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Capture a Successful Collection of Photographs with these 3 Tips

15 Oct

In a previous article, I discussed some helpful tips for preparing for a photo shoot. It’s important to be ready, but let’s be clear – you have to be able to perform on the day. So let’s talk about some helpful tips you can use to capture a successful collection of photographs on the big day.

I shot photographs for a band. The goal of the shoot was to create a collection of images they could use on social media. This one is pretty dark but it was processed this way on purpose. The band was playing a very moody venue and they liked the idea of a darker photograph.

Regardless of whether you’re shooting professionally or taking some photos for friends, these tips can help you to ensure you get the best pics. You may be taking photos of your child’s soccer game. Whatever the occasion there are some things you can do to get great photos.

1) Taking care of the people you photograph

This is the single most important thing you can do is take care of your clients. It sounds silly, but your job is to build their confidence, to direct them, to inspire and help them to pose for photos. Anyone with knowledge of camera settings and lighting can take an image that is sharp and well-lit. But to bring out the personality of those you photograph and to make meaningful images requires you to make a connection with the clients. They need to feel safe during the shoot. You’re the one who has to ensure each person involved feels secure.  It’s important to watch your models carefully. Are they comfortable? Are they fidgety?

The leader singer was a little apprehensive about me taking photographs. She told me when she sings she always looked like she was in pain. I took the time to shoot a lot of images hopefully capturing something she would like.

Consider the type of atmosphere you create during the shoot. Are you relaxed? Do you exude confidence in your abilities or are you nervous? If you’re feeling nervous, then so will the people you are photographing. It might be worth thinking of yourself as the father or mother of the folks you are photographing. Be that voice of calm amidst the chaos. Let them know you have their back.

I tried to include some shots of the action in between songs.

2) Think about the types of images you’re shooting

Depending on the event you’re shooting you need to consider several factors. The last thing you want to do is shoot a whole bunch of images that look the same. So you need to consider several things.

If you’re shooting a portrait session, then you need to think about posing and grouping individuals. How can you make the images look different? Do you change the setting or do you have people arrange themselves differently? You could have them grouped closely together or create a composition in which individuals are more spread out. Perhaps you have a mix of individuals either standing or sitting. There are lots of ways to pose people. If you’re the type of person who needs to sketch out diagrams and have a plan, then go ahead and do that, but remember variety is the key.

It was important to try and isolate two members of the band. A photograph of the married couple on stage together is an important keepsake.

If you’re shooting a child’s sporting event, you will want to mix in images that show both the whole playing surface as well as images that capture individual players. Maybe you choose to focus on facial expressions for a while. You can also capture intricate details like a pair of feet dribbling a ball, or the hands of player just before she shoots a 3 pointer. Just try to consider lots of different ways to portray the action.

3) Think about purpose

It’s so important to consider the point of taking these photographs. What do you hope to accomplish with this collection of images? Are you capturing precious family memories? Perhaps you’re documenting the growth of your son’s abilities to play soccer? Maybe the goal is to capture images of a beloved family pet that hasn’t got a whole lot of time left with the family. Whatever the reason, this purpose will guide you to create photographs.

Communicating an idea will dictate how you ask your family to pose. A photograph in which a dog is running happily after a toy or playing with small children will communicate a sense of family, but consider how a shot of an older dog sleeping next to your teenager on the couch may show a different stage of the life cycle.

A close up of the musicians and their instruments adds a nice variety.

All too often we jump in with the camera and forget that purpose can be more important than having the perfect exposure. So slow down, think purposefully as you shoot, and remember your goal is to create cohesion. You want a set of photographs that have a variety of compositions but also fit nicely together. Create interest in both the composition and the story told by your images.

Writing out your purpose might be helpful. Create a type of mission statement that you keep in the back of your mind as you shoot. Do whatever you need to do keep the purpose of your photographs front and centre. Don’t hesitate to post the purpose on a piece of paper somewhere. It might even help for the individuals involved in the shoot to see the purpose. If they are aware they can help to maintain the central idea through how they pose for photographs.

Including images of all the band members was important too. The focus on this shot is the sharpest but there’s a lot of emotion and effort in his face. That was important to capture.

So, no matter the subject matter or your photographic expertise, keep in mind how important it is to shoot photographs with a consciousness that accounts for all the factors listed above. It will be hard at first to remember all these different elements but eventually, you will become comfortable, and it will be more second nature to you.

If you’ve got some helpful tips, please share them with us. We want to hear about all the different types of steps you take when shooting a group of photographs. Let’s help each other out.

