Naked Darkroom is my latest pack of real texture and border and here’s’ how I use them.

These work for Photoshop, Affinity and users of layer based editors.

These are a complete overlays pack because the textures are even better and the new darkroom film based borders let you use real edge from negatives, wet and dry plates and integrate those into your finished prints and web files.

I’m including a longer workshop with the Naked Darkroom download, but in this video I want to show you the 101 of how to use textures and borders and how they can improve the final details and artistic character  of any kind of photography.

Gavin Seim

The right edit is hard sometimes, isn’t it?

Some edits just work and others you can’t seem to get. It happens!

So in this week’s video, I took a photo that Paul sent me that was having trouble with. A very tough file with a lot of highlights and a lot of shadows. We’re going to use Photoshop, Camera Raw with Silver 4 and BlackRoom actions and find a mix that works. But no matter what you edit with, these tips will work for you.

Watch the video in 4K on my channel. Whatever tool you favor. Actions, presets, a plugin, your on inventions. The key is to stay open on your edit. Try new things always. That’s the basis of how I create editing kits and how I try to keep my own photos fresh.

Grab Blackroom actions and try your hard edits.
There’s a double sale on BlackRoom actions now when you enter the Spring promo code: SPR22. It’s a huge saving and you can also use this code for anything in the store.

RECAP: 3 steps to a fast effective edit in any software:

• 1: Try basic classic edits, presets I know I like, actions, and common tweaks, and fulfill my visualization.
• 2: Do more advanced edits, add effects, reset and try again. Usually, by the 3rd try, the edit will start to draw out.
• 3. If it’s not working ask myself if it’s the editor a lack in my image. If it’s not critical, move and mark it to try again later when I have new inspiration.

So let’s take this rather difficult shot and make it work… Gavin Seim

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

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