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Magix celebrates 10th birthday with biggest ever performance update
Video editing software package Video Pro X has received what is described as its biggest update yet, to mark ten years since Magix Video Pro was launched. Owner Magix says the update focuses on speed and performance, and includes new tools to make editors’ lives easier.

Magix says that rendering HEVC/H.265 video can now done using the NVIDIA GPU encoder making export much faster than before, while AVX optimization speeds up image processing and improves the accuracy of color correction.

The company also says it has introduced easier methods for working with overlapping audio and video clips, and that its effects interface is now more clearly organized. Green screen work is improved, as is the package’s ability to handle and manipulate 360° content, and users can now edit stereo video footage as well.

Magix Video Pro X costs £299 / $ 399 and is available now. For more information visit the Magix website (link below).

Visit magix.com

Press Release:
10 Years of Video Pro X: MAGIX publishes the largest update in the history of the video software

On the occasion of the software’s 10 year anniversary, MAGIX Software is introducing the largest update for Video Pro X ever to the market. The anniversary version of the professional video editing program includes numerous new functions and improvements for significantly more power, productivity, and design flexibility.

The latest Video Pro X has arrived. Right on time to mark the anniversary, the powerful video processing system from MAGIX offers an extensive program of intelligent new and optimized features that help ambitious users to achieve high-end results even faster than ever before.

FOCUS ON PERFORMANCE

The most recent update from MAGIX had already put a strong focus on increased performance. However, the new version introduces the largest performance leap ever. For the first time, HEVC/H.265 video export can now be rendered with the NVIDIA GPU’s encoder. This makes export speeds possible, which were inconceivable in the past. Also new to the latest version is the comprehensive AVX optimization in the internal image processing and the 3-way colour correction resulting in faster image processing and much more precise output quality during colour conversion. Additionally, the output of 4K source videos into FullHD quality has been optimized by reducing high-frequency image components. This results in fewer bit errors during the conversion of high-resolution recordings.

MORE PRODUCTIVE WORKFLOWS

With the new Video Pro X, MAGIX pushes ahead with its workflow optimization strategy. The latest improvements include the new time-saving J-L cut and the intuitive “Move object content” mouse mode. With J-L edits, video and audio tracks can now be modified individually without losing the advantages of working with grouping. For video editors who work regularly with overlapping objects, such as spoken audio spanning several scenes in documentaries and interviews, work will become noticeably easier, and object content can now be moved more flexibly. From now on, users can intuitively select and adjust image content from video objects with a click of the mouse while maintaining the editing rhythm.

NEW EFFECTS AREA & OPTIMIZED CREATIVE TOOLS

The Video Pro X effects area has been enhanced and is now more clearly organized and user friendly than ever. Users can quickly navigate to the effects they want and control plugins much more intuitively meaning the creative workflow stays uninterrupted. Chroma Keying has also been optimized in response to customer feedback. A new algorithm supports the ability to recognize and extract objects. 360° editing was also improved. 360° image stabilization, a set of spectacular 360° transitions, and special 360° effects from HitFilm now supplement the Video Pro X 360° editing package. And now even stereoscopic videos can be processed by Video Pro X.

“10 years of development have been invested in the new Video Pro X. We would like to introduce the largest update in the history of Video Pro X as a way to say thank you to our loyal customers. Without the continuous feedback from the Video Pro X community, the software would by far not be as sophisticated and powerful as it is today,” says Florian Liepold, Product Owner Video Pro X at MAGIX.

Video Pro X comes with a year of Update Service free of charge. So, users who now decide to purchase the software will automatically receive any upcoming updates. For example, the flexible anchor point positioning, an intelligent function that helps to individually select the object focus – for maximum design flexibility while scaling and rotating.

All new Video Pro X features at a glance:
- Accelerated export with NVIDIA NVENC support
- Optimized workflow including J-L cuts
- New effects area and In-App Store
- Precise chroma keying
- Improved Full HD output quality
- Complete 360° package, including HitFilm effects
- AVX-optimized algorithms
- OpenFX interface with multithreading
- HEIF image import for optimal support of iOS devices
- Includes Update Service for 1 full year of all new features
Prices and availability:

Video Pro X – £299 / $ 399
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
June 20, 2018
How to Choose a Lens for Night Sky Photography
There is a big distinction to be made when it comes to night sky photography, which is whether or not you plan on photographing the stars in the night sky. If you do not plan on including stars in your shots, things are a lot simpler for you. That is true in a lot of ways, in that you don’t need to worry as much about the clouds and weather, the impact of the moon, or light pollution.

