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  • Tips & Tricks: A Survey of Iconic Family Lifestyle Photography

    Family lifestyle photography is a unique and incredibly exciting subsection of the photographic field. This is a method that is widely practiced, though to be done right, one needs to properly understand its history, its limitations, its necessities, and how it can be executed to get the most incredible and poignant photos possible. First, defining lifestyle photography is imperative: here, Continue Reading

    The post Tips & Tricks: A Survey of Iconic Family Lifestyle Photography appeared first on Photodoto.


    Photodoto

  • Review of PhotoWorks: a Fresh and Fast Photo Editor for PC

    The post Review of PhotoWorks: a Fresh and Fast Photo Editor for PC appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Glenn Harper.

    PhotoWorks is an image editor with a fresh, clean interface and a set of tools that work intelligently to get the best from your photos. It helps you turn drab files into spectacular pictures within a few clicks – sometimes only one! The software’s Portrait Magic technology uses face recognition to add expert retouching edits to your photos. A host of other handy features make the PhotoWorks photo editor for PC an enticing proposition.

    PhotoWorks interface

    The histogram is a constant when you edit in PhotoWorks. It’s good to see a program that knows its value.

    Who’s it for?

    Automatic photo editing is the forte of PhotoWorks, but the software doesn’t do everything. It doesn’t offer the huge toolbox that many other programs do, with so much thrown in that you have to rummage endlessly to find what you want. It’s designed for ease of use and speed, which will appeal to beginners and casual photographers but might catch the eye of a few veterans, too.

    photoworks-photo-editor-for-pc

    The clean, minimalistic interface of PhotoWorks. All edits are memorized by the software, so they’re non-destructive.

    In this review, I’ll look at everything PhotoWorks has to offer. I feel like I’ll enjoy it because this photo editing software for PC isn’t an unwieldy monster with innumerable needless features. PhotoWorks seems knowable from the first time you open it. You can jump in without facing a steep learning curve, though there are good tutorials available online if you need help. Let’s see what it can do.

    Opening raw files

    Raw files are always an obvious place to start when reviewing a photo editor for PC. Can PhotoWorks handle them? It’s not billed as a raw processor, but it does open most proprietary raw files in addition to Adobe’s standard DNG files.

    When you open raw files in PhotoWorks, you have the option of applying one of six profiles to them: Default, Auto Enhancement, Landscape, Portrait, Sunny Day or Black & White. With the Default profile, all the settings in PhotoWorks are zeroed when you open the file, whereas the others are Presets with adjusted sliders.

    photoworks-photo-editor-for-pc - raw conversion

    You’re presented with six starting points when opening raw files. The default conversion opens automatically on the page.

    PhotoWorks is really a pixel editor. It converts individual raw files quickly and the quality is okay – good, even – but problems like chromatic aberration (CA) and chroma noise are present if you examine images at 100%. Should you view images at 100%? Only if you’re creating big prints or trying to impress third parties with technical quality. And if you’re doing that, you may not belong to the target market for this software, though PhotoWorks has potentially wide appeal.

    chomatic abberation - CA

    PhotoWorks does not currently fix chromatic aberration or purple fringing. If you’re the type of photographer who scrutinizes image quality and needs impeccable files, you could run them through a dedicated raw converter first.

    By pairing PhotoWorks with a separate raw processor (e.g. RawTherapee, Darktable), “serious” photographers could have the basis of an efficient workflow. That’d be good for, say, wedding photographers, who would also benefit from the software’s intelligent retouching capabilities. We’ll look at those in more detail later, but for now, it suffices to say they’re good.

    Saving the PhotoWorks way

    Not long after firing up PhotoWorks, you’ll notice there’s no way to close images. This is unusual, to say the least, but it’s another form of streamlining. You can save edited files and move onto the next image. Your edits are stored, even if you move on without saving, and you have the option of resuming them or starting afresh when you go back to the file. This is true even if you close the program. Edits are non-destructive.

    Both Save and Fast Export let you export a separate copy of the edited file in the format of your choice, the main difference being that you choose the format beforehand with Fast Export. You can select from JPEG, TIFF (8-bit compressed), PNG and BMP.

    Enhancement

    The Enhancement tab is where you make changes to color and tone in your image. It includes an Auto Correction feature that aims to transform your photos in a single click, but you can alter its effect if you want. For instance, let’s say you’re already happy with the tonal range but would like more color, you could switch off the dynamic range and add vibrance to Auto Correction. Plus, there’s a slider that adjusts the strength of the auto effect.

    PhotoWorks image enhancement

    PhotoWorks includes a blue sky enhancement, which makes it easy to deepen the blue of the sky whilst also warming the photo up. Those two edits are normally at odds with each other.

    Most of the color and tone sliders you’d expect to find in top-end software are in the Enhancement section of PhotoWorks under the Main tab. They give you as much manual control as you want. The workspace is so tidily laid out that it puts some established photo-editing brands to shame. The design is thoughtful and user-friendly, and it makes you want to linger. You even get to suggest features you’d like to see.

    Two more tabs under Enhancement are Colors and Sharpness. The first lets you adjust hue, saturation, lightness (HSL) and color balance. The Sharpen tool is basically an unsharp mask, and there’s a blur section where you could create dreamy soft-focus effects or counteract over-sharpening. It’s all useful stuff, and the confusing terminology is notably left out.

    photoworks-photo-editor-for-pc-sharpening-the-blur-tool

    A slightly de-sharpened image focuses attention on form rather than detail. That’s where the PhotoWorks Blur tool is useful. It works well with busy compositions.

