This article was updated in December 2023 with contributions from Andrew S Gibson and Darren Rowse.

What’s so great about the square format in photography? And how can shooting square compositions help your photos?

I’m a huge fan of the 1:1 aspect ratio – I use it all the time in my own photography! – and in this article, I aim to explain why it’s such a great idea to shoot square. I also explain several easy ways to work with a square aspect ratio.

By the time you’re done, you’ll fully appreciate the value of square photography, and you’ll be ready to capture some stunning square shots!

Let’s get started.

Square versus rectangular photography

Every photo aspect ratio – square, 3:2, 4:3, 16:9, and more – features a slightly different view of the world.

And these different views lend themselves to different types of compositions.

Therefore, composition in the square (1:1) format is a different process than composition within a standard 3:2 or 4:3 rectangular frame.

Is the square format always better than a wider format? Absolutely not. There are times when you’ll want to shoot with a 3:2 format, for instance, or a 16:9 format (especially when you’re dealing with wider or longer scenes).

But the square format is very well-liked by photographers, and I highly recommend you keep it at the back of your mind when out shooting.

Let’s take a look at why the square format is so great, starting with:

1. Square compositions feature balance and flow

A square is a perfectly balanced shape. Each side is equal in length. Therefore, neither the vertical nor the horizontal direction is emphasized.

Why does this matter? Well, in a rectangular frame, the viewer’s eye is encouraged to move from side to side (in the landscape format) or up and down (in the portrait format).

But in a square frame, with every side equal in length, the viewer’s eye is encouraged to move, not from side to side or up and down, but in a circle. This creates visual flow, always a good thing in photography.

Of course, there are many factors that influence the way the eye moves around a photo, including the use of line, texture, color, selective focus, and negative space. But the shape of the frame is a major factor.

In the landscape below, composed with the 3:2 aspect ratio of my 35mm camera, the eye is encouraged to move from side to side, thanks to the shape of the frame (as well as the horizontal lines):

But in this square format photo, the eye is encouraged to move around the frame in a circle:

Useful, right? It’s especially important when you’re dealing with near-far compositions (as in the shot above) and you want to push the viewer from foreground to background and then to the foreground again.

2. The square format gives the perfect amount of negative space

Negative space is the term used to describe any empty space around a subject. For instance, if you photograph a barn surrounded by a snowy field, the field will often constitute negative space.

Now, it’s common knowledge that you can improve your compositions by getting close to your subject – that is, by eliminating negative space. But when used carefully, negative space can create a wonderful sense of atmosphere. And it can also help emphasize the shape of the subject (i.e., the positive space).

Unfortunately, negative space can be somewhat finicky. Including lots of space in a rectangular frame may not turn out so great, as you’ll end up with too much space and not enough focus on your subject. But negative space often works very well in the square format, as I demonstrate below.

Here is a photo of a lizard in the 3:2 aspect ratio:

And here is the same photo cropped to a square:

Which do you prefer? The square format offers a more balanced composition – featuring lots of negative space, yes, but also a powerful splash of positive space.

3. A square will force you to simplify your compositions

The square format lends itself to a simple approach. It pushes you to pare down your compositions and make every element count.

Why? Because there is less room in a square frame than in a rectangular one. So before you include another element in the frame, you’re forced to ask yourself: What is really necessary? And what can I do without?

Generally speaking, creating a simple composition is hard – but after a bit of time working with the square format, you’ll find it becoming easier and easier.

Remember: for your photos to have impact, you should eliminate as many distractions as possible. The focus should be on your subject. Other unnecessary elements within the frame will simply pull the viewer’s eye away from the subject and reduce the strength of the image.

This photo is about as simple as you can get:

And the square format forced me to keep the strong, simple, in-your-face composition.

4. The square format works great with shapes

Take a look at the images below. How many shapes can you see?

There are dozens – circles, squares, diamonds, rectangles, and more.

Now, shapes tend to look great in photographic compositions. They help stabilize and balance the frame, plus they can create powerful, eye-catching scenes.

And the square format really lends itself to shape-based compositions.

Why? I’m not completely sure, but I think it’s because the square is such a powerful shape that it emphasizes other shapes within it. This is linked to the ideas of balance and simplicity, as discussed above – simplifying the composition emphasizes shapes, which in turn makes shape-based compositions more powerful.

Whatever the reason, just know that geometry looks great in square photos. So if your plan is to shoot (or crop) square, the more shapes, the better!

5. You can create beautiful square centered compositions

Photographers tend to avoid positioning the main subject in the center of the frame. And in most cases, this is a good idea. As the rule of thirds points out, off-center compositions are the way to go.

But did you know that centered compositions actually work well with the square format?

It’s true! With square photography, you can often place the subject in the center of the frame for an effective composition. You can ignore the rule of thirds. And you can get some very unique photos.

Centered compositions work especially well when the image is simple. The fewer distractions present in the frame, the more effective a central composition becomes. If the subject has a strong shape, the balanced empty space around it emphasizes that shape. And the square format provides the perfect frame:

6. The square format works beautifully with black and white

Take away color and what do you get? An image that relies on tonal contrast for impact and that emphasizes visual elements such as lines, textures, and shapes.

In other words:

A composition that looks amazing in a square format.

Honestly, the square format and black and white seem made for each other, which perhaps explains the square format’s popularity with fine art photographers.

So the next time you’re shooting in a square format, consider switching to your camera’s monochrome mode. You’re bound to capture some stunning photos! Alternatively, you can shoot in color and convert to black and white in post-processing (it can be helpful to switch back and forth between color and black and white to see what works best for your shot).

7. The square format works great for street photography

Street photography is often about reacting quickly to the scene in front of you. The fewer decisions you have to make, the quicker you can photograph. With the square format, there is no need to consider whether the composition would be better if you turned the camera on its side. In other words, the square format simplifies the decision-making process.

And as I emphasized above, it’s much easier to create an effective composition within a square frame. This can be beneficial for all forms of photography, of course, but when you’re shooting on the streets, you’ll often be faced with chaos: people running, walking, talking, standing; cars flowing by or parked on the curb; and street signs and advertisements galore. In my experience, working in the square format can help you organize that chaotic scene into a harmonious composition, something that can be tough to do when working with a rectangular aspect ratio.

How to get started photographing with a square aspect ratio

Now that you’re familiar with why the square format is so compelling, let’s talk about how you can use it. There are four main ways you can explore this aspect ratio:

1. Use a medium-format film camera

These can be surprisingly inexpensive on the second-hand market. Look for brands such as Rolleiflex, Mamiya, Bronica, or Hasselblad. Make sure to get the best quality scan you can of your negatives so you can work on them in Photoshop.

2. Use a toy film camera (like a Holga)

Again, a good quality scan is essential to make the most out of the negatives. If you don’t want to use film, you can buy Holga lenses for digital cameras and crop the image to a square. That’s how I created this image:

3. Use a digital camera with a 1:1 aspect ratio setting

Many digital cameras allow you to change the aspect ratio of your photos. You’ll find this option in your camera’s settings menu; just select 1:1, and then start shooting.

There is one caveat to this approach, however:

If you shoot in RAW, when you import your images into Lightroom (or any other post-processing software), you’ll need to re-crop to the 1:1 aspect ratio. This is because the aspect ratio setting won’t truly change the files that your camera sensor captures; instead, it’ll just crop the JPEGs to 1:1 in-camera.

4. Photograph normally and crop during post-processing

If you want to test out square format photography, you can always choose to photograph in your camera’s native aspect ratio (often 3:2), and then just crop the files to a square in Lightroom, ON1 Photo RAW, Luminar, etc.

This method is convenient, though it won’t let you frame your images in the 1:1 aspect ratio through the camera viewfinder, which can be helpful (especially when you’re just starting out).

If you do go this route, I encourage you to visualize your compositions within a square in advance. Don’t just shoot as you normally would – imagine a square in your camera’s viewfinder, and compose as if you won’t have any extra pixels to work with when editing.

Square photography: final words

Now you know all about the power of the square format – and why you should definitely try using the 1:1 aspect ratio in your photography.

It doesn’t matter whether you shoot with the intention of cropping to a square, or you go back over your old images with the aim of making some square compositions; the important thing is that you have fun with the process and that you appreciate the usefulness of square photography!

Now over to you:

What do you think about the square aspect ratio? Do you use it frequently? When does it look best? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Square Photography: 7 Reasons the Square Format Is Amazing appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Andrew S. Gibson.

This article was updated in January 2024 with contributions from Jim Hamel, Darren Rowse, and Jaymes Dempsey.

The horizon line is a big deal in many forms of photography, including the landscape, travel, and architectural genres. And even if there isn’t a true horizon line in your picture, there’s often a line running through the picture that viewers expect – often subconsciously – to appear straight.

Given that, you might be surprised to realize that crooked lines are a huge problem for beginner photographers (and they can be a problem for more advanced shooters, too!). We often become so wrapped up in our subjects that we fail to notice whether the photo is crooked, but the truth is that a slant is often the first thing non-photographers will see when looking at your shot.

Posting a good photo only for it to appear crooked can be embarrassing, but the good news is that keeping your photos straight and your horizons level is actually very, very easy. You can use two different broad approaches:

1. Get the shot straight in the field
2. Fix a crooked image in post-processing

And in this article, I walk you through tips and techniques so you effectively apply either approach to your workflow.

Sound good? Then let’s dive right in!

How to prevent crooked images in the field

While you can always fix a slanted shot in post-processing, it’s always best to get the composition right in the field. Not only will this save you time behind the computer, but it’ll also prevent you from losing pixels around the edges of the frame, which is a minor but inevitable part of Photoshop-based horizon correction.

So let’s start with a few easy techniques and tools to keep your images straight from the get-go!

1. Just look!

The first step to achieving level horizons is surprisingly simple: just pay attention. Before you take a photo, take a moment to frame your composition and ask yourself a key question: where is the horizon in this shot, and does it look level? This might seem like basic advice, but it’s a critical habit to develop.

Our eyes can be easily tricked by surrounding landscapes or the angle of the camera. By consciously acknowledging the horizon’s position, you’ll already be on a path to more professional-looking photographs. You’ll be amazed at the difference this small step can make!

2. Turn on your viewfinder gridlines

If you’re not using your camera’s gridlines, you’re missing out on a powerful tool. Most modern cameras come with an option to display a grid overlay in the viewfinder. This grid typically divides the view into nine equal segments, a three-by-three matrix. And it’s not just there to look pretty!

First, it’s a useful compositional aid, especially when you want to align subjects according to the rule of thirds. But more importantly for our discussion, it’s incredibly useful for keeping horizons level. Simply align the horizon with one of the horizontal lines in the grid, and voilà – you’ve got a level shot.

I use this technique frequently, and over time, it becomes second nature. When you look through your viewfinder and see the gridlines, aligning them with your horizon will become an automatic part of your process.

