Let’s face it: Sorting and culling your pictures after a shoot can feel like a never-ending task. Whether you’ve spent a wild weekend capturing wildlife or a bustling day capturing a wedding, sifting through hundreds or even thousands of photos to figure out which ones to keep, edit, and store can drive you crazy.

Fortunately, Adobe Lightroom’s star-rating system is a superhero tool that helps you efficiently organize and store your precious images. If you’ve been struggling to keep your photos well-managed, then it’ll be an absolute game-changer – as long as you know the right approach.

In this article, I’ll explain everything you need to know about using star ratings in Lightroom, including what star ratings are and how they work, plus some handy tips and tricks to keep your workflow fast and efficient.

Ready to get your photos organized? Let’s dive right in!

What are Lightroom star ratings?

Star ratings refer to one of Lightroom’s handiest image organizational features: the ability to apply a rating (from 0-5) to each and every image in your catalog.

The star rating option will appear underneath your photos in the Library module:

You can click to apply a rating (and if you choose a rating by mistake, you can always click on the stars again to remove it).

You can also apply star ratings in Grid View. Simply click the dots at the bottom of a photo:

And you’re done! Note that you can always use the Lightroom Sort option to sort photos by rating:

Or you can filter based on specific ratings (e.g., 3 stars and above):

How to improve your workflow with Lightroom star ratings: 4 tips

Star ratings have the power to revolutionize your editing process. In this section, I’ll share a handful of valuable tips to supercharge your workflow, starting with:

1. Embrace the magic of hotkey stars

Earlier, I talked about assigning ratings by clicking on the corresponding stars underneath your images. And sure, it’s an effective approach – but did you know that you know you can assign star ratings from 0 to 5 using your keyboard? These awesome hotkeys are what make the star rating system incredibly convenient.

In fact, if you have hundreds of photos to edit, this can dramatically cut down your time spent in Lightroom. Simply open an image in the Loupe View, press a hotkey to assign a star rating, then press the right arrow key to advance to the next file. You can blow through entire batches of images in seconds!

And if you want to go even faster, enable Lightroom’s Auto Advance feature by selecting Photo>Auto Advance. That way, once you rate an image, you won’t even need to press an arrow key; the program will automatically advance to the next photo.

2. Use star ratings to prioritize your photos

So you’ve just imported a bunch of photos, whether they’re wildlife shots, wedding moments, sports highlights, or captivating portraits. Now comes the burning question: Which ones are worth keeping? When you’re out in the field, you may capture multiple shots of similar subjects in slightly different settings or poses. At a wedding, for instance, you’ll have tons of dance photos, but only a select few will make the final cut.

This is where the star rating system swoops in to save the day. By assigning different ratings depending on the quality of each image, you can quickly categorize your shots and make sure that the best photos get shared and edited and the worst end up in the “delete” pile.

(By the way, here’s why I prefer the ratings system over the flag system: With star ratings, you get to be far more granular. Not only do you select the images to edit and delete, but you can also identify which images to edit first and which to edit down the line. You’re not limited to the binary “yes” and “no” of the flags.)

Now, you can assign rating values that align with your personal preferences, but here’s a suggestion: Let “0” (no rating) be your delete category. Then, designate “1” as the keep-but-low-priority-for-editing category—these could be your b-roll shots for applying general presets. Then, when you set an image to “2,” you’re saying it deserves immediate development, and when you assign a “4,” you’re signaling that it’s one of your absolute best shots. This tiered rating system ensures you only have to go through your images once – and ideally not more than twice. Trust me, it’s a massive time-saver, especially when you’re dealing with a large volume of files!

Quick note: I strongly advise against using “5” in your workflow. Reserve that rating exclusively for your top-notch, highest-quality images.

Once you’ve rated your shots, go ahead and sort them by rating. Then dive into the editing process as needed!

3. Use Smart Collections to create a portfolio

No doubt you’ll capture some amazing shots that you’ll be proud of and will want to keep for future reference, printing, or showcasing in your portfolio. As I mentioned earlier, these exceptional images deserve a five-star rating. (Remember: Only a select few shots should achieve this!)

To gather all your best shots in one place and create a stunning portfolio, Lightroom offers a nifty feature called Smart Collections. Think of it as your personal assistant that automatically gathers all images in your catalog with a specific attribute.

Here’s how you set it up: In the Collections tab, choose the Plus icon, then select Create Smart Collection:

Next, give your Collection a name (such as “Portfolio”), and add some selection criteria. You can base it on any attribute you assign in Lightroom – whether it’s stars, flags, keywords, or more. In our case, we want to collect images with a five-star rating, so we’ll create a single rating rule:

Finally, hit Create, and watch as your Smart Collection – with all your five-star images – appears!

As you continue your photographic journey, your five-star collection will keep growing, beautifully documenting your progress and telling your unique story!

4. Use stars to categorize subjects

This method of using star ratings is quite unique, but it can work wonders, especially if you’re keen on keywording your images.

Imagine you’re a bird photographer. Throughout the day, you’re constantly switching subjects, photographing different bird species left and right. When you import those images into Lightroom, the daunting task of keywording awaits you. Well, fear not! The star rating system comes to the rescue, making it a breeze to sort through your feathered friends in no time.

Here’s how it works: Mentally assign star ratings to particular species, and then use hotkeys to swiftly assign the corresponding star rating to each image. Once you’re done “coding” your species with stars, simply filter them in Grid View.

Now you can focus on completing your keywording, knowing that you’ve effortlessly organized your shots. And if you want to remove the star ratings afterward, it’s as easy as highlighting the images and pressing the “0” key.

Note that this technique isn’t limited to bird photography alone; you can apply it to various photography scenarios!

Lightroom star ratings: final words

Lightroom star ratings are like the secret sauce to streamlining your photo editing game. With just a few clicks, you can assign ratings to your images. That way, your photos will be neatly organized and ready to be edited. No more endless scrolling through folders and scratching your head trying to remember which shots were your favorites.

So embrace the power of Lightroom star ratings. Let them be your guiding stars in the vast universe of digital images. Take control of your workflow, save precious time, and unleash your creative genius!

Now over to you:

How do you plan to use Lightroom ratings? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Lightroom Star Ratings: A Quick Guide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ian Johnson.

Looking to learn everything there is to know about Photoshop’s Camera Raw filter? Well, have no fear, because the ultimate guide to the CR filter is here!

If you’ve only just started out post-processing your images in Photoshop, you may worry that the CR filter is a little too advanced – but that’s a mistake. In fact, the CR filter can be a game-changer for even the most inexperienced of photographers.

In other words, you don’t have to be a Photoshop expert to use this powerful tool. And that’s where this guide comes in. We’re going to break down everything you need to know about the CR filter in a way that’s easy to understand. Specifically, we discuss:

• What the filter actually is
• How to access the filter
• A handful of ways to use it in your post-processing workflow

So if you’re ready to start using Photoshop’s CR filter like a pro, then let’s dive right in!

What is the Photoshop Camera Raw filter?

At its most basic, this filter allows you to use the functions of the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) interface within Photoshop. You can essentially make adjustments within ACR at any time during your workflow, rather than limiting its usage to the RAW processing stage only.

It’s worth noting that if you were to import your working file into Lightroom to make the same adjustments, it would be a cumbersome step. But with the Camera Raw filter in Photoshop, you can use these tools without any extra effort.

To find the filter, simply select Filter>Camera Raw Filter, and the dialog box will pop up. However, before you do this, you may want to stamp all the layers by pressing Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Alt/Opt+E. This will combine all of your layers into a new layer from which you can work.

Camera Raw filter limitations

While the Camera Raw filter is a great tool, there are some limitations you need to be aware of.

For example, you’ll lose some functionality of the white balance adjustment in ACR because you’re not working from a RAW file. You can still make drastic changes to the temperature of your images with this tool, but it won’t be as versatile as when you’re working on a RAW file in ACR. You’ll also lose the Crop and Rotate tools that you normally have access to when working on RAW files.

It’s also important to realize that because you’re not working with a RAW file at this stage, you won’t have the same versatility that you would when editing in ACR. Instead, the process will be more like editing a JPEG file in Lightroom or ACR. This means you’ll have less information to work with.

Bottom line: If you want to make the most of the Camera Raw filter, you need to get things as close to perfect as possible in the RAW stage of post-processing. That way, you’ll have plenty of information to work with – and, consequently, added versatility – when you use the filter in Photoshop.

How can the Camera Raw filter be used?

The CR filter is packed with tools – so much so that there’s no way to make anything resembling a complete list of its effective uses. But here are a few ways I apply the filter:

• To fine-tune adjustments after RAW processing
• To apply certain adjustments that are difficult to do in Photoshop’s main interface
• To make quick adjustments that apply to certain parts of the image
• To add quick and easy vignettes
• To make final tweaks before finishing your image

Now let’s take an in-depth look at each approach:

1. Fine-tune adjustments after RAW processing

If you’re anything like me, you like to make decisions on the spot when you’re processing your RAW files. But have you ever come back to a photo after a day or two and realized that you no longer like the adjustments you made? It happens to the best of us.

