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20 Minute Tutorial: Merge Two Photos (Headswap!)

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Editing Tools & Techniques 20 Minute Tutorial: Merge Two Photos (Headswap!)

This is a very quick tutorial which shows you an easy way to combine two layers into one using masking.

I don’t go over the exact specifications for masking – we will be covering this in the April Workshop. But I do explain each step, and the keyboard shortcuts are shown on-screen, so even people quite new to photoshop should be able to follow along.

Being able to merge two photos like this is incredibly powerful:

  • We can take group photos with a narrow depth of field and merge them together so each dog is in focus, rather than having to use a narrower aperture to try and get them all in focus.
  • We can fix issues when one dog’s expression isn’t ideal (as in this situation)
  • We can take parts of the background, copy and paste it, and mask it in using the same technique
  • We can bring in the lower or upper part of a frame from another photo and mask it in using the same technique. 

Being able to mask in two different photos in this way will mean you are easily able to fix and change a ton of accidental mistakes in your images, improve composition, potentially improve expression and more. Just remember: white = show that layer. Black = hide that layer. Some people say: “White reveals black conceals” but this was too much of a rhyme and I couldn’t ever remember which way was which. Make up your own memory trick like: “You can see the light (white) but you can’t see through the dark (black)”? Or I don’t know. Whatever makes sense to you.

The main thing behind the scenes is that both photos need to be more or less the same – you’ll see in this one that Loki had moved slightly and I had completely changed my leg position, but since all we needed was Loki’s head and that was in exactly the same position, it wasn’t a problem. 

For things like adding parts to the bottom or top of the image, or merging in backgrounds, the plane of focus needs to be the same (eg., the main photo can’t have focus on the person/dog, and the one you’re masking in have focus on the background). The more similar the two photos are, the easier your life will be!

Also my brain was a bit all over the place so apologies in advance for a couple of “squirrel” moments. 

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How to: Take & Edit Photos of Black Dogs

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Our Models How to: Take & Edit Photos of Black Dogs

Table of Contents

There seems to be this idea in people’s minds that taking photos of black dogs is the holy grail of photography. That they are somehow the most difficult coats to take photos of. In this how-to guide, I’m going to equip you with some tools to go confidently into your next photoshoot with a black dog, and begin to consider that they might actually be easier in some ways than, for example, coloured dogs.

It's All About Light

As with everything in photography, photographing black dogs is all about light. How much, where from, how strong, what temperature and so on. For some reason there seems to be this idea that while a “normal” dog can be photographed on overcast day, somehow the entire light of the entire sky won’t be enough to illuminate a black dog, so people try photographing them in the full sun.

All these dogs are so shiny. And I think the thing that gets me is that all this shine tends to make them look quite grey. People worry about lightening up black dogs cos they’ll turn grey, but then go and take photos of them in these conditions. Anyway.

If you’ve worked your way through ANY of the two non-editing courses (and I hope, if you’re here, that you have) you’ll know that harsh sunlight flatters NOBODY. Especially not black dogs. 

In my opinion, black dogs go insanely shiny in full sun. SO SHINY. Some people really like this shine, but I find it kind of ugly. Maybe you have to make up your own mind here but it’s certainly not my favourite thing. Not to mention all the crazy shadows and tiny catchlights which come from taking photos in the full sun. 

I would even go so far as to say that late afternoon light, when the temperature is warm, can also be problematic to black dogs when it is direct light, as their coats reflect colour so easily.

 

So much yellow in this coat. And it's technically correct because of the temperature of the light, but also... so yellow. And let's make a note of the side-light and come back to that, shall we?

So now that I’ve completely terrified you away from taking photos of black dogs in any kinds of lighting conditions, what can you do?

As With Every Dog: Get Enough Light

The main thing, is to get soft, even, flattering light on the face. Like with every dog in every photo we’re taking. 

Staying on the edge of the woods, in a clearing, or by a road will make sure plenty of light from the sky falls on the face. Check out the Locations lessons if you’re in the Learning Journey, under Creating > Locations. We want to avoid especially deep shadows, or situations where we need to really under-expose the dog so we don’t risk “clipping the blacks” or even just making the black dog so dark that trying to lighten him results in a lot of noise.