3. Use your camera’s electronic level

Many newer mirrorless cameras come with an electronic-level feature. This can be activated to appear in the electronic viewfinder or on the LCD screen. It’s an incredibly convenient, cost-free way to ensure your horizons are straight.

Personally, I don’t always keep the electronic level active as I find it a bit distracting. But when I need it, I set up my shot, turn on the electronic level, adjust accordingly, and then switch it off before capturing the image. If you’re not sure whether your camera has this feature, it’s worth checking. It can significantly streamline the process of achieving level horizons.

4. Buy a hot shoe level (or use the level on your tripod)

If your camera lacks an electronic level, or if you prefer a more traditional approach, consider a hot-shoe level. These are small bubble levels that attach to your camera’s hot shoe, and they’re generally inexpensive.

However, they do take up the hot shoe, which means you can’t use the shoe for a speedlight or remote release receiver. If you’re a frequent user of flashes or remotes, this might not be your best option.

However, many tripods come with built-in bubble levels. Using a tripod with such a feature can be a fantastic way to ensure your camera is level, especially for landscape shots. While it’s another piece of equipment to carry, the precision it offers in aligning your horizons can be well worth it. And speaking of tripods:

5. Always bring a tripod (if you can!)

A tripod can be a game-changer in achieving level horizons. When I use a tripod, I find it encourages me to slow down and consider each element of my shot more carefully, including the horizon. It’s particularly useful if you’re struggling to keep the horizon level in hand-held shots.

A tripod not only helps you get your camera level but also keeps it steady, which is invaluable for a series of shots in the same location. Remember, a good tripod doesn’t have to break the bank. However, investing in one with a sturdy build is crucial. As an added bonus, using a tripod opens up new possibilities such as stunning long exposures and night photography.

How to straighten a crooked image in post-processing

Ideally, you should aim to get your horizons straight in-camera. But sometimes, despite your best efforts, you might end up with a slightly tilted horizon. That’s where post-processing comes in. Most photo editing software, including Lightroom, offers simple tools for straightening horizons. Here are a few tips to get you going:

1. Use the Crop tool effectively

The easiest way to straighten your horizon line is with the crop tool. Virtually every photo editing software package in existence has a crop tool, so it should be familiar to you.

Most of the time this tool will also let you change the angle of the picture. And quite often that’s all you need to do.

In Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), select the Crop Tool, and then move your cursor slightly off the picture. The cursor will change to a curved line with arrows at either end, which indicates that clicking and dragging will now change the angle of the picture. Click and move it around to straighten your horizon line.

You can also do it by filling in the angle percentage on the far right.

2. Apply distortion correction

Sometimes your picture will appear crooked even when it’s level. That’s because most lenses have at least some barrel distortion, which makes the horizon line sag toward the sides of the picture.

This really affects things when you crop one side of your picture. The sag will show on one side (the one you didn’t crop) but not the other, so your picture will appear to be leaning to one side.

You can fix this with the leveling functions mentioned already. But another way to fix it is to cure the distortion, which can be done easily in Lightroom and ACR.

Find the box labeled Lens Corrections, and check the box next to Enable Profile Corrections. The software will then apply an automatic correction tailored to the lens you used. You might need to help the software find your lens by selecting the manufacturer and perhaps even the model. But usually the software will find it for you and apply an automatic correction.

3. Use Lightroom’s Transform tools

Sometimes you need a little help determining what is truly level. Your eyes can play tricks on you, particularly when you have different lines running in different directions in your picture. Lightroom can provide some help in the Transform panel.

The best way to get familiar with these controls is to just play with them. Go through them all and watch how they affect your photos. After that, you’ll know which controls will be the most useful.

You can have Lightroom level your photo automatically by pressing the Level button at the top left. However, this doesn’t always work, in which case you can do it manually using the Rotate slider.

This is a great set of tools to use when you have multiple distortions working at the same time. Here’s a picture that isn’t level, and also seems to be suffering from vertical distortion.

And here’s the same picture after pressing the Auto button in the Transform panel.

Pretty dramatic improvement, isn’t it? If you don’t like what you get, you can always perform manually tweaks using the sliders. It won’t always be that easy, but sometimes this control is like magic.

4. Use the Photoshop ruler

Say you’re struggling to tell if your horizon line is actually level. We already talked about the Level tool in Lightroom’s Transform panel. But there’s perhaps an even better way: Photoshop’s Ruler tool. It’s not something you’d know about until someone shows it to you!

Start by selecting the Ruler tool from the tools on the left side of your screen. Then draw a line along your horizon line. If you can’t see all of the horizon in the picture, just use the part you can see. And don’t worry – you can re-do this as many times as you want.

Once you’ve drawn your line:

1. From the main menu choose Image > Image Rotation > Arbitrary. This will bring up a dialog box with a number in the angle box. This is the angle Photoshop has set based on the line you just drew with your Ruler. Don’t change it.
2. Click OK.

Photoshop will now level the picture according to the line you just drew.

If it looks right, crop away to fix the edges. If it doesn’t look right, just undo it and try again.

How to keep your horizons straight: final words

Capturing photos with level horizons might seem like a small detail, but it makes a significant difference in the professional appearance of your images.

From simply paying more attention to your framing to utilizing tools like gridlines, electronic levels, or a tripod, there are many strategies to ensure straight horizons. And, of course, you can always post-processing can correct minor mistakes!

Now over to you:

Do you have any additional approaches for leveling your horizons that I missed? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post 9 Powerful Tips for Keeping Your Images Straight appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jim Hamel.

This article was updated in December 2023 with contributions from Melinda Smith, Lara White, Kevin Landwer-Johan, and Annie Tao.

Are you tired of taking forever to pick your best pictures? Do you want to know how to choose photos, fast?

When I first started as a photographer, I’d get hung up on the picture-choosing process after every photoshoot. I’d spend way too much time agonizing over every photo (and I worried deeply about accidentally discarding a good one…).

But over time, I developed several strategies. Strategies that:

• sped up my workflow
• made the culling process far less painful
• helped me focus on actual photo editing

Below, I share nine of these strategies, all of which are guaranteed to make choosing pictures a piece of cake, and I also explain why putting in the effort to select your best shots is so important.

Let’s get started!

1. Don’t take so many photos in the first place

Yeah, yeah, I know; it’s not exactly a way to sort through hundreds of photos in a few minutes. But for many photographers, deliberately taking fewer photos is a game-changer, so you should at least consider it.

And I get it: Digital storage is inexpensive and cameras offer insanely deep buffers, so it feels good to fire off a thousand shots, knowing that you’ll eventually get some decent ones. But how many of those thousand photos are actually good? And how many of them do you really need to take in order to get some good shots?

In my experience, not only is it unnecessary to take so many shots, it’s actually harmful. As a photographer, you’ll get lazy if your finger is always pressing the shutter button. You won’t spend time carefully composing your images. Instead, you’ll shoot a lot, but you’ll miss a lot, too, and your photos will suffer.

Plus, constant shooting comes with another major drawback:

You have to sort through mountains of images to find the best ones.

Bottom line:

You don’t need to take hundreds of images. And if you can restrain yourself, you’ll have a much easier time during the post-processing and organization stages.

Make sense?

2. Start by seeing your best

Creative people often excel at being negative when it comes to their own creations. How many times have you heard musicians tell you they are not practiced enough to perform? Or friends who paint tell you they don’t have the confidence to complete a canvas they are working on?

It is quite typical of creatives to be too hard on themselves, which can slow down the culling process – or, even worse, cause you to discard images that deserve to be seen.

So when you first load your images from a new photo session, be purposefully positive. Don’t let yourself get sucked into negative thoughts. Start looking for the best photos in a series you have made, not the worst.

Take some time to scan through and get an overview of your new pictures. Look for the ones that excite you and mark them. You can use a flag, a color label, or a star rating. While this will take some time, it’ll make the rest of the choosing process a lot easier!

3. Choose images that reflect your style

If you want to create a solid narrative of an event, or you want to produce a cohesive portfolio, then don’t just think in terms of “good images” and “bad images.”

Instead, ask yourself:

Does this image fit with my style? And if not, reject it. You don’t have to throw the shot away – after all, your style might change, and you might need images like that down the line – but put it aside for now, so you can focus on the style you’re developing.

For instance, if your style involves dark, moody, dramatic images, then a bright, upbeat, airy shot probably doesn’t belong in your portfolio, no matter how great it is. Does it deserve to be trashed? Probably not, but quickly add it to a rejects folder and move on. Later, if you decide to create a portfolio of happier images, you’ll know where to find it. But in the meantime, get it out of the way and spend time on what matters.

4. Look for distractions

As you’re choosing pictures you like, make sure you’re hyper-focused, not just on the main subject, but on the background, the foreground, and any distractions that they might contain.

Distractions are easy to miss when out shooting, but they can seriously detract from an image, so it’s up to you, in the editing room, to identify them and send them packing.

I’m talking about things like:

• Telephone poles
• Streetlights
• Wires
• Passersby
• Cars
• Fences
• Trees

Really, it all depends on the image – certain items can be distracting in one shot but work well in another – so take the above list with a grain of salt. But make sure you keep an eagle eye out for any and all distractions; that way, you can quickly reject photos that ultimately won’t work.

One thing to note, though:

Certain distractions can be fixed in post-processing. For instance, telephone wires can be removed from a portrait, cars can be removed from a street scene, etc. And you must decide whether the distraction is fixable and whether it’s actually worth fixing (especially if you took another, similar shot that doesn’t suffer from the same issues).

Check out this set of images:

The top image features a garden hose in the grass, but I removed it in post-processing, and the photo looks much better. The image was too good to send it packing, and I knew the hose would be easy to edit out, so I held on to the shot. In the end, it’s your call, but don’t keep too many images that require major fixes; it’s just not worth it.

5. If a shot is out of focus or blurry, reject it

If any photos have softness or blurriness, they’re automatically out. That’s my rule and I stick to it, no matter what else the photo offers.

After all, if you’re shooting for a client and you include a blurry image in their package, what if they want to print it on a huge canvas? An image that appears blurry at low resolutions will look horrible when blown up big, so just don’t go there. Instead, get rid of blurriness as soon as you identify it.

It’s often possible to instantly tell whether an image is blurry, but if you’re not sure, you can zoom in to one hundred percent in your favorite post-processing program, check for focus/blur, and then make your final decision.

(This rule also applies to any photos that are way off with exposure. Just let them go!)

I’ll be the first to admit: This can be really tough. Sometimes, the best poses are ruined by blur and I hate to get rid of them, but I know it’s necessary. Here’s an example where the top photo has the better head turns and expressions, yet one of the faces is blurry:

So I had to go with the bottom image.

6. Eliminate similar shots on your first photo-picking pass

When you’re choosing pictures, every time you come to a series of similar shots, be ruthless. Get rid of all but one photo, because no portfolio should include a handful of near-identical images, and no client wants to wade through a bunch of twin images, either.

