Photo Insights June 2023

P H O T O I N S I G H T S Jim Zuckerman’s

June 2023

Generative fill

What white balance

Home nature projects

Photography quiz

Photo tours

Ask Jim

Student Showcase

Back issues

On the cover: Seventh century Whitby Abbey at sunrise, Whitby, England. This page: A portrait of an 18th century French queencreated with AI using Midjourney software. Learn how to do this in Jim’s upcoming online AI course.

What is reality, really? Is it what we see? Many photographers still object to those of us who like to use Photoshop to replace skies or make other modifications to pictures, especially those of nature. They take the position that this isn’t what we saw, and it’s not real. So I ask, is photography only supposed to capture what we see with our eyes?

Well, when we see a hummingbird’s wings in a blur -- is that real? Actually, that’s not real at all. The wings don’t become blurred, not even in the slightest. They still maintain their sharp and detailed integrity, but due to the latent image on our retina, we see what’s not there. Using a normal shutter speed and capturing a blur is not a real depiction of the birds. It’s what we see, yes, but it’s not real.

When we use long lenses and large apertures, we get shallow depth of field. Everyone accepts this as part of the choices photographers have in ‘being creative’, but the truth is we never, ever see shallow depth of field. This holds true when we look at the smallest insect or a neaby bird perched on a branch. We always see complete detail (notwithstanding the need for prescription glasses). Shallow DOF is a man-made construct having nothing to do with reality and everything to do with the limitations of optics. But even the most vocal opponents of photographic manipulation in Photoshop fully accept, and use, photographic principles and equipment to blur backgrounds and create images that are impossible for us to see.

It seems, then, that everyone takes pictures that can honestly be described as unreal. Some draw the line at the outer reaches of imagination, and others are more conservative. Just like in traditional art where one painter depicts what he sees, like John J. Audubon with his portraits of birds, while Picasso and Chagall traveled down the road to surrealism.

Photography is the same.

Jim Zuckerman photos@jimzuckerman.com www.jimzuckerman.com

Generative Fill the new

Adobe has done something that surprised me. It shouldn’t be such a surprise, but I certainly wasn’t expecting it. That’s strange since I love AI so much.

Built into Photoshop now -- at least, the Beta version -- is the ability to create AI imagery in conjunctiom with your photography. Wow! This will revolutionize the workflow and provide additional creative ability.

Actually, there are three new things you can do:

1) You can eliminate objects with a higher degree of sophistication than with content aware,

2) You can expand a canvas in ways never before possible, and 3) you can actually add photographic elements to your pictures that emanate from AI technology.

Download the Beta app

First you have to download the Beta version of Photoshop. Go to the Creative Cloud desktop app, and in the left column click ‘All apps’. You

will then see a page with a “Get the Photoshop (Beta) app” button. Click that and you can download the needed version of Photoshop.

Also, make sure you have the latest Photoshop version which, at this time, is 24.5. The beta version is 24.6.

The beta version coexists with the normal version of Photoshop. You don’t use it instead of version 24.5.

Adding elements with AI

If you follow my work, you know I am constantly replacing backgrounds to embellish and improve photographs. I’ve done this within Photoshop for more than 30 years. What is different about the current beta app

is the use of AI. All of the backgrounds I’ve replaced up to now have always been with my images. The ancient Irish cemetery below, for example, is a shot of gravestones in the 6th century Clonmacnoise Cemetery in Ireland. The storm clouds I photographed in Tennessee.

On the previous page, the original picture of the same cemetery is shown at left. For the image at right, I used Photoshop’s new feature, Generative Fill, and the software replaced the background with an AI image -- in other words, that castle is not a photograph I took. It was generated from the millions of pictures in the AI data bank.

Similar to all of the other AI software I’ve used, images are created by typing into the appropriate field prompts, which are simply words. So,

for the image of the castle in the background of the ancient headstones, I wrote: “Add medieval Irish castle to the background”. You can be more descriptive with many more words, but these are the words I used in this example.

