Quick and Dirty Method of Using the Photoshop Spot Healing Brush Tool

By: Lara Joy Brynildssen 

Let’s say you use Lightroom and you’ve tried and tried to get rid of those distracting spots using Lightroom’s Spot Removal Tool but no matter how you set it – using Clone or Heal or changing the Opacity or increasing the Feather – you have a giant, obvious repair on your image. Not good!

This is my final, processed image but I had to dive into Photoshop to get there.

You’re a good photographer

For kicks, let’s agree that in addition to knowing your way around Lightroom, you’re a skilled photographer. You also subscribe to Adobe CC, but honestly, you don’t use Photoshop much. Perhaps you’re even a little bit afraid of it. You loaded the software and update it whenever Adobe tells you to but other than the PS icon looking cool and professional in your dock, you don’t actually use it.

You just don’t use Photoshop

I mean, Layers, Masks, Blending? Ugh. I know. I do 90% of my work in Lightroom. No one has ever called me out on that so I keep on keepin’ on with Lightroom. I love Lightroom but – and it’s a great big but – LR’s Spot Removal Tool is no match for Photoshop’s Spot Healing Brush Tool.
Because I know this issue affects so many of us, I’m going to teach you the quick and dirty method for how to Spot Heal in Photoshop. No layers. No tricky stuff. Just easy, quick simple repairs for the problem areas in your images.

Practice as you read this

Grab an image that has a problem area that you can’t seem to fix in Lightroom and follow along with me. Practice is the best way to learn so repeat these steps a few times today. After you Spot Heal a few images in PS, it will naturally become part of your image processing tool kit.

Step #1 – Process the image in Lightroom

In Lightroom, process your image as normal. Here’s my RAW  image before I’ve made any adjustments.

Canon 7D Mark II, 70-200 plus 1.4x @ 280mm, f/6/3, 1/1600, ISO 400.

Below is a screenshot of all the adjustments I’ve made on my image. I started with a pretty aggressive crop. You can see the White Balance and Basic adjustments but I also dropped in several Radial Filters to add clarity and brightness to key elements like the horses’ eyes. However, I struggled to get rid of the flecks of mud around the black horse’s eye.

Step #2 – Edit in > Photoshop

Right-click on your image. Select Edit in Adobe Photoshop CC.

It is very important that you don’t skip this step. Do not open your image directly in Photoshop. For the down and dirty method to be most effective, you must start this process in Lightroom.
NOTE: If you haven’t updated to PS CC 2017 or if you use an older version of PS, you might need to modify these steps. Instead of Edit in Adobe Photoshop CC 2017, you might see Edit a Copy in PS.

Step #3 – Select the Spot Healing Brush

It takes a minute, but eventually, your image will appear in the Photoshop window. Here’s the image I’m working on. Check and make sure your screen looks pretty similar to mine.

Click on the Spot Healing Brush Tool. It looks like a band-aid except that it has a little semi-circle handle over it.

If you can’t find this tool, count seven icons down on the tools pallet and right-click on that. Once you right-click, you should see the rest of the tools. Hover your cursor over the band-aid icon that says Spot Healing Brush Tool. Click to select it. It will now show as the active tool.

Step #4 – Setup the Spot Healing Brush

Review the settings for the tool bar that runs across the top of your Photoshop window.

If your Spot Healing Brush Tool doesn’t default to these settings, change them to:

• Mode = Normal
• Type = Content Aware

Step #5 – Zoom in

Zoom in and increase the size of your image so you can see the problem area more clearly. Click the Command/Alt key and the + (plus) key simultaneously. Click again to zoom in more. If you’ve zoomed in too far, click the Command/Alt Key and the – (minus) key simultaneously to zoom back out. Grab the drag bars on the bottom and right side of the image to reposition the problem area so that it’s in the middle of the screen and easy to see and repair.

Zoomed into 200%, I can see the problem area clearly.

Step #6 – Size the Brush Tool

Hover the Spot Healing Brush Tool over the problem area. You may need to change the size of the brush. The easiest way to do that is to use the square bracket keys on your keyboard.

• Click the Left Bracket Key [ to decrease the size of the brush.
• Click the Right Bracket Key ] to increase the size.

Notice that as you click on the bracket keys, the Size number in the bar that runs across the top of your image increases or decreases. (If you click on that number, you’ll get more tool options. Don’t worry about those for now.)

Using the Left Bracket Key, I adjusted my Spot Healing Brush Tool to 20 pixels and started making 

small repairs around the eye.

Step #7 – Brush over the bad area

After you’ve adjusted the size of your brush, start clicking on the area of your image that you want to repair. You can also drag the brush to make short strokes.
Photoshop is smart and should fill in the area with an appropriate selection but if it doesn’t, click Edit > Undo Spot Healing Brush in the top menu (or Cmd/Ctrl+Z will also undo). That will undo the last thing that you did.
If you want to undo multiple things, go to Edit and click Step Backward repeatedly till you’re at the last point that you liked. Step Backward does have limitations so work slowly and check your repair work often. Note: you can aslo open the History panel and go back to any previous step.

