Photo Insights June 2019

Jim Zuckerman’s

PH OTO I N S I G HTS June 2019

Why I don’t use histograms Bird photography How to make a sketch Photo tours Student showcase Ask Jim

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Why I don’t use histograms Bird photography What’s wrong with this picture?

Short and Sweet Ask Jim Photo tours Student showcase How to Make a Sketch Back issues Subject index for Photo Insights

On the cover: Wild jaguars in the Pantanal region of Brazil.

This page: Jember Fashion Carnaval, Jember, Indonesia: a digital composite of the face and hands of a model placed into a huge costume in a hotel lobby.

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any people who travel with me on my photography tours ask if I use a polarizing filter. I respond by saying no, I don’t use one any more. In the days of film, we all used a polarizer to enrich color, especially the blue in the sky. As good as film was in the past, it didn’t give us the rich saturation of color that most of us wanted. Now, with a small movement of the vibrance slider in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom, blues intensify beautifully (as do all the other colors). In addition, we can control the amount of color enhancement in real time and on the fly.

The other reason photographers used a polarizing filter was to eliminate reflections from water surfaces and glass. That is still a valid reason to carry the filter, but for me, I rarely have a use for this. I don’t mind reflections in most cases.

The main disadvantage of using a polarizer is the loss of two f/stops of light. With some filters, it’s actually 2-1/3 stops. This loss of light may force you to use a tripod when otherwise you could have handheld the camera. Or, it could force an increase in ISO. Since most photographers would prefer to avoid tripod use, this is a big deal. Plus, the older you get, the less weight you can comfortably carry. One filter isn’t very heavy, but it all adds up. If you carry two or three polarizing filters to fit different lenses, you could shed a pound or two of weight.

If you have lower back pain, this is a serious consideration. If you don’t have lower back pain yet, lighten your load so you won’t get it in the future. Even two or three pounds makes a noticeable difference.

To protect the front glass element of your lenses, many photographers use skylight or UV filters. These don’t affect the color, contrast, or sharpness in any discernible way. I’ve seen both clients and friends drop lenses, and while the protective filter broke, the lens was fine. I don’t use these filters any more also, but it’s not a bad idea.

Jim Zuckerman www.jimzuckerman.com photos@jimzuckerman.com 3

WHY I DON’T USE

THE HISTOGRAM M

any photographers, both professional and amateur, constantly consult the histogram on the back of the camera every time they take a picture.

There is not much to learn from the distribution of highlights and shadows in the image as seen in the histogram graph. You can look at the picture on the LCD screen and see how much of the image is light and how much of it is dark. This has nothing to do with good exposure technique.

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Spiking on the right

Photographers study the histogram primarily for one reason: they want to know if the graph is spiking on the right. A spike on the left is also noteworthy, but it’s not as crucial as a righthand spike.

What does this mean?

The histogram is a graphic representation that shows the distribution of highlights and shadows in a picture. The far left side of the graphic represents the shadows, the center represents the mid-tones, and the far right portion indicates highlights.

Spiking on the right refers to a vertical line that rises from the graph along the right side. This means that the highlights are completely blown with no texture or detail. In other words, at least one part of the picture is solid white.

In the photograph below of an arctic wolf (taken during one of my winter wildlife workshops), it was very important to hold detail in the snow as well in the white fur of the animal.

In this case, had the histogram shown a spike on the right, that would indicate that at least a small area of the snow or the fur was solid white. This is something to be avoided. If this kind of detail is lost, the picture is seriously degraded.

In the picture of Bryce Canyon on the previous page, much of the image is approximately middle toned. There are some dark shadows in the canyon and on the tree, and the sky has a range of highlights. The sun, however, is a different story. It is completely blown out with no texture or detail. This is typical of the sun in every picture you take. If you underexpose the sun by several f/stops, it will be darker but

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it still won’t have texture or detail. In the Bryce shot, the sun photographed as we normally see it -- brilliant white -- and that is represented by the histogram on page 4. You can see the right-hand spike indicating the fact the sun is solid white with no detail. That’s perfectly acceptible because, with earth-based cameras and normal photographic technique, the sun is always blindingly bright and solid white.

be avoided at all costs -- that it’s the one factor that ruins an image. That’s true for many situations -- like in the arctic wolf picture -- but there are exceptions to this guideline that are important to remember.

I took the photo above in Mostar, Bosnia, and here again you can see small areas of highlights that have gone solid white. Streetlamps at night always photograph like this, and consequently the histogram of pictures like this show a spike on the right. Again, this is acceptible.

It is very easy to look at a histogram where you can see spiking on either the right or the left and think you’ve made a mistake with exposure. That may or may not be true. For example, in the photo of Mostar, I would say this exposure is perfect even though some of the highlights are blown and some of the shadows have gone solid black.

