I love how one technique in Photoshop can do more than one job. Here I show how a technique I call the Never Ending Lighting Rig, which I use for adding more lights into a picture, can also be used to enhance the eyes in a portrait. With it you can brighten the eyes, add in fake catch lights and make them pop, all from the same starting point and without needing a separate technique for each.
I love long exposure photography, but what do you do when you're out with your camera and don't have any neutral density filters with you? Here's a great technique for creating the long exposure effect by combining a number of images together in Photoshop. I explain it step by step, using a Smart Object and the Median stack mode, and it's quick, easy and very effective.
While presenting for Sony at their roadshow showcasing the Sony A7IV, I photographed my friend Graham Currey, who was dressed as The Joker. For the set-up I used just one light, positioned above Graham, slightly forward of him and angled straight down to the floor so I could bounce some light back into his face with a silver reflector. The result is a version of what's often called horror lighting or up lighting, which suited the character and gave the pictures a much more dramatic look. The video is my hands-on with the 33 megapixel A7IV, which Sony invited me to use for a couple of days taking portraits and grabbing video, along with my honest, unpaid thoughts on who it's for and whether I'd buy it.
One thing my YouTube channel was missing was a trailer; something that in 60 seconds or less explains the who, what, where, why, when and how of me and what the channel is all about. So I put some time aside and made one. The channel is where I share photography techniques and tutorials, tutorials for software such as Photoshop and Lightroom, and the occasional honest gear review, and putting the videos together in a way that's 'me' has been a lot of fun.
This is a superb way to remove distractions from your photographs. I show you step by step how to get great results removing things like people and vehicles, or anything else that moves, quickly and easily using Smart Objects and Stack Modes in Photoshop. It gets results that would be impossible with the regular tools such as the Clone Stamp Tool and Content-Aware Fill, which is what makes it such a useful technique to know.
Using a drone for photography opens up so many new and unique compositions, and this is a perfect example. I finally photograph an incredible lone tree that would have been impossible to capture on foot, but thanks to my drone it became possible. I go through the drone camera settings I used, then move into Lightroom to create an HDR, before finishing in Photoshop and jumping in and out of Topaz Studio 2 to create a painterly effect.
This tree has become a bit of an obsession.
I first noticed it when helping friends move home. They didn’t move far. Just further down the lanes in Mid Devon but to a beautiful new spot. So incredibly peaceful. The silence only broken by the sound of the wildlife and that’s to be relished.
It was when driving through the lanes on the back and forth trips I saw the tree high up on a hill, all alone. Couldn’t decide if it felt proud or lonely. It was screaming out to be photographed though.
With it being across a ploughed field perched on top of a hill in another field and quite some distance from the lane I’d stopped in, there was no way to get close on foot. But then I do have a drone. That could work.
I was thinking of maybe doing a long exposure with the clouds over the top of the tree but I’ve lost count how many times I’ve headed over when I thought conditions were right. It’s only a short drive. Well 30 minutes-ish from home but incredible how in such a short journey the conditions can change. Maybe that’s just a Devon thing.
I tried an evening shot with the setting sun but got there a little too late. Didn’t work out too bad though I guess.
Then followed several more aborted missions.
The other day though things started to slot into place.
Blue skies. Fluffy white clouds. No wind. Well…very little.
Using my DJI Air 2S Drone, I took off vertical from where I’d parked up to make sure there were no livestock over the other side hill. Didn’t want to disturb them or worse still…scare them.
All clear.
Set the drone to take 5 Raw photographs at 5 different exposures. Made a HDR image in Lightroom.
Originally thought about just including the tree and the arc of the hill.
Changed my mind and included part of the ploughed field.
Glad I did.
Edited the resulting file in Lightroom and Photoshop.
Finished off with one ‘look’ using Topaz Studio 2.
Hope you like it.
I’ll do a Behind the Scenes video showing this on my YouTube Channel.
Had such a blast last week catching up with my mates Dave Clayton and Alan Hess on the He Shoots He Draws Podcast talking ‘all things gear’.
We chatted for an hour about the kit we’re using and why, covering the computer, monitor choice and graphics tablet, and with me having had my iMac recently die on me and to be replaced with the new Apple Mac Studio M1 Max, the timing couldn’t have been better.
Always great fun catching up with the guys, and as always, even though miles apart (Dave in Swindon and Alan in San Diego, USA) it still felt like 3 mates sat in a bar chatting.
You can catch the episode on all the great podcast platforms.
Over the moon with all the results from taking photographs with my drone (DJI Air 2S) at Lyme Regis, Dorset. The light was incredible and the conditions couldn't have been better!
Being a morning person, setting an alarm for 4am and heading out, definitely has its advantages…
Lyme Regis is a place that's quite special to Anne and me. So many great memories of times when we first starting holidaying in Devon and visiting River Cottage and would always pop down the road and over the border to Dorset to get a 'fix' of sea air and our tradition of a bag of chips on the beach...no matter the weather.
As a Portrait Photographer, I've always found it fascinating how moving around your subject, once you have placed the light, can give so many different looks...from the same set up.
The same can definitely be said for landscape / seascape as this photograph I took of Lyme Regis in Dorset yesterday with my drone was taken moments after the first one I posted ... the same height but with a shift to the right, further back and changing the angle of the camera.
This panorama of Lyme Regis, Dorset consists of 24 photographs taken with my drone and then blended together in Photoshop…
Completely BLOWN AWAY with the quality of the file; so bloomin' happy
Couldn’t resist some top down shots too…
I remember a few years ago, Joe McNally relaying a story of a portrait assignment that he went on and once finished and kit packed away, upon leaving, the owner's cat appeared and jumped up onto his owner's shoulder; Joe quickly grabbed a few frames with his camera that he'd kept to hand and THAT was the picture that ended up being used.
Not quite the same, but this picture from yesterday made me think of Joe's story. Once I'd landed the drone on some Beach Hut Decking having taken the pictures I wanted, I then started to pack away and just happened to glance at the screen on the remote controller and saw this…
Roll on the next flight!
It's incredible how using a long exposure can completely transform the look and feel of a location. Here I take you through the photography first, showing how a 30 second long exposure smooths out the waves to create a glass-like surface. Then I move on to the retouching in both Lightroom and Photoshop, including how to make selections and cuts with just one slider.
© Glyn Dewis 2026
