Become a Better Photo Editor with the New Lightroom Mobile ‘Discover’ Feature

 Tags: 

Cropping, Lightroom,50mm lens, Travel Photography, Posed Photography, Photographers, 

 

By: Simon Ringsmuth

Every time you see a photo that strikes you as beautiful, brilliant, or breathtaking, you are only witnessing the tip of the iceberg. In nearly every case, the photo is the end result of dozens, even hundreds, of edits made by the photographer. From simple cropping and white balance to in-depth editing like curves and color mix, these edits are what turn an ordinary image into a work of art.

Unfortunately, such edits on a photo have been impossible to see. But, thanks to the recent addition of a ‘Share Your Edit’ feature in Lightroom Mobile, you’re now able to view the behind-the-scenes edits made to images.

Nikon D750 | AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II | 200mm | 1/4000s | f/22 | ISO 100

One of the best ways to grow as a photographer is to learn from others. Find out what works for photographers you admire and respect, and then adopt those techniques into your own workflow. This is the foundation for almost any trade, craft, or artistic pursuit. Yet, for photographers, this knowledge is often locked away behind a door. People can see the end result, but not the process.

The Discover feature in Lightroom Mobile solves this by giving you access to a worldwide community of artists who have willingly shared their editing process. There are hundreds, even thousands, of photo communities online that let you view pictures and share your own. However, none of these—not Instagram, Flickr, SmugMug, or anything else—let you see the editing process. You can only see the final image, which isn’t much use if you want to know how the photographer edited their photo to actually create the picture.

This is Lightroom Mobile’s ace in the hole: Because the Discover feature is part of the same software used to edit the images being shared, it allows for a level of freedom unmatched by any other photosharing site. In minutes, you can be learning from experts and professionals all over the world to see how they have edited their pictures, and you can adopt their techniques into your own workflow.

Discovering the Share Your Edit feature

Accessing the Discover option requires nothing more than a few taps on your mobile device. Open the Lightroom Mobile app and then tap on the icon that looks like a globe. If you hold your device vertically the icon will appear at the bottom of your screen along with the Discover label.

Tap the globe icon at the top left to access the Discover feature.

What you see next might remind you of many other photosharing apps, but dig a little deeper and you’ll see so much more. Scroll up and down to see more photos, and tap the heart icon in the lower right corner of any picture to mark it as one that you like. In the lower left corner, you will see the profile photo of the photographer who shot the picture. At the top is a list of categories for you to explore: Featured, New, Abstract, Landscape, Nature, and more.

So far so good, right? If the point of the Lightroom Mobile Discover feature is to help you find photos (or photographers) that you like, then there’s not much to distinguish this from any other photosharing app. The real fun begins when you tap on a photo to see the edit history.

Learning from the edits

When you tap on a picture it’s almost like stepping through a time machine or, more accurately, into a classroom.

Nearly every photo in the Discover feature lets you look at the edits that were made to it.

Lightroom Mobile now shows you the picture you tapped on, along with a blue bar at the bottom of your screen that fills from left to right. As the bar moves, the picture changes right before your very eyes, almost as though you’re watching it being edited in realtime. And, in a way, that’s exactly what’s happening.

Tap the Edits button at the bottom of the screen or just press and scroll upwards on the photo to load the entire editing history of the image. This is where the Lightroom Mobile Discover feature rockets into the stratosphere and becomes an amazing tool for photographers who want to learn from others, not just be inspired by their photos.

Scroll up and down through the list of edits to see them applied in real-time.

After tapping the Edits button you are presented with a scrolling list of every single edit that the photographer applied to the photo. Scroll to the top to see the initial import, and then slowly scroll down to watch the image change before your very eyes as each individual edit was applied. Lightroom Mobile shows you each particular edit along with the specific number for each individual adjustment.

This linear edit history lets you look over the shoulder of the photographer, watching every edit they made and seeing how each decision changed the image. The Discover feature lets you stand in a room with thousands of photographers, learning from each of them as you see how they arrived at their final images.

Looking through the edits to a photo is like being in the same room as the photographer while the image is being refined.

One limitation you will quickly realize is that this feature only shows you the edits. You are not allowed to change any of the editing values and, as a result, alter the image in any way. However, you can save the edits as a preset so you can use them in your own photography.

