Photoshop Scares Me

I hear this a lot from people who are just dipping their toes in the digital photography world. I agree, opening Photoshop can be a bit like venturing into the land of Oz without a yellow brick road. Thankfully, those programmer geniuses at Adobe made things user friendly. Forget what those tool icons mean in the toolbar? Just place your cursor over them and the name pops up! Make a change you’d like to undo? Find your history palette and undo it. There are so many tutorials and books out there that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Here is a list of the ones that I’ve used and had the most success with.

Books: Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby. He definitely takes the scary out of Photoshop and breaks things down in an easy to re-create way.

Online Tutorials: Michael Rather has a free podcast series on iTunes that is excellent at explaining advanced beginner to advanced techniques. I wouldn’t start with him if you’ve never opened Photoshop before, but once you’ve taken a beginner class or gotten comfortable with the basic menus and techniques, he’s a great resource.

Curiosity Method: Honestly, the best way to figure out Photoshop is to open up a photo and just start clicking on things and seeing what they do. Cycle through the adjustment layers (found in the layers palette under the ying yang-type symbol), move the sliders and see what they do. Some of the best things were found by accident. We never would have known Potato Chips, Post-Its or Play-doh. So take those sliders and start sliding away. Also, learn by asking questions! Submit any you have to me in the comments or via email and I promise to answer them here.

Just don’t forget that handy “undo” function I mentioned earlier.

My digital camera gives me the option of taking photos as RAW or JPEG files.

What should I use? Recently I received a question on Twitter regarding the benefits of taking photographs in RAW format versus JPEG. The general rule I have used for myself is, general day to day, holiday or family photos that I want instant “shareability” of, I take in JPEG. Any travel photography or photos I think I will make significant edits of, I take in RAW. Though my camera has the option of shooting both at the same time, I never use this option. I think it is a waste of space, since you can easily make JPEGS from the RAW format.

RAW is just what it says: the completely unchanged photo information exactly as it came from your camera. These are VERY large files and can be hard to share and use if you aren’t familiar with them. Shooting in RAW will require spending much more time post-processing (the time spent at your computer in the photo program of your choice saving and editing your photos). When editing these photos you can often get back details of the photo that were lost due to incorrect camera settings or difficult lighting conditions. RAW is not a printable file format, you will need to eventually save these as a jpeg or other printable format if you want to make prints.

JPEGS are compressed files which means some of the file information is thrown away by the camera when it saves it to your memory card. You can still edit these photos, but you can’t get that lost information back. JPEGS are a managable file size and can be viewed by a variety of programs, so sharing your photos through email or on the web is easy.

RAW vs. JPEG comes down to personal preference. I almost always take a mix of each type, so I can have the best worlds. If you have the time to spend and knowledge of how raw editing works, then try out RAW. If you want to quickly view, share and print, stick with JPEG. The most important thing is to be snapping away and capturing every moment you can.

Additional Resources: http://www.dolcepics.com/articles/raw-vs-jpg/ (has some excellent photo examples of what information you can retrieve with each type of file)

Keep the questions coming! Submit them to me here, on twitter @kaibigan7 or via email at KRPphotography@gmail.com

It’s 2009. Do you know where your photos are?

We have entered a digital age where nearly everyone takes pictures, but once you take them, where do they end up? Hiding on your hard drive? Left on your memory card? Accidentally deleted when your kid/dog/husband got hold of your camera?

You have precious moments stored, but not yet displayed. You say “you’ll get to it”, but daily life gets in the way and your moments fade into distant memories.

Perhaps you see photos the pros take and wonder how you can get those same vibrant colors or neat effects on your own prints. You do a Google search or two, but get overwhelmed by all the information and abandon your search.

Let me help you get your photos organized, enhanced and up on the walls or in an album. Let me take something off your to-do list. My rates are on a per project basis and I can work with any budget!

I am a NY based photo retoucher whose experiences includes wedding, commercial product, and celebrity publicity photos, as well as restoring precious family photos and memories. More information can be found on my website at www.karenrprinz.com or look for me on Facebook by searching Karen R Prinz Photography and Retouching.