The problem, of course, is that you can’t go back to ACR if you’ve already started making adjustments in Photoshop. You don’t want to lose all your hard work, after all!

Well, here’s a quick and easy solution: Stamp the layers to a new layer and run the Camera Raw filter. That way, you can make any ACR-type adjustments you want, and it won’t affect your original work.

This trick works great for quick edits like exposure, contrast, and vibrancy. It also comes in handy if you find that you want to reduce the highlights or whites before diving into more extensive editing. (I use this technique all the time!)

2. Make trickier adjustments

Photoshop might be all-powerful on its own, but ACR (and Lightroom by extension) does make a few things easier. For example, the Clarity slider is tricky to replicate in Photoshop. Using the Photoshop Camera Raw filter to make Clarity adjustments is easier and can save a lot of time.

Another example is the use of the Highlights, Whites, Darks, and Blacks sliders to make quick, intuitive global contrast adjustments. Using these tools is especially useful if you’re not yet fully familiar or comfortable with Photoshop’s Curves and Levels adjustments.

3. Apply local adjustments

When I’m using the Photoshop Camera Raw filter, one of my favorite techniques is to make targeted adjustments to specific areas, like the background. Once I’ve got the adjustments dialed in, I can use a layer mask to ensure they only affect the parts of the image I want.

This approach works great for textured backgrounds because I can tweak the clarity and contrast to my heart’s content without worrying about messing up the subject. With a well-crafted layer mask, I can rest assured that my edits won’t bleed into areas they’re not wanted.

4. Add a vignette

There are tons of ways to create a vignette in Photoshop. In my opinion, however, the Vignette tool – offered in the Camera Raw filter – is by far the easiest, fastest, and most intuitive to use.

Simply head into the Effects panel, find the Post Crop Vignetting option, then adjust the sliders until you produce an effect you like!

By taking this approach, you can create a subtle – or, if you prefer, an extreme – vignette in just a few seconds. Also, if any part of the vignette is interfering with your subject, you can always mask it out later using Photoshop’s sophisticated masking options.

5. Make final tweaks

Another handy way to apply the Photoshop Camera Raw filter? Use it to add final tweaks to your finished images.

Once you’ve edited your image in Photoshop, you can run the filter and see if there are any additional adjustments you’d like to make. Tiny shifts to the file’s exposure, contrast, clarity, and vibrance can all help give an image a little extra polish. Sure, you can apply these adjustments in Photoshop, but the CR filter – with its array of easy-to-use sliders – is faster and more intuitive.

Remember: By this point in your workflow, your image should be mostly finished. Aim to keep any adjustments at this stage small and subtle, especially since you’re not working with a RAW file.

Just the beginning

With a tool like the Photoshop Camera Raw filter at your disposal, you can apply all sorts of adjustments with relative ease.

For the most part, if you can do it in Adobe Camera Raw (or in Lightroom’s Develop module), you can do it with the CR filter inside Photoshop. Feel free to use it however you need to achieve the results that you want.

Final tip: Use Smart Objects

Using Photoshop Camera Raw filter as a Smart Object might just be the missing piece of the puzzle in your workflow. It can be a game-changer for your post-processing style, giving you the flexibility to come back and tweak any adjustments that you’ve made.

Setting up a Smart Object is simple: just right-click on the layer that you want to work with and choose Convert to Smart Object.

From there, run the Camera Raw filter as normal. Make any adjustments you want, and once you’re happy, click OK. In the Layers palette, under the layer you’re working on, you’ll see the name of the filter below the Smart Filters box. If you double-click on it, you’ll be taken back to the Camera Raw filter dialog box where you can adjust any of the settings you’ve previously tweaked.

This technique is incredibly useful if you tend to second-guess your decisions later on. Smart Objects give you the freedom to make changes without having to start all over again.

Of course, Smart Objects may not work for every photographer’s workflow. If you like to use a lot of stamped layers, you may have already created and worked on a new stamped layer by the time you see something you want to modify. In this situation, any adjustments made to a Smart Object would not be visible.

But in general, using Smart Objects can make a huge difference to your workflow. They provide flexibility and save you time in the long run, allowing you to focus on the creative process. Give it a try and see how it works for you!

The Photoshop Camera Raw filter: final words

If you’re looking to up your image editing game, the Camera Raw filter is essential. This powerful tool seamlessly integrates Adobe Camera Raw into Photoshop, allowing you to make adjustments to your images at any point in your workflow without the need to switch between programs.

While it may not be as good as the original Adobe Camera Raw application when it comes to white balance adjustments or cropping, the Camera Raw filter still offers a wide range of functionality that can help you achieve the perfect look for your photos.

So, next time you’re editing an image in Photoshop, why not give the Camera Raw filter a shot? You might be surprised at just how much it can enhance your editing capabilities!

Remember, photography is all about experimentation and trying out new techniques. Don’t be afraid to play around with the Camera Raw filter and see what kind of results you can achieve. Who knows, you might even discover a new editing trick or two along the way!

Go ahead and give it a try. Your photos (and your viewers) will thank you for it. Happy editing!

The post Photoshop Camera Raw Filter: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by John McIntire.

The Photoshop twirl effect is a cool editing trick that can turn bland images into abstract art. Even if you haven’t heard of it by name, I’m sure you’ve seen it around – it’s very popular among Photoshop lovers.

But how does it work, and how can you apply it to your own photos? In this article, I explain how to create a twirl effect in Photoshop, and I also offer several tips and tricks to ensure you get the best possible results!

Let’s dive right in.

What is the twirl effect?

The twirl effect is a post-production technique that stretches and “twirls” an image, like this:

In this article, I focus on creating the twirl effect in Photoshop, but note that it’s not a PS-exclusive technique; you can apply it using a variety of comprehensive editing programs.

During the process, your image loses all detail and figurative references. First, you turn your photograph into an abstract scene formed by colored lines, which you then warp to create a twirl effect.

When is a twirl effect useful?

The twirl effect is a great way to achieve dreamy, abstract art, no matter the underlying image. I’d recommend using it whenever you’re looking to create some digital artwork; while the result won’t look natural, it’s often quite spectacular!

One of the good things about this technique is that you can apply it to pretty much any photo. You might have a few images lying around that, on their own, are nothing special. Perhaps they aren’t technically correct – for example, they’re blurry. However, by applying the twirl effect, you can create something beautiful.

How to create a twirl effect in Photoshop: step by step

It’s very easy to create the twirl effect, even if you have zero editing experience! Simply follow these steps and experiment with each filter until you get a solid result.

Step 1: Select and open your photo

Start by opening a photo in Photoshop. It doesn’t matter which image you use – the twirl effect can be applied to any subject or composition. And if you’re struggling to decide between a few different shots, why not try them all?

Step 2: Prepare a second layer

Next, you’ll want to duplicate the background layer (i.e., your photo). Drag it to the plus sign at the bottom of the Layers panel or simply choose Layer>Duplicate Layer in the menu.

Then convert the new layer to a Smart Object. You can right-click the layer and choose Convert to Smart Object, or you can choose Filter>Convert for Smart Filters.

That way, you can go back to each filter later on and make adjustments again without having to start over.

Step 3: Add a Mezzotint filter

To create the twirl effect in Photoshop, you need to apply a series of filters to your image. The first one is Mezzotint.

In the main menu, choose Filters>Pixelate>Mezzotint. This will open a dialog box. Beneath the preview window, you can open the Type menu and pick your preferred type.

At this point, choosing between the different types won’t make much sense unless you’ve done the twirl effect before. So don’t worry too much about it. You can also come back and change it once you’ve applied the next filters because you converted the layer into a Smart Object.

In this case, I’m using the Medium Strokes type, but don’t feel that you have to do the same.

Step 4: Apply the Radial Blur filter

The next filter you need to apply is a Radial Blur, so head into the menu and select Filters>Blur>Radial Blur.

In the dialog box, set the Blur Method to Zoom. As for the Quality: You can choose Draft to speed things up, or you can use Good or Best if the file isn’t too big. At this point, you still have to apply more filters, so it’s not a problem to keep the value as Draft.

I’d suggest setting the amount to 100. You can always come back later and experiment with different numbers to see how they influence the final effect.

Then add the Radial Blur filter again. When you open the Filters menu, you’ll find the last filter you used at the top, so go ahead and select it:

The Radial Blur dialog box will open once more, and it should feature the same settings as before. Simply click OK.

Finally, apply the filter a third time, but make sure you change the Quality to Best:

Step 5: Add the Twirl filter

At this point, your photo should be looking pretty abstract, which means it’s time to start the twirling process! In the main menu, select Filter>Distort>Twirl.

In the dialog box, boost the Angle slider to add the twirl effect. There isn’t a magic Angle value that works for every image. Simply move the slider until you like what you see in the preview window, then click OK.

Go ahead and duplicate your twirled layer using the same process discussed in Step 2.

