Making It Look Like It Was Shot In A Huge Studio

If you are shooting against a white or black background, you can give the illusion of having shot something in a huge studio. It is really quick and simple using Photoshop. Just make sure your background is either pure white (use the dodge tool) or pure black (use the left hand slider in Levels or the burn tool).

In Photoshop, press D on your keyboard to give you the default background colors (black and white). The X key will toggle which is the background and which is the foreground.

1. Set your background color the match your photo.
2. Select the crop tool and drag it across the full size of your photo.
3. Grab the edges of your crop frame and drag them out to the size you want.
4. Hit Enter on your keyboard and the background color will be filled in.

The photo above was taken against a 6' x 7' Lastolite Hilight background with white vinyl on the floor in a small living room.

Lightroom Killer Tips

If you're an Adobe Photoshop Lightroom user, you should check-out a great blog called lightroomkillertips.com Matt Kloskowski of Kelby Training posts a wealth of information, with a mixture of tips, videos and free presets. The blog has been running for a long time now, so there's loads of content to work through. You can also expect a lot of tips for Lightroom 3, now that it's on beta release.

Keeping A Shooting Sketch Book

I use an artists A5 sketch book and pencil to plan for upcoming shoots. I sketch out individual frames of ideas to use as a guide on the day of the shoot. Some I end up using and some I don't. But I know that I have something that I can use if inspiration doesn't show up on cue!

Sometimes a sketch will springboard from the original idea into a completely different direction, but it gives me a starting point. I have a portrait shoot this weekend and the request is "black and white and  unusual". I have a few sketches, I might use some none or all of them, but I know that I have ideas and somewhere to start. I'm also lucky enough to do whatever crazy ideas I come up with.