The new Generative Workspace makes it easy and quick to generate ai images in Photoshop via firefly.

You can batch process bulk images as well as use variables. Check it out in the video.

Full written steps coming soon!

Colin

The post How to use Generative Workspace in Photoshop appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

(AKA Colin’s Gear Guide)

2024 is almost gone, but what isn’t, is all the exciting tech and gear we need to make our creative stuff.

I wanted to share all my favorite products of the year. Kind of a Colin Smith’s creative tech roundup kind of thing. There are some that I included last year, that are in here again, Why? Because some are so good

Now, the criteria for this isn’t just a bunch of things I’ve seen other people use. This is tech so good, I actually own and use everyday (where applicable, I mean, I don’t use a gimbal or 360 camera every day. But when I do, these is the ones I prefer.). There were some products that didn’t make the grade, which I returned or they are gathering dust somewhere. When I replace a piece of gear, I usually research and test many options before adopting it. Full disclosure, some of these were given to me and others I purchased myself. If it’s not the best of class I’m not including it, even if it was given to me, so this isn’t a sponsored post, it’s my unbiased opinion. (I’ll add a little asterisk * by the products given to me, so that you know). Most of these I have reviewed throughout this year and I’ll link to those reviews.

This is purely my opinion and based on my hands-on experience. Yes, there will be “what about xyz products?” and these might not be included because I haven’t had hands on experience with them, so I won’t make blind recommendations. I think you get the idea, so please don’t fill up the comments with “what about” posts 🙂

Alright, let’s go!

Best Laptop

Apple 2024 16″ MacBook Pro M4 MAX 64Gb

The 16″ MacBook Pro is a great laptop. It features a large clear screen and lots of ports including a SD card reader. The Apple silicon chip generates very little heat and is super power efficient. Even the earlier M1 and M2 chips still hold up as far as speed goes. With Apple, there is always balance of power and budget and I recommend this configuration as maximizing power without going completely overboard with price. This is a higher end setup, but you will also be happy with a lower tier for less money. Also consider the M2 Mac Studio for a desktop machine.

Review.

Best Monitor

BenQ 32″ SW321C Photographers IPS Monitor.*

This monitor is very pleasant to look at with extreme care given to color accuracy and color management. It supports 99% Adobe RGB. It comes with a puck to change color modes as needed. I can go between Adobe RGB, sRGB and Rec.709 in an instant. It comes with a hood to protect it from glare and color contamination. The stand allows for adjustment of height and angle, as well as rotation. This is the monitor sitting right in front of me most days.

Get it here

buy it here

Best Monitor for a Creative Pro on Mac

PD3225U

The PD3225U is a great 32″ 4K monitor with HDR. With a high contrast ratio and color syncing with Macs, this is an ideal monitor for Mac mini, Mac Studio and and external display for MacBook Pro, thanks to KVM mode.

Review

Buy 

Best Pro Monitor on a Budget

BenQ PD2706UA

This monitor has a crisp clear 4K display. It also comes with some great features live KVM mode and an articulating arm. You can quickly adjust the height, angle and even flip between vertical and horizontal displays quickly.  Check out my full review in this little beauty. This is currently my 2nd monitor on my desktop for daily use.

Review

Buy

Mirrorless Camera (Video)

Sony A7SIII

I went ahead and purchased the Sony A1, the only reason I didn’t include it here, is the price, its not the range of everyone.

I would take a look at the A74 which I would have purchased if I didn’t have the A1.

But for video, the Sony A7sIII is a clear choice, and the camera many have been waiting a long time for. It’s a full frame, low light beast. Shoots H.264 and H.265 and capable of 10-bit video. It can shoot up to 120F/s at 4k and can even output uncompressed RAW through its HDMI. The in body stabilization is amazing, no limit on recording time and has dual slots that can take either SD or CFExpress cards (on both slots). Auto focus is super fast and accurate and it support various log modes. Very importantly for solo shooters, it has a proper articulating flip out screen, which has touch. This is everything we were hoping for and the footage is beautiful at 15 stops of dynamic range. I’m in love with the footage on this camera.