Step #8 – Save

Evaluate your work. Do you like the repairs? If Yes, go to File > Save in the top menu. Photoshop defaults to saving images as a TIFF file. If it doesn’t, select the TIFF option if/when the menu pops up. This will also import the newly edited image into Lightroom.

If you don’t like the repairs you made, quit Photoshop without doing anything. Photoshop will ask if you want to save your work. Just say No. Go sip some coffee and try again another day when you’re fresh.

Step #9 – Head back to Lightroom

Almost done!
Go back to Lightroom. You’ll still be in the Develop Module with the original RAW image that you were working on still open. Press G for Grid which will take you to the Library Module. Check to make sure that next to your original RAW file is a new TIFF file. Select the two images and view them in Survey Mode so that you can look at them side by side (N on your keyboard).
If the two files don’t show up right next to each other in Lightroom resort your images by Capture Time (or file name), or drag and drop so that they do.

Side by side of RAW file adjusted in LR (on the left) and TIFF with the addition of spot healing 

(on the right).

Wait, don’t you have to use layers in Photoshop?

That’s the down and dirty part. When you’re doing simple fixes like this, you don’t need to worry about layers. Why? Well, layers are excellent if you’re doing quite a few things to your image and you want to be able to turn different effects on and off. They’re also important so that you preserve your original image in a background layer (non-destructive editing).
But with this method, you still have your original RAW file. That’s why you want to start in Lightroom and then open your image from there into Photoshop. Lightroom sends a copy of your image to Photoshop. When you save your work in Photoshop in step #8, Photoshop generates a totally separate image file. That new TIFF file shows up in your Lightroom catalog next to your original RAW file.

NOTE: If you haven’t updated to PS CC 2017 or if you use an older version of PS, you might need to modify these steps. You might need to select “Edit a copy” and not “Edit Original.”

This is a wild horse so I didn’t go too crazy fixing every little thing, but the distracting mud around 

the eye and on the neck is cleaned away nicely, don’t you think?

What if the down and dirty method doesn’t work?

This might not work for your image. Some repairs are finicky and this is definitely a hack method that won’t work for everything. My advice is to experiment. Remember the other tools that were grouped with the Spot Healing Brush Tool? Try one of those. Or, keep using the Spot Healing Brush Tool but change the Mode from Normal to Replace or even Multiply.
Remember when we clicked the Size number? Click that again and adjust the Hardness of the brush or the Roundness. Make only one change at a time and make notes on what each change does. If something works, click File, then Save and remember what you did. If nothing works, exit out of Photoshop without saving (and go have more coffee).
You can always experiment again another day because you still have your RAW image. It’s cataloged in Lightroom right next to the TIFF file. As long as you always start in Lightroom, you’ll be able to try again later.

In this image of an outdoor seafood market in Essaouira, I experimented with a variety of tools to zip 

out the distracting bit of tree on the left, the construction equipment and the light posts. The RAW 

image, with Lightroom only adjustments, is on the left. The spot-healed TIFF is on the right.

Share with the community: What hack or down and dirty methods do you use when you process your images?

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The top Still Life Photography Cleaning Techniques in Photoshop

By: Darina Kopcok

Photoshop is a powerful program with a great variety of tools to help you get the most out of your images. From simple cleaning techniques to complex composites, the software offers everything photographers need for photo manipulation at all levels.
There are a variety of tools to help you, depending on your subject and goals for your image. With the exception of product photography, there are only a few key tools that you’ll need 90% of the time in retouching still life photography. Cleaning techniques in Photoshop are the foundation of beautiful imagery in this exciting but challenging genre.
Let’s take a look at what they are.

Canon 5D Mark III, EF 100mm 1:2.8, 1/160 f/9 ISO 100 Manual Mode, Evaluative Metering

The cleaning tools in Photoshop

There are just a few key tools that you need for cleaning techniques in Photoshop. These are: the Spot Healing tool, the Healing tool, the Clone Stamp tool, and the Patch tool. These tools are all you really need to take your still life images from good to great.
Each tool has its strengths and weakness. Some will achieve desired results more easily than others. When you combine the tools together, the result is a clean and refined image.

Canon 5D Mark III, EF 100mm 1:2.8, 1/250 f/5.6 ISO 100 Manual Mode, Evaluative Metering

The Spot Healing Tool

The Spot Healing tool is the quickest way to fix little blemishes in Photoshop because it doesn’t require you to select an area to sample pixels from. Photoshop’s algorithm looks at nearby pixels and replaces them with pixels that it determines to be a good match.
When using this tool, you have some choices that will help Photoshop make the best guess as to what pixels would be the best replacement.

You can find the Spot Healing tool by the icon that looks like a bandaid. The shortcut for this tool is “J“.
When using this tool, you have some choices that will help Photoshop make the best guess as to what pixels would be the best replacement.
First, you want to choose a very soft brush. Start with a hardness of “0” and increase it slightly if needed. When retouching in Photoshop, every image is unique, so you have to assess your approach on a case-by-case basis.
Proximity Match will only look at the pixels around the sample area.

