Tutorials

July 13, 2026

Basic (and Beyond) Photography – Practice for Photographers

by Mickey Rountree

“Practice makes perfect.” Or as my late friend and fellow drummer and photographer put it: “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.” We’re told “repetition is the mother of skill.” We’ve heard these or similar expressions all of our lives. From childhood we hear “You learn from your mistakes.” Actually you only learn from your mistakes if you recognize them, analyze them, and fix them.

So, what is perfect practice, and why do some people improve faster than others with the same or even less amount of practice? And how many photographers actively practice at all? At a recent workshop at Photofest, our instructor Lisa Langell said that photography was one of the few pursuits where people don’t feel they have to practice. Photographers think nothing of going months without shooting or any kind of practice and then expect to go out cold and produce good images.

I’ve touched on practice in several articles in the past, but let’s take a much deeper look. I recently read (and re-read) “The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle. It looks at the science and even neuroscience of how skills are developed. And he shows that what we often think of as “natural talent” is just effective practice. Most of his examples are from athletes or musicians, but the principles apply to almost any discipline including photography. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in improving a skill. And no medical background is required; he presents the neuroscience in an easy to understand way.

The short story is that repeated actions build neural pathways, and the more we practice, the more these pathways become wrapped and insulated by a myelin sheath. The thicker this sheath, the more the skill becomes ingrained in us. But there are different levels of practice, and the myelin sheath is built faster and thicker by what Coyle refers to as “deep practice”. Or as my friend said, “perfect practice”.

Deep practice is not just repeating an action over and over mindlessly. It is performing an act with intention, and looking for any mistake or shortcoming, and immediately breaking down that mistake into its component parts (chunks) and working through them step by step until they are perfect and only then moving on. It means constantly reviewing your performance for any weakness or errors and then working through them, fixing those errors step by step before moving on. Deep practice is not easy. It’s tiring, challenging and physically and/or mentally challenging. If you aren’t feeling challenged, you are not practicing or learning at your best.

To use a music analogy, you could play a song over and over, and even if you make a mistake you keep playing through the whole song. (And yes this is what sometimes happens and has to happen in a live performance.) But in deep practice you are constantly monitoring for errors, and when one happens you stop, analyze what went wrong, break it down to its component steps, practice the steps slowly until you feel that everything is right and then build up to tempo. Did you miss a note, hit the wrong note, was your timing wrong, or every note was right, but the phrasing didn’t feel right? Find and fix these errors throughout the song and your playing will improve. More importantly this type of practice builds stronger neural pathways, but it builds them faster and more efficiently than mindless repetition. We don’t like to admit or dwell on our mistakes, but deep practice forces us to constantly look for the smallest errors, analyze them, and fix them step by step.

Here are some ways to incorporate deep practice into photography

Deep practice is about analyzing the whole photographic process and looking at what worked and what didn’t work well.
Go beyond your comfort zone: Instead of only shooting what you’re good at, deep practice encourages you to tackle areas where you struggle. This could involve experimenting with challenging lighting conditions, unfamiliar subjects, or advanced techniques.
Embrace and learn from mistakes: Deep practice acknowledges that mistakes are an integral part of the learning process. When a photo doesn’t turn out as intended, instead of deleting it immediately, take time to analyze what went wrong and how you could improve next time.
Analyze and refine: Deep practice involves a cycle of experience, reflection, generalization, and application. After a photoshoot, don’t just move on to the next shoot. Review your images, identify areas for improvement, and think about how you can apply those lessons in future shoots.
Focus on specifics: Instead of trying to master everything at once, break down photographic skills into smaller, manageable chunks. For example, dedicate a session to practicing only composition, or focus solely on understanding and controlling aperture, shutter speed, or ISO.
Seek feedback and collaboration: Share your work with other photographers or mentors and actively solicit their constructive criticism. This allows you to gain fresh perspectives and identify weaknesses you might not have noticed on your own.
Experiment and be intentional: Don’t just “spray and pray” (taking many random photos hoping for a good one). Instead, be deliberate with each shot, considering the composition, lighting, and storytelling you want to achieve. Actively try different angles, perspectives, and techniques, even if they seem unconventional. A few good shots can be much more effective than hundreds of carelessly shot bad images.

In essence, deep practice in photography means being intentional about your learning, pushing yourself beyond your current abilities, actively seeking out and correcting mistakes, and relentlessly refining your skills through focused effort and reflection.

Deep practice doesn’t mean shooting constantly without reflection: Deep practice is not just about taking a large volume of photos, it’s about being intentional with each shot, analyzing results, and learning from mistakes. Simply taking many photos without critical evaluation will not lead to significant improvement.
More experience doesn’t mean better photographs: While experience is beneficial, it does not automatically equate to higher quality images. Deep practice emphasizes structured learning and intentional effort to hone skills. Instead, the biggest factor is knowing lighting and editing.
Deep practice does not require expensive equipment: It is not about the camera or lens; it is about the photographer’s ability to use their gear to create impactful images. Many renowned photographers started their careers using basic gear, honing their skills through practice and observation. Deep practice involves making the most of what you have.
Deep practice is not always about achieving technical perfection: The eye and mind do not create mental images in the same way a camera does, and a technically correct image isn’t always aesthetically pleasing to the human mind.
You don’t need to be in an exotic location to practice deep photography: Practicing locally allows you to revisit scenes under various weather conditions and lighting, offering diverse photographic opportunities.

