One onOne with Mike Wong

Back in May, I posted an example of our Photoshop plugin FocalPoint in use by New York photographer Andy Marcus. Well, I've received a few more samples from Andy recently and wanted to share one of them here.

The original is on the left and the photo processed with FocalPoint is on the right. First, the original photo is a great shot and illustrates what a great photographer Andy is. Second, I think the "after" photo illustrates that Andy is an artist when he's not behind the camera as well. Having a vision of what you want to convey to your client and being able to execute that vision with a variety of tools, whether it's with a plugin or not, is a talent and Andy clearly has it.

I really like the way Andy has softened the edge and added a vignette to really bring attention and focus to the bride. Thanks for sharing your work with us Andy!

Photos copyright Andy Marcus. All rights reserved.

Posted by Mike Wong at 9:02 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I just got an email from Jim DiVitale and Helene Glassman announcing a hands-on digital imaging workshop in their Atlanta studio coming up in July. Specifically, July 28-30. I've been to Jim's studio before and it's a really nice, big, open space so you'll be learning in a nice environment. Plus, getting to spend a few days learning from both Jim and Helene is a treat in and of itself. Both are wonderful teachers so I highly recommend going to this workshop if you are in or plan to be in the Atlanta area at the end of July.

Here's the link to more info.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:19 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I got an email this morning from Keith Roland in Atlanta. Keith works with Jim DiVitale from time to time in Jim's studio, but is a very good photographer and skilled Photoshop user in his own right. Keith has updated his member gallery over at the NAPP Member Gallery and has some great photos in there.

Here's an example of Keith's work, but be sure to follow the link below to see more.

Image copyright Keith Roland.

Here's a link to Keith's NAPP gallery.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:05 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I recently got Scott Kelby's update to his best-selling book The Digital Photography Book (this one is Volume 2) and I've got to tell you that it's the best $19.99 (or $14.99 if you're a NAPP member) that you can spend to get:

1. A good resource of recommended equipment to buy at three price levels (budget, moderate, and money is no object).

2. A good resource of general photography information written in a down to earth, fun and witty style.

It usually takes me forever to read a book. If you could see the last book I read, you'd see that about every three pages is dog-earred where I stopped reading. With Scott's latest The Digital Photography Book, I blasted through the entire book, cover to cover (okay, I didn't read the index, but everything else) in one sitting on my way from Portland to San Francisco for Macworld. I even read it again in more detail on the way home focusing on the parts that were of particular interest to me.

If you enjoy any of Scott's other books, you'll like this one. If you're not sure, head over to Borders or Barnes and Nobel and I'm sure you could leaf through it and know in short order if you'll like it or not.

Posted by Mike Wong at 3:45 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Looks like round 1 of voting has started for the PhotographyCorner.com 2007 Photograph of the Year contest. You can check out the all of the photographs by visiting the galleries.

I'm told that round 2 of the voting process will begin late Wednesday or early Thursday this week with the winners announced at the end of this month. If you plan on voting, be sure to read the voting guidelines.

There are some really nice photos in the galleries so be sure to check 'em out.

Disclaimer: onOne is a sponsor of the contest providing copies of software to the winners.

Posted by Mike Wong at 11:55 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I just got an updated list of the dates and places for Stephen Johnson's workshops for January through June 2008. Here's a list. Be sure to sign up soon if you're interested as they will fill up quickly.

Death Valley in Winter
January 24-27, 2008

Fine-Art Digital Printing Hands-On
February 23-26, 2008

Highway One and the San Mateo Coast (+ Pt. Lobos)
March 15-16 (17), 2008

Professional Image Editing
March 27-30, 2008

San Francisco Digitally (+Alcatraz)
April 5-6 (7), 2008

Mendocino and the North Coast
May 4-5, 2008

Digital Black and White Photography Hands-on
May 15-18, 2008

Ireland’s Spectacular West Coast
June 20-30, 2008

Posted by Mike Wong at 10:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

To all of you photographers out there, the PhotographyCorner.com website has announced their anticipated 2007 Photo of the Year contest. They've gathered up over $20,000 in prizes (including several copies of the onOne Plug-In Suite 3) to give away so head over to their website, read the rules and then submit your favorite photos!

