Photo Tips

   Silver by the Sea

syndee holt 2005

Go from dark and boring to bright and smashing with my photo tutorial featuring Levels, Saturation and Cloning.

 

 

Creating great product photography doesn't really require fancy equipment or even a studio.  I like to shoot in open shade (or with my shower curtain diffuser) to reduce the shadows.  These images for Silver by the Sea were shot on a TV tray in my patio, using my little point-and-shoot Sony.  Click here for Silver By the Sea images.


Summer is here and I'm betting you've got tons of digital photos!  Here's a quick Photoshop tutorial for swapping skies in your images!

 

 

I've got TONS of photo tips coming your way soon - how to photograph your work, and of course, Photoshop tips galore!

July 19, 2005

Know how the camera always adds about 10 pounds to your picture?  Here's an EASY way to remove those extra pounds!  You can use the Free Transform (Ctrl+T) in Photoshop Elements or full version of Photoshop!  Click to travel to photo tips: Slimming your subject and creating a portrait

June 29, 2005

Need slides for a show entry or book entry?  I've found a GREAT PLACE to get slides created from digital files!! 

PowerPro Slides - 866-899-0001 or www.powerproslides.com

Dave does an excellent job, he's fast and quite reasonable!!  He's my guy for slides...

 

May 30, 2005

I've noticed that many artists already do this, but when you are showing how small your work is, it's a good idea to include a familiar item for scale.  Many people use coins for this.  I like to make the background part of the scale.  Here is a photo of on of Tahichi's Warhammer guys that he finished building and painting this weekend.  See the playing card for scale?  It doesn't spacially compete with the image.  And it breaks up that boring white/grey background by giving depth the the foreground.

April 29, 2005

Like the look of soft focus?  It's just a couple of easy steps in Photoshop Elements or CS..

Click to travel to photo tips: creating Soft Focus

 

March 30, 2005

Did you know that you can use your unsharp mask for more than just sharpening a photo?  If you really crank it up, you get some interesting artistic images. 

Click to travel to photo tips: using Unsharp

March 5, 2005

Let's get equipment out of the way  - I use Sony Mavicas.  I've owned 5 now (counting the ones I bought for the "real job").  I currently use a CD 400 and I haven't found one single reason to replace it yet. I've bounced it off the pavement several times and it just keeps going.  I use  PC computers, Epson printers, Epson and Kodak papers, Photoshop CS and Elements 2.0.

March 6, 2005

Okay - here's the First Rule of syn's Photography - GET IT IN THE CAMERA - avoid shooting a photo if you are thinking "I'll crop it later".  Even as much fun as I have in Photoshop, life is so much simpler when all I have to do is open the files, resize them and save them in their respective folders.

This leaf pin was shot for Expression magazine on a succulent plant in my garden.
This necklace appeared in Jewelry Crafts.  It was shot on the hood of my silver truck.

Second Rule: THE WORLD IS YOUR STUDIO - outdoors or indoors - everything can be your background.  Learn to think with your Macro lens in your brain. For most jewelry shots, you are only looking for a 16x16 inch area to shoot.  By the way, if you don't know where the Macro setting is on your camera, the universal symbol is  a flower.  If you don't have a Macro setting, you are going to have problems getting a close enough image and maintain quality in your image.  Let's take a look at some more  photos I've done around my house in the photo gallery..