Topaz Clarity Review

May 16, 2013 by SiteOwner

Topaz Labs make a whole bunch of awesome plug-ins, Topaz Adjust is my most often used one. It can really make a photo pop; the downside with it is that it can generate a lot of noise. (Noise is that grainy appearance you see sometimes in photos.) This new plugin (Topaz Clarity) works with Photoshop Elements, Photoshop and Lightroom.

I took this photo and enhanced with just a few clicks:

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I reckon the effects are best used with suble amounts of clarity. If you want something less realistic, then stick with Topaz Adjust (or use in conjunction with Clarity).

Topaz Clarity uses proprietary technology that allows you to quickly and easily adjust various levels of contrast with no halos or artifacts. The results are compelling images with a very natural look. Here is a quick look at some of the features:

Clarity Module- The Dynamics section of this module allows you to selectively adjust contrast in your image, without adding halos or artifacts, resulting in a very natural looking, yet compelling image. The contrast sliders range from micro to high, and refer to the original image contrast variations allowing you to increase or decrease the contrast in that specific variation. The highlight of this module is the ability to adjust mid-tone contrast quickly and easily, something that would normally take many steps to achieve.

The Tone section gives you the ability to adjust the tone levels to retain a high range of tones in your image. It includes black, white, and mid-tone sliders that can bring back details in the shadows and highlights that would normally be lost with high contrast adjustments.

HSL Module- Topaz Clarity is the first to use a quality enhancement method in the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance adjustment module, which can produce strong adjustments with much less artifacts and noise. The HSL module allows you to selectively enhance specific colors in your image. It works by breaking your image into 8 different colors, giving maximum control over the colors in your image.

Advanced Masking Technology- incorporated several new features in the masking module to allow for more precise masking. Clarity offers three different types of brushes; normal, edge aware, and the new color aware. You now have the ability to feather the mask and control the color range. You also have the option of choosing a gradient mask that includes linear, radial, and reflected types of gradients. In addition, there is a separate mask for the Clarity module and the HSL module, which allows for much greater control of adjustment areas in your image.

Topaz Clarity comes with over 100 Presets- these are categorized by types of photography. This will enable photographers to quickly identify which presets would be most useful for their particular image.

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Jump over to Topaz Labs and download a trial (use the code “stewartbaird” if you choose to buy it and get a 15% disc out).

Change Your Angle

May 14, 2013 by SiteOwner

If you are like me you find that most times you take photographs from a standing position. Often this is fine; taking a portrait eye-to-eye can work well for example. However there are times when it can pay-off to change your angle of view. Here are some pointers to help you with shooting your angles.

Kids and Pets

The most obvious time this works is when you take photographs of children or pets. The feel of the image changes completely when you get down “on their level”. Getting down low is not just about physical height; it is a reflection of your attitude. Here is an example where I got down nice and low:

Getting low and close here helps you to enter the drama of the scene:

The kind of lens you are using helps, too. If you only have the lens that came with your camera, set your zoom to the widest setting (something like 15mm for example) and get really close. You will get distortion; in this case this is what you want to get that “cute” look. A word to the wise – not a good idea to do this on a woman unless they really want you to post a photo with them having a giant nose! You can shoot directly above children as well with them looking up; it can make the photo feel hopeful or innocent. This is what I did on this one:

Portraits

With women it is best to either shoot at eye-level or with your camera slightly above. I don’t like to be up too high otherwise the eyes look a bit strange (too much white in the bottom). Again as a rule shooting from below is not very flattering (on the whole). If you can choose the longest lens you have to take these types of shots. The long focal length compresses the image and makes the face look a bit thinner. I will happily shoot with my 300mm f4 lens! If you shoot to the side check the eyes to make sure the white looks nice and balanced. Plus if you do shoot from this angle you will need a smaller aperture (like f8) to make sure both eyes are in focus. When taking photos of guys you can shoot from below and this does work.

Here is one shot at 200mm:

Landscapes

It seems natural to set your tripod up at eye level and shoot from there. But everyone does that, right? Try getting down very low, using something like a piece of clothing or rice sack to position your camera on. You will get a real “bug’s eye view” of the scene.

If you do shoot standing-up then try going as wide as possible with your lens and look directly down. If your lens is pretty wide (like the Canon 10-22mm on a APS-C body or 17-40mm f4 on a full-framed one), you will get some interesting distortion. I do this sometimes when the sky is a bit boring (no clouds!); I focus on the ground, leaving around 1/3 of the picture as sky.