    Tools

    Move along to the Tools tab in PhotoWorks and a carefully selected set of powerful tools reveals itself to the right of the screen. There are not a hundred little tool icons as with complex programs. Some of the tools, like Curves or Tone Mapping, offer an alternative and perhaps more advanced way of working with your pictures. Seasoned photographers will be familiar with these features.

    Crop

    The PhotoWorks crop tool includes a modern set of aspect ratio presets that fit today’s devices or social media pages perfectly. Of course, you can also use the original aspect ratio, choose a different ratio or crop the photo freely. There’s nothing much missing here. You can rotate the picture, which helps get horizons level or to achieve the most effective composition.

    AMS Software, the creator of PhotoWorks, also offers a choice of grid overlays to assist you with composition when cropping. For example, you can choose a Rule of Thirds or Golden Ratio grid to help you decide what to include and where. My only slight gripe here is that the grid lines are often a little hard to see: maybe a different color or opacity control would help.

    the golden spiral crop composition

    The Golden Spiral crop grid in PhotoWorks.

    Geometry (correcting perspective and distortion)

    You can correct the perspective of architectural photos using the Geometry tools in PhotoWorks. Like in most photo editors for computers, there’s no auto adjustment, so you have to alter the vertical and/or horizontal perspective yourself using the sliders, but this is generally an easy task.

    correcting lens distortion

    In this pic, you can clearly see the effects of lens distortion on the window frame. In the inset, I’ve corrected it using the distortion slider.

    Correcting optical aberrations such as pincushion or barrel distortion is also possible in this section. Some programs will do this for you with the help of lens profiles, but you can do it easily yourself with the assistance of the included grid and distortion slider.

    Change background

    PhotoWorks makes it easy to change the background of your photo, so if you want to transplant a better sky or create a composite picture, you can. The process of separating the subject from its background is simple. You draw a green line with the object brush, a red line with the background brush, and then you let the software work its magic. Typically, you need to refine the edge a bit using the same brushes, which could become labor-intensive with intricate subjects. For many photos, the process works fine. There’s even a choice of free-to-use pictures you can add as backgrounds, or you can upload your own.

    PhotoWorks - change background

    The Change Background feature in PhotoWorks separates subjects from their background with ridiculous ease. I’m not sure there’s enough finesse for complex selections (e.g. fur or fine strands of hair), but there’s a lot of fun to be had.

    Vignetting

    The vignetting tool lets you correct vignetting that occurs naturally with your lens. You can brighten edges and corners for even exposure. It also lets you add a vignette as a creative effect, focusing the viewer’s attention more on the subject of the picture. This photo editor for PC provides all the controls you need to fine-tune this edit.

    3D LUT Color Correction

    Color LUTs might just as accurately be called “special effects” since they remap the color of your photos to create a different look. PhotoWorks offers a nice built-in selection of them as well as letting you upload your own in the form of cube files. You can’t save your own LUTs within the software, hence you can’t preview them either, but I’m glad to see this feature in PhotoWorks.

    PhotoWorks review - color LUTs

    This is the “Drama” color LUT. Interestingly, it compresses the tonal range. In doing so, maybe it makes the viewer feel more hemmed in and on edge.

    Tone Mapping & Curves

    PhotoWorks includes tone mapping and curves tools for controlling color and tone. Tone mapping lets you overlay a color or texture. You could apply a color to a black-and-white image here for a duotone effect. The curves tool adjusts contrast, changes color temperature, and tint and even corrects color if you use the individual RGB curves.

    PhotoWorks - tone mapping

    A black & white photo turned into a duotone (i.e. a mix of black and blue) using the Tone Mapping tool in PhotoWorks.

    Noise Reduction and Grain

    There are tools for reducing digital noise or adding film-like grain in PhotoWorks. This photo editing software for PC doesn’t separate color noise from luminance noise, which would be a nice feature for more advanced photographers. But it will smooth and improve the look of high ISO photos.

    The film-grain effect is generally better looking than digital noise in photos. You can add that to give your photos an authentic retro look from the days of analog photography.

    Retouch

    Some of the headlining features of PhotoWorks fall under its Retouch section. The software harnesses the power of face recognition technology to automatically enhance portraits. You can use its Portrait Magic or Face Sculpt technology to retouch faces and show your subjects at their best.

    Portrait Magic

    A remarkable feature of PhotoWorks is its Portrait Magic feature, which lets you automatically or manually remove blemishes and enhance portraits. Its toolset includes the following:

    • Skin smoothing
    • Control over redness (improve blotchy skin)
    • Skin tone
    • Eyes (sharpness, contrast, remove dark circles)
    • Eyebrows (sharpness, contrast)
    • Lips (sharpness, contrast, hue, saturation, luminance & glare)
    • Teeth (whiteness)
    PhotoWorks portrait magic

    It may be hard to see the difference here, but Portrait Magic is good at damping down glare on the skin (aka “face shine”). There are many quick fixes to choose from as well as full manual control. (Image: Pexels)

    Even if you know how to fix these things already, this technology saves time. It’s easy to imagine it being useful to pro portrait and wedding photographers. The best results are achieved by addressing issues one-by-one, but there’s a set of quick-fix buttons available to speed things up. You have to be careful with it because the software isn’t infallible. For instance, a pair of glasses get in the way of removing dark circles accurately.

    Portrait Magic is so good that you could buy this software for that alone. It’s a great photo editor app for pc or laptop.