Balancing the Light

As with every dog and every photo we’re aiming to balance the light. This means (in general), highlights not blown out, BUT not underexposing so much that you can’t get detail back in the dog. This will be different for every camera, and varies for ISO. I know a friend’s camera will start to really show a lot of grain and loss of detail if she has to raise the shadows very much at ISO 320. Mine is pretty fine until it’s over ISO 1000. That being said, on photos like the one below, which is ISO 200, Loki is so underexposed that I had to raise the shadows a lot in order to simply SEE him. And this was extremely noisy. 

So there is a balance between how much you can/need to lighten the black dog, the ISO, and what your camera can handle.

Focus Issues & Black Dogs

One problem I’ve heard from members of the LC is that their camera struggles to focus on their black dog, when they have to underexpose the image due to backlight or similar.

We talked about this in the March Q&A.

What we have to remember is that our cameras generally look for areas of contrast, to know where to focus. So when we have a black dog in an underexposed situation, especially if their face, eyes, or lighting situation don’t really give them catchlights in their eyes, we just have a black blob in front of the camera. So it looks around and goes 🤷🏻‍♀️ and focuses somewhere. Because there’s nothing to say: “This is one part of the subject, and this is another part”, it’s just all dark. 

OR… it will find the shiny contrast of the dog’s nose, and focus there.

If this is happening, you have a few options:

  • Make sure you’re using a single-AF point and positioning it over the eye. We need to not really give the camera a lot of options as to where to focus. 
  • Find an area with more light on the dog’s face, or even use a reflector to bounce more light onto the dog’s face. We really need to create some contrast for the camera to find, particularly in the eyes. Try also getting the dog to raise their face slightly, to get more light reflecting from the sky.
  • Underexpose less. Yes, you may need to blow out the highlights. If the choice is between your dog not being in focus, and the highlights being slightly blown out… I know which is more important to me. 
  • If your camera is consistently focusing elsewhere even when there’s plenty of light on the dog, make sure you check out the focus lessons to try and diagnose the problem.

Backgrounds

Be very aware of your backgrounds with black dogs. We need to really help them stand out and be separated from their background, but also not be overwhelmed by their background (yes, it’s a balancing act!).

  • Putting your black dog against a dark tree stump/trunk/dark bush is going to make him blend in, particularly if there are ANY bright areas in the image (eg., bits of open sky or bright bokeh spots)
  • Putting your black dog against a very bright area might contrast him, but also he can get “overwhelmed” by the brightness, especially if it’s busy.

So, where can you put your black dog?

 Solid, mid-toned backgrounds work very well. That means they aren’t too bright, and they aren’t too dark. The editing tutorial of Šaj below is a good example of a “mid-toned” background.

Backlight also works pretty well IF it’s well-filtered and not overpowering. This is because the rim light can help the dog have a lot of separation from the background. They are glowing, we can easily see the shape of them, and this glowing light draws our eyes to them as well.

 

1. Using backlight & rimlight for a dramatic black dog in dark environment photo. 2. Low-contrast, mid-tone background. 3. An example of when Loki is in a “dark area” and would easily become overwhelmed by the light areas of the photo. 4. Low contrast mid-tone. 5. Mid-toned background. 6. Backlight. 7. Putting him in a dark hole (I could edit this, but getting separation would be difficult still, but I could use it for a dramatic deep/dark forest effect IF he didn’t look so cute.). 8. Getting overwhelmed by light in the background. 9. Low contrast, mid-toned background. Light directly behind to contrast his dark. 10. A kind of “tunnel of light” (soft light) behind him, to contrast his dark fur against. Eye is drawn to the light -> dark dog is in the light. 11. Dark dark dark, but fun as a dramatic effect and certain mood. 12. Backlight to help her stand out. 13. Mid-toned background. 14. Mid-toned background (old photo, I would turn down the bokeh a bit more now). 15. Backlight and monotone colours. 

Balancing Black & Grey

One of the other main issues people run into, is balancing black and grey. It’s very easy, when lightening up a black dog (especially when raising shadows!) to end up with a washed out grey dog!

And it is a balance. Without light, we can’t see the details of the dog. With too much lightening, we have a grey dog. The main thing to remember here, I think, is that our eyes make sense of things based on light AND dark. We can’t tell what is bigger or smaller, in or out, without areas of light and areas of shadow. 

