The world of photography is an exciting one, and it is only getting more and more accessible as technology improves. Technically, anyone with a smartphone can be a photographer; whether or not you choose to be a “good” photographer is up to you. Commercial photographers are some of the most sought after image-takers in the world as they have to Continue Reading
The post 7 Tips and Tricks to Learn From Commercial Photographers appeared first on Photodoto.
The world of photography is an exciting one, and it is only getting more and more accessible as technology improves. Technically, anyone with a smartphone can be a photographer; whether or not you choose to be a “good” photographer is up to you. Commercial photographers are some of the most sought after image-takers in the world as they have to Continue Reading
The post 7 Tips and Tricks to Learn From Commercial Photographers appeared first on Photodoto.
The post 5 Creative Portrait Lighting Tricks Using Only Phone Light appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
In this video by Derrick Freske, you’ll learn 5 creative portrait lighting tricks using only phone light!
Using only a phone light and some handy reflective props, you can achieve some of the great portrait photography looks in Derrick’s video.
Try these out and we’d love to see some in the comments section below.
Follow Derrick Freske on Instagram.
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One Speedlight Portrait Lighting Tutorial
The post 5 Creative Portrait Lighting Tricks Using Only Phone Light appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.
There are very likely more hours of video in the form of camera tips on YouTube than a person could ever watch in their lifetime. But few, if any, of these videos will make you laugh (or cringe) as hard as the most recent video from I Did A Thing.
In his latest video, titled 5 Camera Tricks for Cheapskates, Alex spends four-and-a-half minutes sharing a collection of satirical camera tricks you can use to make the most of your camera equipment.
From butter sliders to a beer goggle filter, the video covers some of the most ridiculous tricks you could possibly think of. The absurd thing is, some of these tricks actually produce impressive results, as you can see from the buttery-smooth slider shot above.
We very much suggest you don’t try these at home for the sake of your floors, countertops, and camera equipment. But you’re free to live your life as you see fit.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
When it comes to Lightroom, there is a lot to learn, and we tend to pay the most attention to the big things like understanding how to organize images and which sliders to use to improve our photos. But there are also lots of little Lightroom tricks that will improve your workflow and just make your life easier when it comes to working with your photos.
In this video, I’ll show you 10 of my favorite tricks that will make your life easier in Lightroom. There is also a summary of these items below the video for your reference. Enjoy!
Have you ever noticed that when you view images full size in the Library Module and you move from one to the next, sometimes Lightroom shows a message that says “Loading…” and it takes a minute for the photo to display properly? You can get around that by building previews before you start working on a group of images.
To do this, choose Library > Previews > Build Standard-Sized Previews.
I generally build standard-sized previews which are just big enough to fit in the Lightroom window. You can also build the 1:1 Previews which means you can view each image zoomed-in at 100% without having to wait, but that takes longer.
Building the previews first does take a bit of time, but you can do something else while Lightroom is busy with this task. Then when you are ready to work on your images, Lightroom will be really fast.
When selecting your Picks or adding a star rating to images in the Library Module, you can have Lightroom automatically move to the next image, making it very quick to go through a selection of photos. To turn this setting on choose Photo > Auto Advance.
In the Develop Module, there are a number of panels which, when expanded, can make it necessary to do a lot of scrolling to move between them. But with “solo mode”, only one panel can be opened at a time which means no more scrolling.
To turn this on, right-click to the left of one of the develop module panel titles (such as “basic”) and choose Solo Mode.
When you make a change to a slider in the Develop Module, and you simply want to reset it back to zero, you don’t have to actually move the slider back. Simply double-click on the name of the slider and it will reset.
Did you know there are quite a few different crop overlays you can use to help you crop your photos just right? Click the crop tool in the Develop Module, and then try repeatedly pressing the letter O on your keyboard to rotate through the various crop overlays.
When you think you are done and you want to view a larger size of your image to make sure everything is just right, press the letter F on your keyboard to view the image full screen. Press F again to go back.
Another way to view your image without distractions is to use the L key on your keyboard. Press it once and all the sidebars and your desktop will turn grey. Press it again and everything goes black except your actual photos (this is called Lights Out). Press it a third time to return to normal.
As a final check when you think you are done with your processing, press the backslash key on your keyboard to see the “before” version of your image before you made any changes in Lightroom. Press it again to see the “after” version.
If you want to make another version of an image without changing the original, you don’t have to actually make a copy of it on your hard drive. You can simply create a “virtual copy” and apply different settings to it. This virtual copy takes up no space on your hard drive and allows you to play with different looks.
