Jim Zuckerman’s
PH OTO I N S I G HTS August 2019
Focus stacking From Terrible to Beautiful Minimizing dust Photo tours Student showcase Ask Jim 1
4. Focusing stacking 11. From Terrible to Beautiful 16. Minimizing dust 18. Ebooks 23. What’s wrong with this picture? 26. Short and Sweet 27. Ask Jim 28. Photo tours 30. Student showcase 36. Back issues 41. Subject index for Photo Insights 2
On the cover: Lavender field in Provence, France. On this page: The village of Sisteron in Provence, France.
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f you are serious about photography -- and since you are reading this eMagazine, I assume you are -- don’t go on day trips or vacations with non-photographers. It’s too risky. Only if your spouse or significant other is completely supportive of your picture taking efforts, and they have infinite patience to wait for you while you wait for a picture, will this work. Otherwise, you’ll be nagged to distraction to mold your thinking to a non-photographic agenda. This will increase the tension in the relationship(s), and no one will be happy. In fact, it’s a formula for disaster. I learned this in 1987 when I went to Mexico with a good friend of mine who was not a photographer. While I was focusing my attention on butterflies, Mayan ruins, and getting a perfect portrait, he was losing his patience and getting angry because he wanted to move on. Most non-photographers, understandably, get bored standing around watching others engrossed in taking pictures. At the end of the 10-day trip, we were not good friends anymore and I’ve not seen him since then. If your friends or family are open to the idea, put a camera in their hands and suggest they take some shots. They may not fall in love with photography, but it will occupy their attention and maybe, just maybe, they might become engaged in the process and find it fun and creative. That’s how my wife got hooked on photography. She was bored watching my photo tour group avidly taking pictures of costumed models in Venice. I gave her my backup camera, set it to ‘P’, and gave her a 2-minute explanation of how to take pictures. She loved it, and when we got home she said, “Now I know why you stay up until one o’clock in the morning working on your pictures.” The only downside is that she won’t carry half of my gear because she has her own. But that’s a small price to pay for the ability to share a passion. Jim Zuckerman photos@jimzuckerman.com www.jimzuckerman.com
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D
FOCUS STACKING
epth of field seems like a fairly simple concept in photography. In fact, it is quite complex: There are many factors that influence how much of the frame is in focus, there are situations where it is not relevant, and there are times when it is impossible to achieve as much depth of field as you want. We never see shallow depth of field with our eyes, and this makes it more difficult to understand the concept of varying amounts of sharpness. Out of focus foregrounds and backgrounds are man-made constructs based on the limitations of optics. These limitations are
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governed by the laws of physics, i.e. the laws of the Universe. Those pesky laws have been annoying photographers forever -- like, you can’t be in two different sunset locations at the same time. What you we going to do? There are many photographic situations in which complete depth of field is desirable yet impossible to obtain. The picture of the yellow Scottish broom flowers in a sea of lavender at the top of the next page is an example. I took this with a 400mm focal length lens and an aperture of f/22. Notice how the immediate foregrond isn’t tack sharp. In addition, the background
Above image has no stacking, but it was taken at f/22; below photo illustrates focus stacking also taken at f/22.
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is soft. Most people, I think, would find this picture completely acceptable. Their argument would be that the blurred lavender focuses our attention on the yellow flowers. This reasoning works for many types of compositions, such as with the abyssinian roller, below. Here, a sharp background could be distracting. In the lavender picture with the yellow flowers, in my opinion, we need to see all of the wonderful detail throughout with tack sharp clarity. Virtually without exception, landscape photography requires complete depth of field to be successful. Nature has phenomenal detail for us to appreciate, and, I believe in most cases, the ideal is to reveal that intricate detail. That’s what I was trying to do with the Scottish broom flowers in lavender by using an aperture of f/22. Because
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I used a 400mm focal length, the depth of field wasn’t complete. How, then, is it possible to capture a shot like this with everything sharp? The answer is focus stacking. The theory Focus stacking is a technique whereby several images of the same scene are combined, i.e. stacked. Each image is taken in which a narrow slice of the composition is in focus, and the software you use chooses only those sharp planes to form the final composite. In this way, you can obtain complete depth of field from the immediate foreground to the distant background with any lens -- from macro lens to super telephoto -- and with any aperture. This is a stunning technique.
