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Now, Photoshop Elements has always been geared toward beginner and amateur photographers, and this year’s release is no exception. Adobe has included new features that ensure it’s easier than ever to produce stunning edits.
Included among these exciting features is Adobe Sensei AI technology, which will drive Photoshop Elements automation. While Sensei AI technology isn’t new, this time it’ll be used to bring photographers options such as:
B&W Selection
Pattern Brush
Painterly
Depth of Field
In all four of these cases, Sensei AI is the driver behind easy-yet-powerful edits. B&W Selection allows you to quickly isolate elements from your photos and portray them in color, while giving the background a black and white look. Depth of Field takes a relatively sharp background and gives it a beautiful blur, making your main subjects pop.
And that’s not all. In addition to these new AI-powered options, Photoshop Elements promises a new black and white editing experience with its Colorization feature. Colorization takes a black and white photo and gives it realistic colors (or, as Adobe promises, you can use Colorization to “give new life to an existing color photo”).
Photoshop Elements also offers a one-click selection of your subjects for easy manipulation, as well as a skin-smoothing effect. And let’s not forget the two brand-new guided edits, which are designed to make post-processing accessible to everyone, as the software walks you through the process of creating patterns or making unwanted items vanish from the frame.
Adobe Photoshop Elements isn’t for everyone. Experienced photographers will likely prefer to work with Photoshop CC or Lightroom, both of which pack some real editing power. But for those who are just getting started with photo editing, Photoshop Elements offers a level of accessibility that its more serious counterparts lack. And the guided edits are a great feature for those wanting to learn while editing.
You can purchase Adobe Photoshop Elements as a standalone piece of software for $ 99.99 USD, or you can get it alongside Adobe Premiere for $ 149.99 USD.
The rise of the web has allowed countless businesses to reach a wider market. Not only that, it has given rise to countless new online-only businesses, fueled by the exponential rise of mobile connections.
It's not surprising, then, that one analyst claims that the SMB e-commerce platform market will break the billion dollar barrier.
There's no doubt that the web provides a huge opportunity for companies, but it’s important for organizations to make the most of that opportunity. In order to sell your products or services online, your website has to be appropriately equipped.
Building an online store from scratch is a mammoth task, and fortunately, an unnecessary one. Today, there is a huge variety of e-commerce platform packages from which to choose.
Most e-commerce platforms will provide businesses with standard functionality such as the ability to showcase products in an online catalog, take payments online, manage customers and provide with after-sales.
Others will provide more sophisticated functionality, such as online marketing features, the ability to manage or integrate with in-store systems and the provision of APIs.
Which e-commerce software is best for your business depends entirely on your specific requirements. If you're an online-only outfit, then POS integration won't be necessary, but you may get a lot of business from overseas, in which case foreign currency support would be a requirement.
In this article, we’re going to highlight some of the best e-commerce platforms available right now, before moving on to consider other options you might want to explore in terms of creating your own e-commerce solution.
The best e-commerce platform packages
Shopify is perhaps the most well known e-commerce platform available. It was set up in 2006 by founders Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake who, as the story goes, felt that there wasn't a simple-to-use e-commerce platform available and so built their own. The company claims that: "You don't need to have any technical or design experience to easily create a beautiful online store."
According to Shopify, it's possible to get one of its online stores up-and-running within minutes. Users can choose from a wide range of templates, or they can design the look and feel of their store themselves. It accepts a comprehensive range of credit cards, has Level 1 PCI compliance and 256-bit SSL encryption for security, and it offers 24/7 support via phone, instant messaging or email.
The platform provides a full CMS with which users can manage the functionality and layout of their online store. Users can manage their store on-the-go using Shopify's mobile apps, and the platform itself is fully responsive, meaning the store will be optimized for visitors regardless of whether they access it from a desktop computer or a mobile device. Also, a live chat function is available which allows you to have a real time conversation with your customers.
Shopify also offers users unlimited hosting for their stores, in-depth analytics of how visitors are using the store, and functionality for marketing such as SEO optimization, a discount and coupon engine, gift cards and email marketing tools. You can test out Shopify with a 14-day free trial.
Bigcommerce was established in 2009 and promises to "support your business, not just your store." In addition to offering support via phone, instant chat and email, it also offers articles and videos to help with e-commerce, and access to a team of e-commerce experts who can provide advice and guidance about online selling. Their experts are qualified in both Google Analytics and Adwords.
Like Shopify, Bigcommerce provides a variety of templates and themes to help stores look their best and get up-and-running quickly. Alternatively, users can design their own store or use Bigcommerce designers to do so. The platform incorporates a full-featured CMS that allows users to run an entire website, rather than just a store.
Users can benefit from detailed and flexible product management, optimized search engine rankings, along with a variety of integrated marketing tools and analytics. Payments can be accepted via 40+ pre-integrated gateways and shipping details can be customized as per the business's requirements. As of late, some new features have been added like support for Amazon Import and Link and Shopping in Instagram Stories. The platform offers automated order processing, flexible tax rules depending on where orders are made and shipped, and support for multiple currencies. You can test out Bigcommerce with a 15-day free trial.
Volusion has been around for almost two decades, having been set up in Texas over in the US in 1999. The company touts its platform as being an "all-in-one e-commerce solution", and offers a free 14-day trial (no credit card required).
As with other e-commerce platforms, users are offered a variety of templates from which to choose, and can also customize templates if they so wish. Should a more complex design be required, Volusion offers a custom design service that can incorporate branding and a firm's social media presence.
The platform provides the site and product management tools you'd expect, marketing functionality for SEO, social media, and affiliate outlets, along with emails and order management functionality for fast order processing, accepting payments, tax calculations and POS integration.