Admittedly, it took me several attempts before the results were acceptable to me. I tried other types of subjects as well. I attempted to add elements with AI images behind horses, a cheetah, and rocks in a landscape, and none of those composites looked good. You’re given three variations to choose from, but in each case none of them worked. Either the lighting was wrong (like sunset lighting behind an element taken in diffused light), the AI image was out of proportion (too large for the situation), or the new image just didn’t make sense. The Irish cemetery composite was the first one that I thought worked.

The chameleon image, above, also worked. The prompts I used were: “Add tropical jungle background”. The focus fall-off looks real, but I had to use the clone tool to eliminate a couple of sunny hotspots in the upper left of the background. No big deal.

So, this is an amalgam of my photography and an AI image that I didn’t take with my camera.

I’ve noticed that AI images introduced behind the photographic foreground aren’t as sharp as the original picture that comes out of a camera. In the image above, that’s not a problem. In most images, though, it would not be ideal.

Keep in mind this is a beta version, and it’s Adobe’s first foray into AI. The reason the company is offering the beta version to us is so we can give them feedback which they will then incor-

Morocco Photo Tour

August 29 - September 10, 2023

porate into changes in the programing to make the AI experience better. Over time, I know it will improve significantly. From my point of view, though, at this time it’s fun to play with but it’s just not ready to be a serious contender in the AI world. I wrote an article last March in Photo Insights about Midjourney’s AI capability, and I love the creative possibilities with this software. That’s why I’m teaching a course on it starting June 10. At this time, Midjourney is light years ahead of Photoshop’s AI capability.

Expanding the canvas with content

Having said this, one great aspect of Generative Fill in Photoshop is its ability to intelligently expand the canvas. AI looks at the image and adds to it in a way that can only be described as brilliant.

For example, the two stallions above were origi-

In the image above, I selected the expanded white area as well as a few pixels into the picture on the right side. Enlarge this page on your device and you’ll see the marching ants encroaching on the image.

nally shot vertically. I didn’t like how the gray horse was cropped, so I used the pulldown menu command, Image > canvas size. This allowed me to expand the ‘canvas’, i.e. the picture area, to the right. The color that fills the expanded area comes from the background color box at the bottom of the tools palette. Here, it was white. The color doesn’t matter, though, because it gets covered up.

When a selection is made in the Photoshop beta version, you’ll see an option bar, above, appear at the bottom of your image. Click ‘Generative Fill’, and when that has been done, another option becomes available which says ‘Generate’. Click that, and Photoshop’s AI capability fills in the expanded area based on the original image. You can see the result of this incredible

technology below. The tail isn’t quite perfect, but using the clone tool I can fill in the area near the bottom where we can see some of the green vegetation through the hair.

The key to making this work is when you make a selection of the expanded canvas, make sure the selection includes about 30 pixels of the image itself. This tells Photoshop what to do. It may take you a few tries; in other words, if you grab too much of the image, the results may be distorted and unacceptable. If you include too few pixels, there will be an unwanted demarcation line between the image and the new AI portion.

A new and intelligent content aware

When the content aware feature was introduced to Photoshop a few years ago, it was a

big deal -- a game changer for many situations in which an unwanted element had to be eliminated. The next generation AI approach is even better. A lot better.

To show you what it can do, look at the before and after versions of a street scene in Ghent, Belgium, on the next page. I thought it would be impossible to get rid of the blurred pedestrians on the sidewalk, but the Generative Fill command did a brilliant job -- although it’s not 100% perfect. I’d still need to do some cloning in Photoshop to restore the cobblestone sidewalk, but look how the software recreated imagery that the pedestrians were blocking from the viewpoint of the camera. This is revolutionary.

To make this happen, click the Generative Fill command, and then choose ‘generate’ from the same mini tool bar. §

What White Balance?

All the time on my photography tours I see people using auto white balance (AWB) for all of their shooting. They assume this setting will render colors in all situations correctly. This is not the case.

A perfect example is sunrise and sunset. The predominant colors of a low angled sun are red and yellow, i.e. ‘the golden hour’. The way cameras are AWB programmed makes them want to ‘correct’ an image they consider offcolor. The Monument Valley landscape, below, falls into that category of incorrect colors because the meters recognizes they are too red

and yellowish. Therefore, what you will see on the LCD screen on the back of the camera is a landscape illuminated by white light instead of golden light. Sure, you can move the temperature slider in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw and bring back the golden tones that you saw with your eyes, but what you see on the camera’s monitor looks dull and uninspiring. I think to accurately access (and appreciate) what you are taking, you should see an accurate representation of the images at the time of shooting.

