A William Manning Photography Publication
January / Febuary 2020
Vol 6
Nature and Outdoor • Travel • Architecture • Photo Illustrations
P h o t o g r a p h y
solutions Final Touches Using Photoshop’s Sponge, Dodge and Burn Tools Learn Photoshop’s Keyboard Shortcuts and Customize Your Own 2020 Destination Photography Mentorship Programs
Destination Photography Mentorship Program
Springtime on the B O
April 25-May 1, 2020
This is an Incredible Photo Journey Discover just how good your p
Pounding Surf, Rugged Sea Coast, Stunning Learn More
Beautiful Oregon Coast
Join William on this Beautiful Journey of the Oregon Coast Every Destination Photography Mentorship Program is filled with photography on location. Each day begins early to capture the beautiful morning light as it rises from the distant horizon and illuminates the land and ends with the glow of the evening sun. Every participant receives an abundance of hands on instruction in the field. William has photographed and lead many tours along the Oregon Coast. As with all tours, regardless of the number of times we photograph a location, our Oregon Coast tour has been carefully planned to give participants a variety of opportunities to truly enjoy and photograph the beauty of this incredible coast line. After returning home your mentoring continues with 3 one hour sessions of one on one learning focused on editing and processing plus 2 critiques sessions. Each session takes place via Skype. This gives participants the opportunity to ask questions and learn through live conferencing.
photography can be. Sign-Up Today
All Inclusive Photography Tour
g Landscapes and Awesome Sunsets
Destination Photography Mentorship Program
The Great Smoky Mountains
May 4-9, 2020
You get a whole lot more with a Destination Photography Mentorship Program. Let’s get together in the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains.
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Beautiful Mountain Streams, Verdant Green Fores
Join William on this Beautiful Springtime Photography Mentorship Program. Every Destination Photography Mentorship Program is filled with photography on location. Each day begins early to capture the beautiful morning light as it rises from the distant horizon and illuminates the land and ends with the glow of the evening sun. Every participant receives an abundance of hands on instruction in the field. William has photographed and lead many tours In the Great Smoky Mountains. As with all tours, regardless of the number of times we photograph a location, our Great Smoky Mountains tour has been carefully planned to give participants a variety of opportunities to truly enjoy and photograph the beauty of the Appalachain Mountains. After returning home your mentoring continues with 3 one hour sessions of one on one learning focused on editing and processing plus 2 critiques sessions. Each session takes place via Skype. This gives participants the opportunity to ask questions and learn through live conferencing.
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sts and Stunning Appalachain Landscapes
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Destination Photography
Because Your Photography Deserves to B
You are important, that’s why you get my undivided attention. Included in every Destination Photography Mentorship Program is 3 one hour sessions on editing and processing your photography and 2 critiques after you return home from your photo tour. Each session begins with a scheduled time for one on one learning via Skype. This gives participants a live view of my computer screen to demonstrate work flow and processing techniques with live conversation.
Join me in 2020
Learn more at www.williammanning.com
Mentorship Programs
Be Noticed
William’s Comments
Happy New Year. I enter into every New Year with high expectations and with a lot of optimism. This year is no different. As I ended 2019, I fell behind on publishing Photography Solutions. My busy assignment season begins in August and typically goes through mid-November. 2019 didn’t end until the first week of January of 2020. Yes, indeed it was a long stretch and all ended well
Photography Solutions Second Year This issue January/February 2020 marks the beginning of the second year of publishing Photography Solutions. I have to admit, it is a lot more work than I expected when I started this project but it has been rewarding, and has given me the opportunity to use my design skills. This issue features Adobe Photoshop’s Sponge, Dodge and Burn tools. I explain what they do and
how to use them. When used properly they can have a beautiful impact on your final image. I have also written as a follow-up from the November/ December 2019 issue on Creating a Workflow. This issue features Photoshop’s Keyboard Shortcuts and and how to create your own.