In addition to its platform and associated services, Volusion offers apps from its partners, support for users and a knowledge-base for help with e-commerce. Users can draw upon blog posts, guides and webinars. As of October 8th 2018, there are no more transaction fees.
CoreCommerce was set up in 2001 and focuses on providing e-commerce services to small and medium-sized businesses. The company places an emphasis on simplicity and transparency, promising that its platform is easy-to-use and that customers will not fall foul of any hidden charges.
Perhaps CoreCommerce's most unique aspect is that all of its features are offered to all customers regardless of what plan they are on. Price plans are determined by the number of products, the number of email addresses, the amount of bandwidth and the amount of storage required by the user (and higher-end plans also benefit from additional support).
As with other e-commerce providers, CoreCommerce offers functionality for store design, product management, order processing and marketing. Of its headline features, the platform offers unlimited product customization options, a built-in blogging engine, and secure hosting that is provided by Rackspace and comes with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. You can try CoreCommerce out with a 15-day free trial.
Having been founded in 1997, 3dcart is the oldest of our featured providers here. It was set up with a view to incorporating as many of the most requested e-commerce features into one platform as possible.
The company says it has six core values by which it operates: ongoing innovation, good service, simple solutions, fostering trust, keeping employees and customers happy, and stimulating prosperity amongst employees and customers.
Some of the platform's innovative features include a module that users can install to offer gift-wrapping, a purchase order system, the option of running a loyalty program and the ability to offer recurring orders. Many of these features are very specific, meaning that stores can be highly tailored to the needs of each business.
Stores can be designed using one of the many templates offered by 3dcart, or users can design their own store. A quick edit bar means that making changes to the design of a store is simple. Product images are fore-fronted with 3dcart's auto-zoom feature and products can be sold via Facebook with its store integration. As with some other platforms, users can blog directly from 3dcart and tools are provided for setting up coupons, sending newsletters and affiliate marketing. Users can also make use out of "make an offer" feature, which basically lets you and your customers to negotiate on a price.
In addition to its platform, 3dcart offers a number of professional services. Users can request help with SEO, PPC, shopping feed management, social media, Facebook ads and conversion consulting. Help can also be provided to ensure that a user's store is set up to the highest standard. Services such as site cloning, setting up custom tracking, data migration and training are offered.
In addition, 3dcart can provide SSL certification. Hosting is guaranteed at 99.9% uptime and 24/7 support is provided via phone, email or online chat. You can test out the service with a 15-day free trial.
If you don’t want to go the route of using an off-the-shelf package, what other options are available for you to explore? That’s what we’re going to look at in the second half of this piece…
Is eBay right for your business?
Opening its doors in 1999, eBay UK now has over 14 million users, with over 10,000 people using the site for a business that is their primary means of income. It's not just about people selling unwanted goods – businesses have used the simplicity that eBay offers to set up lucrative operations. Even the larger brands such as Argos, Debenhams and House of Fraser are using eBay to sell online.
With sophisticated tools now available you can be up and running with your store in just a few hours. The eBay Seller Centre has all the information you need. Each store is managed via eBay's familiar user interface, and there are a number of eBay-provided tools to help manage, track and promote your shop once it's established.
Using eBay as the platform for your business could be ideal if your business wants to sell goods on a fixed price basis. The complete integration of the PayPal e-payments system into eBay takes care of this essential component of your store.
The key with eBay is to look closely at the costs involved and also the transaction fees that PayPal charge before moving forward and setting up your own store.
How to create your own e-commerce solution
Of course if you want complete control over every aspect of your new online store, building each page yourself will be the best course of action. Hiring someone to code your website is one option. If you decide to do this follow these steps:
Ask the company for live examples of their work to look at
Write a detailed brief of the site you want created. The more detail the better to avoid confusion
Ensure you understand the price you are being charged and how many revisions this price includes
Always have a signed agreement or contract before work commences
Ask whether the designers will host your site and if you will be able to make updates yourself or if all updates must go through the design agency at an additional cost
Ask for the copyright of your design to be assigned to your company, as your website is an important part of your business' intellectual property
Put into your contract, details of how the agreement can be amicably dissolved if things go wrong
You also don't have to build your site completely from scratch. Buying a template can give you all the basic pages your site needs. You can then either modify them yourself using an application like Dreamweaver, or hire a coding expert to make the changes. Website templates are available from a number of vendors including Template Monster.
If you already have a website and want to add e-commerce functionality, this can be easily achieved with a number of applications including:
Whichever route you decide to take when building your website always remember:
You need to ensure your store can be easily updated and managed.
Good professional web hosting is vital to ensure your site is always available.
Look for payment and shopping carts that are intuitive and efficient to use.
Customer service is king these days. Businesses shouldn't just efficiently take customers' money, but should also properly support them.
Make sure that your store is fully integrated with all the leading social media sites.
Put security first – shoppers are now more comfortable buying online, but always ensure your site uses SSL (Secure Socket Layer) which is now the industry standard for online payments.
Above every other consideration should be your site's visitor experience. Don't forget your competitors are just a mouse click away in the world of e-commerce.
Setting up your online store should be approached carefully and diligently to ensure you put a professional and efficient site live. Internet shopping continues to expand. Make sure your business doesn't miss out on a sales channel that shows no signs of slowing down.
Are you bored of doing portrait shoots in the studio or the local park? Try mixing things up with an urban portrait shoot. The city streets, the buildings, the laneways – this is your cinematic backdrop. All you need is a little bit of planning and a lot of imagination. If you’ve never done a shoot like this before, you might be wondering how to choose locations. In this article, I will run you through my process of choosing urban landscapes for portrait photography.
Bailey in a window, Brisbane. I took this shot with some off-camera flash outside my local library. Fujifilm X-T3 with a 23mm f1.4 lens.
