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• Jungle photography• Darkening the periphery• Mirror images• Indestructible• Online photo course• Student showcase• Photo tours

P H O T O I N S I G H T SJim Zuckerman’s

December 2014

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4. Jungle photography13. Darkening the periphery18. Mirror images26. Whats wrong with this picture?28. Short and sweet30. Indestructible32. Ask Jim35. Student showcase39. Back issues

On the cover: Jaguar drinking at river’s edge, The Pantanal, Brazil.

This page: Wild macaw in flight near Campo Grande, Brazil 2

When I focus intently on taking a picture -- getting the composition right, following a moving subject, monitoring the autofocus to make sure it’s locking on -- I find that the memory of doing this is indelibly imprinted

on my mind, and it never seems to fade . When I look at the pictures years later, even decades later, all of those memories come flooding back and they are poi-gnantly clear.

This is one of the rewards that we photographers enjoy thanks to our passion. In-stead of the memories of our experiences diminishing over time, we look at the pictures we worked hard to get and many of the greatest moments in our lives are vivid and available to relive again. In the end, that’s all we really have when we sur-vey our life to ascertain if it was meaningful and fulfilling. Hopefully our wonder-ful pictures leave a trail of evidence that we did, in fact, use our time on this earth wisely and that on this earthly adventure we learned a lot, loved a lot, consistently showed kindness to others, helped those in need, appreciated the beauty that sur-rounded us, and made a concerted effort to be a good person. Our pictures show all of these things.

Photography documents our lives, keeps our memories alive, and leaves guide posts for young people who may follow a different path from ours but will want to leave their own trail of visual evidence. How lucky we are to have such a meaningful pas-sion.

photos@jimzuckerman.comwww.jimzuckerman.com

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Photographing in the trop-ics is exceptionally challeng-ing. On my recent photo

tour to the Pantanal region of Brazil, this point was driven home as my tour group members and I struggled with low light, patchy light, harsh contrast, thick vegeta-tion, cluttered backgrounds, getting close to shy animals and birds, humidity, heat, and rain. In addition, just finding worth-while subjects is a major issue because in the dense flora, animals and birds can

easily hide. The jaguar below, for exam-ple, allowed us to see him, but three or steps in another direction and he would haved completely disappeared from our view. Hidden in the jungle, he could see us as we passed right by him in our boat, and we’d never know this beautiful cat was less than a stone’s throw away.

Most animals expect danger from the land, and therefore a boat can make a closer ap-proach without frightening them away.

Jungle

photography

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In addition, a boat can cover a lot more area in a short time in search of wildlfe. Therefore, the best way to see a lot of animals and birds with virtually no effort is by boat. Miles and miles of the serpentine river system afforded us many wonderful photo opportunities as we sat com-fortably in a seat with camera gear on the seat next to us. Looking for wildlife this way means that various dangers lurking in the jungle such as snakes, large predators like jaguars, etc. won’t be a problem. Every day, we cruised about 30 miles up and down the river looking for jaguars and other great subjects like caiman, capybara, giant otters, capuchin monkeys, and birds.

On the negative side, though, a boat is not a stable platform from which to shoot. When us-ing a long lens, movement from a boat appears significantly magnified when looking through the viewfinder. I was often using focal lengths in the 500mm to 700mm focal range, and even the slightest movement of the boat from a small

wave or from someone inside the boat chang-ing positions made shooting almost impossi-ble until the movement died down after a few seconds.

Fast shutter speeds, therefore, were critical to the success of the photography. The gen-eral rule when using a long lens is the shutter should be the reciprocal of the focal length, or faster to guarantee a sharp picture. In other words, a 400mm lens requires a shutter speed of 1/400th of a second or faster. Because of the movement of the boat, I made sure that my shutter speeds were faster than the minimum. So, for a 500mm lens I used 1/640 or 1/800th of a second whenever possible. The only way to do this in the low light environment of deep shade (many times jaguars were resting in a dark thicket) was to raise the ISO. No one likes to use 2000 or 3200 ISO due to the introduc-tion of digital noise, but in the interest of get-ting sharp pictures, there was not choice.

