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Any arrangement of these elements is called a work space.

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Toolbar dialog is pretty much a drag and drop thing. Each time you remove a tool or change its position, the toolbar is updated in real time.

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The Layers palette is the Grand Central Station for managing layers.

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It allows you to customize your workspace. It allows you to open palettes and menus on your screen.

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The Adjustment Layers in Photoshop are a group of a super useful, non-destructive image editing tools that add color and tonal adjustments to your image without permanently changing its pixels.

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Saturation (or 'chroma') defines the intensity of a hue.

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olor balances the global adjustment of the intensities of the colors (typically red, green, and blue primary colors).

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The move tool allows you to move a selection or entire layer by dragging it with your mouse or using your keyboard arrows keys. The move tool is located at the top right of the Photoshop Toolbox.

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The zoom tool allows you to zoom in on the image to get a better idea of the actual pixel makeup of a section you are working on.

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The Hand tool is active, you can hold down the Alt key (Option key on the Mac) and click the image to zoom out, or hold down the Ctrl key (Command key on the Mac) and click to zoom in — without needing to press the spacebar like you would with the normal keyboard shortcut. Scroll All Windows.

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This is a very handy tool for selecting areas which have reasonably well-defined edges. Left-click at the starting point of your selection and simply move the mouse along the edge.

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one of the oldest selection tools in Photoshop. Unlike other selection tools that select pixels in an image based on shapes or by detecting object edges, the Magic Wand selects pixels based on tone and color.

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A bit like a cross between the Rectangular Marquee Tool and the standard Lasso Tool, both of which we looked at in previous tutorials.

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The selection expands outward and automatically finds and follows defined edges in the image. Select the Quick Selection tool . (If the tool isn't visible, hold down the Magic Wand tool .)

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The Marquee tool is the most basic of selection toolsand often the one most useful. This tool is used to draw selections based on geometric shapes.

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Go back, Undo

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Zoom in/out

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Paint Brush

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Eraser

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Brush Size

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To sample color

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New Duplicate Layer From Selection

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New Layer CUT From Selection

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While selecting to add to selection

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While selecting to remove from selection

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Deselects, Gets rid of marching ant

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To clean up selection, smooth edges

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Inverse Selection (Reverse what you selected)

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Merges a layer to what layer is below it

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The default healing tool in Photoshop and can be used to clone areas from an image and blend the pixels from the sampled area seamlessly with the target area.

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the default healing tool in Photoshop and can be used to clone areas from an image and blend the pixels from the sampled area seamlessly with the target area.

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patch tool is selected, it initially operates in a lasso selection mode that can be used to define the area to patch from or patch to.

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Content Aware Move will allow you to select pixels and move or extend them to another area of your image without the use of layers and masks.

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Use the Content-Aware Move tool to select and move a part of a picture. The image is recomposed, and the hole left behind is filled using matching elements from the picture. You do not need to carry out intensive edits involving layers and complex selections.

You can use the Content-Aware Move tool in two modes:

Use the Move mode to place objects in different locations (most effectively when the background remains similar).

Use the Extend mode to expand or contract objects such as hair, trees, or buildings. To best extend architectural objects, use photos shot on a parallel plane, rather than at an angle.

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Use the Content-Aware Move tool to select and move a part of a picture. The image is recomposed, and the hole left behind is filled using matching elements from the picture. You do not need to carry out intensive edits involving layers and complex selections.

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Red eye in portraits is caused when the flash source is used too close to the lens axis and the pupils of the eyeare wide open.

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The Dodge tool and the Burn tool lighten or darken areas of the image.

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The Dodge tool and the Burn tool lighten or darken areas of the image.

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The Sponge Tool saturates / desaturates image areas: In the Toolbox, select the Sponge Tool. Choose brush size and style*.

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Photoshop's clone stamp tool allows you to duplicate part of an image. The process involves setting a sampling point in the image which will be used as a reference to create a new cloned area.

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The Crop Tool cuts out a defined area deleting or hiding the rest of an image

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Tips For The Crop Tool in Photoshop CC 2014

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Tips and keyboard shortcuts for the Crop Tool in Photoshop CC 2014.