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When to use focus stacking
flowers are moving, the technique won’t work.
Use this technique when you can’t get enough depth of field simply by using a small lens aperture. This happens when 1) a long lens is used and your shooting position is relatively close to the foreground, and 2) when a wide angle lens is used and it is positioned extremely close to the foreground -- say within 3 feet.
3. Only stationary subjects can be focus stacked. People, wildlife, etc. can’t be photographed for this technique.
4. You can use any aperture. I suggest f/8 since this is considered the sharpest f/stop on most lenses. Both pictures on the previous page were taken at f/8. The top image is a single shot showThe technique ing shallow depth of field with a 70-200mm telephoto and where the foreground was close Focus stacking is a technique where precision to the camera. The bottom image shows the focounts. You can’t be sloppy or else the stacked cus stacked composite. images won’t align well and the resulting composite won’t be sharp. 5. Autofocus must be turned off. Focus manually only. 1. This technique can only be done from a sturdy tripod. 6. Make very small incremental focus changes as you photograph each frame. You can start 2. If there is enough wind so leaves, grass, and from the foreground and move through the pic-
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ture toward the background, or do the opposite. When taking focus slices of the foreground, the incremental changes should be even smaller than those used for the background. As a general guideline for landscape work, when you’re finished taking the series of images that will comprise the composite, you should have 12 to 15 pictures. You can have more, but not less. The more images you have, the more you can be sure that the image will be tack sharp throughout. Using the software There are three programs you can use to assemble and stack all of the frames you’ve taken of a particular scene: Zerene Stacker, Helicon Focus, and Photoshop. All of them do a good job; what follows below is the procedure within
Photoshop. There are several ways to do it, and this is the method I use. 1. Find the images in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom and highlight them. Make an empty new folder on your desktop and drag the highlighted images into that folder. 2. Open Photoshop and use the command: File > scripts > load files into stack. In the dialog box that opens, highlight the list of images that show up (red arrow, below). 3. Check the box ‘Blend images together’. Click OK. 4. Finally, choose the pulldown menu command: Edit > Auto-Blend layers. In the dialog box that opens (next page), check ‘stack images’ and at the bottom check ‘Seamless Tones and
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Colors’ as shown by green arrows. 5. Click OK. Photoshop stacks all of the images together and, assuming there was no wind, you used a tripod, and you took enough frames, you’ll have complete depth of field from the immediate foreground to the distant background. Usually, focus stacking isn’t done with a wide angle lens. However, if the camera position is less than two feet from the foreground, it will be necessary if you want everything sharp. In this case, you don’t need as many frames. Four or five manually focused frames will be sufficient. As said previously, with a telephoto lens, the minimum frames required is 12 to 15. §
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From Terrible to Beautiful S
STEP BY STEP
tudy the picture below. Note the strong, diagonal line of the dirt road, the interesting angles of the lavender, the dynamic and colorful sky, and the graphic shape of the silhouetted trees. In addition, notice the depth of field is complete, and the saturation of the color is bold.
color, the lack of contrast, and the processing plant in the distance. I took this shot knowing it was terrible, but I wanted to make a visual connection with a GPS coordinate so I could bring my photo tour group here. I was scouting locations, and I wanted to make sure I returned in better lighting.
Now look at the picture on the next page. This is the unmanipulated original capture. Notice the dust spots in the sky (because I stupidly changed lenses on a windy day), the dull
Unfortunately, when I came back with my group, the farmer who owned the land didn’t want us on his property. We were able to photograph his beautiful lavender fields from the
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main road, but this particular composition eluded us. So, not to be undone by reality, I used Photoshop to create what I envisioned in my mind. Here is the step by step process: 1. I made a precise selection of the lavender from the bottom to where it forms a horizon line against the mountains in the background. I used the quick selection tool for this by selecting the lavender. 2. I enlarged the image to 100% and examined the selection, tweaking it in certain places using the lasso tool. 3. With the entire bottom portion of the image selected, I clicked on the marquee tool and hit the down arrow on the keyboard once. This 12
moved the entire selection down by one pixel. the purpose of doing this was to move the selection away from the background so when the new sky was pasted into the scene, there would be no telltail light line where the sky meets the flowers. [Usually I use Select > modify > contract for this purpose, but I didn’t want the selection contracted from the left and right sides as well as from the bottom.] 4. I clicked Select > modify > feather, and in the dialog box I chose one pixel. 5. Now I used Select > save selection. This created an alpha channel, so if I want to recall the selection in the future to add a different background, most of the work will have been done. In the dialog box that opens, I never name the channels. Consequently, Photoshop calls them Alpha 1, Alpha 2, etc.
