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• A Tip for You - Smart Sharpening in Photoshop
  by Alan Rodmell

  I have just learned a really useful little tip for Sharpening images in Photoshop which I thought I should share with you all. Until n…

  I have just learned a really useful little tip for Sharpening images in Photoshop which I thought I should share with you all. Until now when I sharpened an image in CS3 with Smart Sharpen I used to sharpen and then leave it at that. As you may well know over sharpening can produce exaggerated noise and produce “halo” effects on your edges which look plain nasty. Here’s a few useful tips to help you improve the quality of your sharpening. – Always sharpen to a NEW LAYER (Merge all to new layer using SHIFT+CTRL+ALT+E on PC’s) – I always convert this layer to a smart object to allow me to modify any applied filter effects. – Always change the blend mode on this layer to LUMINOSITY. This massively reduces the halo effects on your sharpened image. (Try over-sharpening an image and then changing the blend mode to luminosity just to see this in action) – Follow these guidelines for smart sharpening for the best results For STANDARD SHARPENING – Amount 100, Radius <=2 / For SOFT IMAGES – Amount 140, Radius <=1 / For PORTRAITS – Amount <=5 Try these guidelines out and see what you think.

• Not safe for work?
  by RedBubble

  There’s now a safe filter on RedBubble. It’s in the footer on every page. The safe filter is a way of giving people the option of s…

  There’s now a safe filter on RedBubble. It’s in the footer on every page. The safe filter is a way of giving people the option of screening out content that is appropriate for RedBubble but “not safe for viewing at work”. After all, we don’t want you getting sacked! If your artwork or journal entry is not “safe” for workplace viewing, then please tick the checkbox when uploading it or via the edit work screen. If you’d like to turn your safe filter ON or OFF, click the change option here or in the footer. Please note it may take a little while before most of the non-safe content is flagged appropriately.

• Censorship - Mandatory ISP Filtering in Australia?
  by Judith Oppenheimer

  just fyi, from a list I’m on … Australia to Require Mandatory ISP Filtering of “Inappropriate” Content http://la…

  just fyi, from a list I’m on … Australia to Require Mandatory ISP Filtering of “Inappropriate” Content http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000352.html Greetings. Can excessive ultraviolet light exposure cause brain / damage to politicians? One might think so after reviewing the / Australian government’s plan to require ISPs to perform / Chinese-style blocking of Internet sites that the government / considers to be “inappropriate” for children—based on a / government blacklist / ( http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22989956-15306,00.html ). Down in the merry old land of Oz, this mandatory blocking would / apply by default to all home and school Internet subscribers. ISPs / would have to be contacted individually by users who wished to / obtain an unblocked feed by being added to an opt-out list (which I / suspect would rapidly become known as the “pervert list” by the / Australian overlords of Internet decency). I won’t insult your intelligence by listing here the myriad / reasons - you know them as well as I do - why such a plan is doomed to / failure (but I will note that even the so-called “Great Firewall of / China” Internet blocking infrastructure leaks like a sieve—and / that’s in an environment where penalties can be very harsh indeed). Obviously, what we’re actually looking at in the Australian case is / political grandstanding of the most base sort. To make censored / feeds available upon request is one thing, but to make censorship / the default and then require persons to specifically identify / themselves to opt-out is turning the concept of freedom of / communications on its head. Speaking of heads, it wouldn’t hurt the politicians down under to / stay out of the summer sun, or at least wear hats more often. Fried / brains are not conducive to the creation of sensible Internet (or / any other) policies. And since the inane COPA and similar Internet / censorship laws are still bouncing around the courts here in the / U.S., the same prescription might well apply to our own politicians / as well. “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” -Lauren- / Lauren Weinstein / lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org / Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / http://www.pfir.org/lauren / Co-Founder, PFIR / – People For Internet Responsibility – http://www.pfir.org / Co-Founder, NNSquad / – Network Neutrality Squad – http://www.nnsquad.org / Founder, PRIVACY Forum – http://www.vortex.com / Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy / Lauren’s Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com

• Sharpening With The High Pass Filter
  by Alison Johnston

  The High Pass Filter in Photoshop seems to have been around forever, and you can find it located under Filter>Other>High Pass. Think of …

