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Contents LETTER FROM KEN
FOUR DISTRACTIONS TO AVOID IN YOUR LANDSCAPE IMAGES Lessons From Rejected Images
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POST-PROCESSING ARTICLE OF THE MONTH An Introduction to TK Actions V5: Part 1
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PHOTO TOURS AND WORKSHOPS
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AN INTERVIEW WITH TONY KUYPER Creator of TK Actions
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LINKS TO PREVIOUS ISSUES OF INSPIRATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY
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Cover Photo: Lofoten, Norway 2
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Letter From Ken
What to Do With Sunny Afternoons As a photographer who likes to shoot outdoor color images, I don’t get too excited about sunny blue skies in the middle of the afternoon. In fact, I whine about them. Sunny afternoons are generally undesirable for photographing for several reasons: • • •
First, our eyes and cameras see things differently. Our eyes can process more contrast than our cameras can. The harsh shadows created by direct sunlight will not look as distracting to our eyes as they will later in our pictures. Second, colors wash out under bright conditions. This is why those pictures you took in the middle of the afternoon at the scenic viewpoint look hazy and do not capture the beauty of the scene. And, third, patchy light can be distracting. Our eyes usually go to the lightest part of the picture. Bright spots in the image pull the viewer’s attention towards them.
So, what is an outdoor photographer to do in the middle of a sunny day? Personally, I rarely shoot during a sunny afternoon. When traveling, I use the afternoons for location scouting for sunset and sunrise or else to catch up on sleep if I am also shooting at night. There are occasional compositions that look good in harsh lighting, but they are the exception rather the rule. One option, however, is to shoot with black and white images in mind. Black and white photos can actually look quite good in harsh lighting conditions as the images are based on contrast rather than color. So, although I personally use my sunny afternoons for scouting, it’s also a good idea to grab a few shots for your black and white portfolio. Ken Koskela http://www.kenkoskela.com To receive this magazine FREE each month click HERE 3
Four Distractions to Avoid in Your Landscape Images Lessons From Rejected Pictures
I’ve seen a lot of distractions in landscape images, including in my own. Sometimes they are simply unavoidable, but in many cases they are. This article will highlight pictures that are part of my landscape portfolio and compare them to rejected pictures taken shortly before or after. There are many more types of distractions to avoid than just the four I’m listing here. But, hopefully you can learn something by seeing a few of my rejected photos. With that intro, here are four distractions to avoid: 1. Avoid overlapping or touching elements that appear distracting I pay a lot of attention to the separation of elements in my pictures, as it can make a big difference in a composition. You generally want to avoid one ele4
ment cutting into another, especially into important details. This is different from some of the natural overlapping that occurs in nature and looks good. For example, the image above from the Canadian Rockies is in my portfolio. The image below, taken just a minute before, was rejected. This is because of the reflected cloud in the water touching the edge
of the piece of wood in the foreground. Notice in the keeper image that there is some separation between the reflected cloud and the wood, which looks better. Although re-positioning can often address the problem, in this case the clouds were moving quickly, so it was just a matter of holding off while the clouds moved into a better position. There are cases where overlapping elements look good, so use your own judgment. Generally, though, the worst case scenario is when the edge of one element is just touching the edge of another, such as in this case. 2. Avoid unnatural looking straight lines in nature With the exception of horizon lines, nature has a lot more curves than straight lines. In fact, straight lines often look out of place in landscape images. This is one reason why jet trails in the sky are undesirable and are usually cloned out. The image below is part of my Norway portfolio. I chose this particular image because the Northern
Lights formed a nice curved line that looks pleasing to the eye. Minutes after taking the image below, I shot the image above. The straight lines in the sky attract my attention immediately and look very distracting. I want the viewer looking at the entire image as opposed to honing in on these straight lines. On a related note, when shooting the Aurora, it is a good idea to just keep shooting even if you think you’ve got the shot. The lights constantly change
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and there is always the chance that you will improve upon what you thought was your keeper image. 3. Avoid distracting foreground detail The above image is another shot from Norway. Although I like this picture, I prefer the vertical composition that is on the cover of this magazine. However, the picture above helps illustrate a point. Notice in the above image that the waves simplify the foreground and also create lines which lead the viewer exactly where I want... to the distant landscape. The foreground complements the background subject by not distracting from it and even points the viewer towards it. Compare that to the rejected image to the right, taken within minutes of the above shot. In the reject image, the foreground is very distracting. Rather than my eyes moving from the front to the back of the frame, my eyes go straight to the front and stay there. The big boring rock in the foreground, accentuated by my wide-angle lens, captures more 6
of my attention than the beautiful background. This is a good illustration of how complex, distracting foreground detail competes with distant elements in a scene. Incidentally, for water images like this, you can often avoid distracting foreground detail through your choice of shutter speed. Longer shutter speeds, such as 0.5 seconds for waves, help blur the water and eliminate foreground detail, while also creating streaks from the water bubbles that form nice leading lines.
