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The Photoshop Creativity Virtual Summit 2023

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A completely NEW EVENT from the man behind the Photoshop and Lightroom Virtual Summits, Dave Cross …

This event is all about being creative with Photoshop with topics such as creating realistic composites and improve your skill in essential techniques such as selecting, masking, creative uses of brushes, image manipulation, fantasy images, textures, painterly effects and so on …

It’s completely FREE TO WATCH with over 36 hours of Photoshop Training from 19 Instructors including people such as my great friend and former Disney Animator Aaron Blaise, Hollywood Movie Poster compositor Lisa Carney, Brooke Shaden, Bert Monroy and more …

Each day classes go live and are free to watch for 48 hours. 

The Photoshop Creativty Virtual Summit runs from April 17th through April 20th and all you need to do is just grab your FREE PASS

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How to make the DARK and MOODY PRESET in Lightroom (and Camera Raw)

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The Dark and Moody look is extremely popular at the moment especially on social media; it's a great look that can add drama and impact to your pictures.

Here's how I create it and how to make it as a preset so that you can quickly and easily use it again and again in Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC, Lightroom Mobile and Camera Raw.

THANK YOU Carmarthen Cameras, BenQ and Permajet

Last Friday I was in Carmarthen, Wales at Carmarthen Cameras for my Pro Printing Seminar …

… a 2 hour evening going through the complete printing process covering how to correctly calibrate your display / monitor for printing , printing software , paper choice and of course making some prints.

HUGE thank you goes to the great folks at Carmarthen Cameras who always pull out all the stops to make events run smoothly, and also to the incredible support from both BenQ and Permajet.

Kicking off going through the display calibration , I was using a BenQ SW240; a 24” hardware calibrated display using the BenQ Palette Master Software

To calibrate the display I used my X-Rite i1 Display Plus Calibration device (which is now the Calibrite Colour Checker Display Plus) …

So often we’re advised that for the best possible results you only need to use these (generic) settings but I never seemed to get the results I expected , so it was great to get the opportunity to go through explaining the settings and how to fit them to ‘your’ enviroment; when you know what each setting is , it makes this process so much easier and understandable.

I then covered printing software mainly looking at using Lightroom and also the Canon Pro Print Layout Software ; both work great although I do prefer the no frills interface of the Canon Software …

First of all showing how to print on Canon Paper using the Canon Pro 300 and then using a range of papers, from Permajet including their NEW Heritage Range , and showing how to use their Generic Paper Profiles … which never fail to produce fantastic results !

Again , a HUGE thank you to everyone involved and who came along on Friday making it such an enjoyable evening; It was great to run though ‘in person’ just some of the content I have recorded for inclusion in my Printing Class that will be available this April.

Creative Portrait Retouching Techniques Webinar with BenQ

On Wednesday 1st March 2023 (that's next week already ) at 6pm UK I'm doing a LIVE Webinar in partnership with BenQ, going through some Portrait Retouching Techniques in Lightroom and Photoshop + Q&A

This is a FREE 1 hour long webinar also allowing time for Q&A, so if you fancy joining me just use the link below to register and get the link as spaces for the ‘virtual room’ are limited.

Plus anyone who registers, will also receive a link to the recording of the webinar the following day so that they can watch it later.

Hope to see you there 😃
Glyn

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How I Lit and Photographed this Portrait of a Female Attendee

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A couple of weeks back I was in Stoke on Trent presenting at the Guild of Photographers Event on behalf of Sony.

Kicking off first thing I hosted a workshop for a limited number of 10 people ( although 11 were there 🤣 ) and went through how I set up and light portraits but more importantly how I interact and help subjects in front of the camera to relax.

I love sharing this kind of stuff; stuff that I learned mainly from when I was full-on photographing World War 2 Veterans for my 39-45 Portraits Project. These portraits were of people who maybe weren’t so keen initially on being photographed or felt self conscious in front of the camera as opposed to me photographing models. 

No eye tracking, sharpness, dynamic range or whatever will help with this.

Anyway the reason for this was mainly to share one of the portraits I took when showing a lighting set up that is incredibly simple but so incredibly effective.

I only took one photograph but this is the result; a portrait of workshop attendee & Photographer Jo Bullas …

And here’s a Behind the Scenes photograph showing the set up I used however in this one I’m now holding the light for one of the attendees…

KIT USED

Aside from my camera ( Sony A7RIV with the 85mm G-Master Lens) , this is all the kit I used for this portrait …

If you saw an earlier post you’ll recognise the set up as being the same as when I photographed my friends Ian Munro, Anthony Crothers, Dave Clayton, Brian Dukes and Gerwyn Williams; I even jumped in front of the camera too …

The difference this time was simply down to a camera setting using a wider aperture and a slightly slower shutter speed to allow more ambient ‘ natural light into the shot.

Anyway if you didn’t see the original video I shared on my YouTube Channel going through exactly how I do this, I’ve shared it below.

Enjoy,
Glyn

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TRY THIS 💥 The INVISIBLE BLACK BACKGROUND (Photography Technique ... UPDATED)

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Here's a SIMPLE and VERY EFFECTIVE technique for creating a Black Background behind your subject when you don't have one ... indoors or outdoors using just your camera and one flash!

This is my UPDATED Invisible Black Background Technique v2.0 😃 📷

🎬 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎

  • 00:00 - Introduction

  • 00:40 - Kit Needed

  • 00:55 - Shutter Speed Flash

  • 01:31 - High Speed Sync

  • 01:52 - Camera Settings

  • 02:50 - Aperture + Flash

  • 03:37 - Turn on HSS

  • 04:12 - Turn on the Flash

  • 04:46 - Options

  • 05:25 - Recap

  • 06:05 - The Problem with HSS

  • 06:29 - Why not use a Neutral Density (ND) Filter?

  • 07:46 - Dealing with Reflections

© Glyn Dewis 2025