Click the three-dot icon in the top right corner and then tap Save as Preset to download the edits to your own Lightroom app. You can then apply these edits to any of your photos and adjust any of the parameters that you want.

Most edits can be shared as presets, unless the photographer sharing the edits has specifically forbidden it.

The Lightroom Mobile Discover feature has a few more tricks up its sleeve to help you get inside the mind of photographers who have shared their images. Tap the Info button to see additional details that the photographer has shared about the image. This often includes a title, written description, keywords related to the subject, EXIF data, and camera information. All this is extraordinarily useful for anyone who wants to learn more about a particular photo beyond just how it was edited.

Share your own

After diving into the Discover feature and learning more about how other photos were edited, you might be inclined to share your own images and edits. You can do this easily from Lightroom Mobile with just a few taps.

To get started with sharing your images to the Discover community, just open Lightroom Mobile and tap on any of the images in your library. Then tap the Share icon in the top right corner.

Tap the Share button on any of your images to upload the picture (and your editing history) to the Discover feature.

Then click the Share Edit option.

Note that as of this writing (July 2020) this process is still in Beta. Adobe will no doubt improve and refine it over time, and the exact steps might change.

Share Edit is still in beta as of July 2020, but it works very well.

The next screen prompts you to enter some information about the photo. This is similar to Instagram and other photosharing sites, but keep in mind that the point here is to help other photographers learn more about the photo. You aren’t competing for likes or upvotes; you’re sharing valuable information along with your edits to help a larger community of photographers learn more about their craft.

The more you write in your title and description, the more helpful other photographers will find your image.

It helps to be as descriptive as possible in your title, description, and category sections. That way, you are not only helping other people learn more about your photo; you’re helping them to discover it, as well, by using categories that are similar to hashtags on other photosharing sites.

Finally, choose whether you want your edits to be saved as presets. I always recommend enabling this option because of the sharing mentality that makes the Lightroom Mobile Discover feature so valuable. If you have benefitted from viewing edits that other photographers have made, it’s nice to respond in kind by sharing your own edits, as well.

I don’t recommend including location information, which is turned off by default.

I recommend enabling the Save as Preset option to let others save your editing process to use on their own images.

After you have all the basic information about your photo ready to go, tap the checkmark icon in the top right corner. This uploads your image, editing information, title, description, and categories to the Discover feature.

I get a kick out of heading to the Discover feature right away to see my images show up in the stream of new photos.

Tap the OK button and then head over to the Discover feature to see your image in the New section. Soon other photographers will start viewing it and learning from your edits! To see all the images you have shared with the Discover community, along with the number of likes each photo has gotten, tap your profile icon.

Keep in mind that the point of Discover is not to get likes but to learn and help others do the same. Thus, the number of likes on each of your images is almost entirely irrelevant and I recommend not paying attention to it all.

The Lightroom Mobile Discover feature is still in its infancy, and I’m excited to see where Adobe takes it in the coming years. Even though it’s still a bit rough around the edges in a few places, it’s an incredibly useful tool for learning more about the editing process. I hope you give it a chance and, if you learn anything from it, I’d love to have your thoughts in the comments below!

 

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Loving Landscapes Ebook

Loving Landscapes Ebook

Landscape photography workflow and post-processing

Loving Landscapes

• Instant Digital Download
• Lifetime Access
• Pay by PayPal or Credit Card

Download it now! $19 USD

What do we cover in this eBook?

Loving Landscapes is a digital landscape photography workflow and post-processing guidebook. It is crammed full of highly detailed information that will clarify
and streamline your image capture and transform your post-processing skills.

• How to get it right from the start, producing technically excellent image files in your camera
• From importing RAW files to exporting finished images. How to manage and post-process all your image files within the one software program, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
• How to optimize your computer for landscape post-processing
• How to create the right the RAW format workflow
• Master the Lightroom Library module
• Organising your images in Lightroom
• Single exposure post-processing workflow techniques and tools
• Multiple exposure post-processing workflow techniques and tools
• How to use Adobe Photoshop like a pro for landscape photos

… and much more!  (see the table of contents for full details)

Stop taking scenery snaps and start creating breathtaking works of landscape photography art that people will fall in love with.

