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Skylum Luminar 3.1 Sale Ends May 14, 2019

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For those of you who want to get out of the Adobe software subscription plans and still use POWERFUL image editing software at a reasonable price for a license you own, please note that Skylum Luminar’s Spring Offer is ending in less than a week!

Don’t forget the pricing – and to add SGANS_DISC as your coupon code!

Despite the fact that Under pressure, Adobe has reconsidered it’s “test” of new pricing for it’s photography bundle and gone back to $9.99/mo for Photoshop/Lightroom, this is a serious consideration for photographers who want powerful image editing capabilities. One never knows what’ll happen in the future.

Adobe Hikes the Price of it’s Photography Plan – Some alternatives

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Edit (5/8/19): Adobe appears to have succumbed to the pressure. They’ve currently withdrawn their price hike, for the moment.

On May 2nd, Petapixel posted a story about Adobe increasing the price of it’s Photography Plan from $9.99/mo to $19.99/mo. Doubling it’s price!

As you all know, I’m an Adobe person. I love the Adobe ecosystem, it’s offerings, and it’s power. Photoshop was my first “Adobe baby”, when I started using it at Version 2.5 (before layers were invented, let alone, editable text!). I am an Adobe Certified Instructor for Photoshop and an Adobe Community Professional.

However, I don’t know if this price increase is a great idea for Adobe, unless they’re comfortable losing their Photography customers. YES, paying into the subscription plan will keep you up to date on ALL the new features of Photoshop and Lightroom as they come up. YES, Photoshop is still the most powerful image editor out there, especially for people who want to create composites and compositions, include the ability to create video (and work with video clips), and work in 3D in their image editor. It has many graphic features not employed by it’s competitors in the image editing space. However, for those who are strictly focused on their photography, who want power and don’t care about Photoshop’s powerful design capabilities, their 3D, and their video options (and more), there are some AMAZINGLY POWERFUL Alternatives:

ON1 Photo Raw is about to release their 2019.5 version of their incredibly powerful image editing software. This software has functions that replace much of Lightroom, and Photoshop allowing Presets, Filters, Color Look-Up Tables, POWERFUL AI lead masking, retouching, layers, HDR, Panorama,World Class image resizing and more. On1 Photo Raw allows for:

  • Image organization and Editing
  • Working with any file type you throw at it: RAW, jpg, psd, png, and more
  • Installation on up to 5 computers, Mac or Windows
  • No Importing!
  • Direct migration from Lightroom (so you don’t lose the work you’ve done)
  • Tons of tutorials

On1 Photo Raw costs $63.99 (for upgrade), $79.99 Full Version, or $129.99 (including On1 Plus Pro – amazing support, free presets, and more). And you OWN the license – NO SUBSCRIPTION. Buy 2019.2 today, and you’ll receive the upgrade to 2019.5 for free, when it comes out.

Skylum is offering a Discount to their Luminar 3.1 application until May 14th.

Luminar 3.1 offers:

  • AI Image Enhancement (one click enhancements)
  • A Full-Featured Organizer and Editor (with keywording, labeling, rating and more)
  • Powerful Presets to use as they are, or to edit
  • Layers, Blends, Filters (50+), Masks
  • AI Sky Enhancer
  • AI Foliage Enhancer
  • Erase Unwanted Objects
  • Powerful Noise Reduction
  • Non-Destructive Photo Editing
  • Workspaces
  • Activation on up to 5 Computers – Windows or Mac

And, if you order before May 14th, you get a great discount, Plus “Photography 101” Video Course at a SERIOUS discount!

$60 Full Price ($50, with discount code: SGANS_DISC) – regular price $70
$69 including Photography 101 Video Course ($59, with discount code: SGANS_DISC) – regular price $169!
$129 including Aurora HDR and Photography 101 Video Course ($119, with discount code: SGANS_DISC) – regular price $268!

Again, you OWN the license – no subscriptions!

