We invite you to join us for Boosting Your Photoshop Workflow with New Technology with Richard Harrington How can AI, LUTs, and Tone mapping improve your images? Live Video Event in the Photoshop and Photography Group Saturday, February 16th at 11 AM Pacific Time. Join us here – https://www.facebook.com/events/376493476476815/ Would you like to dramatically improve how you work in Photoshop or Lightroom? In this Live Video event, you’ll learn how new and emerging technology can dramatically improve your photos. Join Rich Harrington as he … [Read more...] about Free Photoshop Webinar Today
Photoshop
How to dodge, burn and create depth in Photoshop with soft light
(Editor's note: In this guest post, photographer Kelly Anderson shows a simple Photoshop technique that anyone can do to lighten or darken (dodge or burn) areas in a photo. Kelly Anderson is a photographer, often gathering inspiration from music, painting, photography and dancing. See her work on kellyandersonphoto.com.) I love Adobe Photoshop. It’s a big, wonderful whale of a program that offers something for everyone — from color management to image correction, compositing through video and 3D. Considering all of that, I have consistently … [Read more...] about How to dodge, burn and create depth in Photoshop with soft light
Quick Tip: Create your own Actions, Presets & Luminar Looks
Do you find yourself performing the same edits to your images? When that happens, take a moment and create an action, preset or Look to help automate the process. Years ago, before Luminar or Lightroom, I found myself constantly starting each portrait session in Photoshop by duplicating the background image, applying a skin softening technique and added different layers to enhance eyes, lips, and sculpt the subject’s face. Creating an action allowed me to assign a keyboard shortcut to speed up my workflow. Want to learn more? Check out this … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Create your own Actions, Presets & Luminar Looks
Reflections on beauty standards and photo editing, part two
The golden ratio or golden mean — have you already heard about it? It's a very popular composition rule in the photographic world. But did you know there is a golden ratio for a face's beauty as well? What are those ratios based on, and how do people look like with those perfect features? Here' what I found. I wrote part one of this series in a very serious vein. Now it's is time to have some fun. A revised and scientific procedure I must confess. I felt quite inaccurate once part one had been posted. I did my Photoshop transformation based … [Read more...] about Reflections on beauty standards and photo editing, part two
Reflections on beauty standards and photo editing, part one
In the past, retouching a model's face or body for magazines covers or ads has often been a source of ethical debate. Now in 2019, it seems like reshaping one's features have become globally adopted in photographs as in real life. What led to such a shift? Beauty enhancing vs. quest for youth Nowadays, botox, implants and injections are not only coveted by aging men and women. I became even more aware of this trend when I watched this widely viewed video called "I Got Surgery to Look Like My Snapchat and Facetune Selfies." It had been online … [Read more...] about Reflections on beauty standards and photo editing, part one
Processing DJI Drone DNG using Perfectly Clear as a plug-in
Editor’s Note: Perfectly Clear is offering Photofocus readers a special $99 bundle, including Perfectly Clear Complete and SharkPixel presets. A $163 value! In this article, I'm going to show you how you can process your DJI Drone DNG RAW Photographs using Perfectly Clear 3.5. Since Perfectly Clear doesn't yet support the DJI Drone cameras, you will need to launch Perfectly Clear as a plugin from inside editing software that supports the Perfectly Clear plugin. I'm going to show you how to do that with Lightroom, Photoshop and Capture One Pro. … [Read more...] about Processing DJI Drone DNG using Perfectly Clear as a plug-in
How to create realistic snow in Photoshop
The problem with snow added in post-production is that it looks fake more often than not. That's a shame because creating realistic snow is much easier than people would think. Listen to the Canadian girl and keep on reading to know once and for all the secret to create realistic snow in Photoshop. What's wrong with fake snow? We've all seen pictures with snow. Some with real snow and some with dubious-white-copy-pasted-dots snow. Being a girl living in winter for half of the year, believe me, I know what snow should look like. If you want to … [Read more...] about How to create realistic snow in Photoshop
Webinar tomorrow, 12/17: Perfecting portraits & travel photos with Erin Holmstead & Mike Hagen