6. When I previsualized this landscape, I envisioned beautiful sunrise or sunset light. Therefore, I chose a sunset sky and copied it to the clipboard with Select > all; then Edit > copy.
its shape. Instead, I used a shot from a prevous trip to Provence, shown below. I purposely included the small tree in the lower left corner so the inclusion of this component into the landscape wouldn’t look ‘too perfect’ and possibly 7. I activated the landscape image, and using not believable. Edit > paste special > paste into, the new sky became a layer and filled the selected area. With I selected the tree picture with Select > all, then the move tool, I moved the sky into place. placed it in the clipboard with Edit > copy. 8. Since I didn’t need the sky on a separate layer, 11. Using Edit > paste, I pasted the trees onto I used the command Layer > flatten image. the landscape. 9. To adjust the color and contrast, I went back 12. To eliminate the background sky behind into the camera RAW dialog box with Filter > the trees, I chose the blend mode ‘darken’. This camera raw filter and added clarity, vibrance, miraculously left all the detail in the branches. and contrast. 13. Using Edit > transform > scale resized the 10. The lone tree in the original shot added a tree image, and then I clicked on the move tool nice graphic element, but I wasn’t happy with to move the group of treess in place. §
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MOROCCO PHOTO TOUR October 18 - 31, 2020 Exotic culture
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Camel train at sunset
Blue City
Great portraits
POST-PROCESSING online course by Jim Zuckerman
Learn how to process your images to give them visual impact. You will be introduced to Photoshop techniques that go beyond what you see and even beyond what you can imagine. This four-week course is invaluable to making your pictures look as good as the photographs you envy! You will receive detailed critiques on the images you submit for every lesson. 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. CLICK ON THIS PHOTO to read more about the course.
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Minimizing Dust D
ust on the digital sensor is a continuing and vexing problem for photographers. The built-in mechanical procedure in which the sensor microvibrates to loosen tiny dust particles might help a little, but if you’re not careful, you’ll see so much sensor dust in your pictures that a majority of the time spent in post-processing will be cleaning dust spots. There are a few ways to minimize how much dust settles on the sensor. This will help eliminate some of the frustration you feel when you examine your images at 100% and suddenly all of the dust becomes apparent. This is especially true in the sky or other large areas with very
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light tones like snow. Large monochromatic areas of color also readily reveal dust. The picture below from White Sands National Monument in New Mexico is a classic example of where dust is easily seen. 1. Don’t change lenses when it’s windy. If youhave no choice, turn your back to the wind and shield the camera as much as possible. Or, if you have access to a vehicle or a building, go inside, close the door, and change lenses. 2. Always turn the camera off when changing lenses. Static electricity attracts dust, and by cutting the power the static electricity is removed from the sensor.
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UPCOMING PHOTO WORKSHOPS Carnival in Venice Workshop Outrageous costumes in a medieval environment! Venice is great to visit and photograph any time, but during Carnival it’s magical. There is nothing like it anywhere in the world. Exotic masks, stunning colors, classic images.
Feb. 14 - 20, 2020
Snowy owls workshop Stunning pictures of snowy owls in flight. Up close and personal encounters with owls in the wild. Based near Toronto, Canada.
January 20-23, 2020
Photoshop Workshop The setting is in my home, and in this two day workshop you’ll learn enough to be truly dangerous in Photoshop! How to replace a sky, how to fix all kinds of photographic problems in your pictures, how to handle blown highlights, how to be incredibly creative . . . and more.
October 19 - 20, 2019
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Expand your photographic artistry with
eBooks
Click on any ebook to see inside
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eBooks continued Click on any ebook to see inside
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3. On my photo tours, I see clients change lenses by holding their camera facing upward. Don’t do this. Face the camera down to the ground so dust falls out of the camera, not into it.
and lenses. It’s a good idea to carry a cloth with you on your trips for this purpose.
