Plug-in Suite 5 for Adobe Photoshop

Onone Press Release

onOne Software Announces Plug-in Suite 5 for Adobe Photoshop

New Version of Award-Winning Software Suite Offers Six Essential Tools That Help Photographers Achieve Better Results

PORTLAND, Ore.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of innovative, timesaving solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, today announced Plug-in Suite 5 for Adobe Photoshop. Designed to solve the most common problems facing photographers in the areas of color correction, enlarging, masking and professional photographic effects, the Plug-in Suite 5 combines full versions of six essential software tools in one affordable package: FocalPoint 2, PhotoTune 3, PhotoFrame 4.5 Professional Edition, PhotoTools 2.5 Professional Edition, Genuine Fractals 6 Professional Edition and MaskPro 4.

With support for Photoshop CS2, CS3 and CS4 the onOne Software Plug-in Suite 5 now includes the new onOne Panel which provides quick access to all products, Windows 64 bit support and the ability to access select plug-ins from within Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 and Apple Aperture 2.1. Plug-in Suite 5 will be available in November.

“This is our biggest product update and release in over 4 years,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. “Since the release of Plug-In Suite 4, we have been working closer than ever with both professional and enthusiast photographers to make sure that Plug-In Suite 5 continues to solve the most common problems they face as photographers. We are confident that Plug-In Suite 5 continues in the onOne tradition of providing photographers with software that sets the standard for value, quality and ease-of-use.”

Plug-in Suite 5 includes full versions of the following onOne Software products:

FocalPoint 2 – Like bringing the camera lens inside Photoshop, this new version of FocalPoint 2 gives photographers the best way to add the most realistic depth of field and selective focus control to any image after it is photographed. Photographers now have an incredible amount of flexibility and control over the look of the blur with FocalPoint 2’s new blur algorithm, FocusBrush, Lens Presets and multiple FocusBug features.

PhotoTune 3 – Getting great color doesn’t have to be so hard. This new version of PhotoTune 3 uses patented eye-fidelityTM technology, originally developed by and licensed from imsense to optimize the dynamic range, color and sharpness of images so that they look more true-to-life. The improved Wizard offers fast color and tone correction in as little as two steps while giving pro users direct access to advanced and innovative controls. SkinTune, which represents two years of research and analysis of thousands of skin tones, now offers one-click color correction of portraits and the option to correct just the skin in an image.

PhotoFrame 4.5 Professional Edition – With PhotoFrame 4.5, you can add the perfect finishing touch to your images with over 100 exciting new professionally designed frames, backgrounds, textures and layouts including over a dozen from professional photographer Kersti Malvre. With one thousand design elements like film edges, borders, textures, backgrounds and adornments, PhotoFrame 4.5 Professional Edition even has complete layouts where users can simply drop an image in and they are done. It is the easiest and fastest way to add an authentic darkroom touch with a film edge or to create beautiful albums or scrapbook pages

PhotoTools 2.5 Professional Edition – PhotoTools 2.5 is the highly acclaimed Photoshop plug-in that allows photographers of all skill levels to maximize the full power of Photoshop with it’s ability to preview and combine Photoshop Actions in a single, intuitive interface. Designed by photographers for photographers, PhotoTools 2.5 Professional now includes a new MaskingBug control based on the FocusBug control from the award-winning FocalPoint plug-in. The new MaskingBug allows photographers to create high-quality masks to selectively apply effects to images. With over 30 new creative effects, for a total effect library of 280, photographers can easily find, combine and save the results to create images that truly stand out.

Genuine Fractals 6 Professional Edition - The industry standard for enlarging photos, Genuine Fractals 6 enlarges images up to 1,000% while maintaining sharp edges and important image details. Genuine Fractals 6 now includes an automated gallery wrap feature and output options for tiling an enlarged photo. No other resizing plug-in is as widely used by more professionals than Genuine Fractals.

MaskPro 4 – For those times when you need to extract a subject from a photo, Mask Pro 4 uses a color-based method that allows users to easily remove unwanted backgrounds from your photos. Mask Pro’s unique Color Decontamination technology allows users to get realistic results by maintaining transparency in hard to mask objects like hair, smoke and glass in a fraction of the time using traditional tools.

Availability

The new Plug-in Suite 5 will be available in November to new users for $599.95; purchased separately the products would normally cost $1,300. Existing users of Plug-in Suite version 1, 2, 3 or 4 can upgrade to the Plug-in Suite 5 for $199.95. Customers who own any one or more of the products in Plug-in 5 will be able to upgrade as well by visiting http://www.ononesoftware.com/upgrade/. For more information on the Plug-in Suite 5, please visit http://www.ononesoftware.com/.

About onOne Software

onOne Software, Inc. a leading developer of innovative software tools for photographers, develops time-saving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers. onOne Software solutions have been created to help photographers spend more of their time behind the camera taking pictures instead of the computer workstation. Such solutions include a wide range of easy-to-use plug-in enhancements for Adobe® Photoshop®, Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Lightroom, Apple Aperture, Apple iPhoto and iPhone applications. Founded in 2005, onOne Software is a privately held company located in Portland, Oregon. For additional information, visit http://www.ononesoftware.com/ or call 1-888-968-1468.

© 2009 onOne Software. All rights reserved. onOne Software and the onOne Software logo are registered trademarks in the United States, and all are the property of onOne Software. Adobe and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

 

Technorati Tags: onOne,Photoshop,Lightroom

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Classroom in a Book

Black and White in Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Lightroom: Create stunning monochromatic images in Photoshop CS3, Photoshop Lightroom, and beyond

Kubota Image Tools Announces Kubota RPG SpeedKeys 2.0 for Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2

Press Release

Designed to optimize a photographer’s workflow and enhance creativity,this updated wireless USB device allows for complete user customization

New York, NY, PhotoPlus Expo Booth #854 – (October 22, 2009) – Kubota Image Tools is pleased to announce the newest addition to the Kubota Lightspeed Workflow family – new Kubota RPG SpeedKeys 2.0 for Lightroom 2. Kubota RPG SpeedKeys 2.0 for Lightroom 2 is a customizable wireless USB keypad with preset 1-button access to: essential adjustments such as brightness, exposure, fill light and more; the most popular Kubota Lightroom presets; and advanced tools such as paint with light, burn, soften skin, and hand-color.

In addition, the Kubota RPG SpeedKeys 2.0 now offers 48 new key options for completely customizable functionality. This gives users the ability to create hundreds of settings and preset combinations. The innovative Kubota RPG SpeedKeys software allows photographers to use pre-programmed workflow key combinations or they can use their own presets settings.

Kubota RPG SpeedKeys 2.0 comes loaded with 29 Kubota Lightroom Presets. As a bonus, the SpeedKeys comes with the entire collection of Kubota Lightroom Presets v3, which includes develop, export, print, filter, and more. All of the presets included in Kubota Lightroom Presets v1 and v2 are also included in the set, plus brand new presets never before available. There are over 100 presets in all.

“One of the things I’ve really wanted in order to improve my Lightroom workflow was a way to apply my most common adjustments and develop presets with a simple key press,” said Kevin Kubota, Idea Man of Kubota Image Tools. “Photographers will be surprised at how much time and energy they can save by not having to click little buttons with a mouse all the time. It doesn’t sound like a big difference, but over the course of editing thousands of images, photographers will really notice how this little tool can greatly improve their workflow. RPG Keys was able to create a custom keypad for us that integrated customizable functionality, my most used adjustments, develop presets, and local adjustment brushes, all on one small device. RPG Keys is a great company to work with and it’s a perfect pairing of our workflow tools and their hardware solution.”

“We at RPG Keys are excited about partnering with Kubota Image Tools to offer the new SpeedKeys line of products,” said Timothy Riley, wedding photographer and

founder of RPG Keys. “The Kubota RPG SpeedKeys 2.0 is the perfect marriage of art and technology allowing photographers the ability to create amazing images, in a fraction of the time. As always, happy editing!”

