How to QUICKLY and EASILY create the Coloured / Gel Lighting Effect in Lightroom using Masks …
Talking Lightroom and Photography with Adobe Lightroom Product Manager Katrin Eismann
Watch the recording of this LIVE Broadcast when I was joined by Adobe Lightroom Product Manager and Photographer, Katrin Eismann as we discuss her process for capturing stunning Travel Photographs, her Personal Projects, kit and also take a look at Lightroom’s latest technology for Photographers and some hints and tips for best results.
links mentioned during the broadcast
Katrin on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katrineismann/ ( @katrin_eismann )
Lightroom Academy: lightroom.adobe.com/academy
Adobe Community Forums: https://community.adobe.com/
Marc Muench Photography Workshops: muenchworkshops.com/workshops/
Generative AI Remove, Sony Tethering and more ... Lightroom UPDATE May 2024
So today (Tuesday 21st May 2024) Adobe made available some fantastic updates and enhancements to both Lightroom v 7.3 (including Mobile) and Lightroom Classic v 13.3 which amongst other things sees the integration of Adobe’s AI, Adobe Firefly and (finally) tethering support for Sony amongt others things.
So, here’s a run through of the changes from today in this recording of a LIVE Broadcast I did on the day of release, and also below I’ve written down all the detailsincluding useful links…
PERFORMANCE UPDATES
In addition to some bug fixes and stability improvements across all platforms, you’ll also notice a speed increase when using Denoise.
Also in addition to the updates and additions detailed below Adobe also mention …
HDR Optimisation
Instant Access to Photo Libraries in Lightroom Mobile and Desktop apps
Lightroom’s all new mobile editing experience streamlines the mobile toolbar to prioritise the most popular features, whilst making it faster and more intuitive to edit.
SLIDESHOW IN DESKTOP
It’s now possible to show images in a slideshow from within Lightroom Desktop.
To start a slideshow you access it via the View > Start Slideshow
On release, the controls and the look of the slideshow are very limited with the images playing at full screen and being able to adjust whether the slideshow loops and adjust the speed of the slideshow to be Extra Slow, Slow, Medium and Fast.
CLOUD TO LOCAL STORAGE (DESKTOP)
Until now it was only possible to have cloud based albums in Lightroom Desktop, but with this update that all changes because from now, we can make Albums available and viewable offline just like Collections in Classic where we could sync them to the cloud or not.
To do this simply right-click on an Album and choose Make Album Available Offline …
SONY TETHERING SUPPORT (CLASSIC)
It’s taken some time but finally Adobe have worked closely with Sony and as a consequence, Lightroom Classic now supports Sony Tethering.
Sony Tethering in Lightroom Classic offers full control over main camera settings, capture and LIVE view
CURRENTLY SUPPORTED SONY CAMERAS …
The process for tethering to Lightroom Classic with a compatible Sony camera is a very simple process, working exactly the same as it does for other compatible brands.
• Note: Camera needs to be in Remote Shooting or PC Remote mode via USB Connection settings.
A full list of ALL cameras that are supported (not just Sony) can be found here: LINK
TONE CURVE IN VIDEO (DESKTOP)
I’m not someone that edits video within Lightroom but I know that there are many that do, so the addition of Tone Curve in Video for Lightroom Desktop is going to be a very welcome update.
Adobe state that …
You can now edit the Tone Curve when editing video in Lightroom Desktop
These edits are viewable across Mobile and Web
Videos now supports Presets with Tone Curve information
LENS BLUR ENHANCEMENTS
The Lens Blur Effect is finally out of Early Access and available to all, and Adobe states that its release also brings with it …
Copy and Paste Support
Added focus slider in Mobile
Support for Presets and New Adaptive Presets
Improvements to the subject detection and complex edges
Lens Blur
NO Lens BLur
With Visualise Range turned on to show which areas of the image are in and out of focus
Lens Blur Adaptive Presets
GENERATIVE AI REMOVE
Adobe have now integrated their Adobe Firely AI as Early Access into Lightroom Desktop, Mobile, Web and Lightroom Classic for the purpose of … Removing distractions and unwanted objects from your photos
Found in the Remove section amongst the exisiting Remove Tool, Heal Tool and Clone Stamp Tool (and Red Eye Removal) you use it in conjunction with the Remove Tool by simply ticking the Generative AI checkbox …
Maximum Resolution of the ‘Removed’ area is currently 2K, so a very generous starting point considering this is to be used purely for removing unwanted distractions and objects …
To use Remove with Generative AI simply brush generously over whatever it is that you want to remove.