    Face Sculpt

    Just when you thought you’d seen amazing things with Portrait Magic, along comes Face Sculpt. Move a slider and watch the software identify and alter a specific part of the face. You can do these things manually in Photoshop using warp tools and the like, but boy is it easy with PhotoWorks: a deft picture editor and retoucher in one.

    PhotoWorks - face sculpt

    I’ve done nothing to this photo except turn a hint of a smile into a stronger hint. Like Portrait Magic, Face Sculpt is a powerful tool that can totally transform a portrait. The technology behind it is remarkably precise. Subtle edits often work best. (Original image: Pixabay)

    Maybe we should all just accept the way we look, but contrary to popular belief, the camera does lie. It’s easy to take an unflattering portrait because of technical reasons, whether it’s an unflattering camera angle, harsh lighting, poor timing or lens distortion. PhotoWorks lets you remedy such problems.

    Face Sculpt enables you to reshape or resize eyes, noses, mouths, eyebrows, and the face itself. You can even turn a frown into a smile. Used subtly, it creates different versions of the truth rather than outright lies. And if it helps the subject feel good about themselves, that can’t be a bad thing.

    Healing and Cloning Tools

    Healing and Cloning tools in PhotoWorks are also first rate. The clone stamp auto-samples from a similar area and gives you the option of changing the sample location. It’s quick and efficient, and no intervention is usually necessary. The Healing Brush is even faster for fixing small blemishes (e.g. dust spots).

    Adjustment Brush

    There aren’t any layers in PhotoWorks, but you can carry out local edits with the adjustment brush. Users of Lightroom will be familiar with the concept. Color, tone, and sharpness can all be selectively adjusted anywhere on the image. You can also deal with chromatic aberration by brushing neatly over edges and turning Saturation down, though a dedicated tool would be better.

    PhotoWorks - adjustment brush

    It’s out of fashion, I know, but here’s a quick demo of selective coloring with the Adjustment Brush on PhotoWorks. This Lightroom-style feature offers infinite possibilities without being as daunting to beginners as layers are.

    Graduated Filter and Radial Filter

    The Graduated Filter and Radial Filter offer alternative ways of making local adjustments to one or more parts of an image. Whether it’s tone, color or sharpness you’re adjusting, these retouching tools make it easy to emphasize your subject. You can also even up your exposures (e.g. the classic dark foreground and bright sky) and bring out shadow detail. Characteristically, these features are neatly designed and easy to use in PhotoWorks.

    graduated filters post processing

    Two graduated filters are in play here – one to brighten and warm up the lower half of the photo and another to reduce exposure in the sky a little.

    Special Effects

    With over 150 special effects to choose from, PhotoWorks gives you plenty of ways to interpret each photo. In the Special Effects section of the software, you can add any effect you like and then adapt it to suit your tastes if you want. Hitting the “Apply” button takes you over to the Enhancements area of the software, where you can tweak color, tone, and sharpness.

    Image: A quite pleasing special effect to my eye (Faded Photo -1) and one of over 150 special effect...

    A quite pleasing special effect to my eye (Faded Photo -1) and one of over 150 special effects available in PhotoWorks.

    I personally like adding textures to photos, so it was good to find a few textured effects among the collection. There is also a Quick Enhancements selection, which gives further opportunity for one-click fixing. You can favorite effects so they’re easy to find later on.

    A Photographic Films section attempts to replicate the look of various classic films. It’s fun to play around with these effects, which you could find yourself using again and again in some cases.

    Captions (add text and stickers)

    Whatever you normally do with your photos, there might come a time when you want to add text to them. Maybe you’re making a Christmas card or designing a flyer. You could be creating memes for social media and entertaining your friends. PhotoWorks photo editor app for PC includes a versatile set of tools to help you create the text you want in the font, color, and style of your choice. A sticker collection lets you add cartoon-like captioning for extra fun.

    Review of PhotoWorks: a Fresh and Fast Photo Editor for PC

    Conclusion

    Beneath the minimalistic surface, PhotoWorks offers a powerful set of tools that are easy to use regardless of your level. The way the software exploits face recognition technology is magical, indeed.

    There are a few nuts-and-bolts things I would like to see in PhotoWorks, such as chromatic aberration removal, more nuanced noise reduction and an exposure warning to help with histogram adjustments (aka levels). The ability to export 16-bit TIFFs would be nice. At some point, though, if you keep adding stuff, the program ends up complex like many others and loses its streamlined appeal.

    Design-wise, PhotoWorks positively gleams. It has a beautifully clean interface, uses simple terminology that everyone can understand, and gets a lot of work done with minimal effort. Whether you use it alone or alongside other photo editors for PC, it’s definitely worth a look.

    You can download a free trial version and explore the features of the program yourself. Or use the exclusive coupon for dPS readers to purchase PhotoWorks at a 50% discount now!

    Disclaimer: PhotoWorks is a paid dPS partner.

     

    dps-photoworks-photo-editing-for-pc

    The post Review of PhotoWorks: a Fresh and Fast Photo Editor for PC appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Glenn Harper.


    Digital Photography School

  • CHASING DORY is a portable, affordable underwater drone with 1080p video

    If there’s one omnipresent trend in the drone industry, it’s this: manufacturers are thinking smaller. Companies are aiming to make unmanned aerial vehicles more compact while inserting as many premium features, found in their larger counterparts, as possible. The CHASING DORY underwater drone, which is currently in the midst of a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, is no exception.