The Kubota RPG SpeedKeys 2.0 for Lightroom is available for purchase at: http://www.kubotaimagetools.com/ . Price is $349.00. It is available as a free upgrade to customers who purchased the first version of the Kubota RPG SpeedKeys. Also available is the Kubota RPG SpeedKeys 2.0 with Kubota RAW Workflow for Lightroom 2. This video tutorial helps photographers learn how to efficiently use Adobe Lightroom 2. This combination pack is available now for $399 (a savings of $50 if purchased separately).

System Requirements: PC or Mac running Adobe^® Lightroom^® 2 or higher
Available USB 2.0 Port

About Kubota Image Tools

Kubota Image Tools (www.kubotaimagetools.com) grew from the digital experience of Kevin Kubota who began pioneering the field of completely digital wedding photography in the 1990s. As one of the first photographers to master digital imaging, Kevin became inspired to share his experience and natural teaching ability with other photographers by founding the original Digital Photography Bootcamp® which consistently fills to capacity. He has successfully trained thousands of photographers to make the digital transition and continuously empowers existing digital photographers with new, effective workflow ideas and outstanding Photoshop techniques.

Through his Web site, www.KubotaImageTools.com, Kevin sells workflow training products and image enhancing tools for Photoshop^®. His innovative DASHBOARD^™ has made image enhancement faster and easier than ever. Through his ever evolving blog, Kevin provides tips and tricks on all things digital.

Kevin Kubota’s wedding, portrait and commercial photography Web site is www.KubotaPhotoDesign.com.

 

Technorati Tags: Kubota Image Tools,Kevin Kubota,Photoshop,Lightroom

 

 

Digital Photography Boot Camp: A Step-by-Step Guide for Professionals

Digital Photography Boot Camp: A Step-by-Step Guide for Professional Wedding and Portrait Photographers

Nik Software Announces Viveza® 2 for Adobe® Photoshop®, Lightroom® & Apple® Aperture™

Press Release

Now offers a complete range of new and powerful selective and global adjustments for fast and efficient photo editing

New York, NY (PhotoPlus Expo Booth #766) – October 22, 2009 – Nik Software announces today Viveza 2, an upgrade to its award winning and revolutionary plug-in for selective color and light control. Available in December, Viveza 2 now offers users robust global adjustments and precise selective controls that utilize Nik Software’s award-winning U Point^® technology. Viveza 2 eliminates the need to create complicated selections or layer masks and provides a powerful solution for users looking to save time and effort when editing images.

“New global image controls added to Viveza’s powerful selective editing capabilities now enable users to quickly and easily perform virtually all of their color and light adjustments within a single step,” said Michael J. Slater president and CEO of Nik Software. “New features such as shadow recovery, structure control, increased precision of selections, and user interface improvements together give users ultimate control, enabling truly spectacular results.”

Viveza 2, powered by Nik Software’s patented U Point technology, is the most powerful and precise tool available to globally and selectively control light and color in photographs. With

U Point technology, users can quickly select areas of an image to adjust by pointing and clicking and then using simple to use sliders to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, structure, red, green, blue, hue, and warmth in a fraction of the time needed by other tools.

Key features of Viveza 2 include:

• Powerful Color Control Points, enabling precise selective control of color and light
• New global image adjustments
• New and powerful levels and curves adjustments
• New shadow recovery—global or selective
• New fine detail structure enhancements
• Improved color rendering and increased precision of selections
• Improved timesaving user interface, including improved slider controls, slider favorites, multiple zoom states, keyboard nudging, grouped Color Control Points, and multiple undo levels
• Smart Filter support (Photoshop only)
• Selective Brush tool (Photoshop only)
• Multi-image support (Lightroom and Aperture only)
• New 64-bit support on Microsoft Windows

Pricing and Availability

Nik Software’s Viveza 2, offering support for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Apple Aperture, will be available via electronic and boxed delivery directly from Nik Software (www.niksoftware.com) or through specialty camera retailers. A complete list of resellers may be found at www.niksoftware.com/resellers.

Viveza 2 retails for $199.95. Customers that already own Viveza can upgrade for $99.95. Customers who have purchased Viveza after September 22, 2009 will be eligible for a free upgrade to Viveza 2.

To watch a video introduction of Viveza 2 and to sign up to be notified when the software is available, please visit www.niksoftware.com/viveza2.

About Nik Software

Nik Software, Inc. is a privately held company that develops software solutions for the growing digital imaging and photography markets. Established in 1995, Nik Software has become the recognized leader in digital photographic filter development and produces award-winning technology and software products for digital photography and imaging professionals including U Point^® technology (www.upoint.com), Dfine^®, Viveza^®, Color Efex Pro™, Silver Efex Pro™, and Sharpener Pro™ software.

 

Technorati Tags: Photoshop,Nik,Viveza,Aperture,Lightroom

 

Photoshop CS4 Down & Dirty Tricks

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers

Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture 2

Nik Software Adds Comprehensive Online Webinar Schedule to its Free Educational Offerings

Press Release

Free webinars offer information, insights and tips on using Nik Software products

New York, NY, PhotoPlus Expo Booth #766 (October 22, 2009) — Nik Software announces today its Fall 2009 Webinar schedule. These seven hour-long educational webinars, which continue through mid-December, cover a range of photography topics including portrait, sports/action, wildlife, landscapes, weddings, commercial and Capture NX2 while offering basic information, insights and tips on using all Nik Software’s award-winning image enhancing plug-in products. Additionally, the webinars enable attendees to pose questions to the live educators.

“These free online webinars are designed to show how each Nik Software plug-in product can be used to enhance any photographer’s work within all types of photography while dramatically reducing editing time and complexity,” said Tony Corbell, Nik Software’s senior manager for product education and planning. “Education is so important to today’s busy digital photographer and Nik Software is committed to empowering everyone to get the most out of their photographs with our products.”

The Nik Software webinars have been developed to address specific types of photographic styles and are designed to appeal to everyone. Both current Nik Software customers and those who have not yet purchased a Nik Software product will learn more about how these tools can simplify their digital photography workflow and create extraordinary images. Participants only need to log in from their computer to access these free educational events. By the end of each webinar, attendees learn quick, easy and powerful ways to enhance their photographs.

To register for any of the webinars listed below, please visit: http://www.niksoftware.com/webinar.

In addition to these webinars, Nik Software currently offers over 70 brief online learning videos for the entire line of Nik Software products including Dfine^® 2.0, Viveza^®, Color Efex Pro™ 3.0, Silver Efex Pro™, and Sharpener Pro™ 3.0 software. For a free download, streaming access or iPod versions, please visit: http://www.niksoftware.com/lessons.

October 27, 2009 — 10:00am PST

Enhancing the Portrait image

This Nik Software training webinar is dedicated to the features and functionality specially designed in its product line to take portrait photography to a new level. From showcasing techniques for color correction and retouching to traditional filters and a touch of creativity, this webinar will show photographers how Nik Software products can help them make gorgeous memorable portraits.

October 29, 2009 — 10:00am PST

Improving on Sports and Action Images

Working with sports and action photography often requires precision timing and optimum camera technique to be successful. On occasion there is the need for optimizing an image after the shoot. This webinar will show photographers how Nik Software can enhance photographic depth of field, introduce how to imply motion and the freezing of action to images, how to correct for changing color temperature and more.

November 12, 2009 — 10:00am PST
Critters and Creatures

Nik Software’s own Laurie Shupp, an accomplished wildlife and nature photographer, teaches techniques specific to photographing wildlife. Attendees will see her beautiful wildlife work as she leads them through a series of enhancements including optimizing skies and backgrounds, highlighting animal fur, and minimizing distractions while maximizing primary subjects.

November 19, 2009 — 10:00am PST

Enhancing the Landscape Image

Photographers can follow along during the webinar as techniques designed to improve outdoor landscape images are illustrated in detail using numerous Nik Software products. Though particular styles and techniques differ from photographer to photographer, Nik Software products work together to capably handle all corrections and enhancements that combine to improve the overall photograph.

December 1, 2009 — 10:00am PST

Wedding Photography Techniques featuring Lightroom

Working specifically inside the host application of Adobe Lightroom^®, this webinar focuses on how Nik Software products can enhance wedding photography by optimizing colors, creatively converting images to black-and-white and more. Attendees will learn tricks for batch processing and editing hundreds or even thousands of images.