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I also used the image stabilization feature to help mitigate the movement of the lens. I start-ed out using a monopod to take the weight of the lens off my arms and shoulders, but in the end I found it to be too inhibiting given the quickly moving subjects and the movement of the boat. That meant I hand held everything.

When we were faced with ultra fast moving subjects like a kingfisher diving for fish, below, the shutter speeds had to be at least 1/2500th of a second and faster if possible. In bright sunlight, I was shooting with 2500 ISO to en-able the ultra fast shutter. Even so, I could have used a faster speed because, as you can see, the tips of the wings are not sharp even though the water drops are tack sharp.

It was a constant battle, so to speak, between

the shutter speed, the ISO, and the light. At least there are digital solutions to increased noise, namely the luminance slider in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom as well as soft-ware like Dfine 2.0 by Nik Software. Both of these tools soften the image slightly, so after the noise is diminished I added a bit of sharp-ening.

To compound the challenge of shooting from a boat, as we made a slow approach to a subject the focus constantly changed. Unlike when you’re on foot, a boat can’t suddenly freeze. It has to slow down, possibly reverse the engine, then wait for the waves to settle down. All of this takes precious seconds in which a bird or animal can disappear, and just to get the sub-ject in focus is the biggest challenge of all. If the subject is moving in addition to the move-

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ment of the camera, the problem is magnified. All during my time in the Pantanal, I had the camera’s drive in the camera set to high speed multi -- meaning the fastest frame rate possi-ble. I did this for two reasons. First, the slight-est change of an animal’s head, paw, or tail can make a big difference in the success of the pic-ture, and I wanted as many frames to choose from as possible. When it came to flying birds, their wings move so fast that it’s impossible to really compose the picture. You have to shoot as many frames as possible and allow the cam-era to capture what you can’t see with your eyes in the hope that one or more of the frames is a winner.

Second, it’s very difficult for the camera’s auto-

focus system to keep up with fast moving sub-jects. No matter how many focus points your camera may have, or how sophisticated the AI Servo mode is, the speed with which birds fly and animals run means that in so many cases, the camera has a hard time keeping up with the subject. This is especially true if the wild-life subject is moving toward or away from the camera position. Therefore, using the fastest frame rate increases the odds that one or two frames might be sharp.

Post-processing

Many nature photographers have an aversion to manipulating their pictures. Most of us understand the need to tweak exposure and contrast and perhaps add a touch of color sat-

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May 16-17, 2015

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uration. On the other hand, many don’t want to change a background, remove an offending branch, or do whatever is necessary to transform a picture from documentry to artistic. When you shoot in the jungle, cluttered foregrounds and backgrounds are a given, and in addition patchy lighting can be a big problem if the sun is out. If you have a picture of a great subject but artisti-cally there are elements that are distracting, you have two choices: Do nothing to improve the im-age and thereby be stuck with a mediocre shot, or use Photoshop to make alterations so you end up with a great picture of a great subject.

In many instances, there is nothing that can be done no matter how skilled in Photoshop you may be. The picture of the jaguar at right is an ex-ample. I took this shot to show how challenging jungle photography can be, knowing there was no way to make this picture into something ar-tistic. In a way, though, I like it because it shows

how stealthy and secretive these cats are. But compared to the cover picture of this issue and the shot on page 4, this picture doesn’t have the same impact or artistry.

The picture of the macaws, below, is an exam-ple of a terribly distracting background that could and should be replaced. The original is useless. I wouldn’t show it to anyone except to exemplify a bad picture. Again, my choice

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was to be disappointed with a picture of great subjects in a terrible environment or replace the background and end up with a successful image. What would you do?

[To replace the background here, I used the pen tool and placed anchor points all around the periphery of the birds and the branch they were clinging to. When the

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circuit was completed and the path was com-plete, I turned it into a selection with the make selection command found in the paths palette. I then pasted the new background of out of focus foliage from my files.]

Sometimes there is one or more offending ele-ments that need to be removed, such as the di-agonal twig sticking up behind the head of the capybara, above. In this case, I can live with the rest of the background because it shows the wa-tery and jungle environment without being dis-tracting. But that one twig is visually annoying and needs to be removed using the clone tool. A good rule of thumb to remember is that well-defined horizontal, vertical, or diagonal lines in a photograph that are not part of the subject are usually distracting. They are so bold and attention-getting that our eyes tend to move away from the subject to the very pronounced

graphic elements. Ideally, our attention and our focus should remain on the subject and not be diverted elsewhere. If these kinds of graphic lines cannot be avoided at the time of shooting, they should be removed in post-processing.

