If you’ve ever wondered how to create rich seascape photos with silky waves that convey the motion of the sea, you’ll want to check out this tutorial. Freelance Landscape Photographer Michael Breitung describes how to capture various types of seascape images, and has one particular post-processing tip that you won’t want to miss.
If you're like me and love spending time both shooting and editing your images, why not get creative and refresh those deep-etching Photoshop skills when you've got a few hours in between projects? Composites look really neat, but there's a lot of work and patience that goes into it behind the scenes and if done correctly, it would look amazing and really take your conceptual photography to the next level. In this article, I'm going to talk about creating a composite step-by-step and to finish it off, I've recorded a retouching time-lapse of the process.
The times of oversaturating and selective coloring might be over, but clarity is here to pick up where those post-processing horrors left of. Now don’t get me wrong, I think that clarity is an amazing effect that can do wonders on your images… just not if you use it on the whole image and crank it to the max. I realize, that seeing this sudden increase in drama and grittiness might feel satisfying to some but too often has it used in attempts to turn uninteresting photos into something that they are not.
Our behind-the-scenes series on the filming of "Where Art Meets Architecture 3" continues today with episode 6. In this episode, Mike Kelley flies to the Fstoppers office in Charleston to start working on the post-processing portion of this tutorial.
Blackmagic's DaVinci Resolve is widely known for its color grading tools. It’s what many would call an industry standard thanks to its powerful features. With the Beta 4 of Resolve 14 that was released a little while ago, the software saw its editing and audio capabilities improving quite a bit as well. However, many forget or don't know about them and stick to working with Premiere or Final Cut Pro. Discover in this video how Resolve editing and audio features work. Perhaps you’ll see they are exactly what you needed.
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!
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!
As a photographer, you should come to expect Mother Nature isn’t always on your side. Maybe you found the perfect location for a shoot, and when it’s finally set up, the sky isn’t exactly how you want it. Maybe you are just traveling around and taking photos of the beautiful landscape, but the sky leaves more to be desired. What about real estate photography, need to shoot the property at a specific date and time but they want a rich and blue sky with some clouds but there are no clouds in sight.
Google has trained their AI to go out using their street-view feature and snap images it calculated to work best for the task at hand. The calculation is based on multiple professional photographer styles, composition, and postproduction, and it's able to narrow down what "shot" would make the best photograph. It can then selectively enhance the image in certain areas that it wants the viewer to pay attention to.
Editing a picture is all about making the most out of what your sensor has captured to make your creative vision come to life. How you see a scene will differ from what others, or even your camera, see at the exact same time and place. Adjusting your file in post-production is thus critical to share with others what you saw with your eyes and mind. In this article, I’ll show you one way to edit your images quickly using ACDSee Ultimate 10. You’ll see how to give a cinematic feel to your shots and also how to edit them in batch to save time.
Glasses can be a real pain when shooting portraits. Perhaps the subject's glasses don't have the anti-glare coating or even if they do, sometimes your light source can still wreak havoc with reflections. Today I want to share a quick tip on dealing with this issue. Sometimes the reflections can be so bad, they cover a huge part of the actual eye. If it's a tiny spot in the corner of the glasses, we can easily clone it out but if it's covering half the eye that won't work so easily.
After updating their Cintiq line with the Cintiq Pro 13 and 16 inch in the previous month, Wacom announces two new products coming for the beginning of 2018. Both products will complete the Cintiq Pro range and come with brilliant 4K displays. One will be 24 inches and the second 32 inches, offering a solution for everyone.
As you can imagine I spend a lot of time in Photoshop. And when you spend as much time in Photoshop as I do, you want to work as fast and efficiently as you can. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot of keyboard shortcuts. Knowing keyboard shortcuts is crucial in creating a faster more efficient post-production workflow.
You’ve bought a brand new 4K video camera with all the bells and whistles and shot your first piece of work. You can’t wait to get home and edit the footage for your client imagining how incredible and crisp the video will be. You open Premiere Pro, import the files, and within seconds your computer takes a crap as it struggles to render the data intensive footage.
