One of the most exciting things about the modern world is the high accessibility of professional tools for regular people. It provides us with a great chance to enjoy thousands of totally diverse pieces of art throughout the Web and beyond it. Now you can find hundreds of online offers to create impressive collages, apply beautiful filters, or add text Continue Reading
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Posts Tagged ‘Photo’
How to Create Professional Photo Layouts If You Aren’t a Designer
09
Jun
15 Photo Essay Ideas (to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing)
27
May
The post 15 Photo Essay Ideas (to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
Visual storytelling is a normal part of our everyday lives, but coming up with good photo essay ideas can be challenging. So in this article, I want to share some topics you can use to create interesting, compelling photo essays.
A single, strong photograph can convey a lot of information about its subject – but sometimes we have topics that require more than one image to do the job. That’s when it’s time to make a photo essay: a collection of pictures that together tell the bigger story of a chosen theme.
Here’s a brief list of ideas to get you started!
© Kevin Landwer-Johan.
1. A day in the life
Your first photo essay idea is simple: Track a life over the course of one day. You might make an essay about someone else’s life. Or the life of a location, such as the sidewalk outside your house.
The subject matter you choose is up to you. But start in the morning and create a series of images showing your subject over the course of a typical day.
(Alternatively, you can document your subject on a special day, like a birthday, a wedding, or some other celebration.)
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
2. Capture hands
Portraits focus on a subject’s face – but why not mix it up and make a photo essay that focuses on your subject’s hands?
(You can also focus on a collection of different people’s hands.)
Hands can tell you a lot about a person. And showing them in context is a great way to narrate a story.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
3. A child and their parent
Photographs that catch the interaction between parents and children are special. A parent-child connection is strong and unique, so making powerful images isn’t challenging. You just need to be ready to capture the special moments as they happen.
You might concentrate on a parent teaching their child. Or the pair playing sports. Or working on a special project.
Use your imagination, and you’ll have a great time with this theme.
4. Tell a local artist’s story
I’ve always enjoyed photographing artists as they work; studios have a creative vibe, so the energy is already there. Bring your camera into this environment and try to tell the artist’s story!
An artist’s studio offers plenty of opportunities for wonderful photo essays. Think about the most fascinating aspects of the artist’s process. What do they do that makes their art special? Aim to show this in your photos.
Many people appreciate fine art, but they’re often not aware of what happens behind the scenes. So documenting an artist can produce fascinating visual stories.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
5. Show a tradesperson’s process
Do you have a plumber coming over to fix your kitchen sink? Is a builder making you a new deck?
Take photos while they work! Tell them what you want to do before you start, and don’t forget to share your photos with them.
They’ll probably appreciate seeing what they do from another perspective. They may even want to use your photos on their company website.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
6. Cover a local community event
A school fundraiser, a tree-planting day at a park, or a parade; these are are all community events that make for good photo essay ideas.
Think like a photojournalist. What type of images would your editor want? Make sure to capture some wide-angle compositions, some medium shots, and some close-ups.
(Getting in close to show the details can often tell as much of a story as the wider pictures.)
7. Fresh market life
Markets are great for photography because there’s always plenty of activity and lots of characters. Think of how you can best illustrate the flow of life at the market. What are the vendors doing that’s most interesting? What are the habits of the shoppers?
Look to capture the essence of the place. Try to portray the people who work and shop there.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
8. Shoot the same location over time
What location do you visit regularly? Is there a way you can make an interesting photo essay about it?
Consider what you find most attractive and ugly about the place. Look for aspects that change over time.
Any outdoor location will look different throughout the day. Also think about the changes that occur from season to season. Create an essay that tells the story of the place.
9. Photograph a garden through the seasons
It might be your own garden. It could be the neighbor’s. It could even be the garden at your local park.
Think about how the plants change during the course of a year. Capture photos of the most significant visual differences, then present them as a photo essay.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
10. Pick a local cause to highlight
Photo essays can go beyond passive documentation; they can become a part of your activism, too!
So find a cause that matters to you. Tell the story of some aspect of community life that needs improvement. Is there an ongoing issue with litter in your area? How about traffic; is there a problematic intersection?
Document these issues, then make sure to show the photos to people responsible for taking action.
11. Making a meal
Photo essay ideas can be about simple, everyday things – like making a meal or a coffee.
How can you creatively illustrate something that seems so mundane? My guess is that, when you put your mind to it, you can come up with many unique perspectives, all of which will make great stories.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
12. Religious traditions
Religion is often rich with visual expression in one form or another. So capture it!
Of course, you may need to narrow down your ideas and choose a specific aspect of worship to photograph. Aim to show what people do when they visit a holy place, or how they pray on their own. Illustrate what makes their faith real and what’s special about it.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
13. Historic sites
Historic sites are often iconic, and plenty of photographers take a snapshot or two.
But with a photo essay, you can illustrate the site’s history in greater depth.
Look for details of the location that many visitors miss. And use these to build an interesting story.
14. Cover a sports game
Most sports photographers aim for a stunning photo of the decisive moment – when the action is at its peak. But nailing shots like that can be very challenging.
So why not focus on something else? After all, sports involve so much more than a single moment. There’s training, preparation, and stretching. There’s the emotion following a victory or a tough loss.
These other subjects, when photographed carefully, can make for an interesting photo essay, too.
15. Photograph your pet
If you’re a pet owner, you already have the perfect subject for a photo essay!
All pets, with the possible exception of pet rocks, will provide you with a collection of interesting moments to photograph.
So collect these moments with your camera – then display them as a photo essay showing the nature and character of your pet.
© Kevin Landwer-Johan
Photo essay ideas: final words
Look at the world around you. Consider what you see every day. What aspects interest you the most? Photograph those things.
You’re bound to end up with some beautiful photo essays!
Now over to you:
Do you have any photo essays you’re proud of? Do you have any more photo essay ideas? Share your thoughts and images in the comments below!
The post 15 Photo Essay Ideas (to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
Nikon NX Studio Review: How Good Is This Free Photo Editor?
