Frequency separation for touching up faces has gotten quite a buzz over the past several years. I still think it's a great way to retouch portraits, particularly if there are some abnormalities that need to be removed. This article looks at the method and the way I use it for that purpose. We’ll first look at what the technique actually does. The...

The Blend-If slider is one of those tools in Photoshop that I avoided for quite some time. It seemed to be a little too complicated for my little brain to grasp. However, once I finally saw it in action and saw what it could do my curiosity pushed me to dig a little more. In reality, this tool is fairly simple. I always thought of this tool as a w...

Sometimes rules are made to be broken. Right? I do it all of the time, but I do it with intent. Shooting portraits is like any other form of photography. It has its rules that you follow to get nice images. One of those rules is to be sure to show separation of the subject from the background, otherwise they seem to blend into it. What I’m going to...

Couple of quick tips I thought would be helpful while you are trying to find your way with the Photoshop interface. In both Lightroom and Camera Raw you have the ability to turn on a mask so you can see the affect of your painting with a brush. In Photoshop you have the backslash (“\”) key that does the same thing. Just press the “\” key on the ke...

Have you ever shot someone against a bright background only to have them be very dark or even a silhouette? I’m sure you have. The occurs because the brightness of the background tells the camera that the scene is very bright and to darken the scene for a good exposure. So what happens when you expose for the subject? Now you are telling the camera...