Creating Center Guides in Photoshop

Someone asked me what was the easiest way to find the exact center in an image. This post is on how I do it, and it’s as simple as tapping one key on my keyboard. Here’s a quick tutorial to help you create an action that’ll help you find the exact center of an image by pressing one key.This is one of those actions that I use all the time. I hope you enjoy it. 

The first thing to do is open a photo of something where you’d like to find the center.  It doesn’t matter if it’s in portrait or landscape mode (horizontal or vertical), this action can be used on either. This comes in handy especially when I’m doing product shots and I need to get something aligned correctly. If you’ll notice this image is perfectly lit, but I need my little guy centered a little better. First I selected my guy and put him on his own layer. I then added a layer below filled with white. There are tons of ways to do this in Photoshop, choose your own method. Now by using Center Guides, it’s easy to line him up.

Before we start creating our action, we need to turn on the rulers in Photoshop. You can do this by holding the Control key and tapping the letter R.  (Ctrl + R) When the rulers pop up, Right click anywhere directly on the rulers and in the drop down menu, click Percent.  This is very important to make our action run correctly.

Now click on Windows and in the drop down menu, click on Actions. At the bottom of that panel, click the button next to the Trash can and a New Action dialog box will open.  
(see photo on right)

I’m just adding this one to my Default actions for this tutorial, but you can put yours wherever you’d like. In the Name box we’ll call this Center Guides. Below that you’ll notice you have the option of adding a function key, personally I use F4. Change yours to whatever you’d like, but make sure you uncheck the Shift and Control boxes. This way we only need one key to run our action, in this case, the F4 key. On your system the F4 key might be assigned to something else, if so pick something else. When you’ve set those, click on the Record button. From here on, every step we take will be recorded in our new Action. 

Notice the button turns red to indicate its running.  

The next step is to click on View and in the drop down menu choose New Guide. Another dialog box will open and under Orientation, click the Horizontal button and in the Position change it to 50%.  Then click OK. You’ll notice a new guide appeared on our image at the half-way point. 

Now click on View again and choose New Guide again. This time in the dialog box, click Vertical and change the Position to 50% again.  Walla, you’ve got the center guides in your image. 

The last step is where a lot of people mess up. In the bottom of our actions panel just click the Stop button and you’re done. If you don’t remember to hit stop, you’ll keep adding steps to your action. Now to test our new action, clear your actions from your image. To clear them the easy way, hold the Control key and tap the Colon key. You can tell I like shortcuts huh?  Now, tap the F4 key (or whatever yours is set to) and you’ve got center guides, Nice huh?

Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

Testing the Phottix Odin Flash System

This is just a short article / review on the Phottix Odin Wireless TTL Trigger Set. I’ve been using off-camera flash with various wireless flash triggers for over ten years now, mostly for fill flash type scenarios at weddings or on occasional portrait sessions. Every pro or semi-pro photographer has known that for years the Pocket Wizards were always the cream of the crop. For my shooting style they tended to be on the expensive side, but they were ultra-reliable and also one of the first units to offer full TTL functions.

I’ve always been conservative (on the cheap side) when it comes to buying new gear and I need enough gear to trigger at least two flashes. I’m also a Canon guy so when Canon announced their wireless flash triggers, the Canon ST E3 RT and the 600 EX RT Speedlites, I almost went right out and purchased them. I really liked the new function screen on the commander unit, but to be honest, the price was still a major issue because if I wanted to trigger two flash units I was looking at spending well over $1300. In order for them to be fully functional, I needed to upgrade my flashes and get a TCU unit (the ST E3 RT).

When Phottix first announced they were coming out with a totally wireless flash system with TTL capabilities about a year earlier, I really wasn't in the market for a new system. I sort of put their system in the back of my head for awhile. I had been using Phottix Atlas flash triggers for a couple years, and knew they were reliable, but my units had no TTL capabilities so basically all they could do was fire my flashes.

The main feature I liked on the new Canon was that you could change any of the settings right from the camera without having to physically make changes on the flashes themselves. Then I remembered the Phottix Odin system, which could also do the same. Whenever I purchase any new product, I like to wait until they've been battled tested in the real world, so I went online and read the reviews for the Odin system to see how they held up.  Not only could the Phottix do all the same things the Canon could do, I could keep my current flashes and that alone would save over $1000. So that was enough for me to purchase the Phottix Odin system and after using them for awhile, I knew it would be a very long time before anything else came close to these units. 