Good luck!

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:49 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday, I got my hands on a Canon 85mm f/1.2 lens from Lens Pro To Go. I've rented from them before and I must say that they offer a great service at a very reasonable price (plus if you're a NAPP member you save 10 percent).

Anyway, I've been wanting to play with this lens for a while (I don't have $1700 to spend on a lens) and boy is it fun. The lens is HUGE, but that is to be expected with that much glass in it. Anyway, it takes some getting used to with the depth of field you can generate with this bad boy. Here are a couple of examples of some shots I took last night.

Canon 20D, 85mm, f/1.2, 1/50 sec, ISO 200

Canon 20D, 85mm, f/1.2, 1/15 sec, ISO 100

I love how it blurs out the background. I'll be having lots of fun with this over the next week before I have to return it.

Posted by Mike Wong at 3:57 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I was just looking at the landscape shot of the Three Sisters mountains that I talked about in the last entry on PhotoTools (see PhotoTools - Landscape Enhance with Glow) and realized that I stopped a little short with that picture. So, in my effort to procrastinate yet again on my big project, I'd like to offer up a quick tip on how you can use PhotoTools to clean up an image like this that has an area that is under exposed that you want to, well, expose.

To correct this, I'm going to use the Digital Fill Flash effect in PhotoTools. This is something that you would normally do with a flash or reflector to increase the brightness in dark areas of your subject matter. This is a great technique to use if you exposed your image for the sky for example and under exposed the foreground. You can click on most of the screenshots for a larger version.

Open your image in Photoshop and then launch PhotoTools or PhotoTools Professional Edition (this effect is in both versions).

Next, go to the Image Optimize section and choose onOne Digital Fill Flash.

Double click on the Digital Fill Flash effect and it will be added to your stack. You can see that we will get some improvement in the middle of the photo where it is too dark.

It is still a little dark for my preference so the next thing I did was to adjust the Fade slider to increase the strength of the Digital Fill Flash effect. By default it is set to 50% but I'll move it all the way up to 100%.

It's still just a little too dark for me. Not much, but enough that it will bug me if I don't fix it. I can't move the slider up past 100 but one of the cool things about PhotoTools is that it lets me stack multiple effects together. In this case, I'm just going to stack the Digital Fill Flash effect again to deal with those pesky dark areas of my photo. So just double click the Digital Fill Flash again and you'll see that by default it sets the strength to 50% which I will leave alone this time.

Posted by Mike Wong at 2:52 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I've got a new Preset for PhotoTools Professional Edition that I'd like to share today. I was going through some pictures for a year end project and found this picture that I took in Central Oregon at a place called Black Butte Ranch. It's a shot of the Three Sisters mountains, part of the Cascade Mountain Range. I love it here. It's absolutely wonderful and we go every summer. Anyway...the original photo was a bit flat with some room for improvement. PhotoTools to the rescue.

I started off with an effect to improve the overall tone and then dropped the Kubota Radiant Landscape effect. I could have stopped there but decided to drop the Kubota Soft Glow effect which added a little more to the clouds. At that point, I stopped. Sometimes it's hard to stop, but that's the secret, knowing when to stop.

Here's the preset if you'd like to download it and use it. You'll need PhotoTools Professional Edition because of the use of Kevin Kubota's effects.

All images copyright Mike Wong 2007.

Posted by Mike Wong at 4:52 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I was recently going through some pictures that I took throughout 2007 as part of a year-end slide show, semi-movie project that I like to do for my family. While cruising through my Lightroom library, I stumbled upon this picture of my son that I took in October at one of his soccer games.

I really liked it for two reasons. First, I really liked the lighting - that late afternoon light in the fall can be really nice. Second, I liked it be because Nathan wasn't pulling a goofy face which is he prone to do at his age in just about every picture I take of him. The goofy faces are nice, but even a parent wants a straight face sometimes. Anyway, I thought it would make a good black and white photo so I quickly opened it up in Photoshop CS3 and the took it into PhotoTools Professional Edition.

