DPM Newsletter - The Photo Muse Week 13 - March 29th, 2024
Published almost 2 years ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader,
Fun and random fact about Darlene
If you've watched any of our livestreams or attended any of my webinars, you may already know that we have two cats that we love to pieces.
But you may not know I was deathly allergic to them most of my life and had to avoid even being in the room with a cat. With the assistance of some alternative treatments (by my chiropractor no less), cats are no longer an issue for me.
Now they sleep with me, on me, and I regularly snuggle my face in their fur. I have truly become a cat person. But I love all animals and I have had all kinds of pets including 3 gerbils, 2 dogs, 5 birds (3 finches, 2 parakeets), an iguana, a corn snake (yes a snake), and 5 cats - NOT all at the same time!
Munchkin aka Munch, this is her "pet me now human" face
Me and Fuzz are cuddle buddies
Tips and Tricks
The last two images of me and the cats above were both taken with my cell phone camera. Are they perfect? No.
But do they capture the relationship I have with my cats? Yes. Do I love and treasure these images? YES!
So your tip for this week is to value the photos of things that mean the most to you, even if they aren't technically perfect. The best camera is the one that you have with you and often that's your phone. So don't be afraid to use it. Embrace imperfection!
Watch the video to see how I transformed this before image:
To this black and white version using Lightroom Classic.
And this final color image using Luminar Neo!
IMPORTANT NOTICE - Schedule Change!
Please note that the live for this Sunday has been rescheduled. I didn't realize this was Easter weekend so we wanted to take a break to be with family on Sunday, assuming you would be doing the same.
So the PETS theme has now been moved to April 21st, FLOWERS will be next week April 7th, and STREET on April 14th.
Please CLICK HERE to submit your flower photos now for next week.
Here is another tutorial you can watch. This is a clip from a previous livestream with tips on how to restore a faded color photo using Lightroom Classic and Luminar Neo.
Here are a couple of questions from new DPM email subscribers (welcome!) and my answers.
I was mostly a travel photographer. This is no longer possible for me so I am struggling to come up with creative ideas to photograph around my hometown.- David
Ah, that was the issue during Covid too, I feel your pain, David. Not to worry I have a few ideas for you to try out:
I'm still learning new software (Luminar Neo), and I haven't figured out how to change to black and white but colorize one item in that photo. ie b/w a photo of an apple tree, with a blue apple, or changing a pond from brown to blue-green water. - Skip
Great question Skip. This is something I didn't specifically cover in my Luminar Neo course, thanks for the idea though. Maybe I'll do a video on this for YouTube. I did mention how to do this at the end of this video as the bonus tip:
Make sure to watch all the way to the end. The short answer is - make a duplicate layer and then on that layer turn off the B&W conversion so that layer goes back to color. Then use the masking tools on that layer to hide or show the parts you want in color.
In the News
It was an interesting week of news in the photography world. If you missed it, Affinity Photo was bought by Canva. Affinity is an alternative to Adobe's Photoshop as a photo editor and basic design software.
If you don't currently have or use Affinity, this may not affect or interest you at all. But many photographers, myself included, are eagerly waiting to see how this plays out.
This puts Canva in a position to be a major competitor with Adobe's suite of creative tools. Affinity comprises alternatives to three of Adobe's main programs: Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Unlike Adobe's software, Affinity's products are currently available as one-off purchases rather than subscriptions, making them more appealing if you want to avoid the subscription.
However, whether or not Canva decides to pivot and move to a subscription-based model remains to be seen. Likewise, I'm keen to see how they will price it moving forward.
I ran a poll in our DPM Facebook group, and the overwhelming reaction seems indifferent. Where do you fall on this topic? Are you intrigued like me? Or is it a solid "MEH!" for you?
Feature of the Week
New product in our DPM store - the Adobe bundle with two courses!
Now you can get both our Lightroom for Photographers course and Photoshop 101-301 as a package and save 15%!