December 10, 2009 — 10:00am PST

The Power of Capture NX2

Working primarily with RAW Nikon NEF files, the Nik Software team will again showcase the incredible power and ease of use of Capture NX2. This software features innovative U Point^® technology for precise selective editing along with numerous other editing capabilities simply not found in other software. The intuitive nature of Capture NX2 helps photographers of all levels master editing techniques in days, not weeks, months or even years.

December 15, 2009 — 10:00am PST

Editing the Commercial Image

This webinar is devoted to commercial photography and the special needs this style of photography requires to satisfy demanding clients. Color correction, retouching and other techniques will be showcased on beautiful photography examples from some of the industry’s leading photographers.

About Nik Software

Nik Software, Inc. is a privately held company that develops software solutions for the growing digital imaging and photography markets. Established in 1995, Nik Software has become the recognized leader in digital photographic filter development and produces award-winning technology and software products for digital photography and imaging professionals including U Point^® technology (www.upoint.com), Dfine^® 2.0, Viveza^®, Color Efex Pro™ 3.0, Silver Efex Pro™, and Sharpener Pro™ 3.0 software.

 

Technorati Tags: Nik Software,Webinar,Photoshop

 

Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: A Professional Image Editor's Guide to the Creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC

Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One

CANON U.S.A. ANNOUNCES TWO NEW REALiS MULTIMEDIA LCOS PROJECTORS WITH NEW "PHOTO IMAGE MODE" FOR ADVANCED COLOR MANAGEMENT

Press Release

 

New Mode Allows Users To Have Greater Control Over The Look Of Projected Images.

CANON U.S.A. ANNOUNCES TWO NEW REALiS MULTIMEDIA LCOS PROJECTORS WITH NEW "PHOTO IMAGE MODE" FOR ADVANCED COLOR MANAGEMENT

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., October 6, 2009 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, today announced the addition of two new projectors to its acclaimed line of REALiS Multimedia LCOS Projectors, the WUX10 Mark II and SX80 Mark II. These projectors include a new Photo Image Mode allowing for advanced color management and adjustments for ambient lighting conditions. This new mode is ideal for professionals with the most discerning image quality needs, including those in the fields of photography, education, engineering and the arts and sciences.

With the introduction of the Photo Image Mode, users can take advantage of added flexibility to improve the look and feel of images being projected. The new Ambient Light function allows users to adjust for lighting conditions by selecting from easy-to-use presets for both the type of lighting (Tungsten, Fluorescent and Fluorescent H) and intensity (Low, Medium or High). When selected, these options will automatically adjust the settings to ensure optimum color reproduction and image quality. In additon to adjusting for ambient lighting, the Photo Image Mode allows for fine-tuning of both color levels (intensity of colors) and color temperature. Similar to the ambient lighting, both of these adjustments can be made with easy-to-use presets. These new functions are ideal for users who are displaying content and cannot control the lighting conditions – such as educators speaking in classrooms or photographers showing their work in an art museum/gallery or at a seminar.
"The emergence of projectors used in the education and photography fields has grown considerably in the past few years," said Yuichi Ishizuka, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon U.S.A. "With the inclusion of the Photo Image Mode on these new products, users have added flexibility to fine-tune their projected images so they closely reflect how they were initially captured."
The new Canon REALiS WUX10 Mark II Multimedia Projector features an impressive WUXGA 1920 x 1200 native resolution (2.30 megapixels), 3200 lumens of brightness and 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio. This projector is the perfect solution for the increasing number of professional users displaying widescreen content as it supports 1080p full high-definition video (uncompressed) and offers a significantly larger display area than traditional XGA projectors. Similar to all other REALiS models, the WUX10 Mark II features advanced LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) technology, best known for producing smooth and grid-free images with fine details and exceptional color reproduction.
The new Canon REALiS SX80 Mark II Multimedia Projector is a high-resolution SXGA+ 1400 x 1050 (1.47 megapixels) model combining multiple user-friendly features, such as PictBridge connectivity, with easy installation and overall affordability. The SX80 Mark II also delivers 3000 lumens of brightness, a wide selection of video and audio inputs/outputs (HDMI and DVI included) and advanced LCOS technology. Whether in the corporate or education fields, this new projector provides the amazing quality and reliability users have come to expect from Canon's REALiS Multimedia Projector models.
Additional key features found on both new Multimedia Projectors include:

Genuine Canon 1.5x Powered Zoom/Focus Lens for increased resolution and suppression of lens aberrations

10:0 lens offset to reduce the need for tilting and/or keystone correction

RJ-45 Network Port and built-in network interface for centralized control and monitoring of multiple projector units (both projectors are also compatible with industry-standard controllers)
LCOS Technology
Realizing high levels of imaging performance, LCOS technology has garnered considerable attention within the industry. Compared with devices utilized in projectors employing different types of projection systems, LCOS panels facilitate the reproduction of exceptionally high-resolution images free of the "screen door effect," a visual distraction common to LCD projectors, in which a faint grid pattern appears over the projected image. In addition, Canon's proprietary AISYS (Aspectual Illumination System) Optical Engine further enhances the image quality by maximizing the performance of the LCOS panels and equalizing light from the projection lamp, delivering high brightness and deep contrast.
Availability and Warranty Information
The REALiS WUX10 Mark II Multimedia Projector has a suggested list price of $12,999 while the REALiS SX80 Mark II Multimedia has a suggested list price of $3,999. Both projectors are scheduled to be available in October, and are backed by Canon USA's Three-Year Limited Warranty and its exclusive Projector Protection Program ("Triple P"). Triple P is a FREE service program that provides a loaner projector of equal or greater value in the event that a qualifying unit is in need of repair. Triple P is available on all Canon projector models during the Three-Year Canon USA Limited Warranty period.^*
Free Lamp Offer
In conjunction with this announcement, Canon U.S.A. is also launching a Free Lamp Promotion which will run from October 1 – December 31, 2009. During this time, any qualifying end-user who purchases a new REALiS WUX10 Mark II, REALiS SX80 Mark II, REALiS SX80 or REALiS SX800 Multimedia Projector will receive a FREE lamp by mail – a $579 retail value. For more information about this promotion, including complete terms and conditions, please visit www.usa.canon.com/promotions.
For more information about our full-line of REALiS Multimedia LCOS Projectors, visit www.usa.canon.com/projectors.
About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc. is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked third overall in the U.S. in 2008†, with global revenues of US $45 billion, is listed as number four in the computer industry on Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies 2009 list, and is on the 2009 BusinessWeek list of "100 Best Global Brands." Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all of the products it distributes. At Canon, we care because caring is essential to living together in harmony. Founded upon a corporate philosophy of Kyosei – "all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future" – Canon U.S.A. supports a number of social, youth, educational and other programs, including environmental and recycling initiatives. Additional information about these programs can be found at www.usa.canon.com/kyosei. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss.

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† Based on weekly patent counts issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office
Availability, specifications and prices subject to change without notice. Actual prices are set by the individual dealer and may vary.
All referenced product names, and other marks, are trademarks of their respective owners.

Technorati Tags: Projectors,Canon

X-Rite Introduces ColorChecker Passport Into Digital Photography Raw Workflows – from Capture to Edit

All-new Hardware/Software Solution Also Offers Adobe® Imaging Solutions Users Even More Power With Seamless Integration of DNG Profiling & Many Other Passport Features.

