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The pro panel speeds up your editing in photoshop

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John Weatherby has developed a panel for Photoshop that will help you speed up your editing workflow. There are quite a few panels out there. The first one was probably made by Tony Kuyper, who created luminosity masks back in 2006. Other than that, Infinite Tools, Lumenzia, and Raya Pro are probably the best-known panels.

These panels’ prime function is to create luminosity masks. The task is quite complex for someone who is not a Photoshop master. And even for them, these panels save time. For example, light masks will create a mask for the brightest pixels in an image. A good use case to understand this is when you want to reduce some of the highlights of a river white-water. You would select a good light mask and apply a curves layer that pulls down those highlights.

I took John’s Pro Panel for a spin and tested some of its actions.

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How to use masking and augmented sky in Luminar Sky Replacement

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A few days back, I compared Photoshop and Luminar AI Beta’s sky replacement feature. When I turned to Luminar AI, I struggled with a mountain that was too warm for my taste. It turns out, I managed to overlook an important sky replacement tool; the masking brush. In this article, I will show you how to use masking to improve the sky replacement algorithm. Further, I also have a closer look at what Skylum calls Augmented Sky.

Skylum’s goal with Luminar AI is to create a processing software for the casual user who doesn’t want to spend hours editing an image. The developers have designed the software to help photographers make quick and precise adjustments using the power of AI.

It’s time to employ masks and play around in Augmented sky.

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First review of Laowa’s 15mm F/4.5 shift lens – It’s a marvel for $1,200

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When Laowa announced their upcoming 15mm F/4.5 shift lens, I was intrigued. I mean, there is no tilt in this lens, but for most of my architecture work, shift is enough. Especially for a 15mm lens that is marked with zero distortion. For $1,200 this lens coupled with the Canon R5 is a beast combo. Let’s have a look at this unique lens.

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Here is how Luminar and Photoshop Sky replacement tools compare

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I have tested Photoshop’s new sky replacement feature which yielded some very nice results. But, how does it compare with Luminar? Skylum was the first software developer to implement an AI algorithm that swapped a boring sky with a nice one with no effort. Of course, this has caused some controversy and plenty of discussion among photographers.

Skylum has kindly allowed us to test the beta version of the upcoming Luminar AI. I decided to pit the two pieces of software against each other. I did so with some challenging photos to see how they par and what are the differences if any.

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The Zhiyun Crane 2S is a powerful 3-axis gimbal that’s small enough to fit in a backpack

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I’m going to open this post with a very subjective, but completely honest, opinion. The Zhiyun Crane 2S (first look review here) instantly became my favourite gimbal as soon as I took it out of the box.  Ever. That’s it. Review over. Ok, not really review over, but it really has become my new go-to gimbal for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.

The Crane 2S is the followup to Zhiyun’s extremely popular Crane 2 (review here), launched in September 2017. Although already a very capable gimbal, the Crane 2S offers some very noticeable upgrades over its predecessor. So, let’s talk about those.

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Here is how Photoshop’s sky replacement handles a night photo

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A few days ago I tested Photoshop’s new Sky Replacement feature on a tricky waterfall image. Since Photoshop handled that challenge so well I, started wondering if the same “sky replacement” feature will work the same with a night photo. Well, actually, it was shot in the early morning in Jotunheimen, Norway. The sky, however, was shot in the evening that same day.

I was hanging with Dag Ole Nordhaug, testing the Samyang 18mm. We had some amazing scenery around us, but sadly very little going on in the skies. There were no clouds above, just low hanging clouds and fog rolling from the mountains. I had actually planned to trash the morning image, but when Photoshop released their latest update I changed my mind. It is very difficult to add a new sky to an image when fog and clouds bleed into the sky. How will the “new” Photoshop handle this challenge, I thought to myself. Let’s find out.

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The Insta360 ONE X2 has a touchscreen OLED UI, IPX8 waterproofing and longer battery life

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When Insta360 released the original Insta360 ONE X in 2018 (review here), it kind of shook things up for the pocket-sized 360 camera market. It shot 5.7K footage with pretty revolutionary, almost gimbal-like stabilisation with better dynamic range and more features through its smartphone app than just about any of its contemporaries at the time.

Well, today, Inta360 has announced an update with the launch of the new Insta360 ONE X2. I’ve been having a bit of play with one for the last couple of weeks, so let’s take a look at some of the changes, see how it differs from its predecessor and what I love about the new ONE X2.

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This drive holds 2 Terabytes and it’s the size of a credit card

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I remember when my office had a 10-Megabytes drive (Mega, with an M). It was (give or take) the size and weight of a car tire. A few weeks ago, I got the T7 SSD from Samsung. It is two Terabytes big and the size of a credit card. I feel old.

Not only does this drive boasts an impressive 2TB storage, but it also claims to run at read speeds up to 1,050 MB/s and writes at speeds up to 1,000 MB/s.  This is quite impressive, so, of course, we had to put it to the test.

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We have tested photoshop’s new sky replacement feature – here’s the verdict

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The major Photoshop upgrade of October came with several new features. For landscape, cityscape, and architectural photographers, the most interesting update is the Sky Replacement feature. Luminar has had this feature for about a year already, and finally, Adobe has caught up.

I have a rather tricky waterfall image shot on a gray day with a more or less blown out sky, and I am keen to test out the new feature on this image. How will Photoshop handle all the branches protruding into the sky? Will the algorithm recognize what is the sky part of the image? Blending a sky into this image by hand using masking techniques would most likely have been very time-consuming.

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We have tested lightroom’s new color grading tool – here is what we think

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In Lightroom’s newest iteration, Adobe has replaced the split toning tool with a brand new color grading tool. It is not only videographers who will benefit from a new and powerful color grading tool; it’s helpful for photographers. Landscape photographers have, for example, extensively use split toning to warm up highlights and add colder tones to the shadows.

I want to share a brief explanation of the various options the tool offers + reveal some hidden panels. I’ll also look at how hotkeys provide full control of the center points and knobs outside the color circles.

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