When you use this tool, it’s best to choose Content-Aware Fill. This will ensure that the tool chooses pixels that will give you a seamless result.
In still life photography, it’s a good starting tool to quickly clean up any dust or small bits and blemishes before moving on to bigger blemishes or imperfections. It’s better than using the Spot Removal tool in Lightroom because if you use this tool repeatedly, it will slow down Lightroom’s performance very quickly.
Although the Spot Healing tool is one of the best cleaning techniques in Photoshop, one drawback to note is that using it excessively in a given area can lead to a plastic-like look. You may have to layer your use of this tool with others.

The Healing Brush Tool

Still life should look clean and refined. Canon 5D Mark III, EF 24-70mm f/2.8, 1/160 f/9 ISO 100 Manual Mode, Evaluative Metering

The Healing Brush tool is similar to the Spot Healing Brush tool. However, when using this tool, you choose the area that you want to sample from. This gives you much more control, but of course, it’s not as quick as simply using the Spot Healing tool.
Imperfections blend into the surrounding areas. the brush works by matching texture, lighting, transparency, and shading of sample pixels to the pixels in the area we want to heal.
To use this tool, pick a source point to sample from. Think about what is going to work in terms of color and texture.
Start with a hardness of zero. You need a soft brush, but can add a bit of hardness if needed, depending on what you want to heal
Choose Aligned and Current & Below.
Choose where you want to select from and head over to where you want to “paste” the pixels
When utilizing cleaning techniques in Photoshop, the Healing Brush is a powerful tool because of the control it gives you.

Using the Healing Brush to clean up small flaws. Canon 5D Mark III EF 100mm 1:2.8 1/160 f/5.6 ISO 100 Manual Mode, Evaluative Metering

The Patch Tool

Using the Patch tool in Photoshop is another important tool for cleaning techniques in Photoshop. It’s like a large, customizable Healing Brush tool. The Patch tool repairs a selected area with pixels from another area. It seeks to match, lighting, shade, and texture from sample pixels to the source.

It basically works like a “cut and paste” tool. However, it doesn’t work very well on larger areas because there usually are differences in tonality.
If you need to work on a larger area, you should attack the area by working in sections. Also, note that it also doesn’t work well on edges. In this case, you may have to use another tool or combine it with another tool for more precision.

To use the Patch tool, select it from the sidebar or use the “J” key. Also, decide on your blending parameters.
The Patch tool’s Content-Aware mode works on empty layers by sampling below. It shuffles the content around a bit as it acts like a patch. If you’re using normal mode, don’t worry about lightness or color, as there will be a healing calculation when you release the mouse.
Use your mouse or pen to draw a slightly loose selection around the problem area (as pictured above) and then drag it to an area that might work to replace the pixels. You can drag it several times until you find a proper match.

The Clone Stamp Tool

Perhaps one of the most popular and often used tools in Photoshop, the Clone stamp tool may possibly be your best ally when employing cleaning techniques in Photoshop.
The Clone Stamp copies pixels to a new location. With this tool, you’re literally painting over one part of an image with another. You can do this in both very small and large amounts, depending on the brush size you use.

Unlike the Patch Tool, it works very well in areas where you have texture, pattern, or an edge. It doesn’t work as well in areas where you have conflicting exposures on colors.
Although it’s a fantastically useful tool, when it comes to cleaning techniques in Photoshop, it might not work perfectly in every situation; you’ll need to combine it with other tools and techniques.
To activate the Clone Stamp, use the shortcut > Cmd/Ctrl + S.

Use the clone stamp to clean up areas with texture.

You can also use “T” to Transform to adjust further. This means that you can alter the size and rotation of your cloned area to make it blend better.

One last tip

Canon 5D Mark III, EF 100mm 1:2.8, 1/160 f/5.6 ISO 100 Manual Mode, Evaluative Metering

When working with cleaning techniques in Photoshop, it’s a good idea to work using a lot of layers. This will allow you to go back a few steps if you make mistakes.
Using these tools together in Photoshop will give you the best results and will cover most of your bases when retouching your still life photography.
Do you have any other tips you’d like to share with us on cleaning techniques in Photoshop for still life images? If so, please do so in the comments section.

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How to make money Online as a Photographer

How to Use Drones to do Stunning Aerial Photography

By: Andrew Thomas 

One of the most exciting developments in photography in the last year or two is the drone – high flying cameras that enable you to capture unique viewpoints of common subjects. Recently the cost of getting a camera into the air has dropped dramatically and if you decide to venture down this road I guarantee you won’t be disappointed. Apart from the amazing images you will capture, they are also tremendous fun!

As with most modern technology there is a vast range of drones, or UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), on the market. Similar to camera equipment in general, how much you’re prepared to spend will determine the quality of camera on-board, and the flying characteristics of the drone itself. There are low-cost models that will take very basic images, up to the big boys toys that will happily lift your prized DSLR up into the heavens. You can even add your GoPro on to some units that will take advantage of camera gear you may already have. One company has a range of models that has a large percentage of the market – DJI. Their Phantom range of drones are the first choice for many, and though they do make some high end-models, the Phantom 3 series models are the most popular drone in the world, for good reason.