An urban portrait shoot in my city? No way!
You may think that your city or your town has nothing of interest, but it does. You just have to look with a fresh perspective. Sometimes I’ll be on a photo walk with another photographer, and they don’t seem to see the potential that their town has to offer. “Wow, look at that doorway!” I’ll say. With a puzzled face, they reply, “It’s just a doorway!”
No, it’s not just a doorway – it’s a potential scene in your next urban portrait shoot.
Sasha, Brisbane. I used these old street lamps as an element in the shoot. Fujifilm X-T3 with a 56mm f1.2 lens.
Every town or city I’ve ever been to has its charms and a unique look: from modern glass and steel skyscrapers to historic buildings to run-down industrial areas. There are so many aspects of urban locations that you could include in your shoots: laneways, street art, doorways, neon signs, steel shutters, and traffic trails, just to name a few.
There’s also the unique way that light falls in urban environments: harsh beams of light that fall between buildings, beautiful soft light that you find in doorways and under bridges, and in Brisbane, dazzling light reflecting off skyscrapers. The possibilities are endless.
The best time for an urban portrait shoot
The best time for an urban portrait shoot is whenever you and your client or model are both available. Regardless of the light, the weather, or the locations. The success of the photoshoot is ultimately in your hands.
My favorite time for doing urban portrait shoots is just before dusk. This allows you to get a good mix of golden hour photos with sunlight, blue hour photos as the city lights come into play and nighttime shots with artificial light.
Alyssa in an industrial alleyway, Brisbane. Fujifilm X-T3 with a 60mm f2.4 lens.
Location scouting
I usually run portrait shoots for around 90-minutes, allowing me to shoot in 6-8 locations.
It’s best to do your location scouting at the same time of day that your shoot will take place. This is so you can look at the light, see how it falls, and plan accordingly. In practice, though, I usually end up doing my scouting during the day.
Before I arrange the shoot, I take some time to wander about the city to find 8-10 locations close together. The reason I look for more places than I’ll need is to be flexible on the shoot. Cars or trucks can block alleyways, big crowds could move through the area at the time of the shoot, or the lighting could be all wrong. There’s a whole lot of things that could make the location unsuitable when you arrive at the scene.
Although it’s tempting to plan to shoot in two locations at opposite ends of town, unless you have easy access to transport on the day of the shoot, it will be impractical. Photoshoots can be tiring for everyone, so asking your client or model to walk several city blocks and back again to shoot in one location may not be the best idea.
What to take during location scouting
When you’re scouting for locations, have a notepad and pen ready along with your smartphone. When you see somewhere that you like, take a photo on your phone for reference and jot down some notes. I always draw a map of the city streets in my notebook. Then I plot the locations on it and plan a direction for the shoot.
What I’m looking for during my walk is a cool urban location in which to place the client or model. Some locations will leap out at you, and you will know that you should take some photos there. Others may not reveal their charm until later when the lights are low.
Natasha, Brisbane. I like the very subtle reflection in the polished stone wall behind her. Fujifilm X-T3 with 56mm f1.2 lens
As you’re wandering around, there’s a couple of things you need to keep in mind:
Imagination
What is this place going to look like at dusk or nighttime? Remember that for many shots, you will be shooting with a wide-open aperture, or close to wide open, so many of the details in the background will be blurred.
Potential risks
It may look cool, but is this place dangerous in any way? Think of how you will place the model or client in this scene – are there any risks that you need to be mindful of? Is there a lot of traffic? Is it a dangerous neighborhood? You should consider all of this when you’re planning, as safety should be your top priority for these shoots.
Below are some of my go-to shots when I plan an urban photoshoot. I took all of these within a few blocks of each other in central Brisbane, Australia.
Neon lights
Neon shots are a favorite with the Instagram crowd, and it’s easy to see why. They are so much fun and a great image idea to have up your sleeve.
Neon signs are something that, quite honestly, I never usually notice. However, as soon as you start looking for them, you’ll be amazed at how many your town has.
Alyssa, Brisbane. This neon light is outside a takeaway shop in central Brisbane. I was attracted to the three different colors the sign had.
Beer kegs outside a pub
As soon as I saw these beer kegs in a laneway outside a pub, I knew I wanted to incorporate them in a shoot. I’ve used them as both a background element and also as a prop for models to sit on.
In this shot of Anne, I struck gold. By chance, it was one of the busiest days for pubs in the year – Melbourne Cup Day. There were a few dozen kegs in a laneway all stacked on one another. I lit this shot with an LED video light.
Anne in front of beer kegs, Brisbane. I love the shape, color, and reflection of the kegs in the background. Fujifilm X-T3 with an 8-16mm f2.8 lens lit with an LED video light.
Laneways
Many Australian cities are blessed with alleyways. In many ways, they are the perfect place for photoshoots. Expect atmospheric lighting, an industrial look, street art – and best of all – little traffic. While Melbourne may be the laneways capital of Australia, Brisbane has many too.
Natasha in a laneway, Brisbane. I like the color and bokeh that some tiny blue fairy lights provided in this shot. Fujifilm X-T3 with a 56mm f1.2 lens.
Telephone booth
This is a really fun place to use for some shots – if you can still find one these days. You may also have to take some time to explain to younger clients or models on how to use a public payphone!
Alyssa in a phone booth in Brisbane. Fujifilm X-T3 with a 35mm f1.4 lens.
Reflections
Reflections are a go-to image idea for urban portrait shoots. Many buildings provide you with glass or reflective surfaces.
Anne looking into a mirrored surface, Brisbane. Fujifilm X-T2 with a 56mm f1.2 lens.
