November 26, 2022

It’s been a few years since we’ve seen a fully new version of my black-and-white presets. I do minor free updates all the time. But I like to wait till the features and tools of Lightroom and Capture One improve for these big rebuilds.

Black and white presets for editing in Lightroom and Capture One

Silver 5 makes next-generation Silver editing simple using native RTAW tools and black and white presets.

There are a lot of new things in these presets. They take advantage of Lightroom Ai layers and while Capture One still does not have Ai tools, Silver 5 is using every ounce of update that Capture One has brought us with layers and better one-click black-and-white conversions.

I’m excited about these new presets for black and white and I made a pretty fun video to share what I was thinking and what’s new in Silver 5.

You can check out my Silver black and white presets playlist on YouTube for more.

Black and white preset are about the details. And that’s what Silver does makes it easier than any other tool. By using native tools instead of plugins, Silver 5 can leverage all the power of these apps but you don’t have to spend a lot of time tinkering.

Choose your black and white presets for the main look. Then mod them with the new Mod-Kit…

The mods are now a simple separate preset pack, so they don’t clutter up the main set. Whether it’s the Lightroom Presets, Capture Styles or working in Camera RAW. Just select your presets for black and white a lot like choosing a film.

Then you can mod it in a mod kit with adaptive detail tools. Grains, contract mods, and even Ai portrait tools. Of course, you can take mods further with packs like Elegance Speed-Masks but you’ll find that Mod-Kit has a little of everything so you can quickly get your edit right.

Silver 5 Black and white presets and Capture One Styles

Presets and styles for black and white let you work better.

If you’re not using presets, you’re editing is suffering. It’s about being able to finish the look you visualized by quickly trying mixed that would otherwise never be tried. It’s the secret that nearly everyone professional knows and those trying to show off at photo club pretend are cheating.

My edits always stars with Lightroom Presets or Capture on styles because I know I will get a better result by mixing things in various ways to find the look I want. Don’t let snobs shame for you using good tools. Even if you make your own presets, make sure you have them ready and refined and that you are using them.

I’ll be doing a training video soon on how to use Silver 5 black and white presets to get the best edits in Lightroom or Capture One. Future updates to V5 will be bringing more improvements to Mod-Kit and these recipes for great black and white that I’ve spent a lot of years refining.

Let me know if you have questions. Gavin Seim

presets for black and white make editing faster and more refined in Lightroom or Capture one
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November 15, 2022

Photography has seen many transitions. Glass plates to film, black and white to color. One of the biggest was the film to the digital which saw many photographers unable to transition.

Will we photographers be needed in a world of Ai?

I’ve shown you in recent videos how the Lightroom Ai with tools like Elegance Speed mask presets makes advanced retouching of portraits unreal. Watch that video here. But while we can’t do this in Capture One yet, it’s perhaps not as big a deal as it looks. I’ll show you why…

(or watch on YouTube)

There’s more than one way to develop a photo.

I’ve always started edits with presets like Filmist or Natural HDR. These work across LR and C1. Then I would go into Photoshop and use Alchemist or BlackRoom and others to refine. I still do all of this, but the new Ai tools make me do more in Lightroom.

We need to stay ahead of the curve but we don’t need to let every new tool change our look. Artificial intelligence is the buzzword. But tools like the Lightroom Ai masks are still not really that intelligent. They do however bring a sign of what’s to come.

For now, things like Lightroom Ai are about saving time. But do we really need the Ai, Is Lightroom really better than Capture One because of it? Is it the best way to edit or should we still use a little Photoshop or Affinity to refine our photos?

It’s pretty amazing what the Ai masks can do. This transformation was virtually instant using my Elegance Speed-Masks which define the parameters and stack the LR Ai masks in one click. But as we see in the video, other methods might take a tad longer but can yield nearly the same result.

In the end, it’s what we create in the camera that defines our photos. Let’s not get blind-sighted. But I also think software can be overhyped. A focus on creating with emotion and soul comes before the edit. The shadow hunt. I think those things are still king.

Don’t miss my next live Shadow hackers workshop so we can talk more about this. Also, leave a comment to share what you think about all these Ai tools such as Lightroom Ai.

Keep creating – Gavin Seim

Add on’s I used in today’s edits… Elegance Speed Masks, Filmist Presets, BellaDonna presets, Alchemist Actions.

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November 15, 2022

The two top dogs of RAW editing get better for 2023.

The end of the year brings new updates to some of our favorite editing tools and the competition between Lightroom and Capture One is always a good thing for photographers. In my Capture One VS Lightrooom 2022 review it was close. But a lot has changed in a year.

