Nigel Waters

There are many different methods that can be employed to reduce the amount of noise in your images but I have always found it easier to reduce noise in Photoshop.  The debate on How to reduce noise in Photoshop and best software for removing noise will always be there as new and existing software continues to develop and become more sophisticated.

Photoshop is just one of many excellent packages out there and I have tried most of them but I always end up going back to adobe.  I think it is mainly because I am just used to using it so much and find it frustrating using other packages and therefore I have focused this around Photoshop as these are the methods I use on my own photographs.

Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) in Photoshop and Lightroom have very capable noise reduction software built in but there are some other great options out there which I will also compare and explain why I use them.  What I like about these software packages is that they can be used directly as a plugin from within both Photoshop and Lightroom or used as stand alone if preferred.  

Over the years as software has improved along with the quality of images modern day cameras produce I have had to change and modify my processing workflow with regards to removing noise.  Before I outline the methods I use and what I feel is the best I must stress I am not affiliated with any of the software outline here in any way and all packages have been purchased at full price with my own money.

My opinions and thoughts are based on real trials and usage on my own images over long periods of time and in some cases even years.

How to reduce noise using Adobe Camera Raw within Photoshop.

There are several tools within ACR that can both affect and control noise and these can be found in the “Details” tab.  Before you do this I would suggest creating a duplicate layer so any alterations are none destructive to the original image. (Shortcut Cmd & J on Mac)

Adobe Camera Raw can be accessed from the Filter Menu > Camera Raw Filter.  Once opened select Detail icon from the right panel.

This suite of tools is grouped into two sub categories with each set having their own control sliders, Sharpening and Noise Reduction.

Noise reduction is split into two further groups

1. Luminance – Additional 2 Sliders for Luminance Detail & Luminance Contrast
2. Colour – Additional 2 Sliders for Colour Detail and Colour Smoothness

Note: These sliders are the same in Lightroom and function in exactly the same way.

Sharpening Tool

One very important note to understand here and that is that sharpening adds noise, so it is important to set correctly and not over cook it.  This group is made up of 4 variable sliders

• Amount: This controls the overall amount of the following 3 variables when sharping is applied.
• Radius: Controls the size (radius) of the sharpening effect around the edges you are sharpening.
• Detail: Controls the sharpening algorithm used.  A value of 0 uses Unsharp Mask where 100 uses Deconvolution.  Any values in between uses a blend between the two algorithms.
• Masking: Creates a mask that limits sharpening to areas of details when set to a value greater than one.

Luminance Noise Reduction

Of all the sliders within the details tab I find this set of Luminance Sliders the most critical in reducing noise and where I spend most of the time tweaking to find the best values to give the required result of reduction.

• Luminance:  This controls the overall amount of the following 2 variables when noise reduction is applied.
• Luminance Detail:  This slider is very similar to masking in the sharpening tool where it controls the illuminance level of pixels that should not have any noise reduction applied. Setting a smaller value will produce less noise reduction (Slider to the left) where as a higher value will increase the amount noise reduction (Slider to the right).
• Luminance Contrast:  This will help to recover contrast lost to the noise reduction applied above and should be increased sparingly to recover as much as possible without increasing noise and artificial artefacts in your image.

Colour Noise Reduction

I rarely have to use these sliders unless I really push my ISO in low light situations with plenty of colour and in most cases leave them at default.

• Colour:  Controls the overall Colour Noise reduction of the following two 2 sliders in the same way as Luminance above for Luminance Noise Reduction.
• Colour Detail:  This slider is very similar to masking in the sharpening tool and Luminance Detail where it controls the colour of pixels that should not have any noise reduction applied.  You can reduce this value to try and minimise any colour fringing around bright objects but I prefer to use other methods to combat this.  High values will remove too much colour from around the edges and I find it gives me too much of a halo effect in many cases.
• Colour Smoothness:  This slider smooths out colour over large areas but can create a blotchy effect if reduced too low.  I have used this to smooth out colour in nightscapes such as Astro Glow but it can dull the colour around finer detail and lose a little tonal contrast.  Like the above slider I rarely change this and find the default value the best.

Workflow for reducing noise using Photoshop and Lightroom

1. Set radius to a minimum of 0.5
2. Set Detail to a Maximum of 100 for Deconvolution sharpening.
3. Set Masking to a minimum of 0
4. Adjust Amount slider until you find the best result.
5. Set Luminance slider to a very high value to help visualise the effects of the luminance detail and contrast sliders.
6. Adjust Luminance Detail slider to find optimum detail level
7. Adjust Luminance Contrast slider to find best contrast level
8. Reduce Luminance Slider to find overall optimum balance and level.

The same process can be followed for colour noise reduction starting with setting the Colour slider high and balancing the final two sliders but as previously mentioned usually I leave at default levels unless required.

The benefit of using this method is that there are no additional costs involved as it comes part of Photoshop and Lightroom software packages.  One of the main reasons I prefer to carry out noise reduction in photoshop is that I can be very selective on where I want to reduce noise within an image by using luminosity masks.  This is an extremely powerful method of selection masking and what I always use to reduce noise in my Nightscape images.  A further benefit to using Photoshop is using ACR on duplicate layers where the overall effect can easily be controlled by reducing the opacity to get the desired level you feel comfortable with.

Another big advantage to using this method in Lightroom is the ability to batch process your images.  This is extremely useful if you have taken a series of images using the same camera settings like continuous burst mode of maybe a bird taking flight.  In lightroom you can adjust these settings the same as in Photoshop but with the bonus of being able to copy these settings to all the other images allowing batch processing.  This can seriously reduce your processing time if you have many images to process and when I use the functions in Lightroom.

To show results and do a fair comparison between methods I have used a single image of a Red Kite I took with a relatively high ISO.  It is worth noting this was taken with a full frame camera so the noise is slightly lower than what you would expect from a crop sensor.

This is a the resulting image using ACR in Photoshop to remove noise.

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You can see that the noise has been reduced in the sky but has also softened the detail in the bird.  I could get round this by masking and using different levels for the bird and clean up the overall image but I wanted to show the effect straight out of ACR for a fair comparison.

