special effects Archives

December 14, 2022

capture one, lightroom vs capture one, special effects

Create better Black and White in Capture One with Styles and THIS!

Last month I launched the Silver 5 Black and White Styles for Capture One, and in today’s video, I’m going to show you how to use Silver 5. But, along the way, I’ll reveal the secrets of what makes a great black-and-white in Lightroom, so you can use them no matter how you edit.

Today I’ll show you how I use Styles for Capture One and the advantages C1 has for black-and-white conversions.

This video will be all about creating better black and white in Capture One and some tips for you regardless of what Styles you use for Black and White. The little details inside how Capture One will help you convert RAW photos to black and white better.

You can get Silver 5 Styles here. Note: If Lightroom for black and white see the Lightroom version of this video here.

I could type for hours, but instead I’ll show you in the video how easy it is to get great black and white and refine it in Capture One.

Do you really need Styles for Black and White?

I often see presets and styles getting dumped on. This makes no sense since any serious photography should always have them available. Well organized and the best they can get. If that means you invest the time to make your own that is fine. But avoid huge packs of crappy Capture One styles that only make you work harder.

I’ll explain in the video why it’s so important to use styles to get your black and white really dialed in, even if you don’t use my styles. Without using Styles in capture on to do your initial conversions you will not only use a lot more time, but you will also get lesser results. Yes, I mean that!

Should you use Capture One or Lightroom for Black and white?

The results of Lightroom VS Capture One on black and white, in general, are equal. Both have advantages. While Lightroom has more power in layers because of its Ai masking tools, Capture One does have some extra options in how we can use color channels and nuances that I’ll show in this video.

In the end, it’s more of a personal choice. With Capture One costing more than Lightroom and Photoshop combined for most Lightroom make more sense. In the end, you also need a pixel editor like Affinity Photo. or Photoshop where you can also use my BlackRoom black and white actions.

The point is that even if 98% of your black-and-white edits are in a RAW editor like LR or C1, your very best images will still be improved in the pixel editor and you want to have both. Just keep that in mind when planning what to use.

If you already use Capture One and are happy, rest assured that with the methods I showed you in the video you will get world-class black-and-white conversion and you’ll be a happy camper.

Let me know what you think in the comments because I’m here to help.

Gavin Seim

December 14, 2022

lightroom, lightroom vs capture one, special effects

Get more Amazing Black and White in Lightroom with Silver 5 and Fast Mods

Lightroom is a powerful black-and-white conversion tool. But RAW processors tend to focus on color tools and give us a few simple sliders for black-and-white conversions. The secret to black and white is how to mix all the little things to make the shadow magic.

Last month I launched the Silver 5 presets, and in today’s video, I’m going to show you how to use Silver 5. But, along the way, I’ll reveal the secrets of what makes a great black-and-white in Lightroom, so you can use them no matter how you edit.

I’m going to use Silver 5 in today’s video and show you how it works But whether you use it or create your own method, these tips will still work.

If you use Capture One, I made a video dedicated to black and white with Capture One using the new Silver 5 styles. Watch it here.

Silver 5 brings over a decade of pushing to make black and white in Lightroom easier and faster. It takes the concepts I’m going to show you in today’s class and makes them easy by letting you #1 add a black and white base mix and #2 quickly modding it to get the right look for your visualization.

If you’re serious, Yes you do! Even if you don’t use Silver 5. Don’t let photo snobs tell you presets are for amateurs. The amateurs are the ones to get low-quality conversions because they are too lazy to get a good Lightroom preset in place that lets you start with a really good tone mix.

Do you really need presets for black and white?

You can do what I’m showing you if you make your own presets. But don’t ignore presets. I am featuring Silver 5 presets in this video, but this process of converting black and white using presets as a base rather than wasting time with a slow manual start will transform your black and white and your edits will absolutely improve. Don’t let any purist amateurs tell you different.

I’ll show you what I mean in the video as we explore how to use Lightroom presets to get black and white in Lightroom that is better than you have ever created before.

Lightroom has a tad fewer sliders than Capture One, but Lightroom has the advantage of Ai masking layers which despite not having as many sliders are generally more powerful than Capture one layers. You’ll see these integrated, especially inside the new Mod Kit presets that come with Silver 5.

The real secret to black and white in Lightroom is mixing the tone vs the channels of color with details in various ways. This can be done manually but in reality, you won’t try enough. It would take too long.

