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.

Discounts for PSRI Members

As the punch line from an old commercial goes “Membership has its privileges!” Our sponsors, in addition to their generous contribution to our fund raising efforts, also offer discounts to our members. These are specially coded discounts available to PSRI members. The following table lists the companies offering discounts. To take advantage of these discounts you need to obtain the proper discount code from one of the officers. When you wish to purchase one of these products, make sure to take advantage of the discounts which will save a few dollars to you and show our support to these companies who support us.

I will announce the codes again on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at the meeting and will distribute them through our internal email news.

Vendor	Discount
Photodex, Proshow Producer and Proshow Gold	20%
Nik Software, all their products	15%
Topaz Labs, full line of their products	15%
Printmakers, Inc., on prints, books, special items	7%
HDR Soft, Photomatix HDR software	20%

Photoshop Turns 20

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

Topaz Adjust, Photoshop Plugin Review

Topaz Labs makes a series of very interesting plugins for Photoshop. Their software integrates with Lightroom, Aperture, and iPhoto but currently only on the Mac platform. Windows platform is on the horizon for Ligtroom integration.

I have worked with one of these plugins, Topaz Adjust which can produce excellent results with reasonable ease. Although it has a few quirky points, and a huge potential to go overboard, this is a very interesting piece of software if used with restraint and personal vision. Read my full review to gain a better insight of this product and watch for another module review coming soon, Topaz Denoise.

Topaz Adjust is available individually or as part of a Photoshop bundle. The price of Topaz Adjust alone is around $50 and the complete Photoshop bundle retails for about $180. PSRI members receive a 15% discount on all Topaz Labs products, watch your e-mail for the newsletter for details. This discount code is for PSRI members only. We will be raffling for some copies of Photoshop bundle kindly provided by Topaz Labs soon.

Topaz Labs is getting ready to release a new version of all their plugins and they promise that most of the quirkiness you will read about in my review will be addressed. I will update my review when the new version becomes available. Visit Topaz Labs Web site for more detail and to purchase your copy.

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

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

A new site feature

If you like to be alerted when there is a new post on the site, you can subscribe to the alert service by entering your e-mail address in the field on the right sidebar. You will receive a confirmation message, you need to follow the link in the message to complete the subscription. After that, you will receive a message any time one of the editors posts a new article with a link to the page. You can unsubscribe any time using the same process but with the “Unsubscribe” button being clicked.

Note to editorial board members, you are automatically subscribed to this service.

MS Office 2010 Public Beta

OK, this is not exactly photography related. But, it is a chance to try the next generation of Microsoft Office 2010 for almost one year. If you want to see how this software is evolving, point your browser to:

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta

and download a copy for your computer. It requires the creation of an account if you do not have a Hotmail or Live.com ID. It installs fairly quickly on a broadband connection and the applications seem to be snappier, loading to the usable state quickly. My first impression is that although I still do not like the “Ribbon” interface, MS Office 2010 seems to have refined the idea a bit more. The overall look and feel of the modules are lighter, airier, and this time around Outlook gets the “Ribbon” too.

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.

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