We have two copies of the Nikon Z8 in-hand at Photography Life, and Libor has already taken his copy for a spin. Today we wanted to share with you some of the sample images he’s taken, including full-resolution original raw files available for download – a first for Photography Life! To make it easy to judge the image quality, the photos were taken at a variety of ISO values and under different lighting conditions. Libor has also launched an “Ask Me Anything” thread on our forum where there’s an ongoing discussion about his experiences with the Z8 so far.
Every photographer who sits down behind a computer to process their work wants to do the best job possible. But there’s often a competing goal: finish up the edits quickly and get back out in the field behind the camera, doing what they love most.
Those familiar with Photoshop know there are a variety of ways to accomplish the same task—some of which are faster, equally effective, and easier than others. In the nine-minute tutorial below, instructor Justin Laurens demonstrates how to “edit 10 times faster using simple tricks.”
Laurens is a popular educator, accomplished portrait photographer, and a photo-retouching expert. He insists that the tips he provides will greatly accelerate the editing process and enable you to “create professional results with ease without complicated editing steps and numerous layers in Photoshop.”
Laurens says this lesson is designed for two kinds of people; “beginners who wish to create professional results eight away, and experienced photographers seeking a more efficient workflow enabling them to edit dozens of photos fast. So no matter your level of editing expertise, these tips will elevate your abilities today.
While this powerful method involves editing portrait photos, much of what you’ll learn will prove helpful when processing other types of images, and deliver equally precise, speedy results. Laurens walls you through this proven method using both simple manual adjustments and Photoshop’s automated AI capabilities.
Laurens begins with the former by opening the image, which you can download and follow along as the steps are described. Because his image is a Raw file the Camera Raw Filter window opens automatically. You’ll now see several sliders to for making basic adjustments. The first step is balancing exposure to increase details in both shadows and highlights, while maintaining nice, crisp contrast in both whites and blacks. He also modifies color temperature to accentuate blue tones in the background.
Laurens also uses sliders to pump up saturation, vibrance, clarity, and texture. He then turns to Photoshop’s Color Mixer to refine various tones. You’ll see how Luminance adjustments also make a big difference. A quick look at before/after image at this stage in the process reveals a significant improvement.
Now it’s time employ Photoshop’s AI tools to complete the transformation. Here the goal is to retouch the subject’s skin and eyes, while creating depth on her face. These final steps require no advanced skills and are accomplished in barely four minutes—thanks to the magic of artificial intelligence.
The newest addition to Canon’s RF mount is the EOS R100, an entry-level APS-C mirrorless camera with a starting price of $479. Unsurprisingly, the EOS R100’s features are quite basic, and its tech feels a couple of generations old. But that’s by design – Canon’s goal here was price, not features.
There are all kinds of excuses for unappealing landscape photos: The sun is too bright, weather is awful, no clouds in the sky, dull, drab light—just to name a few. But if you’re serious about photography, and know your way around Photoshop, it’s time to stop complaining and transform these duds into something really special.
In today’s tutorial from German pro Christian Mohrle you’ll learn his workflow for turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse with a little help from Photoshop. His demonstration image in an uninspiring seaside shot that we recommend downloading with the link beneath the video, so you can make the changes yourself as he explains the straightforward steps.
Mohrle’s goal for this transformation is to give the boring image a dark and gloomy appearance full of drama. The first step in the process is to change the profile from Adobe Color to Adobe Standard. This immediately lessens contrast and slightly brightens up the dark shadows.
The next steps involve a few basic, global adjustments to the image, which are accomplished in Photoshop’s Basics panel. Mohrle drops the overall exposure, further brings down highlights for more details in the sky, and opens up the shadows a bit for more details in those areas too.
Mohrle also slightly increases the whites to give the image more life, and after a few additional simple tweaks the image is much improved.
With the preliminary enhancements out of the way it’s now time for selective adjustments that provide the look he’s after. Mohrle’s first objective here is to darken the top portion of the sky, while leaving the area near the horizon quite bright. To accomplish this he turns to Photoshop’s masking panel and demonstrates how its done, using a Radial Gradient with a nice round edge that matches the area to be adjusted.
Mohrle then adds a Linear Gradient to the very top of the image to further refine the result. A second Radial Gradient is employed to add a subtle glow to the middle of the scene. A bit more fine tuning, and he turns to simple color grading and sharpening.
All that’s left is a bit of cleanup, and careful dodging and burning using a TK plugin that’s available in a free version. After comparing the before/after images we think you’ll agree that the transformation is quite impressive. You can find more great editing tips and tricks by visiting Mohrle’s instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to do that when you have time.