► Buy it here

REVIEW here

Dongle/Dock

Hyperdrive Thunderbolt 4 Dock

I have one of these on my desktop right now. When you have a computer with limited ports (looking at you Apple) you have the option to live that dongle life, or you can use a dock that has it all. The best part is the dock can stay attached to all your peripherals and connect to your MacBook pro or another Thunderbolt 4 equipped computer through a single TB4 cable.

The Thunderbolt 4 Dock is designed for enterprise businesses, PC gamers and video editors looking for an advanced connectivity solution that delivers maximum bandwidth and epic display resolutions. It features two Thunderbolt 4 Downstream ports capable of 40Gbps data transfers and 32G PCIe transfers, and one Thunderbolt 4 Upstream port that provides up to 96W Power Delivery charging for your host device.

Additionally, enjoy gaming and video editing like never before with dual 6K 60Hz display support through HDMI or Thunderbolt, an ultra-fast 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet connection, and high-resolution audio with the ability to choose between lifelike 8K 60Hz resolution or 4K 120Hz resolution to ensure faster rendering with less blur.

Get it here

Portable Hard Drive

Samsung 4TB T7 Shield Portable SSD

These tiny drives are ultra fast and small. I have found these drives very reliable and they don’t require separate power plugs. They are also great value for money.

Get it here

Card Reader

Sony MRW-G2 CFExpress (Type A) Card Reader

This card reader can read up to 10 Gb/s and comes with USB C and USB A cables. It works with CF Express (A)  and SD cards. It’s fast and a solid build.

Get it here

If you just need an inexpensive USB-C SD and Micro SD reader, look no further than

UNI USB-C SD / MicroSD Card Reader 

BEST GIMBAL

DJI RS4 Pro

The newest DJI Ronin gimbal, now called RS4 is very similar to previous RS3. The arms are carbon Fiber, the battery detaches to charge without having to be attached. It can be used in briefcase mode, it has locking axes (makes it easy to balance) carries a heavier payload and breaks down into a very small footprint. The inbuilt screen provides access to enough functionality, that you can use the gimbal without having to attach a smartphone for quick shoots.  If you get the pro bundle (I highly recommend you do) you get a mechanical focus to work on any lens and the amazing Raven Eye. Raven eye connects to the app wirelessly and provides remote control over the gimbal movement including a responsive mimic and automatic face tracking. This is now my favorite gimbal, hands down. This is how you get cinematic smooth footage while walking or moving the camera around a subject.

Buy it here

See my setup video for the full Pro bundle 

Best Mobile Phone Gimbal

Insta 360 Flow

The Insta360 Flow is a handheld, pocket-sized gimbal that is designed to stabilize your smartphone camera while you are on the go. The device features a three-axis gimbal that provides stability on the pan, tilt, and roll axis, ensuring that your footage remains smooth and steady, even if you are moving around. This makes it perfect for capturing footage while walking, running, or engaging in other activities where it may be difficult to hold your phone steady.

One of the standout features of the Insta360 Flow is its portability. The device is small enough to fit in your pocket, making it easy to carry with you wherever you go. This means that you always have access to stable footage, even if you don’t have a bulky camera or tripod with you. It also features Deep track, an ai powered smart tracking, that follows the subject, even if they disappear behind obstacles for a few seconds.

See my review here

Tiny Camera

Check out the amazing Insta 360 GO3.

Action camera with a flip up screen that transforms into a tiny remote camera. It’s amazing all the things you can do with this, It has a magnetic mounting system and this camera can go where other camera can’t. Allowing for unique shots.

See review here

Best 360 Camera

Insta360 ONE X4*

The quality of this little 360 camera is amazing, and with the app you can recompose video in post to make it look like the camera is moving around. Miss nothing by capturing the entire scene at once. To boot, it has the best stabilization out of any camera I tested including the goPro.

See review

Buy it here

Best Smartphone

Google Pixel 9 pro*

REVIEW

As far as innovation, the Google Pixel 9 pro wins this year. The screen is gorgeous, the 3 cameras are best in class. All 3 shoot RAW with up to 50mp. Also features an updated Google Tensor2 chip. Comes with 7 years of updates and new features. This phone also features best-in class ai onboard with Google Gemini.

