Digital Darkroom
by Michael Frye | Mar 4, 2025 | Digital Darkroom
Winter sunrise from Tunnel View, Yosemite NP, California
After all our travels, Claudia and I are back home. Yesterday I drove up to Yosemite Valley before sunrise, as a small storm was clearing.
Looking at the weather models the night before, I didn’t have high hopes for this sunrise. Although I thought there could be a light dusting of snow, it appeared the storm would clear in the middle of the night, which usually means the fog and mist will dissipate by morning. But I set my alarm for 4:00 a.m. just in case. And when I awoke I could see that clouds and scattered showers had lingered all night, so there should still be some mist. And it also looked like skies would start clearing shortly after sunrise. So no going back to bed – time to go!
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by Michael Frye | May 22, 2024 | Digital Darkroom, Video Tutorials
Rapid and reflections in the Colorado River, Grand Canyon NP, Arizona. The lower-right portion of this photograph had a large blemish caused by a water spot on the sensor. This would have been difficult to remove using traditional retouching tools in Lightroom or Photoshop, but took about five seconds with the new Generative-AI mode in Lightroom.
Yesterday Adobe announced significant upgrades to Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Camera Raw.
To me, the biggest news is the addition of “Generative AI” for retouching. This uses similar technology to Generative Fill in Photoshop, but isn’t designed to add or create things – only to remove objects. In fact Adobe changed the name of the Healing tool to the Remove tool.
Whatever you call it, Generative AI is a big leap forward in the retouching capabilities of Lightroom. It makes Lightroom almost as powerful as Photoshop for retouching, but unlike Photoshop it works in a completely flexible, non-destructive way. Generative AI does have some limitations, however, which I discuss below.
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by Michael Frye | Oct 19, 2023 | Digital Darkroom
Aspens and bigtooth maples, northern Utah. I used the new Point Color tool to tweak the originally dull-looking greens and yellows in this photo and make them more vibrant.
Last week Adobe launched major updates to Lightroom Classic (13.0), Lightroom Desktop (7.0), and Lightroom Mobile (9.0). The biggest new features are HDR editing, Point Color, and Lens Blur.
All of these new tools deserve their own post, but we just finished a workshop, and we’re still traveling, so for now I’m just going to explain a few of the salient features, and steer you to some more in-depth information.
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by Michael Frye | Apr 23, 2023 | Digital Darkroom, Video Tutorials
Lightroom’s Powerful New Denoise Tool
Adobe released major updates for Lightroom and Camera Raw last week (version 12.3 for Lightroom Classic, 6.3 for the cloud version or Lightroom, and 15.3 for Adobe Camera Raw). Lightroom Classic now has Curves in the Masking Panel, which I’ve been hoping to see for a long time. But I’ll talk about that later, because to me the most exciting news is the new AI-powered Denoise tool.
I’ve used most of the noise-reduction tools out there, but the new Denoise function in Lightroom and Camera Raw has quickly become my favorite. It’s not perfect, and it has limitations, but it’s performed minor miracles on some of my noisiest, most troublesome photos.
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by Michael Frye | Dec 18, 2022 | Announcements, Digital Darkroom
Sun setting over an alpine lake, Yosemite
I’m pleased to be joining the Winter Speaker Series on Nic Stover’s Nature Photography Classes site. The Winter Speaker Series will be focused on image processing, and includes online presentations by David Kingham, Nick Page, Sean Bagshaw, and me.
My talk will be about the Masking Panel and local adjustments in Lightroom Classic. The Masking Panel is incredibly powerful, allowing you make and combine selections in almost infinite ways, and add sophisticated touches to your images that you previously needed Photoshop for.
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by Michael Frye | Nov 3, 2022 | Digital Darkroom
Hoodoos in reflected light, Grand Staircase-Escalante NM, Utah. The new Object selection tool helped me select just the hoodoos, then invert that selection and subtly darken their surroundings.
After coming back from New Zealand I spent a few days at home, then headed up to the Oregon Coast to scout for our upcoming workshop. It’s been a busy month, but before the workshop starts I want to share some thoughts about that latest Lightroom update.
On October 24th Adobe announced major updates to Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Adobe Camera Raw. (The new version of Lightroom Classic is 12.0.) And I think it’s a big upgrade. To me, the most exciting new features for landscape photographers are the addition of a Content-Aware mode for the Healing tool (formerly the Spot Removal tool), and the new Object Selection tool in the Masking Panel.
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