New from Macphun - Snapselect

The very nice folks at Macphun are announcing a new photo sorting application.  Like all their software it is Mac only and like some of their software it is sold only the Apple App Store.  It's on limited time sale for $14.99 and sadly you cannot buy it through my affiliate link, only through the App Store.  So let's check out what it does and why it is sold the way it is.As you may be aware, Macphun was built by a bunch of really talented folks who had been originally at Nik Software before it was acquired by Google.  Most of the really brilliant Nik apps and plugins were built involving the people now at Macphun. Macphun has three tiers of apps.   The first tier is the seemingly bottomless pit of mobile device applications.  We know that one of the drivers for Google to buy Nik was the amazing Snapseed.  Well Macphun still does smartphone apps, specifically Color Strokes, FX Studio, Perfect Photo and Vintagio.  They are very good smartphone installed apps.  I don't cover that marketplace but you can read the reviews and the pricing is excellent.

The second tier is the consumer market, where the apps are sold only on the App Store.  It is here that we find the first set of Mac OS X apps like Tonality, Colorstrokes, FX Photo Studio, Snapheal, Intensify,  and Lost Photos.  These are all standalone apps with good functionality at competitive standalone app prices.  This is where Snapselect lives as well.

Lastly are the Pro apps, meant for the more serious photographer / editor.  This is where we find the Pro versions of some of the consumer apps.  They work standalone as well as as plugins to Lightroom and Photoshop.  More features, tighter integrations, more demanding use cases.

Ok, Snapselect.

We've all been in the situation where we have hundreds or thousands of images to go through to cull out the keepers.  The usual route has been to import them to Lightroom or copy all the files to disk and then go through them one by one using some method to select the junk and delete it right away and perhaps at the same time to do some ranking for future work using some other flag system.  Pros have typically resorted to the brilliant and very expensive Photo Mechanic.  Snapselect aims to do this at the consumer level.  Now let's be clear that comparing Snapselect to Photo Mechanic is unfair to both offerings, they are not even in the same species.

With Snapselect you open all the images on the card or hard drive and go through them using a click metaphor to decide what you are going to keep or trash.  Snapselect also uses algorithms to group duplicate or "like" images together, so if you shot 76 photos of the cougar at the zoo, it plunks them all together to make the sorting easier.

Once you've gleaned the images, you can move them to specific folders on your hard disk or push them directly to social media like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

The theory then is that you could then import the keepers into your photo management application from the folders and start to work on them.  Snapselect reviews suggest that it works with Lightroom but doesn't really.  I'm not surprised.  A Snapselect Pro (which may appear) might do that more effectively but I really don't see this as an app for the sophisticated photographer / editor.  Got a zillion images from your smartphone to sort through?  That's the fit for Snapselect, or really any use case where you don't do serious photo management.

Research says it is 2-3 seconds per RAW image to render the previews to make the keep/delete decision.  I can get that kind of performance out of Lightroom.  I can also use the X key in Lightroom to flag a photo for deletion then quickly from the menu delete all so marked images.  If I want blazing culling speed, I will use Photo Mechanic.  Lightroom has improved render performance in the last couple of releases, and while it is nowhere near the speed of Photo Mechanic, delivers RAW performance akin to Snapselect, so if you are already a Lightroom user, why add more complexity?

So if you shoot mostly JPEGs and don't do any kind of automated photo management (meaning you manually build folder hierarchy on your drives), have a tendency not to cull and end up consuming storage, this app is for you.  If you are already committed to a management application and know how to leverage its own culling process, this may be too simplistic and too hard to integrate into your workflow.

Good for Macphun continuing to build interesting software.

Automatically Set White and Black Points in Lightroom

Mentees, club members and students know that I tend to harp on getting the white and black points correct early in the editing process in Lightroom.  Well today I learned a trick to REALLY speed that up from none other than Mr. Scott Kelby It's very difficult.

Hold down SHIFT and double click on the words Whites and Blacks in the Basics panel in the Develop module.

Man, does this save time.  Thanks to Scott and for the article I learned this from click here

And if I can just say how pleased I am that Scott has taken over Lightroom Killer Tips because there's plenty of new content there.

REVIEW : Piccure Plus

You might remember me writing several months ago about a tool to help correct camera micro-shake called Piccure.  I had questions and the manufacturers got in touch right away.  While other options, such as Photoshop, have a camera shake filter, I found that Piccure did a better job.  It was more demanding on the computer CPU because of the complex math, but that complex math ended up doing a more consistent job. What if the folks who do Piccure made it even better?  What if they added robust distortion correction, without having to buy a dedicated, albeit excellent, tool like DxO Optics Pro?  What if they "added" Lens + to Piccure and called it Piccure  Plus?  They did and it is superb.  Want to learn more?  Then read on neighbours...Piccure Plus is found here and it is a giant step forward from the already excellent Piccure.  PIccure+ is a product of a small German company called Intelligent Imaging Solutions.

The engineers have added to the exceptional Motion+ a brand new service called Lens+.

Motion+ is designed to correct camera micro shake.  This can happen when a photographer jabs the shutter release inside of squeezing it.  It can happen when the tripod is overloaded or is not so stable as the salesperson suggested.  It can happen with a long exposure where the shutter is released without a remote or cable.  It can even happen when the ground is moving beneath your stable, cable released camera as was noted in the article on "Flex" found on this site.

Motion+ has a number of simple settings.  Some users are confused by the sliders into believing that the setting options are linear.  They are more stepped than continuous, and while I would prefer that the engineers at Piccure would alter the sliders to include notches where the sliders can be set as is found in other software, once you learn the layout, the problem ceases to be a problem.

You choose the amount of shake reduction you want, the sharpening you want and press Preview to see what it's going to do.  Use only enough adjustment that you need, over adjusting will give you less than stellar outcomes, which is why the software starts you at very small changes.  Note that this is significant math so it will take a bit of time for the preview to build.  Be patient, it's worth it.  Motion+ is very good but can only go so far, so your handheld 2s shot on the pitching deck of a ship isn't going to be fixable, but one of the scenarios mentioned above that we have all encountered will definitely improve.

Lens+ is brand new.  Instead of using a series of downloaded lens "profiles", which we know can work very well when the profile is available for your exact lens and camera combination, Lens+ uses raw pixel math to compute for distortions and more importantly chromatic aberrations and makes corrections therein.  It is stunningly good, but be patient, because again, there is a lot of CPU being consumed in the calculation.  In addition to the optical aberration correction, there are both a sharpening and denoising engine included in the package, so you are getting a lot of value for your investment.

As you would want, Piccure+ works not just as a standalone application, but as a plugin to Photoshop, Lightroom and Photoshop Elements.

Piccure+ wants to see the information in the RAW file, so while you can send it other formats, it will ask for the location of the original RAW file to get the real RAW data stream ahead of the Lightroom or Photoshop RAW decoder if it cannot detect the path to the original.  I only know this because on one RAW file in Lightroom, Piccure+ wanted me to point to the original RAW.  The dialogs confused me until I figured out what it wanted and in fairness, it has never happened again since.

What makes Piccure+ different from other plugins is the value proposition.  Most other plugins modify the image by altering colour, contrast, tone, dynamic range, texture, border, filtration - all things that modify the original image.  Piccure+ is not one of those types of plugins.  We love them, but there is good reason to add Piccure+ to your stable of tools and to alter your workflow to include it.

Piccure+ is an optical correction tool.  That's it, that's all.  It doesn't create apparent sharpness by manipulating contrast, it doesn't try to fix aberration by filtering for certain colours or applying a canned profile.  It does real math with your original images as they come out of camera to make them sharper, cleaner and more distortion free.

Here are a couple of sample screenshots to get a sense of how Piccure+ does what it does.  The Goshawk photo on the right is out of camera, imported as CR2 Canon RAW native into Lightroom.    Camera was a Canon 1D Mk IV with Canon's 70-200/2.8L II IS lens.  Exposure was 1/800 at f:/6.3 and ISO 100.   Nothing was done to the image.  On the left is the same photo after a round trip to Piccure+

To give a better perspective, I have used Lightroom's screen zoom tool to zoom in on feather detail, and then with the Compare screen up, grabbed this second screenshot.  Again, the only processing is the photo on the left after a roundtrip through Piccure+.  The original image is great, right until you look at how much more Piccure+ gets out of it.

In this next sequence of images, the original shot is made on a 1Dx with Canon's razor sharp 180/3.5L macro lens.  The camera was on my RRS tripod and the lighting was Westcott's Stylus continuous light as part of a macro seminar I was doing for Henry's.  Exposure was 6.0s at f:/32 and ISO 100

Now you could rightfully argue that since the originals are RAW that no RAW pre sharpening has been done.  Except that this would not be true because by default Lightroom applies some sharpening automatically to all RAW files.  You can certainly disable that if you wish and use an external RAW pre sharpener like the superb Nik Sharpener Pro with the RAW Pre-Sharpen option.  Even then, you are still going to get a better image after using Piccure+

I particularly like that there is no dynamic range or white balance shift as sometimes occurs with other plugins.

Intelligent Imaging Solutions is a small company, dedicated to producing very practical and useful tools.  Until recently, their website was very basic.  They do next to no marketing.  They just build very good, very effective, imaging software.   At $149 Canadian through the web site, Piccure+ may be the most important plugin you can buy, that no one knows you are using.  It really does help you get more out of the camera and lenses you already own.  Everyone recognizes images that have been run through Photomatix or HDR Efex Pro, or Silver Efex or Perfect Portrait.  They all do a great job but you know by looking (probably) that they were involved.  When you use Piccure+, you aren't adding a vendor "look" to your photos, you are making your own photos better by correcting for the natural flaws that occur in lenses and when we capture images.

