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Site review: ZapLife

June 3, 2011 By

I have been contacted by Michael from ZapLife, he asked me to look at his site and give him some feedback. Seems like I am getting a request like this every week now. And I love it!

While a few years ago everyone was trying to copy Flickr now each company has its own vision of what a photo sharing site should be and their implementation are quite different. I am really please to see such creativity and hope to see more!

zaplife

What is ZapLife?

Their tag line is:

Zaplife aims to be an easy to use photo blogging solution with a social twist

What is photo blogging? It is like a blog but instead of writing articles, you post pictures. It is a very healthy way to get out, shoot, share and get feedback from others. To make the whole process even easier, they created a free iPhone app that you can use to shoot/share your picture with. It is a bit like tumblr but you can only share pictures.

What I like

First, pictures are grouped by day, showing only a single picture per day and you have to click on the picture to browse the collection. It makes browsing multiple collection dead simple. As long as the photoblogger daily pictures are all part of the same collection.

As with 500px, the discover page is the best, showcasing the most popular pictures but I think they may have gone a bit too far with the tag clouds.

What I dont like

Like Flickr and contrary to 500px.com, there is a lot of crap pictures. And it is ok, the site does not aim to be a portfolio, it is a place for anyone (owning a camera does not make you a photographer!) to share pictures with others.

The layout needs some refinements but it is still a young site so I expect it to improve with each update.

Should you give this a try?

If Flickr is not your cup of tea, you may want to give Zaplife a try. The feeling is totally different yet you wont get lost in the feature set. They are doing heavy development and features are added regularly so keep your eye on it!

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Filed Under: Photo

Add layers in LightRoom!

May 22, 2011 By

When working with still images, I am a big layer user. And that is actually something that really annoyed me when using Aperture or Lightroom: both of these apps require an external editor to use layers. This basically means firing up Photoshop and working on huge TIFF files.

Well, this is a problem of the past because On One Software just announced their public beta of Perfect Layers. It is a free download but require a #$%#$% registration (name, email and phone number???) and be warned: they will send you weekly email about special offers. The beta app expires on June 30 which is probably their target release date since they said it will be launched mid 2011.

Before reading further

All the content below this point is based on what I saw on the On One Software website because I did not manage to make the plugin work. It is installed but I dont see the menu option in LightRoom. Anyone having this issue?

How it works

At first I thought it was a real plugin in the sense that it was used within Lightroom. Actually, it seems like the plugin exports the selected pictures to an external editor, Perfect Layers, which is a tool specialized in layer editing. Basically, this looks like a trimmed down version of Photoshop with only layer related feature (masking & blend modes) available.

I still have to figure out what is the picture format when it is getting edited but this is not really important (as long as it is a lossless format!) since the returned image is a PSD file.

Verdict

I know Photoshop quite well, at least as long as picture editing is concerned, so Perfect Layers has nothing to offer me on the feature side. On the workflow side, I think it could have its uses, but I need to make it work first!

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Photo Tagged With: ,

Almost DIY Ring Flash

May 11, 2011 By

My friend Udi from DIY Photography announced today something he has been hinting me about for a while: a DIY Ring Flash where the only thing you have to do is assemble & glue the various parts. No need to look for the perfect components at the store. Udi did the job for you!

If you have ever tried to build your own ring flash, you know how time consuming it can be to get the perfect light. And if you value your time at anything over 5$/hour it should be clear how good this deal is at under 25$! He even made a video to show how easy it is to build:

Udi did not only released the DIY ring flash, he also announced a double flash bracket which look quite cool. Go over and take a look.

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Filed Under: Photo Tagged With: , ,

My Fashion Zombie preset: what do you think?

February 12, 2011 By

I have had a personal photo project for a while: doing a zombie meets fashion photoshoot. The usual reaction when I start talking about is “WTF?” but lucky me, I found a friend who happens to have a very photogenic face ready to try it out.

So we got some basic makeup on, spilled some fake blood and took a few pictures. Here is a sample of what we go. The picture on the left is with the LR Fashion-Zombie preset and on the right is the same picture after post-processing in PS to add a few layers of texture (something I wish we could do in LR!).

