Well, it's been an interesting few days for me in Townsville up here in North Queensland. Mid last week we became aware of the possibility of a cyclone developing in the Coral Sea west of Townsville. Cyclones are a common occurrence in the north of Australia at this time of year, so at the start of spring I had begun to make basic preparations such as removing rubbish from around my yard and ensuring that my battery lamps and torches were working. Over the end of the week and the weekend, I did a further clean-up around the yard, topped up my cyclone supplies of tinned and non-perishable food and batteries and packed the outdoor furniture into the garage. Cyclone Debbie was born and it w
So, after so long using Adobe Photoshop Elements (first 13 and now 15), I have finally decided to have a go at using Masking, after watching a tutorial on it. I've selected one of my old photos from 2013, when I got my first DSLR. It is a set of stone steps on Mt Stuart, Townsville, Qld AU, but because the steps are shaded, the sunny background is blown out. At the time I didn't have a tripod with me, or ND filters. Obviously, the aim is to get the settings right in-camera in the first place, but that's not always possible. I have selected areas and selectively edited the lighting or colour before, but once the file is saved, you are unable to change any of those settings without going t