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.

One of the basic rules of composition, that’s even familiar to most beginning photographers, is to avoid framing a shot so a tree, fence post or telephone pole appears to be emanating from a subject’s head. But what about those ugly power lines running across the sky, that seem to be everywhere we look?

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.

Photoshop has a bunch of powerful hidden tools, and there’s one that image-editing expert Colin Smith calls a “Magic Button” that will instantly fix colors in an image. If your guess is we’re speaking of the Auto Color Tool, think again!

Adobe is constantly updating Photoshop and Lightroom, and usually that’s a good thing—with helpful new features and streamlined performance. Every so often, however, something gets screwed up, and familiar tools no longer work as they should.

One of the first things photographers do when editing images is reduce noise and sharpen soft photos. And while there’s a bunch of helpful apps that address these tasks, the video below describes what one expert says is the “quintessential” method of accomplishing both jobs in Lightroom.

Most photographers would rather be out shooting than sitting behind a computer editing dozens of images. One way to dramatically reduce processing time and get back out in the field is to “batch process” your photos.