It’s also important to consider changing lenses. I used a wide angle lens for this shot.

 

 

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New Pennsylvania bill will fine drone operators up to $300 for invading privacy

14 Oct

A new Pennsylvania bill, signed by Governor Tom Wolf, will impose a financial penalty for drone operators who use their drone to spy on people or otherwise endanger the physical wellbeing of someone.

As reported by Pittsburgh’s WTAE, House Bill 1346, which goes into effect 60 days after signing, says that any drone operator “who uses a drone to invade someone else’s privacy or puts someone in fear of being physically harmed” will face a fine upwards of $ 300.

“With the rise in popularity of drones with video cameras, this is a commonsense step to prevent the use of drones to invade someone’s privacy,” says Governor Wolf. “Drones should not be a tool to spy on someone in their yard or through their window.”

According to Pennsylvania Republican Jeff Pyle of Armstrong County, a sponsor of the bill, the wording used in the bill was written with the help of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

In addition to the $ 300 fine, the bill also addresses the issue of using drones to smuggle contraband into prisons. Individuals who use a drone to sneak items to a prison inmate can face upwards of ten years in prison and a fine up to $ 25,000.

The statewide bill also prohibits local governments from coming up with their own drone regulations and also provides exceptions to first responders, law enforcement officials, government employees and utility companies who are using drones in an official work capacity.

This bill adds Pennsylvania to the growing list of states that have already addressed issues surrounding drone privacy and the many others who are currently working on solutions.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photokina 2018: Sigma interview – ‘There’s no magic to it, we just try to be unique’

14 Oct
Katuto Yamaki, CEO of Sigma, pictured at this year’s Photokina trade show in Cologne Germany, last month.

We spoke to several senior executives last month in Germany at the Photokina trade show. Among them was Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki, who shared his thoughts on the photography marketplace in general, and the just-announced L-mount alliance. The following interview has been edited for clarity and flow.

How did the L-mount alliance come about?

I don’t remember exactly when but I think it was two or three years ago. At that time we’d already decided to make a full frame mirrorless camera featuring Foveon technology. We were planning to develop our own short flange back mirrorless system. Actually we already had a design. I don’t remember the exact spec but I think the flange back was about the same [as the L mount], about 20mm, and a similar mount diameter.

And around that time, Panasonic approached us and proposed that we work on it jointly. At around that same time, Panasonic approached Leica, and finally the three companies came together – I think it was about two years ago. And then we agreed to join the L mount system and we discontinued the development of our own original mount system.

Panasonic’s forthcoming Lumix S1R will be a professional-grade full-frame mirrorless camera built around the L-mount. One of the biggest announcements at this year’s Photokina was the alliance between Leica, Sigma and Panasonic – the first fruits of which are expected in spring of next year.

Was there anything about the L mount from a technical point of view that made it particularly attractive?

I would say it’s a well-balanced mount. The flange back is short enough without being too short, and the diameter isn’t too big. It’s a good balance. If the diameter is too big, sometimes it’s difficult to make the camera bodies compact. And if we make a slow lens, like an F2.8 prime or an F3.4-5.6 zoom lens, with a wide diameter mount the shape of the lens will be like this [indicates a funnel shape, tapering from a wide mount to a narrow front element] where the front is slimmer than the back. That doesn’t look great, in my opinion. So the L mount is a well-balanced mount size. 20mm is not too short.

Do you have a timeframe for your own L mount lenses?

I need to check with our engineers, but probably we’ll start shipping our first L mount lenses sometime in the middle of next year.

Will they be L mount versions of your existing designs, or will they be entirely new designs?

Both. We already have the 14 lenses for Sony E-mount, so we’ll make L mount versions of those lenses, and they’ll start shipping next year. We’ll also start shipping brand new L mount lenses.

Canon’s new EOS R debuts the RF mount, which will eventually replace EF as Canon’s main interchangeable lens mount. Alongside the camera, Canon launched a brace of excellent new RF mount L-series lenses, optimized for mirrorless.

Are you in communication with Canon and Nikon around their new mounts?

Around the new systems? No, not at all. We have a great interest in the two new systems but right now I have no plans.

In the past, there could be problems when Canon and Nikon might release new cameras, with slightly changed software, and third-party lenses would stop working properly. Is that a worrying possibility for you?

I can’t deny the potential risks of a similar problem in the future. However, I think such possibilities are significantly lower than before. To be honest, our firmware in the past was not so robust, therefore, we experienced some issues in the compatibility. However, the situation today is quite different.

