REVIEW: Athentech Perfectly Clear 2.0 (DISCOUNT OFFER)

*** NEW version 3.5 Review ***

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While I enjoy editing photos, the sad reality is that it just takes too long to put my loving touch on every photo. As a result I have hundreds of thousands of photos that have never seen the light of day (much to my wife's chagrin) due to lack of time needed to make them look the way I want them to look before anyone else sees them. This self defeating practice of image hording is common amongst photographers, and despite great products like Lightroom and Topaz ReStyle which can greatly decrease the time required to make your images look great – the reality is that it always take longer than we admit to others.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a product that could do a very good job for a majority of our photos with as little as one click?

The promise of one click greatness has been promised for a long time but I’ve never seen any product deliver on it. What’s more, my images are my art so I want my finishing touches so how could any respectable photographer trust software to do this critical part of the creative process for them?

I’m here to tell you that the day has arrive where you have a new tool to add to your editing arsenal that will make your unedited images look great while still giving your edited images that extra oomph to make them look better. That product is Perfectly Clear and it rocks!

Here’s a common example of a shot that looks good straight out of the camera but it jumps off the screen (or print) when you do a one click edit with the details preset:

One click fix in seconds with the Details Preset

This preset works well for most images which allows you plow trough tons of old images quickly to make them look great. In fact, Photoshop’s Ctrl+F / Cmd+F features lets you replay back the last filter you ran for zero click editing of images that can use your last preset settings.

Simply put, this is a game changer folks so I encourage you to check out my video and try it out. A free trial is available so if you don’t like it then you’ve lost nothing, but I suspect people who take the time to learn it will find they love it – a lot.

Have you tried it before and hated it? Me too! If so, try it again as this latest version is the one that finally got it right – and it is very good!

Video Demonstration on 8 Images

This product works so well so quickly that it is easier to just show you than to write a lot about what it does. If you have a minute at least watch the first couple minutes of this video to see Perfectly Clear in action:

As the demo shows, this is the fastest and easiest way to make your images look great in seconds. I highly recommend you try it out (at least via the Free Trial version).

User Interface

Athentech Imaging Perfectly Clear User Interface

This product is about as simple as it gets. You simply load it from Photoshop or Lightroom and choose a preset. The big squares are the ones provided with the product and the dropdown list below are these plus ones that you have optionally created by making changes on the Adjustment panel shown below:

Adjust Panel

Often times it is one click and you are done as you’ll see in the samples in the next section, but sometimes (as shown in my video) you need to make a few adjustments. You can make your adjustments and be done or you can take a moment to create a new preset with them, but either way you don’t spend much time in this UI.

Simply put, it just works!

More Before and After Samples

One click fix in seconds with the Landscape Preset

Landscape preset with minor adjustments

One click fix in seconds with the Landscape Preset

Beautify+ Preset with minor adjustments

Beautify+ Preset with minor adjustments
NOTE: Effects exaggerated to show possibilities – less garish looks possible with simple adjustments

Landscape preset is great for sunset shots

Raccoon Eyes Preset

Dehaze preset gives images that "wow" look in one click

Edited Image enhanced by Perfectly Clear
Animated GIF Before & After
Beautify Preset (no sharpening)
NOTE: Some artifacts caused by 256 color GIF downrez

Conclusion

When I first heard about this product a few years back and tried to play around with it, I thought it was garbage. Its algorithms weren’t as mature as they are today so I felt like I needed more control over what it was doing. The product I’ve been using for the last month has worked on a large number of images I’ve thrown at it so I’ve began to trust it. In some cases it does make a mistake so I’ve learned to turn off settings which appear to have no effect as sometimes they can do something very unexpected (like red eye removal removing red from an area that isn’t an eye). It’s rare, but it does happen.

Aside from this one quirk, I’ve really become addicted to this product for those hundreds of thousands of images that I need to edit but will never get around to with my commercial photography workflow. I still need professional results as the edits represent my work to friends and family, but the ability to get great results quickly is pushing me harder than ever to get more things right in camera to speed up my workflow.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this product as it really has changed my life. I find that I even try it out as a last step on images that I’ve painstakingly edited because it does such a great job at final highlight and shadow detail adjustments. I do often skip the sharpening unless its for a private family photo, but other than that I trust it.

