Resource Library

When it comes to photography, there is an abundance of information out there from a variety of sources covering a range of topics such camera techniques, equipment or post processing. What you want or need to learn will very much be influenced by your respective interests and how much time and financial commitment you intend to make. The intention of this section is provide an insight into my personal approach to photography and some of the knowledge and experience I have gained in my pursuit of my work. It should not be regarded as the definitive word on any of the subject matter listed as more often there are many ways to achieve the same outcome but hopefully it will provide you with some information that you may not know already or reaffirm what you have learned previously. Any cameras, associated gear or software referred to in these guides are not subject to any sponsorship by any company or individual and are merely referenced based on my own use from personal purchases. All the guides are free and can be read online or downloaded and kept for future reference so I hope they will be of some benefit to you.

  • This guide offers a structured approach to managing images from import through to final storage when utilising Adobe’s Lightroom, Bridge and Photoshop. The guide provides details about creating a hierarchal system on your storage device and then using a combination of Collection Sets and Smart Collections within Lightroom to track and progress images through various stages of a processing workflow. Whilst this guide covers how I have set up my workflow, the process is adaptable and can be used in its entirety or customised to suit your own individual needs.

  • With the many uses and functionality of Photoshop, navigating through the various menus when editing images can be a laborious task. This short guide will take you through a few short steps which will allow you to customise Photoshop’s menus to only show the menu options you want for your editing workflow. Learn how to colour code your menu items to enable the more common items to be identified and selected more quickly.

  • There are a few steps I take in preparing an image for editing in Photoshop. One of these steps is to review the image for any signs of chromatic aberration and look to remove this as part of my initial workflow. There are various methods that can be utilised when working within Adobe Lightroom, Camera Raw or Photoshop.

  • Long exposure images can be created either by taking a single image exposed for a defined period of time or by merging a number of exposed images together. A key step when using combined images is to ensure they are aligned and when required, blended together to produce the final result.

  • The conversion of an image from colour to black and white is normally undertaken in the early stages of my workflow and always prior to the more precise and detailed processing of an image.  This short guide discusses 11 methods to convert to black and white utilising Photoshop with the advantages and limitations to each of these methods highlighted.

  • Part of my processing workflow involves dodging and burning and there are various ways in which this can be done. Some of these methods involves a sequence of steps in creating dodge and burn layers. The use of Actions within Photoshop is a feature that lets you record a set of manual series of steps which then can be used again when the same steps need to be repeated. This short guide details how to create a set of Dodging and Burning actions.

  • How an image is presented and shared is very much a personal choice. One approach to this is to digitally frame images for sharing online. The framing can be straight forward involving a few steps or it can be a bit more detailed involving a number of steps. This short guide details 14 methods to digitally frame images using Photoshop.