childs play - photoshop actions
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A 4X5 crop that includes 3 pillars and creates the perspective that leads the eye to the distant bathers. A slight rotation was made to correct the horizon.
Someone asked me how I processed my photos which led me to write my workflow out on my "About" page. After some confusion, I decided to do a visual as you see in the attached image.
Night mode of GCam (Google Camera port) on the Nokia 8.1. No tripod used. RAW/DNG developed in Lightroom.
The Nokia 8.1 has the same image sensor as the Google Pixel 3a as well as OIS and a lens from Zeiss. I wanted to order a Pixel 3a last year but it was not possible to get one.
I make this image public in the AVIF format (can be opened in the latest IrfanView, Chrome and Firefox): Link to AVIF in Google Drive
The AVIF image compression (in the HEIF container) is a very promising format as it provides good image quality in a very small package and is (in comparison to HEIC) free of any licenses. I hope Flickr as well as Adobe, Google and Microsoft products will soon have full support for this innovation.
Besides the high compression efficiency the big advantage over JPEG is that a color depth per channel of 10 and even 12 bit is supported.
My AVIF/HEIC/HEIF workflow:
- capture image in RAW
- develop in Lightroom
- export to 16 bit TIFF
- import in GIMP
- export in AVIF or HEIC
During the pandemic, I've been using my cell phone for almost all my pictures. I just wanted to pass along my workflow for others who haven't tried their phones yet. Just remember that a RAW file gives you much more room to adjust contrast.
I went to a forest called "Rude Skov" - yes, the name is weird in English but I assure you that it is not rude ;)
I had all my gear with me but decided only to shoot handheld and to do so in manual mode, so no help from anything but the meter inside the view finder; it was so much fun and actually not that hard. Going manual gave me a sort of peace of mind, knowing how the camera was set and that the shutterspeed or aperture wouldn't change unless I wanted them to. I really encourage you to try manual mode for landscape if you haven't already.
The shots are basically of the same subject around a small lake in the forest but with variations in perspective and composition. Hopefully it's not too boring to look at.
Here's to experimentation! I plan to do a lot more of that in the near future.
Thanks again to Adam and his Landscape Masterclass at First Man Photography - without that I really wouldn't have considered going manual and not even gotten the shot because going through that masterclass has made me rethink how I shoot landscapes. I am still learning; I still struggle when looking for interesting subjects and also the composition. Also, ISO, aperture and shutterspeed is something I still need to incorporate into my workflow for each shot because I tend to forget checking and setting them. Heh.
Do you have a photo-taking workflow?
Before I pull out the “big camera,” I sometimes snap a quick iPhone pic to check composition and lighting. Sometimes it tells me everything I need to know, like whether to shift left, crouch down, or just give up and go get some eggs benedict for brekky at a cafe. And when my wide-angle lens isn’t quite wide enough, it's iPhone panorama to the rescue! It’s quicker than taking multiple shots with the OM-1 and stitching later. Lazy or efficient? You decide.
Fun Fact Time - The Goldfish Edition!
Have you ever wondered how long goldfish live? Most pet goldfish clock in around 5–10 years. But some have gone the distance......
The oldest was Goldie (45 yrs). A very solid name choice in my opinion. He never made it into the Guinness Book of Records due to a lack of official paperwork. While he was alive, Goldie garnered international media attention, and his family the Evans family donated any money earned by Goldie’s appearances to charity to help children with physical disabilities. How cool is that, a philanthropist goldfish!
Other notable characters in the geriatric goldfish club include:
Tish (1956-1999) – the official Guinness title holder at 43 years old. In 1988 Tish had a brush with death when he leapt out of his bowl and landed on the carpet. His mum Tilda wasn't home but luckily, when she found him & placed him back into the water, he resumed swimming as if nothing had happened. I wonder if he remembered or if every trip around the goldfish bowl was new to him! Over the years, as he aged, Tish’s scales turned from bright orange to silver, matching the colour of Hilda’s hair. That's kinda sweet.
Fred (42) and George (44). Keith & Mary Allies from Worcester UK won the pair of fish at a fair in 1974, when they were only dating. Since then, the married couple kept the goldfish, who outlived two of their dogs. They passed in 2017 & 2019. Fred & George that is, not Keith & Mary! My takeaway - a couple who raise goldfish together, stay together!
