PhotoWalkPro

I recently downloaded the latest version of Topaz Labs’ Topaz Adjust 4 and I have to say that I am digging some of the new improvements to the plug-in.  The GUI (that’s Graphic User Interface for those of you that don’t speak-a da geek) has been greatly improved.  First take a look below at the ver. 3 interface.

You can see that, while functional, it lacked a certain organizational structure.  It also wasn’t very pretty with all those sliders just hanging out there at the bottom of the screen.  Now take a look at the new and improved ver. 4.

As you can see, everything is very well laid out and it has a much more polished look to it.  There are drop-down panels on the right side of the screen for all of the adjustment sliders and the presets have been totally re-done.  In ver. 3 there were small thumbnails of the image for each preset with a rendering of that effect on the image.  In the newest version, not only are there a lot more presets, there are no longer individual preview thumbnails.  Now when you mouse over a preset, it will display the effect on the small preview window above the preset list.  This is very reminiscent of the way that Lightroom displays its presets in the Develop Module.  I have been playing with some of the new presets including the HDR Settings.  They aren’t really HDR but they give a very similar look to the image.  Here’s a before and after shot using Topaz Adjust 4 with one of the HDR presets.

So here’s the good and the bad on this latest version.

The Good -

First off, if you have already purchased version 3, then the version 4 update is absolutely free.  How cool is that.  If you have yet to purchase it, it can be had for only $50 (if you are a NAPP member, you can get a discount off of that price by going to the NAPP Member Discount pages).  If you purchase before March 15, you can get 20% off the price by using the code on the Topaz Adjust website.  There’s even a free 30-day trial so you can play around with it and really decide if it’s worth your money. As long as I am listing the good, I think it’s worth noting that the plug-in is available for both Windows and Mac. I have to say that I have been a user of Adjust for some time and it is one of my all-time favorite Photoshop/Lightroom Plug-ins.

The Bad -

Unfortunately there are still a few bugs rolling around in the new version and I have been hearing of a few different problems from different people.  My issue is that it won’t open using the Topaz Fusion program from Lightroom (check out my review of Fusion here).  One of the great things I loved about Ver. 3 was being able to go to Adjust directly from Lightroom, but when I launch Fusion and select Adjust 4, it just kicks me right back to Lightroom.  If I open the plug-in from Photoshop I have no problems and everything works as it should.  Someone else told me that they were getting bizarre colors in the Adjust window when they used the plug-in with Lightroom.  One other person told me that Adjust had crashed their Photoshop 4 times when they tried to use the plug-in.  This kind of thing happens with a lot of new software releases and I expect that some bug-fixes will be rolling out fairly soon.

So the bottom line is that you might want to wait a little longer to upgrade to this version (like until they have some of these bugs ironed out) but that aside, it is a plug-in that you will certainly want to have in your bag of tricks.  And did I happen to mention that it’s also compatible with Photoshop Elements, Aperture, and iPhoto?

Being out of town for a few days I didn’t really get a chance to do much in the way of news updates so I thought I would bring you a few little nuggets that I heard about lately.  And as you probably know, PMA is just around the corner so some of the camera manufacturers have started releasing new product info to help feed the buzz. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been waiting for this one for awhile now.  The folks at Unified Color have finally released the Mac version of their HDR software for the Mac OS.  HDR PhotoStudio has been available for Windows users for quite some time and there has been promise of a Mac release and now I can’t wait to get my hands on it and give it a try.  I know a couple of people that have been using it and getting some fantastic results but since I work primarily on my Mac I didn’t want to commit until they released a version that would fit in with the rest of my image editing workflow.  it just never made sense to have all of my images on my Mac except for the ones that I wanted to perform HDR processing on. Read the rest of this entry »

It was just a few short months ago that Nik Software announced the release of their latest plug-in, Viveza 2.  The original Viveza plug-in was a fantastic hit but Nik has taken the second generation over the top by adding some great new features, controls, and refinements to an already great image adjustment tool.  I got my copy today and I haven’t been able to stop playing with it.  I’m just going to post a few before and after pictures today but I will get a full review out to you next week with a run-down of all the new features and functionality.  I would like to tell you more now but I really want to get back to playing.

Be sure to click on the pictures to see a larger version.

The new Viveza 2 interface.

Before Viveza 2

After Viveza 2 adjustments

Before Viveza 2

After Viveza 2 adjustments

Before Viveza 2

After Viveza 2 adjustments

Are you putting all of your back-ups in the Optical Storage basket?

