These tutorials don’t cover how to capture an image in HDR – the bracketing process and the merging in the HDR software is well covered elsewhere. I’ve focused more on the overall thought process, and attention to details that get overlooked when you tonemap your images.

The process begins with the raw images, preparing them for the best possible results in the merge process. And, the process continues after the tonemapping – again, the HDR/tonemapping process is just a step on the way to taking your images beyond the ordinary. Enjoy!

Part 1 – What happens before the HDR merging starts

HDR – Beyond The Ordinary (Pt. 1) from Mike Hoffman on Vimeo.

Part 2 – What happens after the HDR merging is over – you’re not done yet.

HDR – Beyond The Ordinary (Pt. 2) from Mike Hoffman on Vimeo.

Part 3 – Post-processing and cleaning up your images is a major part of making the results extraordinary.

HDR – Beyond The Ordinary (Pt. 3) from Mike Hoffman on Vimeo.

Thanks, and I hope you find these tutorials useful!

After 4 days of Photoshop World, you’d think that would be enough – 96 hours of non-stop creative go, go, go… but no! A few die hard individuals stuck together, and stuck it out for another day of post-PSW activity. Leading the effort was well-known PSW personality and de facto security agent, Robert Vanelli (“V”), and his son Alec, accompanied by Jeff Tamagini, Michael Green and some of the FJ Westcott team, and several others, myself included. We started our Saturday morning with breakfast at the Rosen Centre hotel, where we talked about the things we had learned during the PSW conference, and the projects that might result from our inspiration.

Then, we headed over to Kissimmee, where we visited the Old Town attraction area. Old town is an eclectic and historic area with a plethora of shops, restaurants, bars, and rides, with a very nostalgic feel. We arrived early, as most places were just opening, and didn’t have to contend with many crowds as we worked our way through the area.

We strolled through the town, cameras at the ready; a gang of photographers spreading fear throughout the land. We even stopped midway through our stroll to have a lighting workshop!

I stuck around only until high noon, then had to make tracks for home. Those who stayed were treated to the weekly classic car show; I’m sure there were some nice photographs to be had there! But for me, that will have to wait until next time. I did get some more interesting photos, though:

Thanks to “V for pulling us all together! I hope this becomes a PSW tradition; I think it was an excellent way to wind up the week in a low pressure, fun and interesting way. It was great to hang out with “V” and his son Alec, a chip off the old block:

I never did get to post a proper summary of day three of Photoshop World. Call it creative exhaustion, call it happy fatigue, call it a preference to play around in Lightroom and Photoshop with the >1000 images I took during and after the conference. But, regardless, here is a rundown of the final day, and some thoughts on this Photoshop World.

Let the sunshine in!

After Thursday’s deluge, with tornado warnings, nonstop rain and the constant rumble of thunder, it was most excellent to awaken Friday morning to sunny skies and pleasant temperatures. The morning sessions kicked off bright and early, and I was able to attend illuminating classes with Moose Peterson, RC Concepcion, Rick Sammon, and in particular I found a lot of new inspiration and opportunity from Rod Harlan, in his Photoshop Video for Photographers class. You can bet you’ll be seeing some of that fruit here in the near future!

In between morning classes, there was a last and final chance to attend the expo. As in the previous two days, the Westcott booth simply stole the show! Everyone is posting their shots of the creatively-made-up models on the inventive sets; I thought it would be interesting to post a snapshot made on my iPhone of the other side of the lenses. The crowds were non-stop every day!

Once classes were done, it was time for the wrap up, and the presentation hall was packed!

Traditionally during the wrap up, Scott yields the stage to some of the instructors for a few minutes of final inspiration. This year, it was all newcomers, but the presentation and talk by Dave Black was stunning – he moved many (including himself) to tears, bounced back with tremendous excitement and ended by cartwheeling across the stage. We gave him a well-deserved standing ovation. What an amazing man, and a presentation I will remember for a long time!

And then it was over…

Or was it? So much learning, so much inspiration – I’ll be working with the ideas that PSW generated in my head for many months to come! The challenge will be to create a list of projects and ideas, based on my notes, so that I don’t forget about some of the content I saw and learned and experienced.