Anyway, hopefully these little tips will help you create more interesting photos. Sometimes all you need to do is change your angle of view!

These lenses helped me create the magic:

Planning Your Lens Selection

April 20, 2013 by SiteOwner

So you bought a new DSLR… you might be wondering what lenses to get next. I’ve put together a little outline of what you could look to buy and then their “full framed” equivalents.

Firstly, let me explain what I mean by “full-framed”; basically it means the field of view is the same, as you would get from a 35mm camera. So, if you attach the so-called standard 50mm lens onto a full-framed camera (like a Canon 5D) the picture you take will cover the same area (look the same) as a film-based SLR. Generally speaking these cameras are more expensive and are aimed at the professional level. (You can get very good 2nd hand ones though, like the Canon 5D Mark 1).

Most DSLRs sold today are known as “APS-C” cameras; one aspect of this is that the image sensor inside the camera is smaller. What does that actually mean? The image you get looks like it has been zoomed in; it’s as if you had put a longer lens on it. Canon DSLRs of this type (everyone one except the 6D, 5D and 1Ds/X range) have a crop-factor of 1.6. (Except for the 1D, which is 1.3 but lets, ignore that for the time being).

You thought photography was about pictures not mathematics! Sorry to disappoint you on that but it is helpful to know what all of these numbers mean. Going back to the 50mm lens example, if that is attached on a APS-C DSLR (like a Canon 600D), the effective lens length is actually 50 * 1.6 = 80mm! There is nothing wrong or right about this but it does help in understanding what lenses you might consider getting. This “lens lengthening” effect can be useful with things like wildlife photography where your 200mm lens becomes a 320mm lens. When I started with DSLRs I used a Canon 400D and then planned my long-term strategy on lens selection. First, I planned-out what made a good lens set for the 400D/7D and then worked towards my full-frame set. I had a master plan ☺

I know most about Canon gear, so to keep it simple, I will discuss their lens range, though all of the main manufactures have a similar APS-C/35mm range. By the way, Canon lenses with the “EF-S” moniker only work on cropped sensors cameras. So, if you are planning in upgrading to a full-frame, like the new Canon 6D, keep that in mind. The good news is that EF lenses will work on any Canon camera. Here is a summary of the current stock of Canon cameras in their type (US model names in brackets):

Camera	Crop Factor	Type
Canon 100D (Rebel SL1)	1.6	APS-C
Canon 650D (Rebel T4i)	1.6	APS-C
Canon 700D (Rebel T5i)	1.6	APS-C
Canon 1100D (Rebel T3)	1.6	APS-C
Canon 7D	1.6	APS-C
Canon 5D	1.0	Full Frame
Canon 1Ds Mark III	1.0	Full Frame
Canon 1D Mark III	1.3	APS-H
Canon 1D-X	1.0	Full Frame

For some bizarre marketing reason, Canon prefix their consumer models with the “Rebel” brand; strange and a bit lame in my opinion. I’m going to stick with the rest of the world names! Now to look at lenses. For your APS-C camera I suggest you consider getting something like this:

Lens	Type	Uses
50mm 1.8	EF	The standard lens – great for low light, portraits, street photography and close-ups
10-22mm f/3.5-4.5	EF-S	Landscapes and closed, small spaces.
15-85mm	EF-S	General multi-use lens – on your camera more than any other lens
70-200mm f/4L	EF	Sports, portraits and landscapes

The 70-200mm is a “L” lens – apparently this standards for “luxury” I reckon that “P” for professional would have been better. Anyway, it’s the only one in my list above that falls into that “pro” category. The f4 (non-IS) version of this is the lowest priced (that I know of) and is worth the financial stretch – you wont regret this great performer. The Canon 55-250 EF-S lens is a great little starter if the extra cost of the 70-200mm is too much of a stretch.

If you are considering getting a full-frame camera at some stage then this lens set below is a good range to include in your camera bag:

Lens	Type	Uses
50mm 1.4	EF	Not weather sealed but very sharp, light and with nice bokeh.
17-40mm	EF	This is a very good performer – great for landscapes and even street work. So light and sharp across the focal range. Weather sealed for a bonus.
24-105mm	EF	If you were only going to get one lens, this would be it. Almost always on my 5D. Much lighter than the 24-70mm f2.8 but still sold as a rock. I’ve dropped mine a few times ! Weather-sealed.
70-200mm f2.8	EF	You can keep your f4 version for a while but once you have the dollars saved-up you wont regret getting the king of zoom lenses. The newest version is expensive, so you might consider the Mark 1 instead. Weddings, sports, portraits and landscapes. Weather-sealed. THE must have lens for wedding work. Heavy but what would you expect from all that lovely glass.