I added two effects that Jack Davis created for PhotoTools. The first was a Black and White effect specifically designed for portraits (effect name: Davis-WOW Portrait-B&W). I then added the Davis-Diffuse Glow effect set to the Substantial Large setting because I really wanted to get a nice glow and blow out some of the highlights on the left side of Nathan's face so they would blend into the background. I know Jack would disagree with me about blowing out the highlights but I had almost blown them out in the original photo so I figured I might as well go to town and completely blow the highlights and get a cool effect. Finally, I added a small amount of sharpening with Jack's Davis-Portrait Sharpen effect set to Small. The result...

I really like this final result and when I printed it on my Epson R2400, I liked it even better. I can't wait to get the print home and put it up in my office.

Now if you would like to get this same type of look, you can either repeat those steps in PhotoTools Professional Edition - which will save you about 15 steps in Photoshop, or you can download this preset and import it into PhotoTools Professional Edition and get it with a simple double-click. Hope you enjoy it.

All images copyright Mike Wong 2007.

Posted by Mike Wong at 3:25 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I had a few minutes at the end of the day today to get to another one of my shots from my St. John's Bridge shoot the other day.

Shot with my Canon 20D with my EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens at 24mm at ISO 100 on Lexar Digital Film. Processed with Adobe Camera Raw 4.2 and using the Scott Kelby 7-Point System. I also had a Moose Peterson Circular Warming Polarizer to help bring out the colors even more. This is such a great time of year in Portland. Clear skies, amazing colors. Give it two weeks and it will be gray and raining...

Posted by Mike Wong at 10:39 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Dan Harlacher (the Senior Product Manager for onOne Software) invited me out to shoot the St. John's Bridge this morning. We were hoping for some fog that usually is around this time of year early in the morning but we didn't get any. We did however get some nice light, ran into another photographer who was also taking advantage of the light with his DSLR and his Canon Powershot G9. Boy was it cold though this morning. 37 degrees F when I left the house and it didn't warm up much during our shoot.

Here's one of my shots from this morning. I'll try to post some more this weekend and early next week. You can click on the photo for a larger view.

Canon 20D, EF 24-105mm f/4 L, at f/4.5, 1/40, ISO 400 at 24mm, Lexar Digital Film, Developed using Adobe Camera Raw 4.2 and using the Scott Kelby 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop.

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:22 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

One of my favorite airports to fly out of is Seattle. Whatever it is about the location of the airport - and maybe it is just because it is in Northwest where they get a ton of rain - they have some of the most amazing clouds that I've ever seen. You can fly through layers upon layers of clouds when going into or out of SeaTac which is why I always ask for a window seat for the times I'm going through Seattle.

Just last week I missed my 11:00 pm flight from Seattle to Portland and caught one of the many flights down to Portland the next morning. I got my seat on the Western side of the airplane so I wouldn't be looking east directly into the sunrise and this is the picture that I got. This makes flying worth it to me every time.

The frame that I dropped on the photo is one of the new frames from Kevin Kubota that is included in PhotoFrame Professional Edition or as part of the individual pack you get as an add-on for PhotoFrame.

Posted by Mike Wong at 4:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to go shooting with Canon Explorer of Light, Rick Sammon. Rick is a great guy and a lot of fun to hang out with and he really enjoys teaching photography and it shows.

Rick was in Portland for a couple of days working with Pro Photo Supply and Canon and he led a photo shoot in the Japanese Gardens. We had great weather and it was a lot of fun and I even got to try out the Canon EF 16-35 f/2.8 L II lens. Wow. I really want that lens now after shooting with it. Here's one of my shots that I took with it.

Later, Rick stopped several of us and reminded everybody to have fun while shooting and to try new things. Here's Rick teaching one of the attendees how to be creative by setting a slightly longer shutter speed, point the camera down at an object, start rotating the camera and then click the shutter.

Here's my attempt.

So if you ever get a chance to go shoot with Rick, make sure to get out there and do it. You won't regret it. If you can't go shoot with Rick, here's the next best thing.

