Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more

A royal photographer has opened up about what it was like to take the wedding photos for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

In a recent interview with The Sun, photographer Arthur Edwards explained that six years after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s wedding, he can now admit that the wedding was “miserable” for him.

“The day was a miserable day,” Edwards told the interviewer. “I can tell you now it was the worst royal wedding I ever did. Because Harry was determined to keep the newspapers away from it as much as possible.”

The couple’s wedding took place in 2018 at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, where Edwards noted that all of the photos had to be taken at a distance, which didn’t allow for the best conditions to work with.

“Everything was done on long lenses. I had 800 millimeter lens photographing the guests arriving. The photographers they engaged for the job was five feet away. It was just hopeless,” he said.

Even the iconic shot of the couple leaving the wedding in their carriage didn’t work out from a camera and photography perspective. “And then the carriage shot where they went past me in the carriage they looked the other way,” he recalled. “So for me, it was a disaster.”

The interviewer went on to ask Edwards if some of these hindrances were done on purpose, saying: “Was that deliberate? You were made to feel unwelcome?”

“I felt so,” Edwards replied. “It wasn’t just me. It was the whole of the British press, in many ways were badly treated.”

The Independent has contacted a representative for the Sussexes for comment.

Prior to her royal wedding, Meghan was previously married to film producer Trevor Engleson from 2011 to 2014. Leading up to the wedding, many were curious about who would be designing the Suits actress’s dress.

“I had a very clear vision of what I wanted for the day, and what I wanted the dress to look like, and so what was amazing in working with Clare is that sometimes you’ll find designers try to push you in a different direction,” Meghan said about the dress designed by Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy in her Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, released in December 2022. “But she just completely respected what I wanted to see for the day, and she wanted to bring that to life for me.”

“So I knew at the onset I wanted a bateau neckline, I wanted a cropped sleeve, I wanted a very timeless, classic feeling,” she said. “Obviously with respect to the environment we were in and St George’s Chapel, being really modest in what it would look like, I knew that the tailoring was so key, because the dress itself would be so covered up.”

The gown ended up being designed in an off-shoulder style. Recently, it was revealed that the late Queen Elizabeth II didn’t approve of the dress at the time. According to royal biographer Ingrid Seward, the late monarch thought it was “too white” for a woman getting married for the second time.

“In the monarch’s view, it was not appropriate for a divorcée getting remarried in church to look quite so flamboyantly virginal,” Seward wrote in an extract of the book obtained by the Daily Mail.

“Their bodies turn a beautiful brownish-pink. It’s really pretty,” said Amy Parsons, a water bird biologist at the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO).

While many birds molt at various life stages, the avocets’s color change is a dramatic example.

“In the fall and winter, their heads are a dull gray, and they don’t really stand out,” Pourahmad said. “But starting about [mid-March] and lasting until mid-summer, their heads turn a vibrant orange, making them look really cool.”

The avocet mating ritual, often described as a dance, features the pair moving in unison with their bills intertwined after mating. “Their bills cross to look like a kiss,” Pourahmad said.

“It’s one of my favorite shots of the year,” Pourahmad said. “The Bay Area is full of amazing sights.”

If you want to spot these spectacular shorebirds for yourself, Pourahmad recommends locations like:

“A lot of people in the San Francisco Bay don’t realize the rich, beautiful environment we have,” Parsons said.

“You hear about old salt evaporation ponds and think they’re uninspiring, but they’re part of a vibrant ecosystem with many species passing through year-round.”

For a guide to birding in the Bay Area for beginners, check out KQED’s guide from 2020.

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A wide-angle lens has the unique ability to capture an entire scene in one frame. But, working with these optics can be a challenge, particularly when photographing people. The distortions caused by wide-angle lenses require some problem solving. In this week’s Photos of the Week, find inspiration in these wide shots from Jim Caryl, Jane Iskra, Brynne Ferenczy, and Abi Neda Riley.

Jim Caryl, The Caryls Photography

Jim Caryl of The Caryls Photography prefers his 85mm and 105mm, as wide-angle lenses can sometimes flatten the mountainous landscapes in Scotland. But when he spotted this giant rainbow while the couple was headed to dinner, he immediately pulled over. The couple ran out across the moorland and Caryl used his Leica Q2 with its fixed Summilux 28mm f1.7 ASPH in order to fit the entire rainbow within the frame.

“We work mainly in mountainous landscapes in Scotland, where using wide-angle lenses can tend to flatten the landscape a little, especially if you’re a mile or so away from the nearest hill,” Caryl says. “So our go-to lenses are typically the 85mm and 105mm. This was one occasion when we needed a wide angle to allow us to fit the entire rainbow into a single frame.”

Jane Iskra, ISKRA Photography

After meeting the couple, Tony and Jane Iskra of ISKRA Photography decided to include this canyon waterfall in the Iceland elopement. The photographers knew the location would show off their personalities and connection with nature. Once they arrived, the couple’s emotion and connection let this shot unfold naturally. Jane Iskra captured this shot with the Canon 5D Mark IV and the Canon 24mm f1.4 II lens.

