Photography Tips and Tricks

Sometimes you’ll look at a photo and think, “Gee, I wish I could tweak this photo, and then it would be perfect.” With Photoshop or similar photo editing software you can change anything you want in a photo. Here are the basics to making your photo perfect.

Skin Imperfections

Pimples. Zits. Bruises. Scars. No matter what the skin problem, they can all be removed with Photoshop in just seconds. Your subject can have the flawless skin of a movie star and no one has to know it wasn’t natural.

 Simply select the cloning tool from the toolbox. Now, at 100% opacity, pick a place of origin that is close to the imperfection, but is perfect looking. Choose a brush that will work best for the size of the imperfection. Cover the imperfection with the cloned skin.

Take a look at the example. The little girl has beautiful, perfect skin…except for the circles under her eyes. The cloning tool was used to select the peachy colored skin of her cheeks and the cloning tool covered the circles with a medium sized brush. The second photo shows the perfect skinned results.

The place of origin may have to be changed to different spots if you are covering a big area. Also, if your edges seem not to blend very well, take opacity down to 50%.

Extra Objects

Have you ever taken a photo and then realized there was a really ugly object in an otherwise perfect picture? Here is how to zap that object.

With the eyedropper, select a color that is right by the object. Then, with a paintbrush, paint over the object.  This technique works really well to blot out aircraft, power lines, and radio towers in landscape photos.

If this looks a bit odd, take the cloning tool and match the area to its background with the technique used for perfecting skin, above.

Redeye

Who hasn’t had a photo ruined by red spots on their subject’s eyes? There is a simple solution, though. Just select a very small round paintbrush and black paint in Photoshop. Magnify the photo until the eyes are quite large. Now, set the opacity to 50% and cover the red. Presto! No more redeye!

With Photoshop there’s no reason to trash a photo ever again. Just practice these tips and you will have fantastic photos every time.

If you’ve been using a digital camera for a while, you know how fast they can go through batteries. Stopping to change batteries can ruin some good shots and good digital camera batteries can be expensive! Here are some tips to make those batteries last longer, giving you more shots per set.

LCD

Your digital camera’s LCD screen can be one of the biggest drainers of battery life.  Whenever possible, press the LCD button and switch to using the view finder. Most cameras will still let you preview photos and change settings through the view finder, but it uses much less energy than the LCD screen.

Flash

Flash is another huge drain on the life of your digital camera’s batteries. Only use the flash when it is really needed. The flash can be turned off by pressing the button with the lightning icon.

Try to use low light settings and modes to make up for lower light conditions, or move to a spot that is brighter.  Even natural light through windows can be enough to make up for not using a flash.

Another option is to use a separate flash that runs on its own batteries. At least you will use up the batteries on the flash and not the camera, which may save you a missed shot down the road.

Video

Rounding out the top three battery zappers is video mode. Video mode takes a large amount of energy. Try to only take videos when they are really going to be something you treasure. Silly videos may be fun, but videos that you are going to delete right away should be avoided as much as possible.

Standby

How long your camera stays on standby is another thing to consider to save battery life. You can easily shorten this amount of time by going to your menu and selecting Auto Power Off. On the other hand, if you know you are going to be taking a lot of pictures, leaving your camera on will actually save more energy than turning it off and on.

Using all of these tips will extend your digital camera’s battery life by at least an hour. Who couldn’t use at least another hour?