Affinity Photo is also a powerful alternative for Photoshop. And serif.com has created a strong ecosystem of their own – offering an Illustrator and an InDesign alternative as well. Affinity Photo can be purchased at $69.99 (Canadian dollars)

And for those of you who like to work with Donation-ware (FREE, but requesting donations), please take a look at GIMP – a powerful, cross-platform image editor at https://www.gimp.org

If you feel I left your favorite out of this list, please say something in the comments!

EDITED – Hold Off on Upgrading Lightroom CC – A Suggestion

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EDIT: I have removed the link to the website – his post is great, and I’d had good experiences with this website before, but he has a bait and switch link for free presets, that leads to a SALE page. I have NO respect for that – so although I appreciate his email, I will no longer endorse his site!

This past week, Adobe released a bunch of updates, with some EXCELLENT new features for Adobe Lightroom CC. However, an email from LightroomPresetShoppe.com an excellent resource for some very cool Lightroom presets, has sent out a warning for Lightroom Classic CC users to HOLD OFF on updating until the next version, if you do use presets and keep them organized. Here’s their message, and hopefully, we’ve caught you in time (my recommendation – never do run updates as soon as they come out – watch forums, and wait to let OTHERS “beta test” the update). In fact, there’re a lot of threads on this on the Adobe Lightroom forum at https://forums.adobe.com/community/lightroom/lightroom-classic-cc/content

Here’s the content of that email:

Hey,

How have you been? Hope you are doing great 🙂

This week…Adobe Lightroom had a major update & I just wanted to write to you guys about my thoughts on the same.

The general consensus about the update is very promising & exciting.

But…if you haven’t updated Adobe Lightroom Classic CC to the latest version i.e. 7.3…I would highly recommend you to wait until the next update even though this update has been an exciting one!

Here’s why:

1. The new update has made Adobe Lightroom a little bit slower for quite a lot of users & most importantly

2. This update has completely messed up the order of Lightroom Presets inside a Preset Folder / Group!

Q. What does this mean to you?

A. Simply put…if you have downloaded or purchased any presets either from us or any other Preset Vendor, you will observe that the order of the presets is completely messed up.

Ever since the new update…a lot of adobe forum threads have been opened up to report the preset order bug & the speed & performance issues.

The amazing engineers at adobe have already made a note of the same & have ensured that they are working towards fixing the above issues in the upcoming updates.

So we highly recommend you to wait until the above issues get sorted via the next few updates.

We are keeping a close watch on the updates & once everything looks good…we will inform you guys to go ahead with the update.

Until then…please hold on to updating Adobe Lightroom to the latest version.

In case you have already updated to Adobe Lightroom 7.3…there is not much you can do to correct the order of your presets in Lightroom at the moment.

Your best bet is to wait for adobe to release new updates which will fix the issue that a lot of people are facing with the latest version.

That’s it for now.

We hope that this gets sorted out real soon 🙂

Have a wonderful weekend & talk soon!

Best Regards,

Amit Desai.

CEO & Founder

? Lightroom Preset Shoppe

 

Adobe Pricing Goes Up Soon – but you can avoid it

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As many of you on the Adobe Creative Cloud Plan know (through an email you may have received), the price is going to increase on April 16th, 2018, however you won’t see that increase until your current plan renews.

Now, firstly – this increase is only going to affect the All Apps and Single-App plans (not the CC Photography plan, or the Student/Teacher Editions), and it’s not a huge amount – in fact, it’s only about a 5% increase, and the only increase since the Creative Cloud was introduced in 2012.

Yet, many people are going to be unhappy about this change – so, my friend at ProDesignTools.com has found Adobe’s solution to the problem!

Read his article all the way through – the information is at the bottom (spoiler alert: Adobe won’t raise the rate if you prepay the year!)

Check out the story – thank Mr. ProDesignTools, and come back here and let me know what you think!

How to retain old versions of Adobe CC Software when upgrading to CC2018

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I just got back from the AMAZING Adobe MAX conference in Las Vegas, NV. Perhaps you caught some of my social posts on the events!

