That sounds an odd thing to say. Most people associate digital manipulation with ‘cheating’, but it’s all about the context. This site is all about digital manipulation and I didn’t even use a computer.
Borders and frames
Borders and frames are a great way to 'finish' off a picture for printing or display, and they've come a long way since the unconvicing fake 'wooden' frames (and others) that you get in entry-level programs like Photoshop Elements.
A solid black keyline against a white border can really finish off a black and white image, for example, enclosing the space so that the picture feels fully contained and doesn't just drift off to nothingness at he edge of the frame.
More and more programs, though, are adding roughened, distressed and antique border effects that can give digital images a worn and hand-crafted look. My own favourites are negative or filmstrip borders that make your pictures look like unmounted transparencies or large format slides.
They're not fooling anyone of course, but they nevertheless echo the feel of traditional analog materials and can help give your pictures an ambience and a feel that's so often missing in the clinical accuracy of digital imaging.
How to get started with Analog Efex Pro
Analog Efex Pro is one of the plug-ins in the Nik Collection. It works as a plug in with Lightroom Classic and Photoshop but it can also work as a standalone program or as an external editor with all sorts of other programs like Capture One, Exposure X and more. It’s designed to recreate the […]
Dawlish Beach in black and white, with Exposure X5 adjustment layers
This project turns a regular color RAW file into a strong black and white image in Exposure X5. It uses a number of different tools so it’s a good chance to see how these work and how they can be used together. It’s also a good example the kind of image which works well in […]
How to get great black and white in DxO PhotoLab… but you’ll need FilmPack 5
DxO PhotoLab can create superb black and white imagery, both in terms of image quality and in creative control, but you need to get the DxO FilmPack 5 Elite add-on to do it. This does make things more expensive, and it does feel a bit like you’re paying for some things that other programs offer […]
Why cropping is the last thing you should do
Cropping a photo is usually seen as a creative choice, but in the real world it’s not always quite that simple. Very often, you need to produce an image to fit a specific display size or aspect ratio, and you won’t know what that is until the time comes.
How to use the ON1 Photo Texture and Border filters
ON1 Photo RAW has a huge library of preset effects and you can try them all out just by browsing through the categories and clicking on the ones you like the look of. But that doesn’t really get you any closer to figuring out how its effects filters work and how you can use them […]
6 tips for getting an authentic analog film effect
Modern cameras can reproduce the world with utter, clinical accuracy. The trouble is, it turns out that’s not what we wanted after all. A lot of the time, what we actually want is the faded, distressed, imperfect look of analog photography. So here are six top tips for getting that analog film effect ‘look’ with […]
Did you know you can stack filters in Google Snapseed?
I am a huge fan of Google Snapseed. I’m not a huge fan of what Google has done with it, dropping the desktop Snapseed app and then the online Snapseed editing tools built into Google+ Photos. This has been replaced by a separate Google Photos option with much simpler editing tools. Thankfully, Snapseed still exists […]
How to use the Nik Collection Analog Efex Pro Camera Kit
Analog Efex Pro is part of the DxO Nik Collection, the set of plug-ins for Photoshop, Elements and Lightroom Classic that DxO took over from Google. I rate this as the best set of plug-ins ever made, and practically a must-have for digital image-editing fans. It’s a tool for simulating the look of old films […]
How to create a fine art effect with Silver Efex Pro 2
Fine art can mean a whole lot of different things, but here I’m just going to show how to turn a colour image into a simple graphic composition that could work quite nicely when you hang it on your wall. There are two things you need in order for this to work. One is an […]