And, as if four days (including the preconference) wasn’t enough, I joined Robert Vanelli, Jeff Tamagini, some of the Westcott team, and a few other hardcore photographers for yet another day’s photo safari at the Old Town area of Kissimmee. Watch this space for images from that event as well!

In retrospect:

I’ve been to 5 Photoshop World conferences, and I keep coming back – because each time I do, I learn more, do more, and just plain get more out of it. By the end of the week, my brain is bursting with ideas and knowledge! But, this Photoshop World was different in some ways from the past events, in more of an evolutionary way that revolutionary, but here are some things I noticed.

The PSW iPad/iPhone app was just incredible. No more out of date PDF printouts, tattered show guides, or scrambling to figure out where I was going next. The few people at the conference who didn’t have iPhones or iPads (and there weren’t that many!) were visibly envious. The app was a lifesaver, and kudos to the developer, Shawn Welch!!

In fact, I’ll make a slight plug here – Shawn has a book out on creating iOS apps, and it was available in the Peachpit bookstore at PSW:

Social media continues to play an increasing role at PSW. From the preconference “Tweetup” by the pool (which was a full-on event in itself) to the nonstop flood of posts on Twitter (hash tag #PSW) throughout the four days, twitter was a great way to keep tabs on the events, the people and the happenings. People back home expressed their envy of we lucky attendees on Facebook, and many people have posted and continue to post some of their best images in the Flickr group for Photoshop World 2011 Orlando.

The Instructors at PSW have always been top notch, and they just keep adding more world-class talent! It seems like there were more tracks, more choices, and more learning to be had throughout the conference. There were several new faces, including Frank Doorhof, Jeremy Cowart, Clint Mautner, and Dave Black, and the new guys really brought their top game! I think the long time PSW instructors were challenged to step up their game too, in order to stay relevant. What a great competition, and the benefits all go to the PSW attendees!

The PSW Alumni have always been recognized by their little badge ribbons, but this year the NAPP folks paid special attention to the multi-year alumni – the folks who keep coming back for more. It was a very nice gesture, and greatly appreciated. Thank you, NAPP!

The Expo Exhibition Floor is always one of the highlights of the conference, but as mentioned before, the FJ Westcott booth just outright stole the show. They had a total of five separate impromptu “studios", complete with full lighting and the most creative models you could want. The Flickr Group will be buzzing for days with images from these shoots, and Westcott is sponsoring a contest, as well – with the winners published in the Westcott catalog!

Outside of the Westcott booth, though, there was still plenty to see and do. And learn! The education was nonstop, and there were several theaters with full schedules, as well as smaller demo classes at the various booths.

All in all, Photoshop World is part shenanigans, part education, and, as I believe Dave Black put it, part “summer camp.” The whole is much greater than the sum of its individual parts, and the whole this year was a whole lot, indeed.

And so, as we head out into the real world, armed with new tools, new ideas, and new ambitions, we also say, “See you in Vegas!”

The day started early, with a crowd forming at the crack of dawn to stand in line for tickets to Midnight Madness. More on that later, but it is a typical Kelby prank that you have to stand in line at 7am for tickets to an even that take place from 10:00pm to midnight on the same day!

Once the day got started, it was nothing but first class training all day, interspersed with humor and wisdom from the instructors. Joe McNally had gremlins in his computer in the first class, and he blamed it on the weather. But in the same breath, he blamed the weather on himself, claiming his ethnic heritage required thunderclouds from the shores of Ireland to follow him wherever he goes. And, when Jeff Schewe proclaimed, "thou shalt soft-proof thy images!" the accompanying flash of lightning and clap of thunder inspired me to make sure that this is one bit of advice I will follow… And, at the end of each session, was that a thunderous round of applause, or was it actually thunder?