This episode has something for everyone. Levi Sim will be joined by two of our other authors, Erin Holmstead and Mike Hagen to help you learn how to make the most of your portraits and your travel photography. They'll teach techniques to make the most of your time shooting and then they'll demonstrate Perfectly Clear Complete to help make the most of your time finishing your photographs, too. There's something for everyone, so be sure to join us right here. We'll have some giveaways for live viewers, so be sure to join us live on … [Read more...] about Webinar tomorrow, 12/17: Perfecting portraits & travel photos with Erin Holmstead & Mike Hagen
Using Perfectly Clear to enhance aerial images
Editor’s Note: Perfectly Clear is offering Photofocus readers a special $99 bundle, including Perfectly Clear Complete and SharkPixel presets. A $163 value! In this video article, I'm going to show you how I use Perfectly Clear to enhance my DJI drone DNG RAW Photographs. Since Perfectly Clear doesn't yet directly support DJI DNG RAW files, you can import them into Lightroom, Capture One Pro or Photoshop and then open Perfectly Clear from there. See the links below for the best way to import them and then open Perfectly Clear. Using … [Read more...] about Using Perfectly Clear to enhance aerial images
Adobe announces winners of Dungeons & Dragons contest
This morning, Adobe has announced the winner of its "Summon the Terror of Undermountain" contest, in partnership with Wizards of the Coast. The contest, which asked artists to create a scary Dungeons & Dragons monster using Photoshop, was announced in November. Will Kalkanis was chosen as the winner. He won $5,000 and will sit side-by-side with Wizards of the Coast creatives at the Dungeons & Dragons studios to concept future dragons and beasts together. And the coolest part? His art depiction of "The Terror of Undermountain" will be … [Read more...] about Adobe announces winners of Dungeons & Dragons contest
Luminar 3 First Look video and exclusive deal
We've got an in-depth look at what Luminar 3 can do with Photofocus Publisher Rich Harrington. https://youtu.be/TcThfN1rKbM Plus Save $20 on Luminar 3 — https://photofocus.tips/L3Special Join Richard Harrington as he walks you through a detailed overview of getting results with Luminar 3. You'll learn how to set up a library, use workspaces, get results with filters and harness artificial intelligence. You'll also discover how Luminar works as a plugin with Lightroom Classic and Photoshop. Rich is the publisher of Photofocus.com and also … [Read more...] about Luminar 3 First Look video and exclusive deal
Enthusiast’s Guide: Creating a time-lapse from still images in Photoshop
Photofocus features a series on multi-shot photography excerpted from Rocky Nook’s “The Enthusiast’s Guide to Multi-Shot Techniques” by Alan Hess If you decide to create a time-lapse movie yourself — either because your camera can’t do it automatically or because you want to have all the individual image files for some other use —you can do it pretty easily in Photoshop. To make life easier, I suggest putting all the files that you will use to create the time-lapse into a unique folder. This way you can easily navigate to the folder when … [Read more...] about Enthusiast’s Guide: Creating a time-lapse from still images in Photoshop
Photoshop + D&D = Crazy Contest
Adobe has partnered with Wizards of the Coast for a crazy Photoshop contest. They're looking for people to design a scary Dungeons & Dragons monster. No, seriously. Instead of the normal 7-day trial, Adobe is offering a 30-day trial if you download from the contest page. A benefit in itself. The page also offers a Monster toolkit to help you with the contest. Are you brave enough to bring forth the latest Dungeons & Dragons monster: The Terror of Undermountain? Harness the powers of Photoshop and your own imagination for a … [Read more...] about Photoshop + D&D = Crazy Contest
Striking the balance between creativity and efficiency
Creativity is a spice of life. It’s what keeps us excited It keeps us at the top of our game. Being creative often requires experimentation which can take up a lot of time. Here’s how to strike a balance between creativity and efficiency. Don’t reinvent the wheel, modify it When I suggest "Don't reinvent the wheel", I'm not advocating stifling your creativity, I'm suggesting to modify the wheel to become proficient. Start with a solid base, technique or lighting pattern then slightly modify it. Once it’s to your liking, modify it some more! … [Read more...] about Striking the balance between creativity and efficiency
Enthusiast’s Guide: Image stacking for astrophotography
(Editor's note: Photofocus is proud to add Rocky Nook as a vibrant contributor for our readers. Rocky Nook is a small — seven-person independent publishing company. Their commitment is producing high-quality books written by pros for photographers who want to learn more about their craft. Over the next several weeks, Photofocus features a series on multi-shot photography excerpted from "The Enthusiast's Guide to Multi-Shot Techniques" by Alan Hess.) Image stacking in Photoshop is commonly used in the field of astrophotography, which involves … [Read more...] about Enthusiast’s Guide: Image stacking for astrophotography
Webinar Replay: Perfecting Portrait Retouching with Kristina Sherk
