Creating Orbs

Now that spring is just arriving in our area, it might be fun to use some of our favorite flower images and Photoshop to create orbs. First select one of your favorite flower/garden images and crop it into a square with the flower fairly centered. Next, convert the image to 8 bits. In Photoshop:  Image > Mode > 8bits From the filter menu: Go to Distort > Polar Coordinates When the Polar Coordinates dialogue appears, choose Polar Rectangular [...]

Smoky Mountain Photo Tour on the Flipside

Once again we had a great photo workshop in the Great Smoky Mountains. We were blessed with great sunrise/sunset, one of the best wildflower displays ever, and a beautiful foggy morning in Cades Cove. Our group was really excited about exploring abstract water images, so I’m sharing one of mine. The trick is learning to see these reflections in shaded areas of the stream. The stream should be in shade while the trees on the far side are [...]

Smoky Mountains Photography Workshop

Well its time again to dust off our camera sensors for our annual Smokies spring workshop with good friend and co-leader Donna Eaton. Our workshop is April 17-21.  We like to arrive a few days early to scout locations. This time of year, we always bring plenty of clothing to cover weather extremes. Hats, gloves, and winter coats are often used at Clingmans Dome at sunrise and sunset. Of course we pack sturdy shoes for walking and hiking. [...]

Combining Two Images in Photoshop

This image was created last weekend at Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, GA . The goal is to combine two images in Photoshop, creating a soft ethereal feel in the finished image. From a tripod-mounted camera, the first “normal” capture was made at F8 focused sharply on the white dogwood blossoms. The second “blurry” image was made after manually adjusting focus to render the entire scene very blurry. Tip:  shoot the blurry image with the lens wide open. Shooting wide [...]

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