Though it’s a bit impractical for most photographers, the Leica Q2 is nevertheless a camera that will draw a lot of attention thanks to its good looks and street-shooter-friendly features. Take a quick look at what’s new and drool-worthy on the second-generation Q.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The Sony Cyber-shot RX100 VI, is a 1″-type compact camera with a 20.1-megapixel Exmor RS stacked CMOS sensor and a 24-200mm equivalent F2.8-4.5 zoom lens. We’ve been shooting with one since it was announced yesterday, and have prepared a brief overview video from the launch event in New York.
Learn more about the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 VI
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The world of photo editing is changing and as more people are picking up cameras to take photos, it also means those same people are looking to process them. ON1 is one of the leaders in that change. They have been developing their software for a few years and pride themselves on having the only editing program that has been designed by photographers for photographers – ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1
A sunrise processed with ON1 Photo RAW 2018.
You may know ON1 as a plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. While it is still available as such, it also comes as a stand-alone product. You can purchase the program and use it on your computer without a subscription to Adobe to use the plugins. This makes it far more accessible to most people. You can also buy it outright, so there are no monthly payments and you have options to upgrade as it is updated over time. It is only available as a perpetual license.
ON1 Photo RAW 2018 is available for both Windows and Macs.
There is a community around ON1 and if you love being a part of one then you are going to feel at home. They encourage you to tell them what you like about the software and what you don’t like. They like to listen to the ideas submitted and if they are feasible will implement them in future updates. The community can submit their feature requests through the ON1 Photo RAW Project.
There are tons of free training videos available to help you learn how to use ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1. The videos are not too long and are made so they are easy to follow.
A macro flower image, processed with ON1 Photo Raw 2018.
When you open up ON1 Photo RAW you will go straight to the Browse mode. This is where you will find your photos.
When ON1 opens you are automatically taken to the Browse Mode. From here you will find the folders and files for your images on the left. In the center are the images. On the right is all the metadata information about your images. You will also see on the far right all the different modules in which you can work.
If you want to see the image on its own, just click the tab key.
By clicking the tab key all the windows around the image disappear so you can get a clearer view.
The Browse module is where you can view your photos and all your folders. There are four different ways of viewing your images.
While you can see all the images that are on your computer, you can also import photos from your camera, phone, or wherever they are currently stored. The Import function allows you to rename your photos, decide where they will go, and you can also opt to change the metadata at the same time.
The Browse section where you can view all your photos.
Once you have decided which image you want to work on you are ready for the Develop module.
Here you can make all your basic adjustments like exposure, highlights, and shadows. You can adjust the white balance and look at adding sharpening or noise reduction. There are quite a few options in this section.
If you go to the top of where the adjustments are located you will see a button called Show More. From there, you will see more adjustments that you can use. They appear as more panes underneath the default ones that are available when you go to Develop.
Above the Show More button are two tabs. The first is Overall settings, and the other is Local Adjustments.
The first one, Overall Settings, will make any changes to your entire image. On the other hand, Local Adjustments is there to make changes to only small sections of your image. The tools you can use to do this are on the left-side panel. There are two, an Adjustment Brush and a Gradient. With these, you can work on only parts of the image where you want the desired effect.
Working on your image in the Develop module.
With the brush tool, you can make changes to the size of the brush, amount of feathering, opacity and other things from the menu along the top of the window.
You will also see another option there, the Perfect Brush, which allows you to make selections or correction to parts based on the color on which the cross-hairs of the brush is placed. If you keep the brush over the color or tones you want to adjust, then nothing else outside those tones will be affected. It is a great tool to use when you want to remove or replace a sky.
There are other tools in the Local Adjustments tab as well. You can crop your images here if need be. The crop tool also allows you to straighten any wonky horizons.
Retouching tools are also on that panel. These will allow you to remove sensor dust spots, which is very important. You can clone, heal and use the content-aware Perfect Eraser with them as well. There are a lot of choices.
Adding a split tone to the image in the Develop area.
In the Effects module, you have even more adjustments, though they are referred to as filters here (some of the most popular include Dynamic Contrast, Textures, Borders, Lens Blur, Skin Retouching, etc.). You can add as many as you like and then stack them on top of each over. The effect will be applied to the whole image, however, you can add a mask so it will be more local to the areas of your image that you want to affect.
You will notice in the panel on the left that there are more tools available, including two that are very important.
There is another brush tool, along with a gradient and they both have masks attached. As soon as you start working on the image with one of them a mask is created automatically. This is valuable because it means you can fix what you are trying to do if you make a mistake. Masks are a great way to work non-destructively.
Looking at the filters and presets you can add in the Effects module.
When you get to the Layers module, you can start using the workspace which is designed to be easy and help take your photos further. It is here that you can start editing your photos. It also gives you more choices so if you want you can add layers, or start compositing. You can also do specific edits to particular layers.
