Rule of Thirds

According to Wikipedia: The rule of thirds is applied by aligning a subject with the guide lines and their intersection points, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line, or allowing linear features in the image to flow from section to section. The main reason for observing the rule of thirds is to discourage placement of the subject at the center, or prevent a horizon from appearing to divide the picture in half.

I have found that applying this Rule of Thirds, either consciously or subconsciously to my images, really does improve the composition. Again I quote from Wikipedia (because they really do say it best): The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.


For this Tips Lesson I would like show you how to create Rule of Thirds guides in Photoshop that you can turn on and off so that you can check every one of your images to see if it complies with this compositional "rule". I think that if you pay more attention to this you will find that your image also will have more energy and interest. I know mine do!


Here we go: (Click on any image to enlarge)

1. Open an image in Photoshop.
2. Under the Photoshop Menu choose Preferences>Guides, Grids and Slices.
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4. In the Preferences Dialog Box, in the GRID section, set your Gridline to 33.3 percent. I changed the color of my gridlines to green. I just felt that green would show up better. But you can change this color to whatever you like or leave it at the default. Make sure that your Subdivisions section is set to 1. Click OK.
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6. Now when you go back to your image in PS go to the View Menu, Choose Show>Grid. This is how you can turn your Rule of Thirds Gridlines on and off. 
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8. Practice this with a few different images to see how it applies to each and then you decide which look compositionally "correct".

Active Space

This has been a busy week. Right now I'm in Mexico enjoying the Sea of Cortez with my family ...which includes our two very rambunctious dogs.

Over the years I've found that one of the most valuable ways to learn useful photography tips is to sign up for one of the many well-run online courses available these days. Here are my favorite places to go for online courses: Learn to Take Photos (learntotakephotos.com), Equine Photographers Network (equinephotographers.org), Perfect Picture School of Photography (ppsop.com) and Better Photo (betterphoto.com).

I finished a wonderful course on Composition in photography a couple of weeks ago led by Shelley Paulson, a fantastic photographer from Minnesota. This course, offered through Equine Photographers Network, was all about composition and how to make sure your photographs have lots of punch by ensuring your compositions are as good as they can be.

One of my favorite lessons from Shelley was her lesson on Active Space. Leaving active space in front of your moving subject means that you always want to leave enough room for your subject to move into. Alternately, the space behind your subject is often referred to as dead space. The reason that this compositional technique is important is that when someone views your image and sees that your subject is moving in one direction – their eye naturally wants to move in that direction also. If you crowd your subject too much your eye has nowhere to go and your composition becomes static. I took this photo of our dog on the beach yesterday to illustrate a good example of the concept of active space.

The Orton Effect or Creating a Slide Sandwich

  

The Orton Effect gives an image a dreamlike quality. This technique was originally invented by Michael Orton. It involves taking two exact images, blurring one and then layering it over the sharp image. Before digital, Orton created the sandwich by layering two emulsion slides together. This lesson will show us how we can create a digital "sandwich" in Photoshop by using Layers and get pretty much the same results.  Click on any image to enlarge.

• Select an image and open it up in Photoshop. Make a duplicate of the image (Image>Duplicate) so that you are not working on your original. Close the original image.

• Lighten your image by changing the Blend Mode. Go to Image>Apply Image and change your Blending Mode to Screen. Make sure the Opacity is set to 100%. Your image will now appear to be Overexposed.
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• Now duplicate this image. Go to Image>Duplicate.
• Blur the duplicated image. Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set your Radius to somewhere between 10 and 80 pixels. The smaller file size of your image, the less blur you will choose (small file=small radius; larger file=large radius). You can experiment with different radius choices. 
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• Select your Move Tool from the Toolbar. Hold down the Shift Key and drag your blurred image onto the sharp one.
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• Make sure your Layers Palette is visible. Go to Windows>Layer to bring it up if it isn't already. Change your Blend Mode from Normal to Multiply. 
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• Without any further adjustments you have a dreamy fine art picture! 
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• Flatten your image. (Layer>Flatten) And then Save it!

Make your colors POP!

There are times when your photo needs a little boost to brighten up flat lighting and colors. Today we'll go over a quick way to get those images to POP!

Click on any image to enlarge it.

1. Here is my original image. 
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3. And here is the same image after using a Curves Adjustment Layer to POP the colors!
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5. Open your image in Photoshop. Change the color mode to Lab Color (Image Menu>Mode>Lab Color). You will see why this is important when we open our Curves dialog box. Instead of Red, Green, and Blue channels (as in RGB mode) you will have Lightness, "a" and "b" channels to work with.
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7. Create a New Adjustment Layer by clicking on the Adjustment Layer Icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. 
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9. Press and hold down the Option Key (Mac) or the Alt Key (PC) and click once on the Curves grid to make the grid smaller.
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11. From the Channel menu choose the "a" channel. Click and drag the top point at the curve one box to the left. Then click and drag the bottom point at the curve one box to the right.
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14. Now choose the "b" channel and do the same thing here. 
15. Click OK to close your Curves dialog box and see the results from your adjustments. You can always go back to your Curves dialog box to increase or decrease your adjustments by clicking on the Curves Adjustment Layer in your Layers Palette.
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Add a Background Texture Layer

  

Last week we learned how to copy a free image from Google Images to use with our Photoshop image.