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The Art of Using Aspect Ratios in Digital Photography. ... As mentioned before aspect ratio deals with width and height. It basically describes how square (1:1) or wide (16:9) or image is. It's expressed as a figure.

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Cropping is the process of removing portions of a photo to create focus or strengthen the composition. Use the Crop tool to crop and straighten photos in Photoshop.

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Layer masks use values of gray to assign levels of transparency to specific portions of a layer or group of layers

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It's used to paint a blur effect. Each stroke made using the Blur Tool will lower the contrast between affected pixels, making them appear blurred.

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Sharpening enhances the definition of edges in an image. Whether your images come from a digital camera or a scanner, most images can benefit from sharpening.

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The Smudge tool simulates the effect you see when you drag a finger through wet paint. The tool picks up color where the stroke begins and pushes it in the direction you drag.

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The Gradient tool creates a gradual blend between multiple colors. You can choose from preset gradient fills or create your own.

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The Paint Bucket tool fills an area, that is similar in color value to the pixels you click. You can fill an area with the foreground color or a pattern. Choose a foreground color.

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The horizontal type tool adds text horizontally.

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The vertical type tool adds text vertically.

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The golden hour is a period shortly after sunrise or before sunset during which daylight is redder and softer than when the Sun is higher in the sky.

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A high dynamic range (HDR) technique used in imaging and photography to reproduce a greater dynamic range of luminosity than is possible with standard digital imaging or photographic techniques.

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A reduction of an image's brightness or saturation toward the periphery compared to the image center.

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An exposure meter that measures light reflected from only a small area of a subject or scene. Origin of spot meter.

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An integrated light meter that automatically measures the reflected light and determines the optimal exposure.

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Every modern DSLR has something called "Metering Mode", also known as "Camera Metering", "Exposure Metering" or simply "Metering". Knowing how metering works and what each of the metering modes does is important in photography, because it helps photographers control their exposure with minimum effort and take better pictures in unusual lighting situations. In this understanding metering modes article, I will explain what metering is, how it works and how you can use it for your digital photography.

When I got my first DSLR (Nikon D80), one of my frustrations was that some images would come out too bright or too dark. I had no idea how to fix it, until one day, when I learned about camera metering modes.

1) What is Metering?

Metering is how your camera determines what the correct shutter speed and aperture should be, depending on the amount of light that goes into the camera and the ISO. Back in the old days of photography, cameras were not equipped with a light "meter", which is a sensor that measures the amount and intensity of light. Photographers had to use hand-held light meters to determine the optimal exposure. Obviously, because the work was shot on film, they could not preview or see the results immediately, which is why they religiously relied on those light meters.

Today, every DSLR has an integrated light meter that automatically measures the reflected light and determines the optimal exposure. The most common metering modes in digital cameras today are:

1. Matrix Metering (Nikon), also known as Evaluative Metering (Canon)

2. Center-weighted Metering

3. Spot Metering

Some Canon EOS models also offer "Partial Metering", which is similar to Spot Metering, except the covered area is larger (approximately 8% of the viewfinder area near the center vs 3.5% in Spot Metering).

You can see the camera meter in action when you shoot in Manual Mode - look inside the viewfinder and you will see bars going left or right, with a zero in the middle, as illustrated below.

If you point your camera at a very bright area, the bars will go to "+" side, indicating that there is too much light for the current exposure settings. If you point your camera at a very dark area, the bars will go to the "-" side, indicating that there is not enough light. You would then need to increase or decrease your shutter speed to get to "0", which is the optimal exposure, according to your camera meter.

A camera meter is not only useful for just the Manual Mode - when you choose another mode such as Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority or Program Mode, the camera automatically adjusts the settings based on what it reads from the meter.

1.1) Problems with Metering

Camera meters work great when the scene is lit evenly. However, it gets problematic and challenging for light meters to determine the exposure, when there are objects with different light levels and intensities. For example, if you are taking a picture of the blue sky with no clouds or sun in the frame, the image will be correctly exposed, because there is just one light level to deal with. The job gets a little harder if you add a few clouds into the image - the meter now needs to evaluate the brightness of the clouds versus the brightness of the sky and try to determine the optimal exposure. As a result, the camera meter might brighten up the sky a little bit in order to properly expose the white clouds - otherwise, the clouds would look too white or "overexposed".