If you can't get to one of Rick's events here's the next best thing. Rick has a new live-action DVD: Rick Sammon's Canon EOS Digital Rebel Personal Training Workshop. The 1.5 hour DVD covers everything you need to know abou the Canon Digital Rebel XTi and digital SLR photography in general. So even if you don't have a Canon camera, the DVD will help turn your snapshots into a great shot. Learn more here.

All images copyright Mike Wong 2007

Posted by Mike Wong at 6:45 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Well, it's 3:11 am here in New York and I'm still up working. I just finished getting a few things ready for PhotoPlus which starts in less than 6 hours. Nothing like getting things done early is there?

Before I call it a night, er...morning, I thought I'd throw a post out there. Here's a picture I took with my new Canon Powershot G9 (which I absolutely love by the way) that I took yesterday morning on the flight out of PDX. And no, the pilot had not said that it was safe to turn on approved electronic devices. :-) I saw the sun hit the bottom of the wing from the other side of the plane and had to get the shot. Nothing happened to the plane, so I'm assuming a point-and-shoot camera is safe. :-) (this isn't the first time I've taken a picture during takeoff before the ":approved elevaction")

Here's the before shot straight out of the camera.

I wanted to pull some of the dirt and grime out of the wing though as well as clean up the white balance and get that correct. So I ran it through our soon-to-be-released Photoshop Plug-In, PhotoTools Professional Edition and got this.

The effects I used were Omaha, which reproduces the look from Saving Private Ryan and then I added Kevin Kubota's The Look action. I really like the end result.

All images copyright Mike Wong 2007.

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier today while I was enjoying my morning coffee, I headed over to Matt Kloskowski's Lightroom Killer Tips blog as I often do. Matt has posted a great video on creating a very popular and cool grunge look to your photos. Be sure to head over to Matt's blog to download the video.

Here's a quick before and after example.

Thanks for the tip Matt!

Posted by Mike Wong at 1:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This morning I received my monthly newsletter from DoubleExposure.com. In the edition was a tip from John Paul Caponigro entitled "Defocus". Typically, everywhere you turn, there's a headline on a magazine cover about "SHOOTING SHARP LIKE THE PROS" or a topic in a forum about the sharpest lens and how far you should stop it down to get the sharpest point, etc. etc..

So it was refreshing to read John Paul's article this morning (which will take you about 10 seconds) about composing your photo and then intentionally exposing the shot OUT OF FOCUS. I love it. Not only the concept and the tip on composition, but John Paul as given me some inspiration for a self-assignment the next time I'm out shooting in about 10 seconds. There's no extra fluff in the article. He gets right to the point and gets it across. He's also included a photo of his that I haven't seen before and it makes his point perfectly.

You can read the article here.

Posted by Mike Wong at 8:12 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A word to the wise, never ask to have a bite of a cupcake in the hands of a three year old. Well, at least don't ask my daughter...

Photo copyright 2007 Mike Wong

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Currently, I'm shooting with a Canon 20D which I really like, but of course, there's always another camera right? Now, I like my 20D, but it's big and bulky, especially with the 24-105 f4/L lens that I usually have on it making it less than ideal as the "take everywhere you go" camera.

I've got a Canon SD550 - which I bought for my wife a couple of years ago because she refuses to hold or carry my 20D unless it's so I can carry something heavier for her instead. And well, since I did get it for her, she's using it so I can't really take it. So I've been on the lookout for a smaller camera to get, but I really wanted one that shoots RAW.

There's the Panasonic Lumix LX2K, but I've heard mixed things about it, but had decided to get it anyway because I really wanted a compact camera with RAW capabilities.

But wait, what's this? I just saw on Canon's site a new Powershot G9 that is compact, 12.1 megapixels and the icing on the cake for me is that it shoots RAW. And there's a lot more to it as well including support for my external Canon flash which makes such a big difference (even though I look silly carrying it around I'm sure).

This just might be my next toy! If you've already got one, please let me know how you like it.

Posted by Mike Wong at 3:12 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I just got an email from Vincent (as did anyone else on his email list) about an upcoming week-long class that he is co-teaching that is a little out of the ordinary so I thought I'd blog about it.

It's called "Photography Under Fire". Here's the description verbatim from the email.