With the launch of Mike Kelley's 3rd Architectural tutorial, we released eight new episodes of behind the scenes madness. In this episode, Mike continues shooting one of the most extravagant homes on the Mayan Rivera, Lee's nightmare trip becomes worse when he comes down with food poisoning, and I make the most of the situation and explore everything the coast of Mexico has to offer.
We're going to build our very own photographers PC, capable of working at blazing speeds with 50-megapixel images and dozens of layers in Adobe Photoshop. The high-end system we will be discussing here will have a budget of $1,500 in mind. For this, we're going to build our post-processing dream PC, but it doesn't include a monitor. Let's start comparing specs.
One of the things I really love about Photoshop is the fact that there is invariably more than one way to achieve a particular effect in the editing software. For this reason, it's hard to get tired of seeing other people's workflows as you'll always find someone doing something which you haven't thought of before.
Outsourcing is quickly becoming a standard practice. More and more photographers are using outsourcing services full time, while others are using them during the busy part of their season. While outsourcing has become more common in the industry, there are still some questions as to it’s worth. Photographers not familiar with the service see ups and downs to incorporating this type of service, and sometimes it can be hard to see which side wins. After my last article reviewing ProImageEditors, people wanted to know if it was worth it.
The photo came out of the camera like that, I swear! Not really, and now there’s a website that can prove it.
So many photographers have recently been dipping their toes in the world of video. You can edit photos like a pro, but maybe you just can't seem to figure out video editing; it's very complex – like an onion, so many layers – and now you have to deal with sound design! If you've used presets for your photo editing, then you should definitely consider plugins for your video editing. Red Giant sent us a copy of their recently updated Universe 2.1. Jump on in and see what it's all about.
The traditional workflow to edit a portrait from start to finish usually requires a few different apps. But why complicate things and not just try and rely on one single software to get to the final result? Last month I reviewed ACDSee Ultimate 10 and thought it’d be a good idea to follow up with a tutorial showing how far you can go by using exclusively this photo editing solution to retouch a portrait. Discover all my steps and see how this alternative could perhaps suits your workflow better than your current one.
Cleaning hair in post-production is without a doubt retouchers’ and photographers’ worst nightmare. It takes up a lot of time, energy, and precision, but more importantly, there are so many techniques out there that often we forget about even the most basic ones. In this very comprehensive video, Aaron Nace from Phlearn shows how to retouch hair in the most simple way possible.
It’s always important to stop and smell the photos – but what happens when your stop is at night, in complete darkness without any lights to help you out? You improvise. There are a few things you can do to help you compensate for lack of proper lighting equipment.
Now I know there have been countless articles posted about why retouching is important, or why it’s downright frowned upon. But imagine, as a photographer, being able to free up so much more time by outsourcing the editing to a trusted retoucher.
With the importance that social networks now take, our work as photographers has evolved into something entirely different over the past few years. Nowadays, images must be edited faster than ever, and, sometimes, that means not being able to use our computers, but having to rely on mobile solutions. One of such solutions is ACDSee Pro for iOS, which will allow you to edit your pictures on the go with a straightforward and easy-to-use interface. In this review, discover how it could improve your workflow, whether you are a photographer or an Instagrammer.
Effectively converting a color image to black and white involves much more than a simple “convert to grayscale” type of operation. In this video, Aaron Nace of Phlearn demonstrates how to produce a stunning black and white version of any color image in Lightroom.
How many times have you seen a video or photo where a subject or even the artist themselves appear in it multiple times and wondered how they did that? Having a background in graphic design, I always guessed you just merge the footage or photos together and mask sections out to reveal the subject in each area. Well, it is as simple as it sounds but if you are not sure how to get started or how to do that, Peter McKinnon shows how he cloned himself in both photo and video using Photoshop and Premiere, respectively.