I read an interesting article the other day at ZD-Net that basically was predicting the coming demise of optical storage.  This was in reference to the newly displayed 320GB, 10-layer Blue-ray disc that was being showcased by TDK.  It was a very interesting article that took me back to my days as a Zip Disk and Jaz Drive user.  I can remember how psyched I was when I used my first 1GB Jaz Drive and thought to myself “I will never run out of storage again!”.  So here I sit with a small stack of Jaz Drives that will never be accessed again.  That’s the problem with new and better storage solutions, they never seem to be viable for that long.  I think this is the problem with new optical storage solutions.  People don’t want to invest in a storage medium that will not make it into the next decade, at least not for the price it would command.  And who can blame them when a 500GB external drive can be had for less than $80.  I know that I wouldn’t want to sink $250 into a Blue-ray burner just so I could get 20GB of optical storage.  I think the lessen here is to plan ahead for your storage needs and be prepared to move your archival images before your present method is obsolete.  Here’s the link to the ZD-Net story .

Nikon releases another camera make-over with video

Maybe it’s just me but is anyone really that excited about the new D3s?  I mean we all saw it coming, right?  Sure, there are some very cool enhancements to an already great camera like improved ISO performance (ISO 102,400, are you kidding me?), then there is the much needed built in sensor cleaner that just missed getting into the D3.  And then there are the old standards like the full frame FX sensor, the magnesium alloy body, the long lasting shutter, and the dual card slot (a personal favorite of mine).  So I guess if they wanted to beef up the camera the least they could do was to throw in some 720P video capture.  I mean it is the logical next step… that is unless you are a photographer.

Let’s face it, how many of you out there are going to be making the jump to cinematographer?  I mean, I like to capture some video segments from time to time, and yes, they do look better when shot with professional lenses that can control the depth of field.  But is that going to be my deciding factor in buying a $5000 camera?  Here’s what I want.  Give me a camera that will shoot three frames and internally process the images for an expanded dynamic range image.  That’s right, I want HDR in my camera!  If they can make a point-and-shoot that will combine three images into a seamless pano, why can’t I get better dynamic range in my “out-of-camera” images?  By the way, has anyone seen how long the video capture sequence limit is?  Seriously, I couldn’t find it in any of the literature so I’m not sure if they have expanded it beyond the 5 minute HD barrier that is the norm for the D5000 and the D90.  Not that it matters because who has an attention span longer than 30 seconds anymore.

A New Trek-Pod Hits the Streets

Here’s another new item that was announced yesterday.  My friends over at Trek-Tech have just released an all new TrekPod II.  It’s kind of like the Swiss army knife for outdoor photographers.  It’s part walking staff, part monopod, and part tripod.  You may remember a few months ago I reviewed the Trek-Tech TrekPod Go! Pro.  Well now there is a more economical version with many of the same features that made the TrekPod Go such a great device.  For the low cost of $99, you get the TrekPod along with the MagMount Star-ball head (which is just awesome) and the travel case.  It looks like the folks at Trek-Tech have another winner on their hands.  You can find out more info at the official Trek-Tech web page or click here to see the official press release along with more photos and a video demonstration.

Sporadic Blogging

I am going to be really busy for the next few days so my blogging may be a bit more sporadic that you are used to.  I don’t want to give anything away at the moment but I will share with you the reason a little later down the road.  I will however post whenever I am able, which might include some rare weekend blog appearances so stay tuned.

That’s it for today, have a great Thursday!

Yesterday I posted some images from my shoot in the Las Vegas Boneyard.  Included was one pano that I made by combining 3 images shot with a 10.5mm fish-eye lens.  I had never really thought of making a pano from fish-eye images because the lens has so much distortion around the edges that I never really thought it would merge well.  That’s until I saw Russell Brown from Adobe give his little demo in the opening keynote during Photoshop World (you can watch the entire keynote over at Terry White’s blog).  Dr. Brown showed the power of the Merge to Panorama tool in CS4 and clued me in to the little check-box that I had been missing that let me create my cool pano.  Check out this video to see how it was done.

Now here’s the other really cool thing that I learned at photoshop World and it’s the tool I used to bring you the video tutorial.  See, usually I use a program called iShowU to create my video screen capture videos but this video wasn’t made with iShowU, it was made with an Internet application called Screenr that my buddy Rich Harrington turned me on to.  Screenr is a completely web-based option for creating video screen-casts and posting them to Twitter.  It also allows you to post them to YouTube as well as embedding them into a blog or web page.  It was extremely easy to use and the only downside is that you only get 5 minutes of record time.  Beyond that, it’s a totally cool application that I will be using for all my short tutorials.  You can begin using it for your own videos by checking out the Screenr website.