special effects Archives

May 26, 2023

Film Presets for Lightroom, lightroom, special effects

Lightroom Running Slow, I tried every tip to make it FAST and I did!

Yes Lightroom needs every ounce of power. But when you have Lightroom running slow, your work slows down and drives you crazy.

In todays video we STOP letting lightroom RUN slow and make it FAST

I actually got fed up after last weeks video about Speed-Masks. I love Ai masking in LR but it was bringing my good system to a crawl. I decided it was time to review everything and make a video.

Check out Filmist and Elegance 4.5 Speed-Mask update that was mentioned briefly in the video.

Making Lightroom fast in 3 steps.

This 2023 video is everything relevant I could find to make Lightroom fast and it goes well beyond the basic Lightroom preference panel settings that you tweak when Lightroom is Slow.

This video has 3 segments. The first is the basics inside LR, then the factors outside of Lightroom and finally Advanced tips for your system to make it speedy.

Lightroom running slow? Make lightroom run faster

Lightroom is a log, accept that and make it fast!

Lightroom has always been a big of a hog. Lt likes lots of Ram, disk speed and now graphics. The Masking is epically heavy on graphics use so make sure you watch the external lightroom speed tips in the video because they really help.

Many if these will improve speed on other apps as well. So if you find Capture One is slow or you video editing app, many of the things I’ll share with you today still apply.

Check in with preferences first and often if you feel things are slowing down. We’ll cover those tips in the video. But don’t stop there, do the more advanced things to really make your Lightroom run faster.

I hope this helped you speed up Lightroom as much as it did for me. – Gavin Seim

May 19, 2023

lightroom, special effects

Speed Masking in Lightroom makes your masking 10x better.

If you’re not using my Elegance Speed-Masks and don’t want to, then you need to make your own. So I’ll show you. This is the only way you should be masking in Lightroom. You get better masks about 10x faster. I mean that 100%!

In today video I’ll show you how to make your own Speed Mask presets and the latest update to my own local adjustments preset pack, Elegance 4.

Lightroom’s powerful masking tools can be slow and cumbersome. But now with Speed Masks

You can get the Elegance 4.5 presets here. And if you already have Elegance 4, this is a free update so l ogin and grab it.

Control what you want.

Masking in Lightroom takes a lot of forms and sometimes it transforms everything while others it’s as simple as controlling tone in a sky.

IN this case I use Street’ist presets for the main look and just dialed back the sky using an Ai speed preset. INtersecting grads into you Ai sky selections like I do in Elegance 4.5 makes thenm more natural.

Control 10 layers at a time.

As I showed in the video with this we had all these layers and by using them as a Speed-Mask develop preset you’ll be able top adjust them as one turning the effect intensity up or down. This is a huge control boost for masks in general that most people don’t even know they are missing if they don’t use the Speed Mask presets.

Don’t go too far with masks.

No matter what app you edit with, going too far on a masked edit is the sure fire way to make a photo look fake. In in a time when Ai is creating fakes of everything, I think natural is a good thing.

You should isolate your background but that doe snot mean darken it two stop. Remember Masking is to digital what burning and dodging was in the darkroom. use it wisely.

You can see in this wedding photo how we used the Ai masks but more for atmosphere than to isolate one thing. The mix allows us to us the master slide to decide how far we wanted that to go.

Have fun with these and let me know what you think – Gav

April 20, 2023

lightroom, lightroom vs capture one, special effects

Fixing Fuji Worms Fast. My Lightroom VS Capture One Worms and Noise Comparison

Fuji Worms are considered a bane of Fuji shooters. Eating files alive like massive Sandworms rising from the dusts of Dune! But they also can invade your other cameras. Not just Fuji.

But do you really need Capture One to save you from Fuji Worms?

Does Capture One eliminate their Fuji worms better than Lightroom? Because yes even your Sony or Nikon can get worms. So who can save you from the end of photography as we know it. I’ll show you how in the video.

Also try my Film presets to get your own same process testing in LR and C1/ PS, Remember that my Filmist and Silver black and white packs both have noise and grain presets to make killing Fuji Worms easy. Try them out.

“Fuji” Worms actually occur in most Cameras.

And even in this years Lightroom VS Capture One 23 full review video I did one or two tests, with Lighting even pulling ahead. So in today’s video we’ll do a definitive and fair test.

And yes worms show up on other files too. It depends on the ISO, sharpening, sensor and more. I’ll show you a Sony file that also has worms and they are solved in the same way.

But as you see in the video, worms are a rather small issue and while both apps work well. You have no real advantage in worms or noise by using Lightroom. In fact on some images Lightroom seems to remove the noise better than Capture one, leaving us with a natural grain like structure.

ISO 10000 from an X100V compared in Lightroom and Capture one with basic noise reduction and no grain.

De-Worming is Easy on Fuji and other cameras.

I did this test a few years back and even then there was not much difference from Lightroom VS Capture One, despite grand claims to the opposite all over Fuji forums. This year I’ll test files all edited the same and we’ll try noise and grain tools a a definitive comparison.

The truth is all this worm stuff goes away when you add a little grain. So except on the most extreme and over-sharpened photos, worms are unlikely to be a problem even on older Fuji camera that have the Xtrans1 sensor like the Xpro1.

In the past Lightroom did struggle in noise and artifacts, but that was years ago. Just remember to add some noise reduction in LR to get the same result as C1 because it’s not default. Or just use a preset like the ones I make for you.

ISO 2500 file from a Fuji XE-3 LR vs C1 basic noise reduction no Grain.

Then whats all the Fuji Worms Hype about?

Really that’s about it. It’s not a big deal anymore? It’s now mostly just fanboy marketing for Capture One. The idea that you need to pay more for an editing software to get good results. That’s not the case in this situation at least.

