I very much doubt you missed the recent announcement from Adobe about the new version of Photoshop coming in June. To recap the next version will be called Photoshop CC and comes with some nice new features.

Adobe has also changed the way we purchase Photoshop (along lots of its other software titles) to a subscription only system that it calls Creative Cloud. This seems to be sending shockwaves rippling around the internet and as is so often the case not everything you read is true.

As someone who’s used Creative Cloud for the past year I’m well placed to give my impressions of the experience, so here are my answers the top 5 questions (in particular order) I keep hearing.

Please take a deep breath and read the whole post before commenting as I will be actively moderating them.

I’m happy with current version of Photoshop. Will that keep working once Photoshop CC comes out?
If you’re happy with your current version of Photoshop and either don’t want or need the new features of Photoshop CC then absolutely nothing will change for you. In fact I’d suggest you stop reading this now and get back to the more enjoyable things in life.

I’ve been told I must be online in order for Photoshop CC to work.
My PC is permanently online but my laptop is rarely online. Photoshop is installed on both machines and both work in exactly the same way. In fact unless I told you I was a Creative Cloud user, you’d never know the difference.  Photoshop needs to running whilst you’re online once every 90 days otherwise it might stop.

I don’t like the idea of all my files being in the cloud.
Neither do I and neither do Adobe. The cloud bit of “Creative Cloud” is where you download the software from and where you can choose to save work too. I keep all my photo, files, videos etc firmly on my PC. However I do use my Creative Cloud space to share things with clients, friends and with you. Check out my Friday Freebies to see that in action.

At the end of my subscription I’ll be left with nothing
I suppose that’s true. If you stop subscribing you’ll be left with whatever you used before you started using Photoshop CC. I look at it like this. Every year I pay a small fortune for insurance on my photo gear and at the end of the year I get nothing in return… assuming I haven’t made a claim. At least with Photoshop you get something back whilst you’re subscribed.

If  I stop subscribing will I loose access to my files?
If they’re on your hard drive then they’re not going anywhere. If you’ve used a new feature of Photoshop CC such as Camera Raw as a smart object layer then it will not be editable in older versions of Photoshop but it’ll still be there and your file will still open. You can also open PSD files in Photoshop Elements and a dozen other software packages from companies other then Adobe.

Photoshop CC won’t be everyone’s cup of tea and that’s fine. If you want the latest and greatest offering from Adobe or like me you need Photoshop and Premiere Pro the Creative Cloud is the perfect fit.

One more thing. If it wasn’t for Adobe’s Creative Cloud then there would have been a lot less Friday Freebies on gavtrain over the past year… just saying

Card readers are cheap, convenient and utterly essential in my book. Still not convinced? Here are three great reasons to use one.

Speed
If you want to access your photos fast then a modern USB3 card reader can’t be beaten as long as you have a spare USB3 socket to hand (it’s usually blue coloured, if it helps identify it).

Even the more pedestrian USB2 readers will often out perform download speeds from many camera when pluging them directly in to your computer.

Convenience
Do you know where you put the little cable to hook up your camera to the PC? If the answer is yes then well done you. Like most people I have a habit of loosing cables on a regular basis espeically if it’s a really, EALLY important one. Generally speaking a card reader remains attached to your computer or can even be built in, which makes it much tougher to loose!

Power
Using you camera as a card reader will mean turning it on, which is fine as long as your batteries are charged. Murphy’s Law dictates that the day when you absolutely must get those photos off your camera the batteries are going to be flat and the charger  is no where to be found. No such problems exist with card readers as they draw thier power through the USB cable.

There are 100′s of different USB readers on the market. I’ve used the Lexar brand for many years and can highly recomend them. A word to the wise, if your buying one for a modern SD card make sure it’s compatble with your SDHC or SDXC format if that’s what you have.

Thanks to the awesome team at Welshot Imaging I’ll be in Manchester for one day only on Sunday 14 April 2013. More details about the day can be found here.

The day is going to be made extra special as I’ll be sharing the stage with Eric Renno, the founder of Tip Squirrel.com and John Arnold who’s a top photographer and a whizz at Photoshop too.

It’s going to be a full on day starting at 9am and running on to 6pm. With three Photoshop experts on hand you’re guaranteed to pick up a hatful of new tricks and tips to improve your photos in Photoshop, Lightroom and Elements. There’ll also be a chance to get involved in the day by undertaking a live photo challenge, so don’t forget to bring a camera.

I’m really excited about what we have planned for the day and if you want to come along you’ll need to act fast as places are limited. Full details can be found on the Welshot website.

Ice hockey is a sport I’ve never watched, let alone shot but in the past I’ve seen some amazing photos taken by my North American friends. I’ve also heard them say it’s one of the hardest sports to shoot due to its fast pace, low light and the need to shoot through Perspex.