When it comes to lens selection, it means that you can pretty much use whatever lens you want. Therefore, if that is the type of night photography you plan to do, continue using whatever is your favorite lens at present.

Issues doing Night Sky Photography

On the other hand, if you plan on shooting the night sky and capturing the stars, things get trickier. This stems from two facts. The first is that starlight is extremely dim. It is only a tiny, tiny fraction of what you have at sunset (let alone the middle of the day). Even moonlight is many times more powerful.

The second issue is that the stars are moving across the sky (or, rather, that the earth is spinning, but it appears as though the stars are moving to your camera). This is happening more quickly than you might realize.

As a result, you need to do everything possible to maximize exposure, and you need for that to happen quickly. In other words, the dim light means that you need a lot of exposure. Exposure stems from a combination of three things: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.

In other types of photography, you might simply open up the shutter for a long time. In night sky photography, however, you don’t have that luxury since the stars are moving. That means your shutter speed is going to be capped somewhere between 15 and 30 seconds. If you expose any longer, the camera will pick up that movement and it will show up as tails or blur in your pictures. That won’t work.

That means you’ll have to look at the other two exposure options – ISO and aperture. To deal with the dim light, you will have to crank up your ISO to at least 3200 and in many cases 6400. At present, that’s about as high as you should go. Even if your camera goes up to something like ISO 25,600, as many cameras do these days if you use an ISO that high you risk noise completely taking over your picture.

Use a Fast Lens

Because of these caps on shutter speed and ISO, the only remaining exposure control is aperture. To maximize exposure and still successfully capture the night sky, you will need a fast lens. How fast?

A lens that opens up to f/2.8 or wider is ideal. A lens with a maximum aperture of f/4.0 is acceptable. Anything less than that (meaning a higher f-number) probably won’t work. This is one situation where your kit lens might serve you well. Most kit lenses open up to f/3.5 at their widest focal length, which is actually 1/3 stop brighter than your typical f/4.0 lens.

As a side-note, you might be worried about depth of field when using these large apertures. You need not worry about that though. You will always set your focus at infinity and everything in your scene will be on that plane of focus. Even if there are objects in the foreground, at wide angles things quickly go to infinity on your lens. Unless something is very close to you (say, within 10 feet or so), it will be on the same plane of focus and depth of field will not be an issue. If you want to include anything closer than that, you’ll likely need to focus stack.

Shoot with a Wide-Angle Lens

You may be familiar with something called the Reciprocal Rule. It will help you make sense of why you need a wide angle lens for night sky photography. That rule states that the slowest shutter speed (exposure time) you can use when shooting handheld and still avoid blur in your pictures is the reciprocal of your focal length. So, for example, if you are using a 100mm lens, your minimum shutter speed should be 1/100th of a second.

This rule shows that there is always a direct correlation between focal length and the longest shutter speed you can use to avoid blur. That also holds true when it comes to photographing the stars. When you photograph the night sky, the wider the lens you use, the longer you can open up the shutter.

How wide of a lens do you need? There is no clear answer. If you are familiar with photographing the stars or the Milky Way, you may have heard of certain rules of thumb where you divide a number by the focal length of your lens to get a maximum exposure time (such as the Rule of 600, 500, or even 400) before the stars start to arch and blur.

For example, using the Rule of 500, a 24mm lens would allow you to use a shutter speed up to 20 seconds (500 divided by 24 mm is 20.8 seconds). But if you use a 16mm lens instead, you can expose up to 30 seconds (500 divided by 16 is 31.25). As you can see, wider is better. Here is how it works out for the widest focal lengths.

Before moving on, let me point out two things about this standard. First of all, it is not absolute, and there are those who advocate for a stricter standard (meaning that you should use even shorter shutter speeds for these focal lengths). Be sure to test out different speeds and see what works best for you.

Second, if you use a crop factor camera, be sure to adjust these numbers to the Effective Focal Length, which is based on a full-frame or 35mm format (i.e. 20mm on a 1.5x crop factor camera is effectively a 30mm, so the maximum exposure then is only 16.7 seconds before the stars arch).

Measuring Sharpness

It goes without saying that you want a sharp lens. But how do you determine what is a sharp lens and what isn’t? The best way, of course, is to try them out for yourself. It may not be practical to test out a whole series of lenses though.

We all rely on lens reviews. I’m certainly no expert on optics, so I definitely do. These are usually extremely helpful, but sometimes it is difficult to get an apples to apples comparison of different lenses. To do that, there is an extremely helpful resource called DXO Mark.

