Posts Tagged ‘Paintshop Pro’

Famous locations (such as the Eiffel Tower in France and Mesa Arch in Utah, for example) can make great photographic subjects. But the problem is, there are likely to be plenty of other people there as well, getting in your shot. Even relatively unknown tourist destinations can get pretty busy.

So, how do you stop all the other tourists (who have as much right to be there as you) getting in the way and ruining your photo? Sometimes getting to the location really early in the morning, before anyone else is up, can be good enough to secure you a tourist-free photo.

But other times, this is not enough, or the location is not open early in the morning. In this case, we have to rely on the wonders of Photoshop (or similar image editing software).

Post processing can be used to improve your portrait photos, and really give them that professional look. The following three techniques are relatively simple and easy to implement, but can make a big difference.

Learning how to use layer masks is very important for performing more advanced, localized edits on photos. Thankfully they are very simple to use once you understand how they work. Masks are available in most image editing software, including Photoshop Elements, Photoshop, PaintShop Pro, and GIMP.

Layer masks can be used for creative composites of photos, blending photos together for exposure, blending images for panoramas, and applying effects selectively. For the purpose of this tutorial we'll look at using masks to blend exposure bracketed photos in a landscape photography context.