Nik Snapseed for Mac – Mini Review
When Nik Software released Snapseed for the iPad it got quite a lot of attention. I’m one of those rare people who doesn’t use an iPad for content creation. My iPad essentially serves only two purposes…
1. To show off my portfolio
2. To consume data
I wasn’t all that interested in fixing photos on my iPad. But my laptop? That’s a different story. So when I heard that Snapseed was available for my Mac laptop, I went to the App Store, plunked down my $19.95 and started playing.
While most serious photographers I know (me included) like Nik ColorEfex Pro, Snapseed is much less expensive and frankly aimed at just having a little fun. That doesn’t mean you can’t do real photo work with it. You can. It’s just that it’s not meant to be a replacement for something like Photoshop.
Here are some of the key features:
* Tune Image—Quickly correct photos shot in difficult lighting situations, create depth and vibrancy with Ambience, or adjust White Balance, Saturation, Contrast and more
*Auto Correct—Automatically analyzes your photo and adjusts color and exposure, or you can use the sliders to add or reduce the enhancements
*Control Points—Make precise selections and enhancements in seconds with Nik Software’s revolutionary U Point technology
*Tilt-Shift—Creates a narrow in-focus area designed to simulate depth of field, common in a Miniature Scene look
*Details—Enhances details with traditional sharpening as well as Nik Software’s unique
Structure control found in the professional Nik Software product line
*Crop & Straighten—Rotate or straighten with simple slider controls and select from a variety of standard aspect ratios while cropping
*Grunge—Explore styles and textures without limits and give photos a totally unique look
*Drama—Add custom effects to a photo which range from subtle enhancements of textures to wildly creative and artistic effects
*Vintage—Nine unique nostalgic films, plus controls like saturation, textures and vignettes make any photo look like a vintage color film photo from the 50’s, 60’s or 70’s
*Frames—Add unique borders to photos by choosing styles and textures
*Black and White—Give photos a classic look with this darkroom-inspired filter. Select styles, grain, vignettes, and more for a perfectly nostalgic look
*Sharing—Share photos on Facebook and Flickr, email photos, and print them using your home printer
Some of my favorite tools are Grunge, Vintage, Tilt & Shift and Drama – all of which give photos a cool look very quickly. It is a simple workflow. You just drag your photo into Snapseed, make your adjustments, apply filters, export, etc.
One thing that would make Snapseed better is if it could export directly from Aperture or Lightroom, etc. Now you have to export the image from your editing application then drag it into Snapseed. It’s no big deal but it would be nice if it had better connection with other apps.
Snapseed supports:
• Mac OS 10.6.6 and 10.7.2
• Requires 64-bit processor (Intel Core 2 Duo or later
• JPEG, TIFF (in RGB color mode), and RAW file formats
It’s a very versatile program that is fun and easy to use. Within minutes of opening the program you’ll be an expert. Everyone from casual shutterbugs to serious shooters will enjoy Snapseed and at $19.95 it’s a no brainer.
Highly addictive and highly recommended.
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Free Video Tutorial – Apple Aperture Time Saving Tip
Here’s a quick little tip that will save you time in Aperture.
DISCLAIMER: This post isn’t intended to be definitive – we’re not claiming this is the ONLY way or even the BEST way to accomplish this task in Photoshop or any other post-prodcessing program. We’re merely offering it as A way you might accomplish this task. These tips are free, offered only because they might be helpful to someone.
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Three Tips For New Wedding Photographers
I used to shoot weddings. I actually enjoyed doing it. I made a great deal of money doing it and met some nice people. But it’s very hard work and requires serious dedication. Many photographers avoid doing weddings for these reasons.
For those of you who want to break into the wedding market I’ll share three things with you that I wish I would have known before I took the leap.
1. Being a wedding photographer has MUCH more to do with being able to establish, and maintain good relationships than it does photography. You can be the best technically-gifted photographic artist on the planet and if the bride, the groom, the family or the wedding party all think you are a jerk – you will fail. This is a people business NOT a photography business. If you are a photographer of average quality but have above-average people skills, you will outsell and out-book the extraordinarily talented, but unfriendly wedding photographer every time. If you are not a people person – don’t go into the wedding business unless you can hire a people person as an intermediary.
Oh and I’ll piggy back on this tip by saying find the mean grandma at the wedding and get her to smile for the camera. There is ALWAYS a mean grandma and if you can get her to smile, get a photo of it and share it with the bride, she’ll love you forever. Really!
2. Have a plan, a backup plan and a backup plan for your backup plan. Spend significant time thinking about how you want to capture the day, then plan out how you will do it. Make sure you know the location. If you’ve never been there – go ahead of time and scout it. Scout it during the hours that match the wedding time frame. Meet the officiants. Learn about any local laws, rules, customs or traditions that you’ll need to be aware of. Make sure the gear you have will work in this particular situation and then make sure you have three of everything you might possibly need. Stuff breaks – usually during a wedding. Plan for every possible contingency. Have backup transportation for you and even the bride. I’ve seen more than one limo company leave a bride stranded because the offer of a better payday came around. Think through what you need to know in advance and be ready. This is a one-time deal. There are no do-overs in wedding photography. Be prepared.
