Where there is light, there will be shadows!
In this short video, we will look at a different technique for cleaning up shadows in macro images using Lightroom range masks.
This technique can be adapted for other images as well. The final image can be seen on Flickr.
Let us look at an example to see how this is done…
I will not get into any arcane storage options of unknown companies offering lifetime schemes. In fact, I would advise avoiding all such for a variety of reasons.
Let’s look at the top 3 names that offer us reliable cloud storage for normal users.
1. Apple iCloud
2. Google Drive
3. Microsoft OneDrive
Although there are some more names like DropBox, Amazon etc. we will ignore those for now…
This is a little known technique that I wanted to share, but, kept forgetting 🙂
Basically, it’s not just Lightroom, this technique works for all disk/file intensive applications on the Mac and since Windows also indexes file, this would work on Windows as well.
Let’s take a brief look at how to speed up such applications on the Mac…
I generally use Lightroom for all my raw processing and avoid Photoshop unless I am replacing a sky or a similar composite.
One of the tools I use a lot in Lightroom is the Adjustment Brush and the AutoMask feature in that for edges.
Although I have updated to version 10 and therefore cannot show a side-by-side comparison, but, the change from the earlier version is quite visible even in normal masking.
Let’s take a brief look at this issue…
Let’s take a look at the all-new sky replacement feature introduced in Photoshop 2021 first since that is the most talked-about addition.
There are some other new features in Photoshop as well as Lightroom, but, we will get to those in later videos.
Sky is the replacement 😀
This is perhaps more relevant for macro photography and flash, but, can also be used in other cases.
To demonstrate this technique, I will use a close-up image of a snail for the highlights and shine removal and a bird image for shadow removal.
Let’s see how we can go about doing this in Photoshop…
#Photoshop #Wildlife #Highlights #Shadows #Post
This feature was introduced in version 9.3 and I have found it very useful for wildlife macros. Of course, we do have similar conditions with birds at times, but, this is more useful for macros.
We often see a major green tint when we photograph insects in the wild on leaves and branches. Adjusting the overall image tint in the white balance does not work in these conditions.
Earlier, one would have to go to Photoshop to fix these issues, but, now it can be done in Lightroom itself.
Let us look at an example to see how this is done…
I ran into this major bug while re-organising my mobile shots and I consider it serious enough to share. In short, if you are using date/time functions in the Lightroom import, you have to be careful and double-check to make sure this bug does not impact your catalog.
Let us see what this bug is and how it can create chaos in our catalog.
One of the ways of overcoming the current technology limitations in photography is called Focus Stacking.
This technique allows us to overcome the area of focus (DoF) in images. We can take multiple shots with different focus points and later combine these to get the entire image in sharp focus.
Let us see how this can be done using Lightroom and Photoshop.
I have been experimenting with my D850 for a few months now and I will share some of my findings regarding the ISO response for wildlife.
As one would expect, the ISO response is a lot better than compared to my earlier D7500. In fact, it turns out to be twice as good for my kind of shots.
Normally, I try to shoot as close as practically possible and try to get as much detail on the subjects given the light and exposure I can achieve.
Then, I tried to push the ISO to the limits which, one normally would not do. Today, I tried it at the highest native of 25600 but, in low light. Around 7 pm on a cloudy day.
The idea was to see what I could get from the D850 and use Topaz DeNoise to try and make the images usable.
Let’s see how this experiment went…
#photography #nikon #Topaz #noise #iso
Nitin Chandra's Blog 