  The High Pass Filter in Photoshop seems to have been around forever, and you can find it located under Filter>Other>High Pass. Think of it as one of The Others and listen to the Twlight Zone music start playing …... First of all lets take a few seconds to see how the sharpening process works in image editing software. All sharpening methods are edge detection processes, wherever an edge is found it is exaggerated by making the darks, darker and the lights, lighter. The trick is to get this just right so as not to produce haloing effects which are the result of over sharpening. Another thing to consider when sharpening, is not just sharpening but perhaps throwing what you don’t want sharp out of focus. Say for instance that you want to use a radius of 10 on an image, why not use a radius of 5 to sharpen and gaussian blur/lens blur with a radius of 5 to throw the rest of the image out of focus. sharpening isn’t always about sharpening. Then we can simply selectively sharpen something in our image, a person, an animal, eyes etc., to draw more attention to that particular part of an image and add more impact. What we’re going to look at today is sharpening with the High Pass Filter. There are a couple of other sharpening processes available in PS, the USM (Unsharp Mask) has been around for quite a while now, and the new Smart Sharpen Filter appeared in CS2 and is terrific. I used to have an old technique for adjusting motion blur with the Emboss Filter, which is yet another way to sharpen in PS. But lets concentrate on one filter at a time. Sharpening is usually the very last thing that you do to an image, so go ahead an do what needs to be done with your chosen image, flatten your image, and then duplicate the layer by dragging it to the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette, or press ctrl J on the keyboard, cmd J for the mac. If you are working with CS3 you can turn the duplicate layer into a smart filter, which will then make the high pass filter editable. This is my start image, a horrible bird shot :-) So you’ve got your duplicate layer, make sure that it is selected by clicking on it then I want you to change the blend mode to overlay (ignore the fact that the image will look awful at this stage), I also want you to make sure that the image is at 100% and go to Filter>Other>High Pass. An easy way to figure out the radius you will need to use to sharpen is the actual size of your image. My bird shot is less than 1m, but the first image will show that I used a radius of 1. If you have a 10m image, set the radius to 10. You can adjust this with the opacity slider later if you feel that it is a little too much. 5m file use 5, 20m file use 20 etc., What you are looking for is to have a similar look in your preview window as I have in the above image. The next image shows you what you don’t want the preview window to look like. You’ll notice I’ve used a radius of 5. That is the basis of High Pass sharpening really. You can adjust the effect by taking the opacity slider down in the layer palette or if you feel that it isn’t enough you can trash the layer and start again, or you can go to Filter and at the very top of that box will be the name of your last filter, in this case High Pass, just click on that or press ctrl + F to repeat and then use the opacity slider to take the effect down. What you don’t want to see appearing on the image, is haloing. This is where the image starts to get a glow going on … which is a result of over sharpening as seen in the image below. If you want some selective sharpening rather than the entire image to be sharp – go ahead and do the sharpening with High Pass then add a layer mask to that layer by clicking on the mask icon in the layers palette. Make the mask active by clicking on it, then press ctrl i on your keyboard to invert it (should be black). Grab your brush and make sure the f/ground colour is to white, then simply paint back in the area/s that you want to be sharp. In the image below I’ve sharpened the birds head, although I’m not sure that it will be very noticeable with this size image. You can also try the blend mode at soft light or leave it at normal, just play around a little bit because different blend modes will produce different effects and they might just be useful for the image you are working on. If you want to know what your image will look like on the web (computer monitors) view your image at 100%, if you want to get an idea of what it will look like printed, view it at 50%. Have fun :-)

• Landscape Photography - A Beginner's Guide
  by NATURELENS

  Dear All Spurred on by a recent tutorial journal from Nakomis I have completed another part of planned additions to my main web site c…

  Dear All Spurred on by a recent tutorial journal from Nakomis I have completed another part of planned additions to my main web site covering my experiences to date of Landscape photography. If you wish to view this it can be found via the following link: A Beginner’s Guide To Landscape Photography. OR From my main website home page by following the ‘my learning curve’ section: NATURELENS. I hope you find it interesting. Regards Neil

• Infrared Cameras and Filters
  by lightsmith

  I’d invite all members of the Infrared Photography group to post their camera details here – but if they would like to :-) I’d sugg…

