Introduction to Luminosity Masks

Introduction to Luminosity Masks

In this article I want to introduce you to a Photoshop topic that has to some extent fallen from favour, primarily due to the superlative work that Adobe has done in Camera RAW and in Lightroom for managing images.  In both offerings we find five areas of luminosity control, blacks, shadows, exposure (aka midtones), highlights and whites.  For many photographic post processors these solve most issues.  However, when you want much more granular control and image specific adjustments, we merely need to hop over to Photoshop to step up to the next level.

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VIDEO : Introduction to Lightroom Mobile

VIDEO : Introduction to Lightroom Mobile

In this video, I show you how to setup and use three core functions within Lightroom Mobile.  In only 18 minutes you will learn to sync photos with your smart device, manage and edit images on your smart device, create a free web url to share publicly or privately and use targeted collections to sync photos in real time while tethering.

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ON1 Takes an Enormous Step - Their Own RAW Processor

ON1 Takes an Enormous Step - Their Own RAW Processor

This is really pretty incredible news.  Most digital processing tools use someone else's RAW processor.  Most of the time, it's from Adobe because many tools are designed to work as plugins for Photoshop or Lightroom.  Announced today April 26 is that this summer, the folks at ON1 will be releasing their own unique offering called ON1 PHOTO RAW.

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ON1 Photo 10 Update - Now Available Resize 10

ON1 Photo 10 Update - Now Available Resize 10

While the entire ON1 Photo 10 suite is extremely awesome, I really want to credit the ON1 team.  When I first saw ON1 Photo 10, just prior to formal release, i was impressed but noticed that there was no standalone Perfect Resize.  Many of the functions were in other modules, but for me, and a lot of other pros, Perfect Resize had proven itself as the fastest and most consistent resizing tool on the planet, back to when it was still called Perfect Fractals.

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Using Tethering For A Successful Shoot

Using Tethering For A Successful Shoot

When you're working to a deadline, or with a client who needs to see the work quickly, tethering is a huge asset.  No one is scrambling over a miniscule image on the camera, you aren't looking at some JPEG rendition, you see the converted RAW on a large screen in real time.  Fortunately, most cameras can be tethered.  Let's look at some options to make that work.

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Stop Apple Photos from Auto-Launching

Stop Apple Photos from Auto-Launching

Look, I get it.  Apple wants users to find it really easy to access images on memory cards from their cameras.  Maybe the average user only has one card.  Not I, he said, I have many and use them in different cameras, and always reformat each time I install one, so Photos ALWAYS thinks every card is brand new.  The mode to stop the auto-launch has been to try to tell Photos not to launch for each card individually.  Which only works so long as the card does not get reformatted.  This is, a pile of crap, considering it used to be possible to tell the Image Capture function to never auto-launch.  There are dozens of posts on Apple Support Communities since the inception of Photos and Apple has done NOTHING.  I however, have an answer that works.

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Correct Microshake in your Images with Piccure+ (DEMO)

Correct Microshake in your Images with Piccure+ (DEMO)

I've written in the past about using Piccure+ to correct microshake and to correct for lens aberrations, two services it does wonderfully.  I was recently finalizing some images of some High School football game shots to share with the coach when I discovered on zooming in that some of my selects weren't quite as clear as I had thought in the initial culling process.  Sometimes, in excitement we might stab the shutter rather than squeezing, or even with the great tools in image stabilization be pushing things a bit in terms of focal length, shutter speed, physical location and weather effects.

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AuroraHDR is now shipping and holy moley it's awesome

AuroraHDR is now shipping and holy moley it's awesome

Regular readers know that I am sometimes overly cautious about HDR. It can be a highly subjective effort in terms of outcome and drives a wide range of responses.  I don't personally subscribe to the "HDR Must Die" school of thought, but I personally prefer more realistic uses of dynamic range extension over the glow in the dark nuclear waste look that some folks love.  The outcome is your art, how you get there determines the ease, flexibility and customization available to you as you make your art.  I wasn't blown away to hear of another HDR software tool but I have been very pleased with everything I have used from the folks at Macphun so gave them the benefit of the doubt.  I did so because they write excellent software, limited only by its availability only on the Macintosh.  The acclaimed photographer, Trey Ratcliff, was heavily involved in the development, and that in itself will draw many buyers.  What really matters is how incredibly good this product is!

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