Following the morning classes (which ran until 1:00pm) there was time for the expo, where you could get lots more training (surprise!). There was a seemingly endless rotation of excellent classes in the expo theaters, from the likes of Dave Black, Jim DiVitale, Fay Sirkis, Matt Kloskowski, Dave Cross, Corey Barker… the list goes on and on. And, of course, what Photoshop World would be complete without a live recording of Photoshop User TV? Point. Choppy.

Once again, the big hit of the day was the Westcott booth, where the inventive and inspiring interactive studio shoot continued, with great models and great instructors:

Fortunately I was able to grab a little bit of lunch during the expo, because once the afternoon classes started, it was nonstop Photoshop World goodness until the day was (quite literally) over. Several more great training classes, and then it was off to one of the main auditoriums for the Art of Digital Photography. The panel of 8 of the most outstanding photographers and artists kept a standing-room-only crowd mesmerized for two hours, with examples of their work and insights from behind the scenes.

Once the show was over, there was no time to rest. After a quick trip to the room to drop off some gear and schwag, it was off to Midnight Madness. As the crowd gathered, semi-official NAPP security personality Robert Vanelli (known to most as "V") kept the waiting masses busy with hula hoops and juggling contests.

At 10pm sharp, the doors opened, and in we all went for two hours of fun and farce, in which we were promised that we "would learn absolutely no Photoshop whatsoever." However, this turned out to be not true, as I did learn that Photoshop has an audio annotation tool!

The shenanigans at Midnight Madness? I can’t reveal this, you have to see it for yourself! But, I will say that there was silliness, fun, and of course, Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

By the end of the day, I had just enough energy left to get back to my room, plug in my camera card and pull my images into Lightroom. The almost imperceptible hum of the laptop as it imported the images lulled me softly to sleep, at the end of a long and satisfying Photoshop World Day.

Wednesday began early for the attendees of Photoshop World, as everyone scrambled to shake of the sleep, grab a little coffee and nourishment, and head over to the Convention Center for the opening keynote and presentation. This year, alumni with 4+ conferences under their belt were invited to a special "alumni lounge," presented with complementary Speed Passes (to get us in to the front rows of all closes and even the keynote), and also challenged to take photographs of the keynote event and submit them as part of a contest. A big thank you to the NAPP staff for recognizing this elite and somewhat crazy group!

The keynote started right on time, as usual, and this year’s theme was fashion design – and if you’ve been to Photoshop World before, you can imagine the kooky things that Scott Kelby and his team dreamed up for this event. I won’t go into any details, so as not to spoil things for the PSW Vegas attendees in the fall, but I will say that the opening included some of the most unusual fashions I’ve seen, as well as Scott Kelby taking the stage amid red-flag-waving men, with thousands of balloons dropping from the ceiling.

Following the opening farce, the show became even sillier, as Johnny L was first swarmed by the models with the strange dresses, then conducted a live poll for a Photoshop Extreme competition, and Jeff Schewe attempted to enter the competition with an alleged entry by Scott Kelby. Now that was a sight to see!!

Johnny L and Brian O’Neil Hughes presented what to me was a slightly disappointingly short display of some new technology (don’t get me wrong, the technology was great, I just wanted to see more of it!). A significant tidbit of news, for me was that the JDI program will be revived with a vengeance for the next version(s) of Photoshop. After Johnny’s presentation, we saw the Guru awards presented (congratulations to all the winners!) and then it was off to class for the balance of the morning.

At 1:00 the expo opened, and there was plenty to see and do – from the almost non-stop presentations, demos and free classes, to the tremendously popular and wildly inventive Westcott interactive live model shoot exhibit.

Last, but certainly not least, Bert Monroy’s Times Square hyperrealist digital painting was a sight not to be missed. Over 5 years in the making, this image was 5 feet tall and almost 30 feet wide. The level of detail was incredible!

Now the day is done, and it’s time for those of us with party passes to head over to B.B. King’s House of Blues for the PSW Party. Then? Tomorrow starts early!

