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Retrographer (Vintage Photo Effects) — Mini Review

Posted by Richard Harrington on May 9, 2013
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , . 1 comment

One of my favorite plug-in discoveries  is Retrographer from Mr. Retro.  It works in Photoshop, Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, Aperture, iPhoto.The plug-in designed to create authentic vintage photography effects. I’m already a big fan of Mr. Retro’s Machine Wash plug-in which ages text and images, and this versatile package really delivers. The manufacturer claims that users can perfectly re-create any vintage camera look including Lomo, Dianne, Holga, Polaroid, Brownie, Kodak, and Daguerreotype.  I’d say the claims are true.

To start there are a wide range of presets – over 1,100 preset camera settings to choose from.

But the presets are just starting points.  You’ll find total contra over all aspects. You can adjust:

  • Lens – Control focus and distortion.
  • Flash – Control light and spot effects.
  • Film – Control tone and grain for a unique look.
  • Lab – Control exposure, color, and hue.
  • Effects –Add vignettes, light leaks,and  halftones.
  • Finish – Add detailed textures and frames.

I really liked the toning and grain controls.  They are some of the most versatile I’ve ever found.

I found that the filter was very versatile…  although some of the controls were almost too deep.  Also, a small drawback, some effects require you to enter X and Y coordinates into field (hopefully sliders or draggable controls will appear in the future). The only other drawbacks that it is an 8-bit only filter…  but I guess the logic goes if you’re going to age or stylize your image this much, 16-bit color fidelity goes out the window.

I really liked the Finish Controls. a great library of textures and vignettes really added to the image.  I also found the natural media approach to be truly refreshing and inline with how I would do these techniques manually (whether digitally or physically processing).

The controls definitely show how serious the developer was about the product.  While there are a few oddities and gaps, this really is an amazing product (especially for a discerning photographer who wants precision).  If your brain wants to just roll the dice… one nice option is clicking the Auto button (the second button in the top bar).  This will generate random looks and is a great way to experiment.  The other two buttons link to a detailed user manual and a useful preset gallery online.

To find out more and see more examples of Retrographer in action, simply head to: http://www.misterretro.com/filters/retrographer

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Adobe Shutting Down Photoshop.com Photo Sharing Service

Posted by Richard Harrington on February 23, 2013
Posted in: News. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 4 comments

pscom_closed

By Rich Harrington — Follow Rich on Twitter

Adobe has just announced that they are closing down its Photoshop.com storage and sharing service as well as Photoshop Elements membership areas.  They instead are migrating client accounts to their other service called Revel (formerly Carousel).

Here are some quotes from the Adobe site/press release (as well as my commentary and analysis).

“When we launched Photoshop.com five years ago, you told us you were excited about having access to your photos even when you weren’t in front of your computer.”

The idea was good…  but the space was of course MORE than crowded.

“The world has changed so much in the last five years — from how you take photos, to the type of ‘camera’ you use, to how you share those photos with family and friends. We believe you deserve the best possible experience regardless of the device you’re using. We’ve been working hard to provide just that with Revel. Today, Revel is based on a modern technology platform and includes apps for iOS, Mac, and the web. You have the convenience of storing all your photos and accessing them on virtually any device, and you have the ability to effortlessly create and share beautiful web galleries. For those who wish to edit their photos, the apps feature an editor that’s based on industry-leading Adobe technology.”

Hopefully apps for other platforms (like Android) as well as direct camera integration will emerge.  In my experience, Revel is still a little rough around the edges, but hopefully this consolidation will give it more resources to properly develop the platform.

Here’s the recent reviews from the Mac App Store… looks like they’re going more in the right direction.

revel_ratings

Of concern… Mac only.  But they offer signup links and promise Windows and Android soon.

There is a free version of the service (limited to 50 images a month) and a paid unlimited version ($5.99 per month).  To me, it seems a bit expensive for a service that is currently JPEG only.

The move starts automatically beginning April 2, 2013.

If you use Photoshop.com or the Elements subscription service, consider the following steps (and deadlines).

  • April 2 – June 18, 2013:We’ll be moving your JPEG photos to Revel.
  • June 18, 2013:Photoshop.com storage and sharing services will close.

If your library contains file formats other than JPEG photos, please be sure to download your complete Photoshop.com library before June 18, 2013, as Revel doesn’t yet support the following file types – any video, PSD, RAW, ACR, PNG, TIFF. Archive now.

To find out more on the closing, see this FAQ.

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Organizing your Aperture Library, Part 1 of 3

Posted by Richard Harrington on February 22, 2013
Posted in: Technique & Tutorials. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Guest Post & Photos by Joseph Linaschke Follow him on Twitter

One of the most common requests I get for personalized help on ApertureExpert is to assist in organizing a library that’s suffered years of neglect. When you’re staring at a veritable rat’s nest of images, getting them sorted out can be a very daunting task! But the old adage applies perfectly well here… “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time”.