Grand Rapids, MI –September 15, 2009– (NASDAQ: XRIT) X-Rite, Incorporated – the world leader in color management and measurement technologies today introduced ColorChecker Passport, an all-new solution for digital photographers working in a Raw workflow to quickly and easily capture accurate color, instantly enhance portraits and landscapes, and maintain color control from capture to edit. The powerful color control and creativity possible with the all-new X-Rite ColorChecker Passport are designed to be adopted into any Raw workflow – a solution made even more powerful when combined with Adobe® Imaging Solutions for those who want to benefit from DNG profile creation and the many other seamlessly integrated features of Passport. JPEG shooters benefit, as well.
“We developed ColorChecker Passport primarily for photographers working in a Raw workflow. It’s a powerful capture to edit solution for color control and creativity that becomes even more powerful for DNG profile creation when combined with Adobe Imaging Solutions. Users will benefit from the included Camera Calibration Application and Lightroom® Plug-In software to create Custom DNG Profiles that accommodate different lighting sources, even unusual artificial lighting. The extended functionality from the all-new camera calibration software also ensures an accurate color foundation, image to image and camera to camera,” states X-Rite Senior VP of Sales and Marketing Iris Mangelschots.
Introducing Raw Color Power From Capture To Edit
Based on X-Rite’s renowned ColorChecker product line, ColorChecker Passport allows those working in Raw to quickly and easily capture accurate color, instantly enhance portraits and landscapes and maintain color control from capture to edit  – significantly reducing image processing time and improving quality control. In addition, ColorChecker Passport delivers valuable color control benefits to JPEG shooters.
This all-new hardware/software color solution comes in a durable, protective “passport” sized case for the ultimate in functionality and portability, and combines camera calibration software and three photographic targets.
The Total Package Comes With:

White Balance Target

Classic Target

Creative Enhancement Target

Camera Calibration Software

Protective Case & Lanyard
All-new Creative Enhancement Capabilities: The Look You Desire In A Few Clicks
Whether it’s a studio shot, a colorful landscape or a multiple scene photo event, ColorChecker Passport extends the power of photo editing software with one-click enhancements that articulate your inspiration in a fraction of the time.
The Enhancement Target also provides a visual reference for judging, controlling and editing images for shadow details, highlight clipping or color shifts. This includes multiple levels of warming and cooling patches for portraits and landscapes to help create pleasing and repeatable edits with a single click. When it comes to clipping, the all-new Passport Creative Enhancement target offers the ability to quickly verify any clipping and ensure that the image has optimal shadow and highlight detail as well as ensure color fidelity across all hues.  
Extending An Industry Classic: Color Referencing For Specific Color Evaluation – PLUS DNG Profile Creation
The customary functionality of the Passport Classic Target is now extended with the included camera calibration software that produces DNG profiles of your camera’s response to the individual scene’s lighting. As a result, you get consistent, predictable and repeatable results from image to image and camera to camera. You can quickly establish an accurate color foundation, minimize color differences between cameras and lenses, and easily adapt for mixed lighting.
The Passport Classic Target still provides a built-in point of visual color reference. Photograph the Classic target in the same lighting as your images; then open it in your photo processing software as a reference to help with color correction.
The Classic Target also includes the 24 color reference patches, a long-time industry standard, with each patch representing the colors of natural objects, such as sky blue, skin tones and leaf green; and each patch reflecting light just like its real world counterpart. Each square is individually colored using a solid tone to produce pure, flat, rich color without dots or mixed tints.
The Classic target can help photographers make global corrections based on accurate information, saving hours of time by giving them a point of reference to see exactly how changes will affect the rest of the colors in an image before application.
White Balance Target:  Capture True Colors from the Start
The ColorChecker Passport White Balance Target is a newly formulated spectrally flat target that provides a neutral reference point that reflects light equally across the visible spectrum, compensating for varying lighting conditions. With the Passport White Balance Target, you’ll be able to eliminate problems that can arise from inaccurate white balancing such as color casts, and improve camera display previews for more reliable histograms as well as speed up post-production editing by eliminating the need to neutralize each image individually.
All-new Camera Calibration Software: Custom DNG Profiles with Adobe Imaging Solutions for an Accurate Color Foundation
With the included ColorChecker Passport Camera Calibration Application and Lightroom® Plug-In, shooters can quickly and easily build DNG profiles for Adobe® Imaging solutions including Lightroom®, Photoshop®, Photoshop® Elements, Camera Raw (ACR) and Bridge.
This new advanced profiling technology provides excellent results with just the small 24-patch ColorChecker Classic target, producing DNG profiles that work exceptionally well, even in unusual artificial light sources. Whether shooting with just one camera, or multiple cameras, photographers can easily establish an accurate color foundation and maintain control of their colors.
Passport Camera Calibration advantages include:

Camera calibration for Raw shooters for greater capability to calibrate and correct color

Accurate color that provides a consistent foundation for creative interpretation

Minimized color differences between cameras and lenses

Automatic adaption for mixed lighting

Color balance matches across different scenes

Dual-illuminant profiles that take into account two different light sources in a single profile
Create Dual-Illuminant Profiles
A very powerful feature of the software is the ability to create dual-illuminant DNG profiles. This type of profile takes into account two different light sources to create a single profile, which can be applied to an even wider variety of lighting conditions. Dual-Illuminant profiles can be made with any two of twenty-one supported illuminants, allowing you to create a profile for just about any kind of lighting condition you may encounter. Dual-illuminant profiles allow you the freedom to move between the represented lighting conditions without switching profiles.
Great for JPEG Shooters, Too
From the start, ColorChecker Passport has great benefits for those who shoot in a JPEG workflow.  You can ensure your JPEG files are captured correctly from the onset, giving you greater freedom to evaluate and optimize shadow details or highlight clippings as well as an excellent visual reference for color spectrum and color adjustments.
A Portable Protective Case: A Passport For Any Shoot
Rugged enough to take anywhere, small enough to fit into a camera bag or pocket, the protective casing adjusts to multiple positions to self-stand, providing the flexibility to place the targets exactly where needed and includes a lanyard for additional convenience for scene placement.
“With ColorChecker Passport, you can expect much faster image processing time, improved quality control, all in a cool little package that you can take anywhere,” Mangelschots confirms.
See For Yourself: Passport Featured On All-new Website
To view ColorChecker Passport’s features and benefits in action, visit xritephoto.com and click on the product page to view a ColorChecker Passport video. Featuring pro photographer and X-Rite Coloratti Seth Resnick, the video is one of the many informative tools available on the all-new website. xritephoto.com is both an online resource center and virtual community for anyone interested in digital photography to learn, explore, and exchange ideas about color.
Availability
Now Shipping. ColorChecker Passport is available exclusively through the MAC Group in the US and through participating dealers around the globe.
About X-Rite
(NASDAQ: XRIT) X-Rite is the global leader in color science and technology. The company, which now includes color industry leader PANTONE Inc., develops, manufactures, markets and supports innovative color solutions through measurement systems, software, color standards and services. X-Rite’s expertise in inspiring, selecting, measuring, formulating, communicating and matching color helps users get color right the first time and every time, which translates to better quality and reduced costs. X-Rite serves a range of industries, including printing, packaging, photography, graphic design, video, automotive, paints, plastics, textiles, dental and medical. For further information, please visit www.xrite.com.

 

Color Management for Photographers: Hands on Techniques for Photoshop Users

 

Technorati Tags: xRite,Color Managment,Color Correction

X-Rite Says Show Us Your ColorMunki & Win Big

The Fun Begins Oct 1 With Contest For Side-splitting Videos Featuring ColorMunki On YouTube – Up To 500USD Monthly Cash Awards Plus 2,500USD Grand Prize.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--X-Rite (NASDAQ: XRIT), Incorporated, the world leader in color management and measurement technologies, launches a Show Us Your Munki contest, featuring its award-winning ColorMunki, (www.xritephoto.com) a product designed to deliver color perfection in digital imaging.

“X-Rite invites anyone to create a ColorMunki video, make us laugh, and submit it on our YouTube channel. The grand prize is 2,500USD, so the funnier, the better,” says X-Rite Sr. VP of Sales and Marketing Iris Mangelschots.

The Show Us Your Munki contest (www.ShowUsYourMunki.com ), which runs October 1, 2009–March 31, 2010, is simple. Make a side-splitting video with ColorMunki as a prominent “character”, and submit it on the X-Rite YouTube channel. Then the real fun begins.

Every month, prizes will be awarded to videos with the most views: 50USD (to buy your Munki a drink or two,) 150USD (to take your favorite Munki to dinner;) and 500USD (to take your Munki away for the weekend.) All monthly winners are eligible for the grand prize of 2,500USD, awarded at the end of the contest in March.