There isn't a serious photographer out there, who cannot benefit from Piccure+

FIRST LOOK : Topaz Impression

Yes, yes I know, there are ten zillion tools for post processing and really who needs another one? Maybe I do.  I'm not an artist with a pencil or brush but my buddy from Everyday HDR and the Digital Zone System #Blake Rudis is.  Blake sent an email out today and he is pretty enthused with a new plugin / standalone app from the folks at Topaz Labs called Impression.   I am a Topaz Labs customer and I do like their tools very much.  Will I spend $$ on Impression?   Let's find out...Topaz Impression is a plugin and standalone application that allows you to apply painterly effects to your images.  It also does charcoal, pencil and pastel as well.  I used to draw, some even said quite well.  I could paint in water-colour but oils, acrylics, pastels all were beyond my ability.  But I like the look of artist materials and this plugin lets you apply these finishes to your photographs.

Impression has options for Ancient, Impressionistic, Modern, Painting, Pencil, Charcoal and Pastel.  Each option area has multiple finishes, some inspired by great masters, some by the medium itself.  Not every option fits every photograph but I thought I'd share some test images from the evaluation copy I got today.

These are some very quick samples using the standalone app.  Each process gives you a starting point and a huge amount of flexibility in adjusting the application of the look.  There are not hundreds of options but there is a significant gamut of manipulation available within each option so less really is more.

Topaz Impression is available as an item in the entire Topaz Suite or as a standalone purchase.  I already own the full suite, and I'm not sure that I would want to spend $99 on this plugin alone.  I don't see myself getting sufficient return from the investment.    I may change my mind in the future because I really do like what I see, but for the moment, I cannot make the jump.

FIRST LOOK : Macphun Tonality and Tonality Pro

I try to keep up with what's new in editing and post processing offerings.  When I first saw the offerings from Macphun, I was underwhelmed, but in the last six months we have seen significant enhancements in their offerings including Intensify Pro, Snapheal Pro and Focus Pro.  Unlike other vendors who put software into a suite and offer a bundle, Macphun Software goes the individual product route.  It's good because you only get what you want, but if you find yourself liking what they do, it could end up costing you more than a suite.  Macphun is getting pretty close to that point with the release of Tonality.  In fairness they do have a bundle, but that doesn't help those who've been loyal from the beginning and bought products as released.Tonality (and Tonality Pro) are another in a limited but wonderful specialization in black and white conversion.  I've talked about Silver Efex Pro 2 from Nik and Perfect Black and White from OnOne. The team at Macphun is comprised of many of the original (pre-Google-gobble) Nik Software folks.  Thus, you know that they know their way around photography and their way around a Macintosh.  One of the criticisms levelled at Macphun is that their software is Macintosh only.  Having spent a large part of my life at a software company, I've seen what happens when a small focused team gets stretched too far across more platforms than they can reasonably cover.  It's not good for anyone, and fortunately for me, and people like me, Macphun chooses (for the moment) not to overextend themselves beyond the Macintosh.

Tonality Pro (pictured) has the standard look and feel of a Macphun app.  A nice large working window on the left and scrolling menu / function bar on the right.  There are disclosure triangles to collapse sections to increase ease of use ( a la Lightroom) and all the expected functionality in a black and white conversion tool.  Macphun puts heavy emphasis on UI sometimes referred to as User Interface but also known as Usablity Index.  Having done seminars on Intensify Pro and Snapheal Pro, I've seen the ramp time to being comfortable being shorter for new users than some competitive offerings.  What is also good is that as a user develops skill, there is not a beginner wall to run into,  Macphun software has functionality that advanced users want and will use.

Like OnOne, but unlike Nik, Macphun supports Layers natively in their apps.  This makes the non-pro versions pretty useful for people without Photoshop.  The software doesn't have the scope and scale of Photoshop layers, but is quicker to learn and for many, easier to understand.

The Tone controls are similar to those found in Lightroom.  There are master exposure and contrast controls, including what Tonality calls Smart Contrast, then individual controls for Shadows, Midtones, Highlights, Blacks and Whites.   One could look at this as a simplified Zone system offering five zones instead of eleven.

The next section is Clarity and Structure.  Here's where Tonality starts to step out ahead.  In addition to macroscopic Clarity, there are also individual controls for general Structure and Micro Structure.  As details are a big part of the Black and White movement in general, these enhancements are very welcome.

Most all B&W converters bring the ability to apply a digital colour filter as we did when shooting black and white film.  Tonality not only brings the filters, you can control both the Luminance and Saturation of the filter.  I particularly like how intuitive this presentation is.  You can do this in other software, including natively in Lightroom, but I think the Tonality model is much easier to understand for new users.

Next you can choose to Split Tone, with separate density controls for Highlights and Shadows as is expected in a split tone or duotone control.  These features are not widely used in any software but when done well can really add significant interest.

There is a separate control specifically for Glow, a very nice feature as anyone who has come to love Nik's Glamour Glow will tell you.

There is also a blur control, that you can manage radially, similar to what is Lightroom, Photoshop and other software.  Again the UI is kept simple and understandable.

Next up is Texture.  Many photographers love the ability to overlay a texture to drive a mood, and this usually involves sourcing a texture and then a trip to Photoshop to apply a new layer with the texture and then working with the blend mode, and opacity to get the look you want.  Tonality brings it all to you simply in a module.  24 sample textures are included and you can of course load your own.  Blend modes are limited to Normal, Multiple, Soft Light, Overlay and Screen so Photoshop gives you more options, but I've heard from educators as sophisticated as Scott Kelby that these are the ones 99% of folks will ever need.

As one would expect, there is a Vignette and a Grain control.  They have the expected features and are easy to use.

There is also a Photoframe feature similar to the tool in Perfect Photo Suite but with only eleven choices.  Certainly sufficient to get started and the user has control over frame width.

The final individual control is Opacity to control the overall density of the combined settings.

Tonality also provides a substantial set of Presets to start with to use directly or as building blocks to your image.  Because there is the capacity for Layers, you can apply multiple Presets.  One might think that there is only one set of Presets called Basics because of the orientation of the disclosure triangle.  This is not correct as the number of Preset sets includes Basic, Architectural, Film Emulation, Portrait, Dramatic, Outdoor, Street, Vintage, Toning and HDR.  There is also a block for user created presets as well as a Favourites bucket.

Looking along the top bar we see the usual open, save, share, zoom and undo tools.  There is also an eyeball to quickly switch preview modes, a very nice cropping tool and help.  On the upper right there are Histogram, Paint (like painting on an inverse mask) with the expected size, opacity, feather, softness and brush type choices, Erase (paint on the mask), and a Graduated Filter tool.

In my test image (below) I found a limit of eight layers when used as a plugin from Lightroom.  I also discovered that the crop tool is not there when used as a plugin and I think that it should be for the simple reason that if you apply a photo frame and then want to change the crop, well you will lose your photo frame.  It's nitpicking but that's my observation.

The default return format is TIFF which will compress all the layers created in Tonality Pro when round-tripped from Lightroom.  You can also set the format to PSD, but the default setting in Tonality Pro is to flatten all the layers for the return, so if your expectation is to be able to hop in and out, and tweak layers after the fact, forget that.  It's disappointing that this so.  I could not find a preferences option not to flatten and did not find anything on this in the otherwise excellent online guide and tutorials.  Hopefully the Macphun folks will read this and consider it a feature request, or if it's already there, point out to this user how to do it.

Macphun does produce very good tutorial offerings in the form of videos and online guides.  Not all links resolve everything right now, but this will improve over time based on past experience.

When you mouse over the histogram a hidden feature appears that I really like, this is the Zone System overlay.  It shows hashes in your photo for each zone as you mouse down the scale.  Sadly there is no function I could find to change the colour of the hashmarks as grey on black and white is not particularly user friendly.  Perhaps this could be done in an update.

Should You Buy It?

For many folks, plugins are like candy, there are never enough.  At $60, the Pro version is not stupid money, but considering everything you get for $150 in the Nik suite, some would (ok have) argued against the spend.  I do a lot of work in black and white and while these days, I do most of it using The Digital Zone System from new friend Blake Rudis, the spend was worth it to me for speedy options. I really like that I can work in layers and manage the opacity of each layer, and that I have rich masking tools in the product.  It has a very usable interface and the learning curve is not steep at all.   There are items that are significant "missings" for me, but these may not be the same for everyone.  If you don't own a black and white conversion and editing tool, and don't want to learn to do all this work manually in Lightroom or Photoshop, Tonality Pro is a really good bet.  Now if you don't need this to be a plugin, can live with five instead of eight layers and don't care about blend modes, zone systems and colour bleed capability, you can get regular Tonality through the App Store for $20.   For lots of people, that could be more than enough.

Support The Photo Video Guy by purchasing Tonality Pro through my site

Tonality Pro

Whither Aperture?

Apple's recent announcement to discontinue further development on both iPhoto and Aperture in favour of Photos coming in OS X 10.10 and IOS 8 may not have industry wide impact, but it certainly raises questions and speculation (much of it goofy) for customers.  Here's what I see.Many years ago, Apple took the path to a professional photographic editor and catalog manager.  At about the same time, Adobe released the beta of the product we know as Lightroom.  Aperture was unsurprisingly, OS X specific whereas Lightroom was available for both Windows and OS X.  Both turned out pretty great.  Over the last couple of years, Apple has taken flack for not really pressing hard on Aperture, despite continually updating the product, just not with big version numbers.  With the recent announcement, there's all manner of hyperbole that Apple is abandoning serious photographers. Apple understands where it gets its money, and that is the consumer market.  When they moved from Final Cut Pro Studio 7 to Final Cut Pro X, pros went batshit crazy waving torches and pitchforks.  FCP X wasn't bad, it simply was not as feature rich as FCP7 and it completely changed the workflow model for Non-Linear Video Editing.  The masses exited and went to Premiere Pro or Avid or something and the death gong was sounded far and wide for FCP X.  Apple handled it badly basically cutting its nose off to spite its face.  In the background they continued to work on FCP X and today's edition is all the things it should be.  It still has a more consumer oriented NLE workflow, but its death was greatly exaggerated.

