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  • Carpe Lux: The otherworldly nighttime landscapes of Reuben Wu

    The otherworldly nighttime landscapes of Reuben Wu

    Reuben Wu’s ethereal, meticulously framed location work – largely surrealist reinterpretations of natural scenes taken at night – is absolutely unparalleled in nature photography.

    Inspired by illustration, film, and even the famous land artist installations of recent decades, the triple-threat talent works as photographer, filmmaker and sound designer. He often utilizes a continuous light source mounted on a drone to provide otherworldly illuminations in his images, which you’ll see in his Lux Noctis and Aeroglyph projects featured here.

    Equally at home in Photoshop or Premiere, he’s highly sought after by a commercial roster of tech and automotive giants like Apple, Audi, GE, Google, IBM, Jaguar, Land Rover, Samsung and Tesla.

    The otherworldly nighttime landscapes of Reuben Wu

    Wu uses continuous LEDs for both multiple and long exposures, as in his Aeroglyphs, which use the quite diminutive Fiilex AL250 aerial LED light.

    It’s equivalent in tungsten output to a 200W fixture, but draws only 30W, helping him to maintain the battery life while he experiments with compositions and lighting techniques. For automotive, he employs the more powerful Fiilex P360 and P180 ‘portable’ lights to paint on the illumination, as if chiaroscuro, he says.

    Wu employs complex layering, compositing and processing in his imagery and motion work, resulting in subtle, minimalist captures that belie the complexity of the work behind the scenes.

    Wu works with a GPS-enabled 3DR Solo drone, sometimes equipped simply with an iPhone, or sometimes mounted with a system as serious as the Phase One XF 100MP stills camera

    He locks down his compositions during the day, and will experiment with lighting techniques throughout the night. Wu works with a GPS-enabled 3DR Solo drone, sometimes equipped simply with an iPhone, or sometimes mounted with a system as serious as the Phase One XF 100MP stills camera. At under 5lbs., the drone fits in a backpack, important for the long hikes he often finds himself on. Wu also researches each location extensively, utilizing sun- and moonrise tracking to plan for shots.

    Looking to give back to image creators, Wu is active in social media as head curator for the extremely popular Instagram photography group, Imaginary Magnitude. Interested photographers can tag their photography on the site with #imaginarymagnitude for a chance to be featured. You can follow him on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or see his full body of work on his website.

    I spoke with Reuben about his work and where he gets artistic inspiration.

    The otherworldly nighttime landscapes of Reuben Wu

    What inspired you to start creating these images?

    Svalbarg was the first photo trip that I did which was purely about me exploring and taking pictures for myself. Also, it was the first project I did which gained traction in the media. That was back in roughly March, 2011. Since, it’s been published on quite a few different channels and it was pretty much that project which made me think I should put more time into this and try to make it into a career.

    The otherworldly nighttime landscapes of Reuben Wu

    The work is almost surrealist, and I love your eye for color. How much of this is color processing, how much is knowing the location, and how much is lighting?

    It’s a combination of everything. Like with everything in photography, it’s all about adjustment of reality, and seeing the opportunities of other realities in an environment. A lot of this comes down to imagination. If you’re in a place which connects you to things that really inspire you, you key into those specific things, whether it’s the color or geometry or the shape of the land.

    I do postproduce, but there is an element of realness that I keep in all my work because I think that’s important for people to have belief for these images to trigger peoples’ senses of imagination and wonder about the planet.

    The otherworldly nighttime landscapes of Reuben Wu

    Did you have any direct influences in landscape photography?

    I came from a background of drawing rather than photography. So photography is the way I make art, now. I think a lot of my inspiration comes from painting, and a lot of illustrations. The old Romantic sublime landscape paintings of the 19th century, like Frederic Church, and Caspar David Friedrich, where the landscape is not exactly what you see in front of you.

    As I said, it’s like this inside vision, which is then translated to the outside. I think that’s one of the things which inspires me in my photography. I’m working on the picture almost like a painting, so that there is a kind of crafted approach of creation, rather than straight photography.