The picture on the next page of a scarlet head-ed blackbird from the Pantanal has a back-ground that is very busy and distracting. I could replace it, but it would be a lot of work. I haven’t decided yet whether or not it’s worth it. I would have to cut around the bird as well as the branch on which it’s perched plus the small green vegetation attached to the branch. Without having done it, I estimate that would take me about an hour or possibly 45 minutes.

Harsh light

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I chose November as the time to lead a trip to the Pantanal because the high season, June - October (when most photo tours go there) has clear skies. The dry season is great be-cause there’s no rain, but the bad news is that the harsh sunlight creates terrible contrast. The tropics are always, by definition, near the Equator, and this means the angle of the sun is directly overhead. This produces the worst type of natural light. The caiman at right is an example. Even though the reptile was partial-ly in the open, the patchy lighting from near-by vegetation creates hotspots throughout the picture. Some of these can be repaired in Pho-toshop, but there is no way to make this kind of image as good as a shot in diffused light from an overcast sky. The terrible highlights on the nose and back of the head, plus the lighting on the background, makes this picture a failure in my opinion.

The scarlet headed black bird, below, also has harsh midday sunlight. I’ve worked on this pic-ture in Photoshop such that the shadows have been lightened and I toned down the highlights. Still, you can see that the lighting isn’t even close to being attractive. In nature photography, we are often faced with less than ideal lighting, and knowing Photoshop is an advantage in mitigat-ing unwanted contrast. But when you plan a

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trip, make sure you consider the type of light and weather you’ll encounter. It can make or break your pictures. If you do encounter clear skies, then make sure you do a lot of shooting

before sunrise and after sunset when the light-ing is softened. The jabaru storks in a nest, be-low, for example, were taken 15 minutes before sunrise. Note how pretty the light is. §

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Darkening the Periphery

I first learned how an artist draws at-tention to a subject by studying the famous 17th century painting, The

Nightwatch, by Rembrandt. I saw it for the first time in 1968 in the Rijksmuseum in Hol-land, and the museum guide pointed out how light certain figures were against a backdrop of muted brown tones. These were the people Rembrandt wanted us to focus our attention on, and as we look at the painting our eyes are immediately drawn to the highlighted charac-

ters in the artwork.

Photographers can do the same thing. We can do it with lighting, color, and with post-pro-cessing. In the photo from Venice on the next page, for example, I used off-camera flash and exposure values to highlight my subjects and make them stand out from the background.

In addition, I used the burn tool in Photoshop to darken portions of the light spill onto the

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architecture. This is a technique I use often -- darkening the periphery of an image to focus attention on the subject. Even a subtle change can make a significant difference.

Compare the two pictures below. These two shots show that even a subtle change makes an artistic difference. I photographed the jaguar in The Pantanal in Brazil, and the original on the left shows a nicely exposed image. In the com-parison photo on the right, notice how I dark-ened the peripheral areas and, at the same time,

lightened the cat slightly. The darkened grass frames the jaguar and, because it is now 2/3 to one full f/stop darker, our eyes are completely riveted on the cat. The sky in the upper right corner is a bit problematic, and I need to ad-dress that issue. But I wanted you to see the image exactly as I took it compared to the al-teration from burning and dodging.

The picture of my cocker spaniel, Teddy, at right shows the same thing. In this instance, contrast was not an issue at all. All of the tones were muted, but using the burn and dodge tools in Photoshop I lightened the puppy slightly and darkened the rest of the frame. Teddy stands out beautifully now.

To do this, I don’t use a layer. You can make a layer if you want, and that gives you the option

of adjusting the opacity to vary the amount of the effect. You can trash the layer if you aren’t happy with what you’re doing, and you can make other adjustments just to the layer with-out affecting the underlying original. I work in layers a lot, but when I lighten and darken areas of a picture, it’s faster and simpler for me to do it on the original because I know exactly what I want. I usually lower the opacity of the burn and dodge tools so the effect is applied more gradually, and that’s how I maintain the control I want. If I end up making a mess of

things, I can simply use the multiple undos in Photoshop to start again or choose File >revert.