In the end choose the software that works best for your style and that inspired you to shoot and edit creatively. That’s what this is all about.

You can feel safe and happy being safe from Fuji worms. You win, worms lose. The End.

Gavin Seim

In this ISO 3200 image from an X100V I added a little grain and basic noise reduction in both for an organic feel.

March 24, 2023

special effects

3 Easy fixes you’re getting Wrong in your photography!

In todays video I’m going to show you 3 simple things and explain why you are probably getting them wrong in your photography on a regular basis.

More importantly I’m going to show you how to fix them and change how you shoot daily with a few simple tricks. Let’s get right to this weeks video because you should watch every tip.

In this video you see me using among others, Silver, Filmist, and Natural HDR. Grab the frees sampler pack of each and also check out Signature 4 actions for you Photoshop users.

1. When you stop looking away the magic happens in your lens.

I tip one you can see how powerful the sun is when used in this way. Just being aware of the sun on this level will change how you frame and see your photos.

When you really start to use it it becomes second nature and only you will be the one deciding how to use atmosphere and shadow together with the light.

Each of these photos is different in look and in how it was edited, But each follow tip #1 to make the shot.

A simple Ektar Gen 2 like edit in Filmist and elimination of what photographers keep getting wrong from tip #1

Here the edit is more intense on this single RAW file edited with Natural HDR presets. But the result works.

It this candid scene, the sim is bright but using tips one and 2 and editing with GoldChrome brings the shot to life.

2. Everyone wants to go light but we’re going darker like movie directors.

What I showed you in tip 2 is gold. It requires that you throw out the biases that many of us learned from digital photography when when you do your photos will improve more every day. \

Yes it’s that important and it’s amazingly something that’s being virtually ignored ion the pho5t industry whish is what separates us shadow hunters from people obeying their cameras. Stop obeying your camera!

This one makes no apologies. It’s a bold Cyrotype of the kind I can only make with Emulsion actions and the darkness is apparent in every pixel.

This street photo is one of the favorites in my career. But without tip 2, it honestly gets really boring. BlackRoom actions helped take the conversion and atmosphere to the next level.

People have souls and so should your photo’s.

In tip 3 of the video I think I explained this well. You well me. What I so know is using this level of candidness results in many failed photos and should not replace having the confidence to aim a camera directly.

That said, being skills at this method will give you street photos, wedding and moments that cannot be capture any other way and that’s why every photographer should master this technique.

I hope you gained something from todays 3 tips to improve your photography now and that you’ll leave a comment – Gavin Seim

Notice how the eyes look at me, not at the camera but with no sense of posing. And simple use of Street’ist presets and done.

Tip 3 helps me capture culture and freeze time in a way nothing else can. In 50 years these kind of photos will be important,.

March 18, 2023

special effects

I tested the coolest ultra compact micro-flashes and his is what I discovered.

Super small flash – We test the Godox LUX SR VS the FlashQ Q20II.

A tiny flash that works is a game changer and I’ll show you why in todays video.

Tech has become so small and in a world of cell phones and ultra compacts we often leave behind big lights and modifiers and umbrellas. Enter a micro-flash. Being portable can lead you to be more creative. But lacking control over light and it’s shadow can lead to boring shots.

So I started searching or tiny but capable micro flashes that actually fit in a pocket. And after a lot of searching I landed on two. The Godox LUX SR vs the FlashQ Q20II. Yes there’s lots of other flashes out there, tilting heads, round or square. So lets get to the video and see how they work.

You can get the Lux SR here and the FlashQ Here via my amazon links if you like. You can also download the free samplers of Silver and Filmist presets and LUTS I used in these photos and to color grade this video.

The secret of using a flash is not power.

I wanted truly pocket size flashes that still packed a punch and the list gets a lot shorter when that is the rule. So I bought these two little flashes and started to work and the results they produce are pretty amazing. Small, but potent if you mix them with natural light.

Lux SR. It lights well but since it’s only on camera you get very direct light.

FlashQ. This makes getting of camera easy and fun so you can get dimensional light fast.

Off Camera means better control. Pockets also!

In 2023, a flash not having any wireless capability is a but silly and this is where the Godox falls short. Of course they have many other wireless flashes that are good, but not in this form factor and hopefully we will see an improved V2 of this vintage style flash in the future.

Notice how in the test I can such easy dimensional light without much extra work. That makes the FlashQ a little demon for fast creativity. Both these truly fit in your pocket, but the FlashQ does so much more.

The same can be seen below. In this session every shot was with off camera flash mixed with natural light and bouncing of walls to expand the size of the light in relation to the subject rather than focus on the power of the light.

Runners up?

When talking micro size the options get a lot less. Most OEM flashes meant to go with a retro camera will also be more for aesthetic than function. There’s small traditional style tilt flashes like the Godox TT350 that have a lot fo features. But they are still a bit bigger and don’t quite have that micro flash style. But if you want I’ll compare the FlashQ with that also.

Find the flash you will enjoy using and that we will actually bring. That’s the key to all of this. One little flash will transform so many setups if you are ready and enjoy using it.

On both of these I’m bouncing of white walls to make a tiny flash big without bringing any softoxes or modifers.

Don’t overthink flash.

There’s times when I bring out a big AD600 or a 48in softbox and they are amazing. But just as many times I can use a small light and by being aware of the space around me I can use that to create light in a bigger softer way. I rarely point a flash straight at the subject with small flashes and I rarely need more than on or two.

I would not want to ONLY have a small flash being a portrait and fashion photographer. But 80% of the time, I can make a small flash work and keeping on it your bag means you are ready all the time. That’s why a tiny flash is a gam changer.

Gavin Seim

Just a small room fill here to mix with natura window light was all we needed.

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