My Photoshop | The Tone | eBook

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir | The Tone

Please READ This before buying my e-Book…

1. This e-Book is all about TONING, color tone, how to tone those image to get warm kind of feeling. A colors that can add mood to your image, something like Old School or Retro looking colors, vintage, classic.
2. You must have some basic Photoshop editing skills, this is not for total beginner, but I cannot stop beginners from buying it, I’m just afraid that a new person with limited photoshop skills will find it a bit difficult to understand.
3. About the editing on my e-Book, first you all must do your own basic editing like adjusting some brightness and contrast before proceed with the editing or toning. I will not show you how to do the basic editing.
4. This e-Book will not teach you about Texture, I mean this e-Book won’t show you how to do texturing editing. This is all about toning. This e-book will not teach you about Eye Sharpening or “Catchlight Enhancement”, that will be on my next e-book, insyaAllah.
5. About the figure that was given on my e-Book, it is just as a starting point to guide you through. Different camera manufacture or different picture file size will have an effect on your figure, so with the starting point figure that I  give to you, feel free to adjust it accordingly to your liking.
6. There are four ways that I will share with you in my e-book about getting your pictures tone, you are free to mix and match like I always do. I mean with mix and match is this, you can do one style of editing and finish with it or you can continue editing with your edited photos with a different style. That’s how you get different tone, mix and match, be creative, I can’t teach you to be creative, I can only show you the way.
7. My style of editing will not bring a good result for every kind of a picture, some pictures will look great and some pictures will not. So try to experiment yourself, what I can share with you is this, this kind of editing will produce good result with natural light, especially pictures taken during early morning or late afternoon where the lighting is a bit warm. It will also work great for a portraiture on an overcast day. The colors on your subject, like for an example a cloth will also effect the output of your tone.
8. This editing is only for an enhancement, so please get your pictures right on the camera, I mean you must start with a good picture to  begin with.
9. My e-Book is written in Plain ENGLISH.
10. This e-Book is 27 pages only in PDF format.
11. My e-Book file size will be 8.7 MB, so it will take times to upload and download.
12. If you need more information just Flickr Mail me or eMail me at wwalchemist@yahoo.com

My e-Book will be priced at Ringgit Malaysia RM50.00 or USD20 only. It will be in PDF format.

PAYMENT :

1. At the moment I will only accept payment through Maybank, you can bank in to my Wife Maybank Account Rujiah Binti Muhin.
2. Maybank Account :  1 6 4 0 1 7 0 9 4 7 6 4 Rujiah Binti Muhin ( My Wife ).
3. You can also pay with PAYPAL.
4. After you have made the payment please alert me with SMS through my Hp No: – +(6) 012  2 8 1 2 7 5 3
5. Please also email me with your detail transaction about your payment. My email wazariwazir@yahoo.com or you can Flickr Mail me.
6. Since I’m not available all the time online, I will try my very best to send you the files in PDF format within 24 hours of payment.
7. If you have any doubt, feel free to ask, here on my Blog…

UNIKL MIAT | Portraiture Workshops

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

This is my second Portraiture and Photoshop Workshops held inside University campus, my first Workshops in the University is at International Islamic University Malaysia Gombak, thanks to Mastermind the person who responsible for inviting me to conduct the workshops. This time the workshops taking place in the University Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology at Dengkil Selangor. A million Thanks to Mr Faizal Sharif, Lecturer and advisor for Click and Snap Club of UNIKL for inviting me to do a workshops there for his student.

It is an honor for me to share my experience with a group of talented young people there. There were more than thirty student participating in my workshops. Thanks again to Mr Faizal Sharif introducing me to his student, actually I did not have to introduce myself further to the student before I start the workshops because Mr Faizal already introduce myself perfectly. Actually I wasn’t good at public speaking and for me to speak in front of large group of people make me a little bit nervous but after few minutes getting to know some of them, I can get into the mood and thanks again to Mr Faizal for assisting me.

We start our workshop with a brief explanation abut how to get a good portrait and I tell them, the best way is to keep it simple, in portrait, the most important thing is the person so please do try to avoid any unwanted distraction in the background unless you are doing some environmental portraiture which you need to get the background also in order to complete the story, to complement the portrait so people who see your picture will know a bit about the person we photograph, like for an example in the photo above, we can call that an environmental portraiture, the person in the picture have something to do with the plane, he is a student of an Aviation technology, people can relate the portrait and the background.

Some portrait we can arrange and some of them we can’t and when that thing happen we need to position ourself in order to get a good picture of that person, usually this kind of thing happen in photojournalism. The other thing that we need to pay attention is the light, where the light is coming, I’m talking about natural light here, if we use flash, than it is different story but still you need to know how to play with the flash otherwise your picture will look flat. After less than an hour of explanation about how to get a good portrait shot we have some light snack and after that, portraiture session in the hangar with the plane.

