If you’ve ever wondered what the small icons in the Layer palette do, you might be surprised at how useful they can be. Here’s what the Lock Transparent Pixels icon does and how you can use it.

There are times when you are working with content on layers in Photoshop that the layers can do things that you don’t expect them to do. For example, in this image, I have extracted the background to a layer of its own by selecting it and then choose Layer > New > Layer via Copy.

I now want to blur this layer so if I select it and apply a Gaussian blur filter to it, you will see that the Gaussian blur filter pushes the background over the edges of the flower.

This time, instead of selecting the layer contents I selected the Lock Transparent Pixels icon in the layers palette.

Now when I apply the same heavy blur filter you’ll see that the edges of the background are maintained.

The layer is blurred but only the area that was covered by the original pixels is blurred and the blur isn’t permitted to ‘bleed’ into the area that contains fully transparent pixels.

This option is useful when painting over details to change their color. For example, when you photograph someone against a green screen background you will find hairs and areas around the very edge of your subject may have a green tinge. Or when you extract a subject, like a building, photographed in bright sunlight it may display some chromatic aberration around its edges.

If you select the layer by Control + Clicking on it (Command + Click on the Mac) and sample a color from adjacent pixels you can set the Brush to Color mode and paint over the edges. The problem is that, as you paint, the color is built up on partially transparent pixels which, if you paint too many times, begin to lose their transparency.

If, on the other hand, instead of selecting the layer, you click the Lock Transparent Pixels option and then paint with the brush set to the same Color blend mode and sampling colors from the image as you go, you’ll paint out the problem colors but without affecting transparency.

The same option can be used when you fill a selection with a foreground or background color by pressing Alt + Backspace (, Option + Delete on the Mac). If the selection is partially transparent and if you simply Control + Click on the layer to select it, the more you fill it the more transparency is lost. On the other hand, if you select Lock Transparent Pixels you can fill it over and over again and no transparency is lost.

In short, using Lock Transparent Pixels ensures that an object on a layer can never become more or less transparent than it was when first created and that its edges won’t change if you, for example, add a blur to it.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Photoshop: Working with Locked Pixels

Getting from here to there. Transportation.  This Travel Photography Subject is easy because you will be directly involved, one way or the other, as you travel.   From the planes that take you over vast oceans, to the trains, taxis, rickshaws, tuk-tuks, motorcycles, chicken buses, long boats, barges…..I think you get the picture.  Transportation is the backbones of travel, and unless you’re hoofing it on foot, you’ll be using some form of transportation from the moment you leave your house.

The trick is to get creative with your photos of transportation.  While standard, representation shots of the side of the bus you rode from Nairobi to Arusha will do, what’s another way to tell the story?  Do you have shots of what it’s like inside, packed three to a seat? What about luggage storage or the exhaust billowing out the tailpipe?  And along the way, do you make any stops and what’s the activity around the bus like?  The driver and the money handler, what’s their part in the travels?

Take a look at not only the aesthetics of your mode of transportation, but also how it fits in with the overall culture.  In some places taxis are everywhere and run by highly organized groups.  Driver’s tend to know each other and may be more cooperative.  In others locations it’s far more adversarial.  You’ll get a flavor for the culture pretty quickly.  Try to incorporate that into your representation of the mode you choose.

Some people also find a certain fascination with one particular mode, especially when it’s something new.  If this is you, run with it!  Maybe it’s rickshaws in Asia.  For instance, you could collect shots of all the different decorations and colorings.  Or document the different drivers you see.  If your travels are centered in one country, maybe decsribe how the rickshaws change from town to town or region to region (if they do at all).  Expanding out from there, how do the rickshaws in Vietnam compare to those in Nepal?  Or Africa?

Also take a look at not just human transport, but the transportation of goods.  In some areas, half the wheels on the ground are carrying commerce from here to there.  Carts full of vegetables, fruit or TVs.  Lories packed beyond capacity with cotton from the fields.  Mules, oxen, yaks and horses packing rice, crates and climbers expedition gear to the Himalayas.  It’s all fodder for the overall category of transportation.

What have been your experiences shooting Transportation during your travels? Post a photo or link in the section below and include a bit of background information.