Old signage
I love history and nostalgia, but sadly there isn’t much left in my city. One day I noticed this sign and thought I’d love to do some shots here.
Sasha in front of a sign, Brisbane. Fujifilm X-T3 with a 16mm f1.4 lens.
Take your next portrait shoot to the streets
Urban portrait shoots can be a lot of fun. If you’ve never done one before, I hope that this guide has inspired you to look around your city for urban landscapes for portrait photography.
For your first time, you can always ask a friend to be your model if you want to try things out and see how the images look. Practice makes perfect.
Remember, safety is a very important factor in a shoot like this – both for your client or model and for yourself.
Urban shoots have helped me grow as a photographer. I feel more creative, I see possibilities for images in the mundane, and they’ve also helped me to think on my feet and improvise.
So what are you waiting for? An endless array of scenes is right on your doorstep. Take your next portrait shoot to the streets.
Do you have any other tips for scouting urban landscapes for portrait photography? Share with us in the comments!
Prior to launch, speculation had been rife that Nikon would try to appeal to a different audience with its next Z series camera, and with a smaller sensor and more affordable price point, the strategy seems to suggest that mirrorless is very much the future for this company.
Nikon places the Z50 alongside its mid-level DSLRs the D7500 and D500, giving an indication of who it expects to buy the camera. Aimed slightly above the beginner market, the Z50 is perhaps also something that might appeal as a secondary or travel body for existing Z series users, or possibly even Nikon DSLR owners.
Functionality
Unsurprisingly, the Z50 inherits a lot of the same functionality and features as the Z6 and Z7, and has been styled to look very similar. At the heart of the camera is a 20.9 megapixel APS-C (which Nikon calls DX) format sensor, as well as a fast, wide Hybrid-AF autofocus system, which also includes Eye AF.
For composing your images there’s a 2360k-dot electronic viewfinder, or you can use the tilting 1040k-dot LCD monitor – unlike the Z6/Z7, the Z50’s screen can tilt to face all the way forwards, with a dedicated selfie mode.
A single UHS-I SD card slot marks another lower-cost point of departure, compared to the Z6/Z7’s XQD card slot, but that’s likely to be good news for those already holding on to a stack of SD memory cards.
Uncropped 4K video recording is available up to 30fps, as well as Full HD, slow-motion and time-lapse options.
New Lenses
Although the Z50 uses exactly the same mount as the older Z series snappers, two new lenses have been launched especially for it.
There’s a 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 pancake zoom lens, which will come with the Z50 as the standard kit lens. This collapsible optic is designed to be a good walkaround lens for most ordinary situations. There’s also a 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 zoom lens if you need to reach subjects further away from you. Nikon says you’ll be able to buy both lenses together with the camera as a “travel package”, if that kind of thing floats your boat.
As with the Z6/Z7, you can also use the FTZ mount adapter to use any existing F-mount DSLR lenses you might already own, while there are seven further already existing Z-mount lenses which can also be used. A roadmap shows that Nikon will be adding more lenses to the line-up throughout 2020 and 2021.
Nikon Z50 Price & Availability
Sales of the camera will start on November 7, just in time for that lucrative Christmas market. The Nikon Z50 price will be $ 850 / £849 body only (around AU$ 1,543), or $ 999 / £989 (about AU$ 1,798) to include the 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR lens. A range of other kit bundles are also available too.
Australian pricing is still to be confirmed but we will update this story as soon as we're able to find out.
While we've seen some fabulous Osmo products launch this year, DJI has been relatively quiet on the drone front since the announcement of the the Mavic 2 Pro and the Mavic 2 Zoom last year. That might be about to change, with FCC filings for something called the Mavic Mini having now been made public.
We first heard about the Mavic Mini in August when a Chinese patent filing for a new pint-sized quadcopter was discovered. At the time, leaked images of a consumer-grade drone resembling a mash between the DJI Spark and the Mavic Air set the drone community abuzz.
Speculation put the Mavic Mini coming in with a $ 399 price tag (about £327 / AU$ 593). If true, that would make it cheaper than the launch price of the Spark, which carried a price tag of $ 499 / £519 / AU$ 859 when it arrived in 2017.
The main difference here is the possible addition of 4K video capture which the Spark missed out on.
While the Spark is still one of the best entry-level drones you can buy, it is over two years old and could do with a fresh coat of paint, which the Mavic Mini might just provide.
Where the Spark couldn't be folded into a smaller package, the Mavic Mini will reportedly have folding propellers like its older Mavic siblings. The rumor mill also puts the Mavic Mini's dimensions at 270mm diagonally when unfolded and weighing in at just 250g.
If true, that would mean you may not need to register it with aviation safety authorities in your country. In the US and Australia at least, drones weighing 250g or less don't need to be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) respectively.
DJI owns a majority share in camera company Hasselblad, explaining how it was possible for the Mavic 2 Pro to feature a superior snapper. However, that did come at a steep price. If the $ 399 price point for the Mavic Mini is anything to go by, chances are we're not going to see any Hasselblad tech here.
That said, it would be fair to expect a 12MP sensor (similar to the Spark's) with 4K/30p video recording capabilities under the hood.
The all-important battery life remains a mystery, but if the Mavic Mini is replacing the Spark, then about 18 minutes of flight time is what you should expect. Anything more from a pint-sized quadcopter would be a massive bonus to the users and a major achievement for DJI.
With the FCC filing available to view by the public, it's safe to say a launch announcement is imminent. In fact, we wouldn't be surprised if it arrived in time for the Christmas shopping period.
Sunrise pictures can be tricky. Even the most dedicated photographer can get frustrated with sub-par results, often with foregrounds that are too dark or a nice round sun that appears white and washed-out. While things like timing and technique are critical for taking good sunrise pictures, another element is the editing. With a few Lightroom sunrise photo editing tips, you can take a boring, bland sunrise and turn it into a work of art.