The reason DXO Mark is so helpful is that they score all lenses in the exact same manner. For example, they give scores for sharpness, distortion, and vignetting (as well as other criteria, and an overall score) and grade each lens the same way. That lets you look at numbers very quickly, rather than comparing images from different lenses and attempting to quantify the differences. If nothing else, it gives you a good place to start.

Of course, sharpness isn’t the only thing you need to consider. Lenses all have different amounts of distortion as well. One type of distortion that is important in night photography is called coma distortion. It adds little wings to points of light, which in the case of photographing stars is not ideal. Unfortunately, this is not something that is often included in lens tests, so you’ll have to check for this with whatever lens you are considering.

Narrowing Your Choices Down

We have now established the three most important criteria for picking a lens for your night sky photography. Your lens needs to be wide, fast, and sharp. In terms of how wide, how fast, and how sharp, that is up to you. But you can use your own criteria to create a list of available lenses.

For example, you might decide to only consider lenses that are 20mm or wider, open up to f/2.8, and are at least moderately sharp.

Once you narrow the list down to your particular brand of camera, you will probably find that the list is not very long. There may actually only be a few models from which to choose.

The Top Picks

Once you start looking at the widest, fastest lenses made, the list quickly gets pretty short. Once you add in the reviews and ratings, some pretty clear choices emerge. Of the Big Three manufacturers, I think you would have to strongly consider the following lenses (if you can afford them, as they are quite pricey):
1. Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 III
2. Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED
3. Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM
That’s not to say you necessarily need to rush out and purchase one of these lenses. The point of this article is really to help you establish the criteria for picking your own lenses. At the same time, I don’t want to be coy about these obviously great lenses, as they fit the criteria for night sky photography very well.

A Sleeper

When you start putting price limitations on lenses, the list gets short real quick! Most lenses in this range cost well over $ 1000, and many approach $ 2000. You may be looking for something more affordable, as I was. Once I looked at the list further, the Tokina 16-28 mm f/2.8 jumped out at me.

It is under $ 700 in most places and meets all three criteria of being wide (16 mm), fast (f/2.8), and sharp (scoring a 22 on my camera per DXO Mark). I picked one up and like the results. It works great, although there is definitely some coma distortion going on. Still, for the price, it is a great option. This lens is available for both Canon and Nikon cameras.

A Wildcard

There is another affordable option if you don’t mind manual controls – Rokinon lenses. They have several wide angle options to choose from, ranging from 12-24mm. They are prime lenses and are very fast. All have maximum apertures of at least f/2.8. These are all manual lenses though, which means that you will need to focus manually. It also means that you will set the aperture with a ring on the lens, rather than with your camera.

Still, that should not be a problem with night sky photography. You just set the lens at its widest aperture and set the focus at infinity. You might never change it. Because of these manual controls, you can often pick up these lenses for well under $ 400 (check out the Rokinon 14mm). Again, this is just another good option if you don’t mind manual control lenses.

Note: Rokinon also has 12mm and 8mm fish-eye lenses available with mounts for Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, and Micro 4/3 cameras if you want to go really wide.

The Lens for You

Just remember that if you are considering a lens for night sky photography, you’ll want to limit the lens selection to wide-angle lenses (generally 24mm or wider). You can get away with longer focal lengths, but you’ll need them to be extremely fast (probably f/2.0 or greater).

Once you have narrowed down your selection in this fashion, look at fast lenses. Try to get one that opens up to f/2.8 or better. That usually means you are looking at fairly expensive lenses, but as mentioned above there are some affordable options that will get the job done. After that, be sure to check the DXO Mark ratings. But don’t stop there – a simple Google search for the lens(es) you are considering will likely yield a lot of reviews. I am partial to The Digital Picture and DP Review as well.

Hopefully, this article has gotten you familiar with the criteria you need from a lens for night sky photography and has spurred a few ideas. It isn’t meant to limit your alternatives, so if there are other lens options I’ve missed, please let me know in the comment area below.

The post How to Choose a Lens for Night Sky Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
June 20, 2018
PolarPro’s new buyback program gives you credit towards a new filter when you trade in an old one

Earlier this year, PolarPro stepped up its filter game and brought its expertise to the world of DSLR and mirrorless cameras with its QuartzLine filters.

As a follow-up to its latest filter lineup, PolarPro has launched a buyback program that will let you get a certain amount of credit towards a new filter if you return an old one – even if it’s not theirs.