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Previous articles in the Travel Photography Subjects series include Water, Old People, Young People, Religion, Sports, Socializing, Icons, Rich and Poor.  Be sure to subscribe to this site to receive the other 15 subjects as they are posted!

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Travel Photography Subjects: Transportation

Today portrait photographer Christina N Dickson shares tips on how to shoot engagement portraits. Christina’s work can be found at www.ChristinaNicholePhotography.com.

Shooting engagement portraits are perhaps some of the most enjoyable for photographers. Most often, they are taken before the whirlwind of wedding planning is fully underway, and the couple is still quite enamored with one another. How do you take advantage of this time and produce incredible images? Follow these few steps to achieve real and vibrant engagement portraits.

1. Be involved!

As a photographer, you must keep your people skills sharp. With engagement photos, you have to do your research on the couple you are photographing. What are they like as a couple? What are they like as individuals? What is their wedding going to be like? How did they meet? This is going to affect the way you want to build your images and portray them.

2. Encourage affection!

Rather than posing each shot, ie, “okay, now you kiss her cheek!” encourage your couple to show as much affection as possible. Every couple does certain things to show one another love. If you want to capture them accurately, you will urge this type of interaction.

3. Be observant!

A couple is most natural when they are focusing on one another. Try to direct the shoot by suggesting they talk to one another, telling one another most embarrassing moments, or 5 things they love about each other– topics that will pull out expression, interaction, and affection.

4. Remember that space determines relationship!

If a couple is leaning in for a kiss, or walking arm in arm, you will be able to communicate a message of intimacy. Sometimes you can get sweet shots with contrast and tension in the picture by placing the couple far apart in the frame, but be sure that this is your purpose if your going to do it.

5. Tell a story.

No love story is the same. Find unique traits about the couple, and then pull this out in the creation of your images. If the couple is perfectly at ease with one another because they have been best friends for 10 years, you can create images with a laid back and contented feel. If the couple has had a whirlwind romance after meeting on e-harmony.com, it will be natural to pull out the affection and passion of their relationship

6. Be open to suggestions!

Often times the bride to be will have an idea for a shot she will suggest to you before hand. Other times her fiancé may think of an idea on the spot during the shoot. If you can integrate these ideas into your shooting, you will delight the couple, and possibly find yourself inspired by new ideas.

7. Be personable!

If you get to know your couple, and allow them to fall in love with your personality and style, you have a good chance of booking them for a wedding also. Your job is not only to take good pictures, but also to give them a fabulous time they will remember for the rest of their lives.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Engagement Portrait Shoots: 7 Professional Tips to take your Engagement Shoots to the Next Level

How to Photograph yourself with a self timer:

Step1: Choose a good background

Step 2: Set Self timer on your camera

Step 3: Smile

Step 4: Be Careful

Step 5: Call 911

What photography disaster have you had? Share them in comments below.

Thanks to Douwe who was the first to send this in.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

How [Not] to Take a Self Timer Portrait

Birds are very interesting creatures, but it’s not so easy to photograph them. Wild birds usually don’t pose where you want and, moreover, it’s often difficult to get close enough to take quality pictures. But if you know some basics of bird photography, it becomes much easier to capture amazing moments of the birds’ life.

Equipment

It’s not necessary to have an expensive camera of lens, however the proper equipment lets to take bird photos easier.

Lens
Most birds are quite shy, so you need at least 200mm (300mm is better) to take pictures of them. Longer focal length not only lets to photograph birds from larger distance, it also gives more blurred background. However more millimeters (or larger aperture) means more expensive, larger and heavier lens. Knowing all that, I think that 400mm f/5.6 lens is the best, if you want to have as much millimeters as possible, not too small aperture and still want to be mobile. Of course, you can make magnificent bird images with 100mm or less, just you should find more courageous birds or compose them to landscape.

Grey Heron is landing far enough where it feels safe, but with 400mm it's possible to capture it with all the details.

Camera
In bird photography, almost all DSLR’s will make a good job. However, if you’re planning to photograph birds in flight, pay attention to fps (frames per second), high ISO results and AF (autofocus) system’s accuracy. If you don’t have a DSLR camera, then bird photography becomes a bit more difficult (especially due to slow AF), but don’t give up – a good photographer, I believe, will make better bird photos with mobile phone than a poor one with the most expensive equipment.

