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Posts Tagged ‘Point’

DxO updates Nik Collection, releases PhotoLab 1.2 with U Point local adjustments

07 Jun
DxO Photolab 1.2 includes improved local adjustments.

DxO Labs – which split from DxO Mark in January – announced bankruptcy a few months back, but with a silver-lining: its flagship desktop software, Photolab, would receive a free update by summer. The company also announced that the Nik Software Collection – purchased from Google in late 2017 – would receive its first update since 2017.

As of today, both promises have been fulfilled, in a welcome indication that DxO Labs seems committed to its desktop editing business.

Nik Collection 2018

DxO engineers spent about six months working on code improvements to the Nik Collection, mostly with the aim of fixing bugs to ensure operational stability on the latest 64-bit Macs and PCs. There are no new features, but all seven plugins should also now work properly with the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop and Elements.

This is the first update to the collection since 2017, but it will come at a cost: until July 1st you can download the collection for $ 49.99 / £39.99 / €49.99. But after July 1st it will cost $ 69 / £59 / €69. There’s no word yet from DxO on how much future updates will cost, but we’re told that the company plans on releasing a new version yearly and it seems likely that those who download version 2018 will get a discount on future versions.

Download Nik Collection 2018 here.

Photolab 1.2

The latest version of Photolab, which is free for current users, incorporates the Nik Collection’s U Point technology, adding a much-loved set of local adjustments to the popular editing software. This update also adds hue and selective tone local adjustments, as well as support for recent cameras.

Download Photolab 1.2 here.

RIP DxO ONE Camera

This final bit of news should come as no surprise, but the DxO ONE camera is officially discontinued. The camera will continue to be sold by some retailers in the USA and France as long as they have inventory, so if you’ve been sitting on the fence about buying one, you’d better hurry.

Press Release:

With the Nik Collection 2018 by DxO and DxO PhotoLab 1.2, DxO continues to develop innovative solutions for photographers and creative professionals

The first update of the plugin suite that DxO acquired in late 2017, the Nik Collection 2018 by DxO offers full compatibility with the latest Mac and PC OSs and Adobe CC products, while DxO PhotoLab 1.2 enhances its local setup tools that incorporate exclusive U Point technology.

PARIS – June 6, 2018 – DxO, one of the world’s most innovative consumer imaging companies, today announced the immediate availability of the Nik Collection 2018 by DxO, an updated suite of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop plugins for photographers and creative professionals. Eagerly awaited by the user community, this “by DxO” update marks the return to the market of the Nik Collection with the first stable version and with customer support. Also available today, DxO PhotoLab 1.2, an update of DxO’s acclaimed RAW and JPEG image processing software, adds new local correction features and adds support for seven additional cameras.

Nik Collection 2018 by DxO: Better user experience and stability

Since the acquisition of the Nik Collection from Google in late 2017, the DxO development team has spent several months analyzing and optimizing the code of the seven plugins that make up the software suite to make them stable and operational. “The process was long and complex,” explained Bruno Sayakhom, Product Owner at DxO. “It was necessary to recover and recompile source code that had not been maintained for a long time in order to make it compatible with the latest versions of Adobe products and the latest Apple OS updates. This is a first step that allows us to start afresh.”

The Nik Collection 2018 by DxO is now fully functional and compatible with all 64-bit Windows and Mac platforms, as well as with Adobe Lightroom Classic CC, Photoshop CC 2018, and Photoshop Elements 2017/2018. In addition, DxO now provides support in four languages on its website (http://nikcollection.dxo.com/), which will soon include exclusive tutorials. The software suite update, including the seven plugins, is now available in 13 languages, and includes a free 30-day trial period.

“We are proud to relaunch the Nik Collection, which users have been waiting for,” said Jean-Marc Alexia, DxO’s VP of Product Strategy and Marketing. “We have put all of our know-how into offering photographers and creative artists the best possible user experience. This is just the first step: using Uservoice-type surveys, we will be reaching out to the user community, from whom we greatly desire to gather feedback about their experiences and gain insight into their expectations.”

