Photo Editing
Derek Smith • 21 July 2020
Faststone, Serif Affinity, and Skylum Luminar 4
Before Editing
Photo By: Derek Smith
After Editing in Luminar 4
Photo By: Derek Smith
Photo Editing
Editing of digital photographs is always an emotive subject, and one in which photographers will hold very varied viewpoints.
I was opposed to editing photos to a great extent, perhaps a little crop here, and a bit of contrast enhancement there but that was about it, I still believe fervently that you should concentrate on getting the images as good in the camera as you can, after all if the highlights are blown out, then no amount of software editing will retrieve those.
Now however I quite enjoy photo editing, and like many of our Society members I prefer the “one-off” purchasing model for software.
So, what do I use? Well on my Windows laptop I use a freeware program called Faststone, nothing that I’ve used on any operating system comes close to this for versatility, I primarily use this for reviewing my images for further editing, but it’s a powerful editing tool in itself. The Faststone viewer operates in full screen mode, move the mouse cursor to the top of the screen to see the images in the file that are being reviewed, move the cursor to the right to view the camera information, moving the mouse cursor to the left reveals the editing panel. What makes this software so great, well for me at any rate, are the keyboard shortcuts, use the right / left arrow keys to scroll through the images in a file. The keyboard shortcuts are all listed on the editing panel, so a typical workflow would be: “X” to crop an image, “CTRL + E” for the contrast, saturation, brightness, and colour edits, followed by “CTRL + R” to resize an image, for web use, or club competition purposes.
My next piece of editing software is Serif Affinity, the layers, and masking tools in this software are really easy to use and make this an ideal editor for composite images, the tone mapping, and split toning are also easy to understand and use, it is a very solid piece of software, the tools are easy to use, and there are excellent tutorial videos on the use of the software.
Next, is Skylum Luminar 4, for me personally the AI (Artificial Intelligence) controls are the standout feature of this software. As an example, sky replacement; in other conventional editors time is spent creating a mask getting the “marching ants” just in the exact place, then pasting in the sky, and adjusting the lighting afterwards. In Luminar 4, one click, yes one click replaces the sky, simply select the sky from a drop down list (even better choose your own), and the job is done, fine tuning controls are there to defocus the sky, change the direction of light to match the shadows around the subject, just so easy. One of the features that I really like with Luminar is that it doesn’t create a separate Library of images duplicating everything on your computer, it adds the location of an existing folder of images to the Library. On the “Edit” panel are 6 categories: Layers, Canvas, Essentials, Creative, Portrait, and Professional. A recommended workflow in Luminar 4 could be 1) “Canvas” – crop / straighten. Next, 2) “Creative” – choose Color Styles, and select a style for the image from the Profile, or LUT. 3) Adjust Tone, “Essentials” – adjust the AI Enhance / AI Structure sliders, there is also a conventional “Light” panel with the familiar WB, Temperature, and exposure controls. 4) Apply noise reduction “Essentials” – Denoise. 5) Apply saturation “Essentials” – Color. 5) Apply sharpening “Essentials” – Details Enhancer – Sharpen. I find the “Portrait” category very useful, the AI Skin Enhancer is almost magical, only working on the facial smoothing. In conjunction with this is the AI Portrait Enhancer, all of the sliders in this panel just “work”, move the sliders to make adjustments. For example; to redden the lips simply move the slider, no need to paint in or select the lips with a mask, that is the power of AI.
Luminar 4 also has a set of pre-sets, these are called “Looks”, and can be applied to any image with one click, you can also readily create your own “Looks” pre-set which is what I did on a recent photoshoot, to enable each image to have that certain style, the process is really easy perform all the editing on a single photo of a set of images from the same shoot, save those edits as a “Look” pre-set, and apply to the reminder of the images in a set.
When complete Export the image to the desired location; CTRL / CMD + Shift + E, and a copy of the edited image will be saved, together with the original image.
Enjoy your photography.