DETERMINING A STRATEGY

Before moving anything, first devise an organizational strategy; a structure that makes sense to you now, and that you will follow for the future. Here are some questions to ask yourself.

Do you need to separate personal and professional work? If you aren’t a working professional, or rarely do jobs for money, then probably not. If however you shoot loads of family photos as well as paying gigs, then you likely will want to keep them separate. This doesn’t necessarily mean a separate library, but it probably means separate folders in Aperture.

Does your work want to be sorted chronologically or categorically? Most people are shooting a wide variety of topics, so trying to organize them by category doesn’t make sense—which means organizing by date probably does. However if you’re primarily a stock photographer, perhaps sorting by category actually does work for you. The beauty of Aperture though is that with good metadata, you can search and sort by any system at any time, with just a few clicks.

Are you going to be diligent about keywords? If not, repeat after me: “I will create excellent project names!” Adding keywords and other quality metadata to every photo assures that you’ll be able to find the exact picture you want, at any time. But let’s be honest… most of us don’t keyword religiously, no matter how much we say we will! If you do, then you can basically organize any way you want, since you’ll be able to find any image via metadata later on. But for the rest of us, simply creating a sensible project name will let us narrow the search very quickly when needed. Project names should include high level keywords like “birthday” or “summer vacation” or “Paris”. Client projects may include the client name, or a job/invoice ID—something you can be consistent with and will make sense years from now. Also, I like to precede every project name with the date in a YYYY-MM-DD format, which forces a chronological order, followed by a space-bar-space, like this: “ | ” which as you can see in the screenshot below creates a visual separator between the date and the project name.

1.1-Aperture_Library_structure

What you see above is how I organize my own library. But if you prefer to go by categories, that’s fine too. For example, if you’re a travel photographer, you may want to organize by Continent > Country. If you shoot stock, perhaps it’s Nature, Architecture, Food, etc. . If you shoot wildlife, maybe you organize by species. However I would argue that the date/description structure allows you to find anything quickly, no matter the category. Ultimately it’s up to you—but whatever you choose, stick with it. That’s the most important thing.

Once you have projects named with great keywords, you can find them very quickly. Aperture’s fastest search is the Library search, which searches project names, location data, and the Project Info text.

1.2-Aperture_Fastest_Search

The Project Info (Window > Show Project Info) can be as long and descriptive as you want, and is a great place to add other keywords you may want to search for later. For example, if you call your project “summer vacation Disneyland”, words like “holiday”, “trip”, “family”, and “California” might come to mind years from now when trying to find that group of photos.

1.3-Aperture_Project_Info

In part 2, we’ll talk about how to sort out your old mess using your new strategy!

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88 Secrets of Photoshop — Add Detail in Camera Raw

Posted by Richard Harrington on February 19, 2013
Posted in: Screencast, Tips. Tagged: , , , , , , .

5B

 

By Rich Harrington — Follow Rich on Twitter

When working with the Camera Raw dialog, you should always take the time to switch over to the Detail tab.  Here you can take precise control over both sharpening and reducing noise.

All raw images need sharpening. By default a value may be applied to the raw file based on a camera present.  Noise, on the other hand, may not appear unless the image was shot with a high ISO setting.  This is typically a problem when shooting under low light.

  1. To start, open an image into Camera Raw dialog.
  2. Click the Detail tab.
  3. Double-click the Zoom tool to see the image at 100% magnification. This makes it easiest to judge both sharpening and noise in the image.
  4. Use the controls in the Detail tab to adjust sharpening and bring out fine image details:
    • Amount. Increases definition at the edges of an image. Try a lower value for a cleaner image. The initial value is set when you open the file by the Camera Raw plug-in, based on camera model, ISO, and exposure compensation.
    • Radius. Be sure to use a low number for fine detail.  If the photo lacks much detail, you can try increasing it.
    • Detail. Takes control of how much high-frequency information is sharpened in the image. This also affects how the edge details  are emphasized.
    • Masking. Using a value of zero means that everything receives the same amount of sharpening in the image. A higher number is often desired as it limits the sharpening to those areas near the strongest edges.
Determine how much masking to use, by holding down the Option (Alt) key while dragging a slider. Find a proper balance between the detailed and flat areas of the image.

Determine how much masking to use, by holding down the Option (Alt) key while dragging a slider. Find a proper balance between the detailed and flat areas of the image.

  1. Noise reduction controls can be used to remove extra grain from the image:
    • Luminance. Reduces luminance noise.
    • Luminance Detail. Sets an overall threshold for the noise reduction. Higher values preserve overall detail but can produce noise. Lower values tend to produce cleaner results but likely remove some details you want to keep.
    • Luminance Contrast. Works best for very noisy photos.
    • Color. Reduces color noise in the image.
    • Color Detail. Higher values protect detailed edges. A lower value preserves more color but can cause bleeding.
  2. Toggle the check box for Preview to see the before and after states.

