Going Digital Makes Photography Sense

Writen by Jill Kane

Digital technology has swept through the world, making conventional cameras seem old-fashioned. Is it only a fad? Or is it because it comes with a whole host of advantages? While most people are still intimidated by the very word ‘digital’, all said and done, it has dramatically changed the photography process. Digital cameras have made traditional film almost redundant, allowing images to be transferred directly onto the computer, where they can be endlessly manipulated. A digital camera’s viewfinder allows instant feedback which means that a photographer has the power of deleting pictures that fail to please him right away, eliminating the stage of first printing a contact sheet before he can choose which shots to print.

From the moment photography went from analog to digital, a whole new world opened up before us. Now, these photographs can be uploaded onto the Internet and can be viewed by so many people. And, without the time and costs involved in having to take conventional film to the store to develop and print. Say goodbye to waiting to see how your prints look. The ‘instant’ age has come to photography as well. You can view pictures as you’re taking them, soon after you take them and whenever you want to view them. In case you don’t like them, you can delete them, or even better, chop them, change them, reduce color, increase color, get rid of red eyes or increase or decrease the contrast and light.

The great thing is most of these cameras also have a sound and video recording function. Some may have a smaller capacity than others but the fact remains that you can use it if you want to. Another advantage is that these cameras are so small and so light. Some of them are as small as a business card, just a bit thicker. The price for digital cameras seems to be dropping every year which makes it affordable for a large number of people. When you realize that you won’t have to spend money for developing and printing anymore, you’ll find it’s a really good investment.

Even more than the money and the convenience is the quality of photography. Everything seems a lot clearer. Add to this the ability to delete and re-shoot if you are not satisfied with the results and it makes for much better photographs. So it makes sense to go in for digital photography.

Digicam File Formats

Writen by Jakob Jelling

Looking at the digital camera, a person can visualize it as a combination of a camera along with a miniature computer system that stores the images as files or sets of bits, rather than a chemically treated film. Thus it comes to be a fact that there are certain file formats in which these images of the photographs captured by the camera are stored. And again, this is subject of discussion for understanding the digital camera properly. In this effort this discussion reveals the intricate but overlying to provide a brief overview to the readers regarding the file formats of the digital cameras.

Basically, strictly considering the facts, there are three file formats used by digital cameras to create images of photographs taken by them. These are JPEG, TIFF and RAW. These are the names of the formats but like their strange names their identity remains in the dark if these are not conversed in a little detail. The most vastly and commonly used file format for digital cameras is the JPEG file format. It is time and again the lone available file format on primary and some intermediate standard digital cameras. Many sophisticated digital cameras allows the users to opt for between JPEG, TIFF and RAW. However professional photographers usually prefer to shoot RAW. Yet the discretion remains with the human preference only.

It is a fact that the acronym JPEG stands for “Joint Photographic Expert Group” after the group that developed this file type. To make things easier it must be clarified that JPEG is a compression technique that can considerably trim down the file size of a photograph and other unremitting tone images. Almost all digital cameras have a number of JPEG compression levels and quality settings to select from. The users can make use of them as per discretion and the photograph taken. Thus the jpeg images do not consume much space on a memory cards. Another specialty of this digital camera file format is that JPEGs store camera settings and scene information. All these advantages make this file format so popular and diversely accepted.

The next digital camera file format is the TIFF (Tagged Image File Format). This file format has the greater advantage that it does not lose any image file information during the compression process and moreover as a consequence it does take up a lot of space from a memory card in comparison to a JPEG image. Due to this detailed storage it also takes additional time to retrieve the information to the card. Basically the TIFF compression reduces images to about one-third their original size as per convention.

Coming to the next digital camera file format. It is defined as the RAW file! It is also sometimes referred to as an appropriate digital negative. Most advanced digital cameras allow or permit the ability to shoot RAW in professional standards. The interesting portion is that in a RAW image no alterations are made by the camera (such as sharpening or white balance). And this gives entire control to the photographer when he or she processes an image later. However this RAW file format is not used extensive due to the fact that most image editors cannot open it and computer-processing time is also more. However the fact still remains that a RAW image has a smaller file size than a TIFF.