4. Avoid people-made distracting elements I am not suggesting to avoid any evidence of people in your landscape images. In fact, there are some landscape photographers that incorporate people and objects made by them into their pictures and some that don’t. Here, I am talking specifically about people-related distractions in the scene that don’t belong. In this case, what looks like a people-made distracting element was actually naturally occurring, but it helps illustrate the point. The picture below (another Norway shot) is in my portfolio. The image to the right is the same shot, but not yet processed and prior to my eliminating a BIG distraction. Yes, you guessed it... the ugly groove in the sand that looks like a tire track. The line was actually created by running water, but it really does look like someone drove right across the scene with a one-axled vehicle. Without the ability to clone this out during processing, I would have (with regret) rejected the picture.
To fix this, I cloned out the “tire track” in Photoshop. The fix is far from perfect, but is acceptable to me because most people will not look closely at the sand and will instead focus on the nice sky and snow-capped mountain. With the groove still there, however, I find that my eyes go straight to it. This relates directly to my earlier point about distracting straight lines within landscape scenes. The straight line doesn’t seem to belong in the scene and so it immediately attracts my attention.
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An Introduction to TK Actions V5: Part 1 of 2 Post-Processing Article of the Month
Tony Kuyper has offered a 20% discount on TK Actions V5 for readers of Inspirational Photography. See details at the end of this article if you are interested! ----What are Photoshop Actions and Why Use Them? Some of you might not be familiar with Photoshop actions, so let’s start with the basics. A Photoshop action is a “recording” of a series of steps in Photoshop. Either you or someone else initially records the steps. Later on, you can play back the action to automatically run the same recorded steps. (For you Microsoft Excel users out there, this is essentially a “macro”. ) There are three reasons that you might want to use actions in Photoshop: 1. To save time. You might already know how to complete the steps contained in the action, but Photoshop can run through the process much faster than you can... usually in a fraction of a second. 2. To make complex techniques more accessible. Even if you are aware that certain complex techniques exist, an action can make them available to you at the press of a button. 3. To incorporate new techniques into your work flow. Actions can introduce you to Photoshop techniques that you did not know existed. I won’t go through a step-by-step in creating an action here. Some are easy to create, while others require a high level of skill, even a knowledge of programming for the most complex ones. 8
What is a Photoshop “Actions Panel”? You typically access actions by first setting Photoshop up to view your actions list (Window - then check Actions). You find the action you want to run and then hit the Play button. However, with an “actions panel”, you have quicker access to the included actions by clicking on buttons and controls that are part of the panel. The image above shows the panels that are part of TK Actions V5. What is TK Actions V5? TK Actions V5 (or, “version 5”) is a set of 5 panels (also called “modules”) containing numerous very useful Photoshop actions. TK Actions was created by Tony Kuyper, who is interviewed in this magazine issue. Some of the actions in the panels contain simple steps that you might perform frequently. You don’t necessarily need an action for these, but using the panel can help save you time. Other actions make very complex techniques accessible for the user. Essentially, you benefit from Tony’s extensive experience and expertise, together with input he regularly receives from other processing experts. The end result is both very impressive and very useful. Learning How to Use TK Actions V5 I hate to already disappoint you on page 1, but this article is not an instruction manual for using TK Actions V5. It is only meant to be an introduction, or overview, for new users or prospective users so that you know what is available. The best way to learn
how to use the panels is through Tony’s articles and a series of videos created by Sean Bagshaw. Sean has partnered with Tony to offer very informative and helpful videos on each recent release of TK Actions. I bought Sean’s V5 videos and felt that I knew how to use the panels after one pass through the lessons. You can find the videos at the same link you use to purchase TK Actions: http://goodlight. us/panels-and-videos.html.