I have used this method for years but it is time consuming balancing all the levels to give the optimum finished level of noise reduction and replaced this noise reduction method with the following method a fair few years ago.

Nik Collection Dfine now by DXO

I have been processing my images using this method for over the last 4 years and is probably the method I use most of all and that is Nik Collection Dfine.

This tool was originally created by Nik Software and was a part of the Nik Collection processing suite which was later acquired by Google in 2012.  When Google purchase the software, it was offered free for download but unfortunately google stopped developing it which meant as Photoshop developed the Nik Collection tools started to have issues which would cause the application to hang or crash.  Photographers like myself who absolutely loved this suite of tools found workarounds to enable them to run the tools within Photoshop and Lightroom but every now and again it would have issues.

In 2017 DXO purchased the Nik Collection tools and later released Nik Collection 2 and now continue to develop and support the tools.  There have been mixed responses from the community because you now have to purchase it from DXO and these tools are very similar to when they were free.  I will say that DXO now support the tools and have ironed out all of the issues so it is compatible with the latest version of Photoshop and Lightroom and for me it was well worth purchasing as they still are a very important part of my workflow even though I now use them less than I used to.

You can still download the original free version if you have a search round on the internet but you will have compatible issues if you try to use it with latest Adobe products.

So Dfine how good is it and how easy is it to use?

The tool itself is very easy to use and in most cases I switch over to manual selection and draw a box around the area in the image that has noise such as sky in the image.  This will then calculate the values required to best remove the noise.  You can now adjust and dial in key parameters to tweak the image if you feel it needs further correct as required.  Although I find this tool excellent for removing noise you need to bear in mind that the image will lose detail and become softer.  Again like the Photoshop ACR method you can reduce the noise on a separate layer and then use masking techniques to leave areas where you want to retain detail.  Sometimes I will duplicate layers and mask out everything other than the detail I want to preserve and bring down the opacity until I am happy with the level and noise and sharpness of the detail.  Or I can add sharpening to these selected areas to bring back some of the sharpness of the detail and is why I found it so powerful to use in photoshop.

Dfine does have area selection tools called control points where you can chose to add or not the noise reduction tool, you can also alter both the size of the area and the opacity but I prefer to do this in Photoshop where I can be much more accurate with my selection.

The latest suite now claims to use profile data for your specific camera to maximise the noise reduction claiming it knows exactly how the noise was created by your camera.  To keep a level playing field for cross testing I used the automatic mode to show how good it is straight out of the software.

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You can see from the image above that there is some softening as to be expected and noise in the background reduced but still present.  Here is a picture comparing the Photoshop ACR method against Dfine and this highlights how soft the photoshop version is but noise is less in the ACR version.  

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I did reduced the Luminance slider in the Photoshop version for a quick test and they came out very close with Dfine just edging it for me.  The Nik Collection 2 suite costs £125 and for this you do get 7 Plugins & DxO PhotoLab 2 (Essential) which I personally don’t think is a bad deal at all especially as you get ColourEFEX Pro plugin which I absolutely love.

They are currently offering a 30 day free trial so it is well worth downloading and trialing for yourself to see what you think.  Here is a link to their website Nik Collection 2

Denoise AI by Topaz Labs

Last but not least we have Denoise AI by Topaz Labs which claims to be the first AI Noise Reduction tool on the market.  Topaz developed this new Denoise AI by feeding their algorithm with millions of noisy and clear images until the artificial intelligence actually learnt what noise was in an image and how best to remove it.

Sounds crazy right and yes I was very sceptical when I read this and thought just another gimmick to sell to the naive photographer. It says that Denoise AI examines the whole image and holistically determines the difference between detail and noise in that photo and recovers surprising amounts of detail from the noise.

So does it do what it says on the tin?  Lets dive in and test it with the same image.

The settings are quite limited with 2 models to select for noise reduction either DeNoise AI or AI Clear.  They say that DeNoise AI can retain more detail but I found AI Clear to work best on this particular image.  First I tried the DeNoise AI in Auto mode and straight away the results were very impressive.

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Next I tried the AI Clear model and compared it the DeNoise model again these have not been fine tuned in manual mode but purely just letting the software make all its own decisions in Auto mode.

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AI Clear did still have a little noise present compared to the DeNoise model but certainly retained a little more detail.  This was surprising as Topaz say that DeNoise will retain more detail which I didn’t see but AI Clear on auto did have noise appearing around the edge of the wings and head.

For one final test I switch into Manual Mode and selected remove noise Medium and Enhance Sharpness High leaving Recover Detail at zero and compared it to the DeNoise AI  image.

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The results from the Topaz DeNoise AI plugin surpass anything I have ever seen or tested before and I was totally blown away by how good it is.  I was very sceptical with the claims Topaz are making but when you compare the original image to the final result in manual mode I can truly say this software is pretty revolutionary.  Remember there is further tweaking available in this tool but I tried to keep it as automatic as possible and the whole process takes less than 30 seconds to complete!

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Finally as one last test I took a raw night sky image and zoomed in by 60% to carry out a very quick test to see how DeNoise AI would handle noise and stars in the night sky.  Again very impressive and probably a little more difficult for you to see but I was very impressed with the results.

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Topaz DeNoise AI can be purchased as a bundle for $79.99 or as parts as the Utility Bundle for $249.99 which consists of three other utility plugins.  Just like Nik Collection you can use these tools also in Lightroom or as standalone if you do not have either of the adobe packages.

Currently Topaz are offering a 30 day free trial of their tools and I highly recommend trying DeNoise out along with Gigapixel AI which you can obtain from their website Topaz DeNoise AI

My overall Conclusion

Well if you have made it this far you can probably guess that Topaz DeNoise AI in my opinion is currently by far the easiest and best method to remove noise from your photographs out there.  I have been totally blown away by how good this software is and I think it is worth every penny if you regularly push your ISO.

Photoshop ACR is free in that it is already part of Lightroom and Photoshop and is a great option if you don’t need a tool to remove noise regularly.  By using selective luminosity masking you can remove all sorts of noise but it is a little cumbersome but shouldn’t be over looked.  It is certainly a great alternative if you are more advanced in using Photoshop and Lightroom. With the age of Artificial Intelligence well and truly here I think it will only be a matter of time before Adobe build this into their software for edge recognition for selective tools and artefact removal.

