By know I’m sure you’re all familiar with Photoshop CS5’s upcoming Content-Aware Fill tool. Well, here’s the next astounding feature: the Refine Edge Tool. Suddenly the task of masking out someone’s hair from a solid-colored background got STUNNINGLY easier. Watch the demo video on John Nack’s blog.

Fine, it’s not performing a task that was impossible before, but it certainly makes another task a lot less time-consuming. Bravo Adobe.

When I refer to “editing” I’m not talking about adjusting images in Photoshop. Instead I’m referring to the process of looking at a series of images and deciding what to trash and what to keep.

Editing your work is vital to becoming a better photographer. Here are some key advantages that come with improved editing skills:
- Sharpens your senses for what works and what doesn’t.
- Teaches you what kind of photographer you.
- Allows you to find your own voice.
- Is a good way to save valuable hard drive space.

Introduction

The following editing process is my own. You’ll find many different styles from many different photographers. However, editing photos shot with a DSLR will typically using a photo organization tool like Adobe Lightroom (Mac OS & Windows), Aperture, Adobe Bridge (which is part of Adobe’s Creative Suite — CS3, CS4 or CS5) or iPhoto. If you aren’t using a photo organization program, that’s your first problem.

Step 1: Delete the Obviously Bad Stuff

This process should be quick and easy. Go through your series of photos and spend no more than 2 or 3 seconds on each photo.

Simply delete photos with the following qualities:

- Blurry

- Very bad composition (e.g. the main subject’s head is cut off, eyes are closed or head is turned away, etc.)

- Accidental captures

- Bad exposure

I’m shocked each time I see someone’s library filled with obviously unusable photos. You’re not ever going to use them, so why keep them? It’s not even just about preserving hard drive space. It’s about creating efficiencies for when you’re searching through your images at a later date.

My editing tool of choice is Lightroom. When I come across a photo I don’t want to keep, I press the letter “X” to flag the photo as rejected. This doesn’t immediately delete the photo. Instead it simply marks it as a photo to be deleted at a later time. The advantage of this is that you can go back and unflag photo.

Step 2: What’s Good?

In this step, go back through your photos, make minor adjustments and identify which of your photos are keepers (also known as “Picks”). Average time per photo: 10-20 seconds each.

Adjust as You Pick

As I go through the photos I adjust exposure/white balance, straighten and crop photos. Sometimes, you’ll find there are some photos that can’t be saved after quick adjustments like this. If that’s the case: trash ‘em.

To “Pick” or “Unpick”

This is an example of how using a photo library program like Lightroom or Aperture comes in handy. Programs like these allow you to rate individual photos on a scale of 1 to 5 or outright select them as picks. I prefer the selecting picks instead of rating photos. (Although rating photos is good when sitting with a client.) In Lightroom, I select a photo and press “P” to flag the photo as a pick, “X” to flag as rejected and “U” to remove any flag applied to the image.

If I have a quick frame burst of images (typically I’ll have 2-4 images of a single sequence caught over the course of 1 second), I will discard the worst of them. This may leave more than one photo in the frame burst series, but that’s okay for now.

Keep in mind: on average I’ll be lucky if 1 out of 5 images are “Picks”. I usually select only 1 of 10 or 1 of 15 as picks. In fact, by the end of step 2, about 1/3 to 1/2 of my photos are rejected.

Step 3: Do I REALLY Need this Photo?

This is where I get to the nitty gritty of the process. I continue to adjust as I go back through the photos but this time I ask myself a few key questions in order to determine whether or not to delete the photo. Average time per photo: anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes (or more).

Photo Adjustments and Enhancements

I continue to tweak the rotation, crop, white balance and general exposure of each photo. However, this time around I may go in and make spot adjustments: remove blemishes, make spot exposure adjustments, brighten eyes, etc.

Ask the Key Questions

As I examine each photo, I ask myself these questions:

- Does this picture tell a story? Photos with good stories have interesting protagonists, emotion and (ideally) a story arc. The story can and should be simple. But if a third party can’t infer a story from what’s going on, it may be a candidate to trash. The easiest way to build a story in photographs are to have action and/or interesting settings. How does the setting affect the protagonist and vice versa?

- Does this picture have unique artistic qualities? Is the color interesting? How about the shadow and light? Texture? Fascinating pose? Is it just plain pretty? If so, keep it. If not: trash it.

- Is this picture different from other pictures I’ve taken of this same subject? This happens a lot with pictures of kids. You’ll get a ton of the same expressions of the same kids doing the same things. If you haven an inkling that the photo is remotely a dime-a-dozen, delete it.

