November 26, 2022

0

film presets and styles, Film Presets for Lightroom, Film Styles for Capture One, lightroom, lightroom vs capture one, presets, special effects

New Silver 5 Black and White Presets for Lightroom and Capture One bring better B&W in 2023.

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 16, 2022

6

capture one, lightroom, photoshop, special effects

Should you edit Black and White in Photoshop or RAW?

How I choose the best black-and-white method!

Black and White Photoshop style gives you more nuance while the RAW style of LR and C1 gives you more speed. So how do you decide?

“Gavin should I use, Silver presets, or BlackRoom actions?” people ask about the presets and actions I make. But this answer applies to however you edit. Let’s start with basics in this video.

Lightroom VS Photoshop for Black and White…

Don’t forget to grab the Silver 5 free sampler presets to try this yourself. Also you cab get BlackRoom and Emulsion here for more advanced PS edits.

Let’s see more examples then……

PRESETS” I always start with presets and Styles in Capture One such as Silver or Filmist. These are recipes that combine many settings to instantly create an edit in LR, RAW, etc. Presets can be used from Photoshop from within the Camera RAW filter (see this video on my channel)

This edited just fine in RAW. But by going into Photoshop and using BlackRoom actions I was able to refine it that much more.

Actions in Photoshop are like mini apps that run in PS. Commands that are run with one click. I create actions like BlackRoom, Lumist, and others. They use the native tools of Photoshop without PlugIns and can create in 30 seconds which would take me an hour to do manually. Giving me layers and effects to mix as I want but without the manual labor. Lightroom can’t use actions.

Look at this edit in LR vs Photoshop…

Actions make advanced edits in Photoshop much faster. Often people have Photoshop and take a file from Lightroom only to find they don’t know how to make it any better. But with time, or with actions that make atmospheric edits natural, Photoshop is easy and will always give you more tools.

This first photo is only a Lightroom edited using my Silver presets and some easy manual tweaks.

LR RAW Only

Next is the same shot editing in Lightroom but then taking into Photoshop where I used layers and BlackRoom actions. At a glance, they may not seem that better. But if you look closely see see much more control in specific tonal ranges, details, and more. When you make a print, these details matter.

LR RAW + Photoshop Layers and BlackRoom Actions

Yes, these are subtle things. But for serious black and white shooters, they change a lot of things.

Don’t edit ONLY in PS thinking it’s better. You will experiment less because it takes longer. Often making you less creative. Start with that basic RAW edit and go to Photoshop when you are ready for more by restoring the color channels while leaving your RAW tone edits in place. In my Silver pack, this can be done with the included mod preset.

LR or C1 is the starting point because its sliders, channels, and fast shadow control helps you create. Photoshop will give you more advanced and refined edits that you save right back into your photo library. If I use BlackRoom actions, the Photoshop part is fast with more detailed layer style controls that I don’t have in Lightroom.

So Lightroom VS Capture One for black and white?

There are always more choices and while I make tools for LR and C1 users, you need to decide how that fits in. Those are both RAW apps and neither replace Photoshop or even other pixel editors like Affinity. So in this second video let’s compare the apps LR and C1 in relation to Photoshop.

Photoshop is for when you’re serious!

You can almost think of Lightroom and Capture One as black-and-white film choices back in the day. It’s how you start. Then Photoshop is your Darkroom where you us native tools and layer mixes to make your image Ansel Adams-level perfect.

On a small screen, you may not see much difference. As a photographer who wants gallery quality, it’s a big difference. Black and white photographers who want the best do the final work in a layer-based editor like Photoshop. But I use a RAW editor for 90% of the photos. Having well-planned presets/styles, and actions is a must to expand creativity. Even if you make your own!

All of this matters. Even if you only use Photoshop in 5% of your photos, that 5% will be your best work. Think overlook how much those images can improve.

I hope you find this helpful in your Lightroom vs Black and White Photoshop questions. It’s really not a dilemma. Both are good! If it’s still confusing, let me know in the comments and I’ll try and address it in future videos on my channel.

Gavin Seim

Here we have a good Lightroom edit made quickly using Silver presets. One or two clicks and a little adjusting are needed.
The final photo, was taken further in Photoshop. I used BlackRoom actions to make it fast. It’s the control over details and atmosphere. On a small screen, you may not see the difference. But on my best photos going to print, the black and white Photoshop edit is more refined.
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November 15, 2022

0

capture one, lightroom, lightroom vs capture one, special effects

Will this End Photography as we know it?

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

0

capture one, Film Presets for Lightroom, Film Styles for Capture One, lightroom, lightroom vs capture one

Capture One 23 vs Lightroom 23 First Look

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

0

capture one, lightroom, lightroom vs capture one, special effects

2023 improved Lightroom AI masks and how they compare to Capture One.

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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