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Adobe

Creating custom lookup tables (LUTs) with Photoshop

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As an advanced user, you're probably excited by LUTs and what' I'd like you to do now is realize that anything you can do with an adjustment layer can be stored as a lookup table. This means some of the complex recipes that you've discovered in this course, with blending modes and adjustment layers, can all get bundled up into one lookup table. Now it doesn't support masks or anything like that. But it does allow you to take multiple adjustment layers and concatenate or build those into one lookup table, which can then be applied to images in … [Read more...] about Creating custom lookup tables (LUTs) with Photoshop

Using blending modes and adjustment layers in Photoshop

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Besides using an adjustment layer and a mask, one of the most overlooked options is the ability to use blending modes. Changing the blending mode for an adjustment layer completely changes how it's applied. Sometimes you get very creative results, sometimes unexpected results. But what I find is that by understanding blending modes, you can further refine the adjustment layer and often unlock incredible results. Let's take a look at another example with this recoloring. Now I've opened up a slightly different version with the adjustment layer … [Read more...] about Using blending modes and adjustment layers in Photoshop

Using layer masks and adjustment layers in Photoshop

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While adjustment layers are quite powerful, the ability to combine them with selections makes them infinitely more useful. Photoshop offers several incredible selection tools; I'd like to show you a few of my favorites and how those selections can be stored right with the adjustment layer by adding a layer mask. Let's revisit that concept of masks a bit more. In this case you see a scooter shot on the streets in Italy and it looks very much like a blue scooter. However, if I turn off that adjustment layer, you'll see it was in fact … [Read more...] about Using layer masks and adjustment layers in Photoshop

Quick Tip: Reset Lightroom Classic sliders

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Sure, there's a big "Reset" button in Lightroom Classic, putting your edited photo back to its original state. But what if you need to reset just some of the adjustments you've made? Simply double click on the slider text (Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, etc.) and watch the slider move back to zero. … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Reset Lightroom Classic sliders

Quick Tip: Search Lightroom Classic’s Metadata to Find an Image’s Copyright Status

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Looking for a quick way to find images you haven't set as being copyrighted? To find all images with an unknown copyright status in Lightroom Classic, click Metadata on the Library filter. Change a column label to Copyright Status. Lightroom will quickly show how many images are copyrighted and how many are not. Click on "unknown" to filter the results. Want to read more? Check out more in the article, "Find Unknown Copyright Status in Lightroom and Fix it" … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Search Lightroom Classic’s Metadata to Find an Image’s Copyright Status

Quick Tip: Use Lightroom’s Flags to Temporarily Select an Image for Editing

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Once images are imported into your Lightroom Classic catalog, quickly review each image and select your favorites. The trick is NOT to make this a time-consuming task. One option is to use the flagging system to temporarily select your favorite images. It's important not to get hung up on an image. If you have to ask, "Should I flag this?" you took too long. Flag the image and move on to the next. This doesn’t mean you are going to process every selected image or delete the non-selected images. It simply allows you to quickly scan your photos … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Use Lightroom’s Flags to Temporarily Select an Image for Editing

Quick Tip: Creating Two Versions of an Image in Lightroom Classic

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Remember how I showed you the power of snapshots in Adobe Lightroom Classic? Well, sometimes you need to produce multiple versions of the same image, whether it's to have two different styles to your photos, use in third-party plugins or otherwise. To do this, simply right-click on an image in your Lightroom catalog, and click "Create Virtual Copy" (or go to the Photo menu > Create Virtual Copy). This will create a "copy" of the master image. You can put these into stacks for better organization, or keep them separate. While it's … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Creating Two Versions of an Image in Lightroom Classic

Adobe Spark Post Comes to Android

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Fresh off of some major updates for Lightroom this morning, Adobe has announced an Adobe Spark Post beta for Android devices. Offering nearly the same feature set as its iOS and web counterparts, the Android version is a beta version – meaning that Adobe is still tinkering with a few things. The Android app lets you apply type and design filters to any photo in your camera roll, Creative Cloud library or to thousands of free stock photos. You'll find the same templates from the iOS and web versions, and have the ability to quickly resize, … [Read more...] about Adobe Spark Post Comes to Android

Adobe Brings Powerful New Features to Lightroom CC and Classic

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This morning, Adobe announced updates to its desktop versions of Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC. While both programs have added a few new enhancements and features, Lightroom CC has also been updated to make it further in line with its Classic counterpart. Lightroom CC Adds Preset and Profile Syncing The big feature announced today is the ability for Lightroom CC to sync your presets and profiles between instances of the program. This works for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, ChromeOS and on the web, so you can have all your favorite … [Read more...] about Adobe Brings Powerful New Features to Lightroom CC and Classic