To get a good finished photo you need a solid starting point. That means your initial sunrise photo needs to meet a few basic parameters:
The sky should be properly exposed, which means the foreground will be dark.
It’s helpful to shoot with low ISO values to give you as much headroom as possible when editing.
If you start with a sunrise photo that meets these parameters, you can use a few sliders and options in Lightroom to bring out the colors and brilliance that you saw with your eyes when you shot it.
To illustrate this process, I’m going to walk through an example of sunrise photo editing. The picture below is a RAW file straight out of my camera.
Original RAW file straight from my camera. Nikon D750, 50mm, f/4, 1/180 second, ISO 320.
This picture might not look very impressive, but that’s the point. If I had exposed for the foreground, the dark areas would be bright and natural. The trade-off is that parts of the sky would be so bright they would be unrecoverable in Lightroom.
Everything needed for a beautiful sunrise photo is fully intact in this dark, underexposed image. I just need to coax out the colors with a little sunrise photo editing.
Step 1: Shadows
The first thing to do is brighten the foreground by adjusting the shadows. Locate the Basic Panel in the Lightroom Develop module and push the Shadows slider all the way to the right.
Boosting the shadows will make the dark foreground a lot more usable.
This makes the foreground much brighter. It is very close to how the scene looked when I shot the picture. I was on my bike, and there’s no way I would have ridden to work that morning in the complete pitch black!
With the shadows lifted, the foreground is brighter. You can also see that there is plenty of image data captured in the RAW file to work with.
Step 2: White balance and graduated filters
After bringing up the shadows, the next step is to tweak the colors of the sky and foreground. The graduated filter is perfect for this since your edits are applied gradually, as the name implies.
Graduated Filters are ideal for sunrise photos.
The values you use for this will depend greatly on the look you want in your picture. For a good starting point, I recommend lowering the Temperature, raising the Whites, and increasing the Saturation. Feel free to tweak the other settings to your liking, but I recommend being a little conservative at this point. You can always go back and change things later. If you have objects protruding into your sky like trees, buildings, or mountains, you can use the Range Mask option. Then your edits are only applied to the sky and nothing else.
When using a Graduated Filter on the sky, I like to lower the color temperature and increase saturation. You might find other tweaks to be helpful as well.
After adjusting the sky, use a second Graduated Filter to perform a similar operation on the foreground. Click the New button at the top of the Graduated Filter panel, and click-and-drag on the picture to apply your filter.
Move the Temperature slider to the right so the foreground is a little warmer. Then adjust other options like Exposure, Texture, and Sharpness as needed.
A second Graduated Filter in the opposite direction can be useful for giving the foreground a warmer white balance.
There’s no correct way to do this next step because everyone has unique taste and preferences. I used the following values on the image above, but your results will vary depending on your picture.
When applying a second Graduated Filter to the foreground, it can be useful to edit some other parameters as well, especially Exposure and Shadows.
Step 3: Crop the picture
Some will debate the exact stage in the process where you need to crop your picture. Others will say that a good photographer should use what comes out of the camera and never crop anything! I say it’s your picture and if you want to crop, go right ahead. I recommend cropping after your basic adjustments are in place. Those operations can bring out things formerly hidden and give you a better sense of how you really want to crop the image.
In the image I’m working with for this example, I don’t like the “Speed Limit 35” sign on the right side. If I crop that out, then I need also to re-frame the picture, so the sun is in the middle.
You can use cropping to get the dimensions and proportions of your picture just right.
Step 4: General Color Adjustments
After making your initial set of adjustments, and cropping the picture to your liking, it’s time to head to the HSL/Color panel to tweak the individual colors of the sunrise. Bring up the Saturation level of orange, blue, and red while also adjusting the Hue and Luminance to get just the right look. As before, be careful not to go overboard since too much tweaking makes your picture look unnatural.
For the picture below, I adjusted the Hue and Saturation of Blue by +20 each, and the Saturation of Orange by 14.
Adjusting the blues and oranges can really bring out some of the vivid colors of a sunrise picture.
Don’t overdo your adjustments or your image will look fake and over-saturated.
Step 5: Detailed enhancements
As with cropping, some photographers have varying opinions on when to do this step while others skip it entirely. I like to do it near the end of the editing process after I have made my other adjustments. However, you might find it better utilized at an earlier phase. Head back to the Basic panel where everything began and fine-tune a couple of other sliders like Highlights, Whites, Texture, and even Exposure if you need to.
Final tweaks help put the finishing touches on your sunrise.
At this point, you’re really just putting the finishing touches on, almost like adding a pinch of salt or garlic powder to a pot of soup that’s ready to eat. I sometimes get lost down an image-editing rabbit hole at this step. I find myself endlessly tweaking the sliders in a vain attempt to chase perfection. If that happens to you, walk away from your computer for an hour. When you return, you may be pleasantly surprised at how good your picture looks, with no additional tweaking required.
You can also use the Spot Removal tool to clean up dust or dirt on the lens as well as fix other imperfections. There are also several Sharpening options to make your sunrise a little more clear and crisp.
From good to great
As with most photo editing situations, your results will vary greatly depending on a variety of factors. I have found that this same process, with different degrees of adjustments to the sliders, works quite well for me. It would probably work as a good starting point for you too. Still, I encourage you to experiment and develop your own editing style over time.
For one more example of how this process can yield good results, I started with the following RAW file. I shot this picture just as the sun was coming up in rural Nebraska.
RAW file straight out of my camera. 50mm, f/8, 1/180 second, ISO 100. As with the other image at the top of this article, the original is severely underexposed but contains all the data needed when editing in Lightroom.
