I shot a few photos of the models at the Westcott Lighting booth, during Photoshop World.  Mark talked about that a couple weeks ago.  This lady, and her boyfriend model in steampunk attire, were probably the most interesting.  I drooled over the cool lighting gear in the booth and moved on, not really thinking about what I would do with the photo.

I was browsing through Matt Kloskowski’s book, Photoshop Compositing Secrets, and it looked pretty interesting.  He shows you many examples of his work and goes through the process extensively.  I highly recommend Matt’s book.  With a little time on my hands, today, I figured I’d give it a try.   I started by extracting the model from the background.

Since I don’t usually do this kind of stuff, my stock of background images is pretty small.  I settled on this door from a photowalk in Harper’s Ferry.

Matt keeps his eyes open during his travels for backgrounds that he can use later.  Guess I’ll need to keep that in mind for later efforts.  For best results, you should also use the same lens and perspective in all your composite photos.  I violated this rule completely – not only were my lenses unmatched, my photos are from two different cameras.   When I combined the photos, I immediately noticed the difference.  I put in some noise in the model photo to get closer to the look of the background photo.  I also needed to adjust the color balance to get everything similar.

In the end, I’m not sure I got it completely right.  The model still looks like she needs some more work to fit perfectly into the background.   You should give compositing a try.  It’s good practice for lots of photoshop techniques and can give you the a chance to create something that wasn’t there when you made the original photographs.

Whenever I find old photographs of family members, I try to get those into my Lightroom database.  (Of course, this also works in Aperture, Bridge, or any other database program you may use.)  You don’t want to lose these old photos of your heritage, so bring them into your files and back them up the same as your current photostream.  You can find more about entering your ancestors’ information in a blog I wrote back in 2010 (here).

I know I’m using a pretty broad definition of people photography by including these old folks, and you and I didn’t take these photos.  However, I feel strongly that you should save your old photos.  Too many cherished memories just gather dust until they get tossed out in the next spring cleaning.

These old gems are a good place to begin learning how to  restore photos.  Black and white photos relieve you of the burden of color restoration at the same time you’re trying to learn to repair tears and folds.  You can remove stains and color shifts by removing all the colors.  After you have made the restorations, you can add in a sepia or selenium tone to the repaired photo.  Mark gave you a good demonstration of some restoration work back at the beginning of our blog (here).

Let me close out by entreating you to find and save these old photographs.   The files won’t take up too much space on your drives, and, once you’ve brought them back to life, everyone will want a copy.  They are part of the world of people photography, and they are fun to fix up.

Mark told you that the Nikon D4 was finally announced, but they also announced an 85mm f1.8 lens at $500.  A lens that will give you lots of speed and creamy bokeh for relatively few dollars.

Canon announced their high-end compact, the G1x.  It shoots RAW; 1080p video; and has a 28-112mm zoom.  It will compete with Nikon’s 1 (although the Canon doesn’t have inter-changeable lenses) and the Fuju X100 (also fixed lens).  Go read Google News about all the photo gadgets that are being introduced in Vegas this week.

But the photo world wasn’t just buzzing over the neat new hardware….  Adobe announced the public beta of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.  There are some major changes, including a revamped Develop panel; a Map panel that connects to Google Earth and let’s you geo-tag any image; and a Book panel to create your own Blurb photobooks.  You can download it here; there is no cost to try it.

I’ve been playing with it all week on some recent photos, and I’m already hooked on the improvements.  It is still a Beta, so you only want to use it on copies of your photographs.  You will probably experience some slowness and crashes, but this is normal in a Beta.  They’ll have that taken care of in the final release.  When does the final release come out?   They haven’t announced that, but the Beta expires on 31 March.  (Isn’t that less than a week after Photoshop World?  Hmmmm.)

You can bet we’ll blog about all the features when it comes out, but let me show you a couple of examples of the new Develop panel.  I really love the changes here.

Here is the York Minster.  A blah sky provides enough light to create a common problem – the camera meter averages the scene, and my sky is too bright and the church is too dark.

