Photo Insights February '14

Jim Zuckerman’s

PH OTO I N S I G HTS February 2014

• Adding texture • Night photography • Light fall-off • Face mirrors • Student showcase • Photo tours

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T aTable b l e ooff CContents ontents

4. Adding texture 12. Light fall-off 15. Face mirrors 18. Night photography 27. What’s wrong with this picture?

26. Short and sweet 30. Ask Jim 33. Student showcase 37. Back issues 2

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uring my China photo tour last month, something happened that I thought you would find very interesting. On one of the mornings when we were shooting Siberian tigers from a large van, the temperature was about minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit. We were shooting through open windows and the vehicle’s engine was turned off, so there was no heat in the van at all. In fact, it was so cold that as I looked through the viewfinder, my breath formed ice on the camera’s LCD screen such that I could not use it at all to preview my shots.

Half of my group (eight people in total) were shooting Nikon cameras and half were using Canon. Two of the Nikons, including a D800, stopping working in the extreme cold while none of the Canons failed. One lady tried to warm her Nikon D800 by using chemical heat packets against the battery compartment as well as putting it inside her parka, and that worked temporarily. She was able to take a few more shots before it shut down again.

None of us expected this, of course, but I bring this to your attention because there is a constant debate about which is the better system, Nikon or Canon. There are many, many ways to evaluate a camera system -- sharpness, speed of autofocus, rugged construction, ease of using the menus, etc. -- but in this particular challenging shooting situation, Canon won. It is true that not many of us face such cold conditions when taking pictures, but if you enjoy winter photography and you shoot Nikon, make sure you go to extraordinary measures to keep the camera body warm. photos@jimzuckerman.com www.jimzuckerman.com 3

About the cover.

Jim photographed this 18 month old giant panda in the Bi Feng Gorge Nature Center in China. This shot was taken in their compound where the pandas have a lot of space to roam and to climb trees. Jim also arranged for three private sessions where a young panda was taken into the forest for incredible photo opportunities for his tour group.

Jim used a 500mm, 1/500th of a second, f/5.6, 1000 ISO, and a tripod. The light was fairly low due to the overcast sky, hence the high ISO setting. The original capture had a white sky as the background. Recognizing this, Jim photographed bare trees out of focus, and then he used that image to replace the white sky.

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Creative Textures

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relatively new word in photographic parlance is grunge. This simply refers to, in most cases, the combination of a photograph with a texture. The type of texture that the grunge technique refers to is usually pronounced, gritty, and it changes the mood of the original significantly.

Grunge textures can be applied to all kinds of imagery. Portraits work great, but so do pictures of animals, old cars, rustic barns, landscapes, cityscapes, flowers, nudes, tall ships, lighthouses, and so many other subjects.

There are two steps to making this technique part of your creative arsenal. First, you have to photograph subjects that can be used as textures (or you can buy textures online as well as download free textures), and second you must combine the texture with the original photos using Photoshop.

The Textures There are several companies that offer packages of textures for sale, and there are also

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places online where you can get fairly hi res textures for free. Here are some websites: http://www.textureking.com/index.php/category/grunge http://grungetextures.com http://www.demilked.com/free-grunge-textures-backgrounds/ http://lostandtaken.com/blog/2013/2/28/10-simply-subtle-grunge-textures.html

You can find many other sites as well. Just Google ‘high resolution grunge textures’ and you’ll find them.

For the highest resolution textures, make them yourself. This will give you maximum quality, and you will have the satisfaction in knowing you’ve created the entire image instead of incorporating someone else’s image with yours.

How do you create a grunge texture? It’s easy.

You simply photograph something with a sub-

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tle texture or pattern. This could be the face of a rock, sandpaper, a brushed piece of metal, scuffed tiles on the floor of a home or restaurant, smeared pastel paint on paper, or a photo of a piece of fine fabric.

For example, the picture at right is a floor tile in a Mexican restaurant, while the photo bottom right is a piece of paper with neutral tones of watercolor paint brushed onto it.

Make sure that the subject you photograph for a texture is tack sharp from edge to edge. That means that you should use a small lens aperture. Also, the back of the camera, i.e. the digital sensor, should be parallel with the texture.