Phew! That’s a lot of lenses! My advice is to make friends with fellow shooters and share them on photo walks etc.

The main takeaway from this post is that it’s a good idea to map-out where you want to go with photography and then decide what gear you’ll need. Of course, second-hand gear is often a good bet – I would say that about ½ of the lenses I have bought were used.

Having Fun With Your Zoom Lens

March 28, 2013 by SiteOwner

Do you have a zoom lens with your camera? They are handy for sports, portraits and wildlife. I usually shoot sports with my Canon 300 mm f4 lens, sometimes with a 1.4x extender for a little extra reach. This lens is great for capturing birds and distant sports action but lacks the versatility of a zoom lens. Generally speaking a fixed focal length lens is usually faster at focussing then its zoom counterpart. I was shooting for a few hours at my son’s cricket game, using this longer lens for most of the time. It’s amazing how that player fills the image when you use something over 400 mm!

Well, after a while I thought I’d mix it up a bit with a shorter zoom – so I switched to the 70-200 f2.8 lens. Now that is a heavy lens! You can shoot hand-held but a tripod with a swivel head or monopod is the best way to go. (Camera and lens weigh over 2 kilos!)

Here’s some things you can try with your zoom lens:

Freeze the action

Kind of obvious I guess but worth stating! Depending on your sport, something over 1/1000 second is a good bet here. I set my camera to Av (Aperture Priority on a Canon) and set it to my widest aperture (smallest f number). On a nice bright day like this was the ISO can be 200 or so to get a very fast shutter speed. (Keep an eye on the shutter speed over the course of the game in case the light changes with clouds etc). Freezing the action is great if you catch “that” moment.

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If you want to reduce the risk of camera shake then have a shutter speed that is around the same as your lens length. For example, with a 300mm lens make sure you are 1/320 or faster.

Showing the action.

Sometimes its better to show the action by slowing down the shutter. The trick is that once you do that you might get some dreaded camera shake. That’s when you really need a monopod or tripod. I use a Manfrotto 393 Heavy Telephoto Lens Support to let me rotate around while still remaining steady. Great for wildlife, too.

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Creating some drama.

One final thing you can try is to zoom your camera, while you are taking the shot. Here I pre-focussed on the player and the waited for the action. Once the ball arrived I zoomed-out as I pressed the shutter. This one was 1/20th of second:

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It will take a few tries to get one you like. Start at 1/60th and see how it goes. You can do this handheld but you will getter better results if you use a tripod!

These tools helped me to make these photos:

Using textures with your photos

March 9, 2013 by SiteOwner

I released some of my favourite textures this week on my. So, I thought it might be handy to give a lesson on how you can use textures to enhance a regular photo. Here is my original photo (an HDR image taken near where I live), opened into Photoshop (you can use Elements too):

Here is the texture:

Next open this texture and paste over the original layer:

Screen Shot 2013 03 09 at 9 09 58 PM

By default the Blend mode is “normal”. Click on the Blend mode and you’ll get a list of 16 different modes; these are group by kind of blend. For this example I’m going to use “Overlay” and this is the one you will probably use the most with this kind of texture use. The book “The Hidden Power of Blend Modes” is a great resource if you really want to become an expert on how the modes work. For now I’m going to stick with Overlay. So, I here I changed the mode to Overlay and bingo the image changes:

Screen Shot 2013 03 09 at 9 10 45 PM

My first feeling is that its not a great look; that’s the thing with blending – you often don’t know how things will work until you try them. Sometimes it’s just the wrong blend mode but in most cases the colours or texture blend changes in a way that doesn’t fit what you are after. I will just cycle through a few textures and modes until I find one I like. For now I’m going to stick with this one and make the change a bit subtler.

The sky is the part of this image that I find a bit muddy, so I will remove the effect of the texture there. To do that it’s pretty easy. The first step is to add a layer mask by pressing the Add Layer mask button at the bottom of the layers panel. Masks can be a bit confusing; think of white as being “transparent” and as being “opaque” or “block”. If the mask is white that all of that layer will merge through to the one below (or reveal it).

Next press “B” for brush and pick a nice soft one.

Screen Shot 2013 03 09 at 9 12 05 PM

I set the Opacity to 35%, this will let me paint back and forth, slowly reducing the effect. I’m going to remove the texture from the sky completely. You should notice that as you paint away, the mask thumbnail gets filled-in with black; the sky part should be all black by the time I’m finished.

