Recent Post Production Articles

Using Lightroom to Give Your Flat Images More Zing

We’ve all had that experience of eagerly opening what seemed like a promising image in Lightroom, only to be disappointed when we discover that it lacks a certain something. Here’s a short tutorial demonstrating the use of masks and tone curves in Lightroom to bring more impact to your images.

AI-Powered Retouching With Portrait Pro 19

Retouching can take a long time, especially cleaning up skin. But Anthropics aims to fix that with their new version of Portrait Pro, with AI-powered skin retouching. Does it live up to the hype? Let's find out.

Dave Hill Takes You INSIDE His Photographs 3D Style

We have featured a lot of Dave Hill's unbelievable photoshoots here on Fstoppers. So when I saw his Adventure Series posted over at Strobist I thought it was an older video. Oh how I was wrong....way wrong! In his latest video, Dave Hill places his composite images into an After Effects type environment and lets you see every layer and all it's photoshopped glory. The video outlines all 11 images so it's a bit long but you will probably still find yourself watching all of them in wonder. This video was also a great reminder that Dave is to work making behind the scenes videos so you will probably see a lot more of him in the near future. What do you guys think? What is your favorite image from this series?
How To Calibrate Your Monitor With ColorMunki

Every now and then I toy around with the idea of calibrating my monitor. I know how important color is for a photographer, but as a Jpeg shooter I've always felt that if I can capture an image to my liking in camera then I should be good to go. In the past I have tried a few products to calibrate my monitors and the results have never been very pleasing to my eye. After a few hours of letting my eyes adjust, menu bars and icons I've seen for years start having a pink or yellow tone that I simply can't get used to viewing. Well today I decided to test the calibration waters again on my laptop (since it's not used as much as my main workstation). Many of our Twitter followers recommended the ColorMunki by X-Rite which lead me to the following video on their system. It all seems pretty straightforward on video but I want to see what you guys think. Have you had a good experience with calibrating your monitor and feel confident people on normal laptops are seeing your work in the best possible representation?
Halloween Inspiration: A Dollar Store and Your Backyard

If you’re in search of some festive-themed inspiration, check out this short video from Tajreen & Co that will also show you how easy it to create a fun image for Halloween with very limited resources. Some basic editing knowledge can turn a simple idea into a striking and spooky image.

Map Zoom to Sky Effect Transition, or How to Make Drone-Like Footage Without One

When editing videos, especially if you are vlogging, finding creative ways to make your content entertaining isn’t always easy. Quality content is king, but a solid edit goes a long way as well. Implementing new transitions on a regular basis or finding a unique one that can become your signature style could definitely help making your footage more attractive. In this 15-minute long tutorial, Nathaniel Dodson from tutvid shows us how to create a drone-like transition between two shots!

Make Quick Selections for Basic Compositing on Your iPad Using Photoshop Mix

Though there are other programs out there that say they can quickly cutout objects from the background via masks and leave you with a clean end result, I've tried a few of those programs and they just don't seem to cut it. The process to create these masks also seem very awkward. Now you can quickly create (pretty darn good) masks on your iPad using Photoshop Mix, a mobile offering from Adobe we told you about earlier this year.

Save 93% on MacPhun's Creative Kit XXL Bundle

MacPhun is a popular à la carte Mac photo-editing software company that offers a variety of solutions for various editing needs. For the next week and a half, they're offering their entire suite of products for a price of $129, compared to the $2,000 that it would normally cost. Is $2,000 a little steep for all of this? Sure. But at $129, some will find it hard to pass up these standalone, subscription-free editing tools. Creative Kit customers can save even more.

Alien Skin Software Black Friday Deals

Alien Skin Software announced the beginning of their fall sale. Customers can enjoy savings of 20 percent or more on all products in its store today through November 27.

Luminar Neo Adds a Focus Stacking Extension

The fifth Extension coming to the Luminar Neo editing platform is Focus Stacking, a tool for achieving a deep depth of field in a photo by merging (or stacking) up to 100 source images. Now, creating photos that are in sharp focus from the front to the back of the image becomes much easier, whether you’re shooting macro photography, portraits, or landscapes.

How to Create Special FX Lighting in Photoshop

In this video tutorial, watch as Redouane Naouri shows you how to create special FX lighting in Photoshop. FX light effects are very effective on fantasy images, and the way Naouri creates this effect is different from any other way I have seen before.

Fstoppers Reviews the Hair Retouching Course From Retouching Academy

Hair retouching is something that most retouchers and photographers cringe to think about. It's also something that we really need to be fluent in because the situation will come up where there will be things you need to fix. The Hair Retouching course by Retouching Academy with Michael Woloszynowicz is a full overview of the variety of hair issues and how to fix them.