Where to order at a discount

Click here to learn more about Perfectly Clear, try the free demo or purchase your copy today. The Photoshop and Lightroom versions are sold separately so either pick the product you use the most or take advantage of the special bundle pricing for both versions.

Upgrades are also available for users of previous versions.

SPECIAL OFFER

YOU MUST CLICK HERE to save 10% to get on the special landing page shown below:

Please note that coupon codes can change so visit my discount coupon code page or contact me if you have any problems with my code.

iOS Versions

While the best experience is on the desktop, while you are at for a few bucks more you can enjoy one click editing on your iOS Devices:

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Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

Getting The Shot– 73 Seconds to Photograph Bill Gates by Gary Parker

Bill Gates by Gary Parker

One day out of the blue I get a call with a voice on the other end that exclaims, “Gary!!!!  Thank god we reached you!!! Can you quickly get up to Seattle to do a one-on-one magazine cover shoot of Bill Gates for us?”. It was the Director of Photography at Information Week in New York who was quick to add “Our executive editor just got an interview with him – it’s super rush.  Can you be there tomorrow?”  

I thought to myself, of course I can be there!!! With a crew!!! Private shoots with Bill Gates were rare, so I was all over the assignment any time I got a call to shoot Bill.

Although Information Week and most tech magazines hired photographers locally, I’d somehow worked my way onto the list of those who could be trusted to go shoot the Big Boys. Over the years I’d come to realize shooting captains of industry and world famous technologists is not so different than the fashion photography I did for years. CEO’s are just slightly less cooperative but the process is very similar.

Having previously photographed Bill one-on-one, I understood the man is gracious with photographers and business-savvy enough to allow magazine shoots, even though a man who is definitely not into having his picture made.   Bill was 100% all-business – magazine covers are good for Microsoft – so he endured all the media for the benefit of the company. 

Off to Seattle we raced, excited about the prospects of getting great new shots of Bill, a true commodity to an editorial photographer, since gaining a one-on-one audience with the man almost guaranteed multiple magazine covers. We packed 35mm and 120mm film and even a 4x5” Sinar view camera.  As it would turn out, this shoot came only months before we went digital entirely. However, at this point we were still scanning and then imaging film.

Once in the hotel in Seattle we were told hurry out to Microsoft. The next thing we know we are being told, “no wait – the shoot will NOT go down today”, so we goofed off in Seattle instead. To me Seattle is the most beautiful city in America, so it was a great place to be stranded waiting for the richest man in the world to give us 5 minutes.  We presumed the shoot would go down the next day but, no, we were again told to wait. 

Finally on the 4th day of waiting, we were told to race out to Microsoft where we ushered to a conference room near Bill’s office. We raced to set up a rather grand multiple background scenario to prepare for the shoot. My lighting kit weighed 800 pounds, so this was no small feat!

We were told we’d have 20 minutes with Bill so my thought was I’d maximize the boardroom shoot by lighting 3 separate background areas, each differently.  The cool trick I’d figured out was, knowing Bill would not be into changing locations, I put an X on the floor then lit various backgrounds so all the photographer had to do was move a little then ask Bill to simply turn on the X and, voila!, a different background would be behind him.  What a great way to maximize a shoot with this world icon! I was feeling great about this clever 3-backgrounds idea...

By the time Bill arrived – late, of course – all three backgrounds were fully lit and all 3 cameras were precisely set, with exposures coordinated and taped down – this was no time for mistakes...  My thought was I’d make a few 35mm frames first, just warm up Bill, then switch to either 120mm or 4x5, based on whether it felt like Bill was going to give us some time.  The lighting was rather intense since we’d lit each of the 3 backgrounds with a separate 2000 watt-second power supply and as many strobe heads as were needed.

Bill’s first words when he entered the warmly glowing, strobe-filled room were, “Wow, I thought this was going to be a still shoot?” so I reassured him it was to be a still shoot only.  Bill’s response was, “I’ve never seen a still shoot with so many lights.” There was no time to explain about the 3 separate backgrounds so we simply got started.