Honorable Mention iPhone 16 pro.

The iPhone is obviously a solid contender, with easily the best integration between hardware and software. World-class cameras and best of class video. The reason I’m not making it phone of year is because of the slow and lackluster ai integration. Apple are advertising Apple Intelligence pretty hard, but it’s not fully integrated yet and what is there, feels half baked. I’ll update this once Apple fully rolls out their ia.

Microphone

Sure SM7B

This thing is industry standard for podcasts and desktop recording for a reason. The sound quality and rugged reliability is legendary. All my tutorials are recorded with this mic. I also use a Scarlett solo for the USB interface. Because this is a dynamic mic and not a condenser, it may need a little boost, so I use a Cloudlifter.

Photo Software

Adobe Photoshop 2025

Do I really need to explain why Photoshop is the best image editing software? It’s the industry standard for a reason. Review

Adobe Lightroom Classic 14 (2024)

Lightroom is the best tool for working with lots of photos. Use it to organize your photos, edit them and deliver in many ways. I have always been a fan of the quality edits I can make to my photos in Lightroom and it handles panoramas and HDR better than just about anything out there. It works with 3rd party plugins so you can extend its functionality. Review

Best Music for your Videos

Epidemic Sound, the right songs, the right license at the right price. need I say more? You can download the entire song, or stems.

Get it here

Graphics Tablet

Wacom Intuos Pro M*

Wacom is head and shoulders above all others when it comes to pressure sensitive input from a stylus. If you have ever used a Wacom tablet, you will realize these is a reason it’s what almost all the pros use. The feel is the closest you will get to pencil on paper, with no lag and lightweight pen that doesn’t need batteries. The latest Intuos Pro now supports 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity, which allows even the lightest touch to register and not turn into a dotted line (as almost everything else does). It has built in Bluetooth or USB-C connectivity, so you can choose how to connect. I find the medium to be the “goldilocks” in sizes. It’s large enough to provide the precision and real-estate for drawing and not too large as to hog your desk space. For retouchers the Wacom tablet is a necessary tool, not an accessory. I sure couldn’t create the imagery I do without one and the latest release is worth the upgrade with the Pro pen2, metal back and high level of sensitivity. review

get it here

Color Management

X-Rite Color checker Passport photo 2*

For perfect color, you need a reliable source with known colors to calibrate your photos. Take a shot with the passport in frame,  create a color profile that works in Lightroom or ACR and all your photos are looking good with lifelike color

Buy here

X-Rite Color checker Passport video*

You need to calibrate your video too and this is the solution.

Buy here

X-Rite Color checker XL*

If you are serious about color management, you probably already have an X-Rite color checker. This card enables you to have known colors when you shoot. This enables you to dial in correct colors when you are editing the color of your photos or video. There was a problem with the color checker though. If you are flying a drone or using 360 Cameras, the chart was a little small to get a good reading sometimes. Enter the XL (For Extra Large). As an Xrite Coloratti, I was involved in testing the XL and providing real-world feedback. Not only was it amazing for drone work, but I love it in the studio. I use this to calibrate my cameras, Its nice and large, has true blacks, whites and gray tones as well as skin tone and primaries. The larger size enables me to double it up as a take-off pad for my drone, bonus! see it here

The Best Drone

DJI Mavic 3 Classic

It’s going to take a lot to beat the Mavic 3. Why? This little drone is amazing. It’s the drone I’ve always wanted. It’s portable and easy to travel with and has great range and battery life. This in itself isn’t enough though. I really need the sharpest high resolution photos and video and the onboard Hasselblad camera brings this. The Classic provides the same quality as the 3 Pro with a single camera for a more affordable price.

Review

Mavic 3 Classic Review

Get it here

Smaller Drone

DJI MINI 4 pro

I don’t have a mini 4 pro, but I love the mini 3 pro, see my review here

Wireless Charging

Apple Magsafe Duo wireless charging.

