Light Adjustment Layer in Photoshop – Should You Use It?
There's been a good amount of confusion around the Light adjustment layer in Photoshop. If you're an Adobe user for your photography, it can be odd to see the same adjustments in Lightroom / Camera Raw, and also in the main Photoshop interface. In this week's video...
An Easier Way to Add the Orton Soft Glow Effect
The soft glow or Orton effect has been a popular one for landscape photographers for years. But it was always a pain to add. You needed layers, filters, or panels and even then it wasn't very good and didn't have many customizing options. Well, Adobe added a new Glow...
Your Raw Isn’t Always Raw
This question has come up a lot over time. It can get confusing when working on a raw photo to know that the photo isn't really a raw photo anymore. When you do certain adjustments to an image, it's important to know when you leave that raw space and will need to make...
What’s New in Photoshop (August 2026)
Adobe added a few new features to Camera Raw here in August 2026. One of them uses AI in the way that I think it works best and that's to save us time from doing the grunt work. In this case, we can now remove blemishes in portraits in just one click. No more having...
What’s New in Lightroom (August 2026)
Adobe finally added the much needed masking edge features to Lightroom recently. Now we have 2 settings (Feather and Edge) that help us blend the edges of a mask to make it look more realistic. https://youtu.be/pZk9mJVlBHQ
Showing Your Focus Points in Photoshop’s Camera Raw
Adobe added a few new features to Camera Raw recently (version 18.4.1). The "Show Auto Focus Points" feature is one of my favorites but you can find out more about the update below. Enjoy! Click here to watch my free "Fast Action, Razor Sharp Bird Photography" Class....
Adobe Is Acquiring Topaz Labs. Here’s What It Could Mean for Photographers.
Recently (mid June 2026) Adobe announced that it intends to acquire Topaz Labs. Assuming the deal gets regulatory approval, Topaz will become part Adobe in the latter half of 2026. Here’s a link to the incredibly boring and legal-marketing-speak announcement if you...
New Feature – Photoshop Adds Bidirectional Gradient Masks
Adobe added a few new features to Camera Raw (version 18.4) recently. Among them is a masking feature that people have been asking for since Linear Gradients first came out. It's called a Bidirectional Gradient, or you can think of it as a Two-sided or Double sided...
Lightroom Finally Added a Duplicate Finder for Your Photos
Hi everyone. This week Adobe released a new Lightroom update with some new features. Of those, are two that I think you'll really want to try out. The first is a duplicate finder which is something Lightroom users have been wanting for a long time. Next, isn't really...
Masking Feather is Finally Here in Photoshop
Today we're going to cover a feature that I think all of you who use masking tools will love. It's been one of the most requested features I've seen and I'm glad it's finally here. Unfortunately, it's not in Lightroom yet but hopefully it makes its way there soon....
First Thoughts on the New Sony 100-400mm f/4.5 Lens
Hi all. Sony just announced a new 100-400mm f/4.5 lens this week (retail $4300). A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to test it out before it was released. So I thought I'd share my experience with it while photographing shorebirds in the Tampa Bay area. Some...
New Feature: Photoshop Depth Masks
Hi everyone! Adobe snuck a new masking feature in to Camera Raw recently. It's based on the Depth Range feature that's been around for a while but chances are that you've never seen anyone talk about it because it wasn't available for most of your photos. But that's...