In the first part of 2023, I’ll do that somewhat famous Capture One vs Lightroom Compasrson review. But in today’s video, we’re going to take an initial look at which is better… Lightroom vs Capture One.

Still no Ai masks in Capture On 2023.

This was the big one people were waiting for in Capture One. As the 23 Lightroom update brought even more powerful masks with the new portrait Ai masking that I showed in this video. These are pretty amazing and I even update my Elegenace Speed Mask presets for it making a one-click portrait combo that is like nothing we’ve ever had.

Styles have only improved a little in Capture One. We can now save layers in style, but not really since the feature is so limited and does not work in most modes. So while I can still develop great tools like Filmist Styles for Capture One, I still can’t do the complex layer tools like I can with Speed-Masks in Lightroom.

I’ll demonstrate in the video above what we’re seeing now and I plan to do my final review coming soon. For now, I will say that the updates in Capture one are pretty minor, while Lightroom is changing the game for the Ai masks even though most other features remain the same.

Both Lightroom VS Capture One are both great editing apps

A lot comes down to preference. But at this state Capture, One and Lightroom both can give equal results despite what some older myths say. Yes even on Fuji Files with Lightroom as I showed in this test.

Let me know what you think and stay tuned… Gav

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November 7, 2022

Adobe has posted another big LR update as we enter 2023 and AI masks are even more amazing, especially for portraits. I’m going to show you what you can do in today’s video.

Ai masks are not new. Cheap phone apps on our phones were doing them long before Lightroom or Photoshop. But Lightroom implementation has become really good and just got better.

But what about Lightroom vs Capture One?

I won’t ignore Capture One and in this video, we’re also going to compare C1 layers vs LR Ai masks and see how it stacks in a side-by-side test on the same photo.

I also just sent a free update to my Elegance 4 Speed-Mask presets so make sure you grab them I as it makes what I’m going to show you even easier.

Here are the new improved Lightroom Ai masks + how they stack up editing the same photo in Capture One.

It’s no surprise that Lightroom Masks vs Capture One layers are really no contest at this point. The real question is what is Capture One doing to catch up with Lightroom in 2023?

Also, Capture One 23 is about to be announced this week. It looks like we will finally be able to save layers into styles (awesome). But so far no sign of Ai masking. I do plan to do a 2023 Capture one VS Lightroom Comparison like last year in a few months once everything drops.

Lightroom does the complex selection in seconds. C1 can auto-select by the results are far less detailed meaning I can’t be as deep with the edit since it affects well outside the intended selection range.

I want my Capture One friends to contact Phase One.

Regardless of what software you favor, we need competition, and Capture One needs to step it up. They are historically terrible and listening to customers and basic features sometimes take many years to get implemented. Not that Adobe is much better, but they are innovating more right now.

I finally found the contact form here for Capture One. It’s at the very bottom of this page. Send a message and tell them what you think and ask them to get Capture one up to speed in terms of AI masking.

What other apps will be driving your editing in 2023 so I can take a closer look? Are Lightroom and Capture One still the best options? Let me know in the comments what you think and we’ll see you next time.

Gavin Seim

You don’t have to use it a lot. A simple preset like Portra 400 from Filmist here and the separate mask mix from the latest version of Lightroom are applied with the Elegance 4 preset. I can then adjust as I like with the amount slider.
Too much? Yes. But in this extreme example, you can see how detailed these auto AI masks have come. Allowing even lip and eye retouching without even blinking.
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October 28, 2022

Lightroom should be easy. So I decided to take a step-by-step course to make it easy.

I’ve been looking for a way to teach Lightroom better because when it’s natural all your photos get better. So I’ve started this series, taking Lightroom step by step.

A Lightroom training and reference guide.

You can watch the parts you need. I’ll keep adding more chapters so they are all kept tidy in a playlist. As this project grows you will be able to come and review any part you need at your leisure.

See the entire playlist. here

Please like and subscribe while you’re there 😉

The tool should get out of the way.

That’s been my theory in making Lightroom presets and Capture One styles like Filmist, GoldChrome, PowerWorkflow, and more. The tool should work for you. It’s the same with software. If you know what’s happening, the tool will get out of your way and you can work smoothly and better.

I’m also considering a series like this for Capture One so let me know if you’re interested.

You tell me what you want to see.

I’ll keep expanding this. Next will develop settings. We’re going to create the largest free library of Lightroom training resources, so you tell me what you need and I’ll keep them coming.

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