I used the exact same process described in this article to vastly improve the picture in less than two minutes.
Two minutes later and it’s been transformed into a frame-worthy midwestern sunrise.
I hope these sunrise photo editing tips help you achieve some epic photos!
I’d love to see some of your sunrise shots and hear about the editing process you use as well. Leave your thoughts, as well as any pictures you’d like to share, in the comments below.
“What if it rains?” This is a question that every professional and amateur photographer will hear eventually. We’re living in a golden age of photographic technology with photography possible under all kinds of circumstances and situations.
Rain can be subtle or it can be dramatic, but for photographers it gives a unique photographic opportunity that most people don’t understand until they see it in an image. Rain can seem like a scary proposition, but with a little preparation one can handle even the craziest of storms capturing amazing images. Let’s explore how.
There are several options of protective camera gear. The real problem is whether you have it at the right time. It’s always advisable to carry protective gear that is flexible and doesn’t take up too much space in your camera backpack so that you can have it every day.
Umbrellas
A common coincidence with umbrellas: “If you have them, you won’t need them! But if you leave them, you’ll wish you had them.” Umbrellas keep your subjects dry and happy,as well as add some fun to your compositions. Most photographers don’t have a set of attractive umbrellas on hand, so it’s worthy to invest in a few decent and colorful umbrellas for rainy day photography. If you’re planning to buy some, go for brightly colored umbrellas with fun patterns, which can add a touch of color to a dull day.
Photo by Mitchell Joyce; ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/125 exposure.
Plastic Bags
Even if it stops raining, you still have to be prepared. The ground will be wet and can affect your posing. Plastic bags can keep your subjects dry and also keep you dry if you want to lay down for a unique perspective.
Backlighting
Raindrops can be accentuated quite noticeably with different light sources. Find light sources like a streetlight at night or the sun breaking through the clouds and shoot toward it. And remember, the umbrella that you carry can serve as a lens shade.
Go for Rainy Emotions
People react to rain with a gamut of emotions, from the astounding joy of children to sullen anxiety of rain-drenched commuters. Take pictures of those emotions and make great rain pictures.
Remember that wonderful images can be taken in the rain. Rain gives you the chance to break from routine and get some creative shots.
About the Author: Sujith Raj is a parttime blogger and a fulltime photography enthusiast. He also works for clickme2 as a dealer of camera equipment and accessories.
Having just purchased the Sony A7r III earlier this year, I didn’t expect to add another camera to my collection so quickly. Until… the Sony A7r IV announced it was on pre-order. Typically, I will not invest in yet another body unless something truly monumental comes about, and this was such a situation. The A7r IV is a piece of machinery unlike any other – and I don’t regret a single dime spent. This Sony A7r IV review will explain why.
Mirrorless versus Digital
By now, 2019, many photographers are well aware of mirrorless cameras invading the digital photography market. Just to refresh on some of the key differences in technology between DSLRs/SLRs and mirrorless cameras…
Mirrorless cameras, as the name suggests, does not utilize a mirror to reflect the image to the viewfinder. The way that a digital camera works is that a mirror inside the camera reflects the light up to the optical viewfinder. This is also how you see the image before you take it.
In a mirrorless camera, the imaging sensor is exposed to light at all times. This gives you a digital preview of your image either on the rear LCD screen or an electronic viewfinder (EVF). This allows you to see exposure changes in real-time on a mirrorless camera. The lack of a mirror also aids in the camera’s size, allowing the mirrorless model to be smaller and lighter than a traditional DSLR.
DSLR aficionados don’t trust the digital viewfinder portrayal in mirrorless cameras as this is system-based, while the DSLR uses a practical application to show a true-to-life, through-the-lens optical viewfinder system. This uses a series of mirrors to reflect light to your eye. However, as a new mirrorless user, I can testify that the electronic viewfinder display is extremely accurate to the image I create when clicking the shutter button.
In regards to quality, both can excel in optical quality, image sensors, technical aspects, and adeptness at shooting conditions. Both are equally spectacular, with each model having its own pros and cons (of course). It does come down a lot to personal choice.
Specifications
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get back to the drool-worthy A7r IV. The specifications of this newest member to the Alpha line is what made me fall out of my seat and need to order this model.
And it has not disappointed.
A true feat of modern technology, it includes the following specs:
A whopping 61 MP, 35 mm full-frame Exmor R CMOS and enhanced processing system. This produces an image sized at 9504 x 6336. For landscape and commercial photographers, the a7r IV features a 240MP pixel-shift mode.
ISO 100–32000 (ISO numbers up from ISO 50 to ISO 102400 can be set as expanded ISO range.)
Fast Hybrid AF with Wide (567-points (phase-detection AF), 425-points (contrast-detection AF))/Zone/Center/Flexible Spot (S/M/L)/Expanded Flexible Spot/Tracking (Wide/Zone/Center/Flexible Spot (S/M/L)/Expanded Flexible Spot) The focus modes include AF-A (Automatic AF), AF-S (Single-shot AF), AF-C (Continuous AF), DMF (Direct Manual Focus), Manual Focus.
Eye-start AF, Lock-on AF [Still] Human (Right/Left Eye Select)/Animal, [Movie] Human (Right/Left Eye Select), AF micro adjustment, and predictive AF control.
High-speed continuous shooting of up to 10fps12 with AF/AE tracking.
5-axis image stabilization with 5.5-stop exposure advantage20.
4K video in full-width and crop modes.
Dual card slots with simultaneous or consecutive recording.
Silent Shooting Mode.
You can operate the camera via newly supported wireless PC Remote functions via Wi-Fi.