Designed for expert photographers and graphic designers, the Nik Collection includes seven powerful plugins for Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photoshop Elements that offer a full range of creative effects and filters:

  • Analog Efex Pro applies analog film, camera and lens simulations to digital photos.
  • Color Efex Pro includes a set of filters for color correction, touch-up, and creative effects.
  • Dfine reduces the noise of digital images by analyzing the specificities of each device.
  • HDR Efex Pro processes images in HDR.
  • Sharpener Pro increases the accuracy and enhances the detail of digital images.
  • Silver Efex Pro is a black and white image conversion solution inspired by darkroom techniques.
  • Viveza locally adjusts the color and tone of specific areas of the image.

Thanks to exclusive U Point technology, the Nik Collection plugins allow you to apply local settings to specific areas in a fluid and precise way.

The Nik Collection 2018 by DxO is available for download on the DxO website (http://shop.dxo.com/us/photo-software/dxo-nikcollection) for $ 49.99 / £39.99 / €49.99 instead of $ 69 / £59 / €69 until July 1st, 2018.

DxO PhotoLab 1.2 improves its local adjustment tools that integrate U Point technology

Recently awarded the 2018 TIPA Award for Best Image Processing Software, DxO PhotoLab (formerly DxO OpticsPro) offers a complete RAW and JPEG processing solution based on optical corrections from mathematically established laboratory models, as well as such exclusive features as PRIME noise reduction technology and DxO Smart Lighting intelligent exposure optimization.

DxO has integrated Nik Software’s U Point technology, acquired from Google in late 2017, into DxO PhotoLab. This exclusive technology allows photographers to apply local settings in a non-destructive RAW stream to specific areas in an image.

With version 1.2 of DxO PhotoLab, DxO continues to enhance its software by adding the Hue (HSL) and Selective Tone settings, to unblock locally dark areas or recover overexposed areas. The tool’s equalizer system has been redesigned accordingly, and local settings are now grouped by categories: Light, Color, and Detail. Each category can be shown or hidden with a single click, for an efficient workflow.

In response to user requests, we have added a new keyboard shortcut that displays the U Point mask in grayscale and shows the area that will be affected by the correction.

Finally, DxO PhotoLab 1.2 adds support for images from the Sony A7 III; the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G9, TZ90, and GF9; the Canon EOS 2000D; and the Apple iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. Thanks to the quality of DxO PhotoLab’s RAW conversion, which is based on prior calibration of each sensor in the laboratory, images taken with these cameras and smartphones will automatically be corrected for optical defects.

The ESSENTIAL and ELITE editions of DxO PhotoLab (PC and Mac) are available for download on the DxO website (http://shop.dxo.com/), and from retailers at $ 129 / £99 / €129 and $ 199 / £159 / €199, respectively (recommended retail prices).

Photographers who own a version of DxO OpticsPro can acquire an upgrade to DxO PhotoLab by logging into their customer account at www.dxo.com. A fully-functional trial version of DxO PhotoLab, valid for one month, is available on the DxO website: https://www.dxo.com/us/photography/download.

About DxO

For over 10 years, DxO has been developing some of the world’s most advanced image processing technologies, which have already enabled more than 400 million devices to capture images of unparalleled quality. DxO develops DxO PhotoLab (formerly DxO OpticsPro), as well as other image processing software for Mac and PC, which have been acclaimed by the world’s leading photographers.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

03 Nov

There are many rules, guidelines, suggestions, and ideas around what makes a good photographic composition. Every person has their own particular aesthetic and way of seeing, and it can be difficult to find your way through all the information to a concept that works for you.

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

However, there is one simple tip that may be the easiest and quickest way for you to improve your images. It’s free and doesn’t usually require you to buy anything. All you need to do is stop, think, and make a different choice. What is that choice? The choice of changing your point of view.

The vast majority of images are taken from a standing position, looking out at, or down onto the subject. So, instead of doing what everyone else does, why not try something different?

Change Your Point of View

#1 – Go Low

Get down on the ground as low as you can get (depending on your physical capabilities or what might be in the way). This can give you a much more intimate connection with any creature you might be shooting – being at eye level with the subject is always ideal.

Being on the same plane as a ground-based subject is unexpected. Too often we view the world from a standing position so this viewpoint challenges us.

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

I crouched as low as I could get without scaring this curious bandicoot.

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

Lying flat on the damp sand at 6 am on a tropical island isn’t a bad way to start the day.

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

I spent a couple of hours crawling around on my hands and knees on the edge of a cemetery, capturing these Fly Agaric in full bloom.

