We’ll shoot some “virtual volume” shots in the studio against a black background…..

And then we’ll do a Photoshop demo. Download this file to work with and I’ll show you some tricks.

Shooting fireworks

~ Tripod
~ Cable Release
~ Manual exposure and focus (focus to infinity and “pull it back” a little. Or put it in auto, focus on something far away, and switch to manual)
~ Start with aperture at about f/10, adjust as needed to control exposure
~ Shutter speed slow.. he says 3-6 seconds but I’ve found that can be too long. Try 1/2 to 1 second. Or better yet, bulb mode and you can close the shutter at the peak moment.
~ ISO 100 or 200

In the video you’ll notice he says focus all the way to infinity and then pull it back a little bit… this might help explain it: Why does my lens focus past infinity?

For Thursday! Bring interesting light-colored objects to shoot motion blur against black background. For example, a white or metal/silver yo-yo, a coin (bigger the better), white streamers, etc. One thing that worked well one semester was a bunch of dollar bills (we threw them up in the air and let them come down). (not just saying that so I can keep them)

Selective color handout for Stained Glass..

Common mistakes slides..

Edit: We didn’t get to this yet.. next week!

Some Photoshop basic operations…..

Practice exercise: Split tone, dreamy focus, oil paint, and selective blur

Here’s a good article for those interested in using speedlights….

Essentially, find the exposure before you even turn the flash on. Then make it a little darker (for example f/5 to f/11). Then add the flash on the subject while keeping the other settings where they are.

Intro to masks:

Speedlights:

This is the wireless trigger set I have. It works for Canon and Nikon.

This is the manual flash I had today. I’ve heard Yongnuo brand is good too.

We’re going to erase the boring sky at Target field and replace it with a new sky

Handout

Click on each link and right-click download (or drag with mouse) to the desktop.

Sky photo

Target field

Handout……..

For the images you can click on them to open, then Right Click > Save As.. (or Download to…) or drag it to your desktop.

Skin softening

Red eye

Teeth and eyes whiten

Teeth and eyes whiten #2

And again.. as you are working with your images, how does this information become practical? Because you can measure the RGB values of a particular area and understand what those numbers imply. If the RGB values are the same (or close) you know it’s a neutral tone (black, grey, white). If the blue value is higher you know it has a more blue tone, green higher a more green tone, etc.

It also helps you gauge the brightness of that area. Anything that is supposed to be “white” should be at about 95% in each channel (RGB). That comes out to About 242 out of 255 for the brightness value (each pixel can have a value of 0-255).

Here they are…..