Here is a new amazing photography website that helps anyone learn how to light.  Ever look at a photo and wonder, “I wonder what type of lighting setup they used?”.  Well, now there’s a website (and an app) for that.  Strobox is an entire website dedicated to the behind the scenes setups of each and ever image submitted.Here is a stock photo I had shot, along with the lighting diagram I just posted.  It took me a total of about 2 minutes to make the diagram and post.  I’m definitely going to be bookmarking this website for those days when I just feel dull, and need some strobist lighting inspiration.

Here Bob (“The Miz”) shows us how easy it is with just a few steps to remove color cast issues that might have happened in your images.  Make sure to subscribe to our youtube channel for more step-by-step, easy-to-follow Photoshop video tutorials!

Have you ever taken a photograph of someone near a brightly colored wall, object, or in a certain environment; only to realize there has been a terrible colorcast on the subject?  This happens a lot.  The white balance isn’t always the issue, but more so what the light is reflecting off of.  Taking photographs of someone in the grass on a sunny day can many times make them have a slight greenish hue in their skin tones. Using some simple color range selections, and curves adjustment techniques, you can easily remove color cast issues using this simple technique that Bob Mizerek demonstrates in this video tutorial.

Want to learn how to crate and use actions in Adobe Photoshop?  Maybe you’ve heard about it, or tried it in the past, only to find yourself getting stuck or held up at a certain point?  This tutorial is for you.  It will walk you through the basics of how to record an action and then how to use it in your post processing workflow.  Tutorial by the one and only Bob Mizerek.

Cross processing is a technique where you either have the same image, shot on a tripod, captured with multiple exposures. Or, cross-processing can also be done by creating mutltiple exposure levels in post, using an original RAW file.  Here, Bob Mizerek gives us a peek inside his personal workflow to see how he took a landscape photo of a forest from dull to spectacular by cross-processing the image.

Here is a Photoshop tutorial by Bob Mizerek which shows you how to move layer masks; no matter which version of Photoshop you have.

Selectively highlighting parts of your photographs is made easy, using the methods taught in this free quality Photoshop tutorial by Robert Mizerek.  Put it in HD mode, and watch it full screen.  The best part about this method, is because it gives you the freedom to selectively accentuate certain parts of your image.  Less is more, many times.  Comment / share / subscribe to our youtube channel for more.

Here Bob takes a nature / landscape photograph and shows us how to really bring it to life even further using Adobe Photoshop.

Have you ever wondered how you can make someone or some thing look like it is melting or bursting into pieces in Photoshop?  Another way to describe it is dispersion techniques or fragmentation.  Here is a tutorial I found of basketball player melting or being liquified by Doucin Pierre that will walk you through it step by step.

All you ever needed to know about the quick selection tool in adobe photoshop – here is an easy tutorial to help you figure out how to handle it.  Making selections is one of the most important skills to master in Photoshop.  This is just one method for quick selections that you might find a good use for, depending on the image or graphic you’re working with.  I find it’s sometimes a nice alternative to the magic wand or magnetic lasso tools.  Watch it in 720 HD at full screen, and have fun listening to me babbling like I just drank 5 coffees (maybe I had; I can’t remember).

Don’t forget that with cropping, you will be losing some resolution.  If you shot the original image at 6 or 8 megapixel, you don’t want to crop too much if you intend on printing the image at a larger size.  If you’re shooting a larger megapixel camera, in the 15+ megapixel range, then you will have a lot more freedom with cropping.  I find myself mostly cropping in the camera as I’m shooting, but that’s just me.  It’s not always possible to get the perfect composition in ever single photo that you end up loving (in post processing) so there are rare occasions when cropping in Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom comes in handy.

Here is a Photoshop tutorial I recently made for OnlineWebMarket.net showing how to use the define pattern feature in order to create seamless textures and seamlessly tileable graphics.  I post a lot of tutorials narrated by other people, but this time the voice you’re hearing is my own. This is a quick demonstration on how easy it is to create a metallic mesh or grille texture that you can use as a background or a design element.  In just a few simple steps, you can use this easy to learn technique to create all sorts of backgrounds and backdrops.  Whether you need a fresh twitter background, a texture for your website, or even something high-resolution, this is a great technique to learn and know.

A simple Photoshop video tutorial which shows you step by step how to change colors of specific objects within a photograph.  Tutorial by Robert Mizerek.

Cycling through blending modes can be a pain if you’re doing it one at a time with the mouse.  I quickly discovered clicking on the list, and then using the up and down arrows on the keyboard.  This method is even easier, using the shift and plus minus keyboard shortcuts.  Enjoy! I’ll have to remember to start breaking my old habits, and use this way myself.

Another amazing tutorial brought to you by our pal Evan Sharboneau!  Who would have thought, a wire whisk, some steel wool, and a lighter could be used in combination to make amazing long exposure photography effects?  It’s definitely worth noting that this is definitely not safe in drier grassier areas; so be sure you aren’t going to start any forest fires.  Smokey the Bear will come and get you.  Be safe and very careful if you decide to try this for yourself.

