THIS WEEK'S POWERTIP
Punch up your image with saturation
By David Gewirtz
For many folks, tools like Photoshop are daunting with all their options. So it's nice when you can find a quick and easy trick that'll give you a lot of results from a single command. A quick saturation adjustment is just such a trick.
First, let me show you an example. The image in Figure A was taken from our clip art collection.
FIGURE A
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A little saturation (on the right) can go a long way. Click picture for a larger image.
I chose this image because the color in it was so "flat." You can see how the grass on the left side of the image appears almost grayed out and lackluster. By contrast (or rather, by saturation -- bad photographer's joke), the greens on the right side of the image are far more punchy and vivid.
Saturation, by definition, means "Vividness of hue; degree of difference from a gray of the same lightness or brightness." We're going to use that; we're going to make the picture more vivid.
I accomplished the improvement on the right side of the image by using a single command. If you're using Photoshop, go to Image->Adjustments and select the Hue/Saturation menu item. If you're using another tool, you'll want to look for the image adjustment options and find the saturation adjustment. You'll see a dialog box like that shown in Figure B.
FIGURE B
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Just a slight tweak of the saturation slider can make all the difference Click picture for a larger image.
All I did was move the saturation slide up a little less than half way. That's it. Just click OK, and the image looks a lot more vibrant.
You need to use some restraint with saturation, as with all adjustments of this nature. Adjust the least you possibly can to get the effect you want. If you oversaturate, your image will look like a bad blob. That's just as bad as having an overly dull image.
Here's a short extra-credit tip. Play with the hue (meaning color) and lightness sliders as well, to see how your image changes. Again, use restraint.
Oh, and make sure you do this on a copy of your image. Keep a backup of your original image somewhere safe.
David Gewirtz is the Editor-in-Chief of the ZATZ magazines and the author of The Flexible Enterprise and Lotus Notes Revealed! He can be reached via email at address@hidden. You can see David's photographic artwork at his personal Web site, http://www.Gewirtz.com.
FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Welcome to Connected Photographer Magazine
By David Gewirtz
Welcome to the very first issue of Connected Photographer Magazine. With all the photography magazines out there, who needs a new one? Apparently, you do.
Connected Photographer got its start quite differently than our other magazines. We usually spend a very long time preparing for the launch of a new publication. While we have a pretty large list of prospective magazines, only a very few make it to publication.
Connected Photographer was on that prospective magazine list. Quite honestly, we didn't expect to be launching this magazine anytime soon. But then, something interesting happened. I wrote an article, "Your first digital camera," back in September in Computing Unplugged Magazine. It was really meant to be a "quicky" article, generated out of a conversation with friends, and intended to fill an article deadline I was late meeting.
I certainly didn't expect it to be anything special. But apparently I touched a chord in our readers. I got a huge number of letters in that article, filled to the brim with questions. So I took a few of the more common questions, and wrote a few more articles. And got more and more and more letters.
In less than a month, we started getting letters asking us to start a new magazine on photography, and got still more questions. All those questions resulted the Your First Digital Camera audio workshop, our effort to answer everyone's questions at once, before Christmas.
And now, a little more than two months after my first digital camera article ran in Computing Unplugged, here we are with the first issue of Connected Photographer. With all those photo magazines out there, we've been trying to understand what readers need, and why another photo magazine is necessary. And now, I think we do.
We named the magazine Connected Photographer for a reason. See, photography is not a lone endeavor. Whether you're producing snapshots for your family or professional shots for clients, or even pictures for yourself, connections, both Internet and interpersonal, pervade every aspect of picture taking, production, and creation.
Connected Photographer will have the same editorial style of our other magazines. We'll be personal, accessible, and friendly. We'll cover interesting simple tips for beginners as well as some elements of photography so advanced that only a few people stand a chance of understanding. We'll mix our advanced topics in with beginner topics, we'll have some fun, and we'll all learn to be better photographers, and better connectors.
We will likely review many of the tools, especially those in the digital arena. You can expect Photoshop plug-in reviews, lighting reviews, gadget reviews, and Web service reviews. But like our other magazines, the reviews will be of items that catch the eye of our writers, not just the stuff we think we "ought" to write about. We won't be reviewing every camera that comes along, for example.
Instead, we'll talk about those that strike us as interesting. And we'll likely review and write about stuff that the more stuffy photo magazines won't review and write about, like how to set share family pictures or how to sell your pictures on coffee mugs and boxer shorts.
Because this went together so quickly, we've still got a lot of work to do. Our journal production system can't yet display JPEG images, which means we're limited to showing photos as lower-quality GIFs until we engineer a fix (hopefully in the next few weeks). We need to add discussion forums and ways for readers to easily talk with each other. That'll take a bit longer, but it's a priority.
And we need to add authors. For now, I and a small subset of ZATZ' regular authors will be contributing weekly pieces. But we need more authors and more experts. Normally, before launching a magazine, we spend six months or more finding, selecting, and grooming our senior editorial staff. This time, we've had only a month or so. As a result, we need you to contribute great articles. If you want to showcase your work, share some tips, or otherwise contribute, this is your chance. If you want to write, read our writer guidelines at http://www.authorpower.com and send me some email at address@hidden.
If any of you out there (and I know you're there) work for any of the major photo houses, camera manufacturers, software developers, or in any other way you're an expert in this field, please contact me. We'd love your help, insight, and input into our editorial direction.
I expect we'll also add some specialized columns in the coming months, like photo-of-the-month, model-of-the-month, and even, perhaps plugin-of-the-month. Expect this to be an evolving magazine. After all, the photo world is in such a transformative stage that if a magazine weren't evolving, we'd never keep up.
So there you go. It's a lot to digest (and certainly a lot to write about). Next week, we'll start with our regular tips & techniques coverage. Senior News Editor Heather McDaniel's already on the job, so you'll find updated news every day on the Web site.
I've got a lot of writing to do (and you do, too). So we better get to it. See you next week!
-- David
PS: As a thank you to everyone for helping convince us to get the magazine launched, we're offering a special $20 discount to anyone who wants to get the My First Digital Camera audio program. Just go to http://shop.zatz.com/customer/home.php?cat=11 and enter the code CP921477 when you check out.
David Gewirtz is the Editor-in-Chief of the ZATZ magazines and the author of The Flexible Enterprise and Lotus Notes Revealed! He can be reached via email at address@hidden. You can see David's photographic artwork at his personal Web site, http://www.Gewirtz.com.
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