Lightroom Secrets: The Power of Snapshots

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For ages, I've become accustomed to using Lightroom's Virtual Copy feature. It let me create multiple images and style them based off of the original edit I had made. But it was tedious when dealing with multiple virtual copies. Since then, I've discovered the Snapshots tool — a powerful yet under-utilized feature of Lightroom Classic. Think of this as a combination of the Virtual Copy feature and the History panel. It lets you record different versions of a photograph in one file, which ultimately helps you narrow down the edit you want to … [Read more...] about Lightroom Secrets: The Power of Snapshots

Quick Tip: Photoshop Curves Made Drop Dead Easy

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Find Curves a little confusing? Try this simple tip. Most users will either use Curves a lot or they won’t use it at all. The Curves interface is more complex than Levels, which scares away many users. A Curves adjustment allows for up to 16 control points. This can significantly open up more options when adjusting color and exposure. But where do you click? Step 1: Add a Curves Adjustment Layer. Step 2: Click the icon that looks like a pointing finger. Step 3: Now just click and drag in the image to modify the curve. The control … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Photoshop Curves Made Drop Dead Easy

Quick Tip: Visualize Sensor Spots in Lightroom

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Sensor dust is bound to impact our photographs at some time. But there's a quick and easy way to visualize these spots — and get rid of them. Click the Spot Removal (Q) brush in Lightroom, and then underneath your photograph, you'll see a checkbox and slider with the words "Visualize Spots." Click this checkbox and drag the slider up to the necessary point where you'll begin to see spots on your photograph. Then just click away with the Spot Removal brush to get rid of the sensor spots. … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Visualize Sensor Spots in Lightroom

Using Photoshop Selections for Color and Tone Adjustments

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Great image color and tone adjustments start with a great selection.  Learn how to do this quickly and easily. Follow along with these photos (provided for educational use only). Starter image Ending Image Watch and Learn Using selections for color and tone adjustments from Photoshop Selections: Tips, Tricks, and Techniques by Richard Harrington Read Along Let's make some basic selections using a simple concept: tone. By limiting a selection to a particular area, such as the shadows or midtones, we can make precise … [Read more...] about Using Photoshop Selections for Color and Tone Adjustments

Quick Tip: Open Almost Any Image in Adobe Camera Raw

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Want to open almost any image in Camera Raw? It turns out that you can! You can, in fact, open TIFF and JPEG files using the Camera Raw plug-in. Here's how... In Photoshop, choose File > Browse in Bridge to switch to Adobe Bridge. Select the desired files. Choose select File > Open In Camera Raw. While you won't see any of the major benefits for image quality a raw file offers, you can use the Camera Raw dialog box to adjust the images. This is also a much easier way to open several photos and sync the same settings … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Open Almost Any Image in Adobe Camera Raw

Quick Tip: Stop Dumbing Down Your Raw Files

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Working with Raw Files in Photoshop? One of the major benefits of shooting raw is an increased bit depth.  If you don't make these two change to your Photoshop Raw workflow, you are just destroying the quality of your raw photos. Step 1: Open a raw image. Step 2: At the bottom of the Adobe Camera Raw window click the white underlined text (the Workflow Options link). Step 3: Set Camera Raw to develop 16-bit files. In the Workflow Options dialog box. Step 4: Choose Open in Photoshop as Smart Objects.  This way you can double … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Stop Dumbing Down Your Raw Files

How to Enhance Your Photos With Textures – Part 2: Blending

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When using textures to enhance your photos in Photoshop, blending is how you reveal your image below the texture layer or tell the texture layer how to combine with the layers below it. If you just import your texture image in over top of one of your photos, whichever image is at the top of your layer stack is the only one you will see. In this article you will learn the three main types of blending: transparency, blending modes, and masking, and how to use each of them to produce cool texture effects for your photos.   Be sure you have read … [Read more...] about How to Enhance Your Photos With Textures – Part 2: Blending

Quick Tip: Change the Crop Orientation in Lightroom

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Cropping is a fundamental and basic tool of any photo editing program. And while Lightroom has a built-in cropping tool available, it's not super obvious on how to change orientations. To do so, start by using the crop tool and then click the X key on your keyboard. If you're cropping an image that's originally horizontal, this will change the orientation to vertical, and vice versa. To change the crop orientation back to the way it was, click the X key again, or click the Esc key to exit out of the crop tool and not have your crop applied. … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Change the Crop Orientation in Lightroom

Diving into Lightroom’s New Profile System

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With Lightroom's latest 7.3 update, it introduced a new way to handle profiles. This combined the typical camera calibration tools that we were used to, along with a feature compares similarly to LUTs (lookup tables). How Do I Get My Old Camera Profiles Back? If you shoot in RAW, you might be used to using your camera profiles in Lightroom to restore some of the depth and color that you saw on the back of your camera screen. But in Lightroom 7.3, the camera profiles area has been moved, to the top of the Basic panel in the Develop … [Read more...] about Diving into Lightroom’s New Profile System

Quick Tip: What happened to “Camera Calibration” in Lightroom Classic Creative Cloud?