06
May
The post Nikon NX Studio Review: How Good Is This Free Photo Editor? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.
In order to write a good Nikon NX Studio review, it’s important to step back to see who this program is for and how it fits into the image editing landscape.
In 2006, Nikon released a software tool called Capture NX, which was designed for its fledgling line of digital cameras. Over the years, Nikon slowly added new features, but Capture NX was never a serious competitor to Adobe Lightroom, Capture One, or other popular image editing and management software. That all changed in early 2021; Nikon retired Capture NX (and its companion, ViewNX) and replaced them with Nikon NX Studio.
But is Nikon’s software ready for prime time, and can it hold its own against a growing list of competitors? What exactly does NX Studio do and who is it for? The answers might surprise you.
Nikon D7100 | Nikon 50mm f/1.8G | f/2.8 | 1/3000s | ISO 100
Nikon NX Studio overview
In a very basic sense, Nikon NX Studio is like Lightroom – but designed specifically for Nikon shooters. It’s not really a fair comparison, though, because Nikon NX Studio isn’t supposed to be a replacement for Lightroom. The two have a lot of overlap, but when doing a one-to-one feature comparison, Nikon NX Studio comes up woefully short. However, NX Studio does have a workflow that appeals to a lot of photographers, as well as some advanced tools absent from Lightroom.
Nikon NX Studio is great for photographers who want to do more with their photos than what basic programs like Apple Photos can offer. It has tools for common edits such as white balance, brightness, color, noise reduction, cropping, and sharpness. Nikon NX Studio also goes one step beyond Lightroom by letting you perform basic edits on videos, such as trimming and stitching.
It also has one very important advantage over Lightroom and most other programs: It’s free, so you lose nothing by trying it out.
For enthusiasts and even professionals, there’s a lot to like about Nikon NX Studio as long as you keep your expectations in check and don’t mind some frustrating bugs and shortcomings. It’s not a full-featured digital asset management tool like Lightroom, though it does offer some basic file management and storage.
But where Nikon NX Studio really shines is in the sheer depth of its tools. The Lightness, Chroma, and Hue adjustments give you incredible control over editing colors, and the Color Point tool gives you fine-grained control that takes several steps to replicate in Lightroom.
Finally, Nikon NX Studio has a trick up its sleeve that no other image editor can match: it works with Nikon RAW files without needing to reverse-engineer the RAW algorithm or convert everything to DNG.
Nikon NX Studio pros
- The price is great. It’s a free program and should be updated by Nikon regularly for years to come.
- Lots of features that appeal to amateurs, hobbyists, and professionals
- Basic movie editing tools are simple and practical
- Everything takes place in a single interface without the need to switch between Library and Develop modules like in Lightroom
Nikon NX Studio cons
- Very basic import process compared to Lightroom: no keyword management, applying presets, or metadata adjustments
- Lacks Brush and Graduated adjustment tools, along with other editing options offered by competing programs
- Lack of a simple Undo feature
- Lots of bugs and glitches. Some would say this is expected with Version 1 of a program, but these issues happen more frequently than I would like
If you’re a Nikon shooter, you can’t go wrong with just downloading Nikon NX Studio to check it out. It’s free, and it won’t alter your current photos even if you use Lightroom, Luminar, or another program. You really have nothing to lose by trying it, and you might find that the results you get from your Nikon RAW files are much better than what you get in Lightroom. (Note that Nikon NX Studio only works with Nikon NEF RAW files. It will not load DNG files or RAW files from Canon, Sony, Fujifilm, and other manufacturers.)
While I do think Nikon NX Studio is worth trying out, let’s take a closer look at some of its characteristics to help determine whether it’s the right program for you.
Layout and ease of use
If you’ve ever used a program like Lightroom, Luminar, or Capture One, you’ll feel right at home in Nikon NX Studio.
The interface is pretty simple: the left side is where you access your photos in folders or albums. The middle is where you scroll through your photos or look at them more closely. Your tools are located on the right and clicking the title of a tool expands and collapses its options just like Lightroom.
An Import button in the top-right corner will let you start loading images from a memory card. Additional icons at the top of the main window let you switch between views: thumbnail, map, 2 and 4 images at a time, before and after, and list, which users of Apple’s Aperture software will certainly appreciate. Along the bottom are more tools that let you show view overlays (such as a grid or a histogram), assign star ratings, and rotate photos.
All these buttons and options might seem overwhelming, but it’s very straightforward; you should be able to find your way around the interface after a few minutes of exploring.
One key difference between Nikon NX Studio and Lightroom is that the former stores your image edits in sidecar files, whereas the latter is based around a single massive database, called a catalog. Some prefer one type of storage over the other, but while there have been reports of corrupted Catalogs causing problems for some photographers, it’s not an issue I have experienced.
Still, if you want a powerful image editor but are wary of putting all your editing eggs in a single basket, Nikon NX Studio might be a good choice.
Performance
In terms of sheer speed and editing efficiency, Nikon NX Studio does leave something to be desired. On a 2020 27″ iMac with a 3.6 GHz, 10-core i9 processor, lots of RAM, and a large internal SSD, my edits were fairly smooth.
But running NX Studio on a machine just a few years old with a spinning hard drive felt positively sluggish by comparison. Adjusting any given slider, from White Balance to Highlights to Color Booster, resulted in a visible checkerboard pattern across the image while edits were applied. Each adjustment only took a second or two, but these little bits of time add up quickly when editing dozens or hundreds of images.
Other Nikon NX Studio features resulted in slow response times or outright crashes. Navigating through folders to locate images took much longer than I expected, and simple operations like cropping were slow and choppy. I generally zoom in to a photo to check for focus and sharpness and then zoom out for more editing, but even this relatively basic operation was slower and clunkier than I would have liked. After leaving NX Studio running for a few hours – not processing photos, but simply open in the background – it brought my Mac to its knees with a strange memory management error.