The reason I make this point is that when photo instructors explain the histogram, they usually tell their students that a spike on the right is to 6

A spike on the left means that at least in a small area of the image, the shadows have become solid black with no texture or detail.

I don’t use the histogram for two reasons.

First, for many photographic situations, time is of the essence. It takes time to examine the histogram. The two or three seconds it takes to do that means your subject could have changed or the action could be over. This could be anything from a child’s momentary joyous expression to a bird in flight. For landscapes, cityscapes, architecture, and other subjects that don’t move, this isn’t relevent. So many situations, though, require you to shoot fast. Studying the histogram is a good way to lose potentially good images in fast changing scenarios.

Second, I use a technique to protect highlights from overexposure, and that frees me from consulting the histogram all the time. I underexpose most of my shots by 2/3 f/stop. This is not enough to cause unwanted noise, but it’s sufficient to protect most of the highlights in a photo from blowing out. If a highlight is overexposed given the 2/3 reduction in light, then

only HDR will enable me to capture detail in the highlights as well as the shadows. If the subject is moving, such as an animal or an athlete, and HDR can’t be used, then there is nothing that can be done to prevent spiking on the right.

When I browse my RAW files in Bridge or Lightroom, they are all a bit dark. This isn’t a problem, though, because with a small adjustment using the exposure slider, the exposure is made correct. In the meantime, though, highlights like you see in the picture below of the calving glacier are protected.

Many instructors teach that most of the information in an image is to the right of the histogram, i.e. in the highlights. Based on my experience, this isn’t true. Once highlights are blown, where they are solid white, the lost detail can’t be recovered except by cloning other areas of the photo over the damaged highlights. §

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Bird Photography W

ithout doubt, bird photography is one of the most difficult types of nature work. This article won’t change that. Nothing I say or do will make it any easier. However, I can share my experience in bird photography with you regarding artistry, camera settings, and technique. The rest is up to you -- practice, persistence, and having the right equipment.

Gear If you are serious about bird photography, you

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must have the right equipment. This is a twopart discussion. First: the camera body.

The number one feature to look for in a camera body is frame rate. The more frames per second, the better. This is particularly true when capturing birds in flight. But even for birds perched, like the white-fronted bee eater from Africa, below, a fast frame rate allows you to capture the ideal pose. You will trash dozens or even hundreds of frames in the process, but among the keepers should be some really great moments.

A few years ago, on the first photo tour I led to the Pantanal in Brazil, I was shooting with the Canon 5D Mark III with a frame rate of 6 frames per second. A client in the group had the first version of the Canon 1Dx at 12 fps.

When we compared our images on the LCD, he was getting twice the number of pictures I was getting, and because of that there were nuances in wing positions he was getting that I was not. The shot below of a collared kingfisher is a perfect example. So, I waited for the next version of the 1Dx to come out, and now I have 14 fps. That has made a huge difference.

The Sony A9 is even faster at 20 fps. While this kind of speed is overkill for many types of subjects, for extremely fast moving birds it means you won’t miss anything!

In my opinion, the minimum frame rate is 10

fps or faster. You can still take good shots with a slower camera, but I’m offering you my opinion of what I consider to be the ideal.

The next important feature is fast autofocus as well as autofocus predictive tracking, or AI servo. To determine if a camera you’re considering buying for bird photography has fast AF, do research online. Study reviews by professional nature photographers and see what they say about cameras you are interested in.

Low noise is also a critical factor. Often, bird photographers are forced to shoot in low light environments, whether that be deep shade or overcast conditions. In addition, super fast shutter speeds necessary to freeze fast moving wings reduce light entering the camera. Raising the ISO is the only option to make a tough situation work, and if noise is a problem, your

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pictures won’t have the quality you are looking for.

camera, and I would say this is the minimum length lens you’d want in your arsenal.

Second: The lens. The general rule with bird photography is you want the longest lens you can afford, and the longest lens you can handle. Most birds are small and usually they don’t allow a close approach. That means a significnt telephoto is required to fill much of the frame with the subject. Otherwise, you’ll have to crop and consequently lose a lot of quality. The higher megapixel cameras offer an advantage in this regard, but all of the large megapixel cameras don’t have fast frame rates.

If you can afford a 500mm or 600mm lens -and you can handle the weight of these large prime lenses -- these are the ideal. I opted for the 500mm over the 600mm lens because it’s lighter in weight and smaller in volume. Because I fly a lot, the smaller lens is easier to carry and it usully doesn’t tempt airline personal to weigh my carryon.