I do have a soft spot for Nik Collection Dfine due to its great Colour EFEX pro but if I purely wanted to use Dfine for removal then I would choose Topaz DeNoise AI every time.

I hope you find this useful for removing noise in Photoshop in the future and please feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you think or if you have any other alternatives to the software listed here.

The Photography Rule of thirds is one of the simplest and well known rules in composition but what is it, why is important and why should you learn to use it?

Well before we dive in let me start off here by addressing something especially for anyone that is new to photography and just starting out.  The rule of thirds is not a rule at all but instead a concept and this is very important to understand.

You wouldn’t believe how many times I get people writing to me to critique images where they take great pleasure in telling me they have followed the rule as if it’s the holy grail of photography.  On workshops I see photographers going to great lengths to frame key points of interest on an intersection point take the picture thinking composition is easy and can’t understand what all the fuss is about!

It’s is one of the greatest miss-understood terms in photography and should be used purely as a guide not a rule and most definitely not at the expense of other compositional elements.

What is the photography rule of thirds?

Rule of Thirds in photography is a simple compositional aid dividing a frame horizontally and vertically in three and using the divisions to arrange elements within a composition in a balanced harmonious way. The intersection points provide powerful natural places for key points of interest a composition.

The Photography Rule of thirds is one of the simplest and well known rules in composition but what is it, why is important and why should you learn to use it?

Well before we dive in let me start off here by addressing something especially for anyone that is new to photography and just starting out.  The rule of thirds is not a rule at all but instead a concept and this is very important to understand.

You wouldn’t believe how many times I get people writing to me to critique images where they take great pleasure in telling me they have followed the rule as if it’s the holy grail of photography.  On workshops I see photographers going to great lengths to frame key points of interest on an intersection point take the picture thinking composition is easy and can’t understand what all the fuss is about!

It’s is one of the greatest miss-understood terms in photography and should be used purely as a guide not a rule and most definitely not at the expense of other compositional elements.

What is the photography rule of thirds?

Rule of Thirds in photography is a simple compositional aid dividing a frame horizontally and vertically in three and using the divisions to arrange elements within a composition in a balanced harmonious way. The intersection points provide powerful natural places for key points of interest a composition.

How to use Rule of Thirds in photography

To use Rule of Thirds in your photography divide your image into three equal sections both horizontally and vertically breaking your image down into nine rectangles of the same size creating a 3×3 grid.

By placing key points of interests within the scene at one of these line intersection points you can give structure to photographs and make them more appealing.  This concept can work well for certain subjects such as house within a landscape or portraiture photography but what if you have no standout key points of interest?

Well for this the rule suggests aligning horizontal or vertical elements within your scene with one of the 2 horizontal or vertical lines to give the image basic composition.

Horizontal Lines within a scene

Vertical lines within a scene

The use of the rule of thirds can be useful to anyone who is just beginning their photographic journey to remove the tendency to always place important elements in the center of the frame.  However, I usually find that when they become accustomed to using this method they struggle to move away from the idea and become a slave to it which seriously hampers their photography going forward.

Composition within photography is a very complexed subject and so much more than just Rule of Thirds and once you begin to learn and use different techniques you very quickly forget about this rule and your photography will take on a new dimension.

The Origin of the Rule Of Thirds

Back in 1797 John Thomas Smith, keeper of prints at the British museum published a book entitled “Remarks on Rural Scenery”.  In this book is thought to be the first notion of the RoTs where he says two to one third or one to two offers a much better harmonising proportion.

In short, in applying this invention, generally speaking, to any other case of light, shade, form or color, I have found the ratio of about two thirds to one third, or of one to two a much better and more harmonizing proportion, than the precise formal half, the too-far-extending four-fifths and, in short, than any other proportion whatever.

So as you can see the very notion of Rule of Thirds has been around a long time and over the years the rule has taken much criticism from many within the photography community.  As someone reading this looking to implement the Rule of Thirds into their own photography it is important to understand where it came from but more importantly understand it is NOT a rule and just an idea.

Should you use the Rule of Thirds?

Having an appreciation of it is fine but I personally would say look and think about the scene you have in front of you and compose it the best way you feel is right and follow your heart.

The Rule of Thirds reminds me of a child learning to ride a bike with their stabilisers on.  It gets them going and allows them to ride a bike unaided but trying to remove them once they are used to them can be problematic.

They become confident, comfortable, lazy and feel safe the same happens in photography which leads to image upon image looking exactly the same with little to no personal expression from the photographer.

Photography is a form of expressive art, and one of the most liberating and appealing things about creating an image with a camera is that there are no rules!  Photography is not science, it’s not a mathematical equation which will produce an answer but more about communicating your thoughts and feelings through pictures not words.

Yes, there are concepts, theories, compositional elements that help communicate what you are trying to say to help the viewer understand but the way the final scene turns out is really down to personal choice.

This is so important to understand and before you ever frame your shot you need to ask yourself some very important questions.  What am I feeling right now?  What makes me want to take this image?  What is this image saying to me?  Feel the moment, understand it then you can work out how you can best get across these feelings in your photograph.

You can read more about understanding what picture you are trying to take here How to take meaningful photographs

Simply putting a tree on an intersection point or a horizon line within two thirds of the image following the Rule of Thirds is just not enough!

I hope this gives you a little food for thought next time your composing a shot and my advice is just take a minute to think about what you are trying to say which will improve your photography and you as a photographer more so than continually following the Rule of Thirds.

Trying to capture landscape portfolio photographs consistently is the greatest challenge a landscape photographer faces in his quest to capture nature at its finest.  By having a defined process rather than a more scatter gun approach you can tip the balance in your favour.

Learning and understanding an area intimately is one the most important aspects of landscape photography to give the photographer the best chance of success.  So many times, I hear bad luck stories about chasing that all illusive portfolio image where a photographer continually curses his luck.