Alternatively, you can use the adjustment brush in either Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom. This is essentially a burn and dodge tool but with the added benefit of working on a RAW file. In addition, you can use other sliders be-

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sides lighten and darken such as contrast, satu-ration, clairty, shadows, etc.

In the photo below that I took on a photo tour to Burma, the available light was beautiful, but

in post-processing I lightened the two monks and darkened the floor, walls, and ceiling of the ancient temple. These embellishments made the image, in my opinion, more dramatic and more compelling. §

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Mirrored Patterns

Many years before Photoshop en-tered the scene, I experiment-ed with a technique of making

mirrored images with photographic prints. I would print an image with its correct orienta-tion, and then I’d flip the slide or negative in the enlarger and print it in reverse. By mounting the prints together, I created some wonder-ful images that were very different in character and graphic design from the original shot.

With Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, the process is very easy to do and, unlike the past when I pasted prints together, the seams be-

tween the images can disappear. Photoshop al-lows photographers to create many variations on the theme of mirrored images, but let me first explain the step-by-step procedure and then I’ll get into a very cool variation.

Choosing an image

Any photo can be used for this technique, but some images work much better than others. If you like strong graphic design, I would chose photos with many diagonal components to them. Tree branches are a good example, and so is rock texture where striations and contours are somewhat diagonal as in the rock face I shot

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in Maine, below. A ballerina posing such that her legs are diagonal in the frame would work as would a flower with beautiful lines. An ex-aggerated perspective taken with a wide angle lens of classic architecture is made for this technique as you can see at the bottom of the next page. The more diagonal lines and even curved lines in your original, the more inter-esting and artistic will be the final result.

The technique

Open a photo in Photoshop with File > open. Choose Select > all and then Edit > copy. This places the image in the clipboard. Then, click Image > canvas size. In the dialog box that opens (right), you must chose where you want the new area in your picture into which

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the mirrored image will be placed. You do this by clicking within the Anchor box (red arrow). The round dot in the middle of the tic-tac-toe graphic represents your photo. If you click in left middle box, for example, the dot will move to the left, and the new, additional area that will be

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added will be placed on the right side of the photo. The size of the new area is defined in the width and height boxes under New Size. I normally double the width measurement when I’m working in the horizontal orienta-tion as you can see at right. In this example where the width is 16 inches (screen capture on the previous page) I would type 32 in the width box. When you click OK, the canvas area expands with the original photo on the left and a color in the blank space on the right. The color that goes into this new area doesn’t matter, but it will always be the color from the foreground color box in the tools palette.

Now choose Edit > paste. Choose the move tool in the tools palette and move the photo into the new area -- the one with the solid col-or. At this point the photo must be flipped.

In this example, where the two photos are side by side, you must use Edit > transform > flip hor-izontal. Make sure the two halves of the com-posite mate perfectly by enlarging the image to 100%. If the floating layer needs to be nudged in any direction, use the arrow keys to do that.

Four options

Every photo has four sides. This means that you can mirror an image using the top, bottom, left or right side as the edge where the original photo will be conjoined with its mirrored twin. And

in each scenario, the resulting picture will look very different. Below are two mirored com-posites that came from the same original shot of Burano Island near Venice, Italy. In one of the shots, I connected the original with its flipped mate on the left side, and in the other example I used the right side. Then I resized the long horizontal image to be in the 3 x 2 proportion(using Image > image size) that co-incides with the format our cameras use.

A unique variation

Instead of mirroring the entire image, you can also mirror part of it. For example, in the pho-to at right I ran the rectangular marque tool down the center of the mask and included the right side of the image from top to bottom. I then copied that partial selection to the clip-board with Edit > copy and followed that with Edit > paste and then Edit > transform > flip horizontal. So, I pasted into the image the se-lection from the clipboard and flipped it hori-zontally. I then used the move tool to place the selection precisely. The result is the composite on the next page. This is definitely strange, but it’s also fascinating.

One of the things I love about this technique is that the mirrored image is always a suprise. Even though you may be able to previsualize it

to a degree before you do the Photoshop work, it’s very hard to mentally imagine exactly what you’ll get until you see it. That’s part of the fun. And as you can see from these examples, a wide range of subjects can be used from nature to people to architecture and more. §

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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 THIS PAGE to read more about this course.

