Soave Photography

An interesting technique I learned from a high school friend is the "reverse lens macro." Basically, it takes advantage of the fact that a lens works (i.e., focuses light) in both directions. This technique allows you to focus on a subject that is very close to the camera (within a few inches), closer than with a regularly-mounted lens. This can be used as an effective cheap macro solution. There are two main problems with this, which I will address: 1) Less light makes it to the camera sensor, and the camera has trouble reading exposure. 2) The depth of field becomes incredibly short, so it's hard to get enough of the picture in focus, and hard to get exactly what you want into focus. If you have a digital SLR camera, you can try this technique. It works best with a lens with a focal length of around 50mm. Put the camera in manual mode. This is necessary because of the difficulty in metering the light. Detach lens. As I mentioned before, it's tough to get cor...

I find that my pictures tend to look better with a slight vignette (when the corners are darker than the center of the picture) because it draws the attention to the center: In this post, I'll discuss three separate ways to create a vignette effect in Photoshop, with a few pros and cons of each. I'll go over the steps briefly, so please email me or leave a comment if you want more detailed directions. Method 1: Solid Color Gradient Method 2: Levels Gradient Method 3: Burning First of all, I'll start with the following picture as the base: Method 1: Solid Color Gradient The simplest way to create a vignette is to apply a solid black color over the picture and fade it out as it gets closer to the center: To create this effect: Create a new layer above your base layer and fill it with black. Create a layer mask on that layer. Choose the gradient tool, and make a gradient that consists of the following: black from 0-50%, fade black to white from 50-100% (this will make the fad...