June 21, 2025

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Lightroom’s New Landscape masks make Capture One look dated – But it’s more than landscapes!

I’m always rooting for competition to Lightroom. It’s good for us. But Adobe seems to be having fun keeping Capture One behind. Why are they a big deal?

New Lightroom Masks are great. But there’s a flaw…

Check out my Elegance speed mask pack and Natural HDR 5

A Battle of Two heavy Hitting Apps

In my Annual Lightroom VS Capture One review, we saw that both are great, but Lightroom gives a lot more for the money. But we are all tired of Adobe’s price hikes and deaf ears. So competition is good.

But AI masking and the ability to automate it in Lightroom is huge, and it just got way better. Every time Capture One does an update, acting like it’s a huge deal, Adobe pushes something new like a cat playing with a mouse.

Sadly, Capture One is falling even further behind in Ai masking. Let’s not even talk about generative fill tools in Lightroom today because I prefer natural images myself. But I do think this competition is good for us, and I’m thankful Capture One is making Adobe work.

You can Ai mask in both apps.

Yes, they are both good. But I make my Elegance Mask pack for both. Speed Masks are essential and let us automate these increasingly complex groups of lawyers. Without them, you might as well go into an app like Photoshop because it will often be just as fast.

The problem is that there are WAY more mask options in Lightroom. So while I am able to make powerful tools in Capture One, Lightroom keys letting us do more, as we see in this big new Landscape mask update that does way more than landscapes.

Why are masks so slow?

There is an Achilles’ heel.

Toward the end of the video, we will talk about the downside. Lightroom masks bring the app to a complete crawl, and years later, they still have not fixed it.

Lightroom is not alone. The more mask features Capture One has, the slower it gets, also. Something is wrong with how they are using system resources in these, because a bunch of active layers in Photoshop work just fine. But Ai masks seem to slow the system with every layer you add.

I’ll share some ideas for how to keep things moving fast despite the masks being a resource hog, but it may be that the first one of these apps to resolve the speed issue will take the lead.

Tell me what you think in the comments – Gavin Seim

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June 17, 2025

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art study, beauty, Gavin Seim, special effects

This Hacienda Session shows how Lens makers are lying. You do not need the $$$ best lenses.

I kept buying what are called the BEST lenses. And they kept sitting in my bag. I learned the best lens may not be what you think it is. Today I’ll show you why.

Here’s why your Camera Lens is bluffing you.

I edited with session with Filmist 2, and Natural HDR 5 presets and in Photoshop with Pictorialist actions. Try the free samplers of other the preset packs.

The “best lens” is not always the best lens.

You’ll see me use 3 lenses in today’s video and only 1 was a modern lens. Yet all were sharp clean and cheap. In fact I barley own any Red line or G master lenses anymore.

We’ve been taught to think that super expensive lenses make us better. They don’t. Sure a 50 or an 85 in the F1.4 to F2 range is great because you get bokeh that you usually wont even get with super expensive and large 2.8 zooms.

And no you don’t have to use vintage lenses but there are a ton of good cheap primes in vintage glass that you can adapt and are full of detail and atmosphere.

It’s more about how you use that lens.

Today’s video was the opposite of a review. Sure the lenses I chose are great.

But the bigger point is that when you have big heavy expensive lenses you don’t always phonograph better. When instead you pick the lens that feels good for today’s session and use it magical atmosphere happens.

Photographers don’t realize they leave a little part of their soul in a great image. The more you feel, interact and get emotional about a shot, the lens you shot it with, the extra attention you put to slow focus. All these things create photos with more feeling.

Big spendy perfect lenses can be great. But once you know, often you pick up other lenses because they are heavy and clunky and feel sterile.

It may sound silly. But I see it time and time again.

So what lens is the best lens?

Honestly. Whatever lens make you feel something right now. Usually that means not to heavy, a focal range you like etc. Glass is amazing. But it’s how it pushes you that matters. Sure you should prob have a go to lens with fast focus etc. Sure you sometimes want a super sharp landscape lens.

But I use old and mid level lenses 10x as much. Usually they are sharp, sometimes they have imperfection and more often the imperfection they do have contribute to making a photo feel real.

Just like I keep begging people to stop taking all the noise and grain our of their photos because it makes them feel fake, perfect sterile lenses often feel empty. But they have to sell those super expensive beasts so they get influencers to tell us they will change our lives. They wont/

Gavin Seim

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May 30, 2025

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Camera Brands are Ignoring Photogtraphers. Stop being played.

My gear talk videos are not like normal reviews. We learn about WHY instead of just the what. We learn it’s not about the new Sony, OM3, or the Fuji X half – It’s about taking better photos.

They want to create the new Point and shoot!

The phone took that huge market away. That’s what they are trying to get back. But in the end is they are failing to innovate and make great pro cameras just like Kodak did when digital came and they wanted to hold on to film. The price was bankruptcy.

These large companies are desperately trying to create hype to get NON-Photographers to buy expensive cameras. That won’t last because they won’t use these cameras. Phones are simply better for everyday carry snapshot cameras. Smaller, usually waterproof, better video, all on one. There’s no need for point and shoots.

How do we get better cameras now?

It’s easy. Stop buying the new ones. Economics will kick in. The companies that refuse to listen will go under. The ones to listen will innovate.

For most, the truth is you don’t need a better camera. A new camera can get you going. Help you try new ideas. I bought a small Micro Four Thirds system, and I love the tiny lenses and high quality. They did it better than Fuji is doing now.

Not one of those cameras was new. I got a decent deal on quality used cameras, and my “new owner” excitement was just as good as if it were new. Perhaps more because there is no buyer’s regret of knowing you paid too much to get the latest.

Want a new camera. Go buy a used one that is a legend. or a new lens. Those are more important anyways. Older cameras really are better sometimes. The photos are just as good. And if you get bored and want to try something else. You bought it used. You can sell it for a little loss.

We have to Stop Being played!

They are treating us like chumps. Too stupid not get into their candy van.

Terms like Vibes and Film Like Experience. These are made-up marketing tools.

If you want a film experience, shoot a film. If you want a clean film-inspired look, use Film presets. But don’t let them tell you a plastic fake winders dial is a film-like experience.

It’s the same with software makers. All we need these days is trashy fake Ai tools we don’t need.

Until they give you a REAL feature that changes your process. Just don’t buy what they sell. Make them learn the hard way. Or wait until the price drops (and it will) and buy on the used market.

We think the new gear will make us take photos. Sometimes it can help. But most of the problem is our own laziness. Not our gear. And old gear will push you to new heights just as well.

It’s time to demand real innovation from the camera and software companies alike.

Gavin Seim

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May 27, 2025

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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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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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