Sunday, 24 August 2014

Review Digital Camera World 08-24-2014

Digital Camera World
 
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How to enhance a sky to mimic a graduated neutral density filter
Aug 23rd 2014, 23:01, by jmeyer

In this advanced photo editing tutorial we'll show you how to use an adjustment layer and the Gradient tool to mimic the effect of a graduated neutral density filter.

How to enhance a sky to mimic a graduated neutral density filter

When you photograph a high-contrast scene with lots of dark tones in the foreground and a lighter sky, the sky will often look bland and washed out, because your DSLR has exposed for the foreground.

One solution is to fit a graduated neutral density (ND) filter to your lens to retain colour and detail in the sky; but while filters can be effective, you're stuck with the look that they produce – if the graduated darkening effect is in the wrong place, or too strong, there's not much you can do to alter it.

An alternative is to replicate the ND grad effect in Photoshop Elements. In this tutorial we'll show you how to darken a shot with a Levels adjustment layer, and how to draw a gradient on the layer mask to restrict the effect to just the sky, so the correctly exposed landscape isn't altered.

The beauty of this photo editing technique is that you can alter the density and position of the gradient to get exactly the effect you want.

SEE MORE: How to replace a sky – Photoshop effects to make your landscapes more attractive

How to recreate an ND grad filter effect in Photoshop Elements

How to recreate an ND grad filter effect in Photoshop Elements: step 1

Levels adjustment layer
Open the start image, click the Create New Adjustment Layer button in the Layers panel and select Levels. The bland sky in our shot consists mostly of midtones, so drag the Midtones slider right to a value of 0.47 to darken the sky and create more intense colours. This adjustment improves the sky but makes the foreground look too dark, so we need to restrict the effect to the area where it's needed.

SEE MORE: Photoshop Levels tool – 6 tricks all the pros use

How to recreate an ND grad filter effect in Photoshop Elements: step 2

Set up the Gradient tool
Press X to switch the foreground and background colours in the Tools panel to white and black, if they're not already. Select the Gradient tool and click the Linear button in the Options panel, then click the Edit button below the gradient swatch to open the Gradient Editor, click the Foreground to Background preset and click OK. The Gradient tool will now create a white-to-black linear gradient.

SEE MORE: Composite picture techniques – how to make convincing shadows

How to recreate an ND grad filter effect in Photoshop Elements: step 3

Draw a gradient
Target the Levels layer's mask by clicking its thumbnail, and click-and-drag to draw a line from the top of the image to the horizon, holding down the Shift key so the tool draws a straight line. The white parts of the mask will reveal the Levels adjustment and black areas will hide it, so only the sky will now be darkened.

 

How to recreate an ND grad filter effect in Photoshop Elements: step 4

Fine-tune the effect
If need be you can re-draw the gradient on the mask until you're happy with the effect, and you can also adjust the Levels sliders to intensify or tone down the darkening effect. As a finishing touch add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, select Cyans from the menu at the top of the Adjustments panel, and set Saturation to +30 to boost the blues in the sky.

READ MORE

34 Photoshop effects every photographer must try once
14 photo editing tips and tricks every landscape photographer must know
The 10 Commandments of Landscape Photography (and how to break them)
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Behind the Image: Dan Ballard on great light and the importance of timing
Aug 23rd 2014, 11:01, by jmeyer

To celebrate the lead up to PhotoLive 2014, we'll be featuring a different image from each photographer speaking at the event.

This week we go behind the image with Dan Ballard who is appearing at PhotoLive Leeds today (Saturday 23 August).

Behind the Image: Dan Ballard on great light and the importance of timing

Milford Sound in New Zealand has always inspired me. It is a stunning location in the middle of nowhere with lots of opportunity. The only problem with shooting it is the lack of different foreground elements to really make it your own.

Sure, there are a lot of options at low tide, but low tide rarely falls right at sunrise or sunset. Most of the time you see all of the those great foreground elements in the middle of the day when the light is at it worst. At sunrise or sunset it us normally just water with limited options.

So when it came time to plan for a New Zealand trip with a private workshop student we decided to work the low tide into our plan and make sure that we hit the locations at the correct time, right when low tide and sunrise and sunset overlapped.

We had a few days window to work with when we got to Milford and started scouting out the area. The low tide offered countless possibilities for great compositions, but we still had to get lucky and see some good light.

SEE MORE: 10 ways to get the sharpest landscapes of your life

The first couple of attempts where not bad, but nothing really special. On the third night that all changed.

Conditions started to look good a couple hours before sunset, but it is always hard to say what will happen, and I was trying not to get excited. As it got closer and closer it really started to look like something amazing might happen. We got into position in front of a small stream we had scouted earlier and hoped for the best.

I spend my life looking for great light, and most of the time I am disappointed. It might take 20 or more attempts to see anything really nice, and a year to see something truly amazing. Every time it does happen it takes my breath away and reminds me why I do what I do.

It happened on this evening in a big way, and was one of the most incredible light shows I have seen. The world was red from the reflection of the clouds.

I used a Nikon D800e body with a Nikon 16-35mm lens, Really Right Stuff Tripod and Ballhead, and MindShift Gear photo bag.  The photo was processed in Lightroom. It was a single frame and not HDR.

Dan is running sessions at PhotoLive 2014: Advanced Composition and Creativity in Landscape Photography and Vision of the West. You can follow Dan on Twitter and check out his website to see more of his amazing pictures.

PhotoLive takes place in Leeds (23 Aug), Edinburgh (30 Aug) and London (06 Sep). You can view the full schedule and book tickets at photo-live.com. Use code DCAM20 and get 20% off your ticket.

READ MORE

10 common landscape photography mistakes every photographer makes (and how to avoid them)
The 10 Commandments of Landscape Photography (and how to break them)
14 photo editing tricks and tips every landscape photographer must know
Dramatic landscape photography: the secret to adding impact with natural light
Outdoor photography: how to make the most of golden hour light

 

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