Article, and photos Derek Smith
Editing of digital photographs is always an emotive subject, and one in which photographers will hold very varied viewpoints.
I was opposed to editing photos to a great extent, perhaps a little crop here, and a bit of contrast enhancement there but that was about it, I still believe fervently that you should concentrate on getting the images as good in the camera as you can, after all if the highlights are blown out, then no amount of software editing will retrieve those.
Now however I quite enjoy photo editing, and like many of our Society members I prefer the “one-off” purchasing model for software.
So, what do I use? Well on my Windows laptop I use a freeware program called Faststone, nothing that I’ve used on any operating system comes close to this for versatility, I primarily use this for reviewing my images for further editing, but it’s a powerful editing tool in itself. The Faststone viewer operates in full screen mode, move the mouse cursor to the top of the screen to see the images in the file that are being reviewed, move the cursor to the right to view the camera information, moving the mouse cursor to the left reveals the editing panel. What makes this software so great, well for me at any rate, are the keyboard shortcuts, use the right / left arrow keys to scroll through the images in a file. The keyboard shortcuts are all listed on the editing panel, so a typical workflow would be: “X” to crop an image, “CTRL + E” for the contrast, saturation, brightness, and colour edits, followed by “CTRL + R” to resize an image, for web use, or club competition purposes.
My next piece of editing software is Serif Affinity, the layers, and masking tools in this software are really easy to use and make this an ideal editor for composite images, the tone mapping, and split toning are also easy to understand and use, it is a very solid piece of software, the tools are easy to use, and there are excellent tutorial videos on the use of the software.
Next, is Skylum Luminar 4, for me personally the AI (Artificial Intelligence) controls are the standout feature of this software. As an example, sky replacement; in other conventional editors time is spent creating a mask getting the “marching ants” just in the exact place, then pasting in the sky, and adjusting the lighting afterwards. In Luminar 4, one click, yes one click replaces the sky, simply select the sky from a drop down list (even better choose your own), and the job is done, fine tuning controls are there to defocus the sky, change the direction of light to match the shadows around the subject, just so easy. One of the features that I really like with Luminar is that it doesn’t create a separate Library of images duplicating everything on your computer, it adds the location of an existing folder of images to the Library. On the “Edit” panel are 6 categories: Layers, Canvas, Essentials, Creative, Portrait, and Professional. A recommended workflow in Luminar 4 could be 1) “Canvas” – crop / straighten. Next, 2) “Creative” – choose Color Styles, and select a style for the image from the Profile, or LUT. 3) Adjust Tone, “Essentials” – adjust the AI Enhance / AI Structure sliders, there is also a conventional “Light” panel with the familiar WB, Temperature, and exposure controls. 4) Apply noise reduction “Essentials” – Denoise. 5) Apply saturation “Essentials” – Color. 5) Apply sharpening “Essentials” – Details Enhancer – Sharpen. I find the “Portrait” category very useful, the AI Skin Enhancer is almost magical, only working on the facial smoothing. In conjunction with this is the AI Portrait Enhancer, all of the sliders in this panel just “work”, move the sliders to make adjustments. For example; to redden the lips simply move the slider, no need to paint in or select the lips with a mask, that is the power of AI.
Luminar 4 also has a set of pre-sets, these are called “Looks”, and can be applied to any image with one click, you can also readily create your own “Looks” pre-set which is what I did on a recent photoshoot, to enable each image to have that certain style, the process is really easy perform all the editing on a single photo of a set of images from the same shoot, save those edits as a “Look” pre-set, and apply to the reminder of the images in a set.
When complete Export the image to the desired location; CTRL / CMD + Shift + E, and a copy of the edited image will be saved, together with the original image.
Enjoy your photography.