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BOTSWANA/SOUTH AFRICA p h o t o t o u r

June 6 - 20, 2015

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What’s wrong with this picture?

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As exciting as it was to see a jaguar in the wild in The Pantanal of Brazil, some-times the conditions just didn’t enable me to take great shots. Such was the case in this instance because of the terrible lighting. There was no cloud cov-

er, and hence the direct midday sun was undiffused. It created harsh contrast in which shadows went black and highlights became so washed out that they became distracting areas of solid white. This problem was compounded by the dense vegetation because the leaves, branches, and tree trunks projected patchy lighting on everything.

The problem with this picture is the blown out highlights plus the busy background. The issue with the background is made worse because the areas of out of focus highlights draw our eyes away from the jaguar.

When I first saw this picture, I assumed there was nothing that could be done. You can’t decrease exposure on the highlights -- i.e. use the burn tool in Photoshop or the adjust-ment brush in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom -- because when a bright highlight is

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darkened, it gains saturation and looks horrible.

The only thing to do was replace the highlights with information from surrounding areas. In other words, by cloning neighboring spots over the highlights on the cat I was able to repair the damage. Fortunately, there were enough spots in the shade from which I could borrow detail. This is often not the case, but here it worked. I had to be careful of the fa-miliar problem when you clone in a small area, unnatural patterns can occur because the same small area -- spots in this case -- are repeated several times. When that happened, I used the undo command (Command/Ctrl Z) and cloned from a slightly different angle.

When the cat was finished, I removed the offending bright spots in the background, and finally I darkened the entire foreground and background with the burn tool as I described in the article on page 13. This picture is not as good as if it had been taken in diffused light, but it’s a lot better than the original. §

SHORT AND SWEET

1. To freeze the wings of a bird in flight requires very fast shutter speeds. Even if you have to raise the ISO to settings you don’t like due to digital noise, there is no choice. I shot this black collared hawk in the Pantanal with a shutter of 1/2000th of a second.

3. Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean you can’t shoot flowers. Florists and grocery stores have beauti-ful flowers all year long, and by simply using window light and a black background -- like black velvet -- you can create stunning fine art images. I used no other light for this iris other than diffused window light.

2. It is best to photograph babies in clothing with-out logos and graphic images like cartoons. They are distracting. These pajamas are cute, but the smiling cat figure on this baby’s arm draws our attention away from the real subject.

4. Dirt, gravel, asphalt, and concrete make very unat-tractive foregrounds. That’s why I try to minimize these elements in any photo. I also darken them, as I did here, so they are less obtrusive. A simple use of the burn tool does the trick. I typically use it on about 60% opacity so it isn’t too heavy handed. §

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Photography Tours 2015 - 2016

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

JAPAN February, 2015

SNOWY OWLS, CANADAFebruary, 2015

CHINA January, 2015

NAMIBIAJune, 2015

HOLLAND/BELGIUMApril, 2015

MOROCCOMarch, 2015

MADAGASCARAugust, 2015

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BOTSWANA/SOUTH AFRICAJune, 2015

CUBAOctober, 2015

ETHIOPIANovember, 2015

VIETNAM, CAMBODIA, LAOSSept, 2015

BURMA (MYANMAR)Sept, 2015

INDESTRUCTIBLE

I virtually neverwrite about equipment. Other photographic writers do that, and I prefer to help amateur photog-

raphers develop artistically. But I wanted to share an experience with you that I feel is very important for you to know.

On my recent photo tour to take pictures of polar bears in Canada at ground level, my lug-gage was loaded onto the small chartered plane -- seen on the next page -- by another person. My camera case was positioned upright, and because the plane sat diagonally on the tar-mac and because my Think Tank camera case, below, has double wheels at all four corners (which makes it incredibly easy to roll with zero effort), the case slid toward the open door and,

before I could utter a sound, it fell five feet down onto the concrete tarmac. The point of impact happened on the corner indicated by the red arrow below. My Canon 5D Mark III was about an inch from the concrete sepa-rated only by the side of the Think Tank case (the full name is Airport 4-Sight 4-Wheeled Rolling Bag). I was in a van close to the plane, waiting to board, and at this point there was nothing I could do. My gear was either bro-ken or it wasn’t. I was not a happy camper.