After you have finished processing one photo in a group, you can apply those exact settings to all the other photos in the group. This makes it very fast to process a whole group of images.
Go to the Library Module, select all the photos you want to apply the settings to, including the one you have processed, and click the “Sync Settings” button in the lower right corner of your screen. You can then choose whether to sync all or just some of the settings to the selected photos.
Lightroom can be overwhelming! If you want to learn the essentials of Lightroom so you can get started quickly and easily, check out my video course Launch Into Lightroom. In 22 short videos that total a little over 2 hours, you’ll be off and running.
The post 10 Lightroom Tricks That Will Make Your Life Easier appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Did you know that the automated features and tricks built into cameras and computer software can actually stunt your photographic growth and photography skills? It’s true. Unless you are seeking to learn how to achieve specific results from the canned effects used by others, you might be shortchanging yourself.
Think back to what made you take up photography in the first place. Remember seeing the amazing shots in magazines, online, or taken by a friend and then dreaming that you too might produce amazing pictures?
Well, you can and you should. Learn the camera’s basic controls and how to shape your pictures with software tools, and don’t just rely on packaged effects.
If you enjoy fishing but purchase fresh fish from the market on your way home, are you really fishing? You might bring home a tasty meal but can you really take credit for the catch? You dove into photography to capture great shots and produce gorgeous pictures. don’t shortchange yourself with tricks and shortcuts.
An occasional foray into visual effects can be interesting, but a steady diet gets boring and appears cliché.
Are you relying on auto settings, presets, and effects to make your shots look special? Do you run your photos through software that pushes your shots through prefab cookie-cutter interpretations?
Perhaps it’s time to put your time into understanding the basics of the photographic process. There’s an artist inside you yearning to learn. Put that artist to work in reality. Let your pride be in your work, not someone else’s.
Those pre-digested interpretations offered by many post-processing software packages are way too easy to spot. The effects should be used sparingly and only when the scene really lends itself to the effect. Presets look good once in a while (I use them myself occasionally). But I want people to see my photography skills, not someone else’s tricks.
Stop doing what everybody else does and start expressing yourself. I grew up in the hippie era and to some degree, I bought into the trend. I wanted to be taken seriously as an individual; a non-conformist who didn’t just follow the masses and do what everybody else did.
But eventually, I realized that all my non-conformists friends dressed alike, talked alike, acted alike, and (frankly) smelled alike. All while proclaiming their individuality.
They conformed to the accepted non-conformity trends. That herd-mentality behavior didn’t make sense back then and it doesn’t make sense now. If you want to express yourself, do just that – express yourself. Just take the time to learn the basics of shaping images. It’s a whole lot easier than you think and it’s amazingly rewarding.
Nobody I know actually lives in a fantasyland with color as over-amped as this. Indiscriminately using a colorful effect on the wrong image can reduce the image to a clown show.
You are a logical person with a good head on your shoulders. You know you can do serious work if you take the time to learn the process. There is more to photography than learning the camera controls. You must understand the why issues of photography, not just the how of the camera buttons.
Your images deserve special attention… yours!
Determine today to see life through your own lens and interpret what you see with your eyes and your imagination. Shape your images with a clear understanding of how to command the medium of photography. Don’t see life through the lens of popular automation and trick treatments, learn to control the light and color that your camera captures.
This is a pricey waterfront condo in Nassau. When you take the time to match the scene with an appropriate treatment, the results make sense to the viewer.
Capture images and shape them into what your mind sees. Don’t try to force your shots into someone else’s prefab, over-used interpretations. If this really is an age of personal expression, take control of your creative life by learning how to control the light in your photographs, both during the capture process and in post-production.
Eventually, you will come to a point where you want to test the waters of photo-creativity, learn the basics of image shaping, and let your images show your talent and photography skills instead of displaying someone else’s. It all starts with taking the time to learn the basics and believing in yourself.
One of the most beneficial parts of understanding how to shape your own pictures is knowing how much adjustment is enough and how much is too much. Like a four-year-old little girl playing with her mother’s makeup, your first attempts won’t be works of art, but that’s the way EVERY great photographer starts; over-producing their pictures.
The single most important ingredient in success is practice. Practice makes better, none of us ever get to perfect.
