Category Archives: Tutorials

Flightless Bird and My Biggest Editing Secret

This evening, while cooking with my mother, our dog outside started barking.

And not just barking, but going crazy!

I figured that maybe someone was outside near our yard or something, so I went out to check on things and found a little visitor.

This little guy was our visitor.

He couldn’t fly so he was just hopping around tormenting our dog.

When I seen it, I ran in and got my camera really quick because I LOVE to do animal shots.

He was very brave and let me get very, very close to him before he would scatter a few feet away.

On this picture, I decided that I wanted to do a faded sort of look.

So, I decided to use The Pioneer Woman’s actions for Photoshop Elements.

The Pioneer Woman, if you didn’t already know, is one of my biggest inspirations in the photography world.

She started out by taking pictures of her kids, husband she calls Marlboro Man, life on her ranch and food.

She started her own blog, which was my biggest inspiration to start my own, and has since started her own tv show on The Food Network.

Ree Drummond, which is her real name, is very good at her photography.

So, she decided to add her own actions to her blog an they are available to download for free!

In the picture above, I used the Sharpen This, Boost and Faded actions.

Actions make life for a photo editor easy breezy, because they do all the work for you!

Here is the link to download the actions for free! – Photoshop Actions

Here is the link to Ree’s blog as well! – The Pioneer Woman

1 Year Anniversary Quick-Shoot

At church Sunday before last, one of my best friends that I’ve ever had asked me to snap a few shots of her and her husband, Michael, for their one year anniversary.

I was honored that she asked me and of course, said yes.

It was very spur-of-the-moment.

In fact, I used her camera because I didn’t bring mine.

……..I need to start bringing mine everywhere, again.

But anywho, this is the outcome!

How BEAUTIFUL is this couple!?

I mean seriously, someone get Nicholas Sparks. He has a book to write about them.

Unfortunately, since we didn’t have much time, we weren’t able to snap many photos, so we ended keeping 4 sets of 2.

One picture in color, and one in black and white for a total of eight.

These four above are just my favorite out of each set.

I always love using black and white, and most of the time, I choose between it and color.

However, this wasn’t the case at this Quick-Shoot.

Black and white is just so classy…. and dreamy…. and lovely….. and someone play The Notebook already!

Michael and Tiffany had wanted to incorporate their wedding picture in their 1 Year shoot, and how awesome of an idea is that!?

That’s Tiffany for ya. Sharp as a tack, and a very talented photographer!

(I’m trying to get her to write a guest post……. I think she’ll come around.)

HDR on iPhone!

There’s something I used to use a lot.

Then for some reason, completely forgot about it.

But now, I’ve rediscovered it, and it has made me see life through a whole new perspective.

Well…..almost. But you get the point!

“It” being the iPhone’s built in HDR camera effect.

What is HDR, you might ask? Well, HDR means High Dynamic Range, or in lame-man’s terms, yours photos having more contrast and better levels of light and dark.

The iPhone achieves this by taking more than one image at a time, and then stitching together the best part of each image (highlights, shadows, contrast, etc.) into one final result.

To use this feature on an iPhone is very simple. All you have to do is open the camera app, and select options at the top-middle of the screen, then toggle HDR to the on position.

The screenshot above illustrates when the HDR effect is toggled on, and normally, the “Option” button would replace the “Done” button at the top.

So, let’s get to the examples!

Note that neither of the pictures have been edited in anyway.

This picture is the basic picture, without the HDR effect:

This is the exact same image, with the HDR effect on:

Do you see how the contrast on the second picture is impeccable, and not even comparable to the first picture!? Even in the grass, tree trunk, and how it gives the blooms that burst of color with perfect levels of highlights and shadows!? That’s why I love HDR!

And not to mention the incredible bokeh the iPhone 4S produces! :D

The only cons about using HDR on an iPhone is that when you toggle the effect on, it immediately toggles your flash off. So there is no way to use your flash while shooting in HDR. It’s also incredibly important to be very still while taking your picture because, as stated above, it takes three pictures, but not at once. So in movement can blur your final result.

Do you have some awesome HDR pictures taken using your iPhone!? If so, comment with the link because I would love to see them!

A New Lens

Hello all!

So, I am very excited to introduce a few new things to the blog!

To kick things off, I just purchased my first lens (apart from my kit lens)!!

It’s a Nikkor AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8g.

This is a test picture I took with the lens, of its packaging.

What excited me the most, is that the bokeh and sharpness of this lens is amazing!

Seriously, this is an awesome lens.

Judging by how well the few test shots I have done it, it might just replace my kit lens as the default lens I leave on my camera.

*GASP*…right?

So, to continue on with this, I am going to add a new segment to the blog…Reviews!!

I have quite a bit of equipment and things that I’m sure would be so helpful to novice photographers such as myself.

So, tomorrow is going to be the first review, which is of the lens above.

I’ll also be adding a “Reviews” tab to the menu bar at the top of the home page for quick access for all those who are interested.