• Top row buttons - Quickly open or create a document; change your brush colors to black, white, open the color picker, or 50% gray.
• Yellow buttons - Change the image view to fit to window, 100%, or zoom in or out.
Structure of TK Actions V5 As mentioned, there are 5 separate panels that together form TK Actions V5. Each panel, or “module”, has numerous buttons and features which perform actions. There is a help window so that when you roll over any button, a help message appears. In Part 1 of this article, I will cover just 2 of the 5 panels. I’ll save the amazing luminosity masking panels for Part 2 in an upcoming issue. 1. The TK Control Panel
• Purple buttons - Open the stroke, fill, gaussian blur and Adobe Camera Raw filter dialogues.
• Orange buttons - Open the canvas size dialogue box, duplicate the image, flatten the image and open the image size dialogue. • Blue buttons - Quickly change the blending mode of the active layer.
• Green and magenta buttons - With green, easily manage layers, such as open the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) filter, create a merge visible layer, duplicate a layer, delete a layer, etc. With magenta, quickly add any of the most common adjustment layers, including Curves, Levels, Brightness/Contrast, etc.
The TK Control Panel is all about speeding up your Photoshop work flow. This panel does not include complex actions, but is more of a “command center” that puts many common commands in one location. It is faster and easier to just click a button in the Control Panel than to access the commands via Photoshop’s menus, pull-downs and buttons. I am going to race through this panel now and just show you what is there.
• Red buttons - Modify selections, masks and channels.
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As promised, that was a whirlwind tour through the Control Panel. Again, the panel is about streamlining your work flow. Next, I’ll go through the TK Actions Panel in more detail. 2. The TK Actions Panel
use frequently: 1. The Clarity Action (High Pass Sharpening) The Clarity button creates a high pass sharpening layer in soft light mode. This is a technique I have been using for awhile, so the action is helpful in saving me a little time. However, if you are not familiar with high pass sharpening, this button can open up a new and very effective sharpening technique for you. Here is how the action works: Clicking the Clarity button opens up a dialogue box:
The TK Actions Panel contains a variety of multi-layered actions that can enhance your work flow. Rather than go through every button, I’ll highlight those actions that I use most frequently. Actions Section (Green)
I usually adjust the radius down until only the fine details are visible... usually a radius of around 5.0 or 6.0 for me, although this depends upon the resolution of your image and personal preference. After adjusting the radius, hitting OK creates a sharpening layer in soft light mode that offers very “clean” and “crisp” looking fine detailed sharpening if you chose a small radius.
The Actions section of the panel includes actions to: • • • • • •
create a vignette run high pass sharpening remove sensor dust spots more easily run frequency separation run Tony’s “triple play” actions; and assign up to 6 of your own actions to buttons
I’ll cover three actions from the green section that I 10
I usually don’t sharpen the entire image, so it is common for me to add a mask to my sharpening layers. By the way, I wrote a much more detailed article on sharpening in the February 2017 issue of Inspirational Photography (see pages 16-19).
You can see below that I’ve added a mask to the layer (this is not part of the action, just an added step). The layer is masking out the sharpening effect in the black area of the mask.
2. The +/- Dust Button
And, here is what my image looked like this after running the action.
The +/- Dust button runs an action that makes dust spots (a result of dust on your camera’s sensor) more visible for easy removal. This is done by removing the color from the image and increasing contrast. After running the action, seeing and cloning out sensor dust spots is faster and easier. Here is an old image of mine from Iceland.
There is no universal Levels setting that Tony could have used that would be optimal for every picture. So, I then use the Amplify Dust layer to adjust the levels to make the dust spots more visible. For this image, I added a bit more contrast to the scene.
I missed a couple of dust spots when processing the image. So, let’s run the action on it. Clicking on the +/- Dust button adds three layers: 1. a Heal/Clone layer where you will perform the cloning 2. a Desaturate layer to remove all color 3. An Amplify Dust layer, which is a Levels adjustment layer set to increase contrast This temporarily turns the viewable image to a higher contrast black and white image. Here is what the layers look like after running the action:
I then zoomed into the image at 100% to find the dust spots. To do so, you can click on the 100% button in the TK Control Module, then hold the space bar down and drag in the image to move around areas where dust spots might be visible. 11
The action makes the clone-stamp tool active for you. So, just start clicking on the Heal/Clone layer as you normally would when cloning out spots.
