Los Osos Oaks

Today was the first day of my Photoshop for Photographers workshop back home near San Luis Obispo, CA. I taught photography workshops for over three years at the Lepp Institute in Los Osos, CA which is now the Light Photographic Workshops.

Today's curriculum covered Basic Workflow, Adjustment Layers, Layer Masks, and an afternoon field trip to the Los Osos Oaks Preserve to do some HDR and Panoramas.

I like HDR when it's done correctly and today's bright California skies and woodsy shadows were an ideal mix for showcasing HDR the right way. This image is an HDR compilation of four different exposures that captures detail in the shadows, midtones, and highlights. It was compiled using Photomatix with some further optimization in Photoshop CS5.