One thing that is amazing in this section is replacing skies. Using the masking brush you can switch it to the Perfect Brush so you select just the sky, then reveal the image underneath. To help with the edges of the subjects you can switch to the masking refine tool, or the chisel masking one. They work really well together to help you get clearer edges.
Working in Layers doing a sky replacement.
If you look at the menu on the left near the tool panels you will see a section called Files. From here you can add extra images if you want. It is a great place to choose a new sky or find textures to add to your image. It even comes with a collection of skies you can use on your photos.
Once you make that selection you can also blend the images or layers. There are many different blending modes. You can try them all out to see which ones will work for your image.
You do have to be prepared to take layers back into Effects or Develop to make adjustments or add filters to them to get the desired results that you are after.
Looking at the different options for replacing the sky and applying it.
As the name states, it is where you can resize your images, though ON1 has packed it with far more. You can crop, level, sharpen, add film grain, add gallery wrap wings for canvases, plus many more things. It is a great place to finish off your images ready for printing.
There are also a lot of resizing presets that you can use to help you get the printed results and size that you are looking for.
Resizing an image ready for posting on the web.
In Develop and Effects, you will find a series of presets you can use to enhance your image. Unlike other programs you have options with them and can adjust them to suit the purpose of your image. You can also add a mask so that it is only applied to part of the image.
If you do your own enhancements and think you will want to use the same settings again then you can also save them as a preset. You can use the filters in Effects to get the image you want, then make a preset that can then be applied to your other images. This is really good if you like all your images to have a similar look and feel.
Adding presets and layers in Effects.
There is also an app available for your phone, so you can process your images there. The advantage of this app is that you can send your photos straight to social media. Most of us do not like images straight from the camera and like to be able to edit them in some way.
The downside to this app is that it is only available for iPhones, so if you have an Android, you can’t use it. Unfortunately, I have a Samsung (Android) phone, so, therefore, have no idea how the app works. Though I am sure it is good if it is anything like the Desktop program.
With every new version that is released, there are always new features or some of the old ones are improved. Let’s look at what you will find with the latest release of Photo Raw 2018.1.
Doing High Dynamic Range (HDR) images in ON1 is incredibly easy and the results are fantastic. Aligning the images, along with deghosting have all been improved to help you get the best image. You are now able to mark which frame you want to use to help with the deghosting process, as well as decide how much movement you get with motion instead of the program doing it for you.
An HDR image that was done with ON1 and then processed further.
If you’ve used an older version of ON1 Photo RAW, when you go to Browse mode, you should notice how much faster it is to look through your images in this new updated version. You don’t have to wait for eons while your photos all load. As soon as the folder is open you can view the images. They have improved the catalog searching tool as well so it also loads faster.
You can now sharpen your images to enhance the details on a micro level that will give you better results.
With so much people doing long exposure photography, one of the major problems is hot pixels. ON1 Photo RAW 2018 now will remove them automatically, along with the ability to remove high levels of noise from your images which all make your workload easier.
Chromatic Aberrations are caused by your lens and there isn’t a lot you can do to prevent them. But ON1 has worked on improving how to get rid of them, which is now much easier in this updated version of the software.
Many people like to do panoramas and you will find that ON1 has improved this feature so it will stitch your vertical images together far better. You can stitch together over 25 images at once. You also don’t need to worry about different exposures as it will compensate for them.
A composite of two images where the sky was replaced.
With the latest release, some features were also added.
If you choose to use the import function you can decide where those images will go on your computer. As they are importing you can also assign metadata that you think is important, like copyright information.
The ability to soft proof has been added so you can simulate what your image will look like when it is printed. It should stop the surprises that you get sometimes when an image comes back from your printer.
While a lot of people don’t worry about this, it is a great feature if you have to send a bunch of photos somewhere. The ability to select the images and then rename them all at once is a fantastic feature that has been added to ON1 Photo RAW 2018.
This was added so if you want to change the date and time that a photo was taken you can do so. This is a good feature if you’re like me and are too lazy (or you forget) to change the time and date on your camera when you are traveling. You can now fix it with ON1 Photo RAW.
When you are going through your photos picking your faves, once you have culled one image the program will automatically move to the next image. This makes moving through them much faster.
The final image of the cloudy sky.
When you purchase ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1 it also comes with a 30-day money back guarantee if you aren’t happy with it, no questions asked. Though if you want to try it out first you can use the full program for a free 30-day trial. It doesn’t stamp a watermark on your images making them ineligible to use, so it’s fully functional.
Converting an image to black and white.
ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1 is a good alternative for you if you wish to edit your photos, but don’t want to be locked into a subscription.
It is also suitable if you want to learn about image processing as the community that surrounds ON1 is welcoming. There is a lot of help available if you are just learning. In some ways, it is perfect for beginners, but also for others who want to get the best possible images they can.
Disclaimer: ON1 is a paid partner of dPS.