Aperture will be supported on OS X 10.10   Customer libraries will continue to work.  Aperture users don't have to jump ship right now and in fact doing so is way premature for a couple of reasons.  What Apple won't do is take Aperture forward past support for 10.10.  So breathe easier and relax a bit.

Why Would Apple Do This To Us?

Simply, Apple believes that photos and photo management are integral to the operating system not an application.  When they merged the iPhoto and Aperture library modules, this was a strong indicator that directionally, Apple wanted to create separation between the editor and the catalog.  Photos which is going to be part of 10.10 is built using a developer tool called PhotoKit.  PhotoKit makes the image library part of the OS and makes the assets therein available to any application capable of making a call against PhotoKit.  This means that future editors won't need their own catalog or library module because these core services will be in the OS.  They are truly core services.

Photos will be unlikely to have all the edit functionality of Aperture on first release.  We'll get a better sense of what V1 looks like as OS X 10.10 moves through the formal developer process, but I think it would be premature to assume an Aperture V4 is going to appear inside Photos.

Your existing Aperture will work in 10.10   If I were an Apple Developer and was working with the developer preview and if I had Aperture installed on such a machine, then I would be able to say that it works just fine.  But, I'm not allowed to say such a thing.

Why Not Move Right Now?

Apple's library system for iPhoto and Aperture is a non-trivial beast. You could install Lightroom or Capture One right now.  Importing all your Aperture libraries is possible but to say it is ugly, slow and painful would be to grant it flowers and candy.  It's in the best interest of Adobe to get to work right now on a migration utility to move (safely and non-destructively) your images from an Aperture library to a Lightroom library.  Don't expect Lightroom to read the Aperture library natively, I really don't see that happening or being good for anyone in the long term.  The folks behind Capture One could look to do the same.  That migration is going to be key for the current big guns and they will have a limited window to do so.

Why?  Simply because Apple will offer a migration from their current library to the OS bound asset library in short order.   They have to do that, so the window of opportunity for a competitor to do a lift and drop out of the Aperture library to their own system is most attractive before Apple gets the new product out.  After that it's a different game again, because the new library architecture won't look like the current one on the Apple side, and I would not expect either Lightroom or Capture One to sacrifice their own library modules in favour of the OS X centric library in 10.10   Unlike Aperture, they work on Windows too, and Windows will not have Apple's new image asset functionality native to the OS.

But My Plugins Won't Work

This is a bunch of poop as far as I can tell.  Aperture isn't changing, so there's no cost to the plugin vendors that work with Aperture today from continuing to do so in the short term.  Once Apple gets the new library system into the dev channel, the plugin vendors will be all over that because it will give them yet another route to the images, with the ability to bypass Lightroom's library completely.  OnOneSoftware already runs completely standalone as do the Topaz tools.  Neither have a library system.  Apple will hand them full access to one.  Win for the plugins.

But Apple is Going All Cloud Everywhere and I Have Too Many Photos

This is yet another line of poop spewed by people who didn't fully read the announcement.  Is Apple committed to iCloud Drive?  Yes.  Will it be cheaper than alternatives?  Current guidance says heck yes.  Will it work beautifully?  I hope so, but Apple has not exactly knocked cloud out of the park in prior attempts.  More to the point. Apple understands that consumers like stuff on all their devices and cloud is a perfect way to do that.  At no time has Apple said all your data would be in the cloud.  You will get to pick and choose, just like every other cloud service.  Your photos will be where you decide for them to be.

So What Should I Do Photo Video Guy?

As the blind master said to Kwai Chang Caine, "patience grasshopper"  Or I think he did.  It was a long time ago.  If you are an Aperture user, keep using it.  It still works.  It will work for a long while yet.  If you aren't an Aperture user, now is NOT the time to switch or start.  If you are really concerned, take a class or hire a mentor to teach you Lightroom.  Download the 30 day free trial and poke around.  It's not the editor that is way different, it's the library and you REALLY want to get the library set up right the first time, otherwise the pain is manifest.  You can even start using Lightroom for your new stuff if you feel compelled to do so, but you really want to wait for someone to get a library porting tool out there because moving the content of your Aperture library to make it an import into Lightroom, while possible, is no one's definition of fast or fun.  You can do it, but you can also remove your own appendix with a scalpel, vodka and a hand mirror.  Can and should are not the same thing.  And if you aren't really pushing Aperture all that hard, just wait to see what comes in Photos when OS X 10.10 comes out.  If all your work is basic edits or Instapuke style filters, odds are pretty good that Photos will do all you want AND it will definitely have a library conversion tool.

Later.

PS Folks ask me why I hate Instagram.  First it's cheap repetitive crap and couldn't find its way to creative art with a map and a plane ticket.  Second the terms of service state that you agree to surrender your ownership to your content forever and ever amen.  Third it is owned by the greatest collection of privacy thieves and general scumbags in the interwebs, aka Fakebook.  And I hate those guys more than Instagram.   But I am an equal opportunity curmudgeon, I hate every organization who expects anyone to voluntarily surrender their intellectual property in exchange for identity theft and endless spam.

Although there are folks whose idea of creative art is an Instagram of their lunch salad and their intellectual property is mostly worthless so there you go.  But they aren't reading this.

Creative Cloud for Photographers 2014 - What's the Hubbub Bub?

This week Adobe pulled an Apple-esque keynote presentation to show what they are doing for Creative Cloud 2014.  (Ok not really - Apple knows how to do these, Adobe is working on it)  There's all manner of dev stuff and mobile dev stuff but photographers really want to know what's in the update for them.  Ok, follow along gentle reader, and I shall try to synopsize....First and foremost the Photography subscription is no longer a limited time offer.  For $10 per month you get Lightroom and Photoshop CC.  This is a great deal.  Where Adobe is RAISING prices for full CC members who came from upgrades from box software GRRRR, they are doing the right thing for the folks who only need Photoshop CC and Lightroom.   It's the best way to get these products, and your subscription can be active on up to two computers at a time. First up is Lightroom 5.5 and for everyone who was expecting BIG changes, keep walking, because this isn't it.  It's not the Lightroom 6 that the rumour sites have been rumouring.  It's a general update with support for more cameras and lenses, bug fixes and enhancements to the sync with Lightroom Mobile.

Speaking of Lightroom Mobile, the iPad version was bumped and there is now an iPhone version.  Not sure how much serious work you will do on the minuscule iPhone screen but if it is how you like to show your work, it's smaller and easier to carry than an iPad.   None of the really in demand functions for Lightroom Mobile have been implemented yet and with respect for the Adobe software engineers, I know those improvements are going to take some time.

If you get Lightroom through Creative Cloud, you will get your update as normal.  If you are a classic Lightroom licensee you will be prompted to download and install the update.  There's really nothing of enormous significance in 5.5 unless you have a brand new camera or lens that was not supported in 5.4   Hoped for fixes for the not so healing brush are still to come as is reordering of the develop sidebar to reflect how most users actually work.

Past complaints of slow rendering of previews started to go away with the advent of Lightroom Mobile and the creation of Smart Previews of pretty much everything on import, so the switching between images in the Develop module is faster than before.  It still doesn't use the embedded JPEGs in the RAW files like most other culling apps do, but I do find the performance is better making Lightroom nearly useful for speed culling.

Moving on to Photoshop CC (2014), the first thing you will note is that your original Photoshop CC is still there.  The new version does not overwrite the old version, you will have two separate applications.  This is not as dumb as it sounds because some third party software may not work right out of the box with the 2014 builds and Adobe understands that the joy of getting a new release shouldn't be overshadowed by furious anger when your critical plugin no longer works.

And there's the rub.  All your plugins will need to be reinstalled.   Now you can copy the contents of the Plugins folder from Photoshop CC and paste them into the Plugins folder in Photoshop CC (2014) and they should work.  Should being the operative work here.  If you use the OnOne Perfect Photo Suite, you will have to reinstall or use the File | Automate command to launch the utilities from within Photoshop if you choose not to reinstall.  I tried most of my plugins and things worked smoothly for me.

There are some new features in Photoshop CC (2014)   The new radial blur tool allows you to take a static subject and make it look like it is spinning.  The guides are easier to use.  Smart objects and cataloging of smart objects have both been improved.  If you are looking for that "OMG I HAVE TO UPGRADE" feature, you aren't likely to find it.  The updates are nice but they are evolutionary not revolutionary.  Of course I can only report on the things that Adobe took time to mention, there could be lots of other small changes that will make your editing life so much better, but I haven't found them.  I'm at best an intermediate level user of Photoshop anyway, so there could be a ton of stuff I would never even notice because although I use it heavily as a photographer, I don't tap into the design aspects (aka the other 90%) except on rare occasion so for me to say "no big deal" comes wrapped in the "opinion" caveat.  One thing I do like, because I use Photoshop for title pages and such is that now when you are mousing over a font, your selected text in your project gets rendered in the moused over typeface, and this is a feature that I will really benefit from.  There is a downside to over 500 typefaces after all.

Updating should be transparent but Adobe's servers were getting hammered on announcement day and have been timing out.  Some applications such as Adobe Muse are failing on update.  Folks using the Photography bundle have not been complaining too much and if it looks like you have no connection, just quit the Creative Cloud applet and relaunch it and all should be well.  Please note that you will need to accept the new terms of service (natch) and if you use tools that manage apps that want to "phone home" constantly (that is SO annoying), you will be approving or declining connections a lot at first.

As a former Master suite licensee who tended to update every new version (typically every 18 months except for the slip and slide from CS5 through CS5.5 to CS6) that I get the newest updates this simply is a benefit.  Now if only Adobe wasn't increasing my price and their customer service centre in Asia wasn't staffed by such annoying and arrogant people.

DXO Optics Pro goes to V9.5

The folks at DXO have updated their well known optics package to version 9.5.  It's available for download now at their website, either as a trial or as a purchase.  Customers licensed for DXO Optics Pro 9 receive the update at no cost.  So what makes this update worthwhile? There are a number of great tools built into DXO Optics Pro.

