Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop remains the most powerful image editing tool available — and most photographers only use a fraction of what it can do. This section covers Photoshop from a photographer's perspective: practical retouching, compositing and masking, color grading, frequency separation, and the techniques that make a real difference to finished images at every skill level.

Focus Stacking for Sharp Landscape Photographs

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. 

Have You Used This Cool New Feature in Adobe Camera Raw?

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.

A Quick and Easy Photoshop Portrait Retouching Workflow

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. 

How to Remove Shadows With Frequency Separation

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.

What's New in Photoshop 2023?

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. 

Using AI to Restore Old Photos Actually Works

It's absolutely mind-blowing how much artificial intelligence has come to play a central role in photography. There's the presence of it in everyday usage in smartphones, with things like portrait mode and night sight, but now, even more powerful tools are available to desktop retouchers. Just check out how it works on this 70-year-old photo.

Everything Your Need to Know About the Select and Mask Workspace in Photoshop

Before you get into any sort of advanced adjustments or edits in Photoshop, you need to select the part of the image you are working on. Depending on the photo, this can be a tricky process, but luckily, Photoshop has a wide range of built-in tools for extracting specific parts of an image or creating layer masks. The Select and Mask workspace is the place to go for a lot of this work, and this excellent video tutorial will show you everything you need to know to use and get the most out of it. 

5 Easy Techniques for Retouching Skin in Portrait Photos

Knowing how to light, pose, and shoot a portrait is only half of what it takes to produce a compelling finished product. Almost all portraits will need some degree of retouching, and as such, your editing skills need to be just as sharp as your skills behind the camera. If you are new to the craft, check out this excellent video tutorial that will show you five easy techniques for retouching skin in Photoshop. 

New Blur Filter in Photoshop Works Incredibly on Portraits

Some of Photoshop's most recent updates have added some incredibly powerful editing tools. This new blur filter not only works amazingly well on landscapes images, it is stunning on portraits as well. See how to use it here.

19 Lesser-known Keyboard Shortcuts for Photoshop

Photoshop is a tremendously intricate and layered program, and it can often take several clicks to navigate to the function you want. Keyboard shortcuts can save you a lot of time and help keep you in the creative zone instead of trying to hunt down the feature you need. This excellent video tutorial will show you 19 lesser-known keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop that are sure to make you a more efficient editor. 

Easily Isolate Your Layers in Photoshop

Working in Photoshop with multiple layers and then trying to navigate to those layers to make tweaks to your edits can sometimes be time-consuming and at times also very annoying if you have forgotten to name the layer.

How to Improve Your Blue Hour Photos During Photo Editing

As you've learned in a previous article, a great time to photograph cities is during blue hour. But the blue hour often lacks dimension and depth in the sky. If you're lucky, you'll have some clouds that provide structure. But if you have a clear blue sky, it'll often appear flat. In this article, I show you a trick you can use to make such a sky more interesting and improve your blue hour photos.

How to Quickly and Easily Replace a Sky Using Lightroom and Photoshop

In the past few years, automated sky replacement has come quite a long way, and what used to be a very tedious task can now be done in just a few clicks. If you are interested in learning how to use the technique in your own work, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will show you how to quickly and easily replace a sky using Lightroom and Photoshop. 

Learn How to Retouch Portraits in Photoshop With This Excellent Tutorial

Knowing how to light, pose, and compose a portrait is only half the battle. To create a successful final image, you also need to have strong editing technique. If you would like to learn how to properly edit a portrait, check out this fantastic video tutorial that will guide you through the entire process, including frequency separation, dodging and burning, and color grading. 

How I Edited My Most Popular Photo on Fstoppers

In this article, I share some techniques I used to edit my most popular photo here on Fstoppers. With 4.36 points from 95 votes, it appealed to many of you. But aside from the great subject with Mohamed and his dromedaries and the beautiful, golden evening light, the final image required quite some work to achieve this pristine look.

How to Use Photoshop's Blend If Feature for More Powerful Edits

Photoshop is a tremendously intricate and complex application, and as such, there are many ways to accomplish any specific task. The Blend If function is one of the program's more useful tools, but it is a bit hidden and does not always get the attention it deserves. This helpful video tutorial will show you five different ways to use Blend If for editing landscape photos. 

How to Add Interest to Your Cityscape Photos With Time Blending

Taking your cityscape photos during blue hour is always a safe bet if you don't get spectacular light at sunrise or sunset. A deep blue sky provides the perfect color contrast to the incandescent lights in the city and will help you create a pleasing result. But what if you are lucky with light and weather? Do you take a photo while the colors pop in the sky or with the city lights during blue hour? Luckily, you can get both by applying a technique called time blending. In this article, I show you how.

How to Retouch a Portrait Using Frequency Separation in Photoshop

There are many different techniques you can use to retouch a portrait, and one of the more advanced and powerful out there is frequency separation. This helpful video tutorial will show you what frequency separation is and how to use it to edit a photo. 

A Portrait Photographer's Basic Editing Workflow

As much as lighting, posing, composition, and settings matter for creating a good portrait image, they are only half of what it takes to create a successful final result. You also need a strong post-processing workflow. If you are new to portrait work, check out this great video tutorial that will show you a basic editing workflow for creating polished final images. 

Everything You Need to Know About Photoshop's Content-Aware Fill

Content-Aware fill is one of the most useful innovations in the history of Photoshop, allowing you to convincingly replace a wide variety of things in an image quickly and easily without having to do a lot of manual cloning and blending. It is not perfect, though, but with a bit of know-how, you can get a lot more from it. This helpful video tutorial will show you everything you need to know about the Content-Aware tool and how to customize it to your needs.