Therefore, for all of my outdoor photography,

Ethiopia Photo Tour

Jan, 21 - Feb. 3, 2025

I use daylight white balance. You won’t see any difference in the color palette of your images between daylight white balance and AWB with pictures taken during the middle of the day, but at sunrise and sunset there will be a profound difference. Daylight WB shows you accurately what you’ve captured, and AWB doesn’t.

The only exception I make to this method of choosing the white balance is when I’m faced with a thick cloud, dim illumimation at dusk, or fog. The Kelvin temperature is high in those instances, and with a normal daylight WB the pictures tend to appear bluish. The shot at right of a Louisiana swamp illustrates this. In this situation, you could use cloudy white balance. For myself, I still shoot with daylight WB because I often like the subtle blue tones; they connote a certain mood.

I only use auto white balance when I’m shoot-

ing in a mixed lighting environment. For example, the entrance to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, below, is illuminated by both tungsten lighting as well as by large windows that let daylight flood the interior. The combination of the two types of lighting is best photographed using AWB.

For interiors illuminated primarily by tungsten (incandescent) light bulbs, I shoot with tungsten WB (many cameras use the word ‘indoors’ to describe this kind of light). §

Home Nature Projects

Most photographers like shooting nature, but sometimes our health and physical limitations make it difficult or impossible to do that. Thanks to the Internet, we can purchase for just a few dollars nature subjects that can be mailed to your home and photographed at your leisure and under ideal conditions.

For example, you can buy packages of bird feathers for under $10. Many people raise birds and sell the feathers that fall out and naturally get replaced. You can find online for purchase the feathers of many species of birds including exotic chickens, peacocks, jays, parrots, ma-

caws, kingfishers and many more. On Google, search for “Exotic bird feathers for sale” and you’ll be amazed by how many people are selling them. The colors and patterns available af-

ford you many compelling macro photographic opportunities. Use natural window light, open shade, or flash, and you can arrange the feathers for striking compositions. Just make sure the images are tack sharp from edge to edge.

You can also find other nature subjects online such as seashells, rocks and minerals, dried and preserved flowers and leaves, insects, and coral. With creative arrangements and lighting, you can produce a whole new genre of work and never leave your home.

The lambis shell, above, was photographed with backlighting. I noticed it was translucent, so I placed it on top of a piece of cardboard covered with black velvet. I cut a hole in the cardboard and the fabric for a flash, and the bright light penetrated the shell to make it seem like it was glowing from within.

At insectnet.com, you can find suppliers of dried and packaged exotic insects. The metalic wood boring beetle from Indonesia, below, was shot with a macro lens, three extension tubes, and I used the focus stacking procedure to maintain complete focus on the insect. I bought the packaged insect online.

It’s challenging, and fun, to find unique ways of capturing these beautiful nature subjects. §

AI ONLINE WORKSHOP

Learn how to produce stunning images with Artificial Intelligence

Starts June 10, 2023

Photography Quiz

1. Focus stacking should ideally be done using a tripod?

a. True

b. False

2. Which of the following does not affect depth of field?

a. Distance of the camera to the subject

b. Focal length of the lens

c. Lens aperture

d. Distance of the subject to the background

e. Hyperfocal distance

3. Battery chargers for cameras purchased in the U.S. always switch to 220 voltage for other countries

a. True

b. False

4. When photographing action subjects with a telephoto, the shutter speed should be the reciprocal of

a. The lens aperture

b. The hyperfocal distance

c. The focal length of the lens

d. The filter size of the lens

5. It’s possible to learn to determine the correct exposure without a light meter?

a. True

b. False

6. ‘Dynamic range’ refers to:

a. How much detail is retained in both the highlights and the shadows

b. How much is in focus in front of and behind a subject

c. How much exposure compensation is needed in a given scene

d. How many frames are required for focus stacking

7. The quality of photographic images is the same in both SD cards and Flash cards.

a. True

b. False

8. The best focus point arrangement for birds in flight with a monochromatic sky is:

a. A central cluster of 15 points

b. A central cluster of 9 points

c. A central cluster of 4 points

d. All of the points

9. The only time a monopod is useful is:

a. To help you manage the weight of your camera and lens

b. To allow you to use a long shutter speed in dark environments

c. To help you work with an off-camera flash

d. To make you look more professional

10. A polarizing filter causes:

a. A loss of one f/stop of light

b. A loss of two f/stops of light

c. A loss of three f/stops of light

d. No loss of light at all

UPCOMING PHOTO WORKSHOPS

Frog and Reptile Workshop

This is a macro workshop where you will have up close and personal encounters with exotic poison dart frogs and primitive looking reptiles. Jim will explain how to use a ring flash to simulate difused daylight, and he will talk a lot about depth of field as it relates to macro work. This workshop takes place in Kansas city.

August 19 - 20, 2023

Mystical Swamps of Louisiana

Autumn in the swamps of Louisiana (and Texas) is spectacular. The mix of orange and green leaves is beautiful and, at this time of year, we have the best chance of photographing fog. There are egrets, herons, and osprey to photograph as well as alligators in this primeval and mystical environment.

October 21 - 25, 2023

Winter Wildlife Workshop

Photograph beautiful North American mammals plus a snow leopard in natural environments. Mountain lions, red foxes, arctic foxes, bobcats, lynx, wolves and more are in their full winter coats. This is a very special workshop.

January 5 - 10, 2024

WINTER WILDLIFE WORKSHOP

January 5 -10, 2024

What’s wrong with this picture?

This is a highly realistic miniature village in Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswalds region of England. I bring my photo tour groups here because it’s such an unusual and photogenic ‘little’ village. It was built almost 100 years ago, and the aging process has only enhanced its realism. Photographing the small scaled structures has the effect of shooting from a drone, but in fact the houses are only about three feet tall.

The problem with this image is the fact that the sun was hitting the one house at the far left while the other areas of the frame were in shadow. I was struggling with harsh light all day, and in this instance the contrast worked against me.

In order to make this image look good, I used the quick selection tool in Photoshop to select the sun-lit house. I feathered the edge of the selection one

pixel using Select > modify > feather, and then I opened up the levels dialog box with the pulldown menu command, Image > adjustments > levels. I moved the middle slider to the right which decreased the exposure significantly, but it also increased the color saturation to a gaudy red/yellow. This often happens when attempting to reduce exposure on a brightly lit subject, but there is an easy fix to deal with this.

The next step took care of the overly saturated sun-lit house facade. I chose Image > edit > hue/saturation and moved the saturation slider to the left to desaturate the color. This made that house the same tone as the others, and now that structure is not nearly as distracting as it was. §

SHORT AND SWEET

1. This picture has two subjects, and as such both of them need to be sharp. If one is ‘almost’ sharp, the image is degraded significantly. You can either use a smaller lens aperture, move further away, choose a wider lens, or take two separate shots where you focus on each deer separately and then composite the results.

2. For sweeping views of interior rooms, panorama images can be quite useful. I used a wide angle lens for this elegant room in a castle in the U.K., and that’s why there is distortion in the horizontal lines. This is an 8-frame composite. A single shot with a wide angle would not have encompassed the entire room.

3. This is La Fenice Theater in Venice, Italy. The lighting is so reddish that a normal tungsten white balance still produced a very yellow/red image. I had to switch to manual white balance mode and turn the dial so the Kelvin temperature read 2500K. Only then did the colors in the image match what I saw.

4. W all know that dramatic natural light outdoors is sunrise and sunset, but stormy skies and moody light also produce beautiful images. I photographed these horses in France last month in driving rain with my photo tour, and as much as I like and seek out golden lighting, this kind of light condition is powerful, too. §

Coast of France

April 4 - 13, 2024

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 . . . Do you think AI will replace photography in the future? Everyone is talking about that. Thanks.

