Lightroom 5′s New Visualize Spots Tool

The new Lightroom 5 introduced several improvements when it comes to its Spot Healing Brush. The first notable feature is the ability to use it in any shape you want as opposed to just a circle. This saves a lot of time since now you don’t really need to go into Photoshop to use its more advanced cloning and healing brushes.

The second new feature for the Lightroom 5 Healing Brush is the Visualize Spots tool. This tool is designed to help photographers better detect dust spots from sensor dusts.

If you have been using the SLR Lounge Lightroom Preset System, you may also notice that the Preset System has a similar tool called the Advanced Dust Correction tool that can also help photographers find dust spots. So which one is better? Let’s take a look at this video.

The Problem with Lightroom 5′s New Visualize Spots Tool

Although the new Visualize Spots Tool is a welcomed new feature in Lightroom 5, it is not as sensitive as the Advanced Dust Correction tool. Here is an example of an image that has dust spots that are hard to detect without the a dust tool.

To turn on the Visualize Spots tool in Lightroom 5, first select the Spot Removal Tool (keyboard shortcut “Q”) while you are in the Develop Module. Next, place a check on the Visualize Spots checkbox located on the Toolbar at the bottom of the image (Press “T” if hidden).

When that tool is enabled, the image is substituted with a black and white outlined image that suppose to help you find the dust posts. In the case for this image, it looks like that there are no dusts in the sky.

There is slider next to the checkbox that allows you to control the intensity of the Visualize Spot tool, and as you can see, as we increase it to its maximum effect, you can now see some dust spots.

The problem that we noticed with this tool is that when we zoom into one of the dust spots in order to work on it with the Healing Brush, the dust spot becomes surrounded by visible grain, making it very difficult to spot and heal. As a result, you will have to play around with the Visualize Spot slider until the grain becomes invisible again.

The SLR Lounge Lightroom 4 & 5 Presets System’s Advanced Dust Correction System

The Advanced Dust Correction tool from the SLR Lounge Lightroom Preset System is far more effective because there is no extra adjustments needed once you click on the preset via the Preset System. The reason behind this because of the psychedelic colors that appear with this preset. Dust spots are more visible with this Preset.

Finally, when you zoom into the image, the dust spots are still visible compared to the rest of the image grain.

Conclusion

While the Lightroom 5′s inclusion of a Visualize Spot tool is great, it is not as sensitive as we would like. As a result, we recommend that if you have the SLR Lounge Lightroom Preset System to continue to use its Advanced Dust Correction tool instead.

We hope you enjoyed this article and video about dust correction. If you are looking to purchase the Lightroom 4 & 5 Preset Systems. Stay tuned for our next article and episode!

The post Why We are Still Disappointed With Lightroom 5′s New Dust Correction Features appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.

[ Want to get a Lytro – Get one on Amazon! ]

Lytro is hoping a slew of new features and the addition of an iOS app may help to change that. Lytro recently announced that they have enabled the wireless antennas built in to all Lyro devices and released this new iOS app to allow users to share images instantly across the web.

The wireless antennas were built into the Lyto cameras from the beginning, but only recently since they released the iOS app did Lytro release the firmware upgrade to enable the use of the wireless antenna. The iOS app allows you to connect to your Lytro and sync your images to make sharing much faster.

You can download and learn more about the Lytro iOS app here, and you can get the Lytro firmware upgrade from Lytro.com.

[via Lytro]

The post Lytro Adds Wireless Sharing Capabilities, Releases new iOS App appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.

The move comes after outcry from the public over the negative impact on young girls selfimage after seeing the unrealistically altered Photoshopped images. According to the announcement Debenhams will no longer use photoshopped lingerie model shots, no more arm or leg thinning, and no more teeth whitening or bust boosting. The company says that they will only allow use of photoshop to fix small things like pigmentation and stray hairs.

The company is calling on retailers across the globe to follow suit to help encourage a positive body image amongst younger people. Regardless of your stance on photoshop and how it is currently used in the industry this is a huge announcement. It will be interesting to see if any American retailers follow the lead of our brethren across the Atlantic.

What are your thoughts on this news? Is Debenhams right to enact these strict Photoshop rules, or are they over reacting? Let us know in a comment below. 

[via Dailymail]

The post Major UK Retailer Ban use of Photoshopped Images appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.

Lumu is new light meter project on Kickstarter, and it looks to be very exciting.  Lumu Labs has successfully tested their prototype light meter and are asking for additional support so that they can mass produce and market the device, which will help bring production and sale costs down.

‘Bringing the Light Meter to the 21st Century’ is the product’s slogan.  The device is unique because it supposedly will be sold for much cheaper than a standard light meter, but more importantly it would give you advanced control and features through the iPhone app.

The device is very small and must connect with the iPhone in order to work.  The Lumu app allows you to take notes, such as if you’re performing tests with filters or in different lighting situations, and is essentially a much more sophisticated photography app and highly accurate light meter.

Do you normally use a light meter and would you consider buying one of these products?  Have you already backed the project?  We’d love to hear your comments below!

Visit Lumu’s Kickstarter.

The post A New Way to Light Meter! appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.

The Story

Eric Langlois, a popular wedding photographer based out of New Milford, CT, has recently gone missing on June 11th 2013. He was last spotted at Lovers Leap Park in New Milford, CT where his wife Amber dropped him off to pick up his mountain bike that had fallen into some water the day prior to him being missing.

A body has been found but has not been confirmed to have been him by any authorities. This was a very tragic happening and it hurts to hear about an incident like this of another fellow wedding photographer.

This is another reminder to be careful on and off the job.

How You Can Help

via Newstimes

A fundraiser has been started to help support the Eric’s wife Amber and their two children to get through this tough cycle in their lives. Every donation, big or small, counts. Please take the time to donate and help out another fellow photographer and his family to the Langlois Family Fund as it would be greatly appreciated.

See The News Story Here

The post Popular Wedding Photographer, Father of two Missing | Langlois Family Fund appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.