New video tutorial – The Importance of Common Pixels – Shooting Digital Panoramics Section of Rubbing Pixels

When shooting digital panoramics out in the field you have to be mindful of how those images are going to be aligned in your stitching software.

In this tutorial we look at the issues that arise when you don’t have enough common information (pixels) between two images and how you can solve that problem out in the field.

You are showen two examples of a digital panoramic taken at the same location, one shot well and the other that could have been improved and to correct it would need a lot more attention in Photoshop to repair.

This tutorials can be found in the “Shooting Digital Panoramics” section of the site. It is a members only tutorial. Click here to be taken to the tutorial.

Our new shop section – 2010 Masterclass Tutorial Bundle – Download

Rubbing Pixels has just launched it’s Shop section on the website. This section is where you will be able to buy and download to your computer individual tutorials and tutorial bundles, Ebooks and other products we think our customers would like us to source for them.

The tutorials you will download will be able to be played on your preferred media device, Apple Tv, iPad and more.

Currently we have a few bundles available for download:

The first one is the complete collection of 2010 Masterclasses. It’s 7 + hours of videos (21 in total) all for $35.

The second is our bundle of tutorials titled Repairing and Troubleshooting Digital Panoramic’s. Download is $14.95.

There are also a few single tutorials available for download as well.

To visit the Shop section please click here.

After payment your tutorial can be downloaded from the “Your Account” section of the site (The site will take you there anyway). This is the same “Your account” section if your a free or paid member of the site. Very Easy.

Monitoring Channel Clipping – Photoshop Video Tutorial

Being able to monitor whats happening with your image in terms of clipping channels while editing is critical to making sure your images integrity in terms of avoiding pure whites and blacks is done as you process your work.

In this tutorial we show you a simple little trick where you can do this so you can add or remove luminosity to your images and see the effect it is having on the channels that make up your photo.

This tutorials can be found in the “Retouching Techniques” section of the site. It is a members only tutorial. Click here to be taken to the tutorial.

The “Hand Made” Viewfinder for shooting digital panoramics – Video Tutorial

A prized piece of equipment that all digital panoramic shooters would like to get their hands on is a viewfinder that comes with owning a fix lens film system so they could preview scenes prior to setting up and shooting them.

Well once you see this tutorial you wont need to want one. When owning the G617 with the fixed camera viewfinder Matt Lauder got sick and tired of having to pull the camera out seach time to view the scene to see if it worked or not. So he devised a simple way to preview every scene without needing the camera.

This tutorials can be found in the “Shooting Digital Panoramics” section of the site. It is a members only tutorial. Click here to be taken to the tutorial.

Tripod Set up for Shooting Digital Panoramics – Video Tutorial

I know some of you out there have been waiting a while for these tutorials to be launched… well here is the start of them.

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The key to shooting high quality digital panoramics starts with the setting up of your equipment to get a refined result.

In this tutorial Matt Lauder covers what leveling equipment he uses to shoot his digital panoramics and the setup of the tripod and tripod head so they give him the best results.

This tutorials can be found in the “Shooting Digital Panoramics” section of the site. It is a members only tutorial. Click here to be taken to the tutorial.

Mid Morning Shoot using a Fuji G617 and Velvia 50 slide film

Landscape Photographer Matt Lauder takes you through the full light meter reading process for a mid morning coastal shoot using a dedicated light meter, a polariser and the Fuji G617 with Velvia 50 slide film. Explaining the steps and considerations he uses in deciding on the final camera settings for the exposure.

After the capture Matt then shows you the final scanned RAW image from the shoot in photoshop and points how the factors he considered in the field have worked perfectly as planned giving the final result.

This tutorials can be found in the “Film Lovers” section of the site. It is a members only tutorial. Click here to be taken to the tutorial.

Setting up a polariser on a rangefinder camera

When you don’t have the ability to look through the lens with rangefinder cameras you understanding and placement of filters has to come down to experience, touch and a few little tricks and tips.

In this tutorial Landscape Photographer Matt Lauder shows you a simple way to set up your polariser on your camera so that everytime you take a shot your polarisation is exactly what you wanted and there is no guessing or wasting shots with too little or too much polarisation.

This tutorials can be found in the “Film Lovers” section of the site. It is a members only tutorial. Click here to be taken to the tutorial.

New Tutorial – Apply ACR preset to numerous images

So you have a whole bunch of images shot in RAW and you want to apply the same Adobe Camera Raw editing / adjustments to them all to save yourself a lot of time.

So in this tutorial we create a Camera Raw preset of our image adjustments and then apply that preset to all our images with only having to open one image in ACR to make the initial preset.

This tutorials can be found in the “Tips and Tricks” section of the site. It is a members only tutorial. Click here to be taken to the tutorial.

Re processing some older work – Island Arch, Great Ocean Road, Vic

Over the last week on and off I have been looking through my work and processing some of the shots again. 90% of all my film shots on my site would have less than 2 min of actual photoshop editing, mostly just a curves adjustment here and there and a selective colour adjustment layer.

With the introduction to my work flow of complex luminosity masks and alike I can look at some of these shots that are good but can be made a whole lot better with a more constructed workflow applied to them. This shot of Island Arch on the Great Ocean Road was one of those shots that really came through.

The starting point for this shot wasnt photoshop it was in how it was scanned. Just a single scan wasnt enough so what I did was scan the tranny twice with the Imacon 343 scanner. First scan to get the best detail in the sky, second scan to get the most detail out of the foreground and sandstone rocks. No different really than double processing your RAW file twice as a smart object. So if you use me to scan your film keep this in mind as this can be done.

Once these two images are masked together then you get started on the rest.

Over the weeks ahead I will be processing more of these kinds of shots from my site and displaying them on my facebook page with a description on what I have done. Might even post some before and after shots on there as well.

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

New Tutorial Masterclass – Dusk over Observatory Hill

Our first masterclass for 2011 introduces you to the soft glow effect technique that is all the rage with giving your image that little bit of extra pop.

The image was shot at Observatory Hill in Sydney on dusk where the shutter speed was manipulated to target vehicle car light movement.

The RAW file production is explained moving into CS5 where masks are applied to add contrast and then to selectively target colour in various areas.

Then to finish off the image we apply the “Soft Glow” effect to the shot explaining the process and its application.

This tutorials can be found in the “Masterclasses” section of the site. It is a members only tutorial. Click here to be taken to the tutorial.