Adobe added a few new features to Camera Raw (version 18.4) recently. Among them is a masking feature that people have been asking for since Linear Gradients first came out. It’s called a Bidirectional Gradient, or you can think of it as a Two-sided or Double sided gradient. We’ll take a look at the new feature and how to use it in this week’s video. Enjoy!
About Me
I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
Congratulations on the 10 year anniversary!!
nice new feature, hope it will be incorporated in LRC as well. Thank you for showing.
I cannot seem to open the video link. Says “video unavailable”
Any idea whats going on. Always love your videos.
Hi. Just checked and it’s working ok and no other reports of issues so maybe try again.
Hi Mat
Here’s some news: I’m about to quit Photoshop, maybe this October just before my subscription renews. I’ve been bucking up against Adobe for charging us for AI Credits, and their censorship, and their slow rollout of new features. I’ve been waiting for years now for an improvement of the colorize inside Neural Filters, that never seems to come.
A few weeks ago I discovered Fooocus (with 3 os), a totally free Generative AI software that runs locally off your drive. It is free, unlimited and no censorship. There is also Upsayl also free which uses AI to upscale images and has the option to do an entire folder in Batch Mode. Google reports it is better than Photoshop for up-scaling as well as denoise. I just discovered ACDSee is about to release an entire new batch of AI Tools in a month or so for the fall 2017 edition, including Neural Filters. ACDSee is half the cost of Photoshop. Many years ago I started using ACDSee because it was a very fast image viewer, but they kept adding more and more features that now rival Adobe. And unlike PS, ACDSee combines the graphics editor with Manage Mode which is like Lightroom. No need to import, just click inside the folder and import is automatic. The program has a lot of Photoshop style feathers like layers, actions, work-spaces etc. The interface is different and takes a little getting used to, but the more I use it the more I like it. There are actually so many tools I have difficulty just keeping up with them. I’m also trying to learn Black Magic Design’s daVinci Resolve, for video. With Resolve you buy it one time (about $300) and own it for life, including all of the upgrades during the year. They actually have about one per month. Look at youtube at MrAlexTech. He is one of the gurus doing your sort of thing but with Resolve. An amazing program.
Well that’s about it. I’ve been with Photoshop since version 2 or 4; many years. But it is coming time to move on…..
James Harris
Hi I had a look at the fooocus website you recommended and it has pricing per month, the cheapest is $8, was I reading you post wrong as I thought you had it was free!
Hi Peter. I would be very suspect of it. I want to be kind and respectful to James, but at the same time I’m not 100% sure it’s not a spam comment. Typically, any time comments contain mentions of several other products and are long like his, it’s usually suspect. But I left it because his name is on my email list.
But I’d warn you against anything written above. Ai garbage products pop up every day. The workflow he’s describing is not one that anyone would use. Not only are there 3 separate products mentioned there (none of which come close to being as good as Adobe), but you’ll be alone on an island trying to learn and incorporate them in to a photography workflow as nobody would ever use this combination.
So proceed at your own risk. This is not a workflow photographers would use.
Sounds good to me. I’ll try it out.
This has been in ON1 for years – they call it a reflected gradient.
Thank you!
great presentation, easy to follow. thanks
Hi Matt. Great update video. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years. I think I have been following you for most of that time & have some of your courses . I’m sure I will get your masking video soon. Also just see. That Adobe are buying Topaz… Your thoughts on how it will effect us photographers Cheers Peter DH
Always good info. This is a good improvement. Thank you very much,
essentially a reflected gradient, similar to what-has been in Photoshop.
Excellent explanation. A rhetorical question is why didn’t Adobe have this feature 10 years ago?
Couldn’t you create a Bidirectional Gradient Mask by stacking two old fashioned gradient mask? If I had ever wanted one wouldn’t I do it that way?
Hi Jack. No that would not work the same. I’m not saying you can’t get close, and you’ll recall I said in the video that you can accomplish the same shape mask in 10 different ways if you want to.
Even better in fact because the second linear gradient doesn’t have to follow the same line, or have the same feather (gradient). You can subtract the bits you don’t need.
New doesn’t always mean improved.
Hi. This makes no sense, but it sounds like you have the tools you need and they work for you so that’s great.