Here’s the first rule of editing. When alterations start looking surrealistic, you’ve probably taken the processing too far. We enjoy special effects in the movies but we live in the real world. Small adjustments to colors and tones sometimes produce big differences. Make your initial moves and then back away from the picture for a few minutes and then take another look at the project again.
Nudging the mid-tones lighter and increasing the overall contrast can improve the appearance of almost every photo. It’s a good place to start.
Because of the linear manner in which digital cameras capture images, the simple process of capturing a scene with pixels produces images that are darker in the three-quarter tones than they need to be. These images usually benefit from shifting the mid-tones lighter simply by making some minor adjustments in the Basic panel in Camera Raw or Lightroom.
Learn to fine-tune your images to bring out the true colors and detail. The process is simple but the results can be profound. Target specific regions of light to reveal to the viewer what your mind saw when your camera captured the image. Our brains compensate for unbalanced lighting in a scene while the camera simply records existing light levels.
Small adjustments can make a major difference in the appearance of digital image captures.
Your camera doesn’t know where important detail is located in an image, although your brain located the detail and mentally enhanced the scene. You must learn how to deal with the scene’s lighting and reveal that detail manually. Most of those ho-hum images just need a little TLC to come to life.
Two panels in Camera Raw provided all the controls and tools I needed to target and enhance specific areas of this image.
The white surfaces of the house above needed a boost to brighten them up without losing the surface detail. The detail in the deep shadow tones of the trees and stair steps needed to be lightened without losing the defining deep shadows.
The Basic panel provided the tools and the Tone Curve panel provided the narrow target for both the highlight and shadow adjustment without affecting the mid-tones.
Be the artist who understands their medium and is in command of their art. Let others see your style and maybe they’ll try to emulate you. Stop playing follow the leader and become the leader. There are only a handful of basic skills you need to develop to break the mold and really control your pictures.
Enough of the grunge, the excessive saturation, the surrealism, and the pre-packaged garbage. Start showing the world your skills and leave the tricks to the those who need them.
The post Don’t Show Me Your Tricks, Show Me Your Photography Skills appeared first on Digital Photography School.
If you have recently started using the Adobe Lightroom software and are looking for some exciting tips and hacks, this article is the perfect read for you. Lightroom is one such software which allows us to visually improve your photos with easy controls.
But there are some hidden or less explored features of this software of which you might not be fully aware. This is why made this list of five such Lightroom tips and tricks which you can use to maximize your editing skills and save time while editing pictures.
The HSL tool is one of my favorite tools in Lightroom as it allows you to adjust the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance of a particular color in your image. Yes, you can selectively choose one of the eight primary colors (as shown in the image below) and adjust its tint (hue), intensity (saturation), and brightness (luminance).
If you wish to play around with the colors in your photo, you can use the Hue tool and adjust the tones as per the range of colors available for the respective color.
For example, if you look at the images below, you can simply change a particular color in a photo by adjusting the Hue scale. When I took the purple color hue slider all the way towards +100, the color shifted towards pink. Whereas, when I took the scale towards -100 the color changed to somewhat blue.
It is simply magical how you can use the hue scale and change the color (within the range of hue of colors) and enhance the visual appearance of your photo.
In situations when you are not sure which slider to adjust and by how much, Lightroom has an automated solution to this. The “Automatic Slider Adjustment” feature enables the software to automatically adjust the primary sliders which are Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks.
All you have to do is hover the mouse pointer on a particular slider title (on the word, NOT the actual slider – for example, “Exposure”). Then press and hold the Shift key and along with that double-click the mouse button on the title.
In this example, the software automatically detected the properties of the photo and adjusted the exposure as +0.45. Similarly, you can do this for rest of the primary sliders and let the software decide the best settings for your photos. It’s a good starting point, you can then tweak them as necessary.
NOTE: When you press the Shift key, the “Reset” button at the bottom right corner will change to Reset.
One of that toughest parts of editing is getting the shadows and highlights accurate and within the range so that there is no clipping or loss of detail. One way of keeping a watch on the shadows, highlights, blacks, and whites is by reading the histogram. But histogram can sometimes be difficult to read and you can end up losing details in certain areas of the image.
Inside Lightroom, there is a quick and easy way of finding out if the shadows, highlights, whites or blacks are going out of range or leading to any clipping.
Press and hold the Alt key and then move one of the four sliders. When you are adjusting the highlights or whites in this way, you will see any areas which are clipped appearing as white. Similarly, when you adjust shadows or blacks, the spots appearing in black (or a color) indicate clipping in those areas (as shown in the samples below).
