The 12 Month Test

Have you ever looked back to things you did 10 years ago?

You should see some huge progress and changes, based on everything you’ve learnt, new tools or technologies and just growing as a person. But have you ever looked back just one year and revisited something? Like a “Remix” in music terms… 

Well, I did today and decided to apply a few new techniques and skills to a few shots I was already happy with. These were things I’ve learned through the lockdown and quiet moments when work ceased to exist. 

This photo shoot was with a good friend, Nicola, on an abandoned, locked-down Green Street in Leeds City Centre in Feb 2021.

As you can see, in 2021 , I went for quite a bold, contrasty, cool look on some of these photographs. A look, I still really like.

12 months on, I took a second look. Since Feb 2021, like you, I bet there are a few changes, like:- 

• New “tips” I’ve tried 
• YouTube videos I’ve watched (had a lot of time to absorb info this way in 2021!)
• New Tools I’ve invested in 
• Enhancements to existing tools
• Seen work which influenced me
• Ideas have changed.

So here are a few things which stand out….

Lightroom

Lightroom itself – Massively upgraded its masking capability. Plus Photoshop also got a “select subject” option, where we can now automatically get it to select what it thinks is the subject (and it’s usually right). 

In this case, it’s Nicola of course. Once selected, we can either change her or everything in the background. It’s completely revolutionised how you can work in Lightroom and the speed at which you can do things is amazing. 

The main use I’ve found is to create contrast:- 

• the contrast slider 
• contrasting Colour 
• Contrasting temperature
• contrasting texture 
• contrasting brightness

Luminosity Masking 

Another thing is using luminosity masks (mainly in Photoshop, but also in LIGHTROOM now) more frequently to help control specific brightnesses in a photograph. 

In some of the older edits, you will see I have created very dark, almost black areas.

I have brightened in the newer edits using a luminosity mask to select just the darkest parts. The burnt-out highlights are easily rescued using the same technique. 

Retouching Tools

I invested in a series of tools for retouching to help with a couple of time-consuming techniques –  like dodging burn and frequency separation. 

Both of these are advanced techniques that even high-end retouchers take hours over to created magazine cover standard skin and face edits. After watching quite a few dozen videos and investing many hundreds of pounds on these new tools, I’m really happy with how they speed up the process  

More advanced “Colour Management”

Calibration in Lightroom

these sliders have really changed how I use colour in Lightroom – put the “Blue Saturation” slider to the right, see what happens! 

Selective Colour in Photoshop

can be great if you want to manipulate specific colours. 

There are just a few things I’ve introduced into the workflow – what have you changed or learned in the last year? 

Take the 12-Month Test yourself

When you get a spare moment:- 

1. go back just 12 months and take a look at a photo you really like
2. Open the original RAW file in Lightroom.
3. Create a virtual copy 
4. Press CTRL+SHIFT+R to reset all the settings 
5. Start a new edit from scratch
6. Use the tools that weren’t available last year or any new skills. 
7. Don’t look back to the old photo until you’ve finished 

You’ve hopefully learnt a lot since then, so this should show you how you have grown in 12 months.

The Gallery