The hangar was so big and there were few aircraft there and among them is a Skyhawk, our time was very limited simply because we want to concentrate more on editing and with only just one hour to shoot is not enough because there were too many participants but I hope they get the idea and will continue shooting on their own at their own free time. The light from outside shining through the hangar was quite bright so we do not need a flash for our photo shoot, just natural light as our light source. Actually I do have  a lot of ideas for the photo shoot but because of time constraint I hope we can have another opportunity to shoot there once again.

After we got a couple of shot we get back to the hall, a big hall actually to do our editing, I was told by Mr Faizal that most of the student already have some basic about using Photoshop so he told me not to focus too much on basic tools. I start my editing process in RAW, like the way I always does, and I know most of them have never shot RAW or maybe this is the first time they heard about it and some of them have never open a “Bridge” before, “Bridge” has many useful feature actually beside acting like a browser it can also do some batch processing, renaming files, add metadata and keywords to our photos and it make our job a little bit easier in term of navigating our photos for editing. I wish I’ve more times explaining a little bit about “Bridge”.

Back to he editing, I told the student that ACR or Adobe Camera RAW is something just like Adobe Lightroom but it has less feature compared to Lightroombut still for simple basic editing, Lightroom will do unless we want to do some heavy processing with multiple layers than we need Photoshop. After ACR, I just across to Photoshop telling them how to boost color saturation using “Adjustment Layers”. We can do the editing directly to the layers itself but by using “Adjustment Layers” we have more flexibility in term of manipulating them, “Adjustment Layers” for me is “Non Destructive” editing, we can always go back and forth to our editing by using “Layer mask” that automatically created if we choose to use “Adjustment Layers”.

I spent more time with them explaining the important of “Masking” and it is The Key to many possibilities. If we can Master the “Layer Mask” our job will become easier and we can be more creative with our editing. Basically “Masking” is the concept of hiding something that we don’t want to get affected by adjustment that we make, for an example let’s say we have two layers, on the bottom one is colors pictures and on the second or top layers is the same picture but we turn it into Black and White. So we have two layers, one with color and the other one is in Black and White, by putting a “Masking” on the Black and White layer with a “Black Mask” we hide the Back and White and we can only see the color picture below but is we paint the “Black Mask” with a white color using brush, it will reveal some part of the Black and White itself, if we just painted a small part of it. Basically that’s it, the rest we need to open our mind and keep on exploring and think outside of the box. For me alone it took more than few month to really grasp what The Masking and Layer Mask is.

I hope all the student can explore on their own and about the editing just like photography you need Passion in order to excel. Each and everyday there will be newcomer in the photography arena, we need to get extra knowledge and skills to be different but not for the sake of being different but for personal satisfaction, at least you know that you have something that nobody have and be proud with our artwork.

To all the participant and student of UNIKL MIAT, I wish you all the best with your studies and even though Photography is just a hobby to some of you, try to make it interesting and be proud of your work. To Mr Faizal, A million thanks to you for giving me the opportunity to conduct a small workshops for the Club and thank you also for picking me up from Putrajaya and back to Putrajaya again even though it was a little bit longer on our journey back to Putrajaya, at least we can share some thought during the ride. Once again I wish all the best to You Mr Faizal, your Photography Club and student of UNIKL Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology, I know you all can really Flying High…

HaiQal | The Untitled

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

Enough rant about my experience while attending “Compulsory Adobe Photoshop Course” organize by my department, that’s what you get when you attend a course for free, you are not given a choice, just live with it, but I’m sad because it is tax payers money, the course suppose to make our job easier, faster and more efficient with the knowledge that we gain but if we can’t use the knowledge on our day to day duty, what’s the point of the course?

Back to the picture of my son HaiQal above, in case you were to ask, how do I get the colors. As usual I develop my picture in ACR Adobe Camera RAW simply because I shoot in RAW, I boost the temperature somewhere between 7000 to 8000K, I know it is high temperature but later on I decrease the Vibrance and just push a little bit saturation, all done in ACR. After finishing some basic editing in ACR, later on I do my final adjustment in photoshop, this time I play around with Channel, I just give you some hints only, how to play with Channel, go and figure it out, that’s the only way to learn, you may make some mistake or get some unwanted result but  you will learn along the way. Don’t be afraid to make some mistake and don’t be afraid to try something new.

