Above you can see most of the filters that I own. Although it may appear to be overwhelming and unnecessary, each one of these are very important in determining the outcome of the final photo. Below will be a list of each filter, and a brief description of what they do.

Circular Polarizer – it reduces reflections from some surfaces, it can darken the sky, and it saturates the image more by eliminating unwanted reflections.

Graduated Neutral Density Filter – is clear in one half shading into a higher density in the other. It is usually used to create a balance between the foreground and the sky, to ensure no details are overexposed. These are available in different stops, as well as a smooth transition or a hard one.

Neutral Density Filter – is a filter of uniform density. It is used to allow a longer exposure (to create blur) or larger aperture (for selective focus) than required for correct exposure in the prevailing light conditions. These are available it numerous stops as well as drop in and screw on versions.

Depending on the route and brand you end up going with, you will need one….or in my case three, adapter rings. This part will screw onto you lens and hold the filtration system. The Lee Kit that I use, can stack up to three filters as well as a circular polarizer at the end.

This image is straight out of camera with no filters and no processing. It will be used as the base photo to compare all the others to.

In this photo I held up a 2-stop Graduated Neutral Density filter to demonstrate the effects over just a particular area. It darkens the skies, while keeping detail in the foreground.

This photo demonstrates what the scene looks like when the 2-stop Graduated Neutral Density filter is dropped in to the holder.

This photo shows the affect a circular polarizer has over just a portion of the entire scene. When doing landscaping this is the only filter used that is of the screw on type.

The photo above demonstrates what solely a polarizer will do to a scene. It darkens the sky a bit, and also boosts the saturation a significant amount in the sky as well as the ocean in the distance.

This photo includes both the circular polarizer as well as the 2-stop Graduated Neutral Density filter. The saturation remains, as well as the balance between the sky and the foreground and shadows and highlights.

This last photo was taken using a circular polarizer, the 2-stop Graduated Neutral Density filter, and a 10-stop Neutral Density filter. It allowed me to go from a 1/13 second exposure to a 78 second exposure. The clouds are a bit far away, but you can see the beginnings of some pretty interesting cloud movements.

The important part to focus when using filters is to experiment with stacking and the look you are going for. There is a slight learning curve, but as with everything in photography the more you use it the more comfortable you will get. A finished photo can be seen above ( it includes literally 2 minutes of processing). Hope you enjoyed the post.

The photo above was given to me by the client, and was taken by another photographer. This photo is straight out of camera, and as one can tell has some bright and vivid colors. The first thought that crossed my mind was that the boat would stand out more if the blues of the ocean were toned down a bit.

The first step is always making the basic adjustments. This usually includes a bit of levels and contrast. In the above photo one can see that the whites and black were adjusted as well as the mid tones. This helps in adding some contrast to the overall photo.

The last step of the adjustments was bumping the saturation to give the boat a little more pop. When wanting the adjust the hue/saturation of certain colors within an image there is a better way than just scrolling down through the drop down menu, especially since the color orange doesn’t exist there. Select a color from the drop down menu that is as far from the color you are going to adjust, I selected Cyan. Select the eye dropper tool in the saturation menu, and click over the color you are going to adjust, and it will create a custom profile just for that specific color. Above you can see it created a custom profile “Yellows 2″, and the saturation and hue has been tweaked ever so slightly.

The next step is to create a hue/saturation adjustment layer. There are numerous way to create one, from the menu on top slect Layer—->New Adjustment Layer—->Hue/Saturation. When the menu opens up you can be as creative as you want. Drop the saturation too -100 to achieve completely desaturated, or play with the hue to achieve a slightly toned look. I dragged the saturation down enough to make the ocean dull, yet still retain a slight color (the beauty of adjustment layers is that they can always be readjusted!!!).

Next it is time to “paint” the color back into the orange parts of the boat. Make sure you are selected on the white square on the new adjustment layer, and select the brush tool with the color black set as the foreground color. As seen in the photo above, it is recommended to make an outline of the area you are painting to make sure you are not leaking in to the rest of the photo. Zoom in and use a small brush with a soft edge to ensure perfection. Paying attention to the edges is extremely important, and will help the overall professional look and feel of the image.

Once the edges have been defined, you can easily go in with a bigger brush and paint in the remaining areas. You still want to be careful with this step to ensure that you are not painting in any other color by accident.

This project took approximately 20 minutes to complete from start to finish (not every edit has to take countless hours). The completely finished results can be seen above. Hope you enjoyed the posts.