Final Touches

Overall, I typically end up with roughly 1/2 to 2/3 of the photos I originally import. And like I said before, I usually end up with 1 out of 10 or 1 out of 15 pictures as picks. I usually take those picks and make some final color adjustments and effects.

The last thing I do (and I should do this more often) is to apply keywords to each of the photos. Again, a program like Lightroom or Aperture makes applying keywords a breeze.

So that’s my editing workflow. Tell me what works for you. Hopefully I could learn something new.

Easter is coming and so are the parties and the Easter Egg hunts. Here are some quick tips on capturing those precious moments at any special occasion with children

1 – Shoot at their eye level

Yes, that means crouching, kneeling, stooping and bending. But trust me: It’s worth it. Shooting at the child’s eye level pulls the viewer into that child’s view of the world. You immediately create a more intimate connection with the child not to mention create a unique perspective on the moment.

2 – Shoot from the hip

If you’re not as flexible as you once where, try shooting from the hip. Literally.

Relax your camera arm and let it hang beside you as you shoot. Yes, that mean’s your not looking through the view finder or the LCD screen but it also means you might create some unexpectedly beautiful compositions.

Also, it’s a good way to capture a precious moment discreetly. You know how it is. As soon as some kids realize they’re being photographed, they either hide their face or pose breaking the candid moment.

3 – Zoom out and move in

Shooting with a wide angle (i.e. zoomed out) gives multiple advantages:

- You capture more than just the child(ren), you capture the scene they’re in thereby creating context for the shot. It’s an effective storytelling technique.
- For parents of “clingy” children, it’s a way to shoot the child but still keep them close to you.
- Shooting wide also gives you a better chance of capturing a fast moving child because you have a wider frame to work with.

4 – Blur can suck. Long live blur!

We constantly strive for photos that are not blurry. But blur has its advantages, especially when it comes to photographing kids on the move. What I’m talking about here is Motion Blur.

Keep your shutter open a little bit longer (1/4 to 1/2 a second) and capture the movement of the kids in motion. The key is to keep the camera still during the entire exposure (use a tripod, a table or railing) so that the setting is sharp, but the kids are blurry. Like magic, your picture now conveys the frenetic motion of the kids in relation to their environment.

5 – No Faces

Sometimes you don’t need to shoot a kid’s face to know who they are or to tell a story. Try shooting just hands of the child juxtaposed with a grandparent’s hands. If you know the child is reaching for an interesting object focus your frame on the object prior to the child grabbing it. As the child’s hand comes into frame, snap the photo.

On the heels of an extremely useful Flickr post from BoldPuppy comes another new user posting that has been recognized by many users as yet another useful new-user-start-here post. This time from Flickr user “http://www.flickr.com/photos/fensterbme/”. The following was originally posted in the TechTalk Group. It too covers a great range of elements for all beginners.!

Well the holiday season has come and gone, and evidentially more than just a couple of those folks who went to Best Buy, etc. to buy a really nifty digital camera went home with a Digital SLR and are now on Flickr asking basic questions. We have more than one current thread that is basically, so I gots a DSLR and have questions, etc. and this is happening across other groups as well.

So I decided to write up a little post hopefully giving these new folk a place to start finding information. This is basically things I’d recommend people who are new to Photography do to better understand what it is that they just bought. Hopefully this is helpful to some readers… It’s not meant to be a complete reference, but more of a ‘jumping off’ point.

Welcome Noobs:

Welcome new users, Your going to have a wonderful and exciting time with your new camera, but a little reading and practice is going to go a long way… All of us who are answering your questions have been the newbie at one time, and we know where your coming from in most cases…

There are tons of resources on how to use your camera both from a technical and creative perspective. These range from web sites, magazines and books, web forums, as well as classes and going out with another photo buddy to have them show you the ropes. A few weeks of reading a book, watching a video, etc. can go a long way to answering your most basic questions and help you ask much more informed and specific questions.

Places to Start::

Books:

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson (I think probably the best book that explains the basics that apply to all cameras/photography such as shutter speed, aperture, ISO and film speed, White Balance, etc.)

Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson (This is the creative companion book that helps you frame up a good and interesting photo, the first book is more of a ‘how’ of photography, this is more of a ‘why’, and where to aim that lens. I’d recommend buying both books together as Amazon has a package price)

The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby (this guy writes very practice ‘how to’ stuff, if you have a specific problem or want to learn how to photograph something specifically this is a great guide. Very well written..).

Photography by Barbara London and John Upton This book is very complete and covers almost everything in depth, this is a book used by many, many college photography programs as a textbook, as such it’s priced that way… ( I think I found mine new on Nerd Books cheaper than Amazon) Yes it’s expensive it’s totally worth it and is the best single in depth resource available.

