Printing Workflow Presentation

If you like to review the presentation I made this evening, February 23, 2010, you will find the information on my site. I recommend that you watch the slide show one slide at a time with full effects, showing the transition from one state to the next. The PDF files are for convenience and for printing if you like. You may ask questions if you have any; if you do, please do so where the post is on my site so the questions and answers have context and accumulated information.

Topaz DeNoise, Photoshop Plugin Review

This is the second in a series of review of Topaz Labs plugins for Photoshop.  I’m not a Photoshop expert, and the tools that I use have to be easy to understand and straightforward to use.  I have used Topaz DeNoise for about a month now and have found that I can rescue images that I normally would have deleted, but saved for emotional reasons.  Now I have more confidence in using high ISO settings and long exposures, knowing that I can correct the image sensor noise these techniques generate.

You can read my full review of Topaz Denoise and see how I’ve used this tool , including a few image examples.

Topaz DeNoise is available individually or as part of a Photoshop Bundle. The price of Topaz DeNoise alone is around $80 and the complete Photoshop Bundle retails for about $180, a savings of $160 off the separately priced plugings.  Topaz Labs offers a number of upgrade paths if you choose to purchase an individual plugin, then decide to upgrade to the full Bundle.

Topaz Labs is getting ready to release a new versions of their plugins, and the company policy is to provide free upgrade to a new version to owners of the current version.  I will update my DeNoise review when the new version becomes available. Visit the Topaz Labs Web Site for more detail and to purchase your copy.  PSRI members be sure to take advantage of your Topaz Labs discount code.

Photoshop Turns 20

Four men who started the software that has become the standard talk about the “good old days.”

Nik Silver Efex Pro Review

B&W photography gained more interest after the advent of digital photography as more photographers realized that it offered unique expressive and artistic capabilities even when the starting point was a color photograph. Over the years much has been written on how to make this conversion and features of popular image editing software made this better and easier. I have been making B&W, or monochrome conversions for quite some time now using the rich tool set in Photoshop, and later, Lightroom. I have experimented with tools ranging from simple gray scale conversion to channel mixer, from desaturate to gradient maps, from multilayer Hue-Saturation techniques to the newly introduced B&W conversion tool in Lightroom and Photoshop. I have even written up on them and made presentations here at PSRI. I am very pleased with my results to the point of exhibiting or publishing folios of my work.

I recently worked with a tool from Nik Software, Silver Efex Pro. The results are remarkably good and the ease of use makes further exploration of many different looks possible. In the review I have written you will get a sense of what it does with examples and my objective evaluation of Silver Efex Pro. If you are interested in acquiring this plugin, don’t rush to get your copy until you get your 15% PSRI discount code. It will be announced at the meetings, starting this evening, and distributed in our weekly e-mail newscast.

Nik Silver Efex Review

Workshop Notes on Sharpening

The sharpening workshop on January 3, 2010 was well received. Dennis is going to share his notes with more detail, but until then you can view the slide show of the conceptual part of the presentation and get a copy of the printable handout.

Go to the post on Kept Light Photography

PSRI Workshop

Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop Lightroom are common tools in the arsenal of most of our members. Continuing on with the series of workshops I have offered in the past, I will be offering a new on on January 3, 2010 Sunday from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The subject of the workshop is “Sharpening in Photoshop and Lightroom” and is open to PSRI members in good standing with fully paid dues. I will limit the participation to 12. If you are interested in participating, please post a comment on this post with your name and e-mail address for me to contact you. When the comments reach 12 plus a few for standby, I will close the comments and thereby registrations. (Note: Your comment will not be visible until it is approved.)

The location fo the workshop will be the Koffler Computer Lab on Providence College campus. I will post directions to the lab as the time gets near.

Workshop: Sharpening in Photoshop and Lightroom
Workshop leader: A. Cemal Ekin
Date: January 3, 2010
Time: 1:00 – 5:00 PM
Location: Koffler Computer Lab, Providence College

Yet another white balance tool

White balance has become a well-known issue and benefit to digital photographers. There are several different products in the market from simple to more complex. I have come across yet another one of these tools, this time from Datacolor, the makers of Spider series of monitor calibration, printer profiling devices. The new tool, SpyderCube, lives up to its name. It is indeed a cube with different tones on its surfaces with one side having a circular opening into a black-painted cavity. Its base allows it to stand on flat surfaces or, using the threaded mount, it can be mounted on a light stand or a tripod. The loop at the top will hook on other suitable objects to appear in the scene. It even has a chrome ball at its apex to evaluate the specular highlights. At $59 MSP it may deserve a look. These tools can be extremely useful to get an accurate white balance setting under diverse conditions. For more information visit the Datacolor Web site.

HDR Imaging

On October 20, 2009 Cemal Ekin made a presentation on HDR imaging explaining the concept of HDR, its tools, and he demonstrated how to use his tool of choice, Photomatix for this purpose. You will find his presentation slides and a printable PDF file of them that you can download.

See the blog post about this presentation on his site.

See another post where he explains how to process a single RAW image in Photomatix for better results.

A very early post on expanded range processing in Photoshop.

Writings on Digital Workflow and Techniques by PSRI Members

Digital photography has liberated the photographers but also added a new set of tools and rules to learn. The writings here are meant to provide some tools and methods to digital photographers.

Digital Workflow by A. Cemal Ekin

Digital Polarizer by A. Cemal Ekin

Converting Images To B&W And Toning by A. Cemal Ekin

Toning B&W Images for Effect and Better Range by A. Cemal Ekin

From Many to One by A. Cemal Ekin

Don’t Bruise the Pixels

On January 20, 2009, Cemal Ekin made a presentation titled “Don’t Bruise the Pixels: Nondestrucitve Editing Strategies in Photoshop”. The main message was to shoot RAW, use a large color space when importing to Photoshop, and do not push pixels around to edit the image. Layers, blend modes, and blend if sliders offer extremely powerful image editing with exit strategies. You can find the presentation slides on his site but not the actual Photoshop work.