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
Photoshop
Using Photoshop Selections for Color and Tone Adjustments
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
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
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
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
Perfectly Clear: Beginning Retouching for the Non-Retoucher
I totally understand that there are people out there who picked up a camera at the same time they picked up a laptop just so they could edit images. I, however, wasn't one of those individuals. I actually didn't buy any retouching software until a couple years after I picked up my first DSLR. I really was so fascinated with being able to understand everything my camera could do and trying so hard to get things right in the camera that adding in the editing part was almost too much for my brain. I was completely content with just capturing what … [Read more...] about Perfectly Clear: Beginning Retouching for the Non-Retoucher
Portrait Tips: Fix It Now, Not In Photoshop
It's important to keep a shoot moving along, keep your subjects engaged, and keep up appearances that you know what you're doing, right? We all want to appear to be in confident control. However, it's also important to pay attention and make adjustments so that you don't waste time making pictures that are going to cost you more work to finish than they may be worth. Let me give you some examples. Lint & Pet Hair You will spend decades of your life retouching lint and hair off suits and jackets if you don't catch it before you start … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Fix It Now, Not In Photoshop
Portrait Tips: Know Your Software
Here's a quick tip that will help you be more creative while shooting and manage details. You need to know your software tools at least as well as you know your camera and lights. This has been on my mind, lately, behind I've been demonstrating Luminar for lots of folks and it's amazed me how quickly I've been able to integrate it into my workflow and understand how it can affect my pictures. Photoshop isn't New "Getting it right in the camera" is often invoked as the hallmark of a good photographer, but it's a big misconception. Ever since … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Know Your Software
Photoshop’s New Subject Select Tool…WOW!
Adobe’s added a new “Select Subject” feature to their newest Photoshop release. They claim the machine learning feature will make basic and time-consuming masking quicker and more accurate than ever before. We’ve heard this before, but this time they hit a home run! Instead of writing about it, I created a video to show you how to use the new Select Subject Tool to quickly extract both a simple and complicated subject to create a composite. As a bonus, I also show how to use the tool in your general … [Read more...] about Photoshop’s New Subject Select Tool…WOW!
Why Focus Stack When I Can Just Use f/22?
I've got three good reasons why using f/22 won't get you a sharp picture. However, even though I've proven these reasons in my own work, you should go try it yourself. The other day, I wrote a brief introduction to focus stacking (check it out here) and it has spurred a lot of questions and discussion on my Facebook page (including some guest pictures below). The major question posed there is "Why not simply use a small aperture to create a photo with great depth of field and get everything in focus instead of a process like focus stacking … [Read more...] about Why Focus Stack When I Can Just Use f/22?
Evolution of a Glamour Image in Post
Great Glamour Starts with Light but Finishes with Luminosity One of the concepts I stress most with my students is that photography is all about the play of lights and darks; tonal value is more important than color! I find that, most of the time, the path to a great color image runs through a B&W conversion, at some point. It is much easier to make tone and contrast decisions when you are not being distracted by color. Once an ideal B&W is achieved, you can apply the B&W luminosity to the original color. The following example, … [Read more...] about Evolution of a Glamour Image in Post
Build a Better Background for a Glamour Image
Sometimes we get stuck with a plain background that we'd have preferred to be more interesting. The solution is often to dress it up in post I want to share with you the post process I went through in one of my past workshops and introduce a technique for creating custom backdrops in Photoshop using custom brushes. Lets start with this base file right out of ACR/Lightroom... I did the usual Lightroom enhancements plus a little post crop vignetting and graduated filter application to darken edges and enhance the existing … [Read more...] about Build a Better Background for a Glamour Image
Lightroom Live: Monochromes For Winter With Jim Welninski
You gotta join us live for our next Lightroom Live, totally free of charge. Not only will you learn terrific techniques, but if you tune in live, you can be entered to win excellent prizes to help you in your work. (Note: MUST BE TUNED IN LIVE TO WIN). We'll be giving away a copy of Perfectly Clear from Athentech. Plus you never know what else. We kick off Monday, January 8th at 1:00 pm Eastern, 12:00 pm Central, 11:00 am Mountain, and 10:00 am Pacific. 2 pm in the Virgin Islands. Check out the YouTube event here and it'll show your … [Read more...] about Lightroom Live: Monochromes For Winter With Jim Welninski
What Is Focus Stacking?
When you buy a fast lens with a bright aperture, like f/1.8, you go crazy making photos with a super-shallow depth of field. You photograph flowers where only one stamen is in focus, and you shoot people with super blurry backgrounds, and it's lots of fun using the thin slice of focus. However, there are many times when that thin slice just doesn't cut it. Sometimes you just need everything in focus, and even if you stop down to the lens's smallest aperture you still may not be able to get everything in sharp focus. That's where focus stacking … [Read more...] about What Is Focus Stacking?