If you’ve ever been frustrated that the landscape photos from your camera don’t portray the magical scenes you witnessed, then this is eBook will open up a new world of creative possibilities …

• Transform your dull RAW files into breathtaking images.
• Discover and learn how to use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom’s landscape-friendly tools for maximum impact.
• Get ten free handpicked Lightroom presets to use again and again.
• Learn fun landscape techniques that will extend your creative horizon.
• Create eye-catching Landscape photos with exposure blending techniques.

Loving Landscapes will demystify the landscape photography workflow by sharing almost every technique, trick and hack that authors Todd and Sarah have accumulated over the past 20 years of photographing nature together.

Make the most of your next outdoor photography adventure with Loving Landscapes.

Grab Your Copy Here Today

https://resources.digital-photography-school.com/ref/937/

What you’ll discover in this huge 200+ page eBook

Loving Landscapes is a digital landscape photography workflow and post-processing guidebook. It is crammed full of highly detailed information that will simplify and streamline your image capture and transform your post-processing skills.

• You’ll learn from over 20 years experience in Landscape Photography.
• You’ll follow a refreshing, inspiring and easy-to-understand style of teaching.
• You’ll discover a beautiful design, with loads of visuals and pictures.
• You’ll have supporting RAW images and ten Lightroom presets to use along with the book.

Preview Book

Here’s a peek at the Table Of Contents

Table of contents

• A word from dPS 4
• About the Authors 4
• - -
• Introduction 6
• What's covered in Loving Landscapes 7
• What's not covered in Loving Landscapes 9
• A disclaimer or two 9
• Required course materials 9
• - -
• What do you want from your photography? 10
• - -
• Chapter one: image capture 11
• Image sharpness 12
• Achieving correct exposure 16
• Achieving correct color in-camera 23
• Minimize noise to maximize image quality 23
• Achieving maximum resolution 26
• Capture in RAW 26
• - -
• Chapter two: computers and backups 27
• In the field: backup 29
• In the studio: backups 30
• - -
• Chapter three: RAW workflow for landscape photography 31
• Introducing RAW format 33
• RAW vs JPEG 33
• Keep it RAW 34
• RAW post-processing 34
• - -
• Chapter four: file management in Lightroom 35
• The Lightroom Library module 37
• Lightroom catalogs 38
• Importing to Lightroom from existing folders 39
• Importing to Lightroom from a card 43
• - -
• Chapter five: organizing your images in Lightroom 46
• How organized is organized enough 47
• Metadata - Santa's little helper 48
• Image Collections 49
• Smart Collections 50
• Culling Images 53
• Rating and ranking images 53
• Using ratings and metadata- library filters 55
• - -
• Chapter six: outputting images from Lightroom 57
• Lightroom Publish Services 59
• Exporting from Lightroom 60
• Output sharpening 62
• Sharpening for screen use 62
• Sharpening for print 63
• The Lightroom to Photoshop workflow 64
• Let's get out of this Library 64
• - -
• Chapter seven: single-exposure post-processing 65
• The Lightroom Develop Module 67

• Develop Module: what's in a name? 67
• Getting into Develop mode 68
• Enhacing landscape images - four key values 68
• Exposure adjustments 69
• Lightroom exposure controls 70
• Color adjustments 70
• Lightroom color control 70
• Lightroom contrast controls 73
• Image quality 74
• Lightroom's image quality tools 74
• - -
• Chapter eight: single-exposure post-processing walkthrough 76
• The Graduated Filter tool 85
• The Adjustment Brush tool 87
• -.-
• Chapter nine: other Lightroom tools and features 95
• Controlling noise 97
• Lens Correction 98
• The HSL / Color / B&W panel 99
• Painting with color 104
• The Split Toning panel 108
• Lightroom Presets 111

 

The Only Three Lenses You Need for Travel Photography

 

 Tags: 

50mm lens, Travel Photography, Posed Photography, Photographers, 

 

 

By: Phillip Van Nostrand 

The only three lenses you need for travel photography anywhere in the world are a fisheye lens, a 50mm, and a 135mm (or similar telephoto).

You can agree and finish this article right here, or you can read on to see exactly why I would choose only these three lenses to take with me anywhere in the world.