I’m hoping that this blog will be a great and valuable resource for other photographers, beginners or experts.

Requests are very much welcomed if you want me to review a piece of equipment or even a technique!

I hope all of you are going to love this as much as I will!

Sunday Afternoon, A Dog’s Play Time

As I’ve mentioned before, I love dogs.

Especially my dogs.

They bring me happiness and joy just by being themselves, and I personally believe that everyone should have a dog just to experience that happiness.

Any-who, today was a beautiful day. Here recently the weather has been so bipolar with all of the rain, sleet, snow and dropping temperatures that I believe everyone was in need for a warm, sunshiny day.

Especially the dogs.

They stay cooped up in the house all winter long. Most of their time spent laying on the top of the couch, staring out of a window, dreaming of warm breezes of air, summer sunshine and being able to wear shorts and sandals again.

Well, maybe that was me impatiently awaiting shorts and sandals weather. But nevertheless, my dogs missed it too.

So, today after church my puppies and I went outside to get some fresh air.

That cute furball up there is Sputnick. He’s my little boy. He’s the one that easily gets cabin fever during the winter, so I take him outside to play any chance I get. He may be chunky, but he’s fast. That’s why he has to stay attached to the leash, because once he runs off, it’s game over.

This is Prissy. The energizer bunny that NEVER stops going. I’ve never seen a faster dog in my life. She loves to run circles in the back yard, kicking up leaves and grass in her wake. She’s very smart and obedient, and always stays in the area she’s supposed to.

Okay, now to the photography talk. As you can tell in the above pictures, they’re not perfectly in focus. Focus is a hard thing to achieve when using a high shutter speed and a quick moving object. So, I’ve learned a little trick to help remedy this. If you use Photoshop elements, all you have to do is make a layer mask. A layer mask is simply a filter put over a picture, in these cases you always use a Blur filter. The awesome thing about this, is that if you use the paintbrush tool with black ink, you can paint over the areas that you don’t want blurred, leaving them untouched.

That very technique is what I had to use on most of Prissy’s pictures. The background would be more in focus than her, but by applying the Blur layer mask to everything but her, it makes her look more in focus.

This isn’t the “traditional” way of using Blur layer masks, which is actually used primarily for portrait shots. Blurring the skin on someone’s face while leave their eyes, nose and mouth untouched creates a very professional, ethereal look.

Also, I’m a firm believer of never deleting pictures that you take. They each represent a moment in life that can only be revisited by memory and that photograph. That’s why I kept these:

If you were to know Prissy in real life, then you would know that these two pictures represent her personality to a tee. Loving, playful, mischievous and beautiful.

If anyone needs help with Layer Mask’s, feel free to leave a comment and I will make a step-by-step post.

Also, show me your pets! I want to see everyone’s little companions.

Instagram #2: Lux!

As I stated in my last post, I am completely and irrevocably in  love with Instagram.

I usually do not like all of the “filter” apps on the iPhone, because most of them are cheesy and over-done.

How ever, Instagram does it perfectly. But in their lastest update, they released a new tool called Lux.

Lux is supposed to enhance your photos into an almost HDR effect.

At first, I hated Lux because I would use it on pictures of people’s faces and my dogs and it never turned out quite right.

I think I’ve hit the jackpot now, because I figured out what it did work on. Landscapes!

Here is a little proof.

This picture of my churches steeple, as seen in “Light In The Storm” post, which has had the Lux feature added.

When I first seen this, I thought it looked to grainy and over-worked, but I think for this picture it works.

Lux really accentuates dark colors, as seen in the blacks of the windows and shuttering on the steeple and in the clouds.

 This is the same picture, with the same filter (Amaro) but without Lux.

As you can see, the photo isn’t as dark and contrasted as the previous one.

Being as indecisive as I am, I can’t choose my favorite.

No seriously.

It’s WW3 in my head.

“The dark, rustic and contrasted version of Lux! No! The dreamy and crisp version sans Lux!”

Well… you get the point.

But which photo do you think looks best?

Regardless, Instagram is awesome and so is their new update, Lux.

I hope this helps everyone out there. Whether you’re just now getting started on Instagram or are a seasoned Instagram…er. Send me your favorite Instagram photos! Follow me, @dusthug.

A Day At The Lake and An Aperture Lesson

In an effort for my friend Tyler and I to jump back into photography, we mutually decided to spend a little time at the lake to practice for a bit.

The lesson of the day seemed to revolve around aperture. Defined by Webster’s Dictionary: Aperture -an opening, as a hole, slit, crack, gap, etc.

For those of you who are new to the world of photography, this simply means how big your shutter opens to let light into your camera for you digital sensor or film to make the picture. The tricky thing about aperture is remembering that the less amount of light that you want traveling to your sensor, the larger the aperture number needs to be. It works vice versa as well. The more light = smaller the number.

So, for instance, if you were taking pictures by a lake, like Tyler and I, and it was beautiful, bright sunshiny day, you would want experiment around the mid – high aperture number range.

Hope this helps everyone! Happy Snappin’!

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