    There are also illustrators. People like the French illustrator Moebius. Film directors like Tarkovsky and David Lynch. All of these artists that I appreciate have a kind of sublime quality to their work, whether it’s about color or time or motion. It has an otherworldly quality, which I really enjoy.

    The otherworldly nighttime landscapes of Reuben Wu

    I really love the Lux Noctis project, which seems like very complicated long exposures. Is that primarily what you’re working with? Are you trying to to to say something with these environmental portraits?

    One of the main concepts behind the project is the fact that everyone is flooded by all of these landscape photos that you see online, and everywhere else, and they all follow the same rules of lighting. It’s always at sunrise, or sunset, in a beautiful golden hour light. Or moon light!

    The composition is always kind of governed by these celestial bodies in the sky. I wanted to be able to influence the landscape in some way without changing it physically. To light a landscape in exactly the way I wanted, was really interesting to me. I wanted to free myself from the sun, and the moon, and all that kind of conventional photography.

    The otherworldly nighttime landscapes of Reuben Wu

    There was an opportunity to use this new technology, of using a drone, and using a light, which fits onto a drone. This is something that was not possible in the past without using a balloon or a helicopter and a searchlight. It fits inside my backpack. It’s small, with a small light, and GPS controlled. I can control my camera and the drone at the same time.

    The other thing was my own kind of personal experience of exploration. I really wanted to be able to see these places in a completely new light and for me to feel like I’m exploring the place for the first time, even though I might not be.

    The otherworldly nighttime landscapes of Reuben Wu

    You’re lighting for multimedia, for drones, for photography, and also for these cinemagraphs. So your lights have to be continuous to be able to address everything, right?

    Yes. I’m not really a fan of using strobes. I was really interested in nighttime photography. I wanted new ways of doing that. A lot of time I’m working in the dark. I like being able to see what I’m about to photograph.

    The photos are like the creation of a new world, and I like to be part of that new world. It’s the kind of the thing that gets me excited, so being able to use continuous lights is really important for me because I can see what I’m doing.

    I was in touch with 3DR, and they put me in touch with Fiilex, who had this brand new light—the AL250—at that time, it was a prototype. I went out with my drone, and the camera, which actually started this series.

    After they’d finished developing the final product, they sent me that light. It had its own power supply and was a question of plug-and-play, and fit onto the drone itself. That was my first experience with the Fiilex lights, and since I’ve been using some of their lights in other photography projects, not necessarily just the drone stuff. I really enjoy using them.

    The otherworldly nighttime landscapes of Reuben Wu

    I really liked the cinemagraph work that you did for Land Rover and Audi. What was your lighting?

    On Land Rover, I wanted to light the panel work of the car, at night. It is quite a complicated process, because you’re taking multiple pictures, for different positions of the light, against the car body panels. It’s a technique that commercial car photographers do, where you position the light against the panel so that the paint lights up without the reflection.

    So it was, basically, me with my remote shutter, and one of my Fiilex lights, handheld. And in the other hand, I had my iPhone so I could see what my camera saw. Making sure that the position was right and there were no reflections, I took about 50 or 60 different photos of the same thing. Then they were all layered together. That’s not an automatic thing, either. That has to be done by hand.

    I was able to to make the composite layer, which was the car, and then there was the environmental lighting of the background house. There I used the headlights to be the motion aspect of the cinemagraph. I have this fog stuff which comes out, in aerosol.

    I ran the fog through the headlights and recorded video of that, and laid that on top of the still in Premiere Pro. Immediately, you have a really highly finished commercial photo with a moving aspect to it, and it works really well.

    This time we were shooting out in Utah. The landscapes are really crazy out there… like being on the moon

    With Audi, I used my Fiilex P180e kit, which was the the smallest kit that they had, and fits inside a backpack. I really love it because I can carry it everywhere. It’s really lightweight. I had those two lights kind of positioned around the Audi. This time we were shooting out in Utah. The landscapes are really crazy out there. This was like being on the moon. There was no sun. It was just darkness. You couldn’t see the car in front of the camera.

