Post-Production

Everyone loves a soft, buttery bokeh to make their subject stand out against a busy background, but it's not always possible to make it in camera. Maybe the lighting conditions or physical environment don't cooperate, or perhaps you just haven't shelled out for that superfast f/1.4 prime yet. But all is not lost thanks to the magic of Photoshop. 

We need a new PC for our new studio in Puerto Rico and for this build, we are going all out.  

Almost any computer on the market today can handle web browsing, email, and word processing, but if you're reading this, there is a good chance you need your computer to do much more. 

Are you committing these editing mistakes, and potentially ruining your portraits? 

If you're looking for a simple tool that can yield drastic results in a quick and efficient manner while editing your images, then look no further than the targeted adjustment tool built right into Adobe Camera Raw. 

Composite work can be fun and exciting, but sometime you may feel defeated at the end when the blending does not match up. Making a believable composite is tricky but not impossible.  

Are your photography expenses growing too fast or you simply want to reduce your outgoings this year? If you're open to alternative options, check out this list of free programs, from web design to photography! 

Check out this great video to learn how to create a glitch text effect in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.  

By “commandments,” I simply mean photography truths that have worked for me. Everyone has photography truths to believe in, but here are my 10.

Efficiently and effectively creating impactful black and white images of people can be tricky, but utilizing ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate's Light EQ tool, I've whittled my workflow down and kept the results just as high. 

There’s nothing quite like a sunburst to add that last punch to a fantastic landscape. Last week we covered the composition, settings, and environmental factors needed to snap a crisp sunburst. Today, we will finish up in Lightroom and Photoshop. 

Nothing says sunrise or sunset like an explosive sunburst. The geometric pattern can double the interest in your photos when composed soundly, but you need to get a few settings in order. Here’s a guide to picking the right lens, mitigating flare, and composing the shot just right to create crisp, gorgeous sunbursts! 

The long awaited version 3 of Luminar from Skylum arrived this month. It held the promise of new features, and digital assets management tools (DAM) that would rival Lightroom. That's important, because some percentage of photographers don't like the Adobe subscription model, and while powerful, Lightroom's Library management can be a pain.

Loupedeck have released a version of their software that plays (somewhat) nicely with Capture One Pro. Today we’ll take a look at what you can expect and what we think could be improved. 

How many times have you snapped a beautiful scene, only to be disappointed when your images don’t adequately represent the reality? Though the camera’s images sometimes fall short, have no fear, because bracketing is here. 

Chromatic aberration and color fringing can often be overlooked, or simply dismissed as an unavoidable issue with lenses used. However, if you're one who would like an effective way of removing that from your shots in post production, this tutorial is meant just for you.  

Skin retouching has always been one of those things that require a bunch of work in Photoshop or an expensive add-on program. But the new ON1 Photo RAW 2019 has streamlined the entire process.  

I have to admit, when I first saw the Loupedeck on Indiegogo two years ago, I wrote it off, but after trying it, I now realize just how incredible this piece of hardware can be for photographers.  

The impact of the final composited images depends more on the directing of the cute little model, than the image manipulation trickery. In this article I will share how I did both. 

Raised in a small farming community in Saskatchewan, Canada, Chad Carpenter found himself far from the idea of ever being a boudoir retoucher. Boudoir in a small conservative town can be considered taboo and Carpenter never imaged he would be leaving his job in order to work as the main retoucher for his wife's boudoir company. 

In the vast majority of my photos, I aim for one specific thing during editing. 

Photoshop is an amazing, complex tool. When it works, everything is great. When something isn’t working or even worse, works intermittently, nothing is worse. Recently, in dealing with a problem I had, I learned an essential troubleshooting tip, which I’ll definitely make use of in the future. 

For a number of years, Palette Gear's Control Surface has been at the literal fingertips for users, enhancing workflows within Adobe's CC, Final Cut Pro X, to name a few. After years of waiting, Palette now offers full functionality with Capture One. Check out the integration after the jump.

Glue guns and poster board.

Have you ever been confused about which color space you should use and wondered what the differences are? This video will help you understand, and most importantly, choose the correct one.  

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. 

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. 