Here’s how it works. For any 37mm or 46mm filter you send in, you’ll be given a $ 20 credit towards a new PolarPro filter. For 67mm, 77mm and 82mm filter sizes, you’ll be given $ 40 in PolarPro credit. You will receive one credit for each filter you send in. Once you’ve agreed to the PolarPro terms for the return, you’ll be given a discount code to use with your PolarPro purchase.

This is the dialog box you’ll see when asked to agree to the terms of the buyback program.

Once your purchase is made, PolarPro will send you an email with a prepaid label to send in your old filter(s). Simply package them up and ship them off within 14 days of receiving your new QuartzLine filter and you’re good to go. You can even use the box they shipped you your new filter in. PolarPro notes that any filters sent in will be recycled or repurposed.

To find out more information and get started with your trade-in, head on over to PolarPro’s buyback page.

Read our original article about QuartzLine filters (April 2018)

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

June 20, 2018
How to do Creative Editing with Layers in ACDSee Ultimate Photo Studio 2018

In my first article on ACDSee Ultimate Photo Studio 2018, I covered all the elements of the program that a beginner would need to know about. This article covers editing in more detail, starting with processing your RAW file in Develop Mode and then doing some creative editing using Layers in Edit Mode.

Layers are a critical part of editing your images. Either in doing your RAW process and then tidying up areas that need it with curves, levels, and other adjustments. Or if you want to add more creativity to your images, with textures, decorative flourishes, fancy text embellishments. Finally, you can go all the way up to compositing, and using layers is the best way to achieve that.

Let’s look at what ACDSee Ultimate Photo Studio 2018 has to offer for editing a RAW file. Then we’ll add a creative edit with texture layers, embellishment layers, and using masks to create a vintage grunge effect.

I am going to assume that you have a basic understanding of RAW editing and using layers and masks and not detail absolutely every step worked through in this process. If you need more help, go back and read: ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 Guide for Beginners first.

Editing a Raw File in Develop Mode

First, open up Manage mode and find the right folder to select an image. For this exercise, I liked the Gerbera Still Life image and decided that the final version should have a grungy vintage look added at the end.

This is the selected image of three crimson gerbera flowers, with a pair of pointe ballet shoes and some sheet music. It’s a bit dark and dull and needs some tweaking which we will do in the Develop mode of ACDSee Ultimate Photo Studio 2018.

Original unedited RAW file

After some basic editing, the image is brighter and the colors are better balanced.

However my final vision for this image is more of a vintage look, and the colors are too bright and rich. So, further editing to bring the saturation down and darken the crimson was applied. This now provides the basis for the layers and creative elements, so it’s saved and then we move into Edit mode.

Creative Editing Using Layers

Switching to Edit Mode by clicking on EDIT with the edited RAW file open will change your workspace. Now the Layers palette is laid out on the right. As there is only the one image open, it shows up as Layer 1.

At the bottom of the Layers palette are the different layer options – hover over each one to find the one you need and click to activate it. For this exercise, we are going to bring in some grunge textures and additional elements to make it look vintage, old, and more artistic.

Textures

I use a lot of textures from 2LilOwls, The Daily Texture, and Distressed Textures. If you are patient you can also make your own but there are plenty of places to acquire them online. The ones used in this article were from 2LilOwls.

My preferred option to add extra layers is to use a second monitor, open up Windows Explorer to the desired folder, find a texture I like and then drag across to my image. Note, when using ACDSee, you have to drag it into the Layers Palette (rather than onto the image directly).

The other option is to click on the “Add A File As A Layer” button which allows you to search for a file within your directory and add it. This was a useful feature which I used several times.

By default, the texture is applied in Normal mode which means only the top layer is visible, which is the texture in this instance. In the Layer Palette it is visible as Layer 2.

The first texture layer has been added – it’s showing in Normal mode so you can only see this layer and not the one below (the image of the flowers).

Blend Mode

Next, change the blend mode of the layer to something that suits the image – either Overlay or Soft Light are good choices to start with. Also, dial down the layer opacity to soften the effect and make it look more pleasing.

Masking parts of the layer

This texture has some heavy vignetting around the edges that is a bit too dark. So to solve that, add a Layer Mask and select a large soft brush at around 30% opacity. Dab the brush in the darker edges and corners to reduce the effect.

The Layer mask is white and it shows up the areas you brush in grey (or black) – you can see where it has been applied in the corners.

Image with texture and layer mask applied with softer tones in the dark corners now

Add more grunge

It needs more grunge so let’s apply a second texture layer. This one has lots of cracks and scratches for a nice vintage effect. It is also a bit lighter around the edges so should balance out the first texture nicely.