John Peters, Riverside, California

A:I think AI is here to stay, and it is indeed incredible. I’ve embraced its creative picture making abilities fully, and at some point in the near future it will probably be indistinguishable from what comes out of a camera in terms of sharpness, detail, etc. But it can never replace the experience of being there -- photographing a lion in the wild, an incredible storm over a striking landscape, seeing and capturing a wild bird in flight, etc. So no, it won’t replace photography. It’s just another tool to be creative and to produce striking images. §

Partial List of Photography Tours 2022 - 2024

MOROCCO

Aug/Sep 2023

ENGLAND and WALES

Sep 2023

HUDSON RIVER VALLEY

Oct 2023

WINTER WILDLIFE

Jan 2024

SNOWY OWLS

Jan 2024

CARNIVAL in VENICE

Feb. 2024

ABANDONED in GEORGIA

March 2024

HOLLAND & BELGIUM

Apr/May 2024

WHITE HORSES, FRANCE

May 2024

INDONESIA

Jul/Aug 2024

ICELAND DRONE TOUR

Aug 2024

PATAGONIA

Oct 2024

For a complete list of all the photo tours/workshops Jim conducts, go to his website: www.jimzuckerman.com.

Online Course in AI

Starts June 10, 2023

Produce brilliant images right out of the starting gate!

Student Showcase

Each month, Jim features one student who took beautiful and inspiring images on one or more 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 places. Everyone takes great photographs on Jim’s trips.

Joe Howard, Davidson, North Carolina Frog and Reptile workshop, Palouse photo tour, Winter in Yellowstone photo tour, online Photoshop courses, and Texas Birds and Bluebonnets photo tour.