    I was testing the lights in different directions in different positions. I positioned one behind the car, so that it would light the ground, and it would silhouette the profile. The lights are all gelled, obviously. I also used the drone overhead to light the car from above. So I had different points of lighting, and different lighting scenarios, which were all captured in separate plates. The beauty of doing it this way is that once you have everything that you need, you can create a sequence that you want in post, rather than having to deal with shooting an entire sequence on set.

    The otherworldly nighttime landscapes of Reuben Wu

    Explain Imaginary Magnitude!

    It’s a curated feed which I set up in late 2016. It was born from a desire to share the photography which really excited me, stuff which inspires me, but also stuff which I see from day to day on social media. The stuff created by artists who don’t have huge followings, and also artists from all different walks of life.

    The actual name, Imaginary Magnitude, is a science fiction book from an author, Stanislaw Lem. It’s kind of a text about books that haven’t been written yet. So this is kind of speculative, fictional, imaginary artwork that I’m thinking of. I really enjoy doing it. I never thought I’d enjoy it so much, talking to other artists and sharing other artists’ work and the sense of community which forms itself around it. I’ve been getting in touch with photographers and artists that I like, and asking them to curate the feeds. That’s another side of how it works, as well.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • 3 Fun Backgrounds for Portraits and Photo Booths You Can Create at Home

    The post 3 Fun Backgrounds for Portraits and Photo Booths You Can Create at Home appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Erin Fitzgibbon.

    Bring out your Creativity

    With our phones becoming an essential tool in our lives, we’ve started integrating them into our daily routines. We use them to document events and milestones, and then share them on social media.

    One trend that seems set to continue is having photo booths at events and even gatherings. Guests are invited to shoot photos in front of a fun background to help document the memories of that special day.

    And photographers are always looking for great studio backdrops to help make portraits interesting.

    Keeping both scenarios in mind, I’ve put together three examples of easy-to-create backdrops that can be used in all sorts of situations. So whether you’re a serious portrait photographer who wants to create something unique for your business or a creative individual who wants to give your guests with something fun during an event, here are step-by-step instructions for creating some pretty cool backgrounds.

    1# String and a Theme

    For this creative effort all you need is a lot of string and some paper clips. I’ve used this technique with everything from displaying art to creating a fun backdrop  for portraits in support of Down Syndrome awareness.

    (The creases in the fabric can easily be removed in Photoshop. I just wanted to show exactly how it looked.)

    Created using some friends’ socks, two pieces of white fabric and some push pins.

    The steps are quite simple.

    1. Get some string. (I’m partial to either black string or brown hemp-based string.)
    2. Using strong tape or hooks, run the string back and forth across the area you’ll be shooting. This works best on a blank wall or a plain backdrop cloth. (If you don’t have a backdrop cloth, iron a bed sheet and hang it up using thumbtacks.)
    3. Attach whatever theme items you’ve chosen at random places along the string using paper clips.
    4. Take some test photos to make sure you like the look of your backdrop.

     

    I hung the socks from the string using bobby pins.

    Here’s a background we made for a school. The design was created for World Down Syndrome Day. Everyone was encouraged to raise awareness by wearing crazy socks. So we created this simple background and then took photos of the students in front of the socks. It was easy to set up, and a lot of fun to shoot.

     

    2# Paint Splatters and a Tri-Fold Display Board

    Remember those tri-fold display boards we all bought to make our science fair projects? Well, here’s a backdrop you can make using that school day staple. It’s also easy to transport – just fold it up and away you go. It’s also a great way to use up any paint you have sitting around in the basement. 

    I used some acrylic paint and a palette knife for this background. I decided to smear it this time, but you can also splatter the paint.

    1. Buy a tri-fold display board (black or white) from the dollar store.
    2. Choose some paint colors that go with your theme (or use whatever you have lying around in the basement). If the paint is too thick to splatter, adding water can help make it more pliable.
    3. Take the tri-fold board outside (or put down a lot of newspaper on the kitchen floor).
    4. Using a variety of brush sizes, randomly drip, splash or flick paint onto the tri-fold.
    5. Let it dry for several hours before moving the board.

    If you load the knife with a few colors and drag it across the palette you get lots of mixing and color variation.

