Monday, November 25, 2013

Topaz Complete Photography Collection SPECIAL

Black Friday, Cyber Monday Special 

The Lowest Price of the Year!

Regularly $379.99  

SALE $199.99, use code "blackfriday2013"

Topaz Labs plug-ins are among the hottest Photoshop add-ons and best overall deal right now, for the following reasons: 64-bit-compatible, low prices, unique and useful effects and very active participation by the developers in the user community. The developers are constantly updating and improving the products, and upgrades are free for existing customers!

You can save a large amount of money by opting for the Topaz Complete Collection at $199.99, normally $379.99, a
$570 SAVING, over buying these 14 plug-ins/apps individually. This is THE BEST PLUG-IN DEAL in the industry, considering the wide range of image effects and enhancements they make possible.


You get all 14 plug-in packages for one amazing low price! Here's what's included:

Topaz ReStyle is the newest addition to the Topaz line-up. There are plenty of tools that help you achieve a specific look in your photos. But Topaz ReStyle is different – it gets you results that you wouldn't have thought of otherwise. So next time you're staring at an image after making some minor adjustments and it's just not quite there, try using ReStyle to jump-start your creativity.

Topaz Clarity lets you spend more time shooting and less time post-processing by applying one of over 100 presets. These one-click effects were specially developed and fine-tuned for specific types of photos. Instantly add extra depth to your architecture images, wedding photos and everything in between.

Topaz B&W Effects takes you beyond traditional black and white conversion methods by integrating unique features like a 5-in-1 selective adjustment brush, adaptive exposure, quad toning, historical processing collections, creative effects and more.

Topaz Adjust is the easiest way to make your photos pop. Perhaps the most popular plug-in in the industry right now, Adjust optimizes image exposure, color, and detail strength for stunning image results. Quality exposure adjustment in Photoshop is cumbersome and sometimes frustrating. Adjust makes this process simple, fun, and highly rewarding. Other developers charge up to and over $595 for this type of plug-in, and they offer far less functionality!

Topaz ReMask is the fastest way to mask and extract your images. ReMask harnesses the latest in image extraction technology to make masking intuitive and powerful. Unlike Photoshop's sometimes clumsy and hard to use extraction tools, ReMask makes photo extraction and masking easy and sizzling fast.

Topaz Detail gives full control and precision over all aspects of detail manipulation without creating any edge artifacts or halos. Unlike Photoshop's detail enhancement techniques, Detail effectively accentuates three levels of detail without the slightest trace of artifacts or haloing.

Topaz Simplify provides creative simplification, art effects, and line accentuation for easy one-of-a-kind art. In contrast to built-in artistic filters in Photoshop, which are limited to certain specific effects, Simplify creates a wide range of stunning artistic effects in a simple, intuitive, but powerful interface.

Topaz DeNoise offers a complete noise reduction solution that removes far more noise and preserves far more detail than other solutions. Noise reduction is one of our core competencies, and DeNoise displays that brilliantly. Use state-of-the-art noise reduction abilities to make your formerly noisy photos clean, clear, and crisp.

Topaz Clean provides unique smoothing and edge stylizing capabilities not found anywhere else. It can quickly add interesting flair to photos and can be used to both smooth out detail and stylize edges. Use Clean for exceptional results on portraits, weddings, and other people photos.

Topaz DeJPEG drastically improves the quality of web images and other compressed photos. Although Photoshop includes a simple JPEG fixer, it doesn't preserve as much quality as possible. DeJPEG makes sure that any compressed image looks as good as it possibly can.

Topaz InFocus is the comprehensive solution for your sharpening and deblurring needs. Infocus recovers lost detail, refines with micro-contrast enhancement and restores clarity to blurry images. Unlike unsharp masking, InFocus sharpens without distracting high-contrast edges.

Topaz Lens Effects simulates realistic lens, filter and specialty camera effects.