The post Software Overview of the New ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1 appeared first on Digital Photography School.
The a7 III may be the “basic” model in Sony’s full-frame mirrorless lineup, but it borrows many of its capabilities from the high-end a9. With a 24MP BSI-CMOS sensor, oversampled 4K video, silent shooting at 10 fps and a highly capable Eye AF mode all for $ 2000, “basic” starts to sound anything but. Take a look at the video above for a quick rundown of what’s included.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
We’re always expanding our collection of product overview content, and we’ve just added videos for the Sony a9, as well as a brace of recent FE lenses – the 12-24mm F4 and 16-35mm F2.8 GM wideangles, and the 100-400mmF4.5-5.6 GM telezoom.
Take a look at some of the key features these products offer – demonstrated in the shooting scenarios they were built to handle. For more overviews and gear tests, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Product overview: Sony FE 12-24mm F4 G
Product overview: Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM
Product overview: Sony FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM
This is sponsored content, created with the support of Amazon and Sony. What does this mean?
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
We’re always expanding our collection of product overview content, and we’ve just added videos for the Canon EOS 6D Mark II, the EOS Rebel SL2 and EOS M6. Take a look at some of the key features these cameras offer – demonstrated in the shooting scenarios they were built to handle. For more overviews and gear tests, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Canon EOS Rebel SL2 overview
Canon EOS M6 overview
This is sponsored content, created with the support of Amazon and Canon. What does this mean?
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
ACDSee has released Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 for Windows and is the new update for their photo editing software. They have given it a new name, introduced new features, and made improvements to others. With so many people looking for other software packages that you don’t have to pay a monthly subscription for, this makes it a very attractive program for people to use.
What part of Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 looks like when you open it up.
I recently wrote an article, Photo Editing Alternative – An Overview of ACDSee Ultimate 10, that will guide you through the different modes and what they do. If you are new to this software, it would be best if you read that first. This review goes into more detail about Edit mode and what is possible. It will also look at some of the features that are now available in this new release.
It would be easy to expect it to look like Photoshop when you first open it up. However, there are many similarities that can help make it more familiar to use. You can work in layers for your images, which enables you to go back and make adjustments to particular ones or delete them if you no longer want them. Many of the adjustments and tools have similar names which make it easier for you to learn. You can use the History function to go back to see what you have done. You can work nondestructively so your original images are always protected.
Edit Mode, working on an image.
There are also many differences. Some of the tools may have the same name, but to get the same results you have to use them in a different way. When you click on one of the tools and adjustments in the Edit mode menu, located on the left side of the workspace, you are taken to a different screen to make the changes. When you are done, you click either Done or Cancel, and you are taken back to the main Edit mode window.
As you start using Photo Studio Ultimate, you will find many new tools and adjustments to help you work on your images. The latest release features many new tools that work really well and will be mentioned soon. It also includes older tools, which have been developed over decades, yet still, stand up to today’s demand. The software is becoming very sophisticated and should suit the needs of most.
Working on an image in Edit Mode.
There are so many improvements, it would be hard to do them all in one article. So, this overview is focused on the ones that ACDSee is the most excited about and those that I really like.
There is a new feature in the software that gives you more opportunities to be creative with your work. You can select a specific color to apply adjustments to, for example, you may want to make the reds brighter, or tone them down. You may want to sharpen only the greens. Or you can decide to change all the yellow tones to purple. With Pixel Targeting, you can do so as you please. You can also apply masks to specific colors or brightness ranges.
Using Pixel Targeting to give the yellows and oranges more saturation.
One application that a lot of people may use this feature for is to convert an image to black and white and have just one color coming through. By selecting your image and then going to Select to choose Pixel Targeting, you can decide which color you want to select. Once you click OK, you will see your selection and when you add the Black and White adjustment layer, the selection is turned into the mask. You will have your image in monochrome, except for the one chosen color.
Using the tool to select which color you will target with Pixel Targeting.
It is easy to use, although, you may have to play around with it a little. Remember that all colors are made of other colors. You may also need to do more work on the mask to get the look you really want. Overall, it does a decent job of the task, and there will be many people who will like this function.
Once you have done the selection and created the mask, then inverted it, you are left with color only for the tulips.
Along the top of the toolbar in Edit mode you will find the Smart Erase tool. This tool allows you to remove objects in your image that you don’t like, or don’t want. You often find unwanted subjects in your images, and being able to remove them is important. This has always been one of the best things about digital photography.
The tool is easy to use; you simply click on the image and start painting over what you want to be removed. You can set it to show up as a red overlay so that you can see what you’re doing.
When you find an unwanted person in an image you can use the Smart Erase to remove them. The Red shows where it is being applied and then the final result.
The Smart Erase tool seems to work best on small areas and on images with a plain background. Think about what you want to remove and look at the size of it, and the background. If you don’t get the results you’re looking for, you can always run the Smart Erase command again and again until you get a natural look. Play around and see what you can achieve.
