Photographers are afraid of the dark, and that fear is the enemy of great photos. Overcoming it is what separates the masters from the amateurs. I teach this in every Shadow hackers classes.
But today I’ll show you how to master SHADOW editing in LR and C!.
This video is a mini masterclass in hope to manipulate tone in Lightroom, Capture One and other apps. Stay with me to the end because this entire video is jam packed.
We often think contrast is created by not having flat light, by pushing the slider. But contrast is really created by the tip I will mention at the very end of this video, and we go deeper on it in other workshops and videos on the channel.
That is the separation of tones and how they create an illusion to our eyes. If you come to Shadow Hackers we’ll talk about doubles, halves, and illusions in depth because knowing it changes how you shoot.
Background contrast is the secret…
I’ll show you various hands-on examples of how to reduce background contrast.
By letting second elements have less contrast like the plant I showed you, you can create more overall contrast and 3d pop.
Photographers were doing this long before digital but it’s a nearly forgotten method of using tone in photography and in apps like Lightroom and Capture One. With these masks, it’s really easy to build it into a speed mask like we used in the video.
The enemy of great photos…
Don’t be afraid of the dark. Stop exposing to the right and exposure correctly for your vision and use the shadow in every photo.
Most photographers don’t know they are doing this. Running from shadows, pushing sliders wrong, and creating fake-looking contrast.
It’s not being high key or low key. It’s not ignoring cameras exposure recommendations. It’s running from the shadows that create great photos. It’s pushing slider ever upward in this unrelenting race to be more, when less is more and darkness is the seeking of the light.
Camera makers want us to buy their latest models. Then you have the question of what system to choose and do you need the latest one. I’m going to show you real world examples.
I want to offer you a new perspective in today’s video.
These days when I pick a camera it’s less about sensor size and more about what makes me want to take photos. Or what system is the most versatile. I’ve used 4 brands in the past year and today we’ll talk about the best camera for 2025.
Cameras are sold as being the best these days because and influencer did a side by side test or because of specs. IN reality is about how you use a camera.
All of them are good. Choosing a sensor size is more about the lens system you want and how big you want things than an image quality problem.
Choosing a brand is more about flexibility than name. Canon for example makes great camera. But they have been preventing third party lens makers from selling alliterative glass making them much more limited as they try and force you to buy their overpriced glass.
Nikon with it’s small flange distance and blatant support of vintage lenses by adding great manual focus aides is saying. Use the lens you want.
Olympus and Panasonic in Micro Four thirds are two brand using the same mount and also third parties making lenses. Giving them endless options.
Do you want to use it?
All the great features are mute if you don’t want to take a camera with you. Fuji’s X100 series may be fixed lens and not perfect for everything.
But it’s a camera that wants to be picked up. It’s almost part of your outfit rather than a weight to carry. Because I can feel safe throwing it in a cup holder, I always have it. The same can be said for small study micro four third cameras
Don’t limit yourself. If you’re not picking up a camera. Sell it and look for a camera you want at your side. Because that will have you taking photos, hunting shadow and learning faster.
If you have been to one of my classes you know it’s more about shadow and feeling than how clean your sensor is. I think we make buying a camera a decision too much based on specs and not enough on feeling.
You may need a new camera. But it does not have to be new.
Most if the camera I buy are used these days. When I find something special like the Nikon ZF for using my classic lenses I sometimes buy new. But don’t fall for the marketing hype. Your new camera might be 6 years old and inspire you more than any camera you ever owned.
In the end the biggest and the best is not always the cam,era you will actually use and that is often a trap photographer fall for that makes them less creative.
The best camera is not just the one you have with you. The best cam,era is the one you want to use every day.
I’m back with my annual review of Lightroom VS Capture One pro in 2025, and we have a lot to compare this year. In fact, I skipped last year waiting for features to iron out and boy, did they.
C1 VS LR. They are King and Queen of editors. But who is King?
When using presets I used as many free pack as I could like the Silver 5 and FIlmist 2 samplers. For speed masks I used Elegance 4.
Capture One VS Lightroom – Use the one that works for you.