Destination Photography Mentorship Program 2020 marks the beginning of the newly designed Destination Photography Mentorship Programs. This unique program begins with our rewarding photography tours which I have conducted all over the world for many years. The difference is what happens once you return home from your photography tour. I am including a 90 day on line support where every paricipant can schedule 3 one hour one on one sessions where I help participants learn processing techniques via Skype. This will allow participants to see my monitor and we can talk live so participants can ask questions and I can answer and demonstrate. I also provide 2 photo critiques, again this can be done via Skype so we can view each photo and talk about the photo. I look forward to working with photographers who particpate in our Destination Photography mentorship Programs. There may be some adjustments as I may have to tweak a few things but nothing major should change. Speaking of the Destination Photography mentorship Programs. Lets talk about the awesome locations I have lined up. April 25 - May 1 Beautiful Oregon Coast May 4 -9 Great Smoky Mountains May 26 - 31 Redwoods June 15 - 20 Palouse Washington July 4 - 13 Iceland August 1 - 7 Mt Rainier November 8 - 13 Arches and Canyonlands
Every location is carefully designed to provide maximum photo opportunities. I am committed to providing the best possible photography experience for all those who travel with me. I am always by the side of my participants teaching and answering questions to help each grow their skills as a photographer. Each tour is followed by the one on one instruction from the comfort of their home via Skype. I invite and hope you will join me in 2020. I promise to work hard to make your experience rewarding and enjoyable.
Share Photography Solutions Please share Photography Solutions with your photography friends, Camera Club and through social media. I need your help spreading the word about Photography Solutions. I truly appreciate any help you can provide. Please email me with any questions, comments or any feedback you wish to share. Email: william@williammanning.com
Final Touches using Photoshop’s
Sponge, Dodge, and Burn
n Tools
Saturate, Desaturate Lighten and Darken
Text and Photography by William Manning Š
Sierra Sunrise was created by blending two exposures (HDR) and replacing the sky. I used Aurora HDR 2019 to blend the two exposures. My May/ June Photography Solutions features an article on Aurora HDR 2019.
HDR Results The finished HDR photo features a dark blue sky (See photo on far upper right). I had a beautifully lit mountain range as the sun reached the distant horizon. Desert wildflowers fell into deep shadow as the morning light had not reached the desert floor yet. The HDR photo gave me good results and certainly exceptable, but as usual I like to push my photography when possible. This set me up for a little experimentation. The sky needed something of interest therefore I decided to experiment with a new sky. After trying several skies from my library, nothing was working. I believe it is critical to make a replacement sky believable and in my case the cloud pattern was working but the colors were not.
Exposure for Desert Floor
Exposure for Mountains and Sky
Replace the Sky When experimenting with skies I typically have them placed as layers under my original image. This allows me to toggle through multiple skies for quick reference to see which one works best. As mentioned above, nothing was working. The most plausible sky was #1 as shown below but the colors weren’t right. Sky #2 had the colors I needed but the cloud formation wasn’t working. I decided to pull the opacity of Sky #1 back allowing the colors of sky #2 to show through. Playing with the position of the clouds by moving layers up and down allowed me to find the perfect position for both skies and finding the perfect opacity level (about 78%) gave me exactly what I needed. For information on replacing a sky please see July/August 2019 Photography Solutions.
Sky #1
Sky #2
HDR Photo processed in Aurora HDR 2019. Tonal Curve Typically the first thing I do after running photos through an HDR process is to do a tonal curve in Adobe Photoshop. In this case I ran the tonal curve after I replaced the sky because I wanted the contrast to be uniform throughout.
Add a Graduated Neutral Density Filter I always emphasize the importance of processing photography within the degree of reality. If it goes
beyond the scope of how the human eye would see it in it’s natural state then you have under or over worked the photo. The photo above shows the desert floor brighter than I felt it should have been. To correct this problem I opened my photo in Nik Color Effects. Once opened, I used the Graduated Neutral Density filter. By default the Graduated Neutral Density filter is set at 180 degrees for the Rotation slider. This puts the darker tones at the top of the photo. I needed it on the bottom, therefore I moved the slider to 0 (zero) placing the darker tones at the bottom. From here I played
Foreground After Adding the Graduated Neutral Density Filter.
with the upper and lower Tonality sliders to find the right tones. I used the Blend Slider to fine tune the tonality needed on the desert floor.
Enhancing with the Sponge, Dodge and Burn Tools
employed sparingly as they can be destructive to your photo, which is why a duplicate layer should be created to apply these tools. I never use any of these tools to make changes to a large area as there are better ways (ex: adjustment layers) to apply these same effects to larger areas in a photo.
There are many ways to put final touches on a photograph. One of my favorites is to build a path that leads the eye through my photographs. I do this using a combination of the sponge, dodge and burn tools in Adobe Photoshop.
What is the sponge, dodge and burn tools? First, all of these are actually brushes that do different things. The sponge tool can saturate and desaturate areas in a photo. The dodge tool lightens and the burn tool darkens areas in a photo.