Topaz Star Effects creates unique star and lighting effects by manipulating and enhancing the appearance of various light sources found within your image. With a variety of fully-customizable effect options for modifying light sources, you can easily add a creative or dramatic flare to lights or reflective surfaces to focus more attention on those point.


Topaz photoFXlab With instant access to all of the Topaz plug-ins, photoFXlab easily connects you to all of your Topaz effects in a searchable library. Featuring a layered workflow with masking capabilities, selective enhancement brushes with edge-aware technology and a fun new way to InstaTone your images, photoFXlab"! is the new way to experience Topaz.


Tray Radcliff of Stuck in Customs, says these plug-ins are the secret sauce that makes his images pop and saves him loads of time in post production. Join the pros with professional creative results when you start creating and stop processing by employing these cutting edge plug-ins. What are you waiting for, give yourself the gift of time by using these plug-ins for creating results you never knew were possible. 

Friday, November 1, 2013

Topaz B&W Effects 50% off SALE




Save 50% on Topaz B&W Effects, Novemeber 5 - 19, 2013, with code "novbw". Regular price, $59.99, SALE price, $29.99.

You've probably seen or maybe even created a black and white image that just didn't have the impact you expected. Without color, creating a striking image can be a challenge. When you remove color you eliminate an aspect of detail. So with black and white photography, the details, textures, lines and composition of your image take on even more importance.
Topaz B&W Effects helps you bring out these essential features, while balancing the range of gray tones, adding dynamic contrast and selectively enhancing the tonal range of blacks and whites in your image.
  • Unique Effect Collections with historical, traditional and stylized looks
  • Over 200 presets included for a quick and creative 1-click workflow
  • Adaptive Exposure integration for dynamic detail, contrast and tone
  • Edge-aware selective brush for quick and easy selective detail and color
  • Authentic grain engine developed from real film scans
  • Creative Effects integrated from Topaz Simplify, Adjust and Lens Effects
  • Split-screen preview options for easy before and after comparison
  • Stage-based interface layout for a simple and streamlined workflow

Topaz B&W Effects includes over 200 presets that can be applied to your image with aclick. These effects make your black and white conversion process quick and easy. After applying a preset, you can tweak the adjustment settings to develop your own unique look and then save these new settings as your own preset.
The presets included in Topaz B&W Effects are organized into 8 collections, each offering a different style of effects from traditional Silver Gelatin to stylized. Unique to Topaz are the Van Dyke Brown Collection, Cyanotype Collection, Opalotype Collection and the Albumen Collection, which all simulate historical printing processes. This allows you to give your images an authentic look and feel. 
Topaz B&W Effects is easy for new users but powerful and flexible enough for advanced pros. It features a stage-based interface layout that organizes all your conversion, enhancement and finishing tools into manageable steps to help ease you through the editing process.
There are 4 main adjustment tabs for each stage of the workflow and each contain sub-tabs with your individual adjustment tools. Disable or enable the preview for the sub-tab to see your image with or without the added effects.


As with any Topaz product you can try it before you buy it, download a free 30 day trial version to see if B&W Effects is right for you.

Better yet, if you are new to Topaz, this product is included in their Complete Collection where you get all 14 Topaz products at a super discount, use my discount code, gclure and save an additional 15% off the Complete Collection.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Topaz ReMask on SALE

Topaz ReMask

On SALE (50% off) Octobeber 9 - 31, 2013.

Regular price $69.99, 

SALE price $34.99 with discount code: octremask

 

Fast, Easy & Good - The Masking Tool You Want

Anyone editing photos must be able to select the exact objects or sections, which is essential to improving your photos. This ability to select objects and cutout backgrounds provides greater flexibility to your post processing workflow - making essential editing tasks like background replacement, selective adjustments, repositioning and multi-layer compositions effortless.  With ReMask's powerful and controllable tools you can quickly and easily select any part of your image. Like a pair of digital scissors, ReMask allows you to define the edges of an object and intuitively cut it out - which as a photographer, saves you both time and money. Click on the above image to learn more.