    Presumably named after the daffy but lovable fish from the movie Finding Nemo, at 18.8cm (7.4in) wide, the drone is smaller than a standard sheet of paper. It is the follow up to Shenzhen-based company CHASING’s GLADIUS MINI drone whose 2017 Indiegogo campaign ended with 1629% funding and a 100% delivery rate to backers. DORY is 56% lighter and 65% smaller than its predecessor which weighed 2.5kg (5.5 pounds).

    An algorithm ensures photos remain vivid in all conditions.

    DORY’s camera has an F1.6 lens with 1/2.9″ CMOS sensor capable of recording at 1080p, a 100° field of view, and a ±45° Tilt-Lock mode that allows you to scan the floor of a body of water or view its surface above. Two 250-lumen lights placed on the front of drone illuminate the area where its operating without overwhelming underwater inhabitants. CHASING’s color-restore algorithm keeps photos vivid in all conditions. 8 GB of internal memory means you don’t have to worry about losing any footage.

    The lowest possible pledge available on Kickstarter will get you a DORY underwater drone, Wi-Fi buoy, tether, and charger. The Wi-Fi buoy helps your mobile device stay connected up to 15 meters (49 feet) away with the wired tether. An Anti-lost Warning is there to prevent any chance of getting disconnected. Depth Lock helps the drone remain stable so it doesn’t get tossed around. The charger takes two hours to power a 4800 mAh battery which will give you one hour of operating time. Unlike other underwater drones that require multiple components to be charged, only the drone needs it with the DORY.

    DORY doesn’t come with a remote. Instead, a smartphone is all that is needed, along with the CHASING DORY app (available for iOS and Android), to control the drone. You can customize imagery with 19 different filters, share footage on social networks including Facebook and Instagram, and even stream live. The app also features Co-Play which enables one person to maneuver the drone while the other controls the camera.

    As of this writing, there are 17 days left to back DORY on Kickstarter. The campaign has already raised over $ 120,000 of its initial $ 30,000 goal. If underwater exploration is your interest, this portable, affordable drone is an option worth considering.

    Disclaimer: Remember to do your research with any crowdfunding project. DPReview does its best to share only the projects that look legitimate and come from reliable creators, but as with any crowdfunded campaign, there’s always the risk of the product or service never coming to fruition.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • The a9 II is the camera Sony had to make – but they didn’t make it for you

    A lot of things are set to happen in 2020. It’s a presidential election year here in the US (actually it’s a presidential election year in lots of countries), Japan is hoping to establish a moon base*, and the UK will definitely, very likely, maybe have left the EU by he time Jan 1 rolls around. My money is on the moon base being ready long before the current British government gets its act together but we’ll see.

    In addition to the aforementioned lunar exploits, Japan is also gearing up for the 2020 Olympic Games, to be held next year in late summer, here on Earth. We’ve yet to find out which countries will go home with the most gold medals (although knowing how hot Japan gets in late July I don’t fancy Team GB’s chances) but we do know that every jump that is jumped, every leap that is leapt, every shot that is put (putted?) and every hamstring that is torn will be captured by banks of television and stills cameras.

    For this reason, Olympic years are big years for the camera industry. Traditionally, Canon and Nikon maintain a huge presence at these kinds of events, complete with large support staff, professional service centers, and stockrooms chock-full of cameras and lenses ready to be put into action by professional photographers from all over the world. Typically, we also see both companies announcing major new professional cameras either early in an Olympic year, or late the year before. Beijing 2008 saw photographers shooting with the Nikon D3 and Canon EOS-1D III, at London 2012 it was the then-new D4 and the EOS-1D X, and so on.

    When the a9 was released about two and a half years ago, it was clear that Sony had its sights set on professional users

    Sony is still learning how to be a ‘pro’ stills camera brand, but the company is moving extremely quickly. Sony has invested a lot in recent years in professional support, and these days has a large Pro Service presence at many major sporting events. When the a9 was released about two and a half years ago, it was clear that Sony had its sights set on professional users, and the expansion of professional support since then (as well as the release of some seriously impressive telephoto lenses) is further evidence that its leadership is very serious indeed about joining Canon and Nikon on the sidelines.

    The new a9 II is, in effect, Sony’s 2020 Olympic camera. Announced fairly quietly today, without the usual Sony fanfare, the a9 II is a camera that the average DPReview reader will probably neither need nor buy. And Sony knows it. The upgrades compared to the a9 (which will continue in the lineup) are, for the most part, targeted at a small segment of the professional photographer user base. And even more specifically, towards photographers that shoot major sporting events.

    A ten times increase in data transfer speed over LAN, the addition of 5GHz wireless connectivity, and the option to wirelessly send files from the camera when it’s turned off are valuable features for those times when you’re running around trying to send huge numbers of files to a remote editing station, but very few people ever need to actually do that. Likewise the ability to save up to ten sets of FTP settings to an SD card, or add 60-second voice memos to photographs, which can then be converted to text and appended automatically to EXIF using an app. Very cool, but not essential for most use-cases.

    As an everyday machine for taking photographs, the a9 II is almost – but not quite – identical to the a9. Inside you’ll find the same 24MP full-frame sensor, the same autofocus system, albeit improved, the same 3.7 million-dot OLED viewfinder and broadly the same core feature set.

    There are a few useful refinements though, some of which are courtesy of the new Bionz X processor: autofocus speed and precision have been improved, likewise face detection, and EVF responsiveness. A new mechanical shutter with a rated lifespan of 500,000 cycles brings faster mechanical shutter shooting (now up to 10fps), and the a9 II benefits from the ergonomic tweaks and improved weather-sealing introduced in the a7R IV. Image stabilization performance has also been slightly increased, from 5EV in the a9 to 5.5EV, and battery life has increased by around 6% (CIPA).

