Do You Want To Master the Light and Make Better Photos?

Hello Reader,

The meaning of the word photography is literally drawing (graphy) with light (photo). You cannot even do photography without light - it's that crucial.

So, if you want to master photography and photo editing, you need to learn how to master and work with light.

Photography tips

First, some relevant photography tips.

• Shadows are your friend. Do not try to make your images devoid of shadows; that only makes them flat and lifeless. Read this for more on using shadows.
• Photograph at the optimal time of day. Both landscape and portrait photographers head out either in the early hours of the morning, just after sunrise (dawn), or right before sunset (dusk). That's no coincidence. Read more about why time of day matters here.

• Control the control in the scene by bracketing and using HDR techniques. We talked about that earlier this week. Read this article for more on HDR.
• Learn about the quality of light; what it is and when to use hard versus soft lighting to create the kind of images you want. Read more about it here.

Photo editing tips

Coincidentally, Skylum announced that the new Light Depth tool is coming soon for Luminar Neo. I've had a chance to test it with a beta copy and I have to say - it's brilliant. I love it and it's not even done yet.

I made a video overview of this new tool so you can see why I'm excited about it.

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Check out what it can do and see if you're as impressed as I am. The only downside is that you have to wait a little while to get it. They've said it's coming sometime in November, but I'm not sure when exactly.

Be patient, though; it'll be worth the wait.

YouTube live this Sunday

Continuing on the theme of controlling light, our next livestream on YouTube is coming up on Sunday at 6 pm EST.

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In this livestream, you’ll learn which tools to use in Luminar Neo and Lightroom to bring out the subject and minimize distractions in the foreground and background with the use of light and shadow.

Hope to see you there. If you can't make it live, the recording will be available immediately after the broadcast using the same link.

Cheers, and Happy Halloween!