Dark Side of the Lens

The tutorial images for the earlier tutorials are now available in the free member’s area.

I apologise that these took me a while to get up but things here have been somewhat out of control, to put it mildly. I still intend toi recommence producing videoa within the next week as I have a heap already planned.

So, go download the images if you want to use these rather than your own images to practice the techniques in the tutorials.

Simon
http://darksideofthelens.com

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Yes, I have been slack over the last few weeks, sorry. But I do have a rather valid excuse

Our baby, Robert, decided to arrive somewhat earlier than we expected, over 4 weeks early in fact. He spent some time in the special care unit, but has just come home and is doing very well indeed. What with constant hospital visits and looking after my 2 year old while my better half was in hospital with Robert, I have not had time to scratch myself recently, let alone post here.

Can I be forgiven? Have a look at these couple of pictures and well, I think he is cute enough to have me forgiven

Hopefully I’ll get to produce some more videos starting next week, or the week after at the latest. So, hang in there please

Simon
http://darksideofthelens.com

I have been getting some great feedback, thank you all, as well as some excellent questions. However, the way I had the blog setup meant that they all came directly to me, when the questions will usually benefit others as well.

I have therefore slightly changed my feedback and questions system to more of a guestbook system, so your thoughts and questions may be shared by all.

I would also encourage people to leave comments/questions as comments on the individual posts/tutorials if they pertain specifically to one them.

If you still wish to contact me directly you are most welcome to do so via email. My email address is (split up sorry to avoid the spammers):

natator@ and then add this domain name (i.e. darksideofthelens.com)

I have taken the liberty of posting as few of the comments I have had already as if posted by their original owner. If you see a comment of your you wish to be removed please just let me know and I shall do so (but I doubt there will be any problems).

Thank you all once again for your comments and encouragement … it makes me feel like I am not just doing these for my own enjoyment.

Simon

http://darksideofthelens.com

For those with iPhones (boy do I love mine!), iPod Touch’s or other similar devices that can view video podcasts, you can now download my video tutorials from iTunes (for free naturally). The videos have been specially formatted for mobile devices.

Simply go to the iTunes store and search for “Dark Side of the Lens”.

At present the first two tutorials are there and I’ll be adding the rest periodically until I catch up. From then on I’ll publish each tutorial on iTunes the same day as they appear on my blog.

Things here are a little hectic right now with my 2 year old and the fact that his little brother is due in a few weeks. Hopefully though I’ll find the time to get back into video production again shortly.

Simon
http://darksideofthelens.com

Another in the series of video tutorials on layers in Elements 6, this time on “Adjustment Layers”.

There are several different types of adjustment layer, such as levels or hue & saturation. In this tutorial I demonstrate the use of an adjustment layer, using a hue & saturation adjustment layer as an example.

Don’t get too hung up on understanding the hue & saturation aspects of this tutorial, it is the use of the layer that is important here. I’ll be covering the hue & saturation settings, as well as the other adjustment layer types, in the future.

I have supplied you a copy of the photo that I use in this tutorial, so you can follow step by step if you so desire, but do have a go with your own photos and let me know how you get on.

Simon
http://darksideofthelens.com

As promised, here is the second part of the video tutorial on layer masks.

Photoshop Elements does not include the layer mask functionality, in its native form at least. However, it does include adjustment layers, and these little beauties have their own layer masks. In this video I show you a rather clever trick whereby you can hijack this mask and use it as you would a normal layer mask.

Best of all … it’s really easy to use.

If you are not already used to the concept of layer masks then please ensure you view the video tutorial prior to this one as that will give you the grounding you need to make sense of the one shown here.

Simon
http://darksideofthelens.com

As I mentioned in my last video, I see layers as being about the most powerful tool there is in Photoshop, Elements, and all the good photo editing packages.

Within the topic of layers there are two specific areas that I would define as being the most powerful aspects of layers. These are layer masks and Adjustment layers. In this video, and the next, I will address the former of these, the wonderful layer mask.

Read more…

As I photographer I just love looking at photos of all, well ok, almost all, kinds. Often I go hunting for photos to get ideas, or for images for the blog or other web sites I assist with (within copywrite limitations I hasten to add).

Until recently I used Google image search. It was ok, did the job, but that’s about all there is to say about it.

Then I discovered new formula Dazzle-Flash and my whites have never looked whiter!!! Oops, no, sorry, then I discovered this amazing add-on for Firefox (it also works in Flock, I.E. - I am not sure about other browsers).

It used to be called Piclens but has recently changed it’s name to Cooliris. It is my absolute fabourite add-on to Firefox, and I use heaps of them. Here is a very brief demo video from the Cooliris people.

It makes searching for images 100 times faster and 200 times more fun.

Read more…

I have had several requests from people (thank you) for some tutorials on using layers in Photoshop Elements. I had intended to leave this until a little later in the piece, but there’s no harm in bringing it forward a little, so here we go.

This first video explains the basic principles. Some of you may already know layers at this level but I want to make sure that everyone has the basics mastered so we can attack the more complicated stuff in the next few videos.

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Adobe have announced the upcoming launch of the next version of Photoshop Elements, version 7.

It is due to hit the shelves in October with an expected retail price of US$99.99 (with a reduced price for an upgrade) if purchased alone, or it is also being bundled with Photoshop.com Plus and Premiere Elements 7 (US$149.99).

Is it worth waiting for this new version if you are looking to buy Elements? Is it worth upgrading from an earlier version? From what I have read it sounds like Elements 7 is going to be a large improvement on previous versions, and let’s face it, Elements 6 is pretty swish anyway.

Read more…