Even if both photos are amazing, just pick one. You can do this any way you like: flip a coin, always go with the one on the left, or (and this is ideal) pick the one that makes you feel the most, because one of the shots is bound to be better than the other. You might also consider checking sharpness, exposure, and thinking about which shot speaks to your style and your client’s interests.

When comparing the two shots above, I knew I needed to get rid of one. But which would it be? I went with the image on the right because the expression was slightly more enthusiastic, and that little girl was full of enthusiasm. I wanted to show her personality!

7. Don’t miss the hidden gems

Thus far, I’ve offered strategies for getting down to your best shots as quickly as possible. But I’d like to throw this piece of advice out there:

Sometimes, the best photos aren’t immediately visible. Sometimes, it’s the hidden gems that include the best expressions, the best moments, the most worthwhile scenes.

So while you should go through your photos fast, if an image speaks to you, don’t immediately reject it, even if it has issues. Perhaps the shot could be great with just a little bit of magical editing.

For instance, check out the images below. The top left shot has two great expressions and one bad one. So I took the bad expression, and I replaced it with the expression from another photo:

Just watch for that kind of thing: Photos that could be your favorites after a wave of the magic editing wand.

8. Be ruthless, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes

The whole point of this article is to help you pick photos fast, and you can’t do that unless you’re willing to make mistakes.

Yes, you’ll occasionally reject great photos. Yes, you’ll occasionally fail to identify shots that could be massively improved with editing. But is that such a bad thing? Why is rejecting a good photo so problematic? It’s not like you’re truly trashing it. Assuming you have plenty of storage, you can keep it on your hard drive, then come back to it later if the urge arises.

And you’ve got to be ruthless, too. You can’t edit every photo, and sometimes you just have to make quick judgment calls and move on. (On the other hand, as emphasized above, don’t be too negative! Accidentally rejecting a good shot or two is okay, but you don’t want to fall prey to negative thinking and struggle to find anything that you like!)

With the photos above, the one on the left is cute, but I decided that I liked the connection displayed in the middle shot, so that’s the one I kept. Did I make the right decision? I don’t know for sure, but I can always return to the other image if I decide it’s superior.

Quick tip: If I’m having a really hard time giving photos up, I will give them star ratings as I go through: five stars for definite keepers and four stars for the “maybes.” I usually end up with more five star shots than I need, so the four stars automatically get cut. Sometimes, it’s easier to let images go after you’ve given them a fair trial.

9. Think about the clients

The business of photography is a complicated matter. I spend hours after each photo shoot culling, processing, and sorting the photos to tell the story of the day.

Now, many photographers are not shooting for clients – and if that’s you, you can ignore this section completely! However, if you do photograph for clients, it’s important to not just think about what you like, but also what the client likes.

After a recent photo session with one of my children, I realized that choosing the final photos can be described as a Venn diagram! One circle represents images photographers love and the other circle represents images clients love. Some images overlap and some don’t.

To be successful, you want the largest area to be the one that overlaps: images both photographers and clients love.

Sometimes, you’ll like an image but you know a client won’t like it – perhaps it’s a little too artistic or abstract. In such cases, remember the client, and avoid including it in the final portfolio (unless you’re confident they’ll enjoy a more creative image or two!).

Other times, you know that a client will appreciate an image, even though it’s technically imperfect. In such cases, include it in the file selection. At the end of the day, your goal is to please the client, after all!

Why is it important to pick your best images?

Everyone looks at their work and thinks about what they like and don’t like. But until you make an actual decision about each image – is it the very best image, is it good (but not great), or is it just a practice shot? – you won’t open yourself up to the learning that comes when you actively force yourself to separate the best from the throwaways.

By making decisions about what works and what doesn’t, you begin to train your eye. Let’s say you are looking at a dozen good images of a landscape, each one slightly different. By comparing and contrasting several good photos, you’ll start to realize that some are better, some are worse, and one image is going to be the best.

Which one is the best, and how do you know? With this question in mind, you’ll be forced to look at the little details in a new way. Maybe one has better exposure or slightly better composition. The value might be in the details, and you’ll have to look carefully, but that’s where you’ll often find the greatness, and it’s often what separates the good photographers from the best photographers!

If you spend time carefully choosing your best shots, you’ll begin to see when you nailed the frame and what led to that moment. You’ll see what worked in that image, and you’ll see what didn’t work in the surrounding photos – was there too much sky? Not enough sky? Next time, you’ll compose a little bit better. You’ll remember what you liked. You’ll spend a little less time creating images that you know won’t work, and you’ll start spending more time creating better images.

Choosing your best photos: final words

I hope this article has given you some photo-picking strategies you can use the next time you need to go through lots of photos in a short amount of time.

Just remember: It’s okay to make mistakes. And don’t be afraid to get ruthless! It’ll make things far easier.

Now over to you:

Which of these strategies is your favorite? Do you have any strategies of your own for choosing pictures? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Choosing Pictures: How to Pick Your Best Photos, Fast appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Melinda Smith.

This article was updated in December 2023 with contributions from Darlene Hildebrandt, Anne McKinnell, Herb Paynter, Rick Berk, Simon Ringsmuth, and Darren Rowse.

Are you struggling to understand how histograms in photography work? Do you want to know how to read a histogram so you can capture consistently detailed exposures?

Before digital photography, you had to wait until you developed the film to know for sure whether you got a good exposure. Now, by using the histogram, this information is at your fingertips during most – or even all! – of the shooting process, as well as during post-production.

In this article, we’re going to look at everything you need to know to get started with histogram photography, including:

• What a histogram actually is
• How to understand the peaks of a histogram graph
• How to use a histogram to prevent overexposure and underexposure
• Histogram pitfalls and mistakes

So if you’re ready to become a histogram expert, then read on!

What is a histogram?

A histogram is a graph that represents the tones in an image: the highlights, the shadows, and everything in between.

Every image has a unique histogram, which is displayed on your camera and by most post-processing programs.

Why is a histogram useful?

In photography, a major goal is to capture a detailed exposure of a scene (i.e., a photo with well-rendered shadows, highlights, and midtones).

And while you can always check image exposure by looking at your camera’s LCD screen and/or electronic viewfinder, or by viewing your image on a computer, the histogram offers a more objective method of evaluating tones.

If an image has blown-out (detailless) highlights, this will be visible on the histogram; if an image has clipped (detailless) shadows, this will be visible on the histogram; if an image is just generally too dark or too light, the histogram will make this clear.

That’s why photographers love histograms so much, and why learning how to use a histogram is essential. If you can read a histogram, you can quickly and accurately check the exposure of your image while out in the field or when editing at home.

How to read a histogram: step by step

As I explained, a histogram is a graph – which represents the pixels in an image, like this:

The left side of the graph represents the blacks or shadows, the right side of the graph represents the highlights or bright areas, and the middle section represents the midtones of the photo. 

The graph peaks represent the number of pixels of a particular tone (with each peak corresponding to a different tonal value). So a peak at the right side of the histogram (such as in the example histogram above) indicates a large volume of bright pixels in the image. Whereas a peak at the left side of the histogram indicates a large volume of dark pixels in the image.

Here’s how I recommend reading a new histogram:

Step 1: Look at the overall curve of the graph

Is the histogram skewed to the right? Skewed to the left? Or just generally centered?

A left-skewed histogram often (but not always!) indicates underexposure, as the shot is full of dark pixels.

A right-skewed histogram often (but not always!) indicates overexposure, as the shot is full of light pixels.

And a balanced, generally centered histogram tends to indicate a beautifully detailed, well-exposed image, because the shot is full of midtones.

Step 2: Look at the ends of the histogram

A histogram with peaks pressed up against the graph “walls” indicates a loss of information, which is nearly always bad.

So check both the right and left ends of the histogram. Look for any clipping – highlight clipping along the right side, and shadow clipping along the left side.

What will a histogram tell you?

A careful analysis of a histogram will tell you two things:

1. Whether an image is broadly well-exposed
2. Whether an image has clipped tones

You can tell that an image is well-exposed if it’s balanced toward the center of the frame, with no obvious skew. Ideally, the graph is spread across the entire histogram, from edge to edge – but without edge peaks, which indicate clipping.

Here’s an example of a well-exposed histogram:

If your histogram looks like the one displayed above, then your exposure is likely perfect and requires no adjustment.

However, if the graph is skewed to the right and/or includes peaking against the right end, it’s a sign you should reduce your exposure (try boosting the shutter speed) and retake the image:

And if the graph is skewed to the left and/or includes peaking against the left end, it’s a sign you should increase your exposure (try dropping the shutter speed or increasing the ISO) and retake the image:

Histogram pitfalls and mistakes

In the previous section, I talked all about ideal histograms and how you can use a histogram to determine the perfect exposure for a scene.

But while this is generally true, and the histogram guidelines I shared above are generally reliable, you may run into three issues:

1. Your scene may be naturally darker or lighter than middle gray

A well-balanced, unskewed histogram is ideal for images that include plenty of midtones and are generally centered around midtone detail.

But certain scenes just don’t look like this. For instance, if you photograph a black rock against a night sky, you might end up with a significantly skewed histogram, even if you’ve captured all the detail correctly:

And if you photograph a white tree against snow, you might get skew in the other direction because the scene is naturally lighter than middle gray:

So before you look at your image’s histogram, ask yourself:

Should my scene average out to a middle gray? Or should it have an obvious skew? Then use this information to guide your approach.

2. You may wish to overexpose or underexpose for creative reasons

Sometimes, even though an image is technically overexposed, underexposed, or clipped, it still looks great – so if you’re after a creative result, you don’t need to worry so much about an “ideal” histogram, assuming you know exactly what you want.

For instance, you might blow out the sky for a light and airy look, or deliberately underexpose for a moody shot; really, the possibilities are endless! Just remember to check your histogram no matter what and aim for a specific, deliberate result.

3. The dynamic range of the scene exceeds the dynamic range of your camera

While it’s good to avoid clipping, you’ll occasionally run into scenes where clipping is unavoidable, simply because the scene contains both ultra-light and ultra-dark pixels (e.g., a sunset with a dark foreground).

Here’s a histogram with this exact problem:

In such situations, you’ll generally need to use a graduated neutral density filter to reduce the strength of the bright pixels, or capture several bracketed shots that you’ll later blend together in Photoshop. You can also embrace the clipped exposure (see the previous section on creative overexposure and underexposure) – though it’s often a good idea to bracket anyway, just to be safe.

Here’s an example of a scene that will likely go off the histogram at both ends, thanks to the bright star and the dark walls:

In the above shot, I’ve left the exposure as is, and I think the shot looks fine. But check out this image with bright windows and dark shadows:

Using advanced techniques like image merging and blending, HDR, or careful post-processing, you can compress the tonal range of a scene to fit within the histogram and get a result like this:

For the image above, I’ve used four bracketed images (taken two stops apart) and the HDR tone mapping process to prevent clipping.

Histogram examples

There is no such thing as a perfect histogram. It’s just a graphical representation of the tonal range in your image. It’s up to you, as the artist, to decide what to do with this information. Having solid blacks and bright tones (provided they are not blown out) is not necessarily a bad thing.

