Be My Guest Monday 11/15/10: Hal "Bull" Schmitt

It's "Be My Guest Monday," the day of the week that's turned over to a talented guest blogger for a quick tip.

Today's guest: Hal "Bull" Schmitt.

Tip: With mirror or mirror-like images, try placing the horizon line near the center of the frame. This tip brakes the traditional "rule" of not placing the horizon line in the center of the frame – because it cuts the scene in half. With mirror or mirror-like images, that rule can surely be broken.

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Hal "Bull" Schmitt is the Lead Instructor at Light Photographic Workshops in Los Osos, CA. His latest project is the California Photo Fest. I'll be there next year!

Info on Hal:
Light Photographic Workshops
California Photo Fest

Here is quick lesson that I did for my friends at Adobe on how to create mirror images in Photoshop.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. Here is one of my favorite mirror images. If you have a comment on why you think we like mirror images, post it here!

Quick Digital Imaging Tip 12/101: RAW Rules, But HDR Rocks

Today is day 1 in Laos, but I took today's blog post image a few days ago in Thailand. More than a few bugs are crawling over my laptop's screen. Hot as heck, even at 8:05 AM.

This is #12 of 101 digital imaging tips I plan to post here over the next few months. Stay tuned.

Today's tip: RAW Rules, but HDR rocks when it comes to high-contrast scenes.

My workshops students know me as Rick "RAW Rules" Sammon – because I use Adobe Camera RAW as my main image-editing program.

Adobe Camera RAW is, indeed, a very powerful tool. Among other features, you can rescue areas of an image that are up to an f/stop overexposed by using Recovery and Curves. Plus, you can pull out detail from shadow areas using Exposure, and then pull out even more details by using the Shadow/Highlight control (among other adjustments) in Photoshop.

However, when you try to pull out too much detail from deep shadow areas, those areas can look very grainy. That's why when the contrast range in a scene is more than three stops, I recommend shooting a series HDR images.

I took three photographs and merged them together in Nik Software's HDR Efex Pro to create this image.

Camera info: Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 17-40mm lens.

It's getting hotter by the minute.

Explore the light,

Rick

P.S. Click here for discount on HDR Efex Pro and other plug-ins.

Quick Digital Imaging Tip 11/101: Preserve Detail in Saturate Areas with the Vibrance Adjustment

This is #11 of 101 digital imaging tips I plan to post here over the next few months. Stay tuned.

Today's tip: Use Vibrance rather than Saturation to preserve detail.

When you over-saturate an image, you can lose detail in the already- saturated areas - as illustrated by the second picture in this post. Notice how some detail is lost in the novice monks' robes in that picture, unlike the first picture in which you can see the detail.

When you choose Vibrance, rather than Saturation in Adobe Camera RAW and other digital imaging editing programs, you are only saturating the colors that are not already saturated. That helps to preserve details in already-saturated areas of an image.

Explore the light,

Rick

P.S. I made this picture in northern Thailand by asking the novice monks to stand in the frame for a few minutes.

Location, Location, Location - and thank you, thank you, thank you

Photograph © Rick Sammon. All rights reserved.

A big "thank you" goes to Springdale, Utah-based photographer David J. West.

Last night, after our farewell group slide show, David (a proud new dad) shared one of his secret spots for shooting Zion National Park with my photo workshop students.

Visit his site – and his gallery when you are in Zion.

Check my workshop page in a few months for info on my May 2011 Southwest Photo Caravan with Juan Pons - which will include shoots in Arches, Bryce and Zion - and few of our own secrets spots.

Explore the light,

Rick

P.S. Here is my original image, pre-Adobe Camera Raw. David, who also uses Photoshop, has a good line: "You can't put Mother Nature on paper." In other words, he (and I) have no problem using Photoshop to enhance our pictures.