Editor's Note: Perfectly Clear is offering Photofocus readers a special $99 bundle, including Perfectly Clear Complete and SharkPixel presets. A $163 value! In this episode, Kristina Sherk teaches some of the principles of retouching and how to use Lightroom and Perfectly Clear Complete to make your photos look their best. Not only do her techniques make individual photos look great, but she shows how to automate your retouching to save you hours on every shoot. https://youtu.be/NEK3tXs2btw?rel=0 For a limited time, there's a special … [Read more...] about Webinar Replay: Perfecting Portrait Retouching with Kristina Sherk
Portrait Tips: Retouching must be invisible
Retouching portraits. This is an important subject and I'll tackle it with you in pieces. You've had a good session with your subject and now you can utilize your computer to finish off their pictures so they can present them to the world. When you show them their pictures, they should feel great about the way it looks. Their best friend should say, "Wow! That's a great shot of you." Their best friend should not say, "Wow! They did a great job retouching." As retoucher and photographer Kristina Sherk says, "The sign of a good retoucher is … [Read more...] about Portrait Tips: Retouching must be invisible
Don’t forget to remove the copyright watermark
A good friend sent me an image of a book she saw at a local store. The book featured pages filled with cute Adobe Stock images of children. How did I know they were from Adobe Stock? The book's designer forgot to remove the Adobe Stock watermark! Here’s how to avoid this costly and embarrassing mistake. Try before you buy A great feature of Adobe Stock is how it’s integrated with Adobe’s Creative Cloud applications — Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. You can download a watermarked preview of an image and place it in your layout. … [Read more...] about Don’t forget to remove the copyright watermark
Live Webinar: Perfecting Portrait Retouching with Kristina Sherk, Friday, October 19, 2018
We're excited to have world-class photographer and retoucher Kristina Sherk in this webinar to help you step up your retouching. She'll help us understand the principles behind great retouching, tips for shooting to make retouching easier, and how she retouches using Perfectly Clear Complete. Check out Kristina's photography and her retouching portfolio. This webinar is free, so register now and invite your friends. Editor's Note: Perfectly Clear is offering Photofocus readers a special $99 bundle, including Perfectly Clear Complete … [Read more...] about Live Webinar: Perfecting Portrait Retouching with Kristina Sherk, Friday, October 19, 2018
Exclusive: Diving into the future of Photoshop CC
Fresh off the announcement of Photoshop CC for the iPad, I had the chance to sit down with Stephen Nielson, Director of Project Management for Photoshop, to discuss the new platform for Adobe's flagship program. We spoke in-depth about the updates for the desktop version of Photoshop and touched on what users should expect from the iPad experience. Photoshop has evolved year after year since its introduction in 1990, and the 2019 version brings some notable updates for both photographers and designers. "What we have in Photoshop is an … [Read more...] about Exclusive: Diving into the future of Photoshop CC
Adobe announces Photoshop for iPad, major updates to Photoshop CC
Adobe has officially announced that it's bringing Photoshop CC to the iPad and other devices. First rumored this summer, the new version of Photoshop CC will deliver a familiar interface with many of the same tools that its desktop counterpart has. This means you'll be able to open and edit a PSD on the iPad, using tools like layers and masks in your workflow. It can be used on its own, or in tandem with the Photoshop CC desktop version. It'll also work with pencil devices, allowing you to have precision when working. Anything you do … [Read more...] about Adobe announces Photoshop for iPad, major updates to Photoshop CC
A better drone photographer – Using Lutify LUTs with DJI DNG RAW files in Capture One Pro 11
In this article, I'm going to show you how I use Lutify LUTs in Capture One Pro 11 (CO 11). These LUTs will work in any software that supports LUTs like Affinity Photo, Luminar 2018, Photoshop, and Lightroom. The package you choose will determine whether it supports the RAW image for that product. Also, I contacted Lutify directly and was provided a free version of these LUTs for this review. As always, I will give you my honest review of the product. Lutify is kindly offering a 10% discount coupon for Photofocus readers on any of their … [Read more...] about A better drone photographer – Using Lutify LUTs with DJI DNG RAW files in Capture One Pro 11
Enthusiast’s Guide: How to use Photoshop’s image stacks to remove people from a scene
