Post-Processing

Trick: Erase Stubble in Seconds with Photoshop’s Dust and Scratch Tool

Here's a short and simple 45-second video tutorial by UK glamour photographer Markp, who shows a trick for quickly removing a patch of stubble from a portrait in just a few seconds. Instead of doing precise editing, you can select the area, set Feather to a suitable number, and then run Filter->Noise->Dust & Scratches. With a correct Radius and Threshold setting, the stubble disappears from the skin.

Review: The PFixer MiniMal MIDI Controller Fixes Up Your Lightroom Workflow

Developing an efficient workflow is probably one of the greatest battles of any photographer, self included. This applies doubly to the professional who works from home, with so many distractions all trying to peel me away from sitting at that desk any longer than I have to. It's a challenge to stay on point, day to day, getting work done in a timely fashion, especially when hey, I'm a photographer, I should be out photographing things, right? Thankfully the Pusher Labs' PFixer and MiniMal is …

How to Fake Depth of Field Blur in Photoshop Using Z-Depth Pass

Here's a tutorial on how you can create fake depth of field blur in the background of photos using something known as "Z-Depth Pass." I'm not saying that this technique is better than other methods -- because it has some problems -- but it's quite different, and some of you may learn something new.

Instagram Star Shares His Mobile Photo Editing App Workflow

If you're curious about what it takes to do well on Instagram, Connor Franta can tell you. He's one of the biggest stars on the photo sharing service, boasting over 4 million followers. Franta recently published the 6-minute video above with his tips and tricks for shooting and editing photos that attract eyeballs.

Creating Photoshop Composites for a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 4×4 Brochure

Mercedes-Benz Canada commissioned me in 2014 to shoot photos for the 2014 Sprinter lineup. In addition to those photos, I was also asked to piece together brochure images for the newer and not-yet-released 4x4 Sprinter model. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the Photoshop work that went into the 4x4 images.

Polarr Photo Editor 3 Launched for Web, Chrome, and Windows 10

The free browser-based photo editor Polarr is expanding its reach yet again. After launching version 2 of its online photo editor back in February and a wildly popular iOS photo editing app back in June, the company today unveiled version 3 of its flagship photo editor and the company's expansion to Chrome and Windows 10 Desktop.

Apple and Adobe Slammed for ‘Sexist’ Photoshop Fix Demo That Made a Woman Smile

Apple and Adobe sparked some unintended controversy yesterday after unveiling and demonstrating the new iPad Pro. Adobe mobile design director, Eric Snowden, took to the stage and showed off a new app called Adobe Fix, which offers powerful face detection features for mobile photo retouching. This is the mobile Photoshop app that was previously referred to as Project Rigel.

5 Steps to Creating Long Shadows in Photoshop

I had kind of a hard time coming up with an appropriate title for this post... I'm still not totally sure if it conveys what I'm trying to show you today. As you may hopefully have guessed by looking at my new image, I'm going to be talking about how I made the shadow that the eagle is casting. The problem was I couldn't really call this post, "How to Create Long Shadows Cast By A Subject That Is Suspended In An Epic Beam Of Light." It's just a bit too wordy... So anyway this is how I did it!

AstroPad Mini Turns Your iPhone Into a Photo Editing Graphics Tablet

Last month we reported on the AstroPad App for the Apple iPad: a solution that allowed you to turn your consumer tablet into a professional graphics tablet when working with applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, or Illustrator. Now, the company is announcing a new app for the iPhone called AstroPad Mini -- it's everything you love about AstroPad... just minimized.

How To Create a Recoverable Workspace in Mac OS X For Safe Photo Editing

Many photographers unfortunately know the horror of editing a photograph and accidentally saving over the original copy all too well. While Lightroom implements a non-destructive system for saving files, Photoshop can be a bit more dangerous, and accidents do occur. Today, we will show you how to set up a safe workspace area on your Mac that will back up photographs as you edit them.

Video: How To Easily Remove Unwanted People From a Scene Using Photoshop

An unfortunate truth about shooting in public places is that people around us often get in the way of our perfect shots. In the 9-minute video tutorial above, photographer Greg Benz shows us how to remove “tourists” from photos using Photoshop. The process involves using multiple images and Photoshop’s median adjustment to get rid of any unwanted guests. The clone and heal tools can then be used to remove any artifacts caused by the effect.

An Intro to Lightening and Brightening Eyes in Adobe Photoshop CC

It is said that eyes are the windows to our souls and when focusing in on a portrait, we do our best to make sure they are razor sharp. With a bit of help from Photoshop, we can take the beauty of the eyes a step further. Today, we will be examining a method that I have personally used over the last few years to truly make eyes pop and give them another dimension of depth.

How to Fix White Balance in Photoshop by Finding a 50% Gray Point

Here's a great 2-minute video tutorial that teaches a technique for fixing white balance in Photoshop. The basic idea is that you can locate a 50% gray point in a photo even if you didn't use a gray card during the shoot. Once you identify a suitable point, you can use that Gray point in your Curves tool instead of simply selecting a Black point and a White point (a more basic color correction technique that may not work as well).

