Too Noisy? – Adjusting the “Volume”

One of the areas that frustrates me in photography is adjusting a photograph that is “noisy”.  Even with dedicated tools, I find it hard to make any meaningful improvement in the quality of the photographs I adjust.  My noisy photographs seem destined to be noisy.  When I adjust the sliders, the edges I want to be crisp and clear are often muted, while the remainder seems unaffected.  Not at all the outcome I want.

shutterstock_105461507Even more baffling is sharpening.  Related to but opposite in intent to managing noise, applying sharpening leaves me even more puzzled, since I often see little to no change in my photograph.  And then there’s import sharpening vs. creative sharpening vs. export sharpening.  Sharpening for screen vs. sharpening for print.

How to make sense of it all? Continue reading “Too Noisy? – Adjusting the “Volume””

AI AI, Oh

I suspect we will see a release shortly of Luminar AI, one of the most revolutionary photo editors to emerge in recent years.  There is a special event scheduled for December 10.  So I thought it appropriate to offer a commentary on the controversy surrounding AI in this week’s post.  Controversy, you say?  Read on. 

It seems that everyone is weighing in on the move toward more and more machine-powered editing choices, also known as artificial intelligence or AI-based editing.  What surprises me most is the number of commentaries where the writer admits to never having seen the capabilities being criticized, but the mere thought of machine-powered functionality must invariably mean both loss of control for the artist and cookie-cutter results. 

I am not in that category.  I have watched with glee and eager anticipation as companies such as Adobe and Skylum and ON1 embed more and more intelligence in their products.  I have concluded early that there is no loss of control at all:  nothing could be further from the truth. Continue reading “AI AI, Oh”

A New User Perspective on Adobe Creative Cloud

This week, Adobe announced the latest iteration of its leading creative software, aptly named Creative Cloud.

Adobe Creative CloudAs a relatively new user of the creative suite of tools, particularly those tools devoted to photography, I’ve had to adjust the way I learn and adapt to new software in order to get comfortable with these products.  Here’s why.

Continue reading “A New User Perspective on Adobe Creative Cloud”