The Detail tab can really bring out the finer elements in a shot and improve noise.

This post is a sneak peak from the new Photoshop book I’m writing with Scott. The book is a remake of his original best-seller “88 Secrets to Photoshop for Photographers. It will be available as iBook later this Spring.

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Canon 6D and Nikon 1 V2 Now Have Mac Raw Support

Posted by Richard Harrington on December 14, 2012
Posted in: Tips. Tagged: , .

OSC Canon 6D Update

If you’re a Mac user, two new cameras now have official support.  OS X Mountain Lion provides system-level support for digital camera RAW formats.  In order to use these files, you can access them through Aperture or iPhoto on your Mac.  You can also browse at the system level looking through folders.

Supported by Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 4.03*

  • Canon EOS 6D
  • Nikon 1 V2

You can find out about other recently added cameras that work on your Mac here – http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5371?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

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onOne Perfect Photo Suite 7 – Mini Review

Posted by scottbourne on November 7, 2012
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , .


I own every major (and maybe even minor) photo plugin, filter, template and preset on the planet. I like many of them. But if I were asked to pick just one, I’d probably lean very hard toward Perfect Photo Suite 7. This product has matured very nicely and offers photographers just about everything but the kitchen sink in the way of photography post-processing.

It works with all major software like Aperture, Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, etc. and it offers various modules designed to make the workflow quick and efficient. Perfect Photo Suite can also be used as a stand-alone product.

The modules are Perfect B&W, Perfect Portrait 2, Perfect Layers 3, Perfect Effects 4, Perfect Resize 7.5 Pro, Perfect Mask 5.2 and FocalPoint 2. The naming convention is confusing but since these modules all live under one roof, it’s no big deal.

In the latest version of the software, the interface has been redesigned. It’s been moved to the left side of the screen and feels more natural there. It’s much easer to use and yet much more powerful, offering new features like search.

What I really like about Perfect Photo Suite 7 is the ability to edit the presets and to mask them in or out using new tools that fine tune the application’s many options.

Each of the seven modules is powerful and offers great results. There may be instances when you would prefer the results of Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 over Perfect B&W for instance. But if you take time to practice with Perfect Photo Suite 7 you can build your own presets and within a few days I was close to duplicating anything I’d done in Silver Efex Pro 2. Some may even prefer the presets in Perfect B&W.

The mainstay module for me in the new version is Perfect Effects 4. This is an awesome, powerful, creative set of tools that let me tweak images in whole new ways. The ability to paint in effects here is amazing. I used to have to take images into layers in Photoshop to achieve this. Now I can do it all inside Perfect Photo Suite 7.

I also need to mention another great module. Perfect Portrait is easily the best facial retouching tool I have ever used. It was obviously designed by a photographer, not an engineer. It uses facial recognition, combined with the ability to mask out the eyes and lips for different treatment along with extremely well-thought-out presets to help achieve professional results by just about anyone.

Perfect Layers is a big deal – especially if you use Aperture where there has never been the option to use layers and where there probably never will be.

Perfect Resize 7.5 (which used to be Genuine Fractals) is much faster than it used to be and is the best way I know to rez up an image for printing in large formats.

Perfect Mask 5.2 works a little easier with more automation and FocalPoint allows you to create beautiful bokeh even when you didn’t have it in the original photograph.

Perfect Photo Suite 7 is $299.95. I think that’s an amazing deal given all that you get in return. There is upgrade pricing for previous owners and all the information you need about acquiring the package are at http://www.ononesoftware.com. You can even get a free 30 day trial.

CONCLUSION

There are so many plug-ins to choose from these days that it’s hard to know where to invest your money. But I’m banking on Perfect Photo Suite 7 for the following reasons. They’ve consistently improved their software over the years. They didn’t sit on their hands and say it was good enough. They moved forward with new ideas that had to come from photographers, because they implemented these ideas the way I would have. The program is faster, smoother and easier to use than before. It’s well thought-out and I really think it could work as the only plug-in you’ll ever need with one caveat. There’s no HDR/tone-mapping engine in Perfect Suite. There are some faux HDR presets. I still think you need an HDR program, assuming you’re into HDR. But otherwise, Perfect Photo Suite 7 is the one to bank on.

Highly recommended.

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Adobe Lightroom Now Part of Creative Cloud

Posted by Richard Harrington on June 27, 2012
Posted in: Tips. Tagged: , , .

If you were looking for one more reason to step up to Adobe Creative Cloud, it just arrived.

For $49 a month for pros or $29 a month for students (with annual subscription) you know get the entire Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection, a bunch of cool tablet apps, a suite of online services, and now Adobe Lightroom.

For those of you  turned off by the name, these are the same apps in the traditional suites.  They install and run off your local computer without a need for a constant Internet connection.  The cloud angle is simply a bunch of online tools for collaboration and backup.

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