This MAX introduced a bunch of new device apps and updates, as well as desktop apps. BUT, it’s very important for some people to retain their older versions, when upgrading their apps. The default behavior is to overwrite previous version with the new version – for instance, if you install the new Photoshop CC, you’ll be overwriting Photoshop CC2017 with Photoshop CC2018!

If that’s okay with you, great! But, if you’re like me, and prefer to wait until bug fixes are in, but still want to see (and get used to) some  of the amazing new features in the new version.

Here, I’m going to add a set of images to ensure you see WHERE to adjust your choices so you can ensure to keep your OLD version while also installing the new version. Don’t forget to comment, if you have any questions! Or, ask on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/aym4training

Or, on our Twitter feed at @aym4training

  1. When you open the Creative Cloud app, either from your Menu Bar on a Mac, or your Task Bar on a Windows machine, you’ll see a list of applications that’re installed on your computer, and the option to update those that have new versions available. Note: in previous versions of the Creative Cloud apps, my “previous versions” were listed as a separate section of the updaters, but now, they’re all listed by app)
  2. In this case, I’ll be updating my Adobe Illustrator application. When you click the Update  button, you’ll get a window that looks like this – at Which Point, you’ll want to EXPAND THE ADVANCED OPTIONS SECTION! NOTE: If you want to retain your older version DO NOT select the Update button yet!
  3. In the Advanced section, be sure to UNCHECK the “Remove old versions” button (on by default)!
  4. At this point, you can select the Update button. Your NEW version of the software will be installed, and it will leave your older version installed as well. Personally, I like to import my previous settings and preferences from previous versions, and tweak them in the individual apps to accommodate any changes, but that’s a matter of personal preference.

Hopefully, this will save some of you the pain of encountering some of the inevitable bugs associated with upgrading, or will allow you to work in your older versions of the applications you use, so you may collaboratively share files with others who may not have updated yet.

Please remember to comment here, or on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/aym4training/ or my Twitter feed @aym4training if you need assistance, or clarification.

 

 

Adobe MAX This Week!

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This week, Adobe is having it’s Adobe MAX conference in Las Vegas, NV. I’ll be working as a Teaching Assistant for several classes, and according to the conference schedule, anticipate being kept VERY busy for the week! I’m looking forward to it, very much – and anticipate I’ll be “paying” for the worthwhile time with some exhaustion for the entire following week!

For those of you trying to reach me this week, either via the blog, our Facebook page ((2) AYM 4 Training – Home), our Twitter Account (AYM 4 Training (@aym4training) | Twitter)

I do hope that some or many of my students and colleagues will be attending this event, and if so, please seek me out – I’d love to see you! I’ve been assigned to TA the classes named
B342 – Photoshop Magic: Making Brushes to Speed Up Your Workflow, and B341 – Photoshop+After Effects = Awesomeness (multiple bookings of each in my schedule). I’ll also be attending other classes with some of my favorite speakers/writers and Adobe Evangelists.

I hope to see you at the conference, if you can make it, and I’ll do my best to respond to questions and such, as time allows. Have a great week!

 

On1 Photo RAW 2017.5 Has Issued a New Update

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Today, On1 Officially announced their release yesterday of their update to On1 Photo RAW 2017.5 (to build# 11.5.1.3760).

ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5 is the lightning fast photo organizer, raw processor, layered photo editor and effects app all-in-one. Unlike the current class of raw processors requiring cataloging, bouncing between apps for editing, and a subscription ecosystem, ON1 Photo RAW 2017 features a new, modern raw processing engine, tuned for today’s sensors and graphics chips. Combined with our current set of tools, the next generation of ON1 Photo 10.5, will continue to work where you want, as a standalone app, a plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® & Lightroom®, or a host app for other editing apps.

