This shot of an Icelandic church looked nice enough in color but I thought it had a bit more potential as a black and white image – though there were a few issues I wanted to sort out first. For this project I used Exposure X. The same tools exist in other programs, but I […]
Tutorials
Luminar 4.2 Augmented Skies: is this photography or illustration?
I’m in two minds about this feature. The AI Augmented Sky filter in Luminar 4.2 is spectacularly effective at blending in all sorts of other-worldly objects into regular outdoor skies, even supplying a range of ready-made objects like these twin planets via a drop-down menu. The AI technology merges these objects with your sky so […]
Moody mono with a Leica M10 Monochrom and Capture One
I met my donkey friend while I was out testing a Leica M10 Monochrom and 28mm f/2 Summicron lens. For those who don’t know, this is a rangefinder camera with manual focusing, so getting my friend’s eye sharp was a special challenge as he was getting restless because I didn’t have any carrots. The Leica […]
Levels and curves adjustments in Luminar 4
Luminar does things very differently! Both new users and those used to Luminar 3 and earlier versions might wonder where such basic adjustments as levels and curves are hiding… Well they are there, but you need to know where to look. The Luminar 4 interface has four basic workspaces, accessed by buttons on the right […]
Montacute House in moody monochrome with split toning
What is the mood you’re trying to capture? For his image of an Elizabethan country house, I wanted and sombre and forbidding look, and this required black and white, some dodging and burning and subtle toning.
Levels vs curves vs luma curves: ways to adjust contrast in photos
Levels and curves can both be used to adjust the contrast in photos, but how are they different, which should you use and is one better than the other?
Composition in photography: recognising and handling shapes
Composition in photography can become very dry and technical when it’s reduced to a science. Here’s a way to see and work with shapes that’s simpler and more visual.
How to double-up on adjustments in Luminar and get twice the effect
Luminar filters can be used in any combination, but did you know you can use the same filter twice? This is especially useful with the Accent AI 2.0 filter.
Composition in photography: how to ‘read’ pictures
Welcome to an occasional series on composition in photography. Life after Photoshop is usually about image editing tools and techniques, but many of the decisions we make about editing, cropping and local adjustments are based around effective composition, so it is a closely related discipline. Of course, this doesn’t replace the photographer’s ‘eye’ when taking […]
How to create a polarising filter digitally, and why it’s not the same as the real thing
Polarising filters are often used to darken blue skies. You can do this digitally instead – though polarisers do more besides that you cannot do digitally.