People have been talking a lot about Photoshop Generative Ai. But as I’ve shown in other videos, it lacks a lot. In today’s video, we see how good it is and ask, is Ai art the future?
I tested Photoshop Generative Ai vs free Open Source Tools!
I have been learning what AI can do outside the world of Adobe. Hint, it’s a lot and as photographers, we need to know what we are dealing with and how it will affect us.
The AI world is not waiting around. In fact you can download free open-source AI-generating apps like Fooocus right now, install whatever models you want, and create from scratch or edits.
There’s two kinds of photo AI. Assist Ai tools like we see in LR or Elegance Speed Masks.
Edits like I get from Silver or Power Workflow are natural and great. I can then refine those with Blackroom and other Photoshop tools. But how far should we take these AI edits?
Will this ruin photography? Should we use these tools, or reject them? What about the ethics of all this?
In this real photo, Ai tools left our model alone in this real photo but changed the swimsuit into something entirely new.
The fake has gone too far.
Ai is not real and still lacks authenticity. This brings us to the controversy in Photography. AI changes everything. But I talk often on the podcast about the brave new world where everything feels fake. Does Photoshop Generative Ai and other Ai tools make that worse?
Ai is a tool and of course, stock photography and illustrative commercial work will start filling with AI images, But people are going to value real things and real photos in the coming years.
We can’t just ignore AI and that’s why companies like Adobe are going in heavy. We can live in denial like many photographers did when digital arrived and created their fate. We must stay on top of the tech and THEN decide whether to use it or not.
Fully AI-generated photos like this will be used a great deal in stock photos. But I think they will add more value to real photos.
Truth is important but Ai is not really truth!
With Ai images even being faked as journalism from war-torn countries, we’re already seeing a pushback. People are getting tired of fakes. new verification systems are being created.
AI images are not inherently wrong. Fakery and deception are. It’s important as photographers we maintain the standard of real photos and don’t lie about how our images were made.
Most can see the fakery. Ai images tend to be too perfect and not sold. That will improve, but I think the best use case for it is using AI tools to create better real-world results.
There are also legal concerns. But it’s complicated.
Are your Ai models made with licensed images? Is it fair use? These are big debates happening right now that many photographers and artists are upset about. Because Ai is simply re-creating concepts, poses, etc that real-world artists have already created.
Derivative works are a legit thing. You can study art or read books and be inspired by them and create your own. But how far is too far?
Photoshop Generative Ai is interetsing. But it’s far from the best tool for Ai jobs and where Ai will take us is still open to debate.
Making a preset and calling it a film is easy. But making a digital film look like film is really hard. It’s not something you do manually and most film presets don’t get very close. In today’s video, we solve that.
This update brings a lot of small refines and bug fixes to mods and film looks. You’ll find updated presets marked 2.1. With any color, tone and mod improvements across the film styles including subtle tweaks to make films like Portra and Ektar even more accurate to film. Also, the new Digital orange fixer shown in this training video is in 2.1 and very useful.
I love film. But it’s expensive so I need film recipes that work.
So when I went to work on Filmist 2 it was after 5 years of refining Filmist V1 and sending our many free updates. I wanted more though and that’s where the idea of True-Film was born.
I also wanted a cleaner pack of presets and better darkroom-inspired mods like push and pull tools that emulated the way contrast changes when you push and pull your ISO in the camera.
It meant shooting film and digital side by side with the same light and settings. In fact, in film tests, I use the same aperture, shutter speed, and often the same vintage lenses to get the exact result.
Still, that’s not enough. Many films are long gone and even films I can use vary by batch, how people scan etc. So I have to test not only my scans but also look at how other people are using that film and what its result should look like.
In case you missed the launch video it gives a lot of quick examples.
For example the new Gen2 Porta 400 Film preset.
This is tough because this film is all about skin tones. You would think with the endless digital tools in Lightroom Capture etc that nailing out is easy. But getting a perfect film skin tone is super hard. I spend hours adjusting curves by one point and then another.