© Joe Howard

© Joe Howard

Student Showcase, continued

© Joe Howard

© Joe Howard

ENGLAND & WALES PHOTO TOUR

Medieval ruins Quaint villages

Awesome architecture

September 12 - 22, 2023

HOLLAND & BELGIUM

April 24 to May 2, 2024

1/3 focus law

Subject index for past Photo Insight issues

‘15

3D sphere Mar. ‘16

90 degree finder Mar. ‘13

Abstracts in soap Feb. ‘15

Abstracts, Shooting Mar ‘19

Aerial photography Jun. ‘13

Aerial photography

‘21

African safari May ‘16

Airplane windows

Alien landscapes

Anatomy of 8 photographs

Angled perspectives

Aperture vs. shutter speed

Aperture priority

Aurora Borealis

Auto white balance

Autofocus, when it fails

Autofocus failure

Autofocus failure

Autofocus challenges

Auto ISO

Auto White Balance

Autumn Foliage

Autumn Color

Autumn foliage photography

Back button focus

Backgrounds, wild

Backgrounds, busy

Backlighting

Backlighting

Birds in flight

Birds in flight

‘16

‘13

‘16

‘19

‘14

‘17

‘13

‘15

‘15

‘17

‘18

‘17

‘21

‘18

‘21

‘18

‘12

‘13

‘16

‘22

‘13

‘14

Birefringence May ‘18

Birds in flight Mar. ‘16

Birds in flight, camera settings

Bird Photography

Blacklight photography

Black velvet

Black and white conversions

Black and white solarization

Black and white with color

Black and white plus color

Blown highlights

Blue monochromes

‘23

‘19

‘21

‘14

Mar. ‘17

Sep. ‘17

Jan. ‘20

Mar. ‘23

Feb. ‘18

Jan. ‘22

Black Plexy Aug. ‘22

Blur, field

Blur technique

Bokeh

Nov. ‘18

Oct. ‘17

Jun. ‘15

Botanical gardens, shooting Apr. ‘22

Butterfly photography Jul. ‘14

Camera buying guidelines

Camera settings for landscapes

Dec. 21

Feb. ‘23

Camera setting priorities Jun. ‘17

Canon R5 Mar. ‘21

Capturing lightning Jun. ‘13

Capturing what you don’t see May ‘21

Catchlights Jul. ‘16

Changing perspective May ‘21

Cheap flash stand Apr. ‘13

Children photography Jun. ‘14

Choosing a telephoto lens Dec. ‘20

Chromatic aberration May ‘13

Chrome Dec. ‘18

Cityscapes Aug. ‘14

Cityscapes May ‘16

Clone tool, fixing an issue Sep. ‘17

Clone tool technique Jul. ‘20

Composites and Light Dec. ‘17

Compositing images Apr. ‘19

Compositing, 7 steps Jan. 22

Composition, different approach Jan. ‘15

Content-aware, New Aug. ‘20

Content aware move tool Jan. ‘23

Contrast vs. exposure Jul. ‘15

Converting to black and white Mar. ‘22

Correcting keystoning Jun. ‘21

Creating a star field Jan. ‘14

Creating Art out of Motion May ‘22

Creating a Sketch

Creative blurs

Dec. ‘17

Jan. ‘14

Dark backgrounds Nov. ‘19

Dawn photography

Jan. ‘17

Dawn photography Feb. ‘17

Dead center Jan. ‘13

Dealing with smog Oct. ‘16

Decay photography Sep. ‘15

Define Pattern Sep. ‘18

Depth of field Aug. ‘16

Depth of field confusion Jan. ‘20

Depth of field and distance Dec. ‘18

Depth of field and obliqueness May ‘21

Depth of field, shallow Apr. ‘20

Depth of field vs. sharpness Nov. ‘20

Double takes Apr. ‘20

Drone photography Mar. ‘23

Drop shadows Apr. ‘19

Dust, Minimizing Aug. ‘19

eBook, how to make Jan. ‘13

Eliminating people from photos Jun. ‘22

Embedded in Ice Oct. 17

Energy saving bulbs Sep. ‘14

Equidistance and telephoto lenses Apri. ‘23

Exploring the power visuals of AI Mar. ‘23

Exposing for the sun Sep. ‘16

Exposure, the sun Jul. ‘13

Exposure technique Sep. ‘13

Exposure, snow Jan. ‘14

Exposure triangle Nov. ‘14

Exposure, to the right Apr. ‘15

Exposure compensation Sep. ‘16

Exposure compensation Mar. ‘21

Extension tubes Dec. ‘13

Face sculpting Apr. ‘21

Face sculpting Feb. ‘22

Festival photography Sep. ‘20

Fill flash Sep. ‘13

Filter forge Feb. ‘13

Fireworks Jul. ‘13

Fireworks, Compositing Jun ‘20

Fisheye lenses May ‘13

Fisheye lenses Feb. ‘15

Fisheye fantasies Oct. 21

Flash backlighting May ‘15

Flash, balancing exposure Oct. ‘15

Flash, balancing off-camera Dec. ‘18