Creating a nice ambience with the modeling lights and bastard amber warming gels is a great trick for a photographers’ arsenal since, upon entering a nicely lit room, the subject typically realizes there is much professionalism involved, often a reassuring feeling to legends like Bill who have been photographed poorly on many occasions.

At this point, it’s important to note we were shooting film – Fujichrome 100 transparency film – great stuff but with very little exposure latitude.  Transparency (slide) film was known for the rich, saturated imagery it produced but also for it’s narrow exposure latitude. In other words, it was easy to screw up the exposure.  On a shoot SO rare and important, it was mandatory the Fujichrome exposure was spot on the money.  No room for errors. I had that feeling in my gut like you have when you’re about to get on Space Mountain at Disney – a little scary but mostly exciting!

How did we know for a fact each light was set correctly?  Apart from years of experience working with strobes, each light had been adjusted precisely using a Minolta Flash Meter.  

At this point, though, my concern was not so much exposure as it was lighting design.  What kind or shape of light would look coolest?

Learning lighting is crucial to any photographer’s career development yet working with lights goes far beyond merely learning how to set them up and get correct exposures.  The design of the lighting – HOW the drama and ambience is created – is critical in making the picture a solid image worthy of a magazine cover or two.

Despite the fact it was common to bracket exposures when using transparency film, I’d decided in this case I would shoot Bill without doing so.  Instead, I decided to shoot all film of Bill at the same F-stop then, as soon as he left the room, to have my assistant stand on the X where Bill had been standing so I could shoot a “snip test roll” of my assistant, with the camera set at the exact same exposure used for Bill.  This way we could have the Seattle photo lab process “snips” from the “test roll” to insure the exposure was correct.  If the first snip test happened to be too light or too dark, we could then snip another piece from that test roll so the lab could process another piece, at a different development time and so on until I was satisfied the exposure and processing time were perfect. As it turned out, the first snip was perfect, exposure-wise, so we knew every frame of Bill should be good!  But I’m jumping ahead.....

Back at the shoot, Bill stepped on the X so I picked up the 35mm camera, presuming I’d get a few quick shots then would switch to a larger format camera.  Curiously, my assistant had the presence of mind to push his wrist watch timer when I fired the first frame, curious how much time Bill would give us to accomplish this cover shoot since 20 minutes sounded excessively long to have Bill in front of me. I chose a 70-200mm lens so I could zoom in tight then zoom back out to magazine cover format very quickly.  I did some minor chatting with Bill and he was pleasant-enough, as always.

However, at the point when I’d made 31 frames on the 35mm camera, I reached for the 120mm camera at which point Bill smiled politely, said “Thank you very much!,” turned and walked out of the room.............  Uh..................   What just happened to the other 18 minutes and 47 seconds???????  My assistant clicked his stop watch timer and Bill had given us exactly 73 seconds!!!???

OH NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! No 120mm or 4x5 shots – just those now-precious 31 frames on 35mm… OH NO!!! On the other hand, one rule of photography is stuff always happens so you better be ready to shift gears, regroup and make it happen despite whatever comes up.
As soon as I pried the stunned look off my face, I had my assistant step onto the X and proceeded to shoot a roll of him at the exact same exposure I’d just used with Bill. This was to be my test roll…

We then raced to the downtown Seattle lab where we discovered the snip-test roll was perfectly exposed. I’d nailed the exposure, it appeared, so I asked the lab to go ahead and process those 31 frames of Bill at the exact same development time.  We held our breath as the film was being processed thinking things like, “What if I screwed up and accidentally bumped the aperture to something different than the test-roll exposure??? What if the film processor screws up and wraps that film around the rollers? This is the very stuff that makes photography an exciting business!!! There are so many “what-if’s” and possibilities for screw-ups in this business.
Had I been a bit more paranoid, I might have had the lab process that “priceless” roll of Bill in two parts – they could cut it in half, processed the first half then, once I inspected it, could then develop the 2nd half of the good Bill roll.  (though I would lose a frame wherever they cut the roll – and the frame you lose is always a great one, it seems…)  However, I’m a bit famous for risky photographic behavior so I found it more exciting to go ahead and process the entire roll, betting on the fact the camera was set correctly.  

