I had a horrible thought today. Like everyone else, I’ve been saying non-destructive editing is fantastic. It’s smart, it’s efficient, and it changes the way we work. It’s the most important innovation in digital imaging this century… But wait a minute. What if I had to stop using Lightroom or Aperture tomorrow? How many images […]
Archives for December 2013
How to make Lightroom, Photoshop and Smart Objects work together
Despite the name of this site, I’ve got nothing against Photoshop! Even if it doesn’t have all the effects filters and organising tools you might be looking for (hence this site), it’s still worth having in your software armoury, especially if you get a good deal on an Adobe Photoshop CC subscription. Photoshop has limitations, […]
Looking for an instant boost? Try this three-step fix in Capture One
We’ve all been there. You’ve got a shot that’s fundamentally sound but lacks rich, strong colours or any kind of atmosphere. They can be tricky to fix and you can spend hours experimenting with settings that don’t seem to get you any closer – and you don’t want to resort to flashy and obvious effects […]
Add some sunlight with Color Efex Pro!
I’ve got to be honest. I’m compiling a list of my top ten worst Color Efex Pro filters (yes, there are some duds in amongst the great ones), and the Sunlight filter was on it. But in a spirit of fair play I thought I’d better find out for sure what it actually does and […]
Are you missing your best shots? Capture One’s Auto Adjust tool could tell you with a single click
You can’t keep every picture you shoot – but how do you know you’re keeping the right ones? We all shoot more than we keep, and the obvious thing to do is make a first pass of your images and delete the ones that look wrongly exposed, flat or lacking in colour. Obvious, yes, but […]
Get more natural results with this Lightroom HDR effect
HDR (high dynamic range techniques) are sometimes necessary to cope with scenes that have a higher dynamic range than the camera’s sensor can cope with. But that’s happening less and less as sensor technology improves. The latest D-SLR sensors don’t just have increased dynamic range, they’re able to capture shadow detail with less noise than […]
How Photoshop Smart Objects and plug-ins can work together
Just in case anyone thinks I have something against Photoshop… I don’t! Photoshop is really good at what it does, it just doesn’t do everything I want from a digital imaging application. But it is really good ‘host’ application for plug-ins. One reason is that I’m having a few problems with Aperture and Google Nik […]
Which film simulation plug-in is best?
I love film. It’s what I grew up with, and it’s what I made most of my photographic discoveries – and mistakes – with. I love its richness, depth, unpredictability and character. So I’m especially interested in any film simulation software which promises to replicate the look and feel of traditional silver-based films. But I’m […]
Capture One presets vs styles: what’s the difference?
Capture One lets you save adjustments for re-use in the future, but it can be confusing because it offers user ‘presets’ and user ‘styles’ without being terribly clear about the difference. In other programs, ‘presets’ usually refer to sets of adjustments applied all at once, but Capture One presets are subtly different. So to make […]
Lightroom portrait tips to put power into your people shots
You’ll probably want to take a softly softly approach with female portraits, but male subjects usually demand a different style. Here are some Lightroom Classic portrait tips for giving your pictures a more powerful, grittier feel. I want to give this outdoor shot (above) a grungy, contrasty look, and I’ve got a favourite set of […]