Article, and photos Derek Smith
Louth Photographic Society
At our meeting last night an instructional DVD on “Macro Photography” was shown. The DVD material was quite detailed, very interesting, with lots of facts, and figures to consider. After the break, I attempted to unpack some of that detail with a practical demonstration using my own camera, (the OM Systems OM-1) a set of extension tubes, an LED light, and an on-camera flash. There’s lots to consider when beginning with macro photography, first of which I would say is get to know your camera, being able to adjust aperture, ISO, and watching the shutter speed if shooting in Aperture Priority mode to optimise exposure, and detail. Next, lens choice, select a lens with the closest focusing distance, if you have a dedicated macro lens then use that, otherwise a set of extension tubes may bring your camera closer to your subject. Choosing a subject, and lighting the subject with a LED light, or a camera flash speedlight will yield improved results. Don’t be afraid to experiment with settings, only by continual practice will the best images in this incredible genre, that is macro photography be realised, above all have fun. We meet at Red Hill Nature Reserve, Goulceby next week, Wednesday 4th June, to hopefully capture some amazing macro photography.
Good Morning all What a good night we had last Wednesday in the LPA Battle against Lincoln. We managed three twenties and overall won by twenty points, the second best score in the first round overall only bettered by Scunthorpe who we meet next. This week, Wednesday 28th May we are showing a DVD, "The Essential Guide to Close-up and Macro Photography". I was asked if I could get a speaker on the subject but there didn't seem to be any so a DVD should be a good substitute. We have a print competition coming up, with the categories of "Britain's Coastline" and "Open", it covers a very large area including all the islands. Due to outings and the LPA Battles it will not be easy getting our prints to Dave, so you can bring them this Wednesday or send an email with your entries to Dave as usual and bring them on the night if you don't see Dave beforehand. If you do this, you must send the titles to Dave to get on the scoresheet. I have confirmed our booking at the Splash on 4th July as I had twenty members and partners replying indicating they would be attending. I have paid the deposit so if you could give me £5 per person deposit when you next see me. They have also asked us to have menu choices decided two weeks before we go. Regards Graham
On Wednesday 28th May, the Society will be showing a DVD that hopefully will give advice on techniques, and skills for “Macro Photography”. The following Wednesday we will meet up at Red Hill to practice those skills, and techniques. So, what is “Macro Photography”? Wikipedia gives the following definition: "Macro photography is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects and living organisms like insects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life-size." To photograph small insects, or flowers larger than life-size a photographer will need to have a lens suitable for the purpose, a dedicated macro lens, a close focusing telephoto zoom lens, or the least expensive option is a set of extension tubes. With my Fuji camera system I used a 70-300mm zoom lens to capture these images, now that I am using the Olympus / OM System cameras I can buy a dedicated macro lens for about £400, however rather than spending a lot of money, I have opted to purchase a set of extension tubes, for £33, the tubes fit between the camera body and the lens enabling closer focusing to the subject. One of my techniques for close focusing is to obtain focus, either with auto focus, or manual focus, and gently rock back, and forward to fine tune the focus. A camera flash, or a portable LED light can also be used to highlight the subject.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Seasons" and "Open" judged by a new judge to the LPA, Dane Butler. There is a report on the evening on our blog and all the results are on our website under competitions. Well done to Steve Chapman who came first in both subjects. This week, Wednesday 21st May, we host Lincoln in the first round of the print LPA Battles judged by Brian Grommett. Don't forget, subs are now due, also keep going on your project, prime time if you are taking part. Regards Graham
The first round of the LPA Print Battles was held last night, Louth hosted Lincoln for this round. The judge for the evening was the excellent, quietly spoken, knowledgeable Brian Gromett. Brian reviewed the prints in his usual calm manner, holding back four prints from the Lincoln entries, and nine prints from Louth. The club room was packed for the evening, I was especially taken with three of the detailed insect prints submitted by Lincoln, and presumably by the same author, as the pastel like green backgrounds were in the same style. It was an excellent and close fought competition, well done to Lincoln, but after the points were added up Louth led by 20 points.