The Smart Erase did a good job of removing the woman from just inside the door.
The Liquify tool is what they use in the fashion industry to make models thinner. It is easy to use, however, should always be done with caution and used subtly. This tool allows you to move the pixels around to where you want them.
You can use Liquify to move pixels around and to make someone look slimmer.
You can turn objects in your images into funny shapes with the Liquify tool. However, common sense and what works best for the image always must be the first consideration.
Inside the tool, there is a Restore setting, which allows you to brush or push the moved pixels back into place without losing image quality. Even after you press Done in the Liquify tool, you can still undo while still in Edit mode. That said, since the Liquify tool is not a non-destructive adjustment layer, you cannot exit out of Edit mode and then later undo what you did.
Why would you use it? It is usually used to change parts of people, to remove a double chin, or a bit of overhanging skin. You can make people thinner, as previously noted. You can pull the waist in, or make legs that look a little less chunky, or make clothes fit better. Every time you use it, remember you are moving all the pixels in the area, and that includes the background.
The Liquify tool is great to play around with to familiarize yourself with what it does. Try out the different settings within the tool to see which one will suits your needs.
You can just play with it to see what else you can do. This flower now looks crazy, but great effect.
This is a technique used by many portrait photographers. It allows you to soften the skin, but keep detail around the eyes, nose, and mouth. When doing close-ups of people, you often find the skin looks dry, or you may see the pores. By using Frequency Separation, you can add some blur to the skin, but leave the detail at the same time.
What a normal face looks like just after you have taken the photo.
In other programs, you need to do the layers yourself and work it all out. But with Photo Studio Ultimate, you just click the Frequency Separation button and it works like an action, separating the high-frequency and low-frequency layers for you. It will provide the low-frequency layer for blurring and then the high-frequency layer that holds the detail. You are all set to go.
You can use Frequency Separation to give their skin a much softer appearance.
This is a great tool and anyone doing portraits will find it useful. It doesn’t require a lot of research to figure out how to use it and anyone could start playing with it. You could try and use it with other types of photography as well. I’ve tried it on images of macro flowers and have found it really good. There are possibly other ways of using it as well.
Frequency Separation was used on the flower to soften parts and give more detail to the edges.
It’s always good to use lens correction wherever possible. It helps fix up any distortions that your particular lens will give an image.
You can also use the Perspective Correction, which will allow you to change the perspective. If you have an image that looks strange because all the buildings are pointing in towards the center, you can correct them. You can click on the corners and move them so you get what you remember seeing, buildings with straight lines.
Using the Lens Correction and Perspective Correction together to make buildings straighter.
In some ways, the Perspective Correction is far more useful than Lens Correction. It is not something that Photoshop seems to offer. You can do it, but have to do it in a completely different way. This works really well and I use it a lot.
These are colored lines that appear around objects in your images. They seem to appear around buildings a lot but can happen anywhere. Chromatic aberration is caused by your lens, and there is nothing you can do to stop it, but you can work on this in post-production.
Photo Studio Ultimate has a special adjustment for correcting chromatic aberration. You will find it under the Repair section in the column on the left. Click it and you will get a new window where you find five sliders. Zoom into 100% on the image so you can see the edges and the aberrations. Move the sliders around and see what happens. Each image is going to be different, so you might have to try different adjustments.
Using the Chromatic Aberration adjustment to remove the color fringes around objects caused by your lens.
Once you are happy, press Done and it will take you back to the normal workspace.
A new split tone adjustment layer has been added so that you can nondestructively tint highlights and shadows in Edit Mode. As an adjustment layer, you have the advantage of being able to apply split toning any time in your processing, and on several layers. You can also easily delete the layer if you decide you don’t like it.
A before and after with the Split Toning.
If you go to the Edit mode menu and look under Repair, you will see the Repair Tool. When you click on it, you are taken to the work area for the tool and from there, you can see the options, Heal or Clone. If you click Clone, a new slider will appear called Pressure under the Nib Width and Feathering sliders. This allows you to control the strength of the cloning.
At the default setting, it will do a straight copy. However, as you reduce it, the strength is also decreased. This is especially useful when you want to want to clone something out, but you don’t want to lose all the detail. A perfect example is when you want to reduce the darkness under someone’s eyes. You want to reduce the dark color, but you may want to keep the lines that are there as well but soften them at the same time.
Adjusting the Pressure slide for the Clone tool you can use to it remove the bags under the eyes, without taking away too much of the detail.
A Grain tool has been added to Edit Mode. You can add grain to your images to give it texture and create a vintage effect.
A new tool has been added to the toolkit; the Polygon Selection Tool. This selection tool and allows you to select an object in your image by pressing on the outside of it and doing like a dot to dot to get the selection you want.