This 3 in one wireless charger I recommended last year broke. I replaced it with this Apple one which folds up into a small footprint and charges quickly and reliably. Be warned though, this charger doesn’t come with a charging brick, so you will have to shell out extra on tip of this already expensive piece of gear.

Get it here

Screen Calibrartion

Calibrate Display Plus*

This is the best device for calibrating your monitor for accurate color. The Display plus now supports a wider color gamut and can also calibrate HDR monitors.

BEST CONSTANT LIGHTS

Luxli Timpani 1×1 RGB LED Light Panel (2-Light Travel Kit)

I have recently been turned onto these lights. I shot my ebike review with them, if you want to quickly see the quality.

What I love about them, They are bright and consistent. You can adjust the color temp to match existing lights, or go into RGB mode and dial in almost any color you like. They are sturdy and well built. Many light panel have weak yokes, but not these. They come configured as a convenient kit that includes a sturdy travel bag that will protect them for years to come.

PS, I currently use a Gitzo tripod as well as Siri and Vanguard.

My favorite bags right now are Think Tank Airport and Hex Cinema Backpack.

Ok, that’s it for now. If there is a category that I have excluded, drop a comment and I’ll see what I can do to expand this gear guide.

Thanks for checking this out.

Great to see you here at the CAFE!

Colin

Click here to buy the products in one place from B&H Photo.

(I will earn a commission from these links, so I appreciate your support of the CAFE.)

The post Best tech in 2024 for Creative Pros – PhotoshopCAFE picks appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

This tutorial is looking at Adobe’s newest app, Substance 3D viewer. This app can integrate with Photoshop (I’m working on that tutorial next). Substance viewer can be used to apply textures and enviroments to 3D model and position them for placement into photoshop. Substance viewer also has the ability to generate actual 3D models from text prompts. This actually came out of one the sneaks at Adobe Max in 2023. This is a Quick Look, watch the video for more in-depth feature walk through.

Substance viewer is currently in beta and available for free.

How to Gert Substance 3D viewer

go to the Creative Cloud ap.

Click on beta.

You will see Substance 3D viewer.

Download it to your Mac or PC.

Once you launch Substance 3D viewer, you’ll see a welcome screen.

Ill go over all the features in another tutorial, let’s look at the Generative ai capabilities in this tut.

Click in the top right thumbnail that says: Create 3D model with text prompts.

You’ll see 2 options on the left. Choose text to 3D

Type in rotary telephone and generate.

This is an actual 3D model that can be tumbled and scaled.

It may not look like an amazing 3D model, but it serves a very important purpose for Generative ai.

Up until now, you have been able to generate with text prompts and reference images. You can sort of get what you want, but you are limited by existing photos.

With 3D, you now have the ability of get exactly the angles you want, by positioning the 3D model. I really think, this will become a very important part of generative ai in the future.

We can now. choose 3D model to image. Add your desired prompts and let the 3D model guide the main object.

phone on wooden desk. This phone, looks very similar to the 3D model, but this is now a rendered image.

Change the prompt to say plastic phone.

You can adjust the sensitivity to determine how closely you want to match the 3D object.

You can also bring in your own 3D models.

Here is a model of a DC3 that I created in Blender and exported as an .obj.

If you want, you can also apply a texture to your model using the materials. I’ll do another tut on that.

Now, I can enter a text prompt and use the 3D model that I built by hand.

Airplane at airfield.

And an image is generated to match the 3D model. Yes, its still got a ways to go, because it wanted to turn this into a jetted its far from perfect, but I like the direction it’s heading.

There are different ways we can generate too. If we choose Generate a new Look for my Model, it will make a texture for the model

You cn see it here. It’s still trying to make a jet engine, but it’s impressive that it was able to texture this well. If you have ever made UV textures for 3D models, you know how hard it is.

Let’s use a more simple model provided by Adobe.

Lets use this toaster.

We can generate an isolated subject with texture. This can be useful for compositing. I’ll show you how to bring this back into Photoshop in the next tutorials in this series.

We can add a prompt and generate a realistic image of breakfast in the kitchen from this 3D model.