I did a fair bit of research before the game which included getting a very basic idea of the rules of hockey. I concluded the rules were bendable but generally included a brawl at some point. More usefully I opted to shoot with my Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens which proved to the perfect choice for the night.

When it came to camera bodies I had a choice of Canon 60D or Canon 5D Mark 2. The 60D offered faster burst shooting and longer reach with my zoom but the 5D2 has the best performance at high ISO’s. In the end I took both but used the 5D2.

In some parts of the world such as North America, ice hockey (or just hockey as it is often called) is a national past time. Huge purpose built rinks which seat 1000’s of spectators are packed to the roof with screaming fans. Sadly ice hockey in the UK doesn’t enjoy even a fraction of that support.

Even though I was shooting a minor league match I did expect a bigger crowd, which probably numbered less then 100 people. Fortunately both teams took things very seriously and it was clearly a competitive match. 

When it came to shooting at the rink I had two options. Shoot through the grubby, scuffed up Perspex or go up to the balcony level and shoot over it. For the first period I took Kevin’s advice and shot from the balcony. From there I was pretty much guaranteed good photos but for me they lacked a certain drama that I wanted to capture.

For the second and third periods I opted to shoot rink side through the Plexiglas but finding a clear spot was impossible and although I could clean my side of the glass the rink side was covered in scuffs and marks. Eventually I found a bit that was marginally less damaged then the rest and shot from there. Even so shooting at an angle through the Plexiglas was pointless so I waited for the action to come my way.

If, like Kevin, I needed to record the match I’d recommended shooting over the barrier but when the action came my way you can’t beat being at rink side.

For settings I shot in manual mode as the lighting was constant and even, although there wasn’t much of it. After a bit of trial and error I settled on 1/640^th sec, f/2.8 at ISO 4000.

The Canon 5D mark 2 isn’t well known as a speedy focusing camera but sticking to the centre only focusing and continuous focusing with AI Servo it seemed to do surprisingly well all things considered.

By the end of the game I’d really got into the swing of ice hockey and I can see why people love watching the sport and why everyone told me it’s one of the hardest to photograph well.

For the record the final score was Bracknell 2, Invicta 5

Kevin had one last surprise for me… I got to hand out the runners up prize (a box of beers) to the losing team.

Let’s start by clearing up a few misconceptions. You don’t need to sharpen every photo and you don’t need to sharpen a whole photo the same amount. For example if you’ve taken a dreamy soft portrait you may want to sharpen just the eyes or you may want to sharpen nothing at all… It’s ultimately your choice.

When to sharpen
In this post I’m only looking at sharpening in Photoshop and I’m assuming you’re starting with a photo that’s basically in focus where it should be. Many people will make the fundamental mistake of sharpening just after they’ve applied their Photoshop effect, whatever that may be. WRONG!

For me sharpening is the very last thing you do moments before the image leaves your computer and goes to your printer, blog, Facebook page etc. In other words don’t sharpen your image and then resize it, always resize it first and then sharpen.

Unsharp Mask vs Smart Sharpen
For years I’ve used Unsharp Mask as my “go to” sharpen tool but no more. Photoshop has a raft of sharpening options but the Smart Sharpen filter has a couple of features that make it the best sharpening filter in Photoshop.

The Smart Sharpen Filter has three type options. “Gaussian Blur”" is in effect the same sharpening as Unsharp Mask. “Lens Blur” is my usual setting and “Motion Blur” try’s (and usually fails) to reduce blur from moving subjects.

To get the best from Smart Sharpen set the amount to 500% and the radius to around 20 and you’ll notice a bunch of halos around edges in the photo. Slowly reduce the radius until the halos are all but gone. That’s the radius set for that image. Finally, reduce the amount slider to get the sharpen effect you desire.

Obviously there’s no magic number that works for all images so be prepared to experiment a little.

Local Sharpening
Good as Smart Sharpening is you do have to remember that it’s a global effect which effects all the pixels in the image and whilst that’s usually exactly what you want there are times when it’s not. For example perhaps you have a shallow depth of field image, you don’t always want to sharpen the out of focus areas.

One way to do this is to make a duplicate layer of the image, sharpen the duplicate layer and use a layer mask to limit the sharpened layer to just the bits you wanted to sharpen.

However for users of Photoshop CS5 and CS6 the best way to do this is with the Sharpen Brush which had a radical overhaul in CS5 onwards and is the best sharpening tool in any part of Photoshop as long as “Protect Detail” is turned on in the tool option bar. It’s as simple to use as any brush in Photoshop, all you do is paint where you want to sharpen and the more you paint the sharper thing become. Gone to far? CTRL+Z will undo the last click and CTRL+ALT+Z will keep going back one histrory step at at time.

