Earlier this week, Sean Bagshaw released the “Iceland Highlands” workflow video series, and like his four previous “complete workflow” courses, this one is completely different. One of the best things about Sean’s videos is how he combines different techniques to create a personal style. Just like taking each picture requires a unique approach to capture the light properly, processing requires careful consideration of what each image needs and how to make it happen. Sean is especially good at sharing his creative concepts and then showing how to put them into practice. It’s an approach personalized for both the image and the photographer and is at the heart of creating unique images that convey a connection to the natural world.
The nine chapters for the course are listed below.
I’m happy to once again be partnering with Sean to offer this new course along with an introductory discount on my website. Simply enter the code ICE25in the shopping cart to get 25% off. This code actually takes 25% off everything on the site, so it’s a good time pickup additional items that might interest you, including free things like the TK Gen Fill plugin, TK Lum Mask plugin, or a linear profile for your camera.
As post-processing methods evolve, Sean is continually updating his workflow. Live gradients, ACR Orton, generative fill, mask calculations, and use of the TK9 plugin for Photoshop are some of the new techniques in this course. I’m sure you’ll find this course interesting and informative.
Sean Bagshaw is in the process of producing a new complete workflow demonstration video series. I’ve watched most of the chapters (looks like there will be around 15) and was thoroughly impressed. Not only is this a complete walk-through of the creative process, from in-the-field decision-making to fine-tuning with minor adjustments at the very end, but the series is full of new techniques that he’s not demonstrated before. It’s an excellent illustration of how a photographers work both with the scene and the image to achieve a creative and evocative final result.
This new video series features the TK8 plugin in a supporting role. Most of the techniques Sean demonstrates don’t require it, though it can simplify several of them. Some of the new features in TK8 are closely aligned with what Sean does in this video series, and that’s because he recommended adding these techniques to TK8 when it was being developed. And, not surprisingly, coming from Sean they’re really useful. I’m happy that they’re now part of the plugin.
Umpqua Autumn–Complete Workflow is scheduled to be released next Monday, January 31, and I’m once again pleased to be able to offer it on my website. During the launch period, which will last through the month of February, there will be a site-wide discount on all items. This includes the new video series, the TK8 plugin, and all of Sean’s other video courses. For previous customers, there will also be an additional discount on the new series via a special discount code that I’ll email when the series is released. Please be sure to wait for that code if you’re a previous customer or contact me if you don’t receive it by February 1. The video below is Sean’s brief introduction to this informative new course. You can see the image he’s working on and get a quick look at some of the techniques he’ll cover.
The newest versions of Lightroom (Lr) and Camera Raw (CR) have significantly improved masking capabilities. There are options to make masks based on the subject and the sky, gradient masks, brush masks, and masks based on color ranges and luminance ranges. It’s an interesting and useful collection. In addition, there are ways to add, subtract, intersect, and invert masks, so the new masks can be combined in a variety of ways, similar to the Mask Calculator in the TK8 plugin.
There are lots of YouTube videos demonstrating the basics of using these new masks, so most readers are probably already familiar with their functionality. The two people I work closely with, Sean Bagshaw and Dave Kelly, have both contributed what I feel are some unique perspectives on these masks that I think are worth sharing.
Dave Kelly: Mask-the-mask in Lightroom/Camera Raw
Dave Kelly is someone who is good at taking a deep dive into almost anything and finding a few pearls that others have missed. His weekly “TK Friday” series on YouTube looks at using the TK8 plugin, and, to be honest, he’s pushes it further than I have when testing and using it. In doing so, he’s found new uses for TK8 and has also highlighted some things that can eventually be improved. I’m always glad (and somewhat relieved) to see that TK8 can keep up with what Dave is doing.
One of the techniques he’s demonstrated in various videos in the Friday series is the mask-the-mask technique in Photoshop. The way this generally works is to make an adjustment to the image through a specialized mask, like a luminosity mask or color mask, and then putting the adjustment layer into a group with a black layer mask. Painting on the group’s layer mask with white paint then reveals the adjustment in just those parts of the image where it’s needed. Luminosity and color masks are incredibly useful, of course, but they work on all similarly selected pixels in the image. The mask-the-mask technique allows the adjustment to be selectively applied to specific parts of the image. The process is easy and straightforward in Photoshop and produces a very targeted adjustment.