Adobe: Next Camera Raw Update to be the Last for Photoshop CS6

Creatives utilizing Adobe’s software suite who have yet to buy into the company’s Creative Cloud will soon find some of their updates coming to an abrupt halt. Adobe has announced that the upcoming release of Adobe Camera Raw v9.1.1 will be the last version available for CS6 users. Those looking to continue receiving the latest updates will need to upgrade to a monthly or yearly Creative Cloud subscription.

Rocket Rooster’s Lightroom Film Emulation Pack is a Cheaper Alternative to VSCO

Rocket Rooster is a digital filter company that produces affordable plugins for Adobe’s Creative Suite. After creating over half a dozen styles for cinema purposes, the company set their sights on creating products for still photographers using Lightroom. Rocket Rooster’s latest filter set, the Analog Film Pack, includes 20 old school film presets and over 100 variations.

Why I Stopped Using the DNG File Format

A couple of years ago, when I switched careers and moved into photography full time, I did a lot of research on multiple aspects of running a photography business. One of those areas, digital asset management (DAM), deals with, well, managing your digital assets, your image files.

Timelapse: Restoring an Old, Ripped-Up Photo

Here's a great look at how far Photoshop can go in restoring a heavily damaged photo print. Argentinian photo restorer Hernan Folmer made the time-lapse above showing how he reconstructed an old photo last year using Photoshop CC. The video shows 2 hours of work in Photoshop CC condensed into 2 minutes.

Primer: Using Frequency Separation in Photoshop For Basic Skin Retouching

Photoshop contains a world of post-production tools that photographers can use to bring their works of art to life. Today, we are taking a look at the technique of frequency separation, including how it works and how it can improve your images. For the rest of us without advanced knowledge of image processing, frequency separation is simply a method we can use to separate the colors and tones of a photograph from its textures. By utilizing this technique, you can obtain better control of your …

Review: Palette’s Modular Photo Editing Controls Are Pricey but Powerful

In a world saturated by digital controls and on-screen buttons, the team at Palette is looking to create a more tactile future. Originally launched on Kickstarter, Palette wanted to change the way people interact with software by creating hot-swappable hardware modules. We got a chance to test the Palette Expert Kit, which allowed us to map our favorite programs, such as Lightroom, onto three dials, two sliders, and two buttons.

A Primer on Reading and Using Histograms

Image histograms are useful tools that can be used to help properly gauge the exposure and contrast within a scene during shooting or to balance the tonality of a photograph in post-production. These days, histogram graphs can be found almost everywhere, with more modern digital cameras including live displays during composition. Today’s primer focuses on how to correctly read histograms and use them to your advantage.

Here’s What Adobe Dehaze Can Do for Photos Taken in a Blizzard

I took a trip to Iceland this past March, but weather wasn't the greatest while I was there. We encountered a few blizzards, and I took some photos to see what I could recover from them. Adobe recently announced a Dehaze tool for Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC, and I wanted to know how well it could recover image data from a blizzard -- which could be considered be an extreme version of haze. After trying the slider on my images, I'm very impressed!

Timelapse: Restoring and Colorizing an Old Damaged Photo

Argentinian professional photographer and retoucher Joaquin Villaverde has a knack for restoring and colorizing old photographs. The video above is a time-lapse he made showing how he recently breathed new life into a vintage portrait that had a good amount of damage. It's 2 hours of work in Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 condensed into 3 minutes.

A Primer on Speeding Up Your Photoshop Workflow with Actions

Adobe Photoshop serves as an important process in many photographer’s daily workflows. Whether you are fine-tuning your shots from a wedding or simply touching up a photograph of your cat, Photoshop can help you bring your mind’s visualizations to life. However, you may be utilizing more of your time than needed if you employ repetitive actions without the use of macros.

This Preset Pack Brings Real Dehaze to Lightroom 6.1

When Adobe launched a major Creative Cloud update that brought the powerful new Dehaze slider to Lightroom CC, photographers who had purchased a standalone copy of Lightroom 6 instead of subscribing to Adobe CC didn't receive the new features.

Retrospecs App Transforms Your Photos into Retro Computing Art

Do you yearn for a time when graphics were more pixelated and Betamax still had a chance? At times, we can’t help but to reminisce about late 20th-century technology, which is why we have decided to take a close look at Retrospecs for iOS. This nifty $2 app allows you to quickly transform your favorite pictures into retro computing art with the press of a button. Today, we are taking a look to see if it fulfills our nostalgic desires or gives us the pains of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy.

How To: A Primer on Reducing Noise in Photos Using Adobe Lightroom

Nothing can be more frustrating than taking a beautiful photograph only to later find out that it is riddled with digital noise. While digital image sensors have advanced the field of photography, they have also introduced new problems to tackle. Luckily, programs such as Adobe Lightroom can reduce the amount of noise within a photograph caused by high ISO settings or long exposures. Today, we are going to learn how to tackle noise reduction in Lightroom CC.

Hands-On: Emulsion for Mac is a Simpler Alternative to Adobe Lightroom

Last week, we took a look at an excellent Photoshop alternative for Mac OS X, Affinity Photo Beta. This week, we are taking a look at a possible Lightroom alternative, Emulsion, to see if it can also help you step outside of Adobe’s ecosystem. While Adobe provides an excellent range of products, some photographers are looking to expand their horizon with more affordable alternatives.