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Category Archives: Photoshop

Announcing MacPhun Luminar – Preorder Discount

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Please click this link to be notified of this Pre-Order and launch – Announcing Luminar

This is gonna be GREAT:

About Luminar:

Innovative Adaptive User Interface
The Luminar user interface is built around the idea that every photographer is different, and therefore their photo editing needs are different too. Users can choose from 4 default interface variations, designed for: quick image fixes, photo enhancement with presets, an intermediate level of control, and advanced editing.

Workspaces & Filters
Luminar is the first Macphun editor to introduce Workspaces – innovative collections of tools most suitable for a specific type of photography. Default Workspaces will cover Portrait, Landscape, Street, and Black & White Photography. In addition, users can create an unlimited number of custom Workspaces, as well as import Workspaces from other photographers.

Luminar 1.0 will feature over 35 innovative imaging filters, from classic Tone & Exposure, to Bi-Color, Photo Filter Emulation, Cross-Processing, Detail Enhancement and dozens of others. Each filter category includes a set of precise controls, which can be adjusted to create countless different looks.

Users can save a group of pre-adjusted filters to create their own one-click preset, or for convenience, choose from over 50 pre-defined presets. With categories ranging from Outdoor to Portrait, Street to Drama, there’s a preset for every photography style.

Innovative non-destructive editing and powerful selection tools
The new Luminar for Mac introduces a new editing workflow. Users can change the order of applied filters at any time in the editing process, therefore totally changing the look of their photo. With the new History feature users can check all steps of the editing process, and go back to any step at any time.

The new selection tools in Luminar include;: adjustable editing brush, radial and gradient masking, as well as masking with a single layer and masking with an independent filter.

Together with the powerful blend modes, layers and filters, these masking tools allow users to easily perform even the most complex edits, for instance the sky replacement.

What else is in Luminar?

Essential photo fixing tools, including spot healing, crop & transform, clone & stamp, noise reduction and other.
Complete photo enhancement toolset, including exposure & contrast controls, saturation, vibrance, clarity, sharpness, polarization, and more.
Creative color controls & adjustments, including bi-color, split toning, selective luminosity, saturation & hue controls and more.43452-gif
A myriad of photo filters, including cross process, glow, orton effect, monochrome, soft tone and more.
Layers with blend modes and layer masking
Custom Textures with blend modes
Works as a standalone software, plugin & extension
Built-in RAW converter

Availability and Pricing:
Luminar will be available for pre-order on November 2nd at a discounted price of $59 for all new users, and just $49 for anyone who already uses has Macphun photo software. Pre-order offer will also include a bonus pack of photo training videos and a course on building a photography business from Will Burrard-Lucas, an award-winning UK based wildlife photographer with over one million Facebook fans.

Luminar will be available for purchase on November 17t

 

MacPhun Noiseless Pro – Photo Noise Reduction Made Easy

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As you all know, I’m a big fan of using my DSLR for most of my photography, but it’s rather bulky to carry – so often, I count on my Smart Phone to capture a moment or scene (in my case, an iPhone 5S). I love it’s convenience, but compared to the captures I can get on my Nikon, there are often issues I have to repair.
Noise (blocks of off-color pixels) is a major issue for me. I get it in skies, shadows, areas that should be smooth look broken and pixellated. This is a particular problem in Southern California, where the lighting outside can often be quite harsh. Please note, this software is Mac only.
Enter MacPhun Noiseless (and Noiseless Pro, as a Photoshop Plugin). With some truly intuitive settings, noise can be easily cleared from an image, while clarity and detail can be maintained and enhanced. Check it out by clicking the banner:

The On1 Sweepstakes is STILL ON!

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Click the banner 300x250gif and enter each week to win:
On1 Photo RAW and a Wacom Cintiq 13HD Interactive Pen and Touch
12.9 inch Silver 128 GB Apple iPad Pro
$1000 B&H Photo Gift Card
Sony Alpha a6300 Mirrorless Digital Camera with a 16-50mm lens
$1000 Amazon Gift Card
DJO PHantom 4 Qudacopter with 4K/12MP Camera

And, in the meantime, click ON1 Effects 10 FREE to download a free version of the On1 set of Photoshop plugins

MacPhun has Released Aurora HDR Pro 2017 – Amazing HDR Software

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Today, MacPhun released their 2017 version of Aurora HDR Pro. For those of you who want beautiful visuals, with detail in your highlight, shadow and midtones in your photos, this software is insanely powerful. Even with a single image, detail can be pulled out that the camera’s capabilities can’t match.