Getting Started

One of the big advertising features of most drones these days is their ease of operation. “Fly Straight Out of the Box” is a common term you’ll see, and in fact it is also very true. Charge the battery, download the app to your smartphone, fire it up, and away you go.
However, it must be mentioned that as easy as these are to fly, common sense and care is a big part of aerial flying. It’s suggested you start with some limitations in place, easily set up on the smartphone app that runs the drone. This is usually along the lines of limiting the maximum height you can fly, and also how far away you can send the drone.

Photo courtesy of DJI

Always start somewhere wide open, such as a local oval or park, and spend time getting a feel of the controls before you even think about pressing the shutter button. Always be aware of your location in relation to what’s around you. As these cameras usually have a wide angle lens (20mm equivalent) and it’s easy to mis-judge your positioning when in close proximity to objects such as trees and buildings, especially if viewing the smartphone screen is your prime.

Rules and Regulations

Most countries have rules to follow, and while they can’t all be mentioned here, usually they are along the lines of these:

• Drone must always be in Line of Sight (LOS) – that basically means you should always be able to see it
• Maximum Height 133 metres (400 feet)
• Never fly over groups of people
• Respect others privacy
• No flying anywhere near airports and other no-fly zones as specified in each country

It’s suggested you check with your local air safety authorities for particular details in your area.

A few months ago I was flying above my local railway station, looking for the perfect image at dusk, just as the lights came on that illuminate the tower every evening on this historic building. Happily flying for five minutes or so, I looked down to see two local policemen coming over to me. My first reaction in these circumstances is to gauge their reaction to drone flying, and if there are any concerns I bring the machine down immediately. Unfortunately drones have been getting some negative publicity in the press, certainly not helped by the person that crash landed one on the front lawn of the White House in Washington earlier in 2015. Luckily these two policemen were very interested in what I was doing. By showing them exactly on-screen what I was seeing, and explaining the whole procedure and the care I was taking in not flying directly above any people, they left with a very positive attitude.
I think it’s very important to fly with this attitude in mind. And one other thing about flying in public places….you will need to be prepared to become the centre of attention as people are generally quite intrigued by what you doing!

Its also tempting to think that aerial imaging is going to be a great new avenue for making some money from your photography. Once again this is another area where the rules vary from country to country, and you should look into the certification you may need in your area to undertake paid aerial work.

Amazing Technology

Todays drones have some amazing technology on board that has revolutionized aerial photography:

• By connecting your smartphone to your handheld remote control unit, you can see on-screen exactly what the drone is viewing. This makes for perfect compositional adjustments.
• Camera controls are extensive – auto or full manual control, RAW capture, even time-lapse
• The drone will hover in the one spot with incredible stability, almost like an aerial tripod! You can take your hands off the controls and the drone will stay in that position.
• Failsafe flight options. With an average 20 minutes flight time per battery charge, the drone can detect when your battery is getting low and will go into RTH mode (automatic return-to-home), ensuring the drone comes back to you! If for some reason the lightbridge connection between the remote control and the machine itself is lost (this can happen when flying behind buildings or trees), once again RTH is activated. Another great use for the RTH feature is when you have lost sight of the drone, which is quite easy to do once it gets some distance away from you, by pressing the RTH button your flying camera will happily return to you before you know it.

Aerial Photography

When you first start flying, it’s very exciting to get home, load your images, and marvel at the amazing scenes you have captured. In my first few weeks of flying, everything I took was thrilling. However, I quickly realized that aerial photography is no different to other forms of photography – it’s still all about the light! So rather than just heading out randomly, I once again started to chase the light and conditions, which has always been the strength of my landscape photography.
As a landscape photographer I am always aware of weather conditions and what they might offer. Now even more so, as a drone pilot you will have to also take into account the wind forecasts. Drones are not something you fly in high winds (unless you have to get that amazing once-in-a-lifetime scene in front of you!) and you will find yourself looking for calm weather more than any other condition.

At present the in-built cameras on most drones are nowhere near the quality you are used to with your ground level camera. However, I have found the images I have been able to capture are surprisingly good. Though only 12mps, the fact that you can shoot a RAW file gives you more options to work with later on. The jpg files are also surprisingly good, especially if you have been flying in good light.
Even when shooting in low light the quality has been amazing for such a small camera unit, and the stability of the camera at 300 feet can be quite astonishing. You can also shoot panorama images just as you would when down at sea level, once again creating something very unique. And why not try a time-lapse from 300 feet?! I have had images printed up to A3 size (roughly 12×16) and you would be hard pressed to tell they were taken with a 12mp camera.

I should also mention that most drones these days shoot high quality video, even up to 4K, which produces stunning aerial footage. In fact, at 4K resolution it’s possible to take a high quality frame directly out of the video.

Unique Views

One thing you will love is the amazing patterns you find in the landscape when viewed from above. Drones allow you to get into the area that most planes and helicopters are not allowed to – below 300 feet. Google Maps makes a great starting point for finding locations that look worth visiting.
It certainly beats putting your camera on the end of a ten foot pole (yes, I did that a few years ago).