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color cloning glow effect
Here are two of the actions from the Color section that I use frequently: 1. Orton and Restored Orton Buttons
When you are finished, hit the +/- Dust button once more to delete the top two adjustment layers. By the way, I usually clone dust spots out first and then flatten the layers as I have no reason to ever go back to a version of the image with the dust spots.
The Orton Effect is a way of combining a blurred layer with a non-blurred layer. This effect goes back to the film days and can add richness to your image. I add at least a touch of Orton to almost all of my landscape images.
3. The Frequency Separation Action
I wrote an article on Orton back in the July 2016 issue of Inspirational Photography (see pages 18-19). So, I won’t further discuss Orton here, although feel free to have a look at the previous article. If you are not familiar with the Orton Effect, Tony’s action is a nice way to incorporate it into your work flow.
I wrote an article about frequency separation in the June issue of Inspirational Photography (see pages 8-11). Although frequency separation is a fairly new technique for me personally, and one that I don’t use every day, having this as an action is exceptionally useful. This is because frequency separation is a fairly “high tech” action that requires several steps to set up. In the past, I’ve needed notes next to me to do frequency separation. The action makes the process much faster and easier. You can look at my previous article if you would like to know more about frequency separation... but suffice it to say that it is a very cool technique that separates texture from color/tone and allows you to manipulate each separately. So, you can modify texture while leaving color in place and vice versa. Color Section (Purple)
Notice that there are two Orton buttons: 1. Orton Effect 2. Restored Orton In addition to the standard Orton Effect, the “Restored Orton” preserves some of the texture lost in a standard Orton Effect. I often run a bit of Orton on the entire image and then a second pass of Orton on just part of the image, such as a distant area that could benefit from a bit of glow. 2. Add Color Button I use the Add Color button to paint in some targeted color to parts of the image. This technique can be used to add color and increase saturation.
As the name implies, the Color section includes color-related actions: • • • • • 12
Orton effects color brightness adjustment chromatic aberration correction neutralization of a color cast color painting
After clicking on the Add Color button, two things happen immediately. First, a blank layer in Soft Light mode is added to the top of your layer stack.
Second, the color picker opens:
I pick the color that I want to paint in and hit OK. I usually choose a color at full brightness (along the top of the color box) and about 1/3 of the way over from the left (1/3 saturation).
hit the Vertical, Horizontal, or Fit button to specify whether the pixel count should be applied to the vertical edge, horizontal edge, or longest edge. This opens a copy of your image appropriately sized and sharpened, with the sharpening layers in a group. The opacity of the grouped layers will be at the amount you specified in the Opacity box, but can then be adjusted using the layer’s Opacity slider. In V5, you can also run your own created actions as part of the sharpening for web process. This is a big plus for me. I like to add a bit of contrast, saturation, some gaussian blur, and additional high pass sharpening. With these adjustments, I can get my JPG’s looking almost as good as the original Photoshop file. So, I add those adjustments using an action I assign a panel button to.
Next, I adjust the flow of my brush to around 15% for painting:
After you have made your adjustments, click the “Save for Web” button. Photoshop’s Save for Web dialogue box options with the settings pre-chosen for you.
I paint onto the image with my selected color. I usually paint through a luminosity or color selection, which (for me) is an important part of this technique. The paint goes onto the Soft Light layer and adds the color to your image.
Also new in V5 - if you need to sharpen and create JPG’s for multiple files, there is a Batch option, too!