Tripod, monopod, flash, even remote control sometimes help much, but usually aren’t necessary.

Camera settings

It’s very important to know what settings to choose in certain situation to get most from your camera.

Exposure
In bird photography lens with long focal length are usually used, so it’s very important to set not too long exposure, if you don’t want that camera shake would cause blurry pictures. The rule is to set expose not longer than focal length of your lens. For example, if your lens focal length is 400mm, you need to set at least 1/400 exposure to get sharp images. However, it is valid only if you have a full-frame camera. If your have a DSLR with smaller sensor (e.g. APS-C DSLR – with 1.6 crop factor), you need to multiply millimeters of your lens from the crop factor. This time that would be (400 x 1.6 = 640) 1/640 exposure. If you don’t have a DSLR, you usually won’t need to multiply anything – the focal length, written on your camera lens, usually already is multiplied (actually it’s 35mm equivalent). Today, most lens or cameras have image stabilization (IS, VR…), and that helps much in low light conditions. Using it, you can set as many steps longer exposure, as you find in your lens/camera specifications, and get sharp images. For instance, if there is a 2 steps 400mm lens stabilizer, you can set 2 steps longer exposure (1/400-1/200-1/100, with APS-C camera: 1/640-1/320-1/160). When using tripod, of course, these rules to minimize camera shake are not so important.

If you want so freeze action, set 1/1000 or shorter exposure, if you would like to show movement, use 1/60 or longer.

Aperture
As you may already knew, aperture controls DOF (depth of field). That means, if you want a more blurred background, set the largest aperture (the smallest number). However, when using telephoto lens, some parts of bird’s body may appear out of focus, so pay attention where exactly you are focusing (that usually is the bird’s eye). If necessary, close aperture a bit.

When photographing these young Swallows I needed to set f/8 aperture to get both birds in focus.

ISO
In bird photography, as in anywhere else, the lower ISO speed, the better. However, it’s much better to set ISO 800 or 1600 and get a sharp picture, than ISO 200, and get the blurry one.

This photo of Black Redstart was made with ISO 2000, because there wasn't much light, and I believe it was worth it.

Some other notes
When photographing birds, three modes work the best. If you want to control aperture (depth of field), choose Av (aperture priority) mode. For shutter speed controlling (especially useful when photographing birds in flight) use Tv (shutter priority) mode. If you exactly know what settings you need, choose M (manual) mode.

If you photograph dark bird in light background or want to get more details from dark areas, set the positive exposure compensation value, if you want to avoid overexposed areas, set the negative one.
I recommend you to always shoot in RAW, if possible, because later you can easily fix such things as WB (white balance) with computer.

Ways to photograph birds

The next step is to learn, how to get to the birds closer, so then you will be able to take quality pictures of them.

So you can:

Don’t do anything exceptional
Some birds are courageous and let you to come close enough. The best example is Mute Swans.

Move carefully
Many birds let you to come close enough if you simply don’t make any sudden movements.

Stalk
Sometimes this really works, just make sure that bird doesn’t see you when you are getting close and then, very carefully, take picture.

Lie without any movements
Birds sometimes come surprisingly close, when you lie. Just find a good place or put some food and be patient!

Hide
When photographing a shy bird or wanting a small bird to come very close for a quality photo this is the best technique. You can hide using hunting blind, camouflage net or the blind you made yourself from surrounding materials. The lower is blind, the more courageous birds feel. If you use surrounding materials to camouflage the blind or to hide yourself, that is another advantage. You can hide near various objects, which attracts birds. Also, you can put some food where you want for birds to come. Sunflower’s seeds are the best food in most cases. If you want that bird would sit on the twig or something similar before taking food, put that twig above the food.

Here you can see the photo of Great Tit and how it was made.

Sometimes it's enough to put some sunflower's seeds on the grass! And this is the result.

It doesn’t matter which way you choose, be patient. Don’t wander from one bird (birds) to other (others), if you didn’t succeeded from the first time. Sometimes it’s a good idea to go back next day and try again.