There is always an element of luck when it comes to pitting your wits against mother nature as we continually do as landscape photographers but with a little work and planning you can significantly increase your chances and tip the scales in your favour to capture those landscape portfolio photographs.

By putting the effort in and focusing on key areas rather than a fixed single location for a single image you maximise your time more efficiently while out on location rather than growing roots and preying mother nature will smile down on you.

Here I will outline the simple process I use to maximise my chances of capturing the image I am after where you will be able to adapt it for yourself improving your photography and increase the chance of being in the right place at the right time.

I decided to write this article after a recent trip where weather reports were not looking great but after a busy but productive 2 weeks stuck in the office processing orders and website work I really needed to get out and do some photography.  I grabbed my gear and decided to head to the mountains and take the opportunity to do a little scouting with the conditions not being too favourable.

It was certainly blowing a gale as I started my climb, wet and muddy underfoot with the odd hale shower thrown in for good measure boy it was a miserable day.  The weather forecasts were spot on with thick dense cloud as far as the eye could see producing that dull flat lighting across the landscape lacking in contrast and colour as photographers, we all love to hate.

As I approached the shoulder before the final ascent to the summit, I could see a solitary figure arched over his tripod and camera not moving a muscle like a hunter stalking his prey.  We photographers are a funny bunch sometimes approachable and others downright unsociable.

It’s always that cat and mouse game of who makes the first move when it comes to being sociable and although I love to chat to other photographers, I know that it can be difficult if you are in the middle of a shot changing settings and composition whilst chasing the light.

I got to within 5 meters when I gently shouted afternoon not to startle him as I don’t think he spotted me approaching from behind and the last thing I wanted to do was give him a heart attack.  As he looked up from his camera he smiled and said hello in a friendly voice.

We stood chatting for a few minutes and he was telling me that he was relatively new to the world of landscape photography of 1-2 years and that he was desperately trying to capture this image he had framed.  I said I don’t think you are going to get the best conditions today to which he replied, “Tell me about it, this is my 9^th consecutive visit to this spot trying to capture this image”.

I think I gave away my initial thoughts by the quizzical look on my face as he continued with, “Well, you know what it’s like, we all know that you have to visit a location many times before you get that special image were always after.”

After a few minutes chatting I wished him luck and off I trundled up to summit.  As I walked, I felt a little disturbed by what this guy had said as if wearing the number of visits to the same spot in search of the holy grail as a badge of honour.

Here was a person who told me he had travelled two hours to get to the area and then had a two-hour hike to reach this location.  That is an 8 hour round trip let alone all the time stood perched on the side of a mountain, waiting and hoping for some magic to happen.

If you consider that like him most landscape photographers are amateurs, and this is not their main daily grind and only probably manage to fit in one trip a week due to other commitments.  That would mean he had dedicated around 9 weeks in search of this image which he was very unlikely going to get today.

I then started to reflect on my own posts and what other photographers were saying in their own Vlogs and Blogs and suddenly thought are we giving out poor or incorrect advice?

It was the following day when I switched on the TV and had a nose around on a few of my favourite YouTube channels where I sat and watched a discussion about visiting a location many times over in order to get a fantastic image.  The more I looked the more I found, none of which intentionally were meant to mislead the viewer but in my opinion were not giving out the right message and good advice.

See like the saying goes not all content is created equal neither are two viewers of content the same.  A viewer’s demographic ranges anything from someone just starting to think about photography all the way to a seasoned pro with many years of experience under his belt.  As a photographer you never stop learning and why some of these YouTube channels for instance are so popular as they appeal to the masses.

The notion of not expecting to get a killer image on the first visit to a location is exactly what they should be saying but, to just continue to blindly return over and over until you get the ultimate shot is wrong.

Yes, this might be necessary if you are a full-time photographer working an assignment and have the time to return to locations over and over again or the location you are trying to shoot is in your own back yard!

But in practice the majority of people watching and reading such advice are amateurs looking and searching for guidance and help.

Think about this poor guy who was on his 9^th consecutive visit to a single location to get a shot for possibly over 9 weeks, how much has he learnt in that time and how much have his own skills developed?  Through failed experiences we learn, that’s what humans do.  We fail, we learn we improve and there aren’t many short cuts in between especially when it comes to photography.

To get that amazing image yes you may well have to visit several times, but other factors must be considered.  Planning and thought, learning to read and understand weather reports and the effects this has on the environment in the area you are shooting will dramatically increase your chances of success.

I have many images that were years in the making but managed to get the shot on the 2^nd or 3^rd time of trying.

How do I manage to do this well quite simply by not putting things down to chance.  I try and calculate the chances of getting the image I have in mind based on the forecasted weather conditions, time of year and understanding the environment in which I am trying to photograph.

Seascapes and mountain ranges are one of the hardest to predict as whether forecasts are often wrong but once you start looking at forecasts, predicted cloud cover, types of cloud cover, where the light will fall at certain times of the day and can visualise how the environment looks under certain conditions you begin to tip the balance more in your favour.  No longer is it a random process of just turning up and hoping for the best.

My process to maximise the chance of getting portfolio photographs.

The key point to my simple process is to record and document every outing you take for photography.  Sounds tedious and boring but honestly, it’s not as bad as it sounds.

Firstly, I treat pretty much every visit to a new location as a scouting mission and if I get a keeper in the process then it’s a bonus.  I try and work the shot I envisage and analyse the surroundings to build the image in my mind of what I really want.

If the conditions are not to my liking and looks like it has no chance of changing but the scene has potential and there is definitely an image to be had I take out my phone find a couple of compositions I like and take a few photographs.  The phone I carry in my pocket is the best photography tool I own and so important in my workflow to capture and document scenes and composition for future reference.

Every time I am out I track my route via my GPS where I can simply mark my current location so I have the exact co-ordinates.  This might sound like total over kill to track your every move especially if you’re on well-marked paths where there is no danger or chance of getting lost, but I don’t only use it for this.

I like to document my routes, where once uploaded into Garmin basecamp I can see exactly how long it would take me to get to the spot again.  I then also have the route for future use in case I need to get to the location in the dark but also with the marked position for the image I can assess whether there are any alternative routes to the same location.