For more examples, tricks, tips, and techniques, I highly recommend checking out Evan’s jam packed Ebook entitled Trick Photography and Special Effects.  You can read a more in depth review of what we thought about it here.

A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio. 

The return on investment formula:

I recently analyzed sales from a one hour photo shoot several years ago, during a planned trip. The results were suprising. Here I was thinking that it had been a waste of time with all of the expenses, although after calculating the earnings I was pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately not everything you do is going to have a great ROI.

Why is ROI important to the success of your business?  If you don’t crunch the numbers once in a while, you won’t know if you’re barking up the right tree or not.  Be smart about your business analysis methods; try not to get too addicted to analyzing every statistic, to the point where you are wasting your own production time.  Throwing a bunch of spaghetti at the wall is one way to eventually see what sticks, but eventually you also have to use what you’ve learned in order to make wiser business decisions.  You’ll figure out which types of work you do, or specific products you sell, are the most worthwhile; also which types are not as profitable, maybe even a waste of time and money.  This method works whether you sell ipad, iphone, or android apps, microstock imagery, or you are a zazzle pro seller or cafe press store owner.  Everyone has a favorite type of product to produce, or maybe even a photographic subject that’s really enjoyable to shoot.  In the end, you need to take into account the amount of time you’re spending investing in your product, and compare it to the amount of return you’re seeing.  The “long tail effect” also comes into play.

Maybe you’re curious as to whether or not all of the precious time you’ve spent on social media marketing efforts have had a good return on investment?  Well, you can figure that out very similarly.  If you consider all time spent taken to network on sites like twitter or facebook as “straight up work hours” try taking the amount of time you’ve spent, and multiplying it by your normal hourly rate.  Plug that into the ROI formula as the “Cost of Investment”.  On a side note, the Photopreneur Blog interviewed me recently regarding the results I’ve seen from using a facebook business page in my social media marketing efforts.

In this tutorial, we learn how to make a simple selection using the lasso and magic wand tools in Adobe Photoshop. After making the selection, Bob shows how to clean it up with masking, using the quick mask mode. Later, the actual color of the gumdrop candy is actually adjusted in the hue / saturation dialog box. Yes, this is just one of many ways to adjust color of an object in a photo, selectively. If you get adventurous, try also playing around with “select color range” as an added selection option. The “replace color” feature is also a pretty valuable resource, when used properly. Each of these techniques can be done very wrong, if the details are overlooked. Be careful to watch surrounding color casts. If a green object is casting red, it’s just not going to look all that real.

Stay tuned for more great Photoshop video tutorials – subscribe to our RSS feed above, at the top right of the page.  We will be adding a lot more in the upcoming months.

In my opinion, sports photography is definitely one of the most challenging subjects to capture well.  Anyone can get a DSLR with a fast enough burst rate and machine gun fire away, but that definitely doesn’t guarantee you a good end result.  All at the same time you’re going to have to keep composition in mind, hope and pray your servo mode autofocus doesn’t fail on any of the focus points, and be sure you’re getting a fast or slow enough shutter speed for the style of photo you’re after.  Whether you want to take better photos of your kids playing soccer or little league baseball, or you’re shooting stock photography, these 10 tips should point you in the right direction. I’ve picked up these 10 main points in my past sports shoots:

#1.  Burst
The paparazzi know how to burst – because they don’t want to miss a split second.  You don’t either – you can’t get back anything in sports.  If you missed the moment, you lost the opportunity.  I’ve learned to burst just because of the simple fact that my Canon 40D’s AI Servo focus mode isn’t perfect – I generally miss focus on at least half of the images, while I’m shooting a moving subject.  Certain movements are easier for the camera to track than others, lateral, vertical, forward/backward, diagonal all result much differently…  It’s no 1D series camera.  If you’re really serious about sports, you’re going to want to invest in one of those.  The newer 7D is supposed to be much improved in the AF department, but I haven’t had an opportunity to comment on that yet.  You still don’t need a fancy camera to shoot amazing sports photography – you’ll still nail some amazing captures with even your base level DSLR or pocket point and shoot, with time, patience and persistence.

#2.  Use Servo Mode Autofocus
If you’re unsure of how to change this setting, refer to your camera’s user manual.  On Canon, there is a button that says “AF-Drive”.  Push it, and then spin the finger wheel (just behind the shutter button) until it changes from “One Shot” to “AI Servo” on the top LCD.  You might have okay results with “AI Focus” mode, but I wouldn’t recommend it.  “AI Focus” mode is the same as “One Shot” mode, only it changes to AI Servo mode when it detects movement.  From what I’ve heard, it’s pretty useless and might only work properly when you’re dealing with a slower moving subject; maybe like a parade or something.  If you’re used to shooting with just your center focus point in your viewfinder, you’re going to want to be sure not to forget to make all of the other focus points live, so it gives your camera the ability to spot the most action that is happening in the frame.  If you have your moving subject in one third of the frame, you have a chance that the camera isn’t even going to recognize the movement, if you’re only using your center focus point.