Web-Sharpening (Blue) Section
Part 2 - Luminosity Selection/Masking Panels In an upcoming issue of Inspirational Photography, I’ll cover the remaining panels, which are used to create luminosity masks and selections. For many, including myself, these panels form the centerpiece of TK Actions V5. 20% Discount on TK Actions
I wrote an article about web-sharpening using TK Actions V4 in the May 2016 issue of Inspirational Photography (see pages 8-9). I really like the Web-Sharpening section of TK Actions V5. In fact, don’t tell Tony, but I would probably pay the $35 just for the web-sharpening panel section. There are some changes to the approach in V5. For example, you specify the dimension in pixels and
TK Actions has always been great value for a very reasonable price... the panel is currently just $35 at full price. If you are interested in purchasing TK Actions V5, Tony Kuyper has set up a 20% discount code for readers of Inspirational Photography. To use the code, enter “20PERCENT” in the shopping cart on this page: http://goodlight.us/panels-and-videos.html As a reminder, I highly recommend picking up Sean’s videos when you do, as they are extremely valuable in getting up to speed on how to use the panels. 13
2017 PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS & WORKSHOPS http://www.kenkoskela.com/product/photo-tours-workshops/
CANADIAN ROCKIES w/ KEN KOSKELA & JOSH MERRILL October, 2017
JUST 3 SPOTS LEFT!
The Canadian Rockies are a place of unparalleled beauty and adventure. From jagged, snow-capped peaks to turquoise glacial lakes, the Rockies offer some of the best landscape photography opportunities in the world. We will focus on the majestic Banff and Jasper National Parks and adjust our daily shooting locations to maximize our chances for good light. Additionally, we will keep our eyes open for clear skies at night with the hopes of capturing the Northern Lights and star-filled skies with the Rocky Mountains as an amazing foreground. This is not a trip to be missed! http://www.kenkoskela.com/product/2017-canadian-rockies-photo-adventure/
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2018 PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS & WORKSHOPS http://www.kenkoskela.com/product/photo-tours-workshops/
KENYA PHOTO SAFARI w/ KEN KOSKELA & RENEE DOYLE Aug./Sept. 2018
SOLD OUT! CONTACT ME RE: POSSIBLE 2ND TOUR
Join Ken Koskela and Renee Doyle for an incredible and unique photo safari experience for a small group of just 5-7 participants. We will be staying in 5-star luxury tents in top conservancies located outside of the Masai Mara National Reserve. We will have exclusive use of two vehicles in areas of high concentration of wildlife, allowing participants exceptional wildlife encounters. The conservancies strictly monitor the number of vehicles in the area. Participants will also have the option of reserving their own row in a vehicle. http://www.kenkoskela.com/product/2018-kenya-photo-safari-tour/
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2018 PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS & WORKSHOPS http://www.kenkoskela.com/product/photo-tours-workshops/
LOFOTEN, NORWAY IN WINTER w/ KEN KOSKELA February, 2018
2ND TOUR ADDED - JUST 2 SPOTS AVAILABLE!!
Winter in Lofoten, Norway has to be seen to be believed. You’ll be up close with majestic fjords, snow-covered jagged mountains, icy blue water lakes, quaint fishing villages, and beautiful rocky shoreline. To top it off, the periods of low-angled sunlight can last for hours. Lofoten is also known as one of the premiere places in the world for experiencing and capturing the Northern Lights. I am limiting the group size to just 5 or 6 participants. If you haven’t experienced and photographed Lofoten during the Winter, this is your opportunity! http://www.kenkoskela.com/product/2018-lofoten-norway-winter-photo-tour-2/
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2017 PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS & WORKSHOPS http://www.kenkoskela.com/product/photo-tours-workshops/
TUSCANY & CINQUE TERRE w/ JIM ZUCKERMAN & KEN KOSKELA October, 2017
2 SPOTS LEFT!!
Fortified medieval towns, golden mists in the morning, cobblestone streets, artistic stands of trees, awe inspiring cathedrals -- all of these are Tuscany plus a whole lot more. Combine the Tuscan experience with the stunning Cinque Terre Coast, where five colorful villages hug rocky cliffs above the deep blue sea and you’ve got an Italian experience that will thrill anyone who loves photographing beauty, history, culture and art. We will take advantage of the best lighting early and late in the day to offer opportunities to capture beautiful images. This is not a trip to be missed! http://www.kenkoskela.com/product/2017-tuscany-cinque-terre-ken-koskela-jim-zuckerman/
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2018 PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS & WORKSHOPS http://www.kenkoskela.com/product/photo-tours-workshops/
VENICE CARNIVAL w/ KEN KOSKELA & RENEE DOYLE February, 2018
SOLD OUT - WAITING LIST ONLY!