This insures you will have complete depth of field.

Not all textures work with all photographs, so create (or buy or download) a variety of them

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so you have many possibilities when working around the photo, and pull it until the image enwith your original images. larges (if you want to maintain proportions, hold down the Shift key as you drag the photo to a The composite larger size).

It is best to combine images that have identical dimensions. This isn’t essential, but it’s a good idea to do this. If the two pictures are very different in size -- such as 5 megabytes versus 60 megs -- then you shouldn’t combine them because the smaller sized image will degrade the quality of the final composite.

However, if the texture is, say, 42 megs and the original photo is 60 megabytes, then you can resize the small photo to the larger image’s dimensions using Image > image size in Photoshop. Alternatively, when you paste the smaller image onto the larger one, you could use the pull down menu command Edit > transform > scale, grab one of the handles that appear

The procedure for combining the original picture with a texture is as follows: 1. Open the texture photo and then choose Select > all, and then Edit > copy. Those actions place the picture in the clipboard, Photoshop’s temporary holding place for one photo or one portion of a photo.

2. Open the original photo and then choose Edit > paste. Now the textured image is pasted onto the original. It is a layer.

3. In the layers palette, there is a submenu that shows the word ‘normal’. This is the gateway to the blend modes (see the screen capture of the

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layers palette above), and this is what you will use to combine the two images. Some of the blend modes, when chosen, will look terrible, and the results won’t be even close to what you want. Others will work beautifully. By scrolling through the blend modes, you can accept or reject the results per your taste. Sometimes none of the blend modes produces a successful image, and in that case simply try another texture or another original photograph. It’s hard to previsualize what the combination of the two images will look like until you see them together.

You can choose each blend mode one by one, or you can scroll through them quickly and efficiently. Select the move tool and then hold down the Shift key (and keep it depressed) and press the plus key (’+’) repeatedly. Every time you hit the plus key, the next blend mode is chosen and you can immediately see the results. In this way, you can see all of the various ways in which the two images can be combined.

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The blend modes that usually offer the best results are multiply, overlay, soft light, and linear burn. You may like others, but for me these usually produce what I’m looking for.

In addition to choosing a blend mode to create the textured look, you can also elect to lower the opacity of the floating layer, i.e. the texture. In the layers palette above, you can see that I’m using 100% opacity with layer 1. By lowering the opacity, the effect of the texture diminishes. You can control how pronounced the texture is with this simple slider. This is why I prefer to place the texture over the original photo instead of vice versa. I feel this is the best creative approach. §

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UPCOMING PHOTO WORKSHOPS Baby WildlifeWorkshop Hinckley, Minnesota June 13 - 15, 2014

Baby wolves, skunks, bobcats, lynx, foxes, bears, and more

Frog & Reptile Workshop Close-up encounters with poison dart frogs and exotic reptiles in St. Louis, MO.

September 20 - 21, 2014

The Pantanal, Brazil: Jaguars at the river’s edge plus caiman, giant anteaters, monkeys, pink dolphins, and unbelievable birds.

November 8-20, 2014

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Flash photography

Light Fall-off L

ight loses its intensity as it travels away from the source. This is true for any type of light -- the sun, a street lamp, a candle, and an electronic flash. As photographers, we have to deal with this issue every time we use flash. In the picture below of the woma python on a large slab of rock I photographed during my frog and reptile workshop last week, you can see that the rear of the picture is considerably darker than the foreground.

Sometimes this effect is desirable, and sometimes it’s not. It just depends on what you want.

It is interesting to note that the exposure on the background is related to how close the flash is to the subject. For example, my camera and flash were about three feet away from the snake, and the background is dark but not black. Now look at the picture of the bearded dragon on the next page. In this case, the camera and flash were only 10 inches from the nose of the reptile. The background became so underexposed it looks black. I photographed the dragon on the same rock as the python; the only difference was the distance of the flash to

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As the flash to subject distance increases, more light is required to light the subject.

That means that the background also receives more light.