Unless you are shooting birds at a feeder or in a captive situation, a 400mm focal length is too short for most serious bird photography. Adding a 1.4x teleconveter to a 400mm lens gives you 560mm of focal length with a full frame 10

The latest zooms from Sigma and Tamron are good choices because the focal length range -- 150-600mm -- is very useful. These lenses are about half the weight of Canon and Nikon fixed 500mm lenses, they are a fraction of the price (at this moment, the Sigma zoom is under $1000), and they offer a zoom range which gives you tremendous compositional freedom.

ber feet placed on my desk. My ballhead was screwed into a threaded bolt on the mount, and when no birds were feeding I could work on my computer. I used a 500mm lens with an extension tube to allow close focusing, and I had positioned a small branch above the feeder for birds to use as a perch before dropping down into the seeds. In this way, I could avoid including the feeder in the pictures.

That’s very important when photographing birds eating at feeders: don’t include the pile of seeds or the feeder itself in the shots.

Shooting through glass, assuming it’s clean, doesn’t adversely affect the results. No discernible quality is lost. Any minor imperfections in the glass will not be seen due to the shallow depth of field. I could have opened the window, but my presence at the desk would then have been very clear to the birds. Many of them would have stayed away. The closed window created a lot more activity at the feeder.

On the other hand, they are 2/3 to 1-1/3 f/ stops slower (f/5-f/6.3 maximum aperture) and they are not quite as sharp as Canon and Nikon. Having said that, I would rather have a Sigma or Tamron 150-600mm and not have to crop in post-processing because I was using a shorter focal length lens.

Methods of getting close to birds in the field include shooting from a vehicle, using a blind, using food such as fish or parts of fish, fruit, and planting flowers that produce nectar specifically to attract hummingbirds.

I also do a lot of research online to find active

Getting close There are many techniques for getting close to birds. Not all bird species are nice enough to make it easy for photographers, but some are. Many seed and fruit eaters come to bird feeders, for example. I photographed the blue grosbeak, above, at a feeder seen through my office window. The setup I used is shown at right. I used a roof-top mount with three rub11

MOROCCO PHOTO TOUR October 18 - 31, 2020 Exotic culture

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Camel train at sunset

Blue City

Great portraits

birding hotspots. Non-photographer birders don’t need to get close to be happy. They have a checklist, and as long as they can add another species to their list, they are satisfied. Photographers are of another mind set, and getting close -- at least within telephoto range -- is everything. So, the research I do is all about opportunities to do just that. I build many of my photography tours around this research. Examples of this are puffins in Iceland, macaws at a clay lick in Manu National Park, Peru, snowy owls in Canada, kingfishers in the Pantanal, and Japanese cranes, right, on eastern Hokkaido island in Japan.

derful bird park in Bali, for example. Parque das Aves at Iguazu Falls in Brazil is also amazing, as is Jurong Bird Park in Singapore.

In addition, there are fabulous bird parks all over the world where you can take natural looking shots of exotic but captive birds. I photographed the turaco, below, in a won-

In addition, there are natural congregations of various species of birds that make photography easy.

In Saint Marie de la Mer in southern France, for example, thousands of flamingos gather in a bird

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sanctuary a couple miles outside the town. I took the two pictures on this page there. In India, Bharatapur Bird Sanctuary is in the migratory path of scores of species. There are 230 species known to reside here. This is one of the best birding sites in the world. And in southern New Mexico, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is another worldclass location for bird photographers.

Backgrounds One of the things that separates good photography from mediocre or even poor imagery is the background. This is true of all types of imagery, and it certainly applies to bird photography as well. Is the background distracting?

Is it complimentary? Does it have elements that are too light or too dark where they take our attention away from the subject? Is the background too out of focus or not out of fo-

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cus enough?

Bird photography is difficult enough without having to consider backgrounds. Successful pictures of birds only happen when the background is complimentary in some way. Too often, we simply don’t have a choice. Birds can be anywhere in any environment. We’re happy just to get a sharp picture and a good wing formation.

POST-PROCESSING online course

by Jim Zuckerman

Learn how to process your images to give them visual impact. You will be introduced to Photoshop techniques that go beyond what you see and even beyond what you can imagine. This four-week course is invaluable to making your pictures look as good as the photographs you envy! You will receive detailed critiques on the images you submit for every lesson.

The great thing about online courses is that they can fit into any schedule. Life gets in the way at times, and Jim puts no limit on the time you can submit your work for his critiques.

CLICK ON THIS PHOTO to read more about the course.

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The picture below right of an orange-backed troupial from the Pantanal is a good example.

It visited a feeder on the grounds of the lodge I was using, and while the bird is beautiful, the background environment is not. Besides the unattractive feeder, the bright, out of focus tree trunk on the far right is distracting as is the green fruit intruding into the frame. The slightly soft branch on the left, also, isn’t good.

don’t like replacing backgrounds, that’s fine.

But you will be discarding images that othewise could have been made great.

The corrected version of the picture below is ideal. The out of focus green foliage looks natural, and it’s not too defined so it doesn’t take attention away from the bird.