With all these discussions regarding the different digital camera file formats, it is clear that the three most widely accepted file formats have their own advantages and disadvantages, yet they are unique in some way or the other that makes them special in their own manner. The knowledge about these digital camera file formats of storage not only yields greater understanding of the camera; it also opens the eyes towards the fantastic results of technological advancements in our daily lives.

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures with your digicam.

Digital Cameras: Do You Know Your Megapixels?

Writen by Frederic Madore

Until recently, were you to ask someone if they knew how to operate a digital camera, they would react as though you had grown another head. A digital camera? Whoever heard of such a thing. Now, in less than 5 years, they’re the only kind of camera to buy. With digital photography there’s no need for endless rolls of film. You just focus, click, and presto, a digital image. Don’t like the picture you just took? That’s no problem, either. You can simply delete the image.

Now, with all this available technology, why should we ever worry about pictures again? Well, the plain truth of the matter is this, if you don’t have a computer, it’s still expensive and quite time consuming to download your pictures at the local Wal-mart (or Wal-greens), instruct the computer there to copy the pictures to a disk, and then pay for the actual printing. See, it’s at this point that most consumers realize it’s just downright easier to buy an old fashioned, film loaded, camera.

Let’s assume, however, that you do have a computer, and you do want to purchase a digital camera. What kind of camera do you need? Where do you begin to check out your options and see how they relate to your needs? Well, the first part of the process would be to visit an electronics store in your area. The stores that specialize in electronics will generally have a sales person on hand that can explain all the available features of a digital camera and help you decide what you need and what you can live without.

One of the big questions concerns the “megapixel” feature of the camera. The larger the megapixel number, the better the quality of the picture. You see, megapixel determines how the camera reads color combinations in order to produce the best photo possible. Now this might be a matter of great concern if you are a professional photographer, but to the everyday consumer, three or four mega pixel strength is all you need.

Next you’ll want to examine what types of subjects you will photograph and under what kind of conditions. Do you need a camera that makes pictures of moving objects? Are you making your pictures at night, or during daylight hours? Up close and personal, or over on the next block? All of these questions are valid and will affect the quality of the picture you get if not correctly addressed.

There is one final option that you might want to check: some of the digital cameras also do video. The cameras tape the audio and video of the moment as well, or better, than some of your larger video cameras, just not as expensively.

Last but not least, you need to understand your storage options, and determine how much storage space you need. Going to the family reunion, room for maybe 10 pictures will be enough; But now the class reunion, well you’re going to need room for at least 500 photos. Alright, that brings this topic to a close and moves us on to the subject of “memory stix”.

How EXIF Data Can Improve Your Photography

Writen by Chris Roberts

Every digital image has a secret identity.

The big difference between your digital photos and a CIA operative is that it’s pretty easy to discover the secret identity of a digital photo.

This not-so-secret information is called EXIF data, and it’s encoded in every photo that you take with your digital camera.

Think of it like a barcode on a package: in the same way that the barcode uniquely identifies the product, EXIF data uniquely identifies an image.

But how can EXIF data improve your photography? Let’s find out.

Common Camera Settings

There are two principal actors in the photos that you take: aperture and shutter speed.

Aperture is a measure of how wide your lens opens, and shutter speed is how long your camera’s shutter stays open to expose the digital sensor to light.

All digital SLR cameras and some compacts let you manually control aperture and shutter speed.

The best way to learn what impact these two features have on your photos is to tweak the settings and see the effects.

With film, there is no way to tell what the aperture and shutter speed are set to for any given image. If you want to keep track, you have to write down the numbers on a notepad for every shot you take.

Not exactly convenient.

On a digital camera, the EXIF data takes care of this for you.

Permanent Setting Storage

Every time you take a photo with a digital camera, the camera automatically saves the aperture, shutter speed, and a variety of other settings.

This EXIF data is permanently attached to the photo, so even when you transfer it from camera to computer the data is not lost.

Once you open the photo in your image editor of choice, you can choose to view this EXIF data any time you want (even a year later).

Here’s why this is such a powerful learning tool: you can easily review all of your camera settings for every photo you take.

Learning From EXIF

Example one: you take what you think is a great photo of your daughter playing in the living room. You check the photo on the computer and the entire shot is blurry.

Why? Check the EXIF data and note the shutter speed. It was probably too slow to get a clear shot of your daughter in motion.

Example two: you take a photo of your friend in front of a fountain. It looks like the water is spouting from the top of his head.

