layer mask

The Future is on the Street

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I did not edit this photo, so much as I imagined it . . .I do not want to explain the technical aspects of the above image.  I made it based on a feeling I had this evening.  I was thinking of the street and of the future.  A home can be a cocoon, especially on a cold day.  Desire to go outside lessens in favor of remaining inside, in warmth.  However, the street is always out there.  On the street is a network.  There is a potential to go anywhere, do anything.

The future is on the street too.  The future is not going to come from within one's home.  Pieces of the future can trickle into it, but they will not spring from it.  

How is photography connected to the street and to the future?  That is up to the individual photographer to express.

Photography Tip:  make an image based on a thought, not thinking of exif data

Layer Mask Photoshop CS5 Digital Photo Editing Lesson with Ed

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Using a layer mask in Photoshop CS5 to change the background of a portrait - book your lesson today to learn tomorrow!

I met Ed from Jacksonville again this morning for our second of two Photoshop CS5 centered DSLR Photography Lessons.  After giving him a crash course on the basics of using many common Photoshop tools yesterday, today we focused mainly on one thing:  layer masks.  As seen in the image above, if you take a texture, drop it onto a portrait, create a layer mask, then "brush back in" the portrait, you have a very quick and easy way of completely changing the background of a photograph.  You could also keep some of the texture visible over the portrait subject as well to create a different look to the entire frame. 

This layer mask technique is also very useful for fixing clouds in HDR images, which often turn out too dark.  Using one of my own HDR shots as an example, I showed Ed how you can get the benefit of an HDR image without the drawback (dark clouds) by taking a single frame of the bracketed shots that has very white clouds and using it as a layer mask to blend into the HDR image.  I will be posting this tutorial using the HDR example later this week.

The four hours (total) I spent showing Ed what I know about Photoshop went by very fast.  We easily could have filled another four.  He took detailed notes so I am confident that with what he learned during our intensive lessons he will be able to apply to his own images and begin teaching himself how to use more features of Photoshop.  

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    Philosophy of observing or acting - Izu Japan Surfer

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    Nikon D80 Nikkor AF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G with texture overlay of original image

    • Tutorial for how to make a textured overlay image at dPS

     

    Observe or act?  One cannot do both.  If one has great surfing skills, would one ever set them aside for even one day to be a great surfing photographer?  The surfer above was by far the best surfer in the water the two days I spent at a beach on the Izu peninsula in Japan a few years back.  I have very limited surfing skills, so on that occasion I was content with only observing.  

    I find myself wondering, why would one choose to only observe?  Is it entirely due to not being able to perform the act under observation?  Therefore . . . if one can, one does; if one cannot, one observes.  Is that a rigid truth?  

    Perhaps one could categorize photography as a powerful act of observation.  If so, then maybe one can both act and observe.  I feel very strong instincts to observe as well as to act depending on the situation.  Perhaps then observation leads to action?  Certainly many people see photographs made via strong observation of a photographer that in turn inspire them to take action, and vice versa.  A strong act inspires observation and thus photography.  This seems to be yet another example of the duality of all existence.