For birds that are perched on a branch or at the

Many times birds can be photographed in the perfect place with a perfect background. In other instances, you have to make the perfect picture. That’s what I did here using Photoshop because I wasn’t able to capture any other shots of this beautiful species. If you are a purist and

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Camera settings More than any other type of nature photography, camera settings will determine whether or not your bird shots will be good.

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UPCOMING PHOTO WORKSHOPS Carnival in Venice Workshop Outrageous costumes in a medieval environment! Venice is great to visit and photograph any time, but during Carnival it’s magical. There is nothing like it anywhere in the world. Exotic masks, stunning colors, classic images.

Feb. 14 - 20, 2020

Snowy owls workshop Stunning pictures of snowy owls in flight.

Up close and personal encounters with owls in the wild. Based near Toronto, Canada.

January 20-23, 2020

Photoshop Workshop The setting is in my home, and in this two day workshop you’ll learn enough to be truly dangerous in Photoshop! How to replace a sky, how to fix all kinds of photographic problems in your pictures, how to handle blown highlights, how to be incredibly creative . . . and more.

October 19 - 20, 2019

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Expand your photographic artistry with

eBooks

Click on any ebook to see inside

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eBooks continued Click on any ebook to see inside

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nest, like the black-browed albatross and chick, left, I use a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second or faster if the ambient light permits a fast speed like this. Birds flick their heads, wings, and tails so fast that I don’t want to take a chance with a blurred image. If I’m using a tripod and the bird isn’t moving very fast, then I feel comfortable using a shutter speed of 1/320 only if the available light is low. I prefer 1/500th as a minimum if I have enough light.

For birds in flight, my standard shutter setting is 1/3200th of a second. I’ve tried 1/2500th, but with small birds whose wings move extremely fast, the wing tips are usually a bit blurred. I don’t like that.

If light permits, I like to use a lens aperture of f/11 so I can render the entire bird sharp. Small birds often puff their chest feathers out, and

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these feathers might be two inches closer to the camera than the head. With shallow depth of field, this means you won’t be able to keep focus on both the chest and the eyes. Therefore, a small aperture is important.

I do this only if the birds are fairly close to the camera position. If the bird is far away, depth of field will be the same at any aperture. What is the distance from the camera where depth of field is no longer relevant? That depends on the lens. With a 100mm focal length, a bird that’s 30 feet away will be just as sharp at f/2.8 as f/16. The background will be affected by the variance in aperture, but not the detail on the bird. With a 500mm telephoto, I would say the distance would be about 50 feet for the same consideration.

How can you determine these numbers? It’s just experience. But all of this is to say that

f/11 is a reasonable compromise to have a certain amount of depth of field while not using the very small aperture you might want to use.

What do you do when the ambient light is low, you’re using a long lens, and the bird has quite a bit of depth as in the picture of the social flycatcher from Costa Rica, below?

There are two choices. You can raise the ISO so you can have a fast shutter plus an f/11 aperture, or you have to compromise and hope for the best. That’s what I did here. I used a 500mm plus a 1.4x teleconverter, giving me 700mm of focal length. It was raining and very dark, and I was using an older camera a few years ago that didn’t handle noise well. My settings were 1/60, f/8, and 640 ISO. Because of the loss of DOF plus the fairly slow shutter, the bird isn’t tack sharp. That’s the price I paid for less than ideal camera settings.

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Today, I would have made a different choice.

Because I have a camera that handles noise a lot better than in the past, I would have set the camera to manual exposure mode and the ISO to auto. Then, I’d choose the shutter and lens aperture I wanted. The fact that the ISO would be set to auto means that the meter in the camera would determine the correct exposure, and it would produce the right result by varying the ISO. In doing this, you have to realize that the ISO could end up being quite high in low light circumstances.

With Neat Image software, a Photoshop plugin, you can eliminate the noise in most cases.

The picture of the snowy owl, below, is an example. It was late in the afternoon during one of my workshops, and in January we lose the light early. I was shooting with 1/3200 and f/11 along with auto ISO, and I hadn’t noticed

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the ISO had soared to an astonishing 12,800! In post-processing, though, I applied Neat Image and that completely eliminated the noise. The final image looks like I took this picture with 100 ISO. Auto ISO in conjunction with manual exposure mode allows you to specifically choose the shutter speed and the lens aperture you want for any given situation. You don’t have to guess what aperture or shutter priority will give you.

And, using Neat Image frees you from the fear of using a high ISO because of the resulting excessive noise. This really revolutionizes action photography. We can now use super fast speeds to capture fast-moving subjects with tack sharp clarity. Never before has this been possible, especially in low light situations.

It’s a great time to be a photographer. §

CUBA PHOTO TOUR October 22 - 31, 2019

Classic cars Great portraits Crumbling colonial architecture Fabulous color

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What’s wrong with this picture?

