creative cloud – Gavtrain.com

Wall of sound background

Recently I needed a wall of speakers in my studio to make an amazing background for an upcoming music shoot. But after a bit of thought I realised there were three major problems with the idea. First, my studio space is a lot smaller then my imagination. Second, I don’t have easy access to the 25 – 30 speakers I would need for a person sized wall and third, what would I do with all those speakers after the shoot? However I do own one small PA amp (I use it during my camera club talks) and of course I have Photoshop.

So here it is, a wall of sound in my studio and all it took was a couple of photos plus an hour or two in Photoshop. The only thing missing is a musician but I’ll get to that in a later post. In the meantime, I’m sharing this background as a Friday Freebie.

If you create a photo using the Friday Freebie then let me (and everyone else) know by leaving the link in the comments below.

Usage rules
The images are copyright Gavin Hoey 2018. Use is limited to any personal but non-commercial purposes. Please share the Friday Freebie by linking back to this page. Do not redistribute the original images without my permission.

Download instructions
1. Click on the correct download link below (no sign up is needed)
https://adobe.ly/2AUg8td

Click the Download button
The download should start automatically
No support is provided with the Friday Freebies. If you need help Google or YouTube the question and you’ll almost certainly find the answer

Adobe Photography Jam Re-Watch

I love demoing photography and Photoshop to my fellow photographers, so when Adobe UK invited me to speak at their Photography Jam event in London, I jumped at the chance.

It was an amazing evening of photography education and inspiration. Adobe lined up some really great speakers and invited an audience of around 150 photographers. Despite it being a seriously hot room, the audience’s enthusiasm throughout the evening made the event come alive.

If you couldn’t be there Adobe UK have you covered with all of the talks and demos now available on re-watch including mine.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVvRU78hqUc&index=4&list=PL5JIQFdhtvjb-8SU3lZPYdyy6C_s-_IxQ[/youtube]

I was given about 20 minutes to talk about the new features of Photoshop CC2015.5 (and CC2015) that I actually use day to day. I also threw in a few general Photoshop tips along the way and would have loved to do more but time was not on my side.

You can see the rest of the talks and demos on the Adobe UK YouTube Playlist

Richard Curtis gave a great demo on the new features in Lightroom and Photoshop

Mike Watson passed on some of his Stock industry knowledge

Sophie Ebrard Talks about her amazing career journey
(NOTE: this link contains image that are NSFW – not safe for work viewing)

Bella Kotak shared some of here ethereal portrait work and how they are created.

My 2016 UK Photography Show Schedule

There’s just one week to go until The Photography Show opens its doors at the N.E.C. in Birmingham and this year my free demos are bigger and better then ever. Running from the 19th – 22nd March, it’s easily the UK’s biggest and busiest photography show with 30,000 amateur and professional photographers attending. It’s packed with a great mix of stands from the major photographic suppliers to the small independent retailers.

But this isn’t just another trade show, there’s also loads of things to see and do. There’s a constant stream of free demos and talks on various live stages and that’s on top of all the smaller demos on many of the booths dotted around the show.

I’ll be there for the whole four days giving various talks and demos on Photoshop, portrait lighting and photography. I’ll be dashing from demo to demo (see below) but if you’re coming along it would be great to meet you.

Saturday

11.15 am	PiXAPRO E91	Small Space, Big Impact Lighting
12.30 pm	Adobe Theatre	Photoshop CC Hidden Gems
3.15 pm	PiXAPRO E91	One Flash Lighting
4.30pm	Olympus E31	Losing A Mirror But Finding Focus

Sunday

11.30 am	TPS Live Stage	Fearless Flash Photography
12.45 pm	PiXAPRO E91	Small Space, Big Impact Lighting
2.00 pm	Adobe Theatre	Photoshop CC Hidden Gems
3.15 pm	PiXAPRO E91	One Flash Lighting
5.00 pm	TPS Behind the lens	Snap Happiness (Talk)

Monday

11.00 am	Adobe Theatre	Photoshop CC Hidden Gems
12.15 pm	PiXAPRO E91	Small Space, Big Impact Lighting
2.15 pm	PiXAPRO E91	One Flash Lighting
3.30 pm	Adobe Theatre	Photoshop CC for Photographers
5.30 pm	TPS Networking Event	Mega Mess Ups! (Talk)

Tuesday

11:00 am	Adobe theatre	Photoshop CC Hidden Gems
12.15 pm	PiXAPRO E91	Small Space, Big Impact Lighting
2.15 pm	PiXAPRO E91	One Flash Lighting
3.30 pm	Adobe Theatre	Photoshop CC for Photographers

All my demos are free and available on a first come first served basis. There’s no need to book but as the Adobe theatre in particular has limited seating I’d recommend getting there early!