I hope you found this intro to Substance Viewer interesting and useful.

Let me know, if you want to see more tut on this. (Im planning on doing one on Substance Viewer and Photoshop integration.)

Thanks

Colin

PS Don’t forget to follow us on Social Media for more tips..

• Instagram
• Youtube.
• facebook
• twitter

(I've been posting some fun Instagram and Facebook Stories lately)
You can get my free Layer Blending modes ebook along with dozens of exclusive Photoshop Goodies here

The post How to Generate 3D with Generative ai in Adobe’s free Substance viewer appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

In this real-world speed test, we will find out how well the MacBook Pro M4 Max handles Photoshop as well as Premiere Pro

Here are the specs on the machines we are going to compare.

We will test a number of increasingly difficult tasks with Photoshop. We will also test rendering and encoding speeds in Premiere Pro.

The questions are

1. Is the M4 fast enough to warrant un upgrade? Or is your current machine sufficient.

2. How well do these machines perform against each other.

I hope you enjoy these tests. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Colin

PS Don’t forget to follow us on Social Media for more tips..

• Instagram
• Youtube.
• facebook
• twitter

(I've been posting some fun Instagram and Facebook Stories lately)
You can get my free Layer Blending modes ebook along with dozens of exclusive Photoshop Goodies here

The post MacBook Pro M4 MAX, speed test with Photoshop 2025 and Premiere Pro appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

Its that time of the year for the big upgrades. Big, as in they get full version numbers. Generally many beta features are now promoted to full features and new ones added.

There are a lot of performance improvements in LRC this time around and if you have modern computer, you should notice them. Modern, because more stuff is pushed to GPU.

The first thing you will need to do, is upgrade your catalog when you first launch.

This brings us to the first new feature, which is an unseen one. Lightroom automatically creates a backup of your old catalog now.

Another “small” but big to some people (I’m one of them) the long-awaited ability to easily rename your catalog. I know, I know, why did that take so long?

Now, when you rename your catalog, all the supporting files will be renamed including the ability to rename the parent folder. No more Lightroom_199_main-v13-3_v6_really_the_new_updated_2023_update filenames!

You can see everything is now renamed. You can also delete your old catalogs as you can see the names clearly now. (Tip: Before deleting old catalogs, I suggest moving them to a different folder and make sure everything works on the new catalogs before emptying out the old ones).

Choose Photoshop version

This isn’t new, but I want to include it because I am asked this ALL the time.

If you go to settings, you can choose the version of Photoshop  (regular or Beta) to edit in from the External Editing tab. If this doesn’t work, launch the version of Photoshop you want to work in first. Then when you choose edit in Photoshop, it should go to the correct one.

Remove Tool updates

Same as in ACR the ai remove tool is updated.

You can circle select

It will detect the shape, you can keep painting to add other objects, or hold alt/Option and paint to remove from the selection.

Click on remove

And it does a great job. Use variations arrow to choose the best one.

You can also scribble select to tell Lightroom which object you want to select for removal.

It works quite well.

And a bit more clean up

done.

This works best in smaller areas on images that you will print, because the resolution isn’t large enough for areas bigger than 1024 px x 1024 px at a time. You can safely using it on multiple small areas to eventually encompass a larger area. If you are sharing them smaller for social media, it mostly doesn’t matter as much.

Tethered Capture updates for Nikon.

Nikon shooter rejoice! The same snazzy new tethering that was added for Sony is now here for Nikon. Expect drastically faster and more reliable performance when your Nikon camera is tethered.

Content Credentials

Content credentials allow you to add your information and links to your socials into your photographs. You can have the info on the Cloud, attached to your images or both. Now people can find and contact you if they like your images.

This is optional, and you can choose what info to include.

Noise Reduction. Denoise

The ai denoise for RAW photos is out of beta (early access)

Look at this noisy image.

Choose Denoise

You will see a preview

Without denoise

With

As you can see it does a terrific job.

Unlike in ACR, this is still using the earlier version of denoise, which creates a new file. Hopefully the new beta version of denoise in ACR makes it way over, but nevertheless it works really well.