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ackgrounds often make or break a picture. Consider this one. I took this picture during an amazing festival in Indonesia, and the street parade consisted of hundreds of outrageous costumes.

My photo tour group all got VIP passes to position ourselves directly in the center of the street so the participants came directly at our cameras. They were all dancing to disco music coming from banks of monster speakers that lined the parade route. From our vantage, though, the background was not good. The sky was white and less-than-attractive buildings rose above the customed dancers.

I also didn’t like the white stripes painted in the street.

The subject matter, the color, and the creativity of the customes were great, so

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the way to save this picture was to replace the entire background with gray storm clouds. I chose this type of background for two reasons.

First, the diffused light on the scene could only have come from an overcast sky. Adding a blue sky wouldn’t make sense. Second, the definition in the clouds -- as opposed to the original white sky -- added interest, dimension, and graphic design.

Doing this wasn’t so easy because of all the feather detail as well as the detail in the trees. Therefore, the best way to make a selection (in other words, to separate the festival from the sky) with these kinds of fine elements was to use the Photoshop plugin Topaz Remask 5. I use this software for hair, feathers, and vegetation, and although it’s not perfect in all situations, it’s the best we have to work with.

As you can see, it did a very good job. The new sky made all the difference. §

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New eBook!

The definitive guide to photographing wildlife and birds Equipment

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Birds in flight

Winter photography

Exposure

Much more

SHORT AND SWEET 1.

2. When using a Photoshop filter, you can make a se-

3.

4.

Low angled sunlight is needed to fill in shadows, and thus show detail, in animals with thick fur and hair. This is true for all colors of creatures. When you shoot outdoors and the sun is high, detail and texture are lost because of too much contrast. The images are terribly degraded when this happens.

After a good rain, flowers, leaves, and blades of grass are covered by drops of water. This is a great time for macro photography. Use extension tubes to get really close and use f/32 for complete depth of field. A tripod is essential for macro work, and make sure there isn’t any wind.

lection and apply the filter only to that one area. In this shot of my wife, I selected only the background and distorted it with Filter > distort > polar coordinates. The original portrait was taken with a 14mm ultra wide angle.

Experiment with black and white by leaving one element in the image in color. This requires a precise selection. In this example, I used the quick selection tool to select the red maple leaf, and then I chose Select > inverse so everything else was selected. At that point, I used Image > adjustments > black and white. §

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ASK JIM

Every month, Jim will answer a question from his online students, from people who participate in his tours and workshops, or from subscribers to this magazine. If you have a question you’d like Jim to answer, please drop him a note at photos@jimzuckerman.com.

Q: Jim . . .I’ve spent a lot of time removing the netting covering this gargoyle that I shot on the exterior

of a cathedral in Germany. I’ve only removed about 25% using the clone tool, and I was wondering if there is a better way to do it that would take a lot less time. It’s really exhausting, and at this point I’m not sure it’s worth the effort.

Janice Herrera, Riverside, California

A: Unfortunately, there is no easy or fast way to remove this mesh. It’s doable, but very painstaking. The

clone tool is the best choice for this kind of tedious work, but you can also try the spot healing brush and the patch tool -- both of which hide beneath the healing brush. I can’t tell you if the effort is worth it or not -- that’s your call -- but for me, I’d rather apply my creativity in Photoshop to another image. §

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Partial list of Photography Tours 2019 - 2021 RUSSIA Oct. 2019

CUBA Oct. 2019

SPAIN/PORTUGAL Mar. 2020

HOLLAND/BELGIUM Apr. 2020

AUSTRIA/DOLOMITES May 2020

INDONESIA Summer 2020

PERU NATURE Sept. 2020

MOROCCO Oct. 2020

POLAR BEARS Nov. 2020

CARNIVAL IN VENICE Feb. 2020

INDIA & HOLI FESTIVAL Mar. 2020

ETHIOPIA Mar. 2021

For a complete list of all the photo tours/workshops Jim conducts, go to his website: www.jimzuckerman.com.

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Sri Lanka Photo Tour November 8 - 18, 2019

Great culture • Incredible temples • Wildlife • Village life • Landscapes

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Student Showcase Each month, Jim features one student who took beautiful and inspiring images on one or more of his photography tours or workshops. It’s really fascinating how photographers see and compose such different images even though we may go to the same places. Everyone gets great photographs on Jim’s trips.

Eric Lippey, Sydney, Australia Ethiopia photo tour, Venice photo workshop, White horses of the Cam-

argue workshop.