4. Photographers clean the front glass element of their lenses all the time. It’s always good to do that. But they often forget to clean the rear lens and the brass contacts surrounding it. Dust can settle on anything, and if the rear part of your lens isn’t clean, dust falls onto the sensor when changing lenses. This is especially true for mirrorless cameras that don’t have a mirror to partially block the sensor from dust.
6. If you will be photographing in places known for being dusty -- such as when going on safari, traveling on gravel roads, or shooting in the desert -- bring a cotton pillow case to protect your large equipment from dust. Even with the windows of a vehicle closed, dust seeps into the interior through the floor, the dashboard, and any other opening it can find. Large, sealable plastic bags are excellent to protect smaller pieces of equipment. They can be completely sealed shut.
5. Wipe in the interior of your camera bag or backpack regularly with a damp cloth. This will help a lot in keeping dust off your cameras
7. Always travel with a handheld dust blower. Click here to see the kind I use. This won’t remove stubborn dust specks from the sensor, but
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Note the camera is facing down and the tip of the nozzle is not deep inside the camera so the sensor is protected from contact.
it is quite effective in getting rid of very small and light dust particles. When using a hand blower, make sure the camera is facing downward when you blow the air across the sensor. In addition, be very careful that the plastic tip of the blower doesn’t touch the sensor as you are using it. 8. Don’t use compressed cans of air to clean sensors. They are so strong that they can blow dust in other parts of the camera, and then later that dust can fall back onto the sensor. In addition, the extreme cold could damage the sensor. The biggest problem, though, is the chemical propellant can leave a residue on the sensor.
10. To clean your sensor well, use Pec Pads. You can buy them in several ways, such as the kit below. Two or three dots of liquid on the pad is all you need. Your camera has a procedure that exposes the sensor and turns the electricity off while you clean. With a clean pad, make only one swipe across the sensor. Be gentle but firm. §
9. Check for dust on the sensor frequently by photographing a white sky and then enlarging the image on the LCD monitor to examine it. 21
CUBA PHOTO TOUR October 22 - 31, 2019
Classic cars Great portraits Crumbling colonial architecture Fabulous color
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What’s wrong with this picture?
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here are two things that bother me about this picture of an old flower cart in Provence, France. First, I shot this in the late morning when the sun was high and contrast was at a maximum. The shadows are too dark and a lot of detail lost. Second, the metal stand on the right side of the picture doesn’t belong. It is designed to hold potted plants, and if it were full of beautiful flowers I’m sure it would be fine. But not now. When traveling, it’s obviously impossible to be at every location at the perfect time of day when the sun is low on the horizon or when there is a cloud cover producing soft, diffused light. The only way to handle harsh contrast like this is to use HDR. You can see on the next page that the improved version is much better. This is a 5-frame HDR composite. The sequence of frames was taken with a one f/stop increment between shots. I hand held the camera while making the exposures. 23
To eliminate the metal stand, I tried the content aware command (Edit > fill -- and then in the submenu that opens, choose ‘content aware). I wasn’t expecting it to work well in this situation, but I was surprised, indeed, when magicallly the metal stand disappeared. I had to do a little touch-up with the clone tool, but the whole process took me about 20 seconds. Other changes I made in this image involved adding saturation (Image > adjustments > hue/saturation), lightening the shadows and toning down the highlights plus adding some clarity. I made all of the adjustments, escept the saturation, in the RAW dialog box: Filter > camera RAW filter. I would have preferred overcast lighting in this situation, but given the challenges of shooting during midday, I was quite happy with the results. §
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New eBook! The definitive guide to photographing wildlife and birds Equipment
Birds in flight
Winter photography
Exposure
Much more
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SHORT AND SWEET 1. Telephoto lenses bring background elements seem-
2. Shoot translucent fabrics in front of the sun for
ingly closer than they really are. This compression is a great look, but keep in mind that both foreground and background must be in focus so the viewer can see and apprecite what you saw when you were taking the picture. This scene is in Alesund, Norway.
dramatic transillumination. The colors of the material become intense and the overall look is beautiful. In this shot of Carnival in Venice, I used an umbrella. Other possibilites are sheer dresses, large flowers like sunflowers, leaves, and sails on a sailboat.