Night shot from atop a bridge in Moscow, using the Canon fisheye 15mm f/2.8

Before I say anything else, the fisheye I have in mind has an aperture of f/2.8, the 50mm has an aperture of f/1.4, and the 135 has an aperture of f/2.0. Popular, cheaper variations on these lenses would be the 24mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.8, and the 100mm f/2.8 Macro. I’d also like to address what I imagine a popular response to this article might be: “What about the 24-105mm?” This lens is weak for a couple of reasons. The maximum aperture on this lens is f/4, which ends up being very limiting if you are trying to travel light (and going without an off camera flash).  Also, prime lenses are always superior in quality to zoom lenses. There are less moving parts and the image quality is cleaner. If you think having just one lens to cover a greater range is easier, just remember what you gain in convenience (by having one lens) you lose in quality, weight, and ability to “see” in the dark.

Each of these lenses are used for very specific reasons. Just as we wear different shoes for different purposes throughout our week, such as; sneakers for exercise, dress shoes for work, and slippers around the house – we use different lenses to convey different feelings, emotions, and to use as different tools to capture our experiences. Some lenses really are better than others for certain things. For example, portraits are best taken with lenses between 85mm and 135mm. The distortion to the face/ears is minimized and the truest proportions are found in this range.

On the other hand, you wouldn’t normally reach for a lens like this when shooting a landscape scene (there are always exceptions to every rule, and it’s fun to see what happens when you break the general guidelines). Great lenses for landscapes tend to be a bit wider, somewhere between 15mm and 50mm. I recently took only these three lenses with me on the Trans Siberian Railway from Russia through Mongolia into China. Here are MY reasons for bringing the 15mm Fisheye, 50mm f/1.4, and the Canon 135mm f/2.0 with me on this trip of a lifetime.

The Canon Fisheye 15mm f/2.8

From Moscow, Russia

The Canon 15mm lens is my antidote to boring building pictures. When traveling abroad (or around your own town/city/village), interesting buildings are inevitably photographed. Oh, that old bridge with locks attached to it? Better take a picture. Oh, look at that old cathedral in the Kremlin, better take a picture. If it’s there, it must be important. Well, you can add your photo to 1.5 million other photographs right there on Flickr or Google images that look exactly like the one you just took.

What will you do to differentiate yourself? How can you take a picture that will make someone pause for more than half a second?  Ad companies are excited when someone spends 4-8 seconds looking at a photo. Can you get someone to look at one photo for that long? What would it take? For me, I decided I would never take boring, straight photos of buildings ever again. I’d either edit them in unusual ways (like creating an HDR image, or process it in very contrasted black and white), at unusual times of day, or I would attempt to photograph it differently than every other tourist before me.

The subways in Moscow, Russia

Selfies are easy with the fisheye lens. That bag on my shoulder could hold my camera, three lenses, my laptop, batteries, some magazines and a book.

Shooting with a fisheye lens can be really fun, actually. Hold your camera up to your eye with a fisheye lens on, move the camera upwards and watch the horizon bend down sharply at the sides, creating a “globe” feel to your image. Tilt the camera down and watch the earth curve up like a big “U”. Buildings become warped and distorted in unusual ways, like a piece of Gaudi’s architecture. Stand in the middle of the street and point the camera straight upwards and watch the buildings on the side loom over you, like in a Dr. Seuss book.

My bunkmates on the Trans Siberian Railway

Fisheye lenses can capture an entire room, cabin of a train, or a bathroom easily. They make selfies on your DSLR incredibly easy. You can take incredible photos of the stars at night. And best of all, they are great for doing the Camera Toss. (I suppose I should recommend NOT trying this ever, anywhere). Fisheye lenses add an element of fun and whimsy to travel photos, which I find otherwise a bit boring and predictable. It’s also an incredibly light and compact lens to travel with, which is why I always bring it along on my trips now.

My camera toss, where I throw my camera with a fisheye lens high up into the air to capture a scene like this

The 50mm f/1.4

The 50mm lens is a standard, go-to, all-around lens. And while the Fisheye lens brings a lot of whimsy and fun to my travel pictures, some scenes just don’t call for that. I’ve heard it said that the 50mm is the closest representation to what we see naturally with our eyes. This lens is my best choice of the three options for Canon 50mm lenses. For only about $300, this lens has fantastic optics and a powerful aperture. It’s made of real glass lenses unlike the cheaper, lower quality 50mm f/1.8. And it focuses fast, unlike the much more expensive 50mm f/1.2, which happens to be twice as heavy.

A garden scene in Moscow, Russia taken with the 50mm f/1.4. Such lovely bokeh!