Let’s take a look at some examples of how histograms will look for different types of images:

High-key scene

When you have a scene that is high key, it has a lot of bright tones, and not so many mid-tones or blacks. When you are photographing a scene that you want to be high key, your histogram should be stacked up on the right side – but not going up the right edge. If you want your scene to be high key, but your histogram is showing a lot of mid-tones, your whites are probably going to come out looking more gray than you would like.

Low-key scene

A low-key scene is one that is dark, which you would expect when photographing at night. In this case, your histogram will be stacked up on the left side. You may have a spike on the left edge, which indicates solid blacks.

High-contrast scene

A high-contrast scene is one where there are lots of very dark and very bright tones and perhaps not so many tones in between. In this case, your histogram will show data on the left and right, and not so much in the middle.

Low-contrast scene

A low-contrast scene has a lot of mid-tones and few bright or dark tones. Your histogram will have a bell shape.

Again, it’s up to you as the artist to choose what to do with this information. You have to decide whether the information in the graph is what you want or not. It’s just another tool in your arsenal to help you transform your artistic vision into a photograph.

If you’re not happy with your histogram, use your exposure compensation to adjust the exposure by making the image darker or lighter. Or you may choose to affect the light on the scene instead by using a flash, a reflector, or a diffuser. The choice is yours.

Understanding the color histogram

You’ve probably noticed in the examples above that the histogram not only shows the tones in grayscale but also shows you colors. Yes, it’s possible to blow out a color! If there is one particular color that is very bright in the scene, sometimes that color will become so saturated that you lose detail. This commonly happens with red flowers, for example.

To combat this, you can slightly desaturate the color in post-processing to bring back some of the detail in the flower petals. The histogram above shows the increase in red tones toward the brighter end of the scale.

When to use the histogram

In the field, you can use the histogram in conjunction with Live View before you make an image (though you can generally turn on the histogram in the viewfinder if you have a mirrorless camera with an EVF). You can also see the histogram afterward when you review the photo on your LCD screen.

Either way, you must use the histogram to check your exposure while you’re in the field. That way, you have an opportunity to make another exposure while you are still out with your camera.

Another key point: Don’t rely on your LCD to give you feedback about exposure. It’s great for checking composition and focus, but not exposure. That’s because the brightness of your LCD doesn’t correspond perfectly with the brightness of your image since you can adjust the brightness of your LCD.

For example, you can brighten the LCD so you can see it more easily outside on a sunny day. But then if you don’t reduce the brightness and you look at the LCD at night, your images are going to appear super bright when they are not.

The histogram is also available to you while post-processing your image. Use it to see where adjustments need to be made and to ensure you don’t create areas that are too bright or too dark while processing your images.

Additional resources on histograms

This video does a great job of explaining how the histogram on your camera works and how to read it:

I do slightly disagree with his tip that having a mountain in the center is the best option, as it does depend on the subject and your artistic vision!

Histogram myths and misconceptions

There have been dozens of articles and videos published about the purpose and interpretation of the histogram in post-production. Unfortunately, many of them contain significant errors.

I’ve been adjusting images for decades – long before the histogram graph was publicly introduced! – and I’ve worked with it every day since it became popular, so I’d like to weigh in on rumors and clarify some facts. Once you understand the histogram’s primary function and limitations, you’ll find it to be a solid feedback resource.

Myth 1: The vertical lines reflect image contrast

FACT: The horizontal axis does reflect the image’s tonal range (from the darkest tones to the lightest), though the vertical lines reveal little about its contrast. Actually, the horizontal distribution is what reveals the overall contrast. Tones located mostly on the right reveal very light (or high-key) images, while tones favoring the left side are darker (low-key) images.

The extreme right side wall represents white and the extreme left wall of the graph represents solid black. The highest (vertical) peak of the graph merely indicates the highest ratio of pixels containing that particular color tone as it relates to the others. The lowest vertical level on the graph indicates the tone color with the least number of pixels in the image.

Myth 2: There is one best histogram shape

FACT: There are as many histogram shapes as there are images. There is no such thing as a good or bad histogram, and there is no such thing as an ideal histogram. Because these graphs reflect each image’s distribution of tones, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any two that are alike.

Myth 3: Histogram clipping is always bad

FACT: Depending on whether the image is high-key (medium contrast on a pure white background) or low-key (dramatic lighting with a black background), either side of the mountain may resemble a tonal cliff.

Real-life lighting dynamics make these wall-climbing graphs quite acceptable. Photos captured against white seamless backdrops are purposely exposed to produce a skewed histogram and a blown-out background.

Myth 4: A histogram should stretch from deep shadows to bright highlights

FACT: Real-life lighting doesn’t demand that every scene contain both deep shadows and bright highlights. Images are sometimes brightened or darkened unnecessarily; this is a typical rookie editing mistake.

Often, a lack of deep shadows or bright highlights establishes an emotional mood that would be lost if the images were over-corrected to produce a fully stretched histogram.

Myth 5: A histogram should have no gaps

FACT: The concern here is that any gaps or breaks in the histogram represent a banding effect, which looks bad. In truth, however, there are only 256 vertical bars presented in the histogram. Each horizontal bar represents less than one-half of one percent (0.4%) of the total tonal range (100% / 256 = 0.390625%). Even if a photo contains a very gradual change in tones across a wide area (like an unclouded sky), your eyes will only perceive “banding” if the JPEG image has been degraded by repeated “Save” functions.

JPEG images contain a maximum of 256 levels (8 bits) of tone between black (solid color) and white (no color). Once JPEG files have been opened and saved several times, the number of tone levels can become significantly reduced and tone-banding may occur.

Myth 6: A histogram shows every tone and color in an image

FACT: Each histogram does reveal the relative placement and distribution of all tones and colors, but due to the size of the graph, its accuracy is seriously limited. Since editing software histograms are based on a horizontal graph only 256 pixels wide, each representation is a basic overview at best. If the full range of possible colors were truly represented by a single graph, the chart would occupy the wall of a good-sized room!

Let me break down the numbers. This 256 pixel-wide graph portrays each image’s potential color range using an 8-bit (256 level) interpolation. This means that all 16.8 million possible colors are represented in a mere 256 horizontal point histogram. Tones change levels in 0.4% increments. The graph significantly exaggerates the difference between minor shifts in tonal value.

Human eyes barely perceive a half-percent (0.5%) difference between tones, so 256 levels in a JPEG image provide the illusion of continuous tone. This means the histogram uses less than two vertical columns to represent a single percent change in value.

What does all this mean? Quite simply, the histogram delivers a good estimation of overall tone distribution but cannot be relied on for accurate measurement. A few gaps in the graph will rarely be visible to the human eye.

How to read and use a histogram: final words

Well, there you have it:

A simple guide to reading and using histograms for beautiful exposures. No, histograms aren’t foolproof – but they certainly allow you to improve your exposures, and will significantly enhance your photos.

Now over to you:

What do you think about using the histogram in photography? Do you have any advice? How will you approach the histogram from now on? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post How to Read (and Use) Histograms for Beautiful Exposures appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darlene Hildebrandt.

This article was updated in November 2023 with contributions from Brian Auer, Darren Rowse, James Brandon, Helen Bradley, Lori Peterson, and Kevin Landwer-Johan.

Looking to speed up your post-processing with some Photoshop shortcuts?

Working in Photoshop can be quite time-consuming, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced editor. That’s why, in this article, we share our top 35 shortcut keys – so you can adjust tools, layers, and more with the press of a button.

We start with simple Photoshop shortcuts; these commands are commonly used and easy to pull off. Then we get into intermediate and advanced shortcuts, which require a bit more dexterity but are still worth learning!

Note: If you’re not used to using keyboard shortcuts with Photoshop, they might seem a bit fiddly at first. Like learning to touch type, the more you practice, the easier it becomes, and the less you have to think about where you are putting your fingers. Learning to use Photoshop shortcut keys takes time, but you can easily break it down and learn a few at a time.

Ready to double (or quadruple) your Photoshop workflow speed? Let’s get started!

1. Select the Hand tool

• The shortcut: The H key

The Hand tool lets you pan around a zoomed-in image. Use it to check for blemishes, evaluate sharpness, and move from one end of the photo to the other.

2. Select the Zoom tool

• The shortcut: The Z key

The Zoom tool lets you zoom in with a single click. Use it to inspect your file for quality issues and to check composited areas for realistic placement.

3. Zoom in and out

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd++ and Ctrl/Cmd–

Repeatedly tap the + and – keys while viewing a file in Photoshop, and the window will zoom in and zoom out, respectively (without changing your current tool).

4. Fit to screen

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+0

This quick-and-dirty command fits your photo to the screen so you can view the image as a whole and check your overall editing progress.

5. Cycle through screen modes

• The shortcut: The F key

Use this Photoshop shortcut to switch between the normal screen, the full screen with a taskbar but without a title bar, and the full screen with a black background. It works great when used in conjunction with Tab to hide the toolbars; that way, you get maximum working space and no distractions.

6. Undo an edit

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+Z

We all make little mistakes. Use the Undo command to remove errors, such as a misplaced brush stroke or a clone job gone wrong.

7. Hide and show palettes

• The shortcut: The Tab key

Sometimes, the Photoshop interface can get too cluttered. Press the Tab key to hide all palettes; that way, you can concentrate on the image you’re editing. Plus, it’ll give you extra room to work!

8. Select the Brush tool

• The shortcut: The B key

The Brush tool lets you dodge and burn, add artificial color, and mask out edits. Use it whenever you need to selectively adjust a part of your photo.

9. Use the Brush tool crosshairs

• The shortcut: Caps Lock

Need a bit more precision when brushing? With the Brush Tool selected, if you tap the Caps Lock key, the cursor will transform into crosshairs. This allows you to position your Brush more effectively.

(It’s also a good shortcut to know how to undo! If you inadvertently turned the crosshairs on while using the Brush tool, you may wonder what’s happened; just hit Caps Lock again, and your normal cursor will reappear.

10. Decrease the Brush size

• The shortcut: The [ key

When working with the Brush tool, you’ll often need to get into tighter spots. Tap the [ key as many times as you need to progressively shrink the Brush size.

11. Increase the Brush size

• The shortcut: The ] key

This is the opposite of the Photoshop shortcut featured above. If you need to expand the Brush size, tap the ] key. Then use the Brush to paint over large swathes of your photo.

12. Decrease the Brush softness

• The shortcut: Shift+[

Need a harder brush for masking along fine edges? Use this command to harden your Brush edge by 25%.

13. Increase the Brush softness

• The shortcut: Shift+]

If you’re masking along rougher edges, use a soft Brush. This command will instantly increase softness by 25%.

14. Swap foreground and background colors

• The shortcut: The X key

The left-hand toolbar will show your foreground and background colors. By default, these are white (background) and black (foreground), but if you want to switch them – which I use all the time when dodging and burning, as well as when working with masks – just use this helpful shortcut.