DXO is best known for their incredible lens correction capabilities.  Unlike other products that use a general lens profile database, DXO builds profiles for lenses mounted to specific bodies.  The software downloads the profiles you need based on the EXIF data stored in the RAW files.  It makes for very comprehensive corrections.

DXO also includes their perspective correction algorithms that are richly used in DXO's Viewpoint software.  They are very good, even better than the correction algorithms in Photoshop CC, which is already superb.

DXO recently introduced their Smart Lighting algorithms.  They are programmatic adjustments for highlights and shadows and do a very good job very quickly.  Of course, there are also full overrides for the Smart Lighting settings.  What's great about this function is how well it works without you having to muck around with sliders and correct for colour shift if you push too hard.

DXO is not so well known for their noise reduction algorithms.  Most of us think of Nik's Dfine when it comes to robust noise reduction.  DXO has excellent noise management built in to the software as well.

What makes v9.5 so significant is that for the first time, DXO Optics Pro has a Lightroom plugin!  Now you can roundtrip directly from within Lightroom.  This is a very important shift and will definitely encourage more folks to try out DXO Optics Pro.

One last thing about DXO that is also not well known.  If you like to convert your RAW files into the open DNG standard but are not completely enamoured by Adobe's DNG Converter or the converter in Lightroom, you may want to check out the DNG conversion in DXO Optics Pro.  It is very effective but bear in mind that the file sizes are quite large as should be expected from a high definition uncompressed RAW file.

Google updates Nik Analog Efex Pro to Version 2

Earlier this week, the Nik Collection was updated with the big change being the release of the second version of Analog Efex Pro, now seen as Analog Efex Pro 2.0 Existing Nik customers should receive the update automatically but if you are like me and the updates are random and flaky, you can download the latest release at www.google.com/nikcollection.  If you have a licensed version installed, the update uses the existing license without problem.  It also leaves Analog Efex (V1) intact, although I'm not sure why you would care to do that.

In the new version, Nik has added Control Points (commonly found in other Nik products) and more camera presets.

If you've never used Analog Efex Pro, it applies film looks to your photographs a la Instapuke (that thing someone call Instagram).  More accurately it is more like some of the other many film look plugins.  Analog Efex Pro 2 also adds what they call the "camera kit" that allows you to "assemble" a camera model with your own custom look.

I did my own install and played around a bit and then watched Google's Brian Matiash on The Grid with Scott Kelby.  Mr. Matiash is very excited about the offering and I find him to be a sincere fellow and not a corporate shill.

To my chagrin, I did learn that the trending photo effect is the double exposure, so we can all expect to see thousands of posts of horridly awful double exposures to come.  But, I digress...

i know that making perfectly good photos look fuzzy and fogged and noisy is a really popular thing to do, and if you like this sort of thing, Analog Efex Pro 2 really gives you a ton of control and with the same simple and powerful user interface found in other Nik products.

To each their own.  I found no practical use for the original and cannot imagine why I would want to dig into this offering either given that if I want a filmic look, I will shoot film and get the real thing.  I can screw up my images without the need to use software to make them look crappier.  Your mileage may vary.

Now available! OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 8.5

Released today is the latest release of OnOne Software's superb plugin and standalone editing software #Perfect Photo Suite.  Version 8.5 is a FREE upgrade for V8.0 licensees. New and returning users can expect richer masking and significantly improved photo browser performance.  Here's the press release courtesy of my friend's at OnOne.

And don't forget if you buy your license through this site, you help support The Photo Video Guy!

****PRESS RELEASE****

Perfect Photo Suite 8.5 Now Available - Photo Editor for Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, Apple Aperture, and standalone use.

Update adds super-fast photo browsing, more file-management options, and improvements to the Perfect Eraser and Masking Bug tools.!
Portland, OR - May 13, 2014 - onOne Software, Inc®., the leading developer of innovative digital photography solutions, today announced that Perfect Photo Suite 8.5 is now available, a new version of its full-featured photo editor, which works as a plug-in with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and Apple Aperture, as well as a standalone app. Version 8.5 includes speed and productivity enhancements to the Perfect Photo Suite’s Browse module, improved performance with the Perfect Eraser tool, and enhanced masking support in Perfect Effects and Perfect Layers. In addition, RAW file support is now included with the Standard Edition in version 8.5.

Perfect Photo Suite 8.5 is available today as a free update to all owners of Perfect Photo Suite 8. It supports Photoshop CC, CS6, and CS5; Lightroom 5 and 4; Photoshop Elements 12, 11 and 10; and Apple Aperture 3.

onOne’s Perfect Photo Suite includes eight powerful, integrated applications, each one targeted to a specific photo-processing task:

* Perfect Effects. The richest and most versatile photo-stylization tool available on the
market today. It includes an extensive library of one-click presets, fully customizable
and adjustable effects and powerful masking tools, all of which help make your photos !pop. 
* Perfect Enhance. Offers essential tools for basic enhancements, including brightness, contrast, sharpening and color cast removal. Enhance also has retouching features like the Perfect Eraser and a Clone tool, which makes it easy to remove objects, fix dust spots and repair flaws in a photo.

* Perfect B&W. Create stunning photos that recreate the timeless look created by the masters of black and white photography. Perfect B&W adds dramatic and elegant looks to photos, letting you easily create the many moods black and white
! photography can evoke, resulting in beautiful, one-of-a-kind photos.!
* Perfect Portrait. Offers simple, yet powerful, portrait retouching, with automated feature detection and enhancement tools to smooth skin, remove blemishes, brighten eyes and teeth, and correct skin color. Fast processing speeds also allow photographers to retouch images quickly for simply stunning portraits.

* Perfect Mask. Creates high-quality masks quickly and easily with automated functionality and powerful tools that make selecting subjects and isolating
!backgrounds for removal extraordinarily accurate.

* Perfect Layers. Gives photographers the ability to combine images and extend their photo-editing options in a layered file workflow without Photoshop. Photographers can create and edit multi-layered files with Perfect Layers directly from Lightroom, Aperture or when using the Perfect Photo Suite as a standalone application. Also included are blending modes, textures, borders, PNG file support, and the powerful
edge-detecting Perfect Brush.

* Perfect Resize. Still the industry standard for photo enlargement. It is renowned across the photographic and printing industries for its ability to increase image size well over 1000% without the loss of sharpness or detail that is normally expected. Proven Genuine Fractals technology has been applied to algorithms that optimize the clarity and detail of different photo types, including mobile snapshots.

* Perfect Browse. Quickly get to the photos you want to edit wherever they're stored— whether they're on your computer, network, or on a cloud-based storage service. Now includes one of the fastest previews available for browsing photos. Also great for viewing photos side-by-side in a thumbnail grid or in a larger, more detailed view along with important metadata and navigate through them with intuitive keyboard 
shortcuts.

In addition, all Perfect Photo Suite 8 customers are automatically enrolled in the onOne Loyalty Rewards program. Each month customers receive free product add-ons such as presets, textures, backgrounds, ebooks, and other creative assets to help expand their photo editing arsenal and get the most from onOne products.

Availability and Pricing

Perfect Photo Suite 8.5 is now available. Existing owners of Perfect Photo Suite 8 are eligible for a free update. New users may purchase the Premium Edition for $179.95 or the Lightroom & Aperture Edition for only $99.95. The Standard Edition, a standalone application, is available for $79.95. Owners of earlier versions of the Perfect Photo Suite can upgrade to the Premium Edition for $99.95 or the Lightroom & Aperture Edition for $79.95. 

For more information on Perfect Photo Suite 8.5 release, please visit www.ononesoftware.com.

About onOne Software
onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of innovative software tools for photographers, develops time-saving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers. onOne Software solutions have been created to help photographers spend more of their time behind the camera taking pictures instead of the computer workstation. Such solutions include a wide range of easy-to-use standalone applications and plug-in enhancements for Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Lightroom, and Apple Aperture. Founded in 2005, onOne Software is a privately held company located in Portland, Oregon. For additional information, visithttp://www.ononesoftware.com or call 1-888-968-1468.

General Press Inquiries: press@ononesoftware.com
 Online Press Center: http://www.ononesoftware.com/press
 onOne Software Blog: http://www.ononesoftware.com/blog! 

A seriously awesome Freebie! Perfect Effects 8

My friends over at OnOne Software are doing everyone a good one, but for a limited time only.  Click here to get the awesome Perfect Effects 8, key element of the Perfect Photo Suite that sells for $100 on any normal day of the week, for FREE. Yes, that's right friendly friends, FREE.  What more could one ask for?  No, don't send me your list, instead click here to go get your free copy of Perfect Effects 8.

Did I mention awesome?  How about FREE?

Solving Microshake blurring with Piccure

How many times have you made a shot, checked the LCD on the back of the camera, and thought you had "it"?  Then you get home, upload the RAW files from the card to the computer, pop the image open in your editor and WAAAH! it's not tack sharp.  Oh it's there and it's not bad, but you can see the subtle blurring that comes from microshake.  Well now you can fix this with a plugin called Piccure. I first looked at Piccure in the fall of 2013 and my first experiment went badly because I didn't follow the instructions.  The manufacturer's representative, a real class guy called Lui, wrote me to point this out and when I used the software as documented it was very good, certainly comparable and in some cases superior to Photoshop's own shake reduction.  But I was critical of the plugin because I don't use JPEGs much at all (ok nearly never) and at that time Piccure required the sRGB colour space.  They listened and a new update just came out that brings support for multiple colour spaces including my preferred ProPhoto RGB.

If you have used shake reduction before, you may not have experienced that at high resolution and in high gamut colour spaces that the math involved is very intensive.  Quick it is not.  There are also posts suggesting that you can cure microshake with aggressive sharpening.  Perhaps, but not well.

With Piccure, you open your image in Lightroom or Photoshop and then use the plugin.  This opens the original as a copy and starts the inspection and rebuild process.  Remember that I said to be patient.  The math involved is very demanding and depending on your CPU it can take some time.  In the end, the result is most often worth it.