Venice is one of the most beautiful and unique cities in the world. Each year, during the Carnival festival, Venice comes alive as amazing models in ornate masks and incredible costumes descend upon the city to be admired and photographed. I am very excited to be co-leading this workshop with Renee Doyle, whose masterful Venice Carnival composites are an inspiration to many photographers, including myself. Renee and I have some great connections with many of the best models which will allow our group to have opportunities for private shoots in some locations away from the crowds. http://www.kenkoskela.com/product/2018-venice-carnival-photography-workshop/
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An Interview With: http://goodlight.us/ I am excited to present a short Q&A with Tony Kuyper, who is the creator of TK Actions. The TK Actions panel has been a pretty critical part of my work flow for quite some time. It has saved me many hours of work, too. Tony’s latest actions panel, TK Actions V5, is the topic of this month’s and next month’s post-processing articles. Apart from creating TK Actions, Tony has some pretty compelling images in his portfolio, so I’m including a few of those here, too. As mentioned, Tony has offered a 20% discount to Inspirational Photography readers on TK Actions V5 by going to http://goodlight.us/panels-and-videos. html and entering “20PERCENT” as the discount code in the shopping card. --------
Tony Kuyper
Creator of TK Actions
Can you talk a little bit about your background and, specifically, how you acquired the skills to develop such a very technically advanced and robust set of actions, not to mention the panel itself? My background is in health sciences. I’ve been a pharmacist for over 30 years. I took computer programming in high school and college. I didn’t use it much, but it seemed to help when I taught myself HTML. I’ve coded my own websites since. HTML is very handy since Photoshop extension panels are just web pages displayed on Photoshop’s internal browser. Overall it’s been a learn-as-you-go process. Google is a wealth of knowledge if you just start searching and don’t mind wading through lots of stuff. Whenever I hit a problem, I look for an answer, and there’s usually something or someone out there that can help. Sean Bagshaw, André Distel, Luca Libralato,
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Antonio Prado, Roy Yuan and David Vercruysse have all contributed ideas and expertise to the panel. What initially compelled you to create TK Actions? Short answer: luminosity masks. I had started using them a lot in developing my images, and the Photoshop actions were the only logical way to quickly generate the masks I needed. The panels evolved from there as I looked to make the masks easier to access for other photographers. It soon became obvious that I could also program other features into the panels besides luminosity masks, so I started adding things I frequently used myself. I’d rather click a panel button than have to navigate through Photoshop’s menus. TK Actions have become an important part of the work flow of many, many photographers. Did you envision that the panel would become so popular and valued by the photographic community? No, I didn’t see this coming. I knew luminosity masks were having a significant effect on my own 20
images, but I didn’t think they would make sense to others. However, while writing the initial tutorial, I came up with the Lights, Darks, and Midtones series of masks. I think this framework was the innovation that helped them catch on. It made it possible for others to visualize what was going on with these masks and has essentially been adopted by everyone who talks, writes, or makes videos about luminosity masks now. So it’s definitely central to how we’re able think about this topic. Just for the record, luminosity masks predate TK Actions; they were a natural part of Photoshop probably from its beginning. But it was these defined series of masks that seems to have finally gotten them into the mainstream. KK: Sean Bagshaw has been partnering with you to do the video tutorials for awhile now. Sean is an excellent teacher who excels at making techniques and work flow understandable. How did the partnership with Sean come about? TK: I can’t say enough good stuff about Sean. He
images processed using 8-bit masks. However, given that there is an observable difference between 8and 16-bit masks, I can’t make a case for using 8-bit masks anymore, especially when 16-bit masks are just as easy to generate and actually allow for greater flexibility. The V5, by switching to a complete 16bit, mask-based workflow not only generates masks faster, but it also makes deploying them faster too. So 16-bit has advantages that extend beyond mask quality. By abandoning 8-bit selections, the entire luminosity mask process gets more efficient. was an early adopter of my luminosity mask techniques and was already making videos using them before I knew him. He was kind enough to credit me in those videos and we were in email contact as a result. When he visited the Colorado Plateau in 2011, we connected, hiked, and took some pictures. He asked if I was planning to make videos about luminosity masks. I was not, he asked if he could, and I said sure. That was the start of our collaboration. He truly understands luminosity masks as well as I do and explains them perfectly. His teaching style and videos have made these techniques accessible to a lot of people who might not have ventured out to try them. Obviously video support is crucial in this age of YouTube, and TK Actions owes a lot to Sean’s expertise in this area. KK: The first time I opened the new TK Actions V5 panel, I realized that it was quite different from V4… essentially an overhaul. One of the technical advantages of the new panel is being able to stay within 16-bit. What are some of the advantages of that? I should point out the V4 panel was very much 16bit also. It was the first panel to use 16-bit calculations instead of 8-bit intersected selections for generating luminosity masks. The V5’s biggest innovations are its mask-based interface and the speedier RapidMask engine for generating masks. That’s what required the complete overhaul.
