Even if you don’t dread sitting behind a computer for hours, editing images from a shoot, there’s no reason not to streamline your workflow with fast-and-easy techniques that deliver superb results. That’s topic of this tutorial, specifically with regard to processing portrait images.

Instructor Lizzie Peirce is a photographer and video producer based in Ontario, Canada with a portfolio of beautiful portraits. She admits, “I’m not a Photoshop pro which is why I’m so excited about today’s video,” that explains the straightforward retouching tools she relies upon to achieve great edits in a hurry.

Peirce explains her process like this: “I typically spend most of my time editing in Lightroom, and then I head over to Photoshop to do any retouching with Frequency Separation and a few other tweaks with the tools and technique I understand.” Peirce also employs several plugins that she describes near the end of this 11-minute lesson.

The first step in editing a portrait of her friend Lauren is to be decisive in culling images from the session and narrowing down her “selects.” As she says, “selecting your all-time favorites from a shoot will incredibly speed up the process because they’ll be far fewer images to edit.” So be as “brutal” as possible in eliminating images that are duplicates or don’t quite make the grade.

Once her best shots are imported into Lightroom, Peirce explain why and how using presets further accelerates the process. Here there are two basic options: purchase a set of presets or make a few of your own. And she offers several of her presets that you can find in the description beneath the video. You’ll see the effects that a few of these provide.

Another timesaving tip is to take advantage of Lightroom’s Auto adjustments that often do a great job. At the very least, they’ll provide a great starting point that can be quickly refined with a few manual adjustments.

Peirce says that once an edit is completed to your satisfaction, “you don’t want to start from scratch on the others,” which is why she recommends syncing those edits onto other similar images from the same session. Depending upon the photos in question, you can synchronize all the adjustments made to the first shot or specify which ones should be copied over.

The lesson concludes with her Frequency Separation technique and the aforementioned plugins that she uses. There’s much more to be learned by paying a visit to her instructional YouTube channel, so don’t forget to do that.

And if you want to capture unique available-light portraits, be sure to watch the recent tutorial we posted on photographing subjects at Blue Hour outdoors.
 

Money is pretty tight these days and that can be a big problem for photographers afflicted with Gear Acquisition Syndrome (G.A.S.)—especially those in need of a new (old) digital camera. But take heart, because this video from the oddly named FoxTailWhipz YouTube channel reveals five discontinued models that perform far above their pay grade.

These are the top picks from photographer David Harig who provides a mini review of his favorites. They’re all discontinued interchangeable-lens cameras, either mirrorless or DSLRs, and are available at various price points ranging from $150-$200 on eBay or from respected dealers. Harig includes links in the description beneath the video.

Harig’s bottom line is this: “These cameras can all take great-looking photos, and most record good video, for beginners or anyone on a budget. He goes into quite a bit of detail on all five, discussing both their strong points and any limitations. If you already own lenses from one of these manufacturers, that brand may be the best place to start.

Harig kicks off the video with the Sony A5000 that can be purchased used for around $190. This is a mirrorless camera that was released in 2014, and for a 10-year-old model using the Sony E-mount it still has a lot to offer. It features an APS-C size CMOS sensor with 20MP resolution. While the A5000 is somewhat limited for video recording, it performs admirably when shooting stills. There’s a wide variety of compatible lens from Sony and third-party makers.

Next up is the Nikon D7000 which is at the top of the $200 range, and it’s the oldest model in the list—introduced back in 2010. But don’t let its age dissuade you because Harig says it “packs a crazy amount of pro-level features” that he describes in detail. It’s a robust DSLR using the reliable Nikon F-mount, has an APS-C crop sensor that captures really nice 16MP images, and (unlike mirrorless cameras) it features a bright optical viewfinder.

Harig’s third pick is the Pentax K-r, available used for about $150 that outperformed more expensive cameras when it became available in 2010. It’s also a crop-sensor DSLR, but it’s very compact for its class, shooting 12MP Raw files—the lowest resolution on this list. Yet Harig insists that you can capture great images for many purposes with a good 12MP sensor. On the downside he explains why you should probably skip this one if video is your thing.