Left – highlight areas being clipped appear in white. Right – shadow areas being clipped appear in black or a color (partial clipping).
If you are a wedding or event photographer, you might find this tip really helpful. Adobe Lightroom allows you to copy and paste effects from one photo to another with just a click. This comes handy when you are editing photos which are shot in similar lighting conditions and you want the similar effects on multiple photos.
Once you are done editing the first photo from the lot, click on the “Copy” button located at the bottom left corner (or press Cmd/Ctrl+C). Now you can see multiple adjustments (as shown in the screenshot below). Check off the ones you wish to copy or simply select Check All if you want everything similar in other photos.
Now navigate to the next photo and simply press Paste (or press Cmd/Ctrl+V) and all of the same settings will be applied to that particular image.
The Radial Filter in Lightroom is a life saver for photographers, don’t you agree? You may have used this tool to create vignetting effect or to make adjustments in the selected area of your photo.
But did you know that rather than wasting your time manually selecting the shape of the selection as per your subject you can use the Auto Selection trick?
Simply draw a small selection over your subject, press and hold Ctrl/Cmd and double-click on the small dot at the center of the selection. The software will automatically make a selection based on the shape and size of your subject. It is accurate most of the time, but there are always exceptions especially when the photo has multiple elements in the frame.
Lightroom is a great program, but image procesing can be tricky and time consuming. Try out these five Lightroom tips and tricks and let us know how you make out. If you have any others please share your Lightroom tips for beginners in the comments area below.
The post 5 Lightroom Tips and Tricks for Beginners appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Video? Wait…what? Isn’t this Digital Photography School? Yes, it most certainly is and yes you indeed read the title of this article correctly. I’m about to show you how easy it is to actually process video right inside of Adobe Lightroom Classic CC.
Now, this isn’t exactly a true hack (no Matrix stuff here) but it is a way for you to “work around” some of the limitations of Lightroom when it comes to processing your video files.
By Australian War Memorial collection from Canberra, Australia (A possum and a movie camera 1943) [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons
Lightroom has always been able to support limited video editing in the Quick Develop module but not in the processing powerhouse that is the Develop Module. Many photographers today tend to work with some type of video format in addition to their photography ventures. I happen to run my own YouTube channel which means I shoot quite a bit of video as well as working in straight photography.
Lots of wedding and event photographers split their time between making images and recording video. Furthermore, aerial photography and video have exploded lately with the increased commercial availability of drones. This means there are a lot of photographers out there with video files that need to be processed quickly. If you’re in a pinch, being able to use Lightroom to easily process a quick video is invaluable.
Alright, enough of building it up. Let’s get down to business and learn how to use Lightroom process video files.
The process of importing a video file into Lightroom is exactly the same as any other image file. Once the video file is imported you have the ability to view and play the video in its entirety right inside of the Library Module.
This is where the problem with video processing in Lightroom begins. Once you try and switch to the Develop Module you’re confronted with this…
Conventionally, this is as far as you can go with your video file. If you stop here you’re limited to the Quick Develop buttons at the top right.
You do have the ability to apply presets here but these are an end unto themselves. Meaning, you can’t adjust the video appearance using the adjustment sliders in the Develop Module. Or can you? Yes, you can, as a matter of fact. And this is where the gentle hacking begins.
To begin your Lightroom trickery, and therefore the editing of your video, you first have to capture a frame of the video. This essentially becomes an image file and you’ll use this image to apply your edits that will eventually be transferred to the video. To obtain the frame capture, simply click the small frame icon below the video and select Capture Frame.
Now you have what is really just a screenshot from the video. The new frame capture appears immediately after the video in the film strip (see red arrow below).
To process your frame capture you first need to switch over to the Develop Module from the Library Module. It’s easy to think that you somehow need to augment your workflow since you’re processing a frame capture. This is not the case.
Process this image captured from the video just as you would any other normal photo. Keep in mind though that you are only able to save the following edits for transfer to your video.
Only the adjustments not greyed out below are available to copy over to video files.
Here’s the breakdown:
Yes, unfortunately, there will be no Clarity, Sharpening or Vignetting applied to your video in Lightroom. But look at that list! Of special interest is the tone curve which will give you amazing control over the look of your video. For this example, I’ve made some fairly extreme edits for the sake of demonstration.
You may be thinking “Okay, but how do I get those edits onto the video?” You’re in luck. I’m about to show you how, and it’s incredibly easy.