3. Be friendly, be considerate, be caring, be careful, be insightful, be cordial, be friendly, but BE IN CHARGE! The one thing that you will quickly learn is that if the pictures don’t work, it won’t matter whose fault that was – YOU will be blamed. If the caterer, the DJ, the cake maker, etc., screw up and that screw up somehow impacts your pictures there will NOT be an asterisk by the photo saying “If only the DJ hadn’t dimmed the lights this would be a great shot!”
This varies GREATLY by market and budget but there are fewer wedding coordinators these days than in the old days. Where there is no wedding coordinator, many couples, especially young couples, will look to the photographer for leadership. When that happens, take charge. Be mindful that this is their special day and make allowances for that every way you can but also make sure that the cake is on the wall under the nice lighting, and that the window curtains remain open at sunset so that the nice warm light can be used as window lighting, etc. You get the point. You need to make sure that you love up the bride and her party but you also need to remember she hired you to make her look good. It’s YOUR job – nobody else’s job. Don’t take it if you can’t be a leader. That’s what good photographers do. They lead. They protect the bride. They protect her memories. They don’t let ANYTHING get in the way of her special day and they NEVER say “that’s not my job.”
Shooting weddings can be fun, lucrative and rewarding. I could give you 1000 more tips but start with these three. If you can get these three right you’ll save yourself 1000000 problems.
Good luck.
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Aperture 4.0
UPDATE: My pal Joseph says my dates are off. That may be – I went with a source that I considered reliable. In any event, he’s used Wikipedia, which may or may not be reliable – but it doesn’t really matter. We end up with roughly the same conclusion. I say between now and October. Joseph is bolder and says June. I don’t care when – as long as it happens! Thanks Joseph.
When will Apple release Aperture 4.0? Don’t get your hopes up. I have no insider information. I do have a great deal of experience and that experience leads me to believe it will be soon.
If you look at the typical release cycles for different companies, it becomes easier to predict what they will do. Adobe typically releases a new version of Photoshop about every 18 months. Apple’s cycles are longer.
Aperture was released in November, 2005. Six years ago last month, I taught the first ever public Aperture class at MacWorld. Shortly after I went to Los Angeles and sat for the first ever Aperture certification classes. I’ve used the program or taught the program or written about the program nearly every day since. And since those early days, Aperture has seen a major update cycle as follows…
1. Version 1 to Version 2 / 38 months
2. Version 2 to Version 3 / 24 months
3. Version 3 to Version 3.22 current / nine months
My prediction is that version four will come out sometime between February 2012 and October 2012.
Now that Adobe has tipped its hand with Lightroom 4 BETA, Apple knows what it needs to do to stay relevant. That said, the current version is stable, fast, powerful, affordable and useful. If Apple didn’t upgrade for another two years I can still see myself using Aperture.
With the move away from what Apple used to call “pro apps” to an App Store environment, one has to ponder what Apple will do with Aperture. I can’t see them abandoning it unless they have something totally new under wraps. Steve Jobs was one of the program’s biggest advocates. I suspect it might not have survived those early years without his intervention. Now that he’s gone, it could face changes. Only time will tell.
At $79 in the App Store, I think it’s the best deal in photo software. I think Lightroom is a great program and more people use it than will ever use Aperture, but I’m the guy who prefers the Jaguar to the Aston Martin so I don’t mind not being part of the cool kids club. I happen to love Aperture.
For six years, ever since I taught that first MacWorld class, I’ve been told Apple will abandon Aperture. For six years people have predicted it’s on its last legs. So far, I see no evidence to support that. If you predict the failure of ANYTHING long enough, you will eventually be right. But so far, Aperture is still being updated. I think that will continue. In fact, I am so confident I’m getting the outline ready for the new Aperture 4.0 book I plan to write with my pal Rich Harrington. So stay tuned. It could be any day!
By the way if you’re a Mac person and never tried Aperture, you can do so free of charge for 30 days with the Aperture Free Trial link.
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Free Video Tutorial – How To Set Your Camera’s White Balance In Post
Guest Post by Rich Harrington - Follow Rich on Twitter
Watch the free video tutorial demonstrating – How To Set Your Camera’s White Balance In Post…
DISCLAIMER: This post isn’t intended to be definitive – we’re not claiming this is the ONLY way or even the BEST way to accomplish this task in Photoshop or any other post-prodcessing program. We’re merely offering it as A way you might accomplish this task. These tips are free, offered only because they might be helpful to someone.