Breaking down the steps of the Photographic Process

In deep practice we are looking for errors in our photography, and looking at what step or steps caused the problem. Coyle calls this breakdown into smaller components “chunking”. Master all of the individual chunks and you master the whole process. The problem is that too many photographers think of photography as a single act: finding a scene or subject and pushing the button. Let’s break photography into some smaller steps. While I’ve broken the process into lots of steps, many of these steps happen simultaneously, and with proper practice they become ingrained and we do them almost subconsciously.

Fortunately, with digital photography we have near instant feedback with our LCD on the back of the camera. Think of how much more difficult all of these considerations were in the days of film when we didn’t see the results for days or weeks. The learning curve for photography is much easier and faster with digital than it was with film.

Vision- How do you want your image to look? Is it high key or low key? Color or B&W? What feeling do you want to convey?
Composition What will you include or leave out? Where will you stand? What height will you shoot from?
Lens selection What focal length gives you the composition and perspective from that position that you want?
Lighting
- Time of day – We all know that light is more interesting around sunset or sunrise, and general harsh and less flattering at midday.
- Character- Is the light soft with overcast skies, or harsh unfiltered sunlight? Can you modify it if necessary?
- Color temperature – Different light sources produce different color temperatures. And the color of sunlight varies throughout the day or with clouds and shade.
- Natural, artificial or mixed – Again color balance becomes a factor. If you are lighting the scene yourself, what light source will you use (Continuous, strobe sppedlite) and how will you balance it with the ambient light? What modifiers (Umbrellas, softboxes, reflectors) will you use?
Aperture – Do you want a shallow depth of field, or everything in focus?
Exposure – The meter is a technical instrument and doesn’t take into account for your vision. Do want to increase or decrease from the meter’s recommendation?
Sharpness- What shutter speed can you hand hold safely? Will you be using a tripod?
Capturing or freezing movement- Do you want to freeze all motion or will you be panning, or even using intentional camera motion?
Image Processing – Even after shooting, think of all of the control processing gives you in determining the look of your image.
- Basic exposure and contrast
- Color
- Cropping
- Straightening
- Sharpening
- Local Adjustments (masks)
- Finishing touches such as vignettes and textures
- Printing

After a shoot review your images critically looking for the errors that kept the image from being good. Try to identify the step or steps that hurt the image, and figure out how to correct the problem and how to prevent repeating the error in the future. That can be one of the harder parts of practice. We don’t enjoy looking for or finding errors in our photography; it’s much easier to just delete the bad images without reflection or analysis. But that is probably the most important step in deep practice.

All of these steps sound like a lot to think about every time you take an image, but with proper practice they become instinctive. Eventually as you practice and integrate all of these steps, you will begin to visualize the final look of an image including processing even before you touch the shutter button. That’s a powerful feeing, but it doesn’t happen quickly or without proper practice. I’m just starting to feel that I can visualize the final result, and I’ve been shooting for 50 years. And I will also say that I’ve made more progress in visualization in 18 years of shooting digital, than in 32 years of shooting film. That’s the power of being able to see at least a preview of your shot immediately after shooting.

That’s plenty of information to think about for now. Or as one of my teachers used to say, we’ve probably reached the point of information overload. Next article I’ll try to give you some practical exercises to develop your deep practice skills and techniques.

June 1, 2026

Basic (and Beyond) Photography – Silhouettes

by Mickey Rountree

At the March meeting I was showing someone a book on composition and a silhouette caught his eye and he asked how that was done. So here is the easy answer, and then some more advanced ideas to play with. BTW, as a kid, the word silhouette got me eliminated from a spelling bee, so now I pay attention to spelling it correctly.

When these articles are converted to PDF and sized for the newsletter, the resolution and quality of the images is seriously degraded. If you would like to read the article and see the images as I did, you can see this article on my website at this link.

https://mickeyrountree.smugmug.com/Articles/Basic-Photography-Series/

First here is a basic definition. A silhouette is a solid, dark outline of an object or person seen against a lighter background, showcasing the subject’s shape without internal details.

Photographically we would place a subject in front of a white or light background, light the background, but not the subject and we would have a silhouette.

Here is a simple setup with two lights on the background and no light on the subject, and the resulting silhouette image.

Here the silhouette isn’t pure black and white because the flowers were somewhat translucent. To fix that in Lightroom (or Camera Raw) increase contrast, increase whites and highlights, and decrease blacks and shadows.