Screen Shot 2013 03 09 at 9 13 20 PM

That’s it – the only thing left is to reduce the overall effect of the texture, I did this by reducing the Opacity to 79%.

Screen Shot 2013 03 09 at 9 13 20 PM

You can either flatten the layers back to one once you’re done or just export the image as a JPEG, keeping all of the layers. I do this in most cases as it helps when you want to learn from “mistakes” or improve older images.

4429203116 0eb3ef86ca b final

Here are some more examples of how I used textures on photographs:

Captain haddock weta

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IMG 0225 852915608 O

Special deal on Perfect Effects 4 Premium and Perfect B&W

March 6, 2013 by SiteOwner

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Getting Rid of the Noise

February 27, 2013 by SiteOwner

Ever notice how some of your photos taken in low-light look kind of grainy and lacking in detail? Most likely this is caused by what is known as “noise”. This kind won’t damage your ear-drums but it might just ruin an otherwise great photo. There are a few ways to tackle this problem and the best place to start is when you are actually taking the photo. Assuming you have a DSLR (or similar camera with interchangeable lenses) then you can try and use the “fastest” lens you have. Lenses are generally known as “fast” if they have an aperture greater than or equal to f2.8. Who knows why fast lenses have nothing to do with shutter speed! (Don’t confuse this with lenses that have fast focussing; that’s another whole blog post right there).

A good example of a fast lens then is the Canon 50mm f1.8 (Nikon and other brands have similar lenses). The 1.8 version of the 50mm is one of the least expensive lenses Canon make; it can work marvels at low-light and for portraits. Using a fast lens will mean you can keep the shutter speed high enough to avoid camera shake. If your camera needs more light to set a correct exposure, you will need to raise the ISO. This is where that pesky noise problem can crop-up. On a lower-end camera you will start to get noise at around 800 ISO and so this limits your options somewhat. Ultimately it is better to wind-up the ISO as high as you can (3200, 6400 or whatever you model supports) to get “that” picture. Once you have the photo captured you can apply some post-production magic to reduce the noise. I use 3 noise reduction tools (you only need one – trust me to have 3):

Noiseware by Imagemonic– This one is in my view, the fastest noise reduction tool. Faster is not always better but in this case Noiseware does a great job as well, the presets work well and I find they work fine just as they are. Sometimes the Night Scene one seems a bit aggressive so might need toning down to taste (too much noise reduction can result in loss of detail).
Topaz DeNoise 5 – Part of the Topaz Suite so if you use their tools (like Topaz Adjust) then using this one makes a lot of sense as the interface works just like their other plug-ins. The JPEG presets are great for iPhone or similar photos, too. Topaz Adjust can be setup to automatically use DeNoise (in the background) and that this can help reduce any artefacts produce with that tool.
Dfine 2.0 – This tool is more expensive than the other two I use but it does have the added benefit of easy selective use of de-noise on an image. This works in the same way as the other Nik Software plug-ins; the use of the U-Point technology. Basically you just drop pins onto the image and control how much noise reduction is applied on a section of the image. Handy if you want to only tackle noise in the shadows for example.

I wrote a longer review of Noiseware here by the way.

You can use these coupons to get a discount if you decide you need one of these tools:

Noiseware – Use the coupon “STEWARTBAIRD” at the checkout to get a 15% discount. This coupon will work for all of Imagenomic’s great products!

Topaz DeNoise – Use the code “stewartbaird” at the checkout to get 15% of this fantastic plug-in. Will work well for their other products, too.

Handy iPhone Photography and Image Tools

February 19, 2013 by SiteOwner

Amazing photos from your phone? That would have been a pretty crazy thing to suggest 10 years ago but these days most cell phones have good quality cameras built-in. Of course with “smart” phones you cannot only capture but also process right-in camera. I’m an iPhone user but Andriod has a similar capability and software selection. I counted that I have over 50 applications on my iPhone for capturing and processing photos! Let me tell you about a handful that I use most often.