We’ve worked hard to make the current firmware very robust, and we will continuously enhance the strength of our firmware. Even if we see some minor issues, we’ll upgrade our firmware to make our lenses work perfectly using our USB Dock.

Did Sigma have any influence into the design of the new Panasonic S1/R?

No. Actually, I personally had no idea about the new camera. So at the press conference [at Photokina] I saw the camera for the first time. We do not exchange information [between Sigma, Panasonic and Leica] about our roadmap for products for the new system. It’s a matter of compliance [with antitrust legislation]. We simply cannot do that.

With the announcement of the L-mount alliance, Sigma has confirmed that it will discontinue development of its own SD-series APS-C format cameras, in favor of a new full-frame system built around the L mount.

Now that you’re working on a new full-frame L-mount camera, does this mean that you’ll cease production of your SA mount mirrorless cameras?

We will continue to manufacture and sell our existing SA mount cameras, but we won’t develop any new SA mount cameras in the future.

Will you continue to make lenses in the SA mount?

Yes, as long as we manufacturer lenses for DSLRs, we’ll continue to make lenses in the SA mount. There are still SA mount camera users out there in the world.

Do you expect that the market for M43 lenses will be reduced, following Panasonic’s entry into the full-frame market?

I don’t know, and I might not be the best person to comment, but I’ve seen many journalists using M4/3 system cameras here in Photokina. In my opinion, M4/3 is a great system if you need compactness.

Today we have some second-generation employees and even some third-generation employees.

How will Sigma continue to differentiate its products in the future, from other third-party lens manufacturers?

I don’t believe there’s any magic to it, but we try to be unique and different to other companies. We just invest in the technology, and in the factory, and we improve communication with our customers. We will do everything that we can do, to differentiate from other manufacturers. Also, we have very loyal employees. They’ve worked for us a long time. Today we have some second-generation employees and even some third-generation employees.

It’s different for example from the semiconductor business. When it comes to lenses, the experience and the know-how of the employees makes a big difference. With lenses it’s analog-based technology, where experienced workers are key. And that’s why we [don’t want to] move our factory. If our factory moved, we’d lose our experienced workers.

Sigma’s new 40mm F1.4 Art has been designed as a ‘reference’ prime lens for the Global Vision series, and offers excellent performance, albeit in a relatively large, heavy form factor.

Check out our full gallery of samples here

Why did you decide to create a 40mm Art-series lens?

40mm is a very popular focal length for videographers, so there was a demand from the cine market. Also there were some requests from our own users. Our first DP2 camera was a 40mm equivalent focal length.

Do you have any predictions for the proportion of your lenses that you expect to sell in mirrorless mounts versus DSLR mounts, in the future?

Within three or four years I expect our mirrorless mount lens sales to be much bigger than for DSLR. Maybe 70% to 30%.

What is your opinion of Canon and Nikon’s new lenses for the RF and Z mounts?

I’ve been very impressed by Canon’s new lenses for RF. The 50mm F1.2 and 28-70mm F2. Very impressed – and a little jealous! They’re possible due to the wide diameter and short flange back. Otherwise such lenses would be very difficult or impossible. Having the larger elements at the rear of the optical system makes it easier to achieve good performance at large apertures.

Software can’t create detail, only good optics can do that.

One thing that is an option in mirrorless cameras and not DSLRs is in-camera lens corrections. When you’re designing new lenses for mirrorless do you include software correction into your planning?

Until just a few years ago I was quite negative about software corrections. Software can’t create detail, only good optics can do that. But today, sensors have more resolution, and the correction algorithms are much better than in the past. So I think software correction is a good tool, when it comes to achieving good image quality. That’s why we started to support Canon EOS DSLRs’ lens correction. Software lens correction is a useful tool, but it’s not a good idea to rely on it too much.

How do you prioritize development of which system you’ll develop lenses for?

It’s basically done based on demand. But for example even if demand for our SA mount lenses is very small, we’ll still prioritize it because that’s our own system. Moving forward, now that we have the L mount, we’ll give that priority.

The new ‘S’ class Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 features ten low-dispersion glass elements including nine FLD elements which have very similar properties to fluorite. The FLD elements are indicated in yellow, in this schematic.

The new 70-200mm F2.8 is classified as ‘Sport’. How would an ‘Art’ version of this lens be different?

It’s a sort of a mid-point between Sport and Art. But it’s Art-class glass. This lens uses nine FLD glass elements. FLD glass has almost the exact same optical characteristics as fluorite. To be honest, Canon and Nikon’s 70-200mm F2.8 lenses already represent the highest optical quality for this type of lens. We believe that we can [still] improve on that but the difference is not huge. It’s hard to differentiate just by optical performance.