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

Pixel Boot Camp takes digital photography to the next level.

Too often, the process of making something faster and more efficient means sacrificing creativity and aesthetics — if you have to get the job done and get it out the door, creativity takes a back seat to functionality. Digital photography master Vincent Versace says otherwise.

Versace's Pixel Boot Camp, being offered at The Workshops September 23, offers experienced photographers a new set of tools for maximizing efficiency and creative content under less-than-favorable circumstances.

Co-taught with Chief Mickey Strand, Leading Chief of the U.S. Navy Combat Camera Group Pacific, the course offers students new techniques for producing quality images in stressful situations. From packing a gear bag to homing in on the most compelling images in a volatile environment, Pixel Boot Camp is an opportunity to learn from the same team that trains military personnel how to take photos under fire.

"The beauty of Pixel Boot Camp is that it’s an opportunity to learn how to work under fire, getting in and out quickly and following tight rules of engagement while still functioning in a creative sense," said Versace, who is widely recognized as one of the digital world’s leading photographers and teachers. "The course teaches how to be quick, fast and efficient while being creative at the same time."

The intensive, one-week workshop will include shooting exercises aimed at training the eye and focusing on the critical elements of any shooting situation, as well as a offering techniques for handling digital images and improving work flow. This is the first time that this training has been offered outside a military facility, and Versace is looking forward to bringing the course to The Workshops.

"Of all the workshops and educational facilities I have been involved with, the most target-rich, most beautiful place is definitely in Maine at The Workshops. It took my breath away," said Versace. "The school’s location, combined with its incredible dedication to the art of photography is just outstanding."

Pixel Boot Camp is the first in a series of exciting new digital courses being offered at The Workshops this fall. To find out more about this and other Maine Media Workshops programs, call (877) 577-7700 or go online at theworkshops.com

Posted by Mike Wong at 10:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

As some of you might know, there was a full lunar eclipse earlier this morning and since I've never seen one before and the next one isn't until next year, I figured I might as well set my alarm for 1:30 am, get up and take a look for myself. Of course, I took out my Canon 20D along with my 70-200 f4/L IS (which I was wishing was a 600 f4/L IS) along with my trusty (but aging) Manfrotto tripod and my favorite ball head ever, the Really Right Stuff BH-55 with quick release clamp.

After many shots at a variety of f-stops, shutter speeds and ISO settings, here's my best shot of the bunch. It's my first real attempt at night photography and shooting the moon so if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears and would love the feedback. I've got 6 months for the next one.

8/28/07, 3:01:52 AM PST, 1.0 sec at f / 4.5, 192mm, -2/3 EV, ISO 800, Canon EOS 20D, 70-200 f/4 L IS

Image copyright 2007 Mike Wong

Posted by Mike Wong at 1:19 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Every now and then you get a nice surprise. Maybe you find a few bucks in your pants pocket after it goes through the wash. Maybe you get your cell phone bill and see that they actually owe YOU money. Maybe you go home and the kids are playing nicely together and dinner is on the table. :-)

This morning, I had a different kind of surprise. I have a bunch of Google Alerts set up to help keep me updated on a variety of things related to photography, Photoshop, what people are saying about onOne products, etc. And as often happens when I get one of these Google Alerts, I click on it to see the full context of the keyword that is being searched faithfully by Google. Sometimes you find what you're looking for sometimes you don't. Anyway, I went to one of the alerts I had this morning and it led me to a Flickr group that I hadn't seen before and discovered some amazing photography and some amazing Photoshop work.

The photographer's name is Rebekka (and I don't know all of the correct html codes to spell her last name correctly - sorry). Here's a link to her Flickr site. Absolutely stunning work. It makes me want to leave right now and go shoot. Thanks for the inspiration Rebekka.

Posted by Mike Wong at 9:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Heads up all you Canon shooters out there looking to upgrade your DSLR bodies...Canon's finally announced (as anticipated by many) that the 40D is on it's way. Check out the release on the Digital Photography Review website.

I was thinking I'd save my money for the 5D, but at a list of $1299 (and I would think the street would be less than $1000 to compete with the D80), this could very well be my next camera.