In the video we test new features, noise and look at the whole picture. But in the end this is not like my DXO Photo Lab review or my Luminar Neo review where both fell short on basic pro features.
My review is finally here and in putting LR and C1 head to head what we see is competition is fierce this year and other apps like DXO, Luminar and OnOne need to step up.
In the war of RAW editors, both Lightroom and Capture One are top notch in their process and feature,s and you can feel good going with either if one makes you feel more creative or productive than the other.
Are the new features a game changer?
No, nothing this year is a game changer. But there are improvements coming from both lightroom and Capture one. More subtle in Lightroom and in Capture One, things like Match look and Ai crop.
The most game-changing thing in Capture One is actually what they are not focusing on that much and that’s that they have finally almost caught up in masking tools and layers and I’ll show you that in the video.
I do say almost, because there is still no sky mask and this is actually a big lack. I didn’t get into it the video, but I’m hoping Capture one will add this soon.
What about Capture One Studio and other app options.
Capture One Studio has also been added with a few extra features that are mostly collaborative, a few extra Ai tools etc. And it costs nearly twice as much. Making C1 alone nearly as spendy as the entire Adobe Creative Suite. Most won’t need this and it’s a bad look for C1 as these features should be in the pro version. They already cost more than Lightroom.
What about Lightroom instead of Lightroom Classic. The develop and base features are the same and with Lightroom you get both and the mobile app for one price. You can can switch around as needed, but in general I use Lightroom Classic and it has more features. I do compare that in this video.
There is also an App for Capture One but it’s still IOS only. I have not done a review of it, but compared to the Lightroom Mobile app which actually doe nearly everything and can even simply sync with a collection on from LR Classic, the Capture One mobile app is pretty limited.
Conclusion – Which photo app to choose…
In the video I’ll give my opening and final conclusion for the best photo RAW app of 2025 and whether you should use Lightroom or Capture One. Either way you’ll still need a pixel level editing app like Photoshop, even if you use an older version like CS6. I’ve touched on this in the video.
What I am confident in saying is that both meet my own high standards and can create world class images. But in short, Lightroom Wins again overall.
But that does not mean it wins for you.
Watch the video, leave your thoughts in the comments and please share – Gavin Seim
In my recent Filmist 2.4 update I improved various Lightroom presets and Capture One styles. But one of the biggest was the Velvia 100. Here’s what I found and what we can learn from Velvia 100.
Velvia is a complex film -But when you get it right…
The other films in my latest Filmist Update may have been overshadowed a bit by the new Kodachrome 64 update and the video I did on it that you can watch here.
But I want to do a follow-up because I did a lot of Velvia testing and thought we should compare these Kodak and Fuji positive films. Because Velvia is the contrast beast.
If film presets that are true to the film have a subtlety that can help us understand tone and color. Kodachrome 64 and Velvia are both color-positive films but each is unique. And while you can’t get Kodachrome anymore you can still get Velvia 100, in fact, I just shot a roll!
The Velvia 100 Recipe VS digital contrast.
There had to be a lot of work on the red mix curve and midtones here. But they should not be as red as people imagine them. When you see really red in fil;m. It’s often because it was processed wrong.
In the same way in digital; when a process feels a little too magenta or yellow. Often a simple White Balance hack with fill it. See my recent video about color science.
Velvia 50 is more red, but in Velvia 100 there’s more yellow and green. People also think Velvia is extra saturated. But in truth, it’s not that crazy. It does have a lot of contrast, however.
Real contrast is the most important thing we can learn from Velvia. That it’s not always about pushing shadows and having “dynamic range”. This film blows out easily and while it’s not ideal, it makes you think a lot about tonality. This contrast idea is talked about in my video, Stop Using Contrast.
Velvia is the opposite of edits like I made in Natural HDR or even negative films. Notice how it’s more contrasty with popping blacks and whites. This is true to the filmstrips I got back from the lab. That does not mean it’s not stunning for portraits or anything else.
Look at how the Velvia 100 preset stacks up against the Portra 400 preset. This file was shot on Micro Four Thirds and both of these presets are solid to the look of their respective films.
