Well yes you can. That does not mean its good. Kidding though. A few years ago I did a Luminar vs LR and DXO vs LR test. But time has passed and I came back to see how good I could make it.
A non subscription world is coming.
Advances in coding with Ai supported debugging are changing things fast and the subscription only model is about to collapse. But some are ahead of the curve because they were never screwing you over to begin with. 2027 will bring big changes and some I am watching arrive from the inside. Within 2 years the bog dogs will be begging you to come back.
So which is better. DXO Photo Lab 10 or Luminar.
Well this is not a review of all features. Its more like a recap from past videos on this and giving them another shot. And while DXO makes some great stuff, I’ll show in in the video why they still lack. And why Luminar despite some issues it humming pretty good.
I made my presets work in Luminar Neo
That’s a big milestone because a lot of you have asked and I didn’t just make a new pack, I made all my master packs work. That mean you can use Filmist 2, Belladonna 3, PowerFlow 8 and Silver 6 in Luminar right now. And if you have any of these they are it your account and you can install them right now. I’ll also be adding free sampler Luminar preset packs next week if you want to try them
the presets panel is honestly bu biggest complaint in Neo as its slow to load and a raw editor without a good presets system is a no starter for pro work. But it does work and the results I have been able to get with it are really good. Even down to Filmist looks which are complex and nuanced.
DXO has a lot but lacks polish.
Its powerful not way more expensive and add on extras despite its high price. And its clear they are not doing a lot of work on optimizing color engines and improving the interface. Some swear by DXO for its noise reduction lens correction etc and they are good. DXO just need to pick up the ball and refine the process and they honesty need to clean up the interface. But then Luminar could improve a lot there as well.
In the end options are growing. Till me your favorites and get ready because 2027 is going to bring huge changes.
Can you Dump Adobe.
It’s getting there. LR and C! still have a lot of features that if you’re a working pro you may need. But if you’re more causal, honestly you don’t need Lightroom. or Capture one. Real progress is being made, so even if you you cant dump them yet, stay tuned.
Have you done Are-Bure-Boke photos? Maybe you have without knowing it. But knowing this changes how you see it.
Are-Bure-Boke is a Japanese photo style meaning grainy, blurry, and out of focus. Brought on by photographers like Daido Moriyama during the Provoke era in the late 1960s. It came up in my new Shadow master Class and I wanted to go deeper.
In the Silver 6.4 update, I made an Are Bure Boke preset/style. (Get it on the Silver 6 page) This does not do deep blurring or texture effects as you see in my advanced Photoshop tools like Pictorialist actions. This recipe is more about hard contrast, shadow, and grain. But I may expansd on itg in the futire and people are interested.
So, you just blur your photos?
Not at all – I think it’s more about letting go. You know when you see it. Know your method, then let the moment carry itself. You can sloe shutter speed, invert a lens front, even focus wrong.
It’s also in two steps. It starts in camera, then is embraced in the edit. Grain, contrast, not trying to restore high dynamic range, and letting the feeling out. Things I use in camera and in the recipe I just made include.
Slow shutter speeds
Dark shadow with bright light.
Hectic scenes simplified my motion or focus.
Contrast, high grain edits in post.
Low shadow and highlight recovery.
Coming from this film era, this is really an in-camera emphasis. That it got me thinking about the photos. In Shadow Master, we talked about how having feeling in a photo was more improtant that techical perfection. When I created Silver 6, I found rejects from years ago that suddenly worked because of Shadow Hacking. So I pushed deeper.
The conflict of Are, Bure, Boke!
These iconic methods are always debated. Because of that, sometimes we miss the point. Which is to feel, to create something with soul.
One risk is using these artistic methods as an excuse to say our rejects are profound art. A photo should have meaning. So my goal here is not for you to take all your blurry photos and say they are now masterpieces.
Maybe you don’t think my photos go far enough into the style. Maybe you think they are too plain. Maybe I don’t understand Daido Moriyama’s intent. But you and I are shadow hackers, and that’s not one style; it’s a complete method. So I see it from that lens.
If my own examples are inadequate. That’s ok. They are just what I feel conveyed the feeling of Are Bure Boke. Try the idea on your own and leave a comment.