  I’d invite all members of the Infrared Photography group to post their camera details here – but if they would like to :-) I’d suggest the following details might be useful for others considering the purchase of equiptment. Camera Make/Model Canon Powershot S80 / Megapixels 8mp / Filter Required none inbuilt Hoya R72 equivalent providing full-time IR / Est. Cost AUD$ Camera $500 second hand / Est. Cost AUD$ Conversion $250 / Est. Cost AUD$ Filter(s) not required PROS / Because the camera has been converted to full-time IR, the inbuilt IR blocker has been removed so long exposures are not necessary. Being a dedicated IR camera means I use my SLR for ‘normal’ photography. And the movie mode of this camera is pretty acceptable meaning I also take IR movies. CONS / Only two limitations. It is very susceptible to sun flare. That can work for me, but usually it’s a nuisance. Also, it doesn’t have RAW mode. JPG compression is still pretty impressive though and I am happy to recommend it without hesitation. Now, I’d invite you all to add your own equipment below. If you do, then be honest and if there are limitations (or features!) then include them.

• Digital Infrared - Your Options
  by lightsmith

  This article is very much by way of an introduction to infrared camera options. No doubt subsequent articles will go into greater detail…

  This article is very much by way of an introduction to infrared camera options. No doubt subsequent articles will go into greater detail. Essentially, this is a heads-up on what you can do if you are interested in Digital Infrared photography, but don’t know where to start. The first thing to know is that most digital cameras have an infrared blocker built in to ensure that no infrared light gets to the sensor. So you have to deal with that first. Basically, you have three options: 1. Buy a special filter for your existing digital camera and expect very long exposure times / 2. Buy an almost antique digital camera which has poor infrared screening AND a special filter and expect long exposure times (from 1/60th down to 1 second) / 3. Have your camera converted to remove the infrared blocker. You may either have this replaced with an infrared filter (to block out normal light) OR buy a seperate filter as above. Option 3 has the advantage of providing significantly faster shutter speeds. Some modern digital cameras may not have this infrared blocker but I am not aware of any particular makes or models at this time. I will attempt to discuss these three options (and any others that come up) in seperate writings. Suffice to say: The first option is the cheapest and probably costs about US$30 but exposure times can be prohibitive – e.g. 30seconds. The second option usually gives you limited resolution and the equiptment may have or may develop faults due to it’s age. But the Nikon Coolpix 950 is a good example of such a camera. 2mp but producing some nice IR unmodified but using a Hoya R72 filter. The third option will cost about US$250 and not all cameras can be modified. I use a Canon Powershot S80 which does a great job (though it does not support RAW). Having a camera modified will give you the largest amount of flexibility. So that’s your introduction to Digital Infrared camera options.

• Featured!
  by Leslie Battjes

  I just love the new group for those of us that love the Fractalius Filter…a fun plug-in for PS! Anyway, I’m having a great time meetin…

  I just love the new group for those of us that love the Fractalius Filter…a fun plug-in for PS! Anyway, I’m having a great time meeting new artists and seeing wonderful new ways to use the filter. I’m so honored that two of my images have been chosen to be featured. Thank you so much! :) If you’re interested, check out the Group home page here: / Fractalius Here are the two images: Spring Glow / Baby Eagle Owl /

• 4 Sales
  by tuffcookie

  After a nasty wind storm and thunderstorm I logged in to check activity and discovered 4 sales! I’d like to say thank you so much to my d…

  After a nasty wind storm and thunderstorm I logged in to check activity and discovered 4 sales! I’d like to say thank you so much to my dear friend Shilohlin who purchased / a card of ” Coffee Time Anyone?” and three cards of ” Summer waterfountain1” Thank you so much my dear friend. You have brought joy to my heart! I hope you enjoy your purchases, now i will be there with you for coffee in the mornings :)

• ND Grad FIlters... which to get?
  by Kevin Kroeker

  I was looking for some advice on what type and brand of ND grad filter would be best to get. I want to do more landscape photography and …

  I was looking for some advice on what type and brand of ND grad filter would be best to get. I want to do more landscape photography and I am just curious about the proper gear to get. Any help would be great. / / Thanks, / / Kevin