As a landscape photographer for a number of years now, I can’t recommend highly enough aerial imaging as a unique way to add that extra aspect to your photography. Everyone you share your images with will be amazed and intrigued, and don’t forget how much fun it is. If you ever tire of it, you may like to try herding sheep with your drone – yes, it’s been done!
Have you tried out any drone or aerial photography yourself? Please share your tips and images in the comments below.

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A Photographer’s Guide to Buying a Drone – Getting it Right the First Time

By: Matt Murray 

In this photographer’s guide to buying a drone, I’ll share with you some invaluable tips for buying a drone for the first time.
Seven years ago, my employer wanted a photo of a local lighthouse from an elevated viewpoint. It sounds ridiculous now, but very early on a winter’s morning, I was loaded into a cherry picker with two cameras and hoisted 15 meters in the air to take photos. I’m a little bit scared of heights, so I really had to concentrate on getting the images and not looking down!
With the introduction in the last few years of many relatively low-cost good quality drones (also known as UAVs – unmanned aerial vehicles), that whole scenario seems laughable.
So why should you think about buying a drone if you haven’t already?
Here are some of the key considerations.

By chance, I saw this boat sailing past when I was taking aerial images of fishing boats in Yamba. 

Taken with the DJI Mavic.

A photographer’s guide to buying a drone

Why buy a drone?

The main reason for buying a drone is the unique viewpoints that it will bring to your photography that you couldn’t achieve easily otherwise.
Sure, you can take elevated images from buildings, planes, helicopters – or even a cherry picker. However, those options are unlikely to be suitable or cost-efficient, depending on what you’d like to photograph. Having a drone in your kit opens up new possibilities and viewpoints like never before.
How else would you be able to take images from viewpoints like this? Boats at the seaside taken with the DJI Mavic Pro 2.

What kind of photographers would benefit from having a drone?

The short answer is – all kinds of photographers. I’ve seen or heard of aerial images from UAVs used in many industries.

Travel

Aerial images have been a stable of Instagram travel accounts for years now. Many Instagrammers take a compact drone with them on their travels to add to the range of shots they can take at a destination. They can use the images for both posting on social media or as deliverables for clients.
These images are often featured by large national and regional travel accounts to showcase destinations.

Real estate photographers

Drones are widely used amongst real estate photographers and seem to be essential kits these days.
Aerial images are common on many listings here in Australia to show the boundaries and layout of a property and its location to nearby landmarks and amenities.

Fine art

This is a small but very well paid niche. Some photographers make thousands of dollars for breathtaking fine art aerial images taken with UAVs.

Stock photographers

There’s been an increasing number of aerial images and videos sold on stock photography sites recently. Using a drone is one way to add to the range of images you have for sale in your portfolio.

A stock photography library I shoot for had a call out for images to illustrate bad parking. This is 

an image I sold them for the campaign.

Wedding and portrait photography

Aerial images are becoming increasingly popular for weddings, engagement shoots, and portrait sessions.

Images for your family archive

When I’m out and about taking photos for stock or travel, my family often accompanies me. I love taking aerial images of them; it certainly makes for a different type of shot in the family photo archive.

Tips before buying a drone

If you’re thinking about buying a drone, it pays to do your research first. Take a look at photos taken by drones on Instagram using hashtags such as #dronephotography, #dronestagram, and #droneoftheday.
Which make and model of UAV took these images? Looking at the photos will give you a good indication of the quality you can expect from each model.
Join some drone-related Facebook groups. Have a read through the discussions and ask questions. People will often be happy to share how they took a photo, what equipment they used, and what post-processing they did on the image.

My daughter taking her board out for a surf in northern New South Wales, Australia.

Try before you buy

Do you know a friend who has a drone? Ask if you can go along with them next time they fly it and learn the basics. You could also see if a local drone Facebook Group has meetups where you can learn the ropes. Maybe you’ll love it, but maybe you’ll hate it. Handy to know before you shell out for such a high cost.

Buy cheap, buy twice

I’ve heard many people buy a cheap toy drone to see if they’ll like it. The truth is, many of those cheaper drones are a complete nightmare to fly, and people are put off when it crashes. Typically, the more expensive a UAV, the easier it is to fly.
I’d recommend the “try before you buy” approach over this.

Which drone should I buy?

Ultimately, this is down to two different factors: the first is your budget, the second is what you want to do with your aerial images.
If you want to sell your images for stock, weddings, or fine art, go with the drone with the best image quality. However, if you want to travel with your drone, take family photos or only post to social media, perhaps you’d value a compact, lighter offering.

Pros and cons of some popular drone models

Below are some of the pros and cons of popular drones.

The Mavic Pro

The Mavic Pro is one of the best-selling drones of all time. It’s capable of taking photos in both horizontal and landscape orientations, which I found very handy when I owned it. The 12-megapixel camera has a fixed f/2.2 aperture, which compared to newer offerings, is a bit limiting. The good news is, you should be able to pick up one for a good price secondhand.