What would happen if you added a big mountain into the scene? Now the camera meter would see that there is a large object that is much darker (relative to the clouds and the sky), and it would try to come up with something in the middle, so that the mountain is properly exposed as well. By default, the camera meter looks at the light levels in the entire frame and tries to come up with an exposure that balances the bright and the dark areas of the image.

2) Matrix / Evaluative Metering

Matrix Metering or Evaluative Metering mode is the default metering mode on most DSLRs. It works similarly to the above example by dividing the entire frame into multiple "zones", which are then all analyzed on individual basis for light and dark tones. One of the key factors (in addition to color, distance, subjects, highlights, etc) that affects matrix metering, is where the camera focus point is set to. After reading information from all individual zones, the metering system looks at where you focused within the frame and marks it more important than all other zones. There are many other variables used in the equation, which differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. Nikon, for example, also compares image data to a database of thousands of pictures for exposure calculation.

You should use this mode for most of your photography, since it will generally do a pretty good job in determining the correct exposure. I leave my camera metering mode on matrix metering for most of my photography needs, including landscape and portrait photography.

3) Center-weighted Metering

Using the whole frame for determining the correct exposure is not always desirable. What if you are trying to take a headshot of a person with the sun behind? This is where center-weighted metering comes in handy. Center-weighted Metering evaluates the light in the middle of the frame and its surroundings and ignores the corners. Compared to Matrix Metering, Center-weighted Metering does not look at the focus point you select and only evaluates the middle area of the image.

Use this mode when you want the camera to prioritize the middle of the frame, which works great for close-up portraits and relatively large subjects that are in the middle of the frame. For example, if you were taking a headshot of a person with the sun behind him/her, then this mode would expose the face of the person correctly, even though everything else would probably get heavily overexposed.

4) Spot Metering

Spot Metering only evaluates the light around your focus point and ignores everything else. It evaluates a single zone/cell and calculates exposure based on that single area, nothing else. I personally use this mode a lot for my bird photography, because the birds mostly occupy a small area of the frame and I need to make sure that I expose them properly, whether the background is bright or dark. Because the light is evaluated where I place my focus point, I could get an accurate exposure on the bird even when the bird is in the corner of the frame. Also, if you were taking a picture of a person with the sun behind but they occupied a small part of the frame, it is best to use the spot metering mode instead. When your subjects do not take much of the space, using Matrix or Center-weighted metering modes would most likely result in a silhouette, if the subject was back-lit. Spot metering works great for back-lit subjects like that.

Another good example of using spot metering is when photographing the Moon. Because the moon would take up a small portion of the frame and the sky is completely dark around it, it is best to use Spot metering - that way, we are only looking at the light level coming from the moon and nothing else.

Some DSLRs like the Canon 1D/1Ds are capable of multi-spot metering, which basically allows choosing multiple spots to measure light and come up with an average value for a good exposure.

5) How to Change Camera Metering Mode

Unfortunately, this varies not only from manufacturer to manufacturer, but also from model to model. On the Nikon D5500, for example, it is done through the menu setting (Info button). On professional cameras such as the Nikon D810 and Nikon D5, there is a separate button on the top left dial for camera metering. Changing metering on Canon cameras also varies from model to model, but generally it is done through a key combination ("Set" button), camera menu or a dedicated metering button close to the top LCD.
If you have enjoyed this article, please check out our in-depth Level 1 Photography Basics Course, where we explore all the basics of photography in much more detail. It is an intensive, 5+ hour course with enough material to not only get you started today, but also to serve as a reference material in the future.

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Understanding Metering and Metering Modes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Every modern DSLR has something called "Metering Mode", also known as "Camera Metering", "Exposure Metering" or simply "Metering". Knowing how metering works and what each of the metering modes does is important in photography, because it helps photographers control their exposure with minimum effort and take better

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A camera metering mode. ... For example, if you are shooting a natural light portrait and have placed your subject in the center of the frame, the camera will determine the correct exposure for their face while placing a significantly lesser importance on the background.