• Equipment
  by Nikki Trexel

  i’m sorry for writing so many journals lately…i don’t like to hog your activity monitors but i enjoy feedback, and it’s great to share …

  i’m sorry for writing so many journals lately…i don’t like to hog your activity monitors but i enjoy feedback, and it’s great to share photography-related stuff with someone who doesn’t look at me like i’m speaking another language when i talk about camera equipment. :) oh, first of all, i have a picture up for a little contest: would you terribly mind going and voting for it? the website seems to be mostly funny shots of dogs and kids, so i wondered if my nuns-buying-lingerie would have a chance. they put it up as the first one though. i get like $50 if i win. :) / See the voting list here – my image is called ‘Translation Not Necessary’ anyways, i am just really excited about a couple of new things i have gotten in the last month or so. i was given for my birthday: a Hoya R72 (near-)infrared filter, a Hoya .4 ND filter (or whatever is the mid-strength version), and today as we were casually shopping at Circuit City, my wonderful boyfriend bought me the circular polarizing filter i’d spent the day looking at. we just happened to see it as i took my customary stroll through the camera-accesories isle, and i am almost giddy with excitement to put all of these to good use. not all at once of course, but i will be doing a lot of traveling this summer and hopefully seeing a lot of amazing landscapes, both mountains and seasides. i am incredibly excited about all the opportunities available in my own little midwestern town as well, and have been very encouraged and inspired by a lot of art i’ve seen here. the wonderful photographer Simon Gladwin has given me some excellent tips and direction in the area of my IR work. (so far i have not come up with anything Bubbleworthy – it’s been really windy here and longer exposures have NOT been doing well.) if anyone has any tips they would like to share regarding usage of any of these three filters, feel free to post them here! otherwise, i appreciate your readership – and your taking the time to check out Simon’s work if you haven’t already. Nikki

• Fractals And Filters Challenge
  by scholara

  I just put a file into my geocities directory. Its available at http://www.geocities.com/scholara/agfreebie1.jpg Its postcard s…

  I just put a file into my geocities directory. Its available at http://www.geocities.com/scholara/agfreebie1.jpg Its postcard sized and a very rough 72 dpi fractal to which I have added no edits whatsoever beyond generating the initial fractal. Now the challenge is to take this raw fractal in 72 dpi postcard size and change and improve it. Let people know in your journal and put the result ups so we can compare all the results and see what wierd and wonderful changes we can come up with? let the commentsfeature to let me know who’s doing the challenge and where we can see your variants? I’ll also put the reaw file up here as a not for sale demo .

• Advice on filters
  by Tamarama72

  Hi all , / have just gotten myself a new lens ! but am a bit lost as to the best filter to buy for it. / I know there are lots out there , ...

  Hi all , / have just gotten myself a new lens ! but am a bit lost as to the best filter to buy for it. / I know there are lots out there , is it best to just get a uv for protecting the lens ? / Know that there are lots of you out there brimming with knowledge so lets hear all your pearls of wisdom / Cheers

• Arguing for the "safe for workplace viewing" filter
  by David Barnes

  I’ve been thinking this issue over since a couple of redbubblers emailed me to ask what I thought, and whether I had the “safe for workpl…

  I’ve been thinking this issue over since a couple of redbubblers emailed me to ask what I thought, and whether I had the “safe for workplace viewing” filter on any of my images. I think I’ve reached the conclusion (in my own head) that self-classification is a perfectly reasonable thing. The “safe for workplace viewing” filter is not enforced censorship, it simply gives me the opportunity to give viewers of my work a choice of what they get to see. Ie. it gives both artist and audience a choice. It’s classification, not censorship. So I have decided to exercise this choice for most of my nudes. It’s not going to stop people seeing my art work, but it makes it their choice. There’s nothing to be gained from me not using the filter. So it’s a pragmatic decision; one that seems perfectly sensible. The censorship debate is a minefield. Earlier today I tried to frame a response to this issue by arguing for freedom of expression and choice. However, I think some of my clothed images are sexier and more provocative than some of my nudes, so it’s such a wiggly, grey, fuzzy line that I just couldn’t sustain any reasonable argument without contradicting myself. So there we are. My 2 cents worth. Hope it’s interesting to someone! – David. ps. the above is based on my recent response to Tony Ryan’s recent journal

• 19.09.08 Promote The New Calendars R Us Group
  by ozlat

  There is wicked new group that goes by the name of ‘Calendars R Us’ and it’s a little pet project that Mr Teeth and I teamed up on. Ev…

  There is wicked new group that goes by the name of ‘Calendars R Us’ and it’s a little pet project that Mr Teeth and I teamed up on. Everyone should join because at some point in time there will be a love of yours up for the taking… and at this point in time the love is Infrared Photography… if you don’t know what that is or how to do it… there is this great book called Karma Sutra… or join the group and there is an actual link to how and why infrared photography will improve your love life. Infrared Photography challenge will run for 7 days as of today and then voting will run for 3 days… may the force be with you!