I’m not saying that the program is unusable, just that users ought to approach it with a bit of caution. Programs such as Lightroom were just as buggy in their early incarnations and are much improved now, and I have no doubt the same will be true of Nikon NX Studio. It will get better over time, but right now you can expect to encounter some glitches.
However, it’s not all bad news in terms of performance. Loading Nikon NEF RAW files was snappy, navigating between editing panes was quick and easy, and import/export operations had no noticeable lag. When Nikon NX Studio works, which it usually does, it works quite well. But when it doesn’t work, it can be a bit frustrating.
Photo organization
It’s not uncommon for photographers to have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pictures to wade through. Nikon NX Studio isn’t going to win awards for groundbreaking AI-powered image management, but it does have some useful tools to help you organize your pictures.
In lieu of a Lightroom-style Catalog system, NX Studio shows you a hierarchical view of all the folders on your main drive and lets you navigate through them to locate your images. It’s not dissimilar from Luminar and others, and I prefer this method over the all-in-one archive system used by Apple Photos. When you import images from a memory card, you can create a new folder to store the pictures. You can create custom names for each import, as well.
When browsing through your pictures, you can assign star ratings, color labels, and keywords. There is a Filter bar that you can use to sort your photos according to these criteria as well as other information, but Nikon NX Studio does not have Smart Albums or other dynamic methods for automatically sorting your images. I use Lightroom’s Smart Collections to help me organize my images, but if you aren’t a fan of this method, then NX Studio will be fine.
Longtime users of Apple’s now-defunct Aperture software will find the Thumbnail List View to be particularly useful when managing photos. This shows a list-style view similar to what you see when browsing through your Mac OS Finder or Windows Explorer, with columns that display various parameters such as exposure information, file size, date modified, and more.
While Nikon NX Studio’s photo management tools are not as robust as I would like, they’re certainly a good start. If you prefer a straightforward approach that does not rely on a proprietary catalog or database system, then there’s a lot to appreciate.
Photo-editing capabilities
This is where the rubber meets the road, and fortunately, Nikon NX Studio can hold its own against the competition in virtually all the areas that matter. While some NX Studio features are not as refined as other programs and some tools are missing in action, what it gets right, it really gets right.
There’s a long list of editing options at your disposal, including:
- White Balance
- Exposure Compensation
- Active D-Lighting, which is unique to Nikon cameras and is a nice way to automatically brighten shadows and create a more even exposure
- Brightness and Color
- Levels and Curves
- Lightness, Chroma, and Hue
- Adjust Details, which includes Noise Reduction and Sharpness
- Touch-Up, to remove spots and blemishes
- Adjust Composition, which includes cropping, straightening, and perspective control
- Camera and Lens Corrections
Once again, it’s worth remembering that Nikon NX Studio is a free program, and that fact alone makes the inclusion of all these options kind of amazing. While tools like a graduated filter, a radial filter, and an adjustment brush are missing, the options you do have should suffice for most photo editing. You can even create multiple custom sets of adjustment options that include only the tools you use in specific scenarios. This is quite useful if you prefer different tools when editing landscapes compared to editing portraits.
The Color Control Point editing tool is particularly useful, and one that I’d like to see in other applications. It allows you to click anywhere on your image and immediately have access to eight common editing sliders. Drag any of them to the right or left to increase or decrease that particular parameter. The top slider adjusts the size of the area to which the edits will be applied. It’s a highly useful tool for precise color editing, and the ability to adjust sliders right on the image instead of in an editing pane is something I have grown to appreciate a great deal.
The Lightness, Chroma, and Hue Adjustment takes an innovative and highly effective approach to manipulating color. While similar to the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance option in Lightroom, the Nikon NX Studio implementation offers useful options that professional and amateur photographers will appreciate.
You can use the eyedropper tool to select a color in your image, then click and drag up or down in the rainbow panel to adjust that color’s parameters. You can also change the angle of the rainbow, which means that your edits can be implemented more dramatically or more subtly. Finally, Width lets you target your edits to either a very narrow or very wide band of colors. It’s a powerful tool for global color adjustments.
There are some important drawbacks to NX Studio’s photo-editing capabilities, and any Nikon NX Studio review would be remiss in not pointing them out.
First, there is no Undo option. Yes, you read that right; instead of an Undo, you can create a saved state for your edits then revert to that saved state at any point, but an actual Undo feature is missing.
Also, there is no History tool that shows you every edit and lets you step through them one by one. While Nikon NX Studio is nondestructive and all your edits can be changed or removed at any time, a History feature would help when doing lots of in-depth changes.
Other strange feature implementations are present, as well. After you apply a crop, you can’t actually make changes to it; you can start over with a new crop, but you can’t edit the crop once it has been applied. You also can’t darken shadows or lighten highlights – at least, not with the Shadows and Highlights sliders. The Retouch brush has no customization options at all other than its size. Finally, there is no way to make export presets, which could be a dealbreaker for those who rely on this feature in Lightroom and other programs.
There’s a couple of ways to look at these drawbacks.
Compared to a program like Lightroom, NX Studio might seem limited. But on the other hand, you could argue that Nikon NX Studio is free, so there’s not much to complain about. It’s also currently on Version 1 and will no doubt be refined and upgraded over time. Many of the drawbacks have workarounds or alternative methods of accomplishing the same task, even if it does involve some extra steps. And finally, there is always a learning curve with new programs.
So are these missing features drawbacks, or is it more a matter of learning a new workflow? One could make a strong case for the latter over the former.
Who should get Nikon NX Studio?
While I can’t recommend Nikon NX Studio across the board, it’s a great option for many shooters. Certainly, Nikon users will appreciate all the tools NX Studio has to offer, especially for editing RAW files. If you are a hobbyist or working professional who needs a suite of powerful editing tools and you don’t mind some interface quirks, Nikon NX Studio could be right up your alley. Beginners might be intimidated by the plethora of buttons, options, and tools, especially compared to more basic image editors that are available for free on mobile phones and some computers. But Nikon NX Studio could be a good way for those individuals to start using a more advanced image editor without spending any money at all.