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Every modern DSLR has something called "Metering Mode", also known as "Camera Metering", "Exposure Metering" or simply "Metering". Knowing how metering works and what each of the metering modes does is important in photography, because it helps photographers control their exposure with minimum effort and take better pictures in unusual lighting situations. In this understanding metering modes article, I will explain what metering is, how it works and how you can use it for your digital photography.

When I got my first DSLR (Nikon D80), one of my frustrations was that some images would come out too bright or too dark. I had no idea how to fix it, until one day, when I learned about camera metering modes.

1) What is Metering?

Metering is how your camera determines what the correct shutter speed and aperture should be, depending on the amount of light that goes into the camera and the ISO. Back in the old days of photography, cameras were not equipped with a light "meter", which is a sensor that measures the amount and intensity of light. Photographers had to use hand-held light meters to determine the optimal exposure. Obviously, because the work was shot on film, they could not preview or see the results immediately, which is why they religiously relied on those light meters.

Today, every DSLR has an integrated light meter that automatically measures the reflected light and determines the optimal exposure. The most common metering modes in digital cameras today are:

1. Matrix Metering (Nikon), also known as Evaluative Metering (Canon)

2. Center-weighted Metering

3. Spot Metering

Some Canon EOS models also offer "Partial Metering", which is similar to Spot Metering, except the covered area is larger (approximately 8% of the viewfinder area near the center vs 3.5% in Spot Metering).

You can see the camera meter in action when you shoot in Manual Mode - look inside the viewfinder and you will see bars going left or right, with a zero in the middle, as illustrated below.

If you point your camera at a very bright area, the bars will go to "+" side, indicating that there is too much light for the current exposure settings. If you point your camera at a very dark area, the bars will go to the "-" side, indicating that there is not enough light. You would then need to increase or decrease your shutter speed to get to "0", which is the optimal exposure, according to your camera meter.

A camera meter is not only useful for just the Manual Mode - when you choose another mode such as Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority or Program Mode, the camera automatically adjusts the settings based on what it reads from the meter.

1.1) Problems with Metering

Camera meters work great when the scene is lit evenly. However, it gets problematic and challenging for light meters to determine the exposure, when there are objects with different light levels and intensities. For example, if you are taking a picture of the blue sky with no clouds or sun in the frame, the image will be correctly exposed, because there is just one light level to deal with. The job gets a little harder if you add a few clouds into the image - the meter now needs to evaluate the brightness of the clouds versus the brightness of the sky and try to determine the optimal exposure. As a result, the camera meter might brighten up the sky a little bit in order to properly expose the white clouds - otherwise, the clouds would look too white or "overexposed".

What would happen if you added a big mountain into the scene? Now the camera meter would see that there is a large object that is much darker (relative to the clouds and the sky), and it would try to come up with something in the middle, so that the mountain is properly exposed as well. By default, the camera meter looks at the light levels in the entire frame and tries to come up with an exposure that balances the bright and the dark areas of the image.

2) Matrix / Evaluative Metering

Matrix Metering or Evaluative Metering mode is the default metering mode on most DSLRs. It works similarly to the above example by dividing the entire frame into multiple "zones", which are then all analyzed on individual basis for light and dark tones. One of the key factors (in addition to color, distance, subjects, highlights, etc) that affects matrix metering, is where the camera focus point is set to. After reading information from all individual zones, the metering system looks at where you focused within the frame and marks it more important than all other zones. There are many other variables used in the equation, which differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. Nikon, for example, also compares image data to a database of thousands of pictures for exposure calculation.

You should use this mode for most of your photography, since it will generally do a pretty good job in determining the correct exposure. I leave my camera metering mode on matrix metering for most of my photography needs, including landscape and portrait photography.

3) Center-weighted Metering

Using the whole frame for determining the correct exposure is not always desirable. What if you are trying to take a headshot of a person with the sun behind? This is where center-weighted metering comes in handy. Center-weighted Metering evaluates the light in the middle of the frame and its surroundings and ignores the corners. Compared to Matrix Metering, Center-weighted Metering does not look at the focus point you select and only evaluates the middle area of the image.