3.
4. Small apertures like f/22 and f/32 cause diffraction,
Photograph amusement parks and county fairs with long shutter speeds to create wild abstractions. You can hand hold the camera as well as use a tripod. The results are different. Your exposures should be in the one second to 4 second range for the best results. Try zooming during the exposure, too.
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thus degrading image quality, but they are necessary for depth of field. Macro photography requires small f/stops to show the amazing detail of small subjects. Insect photography should be done with the smallest aperture possible except when focus stacking. ยง
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 . . .I took this picture with a Lens Baby. I don’t really like the image, and I can’t figure out why.
What is your opinion of it? Calvin McCarthy, Ogden, Utah
A: I like three things about this picture: the color, the graphic design, and the symmetry. However, the
reason this doesn’t work for me is that it is entirely unsharp. There is no point to focus our attention on because it’s blurred everywhere -- some areas more than others. It seems to me if all you want is abstract blurred color, throw colorful cans of paint on a poster board and save yourself thousands of dollars in camera and computer equipment. As you can deduce, I’m not a big fan of out of focus images. I’ve taken a lot of them myself, but in the end I find them boring. Had this flower been sharp, it would have been a beautiful photograph. §
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Partial list of Photography Tours 2019 - 2021
RUSSIA Oct. 2019
INDIA & HOLI FESTIVAL Mar. 2020
INDONESIA Summer 2020
POLAR BEARS Nov. 2020
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CUBA Oct. 2019
CARNIVAL IN VENICE Feb. 2020
SPAIN/PORTUGAL Mar. 2020
HOLLAND/BELGIUM Apr. 2020
PERU NATURE Sept. 2020
WINTER WILDLIFE Jan. 2021
MOROCCO Oct. 2020
ETHIOPIA Mar. 2021
For a complete list of all the photo tours/workshops Jim conducts, go to his website: www.jimzuckerman.com.
Sri Lanka Photo Tour November 8 - 18, 2019
Great culture • Incredible temples • Wildlife • Village life • Landscapes
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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 gets great photographs on Jim’s trips.
Diane Eubanks, Missouri City, Texas Photoshop workshop, Burma photo tour, Balkans Photo Tour,
Tuscany photo tour, Indonesia photo tour, Lavender photo tour, Costa Rica photo tour; coming up: Uzbekistan and Cuba photo tours.
© 2019 Diane Eubanks
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Student Showcase, continued
Š 2019 Diane Eubanks
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Student Showcase, continued
Š 2019 Diane Eubanks
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Student Showcase, continued
Š 2019 Diane Eubanks
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RUSSIA PHOTO TOUR October 1 - 9, 2019
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PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP in my home
Sat. & Sun., October 19 - 20, 2019
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, replacing backgrounds, using layer masks, blend modes, adding a moon, 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 and can remember it. 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, pulldown menus, layers, and so on, I spend a lot of time giving you
