Recreating a 17th century painting in the 21st century by using only stock photos would be an interesting project under any circumstances. But doing this with “The Concert” is a more than just interesting. First, it is one of the iconic paintings of Johannes Vermeer, a Dutch painter most people know by “Girl with a Pearl Earring”. And second, the story behind this painting is quite mysterious, since it went missing and it has never been found. All this makes Erik’s recreation of the painting even more valuable.
How to Speed Up Your Lightroom Editing By Using Anchor Photos
One of the ongoing pain points of being a photographer is the time we spend editing. Don’t get me wrong, I love turning a flat image into something breathtaking, but it does take a while to get through a batch of 1000+ photos from a wedding or concert.
Combine that with the volume of events we cover, and editing quickly becomes a chore instead of being enjoyable. If you’re a busy photographer, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Today, I’d like to show you how you can drastically speed up your photo editing in Lightroom using anchor photos.[Read More…]
Sigma users rejoice, new Sigma SD Quattro H will support Lightroom
Sigma Corporation has made an announcement that will make all Lightroom users thrilled. Their new Sigma SD Quattro H is available for sale, and it comes with improvements that will finally let photographers edit RAW files in Lightroom.[Read More…]
Macphun is taking on Lightroom with Luminar – an new all-in-one photo editing solution
All new image software that gets released wants to become your go-to software. Coming in against the world of Lightroom and Photoshop can be a tough prospect. So tough that even Apple bowed out, completely dropping Aperture from its product line. There have been one or two challengers, but nothing really has the market that Adobe do.
Macphun are hoping to change that, though, with their new “next generation” all-in-one image editing software. Announced today, Luminar is a photo editing tool “which grows with photographers’ capability and knowledge”. Luminar has a non-destructive editing workflow, much like Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw. It supports all the usual file formats including JPG and TIF along with all of the popular raw formats.
RAW Editing Comes to Snapseed for Android
The popular photo-editing app, owned by Google, launched version 2.1 and is now capable of editing RAW files.
“Traditionally, shooting and editing RAW photos has been the domain of DSLR cameras and desktop software”, a Google engineer said, adding that combined with the RAW capabilities added to Android phones last year, “RAW is now becoming important for mobile photography, too”.
Snapseed’s new version allows Android users to edit the RAW files shot on their smartphones, as well as RAW files from digital camera that have been converted into DNG files.
Seven Ways to Improve What You Upload to Instagram
Instagram’s become a staple in the average smartphone user’s app drawer. Where it once started off as a tool to enhance and showcase your phone photography, however, it has now arguably taken over as a complete social network altogether. With the introduction of direct messaging, the ability to tag other people, and the all around influx of people simply posting up pictures of what they’re doing at the moment, it’s become clear that the app isn’t just used as an artistic tool anymore. It’s become a form of communication.
But that’s not a bad thing at all. With how much potential the app now holds, Instagram can truly bring something to your following as a photographer. What matters is both how you market yourself and the content that you make. This post won’t necessarily help you with the former, but it can definitely give a few tips on the latter. When Instagram was first released, smartphones were still a new thing; not everyone was able to own one, and taking pictures with a phone’s camera was still more of a novelty thing; with how many different toy-cam styled filters the app offered, it got the job done when it came down to giving a bit of vintage spice to your pictures.
Even Instagram, however, knows that things have changed; in the past few months alone, they released an update allowing an entire editing package and even a hyperlapse app. And it’s because smartphone photography is becoming more sophisticated. As the world’s population becomes virtually void of flip phones, more and more people are starting to use smartphone cameras as their primary lens. And with Instagram being possibly the most popular photo-based social app out there, I decided to throw my two cents out there for those of you who want to make the best of it. This doesn’t have to be about getting more followers, and it doesn’t even have to be about having a professional photography presence on the app. If you just like posting pictures on the app and want a few good tips on how to make them a bit more perfect, then maybe I can give you a few tips here.
Photoshop vs. Lightroom: What if You Had to Pick Just One?
One of the questions I get a lot comes from new photographers wanting to know whether they should be working in Photoshop or Lightroom. I particularly enjoy their deer-caught-in-the-headlights look when I reply, “Both!” While it’s true that either of these incredibly powerful Adobe tools could, in theory, provide photographers with everything they need to edit their images, I really am a firm believer that a strong workflow rests on a solid foundation of both PS & LR. Having said that, though, learning just one of these applications can be a daunting task for even the most dedicated photographer. Learning two can seem insurmountable.
New Algorithm Uses Text Commands to Change the Weather in Pictures
Do you ever notice how sophisticated and easily accessible futuristic technology can look at times when watching a movie? Just to throw an example out there, remember how subtly awesome it was when all Tony Stark needed to do to paint his armor was ask Jarvis to add some hot rod color? As advanced as technology is these days, Louis C.K. was right; we’re a bit spoiled when it comes down to how much we expect. Just the other night, I had a friend complaining that he was stuck on 4G because there wasn’t any LTE in the area.
The bottom line is that efficiency and speed both play a big role in how technology moves forward. As simple as it is to take your phone out and press a button to show the screen, we ended up finding a way to make pushing it unnecessary. As simple as it is to type in a password to buy an app, we replaced it with a fingerprint sensor. And as efficient as it is to Photoshop your pictures to change the weather, we’ve now found a way to let an algorithm do the job for us.
This Tutorial Covers Everything You’ll Need to Know about Photoshop’s Clone Tool
The team at Phlearn put together a pretty detailed video tutorial over mastering the cloning tool, and they’re not wrong when they emphasize on how important it really is. I’ve been Photoshopping since I was in the 8th grade, and just from reading that you can probably already imagine the atrocities that came out of my, uh… “graphic design” skills back in the day. One thing I never really made myself learn was the cloning tool. It just looked too complex, and I thought using blur on pretty much everything was the way to go. At the time, I was basically under the impression that the Blur tool was all I needed because it does the same thing the Clone tool would do.
Please don’t make the mistakes I’ve done.
If you’re like me, and never really got the hang of a tool like that, do yourself a favor and check this video out. The seventeen minutes that comprise this tutorial aren’t wasted by any means at all; covering four different sections, Phlearn’s Aaron Nace gives us a broken down, professional, and intricate look into the software, and in the end it’s downright easy to follow along with.
[Via Phlearn]
Adobe Camera Raw 8.5 Brings In Support for Panasonic Lumix GH4, New Lens Profiles, and More
It’s been about three months since its last update, and now the next release candidate for Adobe Camera Raw is here. If you’ve been waiting on support for the Panasonic LUMIX GH4, Camera Raw 8.5 now gives you the opportunity to do so. Along with it, a few more cameras from Olympus, Nikon, and Canon are added into the mix, receiving raw image support in the program; if you’re just getting into photography, editing the raw image files is one of the best things you can possibly do for your photos, so GH4 users out there should definitely give this update a look.
Unfortunately, like the last time, there’s no word on an update coming to Lightroom at all, so we’ll have to wait and see where that goes. Adobe Camera Raw 8.5 RC is now out for both Photoshop and Creative Cloud. Check out what else is featured – including new lens profiles, bug fixes, and software modifications – after the jump.
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