5 Tricks Pro Artists Use in Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most complex and malleable tools in a photographer's arsenal. With many fatigued from the debate over whether an image is edited or not, perhaps you want to weave in some magic to your shots.

Skin Retouching Made Easy With Infinite Guide

Skin retouching can seem a daunting task if you are a beginner. What brush do you use, what layer goes where, and how do you smooth the skin? And on top of that, you have to remember all the steps involved. So, how does Infinite Guide make the whole process simple?

How to Replace a Sky and Reflection Using Photoshop

Programs like Photoshop have gained some pretty impressive automated sky replacement functions in the last few years, making a task that used to be rather tedious and involved far more efficient and easy. Nonetheless, one place where things can get tricky is when there is a body of water reflecting the sky in the frame. This awesome video tutorial will show you how to tackle that situation so you can create a convincing and complete sky replacement in Photoshop. 

We Review the Infinite Retouch Portrait Editing Plugin

Portrait retouching is a process that requires consistent, well-practiced technique and an efficient, well-organized workflow to produce professional results in a reasonable amount of time. In this review, we take a look at retoucher Pratik Naik's Infinite Retouch Panel and how it can help you create better results in less time. 

A Guide to Retouching a Portrait Using Lightroom and Photoshop

Knowing how to light, compose, and pose a portrait is only half of what it takes to create a finished image. The other half is retouching, and it takes a variety of techniques and a delicate touch to create a compelling result. This excellent video tutorial will show you everything you need to know to edit a portrait using both Lightroom and Photoshop. 

How to Use Content-Aware Fill to Fix an Image in Photoshop

Content-Aware fill was one of the most useful advancements in the history of Photoshop, allowing you to quickly and effectively clean up distractions in images without having to do loads of tricky work to make the result convincing. While it does not work for every situation, its usefulness stretches farther than you might think. This excellent video tutorial will show you how to use Content-Aware tool to efficiently and convincingly remove distractions in images. 

How to Straighten a Tilted Photo in Photoshop Without Cropping

We've all done it: you've taken an image you like but the horizon isn't quite straight and you didn't give yourself enough room to crop without sacrificing your composition. Here is how you can easily straighten a tilted photograph without cropping by using Adobe Photoshop.

AstroPanel Pro 6 Offers Many One-Click Improvements for Editing Your Night Sky Images

Over the years, I've been following the software offerings of Italian astrophotographer Angele Perrone. He aggressively updates his Photoshop extensions, and he adds a lot of very simple functions that would be difficult to accomplish in Photoshop without a lot of time and trouble. So, here's a look at Astro Panel Pro 6 for Photoshop. 

How to Fix Adobe Photoshop's Save As Feature

Adobe has released another update for Photoshop, bringing improved features, usability, and workflow for photographers and artists alike. However, one update from a while back has constantly irritated me, the save as feature, but there's an easy solution to fix it.

A Beginner's Guide to Color Grading Photos

Color grading is a good chance to add your personal touch to an image and to take it from good to memorable. It is a deceptively complex thing, though, and it takes a good eye and light touch to do it effectively. This helpful video tutorial will show you some great first steps and techniques for color grading images that are sure to get you up and running in no time. 

Make Your Landscape Photos Pop With These 5 Easy Tips

The best way to get a good landscape photo is to be at the right place at the right time. Sometimes, though, you can be there and still struggle to get a photo that's different from what's already out there or the weather isn't cooperating, and that's where the magic of editing comes in.

How to Combine Focus Stacking and Exposure Blending for Better Photos

I have already written two articles about focus stacking here. The first article dealt with how I use automatic focus bracketing in the field, and in the second article, I shared my focus stacking workflow in Helicon Focus. To provide you with even more tools, I now show you how I combine focus stacking with exposure blending.

How to Work Nondestructively in Photoshop

One of the most fundamental principles every photographer should learn when it comes to post-processing is how to edit nondestructively. If you are learning the ropes in Photoshop, this is something you need to pay careful attention to. This fantastic video tutorial will show you to ensure that you are working in Photoshop in as nondestructive a manner as possible. 

Learn How These Portraits Were Shot and Edited

The beauty of artificial lighting is that you can create fantastically creative and compelling shots that simply would not be possible with only natural light. Using a snoot and gobo is one such possibility, and this excellent video tutorial will show you how one photographer lit, shot, and edited such images using them. 

Lesser-Known Tips for Editing Photos in Photoshop and Lightroom

Photoshop and Lightroom are tremendously complex and intricate applications, and there are many different ways to accomplish any specific task. If you are always looking for new ways to improve and expand your workflow, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features some lesser-known tips and techniques for working in both Photoshop and Lightroom. 

How to Simplify Photoshop for a More Efficient Workflow

Photoshop is a behemoth of a program, and while it has a ton of features and functionalities in it, very few photographers ever need all those options. All those extras can make it a bit tedious to navigate through the interface and find what you need. This helpful video tutorial will show you how to simplify Photoshop's interface to make it easier to navigate and to make your workflow more streamlined.

How To Remove Footprints in Sand Using Photoshop

When an image has a distinct texture or pattern, cleaning up blemishes or the like can be a bit trickier, as you need to replicate the texture and/or pattern accurately in order to create a convincing replacement. One such example is pristine sand that has been walked upon, and this excellent video tutorial will show you how to make it perfect again using Photoshop. 

How to Photograph a Car Outside, but Make It Look Like a Studio

Car photography is a lot of fun and can be highly dynamic, but it represents one of the hardest products to photograph in a studio environment. Not only do you need a large studio that a car can be driven into, but you need huge lights to evenly light the car too. Or do you?