The texture file is a different size than the original image but you can drag it out to fit by clicking on the yellow squares on the outside edges and corners.

This layer also had the blend mode changed and the opacity adjusted to suit. The crack effect was quite strong on the flowers so a mask was applied with a soft brush at low opacity that was brushed over the flowers.

More embellishments

The top left and right corners felt a bit empty so I added some decorative embellishments. On the left, is a butterfly with some fancy handwriting and another textural element was added on the right. Both are PNG files that are blended in with low opacity and Soft Light blend mode.

Each element goes onto a separate layer for full control. Masks are applied to remove the effect from the flowers. These become Layers 6 and 7.

Finally, a Photo Effect (Somber) was applied to add a bit more contrast and punch.

Before and after images

Here we have the RAW file after it was edited in Develop mode and some creative adjustments for Saturation and Vibrance applied.

Here we have the final image after the texture layers, embellishments, Photo Effect and masks have been applied.

Additional Notes

As an advanced Photoshop user, I was comfortable using all the layer tools and functions available in ACDSee Ultimate Photo Studio 2018. Most of the usual tools were available and functioned as expected.

The one major issue I found was the inability to change the brush shape. It does not appear possible to import .abr files to add creative brush shapes. The only options for changing the brush are blend mode, size, and opacity and the only shape is round.

You can change the size, hardness, and opacity of the brush but not the actual shape of it. This limits the creative choices available. Some of my brush files were present as PNG images so I was able to import them as individual layers.

Additionally, there were several extra features that were new to me which I found useful. The “Add A File As A Layer” button was extremely helpful and I used that on several occasions. There is also a button for “Adding a Blank Layer”, “Duplicating a Layer” and “Deleting a Layer”. All things that happen frequently and usually require a right mouse click, then a selection and second click. ACDSee made these steps much quicker with a single click.

There were extra adjustment layer functions, in particular, “Photo Effect” that offer a range of predesigned creative effects you can apply as a separate layer, to blend and edit as desired. A Vignette option (similar to Lightroom) was also available to quickly add a vignette.

Conclusion

If you are a beginner to using layers and masks then it can be a bit complicated to get your head around. The good news is that with ACDSee Ultimate Photo Studio 2018 everything that you would expect to be able to do and use to work with layers is all present and accounted for. It looks and functions very similar to Photoshop, so is comfortable for anyone transitioning over.

Except for the ability to change your brush shape, everything necessary to do a basic layer edit was easily recognizable and usable with pretty much no additional learning curve. That is a real bonus for anyone coming across from other programs.

There are also some nice new features that added extra value and made the experience better – in particular, “Add A File As A Layer” is something that I could easily get used to using. For anyone only using one monitor (like on a laptop) that makes adding another image as a layer so much easier. The Move function in Photoshop is really not user-friendly. This is a definite bonus if you are like me and add lots of extra files to your layers when editing.

Working in Edit mode and making a layered image with ACDSee Ultimate Photo Studio 2018 was not difficult and the additional features added real value in unexpected places.

Disclaimer: ACDSee is a dPS advertising partner.

The post How to do Creative Editing with Layers in ACDSee Ultimate Photo Studio 2018 appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School

June 20, 2018
Sigma now shipping Art series prime lenses for Sony E-mount

Sigma has announced that its five of its Sony E-Mount Art-series primes, announced earlier this year, are now shipping. The 20mm F1.4 DG HSM, Sigma 24mm F1.4 DG HSM, Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM, Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG HSM and 85mm F1.4 DG HSM are designed for Sony’s full-frame a7-series and a9 mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. The E-Mount version of the 14mm F1.4 DG HSM (shown above, in prototype form) is expected later.

Optically the E-mount primes are unchanged compared to their DSLR-mount predecessors but are compatible with high-speed continuous autofocus and should offer faster data throughput compared to using a DSLR-mount version with an adapter. This should improve autofocus speed across the board, compared to using a DSLR-mount version with an adapter – something we hope to test for ourselves in the coming weeks.

Press release:

Sigma Ships Five Prime Art Lenses for Sony E-mount Cameras with Full-Frame Sensors

Ronkonkoma, NY – June 19, 2018 – Sigma Corporation of America, a leading still photo and cinema lens, camera, flash and accessory manufacturer, today announced availability of five of its interchangeable Art prime lenses for Sony E-mount camera systems – Sigma 20mm F1.4 DG HSM ($ 899 USD), Sigma 24mm F1.4 DG HSM ($ 849 USD), Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM ($ 899 USD), Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG HSM ($ 949 USD) and Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG HSM ($ 1199 USD).