So remember…

• Only sharpen AFTER you resize your photo
• Use Smart Sharpen for Global Sharpening
• Paint with The Sharpen Brush for local sharpening

I’ve met a few photographers who have taken this advice a little too far and will doggedly stick to ISO 400 and below. I’ve also met photographers who have never, ever used ISO 800 and would faint at the thought of ISO 6400. 

If that sounds like you, read on. 

Try it for yourself
Don’t believe what you’ve been told by your mates, read on the internet or just assumed to be true. If you’ve not tried shooting at your camera’s highest ISO then make the effort to do just that and examine the results. Although the noise at top ISO setting is likely to be pretty ropey, taking the same shot one ISO stop less (half the ISO number) may well produce surprisingly good results. 

Shoot in RAW
Whilst shooting in RAW and editing in Photoshop’s Adobe Camera RAW will ignore the in camera reduce noise feature, the RAW processor in Photoshop is superb at handling noise and keeping it under control. Take a look at the Detail tab and crank up the luminance noise reduction for best results… as seen here.

Nail the exposure
There’s a train of thought that says you can use a lower ISO if you deliberately underexpose the image and pull it back in post processing. That’s great idea at lower ISO’s but it’s a bad idea at high ISO’s. Altering the exposure in Photoshop will always drag out noise from any photo and lightening shadows makes the problem even worse. The higher the ISO used, the more noise you’ll see. 

Bottom line: A perfectly exposed high ISO image will have less noise then a badly exposed, low ISO photo rescued in Photoshop

Go Mono
If all else fails and you have a shed load of noise in your photos then my secret tip is to dump the colour and switch to black and white. Back in the days of film, if you wanted high ISO you used mono film stock and despite all the leaps in technology we’ve made in the last 15 years mono images is still the best way to hide noise in plain sight.

Learn to love noise
It’s easy to get carried away with noise reduction to the point where you can loose sight of the bigger picture… quite literally.

Ask yourself the question. Would you prefer your photos to have noise or would you prefer them to be ruined buy either camera shake or over processing in Photoshop? Suddenly a bit of noise in your photos seems like a fair trade off.

Anyone who visits the museum will have almost certainly have met Peter Vallance, the owner and driving force behind Gatwick Aviation and it’s with immense sadness that I have to let you know that Peter passed away earlier this year. 

Those who met Peter, will remember him as one of life’s bigger characters. He was totally passionate about his aircraft but he was equally enthusiastic to share that passion with everyone else, including us photographers who have flocked to his museum over the past few years. 

Sadly the museum will be closed to the public for the time being but the trustees plan to reopen to the museum to public once again later this year. My one to one training sessions at Gatwick Aviation will continue as usual. 

Peter Vallance had become a good friend and will be sorely missed by all who’s lives he touched.

Peter Vallance

I love Image stabablised lenses but they can’t work miracles, so lets dispel a few myths.

IS lenses will stop blurred images
Image stabilisation will certainly reduce camera shake and often by a considerable amount, but let your shutter speed drop to low and your photo will still blur because of camera shake. Although image stabilisation will lower the shutter speed at which camera shake blur will happen, it can’t completely remove it.

Of course IS can do nothing to stop motion blur which is when your subject moves during the exposure.

My advice… I love IS lenses but beware of their limitations 

IS must be switched off when using a tripod
Generally speaking this is a good idea. Many IS system get a little confused by tripods which can lead to soft or blurred images, but as you can see in this video I leave my IS turned on when using a tripod.

So am I risking my photos being blurred? Well I’ve lost count of how many times people have pulled me up on it. The thing is many image stabablised lenses, including my Canon 24-105L, are what’s known as tripod aware which means the IS switches itself off when it’s not needed.

Whilst it’s fine to switch IS off on tripod aware lenses, you do run the risk of forgetting to switch it back on.

My advice… If you’re not sure if your IS lens is tripod aware then switch it off.

IS can replace a tripod
No image stabilisation system can completely replace a tripod but if I’m honest it can reduce the need for a tripod.

Tripods allow super long exposure, slow you down (which is good for composition) and give unrivaled sharpness to a photo.

My advice… You can’t beat a tripod but you don’t always need one. 

IS lenses are always sharper 
Well no, not always. As a general rule to avoid camera shake you want your shutter speed to be equal, or better still, double the lens focal length for a sharp shot. So when I’m hand holding a 200mm lens, I like my shutter speed to be 1/400th second or more.

If it  suddenly drops to 1/100^th sec, an IS lens will give a sharper shot every time. However what if you’re using the same 200mm  lens and your shutter speed is 1/2000^th second? In that case the advantage of IS lenses is the square root of nothing.

