Photoshop World Instructor: John Paul Caponigro

Published December 22, 2008 by Web Editor | Comments (0)

In September, I had the fortunate opportunity to act as a “moderator” for John Paul Caponigro‘s “Drawing With Light” class. It was the second-to-last class of Photoshop World and I was pretty tired. So tired, that I thought that I might take a little cat-nap… but as soon as those lights went down and the first astounding image appeared on the big screen, I was riveted.

Not only did we all learn some amazing techniques, but we also got to learn John Paul’s philosophy behind his approach in everything he does… and when I say “philosophy,” I mean that things got pretty existential in that room. My brain was spinning by the time those lights came up and I knew I would never approach the subject of light the same way again.

I could tell from the audience’s reaction and applause that I wasn’t the only one.

If you haven’t delved deeper into John Paul’s world, I strongly recommed that you do. His website is filled with blog entries, articles, downloads, resources, interviews, and profound artist statements.

Posted in Instructors

Instructor Guest Post: Eddie Tapp

Published December 19, 2008 by Web Editor | Comments (1)

Today’s instructor guest post is from Eddie Tapp. Eddie is an award-winning photographer, lecturer, consultant, and author on digital imaging issues. He is also a popular Kelby Training instructor and a member of the Photoshop Hall of Fame.

This year at Photoshop World, Eddie’s classes are “Creative Synergy” and “Empower Your Creative Discoveries 3.” Here is just a taste of the inspiration and insight that Eddie imparts in all his teachings. Enjoy!

All Rules Are Made to Be Broken

You know how we all get into an occasional routine at times, such as eating banana sandwiches and then switch over to peanut butter sandwiches for a while. Well, the analogy I’m referring to is how we (photographers) sometimes get into an occasional “perspective” routine. Such as waking up one morning and realizing that… Today is a “wide-angle” day… and for a season we’ll experience and learn wide-angle perspectives. And then we’ll switch to telephoto and so on. Some 10 years ago, I woke up and realized that “Today, is Panorama Day”…  and over the past 10 years, I’ve accumulated quite a pocket full of pano’s and even today will create a panorama most everywhere I travel. And these days I travel all over the globe.

Here are some tips (rules) for creating Panorama’s:

1. Visually compose your frames looking through your camera before creating the exposures
2. Compose each frame with an overlapping of 20% or so (noting an item in each frame to overlap)
3. Keep the horizon line in the same location in each frame if handholding the camera
4. Pan each frame from one spot (using a tripod is helpful)
5. Telephoto lens or normal lens work best. Using a Wide Angle lens can create cylindrical aspect problems, use wide angle once you have some experience in creating pano’s
6. Shoot a Blank frame before and after the pano. This will let you find your pano quickly when looking through thumbnails in your browser
7. Use Auto NOTHING!!!!! That’s right… Turn OFF auto focus, exposure and white balancing and if using a zoom lens, do NOT change the focal length during the pano
   1. Auto focus can create several focal problems. If you have a foreground object you want in focus (such as a portrait), focus on your subject in that frame and quickly refocus for the other frames. NOTE: changing focus during a panorama can change the actual shape or size of an object compared to the same frame in a different focus
   2. Use the Manual exposure control for best results. When you visually compose your framing, meter the brightest scene as your exposure for all of your images. If you must use a setting other than Manual, use Aperture Priority rather than Shutter Priority to keep the scene from changing perspective from frame to frame.
   3. Choose a preset White Balance setting or better yet, create a custom white balance. In most cases, Auto White Balancing can create a slightly different color balance from frame to frame making the blend more difficult
   4. Lock down your focal length on a zoom lens. Actually most lens do not allow you to lock the zoom, and in those cases be careful not to change the zoom focal length

Blending is key when it comes to actually creating the panorama. Personally, I use Photoshop CS4’s improved blending and alignment features to create panoramas and it does such a good job you can almost break all of the rules (or tips) above but I don’t recommend breaking the rules until you know what they are.

However, in a recent visit to Moscow, I broke the rules for creating Panoramas… I came across a wall with graffiti all the way down one block. The street was so narrow that I couldn’t use tip #4 (Pan from one spot) and had to compose an image, walk down the street to compose the next image and so on until I had all 10 frames. This is usually a receipt for a pano-disaster.

Interestingly when I started the first shot (from the far right) the couple you see on the left was there kissing and hugging and by the time I got down to the end, they were still at it and naturally ended up in my composition (which I love).

What really excited me was once I asked Photoshop to align and blend the images, it did a near perfect job even thou the frames were created from 10 different spots (breaking the rules). In most every panorama case, there are usually a few blending areas that we need to fixed and this one was no different as I had a few areas to blend in further.

Do it yourself. Starting out from Lightroom 2 in the Library mode, select your images and then right click (Option click on Mac) and choose Edit in Photoshop and then from the flyout menu choose, Merge to Panorama in Photoshop. From Adobe Bridge select the images for your pano and then from the Menu in Bridge select >Tools >Photoshop >Photomerge (you can actually just stack layers in Photoshop and choose from the main menu Edit and then Auto Align or Blend Layers, but with 10 images this could get confusing) and notice the merge options; Auto, Perspective, Cylindrical, Reposition Only. (insert screen shot)

At the bottom middle of this interface there is an option to Blend images together. This along with the improved alignment algorithm in CS4 is makes Photomerge in Photoshop an extremely powerful tool, not to mention very easy to use. If you’re just starting out, use the Auto feature in the Layout option and let give Photoshop a little time to figure out it’s mapping.

Look at the Layer’s Palette and you’ll notice each layer has been aligned and blended. You can re-edit the blending by painting on a Layers layer mask.

With this image instead of keeping the superb blending features, I actually applied a drop shadow Layer Style to each layer (revealing CS4’s amazing blending architecture), creating this unusual effect and it just happens to work really well with this particular image. I love all the graffiti in this image but I don’t speak or read Russian and can’t tell you what is said here. But to me it reminds me of the fact that all rules are made to be broken, but it’s always best to know what the rules are first.

© Eddie Tapp
M.Photog.MEI.Cr. API, PPA Certified
www.eddietapp.com

Posted in Instructors

The Photoshop World Blog is Back!!

Published December 17, 2008 by Web Editor | Comments (1)

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the Official blog of Photoshop World! I am your host, “NancyM” – otherwise known as NAPP_News on Twitter – and I’m super psyched to be able to break away from the 140 character constraint of Twitter and help run your soon-to-be-number-one source for everything Photoshop World!

We have a lot planned for this blog including guest posts from your Photoshop World instructors, behind-the-scenes updates, PsW survival tips to help you make the most of your experience and so much more!

Plus, when Photoshop World is going on, this will be the place for live-blogging, the latest news, and pictures galore! Basically, what happens at Photoshop World… gets broadcasted on the Internet ASAP!

So, please be sure to bookmark us or add our RSS feed to your favorite reader. We should also have an “RSS feed via email alert” function up soon as well.

Ok, that’s all for now.

Please put away your tray tables and return your chairs to the upright position …

Posted in Show Coverage

Coming Soon: 2009 Photoshop World Blog

Published by Web Editor | Comments (0)

Photoshop World Boston is only a few months away. As we approach, this blog will begin posting teasers, news, and updates about the upcoming conference. Stay tuned, because The Game is On!

Posted in Show Coverage