I've long been fascinated by the work of Joel Tjintjelaar and Julia Anna Gospodarou. Those two are among the pioneers of a popular editing style for black and white architecture photos that is very graphical and introduces strong contrasts and lighting that feel surreal. In this fantastic video by Ben Harvey, you learn how such images are created.
As you learned in my articles about editing mistakes, too strong image transformations can harm the quality of your photos. But if you use them selectively, they can be of great help. In this article, I show how to use selective image transformation in Photoshop to fix compositions.
By far, one of the common retouching requests photographers receive when editing portraits is to lighten dark circles under the eyes. Thankfully, it is not an especially difficult problem to address, and this excellent video tutorial will show you everything you need to do to lighten those circles in a convincing and high-quality manner.
If you've ever looked at your face on a Zoom call and wondered why you look so bad, you're not alone. Here, we look at how to add color corrections and pop to your face so you look so much better on Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype, and more.
The eyes are one of the most important of any portrait, and as such, they deserve a little bit of extra attention when you are in the post-processing stage of your work. If you would like to improve your portraits, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you how to brighten and enhance the eyes in a portrait for natural, compelling results.
In a recent article, I shared a selection of easy-to-avoid photo editing mistakes. Today, it's time for five more. Some of them might sound obvious, while others are more subtle. What they all have in common: they can ruin an otherwise great edit.
Photo editing is a powerful tool that allows you to transform your images in many ways, from enhancing the atmosphere in a photo to increase of image quality. However, common editing mistakes can negatively impact the final result. In this article, we'll explore five of those.
Adobe's Lightroom masking feature introduced just under a year ago revolutionized the workflow for many photographers by automating the tedious task of creating individual masks for specific parts of an image. This AI masking feature allows photographers to easily separate the foreground from the background, easily break down the parts of a portrait, and apply various edits to each individual part.
Braces are extremely common, but their wearers are often a bit self-conscious about them, and as such, you might get requests to remove them. As usual, it is Photoshop to the rescue, and this helpful video tutorial will show you how to deal with a situation that can be surprisingly tricky.
Rarely is a portrait image finished once you have pressed the shutter; almost every such photo requires some degree of retouching to finish it. If you are not as comfortable at the computer as you are behind the camera, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced portrait photographer showing you a complete portrait retouching workflow sure to help you create compelling images.
Landscapes often have dynamic range that exceeds the capabilities of even the most modern camera sensors, and as such, exposure blending is one of the most common techniques photographers employ to improve the quality of their photos. There are many different ways to go about this, and this fantastic video tutorial will show you one of the easiest and most precise ways to do it using Photoshop.
Photoshop is an extremely nuanced and complex program, which means there are often several ways to accomplish what you need to do. One of the application's most useful features, Blend If, is a bit hidden behind those multiple layers of menus, but it is one well worth knowing, as it gives you powerful and versatile capabilities for a range of editing scenarios. This excellent video tutorial will show you the ins and outs of Blend if and demonstrates how it works through a series of double exposure edits.
The sky is an integral part of just about any landscape photograph, and as such, it deserves a healthy dose of your attention during the editing process. If you would like to improve your landscape images, check out this excellent video tutorial that will show you three different ways to adjust the sky using Photoshop or Lightroom.
Have you used this little-known tool in recent versions of Photoshop? Have you even seen it? It makes editing images so much easier. See it in use here.
As advanced as editing tools have become in recent years, dodging and burning remains as one of the most fundamental and powerful techniques for shaping the light in your images, de-emphasizing blemishes, and drawing attention to your subject in a natural but compelling fashion. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to use dodging and burning for editing portraits in Photoshop.
Knowing how to light, pose, and shoot a portrait is only half of what it takes to make a compelling final image. You also need to have strong post-processing skills. If you are new to portrait photography and wondering how to go about editing your images, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you an effective and straightforward workflow for creating polished results using Photoshop.
If you've ever had to make complex selections in Adobe Photoshop, you know how frustrating it can be. Well, in this video, learn five tips for ensuring you get it exactly right with the easiest method possible.
You would be surprised how many times you might want to change the color of something in post-production. This video shows you how to do it quickly and easily in Adobe Lightroom.
Topaz Labs' DeNoise AI software does an incredible job of cleaning up images and removing unwanted noise. However, it works differently depending on whether you're using it in Lightroom, Photoshop, or as a standalone platform. Here, we take at look the best way to use it as a Photoshop plugin.
A new year and another Photoshop AI feature to get excited about. This time, we're going to look at how you can take poor, low quality images with tiny file sizes and plenty of ugly artifacts and turn them into images of such quality you could even consider printing them.
Do you sometimes look at your images and think there's something missing? Something you can't quite put your finger on, but instinctively know? Very often your images are flat and lack depth. Here's exactly how to fix that issue and add real pop and life to your photos.
Compositing in Photoshop comes in many forms, from product and portrait enhancement to fantasy-style images. Every digital artist will have their own workflow, as there are many different ways to get the final results.
Photoshop is a tremendously complex and intricate program, and as such, there are many different ways to accomplish any specific task. This means that it is worth taking the time to learn some of the best and most efficient ways of doing things, as it will save you a lot of time and effort over the long run. This helpful video tutorial will show you five ways to make your work in Photoshop better and quicker.
Sharpening your images can either go two ways: oversharpened or not quite the mark of what you are seeking. What if you had full control of the sharpening process in a simple, straightforward plugin? Sound interesting?
Do you think your editing skills can match the pros? Check out these five masking techniques that the pros use in Photoshop to see if you're as skilled as you think you might be.