Obviously not everyone has a GPS so a good Ordinance Survey Map is sufficient where you can keep a journal of key waypoints and routes for future use.

I truly believe that getting to understand an area by spending time there in all weather conditions and seasons is one of the greatest keys to capturing your vision and maximising the time available to you as a photographer.

My own process is to always have an open mind and to build a mental map of an area of images which I document at home.  This creates a treasure map of locations for the images I want to capture along with the ideal weather and lighting conditions and best time of the year.

I advise anyone whenever possible to work an area as much as possible, buy a map for the area which could be an ordnance survey map and stick it on the wall in your office.  Get some small coloured dots I use different colours for the scene I want to capture such as whether it’s a grand vista, woodland or nightscape and place it on the map in the location where you need to stand.  I then simply use a unique number to identify it and link everything together.

I will then number any scouting images I have taken with the same number for later reference, and use the same number to record key information with location details.  These details will include key information such as brief description of the image, best weather conditions suited for the image, the image type such as landscape, nightscape etc, the desired season, the time of day I feel the shot will work best and most importantly car parking information.

What we are doing here is building a database of potential images you want to take and if you have some spreadsheet software available to you such as excel I would strongly recommend using it to create the document.  I know this might sound excessive or you think I really can’t be bothered with all this but I guarantee if you get organised and work in this way you will seriously begin to reap the rewards very quickly.

Yeah great I have put all the effort in and have a map full of dots and database full ideas but how do I use it?

Well this is the easy part when you plan your trip to an area you simply focus on the weather forecast for that day.  I will look at cloud cover and conditions taking the time of year into account and straight away you will know what photograph locations will offer the best chance for success.  The intimate knowledge you have of an area will give you the greatest chance of being in the right place at the right time tipping the scales in your favour for creating the photograph you are after.

I must stress this will not happen overnight and some images will take years for everything to align in your favour to get the image your after but this is the power of the database.  You can simply filter by weather conditions forecast, locations, season and time of day and hey presto you will be left with the locations that have the greatest chance for success.

This is why I always like to document my routes because now I can really drill down and see how long it will take me to get there and plan my trip accordingly.  It also allows me to look at multiple locations within an area where I might be able to get a couple of images in a single trip.

Finally you can simply review any images you have previously taken by pulling up the relevant numbered images because you maybe going back to an area you scouted years ago and these will refresh your memory and give you an idea of the composition and image you were after.

I know all this takes time but you have to put the effort in and you will seriously reap the rewards in the long run.  Just think how much time you could have wasted by keep going back to the same location over and over?

You may decide to not bother with the wall map and just keep a database but I prefer to see everything laid out visually where I can get ideas of possible routes and key areas.  It is basically my heat map of key potential photo opportunities.

One final key point in all of this and that is if the conditions are less than favourable, I would still encourage you to make a journey out with the camera.  Explore somewhere new or visit the area but again have an open mind being prepared for the conditions.  This is all about making the best of the time available to you as photographers which will both improve your skills and the quality of your images.

Let me know if you do anything similar or have a better process and don’t mind sharing.

As a photographer there is nothing more rewarding than seeing one of your prized photographs beautifully framed hanging on a wall or selling fine art prints to admirers of your work.  I find this one of the most rewarding aspects of being a photographer but when I first started selling prints, I found it one of the most difficult and frustrating!

The main question I struggled to find answers too was

What is the best way to print professional photographs for sale?

Producing prints from your photographs can be relatively straight forward and a lot of photographers will be more than happy with the results of their final home prints.  However, I am not talking about creating prints for your own benefit here but instead focusing on prints for sale to the public which is totally different to creating prints for personal use.

You are selling a product which carries your brand name and needs in my opinion to be produced to the highest quality.  This comes at a cost as high-quality items usually do but are the cost really much higher?

Once you take into account all of your overheads required to print at home and compare it to a professional photo lab cost you begin to realise that actually the cost is quite close or in fact cheaper.  Remember I am talking about high quality prints here and something that can easily get missed by photographers when they look at overall production costs.  Care needs to be taken to compare like for like rather than apples to oranges.

I now only use Professional Photo Labs to produce my artwork for sale and in my experience,  I find it the best way.

Using Professional Photo Labs do also come with their own set of problems so let me explain why I made the switch from printing at home, the issues I encountered and ultimately give the reasons why I find using Pro Labs the Best way to print my fine art photographs for sale.

In order to find what is the best fit for your photography business you need to ask yourself a number of questions which will help you choose between printing at home or use a Pro Lab.

Quality or Quantity?

If you care about your photography and customers, then you want to provide the optimum service in selling your artwork at the very best quality and cost possible to prospective buyers.  Yes, you can print images on mass relatively cheaply these days which may be fine if you are doing headshots for portfolio work etc. but not what customers will expect if selling limited or open edition fine art prints.  So, the first question to ask yourself is what photography services do you provide and importantly what are your potential customers likely to expect.

If you are a portrait photographer doing school rounds taking annual photographs of children rarely would a parent expect a Giclee Print this is also similar for portfolio head shoots for models etc.  I say rarely but you will get some prospective customers that may well want a top-quality framed print of their child’s first day at school so it certainly doesn’t hurt to offer this in the package.

I am a landscape photographer so my business model is different where I could offer mass printed photographs for sale as many do but this is something I decided against.  I wanted to limit my artwork and add value to the final piece of art and only sell prints as either open edition or limited edition prints.  For this to be successful and my customers to be happy I need to produce prints at the highest quality possibly choosing Quality over Quantity.

What medium types do you want to offer?

It is very easy in this digital age to lose sight of what we are trying to achieve through our photography and if you are a photographer trying to express feeling and mood through your images or create emotion from a beautiful scene then a print can seriously ruin what you are trying portray and the prints you are trying to sell.

Imagine a vibrant colourful scene such as a landscape in autumn with a sky full of bright red and orange hues viewed on a dull matt print.  It doesn’t quite work and possibly if that is the only print paper you have you might think it’s fine, but images come to life once printed on different paper types and should be selected based on the image requirements not because it is what is just available in your section at the time.