creative ideas that will inspire you to produce amazing images with the pictures you’ve already taken. I live in the Nashville, Tennessee area, and if you fly into the airport (airport code BNA) I will pick you up. If you drive, I’ll give you my address and you can find my home on Mapquest or with a GPS. 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. 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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Subject index for past Photo Insight issues 1/3 focus law Jul. ‘15 3D sphere Mar. ‘16 90 degree finder Mar. ‘13 Abstracts in soap Feb. ‘15 Abstracts, Shooting Mar ‘19 Aerial photography Jun. ‘13 African safari May ‘16 Airplane windows Mar. ‘16 Alien landscapes Jan. ‘13 Anatomy of 8 photographs Jan. ‘16 Angled perspectives Jan. ‘19 Aperture vs. shutter speed May ‘14 Aperture priority Sept. ‘14 Aurora Borealis Apr. ‘17 Auto white balance Dec. ‘13 Autofocus, when it fails Apr. ‘15 Autofocus failure Aug. ‘15 Autofocus failure Jan. ‘17 Autofocus challenges Apr. ‘18 Auto ISO Nov ‘17 Autumn Foliage Sep. ‘18 Back button focus Oct. ‘18 Backgrounds, wild Nov. ‘12 Backgrounds, busy Apr. ‘13 Backlighting Apr. ‘16 Birds in flight Aug. ‘13 Birds in flight Jan. ‘14 Birefringence May ‘18 Birds in flight Mar. ‘16 Bird Photography Jun ‘19 Black velvet Mar. ‘14 Black and white conversions Mar. ‘17 Black and white solarization Sep. ‘17 Blown highlights Feb. ‘18 Blur, field Nov. ‘18 Blur technique Oct. ‘17 Bokeh Jun. ‘15 Butterfly photography Jul. ‘14 Camera setting priorities Jun. ‘17 Capturing lightning Jun. ‘13 Catchlights Jul. ‘16 Cheap flash stand Apr. ‘13 Children photography Jun. ‘14 Chromatic aberration May ‘13 Chrome Dec. ‘18 Cityscapes Aug. ‘14 Cityscapes May ‘16 Clone tool, fixing an issue Sep. ‘17 Composites and Light Dec. ‘17 Compositing images Apr. ‘19 Composition, different approach Jan. ‘15 Contrast vs. exposure Jul. ‘15 Creating a star field Jan. ‘14 Creating a Sketch Dec. ‘17 Creative blurs Jan. ‘14 Dawn photography Dawn photography Day for Night Dead center Dealing with smog
Jan. ‘17 Feb. ‘17 Oct. ‘18 Jan. ‘13 Oct. ‘16
Decay photography Define Pattern Depth of field Depth of field and distance Drop shadows Dust, Minimizing
Sep. ‘15 Sep. ‘18 Aug. ‘16 Dec. ‘18 Apr. ‘19 Aug. ‘19
eBook, how to make Jan. ‘13 Embedded in Ice Oct. 17 Energy saving bulbs Sep. ‘14 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 Extension tubes Dec. ‘13 Fill flash Sep. ‘13 Filter forge Feb. ‘13 Fireworks Jul. ‘13 Fisheye lenses May ‘13 Fisheye lenses Feb. ‘15 Flash backlighting May ‘15 Flash, balancing exposure Oct. ‘15 Flash, balancing off-camera Dec. ‘18 Flat art Sep. ‘16 Flowers May ‘15 Flowers in harsh light Jul. ‘16 Focus points Mar. ‘15 Focus stacking Mar. ‘17 Focus stacking Aug. ‘19 Focusing in the dark Oct. ‘16 Foreign models Jun. ‘13 Fractals, generating Sep. ‘13 Fractals Jul. ‘19 Framing May ‘17 Freezing ultra action May ‘17 From Terrible to Beautiful Aug. ‘19 Fun with paint Oct. ‘16 Fundamental ingredients Apr. ‘13 Fundamentals That Make Great Photos Jan. ‘19 Garish imagery Great subjects Great ceilings & HDR Panos Green screen Grunge technique
Dec. ‘15 Apr. ‘15 Jul. ‘19 Mar. ‘13 Feb. ‘13
HDR, one photo Apr. ‘13 HDR at twilight May ‘13 HDR, realistic Jun. ‘15 HDR, hand held Dec. ‘16 HDR, hand held Nov ‘17 HDR, hand held Jul. ‘18 HDR panoramas Jun. ‘16 High wind Apr. ‘17 Highlights Apr. ‘14 Highlights, overexposed Feb. ‘15 Histograms, Why I Don’t Use Jun ‘19 Humidity Oct. ‘13 Hummingbird photography Apr. ‘13 Hyperfocal distance Jul. ‘13
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Subject index for past Photo Insight issues Image resizing Aug. ‘18 Implying motion Sept.‘14 Impossible DOF Feb. ‘16 Impossible DOF Jan. ‘17 Indestructible camera bag Dec. ‘14 Infrared photography Jul. ‘14 Interiors Oct. ‘15 iPad: Loading photos Aug.‘17 Jungle photography