A silhouette doesn’t have to be pure black and white. Here the horse and rider at sunrise were silhouetted against the sky. To emphasize the silhouette effect, I decreased blacks and increased highlights. I did increase shadows to add detail to the surf.

But what if you didn’t light and shoot the subject as a silhouette or you want to do something more creative? We’ll start with this image and turn it into a silhouette.

Open the image in Photoshop, and in the contextual menu click select subject.

With the subject selected create a new layer by clicking the new layer icon or using the shortcut CTRL-Shift-N.

Make sure new the new blank layer is selected and the subject outline is still showing and go to Edit/fill/black.

If the background isn’t a pure white, select the subject layer, again click select subject on the contextual menu. Create another new layer with CTRL-Shift-N and go to select/inverse and then edit/fill/white.

Now we know how to create a silhouette from almost any image and still have the option of using the original color image.

Now the real fun begins. Since our silhouette is on its own layer above the original image we can add a layer mask, and reveal parts of the original image by painting on the mask with a black brush.

You might try creating a silhouette and add other images over it. Try different blend modes to vary the effect. The only limit is your own imagination, and I hope I’ve given you some ideas to try.

May 1, 2026

Photography Basics – Air Show Photography

by Mickey Rountree

I have shot several air shows back in the film days and now about 20 in digital. I’m certainly not the top authority, but here are a few tips I have found through trial and error.

https://mickeyrountree.smugmug.com/Articles/Basic-Photography-Series/

Don’t sit in bleachers or areas with tight packed seating. Take a folding chair, arrive early and stake out a location as close as possible to the fence line and near show center. Or skip the chair and roam around. If there is a special photographer’s option, it’s definitely worth the extra money.

If the air show is scheduled for 2 days, plan on attending both days. At night review your work from the first day, so you can correct your mistakes or get the shots you missed on day one. Also one day may have better weather than the other, or prettier skies. Even bad weather can work to your advantage. High humidity or even light mist can create visible cone shaped “vapors” as a jet approaches 700 MPH. They last a split second, so shoot at a high frame rate when conditions are right for this effect.

Panning is a critical skill for air show photography and you need to practice beforehand by shooting moving cars, bikes, birds or animals. Remember to pan smoothly with the aircraft, and don’t stop your panning movement as you shoot. Shooting at your camera’s highest frame rate will make it more likely that least one shot out of a sequence will be acceptably sharp. There will be lots of blurred shots, so remember it only takes one good shot.

For most photography, you’ll want a long lens, particularly for solo acts. A 100-400mm or 150-600mm lens is a good zoom range. For formations of three or more planes, a 70-200 on a crop sensor or with a 1.4 teleconverter may work. Image stabilization or vibration reduction can be a real help. Some lenses have a setting for image stabilization while panning. Forget the tripods and even monopods for planes in flight. You’ll be panning so quickly that hand held is the way to go. For static displays you may want wider angle lenses. If you have access before the crowds you may be able to use a tripod, but for safety don’t attempt to use it in a crowd.

Make sure your camera’s autofocus is set for moving subjects. On Canon cameras this is AI Servo and on Nikons it is AF-C. Make sure you are not on single shot focus mode, and double check that autofocus is not turned off on the lens. Every professional I know uses back button focus, where the focusing function is reassigned from the shutter button to a rear button. Check your manual for how to do this.

Make sure your camera and sensor are clean, your battery is fully charged, and your card is empty and formatted. Large capacity cards like 64 GB or 128GB can be very useful. Make sure you have extra cards and batteries. Many air show prohibit backpacks and camera bags, so make sure you can carry what you need on your person. A photo vest might be a good option.

For jets, you will want a fast shutter speed, 1/1000 sec or faster. Even at this shutter speed, you need to practice panning smoothly to minimize blur. At 600 MPH a jet is moving almost 1000 feet for second. At 1/1000 shutter speed it will move 1 foot and be blurred without smooth panning. I usually use shutter priority, 1/1000, and set an ISO that will allow f/8 or f/11. On a clear day this is usually ISO 200 or 400.

On a cloudy day I may even need ISO 800. For crossing shots where two jets are each flying 600MPH toward each other, closing speed is 2000 feet per second. You must be panning on one plane and begin firing on burst mode as they approach each other. If you wait until you see both planes in the viewfinder, you have probably already missed the shot. If you try to anticipate where the aircraft will cross and hold steady on that point both will be blurred. I will say that even with a fast frame rate, there is lots of luck involved.

For prop planes, you do not want a fast shutter speed, as it freezes all propeller movement and looks very unnatural. Something between 1/30 and 1/80 will create a full prop circle or close to it. At these speeds panning is essential, and even with practice you will still have lots of blurred shots. 1/100 to 1/200 will still show enough prop blur to be believable. I usually use shutter priority, 1/60 to 1/125, and set an ISO that will allow f/8 or f/11. On a clear day this is usually ISO 100 or 200. On a cloudy day I may even need ISO 400.