15. Reset your foreground and background colors

• The shortcut: The D key

If you change your foreground and background colors, you can always force things back to normal with this easy shortcut. It’ll reset your foreground and background colors to black and white, respectively.

16. Adjust tool opacity

• The shortcut: 0 to 1 (the numerical keys)

When using the Brush tool or the Clone Stamp tool, you may wish to adjust the opacity for subtle (or not-so-subtle) effects. Simply press the number keys to set the opacity to any value between 1 and 100. Note that pressing one number will give you a multiple of 10 (so hit 4 to set an opacity of 40%), while pressing two numbers in quick succession will give you a precise value (so hit 4 then 3 to set an opacity of 43%).

17. Adjust tool flow

• The shortcut: Shift+0 to 1 (the numerical keys)

This works just like the opacity shortcut above, but with the Shift key held down. Use it to subtly dodge and burn, paint a light mask, and more.

18. Select the next point on a Curves graph

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+Tab

When working on a Curves graph, you can place multiple points and adjust them accordingly (using the Up and Down arrow keys). However, if you wish to select an already-placed point for adjustment, you may struggle to click without accidentally moving the point’s position. This shortcut lets you hop to the next point, make adjustments with the arrow keys, and so on.

19. Create a new layer (with the dialog box)

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+N

Want to quickly create a new layer? This shortcut will instantly bring up the New Layer dialog box – where you can customize the layer to your liking – and place a new layer on top of your active layer.

20. Create a new layer (without the dialog box)

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+Alt/Opt+Shift+N

If you’d prefer to skip the layer creation dialog box, use this command to place a new layer directly on top of the active layer.

21. Copy the merged layers

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+C

If you’re working with several layers and need to copy the entire project to your clipboard, simply press these keys. You’ll get a merged copy of the file sent to your clipboard, which you can then paste into a new layer or file.

Note that the command only works if you first make a selection of the image (use Ctrl/Cmd+A to select all); otherwise, you’ll get a copy of nothing.

22. Duplicate the layer

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+J

Need to duplicate a background layer or increase the intensity of an adjustment? You can always duplicate an existing active layer with this easy shortcut. Note that if you’ve already made a selection, this command will only copy the selected area to the new layer.

23. Stamp all visible layers

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+Alt/Opt+Shift+E

This command will copy all visible layers, merge them, and add them as a new layer to your layer stack. It’s basically the same as the copy-merge command (see above), except it places the copy directly in the layer stack.

24. Group layers

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+G

This command groups selected layers under a single folder (which you can then name). In my experience, it’s pretty handy when you’re working with a lot of different layers you need to keep organized. It can also be a useful way to apply a mask to several layers at once.

Adding Shift to this shortcut will ungroup layers when the grouped layer is selected.

25. Fill the layer with the foreground color

• The shortcut: Alt/Opt+Backspace

Looking for a quick way to fill in a layer? Use this shortcut to fill the layer with the current foreground color. To fill an empty layer with the current foreground or background color use Alt + Delete or Option + Backspace on the Mac to fill the layer with the Foreground color.

26. Fill the layer with the background color

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+Backspace

This one’s the same as above, but with a slight adjustment so you can fill your layer with the background color.

27. Enable/disable the layer mask

• The shortcut: Shift+Click

When working with masks, you may want to see the before and after effects. Disabling the mask – with this shortcut – allows you to check the results of your dodging and burning, your color grading adjustments, and so much more.

28. Toggle mask visibility

• The shortcut: Alt/Opt+Click

This Photoshop command will show you the selected mask as a grayscale image; that way, you can see what you’re working with. It can be especially useful if you have areas that need to be filled in or smoothed out, but you’re not quite sure where they are.

29. Select all

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+A

This one is pretty standard – use it to create a selection around the entire canvas.

30. Load a mask as a selection

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+Click

If you first create a mask, this shortcut will immediately select the white part of the mask (while grays will be partially selected). It’s very useful if you want to duplicate a mask or its inverse.

Note: Using this Photoshop shortcut on a layer without a mask will select the non-transparent pixels in that layer.

31. Hide selection lines

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+H

When working with selections, use this command to hide the marching ants from the screen while keeping the selection intact.

32. Invert the selection

• The shortcut: Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+I

If you’ve already made a selection, use this command to select the opposite of your selection. This is also a good Photoshop shortcut to use when working with masks.

33. Deselect the current selection

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+D

After working with your selection, use this combo to discard it! (This is one I use constantly!)

34. Reselect the last selection

• The shortcut: Shift+Ctrl/Cmd+D

This will restore the last active selection. It is super helpful if you deselect an element and then notice something else you need to alter.

35. Show all Photoshop keyboard shortcuts

• The shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+Alt/Opt+Shift+K

Worried you might forget one of these shortcuts? Don’t be! You can always use this simple command to bring up the keyboard shortcut Help dialog, which displays literally every shortcut Photoshop offers.

Additional resources with helpful Photoshop shortcuts

I’ve been using Photoshop on a near-daily basis for the better part of a decade now. Over the years, I’ve picked up a ton of shortcuts, and I wanted to share some of my all-time favorites with you. These are the ones that rocked my world when I learned them, and if they’re new to you, I’m confident they’ll have the same effect!

Correction from the video: For the brush resizing trick, the PC instructions I gave didn’t seem to be working for most users. The correct translation (this is for PC users only) is to hold down the Alt key, then click and drag using the right mouse key. If you’re on a pen tablet, use whatever button you have set for the right-click.

Well? Is your mind blown!? The brush resize and zoom shortcuts seriously changed my life when I learned them. I can’t tell you how many years I spent right-clicking to change brush hardness and fumbling with bracket keys to resize the brush.

Photoshop shortcuts: final words

Hopefully, you appreciated at least a handful of these shortcuts! So memorize them – and incorporate them into your own workflow.

Now over to you:

Did I miss any critical Photoshop shortcut commands? Which do you use? And which of these commands do you plan to use regularly? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post 35 Photoshop Shortcuts for a Fast and Efficient Workflow appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Guest Contributor.

Looking to make a collage in Photoshop? I’m so glad you’re here – collage is a wonderful realm that offers unlimited creative freedom, and you’re about to discover how simple and rewarding it can be to combine your favorite photographs into one stunning piece of art.

In fact, I remember when I first got started with Photoshop collages. It was a revelation! Here was a way to bring together my favorite images in a single frame. (So trust me: once you start, you won’t be able to stop!)

Below, I share the exact method I use to create my own Photoshop collages. You’ll find it’s incredibly straightforward. And the best part? You don’t need to be a Photoshop expert to get started. Simply follow my instructions carefully, and you’ll end up with a result that looks like this:

Why are Photoshop collages so great?

Before we delve into the step-by-step collage-making process, I’d like to explain why you’d want to create a collage in the first place.

For one, collages are incredibly versatile. You can use them to make just about any visual display look better Want to make your social media profile pop? A colorful collage could be your new Facebook header. I frequently use collages to give my own Facebook profile a personal touch.

But collages aren’t just about looks. They can also tell a story in a way that a single photo can’t. Think of a collage as a visual narrative that conveys a theme or captures a special moment. The best ones convey a message or create a real emotional impact.

Relatedly, think about special occasions – and how collages can do a great job of telling the story of an event. How perfect would a collage be for a wedding album? Imagine compiling the best moments from the big day into a single, awe-inspiring frame. Collages also make fantastic holiday gifts and cards. Picture your favorite memories from the year, printed and framed, gracing the walls of your family and friends.

Plus, as I emphasized above, making a collage in Photoshop is fast and easy. There’s no need to spend hours fussing with complicated settings. You can craft something beautiful in a short amount of time.

How to make a Photoshop collage: the step-by-step process

In this section, I take you through each step I use to create my collages – and I share clear examples along the way. It’s an easy process, I promise!

Step 1: Choose your collage photos

Before you actually create the collage, you’ll need to pick your collage photos – and you’ll need to do this carefully.

I recommend selecting images connected by a theme (such as a location, an event, or even a concept). Include a mix of subjects at different scales; for instance, pick some wide shots that show the entire scene, as well as some detail photos that show lots of texture and personality. Without one or the other, the story won’t be complete. And it won’t carry the level of emotion that you’re after.

Speaking of storytelling: It often does help to focus on the story you’re trying to tell. Do you want to offer a narrative surrounding an event? Do you want to clearly convey a meaningful concept? Make sure to take this into account when picking photos!

One more tip: If possible, include at least three photos and no more than eight. Too few photos, and you won’t be able to tell the full story. Too many photos, and you’ll confuse the viewer with clutter (plus, it’ll be tough to show off individual details).

Step 2: Open the selected images in Photoshop

Once you’ve picked your photos, open them all in Photoshop.

To do this, you can drag and drop files directly onto the document window, or you can select File>Open and click on the relevant images.

You should see the photos as separate tabs in the document window, like this:

Step 3: Create a new file for your Photoshop collage

Every Photoshop collage needs a background file where all the images will eventually be assembled.

While you can use an old collage template, if you’re making your first-ever collage, you’ll need to create a new document.

So select File>New in the Menu bar (or tap Ctrl/Cmd+N):

A New Document window should pop up, and you’ll need to dial in your file preferences.

The specifics will depend on what you plan to do with the collage as well as the sizes of your chosen photos. If you’re working with big JPEGs and you aim to print, you should probably pick a 5000+ pixel width and height. If you want to display your collage on a standard web page, however, a 1500 pixel width and height will do just fine (though you can always start big and resize later, as discussed in Step 8 below).

(I do recommend you make the file size a bit larger than the size you want in the end; that way, you can do a final crop to deal with any arrangement issues.)

Step 3: Add your images one at a time

Head to your first open photo, then select it.

To do this, you can drag with the Marquee tool:

Or you can hit Ctrl/Cmd+A. You should see the marching ants appear around the border of your image:

Then choose Edit>Copy (or tap Ctrl/Cmd+C):

Finally, head over to the new document, then choose Edit>Paste (or tap Ctrl/Cmd+V):

This will add the photo to the blank document but on its own layer.

Depending on the size and resolution of the new image, you may need to make some adjustments with Edit>Free Transform (or Ctrl/Cmd+T). For instance, my first photo was way too large:

So I used the Free Transform option to scale it down:

(Once you’ve activated Free Transform, simply drag the edge nodes until you get the result you’re after. You want an image that’s small enough to be comfortably moved around the canvas.)

Then repeat the above instructions for all the remaining collage photos.

Step 4: Arrange your photos

After you’ve added all the collage photos to your document, it’s time to do some arranging. This is where you shift the photos around until they tell your story.

After doing several collages, you’ll start to discover your preferred style; personally, I like to create symmetrical layouts as well as interlocking puzzles. But each story does have slightly different needs, so don’t be afraid to experiment!

To adjust the photo positions, you can select the Move tool (or tap V):

Then drag around all the images until you get a good result. If you want to resize any photos, use the Free Transform option discussed above.