The sponge, dodge and burn tools are found in Adobe Photoshop’s tool menu (See illustration on opening spread). These are probably some of the lesser used tools in the tool bar and when they are applied are often misused. These tools should be
The above illustration shows where I applied the affects. Red is a dominate color and can be a powerful hue to use to lead the viewers eye. There are many areas in the composition where red Indian Paintbrush are scattered throughout the landscape.
I selected the sponge tool and set the opacity at 12%. Setting a low opacity is very important as a high number or the default of 100% will overpower and appear unrealistic. A, C, D, E, F, G, and H are areas I applied saturation at 12%. Notice there are still many red flowers throughout the landscape where I did not apply saturation. This was done purposely and strategically. Keep in mind, these tools should be used sparingly. I saturated individual flowers in specific areas strategically to help lead the viewers eye through the photo. The dodge tool was used to slightly brighten the sage brush. I changed the opacity to about 10%. This tool is set at 100% by default. I selected areas that complemented my saturated flowers and help bring the viewer into the photo. B, I and J are the 3 main areas I used the dodge tool. The burn tool wasn’t used in this photo as I felt it wasn’t needed. If and when you use these tools, ap-
ply the burn tool the same as the other two, apply in small increments in carefully selected areas. Many of my landscape photos are completed by adding a very fine vignette. I do this with Nik Color Effects plug-in. There are other methods for adding a vignette, Nik Color Effects is a quick and easy tool. I encourage you to try this little tip in some of your photography. It can bring life into a photo that might be missing a little punch. Try it out and let me know your thoughts. I would be delighted to see the results from the before to the after. Happy creating and best of luck with your photography.
Rushing Stream in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN. Most of the Saturation was applied using a Hue/ Saturation Adjustment Layer in Photoshop. I used the Sponge, Dodge and Burn Tools in small selected areas. I applied a strong amount of Clarity on an Adjustment Layer for the exaggerated detail in the water.
Death Valley National Park, CA. This photo took some work to get the feel I wanted and remembered when I was on location. I used TK Actions to select different tonal zones to help bring out the detail in the dark shadow areas. The Sponge, Dodge and Burn tools were used sparingly and in very small increments to fine tune the photo.
Destination Photography Mentorship Program
Heighten Your Photography
Redwoods and Southern Oregon Coas May 26-31, 2020
Learn More
Towering Redwood Forests, Blooming Rh Pounding Ocean Surf and Beautiful Land
Join William and Adam in the Land of Giants beneath the towering redwood trees. Skills and Discover Your Talents
st
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Every Destination Photography Mentorship Program is filled with photography on location. Each day begins early to capture the beautiful morning light as it rises from the distant horizon and illuminates the land and ends with the glow of the evening sun. Every participant receives an abundance of hands on instruction in the field. Our Redwoods and Oregon Coast Tour is lead by both William Manning and Adam Jones. William and Adam have both lead many tours into the beautiful Redwoods and Oregon Coast. As with all tours, regardless of the number of times we photograph a location, our Redwoods and Oregon Coast tour has been carefully planned to give participants a variety of opportunities to truly enjoy and photograph the beauty of this incredible region. After returning home your mentoring continues with 3 one hour sessions of one on one learning focused on editing and processing plus 2 critiques sessions. Each session takes place via Skype. This gives participants the opportunity to ask questions and learn through live conferencing.
hododendrons, Rugged Seascapes, dscapes
Destination Photography Mentorship Program
Palouse: The Photog June 15-20, 2020 You Get A Whole Lot More Than Color, Rolling Hills, and Hours of Creativity,... You Get To Discover Just How Amazing Your Photography Really Is
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Beautiful Rural American Landscapes, Rolling Hills of
Join William in the incredible Palouse to photograph a true American landscape.
graphers Palette
Every Destination Photography Mentorship Program is filled with photography on location. Each day begins early to capture the beautiful morning light as it rises from the distant horizon and illuminates the land and ends with the glow of the evening sun. Every participant receives an abundance of hands on instruction in the field. The Palouse is a unique area, it is America’s wheat belt and a major agricultural region. The annual rotation of crops, rolling hills and vibrant colors make this tour both unique and rewarding. William has lead several tours into the beautiful rolling hills of the Palouse. As with all tours, regardless of the number of times we photograph a location, our Palouse tour has been carefully planned to give participants a variety of opportunities to truly enjoy and photograph the beauty of this incredible region. After returning home your mentoring continues with 3 one hour sessions of one on one learning focused on editing and processing plus 2 critiques sessions. Each session takes place via Skype. This gives participants the opportunity to ask questions and learn through live conferencing.
f Vibrant Colors and Endless Patterns Learn More
Destination Photography Mentorship Program
Summer Landscapes and Wildflowers on Mt Rainier
You want to be here it’s beautiful, it’s am you and your photo center of attention.