Splash (38) and Splish (36) - Haley and Matthew Wright never did anything particularly special to care for Splash. He swam around his tank all day, ate regular fish food, and fed on live plants in his tank. Splish and Splash were funfair prizes won by the Wrights in 1977 (bit of a common theme there). Mr. Wright believes that Splash mourned for Splish when he was no longer around. PS If it is annoying I listed splash before splish you may be OCD ;)
Sharkey (24) – I reckon best name, hands down! Another goldfish who survived a near death experience. His owner Paul's mother found him belly up in his bowl. She thought he was dead and flushed him down the toilet. However, Sharky was still alive and swam back up the pipe and was saved in time. I guess he felt a bit shitty about that ;)
Bob (20) from the UK – well, it's a solid name for sure. I wonder if it is because he "Bobbed" up and down in his bowl? Bob experienced his 15 minutes of fame in 2017 when his family noticed that he was struggling to swim and developed a lump on his fin. They decided to spend $250 on an operation to save his life. I'm pleased to report the operation was successful and Bob fully recovered. The doc said that his family was very pleased with the outcome as Bob was older than their children and considered part of their family.
I hope these goldfish ramblings brighten your day. Thanks kindly for any likes/comments, they are always appreciated.
Waterscape 34/100 in 2025
Primfeed ↓
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Shot by Capy (2 viewers workflow)
Green screen and body layers used for utility
Please join us on our journey through Auneland where we show you this unforgettably beautiful country in all its shapes and colors
Thanks for your comments and faves 😍👍
Part of my "workflow" is, after I've hacked and sawed on a picture for a while, I look at the original to see if I've gone...too far. In this case, I may have overdone it just a smidge. See the previous picture.
I enjoy hacking and sawing, so I really do have to check to see that I have not lost the plot.
Usually, when I make a different version of a picture, I wait a while before posting it. In this case, I thought it would be interesting to show the pictures next to each other.
After thoroughly creepyfying the picture I looked at the original and thought, "dang, it was pretty creepy to start with."
So I present the original to you so you can compare. Creepyfied versus just going with flow. Other than the crop, this is SOOC. This is one of the reasons I like to hunt for murder shacks on overcast days...they already have some atmosphere.
Northwest Indiana
February 26, 2026
*In no way do we imply that a felony was actually committed here, or that a felon occupies this space. We jest. But you have to admit…kinda creepy.
More of my murder shack pictures
COPYRIGHT 2026 by Jim Frazier All Rights Reserved. This may NOT be used for ANY reason without written consent from Jim Frazier. This is a real photograph taken with a real camera, and not created by AI.
20260226cz7-2655-1000short-2
Abstract (obviously, right?) picture exploring different mobile photo apps: Matter, Union & Mextures. I am pretty new to the scene but am really digging the workflow and the expanse of what can be achieved. Fun stuff! 👍
The metropolis that is New York. See it mega big here
I was hoping to upload my latest tutorial, although didn't get a chance to complete it. It will be a walkthrough on the Times Square image, as I received a lot of emails and requests from people asking about the workflow and process it went through. It concentrates more on the Photoshop processing, rather than Photomatix, although the HDR steps are included. Watch out for that later this week.
HDR Tutorial Beginner | HDR Tutorial Advanced | My New York Set
The 2016 #everynewmoon adventure took us to Lesotho, the mountain Kingdom.
This image was taken at a rock quarry on top of one of the mountains as the Milky Way sets early in the evening.
About the photo:
Canon 5D MkIII
Canon 24-70mm LII
Shot at:
ISO3200
24mm
F/2,8
25 Sec
A great light to use for these type of shots: Fenix CL25R Lantern in moonlight mode. And my model: My Mr! @TheAstroShake (Cory Schmitz)
Processing in Lightroom and Photoshop.
PhotographingSpace.com Milky Way Finishers Action Pack used to finish off final editing of clarity, star reduction and noise reduction. Check it out: photographingspace.com/product/milkywayfinisher/
Want to know more about my workflow to edit Milky Way image? Here’s how I finish off my astro photos: photographingspace.com/finish-milky-way/
Follow me on
Instagram: www.instagram.com/astrotanja/
Twitter: twitter.com/astrotanja
My new BW post processing video tutorial is now ready for download, for a limited time get all 8 videos for the price of 1
Video 1 My Complete BW Workflow
Video 2 Mastering BW Conversions
Video 3 Fine Art Architecture
Video 4 Fine Art Landscape
Video 5 Fine Art Seascape
Video 6 Fine Art Cityscape
Video 7 Fine Art Long Exposure
Video 8 Fine Art Street
also included are my photoshop files and post processing notes!