In the picture of a clouded leopard I shot at the Nashville, Tennessee zoo, I used oncamera flash along with a 200mm lens from a distance of about 25 feet. You can see that the background here is not dark at all due to the longer shooting distance. the subject.

Why does the light fall-off vary like this? It happens because when the subject is very close, the automatic exposure mode in the flash determines that it doesn’t need much light. After the subject is exposed correctly -- and this takes little light due to the close proximity -- the flash is turned off. That means that light doesn’t reach the background, and as a result it becomes significantly underexposed.

When the background is quite a distance away, as in the stage performance of Balinese dancers on the next page, it will also receive a fair amount of light when the flash isn’t close to the subject. I was 20 feet away from the performers when I took this, and the temple in the background, although somewhat dark, is still relatively bright considering the distances involved. This picture was taken on an outdoor stage.

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When shooting indoors and you know you’ll get an unacceptable dark or black background, there are several things you can do to make the background lighter.

1. Use bounce flash. Angle the flash head up to the ceiling so the light bounces off of that surface and floods the room evenly. This works if the ceiling is painted with a light color. If the ceiling has dark wood paneling, this technique won’t work well.

With high ceilings, though, bounce flash can work. In the photo below, right, I used bounce flash on Christmas morning to illuminate my two dogs. The light beige ceiling is 20 feet high, and yet the lighting is diffused, flattering, and the background is nicely illuminated.

2. Use off-camera flash. If the flash is positioned away from the lens axis, it can illuminate both the subject and the background.

3. Move further away from the subject as I did in the photo of the Balinese dancers.

4. Use post-processing techniques with your RAW file. I do this all the time and it’s very effective. Use the shadows slider in ACR or Lightroom to brighten up a dark background, and use the highlights slider to darken the foreground if it’s too light. This is often the case with on-camera flash. § 14

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

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he real question that women (and men) should be asking is not who is the fairest of them all, but which side of my face is more fair than the other. The truth is that the two sides of our faces are not identical.

When you think about it, it’s pretty strange.

it down the center of the nose.

I can prove this to you. Photograph any person, including yourself, and then create a mirror image of one side of the face. When that’s finished, do the same thing but use the other side. Compare the two pictures and it will look like two different people.

4. Use Edit > transform > flip horizontal.

Using Photoshop, here are the steps for creating a mirrored face: 1. Open a photo of a person looking straight at the camera. Choose the rectangular marque tool and proscribe a rectangular selection of either the left side or the right side of the face, dividing

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2. Choose Edit > copy.

3. Deselect the rectangular selection, and choose Edit > paste. Now the selection is pasted on top of the face as a layer.

5. Choose the move tool and move the layer in place. Enlarge the image to 100% so you can see precisely if the two halves of the face are perfectly aligned. If not, use the arrow keys to nudge the layer in place.

You can further embellish the image by using various plug-ins like Flood, changing the background, replacing the eyes with something a bit more -- shall I say ‘compelling’. For example, in the picture below I used the eyes of a lizard in this unusual portrait of my niece.§

E-books to help you take better pictures Click on any ebook to see inside

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Night Photography N

ight photography can be utterly spectacular if you shoot great subjects. It is a wonderful aspect of travel photography, and at home you can also produce unique and visually compelling images after dark.

What makes shooting at night so dramatic is the color and the contrast. Brightly illuminated subjects such as the incredible ice festival in Harbin, China, below (these huge structures are made out of blocks of ice and lit with florescent tubes inside the ice) look

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bold and beautiful against the inky-blackness of the night sky. Other illuminated subjects such as architecture, cityscapes, Christmas decorations, fireworks, and objects that are painted with light (such as a flashlight) stand out against the black background making them look better in many cases than they do in daylight.

I know many subscribers to this eMagazine already do night photography, and if you are in that category this article will be a review. Perhaps it will serve as an inspira-

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tion to do more. For those of you who haven’t tried it yet or are not sure what camera settings you should be using, the following information will be helpful.

When shooting at night, you should:

1. Always use a tripod. If you don’t have one,

at the very least you need to rest the camera on a firm support -- a railing, the ground, a window sill, etc. The point is that when the camera isn’t moving, you have the luxury of shooting with a low ISO.