In Lightroom 3, I would globally lighten the church and then use the adjustment brush to bring down the brightness of the sky.  This isn’t difficult, but it will take a few minutes of brushing to get the sky the way I want it.

In Lightroom 4, I moved few sliders to give much better results in seconds.  The corrections were so fast, I used the lens correction to minimize the image distortion and still had a much better image in less than one minute.

The clouds have more definition; you can see details in the towers; and the exposure is fixed.  The transformation is really something to watch as you move the sliders.  Of course, I could do this in Photoshop, but that would take even longer.

I had to try it one more time.

Wow!  I really like the way shadow detail can be revealed.  You should download the program and give it a try.  This new Lightroom is going to be fun.

The Aurora Ice Bar is located in Chena Hot Springs, Alaska.  It is just a little bit south of the Arctic Circle.  The resort is open year round for your vacationing pleasure.  They say it’s a great place to see the Aurora Borealis.

The Aurora Ice Bar is kept at about 20 degrees inside a specially designed building, so you can even enjoy it in the summer time.  We were there in August, but the nasty warm weather never bothered us.

The entire bar and stools are made of ice.

The bar is open during the tours, and many of the tourists tried their Apple-tinis.  You can see the glasses – they’re also carved from ice – lined up on the shelves behind the bartender.

The building is filled with ice sculptures.  They have a xylophone made of ice that is playable.  There is a workshop at one end of the building where you can watch current sculptures being made.  The artists there have sculpted jousting knights, ice fish, and the Coca-Cola polar bears.  They never seem to run out of ice up there.

We were only there for an hour because we had lots of other things to see, but we did look around at the two ice bedrooms, complete with an ice outhouse.  (No, the outhouse isn’t ever actually used.)

As you can see from these photos, I was in snapshot mode.  The bar wasn’t on our original schedule, so I was just carrying the camera and one lens.  I was really set back because I didn’t have my flash.  I hope to get back there someday with better preparation.

So, if you’re ever up near the Arctic Circle, looking for a drink, stop by for lots of fun.  Tell them I sent you….

Tonight, we’re going to spend a little money.  Everything here will cost you more than $150 – sometimes, much more.  They say spending money is what we need to do to stimulate our economy, so don’t think of it as being extravagant; think of it as patriotism.  Obviously, the list here is endless, so I’m going to pick from a wide variety of products, with which I’m at least familiar.

Every photographer likes gear.  Chances are you do, too, but how can I know what you want?  There are lots of great lenses and new cameras, this year.  Just remember, that lenses and cameras are only tools – you need more than a saw to be a cabinetmaker.

I could use a Nikon 85mm 1.4 lens (about $1,700) or the nifty, little Nikon JV1 camera (about $1,700, when you throw in the 30-110mm lens and dedicated flash).  You may prefer the new Canon 1d x;  it isn’t shipping, yet, but you can pre-order it.  When it comes in, it is expected to cost around $6,000.  The Canon G12 is a small box camera (smaller than a SLR, but thicker and heavier than most point-and-shoots).  It shoots RAW photos and has HD video for about $380.  Where would you order these wonders?  Now, I have an answer.  I’ve used B&H and Midwest Photo Exchange.  Both are great gear providers.  You can find almost anything you could need/want at either place.

If you want to try all this fancy equipment before you buy it, or, maybe, just use it once or twice during the year, try renting some gear.  My favorite, in this category, is Lensrentals.com.  Every time I’ve rented cameras and lenses from them, I’ve been happy with the experience.  The equipment has always been in excellent condition, and they deliver it on time with a pre-paid shipping label for the return.  They have almost any kind of photographic equipment you could want to rent.  I know lots of folks who say the same about BorrowLenses.com.  Obviously, the cost varies on the type of gear and term of use, but they are both pretty reasonable.  When I rented the $6,000 Nikon 200-400mm F4 zoom for two weeks in Alaska, it was about $575.  It was worth every penny, since I really don’t shoot wildlife often enough to pay $6,000.