Offering the same high-performance optical design as other lenses in the Art line, the new Sony E-mount models feature a newly developed control algorithm that optimizes the autofocus drive and maximizes the data transmission speed. In addition, these lenses are compatible with Sony’s Continuous AF (AF-C) and high-speed autofocus, which are not addressed by Sigma Mount Converter MC-11. Like MC-11, the lenses are compatible with in-camera image stabilization and in-camera lens aberration correction, which includes corrections for peripheral illumination, chromatic aberrations and distortion.

Key Features and Benefits

Autofocus Tuned for Each Lens

Thanks to an autofocus drive control program tuned for each lens and high-speed data transmission, the lenses offer a high-speed autofocus at the same performance level as that of a lens designed exclusively for mirrorless cameras. In particular, in E-mount cameras offering Sony’s Fast Hybrid AF, AF-C mode delivers exceptional subject following performance. Autofocus remains
extremely precise even in those E-mount cameras offering only contrast AF.

Compatible with In-Camera Image Stabilization

The lenses are compatible with in-camera image stabilization. The Sony E-mount camera senses the focal length of the lens and automatically optimizes image stabilization performance.

Data Loaded for Compatibility with In-Camera Aberration Correction

The lenses are fully compatible with in-camera aberration correction, which includes corrections for peripheral illumination, chromatic aberrations and distortion. By matching corrections to the optical characteristics of the lens, this function takes image quality to an even higher level.

Native Mount for a More Rigid and Stable Feel

Making the mount native to the lens means a more rigid and stable feel to the lens. Featuring a special surface treatment to enhance strength, the brass bayonet mount offers a high-precision fit and exceptional durability. The mount connection area incorporates rubber sealing for dust- and splash-proof construction.

Available Mount Conversion Service*

This service converts the mount of Sigma lenses to that of a different camera body, allowing photographers to continue using their favorite lenses over the long term regardless of camera system.

*The Mount Conversion Service is different from a normal repair. In order to apply for the service, please contact your nearest authorized Sigma subsidiary or distributor: http://www.sigma-global.com/en/about/world-network/.

**This service is performed exclusively by Sigma.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

June 19, 2018

Adobe Creative Cloud updates bring preset and profile syncing to Lightroom CC

A new batch paste option in Lightroom CC allows settings to be quickly synced across multiple images.

Adobe has announced a raft of updates across its suite of Creative Cloud apps, including Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC.

For photographers, Lightroom CC receives the most substantial updates, which include easy synchronization of presets and profiles across all devices. Preset and profile syncing works with Lightroom’s inbuilt options, as well as custom and third-party presets and profiles. Presets can now be created in Lightroom CC on mobile devices, too. iOS devices also gain a new chromatic aberration removal tool, and a beta ‘long-exposure’ mode which combines multiple images and stacks them to simulate the effect of a long shutter speed without the need for a tripod.

Lightroom CC for iOS now includes a ‘Technology Preview’ of a new long exposure photo mode, which simulates the effect of using a long shutter speed by combining several conventionally-captured exposures into one.

For those using Lightroom CC on a desktop computer, Adobe has improved batch syncing of settings across multiple images, and enhanced the options for sharing albums.

Users of Lightroom Classic CC are promised a substantial update ‘coming soon’ but in the meantime, Adobe has provided an iterative release centering on ‘speed, stability, and a focus on professional workflows’. To that end, Adobe has added new ways of accessing and sorting presets, new color labels for organizing folders, and faster searching inside them.

Learn more about what’s new in Adobe Lightroom CC

Learn more about what’s new in Adobe Lightroom Classic CC

In other news, for designers, Adobe Spark is now available for Android smart devices and Adobe XD benefits from a range of improvements and added features including overlay support and private sharing.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

June 19, 2018

Fujifilm GF 45mm F2.8 R WR sample gallery

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The dust and moisture-sealed FUJINON GF 45mm F2.8 R WR is a 36mm equivalent fast prime for Fujifilm’s GFX 50S. Optical construction comprises 11 elements in eight groups, including one aspherical and two ED elements. But does all of this add up to great image quality?

Judge for yourself in our gallery of real-world samples.

Learn more about the FUJINON GF 45mm F2.8 R WR

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

June 19, 2018
How to Create Silky Smooth Water Effects
You might have seen photos in nature magazines or websites with silky-smooth water effects cascading over rocks, branches, and trees. Have you also wondered how in the world the photographer was able to capture such beautiful images?

