and stuff. Don’t mind me, I’m slightly delusional. I think it might be the decongestants. That, or the Kahlua in my chai last night. Or maybe both.)

What I learned at the CS3 Power Tour:

2. Panoramic images are ridiculously simple. (And this entry is ridiculously short.)

Heading to the seminar last week via the ferry from New Jersey was absolutely the best way to get there. I didn’t have to deal with Lincoln Tunnel traffic, the five-minute trip across the Hudson River was unrushed and relaxing, I didn’t have to find parking in midtown, and oh, I didn’t have to deal with Lincoln Tunnel traffic.

But by far, that evening after the seminar, ferrying back to where my car was in Lincoln Harbor brought just about the coolest perk you can get right after a Photoshop seminar. Not only did I get to see my mom (who let me use her parking spot at her condo), but I also got to hang out a bit at her place, which offers an unobstructed and private view of the entire Manhattan skyline. And it was a clear night.

So, with Scott Kelby’s encouragement to “go shoot panos!” here are a few shots of the skyline that evening:

manhattan-1.jpg

manhattan-2.jpg

manhattan-3.jpg

Getting those photos stitched together was going to take me all of – ready for this? – three steps.

Okay, maybe four, but hey, the third one’s Auto, so it kinda doesn’t count much. Oh, and the first step was choosing the photos, which is really a no-brainer. And the last one was to crop off any rough edges, which is also sort of a no-brainer. And the second one was clicking on the Photomerge command, which again doesn’t really require much thinking.

So I guess what I’m saying is that yeah, creating panoramic images is so ridiculously simple that you almost don’t need a brain.

manhattan-skyline-pano-500px.jpg

(click on the image to view a larger version – warning: it’s a large file!)

Easy and seamless.

Sigh. If only housework were this simple.

———-

Addendum: Taking the photos is just as simple. With CS3, you don’t even have to use a tripod. You can totally hand hold your camera, and as long as you have noticeable overlap between photos, you’re good to go.

 
 

What I learned at the CS3 Power Tour Part 1

Okay, the secret’s out. Who would’ve thought that photographers like Scott Kelby can sometimes take average-looking pictures? Actually, his words were, “the worst baby pictures ever in the history of baby pictures.” Or something to that effect. They weren’t perfectly in focus, the white balance was out of whack, and he had such a hard time picking nine best pictures of the lot of almost 70 shots that he had to use one file twice to complete the group.

But then he made something great with it. So great that the mother burst into tears at the sheer beauty of the presentation. So did he, he admits. Because he felt like such a scam.

I like it when the experts say stuff like that. I like it even more when they show us how to pull the same scams.

So here’s the first of what I hope to be a series of ten. Or five. Or if I’m really feeling smart, maybe fifteen. Or twenty if I’m feeling both smart and uppity. Because, as you well know, I like round numbers.

What I learned at the CS3 Power Tour:

1. You don’t have to throw out those not-so-perfect or even far-below-average photos. Get a group of them together, put them in a grid, make the whole thing black and white to hide color imperfections, and put a title to it. Presto! A keepsake poster beautiful enough to hang on the wall. No one has to know that it was made up of photos shabby enough to make mug shots look like studio portraits.

So here is my beloved niece. I constantly lament not being able to see as often as I wish I could. I love her to pieces and have tons of pictures of her whose sole value, I thought, was for posterity and for jogging my memory when I get too old to remember my twenties. (It’s called artistic license. Stop kicking me.)

bianca-grid-poster-3.jpg

Every time I see her picture, it makes me smile. But nothing, and I mean NOTHING, beats hearing her laugh. Trust me, there’s no power in the world that can help you resist laughing along.

Go ahead. I dare you.

[audio: http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/7/31/2028338/bianca.mp3]

See what I mean?