When the film was done ALL frames were right on the money!!!! YES!!!!  We were dancing in the lab!!!!  I had 31 perfectly exposed frames of Bill Gates, some tight, some loose, mostly vertical for magazine cover format, though a few horizontals for full spreads.

From the lab we FedEx’d the film to the magazine in New York where we did indeed make the cover and full page lead photo inside the magazine. Once the film was returned to me – the magazine was granted one-time usage rights – those shots were now up for grabs by any magazine in need of a fresh cover-oriented photograph of Bill Gates.  

Although all 31 frames were color, I set about converting some frames to black & white, cropping others tightly, tweaking the colors richly on some while creating “effects” looks with others. I did straight black & white conversions and tweaked conversions. I even made a multi-colored Andy Warhol version shown below. I liked it but nobody used it – ha, ha.

Copyright Gary Parker – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

In the end, my best recollection is these 31 frames scored 9 magazine covers!  The shoot did NOT go as we’d hoped – we got only 31 frames on 35mm only – YET we optimized those 31 frames to the point many magazines were happy to use them and each frame looked different enough to satisfy the magazines they weren’t using the same photo as the others. 

On the 4th day we went home with a great story to tell about our 73 second shoot with Bill Gates.  Since the shoot worked out great, having only 73 seconds made it much more fun, in ways. We’re still not sure why Bill pulled the plug in only 73 seconds – the shoot was going great - yet the bottom line is we were totally prepared so, even considering what could be viewed as a mishap, those were 73 great seconds!

More Gary Parker Articles

Check out some of Gary’s guest blogs here:

• Getting The Shot- Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell Jobs In Love by Gary Parker
• Learning From The Pro’s: Gary Parker on Having Fun on a Commercial Dog Shoot

Workshop With Gary in Seattle

Gary Parker and Ron Martinsen are teaming up to teach you how to make great photographs of people outdoors in Seattle, WA on May 26th, 2012. Click here to learn more about our workshop!

About Gary Parker (by Ron Martinsen)

Redwood Dog on Gary Parker’s CatDogPhotography.com

Gary Parker is one of my favorite photographers and this photo is just one of many in his portfolio that make me go “WOW”!!! Not only is Gary talented at photographing people, but his pet photography at CatDogPhotography.com is going to look familiar to you if you’ve ever owned a pet.

Among Gary’s long list of accomplishments is being a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Team for the San Jose Mercury News coverage of Loma Prieta Earthquake; Southern Photographer of the Year; and Newspaper Photographer of the Year (twice!).

Getting The Shot: Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell Jobs In Love by Gary Parker

Copyright Gary Parker – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

It was about 9 pm in the evening when my studio phone rang. I answered casually instead of with my official business voice and name. The voice on the other end asked, “Is this Gary Parker?” then “Hi Gary, this is Steve Jobs. Great picture you made of Laurene and me yesterday! Can I get a copy to give my wife for Christmas? Really nice job, man!”

I wasn’t really expecting a call from Steve Jobs… Sweet!

Steve was not famous for his complimentary style – yet this is exactly why he called! He could have let his people simply order a print. Cool!

In all truth, I thought Steve might be calling to chew me out for defying his instructions by making flash photographs the day before at a worldwide Apple product release. The problem was I made strobe pictures after Steve’s people directly relayed his last-minute instructions, “No flash…” (Steve hated strobes) I wondered if maybe Steve was calling to personally fire me out loud?!!! Was I about to be fired in a burst of fury by a world icon?!!!

This phone call from Steve Jobs came just one day after August 15, 1998, the day he announced the release of the original iMac, those groovy psychedelic, vividly colorful computers that dominated the end of the millennium. NOT your Grandmother’s ordinary beige computer…

At the time, Apple’s stock was around $25/share and as it turned out, incredibly, this was the very product release which began the amazing turn of Apple’s fortunes by becoming the best selling computer in the world! Steve’s excitement about the release was smack on the money! Steve Jobs really did know a big deal when he had one in his ragged, holey cutoffs… (Steve’s rumored dress code at the office…)

The fact this picture of Steve and Laurene exists at all is remarkable since it’s lit with a ceiling full of large strobes – even though Steve was literally famous amongst photographers for truly despising flash. Of course the truth is I was excited about lighting this large venue – just for fun – and because it was for Steve Jobs and no telling what new product, whatever, it was bound to be cool.