Be sure to watch the video until the end, because there are two more cameras to consider—both with laudable capabilities. One is the Canon T4i DSLR, and the other is the small-and-powerful Olympus E-PL5 mirrorless model that will accept a bunch of vintage glass by using an inexpensive adapter.

Harig’s YouTube channel is a great source of videos on cameras and photo gear for photographers who don’t want to break the bank. So be sure to take a look, especially when you’re shopping for a deal.

Have you ever noticed unsightly color fringes along the edges of objects in your photo’s? If so, join the club. Also known as Chromatic Aberration, these artifacts are a sure way to spoil an otherwise nice shot.

Fortunately, there’s an effective one-minute fix as you’ll see in the Lightroom tutorial below. Instructor Roy van der Wens is a self-taught Belgian pro who applied his fashion photography skills to become one of the most acclaimed wedding photographers in the Netherlands. This lesson is a must-see because it provides a quick solution to a common problem that you’re likely to encounter more than once or twice.

Roy describes the problem like this: “Chromatic Aberration occurs when various colors of light focus at different points, yielding color fringes around edges in your photos.” This often occurs when shooting in high contrast situations with very bright backgrounds. That’s why these ugly artifacts often appear around buildings and trees against extremely bright skies.

According to Roy, this problem is particularly acute “when you use a low f/stop with zoom lenses.” Now that you understand the enemy it’s time to open a problematic image in Lightroom and learn Roy’s “perfect solution.” Roy shot the demonstration photo in Italy—a nice landscape scene with a tall tower atop a building in the foreground.

You’ll notice horrible fringing around the tower as soon as Roy zooms in on the shot. So what to do? The first step is locating the Lens Correction tools within Lightroom’s editing panel. Roy then clicks on the Manual tab to expand another panel that contains what Roy refers to as the “magic” weapons for battling Chromatic Aberration.

Roy demonstrates the correct way to move one or more simple sliders until the fringing magically disappears and you’re left with a clean shot that looks absolutely great. Just take a look at Roy’s before/after examples and you’ll be totally convinced as to the power of this  super-easy technique.

There’s plenty more shooting and editing advice on Roy’s instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to take a look at what’s available.

And on a related note, we also recommend that you check out the tutorial we posted recently from another post-processing expert who explains how to rid landscape photos of strange image-killing color casts.

Accurate color grading is an essential editing task regardless of the type of images you shoot, and there’s a variety effective technique—some more complicated than others. This tutorial from the Photoshop Café YouTube channel explains a fast, easy, and effective method for getting the job done.

Photographer Colin Smith is an Adobe expert, educator, and prolific author who has a knack for simplifying seemingly complicated Photoshop and Lightroom techniques. In today’s episode you’ll learn how to achieve precise color by using two oft-ignored Lightroom/ACR sliders that only take nine minutes to demonstrate.

Smith does much more than explain how the Balance and Blending sliders work, as he also illustrates how to employ all the settings in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and Lightroom’s Color Grading tools. There’s also some “secret sauce” for preparing tasty colors in several different types of photos.

You’ll find the Color Grading panel inside Lightroom’s Develop module, while Photoshop users can get there by clicking the Filter tab at the top of the screen and selecting Camera Raw Filter from a dropdown menu that appears. What you’ll learn today works the same regardless of which approach you take.

Once in the panel you’ll see sliders under three color-grading wheels—one for midtones, another for Shadows, and the third for targeting Highlights. You can work on these regions individually by clicking on the appropriate button above each wheel, and there’s also a way to make global adjustments if you prefer.

The video then moves on to Hue, Saturation, and Luminance enhancements, again using the color wheels. Here, as you pull outwards from the center of a wheel, more and more Saturation is applied. Then you can drag around the outer edge of a wheel to change the Hue. There’s also a slider for brightening or darkening the effect.

Smith provides detailed examples for adjusting Balance and Blending, with interesting examples of coloring shadows and blending colors across highlights. He wraps up this eye-opening video by applying a “cinematic” color grade to achieve a unique effect.

There’s much more to be found about all things Adobe on Smith’s popular YouTube channel, so be sure to pay a visit when you have time.

And don’t miss the recent tutorial we posted from another image-processing expert, with a very helpful guide to becoming “a master of noise reduction” in barely even minutes.