April 29, 2022

6

f164, PPS Photography Tips, special effects, technique

Why you should Photograph Shadow, Not light!

It took me 20 years to find this because no one taught it until now.

In this primer on shadow hacking I’m going to share was I found. If you follow my work you have seen me shift focus to shadow over light. Not to say ignore light, but that there so much focusing on the light has only caused us to learn half of what makes great photos.

Not signed up for my Shadow-Hackers LIVE class? Sign up it here.

Should you lift or drop shadows? Push or pull exposure. How do we bend the shadow in new ways and why doe sit matter. Today I’ll show you some examples and if you attend my Shadow Hackers hackers class you’ll be ahead of the curve for watching this.

Look for where your shadows are broken and stop photographing light.

I hope this is coming across. I promise that if you start looking to photograph shadow, it’s going to change how you use to light your camera and what kind of results you get. Try this and see for yourself.

Gavin Seim

Things I used to edit with today…
My new Elegance Speed Masks… seimeffects.com/elegance
Filmist, get my free presets… seimeffects.com/filmist/
Lumist actions… seimeffects.com/lumist
BlackRoom actions… seimeffects.com/blackroom
Natural HDR4… seimeffects.com/dynamic

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April 20, 2022

0

special effects

I made Natura 1600 as a Lightroom Preset and Capture One styles and it’s gorgeous.

The Natura 1600 look is amazing in digital when it is formulated perfectly.

So in today’s video, I want to show you the latest film I created for the Filmist project. You can get the Lightroom Presets and Capture One Styles here.

The truth is Natura 1600 was included in Filmist from the start. So I went back to the drawing board studying every Natura and Superia 1600 resource I could find. I wanted to make it perfect for the Natura 1600 gen.2 updates. Much like I did for the Portra gen.2 presets a few months ago.

Filmist is a project I always come back to. I love authentic film looks on digital and  I always find ways to make them better. Emulsion film is the hardest kind of edit in Lightroom and RAW editors. The nuances and making them work digital are subtle. I spend hours trying different files, comparing them to real films. Then when I take it to Capture One, I have to go back to the halfway point and start again because C1 rebounders so differently. At the end of all my gen.2 film presets I end up with a Lightroom preset, a Capture One style, and a LUT that represents the film, and this nature 1600 look is second to none.

Natura has this bright warm feel with a fairly grainy look. But that grain does not overpower and I think this formula really conveys the feel of Natura/Superia film.

Gavin Seim

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April 20, 2022

0

special effects

Everything in Photography is actually Contrast!

This week’s channel video is something I discovered about contrast and its related tools that you need to know.

Because in an era of sliders and algorithms it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of what we are really doing to a photo when we edit it. So today I’m going to show you how contrast actually works and how you can get the exact effect you want in Lightroom, in Photoshop, IN Luminar, Capture one etc.

A tool is just a tool. you are the one that makes it work. So when I design classes, Lightroom presets, Capture one Styles, and actions, what I’m really doing is finding unique ways to combine these tools, and today I’ll show you how.

Think of contrast as the primary ingredient in every photo.

When you do that, your perception shifts and you see the tone and light in new ways as I talk about in my Exposed workshop using Zones and other exposure guides.

This may seem like a blip on the radar, but once you start to apply it it will change everything about how you make photos.

Gavin Seim

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April 20, 2022

0

free lightroom presets, lightroom, special effects

Portra 160, 400 and 800 – Presets from the most versatile films ever created.

I wanted a more perfect Portra film preset for Lightroom and Capture One. So I made it!

Portra is a classic film, the 160 leans a touch green and is very versatile. The 400 is warmer and probably the top portrait film ever and the 800 is less famous but has a bit more color pop and a rich look.

Portra gen.2 took the Portra presets that have always been part of my Filmist presets and made them so much better. I tinkered and calibrated for days to get the feel of Portra just right. It took a lot of film research and formulation but the result was worth the wait.

You can Get Filmist here –  The free pack has my new Portra 160 preset. Here’s my new video on the new Portra looks.

In making gen2 Portra I had to make all 3 presets from the ground up for Lightroom and then do it again for the Capture One Styles. But the result is a film emulation of Portra better than any I have ever used. It captures the aesthetic of Portra and just looks stunning. Watch the video and I’ll show you how it works.

Porta looks amazing on Portraits but also on a lot of other things.

Filmist is a lot of film emulsion presets, but the gen.2 Portra looks along with new gen.2 Natura 1600 which I recently finished developing brings in two of the most versatile films ever as digital presets for Lightroom and Capture 1 and LUT. I’m using these constantly in my workflow. Even if you only grab the free one I included in my Filmist free sampler pack, I hope you enjoy it.

Gavin Seim

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April 8, 2022

2

beauty, PPS Photography Tips, special effects

Fix any Blown Out Photo even if it’s Totally Clipped!

In today’s video, I’m going to show you how to un-clip any photo.

Fixing a photo at this level may seem difficult at a glance but it’s actually not hard and we’re going to make short work of this. I’m going to show you what to do when NON of that is enough and you have an image so clipped that it seems like it’s useless. This is how you can fix ANY clipped photo.

If you expose well you can usually get rid of clipping and have stunning dynamic range using simple sliders, presets like Natural HDR or Filmist presets with a few of its dynamic chemical mods.

So for me there are 3 levels of clipping. Here’s why it happens and how to fix it every time.

 

You can also DOWNLOAD the RAW file I use in this to follow along.

You can also watch this directly on my YouTube channel.

 

Level 1 light clipping resolved with simple presets and adjustments like Natural HDR.

 

Level 2 resolved with presets and local adjustment mask

 

Level 3, resolved with painting back detail on PS , Affinity etc. This requires some time depending on the retail you need but it always works.

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