TweetHi Everyone, I actually created this video lesson for a product we sell on Ebay at the moment. After I created this short tutorial, I thought It would be helpful to everyone here as well. This lesson talks about creating and using a Cover-Up layer. Now if you Google that term, you probably won’t discover much info. The reason is, that I kinda made this term up. It’s one of those things that I just created to make my life...

Tweet Photoshop Lesson 6 – Shallow Depth Of Field What is Shallow Depth Of Field? Depth Of Field is when your subject is in focus and your background and sometimes the foreground is out of focus. This will draw the eye into the subject and create a nice portrait look. You can create this effect using a small f-stop in your camera like f-4.5 and having your subject positioned further away from the background. A longer lens also helps...

Tweet Photoshop Lesson 5 – Create Detailed Eyes In this lesson I will show you how to sharpen the eyes in any portrait with just a few simple steps. I’ll show you how to give the eyes more detail and depth so they stand out and draw the viewers eyes into the subject. What are catch lights?The catch lights are another important part of the eyes make up and there’s a simple way to have these placed perfectly. These are the...

Tweet Photoshop Lesson 4 – Center Spot Soft Focus In this lesson I will go over a real simple way to create a dreamy effect. Years ago we had to screw on a filter for this same effect. The nice thing with Photoshop is you can apply all different strengths of this effect after you take the shot. When before if you didn’t have the filter on the front of your lens…you were just out of luck. We use this effect all the time on...

TweetPhotoshop Lesson 3 – Fixing Exposures In this lesson I will go over how to use the curves and histogram to fix a pictures exposure. Photoshop allows you to adjust the exposure of any picture and still keep the contrast and color looking really good. In other software programs this feature tends to make the image look washed out or faded. Photoshop has proven to be the best at correcting under or overexposed images. I’m...

TweetPhotoshop Lesson 2 – Text & Borders In lesson 2 I’m going to show you how to add text and borders to your pictures. This will help customize any print and also help you understand how the text tool works. You can create some really neat effects with just a few steps. Practice using these techniques and tools and you will start to feel comfortable working within Photoshop. Remember, after you do these steps over and over...

TweetPhotoshop Video Lesson 1 After receiving requests for basic Photoshop lessons, I am going to be releasing a series of videos. I will be going over the very basics and gradually introducing more advanced techniques. My goal here is to have everyone use Adobe Photoshop in their digital workflow. Once you start using this powerful program you will find that you will have a great deal of control over your images. When you first open this...

Tweet Happy Father’s Day to all of the Dad’s and a special thanks to the Mom’s who put up with us all year long! I would like to share my Father’s Day gift with you. My wife, Lisa, took this picture of our 6 month old daughter sitting on my guitar. I have played for over 20 years and it has always been a passion of mine. I usually bring out the guitar and play once a day. My daughter Kayla is my best audience,...

Tweet For those of you that don’t know already, my wife Lisa and I just had our third child 6 months ago. We are having our beautiful little girl Baptized this Sunday, the 8th of June. This past weekend we took a few photographs outside in our field to help us remember this wonderful occasion. After we had taken these shots, we realized the significance of what we have been doing for our own clients over the years. We’ve...

TweetEasy Techniques For Better Portraits Change your angle when shooting. Move left and right up and down. Just the slightest angle adjustment can create a whole new look. Once you find angles that you like you will start to find yourself using them more often. This shot was from up above shooting down. You can use a small step stool to gain some height. This was shot down below from our knees.Try adding these techniques to your shots and...

TweetO.K, I am posting a link to one of our Portrait Sessions we did the other day. I am hoping you will learn a few things from checking this out. First: We want you to see how many shots we presented to our client. We usually give between 18-30 depending how the shoot goes. We only guarantee 18 proofs with every sitting we do. This way when the client receives more proofs at pick-up, they are usually very thankful and surprised. We...

TweetI just recently created a short video answering 2 of the biggest questions we received when asking people who were just starting out. This video should clear up some of the basic questions and get you on the right track. Let us know if this video helped at all and what you would like answered in future videos. Enjoy! ...