Photography Tutorials
I have developed a range of tutorials to help the people develop their skills as a photographer. These can be accessed online or downloaded as PDF files to your computer, iPad or Smartphone.
Photography Tutorials Online
The following tutorials are available to view for free on the Lenscraft web site:
Correcting Converging Verticals in Photoshop
Giving an Image the Holga Look in Photoshop
Calibrating a Scanner with VueScan
Photography Tutorial Downloads
The following tutorials are provided in PDF format. Further photography tutorials can be accessed by signing up for free membership of Lenscraft.
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Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Adding a Creative Vignette Effect I was recently asked how to add a creative Vignette effect to an image. There are quite a few ways and some will depend on your version of Photoshop. Here is a really quick and easy method that will work with most versions of Photoshop. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Creading a Digital ND Grad Filter Whilst it is almost always advisable to use a ND Grad filter when shooting landscapes, what can you do if you just don't get it right in camera. This article exaplins how you can create a digital ND graduated filter in Photoshop to help darken or lighten a sky and balance the exposure of your image. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Adding Realistic Film Grain There is more to a good black and white image than just the conversion from colour. Being able to reproduce realistic film grain is one of the keys to being able to make a first rate print. Whilst editing software such as Photoshop can produce grain, the results are often less than successful and not really believable. In this tutorial I will demonstrate how Photoshop can be used to easily recreate and control realistic film grain. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Correcting Coverging Verticals When shooting architecture, the problem of converging verticals often occurs. The ability to deal with this issue often marks an image as being of professional quality. This tutorial explains why the problem occurs and what you can do to correct it in a non-destructive way. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Professional Dodge & Burn Don't stop enhancing your images once you have made global adjustments. To really make the most impact you need local changes to light and shadow contrast through dodging & burning. This tutorial explains how to do this in an effective non-destructive way. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Film and Scanner Calibration in Vuescan A recent addition to my articles is this tutorial explaining how to profile a scanner using the VueScan scanner software. It provides step by step instruction on how to use a film target to create a colour management profile in VueScan. This is a great feature of the software that is in itself worth the purchase price. If you purchased dedicated film profiling and calibration software it would cost many times the price of VueScan. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | High Pass Sharpening There are many ways in Photoshop to sharpen an image. I find one of the best and most flexible to be using the High Pass filter. This isn't an obvious technique but it is relatively simple to use. It's also very powerful and effective, especially on noisy images. One of the key benefits of High Pass sharpening is that it doesn't emphasise noise in the image. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography High Dynamic Range Photography (HDR for short) is one of the fastest growing and most exciting areas of photography. The technique which springs from the Movie and Computer Games Industry has only recently become possible for many photography enthusiasts but is rapidly being accepted as mainstream. It is very easy to achieve once you have had a little guidance but it is also very easy to abuse. I have seen brilliant images and unfortunately I have seen dreadful examples as well. This tutorial will take you through all the basics of what you need to know using the Photomatix tool. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | How to Holga an Image in Photoshop The Holga toy camera has been with us for some time but has seldom been used seriously outside of the fine are photography community. More recently it has gained a mainstream popularity through the work of photographers such as Lee Frost with articles appearing regularly in the photographic press. Whilst the camera is cheap to buy and now easy to obtain (thanks to ebay), there is an alternative to achieving the Holga look by using Photoshop. This tutorial explains step by step how to create the distinctive Holga appearance in Photoshop. It is an incredibly popular tutorial, regularly holding the monthly top spot and is downloaded hundreds of times each month. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | How to Fix a Vignette in Photoshop Vignettes provide a useful tool for the visual artist to help focus the eye on the main subject matter of the image. At other times it can be a source of frustration as a filter or filter holder strays into the edge of the image and you get a black corner in your shot. Most camera viewfinders don t shop 100% of the image and with the popularity of super wide angle lenses, the unwanted vignette can be a regular problem. Here are a few simple steps to removing them from your image without the need to crop the shot. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Photoshop Layers Explained Simply Layers in Photoshop are an incredibly powerful and vital feature. Most of the complex processing and images that you now take for granted probably couldn t be achieved without layers. Layers also provide a means of non destructive image editing. This tutorial will get you started with the basics of layers and how to use them. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Using Quick Mask in Photoshop The Photoshop Quick Mask tool is extremely useful and something that I use almost as often as the Curves adjustment. Once you understand the basics, it s an incredibly powerful and versatile. This tutorial will introduce you to the basics of the tool and how it can be applied by the serious photographer. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Create the Infrared Look in Photoshop When we had film there was quite a movement of photographers that liked to play with infrared photography. Now unfortunately much of this specialist film can't be purchased and if I am really honet it's a good thing because it was far too difficult to use reliably. More recently the creation of infrared images has grown in popularity with many photographers choosing to have their digital cameras modified for the job. Whilst the images are great the downside is that it's expensive and once modified the cameras will only shoot infrared images. Here is an easy alternative where you can simulate infrared images in Photoshop. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Boosting Image Colour in Photoshop In the good old days of shooting film (something that I still like to do) there were a number of films that photographers liked because they were highly saturated. For those of us that like to shoot Landscapes, there was only one real choice and that was Fuji Velvia. For a time it looked like we would lose our beloved Velvia but then it was re-released. This article describes how you can achieve similar levels of colour separation and saturation to those provided by Velvia. It goes way beyond just boosting saturation using the Hue & Saturation adjustment. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Photoshop Curves Introduction Possibly the most useful and frequently used tool in all of Photoshop is the Curves tool. If you don't know how to use this tool properly you are only achieving a fraction of your images potential. When I wrote this article I intended to write a part 2 which would go into much more detail about colour correction, optimisation and special effects. I haven't done this yet but it will come in the future. For now, here is part 1 covering the basics of what you need to know. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Image Sharpening Basics Images need sharpening no matter what the output, and that includes output to screen. Getting this right is however a true craft. It's very easy to over sharpen or under sharpen an image. The very act of sharpening an image will also cause damage to the image so it's vital you take care. Learn the basics here and you will be on your way to creating sharp images that have a real impact on the viewer. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Introduction to Photoshops Shadow & Highlight Tool In the more recent releases of Photoshop, a new and highly useful tool has been released. To my mind it hasn't received the publicity that it should have given what can be achieved and the variety of uses it can be put to. Here I explain how to use the Shadow and Highlight adjustment to boost a sunset image whilst bringing out the detail of the foreground. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Basic Inkjet Printing I wrote this article some time ago when it was much more difficult to produce an acceptable inkjet print. I wrote it in response to frequent questions being asked of me as to why peoples prints just didn' look like photographs. Whilst most of the problems are easily solved and probably don't occur as frequently, I think there is still valuable advice in the pages, so for now it stays on the site. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Image Editing Basics Photoshop is a huge software program with immense editing power. Part of this power comes from the ability to achieve good results in a variety of different ways. This flexibility can however be confusing and even dangerous to the quality of your images. When we first start to use Photoshop it seems difficult but some of the tools seem to give good results (usually include the word Auto in the title). We therefore tend to learn by trial and error, often picking up poor practices. This article sets you off in the right direction with some of the basics. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Understanding the Colour Temperature of Light You might not realise it but the light around you has temperature and this temperature affects its colour. Because of the colour temperature light can appear cold and blue or warm and red. Whilst digital cameras offer a way to control this in their white balance setting, it's much better to understand what is happening. Once you understand light colour temperature you will be able to use it to your advantage in the photographs you take. This tutorial explains what you need to know in order to add drama to your images. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Introduction to Digital Black & White using Photoshop Not too long ago if you wanted to produce good black & white images you needed to master the complicated black art of the dark room. With the advent of the digital dark room it s never been easier to turn an image black and white. Unfortunately this has made many people lazy and the quality of many images is poor. This tutorial explains a few of the approaches you can take to creating black and white images from colour in Photoshop. It isn't a definitive guide but will get you started with the right tools. Best of all it works with even the earlier versions of Photoshop. |
Download now Format: Adobe PDF | Basic Camera Control When you first seriously start in photography and purchase an SLR camera, the terminology can be very confusing. What is depth of field, an f stop, the ISO rating? This tutorial explains some of the basics as well as providing a firm foundation on which to build your own photographic skills. You will learn how to control aperture settings and shutter speed to give creative control over your work. Don't just capture images, learn to create them. |
