In the Moment:
Michael Frye's Landscape Photography Blog
by Michael Frye | Apr 30, 2015 | Announcements, Reviews
Swirling mist from Tunnel View, Yosemite. The new HDR Merge in Lightroom 6/CC did a great job with this high-contrast scene, producing a natural-looking result, and doing it with a completely non-destructive workflow.
After months of rumors, last week Adobe finally released Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC. When I saw the list of new features, I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping for improvements to Lightroom’s retouching tools, and to the Adjustment Brush. It would be nice to add a curve to only part of an image, for example, and the Auto Mask function of the Adjustment Brush has long needed improvement.
Changes to the Develop Module
Alas, Lightroom 6/CC offers only small improvements to the Develop Module, like the ability to move and copy Adjustment Brush pins, and to modify Graduated Filter and Radial Filter selections with a brush. Nice, but hardly earth-shattering.
There is, however, a new, unadvertised feature of the Spot Removal Tool that I stumbled upon, and find rather useful: you can now place new cloning or healing spots over old ones by hiding the tool’s circles. Press the H key to hide or reveal the circles (the Tool Overlay). Though this seems like a small thing, the ability to add cloning or healing in layers, one step on top of another, is vital for any serious retouching job, and a significant improvement to Lightroom’s retouching capabilities. (There was a workaround in previous versions of Lightroom, though rather an awkward one: you could place a new spot outside any existing ones, then drag it over an existing spot. The new implementation is much better.)
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by Michael Frye | Dec 27, 2013 | Announcements, Digital Darkroom
Sunbeams, Mariposa County, CA, USA
Throughout 2013, nothing generated more comments and passionate discussion than my posts about Adobe’s Creative Cloud. As most of you know, Adobe announced in May that it would no longer offer Photoshop and its other Creative Suite applications with a perpetual license. They became available by subscription only, and, at the time, with a rather steep monthly fee of $20 per month for an individual application.
In June I wrote My Thoughts on the Adobe Creative Cloud, which covered my initial reaction to this announcement. Since then some things have changed. Notably, Adobe lowered the monthly subscription rate to $9.99 per month for Photoshop and Lightroom together. At first they offered this rate only to people who already owned a license to Photoshop CS3 or later. Then they offered the package to everyone. I finally decided to subscribe, despite some misgivings; I wrote about my reasons here.
This Lightroom-and-Photoshop package is still available for $9.99 per month (with a one-year subscription) until December 31st. After that? Well who knows. I have a feeling Adobe could be offering similar deals in the future, but no guarantees!
2014 should be an interesting year. Will Adobe make Lightroom available by subscription only? Let’s hope not! Will other software companies move to a subscription-only model? Or will someone seize the opportunity created by all the ill-will toward Adobe and offer a true competitor to Photoshop – with a perpetual license? Stay tuned.
— Michael Frye
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Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author or principal photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, Yosemite Meditations for Women, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. He has also written three eBooks: Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, and Landscapes in Lightroom 5: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide. Michael written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.
by Michael Frye | Dec 26, 2013 | Announcements, Digital Darkroom
Aspen hillside, Tioyable NF, CA, USA (processed with Lightroom 5)
In April Adobe released the beta version of Lightroom 5, and the full shipping version came out in June. While the jump from Lightroom 4 to 5 wasn’t as big as some previous upgrades, there were some significant improvements, notably the Advanced Healing Brush and the Visualize Spots options for the Spot Removal Tool.
I shared my thoughts about all the changes in the post Lightroom 5 Beta from April. Since then I’ve used the Advanced Healing Brush a lot, and have actually found it to be even more helpful than I initially thought. It does take some practice to get the most out of this tool, but now I do almost all of my retouching in Lightroom, and rarely use Photoshop. This allows me to keep a completely non-destructive workflow, and means that I’ll never have to do the retouching for any of these images again (as I might if I used Photoshop for retouching and ever had to go back and make a change to the Raw file). Very nice.
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by Michael Frye | Dec 1, 2013 | Announcements
Just a reminder that there are less than 36 hours left in our Black Friday Sale, with 35% off my Landscapes in Lightroom 5 ebook and video package, and 40% off The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite iPhone and iPad app. The sale ends at midnight Pacific time tomorrow, December 2nd. Again, you don’t need to enter any special codes – those are just the prices until the sale is over.
I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!
— Michael Frye
by Michael Frye | Nov 21, 2013 | Digital Darkroom
A creative cloud over the North Carolina/South Carolina border
Adobe is now offering its Photoshop Photography Program to everyone, not just those who own a license to a previous version of Photoshop. This program includes Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC for $9.99 per month. This new offer is only available until December 2nd. (If you own a license to Photoshop CS3 or later you still have until December 31st.)
For people who would like to try Photoshop, but don’t own a previous Photoshop license, this seems like a good deal. In the past you would have paid nearly $700 to buy a full version of Photoshop for the first time. Now you can get Photoshop, plus Lightroom, for $120 per year.
For those who already own a license to Photoshop CS5 or CS6 things are less clear cut. The pricing for this Lightroom-and-Photoshop package is attractive, but you’re still renting rather than owning, and if you stop your subscription you lose access to the software. Many people are choosing to stick with their older versions of Photoshop, since they own a perpetual license and will never lose access to it. I discussed some of the pros and cons of this deal in a previous post. (Be sure to read the comments, as there are lots of interesting thoughts there.)
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