Recently, I was asked what piece of photography equipment I use the most. At first, I almost said “my camera”. But then I thought about it and reconsidered my answer. While it is true that I use my camera for 100% of my photographic work, there is another piece of equipment that I use even more often – including on those days that I never bring out my camera. The headline already gave it away, so you’ve probably guessed correctly that I’m talking about my backpack. For the last two years or so, I’ve been carrying everything I need in a Peak Design 45 Liter Travel Backpack. Today, I’ll share my thoughts on this backpack in an extensive review.
Many photographers avoid high ISO settings because of the realistic fear that ugly noise artifacts will pollute their images. But there are consequences to be paid for taking that approach, including the necessity of carrying a tripod to avoid blurry photos.
But there’s another option available for achieving clean images at higher ISO settings while lightening your load; namely Lightroom’s game-changing Denoise tool. In this nine-minute video with instructor Jord Hammond, you’ll learn when and how to use this revolutionary tool to banish noise once and for all.
Hammond is a full-time travel photographer based in picturesque Bali, Indonesia who often shoots under low-light conditions. In this episode you’ll discover why Lightroom’s Denoise tool is hailed as one of the most significant updates to the software in recent times, and “how it almost entirely eliminates the concern of shooting at high ISO levels.”
Your editing sequence is important when employing this tool, and Hammond recommends using Lightroom’s Denoise after you’ve made basic adjustments to an image and before making selective enhancements. His reason is this: “All of these edits and adjustments are going to transfer over to the file that’s been through the Denoise process.”
Hammond pulls up a high ISO photo captured at night—a situation under which noise typically rears its ugly head. He then applies a few basic adjustments that include dropping color temperature for a slightly cooler look, raising overall exposure while reducing highlights, and cutting contrast to reveal more detail in the shadows.
Other preliminary enhancements involve softening the intensity of both Whites and Blacks, increasing Texture and Vibrance, and reducing Clarity. The next step is simple color grading and Hammond quickly walks you through his step-by-step process.
The foregoing adjustments are actually far more time-consuming than the simple Denoise process that completes the effective transformation, and Hammond demonstrates exactly how its done. If you examine his before/after images, the significant improvement is easy to discern.
Don’t miss the tutorial we posted earlier from another image-editing expert and learn why he says that “Stack and Subtract is Lightroom’s best masking technique” before explaining how to use it for beautiful landscape photographs with perfect tones.
Most photographers want to finish up processing their photos as quickly as possible so that they can get back out in the field with a camera doing what they love most. This tutorial from the Focus Photo School will help send you on your way, without sacrificing the quality of the adjustments you make.
Photographer David Marx is an Adobe Certified Expert instructor, and he’s the perfect guy for the job. This episode isn’t about making great art, but rather speeding up your Lightroom workflow with a handful of toolbar secrets for getting the job done quickly and efficiently.
Marx explains the concept like this: “The seemingly simple Lightroom toolbar holds a trove of hidden features, and revealing these secret gems will boost your image-editing workflow.” He then demonstrates how to unlock the toolbar’s full potential and thereby elevate your Lightroom experience.
His first bit of advice explains why you should “stop hiding the toolbar,” even though many users take this approach inadvertently and never realize what they’re missing. He explains what to do if the toolbar mysteriously vanishes, so that you can reclaim this “essential” component of the user interface.
Another helpful tip will enable you to tailor the toolbar for peak efficiency and your specific style of editing. This is important because the default configuration may lack some of your most frequently used functions. You’ll see how a few quick clicks will add key features like sorting, rating, and other aids that boost productivity.
One of our favorite suggestions enables you to take the mystery out of zooming by adding the Zoom slider onto the Loop View toolbar. This simple addition makes it much easier to zoom in or out over critical details in an image without turning to the Navigator panel or employing keyboard shortcuts.
You’ll also see how the Sort Order option in the toolbar is super helpful for photo organization. For example, you can sort by Aspect Ratio to quickly find vertical or square-format options when only these types of photos will do.
The bottom line is this: “With a little customization the toolbar can be a real timesaver in Lightroom Classic,” so give these helpful tips a try. And don’t be afraid to experiment until you devise a setup that includes all the tools that you regularly employ.
If you’re new to processing images in Lightroom there’s a whole lot to learn, both for doing things right and avoiding common image-killing errors. In this quick tutorial from Landscape Photography University you’ll learn how to avoid what one pro calls, “the biggest beginner photography mistake in Lightroom.”
Instructor David Johnston is a landscape photography pro who regularly post posts basic lessons intend to help others “level up the success of their photography.” The topic of this episode is the simple task of adjusting contrast in a way that doesn’t spoil photos by imparting an ugly or unrealistic effect.
Johnston begins with a helpful discussion of how Contrast adjustments work, and what happens when you take a heavy-handed approach. As you’ll see, doing things wrong is often worse than doing nothing at all. Bottom line, when you blast Lightroom’s Contrast slider too far to the right, really bad things happen to an image.
What you really want to know is the correct way to modify Contrast, and Johnston offers three simple solutions; one that he calls a “beginner” fix that works quite well, another that’s a bit more advanced, and the third is what he refers to as a “pro fix.” His demonstration image is of a beautiful morning landscape scene of cypress trees in a swamp.
There’s really nice side light, and beautiful colors, and his composition is great. So what’s the problem? He explains it like this: “There’s a lot of light going on, with shadows, highlights, and tones ranging from whites to blacks. So how do you know how to mix all these up?”
Johnston’s approach for enhancing the shot involves judicious modifications to Contrast for a natural looking image. And he does this without any ugly artifacts that will spoil the photo by taking things too far. In other words, it’s another example of when less can be more.
According to Johnston, ugly results occur “when adjacent highlights and shadows are too far apart.” Put another way, this mistake creates unrealistic images that you’d never see in real life. So follow along as he demonstrates three techniques for getting things right. Then decide whether the beginner, advanced, or pro fix works best for you.
Be sure to check Johnston’s instructional YouTube channel after watching the video. You’re sure to find more tips and techniques for improving your shooting and post-capture skills.