Step 6: Modify the duplicated layer

Identify your duplicate layer in the Layers panel. Note that the duplicate layer will contain all the Smart Filters you’ve applied so far. So double-click on the Twirl filter to open its dialog box:

Drag the Angle slider to the left until you reach the negative of the number you previously chose. I used an initial value of 197, so I’ll use an Angle value of -197.

(Pro tip: To quickly reverse the value, just click inside the value box and type a hyphen before the number.)

Now the twirl should go in the direction opposite that of the first layer. Click OK to apply it.

Step 7: Adjust the layer blend mode

At this point, you should have two layers, each featuring opposite twirls. However, the top layer will be completely blocking the layer underneath, and we need both layers to interact.

Simply open the Blend mode menu on the Layers panel, then pick a mode! Feel free to experiment with different modes to create different effects (and if you’re using Photoshop CC, you can preview the result as you hover over different blending options).

And that’s it; your twirl effect in Photoshop is done!

Tips and tricks to improve your twirl effect images

Once you can create a nice twirl effect, try a few of these tips to improve your workflow and level up your results:

1. Create an action

Making the twirl effect in Photoshop is very easy. However, it does involve a handful of steps. If you want to streamline your workflow and quickly apply the effect to any photo, you can create an Action.

Start by opening the image you want to modify. Then open the Actions panel. At the bottom, you’ll find a Plus symbol; that’s the New Action button.

Choose a name and start recording. Then follow the steps shared above to create the twirl effect. Once you’ve finished, stop the recording.

The next time you want to apply the twirl effect to an image, simply play the Action and Photoshop will automatically follow all the steps.

2. Apply the mirror effect

The twirl effect is nice, but if you want to get even more creative, you can apply the mirror effect to your image. To do this, you flip the image and put it next to the original.

You can even create a variety of different copies of the image, each rotated and cropped, and blend them together. There’s no limit to your creativity!

3. Use a mask to reveal part of the original image

Another creative application of the twirl effect? Combine the twirled file with part of the original image. You’ll need to use a layer mask to cover and reveal the different parts. Here’s how:

Create a new Group with the two layers that have the twirl effect. You can do this by selecting the layers and clicking on the folder icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.

Make sure the Group is selected, then click on the Layer Mask button. You’ll see a blank thumbnail appear next to the folder. Here, anything that you paint in black will be covered up, revealing anything that lies below (on the original background layer).

So use the Brush tool to paint black over the layer mask and reveal the unmodified shot underneath. And if you mess up while painting, don’t worry; you can always switch to a white Brush and paint over the mistake.

How to create the twirl effect: final words

I hope you liked this twirl effect tutorial! It’s a great way to produce plenty of interesting abstract effects – and you can apply them to pretty much any image, no matter their original quality.

So spend some time adding the twirl effect to your photos. Maybe even create an action. Good luck!

Now over to you:

Do you have any twirl effect photos that you’re proud of? Do you have any tips or tricks for better results? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post How to Create a Twirl Effect in Photoshop: A Quick Guide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

Great news, Lightroom users: 

Adobe recently implemented its April 2023 Lightroom update, and the enhancements include several outstanding features everyone should try. Note that the upgrades discussed below apply to both Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Lightroom Classic, so you can take advantage of the changes no matter your program of choice.

What does the April update entail?

First, Lightroom now offers AI-powered noise reduction to create an unprecedentedly powerful – and effective – denoising experience. Instead of fiddling around with the Noise Reduction sliders, simply press the Denoise button, adjust the Amount slider as you see fit, and hit Enhance.

Adobe promises that the feature will “efficiently remove noise from Bayer or X-Trans RAW images while preserving all the finer details.” The biggest drawback here is the required processing time, especially if your PC isn’t very powerful; I tested the Denoise feature on my (somewhat aged) desktop, and I waited about seven minutes before I had my new noiseless DNG file. 

But if you only ever need to apply noise reduction to a few images at a time, that shouldn’t be a problem, and the AI-powered denoising has the potential to rescue images that were previously unusable. Also, if you prefer to customize your edits, you still have the option to reduce noise via the old sliders – look under the tab labeled Manual Noise Reduction. 

Next, Adobe has updated its Lightroom Masking tools, which you can access by selecting the Masking icon:

Under the People section, Lightroom still offers the option to detect and mask individuals. When you click on a person, you can then choose whether you want to separately mask the hair, iris and pupil, eye sclera, eyebrows, and more – and here, Lightroom has added several new masking options, including the ability to independently mask your selected subject’s clothing. 

And that’s not Lightroom’s only masking-related update. When you create a mask – whether with a Brush, a Gradient, or Lightroom’s AI selection tools – in addition to all your standard adjustment tools, you now have the option to apply targeted Curve adjustments:

If you’ve never used the Tone Curve before, it’s a powerful tool that lets you adjust image tones and colors with great precision (it’s also a favorite among Photoshop users). The addition of a Curve feature to the local adjustment menu may seem minor, but it’s a huge deal for folks who are looking to make careful tonal and color edits to portions of their images without affecting the whole file. 

Finally, Adobe has tweaked Lightroom’s layout in several key ways. You’ll now see an eye icon next to each editing panel; click on one of these, and any corresponding edits using tools from that panel will be temporarily deactivated. (As soon as you let go of the eye icon, the edits are reactivated.) Additionally, once you’ve made an edit using tools in a panel, the corresponding eye icon will be highlighted; that way, you can go back to old photos and quickly identify which panels have been used. 

Lightroom has been given a few more minor updates – for instance, there are some additional presets, and support has been expanded to a handful of cameras and lenses – and you can see a full list of changes to Lightroom Classic here and to Lightroom here. 

But it’s the noise reduction and masking improvements that are really going to kick things up a notch for Lightroom users, so I encourage everyone to head over to Lightroom and try them out!

Now over to you:

What do you think of these Lightroom updates? Which do you plan to use regularly? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Lightroom’s April 2023 Update Adds AI-Powered Denoise and More appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

Photo editing is an essential part of every digital photography workflow. Not only is it a way to handle basic problems – such as dust spots, color casts, and lost detail – but it also allows you to enhance your files with color grading, light leaks, vignettes, and so much more. In fact, thanks to modern post-processing software, users can give their files a refined, pro-level look with only a few clicks.

But while post-processing software is powerful, it’s important that it’s used with both careful consideration and restraint. Sure, you can refine your photos in a few clicks, but you can also ruin them – and I’m afraid to say that folks do have a tendency to edit in the wrong direction, especially when they’re just starting out.

In this article, I share the five photo-editing mistakes that plague beginners’ work over and over again, and I explain how to fix them, too. Fortunately, even if you do make any of the errors that I share, they’re pretty easy to correct – so without further ado, let’s get to work!

1. Selective coloring

Sometimes, we get so obsessed with a particular element in our frame that we desperately want to highlight it. You might capture a bright umbrella, a stunning bird, or a colorful dress, yet when you look at the final image, you feel like it doesn’t stand out against the background – and that’s where selective color can enter the picture.

I’m talking about the technique where you make the entire photo black and white, except you keep one part of the image in color, like this:

As a beginner, you might be super excited by the selective color effect. After all, it looks cool and it can make key elements pop at the same time. But while there’s nothing wrong with testing out different photo-editing options to see what you can achieve, selective color is generally looked upon as a bit…amateurish.

For one, it’s compositionally lazy. If you want to highlight a particular object or color, it’s better to do it through careful composition and perspective choices, not a bit of post-processing magic. It often also feels rather gimmicky, like the photo is primarily interesting because of the selective color effect, not because of its subject, lighting, composition, etc.

Therefore, if you wish to step up your photography game and make your images look more professional, I’d encourage you to avoid selective coloring (and other, similarly gimmicky effects such as artificial background blurring) as much as possible. If you do run into a situation where you need to highlight one specific area in post-processing, try selectively boosting the exposure or saturation; it’s effective, but it’s also a lot more subtle.

2. HDR techniques

Of the five beginner photo-editing mistakes I discuss, this one has probably seen the most use – and, unfortunately, ruined the most pictures. HDR techniques aren’t as popular as they once were, but I still see a lot of problematic HDR edits, especially in landscape and interior portfolios.

Now, HDR photography isn’t inherently bad. It refers to the technique of capturing several photos at different exposures (i.e., bracketing), then blending them together in post-processing to create a final file that features detail in the highlights and shadows. It’s an approach that’s often used by professional landscape photographers to handle difficult lighting conditions, and it’s one that I encourage you to try out for yourself.

The problem is not when HDR techniques are used. The problem is when they are taken too far, either in an attempt to create an artsy look or with the purpose of showing tons of shadow and highlight detail. When you push HDR processing to a ridiculous degree, you’ll end up with unnatural-looking shots that look crispy, over-saturated, and just plain bad:

So here’s my advice:

If you do decide to use HDR processing on a photo, make sure that the results are natural. The tones in the image should align with what you saw with your eyes at the moment of capture. I’d also recommend doing your HDR processing with standard editing software (e.g., Adobe Lightroom), which is designed to create a subtle blended effect, not an eye-catching but ultimately unpleasant HDR look.