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Use a low ISO, such as 100 or 200, because this gives you maximum picture quality in terms of sharpness, contrast, and most importantly a minimum of digital noise. Digital noise is most obvious, and most pronounced,

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in shadows. Since the night is full of shadows, it is especially important to make sure your ISO is low.

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Use the mirror lockup feature as well as a cable release or self-timer. This insures that the pictures will be sharp because any vibration from the mirror moving up and down and/or your finger pushing the shutter is taken out of the equation.

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Focus carefully. With bright lights and a lot of contrast, such as the kind of conditions I had when shooting the aerial view of Shanghai, below (this was taken from the observation deck on the 100th floor of a building), the autofocus mechanism worked well. However, there are many scenarios when shooting at night when you don’t have enough contrast, and therefore

the AF mechanism may fail. Such was the case in the picture of Telluride, Colorado I took just before dark. In this situation, take the camera off autofocus and then manually focus on a distant light source. You can’t focus with confidence on a dark object. Instead, use a street lamp, an illuminated window, the moon, a neon sign, or a flashlight that someone is holding.

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Turn the image stabilization feature off.

Whenever using a tripod, this is essential to guarantee sharp pictures. I know some camera manufacturers state that certain lenses can be used with the IS or VR turned on, but as a safety precaution, I just switch off that function.

6. Experiment with white balance to see which one you prefer. I shoot many of my night shots on daylight WB, but lately I’ve been using AWB or tungsten WB (aka indoor or incandescent

WB). Study the LCD monitor so you can select the white balance that gives you the best color.

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Frequently check the LCD monitor, also, to make sure your exposures are perfect. If they are either too light or too dark, use the exposure compensation feature built into the camera and tweak the exposures in 1/3 f/stop increments. There is no need to change your metering mode -- i.e. matrix, evaluative, center weighted, spot, etc. I use evaluative mode (for Canon which is matrix for Nikon), but I still check the LCD frequently.

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Don’t look at the histogram. It will be deceiving. The reason photographers look at the histogram is to make sure there are no spikes on the right which indicates that some of the

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highlights are blown out, i.e. so overexposed they are solid white. This is something that photographers never want, but at night with all the brilliant street lamps, headlights, neon signs, etc., it is impossible to avoid blown highlights. Think about it, though: When you look at a distant street lamp, you don’t see any detail in the light fixture at all.

For example, in the picture below of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, the light emanating from the fixtures on the bridge is completely blown out. If you look at the histogram and see the spike on the right, you may think the exposure is not correct. In fact, the opposite is true in the picture of Nashville. The exposure is exactly what I wanted.

Therefore, my recommendation is to ignore the histogram when shooting at night or it will

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confuse you. Look at the exposure on the LCD monitor and make your judgement calls based on what you see.

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Learn how to illuminate the liquid crystal display on the top of your camera that shows you the shutter speed, f/stop, and other important information. In the dark it will be very difficult to see this, but with the push of a button it will light up. Don’t fumble around in the dark looking for this important function. Know how to use it before you need it.

10. Be security conscious. In large cities where

crime is an issue, do night photography with a few friends. Camera gear is expensive, and that makes you a potential target. There is safety in numbers, so keep that in mind when you plan an evening of photography. §

PHOTO TOUR TO CULTURAL CHINA rice terraces • ethnic minorities • Shanghai • festivals • Chinese opera

January 15 - 27, 2015 This photo tour will afford you intimate encounters with vanishing cultures, the most incredible rice terraces in the world, ethnic models dancing just for our group, behind the scenes at the Chinese opera, and incomparable Shanghai.

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New OnLine Course: LEARNING TO SEE

by Jim Zuckerman The ability to ‘see photographically’, to really grasp how your camera and lenses capture a subject or scene (which is different than how we see with our eyes) underlies successful picture taking. It is the bottom line that you’ve been looking for to take that quantum leap forward in your photography.

When you register for this new course, you will be given download links to eight easy-to-understand lessons that look like beautiful mini ebooks. At your convenience, you can study the material and then upload your photos for a professional critique by Jim. Included in the course is a phone call once a week to discuss your submissions or any other aspect of photography you want -- what new equipment to buy, advice about airline travel, problems with flash, or anything else.