I also felt the place needed to be fully lit. What a great opportunity to make the kinds of crisp images you get with the increased apparent sharpness and contrast of multi-strobe lighting!

I was initially shocked when my Apple contacts called to say Steve AGREED to let me light the large venue, though only because this product release was SO BIG. Really big…

I was stunned, in disbelief by a “yes” answer to strobes. Steve had been known to stop live worldwide satellite feeds to chew out photographers when strobes were fired after his “1^st minute only” flash curfew. Steve really really really hated flash of any kind! YET he was going to let me light this big worldwide product release??? Hmm… No way… I just couldn’t believe it… Each day as the event approached I called my Apple contacts to make sure lighting Flint Center was still ok by Steve.

My big-huge-gigantic FEAR was we’d show up, spend hours sweating over custom lighting this entire event center, climbing rafters, only to have Steve pull the plug at the last minute. Yet, by the day of the event, I’d been assured, reassured and double-dog-rest-assured lighting the place was fine by Steve – this was something REALLY BIG! I bought in…

On the day of the event just before daylight my talented assistant, Andrew Nielsen, and I showed up to light the place for a 10:30 worldwide keynote with satellites pointing in all directions as if Captain Kirk was materializing as a guest speaker. By 9:30 am, five 2000 watt-second power packs and 12 strobe heads were mounted, tweaked to my desired settings, tested and double tested - good to go with an hour to spare!!! The stage and crowd were lit to perfection! I was in the most perfect location. Good to shoot in all directions. Nice, yet still just a wee bit antsy…

Sure enough, 60 seconds before Steve took the stage, I notice his personal assistant up to whisper, ”Steve changed his mind.  NO STROBES.”  SAY WHAT????!!!!  (long string of expletives deleted!!!!) There I sat, stoked about making the best pics of Steve Jobs ever made on a stage and suddenly the plan changed entirely with only a literal single minute to switch gears and decide what to do?!!!!

The obvious only-recourse was to increase the ISO of the early-digital Kodak/Nikon digital camera to a noisy ISO 800 and push the Fujichrome 100 two stops to ISO 400.  Since the stage was not brightly lit, this meant I could only shoot Steve at peak moments – when he paused or reached the apex of a gesture – at around 1/30th of a second with the 300/2.8 wide open to f2.8. Fortunately, Steve made many emphatic points, which required a prolonged gesture. From a tripod that meant I got lots of peak moments, yet back to a more risky natural light look, rather than the easy, crispy edge strobe look I was expecting.

So, it seems a bit ironic this sweet picture of Steve & Laurene Jobs made after the event is the only image made with flash, even though the lighting was intended for the entire grand Apple event.

Still it was ALL well worth it if only for this one priceless moment as Steve plopped on the edge of the stage once the auditorium had cleared. Laurene approached to softly connect with Steve for a good long head to head moment. Sweet… This was just time enough for me to whip my trusty Pocket Wizard out of my pocket, toss up the 300 2.8, and fire three quick frames – with ALL THOSE STROBES - until Steve shot me a murderously piercing glare… YIKES! Fade to black…under the stage…

It occurred to me that this glare may well have come with a twinkle, since my suspicion was Steve intuitively knew exactly what I’d photographed, as he and his wife shared this rare public moment, head to head, soul to soul.

About Gary Parker (by Ron Martinsen)

Gary Parker is on of my favorite photographers and this photo is just one of many in his portfolio that make me go “WOW”!!! Not only is Gary talented at photographing people, but his pet photography at CatDogPhotography.com is going to look familiar to you if you’ve ever owned a pet.

Among Gary’s long list of accomplishments is being a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Team for the San Jose Mercury News coverage of Loma Prieta Earthquake; Southern Photographer of the Year; and Newspaper Photographer of the Year (twice!).

As you can see from this photo and hear from this story, Gary is a man that knows how to get the shot! You can learn more about another one of Gary’s photos in his LEARNING FROM THE PRO’S: Gary Parker on Having Fun on a Commercial Dog Shoot article.

Gary Parker Workshop

If you’d like a chance to learn how to make great shots from Gary, he and Ron will be doing a workshop in Seattle in May. Click here to learn more.