Sometimes I doubt myself and then I compare it to other products and presets to create a film that looks digital and realizes it’s working. It’s not that these are not good products, it’s that getting the film right is that hard, and in FIlmist it’s the entire focus.
Does that film feel boring or flat?
I’ve made videos about basing edits with film presets and how it stops you from pushing sliders too far. We’re used to extremes. From giant movie exposition to over-saturated photos. And it’s OK to push up your saturation. But start natural!
When people first try film presets sometimes they think it’s not enough of a change. It’s too flat or plain. This is because we’ve been conditioned by digital to over edit and it makes photos that seem fake and unnatural.
I think that’s why many film tools don’t look like the films. They are over-edited to try and please a before-after sample and make it look intense. But it’s not true to the film.
Vision 250 Cinema film preset is warm and versatile.
2024 is a year where natural things win.
People are jaded by fakery. In an AI world, professional photographers need to take away the disbelief people have started feeling. real photos are becoming more valuable than ever.
I designed these presets to be adjusted. So you can push op the intensity or add a mod like the Push contrast mod that mimics how film contracts increase when you push in the darkroom.
The result of these true-film ideas is film looks that are true to the film as much as we are possible but that also can be manualized to your needs and still have natural real-world feelings contrast and details.
The new Ektar 1000 presets for Lightroom and Capture one is a great recipe alongside Natura 1600
The future of making these presets more True-Film.
With a mission of vitality and accuracy, I have a lot of free updates planned for my FIlmist users. My shelf is full of film right now that I’m doing more tests on. I watch countless videos old and new to try and refine films that are gone from shelves. These need to be preserved.
I’m working now on doing darkroom prints to further refine recipes because even scans are not always the same. Every scanner and software converts things differently. So I’ll be doing darkroom prints to reference and refine the recipes.
The Filmist 2 Velvia 100 preset on this street photoFuji Pro 400h is no longer available but it’s a classic much like Portra and is a powerful preset
Do you NOT post because you’re unsure? What, where, and is this OK?
We have a major social media problem in Photography.
Remember the days when Instagram was for photos and you saw what people you followed shared instead of being spammed with video reels meant to generate clicks?
Facebook was the same. You posted and your friends and fans saw. Instantly. Not anymore! People don’t really follow you. They join a platform to be cleverly spammed by algorithms.
Social media has become a scam perpetrated by the biggest media companies on the planet. They create no content and you are the merchandise!
Share your photos. Get get on both groups gearted to real photo talk…
As photographers we capture history and we tell stories that will never be told again- Mexico City 2023
We need to stop being only in ONE place.
Does this fit my audience, Does it break any rules? Does it fit my grid? Am I allowed to express this? Will it get ignored for videos of girls shaking booty? Yes, it will!
If you were in business around 2008 you probably invested a lot on your Facebook page. Because it worked People followed and saw your effort. Then Facebook took that away and made pages nothing more than a place to run ads.
These sites are about profit now so they will show whatever the algorithm thinks it can squeeze the most from. This sucks as artists. But photographers are also journalists.
We have important stories and messages. Censoring artists and journalists will change the world in a very bad way!
I don’t use that word in a good way. If you post something it has to outrage or amaze. Mocking comments and toxic posts are rewarded while thoughtful ones are ignored. You’ve no doubt seen this in many photo groups that are essentially driven by trolls.
“Platforms know that anger and sesnatislism keep us glued to the set. They mad it work this way to keep us enagdged, angry, commenting, and coming back.“
I still have Instagram. But the truth is unless you play the algorithm game, it’s dead. That game mostly means short videos or sensationalized photos that go viral and have no relation to why we signed up. To share our ideas.
We need alternatives to Instagram and Facebook for photographers. We need places without constant censoring. We need a place to share with each other as photographers and learn and have real conversations.
Yellowstone National Park. 10 Second exposure.
They censor you but not to protect you!