With my pet collage example, I first tried a more symmetrical arrangement:

But I settled on a puzzle-type composition:

Step 5: Add image spacing

Once you’ve determined the layout and you’ve sized all the images, I recommend giving the design some space in the form of a nice border. It’s a personal preference, I know, but the effect is generally nice.

In other words, instead of a collage like this:

I recommend creating one like this:

It’s pretty easy to do; you simply add a thin, white border between the images. You can select each photo, then use the mouse or arrow keys to drag until you see white space. Or you can double-click on each image in the Layers panel:

This will open the Layer Style menu, where you can select the Stroke option:

Make sure the Position is set to Inside, the Blend Mode is set to Normal, and the color is set to White:

Then increase the Size until you see a nice border appearing around your images.

Unfortunately, this will crop the images somewhat – but depending on the look you like, it might be worth it. (Also note that you’ll need to independently add a border to each image, not just one.)

Step 6: Merge all layers

At this point, you should have your collage laid out with perfect photo spacing, which means you’re ready to merge all the layers.

Simply select Layer>Merge Visible (or tap Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+E):

And the layers will merge into a single beautiful Photoshop collage!

Step 7: Crop the final image

Before you resize and export your collage, I recommend cropping any extra white space around the edges (you want the design to look even).

Just hit C or select the Crop tool:

Then drag at the edges of the photo to get rid of any unwanted areas:

Step 8: Resize

This step depends on your goals for the collage. If you want to print, you’ll need to resize based on printing requirements (which will generally involve leaving the image pretty large). If you want to post your collage on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest, however, consider sizing down to a maximum of 1500 pixels on the long end.

So select Image>Image Size (or tap Alt/Opt+Ctrl/Cmd+I):

Then dial in your preferred width and height.

Step 9: Save and export your collage

Last but not least:

Save and export!

You’ll want to select File>Save a Copy. Then choose a location and file name, make sure that Save as type is set to JPEG, and hit Save.

And select your preferred image quality (I usually go for around 8):

And you’re done! Photoshop will save your collage in the specified location.

Ideas for fun Photoshop collages

If you’re excited about making a collage but need a bit of inspiration, don’t worry. Here’s a list of collage ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Let’s start with your pets. From dogs and cats to birds and fish, a pet collage can capture all the adorable moments you’ve shared. Not only will it make you smile, but it’s also a wonderful way to showcase your furry or feathery friends.

Next up, how about a collage featuring your children? Whether it’s their first steps, birthdays, or just everyday moments, combining these memories makes for an emotionally impactful piece. You can even make it an annual tradition, showcasing a snapshot – literally! – of how your kids grow and change.

What about a collage of you and your friends? This could be a beautiful holiday gift or a keepsake to remember good times. Think of concerts you’ve attended, trips you’ve taken, or the times you’ve simply hung out. Compile these into a collage, and I guarantee that you’ll love the result.

And let’s not forget romantic collages. Capture your relationship’s highlights with your partner or spouse. From first dates to vacations and cozy moments at home, a love-filled collage can make a sentimental gift for anniversaries or just because.

Lastly, let’s talk about thematic collages. How about one of your favorite landscapes, wildlife, or travel images? These collages can transport you to different times and places while serving as a visual diary of your passions and adventures.

How to make a Photoshop collage: final words

From the many reasons to create a collage to some inspiring ideas to get you started, you now have the tools to make your own visually captivating piece. So what are you waiting for? Collages offer a fun, effective, and surprisingly easy way to display multiple photos in a single, eye-catching format.

Don’t be daunted by the possibilities or the technical elements. Once you dive in, you’ll have tons of fun – and creating collages may become a big part of your photography toolkit!

So go ahead and give it a try. And when you do, don’t forget to share your creations. You never know who you might inspire.

Now over to you:

Have you made any collages previously? Have any additional tips? Please share your advice (and collage photos!) in the comments below.

The post How to Make a Collage in Photoshop (9 Easy Steps!) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Natalia Robert.

As much as I enjoy the act of taking photos, it’s the editing that slows me down, saps my inspiration, and turns this exceedingly creative endeavor into a chore that I have occasionally come to resent. To put it simply, I would much rather be out on location with clients than sitting at my computer while clicking buttons and sliders. However, when doing portrait photography, you can’t really have one without the other – until now.

Lightroom’s new AI-powered tools can dramatically speed up the editing process, and with the right approach, you can get very impressive results. In other words, the Lightroom AI tools give you the best of both worlds, so that editing portraits is almost as fun as taking them.

Below, I delve into the AI features that Lightroom offers. I explain what they are and how they can supercharge your editing workflow, then I close with a step-by-step example so you can understand exactly what I mean (and how you can do the same with your own photos!).

What are Lightroom’s AI tools?

Artificial intelligence is rapidly being integrated into almost every element of modern photography. Mobile phones use AI to calculate exposure, create beautiful HDR images, and capture blur-free photos even in low light. Luminar and other editing programs harness AI to remove blemishes, replace skies, and reshape faces. Photoshop is embracing generative AI in a way that allows anyone to create objects and artwork from nothing at all – using just a few descriptive keywords.

Lightroom does things a little differently. It uses AI not as an editing tool in and of itself; instead, it puts the power of artificial intelligence in your hands to make your editing easier and more effective. Lightroom doesn’t use AI to make skin smoother or teeth whiter, but Lightroom’s AI will help you make skin smoother and teeth whiter, and it’ll help you do it for lots of photos all at once.

It almost seems too good to be true. After using Lightroom’s AI tools to retouch your portraits, you won’t want to go back to the old way of editing ever again.

Using Lightroom’s AI tools to speed up your editing

I love taking photos for clients. It’s so much fun meeting them, getting to know them during the session, and finding creative ways to capture timeless images that will be shared with others or printed and framed for posterity.

What I don’t like are the days spent in Lightroom after a photo session is over, poring over hundreds of shots so I can find – and then edit – the best ones. While Lightroom’s AI tools can’t speed up the culling process (though I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens at some point in the near future!), they can reduce hours of complex editing tasks down to mere minutes.

The key to all of this is Lightroom’s AI-powered masking options, coupled with the ability to synchronize the masks across many images at once. Lightroom uses artificial intelligence models to identify and mask facial features such as teeth, lips, and hair. The program can even mask individual parts of the eye, such as the iris and the sclera (i.e., the white element around the iris). You can then make edits to any or all of the AI-created masks, which by itself ensures a massive increase in speed compared to conventional manual masking and editing approaches.

You see, before the introduction of Lightroom’s AI masking tools, all of this work had to be done by hand. I remember using the Lightroom Brush tool to carefully select elements of my portraits one by one – and after all the work was done on a single image, I had to start all over again on the next image because the edits never quite lined up from one photo to the next.

The process slowed editing to a crawl and even led some photographers to farm out editing to third parties, paying other people to edit images so they didn’t have to. But now, with Lightroom’s AI tools, all of this can be done in seconds.

How to speed up portrait editing using Lightroom’s AI tools: A step-by-step example

The best way to illustrate how Lightroom’s AI tools can save enormous amounts of time in your editing process is to share an example from a real portrait session. I spent an hour by the lake with a young man while capturing his high school senior portraits, and we had a phenomenal time talking, walking around, and looking for great photo opportunities.

He happily posed, smiled, and walked from one place to another while I took hundreds of pictures. It was lighthearted and easygoing, and we got some outstanding photos for him to give to the yearbook advisor and share with his friends.

Then, thanks to the combination of Lightroom and artificial intelligence, post-processing was a breeze. Let me explain how:

Step 1: Create an AI mask

Take a look at the thumbnails above. Even though the photos are different in many ways, they share a lot of characteristics. The light is relatively similar, the young man is facing the camera, and he’s got a bright smile on his face.

Therefore, some edits, such as exposure and white balance, don’t need artificial intelligence at all; they can be quickly and easily synced from one photo to many others using the Sync button in Lightroom’s Develop module.

Other edits, however, can benefit from some AI-powered masking. To get started, select the Masking option in the Develop module, then wait for Lightroom to detect a person. Next, click the person (usually labeled “Person 1” unless there are multiple people in the photo) and choose the mask you want to create. You can select from options such as facial skin, eyebrows, teeth, hair, and even clothes:

For this example, I will start with a Teeth mask, but you can select multiple checkboxes to create a mask that includes more than one feature. (I generally don’t work with multiple features at once because the edits I apply to one portion of the face – such as teeth – aren’t the same as the edits I apply to other features – such as hair or eyes). Once you select a box, a Create Mask button will appear. Click it, and you’ll be able to edit the mask.

Step 2: Edit the AI mask

After creating an AI mask, a pop-out panel will appear that contains some basic information. You can click and drag the panel to another part of the screen, and/or you can use the >> symbol in the top-right corner to collapse it so it’s small and out of the way. The default title of your mask will simply be “Mask 1,” but you can click the three-dot icon to change its name, and you can also show and hide the mask by clicking the eye icon.

Below the mask name, you can see information about what components the mask actually contains. Because the example here is an AI mask of the person’s teeth, Lightroom calls that portion of the mask “Person 1 – Teeth.” You can add to – or subtract from – the mask, and you can also change the color of the mask overlay, but I generally just leave all of these options alone. While they can be useful, I find that they’re often a distraction. And since the goal is speed, I keep things pretty basic.

You can use the sliders in the corresponding adjustment panel to modify parameters like Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Color, Sharpness, and more. In this case, all I want to do is whiten the subject’s teeth, so I select the “Teeth Whitening” preset. It does a great job (though I did do a little tweaking to the white balance).

Step 3: Add another mask

Portrait editing rarely involves using only one mask, and once again, Lightroom’s AI-powered tools can help you. Click the Create New Mask button at the top of the Masks pop-out panel, then choose the Select People option; this will let you select individual elements of the person once again.

For this example, I created a mask for the young man’s facial skin, and you can see that the AI-powered masking tool selected exactly the right portion of the image. This kind of selection would have taken me significantly longer if I had done it manually – it would have involved lots of precise work with the Brush tool – but Lightroom did it in less than a second.

After creating the second mask, you can repeat the same process discussed in the previous step; simply click the mask, then use the sliders on the right-hand side to adjust as you see fit.

I applied the Skin Smoothing preset to make the young man’s face just a bit smoother. Not too much, mind you – a series of subtle edits are often more effective – but enough to be noticeable.

I find it helpful at this point to give each of my masks a name, which will come in handy when the masks are synced to other photos later on. If they’re simply called “Mask 1,” “Mask 2,” and so on, it’s difficult to know exactly what they are and what you are synchronizing.

Step 4: Repeat as needed

Repeat this process as much as you want, and make edits to features that need a bit of tweaking. You might end up with a dozen masks, or maybe you’ll use just a couple; either way, it won’t take long for the benefits of these AI masking tools to become readily apparent.