Show tickets are free for professional photographers and the trade (if booked in advance) and £13.95 for enthusiasts (£18.00 on the door)

Bluebell 15 Minute Photo Challenge

I’m a sucker for bluebells, so when I got the chance to shoot some at a local wood I grabbed it. The bluebell season can be very short but there’s still something to be said for waiting for the right light and shooting at the right time of day. For me that meant late afternoon when the sun was low but not so low that it would make the woods very dark.

Bluebells, like many flowers, are a bit top heavy so as well as picking the right light I wanted to avoid shooting on a windy day. Luckily everything came together so I packed my camera and by 24-105mm lens and set off to do another 15 minute photo challenge.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b0trjfaRok[/youtube]

My Photography Show 2015 Schedule

There’s only two weeks to go until The Photography Show opens its doors at the N.E.C. in Birmingham and I can’t wait. Running from the 21^st – 24^th March, it’s the UK’s biggest and busiest photography show and it’s packed to the roof with major photographic suppliers and small independent retailers.

But this isn’t just another trade show, there’s also loads of things to see and do. There’s a constant stream of live demos and talks from some of the best photographers in the UK and beyond, there’s also hands on workshops and masterclasses.

I’ll be there for the whole four days giving various talks and demos on Photoshop, Lighting and Photography. If you’re coming along it would be great to meet you and the best place to find me is at one of my talks either in the Adobe theatre, the Guild of Photographers “speakers corner” or in the Behind the lens theatre.

Saturday

10.15 am	Adobe theatre	Video Editing In Photoshop
1.00 pm	Behind the lens	Take & Make Great Photos
2.30pm	Guild of Photographers J75	Fearless Flash Photography
3.30 pm	Adobe Theatre	Make your photos look amazing with Photoshop

Sunday

10.15am	Adobe theatre	Video Editing In Photoshop
2.30 pm	Guild of Photographers J75	Fearless Flash Photography
3.30 pm	Adobe Theatre	Make your photos look amazing with Photoshop

Monday

10.15 am	Adobe theatre	Make your photos look amazing with Photoshop
12.30 pm	Adobe theatre	Hidden gems in Photoshop for photographers
2.30 pm	Guild of Photographers J75	Fearless Flash Photography

Tuesday

11:00 pm	Adobe theatre	Make your photos look amazing with Photoshop
1.15 pm	Adobe theatre	Hidden gems in Photoshop for photographers
2 pm	Adobe theatre	Video Editing In Photoshop
3 pm	Guild of Photographers J75	Fearless Flash Photography

All my demos are free and available on a first come first served basis. There’s no need to book but as the Adobe theatre in particular has limited seating I’d recommend getting there early!

Show tickets are free for professional photographers and the trade (if booked in advance) and £13.95 for enthusiasts (£18.00 on the door)

Free Webinar This Thursday

If you’re around this Thursday 16th October 2014 at 7pm UK time, then I’d love it if you could join me for a one off exclusive webinar in association with Adobe UK.

The webinar is free but places are limited. All you need to do is register with this link:
https://ccppuk1.creativecloud.adobeevents.com

The title of my talk is “Editing your holiday snaps with Photoshop CC” and the title says it all. I’ll be going through some of the photos I’ve taken during 2014 and editing them in Photoshop CC. Along the way I’ll be passing on some tips and tricks as well as showing off a few of Photoshop’s smart new features.

I hope to see you there.

Pile of Prints Action – Friday Freebie

Here’s a lovely little Photoshop action which produces a very pleasing effect, all with one click of the mouse. Back in the day I recall the joy and frustration of getting a pile of prints back from the developers and sorting them into a pile of keepers and a big pile of photos fit only for the bin.

You can download the action here: Pile of prints – gavtrain

To use the action, start with the photo you wish to use already open in Photoshop and then play the action. The first thing it does is make a copy of your photo so the original will be untouched and safe. There’s a lot of things for Photoshop to do with this action so it may take a minute or two to run through. DO NOT switch to another image whilst running the action.