This course can be purchased directly from Jim’s website by clicking HERE. The great thing about online courses is that they can fit into any schedule. Life gets in the way at times, and Jim puts no limit on the time you can submit your work for his critiques.

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LEARNING TO SEE online course The 8 lessons that comprise this course are: Graphic design, Backgrounds, Depth of field, Patterns, Natural light, Color, Composition, and Motion. These lessons are beautifully illustrated and full of concrete steps to dramatically improve your photography.

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SHORT AND SWEET 1. Some of my best and seemingly candid pictures of kids as well as adults happen when they are distracted by other people or other photographers. This little boy in rural China was looking at people getting off a bus, and that’s when I saw the best expression.

2. HDR can be used for subjects other than architecture. This locomotive is in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and the shadows in the deep recesses of the machinery would have been black without the use of HDR.

3. For those of you who like making black and white 4. With art, rules can always be broken when they make monochromes from your color originals, consider applying a blue tone to the pictures. It’s a classic look.

You can do it in Photoshop using these pull down menu commands: Image > adjustments > color balance or using Image > adjustments > hue/saturation.

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sense. In this case, the background behind the panda is very busy, but it shows the natural forest environment in which these animals live. Therefore, it makes sense.

This is not the ‘art’ shot like the cover of this eMagazine, but nevertheless I would call this a successful image. §

What’s wrong with this picture?

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took this picture of a Siberian tiger during the China photo tour I conducted last month. The tigers are in a reserve, and my group photographed them from a large van protected with metal bars. It was very much like an armoured vehicle. We photographed through the bars, which was challenging, but the windows were open. The temperature after the sun came up was about minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit. The tigers seemed comfy in their winter coats; we were definitely cold.

The problem with this picture is that I was shooting down on the cat. It’s not a terrible picture, but it’s not ideal at all. This is my lament in Africa, too, when animals are fairly close to the land rovers. The downward angle reduces the animal’s stature and makes it seem less impressive than it really is. Unlike Africa, our van couldn’t follow the tigers because it would get stuck in the deep snow. We had to wait for them to come to us, and sometimes they were several feet below eye-level.

The picture on the next page is much better. You can see the tiger’s breath crystalizing in the frigid air, and I like that a lot. What makes this significantly better, 27

though, is that the cat was on a large mound of snow several feet above ground level. In fact, I had to shoot slightly upward as I composed the picture from the van. This made an already impressive animal seem more imposing, more intense, and more powerful.

My camera settings for this shot were: 500mm telephoto, 1/640th of a second, f/8, aperture priority, 400 ISO. I was pleasantly surprised that my Canon 5D Mark II functioned without a problem in the extreme cold. My breath actually froze on the LCD monitor, and I couldn’t use it at all because it was obscured by the ice. That was a first for me. I fully intended to velcro a chemical heat packet on the bottom of the camera to keep the battery compartment warm, but before I left home I forgot to get the velcro. I made the mistake, though, of bringing the camera gear into a restaurant for lunch. The warmth of the interior caused instant condensation on the lenses, the viewfinder, the LCD screen, the sensor, and the camera’s mirror. I should have left my camera backpack in the van. § 28

Photography Tours 2014 - 2015 WHITE HORSES, FRANCE April, 2014

GREENLAND June, 2014

KENYA August, 2014

INDONESIA August 2014

POLAR BEARS October 2014

THE PANTANAL, BRAZIL Novomber 8-20, 2014

JAPAN February, 2015

BURMA (Myanmar) April, 2014

MOROCCO March, 2015

PARIS/LONDON April, 2015

CARNIVAL IN VENICE February, 2015

SCOTLAND/WALES September, 2015

Check out the itineraries and photo galleries from these and other tours: www.jimzuckerman.com.

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ASK JIM

Every month Jim will answer a question from his online students, from people who participate in his tours and workshops, or from subscribers to this magazine. If you have a question you’d like Jim to answer, please drop him a note at photos@jimzuckerman.com.