Piccure is designed to resolve microshake.  That said, you as the user have a great deal of latitude as to how much shake correction to apply.  It is very much a one by one experiment with no one size fits all answer.  I have inserted two images in this article, the first a 7 step HDR where the camera was mounted on a Manfrotto magic arm for a macro shot.  There was microshake involved purely from vibration in the room, given the less than optimal mounting platform.  The second is the same image adjusted in Piccure at one step more aggressive correction than the micro setting.  I used this explicitly to give readers a sense of the power in Piccure.  More aggressive settings on images that are already very sharp, can produce a crunchy effect similar to an aggressive high-pass sharpening, but without the glopping effect and haloing that aggressive sharpening delivers.

Looking closely, you can see the effect of the micro shaking.  The image is just a bit soft.  At this point no adjustments have been made at all, this is the TIFF output from HDRsoft's 32 Bit HDR processing only.  As there were no lens corrections in Lightroom for the camera - lens combination, no corrections were provided prior to the application of the HDR process.  Ghost elimination was turned on in the software.

Even in these 72dpi JPEG exports from Lightroom, the quality improvement is significantly visible.  This was as noted using the shake correction at one level up from Micro, probably more than I would normally use.  I chose this setting to give you a better sense of why Piccure is nothing like trying to fix shake with sharpening algorithms.  There is a dimensionality and texture restored that is what the dying rose looked like under the lights.  You can also see none of the contrast overload or halo effect found with heavy sharpening, or high pass filter based enhancements.

One reader asked why I would suggest buying a plugin when Photoshop CC can be had on subscription so low priced and incorporates camera shake correction.  It's a fair question, and I would say for the same reason one buys any other plugin.  It's probable that the work of any plugin can be done in Photoshop, with sufficient time, expertise and practice.  A great plugin can accelerate the achievement of the artistic goal, giving you the artist more time behind the lens.

I have come around completely on Piccure.  Being able to send it images in ProPhoto RGB colour space right from RAW or a very big TIFF resolves my single major stop gate.  My take is that if you want the best images you can get, without the softening of microshake (long lens bird photographers, this may be you!) Piccure is a fast and cost effective solution.  It is designed to do one thing, and does it extraordinarily well.

The folks at Piccure have been really professional to work with and have welcomed me into their beta program.  I hear great things are coming in Version 2 and look forward to sharing that information with The Photo Video Guy readers when I can.

The folks at Piccure have offered a special deal where The Photo Video Guy subscribers can get a discount on the plugin by purchasing through our link and using coupon code photovideo2014.  Click the logo below to buy your own license.

Making Better HDR Images

HDR or High Dynamic Range has taken a beating over the last couple of years, and sometimes rightly so, not because the concept is bad, but because too often the execution is so over the top and screams fakerooni.  In this article I look at the benefits that HDR can bring and explore the output from Photomatix Pro 5, Nik HDR Efex Pro 2, Photoshop Merge to 32 Bit HDR and HDRsoft's 32 Bit Merge alternatives.HDR images don't have to look overcooked.  HDR can be subtle.  Before we get there, let's explore what the original point of all this was. High Dynamic Range - Origins

A long time ago, Ansel Adams defined the Zone System.  The principal was to use multiple meter readings to determine the dynamic range of an image to be made, to maximize the exposure and then to work in processing and printing to get the widest possible dynamic range.  The Zone System measured from Zone 0 to Zone 10, effectively 11 stops of exposure, although many implementations exist and range does vary.

When digital cameras, particularly digital SLRs came out, the sensors were limited to between 5 and 6 stops of dynamic range, after which content either fell into unrecoverable blacks or blown out whites.  This is very much less of a problem today, than it used to be as we see sensors with 11 and even 12 stops of native dynamic range.  So what digital photographers would do would be to make multiple exposures of the same subject, using the evaluative metering system and then consciously choosing to under and over expose the subsequent shots.  The premise was that the wider range of exposures made, the more content would be there for the next step.

That next step was quite a doozy.  Using predominantly Photoshop layers, each image would be imported into its own layer, then layer masks would be created where different parts of the different images would be combined to create a single final image with much wider dynamic range than any one of the shots.

The premise was that if the evaluative meter gave you 18% grey, then a -2 EV underexposure would put whatever the base reading considered to be white, into middle grey, pulling more data out of the highlight areas and keeping them from blowing out.  Then a +3EV overexposure would be made to pull the blacks up nearly to middle grey getting more detail into the shadows area that under normal conditions would be black.   These under and over exposures would render much of the image either dumped into the blacks or blown out completely, hence the need for masks and layers.

Automation in Capture

Camera manufacturers had long known of the practice of bracketing, the idea to make multiple exposures of the same scene at different EV levels to help the photographer shooting film to compensate for excessive white like snow, or excessive black like a night shot, being pushed towards middle grey by the internal meter that measures reflective light.  In the days of film, cameras had manually operated exposure compensation dials.  It was an easy step for manufacturers to write subroutines for the computers in the digital cameras to shoot a sequence and have the exposure compensation adjusted automatically.

Nikon really took this to heart offering 3, 5, and 7 shot brackets at full stop intervals.  The thought was that the more exposures over a wider range would provide more fodder for the HDR process.  Sadly, misinformation and missing documentation convinced legions of photographers that they needed more shots than they may have actually required but at very small exposure increments.  Shooting a 7 shot bracket at 0.3EV (⅓) stop increments is a lot of data.  Better to shoot a 3 shot bracket at full stop increments.  You end up with the same dynamic range but in fewer shots and therefore with faster processing.

A decent enough rule of thumb if you want to get the extended dynamic range that the film masters got, is to do what they did.  Autobracketing typically requires the same EV variance to the plus and to the minus, so this is where additional frames can help.  With the quality of sensors in the last couple of years, bracketing with anything less than a full stop difference, isn't really helping you much.

And now of course, you don't have to make your own layers and your own masks.  There is software to do that for you.  In this article I look at four options and offer my opinion where each best fits.  The software options I look at are Photoshop Merge to HDR 32 Bit, HDRsoft's 32 Bit HDR, Photomatix Pro and Nik HDR Efex Pro 2.

Before getting into software, it's also important to note that photographic HDR is less high dynamic range these days and more a processing effect.  Traditional HDR involves mapping the tones in the histogram to extend the dynamic range.  The processing that many people equate with HDR is really a series of effects comprising multiple programmatically created adjustments that extend beyond exposure to include noise, sharpening, softening, saturation, clarity, structure, blend modes and numerous other options.

The overcooked HDRs that some love and some hate place more emphasis on the effect side of the equation than on the tone mapping side.  HDRsoft, the company that makes Photomatix Pro calls this Fusion, so that's as good a name as any.

The Software

Photomatix Pro V5 and HDR Efex Pro 2 are 16 bit editors that offer a wide range of presets going from the subtle to the nauseating.  Like any preset, they are a place to start in your image processing, and rarely an end in themselves.  Followers of Trey Ratcliff have come to recognize the Photomatix look, and indeed until the release of V5 of their software, subtle was really not in the vocabulary.  The current version is a significant improvement in usability, image quality and flexibility.  I commend the company for the work in the upgrade and if I was driven towards effects oriented HDR, this would be my choice.

When I started doing HDR, I tried the older versions of Photomatix, but never really liked the output, so I went with Nik's HDR Efex Pro, and later Pro 2, before Google bought Nik and made the bundled suite so darn affordable.  HDR Efex Pro 2 has definitely been a go to for landscapes, automobiles and other wide scoped themes where I wanted a blend of subtlety and effect.  I still like it today, and you cannot beat the price.  That said, Google has not offered a major revision since taking over Nik, and the offering is losing its competitive edge.

Last year, maybe the year prior, I learned of the merge to 32 bit HDR option in Photoshop.  I had never been really nuts about the Photoshop HDR options until I learned about this from Matt Kloskowski at Photoshop World.  By choosing 32 bit mode, with the only other checkmark being ghost reduction, I could have Photoshop do the layer masking work and send the image back to Lightroom without further manipulation.  Then I would have this single image with massive embedded dynamic range and I could use the Lightroom sliders of Highlights and Shadows to real advantage.  Until recently, this has been my go to for true dynamic range expansion.  When Photoshop was updated to CC, the process became a bit more confusing, but I believe that with the latest update Adobe has restored the former simplicity.  Shooting cathedral interiors, or flowers or jewellery, really anything with lots of fine detail benefits from the dynamic range extension without the "effects" look.

When I bought the upgrade to Photomatix 5, I purchased the Pro bundle which included a Photoshop Plugin and the 32 bit HDR option in addition to the Lightroom plugin.  This new implementation of a 32 bit plugin is stunningly good, and while it takes about as much time to complete as the Photoshop option, you never have to roundtrip to Photoshop and back, with everything happening (ostensibly) in Lightroom.  There is no edit window, no settings are required, you simply Export with Preset and in a couple of minutes the image comes back to you with extended dynamic range.  At first glance, you might think that you give up a lot of control in this model, but that's not true.  The control is in the Lightroom sliders and functions that you already know.

Best Practice for Better HDR

The trick to wide dynamic range is to get images well outside the boundaries of the generic camera.  Let's say your camera has a dynamic range of 6 stops.  By doing a 3 shot bracket at +2EV and -2EV you will effectively have a 10 stop dynamic range.  If you go farther down and farther up to include +3EV and -3EV, you get to 12 stops.  You can see then that doing ⅓ or ½ stop increments is kind of pointless and even +1EV and -1EV brackets only extend your range by two stops.  Now sometimes, the light that's available simply won't allow for the massive exposure shifts.  If the light is low and you try for a 3 stop push, you could end up with subject movement, even when your camera is on a tripod.  If the light is super bright, even the lowest ISO and smallest f stop may not allow a high enough shutter speed to give you a 3 stop underexposure.  These are probably more exceptions than the rule, particularly the underexposure option, but keep the idea in mind.