“We shoot wide lenses pretty often, as many locations require them to show the scale,” she explains. “We try not to shoot people from a low perspective because of distortion. We place models and main objects mainly in the center of the frame for the same reason. You just need to be extra careful when shooting people with wide lenses.”

Brynne Ferenczy, Brynne Photo

Photographer Brynne Ferenczy of Brynne Photo typically shoots lifestyle portraiture, but after pushing herself to learn astrophotography, the genre is a new favorite that she incorporates into her work often. This shot taken with a wide-angle lens showcases a quiet moment between the couple as they look up at the stars. Ferenczy captured the shot with the Canon R6 Mark II and the Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art lens.

“I love the wide angle perspective because it allows you to feel like you’re really a part of the scene,” she says. “I watch for distortion by keeping my subjects away from the edges of the lens unless it’s done intentionally to create leading lines.” 

Abi Neda Riley, Abi Riley Photography

The wide angle perspective in this shot by Abi Neda Riley of Abi Riley Photography allow the lines and texture of the sand to draw the eye to the couple at the center of the frame. The starburst effect on the reflected sun, created by shooting at a narrower f10 aperture, further highlights the couple. Riley explains that because she’s a local and has photographed several weddings at the location, she knew the couple would be able to get the sunset images they requested at Watergate Bay. She captured the shot with the Nikon D750 and Sigma 24mm f1.4 lens.

“I took and delivered several images with a similar composition, but this one I loved the most, and so did the couple,” she says. “One of the challenges of working with a wide-angle lens is balancing light, which is done in post processing by adding local adjustments. In this photo, the skies were very dramatic, but I had also added a linear gradient to accentuate the dramatic clouds.” 

Dig into our Photo of the Day archives for even more timeless photos, eye-catching wedding photos and portraits. Submit your wedding, editorial, documentary and other interesting imagery (up to 5 images at a time) to: hillary.grigonis@emeraldx.com.

As a thank you to our readers, we’re pleased to offer you a Rangefinder exclusive discount code to get 25% off The Portrait Masters course below. Use the code RF25 at check out to redeem. This code cannot be used in combination with other sales.

Photographing Couples In Love by Kristina Wikle

Skylum recently announced Project “Barcelona,” a new desktop application specifically for professional portrait retouching.

Recognizing the increasing demand for time-saving tools in portrait photography that would enable professional and semi-professional photographers to focus on creative growth and client engagement, Skylum is collaborating with renowned portrait photographer Julia Trotti to develop this specialized software solution.

Set for release in September 2024, Project “Barcelona” will empower photographers by automating routine face retouching processes through an efficient, AI-optimized workflow that runs locally on the user’s device, making it as easy as applying presets. With the added advantage of precise and adjustable masking tools, it provides enhanced control and accuracy for perfect results every time. This, in turn, will allow portrait photographers to balance the time-intensive task of photo retouching with shooting and growing their photography business.

Designed with the specific needs of portrait photographers in mind, the new app’s key features include:

• Skin Toning:  Make subtle changes to the skin tone of specific areas thanks to an accurate facial skin segmentation model; remove the red hue or unify the overall color. On top of that, the new app’s state-of-the-art face mesh model provides unique makeup correction capabilities, allowing the application of extra textures like blush, highlight, and contour, and changing the color of lips, brows, and other elements.
• Eye Enhancement:  Add iris flare, remove redness, and adjust eye shape with a comprehensive suite of tools to perfect a subject’s eyes in portraits.
• Teeth Whitening: Ensure radiant smiles with advanced teeth whitening and brightening capabilities.
• Makeup Application: Enjoy customizable options for creative makeup styles and colors to compliment any complexion, clothing, or backdrop.
• Bokeh Effects: Create stunning depth-of-field effects with the bokeh feature, adding dimension and allure to portraits.
• Body Enhancement: Adjust bodily proportions to correct posture and account for unflattering angles, making sure portraits capture subjects in their best light.

“In the development of Project “Barcelona” (public name to be announced soon), we’re working closely with acclaimed photographer Julia Trotti to infuse our software with professional insights that meet the specific needs of portrait photographers everywhere,Just as Luminar Neo provides convenient editing solutions for a broad set of photography challenges, this new app uses cutting-edge AI technology to help portrait photographers achieve top-quality retouching and inspire them with new creative possibilities.”

~ Ivan Kutanin, CEO of Skylum.

Early bird offer starts June 25, 2024. Find out more on Skylum’s website and sign up for the waiting list for early access.

Adobe Lightroom is a tool designed to organize and edit your photos. This might make it sound like it’s nothing more than a souped up organizational app that comes bundled with your computer, but as you’d expect from Adobe, it’s much more powerful than that. We wanted to see what one of the best photo editors offers professional photographers today – so, we put it to the test.  