    Here’s the full tri-fold display board. While the background isn’t very big, it’s quite portable. However, it does limit how much you see. But keep in mind you can always use a zoom lens and have your subject stand at a distance from the background. After all, a lot of DIY is about making do with what you have.

    A simply white tri-board can be really useful. And in a pinch it can also be used as a reflector.

    3# Brown Paper and Old Books

    For this one you’ll need a roll of craft paper, which you can either hang from a studio backdrop or improvise by taping it to the wall. But you’ll have to be gentle with this backdrop, and if your guests or clients aren’t careful they could easily rip the paper.

    Next, choose some books that have significance to your event. If it’s a baby shower, old children’s books might be a good choice for the background.

    (I realize that some people think dismantling a book for a backdrop is blasphemous. Personally, I think it’s a great way to give it another purpose instead of having it just sit on the shelf. If this really bothers you, use newspapers instead.)

    1. Gather up old books you won’t be reading again, or visit the library and ask for any damaged books they’ll be throwing away. Flea markets and garage sales are also great places to find books.
    2. Cut pages out of the books that you find visually appealing
    3. Glue the pages to the long strip of brown craft paper you hung up
    4. Apply as many pages as you see fit. (You may want to use only a few pages, while someone else may want to completely cover the brown paper.)
    5. Carefully adjust the roll of paper so guests can easily stand in front of your backdrop

    I used pages from an old Writer’s Market to create this background. The nice thing is I can roll it up and take it anywhere.

    I also like the look of this background with a black and white treatment.

    A classic black and white portrait in front is quite pleasing.

    Other Ideas

    Here’s are some more ideas for backgrounds.

    1. Run party streamers diagonally down the wall in a variety of colors.
    2. Hang homemade snowflakes from the ceiling.
    3. Hang Christmas lights behind a bed sheet for a glowing look.
    4. Collect fall leaves and glue them to brown paper.
    5. Use old rolls of wallpaper and drape them behind your subject. (No gluing required.)

    There are countless ways to create an inspiring look for portraits. Don’t be afraid to be creative and use items you have lying around the house. And please share your ideas and examples. We’d love to see what items you use to make something truly fun and creative. 

    The post 3 Fun Backgrounds for Portraits and Photo Booths You Can Create at Home appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Erin Fitzgibbon.


    Digital Photography School

  • The FAA releases new rules for recreational drone users

    For the past several years, thousands of hobbyist drones, plus fleets from over 116,000 commercial remote pilots, have entered the airspace causing concern amongst regulators on how to combat aerial interference. Yesterday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a notice stating that recreational pilots of unmanned aircraft must steer clear of controlled airspace and other restricted airports.

    While the notice is not legally binding, if any operation by a recreational pilot fails to satisfy any of the eight statutory conditions outlined in the notice, the FAA has the authority to take enforcement action — especially if the safety of the national airspace system is compromised.

    Included in the act was the repeal of Section 336, a law that exempts model (hobbyist) aircraft from new FAA rulemaking, otherwise known as the ‘Special Rule for Model Aircraft.’ The agency is now demanding compliance.

    The new set of measures is the first step in addressing some of the rules and regulations outlined in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, signed by President Donald Trump after passing overwhelmingly by a 93-6 vote. Included in the act was the repeal of Section 336, a law that exempts model (hobbyist) aircraft from new FAA rulemaking, otherwise known as the ‘Special Rule for Model Aircraft.’ The agency is now demanding compliance.

    ‘While recreational flyers may continue to fly below 400 feet in uncontrolled airspace without specific certification or operating authority from the FAA, they are now required to obtain prior authorization from the FAA before flying in controlled airspace around airports,’ the FAA said in a statement Thursday. ‘Furthermore, they must comply with all airspace restrictions and prohibitions when flying in controlled and uncontrolled airspace.’

    Prior to this notice, recreational pilots simply had to notify the airport operator and the airport air traffic control tower before flying within five miles of said airport. Now they need to obtain the same authorizations as commercial drones in controlled airspace. Because Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) is not yet available for recreational users, they’re confined to fixed sites within 5 miles of airports and Class G airspace.