What I’m saying is, don’t be afraid of blacks and shadows. Our dogs are black. Without blacks and shadows, we loose the contrast that TELLS us they’re black. One of the ways I make my black dogs look lighter, is to contour their face with darkness. By adding darkness to the shadow/inward parts of their face, it gives contrast compared to the light parts of their face – essentially, making the light parts look lighter! 

It’s like how if you’re editing a photo, and you have the background of Lightroom or Photoshop set to light grey or white. Your photo then probably seems really dark, right? Try setting the background to black. Now your photo looks really light!! Nothing has changed except the shade around the photo and the contrast for our eyes between the light and the dark. 

These two images are exactly the same. Notice how the one on the black background looks much lighter and has more detail in the surroundings than the white background image? 

So yes, we want to be able to see the details of a black dog. We also want to keep them a nice, rich black. Don’t be afraid of adding some contrast to their fur.

Contrast

One more note on contrast,  is that contrast can help our dog stand out, if there is no contrast in the rest of the image. Our eyes are drawn to contrast, and contrast is particularly visible when compared to areas of low contrast. So, by making sure our dogs are a rich black with plenty of contrast, and removing contrast from their surroundings (by raising the blacks, for example), this will also help them to stand out.

In this image, Loki is contrasted, he has pure black. All the surroundings are shades of grey. There are no other areas of contrast except on him. If the background was as contrasted as he is, he would blend into it much, much more.

Blue Dogs

Another thing to be conscious of is the fact that black dogs reflect colours – particularly blue. Blue dogs is one of the main issues I see with people editing black-coated dogs. 

You can sometimes use the space between the dog’s eyes as a place for the “Eye-Dropper tool” in Lightroom, to tell it that the area should be pure black. But, this is assuming the dog IS pure black. Many dogs have a lot of red/brown undertones in their coat, even if it’s VERY subtle. I’m looking at Loki’s fur in the sun right now (and he is about as black as black gets, apart from the edges of his ears) and there is definitely brown in his coat. Therefore, if I used the eyedropper on his black coat, it would probably shift things too much to blue (cancelling out the yellow) or to green (cancelling out the magenta). 

A better tool is to turn the saturation up to 100 and then adjust the white balance. Because the black coat is made up of brown (magenta/yellow), I will usually shift the white balance slightly to the warmer side of the spectrum as this is more likely to be “pure black”. I don’t worry about small areas of blue at the tip of the snout and between the ears. This is totally normal. 

1. SOOC. 2. Saturation turned up to 100. 3. White balance adjusted. 4. White balance turned all the way up. (And I would say, he’s probably still slightly too cool!)

You can also add a hue/saturation layer in PS and turn the saturation all the way up. This is a MUCH stronger effect than in Lightroom so be careful what you do with it (eg., don’t try and remove ALL the blue/yellow/colour. Remember, our black coats are not pure black!)

So, how can you get to a more “pure black” colour in editing? (Because it’s totally normal and natural and just the way light and colour works that they will end up blue when taking photos of them. Don’t try and fight it, just take the photos in RAW so you have complete control over adjusting the WB later)

  • Correct the white balance (this should solve the majority of problems).
  • (Possibly) lower the blue saturation somewhat in the HSL panel in LR.  Notice how tentative I am about this point? Because I do NOT want you to completely strip the colour from their coat!
  • Use a radial filter to lower saturation from specific points, OR (maybe even better) add yellow to those areas.
  • In Photoshop: Use a hue/saturation layer to lower saturation (be careful)
  • Or, use a colour balance layer to add yellow (and maybe magenta) particularly to “shadows”
  • Or, use a solid colour adjustment layer in yellow (the opposite of blue). Set the blend mode to “colour” or “hue”, and paint it over the blue areas. Lower the opacity, like a lot. 
  • If you are STILL having a lot of issues with blue, I would suggest your white balance is way too cool. 
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Workshop: Changing Colours (March 2021)

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Workshops Workshop: Changing Colours (March 2021)
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Chat transcript:

18:55:40 From Océanne Martel : I’m at work and I have no webcam but Hello guys! 🙂
18:55:59 From angelakamper : hello
18:57:52 From irenenyrud : Hello 🙂
18:58:05 From Emily Abrahams : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WcL1bcEKIsaK1Si60CV-L67hboqPKaRM/view?usp=sharing
18:59:57 From Alice Nentwig : Hello 🙂 My computer doesn’t have a microphone, so I’m participating via Chat 🙂
19:00:20 From leticia : hello everybody
19:05:55 From Olivia Moore : to give a certain context/feel to an image
19:06:07 From Myrthe de Bruijn : to make the picture more a ‘whole’
19:06:12 From Rosalind Phang : To complement each other
19:06:19 From leticia : i change colors to give harmony to the image
19:06:22 From Olivia Moore : or accentuate what is already there (like more orange-y in autumn rather than brown)
19:06:42 From Agnes : Green can be weird
19:07:00 From irenenyrud : 7
19:08:06 From irenenyrud : (Sorry, had a puppy walking over my keyboard here..)
19:08:19 From irenenyrud : Haha
19:15:29 From leticia : in all the scenes must be 2 colors like maximum?
19:16:40 From leticia : ok, thanks!!
19:21:42 From Olivia Moore : all good here! 😀
19:21:55 From Océanne Martel : All good here too :))
19:21:56 From Teresa : we just listen very carefully 😉
19:21:57 From Alice Nentwig : intensely listening
19:22:03 From leticia : yesss
19:22:59 From irenenyrud : All good here as well 🙂 The piraja puppy is just a bit crazy at the moment.
19:27:03 From Alice Nentwig : demonstrate please
19:33:23 From Rosalind Phang : hahahahahaha
19:33:25 From leticia : what happend XDDD
19:33:29 From irenenyrud : Hahahha
19:33:32 From Myrthe de Bruijn : hahhah oh dear
19:33:47 From Océanne Martel : HAHAH loki
19:34:10 From Olivia Moore : the gasp hahaha
19:34:12 From Rosalind Phang : Totally
19:34:21 From Océanne Martel : yesss the gasp was funny
19:34:31 From leticia : hahaha
19:35:11 From Olivia Moore : makes sense why i’ve never found it that successful using HSL in the past
19:37:20 From Olivia Moore : light weak orange/green
19:42:09 From Olivia Moore : oooh that’s very cool, i hadn’t been brave enough to consider other layer masks than curves/levels/hue/sat
19:44:52 From Olivia Moore : super awesome, love how targeted it is so it looks more natural
19:46:07 From fay : wowww I’ve never tried the selective color before ! I love it !
19:46:09 From Myrthe de Bruijn : What would you do with pictures that sort of feel like they’re not making sense colour wise? Where do you start? Or just throw away the image all together? 😉
19:46:38 From Myrthe de Bruijn : I can screen share an example
19:46:51 From Myrthe de Bruijn : says you need to stop the sharing haha
19:51:10 From Myrthe de Bruijn : Yeah I was thinking the same with the moss! Like the dog is a bit orange, the background somewhat desaturated brown and then there’s the moss not going along with it! So this really helps with the idea!!
19:51:35 From Olivia Moore : so if in an image it’s mostly green, but there’s an element of blue-y green would it be a little better to have it more cohesively green?
19:52:59 From Olivia Moore : oooh yes
19:53:23 From leticia : With the photo I’m using, put the color that i put, I still see the color of the weird dog, should I change the color of the dog first?
19:54:10 From leticia : ok
19:58:08 From Rosalind Phang : Yes! I learnt about that 🙂
19:58:15 From Rosalind Phang : I think from you
19:58:17 From Rosalind Phang : LOL
19:58:18 From Olivia Moore : that helps so much I was struggling with that this afternoon for the first time haha
19:58:30 From Olivia Moore : yes!
19:59:45 From leticia : would that be similar to the degraded effect?
