2010

ashes and snow

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ashes and snow
drifting soft and low,
falling ever so end over end
drawn over the foreground,
clouded, my vision ascends

sheltered young background
o comfort and warmth we pretend,
cold memory and i, we descend
whirled in wind, o swept on down in
silence, deep abides it and i
am mute, gazing from below
thru vanes glazed and ground
glass, frosted and smeared o you see
beneath this clear ice, like unto me.

whither thee, o sleep my friend?
whither thee?

©2010 Aaron Brown, all rights reserved

Fixing Underexposed Shots in Photoshop

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As much as I hate the flash in my digital camera when it ruins a shot by firing when I don’t want it to, I hate myself more when it doesn’t fire because I’ve turned it off and then I discover later that I really should have let it fire. Does this ever happen to you? What do you usually do about it? I used to try Photoshop’s Auto Levels command (and rarely be happy with the results). Then, later I tried switching to the Auto Color command from Photoshop 7 (and still wasn’t happy with the results).

Then I learned how to travel back in time and turn the flash on!

OK, not really. But it was fun to say 🙂 And I have a trick to share that is almost as impressive when applied to an under-exposed picture.

Note: I originally learned this technique from the excellent book the photoshop book for digital photographers by Scott Kelby from New Riders Press (ISBN 0-7357-1236-0). I highly recommend it; it taught me more about Photoshop than all of the other Photoshop books I own combined 🙂

Anyway, here’s how the trick works:

  1. Use Photoshop to open an image in which you wish the flash had fired
  2. Duplicate the background layer (Control-J on PC or Command-J on Mac)
  3. Set the blending mode for the new layer to Screen:
    • Make sure your new layer is selected in the layers palette (click it)
    • Find the blending mode dropdown list at the top-left corner of the layers palette (it’s the one whose current choice reads Normal.
    • Choose Screen from the list.

Notice the difference? Pretty cool, huh? It really is like Photoshop magically turned on your flash via time travel 😉

TIP: If one screen adjustment layer still does not make the image bright enough, duplicate it (Control-J on PC or Command-J on Mac). The new layer will inherit the screen blending setting. Keep duplicating the layer until your image is bright enough…

TIP 2: If you add a screen adjustment layer and it’s not enough, but then add another and it’s too much, lower the opacity setting of the top layer (it’s the dropdown next to the blending mode one where you selected Screen). Start by trying 50%. If that’s not quite right, adjust the opacity up or down until it’s just right.

Here’s what the Photoshop help says about the Screen blending mode (in case you’re interested in what it’s actually doing):

Screen looks at each channel’s color information and multiplies the inverse of the blend and base colors. The result color is always a lighter color. Screening with black leaves the color unchanged. Screening with white produces white. The effect is similar to projecting multiple photographic slides on top of each other.

But you and I know what it’s really doing, don’t we? That’s right; it’s magically traveling back in time and turning on the flash when it needed to be turned on.

Shhh – I won’t tell. Ancient Chinese Secret, right? 😉

Quickly Whip Your Screen Into Shape For Viewing Images

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Have you ever worked really hard on an image, posted it, and then looked at it from another computer only to discover that it looks much too dark on that person’s screen? Or much too light?

Here’s a quick-and-dirty set of steps to get your monitor at least in the right ball park for displaying images with the right brightness and contrast.

calibration strip for brightness and contrast

If you don’t see the image inline with this post (hello, facebook), you can view it on my photography website.

The strip shows a range of greys from pure black to pure white. You should be able to see a clear difference between each shade of grey, ranging from pure black (left) and pure white (right). Along the top of the strips are alternate patches of black and dark grey. If it looks solid black to you (look very carefully), your monitor’s brightness setting is too low. Increase it until you can -just- perceive the difference between the grey and the black squares.

Also note that you might need to adjust both brightness _and_ contrast (if your monitor allows each to be changed independently) in order for all of the distinct shades to be seen.

Also note the important fact that this is not going to help at all to correct color problems if your monitor’s color settings are off; it’s only for getting the right brightness. For the color aspect of things, I highly recommend getting a hardware calibration device (like Pantone’s huey or X-Rite’s Eye-One); ESPECIALLY if you want to sell prints of your work.