Digital images don’t have much texture. Your subjects might, of course, but the way cameras render tones is glassy-smooth (at low ISO settings anyway) and sometimes a little sterile. Adding a texture digitally can make a picture look more interesting, more tactile and more ‘hand made’. Textures can be very subtle, like the fine texture […]
Tutorials
See the world in infra red
Infra red photography creates an unusual and surreal view of the world that can also be very beautiful. You can do it in black and white or colour, but the techniques used today with digital cameras are rather different to those used with film. Infra red film photography is relatively straightforward – you simply use […]
Rediscover dodging and burning in black and white
Back in the days of film, a ‘straight’ black and white print was only a stepping stone. A properly finished print was almost always enhanced with some skilled ‘dodging and burning’. Dodging and burning is a classic technique in black and white, where certain areas of a print are held back (dodged) under the enlarger […]
How to use the ON1 Photo Texture and Border filters
ON1 Photo RAW has a huge library of preset effects and you can try them all out just by browsing through the categories and clicking on the ones you like the look of. But that doesn’t really get you any closer to figuring out how its effects filters work and how you can use them […]
How to use the Luminar Accent – AI Filter
The Luminar 1.2 Neptune update brought a bunch of new and interesting tools, and one of them is the AI Accent filter. AI stands for ‘artificial intelligence’, which is used to analyse different parts of the picture for objects, structure, colour, light and dark tones and more. When you drag the slider it intelligently enhances […]
Using the Luminar Quick & Awesome workspace
When MacPhun (or Skylum, as it is now) updated its innovative photo-editing app to Luminar 1.2 ‘Neptune’, it added a number of new features. One of these is the new Luminar Quick & Awesome workspace, which is designed to bring three key filters for getting awesome results quickly. These are the new Accent – AI Filter which […]
Using the improved Luminar Vignette filter
This filter was improved in Luminar 1.2 with new Vignette Styles, a Place Center button for off-centre positioning and new Pre- and Post-crop options. Here’s a quick tour: 01 Our start shot This clown sign at a fairground might make a good picture, but there’s a lot of bright and confusing detail in the background. […]
How to use the Luminar Adjustable Gradient filter
The Luminar Adjustable Gradient filter is a great tool for all kinds of photography, but for landscapes in particular. It tackles that thorny old problem of bright skies and dark ground and the brightness difference between them. You can fix this at the shooting stage by using a graduated filter on the front of the […]
How many Virtual Copies do you have in Lightroom?
Virtual Copies are really useful. They let you try out a whole load of different processing variations on a single image without having to create new files, saving time and disk space in the process and keeping all your adjustments ‘editable’. But there are drawbacks too. One this that none of your edits are visible […]
How to use the Pixelmator Kaleidoscope filter to create a mirrored landscape
Pixelmator is an interesting image-editing app for Mac and iOS that I’m always telling myself I should spend more time with. Well I did just that, finding an interesting use for the Pixelmator Kaleidoscope filter. Before we go any further, though, there’s something you need to know (that I wish I’d found out sooner). The […]