Hmmm....now if only I can convince my wife that I need to buy a new camera. :-)

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:20 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I posted earlier about sessions at Photoshop World Fall 2007 that you don't want to miss on Day 1 of the conference and now here are my Day 2 selections for sessions you won't want to miss.

If you enjoy still life photography or if you make a living at it, you won't want to miss Jim DiVitale's session at 9:30 in the Digital Photography Live Studio Track. The session is called "Still Life Photography Shoot Live" and I can guarantee you that Jim will teach and show you something you didn't know before. I was in Atlanta once last year and stopped by Jim's studio and he gave me an improptu Photoshop class and taught me a ton...but I digress.

If Still Life isn't your thing, go over to the Creativity Track and catch Joe McNally's session on "Shooting for Major Magazines". Joe has a resume second to none and the portfolio to back it up so I'm sure he'll be showing a bunch of his work so this will be a hard one to miss.

At the 11:00 am session block, I would do anything I could to be in Helene Glassman's "Lighting for Digital Portraiture" class. Few things will improve your photography like proper lighting and Helene is one of the best on the subject. To prove it, Helene has been living minutes away from The Brooks Institute of Photography for over 20 years since she graduated from there and has maintained a successful studio even with hundreds of new graduates to compete with each year.

You get a 2 hour break for lunch, so if I were you - here comes a shameless plug, sorry - I'd stop by the onOne Software booth (#515) at 1:00 after you eat. We're giving away an iPhone to one lucky attendee. Stop by our booth on day 1 for details on how to win.

At 2:30pm, I'd make my way over to a new session this year called "Lightroom Power Session" with Chris Orwig. Chris is a new Photoshop World instructor this year and is an amazing photographer - so you'll get to see some great stuff in his demo I'm sure - and a wonderful teacher, not to mention a great guy. Be sure to see him there if you can. If you miss him there, he's got several sessions on the Tech Expo theatre and in the Peach Pit booth.

In the 4pm session, you'll have to choose between Jay Maisel's new "Light, Gesture and Color" and Rick Sammon's "Working Hard at Having Fun in Digital Photography". Jay and Rick have opposite teaching styles so you'll most likely want to pick the session that you think you'll enjoy the most. I suspect Rick will be full of energy and will get the class invovled while Jay tends to be a little more subdued and presents in more of a lecture style. Both sessions will be great I'm sure, just pick the one you think you'll like best.

At 5:15 I'd either go back to the Lightroom track and see Tim Grey's session on "Photographic Workflow in Lightroom" - though if you saw Matt Kloskowski's session at 9:00 on workflow you might be covered. I think I might have to go see Joe Glyda's session on "How to Light for Shooting Food". I'm not a food photographer and I don't plan on becoming one, but Joe is an amazing presenter who is hilarious as well so I would go to this for the sheer entertainment value. Joe has been the top guy at Kraft foods in the creative department for something like 15 years (or more) so you know he's had to figure out some cool and creative ways to stay fresh there.

At 7:00 pm, you will not, I repeat, will not want to miss the "The Art of Digital Photography" presentation. There's no instruction, just a bunch of great slideshows by Jay Maisel, Vincent Versace, John Paul Caponigro, Jim DiVitale, Joe McNally, Moose Peterson and Joe Glyda. Don't miss it.

That's a very busy day 2 but well worth it. I'll post my day 3 recommendations next.

Posted by Mike Wong at 6:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I've always liked the idea of creating panorama photographs. About 10 years ago, I bought a small travel (film) camera that had a "panorama" feature that essentially was a switch that you would slide to one side or the other and when you looked through the viewfinder, voila! You had a pano shot. Well, not really, two pieces of black plastic just came in and cropped your viewfinder and then the developer at the foto-mat would just cut the film differently as it rolled down through the processor.

Well, things have changed significantly in the past 10 years and we no longer need to resort to trying to fake a pano shot. While there are a wide variety of hardware-based accessories you can buy including specialized ball heads and slide rails for a tripod setup there are also some great software solutions as well including two new and improved ways to stitch together photos to create a panorama from within Photoshop CS3.

