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Archive 2016 · Radlab

  
 
FrancisK7
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Radlab


Anyone here uses Radlab in their wedding workflow?

I just came back from a Davina+Daniel workshop and they use it for their slideshow and blog post post-production as they prefer to work with layers in PS for optimal editing. Their full gallery (the rest) is only edited in Lightroom.

What concerns me about stuff like actions, VSCO keys or plugins like Radlab is that you don't understand what it does exactly to your image. If you rely on a plugin effect to build a brand or a look and it goes out of business, what do you do then? When Totally Rad sold actions, you could "learn" the recipe by looking at the list of steps an action took so you could learn to replicate the effect yourself. AFAIK there is no way to know what exactly Radlab does to an image when you apply a specific preset?

Daniel's editing skills are definitely epic and it was the first time I saw Radlab used in a wedding workflow, so I'm very interested to hear if anyone else here uses it.






May 11, 2016 at 05:48 PM
LeeSimms
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Radlab


I used (and still do sometimes) Totally Rad Actions v1 — Doug Boutwell turned an entire generation of wedding photographers onto layer masks in Photoshop. In 2007 or so, he was the first to do it all the time, tell the world about it, then later made product that capitalized on it. Personally, it made it easier to reverse engineer a look then tweak it to what you wanted. Years later, VSCO came along with the one-click-boom faster processing paradigm.

I really had a thing for Doug's wedding coverage. When he and Chenin shot together they were top of the pops.



May 11, 2016 at 06:06 PM
FrancisK7
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Radlab


I too bought their TRA actions in 2007 and I remember Sergio Mottola was nailing the acid washed look back then and I was so happy to be able to replicate the look with the TRA actions, but it did nothing to further my understanding of editing. I was at the mercy of the actions. I remember a lot of photographers went "fraaaaack!" when VSCO keys were discontinued because they relied on it for their workflow completely.

Daniel demonstrated his editing prowess in PS today and there is no doubt working with layers and masks is more powerful than Lightroom. It's just a lot of work for one image. 2-3 layers per image, save as JPEG, import in radlab, apply a preset, move on... wow. They don't do it for all 1000 images, just the 100 that go in the slideshow, so it made me think incorporating Radlab in an e-session or portrait session workflow wouldn't be too terrible if the benefits are better images.



May 11, 2016 at 06:13 PM
LeeSimms
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Radlab


Yeah, localized editing will always be more powerful. I think the kids today want one-click-boom, like Mastin Labs or VSCO


May 11, 2016 at 06:18 PM
JohnnyArguedas
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Radlab


I think you bring up a great point about future-proofing your editing. Operating systems are always updating, and something you use now may not be compatible later on. I use Mastin Labs, mostly because I was too lazy to do the extensive testing required to get my digital work to match my film stuff. It was definitely cheaper than the amount of time I would have had to spend to figure it out myself, and I can just look at the settings used for a particular film type to replicate it even if Mastin closes up shop.


May 13, 2016 at 01:17 PM
IrishDino
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Radlab


To some extent, I guess it's a philosophical choice. My blog posts are the exact same as the rest of the images I deliver (no PS layers, just batch editing in LR). But for some, they edit their 100 blog images extensively in PS and just batch process the rest in LR.

I don't worry about my editing going out of style. It's inevitable and there's nothing we can do about that. Just like prisms, lens flares, tiny people, extreme crops, tea-bagged B&W edits, boosted HR shadows, etc. IMO, just ride the wave.



May 13, 2016 at 01:52 PM





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