Example Images and Processing

In this series of images, I used the same three originals, and exported them to the four different HDR approaches.  I took the most neutral selections in Photomatix Pro and Nik HDR Efex Pro 2, and just accepted the 32 bit round trips from Photoshop and HDRsoft.  All images were then edited in Lightroom for Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, Clarity and Vibrance.  No other corrections were done.  Once the Lightroom edits were complete, the images were sharpened in Nik Sharpener Pro 3 (Output Sharpening - Web) and then passed through Nik Dfine for noise reduction.

Photomatix Pro 5 Natural

The goal here was a simple HDR process to lift the shadows and put some detail into the highlights.  Photomatix has been best known for the HDR look.  I really am very impressed with version 5 of the software.  Despite being shot at ISO 2500, the images combined nicely and were not made excessively noisy in the HDR process.  The Natural look is a default preset and I changed nothing in its settings to produce this output.  There is good colour rendition overall and a good representation of the shadow detail in the grill without it looking overcooked.

Nik HDR Efex Pro 2

This is the Default outcome from running the images into Nik.  I found the original return too warm and had already cooled it down, before I realized I was doing so.  It looks nice now and this is the only time where any edit change was done, other than as noted in the précis for this section.  Note the increased shadow detail in the grill.

Photoshop Merge to 32 Bit HDR

This is what I would have typically gotten from Photoshop's 32 bit HDR mode out of Photoshop CC.  It's clean and sharp with really good tonal range.  The returned image offers a ton of dynamic range so I could pull more detail out of the shadows in the grill and spoiler without compromising the rest of the image.  That's the real advantage of the 32 bit  models.  The image you get back is still mostly RAW but with extended dynamic range.

HDRsoft 32 Bit

This is the HDRsoft version of what Photoshop CC does so well, with a simpler process and fewer clicks.  There is still all that uninterrupted dynamic range available to play with.  As in the PS version, I did nothing to the image except what was noted above.  It's a very natural look and doesn't scream out "I'm an HDR"

The situation to make the captures was far from ideal but is indicative of the types of scenarios we can run into.  In this case, I was in the basement of a convention centre with really horrible light and colour temperatures all over the place.  The lighting was not particularly bright so the ISO was set to 2500 on the Olympus OM-D E-M1 I brought with me as part of its evaluation review.  I used the Olympus 9-18 zoom which gives a full frame equivalent of 18-35mm   It's optically pretty slow so the shutter speeds were longer, than I would have gotten had I been shooting my usual 1Dx and 16-35/2.8.  There were no Lens Corrections for the combination in Lightroom, so you see what the lens produced without any optical corrections applied.  I am grateful to the folks at Ferrari Maserati of Ontario for allowing me to place my tripod inside the rope to make the images.

A Great Car, A Great Couple

Last night, #Bryan Weiss and I ventured into the throngs at the Canadian Auto Show at Toronto's Metro Convention Centre.  Lots of nice cars of course, but this post is about a couple and the car that they showed.  It's a stunningly beautiful 1939 Lincoln Zephyr.Bryan and I were doing what we usually do, quietly and respectfully making images of cars that appealed to us.  As in past years, we seem to enjoy the exotics and the classics most of all and on entering the Cruise Nationals area, I came upon this wonderful Lincoln Zephyr, restored by Mr. Dave Jolly. I had made a number of images and had been bracketing exposures because this was my first time shooting Olympus' OM-D E-M1 as part of a forthcoming review.  The thought had occurred to me to also do some HDR because let's face it, the lighting at Auto Shows is usually horrible, very contrasty, with harsh shadows and because I recently purchased V5 of Photomatix Pro.  Photomatix has not been my favourite HDR tool.  I tend more to Nik's HDR Efex Pro 2 or the 32 bit HDR option in Photoshop.  Some initial tests with some shots from Camp 30 impressed me greatly.  Be sure that Photomatix is still capable of that overblown, over saturated, over ghosted, overdone HDR it is so well-known for.  Fortunately, there are other and better options, including a much improved 32 bit implementation.  But that's for a different article.

For the course of our evening, dealers, and owners as well as the cleaning professionals had been incredibly gracious, letting us set our small carbon fibre tripods inside the ropes and walls to obtain unobscured shots.  I thank everyone who made my image making more successful, and specifically thank Dave Jolly as you'll see and the very nice fellow from Grand Touring Automobiles who allowed me to get an unobstructed shot of the interior of the beautiful Silver Wraith.  Bryan did meet one grumpy sort and neither of us will post photos of his metal flake pickup that does not evoke the wonderful history of the real truck.

Which brings me back to the wonderful Mr. Dave Jolly and his lovely wife.  Mr. Jolly opened up his Lincoln so I could grab a shot of the lovingly restored interior.  He didn't have to do that.  I was actually moving on when he offered.  Mr. Jolly and his wife also spent time with me telling the story of the restoration, correcting my own misunderstandings and errors of knowledge and were just wonderful folks.  I mentioned that I was sorry to see that the Zephyr had not won first prize as it absolutely turns on the Wayback machine.  The paint is as close to what was available in 1939 that Mr. Jolly could discover.  The duotone is not what would have come from the factory, but does nothing to prevent you from taking a trip back in time.  This is a pre-war, post-depression vehicle, of a time when Lincolns were scarcer and very high end.  It has great character with its warship prow and immensely long and elegant tail.

Mr. Jolly has done a beautiful job.  You cannot see in the photos the six inches of steel all around the coachwork bottom that Mr. Jolly had to create and bend to replace the corroded original body.  It would be tempting when doing a car like this to go for a brighter colour, perhaps with out of time metal-flake, but Mr. Jolly went with a colour that resonates and replicates the time when these cars ruled our roads.

I saw many cars that I really liked at the show, from current Ferraris, the aforementioned Wraith, the Aston Martin Vanquish, and my long dreamed for Charger R/T 440 Magnum in that electric purple long gone and never replicated.  That said, the car that inspired me most was the beautiful Lincoln Zephyr.

The images here are all HDRs done in Photomatix Pro V5 after basic editing in Lightroom.  The camera was the Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the Olympus 9-18mm wide zoom.  ISO was 1600 to allow for the low light.  Exposures were a bracket of 3 frames +- 1 EV.  I used a slightly modified Enhance 2 preset in Photomatix Pro for the external shots, and a more ethereal custom setting for the interior to enhance the sense of ghosts.  All shots were sharpened in Nik Sharpener Pro and then adjusted for noise in Nik Dfine.

My Top 12 Holiday Gifts Under $250 (mostly)

Every holiday season the family and friends of photographers go seeking gift ideas.  Every year they ask the photographer or videographer what he or she would like.  Every year the answer starts with a 400/2.8 at eleven grand and the buyer gives up.  The Photo Video Guy is here to help with my top 12 gifts under $250 (mostly). If you buy from B&H, OnOne or Amazon through my links, you help support The Photo Video Guy. If you buy from Adobe or Google, you're getting the deal and if you buy through the Henry's links, well you help them out because Henry's doesn't have an affiliate program. Adobe Creative Cloud Photographer's Bundle

At $9.99 per month if you sign up before December 31st, this is a killer deal.  You get Lightroom 5.x and Photoshop CC for less than the retail price for Lightroom.  Yes it is subscription and yes there is a web activation component, but you get the newest hottest code and the ability to run on two machines simultaneously.  Adobe has listened and this is a great deal.

Adobe Photographer's Bundle

Set of Extension Tubes

It's hard to beat a great macro lens for closeups but this is the entry way to do it.  Using a set of extension tubes enables pretty much any lens to do close up work.  If your gift receiver already has a macro lens, this kit makes it capable of even greater closeup work.  I recommend the set because the kit of three costs about the same as one tube from a manufacturer and works just as well.

Aputure Tubes Canon and Nikon - Henry's Canada Tube Set for Canon Tube Set for Nikon

Kenko Tubes - B&H USA

Tube Set for Canon Tube Set for Nikon

Google Nik Collection

When Google bought Nik, post-processors were terrified.  The Nik Collection used to be $600.  Now it's $149 and contains amazing post processing plugins that work with Lightroom, Photoshop and Aperture including Color Efex Pro, HDR Efex Pro 2, Silver Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro and Dfine Noise Reduction.

Nik Collection

Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe / Ezybox

Nothing makes a hotshoe flash look better than getting it off the camera and softening the light.  The Lastolite Ezybox hotshoe straps right onto the head of your hotshoe flash and produces really nice light.  If you have an off camera cable or wireless system, you can control your flash centrally and just hold it at arm's length for significantly better flash shots.  Want a bigger source?  Go for the Lastolite Ezybox Softbox.  It includes the bracket and flash mount, all you need is a simple light stand and tilter bracket.  Nothing sets up faster than an Ezybox and the dual diffusion panels make the light beautiful

Henry's Canada - Softbox

B&H USA - Softbox

Henry's Canada - Ezybox Speedlite Kit

B&H USA - Ezybox Speedlite Kit

Cowboy Studios Shoulder Rig for DSLR Video

You could spend a fortune on a shoulder rig to shoot live video with your DSLR or Compact System Camera.  You don't have to.  The Cowboy Studios kit is an amazing value and it just works.  Designed specifically for DSLR and mirror less style cameras, you forego weight and cumbersome rods for a solution that is simple, lightweight and incredibly effective. Also includes a follow focus for less than the price of a standalone follow focus.

Shoulder Rig w Follow Focus

Polarizing Filter

You can do most anything in post processing with digital filters except for true polarization.  Every photographer and videographer will benefit from a polarizer to manage reflections and deepen blue skies on clear days.  Buy the one to fit the largest diameter required and step down rings to use the same filter on lenses with smaller filter sizes. I personally prefer the B+W and Heliopan brands.