If you are used to using a program, like Photoshop, you will find that some functions don’t work the same. That is to be expected, it is different software. However, it doesn’t take you long to get your head around how you can do certain processes. In many ways, you do have to think outside the box, and so far I’ve managed to find many ways to do what I would do in Photoshop by using different tools.
I do a lot of processing in Photoshop and I wanted to see if I could achieve a similar look on one of my images, this is the final result. It’s good.
It is good to see other software that makes it possible to do just about anything you want to your image. While Photo Studio Ultimate may not be as big as Photoshop, there is no doubt that it will enable you to do just about everything you want to your images. The new release will offer users more tools and adjustments to help them get the look they want. It is a great program and one of the best alternatives I’ve seen. You can download and have a free trial for 30 days. Just remember that you will have to work differently, but it is worth it.
The post Overview of Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 for Windows by ACDSee by Leanne Cole appeared first on Digital Photography School.
As more and more people take up digital photography and want to get started editing, many are asking the question, are Adobe’s Lightroom and Photoshop my only options? At ACD Systems, they have their own editing software called ACDSee Ultimate 10, which allows you to do many of the same functions as the former.
Adobe’s subscription model—membership and monthly payments—is a big turn off to many, particularly because if the price becomes too high, it will become unattainable, and then they will be left with nothing. We have already seen some price hikes recently. ACDSee Ultimate 10 could be perfect for those looking for an alternative to what Adobe offers.
Without a doubt, you will scratch your head as you try to work out how to do things in ACDSee Ultimate 10, but this can be said for any new software you try. If you have used Lightroom, then much of it should be easy to work out, and there are a lot of similarities. If you have not used it or any other photo editing programs, then you will find a wide range of videos on their website to take you through how to use ACDSee Ultimate 10 and understand it.
One of the biggest problems with Lightroom is how you must import your photos into it. With Ultimate 10, there is no need to import your photos as they are read directly off of your hard drive and displayed in the exact same folder structure you see in Windows Explorer (or Mac Finder). This saves you one step altogether, however, there is also an import function available, which you can use to apply some batch functions, such as renaming while extracting the photos off of your device.
What Manage Mode first looks like when you open ACDSee Ultimate 10.
As you work your way through the videos, you will hear a lot about parametric processing. If you are like me, you have never heard the term before. It is another way of saying non-destructive, or in easy terms, you can save all your layers so you can go back to it and work on it some more, later.
There are obvious differences between ACDSee Ultimate 10 and Lightroom, but you are also going to find a lot that is similar—perhaps even better. When you open it up, you can see in the top right corner the different modes that are available: Manage, Photos, View, Develop, and Edit. We will take a look at each mode and see how they compare with Lightroom and a little of Photoshop.
It is fair to say that Photoshop does offer a lot more than this program. However, as many people prefer using Lightroom, this could be a really good alternative for them. You can certainly do all the same edits that you can do with Lightroom. However, it’s when you start getting into the more advanced image manipulating where you would normally use Photoshop that you may find limitations withACDSee Ultimate 10.
See a feature comparison between Lightroom and ACDSee Ultimate here.
The Manage Mode is very similar to the first window you find when you open Lightroom, the Library Module. On the left, you see a column with all of the folders on your computer. It displays the folder structure you have on your hard drive, so there is no searching through unfamiliar territory. The way Lightroom does this can be confusing and it can be hard to find directories.
Taking a look around to see what is in Manage Mode.
Underneath the above, you will find details about the selected image, such as the camera model, the size of the image, and what your settings were. Then under that, you will find a histogram of the image.
The middle section is where you see the contents of the selected folder and any subdirectories that may be in it. Each thumbnail indicates what type of file it is, RAW, PSD, etc. It is still possible to put ratings and labels and such on your images. There are categories and keywords that Lightroom users will be familiar with, which can be used the same way in Ultimate 10. This section works like a proofing sheet, which allows you to see all of the images in the folder.
In Lightroom, you can get a preview of the image by pressing the spacebar, however, in Ultimate 10 you use View mode to get a larger view of your images. To get there you can double click or press enter with the desired image selected. In the right-hand column, all the EXIF data that is available in the image is found there. There is the same additional information that you find available in Lightroom.
In this mode, you will get a small preview of every image that you have on your computer. It is almost like a list, in order. The images will be sorted by the date they were taken, and you can do rearrange to sort by day, month, or year. It is a great way to help you find photos when you can’t remember where you put them, especially if you’re like me and don’t use categories or keywords.
How Photo Mode appears.
In Lightroom, you could only do this with the photos that you have imported. In Ultimate 10, it doesn’t matter; it will show every image that is on your computer.
In View Mode, you will get a larger view of the selected image. Underneath the image, there is a filmstrip with all the photos in the selected folder so that you can navigate between them. There are also some basic functions you can apply to the image if you want to make some changes. However, this mode is more for viewing your photos and figuring out which ones you might want to work on.
Opening View Mode.
