In October of 2023 Apple updated their extremely powerful line of MacBook Pro computers with M3 Apple Silicon. The size and design of the MacBook Pro is mostly unchanged, and Apple didn’t directly compare the M2 to M3 much, but early testing ha

HDR Editing in 2023 Using Lightroom and Photoshop

Oct 17th, 2023 1h 22m

Adobe just finished up their annual MAX conference where they demonstrate the latest things their software can do to help content creators. This usually includes major updates to all of the products in their Creative Cloud suite, including Ligh

Deciding to Print Yourself

Apr 18th, 2023 57m 24s

Should photographers spend the time and money to print their images themselves rather than sending their images out to printing labs? Here are 5 decision points photographers should consider when making that decision. If you are a photographer

Making DeNoise AI Faster

Mar 2nd, 2022 1h 2m

Right up front I want to set some expectations on the speed of DeNoise AI. Even on the best of computer hardware here in early 2022 DeNoise AI is not “fast”. The fastest I was able to get raw images to be processed in DeNoise AI was about 6 sec

Help With Hard Drive Space and Backup For Photographers

May 10th, 2021 2h 27m

Hard Drive Space Problems for Photographers Let’s talk about the problems that photographers face with hard drive space. The more technical term for that is “storage”. Don’t confuse this with “memory” or “RAM”. Memory is a form of storage bu

Export Settings for Posting to Social Media

Mar 26th, 2021 1h 18m

What Dimensions and Quality Should Photographers Use When Posting To Social Media? Nearly a constant debate online, I constantly get questions on the pixel dimensions, quality setting, and DPI that photographers should use when exporting out of

13 Troubleshooting Steps For Lightroom Problems

Feb 18th, 2021 37m 19s

Common Lightroom Problems Lightroom is really complicated software here in early 2021. Not complicated as a tool that can help photographers get the most out of their photos. Complicated in that so many things can go wrong we couldn’t possibly

Find Your Lens Diffraction Point

Jan 28th, 2021 36m 3s

What Is Diffraction In Photography? Let’s start off by very briefly defining diffraction. I want to encourage all of you to go and check out the video recently released over on DPReview where Don explains diffraction really well using some sim

Lens Variance vs Bad Copy

Dec 31st, 2020 37m 8s

This post was heavily influenced by and will reference an excellent two part article that the great Roger Cicala published at DPReview.com in 2020. Difference Between Sample Variation and Bad Copies Part 1 Difference Between Sample Variation

Fire Full Moon - How I Shot The Full Moon With A Foreground

Aug 17th, 2020 1h 9m

The details of how I created a picture of a full moon that includes a foreground and looks more like a sunrise than a moonrise The Creative Vision Your chances of creating a good photo increase dramatically when you start out your shoot with a

What Does Apple Silicon Mean For Photographers?

Jul 21st, 2020 58m 7s

No doubt you have heard that Apple made big news at their annual developer’s conference (WWDC) announcing they are moving from long-term partner Intel to using custom built processors they are calling Apple Silicon. What does this move to Apple

AMD vs Intel For Running Photoshop and Lightroom

Jun 16th, 2020 48m 31s

Puget Systems Lightroom and Photoshop Benchmarks Before we tell photographers if AMD or Intel runs Lightroom and Photoshop better, it is important to know why it is Matt Bach from Puget Systems is so qualified to speak to the topic. In 2019 Pug

Intel NUC - An Inexpensive Photo Editing Computer?

May 25th, 2020 1h 5m

Can the relatively inexpensive and tiny form factor Intel NUC be a good photo editing computer? The PC counterpart to Apple’s Mac Mini, this is the first in a series of videos taking a look at the Intel 10th generation Next Unit of Computing (N

Slash 90% Off Your Raw Import Time In Adobe Lightroom Classic!

Apr 24th, 2020 46m 15s

How To Make Lightroom Classic Import 90% Faster This is not a new topic here on Photo Taco. I have talked about this magical process, something Adobe calls the Embedded Preview Workflow (added to Lightroom Classic back in Oct 2017), here on th

Testing DeNoise AI

Mar 16th, 2020 1h 28m

Episode Sponsors Phlearn – When Phlearn reached out I was really excited because my friend Aaron Nace and the folks over at Plearn.com produce video training for Photoshop that I can’t recommend strongly enough. It is incredible. Aaron has forg

Performance of External Drives With Lightroom Classic

Feb 17th, 2020 1h 6m

Note: If you just want to skip straight to the results go to 43:19 in the episode! One of the questions I have had asked hundreds of times over the past few years is how photographers should setup their catalog and photos using external drives.

Photographer’s Checklist For Sharper Photos

Dec 20th, 2019 40m 19s

Create Photography Retreat I am so excited to be presenting at the Create Photography Retreat again in 2020. It is being held in beautiful Greenville South Carolina October 15-17 when all of the fall colors will be breathtaking. Come join me

How To Do Water Droplet Photography With Don Komarechka

Nov 12th, 2019 39m 42s

Water Droplet Refraction Photography I am sure you have seen photos featuring water droplet refraction, but you have to check out some of the images Don has on his website over at http://www.donkom.ca/category/macro-water/ under the Macro Water

Photography Lens Filters Explained!

Oct 14th, 2019 1h 13m

What and Why of Lens Filters Every photographer, no matter the genre of photography they enjoy and do the most, should have a neutral density (ND) and circular polarizing (CPL) filter for the camera lenses. Photographers should skip the ultra-v

Best Background for Composites

Sep 23rd, 2019 55m 52s

Lightroom Hardware Testing Project Update Still working on this. I know that is disappointing to many of the listeners because it meant I didn’t get an episode out in August 2019. I really thought I would be close to finishing up the testing

Taking the Intimidation Out of Photoshop With Aaron Nace

Jul 18th, 2019 1h 8m

Do You Find Photoshop Intimidating? If you find Photoshop to be intimidating you are not alone! We constantly hear from photographers that they know they need to learn how to use Photoshop but they can’t figure out how to use the program. Hopef

How To Use The Texture Slider in Lightroom Classic

Jun 17th, 2019 32m 9s

Most of photographers already know a little about the texture slider that Adobe added to Lightroom Classic in the release of version 8.3 in May 2019. In this episode I want to try and help photographers know what the Texture slider does and whe

Getting Started In Macro Photography With Don Komarechka

Jun 14th, 2019 52m 35s

Beginning Macro Photography Don, let’s start off the show by talking about what a competent photographer who has never done any macro can do to get started. Let’s say this photographer is one who knows their way around their camera, knows how

Concert Photography Tips With Steve Brazill

Apr 15th, 2019 1h 2m

Permission to Shoot Let’s start off with how photographers can get permission to shoot at a concert. There have been so many stories in the photography world over the last year or two of artists who don’t allow photography in their concerts.

Adobe’s New Enhance Details Feature Explained!

Mar 18th, 2019 57m 43s

What Does the New Enhance Details Feature of Lightroom Do? The Enhance Details feature in Lightroom and Photoshop uses artificial intelligence to interpret the color information in a raw file from a camera and provide better fine detail. It can