I took a look at Radiant Photo when it first came out in September. I found it a capable editor, aimed mostly using AI to improve your color and the overall look of shadows, highlights, and other image parameters. It uses a pixel-by-pixel approach, which the developers claim gives you more creative control of the final result.
A lot of photo editing focuses on adjusting the shadows and the highlights of an image, as they are the extremes of a photo and thus, what the eye is drawn to. That being said, a normal image consists mostly of midtones, so knowing how to select and edit them independently of the shadows and highlights is a crucial skill for any photographer. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to select and edit the midtones of an image in Photoshop.
A question to ask yourself before composing your landscape photos is: what's the subject? Having a clear answer to that will help you create good photographs. But there are situations where no matter how you position your camera, some elements in the frame will distract from the main subject. In this article, I share editing techniques you can use to alleviate that problem.
When it comes to post-processing, one of the most useful tools at your disposal is the luminosity mask, which can help you create more precise and efficient edits. If you have not tried luminosity masks if your work before, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you the ins and outs of creating and using them.
The advancement of AI in photography and videography spheres has come more rapidly than many people are comfortable with. But there's one issue that hasn't been discussed that could have major repercussions for the industry.
Since Lightroom and Photoshop introduced their automatic sky selections, changes to the sky in landscape and architecture photos have become very easy. But, how good are those automatic selections? If you edit photos for web representation alone, they are mostly good enough. But if you intend to print your photos, you might want to improve them, which is what I show in this article.
Focus stacking is one of the most useful techniques a landscape photographer can have in their bag of tricks, making it easy to create images that are ultra-sharp across the entire frame. However, it can be a bit tricky when you have moving water in the frame. This great video tutorial will show you how to properly focus stack such a photo to get the best possible results.
Few things can more dramatically impact the mood and feel of an image than the color grade. We all have favorite color grades, whether from photos or movies. Thankfully, Photoshop has some nifty built-in tools that allow you to easily copy the color grade from one image and apply it to another, and this excellent video tutorial will show you how to do just that.
With every new Photoshop update, the selection tools get more and more sophisticated. However, with the most recent update, there's a new hack that makes selections as accurate as I've ever seen them.
One of the most common and annoying issues portrait photographers will have to deal with is flyaway hairs, which can be particularly distracting when they run across your subject's face. Nonetheless, you can get rid of them quickly and convincingly using Photoshop, and this great video tutorial will show you how to do just that.
Lightroom and Photoshop have made some major steps forward in masking capabilities, and complicated masks that used to take a lot of intricate and time-intensive work can now be made in mere seconds with just a click. This great video tutorial will show you where to find Photoshop's new AI masking features and how to use them for quick and precise edits.
It might have once been an absurd thing to contemplate, but has the day finally come where landscape photographers do not actually need to use Photoshop?
Sometimes the simplest desires in post-production can prove to be the trickiest. Color is a common example of this where you just want to grab the color of one thing and make the color of something else match it. Well, here's how to do it quickly and easily.
You have probably seen black and white architectural images of single buildings edited to have dramatic, contrasty lighting against an inky black background. Of course, this is not how it looks in real life and takes some Photoshop savvy to achieve. This great video tutorial will show you everything you need to know to achieve that look.
Photoshop is a tremendously complex and intricate application, and as such, there are some useful features that are easy to overlook simply by virtue of the overarching complexity. This awesome video tutorial will show you five such hidden gems in the program, where to find them, and how to put them to use for better and more efficient photo edits.
Topaz Labs recently released its all-in-one Photo AI suite that magically removes noise, sharpens, and increases resolution all at the single click of a button. But how does it compare with its own individual products, in this case DeNoise AI?
Catchlights are one of the most important bits of a portrait that signify a professional image. It is not uncommon, however, for your subject to be posed in a way where they just miss having a catchlight. That is no reason to bin that photo, though, as you can add a realistic catchlight quickly and easily in Photoshop. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to do just that.
When you are shooting in a studio, you have full control over the lighting and content in the frame, but if you are shooting in another environment, particularly outside, you may end up with unwanted shadows distracting from your subject, ruining an otherwise compelling photo. All is not lost, though. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to convincingly remove those shadows using Photoshop.
Most of the time, landscape photographers want everything in the image as sharp as possible, from the closest foreground element all the way to the farthest mountain or cloud. Accomplishing that takes more than simply setting your lens aperture to f/32 and shooting away. Focus stacking is one of the most common techniques for achieving this, and this great video tutorial will show you how it is done.
Many people think that Adobe Camera Raw is simply Lightroom's Develop Module inside Photoshop. It is, but it also has its own exclusive features. Have a look at this great new update added to Adobe Camera Raw recently that adds a whole different dimension to selections.
When it comes to retouching skin, there are several ways to accomplish the same task, some more efficient and easier than others. If you would like an easy way to quickly and effectively edit skin in Photoshop, check out this great video tutorial that will show you just such a workflow.
If you want to lift your retouching skills to the next level, you should familiarize yourself with frequency separation and how it can aid you in various photo editing tasks. One of those can come up in cityscape and architecture photography. Especially during blue hour and nighttime, you can get unwanted shadows in your photos. In this article, I explain how to remove those with frequency separation.
The latest version of Photoshop is here, and it brings with it some pretty nifty features that will both save you time and help you make better, more precise edits. If you are wondering what is new, what it can do, and how to use it, check out this great video that will give you an overview of what to expect and where to find it.
If you'd like to regain a little more control of your edits instead of handing over the reins to the ubiquitous AI juggernaut, here's a great method for enhancing really boring skies in Photoshop.