Helicopters may require even slower shutter speeds like 1/30 sec or slower to blur the rotor sufficiently. It will take a lot of tries to get one sharp shot. Both of these shots were handheld at 1/30 sec with a 500mm lens handheld. For these two good shots, there were a couple of hundred not so sharp images. Even with good technique expect a lot of rejects. Helicopters themselves vibrate a lot adding to the difficulty getting a sharp image.

“Heritage Flights” are modern jets flying in formation along with older prop planes. I usually use a shutter speed around 1/125 sec to maintain some prop blur. One common problem is that as the planes turn in formation they are flying at different relative speeds, and a perfect pan on one plane may let the other blur. Shoot a lot and hope for that one good shot.

If you know the shutter speed and aperture you want, setting the camera to manual mode, and choosing auto ISO is a good choice. Most cameras allow you to save a couple of custom settings and for airshows I have one setting saved for jets, and another for prop planes, so I can switch with a single click of a dial.

Exposure can be difficult, particularly if you are shooting into the sun, in bright gray overcast, or if the aircraft are in front of bright white clouds. Shoot some test shots and review before the flights that you are most interested in. I find I’m often at +2/3 or even + 1 full stop.

Non Photography Tips

HYDRATE! At most shows you are in direct sun for the duration and it is easy to dehydrate. At one air show I attended, there were several medical emergencies due to dehydration, and the temperature was only in the mid 80’s. Drink plenty of fluids before entering the venue. Most shows prohibit coolers and outside food and drink, so bring money for food and drinks from the vendors.

Use sun protection. Large hats, long sleeve shirts, sunscreen and sunglasses are all useful. Don’t forget sunscreen on the back of your hands. You don’t want sunscreen on your fingers or palms as this may damage your camera’s finish. For my last airshow I found some lightweight UV protective gloves that worked well without the greasy feel of sunscreen. Dressing in layers and wearing moisture wicking fabrics can keep you cool in hot weather or warm in cool weather. You will probably be on your feet most of the day. Wear comfortable, sturdy shoes.

The Opportunities

There are several air shows held in Georgia and Tennessee. The Great Tennessee Air Show is held every other year in June in Smyrna and usually features the Blue Angels. Memphis sometimes hosts an air show at Millington, featuring the Blue Angels. Wings Over North Georgia is usually in the Fall, but in 2026 it was the first weekend in April. Wings over North Georgia usually has a photographer’s pass option which includes access to a tent with seating and tables for prepping gear, as well as access to rehearsal runs the day before the actual airshow.

The Blue Angels practice on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in Spring and Summer at the Pensacola Naval Air Station Museum. It has never been crowded when I’ve been there. See the official web site for dates and times.

http://www.blueangels.navy.mil/

Military Aviation has calendars with upcoming airshows across the US and in other countries.

http://www.milavia.net

April 1, 2026

Photography Basics – Removing Dust Spots

by Mickey Rountree

There is a relatively new feature that came out in the July 2025 Lightroom update for automatically removing dust spots with basically a single click. And since it’s in Lightroom, it’s also in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), including the camera raw filter in Photoshop.

https://mickeyrountree.smugmug.com/Articles/Basic-Photography-Series/

This feature is found in the development module. Click on the removal tool, which looks like a pencil eraser. At the bottom of the box dust removal is found under distraction removal. While you don’t have to, I always check use generative AI and I get consistently good results. Below is the Lightroom interface on the left and Camera Raw on the right.

Check the apply box and Lightroom (or camera raw) will search your image for dust spots, automatically remove them and draw a white circle to show each spot it removed. The white circles are hard to see in these screen captures, so I circled them in red.

There is also an option to check to visualize dust and it show a high contrast black and white version of the image with spots circled.

After a couple of years of doing digital photography I learned how to clean my sensors, and I check them regularly and clean if necessary. I’m also very careful about changing lenses in bad conditions. But here is an older image with lots of dust.

If Lightroom removes something that you don’t want removed, right click on the circle and choose delete. If you don’t want any dust spots removed, simply uncheck “apply”. Since this is Lightroom or camera raw, this is nondestructive editing and no pixels are actually destroyed. The program is simply creating a set of instructions to replace the spots, while leaving the original image untouched.

If the program missed a spot that you want to remove, use the size slider to adjust the size of your cursor and click on the spot you want to remove.

While I haven’t had to use it that often the automatic dust spotting seems to work very well and it’s a real time saver.

February 23, 2026

Photography Basics – Removing Reflections

by Mickey Rountree

There is a new feature in the October 2025 update to Lightroom for removing reflections. And since it’s in Lightroom, it’s also in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), including the camera raw filter in Photoshop.

https://mickeyrountree.smugmug.com/Articles/Basic-Photography-Series/

Adobe recommends removing reflections before doing any other editing, but it has worked for me after editing. In Lightroom, choose the remove tool that looks like a pencil eraser. Directly below that make sure that “use generative AI” is checked. Expand the distractions panel and expand reflections. To run reflection removal first select preview, standard or best for the quality, and then click apply. The filter will run fastest in preview mode and be slowest in best mode. You can run preview for a quick look and then run best mode if you like it and want the best detail.