Much like the other models in the Alpha line, this camera is an E-mount that only accepts E-mount lenses (unless you use an adapter). The awesome thing about E-mount, though, is that many brands (alongside Sony) make lenses for it, including Zeiss, Sigma, and Tamron.
Build
I did not expect a redesign of the A7r IV body. Silly me! I expected a perfect replica of the A7r III with more advanced technology. In fact, the A7r IV has improved upon its predecessor’s body and ergonomics. They have changed the design, proving that Sony listened to photographer complaints and suggestions when redesigning this camera.
Firstly, the grip is different. Sony modified the contour, and the grip has deepened – for lack of a better term. I found it to be much more comfortable, and my hand cramped less during prolonged use (photographers, you know what I’m talking about here).
The camera grip reminded me of my large DSLRs rather than a mirrorless, and I liked that a lot. While I have small, feminine hands, I am sure this new grip design will work nicely with larger hands too.
Sony has also redesigned the buttons. They’re softer and “squishier” to the touch. There is also a redesigned joystick and an amended exposure compensation dial that now includes a lock button (thankfully!).
A big change is the card slot door. The new card door no longer needs a lock lever. Just pull straight back like Canon and Nikon. This provides a much tighter seal as well. Oh, and speaking of cards…Slot 1 is now on the top, not backward like the A7r III (which constantly confused me).
The Sony A7r IV is sized at 5.07 x 3.8 x 3.05″/128.9 x 96.4 x 77.5 mm and 1.46 lb/665 g.
Ease of use
In my brain, Sony Alpha and ease-of-use are synonymous phrases. This camera is quick to set up, even simpler to use, and you can run off and play immediately when the battery is charged. The menu and settings are intended for professionals, but if you’ve been doing photography and understand how a camera works, figuring it out is quick.
I’ve heard complaints about the Sony menu, but I’ve personally not had any problems with it. I easily found everything I needed and do all of my adjustments within about 10 minutes.
This is coming from a Canon user that features an entirely different menu.
I do wish the eye-tracking mode was an actual button on the camera as you can switch between Human subject or Animal subject. It would be convenient to have this as a button rather than having to dig into the menu to change this feature. I find myself continually changing it back and forth (being both a human and a pet photographer).
Autofocus, sharpness, and clarity
Just one word: phenomenal.
I could end the review with just that one word and be satisfied. However, to go into detail…the autofocus is lightning sharp. Definitely the fastest autofocus of all of my cameras – and I have a lot of them! I find the autofocus to be even faster and more accurate than the A7r III – and that’s saying a lot, as the A7r III is very fast as well.
I’ve captured dogs running – high speed – directly at my camera without even losing focus on their eyes for a second. That is how superb the eye-tracking mode is. I see a lot of use for this camera in sports photography if you have large enough cards to accommodate the 61-megapixels, of course! You can bring the camera down to 24-megapixels if needed, but that’s no fun.
The predictive AI focus has truly revolutionized the way you can photograph subjects moving erratically or quickly, and I am living for it. This has made my job much easier with pets, or little humans that love to run away from mom!
In regards to sharpness and clarity, (while much of the final quality and look comes from the lens), in this case, the camera plays a big role. This is where the Sony mirrorless cameras begin to stand out significantly. The images are extremely sharp and clear. To some, maybe even artificially so. The look is very distinct. Professional photographers can quite easily pick out a Sony mirrorless photograph from the rest. The 61-megapixels show an immense amount of detail, excellent for commercial and detail work.
Buffering
Despite the enormous amount of megapixels, the A7R IV can still fire up to 10 frames-per-second with autofocus and autoexposure active. That’s impressive! The camera can keep at this for up to 68 compressed raw images.
Color rendering
With vivid, vibrant, and deep colors, there is little editing I need to do with this camera. Even in low light, the colors tend to be quite true. The dynamic range is superb with 15-stops of dynamic range. I have been able to pull incredible details, colors, and information from darker images.
Low light capability
The only gripe I have with this model is the low light capability is not improved over its preceding version. That doesn’t mean that the low light capability is bad – it’s just not better. For a camera that has improved in so many ways, I would have liked to see an even better low light sensor in this particular model.
However, the larger megapixel count does allow for significantly more manipulation, and it hasn’t phased me to take care of noise through a quick flick of the Noise slider in Lightroom. Ideally, it would have been nice not to need to do this.
With that said, I have not personally noticed worse noise at the same ISO levels, as some photographers have reported. The autofocus in low light is superb. It’s great for my concert photography endeavors, and even better than the firmware update on my A7r III.
Battery life
For battery life, my original frame of reference is my many Canon DSLR cameras. The 5D Mark IV, 5D Mark III, 7D Mark II, and 1Dx Mark II are the models I use. In my experience, Sony batteries are not nearly as powerful or long-lasting as Canon batteries. However, this makes sense, as the power necessary to operate a mirrorless tends to be more draining than the DSLRs due to the mirrorless cameras using a digital viewfinder and LCD display.
When I purchased my first Sony camera, I went ahead and bought a second battery. The battery is the same as the one that the Sony A7r IV uses, so now I have two additional batteries for it. I am glad that I did because the battery does not last me all day like Canon cameras. I seldom end up switching to a second Canon battery. Even after shooting a dog agility trial for eight hours without turning the body off. On the Sony, I found myself switching the battery mid-day on all-day shoots.
It is key to note I am not using a battery grip. With a battery grip, the power lasts significantly longer.
However, when comparing to Sony itself, the battery in the newer Alpha series cameras are significantly better and far more superb than previous models. The Sony NPFZ100 Z-Series Rechargeable Battery is no joke – far more powerful than the previous batteries used by the company.