The past few weeks here in New Jersey and New York have been pretty rainy and not so nice. With that in mind, I came across a video that really caught my attention and had me confused for a good minute or so. For a while I thought I had been out of the loop, when suddenly I realized that this was just another sort of filming "trick" to fool the eye. Relating to my last article, this "video" takes it to another level showing a city we probably all know flooded by water. For me, it was not much of a pleasant sight and if this were to really happen, I can't imagine how much we would all be affected by it.
Preset lovers rejoice: today Phase One announced new products in the form of Capture One Styles Packs. With a drag-and-drop installation, these Styles are made to be integrated with one’s Capture One workflow and provide creative support as well as speed up the image editing process.
The raw processing world often seems restricted to Capture One, Lightroom, and Camera Raw. However, these three are far from being alone. One alternative is called Alien Skin Exposure X2, and while you may have heard of it as a Photoshop plugin, it’s also a standalone app able to edit your raw files. Despite being younger than the other options, it offers a broad palette of features, and I would almost dare say it took most of the best functionalities found on the market to bring to life a very appealing photo editing software. After a few weeks working with it, here’s my review and why you should perhaps give it a try too!
The weather. Of the many things I wish I could control, this is certainly one of them. Recently, my home of Seoul has had some of the clearest skies and nicest puffy clouds that I’ve seen in my 11 years of living here, but typically this is not so. On the few days of the year we get nice clouds, fisty-cuffs determine your tripod’s resting place at the popular photo spots, and the Internet is afire with the chatter of excited shutterbugs. However, there are so many days of the year where the haze is too thick or a monotone blanket of clouds covers the sky. I have come up with a quick and dirty method of dropping in skies from my library that I use when the job calls for it. I’d like to share that with you today.
In another classic tale of a large company purchasing out a beloved product only to abandon it, Google is now dropping development of Nik Collection. After Google bought out Nik in 2012, they made all the Collection plugins free last year and have incorporated some of its features into their Snapseed mobile app. Sadly, a new notice posted on the Nik Collection website informs us it’s the end of an era.
Capture One offers quite a few tools to adjust your raw files. It’s best known for its color editing capabilities, but luminosity adjustments are also very well designed. One of them was introduced last year with Capture One Pro 9, and it’s called the Luma Curve. It’s a powerful feature to adjust contrast manually while avoiding any color shift. Let’s see how it works and how it compares to an RGB curve.
Working with a second shooter has a ton of advantages: you can cover more moments, you get different angles and perspective on the same moments, and they even allow you to try new things during the day that you normally couldn't afford to do. One of the more frustrating things about working with a second shooter though, is when you get back home to later find out that your cameras were not synced to the correct time. What you're left with is images from the reception all intermixed with images from getting ready.
Summer is in full swing and that means there's plenty of blockbuster films to see over the next few months. One that my son and I are looking forward to is the next chapter in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise starring Jack Sparrow, aka Johnny Depp, along with returning original cast Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley. This is the fifth installment of the franchise and it hopes to breathe a fresh take on the story that brings back key characters from the first couple films. In this video, you get a fantastic glimpse into what makes these movies what they are and it gives you a hint at how they do it.
Modern DSLR and mirrorless cameras are capable of shooting razor sharp footage in spectacular 4k 60fps and up. But how do you give your footage a cinematic feel without purchasing pricey anamorphic lenses and professional cinema cameras? Fstoppers is here to help with five great hacks to achieving a cinematic feel to your video without spending a small fortune.
Most, if not all, have seen the picture profile settings in our cameras. These can include settings for Landscapes, Portraits, or even Cine-style formats for filmmakers looking to achieve that cinematic look. But what do these mean and how do they affect our final image?
Social media consumption is at an all-time high and is on pace to increase at an exponential pace for the foreseeable future. We all seem to have capable technology on us always, whether it be a cell phone or dedicated interchangeable lens camera. With this rapid rate of consumption and the accessibility of technology we are living in a world saturated with quality content everywhere we look. Standing out among other photographers is getting more challenging daily and that’s why I put together these three ways to help separate yourself from other photographers.
Color grading is one of the most powerful tools you have when it comes to elevating your images and video. One of the most frustrating and intimidating things about working with color is that it can often feel tedious and un-intuitive. Video editors often employ physical editing panels when color grading their work and now Tangent, one of the leading makings of video editing hardware have brought support for Capture One Pro 10 to their system.