3. Oversaturating your files

We’ve all come across photos with vibrant and attractive colors, especially on photo-sharing apps such as Instagram. I get it; some of these photos look amazing.

But in trying to reproduce those results, it’s easy to boost the saturation level way too far – so much that you end up with a garish, distorted version of your original shot, one that looks worse, not better.

Check out the image on the left versus the image on the right below:

The shot on the left features vibrant reds and blues, but they don’t seem unnatural. The shot on the right, however, is so saturated that the man’s skin looks strange and his clothing has experienced a complete loss of detail, which is not at all ideal.

Unfortunately, it’s tough to get this one right. When you’ve spent several minutes (or hours) editing a single frame, you can develop a sort of blindness, where you’re unable to objectively evaluate the shot’s level of saturation.

That’s why I recommend taking a two-minute break from the screen after your final edit is complete. When you come back to your device, peek at the image and see what you think of the saturation level. You may find that the colors look far too intense, in which case you’ll need to dial back that saturation or vibrance slider. I use this process, myself – so you can trust me when I tell you that it’ll make a huge difference!

4. Using a black-and-white conversion without careful consideration

For many beginners, black and white is an artsy effect that can save nearly any image from the Rejects folder – but while a monochrome conversion can certainly improve images, it’s not a one-size-fits-all look. There are plenty of photos that are harmed by the black-and-white treatment, and it’s important that you approach each new edit with a fresh and analytical mind.

Personally, I find that images featuring lots of contrast tend to look good in black and white, whereas images that have very little contrast are damaged by the approach. Therefore, if I want to decide whether to convert to black and white, I check if the frame has contrast in it.

And even if a scene has good contrast, I also like to check if the image has any prominent colors that might add to the composition. If your shot includes a beautiful and colorful sunset, monochrome probably isn’t the way to go, even if you often do like the effect!

Of course, testing out a black-and-white look is easy – you can simply drop the desaturation slider or click the black-and-white conversion button – but the key is to be patient and analyze the image (both before and after the conversion). If you feel the colors aren’t especially appealing and the image features some nice high-contrast areas, go ahead and stick with the black-and-white effect.

One more tip: If you’re really struggling to determine whether black and white works for an image, ask a friend or family member. They don’t need to be a photographer; sometimes, all you need is someone who can be a little more objective.

5. Overuse of the vignette effect

Vignetting refers to the practice of darkening the edges of the frame to direct the viewer’s eye inward. As with a number of the other photo-editing mistakes I’ve explored in this article, vignetting isn’t necessarily bad – in fact, it can be quite effective when done correctly – but it is often overused or applied without significant restraint.

Overuse of the vignette effect will make your entire portfolio look amateurish, and if you push the effect too far in a single image, the vignette will actually detract from the subject, not emphasize it.

I myself love using a vignetting effect in photos where I want to emphasize a particular subject, but I don’t recommend using it in every image. And when I do use it, I aim to be subtle about it. The best vignettes are felt rather than seen!

Look, for instance, at the difference between these two images:

Both use a vignette, but the shot on the left is far more natural, while the vignette on the right is so obvious that it causes problems.

Also, I’d encourage you to avoid using the editing technique on landscape and interior architecture shots (and if you do wish to use it, keep it subtle so the overall beauty of the frame doesn’t get destroyed).

Photo-editing mistakes: final words

Hopefully, you’ve identified whether you’ve been making any of these mistakes yourself – and if you have, you know how to handle them.

Do remember, however, that editing is a subjective process. If you like a certain look that goes against the grain, then by all means, use it! Just make sure you’re making the choice carefully.

So head on over to your favorite post-processing program, then see if you can find some images to re-edit. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to avoid these top mistakes without any thought!

Now over to you:

Have you been making any of these five photo editing mistakes? Do you wish to add any editing mistakes to the list? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post 5 Photo-Editing Mistakes Every Beginner Should Avoid appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kunal Malhotra.

Lightroom Classic is a powerful editing program, but did you know that it contains an array of hidden tools that can speed up your workflow while also making it more efficient?

It’s true! Adobe packed Lightroom full of helpful little features, and in this article, we take a look at our seven favorites, including:

• A quick way to adjust the overall look of your images
• How to make precise exposure adjustments with minimal effort
• How to save space when importing images
• Much more!

So whether you’re a beginner just familiarizing yourself with Lightroom’s tools or you’re a serious editor looking to revolutionize your workflow, keep reading!

1. Visualize Spots

Have you ever shared an image online or printed a picture only to find that you failed to remove some ugly dust spots? It happens to the best of us, and it’s a deeply frustrating problem. After all, who wants to spend long minutes scrutinizing every inch of their images?

Thanks to Lightroom’s Visualize Spots feature, you don’t have to. You see, Lightroom boasts a handy little tool that makes it insanely easy to see – and then eliminate – spots from your photos.

Here’s how it works:

First, make sure you’re in the Develop module. Then select the Healing option (you can also hit Q on your keyboard).

Next, head down to the bottom of the screen, where you should see the Visualize Spots option. Click the checkbox (2), and watch as all your dust spots are revealed! You can also adjust the level of detail in the visualization (3):

Note: If you don’t see the Visualize Spots option, hit T on your keyboard to reveal the relevant toolbar.

At this point, you’ll want to quickly go through your image, switching Visualize Spots on and off while you remove all unwanted spots using the Heal or Clone tools. (You could remove spots with the Visualize Spots feature always on, but it’s better to make sure that spots are removed properly.)

You’ll finish with a spot-free image!

2. Hidden Quick Develop tools

Lightroom’s Library module is primarily designed to review your images after import, not apply edits. That said, it can be helpful to make basic changes to your images as you view them (especially if you struggle to decide which photos look best).

And that’s where the Quick Develop options come in, which you can find on the right-hand side of the Library module (underneath the Histogram panel). These handy buttons let you adjust the image exposure, contrast, white balance, clarity, and more.

Take a look at the Quick Develop options, however, and you’ll notice that two common adjustments – saturation and sharpening – are missing. Happily, these editing tools are available. They’re just hidden! Simply ensure that your Quick Develop panel is open, and look at the Clarity and Vibrance buttons:

Press and hold the Alt/Opt key. Clarity will instantly turn to Sharpening, and Vibrance will instantly turn to Saturation:

Keep holding the Alt/Opt key as you make your adjustments. When you’re done, take your finger off the key, and the tools will revert back to their default states.

3. Quick Develop adjustment precision

As I emphasized in the previous section, the Quick Develop tools can be very handy. However, they’re not very precise, which can be a problem – unless you know what to do.

You see, in the Quick Develop panel, you have four buttons for each adjustment. The inner two buttons will incrementally adjust your image, while the outer two buttons will make larger changes:

The Exposure buttons, for example, feature single and double arrows for increasing and decreasing the exposure. Single arrows change the exposure in 1/3rd stop increments. Double arrows change the exposure by 1-stop increments.

But what if you want to make more subtle changes? Are you stuck using the standard single-arrow buttons?

As it turns out, no! If you need more precise buttons, simply hold down the Shift key. The single arrows will become smaller, and when you click the corresponding buttons, the adjustment will only affect the image half as much.

4. Refine your Linear Gradients

Lightroom’s Linear Gradient tool (formerly known as the Graduated filter tool) is a great way to bring back detail in the sky without affecting the foreground. Note that you can access the Linear Gradient by selecting the Masking option in the Develop module:

However, if you use the Linear Gradient frequently, you’ll run into scenarios where the tool affects more of the scene than you’d like. In this next shot, I wanted to darken the sky without also darkening the cliff and the trees on the left-hand side:

Fortunately, you can achieve the result you’re after in a few different ways. One option is to apply your Linear Gradient, then – with the tool still selected – pull up the shadows; it’ll brighten up the darker areas while leaving the lighter sky untouched.

The second method requires more work, but it’s also far more precise. Once you’ve applied your Linear Gradient, select Subtract in the Masks panel:

Choose Brush, then use your cursor to paint away the areas that should remain unaffected by the Gradient.

5. Adjust the preview size when importing

Lightroom doesn’t edit your RAW files, but upon importing images, the program does generate previews – and the size of these previews depends on your settings.

In the Import window (under File Handling), you can select one of four options:

If you select the 1:1 option, Lightroom will produce giant previews for each image. While this will make editing at high magnifications much faster, it will also take up a ton of space. Standard previews are generally a better choice; these correspond to the previews you see when your image is viewed at screen size in the Library or the Develop module. (You also have the option to create Minimal previews, but these are too small for any in-depth reviewing.)

Even Standard previews can take up a lot of space, however, so if you have a lot of photos (or a small hard drive), you may wish to adjust their dimensions. Select Edit>Catalog Settings, then click the File Handling tab:

Here, you can choose the size of your Standard previews. The default option is Auto, which automatically sets the preview size to match your monitor’s resolution, but what if you’re using multiple monitors? Or what if you use a 6K monitor and don’t wish to create gigantic Standard previews?