When it comes to designing ads there really is no right or wrong way of doing it. The most important thing to start off with is designating the area that will be the cut, bleed, and safe zones. Also most of these files sent to print have to be both CMYK and 300dpi. After that it is a bit of trial and error as to placement of text and images. Experiment and try to explore the program you are using.

For this ad the client wanted to place focus on both Prestige Audi and Lamborghini Miami. Although that seems like a handful, an important thing is not to be overwhelmed and over clutter the entire ad with unnecessary information. One can never go wrong with keeping it simple and clean. Another important point is to keep the transition between the two as seamless as possible, and try not to make the ad either top or bottom heavy.

Below is a video that shows the process from start to finish for an ad that will be published in the upcoming month.

This project took approximately 2 hours to complete from start to finish. The completely finished results can be seen above. Hope you enjoyed the posts.

The video can be broken down into a couple of sections. It starts off with the basic adjustments like any other photograph, levels and curves are adjusted, and some sharpening is applied. Once that is completed, a duplicate layer is created. The duplicate layer name is usually changed to “clone”.

This following is by far the most tedious and time consuming of the entire process. It involves knowledge of the clone stamp tool as well as the healing brush. Zooming in and out is essential during this process, as well as changing the size and sometimes the opacity of the brush. Remember that when using either the clone tool or spot healing brush, it is recommended to use a brush size equal to the area you are trying to replace. It is also important to sample from an area relatively close to the one you are trying to remove. This process can be used from anything like stray hairs, to pores, and zits, and anything else one may consider “distracting”.

After the cloning is completed a new layer is created and filled with a 50% gray. This layer will be used to do any dodging and burning that may be necessary. This method is preferred since it is non-destructive and can easily be adjusted with the opacity and flow of the brushes.

Last but not least are the “minor” details that need focusing on. For this particular image that included enhancing both eyes as well as replacing the background with a solid gray color. A B&W adjustment layer was also added, and the opacity was dropped to around 50%. This is a good method to use to bring down some colors, while still allowing you to have a fair amount of control.

This project took approximately 3 hours to complete from start to finish. The completely finished results can be seen above. Hope you enjoyed the posts.

This image shows the light setup that was used. It is a very basic setup made up of two Alien Bees, and two large softboxes. The car was parked under a tent which helped eliminate most of the ambient light.

The photo above is straight out of the camera with no post processing done. On the main layer will be the typical levels and curves adjustment as well as some sharpening and hue/saturation.

After the basic adjustments were made, the clone tool was used to eliminate all minor distractions (such as the reflection in the passenger door panel and the seat belt clip on the passenger side). As mentioned in a previous post, when using the clone tool it is recommended to use the same size brush as the object you are attempting to remove. It is important to pay attention to specific details, and zooming in for these will be necessary.

The image still appeared to have a blue cast, so a new adjustment layer was created. Inside the hue/saturation menu, blue was selected and dragged all the way down to -100, to ensure no color cast would remain.

The red seat belt clip was drawing away some attention from the overall shot, so another adjustment layer was created. Inside the hue/saturation menu, red was selected and dragged all the way down to -100, to ensure the clip would be a neutral shade of gray.

After all the adjustments had been made, the yellow stitching on the seats seemed a little dull, so another adjustment layer was created. Inside the hue/saturation menu, yellow was selected and dragged to +54, which made the yellow more prominent but was not too over the top.

This last step was the most time consuming step of the entire edit. A new white layer was created in order to remove all of the “clutter” from the windshield, and give the image the look as though it was shot in a studio. When doing something like this it is important to use a soft edge brush to ensure a smooth transition for where the car ends and the background begins. Zoom levels during this process vary between 100%-300%.

This project took approximately 5 hours to complete from start to finish. The completely finished results can be seen above. Hope you enjoyed the posts.

The client wanted a somewhat grungy theme, so it was decided that under a bridge would be a perfect location.

This photo is straight out of the camera with no post processing done. On the main layer will be the typical levels and curves adjustment as well as some sharpening and hue/saturation.

After the basic adjustments were made, the clone tool was used to eliminate all distractions. As metioned in a previous post, when using the clone tool it is recommended to use the same size brush as the object you are attempting to remove. It is important to pay attention to specific details, and zooming in for these will be necessary. For example when using the clone tool to eliminate the cones, one must make sure the all the surrounding areas are lining up properly.

