Long Island Photo Gallery, the LI photography “Community With Opportunity”,  is on a positive roll.  Please join us in welcoming Tommy Brunhuber and Edward Mooney to our group.

Tommy Brunhuber explains, ”My “career” as a photographer is still very much in its infancy and I am by no means a professional, but I am humbly willing to learn as much as I can.”   Well Tommy, with your membership in Long Island Photo Gallery, you are beginning to move your career forward.  We encourage Tommy, as well as all of our members, to update their images in the gallery and  their images offered for sale on the website, on a regular basis.  Attend our field trips (May 8, 2010, Vanderbilt Museum, Centerport, Long Island) and our critique sessions (April 14th, 2010 at 7:00 PM).  Read and post to this blog as well.  Challenge yourself everyday!  I look back at my work when I first started Long Island Photo Gallery with Jessica Hirschmann and I can’t believe how much my work has improved.  You all will improve too.  Practice, share, grow.

Newest member Edward Mooney has “his work exhibited in several galleries on Long Island and also at the Fire Island, Montauk Point and Horton Lighthouses.”  Eddie also has his own website and blog.  His distinguished career as a fine art photographer has work exhibited at the Village Art and Frame in Babylon and the Seafarer Gift Shop in Sayville.  We are delighted to have his work exhibited here, on the Long Island Photo Gallery website, and we hope to see his framed pieces in our Bohemia gallery soon.

With every new member that joins, the exposure for all of us grows.  Each of us has a unique artistry.  As we grow, we will be able to offer a greater variety of fine art to a general public that is hungry for Long Island Fine Art Photography for their home and office.

~ Joanne

Topaz Adjust is a Photoshop filter plugin that allows you to create endless possibilities for your images with, very often, just one or two clicks.  The differences that the filter displays in the images are dramatic, in most cases.  Topaz Adjust, for me, is the quickest and easiest way to take a good photo and turn it into something stunning.

Topaz Adjust’s included Preset Preview allows a user to click through a variety of different looks for an image.  Once you’ve chosen a preset that suits your image you can further fine tune the filter by using a series of sliders that control exposure, detail, color and noise.  You can even create and save your own Preset to add to the software for future use.

Yesterday, Topaz Adjust turned out its Version 4.  Just in time for me, because I was getting a little bored with the previous version.  I immediately downloaded my FREE upgrade (available to all previous Topaz Adjust owners).  I then went through a bunch of digital images I took over last summer and grabbed a couple of photos that I thought were good, but not good enough to be “gallery worthy”.

Here are my before and after results.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little bit of information regarding Topaz Adjust v.4.  Topaz offers many other filter add ons for Photoshop.  Any of their filters can be downloaded for trial periods before purchase.  The filters cost around $40 – $60, depending on the filter.  They also offer all of their filters in one bundle for around $180.00.

For a limited time, use the coupon code NEWADJUST for a 20% discount on Topaz Adjust or the Photoshop bundle. Expires 3/15/2010, so act now!

Enjoy!

~ Joanne