The Long and Short of It. (and an Independence Day Special!)

Ten Mile Cloud ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

Both of these images were taken last night around sunset. They both began life as Fujifilm RAF raw files. But here's the difference. I edited the top image using the Essential tools in Luminar Neo, primarily Develop Raw which includes the usual tools you'd expect: exposure, shadows, highlights, curves, and so on, then added Structure (but only to the foreground, using brush mask), and Color to give some emphasis to the sunset colors, along with a slight bump of golden hour slider in the Landscape tool, and finally a vignette to complete the use of Essential tools. The entire edit took a little over 20 minutes.

But what if you're someone who'd rather be out and about taking pictures, and don't want to sit hunched over your keyboard, staring at the monitor, fiddling with sliders and keystrokes, and layers this and layers that? You're not a "professional" (or maybe you are, whatever). You just like to take pictures and you want them to look their best without wasting a lot of time with the technical stuff. Read on...

The bottom image took about 90 seconds from start to finish. One click on one of the Presets that are included with Luminar Neo... in this case I picked the "Clear and Sharp" preset from the "Essential Presets" pack. One click and it was near perfect. I opened the Develop tool and lifted the foreground shadows slightly, then painted a bit of extra Structure into the mountains. I opened the EnhanceAI tool and moved the slider just enough to activate the Sky slider to pop the clouds. Finally put in my "DG" signature layer and it was done. A completed edit in under 2 minutes. What's not to like? How about this: if you have several similar images taken at the same time, you can just right click on the edited image, select "copy adjustments", then highlight the new images, right click, select "paste adjustments", and Voilà! You might want to make some minor adjustments, but for the most part all your other images are edited, and ready to share to your online platforms, sent to the printer, or whatever floats your boat.

Now, jump below for a news flash...

Floridas ©Daniel Gauss/Shot On Site

 The Luminar Neo Summer Sale may be over, but that doesn't mean there's not another super offer out there.  Maybe some of you are aware that Skylum, the company behind Luminar Neo is located in Kiev, Ukraine. The fact that they can keep putting out this fantastic product and keep it updated in the middle of a war is nothing short of amazing. Obviously, independence is near and dear to them. They're also aware that it's our Independence Day in America, and in that spirit we have an Independence Day Promotion! 👈 (that's the link!). Get the Ultimate Plan Subscription for only $39 for the first year (rebills annually at $119). This price also includes 2 gift Preset Packs (remember what you learned about the Presets up there!☝).  I'm not sure if you can save an extra 10% with my checkout code, but it's certainly worth a try, right? Here it is: PHOTODAN

This promotion ends on Thursday morning (the 6th) at 7AM EDT!

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