August 1-7, 2020
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Wildflowers, Waterfalls, Old Growth For La
e because mazing, it’s fun and ography are the
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Join William in Colorful Mt Rainier for an Awesome Photographic Journey Every Destination Photography Mentorship Program is filled with photography on location. Each day begins early to capture the beautiful morning light as it rises from the distant horizon and illuminates the land and ends with the glow of the evening sun. Every participant receives an abundance of hands on instruction in the field. Mt Rainier is known for its summer wildflower bloom. Our journey takes place during the peak bloom. William has lead several tours into beautiful Mt Rainier. As with all tours, regardless of the number of times we photograph a location, our Mt Rainier tour has been carefully planned to give participants a variety of opportunities to truly enjoy and photograph the beauty of this incredible region. After returning home your mentoring continues with 3 one hour sessions of one on one learning focused on editing and processing plus 2 critiques sessions. Each session takes place via Skype. This gives participants the opportunity to ask questions and learn through live conferencing.
rests, Stunning andscapes and Majestic Mt. Rainier
Autumn in Arches and Canyonlands N
November 8 - 13, 2020
You Love Photography, You Love Discovering New Places continue growing your photography skills.
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Vibrant Color Palettes, Glowing Red Roc
National Park
Join William in the American Southwest Every Destination Photography Mentorship Program is filled with photography on location. Each day begins early to capture the beautiful morning light as it rises from the distant horizon and illuminates the land and ends with the glow of the evening sun. Every participant receives an abundance of hands on instruction in the field. The Moab Region of Utah is an exciting location for photographers. There are so many iconic places but also many hidden gems throughout the region. Moab is home to two of America’s Great National Parks, Arches and Canyonlands. We’ll spend lots of time in these parks photographing the iconic landmarks but also outside of the parks in several of my favorite places where we’ll be rewarded with exceptional photo opportunties as well as away from more populated areas. After returning home your mentoring continues with 3 one hour sessions of one on one learning focused on editing and processing plus 2 critiques sessions. Each session takes place via Skype. This gives participants the opportunity to ask questions and learn through live conferencing.
s and you want to .
cks, Canyons and Majestic Arches
Speed Up Your Time Processing Photographs
Learn Photoshop’s Keyboard Sho
ortcuts and Customize Your Own Text and Photography by William Manning ©
Keyboard shortcuts can be a huge time saver when processing photographs. Shortcuts are simply key strokes for quick access to tools, plug-ins and/ or actions you use on a regular basis. Tools are typically found under Photoshop menu’s or the tool bar. The reference list below are the default keyboard shortcuts to get you started.
Fit to Screen - Command/Ctrl + 0 Hand Tool - Move around the image while zoomed in - Hold the spacebar Rotate Your Image - Hit the letter “R” on your keyboard, then click and drag your mouse
Adobe Photoshop default keyboard shortcuts can be changed to fit a workflow that works best for you. I have customized several keyboard shortcuts that work for me, as seen in blue below. I’ll explain how to customize your own shortcuts at the end of this list.
