Photography ideas, camera & image editing

There are many Photoshop Plugins. One of the more useful one is Fluid Mask 3. More specifically, it is a Still Image Cut Out Tool.

Basically, this photoshop plugin is a masking and selection tool par excellence. Masking tasks that were virtually impossible to be carried out otherwise are competently dealt with by Fluid Mask 3. These include selecting objects as challenging as hair. The images below show the capability of this plugin in selecting hair.

One of the strength of Fluid Mask 3 lies in its ability to easily isolate a difficult area and applying alternative edge finding and blending techniques to it.

Additionally, Fluid Mask 3 can also perform intelligent edge blending. What this means is that this tool is able to understand the width and attribute of the edges. Because of that, it is able to determine the most appropriate edge width, even when feather function is being used.

On tests carried out with comparable masking tools, the results showed that Fluid Mask 3 performed significantly faster. Fluid Mask appears to be about 3 times faster than other masking tools.

To see the power of this plugin, you may want to view some photoshop tutorials that illustrate the functions of Fluid Mask 3. >> See Photoshop Tutorials.

OK, I must confess that although I use Photoshop at work, I am a regular GIMP user at home. How I wish that such as tool is available for the GIMP.

If you are looking for a tool to create superior photoshop mask, you should check out this plugin. You can download a trial version here.

Sport Photography is one of the most challenging type of photography. The equipment acquisition alone is expensive. You will need a good digital SLR and long telephoto lenses. The recommended minimum for a lens is 200mm.

Two areas of challenges with sports photography are:

1. Getting the right timing. Because sports are usually occurring at a very high pace, the photographer will need to be very skilled at locking the camera to the action. To add to the challenge, a photographer do not always has the luxury and luck to be in close proximity to the location where the action is. That is why, a long lens is recommended. However, long lenses tend to magnify the panning or any movement to the camera. This makes following the action and framing the scene very challenging indeed.

Typically, a fast shutter speed is used so as to capture the details and not be succumbed to blurry images that are caused by fast movements.

A continuous powerdrive that allows for fast sequential capturing of shots is an added advantage. This will allow the photographer to select the best shot from the series of sequences.

2. Lighting. Lighting is another challenging aspect of sport photography. It is not so much of a problem if the action is taking place in the bright outdoor. Under this kind of condition, it is easier to match fast shutter speed with the brightness. However, when the sport action is taking place indoor, the lighting condition is not so favourable. To use a fast enough shutter speed, the ISO setting have to be increased. This may result in increased graininess of photographic outcomes.