Blog - Capture Life Through a Geek's Lens - Jeff Smallwood Photography

Jan 18, 2014

digital editing photoclub photography photoshop technique

Daylight on the left. Evening on the right. Being a member of a photo club or photo group can have great rewards when you're pushed to try something new. That's exactly what happened here.

The Calvert Photo Club's January assignment/challenge was the term "motion". I've wanted to experiment with capturing motion in the car for quite a while but never got around to it. Having to produce something for the monthly challenge finally kicked my butt in gear. Keep reading to see how this image was created.

Jan 5, 2014

digital editing lightroom photography photoshop software technique

In the quest to improve my photography skills (does that ever end?), I've been looking at the work of others I admire. I've been looking at portraits in particular and one of the techniques I've been interested in learning is how to create gritty, dark, black and white portraits. I figured that before I try this with photos of anyone else, I better experiment on my own photo first. What follows is a detailed step-by-step on exactly how I created this self-portrait.

Stacking and Bulb Ramping

Dec 31, 2013

digital editing photography photoshop technique

Bulb ramping is the ideal technique for shooting time lapse segments, but you can do more with the resulting photos than just animating them. Stacking them together allows you to simulate extremely long exposures without the use of filters, and helps preserve the original contrasts and colors of the scene.

May 27, 2013

digital editing lightroom photoshop technique

Don't be so hasty to toss those boring photos out. Even when we're in a dramatic location or have an interesting subject, we've all ended up with a photo that makes you say "eh". Maybe it's the light, maybe the weather, maybe we forgot to use a particular technique. Here's a step by step on how I fixed up this boring photo for an online exercise. Hopefully some of these techniques will help you out too.

When a GND Just Won't Do

Nov 12, 2012

digital editing photography photoshop technique

Taking long exposures is one of my favorite techniques. I don't go anywhere without my B+W 1.7 and 3.0 filters and being able to slow things down, even in full sunlight in the middle of the day, can help create some unique situations.

But sometimes the long exposures make it difficult to use GND filters, so here's a simple digital technique to simulate them.

Jul 13, 2012

digital editing photography photoshop technique

How was the moving image created? You start by taking a series of photos using burst mode. Then use a little bit of Photoshop power and a few plugins with the technique I describe here to create your own moving photographs.

May 24, 2012

adventures photoshop

If at first you don't succeed...

...try, try again.

I occasionally attach little stories or some background information about a particular image, but this one's definitely got a story to it.

Creating the Droste Effect

Oct 27, 2011

digital editing photography photoshop software technique

Have you ever pointed a video camera at the monitor where the live image is being displayed. Have you ever pointed your webcam at your computer screen and witnessed the screen in a screen in a screen ad infinitum? I know I used to do that all the time as a kid, always with a twinge of guilt that somehow the infinity point might break the screen, but here's how to do it all digitally.

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