Posts Tagged ‘Post Processing’

Color Contrast Explained

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Color contrast can be used in color photography to help a subject stand out, or alternatively, blend in, with a background. It's also important for black and white photography as an item that stands out due to a strong color contrast may disappear into the background in black and white.

In this article we'll look more at color contrast - how it can help or hinder, and how you can control it.

Color Contrast Explained

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Written by Discover Digital Photography

October 30th, 2016 at 3:21 pm

Improve your photography – 7 Easy Tips

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Being a photographer is a constant learning experience. But we all have to start somewhere. In this article I want to share seven tips aimed particularly at relatively new photographers, but they should also act as good reminders even if you've been photographing a long time.

Improve your photography - 7 Easy Tips

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Written by Discover Digital Photography

November 3rd, 2014 at 9:40 am

onOne Perfect Effects 8 software Free for a limited period

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Just a quick heads-up that onOne software are currently giving away their Perfect Effects software for free for a limited time. The software normally retails for $99.95.

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Written by Discover Digital Photography

May 6th, 2014 at 8:39 am

How to use a green screen to put a different background behind your subject

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Have you ever wanted to extract a subject from one photo and then place them in another photo? For example, taking a photo of your child in their sports kit, and then making it look like they're playing in a full size stadium.

This process of mixing images together is known as compositing, and is becoming increasingly popular. While it might sound difficult, it can actually be very easy. The trick is taking the photo of your subject against a background that makes it easy to extract the subject from the background.

Private School Girl
Private School Girl by "PictureYouth" on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

For this purpose a green screen (also known as chroma key) background is often used. In this article we'll look at how to take a photo using a green screen, and then how to use photo editing software to remove the green screen and composite the image.

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Is it possible to post-process photos automatically?

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Post processing describes the act of editing a photo. Making adjustments to the color, contrast, sometimes to the crop. In fact the adjustments that can be made are practically limitless. It is known as post processing since it is carried out after (post) the image was captured.

i don't know but today seems kinda odd
i don't know but today seems kinda odd by spaceabstract on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

Making adjustments to each image you take might seem like it would take a long time (and depending on the adjustments, it can). So you might be wondering if there is some way to apply post processing to your photos automatically. That would cut down on a lot of work for you. So, is this possible?

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Written by Discover Digital Photography

May 3rd, 2013 at 3:50 pm

How to add a texture to a photo in Photoshop

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Adding a texture overlay to a photo can be a quick and easy way to create a distressed, vintage look. Depending on the texture and any other effects applied, you can achieve looks from a slightly old photo to a painting on canvas.

In this article I'll cover how to add a texture to a photo in Photoshop Elements / CS. The process is very similar in other image editing software as well, so if you don't have a copy of Photoshop, hopefully this guide will still give you a good idea of how the texturing process works.

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Creating a shallow DOF effect using Topaz Lens Effects and onOne FocalPoint 2

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In the last two articles we've looked at how to use a shallow depth of field to blur the background using in-camera techniques, and how to replicate the effect using Photoshop or other image editing software. In this article I want to look at a couple of more advanced ways of blurring the background using image editing software.

We'll look at two specialist programs that can replicate the effect of a shallow depth of field, along with a large variety of other lens effects. First we have Lens Effects by Topaz Labs, then we have FocalPoint2 by onOne Software. We'll use the same two images used in the previous article so you can compare the results of each technique against each other.

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How to simulate a shallow depth of field and blur the background in Photoshop Elements and CS

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In this article we'll look at how to use image editing software to blur the background of a photo while keeping the subject sharp. This is a good way to help draw viewer's attention to your subject, rather than the background.

Although it is best to achieve a blurred background in-camera (see previous article: How to take photos with a blurred background by using a shallow depth of field), this is not always possible. In this case we can use image editing software to simulate the effect of a shallow depth of field instead.

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Creating a sunburst sunset poster background in Photoshop

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Recently I was asked to create a poster to advertise an event. As a background image for the poster, I decided I wanted a nice sunset image with sunbeams emanating from the clouds.

Looking at my (rather meager) stock library of cloud photos, I couldn't find anything that looked like what I wanted. But I knew that with a little help from Photoshop I could get the image I was looking for.

So, I thought I'd share how I created the background image for the poster. Hopefully you will find it helpful.

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Written by Discover Digital Photography

January 28th, 2013 at 10:46 am

How to get people or traffic free photos

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Famous locations (such as the Eiffel Tower in France and Mesa Arch in Utah, for example) can make great photographic subjects. But the problem is, there are likely to be plenty of other people there as well, getting in your shot. Even relatively unknown tourist destinations can get pretty busy.

So, how do you stop all the other tourists (who have as much right to be there as you) getting in the way and ruining your photo? Sometimes getting to the location really early in the morning, before anyone else is up, can be good enough to secure you a tourist-free photo.

But other times, this is not enough, or the location is not open early in the morning. In this case, we have to rely on the wonders of Photoshop (or similar image editing software).

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Written by Discover Digital Photography

December 2nd, 2012 at 1:31 pm