2. Go High

Climb onto a fence, up some stairs, a tree, or a ladder and use that height to better effect. Looking straight down on your subject is a very alien view for most people. This is a big part of why drone photography is so popular, it allows us to see our world in an entirely different way.

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

3. See from a different angle

How many times do you point the camera straight or straight down? Most people rarely look immediately up above themselves, so that is quite a different image. If you combine adding height with looking down you can be very creative as it is unexpected by viewers who normally have their feet planted firmly on the ground.

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

Vertical flat lay overhead still life shot.

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

Pointing the camera directly down the stairwell from the top floor provides a unique angle.

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

Stalactites in a limestone cave right above my head.

4. Make a Different Lens Choice

Changing from your standard lens to a different one can also make a big difference.

Try using a macro lens, or an ultra wide-angle. Even better, don’t use them conservatively. Use the ultra-wide to take macro shots, and use the macro lens to take portraits.

Get a cheap vintage lens, one that has all sorts of interesting visual effects inside the glass (they usually need to be focused manually). Play with a Lensbaby or another specialty type lens. Don’t be afraid to experiment. After all, whats the worst that could happen?

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

The only way to fit this really wide piece of farm equipment into the frame was to shoot up close with an ultra-wide-angle lens. It also allowed the creative choice of including all the wonderful clouds in the sky as well.

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

Macro lenses offer a window into a world we cannot normally see with standard eyesight. Fascinating tiny details become visible.

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

Shot with an antique Russian lens, it has a lot of circular distortion around the edges, which when used creatively can be effective. The bonus is that these lenses are very cheap and easy to find in antique shops. Usually manual to operate though.

5. Shoot Tight

Stick that lens right up close to your subject, get in tight. Fill the frame with the subject, as much as you can. Go completely abstract if you like, but push yourself out of your comfort zone. Get in as close as you can, and then go closer still.

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View

6. Take Your Time

Long exposures can be a lot of fun and give you a very different image. Soft flowing water effects are nice, but what about a really long exposure where the water looks like smoke and mist? Night shots of fire dancers making patterns in the darkness? Playing with light painting? ICM or Intentional Camera Movement? Slowing down the action and capturing it can offer a lot of creative fun.

Low light or night time photography offers lots of opportunities for using long exposures in creative ways. Astrophotography is very popular at the moment and requires you to use a tripod and take often several long exposure frames. Light trails from traffic on busy city streets or a car climbing its way up a mountain road in the distance.

These kinds of images take time to make, which requires you to think about and plan it in advance. It can be frustrating to have to wait to achieve them but the pay off for creating an image under difficult conditions is very rewarding.

Fire dancers on the beach

Fire dancer using a colored light bar and taken with a longer exposure to capture the spinning movement

A tree draped in strands of lights becomes a very different image when Intentional Camera Movement is applied. Just a slightly longer exposure time and a wiggle of the wrist and you get this.

7.  Be Abstract

Going really close to a subject or selecting just a part of it to include in the frame is a great way to bring abstract concepts into your work. You tease the viewer with just enough of the subject that they wonder what it is. This often makes them engage longer with the image as they think more about what it could be.

There is a fine line between enough and too abstract, depending on your subject. Of course, you may want to go all the way into very abstract which is perfectly valid, although might challenge your audience and lose engagement.

This is the very battered toes of a pair of ballet pointe shoes

Summary

Putting some effort and thought into the way you use your camera gear is one of the most effective ways to improve your images in my opinion. Strong and eye-catching compositions can be achieved with any kind of camera provided you put some thought and time into making it.

Yes, for some kinds of shots you might need special gear, like a macro lens for those really good close-ups. In general, though, you can still see a noticeable improvement in your images by just taking the time to stop and think BEFORE you shoot. Ask yourself the following questions before you press the button:

  • What is the obvious angle here?
  • What other options could I use instead?
  • Do I have time to experiment?
  • Is there space and opportunity for me to physically move to a different viewpoint?
  • Is it safe/legal?
  • Will I do any damage to property or environment by changing position?

Learning to see in a different way was a critical step in my photography path. By expanding my options and developing new styles, my work was noticed and commented on much more. This prompted me to experiment even more and really challenge my own preconceived boundaries.