ReMask Highlights:
  • Simple approach to masking that's quick and easy.
  • Powerful tools for complex masking and refining.
  • Extract intricate image details like hair and fur.
  • Cutout accuracy with flexible preview options.
  • Replace backgrounds or isolate areas with a few clicks.
  • Maintain transparency in hard-to-mask objects.

As with any Topaz product you can try it before you buy it, download a free 30 day trial version to see if ReMask is right for you.

Better yet, if you are new to Topaz, this product is included in their Complete Collection where you get all 14 Topaz products at a super discount, use my discount code, gclure and save an additional 15% off the Complete Collection.


Monday, September 30, 2013

Pro-Tip #10: Fall Foliage Photography

Here are some tips to help you as you venture out this fall in hope of capturing some autumn color:
Follow the internet fall color reports for the areas you plan to visit to help you arrive at peak color.  Every area with fall color will have multiple sites/blogs keeping you updated.
Research the weather; you are looking for calm days. Wind is the enemy of fall color shooters so go out on a calm day, you’ll get more keepers. Overcast days also make great days for shooting fall color as they tend to be less windy and less contrasty as nature provides the natural soft-box. Also, the wind tends to die down at the beginning and end of the day, not to mention the light is best for most any outdoor photography during this time. If you do find yourself stuck in the wind, don’t try to beat it, rather; accentuate it by using slow shutter speeds and make some dreamy abstracts. Moister will also help bring out the color saturation of the leaves, so look to shoot after a rain shower or in early morning fog that collects on the leaves, you will get richer more vibrant captures. Frost is common in the early morning hours this time of the year and can add an extra element of interest to your leaf close-up shots. Finally, if you are lucky enough to get an early fall snow that does not knock all the leaves to the ground consider it a bonus.
Pay attention to the direction of your light. Most trees will look great backlit which gives leaves a translucent quality and adds a nice rim light emphasizing their shape and form and helps separate them from the background as well as each other.

Use a polarizing filter to help darken your blue sky, saturate leaf color and reduce haze not to mention the removal of any reflective glare coming from wet or shiny leaves.

Look for complementary colors. Complementary colors work to enhance each other by making each appear more vibrant than they would alone. Think warm yellow/orange aspen leaves against a cool blue sky or bright red maple leaves against an evergreen backdrop.

Don’t forget to shoot the fallen leaves on the ground; these can be as colorful as those on the trees. Don’t be afraid to gather-up some colorful leaves and strategically arrange them on a foreground rock or log, the pros do it, you can too.


What setting should you use? You need to use fast shutter speeds to freeze motion and wide-open apertures to blur your backgrounds for those specimen shots. Try 1/250 or faster and f/2.8 – f/4. Of course, you’ll need to use a smaller aperture for those grand scenic vistas of mountain side color, try f/8 or f/11 for those shots where you are not including a close foreground element to maximize sharpness. Finally, when you are close to a foreground element you will need to go even smaller, f/16 or f/22 to maximize your depth of field.

Use these tips to help make your next fall foliage outing a success!

Friday, September 6, 2013

onOne Software Announces Perfect Photo Suite 8

Click on boxes to go to www.onOneSofrware.com for more information


Portland, OR – September 4, 2013 – onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of innovative and timesaving solutions for digital photography, today announced Perfect Photo Suite 8—the photographer’s choice for photo editing. Perfect Photo Suite 8 is a full-featured, standalone photo editor that integrates seamlessly with Adobe® Photoshop®, Lightroom®, Photoshop Elements, and Apple® Aperture® and it includes all the best tools a photographer needs to create extraordinary images. Key new features include the Perfect Enhance module for essential photo adjustments, the Perfect Eraser with content-aware fill technology, the Perfect Batch processing utility for applying workflows to multiple images at once, and a re-engineered Perfect Effects module with twice as many filters, customizable presets, and integrated FocalPoint™ technology.

The new tools and capabilities alongside Perfect Photo Suite 8’s eight modules—Effects, Enhance, B&W, Portrait, Mask, Layers, Resize, and Browse—allow photographers to enhance, retouch, and stylize images in a layered workflow, replace backgrounds, create high-quality enlargements, prepare images for output, and batch process workflows. The modules share a unified interface, each targeting a specific imageprocessing task. Each module provides only the tools necessary to complete the job at hand, eliminating
screen clutter and confusion for the user.

“We listened intently to the digital photography community about what they wanted for their image processing in today’s world of plug-ins, online apps, and subscriptions,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. “We made it a priority to respond quickly and design a cohesive new product that continues to focus on photography and is built for photographers of all levels, from enthusiasts to professionals. We’ve leveraged our extensive experience as a plug-in company and evolved the Perfect Photo Suite into a complete and powerful photo editor that, unlike existing plug-in collections, works as one, elegantly designed product that seamlessly integrates into any workflow.”

New in Perfect Photo Suite 8:
  • Perfect Enhance module – Perfect Enhance provides essential tools for basic enhancements. Use it to adjust brightness and contrast, remove a color cast, remove dust spots and power lines, and add sharpening and vignettes. It is an ideal module to start with when using Perfect Photo Suite 8 as a standalone application or when quick corrections are needed.
  • Perfect Eraser – Using content-aware fill technology and simple brush strokes, the Perfect Eraser removes objects and automatically reconstructs the image with realistic results.
  • Twice as Many Filters – The Effects module now includes new adjustable filters including: HDR Look, Dynamic Contrast for tonal clarity, Vintage, Grunge, Antique, and more.
  • Customizable Presets – All built-in presets included in Perfect Photo Suite 8 may be deconstructed by their filter settings and personally customized.
  • FocalPoint is now in the Effects Module – The best parts of FocalPoint technology to create bokeh, tilt-shift, and selective focus effects after the shot, are now in the Effects module as the
  • Lens Blur filter.
  • New Browse module – Images can be browsed and directly accessed from Perfect Photo Suite wherever they are stored—on the computer, an external drive, a connected network, and even on a cloud-based storage service like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Apple’s photo stream.
  • Perfect Batch Utility – Powerful batch processing of actions from one or multiple modules, including the insertion of a watermark.
  • Multiple File Handling: As a photo editor, you can now open and work with more than one image at a time. Move between images to edit or copy layers from one file to the next.
  • Improved Masking Bug: Redesigned Masking Bug in the Effects and Layers modules make mask creation easier and more intuitive.
  • Higher Quality Effects: Performance enhancements improve effects by minimizing artifacts without sacrificing processing speed.
  • Improved RAW file handling: Open and process RAW files faster and with better quality. Support for new cameras also added.
  • onOne Software Announces Perfect Photo Suite 8, a complete photo editor for every workflow

Availability and Pricing
The new Perfect Photo Suite 8 will be available November 26, 2013. Pre-orders are available immediately at www.ononesoftware.com/store. Perfect Photo Suite 8 is available in three editions: Premium, Standard, and an edition for Adobe Lightroom & Apple Aperture. The Premium Edition works with Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, Photoshop Elements, and as a
standalone application. Owners of previous versions of Perfect Photo Suite Premium Edition can upgrade for $99.95. New users may pre-order the Premium Edition for $179.95. For a limited time, pre-orders of Perfect Photo Suite 8 Premium Edition will include a complimentary Essential Video Guide to Perfect Photo Suite 8, which provides a comprehensive collection of getting started training videos for Perfect Photo Suite 8 ($40 value).