This is a great, inconspicuous lens on a camera body because it doesn’t stick out too much like a 70-200mm would, and the quality is just superb, as I’ve already said. It is extremely lightweight, and you could honestly walk around the entire day with just this lens. What I associate most with the 50mm f/1.4 lens is street photography. I love to take that lens and get lost down side streets and alleyways. I like to take photos of strangers on the street with this lens. The focal length is just right, so it feels as though the viewer is standing there by him or herself. It captures just enough of a scene to convey what is there.

A retired math teacher from Texas on the Trans Siberian Railway

The 50mm f/1.4 is also a great lens for portraits (though I prefer the 135mm f/2.0). It produces lovely bokeh. It forces you to get up close to your subject, making the portrait more intimate. You can’t hide behind a telephoto like the 135mm or a 70-200mm. You are an arm’s distance away, and being that close sometimes shows up on the subject’s face in interesting ways.

My Mongolian host preparing milk tea in the yurt.

The last thing that I think the 50mm f/1.4 does best, is capture images in low light situations. Trying to capture dinner in a restaurant at night using candlelight only? Totally possible. That light reflecting across the river at night? 50mm does it best! Sleeping in yurts for four nights in a row? Getting that delicious yurt light from the top of the tent is easy with the 50mm.

Taken in the back alleys of Beijing, China with my 50mm lens, my favorite street photography lens.

Fun fact: of my top 200 images from the trip, 112 of them were taken with the 50mm.

The 135mm f/2.0

The granddaddy of all these lenses, the 135mm f/2.0 has a special POW feel to it. Because it is a telephoto, it pulls the background in for a nice compact feel to the images. It is a great portrait lens as it completely obliterates the background in a sea of dreamy bokeh. And one special fact about the Canon 135mm f/2.0: it has the ability to focus at a distance of 1 meter (3 feet), which makes it almost like a macro lens.

My host on the left, after we road horseback from one village to the next, in Mongolia. Taken with the 135mm f/2.0

This lens is fun for me because it has similar properties to the 70-200mm, but it weighs nearly half as much, which will save your back and shoulders after a long day of walking around. This is a fun lens to spy on people from afar, if you are afraid of the straight-on street style encounters you get with the 50mm. This is actually a really interesting lens to do landscapes with if you have enough room. Look at this side-by-side comparison of basically the two same scenes, and look what the 135mm does to the mountains and landscape in the background. It really pulls them towards you, the viewer and truly implies the scope of the scene.

The same view from the fisheye and the 135mm. Notice the mountain with the bright spot in the background of the fisheye; it’s almost non-existent. With the telephoto the mountain becomes a major player in the photo.

Taken on my way to the oldest and deepest freshwater lake in the world. Lake Baikal, in Siberia, Russia.

In the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia. This is one instance where I enjoy breaking the rules and using a telephoto lens to capture an idea of a building, rather than the whole thing with a 50mm or Fisheye lens.

I hope these images and words have inspired you. It’s really fun to limit yourself to prime lenses and feel how they work (and don’t work) in various situations. Being that close to just a few lenses over a month of travel really allows you to get to know the equipment well. So now let’s see some travel photos you’ve taken with prime lenses!

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Writer’s Favorite Lens – the 50mm f/1.4 Lens

 Tags: 

50mm, 50mm lens, Posed Photography, Photographers,

 

 

 

By: Melinda Smith 

1/400, f/4.0, ISO 320

It’s easy to love the 50mm f/1.4 lens. It’s a jack-of-all-trades. It’s that best friend that never lets you down. It’s the cowboy of all the lenses; it can pretty much do anything you ask it to do. If I was forced to only keep one lens, I’d have to choose this one. I’d even go as far as to say that most of you probably have this lens, and if you don’t, you should.

Sometimes the 50mm f/1.4 doesn’t get appreciated as much as it deserves to be. It’s unassuming. It doesn’t look intimidating and professional on your camera. It doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg or your first-born child. It’s definitely not showy, and not really a lens that you’re going to brag about to your photographer friends. But man, when you need a lens that’s got your back, this is the one.

Before I go on, I want to clarify that I’m talking about my Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens on a full frame body. If your camera is a cropped sensor, the 35mm f/1.4 lens will have similar results. You can also get the 50mm 1.8 lens for less money, but if you can spend a few extra dollars, get the sturdier, faster, 50mm f/1.4 (or even the 50mm f/1.2 if you’re a Canon user).