DJI Mavic Pro

Mavic Pro 2

I sold my Mavic Pro when they released the Mavic Pro 2. It has a significantly better 20-megapixel camera with a 1-inch sensor, which suited me better for taking larger images for stock libraries.
It also has an f/2.8-11 variable aperture, which gives you the potential to be more creative with your aerial images.
The one potential downside is that when facing the horizon, the gimbal doesn’t rotate the camera so you can capture vertical images like you can with the Mavic.
Read a full review of the Mavic Pro 2 here.

The Mavic 2 drone.

Mavic 2 Zoom

The Mavic 2 Zoom came out at the same time as the Mavic Pro. Its main advantage over the Pro 2 is the ability to zoom the camera. Combined with movement, you can use this to achieve the dolly zoom effect. The downside is that its camera is only 12-megapixel, and the aperture is f2.8-3.8.
Read a review of the Mavic 2 Zoom here.

DJI Mavic 2 Zoom

Mavic Mini

The Mavic Mini is a very small and light drone with impressive specifications. The Mavic Mini is the cheapest I’ve covered and would be ideal for many people wanting to take aerial images as they travel. It has a 12-megapixel camera. Unlike the others listed, it is only capable of taking images in JPG format for stills.

DJI Mavic Mini

Also, read a review of the DJI Spark here, and the Mavic Air here.

What else do I need to consider?

Is your device up to scratch? To fly a DJI drone, you’ll need the DJI GO app on your smartphone or on a tablet.
Is your device good enough to support the latest app? You’ll need to look into this before you get started.

Make sure your phone or tablet is powerful enough to run the drone app.

How will you edit your image?

If you’re a dPS regular reader, no doubt you’ll know all about the various ways you can post-process your images. I use Adobe Lightroom and occasionally Adobe Photoshop to edit my JPG and DNG drone images.

Insurance

UAVs are an expensive investment. Make sure that your camera insurance or home contents insurance adequately covers your new kit.
DJI have their own insurance product – DJI care. Whichever option you go for, make sure you understand the limits of the policies, so you don’t get caught out.

Flying legally

This is very important. You don’t want to find yourself on the wrong side of the law, especially if you take your drone overseas.
It’s good to learn all the rules when you’re considering buying one or while you’re waiting for it to arrive.
Rules differ from country to country, region to region, so always make sure you know the correct laws to fly at your destination.
For example, in Australia, you’ll need permission to fly a drone in a National Park in the state of New South Wales, but over the border in Queensland, you do not.

Early morning view of South Stradbroke Island, Queensland. DJI Mavic.

Flying safely

Investing time learning the rules and regulations is just one part of things. You also need to learn to fly safely.
A major part of this is learning to identify hazards, whether they be trees, powerlines, buildings, weather, or as I found out once, a swooping bird in my local park.
It’s always a good idea to have a pre-flight and post-flight-check routine in place.

Buying a drone is a fantastic way of adding new viewpoints to your photography. The latest offerings from companies such as DJI have given photographers the ability to capture scenes that were not possible a few years ago without chartering a plane or helicopter.
However, there are many things to consider before you dive in. Consider what you want to use the images for, which model to buy, and how to edit your images. You also need to learn how to fly safely and legally.
I hope this photographer’s guide to buying a drone has been helpful if you are currently looking at adding a drone to your photography kit.
What other considerations do you think are important when considering buying a drone? Tell us below.

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Beginner Photography Tutorial

Getting Photos Organized with ACDSee DAM Software

By: Glenn Harper

As soon as you begin using a camera with any regularity, you need to find a way of labeling photos and putting them in order. If you don’t, it could soon take hours to locate a given picture among all your folders, hard drives, and devices. ACDSee DAM software sets you on the right path from the beginning.

Cataloging photos used to involve writing on them directly or typing out captions on sticky labels. Many people didn’t bother, but digital photography made record-keeping easier. Original photo by Brett Jordan.

By investing in good DAM software at the earliest opportunity, you won’t get into a position where you have a huge backlog of digital pictures to organize. In this article, I’ll introduce you to ACDSee Photo Studio Home 2020, which offers a great set of features without breaking the bank.

More reasons for needing DAM

There are many reasons you might want to locate specific photos among your collection. For me, writing these articles is one of them. A set of photos illustrating a theme might be scattered far and wide in my collection.
That’s where ACDSee’s Image Basket is so useful. You can work on pictures from all over the place as if they were in one folder.

Ten photos from different folders collected in an ACDSee Image Basket. Note that I’m trying out a Lomo filter here using the experimental tools of View Mode.

Perhaps for you, it’ll be a photo book or a website that causes you to search for photos. Or you might be looking for portraits of friends and family. ACDSee DAM software includes excellent Face Detection technology. Once you’ve identified someone a few times, the software does a good job of finding other pictures of the same person. Or, if it’s not sure, it will ask you to confirm ID.

A quick demo of Face Detection technology, albeit using an artwork. With photographic portraits, the software learns facial features and starts to identify friends and family automatically.

A legitimate reason to label photos and get them in order is for posterity. One day, your photos may interest future generations of your family or even local historians. How many prints exist from the last century where the identity of the subjects and location is lost? I find that a shame.