© 2019 Eric Lippey

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Student Showcase, continued

© 2019 Eric Lippey

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Student Showcase, continued

© 2019 Eric Lippey

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Student Showcase, continued

© 2019 Eric Lippey

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RUSSIA PHOTO TOUR October 1 - 9, 2019

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PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP in my home

Sat. & Sun., October 19 - 20, 2019

Photoshop is a photographer’s best friend, and the creative possibilities are absolutely endless. In a personal and ‘homey’ environment (I have a very cool classroom setup in my home), I start at the beginning -- assuming you know nothing -- but I quickly get into layers, cutting and pasting, plug-ins, using ‘grunge’ textures, replacing backgrounds, using layer masks, blend modes, adding a moon, and a lot more. I promise to fill your head with so many great techniques that you won’t believe what you’ll be able to do. I go over each technique several times to make sure you understand and can remember it.

Photoshop instructors approach teaching this program from different points of view. My approach is to be as expansive in my thinking as possible in creating unique, artistic, and compelling images. In addition to showing you how to use the various tools, pulldown menus, layers, and so on, I spend a lot of time giving you

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creative ideas that will inspire you to produce amazing images with the pictures you’ve already taken.

I live in the Nashville, Tennessee area, and if you fly into the airport (airport code BNA) I will pick you up. If you drive, I’ll give you my address and you can find my home on Mapquest or with a GPS. For the $450 fee, I include one dinner in my home (prepared by my wife who is an amazing cook and hostess) and two lunches, plus shuttling you back and forth from my home to your nearby hotel.

Contact me if you would like to participate in the workshop and I will tell you how to sign up (photos@jimzuckerman.com). All you need is a laptop and a lot of your pictures. If you don’t have a laptop, I have two Mac Book Pro laptops I can loan out for the duration of the workshop. §

HOW TO MAKE A SKETCH 1. Open a photo in Photoshop with File > open.

2. Make a duplicate layer using the keyboard shortcut, Command/Ctrl J. 3. Open the hue/saturation dialog box with Image > adjustments > hue/saturation, and then move the saturation slider all the way to the left.

This makes the photo black and white.

4. Make another duplicate layer, Command/ Ctrl J, of the black and white image.

5. Invert the picture using Image > adjustments > invert. The shortcut is Command/Ctrl I. 6. In the layers palette, go to the blend modes (click the tab that says ‘normal’). In the submenu, choose color dodge.

7. Choose Filter > other > minimum. In the dialog box, select 3 or 4 or any number that makes the sketch look good to you.

8. Finally, flatten the layers with Layer > flatten image.

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PH OTO I N S I G HTS you would like to read.

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Nov. ‘17

Dec. ‘17

Jan. ‘18

Feb. ‘18

Mar. ‘18

Apr. ‘18

May ‘18

Jun ‘18

Jul ‘18

Aug ‘18

Sept. ‘18

Oct. ‘18

Nov. ‘18

Dec. ‘18

Jan. ‘19

Feb. ‘19

Mar. ‘19

May ‘19

Jun ‘19

Apr. ‘19

Subject index for past Photo Insight issues 1/3 focus law Jul. ‘15 3D sphere Mar. ‘16 90 degree finder Mar. ‘13 Abstracts in soap Feb. ‘15 Abstracts, Shooting Mar ‘19 Aerial photography Jun. ‘13 African safari May ‘16 Airplane windows Mar. ‘16 Alien landscapes Jan. ‘13 Anatomy of 8 photographs Jan. ‘16 Angled perspectives Jan. ‘19 Aperture vs. shutter speed May ‘14 Aperture priority Sept. ‘14 Aurora Borealis Apr. ‘17 Auto white balance Dec. ‘13 Autofocus, when it fails Apr. ‘15 Autofocus failure Aug. ‘15 Autofocus failure Jan. ‘17 Autofocus challenges Apr. ‘18 Auto ISO Nov ‘17 Autumn Foliage Sep. ‘18 Back button focus Oct. ‘18 Backgrounds, wild Nov. ‘12 Backgrounds, busy Apr. ‘13 Backlighting Apr. ‘16 Birds in flight Aug. ‘13 Birds in flight Jan. ‘14 Birefringence May ‘18 Birds in flight Mar. ‘16 Bird Photography Jun ‘19 Black velvet Mar. ‘14 Black and white conversions Mar. ‘17 Black and white solarization Sep. ‘17 Blown highlights Feb. ‘18 Blur, field Nov. ‘18 Blur technique Oct. ‘17 Bokeh Jun. ‘15 Butterfly photography Jul. ‘14 Camera setting priorities Jun. ‘17 Capturing lightning Jun. ‘13 Catchlights Jul. ‘16 Cheap flash stand Apr. ‘13 Children photography Jun. ‘14 Chromatic aberration May ‘13 Chrome Dec. ‘18 Cityscapes Aug. ‘14 Cityscapes May ‘16 Clone tool, fixing an issue Sep. ‘17 Composites and Light Dec. ‘17 Compositing images Apr. ‘19 Composition, different approach Jan. ‘15 Contrast vs. exposure Jul. ‘15 Creating a star field Jan. ‘14 Creating a Sketch Dec. ‘17 Creative blurs Jan. ‘14 Dawn photography Dawn photography Day for Night Dead center Dealing with smog

