Technical fields are constantly evolving, and photography is no exception. Remember how excited you were about autofocus, digital sensors, or the invention of mirrorless cameras? True HDR is now entering the photography world and will completely change the way you perceive photography.

Many photographers are used to working with a combination of RAW and JPG images. We’ve discussed the advantages of each image format in the article RAW vs. JPG: The Eternal Struggle. This time, we’ll show you the advantages of working with photos in both formats. We’ll also discuss how the ZPS X Spring Update makes this process even easier.

What are 3D LUTs? You may have come across them in your photo editing, used them for some time, or not at all. Many photographers offer custom 3D LUTs you can download for a fee, or even free. What can you do with 3D LUTs? What are their limitations? How can you make your own? Zoner Photo Studio X makes this a piece of cake.

With landscape photography, it may appear that something is not quite right at first glance. The sky is too bright, the forest in the background is too dark, and the river in the center of the photo is dull. When this happens, landscape photographers use a simple trick—local adjustments. Let’s see how they’re done.

Retouching is no longer just removing skin blemishes. With increasingly advanced tools that use frequency separation, you can enhance portraits more easily and effectively than ever before. You can adjust skin tones without losing texture or diminish wrinkles without altering skin color. 

Torn, bent, yellowed, and faded. Old photographs are just like that. But fortunately, you can save them and restore their original look and colors. It takes just a few steps—scanning the old photos, cropping them and adjusting contrast, and then retouching them.

Just as some edits and lighting styles give you a soft-feeling photo, the opposite exists too. Meet the opposite of High Key. Meet Low Key... and learn to create harsher, grittier photos. You can use it for photos of senior citizens, photos of manly men (often the same thing!)... and even for nudes. Read on to find out how to create Low Key photos.

Gradient Filter functions are generally used for darkening or coloring the top of a photo—usually the sky. They basically replace a physical gradient filter that you’d place over your camera’s lens. But the Gradient Filter in ZPS X is also highly customizable and offers lots of creative opportunities.

Does your photo already have basic exposure adjustments, but it still doesn’t seem to be enough in certain places? Use local adjustments in Zoner Photo Studio X to fine-tune your photo to perfection.

Physical polarizing filters have been a useful tool for us photographers for many years now. They help us eliminate reflections and make skies look more natural. But if you don’t have one at home—or if you’ve forgotten it at home—that’s OK. You can also add the same effect on a computer.