Having the ability to shoot in many different ways adds flexibility and depth to your skillset. Cold rainy day? Break out the macro lens and raid the pantry for something different to shoot. Pick a flower from the garden and bring it inside. Wander the city streets looking for the small interesting details and focus on them. Be abstract, tell a story from your point of view. Get shots of people’s feet crossing a zebra crossing or panning shots of a cyclist dodging traffic.

Your turn

Take your time to look and see what is around you, then think about how you can frame it up. Be creative. Don’t be afraid to try something new. It might take a few goes to get the hang of it or you might fall in love with seeing the world around you in an entirely different way immediately.

Challenge yourself to grow and improve. And please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

The post Improve Your Composition by Changing Your Point of View by Stacey Hill appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Photo of the week: Point of Transition

29 Jul

At the end of the Tsauchab Dune Valley in Namibia is the famous Deadvlei, which was cut off from Sossusvlei—and any water source—by a low dune an estimated 700-800 years ago.

The lack of water, the arid climate and the hard wood of the Namibian Camel Thorn tree have kept the trees of Deadvlei from decomposing. The result is a collection of ghostly trees rising from a cracked white clay surface. The pan is deceptively large and offers about 50 of the oddly shaped trees to photograph.

I took this morning shot back in 2014 while scouting for my Namibia workshop. The sun was coming up behind a huge dune, gradually lighting the pan. This was the moment the light started to touch this unique tree, leaving it partly lit and partly in shade, a point of beautiful transition. The shade line can also be seen on the dune behind.

The final image was taken with my Sony a7R and Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS.

Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez’s work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates. Erez offers photo workshops worldwide.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Open source Lightroom plugin Focus Point Viewer highlights active focus points

05 Jan

Joshua Musselwhite, an underwater photographer and software developer, has launched a free, open source Adobe Lightroom plugin called Focus Point Viewer. With this plugin, Lightroom users can view the active focus point of their photos, a feature similar to the one offered by now-defunct plugin Show Focus Points. 

Musselwhite details his new software on Reddit’s photography subreddit, where he explains that Focus Point Viewer was created as a way to easily see whether the focus points in his underwater images were the ones he had intended to use. The software is currently only mapped for his camera, a Nikon D7200, but because it is made freely available anyone can take the time to map the plugin to their own camera.

Explaining how to perform the mapping, Musselwhite said:

You’ll need to map each of the focus points. The best way I knew how to was take 51 photos at each focus point and determine the x,y pixel location for each from the top left using photoshop. I searched and searched for a focus point map for my camera but couldn’t find any … The process is a little time consuming, but it only takes a couple of hours, and is described how in the README file in Github.

The Github README file with the full explanation can be viewed here, and the entire project is available here. Musselwhite has also shared a small gallery showing both the focus points in action and the metadata submenu.

Via: PetaPixel

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Xiaomi Redmi Pro offers dual-cam and OLED technology at budget price point

28 Jul

Chinese electronics manufacturer Xiaomi has today announced the latest model in its affordable Redmi line of smartphones. Looking at the device’s body materials and specifications it would not look out of place in the company’s flagship Mi series, though. 

In the imaging department the Redmi Pro features a dual-camera setup that combines a 13MP Sony IMX258 1/3.06″ sensor with a 5MP Samsung depth sensor. The dual-cam does not offer any optical zoom capability, like on the LG G5, nor does it combine the captured image information from both sensors for improved image quality, like on the Huawei P9. Instead, it uses the dual-camera to simulate the bokeh of a fast lens on a large-sensor camera, something we first saw on the HTC One M8. Like on the HTC and several other dual-cam devices, you can change the focus point of the image post-capture in the gallery app. 

There is also a dual-tone LED flash and at the front the Xiaomi comes with a 5MP selfie-camera. Images can be viewed and composed on a 5.5″ 1080p OLED display with full NTSC gamut. A fingerprint reader is on board for increased security and all the electronics are provided with power by a beefy 4050mAh battery that supports quick charging via a USB Type-C port.

The components are wrapped up in a gold or silver brushed metal unibody that gives the device a premium look. The Redmi Pro comes comes in several versions that differ in terms of processor power and memory. Pricing starts at approximately $ 225 for the deca-core Helio X20 chipset, 32GB of storage and 3GB RAM and go up to approximately $ 300 for the faster Helio X25 chipset with 128GB storage and 4GB of RAM.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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SmugMug Films: Point, Click, ShootTokyo

21 Jul
SmugMug’s latest film features street photographer Dave Powell, the man behind the popular blog ‘Shoot Tokyo’. In the video, Powell takes us on a tour through the streets of one of the most visually distinctive cities on earth. In an accompanying interview, Powell explains why he moved to Tokyo, and what it is about the city that keeps him inspired as a photographer. 