Photoshop is a complex program that takes years to master. And even after you've spent countless hours learning the ins and outs, surprising new shortcuts are a pleasure to discover. 

Each new version of Photoshop brings better sliders to the software for adjusting the colors of your photographs. Sliders are great for quick editing and have become a staple of my post-processing. However, sometimes, the sliders are just not enough for getting that exact color you want, and more control is needed.

If you're using the monthly Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop package, make sure you make the most for your money and have looked at the free available resources to help you design, from collages to branding mock-ups. 

I'm sure we've all been guilty of over-processing our images from time to time. Have you made any of these six mistakes yourself? 

Shooting and editing photo sessions can be time consuming and altogether frustrating if you don't have a streamlined system. Here, a seasoned pro gives away some great tips for shaving time and frustration from your workflow. 

When it comes to making your editing workflow as efficient as possible, customization is key. Photoshop is great but doesn't allow for very advanced workspaces with custom scripts and actions. That's until you start using the Retouching Toolkit 3.0. 

ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2019 has a tool called Light EQ™, and it's superb for making many changes quickly and easily. 

For years, whenever I’ve traveled, I’ve gone through the trouble of dragging a MacBook Pro, charger, and cables along with me. I tried something different on my most recent trip, and I don’t think I can go back. 

Sometimes, an image comes out of camera so close to perfect that it hardly needs any work. In this video, landscape photographer Thomas Heaton shows how little effort some images require while also reflecting on how much he still needs to learn. 

The holidays months can bring extra leisure time, and there's nothing more rewarding than spending that free time on a challenging photography project. During last year's fall holidays I decided to turn my available energy into something creative and fun: a pet calendar for 2018. 

Photoshop’s adjustment layers are some of the most powerful tools available for post-processing photographs. With the ever-increasing number of sliders available in Lightroom and Camera Raw, the adjustment layers in Photoshop seem to get less visibility, which is a mistake. 

Managing your color is one of the most subtle yet important aspects of creating consistently top-notch images. This helpful video will show you how to keep your colors consistent from the shoot to the edit. 

A woman from Arizona has had her late fiance's images imposed into wedding photos. She is absolutely thrilled with the results but it opens a wider discussion in this age of digital photography: where is the line drawn when it comes to creative editing?

Raw Power is a standalone application, but also includes extensions for both iOS' and macOS' Photos applications that give you more creative editing control over your photos. In short, it's the extension that Apple should have included with Photos. And it just got a big update. 

Color correction and grading are often the most challenging tasks in my video editing workflow, and serious training resources are not very common. The Mastering Color course intends to fill this gap. 

Apple has been less and less repair friendly, but is the new Mac Mini going to save us from that? 

Quinn Nelson from Snazzy Labs does a fantastic teardown in this video. I like that he considers how much general users will actually want to take apart their computer. There's a point at which you'll just want somebody to do this for you.

Thomas Heaton breaks down an essential woodland editing technique, known as the Orton effect. He recommends using it when shooting natural, woodland scenes. It provides just the right amount of pleasing glow and softness to take down the artificial and overly contrasty look that can sometimes crop up with photos of trees. 

Do you crave the look of a high-end, hand-painted portrait backdrop for your studio, but don't want to shell out the bucks for such a luxury? Why not grab your favorite roll of seamless paper and fake it ‘til you make it? 

When you own a photography company, there are multiple ways to make money. Unfortunately, most things that make money require quite a bit of work. Thankfully, this is one of the ways you can make money without doing too much work. 

When blending composite landscapes, it can be incredibly tricky to mask the exposures perfectly, even when the tripod isn’t touched between exposures. Luminosity masking is a radically powerful technique to create ultra-precise masks in a matter of minutes. 

While there are plenty of companies that offer film emulation presets, not all of them are created equal. In order to get things perfect, DVLOP has teamed up with Jose Villa, one of the most popular film photographers in the industry. 

I've seen a lot of Lightroom tutorials and tips videos; most seem to cover the same few shortcuts. Mark Denney covers some great lesser known features in this video, including a tip for changing the spot removal selection I've never seen before.  

It seems simple, changing a colored object to black in Photoshop, until you try it. If you’ve ever had a Photoshop fail when attempting to convert color to realistic, pure black, and you're looking for a solution, you’re in the right place.