#3.  Crank the ISO
If you can’t get a fast enough shutter speed, you’re going to end up with a mess when you pull the files from the CF card into post processing. I shot hockey once, and I was pretty much pinned at ISO 800 or 1600 the entire time.  If you’re going for quality, trying to stick to ISO100 or 200 indoors at a hockey rink, you’re going to be very disappointed, even with fast primes.

#4.  Chimp Frequently
If you don’t check your results frequently to verify you’ve got all of your settings right, then you might end up with an amazing set of photos on your camera’s LCD screen; and a huge disappointment when you get back to the computer.  Remember, this is the beauty and instant gratification of digital.  No dark room or developing is required anymore, in order to see the results.  Zoom in on your first shots with your LCD, and look at your settings.  The info button on the back of your camera is your friend.  Be sure you are getting good results before you go filling up three or four CF cards worth of garbage shots.  Just be sure not to chimp after every single shot, or you might miss too much of the action.

#5.  Use a Monopod
Monopods are great for panning movement.  They allow you the freedom to pan or turn easily, while preventing any vertical movement.  The results of this panning technique can be a lot of fun, especially if you nail just the right shutter speed.  A basic monopod is just around $10 USD.  Remember: IS (image stabilized/ image stabilization) lenses only usually help with non-moving subjects.  Some higher end lenses do have certain IS modes that will actually assist you in panning.

#6. Get Low, Get High – Change Your Perspective
Any soccer mom can shoot from standing height.  Don’t forget to change up your perspective to give your photography that “oh snap, look at that right there” effect.  It really does make the world of a difference.  Don’t wear super nice clothes, either – when I shoot sports, I’m usually in a regular old t-shirt and jeans.  Being prepared like this doesn’t stop me from getting creative with my angles.  I’m usually crawling around on the ground more than an infant at my skateboarding shoots.

#7.  Fast Prime Lenses FTW
If you have a trusty faithful and true prime lens in your kit, whether it’s a basic 50mm or your favorite 85mm lens, use it wide open to blow out your background and to allow for the fastest shutter speeds.

#8.  Shoot with External Flash
If you have the pleasure of shooting with strobes, it definitely helps a lot – but on camera flash isn’t always going to be the most flattering in most situations, or the most effective for that matter, depending on your distance from the subject. On camera flash is okay for a little pop of fill light once in a while, but in most circumstances it’s not a good idea.  If you have a way of triggering your speedlight remotely, get it onto a stand and try and plan out your shots, so that you can get some added styling from the strobe(s).  In some cases when you’re not controlling the shot, like at a sports event, be sure to be respectful to the players.  They might get a bit distracted if you’re blasting them with a bunch of strobes all at once as they drive to the hoop or are about to perform an amazing trick.  If you back-light or rim-light your subject, you can create some pretty fun effects right in camera, complete with lens flares and all.  Your other alternative is to strategically get your subject between you and the sun, and use the sun as your main rear light source.

#9.  The Finish Doesn’t Always Matter
Remember, if you’re working with an athlete that might not be the most skilled, it doesn’t really matter.  Nobody’s going to really know if your subject ended up making the shot, scoring the goal, or landing the jump; because this isn’t video!  That’s the beauty of it.  Capturing and freezing the action at the beginning or middle of the execution still comes out looking great.

#10. When All Else Fails, Fake It
You probably never would have guessed that I snapped this car photo with my 70-200 as we were driving down the street one day (I was in the passenger seat, camera in hand ready for anything interesting).  It was actually sitting at a stop sign.  I thought to myself, man… what could I do with this?  It’s the type of car (Porsche 911 Turbo Carrera) that just looks fast, even when it’s standing still.  I had to spend hours in Adobe Photoshop to get it this way, and it’s definitely not the most cost or time-effective way of capturing a speeding car, but it is an option.  You can also do this with people and athletes that are moving at some rate.  Maybe you froze too much action, and wished you could have panned the shot with a slower shutter speed.  When all else fails, just fake it in Photoshop!  Here I had to isolate the car, zoom blur the background, and also do a radial spin blur on the wheels to make them look like they were rolling.  A bit of selective color was added, removing the greens from the trees in the background, and the speeding car really did come alive.

To sum things up, sports is a really challenging subject to shoot – but I think that’s also the most gratifying part of it.  When you capture an amazing image, it gives you all the more reason to be proud of yourself.  It’s not as controlled as other photography subjects, as there are a lot more variables.  Give it a try sometime, no matter what level you are at as an amateur or professional photographer.  I hope at least a few of these tips were helpful.  We’d love to see your results!  Be sure to post some links to them in the comments box below. All of the photos in this post are Arena Creative stock photos, available for licensing at ArenaCreative.com – as you can probably already tell, skateboarding has become a favorite sports subject of mine.