As you can see, this process uses a mix of artificial intelligence and manual intervention, and the results are just as good and certainly much faster than if I were to create all the masks myself. Lightroom isn’t actually editing anything for me, and at no point in the process do you relinquish control over your editing to the program. Rather, Lightroom uses AI to add a boost of speed and flexibility to your own editing process. As a result, your workflow can speed up dramatically.

Step 5: Synchronize your edits

This is where the fun begins. In days gone by, you might have spent precious minutes poring over a single image, creating masks by hand and tweaking them to get everything just right, only to have to do it all over again for each additional photo. Fortunately, those days are long gone, and if you’re a portrait photographer, your life will never be the same.

Use the filmstrip at the bottom of the Develop panel to select the image you just edited. Then hold down the Shift or Ctrl keys and select all the images to which you want to apply your edits. You can select one image, one hundred images, or as many as you need.

Click the Sync… button in the lower-right corner. Then, when prompted, select the masks you want to synchronize.

Note: This step when mask naming comes in handy. If you’ve taken the time to give descriptive names to each of your masks, you’ll know exactly what you are synchronizing – which can help ensure that Lightroom is doing exactly what you want and nothing more.

Once you’re ready, click the Synchronize button and watch the magic happen.

Lightroom now uses artificial intelligence to create new masks for all the images you’ve selected for syncing. Then the program applies the same edits to the new images as your original image.

The process might take a minute or two depending on the speed of your computer, but it would’ve taken hours in my early days of image editing. After the operation is finished, you can edit individual masks on any of your images, and you can even sync those new edits to other images, too.

AI editing in Lightroom: final words

Lightroom has been at the core of my photography workflow for a decade, and in that time, I have seen a great deal of tweaks, improvements, and revisions to its tools. None have had such a dramatic impact on my post-processing as the AI masking tools, and I can hardly imagine doing a portrait session without them.

Lightroom harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to help you. The program doesn’t actually edit for you, and this practical, pragmatic approach is ideal for portrait photography. If you haven’t tried the Lightroom AI tools yet, you might be pleasantly surprised by how well they work and how much time they can save you.

Now over to you:

Have you tried Lightroom’s AI-powered masking tools? What did you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post AI Editing in Lightroom: How to Supercharge Your Portrait Workflow appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.

Back in August, Retouch4me, the software company behind a number of popular AI Photoshop plugins, unveiled its most intriguing product yet: the Color Match plugin, which promises to “[e]xtract colors from any image and apply them to your photos.”

In other words, using Retouch4me’s Color Match plugin, it should be possible to:

1. Import an image that you want to color grade (the original image).
2. Import an image featuring a color-grading style that you like (the reference image).
3. Instantly transform your original image to look like your reference shot (color-wise, that is!).

I don’t know about you, but I’m a little obsessed with color grading, and the applications of an AI-powered color-match editor seemed unreal. Imagine being able to take a screen grab from a beautifully graded movie, and then apply that same look to an entire series of images in about five seconds flat. Amazing!

So when Retouch4me offered me the chance to try out the new Color Match plugin, I jumped at the chance. The big question on my mind: could the plugin really perform as well as Retouch4me claimed? In this mini Color Match review, I share my findings after some hands-on testing.

Note: The Color Match application is marketed as a Photoshop plugin, but it also works as a standalone editor and integrates well with Lightroom and Capture One. I primarily used the software in its standalone form, but I also tested it in Photoshop and found the performance to be identical.

The Color Match plugin’s performance

After a simple installation, I opened the Color Match application and selected a photo: a travel-style image captured by Jason Gardner that I pulled from Unsplash:

Why did I choose this file? A lot of my favorite color grades involve dark, moodier tones, which tend to work well with overcast lighting. Also, the image’s tones are fairly neutral, making it a prime candidate for some color-grading fun.

The file opened in the main Color Match interface:

As you can see in the screenshot above, the application’s layout is very spare; there are a few buttons for uploading and saving images, as well as four tools on the left-hand side: Pan & Zoom, Brush, Eraser, and Invert Mask. There’s also a Blend slider at the top of the screen, and a handful of sliders on the right-hand side to tweak the results of the color grade. It isn’t sleek, but it’s serviceable, and there’s plenty of powerful technology hiding behind the older-looking interface. 

I did a quick browse through FilmGrab, a website with a database of shots pulled from thousands of films, and chose a few with beautiful color grading. Then I hit the Load Reference button, chose the first FilmGrab file, and pressed Open:

The effect was instantaneous: My original image was modified to match both the colors and tones of the reference photo, and the results were incredibly accurate. When I dialed back the Blend and the Luminance – in order to make more of the original image come through – the result was even better:

The plugin makes it easy to change reference photos by tapping a couple of arrow buttons, so I quickly tested out more of my FilmGrab images. The more reference photos I tried, the more impressed I became; I only stopped when I realized that a good 45 minutes had flown by and I needed to move on with my Color Match review.

I also spent a few minutes experimenting with the plugin’s other features. The Brush and Eraser worked fine and allowed me to selectively apply the color-grading effect to portions of my image, but what I really appreciated is the option to create LUTs from an edit, which can then be used in Photoshop and even video-editing applications. That way, you won’t always need a reference image on hand in order to duplicate an effect; you can simply apply a LUT and watch as your image transforms. 

The Color Match plugin: verdict

I didn’t set out to write a comprehensive review of Retouch4me’s Color Match plugin, but the features are so simple that it’s difficult to say a whole lot more than this: Color Match does exactly what it promises to do, and it does it really, really well. You can use it to add a variety of different moods to your images, and operating it couldn’t be easier.

For the best results, you’ll sometimes need to reduce the effect by reducing the Blend slider, and it can also be helpful to adjust the Luminance, Color, and Smoothing sliders to really refine the look, but at the end of the day, you’re bound to be impressed.

Sure, the interface is barebones, but given the power of the underlying software, I’m not complaining!

If you like the idea of applying high-quality color grades to your images, head on over to Retouch4me’s website and give the demo version a try. Alternatively, you can purchase the full version for $124. While the price is high, the results really are outstanding, so if you’re looking to improve your editing workflow, Color Match is a worthwhile buy.

Now over to you:

What do you think about the Color Match plugin? Will you give it a shot? How will you use it in your work? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Retouch4me Color Match Review: Professional Color Grading Made Easy appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jaymes Dempsey.

White balance. It’s a term that’s thrown around a lot in the world of photography, yet it’s unfortunate how many photographers are left scratching their heads when trying to explain or understand it.

Because here’s the thing: if you want to capture a scene as the human eye perceives it, then white balance should be on your radar. Mastering white balance, both during your shoot and in post-processing, can be the key to more natural-looking photos.

Therefore, in this article, I’m going to share everything you ever wanted to know about white balance, including:

• The white balance camera settings you should use for consistently good results
• How white balance can instantly improve your shots
• How you can use white balance for gorgeous creative effects in your photos

I’m also going to explain key related terms, such as color temperature, white balance presets, and more.

And I promise you: by the time you’ve finished this article, you’ll be an absolute WB expert! Let’s get started.

What is white balance in photography?

White balance refers to the process of removing or neutralizing color casts in your images – because at its core, white balance is about ensuring the colors in your photograph appear as they do in real life.

You see, different light sources emit light with various temperatures and/or tints. Ever noticed how a photo taken under fluorescent lighting sometimes has a blueish hue? Or how shots by candlelight can seem overly warm or yellow? That’s the effect of these different light sources on your images.

Since photographers often want to produce images that look natural, white balancing involves carefully adjusting your camera settings or editing tools to counteract these color casts. It’s about taking an image like this, full of distorted, too-blue colors:

And adding warm colors until you balance out the color cast, so you get a final result like this:

You might be wondering: If lights have such strong color casts, how come I never notice them?

It’s a good question with a simple answer: human eyes are pretty good at correcting for color casts in real time, but a camera captures the subject as it looks in life. Sometimes, the subject will have neutral tones, but other times it’ll be very blue (as in the pear photo above) and sometimes very yellow (as in the pear photo below). In both the blue and the yellow cases, white balancing is necessary to create a neutral image.

Here’s a too-yellow pear photo, which requires significant cooling during the white balancing process:

Note that, during white balancing, you’re adjusting the colors along two spectrums:

• The blue-yellow spectrum, also known as the color temperature
• The green-magenta spectrum, also known as the color tint

In general, natural light only requires correction along the blue-yellow spectrum, but certain types of artificial lighting may produce a noticeable color tint, in which case you’ll need to correct for that, too.

Color temperature explained

The bulk of white balancing in photography consists of color temperature correction. You’re correcting for a cast produced by the color temperature of the light, which lies along the blue-yellow spectrum.

Think of it this way: some light sources exude a more yellowish glow, while others lean towards a bluish hue. When we encounter the former, it’s termed a “warm” color temperature. Conversely, the bluish tint signals a “cool” color temperature.

Photographers refer to different color temperatures using the Kelvin scale. Warmer color temperatures, such as those produced by a candle flame or a setting sun, have a low Kelvin value, such as 3000 K. Neutral color temperatures, such as midday sunlight, have a medium Kelvin value – around 5000 K. And cooler color temperatures, produced by clouds or shade, have a high Kelvin value of 6000 K and beyond.

Cooler light has a high Kelvin value? Warmer light has a low Kelvin value?

Yes, you read that right, and it can be confusing, especially if you’ve never encountered the color temperature scale before. But you’ll get used to it over time (and it can help to think of the color temperatures as simply the opposite of what you’d expect).

Why is white balance important?

Color casts cause a couple of problems in photography.

First, they prevent you from capturing accurate, true colors in a scene. If you want to photograph a beautiful red sunset exactly as it appears to your eye, you’ll need to neutralize any color casts; otherwise, your image won’t match the real-life conditions you experienced.

This can also be an issue if you’re doing product photography or real-estate photography, where the goal is to portray the subject as true to life as possible.

Second, color casts tend to look bad. They can mess with portrait skin tones, they can create muddy shadows and sickly highlights, and they can create unwanted moods in your photos.

As I explain later in this article, you can use a color cast for creative effect – but it’s important that you do this carefully and deliberately, rather than as a failure to properly white balance a scene. Make sense?

The two white balancing methods

You can adjust the white balance of your images in two broad ways:

1. In camera, before taking a shot
2. Afterward, in post-processing

Both approaches can work, but there are some important caveats to keep in mind:

In-camera white balancing

Most cameras allow you to adjust your white balance settings before ever taking a photo.

For instance, you can select a white balance preset (such as Tungsten, Flash, Cloudy, etc.), which allows your camera to roughly understand and compensate for the lighting conditions.

Some cameras also allow for a custom white balance. Here, you simply dial in a Kelvin value (remember the color temperature scale I shared above?). A high Kelvin value will balance out cooler light and a low Kelvin value will balance out warmer light.

Your camera may even be capable of white balancing off a gray card. Put the gray card in front of your camera, select the right function in the menu, take a picture, and – voila! – your camera will create an accurate color temperature profile of the scene.

