July 28, 2024

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capture one, Fine Art, lightroom, lightroom vs capture one, special effects

This makes your black and white better Instantly.

Most of us make black and white by converting color RAW files. That’s the best way. But even if you shoot monochrome digital or film, you must use these colors as filters.

Drop Color for black and white is just as magical as in color.

You’ve probably seen my video about Drop Color how 2 simple colors eliminate the ugly digital look and transform your process. It’s super easy but a game-changer. But what I didn’t tell you in that video is that this works amazingly in black and white with a slight twist. I’ll show you…

You can get the free mini version of Silver 5 presets here and see this in action. To take my tone down further I also use Blackroom and Emulsion 4 in Photoshop.

All the channels matter… But these 2 are magic.

Like the drop color method of a color photo, the color channels on black and white conversion work the same on luminance values and help you create better black and white really fast.

This is the same concept as using the color filter on black-and-white film to limit the light of certain colors and create more contrast and tone. Only in digital do we have more control.

Don’t get locked into one slider direction.

So generally a drop color is pulling done the saturation, or in this case the brightness (luma) of a color channel in HSL. But you can always push a color like I show at the end of the video.

Remember that these methods give you control. But don’t get locked in. And if you pull one color, push another, and see what happens. Usually, blues are pulled for better skies, but sometimes you push them.

It’s the same with green and orange. I’ll show you a great example at the end of the video.

Use this to key your background!

Pay close attention to where I mention exposure. How all these sliders are essentially small bits of exposure but for example on a single color.

So look at the example I show you. By pushing up the skin tone like I did the image gets a little too bright for what I’m trying to do in the portrait. This is actually a good thing.

Because pushing the luminance values in my black and white makes the subject too bright I compensate with an overall minus exposure until the skin is in the Zone I want.

The magic is that it maintained the subject brightness while darkening or keying the background and creating a natural dramatic contrast.

Put the tips I showed you to work with drop color on your black and white photos and watch your edits transform overnight.

Gavin Seim

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July 13, 2024

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capture one, lightroom, special effects

Two colors digital gets wrong! The Drop Color Method fixes it instantly!

Two colors change everything in your photography and that is way overdone in digital. Today I’ll show you how to fix them easily in any app. Take 7 minutes and watch the whole video.

Two main colors that Digital gets wrong.

This is because on digital nearly all colors are equal in value, causing them to be over-driven in post. In today’s video, I show a little-known fix ever for colors in digital photos.

You can do this in any app and you will also see it applied in most of my presets and can try it in its perfect form in the FIlmist Free or Complete presets pack.

The first time you do this it might seem extreme. Until you drop!

This is especially true if you have been editing wrong for a long time.

I know, wrong is relative to your style. But remember the goal is always to bring focus to our main subject. Overcooked colors distract from that. Once you understand this, your process will be simple and you will control color separation so much easier.

It’s easy yes, but took me years until the days I started developing Filmist to truly understand.

Never overdrive both of these. Drop color!

At times you might want to push one of these two colors. But it’s rare, even on a sunset. It’s even more rare that I push both. They nearly always compete with each other. Skin, foliage, etc.

Dial both of these to start. Or use a film or other high-level preset like I create for you guys. You’ll see that soon your baseline edit corrects itself and you no longer are looking for this overcome color.

Even on landscapes you fill this method creates more balanced tones and beautiful roll-offs.

Obviously, if you have ever tried my FIlmist 2 pack you have seen this in action. But it may sup[ise you that even in tools like Natural HDR 4 I am using it. HDR needs balance eve more and even in a rich scene I still apply drop color to create the balance that that pack is so famous for.

Yes, you can use this method on other colors.

Take this further by adjusting the hue settings and try the same on blues, purples etc. The two colors here may be the most important to balanced edits, but the method O show can be used on both.

Digital drives colors too hard because no chemicals are getting in the way of making colors bold. So once you start pushing they all push too far too fast.

While the two primary colors should always be reviewed, you can see in this photo that moving colors like blue and red in a similar fashion as I edit this night scene with Street’ist styles.

HSL is a tool you should always use. Having a favorite preset or creating your own baseline with this will improve every session and give you a starting point that truly helps you be consistent and better understand how to make each photo balanced and amazing.

Gavin Seim

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July 7, 2024

1

lightroom, lightroom vs capture one, special effects

DXO Photo Lab vs Lightroom tested. Can you switch from Lightroom?

People are sick of subscriptions and hate Adobe right now (they really deserve it). Subscriptions were never for us. So today I compare Lightroom vs DXO Photo Lab.

LR vs DXO Photo – An alternative to Lightroom and C1?

Maybe, but it’s complicated. Quality tools like Capture One (that I reviewed here) are also turning against their users by going virtually subscription only. So I am going to start testing. Today we look at DXO Photo Lab vs Lightroom.

I mentioned Filmist which includes LUTS you can use right now in DXO! For my LR and C1 users, I used Silver 5, Natural HDR, and my Speed Masks.

Last year I compared Lightroom to Lumiar Neo.

It was not there at a pro level. Luminar Neo got a D in terms of pro-level ability in my review. Lets hope in improves but in the last year much has changed.