An extremely comprehensive post processing tutorial for fine art BW photography
www.vulturelabs.photography/product-page/b-w-post-process...
My thinking regarding the use of AI is that it is _part_ of my workflow and not the workflow itself. Which means I don’t type in words, click a button and the AI produces a finished image for however many times I click the button. There are artists who work that way, and that’s fine. Rather than produce a half dozen images in this way I’m more likely to take a half dozen images and composite the best parts of them into a single image. It takes time, but I find the results more polished and more satisfying. AI image making, at least for me, is time-consuming (I enjoy putting in long grinding hours on an image and watching it develop) and requires good Photoshop compositing and post-processing skills. It incorporates everything I was taught in drawing, painting, printmaking and anatomy classes I’ve taken in the past. It incorporates all the art history I’ve ever read and classes I took.
My process:
This image began as one of a series of photographs I took of actors in period costume gathering for a rehearsal in front of a home. This image was then entered into Stable Diffusion with a very simple description: “Circa 1919. A woman stands in the foreground facing the background. A group of people stand in the lawn of a home. Painted by Paul Cadmus and Grant Wood.” Looking at the image you’ll notice that it doesn’t look like the work of either Paul Cadmus or Grant Wood, but a new style developed by blending the two artists. I rendered and re-rendered this image 7 times and took four of the best of those and using Photoshop blended them into a single image.
The resulting composition and look was what I wanted, but while the large character on the left was rendered more or less to my satisfaction, the smaller figures in the group on the lawn were very crudely painted. The faces were so primitive that I had to repaint them all by hand even before they were recognizable as faces.
Each of those figures I copied out of the image separately, enlarged and re-rendered repeatedly until I got reasonably satisfactory results. These were composited back into the image where they were retouched and repainted by hand as needed. Then the image was color-balanced, contrast was adjusted, sharpened, re-cropped and expanded to balance the composition, and textures added. I resolved many areas that were ambiguous and made numerous other minor corrections.
The process took me several days. Much like any other artwork I had to put it away overnight to see it again with fresh eyes. That’s good advice no matter what image making process you follow.
Photo | Stable Diffusion | Photoshop
My new BW post processing video tutorial is now ready for download, for a limited time get all 9 videos for the price of 1
Video 1 My Complete BW Workflow
Video 2 Mastering BW Conversions
Video 3 Fine Art Architecture
Video 4 Fine Art Landscape
Video 5 Fine Art Seascape
Video 6 Fine Art Cityscape
Video 7 Fine Art Long Exposure
Video 8 Fine Art Street
Video 9 Minimal Photography
also included are my photoshop files and post processing notes!
An extremely comprehensive post processing tutorial for fine art BW photography
www.vulturelabs.photography/product-page/b-w-post-process...
The claw, I originally shot this scene in a landscape orientation but on review of the images I decided it looked better in an portrait orientation. There is a tree to the left of this image that I tried to shoehorn in but ultimately it left the scene unbalanced, so instead I have used one of its branches as a feature. I have started to experiment a little with composition rather than stick to the fixed rules I had taught myself with regards to composing an image.
It seems a long time since we had any fog in North Yorkshire but editing is now defiantly an important part of my woodland workflow and definitely a way to learn and improve on images.
The scene we see in front of us and on the back of a camera often differs from the scene we are left with once we begin to edit. I need to make more of a concios effort to edit the day I shoot so that I can reflect and self feedback on my images. Feedback after all wether it be external or self reflection is a day to develop a skill.
That said, any external feedback is always welcomed.
My new BW post processing video tutorial is now ready for download, for a limited time get all 9 videos for the price of 1
Video 1 My Complete BW Workflow
Video 2 Mastering BW Conversions
Video 3 Fine Art Architecture
Video 4 Fine Art Landscape
Video 5 Fine Art Seascape
Video 6 Fine Art Cityscape
Video 7 Fine Art Long Exposure
Video 8 Fine Art Street
Video 9 Minimal Photography
also included are my photoshop files and post processing notes!
An extremely comprehensive post processing tutorial for fine art BW photography
www.vulturelabs.photography/product-page/b-w-post-process...
Recently made the switch from Lightroom to ON1 and I'm updating my workflow, revisiting some of my favourite images - this one from Lilydale in Tasmania for example.
Late afternoon light on Montana’s Reynolds Mountain.