In this mode, you can add ratings, labels, and set your categories. To rate an image, click Ctrl/Cmd plus the number you want to assign to it, or to label an image press Alt/Option then the number according to the color you want to apply. You can do many other things to the image as well. There is a small menu on the left just above the filmstrip, or you can right-click on the image to get options as well.
Some of the functions you can do in View Mode.
This is the mode that seems to most resemble Lightroom and is your workspace. It is laid out differently and you will find all the adjustments in the left-hand column. Many of them are the same, though to get to each of the sections you will find these modes; Tune, Detail, Geometry, and Repair near the top that you click for various adjustments. Each one of those modes have different tools you can use to make the various changes to your images.
Opening an image in Develop Mode.
A lot of the processes are set out differently, but they often have the same names. There are titles for each one which, like Lightroom, are menus and when you click on them new adjustments can be accessed. The plus sign means it is closed and when it’s opened, it turns into to a minus sign.
Looking around Develop Mode and the Tune Mode.
What is available in Detail Mode.
What you can do in Geometry Mode.
A quick look at Repair Mode.
In ACDSee Ultimate 10, you can save your develop settings as presets, either globally by mode (Tune, Detail, Geometry, Repair) or by tool group. You can then apply saved presets to a single image, or a batch of images in Manage Mode.
These three tools similar to Lightroom’s Adjustment Brush, Graduated Filter, and Radial Filter. They can seem a little strange at first if you are used to Lightroom. The Develop Brush doesn’t have an erase button, so how do you remove the parts you did by mistake? By right clicking and going over the part you no longer want. This is actually much better, and makes your workflow much faster.
In Lightroom, when you want to use the Graduated and Radial filters, you click on them and then draw a line on your image. With Ultimate 10, once you click the Gradient button, the Gradient will appear on your image, and then you move it, enlarge or shrink it, or rotate it to where you want. There are specific places on the gradient to do that. The cross in the middle is used to move it, the hook from the cross rotates it, and the squares on the dotted lines are used to resize it. It is different but doesn’t take long to get used to. If you want more than one gradient, you will find a section with the icon and a blank square above it. To apply another brush, just enable the next checkbox.
How the Graduated Filter works.
How the Radial Filter works.
To make them disappear once you are done, click on the icon for the tool and the program will unselect it.
Edit Mode is very similar to Photoshop, however, again, it is set out a bit differently. In this mode, you can do a lot of fine-tuning. You can use layers and make adjustments.
The tools are along the top under the menu bar, and the edits that are available are down the left side. On the right, you will find your layers panel, and the layered adjustments are down the bottom of that panel. Underneath those, you will find where you can add new layers, masks, or duplicate layers.
Opening up into Edit Mode.
When you have different layers, you will also find the rubbish (trash) button will appear there. Highlight the layer you want to delete, and press the button. Though you could simply press delete on your keyboard as well.
The feathering option is different and you don’t set how much you want to feather until you have added the mask. You press the mask button and the settings for it will appear at the bottom of the layers panel.
Adding layers in Edit Mode.
While you can also save presets in Edit mode, perhaps even more useful is the tool they developed to address the general limitations of batch editing. ACDSee Actions allow you to “record” any and all adjustments you make in Edit mode, and then to apply them to other images, (individually or to a batch), by “playing” them back (like Actions in Photoshop). It’s as simple as pressing a Record button before you start editing, pressing Stop when you’re done, and then choosing a name to save the action under.
If you forgot to begin recording before you started editing, you can simply use the Undo button, press Record, and then press the Redo button. You can even preview the effect that an action is going to have on an image before applying it. This really speeds things up and ensures that you can apply anything in a batch.
Using Actions.
Without a doubt, ACDSee Ultimate 10 is a good alternative to Lightroom. It has a lot of similar functions, and many of the things that you do in the first, you can do in the second. How you use it is always going to be different and finding your way around the settings and functions will take time, but that is the same with any software.
If you are someone that doesn’t use Photoshop but you would like to start working with layers, then Ultimate 10 could be a good way to start.
The final image.
With the latest release of Lightroom, everyone was told that it would be the final one that you would be able to buy outright. All future releases will come under the Creative Cloud subscription plans. This has made a lot of people nervous. Meanwhile, many are frustrated that while they have purchased it, there are still functions that are only available if you subscribe to Adobe.
At ACD Systems, they understand this frustration, and you can buy all their products so you own them. Or, if you want the benefit of getting updates and having the latest version, you can also subscribe. The choice is yours.
If you are unsure of what to do, their Live Chat is available, along with email and phone numbers for you to call as well. To take a look at the Ultimate 10 follow this link, ACDSee Ultimate 10.
A quick look at the website where you can find videos.
ACDSee Ultimate 10 is a great program for anyone who wants to get into photo editing. While there is a learning curve, that is true for any other editing software that is available. For most photographers, Ultimate 10 will have everything they need to do the image adjustments they would like. Give it a try and tell us what you think.