People who should definitely not use Nikon NX Studio are those who have a mobile-first workflow. There is no version of the program that works on phones or tablets, and it’s unlikely to be created anytime soon. If you primarily shoot and edit with a smartphone, you’re better off sticking with the tools you already have.
Nikon NX Studio review: final words
Nikon NX Studio is an outstanding program in many ways, and the fact that it’s free is certainly one of its most important advantages.
If you shoot in JPEG, you can use everything Nikon NX Studio has to offer, no matter your camera brand, while Nikon users will greatly appreciate its RAW editing capabilities. While there are certainly some important caveats to consider, as well as some messy bugs that will get ironed out over time, I certainly recommend you download it and give it a try.
Hopefully, this Nikon NX Studio review gave you some information to help you understand a bit more about the program and whether it will work for you!
Now I’d like to hear your thoughts:
Are you interested in Nikon NX Studio? Do you think you’ll use it? What do you like and dislike about the software? Share your views in the comments below!
Do I need to have a Nikon camera to use Nikon NX Studio?
Nikon NX Studio will only work with Nikon RAW files. RAW formats from Sony, Canon, Fujifilm, and others will not work, and neither will universal RAW formats like DNG. However, the program works just fine with JPEG images. So if you don’t use a Nikon camera but shoot in JPEG, you can easily use Nikon NX Studio for your editing and photo management.
Will Nikon NX Studio work on my mobile phone?
Nikon NX Studio is designed for desktop-based workflows; there is no mobile version. You can take photos on a mobile phone, transfer them to your computer, and edit them in Nikon NX Studio, but that workflow adds many more steps and probably takes too much time for most people to consider.
Is Nikon NX Studio better than Lightroom, Capture One, or Luminar?
There are advantages and disadvantages to all of these programs, and it’s impossible to say which one is better. Nikon NX Studio is free, but most of the others have free trial periods for new users. If you’re unsure of which to use, I recommend downloading them, signing up for free trials (if available), and making use of dPS’s many articles to help you learn. That way, you can make an informed choice and find the program that suits your needs.
Will Nikon NX Studio run on my computer?
Most computers made in the past few years will work just fine with Nikon NX Studio. I personally found better results when I was working with an SSD instead of a spinning hard drive, but almost any modern desktop or laptop will run the program just fine.
Can I use Nikon NX Studio to edit video?
While Nikon NX Studio does have a built-in video editor, its capabilities are very limited. It works for basic trimming and combining clips but not much else.
The post Nikon NX Studio Review: How Good Is This Free Photo Editor? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Leaves
01
May
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Leaves appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
Lots of you got involved in last week’s challenge ‘phones’ well done! This week we want you back on your actual cameras and we want you turning your attention to the trees, but more specifically their leaves! Lots of detail to be found in leaves, interesting patterns, shadows, reflections, mottled sun shining through, etc.
Make sure you read to the end of this post, there’s a little bonus in there for you**
Share your photographs of leaves – make sure it’s a NEW photo for this challenge! You have to take your camera and go take a NEW photo for this one, no photos from your previously shot leaves folder, got it! 
Tag your photos with #dPSLeaves and make sure you tag us on social media.
Well, you get the idea, we want to see you be creative with leaves! Simple really… Take a simple, easy to find subject and try to make it stand out through working on your skill and trial & error! Mostly we’re shooting digital I guess, so it doesn’t really cost much to try, try and try again!
**Here’s that little bonus I was talking about, we want to hear YOUR weekly challenge theme ideas – make sure when you post your photo below that you let us know your theme that you’d like everyone to try! We’ll feature your photo for that challenge.
If you get stuck for ideas, jump into the Facebook group and see what others are doing!
How do I upload my photo to the comments?
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Leaves appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
11 Photo Manipulation Ideas (for Beautiful Results)
28
Apr
The post 11 Photo Manipulation Ideas (for Beautiful Results) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.
If you’re looking for some fun photo manipulation ideas to create stunning art, you’ve come to the right place.
Today, manipulating digital photography is a quick and easy process. Want to generate a double-exposure look? Create a tilt-shift effect? Simulate a fisheye lens? All these options and more are accessible thanks to image manipulation programs like Photoshop.
So here are 11 photo manipulation ideas to get your creative juices flowing!
1. Make a tilt-shift effect
When viewing a landscape from a distance, the scene looks uniformly focused to our eyes. However, when we look at a fake or model landscape, our physical proximity to the miniature scene creates some interesting optical effects.
But you don’t need a fake landscape to create this “tilt-shift” effect. With the right lenses, you can achieve it in-camera – or you can replicate the phenomenon in post-processing!
Here is a great tutorial on simulating a tilt-shift effect in Photoshop.
2. Generate an anaglyph 3D effect
Anaglyph 3D renderings are made up of two differently filtered and slightly offset colored images. When viewed through special glasses, the two different colors are seen by different eyes, creating a 3D effect.
Creating an anaglyph 3D image in Photoshop is easy. First, open a photo and duplicate the Background layer twice. Select one of the duplicated layers and click on the FX icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Select Blending Options – this will open the Layer Style window. Uncheck the G and B checkboxes next to Channels in the central panel. Then click OK.
Next, select the other duplicated layer. Click on the FX icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and select Blending Options again. This time, when the Layer Style window opens, uncheck the R checkbox. Click OK.
Finally, select one of the duplicated layers and nudge it slightly to the left or right using the mouse or the directional keys on the keyboard. The colors in the layers will separate, generating an anaglyph effect.
3. Imitate a circular fisheye lens
Photo manipulation ideas inspired by camera equipment can achieve engaging results. A fisheye lens is an ultra-wide-angle that produces a large amount of distortion, creating distinctive panoramic or hemispherical images.
To create a circular fisheye effect, open an image and select the Elliptical Marquee tool. Set the Style dropdown on the top menu to Fixed Ratio and drag the Marquee tool over the center of the image. Click Filter > Distort > Spherize. Adjust the amount of distortion you’d like in the pop-up panel (I usually leave the slider at 100%). Click OK.
