Reef-Life Action V.2

[Travis]

Updated, with 2 new actions-

Exposure+
Exposure-

Exposure+ has the effect of raising your exposure by about one stop. Move the opacity slider on the new layer for more/less lightening effect.

Exposure- does just the opposite.

Both of these work much better than level adjustments or brightness/contrast for trying to save an over-or-underexposed image.

If you are unsure what Photoshop actions are, or how to use them, please refer to This Thread

Enjoy! Let me know how they work for you.

T

[Curtswearing]

I just got to get a digital camera and photoshop. Wow!!!

[wooddood]

thanks travis you the man.

[EdgeKrusher]

Thanks Travis. I went to the Minnesota Zoo this weekend, and took alot of pictures. out of 177 only 25 of them turned out. I should have brought my tripod, but my girlfriend was with and I didn't want to bore her. I just can't seem to take decent pictures. When taking pictures of fish, how do you stop time without using the flash? The reflection off most of the aquariums and windows was just horendus, but my alternate was the lighting that was provided. Being that the sky was overcast that didn't leave much light for anything. Everytime the flash was used, the pictures turned out dark. I have the Canon EOS 10D. Any tutroials you could point me too would be great, and advice is always welcome.

Thanks

EK

[Travis]

Oh yeah, I can help. Late for work ATM though. What lens were you using?

[EdgeKrusher]

I'm using the 28-90mm F4-5.6 II USM AF Lens. Don't worry about when you get to this questiong. I'm at work and shouldn't even be online.

Thanks

EK

[Scooterman]

Photoshop is just awesome!

Ok for all of you out there looking for Photoshop 7.0 here it is $60 BUT it doesn't come with any books etc, so you will have to rely on other sources. The good thing is there is millions of online help so don't fear!


http://www.cdsforyou.biz/foryou/

Hope this helps!

[Scooterman]

Oh Travis, keep up the good help!
If anyone wants to do some trick Photoshop development also search at TECHTV.com! Every so often they have a pro come on and do some awesome work with it.

[Scooterman]

http://cgi.techtv.com/search?query_t...nge=past+month

[mwrager]

Photoshop is just awesome! Travis, I know you have told us in the past, but what type of camera do you use.

[reefrunner]

I downloaded the actions and ran them on the goby pic, I thought when I posted it before it was a tad under exposed, and this is the result. The only difference in the pics is the exposure+ action.

Before


After


I was looking on FredMiranda.com website the other day and he has some noise reduction actions http://www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/CPISOR that looked pretty cool, looks pretty good for using higher ISO equivalents, for 10 bucks seems hard to go wrong. He also had one discounted for 4.50 http://www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/CR , but there are no samples...agin though it's hard to go wrong for 4.50

[Witfull]

thanks Trav, ill play tonight when i get home!
Kevin, gotta love Fred Miranda's stuff!

[sharks]

Cool beans
Can’t wait to get home and play with the pics all over again
Thanks T

[Travis]

I used Fred's 10D ISOR, it works better than you can imagine.

Only drawback, it is SUH-LOW.

Kevin, the Exposure+ did a good job on most of the pic but washed out the zoanthids (overexposed them).

Try this: Activate the “exposure+” layer. Then go to layer‡ new layer mask‡ reveal all. Then use your eraser tool over the zoanthids and any other part of the layer you feel is overexposed.

[Travis]

I use a 10D.

EK, a couple tips while I'm on my lunch break.

-For the reflections, the best possible solution is to get a lens hood and stick the lens rught up against the glass. This eliminates the glare. Hopefully your lens has a good enough macro for that. if not, look into the Canon 500D close-up diopter.

-To get a faster shutter: Make sure your f-stop is the smallest number possible. Also, shooting at ISO400 buys you two stops versus ISO 100. That's huge... so your shutter at ISO100 may be 1/15, in the same situation at ISO400 it would be 1/60. I just leave my camera at ISO400 when shooting public aquaria these days. Other than that, you can look into getting an off-camera flash. I have a 420EX and it has worked very well in these situations. I use the off-camera flash cord and have someone hold the flash for me. Check out my TX State Aquarium pics, all were shot with 10D, 28-135 IS 3.5-5.6 lens, ISO400, and the 420EX flash.

HTH

T