Lightroom 6 For Landscapes

An intro to Lightroom’s new HDR Merge and Panorama Merge tools

Text & Photography By Jason Bradley

Creating landscapes has just become a lot easier. With version 6 of Lightroom (and updated Lightroom CC), our ability to stitch together panoramas, and blend images to create HDR files, now can all be done without leaving the Lightroom environment. The tool is called Photo Merge, and although it’s new to Lightroom 6 and CC, there’s something... Read more

Photographic Lessons In The Internet Era

Photographers once had to toil as apprentices in order to learn their skills. Today, the Internet provides more resources than any photographer could wish for.

By Julia Aparicio

Mastering photography is a lifelong endeavor, one that’s constantly evolving and changing as new technology emerges. However, the Internet has altered the landscape for learning about photography, as well as understanding the newest techniques and technological advances that are available for both beginners and seasoned veterans. Back in the day,... Read more

Curves For Color

Use this simple, yet powerful technique for perfectly neutral color, by the numbers

By Wes Pitts

Maybe your white balance setting was off, or you’ve scanned an old slide, or you were dealing with difficult-to-control mixed light. Or, maybe your image looks pretty good, but you want to be sure you have perfectly neutral color, regardless of how accurately your monitor is calibrated. Working with Photoshop’s Color Sampler Tool and a Curves... Read more

All About Histograms

How to read a histogram for better exposures and post-production efficiency

By William Sawalich

What exactly is a histogram? In general, it’s a way to visualize exposure via a bar graph that displays the luminance values of every pixel in a digital image file. From left to right across the X axis of the graph, pixel brightness values from 0 to 255 are displayed. The 0 value is on the far left (pure black) and the 255 value is on the far... Read more

Pro Black & White Printing

Tips for getting the best results when working with a professional photo lab

By Ashley Myers-Turner, Photography By Drew Gurian & Andy Biggs

Before digital, enjoying and sharing photographs meant either slideshows, or more commonly, prints. Printmaking is an art unto itself, and that’s no less true in digital photography. Some photographers prefer to master this part of the craft and make their own prints with a fine-art photo printer, but others prefer the convenience of working with... Read more

Apple OS X Photos

The replacement for iPhoto and Aperture sets a course between the two

By Wes Pitts

Compromise isn’t necessarily a bad thing, except when it is. How you’ll feel about the new Photos app from Apple depends on what app it’s replacing for you and what you typically do with your photos. When Apple announced the development of this new app, they also announced that both iPhoto and Aperture would be discontinued. For iPhoto... Read more

Simply Realistic Retouching

The key to easy and effective skin retouching is minimizing the bad without obliterating the good

Text & Photography By William Sawalich

I have a theory about skin retouching: The only thing worse than an unretouched portrait is an overly retouched portrait. My goal is always to improve the subject’s skin without creating an image that looks fake. That’s the biggest challenge ultimately. Anybody can make skin pretty with diffusion and blur, but retouching skin without obliterating... Read more

Show Clipping For Black & White

Use this handy Lightroom feature to ensure deep blacks and bright whites

Text & Photography By Wes Pitts

In addition to the histogram, one of the most useful tools for checking your exposure in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 is the Show Clipping option. You can toggle it on and off in the View menu or with the keyboard shortcut “J”. Show Clipping identifies shadow and highlight areas at the extreme ends of the range where your current exposure... Read more

Converting To Black & White

Using Adobe Lightroom’s powerful tools for translating color images to monochrome

By William Sawalich

It’s easy to convert a digital image from color to black-and-white. The challenge is to do it well. Replicating the richness of silver-based black-and-white images is the ultimate goal, and while there are lots of options out there, there’s one ubiquitous photo management and RAW editing tool that’s full of straightforward, but powerful... Read more

Instagramification

Tips for finding an audience with the popular Instagram App

By Ashley Myers-Turner, Photography By Tracey Clark

Instagram has become a leading social network with its highly addictive feed of visual candy. Photographers can network with each other, sharing inspiring images and new techniques, and connect with potential clients by showcasing new work on a regular basis. With loose rules, you’re free to personally define your own approach to the Instagram... Read more

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