Next to Portra 400 Velvia feels a bit Red. But it’s mostly because they are side by. Portra is warm,. Velvia is contrasty and punchy. Velvia 100 is pretty versatile but not so versatile Portra 400. No surprise.
Both LDR and HDR are both contrast tools
You don’t always want HDR or even film negative level dynamic range. They can be amawszing but in essence, are lower contrast.
In Filmist we can of course increase the dynamic range by adding ChemKit mods or pushing slider. But remember low dynamic range means punchy contrast and often it’s amazing.
Velvia is famous for its rich colors and while it may seem subdued by today’s oversaturated digital norms, it’s more versatile than people think.
If you’ve ever used most so-called Velvia presets they have way overdone color on digital because most film presets are not at all like the film. There just is the name and go all kinds of crazy things.
If you look at the actual strips and scans you see this contrast. You also see this reddish undertone but the greens and yellow from the film curve stand out more. It’s the way this combines that makes the film so punchy.
Velvia in Fuji Cameras…
I use Fuji cameras also, though I don’t worry about color profiles and just add the presets after. In fact my Classic Neg preset which is free in the Filmist sampler pack is very popular because many want that Classic Neg look on non-Fuji files.
The truth is the Fuji Velvia profile is nothing like Velvia. They just made a highly saturated profile that name that is more loosey inspired by how people feel about Velvia. There’s nothing wrong with that profile (though I rarely want that much saturation) but understand that it has no relation to the film as we see here.
The film look is your contrast starting point.
Whatever i am editing. I’ll start with a film look. Even if I end up on Natural HDR, Silver 5 etc. This is because the real color of films is a baseline you can always come back to and each time you get more confident in your process because you have that baseline.
I immediately know what’s up with a file when lets say I use Portra, Ahfa or Velvia or Kodachrome. These are iconic standards and in using them I can quickly see the way colors and light are responding and guide where I need to go from there.
You can see in my recent photo on Velvia below that the preset was applied to a Fuji RAW file. There are differences, especially in the film’s shadow range. I maintained that punch but you still still see that Velvia film falls off faster on 35mm.
Editing with film real film looks makes all my other editing better and more grounded. It helps prevent me from over editing and it lets me find more creative ideas faster.
The takeaway here is that we can use tone and contrast naturally in camera and in post. Like we talk about in my Shadow Hackers class. Today we push a slider for contrast. But when you start being guided by the organic nature of things, you start to see your contrast in a new light.
The main goal of camera makers is to lock you in maker is to sell new products. That’s why every year they pretend they have revolutionized everything.
Today I’ll show you how color works and how color matter, but color science is mostly a lie.
It’s not that we should be lazy about color. But notice in the video how the differences are not always that huge,. The more you stop stressing about color and use the tools, presets, filters and setting to get the look YOU want, the easier color becomes.
The science of color is real. The color science we’re being sol is a marketing lie.
In the end you can apply any look you want and then adjust the Color-Science of it a bit with a very small adjustment. So Sure I might use Classic Negative or Portra. they are great. But I’ll do it as a preset or profile after on the RAW. Usually as a preset because I can us that on any camera.
Yes RAW really matters.
I know pros always say this and while the things I show here can be done on JPEGS, shooting RAw will always get you better color control. JPEG bakes in a camera profile and not always the best one for your scene. So then you edit again and it’s like baking a cake twice.
In camera profiles are fun. But in the end they are simply a preset that you have a lot less control over and pay over and pay a lot more for than the packs I make here on Seim Effects.
Taking time to dial in perfect color and save it is great. But Don’t get stuck on one look.
It’s not the Camera, it’s you.
That newest camera wont make your color better.
And there’s no one right color for sunsets, skin or landscapes.
Tale Canon who gets you ins their system then over charges for lens and prevents third part lenses from being sold. It’s a bait and switch. But you don’t need to be loyal to a camera brand. They all do the same thing.
Did you notice how much color changes in my video, with even small directional changes. That’s why you don’t want to be locked in. Any camera can be good on any of the situations. You just nee to know how to nudge your color like I showed you here.
If you want more videos on this topic let me know – Gavin Seim