Rulers - Command/Ctrl + R Create Guides - Click and drag from the rulers while they are visible. This works both on the vertical and horizontal axis Hide/Show Guides - Command/Ctrl + H Undo - Command/Ctrl + Z (quick tip: use this keyboard shortcut over and over again to toggle your last history state) Multiple Undos - Command/Ctrl + Alt/Opt + Z Gradient Tool - Hit the letter “G” on your keyboard Crop Tool - Hit the letter “C” on your keyboard (Quick Tip: make sure to uncheck “Delete cropped pixels”)
Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts: The following are keyboard shortcuts I use on almost every photo I process. Some are Photoshop’s default keyboard shortcuts (in Red) others are shortcuts I customized (in Blue) for myself and will explain how to do this later in this article. Curves - Command/Ctrl + M De-Select - Command/Ctrl + D Undo - Command/Ctrl + Z Save - Command/Ctrl + S Fill the Screen with Photo - F Resize Brushes - Use Bracket Keys, { makes brush smaller, } makes brush larger Move Photo around the screen - Space Bar Nik Viveza - F1 Nik Color Effects - F2 Nik Silver Effects - F3 Topaz Studio - F4
Move Tools I will highlight in Red the shortcuts I use often. Some might repeat from the list above. Zoom Tool - Hit the letter “Z” on your keyboard Zoom Out - Hold the Alt/Option key
General Tips & Shortcuts
Brush Tool Brush - Hit the letter “B” on your keyboard Make brush tool bigger - Hit the ] key on your keyboard (right bracket key) Make brush tool smaller - Hit the [ key on your keyboard (left bracket key) Brush Softness (PC) - Right Click + Alt + Drag up or down Brush Resize (Mac) - Command + Option + Drag left or right Brush Softness (Mac) - Command + Option + Drag up or down
Selection Tools Magic Wand Tool - Hit the letter “W” on your keyboard Add to Selection - Hold Shift key while using a selection tool
Marquee Selection Tool - Hit the letter “M” on your keyboard Deselect - Command/Ctrl + D Lasso Tool - Hit the letter “L” on your keyboard Pen Tool - Hit the letter “P” on your keyboard Load Pen Path Selection - Once you have a closed path, hit Command/Ctrl + Enter to load the selection Create Bezier Curve - With the pen tool selected (letter P) click to add an anchor point, then click and drag to add another
Retouching Tools Healing Brush - Hit the letter “J” on your keyboard Healing Brush sample point - Hold Option/Alt, then click to choose a sample point Clone Stamp - Hit the letter “S” on your keyboard Clone Stamp Tool sample point - Hold Option/ Alt, then click to choose a sample point.
Transform Tools Free Transform - Command/Ctrl + T Scale Proportionately - Hold the “Shift” key when you’re in the free transform mode Scale from the center point of the image - Hold Shift + Option/Alt
Customize your own Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts. Photoshop’s default keyboard shortcuts have been carefully designed and fairly easy to understand and learn. Likely you won’t use many or even most of them, but the menu items you use regularly, I highly recommend you learn their shortcuts. These will indeed speed up processing time. I use the default shortcuts but because I use several plugins on a regular basis I created my own shortcuts to speed up access to these items. As
mentioned in the beginning of this article I created shortcuts for Nik Viveza, Silver Effects, etc...
How to Create Your Own Follow this easy step to create your own keyboard Shortcuts. Open Adobe Photoshop and go under the Edit Menu. Scroll down to Keyboard Shortcuts. From here you have the option of selecting Application menus, Panel Menus or Tools. In my case, I wanted shortcuts to access my plugins, therefore I chose Application menus. Under Application menus you have a list of items, Photoshop CC, File, Edit, Image, Layer, etc... I scrolled down to Filter because that is where I would access my plugins. From Filter click on the arrow and it opens all the items located under Filter. I then scrolled down to the plugins I wanted to create shortcuts for. I used the F keys but you can choose your own. (If a shortcut has already been assigned to that command, you can simply type over it. If the keyboard shortcut you type is already being used, Photoshop warns you that if you accept the shortcut, it’ll be removed from the original command). Click Accept to assign the shortcut to the command or tool. Carefully think your shortcuts out. If you choose a shortcut already in use make sure it is one you rarely or never use. If it is a common one like Save (Command/Ctrl + S) then I recommend finding another shortcut. I hope this helps with your work flow. Happy Creating.
Who’s Interested ?
Many of my readers may know I’m an architectural photographer as well as a travel and outdoor photographer. I have had several requests to consider conducting an Architecural Photography Workshop. I would like to know how many people might be interested attending an Architectural Photography Workshop. This workshop it would take place in Cincinnati, Ohio and include on location photo shoots of both interiors and exteriors. I will design our photo-
shoots based on realistic specs that would be given to a photographer by a client. We will approach our shoots in a professional manner on location with lots of hands on instruction. Architectural photography is very detail oriented with many things to consider. Topics will include how to handle mixed lighting, how to work in a high traffic situation, positioning of furniture, and many more real life situations. We will proceed to the classroom to learn processing techniques after our field work.
I would be delighted to design and conduct an Architectural Photography Workshop but need at least 6 interested people. If interested please email me at
william@williammanning.com
Rock Patterns Off Scenic 128
Near Moab, Utah
The Last Frame:
This photo was created using my Canon 5D with the 100-400L series lens. I processed the photo with Adobe Photoshop. I incrementally worked the blue hues in the deep shadows of the rocks. The reds and magenta hues stood out more than the blues as the shadows were not as deep. I simply punched up these hues with a hue/saturation adjustment layer.