How to straighten your photos in Photoshop | a revisit

We’ve done this tutorial before, but thought we would do a revisit.  :)  Usually when straightening, there are several different ways to do it (in Adobe Camera Raw ACR or Lightroom LR) but today we are going to do it in Photoshop.

We’ll take this photo:

1

 

and straighten the horizon some to this:

2

 

So first of all, I want to say that this photo wasn’t that crooked and this method is best for photos that just need a slight adjustment.  You’ll see why.

First step:  Find your ruler tool as shown below.
Screen shot 2013-03-04 at 12.06.31 PM

With the ruler tool, draw a line on the horizon line (the real horizon).  It doesn’t have to be a long line.

Then go to Image>Image Rotation>Arbitrary and click OK in the box that pops up.  You don’t need to make any adjustments to it at all.
Screen shot 2013-03-04 at 12.07.01 PM

This is what happens after you click OK…  (this is why I said the smaller the adjustment the better. :) )
Screen shot 2013-03-04 at 12.07.37 PM

After that I crop out the white areas and call it good.  Hope this helps :)  Happy Monday!!

 

Enhancing brown tones | A Free Photoshop Action

This freebie action for Photoshop enhances brown tones and gives an overall warmth to your photo.  I made it specifically for outdoor shooting, but with proper WB and exposure it could definitely enhance those indoor shots too. :)

Here is the photo I used  the action on today.  This is my son in the Boston Commons over the summer.

Before and After

Before and After

 

With the action you will need to mask the “enhance browns” layer off of the skin using a soft black brush.  Then mask the “creamy skin” layer on to skin using a soft low opacity white brush.   That is it.  You can lower the opacity of the “enhance browns” layer if it is too strong as well.

 

Here’s couple from some great friends of mine and TIL. :)

Ali Shyrock Photography

Ali Shyrock Photography

Maddox

Maddox Photography

And here is the action for you to try… Hope you love it!  (Click on the next line to download)
Enhanced Brown Tones | TIL freebie Photoshop action

 

New Year, New Business Giveaway!

giveaway

It’s that time of year when everyone does a little tidying up and tries a few new things in business – so why not have a giveaway? Ooh La La Actions and Swoop & Olive Logos has teamed up with us to do a fun New Years giveaway – and not only that, they’re offering coupon codes if you want to buy right away!

50% off of Vintage Color set at Ooh La La Actions: TILFAN

30% off of any premade logo at Swoop & Olive Logos: TILFAN

Same code, easy as pie! Now if you want the chance to win, enter our giveaway below by Monday at 11:59pm EST and you’ll be in the running for this cool prize pack, worth up to $62! The codes will be good until Friday, January 18th in case you aren’t the big winner – scooping up a huge discount isn’t a bad way to start out the new year, either!

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Archive: Using Pinterest in Business

Part of being successful isn’t just being known in your area, but being known on a wider scale, too. Pinterest can help a lot with both – it’s sort of like another search engine to worry about when it comes to photography!

First things first, have a board for your own sessions that are inspiring. Make sure to categorize it under the Photography category and add sessions that have a location and style described/tagged on the board. Follow other photographers and your clients on Pinterest.

Choose only a few photos from each session, or storyboards of a few images. That has greater impact than pinning the entire session – you only want to show off the best.

If possible, make sure your site has a “Pin It” button available for clients to share, too – you want to find out what inspires them from your website! Occasionally check to see what others are pinning from your site by finding a pin from your website and clicking to see more of what’s pinned from it.

That’s the pinterest basics for photographers. Got other tips that have worked for you? Leave them in the comments!

Archive: When to shoot RAW

We’ve had a few questions over the past few months about RAW. Some facts about RAW shots:

  • RAW means there is no camera preset interpretation of colors like JPEG. RAW files (CRW/CR2, NEF) can look like they are blah when you upload them SOOC
  • RAW files capture more range in each file. You can recover blown highlights or completely underexposed shots.
  • RAW files need to be processed in Camera Raw/Bridge, Lightroom, or need to be converted to DNG files to be processed in other programs.

So when should you shoot RAW? Originally, the consensus has been that RAW should be used for every pro photo, but JPG photos are useful for personal shots. I have to say, though, after trying recovery on personal photos – unless they’re just snapshots, it’s way easier to go with RAW all the time. Canon offers codec files for PC that allow you to see your RAW file images in folders, as well – I’m sure Nikon does, but I’ve never looked! :)