In the Moment:
Michael Frye's Landscape Photography Blog
by Michael Frye | Aug 17, 2025 | Digital Darkroom, Photography Tips
Dunes at sunrise in a sandstorm, Death Valley NP, California. During a dust storm, as you might expect, my sensor accumulated plenty of dust spots (see the next image below).
Removing dust spots from an image can be a tedious chore. Do you want to do that tiresome job twice? I certainly don’t – which is why I remove dust spots in Lightroom, rather than Photoshop.
There’s no way to do retouching in Photoshop in a completely flexible, non-destructive way that adapts to any further changes you make to the underlying layers. But when you remove a spot or object in Lightroom (or Camera Raw), the retouching will always adapt, no matter what you do to the image in the future. Even if you make a drastic change, like lightening the photo by two stops, making a big adjustment to the white balance, or converting it to black and white, the retouching in Lightroom will adapt and blend in seamlessly. And that means you’ll never, ever, have to do it again – which, for me, is a big advantage.
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by Michael Frye | Jul 11, 2025 | Announcements, Digital Darkroom
Make Your Workflow Faster and More Efficient By Mastering Lightroom’s Powerful Retouching Tools
Retouching can be a tedious chore. Even removing simple dust spots can be time-consuming, and more complex tasks take even longer. So the last thing you want is to do it over again! But unfortunately that’s always a possibility when you do retouching in Photoshop, even if you do it on a separate layer. What if you need to go back and modify the original raw file settings in Lightroom? Or what if Adobe adds a new feature for Lightroom (like a fantastic new Denoise tool) that you want to take advantage of? Now your cloning layer won’t match the new raw-file settings, and you’ll have to do the retouching over again.
But if you do the retouching in Lightroom you’ll NEVER have to do it again, because the retouching will always adapt seamlessly to any changes you make to the raw file – plus you can simplify your workflow by avoiding the roundtrip to Photoshop and back. This Lightroom-only workflow has become much easier in recent years as Adobe has added powerful new retouching tools to Lightroom, making it possible to do even complex jobs with relative ease. Because of Lightroom’s power and flexibility, I never do retouching in Photoshop anymore if I can possibly help it.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 6, 2025 | Announcements
Wave splash at sunset, Oregon Coast
Using Lightroom’s Local Adjustments to Create Powerful Visual Stories
“Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships!”
— Ansel Adams
Successful photographs use light and composition to draw the viewer’s eye to the right spots – the places the photographer wants people to notice. But, as Ansel Adams points out, sometimes nature needs a little help!
When processing images, I probably spend 90% of my time on local adjustments. That includes dodging and burning (lightening and darkening), but also many other subtle and not-so-subtle changes to the luminance, color, and contrast in particular parts of the photograph.
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by Michael Frye | May 22, 2024 | Digital Darkroom, Video Tutorials
Rapid and reflections in the Colorado River, Grand Canyon NP, Arizona. The lower-right portion of this photograph had a large blemish caused by a water spot on the sensor. This would have been difficult to remove using traditional retouching tools in Lightroom or Photoshop, but took about five seconds with the new Generative-AI mode in Lightroom.
Yesterday Adobe announced significant upgrades to Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Camera Raw.
To me, the biggest news is the addition of “Generative AI” for retouching. This uses similar technology to Generative Fill in Photoshop, but isn’t designed to add or create things – only to remove objects. In fact Adobe changed the name of the Healing tool to the Remove tool.
Whatever you call it, Generative AI is a big leap forward in the retouching capabilities of Lightroom. It makes Lightroom almost as powerful as Photoshop for retouching, but unlike Photoshop it works in a completely flexible, non-destructive way. Generative AI does have some limitations, however, which I discuss below.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 8, 2024 | Announcements
Aspen kaleidoscope, Uncompahgre NF, Colordao
Color can be one of the trickiest aspects of image processing. How do you get the right white balance? How can you dial in enough saturation to make the image appear lively and vibrant, without it looking fake or garish? How do you get the right hues? How can you apply color grading effectively?
In this live webinar I’ll demonstrate how to tackle this challenge as I take you step-by-step through processing one or more photographs, with an emphasis on handling color. I’ll cover all the basics, but also delve into the nuances that can give your images a rich, sophisticated look, including:
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