    The FAA intends to upgrade LAANC to allow recreational users to access the system. There are also plans for an aeronautical knowledge and safety test. Recreational users are required to pass and provide proof to the FAA or law enforcement if requested.

    As the FAA’s Executive Director for UAS Integration, Jay Merkle, explains, ‘we view this as a very positive step forward for the safe integration of UAS. Including everyone under the same rules really does move everything forward.’

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Demon of the Deep: Shooting Kawah Ijen Volcano

    A few weeks ago I returned from a fantastic trip to South East Asia. After 13 years without setting foot there (a bit of a frightening number – the last time was before I ever held a DSLR!), I was getting a serious itch that had to be scratched. I was craving the feel of Asia, its food, wildlife and landscapes. When I found the right partner to join me, I jumped on the opportunity and booked my flights.

    While this wasn’t purely a shooting trip (I also spent time in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong without shooting), two weeks of it were shooting-oriented. I spent a week photographing orangutans in Northern Sumatra, but the experience I want to share here is shooting the well-known East Java volcano of Kawah Ijen.

    Kawah Ijen (Ijen crater) was one of the icons I had long wanted to visit and shoot. As a volcano enthusiast and keen shooter, there was no chance I was going to pass on this special place.

    Part of a larger group of composite volcanoes located in the far east of the island of Java, it is one of the main attractions of the island and draws much tourism. Ijen is extremely photogenic and tells several stories worth exploring. It’s also the site of intensive sulfur mining, wherein miners extract elemental sulfur solidified from gases bursting out of an active vent in the crater. The miners then carry the sulfur by hand in baskets that can weigh up to 90kg (about 200lb), up to the crater rim and 3km / 1.9mi down the mountain up to a weighing station, where they get paid for the load.

    An 80 kg load of sulfur inside Ijen’s crater

    While the miners’ story is indeed fascinating (and controversial due to the health hazards, even though the work is comparatively well paid), I’m a nature photographer, and I came to shoot the natural features of the volcano. Ijen is very well known for the colors of the ignited sulfuric gasses in the mined vent, and also for the turquoise color of its crater lake. I spent two days hiking up the volcano and shooting it, and I’d like to share the experience.

    A aerial view of Kawah Ijen. Vertical panorama from 2 shot, taken with DJI Mavic II Pro. The panorama allowed me to capture the entirety of the lake as my foreground, creating a better framing. Shot using a circular polarizer kindly supplied by Polar Pro.

    While not very difficult, hiking Ijen is quite physical. To get to the crater in time and maximize your photography, you need to start the journey at about midnight. This gives you time to locate a porter should you need one (I suffer from minor shoulder and knee problems and so was happy to support the local economy and hire a porter to carry my heavy photo bag), and be ready for the opening of the gate at 1 a.m. – and you had better be early rather than late. On the first hike I headed up at 2:30 a.m., the and trail was jam packed with tourists, which made it much harder to hike in my own pace. I didn’t make the same mistake again the second time around.

    A look to the vent from the crater rim. The converging gas clouds are an important compositional element here.

    The hike up to the crater rim took me 1.5 hours the first night, when I was tired from the travel and had to make my way through other hikers. The second time, without anybody hiking beside me other than my travel partner, guide and porters, I was well rested and Red-Bulled, and made the way up in less than an hour. Once up the crater rim, a trail goes down to the mining vent, and hiking it also depends highly on how many people are there. A good estimate would be 45 minutes with people around, half an hour without if you’re early.

    Going down into the crater is more technical than going up and one should be very careful when doing it. In general, remember to always do the hike with a certified guide, as an experienced guide will make sure you stay safe and protected from the elements, especially when smoke gets thick inside the crater.

    The crater can fill up to the brim with noxious gasses.

    Near the end of the hike up, I had to put my respirator on. The sulfur smell was getting overwhelming, and I knew it was time to protect myself against the noxious gasses. Soon after starting the hike down to the vent, I felt the sting in my eyes telling me to put my goggles on. Both respirator and goggles were absolutely essential to be able to function when inside the crater. Closer to the vent, even they were not enough to prevent me from tearing when the wind carried the sulfuric gasses my way.