The Photomerge (found under File > Automate > Photomerge) feature was a great addition in Photoshop CS2 (I think it first came in CS2) but the problem I had (at least with my photos) was that I could never get it to blend the sky very well even with the Advanced Blending options. It was a dead give away that it had been stitched (poorly) together. The new Photomerge in CS3 now does a tremendous job of blending images together even if they had different exposure, shutter or aperture settings (which is what usually throws it off in the first place).

There's also another way to do this (isn't there always ANOTHER way to do something in Photoshop?) without using Photomerge. You can use the Auto-Align Layers and Auto-Blend Layers features in Photoshop CS3 and get great results (probably identical but I'll get to that in a moment).

You can download my demo file if you want to follow along (Manhattan-COMBO.psd.zip - 2.7 MB). This file has 5 layers that we'll align together using the Edit > Auto Align Layers feature. You can separate them out later if you want to use the Photomerge method. Here we go...

Step 1: Open the demo file and select all of the layers in the Layers palette by selecting the layer on the top and then hold the Shift key and then click on the layer on the bottom of the stack.

Step 2: In Photoshop CS3, go to the Edit Menu and choose Auto-Align Layers...

In the next dialog box, the default is set to Auto. You can try it but I've already played with this image and to me, I think the Cylindrical option works the best on this sample photo. Your mileage may vary depending on your photos including the lens you used, the subject matter, the distance and angle you were compared to the subject matter etc).

Click OK and Photoshop CS3 will do it's Auto-Align magic. The result will be something that looks like this.

Notice that you'll need to blend the image so the sky doesn't have those bad overlaps and the individual layers look like this in the layers palette:

Step 4: Make sure you have all of the layers selected and then choose Edit > Auto-Blend Layers.

There are no options here so just choose it and be prepared to be amazed at what Photoshop CS3 does. The engineers on this performed some pretty cool math. When it's all done, first, look at your image. Chances are, it looks great and the cool thing is that you didn't have to create any layer masks or do anything tricky to make it happen. However, Photoshop CS3 (and their engineers) did! Take a look at the layers palette and the layer masks it created. I'm stunned every time I see this on a different pano I create.

I created the pano using Photomerge and got an almost identical image. The layer masks were different because of the order in which Photomerge stacked the layers, but the end result was nearly, if not identical to the method above. So depending on which way you prefer, you have choices on how you want to make your pano.

Finally, I cropped my image and then added an effect or two to give the buildings a glow and then a Curves adjustment layer with a layer mask to darken the clouds a bit to make them a little more dramatic.

Click on the photo above to see a larger version.

Again, try this method as well as the Photomerge method. Photomerge is more automated and doesn't require you to have all of the desired images as their own layer in a single document to start (though it ends up doing that). The method outlined above is fun to do because you get to see it all come together easier. So maybe after you learn and see what's happening you can go for the faster more automated method. Either way, I hope you enjoy the new/improved feature in Photoshop CS3 and create some cool panoramas!

Posted by Mike Wong at 9:56 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The podcast for the interview I did on Photo Talk Radio last weekend is now live. If you're interested, please visit their site and have a listen.

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:35 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I just finished up with my first LIVE radio interview with Howard Lipin and Mike Garcia over at Photo Talk Radio.

In the past, internet radio interviews that I've done were always recorded and turned into podcasts, but this was my first one that was live. I'm glad I didn't tell the guys in the office or my family as I'm sure they would have called in and heckled me.

Thanks again to Howard and Mike for having me on this morning!

Posted by Mike Wong at 8:52 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I'm driving up the trusty (but incredibly boring, no curves, could drive it blindfolded) I-5 later today for the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit 2007 event on the Microsoft campus on July 11 & 12.

I went to the event last year and had a good time and found it very interesting to listen to many different photographers share their views on the business side of photography ranging from needing/wanting better workflows to how video might impact the still photography business. This year's agenda looks just as promising and I'm looking forward to the event.

I'm also excited because I get to show off Mask Pro's color decontamination technology during the technology showcase on July 11. But don't blink or you might miss it! I've only been given 3 minutes to present as there are 9 others who will be showing other products so it's got to be short and sweet.