For years I thought these types of images were the purview of professional photographers armed with an arsenal of digital tricks and camera tweaks that I would never be able to learn. But in reality, it’s quite simple to make images like these.

You don’t need any computational wizardry or mystical skills, and once you pick up a few basics you can start creating beautiful smooth-water photographs in no time at all.

Limiting the Light

To start with, the goal here is somewhat counterintuitive compared to a lot of other types of photography. Instead of letting in as much light as possible, the goal with smooth-water pictures is to let in the smallest amount of light in order to allow your shutter to remain open as long as it can. This requires a couple of settings on your camera as well as, in most cases, a very inexpensive piece of gear.

When you take a picture at a high shutter speed of 1/125th or 1/500th of a second it’s fast enough to freeze motion and allow you to get a blur-free picture of your subject. This is usually a good thing except when cascading water is involved, as freezing the motion is the opposite of what you are trying to do. Limiting the light allows the water to create motion trails and also adds an entirely different tone to the image, often one of peace and tranquility.

The following two images illustrate what I mean. This first one was taken at 1/60th of a second.

1/60th of a second. Some motion trails are present but the image doesn’t feel calm, and also lacks a focal point.

The next one was taken with a much slower shutter speed and feels like an entirely different picture.

What you need to do

In order to cut down on the incoming light and also make sure you are getting the best images you will need to do the following:
- Shoot in Manual Mode so you can force your camera to do what you want, not what it thinks you want. Using Auto or semi-auto modes (P, Av, Tv, A, or S) will usually not work for these types of shots.
- Shoot in RAW so you can tweak your image afterward. It’s difficult to get smooth-water photos just right straight out of the camera and it’s nice to be able to tweak things to your liking.
- Use a small aperture. Not necessarily the smallest aperture your lens allows, because this can sometimes cause image quality to deteriorate due to light diffraction, but a value of around f/11 or f/16 should be fine.
- Use the lowest native ISO value for your camera. This will let you use slower shutter speeds while also giving you the cleanest, sharpest image possible.
- Use the slowest shutter speed possible without overexposing the image too much. If you’re using RAW you can probably overexpose by one stop and recover things in post-production. But much more than that and you’re going to blow out all your highlights.
- Put your camera on a tripod to minimize any shake or wobble from your hands. My favorite is the Joby Gorillapod since it lets me position my camera using just about any available surface, and allows me to get nice and close to the water as well.
Neutral Density Filters

Even with all this, it’s difficult to get a slow enough shutter speed to really create some good smoothing effects, and the solution is to use a Neutral Density filter. This is an inexpensive attachment that screws on to the front of your lens and cuts down the incoming light.

I like to think of it as putting sunglasses on your camera. This is the secret to getting the type of silky smooth water effects you have always admired but never knew how to create on your own.

Here, a long exposure of 1-second not only smoothed the water in the fountain but evened out the surface of the pond as well.

There are many different kinds of ND filters that block varying levels of light, but my recommendation for smooth-water images is one that blocks 3 or 6 stops of light. Others are available but they block so much light that it’s difficult to get your exposure settings right.

You can find ND filters at any camera retailer but the key is to get one that fits your lens. Look on your lens cap to find the thread size. It will usually be the Greek letter phi followed by a number, such as 53mm or 58mm.

ND filters often come in packs of two or three. While these cheaper ones aren’t going to produce the absolutely highest-quality results they are a fantastic and inexpensive way to get started.

Getting the Shot

I enjoy creating silky smooth water images on cloudy days since it means even more light is blocked – almost like nature’s own ND filter. Morning and evening are good times to shoot as well. But any time of day will work as long as you can get slow shutter speeds using a small aperture, low ISO, and an ND filter.

2 seconds. The long exposure time really helped create a sense of motion in the background while the leaf in the foreground serves as a focal point for the viewer.

Use Live View

I like to use Live View when preparing my shot since I can adjust the exposure parameters and see the image lighten or darken in real-time. But if you are using an optical viewfinder just pay attention to your light meter and you should be fine.

When your camera is ready and you have your shot composed, use your camera’s self-timer so you don’t add any shakiness to the image with your fingers when you press the shutter.

This method can also be used for adding a layer of gloss to moving waters, which is a fun way to add a bit of a creative element to pictures taken at the beach. The difference is that instead of trying to get pictures that show the motion of water, you are trying to make the water as smooth as possible.

At 1/90th of a second, the water is full of ripples and small waves.