    Yours truly with full Ijen gear. Not even the goggles prevented me from tearing up when the wind swept the sulfuric gasses toward me.

    So there I was, in the dead of night, watching the purple fire of ignited sulfuric gasses. This was astonishing to behold, but quite challenging to capture. As you might imagine, shooting at night required high ISO, and in order to get any detail in the fire, an ISO of at least 3200 was needed. I ended up using ISO 6400 most of the time.

    Focusing was also very difficult. Naturally I had to focus manually, as usual by enlarging part of the image on live-view and turning the focus ring to get good sharpness, but the fire is so dynamic, and so often covered by smoke, that it took me several minutes to be able to focus. The goggles filling up with water from my breath sure didn’t help.

    Thick smoke covers part of the fire, resulting in an interesting shot. Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS. ISO6400, f/4.5, 88mm, 1/3 sec.

    Negative space is an important tool in images like this one – the darkness surrounding the purple fire conveys the atmosphere around the vent: a mysterious and sometimes frightening place where noxious smoke can engulf you before you know it.

    Once I got my focusing sorted out, it was time to compose. Composing a rapidly-changing fire that is covered by smoke 90% of the time and ruined by the flash of other people’s cellphone cameras 80% of the remaining time was frustrating. I found myself struggling through my tears just to find some sort of balance. Two nights of shooting the fire only yielded 2-3 good shots. While indeed I didn’t need more than that for my portfolio, I wish it had been an easier ordeal and that I had gotten a bigger selection.

    Purple fire in Kawah Ijen.
    Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS
    ISO6400, f/5.6, 300mm, 1/4 sec
    Note the diagonal lines and the two main centers of compositional mass in the top right and in the bottom left, balancing each other.

    After shooting the fiery vent I headed back up to the crater rim for sunrise. Ijen boasts a 1-km wide crater lake, which is recognized for being the largest highly acidic crater lake in the world. The lake’s colors are truly beautiful: an almost-unnatural turquoise lined with yellow streaks of sulfur.

    Ijen’s beautiful turquoise acidic waters decorated by sulfur streaks, covered by a thick layer of morning fog and sulfuric gases from the volcano’s vents.

    While simple in composition, the image is enriched by the lake’s contrasting colors and the light on the fog. The circular polarizer I used (made by Polar Pro) enhanced the saturation, eliminating reflections.

    While it is possible to shoot the lake from the crater rim, I found that using a drone was much more productive, and allowed me to include the entire crater in the image, in addition to the several other volcanoes around Ijen.

    I had some fun trying abstract photography with the drone, as I flew it close to the crater lake. Especially nice was flying the drone through the sulfuric gasses, which create an eerie haze. Aerials can also reveal another visually interesting element of the area: the contrast between the toxic environment inside Ijen and the lush forests around it.

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    Kawah Ijen didn’t disappoint; I highly recommend traveling there and witnessing it for yourself. Whether shooting the miners or nature, from the ground or from the air, it holds a special kind of beauty and tons of photographic potential. Just make sure you have a good guide, and a respirator and goggles at hand.

    Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez’s work on Instagram and Facebook, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.

    If you’d like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, take a look at his unique photography workshops in The Lofoten Islands, Greenland, Namibia, the Faroe Islands, Israel and Ethiopia.

    Erez offers video tutorials discussing his images and explaining how he achieved them.

    Selected Articles by Erez Marom:

    • Parallelism in Landscape Photography
    • Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
    • Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
    • On the Importance of Naming Images
    • On Causality in Landscape Photography
    • Shooting K?lauea Volcano, Part 1: How to melt a drone
    • The Art of the Unforeground
    • Whatever it Doesn’t Take
    • Almost human: photographing critically endangered mountain gorillas

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • How to Create and Use a Light Skin Smoothing Action in Photoshop

    The post How to Create and Use a Light Skin Smoothing Action in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jackie Lamas.

    When you photograph portraits, you’ll spend time editing the photos so your clients look their very best. A lot of that time is often spent smoothing out the skin. But while some smoothing is okay, doing it too much can change the look of the person.