How Do You Add Text To A Photo In Lightroom?
A friend asked me this question the other day. His website host doesn't allow him to show a picture's filename on the website which makes it hard to communicate with his clients about which photos they like best. He just wanted to be able to post the pictures with the filename showing, and he wanted to do this with several pictures all at once. Lightroom is not a terrific tool for adding text to photos, but there is a way this can be accomplished and it may be the fastest way to get it done even if you have another tool that could do it. Use … [Read more...] about How Do You Add Text To A Photo In Lightroom?
Lightroom Live: Monochromes For Winter With Jim Welninski
You gotta join us live for our next Lightroom Live, totally free of charge. Not only will you learn terrific techniques, but if you tune in live, you can be entered to win excellent prizes to help you in your work. (Note: MUST BE TUNED IN LIVE TO WIN). We'll be giving away a copy of Perfectly Clear from Athentech. Plus you never know what else. We kick off Monday, January 8th at 1:00 pm Eastern, 12:00 pm Central, 11:00 am Mountain, and 10:00 am Pacific. 2 pm in the Virgin Islands. Check out the YouTube event here and it'll show your … [Read more...] about Lightroom Live: Monochromes For Winter With Jim Welninski
How to Create a Cinemagraph with Photoshop & Adobe Stock
Cinemagraphs are a loop of video saved as a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format.) Properly made, movement in a cinemagraph is seamless. The viewer is unable to tell where the action begins or where it ends. That is the trick to make a successful cinemagraph. Adobe Stock The first component of a successful cinemagraph is a piece of video with a strong foreground subject. While you can certainly shoot your own video for cinemagraphs, for this project I'll hop over to stock.adobe.com to find a suitable clip. At the landing page for video, select … [Read more...] about How to Create a Cinemagraph with Photoshop & Adobe Stock
Live Webinar: Get Up And Running With The New Perfectly Clear 3.5
Join Levi Sim and Vanelli Live for a free Webinar on Tuesday, December 12, 2017, as they explore "How to Get up and Running with the New Perfectly Clear 3.5". Athentech unveiled Perfectly Clear 3.5. with lots of great new features. It’s also a FREE update to existing Perfectly Clear version 3 owners. If you don’t own the application/plug-in (or own an older version) we’ve got a time-limited special offer here. Perfectly Clear is Now A Stand-Alone Application! Perfectly Clear version 3.5 has removed the need for using a host application. … [Read more...] about Live Webinar: Get Up And Running With The New Perfectly Clear 3.5
Live Webinar: Get Up And Running With The New Perfectly Clear 3.5
Join Levi Sim and Vanelli Live for a free Webinar on Tuesday, December 12, 2017, as they explore "How to Get up and Running with the New Perfectly Clear 3.5". Athentech unveiled Perfectly Clear 3.5. with lots of great new features. It’s also a FREE update to existing Perfectly Clear version 3 owners. If you don’t own the application/plug-in (or own an older version) we’ve got a time-limited special offer here. Perfectly Clear is Now A Stand-Alone Application! Perfectly Clear version 3.5 has removed the need for using a host application. … [Read more...] about Live Webinar: Get Up And Running With The New Perfectly Clear 3.5
Lightroom Live: Our Favorite Plugins
You gotta join us live for our next Lightroom Live, totally free of charge. Not only will you learn terrific techniques, but if you tune in live, you can be entered to win excellent prizes to help you in your work. (Note: MUST BE TUNED IN LIVE TO WIN). We'll be giving away a copy of Perfectly Clear from Athentech. Plus you never know what else. We kick off Monday, December 11th at 1:00 pm Eastern, 12:00 pm Central, 11:00 am Mountain, and 10:00 am Pacific. 2 pm in the Virgin Islands. Check out the YouTube event here and it'll show your … [Read more...] about Lightroom Live: Our Favorite Plugins
How to Add Smoke using a FREE Photoshop Brush
Adding a smoke effect in Photoshop is easy when you have the right brushes. Here's where to find a few cool smoke effect brushes and how to apply them. Where to Find a Smoke Brush A simple Google search on “Free Photoshop Brushes” is a great starting point. I found several great smoke effect brushes on QBrushes.net. Although the brushes are free, read through their licensing agreement to make sure you qualify. As with downloading anything over the internet, make sure you’re downloading from a reputable site. Create a folder called Brushes … [Read more...] about How to Add Smoke using a FREE Photoshop Brush
Apple updates the Photos App in macOS High Sierra!