The interface is virtually identical in the camera raw filter in Photoshop, or opening an image in camera raw.

After running the effect, you can use the slider at the bottom of the panel. The +100 setting shows the image with reflection removal complete. The “0” setting shows the original image without reflection removal and the “-100” setting shows what the program thought was the reflection. You can use the slider to vary how much or little reflection you want removed.

The reflection removal can work shooting out of a window or car window, or outside looking in. It works best if there are defined reflections and an obvious subject on the other side of the glass. Think of the times when you wish you had your polarizing filter with you.

I had very few examples to show because I usually just avoid shooting when there are strong reflections. However, one day I was shooting in Rockwood TN and reflections actually were part the image I wanted.

Below you can see it removed a lot of the reflections, but left some of the reflected buildings. It seems if the reflection is very sharp it sometimes can’t decide if it’s subject or reflection.

Here’s a similar shot, but it left more of the building, especially over face of the mannequin.

It did a really amazing job on the before and after shots below. Also I ran this on a fully processed image despite Adobe’s recommendation and it worked beautifully.

In this backed off version it worked just as well, and again this was done on a fully edited image.

To me the results below are nothing short of amazing.

While I think it’s still best to avoid reflections when you can, or try to remove or minimize them with a polarizer, this tool may just rescue some of images that you would like if there just weren’t all of those reflections.

February 1, 2026

Photography Basics – Creating and using Actions

by Mickey Rountree

As I usually do, I’m calling this article Beyond Basic because it involves Photoshop rather than just Lightroom.

https://mickeyrountree.smugmug.com/Articles/Basic-Photography-Series/

When you have things that you do frequently in Photoshop, or maybe things that are complex and time consuming that you are likely to do again more than once actions can be a real timesaver. In Photoshop an action is just a method of recording a series of steps in Photoshop, saving them and being able to repeat them with a single click. One of the bonuses is that even relatively simple actions happen much faster than performing the individual steps one by one. Also you’ll see plugins run without opening the full graphical interface, and this really speeds things up.

First we’ll learn how to create an action by recording a very simple action. Then I’ll show you a couple of more complex actions and some possible problems I’ve found and how to work with them.

First make sure actions are visible by going to window and be sure that there is a check next to actions. Everyone seems to lay out their work space differently, but I dock the button for actions on the palette to the right. Clicking the arrow icon for actions opens the expanded actions palette and shows any custom actions groups you have created.

To create a new action, open an image in Photoshop, and click on the arrow icon for actions. Then click on the three lines and choose create new action. If you like you can create a set to put icons in. I have a set of actions I use for portraits and a different set I use for scenics. That makes it easy to find the action you need.

$C:\Users\micke\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\create new action.jpg$

Once you choose create new action you will be asked for a name for the action and which set to add it to. After naming the action, click on record. At this point Photoshop will record and save all the steps you do until you tell it to stop.

Here I’m going to create a very simple action to open camera raw and add a vignette. This is something I do on almost every image so having an action is a real time saver. I’ll open camera raw either by going to filter/camera raw or using the shortcut CTRL-SHIFT-A. Drop down to the effects panel, and drag the vignette slider left to -12. (This is a very subtle vignette, so I also have created an action to vignette at -24 which is much stronger.) Click OK to create the vignette and close camera raw. Note that you could actually change lots of sliders and save that as an action, but here we only want a vignette.

After camera raw has closed, click on the lower left stop button and your action is created and saved. At this point it’s good to try your action on a couple of images to be sure it works correctly.

Here is an image before and after running the vignette 12 action.

Once you have recorded an action or a set of actions I recommend that you save them someplace where you be able to reload them if you have to reinstall Photoshop or install Photoshop on a new machine. Click the three bar menu, and then save actions.

Photoshop will ask you where to save them. I keep an external drive with all of my installation files so that’s where mine go. Once you’ve saved an action you can also share it with friends.

There are two ways to load an action if you are reinstalling Photoshop or someone has shared an action with you. With Photoshop open click the three-line menu and select load action. Photoshop will open a window for you browse to the actions location.

Or with Photoshop closed, browse to the action and double click it and Photoshop will open and load the action.

$C:\Users\micke\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\Load actions 2.jpg$

One plugin that I use frequently is Tonal Contrast, a part of Color Efex in the DXO NIK Suite. I have color Efex set to save its changes to a new layer allowing me to adjust opacity and masking later. When I created an action to run Tonal Contrast everyone thing worked as I created the action. But when I ran the action, Tonal Contrast was run on the base layer rather than creating a new layer. The answer was to re-record the action, but add a copy layer before opening and running Tonal Contrast. I have since found the same problem in other plugins that I normally set to save their changes to a new layer. For whatever reason Photoshop doesn’t allow the plugin to create a new layer, so when you create an action using one of these plugins just create a copy layer first. Below are the steps of my action, and you’ll see that I went ahead and created a mask as part of the action.