One of my personal favourites are rough textured papers used for heavy woodland scenes where trees can come to life or on a minimalistic heavy snow scene where it just adds that something different and finishing touches of originality and quality.

Ask yourself after putting so much time in to create your artwork shouldn’t as much time, care and attention go into the final fine art print?  After all this is what a buyer will see and believe me correct paper selection and top-quality prints make all the difference.

Professional Labs have a huge array of paper types at their disposal where they have perfected the art of creating the perfect print on the paper type of your choice with .ICC profiles ready for soft proofing.  You can of course purchase a selection of various papers for printing at home, but this will come at a heavy price.  There are many different manufactures of fine art papers these days and I have spent a small fortune on purchasing samples not to mention the time carrying out test prints to get things right.

You don’t need to have every paper type at your disposal but don’t limit your final print to just a small range of papers.  Match the correct paper type to the photograph you are trying to print not just use what you have to hand.

One final thing to think about paper choice is your style of photography.  If you have a particular style and want the same look throughout all of your work you can dramatically reduce the paper type variation you need at your disposal.  This is not the case for my work as it varies dependant on the image from Landscapes, Woodland, Seascapes and Nightscapes prints so I like to not be restricted.

Are you just going to sell Giclee Prints or offer other types?

Let me ask a slightly different question, why are you only offering Giclee Fine Art Prints?

Whenever I talk to fellow photographers and ask this question I usually get a very simple answer.

I can only print certain paper types on my printer at home!

By printing at home and not utilising the diversity Pro Labs have at their disposal and you are very restricted to the types of prints you can offer.  I offer a range of print types in my shop including Canvas and Aluminium Dibond prints which offers that something a little different.  It definitely works for me and many of my customers prefer this type of print where they can just unbox it and mount it straight on the wall.

These styles of prints do not come cheap and the Lab I use is certainly not the cheapest, but the quality is outstanding, and the finished piece of artwork truly comes to life on a premium medium such as these.

What print size are you going to offer?

This is a very big decision to make when deciding to dip your toe into producing artwork for sale.  There are many limiting factors which you have to take into account before you can make your final decision.

First of all is what is the sensor size of your camera or pixel image size?  You need to know your limitations with regards to raw image size before you can decide on how big you want to offer your prints.  There are many examples online on what is the maximum size you can print your images from a set sensor size so I won’t go into detail here.

But as an example lets say you are using a full frame sensor which has a pixel size of 6016 x 4016 and you are printing at 300dpi then the maximum size area you can print is

(6016/300) by (4016/300) = 20.05 x 13.39 Inches.

Now there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration here before deciding on the maximum size such as the ISO the image was taken at and how much noise is in the final image.

I am just making you aware that the limitations of your camera equipment will initially dictate the size of the print.  Also the final print medium also has an impact for instance printing on a canvas then this is more forgiving so you can get away with a smaller DPI and create larger images.

Large images will also be viewed at a distance so my advice would be to carry out some test prints first to find out what are the limitations of your camera equipment.  This is a plus point for printing at home as it is easier to experiment, but most decent pro labs will offer cost effective test prints.

That brings us onto the next limiting factor on size of your prints and that is the printer you are going to print it on.  This choice is endless and pretty much limited by how much money you are willing to spend and how much free space you have in your spare room.  Don’t underestimate the space as some of these high-end pro printers are huge.

The best printer I have used at home is the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 – inkjet printer which is an absolute beast.  The print quality is amazing but you need a sturdy large surface to keep it on.  My problem with this printer is that it cannot take paper on a roll which is annoying for a printer costing around £900 to limit me to not be able to print large panorama photographs.  There are alternatives that can take rolls, but I have found they come at a cost or don’t quite match the canon for quality.

Costs for printing at home

Professional labs are so expensive it is cheaper to print at home!

Well let’s explore the cost for printing at home excluding the obvious of electric as we will take this as minimal.

The Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 is a fantastic printer and one I used myself for my artwork. Let’s look at a breakdown of typical running costs.

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That excludes all the test prints that you will be doing and limited to just one paper type.  Now yes I know there are different printers and yes the printer will originally come with some ink but this just gives you an idea of very rough costs to bare in mind.

Then on top of all these costs there is one that is very often overlooked and that is packaging.  You need to add on costs for your packing tubes and internal protective packaging which is going to cost in the region of £5 each.  Then finally there is the cost of shipment which is also not cheap and although passed onto the buyer adds to the final price.

If you compare this with a Pro Lab again prices can vary but on average you can buy a A2 Giclee print at around £30 @ 1440dpi quality or £60 @ 2880dpi plus £5 postage and packaging and all of a sudden you can see that the prices are pretty close.

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There are 2 added bonuses with a Pro Lab and they are you can recycle the packaging and secondly many offer a white label facility where they will ship it direct to your customer on your behalf reducing you shipping costs overall.

Don’t forget the cost comparison was based on a very optimistic sales figure of 50 sales unless you are already well established.  Obviously if you already have an adequate printer that can cater for your needs then this is an outlay you won’t need to pay fore which will bring down the cost per print.

Disadvantages of using a Professional Lab

Using Professional Photo Labs do come with a few issues.  The biggest problem I had was finding a good one!

I must have tried over a dozen before settling on the ones I use all the time now with the majority of issues coming down to print quality and or packaging quality.  Sometimes I ended up with the print not being at the standard I would expect with slight defects in the print or they would ship it in envelopes just for the post man to bend and put a lovely crease across the image.

I will say on every occasion I got a full refund or replacement print but this is not what you want when a customer has placed an order and eagerly awaiting to take receipt his beautiful print.

If you are fortunate to live close enough to a reputable pro lab who can provide the service you are looking for then I would definitely pay them a visit.  It is nice to be able to build a relationship with these people and will only enhance your business going forward.  It is trial and error but research and due diligence on pro labs will pay dividends in the long run.

Over the years I have spent fortunes on trying to find the best way to print my photographs until I finally settled on only using Professional Photo Labs to reproduce my artwork. I hope I have given you some good points to think about if you are considering selling your photographs.

