Soliciting submissions for tip of the week re-post

I'm looking for submissions to start a weekly tips post. We would like to have tips for beginner, intermediate and advanced members. Tips can relate to anything that can help us to be better photographers. It can be related to gear, shooting, post processing....even a tip on how to prepare for a back country photo trip....how to pack, getting in shape, what equipment to bring, etc.

After reading a couple replies I agree that I was asking too much. I wanted essays rather than a few lines...ooops!

This is a way that we, as photographers, can share what we've learned with others who may need that "little extra" to make their photography go to the next level. I got a tip from John Mumaw several months ago...just a minor thing but it has helped me immensely.

I know we have lots of talent out there so let's share what we know with others. Send me a mail through the forum email tab and I'll get moving on it.

Thanks!

I'd like the articles to be well thought out and easy to understand.

I think this might be putting people off a bit. When you say "articles" and "well thought out" it sounds like a lot of work. If I'm going to write a well thought out article, I'm going to send it to Jim for publication and get 1 year of free membership in NPN! (At least that's what you used to get for an article--I haven't submitted one in a while. )

I would suggest that a "tip" just be a couple sentences (or longer if a person is willing to write more). Tips should be quick and easy to write and to read and understand. Perhaps we need a couple examples so we can see what you have in mind? Once we get a feel for what constitutes a "tip" it might be easier for folks to jump in a offer some up. You might not get one every week but just post them as they come in. Perhaps there can be an archive somewhere on the site for tips that are more than a month old so we don't clutter up the forum?

Just thinking out loud. Feel free to ignore.

I think you will have more luck doing what Phillip suggests.
Joe Rogers

OK, that works! Forget the long stuff and lets go with a few sentences. Thanks for the input guys.

Here's an example of a tip I got from John Mumaw a few months ago:

'Image Polish' is a step that can really make your images pop!

Set your Unsharp Mask filter to:
Amount-20
Radius-50
Threshold-0.

This doesn't sharpen the image at all, but instead cuts through the 'haze' using a local contrast enhancement. Note that any areas on the verge of overexposure will be pushed over that edge using this technique.

I try it on every one of my images. Sometimes it works great, other times not so great. It's worth a shot, though. Let me know what you think.

John


This simple little tip has worked wonders on a lot of my images.

I'd love to see a tip on how to make nice sharp images for the forum posts as another possible example.

Here's one I learned from Eddie Tapp. Works in CS5....you will no longer have to size brushes with the bracket keys. Just hold down alt key PC, and right click and hold. Bush will appear as red spot. Move mouse to the right and brush gets larger, to left and it gets smaller, up and it gets softer, down and it get harder.
Joe Rogers

Interestingly, I remember John's tip that you mention Jack. It has helped with a few of my photos as well.

I also recall a suggestion from Marc Adamus, whereby you create an Orton effect via a duplicate layer and reduce the luminosity to 10%-15%. It gives an image a touch of glow without the obvious saturation, blur, and dark areas of a full Orton. It's a nice touch for some images. Probably more of a quick tip than short essay material.

I think we're on a roll...keep em coming folks!

I don't understand Roger's Adamus tip--presumably the 'duplicate layer' is blurred? Are you talking about Opacity of 10-15%? Is the layer in 'Luminosity' mode?

Since the 20,50,0 tip has been mentioned a couple times, I have a tip that probably is a bit too long to cover in detail (more of the 1 yr membership 'articles' that Phil mentions )--so I'll shorten it to a general suggestion:
Any time you hear a procedural (like PS) tip, learn why the tip works rather than just use the tip blindly. This is probably the best advice I can give when it comes to things like Photoshop.
For example, when I first heard about the 20,50,0 thing (its all over the internet, I forget where I first heard it) a couple years back, instead of using the 'trick' I grabbed a PS book and refreshed my memory of what exactly "Amount,Threshold,Radius" were. Then I played with various combinations and compared the results in highly magnified images. What I found is that some images benefit from local contrast adjustments like this, others benefit from other combinations (too many to list here). It depends on the type of image. Moral of the story: always experiment with the underlying components of a 'trick' first, before you apply it to your image.

Here's one I got from Jesse while I was processing some wedding images. It might be a no-brainer for everyone else but it kind of blew my mind (I don't shoot people often). This applies to processing in LR, to get that dreamy, soft skin look reduce the clarity down to -15 or so. I've noticed it could work for some nature images as well and it looks a little like the Orton effect with half the processing steps.