1/400, f/3.5, ISO 400

Convenient and Lightweight

The 50mm f/1.4 is great to take just about anywhere when you want to capture life around you. If you don’t want to lug around a bunch of heavy equipment, throw this lightweight gem on your camera, and go. Sure, there will be some shots that won’t be perfect with the 50mm, but you’re going to be able to get most of what you want. If you’re a smaller person like I am (5’3″ if I’m on my tiptoes), a little less weight can make a big difference if you’ve got a lot of walking around to do. I’ll admit that my arm gets really tired with the bigger lenses sometimes.

The freedom of smaller and lighter weight will allow you to move around more, without the restriction of maneuvering a big long lens, or pulling out a tripod. You can get it in and out of your camera bag easily, and keep it close to you, which will lessen the chance of gear getting stolen or broken.

You’ll be able to get up close if you need to, if you’re in a public place, or you can pull back a bit and get the whole scene. Your 50mm sees about the same as how things look to your eye in real life. So if you see something you want to capture, you just put the camera up, and there it is, pretty much how you just saw it. You don’t have to worry about everything being closer or farther away than you expect.

Ready for Anything

1/500, f/2.8, ISO 400

If your 50mm is on your camera most of the time, you’re ready to capture the unexpected. You won’t be stuck with a lens that absolutely won’t work for the situation. There are few situations that the 50mm can’t at least do a decent job. Sometimes you don’t have time to change to a different lens, because deer don’t come knocking at your front door very often, and they don’t stay for tea and cookies!

I’m not saying that you can’t ever use another lens, but the 50mm is a great lens to have on-the-ready.

Great at Capturing Details

1/1250, f/1.8, ISO 400 // 1/640, f/2.5, ISO 400

The 50mm lens is great to capture those details around you. Your feet make great zoomers, and you can easily move back to get more of the scene or closer to get those details in the shot. It feels like an extension of your eyes and brain, so taking photos becomes second nature.

Expert at Depth of Field and Bokeh

1/125, f/2.2, ISO 800

The 50mm f/1.4 offers awesome depth-of-field options. You can have just one small part in focus with the rest of the photo dropping away into creamy bokeh. You can also open that aperture all the way up to f/1.4 when you don’t have much light to work with. Those extra couple of f-stops can make a huge difference when every bit of light counts. If you’ve never owned a faster lens like this one (for example, if you’ve only been using the kit lens that comes with your camera), this will open up a whole new world to you!

Perfect for Portraits

1/1250, f/1.8, ISO 400

The 50mm can be a great portrait lens. Yes, there are lenses that might be better for portraits, but sometimes I really love the portraits I can make with my 50mm. You don’t have to get so close to your subject that you’re breathing on their face, but you don’t have to get so far away that you’re shouting instructions to them.

I find that sometimes the 50mm allows me to have the best connection to my subjects. I can touch their arm to move them into a better position, and talk to them and connect. Then I step back slightly and capture exactly what I just worked on, before I lose the connection and natural look we just achieved. Also, sometimes those big lenses can feel intimidating to your subject; the 50mm doesn’t look quite so scary.

Best All-Around Lens

1/320, f/2.0, ISO 800

You can also use your 50mm for other things besides people, of course (sometimes I do forget about that, because I’m kind of attached to photographing human beings). You can use the 50mm for still-life photos, scenery, and even some wildlife (especially if a deer comes right up to your house). There aren’t many things that the 50mm is useless for. It’s a great lens to have when you don’t know for sure what kind of photography you want to do, and you want to experiment for a little while.

Essential for Indoor Shooting

1/100, f/3.2, ISO 800

The 50mm is almost essential if you want to shoot indoors. If you want to read more ideas on using this lens indoors with natural light, go check out Tips For Great Indoor Portraits Using Natural Light. I love that I can maneuver in almost any space, even small homes, and still get everything I want in the photo. It’s also great if you don’t have tons of natural light available indoors, and you don’t want to use additional lighting and flash equipment.

1/250, f/4.0, ISO 400

The 50mm f/1.4 is so versatile that you can capture a family with their beautiful surroundings, or you can capture the most intimate close-up detail. It’s so easy to carry around that you won’t dread taking it along with you on your adventures. It’s so intuitive that you will feel like your heart is making photos, and your brain doesn’t have to work as hard. It’s so inexpensive that most photographers can add it to their collection.

