Tutorials

As I often get questions on my work, I've designed some tutorials that should be useful to you. You can use them for your personnal, but please, do not reproduce them without my authorization. Thank you very much!

I also strongly suggest to have a look at some of my interviews which might help you too.

• Choosing a digital camera for portrait photography (PNG)
• Detailed portrait tutorial (PNG) is a detailed tutorial on how I work. Covers:
  • Preparing a session
  • Lighting
  • Background
  • Postprocessing
• Basic portrait photography (PDF) is a quick guide on portrait photography
• Understanding exposure (PDF) is a guide to exposure, and a must read if you want to know how your camera works. Covers film and digital photography.
• Skin softening (PNG) is an alternative technique to softening skin with the Dust and Scratches filter. Gives better result than Gaussian blur in my humble opinion.
• Train your eye (JPEG) is a quick guide on analysing an image
• A guide to composition (PNG) will help you compose an image
• Giving mood to a shot (JPG)
• Using Camera RAW with Photoshop CS 3 (JPEG)
• Top 5 mistakes when taking photos (GIF)
• Being a freelance graphic designer (PDF)
• Creating Digital Frames and Borders and Advanced Skin Softening, articles commissioned by famous website photo.net (July/August 2008)

Finally, a common question is how I do those frames around my images?

First, I don't use any plugin: I consider that borders, like pictures, should be designed by yourself using your own tools - they're part of your own creation. Mine are painted with Photoshop brushes made of pictures of old walls, skotch tape, etc... It's pretty easy to create your own. Just carry a camera with you and keep looking around at the walls. You'll notice interesting patterns, for instance, in broken windows. Shoot them, then convert them to black and white, ensuring that the background is white and the "grunge brush" element is black. Define a brush. And paint with it.

Français

Les tutoriaux de cette page sont en anglais, sauf celui-ci :

• Un guide pour la photographie de portraits

Links to other websites (photographers, illustrations, etc).