I like to keep on experimenting, I don’t use any plug-ins, preset or any photoshop action, I did everything from scratch but I do suggest to any of you out there who make bulk editing like wedding for example to use plug-ins, it will increase your productivity and will save you great times, but to get creative and if you have more times to play around and nobody waiting for your art work then you can get creative with photoshop, trust me the excitement of doing the things on your own rather than using plug-ins is different because you know what you are doing rather than let the “Software” do the thinking. Taking a picture yourself is not the same as giving order to other photographers to get the picture. Same like if you pay someone to get a picture on the other part of the world, yes you get the picture but you don’t get the experience of being there. But sometimes we need to work smart rather than work hard, you be your own judge and you draw your own line…

Expression | The UnTitled

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

I’ve been very busy lately, I’m sorry to keep my Blog idle, just came back from Kota Kinabalu, actually I just have two days in Kuala Lumpur after return from My Photoshop Workshops in Kota Kinabalu on Monday 3rd of August before flying back to Kota Kinabalu again on Thursday  6th for another Photoshop Course organize by my department, it was a compulsory course for the staff in order to expand their knowledge about image editing. About the photo about, it got nothing to do with my new knowledge that I get from “The Government Compulsory Basic Photoshop Course”. I do the editing as usual, with my own style.

What they teach us during the “Photoshop Course” is how to make animation “bouncing ball” with Photoshop, how to make 3D with “Illustrator”, how to make your picture look like a sketch and how to make your “Type” look like a water drops. I don’t need that for my editing, I’m a photographer, all I need is to enhance my picture, to make good picture become great. Animation is not for me, just wasting my time and tax payers money, it was free course for me, that’s why.

My point is this, I hope my department will “Listen Extra Carefully”. Next time if you guys want us to join your “Compulsory Course”, please discuss with us, I’m talking about Photographers here. Only we the Photographers know what we want to learn, what we really need to know in order for us to perform better in doing our jobs, do we the photographers need to spent the whole days learning 3D when we rarely used it. 3D and Animation is not for Photojournalist Photographer, it is only for Animator. What’s is the point of learning the extra knowledge when we barely use it, I guess most of the participant will forget about the 3D by the time we step outside the class returning to our home.

Another thing is about using “Filters” in Photoshop, for me personally it’s a child play, go to filter menu and choose what kind of effect do you want, as simple as that. I’m not blaming the presenter, they have done their job according to what the “Secretariat” want the presenter to teach us and not what we really need to learn. Frankly speaking, the course is really a waste of “tax payers” money. Maybe some people will get benefit from it but I don’t think the course reach their objective.

One last word from me, to teach Photoshop for Photographers, one need a solid background in Photography or better if they are the passionate photographers themselves. If they just know photoshop, what photoshop can do, are very expert in Photoshop but have nothing in mind about the very basic needs of Photographers for Photoshop, then, we are just wasting our time. We are The Photographers in first place, we are not animator, we are not graphic designer, our needs is different. Extra knowledge without any practicality for our job is a waste.

Portraiture Workshops | Kota Kinabalu

Portraiture Workshops

Portraiture Workshops

Portraiture Workshops

Portraiture Workshops

Portraiture Workshops

This is my first Portraiture Photoshop Workshops in Kota Kinabalu Sabah, a million thanks to my friend Roslee Karim for organizing this workshops under his company Spylens Studio. I was at Kota Kinabalu two days before the workshops just to make sure everything was in working order, making final preparation in Spylens Studio where the editing class will taken place. This is also the first time my photoshop editing class taking place in the studio, previous workshops was in the hotel seminar room and not to mention my “Mini Workshops” taking place in “Coffee Shop” all over Kuala Lumpur.

We start our workshops with get to know session and I’m a bit surprise to know that almost all of them come from”Educational Background”, teachers, lecturers and also those who involve in “Education Environment”. Our photo shoot was a bit late, the sun is high already but we did make the most of the times and the lighting available, yes we just play with natural light, no reflector and no flash. I did not get the best shot but I do believe that most of my student get the best angle and the best expression from the model, I don’t want to make this photo shoot personal, so I just let my participants enjoy their time with the model.

After we have our light snack and tea break, it’s where the fun start, the editing, we head to Spylens Studio to do our editing. Some people just could not wait to edit their picture, this is not photojournalist workshops where minimal editing is all we need but this is “Artistic Editing”, where we enhance our picture just for pure enjoyment and satisfaction, I came from photojournalist background so I do know where to draw the line when it come to editing “Photojournalist Picture” but when it come to personal stuff, for me and for my opinion, the sky is not the limit, we are only limited by our own imagination.

The first thing that I really stress to all the participant is, we must get a great short for a start, Photoshop is not a tools to fix a bad picture but it is a tool for enhancement. To enhance our picture to make it even better and more presentable,  even in those “Darkroom Days” they do the editing in the dark, dodging and burning here and there, to get great contrast and tone between dark area, grey and totally white area. If the picture was printed without any dodging and burning, the picture will look flat, lifeless, even though the picture is great on it’s own, it still need few “editing” in the darkroom to make it more presentable.