Don’t have a Munki? No worries; the contest even includes tools and ideas for developing your own hilarious video. To enter or for more on Show Us Your Munki contest details visit: www.ShowUsYourMunki.com

“ColorMunki was designed to appeal to the most creative people on the planet – those who want to obtain accurate color from screen to print in the easiest way possible. We are looking forward to seeing a wide variety of funny Munki videos that showcase a product developed to delight and engage them in the first place,” Mangelschots says.

To see what top professionals in the industry say about ColorMunki, visit www.xritephoto.com.

About X-Rite

X-Rite is the global leader in color science and technology. The company, which includes color industry leader PANTONE Inc., develops, manufactures, markets and supports innovative color solutions through measurement systems, software, color standards and services, www.xrite.com.

 

ColorMunki Photo - Monitor, Printer & Projector Profile

Color Management for Photographers: Hands on Techniques for Photoshop Users

Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers, 2nd Edition

 

Technorati Tags: ColorMunki,Photography,Color Managment

Software Review: Kubota Pro Pak from Kubota Image Tools, Part 2

The Kubota Pro Pak is a bundled package of products that contains six of the most popular tools from Kevin Kubota's professional image enhancing tools for Adobe Photoshop. This package includes the four Artistic Series of actions, his Production Tools, as well as his Formula Book which contains 42 separate recipes to get just the look you want.

In part one, I looked at the four paks that are called the Artistic Tools. In part two, I will look at actions the Production Pak and the Formula Book. In case you are not familiar, a Photoshop action is an automated series of steps that have been recorded to provide an effect or series of effects. Some of these actions are totally automated, others have stopping points that request you to perform some action, usually to paint in where you want some sharpening to occur. In all cases there is a pop-up window that tells you what you need to do.

Production Tools Volume 2

In this Production Tools you will find a variety tools that are geared to getting your images back to your clients much faster through the automation nature of Photoshop actions. There are a variety of tools that come with this pack including ones for making adjustments, retouching, finishing, sharpening, and logo placement.

Like with the other tools, everything here is run from the DASHBOARD. This is a separate panel that contains everything you need to work with all of the Kubota tools. You can filter based on the Pak, or you can use the search facility to find an action based on the name or type of action. This can be very helpful when you are using the Formula Book and are not sure from which Pak particular action exists. They have a video on their Web site if you want to see the DASHBOARD in action.

The Production tools are set up in sections so as to help facilitate your workflow from beginning to end. The first area is the Adjustments section. Here you are told to make any tonal adjustments and basic color corrections to your image. In this section, you can use actions to reduce noise, lighten your overall image, remove magenta casting from skin tones, paint out shadows, and an action to bring out shadow detail.

There is a retouching action that prepares the necessary layers for retouching portraits. There are instructions for what to do with the layers are displayed as sticky notes. As you can see in the image, when the portrait action is run, the layers are created, and a note explaining what you need to on each one is provided.

There is a section that focuses on finishing your images by creating borders around your image. There is a section that will help you interpolate your image by sizing your image up or down; there are ones that will place your image (either horizontal or vertical) into a matted 8x10 (both 250 DPI and 300 DPI).

There is an action in which you can embed the image filename in onto the image, as well as one that will let you place your logo on to various positions one the image. Finally there is a selection of sharpening actions that automates various levels of sharpening to your image.

Kubota Formula Book

Kubota Formula Book is a spiral bound book of 42 recipes from Kevin Kubota's magic bag of tricks. Included with this book is a companion DVD that contains a video tutorial for each of the formulas that will walk you through the creation of the final image in Photoshop.

Each page contains a before and after image so you can see the results. There is a story behind the image. Many of these are interesting in how the shot was captured and the reason why. I personally liked the one where Kubota is sitting on the trunk of a moving car to capture the image with his feet strapped in the rear passenger seat belts, while the bride and groom are in the middle of a kiss. Oh, and the groom is driving.

All of the metadata on the exposure, ISO, lens type, etc. is provided along with the steps and actions needed to create the image. Another interesting point about this book is that it is set up in such a way that future "add-on Paks" are planned for the future and you will be able to add these to the book. The image below was created using formula number three which is called "Daisy Duke."

While the biggest problem with having all of these actions is learning when to use what combination of actions and tools, the Formula book is an enormous help. I like the way it is laid out and professionally done. With the DVD tutorials, it makes learning these tools a cinch. The Power tools, like the Artistic tools, are very easy to use and make a lot of mundane chores automatic.

If you are a professional photographer, especially one who does weddings, portraits, or graduations, you really owe it to yourself to check into the Kubota Pro Pak, or any of the Kubota products for the photographer. They will allow you to get the maximum productivity with the least amount of effort. Even if you only use a small portion of the effects, they will pay for themselves in time savings and customer satisfaction over and over again. I highly recommend this product.

 

Technorati Tags: Adobe,Kubota,Photoshop,Plug-in

Software Review: Kubota Pro Pak - Part 1 From Kubota Image Tools

The Kubota Pro Pak is a bundled package of products that contains six of the most popular tools from Kevin Kubota's professional image enhancing tools for Adobe Photoshop. This package includes the four Artistic Series of actions, his Production Tools, as well as his Formula Book which contains 42 separate recipes to get just the look you want.

Who is Kevin Kubota and what makes his actions so special? Well first off he was named one of the top ten wedding photographers of 2007 by Popular Photography Magazine for giving his customers more than they expect by capturing fresh, expressive images. He has now taken that philosophy to Photoshop processing by providing the same techniques to you via his image tools.

Today I will look at the four actions sets known as the Artistic Tools. In case you are not familiar, a Photoshop action is an automated series of steps that have been recorded to provide an effect or series of effects. Some of these actions are totally automated, while others have stopping points that request you to perform some action, usually to paint in where you want some sharpening to occur. In all cases there is a pop-up window that tells you what you need to do.

Artistic Tools Vol. One: The "Classic Film Effects" Pak
In this pak you will find a variety of Black & White Actions, organic film grain, cross-processing effects, sepia effects, and monochrome toning. This set contains over 40 Actions and it includes Skin Cream, Fuji Snappit, Vignette, as well as Eye and Teeth Enhancer.

The black and white effects include conversions that give nice film grain effects without introducing digital noise. In this way they look much more organic and have a better feel. There is not a loss of sharpness and in fact many times the sharpness appears enhanced. There are actions that smooth skin, add glow to the image, add a Hollywood effect, as well as other creative effects for a vignette, giving a romantic feel, and adding vibrancy to the image.

There are color actions that can add a bright sunny effect, a cross processed look, and a contrasty Fugi Velvia film look. There are also image correction actions that raise the shadow values, lower contrasts and saturations, adding warming gel filters to add mood to an image, as well as a mid-tone brightener. There are even actions that will attempt to fix images shot with the wrong white balance. There are examples of "Classic Film Effects" Pak on the Kubota Image Site.

Artistic Tools Vol. Two: The "Modern Chic" Pak
This pak includes what has been known as Lord of the Rings series and is one of the most popular of the Kubota Actions and is what helped make it a HOT ONE award winner. Also it also contains enhancements that give your images color pop, colorful toning, soft glowing and innovative black and white effects. This pak contains over 50 enhancements including Daily Multi Vitamin, Radiant People, Radiance Landscape, Edge Burner, Digital Fill Flash and Smokeless Burn.

These actions under Black and White will give you the ability to work with a modern antique look that will have the user wondering if it is really black and white or color. There are some that will tone your black and white to blue, green, red, and other tones as well as ones to create a more traditional black and white image.

The color effects will help you add 'Life' to everyday images. The Lord of the Rings series aims to mimic the deep, romantic feel of the movie by adding color richness, a soft glowing effect, and contrast. There are several variations on this one.

The Creative effects include one that gives a painterly effect, another with a canvas texture, one that gives an angel glow, one that burns the edges, and one that performs an edge blur. The Image corrections include one to eliminate posterization problems, one that adds digital fill flash, a smokeless burn that works just the opposite of flash fill, one to work details, one to reduce noise, and one that works skin tones.