Adobe Lightroom: Pricing & plans

• Adobe offers a good number of Lightroom subscriptions – but no local storage on the standalone 1TB plan

Lightroom used to be an app you paid for, before adding a complementary subscription plan. Now, as with most of Adobe’s professional offerings, you only have the option of subscribing – either as a standalone plan or as part of the Creative Cloud All Apps package, which bundled in Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, and more. 

The CC All Apps prices vary depending on whether you opt for a yearly contract, choose to go on a month by month basis, and if you’re an individual, student, teacher, or business. Taking the individual as an example, this will cost you $60 a month on a one-year contract.

A single subscription to Lightroom is $10 a month, which includes 1TB of online storage. And you’ll also find a Lightroom and Photoshop combo for the same price, although your online storage would drop to 20GB unless you opt for the terabyte subscription. 

There’s one thing you need to be aware of though: the 1TB Lightroom-only subscription option doesn’t allow you to work with photos stored locally. It’s cloud-based all the way. The other options include an offline facility.

• Pricing & plans: 3.5/5

Adobe Lightroom: What is It?

• An excellent and versatile application designed to help you organize, catalog, edit and share your work.

The reason why Adobe includes so much bundled storage with a Lightroom subscription is because it’s primarily designed to work online: you upload your media and work from there. This has the advantage of granting you access to your library wherever you might be, and on whichever machine you happen to be logged into. This is undeniably an advantage, but you can also opt to keep your data safely on your own machine should you prefer, by switching from ‘Cloud’ to ‘Local’ on the left sidebar (and you’ve chosen the proper subscription of course). Even better, you can choose which photos or videos to keep locally, and which to send to the cloud, giving you the most control over your work, and offering you the best of both worlds.

The Local side of things grants you access to your entire hard drive, so if you’ve organized anything into specific folders there, you’ll find it all replicated within Lightroom. Click on a folder from the sidebar and if it contains any images, they’ll show up at the bottom of the interface.

To the right are all the tools available to you to make alterations to your photos. Everything is neatly divided by category, including a large selection of presets, the usual colour adjustment curves and parameters, cropping, healing brushes, masking, and a very handy version history of all the changes you made to an image, enabling you to roll back the clock if needed.

All of this is fantastic, and makes for an extremely powerful cataloging and editing application. It’s safe to say that most of the tweaks you need to make can be done without ever having to leave Lightroom, although Photoshop is but a click away (as long as you subscribe to it as well).

The left sidebar also gives you access to the ‘Community’, where you can see other people’s works, follow your favorite photographers, and even contribute yourself. It’s a great way to draw inspiration from others, or just ignore it completely if that’s not your kind of thing. Above it, is ‘Learn’, a place filled with tutorials to help you make the most of Lightroom.

In addition to that, there’s an app for mobile use (for both Android and iOS), as well as a web version, so wherever you are, as long as your photos are stored online, you can view, edit and share your work with ease. You can see what we thought of the app in our Adobe Lightroom Mobile review.

• Score: 4.5/5

Adobe Lightroom: What’s new?

• Lightroom is constantly being updated, offering ever more useful and advanced tools to your arsenal.

As it’s been a while since we last looked at Lightroom, a lot has changed, and the pricing structure mentioned above is just the tip of the iceberg. We thought we’d highlight a handful we found interesting and useful.

We discussed the Masking tool’s location in the interface earlier, but being able to make changes to specific areas while leaving the rest untouched is one more reason not to have to pay a visit to Photoshop!

You’ll find a series of different ‘adaptive’ presets available. These use AI to analyze and modify a specific portion of your photo, such as the sky, someone’s clothes, their teeth, etc. and make pre-defined alterations to them. The seven blur presets are designed to help you subtly blur your image’s background, for instance. You also have control over your presets as they now have sliders to allow you to tweak the intensity of the effect you’re adding.

Cameras can do more than taking photos: they can also record videos, and Lightroom’s been able to edit those since 2022, from the basics, such as trimming, flipping and rotating, to color correction. As of May 2024, you can also make use of curves when altering your clips. You also have the ability to extract and export still frames.

Would it surprise you to know that AI is creeping more and more into the tools you use everyday? The Denoise feature is AI-driven for instance (only available if you’re working with Bayer and X-Trans mosaic RAW files), and the content-aware heal tool can do some moderately interesting work, but it’s nothing next to the new Generative Remove (currently in Early Access). It does an incredible job not only at removing an unwanted part of an image (the standard heal tool could do that already), but the generated background fill is truly incredible. We tried it on a person in front of the sea, or flecks of bamboo off of fur, and the results were astounding. We also went a little too far by trying to remove the entire foreground and those results were more comical than anything else, so use it in moderation. For an early access feature, and for detailed work, we were most impressed.

• Score: 4.5/5

Should I buy?

Buy it if…

You’re a photographer, you need advanced tools to alter your images and videos, you need to be able to access a community, and work on your computer, tablet and the web.

Don’t buy it if…

You’re not interested in a subscription or you’re ideally looking for the best Adobe Lightroom alternatives. 

We tested out the best photo editing PCs and the best laptops for photo editing and these are our top picks.