(Editor's note: Photofocus is proud to add Rocky Nook as a vibrant contributor for our readers. Rocky Nook is a small — seven-person independent publishing company. Their commitment is producing high-quality books written by pros for photographers who want to learn more about their craft. Over the next several weeks, Photofocus features a series on multi-shot photography excerpted from "The Enthusiast's Guide to Multi-Shot Techniques" by Alan Hess.) Once you have a set of images loaded as a stack in Photoshop you can apply some of the other … [Read more...] about Enthusiast’s Guide: How to use Photoshop’s image stacks to remove people from a scene
Quick Tip: Download and install eyelash brushes for realistic eyelashes in Photoshop
There are many online resources that offer eyelash brushes. A simple Google search for "Eyelash Brush Photoshop" will return several great sites. I downloaded the brushes from Obsidian Dawn’s website and paid a small $3 fee for commercial use. Want to learn more? Check out this article, "Adding Realistic Eyelashes in Photoshop" … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Download and install eyelash brushes for realistic eyelashes in Photoshop
Using the color lookup adjustment layer in Photoshop
The color look up adjustment layer unlocks the power of LUTS, or look up tables. This is a powerful operation that allows you to transfer color information between applications, or to assign preset recipes to simulate film stocks or do advanced color effects. Let me show you how they work. To apply a look up table is pretty easy. Lets start with the built in look up tables. I'll click on the adjustments tab here, and then choose look up table. It looks like a grid here, and the label is 'color lookup'. Using the Color Lookup adjustment layer … [Read more...] about Using the color lookup adjustment layer in Photoshop
Expert level black and white images with a Photoshop gradient map
Built into Photoshop are several excellent gradient maps that make it easy to do black-and-white conversion. These are different than the techniques you've seen earlier and sometimes I'll combine them with other adjustment techniques, or even lookup tables to get advanced results. Let me show you how a gradient map is quite useful. Another nice option for the gradient map effect is a black-and-white effect. Now let's add the gradient map, and from the pop-up list here, I'm gonna choose the photographic toning presets. This makes it very easy to … [Read more...] about Expert level black and white images with a Photoshop gradient map
Quick Tip: Cycle through a layer’s blend mode to seamlessly blend two images together
Replacing a background of an image can be a challenge. The trick is to find the right background that has similar colors, tones, lighting and looks like it belongs to the main image. Once you find the right image, cycle through the layer’s blend mode selector to see which mode blends best. This applies to any image editing software that uses layers, including Photoshop and Luminar. Want to learn more? Check out this article, "Changing a Background with an Image Overlay in Luminar 2018" … [Read more...] about Quick Tip: Cycle through a layer’s blend mode to seamlessly blend two images together
Enthusiast’s Guide: Use image stack in Photoshop to reduce noise
(Editor's note: Photofocus is proud to add Rocky Nook as a vibrant contributor for our readers. Rocky Nook is a small — seven-person independent publishing company. Their commitment is producing high-quality books written by pros for photographers who want to learn more about their craft. Over the next several weeks, Photofocus features a series on multi-shot photography from "The Enthusiast's Guide to Multi-Shot Techniques" by Alan Hess.) Photoshop's image stacks A lesser-known feature in Photoshop is image stacking. One of the best uses for … [Read more...] about Enthusiast’s Guide: Use image stack in Photoshop to reduce noise
Video: Preview of Photoshop’s updated Content Aware Fill
I'm glad to see that Adobe are actively improving a really useful feature in Photoshop. Content Aware Fill has been a really useful tool for me, and if you haven't tried it, you should check it out (here's a video from Rich Harrington to get you up to date on the basics). I use it to remove objects from a scene and to expand my scene when I need to create a different crop or aspect ratio. It looks like the upcoming new interface will offer important controls to help us use it better. It's coming 'soon' and I'll let you know as soon as we have a … [Read more...] about Video: Preview of Photoshop’s updated Content Aware Fill
Attaching a LUT to a Lightroom preset
A recent change to Lightroom is an Advanced Camera Profile that allows you to attach other settings. Now, we can actually import look-up tables, and attach them to our Lightroom presets. This means that a lot of the advanced things you do in PhotoShop can translate to a Lightroom color adjustment. Let me show you how to take the PhotoShop lot, and attach to a Lightroom preset. One of the easiest ways to create a new Lightroom profiles to actually use Adobe Bridge. What you have to do is, select an image, and then right-click, and open that … [Read more...] about Attaching a LUT to a Lightroom preset