Use this mode when you want the camera to prioritize the middle of the frame, which works great for close-up portraits and relatively large subjects that are in the middle of the frame. For example, if you were taking a headshot of a person with the sun behind him/her, then this mode would expose the face of the person correctly, even though everything else would probably get heavily overexposed.

4) Spot Metering

Spot Metering only evaluates the light around your focus point and ignores everything else. It evaluates a single zone/cell and calculates exposure based on that single area, nothing else. I personally use this mode a lot for my bird photography, because the birds mostly occupy a small area of the frame and I need to make sure that I expose them properly, whether the background is bright or dark. Because the light is evaluated where I place my focus point, I could get an accurate exposure on the bird even when the bird is in the corner of the frame. Also, if you were taking a picture of a person with the sun behind but they occupied a small part of the frame, it is best to use the spot metering mode instead. When your subjects do not take much of the space, using Matrix or Center-weighted metering modes would most likely result in a silhouette, if the subject was back-lit. Spot metering works great for back-lit subjects like that.

Another good example of using spot metering is when photographing the Moon. Because the moon would take up a small portion of the frame and the sky is completely dark around it, it is best to use Spot metering - that way, we are only looking at the light level coming from the moon and nothing else.

Some DSLRs like the Canon 1D/1Ds are capable of multi-spot metering, which basically allows choosing multiple spots to measure light and come up with an average value for a good exposure.

5) How to Change Camera Metering Mode

Unfortunately, this varies not only from manufacturer to manufacturer, but also from model to model. On the Nikon D5500, for example, it is done through the menu setting (Info button). On professional cameras such as the Nikon D810 and Nikon D5, there is a separate button on the top left dial for camera metering. Changing metering on Canon cameras also varies from model to model, but generally it is done through a key combination ("Set" button), camera menu or a dedicated metering button close to the top LCD.
If you have enjoyed this article, please check out our in-depth Level 1 Photography Basics Course, where we explore all the basics of photography in much more detail. It is an intensive, 5+ hour course with enough material to not only get you started today, but also to serve as a reference material in the future.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Understanding Metering and Metering Modes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Every modern DSLR has something called "Metering Mode", also known as "Camera Metering", "Exposure Metering" or simply "Metering". Knowing how metering works and what each of the metering modes does is important in photography, because it helps photographers control their exposure with minimum effort and take better

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The default metering mode on most DSLRs. It works similarly to the above example by dividing the entire frame into multiple “zones”, which are then all analyzed on individual basis for light and dark tones

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Every modern DSLR has something called "Metering Mode", also known as "Camera Metering", "Exposure Metering" or simply "Metering". Knowing how metering works and what each of the metering modes does is important in photography, because it helps photographers control their exposure with minimum effort and take better pictures in unusual lighting situations. In this understanding metering modes article, I will explain what metering is, how it works and how you can use it for your digital photography.

When I got my first DSLR (Nikon D80), one of my frustrations was that some images would come out too bright or too dark. I had no idea how to fix it, until one day, when I learned about camera metering modes.

1) What is Metering?

Metering is how your camera determines what the correct shutter speed and aperture should be, depending on the amount of light that goes into the camera and the ISO. Back in the old days of photography, cameras were not equipped with a light "meter", which is a sensor that measures the amount and intensity of light. Photographers had to use hand-held light meters to determine the optimal exposure. Obviously, because the work was shot on film, they could not preview or see the results immediately, which is why they religiously relied on those light meters.

Today, every DSLR has an integrated light meter that automatically measures the reflected light and determines the optimal exposure. The most common metering modes in digital cameras today are:

1. Matrix Metering (Nikon), also known as Evaluative Metering (Canon)

2. Center-weighted Metering

3. Spot Metering

Some Canon EOS models also offer "Partial Metering", which is similar to Spot Metering, except the covered area is larger (approximately 8% of the viewfinder area near the center vs 3.5% in Spot Metering).

You can see the camera meter in action when you shoot in Manual Mode - look inside the viewfinder and you will see bars going left or right, with a zero in the middle, as illustrated below.