The magic happens when you synchronize the edits you’ve just made to your frame capture with the video file you’ve imported. In truth, you can sync the edits from any image you have in the Lightroom catalog but the most predictable method is by using a still from the actual video you’re processing.
To sync the processed frame capture and the video, first, you need to switch back to the Develop Module. Then use Ctrl/Cmd+click to select both the video file and the frame capture from the film strip.
Next, it’s just a matter of clicking the “Sync Settings” button at the bottom right.
That’s it! All of your edits are instantly transferred from the frame capture to the video.
Once all the editing is over, the method to export the video file is just as simple as importing. Simply choose the destination, file naming and quality settings for the video. You can even add your own watermark.
Is processing your videos in Lightroom the ideal method? I don’t think so. Is it an easy and effective way to apply some creative edits to your video file? Absolutely.
I actually process most of my videos in this manner and then export them to another program to finish the cutting and final processing. Lightroom gives us the ability to apply most of the same processing power to our videos, with a few limitations.
If you’re like me and constantly on the go, being able to stay in a familiar photo processing program like Lightroom is a welcomed alternative to more involved video processing software. Try it for yourself if you need an easy way to process your video clips!
The post Lightroom Tricks: How to Process Video in Lightroom Classic CC appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Landscape photography is one of the most popular genres of photography and for good reason. A great landscape photo has the power to wow the viewer and captures the beauty of the incredible planet that we live on. But landscape photography is also difficult to master as not only are you often at the mercy of the elements, but you are also fighting against the limitations of digital cameras versus the human eye.
As advanced as digital cameras are, they are still no match for your eyes and that sometimes means you feel let down when you look at photos you’ve taken. A big part of this could be as simple as framing your shot correctly. So here are 5 framing tricks to help you capture better landscape photos.
Think about that feeling you get when you first see an amazing landscape in front of you. It’s often the sense of feeling really small compared to those towering mountains or that deep valley. But capturing that feeling in a photo isn’t as straightforward as just taking a shot of the scene. To be able to convey that sense of scale you need to help the viewer by showing them a comparison with something they can relate to.
For example, photograph a large boulder and it will be difficult for someone looking at the photo to know how big it is in reality. But put a person next to the boulder and suddenly there is an instant sense of scale. This is a great way to really make your landscape photos jump off the page and captivate the viewer.
A good landscape photo should lead the viewer’s eyes around the image. Sometimes to achieve this you need to add a point of interest to your image. This is especially true if you are photographing a scene where there is a vast empty area where nothing is happening.
Without a clear point of interest, the viewer’s eyes will get lost in the photo and it won’t work. For example, the photograph below would be pretty uninteresting without the people in it. But by including people not only does it add that point of interest but it also tells a much more intriguing story.
A point of interest could be anything. It can be a rock, person, animal, a tree, or a building. So next time you are evaluating a scene, think if it will benefit from having a point of interest. If so, try to frame your photo using the rule of thirds to capture this in the composition.
In landscape photography, it’s really easy to try and capture everything in front of you. After all, that amazing vista is what usually wows people. But sometimes a wide-angle shot of a scene just doesn’t work because there is too much for the viewer to process. On those occasions, you need to zoom into your scene and try to capture a small section rather than the whole thing.
Think about the small section in the same way as if it was a wide-angle shot and frame up your image with the same thought process. The key is to not be afraid to forego the “big wide-angle shot” for the smaller zoomed in section. Remember that you can always try a few different crops and then decide on the best one later in post-production.
But don’t make the mistake of just capturing wide-angle shots and relying on cropping in post-production as the more you crop an image, the more pixelated it will become if you want to print it at really large sizes. Try to actually capture some photos zoomed it with your camera instead.
One of the best ways to ensure that your landscape photos look dramatic and stunning is by focusing as much of the photo on the part that is going to give you impact. That means really considering where to put the horizon line. If you have a dramatic sky with lots of clouds, beautiful dramatic sunsets or even moody stormy weather, then place your horizon line in the lower third of the image, so you are showing more of the sky.
If on the other hand, your foreground is interesting with a good point of interest, then place your horizon in the top third of the image. Thus maximizing the area showing the foreground in the image. Just try to avoid placing your horizon line in the middle of the image where possible as it can make your photo seem uninteresting.
So always remember, sky or land? Whichever it most important to your image, show more of that part of the scene.