A little over a week ago, Phase One introduced Capture One Pro 10.1. The new release of the professional imaging software comes with a couple of exciting new features making life easier for many photographers, especially those using Fuji cameras. In this 45-minute long webinar, David Grover goes over most new aspects of the app and shows how to take advantage of them.
Today I want to share a quick tip on cleaning up lint, dust, cat hair, and things like that from clothing or other areas of your photo. I'm super picky, and even if the image is a 5x7 and the dust may not even show up on the print, I like to fix things like that on my large files anyway. You never know when the customer may come back later and order a wall portrait from that file they only previously purchased a 5x7 from, and I don't want to have to go back in and re-retouch the image.
Not every photographer needs lavish resources and an army of helpers to create dramatic images that belie their basic production. Lia Konrad is a 23-year-old fine art photographer based in a small town in Germany, but she hasn’t let modest resources stop her from following her passion to create epic images inspired by her love of fairytales, myths, and fictional stories for her website Liancary.
Having options is always a good thing, especially when it can save you from a costly mistake. In this quick tutorial, Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens shows us the importance of shooting background plates to give yourself options in post production and help speed up your workflow.
One thing to remember in life is that there is always someone cooler than you. Today, it's this guy. He decided his '96 Suzuki needed a little boost to be sold, and I don't think anyone could have done a better job. Even I want to buy that little car now.
DIY projects are in abundance on YouTube and I just can't get enough of them. Back in January I posted about YouTuber Matt Perks from DIYPerks and his amazing project building a 1,000 watt water-cooled LED lamp. Well he has a new DIY project that has me super excited to try and build my own. Perks' new video goes into great detail and lists all the parts needed to build a motorized desk partition that can be added to any existing desk. He calls his a "monitor lift" but the possibilities I've already imaged that I could use it for are even more useful. If you're like me and have a ton of things in and around your desk but very limited and cluttered desk space, then this could be a super easy build that might resolve some of your clutter in a really cool way.
Wacom has renewed its Intuos tablet lineup with two new models, including the paper edition in medium and large sizes, while still offering the old Intuos Pro model in small size. The new design seems like bringing some novelty, but in fact, innovation might not be always safe. Because as a long time user, my disappointment was the same like the time Apple started ignoring its core users' needs.
Almost all portrait photographers will incorporate some degree of skin softening during their retouching workflow. Some of these techniques can involve hours of painstaking dodging and burning. For photographers that routinely shoot families, weddings, and newborns, a quick finishing step can generate rapid and pleasing results. Here I go over how to use my favorite free skin softening plugin.
In recent articles here on Fstoppers, you may have noticed the name DaVinci Resolve coming up on a regular basis. It’s a fantastic software for color grading video footage, and it’s evolving towards becoming a one-stop video editing solution. Some of the tools it offers are envied by photographers as they differ quite a bit from what’s available in Photoshop, Lightroom, or even Capture One. Many have been wondering if it’s possible to edit pictures with it and Ted Forbes from The Art of Photography has the answer for you: Yes. More than that, he shows you how to do it.
In the image editing market, there is a clear separation between the assets management, editing, and retouching solutions. Most photographers rely on multiple apps to fulfill their workflow. Although we have grown accustomed to working with a few different software to get to the final result, it would be fantastic to have everything in one place. I didn’t think it existed until I stumbled upon ACDSee Ultimate 10. I’ve been trying it out for the past few weeks and wanted to share my impressions with you.
There are many times in the automotive industry that when you're asked to shoot a car, you frequently cannot move the car either from where it is or far from where it's being stored due to its rarity, sometimes condition, and sometimes even questionable street-legality. This can definitely cause some problems when it comes to producing high-end images of the cars for a client. If they want only detail shots then you're good as you won't need to show much of the background to accomplish their goals. However, if they've got high hopes and want the car to be pictured anywhere except where it actually is you have to be a bit creative.