A Tale of Groceries: Featuring an Fstoppers Community Member

Inspiration strikes at random times, you may witness a beautiful fall scene with brightly colored leaves falling into a creek, or stumble across a wonderful painting that gets your creative juices flowing and sparks your imagination. Or like in the case of "Grossceries," you watch a documentary on food, and start to think about where food comes from.

The Making of a Composite With Mario Olvera

Mario Olvera is a photographer, digital artist, and friend from Mexico. He creates surreal conceptual composite images and commercial works.

How to Edit Dark And Moody Images

It's headed toward Christmas and the vibe on instagram has certainly changed. In this video, I go over how to edit dark and moody photographs.

How to Quickly and Effectively Edit Holiday Snaps

While you may concentrate on making art, some of the most important images you will ever take are when you are with family and friends. A common example is when you travel for a holiday and these end up being the photographs your family will look back on for years to come. Here are some tips for quickly improving them with a simple post-production process.

The ‘AI Info’ Controversy: Is This Label Undermining Classical Photography? Industry Experts Weigh In.

“Ridiculous”, “oversimplistic”, and “immensely frustrating”: photographers worldwide are weighing in on the broad social media label "AI Info". While some industry leaders see the value of the designation, the blanket “AI Info” label is also criticized as being oversimplistic. This rollout is causing some photographers to feel punished for using basic tools in Photoshop to avoid the label. I talked with some of the biggest names in commercial photography and retouching to get a pulse from industry experts.

How to Use Masks and Luma Range in Capture One Pro 12

When Capture One Pro 12 was released, a couple of new features were introduced including more refined masking tools. In this video, Michael Woloszynowicz shows you exactly how to take advantage of masking in Capture One.

Fstoppers Reviews the Trapcode Suite 15 From Red Giant

As a freelancer, I find myself taking on different roles in both production and post. I can do some modest animations, but any major work, I outsource to an animator. With plugins like the Trapcode Suite though, even a simpleton like me can make some eye-catching graphics.

Will AI Be Taking Over Your Photography?

Did artificial intelligence technology take over photography? No, it hasn’t, and it probably never will. But here is how AI might have been helping you behind the scenes all along.

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is perhaps the biggest buzzword in the world of photography and tech for 2023, and it continues to be a widely discussed topic in 2024. This stems from the fact that the industry has had mixed reactions about the emergence of AI tools for photography and raised the question of whether this kind of technology puts photographers' jobs at risk. However, much of...

Adobe Releases Plugin to Help Migrate from Aperture and iPhoto to Lightroom

Adobe has released a plugin it promised a while ago to migrate photo libraries from Apple's soon-to-be-forgotten Aperture and iPhoto apps into its own Lightroom. If you're worried about Apple's switch to its own all-in-one photo app, "Photos," or simply want to ensure similar functionality to that found in Aperture, Lightroom has long been an industry-standard alternative. There are, however, a few notes to keep in mind with regard to migrating from these apps to Lightroom.

 Intensive Photoshop Workshop With Lesa Snider

If you weren't able to attend Photoshop World don't worry because creativeLIVE has teamed up with internationally acclaimed speaker and author of "Photoshop CS6: The Missing Manual", Lesa Snider. In this 3-day intensive workshop, Lesa will spend each day going over photoshop selections, adjustment layers, and smart objects. Lesa's workshop has already began however there are still 2 days left to tune in to her free-to-watch workshops.

Blackmagic Also Announces DaVinci Resolve 11.1 Update and Videohub Software

Along side the announcements of the PL mounted Cinema and Production Cameras, Blackmagic has also supplied some updates and new software for videographers everywhere, including an update to their DaVinci Resolve system - a multi track color correction system for videographers. Alongside the announcement of the update to DaVinci Resolve, is an all new software suite, entitled Blackmagic Videohub.

Save 40% on Alien Skin Products Including Exposure X2

A few weeks ago I shared my review of Alien Skin Exposure X2, and I was amazed by how efficient it is. Not only is it an amazingly powerful tool when used as a plugin for Photoshop or Lightroom, but it’s also very convincing as a raw processing software. Until the 24th of July, the app is becoming even more attractive as it’s now available with a 40% discount!

BTS Video Discusses Sound Design in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'

As we all know, even the most stunning visuals require an equally amazing and unique soundtrack to bring the audience's emotions to their full potential. Supervising Sound Editor and Sound Designer Christopher Boyles from Skywalker Sound discusses his work and the burden of creating original sounds for "Avengers: Age of Ultron" that will stand the test of time.

VSCO Film 03 Is On Sale Till Tuesday

For anyone who might have missed it, I did a little review of VSCO 3 last week. VSCO Film emulsions are great at emulating an analog film look for your digital photos and also offers custom profiles for your camera manufacturer, if you are shooting Nikon, Canon, or now Fuji (just for Film 03), to further improve performance of the presets.