    The a9 II’s video feature set is virtually unchanged over the a9, and shares its limitations (for some reason there’s still no Log option), but Sony has added real-time tracking.

    Thanks to a series of firmware updates, the a9 is as competitive now as it ever was

    You know what I think, but what’s your opinion? Should you buy one? After all, even if you’re just an amateur sports photographer, the increase in continuous shooting rate in mechanical shutter mode might make a big difference (specifically if the venue/s you shoot in use LED lighting or advertising panels) and the beefed-up weather-sealing could be essential for some situations.

    For most people reading this article though, I suspect that the additions in the a9 II will prove to be of little or no interest compared to the original a9 which has been on the market for more than two years. Thanks to a series of firmware updates, the a9 is as competitive now as it ever was, and with the a9 II now at the top of the lineup, the older model is likely to get more affordable over the next few months.

    Meanwhile, Sony can get the a9 II into the hands of the people that really need it – the pro sports shooters gearing up for next summer’s major sporting events. On the moon, or wherever.

    * Yes, I know the cited article is from almost a decade ago, and since then the target date for Japan’s lunar base has been pushed back by at least a few years, but I’ll level with you – I was looking for a quick way to set up a cheap Brexit gag.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Video: 37 different camera shutter sounds in 3 minutes

    Similar to how no two fingerprints are identical, no two camera shutter sounds are exactly the same. As a fun little project, photographer and YouTuber Scott Graham has captured the shutter sound of 37 different camera models to show off the diversity of shutter sounds and to memorialize a number of cameras he’s selling.

    In the video, which comes in just shy of four minutes, Graham succinctly captures the unique shutter sounds of all 37 cameras, ranging from analog SLR cameras to digital Fujifilm cameras. Each shutter sound was captured as close to 1/60th of a second as possible for consistency’s sake.

    Graham didn’t elaborate on whether or not he will continue to do this with future cameras he acquires, but we think it’d be incredible to build an archive of shutter sounds from various cameras. What camera has the most pleasing sound to your ears, both from Graham’s collection and your own?

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Review: Live Planet VR live-streaming system

    Live Planet VR camera and live-streaming platform
    $ 3,495 | liveplanet.net

    Live Planet VR bills itself as “the only end-to-end VR system,” and technically, since it includes a camera system as well as a cloud publishing suite that’s capable of delivering to just about every major VR headset and outlet currently available (including live-streaming high-resolution stereoscopic 360 video over mobile networks) they may be right.

    Live Planet has a lot of things going for it, especially when it comes to the algorithm and software solutions side of things. Their live-streaming and real-time stitching execution is impressive, and I can also see many cases where their cloud publishing platform could be a godsend, which we’ll get to below.

    In fact, whether or not Live Planet VR is right for you is highly dependent on how you plan to use it, as Live Planet is targeting a very specific user – mostly those looking to live-stream.

    But we’ll start with the key features and the design.

    Key Features

    • 16-lens stereoscopic VR 6K camera
    • DCI 4K/30p (4096×2160) resolution for live streaming
    • 6K/24p (6144×3328) for post-production stitching
    • In-camera real-time stitching
    • Live-streaming capability
    • Records to a single microSD card
    • VR headset live preview
    • Robust cloud publishing solution to all major VR platforms
    • Delivers high quality VR over LTE networks

    Design

    The camera itself is quite nice. It’s a hefty, well-crafted chunk of heavy polymer and machined metal about the size of an extra large coffee mug. It has sixteen Sunex DSL218 F2.0 lenses and 1/2.8” Sony IMX 326 sensors, and is flanked on top and bottom by generous ventilation grills.

    The bottom of the unit has inputs for USB stereo, audio-in, ethernet, 12V DC 5A power, microSD slot, TOSLINK (optical audio), and HDMI out, as well as a standard 1/4”-20 thread for mounting to any standard tripod plate or system.

    The LivePlanet camera may look like something out of a science fiction movie, but it’s a robust camera with sixteen F2.0 lenses.

    The camera records to a single microSD card in a compressed .mp4 format. It also offers an HDMI out for YUV 4:2:0 capture so you can transmit the signal in both stereo or mono to a switcher or for a traditional broadcasting workflow. For standard recording, it captures at 50 Mbps, and for live-streaming it can capture at 15, 30, 45, or 60Mbps.

    This all weighs in at around 700g (1.5 lb) and comes packaged in a Pelican case with custom foam cutouts.

    I had no qualms about the aesthetic and physical design of the camera, but there are a few key points to take into account as you consider whether this system is right for you, which brings me to…

    In use

    As with most VR cameras, much of the magic happens on the software side. In the case of the Live Planet system, most of that magic is related to live streaming. If you’re looking for a rig to showcase and/or live-stream produced events, such as sports, concerts or conferences, and expect to do little to no post-processing, the Live Planet VR system is certainly one to take a look at, for this is where Live Planet VR truly shines.

    Live Planet is targeting a very specific user, mostly those looking to live-stream.

    However, if you’re looking for a fairly portable system that you can quickly grab and go to capture high-resolution, high-quality 360 footage, you should probably be aware of a few things:

    There are no internal microphones. You need to connect a third party microphone, such as the Zoom H2N or Zoom H3-VR, if you plan to capture audio, as well as a second tripod or clamp to attach it to the tripod and keep it out of view below the camera. Live Planet does support direct-to-soundboard input so audio is attached to your video files.