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Kodak Files For Bankruptcy – Thanks For The Memories
In the mid 1990s I had a studio in the Seattle area. I took a meeting with some Kodak executives about the new “digital cameras.” They gave me a Kodak DCS 420 to play with. It was a 1.5 MP camera with a 2.6x crop factor. It fired at two frames a second for two and one half seconds before the buffer filled. This camera was incredibly expensive and it was a huge affair – it was like carrying a tank. It used Nikon lenses. I thought it was very cool. When paired with my Iris printer I was able to make images that turned into lovely prints at a staggering rate of up to three prints per day :)
But what went wrong? The Kodak company was certainly of two minds when it came to digital photography. On the one hand they had a bunch of digital patents in their portfolio, but if the digital cameras took off, then Kodak’s main line film business would suffer. The old guard that ran the company didn’t want to give up on their legacy – film. In fact, the people I was talking to clearly hated digital. They said film was the future and that this digital camera fad would die down but they felt the need to play in the space just in case.
This forms the basis for the personality split that left the aging behemoth on the wrong side of so many important business decisions.
In the late 1990s Kodak began to play second fiddle in the digital space to many of its early digital partners. Nikon began building its own digital cameras. The D1H/D1X dominated over Kodak’s digital offerings. In my opinion, this was the turning point that eventually led to Kodak filing for bankruptcy protection last week. Lots of things happened in between but I think that is when it started.
Because of the dual nature of the company, i.e., film/digital, Kodak wasn’t able to serve either side well. Film sales began to drop off and Kodak had made the incredibly silly decision not to build their own digital camera body.
I remember having my Kodak representative Mike call on my studio. He was the nicest guy in the world and I always loved seeing him but I didn’t see any future in film. He was always trying to devise different strategies to get me to buy film. It was all very creative but it couldn’t work. One of the reasons was that all the local labs were seeing the writing on the wall much better than Kodak and they simply shut their doors. I didn’t have a local place to get the film processed so I went 100% digital.
As I look back on the days when I shot film, Kodak was king when it came to portrait film. I used Fuji Velvia for landscape work but the rest of my “workflow” was mostly Kodak. Some of those films were lovely. I actually look back on that time with fond memories BUT…
I absolutely do not miss shooting film. It’s too much work and in my opinion – the new digital cameras simply out perform the film cameras and their film – at least in the 35mm world.
As I grow older, the good old days when I shot Tri-X 400 fall further and further in the rear view mirror. For those who never shot film, I do think you should try it – just to appreciate how good you have it now. But no matter how you feel about it – I can’t help but think that those of you who were there in the old days are – like me – are a bit sad to hear the news about Kodak’s failure.
Kodak did a great deal for our industry. They sponsored just about everything that was important for photographers. They marketed photography to the rest of the world on our behalf. They wanted to make photographic images the most important images in the world. It was an admirable goal.
I will always remember that period when Kodak was trying to sell film instead of developing their own digital SLR body and wonder – was that the beginning of the end? Did Kodak’s decision to let the digital market run ahead of them cause the death knell to sound?
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A Disturbing, Long-Time Trend in Editorial Photography
Copyright Scott Bourne 2010 - All Rights Reserved
I haven’t spent much time doing editorial photography. With that disclaimer, I still believe I have enough knowledge about the subject to have formed a reasonable opinion about its trends. And it’s the trends I find somewhat disturbing.
When looking at the portfolios of editorial photographers, particularly emerging editorial photographers, everything looks pretty much the same. It’s not a new problem. This has been going on for decades. It’s natural for photographers to emulate what they see in successful print. But this goes beyond that. This borders on imitation: not downright copying mind you, but imitation, which although nuanced, isn’t exactly the same thing.
Even more disturbing is the fact that much of this work is contrived. Pictures are out of focus because “that’s cool.” Pictures have polaroid-style edges because “that’s cool.” Pictures are strongly backlit and in fact blowout because “that’s cool.” When pressed, most of the photographers doing this work that all looks the same cannot articulate with any specificity WHY they are doing what they are doing. Whether they want to admit it or not I think I know why. They’ve seen it somewhere else so they are emulating it – either consciously or subconsiously.
Yet – it’s all done in the name of being “new.” Quite a contradiction isn’t it?
Yes the out of focus pictures are a response to too many IN-FOCUS pictures, so they think they are being cool by being new. If you’re a regular reader here you know what’s coming next.
It’s much more important to be YOU than to be NEW! The logic of this should be clear. If you are imitating other people’s style because it’s new and different from “traditional” photography, then you really aren’t doing anything new at all. It’s much more valuable and important to put your own, true stamp on it. Shoot from the heart. Don’t be one of those people that has an over-powered, strongly back-lit engagement photo in your portfolio because every other photographer has decided that it’s cool to wash out the detail in the picture. Instead, pay attention to story-telling and craft and know what the rules are before you break them.
It’s perfectly fine to try new things. In fact, I think it’s great. I advocate for that approach. But do so based on your interpretation and from a place that is truly you – that is authentic – that is born out of your own desire to communicate – not your desire to imitate.
Thanks for listening to my rant.
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