Disclaimer: ACD Systems is a paid partner of dPS
The post Photo Editing Alternative – An Overview of ACDSee Ultimate 10 by Leanne Cole appeared first on Digital Photography School.
We’re constantly adding to our collection of product overview content, and we just added videos covering Fujifilm’s new GFX 50S medium-format camera and three GF lenses. Check out the new videos from the links below, and be sure to bookmark our YouTube channel to stay up to date with new videos when they’re published.
Fujifilm GFX 50S Product Overview
Fujifilm GF 120mm F4 Macro Product Overview
Fujifilm GF 63mm F2.8 Product Overview
Fujifilm GF 32-64mm F4 Product Overview
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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Around 15 years ago we were visiting my brother-in-law and his family. While there I saw his computer and it had this strange flat thing with a pen on the desk. I asked my husband what it was and he said it was a Wacom Tablet. You use the pen on the flat part, the tablet, and it works just like a pen, or pencil. I said I wanted one, he said I didn’t need one.
So I waited, and one day while trying to do fine detail work in Photoshop and screaming because the mouse wouldn’t do what I wanted, I finally said: “I’m getting one”. In 2011 I got my first Wacom Tablet, the Intuos 4. I haven’t looked back and now consider it a vital part of my photography gear.
The Intuos Pro from above, image courtesy Wacom Australia.
Wacom Tablets come as two pieces, the tablet, and the pen. The tablet sits flat on your desk and you use it like a piece of paper. So when you put the pen, or stylus, on it the tablet communicates with the computer.
The pen is similar to a mouse in that as you move it over the tablet, the cursor onscreen follows. The active part of the tablet covers the whole screen, but unlike a mouse, you have to lift the pen from the surface to move the cursor. When you want to click on something you just touch the pen to the surface of the tablet.
Have you ever considered how good it would be to be able to draw on your computer like you can on a sketch pad? The Wacom Tablets allow you to do that. The pen becomes your drawing instrument and the tablet part your paper or sketch book.
The Wacom Intuos Pro medium, image courtesy Wacom Australia.
There is no doubt that a lot of people have trouble using a tablet when they first start. The pen can be a hard concept to get your head around. It does not work the same way a mouse does. It works more like a pen, and you need to think of the tablet like a piece of paper. When you want to move from one part to another you lift the pen up and move it. The pen talks to the tablet and knows where you are going.
After you have been using a tablet for a while it becomes second nature. You just move instinctively with it, and in many ways, more so than with a mouse because pens have been around a lot longer.
The Wacom Intuos Pro from the side, image courtesy Wacom Australia.
After having the Intuos 4 for a few years I decided that it was time to get a slightly bigger one, and I opted for the Intuos Pro Medium. It is larger than my previous one but has some options which were not available with the older model.
The Pro series allows you to use the tablet wirelessly. Which is really good for people who don’t have a permanent place for it and what to move it around. You have the choice of having it sit on your desk plugged in, or if you want to move it you can remove the plug and not have to worry about connecting it. Mine sits permanently on my desk and so I tend to keep it plugged in.
The tablet part can also be a touchpad. So if you find you are used to using your fingers to move around on the computer then the touch pad area may suit you. This feature certainly helps people that use your computer and don’t know how to use the pen. The touchpad can easily be turned on and off as you want it. The top button on the tablet is set as the default switch for the touchpad feature.
There is also a stand that holds the pen when you aren’t using it. In the bottom of the stand, you will find a storage area for more nibs for the pen. You can purchase them separately, many options are available or both the stand and extra nibs.
I have the older model of the Intuos Pro. The new updated version includes Bluetooth. The pen that comes with it now, the Pro Pen 2, has over 8192 levels of sensitivity with pressure and tilt response. The one I have only has 2148 level of pressure sensitivity. The tablet part is also much thinner on the newer model.
The Wacom Intuos Pro Medium retails for $ 349 at B&H, or you can shop for it on Amazon.com as well.
St. Kilda Pier long exposure taken at sunrise and processed with my Wacom Intuos Pro.
The Intuos Pro comes with a lot of default settings, but you can change them so the tablet and pen will work the way you want. There are four buttons on the pen. Clicking the nib is like doing a regular left-click. I have changed the settings on my pen, so the two buttons on the side now do a right-click (the bottom one) and middle-click (The scroll wheel on a PC mouse is also a button you can click. If you middle-click a link it will open it in a new tab. If you middle-click a tab it will close. It is very handy, and one I use a lot.). The one at the top of the pen has the factory default setting of erasing, but I’ve changed mine to double-click.
You can change how fast to double-click, or how much pressure you can use. It is all there for you to set up exactly how you want. It is good to play around with it so you can try different things. As you get used to using it you may find that you want to change other things as well.