Most people see landscapes from one particular view only – eye level view. The great thing about photography is that it allows you to capture a photo at a completely different point of view to what most people see. You don’t need to dangle yourself off a cliff to capture unique views, sometimes just being slightly lower or more elevated can have incredibly dramatic results.
For example, set your camera really low (almost on the ground) and you will capture a unique angle from a worm’s eye viewpoint. Put your camera on a tall tripod and lift it up so that it’s higher than normal eye level and again you’ll capture a unique shot.
There’s also the option of using drones these days which can give you even more stunning photos of landscapes. But make sure you always check local laws regarding drone usage. As with any type of photography, the key is to experiment.
Capturing the perfect landscape takes time, effort and usually some luck a well.
You need so many factors to be working together to capture stunning photos and even then you still need to think about how to frame all of those elements into a photograph that will do the scene justice. But once you have a great location, an interesting subject, and the perfect light, follow these framing tricks and you may well capture some stunning landscape photos.
The post 5 Framing Tricks to Help You Capture Better Landscape Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School.
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| Apple’s dual-camera setup can create a depth map to simulate background blur – but now, someone’s figured out how to simulate lighting effects with an impressive level of control. |
Apple’s dual camera devices (the 7 Plus, 8 Plus and X to be precise) generate a depth map to create the effects of Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting that we’ve all come to know well. Whether you love, hate or feel generally ‘meh’ toward fake background blur, things get interesting when Apple makes that depth map information available to third party app developers. Enter Apollo: Immersive illumination, a $ 1.99 iOS app with an unusual name and a few interesting tricks up its sleeve.
Apollo uses the depth map not for background-blurring purposes, but to allow users to add realistic lighting effects to photos after they’re taken. Up to 20 light sources can be positioned throughout an image, with the ability to adjust intensity, color and distance. With the depth information provided, light sources interact with subjects in a three-dimensional fashion, and can even be positioned behind a subject to create a rim light.
It’s hard not to be a little taken aback the first time you drag a light source around your image and see how it interacts with your subject
It’s essentially an interactive version of Apple’s Portrait Lighting, which applies different light style effects to images. Apollo’s effects are highly customizable, and with so many parameters to play with it’s naturally quite a bit more complicated to use than Apple’s very simple lighting modes.
We’ve been messing around with the Apollo app (for an admittedly short period of time), and have to say we’re impressed with what it’s capable of – but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a few requests for the next version.
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It’s hard not to be a little taken aback the first time you drag a light source around your image and see how it interacts with your subject(s). You are able to adjust the color, brightness and spread of your source, which are all fairly self descriptive.
You can also change the ‘Distance’ of your light, or it’s position in Z-space; this means you can move the light to be closer to you, the photographer, or further away into the background of your scene.
Lastly, there are two global adjustments, ‘Shadows’ and ‘Effect Range.’ Shadows essentially controls overall image brightness, though it biases toward the darker tones. Effect Range adjusts the brightness of all of your lights simultaneously in the image, though keeping the brightness ratios between them constant as it does so.
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| Along the bottom are the parameters you’re allowed for each light source you create (up to 20). | Two global adjustments are ‘Shadows’ which adjusts overall brightness and Effect Range which adjusts the brightness of all lights simultaneously. |
Overall, it’s an incredibly neat – and kind of addictive – first effort. But there are a few things that we’d like to see addressed in future versions.
Currently, every new ‘light’ you create starts out with a certain set of default parameters. This is alright, except for the fact that the default color is a yellowy tungsten sort of thing; it should really just begin as ‘white.’
Also, if I’ve already tuned in a ‘light’ and just want another one based on those, it’d be nice to be able to duplicate one that I’ve already created instead of having to start from scratch each time.
And once you’ve finished with your new creation, you can save it out as a JPEG – but there’s no way to save the lights themselves so that you can come back and tweak later. Each time you exit to tackle another image, the app asks you, ‘Close photo and discard all changes?’ Well, I’d rather not discard them, but if I have to, then I suppose that’s that.
Lastly, it doesn’t look like there’s any way to preserve the blurriness of the background once you’ve added your lights. It’d be great to be able to still take advantage of the depth map and progressive blurring while adding in your own lighting sources.
Okay, so those are some fairly major requests on our part. But we make them because we’re really blown away by what the app already offers, and are excited to see how it evolves. It wasn’t so long ago you’d need a powerful workstation and some serious software skills to manipulate lighting in the same way that this app does with a few taps and drags.
If you have a dual camera iPhone and want to give the Apollo app a try, head on over to the App Store yourself and take it for a spin.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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