March 28, 2008
HDR Soft, the maker of the popular Photomatix Pro has just released version 3. For HDR junkies Photomatix is a great tool, giving much more function over Photoshops built in tools for merging images to HDR.
Version 3 is even a free update for version 2 owners, and from what we can tell so far, it’s a nice update. Improved interface and some cool new features shape up to be another solid offering from HDR Soft.
March 28, 2008
Apple has released Aperture 2.1, and it sports a cool new plugin architecture.
The new version comes with a an Apple Burn & Dodge plugin, that does B&D, blurring, and more. There’s also support for other plugins like Noise Ninja, Viveza, and more. Sounds like third party devs will be able to make plugins similar to the way they do now in PS.
It seems aperture is getting into the pixel based editing territory with Aperture. Look out Adobe!
Still no presets from what we can tell, but when Apple catches uo in that area they’re gonna start looking pretty good. Of course Aperture is Mac only still, but if they ever make this for Win/Mac, Adobe may have a run for it’s money.
March 26, 2008
 This weeks quick tip has more to do with the business side of wedding photography than the technical side.  Where I’m located, it seems that most couples book their wedding photographer about six months to a year out from the wedding date.  Newer wedding photographers might book more weddings in a the “less than 6 months” range whereas your big time superstar wedding photogs book up 2-3 years in advance.  The point here is that it’s a long time to be in a business relationship waiting for the big day to get here. Â
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It’s a good idea to check in with your clients on a regular basis.  It sounds like common sense but too many photographers relax once they have the signed contract and retainer check in hand. Why not use this time to get to know your clients better?  Checking in with them at the one year, six months, three months, and finally one month mark prior to the wedding will strengthen your relationship with your clients.  By doing these timely “check-ins,” you will be able to stay informed as to the progress of the wedding planning as well as updated information pertaining to the photography.  But more importantly, the client will appreciate your thoroughness.  This shows your clients that they are not just a paycheck too you but people you are genuinely interested in providing the best possible service and in turn, the besy possible product (images.)
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March 26, 2008
Our sister site Seim Effects is having their big spring sale on their killer photo effects. Orders made by March 30th get 15% off the at the cart.
Great Lightroom presets collections, and Photoshop actions that will make your photo’s go wow. Ya this is a bit of a shameless plug, but it will kick your workflow to the next level. Check it out.
March 25, 2008
JPEG, TIFF, PSD, Successive Save, Save As, and more.
by Gavin Seim. Updated 11/11. There’s often confusion about what makes a JPEG and other files degrade, so I thought I would so a few a real world test. First let me say that simply copying, or viewing a file does NOT cause any degradation as people sometimes believe. If you copy and paste a file it’s simply a bit for bit cop. There’s no loss because nothing has been altered.
When you open, and then re-save a file is when things usually change. Even if you save at the highest quality JPEG settings you have still re-compressed that file when you save again. Unless or course your using an uncompressed file format to start with (TIFF for example). But even then there can be some quality loss version after version.
So how bad is a file damaged each time you successively save it. Well lets just say you should keep your originals. I’m not saying we can’t make revision copies (or file generations as I refer to them). But we should be aware. Below we’re going to look at the same image submitted to various torturous conditions and you can then judge for yourself.
These image are 700px. Click any image to see it at that resolution, or download all the images to compare them. Images that were opened and saved with “Save As” rather than “Save” commands are noted as such. If you want to join the discussion beyond comments here is the forum topic on this.
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