There are also a set of image bordering actions that will create 4x6 images with borders for printing proofs. There are examples of "Modern Chic" Pak on the Kubota Image Site.

Artistic Tools Vol. Three: The "High Fashion-Edgy" Pak
In this pak while there are a lot of enhancement tools that can be used to work on "everyday" images, you will also find a series funky high fashion looks, glowing and deeply romantic black and white effects, and color styles. This pak contains over 45 enhancements, including Fashion Passion, Kiyoko Punch, Tea Stained, Anime Soft, Anime Bold, Doll Face, Skin Powder Genie and Eye Color Enhancer.

The black and white actions include ones that lighten up the skin tones, add rich warmth to the shadows, have some bronze toning and combine velveteen with a black satin look.

Color effects include a Hollywood glow effect is works for fashion and outdoor scenes, a cross processed look that has more pleasing skin tones than the traditional, a dramatic old world look, a high key contrast that is bold and sassy, a tea-stained look, and a 'Look' that is gentle enough to use every day, but has the punch to make your images pop.

Creative effects include a glow that is made for children, graduates, and fashion images, a look that emulates half photo, half painting, a rich and moody forest look, a soft wash, and a wash-out look. The image corrections include a dark line eraser to remove things like shadows from eyes, an eye color enhancer, a skin powder genie to get that cover girl smoothness, as well as an overall helper to restore detail on a slightly overexposed image.

Again there are also a set of new image bordering actions that will create 4x6 images with borders for printing proofs. There are examples of "High Fashion-Edgy" Pak on the Kubota Image Site.

Artistic Tools Vol. Four: The "Cutting-Edge" Pak
This is a collection of modern image enhancing tools for producing unique looks in the marketplace. There is a three-dimensional "Enter the Dragon" all the way to a cinematic "300-esque." Also, there are new interactive B&W converters for the attempting the perfect tonal blend and richness within your images. This pak contains over 50 enhancements, including BW Full Moon, Highlight Enhancer, Dark Darkener, Popsickle, Punch Drunk, China Doll, Comic Relief, Vignette 2 Auto and Ragged Edges.

The black and white effects include ones with an infrared feel, one with deep blacks, one that allows you to fine tune the tonality of different colors before conversion, one gives a more edgy bold look, and one that you can give a subtle hint of color.

The color effects include "Enter the Dragon" series that gives a three-dimensional, edgy, bold look with lots of texture; one that is more soft and romantic; one that enhances details and removes haziness from your image; the "300-esque" series that attempts to capture the movie's warm perpetual sunset and soft film grain look; and there is one that gives an old London town look.

The image corrections include a contrast brush to paint contrast into areas that need that oomph, highlight rescue where you paint to bring out the highlights that are not there, a Dark Darkener for painting on areas that need to be darker, and a Luminizer for opening up the shadows.

In this pack you also get a series of edges and vignettes for darkening edges and bringing out the focus of your image. There are examples of "Cutting-Edge" Pak on the Kubota Image Site.

Obviously there are too many actions to do more than highlight what each pak contains here. You can get online to evaluate everything for yourself, but with the fact that you have over 40 actions per pak and you can combine them with each other, using multiple actions to create different looks, you really have a limitless array of effects that you can create.

The biggest problem I see with having all of these effects is knowing what to use and when to use it. Obviously, the final results will come from experimentation and trial and error. One thing that helps is that the samples from the Kubota site are a great starting point. It appears that there will eventually be tutorials as well, which will be even better. In part two, along with looking at the Production Tools, I will look at the Kubota Formula Book that gives you 42 step-by-step recipes for getting that certain look and, to me, that is something else that will help the learning curve tremendously as well.

If you are a professional photographer, especially one who does weddings, portraits, or graduations, you really owe it to yourself to check into the Kubota Pro Pak, or any of the Kubota products for the photographer. They will allow you to get the maximum productivity with the least amount of effort. Even if you only use a small portion of the effects, they will pay for themselves in time savings and customer satisfaction over and over again. I highly recommend this product.

 

Technorati Tags: Kubota,Photoshop,Plug-in

Product Review: ColorMunki From X-Rite

Written by T. Michael Testi

To paraphrase an old Beatles song, "Everyone has something to hide except me and my ColorMunki!" What do I mean? It is the hidden colors that exist in your photo, and because of any number of reasons, don't show up either on your monitor and/or on your printer, because they are not calibrated correctly and together. That is what the ColorMunki can do.

ColorMunki is the latest offering in the profiling and calibration market from X-Rite corporation and it brings some exciting capabilities to the prosumer photographic market as well as to the graphic design community. There are three models of ColorMunki, the ColorMunki Create, the ColorMunki Design, and the ColorMunki Photo.

Just what is a ColorMunki? In the case of the latter two, it is a full circle calibration and profiling product that makes round tripping from your monitor to your printer affordable to non-professional photographer and designer. It runs on Windows 2000, XP Vista with a Pentium IV/Athlon XP or better, or Mac OS X (10.4 or higher) G4 or higher processor, you need a powered USB port, a color monitor with 1024x768 or greater resolution, 16-bit video card (24-bit recommended), 512 MB RAM, and 300 MB of hard-drive space.

There are really two types of ColorMunki. One is geared for Photographers and the other two are targeted to graphic designers and illustrators. The version that I am reviewing is for photographers and is called the ColorMunki Photo.

The ColorMunki functions in two main areas. One is for monitor calibration and the other is for printer profiling and calibration. Anyone who has worked with photographs for any length of time is familiar with the problem with getting the image from the camera, through the computer and on to the printer and having it come out reasonably close to looking like what like what you shot.

One thing to note is that because of the fact that my screen and printer are calibrated differently than yours, there is no way for me to display my results and guarantee that you will see anything close, so all that I can do is explain the process. The company who makes ColorMunki has been making profiling devices for many years and is well established in the professional market and so they bring a lot of respect and reliability to this new device.

When you get the ColorMunki, you get a USB spectrophotometer; that is based on the much more expensive i1 Pro product from X-Rite. It is zipped in a pouch with a sandbag handle. It looks about the size of a construction grade tape measure. You also get a small manual and the installation software. The CD only contains a downloader so you will need an internet connection to get the latest version of the software; and since this is a new product you will definitely want to keep up with updates. The product license also allows you to install and activate ColorMunki on 3 separate computers.

After installing the software, to use the ColorMunki as a monitor profiler you select ColorMunki icon and you are presented with three options. The first is for round tripping between the monitor and the printer; which is probably what you will want to do when you first set up the system. The second option is for monitor calibration; which you will want to do on a regular basis, and the third is for printer calibration. Because the first option encompasses the latter two, I will focus on the second two as individual steps.

The beauty of the ColorMunki system is that it walks you through everything that you need to create a color calibrated monitor. Once you make a couple selections you are requested to hang the product over a spot on the monitor and the system takes over. Basically what happens is that the software displays specific colors on your monitor and the ColorMunki uses its spectrophotometer to measure the colors displayed for correctness. After it completes its process it then gives you the opportunity view the before and after results. You are then asked to save the profile.

Part two is the profiling of your printer. This consists of printing a test chart that contains 50 sample colors in five strips of ten. Once the test chart is printed, you are asked to wait for 10 minutes for the sample to dry; the system puts a timer on the screen which can be overridden if need be. This is where you will need to use some judgment because the longer you wait for the image to dry the better your representation will be, but that could lengthen your workflow because that will also be how long you will need to wait for your actual images to dry to see if your colors are matching.

When profiling you are given the option to create a new profile or optimize an existing profile. One thing to note, you will need to create a new profile for each printer/paper/ink combination. For most people this will really be one printer, one type of ink, and multiple papers. In this case, you will need to create one for each type of paper. Again the ColorMunki gives you options.

Once you select your printer, you will give your profile a name. This will usually identify the type of paper; possibly ink if you are using multiple ink systems. You are then asked to print the 1st test chart. One thing to pay attention to is that you will need to turn off any kind of printer color management that your printer supports. You will need to look to your printer documentation or online support to find out how to accomplish this. If your printer software allows you to, you should save this as a profile within your printer setup because you will need to do this for every test strip you print as well as when you print from your application. One thing to note here is that at this point, the ColorMunki profiles are geared toward printing in Photoshop and QuarkExpress.