To isolate the Spherized section from the rest of the image, keep the Spherized layer selected. Right-click inside the perimeter of the Spherized layer, then hit Select Inverse.
Next, right-click on the outside of the circle and select Fill. In the Fill pop-up box, make sure the Contents dropdown menu is set to Black, the Mode is set to Normal, and the Opacity is set to 100%. Click OK.
The area outside the Spherized subject will fill with black, isolating the fisheye effect.
4. Combine two images for a double exposure effect
Fern photo: Canon 5D Mark II | Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II with extension tubes | f/2.8 | 1/80s | ISO 100
From the days of early photography, shooters have gone to considerable lengths to avoid ghosting and double exposures. However, some photographers generate multiple exposures deliberately for creative purposes.
Double exposures can be made in-camera (both digitally and on film), but they can also be imitated in Photoshop.
This article demonstrates a simple way to make a double exposure effect in post-production.
5. Simulate an infrared effect
Infrared photography captures wavelengths of light that operate outside the visible spectrum.
While there are several in-camera ways to create infrared imagery, the effect can be simulated in Photoshop, too. Take a look at our article on creating beautiful infrared effects.
6. Create a lens flare
When bright light reaches your camera, it can reflect off different parts of the lens to create an interesting flare effect.
While lens flare is sometimes unwanted, it can have interesting creative applications. In this article, we show you how to add a lens flare to an image with Photoshop.
7. Create a sepia look with Photoshop
Sepia is a warm brown tone named after the pigment derived from the ink sac of the cuttlefish genus Sepia. In photography, the term sepia refers to a form of print toning. The use of sepia in photography began in the 1880s, and today the beautiful warmth of sepia toning is associated with age and history.
To apply a sepia tone to a photograph in Photoshop, first open an image. Create a Curves adjustment layer and adjust the curve to introduce a faded aesthetic:
The next step is to set the Photoshop foreground color to around the #35322e mark and the background color to around #cebbab. Click on the Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and select the Gradient Map option. This will apply a gradient sourced from the foreground and background color selections.
Select the Gradient Map layer in the Layers panel and open the Properties panel. In the Properties tab, click on the strip of graduated color to open the Gradient Editor.
Once in the Gradient Editor, make sure the Gradient Type is set to Solid and the Smoothness to 100%. Here’s what the window should look like:
Finally, feel free to make adjustments to the Gradient Map (this will change the sepia effect). Once you have finished preparing the Gradient Editor, click OK. And you’re done!
8. Apply an Instagram-like filter in Photoshop
Instagram gives users the option to easily customize images or videos before uploading them to the social media platform. And with varied and eye-catching results, many users have looked to emulate Instagram filters in Photoshop!
If you are interested in applying Instagram-inspired effects to your photography work outside of the social media platform, this tutorial might come in handy.
9. Create a Lomography-inspired effect
Named after the optics manufacturer Lomo, Lomography makes use of the unpredictable and unique optical traits of plastic cameras and alternative processing techniques. And with the rise of digital photography, the Lomo aesthetic has spread to digital manipulation techniques.
While there is no single Lomography look, different Photoshop techniques have been developed to recreate Lomography-type effects.
To produce a Lomo-inspired digital photograph, first open an image in Photoshop. For a more traditional look, you can crop the photo into a square using the Crop tool.
Next, create a Curves adjustment layer. In the Curves histogram, click on the RGB dropdown menu and select Red. Make a shallow S curve within the histogram.
Next, select Green from the RGB dropdown menu and make a slightly more pronounced S curve. Lastly, select the Blue channel from the RGB dropdown menu and make an S curve similar to the green S curve.
Keep in mind that the curves don’t have to mirror each other exactly – what we are aiming for is a well-saturated image with considerable contrast and a distinctive hue. For the best results, I recommend experimenting! You can also add some grain via Filter > Noise > Add Noise.
Lomographic images also tend to have pronounced vignettes. To emulate this effect, duplicate the original image layer. Then, with the Lasso tool selected, draw a loose oval or circle around the center of the image area. Click Select > Modify > Feather. Set the Feather Radius to 250 pixels (the maximum) and click OK.
Next, click on Select > Inverse. With the inverse selection active, create a Levels adjustment layer. In the Levels panel, adjust the sliders to introduce a dark vignette around the edges of the image (the effect will vary from photo to photo, so some experimentation may be required!).
10. Apply a Sabattier effect in Photoshop
The Sabattier effect is one of many photo manipulation ideas that originated in the darkroom. The process involves rendering a negative or print either partially or completely tonally reversed. In other words, dark areas in the image become light and light areas become dark – for an effect known as solarization.
In the darkroom, this Sabattier effect can occur when a semi-developed print or negative is re-exposed to light for a brief moment; the result is a surreal, eye-catching version of the photo.
Of course, you can also recreate the Sabattier effect in Photoshop with two simple methods:
Sabattier method 1
The first technique applies a solarizing filter directly to your photo.
First, open an image and duplicate it. With the duplicate layer selected, click Filter > Stylize > Solarize. That’s it! The image will instantly take on a solarized aesthetic.
For a more classic solarization effect, convert the image to black and white with a Black and White adjustment layer. Different black and white settings will alter the appearance of the solarization, so try a few different presets or make your own custom adjustments.
Sabattier method 2
While the Solarize filter method works well, it doesn’t offer a lot of creative control – it’s just a straight conversion. To make a less destructive and more customizable solarization effect, open your image in Photoshop and add a Black and White adjustment layer (if desired). Create a Curves adjustment layer.
In the adjustment layer, create this curve:
From there, you can adjust the curve for a dramatic look. Depending on the image, you can also reverse the Curves adjustment layer for a more pronounced or subtle effect. Since you’re working non-destructively with an adjustment layer, this process can easily be undone at any point.
11. Simulate a glitch effect
Last (but not least!) on our list of photo manipulation ideas is a glitch effect simulation.
