Product Review: Nik Color Efex Pro 4

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Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom comes in two versions: the Select Edition, which includes 26 of the most heavily used photographic filters in the plugin, and the Complete Edition, which includes all 55 of the photographic filters in the plugin. Essentially, Color Efex Pro 4 lets you apply various filters – in combination or alone – to a digital photo, emulating the real-world effects of, for example, a polarizing filter, a graduated neutral density filter, and more, as well filters that are only possible in the digital darkroom.

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Shot of the Day – May 17 2012 – Bellevue Towering

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This is a rather imposing shot, even though Bellevue itself is not an imposing city – at all. In fact, Bellevue is quite a nice place. It is the congruence of clouds and sunset and reflection that makes this shot, along with the darker side on the left and the brighter middle right. This is a hand-held HDR, three bracketed images taken with the Sony Alpha 850 and the Carl Zeiss 16-35mm @ 16mm. Tonemapped in Photomatix and tweaked in Photoshop CS5.

SLT: What is it?

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Shot with the Fuji X100 (which has no mirror at all)

Photography abounds in endless acronyms and obscure terminology. And they keep making more all the time! Here’s a relatively new one: SLT. You see this now on Sony’s newer DSLR-like camera bodies. So what is it?

“SLT” stands for “Single Lens Translucent.” It is meant to be differentiated from the “SLR” in “DSLR”, which stands for “Single Lens Reflex.” SLTs are NOT the same as so called EVIL (“Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangable Lens”) cameras like the Sony NEX system. Instead, SLTs use a form factor similar in size and appearance to a traditional DSLR (and make use of DSLR lenses) but do so with a mirror that does not flip up.

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Shot of the Day: Light off the Pier

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I took this shot hand-held, despite the dim light, because I didn’t have my tripod with me (I know, I know). I had to set the ISO up to 1600 on my Alpha 850, and then braced my elbows against my chest and tried not to breath. The first try was blurry, but this, the second, turned out pretty well. I reduced the noise with Topaz DeNoise and bumped the clean details back up with Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0.

Special Guest Post: “I take photos”

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Anacortes, WA

This is a special guest post written by my better half. I asked her if she had anything she wanted to say about the photographic side of my life – a side that she, of course, has been drawn into and made a part of, simply because it is such a big part of how I spend my time (she is also the first person who sees all my finished shots, before any go out to the world). She selected the above shot to accompany the article; I took that photo up in Anacortes, WA, a few weeks ago, when we were exploring the countryside together.

“I take photos,” he said.

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Comparison: Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0 vs Topaz Detail

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Wallace Falls, Washington

Nik and Topaz are Photoshop/Lightroom plugin (and standalone) digital photo processing software developers who directly compete against one another in the marketplace. Both are, generally speaking, highly regarded. I’ve used (and purchased) products from both companies, and have been happy with the results. Broadly speaking, Nik’s offerings tend to have slicker and more responsive interfaces and faster processing, whereas Topaz plugin’s tend to be less expensive than Nik’s while offering comparable output – it just takes longer and can be less intuitive to get there.

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Leica M Monochrom: Brilliant Photographic Tool or Rich Person’s Toy?

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Image from Leica.com

Leica M Monochrom, Image from Leica.com

Leica had a large event today, announcing a few new products, including the X2 APS-C compact camera with 35mm equivalent fixed lens, and an ~$7,000 50mm f/2 prime lens for M-mount cameras. They also announced the M Monochrom (note the lack of “e” on the end).

The M Monochrome takes the now-three-year-old M-9P body and puts a black and white only digital sensor in it. I’ve discussed this a bit before; the primary advantages are superior sharpness/image detail, high ISO ability, and greater dynamic range, at the obvious cost of not having any color information in your photos. It also has the technical disadvantage, as DPReview explains, of having no additional “hidden” headroom with regard to clipping – in color photos, often only one color will be clipped, allowing you to pull out additional details from the other color ranges in post. Here, if you clip, its just clipped for good.

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Lessons Learned: Tulip Festival Photography

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I had a lot of fun with my fiancée and some friends (including another avid photographer) up at the Tulip Festival near Mt Vernon, Washington, a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful, but crowded, Saturday afternoon and evening, and afterward my fiancée and I even made it up to Deception Pass and Anacortes (she hadn’t been to either) for the sunset. All in all a great day.

I always learn, every time I take a shot or go out on a photo walk, or especially one lengthy jaunts like this one, where there are hundreds of things to photograph and seemingly not enough time to get everything in. So what did I learn at the Tulip Festival?

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Product Review: Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0

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Sharpened with Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0

I’ve been using Nik Sharpener Pro 3.0 for a fairly long time – close to a year now. In that time I have come to appreciate its capabilities and now use it on nearly every photo I process (particularly notoriously soft HDRs).

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Zoe Keating, Technological Enablement, and Photography

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Last night I had the opportunity to attend a concert put on my Zoe Keating at the Neptune in Seattle. Zoe Keating, for those who don’t know, is an amazingly talented musician who creates sonic landscapes out of a single cello. She samples and layers her own playing, creating pieces with as many as 16 samples of herself playing all at once. It’s detailed, intricate, and was amazing to watch as she built the pieces up on stage, tapping buttons with her feet to control the sampling.

At one point she played for us a piece that she said was impossible to play live before she fully embraced her MacBook Pro and its sampling capabilities. It was a beautiful, multifaceted work. And it made me think.

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