After you take those photos with your new gear, you’re going to need to process the photos.  We’ve talked about Adobe Lightroom enough by now that you know it is our first suggestion.  The suggested retail is $299, but you can find it cheaper lots of places – especially since rumors say that the next version will be out in the spring.

Two other great software tools: NIK and OnOne.  Mark and I have tried and own both, but I prefer NIK ($499), and he prefers OnOne ($399).  These prices are for their complete suites.  You can also buy components separately for about $149 (NIK) or $99 (OnOne) each, but the better deal is certainly the suites.  NIK has Silver Efex Pro for great conversions to black and white.  I use their Color Efex Pro all the time for effects that are easy to apply and adjust.  OnOne also has great effects, and I love their Perfect Portrait software.  Both of these companies provide plug-ins for Lightroom if you aren’t ready to jump into the Photoshop pool.  There are many other programs that will assist in your post-processing, but these are the two I’m most familiar with.

Wow!  I’m getting an itching credit card just thinking about this stuff.  How will you learn to use all this stuff?  Well – aside from the free links we wrote about last week – there are some great paid training sites.  Educating yourself about photographic tools and techniques may be better for you than buying new gear.  Remember the saw/cabinetmaker “wisdom” I laid on you earlier?  (I know, pretty deep….)  There are three entries I know about in this category, and each has a monthly or annual plan to allow you to view the training videos whenever you have the time.  Kelby Training ($199 annually/$24.95 monthly) is the one I favor.  Mark and I have met with many of the trainers and photographers there, and their work is top-notch.  Lynda.com ($250 annually/$25 monthly) also has great content and photographer/instructors I’ve met and appreciate.  This is no second-rate substitute.  These two are sort of like the Canon/Nikon argument; it doesn’t matter which you choose, you win.

I recently heard of another site from This Week in Photography (which we mentioned last week), and they were very positive about their product.  Video2Brain  ($199 annually/$20 monthly) has many detailed lessons for you to try.  I looked through their content and sat through several sample lessons to compare.  The lessons were easy to understand and represented the field well.  All of these choices offer free sample lessons, so you might want to try them all out before you choose one.

Want to meet these instructors; learn first-hand; and have a great time?  Go to Photoshop World!  We harp on this every year.  We have spent some 18 hour days there with lessons, photographer roundtables, and event parties.  This Spring, it is in Washington, DC, 24-26 March.  You can choose classes in Photoshop, Lightroom, Photography, and/or Design.  You can go to any class you want, and leave five minutes into it to go to a different one if it wasn’t what you thought it was.  You get a book with the lesson notes from all the classes. (It’s the size of an old telephone book, if you’re old enough to remember those.)  If you sign up before Feb 17, you’ll save $100 on this treat.  For NAPP members the Early Bird price is $499, vs. $599 for non-NAPP members.  I told you last week that NAPP membership pays for itself in discounts.  Mark and I signed up in October.  We’ll see you there.

I know I’m going long here, but let me complete the shot to print process.  We both really like MPIX for normal printing.  Their work is excellent.  They are usually at Photoshop World to show you their work (as are the next two).

But, every now and then, you want to do something special.  How about putting one of your photographs on canvas?  Artistic Photo Canvas can do you right.  I really like the gallery wraps.  They are easy to hang and don’t need frames which can cost more than the print.  Canvas really enhances the feel of a nice portrait or landscape.  When you go this route, go big.  It makes a nice impact.  I’ve gone as big as 48 inches wide.  Prices vary with size, but you can spend more than $150 easily here – not too much more, but more.

And speaking of making an impact – how about printing on aluminum?  Take a vibrant, colorful image and make it pop at Bay Photo.  You’d be surprised what a difference you see here.  They are stunning with the right photo.  Again, go big, and you’ll easily top $150.  You’ll get more than that value from the pleasure of the constant comments from those who see them.

I know this was longer than usual, but I could easily go longer.  There are so many great ways to spend your money in photography.  C’mon, you deserve it.  Have some fun.