Our PDI (Projected Digital Image) competition with the categories of “Seasons”, and “Open” was held last night. Dane Butler was the judge for the evening, and there were some stunning images submitted into the competition to review. Dane judged the images fairly, majoring on the technical imperfections of the images, depth of focus, composition, elements within an image that could have been removed, improved cropping of an image, and image titling. Thank you to Dane who is a new judge on the LPA circuit, I felt he did well, he does need to think about addressing the audience with his critique of the submitted images, and speak a little louder. I know that the technical critique helps us to develop our skills as photographers, sometimes though, it would be nice if a judge could concentrate on the pleasing aesthetics of a submitted image, rather than on the technical deficiencies of an image, for me as a personal viewpoint it should be how an image has an impact on the viewer, or the story that the image conveys. I present two images for consideration, the first of the heritage passenger train hauled by the steam locomotive “Eric Treacy” drawing into Goathland station and being met by the Stationmaster on the platform conveys a story, the second is of a visually impactful corn flower, both images have technical imperfections but are nevertheless stunning. Congratulations to Steve Chapman, and Graham Harrison for achieving the highest placings in the competition. All the competition results, and top three placements from the competition categories have been uploaded to the Competition page on the website.
Good Morning All Last Wednesday we held our Annual General Meeting, it was a good attendance, with all the Officer, and Committee posts filled for another year, thank you to all. This week, Wednesday 14th May, we hold our monthly PDI competition, with the categories of "Seasons" and "Open" to be judged by Dane Butler, entries to Harry by midnight tonight please. Regards Graham
Our AGM was held last night; it was a productive evening with all the Society Officers re-elected for the forthcoming year. A big thank you to Peter Cory who has stood down from the Committee, Paul Twomey has been nominated in his place on the Committee. Following the AGM, the cups, and trophies were awarded to members with the highest points scores in the competitions.
We held a PDI Competition last night with the categories of “Local Events”, (the “Local” designation applies to any photograph taken within a 25-mile radius of St. James Church, Louth) and “Open”. Our own Graham Harrison was the judge for the evening, and he did a sterling job of selecting the top three highest placed images in each category. All the results of the competition can be viewed on our Competition webpage. I want to take a moment to praise the work of our Competition Secretaries, Dave Turner is the Print Secretary, he collects, collates the submitted competition prints, and produces the score sheets, he also submits club entries into the LPA Fosters competition, and the LPA Battles for members. Harry Kerman is our PDI Secretary, he receives submitted digital images usually via WeTransfer, collates the entries, produces the score sheets, and presents the images on the competition evening, as he did last night. Our Society would be much poorer without the hard work and dedication of these two individuals. It would be a real help to both Competition Secretaries if you could pay attention to the titles of your submitted entries, in the topic categories a judge must be guided by the title, as well as the image to evaluate whether the image meets the topic criteria. Our next PDI competition has the topic of “Seasons”, carefully choose both the image and the appropriate title to help the judge. It seems a shame to put a lot of hard work into taking a photograph, editing the image, and submitting the entry, only to lose points because your image did not meet the criteria. I would also encourage you to join our outings in June, it’s where we can socialise, and learn from other members how to use our cameras and gain some composition tips. This photo of an Orb Weaver spider taken at Chambers Farm Wood, from last year, is an example of what can be achieved on our outings.
Good Morning All Last week at the club Derek Smith kindly organised a studio night for us all, it was a very successful evening with Derek providing all the lighting, backdrops, and booking the model. Thank you, Derek, for all your hard work organising the evening. This week, Wednesday 30th April, we are holding a local PDI competition, with the categories of "Local Events" and "Open", you have until midnight tonight to get your entries to Harry. The local is always judged by members and this week you have yours truly judging. The following week it is that time of year already when we hold our AGM and presentation night. If any members have trophies to hand in, this week please. The week after the AGM it is the first monthly PDI competition of our new competition year, Seasons and Open, you can begin sorting out your entries for that one as well now and send them to Harry after this Monday to avoid confusion. Regards Graham