Flat art Sep. ‘16

Flexify 2 Mar. ‘20

Flood fixes problems Nov. ‘19

Subject index for past Photo Insight issues

Floral Portraits, Indoors

Flowers

Flower photography

Flowers in harsh light

Focus on the eyes

Focus points

Focus points

Focus stacking

Focus stacking

Focusing in the dark

Foreign Dancers, Photographing

Foreign models

Fractals, generating

Fractals

Framing

Freezing ultra action

Fun with paint

Fundamental ingredients

Fundamentals That Make Great Photos

Fun With Christmas Lights

Graphic Design

Garish imagery

Generative fill

Getting money for used gear

Great subjects

Great ceilings & HDR Panos

Green screen

Ground level shooting

Grunge technique

Heavy Lens Debate, The

HDR, one photo

HDR at twilight

HDR, realistic

HDR, hand held

HDR, hand held

HDR, hand held

HDR panoramas

HDR, choosing the number of frames

High wind

Highlights

Highlights, overexposed

Histograms, Why I Don’t Use

Histogram problems

Home nature projects

Hotels with a view

Humidity

Hummingbird photography

Hyperfocal distance

Image resizing

Implying motion

‘16

‘22

‘17

‘14

‘15

‘19

‘20

‘23

‘20

‘13

‘13

‘13

Kaleidoscopic images Jan. ‘15

Kaleidoscopis images

Aug. ‘20

Keystoning, correcting Aug. ‘15

L Bracket

Feb. ‘18

L Bracket Feb. ‘21

Landscape photography Dec. ‘12

Landscape photography

Landscape photography

Apr. ‘14

Nov. ‘16

Layer Masks, The Power of Feb. ‘22

Light fall-off

Light painting

Lighting a face

Lightning photography

Liquify

Liquify Distortions

Feb. ‘14

Dec. ‘21

Oct. ‘13

May ‘20

Feb. ‘18

Sept/Oct. ‘19

Long lens portraits Oct. ‘18

Long Lenses for Flowers

Low light photography

Jul. ‘20

May ‘15

Luminar 4 Jan. ‘20

Macro flash Nov. ‘12

Macro flash

Macro flash

Macro flash

Sep. ‘14

Aug. ‘15

Aug. ‘22

Macro photography and DOF Feb. ‘22

Macro trick

Managing soft focus

May ‘19

Jul. ‘21

Mannequin heads Apr. ‘16

Metering modes

Nov. ‘16

Meters, How They Work Jul. ‘18

Meters, when they fail Dec. ‘16

Metering situations, Impossible Jul. ‘19

Middle gray

Nov. ‘15

Minimizing dust on the sensor Nov. ‘21

Mirrors

Jan. ‘19

Mirror images May ‘23

Model shoot

Moon glow

Jan. ‘17

Oct. ‘16

Mosaics Jun. ‘17

Mundane to Ideal Nov. ‘19

Museum photography

Mar. ‘13

Natural Light Portraits Aug. ‘21

Negative space Jan. ‘16

Neon edges on black Aug. ‘14

Neutral Density filters Jun. ‘18

Neutral Density filters and water Mar. ‘22

Night photography Feb. ‘14

Night Safaris Jun. ‘18

Night to Twilight Dec. ‘17

Noise reduction

Feb. ‘17

‘18

Impossible DOF Feb. ‘16

Impossible DOF Jan. ‘17

Indestructible camera bag Dec. ‘14

Infrared photography Jul. ‘14

Insane ISO settings Dec. ‘22

Interiors Oct. ‘15

iPad: Loading photos Aug.‘17

iPhone photography, pros and cons Apr. ‘22

Jungle photography Dec. ‘14

Oil and water May ‘20

Optical infinity

Jun. ‘16

Organization of photos Mar. ‘18

Out of focus foregrounds Jan. ‘20

Paint abstracts May ‘13

Paint abstracts

Aug. ‘21

Painting with light Sep. ‘15

Panning motion Dec. ‘16

Pano-Mirrors with a twist Jan. ‘18

Parades Sep. ‘13

Parallelism Nov. ‘19

Subject index for past Photo Insight issues

Parallelism and DOF Feb. ‘21

Perspective, Super Exaggeration of Dec. ‘21

Photo shsaring Apr. ‘23

Photo terms Nov. ‘22

Photography to Art Dec. ‘17

Photography solutions Jan. ‘18

Photoshop, content Aware Nov. ‘12

Photoshop, sketch technique Apr. ‘13

Photoshop, replace background Apr. ‘13

Photoshop, actions palette Dec. ‘13

Photoshop, layer masks Feb. ‘13

Photoshop, the clone tool May ‘13

Photoshop, soft foliage Oct. ‘13

Photoshop, mixer brush tool Sept. ‘14

Photoshop, b & w with color Jun. ‘14

Photoshop, drop shadows Jul. ‘14

Photoshop, creating texture Feb. ‘14

Photoshop, face mirrors Feb. ‘14

Photoshop, liquify Mar. ‘14

Photoshop, face mirrors Aug. ‘14

