Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Blog Blog

KEN POSNEY: DAILY POST

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Lindsey and Peter Mason Wedding
Ha'ena, Kaua'i











Five Ways to Make Money in a Popular Photography Niche
I’ve read articles by a number of photography business gurus arguing that if you want to make decent money from stock photos or prints, you need to find a niche that isn’t already saturated with images. They advise photographers to shoot model-released lifestyle photos or still lifes, for example, and to stay away from travel and nature — because everyone shoots travel and nature. (more…)

Custom Tasty Treats Sweet and Saucy Shop

KEN ROCKWELL
Canon S90 and G11 Update
I've been having a blast shooting with these two cameras the past few days. What is striking about each of them is how much better they work at high ISOs than any other camera their size..

Europe Workshop Tour Images!
The European "Wedding's California Style" Workshop Tour, is going so well, after day 3, we've hit up Budapest, Vienna, Munich and now we are off to Zurich. Here are some highlights. Everyone is signing up on facebook and making comments, check out the details, tesimonials and participant images at http://www.facebook.com/mikelarsoninc many workshops have filled up, but there are a few spots left in a few cities, so check out the link to sign up for those of you photographers in Europe!

Photo of the Day

PHOTOFOCUS
Philip Bloom Gives Photographers A Basic Video Shooting Tip
Three Things You Should Know About Creativity
Now’s The Time To Follow Your Passion

PHOTOJOJO
Wedding Photos You’ll Love (Even if You Hate Wedding Photos)

STYLE ME PRETTY
Inspiration Board for Brides

TIM GREY (Digital Darkroom Questions)
Today's Question:
I have Photoshop CS3 and I would be interested to learn how to change backgrounds on a photo. I have tried a number of different ways all with no success. I would like to try and put a baby on a cloud background, or moving a person from one photo to another.

Tim's Answer:
The first step is to bring the two images together into a single composite image. To do so, you can open both images, and then use the Move tool to drag one image to the other (for example, dragging the baby image onto an image of clouds).

In most cases you can create a selection as the basis of the layer mask that will define where the upper image is actually visible (revealing the underlying image in areas where the upper isn't visible). So, for example, you could create a selection of the baby using any of the selection tools. With a selection active, click the Add Layer Mask button (the circle inside a square icon) at the bottom of the Layers panel. The "non-baby" area of the baby image will now be hidden, allowing the underlying cloud image to show through, and creating the appearance of a baby among the clouds.

Click on the layer mask thumbnail (the black and white thumbnail to the right of the upper image layer) to make sure it is active, and then choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to slightly blur the layer mask so the composite doesn't show up with a "cutout" appearance.

At this point you should have a good basic composite image, but you may need to further refine things. Select the Brush tool, and press "D" to ensure the colors are set to their defaults of black and white. You can also adjust the size of the brush using the left and right square bracket keys ("[" and "]"). You can also adjust the Hardness setting using the Brush popup on the Options bar as needed to adjust the degree of blending where you'll work on your layer mask. Then paint with black in any areas where you need to block the original baby image (for example, hiding portions of the baby so it will better blend in with the clouds), and paint with white to reveal portions of the baby image. You can press "X" to swap foreground and background colors to switch between black and white.