Q: Jim ... Can you tell me how to get my pictures into an iPad? I use a Mac. Also, what size should I

make them so they look really good? Can RAW pictures be imported into the iPad? Helen Conner, Los Angeles, California

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: You can’t put RAW pictures into an iPad. Actually, you wouldn’t want to do that because they haven’t been processed yet. First tweak the images so they look their best, then size them in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements using Image > image size to make them about 7 megabytes (I use 1333 x 2000 pixels and 240 dpi). They will look great at this size, and yet the files aren’t too large enabling you to conserve valuable storage space. Save them on your desktop or in a folder as jpeg images.

Now open iPhoto. Create new albums to organize your images using File > new album. Drag the pictures from your desktop into the appropriate albums. Close iPhoto.

Now open iTunes. When the iPad is plugged into your computer, you’ll see a tab in the upper right corner of the dialog box that says “iPad” (see top image below). When you click on this, you will get another dialog box with several tabs across the top. One of them is “photo” (see bottom image below). Click on this and you’ll see all of your albums. Check each one and then hit the “sync” button at the bottom of the dialog box.

For PC users, the procedure is the same except that you don’t have iPhoto. When prompted in iTunes, you’ll have to navigate to the folder where the photos are that you’ve prepared for the iPad. For both PCs and Macs, you can only sync one computer to an iPad. If you have 1000 pictures in your iPad and you sync it to another computer, all 1000 photos will be replaced by the pictures you are syncing with the new computer. Therefore, use only your main computer to sync with the iPad.

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Burma Photo Tour April 20 - May 4, 2014

Long necked women • ancient temples • culture

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Get professional critiques of your Get professional critiques ofwork your work with Jim’s online courses with Jim’s online courses Betterphoto.com betterphoto.com Learn composition, exposure, Photoshop, beginning

fundamentals, techniques in low light photography, flash, making money in photography, and more at your convenience and on your schedule.

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Student Showcase

Each month, Jim features one student who took beautiful and inspiring images on one of his photography tours or workshops. It’s really fascinating how photographers see and compose such different images even though we may go to the same place. Everyone gets great images on my trips.

Scott Stulberg, Sedona, Arizona

Kenya photo tour, White horses of the Camargue workshop, London/Paris

Š 2014 Scott Stulberg

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Scott Stulberg, Sedona, Arizona

Š 2014 Scott Stulberg

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Scott Stulberg, Sedona, Arizona

Š 2014 Scott Stulberg

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PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP in my home

Sat. & Sun., March 22-23, 2014

Photoshop is a photographer’s best friend, and the creative possibilities are absolutely endless. In a personal and ‘homey’ environment (I have a very cool classroom setup in my home), I start at the beginning -- assuming you know nothing -- but I quickly get into layers, cutting and pasting, plug-ins, using ‘grunge’ textures, modifying lighting, and a lot more. I promise to fill your head with so many great techniques that you won’t believe what you’ll be able to do. I go over each technique several times to make sure you understand it and can remember it.

creative ideas that will inspire you to produce amazing images with the pictures you’ve already taken.

Photoshop instructors approach teaching this program from different points of view. My approach is to be as expansive in my thinking as possible in creating unique, artistic, and compelling images. In addition to showing you how to use the various tools, pull down menus, layers, and so on, I spend a lot of time giving you

Contact me if you would like to participate in the workshop and I will tell you how to sign up (photos@jimzuckerman.com). All you need is a laptop and a lot of your pictures. If you don’t have a laptop, I have two Mac Book Pro laptops I can loan out for the duration of the workshop. §

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I live in the Nashville, Tennessee area, and if you fly into the airport (BNA) I will pick you up. If you drive, I’ll give you my address and you can find my home on Mapquest. For the $450 fee, I include one dinner in my home (prepared by my wife who is an amazing cook and hostess) and two lunches, plus shuttling you back and forth from my home to your nearby hotel.

Click on the past issues of

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PHOTO INSIGHTS®

published by Jim Zuckerman, all rights reserved © Jim Zuckerman 2014 email: photos@jimzuckerman.com physical address: P.O. Box 7, Arrington, TN 37014

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Pygmy owl, Patagonia, Chile