Therefore, I’d recommend looking through the options and even testing out a few sizes until you find the right settings for your needs. The smaller the preview size, the less space the images will take up – and you can also save space by reducing the preview quality.

By the way, Lightroom automatically creates 1:1 previews when you zoom in for close-up editing, but by telling the program to discard these previews after one day, you can ensure they don’t fill up your hard drive.

6. The Profile tool

If you capture your photos in RAW (which we generally recommend!), you have the option to change the look of each shot without applying a single editing slider. I’m talking about the Profile option, which lets you select from a number of different ways of rendering the colors and tones in your images:

Lightroom offers a handful of basic Profiles, and I encourage you to test out each one. The default option is Adobe Color, which generally looks fine, but the Adobe Landscape, Adobe Portrait, and Adobe Vivid Profiles are all solid alternatives.

And if you can’t find a basic Profile that you like, Lightroom has dozens of additional profiles, which you can find by selecting the Browse option under the Profile list (displayed above).

These include Artistic Profiles, B&W Profiles, and even Vintage Profiles for that retro vibe that’s so popular on social media:

Here’s an image of mine that displays the power of Lightroom’s Profiles. The left side uses the Adobe Standard option, while the right side uses the Camera Matching Landscape option:

So the next time you’re unhappy with an edit, try switching the Profile. Maybe you’ll hit on something amazing!

7. Use the Alt/Opt key to set the blacks and whites

Most of the time, it’s a good idea to maintain detail everywhere in your images. In other words, you want to ensure there’s information in both the highlights and the shadows without any clipped areas.

When you’re adjusting image tones in the digital darkroom, however, it’s easy to accidentally lose detail (or fail to recover detail) without realizing it. That’s where this Lightroom tool comes in handy.

Simply hold down the Alt/Opt key while adjusting the Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks sliders. Lightroom will create a mask that allows you to easily identify clipped areas as you work!

For instance, if you adjust the Whites slider while pressing the Alt/Opt key, your image will turn black – but if some parts are overexposed, you’ll see them as white or colorful areas.

And the opposite is true for the Blacks slider: If you hold down Alt/Option key and push the slider, the picture will turn white. If you clip some of the shadows, the areas will turn either colorful or black:

I highly encourage you to use this method when checking and adjusting the contrast of your picture. By carefully preserving detail in the whites and blacks, you’ll ensure that your images look professional – and thanks to Lightroom’s handy tools, you can achieve maximum contrast along the way.

Handy Lightroom tools: final words

Now that you’ve finished this article, you should be familiar with plenty of useful tools to enhance your editing workflow.

So head on over to Lightroom and test them out. See if you can re-edit a few of your images using insights from this article!

Now over to you:

Do you have any favorite Lightroom tools that we missed? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post 7 Handy Lightroom Tools to Improve Your Editing Workflow appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sebastian Jezierski.

Adobe Lightroom Classic and Adobe Photoshop are both powerful editing programs, but determining which to use – whether you’re a beginner, an enthusiast, or even a professional – can be tough.

And while the two programs are widely used by the photographic community, they each serve a unique purpose and feature essential differences. In other words, it’s important that you choose between Lightroom vs Photoshop carefully.

In this article, I explain everything you need to know about these two programs. I discuss key similarities and fundamental differences, and I conclude with a discussion of the best editing software for you.

Ready to pick a post-processing program? Then let’s dive right in!

Lightroom vs Photoshop: Overview

Both Lightroom and Photoshop are designed to do the same thing: edit images. How the programs go about handling that task, as well as how they’re designed to be used, is quite different – but if you are simply looking for software that will allow you to alter, tweak, and enhance your photographs, either one will suffice.

The two programs are capable of handling multiple file types such as JPEGs, PNGs, and TIFFs. Technically, Photoshop can’t edit RAW files directly, but it includes a RAW processor that’s highly sophisticated. In fact, both Photoshop and Lightroom use the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) processing engine to handle RAW image files, so you can expect similar editing capabilities when adjusting saturation, working with curves, correcting for lens distortion, and so on.

Both programs also feature an extensive set of editing and manipulation tools allowing you to do everything from basic edits like cropping and adjusting exposure to advanced alterations such as working with brushes, tone curves, and graduated filters. You will find a variety of built-in effects that’ll allow you to instantly apply black and white, sepia, and other artistic effects.

Bottom line: Photoshop and Lightroom are highly capable image editors. I know some photographers who use Lightroom exclusively and never touch Photoshop, as well as plenty of others who spend all day in Photoshop and never open Lightroom.

That said, it’s worth exploring the benefits and drawbacks of each program so you can pick the software that best suits your needs, starting with:

Lightroom vs Photoshop: File handling

Lightroom, unlike Photoshop, doesn’t actually edit photos, nor does it move your images to different locations on your computer. Instead, your image files remain untouched, and every change you implement is kept in a separate catalog file (a sort of recipe book of instructions for how each photo should be processed).

Therefore, when you apply an edit in Lightroom – such as an exposure adjustment or a saturation boost – the software simply logs the alterations in its database while leaving the original image intact. This is known as non-destructive editing.

For example, several months ago I sent my father a photo I took of him, which I had spent some time editing in Lightroom.

But because I edited in Lightroom, the original file was left unchanged, and I can go back and re-edit the photo any time I want.

Another benefit of this approach is that the Lightroom catalog itself is generally quite small; it’ll often take up only a few hundred megabytes on your hard drive, even if you’ve imported thousands of files.

Photoshop, on the other hand, operates quite differently. When you edit a file, you’re always working on the original, unless you save a Photoshop PSD copy that is usually several dozen megabytes in size. A PSD file contains all of your edits, and in order to share the final image, it must then be saved as an easily displayable JPG, PNG, etc. In essence, if you want to perform non-destructive edits in Photoshop, you’ll end up with three separate files: the original camera RAW file, a PSD, and the final copy saved in a shareable format. The process works something like this:

To sum up, Lightroom and Photoshop’s editing processes look similar on the surface, but they come with one major difference: in Lightroom, all your edits are saved in a relatively small catalog file, while in Photoshop, all your changes are saved in unique files for every single picture you edit.

A Photoshop workflow will therefore require far more space, and you’ll end up with multiple versions of each image, too. So why would you want to choose Photoshop instead of Lightroom? In a word, power.

Photoshop vs Lightroom: Editing capabilities

Lightroom is kind of like an all-terrain farm vehicle: It’s fast, nimble, and can be used for a variety of tasks like hauling small objects and towing little trailers. But it simply cannot match the sheer power of a massive farm truck when it comes to getting big, serious jobs done like transporting bales of hay, pulling a horse trailer, or ploughing in mud and snow.

Years back, Adobe realized that not everyone needed the capability of Photoshop, particularly photographers who needed to edit hundreds of images at high speeds. What this new generation of digital photographers demanded was the core editing tools of Photoshop – without all of the fancy extras – packed into one easy-to-use program (Lightroom).

Because when it comes to editing capabilities, Photoshop is far beyond Lightroom. The program contains a dizzying array of filters, brushes, and other tools that allow you to perform hundreds of edits to your images. While Lightroom does offer a handful of excellent local editing options, Photoshop offers a level of precision that Lightroom can’t match.

But more than that, Photoshop operates by letting you create different layers on which your edits actually take place. You might use dozens of layers to edit a single image, and each layer can be modified independently of the others.

Lightroom, by contrast, works in a much more linear fashion. There are no layers, fewer editing tools, and less overall flexibility. This is great if you’re looking to make some basic edits and move on, but it’s not ideal if you’d like to spend hours carefully adjusting colors and tones in targeted portions of your images.

Note that both programs contain a History panel that lets you step back in time to any of your edits, but working with layers gives you infinitely more control over the editing process.

Let’s say you want to add a vignette to a portrait. In Lightroom, this is as simple as adjusting the Amount slider of the Post-Crop Vignetting tool, and while you can change a few basic parameters, there’s not an overwhelming number of options. It’s a quick, no-fuss solution that is incredibly useful for all sorts of photography situations, and if you want a bit more control you can always create a Radial Gradient.

In Photoshop, however, you would need to add an adjustment layer to your photo – probably Levels or Curves – and use it to darken the image. You’d then need to apply a mask to the layer so you only affect the outer edges, and you’d also have the option to modify the layer’s opacity or blend mode. That’s just the beginning, and while all these additional steps might seem hopelessly convoluted, the more you learn how to use the tools Photoshop has to offer, the greater degree of control you’ll have over the editing process.

Thanks to its huge number of options and features (including support for text, 3D graphics, and even video), Photoshop is ideal for almost any image-editing situation, but it takes longer to learn and each process requires more effort. Lightroom essentially distills Photoshop down to the tools that photographers use most, which is one of the reasons it is so appealing to shutterbugs.

