360 degrees Panoramas

Hi, I hope you had a fantastic weekend

Today I would like to talk to you about 360 degrees panoramas.
With Facebook allowing us to post 360 degrees panoramas created with our phones or other mobilde devices we can have a super cool experience and move around on the images, I really like it a lot, it gives you the feeling that you are actually there.Also, some camera manufacturers started selling some cool 360 degrees cameras…
But even that either using a phone or a proper 360 camera it looks cool, its never as great as doing it using a dslr, as dslr’s are not only sharper, but also the fact you shoot raw, you have a lot more to work with.

So I created a tutorial where I can show you a way to go around the situation so that you can use your dslr to photograph the panorama and with the help of Photoshop you can actually trick Facebook to think that you used a 360 camera.

https://youtu.be/WkBXOYf0udE

 

All is good, but what about Instagram?
Everyone likes Instagram, but it won’t allow you do upload  a 360 panorama.
So I came up with an idea, instead of a panorama, why not upload a video that will give you the feel of the 360 panorama.

 

I hope this post and videos will help you.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I will do my very best to help you.

Have a fantastic week,

Miguel

Why you need to shoot Raw

Hi, I hope you had a fantastic weekend!

Today I would like to point out the importance of shooting in Raw.

A lot of people prefer to shoot jpeg because it looks better or because when they see the image in the back of the camera, it doesn’t look the same on a computer, it looks flat…

Well, jpeg files not only are compressed files, but also they don’t have as much data as a raw file, therefore you are always limited to what you want to achieve. Also 

I get people saying that the jpeg looks better than a raw file, a raw file is just plain raw, therefore, it will never look like a jpeg, so even if you shoot raw, the camera will show you a jpeg preview of the image, so when you take the image to a computer it will look flat. But it can easily be fixed. The very basic processing on a raw file is the white balance, the contrast and sharpeness. Ok, fair enough, when you start processing an image, we always do more than that, but because its a raw file, it has lots of information, so, with more information, means a lot more control, not only to your image, but also how creative you want to be.

Bellow there is a link of a video I did a couple of weeks ago, where I process a raw file and turn a boring image to an awesome image.

I hope this helps you realize that shooting raw is not scary and its actually the way to go.

Have a great week,

Miguel

Still Life Composite

Hi everyone, I hope you had a great week.

Today I want to share with you that with the help of Photoshop, your imagination is the limit…

Last year or so, I waspaying around in the studio with a bottle and some glasses, but everything I was doing, even that it was cool, it was vulgar, the sort of images that you Google and you find hundreds of similar results.

So I thought about doing something different, a bottle pouring some “whisky” to some glasses, but with a twist.

I wanted the bottle floating ans so the glasses, so I started planning. Grabed some electrical tape and taped the glasses to a couple of tripods and startedpouring the drink. By the way, I used ice tea instead of whisky, it looks the same but its cheaper and to be honest it would be a waste of some good whisky.
And here is the result

Also, I did a tutorial where I show you how I created the image.

I hope it helps you and inspires you.

Have a fantastic weekend,
Miguel
 https://youtu.be/kCUo-tpDOAQ

Create photo frames using Photoshop

Hi everyone, I hope you had a fantastic weekend.

Today I would like to share with you one of my most popular videos on YouTube…

Its all about creating frames formyour images using Photoshop.

I hope,you enjoy the tutorial.
Have a great week,

Miguel

Setting up Photoshop CC for the first time

Hi everyone, I hope you had a great week.

As for me, well, after having some issues with my computer, finally its all solved, therefore I want to show you how I setup Photoshop for the first time.

I will create my own workspace, then I go to the preferences menu where I change some settings to suit not only my workflow, but also performance.

After leaving the preferences menu I will load some actions, brushes and shapes.

I hope this blog and video tutorial will help you get started with Photoshop
Have a fantastic weekend,

Miguel

Still Life inspiration

Hi everyone, I hope you had a fantastic weekend.

As for me, even that I worked most of the weekend, I found some time to play a bit more with some still life.

This Blog post is intended to inspire you, and to show you with some creative composition, we can achive some cool images.

In this set of photos I used a camera on a tripod with my 105mm macro lens, a remote to trigger the camera, a softbox and a speedlight, so, nothing dificult or expensive, so everyone can create images like this.

The post processing was very easy and quick too, just cleaning up a bit and playing with the colours.

Here are a couple of images to hopefully inspire you

I will create a couple more images like this and will share the behind the scenes and also a nice and easy trick to achieve this images straight from camera.
Have a great week,

Miguel

Import Lightroom Catalog to another Computer

Hi everyone, I hope you had a great week.

As for me, I had some problems with my main computer, there I had to re install Lightroom and of course import old catalogs.

But how hard is it?Actually its quite easy and simple…

First I would like to tell you that I had the Catalog and the images backed up, so my first step was to put the Catalog and the images in the same location as before, in my case was on my pictures folder.

After the images and catalog were back where they were suposed to be, deleted the catalog that 

Lightroom created automaticaly when first opened Lightroom. Then I opened Lightroom and I got this window

On that window, I chose “Chose a Different Catalog”!

Just after I got another window, like this

In this window I located the Catalog, in my case for this post I am using a Catalog that is syncronized with my Lightroom Mobile and chose it.

Then I got another window

And on that window, with the catalog selected, I just clicked “Open”

And I got all my images imported as they were before, now all I have to do is let it syncronize with my Lightroom Mobile. 

It took just a few minutes and I am ready to go!
I hope this helps you, so if you need to add a Catalog to a second computer or as in my case, do a clean install, its rather easy and simple.
Have a fantastic Weekend,
Miguel