Where technical meets art.
As a pretty technical photographer, sometimes I am too quick to stick my nose up and rough artistic methods. But there is a beauty in them, and they are harder than they look. Like abstract painting.
I’ve used low shutter speeds for many years, and I imagine you have also. They are powerful. To me, the key difference in Are Bure Boke is not a rule. It often is black and white, but it can apply to color also, and I’ll leave some examples done with color blends in Belladonna 3 and added grain and contrast.
A lot of blurs are carefully planned. Ferris wheels, panning moving cars. To me, these are technical blurs. I love them, and they give a lot of feeling also.
I think people take these arttitics appraches are try to make rules around them also. Which I think misses the point. To me, Are Bure Boke is more about creating photos that have soul and movement and doint care about the defects than just saying anything goes. A photo can be gritty or blurry and still be boring.
I think it’s also a mistake to say. This is because it has all three, and this is not because it only has grain and blur. Out-of-focus images can work, but its not easy. If you go back to the exercises of the style, they didn’t just shoot everything out of focus.
See more by seeing less!
To me, that is what Are Bure Boke is founded on. And it creates a feeling. It caught my eye because I just created the biggest and most important workshop of my career in Shadow Master. In that I really pushed the feeling and soul of the photo and how we merge it with things like the Zone System.
While I have done photos like this before, I was not actually aware of the style itself, and it was you, users you mentioned it to me- who let me dig deeper into it to create more context.
In the edit in LR or C1, I really focus on pushing the curve into contrast, lots of grain and lowered clarity, often with increased texture blending, as I did in the Silver preset. And while more advanced tools could be made for this in Photoshop.
I think the overall feel is created by experimenting with shutter, movement, and focus in camera. Or perhaps not focusing too much on those either. Just letting go and finding the feeling in a photo. This, for me at least, results in a lot of failed photos, but the ones that hit really work.
You don’t have to change your whole style to adopt something new. The simple act of being aware of a style makes me think a little more deeply about how you use blur, grain, and motion. You use these before, but seeing a system makes you think more deeply.
Thaks to thsoe who pushed me to reserch this. Tell me what you think – Gavin Seim This article was written without Ai
This is a new video from my Lightroom School series. I’ve spent a lot of years using every possible tool in the Lightroom Develop. Today I’ll show you the most import parts.
You can grab free packs I mention like Filmist and Silver presets to play with setting and try them yourtself. Anyting else I mentioned is on the homepage.
Balance Lightroom, Capture One and more
The pattern you see here is don’t overdo it. And this rings true in other app like Capture One also. Most raw editing apps have the same basic tools. .
I will reiterate even if I sound like a broken record. Good editing in these apps starts with presets and styles. You don’t have to use my master packs but you need to use something to get that fast look in your edits every time.
Clean up the junk and you’ll soon be wrapping entire sessions in 20 minutes not 4 hours.
Lightroom has been around for a long time and have used it since day one. I don’t know anyone who digs deeper into Lightroom workflow and development than I’ve done over the past 15 years. But I see many struggle with it, and I’m on a mission to change that.
So in today’s Lightroom class, I’ll focus on things like better catalog manegment, finding and sorting files, and better understanding of how to manage color and tone.
Plus I’ll be taking questions LIVE in the chat for pretty much anything you want to know about Lightroom.
This goes to contrast in your black and white photography. A dark image can still pop because of how dark meets light we talk about in the video. Even bright high key photos can be pushed this way and you’ll discover more about the tones.
#2 Push more than you think.
This is why a preset is great because you can easily adjust it up and down, especially in LR with the amount slider. But you can just go do crazy things in curves or levels or how you set things in camera of lighting darker and you discover amazing ways to transform your BW conversions. .
#2 Experiment more.
Black and white photography is the essence of tone and contrast. What happens if you pull shadow recovery left instead of pushing it right. What do you find when you try more recipes and styles, playing curves harder.
The reason my master preset packs are like nothing else is because I do these experiments and then share results of what works. And you can keep that going and keep pushing it more. Soon you’ll see ways to remix it that fit your style and you can save them and keep building your dark library..
Hope you found this video useful and if you use my tools 100% go try Silver 6.3. It’s awesome.
