Adobe Bridge

So you have captured your photos now you need to store them taking them via card reader or directly from your camera Adobe Bridge Can Do both.
To start import your images into a desired folder do this via bridge or simply copy your folders to a designated folder into a directory on your computer, i personaly use a card reader and use windows explorer to drag all my files into a folder of my choice.

step one import your Photos to your computer

Step Two your first look at analysing you photos and sorting losers and Keepers

Step three now we have our keepers we go back and rate them

Step four Add any extra Meta Data that you require

Step Five Group sets of images into stacks

Crop Factors

You walk into a shop and

the sales staff start telling you that because the crop factor of 1.5 the 200mm lens you are about to purchase is the same as a 300mm lens sounds to good to be true and it is. You will in fact see an area of the same as a 300mm lens but not zoomed into the area with as much detail ill try to show this in more detail in a moment. At the end of the day regardless of the crop factor a 300mm lens will give better results than a 200mm lens you cant get away from that fact, the crop factor crops an area to the same size as a full frame masking out external detail.

Crop factor is based on the old style 35mm film camera this is the industry standard reference point and is often referred to as full frame

If you compare the size of the film in a normal SLR (film is 35mm) to the image sensor in most DSLRs you’ll find that the size of the DSLRs sensor is generally smaller (unless you get what’s called a ‘full frame’ DSLR). Until recently full frame sensors were far and few between but more models supporting full frame sensors are becoming more affordable and are not limited to only the professional photographer.

If you take a photo with a smaller sensor and the same lens it will only show a smaller area of the scene.

To illustrate this I’ve show how different cameras with different image sizes will see an image.

Black – Full Frame
 Yellow– 1.3x Crop Factor
– Red 1.5x Crop Factor 
Green – 1.6x Crop Factor

When you enlarge images to the same size from different sensors the ones with the smaller sensors will be enlarged more – making it seem bigger.

As a result – when you fit a lens to a camera with a smaller sensor the lens is often said to have a larger equivalent lens size. But remember the truth is you are loosing detail through your lens compared with a full frame sensor

The table below that shows the equivalent lens sizes for different crop factors. The column on the left is the lens focal length on a full frame camera.

Full Frame	1.3 x	1.5 x	1.6 x	2.0 x
12mm	15.6	18	19.2	24
24mm	31.2	36	38.4	48
50mm	65	75	80	100
70mm	91	105	112	140
100mm	130	150	160	200
200mm	260	300	320	400
300mm	390	450	480	600
400mm	520	600	640	800
600mm	780	900	960	1200
800mm	1040	1200	1280	1600

Setting up you Camera Raw or Jpeg

how best to set up your camera for capturing images

Now i must stress this is part of my workflow and it works for me, the first thing to do is select your output modes jpeg or raw,the settings i use are as follows shoot jpeg and raw at the same time with my camera set to shoot in a preset mode of faithful for my jpegs.

what is a jpeg? what is a raw file?

Jpeg.

A jpeg is a file that is processed on the camera itself white balance, colour are produced as a final result the camera then discards up to 86% of the information capture giving you a relatively small file the down side is you have less data to manipulate in photoshop.

Raw.

This format is what you capture is what you keep retaining all the information the sensor has captured thus giving you the entire tonal range to manipulate as no processing is done on the camera and you maintain all the data the file size can be up to 6 times larger so larger storage card required to hold images on .

on the upside if you forget to adjust the white balance in raw you adjust that to correct the colour cast after the event, if your exposure was slightly off you can correct that as well the best part is if you muck up your raw it can be reset it uses non destructive editing. the file itself contains to elements the captured data and a file often referred to as a sidecar file the side car file is if you like the recipe for the photograph within that recipe many states can be saved choosing to show your file in many ways so the raw file could be classed as your ingredients how you choose to use them is down to you.

The only down side to this is a little more time to process the final image but the quality of image you can produce simply out ways this extra step

so why shoot jpeg at all if your good at setting up your camera then the majority of your shots will be ok, so i use these initially as proofs and then refine them using raw for my final output

in my next blog how many mega pixels do i need are all mega pixels the same and cropping ratios.

Photoshop training before photoshop their is

So what will we be showing you

Ideal camera settings Raw Jpeg or if you can both

using adobe bridge to organise and set up keepers from your images apply meta data and tag them using star rating and stacks

next we shall move on to Adobe Camera raw setting preferences

Correcting white balance and colour casts red eye removal crop straighten enhance exposure and detail. setting up snapshots and presets batch alterations removing dust particles caused by dirty lens and much much more.

Once i have blogged in detail the above i will then outline the plan for photoshop.

Before Photoshop establish your workflow

Well as i have made you aware i work for mouse training a company based in london and i deliver photoshop courses for a living, but photography go's well beyond teaching it is a passion everybody has a way of doing things and we all have slightly different takes on it but before you start to shoot think about your workflow, a small thing you may say but it will determine how you set your camera up.

My work flow is simple capture - file - assess - global corrections - local corrections assess again print or publish.

Well its been a long time coming but i have decided to share my learning curve of photoshop with you i will give you what i feel is the correct learning curve to photoshop, starting from capture, organising your photos in adobe bridge and editing in adobe raw and that before we start to look at photoshop, having added this course to my portfolio of courses that i teach at mouse training i will share with you that learning curve, whilst it is possible to refine your skills and gleam information from blogs if you like my style and require further training you can contact me 

photoshop

my photoshop

IIP test

go to mouse for excel training