Are there future technologies that would allow you to take the next step, and move performance forward?

I think so, for example FLD. We didn’t have that before. This is Hoya glass, and we worked together to develop this new glass material, which helps achieve better performance. If a careful photographer checks the amount of longitudinal chromatic aberration and bilateral chromatic aberration, we believe they’ll see this lens is better. But if they just check resolution, they may not see a difference [compared to Canon and Nikon’s current 70-200mm F2.8].

Sigma now supports several mounts, plus the L mount, plus potentially Canon RF and Nikon Z in the future. How will you grow the company to accommodate this scaling-up without losing Sigma’s identity?

I will admit that is quite challenging. But obviously the volume of lenses produced per mount will be reduced, because I don’t think the market will grow like it has in the past. That means we have to produce more kinds of products per month. Which could cause us to lose efficiency, and ultimately drive up production cost. This is very challenging for us. We need to create a new production system to keep our efficiency up, even if we manufacture more products per month.

Kazuto Yamaki, pictured at Sigma’s main assembly plant in Aizu, Japan, during our visit to the site in 2014.

Read our complete factory tour

If we used external suppliers it would be easy – we’d just reduce our purchases from those suppliers, but we do almost everything by ourselves. We’re continuously increasing the size of our factory, and even right now we’re planning to build another facility [at our main site in Aizu] and we’ll continuously invest in new manufacturing over the next few years.

After I took over my father’s business, over the past six years we’ve built new three buildings at Aizu. This will continue.

Will you run out of space?

Yes, this is a problem! Usually manufacturers choose flat ground for their factories, but my father liked to build in the middle of the mountains. His dream was to become a company like Carl Zeiss, and they have a factory in the hills. He thought that flat ground was boring! It’s very challenging.

Editors’ note: Barnaby Britton

In 2018, Sigma is a company in flux. Since the launch of the Global Vision lineup in 2012, Sigma has gone from focusing primarily on just two DSLR lens mounts (plus lower-volume production of Some Sony A, Pentax PK and Sigma SA-compatible lenses) to soon supporting eight, excluding PK but including the L-mount, which will effectively replace the older SA mount in Sigma’s own forthcoming full-frame camera lineup.

That’s a of a lot of work for any company, let alone a relatively small manufacturer but if CEO Kazuto Yamaki is daunted by the prospect, he doesn’t show it. His main concern, expressed in this interview and in previous conversations, seems to be making sure that as it evolves and grows, Sigma doesn’t lose its identity along the way.

In order to maintain efficiency and keep costs manageable, Sigma will need to develop new manufacturing processes

Sigma’s Global Vision lenses are popular for two main reasons: they’re very good, and they’re excellent value for money. Doubling the number of lens mounts that it supports is not an automatic win for Sigma, or even necessarily for its customers. As Mr. Yamaki points out, increasing the number of products in the company’s lineup does not mean that total sales will increase by the same proportion.

In order to maintain efficiency and keep costs manageable, Sigma will need to develop new manufacturing processes – something that Mr. Yamaki freely admits. Add to that the challenge of creating a brand new lineup of full-frame cameras, and the next few years at Aizu promise to be very busy.

Yamaki is confident in his products, proud of his engineers, and trusts their ability to tool up for the new mirrorless mounts

As usual, Mr. Yamaki’s responses to our questions at Photokina were candid and thoughtful. He’s confident in his products, proud of his engineers, and trusts their ability to tool up for the new mirrorless mounts. Despite the challenges ahead he’s genuinely excited by the possibilities presented by Canon and Nikon’s entry into the full-frame mirrorless market, not only for Sigma but for the industry as a whole. We’ve noted before that while many senior executives seem to prefer pretending that competitors don’t exist, Mr. Yamaki’s respect – and praise – of his competitor’s products is unusual.

In return, Sigma’s CEO is widely liked by his peers in the industry. The recently announced L-mount alliance with Panasonic and Leica would quite possibly never have happened if it weren’t for the close relationship between Mr. Yamaki and Panasonic’s Yosuke Yamane. Leica’s majority shareholder Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, in turn, has praised Mr. Yamaki’s leadership of Sigma, which remains a family-owned company.

In Mr. Yamaki’s own words: ‘There’s no magic to it – we just try to be unique’.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Kodak Digitizing Box service breathes life into old media with minimal effort

14 Oct

There’s no shortage of ways to digitize your old film photos, videos, taps, and audio recordings on mediums long extinct. But Kodak is hoping you’ll eschew other methods in favor of its new Kodak Digitizing Box.