    Here’s how to create a simple and easy Photoshop action that will have you smoothing out skin faster without over-retouching it.

    Before and after using this light skin smoothing action.

    What is a Photoshop Action?

    A Photoshop action is where you record various steps in an editing process and save them so you can then reapply those steps simply by ‘playing’ the action.

    In this case, the action will have three steps. When you press ‘Play’ it will apply those three steps quickly and automatically so you can get to the fun part – the retouching.

    Create the action

    Step 1: Open a photo (any photo will do) so you can create the action.

    Step 2: Make sure the Actions panel is open. If it isn’t, go to the Window menu and make sure Actions is selected. If you can’t find the Actions panel on your workspace, deselect and re-select it in the menu.

    Step 3: Create an Action Set, which will create a master folder for your action to live in and help you organize your actions. (You can skip this step if you already have one.) Click on the three lines in the Actions panel and select New Set. You can also create it by clicking the folder icon at the bottom of the Actions panel. You can give it any name you like. (In this example I named it “My actions”.)

    Step 4: Now it’s time to record the action. Select New Action from the Actions panel menu, or click the New icon at the bottom. Choose a name for your action, select the set you want it stored in, and click Record.

    Note: Once you hit record, everything you do in Photoshop will be recorded – including the things you did accidentally. Fortunately, you can click the Record and Stop buttons at any time while you’re recording the steps.

    Step 5: Once you start recording your action, duplicate your layer in the layers panel or by hitting CMD/CTRL+J.

    Step 6: From the Photoshop menu select Filters ->Blur -> Gaussian Blur and choose a value between 10 and 25 pixels. (Don’t worry. Your photo won’t stay blurry.)

    Step 7: Create a mask layer, then hold down the Alt/Option key and click on the mask. This will add a black mask on your blur, and your photo will be back to normal. We’ll be using this mask to add the smoothing rather than erase the blur, which is a lot more work.

    Step 8: Select the Brush tool (or press B on the keyboard), and choose an opacity between 10% and 20%. Make sure your foreground color is set to white so you can paint back the smoothing.

    Step 9: Hit Stop to stop recording.

    Your action is now ready to use.

    To test your action, open a new photo and hit Play in the Actions panel.

    You’ll see the actions you recorded re-applied to the new photo.

    How to use your action

    Open a photo with the skin you want to smooth out. It’s best if you retouch any imperfections or blemishes beforehand. This action simply smoothes out the skin lightly to make it look natural and clean.

    Hit Play on your action, choose a brush size that’s best for your photo and start painting in the smoothing in small strokes. Make sure you paint in the mask layer or you’ll be painting white onto the skin.

    You should see the difference after a few strokes. You can also change the opacity if you need more or less smoothing.

    Tips

    If you accidentally record extra steps, simply stop the recording and then delete the steps that aren’t part of the action.

    You can also delete the action and start over. So don’t worry if you don’t get each step right the first time.

    In conclusion

    Retouching skin can often take time away from photographing clients. But by using actions, you can streamline your editing by automating steps you use regularly.

    This action also helps you retouch photos lightly and more naturally.

    Let us know if you find it helpful.

    The post How to Create and Use a Light Skin Smoothing Action in Photoshop appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jackie Lamas.


    Digital Photography School

  • DPReview TV: Canon EOS Rebel SL3 / 250D Review

    The SL3 is the latest rendition of Canon’s super-tiny, entry-level Rebel. Added to the formula is 4K/24p video and enhanced eye-detection in Live View, but as Canon giveth… Canon taketh away. Find out Chris and Jordan’s impressions of the SL3’s still and video capabilities, and get ready for an intense case of déjà vu – especially if you’ve seen their review of the SL2.

    • Introduction
    • Design and Interface
    • Image Quality and Autofocus
    • Battery Life
    • Missing hot shoe sync
    • Optical Viewfinder Experience
    • Touchy Shutter Button
    • Video
    • Conclusion

    Sample gallery from this week’s episode

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    Our Canon EOS Rebel SL3 / 250D sample gallery

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    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Canon EOS Rebel SL3 sample gallery and studio comparison

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    Canon’s EOS Rebel SL3 is a compact, easy-to-use DSLR that takes great photos and comes packed with some of the company’s latest technologies – and also some frustrating limitations. While we work our way through our final review, take a peek at how the Rebel SL3 (also known as the EOS 250D and EOS Kiss X10) handled the New Orleans heat, the gray Seattle skies, and of course, our studio test scene.