Photoshop, digital spotlight Sep. ‘14

Photoshop, enlarge eyes Nov. ‘14

Photoshop, darken the periphery Dec. ‘14

Photoshop, mirror images Dec. ‘14

Photoshop, beam of light Apr. ‘15

Photoshop, polar coordinates Mar. ‘15

Photoshop, chrome May ‘15

Photoshop, actions palette Nov. ‘15

Photoshop, cut and paste Nov. ‘15

Photoshop, geometrics Oct. ‘15

Photoshop, plugins Oct. ‘15

Photoshop, multiple selections Apr. ‘16

Photoshop, sharpening Apr. ‘16

Photoshop, Flood plugin Apr. ‘16

Photoshop, Desaturation Aug. ‘16

Photoshop, making a composite Aug. ‘16

Photoshop new tool May ‘20

Photoshop, place one element behind Aug. ‘18

Photoshop, the pen tool Feb. ‘16

Photoshop, canvas size Jan. ‘16

Photoshop, using the earth Jun. ‘16

Photoshop, define patterns May ‘16

Photoshop, paste into Nov. ‘16

Photoshop, b & w with color Feb. ‘17

Photoshop, open a closed door Apr. ‘17

Photoshop, palettes May ‘17

Photoshop, My favorite plugins Jan. ‘20

Portrait options Jan. ‘19

Portrait techniques Nov. ‘15

Portraits Mar. ‘13

Portraits, mixed lighting Aug. ‘14

Portrait Professional Nov. ‘19

Portraits, Lens choice Sept/Oct. ‘19

Portraits, side lighting Sep. ‘17

Portraits, window light Mar. ‘15

Portraits, outdoors May ‘17

Post-processing checklist Dec. ‘13

Post-processing: Contrast Aug. ’17

Practicing graphic design, Part I Dec. ‘22

Practicing graphic design, Park II Jan. ‘23

Practicing graphic design, Part III Feb. ‘23

Pre-capturing technology May ‘23

Predictive Focus Sep. ‘18

Problem/solution

Apr. ‘17

Problem Solving in Photoshop May ‘22

Problem with cruises Jan. ‘18

Protecting extremeities from the cold Dec. ‘22

Protecting highlights Dec. ‘12

Puppies Jan. ‘15

Puppy photography

Feb. ’18

Reflections Feb. ‘13

Reshaping faces Oct. ‘22

Restoring old photos Jun ‘20

Ring flash, advantages Jul. ‘21

Ring flash versatility

Oct. ‘21

Rule of Odds May ‘22

Safari May ‘13

Safari strategies Jul. ‘15

Seeing as the lens does Nov. ‘14

Seeking Cool Snow Photos

Selective filtering

Jan. ‘21

Mar. ‘18

Selective focus Jun. ‘15

Self-critiques

Self-critiques

Jul. ‘13

Oct. ‘13

Self-critiques Nov. ‘20

Sensor cleaning

Sepia and dark contrast

Jun. ‘18

Jun. ‘15

Shade May ‘14

Shady side

Jun. ‘18

Shadows, Paying Attention to Mar. ‘18

Sharpness problems

Mar. ‘14

Shooting in Inclement Weather Nov. ‘22

Shooting through textured glass May ‘23

Shooting through wire mesh Sept. ‘14

Shooting into the light Jun ‘20

Silhouettes

Jun. ‘13

Silhouettes, How to make Apr. ‘22

Silhouettes, Exposing for Sept/Oct. ‘19

Silvered landscapes Mar. ‘20

Sketch, How to Make Jun ‘19

Skies make or break a picture Aug. ‘21

Sky replacement Nov. ‘20

Sky replacement strategies Aug. ‘22

Snow exposure Nov ‘17

Snow exposure Nov. ‘19

Soft light Jan. ‘13

Smart phone photography May ‘19

Stained glass Mar. ‘17

Star photography Jul. ‘16

Star photography and noise Jan. ‘18

Stock photography Sep. ‘14

Sunrise & sunset Jan. ‘19

Tamron 150-600mm Apr. ‘14

Ten reasons photos are not sharp Jan. ‘19

Texture, Adding Mar ‘19

Texture Mapping in 3D Jul. ‘21

Topaz AI Gigapixel Mar ‘19

Topaz glow Jan. ‘15

Topaz glow Sep. ‘17

Subject index for past Photo Insight issues

Topaz Impression

Topaz Remask 5

Topaz Simplify 4

Topaz simplify 4

Topaz Studio

Translucency & backlighting

Travel photography

Travel portraits

Travel

Tweaking

Tripods

Two

Urban heights

Unusual Panos

Warm fingers in winter

Water drop collisions

What NOT to do in photography

When You Needed a Zoom

Quiz answers

Wide angle conundrum

Wide angle lenses

Wildlife

Window frames

Winter bones

Winter photography

Wire

Your score

90% - 100%: You could have been a pro

80%: Your glasses probably need a new prescription

70%: Don’t quit your day job

60%: You should really be using an iPhone

by: Donald Moore