Are you in love with your 50mm lens? Share in the comments why or why not. I’d love to hear what you think.

More Favorite Lenses from our Writers

• How a Humble 85mm lens became my favourite
• Going Wide With the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
• Tamron 18-270mm Lens
• Canon 40mm Pancake Lens

 

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Introduction and Creative Uses for the Snapseed Double Exposure Feature

By: Ana Mireles

 Tags: 

Snapseed, Double Exposure, Photo, Adobe Lightroom, Hue, Posed Photography, Photographers, 

Do you have a different app for doing collages, and compositing, and another for changing backgrounds? Then this article is for you. I’ll show you how to use the Snapseed double exposure feature so you can do all of this inside one free app. Let’s get started.

Double Exposure

The double-exposure technique comes from film photography. It’s created by shooting multiple times in the same frame. This can create compositions, collages, or superimposed ghosts on a scene and used for many things. Fortunately, it carried over into digital photography.

There are different ways to achieve double exposures. You can do it in-camera, by editing on your computer or using your smartphone. This last one is what I want to show you.

Snapseed editing app

There are tons of editing apps to choose from. I particularly like Snapseed because you can do most of your post-production in it, it’s free and available for iOS and Android.

In general, Snapseed is very intuitive, but if you want to have more control over your editing, it’s not always clear how to access the tools for fine-tuning. This is the case of the Snapseed double exposure feature.

Basic Double Exposure

For the basic use of the Snapseed double exposure feature, I’m going to show you how to add a bokeh background to your subject.

When you launch the app, you’ll be immediately prompted to open your image by clicking anywhere on the screen. This will open the browser for you to access your gallery. Choose the one with your subject and tap on it.

Next, open the Tools menu by tapping the pencil icon. Scroll down until you find the Double Exposure tool and tap on it.

Here you’ll find three tools. Choose the one with the plus sign (+) on it. This is the ‘add image’ button. It will give you access to your gallery again to add the photo you want to overlap. In this case, the bokeh image.

Blending modes

Now that both images are superimposed, you can modify the effect.

Start by tapping the middle icon – it represents the different layers. Here you can adjust the way they interact with each other. If you are familiar with Photoshop Blend Modes, it will be fairly easy. If not, just tap on each choice to see how they change the results.

When you’re happy, tap on the check icon to apply.

Opacity

Now, go to the third tool, the one that looks like a drop. With this one, you can open a slider that controls the transparency of the layer. Move it until you like the final result.

If it’s still not perfect, you can always mask away specific parts of your layer. I’ll show you how to do this in the next section by doing a simple composite.

Advanced editing

Pretty good right? But not exactly a lot of control. That’s why the Snapseed double exposure feature offers the possibility to mask. However, these tools aren’t so easy to find as a first time user.

First, make your composite with the basic tools as explained in the previous section. Once you’ve decided on the blending mode and transparency, accept the edits by tapping on the check sign.

Next, tap on the back button that you can find on the top right. Usually, you wouldn’t do that unless you were unhappy with your results, and this is why these advanced tools are not apparent at first glance. This will open a menu that gives you the choice to Undo, Revert, and View edits. This last one is where you want to go.

This will open a list with every edit you’ve done.

In this case, there’s only the double exposure, but if you also adjusted perspective, exposure, etc, it would show up here to access again for further edits.

Click on the Double Exposure step to open its menu. The sliders icon on the right takes you back to basic tools if you want to make any changes. The icon in the middle takes you to the advanced edits.

Masking

Here, you can mask your images to reveal or hide different parts of it. Use your finger as a brush and just paint away. With the eye icon, you can make the mask visible.

Use the arrows to increase or decrease the opacity. If you made a mistake and painted over the wrong part, tap the arrow down to 0 and paint again to make visible again the underlying layer.

If you need to be precise, you can zoom in and out using two fingers. When you’re happy just tap on the check button and save your image.

The Snapseed double exposure feature gives you control over the effect you’re applying while still being easy to use without previous training.

And, by the way, it’s not just double but multiple exposures. You can add as many layers as you want. Just repeat the process to add more images.

Get creative and show us your results in the comments section!  Share this article.

 

 

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