Limiting the amount of incoming light by using the techniques above (small aperture, low ISO, and ND filters) I was able to virtually eliminate the appearance of imperfections on the surface of the water.

6 seconds. In addition to the surface being smooth, a host of large and small rocks are now visible which creates an additional almost otherworldly feeling.

Conclusion

Creating these types of images can be addicting! Once you get the hang of it, you may want to spend all day seeing what you can create with your camera. It doesn’t take much, but it opens up a whole new photography frontier that can be extraordinarily enjoyable and highly rewarding.

The post How to Create Silky Smooth Water Effects appeared first on Digital Photography School.

Digital Photography School
June 19, 2018
Google reveals how to simulate shallow DOF from a single mobile camera

Google has published an 18-page study fully detailing the synthetic depth-of-field technology that makes its single-camera Portrait Mode possible. Google introduced its evolved Portrait Mode feature on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, though neither smartphone model has the dual-camera hardware typically required to produce this effect.

The in-depth paper shows a degree of openness unusual for the smartphone and camera industries. Smartphones with a single camera produce images where everything is generally in focus. Dual-camera phones paired with a stereo algorithm get around this limitation by matching points in images from both cameras to determine depth within the captured scene. Having acquired that depth data, some pixels can be selectively blurred to produce the shallow DOF effect, Google explained in a blog post last year.

Achieving this same effect using only a single camera is difficult. Some mobile camera apps attempt to simulate a shallow DOF by separating an image’s pixels into two layers, isolating the foreground, and then blurring the remaining pixels; this is called semantic segmentation. The lack of depth data, however, means the software doesn’t know how much blur to apply to any arbitrary object in the scene. The results can often be lackluster or unrealistic, without the gradual optical blur expected of objects receding into the distance.

That’s where Google’s “authentic defocus” technology comes in. The Pixel 2 smartphones utilize the semantic segmentation method for images taken with the front-facing camera, but they also use a stereo algorithm for images taken with the rear camera… despite there only being a single lens. Google provided an overview of how it achieves that on its AI blog in October.

There are advantages to Google’s technology versus using a second camera, including reducing the space taken up by the imaging module, reduced power consumption, and helping keep costs down.

Put simply, Google repurposes its dual-pixel auto focus hardware utilized increasingly in mobile cameras for fast AF. Each pixel on the sensor is split into two photodiodes; the left- and right-looking (or up- and down-looking) photodiodes essentially establish two perspectives of the scene with a ~1mm stereo baseline. A burst of images are aligned and averaged to reduce noise, and a stereo algorithm computes a depth map from the two perspectives. This simulates the data that would be provided by two physical cameras next to each other, enabling Google’s software to determine the depth of every point within the captured scene.

There’s a lot more to Google’s approach, including even advantages over traditional optics – for example in its choice to force a larger depth-of-field around the focus plane to ensure a sharp subject, something impossible to achieve optically. The study also points out that there are advantages to Google’s technology versus using a second camera, including reducing the space taken up by the imaging module, reduced power consumption, and helping keep costs down.

Read the full PDF here.

Via: Cornell University Library

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

June 19, 2018
Canon teases CMOS sensor nearly 40 times larger than a 35mm full-frame sensor

In 2010, Canon revealed that it was developing the world’s largest CMOS sensor, one measuring about 40 times larger than a full-frame CMOS sensor. The company has now added more details about the project to its website, including a discussion of a real-world application.

Whereas a 35mm full-frame sensor measures 36 x 24mm, Canon’s massive chip measures about 200 x 200mm. Canon gives a little detail about some of the challenges presented by such a large sensor and how it overcame them, saying in part:

Increasing the size of CMOS sensors entails overcoming such problems as distortion and transmission delays for the electrical signals converted from light. To resolve these issues, Canon not only made use of a parallel processing circuit, but also exercised ingenuity with the transfer method itself.

Overcoming this problem allowed comparatively fast readout of the sensor’s huge pixels, allowing it to capture video at 60fps in conditions as dark as 0.3 lux, which is about as bright as a night scene illuminated by the moon.

The company says the sensor has already been used by Japan’s Kiso Observatory to capture the first ever video of meteors that otherwise would have been too faint to record. This allowed analysis of the meteor frequency, providing supporting evidence for a theoretical model of meteor behavior.

Canon also suggests the ultrahigh-sensitivity sensor could be used for various other applications requiring video in extreme low-light conditions, such as studying the behavior of nocturnal animals or shooting video of aurora.

Via: Canon

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

June 19, 2018