As the name suggests, the Kodak Digitizing Box is a simple solution to bringing analogue content into the digital world through the careful hands of professionals. In Kodaks own words, “The Kodak Digitizing Box brings a modern version of Kodak’s yellow envelope back to customer door steps and aims to make the daunting task of digitizing aging media easy,”

The boxes, which arrived with a pre-paid shipping label for easy returns, are available in four sizes: 3 piece, 10 piece, 20 piece, and 40 piece, and are priced at $ 59.99, $ 169.99, $ 289.99, and $ 559.99, respectively. One “piece” can consist of an audio tape, video tape, roll of film, or 25 photos. The below image details what type of media is able to be digitized.

After the box is shipped off, you will begin to receive email notifications throughout the digitization process. Kodak says to allow up to five to six weeks for everything to be digitized.

Once the digitization is finished, the resulting content — and the original media sent in — is returned on DVDs, a USB thumb drive, or via digital downloads, depending on your preference.

To find out more, head on over to the Kodak Digitizing Box website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Paint Shop Pro 2019 Ultimate Review

14 Oct

About a year ago I reviewed the 2018 version of this software. It was an interesting comparison for me, as I started using it back when it was still owned by Jasc Software (before Corel bought it).

Now we have the 2019 version, dubbed Paint Shop Pro 2019 Ultimate. And as someone who uses Lightroom and Photoshop, I was interested to see how it stacks up.

The Basics

Corel Paint Shop Pro 2019 is a Windows-only product that comes in two editions – Standard and Ultimate.

The Standard edition features creative presets powered by AI, 360-degree photo editing, enhanced performance, features, enhanced usability and ease of use, and new creative content.

The Ultimate edition includes everything in the Standard edition as well as:

  • Photo Mirage Express
  • Painter Essentials 6
  • Perfectly Clear 3.5 SE
  • Aftershot 3
  • Creative Collection of brushes, textures and backgrounds.

Note: Painter Essentials 6, Perfectly Clear 3.5 SE and Aftershot 3 will run only on the 64-bit version of Windows.

Both come with a 30-day free trial, and the $ 99.99 USD price tag is for a perpetual one-off licence, not a subscription.

For more information, check out the website.

Workspaces

PSP 2019 Ultimate has two workspaces – Essentials and Complete.

Essentials is a cut-down version aimed very much at beginners, while Complete has all the features and options. To distinguish between them, Corel has made the interfaces different shades of grey.

Essentials is a light grey, although you can adjust it to one of three different shades. You can also adjust the size of the buttons on the toolbar to make them bigger (as shown  below), and move the toolbars and palettes around to suit.

Complete is a dark charcoal grey, and has the filmstrip of images along the bottom.

Layers comes up by default in Complete, whereas I had to manually add it in Essentials and dock it where I wanted it to go. So if you plan on using layers I’d opt for the Complete workspace, although you can switch between them quite easily.

Performance

I tested the performance of PSP 2019 Ultimate on my standard Photoshop machine. It has:

  • an Intel Core i7 processor
  • 24GB of memory
  • two 180GB SSD in a Raid 1 configuration for the operating system
  • two 500GB SATA drives in a Raid 1 configuration for extra backup (PSP was installed on this array)
  • network attached storage (NAS) for all my RAW files.

Admittedly my system is about seven years old. But it works fine with Photoshop CS6 and images with many layers.

PSP found my NAS files and let me access them easily. But performance was generally slow and noticeably laggy. When I moved sliders on the RAW image import I had to wait for the software to catch up.

Loading an image file as a layer was quite slow. And if I moved the layer it stuttered instead of moving smoothly.

Image Management and Editing

While RAW files can be imported into the program, the editing features are extremely limited compared to Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw. Corel does offer AfterShot3 as a RAW image editor, but it’s a separate program and not included in this review.

You can perform basic image edits and compare the Before and After results as shown below.

It also gives you some quicker options for editing photos. One-Shot Photo Fix is a one-click option that does it all. I preferred the Smart Photo Fix, which gives you more control over the edits as shown below. I did like the large preview panes when using this feature.

Other Editing Tools

PSP caters for layers and masks as you would expect. In the image below I applied a text layer to the original photo, changed the blend mode to soft light, and reduced the opacity. I then added a mask to brush out parts of the text.

All the usual suspects are present: adjustment layers, brushes, painting, text, selections and masks. But the creative additions to this version of PSP are interesting.

Art Media

Art Media is a new function that lets you paint over an image in a range of different painting styles (watercolour, acrylic, oil, etc.) It picks up the colour of the image underneath as you paint, allowing for a different creative approach to editing your images.