This action works best on landscape format images but will work on upright format photos too. As with most actions, the size of your image will effect the final effect and I’d suggest starting with a photo 3000 pixels (longest edge) or bigger.

The action will work with Photoshop CC, CS6, CS4, CS4, CS3 and should work with Photoshop Elements but I have yet to test that.

Usage rules
The action is copyright Gavin Hoey 2014. Use is limited to any personal, non-commercial purposes. Please share the Friday Freebie by linking back to this page. Do not redistribute the original action without my permission.

Download instructions
The direct link to download the actions is https://www.gavtrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Pile-of-prints-gavtrain.zip

No support is provided with the Friday Freebies. If you need help Google or YouTube the question and you’ll almost certainly find the answer 🙂

My Studio Texture

If you caught my post yesterday then you’ll know that I recently built a textured background in my studio. Well it seems there are quite a few people out there that would love to do the same but don’t have the space, time or need for a similar permanent structure. So for today’s Friday freebie I’m giving away my studio background… OK so I’m not giving away the real thing but I am sharing a photo of it

Full download instructions are below but you can also
Click Here To download my studio background.
There are a couple of ways you could use it. You could do exactly what it’s designed for and use it as a background for your studio shots. All you’d need to do is shoot on a clean background (light grey works best) and then simply extract the model and paste them in. I made an in depth video tutorial with Mark Wallace on how that’s done last year. If you missed it take a look here.

Of course you can also use the texture as… well, a texture! Simply paste it over your photo, use a spot of Free Transofrm to make it fit and change the layer blending mode. Multiply, Overlay and Hard Light (as used here) are three to try but don’t stop there.

As always, if you create a photo using the Friday Freebie then let me (and everyone else) know by leaving the link in the comments below.

Usage rules
The image is copyright Gavin Hoey 2014. Use is limited to any personal but non-commercial purposes. Please share the Friday Freebie by linking back to this page. Do not redistribute the original image without my permission.

Download instructions
Click the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Mmmm3K1utNYW53T3RUbDk0LVE/view?usp=sharing
1. Click the Download button

2. The download should start automatically

Wet Paint Border

The Friday Freebies have had a bit of a break but by popular request, they’re back! So to kick things off here’s a free border that I made by pouring paint to form a photo frame.

Full download instructions are below but you can also
Click Here To Wet Paint Border

I do like getting in a mess with my creations but this one was particularly bad. I created it by dribbling paint from a pot onto white paper in a rough rectangular shape.

To make life for you a little easier I’ve already made the cut out hole, so all you need to do is drop your photo on a layer below the border and resize it to fit.

Don’t like the colour of the border? No problem. I’ve added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer that only effects the border. Double click it and alter the Hue and Saturation values to create all these and lots more too. You can also adjust the Lightness value but it will have to be in the plus range only.

As always, if you create a photo using the Friday Freebie then let me (and everyone else) know by leaving the link in the comments below.

Download instructions

Click the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Mmmm3K1utNdjB1YjRidjZocE0/view?usp=sharing
1. Click the Download button

2. The download should start automatically

Christmas PSD Template

With Christmas rapidly approaching this weeks Friday Freebie couldn’t come at a better time. It’s perfect if you need to make a last minute Christmas card or simply want to show off one of your festive photos.

Full download instructions are below but you can also
Click Here To Christmas PSD template

If you were one of the lucky few who were in the right place at the right time, then you will recognise this template as the one I photographed whilst testing the new live broadcast facilities in my studio. If you missed it never fear, details of my live streaming events in 2014 are coming soon.

I finished the template using the new Perfect Photo Suite 8 from Onone. The colour and texture were added in one click using the “Nicely Toasted” preset.

With several layers and lots of fine textured detail, this weeks Friday Freebie PSD template comes in at around 76mb. If you’re not on a fast internet connection if might take a few minutes to download.

As always, if you create a photo using the Friday Freebie then let me (and everyone else) know by leaving the link in the comments below.

Usage rules
The image is copyright Gavin Hoey 2013. Use is limited to any personal but non-commercial purposes. Please share the Friday Freebie by linking back to this page. Do not redistribute the original image without my permission.