The pre-conference workshops kicked off in the afternoon, and this year I elected to take the precon for Real World Concert Photography with Alan Hess and Scott Diussa. These two gentlemen have been at this for quite some time, and had the war stories to go along with the photos they displayed. After a quick run-through of gear and settings, they proceeded to take turns explaining the many lessons they have learned through years of music business photography, and all the attendees benefited from their experience. Midway through the class, we broke and headed down to the expo hall where Scott Kelby’s band, Big Electric Cat, proceeded to run through an extended set designed to give we photographers-in-training a chance to try out what we had learned.

The concert was great fun, and before it was over, even Scott Diussa got up and rocked the house along with the band. All in all it was a great time, both educational and fun!

After the precon, it was all about time crunch! Off to dinner with some of my NAPP forum friends, then out to the NAPP “tweetup” by the pool.

Meanwhile, we who took the Concert Photography precon had to upload our best image before 10:00 for judging during the keynote tomorrow. Lots of fun and shenanigans, and now it’s time to get some rest before the keynote and official opening of the conference tomorrow. If only the internet connection were faster here

One of the series I’ve posted deals with Smart Objects in Photoshop – a feature that was added several versions back, and provides a tremendous amount of flexibility and power. Here is a summary of the Smart Object tutorials, I hope you’ll explore them and learn a little more about our favorite pixel pushing program:

• Smarter Editing with Smart Objects
• Smart Objects, Raw Flexibility
• Picture Package with Smart Objects
• Exposure Blending with Smart Objects
• Smart Objects, Smarter Filters
• Nested Smart Objects (Part 1)
• Nested Smart Objects (Part 2)
• Max Stacks with Photoshop Smart Objects
• Noise Reduction with Smart Object Stack Modes
• Creative Stacking Diversions with Smart Objects
• Automatic Tourist Remover – Smart Objects at Play
• Lightroom to Photoshop and Back – Another Way

Get to know Smart Objects; they will become an essential part of your tool box!

I took several hundred pictures with the iPhone, most of which were very good! But the one I’ve had the most fun with – or rather, the eleven I’ve had most fun with – are the images I used to stitch together the panorama you see below. This is eleven images, at 5 megapixels each, straight from the phone, stitched together in Photoshop CS5 and then exported to Zoomify.The final image is 65 inches wide and 7.25 inches tall at 240ppi… pretty hefty for a phone cam image!

Click the image to see the Zoomify view in a new window. You can use the slider to zoom in and out, and use the arrow buttons or just drag the image to pan around.

Sure, this image has flaws and warts, and is a bit uneven in tone due to the auto-exposure feature of the iPhone. But still, you have to admit this is a pretty impressive image to have captured with a device that slips into my pocket.

I did take quite a few panoramic shots with my “real” camera and telephoto lens, and I’ve been working on a few of those images as well. Watch this space in the future for some of those images.

You can find my series over at the TipSquirrel blog – where we’re nuts about Photoshop! Pop over and check out my tutorials, as well as those of quite a few other excellent instructors and artists!

My blend modes series includes:

Blend Mode Basics Part 1 – Screen Blending for Lightening
Blend Mode Basics Part 2 – Multiply Blending for Darkening
Blend Mode Basics Part 3 – Layer Styles and Blend Modes
Blend Mode Basics Part 4 – Overlay Blending for Contrast
Blend Modes Part 5 – Overlay Blending for Sharpening
Blend Modes Part 6 – Overly Blending for Softening
Blend Modes Part 7 – Refining Masks with Overlay Blending
Blend Modes Part 8 – Image Alignment and Analysis with Difference Blending
Blend Modes Part 9 – Creative Difference Blending
Blend Modes Part 10 – Introducing Luminosity Sharpening
Blend Modes Part 11 – Luminosity Sharpening Three Ways
Blend Modes Part 12 – Creative Luminosity Techniques

I hope you find these tips and tricks to be helpful and inspiring!

Hoffman Art Design has teamed with some exciting partners to provide a stream of high quality tutorial information, starting Tuesday, April 13, over at the TipSquirrel blog. I’m proud to join Tim Shelbourne, Janine Smith, Justin Seeley and A.J. Wood in providing a suite of education to help ease your migration to the latest Adobe platform!

Stay tuned!