But, you might wonder, is it possible to replicate this technique with the new masks in Lr/CR? Well, thanks to Dave Kelly, we now know the answer to this question is “Yes,” and Dave shows how to do it in the video below. It’s not as simple as in Photoshop but appears to achieve similar results, namely restricting a color range or luminance range adjustment to specific parts of the image. It uses the Brush tool for making the final reveal, so that’s similar to the Photoshop method. However, it’s a bit more complicated before that. Still, it’s a very clever and insightful use of the new Lr/CR masks . . . and I’m not surprised Dave was able to figure out how to do it. For photographers working exclusively in Lightroom, Dave’s method will likely be a useful new tool in their workflow arsenal. NOTE: Dave doesn’t call this the “mask-the-mask” technique in the video, but, based on the end result, that’s essentially what’s happening.
Sean Bagshaw: Comparing Lr/CR masks with Photoshop masks
I’ve personally not worked extensively enough with the new Lr/CR masks to compare them with masks that can be created with Photoshop and the TK8 plugin, but Sean’s video below specifically undertakes this comparison. Some of the masks, like Select Sky, are basically equivalent in Lightroom and Photoshop according to Sean. Lightroom wins for gradient and radial masks, but Photoshop masks, like those made with the TK8 plugin, offer additional types of masks (saturation, vibrance, color brightness, and edge masks) and additional ways to modify masks. Sean also discusses using smart objects to be able to continually access the best of both types of masks from the two different sources.
The takeaway from Sean’s video, I think, is that there are some new and very useful mask options now available in Lr/CR, but that Photoshop still offers mask options and mask control, along with additional creative techniques not available in Lr/Cr, to continue to make it a valuable part of the workflow. In the end, everyone will use the tools they understand best and that produce the result they’re looking for. And that’s always been the best approach when working creatively with images.
I’m well aware that the TK7 panel can seem a bit overwhelming at first. Lots of buttons that do lots of stuff, and it’s not all luminosity masks. That’s why I appreciate Dave Kelly doing some videos that take a closer look at specific features and how to use them. These videos narrow the focus considerably and explore one or two techniques in detail. Knowing how the different functions work provides a sense for what is possible, and once you know what’s possible, you can decide when it might work to add that feature to your workflow. Dave’s latest videos feature techniques that I find particularly useful on many of my images: Saturation and Vibrance masks and the Orton effect.
The first video below goes over how to use Vibrance masks. Saturation and vibrance are both areas of image development that don’t get a lot of attention. Yes, we might adjust them when things don’t look quite right, but there’s a creative side to explore as well. I’ve found that Vibrance masks are often ideal for making a global saturation increase. The correct Vibrance mask in combination with a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer can add a nice saturation pop to the image without over-saturating colors that are already quite saturated. By using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer instead of a Vibrance adjustment layer to control saturation, individual color channels can also be adjusted independently to fine-tune the effect. Dave shows how to do this. This technique is one of my favorites to try near the end of the processing workflow to make sure I’ve pushed the image’s saturation as far as possible without overdoing it.
Saturation masks are the flip-side of Vibrance masks in a couple of ways. The first is that they target the opposite pixels as Vibrance masks. Vibrance masks are brightest in areas with the least-saturated colors whereas saturated pixels show brightest in Saturation masks. Additionally, Saturation masks often work best with local adjustments (instead of a global adjustment) via a technique called saturation painting. This process loads a Saturation mask as a selection, and then painting gray through this selection onto a special layer lowers the saturation in areas of the image where the color looks too hot. It’s a very precise way to target over-saturated colors without affecting the overall global saturation of the image. Dave demonstrates how it’s done in the video below.
By combining global saturation adjustments through a Vibrance mask with local saturation adjustments via saturation painting, a new (and often better) saturation balance can be achieved in the image. The image will look better because saturation has been specifically addressed using masks that can accurately target different levels of saturation in the image.
The final video below looks at additional ways to add some finishing touches to the image: the Make-It-Glow and Smart Orton techniques. Make-It-Glow is pretty much a one-click technique that adds a nice sense of glow to the image via color blurring without blurring the image’s texture. It works well on warm-colored subjects like sandstone, autumn leaves and flowers.
The Smart Orton action takes the regular Orton effect (which combines a saturation and contrast boosts along with Gaussian blur) and breaks it into it’s component parts. Shadows, highlights, blur, and contrast all have their own layers, and users can adjust them to get whatever effect looks best on their image. It might feel a bit daunting at first, but Dave walks you through the various layers and adjustments in the video below.
Good Light Journal 