The algorithm demands you do things to get attention. But if you do it wrong or policies change you are punished. Often in ways that make no sense and with no recourse. Your invenstment lost.
This is happening every day to creators on YouTube, Facebook, and beyond who did nothing wrong. And the censorship is not to protect. It’s to protect the bottom line. The money.
If filtering was there to protect you, censoring would be settings on YOUR account that told the platform what YOU want to see. Everything, disturbing new, naked people, etc.
I often take photos I love but don’t share them because of how sites might punish me. I edited this with a platinum look in Emulsion 4 and used Naked Darkroom to finish the texture.
For now 2 places I made to share your photos and Shadow talk.
Facebook pages are pretty much uselessyou pay now but groups can still be a great place to share and talk among other photographers.
Groups come with all the downsides of Facebook but the upside is everyone is there so it’s still a good place to share among each other even if it’s not a great place to share work publicly.
Flickr used to be the place to share photos. Then came Instagram which now sucks. So Flickr has made a comeback as a place not to be influencers but just to share our work, explore new photos, and talk about the craft.
We had a very active group back in the early Pro Photo Podcast days before the other platforms took over and I’ve brought it back so go join.
Flickr is also a bit less restrictive than Facebook so you can safely post boudoir work and such in this group, just keep it classy and maintain a good mix. Plus it works amazing on a desktop browser. Most try and force us to use mobile because they better control us there.
Fixing the bigger problem means people, not platforms.
We should never trust our life’s work to a corporate platform. We need to de-centralize. This is not my idea and is a growing sentiment. Here’s a recent Engadget video on the topic.
There are start-ups like Vero. I’m on there. But it’s inactive, discovery is terrible and you can’t use it from the desktop which is the same as saying they don’t take professionals seriously.
The internet was supposed to make us more free. But now we live in a world of near-constant censorship where platforms control our voices and even the news.
This is true of Facebook, YouTube, and nearly every major platform. We always have to worry about expressing ourselves for fear of being banned, not because we did something wrong but because we trigger a corporate algorithm that could affect profits.
I think that social media needs to be more decentralized. That is you post in the app you like, but people follow you on a decentralized app where they are still following you even if you are no longer on that app or platform. It takes the power away from corporate interests and puts it back with us.
RSS for example does this which is why podcasts like Pro Photography Podcast don’t have to bow to algorithms. But we need tools that go beyond that. It’s being talked about but I have yet to see a large-scale solution to this problem and I hope we will all keep fighting for it.
Our voices are at stake.
The streets of Mexico City were edited with the Ultra 400 preset from Filmist. But on some platforms, this could be censored even though it’s a part of the city.
For now, the solution is to diversify.
You’ve seen me doing this in the past year.
I use my email list. I blog. I re-started the Pro Photography Podcast because I saw the way YouTube has zero respect for creators and realized I should to NOT make it my entire focus.
Growing a website is important. But creating content on that site beyond just a photo album, building lists that have people who care, and looking for a way to de-centralize matters.
For now I hope you’ll join me on not just Facebook but Flickr so we can NOT keep everything in one place and keep conversion going and these platforms like Facebook screw us over again and again as rules and politics change.
Lightroom 2024 brings this amazing new panel called Point Color and it’s really good. Today I’ll show you everything you need to know to master it.
Lightroom Point Color Secrets. Is it better than Capture One?
You can add spot color instantly within pre-made masks like Elegance Speed Masks. Also download my free film presets to play with the advanced color and see how it works beside balanced use of HSL sliders.
Use Point COlor when you need precision.
Much like the advanced color in Capture One. Lightroom point color lets you go beyond the HSL basic color sliders. Select a color spot and you’re in.
Don’t stop using HSL because the sliders we’ve been using for years are clean and you rarely get the artifacts or problems that can come from more precise selection and maks.
That sais point color seems to naturally work flawlessly. Only turn the range down as needed to avoid hard lines and don’t be afraid to use the advanced adjustments.
In the end, point color is not to replace HSL sliders but to give you more control when you need it including in masks like we’re doing here in the video.
