This is a good video tutorial put together by Belgium professional photographer Bert Stephani (www.bertstephani.com). In the tutorial he demostrates his retouching techniques using Lightroom and Photoshop. 

What would you like to see more of on the Pixels blog? Photoshops videos? Interesting web sites? Photography tutorials? This blog is for you so please leave a comment and let us know what you’d like to see more of.

Adjustment Layers are a powerful and extremely flexible way to edit photographs in Photoshop. They allow you to make dramatic changes to your photos without altering any pixels. When used in conjuction with Layer Masks, Adjustment Layers allow you to make selective adjustments to your photos without effecting the entire image (ie.  increasing the color saturation of just a single flower or just the iris of a person’s eye).  If you use Photoshop and aren’t familar with Adjustment Layers you need to watch this video!

Has inspiration walked out on you? Is your gray matter a bit too gray these days? Maybe you need a kick in the creative behindus. The Photographic Dictionary pairs photos with definitions of words, but this isn’t your bog standard A-is-for-Apple dictionary. Abstract ideas like ascent, vacuous andcuriosity are our favorites, but even prosaic nouns like office and bridge make you think in a different way. Whether you’ve got writer’s block or photographer’s ennui or the systemic aesthetic doldrums, the Photographic Dictionary is good for what ails you.

The Photographic Dictionary
via Photojojo

Photo credits: Valerie Enriquez, Laurent Champoussin, Sophie Curtis, David Warren and Hasisi Park.

UPDATE: PhotoCamp Utah has been sold out! They were only admitting 200 people and all tickets have been sold. For those lucky enough to get a seat we’ll see you there.

When: March 14th, 8am to 6pm
Where: East Bay Studios, Provo, Utah

Who is Invited?
Anyone of any photographic skill level is invited. Topics offered will appeal to amateur enthusiasts on up to full time professionals!

What to Expect
A full day of presentations by local and some imported quality photographers sharing tips, training and inspiration. A large Keynote address to the entire group will include multiple speakers, followed by 3 workshops to choose from at each session following. A total of 14 classes currently scheduled! Vendors will be in attendance with the latest gear to check out, plus swag and prizes being given out throughout the day. This is a must attend event!

For more information or to register for PhotoCamp Utah, visit www.photocamputah.com.

by Ronald Day

The Bean Life Science Museum on the BYU Campus in Provo is currently showing their 2009 Nature Photography Competition and Exhibition. The exhibit runs from February 13th to March 21th, 2009. Landscape, wildlife and other outdoor photographs by both amateur and professional photographers are on display. More information about the show is available on their web site.

645 East 1430 North
Provo, UT 84602
(801) 422-5051

Congratulations to Pixels’ employees Ben Kuhns, Sam Scholes, and Lisa Thompson for their Honorable Mention awards. =)

Using textures is a good way make your photography more interesting. In this tutorial I will teach you how to add textures to your own photographs using Photoshop for a unique look.

Most often we use photography to stop motion in its tracks. Wide apertures, fast shutter speeds, and high ISOs bring even the fastest of objects to a halt–frozen in time. But when was the last time you experimented with long exposures? This is a fun way to make creative photos that really stand out.

Long exposure is anything longer than 1 second. All Digital SLRs and even some point-and-shoot cameras are capable of shooting exposures up to 30 seconds normally and with a Bulb exposure and cable release  you can do even longer exposures.

What You Need
• Digital Camera
• Sturdy Tripod
• Wireless Remote or Shutter Release Cable

If you don’t have a remote or cable release you can also use your camera’s timer mode.

What To Do
The best time for photos like this is just after the sun has gone down and there is still some light in the sky (such as in example 1). I love how the blue sky offsets some of the stark darkness. Once the sun has gone down you can still make some great photos, it will just mean more of your photo will be dark.

If you are photographing cars on the road remember to find a safe vantage point to avoid injury. Don’t put yourself in harms way. When photographing cars I like to find a road with a lot of curves, preferably shooting up-hill. It can also be good to shoot down on a road from an overpass or bridge. As you setup your photo take into account your safety. Again, don’t put yourself in harms way!

I’ve found that 20 seconds at f/11, ISO 100 or 200, is a pretty good starting point for night shots of traffic. Depending on how dark it is outside you might need to adjust your shutter speed or aperture accordingly.  The contrast between the red tail lights and white headlights tend to make the most interesting photos in my opinion. The trouble with headlights however, is that they will often wash out the photo or cause lots of lens flare if you are shooting at road level. At an elevated position, such as at an overpass, headlights won’t be an issue. When I’m shooting roadside, I like to avoid oncoming cars as much as possible.

So now that you’ve got your shot setup, wait for the cars from behind you to start coming. As soon as you hear or see cars starting to approach your location trigger the camera. If I see a car coming the opposite direction (potentially on its way to ruin my photo), I will often just turn the camera off, ending the exposure. If you are shooting from an elevated position this isn’t necessary.

Example 1
Nikon D300, 20 secs @ f/11, ISO 200

Example 2
Nikon D300, 20 secs @ f/11, ISO 200

Photographing at night presents some unique challenges but it is a lot of fun when you get something that turns out well. Have fun! If you try this out please post your photos to the Pixels Foto group on Flickr. –Sam

If you shoot a lot of off camera flash like me, you know that Pocket Wizards have long been the standard among professionals for radio frequency triggers. Simply put: the just work. Every. Time.

So when Pocket Wizard announces a whole new system for its radio triggers, naturally it gets people’s attention including my own. The big news with the new triggers is full ETTL (Canon) or iTTL (Nikon) support. Pop your flash on the FlexTT5 receiver, put a MiniTT1 transmitter on your camera shoot wireless TTL flash without the line-of-sight limitations of infrared systems.

If that wasn’t cool enough, the new system claims to be able to buy you a FULL STOP more shutter speed sync out of your flash setup WITHOUT switching your flashes into FP high speed sync mode.  The way it pulls this off is incredibly cool, not to mention incredibly complex. Think of it like this: to the human eye, a flash burst is essentially instantaneous. But if you talk about it in very small increments of time (try milliseconds) a flash burst is actually three separate events. The “ramp-up” is where the flash begins to fire and come up to full power, followed by the actual time the flash is at full power, and finally the trail-off. The traditional 1/250 second sync speed on cameras is designed to capture the entire life of a flash burst.

So what if your radio trigger could fire your flash BEFORE your camera’s shutter opened? The new pocket wizards do exactly that. Before the shutter snaps open, your flash(s) have already finished the ramp-up portion of their firing cycle, buying you a stop extra of shutter speed and only a 5% loss in flash power.

When you consider that a stop in camera terms is a doubling or halving of available light, a full stop extra with the new Pocket Wizards effectively makes your flashes TWICE as powerful. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me. Canon shooters get lucky too, the new Pocket Wizard system is being released for the Canon system first. Check out the links below for more good information:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2009/02/pocketwizard-flextt5-and-minitt1-full.html

http://www.pocketwizard.com/inspirations/technology/

Ben.