The Image

Now, lets talk about the image itself. We know what equipment we need, what camera settings to choose, how to get to the bird closer, now it’s time to find out how to make the image of the bird look attractive.

The light
Everything starts with a good light. The best time for photography is morning or evening because the light is soft and has a pleasant hue, shadows are not so distinct, it’s easier to get details from very bright and dark areas.

In this example you can see that this White-winged Tern has both black and white feathers, but because it was photographed in the evening, there are no pure white or black areas.

Composition
It is usual to leave some space in the direction the bird is looking or flying. Rule of thirds sometimes helps too. Simply try some different framing to see when you get the best result. In addition, try to avoid any distracting elements, when you are taking the picture. And one more thing to mention: when you are taking the photo of the bird, try to be in it’s eye level.

The bird’s sitting place and the background
It’s the best, when the place, where the bird sits, shows bird’s natural habitat. It can be almost anything because birds live in very different habitats. The background shouldn’t be distracting and usually it looks better when it isn’t the sky (but not always!).

Capture something more

Ethics of bird photography

Birds are wonderful creatures. When you are taking photos, don’t harm them. I strongly advice you not to photograph birds near nests (except when the distance is large and bird isn’t sensitive to disturbance – there are only very few such species). Even if you don’t harm birds, you can show the place of the nest for predators. The life of bird is more important than a photo.

Conclusion

Bird photography is exciting and full of adventures. I hope after this article it will be easier for you to take beautiful bird photos.

About the Author: Tadas Naujokaitis lives in Lithuania. See more of his work at www.tadasnaujokaitis.tk and connect with him on his Facebook page.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

An Introduction to Bird photography

On the opposite end of the spectrum from rich would be the poor.  Every country has a population that lives on less.  Sometimes it’s obvious, with large ghettos or shanty towns, but sometimes the poor and more wrapped around  inside a society, speckled here and there.  Unlike photos of the rich, I know people often have moral issues with taking photos of poor people.  Some see it as exploitation while others are just downright uncomfortable being around beggars and the needy.  My advice here would be the same for taking pictures of anyone; try to get to know them, ask permission and, if the situation warrants it and you’re comfortable, offer alms as thanks.

I’d caution against heading into the poorer parts of town just to take photos.  If you’re going to go there, go to learn first and take photos second (see my previous advice on leaving your camera behind, just for an hour or ten).  I know this isn’t often possible, especially if you’re on a tour, but it does result in better photos.  Go with the intent of learning more, making a connection.  The picture with this post can be seen as an example of that.  While these two gentlemen, Kashmiri and Digboda,  in Nepal were hired as our porters, and paid well for their work, I took the time on the trail to make a connection, asking them how they were doing in Nepali (the little that I know) and finding out where they came from, if they have family, the normal ‘get to know me’ questions.  This photo of them shows the intensity with which they carried our packs to basecamp and my request for a photo was happily granted after they had a hearty lunch.

Just as you’d look for many aspects of the rich in a country and how they fit into society, do the same for the poor.  Is the population large or small?  Obvious or integrated? Are they constantly begging tourists (if you’re in a large, obvious tourist bus, you’re going to have a different feel for this than if you’re alone, without a camera and on the ground) or more reserved?  Are they approachable or withdrawn to strangers?  What do they do for entertainment, food and shelter?

Yes, photos of the poor can be done in an exploitive manner.  But with a bit of humility and sensibility, being able to show the real life conditions and personalities of those living them is worth the time to present a fuller picture of life on your travels.

If you have particularly favorite photos of the poor you’d like to share, please do so in the comments section below.

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Previous articles in the Travel Photography Subjects series include Water, Old People, Young People, Religion, Sports, Socializing, Icons and Rich.  Be sure to subscribe to this site to receive the other 15 subjects as they are posted!

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Travel Photography Subjects: Poor

After just on 50,000 responses the results are in – and they’re pretty conclusive – here at dPS people certainly like their DSLRs.

Of course dPS has a fairly ‘enthusiast’ type audience so I wouldn’t claim that this is an accurate reflection of the total percentage of DSLR users going around today – but it certainly shows a shift towards DSLRs in our community (and beyond).

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

What Percentage of Our Readers Use a DSLR as their Primary Camera? [Poll Results]