I just recently put out a video that details my entire creative workflow from field to post on a fairly involved photo. You can find it at www.ryandyar.com ❤️ Thanks for scrolling to come across my post… you’re awesome.
This is a re-edit of a Winter moon rise I captured at Mono Lake in 2009. I think this may be the first time I've posted this particular image to Flickr though.
Both the original edit and the new one are HDRs produced in Photomatix, but the new one I also port-processed in Adobe Lightroom before and after the HDR to make the result a little more realistic. The earlier one ended up too saturated. The sunset and moon were both bright and colorful, and with my updated software and workflow, this is more true to the event.
These light rays in the sky at sunset, appearing to come from a point just over the horizon opposite where the sun set, are anticrepuscular rays. Sun rays, also known as crepuscular rays, usually converge on their source, the sun. But sometimes they appear to come from, and converge on, a point on the opposite horizon. Known as anticrepuscular rays, their appearance of coming from some distant point on or just over the horizon is very convincing. Yet it's an illusion. They're actually nearly parallel beams of light, and they appear to converge towards that point in the distance, a vanishing point, much like railroad tracks do.
So in this photo the light rays do not come from the distant hills, the light is not radiating out from them, as it appears. The hills are simply so far away that the more or less parallel beams of light travelling overhead towards them have that illusion of convergence towards a vanishing point.
This phenomenon is most best seen when the sun is low in the sky, and the light rays are travelling overhead towards the far horizon.
I used a vertical crop from this image as the chapter header for the Mono Basin chapter of my 320-page guidebook Photographing California Vol. 2 - South, page 47.
I’m not a hardcore birder, I shoot only when both the opportunity and mood arise simultaneously, both of which does not happen very often.
I remember feeling challenged shooting this bird and as such it was a great experience.
1. Tiny bird, smaller even than the common Kingfisher but way more colourful.
2. This being a Forest Kingfisher, it’s always in the thicket, never in the open. Had to shoot at very low shutter speed hoping to catch it in between twitches just to keep ISO low enough to preserve details. Being as dim as it was, had to also boost up the EV to avoid having to do any shadow recovery.
3. 600mm even on APS-C crop was barely sufficient.
4. Trying to squeeze out as much details as possible. Used normal wireless release via OVF; MUP+EFC; Live-view, none made any consistent and significant difference. This was where I got a little mad at Nikon’s useless implementation of EFC on the D500, even more useless than the auto AF fine-tune feature. What’s the point of putting in features that don’t really work!? EFC in Live-view would have helped but infuriatingly, you can activate EFC in Live-view yet you can’t use EFC in Live-view, get your act together Nikon!
5. Getting the right pose with the beak pointing sideways and preferably upwards for the slightly haughty look plus some catch-light in the eye.
An experience to remember. a most beautiful bird, its red feathers extend down the centre back of its head to the collar in a narrowing ridge looking like its beak with the dark blue patches on each side of this ridge giving it the appearance of having eyes and beak at the back of its head! This is likely a defensive marking. Especially interesting when the Micronesia Kingfisher became extinct in the wild due to introduced brown tree snake sneaking up on it from behind while the bird was totally focused ahead and below as kingfishers normally do.
Shooting very small birds is always challenging as conditions constantly change with the subject constantly on the move while you aim for that perfect pose which can disappear in a twitch.
I toyed with the idea of getting the Sony a99ii with A-mount Tamron 150-600mm G2 after this but gave it up eventually. It’s not feasible to shoot with so many different systems.
Shot on tripod at 1/15s!
Uploaded a much better image (albeit cropped) with my latest post processing workflow.
Most people post shots from flickrwalks fast. Some people post a gradually within a week. Some people never post shots from flickrwalks. Some people post them 11 months later. This is what I wrote on this photo 11 months ago:
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...I finally went on a flickrwalk. We were a big group and it was fun meeting lots of interesting and fun people! It seems that I spent too much time meeting people and chatting and not enough time taking pictures as I'm not thrilled about the shots I got.
It should be added that the place we had the walk offered trees, logs, birds, a lake and a road - not exactly my speciality. Fortunately, the road was full of joggers and bikers - and you can always use the flickr group as target practice.
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My problem is workflow management - and that I prefer taking picture to editing or posting. Therefore my archive bulges with old photos and explains why I post photos from all over some of the time. However, there are advantages with having an archive. Some days I get inspired to process shots and I always intend to upload it all - and uploading super late is better than never posting.