Click on the picture to see a higher resolution version. More pictures in the post…

[Read more...]

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Filed Under: Photo Tagged With: , ,

Book Review: The Photographer’s Mind

January 22, 2011 By

I love Michael Freeman books. They are perfect mix of art vs technique. The Photographer’s Eye (review) has to be one of my favorite book about the technical aspect of photography and now I just finished reading its follow up: The Photographer’s Mind. While the Eye book tag line was Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos, the Mind book tag line is Creative thinking for better digital photos.

To reach this goal, the book is divided in three sections: Intent, Style and Process.

Intent

This section is all about what makes a photo looks good, why it looks good and in which context. It reviews the various aspects of beauty, from the perfectly symmetrical face of a model to the cliche and sublime subjects. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Photo, Review Tagged With: , , ,

Very cool timelapse from NY

January 8, 2011 By

I love timelapse and when they are coupled with good cinematography, they are even better. Here is a great one from New York I just stumbled upon (as in I click on every single Vimeo clip I see with nice poster frame).

I was really intrigued by the smooth transition between day and night. Looking at the comments on the Vimeo page, I found out about a little device called The Little Bramper. It is a little gizmo used to ramp exposure over a number of shots with great precision.

Guess what? I will order one and tell you about it very soon…

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Filed Under: Photo Tagged With: , ,

Get Aperture on the AppStore for 80$!

January 6, 2011 By

In case you did not know, the Apple App Store is now available (need to update OSX first) and there are some great deals! The best of these, from what I have found so far, is Aperture for only 80$! While I am now a converted LightRoom user, I can tell you one thing: at this price point Aperture is a much better value for the budget conscious photographer.

Looking at the top paid app chart, it seems like I am not the only one thinking this!

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Filed Under: On the web, Photo Tagged With: ,

40% rebate on Capture One 5 Pro

September 30, 2010 By

To most photographers, there are only two ‘serious’ apps to manage and process RAW pictures: Apple Aperture and Adobe LightRoom.

Let me present you a third option: Capture One. While not as popular as the two others, yet it is the one used by most high-end commercial/fashion/portrait photographers. Why? It has incredible color management tools. It is truly leagues ahead of the others in terms of what you can do with the colors. While you have to use a Phase One medium format body to benefit from all its features, there is still a lot of goodies you can use.

My two favorites are the focus mask and focus tool. These two features are priceless when you have to select the best shots out of a 500 pictures photoshoot! Go take a look at the features page to see what else it has to offer.

So, if it is so good, why so few people use it? Some would blame Apple and Adobe marketing, but I think the real reason is that CaptureOne is not good for most photographers. By design the application assumes the image  will be processed in Photoshop to correct imperfections. That is why it does not offer as many non destructive editing tools as the others. When I talked about this to a Capture One guru, he told me that pro photographers should limit their job at taking pictures and sharing their vision. Makeup artist & retoucher should handle the rest. While I dont really agree with this, the guy is making way more money than me with his photography so I guess it is working for him.

So, interested in giving Capture One 5 a try? There is currently a 40% rebate on the Pro version if you use the coupon code 5PRO when checking out. The code is good until the end of the month so hurry up, download the demo and see if you like it or not!

Any Capture One user here?

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Lightroom 3 Review Pt 3: The Develop Module Updates: ACR 6.1, Improved Noise Reduction, Lens Correction Tool

August 11, 2010 By

This part 2 of Jon Lightroom 3 review. You can see the introduction in is first post and the second part here.

ACR 6.1

The newest incarnation of Lightroom uses the new Adobe Camera Raw 6.1 for it’s RAW conversion. Since this is a review of Lightroom and not ACR, I’m not going to get into the nuances of the newest ACR suffice to say that overall it appears to be an improvement over previous versions. One of the first things new users will notice is an exclamation point icon on the bottom of some images. This message is that LR wants to apply the new ACR default settings to the image. Upon allowing the update, you will notice a slight change in the handling of shadows, color rendition and a few other areas and overall, it looks good. If you’re someone who prefers the camera manufacturers software for RAW conversion, you’re probably still going to prefer those. The color rendition, quality of detail and overall fidelity provided in those programs (Canon Photo Professional, can’t speak for NX2) still has an edge over Adobe’s CR. This should be expected, given that ACR accommodates almost all types of RAW images and therefore isn’t quite as specialized as those from the Camera makers. That said, for those who do prefer ACR for it’s convenience and options will be very pleased with the new engine overall.

