May 27, 2025

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special effects

It’s not VIBE. Fuji X Half is Camera companies realizing you don’t need them, and panicking!

Cameras have become so good that you can get one from today or from 10 years ago, and you’ll do just fine. Today, I’ll give you some much better alternatives to the X-Half. But more than that…

This is not a Fuji X half review – It’s their insecurity showing!

Things I mention in the video include the Filmist 2 Free Sampler pack as well as my Silver 5 and Natural HDR 5 preset packs. There are free samplers on those as well. Go play!

Focusing backwards is the new trend.

Pros keep telling companies what they want. They are ignored and given trinkets instead.

Photographers don’t want more “VIBE” they don’t need more Ai. They want useful tools.

It’s odd to me… In a world full of YouTubers selling bad presets, I get lumped in and mocked despite being the creator of the first pro-presets back when Lightroom launched and spending decades studying color and tone to make the finest tools on the market.

But Fuji loyalists defend to the death comparatively primitive in-camera presets pasted to their JPEG files. As if Fuji is the new Apple, and anything they do is touched by God.

Now I get that the sharpest and most perfect is not always needed. I shoot film. I like old lenses. I talk about atmosphere a lot in my videos and make tools like Pictorialist based on it.

But saying VIBE does not make it good. The X half for example lacks most of what makes Fuji cameras good and replaced it with things like Diptychs that have been in the cameras for years and fake film winder knobs. This is not innovative.

The worst tools come from fashion brands.

Because they place being trendy above working well.

I’ve happily used Fuji for years. I use lots of other cameras, including Canon, Sony, Micro Four Thirds, and Nikon. I switch creativity and for testing, so I can make tools like PW8 and Silver5.

I used to use all Apple products! But when Jobs died and they switched to milking you for every cable and making themselves a fashion brand. I left. We’ll cover this more in the video.

Watching Fuji go from focusing on great retro-inspired cameras with good color profiles to making hipster toys like this X half camera is odd. Almost any Micro 4/3 compact is better in every way!

Camera Makers are faking it

Once upon a time, new camera models were game-changing. But now with each release, they say game-changing, knowing that their innovation is minimal, and they see you don’t need what they are offering.

Camera components are worried. I believe this is True of Sony, Fuji, and everyone else. So they are doing crazy things to try and grab a trend and make fast cash on “innovating” that don’t cost them very much.

I have quite a few Fuji cameras and definitely don’t need this you which should cost 399, not 850. But this is not really about hating on this camera. If you have money to burn and you think it’s cute, get it. Then watch it sit on yourself as you reach for more capable cameras.

What I want you to hear me out on in today’s video is the bigger picture. Camera makers are not innovating. They are mostly pretending and making it look cool but using YouTube influencers to make you think you need their product.

When they give us that square universal sensor. That will be innovative.

Gavin Seim

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May 9, 2025

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special effects

DXO Pure RAW 5 VS Lightroom – Who has the best Noise Reduction.

I reviewed DXO Photo Lab 8 awhile back and Lightroom won! But all the sudden this week I saw reviews popping up for Pure Raw and I wanted to learn more. Because…

DXO is famous for noise and lens correction and Pure RAW 5 here.

You can try out DXO Pure RAW yourself here. Also check out my Natural HDR and FIlmist film presets that I mentioned in this video.

Do you need more noise reduction…

The biggest conversion left out of these kind of reviews is that you usually don’t need this kind of noise reduction. Especially in modern sensors, the noise is usually low, organic and film like with just a little Luma noise reduction and grain.

So really you only need this extra step when you have something SUPER noisy or when you need something super clean. For me I rarely want a perfectly clean image because it tends to feel fake. All these tools can me cranked up like we see in reviews, but in real life that’s not the best look.

There’s also other tools like Topaz and the Luma noise tools on LR and capture one.

The bigger question here is should you be using so much noise reduction or should you stop and let photos be themselves. We’ll talk about that in the video.

The features of Pure RAW 5

Pure Raw 5 is a $120 plugin for noise reductions and lens correction. I’ve use their tools off an on for years and they got famous mostly for offering lens correction tools before most apps had them. There are a few Noise reduction modes in Pure RAW 5

  • Deep Prime 3 – I find this works on everything and is t he only mode I need.
  • Deep prime X2DS/XD – This says is more about detail. In practice I found it reduces noise a little more but is a tad more pasty and does not feel more detailed.
  • Deep prime XD3 X-Trans 0 We test this in the video and I found it softer. It is in beta. In reality X trans files are no longer a problem in 2025 and Deep prime 3 works perfectly.

In the review I left the sharpening tools off and we just left native Raw file sharpening levels in Lightroom. Sharpening is not a measure of how good noise reduction is but it is an option in DXO that you can play with. I found it did not give much advantage.

I’ve taught for years that sharpening should be done last not first. While it’s not a RULE, I find it’s good to see how your image looks once you process it to the style you want. Then decide what sharpening it needs.

Pure RAW 5 is good. But it’s still plugin (or standalone app) and you have extra steps and hassles like I show in the video. The biggest for me was losing all my develop settings. Sure you can run this in batch before LR import. But I cant imagine running this on hundreds of photos and having to wait when most don’t even need this level of processing.

Conclusion… Is Pure Raw 5 or Lightroom Better

Pure RAW has simple but powerful noise tools and a few more options that Ai noise reduction i Lightoom. But in the end the Deep Prime 3 worked the best on all images dingily Fuji X-Trans.

There is also lens correction which were about equal to those in Lightroom and some extra like sharpening. But I did not find they did a lot and I prefer top add sharpening after so I left it off.

IN the end both give results that are almost evidential with a little tweaking. So based on the facts that Pure Raw adds extra steps and workflow hassles, I have to give Lightroom the win overall.

If you use Capture One or other apps with no Ai noise there is a big advantage in pure RAW in terms of how much noise you can take out. The question is how often you need this much NR in your photos.

In the end Lightroom is more than enough for most and integrated better into a Lightroom users workflow. But DXO Pure Raw 5 is world class noise reduction. Si in the end, use what inspires you and fits in your workflow.

Gavin Seim

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April 5, 2025

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special effects

Master the Art of Shadow Manipulation in your edits and watch you photos transform.

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.

I used tools like Filmist, Natural HDR and Elegance Speed Masks, but I’m also showing the manual way. Also thanks to Mark Seymour for letting me get hands on with his India Work.

Know your failure point…

Failure is rarely a photo being too dark.

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.

Gavin Seim

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March 28, 2025

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special effects

The best camera is not the one they told you.

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.

Come to my free Shadow Hackers here. Also you can find the Free Filmist pack here and actions like Pictorialist here or everything else I mentioned don my homepage.

Versatility and flexibility.

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.

Gavin Seim

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March 12, 2025

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capture one, lightroom, special effects

Lightroom VS Capture One in 2025 – The Best Photo Editing App

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

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