SmugMug Interview: Dave Powell

Check out the latest video above and subscribe to the SmugMug Films YouTube channel to get first access to each new episode!

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Shooting with a point of view: Anna Mia Davidson in Cuba

24 Jan

In 1999, Anna Mia Davidson packed up 100 rolls of Tri-X film, an old Leica M4-P, two lenses and headed to Cuba to photograph the grittier reality of Cuban life that lurked beneath its colorful surface. Davidson expresses the importance of having a unique point of view to guide her as she made multiple trips over several years, documenting the island nation through some of its most turbulent times.

In this PIX 2015 talk, Davidson’s photos guide you through a Cuba you’ve not likely seen. She purposely eschewed the temptation of color film to ‘focus on finding the essence of the culture in quiet moments; the emotions unimpaired by the appeal of color.’ Davidson’s work spans the entirety of the culture, from the homes, families and streets of Havana to the fields, valleys and farmers of the countryside. Woven in amongst her photographs are hints to the looming presence of the Castro regime and the stark contrasts of Cuban and American culture.

Watch the talk and visit Davidson’s website to see more of her work in Cuba and beyond.

See more videos from PIX 2015

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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To the point: LensRentals shows how to use Autofocus Fine Tune

23 Jan

DSLR autofocus has been the Gold standard for decades but the higher accuracy and precision offered by some mirrorless cameras risks tarnishing this image. However, many modern DSLRs include an option to fine-tune the autofocus behavior to help optimize their performance. Guest writer Joey Miller has written a short guide to how to make use of this feature, over on the LensRentals blog.

Click here to read Joey Miller’s post on LensRentals.com

You don’t necessarily need any specialist equipment to fine tune your lenses. But if you’re going to go to all this effort, it might be worth it. Photo: Joey Miller

The article builds on the work Roger Cicala has already done, looking at the reasons that fine tuning is needed, with one of the main reasons being to cancel-out the effect of the combined tolerances of your camera body interacting with the combined tolerances of the specific copy of the lens you’re using.

As we reach higher pixel counts, this imprecision is being highlighted in ever more detail (it was always there, but your camera wasn’t letting you examine the problem in such fine detail).

Miller uses a Canon setup as an example, with up to two corrections per lens being possible (a ‘Wide’ and ‘Tele’ value being available for zoom lenses). But even this is a rather blunt instrument when it comes to achieving perfect accuracy. Given the variation we encounter using off-center focus points, a more complete solution would require something more like the Olympus system for Four Thirds lenses, which allowed two values per lens, per focus point. The best correction value can also change with subject distance, which is why Sigma’s USB dock offers the ability to set four different values for four different subject distances.

Even if such control over calibration were possible for the end-user, it would be so arduous as to be nearly impossible. Products such as Reikan FoCal can help, but it’s still fairly involved, and the situation-to-situation, day-to-day variability we’ve noted with some systems means even these don’t completely solve the problem. Thankfully, the process looks as if it’s about to be made simpler, with Nikon’s D5 and D500 gaining something we’ve been proposing for several years now: an automated fine tune system that checks the results of its contrast-detect AF in live view mode to calculate the corrections needed to fine tune its secondary sensor phase-detection system. It’s rather rudimentary in that only one value can be entered for any lens and body combination, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. 

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Lightroom for mobile for iOS 2.1 brings iPad Pro support and Point Curve

17 Dec

Adobe has today launched version 2.1 of Lightroom for mobile for Apple iOS devices. The update comes with a number of new features, some of which take advantage of new hardware in the Apple iPad Pro and the new iPhone models 6s and 6s Plus. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Vantage Point: The aviation photography of Jon Pece

27 Jun

‘Some people use a tripod,’ laughs Jon Pece, ‘I used a KC-135 as a camera support.’ The photographer has been afforded a unique perspective thanks to a long career as a military and commercial pilot. With his camera at his side and an eye for graphic elements and repeating patterns, Pece has produced a stunning portfolio of meticulous scenics. Read our Q&A and check out his work. See gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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