Check out this great app at:

Excellent Demo of On1 Photo RAW vs On1 Photo 10.5

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On1 has created an excellent video on the relative speed of processing a photo using their new (coming soon) Photo RAW software, vs their existing On1 Photo 10.5 (which I’ve been using, and loving). Check out the video here.

On1 is offering an excellent deal – a Presale of Photo RAW prior to it’s release – buy Photo 10.5 now, and the upgrade to RAW is FREE on release. Click the link below to check out the deal!
ON1 Photo 10 now + ON1 Photo RAW Free (Fall 2016)

On1 Sweepstakes is Starting!

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Click the banner 300x250gif and enter each week to win:
On1 Photo RAW and a Wacom Cintiq 13HD Interactive Pen and Touch
12.9 inch Silver 128 GB Apple iPad Pro
$1000 B&H Photo Gift Card
Sony Alpha a6300 Mirrorless Digital Camera with a 16-50mm lens
$1000 Amazon Gift Card
DJO PHantom 4 Qudacopter with 4K/12MP Camera

And, in the meantime, click ON1 Effects 10 FREE to download a free version of the On1 set of Photoshop plugins

A Great Photoshop Plugin has a Great Sweepstakes Coming

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As an avid Photoshop user, as well as teacher, I’ve become enamored of a few of the best plugins available for various purposes. One of my main Go-To plugin suites is the On1 set. I’m planning on doing quite a few tutorials on this set, and will be speaking a lot about it in the coming months.

They’re about to release a brilliant new RAW processing app, which will complement their suite. It can be used as a replacement or adjunct to your normal Photoshop or Lightroom workflow, and it promises to be terrific.

To encourage people to check out their software, On1 is going to be launching a new SWEEPSTAKES this Sunday, September 18th. They’ll be giving away all sorts of things – iPads, cameras, drones, software… and I encourage you to enter the sweepstakes! To do so, please click the banner on this post.

In the meantime, I also suggest checking out their ON1 Effects 10 FREE plugin for Photoshop

You know how I like FREE!!!

Click this banner to enter the On1 Sweepstakes this Sunday!
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For Photographers who are also Mac Users

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One set of my favorite plugin developers, MacPhun, has released an article on their blog about the expected changes in the upcoming MacOS Sierra. While I’m usually quite hesitant to upgrade my OS (I don’t like buying software upgrades for my existing apps – and what happened with Mavericks and it’s lack of video codecs is inexcusable), some of the revelations about the new Mac native photography apps are intriguing.

I skipped Mountain Lion, I’ve skipped El Capitan – but I might consider Sierra (after a good, long, healthy wait to the .2 update version).

Check out their article at: MacPhun

FREE Photoshop Brushes that are Truly Useful!

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As my Photoshop students have already learned, brushes can be made using any set of pixels and can be manipulated almost unendingly with the Brush panel. But sometimes, it’s very helpful to have a starting point. Grutbrushes.com provides some beautifully made starting points! The detail and settings of his brushes are unique in their realism and detail in use. They work well with just a mouse, but like any brush, take on their real strengths when using a pen tablet like the Wacom brand of tablets.

Normally, I pass by a lot of the ads I see on Facebook, but a few months ago, I decided to click on one and found an excellent resource.

At Grutbrushes.com, the (very responsive) developer Nicolai has made sets of brushes, ranging from inks to calligraphy, to natural media, and more. He even provides a Photoshop Extension to open a panel in which you can organize your brushes into sets as you like them. Just recently, I used just one of his cloud brushes in a project, and created very realistic clouds. He offers a LOT of freebies, and if you sign up for his email list, you can get even more. He sells sets of them as well. His full set is a VERY reasonable $22.

Remember, all of the brushes are just starting points – Presets – from which you can use the Photoshop Brushes panel to manipulate them, resize them and alter how they work.

You all know, I LOVE Free stuff – and here, there’s a plethora of freebies along with the paid content. I think any Photoshop user will find a great deal of use and enjoyment of these. Plan on seeing some lessons on this within a few weeks.

Grutbrushes.com