Click on box to go to www.onOneSoftware.com for more information


Perfect Photo Suite 8 for Adobe Lightroom & Apple Aperture works with Lightroom, Aperture, Photoshop Elements, and as a standalone application. It is available for $129.95 | $79.95 upgrade. The Standard Edition works as a complete standalone photo editor and is available for $79.95. New users who pre-order Perfect Photo Suite 8 will immediately receive a complimentary license for Perfect Photo Suite 7.5. Customers who pre-order Perfect Photo Suite 8 will receive all upcoming Loyalty Rewards that will be delivered monthly to owners of the Perfect Photo Suite 8. For those who have purchased Perfect Photo Suite 7.5 on or after August 1, 2013, onOne Software will issue a complimentary upgrade to Perfect Photo Suite 8 via download when it is available. For more information on Perfect Photo Suite 8, please visit http://www.ononesoftware.com.

About onOne Software
onOne Software, Inc., is a leading developer of innovative software tools and apps for digital photography and offers time-saving software solutions for photographers of all levels, from enthusiasts to professionals. Leveraging its extensive history as successful plug-in developer for Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop
Elements, Photoshop Lightroom, and Apple Aperture, and continued development of cutting-edge technology, onOne publishes unified solutions that offer both full-featured photo editing capabilities and the flexibility of traditional plug-ins. Founded in 2005, onOne Software is a privately held company located in Portland, Oregon. For additional information, visit www.ononesoftware.com.

Press Contact: Amy Chan, onOne Software, achan@ononesoftware.com, 503-968-1468 x 137
General Press Inquiries: press@ononesoftware.com
onOne Software Announces Perfect Photo Suite 8, a complete photo editor for every workflow

Online Press Center: www.ononesoftware.com/press
onOne Software Blog: www.ononesoftware.com/blog
Facebook: www.facebook.com/onOneSoftware
Twitter: www.twitter.com/onOneSoftware
Google+: www.ononesoftware.com/plus
©2013 onOne Software, Inc. All rights reserved. onOne Software, the onOne Software logo, and Focused on Photography are registered trademarks and Perfect Photo, Perfect Enhance, Perfect Effects, Perfect Eraser, Perfect Batch, and FocalPoint are trademarks in the United States and are the property of onOne Software. Adobe, Photoshop and Lightroom are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. Apple and Aperture are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their
respective owners.

Regards,

Patrick Smith
onOne Software
503.968.1468 ext. 124
sales@ononesoftware.com
www.onOnesoftware.com/affiliates

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Topaz Adjust SALE - 50% off Sept. 9th - 30th

Dynamic Color, Detail and Exposure Control



Infusing your images with vibrant color and stunning detail has never been easier. From exposure and color balance to subtle photo pops, HDR effects, grunge style and more, Topaz Adjust’s intuitive and powerful tools make it easy to recover and enhance any image. With control over creative exposure, detail and color, Adjust is an essential part of every photographer’s toolkit.

This effect-packed Photoshop plug-in is is designed for photographers who want to achieve advanced color and detail techniques in less time and with half of the effort. Adjust also simplifies the HDR process, allowing you to instantly enhance local contrast, depth, detail and color - with just a single image.

The new Topaz Adjust 5 features productivity-increasing tools which allow you to be more effective, while streamlining your workflow. With the new local adjustment brush you can selectively enhance, taper or remove adjustments from any part of your image. You also have the ability to reduce the overall strength of your adjustments and stack effects - for a more comprehensive workflow.
  • 107 new presets for an even faster and more creative workflow.
  • Edge-aware selective brush used to dodge, burn, smooth and brush out effects.
  • Ability to stack presets and effects via the new "Apply" button.
  • Transparency Slider which controls overall strength of applied effects.
  • Preset Collections which organizes default presets; includes a user collection.
  • Integration of the new histogram and curve tools.
  • Finishing Touches Tab with tools for diffusion, grain, borders, vignettes, tone adjustments and more.
Topaz Adjust is one of our most popular plug-ins and doesn’t go on sale very often, Topaz Adjust will be 50% off ($24.99) from September 9th through September 30th with this promo code: septadjust.