The EXIF data shows that your aperture was set to f/11. This aperture ensures that both the friend and the fountain are in clear focus. A different aperture setting would have kept your friend in focus but blurred the background.

While you can learn a lot from mistakes like these, pay special attention to photos that are successful.

Check the EXIF data often for photos that you love, and you might find some camera settings in common.

In the future, you can manually set your camera to your “favorite” settings and capture more photos that are keepers.

There you have it.

EXIF data just helped to improve your photography.

Chris Roberts dispenses practical plain-English advice and information about digital SLR cameras at the Digital SLR Guide. His 5-week ecourse in digital SLR technique helps beginners get the most out of their digital SLR cameras.

The Secret Of Capturing Great Photographic Composition

Writen by Amy Renfrey

You know if I had only a few lines to write about what the secret is to better digital photography I would really say it consisted of three things.

1. The first is technical knowledge. (Technical knowledge gives you control over the camera and as a result give you the images you want.)

2. The second is light. (Light gives focus and clarity and sharpness in a picture. Without the right light, no matter how much you know about your camera the image won’t turn out.)

3. The third is composition. (That’s the arty side of digital photography.)

Let me explain this very important third point.

Composition is your angle at which you take the digital picture. The right angle can create the right emotional feel about what’s going on in the picture. The wrong angle can completely distract you from creating the right and appropriate emotion for the picture. Angle is composition and composition tells a story. It’s the emotional part of digital photography indeed.

I’ll give you an example.

Imagine a beautiful child. You want to capture the child’s inner beauty and innocence. What angle do you think will create the right emotion? Will it be from above? What about from the side? Will it be far away or close up? The answer is it depends on what feeling you want to create in the photo.

So the right answer would be: “What emotion do I want my viewer to feel when looking at the child?” If you were to create a tender emotion then perhaps a close up of their face with their eyes looking straight at you might be one thing you do. Or perhaps you capture an angle from front on, but a head and shoulders shot, that captures more an active feel? Whatever feeling you want to create, remember that it’s all in the angle you take. You are the artist, so feel free to create the emotion on the image and use your imagination.

But it doesn’t end there.

Digital photography is such intense fun that it is, you must continually work at it and find ways to improve. Your digital photography learning goes right throughout your life. And just wait until I have put together my online photography course….I’ll keep you tuned in on that one.

So thank you so much for joining me and I hope to hear of your success and your learning and your joy of digital photography. And please send me your pictures you have taken and the things you have discovered from learning and doing more with your digital.

Best wishes,
Amy Renfrey

For more excellent information about digital photography just go to www.digitalphotographysuccess.com.

Background Talk

Writen by Kenneth C. Hoffman

Portrait backgrounds are an important component of a portrait. For a background to be successful, it must not compete with the main subject yet support the mood of the portrait. Competing shapes and lines intersecting the center of interest must be avoided. Unless an artistic statement, strong colors tend to distract from the message.

If you have a studio in your basement or in a separate room, your background will probably be along the longest uncluttered wall. One unavoidable feature is the line made by the intersection of the wall and the floor. This line often appears in the lower third of the picture, cutting through the portrait without regard to the affect it has on the subject. It can be airbrushed out or otherwise digitally removed but the best solution is to remove it from the room physically.

Before I tell you how to do that, a discussion on muslins is in order. Many studios rely on hanging a large muslin cloth background on the wall. The benefits of a muslin is that it hides corners and floor lines and can be stored in a bag when not in use. Scenes, however look best when not draped, but stretched fairly tightly across the wall. Solid colors and subtle patterns can be draped loosely or bunched for an artistic effect. Most useful are the subtly blended pastel shades and a solid black. Attached at the ceiling level, they can be long enough to be brought out just short of the camera position for full freedom of posing.

Many portrait studios cater to the popular background choice of white. While pure white does not exist in nature, it is the ultimate expression of non interference in a portrait background. The effect is somewhat remindful of catalog ads but relates well to high key photography and faded out vignettes. A large roll of white paper can be used, but over time is expensive and mars easily. A better solution is a washable painted surface.