HDR update Gain Map

Lightroom Classic has been getting HDR updates for a while now and I’ve made tutorials about them and told you about each update.

If you have an HDR enabled monitor, you can see HDR images have more detail in the highlights and look more vibrant and realistic. (you will notice this on the XDR phones and HDR TVs as well).

If you turn on SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) previews you can adjust the output for non HDR (High Dynamic Range) screens.

You may have wondered what happened to the 2 versions? Is it just a simulation? Now with Gain Maps, when you create an HDR image, both versions are included and the viewer will be shown the correct version depending on their display. You have to choose a compatible file format, such as Jpeg XL. You will enable HDR output. I should mention, a regular (SDR) photo won’t be magically converted to an HDR image. And, no (as I’ve been saying for YEARS) you cant process the same image differently and merge them together to get HDR images, you will just get a heavily tone mapped SDR image. I have written and made videos extensively about HDR if you need to get up to speed. 

Extended displays on additional monitors now support HDR as well, this is a good new feature for people using multiple HDR displays.

There you have it, those are the big new features in Lightroom Classic. Check out the video above to see them all in action,. as well as mention of a couple more smaller ones.

Thanks for checking it out

Colin

PS Don’t forget to follow us on Social Media for more tips..

• Instagram
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(I've been posting some fun Instagram and Facebook Stories lately)
You can get my free Layer Blending modes ebook along with dozens of exclusive Photoshop Goodies here

The post New Features Lightroom Classic 2025. LRC 14 appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

Design and Features:

The MX Creative Console consists of two parts: a dial and a keypad. The dial is made of high-precision, low-carbon aluminum and has friction bearings. It feels really nice to use and is very precise. The keypad has nine full-color LCD buttons, adjustable brightness, and two paging buttons. You can use the keypad to access different tools and functions in your creative applications.

The MX Creative Console is also very comfortable to use. The dial and keypad are separate units, so they can be placed together, or separately to suit your personal work space and style. To me, this is the killer feature that makes it so much more usable than previous consoles.  The keypad can also be used flat or with the included stand. You can also tuck the cable away, so it doesn’t get in your way.

Software:

The MX Creative Console comes with a new application called Options+. This application allows you to customize the dial and keypad to your liking. You can also create different profiles for different applications. There are profiles that you can download for free on the marketplace to get you going right away.

Functionality:

The MX Creative Console is a very versatile device. You can use it to adjust different parameters in your creative applications, such as brush size, hardness, and flow. You can also use it to create adjustment layers and other effects. The MX Creative Console also works with a variety of different applications, including Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premiere Pro.

Value:

The MX Creative Console is less expensive than I expected, coming in at $199 USD.  It also comes with a 3-month all-apps subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, which almost covers the cost of the console! This 3 month sub, even applies to existing subscribers.

Conclusion:

The MX Creative Console is a fantastic new input device that can help you be more productive. It is well-designed, comfortable to use, and has a ton of features that will save you time and effort. I highly recommend it to anyone who uses a computer for creative work.

Additional Notes:

• The MX Creative Console is compatible with both Windows and macOS.
• The MX Creative Console requires a USB-C port to connect to your computer.
• The MX Creative Console comes in 2 colors, graphite (the unit I reviewed) and pale gray

I hope this review is helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Watch the video to see it in action.

Buy MX Creative Console Here, this is an affiliate link and you support the efforts here at PhotoshopCAFE by using this link, and you still get the 3 months of Creative Cloud on this link.

Note, Logitech sponsored the YouTube video, but this website review is not included in the sponsorship.

The post Logitech MX Creative Console, almost free for Adobe Creative Cloud Users appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

First of all, this isn’t a sponsored review. I bought the drone myself. I borrowed the RC and Goggles from BH Photo (Which I don’t get to keep).

Buy DJI Neo here. 
(affiliate link, you support PhotoshopCAFE with this link, you still pay the lowest price). 