Here are the layers after running the action.

And here are the before and after images.

In a previous article I described how to create a pencil sketch effect. (https://mickeyrountree.smugmug.com/Articles/Basic-Photography-Series/Basic-Photography-94-Creating-a-Sketch) It takes several steps and I don’t do it often enough to remember all of the steps, so this is a perfect opportunity to create an action. Below you can see the action expanded.

And here you see all of the layers created by running the action. The last image is the final effect.

Whenever you find yourself doing the same steps over and over, or doing an effect that takes multiple layers and complex settings that you may not always remember, don’t forget the power of an action. The few minutes you invest in creating an action will save lots of time and frustration later.

January 1, 2026

Photography Basics – Removing People From a Scene

by Mickey Rountree

As I usually do, I’m calling this article Beyond Basic because it involves Photoshop rather than just Lightroom.

https://mickeyrountree.smugmug.com/Articles/Basic-Photography-Series/

I hate having people in my photo that don’t belong there, or add to the image. I will usually will try to wait (im)patiently until people are out of my scene if at all possible, but sometimes there are so many people moving in and out of a scene that there is always someone in the way. And the more popular the photo location, the bigger the problem. I did have a hard time coming up with images for this article, because I normally wait until the people are gone, or I just don’t take the shot.

I used to use a combination of content aware delete and cloning, but now there is a better, easier and faster method. This is the remove distractions/people option of the AI remove tool. In theory it goes over the image and finds and selects all people that it doesn’t consider part of the main subject. It’s the cousin of the “remove wires and cables” from my last article. Sometimes it works incredibly well, and even when it doesn’t it’s pretty easy to manually select the people it misses. Since I originally wrote this the remove people option has been added to the rome tool in Lightroom.

Here is a sunrise shot at a popular beach in Acadia National Park Maine. And it’s no surprise there are other photographers in my shot, especially as I’m shooting with a wide angle lens.

Just as in my last article on removing wires, go to the toolbar and select the remove tool.

Then on the top options bar select find distractions/people.

At his point AI searches through the image and selects any people it thinks are distractions and not part of the main subject and highlights them in red. Here it has done a really nice job. Hit enter and once again prepare to be amazed. The people are usually replaced very cleanly and if necessary the program will use AI to create replacement image where a person was.

Here is another example of a street scene in Santa Barbara. I was using my 2 second timer and that was all the time it took for these two people to walk into my scene.

$C:\Users\micke\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\Santa Barbara -0426-HDR.JPG$

Here is the image after using the remove people option. Notice that not only are the people gone, but AI has generated a whole chair where the people had been. Just a year or so ago this would have required some tricky cloning to replace the chair. Now one click and done.

$C:\Users\micke\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\Santa Barbara -0426-HDR-Edit remove people.jpg$

I originally shot this image to show how many photographers were out at sunrise in Acadia National park. The people were the subject, but let’s see what happens if I try to remove them.

$C:\Users\micke\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\Thunder Hole Acadia-1656-HDR-Edit.jpg$

When I first selected remove people only the group on the left were selected. I’m guessing the program assumed the people to the right were part of the subject.

Until you press enter the remove tool is still active, and acts like a brush. Here I painted over the other photographers to select them.

$C:\Users\micke\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\Remove tool people manual selection.jpg$

After I hit enter you can see how cleanly they were removed.

From now on, whenever there are people I don’t want in my shot, I may wait a minute or two, but if it looks like it’s going to be a long wait I can just take the shot knowing I can remove them later. I know there may be some purists among you out there who are gasping at the thought of removing people from an image. The purist in me just says “They don’t really belong there so I’m just making the image look as it should have without the people.”

December 1, 2025

Photography Basics – Removing Lines and Cables

by Mickey Rountree

As I usually do, I’m calling this article Beyond Basic because it involves Photoshop rather than just Lightroom. This technique doesn’t normally involve layers, but I’ll show you an example where using a layer and mask is necessary.

In the bad old days of film power lines were always a problem. We either had to compose to miss them, even if that hurt the rest of the composition, just not take the shot, or live with the wires because we couldn’t remove them.

Now there is a new AI powered tool in Photoshop that with just one click goes on a search and destroy mission to remove lines and cables. Most of the time it does an incredible job, much better than I do manually. Even when it’s not perfect, it usually takes only minor work to fix.

https://mickeyrountree.smugmug.com/Articles/Basic-Photography-Series/

Here I’ve selected an image with lots of power lines. These would be tedious to remove manually, and always seemed to leave artifacts that needed more work.

To use this tool, go to your tools palette and select the remove tool.

Then go to the top options bar and select find distractions/wires and cables, and prepare to be amazed.

