One of Nikon’s most intriguing decisions in the mirrorless era is to sell two different f/2.8 zoom trios – one set of professional, S-line lenses for $2000+, and another set for about half the price but with Tamron-designed optics. In the cheaper trio, the longest lens is the $1250 Nikon Z 70-180mm f/2.8. How does it perform, and does it hold a candle to the high-end Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 S? This extensive review of the Nikon Z 70-180mm f/2.8 will answer all your questions!
Like it or not, keeping your image library clean and organized is an essential part of the photographic process. If you’ve ever experienced the frustration of failing to locate an image that resides somewhere on your computer, you understand how frustrating and time-consuming this can be.
The quick tutorial below from image-editing expert Julieanne Kost explains when you can get by with a single properly organized Lightroom catalog, or when you’ll fare much better with multiple catalogs. Getting everything configured in a way that’s best for you is a one-time task that will pay big dividends in the future.
Kost is a popular instructor, very adept photographer, and an expert in all things Adobe, and she begins this four-minute episode with an overview of how Lightroom catalogs work. She explains it like this: “When you first open Lightroom Classic it creates a catalog that is separate from the application itself.”
In short, this catalog is a database where Lightroom stores all the information about your images. It keeps track of everything from star ratings, previews, and your keywords, to copyright information, develop settings, collections you make, and much more. In other words, it’s an essential component of everything you shoot, edit, and save.
So here’s the question of the day: Should you use one master catalog or multiple catalog? As you may suspect, there’s no one “correct” answer that’s appropriate for all photographers. Kost explains how it all depends upon your specific workflow. As you’ll see, there are several good reasons to use a single catalog—an approach that Kost describes as “simple and powerful” for reasons she explains.
Keep in mind that Lightroom can only open one catalog at a time. Having all your images in a single master catalog enables you to view and work on any of your images at one time without having to open and close multiple catalogs to find what your need. As you’ll see, there are several additional reasons for taking this streamlined approach
We obviously wouldn’t be having this conversation if there weren’t equally compelling reasons for organizing images into multiple catalogs, and Kost walks you through what these are too. You’ll also learn the finer points of taking one approach or the other. Then you can decide on the system that makes the most sense for you.
Do your autumn photographs fall short of the awesomeness that you saw through the viewfinder? If so, the quick Lightroom tutorial is just what you need to transform good mages into great ones.
In barely nine minutes you’ll learn six foolproof editing techniques that are simple enough for anyone to accomplish. German landscape pro Christian Mohrle is one of our favorite instructors, and in this episode he demonstrates the methods he uses frequently to create fall photographs that convey the vibrance and beauty of the season.
At the top of Mohrle’s list is the importance of separating autumns tones from all other colors within the frame. For this trick he heads into Lightroom’s Color Mixer and uses Saturation sliders to drop aqua, blue, purple, and magenta all the way down. He significantly reduces green saturation too.
By making the foregoing adjustments you’re left with red, orange and yellow—the predominant colors of vibrant fall foliage. You can easily accentuate these colors by using sliders to pump up these tones. Mohrle then heads into the Luminance tab to further enhance this effect. It’s important to take a subtle approach here, because increasing Luminance can reduce the impact of the previous Saturation adjustments you made.
You can also intensify autumn tones by playing around in Lightroom’s Calibration panel, and Mohrle explains how to do that without significantly affecting other colors in an image. As he says, “The first and most-impactful slider is the Blue Primary hue.” You’ll want to bring this down because autumn colors become much more vivid as blue tones are reduced.
These enhancements can be further refined in the Calibration panel by also adjusting the Red Primary and Green primary Hue and Saturation sliders depending upon the image at hand at the specific look you’re after.
At this point you have four more tricks to learn, and they’re just as effective and simple to accomplish. The first involves using Color Range masks or Lightroom’s powerful new Point Color tool to target and boost specific colors within an image. Another has to do with selecting the proper pre-installed Lightroom Profile, while the last two demonstrate the impact of Split Toning and how to create a moody, foggy effect.
Mohrle’s instructional YouTube channel is full of helpful landscape photography lessons like this one, so be sure to take a look at what he has to offer.
Wildlife photography is a very rewarding, creative, and relaxing activity – that is, unless you just missed the shot of a lifetime. However, while being outdoors is generally good for your health, there are some risks involved. To help you return from your photo hunts healthy, happy, and alive (at least that’s what my wife always urges me to be), I’ve written the following tips for safe wildlife photography.