• The biggest thing about this inexpensive drone $199 in the US, it the different ways it can be used and flown.
• You can use it without a controller and it can do a bunch of ai shots and get flying in seconds, great for 2nd camera and B roll. 
• You can use it with a mobile phone for more features and you can use the phone as a controller.
• You can use the DJI Rc N3 or N2. This allows it to fly like a regular drone, think a mini. The range extends to 7km and the speed is similar to other drones, especially in sport mode. It zips.
• It can be used with Goggles 3 and Motion controller. Now it flys as a full FPV drone, just like a Avata.

Because of the flexibility, its. great trainer drone, and you can learn FPV or RC flying without having to worry about damage or injury while you are learning the ropes. The drone is really difficult to break and won’t injure anyone, because it’s so light and small. The prop guards protect your fingers and body for harm. Only the tiniest of fingers could Gert in past the prop guards, so still be careful if there are little ones around.

Pros:

• Very safe and easy to fly
• Great for beginners
• Affordable
• Can be flown indoors or outdoors
• Has a range of about 100 feet
• Can fly for about 20 minutes on a single charge
• Has a built-in camera that can take photos and 4k videos

Cons:

• Does not have obstacle avoidance
• Only shoots in JPEG format, photos aren’t great, they are usable, but not as good as RAW photos. The video is pretty decent though and the stabilization is good.

Overall:

I would highly recommend the DJI Neo drone to anyone who is looking for a safe and affordable way to get into drone flying. It is a great way to learn how to fly a drone before moving on to more expensive models. The DJI Neo is also a lot of fun to fly and can be used for a variety of purposes.

Additional notes:

• The DJI Neo is compatible with the RC-N3 and DJI Goggles3, which allows you to fly the drone in first-person view.
• The DJI Neo is also compatible with the DJI Motion Controller, which allows you to control the drone with your hand gestures.

I hope this review is helpful!

The post DJI NEO Review, 4 drones in 1, ultimate beginner drone and ultimate trainer drone appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

Hi everyone!

Last week we looked at the new auto remove people and auto remove power lines in Photoshop. Currently in Photoshop beta, see how to get the Photoshop BETA here. 

I had a few comments saying the wire removal was too easy, because it had a simple background.

This week, we try the remove tool on a number of challenging images, and I really try to break it. Let’s see how well it does, shall we? We go through each image in the video, let’s see what the challenge is on each image.

This is a a clear sky, simple background, but there are a lot of wires.

This appears simple. But, I wonder how it will manage the contrails in the sky. Will it think they are wires too?

More complex wires

The downed wires have a difficult background with the trees

This night shot has mixed low light and low contrast lighting, as well as haze and flares.

Maybe the ai isn’t trained as well on an aerial view.

Then, lastly, we will unleash the Kraken! Can it fix this impossible image?

Check out the video and see how well Photoshop can remove these power lines using the new ai wire Remove tool.

People asked about a second pass, so I tried that too and made a 1 min video here

Good to see you here.

Colin

PS Don’t forget to follow us on Social Media for more tips..

• Instagram
• Youtube.
• facebook
• twitter

(I've been posting some fun Instagram and Facebook Stories lately)
You can get my free Layer Blending modes ebook along with dozens of exclusive Photoshop Goodies here

The post Testing ai Remove power lines in Photoshop, how good is it? appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

This is a 32″ 4k Thunderbolt, IPS black panel with 2000:1 contrasts ratio.
It supports HDR 10 and HDR 400 and is 400 nits brightness.
It contains a USB HUB which reduces clutter and allows you to daisy chain multiple monitors together with a single USBC cable.
It also has KVM (Keyboard, Video and mouse). This enables you to connect a MacBook Pro, MacStudio, Mac mini, PC, or even iPad through a single cable and use it as a dock.
Check out my video to see more about this monitor, to see if it might be a fit for your needs.

Buy it here (and support us here at the cafe, You don’t pay more, but we make a small commission off the affiliate link)

Thanks

Colin

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This tutorial in an overview of the newest Lightroom Classic features released this morning by Adobe. This tutorial shows you how to use the main new features in classic. Remember these are also in ACR, with the exception of Sony Tethered shooting. I’ll make more tutorials in the future and go more in depth on the relevant features.