    There’s no internal battery pack. In order to use this unit away from a power source, you need a third party battery pack. The review unit came equipped with a Watson Pro VM-95-ME 97Wh external Lithium-Ion battery pack and Core SWX GPSCPM V-Mount plate and monopod clamp, also to be attached to the tripod. These are not included when purchasing the Live Planet VR camera.

    The camera’s ethernet plug provides a reliable connection for live streaming content.

    You can’t preview recorded clips in the field. In order to preview what you’ve recorded the app provides screenshots, but you can’t see recorded video files until you offload footage onto your laptop or computer. Live Planet says that this is a feature on their roadmap.

    The camera only records in compressed .mp4 format. While most cameras at this price point offer several recording options, those interested in color grading and refining stitches may want to look elsewhere as the Live Planet VR camera does not currently record Log or Raw footage, nor does it allow you access to full resolution un-stitched camera files for fine-tuning using tools like Mistika VR or Nuke. Live Planet tells me they have features in beta for Raw capture and a Premiere Pro plugin, however it doesn’t seem that access to individual camera files is yet on the roadmap.

    The Live Planet VR camera requires some accessories, like an off camera battery and audio recorder, so it’s not the best camera for quick projects. But for live-streaming events it’s a very powerful solution.

    There’s no internal gyroscope or stabilization solution. While this wouldn’t be as much of an issue if individual camera files could be accessed to post-process using third party software, moving shots are virtually impossible with the Live Planet VR system without a gimbal or rover with stabilization.

    These may seem like some serious limitations, and for certain uses they are. However, when you consider that the system is optimized to live-stream VR content, features like previewing recorded clips or the specific recording format used are probably less critical.

    Software and apps

    First, the basics.

    The mobile app, as well as the web app from your computer or laptop, are very simple to use. For image control it offers the essentials: exposure (including auto-exposure), shadows, saturation, temperature (including auto-white balance), tint, and curves.

    Additionally, you can choose between monoscopic and stereoscopic, quality of live-stream, choice of audio stream (with optional microphone attached), and field of view (currently 360 or 180, with plans on future updates to choose anywhere between 0 and 360 degrees). Finally, you get the option of recording or live-streaming, as well as a button to turn on and off the camera unit.

    The Live Planet mobile app is easy to use and offers a lot of control.

    Now, the magic.

    First, by taking full advantage of an NVIDIA Jetson TX2 Module (with AI computing), the unit live-stitches 4K footage in real-time, and the algorithm does a fantastic job doing so. I was as close as a half meter (1.5 ft.) away, and stitch-lines are hardly noticeable as you can see in the video below

    There is an impressively noticeable lack of optical flow Jello-effect, often seen with other software stitching systems at such close distances. It really wasn’t until I was about 30cm (1 ft.) away that I even noticed any stitch lines. To get these kind of results from a package that fits in the palm of your hand, when just a few years ago you needed an ultra powerful desktop-sized stitchbox sitting underneath the camera, is a more than impressive feat.

    Editors note: for best results, we recommend watching this sample video on a mobile or head-mounted device.

    The Live Planet system is able to live-stitch 4K footage in real-time, a very impressive feat considering how well it works. Stitch lines are hardly noticeable until something gets within about a half meter of the camera. (Please excuse the lack of audio – I failed to consider the lack of internal microphones until I offloaded later in the day).

    Second, the ability to monitor and preview live using a Samsung Gear VR headset is priceless. It’s very easy to setup and use, and is a wonderful way for a producer, director or client to experience, on set, the 360 sphere the way the end user will experience it. It’s also capable of simultaneously streaming an equirectangular preview to a laptop or computer, from where you can also control the camera and settings.

    Third, and this is perhaps the main selling point for the Live Planet system, is that it gives the user the opportunity to simultaneously live-stream in 4K stereoscopic video, at as low as 2Mbps, to various platforms, including Oculus Go, Samsung Gear VR, and Google Daydream headsets as well as YouTube and any platform that supports Real Time Messaging Protocol (RMTP).

    To get these kind of results from a package that fits in the palm of your hand, when just a few years ago you needed a powerful desktop-sized stitchbox sitting underneath the camera, is a more than impressive feat.

    This makes it an elegant solution for publishers of live events to easily distribute to multiple channels. All you need to do is connect the camera to a router via Ethernet cable, plug it in, and hit the Livestream button on the mobile app or computer. You then share a simple event code generated by the Live Planet Cloud to whomever you like and users can login to experience both live, as well as pre-recorded, video. Facebook and Vimeo support are on the way.

    Now here’s the kicker – users of most major 360 cameras such as Insta360 Pro, Vuze+, Samsung Gear VR and Rylo can now take advantage of Live Planet VR Studio, Live Planet’s cloud publishing platform. Since the software is where Live Planet does some serious algorithmic voodoo, this is an incredibly welcomed feature. Using the Live Planet publishing platform can give you a consistent easy way to push your 360 content out to the world, no matter what platform a user chooses to experience it on. I cannot think of an easier turnkey way to simultaneously publish to all major VR and social media outlets.

    Finally, and this will be one of the least talked about and least understood, but perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the technical design, it all runs on a blockchain-enabled infrastructure called VideoCoin.

    I cannot think of an easier turnkey way to simultaneously publish to all major VR and social media outlets.