Glitches are flaws in a digital medium. Inherent in our modern technological landscape, true glitch art is made by capturing organic glitches, manually corrupting digital media, or by physically manipulating electronic devices to cultivate glitched imagery. The process can be quite tricky, however – so simulating a glitch effect can be an easier way to convey the fragility of digital media.
To discover how to create a glitch effect in Photoshop, check out our step-by-step tutorial.
Photo manipulation ideas: conclusion
From Lomography-inspired effects to simulated glitch art, the creative possibilities of photography are just about limitless. So if you find yourself in a creative rut, give one of the photo manipulation ideas from this list a try – you never know what new perspectives your manipulations might inspire!
Now over to you:
What are your favorite types of photo manipulation? Share your thoughts (and examples!) in the comments below.
The post 11 Photo Manipulation Ideas (for Beautiful Results) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Megan Kennedy.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Phones Only
24
Apr
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Phones Only appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
Controversial, Simon! But you have to admit that, at some point, you’ve made a photograph with a phone – or you haven’t and that’s OK, too.
Use the hashtag #dPSPhonesOnly when you post on social media to help us see your photos! You can post here in the comments, (instructions down the bottom) or you can join and post over in our Facebook group if you like!
For this challenge, we’d like to see the BEST photo you’ve ever taken on your phone! It can be one you’ve taken at any time in the last year, or it can be a new one you make specifically for this challenge!
Remember, photography doesn’t need to be only ever with the highest resolution camera or the most expensive lens, learning comes in all shapes and sizes!
Sometimes we use them for documentation, sometimes just because we don’t have a camera-camera with us, whatever the reason, as opposed to what a few muttered when phones started seeing better resolution cameras, I think they’re here to stay!
Right then! Some admin, first things first! If you’ve missed any of our previous challenges, you’re welcome to go back and do them all, brush up on your skills or just find some inspiration in the comments that others have posted with their photographs – find them here
And here is a mini-tutorial on how to post your images in the comments below.
How do I upload my photo to the comments?
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Phones Only appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Green
17
Apr
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Green appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
Green! That’s our theme this week and, for some, will be really easy! But, as I say pretty much every week, we want you to take a minute and think about the theme and make it a new photo rather than dipping into your Flickr account for the old stuff! (like I’m doing as it’s school holidays and I’m building tree houses and not out making photographs!) (For how to enter your photo, scroll to the bottom of this post)
Make sure you tag your photos #dPSWeeklyChallenge and #dPSGreen on social media.
Here’s an interesting article about GREEN in images, if you’re interested, but mostly, lets just crack on with four examples of green, and then let’s see you make and share yours!
All things green I’ve previously spotted on my travels, you can find ‘green’ pretty much anywhere! (I looked up and the only thing green in the room is the Nerf gun my 7yo shot me with earlier… ha!)
What will you find and photograph? Will it be unique?
#dPSWeeklyChallenge #dPSGreen
How do I upload my photo to the comments?
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Green appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
Affinity Photo vs Photoshop: Which Photo Editor Is Best in 2021?
15
Apr
The post Affinity Photo vs Photoshop: Which Photo Editor Is Best in 2021? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.
Which is the better photo editor, Affinity Photo vs Photoshop CC?
Adobe Photoshop was released in 1988 and has become the most widely used digital image editing tool in the world. The program is so popular that its name has become a verb – and Photoshop is now the de facto standard for industry-leading professionals and amateurs alike.
Photoshop has also spawned a host of competitors, including Affinity Photo, a worthy alternative for anyone who wants a full-featured image editor without the expense of Photoshop. But is Affinity Photo now the superior choice? Or are you better off sticking with Adobe’s classic program?
In this article, I’m going to compare Photoshop and Affinity Photo. I’m going to give you the benefits and drawbacks of each program – and you’ll leave knowing which program is right for you.
Affinity Photo vs. Photoshop: overview
When considering Affinity Photo and Photoshop, it’s important to remember that there is no one single correct program for everyone. Both are highly capable photo editors, and either one will serve the needs of most photographers. They each have advantages and drawbacks, as well as very different pricing models, and both work well for many photographers.
So try not to think of this as a binary choice or even a competition. It’s not about which program is better, but which program suits your needs.
Before getting into the weeds of how these programs are different, it’s a good idea to take a look at how they are alike. This helps establish a sense of common ground, or perhaps a starting point, that will make the differences stand out.
Both Affinity Photo and Photoshop offer a layer-based workflow, meaning all edits are non-destructive and can be combined with other edits. Both include RAW converters, which allow you to open and manipulate the lossless file formats used by amateur and professional photographers around the world.
Affinity Photo and Photoshop both feature a dizzying array of tools to let you edit images any way you want. You can create detailed selections, use complex layer masking, warp and transform parts of your images, use dozens of filters and adjustments, go back to earlier edits with a history panel, insert and manipulate text…the list goes on.
Comparing the two programs, then, becomes less about looking at a bulleted list of features and more about value. Affinity is significantly cheaper with a one-time price of $ 50 USD. Adobe Photoshop is much more expensive and is available only as part of a Creative Cloud subscription, the cheapest of which is about $ 120/year. And while you certainly get a lot for that yearly fee, Affinity Photo is no slouch.
Affinity Photo doesn’t have the sheer quantity of features that Photoshop offers, but many of the tools in Photoshop aren’t used by a lot of amateur and semi-professional photographers, so it might not matter to you. For instance, Photoshop has tools for manipulating 3D objects and video, but if you just want to edit static 2D images, that probably isn’t important. Photoshop is also updated more frequently and has some interesting AI-based tools to alter faces and other image elements, but for some people, these aren’t worth the yearly fee.
User interface
Both programs follow a similar design language: tools on the left, options for customizing the selected tool on top, editing panels on the right, and a huge space in the middle of the screen for working on an image. Their tools share many core functions, as well. Both have tools for cropping, brushing, making selections, fixing blemishes, working with text and objects, and more.
The interface is not altogether dissimilar from Lightroom, Luminar, and other photography software. If you are new to Affinity Photo or Adobe Photoshop, it won’t take you long to figure out how to edit and where to find the tools and adjustments you need.
