HDR, or High Dynamic Range, photography originally started as an attempt to correct the limited dynamic range for standard camera sensors, compared to what the human eye can see or perceive. This is not a new concept, but in case you’ve never heard of it, allow me to explain. Back in the day,

When it comes to choosing your first piece of post-production software you may find yourself spinning in circles. There’s so much to choose from, and the whole idea of learning to do something new can be intimidating. This article will cover a number of the most well known software options ava

Boneyard Beach, Botany Bay Plantation, South Carolina. Edited in Macphun Intensify Creative Kit. My philosophy on photography has always been that photography starts with the push of the shutter button, but it does not end there. Back when film was king, I spend a lot of time in the darkroom, learni

Yes Aurora HDR was developed for creating HDR photographs. But did you ever think of using it for non-HDR tasks? You’re in luck because in the next few minutes I’m going to open your eyes to some new ideas. Specifically ideas for using Aurora HDR in your photography workflow without

An image edited using Macphun Luminar image editing software. At some point, after you pick up your first digital camera, the question of image editing arises. For years, the leader has been Adobe with their package that includes Lightroom and Photoshop. However, lately, other software companies hav

When it comes to noise reduction, you always have two goals. First, obviously, you want to get rid of any digital noise in your picture. But secondly, you want to preserve detail. These often work against each other because increasing noise reduction often leads to a loss of image detail, but if you

One of the interesting things about their Luminar image processing software is that Macphun has promoted it heavily as a potential Lightroom replacement, whereas in reality, it is a far more likely replacement for Photoshop. To understand why this is we need to think about the similarities in the wa

Lately, I’ve been playing around with Luminar by Macphun. I’ve found that this program reduces the number of my editing headaches. I’ll share a bit of my experience with it, and you can see if it can help solve some of your headaches or challenges as well. Processing is a chore I&r

HDR, or High Dynamic Range, photography is a technique that has been around for decades but really started making waves in the modern digital imaging scene around 2005. It involves combining multiple exposures of a picture, usually taken with a technique known as bracketing, to create one final sing

The simple contrast between light and shadow can have a powerful effect on a photographic image. In fact, quite often you may find that contrast is what inspires you to photograph a particular scene or subject in the first place. Sometimes, however, the contrast of a scene exceeds the ability of you

It’s not uncommon for me to sit down at my computer with a memory card full of images and stare blankly at my ever-growing Lightroom catalog while my mind reels at the thought of editing each and every one of them. Many photographers have experienced this phenomenon and there are certainly som

Aurora HDR 2018 is tremendously easy, fun software by Macphun, designed for processing HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. If you’ve been following popular contemporary photography for a while, you’ll know that dramatic HDR is no longer in style. It fell out of photography fashion as quickl

As a landscape photographer who relies heavily on HDR to pull off much of my work, I’m always keen to learn about better ways of doing what I do. Most of the time my art tends to run towards natural looking images in contrast to the wild and crazy stuff of HDR’s reputation. The HDR softw

Macphun’s Luminar is a versatile beast. While a lot is made of processing landscapes and cityscapes, you find it also happens to be a very capable portrait editor. Follow along with this walkthrough to see how I use Luminar to edit a portrait. Getting Started Open your photo in Luminar. As you

If you haven’t used it before, your first question might be what exactly is Luminar? Simply put, it’s photo editing software designed by Macphun (available now for Windows). It might differ a little bit from other photo editing software that you’ve used because it is a photo editor

Luminar is a powerful, full-featured photo editor, with a massive array of features and editing tools. A great deal of its workflow is built around the fairly simple concept of applying filters. It’s much like the way you might edit a photo in Instagram or other similar programs – but yo

I recently embarked on a project of creating black and white images for an upcoming exhibit at an art gallery. The images have been shot, now the only question that remains is how will I handle the post-processing. In years past I’ve relied heavily on Lightroom and also Nik Silver Efex (yep re

Layers of fun One advantage that Luminar has over the average Raw processor is the ability to work with Layers. “What is a layer?” I hear you ask. Well, your basic image is a single layer, like a sheet of paper on a table. Adding another layer is akin to adding another sheet of paper on

The holiday season is upon us, and suddenly everyone seems to be in a rush. We all have a million things to accomplish in just a few short weeks. At this time of year, I’m always scrambling to get my Christmas photos processed and ready for viewing. Feeling overwhelmed once again this year I d

One of the most powerful new filters in Luminar 2018 is the RAW Develop Filter. RAW files, straight out of the camera, appear flat and boring, but with capable RAW conversion software like Luminar 2018, you can transform the RAW data into a detailed and vibrant photograph. Luminar 2018’s RAW h