Photoblogging: Learning more about adjustment layers and #HDR lite effects

I haven't done much blogging about photography in a long time. But, having upgraded from my 30D that was breaking down, to a Rebel T2i, I'm going to start doing it occasionally.

Pluses of going back to a Rebel? (My first DSLR was the original digital Rebel.) It's lighter. It's less expensive.

Drawbacks? Having liked the 1/3 stop increments on ISO adjustment on the 30D, I don't like the "coarseness" of only being able to do full-stop increments.

Pluses of upgrading to this Rebel? Mainly, the pluses of getting a newer DSLR in general. Tops is less noise at high-end ISOs. 3200 is not much more noisy, if any, than 1600 was on my old DSLR. And 6400, a normal setting on the ISO adjustment and not an "H" programming insert, is less noisy than the H-based 3200 on the 30D.

So, I demonstrate this particular photo:

First, this is in a small Class 2A high school gym, which means lighting is not great, and it's not totally even. It's at 3200 ISO, 1/250 @ F5. Flashless.

That's one thing I like about the higher ISOs. Even in a lower-budget, lower-lighting sports setting, you can do a lot of flashless shots, which means lighting equality on burst shots and other things. Plus, on indoor shooting, it means no hassles with refs wanting you to turn your flash off, too.

And, mouthpiece halfway out and the other things? Got some drama in there, as far as the photo itself.

That said, per the other half of the header?

Recently, looking at an old note in an old computer folder, I started looking at using the Adjustment Layer command under the Layers drop-down menu. The note recommended selecting the Levels command within the side pop-out menu. Then, select "Luminosity" with the pop-up window that follows. Then, on the pop-up histogram, slide the midrange slider to 1.10 instead of 1. Flatten your image and you're done.

I'd also recommend trying the "Soft Overlay" under Levels instead of Luminosity. So as not to overdue it, pull the Opacity in that back to about 50 percent. If that's either too much or too little, just go back up your History window and undo and repeat.

The right play can get some HDR lite effects, per the rest of the header, without overdoing anything.