Colour Correct Skin Tone on Photoshop

Skin Tone correction has always been a challenge. One of the issue is the colour display we have which is not calibrated or whatever reason you may have. This tutorial by Lynda shows how to adjust the CMYK numbers to make color corrections to skin... enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eJiM-fsvQXE

As a general starting point, yellow would be a little bit higher than magenta, cyan is between 1/5 to 1/3 of magenta and yellow. For darker skin, the values would be higher.
Use info panel (F8) and click on the skin area to be analysed using the eyedropper tool (I) and check the values of CMYK. To change the value, use a curve adjustment layer.

Another video similar to the above: Whitening Skin for "High Key look"
Editing a Tan

Tips on Photoshop/Camera etc

Just some nice link/collection:

44 essential digital camera tips and tricks
225 tips from famous photographers

99 Common Photography problems (and how to solved them):

1. General Photography Problems
2. Using lenses
3. Digital camera accessories
4. Digital camera settings and controls
5. Camera exposure
6. Using flash
7. Photography technique

If you want to improve your photo composition, read this article:
10 rules of photo composition

Photoshop:
20 things you need to know about Photoshop CS6: Click Here
6 photo editing steps every photographer should know

D600 Resource page

D600 resource page:
http://betterfamilyphotos.blogspot.com/p/nikon-d600-review-and-resource-page.html

D600 Review
http://www.btobey.com/nikon/d600-review.php

Nikon shutter count
http://www.nikonshuttercount.com/

Pre-wedding photography

Butterfly photography

I personally found that it is very difficult to take nice photos of insect because they never stay still. The major problem is that they keep moving or they fly away very easily.

I was pleasantly surprised that butterfly stays still during mating. I can approached them until I was only 1 foot away.
The above photo was taken using my 200mm macro lens, aperture F/36, shutter 1/60s, ISO-400 using my Nikon D600.
A back light was used in the above photo. This means that I used my off camera SB910 flashgun almost directly opposite the camera.
Click on the photo above to view a much larger image.

How to Shoot Firework Photo

In view of the new year countdown, and the beautiful firework display, below is a guideline on how to shoot firework.

1. Use a tripod
2. Be on site early to secure a good spot
3. You may use landscape or portrait format. The choice is really yours
4. Exposure setting:
   For digital compact, use firework mode if there is one
   
   For DSLR: Use B mode if available. Shutter will remain open as long as the shutter release button remain pressed. A good way is to use a black card to cover the lens. When firework goes off, take off the card and put it back on as appropriate.
   
   Set Aperture between 8 to 16.
5. Use the lowest ISO available
6. Focus - use manual mode.

After a few practice, I hope you get good pictures. Otherwise, fine tune the setting.
eg, if too bright, set Aperture to a higher value

Photo reconstruction

Recently I was given a black and white and a colour photo to be made into a memorial style image to be printed. The reconstructed black and white photo is as below.

The finished photo is as below.

By the way, if you have photos which you like to be done like above, please do contact me by e-mail (williamting @ hotmail.com (remove space)) or phone (+60123020178).