But while these white balance options allow you to handle color casts in the field, they come with some drawbacks:

1. Unless you’re in an enclosed environment, the light will likely change over the course of your shoot. You’ll need to periodically update your white balance preset or redo the gray card process as the sun goes behind clouds, as it sets, etc.
2. White balance presets, while easy to use, are only approximate. They often won’t produce a perfect result.
3. If you’re shooting action from a distance, taking a gray card reading is impossible.

That’s why some photographers prefer a different method of white balancing:

White balancing while editing

White balancing in post-processing is pretty simple:

Just set your camera to its Auto White Balance function when out shooting.

Then, when you get back home, open your photos in your editing program of choice.

Most editors offer a similar process, which involves using the white balance eyedropper to identify a neutral tone and fine-tuning via the Temperature and Tint sliders. (Below, I give a step-by-step process for white balancing photos in Lightroom.)

You can white balance each photo individually, or you can create a white balance adjustment for one (or a handful) of photos, then sync the adjustment across the entire set.

After-the-fact white balancing is nice, but like in-camera white balancing, there are a few points you need to keep in mind.

1. You’ll need to set aside extra time in post-processing to do your white balancing. And while you can save time with batch processing and presets, if you’re capturing lots of images under different lighting conditions, you may prefer the relative ease of in-camera white balancing.
2. Unless you take photos with a gray card in the frame, you may struggle to get a perfect white balance result with editing. In many cases, that’s fine – the color cast may be barely perceptible – but if you’re photographing products, your client may require literally perfect colors.
3. For complete white balancing flexibility in editing, you must shoot in RAW. While JPEGs allow for some white balance adjustments, you’ll be limited an often-unacceptable amount – whereas RAW files let you completely set and reset the white balance.

So while post-processing and in-camera white balancing are both serviceable, you’ll ultimately need to choose the option that works best for you.

How to white balance using in-camera presets

While white balance presets aren’t the most accurate way to color correct, they’re an easy way to get started (and if you’re simply capturing photos to share on social media, they may be all you require).

Simply pull up your in-camera white balance menu. You should see several presets, such as:

• Sunny, which works for mid-morning and mid-afternoon sun
• Shade, which works for scenarios with heavy shade (e.g., portraits under a tree)
• Cloudy, which works for outdoor scenes featuring overcast lighting
• Flash, which works for scenes lit by standard off-camera speedlights and pop-up flashes
• Incandescent, which works for indoor scenes lit by standard warm bulbs
• Fluorescent, which works for indoor scenes lit by fluorescent bulbs

Then pick the preset that most closely matches the lighting conditions you’re experiencing and start taking photos! You will need to pay close attention to the light as you continue shooting; if it changes significantly, you should switch presets to reflect the new conditions.

How to white balance your photos in Lightroom

Lightroom color correction is a quick and painless process.

First, open an image in the Develop module, then find the WB section on the right-hand side:

Next, select the Eyedropper icon:

Then click on a part of your image that should look a neutral gray or white. (Don’t be afraid to click in a few different places, especially if you’re not sure what counts as “neutral.”)

If you can’t find a neutral area to sample, or you don’t like the results, you can always head over to the Temp and Tint sliders:

You probably won’t need to adjust the Tint slider much, but feel free to drag the Temp slider back and forth until you get a neutral image.

How to creatively use white balance for different effects

While it’s always important to start by color correcting your photos, you can sometimes enhance images by deliberately pushing the white balance in the wrong direction. This generally works best when applied in a post-processing program, not in camera (though you can technically do it either way).

The idea here is simple:

By applying a too-cold white balance to your photos, you can create a somber, moody effect.

And by applying a too-warm white balance to your photos, you can create a welcoming, inviting, even nostalgic effect.

I don’t recommend you push the white balance too far – at some point, your photos may look unnatural – but a bit of cool or warm color is often nice when added carefully.

Note that you can also use an “incorrect” white balance to exaggerate the conditions of the scene. Adding cool hues will give images a shady or night effect, while adding warm hues will give images a sunrise or sunset effect. Again, use this technique with care. It’s easy to go overboard and end up with garish, unpleasant results.

White balance in photography: final words

Now that you’ve finished this article, you’re ready to start adjusting the white balance in your photos so you can capture truly lifelike, authentic images.

Remember, however: don’t be confined by the idea of “correctness.” As with many elements in photography, white balance can also be a tool for artistic expression. Explore, experiment, and embrace the power of white balance to transform the mood and atmosphere of your shots.

So go out with your camera. Practice working with white balance. And make your images shine!

Now over to you:

What do you think about white balance in photography? Do you have any tips for improving your results? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

White balance FAQ

The post White Balance in Photography: The Essential Guide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darren Rowse.

Looking for Lightroom tips and tricks to improve your workflow, increase your speed, and enhance your edits? You’ve come to the right place.

I’ve been using Lightroom for over a decade, and in this article, I share my top advice for amazing results, including:

• The panel that everyone should use for beautiful, artistic edits
• An easy way to apply complex edits at high speeds
• The best tools for creating fine-tuned, professional effects

Let’s do this!

1. Create color harmonies using the HSL panel

If you’ve never worked with the Lightroom HSL panel, then you’re in for a treat. It’s a little option hidden underneath the Tone Curve that looks like this:

The panel works by targeting different colors independently. You can choose to tweak only the reds in an image; you can brighten only the greens; you can desaturate only the blues. You simply pick the corresponding color slider, then make the necessary adjustments.

Note that the HSL panel lets you adjust colors in three specific ways. You can:

1. Change color hues. You can make the reds more orange, the purples more pink, or the blues more green.
2. Change color saturation. You can make the blues more faded or the reds more intense.
3. Change color luminance. You can brighten up the greens, darken down the blues, or brighten up the yellows.

When you’re just starting out, I’d recommend simply experimenting with the different sliders until you get an effect that you like, but here are a few ideas to try:

• Remove all the cool colors from an image for a warm, cinematic look
• Saturate the color of the main subject while desaturating the colors in the background
• Push several different colors in the same direction for a simpler color palette (and a more harmonious result)

This image, for instance, features a warm color palette (which can be achieved by desaturating blues, greens, and magentas:

2. Try the automatic slider adjustments

Sometimes, it can be hard to know how to start (or continue) a Lightroom edit.

In such cases, I recommend a simple little trick:

Hold down the Shift key, then double click on the sliders in the Basic panel. Lightroom will analyze your image, then apply adjustments automatically.

No, the edits won’t always be perfect, but they often look nice – and if you hate the result, you can always double-click on the slider name to set it back to zero. Plus, you can always use the automatic settings as starting points, then edit from there.

By the way, if you want to see all of Lightroom’s automatic edits at once, just click the Auto button above the Exposure slider:

It’ll instantly adjust the sliders in the Basic panel!

Now, these automatic adjustments don’t work for all Lightroom sliders. They won’t work outside the Basic panel, and they won’t work on the Texture, Clarity, and Dehaze sliders.

But you can use it to automatically adjust the white balance, the exposure, the contrast, and even the saturation – so why not give it a try and see what you think?

3. Use the clipping masks (or the clipping warnings)

Clipping refers to a loss of detail in the highlights and/or the shadows of an image – and in general, clipping is pretty bad.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to tell whether you’re actually clipping details while editing, and it’s possible to exacerbate clipping issues by pushing your sliders too far without realizing it. You can always keep an eye on the histogram, but it can be difficult to interpret, especially for beginners.

Fortunately, Lightroom has a solution: The clipping masks, which clearly indicate clipping in real-time.

Before you adjust the Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, or Blacks slider, simply hold down the Alt/Opt key. Then, when you increase or decrease the sliders, you’ll see a white or a black overlay, like this:

A mask that reveals zero clipping will be all white or all black. But a mask that shows some clipping will change colors over the problem areas:

(Note that, when adjusting the Blacks or the Shadows, clipping is indicated as color on white. On the other hand, when adjusting the Exposure, the Whites, or the Highlights, clipping is indicated as color on black.)

As long as you have no clipping, you’re good to go – but as soon as you start to see a loss of detail, you’ll want to dial back the intensity of your edits. Make sense?

One more quick Lightroom tip: If you want to identify clipping but you don’t want to spend time looking at the masks, you can always click the arrows at the top of the histogram:

This will activate the clipping indicators, which will cause clipped shadows to turn blue and clipped highlights to turn red:

4. Use the copy-paste shortcut to speed up your workflow

Say you’re editing a large volume of photos from an event, a wedding, or a portrait photoshoot. You need to move through the photos quickly, so you don’t want to edit each file individually.

You could create presets, but each one takes time to produce, and if the presets are photoshoot-specific, you may never use them again.

Instead, why not use Lightroom’s copy-paste option?

You see, after you edit an image, you can always select Edit>Copy (or press Ctrl/Cmd+C). A window will pop up, asking you which settings you want to copy:

Then, once you’ve chosen the relevant settings, select your to-be-edited photos, then choose Edit>Paste (or press Ctrl/Cmd+V).

The settings from your original photo will be pasted onto the selected images, and your editing work will be done!

This can be a great way to handle complex photoshoots. For instance, if you captured images in multiple types of light, you might edit the first front-lit image, copy the settings, and paste them across all the remaining frontlit images. You could do the same for the backlit images, the shaded images, and so on – and if you require even more control over your results, you can make slight adjustments to your settings as you go, then copy again and paste as required.

I do have one recommendation, though:

Even if you think you’ve done a successful copy-paste job, quickly go through the edited images and make sure everything looks okay. You don’t want to send images to a client, only to realize that you cropped all the files by accident!

5. Use Lightroom’s local adjustment tools

Lightroom offers a handful local adjustment options – referred to as masking tools – and they are insanely powerful. You can find them toward the top of the editing panels, just underneath the histogram:

Unlike global adjustments, which affect the entire image, local adjustments only change a portion of a file.

So while you can brighten up an entire image using the Exposure slider, you can brighten up just the foreground using a local adjustment; while you can sharpen the entire image using Lightroom’s Detail sliders, you can sharpen only the main subject using a local adjustment. They’re a great way to create fine-grained, detailed edits that add depth, enhance color, and push the viewer’s eye toward the main subject.

I like to use local adjustments for all sorts of things, but here are a few ideas:

• Use a Radial Gradient to add a vignette (i.e., a darkening effect) around the edges of the frame
• Use a Radial Gradient to boost the exposure of the main subject
• Use a Linear Gradient to decrease the exposure and increase the contrast in the sky
• Use a Linear Gradient to darken the foreground

Really, when it comes to local adjustments, the sky is the limit. Feel free to use the suggestions I provided above, but also make sure you experiment. That way, you’ll get a deep sense of how the masking tools work and what they can do for your photos!

Lightroom tips and tricks: final words

Well, there you have it:

Five tips to take your Lightroom editing to the next level.

So try out these suggestions. See how you like them. And let us know in the comments how they work out!

The post 5 Lightroom Tips and Tricks (to Revolutionize Your Editing) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kunal Malhotra.