This brings us back to the floor line problem. One solution is to build a permanent curved edge into the corner. You take a four foot by four foot piece of three quarter inch plywood and mark it in four squares. Mark the center of each square with a nail and draw a circle to the edges on each square. Jig saw out the center and discard. The four remaining pieces are placed along the wall to support a panel of one quarter inch plywood. Before screwing the panel to the curved supports, sand off the long edge to a sharp bevel. Make sure the flat headed screws are slightly countersunk. Spackle the edges along the wall and floor to appear continuously smooth. Also fill in the screw holes. Paint with one coat of matte white and two coats of washable wall paint. To save the floor from marking, you have an option of using throw rugs on the posing area.

An alternative to a pure white background with curved corners is a fully hand painted ‘Rembrandt’ background. Done in tones of gray-brown, beige and highlights of blended shades of apple green and wine red, this background can be the default choice for your groups and children portraits. This painted background can be brought out on the floor, gradually shaded to a neutral gray. The curved floor ‘invisible horizon’ will add much distance and separation to your portraits. With today’s digital cameras showing increased depth of field, it is important that the background appear soft and uncluttered.

Retired portrait photographer. Glad to answer any quesions. kchoffman71@juno.com

Online Digital Photo Printing

Writen by Ken Marlborough

Digital photo printing is the process of developing digital photos into prints. Online digital printing first uploads images to a photo service provider’s website. Prints are ordered stating your preferences. Online printers use huge professional photo printers such as Fuji Frontier Digital Minilab or machines of similar type. A relatively new process of developing prints is known as giclee printing; this is quite a color-accurate way to develop digital prints. The prints are instantly delivered through email. Shipping costs are charged if delivered by other means.

As digital printers are cheaper, printing can be done at home using a printer of your own choice but can be quite expensive. Online Digital Photo Printing is a viable alternative. Online printing is faster, reliable and free from risks.

In order to get better prints, most of the online print services use high quality Kodak paper or comparable paper. For a large number of prints, it is better to go use a high-speed Internet connection such as a DSL (Digital Subscriber Line.) That way, you will not spend all day walking around your computer while your photo files upload.

Nowadays, online digital photo printing is becoming more and more popular. The growth in technology and the wide use of the Internet have made many improvements in the printing techniques. There are a number of online print services. Based in San Francisco, Snapfish is one of the most commonly used sites, and Shutterfly, Kodak Easyshare Gallery, Agfanet, Ez Prints, and Fujifilm.net are some of the other popular print services.

Digital Printing provides detailed information on Digital Printing, Digital Photo Printing, Digital Printing Companies, Online Digital Photo Printing and more. Digital Printing is affiliated with Public Relations Firms.

Top 4 Mistakes When Photographing Waterfalls

Writen by Jennifer Clarkson

Waterfalls often make great subjects of photos, but it’s very easy to get a bad result if you’re not paying attention when you click the button. Here are the top 4 mistakes photographers make, and the easy ways to improve your shots!

Mistake #1: Setting your camera to auto-select aperture and shutter speed
Metering is something that cameras generally do very well. They begin to fail, however, when you start to introduce very white or very black subjects in an image. The reason for this is because humans see in 16-stops, whereas cameras “see” no more than 5-stops. This means that images with high contrast are not correctly exposed when left to the camera’s automatic settings – if you have a lot of white in your subject of focus, the camera tends to make it grey in the final image, and correspondingly underexposes the rest of the image. Similarly, if you have a lot of black in your image, the camera tends to make the black turn out grey in the final image, thus overexposing the rest of the image.

Mistake #2: Photographing Waterfalls on a sunny day
Sunny days in the forest may be nice for close-up studies, but adding sun to a waterfall landscape is not a good idea – the range of light and dark is so extreme that your compositions will be washed out or hidden in blackness. The best time to head out for a waterfall shoot is on an overcast day, with or without rain.

Mistake #3: Shooting Waterfalls without a polarizing filter
In a nutshell, polarizing filters cut the glare. Wet surfaces tend to reflect the sky colour, so you’ll actually need the polarizing filter more for rainy days where the sky colour is grey than for sunny days. But we’ve already agreed you shouldn’t photography waterfalls on sunny days Removing glare from an image allows you to see the colourful world underneath the glare, and no amount of Photoshopping after your shoot will fix it.

=> Correcting Mistakes #1-3
The idea is to meter off the part of your composition that would be closest to medium grey, should the image be turned to greyscale. If your waterfall is surrounded by lush forest, try metering off nearby green leaves or grass – never off the waterfall, and never off anything in shade. If you’re photographing at dawn or dusk, meter off the sky. This will make the waterfall appear white, and the shady areas appear black. It’s really very simple!