Lightroom vs Photoshop: workflow and image organization

Photo organization is where Lightroom really shines – in fact, the program offers an end-to-end workflow solution for photographers. Since it’s designed specifically to address the needs of photography enthusiasts and professionals, it handles everything from importing photos from your memory card to organizing, editing, sharing, and printing.

Lightroom also has support for keywords and virtual folders to help you keep track of your images, and you can even use it to create a slideshow, a photo book, or a print. Many photographers, including professionals, go weeks or months without ever opening Photoshop because Lightroom really does it all.

On the other end of the spectrum is Photoshop, which doesn’t transfer files, won’t organize your images, and certainly can’t make slideshows or photo books. You can use the free Adobe Bridge software to handle some workflow-based tasks like importing photos and organizing the digital media on your computer, and when paired with Photoshop, it does offer a Lightroom-like workflow experience – but it’s not quite as streamlined as working in Lightroom alone.

At the end of the day, Lightroom is far and away the better choice if you’re looking for software that can handle your file organization. In fact, it’s one of the best image-organization programs on the market, and it’s often worth the subscription price for this reason alone. But if you need the power of Photoshop, then working with Adobe Bridge is definitely an option (or you can use both Lightroom and Photoshop for an integrated solution).

Lightroom vs Photoshop: Which program is best for you?

By now, you undoubtedly realize that both Lightroom and Photoshop have their advantages and disadvantages. So which program is best? That really depends on you!

If you’re serious about image editing and you want to post-process each image with pixel-level precision, Photoshop is probably the better choice (along with Adobe Bridge to manage your files). It’ll let you apply all sorts of targeted adjustments using brushes, gradients, and more, and it’ll even let you apply focus stacks and do high-level compositing.

But if you’re looking for a program that offers basic to mid-level editing and that can also take care of all your image workflow needs, then Lightroom is the way to go. Its digital asset management capabilities are outstanding, and it’ll help you keep each and every one of your images carefully organized.

One more factor to consider is price. You cannot purchase either of these programs for a single fee; instead, you’ll need to pay monthly for an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription plan. You can currently purchase Adobe’s basic Photography plan for just $9.99 per month, and it includes both Photoshop and Lightroom (as well as 20 GB of cloud storage).

So if you’re not quite sure which program to use, consider buying a Creative Cloud subscription, then try out both products and see what you think!

Now over to you:

Which program do you plan to use, Lightroom or Photoshop? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Lightroom vs Photoshop: Which Editing Program Is Best? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.

If you want to improve your street photography after you’ve pressed the shutter button, then you’ll undoubtedly be interested in the best Lightroom street photography presets. After all, it’s one thing to capture the decisive moment when you’re out in the street with your camera, and it’s another thing entirely to edit each shot so your final files look precisely the way you envisioned.

Often, that extra bit of refinement or pop comes with the help of a favorite Lightroom preset. Presets allow us to control the look and feel of our photos so others can understand how we felt about the scenes as we photographed them.

Lightroom presets are extremely popular, and there are a huge number of options to choose from. Whether you’re just starting out or have had some experience with presets in the past, picking the best ones can be challenging. Therefore, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite presets, which will help you transform your RAW street photography snaps into images with depth and character – so long as you apply them well.

I’ve included a few presets that you can download (for free) and import into Lightroom. I’ve also made good use of some of the prepackaged presets that come as part of your Lightroom subscription. That way, you can see how easy it is to improve your street photos with a single click.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at the best street photography presets in 2023!

1. Classic – B&W Presets

In the Lightroom Develop module, you can find some wonderful black-and-white presets to apply to your street shots. Once you’ve picked a photo to edit, find the Classic – B&W Presets section in the Presets dropdown menu.

You should see a handful of black-and-white presets, and the one that works best will depend on your specific image. I’d recommend hovering over each of the presets as you observe the highlights and shadows of your shot. See what looks good, and don’t be afraid to tweak the editing sliders further once you’ve selected a preset.

Here’s my original image:

I decided to use the B&W Look 5 preset. Here is the result:

I like the effect it has on this street scene with a spirit house. Although I think the colors in this image work well together, I wanted to experiment with a monochrome effect, and I appreciate how B&W Look 5 manages the shadows and highlights while drawing attention to the woman’s face.

2. Cross Process

The cross-process look is old school. When using film, you need to make sure that it’s processed with the correct chemicals – but if you want to get unusual results, you can process color negative film in chemicals for color transparency film (or vice versa).

Cross-processing results are often unpredictable and can vary from film type to film type. So by applying a cross-process Lightroom preset, you know you’ll get some eye-catching color shifts! To find Lightroom’s cross-process options, go to the Preset panel, then select Classic – Color Presets. You should see three cross-process options: Cross Process 1, Cross Process 2, and Cross Process 3.

Below, I’ve put the cross-process presets to the test. Here’s my original image:

And here’s my image after applying a cross-process preset:

I like the color adjustments – the bright yellows and reds are toned down. I also love how this preset treated the stainless steel. Note that I manually tweaked the preset slightly to enhance the appearance of the colors.

3. Cool Shadows and Warm Highlights

The Cool Shadows and Warm Highlights preset is an outstanding choice for most forms of street photography; in fact, because it’s so universally applicable, you can use it to edit all kinds of different street shots and give a group of images a more unified appearance. (When you consistently use the same few presets, it can lend your photographic portfolio a stylized look and feel.)

You can find the preset in the Lightroom Preset panel under the Creative tab. Here’s my sample (before) photo:

And here’s the image after applying the Cool Shadows and Warm Highlights preset:

As you can see, the presets made the shadows cooler, and their bluish-green tones contrast nicely with the added warmth in the highlights. The warmer highlights even look good in the bright green of the umbrella.

4. Vivid

Some Lightroom presets can give your street photos an intense look, but the best ones tend to be more subtle. That’s why I recommend trying Vivid (in the Color section of the Lightroom Preset panel); it applies a little pop to photos without taking them too far.

Check out this simple image of a manikin:

And see the result after the preset has been applied:

I like how the preset lifted the colors and gently opened up the shadows. It’s also helped balance the contrast in the highlight areas. 

I’ve noticed a common trend in photo editing where the details are pulled out in both shadow and highlight areas. While such an approach can emphasize lots of detail, it also makes photos look unnatural. Just because it’s possible to exploit the shadows and highlights in this manner does not mean you need to do it frequently. It’s a bit like driving your car as fast as you can everywhere you go; it’s not always going to work out well. Instead, try using a subtle preset that keeps the image looking natural.

5. Cool Light

When your image contains lots of contrast, you might be tempted to use a preset that radically alters the colors and tones. In my experience, however, this is unnecessary. When an image already contains drama, you can make the most of it by applying a more subtle edit.

I deliberately exposed this next photo for the highlights; I saw the nice bright light illuminating part of the scene, and I appreciated the heavy shadows. So I set my exposure for the highlights and waited. Within a minute or two, a man pulled his motorcycle onto the sidewalk and caught the sunlight.

The original is nice, but I wanted to add a more subdued feeling to the shot. That’s why I applied Lightroom’s Cool Light preset (found in the Creative options), which lifted both the highlights and shadows while adding a blue tinge to the whole photo that unified the different elements.

6. Vintage Street Photography (by Weedit.Photos)

Sometimes, you might want to give your photos a vintage feel without going monochrome. Black and white certainly lends an old-fashioned look to photos, but sometimes leaving the color intact can work well, especially when you use a good vintage preset. A great option here is the Vintage Street Photography preset you can download from Weedit.Photos.

My original image is complex and colorful:

But the preset makes it even better:

As you can see, the image now has a distinctly older look and feel. By subduing the colors and dulling down the shadow areas, the preset replicates how some photos look when they are older. (Colors and blacks tend to fade and lose contrast, particularly if the photo hasn’t been processed well.)

I deliberately chose an image that had no obvious technology, though the motorcycle might give the game away.

7. Illumination Street Photography (by Weedit.Photos)

The Illumination Street Photography preset comes, once again, from Weedit.Photos, and it’s completely free to download. It’s a great way to unify your shots with subtle color toning, and it can even give photos a slightly cinematic feel.

For this next image – featuring two men talking at a street noodle shop – I wanted to dampen down the colors. The bright shirts and the vibrant hues in the background didn’t match the mood.

So I applied the Illumination preset to balance the colors and contrast. Here’s the result:

8. Urban Cool (by PresetLove)

Some Lightroom presets only adjust image tones, but others alter the main colors in an image (occasionally with spectacular results!). I loved the look of this stylized building contrasted with the mass of messy powerlines, but I thought the scene looked a bit dull:

So I added the Urban Cool preset from PresetLove. It added a nice blue to the midtones in the scene, and the result was much more to my liking:

9. Demarcation Street Photography (by Weedit.Photos)

When I edit my street photos, I aim to keep skin tones looking relatively natural. I’ll tweak brightness and contrast levels but often leave skin tones alone. 