SnapSeed – This one I used most of all for processing, usually applying the Dramatic filter, some contrast and a crop. Nik Software (now owned by Google) have built their high-end Photoshop feature for selective processing (the U-Point) right into this little app.
Dynamic Light – If the photo has a good composition but lacks that “wow” factor, then this app can really help with a mix of micro-contrast and blur technology. This app works best with landscapes, for example cloudy days and wild skies. The Infrared black and white conversion is nice as well- try it on portraits and see those wrinkles disappear!
Noir – Noir harks back to the old days of the 30s and 40s where movies were filmed in that classic glowing light with heavy shadows. Noir gives you a really nice moody, monochromatic conversion application. Very easy to use, too!
Image Blender – The secret to creating unique photos is to mix or blender together photos with more than one effect. Of course this is what you can do in Photoshop; think of this app as the Layers feature in PS. Of course it’s a very, very cut-down version of that!
Big Lens – This is another blur or tilt-shift type application; I like this on flowers and people. You can get some creamy, smooth blur and even add in a bit of lens flare.
ProHDR – HDR is where you take more than one photo and then combine in software to produce a final result that includes the entire scene, from the darkest to the lightest parts. A good example of this is when you take a sunset photo at the beach; how often have you had a nice sky and then the beach in shadow? Well, this easy to use app can help you fix this and without knowing all of the technical processing that goes on in the background. Look here on my web site for examples of HDR photos I’ve taken (most with my DSLR).
Painteresque – This app is really just a set of 8 filters that you apply with a single click on your photo. The result is a drawing, painting or sketch kind of result. Usually I use Blender on this to bring back some the detail from the original image if I feel it looks better.

Hope you enjoy this whistle-stop tour through my iPhone photo and image applications. Only enough 45 or so left to talk about… I might just list them all for a start.

I talked about how to create “art” from some of these applications in an older post that you can find here.

Examples of some of my iPhone work can be found on this Flickr Set and on Instagram here.

Happy clicking!

Quick and Easy Digital Art

February 4, 2013 by SiteOwner

Most people like art of some kind or other – watercolours, oils, abstract, line drawing; the list goes on and on. But not all of us can paint, though I do believe anyone can draw! Often the artistic-side of us gets minimised at school as we get older – the focus is more on “practical” subjects. I think that’s a real shame and stems from a misunderstanding of how important creativity and art is to each of us.

Well, thanks to the digital photograph you can tap into your long forgotten arty side! Anyone can be an artist! I use a few cool tools to help me create digital art, the main ones being; Snap Art, Topaz Simplify and Filter Forge. Of course the glue that brings everything together is Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements). I’m going to focus on the least expensive one out of these three – Topaz Simplify (TS). TS comes as part of a suite of plugins from Topaz Labs, these you can buy either individually or as part of the complete package. I’m pretty sure that once you have tried a few you will end-up wanting them all!

Anyway for now, I’ll just give you a quick tour of Simplify and show you want can be done on even the most basic of images. Download a trial here and once its installed it will be available from your plugins menu (under Filters in Photoshop). Just to show that it works well on any photo, I’ve picked one I took with my iPhone. Here it is unedited:

Not to bad out of the can! Lets see what we can create in Simplify…

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When the plug-in starts you will get three areas displayed; on the left are some quick and easy presets, with a preview of what the changes will look like. The middle section is your image with either before or after (preview). I like the full-screen version you can see here but you can also see a split view if you prefer. The right-hand side is where you can alter low-level controls; these can work globally or locally (as you paint in the changes you want).

On this photo I settled on the Oil Painting preset and painted-out some of the effect in the foreground using the Local Adjustments window. I did this, as I wanted some more detail back into the rocks. Here is a close-up of the window:

Screen Shot 2013 02 04 at 1 26 19 PM

Here is the final result – achieved in just a few minutes!

Download the trial and have a go on a few of your photos. If you do decide to buy it use the coupon code “stewartbaird” to get a nice 15% discount!

Finally, remember to post your final results to the Topaz group on Flickr for everyone to see. You can find it here.

Here’s one more photo I updated with Topaz Simplify, making a more graphic or cartoon look:

After -

Get up early!

January 22, 2013 by SiteOwner

I have to be honest - I don’t like getting-up early! I’m more of a night-owl as you can tell by many sunrise photos I’ve taken as compared to sunset. On this day I managed to get out of bed while it was still dark to catch the sun as it hit the Teton’s. This range runs north to south and so its fantastic for sunset or sunrise. Sunrise is truly magical as it begins to touch the top of the Grand Teton, turning everything into pink.

On this day it was very cold! I think from memory about around -10C (14F); my breath was freezing on the back of the camera!

You really can’t change lenses easily in these temperatures; moisture can get into the body. So, I have a wide angle lens on one body with a longer telephoto (70-200mm normally) on the other camera. Not a lot of post-processing was need on this single image; it was beautiful right out of the can!

By the way this was taken with the wonderful Canon 5D Mark III – expensive but worth it, I reckon!

Just goes to show that getting-up early can pay sometimes….

These tools helped me work the magic: