Shot over a period if 3 days the event hosted more than 300 shooters competing on 11 courses of fire. Stages consisted of rescuing a pilot from a downed helicopter using shotgun, rifle and pistol, breaching a door with a well aimed shotgun blast, to hanging off the ground from a Vietnam era parachute harness while firing your rifle at targets interspersed among a forest of barrels.

Originally I wasn’t going to be able to participate because I was scheduled to be in Fairbanks Alaska teaching a class and then spending a few days camping and photographing in Denali National Park. Unfortunately the trip was cancelled at the last minute. The only walk in Arizona that still had room was Downtown Phoenix starting at 5:00 pm on a day that was 115 degrees.

You assume that Arizona always has great light but in the middle of the summer it’s usually too much light not to mention heat. It wasn’t until around 7:00 pm that the light started to get interesting just as the walk was ending. So what do you do when the light is just blasting away? I head for the shade, put the white balance on cloudy and go small. I like shooting details anyway so I got a few nice photos and a couple I really like.

It’s not a trip to Alaska, photographically and temperature wise, but it was fun to participate and I’m anxious to start seeing all the images taken around the world.

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See the entire Gallery here…

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See the entire gallery here

The Four Tommy’s. This is a portrait that I made at Christmas of my new grandson who on his fathers side is the fourth generation named Tommy. This picture was one of several ad-hoc portraits that I took during a Christmas dinner.

The only gear I had with me was my Canon 40D, a 430EX Canon flash, and a Westcott Micro Apollo Light Modifier. I used the Westcott in order to soften and spread the flash which was mounted on the 40D hot-shoe.

I normally shoot in Raw, especially when I don’t have the ability to control all aspects of the environment and lighting so that I can… influence the image later. We had a dozen or so people squeezed into a small condo so there wasn’t a lot of opportunity or room to set up.

Let’s take a look at the steps to create the portrait.

This is the camera Raw image. Click on each image to see a larger view. As you can see the image was good, nice posing, good expressions, in focus, exposure was good. But it can be better.

The first thing that I do in Photoshop CS4 (this can also be done in Photoshop Elements) is to create a layer where I can make an image map. I make notes about what I want to do to the image. I want a better crop, I want to blur the background so that the blinds aren’t a distraction. I also indicate where wrinkles and blemishes are that I want to fix.

In this image I cropped the picture at an angle to add some movement to the image.

The first step in Color Correction is determining the neutral values in the image and adjusting the Black and White Points. This eliminates most of the color cast.

In the preceding image Grandpa’s skin color is still quite red. Using a Curves Adjustment layer dials in the skin color and is limited to Grandpa using a layer mask. The same was done for Great Grandpa and Dad.

Next wrinkles and blemishes are toned down using a combination of the Clone Stamp tool and applying a Lighten blend mode to the layer. One of the secrets to dealing with wrinkles and blemishes is to not eliminate them altogether. Using the Opacity slider lets the underlying wrinkles to show through giving a more realistic image.

The blinds in the background are too sharp drawing the eye away from the central part of the image. A Gaussin Blur is applied to the background to shorten the depth-of-field.

The 480EX Flash overpowered the lights on the Christmas tree. Using a Feathered Selection and sampling from the lights’ colors added reflection of the light onto the branches of the tree. There was a distracting corner of a Plasma TV on the wall behind Grandpa that was clone stamped out.

Next the eyes are brightened and sharpened. The layer opacity tones down the effect otherwise the eyes don’t look quite right. The Catch Lights were brightened slightly adding sparkle and life to the eyes. A Curves Adjustment layer was used to increase the contrast for more drama in the image.

Being that this is a Christmas portrait I added a decorative border to the image giving a “Frosty” feeling to the image.

A Vignette finishes off the portrait drawing the viewers eye into the center of the picture.

When printing I find that even using a Calibrated Monitor and the proper ICC profiles prints often come out blocked up in the blacks and lower in contrast than what you see on the screen. I usually use Lightroom for my final printing and will slightly Brighten the image and apply a little Clarity or Sharpening when men are the primary subjects.

Men can print with a little more grit to the image. Women on the other hand don’t want to show imperfections in their skin. Taking a little Clarity out will help to soften and smooth the skin. A little goes a long way, unless you’re doing a Glamour or Fashion portrait, don’t over do it.

I hope this gives you some ideas the next time you want to create an image beyond a family snapshot. You don’t have to have all your studio lights or reflectors to create a real nice portrait. Just make sure you get a nice pose, get as good an exposure as possible in-camera and use a little creative image enhancement.

Regardless, whatever type of sport action you’re interested in shooting there are some techniques that will help you create action photos that set you apart.

1. Know the sport. In order to get great action photos you need to be able to anticipate where the action will take place so that you can be in the best position to capture that decisive image. Plan how you will get into position as the action unfolds and pre-set your focus, zoom and exposure. All you’ll have to concentrate on is capturing the action.
2. Know the rules. Knowing the rules of the sport allows you to capture images of important moments that occur and may have a decisive impact on the outcome of the competition.
3. Have the proper gear. Be prepared for the type of conditions, access and distances from the action that you’ll be facing. I use remote capture frequently because you just don’t want to be downrange during a shooting competition. Instead of getting the shot, you might get shot. Although I use good equipment I don’t use my best equipment where there is a possibility of damage.
4. Talk to Officials. Talk to the Officials and ask them where the best opportunities are for great shots. This involves them in the decision of giving you access. Discuss with them how you would like to capture the action and get permission and buy-in from them. If they don’t agree with your plan respect their decision and that goodwill likely will get you where you want to be in the future because they will remember you as being cooperative and professional.
5. Become known in the sport. Over time I have become known by many in the Action Shooting community and have developed friendships. Because of my relationships I am trusted that I won’t get in the way or interfere  with the competition. Especially in a sport where there is a necessity for Safety Officials they don’t want to have you as one more thing to worry about.

It doesn’t matter if you’re covering Action Shooting or Motorcycle racing, professional sports or your kids soccer games these tips apply. To get the real action shots you have to be where the action is and prepared to capture it.

I have a blog dedicated to the Action Shooting Sports called The Action Shooting Podcast where I cover events as well as training, tips, interviews, and articles about Action Shooting.

The Mega-Pixel wars are upon us. Camera manufacturers sling about the Mega-Pixelosity of their latest models luring buyers in with promises of photo excitement, living the mega-cool Flickr© life-style. Are more pixels really the path to photo nirvana or are there hidden costs to this pixel orgy? …More and more pixels are being crammed into smaller and smaller camera bodies at lower and lower prices.

Only a couple of years ago a 6 mega-pixel camera would cost you around $1,000. A 12 or 24 mega-pixel would cost $5,000 – $25,000.  Canon introduced 10 new compacts this month all in the 12 mega-pixel range priced from $129 – $350. We are likely experiencing only the first skirmishes of the digital camera wars, the next few years promise to be truly interesting.

When you move up to high mega-pixel cameras you need to be aware of the hidden impact that all those pixels can have on your wallet. When your camera is able to capture 10, 12, 15 and even 24 mega-pixel photos the files become quite large. In some cases downright huge.

These large files may require you to add more storage space on your computer, more computer memory, a faster computer, better software, a better printer. If you’re not careful that new camera you just bought may cost you a bundle.

How much camera do you really need? Are more mega-pixels really better? Well it depends. It depends on what ultimately you intend to do with the pictures. In general the more pixels your camera can capture the better the photos. Are more pixels the holy-grail? The answer of course is… yes and no.

Boy, we’re not getting very far here are we?

While it’s true that the more pixels you have the more image information you have to work with. But you also need to consider the quality of the information you’ve captured.

Noise is the enemy of digital photo capture. Noise shows up in your photos as random colors in areas where they should not be. Blue or red pixels in shadow areas for instance.

The sensors that are used in modern digital cameras are made up of a matrix of photo-sites. Think of them as little buckets that fill up with light. Each bucket represents a single pixel. The greater the number of pixels on a given sized sensor the smaller each bucket has to be.

These smaller sized photo-sites tend to be noisier than larger photo-sites. This means that at some point higher pixel counts begin to diminish the quality of the captured image at a given sensor size. Camera makers use a variety of techniques to combat this diminishing return but as a user your concern should be whether or not the camera suits your need and at what cost? So what should you consider?

1. How do you typically use your camera? How you use your camera will have a big say in the importance of mega-pixels in your life. If you typically are taking snapshots of your kids or friends at social events your pixel needs are probably only moderate. You may want to choose a camera based on other features such as face recognition. If on the other hand you are using your pictures for publication then pixels become more important.

2. In what lighting conditions do you typically photograph? If most of your photography is outdoors in sunny weather conditions with plenty of light available the amount of noise in your images will be low, even non-existent. You may be able to trade off low-light performance for other features like image stabilization.

3. How do you display your photos? How will you be displaying or using your photos? If you are printing your photos at sizes above 8 x 10 for framing and display, more pixels will become important to you. The more pixels the larger the prints without resorting to software to scale-up the photo. If you typically email your photos to friends and family and occasionally print a snapshot or 5×7 then other camera features may be more beneficial to you.

4. Do you do any post-processing? Whenever you manipulate a photo after you have captured the picture you run the risk of degrading the photo. If you’re doing a lot of digital enhancement you’re better off starting with as much information, (pixels) as you can. If you are simply correcting red-eye, or fixing the color or simple cropping, or doing no photo enhancement at all, once again pixel count may not be the most important feature to consider.

5. What type of supporting equipment do you use? The higher the pixel count the larger the file sizes. If you’ve got a computer mainly set up for simple email and web browsing you might find you need a better computer. You’ve also got to consider how you’ll back up those important photos you’ve been taking. What happens if your computer crashes and you lose your photos?

A high mega-pixel camera can end up costing more in upgrades than the camera itself.

At the moment a compact camera in the 10-12 mega-pixel range will give very good results in decent lighting. Many of these cameras also feature image stabilization, face recognition and red-eye reduction. Decide how you will use your camera and make your selection on the features that will most benefit you. Mega-Pixelosity might be cool, but getting the right camera for your needs is Mega-Cool.

Regardless of the steps you take to correct color cast or white balance, or to set white and black points the principles remain the same. Lee shows you how to handle both routine image correction and touch up as well as dealing with difficult image problems.

This book is not a basics of Digital Photography or Photoshop book. It assumes you have a modest level of understanding of both. Lee starts out with a basic chapter describing the tools and technology but quickly moves into setting up Photoshop and creating a custom camera calibration. (Side note: You can download the beta camera profiles and editor from Adobe).

The book then covers some basic lighting and lighting equipment for portraits with example lighting setups.

The real meat of the book and what Lee explains so well begins with the chapter “The Color of Skin”. I have yet to see an image that can’t benefit from some attention being paid to color correction. The chapters on tone and contrast and image retouching pull the entire workflow together.

The remainder of the book then goes into altering focus, special effects, and color manipulation to really make your images special. Finally one of the most useful sections of all, “Preparing for Print” getting that image off the screen and onto paper. I’m always looking for ways to streamline the output side of the workflow and getting my prints to look as good as what I see onscreen.

The companion CD has the files that Lee works on so that you can follow along if you want.

Great book, I should have bought it earlier. You can buy it right here.