The only constant thing in Apple is change, and thankfully-- one of the biggest changes to macOS includes an update to the Photos app! There's a lot more for us to play with now, but the biggest changes include a more logical organization, more tools to use while editing, and the ability to jump back forth to Photoshop. Organization The sidebar gets a great little makeover that makes a huge difference in terms of what you're seeing at first glance! The first thing that drew my attention is the little folder, called Media Types, that now … [Read more...] about Apple updates the Photos App in macOS High Sierra!
Lightroom Live: New Lightrooms Q&A
You gotta join us live for our next Lightroom Live, totally free of charge. Not only will you learn terrific techniques, but if you tune in live, you can be entered to win excellent prizes to help you in your work. (Note: MUST BE TUNED IN LIVE TO WIN). We'll be giving away a copy of Perfectly Clear from Athentech. Plus you never know what else. We kick off Monday, October 30th at 1:00 pm Eastern, 12:00 pm Central, 11:00 am Mountain, and 10:00 am Pacific. 2 pm in the Virgin Islands. Check out the YouTube event here and it'll show your … [Read more...] about Lightroom Live: New Lightrooms Q&A
How to Use Plugins with the New Lightroom CC
I keep hearing the question, can I use plugins with the new Lightroom (aka Lightroom CC). While Lightroom Classic CC (formerly Lightroom CC) fully supports third-party plugins like Perfectly Clear Complete or Macphun Luminar, the new Lightroom CC is a bit different. NOTE: We've got 3 specials for plugins Perfectly Clear. (with Free Upgrade to version 3.5) for only $79 (a Photofocus exclusive). This is almost half off! Aurora HDR. Add detail and depth to every photo or work with HDR brackets for maximum impact. Save $10 Luminar. A … [Read more...] about How to Use Plugins with the New Lightroom CC
Lightroom Live: New Lightrooms Q&A
You gotta join us live for our next Lightroom Live, totally free of charge. Not only will you learn terrific techniques, but if you tune in live, you can be entered to win excellent prizes to help you in your work. (Note: MUST BE TUNED IN LIVE TO WIN). We'll be giving away a copy of Perfectly Clear from Athentech. Plus you never know what else. We kick off Monday, October 30th at 1:00 pm Eastern, 12:00 pm Central, 11:00 am Mountain, and 10:00 am Pacific. 2 pm in the Virgin Islands. Check out the YouTube event here and it'll show your … [Read more...] about Lightroom Live: New Lightrooms Q&A
Adventure in Color and Tone – Lightroom vs Photoshop
Editor's Note: This is an advanced tutorial. For a detailed explanation of these techniques, Lee is sharing see his post on LAB Masking. Everyone would agree that a great photo starts with a great capture—good composition, good light, good exposure, and a certain ineffable quality of magic that comes together at the moment the shutter is released. However, a great photo is not really finished at the moment of capture. That capture, however great it is, exists as pure potential until it is rendered viewable to an audience. Many times the full … [Read more...] about Adventure in Color and Tone – Lightroom vs Photoshop
Lab Luminosity Masks
Editor's Note: Lee presents a very powerful way of enhancing color and sharpening an image in this post. The video that concludes this post is an excellent tutorial with step by step instructions and explanations. These are advanced techniques. Here I submit, for your consideration, this step-by-step video on using Lab channels as the source for luminosity masks. This type of masking is all the rage right now, and you can find many tutorials about the general procedure all over the internet. There are even action that automatically generate … [Read more...] about Lab Luminosity Masks
The term “Crushed Blacks” has got people confused!
What seems to be a misused phrase in the photography community is being made increasingly more confusing by those who don't understand what they're saying. In a conversation I had with an aspiring photographer about his editing process on a particular image, he shared some usual color correction tips and then said that he "crushed the blacks." Shortly afterward at work, I had a conversation with another photographer who ranted and raved about another local photographer because of how he "crushed the blacks" in all his images. He then … [Read more...] about The term “Crushed Blacks” has got people confused!
Aerial 360˚ Photos Workflow
Image credit – Jag_cz on Adobe Stock. These two videos are from my new class over at LinkedIn Learning... I'll share with you in a six-part article the entire part of the course about aerial panoramic images. You can see the series here as it's released on Photofocus or watch the whole class here. Merging 360˚ panoramic images in PTGui from Learning Aerial Photography with Drones by Richard Harrington and Francis Torres Note: If the video doesn’t show up at first, please reload the page. Adding 360˚ sky in Photoshop from Learning … [Read more...] about Aerial 360˚ Photos Workflow
Processing Jupiter in Adobe Photoshop
Using the images taken by NASA's Juno probe, learn how to process your very own composite of Jupiter in Adobe Photoshop. This tutorial explores combining several channels, using Camera Raw, and various other techniques. Learn more about the Jupiter mission here — https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing You can even access the UNPROCESSED images from space to try your own hand at developing. … [Read more...] about Processing Jupiter in Adobe Photoshop