My advice… Non IS lenses are just as good as IS lenses at fast shutter speeds.

IS, VR, OS… they’re all the same
Well nearly. Some IS systems are better at stabilising then others. You’ll often see then rated as the number of stops improvement you’ll get. The best IS lenses offer around 4 stops but there’s more to it then that.

Many lenses will have more then one mode of stabilisation. For example you may get a general IS and a panning IS settings. The panning setting will reduce vertical shake only, which can be very handy for sports photographers.

My advice… More stops of IS means more money but buy the best you can afford.

1 Fill the frame
From landscape photographers to portrait photographers there’s one thing that all top photographers know and that’s to fill the frame with your subject. Now I’m not talking about simply zooming or cropping in closer, although that can be one solution. I’m talking realising what’s important to your photo as you’re looking through the viewfinder and pressing the shutter when the composition is exactly what you want
Top Tip: If it’s not part of the story, don’t have it in your photo.

2 Revisit a location/subject
Like all photographers I look at the work of my peers and wish I could shoot an image even half as good. From time to time I’ve even gone to the same location to try and recreate the photo. Sadly it’s never quite the same.

So how do top photographers get great photos? They return to the shot again and again and again until they get it right. Each time they learn a little more about where to shoot, when to photograph and what makes a good image. You may have to visit the same location a dozen times before you get the perfect light, or shoot at the same sporting venue many times to discover the best vantage points.
Top Tip: If at first you don’t succeed… go back and do it again

3 Specialise on a subject
Many photographers flit from one type of photography to another. One day they’re trying to master landscape photography the next they’re trying their hand at shooting weddings. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with mixing it up but try to specialise in one area more then any other.

The fact is top photographers tend to become well known for not for shooting one area of photography but for being the best at a small niche of one area in photography. For example great fashion photographers don’t make great wedding photographers. Motor sports photographers may be rubbish at shooting football.
Top Tip: You only need to be the best in one area of photography 

4 Learn from failure
All photographers have bad days and most of us have bad weeks too. Sometimes nothing goes your way. Maybe the weather doesn’t play ball or you accidentally shoot with the wrong exposure or perhaps you just run out of ideas.

When that happens, it’s natural to feel down hearted, frustrated and ready to throw in the towel. Top photographers will quickly get over the initial disappointment and the best photographers will embrace failure as all part of learning.

Going further, top photographer will expect to mess up and they’ll plan accordingly. Things like taking more then one photo, moving the view point, bracketing exposure and experimenting with lens choice are all part of the secret of success.
Top Tip: You’re the only one who will ever see your bad shots. 

5 Think about post processing whilst taking photos
Let’s be honest, every photographer aims to get the photo right in the camera most of the time. We all know that Photoshop can do amazing things to help to fix photos and enhance photos but top photographers are thinking about post processing whilst holding the camera.

Let’s be clear, they’ll not think “I’ll fix that in Photoshop” they’re thinking this might work best with a square crop or this scene would look better in black and white.

Being aware of what can be done in post processing and you’re skills at doing it, should be in your mind whenever the camera is in your hand.
Top Tip: Clicking the shutter is the start of the photo and rarely the end.

Whatever your photography passion it’s very easy to get stuck in a rut and for your photography to stagnate. You may be the best sports photographer on the planet but if you lose your creativity your work will suffer. Every now and then you need to move outside your comfort zone, try something that challenges your photography and in doing so you’ll give your creativity a boost

This year I’ve been outside my comfort zone on several occasions. For example earlier this year I visited Norway to teach Photoshop to a large group of Photographers who don’t speak English as their first language (I don’t speak Norwegian either). After my presentation there was a wonderful talk by a Norwegian photographer. Although I didn’t understand what he was saying, he showed this image (or something like it) and it really stuck a chord.

One of the areas of Photography I usually shy away from is street photography. It’s not that I don’t enjoy that kind of photo, far from it, it’s more the feeling of being self conscious photographing strangers. So last Sunday I took myself out of my comfort zone by visiting London’s Speakers corner. There were plenty of people to photograph but it was a challenge. Most people were too wrapped up in their heated debates to notice me taking photos but a few people were less happy to be photographed which is all part of the experience of course. You can see a few of the photos below

So what are you going to photograph that’s outside your comfort zone? The best advice I can give you is if and when you venture outside of your comfort zone go with a friend or a group of photographers. The more of you that share the experience the more fun it is. Alternatively you can do what I did and join a photographic workshop. This one was organised by Welshot Imaging.

Camera: Canon 60D

Lens: Canon 70-300mm IS

Aperture: f/5.6   ISO:800  Shutter Speed: Various