You can then Add or Subtract from this area to refine it …
3 variations are then given and you can click through to see which you prefer OR simply Refresh to try again until you get a result that you’re happy with …
There is also an Object Aware checkbox which Adobe state is to to be used to Preserve Background Details whereby the AI will analyse the initial selection you made and identify what it is you want to remove without having to fill in the entire selection, meaning you could just brush around the outside.
So for example in the picture below, let’s say that I want to remove the cardboard box and string that the little boy has over his shoulder …
I’ll use Generative AI Remove but also use Object Aware, so then rather brush to select the entire box I’ll just quickly brush around the outside including the string …
The AI then looks at what I’ve drawn around to ee if it can identify the main object, and looking at the selection it made below it did a pretty good job …
I then use the Add option in the Refine section to brush over the string that was missed, so that it’s included in the remove …
… and this is the result
As with all features and tools there are ways to use them to produce more pleasing results, so here’s just a few for Generative AI Remove …
There a couple of differences when using Generative AI Remove in Lightroom Desktop and Lightroom Classic and I show those in the LIVE Broadcast recording at the top of this page
Finally (for now) keep a look out for some more videos coming soon where I take a deeper dive into some of the new features, but in the mean time here’s a link to the official news release from Adobe ( LINK )
Cheers,
Glyn
Spending time with Photography Students at Cardiff and Vale College
On Wednesday this week I was at Cardiff and Vale College in South Wales, having been invited to speak to a group of Photography Students for a couple of hours.
It was so good to be amongst people who were clearly excited about their Photography but also in particular about the possibilities with their retouching using Lightroom .
During my time with them I first of all went through some tips and techniques for Portrait Photography, focusing (no pun intended) on the ‘people’ side of things as opposed to the technicals, and all with the intention of helping the person in front of the camera to relax.
After a short break I then went through retouching a portrait using ONLY Lightroom and going through my new workflow which shows how I am now doing tasks such as Dodging and Burning, my 2010 Technique and Lighting Effects, which up until very recently I would have only ever done by using Photoshop.
“Had a great time at Glyn’s lecture yesterday. I had been researching about how to take good portraits. What Glyn shared about techniques (with just one light!) was really encouraging. I was still using Photoshop for my editing, but the techniques demonstrated in Lightroom were amazing. I must sign up to his channel!”
“Thank you Glyn for yesterdays photography workshop. Your expertise and passion made it a truly enriching experience. Looking forward to applying the new skills I’ve learned. Many thanks for your valuable time.”
“Yesterday I attended a talk/presentation hosted by Glyn Dewis. This presentation was not only hugely informative but presented me with a number of questions to ask of myself. If I were to make comment on one thing from the presenter/presentation it would be the unswerving passion for the subject and inspiring others to achieve of their best. ”
HUGE thanks to everyone for making me feel so incredibly welcome and for my great friend Anthony Crothers (College Staff / Tutor) for inviting me in.
Editing my Photographs in Lightroom on my iPad Pro
Now that I’ve been able to calibrate the screen on my iPad Pro, I’m really enjoying it when from time to time I retouch some of my pictures on it; reason being that the results on my calibrated iPad Pro are extremely close to how they look on my calibrated BenQ SW 272U Display.
I always struggled taking it seriously before now because it wasn’t calibrated and thought …
“What’s the point when I’d then have to go and make corrections
in Lightroom on my desktop afterwards?”
But now this is definitely not the case …
I actually had the technical folks at Calibrite reach out to me after having seen the iPad Pro calibration video I shared on my YouTube channel, asking if I’d be able to do a 2nd calibration to check whether the one I did was indeed accurate; and it most definitely was …
Target Luminance = 100cd/m2
Achieved Luminance = 99.355cd/m2
Target X = 0.3127
Achieved X = 0.313
Target Y = 0.3290
Achieved Y = 0.331
So yeah … the calibration of the iPad Pro screen worked a treat!
If you didn’t see the video I put together showing how to calibrate the iPad Pro and whaich also makes sense of what all this Luminance, X and Y stuff is all about, here it is …
So now, knowing that my iPad Pro screen calibration is good, I’m definitely making more use of it; not for every edit but just for those times when I just fancy sitting with my feet up in front of the TV and tinkering and when out and about on a phot shoot and then grabbing a coffee.
Also on those occasions if I haven’t finished the editing, when I get back home in front of my main computer I can just pick up in Lghtroom on my desktop from where I got to in Lightroom on my iPad Pro; such is the way that Lightroom syncs across all devices.
Clever stuff!
Actually on the subject of getting home and diving back on to my main computer, I’ve some new kit coming that is going to improve my workflow, set up and backing up, so I’ll make sure to share about that here and in a video 👍🏻
💥 Solving a LIGHTROOM Preset Headache ( Lightroom and Classic )
The Adobe Lightroom Community is a great resource for Lightroom Presets but how do you get them? How do you install them? How do you install them into Lightroom and / or Lightroom Classic?