20:00:01 From leticia : the curves
20:00:16 From leticia : ah ok
20:08:34 From Myrthe de Bruijn : Very helpful so far, thank you!
20:08:51 From leticia : with the color balance Would it be normal to leave the dog’s natural color, or would it be left with the new color balance?
20:10:17 From leticia : ok, prfect!
20:10:23 From leticia : thanks
20:11:19 From Olivia Moore : this is what i’ve been using bc i didn’t know any other tools haha
20:14:50 From Olivia Moore : not curves colour specific but when masking do you generally use a brush to mask the dog out?
20:16:24 From Olivia Moore : ok thanks!
20:16:57 From Teresa : color curves are weird haha
20:17:36 From Olivia Moore : it worked well on my pastel sunset beach reflection pic but less so in busier backgrounds
20:17:55 From Alice Nentwig : Color curves are too unpredictable to me…
20:19:01 From Olivia Moore : yes that was exactly how it was
20:19:19 From leticia : Is there a situation where it is better to use one method or another? or is it according to taste? I hardly ever use color curves
20:20:53 From leticia : ok! thanks!
20:25:12 From Teresa : this slider always confused me so much, thanks for the explanation
20:30:49 From leticia : sorry, you did in a new layer?
20:31:13 From leticia : ah ok!
20:34:30 From Teresa : 👍
20:38:48 From Olivia Moore : thank you for the workshop!
20:38:51 From Rosalind Phang : All godo
20:38:53 From Alice Nentwig : Thank you! That was extremely helpful!!
20:38:56 From Olivia Moore : it’s been very helpful
20:39:19 From Teresa : thank you so much!
20:39:21 From fay : this was sooooo helpful ! thank you so so much
20:39:40 From leticia : a lot to practise!!
20:39:52 From Agnes : I must watch this video again 😂 thank you it was very helpful
20:40:15 From Myrthe de Bruijn : Thank you so much for your time Emily and for letting me share my screen!
20:40:31 From Myrthe de Bruijn : Ooh I can show the progress maybe?
20:41:03 From leticia : woow
20:41:16 From Myrthe de Bruijn : thank you!
20:41:22 From Olivia Moore : i can
20:41:36 From leticia : What happens when you change the color several times and don’t know which one to decide on? XD, I never know which one might be correct, or which one looks better
20:42:52 From leticia : aaaaahh Good idea!!!
20:45:07 From Olivia Moore : haha thank you!
20:46:38 From Myrthe de Bruijn : I do tend to sometimes go a bit wild with the orange/yellow look with my pictures. Any advice on spotting it when it’s too orange and changing it? Just desaturating or adding some green?
20:48:58 From Myrthe de Bruijn : yeah that sounds logical! Especially the magenta part I think (in my case that is). Usually when I desaturate it feels a bit boring and grey, so perhaps it’s the magenta that’s in the way then!
20:49:38 From Myrthe de Bruijn : thank you so much!!
20:49:41 From irenenyrud : I can share what I’m working at 🙂
20:50:21 From leticia : I can share but my result is a little poop
20:50:27 From irenenyrud : I doesn’t work 🙁
20:50:35 From Olivia Moore : maybe privacy settings
20:50:35 From irenenyrud : Yup
20:50:45 From irenenyrud : Okay, I will 😀
20:51:58 From leticia : ok XDD
20:52:03 From leticia : hahahahaha
20:52:04 From Teresa : I also had a little play around that I could show, if you like
20:52:08 From fay : I feel like I went a bit too far with the colors haha
20:56:01 From fay : sure
20:58:05 From Rosalind Phang : Idea: flip the left side of the pic to the right part so it looks like the light is coming from the right behind her and then you can fkake backlight.
20:58:27 From Rosalind Phang : yes
20:59:02 From Rosalind Phang : Don’t forget the reflection

