Did you ever scan a photo or some film negatives on a flatbed or film scanner, only to realize that the image is covered in pieces of dust, pet hair, or lint?  Or maybe you photographed a closeup of an object only to find a bunch of obvious dust or scratches that were not very noticeable to the eye beforehand?  This Photoshop tutorial by the late Bob Mizerek will show you how to Photoshop out dust and scratches in a jiffy using this simple technique.

While the standard dust and scratches removal feature in Photoshop may be enough, you might find that many times that it takes away too much quality from the original image.  Using Bob’s method (as seen in the youtube video above) you will learn that dust removal can be a lot more selective using layers and masking; therefore preserving the important parts of the image, and all of its important details.

First of all, for those that might not be aware, you can sideload apps from the Android Market on your Kindle Fire.  Just about every app will work, due to the fact that the Kindle Fire tablet runs on the Android OS.  The problem is, the Amazon Kindle Fire app store doesn’t support all of the Android apps found in the Android Market.  I don’t know why they do this.  Maybe it’s due to the fact that the Kindle Fire’s hardware is slightly different, but it’s pretty annoying.  We wanted to put dropbox on my wife’s Kindle, just like we can run the app on our Android phones.  Back to the story.

We backed up a copy of the apps we wanted to transfer over, by using Astro file manager (a free app in the Android Market).  This placed a copy of the .apk files (from the programs we wanted) on the SD card, in a folder named backup/apps.  That’s how to get the .apk files for your Android apps.  Don’t trust downloading them off some shifty website on the web.  Copy them from your Android phone using this method I just described.  So next, we just had to plug the phone into the computer with the cable, copy the files to the PC, and then over to the kindle (via data cable).  Another method, which is a bit easier, is simple emailing the files as attachments to an email account you can access on your Kindle.

The first .apk files we tried, we copied over from the Droid X.  No beans… it didn’t work at all.  We got the dreaded Parse error “There is a problem parsing the package”.  The first thing that popped in my head is, “I bet the Kindle runs on an older version of Android than the Droid X does.  Let me try copying the .apk files from my own phone, the LG Optimus V.”  So, I did exactly that, and the rest is history.

When you get the dreaded parse error on your kindle fire or nook, try copying .apk files from an older Android phone or device.  That’s what worked for us, so maybe it will also work for you.

My super brief mini review of The Kindle Fire:  It’s a pretty reasonably priced tablet, for all that you get.  Priced around $200 USD, it’s a little smaller than the iPads, and yet big enough to read on.  They made it to be book sized.  It’s reasonably fast, and the battery lasts a really long time.  Although you have to jump through a few hoops to get almost any Android app to run on it, it’s no more than a 5 minute process to do so. Don’t worry – you don’t have to root your Kindle Fire, to sideload apps. I’m not personally a tablet person (give me a solid laptop any day) but my wife really does enjoy the thing.  I’ve used it a handful of times, and can tell you it’s very user friendly, and easy to learn how to navigate.

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.