Software How To

Whether you’re photographing an experienced model or a member of your family, simple portraits can be a lot of fun. But even with an attractive subject, skin blemishes can spoil an otherwise great shot.

Outdoor photographers love shooting at “Blue Hour”—that quiet, moody time just before dawn or after sunset. That’s because images take on a soft, ephemeral glow before the sun rises in the morning or drops below the horizon at night.

In this article we look at one of the lesser known but, nevertheless, incredibly useful and simple-to-use features in the new PortraitPro 21 – background replacement. Background replacement allows you to instantly isolate the subject and place them on a new background that fits the purpose of the photoshoot and your creative goals - be it moody scenes or studio to outdoors transformations.

Commercial photographer Joel Grimes has been making outstanding images for over 30 years, so when he says there’s one simple Photoshop tool he “can’t live without, we stop and pay attention. And while this “essential” tool isn’t exactly a secret, Grime’s uses it in a unique way.

Blue hour, that magical time just before sunrise or sunset, is usually a great time to shoot. With the sun just below the horizon, beautiful blue tones bathe the landscape and create a dreamy soft glow.

Summer means stormy weather, with threatening thunderstorms that offer great opportunities for dramatic landscape imagery—especially when lightning is involved. The challenge to coming up with dramatic photographs is dealing with the complex lighting conditions that electrical storms present.

Handheld photography under low-light conditions often involves extremely high ISO settings that you’d never use under any other conditions. But taking this approach typically results in those ugly artifacts we call “noise.”