• Adobe Photoshop - Digital Mosaics
  by davoid

  Recently I was inspired by mosaic artwork to create a digital mosaic from a portrait image. See Pixel Portrait...

  Recently I was inspired by mosaic artwork to create a digital mosaic from a portrait image. See Pixel Portrait by me. The method I used was time consuming and a bit laborious so I thought I’d share a simple and faster method that, although it has its limitations, creates acceptable results. Important Notes This tutorial will be using a Photoshop filter from the Stylize category called: Tiles. This filter tries to replicate the look of a mosaic of square tiles; with the varied placement and tile spacing. For ‘Pixel Portrait’ I wanted a uniform grid of tiles with control over the tile spacing so I didn’t use the Tiles filter. But after experimenting with the filter later I found that if the Offset percent variable is about 4 or lower, the filter produces a uniform grid. This limits the size of the tile spacing which is the limitation mentioned earlier. If you want crisp vector-like tiles in your finished artwork you should avoid resampling the image as this introduces anti-aliasing which softens the edges; spoiling the clean effect. I suggest deciding the final image size and resampling your image, before you start the transformations. Preparing The Image 1. Adjust the contrast and brightness if necessary: Image>Adjust>Brightness/Contrast Mosaic Filter To replicate the plain tile look of a mosaic we need to convert our continuous tone image to blocks of solid colour/tone. 2. Filter>Pixelate>Mosaic Adjust the cell size until the squares are the size you like. Make the number an even number, e.g. 20. This is important for the next step. Calculating Squares We need to calculate how many squares we have horizontally across the image. 3. Image>Image Size Check the Pixel Dimensions section at the top and note the width in pixels. Eg. 840. 4. Divide the width in pixels by the cell size used in the Mosaic filter options. E.g. 840 image pixel width by 20 mosaic filter cell size = 42. / 42 is the amount of squares horizontally across the image. Foreground Colour Before we apply the Tiles filter to create our mosaic we need to change the Photoshop foreground colour to a colour e.g. bright green for a black & white photo or a tone e.g. 50% grey for a colour photo. This will allow us to select the ‘grout’ between our tiles and put it on a separate layer for later colour selection. E.g. if the ‘grout’ is black or white and the tiles range from black to white we will have difficulty in separating the grout from the tiles and thus, selecting it for whatever reason. 5. Click on a relevant colour in the Swatches palette. This will change the foreground colour to that colour. Tiles Filter 6. Filter>Stylize>Tiles Number of tiles: 42 / Maximum offset: 1 to 4 % (5 and above adds randomness) / Fill empty area with: Foreground colour What we are trying to achieve is: the Tile filter matching the blocks we created with the Mosaic filter, so all the ‘tiles’ are one block with no part blocks showing through. That is why it is important to calculate the number of tiles across the image. You should now have your mosaic image with colour/tone ‘grout’. Separating The Grout We need to separate the ‘grout’ from the tiles. 7. If the Background layer is locked: Double click the layer. / Click OK. This changes the Background layer to Layer 0 and unlocks it. We need to select the ‘grout’. 8. Magic Wand tool: tolerance 1. / This will make the Magic Wand select only 1 colour. Select the ‘grout’. We need to hide the ‘grout’. 9. Select>Inverse (Ctrl+Shift+i) Click Add Layer Mask at the bottom of the Layers palette. This hides the ‘grout’ and leaves the resulting area transparent. We need to create the separate ‘grout’ layer. 10. Click ‘create a new layer’ icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Double click the Layer name and call it: Grout. Click a suitable ‘grout’ colour/tone on the Swatches palette. / This changes the foreground colour. Press Alt+Delete to fill the layer with the foreground colour (or Ctrl+Delete for the background colour). Drag the Grout layer below the Mosaic layer. You should now have the Grout layer showing through the masked area of the Mosaic layer and the basic image completed. Converting Colours/Tones To convert a black & white image to a one hue image: Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U) Check the Colourize box. This converts the image to a colour but only in the one selected hue, e.g. shades of blue. Adjusting the Hue slider lets you choose a particular hue. The Saturation slider controls intensity of colour and the Lightness controls brightness. To convert a colour image to a black & white image: Image>Adjustments>Desaturate (Ctrl+Shift+U) This is a basic form of conversion but suitable for this project.