Generative Remove (All Lightroom versions /Adobe Camera RAW)

If you go to the remove panel and choose the eraser option, you’ll see a box that says generative ai. The remove tool with use Generative fill when you have this option on. With it off, you can still use the tool in the old way. In the old way, it works well for smaller areas and doesn’t need cloud access.

Let’s test out Generative AI remove.

Paint over an area to remove. I’m removing the light stand.

The red shows the selected area. We have Object aware on, so it also detects the object we want to select, so your selections can be rough.

Once you paint, you will get the refinement, where you can add or remove brush strokes. (Hold Ctrl/Cmd key while applying to skip this option).

I added a little bit to the bottom left of the light stand.

Click the apply button in the remove panel to apply the Generative ai

As you can see, it did a superb job.

Click on Variations to cycle through 3 variations, just like Gen fill in Photoshop.

Just to test how well this works, let’s select our model. No, in real-life, we wouldn’t generally be removing the model, but this is a test, just to see if it can.

Click apply

Look at that. Pretty amazing!

Tethered Capture with Sony Cameras

I feel like hell froze over. Yes, we now have Sony cameras joining Canon and Nikon! Very unexpected (Sony are very tight on their APIs). And yet, very cool. See the Adobe sire for the supported cameras, just the newest ones right now.

I am using a Sony Alpha 1 (A1) to test this feature.

How to set up Sony Alpha cameras for Lightroom Tethered shooting

There are some settings you need to change on the camera for this to work.

Network>Smartphone Connect>Smartphone Connection>OFF

Network>Transfer/Remote>PC Remote Function>Connect Method>USB

Network>Transfer/Remote>PC Remote Function>PC Remote>ON

Once the camera is setup, plug in the USB-C cable from the camera to your computer.

Choose File>Tethered Capture>Start Tethered Capture

Start the tethered shoot

Choose the Session name and the location where the images will be saved.

Click ok

When your camera is detected, you’ll see a tether bar where you can change the settings and remote shoot by clicking the shutter button. You can, of course change the settings and shoot directly from the camera too.

If you click Live, a window will open where you get a live view from the camera.

From what I experienced, the shooting speed was faster than I expected, and very snappy transfer of the 50mp images, with very little lag. I did notice a but more lag when using the onscreen shutter button vs the physical shutter button on the camera. Another nice surprise, if I turned the camera off, I was able to reconnect without restarting the tether session. something I was not able to do with a Canon camera while tethered to Lightroom. I hope these newly updated settings in tethered shooting make it to Canon and Nikon too.

Updated Lens Blur

I’m not going to go too in-depth with Lens blur here because I already have a detailed tutorial on it here. 

We will touch on its functionality and then focus on the new features. Lens Blur is no longer an Early Access, it’s a finished feature now.

When you click on apply, Lightroom detects the subject and builds a depth map. It uses this to blur the background, or the foreground if you prefer. If there is already a depth map (smartphone shot in portrait mode), Lightroom will use this.

Turn on Visualize depth to see the depth map.

Darker colors are further away from the viewer, whereas lighter colors are closer.

The focal range now has Near and Far labels on the slider, as well as numbers. The bar on the left was added by me as a way to show the depth map..

Use the sliders (shown on the video, and the linked tutorial) to refine your depth map and adjust your bokeh and blur.

Syncing Lens Blur

The Lens blur can now be included in presets. These are called adaptive presets, because they will automatically adapt for the image and choose a unique subject for each and apply the preset settings.

When you copy the settings (Copy settings or Sync) you will see Lens Blur is now included.

Let’s choose a different photo of the cab in NYC.

Let’s paste the settings

Notice how the background is now blurred

The area in the window is missed.

You can easily modify the Lens blur settings after a preset has been used, or you copy or sync settings.

Simply go to lens blur, choose the blur refinement brush and paint in the wood to include it.

Alright!

Other features include a “Exported” label. This works in the attributes filter, in Smart Collections and collection that allow you to filter images by those that have been previously exported. There is also an alt tag and description filed added to the meta data.

Let me know in the Comments, which features you would like to see me go deeper into.

I hope this was useful!

Colin

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