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How to: Create a “Deep Dark Forest” photo (old version)

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Style & Genres How to: Create a “Deep Dark Forest” photo (old version)

Table of Contents

Focus: Creating a mood or a “style” of photo. Elements which go into creating a mood. Finding a location. The photoshoot. Editing.

Program: Any, though I discuss LR & PS here

Difficulty: All – although obviously the end results for a newbie will look different to someone with more editing knowledge! Newbies can definitely still get out there and give this a go!

Recommended prior knowledge: changing camera settings

The Deep Dark Forest

One of my “signature” photo styles is the “deep dark forest”-type of photo. This tutorial is going to go through both how to set up this shot in-camera, and which elements you may wish to consider in editing.

Scene, negative space to look into, changing your perception of light, posed to the side
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85mm f/1.8 lens
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A greater sense of the scene & the dog's place within it, whether big or small.
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Behind the Lens

I cannot emphasis enough, that there is much more to creating this look (or style, if you will), than just turning everything dark and green. There are a number of elements at play here and they will determine how well the “mood” of the photo will work and very few of those elements are editing choices.

Have a look at the photos above, and any others you consider to be “deep dark forest”. How many stylistic choices can you name? I’m not just talking about editing choices, but everything from light, to location, elements of visual interest, the pose, the expression, and so on. When you’ve had a think and made your list, scroll down!

Deep Dark Elements

As I was putting this tutorial together, it forced me to really analyse what I had been putting unconsciously into this kind of photo as I was creating them. Some of the below are very much linked to my own style – you may decide you don’t want so many “things” in the scene (eg., ferns, or moss, or vines etc) and want a cleaner, simpler scene. Don’t take this advice as gospel, or a MUST DO list. But a guide of things you might want to consider. 

So, here we go, essential elements that I believe help to create the feeling of a “deep dark forest” photo.

  • Light
    • Despite how it looks, all these photos were taken with the dog in some kind of well-lit situation, either on the edge of the trees, or in a clearing of some kind. There was always a good amount of light on their faces, and the photo was correctly exposed (for highlights).
    • Not too much of it though! Photos with a lot of obvious light (eg., taken in dappled shade, in full sun, or even with backlight) won’t really have the “‘deep dark” mood
    • These photos work best on overcast days, without large gaps between the trees in the background
  • Location
    • Using elements of nature to position the dog in the scene, particularly moss and ferns, or fir/pine/evergreen-type trees
    • I feel like there needs to be a closeness/tightness/intimacy between the dog and the “nature” for this to work really well. To be amongst it, or on it, that he is a part of it and amongst it
    • Use of foreground/midground/background elements or layers
  • Pose and expression
    • Poses work best with some kind of intensity, though not always (Journey with his tail hanging down is quite a relaxed pose, but his gaze is at the camera), OR more of a “whimsical” vibe. If we consider that a feature of the DDF photos is the idea of the dog being amongst nature, in some ways the poses should look “natural”. A dog sitting square facing the camera looks like he’s been plonked there. A dog “relaxing” on a log is still unnatural of course, but doesn’t have the same feeling.
    • Expressions are serious. For a dark mood, we need a serious expression. 
    • There is a possibility for a more “whimsical” expression (such as the last 2 photos) which creates somewhat more of a fairytale mood.
    • Consider the personality/breed/age of the dog too. A golden retriever puppy who is perpetually happy may struggle to fit in this look, same as a fluffy white princess diva dog. 
  • Colour
    • Obviously, lots of deep, rich greens. This was usually already in-camera, as the photos were taken throughout spring and summer. 
    • I don’t tend to try and “fight” photos to give me different colours than the tones which are naturally (albeit subtly) already present. I don’t recommend trying to turn your rich autumn browns to green just for the hell of it. Wait a few months for the greens to be back. 
    • Usually monotone (black & white with green) or contrasting colours (red dog & green). Again, a golden retriever may not suit this kind of photo as the yellow/cream coat doesn’t “fit” with the greens. This isn’t to dissuade you from trying, But if it doesn’t “feel” right while you’re editing, it may be that the colours clash. Orange dogs should work (shift the green more toward cyan), liver brown should work in much the same way as red. “Blue” dogs will work if they become pure grey. 
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I knew when I saw this (unedited) photo that it wouldn't be a "deep dark forest" one. Why?
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This photo on the other hand, works very well as a bit of a moody, whimsical shot.
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It's green, and I added a lot of darkness around the edges, but it's not moody. Why not?
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This photo and the next one were taken in exactly the same place. Can you identify why I chose to edit the other one, and not this one?
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This photo is unedited (although I added a little bit of darkness around the outside, and corrected the WB). Do you think it would make a good "deep forest" photo? Why or why not?