KK: I know a lot of landscape photographers use TK Actions. Do you find that it is primarily used by the landscape photography community, or is it frequently used by other groups of photographers too? While I’ve been in contact with photographers using luminosity masks for a variety of subjects, I still think it’s primarily nature photographers who use them. These masks work on any photographic image but are an especially good fit for natural subjects where lighting often isn’t optimal. Luminosity masks offer a great way to re-balance the light in an image during digital processing. Think exposure-blending. Many nature photographs now have an almost studio-like quality as a result luminosity masks being part of the workflow. I’m not sure if this level of perfection is good or bad sometimes, but these masks have certainly helped create some amazingly beautiful nature photographs. KK: What’s next for you? TK: Pretty much more of the same. New masks, new panels, new techniques, new photographs, and hopefully new videos. There’s a lot left to explore.
Regarding 8-bit vs. 16-bit luminosity masks, there is an obvious quality difference if you examine just the masks, but how this translates to image quality isn’t clear. My experiments show that the obvious banding in 8-bit masks is not readily visible in 16-bit 21
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March 2016 • Pushing blue into the shadows • Smoke composites • Guilin, China • Including motion in your images • Wide-angle portraits • Backing up your pictures • Big impact with small subjects
April 2016 • Complementary colors • Dealing with foggy lenses • Effective silhouette images • Gradient vignettes • Watch the windows • Shooting into the sun
May 2016 • Solid neutral density filters • Web sharpening using TK Actions • Following and breaking the rule of thirds • Packing for an outdoor photography camping trip • Pictures that make people think
June 2016 • Using a circular polarizer • Intro to luminosity masking • Oil and water pictures • Minimum shutter speeds • Coastline moving water images
July 2016 • Exposing flash and ambient light separately • Incorporating opposites into your images • Venice during Carnival • Orton effect • Including reflections in your pictures
August 2016 • Shooting the Milky Way, Stars and Northern Lights • Cathedral images • Controlling tonal contrast with a histogram • Focusing strategies for moving subjects
September 2016 • Post-processing Milky Way shots • Controlling motion in landscape images • Increasing water texture with Nik • Shooting cities at night
October 2016 • Shooting and processing star trails • Eliminating distractions • Dramatic side-lighting • Creating a texture layer in Photoshop • Inconvenience leads to better pictures.
Click HERE to receive Inspirational Photography monthly. November 2016 • How to use an ultra-wide lens • Search Engine Optimization for Images • Photoshop’s Smart Objects for 2nd Chance Adjustments • Leading Lines
December 2016 • Natural vs. Artificial Light Portraits • Blurred Water Creek Images • Layer Adjustments for Printing • Don’t Miss the Shot
January 2017 • Eliminating Camera Shake • Location Feature: Cinque Terre • How to Create Starbursts in Camera • Photoshop’s Blend If Feature
February 2017 • Making the Hands Prominent in Portraits • Hummingbird Photography - Guest Article by Jim Zuckerman • De-Mystifying Image Sharpening • Precise Camera Placement
March 2017 • On-Camera Fill Flash • Vignette and Aura Post-Processing Techniques • Exposing for Snow • Low Perspective with a Wide-Angle Lens
April 2017 • Identifying Foregrounds in Nature • How to Eliminate a Halo • Location Feature: Canadian Rockies • Interview with Jack Brauer • Should I Zoom In To focus?
May 2017 • Edge selections in Photoshop • Camera Setup: Important Menu Items • Seeking Out Great Subjects
June 2017 • Window Lighting for Portraits in Dark Environments • Frequency Separation in Photoshop • Wildlife Photography in Africa: “The Mara”
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