Countless prints of places and people from the last century have become anonymous with time. Photo by Suzy Hazelwood.

ACDSee Photo Studio Home 2020: A solution

There are some serious pieces of DAM software on the market. By far the best known is Adobe Lightroom, which happens to be a strong raw editor, too. Other examples include iMatch and FotoStation. But all these products come at a price.

The familiar interface of Adobe Lightroom on a MacBook. Photo by energepic.

ACDSee Photo Studio Home 2020 is remarkable for several reasons.
It offers a lightning-fast browser, multiple ways to search your pictures, easy tagging and keywording of images, and a good set of editing tools for rendered files.
What’s not to like? You get all that for about a third of the price or less of many rivals.

Manage Mode

In Photo Studio Home and other ACDSee DAM software, Manage mode is where you make a lot of things happen. It’s an HQ for your photography. So, what can you do there?

Folders and catalog panes – finding pictures

The folder system of your OS is accessible through the left-hand Folders pane in Manage Mode. And that’s handy because you’re already familiar with it.
As long as your image folders are well named, it’s an easy task to find what you’re looking for. Alternatively, you can use the adjacent Catalog tab to filter photos by a wide variety of attributes.

The Folders pane in Manage mode. You only get to preview the images inside if they’re not in subfolders, but you can easily switch to Photos mode to see all content.

Manage Mode drop-downs

There are six drop-down menus exclusive to Manage mode: Import, Batch, Create, Slideshow, Send, and Editors. Importing files is easy. At this stage, you can rename files, add metadata, and divide file types into subfolders, among other things.

Building a contact sheet of flower photos via the Create drop-down in Manage Mode.

ACDSee links up seamlessly with other software too, which is what the “Editors” drop-down is for. Simply add any other programs you’re likely to use and you’ll be good to go. You can flick between them as you can with Lightroom and Photoshop or Photoshop and ACR.

Properties pane – organizing, categorizing

You can add metadata and keywords in Manage, View, or Edit mode of ACDSee. That’s what the Properties pane on the right is for.
As a stock photographer, keywords are a necessity for me. They help potential buyers find my pictures if I’m lucky. I add any words I think are relevant to the image.
At the very least, you should batch-add keywords to photos from the same shoot.

You can add geographical information to the IPTC data of your images by placing them on the Google map in Manage mode and hitting “Reverse Geocode.”

Import keywords

A welcome improvement in the 2020 version of ACDSee is the ability to import sets of keywords. It’s hugely time-consuming to create a keyword list from scratch, but now you can import lists from the Internet or elsewhere. You can also export lists so that you can move them from one piece of software to another.
Keyword lists help you to be thorough in your keywording instead of relying on random ideas. They also save you from repeatedly typing the same words.

Keywording in View mode using the foundation list linked in this article. You can adapt and grow your list as required.

You can import Foundation List version 2.0.1 into ACDSee. You’ll need to build on it, but it gives you a useful structure and a good head start.
Keywords are stored in the ACDSee database and can be applied to all file types. Note the “Embed ACDSee Metadata” tool does not write keywords to the IPTC keyword data field. I recommend copying and pasting keywords to this field if you want them to be visible elsewhere.

Here, I’ve pasted keywords from the Organize tab into the IPTC data field of the Metadata tab. This ensures visibility elsewhere. Of course, you could enter words directly into this field, but then you forfeit the rigor of using a hierarchical keyword list.

Photos Mode, View Mode

ACDSee automatically catalogs the images as you browse. You can catalog folders you haven’t browsed, too, which might be useful if you’re adding lots of pictures in one hit. This is possible in Manage mode or Photos mode.
Photos mode lets you rifle through folders of images according to their date. It even gives you a fair chance of finding pictures with no keywords or tags of any kind. This is a good way of seeing all the photos on your drive in a short space of time.

Flying through images by date in Photos mode. This was the day the “Tour de Normandie” cycle race began a stage in Vernon a few years back.

For browsing photos individually, View mode is the place to be. It’s incredibly fast, and it gives you a big preview of each photo. This is also a good place to grade, categorize, and keyword your photos.
I’ll give you a complete workflow to use below, so you can catalog photos like a pro!

Edit Mode

ACDSee Photo Studio Home 2020 offers a solid set of editing tools for photographers of all levels. Of course, there are things omitted at this price point that advanced photographers may miss. Here are three absentees, along with their workarounds:

• No layers or adjustment brush as such, but you can perform localized edits using gradient tools or a regular brush tool. These come with blending modes, so you get quite a lot of control over the result without the sophistication or confusion of layers.
• No raw editing. You can open most types of raw files without any say in their processing. Don’t forget you can link ACDSee to a raw processor if you need that extra control. That may also solve the problem of other missing features (e.g. perspective tool).
• No 16-bit support, so you have to save any files you edit in 8-bit color. If you bring 16-bit archival files into Photo Studio Home 2020 and want to preserve their color depth, you must use “save as” to create new 8-bit files with all your edits.

