Tag Archives: NAPP

Photoshop Composites

22 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by in Post, Shooting

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USA, Oregon, Pendelton, cat looking surprised at some chicken bones. Digital Composite (Rick A. Brown/www.moosephoto.com)

There you have it, the above image is my very first Photoshop Composite. I have more compelling imagery in planning, but this opportunity was so funny that I couldn’t pass it up.

Essentially, I am writing this to let you know what a great investment I think Matt Kloskowski’s book Photoshop Compositing Secrets: Unlocking the Key to Perfect Selections & Amazing Photoshop Effects for Totally Realistic Composites is.

I used the techniques as outlined in the book for the post processing of this image. The shooting of it was fairly simple. The cat had been in that seat earlier but left when I went to get my camera. The young man of the house saw that I wanted a picture, so he put the cat back in the seat and the cat had this totally surprised look on his face. I then took another shot of the chicken bones on the table, because I needed something visually there to surprise the cat. Then I used Matt’s compositing techniques to put them together.

I suggest you check this book out.

Review: Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It

20 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Review

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Yesterday I went to Scott Kelby’s “Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It” seminar in Portland Oregon. The short of it is that it was a lot of fun.

A more detailed review, would start with the wonderful facility it was in. The Oregon Convention Center is quite frankly the nicest convention center I’ve been in. It is very large, modern and has many cool facilities inside.

Secondly, the people. Everyone involved was helpful, and friendly. Scott has a great staff that was friendly and did their very best to make sure that everyone got what they wanted and at the best deal applicable to them. Scott is of course a great, entertaining instructor. Totally not a surprise after watching him on various things online. Yes I know, some folks don’t like this approach to education, this is a concept that is exceedingly difficult for me to understand. Truthfully, this crowd might want to think one of these seminars over carefully. For the rest of us, this a very good way to learn. I had taken Scott’s online versions of this class, so I didn’t learn as much as I would’ve if I had never seen the material, but there was new stuff and I feel that my money was well spent.

Finally a note about the content. If one is trying to get into some serious portraiture, I think this class has it all. I honestly feel that anything I didn’t learn yesterday would be best left to learn on my own through experimentation anyhow. The part of creating your own look typically does work best that way.

In summary, I’d suggest you look into the Kelby Training seminars. They’re a great deal, especially if you’re already a NAPP member.