Darryl C. Nicholas

The Darkroom
The Darkroom
Create A Background For Portrait Candids; Pro Results With A Rainbow Of Color Options
Darryl C. Nicholas  |  Nov 01, 2004

A few months ago I showed you how to create a background for a portrait by using the Adobe Gradient tool. That tool produced a nice, smooth, gradated background as though the photographer had put a small hot spotlight on a smooth background. In this article I will show you how to create a mottled background similar to the painted canvas backgrounds that are so popular among...

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The Darkroom
The Darkroom
Setting The Black Point; A Key Step In Getting The Right Tonal Range
Darryl C. Nicholas  |  Sep 01, 2004

One of the secrets to making great ink jet prints is to set the black point correctly in the image file before sending the image to the printer. The black point in an image is the group of pixels that should be printed as solid, D-max, black. If this...

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Digital Darkroom
The Digital Darkroom
A Gallery Of Filters; Something For Everyone In Photoshop CS
Darryl C. Nicholas  |  Jul 01, 2004

The new Photoshop CS has a greatly expanded Filter section. One of the new filter options is called Filter Gallery. The Filter Gallery is so extensive it just boggles the mind! In order to give you a little introduction into this feature-rich area of...

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Digital Darkroom
The Digital Darkroom
Using The Shadow/Highlight Tool; A True "Highlight" Of The New Photoshop CS
Darryl C. Nicholas  |  May 01, 2004

Of all the new tools in Photoshop CS, the one that I have heard the least about is the Shadow/Highlight tool. And, yet, for photographers, it is an extremely useful tool. Think of it as an alternate method for the Curves tool, one that often gives people...

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The Darkroom
The Darkroom
Portrait Backgrounds; Giving "Snaps" A Studio Touch
Darryl C. Nicholas  |  Mar 01, 2004

All of us take snapshots. Sometimes those snapshots can be turned into very nice portraits. Take a look at one of my snapshots (#1). Actually, this snapshot was taken of my wife Faye and I, one night when we were out celebrating our son's wedding.

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Digital Darkroom
The Digital Darkroom
Using Photoshop To Correct For Color Casts
Darryl C. Nicholas  |  Jan 01, 2004

When I read this press release headline, "Canon launches world's first film scanning capable, bus-powered 2400x4800dpi CIS scanner," I was intrigued. Then learning that the CanoScan LiDE 80 also features 48-bit color depth, only requires...

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Digital Darkroom
The Digital Darkroom
Create A Torn Effect In Photoshop
Darryl C. Nicholas  |  Nov 01, 2003

There are several great plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop that will create all sorts of edge effects, borders, and frames. But, this procedure uses only the basic Photoshop tools to create a very nice ragged edge. The procedure also demonstrates several features that can be applied to lots of other...

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Digital Darkroom
The Digital Darkroom
Using Photoshop Styles
Darryl C. Nicholas  |  Sep 01, 2003

As some of you may already know, when you install Photoshop not all of the application is immediately loaded. There are many features and options that require further attention to become accessible. Photoshop "Styles" is one of those...

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Digital Darkroom
The Digital Darkroom
Making Custom Brushes In Photoshop Version 7.0
Darryl C. Nicholas  |  Jul 01, 2003

The Darkroom

Knowing how to use a "brush" in Photoshop is critical to being able to do very much of anything in this great digital application. Photoshop ships with hundreds of different, ready-made, brushes. Each one of them can then be further customized to meet...

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The Darkroom
The Darkroom
Dealing With Dynamic Range
Darryl C. Nicholas  |  May 01, 2003

The Darkroom

I love digital cameras. However, they all have one serious problem. They tend to block up the shadow tones. That is, they have a short dynamic density range, compared to film. If you use very flat lighting you get...

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