Saturday, March 6, 2010

My Amazing New Gizmo {goodbye pop-up flash!}

Posted in Editing & Tutorials 11 comments

Arrrrgh I can hardly contain my excitement! This week, I got my very own pair of Professor Kobre’s Lightscoops and they – seriously – have changed.my.life. Even with all the tricks up my sleeve, I still avoid taking pictures inside. ESPECIALLY in the house. I just can’t be bothered with all the work of taking decent shots inside. Then I discovered this amazingly affordable little ditty and I will never be without it again. You’ll probably see lots more from me in the future about the Lightscoop because, well, I’m a little bit in love!

Check these out:

Posted in Editing & Tutorials

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Jennifer - March 6, 2010 - 7:49 pm

I LOVE LOVE LIVE mine! I got one about 3 months ago and don’t know what I did before I had it. Oh wait, I do know – I had ugly pop up flash photos!

Leilani - March 6, 2010 - 7:51 pm

No way!!

I have wanted one of these for ages! Your photo’s prove why! So cool.

Did you order it from America? I couldn’t find any stockists that have them in the UK.

Amber - March 6, 2010 - 10:22 pm

Oh another must have, I love it.
Thanks for sharing!

paige whitley - March 7, 2010 - 12:58 am

MUST. INVESTIGATE. LIGHT. SCOOP.

elizabethhalford - March 7, 2010 - 7:46 am

@Leilani: In the UK, they’re distributed by Photosolve.com but I can’t see it on their website. Have emailed for details – watch this space!

Shannon - March 7, 2010 - 10:49 am

THANK YOU SO MUCH for posting this! I have been really unhappy and frustrated with my indoor photos since moving into our new house that has bad lighting and not much natural light. So frustrated in fact that I have almost stopped taking indoor photos….. GASP!!!!

You have saved the day! Off to go check it out. :)

Leilani - March 7, 2010 - 6:15 pm

Thankyou very much. Your so kind.

elizabethhalford - March 7, 2010 - 8:10 pm

Ok Photosolve doesn’t sell them, they just distribute in the UK. So you can order from the lightscoop site and Photosolve sends it to you. The lady from Lightscoop is named Betsy and she’s super duper helpful. Let us know when you get yours!

Leslie - March 8, 2010 - 1:39 pm

I’m so glad you posted this! I’ve been debating whether they REALLY work that well. You never know if they are really using the scoop or a scoop & light set up.

But you have nothing to gain so you I’ll believe. Definitly on my to buy list now :)

elizabethhalford - March 8, 2010 - 2:34 pm

@leslie: too right! This thing is amazing I wish I’d discovered it sooner. Not to sure about the warming one. A bit orange.

Paola - March 8, 2010 - 7:41 pm

Love it!! Will buy it asap. Now I won’t have to worry about my external flash and the batteries running out. AGain, thanks for sharing!!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

A great little PSE trick for beefing up your colour

Posted in Editing & Tutorials, PSE Tips & Tuts 5 comments

Just wanted to share a little trick that I love.

Either in PSE or LR, duplicate your colour image. Edit one to be a really great B&W and play with the colours of your colour version till you like it.

Then…

And use the ’soft light’ mode at 100% and immediately, the image transforms beautifully into colours you just couldn’t come up with on your own:

P.S. Here’s what I mean by ’soft light’ if you don’t already know:

Posted in Editing & Tutorials, PSE Tips & Tuts

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Friday, March 5, 2010

Reader Photo Friday – 5th March {Erasing people}

Posted in PSE Tips & Tuts, Reader Photo Friday 3 comments

If you are viewing this in your inbox or RSS reader, it is best viewed on the website

This shot came from Simone A. Thank you, Simone!

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Simone wanted to get rid of the people in the background. PSE has a tool called scene cleaner where you can literally click stuff you want to nix, but you have to have a photo from the exact same spot with nothing in the area you want to clean up. Which is why I take sooo many pictures and even keep the bad ones. You never know how they can be used.

{Method}

I used the healing brush tool to erase the people. For example, I selected some sky next to the spot I wanted to clean and then cleaned it. I was making hundreds of re-selections since the colour of the sky changes throughout. The railing was really difficult. After using the healing brush, there were some lines between the different hues of blue, grey, etc, so I used the smudging fingerto just smooth them out.

Time to edit: 50 minutes

{Please keep sending your shots to EH@elizabethhalford.com}

Posted in PSE Tips & Tuts, Reader Photo Friday

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Thursday, March 4, 2010

Did you know… (A few tips for PSE and LR)

Posted in Lightroom, PSE Tips & Tuts 2 comments

…that the \ key in Lightroom toggles you back and forth between before & after

…and typing ‘Y’ shows your before & after side-by-side

…that you can use different Photoshop actions on the same photo or play the same action twice

…that thisbutton in LR turns the related edit off and on

…that to undo all the sliders you’ve fiddled with in LR, you just have to double-click on the heading (exe: to undo all the post-crop vignette sliders, just double-click ‘post-crop’ and they all go back to their original settings)