Weekly Photography Tips - Seite 2 
Free "tilt-shift look" resource #3, our step-by-step Photoshop tutorial!...
This is the last in our series of "Tilt-Shift Resources": 1. A DIY tilt-shift lens mount for Nikon cameras 2. Free tilt-shift lens look resource #1 - TiltShiftMaker.com 3. Free "tilt-shift look" resource #2, get our FREE Photoshop action! And we are going to wrap up the series with a "faux" tilt shift lens tutorial, so here goes. This is a quick and easy tutorial on creating the "tilt-shift look" in Photoshop. Just one thing before we jump into the tutorial, the best shots for these are wide(r) angle shots from above. And of course the image I am using for the tutorial is neither. This was an image I took during the "Occupy" protests and I really wanted the focus to be on the young lady and her sign. Here we go: 1. Open up your image in Photoshop 2. The first thing is to duplicate your image by either dragging it to the "create a new layer" icon, or keyboard command Ctrl + J on a PC or CMD + J on a MAC 3. Then go to "Filters", "Blur", "Gaussian Blur" and set the Radius to (roughly) 10 4. Add a mask to the layer that you created (and blurred) 5. Set you foreground color to white and background color to black 6. With the mask you just created in step 5 selected, use the Marquee tool to select the area that you will want to be in focus 7. Fill that selected area with black (PC - Ctrl + Back-Space, Mac - CMD + Delete) 8. Then deselect (PC - Ctrl + D, Mac - CMD + D) 9. Keeping the mask selected you will then go to the "Masks" tab and adjust the feathering to make it a bit smoother (around 70) 10. Select your curves layer to add contrast by creating an "S" curve 11. Then back to the adjustments tab and select "Vibrance" and adjust to taste And the finished product. Keep in mind the numbers I used are not necessarily the ones that will work for you, but they are a good starting point. I would love to see what you come up with.
Here is #2 in what will be a 3 part posting of free "tilt-shift look" resources. Resource #2 is a free "Photoshop Tilt-Shift Action", yup, we said FREE and we are offering it to everyone of our readers All you need to do to get your free Photoshop action is drop us an email and request the tilt shift action, and next week (after we have received all of your requests) we will be sending out the action (with instructions) to everyone who requested it. Here are before and after images that demonstrate our tilt-shift action. Click on any of these images to view them larger. Pretty cool, huh? So go ahead and drop us an email and we will be sure to add you to our tilt shift mailing group.
Free tilt-shift lens look resource #1...
As many of you know, we are BIG fans of the look that comes from using a tilt-shift lens, but alas most of us cannot afford one of those bad boys so we are always on the lookout for an alternative way of achieving "the look". Well TiltShiftMaker.com has made achieving that look even easier. You upload your photo, you select the area you want in focus, and you are done! Another option available at TiltShiftMaker.com is to simply point to an image already on the web and create your tilt-shift image from there. Below are a few samples from their gallery, and if you follow this link it will take you to 50 beautiful examples of tilt-shift photography. Click on any of these images to view them larger.
A DIY tilt-shift lens mount for Nikon cameras...
I love DIY projects, whether its photography, home, or anything else. You get the satisfaction of doing it with your own two hands AND the finished project usually is at a significant savings. I also love the images produced by a tilt-shift lenses, so this post is a perfect combination of the two. Today we have a DIY tilt-shift lens mount for Nikon cameras, you will need a 3D printer but not to fret, if you don't have access to one locally (heck, even little old Biddeford Maine has local 3D printing resources), there are plenty of online resources that are both inexpensive AND fast (check out 3D rapid Print, Print to 3D, Ponoko, or Sculpteo). There are just 6 (small) parts that need to be printed and assembled, Instructable user Cpt. Insano has been kind enough to not only lay out the entire project step by step, you can even download the files needed to be used with the 3D printer to produce the parts! So follow this link over to Instructable and start on your DIY tilt-shift mount today. If you have (or know of) a cool DIY photography project please email us and let us know so we can share it with the group.
Call for contributors to Weekly Photo Tips!...
Would you like to write a guest blog post for Weekly Photo Tips? Well, it just so happens we are currently looking for contributors, so if you have a tip, a trick, a technique, a tutorial, or (almost) any photography related idea you would like to share with our readers we would love to know about it. Any post that is chosen to appear here on Weekly Photo Tips will do so under your name with your bio and link(s) back to your website, blog, or other web presence. So please, send us an email with your idea and we promise to get right back to you.
Welcome to another Flicker Friday!...