One niggle and some good points

On my PC, the Clone tool in this software and the version before it refuses to work. I get a black screen. That’s odd since I don’t see the same thing with ACDSee Ultimate.
There’s lots to like about the editing tools in Photo Studio Home 2020. You get all the control over color and tone you’re likely to need, including the basic version of ACDSee’s esteemed Light EQ™ tool. This lets you adjust shadow, mid-tone, and highlight areas of an image separately.
I like some of the little touches in ACDSee, such as the way right-clicking resets the default value of any tool. There are creative features here, too, like Color LUTs, Special Effects, and a fun Tilt-Shift tool.

The Tilt-Shift tool works well with high-angle views, but you can try it out on all sorts of photos to alter their “bokeh.”

Workflow suggestion

Although this is a sponsored post, I’m a regular user of ACDSee software. I use it to organize pictures and I edit a lot of TIFFs and JPEGs in it. Below is a Photo Studio Home 2020 workflow that takes you from importing photos to saving the finished articles.

Importing photos and naming folders

1. Import your photos. You can open the Import dialog box in Manage Mode or have it open automatically by selecting the software in Windows Autoplay.
2. Choose a destination for your photos in the Import dialog box. An example might be “Pictures” in Windows. Name a “single subfolder” using the following naming convention: yymmdd-location (e.g. 200531-Paris-France).
3. Locate your imported folder of photos via the Folders tab in Manage Mode. Using the above naming convention, the latest folders are at the bottom of the folder list by default.
4. Double-click the first thumbnail in your newly imported image folder. This will open the image in View Mode while allowing access to other images in the folder. You’re ready to start grading and cataloging your pictures.

Assessing and grading photos

5. Make sure the Properties pane is open alongside your photos.
6. Decide on rejects by tagging all keepers with the checkbox in the Organize pane (top left). At this point, tag all photos you will or might keep for whatever reason. Important: do not reject raw files on the basis of poor sharpness in View Mode, since you are probably looking at an enlarged view of the embedded JPEG. Check the technical quality of raw files later in Edit Mode.
7. Flick back to Manage Mode and click on View > Filter By > Untagged. Delete your rejects. Or, just filter them out by selecting “Tagged” if you don’t like deleting stuff.
8. Back in View Mode, you can now rate your images. Ratings go from one to five. Rather than rate photos on a whim, I suggest writing down the meaning of each rating at the outset so you have a reference point. For instance:

• 1 – poor photo with sentimental value.
• 2 – adequate record photo, average family snap.
• 3 – fairly strong photo with visual interest, worth showing to friends.
• 4 – approaching your best, worthy of inclusion in portfolios.
• 5 – your very best, potential competition winner.

Tracking workflow

9. In Edit Mode, use color labels to indicate where in the workflow images are. Again, I have suggestions:

• Red – to delete. Once you get raw files into Edit Mode, you can assess their technical quality better at 100%. You might yet want to delete some of them or downgrade their rating.
• Yellow – editing in progress. Still more work to be done on color and tone or retouching. Perhaps other possibilities to explore or versions to create.
• Green – editing over. Nothing more to be done with this picture. Ready to use.
• Blue – to print. You can return the status to green once it’s printed.
• Purple – uploaded to a specific photo website, stock library, etc. You can use the blue label for this as well if you don’t tend to print photos.
• No Color Label – nothing done since the initial assessments.

10. Photos that need work (those with yellow labels or no color labels using the above system) can be finished in Edit mode. Apply edits ranging from basic color and tone to special effects and LUTs. When you’re done editing, change the color label so you know you’ve worked on it or finished it.

Categories and keywords

11. Give your finished photos categories and keywords. If you’ve imported a set of keywords, you can go through the list top-to-bottom and apply any that suit the image. ACDSee comes with quick keyword lists built-in, which may be enough, depending on how thorough you want to be.
12. Copy and paste keywords from the Organize > Keywords field into Metadata > IPTC > Keywords. Write a caption in the Description field of IPTC. Hit “Enter” or none of this will save. This makes the data universally visible outside of ACDSee.

Naming files

I haven’t spoken of file naming above, since you might want to do that at the beginning or end.
Each photo needs a unique name. You can do it on import if you like. However, if you later delete photos, you might leave irritating gaps in your number sequence (file names invariably include numbers).
A way around this is to forget consecutive numbers and use date and time instead. This works as long as you don’t shoot multiple frames per second, which would create duplicates.

Photo libraries always had their own file-naming conventions. In the digital age, including subject names in the file name makes your photos SEO-friendly.

I always rename files after I’ve selected, converted, and edited them. That’s when I do most of my admin. Raw files keep their original names because I rarely revisit them.
I recommend using a sequential number and place, or subject names in your files (e.g. 0001-Eiffel-Tower-Paris). This can often be done quickly using ACDSee’s Batch Rename tool. The number should obviously be unique in every image.

Get started

Photo Studio Home 2020 is nothing if not versatile. Seasoned photographers who want extras like raw editing or layers can hook it up to other editors and still benefit from the superb DAM tools.
For beginners or photographers who only shoot JPEGs, this feature-laden software might be all they need. Why not get your photos sorted now?

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