How to Take The Photo

  1. Find your location as per the above considerations. Is there enough but not too much light? Is there some visual interest? Is the background “closed” or mostly closed? (eg., no big open spaces between trees). Tidy up the spot a bit. Make sure it isn’t too full of distractions.
  2. Position the dog amongst the scene, connected in some way to the natural elements. His face should point toward the light-source (sky). Consider his pose and how this may alter the story or scene you’re creating.
  3. Find a good angle for the photo getting down low (unless they are on an object or you’re doing a head/shoulders shot, in which case, getting down low enough), with a bit of a foreground layer, with no trees growing out of his head, no huge areas of sky behind. Consider the shape/curve of the elements in the location and how they may lead toward our dog, or away from our dog. 
  4. Consider your composition. Is he looking straight ahead, or to the side? Is he tall or short in the frame? Are there dark elements in the background if he looks one way? Would it be better to get him looking the other way? Are there tree trunks or objects blocking his view if he’s looking to the side? Do you have any natural frames, curves, or leading lines that you can use?
  5. Set your exposure for highlights. This may be light in the background, or the white part of the dog, or the dog himself, depending on the scene and your dog. 
  6. Take a burst of photos. Try another expression or looking direction. Change your angle. Change his pose. Check your photos before you leave. Is the mood of the photo already the mood you want to create? Editing aside, deep greens aside, is there something dark and intense about the photo? Or enchanted and whimsical? Is the background and the scene helping create a sense of mystery?

The Editing

As with all editing, there is no “recipe” for how to create this look, but there are some things you may wish to try, and some things to use to guide you.

  1. Work on the distractions in Lightroom. Set the white balance, find distractions, fix them. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, check out this workshop.
  2. Once the image is fairly “neutral” and “balanced”, open it in Photoshop. I open as a Smart Object.
  3. Darken the image around the dog. Consider where you want there to be an appearance of light falling – where would naturally be lit, and where would naturally be shadowed? If part of your dog needs to be shadowed, then darken it too! Don’t have a glowing bright dog in a dark forest, it doesn’t make sense. Create the sense of light, and therefore the sense of shadow. Shape the appearance of light falling on the dog’s face (as it should have been!).
  4. Darken it as much as you feel comfortable and before you begin to loose details in the blacks. Try pulling up the tone curve at the blacks end, so the blacks don’t get completely black. 
  5. Use one or two selective colour layers working on yellows. Raise cyan. Depending on its effect, you may also wish to try: lowering magenta (will make everything look fake very quickly so BE CAREFUL). Lowering yellows makes the green into a more green/grey – be careful, can look fake. Raising yellows can make the colours richer. Don’t worry if the saturation is out of control, you are looking for the right TONE here. We’ll fix saturation in a minute.
    1. Remember – greens DO have yellow tones. Making your greens “too green” can make them feel fake. Err on the side of “slightly more yellow than you think you actually want” and you’ll probably be about right. But then again, it’s all personal preference. I just know people can end up with some weird plastic-Ikea-tree-cyan-greens at this point. 
  6. Lower saturation as much as needed to strip out some of the colour and make the image more moody. Less colour = more moody. 
  7. Check for distractions. Are there bright areas that are drawing attention? Bright elements tend to clash with this dark mood so make sure they are moderate and not overly bright. 

Editing Tutorial

Here is an editing tutorial, working on the photo below. Remember, you might’t need to follow my exact steps – you may want 2 curves layers instead of 1. You might need to do more or less work on the greens, etc. It all depends on the photo you’re working with. Similarly, you can use many of these techniques to create other “deep dark” effects. It’s all about curves layers, darkening, and remembering where the light would naturally be hitting – even if there isn’t very much of it. 

In the tutorial below, I actually couldn’t “shape” the light as much as I sometimes might, because there was no real shaded side of Loki. Just remember that if the light wouldn’t be hitting a part of your dog, because it’s amongst the ferns, or emerging from some trees, or it’s just his face surrounded by ferns, it doesn’t make sense for those areas that should be in shadow to be bright.

Before
After

You can have a go at editing this photo too! The .TIF file acts like a raw file, but if for some reason you can’t edit .TIF files, there is also the high-res .jpeg file.

.TIF FILE
.JPEG File
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How to: Add a Snow Overlay in Photoshop

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Editing Tools & Techniques How to: Add a Snow Overlay in Photoshop

Sometimes out winter photos can appear a bit dreary and flat. There’s not a lot of colour on the trees, everything is white. Adding a bit of a snowfall can help provide some visual interest to our images and we can do this with Photoshop and a free brush or overlay.

Program: Photoshop

Difficulty: Easy/Medium

Recommended prior knowledge: installing brushes, creating new layers, masking.