Another level of masking.
The only real choice you have to make in point color is to decide whether to use it in global development settings, that is the selection you create based on color and tone will affect everything in the photo like here in the water of Thors Well.
Or do you want to be more specific? Then just ass your point color within a mask brush on, a portrait mask, AI background. You can use it anywhere and it works the same.
Now you may spend some time making these settings and I can’t find a practical way to copy the point color swatches you made into a mask from the main development, This would be useful. What we can do is add various mixes into presets which you’ll see in future updates of my preset packs.
Lightroom Point Color VS Capture One Advanced Color?
Objectively speaking yes I believe point color wins this battle. But they are both powerful and will achieve the same goal.
Lightroom Spot color is more visual, how more ways to adjust settings, and has a 3rd dimension in direct luminosity control in the selection that Capture One lacks.
Some will argue that because Cap[ture also has a skin panel it’s better. But in truth, the skin panel is more limited because it’s still just an advanced color selection.
Yes, capture one does shave have from uniformity sliders in the Skin panel, but the selection is not that precise. Lightroom on the other hand can make an instant subject mask and you can use point color to define the tone and balance of that color on the subject ONLY.
In the end, use what works for you/ Lightroom seems to have leaped ahead once again on one of the few features that Capture One still had as an advantage. Not capturing one is really only looking at a lead in tethering.
We’ll see more in our annual review of Lightroom VS Capture One in 2024 when both apps have new versions and Phase One has a chance to do something big.
2024 may be a year of reckoning for Phase One. But there’s no doubt Lightroom took this feature from their playbook after many years. What we do know is C1 just lost an edge with the new Lightroom Spot Color tool and I’ll show you how to use it today.
Lightroom Spot Color was only a Capture One feature before.
Play with Lightroom Spot Color. Grab the Free Filmist presets and play with spot color to enhance details. Also, check out the new Amber Presets pack as it does deep things with color and is a good example of the power of this.
Lens Blur is also cool, but do you need it like Lightroom Spot Color?
The new lens blur feature works pretty well and will doubtless get better. But do we need a mobile-style bokeh in Lightroom?
I can see this being good for enhancing existing bokeh. I would personally avoid it in images that have no bokeh as in our phones it does make mistakes. Unlike the new Lightroom Spot Color which is the game changer, lens blur in LR 24 is just a nice feature.
Blurs have long been limited in Lightroom and don’t really exist in Capture One. I think I’ll find myself using this as a general blut tool more than a bokeh tool. Sadly I don’t see a way to use this in presets thus far.
Don’t use Lightroom Spot color on everything.
As I explain in the video you don’t need to open this feature up with every color. Most times I apply a preset from Filmist or Amber and it’s formulated just fine. Stay tuned to my channel because I I’ll be making more videos about when and where this tool is amazing.
What this does allow is fine-tuning if you feel a color is just not quite right. It also allows deeper and easier fine-tuning when creating presets so you can be sure I will be implementing it in future updates to mine.
Advanced Color in Capture One is really good, but the visual manner in which Lightroom Spot Color works lets you select colors and see the output and I might like that better. We’ll compare the two in the 2024 LR vs C1 review soon.
Here I used Amber presets but selected just the dark oranges to adjust them to my liking. By activating the Visualize range you can see only the selected color much like in Capture one.
Using this tool in Lightroom masks is even better.
Ai Masks are amazing in Lightroom and many of you use my Elegance Speed Mask presets to apply them in fast groups. But until now we have had no HSL-style controls in masks and I have always had to find clunky workaround when making presets.
You can bet you’ll be seeing updates to my Ai presets that take advantage of LIghtroom Spot color in specific details. I can say from much experience that it will empower our masking to a new level like me you’ve probably been wanting this for a long time.
The power of Lightroom Spot color with a mask is evident. I’ll show you this example in the video.
It will be interesting to see what competition from the likes of Affinity, Capture One and others will bring and we will all benefit from it.