Once everything is set, you print your test chart and wait 10 minutes for your sheet to dry. Once it is dry, you take the ColorMunki out of its pouch and place it at the bottom of the first of the five test strips. You can see the example. There are also videos available that show you how as well. On the screen you see a yellow box around the first test strip. You hold the button on the side and slide the unit somewhat slowly over the strip. When you reach the end, you release the button and on the screen you will see either a green or red box around the strip. If it is green, the box moves to the next strip. If it is red, then you will need to rescan the strip. When the color turns back to yellow, you can then rescan.

Once you successfully scanned all of your strips you will be asked to do this again to a second test strip. You will need to select the same setup profile to your printer that you used before. You then print the new strips, dry them, and repeat the scanning. The other option that you can use is to optimize a print profile. What this does is lets you choose an image to further enhance your profile. If you do a lot of portraits, you might choose an image with skin tones, or landscapes, one with outdoor colors. You then print an additional test strip with colors based on this image and scan it for greater accuracy of print rendering.

In most cases, no additional scanning is necessary, or perhaps round one of the image-based optimization will be enough for most people. Without going into too much detail, what this additional scanning does is allows the ColorMunki to target a specific color area in the printer's gamut. If your device is "well behaved" and the colors are linearly spaced when color management is turned off, then the initial profile should perform very well. If not, you may want to experiment for better precision of your color space.

One of the benefits that I really liked in using the ColorMunki is that you have the choice to spend as much or as little time to get much better prints. The optimization allows the ColorMunki to figure out what is going on inside the printer gamut and more accurately characterize the color presented in your photos. It is important to note that you must be consistent with your printer setups or your profile will take a left turn and your output will look nothing like what you intended when you use the profile. While the ColorMunki is a complex device, once you catch on to making sure that a few things are correct, your output will be so much better and reflect more accurately what you see on the screen.

Some other capabilities of the ColorMunki Photo include what is called a "DigitalPouch" program that will let you send images and photos to a client, friend, coworker in a digital package and this package will alert them when they are viewing the content in an environment were the color management is not setup correctly and the colors may not appear correctly. The ColorMunki also has the ability to do 'spot' color measurements that in turn let you use those measurements to build up palettes and color schemes. The ColorMunki also calibrates projectors as well.

There are three models of ColorMunki. I have described the Photo version which was designed with the emphasis on screen-to-print color matching. The other two are more geared toward a color selection, palette creation, and a palette management tool. When you launch the ColorMunki Photo you are presented with a profiling tool, and you have the option to use a color picker tool. With ColorMunki Design however, you first are directed to the powerful tool for color selection and palette creation, and the profiling is just a small button away.

The third product is ColorMunki Create and while it, too, is aimed at the design community, it comes with a colorimeter as opposed to the spectrophotometer. The display profiling option has been simplified quite a bit by removing many of the options, and there is no printer calibration as well.

My personal view is that the ColorMunki is a very welcomed and much needed product in this price range; $499.00 USD for the ColorMunki Photo and ColorMunki Design, since there is not a lot out there under $1000 that does full circle calibration and profiling. The ColorMunki Create is $149.00 USD.

It took a little bit of experimentation to learn how to use the product, but once I spent the time, I have been generating some of the best images from my system to date. From my understanding this learning curve will get smaller as X-Rite adds videos and additional training information to their site along with more in-depth customer support.

I guess at this point, if you have spent hundreds to thousands of dollars on your camera, more on your lenses, another $500 or more on your printer, why would you not own a ColorMunki to get the best output possible? Don't let the most accurate colors of your image hide in your printer; bring them out with ColorMunki. I very highly recommend the ColorMunki.

 

Technorati Tags: X-Rite,Photography,Color Correction,Printer,Camera,Monitor

Software Review: Adobe Photoshop Plug-In DxO FilmPack 2 from DxO Labs

Written by T. Michael Testi

With the latest release of DxO FilmPack version 2 from DxO Labs you now can not only add the style and beauty of classic films to your images, but you can now add additional traditional film effects giving you more capabilities to replicate the look and feel to real film. DxO FilmPack is a plug-in that gives digital images both the look and the grain of conventional films.

OK, I know what you're asking! I gave up film (or never used it) because of all the graininess and the color differences, why would I want to start making my images look as though they were taken on film? Well, one reason is for artistic license. You may want to give an image that fresh-from-the-fixer look. Another reason is that you may want to integrate film images and digital images and you need some method to get a more consistent look for all.

DxO FilmPack recreates the color and grain of over 50 classic film types. These include Kodachrome, Tri-X, Velvia, and Illford. These films were analyzed and reproduced so that they could be applied with just one stroke of the keyboard. The package also offers access to several toning filters to transform any digital image into a toned print. These include Sepia, Terra Sepia, Ferric Sulfate, Gold Sepia, Gold, and Selenium.
DxO labs has a complete list of the available film looks, and they break down into nine categories. color positive films, generic positive films (without grain profile), instant color positive, black and white films, color negative films, instant black and white films, color filters, black and white filters, and tonings.

DxO FilmPack can be used as a standalone product or from the filter menu within Adobe Photoshop. The user interface is self-explanatory. You have drop-down lists and sliders. You choose an emulsion and the filter applies the color and the grain of the film to your image. You are presented with a preview on the screen so you can see what it looks like.

 

You can mix the color of one film with the grain of another. You can also adjust the grain of the film manually or you can match it with a 35mm, medium format, or large format look. There is also a special profile called "Cross-Processed" renderings. This is a specific development mode which consists of processing slide film with the treatment chain adapted to negative film and vice versa. This gives you a lot of room for experimentation.

What is new in version DxO FilmPack 2? First off there are 27 new film types. These include 10 slide films, 5 color negative films and 12 black and white films. These 27 also contain 7 new instant films (Polaroid and Fuji) and 3 Infrared films (Kodak, and Rollei). There are also 8 new color filters (Green, Yellow, Orange, Dark Orange, Blue, Red, Cool tone and Warm tone) providing you with even more post-processing possibilities and additional creativity.

While DxO FilmPack 2 is not going to be used for every situation, it does provide for a lot of creative artistic expression. It is very easy to use and very functional. My only complaint is that you still cannot create your own formulas and save them. If you get a specific look and feel, you have to reset it for each image you want to process. On the other hand if you need to match film-based images for a presentation, or if you want some unique creative license to experiment for a different look and feel for that film look, then DxO FilmPack 2 is the product for you.

 

Technorati Tags: Photoshop,Plug-in,Film,Photography

Product Review: ExpoAperture2: Depth Of Field Guide from ExpoImaging

Written by T. Michael Testi

While taking pictures is easy, especially in this digital world, mastering the art of photography is not always clear and straightforward. There are a lot of variables to factor in and one of them is Depth of Field (DOF). The first barrier that usually makes people's eyes glaze over is that it is a mathematical calculation. It combines a number of different factors including the distance of the camera to the object being photographed, the focal length of the lens, as well as the aperture that is being used.

The ExpoAperture2: Depth Of Field Guide was developed to make this process much easier and much more accessible to the average user. While there are several versions, the one that I am reviewing is the combo pack which contains two ExpoAperture disks. The first covers standard focal lengths (15-135mm), and the second is for telephoto lens lengths (70-600mm).

ExpoAperture is a tool that will allow you to take control over depth of field and let you apply selective focus within your images. This guide will show you the relationship between focal length, focal distance, aperture, and the resulting depth of field and let you make the calculations you need quickly and easily.

Just what is an ExpoAperture disk? It was invented by George A. Wallace as a companion product to the ExpoDisk. Essentially, it is a small hand calculator made of durable plastic that can fit easily into your camera bag or shirt pocket so you can always have it with you.

There are two ways to use ExpoAperture. First is to determine the aperture that will produce your desired depth of field, or to figure your depth of field by your chosen aperture.