Photoshop CS II for Digital Photographer’s by Scott Kelby NOTE: They also have a version of this book for CS3 and CS4 (if you Do use Photoshop and a good chunk of us are, this is a wonderful resource and is again a very practical how to guide to fix a photo or do something. He doesn’t spend time explaining to much of the ‘why’ and theory, just here’s how it’s done with step by step instructions and illustrations. This guy is basically the biggest ninja of Photoshop)

Video’s:

Blue Crane Digital has DVD’s that are essentially your manual, along with the fundamentals of photography and basic creative techniques all done very well into a video form. They are available from many places including Adorama for $19.95. In my mind every camera should be sold with these videos. By watching them in one hour you will have probably 80-90% of your questions answered, you will also know how to work your camera much better.

Web Sites:

Google That’s right kids, you know it well. Simply spending three minutes searching on the internet will likely yield most answers you have. There is a really good chance someone already asked the question you have and it was probably answered…

Wikipedia – Photography The page on Wikipedia about photography is a great resources, and at the bottom are links in the ‘see also‘ second which link to just about every imaginable topic/area of photography.

Digital Photography Review is an excellent site for very in depth reviews on camera bodies and offers very detailed comparisons. Reading this site should just about eliminate the question "I’m thinking about buying X camera -OR – How does X camera compare to Y camera)" that so often come up.

Photozone another review site with a ton of information on lenses and how well they perform. If your thinking of getting a specific lens and want to ask questions about it, this site is a great first place to check… it will help you get a technical understanding of how the lens works.

photo.net/equipment/canon/ Phil Greenspun (a brilliant but kinda whacky guy who’s site has gone down hill in the last year due to some silly behavior on his part) has a ton of Information on camera bodies, and lenses… His reviews are more subjective. I used to use this site all time time, now I rarely visit but it’s still worth checking out if your new.

Fred Miranda this site has a ton of user submitted reviews (which I don’t pay as much credit to as usually people either LOVE their lens or HATE it and have trouble being objective) out side of the reviews there are great forums and they have a great buy/sell area where you can be connected with other private party buyers/sellers (I’ve bought quite a bit this way).

Magazines:

Digital Photo Pro This for me is probably the best written photography magazine going. It covers the tech side of things but also the creative stuff. It’s definitely focused for more than the beginner but they have much more meat in the articles. Often times some of the big name magazines have more or less press released from the manufacturers and the reviews would never say anything bad without being afraid of having some ad revenue pulled.

American Photo focused on commercial and editorial photography, it’s fun to flip through and has some good in depth pieces… I read through it more just to see the photographs, and try to understand how they got a specific shot, etc.

Shutterbug if I’m flying somewhere and want to just thumb through gear reviews, etc. this is the magazine I grab… Pretty informative with more in depth reviews than some of the other ‘popular’ magazines.

Photo District News If you are wanting to go pro and want to understand the business, this is a great read… although if your a newbie this is likely not up your alley.

Take A Class

Most local photo retailers offer photography classes (especially after the holidays), and if you live in a city you can most likely find classes offered at area community centers or local colleges in their continuing education classes (classes for people who want to take 1 class, not get a degree, etc.). Often times these classes will range in price and time commitments, but I think for most people are WELL worth the investment.

My wife just completed an eight week class (2 hours per class, 11 sessions) for $89 and found it very helpful. While the whole class wasn’t stellar it was good overall and taught her enough to pickup our camera know how to use it and understand the relationship shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc. all play with one another. It’s really opened up a whole new world for her…

Find Someone Else to Shoot With

Getting out and shooting is what it’s all about… There are most likley photography groups in your city (ask your local camera shop where to find them), most of which are filled with people who want to explain and show you how to use your camera. Not only will it allow you to understand photography more, it will probably even make you some new friends.

Flickr Meet-Ups:

In some metropolitan areas there are even Flickr Meet-Up’s, where you can go out and and meet up with other folks on Flickr to shoot around, and add a off-line social aspect to Flickr. I started a Flickr Meet Columbus group for those in the Central Ohio area. We have over a 100 members, and have attendance at our meet-ups of between 10-25 people on average (we meet more or less once a month). If there isn’t a group in your area, start one…

In Closing:

The Flickr groups are a great way to learn a bunch (even if you just read a lot and post very little) of stuff and interact with other people who are into photography. But a little time and effort will give you a much better understanding of photography, and allow you to ask better, more specific and informed questions.

…if you’re still reading this, hats off to you.