Here’s What’s New:

This is the fifth maintenance release for ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5. It addresses several issues that where discovered after the 2017.5 release. It is recommended for all users. Here are some of the biggest improvements and fixes:

  • Fixed a performance issue with Noise Reduction that was causing loading and exporting to be slow
  • Added a preference to disable Lens Correction by default for Raw photos
  • Improvements to the Clone Stamp tools to make the results consistent, remove a flicker and make it a little faster
  • Fixed an issue where the tool cursor can get stuck in the pan tool mode
  • Removed a flicker in Browse detail view
  • The Navigator is not updating in real time
  • Fixed and issue where thumbs where not drawing in after rename
  • Fixed export results not matching preview when using some esoteric blending modes
  • Fixed random pixels appearing in dark shadows
  • Fixed the Haze & Structure slider is not exporting properly from Develop
  • Fixed an issue where the Sony ILCE-6500 (A6500) raws did not fully render
  • Fixed a rare crash with lens correction
  • Fixed an export failure when the photo has bad GPS in XMP
  • Fixed a rare issue where lens correction is causing solid color to appear with certain RAW files.
  • Keyword search so no longer case sensitive
  • Fixed a crash when using the last filter command via Photoshop
  • Fixed a crash while zooming to 100 whilst adding a preset
  • Fixed a couple issues that caused thumbnails to not render
  • Fixed color Noise Reduction defaults to reduce color bleed
  • Fixed an issue where noise reduction appeared different in the exported photo
  • Fixed an issue where the exported file looses Exposure Program Exif Metadata
  • Now you can Send to Photoshop Elements from Browse
  • Fixed a rare issue where some directories did not appear in Browse on Windows
  • User edited capture dates now display correctly
  • Lots of additional bug fixes and performance improvements

To Download a FREE 30 DAY DEMO of this software, please click HERE.

 

 

If you already own On1 Photo RAW, take a look at these beautiful Lightroom presets.

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MacPhun is releasing 2nd major update to Luminar – Luminar: Neptune

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Luminar Neptune has been available as a free update to all current users since June 15th – but NEW users can buy this for as low as $49 for owners of MacPhun software, or $59 for new MacPhun Users (using coupon code SGANS_DISC) – Offer available until Sunday, June 25th!

New Feature Highlights: Luminar Neptune:

  • Accent – AI-filter – Uses artificial intelligence to create stunning images with a single slider movement, tapping into the power of dozens of filters.
  • Quick & Awesome workspace – A workspace consisting of the Accent AI, Saturation & Vibrance and Clarity filters. Great for achieving fast results in a fun and easy way.
  • Plug-in integration with Creative Kit and Aurora HDR 2017 – Seamlessly access Macphun’s other photo editing tools you own with Luminar as the host application
  • Brush, Gradient and Radial Gradient tools – Dramatically faster performance yields smoother selective editing.
  • Vignette filter – Addition of Vignette Styles, Place Center and Pre- and Post-Crop modes deliver even more flexibility to this popular photo finishing tool.
  • Memory management – Increased overall performance for large files and 5+ simultaneous open images.
  • User Interface changes – Extensive improvements to in-app animation and mode transitions make for a more pleasing editing experience.
  • Crop tool update – Added the ability to specify custom crop ratios.
  • Local history – Provision for reviewing separate history while in Transform, Denoise, Clone & Stamp modes helps optimize editing.

You Get:

  • Luminar, The Supercharged photo editor for Mac that adapts to your skill level. ($69 Value)

  • Photography Fundamentals Video Training – In this series, you’ll learn all about the essential concepts of photography from professional photographer and educator Richard Harrington. ($99 Value)

  • The Grand Landscape eBook by Ian Plant – In this eBook, Ian Plant shows you how to make great landscape photos in no time, helping your work to stand out from the rest. ($19 Value)

  • 2 Luminar Preset packs – ($45 Value)

  • Over 500 Overlays – ($49 Value

  • The Black and White Landscape & Candid Portrait eBooks from Andrew Gibson ($28 Value)

ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5 – New Features & Performance Updates – Now Available

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ON1, Inc. announced ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5, the latest update to their all-in-one photo organizer, editor, raw processor and effects app for macOS® and Microsoft® Windows®. Version 2017.5 adds powerful new features optimized for performance and ease of use.

ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5 Enhancements Include:

 

  • LENS CORRECTION – The new Lens Correction pane will automatically detect supported lenses and reduce distortion, chromatic aberration and peripheral fall-off
  • COMPARE MODE– Select a series of photos (up to 15) and zoom and pan each of them all at the same time
  • DETAILS PANE – Sharpening and Noise Reduction are improved and have been merged into a new Details Pane in Develop for global corrections tailored for raw photos giving better results in both areas
  • IMPROVED SEARCH – Search using a variety of metadata fields and decide if the search must match all or any of the search criteria
  • CLONE STAMP – The powerful clone stamp retouching tool from Layers is now inside Develop and Effects as part of the non-destructive workflow
  • STACKING PRESETS– The Insert Preset command is now available to stack presets in Effects
  • IMPROVED PRESET MANAGEMENT – Delete and rename preset categories as well as export categories for sharing and back-up
  • LIGHTROOM® MIGRATION ASSISTANT­– Migrate photos, their metadata and collections from Lightroom to ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5
  • CAMERA UPDATES – Apple iPad Pro 9.7, Canon EOS T7i/ 800D / Kiss X9i, Canon EOS M6, Canon EOS 77D / 9000D, Fuji X100F (compressed), Huawei Mate 9, Panasonic LX10, Olympus Pen F, Panasonic DC-ZS70 / TZ90, Pentax KP, Olympus E-PL3, Sony?NEX5n, and Sony Alpha ILCE 9
  • UPDATES AND BUG FIXES ­– Several more performance upgrades and bug fixes including reduced memory footprint, increased stability and fixed user-reported issues

 

Price and Availability
ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5 is available today with an introductory price of $99.99, regularly $119.99. Previous owners of ON1 Photo (or Perfect Photo Suite) can upgrade for just $79.99, regularly $99.99. For a limited time, ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5 is bundled with some excellent training materials. Four ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5 Master Courses by industry leading educator Matt Kloskowski and Director of Product Dan Harlacher are free with purchase. Also included is activation via user account for up to five computers. A full-functioning 30-day free trial is also available for download from the ON1 website.

About ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5

The NEW all-in-one photo organizer, editor, raw processor, and effects app is just what photographers have been waiting for. It includes the best new and must-have ON1 editing features and tools for opening, viewing, and editing photos in an instant. The next generation of ON1 Photo works as a standalone photo editor, a plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® & Lightroom®, or a host app for other editing apps.

 

ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5 also supports the key online storage services, including Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft’s OneDrive. ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5 works on both macOS and Microsoft Windows. Version 2017.5 also supports Adobe® Photoshop® CC or CS6, Lightroom® CC/6, 5, Photoshop Elements® 15, 14 and 13.

 

ON1 Isn’t Done Yet
There are still more free updates coming to ON1 Photo RAW 2017.5 this summer. Prioritizing user feedback is a top priority for the company. ON1 President Craig Keudell states, “We can’t be successful unless we listen to the photography community.  Our main goal and something people rarely see from other companies, is the transparency with the way we develop our products. Several features and improvements in this release are the result of feedback from the ON1 community.” Today, ON1 users can go to the ON1 Photo Project and submit ideas and feature requests. Every submission is reviewed and the more votes each idea or submission gets, the higher the likelihood it will get added into development of the app.

 

About ON1

ON1 was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. It is a privately held company consisting of a team of professional photographers, photography enthusiasts and software experts who share a passion for photography.

 

For over ten years, ON1 has delivered upon the ON1 promise of saving photographers time and frustration editing their photos so they can spend more time behind the camera. The ON1 promise includes the belief customers should have complete control of their photography software.  From the feature set, training topics important to them, the workflow they choose (plug-in or standalone app), the preferred computing platform or cloud service, or even how they purchase their software (subscription or a perpetual license). With ON1, the customer is in complete control of their photography experience today, tomorrow and well into the future.

InDesign – A Free Script to Rotate Single Characters INSIDE a Text Frame

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InDesignSecrets.com has shared a link to a script that FINALLY allows us to rotate selected characters INSIDE a text box in InDesign. The text remains editable and the effect can be applied to individual letters, selected character, and/or dingbats. So VERY handy!!!

https://indesignsecrets.com/free-script-to-rotate-selected-characters.php