Therefore, I prefer to use presets that don’t adjust skin too heavily. This next street portrait needed a bit of contrast:

So I added the Demarcation Street Photography preset from Weedit.Photos. The woman’s skin tone looks natural, but the preset added a touch of contrast that helps separate the subject from the background:

10. Street (by PresetLove)

Not every photo needs to look subtle and realistic. Sometimes, you may wish to create a more radical look and feel to your shots, and that’s where the Street preset from PresetLove comes in handy.

Take a look at my image prior to adding the preset:

Then, when I add the Street preset, here’s what I get:

As you can see, the preset has adjusted the look of this image quite heavily. The greens have turned to aqua, while the yellows and reds have swung more toward orange. The whole photo vibrates in an odd color space that works nicely with the juxtaposition of the sunflower, the signs, and the CCTV cameras.

The best Lightroom street photography presets: final words

Finding the best Lightroom street photography preset for your image is often a matter of experimenting with lots of options. The more you try, the more you’ll understand what you like, though I certainly hope this list provides you with a good starting point.

Remember: If you scroll your cursor over your Lightroom presets, you’ll see the effect previewed on your image. This can be a great way to quickly determine the right preset to use.

And once you’ve been applying presets for a while, you can try tweaking them to refine the look of each photo you edit. It’s faster than editing photos from scratch, and it also offers extra customizability for the best possible results. (You might even create some presets of your own!)

Now over to you:

Which of these presets do you plan to use? Do you have other favorite presets that we missed? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post 10 Best Street Photography Presets (for Lightroom) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

Affinity Photo’s RAW development has always been excellent, but the addition of non-destructive RAW editing puts the program well above many of its peers. This recent update means that photographers who want the ultimate in both power and flexibility when developing RAW files now have even more reason to look at Affinity Photo instead of more expensive, subscription-based options.

You can now open RAW files, edit them as required, and then return to those edits and make further tweaks and refinements as you work in the normal, layer-based interface. It’s an incredible addition to the software; while the process is powerful enough for working professionals, it’s also simple enough that anyone can do it.

In this article, I share the ins and outs of Affinity’s non-destructive RAW editing workflow, and I include plenty of tips along the way!

Understanding RAW

In order to see the true power of Affinity Photo’s non-destructive RAW editing, it helps to first understand a bit about the RAW format. When you take a picture in JPEG format, your camera discards much of the data captured by the image sensor (though it’s data that you probably won’t really notice). The result is an image that looks great without taking up much space on your memory card or cloud storage, but with one important caveat: you don’t have much flexibility when editing the file. If you want to tweak the colors, recover useful detail in areas that are too dark, or create brilliant HDR-style results, you can’t really do it because of the data that was tossed out when the file was created. That’s where the RAW format really starts to shine.

RAW files contain all of the data captured by your camera’s image sensor, even parts that might seem completely useless and redundant. RAW files are much larger than JPEG pictures and can’t even be opened by many software programs. Instead, RAW files need to be developed – much like film back in the days of analog 35mm cameras. RAW files are often flat, boring, and uninteresting, and this is by design; they contain no tweaks or alterations, but instead let you, the photographer, decide exactly how the end result should look.

What is non-destructive RAW editing?

Non-destructive RAW editing means that your edits are saved separately and never alter the original RAW file.

If you shoot in RAW but use a program like Lightroom or Capture One, you might be wondering why non-destructive RAW editing is such a big deal. These programs have non-destructive RAW editing built in from the ground up, and they’ve always offered the ability to re-edit RAW files years or even decades down the line. In fact, when you import RAW files into Lightroom, the images you see in your Library and Develop modules aren’t RAW files at all, but small previews that contain the instructions for your edits (which are then applied to the RAW files when you export your shots).

Affinity Photo has had the ability to develop RAW files for years, but after doing some initial RAW processing, your edits would be frozen in place. The image could, of course, still be tweaked to some degree in Affinity Photo, but any changes to exposure, highlights, shadows, lens optics, noise reduction, and a host of other parameters would be permanently baked in.

In other words: Back in the day, you had to get everything right the first time around. The introduction of non-destructive RAW editing means that you can tweak your edits later or share your files with other photographers to let them put their own creative spin on your shots!

Affinity Photo and RAW editing

When you open a RAW file in Affinity Photo, you might notice that you don’t have access to the normal suite of editing options. You can’t use layers, brushes, clone stamps, or even create selections. Why? Because the original RAW file hasn’t been developed!

Instead, you’ll see a few simple options on the left, like Pan, Zoom, and Blemish Removal. On the right, you’ll encounter a series of sliders that look similar to what you might find in Lightroom’s Develop module. These allow you to adjust a host of parameters, such as Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, White Balance, and more:

These initial limitations might lead you to conclude that RAW files in Affinity Photo are not as flexible as JPEGs or files captured in another image format. But in reality, it’s quite the opposite! RAW files are significantly more versatile than other kinds of files precisely because you have to edit the RAW files first. Since RAW files are not actually images but a collection of color and luminance data from the camera’s image sensor, that data must first be turned into a usable format before it can be edited in the traditional Affinity Photo interface.

How to do non-destructive RAW editing in Affinity

Affinity Photo RAW editing is actually quite simple.

First, open a RAW file (all major RAW formats are supported, including DNG), and use the sliders and options to edit it however you like using the Develop Persona. You can recover shadow data, reduce noise, adjust color, correct lens distortion, edit the tone curve, and even adjust the metadata. Most of the options are similar to Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW (ACR is the tool that Photoshop uses to develop RAW files). But Affinity Photo gives you some tools that surpass its subscription-based counterparts, such as a waveform view that offers deep insights into the color data of your RAW files.

In addition to displaying Before and After views so you can see the effects of your edits, you can also drag a slider from left to right that shows a moving divider between the two. This is especially helpful for looking at how your edits are being applied to specific parts of an image instead of seeing the entire shot at once.

After you finish editing your RAW file, click the blue Develop button in the top-left corner to open your image in the normal Affinity Photo editing interface. However, you need to choose one of three options for how you would like the data to be handled: Pixel Layer, RAW Layer (Embedded), and RAW Layer (Linked).

Pixel Layer means that your edits will be turned into a normal bitmapped layer that can’t be re-edited later on. Do not choose this option if you might want to re-edit the RAW file at some point, but it is useful if you need a quick-and-simple editing workflow and don’t plan on ever returning to the edited RAW for more tweaks. If you do select this option, remember that the original file will stay intact and can be re-opened and re-edited from scratch, but you won’t be able to alter any of your original edits.

RAW Layer (Embedded) creates an .afphoto file that can be opened in Affinity Photo. The file contains the original RAW image, all your edits, and all the layer-based edits applied in the normal Affinity Photo editing interface. It’s great for a more self-contained workflow; all your image data and editing history are stored in a single file, which can be moved around on your computer or sent to someone else for further editing. The main drawback is that the resulting .afphoto file tends to be roughly 10x larger than your original RAW file, which can eat up storage space on your computer if you use this option frequently. Note that the Raw Layer (Embedded) option also leaves your original RAW file untouched.

RAW Layer (Linked) is my personal favorite and the option that I recommend most often. It creates a separate .afphoto file, similar to an XMP sidecar file used by Lightroom, which stores the edits to your RAW file. This .afphoto file is very small, about 1-2 megabytes, and can be opened later to make additional changes to your RAW file as well as any layer-based edits that you may have done in Affinity Photo. However, if you use this option, you do have to be careful not to move the .afphoto file or the original RAW file from their folders or directories on your computer. If you do, you will need to re-link the original RAW file when you open the .afphoto file for further editing.

After your RAW file has been developed, you’re free to perform any edits using the normal Affinity Photo interface: adding layers and filters, creating selections, using layer masks, and more. Your original RAW file will not be altered in any way, and any changes you apply will be saved in the .afphoto file. As long as you don’t rasterize the layer that contains the developed RAW file, you can return to the Develop interface at any time by selecting the layer and clicking the Develop button at the top of the panel.

For example, I used the Develop Persona to perform some initial edits on my prairie dog RAW file. Then, after developing the file, I used the selection tool in Affinity Photo to mask out the background.

In place of the original green background, I’ve added a bright blue sky; my goal was to make the entire scene feel a bit hyper-realistic, almost like something out of a fairy tale. I imported another image into Affinity Photo and used the Layers panel to place it below the prairie dog image, then repositioned the picture so it would be in just the right location to have the new sky in the perfect spot.

The resulting image looks fine, but a bit more tweaking to the prairie dog could help elevate the composition and make everything a bit more interesting. Therefore, I selected the prairie dog layer thumbnail and clicked Develop Image to return to the RAW Develop persona.

The RAW file is now able to be tweaked and refined with all the adjustment sliders right where I had them originally – and with the addition of the new sky in the background. I made some adjustments to the Tone Curve to give the foreground a more ethereal look, and this illustrates the kind of power Affinity Photo offers.