Various sizes and prices, check out Henry's

Piccure

I see too many potentially great shots where a bit of camera shake creates enough micro blur to make the shot less than ideal.  Piccure is a plugin that does one thing really well and that is to correct for camera micro shake.  The plugin works with Lightroom or Photoshop.  If your photo enthusiast is complaining about micro blur, this could be the answer.

Get Piccure

OnOne Software Perfect Photo Suite

Full disclosure, I am an affiliate with the great people at OnOne Software, and if you buy the software through my link I earn a minor commission.  That said, Perfect Photo Suite 8 rocks.  The Suite contains Perfect Effects, Perfect Enhance, Perfect Portrait, Perfect Resize, Perfect B&W, Perfect Browse, Perfect Layers and Perfect Mask.  And the full suite is on sale right now.

Cowboy Studio Continuous Lighting Kit

This is a very inexpensive multi-head continuous lighting kit that is perfect for someone starting out.  You get in a easy to handle kit, two light stands, one boom stand kit with bracket, a lamp housing with soft box for the boom, two 5 lamp housings with two 20"x28" soft boxes, 10 45w bulbs, 1 65w bulb and a carrying case.  Because it is continuous lighting based on CFL bulbs it's perfect for photography and videography and the lights run cool so you don't bake your talent.

Manfrotto Boom/Stand Kit

Every photographer needs a light stand.  They also need a boom.  They usually find out that they need a boom after buying a light stand.  Then another trip to the store to buy a sandbag to keep everything from being tippy.  Save time and money with the superb Manfrotto 420B Combi-Boom Stand.  It folds compactly and is all most folks will ever need in a complete kit with a boom that doesn't creep like some sold for more money.

Henry's Canada - Manfrotto 420B

B&H USA - Manfrotto 420B

External Hard Drive

Photos and videos take up space.  Many photographers and videographers have limited space on their preferred laptops so an external drive is the way to go to hold libraries and projects.  You can build your own using components or buy complete units.  The WD Passports are complete kits that work pretty well as are the G-Tech series.  I've had bad experience with LaCie myself but many people love them.  My greatest success comes from buying a case and putting an SSD into it.  Screaming fast and easy on energy.

WD 2TB USB3

Aputure HDMI Monitor

That little LCD on the back of the camera just isn't big enough to confirm sharpness and a good shot, especially with video.  Every videographer needs an external monitor that runs off the HDMI port to check their recordings.  The videographer is often in the "shot" and an external display can be positioned to help the talent see what's going on.  The Aputure 7" display does a great job at a really low price.

Henry's Canada - Aputure HDMI Monitor

A Second Look at Piccure

I am always interested in hearing alternate perspectives.  Recently I wrote a review of a plug-in called Piccure and indicated that it wasn't right for me.  Lui from Intelligent Imaging Solutions GmbH wrote with some suggestions on how I might improve my results.

His first suggestion was to read through the Handbook that they make available.  I had scanned it, and did not read it word for word.  I read it and there is a recommended workflow that I did not follow.

Lui suggested that Piccure be the first thing I do, before any other editing, stating that other filters are destructive.  While Lightroom is non-destructive by design, a saved file like a TIFF as used by any plug-in has had filtration applied if editing has been done.  Ok, while this is completely contrary to my normal workflow, just like Nik's Pre-Sharpening, I will do start with Piccure before doing ANYTHING else.

The Handbook says Edit in Piccure using TIFF, 16 bit and sRGB.  I would never have tried this as I prefer the proper and full colour gamut of ProPhoto RGB.  Lui honestly states that in the current release Piccure doesn't work very well with ProPhoto RGB or Full RGB.  It works best with sRGB.  This is sub-optimal in my view but in respect of his courtesy to write, I agreed to give it a shot.

He also suggested using a Smartspot.  I had tried this but didn't see a difference, but again, I will do so.  He also coached that the Micro setting is a better place to start than the default of Medium because the design precepts behind Piccure are solely to the micro evidence of camera shake.  Here's a comparison screen grab with Piccure on the left and the original RAW on the right.

So here's what I learned from following the Handbook and the guidance from Lui.

The sRGB choice, while I don't like it, makes a significant difference in Piccure's success.  No longer are the colours skewed and the image is no longer made crunchy and as noisy.

Cautious placement of the Smartspot helps a lot.  I tried placing the Smartspot where recommended and then also in a number of other places.  This is time consuming because of the processing load to recalculate with each placement, but it definitely makes a difference in Piccure's success.

Lui also suggested manually tweaking the defaults.  I had already done this in my first review, and so I agree that this is always a good idea.

Outcome

Ok I stand corrected.  Piccure does a VERY GOOD job when you follow the instructions.  If I did not already have a subscription to Creative Cloud (I do) and micro camera shake was something I was concerned about (it is - I shoot sports and wildlife with long lenses), Piccure is a very good solution.   At $80 it may be all you need.

What I Liked

It's a very focused offering.  I can alter my workflow to put Piccure first when I use it.  I'm still not completely clear about adjusting colour balance before or after using Piccure, although I believe that so long as I know the colour temperature, it shouldn't make a big difference if I fix the WB after using Piccure.  The number of variables are small and while the processing requirements are significant when set to highest quality, you get good and visible results.  It does not correct out of focus shots, it corrects for camera micro shake - just as promised.  In my test images the amount of shake was very small but Piccure did the corrections and so long as I followed the Handbook, I got consistently good results.

What I Would Like to See Improved

Number one for me would be to not have to drop the gamut to sRGB when going to Piccure.  I'd much rather be able to have Piccure work properly with ProPhotoRGB gamuts.  I am guessing that the architects understood that sports shooters might be candidate customers and pro shooters tend to shoot in JPEG regardless because they need to upload to their services on the breaks and a decent JPEG is fine for wire services and web broadcast.  That would be a reasonable business decision but it's not me.  I never shoot in JPEG unless I have screwed up.

In the end, I have Photoshop CC and Adobe's Camera Shake Reduction algorithm is very good and there are no restrictions on colour spaces when using it.  If I did not have Photoshop CC, I'd be buying the Piccure plugin because it works, and because Lui advised that addressing the colour space limitation is on their roadmap.  A big thank you to Lui and the rest of the team at Intelligent Imaging Solutions GmbH for building a good tool, and more importantly for caring what prospective customers think and for making a real effort at creating customer joy.  Other software companies could learn from this attitude.

OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 8 is now available

Check it out gang, the newest release of OnOne's Perfect Photo Suite, v8 is available for purchase and download today.  Here's the Press Release

PRESS RELEASE: onOne Software Announces Availability of Perfect Photo Suite 8

New Perfect Eraser for Content-Aware Fill, Enhance and Browse Modules, Perfect Batch Processor, and Re-imagined Effects Module Evolve Popular Plug-In Into a Complete Photo Editing Solution for Every Workflow

Portland, OR – November 26, 2013 – onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of innovative digital photography solutions, today announced the availability of Perfect Photo Suite 8—the Photographer’s Choice for Photo Editing. Perfect Photo Suite 8 is a full-featured, standalone photo editor that also integrates seamlessly with Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, and Apple Aperture. It includes all the best tools a photographer needs to create stunning images.

Key new features include the Perfect Eraser, with content-aware fill technology; the Perfect Enhance module for essential photo adjustments; a new Browser that streamlines direct access to images wherever they are located; the Perfect Batch engine that applies presets to multiple images with a single click; and a re-engineered Perfect Effects module, with twice as many adjustable filters, customizable presets, and integrated FocalPoint technology. These new tools and capabilities alongside Perfect Photo Suite 8’s eight modules, one-click presets, tools for automated enhancements, and powerful controls allow photographers to enhance, retouch, and stylize images in a layered workflow, replace backgrounds, create high-quality enlargements, and prepare images for output—giving them the ability to express their creativity and transform their photos quickly and easily.

“We are extremely excited about Perfect Photo Suite 8,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. “This version is the result of what photographers have been asking for, not only from us but from the industry as a whole. We’re grateful for the contributions and feedback the photography community has invested in our effort and we believe that we’ve created an extraordinarily powerful image editing tool that meets their specific needs in return.”

After a successful public beta program for Perfect Photo Suite 8, many photographers had a chance to try out the new version and give their feedback. “The attention to your user’s needs is unmatched,” said Rebecca Lyyski, owner of Lyyski’s Designs. “As a graphic designer and photographer with an elevated workload, your product has made editing my professional photography a pleasure instead of a chore,” she adds. Greg Lambert, public beta user and onOne Software photo contest winner shared, “Perfect Photo Suite 8 continues to evolve by refining its existing capability, streamlining the interface and providing some new and exciting tools and presets to enable photographers to produce the images they visualize when they press the shutter button.”

The New Perfect Photo Suite 8 Features: • Eight integrated modules – Effects, Enhance, B&W, Portrait, Mask, Layers, Resize, and Browse. Each module is designed to target a specific image-processing task. Together, they help photographers enhance, retouch, and stylize images in a layered workflow, replace backgrounds, create high-quality enlargements, and prepare images for use in various capacities.

• New Module! Perfect Enhance provides essential tools for basic enhancements, such as brightness and contrast adjustments; colorcast, dust spot, and power line removal; and the addition of vignettes. It is an ideal module to start with when using Perfect Photo Suite 8 as a standalone application or when quick corrections are needed.

• New Module! Browse provides convenient and direct access to image files wherever they are stored—whether they are on a computer, an external drive, a connected network, or on a cloud-based storage service like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Apple’s Photo Stream.

• Reimagined! Perfect Effects – As a cornerstone of Perfect Photo Suite 8, the Effects module has been redesigned by adding adjustable filters and customizable presets, making it the most powerful and versatile image stylization tool available on the market today.

• Twice as Many Adjustable Filters to create the most sought-after looks, including:

• Dynamic Contrast – Adds stunning clarity to images and makes them pop by exaggerating the levels of contrast, without sacrificing highlight and shadow detail, creating halos, or affecting saturation.

• Lens Blur – Includes the best parts of FocalPoint technology to create bokeh, tilt-shift, and selective focus effects after the shot.

