Post-Processing

Global and Local Luminance Masking in Lightroom

I have often wanted to carry out global adjustments in Lightroom which target specific luminosity values in an image. Lately, I have discovered a way of achieving this. It is not as precise as, for instance, luminosity masking or blend-if masking in Photoshop, but yet it has the power to give an image that extra punch many of us are looking for in our editing.

Watch a Photoshop Pro Teach His Mom to Edit Photos

Photoshop expert and photo editing teacher Aaron Nace just took on his most inexperienced pupil yet: his mom. In a special episode of Phlearn, Aaron sat down with his mom to teach her how to edit some of his childhood photos in Photoshop. The result is both entertaining and, if you're a rote beginner like Mrs. Nace, a great intro to photo editing.

Corel Reveals PaintShop Pro 2020 with Content-Aware ‘SmartClone’ and More

Earlier today, Corel launched a new version of PaintShop Pro that includes some intriguing features for photographers. Boasting intelligent new cloning and selection tools and costing just $80 for the full suite, PaintShop Pro 2020 promises to "meet the needs of photographers and content creators at an unbeatable value."

NVIDIA Unveils New Studio Driver with Support for 10-bit Color for Creatives

NVIDIA has just released the latest version of its Studio Driver, and creatives who use the company's GPUS should take note. According to NVIDIA, the new driver, "delivers the best performance and reliability for creative applications via extensive testing of creator workflows" by adding support for 10-bit color for creatives who use programs like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere.

Pixelmator Pro Extension Adds Layers, RAW Editing and More to Apple Photos

Earlier today, popular macOS Photoshop alternative Pixelmator Pro just released a major update. Pixelmator Pro 1.4 'Hummingbird' adds a slew of useful new features, but the biggest news is the addition of an Apple Photos extension that turns Apple's built-in photos app into a full-blown editing suite by integrating all of Pixelmator's features.

Explaining Bit Depth and Debunking a Common Myth

Each year, someone new comes along to try and demystify bit depth for the masses. In 2017 it was Tutvid, in 2018 Greg Benz did a great job in this article, and now StyleMyPic has created a comprehensive and easy-to-follow video that explains exactly what bit depth is, how it works, and debunks a common myth.

Building The Ultimate Photo Editing Workstation

Building a solid workstation is critical to photographers and retouchers. We find ourselves sitting at the desk for 7-10 hours a day to meet deadlines. If you dread going to your editing station, it can make post-processing a chore that you don't look forward to, which means delayed deadlines and unhappy clients.

9 Single-Key Lightroom Shortcuts I Use Every Day

In all honesty, I only use single-key shortcuts as opposed to multi-key for the simple reason that I can’t remember much beyond a single keystroke. I thought about printing every shortcut and hanging it on my office wall for reference, but that would defeat the purpose of using shortcuts in the first place as I’d have to spend additional time scanning the printout to locate what I’m looking for.

How to Fix Blown Out Areas Around the Sun

Shooting directly into the Sun, whether it is sunrise or sunset, often results in some areas around the Sun getting clipped, and we get these rather harsh edges in our sky. Even when shooting bracketed or underexposing for the highlights, we may not achieve a pleasing result around the strongest light in a scene.

Are You Sharpening Your Photos Enough?

I’ll own up to this and say that I’m guilty of being stuck in my ways. But age is no excuse for not being as adaptive as I should be to the changing times. But let me explain.

Low Contrast Photography and How to Correct it in Post-Processing

One of the most asked questions I get is how I add contrast to pictures taken in very low contrast conditions like dense fog. This made me think it would perhaps be of use to many of you if I wrote an article about contrast and how you can fix contrast issues in post processing.

3 Reasons to Create Your Own Lightroom Presets

When I first began dabbling in the world of landscape photography, I was enticed by the instant gratification of purchasing Lightroom presets. I was originally drawn in by the fact that I could instantly download these presets and I could instantly import them into Lightroom and instantly “improve” my own photos.

How to Remove Flare from Photos Without Cloning

To shoot directly into the sun is both challenging and fun. Challenging because it can be difficult to control the light and, not least, our images are very often marred by sun flare. One simple way of avoiding flare is to shoot an extra exposure with one finger or more obscuring the sun.

5 Signs You’re Over-Editing Landscape Photos

One of the more difficult aspects of post-processing is identifying when you’re starting to over edit a photo. It’s common knowledge what many of the characteristics of an over-edited image are, but determining when you’ve gone too far, that’s the challenging part. In this 14-minute video, I break down five tips that have helped me to understand and identify when I’m beginning to over process an image.

Triple Processing a Single RAW Photo

Occasionally when examining a RAW file I get a reasonably clear idea on how I would like the end result to be. In this instance, I had an inner picture of trees glowing from the sun, rather dark shadows, and a sky with nice color contrast.

Using a MIDI Controller with Lightroom for a More Efficient Workflow

Editing images with software like Lightroom typically involves changing parameters like exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, and so on for more than 90% of your work. These parameters are controlled using sliders that you have to drag with your mouse -- sliders that emulate physical controls. But why not use such physical controls like sliders or control dials directly?

7 Lightroom Tips to Transform Your Winter Photos

The frigid winter months provide an exceptional opportunity to capture unique photos, but they aren’t the easiest to create due to extreme weather conditions and the many post-processing nuances related to snowy winter photography. In this 14-minute video, I review 7 Lightroom tips that have helped me along the way with my winter post-processing workflow.

Human vs Machine: Can This AI Retouch Photos Better Than You?

Artificial intelligence is no longer a new concept in photography. Complex algorithms allow machines to choose auto contrast and exposure settings in all modern editing software. They're getting better all the time. What I haven't seen before however, is a tool that successfully automates face retouching. Until now, that is.

6 Lightroom Tips to Create Moody Landscape Photos

It seems the moody edit trend has been going strong for quite a few years now and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down. There’s probably not a better time of the year to capture moody landscape photos than the winter months.

10 Photoshop Hacks for Portraits

Photographer Irene Rudnyk made this 22-minute video to share her top 10 Photoshop hacks when working on portraits. These are tips and tricks Rudnyk says she uses all the time on all of her photos.

How to Create Luminosity Masks in Photoshop: A Step-by-Step Guide

Luminosity Masks have become a popular type of selections in Photoshop used by both professionals and beginners alike. However, unlike many other types of selections, they won’t be found in any menu. Instead, you’ll have to create them yourself. Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as you might think. It’s actually quite straightforward and all you need to do is follow a few simple steps.

7 Essential Lightroom Tricks I Use Daily

Everyone’s list of Lightroom tricks and shortcuts is a bit different and when I started to compile mine I wasn’t 100% sure what they were exactly. It’s funny how you don’t even realize you’re using these handy timesavers as they become second nature when you apply them within your editing workflow.

8, 12, 14 vs 16-Bit Depth: What Do You Really Need?!

“Bit depth” is one of those terms we’ve all run into, but very few photographers truly understand. Photoshop offers 8, 16, and 32-bit file formats. Sometimes we see files referred to as being 24 of 48-bit. And our cameras often offer 12 vs 14-bit files (though you might get 16-bit with a medium format camera). What does it all mean, and what really matters?

Lightroom Sucks: An Open Letter to Adobe

“Panic on the streets of London, panic on the streets of Birmingham, I wonder to myself, could life ever be sane again?” You’d be forgiven for thinking The Smiths were singing about wedding photographers mid-summer running around the streets in a naked hysteria after they’ve just installed the latest Lightroom update.