In this short video I show exactly what you need to do …
Here’s the link to the Adobe Community PAge where you’ll find the Preset that I’ve made available:
Download my Minimal Teal and Orange Preset for Lightroom and Camera Raw
If you’re a Lightroom Classic , Lightroom or Photoshop / Camera Raw user ...
I have just added the finishing touch steps that I used on the recent portrait of my friend Steve Healy onto the Adobe Lightroom Community Page so that you can save as a preset, download and install to use ... and adjust settings to taste.
Just use this link: https://lightroom.app.link/B4mq80BlSIb
Classic Portraits with Constant Light
Recently I was back with friends in the studio taking portraits, and this time getting Steve in front of my camera to try out some ideas I’d stumbled across when browsing Pinterest that I thought would be another good excuse to get my L60-B constant light out for.
I’ve used Pinterest for years as a great place for not only finding inspiration by looking at the work of photographers I admire like Annie Leibovitz and Mark Seliger, but also a great tool for looking how other photographers pose their subjects, which lets face it can be awkward at times.
Finding a balance between what you want but also making the pose look natural and the subject comfortable can be challenging to get right but I’ve always found it a massive help when you can guide your subject on what you’re looking for by showing them a picture.
Anyway, these here are some of the looks and poses I was really interested in …
Model for the Day
Model for the day was my dear friend Steve Healy whom I’ve known for years.
There was a time when for quite a while we’d not met up because of Steve moving away to Devon but I’m glad to say that when we finally made the move to the South West , we’re now able to meet up fairly regularly to just hangout out and take photographs. This we will certainly be doing more and more of!
Anywa, Steve drove over to my house in the morning and then we both jumped into my car and headed to South Wales to catch up with the gang; some of my closest friends which to be honest are more like family … Ian Munro and Anthony Crothers.
This was the first time Steve had met up in person with Ian and Anthony even though I’m sure they felt like they knew each other anyway having messaged back and forth many times on social media and also in the chat room during my Sunday LIVE Broadcasts on YouTube. Needless to say … Steve instantly became ‘one of the gang’ 😃
So after a traditional meet up at Costa in Brynmawr, South Wales to fuel up on coffee, we then went to the studio and cracked on …
PORTRAIT 1
So the first portrait I really liked the look of doing was the one inspired by this portrait of Robert De Niro taken by Mark Seliger …
Steve had brought along a dark grey casual suit-type jacket which was ideal. He’d also bought a white shirt to wear underneath but when setting up we all felt that even though you’d only seen a small portion of it, it would be too distracting, so instead Steve kept with the black T-Shirt he was wearing.
BACKGROUND
For this I portrait as it was to be a fairly tight crop of Steve on one side and just a little bit of ‘dead space’ to the left, the 7’ x 5’ background would be plenty big enough and so this was set up with the rear supporting leg shortened so that the background took up less floor space and could be closer to the wall.
LIGHT + MODIFIER
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again … I absolutely LOVE this light!
I wouldn’t be exaggerating when I say that positioning the light (L60-B) to get the Rembrandt Lighting Pattern 100% BANG ON took just a few seconds; such is the convenience and ease of doing so when using because … What You See Is What You Get
Bottom Left: iPad Pro with Pinterest App open showin the ‘reference’ image
To achieve a quality of light that was neither hard or soft but somewhere in between, and also to minimise the amount of light that would spill onto the background, I opted to use the Westcott 24” Rapid Box Switch Beauty Dish and with the outer diffusion panel fitted.
Westcott 24” Rapid Box Switch Beauty Dish with Outer Diffusion Panel
CAMERA + Lens
Sony A7RIV
Sony 85mm f/4.0 G Master
CAMERA SETTINGS
Aperture: F/4.0
Shutter Speed: 1/60sec
ISO 1250
Once set up and with any light in the studio that wasn’t contributing to the portrait turned off, I could then start taking portraits of Steve but what was really useful here was that everyone could see EXACTLY what the shots would be like without having to look at the back of my camera each time or look at my iPad Pro that I was tethering to; again because What You See Is What You Get
Studio lights and ‘any’ lights not contributing to the portrait turned off.
This made it so easy for anyone who wanted to make a suggestion and move in to maybe get Steve to angle himself differently or change the position of a hand.
It just worked and worked so incredibly well, making EVERYONE feel involved.