It’s a fun tool. But not a serious choice for a pro. We need better integrations and better process quality. But with Lightroom vs DXO Photo Lab 7, there’s a smaller gap.

Lightroom vs DXO Photo Lab – Speed

DXO also has some unique tools and it’s snappy. Something you can’t say for LIghtroom and barely for Capture One. Both are resource-intensive apps.

It’s DXO Photo Lab is not without faults.

The 20 minutes of the video is worth it because I’ll cover the important things that make a pro-level app usable for actual pros. Not just cool features that look good in a sponsored review.

Zero sponsors. This is my honest DXO Photo Lab Review

None of these apps sponsor me and I have no affiliate links here at this time. This is just an honest comparison from 20 years of professional experience doing real sessions. No shilling.

Rather than write the results of DXO nouse reduction vs Lightroom and extra tests like how it handles processing against Neo, Capture One, etc. It’s all in the video.

If you want more hard tests of these apps let me know and I will not hold back. DXO Photo Lab Vs Lightroom seems to be a real option. But with limitations that I hope they can improve.

Gavin Seim

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July 1, 2024

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special effects

SD Card recovery and 5 tips for photographers and to be prepared and all hell breaks loose.

Right now this might not be exciting. But later this post will save your bacon. SD cards are temporary devices. This means at some point your SD card will start to fail.

You will accidentally delete or have a corrupt SD card to recover.

At some point! The problem is that when it happens you panic, and companies waiting to get your money. Here are 5 tips that will save your bacon and a few more in the point below.

Almost every post you find about this will be spam. Save this one.

I made this. In the video for my viewers because I have decades of experience. I mention ReclaimMe and Rstudio as two of the top memory recovery tools.

They are not free. Most that claim to be free and free are spammy products wasting your time. They may or may not work. but skip them and invest in a good product.

Neither of these have any affiliation with me nor do I get anything from them. I bought ReclaimMe with my own money and these are not affiliate links. I learned about these being the best form many years of searching.

Cards don’t usually fail all at once. But they are consumables.

I’ve never had a card fail without any warning. But it can happen. Like I said in the video however the files are usually there.

After a certain number of writes, cards wear out. So if you start to notice a file here that is corrupted mark that card and stop using it for any critical work. If I suspect a card I will trash it or mark it with a sharpie that it is suspect.

Back up and use double card slots.

This I’m preparing from the video tips. It is not 2008 where this was rare. Most higher-level cameras have dual card slots and if I’m doing a wedding or session that paid I’ll always grab my camera that does.

Yes, you can often recover your files. But the truth is I never have. Yes, I have recovered files I deleted accidentally. However, this does not happen on a critical shoot because I never delete in the field and as soon as I return O copy and backup the shoot. No waiting.

I have used SD recovery tools many times and tried many tools you want to avoid. But usually, it’s the old deleted file, helping a friend etc. What I’m saying is be prepared to recover, but avoid situations where you MUST recover.

I hope when your day arrives. You find this helpful.

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June 14, 2024

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special effects

Improve every session even in ultra low light photography, when you shoot like this!

Today’s tips go beyond simple light and shadow. This is how to think like a photographer. There’s a new update to my Pictorialist 1.1 Actions and I promised a video. But, I decided to showcase the process of this week’s session with my model Mayumi, and go deeper.

Low light portrait photography? Don’t miss today’s tips.

You can Get Pictalost here while it’s on Launch Sale and also check out Filmist and Elegance for those RAW edits. You can also Log-In here for your updates.

As light wanes, shadow deepens.

And if you’ve ever been to one of my Shadow Hacker live workshops you know that shadows make the photo. Low light photography does not mean low quality and in today’s portrait session, we’ll test that.

In last week’s video, we talked about magic glowing hour light. There’s nothing like it. But today we see that you don’t have to stop just because that is gone! If you are thinking about feeling, emotion, and connected with your project. Darkness can be magical too.

This takes practice. But the more you detach from overthinking and start creating while at the same time learning what works and what does not, everything will change.

Don’t get too stuck on the tool.

Today I was using pictorialist actions for the deep edits and it works amazing to quickly bring the drama to the photo you shot in dramatic light. Honestly, it’s amazing for low light photography or dramatic day scenes.

But don’t get so stuck on any tool or plugin that’s doing all the world. Notice how even the dark photos in this session had lots of moodiness in the camera. Feel everything about the scene you are creating, slow down and take fewer photos and you’ll get more.

Detach a bit… Use the Pictorialist mentality

This is a term you may have heard in self-improvement and tips to stop stressing about life. But it also works in your photos.

But it also works in photos. It does not mean not paying attention or not trying to de a great job. But when you stop stressing over every detail and look for the feeling in your photos it is transformative.

We’re in the high-res, super-sharp ultra Ai era. It’s sterile and people are bored because we’ve started leaving behind creativity and emotion. Ultra-low light photography is a great way to understand these concepts better.

But having a good plan, practicing often and just letting loose a bit. You will find photos you never dreamed you could have taken.

Try everything in today’s video and see what I mean.\

Gavin Seim

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