If you point your camera at a very bright area, the bars will go to "+" side, indicating that there is too much light for the current exposure settings. If you point your camera at a very dark area, the bars will go to the "-" side, indicating that there is not enough light. You would then need to increase or decrease your shutter speed to get to "0", which is the optimal exposure, according to your camera meter.

A camera meter is not only useful for just the Manual Mode - when you choose another mode such as Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority or Program Mode, the camera automatically adjusts the settings based on what it reads from the meter.

1.1) Problems with Metering

Camera meters work great when the scene is lit evenly. However, it gets problematic and challenging for light meters to determine the exposure, when there are objects with different light levels and intensities. For example, if you are taking a picture of the blue sky with no clouds or sun in the frame, the image will be correctly exposed, because there is just one light level to deal with. The job gets a little harder if you add a few clouds into the image - the meter now needs to evaluate the brightness of the clouds versus the brightness of the sky and try to determine the optimal exposure. As a result, the camera meter might brighten up the sky a little bit in order to properly expose the white clouds - otherwise, the clouds would look too white or "overexposed".

What would happen if you added a big mountain into the scene? Now the camera meter would see that there is a large object that is much darker (relative to the clouds and the sky), and it would try to come up with something in the middle, so that the mountain is properly exposed as well. By default, the camera meter looks at the light levels in the entire frame and tries to come up with an exposure that balances the bright and the dark areas of the image.

2) Matrix / Evaluative Metering

Matrix Metering or Evaluative Metering mode is the default metering mode on most DSLRs. It works similarly to the above example by dividing the entire frame into multiple "zones", which are then all analyzed on individual basis for light and dark tones. One of the key factors (in addition to color, distance, subjects, highlights, etc) that affects matrix metering, is where the camera focus point is set to. After reading information from all individual zones, the metering system looks at where you focused within the frame and marks it more important than all other zones. There are many other variables used in the equation, which differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. Nikon, for example, also compares image data to a database of thousands of pictures for exposure calculation.

You should use this mode for most of your photography, since it will generally do a pretty good job in determining the correct exposure. I leave my camera metering mode on matrix metering for most of my photography needs, including landscape and portrait photography.

3) Center-weighted Metering

Using the whole frame for determining the correct exposure is not always desirable. What if you are trying to take a headshot of a person with the sun behind? This is where center-weighted metering comes in handy. Center-weighted Metering evaluates the light in the middle of the frame and its surroundings and ignores the corners. Compared to Matrix Metering, Center-weighted Metering does not look at the focus point you select and only evaluates the middle area of the image.

Use this mode when you want the camera to prioritize the middle of the frame, which works great for close-up portraits and relatively large subjects that are in the middle of the frame. For example, if you were taking a headshot of a person with the sun behind him/her, then this mode would expose the face of the person correctly, even though everything else would probably get heavily overexposed.

4) Spot Metering

Spot Metering only evaluates the light around your focus point and ignores everything else. It evaluates a single zone/cell and calculates exposure based on that single area, nothing else. I personally use this mode a lot for my bird photography, because the birds mostly occupy a small area of the frame and I need to make sure that I expose them properly, whether the background is bright or dark. Because the light is evaluated where I place my focus point, I could get an accurate exposure on the bird even when the bird is in the corner of the frame. Also, if you were taking a picture of a person with the sun behind but they occupied a small part of the frame, it is best to use the spot metering mode instead. When your subjects do not take much of the space, using Matrix or Center-weighted metering modes would most likely result in a silhouette, if the subject was back-lit. Spot metering works great for back-lit subjects like that.

Another good example of using spot metering is when photographing the Moon. Because the moon would take up a small portion of the frame and the sky is completely dark around it, it is best to use Spot metering - that way, we are only looking at the light level coming from the moon and nothing else.

Some DSLRs like the Canon 1D/1Ds are capable of multi-spot metering, which basically allows choosing multiple spots to measure light and come up with an average value for a good exposure.