In automatic mode:
First, learn how to “lock” your camera’s exposure so as to trick it into getting the right exposure. (Each camera is slightly different, so you’ll have to check your manual for more information.) Enable bracketing if you’ve got it. Point your camera at the green leaves or dusky sky, and lock your exposure. Re-focus your camera on the waterfall, and click the button – this should tell your camera to expose the scene how we see it, and not what its algorithms have told it to do.

In manual mode:
Set your exposure to -2/3 of a stop. Point your camera at a spot nearby the waterfall that is neither bright nor dark. Set your aperture and shutter speed to whatever you prefer (see Mistake #4). Now point your lens at the waterfall and frame the scene in your viewfinder. Click the button and voil

The New Way

Writen by Rohn Engh

New Generation Media is a phrase stock photographers will hear more and more in the coming decade. Where’d it come from? It’s a response to the increasing ways you can transmit information in today’s hi-tech world.

The good news: these evolving forms of image creation and image delivery have created new markets for you. As a successful stock photographer you should be aware of what’s ahead….not only the traditional print media: magazines, books, textbooks, and catalogs, but also the pioneering electronic media — the communication companies utilizing television, video processing, CDs, and new concepts like digital video, cell phones, desktop image delivery, screen-touch educational tools, and on-demand picture retrieval.

Many of the latter elements are poised to explode into wide use, with the rapidly increasing familiarity of photobuyers and photographers with the marketing advantages of the Internet.

Classic commercial stock photography (the familiar scenics and generalized “situation” shots) as we’ve known it over the past decades will continue to be in demand, but the overwhelming supply of these generalized stock shots, available now on CDs and from discount sources on-line, will diminish their value — and price tag.

The New Generation Media market is so vast that it utilizes what has come to be known as “micromarketing,” the ability to isolate specialized markets and respond to them efficiently.

Micromarkets are specialized (niche) markets.

To survive in the New Generation Media, stock photographers will become specialists themselves. The rules haven’t changed, only the target. The demand by photobuyers for content-specific images will spur the new generation media photographers to focus on specific subject areas they enjoy, and then service markets whose needs match those areas. The generalist (the classic commercial stock photographer) will fade.

How would you like to work with photobuyers who call you by your first name, allow you to call them collect, and look forward with anticipation to your deliveries of pictures? And there’s more. Your photobuyers are easy to please, and rarely want to art-direct your images. Also rare: disputes, lost or damaged images, legal suits. Your photobuyers are accountable, and your relationship with them and their company is long-term and worthwhile. Each new photobuyer you find in your particular market areas will be worth $20,000 to $50,000 in sales to you over the average ten to twelve years you maintain this buyer relationship.

I’ve described the new generation photobuyers, who are beginning today to change their buying pattern from broad-based to narrow-based. Because media today is becoming more and more narrow in its focus — each market targeting to a different narrow segment of the customer base out there — content needs, e.g. text, sound, pictures, are following the same pattern.

No longer can a product appeal to a wide audience. Instead, an advertiser or publisher selects a particular segment of that audience as their target. As a supplier of images, if one of your areas of strong coverage in your collection matches the buyer’s photo needs — you have made a match.

The new generation media, thanks to computers and sophisticated database technology, will appeal to consumers of special interest: medicine, education, agriculture, transportation. Not only the broad spectrum of each of these areas but special interests within these categories. Medicine, for example, separates into a multitude of disciplines like nursing, surgery, pediatrics, etc. And pediatrics breaks down into areas of infancy, child care, childhood diseases, etc.

New media conduits like CDs, micropaymant sites, and Interactive TV will require highly specific images — to target their particular highly specific audiences.

Generic pictures (scenics, landscapes, general-situation scenes) will continue to adorn the walls of a photobuyer’s office — but he or she will be signing checks for content-specific images.

In the new generation of picture acquisition — look for more buyers to buy in volume — dozens of images at a time.

YOU ARE IMPORTANT

Because most publishers produce their products (magazines, books, video and educational programming pieces, etc.) in a “theme line” — you fit into the production chain, and become an important resource not only to the individual buyer but to the whole field, i.e. other buyers within that theme line. Any one particular buyer you deal with might change jobs or retire, but the theme of the company or publishing house remains, and you continue to be an important resource to them. If your specialty area matches the needs of a buyer, you have made a lifelong relationship, and one that can be worth $20,000 to $50,000 or more to you through the years.

Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of the weekly PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA Email: info@photosource.com Fax: 1 715 248 7394 Web site: www.photosource.com

Studio Photography and Digital Backgrounds

Writen by Fabian Barajas

The article given here was written for Adobe Photoshop 5,6,7,CS, and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 and 3.

Most photographers who are serious about improving their portrait taking skills have realized that a beautiful background can greatly enhance their photographs.

Muslins are a very popular choice among professionals. However, they can get very costly at several hundred dollars each. For the professional who is well established, this may not seem too much, but for the hobbyist, this may be a stretch.

A less costly alternative is a digital background. With a digital background, one can get the look and feel of a professional looking portrait without the additional cost of muslin.

Many Photography websites also sell digital backgrounds on cd. In some casesas low as $15.00 dollars for an assorted collection. As with anything elseyou usually get what you pay for. Some of these pre-made digital backgrounds are not worth the cd they’re printed on, but some of them are very beautifully made. Even so, you may be wondering how YOU can make your very own digital background. That being said, the following information will help guide you along the way.

Okay, let’s create a digital backdrop using Adobe Elements 2.0. We will create an 8×10 300dpi (dpi = dots per inch or ppi = pixels per inch) digital backdrop. For printing purposes, 300dpi is strongly recommended for a high quality print. This will also create a large file approximately 20.6megs.

Having a fast processor (Pentium 4 or Athlon XP) and at least 256megs of ram will definitely help. Also having your screen resolution on your monitor set to its highest setting 24 or 32bit will give the best results.

Okay let’s begin! If you haven’t already opened Photoshop Elements, do so now.

1. Click on File < New. When the window opens up,make sure to set it to 8x10 inches at 300dpi.

2. Make a copy of the background layer you just created by pressing Control-J on your keyboard. If you look at the bottom right corner of your monitor, you should see an exact copy of your background layer named layer 1.

3. Select the “foreground” color for your background by clicking on the foreground square on your toolbar the black one. (Bottom left)

4. The Color Picker window should now be open. Select a light red by clicking on the top right corner of the color palette. Click ok.

5. Now select the “background” color by clicking on the background square on your toolbar the white one. (Bottom right)

6. The Color Picker window should open again. Select a darker red by clicking halfway below the lighter red you previously chose. Click ok.

7. Now comes the fun part! Let’s put some clouds in there. On the top of your screen, click on Filter

8. First, make sure that layer 1 is not locked! Look at your layers palette on the bottom right of your screen. Do you see the little black “lock” icon? Make sure that the little white square to the left is NOT checked!

9. Okay, now press “m” on your keyboard. At the top left corner of your backdrop, click and drag your mouse to create a 2×3 inch square. If you do not see the ruler along side your backdrop, press “control-r” on your keyboard.

10. Press “v” on your keyboard. Your selection should now have little handles on all sides that you can click on to pull to any size you want. If you do not see any handles, click on “Show Bounding Box” at the top.

11. Click on the lower right handle in the corner and drag and stretch it to the bottom right corner of your backdrop.

12. Double click anywhere on the red backdrop to apply the resizing. Now press “L” on your keyboard then “control-d”.

Okay, now you should have a beautiful looking backdrop ready to use, but wait, there is still more we can do to take it to another level. You will be simply amazed at the results you will be getting in the next few steps. You may have noticed that many types of muslins on the market have painted on them what’s known, as a “hot spot”.

What is a hot spot? A hot spot is a circular area near the center of the backdrop that is lighter in color. Why is this there? It allows the subject to stand out and creates a vignette at the borders. This will greatly enhance your backdrop. Are you ready? Okay, let’s do it!

13.On the top, click on Filter-Render-Lighting Effects. Select “Omni” for your “Light Type” and move the slider for your intensity to 25. Now click on the middle handle in the circle and raise the circle just above the halfway point to where the person’s head will appear.Click ok.

Now you should have an amazing looking backdrop!

Fabian Barajas is author of several Photoshop ebook tutorials including “How to Create Your Very Own Professional Looking Digital Backdrop!” His website which includes samples of his work is http://www.digital-background.net/