When my group arrived at the cabins in polar bear territory an hour later, I opened up the camera case fearing the worst. But, much to my complete surprise, not one thing was dam-aged. Not the 5D Mark III, not the 500mm

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f/4 Canon lens, not the 5D Mark II backup cam-era, nothing. I was unbelievably impressed with Think Tank and the designers of this case, and my blood pressure went back down to normal!

I started using a rolling bag to relieve the pressure on my back. I’m sure I have back issues due to the heavy backpacks I’ve carried for 40 years, and I can tell you that it is a complete joy to wheel my heavy gear through the long corridors at airports effortlessly. I carry an additional smaller back-pack that’s empty so I have something for day trips at the various locations I visit.

When I take commuter jets where the overhead compartments are too small for a normal car-ryon, I feel comfortable now to gate check the Think Tank rolling bag. I know my equipment will be safe from damage. I do remove my lap-top, though, as well as my iPad and carry them on the plane with me. Those items are too thin

and too vulnerable to risk a heavy bag being thrown on top of these electronics.

With careful arranging, you can fit an enor-mous amount of gear in this Think Tank rolling bag. Here is the list of equipment in my bag you see on the previous page:

Canon 5D Mark IIICanon 5D Mark II500mm f/4 with lens hood70-200mm f/2.8 (beneath the flash)24-105mm14mm15mm fisheye50mm macroSet of extension tubes1.4x teleconverter2x teleconverterFlash90 angle finder (not shown)LaptopIpad §

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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 took this picture of a plantation house in ruins in Louisiana many years ago with film. I scanned the original and then converted it to black and white, and my question is can the shadows be light-ened to show the detail that I saw when I shot the picture? In other words, can you apply an HDR effect to images taken with film?Adam Collins, Santa Barbara, California

A: No, you can’t. Unfortunately. You can lighten the shadows using tools in Photoshop, but the noise will become very pronounced in those areas. That’s the problem. In the film days, the strategy was to expose correctly for the highlights and allow the shadows to go dark. That was our only choice because doing the opposite -- exposing for the shadows and allowing the highlights to blow out -- never looked good. So, this picture is a good example of what we used to do as a matter of course. We accepted dark shadows because we had to retain the details in the highlights.

© 2014 Adam Collins

Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos

September 13 - 28, 2015

p h o t o t o u r

Culture • Ancient ruins • Great people photography • Temples

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

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Get professional critiques of your work with Jim’s online courses

Betterphoto.com

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NAMIBIA PHOTO TOUR June 22 to July 3, 2015

wildlife Bushmen dunes Epupa Falls

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

Sign up for any photo tour or workshop before midnight,

December 31, and get 10% off land cost.

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The online registration form (accessed on each promo page on Jim’s website for the pho-to tours and workshops) must be accommpanied by a deposit of $1000 received before midnight, December 31, 2014. If the cost of a workshop is less than $1000, then the full amount must be paid to qualify for this one-time discount.

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Student ShowcaseEach month, Jim features one student who took beautiful and inspiring images on one 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 place. Everyone gets great images on my trips.

Kasper Johansson, Copenhagen, Denmark, The Pantanal Photo Tour

36© 2014 Kasper Johansson

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Student Showcase, continued

© 2014 Kasper Johansson

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© 2014 Kasper Johansson

Student Showcase, continued

PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP Sat. & Sun., May 16 - 17, 2015

Photoshop is a photographer’s best friend, and the creative possi-bilities are absolutely endless. In a personal and ‘homey’ environ-ment (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, modi-fying lighting, replacing backgrounds (like in the photo above), us-ing 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 it and can remember it.

Photoshop instructors approach teaching this program from dif-ferent 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, pull down menus, layers, and so on, I spend a lot of time giving you

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 (BNA) I will pick you up. If you drive, I’ll give you my address and you can find my home on Mapquest. 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. §

i n m y h o m e

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PHOTO INSIGHTS®published by Jim Zuckerman, all rights reserved

© Jim Zuckerman 2014 email: photos@jimzuckerman.com

snail mail address: P.O. Box 7, Arrington, TN 37014