Better yet, if you are new to Topaz, this product will be included in their Complete Collection where you get all 14 Topaz products at a super discount, use my discount code, gclure, and save an additional 15% off the Complete Collection.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Pro-Tip #9: Expose to the Right (ETTR)

Normal Metered Exposure
ETTR Exposure of Same Scene
You have probably heard this expression bantered about in photography discussions or seen it in published materials, but what does this mean and why do you want to do it. I'll give you a short answer and a more detailed long answer.  This is for RAW image processing only, as it will not work with JPGs as these images have already been processed in the camera. The short answer is when you make an exposure you want your histogram data positioned as far to the right as possible so it is just kissing the right-hand side of the graph boundary, because it will provide you with the highest quality image possibles. That's it, that's  all you need to do if you want the highest image quality available from your camera. You need not read any further unless you want a greater understanding of why this holds true for digital images as I present the long answer.

The long answer requires some background information. As you may know, camera meters try to expose everything as an 18% or neutral grey scene.  This serves us well when we photograph average scenes as we get a good exposures in that we don't have blown out shadows or highlights, but the exposure may not be the best possible (more on this later).  And when we get into hi-key or lo-key situations the 18% meter reading is going to fail by under exposing the hi-key scene or over-exposing the lo-key scenes,  making our whites look grey in the hi-key scene and making our blacks look grey in the lo-key scenes, and making it very apparent that our exposure is noticeably off and we need to intervene. But why would we need to intervene in a situation where the metered reading results in a good exposure, the following explanation from Martin Baily's, "Why Expose to the Right", (Podcast 381), July 29, 2013, he explains the technical side of ETTR and why we should use this technique even for mid-tone scenes:

Camera sensors have to convert the light that is captured by the photo-diodes on the sensor to a digital value. Most cameras these days save this data for each pixel with 14 bits of data, meaning we can have up to 65,536 tonal values per pixel. Many cameras at the moment record about 12 stops of dynamic range [see www.dxomark.com], some more, some less, and this is the range between a true black and a true white, and with a 14bit sensor, this means we’d have 65,536 tonal values between the two extremes.
Think of this as gradually filling a bucket with water, or even filling a photo-diode on your sensor with light. A totally empty bucket would be zero, or totally black, and then as you pour water into the bucket, or light into the photo-diode, you gradually fill it until you hit the maximum it can hold, which would represent a pure white. Anything after that is just overflow. The white can’t get any whiter, and that pixel is now over-exposed.
Because digital sensors are linear devices, if you double the amount of light that hits the photo-diode, you double the voltage generated by the sensor, or the amount of water that we pour into the bucket. The result is that data is literally halved with each stop or EV (Exposure Value) that is recorded, so the brightest stop of light the sensor can record has to be double that of the second brightest. This means that to use the full 65,536 tonal values across the entire image, we have to half the amount of data that can be used for each exposure value from pure black to pure white. For a 12 stop dynamic range sensor, this means your data is broken up into 12 steps, as follows…

                Darkest-------------------------------Mid Tones-----------------------------------------Brightest
EV
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
#Tones
16
32
64
128
256
512
1,024
2,048
4,096
8,192
16,384
32,768

This is why the darker parts of the image are more noisy than the brighter parts. The noise is always there, but because we have less data to record the darker areas of our image, the noise is much more visible. I’m sure you’ve noticed that even a nicely exposed image often has a bit of noise in the shadows. This is why.
When we are shooting hi-key scenes or lo-key scenes, we know the camera's metered normal exposure is going to be off and we can use exposure compensation or manually adjust our exposure to record the scene properly.   But what about the mid-tone scene that our camera can easily meter and record the full dynamic range of the scene? If we leave the exposure up to the camera, the camera will record the scene in the middle of the histogram, so you will essentially be recording your image with between  256 and 2,048 tonal values per stop as opposed to performing  ETTR and recording the scene between 4,096 and 32,768 tonal values per stop in the brightest end of the histogram.
When you capture more data the result is higher quality more date rich image files that will result in the highest quality images your camera is capable of recording and because we have more data noise will be less apparent adding to the quality of the image.