Today we'll take that image and paste it over our Photoshop image to create a textured layer background.

Click on any image to enlarge.

• Open an image in Photoshop that you would like to add a textured background to.
• Find a texture that you like in Google images (or where ever else you'd like) and then copy and paste it onto your already open image in Photoshop. (Ctrl/Cmd V to paste) (See last week's tip on how to find free Google images)
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• After you've pasted your texture layer onto your picture in Photoshop select the texture layer and choose Free Transform under the Edit menu (Edit>Free Transform). You'll see the little handles around the edge of the texture image now. Just pull and stretch your texture image to fit over your Photoshop image from corner to corner. You may want to resize your Photoshop image down first if it's much larger than your texture image. (The free downloadable textures from Google are quite small but you can always buy larger higher res files from places like istockphoto.com ...or shoot your own backgrounds!) Once you get the texture layer sized to fit over your Photoshop picture be sure to check the OK box on the menu bar.
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• Next we want to change the Blend Mode to Multiply. Be sure your Texture layer is selected and double click the thumbnail texture image to bring up the Layer Style Dialog box. Change the Blend Mode to Multiply. Click OK.
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• Your image will be pretty dark with this new layer applied over it but you can lighten it by changing the Opacity slider.
• Since we want the texture to affect just the background we'll add a layer mask to the texture layer and paint over the areas that we DON'T want the texture to show through on. Choose a soft brush and be sure your foreground is set to black. Begin painting. In my case I've painted over the horse because I want it to remain light and without a lot of the background texture on it. You can hit Control/Command J to copy this layer if you'd like to darken the background more after you've finished painting on your mask. Remember that you can "erase" anything that you've painted by changing your foreground color to white. White erases, Black paints.
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• That's it!
• Once you get the hang of this technique it will be quite easy to add different background texture layers to many of your images. Have fun!

Free Images from Google

There are times when you want an image to use as a background for a texture in an image that you are working on and don't have the time or where-with-all to go out and shoot for it. There are many sites on the internet where you can buy and download images to use as textures or background replacements.

But a FREE and LEGAL way to get images quickly was just brought to my attention. Google has hundreds of different images in many different subjects that you can choose from, download instantly and they are all FREE.  Click on any image below to enlarge.

Here's how you find them:

1. Open www.Google.com and click on the Advanced Image Search line to the right of the Search Images button.
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3. Once you are in the Advanced Image Search dialog box you'll be able to type in the kind of image you are looking for. In my example I am looking for images of "leather textures". You can search for photos, line drawings, clip art, etc. of your subject under Content Types. You can search for particular sizes of images, etc.
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5. In the Usage Rights dialog box you can choose the type of usage you are wanting the image for. If you want to use a picture for an composite that you are working on in Photoshop that you will modify (like a leather texture, or background using a beach scene) choose the "Labeled for reuse with modification" selection.
6. I would suggest that you read the Google Usage Rights information before using an image. Just click on the "More info" tab to bring up that information.
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8. When you find the image that you like simply click on it. Next you'll get a dialog box like this:
9. Click "see full size image" and then right click on the image. Here you can choose what you want to do with it. To bring the image into Photoshop we'll just choose "Copy Image" and then go to Photoshop and Paste it into a new document or into an already opened document.
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11. Next week we'll look at how to use these downloaded images as backgrounds in an already existing photo.

Blur the Background

This week we are going to take a photo and blur the background. We can also create a soft overall focus with the same technique in a just few easy steps. Click on any image to enlarge.

1. Open your image and press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to duplicate the Background layer. Click on the Filter Menu and choose Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set the pixel radius setting to how much blur you would like. We are going to paint back in the areas that you want less blurred. So if you want the background really blurred out a lot then go for a higher radius. This may be something that you'd want to experiment with depending on your image and the effect you want to gain.
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4. Click OK after you have set your radius.
5. Your photo will now look blurry all over. You can also drop the opacity of your blurred layer down to around 50% or 60% if you want to reveal more from the sharp background layer below. 
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7. Next, you will create a Layer Mask on your blur layer. Click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. Then choose a soft brush and begin painting. Make sure that your foreground color is Black to reveal the sharpness. If you'd like to go back and erase what you have done (making parts of the image more blurred again) simply change your foreground color to White and paint over. 
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10. Play around with all of these settings for different effects and different levels of blur. It can be a lot of fun!