postprocessing

14 Hidden Lightroom Shortcuts That Use the Alt/Option Key

Did you know that there are lots of hidden Lightroom shortcuts? Some of the app’s most useful shortcuts are tucked away in places you might never look. As a result you may be unaware of them until someone points them out to you. Here are 14 you might want to know.

Going Open Source to Make Your Own Loupedeck Alternative

There is an extremely talented landscape photographer called Thomas Heaton whose YouTube videos I find very instructive and entertaining. Recently he featured a new product he was sent to try out: the Loupedeck, a physical console that lets you control Lightroom (the main software I use to sort, catalog and edit my photographs).

7 Photoshop Tricks That Are Hidden in Plain Sight

Adobe’s Photoshop is such a complex piece of software that even professionals find new features and settings every now and then. This 7-minute video from Colin Smith of PhotoshopCAFE explores 7 Photoshop tricks that may be new to you even if you've been using PS for a long time.

Here’s a Checklist for Learning How to Retouch Photos Like a Pro

If you are a photographer or fledgling retoucher opening Photoshop for the first time, it is a daunting experience, to say the least. There is a wealth of knowledge, free and purchasable online, but how do you know what to search for if you don’t know what you don’t know?

How to Cut Your Photo Editing Time in Half

Editing photos after a shoot can be extremely time-consuming, especially if you have not spent some time optimizing your workflow. If you'd like to speed up your editing process, here's a 5-minute video by Mango Street Lab with tips and tricks for culling, organizing, and editing photos.

The Ten Commandments of Retouching

There are some things in life that are universal rules we should all follow—things like not cheating on your wife, not killing anyone, and not stealing. Easy enough, right? And if life has Ten Commandments that are just obvious things not to do, retouching should have them as well.

See How This Surreal Construction Image Was Shot and Processed

In 2016, world-famous photographer and digital artist Erik Johansson was commissioned by Swedish construction company NCC to create something special that showed the areas NCC was working. This is one of the 6 photos he created for them, and below he shows you how it was made.

Quick Tip: How to ‘Open’ a Lazy Eye in Photoshop

They say the devil (or is it God?) is in the details, and this quick Photoshop tip from portrait photographer Bill Larkin is all about making sure you nail those details. Specifically: he shows you how to quickly and easily 'open' a Lazy Eye in Photoshop.

Walkthrough: How to Edit a Landscape Photo in Lightroom and Photoshop

Lots of photo editing tutorials these days focus on one specific technique or edit—how to sharpen, or how to use the HSL tool, for example. But if you're just starting out and you need a complete photo editing walkthrough, this tutorial will take you through a landscape photo edit from start to finish.

How to Sharpen in Photoshop: An In-Depth Tutorial

If you're not sure how to properly sharpen your images in Photoshop, this tutorial from the Photoshop Training Channel is a godsend—a deep dive into the most common sharpening techniques complete with an explanation of which ones are better and why.

3 Levels of Sharpening You Should Be Applying in Photoshop

My name is Jake Hicks, and I'm an editorial and fashion photographer based in the UK. In this article, I'll share a look at some of the sharpening techniques I use in Photoshop to give my images a little visual-pop before I publish them.

In Defense of Post-Processing

Post-processing has become part of the trade for photographers. Whether it’s something as seemingly innocuous as tweaking the white-balance, or something much more involved like cloning out distracting elements, it’s a powerful tool in the photographer’s utility belt.

How to Color Your Photos Using the HSL Tool in Lightroom

Today, it's becoming increasingly harder for your style as a photographer to become recognized. Of course, there are prolific photographers such as William Eggleston and Stephen Shore whose use of color is almost instantly recognizable.

This Video Explains All 27 Photoshop Blending Modes in Detail

There are 27 different blending modes in Photoshop, and unless you're a real retouching junkie, chances are good you haven't explored each and every one of them in detail. But have no fear, to paraphrase an old Apple ad, "there's a [YouTube tutorial] for that."

Retouching Interiors in Lightroom and Photoshop: A Crash Course

Here's a typical quick interior photography assignment for a Swiss brand called VIU Eyewear. They contacted me to create three images for their website/social networks. The only rule was to stay in the same style than their other images on their "Stores" page (something simple, white, and luminous with an emphasis on interior design). Here's how I shot it and edited it.

How the Tone Curve REALLY Works, and 5 Ways Adobe Could Improve It

The tone curve is one of the most powerful tools in photo editing, allowing you to change multiple values and essentially doing the job of several different adjustment layers. But it's also complicated, and hard for beginners to understand. These two videos should help.

Phase One Unveils a Customized Keyboard for Capture One Pro Users

If you're a serious Capture One Pro user, the folks at Phase One have a real treat in store for you. It's called the Capture One Pro keyboard: a customized color-coded keyboard that brings 107 useful shortcuts to the surface and helps you turn your workflow up to 11.

How to Create a ‘Double Exposure’ Using Photoshop

We love a good in-camera double exposure; done right, they can look as surreal as anything we can create in post. But if you don't have the skills, expertise, or interest in doing it in-camera, this quick tutorial shows you exactly how to fake the 'double exposure effect' in Photoshop.

Complete Lightroom and Photoshop Portrait Retouching Tutorial

Most online photography tutorials focus on one thing—how to sharpen better or how to retouch shiny skin, for example. This video goes way beyond that, walking you through how to retouch a portrait from start to finish using both Lightroom and Photoshop.

This Photo Manipulation Timelapse Shows Off Some Mad Photoshop Skills

Last week, 25-year-old Danish automotive photographer Sebastian Pichard grabbed an old photo from his archives, opened up Photoshop CC, hit record, and started editing without any idea what exactly he would end up with. The resulting editing timelapse shows off his mad Photoshop skills... and a bit of image theft.

This is Why You Should Post-Process Your Photography

I took the best photo of my life today. I came down from the mountain and loaded it up on my computer. When I brought the photos up on my screen, they were just trees. Bummer. But it felt so good; looked so good on my camera’s LCD. What’s the deal with that?

Photoshop Tutorial: Using Luminosity Masks vs Blend If

Photoshop's tools frequently overlap, and a great example of this is Luminosity Masks vs Blend If. Both can be used to do the same thing, but they work in slightly different ways. This useful tutorial breaks down the differences so you know when and how to use each tool.

30 of the Most Important Photoshop Features and How to Use Them

Nate Dodson over at TutVid just put together one of the most comprehensive overviews of Photoshop's key tools and features we've ever seen. 30 different tools or features you should definitely know about, each covered under two minutes. This one is worth a bookmark.

How to Add Warmth Back to Skin with Photoshop

A lot of the time when we're shooting with flash photography in a big white studio, our portrait images can appear a little stark or cold. This quick fix in Photoshop takes less than two minutes to do but can add a lot of warmth and life back to our models skin.

How to Speed Up Your Lightroom Editing By Using Anchor Photos

One of the ongoing pain points of being a photographer is the time we spend editing. Don’t get me wrong, I love turning a flat image into something breathtaking, but it does take a while to get through a batch of 1000+ photos from a wedding or concert.

5 Mistakes Photographers Make in Photoshop

Making mistakes is a powerful learning tool, but that statement only holds true if you realize what you're doing is a mistake. To that end, here are 5 of the most common Photoshop mistakes photographers make.