Design Articles

The first time we stayed at Las Palmas, two years ago, I literally teared up when I stepped onto the property. It is exactly how I imagine heaven. The second visit was just as heavenly.

I'll be honest, I first joined Facebook because my high school sons were using it, but quickly it became much more than a parenting tool. Facebook became a place to share my creativity with friends and family, and overtime I recognized that my freelance business was growing because of my Facebook presence.

My business has enjoyed steady growth over the past three years. My invoice totals at the end of 2012 were up 60% from 2011. Many factors account for that growth, but I believe Facebook gets most of the credit. 

If you are a small business owner you can do the same. To start you should understand and accept these two facts:

I'm most comfortable with subjects that don't move much, preferably shooting with a tripod and lots of time to compose my image. I will never be a concert photographer, or an event photographer or even a portrait photographer.

So why did I pay an extra $199 to take the pre-conference, Real World Concert Photography class at Photoshop World, taught by professional photographers Alan Hess and Scott Diussa? Because I wanted to have fun, and I wanted to challenge myself with something I am not very good at. 

It was a challenge all right. I made pretty much every mistake possible. Here's what I learned.

Purple Flowers Original Image

These purple flowers are pretty, but the image is flat. It needs some highlights to bring it to life. I could apply some overall contrast to the image, but I perfer to paint my highlights, giving me more selective, creative control.

This tutorial will take you through the non destructive steps to breathe life into a flat image with light painting. The screen grabs are all done in Photoshop CS6, but this technique will work in older versions of Photoshop.