I’ve been using a tablet for years now and when I purchased the Intuos Pro I decided I would use it for everything, so I threw away my mouse. I now use my tablet as my mouse whether I am processing or not. I have gotten very used to typing with the pen stuck between my thumb and hand. In fact, I almost find it difficult to type if it isn’t there. It has become like an extension of my hand and I will often find myself in the kitchen making a coffee with it still attached.
This image of the Seafarers Bridge has lots of fiddly bits and the Intuos Pro just makes it much easier to edit.
My family don’t like it because they can’t use my computer with it. I have a mouse in a drawer for them now.
If you get frustrated by trying to do details with a mouse, then the Intuos Pro could be exactly what you need. A tablet and pen allow you to do fine detail work that you can’t do with a mouse or your finger unless you are really good with them. A mouse frustrating for me and would shout a lot, which, in the end, was why my husband agreed that I needed a tablet. I haven’t looked back. Now with the pen, I can trace around curved lines, or get into small spots to change things easily. I couldn’t live without a tablet and pen anymore.
Wacom come into their own for post-processing work on the computer. Whether you are using Photoshop or Illustrator, or another program where you require a lot of control over what you are doing, you will find the tablet is perfect.
A cityscape of Melbourne one of many images that I have used the Intuos Pro to edit.
The Mobile Studio Pro another tablet style unit from Wacom except it looks more like what we have come to expect from a tablet. It has a screen and you can use it independently from your computer. It is a computer itself, and you can run Windows on it as well as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. This model has Wi-Fi and works just like a regular tablet.
You can use it as a tablet or as a laptop, although you would have to get an external keyboard if you don’t like the keyboard on the screen.
With Bluetooth capabilities you can pair other devices with it easily as well. So getting a Bluetooth keyboard is a really good option, especially the one by Microsoft that folds in half and is easy to carry around.
Taking the MobileStudio Pro out for coffee and a bagel.
It doesn’t have the usual ports for connecting devices and uses USB-C. That will soon become the standard, but for now, you will not be able to connect any others to it. You can get adaptors for USB > USB-C.
PRO: Without a doubt, the best thing about this particular model is that it is exactly like drawing in a sketchbook. You are working straight onto your image. It is great to be able to move it around and work the angle that is needed for your image. Your hand can get in the way sometimes, so being able to turn it is a definite bonus.
A long exposure of the Seafarers Bridge in Melbourne. The MobileStudio Pro was fantastic for processing this image.
PRO and CON: It does have touchscreen capabilities, and that can be great for browsing the internet and using other programs. However, for processing images with the pen it was very frustrating with the touchscreen on. You put your hand somewhere and then something else would go off, or get deleted. In the end I turned the touchscreen feature off when I was processing the image, but turned it back on when I was doing everything else.
Getting out of the house to process an image is such a luxury, the MobileStudio Pro makes it to easy, it even goes well with a latte.
CON: You do have to think a bit differently when using a tablet, especially if you are used to using keyboard shortcuts. I use them all the time, so when working on an image I have one hand on the keyboard, and the pen in the other. You have to find other ways of doing delete, save, etc. I was told by Wacom Australia that you can set up shortcuts on the tablet. For the short amount of time that I had the MobileStudio tablet, I didn’t worry about it, but it’s good to know. As previously stated, you are also able to use an external Bluetooth keyboard if you wish.
The final image.
PRO: The Wacom MobileStudio Pro 13 512GB is perfect for anyone that travels a lot and wants to work on their images on the go. You can take it anywhere and with a battery life of 4-6 hours, you have plenty of time to do what you need. I took it with me when I met friends for coffee so I could work if they were late. It’s small, isn’t very heavy, and will fit anywhere most laptops do. I also used it to edit images while I was watching TV.
CON: It does come with a hefty price tag as it retails for $ 2499 at B&H (with the 512gb hard drive, smaller ones are available for less as well – 256gb is $ 1999 and 128gb is $ 1799). If you want the larger 15″ model, then you will need to pay an extra $ 500.
One of the first images that I edited using the MobileStudio Pro.
Wacom offers a wide range of tablets so you can choose from a small one, up to very large ones. Most of them work as mentioned here. They aren’t as expensive as you may think (they start at about $ 199 for a small one) so if you want to try one out you should be able to find one that fits within your budget.
The new ones have screens built-in and work like similar to other tablets (like an iPad). You use the pen directly on the screen so you can see exactly what is happening to your image real-time. They are a lot more expensive, but if you really want to get serious it could be just what you need.
There is another version for those that want to process on the go. So if you are traveling a lot, you can use it as your laptop and for processing your photos. There are also much bigger ones that sit on your desk and work in a similar way.
Whatever level you are at, they have a tablet for you.
If you are serious about your photography, or more so if you are serious about editing your photos, then a Wacom Tablet is an essential tools that can help you to make fantastic images. They have a massive range available, so you will have to decide which one is right for you.
The post Overview of the Intuos Pro Wacom Tablet and the MobileStudio Pro for Post-Processing by Leanne Cole appeared first on Digital Photography School.
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