OUT OF CAMERA
Here’s the out of camera Raw file …
Original Raw file in Adobe Lightroom Classic
FINAL EDIT
Here’s the final retouched image which was worked on using both Lightroom and Photoshop …
Final Retocuhed Portrait
LIGHTROOM CLASSIC and PHOTOSHOP
Here’s a summary of the retouching steps carried out in both Lightroom Classic and Photoshop …
Lightroom
Straighten & Crop
Colour Correction*
Denoise
Masking (Enhance eyes - Iris and Pupil only)
*Had to do this manually as ‘somehow’ I forgot to use my Colour Checker Passport … Doh!
Photoshop
Clean Up
Dodge & Burn
2010
Dreamy Glow (20%)
Lightroom
Colour (CN16)
Color Mixer (Reduce Orange & Red Saturation on Steve’s face)
Masking (Radial Gradient to Shape Light)
Masking Exposure on Face
Add Grain
PORTRAIT 2
For the 2nd portrait of Steve, this was the photograph I used as the initial inspiration / idea …
For this we went with the exact same set up albeit positioning the light camera left this time as opposed to camera right as it was for the first portrait.
Below is what the set up looked like before turning off the lights in the studio that weren’t contributing to the portrait …
Using the single L60-B coming in from high up and angled down produced exactly the lighting that was wanted (below) however I felt that the shadow side of Steve’s head was a touch too dark …
To add a touch more light onto the shadow side of Steve’s head, rather than use a 2nd L60-B we just used a Silver Reflector which also had a white side to it, however between the two surfaces, the silver side gave the best result …
OUT OF CAMERA
Here’s the ‘out of camera’ Raw file …
Out of Camera Raw file in Lightroom Classic
FINAL EDIT
Here’s the final retouched image which was worked on using both Lightroom Classic and Photoshop …
Final Retouched Portrait
lightroom classic and photoshop
Retouching steps in both Lightroom Classic and Photoshop were pretty much the same as in the first portrait, however there was one very definite difference.
When taking the 2nd portrait, we all felt that although Steve sitting on a stool worked, it did make him look a little squashed because of the height of the stool he was sitting on and also how his jacket sat, so we also tried a few shots with Steve standing …
With Steve standing it definitely stopped him looked squashed, however when looking at the images later in Lightroom Classic I was torn because I liked the pose and expression on Steve’s face from the seated shots.
So now in the retouching I was thinking I could either (a) do a head swap or (b) do the opposite of a technique I used to do when photographing physiques … and that’s what I chose to do.
PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL
Here’s a short video showing exactly what I did in Photoshop to reduce / remove the ‘squashed’ look …
WRAP UP
Following the photo shoot we all the headed over to Abergavenny for what was a delicious bite to eat at The Angel … THANK YOU Steve!
So there you go, all of the steps that I went through from the initial idea, the kit, the set up and the final edit.
As always if you have any questions / comments, please do make use of the section below and I’ll be sure to reply.
Oh and don’t forget, if you’re interested in getting ANY of the Westcott kit including lighting, modifers, backgrounds etc then drop me a line as I’ll be able to give you a Discount Code for 10% OFF
Cheers
Glyn
KelbyOne Lightroom Conference Coming in April 2024
Very excited to be part of the KelbyOne Lightroom Conference 2024 this coming April 16th and 17th …
I’ll be presenting 2 classes, both of which are connected in that the first class I show all the preparation, planning, lighting and photogtraphy for a photo shoot. So, I’ll be covering the researching the concept, visiting a clothing and props provider to the TV and Movie Industry, working with the model, stylist, the set and finally the shoot.
In the 2nd class I’ll then go through the entire retouching process from importing the cpatured images into Lightroom and then step by step working through the retouching making use of Lightroom and Photoshop, and then finally a print.
VERY excited to show this becuase it means working on something completely new; a portrait that doesn’t form part of a series but a portrait I’ve wanted to work on for a while, so to be able to show the entire process will be great!
To find out more about the Lightroom Conference and to take advantage of Early Bird pricing, click / tap on the button link below.
Grab my FREE Lightroom Presets from the Lightroom Community
So recently I wrote about these 2 images that I captured over the past few weeks …
I edited both images in Lightroom so what I’ve done is make all of the editing steps donwloadable as a Preset that you can use in Lightroom and / or Camera Raw.
You can see the editing steps for both of these images in the Lightroom Community, so if you’d like them as a Preset I’ve written out the steps below …
STEP 1
Click on the link below to got to my Profile Page on lightroom.adobe.com
STEP 2
Click on each image in turn and choose Save as Preset on the far right of the screen
STEP 3
Give the Preset a name. Choose which edits you want included and then press Save
STEP 4
This Preset will now be saved in Your Presets in a Saved from Community folder in your Lightroom.
STEP 5
If you also want this Preset to appear in your Lightroom Classic / Desktop, simply Right-Click on the name of the Preset and choose Export.
You can then import the Preset File into Lightroom Classic.