Choosing a DSLR to Shoot Video? Watch Zacuto DSLR vs. Film Shootout, Part 1 of 3. Now. The folks at Zacuto (who make great DSLR rigs) posted an in-depth comparison between traditional film cameras and the top video-shooting DSLRs available today: Canon’s 5DmkII, 1DmkIV, 7D as well as Nikon’s D3s and Panasonic’s GH1. This is a three-part series with part one running 35 minutes.

All DSLRs shot 1080, 24p with the exception of the Nikon D3s because it can shoot only a maximum resolution of 720p. One of the professionals on hand is one of my favorite video artists Philip Bloom.

Here’s the description from their site:

The DSLR vs Film Shootout Series kicks off with the 1st set of camera assessment tests looking at latitude. Watch results & discussions by ASC, Indie, event & convergence DP’s at AFI & Skywalker Ranch.

One quick note, this video is a little bit technical. The most important thing to remember is that they’re testing specifically for latitude — that is, how good is this camera at capturing the range of light in a single scene.

Browse through the forums of the Flickr Canon DSLR Group and you’ll find a ton of useful information. A high percentage of the most useful information is typically given freely by only a few users, one of whom is the talented and knowledgable Flickr user nicknamed BoldPuppy. He was user who wrote the extremely useful post “Got a New DSLR?” and he’s agreed to answer a few questions for us:

If you want to have something to get excited about for Photoshop CS5, watch this video on Content-Aware Fill Sneak Peak.

If you’ve ever retouched an image where you had to either recreate areas of an image, your jaw will drop at just how easy CS5’s Content-Aware Fill is to use. Just beautiful results.

Owning a new DSLR is exciting. And jumping in and snapping photos immediately is the right thing to do. However, jumping right in can often lead to common new-user mistakes. Here are a few basic techniques a new DSLR owner can apply to improve their chances for perfect shot:

1 – Shoot in Burst Mode

By default, modern DSLRs take only one photo when users press the shutter button. However, these cameras have another mode called Burst Mode (also known as Continuous Shooting). Use it.

In Burst Mode, the camera continuously captures photos while you hold down the shutter button. This gives you a better chance at capturing the perfect moment. In addition, it helps shooting in low-light conditions. How? If you shoot two pictures in a row in burst mode, typically the first shot is blurry from the action of pressing the shutter button, but the second or third image is captured at the end of that motion thereby creating a sharper picture.

Note: Depending on your camera model and the type of file that you’re recording (i.e. JPG or RAW), the number of consecutive photos will range from as few as 3 to as many as unlimited. In addition, the maximum number of images captured per second will also range.

2 – Hold the Camera Properly

I see too many new users holding the camera wrong: with the left hand supporting the camera lens from the side as opposed to camera lens from below.

Holding the lens the wrong way will make your hand form a letter “C” while supporting the camera lens from below will make your hand form a letter “U”.

There are three key advantages: First, this will provide better support for your camera body in addition to your lens thereby reducing camera shake. Second, you’ll be able to pull your elbows in against your body which will allow you to reduce camera shake. And finally, you simultaneously support the camera while adjusting the focus and focal length rings.

3 – Position Faces Higher in the Picture

More specifically, position the subject’s eyes roughly 2/3 of the way up in the frame. You’ll achieve a much better visual balance. Too often, people compose the image with the face smack-dab in the middle of the frame. This creates a ton of unnecessary negative space over the user’s head.

Please note: this is a general guideline, not a rule. There are many reasons for positioning a subject’s face elsewhere but typically it’s to provide context for the person in their environment.

4 – Don’t Shoot in Fully Automatic All the Time

I know it’s tempting, but shooting in Fully Automatic Mode deprives you of many of the advantages that DSLRs afford for you: depth of field control, controlling blur, etc.

But this doesn’t mean you should only use the fully-Manual Mode either. Instead, take advantage the priority modes: Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, etc. Some of the top photographers in the world rely on these modes.

One of the questions that I get quite often is, “How do you get the background to blur?”. The answer is to increase your Aperture or “f-stop”. An easy way to do this is to switch to Aperture Priority mode and increase the size of the aperture by making the f-stops smaller (these are the numbers that typically read as 2.8, 5.6, 9.0, 12.0, etc.). Yes you read that right: the smaller the f-stop, the larger the aperture. The larger the aperture the more blur you’ll achieve. You’ll typically achieve noticeable background blur beginning with f/5.6 and lower. Be aware that lenses with very large apertures (i.e. f/1.2 – f/2.8) can be very expensive.