    Those that know me know that anything blockchain and distributed ledger technology gets my full attention. While this isn’t the place to get into the nitty-gritty of blockchain tech, essentially the basis of most cryptocurrency, what’s important in the Live Planet VR system’s case is that it provides a peer-to-peer, decentralized, encrypted platform for data distribution – never has there been a safer way to safeguard, control, and distribute your own data, in this case video.

    Live Planet also employs a proprietary algorithm in what they call ViewCast technology, which predicts head movements in order to maximize resolution in the direction the eye is facing, enabling high-resolution viewing in headsets even on mobile networks.

    The Live Planet system arrives in a very sturdy Pelican case with custom foam cutouts.

    The Live Planet team also indicated that they “plan to release an update every 3 weeks.” Some of the things they specifically pointed out to us include still photo capture, HDR capture, flexible field of view capture (0 to 360º), support for streaming from multiple cameras, RAW capture, an Adobe Premiere Pro plugin to aid in post-production color grading, and spatial audio support on the Live Planet publishing platform.

    Be aware that space and publishing through the cloud system will cost you, based on how much streaming time and space you need. There are packages from $ 50/month for 90 minutes of streaming and 50GB storage, up to $ 270/month for 10 hours of streaming and 250GB storage. To take advantage of the ViewCast technology, it’ll cost you $ 9.99 per streamed hour.

    Image quality

    Image quality is certainly adequate and acceptable, especially for the turn-key live event use cases as described above. While a recent update allows for 6K capture (6144×3328) at 24fps, that is currently reserved for post-production stitching. Maximum resolution for live streaming is 4096 x 2160 at 30fps. The camera does a very good job of rendering details close-by, however, at further distances, in high-contrast situations, say under a tree canopy or between several buildings in daylight, there tends to be some noticeable edge-fringing.

    Conclusions

    When I first started using the Live Planet I ran into some of the same frustrations that I did when I started shooting 360 several years back, piecing together 3rd party accessories and solutions. With no internal battery, on-board audio recording, any sort of controls on the camera unit itself, it’s not the best camera for travel or on-location shooting. It has a lot of moving pieces, all of which have to work perfectly together with no issues.

    Bottom line, this is a perfect turn-key solution for the quickly growing market of live-streaming events in 360 video.

    However, when I began to truly consider what the Live Planet system was designed to do – effortlessly stream live events – my perspective changed. Live Planet’s software engineering and solutions are top notch. For live-streaming, especially over wireless networks, 4K is more than enough resolution for that bandwidth to handle. Furthermore, since Live Planet has begun to open up its software solutions to users of other cameras, it’s absolutely worth keeping an eye on Live Planet’s evolution as I’ve yet to see anything that rivals Live Planet VR Studio on the software and distribution front.

    Bottom line, this is a perfect turn-key solution for the quickly growing market of live-streaming events in 360 video, and it gets my enthusiastic recommendation as a system to use for live streaming purposes. Additionally, Live Planet VR Studio certainly gets my nod as a publishing platform for users of any camera.

    What we like

    • Build quality
    • Instantaneous stitching
    • Live Planet live-streaming publishing platform
    • Good image quality
    • End-to-end system
    • Only requires 1 MicroSD card

    What we’d like to see improved

    • Price
    • No internal or swappable battery
    • No audio recording
    • No still photo capture (coming soon)
    • No raw recording (coming soon)
    • No access to individual camera files
    • No stabilization
    (Rating based primarily on use as a live-streaming system)

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • How to Make Your Photos Awesome in Lightroom or Photoshop Camera RAW

    The post How to Make Your Photos Awesome in Lightroom or Photoshop Camera RAW appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

    In this video tutorial, Nemanja Sekulic will show you how to make some dramatic editing changes to your RAW photos using Lightroom or Photoshop Camera RAW.

    ?

    During the process, you will learn the following in Lightroom (which you can also translate to Photoshop Camera RAW):

    • How to use the Basic Panel including the Exposure Slider, Highlight Slider, Shadow Slider, Color Temperature Slider,
    • The shortcut for viewing before/after (\)
    • How to use the Radial Filter tool – how to make multiple radial filter selections, reposition, and make adjustments to the selection.
    • How to use the Adjustment Brush Tool – including changing your brush size, flow, and feather amounts.
    • How to use it to make selective adjustments in your image, including color, temperature, exposure, highlights, shadows, clarity, etc. to fine-tune your image.
    • How to use selective color with your Adjustment Brush.
    • How to make new Adjustment Brushes to fine-tune the details in the eyes.
    • How to use Hue and Saturation Panels as well as the Split Toning Panel.
    • How to add a vignette.
    • How to go back and readjust any of your Radial Filter, and Adjustment Brush settings.

    You can apply these techniques across any image you choose, or you can download Nemanja’s image file here.

    You may also find the following helpful:

    • Photoshop vs Lightroom – the Power of Photoshop
    • Four Lightroom Tips to Enhance Your Landscape Photos
    • Lightroom Texture Slider vs. Skin Smoothing
    • Lightroom Shortcuts Every Photographer Needs to Know
    • 10 Tips to Make Lightroom Classic CC Run Faster

     

    The post How to Make Your Photos Awesome in Lightroom or Photoshop Camera RAW appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.


    Digital Photography School

  • Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements 2020 arrive with new AI-powered tools

    A sample from Adobe showing off the new One-click subject selection tool.

    Adobe has released Photoshop Elements 2020 and Premiere Elements 2020, adding a number of new features and capabilities powered by the company’s Adobe Sensei AI, including automatic selection, skin smoothing, colorization, new Auto Creations and more, as detailed in an announcment blog post.

    Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements are Adobe’s entry-level versions of its products, offering general consumers access to some of the tools and capabilities found in these products, but with less complexity and lower prices at $ 99.99 each for a full software license.

    A sample comparison from Adobe showing off the new Sensei-powered auto-colorization tool.

    The Photoshop Elements 2020 update brings a number of new features, including new Pattern Brush, B&W Selection, Depth of Field, and Painterly effects for Auto Creations, support for automatically colorizing black-and-white images using AI, automatic skin smoothing, and one-click subject selection.

    A comparison from Adobe showing off the skin-smoothing tool.

    The updated software also enables users to remove unwanted objects from images, add heart and star patterns to photos, and search for content via Smart Tags. Beyond that, the software has received general performance enhancements, as well as support for HEIF images and HEVC videos. For customers located in the United States, Photoshop Elements now also supports directly ordering prints and other items through the Fujifilm Prints and Gifts service.

    A comparison photo set showing the its noise reduction technology.

    Joining the big Photoshop Elements 2020 update is the new Premiere Elements 2020, an update that adds simplified noise reduction, a sky replacement tool, support for turning images and videos into dynamic time-lapses, and a tool that replaces the black bars in vertical videos with a fill that matches the video, as seen below.

    As with the new version of Photoshop Elements, this Premiere Elements update also adds Smart Tag search and support for HEIF/HEVC formats. The software also supports searching videos for specific people using Sensei’s face-matching capabilities. Finally, Premiere Elements now includes five guided edits that help users modify their videos.

    In addition to the individual $ 99.99 license price, Adobe offers Photoshop Elements 2020 and Premiere Elements 2020 bundled for $ 149.99. Existing customers can upgrade either of the new products for $ 79.99 or both for a total of $ 119.99.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • iPhone 11’s coolest photo feature is the hardest one to find

    Cinerama leaning back – a natural result of pointing my camera upwards to capture the whole building.

    Anyone who has stood at ground level and taken a photo of a building across the street has likely seen the effects of perspective distortion – you tilt your camera back to bring the whole building into frame, causing the straight lines of the building to appear to be ‘leaning back.’ Tilt-shift lenses are designed for exactly this problem, but they’re expensive, specialist optics.

    More often, this effect will be corrected in software, but doing so usually requires the user to stretch the top of the image and crop to avoid the blank spaces this creates at the bottom of the frame. Apple is tackling this problem with a unique approach in the iPhone 11: by capturing more data outside of the frame.

    I don’t know, I just like boring photos I guess?

    For whatever reason, I’m drawn to the types of photos where perspective distortion is painfully obvious – signs, sides of buildings, etc. – but I’m horrible at lining them up correctly. Usually, I find out going through my images later that I wasn’t squared up to my subject even though I thought I was. Horizons are slightly askew, or I was leaning back slightly. Apple, it seems, has heard my cries.

    When you’re shooting with the standard camera (with a focal length equivalent to about 26mm), the iPhone 11 will also capture image data from the ultra-wide (13mm equiv.) camera – a feature that is referred to in the settings menu as “Photos Capture Outside the Frame.” If you’re shooting on the telephoto camera of the 11 Pro, it’ll capture additional information from the standard camera.

    That extra information is saved alongside your photo. When you edit that image in the native camera app, you’ll be able to use the extra data as you rotate and manipulate your image – a big help when you’re trying to fix crooked lines in a photo.

    As you make image adjustments, you’ll see the extra data captured by the ultra-wide lens. This additional image information is available for 30 days.

    The phone can use that information to automatically re-crop photos too. In the camera settings menu there’s an option to “Auto Apply Adjustments.” You’ll know that auto adjustments have been applied to an image when it shows a blue “Auto” icon above your captured photo. We’ve noticed this feature being employed when the phone detects a human subject cut off at the edge of the frame.

    And even for many photos that aren’t automatically adjusted, the stock camera app will suggest tweaks when brought into edit. For example, take that image of the building that’s leaning back – if you edit it in the iPhone’s camera app and engage the crop tool, it will automatically correct for perspective distortion and use the extra image data it saved to fill in the areas at the edges of the frame that would otherwise need to be cropped out.

    Bringing the image into the iPhone’s native editing app, then pressing the ‘crop’ option will take you to this view. The yellow ‘auto’ icon appears at the top of the image if there’s a suggested crop, as there is in this example.
    The same adjustments can be applied in Photoshop, but without that extra image information at the sides of the frame you’ll need to crop in to avoid including blank space in your final image.
    The iPhone goes beyond these limitations with that extra image data. In addition to correcting perspective, you can creatively re-crop your image to preserve details at the edge of the frame – and even include objects that were well outside of the frame in your initial standard image.

    I don’t think many people will discover this feature, and that’s a shame. It’s not just helpful for correcting distortion and fixing crooked horizons – it’s a useful feature if you just want to re-crop an image after-the-fact. However, it will only be discovered by those who enable the ‘capture outside the frame’ feature and attempt to crop an image, which I imagine is a fraction of the many people who will use the camera day in and day out.

    Regardless of how widely used this feature will be, what Apple is doing is clever. Photoshop’s Content Aware Fill feature does something similar – it will fill in missing data when rotating or stretching an image – but instead of using data from a wider lens, it’s filling in those empty spaces based on educated guesses. Apple’s approach is just one more way in which smartphone manufacturers are using data to their advantage – to the advantage of boring photo fans everywhere.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)