Final thoughts
Do you need the power of the Sony A7r IV? Generally, probably not. For specialty work? Absolutely. The specifications are very much overkill for the average photographer, but for those that have found a use for its tremendous amount of megapixels or the ease in which the AI focuses, this is absolutely a worthy investment.
It’s likely great enough to sell prior pieces of equipment in order to buy the A7r IV.
I work a lot in commercial photography, and this camera allows me to better produce commercial imagery for my corporate clients – something I couldn’t pass up.
Would you like to own this camera? Why? Or are you lucky enough to have you tried the Sony A7r IV? What are your thoughts? Share with us in the comments!
Digital transformation is a hot topic in the industry but the biggest challenge for enterprises is visibility, manageability and security of the network, NetScout said.
“The digital success requires seamless visibility and monitoring for performance and security across a complex set of platforms, locations, and providers. The key aspect is how do you leverage the current widely available infrastructure and make it enterprise-ready,” Gaurav Mohan, vice-president for South Asia, Middle East and Africa and CIS at NetScout, told TechRadar Middle East.
When you are looking to move your applications or infrastructure to a hybrid-cloud environment, he said that visibility and manageability of the infrastructure is a big challenge and the more you go digital, security is another big challenge as you are more prone to vulnerabilities.
These three aspects are key for enterprises to successfully leverage the opportunities that the digital transformation or the connected world offers, he said.
NetScout provides real-time, pervasive visibility, and insights customers need to accelerate and secure their digital transformation.
Moreover, he said that telecom operators are the backbone infrastructure providers for enterprises.
"Gone are the days where you could get you network and application teams in a room to discuss and thrash out problems. Today, the network is somebody else’s and the infrastructure where the app is hosted is of the cloud provider and then how do you get visibility."
Gaurav Mohan, vice-president for South Asia, Middle East and Africa and CIS at NetScout
5G network is more secure than 4G
“Our technology addresses the challenges and gives early warnings on the performance, anomalies and metadata based on the packets we capture in the enterprise environment. Enterprises get an early warning, analytics and forensic capabilities on the cyberthreat aspect,” Mohan said.
As enterprises are moving mission-critical apps of different clients to the cloud, he said that visibility and manageability are gone because it is hosted in somebody else’s environment.
“Gone are the days where you could get you network and application teams in a room to discuss and thrash out problems. Today, the network is somebody else’s and the infrastructure where the app is hosted is of the cloud provider and then how do you get visibility,” he said.
To mitigate these risks, he said that IT needs faster, accurate and wider, deeper visibility into how their services are delivered and protected, regardless of where, from whom or the underlying infrastructure, and how to respond rapidly when problems do arise.
Any move to a digital opens up the threat landscape, so, he said that the role of the service providers becomes important because they have to secure their infrastructure as the devices are going to be connected to their network.
Even though 5G is gaining traction, he said that it is more secure than 4G as the industry is adding more security layers on 5G and it is strongly authenticated and encrypted but the increased bandwidth of 5G will give rise to more DDoS attacks.
“Bigger DDoS attacks will happen as the bad guys are becoming more sophisticated. As we, service providers, become smarter and add more intelligence into the endpoint, the rouge guys will also become smarter.
Digital transformation is a hot topic in the industry but the biggest challenge for enterprises is visibility, manageability and security of the network, NetScout said.
“The digital success requires seamless visibility and monitoring for performance and security across a complex set of platforms, locations, and providers. The key aspect is how do you leverage the current widely available infrastructure and make it enterprise-ready,” Gaurav Mohan, vice-president for South Asia, Middle East and Africa and CIS at NetScout, told TechRadar Middle East.
When you are looking to move your applications or infrastructure to a hybrid-cloud environment, he said that visibility and manageability of the infrastructure is a big challenge and the more you go digital, security is another big challenge as you are more prone to vulnerabilities.
These three aspects are key for enterprises to successfully leverage the opportunities that the digital transformation or the connected world offers, he said.
NetScout provides real-time, pervasive visibility, and insights customers need to accelerate and secure their digital transformation.
Moreover, he said that telecom operators are the backbone infrastructure providers for enterprises.
"Gone are the days where you could get you network and application teams in a room to discuss and thrash out problems. Today, the network is somebody else’s and the infrastructure where the app is hosted is of the cloud provider and then how do you get visibility."
Gaurav Mohan, vice-president for South Asia, Middle East and Africa and CIS at NetScout
5G network is more secure than 4G
“Our technology addresses the challenges and gives early warnings on the performance, anomalies and metadata based on the packets we capture in the enterprise environment. Enterprises get an early warning, analytics and forensic capabilities on the cyberthreat aspect,” Mohan said.
As enterprises are moving mission-critical apps of different clients to the cloud, he said that visibility and manageability are gone because it is hosted in somebody else’s environment.
“Gone are the days where you could get you network and application teams in a room to discuss and thrash out problems. Today, the network is somebody else’s and the infrastructure where the app is hosted is of the cloud provider and then how do you get visibility,” he said.
To mitigate these risks, he said that IT needs faster, accurate and wider, deeper visibility into how their services are delivered and protected, regardless of where, from whom or the underlying infrastructure, and how to respond rapidly when problems do arise.
Any move to a digital opens up the threat landscape, so, he said that the role of the service providers becomes important because they have to secure their infrastructure as the devices are going to be connected to their network.
Even though 5G is gaining traction, he said that it is more secure than 4G as the industry is adding more security layers on 5G and it is strongly authenticated and encrypted but the increased bandwidth of 5G will give rise to more DDoS attacks.
“Bigger DDoS attacks will happen as the bad guys are becoming more sophisticated. As we, service providers, become smarter and add more intelligence into the endpoint, the rouge guys will also become smarter.
CMOS and enhanced processing system. This produces an image sized at 9504 x 6336. For 