• Adobe Photoshop CS3
  by Maximus

  I downloaded a trial version yesterday – wow. Also some extra filters from Amphisoft, which crashed Photoshop. Has anyone experienced thi…

  I downloaded a trial version yesterday – wow. Also some extra filters from Amphisoft, which crashed Photoshop. Has anyone experienced this, or am I a drongo? / max :)

• The "Un-Suck Filter"
  by Alison Johnston

  I haven’t been to David duChemin’s blog for a couple of days, but what I laugh I got when I read the heading for February 9th :-), course…

  I haven’t been to David duChemin’s blog for a couple of days, but what I laugh I got when I read the heading for February 9th :-), course it has some very insightful stuff as well. PIXELATED IMAGE BLOG Adopting is for babies. (AKA – There is no such thing as the “un-suck filter” Yesterday I linked to Rarindra Prakarsa, and was surprised by the reactions. Emails and comments seemed almost synonymous: the style is really amazing but perhaps for some of you it’s too much of a good thing and is a little too sentimental. I still am amazed by the light and curious about how the images were accomplished. There is, within his images, a sense of wonder that really resonates with me. Then I spent some time this morning looking through comments on other blogs and this is the common reaction: “How does he do it? Teach me how to do it! Why won’t he tell us how he did it? I want to be able to do this too!” Now I’m a big fan of education – the more tools in your belt the better able you are to realize your vision, and part of me wants to know how Prakarsa accomplishes what he does so well. But here’s what I observe in the photosphere – each time someone comes up with a killer new technique the masses rush to copy it. They adopt it wholesale and use it as an “un-suck filter” for images that just don’t quite work. But wave the new magic-wand-of-the-day over it and POOF! It looks awesome. Or does it? Maybe it just looks novel. new. Man, we love the novel and new. The problem is, it gets old fast. And expressing YOUR vision with an idiom someone else worked hard to create to express THEIR vision, is usually rife with problems – not the least of which is lack of originality and the death of the creative process. However, you’d be right in saying every technique out there is derivative. One influences another which in turn gives birth to another. While I am a harsh opponent of ADOPTING another person’s idiom to rescue your own lack of vision or mastery of technique, I am a huge fan of ADAPTING new techniques and styles to more fully express your own. Artists through the generations have reacted to each other, derived techniques one from another, and there is often a clearly visible evolution. The true geniuses seem to have a vision so unique it requires techniques that seem to develop without that evolution of technique, but I suspect they just make bigger jumps. Picasso is a long way from Monet, but he still used paints and brushes. Ok, I’m beginning to ramble, so let me sew this up by encouraging you to pay attention first to your vision. You can’t rescue a poorly conceived image with a new, shiny, flavour o’ the day technique. Adopting someone else’s style is a good way to ensure your work is just more noise in a sea of imitations. But adapting that style, combining it – or parts of it – with your own to take your skills that much closer to being able to truly express your own unique vision – that’s the way artists have done it for years. Everything should be slave to your vision. If your vision is flawed or under-developed, you need more than a lesson in Photoshop or off-camera strobe use. You need to find your vision. An aside. When I was learning to create logos I had a friend – an accomplished designer and videographer – tell me to do my initial concept work in greyscale. If a logo works in greyscale it’ll work when you make final colour choices. If you let the colours alone carry it, it’s a weak logo and you can find that out pretty fast by removing the colour. How do the lines work, how’s the space, the balance? Colour can get in the way of seeing that. In the same way your photographs need to work BEFORE you apply a a fancy new colour technique or photoshop filter. This is an oversimplification, I know. In reality every element is important and makes the final image. But if the potential is not there when you start working on it, it won’t be there when you finish it. Maturing as an artist means you no longer adopt, you adapt. I’d really welcome dialogue on this, I think it’s important and welcome some pushback.

• photoshop filters
  by Matthew Scotland

  calling all photoshoppers, could anyone advise me on good sites to get good free filters for photoshop. i would like to try some more di…

  calling all photoshoppers, could anyone advise me on good sites to get good free filters for photoshop. i would like to try some more digital manipulations than the usual twirl or polar co-ordinates filters which are beginning to grate on me, thanks

• Removing the IR filter from a Canon 350D
  by Marina Alexander

  I have recently upgraded to a Canon 5D and want to convert (evidently permanently) my 350D to an IR camera by removing the IR filter. My …

  I have recently upgraded to a Canon 5D and want to convert (evidently permanently) my 350D to an IR camera by removing the IR filter. My friend tells me it’s possible to do yourself by following detailed instructions on the internet. 1. Does anyone have a site they successfully used? / 2. Any other hints regarding this somewhat frightening experiment? / 3. Has anyone done this to their 350D, what are the images like, any problems? Thanks in advance for your response. / Marina

• So, here's a queston:
  by Arletta

  Why aren’t there safe filters that can protect your dear little eyeballs from the things you’d like not to see most, when what you’d like…

  Why aren’t there safe filters that can protect your dear little eyeballs from the things you’d like not to see most, when what you’d like not to see most is on the person’s profile? Well, assuming that what you’d like not to see most is the same sort of thing that the safe filters work on, anyway. Or is that something, the use of a safe filter, solely at the discretion of the poster? Because, I was browsing around and ran into a truly offensive profile. Not just because it was cussy-faced in nature or just because it had nude drawings on it; but, because it was very aggressive and obviously intended to shock and put everyone who trespassed there into a state of awe over the extreme coolness of the poster. I started using safe filters for a reason. That reason being, to put it as simply as possible, because I’m old enough to know what I like and what I don’t have time for in my life. Well, one little profile, no matter how shockingly rude and childish it tries to be, will not detain me from my adulthood or even slow me on my path, but I do find it odd that many of this person’s works are behind a safe filter but their spewing tirades of trashy language are allowed to roam freely about, maiming the intellect of whomever stumbles across them. It’s, to but it plainly, weird!

• Infrared
  by Aubrey Bergman

  I hope to be getting an infrared filter soon for my minolta digital. I have never shoot in infrared before so it will be all new to me. H…

  I hope to be getting an infrared filter soon for my minolta digital. I have never shoot in infrared before so it will be all new to me. However I have fallen in love with the shoots that I have seen on red bubble using infrared and want to try it. Does any one have any suggestion on where to start or any technics?

• other use of circular polarizer
  by photogenic

  Hi. As we know, circular polarizer cuts down haze and reflections. There is another use for it, if you haven’t known it yet. It can be us…

  Hi. As we know, circular polarizer cuts down haze and reflections. There is another use for it, if you haven’t known it yet. It can be used as a neutral density filter by cutting down the light entering the lens by up to two stops therefore allowing us to use wider aperture or slower shutter speed. This would be equivalent, more or less, of using, say, cokin nd 4 filter. We would then be able to have the silky effect of waves or running streams or waterfalls. An example would be of Breanna Bowman’s Mossy River at www.jpgmag.com. Cheers.

• Infrared
  by brandiejenkins

  Alright, I really need some help with this, I’m having just a Bit of trouble with this infrared filter and the images coming out correctl…

  Alright, I really need some help with this, I’m having just a Bit of trouble with this infrared filter and the images coming out correctly. I’m not an expert when it comes to technical terms, but I’ve managed up until this point. I have an Olympus e500 dslr 58mm and am trying to work with this Hoya R72 IR filter, but I cant seem to get the exposure right. I’ve gotten only a couple good shots and I think it was pure luck. I’ve tried different shutter speeds, iso, white balance, even manual lighting with different light sources (besides the sun). Everything continues to come out too dark. I know you can’t meter images when you can’t See the visible light, so I’m stuck. I know the camera doesn’t have an ir block because its worked before, (I even tested it on a tv remote control, it was pretty cool actually). Suggestions please before I toss the lens out the car window….