For example, say you are using a Nikon D200 camera. The first thing is to determine the sensor size; they give you a chart to look up the sensor size, and in this case it is 1.5x. You set your sensor size on the disk (the green #1 in the image). You then rotate focus zone dial to your lens focal length, in this case 200mm (yellow #2).

You next flip the dial over to find your subjects distance, say 13 meters (red #3). Then you choose your desired depth of field, in this case, 12 to 14 meters (red #4). You count the number of alternating gray and white zones covering this depth of field (gray #5). In this case it covers about one zone. You flip the dial back over and look for that zone number on the gray ring (gray #6), in this case it is one and shows f11 (brown #7). So that is your aperture. Determining the depth of field is handled in much the same way.

I found the ExpoAperture incredibly easy to use and understand. Once you get the steps down, it makes figuring out depth of field simple and much more accurate than ever before. ExpoAperture would be a great tool for the classroom, and in fact they make a large size that can be used in the classroom setting.

If you want to have better control of your depth of field, if you want to have a tool small enough to fit in your shirt pocket, if you just want to get it right, then you need ExpoAperture. At $39.95 USD, the ExpoAperture is incredibly affordable, and is usually available for much less if you shop around. I highly recommend the ExpoAperture.

 

Technorati Tags: ExpoImaging,ExpoAperture,Depth of Field,Photograpy

Video Training Review: Beyond Skin: Going Deeper With Photoshop CS3 With Lee Varis From Lynda.com.

Written by T. Michael Testi

Doing photographic portraits, while rewarding, can also be a challenging skill to master. To do it professionally can take years to perfect and having the right post-processing skills and enhancement techniques are a must. In Beyond Skin: Going Deeper With Photoshop CS3, Lee Varis uses Photoshop CS3 to bring out the best in photos of people, faces, and bodies. He examines tone and contrast, color correction, retouching, and much, much more.

Your trainer for this library is Lee Varis. Lee Varis is the owner of Varis PhotoMedia, and has worked with photography and computer imaging for the last few decades. He combines digital and conventional photography with computer graphics to create images for use in advertising, commercial graphics, and multimedia. Lee's work has been featured in movie posters, on video box covers, CD covers, and in numerous brochures and catalogs.

Lee has developed a unique approach to photography that takes advantage of certain idiosyncrasies of digital capture technology to create impossible lighting effects. Lee has written several books, including Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies (Sybex) This library is divided into 29 lessons in two volumes and runs four and a half hours. I will break this review down by functional areas. You can see the full lesson listing at the bottom of this review.

Volume 1: The Basics

"The workspace" begins the lessons by showing you around the Photoshop CS3 environment, how to arrange and make custom palette arrangements, customized menus, and other tips to make your use of Photoshop much more comfortable.

"Curves" is sometimes considered one of the least understood tools in Photoshop, yet it is one of the more important image adjustment tools. In this section the instructor begins with a grayscale image so you only focus on tone and contrast and not with color. Next you add color to mix. Here you work with threshold adjustment layer to set black and white points to make your balance adjustments. You then move on to using the same techniques for working with skin tones. Once you get the contrasts, then you work for the most important color in the image; the color of skin. Finally, he finishes up with some speed techniques for streamlining your work.

"The Hue/Saturation command" takes a look at a different problem — getting the red out. This is helpful when trying to get the red tones out of the skin tones. This is done by using the hue/saturation adjustment layer. Varis then ties the curve techniques to the hue/saturation adjustments to complete this section.

"Basic retouching" takes you through the process of retouching images and the tools that are needed to fix images. These include the Healing Brush, the Patch Tool, the Clone Tool, and working with the Dodge and Burn Tools.

"Rebuilding skin" examines what to do when you have to cover up defects. There are times when you have to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. In this case you will learn how to rebuild the skin. This is especially helpful when work with older skin, skin that has seen too much sun, or other problems.

"Depth of field" shows you how to throw the background out of focus. Typically this is done in the camera, but there are times when you need to do it in Photoshop after the fact. This not the usual technique, rather it is one that more accurately emulates the look that you would get in a camera setting.

Volume 2: Advanced Techniques

"Portrait glow" puts together color correction and retouching and adds a soft diffusion glow. Here we step back through many of the same techniques to do a senior portrait, but now with additional tips and trick to make your job easier.

"Basic sharpening" looks at a strategy for sharpening images and covers the basic techniques for getting the clearer images. Also discussed are other sharpening issues such as working with subjects on a plain background, as well as more aggressive sharpening images with motion where not everything is in the same focus.

"Combined tools" works with several tools that we have been previously working with but now combining to make the foreground figure to pull away from the background to give it more shape and effect.

"Black-and-white conversion" takes a color image, beginning with an image of a flower and show how best to make the transition to a black and white image. Here you will learn a number of techniques about the channel structure of color images and how best to take advantage of it.

"Channel mixing" works with channels in the layers and blends them together with layer masks to achieve some interesting effects. Now you will see how to shape your tones by concentrating on the black and white.

"Luminosity blending" changes from manipulating black and white conversions from color, and now applies color changes by using the black and white contrasts. Here you take luminosity and use it to your advantage by changing the tonal structure in the full color image.

"Blending continued" changes things up by this time not using the curves techniques but rather than using hue\saturation, you now use the channels techniques. This you can use when subjects are more saturated and by manipulating channels you get can better results.

"Channels continued" now takes on some other techniques for some more challenging subjects. Here he works on some darker skin using new techniques to achieve better results. You will work with highlights and contrasts to get a dramatic effect.

"Channel mixing wrap-up" finishes up by working on the adjusting the color and contrast by beginning with threshold adjustment and curves adjustment. This time you will see how to work with landscapes instead of people for great results.

I really liked the presentation within this video. While there were times where the techniques were a bit repetitive, I think that it worked for getting the point across and really showing the proper way to accomplish the task. There were no samples with this lesson, which I would have liked, but again the techniques were solid and very important if you need to work with skin and skin tones. I think that Beyond Skin: Going Deeper With Photoshop CS3 is a must view if you are needing to work with skin.

You can get Beyond Skin: Going Deeper With Photoshop CS3 only online. The online training Beyond Skin: Going Deeper With Photoshop CS3 comes in three flavors. A monthly subscription at $25 USD gets you all of the videos that are available online (approximately 30,768 videos on 458 topics at this time) or you can save a little with an annual subscription at $250 USD. A premium subscription at $375 USD per year gets all the videos as well as all of the exercise files. Take note that the exercise files are not included with the monthly or annual subscriptions. They are included only on the DVD and premium subscriptions.

You can use Beyond Skin: Going Deeper With Photoshop CS3 as a training program for the individual student, and it's also good for the college or vocational teacher looking to supplement their educational materials. It is of benefit to anyone who needs help understanding portrait retouching and working with skin. You can also try out some of the lessons for free at Lynda.com.

Beyond Skin: Going Deeper With Photoshop CS3 Lesson Listing:

Volume 1

• Lesson 1: The workspace
• Lesson 2 Curves and grayscale images
• Lesson 3: Curves and color images
• Lesson 4: Curves and skin tone
• Lesson 5: Curves techniques
• Lesson 6: The Hue/Saturation command
• Lesson 7: Curves and Hue/Saturation
• Lesson 8: Basic retouching
• Lesson 9: The Healing brush
• Lesson 10: The Patch tool
• Lesson 11: The Clone tool
• Lesson 12: The Dodge and Burn tools
• Lesson 13: Rebuilding skin pt. 1
• Lesson 14: Rebuilding skin pt. 2
• Lesson 15: Rebuilding skin pt. 3
• Lesson 16: Rebuilding skin pt. 4
• Lesson 17: Rebuilding skin pt. 5
• Lesson 18: Depth of field

Volume 2

• Lesson 1: Portrait glow
• Lesson 2: Basic sharpening pt. 1
• Lesson 3: Basic sharpening pt. 2
• Lesson 4: Basic sharpening pt. 3
• Lesson 5: Combined tools
• Lesson 6: Black-and-white conversion
• Lesson 7: Channel mixing
• Lesson 8: Luminosity blending
• Lesson 9: Blending continued
• Lesson 10: Channels continued
• Lesson 11: Channel mixing wrap-up

 

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