This next image illustrates one of the best parts of Affinity Photo RAW editing:

It also shows why Affinity’s non-destructive process is so useful. Working with the RAW file by itself is one thing, but returning to the RAW Develop environment while also looking at the other layers that make up an entire composition makes this an incredibly powerful tool for photographers.

To save your edits and return to the Affinity Photo editing environment, click the Develop button in the top-left corner. This cycle can be repeated as many times as you need thanks to the flexibility of the non-destructive editing process.

When is non-destructive RAW editing useful?

Image editing is often a complicated, iterative task where things change many times on the way to a final, fully-realized composition. And any photographer who uses Affinity Photo’s RAW editing capabilities will see incredible benefits to this non-destructive workflow.

It allows you to continually tweak, refine, and polish your RAW files, instead of developing your RAW files once and then being stuck with those initial settings.

Non-destructive RAW editing is also useful for casual and hobbyist photographers who just want a bit more freedom and flexibility. It’s like working with a safety net, and it helps make the editing process much less stressful since you can return to your RAW Develop settings whenever you want.

Affinity Photo RAW editing: final words

I remember shooting with 110 and 35mm cameras when I was younger, taking the film to be developed, and excitedly opening the envelopes several days later – only to be disappointed time and time again when my images didn’t look exactly how I wanted them to appear.

Until recently, that was how Affinity Photo RAW editing worked: you had one shot to get it right, and if you wanted to re-develop your RAW files, you had to dust off the digital negatives and begin again. The addition of a non-destructive RAW workflow is a game-changer and is just one more reason to consider Affinity Photo as an alternative to other editing software!

Now over to you:

Do you plan to take advantage of Affinity Photo’s RAW workflow? How will you use it? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Non-Destructive RAW Editing in Affinity Photo: A Guide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.

Do you know how and when to use Screen blend mode in Photoshop to improve your images? While you probably realize that you can change the blending modes of your layers, determining which mode to use each time can be tough.

To make the most of Screen blend mode, it’s important to understand how it works. In this article, I start by explaining what Screen is and what it does to your images; I then share when to use it for the best results, and I give you some practical examples, too. I close with a couple of extra tips to help you master the blend mode and use it to improve your Photoshop editing.

So if you’re ready to become a Screen master, then let’s dive right in!

What is Screen blend mode?

First things first: Photoshop allows you to work with layers of different types (including image layers and adjustment layers). You can make each of your layers interact with one another – and blend modes are the mechanisms that guide this interaction. In other words, by choosing different blend modes, you can ensure that your layers interact in different ways.

Now, Photoshop’s blend modes are divided into categories. Screen belongs to the Lighten category because it lightens images (more about that in a moment!). Technically speaking, Screen inverts, multiplies, and once again inverts the value of the pixels. Let’s see what this means in practice:

As the examples show – in which white, gray, and black layers are blended with my original flower file – Screen generally lightens the original image. However, if you use Screen to blend an image with a black layer, the colors won’t change – and if you use Screen to blend an image with a white layer, you’ll get a pure white result.

When should you use Screen blend mode?

Screen is useful in two main situations: When you want to adjust or correct your image, and when you want to do photo compositing. Let’s take a look at both scenarios in turn:

1. For photo editing

As I mentioned above, Screen blend mode lightens your image – which means it comes in handy when you have underexposed (i.e., too dark) photos.

Simply duplicate your image layer, then change the blend mode to Screen. Your photo will immediately lighten:

It’s also possible to use the Screen blend mode – in combination with the Multiply blend mode – to add contrast.

You see, Screen and Multiply are opposites, so when you have an image that’s dull or flat, you can duplicate the image twice. Then change the blend mode to Screen on one of the duplicates and the blend mode to Multiply on the other!

All you need to do is duplicate the image two times. Change the blend mode to Screen on one of the duplicates and Multiply on the other, and your image will gain a bit of contrast.

2. For photo compositing

In the first section of this article, I showed you how black pixels won’t have any effect on your image when you use the Screen blend mode. And when you’re making a photo composite, this can certainly come in handy!

Why? Because when you paste a subject on a black surface, you won’t need to waste long minutes selecting and masking it. Instead, you can simply change the blend mode to Screen, and the black background will disappear. (Some common examples where this works well is when compositing smoke, lightning, and bokeh.)

How to use Screen blend mode: step by step

Working with Screen is extremely easy, and even Photoshop beginners should be able to grasp the basics.

Start by opening the image you want to edit in Photoshop. Then add a second layer (on which you’ll be using the Screen blend mode). It doesn’t matter if it’s a duplicate of the original file, a new image, or an adjustment layer; Screen is used the same way in each scenario.

For my example, I’m duplicating the Background layer. To do this, you can click on the layer and drag it to the Add New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, or you can use the Duplicate Layer command in the Layer menu:

Make sure your new layer is selected, then open the blend mode menu (you’ll find it at the top of the Layers panel). Scroll until you find Screen:

If you’re using Photoshop CC, you’ll see a preview of each blend mode’s effect as you hover over it in the menu. However, to apply Screen (or any other blend mode), you’ll need to click on it.

If the result is a little too intense, go ahead and adjust the opacity. You’ll find this option at the top of the Layers panel next to the blend mode menu:

By default, the opacity will be at 100%. To adjust it, click on the arrow next to it to open the slider. Then simply move the slider until you’re happy with the result!

Screen blend mode: A step-by-step example

As I mentioned above, there are many uses for the Screen blend mode. In this example, I show you how it can be used to recover underexposed photographs, then I explain how to combine it with the Multiply blend mode to add contrast.

By the time I’m finished, you’ll see how much detail you can recover from a poorly exposed photograph without losing any information.

Step 1: Duplicate your image layer

You’ll need to start by opening your image; by default, it will appear as a locked Background layer:

Go ahead and duplicate the original image. Remember, you can simply click and drag it to the plus sign at the bottom of the panel (i.e., the Add New Layer icon). Alternatively, you can select Layer>Duplicate Layer in the Photoshop menu.

Step 2: Apply the Screen blend mode

Next, you’ll want to change the blend mode to Screen. As I explained in the previous section, you can do this by opening the drop-down menu at the top of the Layers panel.

Click on Screen, then watch as the image brightens:

Step 3: Adjust the tones

The Screen blend mode did a great job of boosting the exposure of my image, but the highlights – that is, the brightest portions of the sky and the water- are a bit too bright. I want to lower the effect of the blend mode on those areas (and only those areas).

To do this, I’ll add a layer mask. You can create masks by selecting the relevant layer, then clicking the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the panel. Then grab a Brush, set it to black, lower its opacity, and start painting over the lighter areas (while making sure your mask is selected).

The areas over which I’ve painted decrease in brightness, giving a nice result:

I like what I’ve produced, but I want to brighten the shadows further and add some contrast. To do this, I can create a Levels adjustment layer, then change the blend mode to Screen:

Just altering the blend mode will produce an immediate change – though you can fine-tune the effect using the sliders or the presets in the Levels property panel. In my case, I’ve used one of the presets to increase the contrast.

Note: If you think it’s necessary, you can lower the opacity of your Levels adjustment layer. I turned mine down to 50%, but you should always move the slider to choose a value that’s right for your image.

Step 5: Add some extra contrast

At this point, my image has details in shadows and highlights, and it’s definitely an improvement compared to the original. However, it looks rather flat. A dramatic sky would give it the extra oomph it needs.

I’ll merge and copy all the layers into a single new file by pressing Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Alt/Option+E, then I’ll change the blend mode to Multiply.

Since Multiply is the opposite of Screen, the image will get darker. Unfortunately, while the sky is now exactly what I want, the rest is too dark again. So I’ll create a layer mask to fine-tune where I want the Multiply layer to appear and where I want the Screen layer to shine through:

And that’s it. Just look at the difference:

Screen blend mode: 2 quick tips

Like any other Photoshop tool, there’s more to Screen than meets the eye. Here are a few extra tips to help you out:

1. Apply Screen blend mode to a filter

When you’re working with Smart Objects, the filters you apply become Smart Filters – which allow you to change the blend mode (just as if you were working with layers).

To adjust a filter’s blend mode, double-click on the Adjustments icon next to the filter in the Layers panel. This will open a dialog box; simply open the Mode menu and choose Screen:

2. Use Screen to add a tint to your photos

You can use the Screen blend mode to add a tint or a touch of color to your images. Simply add a Solid Color or Gradient layer, then change the blend mode to Screen:

If the effect is a bit strong, you can always lower the opacity. Note that the result may be very subtle, yet it’s a great way to give your images that extra-polished look.

Screen blend mode: final words

Hopefully, you found this article helpful! Screen isn’t a hugely popular blend mode, but it’s actually very useful and versatile. Whether you’re adding clouds to a landscape, steam to a cup of coffee, or brightening an underexposed photo, Screen will make things so much easier.

So if you haven’t already, head into Photoshop and test it out. Try compositing two images, or see if you can subtly improve a photo by using Screen to alter the exposure.

Now over to you:

How do you plan to use the Screen blend mode? Do you have any additional tips? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Screen Blend Mode: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.