Dec. ‘14
Kaleidoscopic images Jan. ‘15 Keystoning, correcting Aug. ‘15 L Bracket Feb. ‘18 Landscape photography Dec. ‘12 Landscape photography Apr. ‘14 Landscape photography Nov. ‘16 Light fall-off Feb. ‘14 Lighting a face Oct. ‘13 Liquify Feb. ‘18 Long lens portraits Oct. ‘18 Low light photography May ‘15 Macro flash Nov. ‘12 Macro flash Sep. ‘14 Macro flash Aug. ‘15 Macro trick May ‘19 Mannequin heads Apr. ‘16 Metering modes Nov. ‘16 Meter, How They Work Jul. ‘18 Meters, when they fail Dec. ‘16 Metering situations, Impossible Jul. ‘19 Middle gray Nov. ‘15 Mirrors Jan. ‘19 Model shoot Jan. ‘17 Moon glow Oct. ‘16 Mosaics Jun. ‘17 Museum photography Mar. ‘13 Negative space Neon edges on black Neutral Density filters Night photography Night Safaris Night to Twilight Noise reduction
Jan. ‘16 Aug. ‘14 Jun. ‘18 Feb. ‘14 Jun. ‘18 Dec. ‘17 Feb. ‘17
Optical infinity Organization of photos
Jun. ‘16 Mar. ‘18
Paint abstracts May ‘13 Painting with light Sep. ‘15 Panning motion Dec. ‘16 Pano-Mirrors with a twist Jan. ‘18 Parades Sep. ‘13 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
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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, 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 Portrait options Jan. ‘19 Portrait techniques Nov. ‘15 Portraits Mar. ‘13 Portraits, mixed lighting Aug. ‘14 Portraits, side lighting Sep. ‘17 Portraits, window light Mar. ‘15 Portraits, outdoors May ‘17 Post-processing checklist Dec. ‘13 Post-processing: Contrast Aug. ’17 Predictive Focus Sep. ‘18 Problem/solution Apr. ‘17 Problem with cruises Jan. ‘18 Protecting highlights Dec. ‘12 Puppies Jan. ‘15 Puppy photography Feb. ’18 Reflections Feb. ‘13 Safari May ‘13 Safari strategies Jul. ‘15 Seeing as the lens does Nov. ‘14 Selective filtering Mar. ‘18 Selective focus Jun. ‘15 Self-critiques Jul. ‘13 Self-critiques Oct. ‘13 Sensor cleaning Jun. ‘18 Sepia and dark contrast Jun. ‘15
Subject index for past Photo Insight issues Shade May ‘14 Shady side Jun. ‘18 Shadows, Paying Attention to Mar. ‘18 Sharpness problems Mar. ‘14 Shooting through wire mesh Sept. ‘14 Silhouettes Jun. ‘13 Sketch, How to Make Jun ‘19 Snow exposure Nov ‘17 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 Topaz AI Gigapixel Mar ‘19 Topaz glow Jan. ‘15 Topaz glow Sep. ‘17 Topaz Impression Sep. ‘15 Topaz Remask 5 Oct. ‘17 Topaz Simplify 4 Dec. ‘12 Topaz simplify 4 Jun. ‘14 Topaz Studio Apr. ‘18 Translucency & backlighting Nov. ‘18 Travel photography Feb. ‘13 Travel portraits Mar. ‘14 Travel tips Apr. ‘14 Travel photographer’s guide Jun. ‘17 Twilight photography in the rain Apr. ‘19 Tripods Mar. ‘18 Two subject sharp rule May ‘14 Ultra distortion
May ‘18
Warm fingers in winter Nov. ‘15 Water drop collisions May ‘18 What NOT to do in photography Apr. ‘18 White vignette Aug. ‘15 White balance Feb. ‘15 White balance, custom Mar. ‘16 Wide angle conundrum May ‘19 Wide angle lenses Mar. ‘13 Wide angle portraits Nov. ‘14 Wide angle lenses Jun. ‘17 Wide angle keystoning Nov ‘17 Wildlife photos with wide angles Mar. ‘15 Window light Dec. ‘15 Window light portraits Aug. ‘18 Window frames Feb. ‘16 Winter photography Dec. ‘12 Winter bones May ‘13 Winter photography Dec. ‘15 Winter photography Nov. ‘18 Wire Mesh, Shooting Through Jul. ‘18 Workflow May ‘13
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PHOTO INSIGHTS® published by Jim Zuckerman, all rights reserved
Flower cart in Provence, France, made painterly with BuzSim by Topaz.
© Jim Zuckerman 2019 email: photos@jimzuckerman.com snail mail address: P.O. Box 7, Arrington, TN 37014
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