The only downside to the new engine is that you need to have ACR 6.1  running on your system, meaning you need to be running Photoshop CS5. If not, than you will need to render RAW images in LR before opening in Photoshop, which means an extra TIF (if that’s your selected preference for external editing) on your drive and more time spent waiting for an editable-image to be created before being re-opened. Of course, LR offers the option of “open anyway” rather then “render using Lightroom” but the results are inconsistent and frankly a bit unreliable for accurate rendition and conversion. So, if you’re not running CS5 be prepared for a little extra leg work to reap the full benefits of Lightroom3’s develop Module.

Noise Reduction Improvement

Adobe is pushing heavily the improved performance of Noise Reduction in LR3, which is no surprise since Noise Reduction is an item of large interest for photographers given the “Noise Wars” being waged between the camera manufacturers to push the high-iso-noise-performance envelop further and further. So the question is, how good is LR’s new noise reduction? The short answer is very good, in fact certainly better than previous versions of Lightroom and Photoshop. Luminance and color noise are handled nicely with details staying largely intact (compared to previous versions) and realistic. To get a sense of the improvement, I’ve set up the comparison below between LR3 and LR2, Aperture3 and noise Photoshop plugins Nik Dfine and Imageonic Noiseware. I’ll be posting the results soon.

Lens Correction Tool


Another crucial addition to the develop module is the inclusion of the Lens Correction tool. The LC too is taken directly from Photoshop, with all of the same parameters with the exception of scale and edge transparency (I would not recommend using the LC tool for scaling anyway). In addition to the default Photoshop parameters, Lightroom has raised the bar by including it’s own camera/lens profiles- similar to DXO software. These profiles, when applied, automatically correct a the image based on the lens and camera preset detected by LR. This is an excellent feature, and works well for most images. I would, as a recommendation use the automatic profiles as a starting point, as different images shot in varying situations will certainly require different levels of correction. Another great feature is the ability to batch lens correct, as the lens correct option has been added to the list of options when syncing develop settings across a number of photographs.  Overall, the LC tool is yet another vital work flow time saver especially when trying to stay solely in Lightroom for image editing.

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Filed Under: From the contributors, Photo, Review Tagged With: , , , ,

Lightroom 3 Review: part 2

July 30, 2010 By

This part 2 of Jon Lightroom 3 review. You can see the introduction in is first post.

Import Dialog


One of the first things you’ll notice about LR3 is the new import Dialog, which is largely different than previous versions. The simple dialog box of old is gone and replaced with a full screen window complete with a large preview area. The preview area is the most significant improvement- you can now preview images and video before importing and can un-check any you don’t want to ingest- a nice feature (and overdue!). However, in exchange for a more sophisticate import dialog we are also given a slightly more complex interface, with essential source and destination information on opposite sides of the screen. This can make a normally simple task of simply importing, renaming, and adding metadata, cataloging and backing up a little more tedious. It also doesn’t help that they’ve now included a few seemingly unimportant options for these tasks, for example the rename images by shoot in addition to custom name. In other words, LR3 will add the words “shoot_whateveryouwant-1”. It would be just as easy to do this with a custom name, and with this option they’ve just made the list unnecessarily longer. Another annoyance of the new import dialog is that you will get it when importing ANY new images, even simply updating a folder. This essentially creates an extra step in the workflow, i.e. importing tiffs or psd back into LR after they’ve been processed in Photoshop. For photogs who require speed and consistency and are used the efficiency of previous versions of Lightroom in this regard may be surprised when they find themselves being slowed up by these little nuances of the new import dialog.

[Read more...]

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Filed Under: From the contributors, Photo, Review Tagged With: , , , ,
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