Canon 400D, Tamron AF 55-200mm f/4-5.6 Macro lens - 1/40 sec, f/8, ISO 100

Since I can't afford nor make enough use of a dedicated tilt-shift lens I have to fake it but one of the main benefits is you get images that look like miniature models. This is my method...

First you need to start with an image that will end up looking realistic. It needs to be taken from quite a distance and with a long lens to compress perspective. You also need to be above the subject just as if you would be when taking a photo of a model.

Next take the image into Photoshop and duplicate the background layer (I always work non-destructively).

We are going to use the lens blur filter with a depth map to indicate where the blur should be so add a layer mask to the duplicated layer.

Select the gradient tool and select the black to white gradient, reflected (4th icon from the left) and reverse options as shown below.

  Then draw your gradient onto the layer mask. As we have the reverse option ticked you start at the point where you want the focus to be and move to the top or bottom of the screen. In this sample I put a slight slant in to ensure the focus hits both the people and the hut.

If you Alt-Click and then Ctrl-Click on the layer mask you should see something that shows a narrow band of white with a slow fade to black at the top and bottom of the image. Note that for the best effect you should have a long smooth gradient and not a short transition to black.

Hit Ctrl-D and then Alt-Click on the layer mask to switch back to the source image. Then make sure you click on the image icon to the left of the layer mask before invoking the lens blur filter (Menu > Filter > Blue > Lens Blur...). You need to select "Layer Mask" for the source and, since we have a white to black gradient, ensure that Invert is checked. The rest of the options just control what kind of bokeh you are after. When you are happy click OK and wait, possibly for a long time as the filter is quite expensive to run.

When the filter completes, just delete the layer mask to reveal the miniaturised image.

To make the result even more believable you can try and emulate the kind of lighting used when photographing miniatures. Boost the saturation and contrast with curves and you will have the final result at the top.

This is really the tale of three processes. I originally shot this with HDR in mind but when I processed it I came up with:

...which I think looks awful. I almost fell out with HDR at this and took the middle exposure to do a standard "7-point system" process in Photoshop to get this:

...which is much better but a little plain when sat next to the HDR version.

I wondered how I might get the best of both worlds so ended up loading the two images as aligned layers in Photoshop. My thought was to take the main image data from the plain one and use either the luminosity, hue, saturation or a combination from the HDR image.

The result wasn't great as it just became garish again so after messing around with different blending modes I settled on 'overlay' to make this image which I personally think is the best of the three.

So what do you think? I would love to know if you agree so please look at all three images and fave the one you like the most.

Best viewed large on black.

I've been bitten by several variants of this now and can see from the web that many others have too. This thread on Adobe Forums is a good source of information. There are a couple of bugs in Lightroom 2.0 so these steps may help.

Check that you have the latest Photoshop CS3 update installed. Sometimes it doesn't get applied correctly so use Help > System Info from within Photoshop and check that the following are true:

• Adobe Photoshop Version >= 10.0.1
• Camera Raw >= 4.5
• ScriptingSupport >= 10.0.1

Check that you don't have any apostrophes in your folder path anywhere. In my case changing from E:\Photos\James' Camera to E:\Photos\James Camera fixed the problem.

This last one only really applies when you can get the image into Photoshop but not back to Lightroom.

Check that the images isn't appearing in a different volume under the folder browser. Currently there is a bug that differentiates the casing of drive letters so you may find you have two volumes that differ only by case, e.g. E:\ and e:\. This one is a real pain and I hope they fix it soon.

If these don't sort your issue then I suggest you get on the thread linked above and let Adobe know...

It has been a while since I posted, mainly because I've spent every free minute processing wedding photos. Now I've moved onto the honeymoon set and have been using this technique a lot on the underwater images.

Taking photographs underwater is great fun but due to the way light travels through water you get two very common problems: low contrast and a blue-green colour cast. These problems get progressively worse as you go deeper because longer wavelengths of light (red end of the spectrum) can't penetrate as deeply. The image below was taken in the Seychelles and illustrates the issue well. It was only a couple of meters down but already you can see the colour cast and the image looks really flat.

You can fix this by taking your own light source, e.g. a flash or a torch but that only really works to light small areas. A wide angle like this has to be post-processed. So what can we do about it? The usual Photoshop way is to bring up levels and move the sliders until this hit the edges of the histogram as so:

This gives an image with a bit more contrast but you can see it still has a strong blue cast.

Remember that the water effects different wavelengths of light by different amounts so should use the levels command to manipulate each channel independently.

This gives a far better result. Lots of contract and a full spectrum of colour.

Just remember, you can't put back what wasn't there so as you go deeper you will lose red colour completely (red objects look black at 25m or so). If you use this technique then you can end up with desaturated, almost black and white photographs as shown below.

Canon 400D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L lens - 9 exp (1/80 to 1.6 second), f/16, ISO 100

This is another HDR photo but I'm much more pleased with the way it turned out compared to the last one. I think the sunset photo was plagued by in-camera noise from the low light. The other main difference between this and the last is a small amount of Photoshop tweaking after the HDR process - the tyres are darker, alloys lighter and a monotone tint. Only the car itself is HDR as I cut it out and placed it on one of the original exposures.

I love the way the HDR aspect makes the car look almost silver. I probably should have given it a clean though.

Canon Digital IXUS 860 IS - 1/200 to 1/640 second, f/5.8, ISO 80

Since I haven't posted for a week or so... This one is from the Zorbing on my stag day. Zorbing is... "a sport in which a participant is secured inside an inner capsule in a large, transparent ball which is then rolled along the ground or down hills". Basically a giant hamster ball rolled down a hill. Great fun though the harness Zorb (when the riders are strapped in) can be a little bumpy.

I created this composite in Photoshop.

I must admit, I like Photoshop. In fact I'm fascinated by the kind of changes a skilled person can make to a photograph, especially the magazine retoucher's work on people.

Here is my rather less skilled attempt at retouching a photo from last month's Digital Photographer magazine. It took me about four hours to do this. There are hundreds of tiny changes and tweaks adding up to approximately 24 major differences. Can you spot them all? (You might want to click through to a larger size.)

For demonstrations of better Photoshop skill these are worth a watch:

• The magic of Photoshop
• Extreme (Photoshop) Makeover
• Retoque com Photoshop
• Extreme Photoshop Retouch
• The camera never lies (BBC Radio 1 Surgery)