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I develop images in Adobe Lightroom Creative Cloud (LR CC) using a top-down approach, starting with "Basic". The one rule breaker was "Camera Calibration", the very last menu item. When working with RAW image files, I find starting with Camera Calibration can save time and energy. I shoot Nikon and Fuji and find that camera specific settings often outperform the generic Adobe presets in LR. I recently updated the LR Classic CC app (formerly called LR CC) to the latest 7.3 release and could not find "Camera Calibration". It seemed like a big … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: What happened to “Camera Calibration” in Lightroom Classic Creative Cloud?

How to Enhance Your Photos With Textures – Part 1: Adding Textures

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In photography a texture image or "texturing" is used to enhance or accent some part of the image in your digital darkroom. Although they can help you create eye-catching works of art, textures also can be very easy to overdo. In this article I'll explain my process for adding textures to my photography using Adobe Stock and Photoshop to create more impact, transform the mood of the image, or improve the composition. Origins Using textures originated in the days of film by using different techniques in the darkroom. Methods included … [Read more...] about How to Enhance Your Photos With Textures – Part 1: Adding Textures

Adobe Releases Lightroom Classic 7.3, Adds Custom Profiles

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This morning, Adobe released Lightroom Classic CC version 7.3, which added among other items, new Adobe Profiles, and Creative Profiles. These are similar to presets but are one-click actions that can be used in correlation with other adjustments you've made. Getting Started with Profiles Profiles are located in the Develop module, at the top of the Basic panel. The camera calibration profile has been integrated into this as well, allowing you to choose from Adobe Standard, Color, Landscape, Portrait and Vivid. But to go beyond that, click … [Read more...] about Adobe Releases Lightroom Classic 7.3, Adds Custom Profiles

Quick Tip: Dehaze Side Effects

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The Dehaze adjustment in Lightroom is able to dramatically improve the appearance of haze in a photo, but not without some potential side effects. In this quick tip, you'll learn how to compensate for the most common issues caused by the application of the Dehaze adjustment. Want more tips like this? Check out my "Lightroom Quick Tips" course on GreyLearning, part of the "Mastering Lightroom" bundle of courses. … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Dehaze Side Effects

Quick Tip: Import to this Folder

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When it comes to keeping your Lightroom catalog tidy and organized, the import stage of your workflow is critically important. In this quick tip, you'll learn a great shortcut for importing new photos into an existing folder, enabling you to avoid confusion when importing multiple batches of photos. Want more tips like this? Check out my "Lightroom Quick Tips" course on GreyLearning, part of the "Mastering Lightroom" bundle of courses. … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Import to this Folder

Quick Tip: Save the Quick Collection

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The Quick Collection in Lightroom is designed to help you quickly group photos together for a short-term need. But what do when a quick collection suddenly needs to become permanent? You simply save the quick collection as a normal collection, as demonstrated in this quick tip. Want more tips like this? Check out my "Lightroom Quick Tips" course on GreyLearning, part of the "Mastering Lightroom" bundle of courses. … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Save the Quick Collection

Reminder: Adobe Increasing CC Plan Pricing, Photo Plan Unaffected

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I just got an e-mail reminder from Adobe, which is increasing some of its Creative Cloud plan pricing starting April 16. Announced last October at Adobe MAX, the pricing changes are as follows: Creative Cloud for Individual Single App plans will increase to $20.99 per month (instead of $19.99 per month; $1 increase). This plan is for a single Adobe Creative Cloud app. Creative Cloud for Individual App Apps plans will increase to $52.99 per month (instead of $49.99 per month; $3 increase). This plan includes all Adobe Creative Cloud … [Read more...] about Reminder: Adobe Increasing CC Plan Pricing, Photo Plan Unaffected

Quick Tip: Use the “Alt” or “Option” Key to Preview Lightroom Classic Adjustments

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Ever wonder what your Lightroom adjustments will look like without applying them? Instead of applying and undoing, next time hold the "Alt" (Windows) or "Option" (Mac) key to get a preview of what adjustments will do to your photograph. In the Basic panel, it'll show problematic highlights and shadows so you can further edit, while the Split-Toning, Detail and Camera Calibration panels will show previews of what the adjustments will do to your image. … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Use the “Alt” or “Option” Key to Preview Lightroom Classic Adjustments