To all the participants, thank you very much for your support. Feel free to expand the ideas and the method that you have just learn, let the juice of creativity flow freely.

Portraiture Workshops | Kota Kinabalu

Portraiture Workshops | Kota Kinabalu

Portraiture Workshops

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

PORTRAITURE EDITING WORKSHOPS | 1st August 209 | The Schedule

• Ada Dua Sesi | Photo Shooting besama model ( Poster Atas Sekali ) | Shooting sebelah pagi | 3-4 jam.
• Sesi Kedua Editing | Selepas makan tengahari sehingga malam | Bukan Tengah Malam 🙂

Mengenai Editing :

• Semua peserta dikehendaki mempunyai asas penggunaan Photoshop, sekurang-kurangnya pernah menggunakan perisian photoshop, sebulan, setahun atau mungkin lebih tapi merasakan masih lagi belum mahir dengan penggunaannya ataupun kurang berpuas hati dengan pengetahuan sedia ada.
• Untuk makluman semua, saya tidak akan mengajar cara penggunaan Preset, Actions ataupun Plug in, semua editing saya adalah from “Scratch”. Hasil kerja saya yang saudara serta saudari boleh lihat di sini atau di Flickr saya adalah sepenuhnya menggunakan Photoshop sahaja tanpa menggunakan Preset, Action ataupun Plug In, tetapi saya mencadangkan kepada rakan-rakan yang melakukan photography secara commercial untuk menggunakan Actions ataupun Plug In, kerana ianya memudahkan serta mempercepatkan kerja.
• Saya tidak akan mengajar Asas Photoshop, jadi saya tidak akan menghabiskan masa untuk menerangkan satu-satu mengenai “Tools” yang ada di Photoshop serta kegunaannya.
• Apa yang akan dipelajari nanti adalah lebih kepada “Menaik Tarafkan” hasil gambar kita ataupun Image Enhancement serta diberi sentuhan Artistik.
• Antara lain kita akan mempelajari bagaimana untuk menggunakan cahaya semula jadi untuk Portrait serta pemilihan lokasi yang baik untuk model shooting, saudara dan saudari tidak memerlukan Flash untuk sesi Portraiture saya kerana kita hanya akan menggunakan Natural Light.
• Berkenaan dengan editing pula, sila bawa Laptop masing-masing kerana komputer tidak akan disediakan. Lokasi Editing adalah di Spy Lens Studio milik Roslee Karim.
• Portraiture Editing | Kita akan mempelajari workflow saya, dari Basic Enhancement sehingga Artistic Enhancement.
• Kita akan belajar mengenai Penggunaan Layer Mask, penekanan akan diberikan kepada Layer Mask kerana pelajaran seterusnya amat berkaitan dengan pemahaman yang kuat mengenai Layer Mask.
• Eyes Enhancement | Bagaimana untuk mendapatkan ataupun menaiktarafkan “Catch Light” pada mata.
• Black and White | Bagaimana untuk menghasilkan Black and White yang mempunyai tone menarik.
• Tone Color | Bagaimana untuk bermain dengan Tone Warna untuk memberikan gambar kita lebih impak serta menambahkan mood pada gambar, Vintage or Retro feeling into it.
• TEXTURE | Kita akan belajar mengenai penggunaan Texture pada gambar secara berkesan, saya akan berikan Texture yang biasa saya gunakan kepada semua para peserta secara percuma.
• Nota | Semua peserta akan diberikan Nota PDF, namun demikian bukan semua yang dipelajari ada di dalam nota tersebut, semua peserta harus membawa buku nota masing-masing untuk mencatat maklumat serta tips-tips yang penting.
• Secara kesimpulannya, I will teach you how to achieve what you see at my flickr and with a little bit adjustment here and there, hopefully you will find your own way or your own style.

Pendaftaran | Pertanyaan | Booking :

• Hubungi Roslee Karim di Nombor 016 8317174 | Email : rosleekarim@gmail.com
• Workshops Fee : RM400.00
• Boleh bayar kepada : Spylens Photography – Public Bank : Account No : – 3 9 8 6 1 3 6 5 2 4 | Emailkan slip bayaran kepada rosleekarim@gmail.com
• Deposit RM100 atau lebih boleh bayar kepada Roslee dan baki selebihnya pada hari Workshops.
• Sekiranya masih mempunyai sebarang pertanyaan boleh hubungi Roslee di Facebook Roslee Karim atau boleh juga gunakan ruangan comment di sini.