Tuesday, November 20, 2012

OnOne Software ::

Just last week I got my update from OnOne Software's Perfect PhotoSuite 6.5 to the 7.0 versionso I haven't really had a chance to really give it a try although I did get to work with it some this past weekend.

Perfect PhotoSuite consists of different modules that offer different outcomes. There is Perfect Effects, layers, masks, portrait, layers, B&W, resize, and focus so that's a lot in one package. I find myself going to perfect effects primarily for the vignette function although there are a tremendous number of options for modifying the photograph.

I use Perfect Resize a lot simply because I've found it to be the very best upsizing algorithm and I regularly take a 10" digital image and upsize it to 40" with excelllent results.

Once in a while I use Perfect Portrait primarily for taking the "shine" off of foreheads and cheeks. I generally don't like the look of modifying a portrait with anything other than a very mild softening of wrinkles.

I worked some with Perfect Black and White this past weekend with mixed results. I generally use layer adjustments in Photoshop CS6 to make my conversions to b&w so I'm very comfortable with that, but Perfect B&W does offer some interesting options which I will have to explore further although I think that Photoshop's layer adjustments will be my primary mode for change.

I don't use layers, masks, and focus at all although I do see the utility in each. I guess that I really should work some with each of these modules in order to see if I can incorporate them into my work flow in some sort of meaningful way!

All in all I think that for $299 Perfect PhotoSuite 7 is an incredible bargain and I highly recommend it.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

I Just Found A New Website ::

and this one is definitely worth sharing:

http://www.surianiphoto.com/

There is also a link over to the right. Marilyn was one of my contemporaries when I lived in Atlanta, but I don't recall us ever having met although I remember the name.

A couple of photographs are of people I knew all those many years ago and I'm going to order her book, "Dancing Naked In The Material World".

Here is a link to a video with Marilyn discussing self publishing as well as how to build a project:

http://howtopublishyourownphotographybook.com/interview-01-2/

Sunday, November 4, 2012

A Holga Photograph

I shot a couple of frames of this fence out in the country with the 35mm about 3 weeks ago, but I wanted to see what the feel would be like with an image from the Holga. I'll have to look at the two image side by side to see which I like better.

My first impression is that I prefer the Holga image.