Superzooms have always been viewed with a certain amount of disdain by “serious” photographers. Fairly or unfairly, lots of photographers would immediately dismiss anything more extreme than a 24-120mm lens. But now, Nikon has released not a superzoom, but a straight hyperzoom, whose wide end starts at 28mm and ends at 400mm: the Nikon Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR. How big is the optical compromise in a 14.3x zoom? Is this record-breaking lens just a marketing ploy to lure customers? To answer these questions, there was nothing to do but to take the Nikon Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR out and test it for myself.
We’ve just finished a major update to our review of the Nikon Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S, with lab tests of sharpness and extensive comparisons against other Nikon lenses that you may be considering. How does this lens perform? Perhaps predictably, it’s incredible!
One primary task of all photographers is to guide a viewer’s through an image to the primary subject within the scene, which is one reason why judicious sharpening is so essential. It’s also a well-established fact that the human eye is generally most attracted to the brightest and sharpest areas in a photo.
But here’s the rub: While sharpening is an essential task when editing all sorts of photos, some photographers just can’t seem to get it right because they often take an unrealistic and heavy- handed approach. Today’s instructor Brian Matiash puts it like this: Not enough sharpening can make an image look soft, but too much sharpening degrades quality with distracting artifacts and noise.”
This comprehensive episode describes how sharpening works, which Lightroom tools work best, and other counterproductive adjustments that Matiash says you should ignore. He also clarifies this important point: “It’s easy to confuse Lightroom’s Sharpening tools with its Effects tools; namely, the Texture, Clarity, and Dehaze sliders. While these sliders can definitely add details to a photo, they shouldn’t be used as a substitute for sharpening.”
Matiash covers a lot of ground in this 20-mintue guide, so we recommend having pen and paper handy so you can jot down some notes for future reference. One thread that runs throughout the video is the importance of taking a subtle approach. That’s because you can always go back and boost an adjustment if need be.
You’ll learn when you should apply sharpening to different types of photos and the Lightroom tools that Matiash recommends. Another key consideration is how the specific sequence of your adjustments factor into the equation.
Matiash discusses Lightroom’s important Radius, Detail, and Masking sliders and how to use them individually or in tandem to make a significant improvement in sharpness to a photo just where it’s needed.
The goal, like with other post processing techniques, is to make enhancements that accentuate key elements within the frame while letting other inconsequential areas recede. It’s this juxtaposition that creates an effective and natural-looking result. Bottom line: this is a much better method of sharpening than you may have employed in the past.
There’s much more to learn on the Brian Matiash YouTube channel, so be sure to take a look when you have a few minutes to explore.
Most experienced landscape photographers understand why blending bracketed exposures is often the only way to make great images of high-contrast scenes like sunsets, sunrises, or when the sun is high in the sky. That’s because no matter how good your camera is, it can be impossible to capture the wide range of tones from bright highlights to deep shadow with a single image in the camera.
Some photographers who are new to Photoshop ignore this powerful technique because of the misconception that’s it’s complicated and difficult to accomplish. Today we’re going to debunk that notion by demonstrating three levels of exposure blending from very basic to advanced. Then you can choose the method that works best for you and move up the ladder as your skills increase.
Instructor Steve Arnold’s instructional YouTube channel has a laudable goal: “To help landscape photographers level up their Photoshop skills to create images they’ll be product of.” This episode kicks off with the easiest method for accomplishing today’s task, which he describes as Automatic Blending.
As Arnold explains, this basic approach is where we give Photoshop, Lightroom, or another image editor two or three images, and then just back while the software does all the work. Sounds great, right? But Arnold notes that “we hand over control of which parts of which exposures get blended.” The result may not be exactly what you envision, but in certain situations this works quite well—especially in scenes where there’s absolutely no motion.
When landscape scenes contain movement like flowing water, swaying trees, or clouds floating across the sky, it’s necessary to retain control over the process so you can determine which portions of the multiple photos you want to blend together to achieve a compelling and realistic final image.
Arnold’s Level 2 technique enables you guide the transformation in a number of important ways by employing relatively simple Layer Masking to achieve a more predictable and balanced effect. This involves painting over the areas you want to keep from each exposure you made. Here he demonstrates how to blend two different image to achieve a very impressive result.
If ultimate control is what you want, and you’re willing to do a bit more work, take a look at how Arnold demonstrates the third and most advanced technique. This one relies upon Luminosity Masking for the ultimate exposure blend. He puts it like this: “You can brush in only the bright parts of the sky, only the dark shadows that are underexposed, or be able to precisely brush right up to the edge of an element without going over the line.”
Once you’re done watching be sure to visit Arnold’s instructional YouTube channel where there is much more of interest for landscape photographer who process their images in Photoshop.