When you are using a snow overlay or brush, just consider where the snow would naturally be falling. Some people will recommend that you mask the snow off of the entire dog, but personally I know that snow doesn’t avoid falling between you and the dog, so there would naturally be snow in front of your subject. You can mask out specific areas of snow (eg., over the eyes) and soften other areas, but try and keep it as natural as possible. 

 

Be careful that using a snow overlay doesn’t become overly distracting  and that it isn’t used as a way to “hide” a not-so-great photo.

Often when a photo is “missing something” because the dog is looking intensely or severely in a direction without there being anything to look at (as in the photo we use for this lesson), or the scene is kind of “empty”, we instinctively want to fill it with STUFF to make it make more sense or feel “fuller”.

First, you’re going to want to find and download some snow brushes. I used these ones  but a quick google search will turn up others. Once downloaded, find them on your computer and drag the file into photoshop. This should automatically install the brushes, and you’ll find them in the brush selection panel. 

Be aware that some sites may prohibit using their brushes for commercial purposes (eg., client shoots). 

Be aware that free brushes like the one linked above will be a small file size and get blurry and pixelated FAST. Etsy has a lot of great brushes you can buy pretty cheap, and then you’ll have a good variety for future. 

With your photo open in PS (I do this on my fully edited photos as the last step), create a new blank layer.

Go to the brushes section and have a look through the different brushes. Some will have more fat chunks of snow, some will look more like it’s falling down hard, some will be small and busy. You can play with some by making them large enough to cover most/all of your image and stamping it on the new layer.

Make sure your brush is white. Opacity 100%, Flow 100%.

If you don’t like the effect, just press cmd+z or ctrl+z on the keyboard to undo it, and try another one. Don’t worry if the snow covers some of the dog’s face or eyes right now, we’ll fix that in a minute.

If your snow didn’t cover the entire image, we can fix that now with the move tool. Using the handles at the edge of the snow layer, drag outward until it covers the whole picture. If your photo was smaller, you might not need this step so you can skip ahead.

When the overlay is big enough, press enter to confirm the size.

Now we need to mask some of the snow off his face, or other areas where we don’t want it. 

Press the mask button, change your brush back to a soft round brush with 10-15% flow, and make it black (because we need to hide parts of the layer beneath the black). Now brush it off the eyes. Don’t brush it off the whole dog as this looks weird and unnatural. Also brush it off of the foreground snow layer. 

You can turn down the opacity a bit to make the effect less strong as well. 

If you change your mind at any stage and want to bring some of the snow back, just change your brush colour to white, and paint it in to reveal it! This is the magic of using masks – our layers and data is never erased, so everything can be undone or changed at any stage!

 

And that’s it! You can experiment with which brush you’re using, how much snow you mask out, and how opaque you make it. As always, I would love to see your finished photos, so make sure you pop them into the Facebook group and/or share them on Instagram! 

Let me know if you have any questions at all in the comments below.

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Workshop: Evaluating Our Work, Developing Our Style

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Style & Genres Workshop: Evaluating Our Work, Developing Our Style

This workshop will focus on evaluating our work, discovering our strengths and challenges, and discussing what “style” means to us, and how we can begin to find our own style.

Some things to think about/write down/consider before the workshop:

  • Have ready a few of your most recent images – both your favourites and ones you’ve struggled with.
    • What do you like about your favourites? What was challenging/what aren’t you satisfied with?
    • Have a look at some older images. Has your “style” already changed? Why? How?
  • Do a bit of research of your favourite photographers – write down what they seem to do in their photos that you like. Really dig into what elements of the photos are speaking to you, not only with editing, but with lighting, posing, the mood of the photos, the expression, maybe something about their creativity, or location, or story. Notice as much as you can.
  • Consider your current ideas/perceptions around photography/pet photography. What makes a great photo? How important is editing? What has led you to pick up your camera – what do you want to put out into the world? What is stopping you from doing that right now?
Below, you can download the booklet we look through during the workshop.
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Unfortunately because I recorded via screen recording on my OTHER computer, rather than via the zoom meeting record function (I was trying to get higher quality), I didn’t think to save the chat. But I did read out a lot of people’s chat replies, so hopefully you get a sense of some of the answers people were suggesting, and some of the ideas we were coming up with.  I’ll get this all figured out one day.

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