5 – Don’t Look Through the Eye Piece All the Time

You can capture some truly surprising and unexpected imagery by shooting from the hip — literally. Or, lift your camera way above your head and angle it down at your subject. New angles mean new perspectives. New perspectives make for interesting shots!

The following was originally posted in the Canon DSLR Group on Flickr by a user named Bold Puppy. It covers a great range of elements for all beginners despite some Canon-specific references. I hope to get an interview with Bold Puppy posted to the blog soon!

Congratulations to all of you who have received a new dSLR …

You may be tempted to break out the credit card, and rush out and buy the ‘next’ big lens that you see advertised in your store (they’re on sale, so they must be good, right?). My first comment to you is "whoa, Nelly!" Slow down some. Learn what you’ve got first.

This is a great link about lenses. What are they, why are they so expensive, and so on:

photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/lenses.html

Certainly worth your time to go through.

Here’s a link to some very good tutorials written by other members of this group:

Stop shooting auto

A beginners guide to photography

This one was written by Canon for beginners:

web.canon.jp/imaging/enjoydslr/part2/2Af.html

This one is a bit more advanced: Luminous Landscape’s Understanding Series

The standard book recommended in this group is:

Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson. It has plenty of exercises that will get you out and learning with your camera. You can also check out his photography school website: www.ppsop.com

Here are some links for additional information:

If I shoot in RAW, what is stored in the file, and what settings can I ignore? www.flickr.com/groups/digital_rebel_faq/discuss/721576001…

I get different results when using my flash in different modes. Why?

photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

After you’ve gotten comfortable with your camera, you may come to a few different conclusions:

* Photography isn’t for me, where do I sell this darn thing?

* I still only want to take snapshots and don’t want to learn all this mumbo-jumbo

* Wow, this is pretty cool, I like doing this, but can’t stand that deer-in-headlights look when I use my flash.

* I think I have a grasp on the basics, but why are my indoor sports photos coming out like poo?

* Those birds are a long way out there, how do I photograph them without loosing detail?

* I really like to photograph bugs/spiders/extreme closeups (macros). My lenses don’t let me do that right now. What do I do?

* I really like to photograph landscapes, but they just don’t look like what I saw when I take them… what did I do wrong/how do I improve them?

* I really want to get into weddings. Where do I start?

Start by reading this: www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/728814

(added link from another thread and removed other commentary)

Then read this: www.aljacobs.com/the_wedding_guide/

www.flickr.com/groups/startingaweddingbiz/

www.flickr.com/groups/weddingphoto/

www.flickr.com/groups/weddingcritiques/

Or, you could get so enthused about this, that you want to start your own business photographing kids, pets, weddings, and whatever else you can make money on….

So where do you go from here? You can read this: Commercial Photography Handbook" as a good start. Don’t forget to get your business license and collect sales tax!

Roger, over at Lens Rentals, has been doing some interesting write ups.

His latest is targeted towards those of you who either have or are looking to get an entry-level digital SLR, and want some advice on what to get:

www.lensrentals.com/news/2009.01.04/the-budget-slr-gourmet

Another great read is this, helping you choose what to get next:

www.lensrentals.com/news/2008.12.26/what-lens-do-i-want-p…

One special topic is indoor sports: www.lensrentals.com/news/2008.10.31/shooting-indoor-sports as this requires a different setup than what you might think.

So – read up. Practice. Learn what you want to improve, and then you can find something that helps you improve in that area. Going out and buying stuff for the sake of buying stuff will only make you less wealthy, and not necessarily a better photographer….

Edited to add in the link from Scuba: www.flickr.com/groups/techtalk/discuss/72157594450476568/ this group lists out all of the above, and is more complete.

Edited again to add in this link:

thomashallphotography.wordpress.com/great-sites-and-books/

This site has many good book references as well as some good introduction to photography links (like about composition and exposure).

Edited to add in this link:

www.night-ray.com/PhotoCheatSheet.pdf

The photo cheat sheet is a bit more advanced, but is worth printing out and understanding how it works. Thanks, Antoine, for the link!

Thanks to — taken from another group — further edited to add this link:

www.popphoto.com/Features/20-DSLR-Questions-You-Were-Afra…

There are lots of websites to help you out with lighting…

www.planetneil.com/tangents/

www.strobist.blogspot.com/

photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

www.all-things-photography.com/flash-photography.html

www.vividlight.com/Articles/611.htm

And many good books. I’ve recently bought Minimalist Lighting Professional Techniques for Studio Photography (and got the author to sign it!) available here: this book gives you lots of techniques on how to light with only one or two lights. It’s not intended for experienced flash users, but you can always learn another trick or two. The compliment to that book is this one: Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography where he takes lighting on location.