Articles written by Wouter du Toit

It's something every single person using Photoshop today has battled with, and although it has become easier to use over the years, it's time-consuming, tedious, and often difficult to do well depending on the image you're working on. Making selections is the tool we use to isolate certain parts of the image. To either reuse or edit in a different fashion to the rest of the image. Using machine learning, an update coming to Photoshop makes it possible to click and select. That's right, no more pen tool, or magnetic lasso tool or the selection of the negative space to feather and smooth the selection. This video shows how it will work, and in my opinion, it can't come soon enough.

"Mindhunter" is one of the recent Netflix releases that has me hooked. It has psychology, mystery, analysis, and how the FBI and police went about training for the serial killers who didn't have a motive. It's based on true events, and because the series is set in in 1977, which has different cars and fewer people and buildings than we have now. In this video, you'll be able to see how these shots were altered in postproduction to give the story the 1977 setting. Buildings and trees are added, marks on roads replaced and colors changed to give the series its moody, raw film look.

I recently got myself the Fujifilm X-T20 for traveling. The next trip was to Vietnam with my family and I knew it was going to be a showcase of people, culture, and life that I am unfamiliar with, and therefore something I wanted to document. The reason I chose the X-T20 was that it’s small, light, packs a punch with colors, and its ease of use, very reminiscent of the film cameras back in the days. What I didn’t get was a Fuji X-mount lens to go with it, but I got a Fotasy adapter to fit my old Nikkor 50mm f/1.4, my Vivitar 28mm f/2.5, and Tamron 80mm-210mm f/3.8-4 to the X-T20.

Whether you are a photographer looking to get into video or a professional video editor, these small changes can change the time you spend editing in Adobe Premiere. I enjoy editing, don't get me wrong, it's just that I would like to speed up the mundane parts that make sense when you want to focus on the creative storytelling aspect of your video.

Photo editing, retouching, and removing something from the shot isn't easy to do especially if it's a complex part of the hair, but it's common practice for a professional photographer to be able to do it if the shot and client requires it. It involves masking the new hair refining tool brush over and selecting the best feathering to make this selection as true as possible. Have you ever thought about removing something from a video? This is what Adobe is working on and this video shows a sneak peek of what Cloak will be able to do.

We love gear. But this is next level stuff. If you’ve seen the smoothness of the shots used to introduce the Microsoft Studio Surface, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The guys at Motorized Precision who introduced KIRA robotic arm at NAB 2017 are taking pre-orders for the MIA, their latest robotic arm. It’s smaller, about as portable as a fridge is on wheels, and can plug into any traditional single phase wall socket. It holds up to a 22lb camera package, the arm itself weighs 120lbs and it comes with a standard six-meter track. If you want to see what it's capable of go watch Thor: Ragnarok, which used the KIRA for many of their shots. The video shows what the KIRA 1.0 could do.

Instead of fearing the future where AI takes over and leaves us with nothing else to do other than oiling their machines, Nigel Standford made a music video and used this "man against machine" concept. It's a DJ, who also plays guitar. The machines take over. Who's making the music? If I had to take it one step further, was the camera filming on an electronic camera rig or was it held and controlled by a DOP?

There are many ways to go about your video. You can just go at it, shoot away, and edit quick shots together, or you can think about what you want to shoot and use psychological composition to bring your story across in the best way possible. You can have progression of your hero moving from left to right throughout the film, or you can keep your villain to the left and your hero to the right to have them compete in your viewer’s mind. This video shares some smart ways to approach your next film or photography project, even if your project isn’t narrative based.

One thing most photographers have in common is the love of gear. We know it's not about what's in your bag, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't value good design and ease of use when considering a tripod clamp or ND filter kit. But what if you could design it yourself, and have it produced? Film Look's latest video shows what they printed for themselves. I would never have thought about battery cases, but now I need it, and it would keep my bag much more organized.