People are spending more time on the beach to escape the sweltering heat and there’s no better way for photographers to enjoy these outings than by capturing beautiful portraits that tell a welcome story.

This tutorial featuring portrait artist Anita Sadowska explores two situations at your disposal—backlighting and direct sun—and takes a deep dive into the most effective techniques. She’s an experienced fashion and boudoir specialist based in Bali, Indonesia and she leverages these skills in the 11-minute video below.

The behind-the-scenes shoot takes place during a beautiful windy day at a spellbinding beach on the west side of Maui in the Hawaiian islands. Anita does more than illustrate her favorite methods for harnessing natural illumination, by providing gear recommendations, posing tips, recommended camera settings, and important advice on composition.

Anita and her model arrived early during soft morning light, but something didn’t quite add up at first: “it’s not that my photos were bad in any way, but I just wasn’t feeling it because my images were flat.” Then she simply flipped her model around, facing in the opposite direction, and good things quicky began to happen.

As she says, “I now loved how my photos looked with the model backlit. The shadows were still relatively soft, the sun was reflecting back on the subject nicely and there was no harsh contrast.” Of course there’s much more to composition than turning your model around, and Anita illustrates the creative possibilities that occur by experimenting with camera angles and shifting your vantage point (either higher or lower).

Along the way you’ll pick up valuable tips for effective posing that work equally well in other situations indoors or out. Anita demonstrates how you can capture a variety of pleasing looks with lenses of different focal lengths and by modifying camera settings accordingly.

In fact, there’s a list of the gear Anita prefers in the description beneath the video. Be sure to visit her instructional YouTube channel where you’ll find many more tips and techniques for capturing picture-perfect portraits.

And don’t miss the related tutorial we featured with another accomplished instructor who demonstrates how your camera’s RGB histogram may yield better photographs in difficult light than the more familiar Luminance histogram.

Based on feedback from users, Adobe identified five pinch-points, scenarios that strangulate workflow and/or stifle Photoshop productivity, and announced beta release features that obliterate the obstacles. The new functions are available across Photoshop on desktop, web and mobile, so the entire creative community is served. We’ll have more to say after we’ve had a chance to exercise each, but for now, here’s the topline.

Harmonize (beta)
Pinch-point: When adding an object to an image, it can take hours to match coloration, create shadows and make lighting schemes meld.

Harmonize (beta) automatically adjusts color, lighting, shadows and visual tone to render composites with true-to-life realism with just a few clicks. From what we’ve seen in Adobe’s press demonstration, it’s like having an experienced graphics expert complete your comp.

Generative Upscale (beta)
Pinch-point: Many excellent images exist only as low-resolution files that do not support acceptable results or high-quality prints. AI-generated images often languish in this bucket.

Generative Upscale (beta) increases image resolution up to 8 megapixels while preserving other characteristics. This isn’t the first upscaler on the block, of course, but being able to invoke it within PS is a huge plus. It’s the perfect tool for enlarging the imaginative work you create using Adobe Firefly.

Look at the math. A square image that mesures 2000 x 2000 pixels is 4 megapixels. Increase it by 8 megapixels and it grows to (about) 3464 x 3464 pixels. Nice. Can’t wait to try it.

Improved Remove Tool
Pinch-point: The Generative Fill tool works great to remove unwanted objects from a scene (even though that’s not its intended purpose) but sometimes uses its imagination to insert extraneous material.

Instead of defaulting to Generative Fill to excise unwanted elements, use the newly enhanced Remove Tool (not beta). It removes what you don’t want and replaces it with appropriate, realistic content. Adobe says, “…edits now blend more naturally into the background with fewer artifacts, so your results look cleaner, more professional, and ready to share.”

Important point: Users are not charged Generative Credits when using the Remove Tool, unlike Generate Fill.

Projects (beta)
Pinch-point: It can be quite challenging to stay organized and fully share assets and work products when collaborating with other creators, especially when many versions exist.

Projects (beta) allows collaborators to group assets, maintain organization and work cohesively while keeping creative work accessible and in one space. Also, it eliminates the need to deliberately send individual assets back and forth.

Generative AI Model Picker (beta)
Pinch-point: Photoshop’s Generative Fill and Generative Expand tools are powerful and all, but provide less than optimal creative control in some situations.

Generative AI Model Picker (beta) allows users to choose between different Firefly Image Models (Firefly Image 1 and Firefly Image 3) when using Photoshop’s Generative Fill and Generative Expand tools. The two models produce different results, and many consider Firefly Image 3 to be “significantly better.” But won’t it be fun to experiment?

—Jon Sienkiewicz

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