Silver 5 or perhaps your own carefully crafted presets are hundreds of hours of refining those sliders and let you test it on a photo in seconds to find the look that we were creating in your mind when you pressed the shutter.

Let me know what you think below – Gavin Seim

December 2, 2022

special effects

How to use Film like presets and create organic craft looks for digital

As a tool creator, my most popular products have lots of organic darkroom looks. and for good reason. Filmist Film presets for Lightroom and Capture one. Emulsion Platinum actions, Silver black and white presets. They all have something special in common… Darkroom science!

Presets and edits that mimic the look of film in a darkroom give your photos an authentic look.

But you need more than that. You have probably used some of my most popular or my free film like presets such as my Classic Negative style, and Portra film presets. These work so well because digital makes it really easy to over-edit in ways that were non a problem in the darkroom and we need to balance that.

We’ve all gone back over our images and seen icky, overly saturated adjustments. So it’s easy to panic and begin underediting after that. Due to underediting, I actually designed Muse presets to create more cinematic edits.

Balance is what my new Darkroom Hackers editing class is about.

You can sign up for the class here.

This is not a “how to use the best film presets class.” I will show you how to use Filmist, Silver, and other tools; even Photoshop, for amazing color and black-and-white darkroom-like edits.

But this class is more than that. It’s a power-packed LIEV hour of how to understand what RAw editors are doing. Whether you’re using STyles for Capture One, Lightroom Film Prestes, Photoshop layers, or your own manual edits.

I’m going to show you how to achieve that organic look that feels like it came from the darkroom while still being able to create great color mixes and bold shadow blends. You’ll learn how to use film-like presets and make your own looks that pop off the page.

I’m excited about Darkroom Hackers because how we edit matters, and the photographer that knows these things get ahead of the competition in so many ways.

I’ll see you there | Sign Up

Gavin Seim

Silver presets for LIghtroom and Capture One film looks

November 26, 2022

film presets and styles, Film Presets for Lightroom, Film Styles for Capture One, lightroom, lightroom vs capture one, presets, special effects

New Silver 5 Black and White Presets for Lightroom and Capture One bring better B&W in 2023.

It’s been a few years since we’ve seen a fully new version of my black-and-white presets. I do minor free updates all the time. But I like to wait till the features and tools of Lightroom and Capture One improve for these big rebuilds.

Black and white presets for editing in Lightroom and Capture One

Silver 5 makes next-generation Silver editing simple using native RTAW tools and black and white presets.

There are a lot of new things in these presets. They take advantage of Lightroom Ai layers and while Capture One still does not have Ai tools, Silver 5 is using every ounce of update that Capture One has brought us with layers and better one-click black-and-white conversions.

I’m excited about these new presets for black and white and I made a pretty fun video to share what I was thinking and what’s new in Silver 5.

You can check out my Silver black and white presets playlist on YouTube for more.

Black and white preset are about the details. And that’s what Silver does makes it easier than any other tool. By using native tools instead of plugins, Silver 5 can leverage all the power of these apps but you don’t have to spend a lot of time tinkering.

Choose your black and white presets for the main look. Then mod them with the new Mod-Kit…

The mods are now a simple separate preset pack, so they don’t clutter up the main set. Whether it’s the Lightroom Presets, Capture Styles or working in Camera RAW. Just select your presets for black and white a lot like choosing a film.

Then you can mod it in a mod kit with adaptive detail tools. Grains, contract mods, and even Ai portrait tools. Of course, you can take mods further with packs like Elegance Speed-Masks but you’ll find that Mod-Kit has a little of everything so you can quickly get your edit right.

Silver 5 Black and white presets and Capture One Styles

Presets and styles for black and white let you work better.

If you’re not using presets, you’re editing is suffering. It’s about being able to finish the look you visualized by quickly trying mixed that would otherwise never be tried. It’s the secret that nearly everyone professional knows and those trying to show off at photo club pretend are cheating.

My edits always stars with Lightroom Presets or Capture on styles because I know I will get a better result by mixing things in various ways to find the look I want. Don’t let snobs shame for you using good tools. Even if you make your own presets, make sure you have them ready and refined and that you are using them.