This week we have images from "across the pond", by photographer Edward Dullard. Please check out more of these stunning images over at Edward's Flickr stream or visit him at 500px.com. Click on any of images to view larger.
More great resources on shooting shiny, reflective objects...
This to follow up on our post from earlier today, "Photographing shiny, reflective objects, quick & easy". Below are more great resources on shooting shiny, reflective objects. One of the more challenging things to light is glass (and other highly reflective surfaces), because normally when we photograph a subject we are putting our light on that subject. But with glass we do the opposite, we are lighting around the subject. I have put together some incredible examples of how to light reflective surfaces, so hang on, here goes: The first resource (of course) is from David Hobby (aka Strobist), it was an assignment he shot of flavored vodkas, so follow this link to see all the shiny details. Resource number two is from Strobist as well (seeing a theme here?), and it too involves alcohol (theme number two), this time it's beer, check it out. This link is from DIY Photography (more beer). Here are the last two well done tutorials for lighting glass here and here (sorry, no alcohol in these). We will close with a video tutorial on how to shoot glass. Subscribers, you know the routine, you will need to return to the blog to watch the video (as it does not get pushed through with your subscription).
Photographing shiny, reflective objects, quick & easy...
We recently traveled to Connecticut to shoot shiny and reflective components for the world leader in CAD/CAM software MasterCAM . Not only is MasterCAM a world leader, they work with some of the top companies out there, like: • Boeing, Sikorsky, and Lockheed Martin • Stryker medical • Gibson, Taylor, Ovation Guitars • Orange County Choppers • Racing teams like Stewart Haas Racing, Waltrip Racing, and Cunningham Motorsports • Segway • RayBan Just to name a few. The actual purpose of the trip was to teach their person (with the title of "Intergalactic Marketing Overlord") how to shoot the kind of components their software (and clients) produce and of course regardless of the company, they are ALL shiny and reflective. The backup plan was that if things did not go well then I would shoot the parts. Things went perfectly and the setup could not have been simpler, 4 "A" clamps, 3 white cards, 2 LED flashlights, foam core, some tape, light stands, and a couple gels. We used hockey tape because it is FAR less expensive the gaffers tape, but much like gaffers tape it is incredibly strong and leaves no sticky residue behind. A 1” wide role of gaffer’s tapes is in the $12 range, I bought the same size hockey tape for $1. I would strongly suggest you test the tape you purchase before using it in a “live” shoot just to make sure it will work as you expect and not leave residue. The "A" clamps were 99 cents (Home Depot or Lowes) and the 2'x3' sheet of foam core was $1. In the shot at the very top of this post, we lit it with a single LED flashlight, and put a blue gel over a second flashlight and shined it into the center hole (to give it more "depth") One of the things you need to be very careful to watch for is things being reflected in the item being shot, here is an example, first the "good shot" and then the bad, you can see the color of my shirt in the item. It was lit with a "primary" flashlight and a second with a blue gel. This image is the only one that we used more than two flashlights, it is a manifold for a car engine, there is a (cold) gas intake and a (hot) exhaust port, so we used a red and blue gels over the flashlights and held them over the ports to represent the temperature difference and the third flashlight was used to light the face of the object. Here are a few more images we shot that day. (click on any image to view larger and in a new window) I think the results were as good as the setup was easy and in the video below we share both the gear and the setup. If the video did not come through with your subscription email you can head back to the blog or directly over to our YouTube channel to view it.
More Lightroom resources for you, this time it's free Lightroom training...
This is to "compliment" our Lightroom posts from last week, the first being where to download your "Free Lightroom Quick Start Guide" and the other was the bazzilion "Free Lightroom Presets" post. If you are looking for Lightroom video training, this is the list for you: 1. Let's start with Anthony Morganti, he has put together an amazing 38 video series on using Lightroom 2. Shutha is a free online training resource and one of their courses is an extremely comprehensive exploration of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom taught by Lightroom expert Peter Krogh 3. Then there is 100 Ways Adobe Lightroom Kicks Adobe Bridge's A$$ for Photographers! from Scott Kelby 4. No list would be complete without having the long running Lightroom Killer Tips from Matt Kloskowski 5. B&H Photo has a 4 video series "Digital Photography Summit" filled with almost 4 hours of Lightroom training This is proof you can get really good stuff for free.
Welcome to our first Flickr Friday...
For our first ever Flickr Friday please enjoy the images of Maryann. Please stop by our Flickr Group to see other great images from Maryann and our other members as well. If you would like to join our Flickr Group just follow this link for instructions.