I have a fairly fast computer, but this is a 50Mb in 16 bit depth, so it took about 90 seconds to run. Smaller images or 8 bit depth will run faster.

$C:\Users\micke\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\wires and cables working.jpg$

Here are the power lines removed. Once the cables were removed, it was easy to remove the poles using the remove tool.

This was an example of when layers were needed. When I first removed the wires, it also removed the ladder going down the left side of the tower. To fix that I first created a copy layer, and ran the remove wires on the copy layer. Then I used a mask to paint back in the missing ladder.

This is one of my favorite barns near Wartrace, TN, and the power lines are always a problem.

And here it is after using the remove tool to remove them in just one click. It may look like it would be easy to do this manually, but I’ve done it both ways and the remove tool looks much better and works faster.

Here two more examples from the Palouse.

And here is the final image with the power poles and fence posts removed.

$C:\Users\micke\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\Palouse 2025-7008-Edit glow.jpg$

If you do much landscape or even urban landscape photography you are going to love this tool.

October 15, 2025

Photography Basics – Photographing the Palouse

by Mickey Rountree

The Palouse is a region of rolling hills and deep soils located in southeastern Washington and parts of Idaho. The hills are composed of wind-blown loess soil. This loess cover spans over 50,000 square kilometers across the Columbia Plateau. The unique landscape is a result of wind-blown silt and dust deposited over tens of thousands of years. The Palouse is a major agricultural region, known for its high wheat production. Other crops grown in the area include canola, lentils, barley, and chick peas. The fertile soil and semi-arid climate make the region ideal for these crops.

There are three main “Towns” in the Palouse area. I stayed in Colfax which is about 65 miles south of Spokane, the best airport to fly into. Pullman is only 14 miles southeast of Colfax and has much more to choose from. You’ll probably drive a hundred miles or more each day, mostly on gravel or dirt roads. If you’re renting a vehicle be sure to get an SUV or pickup for ground clearance. 4WD is optional, but we used it a couple of times on steep muddy hills.

https://mickeyrountree.smugmug.com/Articles/Basic-Photography-Series/

Research and Planning

I searched for photographers who have photographed the Palouse and looked at their work to see what images are possible and if they have any recommendations. You will find several photographers offering workshops at different times of the year.

Teri Lou is a photographer who has created a detailed set of six maps showing points of interest throughout the Palouse area. These maps will save you a lot of time and frustration.

(https://palousemap.blogspot.com/)

I was also able to find a website where a photographer listed his favorite 25 locations, including GPS coordinates. Before I left home I had all of these plugged into GPS so we immediately had some places to shoot as we drove out of Spokane. (https://muralipix.com/2020/06/28/my-top-25-spots-in-the-palouse-as-of-june-2020-2/)

I used Weather Underground to check historical records for the month of May going back several days. As my departure date approached I was frequently checking the ten-day forecast to get an idea of what clothing to pack.

Where to Stay

I stayed in Colfax because it is in the center of the Palouse. It has two motels, three restaurants, a grocery store and a gas station. Except for the gas station, it’s like a time warp to the 60’s.

Pullman Washington is about 14 miles south of Colfax and has more Restaurants and Hotels since it’s a College town (Washington State University)

Moscow Idaho is in the Southeast part of the Palouse and has lots of hotels and restaurants, but it is at the extreme edge of the Palouse and that means more driving.

When to go

Late May to mid-June is planting time and the fields will be green with new crops. Late July and August is harvest time and fields will be golden with ripe wheat. In October you will see some Fall Color, but keep in mind that there aren’t a lot of trees in the Palouse. November through March are likely to be snowy and very cold.

Important Rules

There are not many convenience stores or restaurants in the small towns, so carry snacks and a cooler with drinks.

Sleep when you can, and maybe nap midday when the light isn’t great.

Get gas when you can. Many of the “towns” in the area don’t even have a gas station

GO WHEN YOU CAN! See Above. Carry some TP

SHOOT IT NOW! Things move from day to day or light changes.

Respect the land, the farms and the farmers. Don’t trespass or walk through plowed or planted fields. Don’t go into barns or other buildings (even abandoned buildings) unless you are invited. Remember you’re the visitor here; for them it’s their livelihood. Bad mannered photographers have left bad impressions and given photographers a bad reputation, so DON’T BE THAT GUY.

Equipment

Obviously you’ll need at least one camera Body and maybe a backup body or even a good cell phone camera. You may need a range of lenses depending on your style. I shot the whole trip with a 28-300mm Tamron lens. This also minimized lens changing which is important with all of the dust blowing around. I also had a 17-40mm in case I needed something really wide (I didn’t). A really long lens like a 100-400mm or 150-600mm might be useful shooting from Steptoe Butte, but it was closed this spring when I was there.

This is a great place for B&W Infrared, so I carried a converted Canon M50 and 24-70mm equivalent lens. Carry lots of extra batteries and cards. Remember it’s remote and it could be a long drive back to the hotel.