Jan. ‘17 Feb. ‘17 Oct. ‘18 Jan. ‘13 Oct. ‘16

Decay photography Define Pattern Depth of field Depth of field and distance Drop shadows

Sep. ‘15 Sep. ‘18 Aug. ‘16 Dec. ‘18 Apr. ‘19

eBook, how to make Jan. ‘13 Embedded in Ice Oct. 17 Energy saving bulbs Sep. ‘14 Exposing for the sun Sep. ‘16 Exposure, the sun Jul. ‘13 Exposure technique Sep. ‘13 Exposure, snow Jan. ‘14 Exposure triangle Nov. ‘14 Exposure, to the right Apr. ‘15 Exposure compensation Sep. ‘16 Extension tubes Dec. ‘13 Fill flash Sep. ‘13 Filter forge Feb. ‘13 Fireworks Jul. ‘13 Fisheye lenses May ‘13 Fisheye lenses Feb. ‘15 Flash backlighting May ‘15 Flash, balancing exposure Oct. ‘15 Flash, balancing off-camera Dec. ‘18 Flat art Sep. ‘16 Flowers May ‘15 Flowers in harsh light Jul. ‘16 Focus points Mar. ‘15 Focus stacking Mar. ‘17 Focusing in the dark Oct. ‘16 Foreign models Jun. ‘13 Fractals, generating Sep. ‘13 Framing May ‘17 Freezing ultra action May ‘17 Fun with paint Oct. ‘16 Fundamental ingredients Apr. ‘13 Fundamentals That Make Great Photos Jan. ‘19 Garish imagery Great subjects Green screen Grunge technique

Dec. ‘15 Apr. ‘15 Mar. ‘13 Feb. ‘13

HDR, one photo Apr. ‘13 HDR at twilight May ‘13 HDR, realistic Jun. ‘15 HDR, hand held Dec. ‘16 HDR, hand held Nov ‘17 HDR, hand held Jul. ‘18 HDR panoramas Jun. ‘16 High wind Apr. ‘17 Highlights Apr. ‘14 Highlights, overexposed Feb. ‘15 Histograms, Why I Don’t Use Jun ‘19 Humidity Oct. ‘13 Hummingbird photography Apr. ‘13 Hyperfocal distance Jul. ‘13 Image resizing Aug. ‘18 Implying motion Sept.‘14 Impossible DOF Feb. ‘16 Impossible DOF Jan. ‘17

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Subject index for past Photo Insight issues Indestructible camera bag Dec. ‘14 Infrared photography Jul. ‘14 Interiors Oct. ‘15 iPad: Loading photos Aug.‘17 Jungle photography

Dec. ‘14

Kaleidoscopic images Jan. ‘15 Keystoning, correcting Aug. ‘15 L Bracket Feb. ‘18 Landscape photography Dec. ‘12 Landscape photography Apr. ‘14 Landscape photography Nov. ‘16 Light fall-off Feb. ‘14 Lighting a face Oct. ‘13 Liquify Feb. ‘18 Long lens portraits Oct. ‘18 Low light photography May ‘15 Macro flash

Nov. ‘12 Macro flash Sep. ‘14 Macro flash Aug. ‘15 Macro trick May ‘19 Mannequin heads Apr. ‘16 Metering modes Nov. ‘16 Meter, How They Work Jul. ‘18 Meters, when they fail Dec. ‘16 Middle gray Nov. ‘15 Mirrors Jan. ‘19 Model shoot Jan. ‘17 Moon glow Oct. ‘16 Mosaics Jun. ‘17 Museum photography Mar. ‘13 Negative space Neon edges on black Neutral Density filters Night photography Night Safaris Night to Twilight Noise reduction

Jan. ‘16 Aug. ‘14 Jun. ‘18 Feb. ‘14 Jun. ‘18 Dec. ‘17 Feb. ‘17

Optical infinity Organization of photos

Jun. ‘16 Mar. ‘18

Paint abstracts May ‘13 Painting with light Sep. ‘15 Panning motion Dec. ‘16 Pano-Mirrors with a twist Jan. ‘18 Parades Sep. ‘13 Photography to Art Dec. ‘17 Photography solutions Jan. ‘18 Photoshop, content Aware Nov. ‘12 Photoshop, sketch technique

Apr. ‘13 Photoshop, replace background Apr. ‘13 Photoshop, actions palette Dec. ‘13 Photoshop, layer masks Feb. ‘13 Photoshop, the clone tool May ‘13 Photoshop, soft foliage Oct. ‘13 Photoshop, mixer brush tool Sept. ‘14 Photoshop, b & w with color Jun. ‘14 Photoshop, drop shadows Jul. ‘14

