Category: Tools

The Changing Face of Photo Editing

Artistic Ideas, Interesting Stuff, Photography, Tools

A bit late with this post.  It is summer, after all, here in Canada.

A couple of new announcements in July caught my attention because I use both products but also because they are clear examples of the changing face of photo editing.

Attention - Hot NewsSkylum announced the upcoming release of Luminar 4, scheduled for sometime in the fall.  Originally released in 2017, the company and the product have gone through some interesting evolutions.

Topaz Labs released the next version of its Studio software, completely redesigning the interface, and redefining its associated pricing model.

Both products are standalone photo editors.  Both products also provide plugin options for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.  But that’s not what makes them interesting. Continue reading “The Changing Face of Photo Editing” →

Scene Compression Uncompressed

Learning, Photography, Tools

I read a lot of blogs, follow a lot of YouTube channels and subscribe to many “handy tips” postings that come into my mailbox daily.  One such recent posting was from Tim Grey, a respected Photoshop expert and professional photographer.

Grey Learning

Viewers had posted questions about the long standing belief that as you use lenses of longer and longer focal length, and compare the same scene shot through these different lenses, the apparent separation between foreground and background diminishes with focal length.  In fact, this has been a long accepted “generality”, passed on from photographer to photographer, that scene “compression” occurs with telephoto lenses.  But as with many things, the details get somewhat “blurry” (pardon the pun) and the specifics of the effect are often not explained. Continue reading “Scene Compression Uncompressed” →

Combining Lightroom Online with Lightroom Desktop

Photography, Tools

I wish Adobe would call in a Communications Specialist to help them rename their products.  It’s Marketing 101.   Product names should reflect what the company expects users to do with the product and what users expect of the product – to provide an easy way to recognize and develop brand loyalty to that product.

Instead, we have Lightroom “Classic” and Lightroom “CC”, which gives absolutely no help in understanding the difference in the products and how they can be used separately or together for an amazing workflow.  This post is about what I’ve discovered ON MY OWN around how these products can be used together.  I’ve also given them new names. Continue reading “Combining Lightroom Online with Lightroom Desktop” →

Here We Go – Adobe “Tests” Price Increase

Photography, Tools

Reports have surfaced in the last couple of days that Adobe may soon be making a pricing change to its photography plan offerings.

Some country-specific sites have started seeing new pricing and new configurations of options, including subscribers in the United States.  It doesn’t appear that this “test” has been applied to the Canadian market. Continue reading “Here We Go – Adobe “Tests” Price Increase” →

On Camera Flash – Making It Work for You

Gear, Photography, Tools

I was in my local camera store the other day.  I was purchasing a small speedlite unit to use on my mirrorless camera.  Yes, on-camera.  In a twist of fate, in walks in a colleague from my local camera club, same flash unit in hand.  We chatted with the salesperson, also a friend.

Godox FlashMy colleague then said:  “I’m bringing this flash back.  It doesn’t fire consistently.”  He demonstrated the problem, with the unit set first on TTL mode and then on manual mode while attached to the hotshoe on his mirrorless camera.  He was right.  Without changing camera settings, sometimes the speedlite would fire and sometimes it wouldn’t.  He returned the unit.  But it got me to thinking about how the speedlite and camera work together and how to make sure they always work when needed. Continue reading “On Camera Flash – Making It Work for You” →

Live and Learn

Learning, Life, Photography, Tools

There’s a reason this post is late.  I usually try to post twice a month – 1st and 15th.  Fully intended to do that this time.  Then plans changed…

I’m told I should be applauded for trying new things.  I guess that’s a consolation.  But trying new things also means being ready for things to go wrong.  I wasn’t quite ready.

Here’s what happened… Continue reading “Live and Learn” →

Backing Up Your Photos on the Road

Gear, Photography, Tools

PackingTravelling on assignment or for personal interest is typically a big part of most photographer’s lives.  The challenge of managing gear – taking enough, but not too much – is always top of mind.  But what about managing your images while you are on the road?

With a bit more travel in my future, I wasn’t happy with a strategy that worked well for day or weekend trips, but wouldn’t work for longer absences.  So, I started looking at alternatives.  Here’s what I found. Continue reading “Backing Up Your Photos on the Road” →

Leaving the Mothership

Gear, Photography, Tools

Last year around this time, I put out a piece on storage options, both online and local, for the vast collection of photographs that we are all accumulating.

low disk spaceAlthough I use cloud storage as my primary storage option, most of these services “sync” at least some of that content to a local hard drive.  Until today, that hard drive was my computer hard drive.  But I’ve now run out of room on the local drive, and had to make a choice about where to put the local copies.  Here’s what I came up with. Continue reading “Leaving the Mothership” →

Fuji’s Focus Bracketing Explained

Gear, Photography, Tools

Update – Aug 2020:  I’m happy to note that Fuji has significantly improved their focus stacking option by providing “automatic” focus stacking in their most recent cameras.  You select a starting point, ending point using manual focus, hit start and the camera will collect the right number of images for your lens and focal length.  Really cool.

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Happy New Year.  Hope your holiday season was fabulous.

This post is specific to Fuji users, so everyone else can have a break.  We’ll see you in a couple weeks.

In mid-2018, Fuji provided an upgrade to the firmware of it’s X-series of cameras.  Known for adding new features and functions, Fuji users were delighted to see the addition of new menu options and one particular update:  the addition of in-camera focus “bracketing”.

New FirmwareUnfortunately, there was a series of missteps with the upgrade and it was initially retracted, then re-released, which is a surprise for a company that prides itself on its quality options for photographers.

Even though it was corrected, Fuji made another mistake in not providing useful information to help us get the most of the upgrade.  This post is specifically about focus bracketing. Continue reading “Fuji’s Focus Bracketing Explained” →

A First Time for Everything – Saying No to Luminar 3

Photography, Tools

It’s just before Christmas, and the spate of Christmas offers from all manner of retailers is becoming overwhelming.  Not to be outdone, Skylum Software, the authors of Luminar image processing software, this week released the next version of their product.

SkylumThey elected to call it “Version 3” rather than 2019 because promises made to users of version 2018 were not fulfilled until now (and were only partially fulfilled even now). Continue reading “A First Time for Everything – Saying No to Luminar 3” →