5) How to Change Camera Metering Mode

Unfortunately, this varies not only from manufacturer to manufacturer, but also from model to model. On the Nikon D5500, for example, it is done through the menu setting (Info button). On professional cameras such as the Nikon D810 and Nikon D5, there is a separate button on the top left dial for camera metering. Changing metering on Canon cameras also varies from model to model, but generally it is done through a key combination ("Set" button), camera menu or a dedicated metering button close to the top LCD.
If you have enjoyed this article, please check out our in-depth Level 1 Photography Basics Course, where we explore all the basics of photography in much more detail. It is an intensive, 5+ hour course with enough material to not only get you started today, but also to serve as a reference material in the future.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Understanding Metering and Metering Modes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Every modern DSLR has something called "Metering Mode", also known as "Camera Metering", "Exposure Metering" or simply "Metering". Knowing how metering works and what each of the metering modes does is important in photography, because it helps photographers control their exposure with minimum effort and take better

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This usually referred to a work of art that was divided into sections and hinged together but has come to be something that is widely used in photography and the art world.

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Here is a video tutorial on how to build diptychs in Adobe Lightroom. I was hit with a few emails asking about how this is done, and wanted to share some of my discoveries and workarounds. Man, I wish I had something like this years ago. Cumulatively I have wasted years doing this in Quark Continue Reading

posted in: Tutorials

Diptych, self-portrait with Devo. © Jay Watson Photography This week marked the final deadline to submit images to PDN's Faces. Above are the images I entered after finally getting around to building the master files from a series of self portraits I shot for my site last summer. They were submitted individually but seem to Continue Reading

posted in: Portraits

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Here is a video tutorial on how to build diptychs in Adobe Lightroom. I was hit with a few emails asking about how this is done, and wanted to share some of my discoveries and workarounds. Man, I wish I had something like this years ago.

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a common style used in modern commercial artwork. The photographs are usually arranged with a plain border between them. The work may consist of separate images that are variants on a theme, or may be one larger image split into three.

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What is a triptych? It's a type of three-fold art that is typically hinged together as carved panels side by side. The artistic works compliment each other with similar subjects or a relatable message. Many early triptychs started showing up in religious gathering places as altarpieces and could be folded up and easily transported.

Photographers have also grown to appreciate the triptych style, using it to arrange three of their images within one frame with clear borders between them, or by using a separate frame for each photo and mounting them on the wall next to each other. Triptych photography might involve taking one picture and splitting it into three different parts or shooting three separate photos that are related.

Triptych Photography

Here are 15 great examples and ideas of triptychs along with some links to some helpful resources for your efforts at creating beautiful and unique works of art with your photography.

Single image triptychs work well when a beautiful photo is cropped and spaced properly. It also looks good when you separate the image into three different frames and hang them on the wall proportionally.

A perfect subject for a series of three are portraits. Whether you use different portraits with a variety expressions or focus on one image and create an interesting composition.

Creating a before, during, after sequence of photos will help your triptych tell a better story.

Have a hobby or activity that you really love to do? Photograph topics that highlight the main aspects about your interest.

Nature, weather, and seasons provide great content to work with. A couple of ideas; shoot a tree in the summer, winter, and fall, a storm rolling into the area, or a field of flowers from three different perspectives.

You can also also mix up the design of your layout. Every picture doesn't need to be the same size or lined up horizontally.

Our 2017 photography challenge, which provides 52 subjects for you to photograph, includes making a triptych. Have fun trying something new or pushing yourself to do better in your pursuit of becoming a better photographer.

Resources

Nick Carver Photography - Fun With Triptych Photography
A a simple but interesting article from photographer Nick Carver and how he created a triptych with photos of clouds and trees.

Abstracted Reality - The Art of Creating a Triptych
This blog post focuses on the design of a triptych, rather than the technical process. It's perfect for refining your image compositions, the variety of layouts, and digging deep into your creative side so that your 3 photos are presented in the best way possible.

Canon Blogger - Triptych Photography 101
A basic 101 article that helps explain the sequence and definition of triptych photography.

DPS - Creating a Triptych in Lightroom
Adobe Lightroom is one of the most used post-processing programs out there, so it only makes sense to link to a tutorial on how to create a triptych with it.

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What is a triptych? It's a type of three-fold art that is typically hinged together as carved panels side by side. The artistic works compliment each other with similar subjects or a relatable message. Many early triptychs started showing up in religious gathering places as altarpieces and could be folded up and easily transported.