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Photoshop, creating texture Feb. ‘14 Photoshop, face mirrors Feb. ‘14 Photoshop, liquify Mar. ‘14 Photoshop, face mirrors Aug. ‘14 Photoshop, digital spotlight Sep. ‘14 Photoshop, enlarge eyes Nov. ‘14 Photoshop, darken the periphery Dec. ‘14 Photoshop, mirror images Dec. ‘14 Photoshop, beam of light Apr. ‘15 Photoshop, polar coordinates Mar. ‘15 Photoshop, chrome May ‘15 Photoshop, actions palette Nov. ‘15 Photoshop, cut and paste Nov. ‘15 Photoshop, geometrics Oct. ‘15 Photoshop, plugins Oct. ‘15 Photoshop, multiple selections Apr. ‘16 Photoshop, sharpening Apr. ‘16 Photoshop, Flood plugin Apr. ‘16 Photoshop, Desaturation Aug. ‘16 Photoshop, making a composite Aug. ‘16 Photoshop, place one element behind Aug. ‘18 Photoshop, the pen tool Feb. ‘16 Photoshop, canvas size Jan. ‘16 Photoshop, using the earth Jun. ‘16 Photoshop, define patterns May ‘16 Photoshop, paste into Nov. ‘16 Photoshop, b & w with color Feb. ‘17 Photoshop, open a closed door Apr. ‘17 Photoshop, palettes May ‘17 Portrait options Jan. ‘19 Portrait techniques Nov. ‘15 Portraits Mar. ‘13 Portraits, mixed lighting Aug. ‘14 Portraits, side lighting Sep. ‘17 Portraits, window light Mar. ‘15 Portraits, outdoors May ‘17 Post-processing checklist Dec. ‘13 Post-processing: Contrast Aug. ’17 Predictive Focus Sep. ‘18 Problem/solution Apr. ‘17 Problem with cruises Jan. ‘18 Protecting highlights Dec. ‘12 Puppies Jan. ‘15 Puppy photography Feb. ’18 Reflections Feb. ‘13 Safari May ‘13 Safari strategies Jul. ‘15 Seeing as the lens does Nov. ‘14 Selective filtering Mar. ‘18 Selective focus Jun. ‘15 Self-critiques Jul. ‘13 Self-critiques Oct. ‘13 Sensor cleaning Jun. ‘18 Sepia and dark contrast Jun. ‘15 Shade May ‘14 Shady side Jun. ‘18 Shadows, Paying Attention to Mar. ‘18 Sharpness problems Mar. ‘14

Subject index for past Photo Insight issues Shooting through wire mesh Sept. ‘14 Silhouettes Jun. ‘13 Sketch, How to Make Jun ‘19 Snow exposure Nov ‘17 Soft light Jan. ‘13 Smart phone photography May ‘19 Stained glass Mar. ‘17 Star photography Jul. ‘16 Star photography and noise Jan. ‘18 Stock photography Sep. ‘14 Sunrise & sunset Jan. ‘19 Tamron 150-600mm Apr. ‘14 Ten reasons photos are not sharp Jan. ‘19 Texture, Adding Mar ‘19 Topaz AI Gigapixel Mar ‘19 Topaz glow Jan. ‘15 Topaz glow Sep. ‘17 Topaz Impression Sep. ‘15 Topaz Remask 5 Oct. ‘17 Topaz Simplify 4 Dec. ‘12 Topaz simplify 4 Jun. ‘14 Topaz Studio Apr. ‘18 Translucency & backlighting Nov. ‘18 Travel photography Feb. ‘13 Travel portraits Mar. ‘14 Travel tips Apr. ‘14 Travel photographer’s guide Jun. ‘17 Twilight photography in the rain Apr. ‘19 Tripods Mar. ‘18 Two subject sharp rule May ‘14 Ultra distortion

May ‘18

Warm fingers in winter Nov. ‘15 Water drop collisions May ‘18 What NOT to do in photography Apr. ‘18 White vignette Aug. ‘15 White balance Feb. ‘15 White balance, custom Mar. ‘16 Wide angle conundrum May ‘19 Wide angle lenses Mar. ‘13 Wide angle portraits Nov. ‘14 Wide angle lenses Jun. ‘17 Wide angle keystoning Nov ‘17 Wildlife photos with wide angles Mar. ‘15 Window light Dec. ‘15 Window light portraits Aug. ‘18 Window frames Feb. ‘16 Winter photography Dec. ‘12 Winter bones May ‘13 Winter photography Dec. ‘15 Winter photography Nov. ‘18 Wire Mesh, Shooting Through Jul. ‘18 Workflow May ‘13

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Oriente train station, Lisbon, Portugal

PHOTO INSIGHTS® published by Jim Zuckerman, all rights reserved © Jim Zuckerman 2019 email: photos@jimzuckerman.com snail mail address: P.O. Box 7, Arrington, TN 37014

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