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Tag Archives: Photoshop

How To Achieve A Beautiful Matte Effect In Just Two Easy Steps

4 / 4 / 18

How To Achieve A Beautiful Matte Effect In Just Two Easy Steps

If you’ve wondered how to create a matte effect in Lightroom or Photoshop, this tutorial is for you. Today, I´ll show you how to achieve a beautiful Matte Effect in just two easy steps.

The matte effect is a fun and stylish way to transform your photos. Especially if you want your photo to have a more moody, dreamy and artistic look.

The secret to creating the matte effect is using the CURVE TOOL. Whether you use Lightroom or Photoshop you can find the curve tool inside the editing software.

The curve tool is one of the most powerful editing tools available. You can create so many styles with just this one tool but today we will focus on creating the matte effect.

So let´s get started.

How To Achieve A Beautiful Matte Effect In Just Two Easy Steps

Before you start playing wit the matte effect, I recommend that you do some basic editing to your photo and then let the matte effect be your final step in the editing process.

Adjust exposure, saturation, contrast, vibrance, clarity, and the white balance. When you are happy with your image proceed with the curve tool to add the matte effect.

To get started with the matte effect open up the curve box and follow the instructions shown in the images below.

How To Create The Matte Effect In Photoshop

How To Create The Matte Effect In Lightroom

You might find that the matte effect works better for some photos and not so well for others. The only way to find out is to experiment and be playful.

And remember; when you work with the curve tool “a little goes a long way”. You only have to do a small pull on the curve to get a huge effect.

Need more help creating beautiful photos? I got a fabulous Free 5-day photography courseready for you. Don´t miss out. Join while it´s still available. Get started here >>

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Five Tips for Taking Photos in Low Light

2 / 8 / 172 / 13 / 17

Five Tips for Taking Photos in Low Light

The days with pretty sunlight are soon gone! If you live in a Country where it gets dark during fall and winter I have good news for you. You can still create beautiful photos!

In my upcoming photography course I teach all about shooting with natural light. I never EVER use a flash. Not even in the darkest time during winter – and that´s a challenge because it can get pretty dark in Denmark.

I used to panic when winter came. Afraid I would not be able to do my work. I tested shooting with flash, rented a professional photo studio – but it´s was not for me – not my style.

Free Resources for Creatives. Join Christina´s FREE membership club Creative Women Entrepreneurs and get access to workbooks, mini-trainings, worksheets and checklists – carefully designed to help you THRIVE in BIZ + LIFE. Join TODAY – it´s 100% FREE!

I adore natural light and with time I learned that it´s possible to capture beautiful photos even in low light conditions.

As winter is slowly arriving, I share my best tips to shooting in low light.

Five Tips for Taking Photos in Low Light 

1. Shoot in RAW

The photos on this page was all shot during times with little daylight available. In most photos I will emphase the darker mood in the photo, but sometimes I also make it as bright as I can for a more clean and fresh look – it´s possible as long as you shoot in RAW. When you work on a RAW file in Lightroom or Photoshop ACR you can really brighten the photo a whole lot without loosing quality. I´ts magic. It´s a lifesaver! Use the exposure slider, the shadow slider and the white slider to lift the shadows and brighten the photos.

2. Raise ISO

I remember when I was a beginner in photography I was told that I should always keep ISO on 100 for best image quality. That´s true, but also a very limiting rule to follow. One of my tips is to play as much with ISO as you can. Take some test shots and notice how high you can take ISO with your camera without seeing to much noise in the photo.

This knowledge will help you tremendously when you shoot in low light. During the darkest winter hours I often have my ISO set to around 800 or 1200 ISO. It´s very different from camera to camera how well it performs with hight ISO settings, so it´s important to test it. Play with it. Don´t be afraid – ISO can be your new best friend.

3. NO FLASH – Use window light

Never turn on artificial light in the room when taking photos, it will add yellow tones to your image. Also avoid any type of flash – especially on-camera flash. Simply use window light. Make sure to place yourself as close to a window as possible. The bigger the window the better, but a small window can do the job as well. Your photos might look dark when you look at the back of your camera, but don´t stress, you will do the last work in post production.

4. Use a tripod

If you use a tripod for stability you can allow the camera to let in even more light, without the risk of getting unsharp photo. When the camera is stable and out of your hands you can lower shutter speed + aperture . This will give you brighter photos and a tack sharp photo. Remember to use a remote so you don´t touch the camera with your hands.

bff

5. Edit in RAW

This is by far the most important tip! As long as you shoot in RAW, you can do wonders in editing. No matter if you use Lightroom or Photoshop ACR you can get amazing results. When I shoot in low light I allow my photos to look darker on the back of my camera than I normally would accept.

Free Resources for Creatives. Join Christina´s FREE membership club Creative Women Entrepreneurs and get access to workbooks, mini-trainings, worksheets and checklists – carefully designed to help you THRIVE in BIZ + LIFE. Join TODAY – it´s 100% FREE!

When I look at the back of my camera I can see what´s going on in the image but I can´t see any details because the image is to dark. Then when when I get the photo into my editing program I immediately raise Exposure to take a closer look at the image quality. From there I do my normal editing.

In my photography workshop I include ALL my SECRETS on how to edit your photos like a pro. My tricks are EASY to learn and everybody can do it!

You might also like:

How To Make Homemade Backgrounds For Food & Still Life

Much Love,

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Free Photoshop Actions For Food Photography

12 / 6 / 157 / 11 / 16

Free Photoshop Actions For Food Photography

I was recently lucky to discover some FREE high quality photoshop actions made by Filtergrade in  collaboration with Broma Bakery – designed with food bloggers and photographers in mind. I decided to test them to see how they would work with my own food photos.

I must say I was honestly pleased with the result. All four actions are well designed, giving just that nice boost for your photos – not too much – not too little. Theses actions pretty much covered my workflow – only thing extra I had to work with was color correction and white balance.

You can see my examples below. The actions work great for bright photos as well as the more moody and dark style.

free photoshop actions for food photography

free photoshop actions for food photography

Free Photoshop Actions For Food Photography

Visit Filtergrade here to download a set of Free Photoshop Actions

Much Love,

Christina

PS. This recommendation is not a paid post. I only recommend stuff I love and believe that my readers can benefit from. Please also notice that this product review is ONLY for the free action set mentioned in this post. I´ve not yet tried Filtergrades paid presets or actions.

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Hi, I´m Christina, Lifestyle Photographer, Prop & Interior Stylist, Soul Empowerment Coach & Business Mentor. I help heart-centered creative Women optimize life + make a living doing what they LOVE. READ MORE>>

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