You can see all may photographs available in print as Giclee, Canvas and Aluminium Dibond Prints for sale here.

What are your experiences and thoughts on the Best way to print professional photos for sale?  Let me know below.

I have been fascinated with Thunderstorms and Lightning Photography for many years and it’s one of those elusive portfolio photographs I have been chasing for a long time.

This year I am determined to get the shot I have always dreamed of and have come very close several times. As frustrating and disappointing failure can make us feel, failure is what makes us better photographers.

I have written a blog post along similar lines before Bad days and Landscape Photography in that there is no such thing as failure in photography.  Every journey we take with camera in hand is experience gained and as long as you don’t let those bad days demotivate you there is always something to be learnt or improved upon!

So here I will share with you my Thunderstorm photography tips for getting that epic shot and yes most of them, if not all have come from my own failed attempts.

Before I get into my Thunder and Lightning Photography tips, I will share with you a brief summery of my latest failure so you can see that you are not alone when the inevitable happens and things go wrong but you can skip this and go straight to tips here.

I have been chasing Lightning for a while now and living in the Midlands, we are not exactly blessed with frequent lightning storms. This leads to many long journeys around the UK chasing storms where, I have made several unsuccessful trips to Wales this year.  One trip I chased a storm across Anglesey and over Snowdonia which didn’t materialise and I just ended up extremely wet without a single shot to show for my efforts.  Oh the Joys of photography!

My last trip started with a Tuesday evening and my eyes glued to the radar in anticipation of a storm hitting the Midlands where I finally gave up at around 23:30 and decided to go to bed as it looked like the storms wasn’t going to miss us.

At 1:30am I opened my eyes to a flash through the bedroom window followed by a huge crack of thunder. It wasn’t until the 2nd flash that my brain engaged giving me that kick up the backside to leave a cosy warm bed.  I reluctantly grabbed my gear, woke myself up and headed to a vantage point overlooking the Birmingham skyline.

I had visualised this image of Birmingham City skyline illuminated by lightning in my head for years and after a short drive I pulled into the parking area to be greeted by police wandering what the hell I was up to this time in the morning.  After a brief chat and them telling me to take care I made the short walk through the trees to setup and catch some Lightning bolts.

Now for anyone that doesn’t know me well enough I do seem to have this knack of being one of those people who always seems to have something happen to them. Maybe one day I will write a book of tales on the joys and tribulations of a landscape photographer and yes this was going to be one of those nights!

I framed my shot set up the intervalometer ready for the storm and heard the police car pull off.  No more that two minutes later I heard a car pull up, then another and another. Unknown to me I had actually gone to a place where consenting adults like to participate in lets just say… A little after hours adult entertainment!

What people do in their own time is up to them but it was now 2:00am absolutely hammering it down and lighting kicking off left right and centre.  I could hear people in the bushes behind me and to be honest I felt down right scared as it is not one of the best areas in Birmingham to be on your own with very expensive camera gear.  After 10 minutes of me being prepared for the worst and not feeling comfortable I decided to grab the camera and make a dash to my car.  To rub salt into the wounds as soon as I drove away I could see the lightning flashes over the Birmingham skyline.

While heading home on the horizon I could see another cell starting to kick off in the direction of Droitwich and decided to head over that way and see if I could salvage the night. I arrived at a spot I had previously scouted, grabbed my camera and tripod and wondered off into the field to setup and compose my shot. I got around 10 meters from the car when there was an almighty crack and I could see where the bolt hit the field just in front of me then to my left and then behind.

I looked up and it was directly overhead so I had no choice but to make a dash back to the car.  Over the next 30 minutes I witnessed a light show like I had never seen before with one continuous strike after another all around me.

I missed being able to setup and compose my shot by 5 minutes, gutted.  In situations like this it is so tempting to get out and quickly setup the camera but no Photograph is worth losing your life over!

As the storm moved eastward, I composed my shot but the lightening had passed me by and was beginning to lose intensity as the cell began to enter its dissipating stage. I got a couple of shots off but didn’t manage to capture that portfolio image I was after.

Another night and another failed attempt to get the image I wanted but as always I learn’t a few things from my experience.  Here are my top Lightning Photography Tips I have learnt through experience.

My Lightning Photography Tips

Tip 1: Safety and preparation

It is reported that around 24,000 people around the world are killed by lightning every year and a further 240,000 injured!  Although here in the UK it is much less where typically around 30 to 60 people are struck by lightning it is definitely something not to be taken lightly.

Is losing your life for a photograph worth it?  There is no way to dress it up Lightning is a killer and photographing it is down right dangerous.  One of the first mistakes I made when trying to photograph lightening was trying to get in the thick of the action, KEEP Your distance!

If you are in the core of the storm you will be battling strong winds, heavy rain and possibly hail.  It will be popping off left right and center, all around you and you will be frightened to death unless you are a complete nutter on a death wish.  This will not produce the best photographs so always try and keep your distance.  I try and get around 6 miles minimum from the core of a storm with a good line of site to capture an image.  Remember lightning can strike as far as 10 miles away from the center of the storm!

I always keep the ’30sec flash to bang’ rule in the back of my mind when out chasing storms and its a good simple way to roughly gauge where you are relative to the storm.  You simply count from the time you see a flash until you hear the thunder and if its 30secs or less then the thunderstorm is less than 6 miles away from you.

Always, always have a getaway plan and have a safe place of shelter in case things get hairy!  It will happen as it’s unpredictable and even if you think you are a safe distance away you will be surprised how quickly out of the blue lightening will be on top of you.  I personally try and keep within 100 ft maximum of my vehicle where I can try and take shelter if I need to.  If not a vehicle then a building but remember the largest killer from lightening is not taking a direct strike but ground current!

This brings me to my next safety tip and hopefully you never find yourselves in this situation where you are caught too far from shelter but if you do keep your feet together, avoid trees, Pylons, metal fences and open land.  You certainly do not want to be the tallest object in a field and NEVER lie down which will just give ground current an easier path through your body and heart.

There is no such thing as a safe shelter during a lightning storm and this is why photographing lightning is a seriously dangerous passtime.  Did I say how dangerous lightning was?  Seriously do not underestimate it!  This is not a guide to follow thinking you will be safe but more to make you think and appreciate how dangerous this really is!