• HDR – Gives images the edgy look of high dynamic range. Settings are adjustable and create effects that range from subtle to surreal.

• Vintage – Turns photos into a nostalgic memory with retro-style filters.

• Powerful brushes provide the right results for specific editing tasks:

• Perfect Eraser removes objects with content-aware fill technology

• Retouch Brush uses spot healing to remove small distractions

• Clone Brush removes unwanted items by replicating and covering specified areas of an image

• Masking Brush reveals underlying layers or selectively applies effects • Perfect Brush delivers precise edge-detection masking

• Hundreds of Customizable Presets are available throughout Perfect Photo Suite 8 that make it easy for any photographer to instantly create an image they love. Presets can also be used as starting points for creativity and efficiency. Presets are included in the Enhance, Effects, B&W, Portrait, and Resize modules.

• Improved Masking Bug in the Effects and Layers modules make mask creation easier and more intuitive.

• Perfect Batch engine simultaneously applies presets from multiple modules and a watermark to a selected group of images.

Availability and Pricing The new Perfect Photo Suite 8 is now available at www.ononesoftware.com/store. Perfect Photo Suite 8 is available in three editions: Premium, Standard, and for Adobe Lightroom & Apple Aperture.

The Premium Edition works with Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, Apple Aperture, and as a standalone application. It is priced at $179.95. Owners of previous versions of Perfect Photo Suite Premium Edition can upgrade for $99.95. For a limited time, orders of Perfect Photo Suite 8 Premium Edition will include a special collection of Professional Presets and The Essential Video Guide to Perfect Photo Suite 8, which provides a comprehensive collection of getting started training videos for Perfect Photo Suite 8—for free ($80 value). This offer ends on December 3, 2013.

Perfect Photo Suite 8 for Adobe Lightroom & Apple Aperture works with Lightroom, Aperture, Photoshop Elements, and as a standalone application. It is available for $129.95; upgrades are $79.95. The Standard Edition works as a complete standalone photo editor and is available for $79.95. For more information on Perfect Photo Suite 8, please visit http://www.ononesoftware.com. A 30-day Money Back Guarantee backs all onOne Software products.

About onOne Software onOne Software, Inc., is a leading developer of innovative software tools and apps for digital photography and offers time-saving software solutions for photographers of all levels, from enthusiasts to professionals. Leveraging its extensive history as successful plug-in developer for Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Lightroom, and Apple Aperture, and continued development of cutting-edge technology, onOne publishes unified solutions that offer both full-featured photo editing capabilities and the flexibility of traditional plug-ins. Founded in 2005, onOne Software is a privately held company located in Portland, Oregon. For additional information, visit www.ononesoftware.com.

Is Piccure Your Next Plugin Purchase?

I was listening to a recent This Week in Photo episode #TWIP and heard about this plugin called Piccure.  It was described as a tool to help correct camera shake.  There's a 14 day free trial so I thought I would download it and give it a shot. NOTE :  Since this initial review, I received some guidance from the manufacturer directly and applied it.  I got better results.  After reading this post, head on over to http://thephotovideoguy.ca/?p=1487 for the follow-on

Most folks know that Photoshop CC has a camera shake correction and it's quite good.  Not everyone has Photoshop CC and sometimes a dedicated plugin can be the answer, particularly for people who do all their work in Lightroom.  Piccure comes as a plugin for both Lightroom and Photoshop.  At time of writing there was no support for Aperture.

Initially I feared that the tool would simply do some fairly aggressive sharpening, using a high pass filter style algorithm and punch the contrast up to make it look like it was correcting for camera shake.  So for my tests, I used images that were already corrected in these ways and where extra sharpening and contrast would really make the shot look crispy.

I've netted this down to a single image for the sample pics in the article to make it clearer what is happening.  Please know that I am not making my valuation based solely on a single image test.  What is shown here is consistent with what I saw on all tests.

Piccure really does seem to do some significant math to determine where movement has taken place in the frame.  The default settings of Medium for shake and middle ground for sharpening produced really horrible results with the test image.  They were already pretty sharp.  It's definitely doing something.  I got a warning that because the image was large, it could take a while.  While processing, all eight cores in the Mac Pro were quite busy.

For point of interest, the test shot shown has the following EXIF.

• Canon 1D Mark IV
• Canon 70-200/2.8L IS II
• 175mm, IS mode 2
• 1/400
• f/2.8
• ISO 2500
• EV +1 2/3
• Shot handheld, unsupported

When you launch Piccure from Lightroom, you do so as with most all other plugins.  Right click, choose Edit In and select Piccure.  The defaults are sRGB and 240 dpi.  I reset those to ProPhoto RGB and 300 dpi as those are my common defaults.  The Piccure window looks like this;

You can see that it gives you a look at what it's going to do, a processing indicator and three sliders.  The first controls the balance of speed of work vs quality.  Default is full quality.  Second defines the amount of camera shake to correct for.  Default is medium.  Since there was near negligible camera shake, the results were ghastly.  I've moved it all the way to micro correction.  The third slider is called Sharpness varying between Smooth and Sharp.  In every experiment I end up with this all the way over to Smooth to prevent edges you could cut yourself on, along with a lot of duplication.

In the second image, I've zoomed in to 1:1 and you can see the Piccure proposed fixes on the right side.  The Canadian flag is nearly unrecognizable the goaltender's face cage is blown out and has black halos.

It's pretty brutal so I backed off the Sharpening completely.  In the next two images, I've shifted the display to show first the goaltender's face "corrected".  Look at how shattered the OJHL logo becomes in the processed side.  Then I shifted the image to show the goaltender's face without the processing.  The difference, even with the sliders for shake and sharpness backed full off is substantial.  I admit I don't like what I am seeing.

I didn't give up at this point, but let Piccure do its thing.  To my disappointment, the image is very edgy, the colour saturation is compressed, the contrast is way up and adjustments made in Lightroom have been crushed.  You can see this in the next sequence.  The first image is the export direct from Lightroom without using the Piccure plugin at all.  The second is what came back to Lightroom directly from Piccure and the third is after re-adjusting the Piccure image.

I'm sorry to say that even while the Piccure plugin has done some camera shake adjustment, I feel like I've lost more than I've gained.

By now, you've figured out that I'm not really blown away by the plugin.  You're right.  For $80, I'd like less crispy and less overall image loss.  I need to be fair, there was very minimal camera shake involved in the original image, but these are the ones I would want to tighten up.  If the shot is blur city, it goes to the trash.

As a final point of comparison, here's the LR edit passed through Photoshop CC invoking the Camera Shake Reduction filter and returned to Lightroom before export.  Consider that Adobe now has Lightroom and Photoshop CC for $10 a month.  You can have both programs for half again what the plugin costs on its own.  I hope the folks who make Piccure continue to enhance their product.  I won't be buying a license at this stage.  I can get better results using the tools that I have.  Fortunately software is an evolutionary business and they can continue to improve.  And perhaps Piccure is exactly the right thing for people who may not care to spend as much time in post-processing as I do, or who have more shake evident in their images.

Kudos to Google Nik Support - specifically Andre

I confess that when Google acquired Nik Software, I was concerned it was the beginning of the end for some great tools.  The first surprise came when Google bundled all the disparate offerings together into a single package that cost about 25% of what the individual products had sold for.  Yes, I was saddened that I had been a loyal customer and paid more than 4x what a new client could pay, but that's how the ball bounces sometimes.  I also received an email from Google saying my investment was protected and I would get all the updates without charge.  Cool!

Then, blackness.

I use a variety of plugins and add-ons.  All have regular updates and fixes.  Nik had as well but once Google took over, I saw nothing at all.  I didn't think about it because the stuff that was installed was working.  Then this past weekend, I learned about a new plugin called Analog.  It's another film look plugin and I already have several and don't use them so not really a big deal to me.  But I became a bit annoyed that I hadn't been getting any updates so went the the Nik Google page and filled out the contact form, actually anticipating no reply due to past experience with Google support.

I stand happily corrected!   This morning I received an email from Andre in Google / Nik support apologizing that I had not received the first update back in March that made updates automatic, along with some potential ideas on why I had not.  He also provided me the direct link to my own licensed downloads that will autoupdate.  Various software companies approach support differently.  All use forums where users help each other.  Some charge per incident, some could not care less.  I can now put Google / Nik in the same category as I place DxO.  Excellent personal response in a very timely manner.

It would be easy for an organization the size of Google to ignore customers.  I much prefer working on Macintosh platforms, but if you aren't paying for AppleCare, you're pretty much out of luck.  Apple could learn about support from Google in this case.  Kudos to Andre specifically.  One person changed my mind about Google Nik.  One person is all it takes.

Recommended : The Grid October 17, 2013

I'm all over the place regarding The Grid.  Sometimes an episode is just fawning dreck, sometimes they just destroy aspiring photographers, and then there are the other times, in fairness - the majority, where they just hit it out of the park. If you've stopped doing HDR because seeing HDRs often makes your eyes hurt, tune in to Episode 117.  The segment on How Not to Hate HDR is extremely well done and worth watching.  Like many people, I have sinned in HDR and produced some truly nauseating offences, including halos, black clouds, HDR where it shouldn't be, HDRs in the worst kind of light and other crap.  I don't publish them, because they suck.  But there are photographers who think HDR is the cure for a lousy image.  The list of things not to do, or to do only when you are absolutely sure is very helpful.  They also show some decent HDRs from RC Concepcion that show how you can sometimes break the rules and get a nice image.  HDR processing is highly subjective, but in this case, I have to say that the list presented is an excellent set of guidelines to leverage.

The first part of the episode deals with the recent plagiarism scandal regarding Jasmine Starr and others.  Scott's presentation is balanced and reasonable and worth a listen.  Because a photographer screws up (and the people involved, screwed up big) does not immediately mean that the individual is a failure as a photographer, or is an evil entity.  They were stupid.  Evisceration is a bit over the top.

Watch the grid on the web at http://kelbytv.com/thegrid/