We just finished teaching an online masking class, and participants had a lot of good questions. But by far the biggest confusion came from what does ‘intersect with subject” or any other mask really do? And is it really necessary? The new masking features in LR and PS have changed workflow for about every photographer Read More
processing
Luminosity Masks
Masking has taken on a whole new meaning with the recent masking features in PS and LR. It’s crazy isn’t it? Before masks we were using the ‘old’ tools to make selections, refine edges, and hope that things came out okay. But then the new masking features were introduced, and now I seem to use Read More
High Key Editing Steps
I have gotten a lot of questions about high key editing so I thought I would go through my workflow here. I’ll be heading to Africa later this month, and high key editing can help wildlife images in poor or high contrast light. There are a lot of ways to do a high key edit, Read More
New portrait masking tool in Lightroom/Photoshop
A few days ago I mentioned the new background masking and object selection tools recently added with the latest update of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Along with this update came more masking tools for portrait photographers. It is really amazing how these new masking tools are game changers in our workflow. Quick easy selection and Read More
More masking tools in Photoshop/Lightroom
Photoshop and Lightroom masking just keeps getting better. The recent update to both programs was significant; now we can mask people and even have some presets to make adjustments (more on that is an a few days). But what really caught my attention, both in PS and LR masking, was the new Background and Object Read More
High Key or exposing for the subject?
One popular trend in wildlife photography is high key. This look bleaches out the background and even part of the subject by overexposing much of the image. Take a look at this cute bear cub in Alaska. The background is blown out and the cub jumps off the page. This image was basically straight out Read More
New Lightroom Adaptive Presets
Adobe has been busy adding some nice new features to Lightroom. We still think adding the mask feature was one of the best things they have ever done, we use it constantly in our editing. A lot of AI computing went into the auto masks, and that is what Adobe decided to add when they Read More
Northern Lights White Balance
One of my favorite photographic subjects are the northern lights. It is hard to beat watching a dancing aurora display in frosty subzero temps in beautiful winter landscapes. Green, purples and even reds will show in the night sky. But in winter this does present a challenge. The snowy foreground often looks green or off Read More
Lightroom ‘Intersect Mask’ feature
Lightroom (and Photoshop) has another way to further refine your selection using the new masking tools. It’s call Intersect Mask, and here is how it works. Take a look at this image at top…a portrait of a friend during an adventure sports workshop in Alaska. Using the new ‘Select Subject’ feature, let’s first see how Read More
Reducing bright halos around selections.
We’re in the middle of an online class right now discussing the new masking features in Lightroom and Photoshop. If you work in Lightroom, this is a major update and allows a lot more power in selective editing. With just one click you can select a subject by a number of methods, invert, refine and Read More