Don’t Wreck Your Image
Do’s and Don’ts of Editing Wreck Photos Whether moody or magnificent, wreck shots can be a real challenge to edit. Typically taken in less-than-optimal conditions, most wreck photos need...
16 April, 2020
Spot Check
Two Dirty Tricks that Remove Backscatter in Photoshop Ugh. Backscatter. It’s the nemesis of every underwater photographer. Many have tried, but no one’s been able to conjure the sorcery...
13 April, 2020
Adding an Edge
Using Photoshop’s Crop Tool in tandem with Content Aware Fill, you can tack on canvas area and add a little breathing room to an otherwise cramped composition. In some...
13 April, 2020
More Shooting, Less Troubleshooting – How to Prepare your Digital Tools for Travel
There’s nothing worse than discovering you’re missing a critical piece of gear on a long-awaited dive adventure. Most underwater photographers stress out before a trip, checking and re-checking...
02 October, 2019
Spin Doctoring – Creative Blur Effects in Photoshop
Panning or rotating the camera at slow shutter speeds creates motion blur. It’s a technique that can yield exciting, evocative images, but the learning curve for producing predictable...
04 March, 2019
Content Awareness – Removing Unwanted Objects From Your Images
Content Aware Fill is a quasi-magical Photoshop process that removes bubbles, backscatter and bozos from your pictures. When it works as intended, Content Aware Fill is a beginner-level...
12 November, 2018
Here Comes the Judge – 10 Tips for Winning Photo Contests
As a frequent judge of underwater photo competitions, I’m tasked to evaluate thousands of competing images. It’s rare that the technical merits of an image, though critically important,...
12 November, 2018
Fixed Focus – How to Sharpen Out-of-Focus Eyes Using Photoshop
Of all the miracles Photoshop can perform, fixing soft focus isn’t one of them. There’s simply no existing post-production voodoo that can restore acceptable photographic sharpness to large...
12 November, 2018
Essential Keyboard Shortcuts
Don't wait to get good in Lightroom and Photoshop before learning a few keyboard shortcuts. Learning them is how you get good! Download my Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for...
15 August, 2018
Wreck Tech in Post – 3 tips for editing wreck photos
I love working with wreck photos. They’re rich with all kinds of form, texture and gritty, scratchy detail. They’re dramatic and moody, and hold up surprisingly well in...
21 December, 2017
The Right Stuff – Best Tools for Getting Spots Out of Your Shots
I wish I had a magic bullet for backscatter removal, but the truth of the matter is that to get spots out of your shots, you’ve got to...
21 December, 2017
Take Your RAW Adjustments to Eleven
Why take your RAW adjustments to eleven? Because it’s one louder than ten, as Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel so aptly puts it. The expression "taking it to eleven"...
21 December, 2017
Detail Oriented – Getting Tack Sharp Images in Post with the Detail Panel
Don’t get too excited. The techniques in this article won’t rescue your out-of-focus images. Out-of-focus photos can’t be recovered in post, but you can (and should) enhance the...
21 December, 2017
Puppet Warp
Let’s take a look at an advanced technique in Photoshop that purists would consider a cheat, but is a fantastic tool for those not so worried about bending...
21 December, 2017
Out Damn Spot!
Quick and Dirty Backscatter Removal in Photoshop There are as many ways to remove backscatter as there are to shoot it, but the technique I’m about to show you...
21 December, 2017
Retouching for Good or Evil with Photoshop’s Liquify Filter
The fashion industry has long laid claim to Photoshop’s Liquify filter as its staple of image manipulation, but like many tools in post, it can be used for...
21 December, 2017
Keep Sharks Looking Sharp in Post
Sharks are a favorite photographic subject of mine. Over the years, I’ve developed a few post-production techniques that help to mitigate common problems and emphasize desirable details in...
21 December, 2017
Compositing 101
I know, I know - compositing is cheating. A composited image uses elements from one part of a picture in another part, or combines multiple photos to create...
20 December, 2017
Avoiding Rookie Mistakes
I just finished judging a photo contest, and although the rules were made very clear to the contestants, a few excellent photos were still disqualified because of willful...
27 October, 2017
Dial-a-Blue – Adjusting the Color of Water using Adobe Lightroom
I attribute the phrase “dial-a-blue” to Berkley White, shooter extraordinaire and owner of Backscatter Photo and Video. I first heard Berk use the phrase to describe a specific...
27 October, 2017