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I love Lightroom, but it’s not without a few pitfalls. After years of real-world studio and classroom experience, I’ve identified a bunch of booby traps that consistently derail...

23 April, 2020

Do’s and Don’ts of Editing Wreck Photos Whether moody or magnificent, wreck shots can be a real challenge to edit. Typically taken in less-than-optimal conditions, most wreck photos need...

16 April, 2020

Two Dirty Tricks that Remove Backscatter in Photoshop Ugh. Backscatter. It’s the nemesis of every underwater photographer. Many have tried, but no one’s been able to conjure the sorcery...

13 April, 2020

Using Photoshop’s Crop Tool in tandem with Content Aware Fill, you can tack on canvas area and add a little breathing room to an otherwise cramped composition. In some...

13 April, 2020

Many people get off on the wrong foot with Lightroom. They jump straight into the Develop Module, hoping to attain instant editing wizardry. They suffer through the drudgery...

06 September, 2019

Finding the Perfect Punch for Your Pictures I simultaneously love and fear the addition of any significant new feature in Lightroom or Photoshop. Love, because it potentially enriches my...

06 September, 2019

There’s a yin-yang involved with post-production in Lightroom. In the Library Module, building an asset management strategy often seems more like a chore than a creative endeavor, while...

12 November, 2018

As Lightroom evolves, new functionality is added to what’s already a stunningly deep piece of software. Showy new features get lots of exposure, but subtler components of an...

12 November, 2018

Mastering Lightroom Classic’s Color and Luminance Range Masking Tools With the addition of Color and Luminance Range Masking to Lightroom Classic, Adobe bestowed new superpowers to the Adjustment Brush,...

12 November, 2018

Don't wait to get good in Lightroom and Photoshop before learning a few keyboard shortcuts. Learning them is how you get good! Download my Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for...

15 August, 2018

Digital Asset Management 101 for Lightroom The single most common question I'm asked about Lightroom is "Where the #$&! are my images?". Understanding how Lightroom manages and displays information...

21 December, 2017

Why take your RAW adjustments to eleven? Because it’s one louder than ten, as Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel so aptly puts it. The expression "taking it to eleven"...

21 December, 2017

Let’s take a look at an advanced technique in Photoshop that purists would consider a cheat, but is a fantastic tool for those not so worried about bending...

21 December, 2017

It’s easy to customize the Lightroom Library’s Grid and Loupe Views to display useful information. Searching, sorting, and rating are much easier when you can see specific metadata...

21 December, 2017

Quick and Dirty Backscatter Removal in Photoshop There are as many ways to remove backscatter as there are to shoot it, but the technique I’m about to show you...

21 December, 2017

Using a single catalog makes the most of Lightroom’s superpowers A Lightroom catalog is much like an old-school card catalog in a brick-and-mortar library. It contains all kinds of...

21 December, 2017

Using Lightroom’s filter tools to reposition your strobes in post One of the most difficult skills to master in underwater photography is lighting. While it’s always best to get...

21 December, 2017

Not all photos are contest winners. Cut down on the under-achievers in your image library by flagging keepers and clunkers right off the bat as Lightroom imports them.   You...

21 December, 2017

Sharks are a favorite photographic subject of mine. Over the years, I’ve developed a few post-production techniques that help to mitigate common problems and emphasize desirable details in...

21 December, 2017

I know, I know - compositing is cheating. A composited image uses elements from one part of a picture in another part, or combines multiple photos to create...

20 December, 2017

The right white balance can make or break an underwater photo. Some shots need just a single click with the White Balance eyedropper in Lightroom or Adobe Camera...

20 December, 2017

How to make Sexy B&W Conversions in Lightroom The first step to making a good black and white image is implicit in its name.You’ve got to have clean black...

19 December, 2017

Lightroom is a deep program with amazing functionality. Despite (or maybe because of) the enormous amount of documentation available online and elsewhere, it can be tough to unearth...

19 December, 2017

I just finished judging a photo contest, and although the rules were made very clear to the contestants, a few excellent photos were still disqualified because of willful...

27 October, 2017

Lightroom is a fantastic jumping off point for video dabblers who don't want to miss out on all the fun of motion capture, but who are primarily still...

06 October, 2017

A watermark is a faint logo or words superimposed on top of an image. The idea of placing a watermark on your photos is to prevent others from...

05 October, 2017