There’s also a built-in tool that lets you mix colours on a digital palette and paint with various brush styles. Here’s a short video showing how it can be used.

My machine struggled a lot with this. Every stroke was very slow, and as a result wasn’t very accurate.

Here’s an example of a test paint in watercolour mode on top of the original image

When you remove the base image and look only at the painted layer, it looks like this.

Having the paint strokes on a separate layer is a good choice as it lets you apply various layer controls such as blend modes, masks and opacity changes.

Pic to Painting

This is the new AI-assisted painting feature that, glancing at the sample images supplied, looks similar to Topaz Impression. (Here’s a quick video demonstration.)

It provides effects similar to mobile apps such as iColourama, Waterlili and Prisma, but lets you apply them on your computer. Controls are very limited. Choose the style, choose the strength, then apply.

It took a long time to download and install onto my computer. Even previewing the first style took several minutes. While graphics-intensive processing like this can be a bit slow (Topaz Impression can take a minute or so to gather its resources when you first start it up), this was a very long time to wait. Especially for just a preview.

After trying several times, and giving the last test 17 minutes to process, I gave up. Later I discovered that Pic to Painting only works in Windows 10, even though that isn’t stated in any of the advertising.

360-Degree Support

If you have a 360-degree camera (or take a lot of panorama shots), PSP can apparently process these images and let you create different effects. (I didn’t test this.)

Makeover Tools

A set of tools are included to help remove blemishes, lines and red eye, whiten teeth, and even out skin tones. I don’t shoot closeups of faces, so I tested the blemish remover on a blueberry shot.

Here’s the BEFORE shot. The blueberry was a bit old, and when zoomed in you can see creases, bruises and scuff marks.

The Blemish remover settings are essentially a brush. About all you can do is change the size and opacity.

I reduced the brush size to suit. I didn’t see much effect at 40%, so I increased it to around 90%. It seems to do a content-aware fill, as it picked up other lines from the area I was working on. It ended up requiring much more work to solve those extra problems.

Here’s the finished experiment.

Other Useful Features

The size of the buttons on the toolbars can be increased – handy for those with high-resolution monitors and those of us who should probably wear glasses when we edit.

If you click the ‘+’ symbol at the bottom of the Tools palette, a search window appears that lets you search for functions by name in several different ways. This is a great way to find things you don’t necessarily know the name of but can guess what they do.

And being able to change the colour of your workspace backgrounds in both Essentials and Complete mode is a nice touch.

Conclusion

Overall, I found this particular version of Paint Shop Pro Ultimate a bit disappointing. It performed very poorly on my compute, and some of the new features only work if you’re running 64-bit Windows, Windows 10 or both.

It does add AfterShot3 for Raw editing, Perfectly Clear for intelligent photo adjustments, Painter Essentials for the more artistic and Photo Mirage Express for animations. There are also some free bonus additions, and a lot of extras you can purchase (presets, textures, etc.)

Corel has certainly included all the options a photographer might want to process and edit images, as well as a variety of options for further creative exploration. But the hardware requirements needed to access all the extra features is a problem, especially when they’re only mentioned in the technical specifications.

I should note that I joined the PSP Support community to get answers to my questions, and the people there were extremely helpful and responsive. I got several responses to my queries over the course of a few days. The user guide is a bit vague, so if you do have PSP I strongly recommend checking out the Support Community if you need help.

While it is quite cost effective, and a one-off purchase rather than a subscription, I highly recommend downloading the trial version first to see f it will work on your current computer.

Overall score: 3/5

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5 Tips for Keeping Your Horizon Line Level

13 Oct

Tips for keeping your horizon line level

The horizon line is a big deal in landscape and other outdoor photography. You can’t do this kind of photography for long without encountering the Rule of Thirds and the Golden Ratio, both of which are usually applied to the horizon line. Even if there isn’t a true horizon line in your picture, there’s often a line running through the picture that determines whether it will appear level.

Still, it’s surprising how often people end up with crooked lines. You might not notice it, but it’s often the first thing people will see when looking at your photo. Posting a good photo only for it to appear crooked can be embarrassing. Beginners are notorious for overlooking this, but it happens all the time. It even happens to me occasionally.

In this article I’ll walk you through ways to make sure that your horizon line is straight.

But before we get into that, start making sure you actually check it. After all, it’s an easy thing to forget. Do whatever works for you, whether it’s making a checklist, leaving yourself a note or whatever. And make it a part of your workflow so you do it every time.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell whether your horizon line is straight or not, even when using the level in your camera. It gets especially hard when it’s mixed up with other elements in your picture that aren’t straight either. Add in lens distortion, and you can end up with a convoluted mess.

So let’s talk about tools and techniques for keeping your horizon line level. We’ll go from the most obvious tools that  you probably already know about (but worth a little refresher) to some less obvious tools and techniques.

1. Use the Crop Tool Effectively

The easiest way to straighten your horizon line is with the crop tool. Virtually every photo editing software package in existence has a crop tool, so it should be familiar to you.

Tips for keeping your horizon line level

Lightroom’s crop tool controls. Note that the controls also allow you to straighten your photos.

Most of the time this tool will also let you change the angle of the picture. And quite often that’s all you need to do.

In Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), select the Crop Tool and then move your cursor slightly off the picture. The cursor will change to a curved line with arrows at either end, which indicates that clicking and dragging will now change the angle of the picture. Click and move it around to straighten your horizon line.

Tips for keeping your horizon line level

You can also do it by filling in the angle percentage on the far right.

2. Avoid Distortion

Sometimes your picture will appear crooked even when it’s level. That’s because most lenses have at least some barrel distortion, which makes the horizon line sag toward the sides of the picture.

Tips for keeping your horizon line level

This really affects things when you crop one side of your picture. The sag will show on one side (the one you didn’t crop) but not the other, and so your picture will appear to be leaning to one side.

You can fix this with the leveling functions mentioned already. But another way to fix it is to cure the distortion, which can be done easily in Lightroom and ACR.

Find the box labeled Lens Corrections, and check the box next to Enable Profile Corrections. The software will then apply an automatic correction tailored to the lens you used. You might need to help the software find your lens by selecting the manufacturer and perhaps even the model. But usually the software will find it for you and apply an automatic correction.

Tips for keeping your horizon line level

3. Transform to Correct

Sometimes you need a little help determining what is truly level. Your eyes can play tricks on you, particularly when you have different lines running in different directions in your picture. Lightroom can provide some help in the Transform panel.

Lightroom’s Transform panel lets you cure a variety of distortions. The most common adjustment is to correct vertical distortion, which is most useful for converging buildings and trees.

The best way to get familiar with these controls is to just play with them. Go through them all and watch how they affect your photos. After that, you’ll know which controls will be the most useful.

You can have Lightroom level your photo automatically by pressing the Level button at the top left. However, this doesn’t always work, in which case you can do it manually using the Rotate slider.

This is a great set of tools to use when you have multiple distortions working at the same time. Here’s a picture that isn’t level, and also seems to be suffering from vertical distortion.

Tips for keeping your horizon line level

And here’s the same picture after pressing the Auto button in the Transform panel.

Tips for keeping your horizon line level

Pretty dramatic improvement, isn’t it? If you don’t like what you get, you can always perform manually tweaks using the sliders. It won’t always be that easy, but sometimes this control is like magic.

4. Use the Ruler to Test

Okay, so how can you tell if your horizon line is actually level? We already talked about the Level command in Lightroom’s Transform panel. But there’s perhaps an even better way – Photoshop’s Ruler tool. It isn’t intuitive, and isn’t something you’d know about until someone shows you.

Tips for keeping your horizon line level

Here’s a shot with a crooked horizon line. We’ll use Photoshop’s Ruler tool to fix it in the next two pictures.

Start by selecting the Ruler tool from the tools on the left side of your screen. Then draw a line along your horizon line. If you can’t see all of the horizon in the picture, just use the part you can see. And don’t worry – you can re-do this as many times as you want.

Once you’ve drawn your line:

  1. From the main menu choose Image > Image Rotation > Arbitrary. This will bring up a dialog box with a number in the angle box. This is the angle Photoshop has set based on the line you just drew with your Ruler. Don’t change it.
  2. Click OK.

Photoshop will now level the picture according to the line you just drew.

Tips for keeping your horizon line level

Here I’ve used the steps mentioned earlier to straighten the picture using the Ruler tool. Now I need to crop the picture to make it look straight.

If it looks right, crop away to fix the edges. If it doesn’t look right, just undo it and try again.

Tips for keeping your horizon line level

Here’s the final picture straightened and cropped.

5. Add Distortion to Correct Without Cropping

Here’s another Photoshop technique to level the horizon line doesn’t involve any cropping at all. You simply distort the image to pull up the low end of the horizon line.

Start by selecting the entire image. You can use whatever selection tool you’re most comfortable with, or just press Ctrl+A to select the entire image. Once you’ve selected it, choose Image > Transform > Distort from the main menu.

