Kevin’s Photo Studio

This article was originally written in 2005 when I built this machine. It has since been rebuilt with newer, faster, better components. The rebuild will be detailed in an upcoming article. This articles still contains some good information, however.

Build or buy? A question many people ask when they need or want a new PC. I needed one. My main use for the machine is post processing digital camera files. I decided to build after not finding what I wanted for a price I was willing to pay. This article reports on my adventure in building my dream Photoshop computer. Unfortunately my dream had a budget attached so I couldn’t just buy the absolute top of the line everything.

This article describes the hardware that makes up my workstation. The software I run on the workstation is describes in another article titled Software Tools For Photographers.

A few months ago I decided that it was time to replace my aging Dell Desktop computer with something more capable of handling the large number of digital photo images that I was producing with my 8.2MP Canon 1D Mk2 camera. My aging Dell is a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 processor with 1Gb of RAM and two internal hard drives totaling about 300GB of storage running Windows XP Pro. With my image files regularly reaching 800MB, this computer just wasn’t cutting it anymore. I found myself waiting and wanting for a faster computer. Read more…

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For the person who is just getting into digital photography deciding what equipment to buy can be a very intimidating process. Many thousands of dollars are likely to be spent in the process. It would sure be nice if you were able to buy the best equipment for your needs the first time. But how do you know what’s best. You don’t. All you can do is research, ask questions, and finally make a decision. I get a lot of questions from friends and strangers about what equipment should be purchased for specific needs. I try to help people out on various forums as I can. Since I’ve written many posts and many emails and had many discussions on this topic, I thought: maybe it’s time to write it all down in one place. This is a summary of the equipment that currently makes up my photographic toolkit. For each item in my toolkit I’ll try to explain why I do (or don’t) like it. Hopefully someone will find the information useful and be one step closer to buying the right (or not buying the wrong) piece of equipment for their toolkit. Read more…

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One topic that comes up invariably over and over on discussion forums is which software tools are best for the digital workflow. One thing I’m sure of is that there is no one best solution that will work for each and every photographer. I’ve collected a set of tools that work pretty well for me, but this tool set is continously changing as I find better solutions.

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The lighting conditions in your work area can greatly affect the quality of your work. Do you know whether or not your workstation lighting conditions are ideal? This article aims to explore the requirements and recommendations for proper lighting conditions when working on a computer workstation and viewing printed images. I’ll explain how I setup my home office workstation to get the best balance of monitor viewing light and print viewing light. Unless you are a professional working in a tighly controlled (and calibrated) lab environment, it will be difficult to exactly meet the standards requirements for both monitor viewing and print viewing at the same location. I definitely do not in my office. But I think I’ve achieved a very nice working environment that sufficiently satisfies both needs.

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I was thinking the other day about how I want to watermark the proof images that I give to clients. The watermark’s primary purpose it to protect the image from unwanted duplication. In this respect the watermark needs to be placed in the main subject area so that it cannot easily be cropped or cloned out. However, placing a watermark over the main subject can significantly impede the viewing experience. What to do? The image above shows the watermarking method that I’m currently using. I think it is prominent enough to protect the image yet subtle enough allow for good viewing during the photo selection process. This article describes the solution that I created and also serves as a quick and basic introduction the Photoshop JavaScript. I will present the script that I use and describe in detail what happens in the script. My goal is to convince you that writing JavaScript for photoshop is easy and can solve problems not possible with actions alone. Read more…

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Let me start off by saying that I don’t really know what to call this effect. A classic effect that is pretty straight forward to create is the black and white photographs in which a single important element is left in color. This effect creates a toned image in which the color hues are not eliminated but subdued and curve mapped tone in added. The main focus of the image retains most of its color and is given only slight toning. And , finally, some vignetting is added.

If this sounds like something you’d like to try you can Read more…

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Introduction

The image above didn’t look like this when I first downloaded it from the memory card and opened it in Photoshop.

If you have ever looked at pictures produced by experienced digital photographers on the various photography forums and wondered why some of the pictures have a magical quality about them? Have you ever wondered why the pictures that come from your camera don’t have that same look? The answer isn’t that you can’t take a good picture. The answer is that you need to be able to see beyond the capture. You need to develop a sense for seeing the potential that lay hidden in the seeming mediocrity of the photograph. And then you need the tools and knowledge that will let you expose that potential. Photoshop gives us the tools, but only experience and practice will give us the knowledge. Read more…

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The eyes define a person. They are windows into that person’s soul. The eyes are one of, if not the single most, important parts of a portrait photograph. It is the first feature noticed. It is also one place where a little post-processing can really make a portrait shine. In this article I’m going to cover the steps I use to make normal eyes into eyes that will take your client’s breath away (without taking away his or her soul). Read more…

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