Textures and masks in Photoshop

I've been doing some textures work that I might talk about in a future post. I could do a tutorial, but instead, I'll point you in the direction of a really great tutorial written by Joshua Johnson found on Design Shack. Check it out.

Youtube video on creating "Early Bird" Instagram effect

I always like watching how other people use Photoshop because there are so many different ways to achieve the same effect. In this tutorial, for example, I might have used curves more, not that it matters. If you decide to replicate the results, I highly recommend creating an action so you don't have to go through all those steps the next time you want to create the effect.

just a photo of Paris

Paris Café, 2012, Marc Olivier

Triangular Desire: A Portrait Posing Tip

In 2009, I did a "Composition 101" post that used album covers to demonstrate how strong diagonal lines impact photos. Today, I want to show how every hipster's favorite shape—the triangle—can create stunning portraits.  Look for the triangles in the gorgeous portraits below for inspiration on your next shoot:

Rodney Smith

Source: rodneysmith.com via Marc on Pinterest

Maria Callas (c) Cecil Beaton, 1957

Source: leclownlyrique.wordpress.com via Marc on Pinterest

Reese Witherspoon. Photography by Michael Thompson

Source: 24.media.tumblr.com via Marc on Pinterest

Jeanloup Sieff

Source: apm65.wordpress.com via Marc on Pinterest

Ida Wyman, Girl with Curlers, 1949

Source: ruralintelligence.com via Marc on Pinterest

“Butterfly Boy” (1949) by Jerome Liebling.

Source: designyoutrust.com via Marc on Pinterest

(I'm not sure who did this portrait of Bowie)

Source: howtobearetronaut.com via Marc on Pinterest

August Sander

Source: greatphotographers.wordpress.com via Marc on Pinterest

Loretta Lux

Source: google.com via Marc on Pinterest

Alberto Giacometti (by Irving Penn)Source: google.com via Marc on Pinterest

5 useful photo tutorials

I haven't felt too inspired to post since I've been busy working on other projects, so I'm going to share 5 of my favorite tutorials from Pinterest, in no particular order (NOTE: Clicking once gets you to the pin on my pinboard, from there, click again to see the actual tutorial):

1. Improve focus in photography by enabling Autofocus Point Display. Get instant feedback on where your camera focused. Sometimes it can be annoying to have a little red dot on screen indicating where you focused, but it can also be extremely helpful. Check out the tutorial by clicking through the link.

Source: texaschicksblogsandpics.com via Marc on Pinterest

2. Back button focus. I actually have three of these tutorials pinned on my tutorials board, but this one is a great place to start.

Source: zachandjody.com via Marc on Pinterest

3. Straighten and crop in Photoshop CS5. Did you know you that you can straighten and crop in a single click? This tutorial shows you the more traditional way (the way I've always done it) and then a little trick to speed things up.

Source: photoshopessentials.com via Marc on Pinterest

4. Selective sharpening in Photoshop. This Youtube video shows you how to use the selective sharpening tool. Sometimes when a tool sucks in an earlier version of Photoshop (like dodge and burn once did), we just never use it. Here is a case where in CS5 things got better.

Source: youtube.com via Marc on Pinterest

5. This is actually five in one, but I was particularly interested in the fifth of the "non-destructive photoshop techniques" in this tutorial. Check it out and see.

Source: psd.fanextra.com via Marc on Pinterest