After the cloning was completed,  a curves adjustment layer was created to add more grunge to the photograph. Since this was a layer mask, the area was painted where ever we wanted the adjustments to take place. We created an area with extreme light fall off so that the vehicle could fit perfectly in the frame.

To finish the scene a desaturated sky was added to fill up the two sides and center openings of the bridge. It is recommended to use a soft edged brush when doing this type of layer masking in order to achieve a seamless look.

Once the backdrop was finished, it was time to work on extracting the vehicle from the original backdrop. There are countless ways to achieve this, and it is really a matter of preference. One can create a path, or use the lasso tool, or numerous other methods.

The method used for this particular photo was to create a layer mask, and erase away the background. A blank layer was created and filled with white, and a reveal all layer mask was placed on the image of the vehicle.

This is time consuming, and attention to detail is extremely important. A small soft edged brush was used, and the image was zoomed in to about 300%. Start with small brush strokes to ensure that you are erasing right up to the edge of the vehicle. Once there is a white border around the car, you can increase the size of the brush and delete the remaining background.

This is what the image looks like once the entire background has been removed from the original photo. To create a selection around the vehicle, you click on the layer mask while holding down the ALT button.

This is what the vehicle looks like once it is brought in to the background. It clearly looks pasted in for numerous reason, but that will be fixed by creating a new layer.

There are two layers dedicated to the vehicle. One layer the focus was place solely on the vehicle, and the other layer the focus was put on the shadow. The reason two layers were brought in was so that the layer dealing with the shadow could have the opactiy lowered to blend in with its surroundings.

This project took approximately 25 hours to complete from start to finish. The completely finished results can be seen above. Hope you enjoyed the posts.

Attached below is a video tutorial that will take you step by step in order to be able to create professional slide shows. This video will give the reader a basic introduction and understanding into the world of Adobe Flash. If you do not own a copy of Adobe Flash, you can download the latest trial version by clicking HERE. We hope you enjoy the post.

Below is the finished product from the video tutorial.

This is a photograph of the Chicago Bean in Millennium Park. As one can imagine and seen by the image posted above, it is quite the tourist attraction. Although this picture is not necessarily a bad one, this location screams for a picturesque postcard. Clearly shooting at 12:45pm was not ideal to be able to achieve the results we wanted.

This is where the better planning comes into play. At 7:15am not only did we eliminate the likeliness of tourists, but we also achieve a more flattering light that is not so harsh on the subject. This photograph was taken with a Canon EOS 5D and a 24-70 lens. Attached to the lens was a 3-stop nd graduated filter, which allows us to get detail in the sky while maintaining a proper exposure in the foreground. The picture above is straight out of camera, and it already looks better than the mid-day shot.

We duplicated the background layer and did the basic levels and curves adjustments as well as some sharpening and hue/saturation. The clone tool was also used to eliminate a couple of reflections from the Bean, and as well to clean some stains that were apparent on the ground.

The newest layer was duplicated once again, and a levels adjustment layer was created. The main focus of this layer was to enhance and darken the sky. The adjustments will affect the entire image, but just try to focus on the parts you are planning on mask layering, which for this purpose was for the sky only.

The completely finished results can be seen above. Hope you enjoyed the post.

To start it off we will show some steps that were taken to get the straight out of camera shot to the end result for the client.

This photo is the straight out of camera with no post processing done. On the main layer will be the typical levels and curves adjustment as well as some sharpening and hue/saturation.

The background layer was duplicated, and out came the clone tool as well as the patch tool. The trick with using the clone tool is to make the circle roughly the same size of the object you are trying to remove. You also want to make sure you are selecting the area that is similar in color and texture to the area you are replacing. Most importantly be patient as this can take some time when first starting out. The image above shows the layer when all the cloning is complete.

The newest layer was duplicated once again, and a levels adjustment layer was created. The main focus of this layer was to bring some detail back into the sky. The adjustments will affect the entire image, but just try to focus on the parts you are planning on mask layering, which for this purpose was for the sky only.

The car was a little overexposed due to the strength of the strobes, so we created another levels adjustment layer to darken the color of the car a bit, and bring the color to its true form. Once again the adjustments will affect the entire image, but just try to focus on the parts you are planning on mask layering, which for this purpose was the body of the car.

The tires were a bit white from having to ride through some dusty streets to get to our location, so we planned to darken them. To do so we created a new blank layer and selected the brush tool with black selected as the foreground color. We painted the tires, and then lowered the opacity of the layer so that the details from the tire came through the black.

The completely finished results can be seen above. Hope you enjoyed the first of many posts.