Adobe has a key advantage in terms of user interface design because it has built up so many tools and options over the years. But this is also its Achilles’ Heel and can be seen as a disadvantage, as well. Photoshop’s ever-expanding repertoire has resulted in a program with a staggering learning curve, and even simple options like changing the white balance on an image or refining a selection can lead to inordinate amounts of head-scratching and online searching.
This has put Adobe in a bit of a tough spot – one that makes Affinity Photo seem quite attractive by comparison. Adobe must walk a fine line between catering to its professional customers, many of whom have been using Photoshop for years, and catering to new customers who find the growing feature set to be complicated and frustrating. Welcome screens, popups, tooltips, and other helpful hints stem the tide of confusion – but while these do help, it can still be difficult to locate the options you need to get your work done.
By contrast, the simplified nature of Affinity Photo seems downright pedestrian but remains quite powerful. Tools on the left are bright and colorful, and the adjustment panels on the right are a bit more streamlined for common use-case scenarios.
For example, adjusting the white balance is as simple as clicking the White Balance option and adjusting some sliders. In Photoshop there isn’t a White Balance option; you have to apply a Curves adjustment layer or use a filter to achieve the same effect.
This theme is prevalent throughout any comparison of Affinity Photo vs. Adobe Photoshop. Affinity Photo has a fresh, modern take on the interface elements that Photoshop invented. If you prefer a cleaner, simpler layout, then Affinity Photo might be the best option for you, but if you crave raw power and a slew of options, you might be better off with Photoshop.
It is worth noting that Affinity Photo also has a few tricks up its sleeve that Photoshop can’t yet match. Namely, speed: Adobe Photoshop is built on decades-old legacy code that makes some simple operations confoundingly slow. Tools like Liquify and even simple transformations are much snappier in Affinity Photo, and while Photoshop has made some great strides in recent years, there’s no denying that aspects of the program still feel slow and outdated.
Workflow tools
While both Affinity Photo and Adobe Photoshop have a huge number of editing tools, each program is at its best when you learn to use those tools to accomplish your work with minimal effort. Photoshop has a bit of an edge here if you want to make complicated, in-depth edits, but Affinity Photo is no slouch either.
For example, most of the items in Photoshop’s toolbar have sub-options with different variations on the same tool. There are three selection tools: Marquee, Lasso, and the Magic Wand. And each of those has its own subset of tools.
From a workflow perspective, this bevy of options can be invaluable. You can get in, make your selections, and get on with your editing. And in that regard, Photoshop gets the nod over Affinity Photo. Once you learn all the options at your disposal and get familiar with the myriad keyboard shortcuts, Photoshop can dramatically cut your editing time. But getting to that point can take a lot of learning and a lot of patience, so some might prefer the relative simplicity – and fewer options – of Affinity Photo.
Both programs have all the standard adjustments you would expect: Brightness/Contrast, Exposure, Invert, and many others. These are applied using layers, and the layers can be blended using virtually the same sets of blend modes, including Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Difference, Exclusion, Subtract, and so on. Layers can be moved up and down and combined in both programs, and both give you access to dozens of effects that can be applied, as well.
If you are thinking of transitioning away from Photoshop, there is one important thing to note:
While Affinity Photo does replicate many of the common keystrokes and shortcuts used in Photoshop, they’re not 1:1. You might find yourself pressing familiar keys and using shortcut commands out of habit only to realize that nothing happens, or worse, something happens that you didn’t intend. It can make the transition a bit rocky but might be worth it if it saves you time or money in the long run.
Compatibility
When you work with image editors, compatibility can be an issue. Photoshop’s PSD file format is the gold standard – but not necessarily because it’s the best, and certainly not because it’s the most efficient in terms of file size. Rather, after more than 30 years in this business, Photoshop’s PSDs have simply become the most widely used. PSD files are nondestructive, meaning they contain all the layers, history steps, adjustments, effects, and other elements of an image as it’s being edited.
Affinity Photo has a similar non-destructive file format, AFPHOTO. But as you might expect, it is not well known; it’s simply too new compared to the PSD format. While Affinity Photo can open PSD files and also export its own files in PSD format, Adobe Photoshop can’t do anything with AFPHOTO files. This can end up becoming a time-consuming hassle if you use Affinity Photo but find yourself collaborating or sharing files with Adobe Photoshop users (or vice versa).
It’s currently Adobe’s playground, and we have to play by their rules for the time being. Adobe doesn’t need to spend time and money making Photoshop compatible with Affinity Photo files, but Affinity needs to work with PSD files if it is to be relevant in the image-editing space. The old saying, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” comes to mind.
So if you go with Affinity Photo because you like the price or appreciate its tools and features, just know your documents won’t always play nice with Photoshop.
Support
Learning any new tool takes time and effort, and this is doubly true for image editors. There are so many options and features in both Affinity Photo and Photoshop; it’s enough to make you want to give up and go with the one-click simplicity of a program like Luminar. Especially if you’re new to digital photography.
When considering Affinity Photo vs. Photoshop, it’s important to take this into account and make sure you have access to the knowledge and training you need to get your editing done. While Photoshop has too many features to count, it also has over three decades of support behind it. The internet is jam-packed with every kind of Photoshop tutorial you can imagine: websites, forums, social media groups, YouTube tutorials, podcasts, classes, lectures, and Adobe’s own help files and rich knowledge base.
What’s more, since so many people use Photoshop, it’s not hard to find someone who can help you. Most friends, coworkers, and even casual acquaintances who use Photoshop will be happy to show you a few tricks or help you learn how to use the program.
This is hardly the case with Affinity Photo. Affinity has its own set of video tutorials, as well as sample images you can import and experiment with to learn the basics. But while these are a good place to start, they’re just not at the same level as what you’ll find in Photoshop.
Tutorials will improve as more people use Affinity. But until then, you might find yourself frustrated when you can’t figure out more advanced features and aren’t able to find the help you need.
