This tutorial on Stacking Images shot without a Tripod was submitted by Andre Gunther from Andre Gunther Photography where he’s written other tutorials for photographers

Using image transformation to stack pictures shot handheld without a tripod.

High dynamic range scenes challenge virtually all cameras, no matter if CCD, CMOS or Analog (Film). Even the capability of the human eye to capture very high dynamic range is limited. We cannot see details in the shade of a tunnel, next to a bright burning lamp or a tunnel opening. Cameras are even more limited than the human eye, but we can make all those details visible with special techniques.

One of these techniques, recording several images with different exposure levels and blending them on the computer, is relatively easy. It requires that the images overlap perfectly, which usually necessitates a tripod during the shot.

Image by Zach KleinThis guest post was submitted by Brian Auer from Epic Edits Weblog.

The last article I wrote for dPS titled “18 Exceptionally Useful Photoshop Shortcuts” was taken in very well by all the wonderful photographers here. Darren had the idea of creating a follow-up article that outlined additional shortcuts and keyboard commands in Photoshop, and naturally I was more than happy to whip something up.

There were so many comments that brought up additional shortcuts on the last post, that 80% of the following tips came from all of you. It was great to see that level of contribution from the readers, and I learned a few very useful Photoshop tricks along the way. The other 20% of the following tips are some that weren’t mentioned at all in the last post, and I’ve even included a few side notes and mouse-related shortcuts. Also, be sure to read all the way to the bottom — I have a question for you.

Again, I’m using the commands for Photoshop CS3 running on Windows, but most of these should also work with Photoshop CS2 and some versions lower. So to start things off, I’m admitting defeat. In the last post, apparently I left out THE most useful shortcut in Photoshop.

SPACEBAR (Temporary Hand Tool) — Hold down the spacebar to temporarily bring up the hand tool so you can move around while doing those zoomed-in edits. Also, use the Ctrl modifier to zoom in, and the Alt modifier to zoom out.

Essential Photoshop Shortcut Commands

• F (Cycle Screen Modes) — Switch between normal screen, full screen with task bar without title bar, and full screen with black background. Works great when used in conjunction with Tab to hide toolbars — maximum working space, no distractions.
• X (Switch Colors) — Swap your foreground and background colors. Very handy when working with masks.
• D (Default Colors) — Reset your foreground and background colors to black and white, respectively.
• Ctrl + ‘+’/'-’ (Zoom In/Out) — Quickly zoom in or out without changing your current tool.
• Alt + Mouse Scroll (Zoom In/Out) — Fastest way to zoom — scroll up to zoom in, and scroll down to zoom out.
• Ctrl + Alt + Z (Step Back) — Ctrl + Z is OK if you catch a mistake immediately after it happens, but this command will continue to march its way up the history tree.
• Ctrl + S (Save) — You should get in the habit of just hitting this combo on impulse about every 5 to 10 minutes. Also use Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S to bring up the save for web dialog.
• Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N (New Layer No Dialog) — Quickly insert a new empty layer on top of the active layer. Get rid of the Alt key to bring up the new layer dialog for more options.

The following tutorial on Image Processing was submitted by John Short from www.canonphoto.co.uk and www.johnshort.co.uk

To get the best out of any image requires processing in an image editing package.

To have the greatest latitude and control of the final picture then it is always best to shoot in raw. In a future tip I will illustrate the difference between raw images and JPEG’s and the increased latitude when processing. In this tip I want to show a raw image and explain the processing I applied in Adobe Photoshop.

Whilst I hear cry’s of ” I don’t have Photoshop ” and it’s alright for him he has professional software at his fingertips ” all of the modifications can just as easily be achieved in Photoshop elements or other image processing applications.

The first image (above) is the original raw file prior to any post processing. The photograph was taken with a Cokin P series Neutral graduated filter but to emphasize the depth of the clouds I selected the sky area ( including the hills )using the quick select tool and made this a separate layer. This layer was then adjusted for levels making the dark clouds blacker and the highlights a little lighter (without blowing the detail).

This guest post was submitted by Brian Auer from Epic Edits Weblog.

Working with Photoshop can be quite time consuming for both beginners and advanced users. Once you’ve worked with it for a while, you begin to find that you’re constantly going back and forth between the same menu items or palette buttons. If you’re anything like me, you’re switching tools so often that most of your time spent in Photoshop isn’t even on the photo — it’s messing with the vast array of editing tools. Fortunately there’s a way to help streamline your Photoshop workflow.

Keyboard commands, or shortcuts, are simply a way to bypass a few mouse clicks when doing tool changes or tool property adjustments. They’re a little awkward and cumbersome at first, but once you pick up a couple of commands on the keyboard you’ll never go back. The whole idea is that while one hand is running the mouse, the other hand might as well be doing something too. This method of working with Photoshop can really decrease your time spent on the computer and give you more time to get behind the camera.

The following are 18 of my most commonly used shortcuts, broken out into three groups: simple, intermediate, and advanced. The simple commands are pretty easy to pull off, and they’re heavily used. The advanced commands take a little coordination, and I don’t use them quite as often. The intermediate commands are somewhere between the two. Again, these are MY most used Photoshop shortcuts. I’m also only showing the commands for Photoshop CS3 (thought CS2 should be almost identical) on a PC (sorry Mac users). So if you want to learn more about this topic, read to the bottom of the article for additional resources.

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Simple Photoshop Shortcut Commands

• H (Hand Tool) — When zoomed in to a portion of your photo, this command brings up the hand tool which allows for quick panning. Also, if the hand tool is active and you hold down the Ctrl key, you can zoom in without changing to the zoom tool. Likewise, if you hold down the Alt key, you can zoom out without changing tools.
• Z (Zoom Tool) — This command just brings up the zoom tool, which allows you to zoom in. Like with the hand tool, if you hold down the Alt key, it temporarily switches to the zoom out mode.
• Ctrl + 0 (Fit on Screen) — This is a quick-and-dirty command to get the entire photo in front of your eyes. That’s Ctrl + zero, not the letter “O”.
• B (Brush Tool) — The brush is an extremely useful tool when working with masks, and I’m constantly using this command along with the hand and zoom tools.
• Ctrl + Z (Undo) — Very useful for the little mistakes we all make.
• Tab (Hide/Show Palettes) — Hiding the palettes gives you a little more working room, thus decreasing your need to pan and zoom while editing.

Another video tutorial – this one talks us though correcting color and sharpening images in Photoshop.