I’ll be the first to tell you, they just work. Every time, no exceptions. They’re rated at 320 feet range and I believe it. Just for the heck of it I had tested my old Atlas triggers and they fired at over 300 feet. In my opinion, the Odins are just about the best thing since sliced bread. With these units you have access to 4 channels and 3 groups, plus they can sync with your camera’s shutter (high-speed sync) up to 1/8000 second. They allow you to raise or lower the power, switch from TTL to manual, adjust the zoom and set ratios if you want, all from your camera. The screen on the TCU is easy to read and all the units work on AA batteries.  Another feature of the Odin wireless system is the addition of a USB port and a USB cable so you can install firmware updates. The Odins come complete with a 3.5 sync cable, and a 3.5 to 3.5 adapter, a 6.3 adapter for studio strobes and even a lanyard. The transmitter also features a backlit LCD screen for viewing in low-light conditions and modeling flashes that can be activated right from the transmitter. There is even a switch so you can use second curtain sync!

I've been using the Odin system for over a year in the field with my 580 EXII’s and they've been great. To date, these are the easiest and most reliable triggers I've ever owned. The the real benefit is being able to make all my flash adjustments without touching the flashes. Just dial the power up/down for each flash right from the LCD screen and keep shooting. Using the Phottix Odin system couldn't be simpler and I would personally recommend them to anyone. The last time I checked they were available for use with Canon, Nikon and Sony. The prices can’t be beat either. You can get a set-up for one flash for about $329 or a set-up with two receivers for only $399.  If you’ve been thinking about picking up a set, you won’t be sorry.  Great system, great prices……..Remember, keep shooting and have some fun!

New York City trip - 2013

Well 2014 is finally here and right now it feels like we’re stuck in a deep freeze here in New England with about two weeks of single digit temps……brrrrr.  Last month on my blog I mentioned an upcoming trip back to the Big Apple and how I was hoping for a frosting of snow while I was in the city. As luck would have it, I got my wish because NYC got about 8 inches the day before I arrived.  The trip was planned with only about a two weeks’ notice but because of the Internet, I was able to plan out my short time in the city pretty well.

It all started when one of my friends from my camera club started making plans to go in to New York City to hook-up with some friends that she hadn’t seen in quite some time. She knew I really liked New York at Christmas time and asked me if I might be interested in going to New York with her.  I didn’t know if I could get off work on such short notice, but it worked out in my favor and I was able to go. We decided to take the train into the city which was about a 4 hour trip. The train was very enjoyable, plus it took us right in to Penn Station which was only two blocks from our hotel.

This trip I decided I’d travel very light and only took a backpack with a change of clothes and a limited camera outfit, a Canon 5D MkII with a Tamron 28-300mm lens and a single 580 EX II speedlite.

My friend had shopped around for a hotel online and found one with rooms for under $100 on Sundays and it was directly across the street from Madison Square Garden right in midtown Manhattan. The hotel was also only a few blocks walk from Rockefeller Plaza, Bryant Park, Times Square and Grand Central Station so almost every place we wanted to go was within walking distance. While I was there I was finally able to visit the new World Trade Center and also had a chance to spend some time in Central Park (which is one of the reasons I was hoping for snow)  I never knew the horse and carriage rides in the park went year-round so that was another added bonus. Another place I have always wanted to check out was B & H Photo (which is a photographers Disneyland) and I was able to stop by there also.

One of the things we both wanted to do was to shoot the New York City skyline around dusk from the Top Of The Rock but the waiting line was over 2 ½ hours and we weren’t about to wait that long. Overall it was a fast paced little getaway but because I was able to plan my time out, it turned out to be very enjoyable.   


For me, I always enjoy going in to New York City and hopefully I’ll get a chance to go back for a few days there this coming Spring and shoot Central Park when everything is coming alive and maybe visit some other famous landmarks like Liberty Island and Ellis Island. We’ll see?  In the meantime, keep shooting and have some fun!