Editing and the cloud
As photo editing moves away from the desktop and into the cloud, it’s important that your tools can keep up with your workflow (and that you can adapt them as needed). Many photographers today want to edit images on tablets or even phones and have their pictures available whenever and wherever they want.
Thankfully, both Affinity Photo and Adobe Photoshop are up to the task, but they approach it in different ways.
Affinity Photo has an iPad app, available for a very reasonable fee, that mimics most of the functionality of the desktop version. It can’t do things like batch export, but it reads AFPHOTO files, and edits on the iPad are also available on the desktop version.
However, Affinity does not have a cloud-based infrastructure to support file syncing and storage. This means you have to transfer your images manually or sync them to a service like iCloud – then you must make sure all your files are properly synced again after you edit, lest you lose some of your changes.
Photoshop handles this differently, and it’s all due to the subscription fee you pay to use the program. Since every Photoshop plan comes with some degree of cloud storage from Adobe, it’s possible to have a cloud-based workflow where everything is stored remotely. This means you can load all your PSD files and other assets into your Adobe Creative Cloud storage, edit your images on desktop or mobile, and everything is automatically synced in real time.
Neither one of these approaches is necessarily better, but it’s important to determine which you prefer. Affinity Photo’s one-time pricing structure means it can’t support the ongoing costs of cloud servers for its customers. But if you already pay for cloud storage through another platform, then you might prefer Affinity’s approach.
On the other hand, Photoshop’s method is great for a lot of people, especially those who want a cloud-based workflow.
Affinity vs Photoshop: Which editing program is right for you?
At some point, you have to stop reading and just make a decision. There are definitely some good reasons to go with Affinity Photo, and there are some advantages to Photoshop. Here’s my advice if you’re on the fence and not sure which one is right for you:
Get Affinity Photo if you want an inexpensive, full-featured photo-editing program. While it doesn’t have decades of history in the photography community, it has an extensive list of features and workflow tools to suit the needs of almost anyone. Certainly, it’ll handle everything a casual or hobbyist photographer requires, and if you aren’t actively earning money with your images, then a one-time fee of $ 50 makes Affinity the better choice.
Subscribe to Photoshop if you want a mile-wide set of features developed over several decades, as well as an endless supply of websites, articles, videos, books, and entire courses to help you learn how to use them. There are also many plugins you can get to extend the functionality of the core application; that way, you can tailor Photoshop’s capabilities to your needs. In terms of sheer product ecosystem, Photoshop is the clear winner.
While some have accused Adobe of resting on their laurels now that they have a steady stream of subscription income, that’s not really a fair criticism when it comes to their flagship product, Photoshop. Photoshop continues to add new options for demanding professionals while making the onboarding process easier for beginners. Adobe has also been incorporating artificial intelligence tricks such as allowing you to age (or de-age) human faces, alter smiles, and even change the direction that people are looking.
The heart of the Affinity vs. Photoshop debate comes down to a simple question: What do you want to do to your photos? By identifying your needs first and then looking for a solution, you can be sure that the program you choose will more closely align with your requirements. It might be Affinity, it might be Photoshop, or it could even be something else.
Both Affinity Photo and Adobe Photoshop have free trials, and I recommend going that route before spending any money or getting too invested in one particular application. Download both products, try them, and see what you think. Then you can decide the Affinity Photo vs. Photoshop question for yourself.
Now over to you:
Have you used Affinity Photo and Photoshop? Which program did you prefer? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
The post Affinity Photo vs Photoshop: Which Photo Editor Is Best in 2021? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Fruit
10
Apr
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Fruit appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
Last week, shadows, went well! Some great photos came of it (have a look in the comments here) well done! We’re going with another easy theme this week, and a little bit of a social experiment (kinda) ‘Fruit’ is this weeks theme, and ideally we’d love to see your local fruit, if there’s a local specialty or just a fruit you really like. My photos this week are pretty ordinary as I don’t have a camera-camera with me, so please excuse the mess haha… I had an apple and found an old hessian bag to add some texture.
When you post your photograph on social media, make sure you use the hashtag #dPSFruit #dPSWeeklyChallenge so we can find and enjoy your photographs! (what are hashtags, Simon?)
Missed a Challenge? Don’t sweat it, find all of our previous challenges here!
Fruit comes in many shapes and sizes, and you can either photograph a field full or focus on one tiny detail, as ever, the challenge is simple, but designed to make you think “How do I photograph fruit so that it’s interesting” (Yeah yeah… just do the opposite of what I’ve done above and below… ha.. ha.. ha.. ) lighting, texture, squashed… You choose, just have a little think about it before you make your photo.
Yes, it’s another apple photo, but I tried adding interest with a little bit of reflection (car window, sun going down)
Share on Instagram or Twitter and use the hashtag #dPSFruit so we can see them!
How do I upload my photo to the comments?
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Fruit appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Shadows
03
Apr
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Shadows appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
“Simply speaking, a shadow is an absence of light. If light cannot get through an object, the surface on the other side of that object (for example, the ground or a wall) will have less light reaching it” – Science Learning Hub
#dPSShadows
After the ‘lighting’ theme last week, this week we’re about the lack of light, or ‘shadow’ – and really, unless you live in a dark cave, void of light, you have no excuses to not go out and capture a shadow in some form – the idea behind these challenges being to make you think about what you’re photographing and work at getting better every time.
I remember the first time I took a specific shadow photograph, that’s it above, and it really was that orange in the late afternoon light of the amazing Sahara Desert in Morocco… It was a bit typical “People on camels” but it was an amazing experience and I loved the shadow photo (This was a Canon Powershot Pro 1… should tell you how long ago that was!) I’ve been noticing shadow to this day. SO, go forth and capture shadows! Share them in the comments below, on instagram or Facebook and make sure you tag us! (Details below)
Missed a Challenge? Don’t sweat it, find all of our previous challenges here!
Share on Instagram or Twitter and use the hashtag #dPSShadows so we can see them!
How do I upload my photo to the comments?
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Shadows appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
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