Tips for keeping your horizon line level

See how the buildings appear to tilt a little to the right? The horizon line isn’t quite level either. We’ll fix it using the Transform command in the next graphic.

Your image will now have a series of little boxes on the edges and corners. By dragging these boxes around you can distort the image. You might want to play with them a little to get comfortable with the tool, as it can be handy in a variety of contexts.

For our purposes. just pull up the corner of the image on whatever side the horizon line is low until it’s level. Your picture is now level without needing to be cropped.

I pulled out the top left corner to straighten the buildings. I also pulled down just a touch on the bottom left corner to straighten the horizon line. In this example, I could have changed the angle of the entire picture to accomplish the same thing. But the Transform tool generally gives you greater control.

You can combine this technique with any other distortions you might want to fix, such as correcting converging buildings.

Putting it in Practice

Just thinking about having a straight horizon line goes a long way. Correct any other distortions first to get a sense of how the picture will ultimately look.

If you’re having trouble determining whether your horizon line is level, you can check with either the Level command (Lightroom and ACR) or the Ruler combined with the Image Rotation command (Photoshop). Use both to get a sense of what feels right.

But ultimately there’s no mathematical way to do this. It’s what you see with your own eye that’s most important.

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DPReview TV: Atomos Ninja V review

13 Oct

Almost all new cameras include impressive video features, but for the best results you’ll often need an off-camera recorder. Chris and Jordan take a look at the brand new Ninja V from Atomos, and explain why it might just be one of the most useful tools you can add to your camera.

For even more information, read our article titled Why would I want an external monitor/recorder?

Article: Why would I want an external monitor/recorder?

Get new episodes of DPReview TV every week by subscribing to our YouTube channel!

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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TourBox is a portable controller that speeds up Photoshop and Lightroom photo editing

13 Oct

A new Kickstarter campaign is seeking funding for TourBox, a controller designed for image processing software, including Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. The device features a knob, wheel, scroller, and multiple buttons, and is designed for use alongside a tablet or mouse.

TourBox’s controls are said to be precisely calibrated for ideal speed, accuracy, and acceleration, each button customizable for the creation of personal presets. With this controller, users are able to rapidly adjust brush size, hardness, flow, and opacity, as well as perform actions like zooming in and out and dragging an image.

The controller has a small, portable plug-and-play design that enables photographers to work on their content while away from the office. The device is compatible with both Windows and macOS.

The team behind TourBox is seeking funding on Kickstarter, where the campaign has exceeded its funding goal with more than a month remaining. Backers are offered the Early Bird TourBox for pledges of at least $ 89 USD. Shipping to backers is estimated to start in December 2018.

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)

 
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The Collect app brings 360-degree editing to your mobile device

13 Oct

With 360-degree video capture becoming more popular and affordable there is also an increased demand for 360-degree video editing applications. The Collect app is now a new option that aims to make editing 360-degree videos as easy as possible.

The app allows you to transform 360-degree into a more easily digestible format by transforming it into directed traditional videos and guiding the viewer’s attention through smooth cinematic camera transitions. This is done by adding points of interest and sharing the final videos to social media where they can be watched just like any normal clip.

The app can frame 360-degree footage into different aspect ratios and export clips with up to 4k resolution. The app is also capable of creating so-called “tiny planet” effects and blurring away a selfie-stick that might have been used during capture.

In addition you can combine and trim clips and and create slow/fast motion video as well as add music, filters and stickers. Specific 360-degree specific editing features include horizon-fix and point of view modification.

For more information watch the video below or visit the Collect website. A beta version of the app is now available to download free from Google Play. iPhone users can sign up on the Collect website to be included in the list of alpha users.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Weekly Challenge – Rainbows and Prisms

13 Oct

Your photographic challenge this week is to take and share a photo incorporating a rainbow or prism effect.

Photograph Rainbow over Kirkufell by Peter Hammer on 500px

Rainbow over Kirkufell by Peter Hammer on 500px

Now, we don’t expect to send you all out chasing rainbows without any help! Whilst they can be elusive, this post will give you some tips on how to find and photograph them.

How to Photograph a Rainbow

 

Photograph Light Show by Mark Metternich on 500px

Light Show by Mark Metternich on 500px

But, if you can’t find one, you could try creating one. Here are a couple of articles for inspiration:

How to Make and Photograph Rainbow Water Droplets on a CD

Copper, Prisms, and Orbs, Oh My! – 3 Creative Techniques for People Photography

Weekly Photography Challenge – Rainbows and Prisms

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge.

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSRAINBOWS to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

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