I’ll be doing a training video soon on how to use Silver 5 black and white presets to get the best edits in Lightroom or Capture One. Future updates to V5 will be bringing more improvements to Mod-Kit and these recipes for great black and white that I’ve spent a lot of years refining.

Let me know if you have questions. Gavin Seim

presets for black and white make editing faster and more refined in Lightroom or Capture one

November 16, 2022

capture one, lightroom, photoshop, special effects

Should you edit Black and White in Photoshop or RAW?

How I choose the best black-and-white method!

Black and White Photoshop style gives you more nuance while the RAW style of LR and C1 gives you more speed. So how do you decide?

“Gavin should I use, Silver presets, or BlackRoom actions?” people ask about the presets and actions I make. But this answer applies to however you edit. Let’s start with basics in this video.

Lightroom VS Photoshop for Black and White…

Don’t forget to grab the Silver 5 free sampler presets to try this yourself. Also you cab get BlackRoom and Emulsion here for more advanced PS edits.

Let’s see more examples then……

PRESETS” I always start with presets and Styles in Capture One such as Silver or Filmist. These are recipes that combine many settings to instantly create an edit in LR, RAW, etc. Presets can be used from Photoshop from within the Camera RAW filter (see this video on my channel)

This edited just fine in RAW. But by going into Photoshop and using BlackRoom actions I was able to refine it that much more.

Actions in Photoshop are like mini apps that run in PS. Commands that are run with one click. I create actions like BlackRoom, Lumist, and others. They use the native tools of Photoshop without PlugIns and can create in 30 seconds which would take me an hour to do manually. Giving me layers and effects to mix as I want but without the manual labor. Lightroom can’t use actions.

Look at this edit in LR vs Photoshop…

Actions make advanced edits in Photoshop much faster. Often people have Photoshop and take a file from Lightroom only to find they don’t know how to make it any better. But with time, or with actions that make atmospheric edits natural, Photoshop is easy and will always give you more tools.

This first photo is only a Lightroom edited using my Silver presets and some easy manual tweaks.

Next is the same shot editing in Lightroom but then taking into Photoshop where I used layers and BlackRoom actions. At a glance, they may not seem that better. But if you look closely see see much more control in specific tonal ranges, details, and more. When you make a print, these details matter.

LR RAW + Photoshop Layers and BlackRoom Actions

Yes, these are subtle things. But for serious black and white shooters, they change a lot of things.

Don’t edit ONLY in PS thinking it’s better. You will experiment less because it takes longer. Often making you less creative. Start with that basic RAW edit and go to Photoshop when you are ready for more by restoring the color channels while leaving your RAW tone edits in place. In my Silver pack, this can be done with the included mod preset.

LR or C1 is the starting point because its sliders, channels, and fast shadow control helps you create. Photoshop will give you more advanced and refined edits that you save right back into your photo library. If I use BlackRoom actions, the Photoshop part is fast with more detailed layer style controls that I don’t have in Lightroom.

So Lightroom VS Capture One for black and white?

There are always more choices and while I make tools for LR and C1 users, you need to decide how that fits in. Those are both RAW apps and neither replace Photoshop or even other pixel editors like Affinity. So in this second video let’s compare the apps LR and C1 in relation to Photoshop.

Photoshop is for when you’re serious!

You can almost think of Lightroom and Capture One as black-and-white film choices back in the day. It’s how you start. Then Photoshop is your Darkroom where you us native tools and layer mixes to make your image Ansel Adams-level perfect.

On a small screen, you may not see much difference. As a photographer who wants gallery quality, it’s a big difference. Black and white photographers who want the best do the final work in a layer-based editor like Photoshop. But I use a RAW editor for 90% of the photos. Having well-planned presets/styles, and actions is a must to expand creativity. Even if you make your own!

All of this matters. Even if you only use Photoshop in 5% of your photos, that 5% will be your best work. Think overlook how much those images can improve.

I hope you find this helpful in your Lightroom vs Black and White Photoshop questions. It’s really not a dilemma. Both are good! If it’s still confusing, let me know in the comments and I’ll try and address it in future videos on my channel.

Gavin Seim

Here we have a good Lightroom edit made quickly using Silver presets. One or two clicks and a little adjusting are needed.

The final photo, was taken further in Photoshop. I used BlackRoom actions to make it fast. It’s the control over details and atmosphere. On a small screen, you may not see the difference. But on my best photos going to print, the black and white Photoshop edit is more refined.

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