I'll post a 12 minute version of the demo I'm going to do on the site later today.

Posted by Mike Wong at 9:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Okay, so I'm from the West Coast. Oregon to be precise. Portland to be even more precise and let's be honest, Portland is a relatively small city in the grand scheme of cities in the U.S.A. Growing up here, life has always moved along at a relatively easy pace. Not too fast, not too slow.

Now, I've been to New York many times over the years, but it never seems to fail that at least for the first day or two that I'm here, everything seems to move at a very fast pace, faster than I'm used to anyway especially when it comes to crossing streets and watching out for the crazy cab drivers who drive from one intersection to the next as if they are in a qualifying event for the Indy 500 or some other speed event.

So I thought I would try to capture that feeling in the first day or two before it wears off - usually just in time for me to fly home, get in my car and drive home from the airport like a NYC cabbie only to realize that...I'm not a cabbie, I have no fare and I'm definitely not in NYC anymore. Sorry. Here's the photo.

Canon 20D, 24-105 mm f/4 L IS at 1/2 second at f/9, ISO 200

Posted by Mike Wong at 8:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Congratulations go out to Laurie Excell as she has been added to the list of fantastic Photoshop World instructors at the upcoming Photoshop World Las Vegas in September. Laurie is such a nice person and I'm very happy to hear that she'll have her own Pre-Con class this year.

Also, check out her blog where she's got some fantastic photos.

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:29 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being interviewed on The Podcast Network's The Digital Photography Show (check out the podcast) with the host Scott Sherman. Scott is a great guy and very good interviewer as well. The show started off where we realized that we both had kids the same age (6 and 3) and that both of our oldest boys were finishing up Kindergarten. It's always fun talking to other parents who have kids the same age. Anyway, we talked mostly about plug-ins (what are they and why you need them) and then more specifically about Genuine Fractals, Mask Pro, PhotoFrame Pro and Intellihance Pro.

If you haven't already, you should head over to the Digital Photography Show website and check out all of their podcasts. There are lots of great interviews in the archives with people such as Scott Kelby, Kevin Kubota and Rick Sammon.

Posted by Mike Wong at 7:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Two things to mention...first, we've got an online forum setup now so onOne users can share information, tips, tricks, troubleshooting, etc with each other. It should serve as a great resource when you need immediate help or assistance and a good place to share any information that you have that might help others.

The second thing I wanted to mention is that as part of our forums, we've got a board that we're calling the Photo of the Month. The idea is that we want you to share and post your favorite photos each month with the new online community we're building. Each month, we'll pick the best photo and feature it in our monthly eNews and award a cool prize. So head on over and start posting photos. I've posted one to get things started, but I'm really excited to see what you'll post.

Posted by Mike Wong at 10:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I'm in New York this week for a few days for some events and training at the Calumet Photo store. Acting like a tourist for a day, I did the last free thing to do in New York and took the Staten Island Ferry from Lower Manhattan, past the Statue of Liberty over to Staten Island. I thought it would be uneventful, but this is New York and anything can happen. Not to overreact here, but we had a bit of a hard landing. The ferry hit the pier pretty hard, more than a few people fell over contrary to what the story said, but I think everybody looked okay.

Anyway, here are some pictures that I took on the way from Manhattan.

Off to Boston tomorrow. If I get any good shots, I'll post 'em.

All images copyright 2007 Michael Wong

Posted by Mike Wong at 3:39 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Our very own Dan Harlacher is now blogging! If you don't know Dan, he is the product manager for all of the Photoshop Plug-Ins here at onOne. Dan used to run a couple of photography studios of his own and his wife still runs one. We keep Dan pretty busy recording new product tutorials, traveling across the country speaking and doing demos, but he's somehow found the time to start up his blog. It's brand new, but check it out and subscribe to his RSS feed.

Posted by Mike Wong at 12:10 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I really enjoy reading (or viewing as the case may be) the London PhotoBloggers site. There are always some great photographs up there. Here are a few of my favorite from the past couple of months.

"Untitled" by cfoto

"In the Magic Hour" by alexbynature

"Camber