Tip 2: Right place, right time. Learn to read the weather!

Sounds obvious but in order to capture lightning you need to be able to anticipate the likelihood of it occurring.  I won’t go into the science behind lightning storms and formations here but will focus more on the Apps and Websites I use to give me the best chance of being in the right place at the right time.

Remember trying to forecast lightning especially here in the UK is hard and even when everything looks spot on you will find you get just the odd rumble of thunder or nothing at all.  I have tried to review data and localise hotspots within the UK but it is difficult as it certainly has changed over the years.  Looking at data from 2017/18 shows significant more activity in the Yorkshire and Humber Regions, east coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, South Wales and Cornwall with 48,765 recorded strikes in 2017.  Sounds like a lot but when you look at May 2018 there were anything from 15,000 – 20,000 strikes as a thunderstorm rolled across southern England in one night.

To be in with a shot you need to use a good weather radar and my first go to website is NetWeather TV  You can subscribe for their Radar extra for £23.95 which has a 5 minute ATD lightning detection.  Another great part of the site is the community where there are some highly well-educated storm chasers on there with invaluable information who give feedback on weather conditions around the UK.  You do not need a subscription to view the community forums so I recommend checking them out.

My next website is Metcheck which also has a wealth of information with radar and simulations so you can try and track predicted storm movements.  I find this a great site and one to definitely learn and find your way around as the information on there is invaluable with more advanced tools if you want to get into meteorology in a big way.

Another website I use is the live tracker at Blitzortung.org and its historical data.  I like the graphical interface and world map to see where strikes are happening around the world and zoom in on specific areas of interest.

My next and possible controversial one is Met Office and also install the app on your phone.  I find its short term forecast for the next few hours fairly reliable and it’s also good to get met office weather warnings if they predict lightning within the next 24 hours to give you the heads up and get prepared.

I have struggled to find a decent OS tracking app for my phone with good coverage of the UK for when I am out but the one I do use is My Lightening Tracker.  I love this app because you can set a radius from your current location and it will notify you if a strike has been detected.  You can use the free app or pay the small fee to remove the adverts.  I am currently trialling a number of other apps and if I find any useful I will update this post.

Tip 3: Location, Location

As with all photography have a plan and try to get to know the area well where you can have a good line of site for several miles with an interesting foreground while remain close to your vehicle or suitable building for safety.  I am continually on the lookout for ideal places to capture storms from whether on other shoots, holiday or just driving round.

Be aware of your local surroundings as storms can pop up out of the blue and if one kicks off in the middle of the night close to home the last thing you want is to be frantically driving round to find a good place to capture it.  That also goes checking for local night time adult activity in parking areas after my last experience!

I have started to compile a list of good locations within a 20 mile radius of my home so I have options when a storm occurs.  It is always worth while keeping an eye on locations as they change through the seasons especially farmers fields so you can have a composition and photograph in mind before you arrive there.

Tip 4: Protection from wind, rain and hail

Good waterproof gear is a must as yes you will get soaked.  Importantly so will your camera gear so make sure you have a waterproof jacket for your camera with plenty of lens cloths.

One other big tip if you are like me and photograph mostly landscapes with filters make sure you pack your lens hoods.  I never normally use lens hoods, these are invaluable in bad weather as it will help protect your lens glass a little from the rain so always remember to pack them and make them one of the first things you pack in your bag.

Tip 5: Camera Gear

You don’t need anything fancy to capture lightning but certain pieces of equipment will help you take better images and make your life a little easier.

I will always have with me the holy trinity of lenses to give me options from 16mm all the way to 200mm but it is really dependant on the storm.  Very rarely have I used very wide focal lengths and if I have it was when I was too close for comfort!  With cloud to ground lightening I will tend to use wider focal lengths depending on composition and foreground but for cloud to air and intra cloud lightning longer focal lengths can make epic images.

For lightening during the night I find long exposures to be the best option but photographing them during the day can be quite challenging.  For this I find a lightning trigger definitely the best option.  Without one you can end up with hundreds of images without lightning due to short shutter speeds but it’s certainly not impossible and you can manage without the expense of buying a trigger.

You will need an intervalometer if your camera does not have one built in unless you are some form of lightening god who can pre-empt a strike and press the shutter release at exactly the right time.  Failing that if you have a cable release you can just lock it shut and put your camera into continuous shoot mode.

As with any form of Landscape photography a good sturdy tripod is essential and the winds can be excessive!

Another simple, cheap but effective bit of advice is to get some luminous glow in the dark guy rope.  I use these all the time now when in bad weather or shooting astrophotography, the wind can be insane, and you don’t want to be sitting in your car with your camera outside praying a gust of wind doesn’t come along and blow over your expensive camera!  Glow in the dark rope is great for night shooting so you don’t trip over it!

Tip 6: Camera Settings

When a lightning bolt goes off the amount of light it produced is astonishing so I always underexpose my image by at least 1 stop.  Depending on the time of day but if at night I like my exposure around 20-30 secs with as low an ISO as possible and use the aperture to control the exposure where I can.  If I think the image is over exposed I will just close the aperture slightly but always keeping it within the sweet spot of my lenses.  I will never go to the maximum apertures but instead reduce the ISO.  If that is still not enough then I will throw on an ND filter.

With regards to daytime shooting it is more challenging and I will use a 1-3 stop ND filter and the lowest ISO I can.  With an aperture at f/13 to f/22 I can get my shutter speeds up to around 1/10 – 1/125s and then use my cameras internal intervalometer or continuous shoot mode with locked down trigger release.

The focus is always set to infinity, and I have pre-marked all my lenses with a line showing where infinity is.  This way at night I don’t need to worry about the focus and just make sure my marks on the lens line-up so I know I am focused correctly to infinity.

Lightning Camera Setting Cheat Sheet

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These tips are what I have learnt from mistakes over time chasing lightening and are a good base for anyone to start with if they wish to try and catch some bolts.

BUT, remember most of all, be sensible, be aware of the risks and be safe!