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    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Sony’s financial report shows 2% YOY growth for its ‘Imaging Products and Solutions’ division

    Editor’s note: Keep in mind that each company groups different products under their respective ‘Imaging’ category, so there may be slight differences in what products and services are offered in the financial details. However, the categories are broadly similar and comparable, and we’ve done our best to account for those differences using available information.’

    If you were to look at the most recent financials of Canon, Nikon and a few other camera manufacturers, it would seem the camera industry as a whole is facing a crisis. But not everyone in the imaging market is struggling, as Sony’s latest financials show.

    Sony has published its latest annual financial report and inside a number of interesting details have emerged. Sony’s 2018 fiscal year (2018FY), which ended March 31, 2019, saw increased sales of 14.6 billion yen for its Imaging Products and Solutions division for a total of 670.5 billion yen. This amounts to a two percent year-over-year (YOY) growth, accounting for loss due to currency conversion.

    A small snapshot from Sony’s financial report showing the sales numbers (in millions of yen). On the left are the numbers are through March 31, 2018, while numbers bolded in the center are the numbers through March 31, 2019. The numbers on the right are the difference between the two years.

    While two percent might not seem impressive, Nikon’s imaging division reported a 17.9 percent decrease while Canon reported an annual decrease of 11.3 percent YOY.

    Sony specifically mentions in its report (starting on page 26) that ‘[the] increase was mainly due to an improvement in the product mix reflecting a shift to high value-added models such as mirrorless single-lens cameras and the interchangeable lens lineup, partially offset by a decrease in compact digital camera unit sales reflecting a contraction of the market.’ Sony also says reductions in operating costs helped to reduce to YOY numbers.

    In a year when it seems nearly every other company manufacturing cameras is showing decreasing profits YOY, it seems Sony managed to find a way to keep profits growing throughout 2018.

    Update (May 17, 2019): The last paragraph in this article has been removed and rephrased to account for the discrepancies in the fiscal years between companies.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Weekly Photography Challenge – Macro

    The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Macro appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

    This week’s photography challenge topic is MACRO!

    Image by Jaymes Dempsey.

    Go out and capture flowers, objects, insects etc. Just be sure they are really close up! They can be color, black and white, moody or bright. You get the picture! Have fun, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

    Image by Rick Ohnsman.

    Check out some of the articles below that give you tips on this week’s challenge.

    Tips for Shooting MACRO

    Macro Photography on a Budget: An introduction to Close-up Filters

    Getting Started with Abstract Macro Photography

    How to Give Your Macro Photography a Fine Art Touch in Post-Processing

    5 Surprising Macro Photography Ideas to Jumpstart Your Creativity

    Reverse Lens Macro – How to Make Macro Photos with “Backward Thinking”

    Creative Macro Photography – Using Fairy Lights

    How to Choose the Perfect Macro Lens

    Weekly Photography Challenge – MACRO

    Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge.

    Share in the dPS Facebook Group

    You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

    If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSmacro to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

    The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Macro appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.


    Digital Photography School

  • Sony pushes firmware updates for eight of its cameras to improve overall stability

    Sony’s software engineers might have some sleep to catch up on, as eight Sony cameras have received incremental firmware updates to smooth out the stability of the cameras.

    Specifically, Sony has released firmware updates for its a9 (version 5.01), a7R III (version 3.01), a7 III (version 3.01), a7R II (version 4.01), a7S II (version 3.01), a7 II (version 4.01), a6500 (version 1.06) and a99 II cameras (version 1.01). Sony doesn’t elaborate on what exactly has been fixed, other than to say the updates ‘[improve] the overall stability of the camera[s].’

    Before downloading and installing the latest firmware updates, be sure to read through the instructions provided by Sony on each of the firmware update pages linked above.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)