TRIPOD!

Carry cleaning Equipment because you won’t believe the dust and you’ll drive lots of dirt and gravel roads. I bring sensor cleaning supplies since I feel confident doing that myself.

Bring state and local maps (I found a Colfax area map on Amazon) Palouse Photography maps and of course GPS.

The Role of Luck

The more I shoot travel and landscapes the more I find Luck plays a role. You may be in a location at the wrong time of day, the light is bad, the weather is working against you, there are crowds to contend with, and the list goes on and on.

Luck can be good or bad. When luck is with you be grateful and shoot until you know you have the shot. When your luck is bad try to have a plan B or C, and be prepared to move on when there is no good shot. One of my friends says his goal is always to make the best shot ever taken of a location. My more realistic goal is to take the best shot possible given the existing conditions.

Wind Farms

There are about 60 wind turbines in the Palouse near Oakesdale and companies are lobbying to build an additional 80-100 turbines in the area. They can definitely ruin a skyline shot and are not part of the natural beauty that draws photographers. You can usually work around them by moving to change your angle. If all else fails, they are usually fairly easy to remove in Photoshop.

Steptoe Butte

Many of the iconic Palouse images you see on the internet are shot from Steptoe Butte State Park. It provides high elevation and sweeping vistas. When I visited it was closed due to the road washing out. It is scheduled to reopen in the Fall of 2025.

Palouse Falls

As a break from barns and farms head over to Palouse Falls near LaCrosse WA. I like shooting waterfalls on overcast days, but bad luck kicked in and we got a bright sunny cloudless day. I didn’t anything great, so it will definitely be on the list for the next trip to the area.

What will you see?

This is farm country so obviously you’ll see barns and more barns. The barn designs are quite different from what we’re used to in Tennessee. In addition, there are old farmhouses and abandoned buildings, silos and grain elevators and farming machinery. The classic Palouse look is rolling hills planted in wheat or yellow canola flowers. You may even get lucky and see a crop duster plane or two.

I’m not a wildlife photographer, but while I was there I saw hawks, rabbits, coyotes and pups, pheasants and mule deer. I saw moose crossing signs, but no moose. In warm weather watch for snakes, especially the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake, the only venomous snake in the region.

After seeing over 100 barns in 6 days they all began to run together. I tried to save GPS info when I remembered but my camera kept turning GPS off. It would be good to save good locations into your GPS for future trips.

Amazingly, I shot less than 2000 images in six days. This is not due to lack of subjects, but due to lots of driving between locations. After my first pass of editing everything looked plain and too ”documentary”, so I added lots of effects, glows, textures, and varied cropping to get something that felt more unique and personal. I would encourage you to work on editing your images to develop your own style and vision.

October 15, 2025

(Slightly Beyond) Photography Basics – Creating a Pencil Sketch Effect

Mickey Rountree

As I usually do, I’m calling this article Beyond Basic because it involves Photoshop and layers. If the idea of layers frightens you, just follow along step by step and you can make this work.

https://mickeyrountree.smugmug.com/Articles/Basic-Photography-Series/

We are going to take the normal photographic image below:

And turn it into the pencil sketch below.

Start by opening an image in Photoshop or by sending it to Photoshop from Lightroom. This will be our background image.

Duplicate this layer by entering CTRL J (CMD J if you use a Mac)

Enter CTRL U (CMD U) to desaturate this image. This will bring up the adjustment panel below. Drag the saturation all the way to the left or -100 and hit OK. We now have a Black and white layer.

Duplicate this layer by entering CTRL J (CMD J)

With this new layer selected enter CTRL I (CMD I) to invert it.

Right click on this layer to the right of the thumbnail and select convert to smart object. What this does is allow us to come back to the filter we apply next and change the value until we get the effect we like.

Go to filter/Other/minimum and in the dialog box select 2 PX and preserve squareness.

Change the blend mode of this layer to color dodge

At this point we have a basic black and white pencil sketch. Double clicking on the word “minimum” opens up the minimum filter and we can change the value. I find something between 1 and five usually works, but go ahead and experiment. Here I have used 1, 2, 4, and 6 to show how the image changes. If you like the Black and white sketch go to layers/flatten image and save it.

I usually like to take it a step further and add some color back into the image. To do this I first add a levels adjustment layer. Go to layer/adjustment layer/levels.

Moving the shadow, midtone and highlight cursors will change the brightness of the image and controls how the color layer we add next will look.

Go back to the background layer and use CTRL J (CMD J) to duplicate it. Drag this layer to the top of the layers and change the blend mode to color.

Adjust the levels sliders and the opacity of the color layer until you like the look. Go to layers/flatten image and save your image with a new name. If you think you will use this effect often, you might record all of these steps as an action, so you can do all of these steps with a single click. Actions can be tricky and can be well beyond basic, but do a Google search to learn how.

While I use this effect often on portraits, it works on other types of images as well.