What Plug-ins should I buy? [Updated Dec 10, 2015]

Ron Martinsen’s December 2015 Best of the Best Ranking of the top Photography Plug-ins

Imagine that you were as rich as Bill Gates and retired. Even if you were and you have all the time on your hands to learn new things, I still doubt that any one normal human could use all of the great plug-ins available for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom. There are just so many choices and so much overlap that it can make your head explode trying to figure out which ones you really need! What’s more, there are a lot of very good ones available that do save you lots of time, but you may waste a lot of time tinkering around with all of the options they offer!

I’ve tried to be selective about what I review on this blog based on my own research. The products I focus on are mainly what I determine are the best products and what I’m hearing my Top Photographers and other industry experts are telling me that they use.

I have found an awesome collection of products that do really make my editing process quite enjoyable, but I must admit that as much as I love most of the products I have it is hard to find time to use them all. As a result I’ve decided to finally throw down the gauntlet and rank the products that I have on my machine in order of importance to my personal workflow. What this means is that if I could only use X (i.e., 5) then you could look at numbers 1 through X (i.e., 5) to see which ones I’d keep.

With this information available to you, you can then look at your budget and make your selections based on either your own research.  You can compare that with my advice to come up with the best plug-ins on the market to help make you more productive.

This list is only about plug-ins, even though some may run stand-alone in addition to being a plug-in. This means that some programs that I can’t live without (i.e., ImagePrint) will not appear on the list. I also will just flat out say that Lightroom is my #1 photo editing and asset management product but I’d have a hell of a hard time living without Photoshop. I’m not a fan of Aperture, but it is a nice product that will be perfect for some – just not me. As a Canon shooter I also find Canon Digital Photo Professional has a horrible user interface, but it is still a critical part of my workflow for certain RAW processing tasks. I know there are Nikon shooters who feel the same way about Capture NX2, which is actually a decent product that can serve as an end-to-end solution if you are on the Nikon platform.

Recommended Plug-ins as of Dec 10, 2015

Previously this was a stacked ranked list of what I’ve reviewed but with my Dec 2015 update, I’ve decided to trim it down to just what I’d recommend to a family member or close friend. Yes, there are a lot of other products on the market, but this boils it down to what I’d get if I had to start all over from scratch today.

• Topaz Labs Adjust – I used to think of this as the secret sauce for HDR images, but now I use it for so much more. In fact, Topaz has so many strong offerings that I’m often telling people that this product is just as valuable as Color Efex, so if you only buy one bundle then go for the Topaz bundle and trust this. Yes, some effects are hideous until you learn how to use them, but watch my one of my webinars and you’ll see that they don’t have to be.
  
• Imagenomic Noiseware - Noiseware won my Noise Reduction Roundup and I find myself using it the most out of all the products I’ve tested (including some not featured on the blog).
   
• Athentech Perfectly Clear / Lucid – I tried this product out a couple years ago and hated it, but now I find myself constantly using it both on my computer and my phone. I’ve edited more photos this year with this product than any of the others – combined (especially on my phone) – and I didn’t even start using it regularly until March! While I hate the skin softening results, I do find that it does make images look great – often by default – so I’ve poured countless images through Perfectly Clear. If you haven’t seen or tried this one out yet – you MUST – it’s pretty good with no hassle. [Note: Lucid is the stand-alone version with some reduced features so check out my review for more info.]
  
• Imagenomic Portraiture – I process a lot of portraits every year so I’m always re-exploring skin softening products to try to make this process easier. While many products have come a long way, there is still nothing better than Portraiture.
  
• Topaz Labs B&W Effects – There’s lots of great products in this space, but if I’m going to advise a friend to spend their hard earned money on only one then I have to go with this one. Topaz Labs has emerged as the industry leader in innovation with an active community to support it. Yes, Silver Efex Pro is good, but I’ve yet to find myself unable to get the same or better results with B&W Effects, so I’ve finally given up on it in favor of B&W Effects.
  
• Topaz Software’s ReMask –  This is the fastest and easiest tool to create complex masks fast. onOne Software’s Perfect Photo Suite has the potential to be greater, but I’ve just had a much harder time mastering the masking features. I find ReMask to be much easier to use and very powerful. It can save you a hell of a lot of time separating your subject from a complex background or doing complex masks that can’t be adequately handled using Nik Software’s U-Point control technology or the vastly improved Refine Edge feature of recent versions of Photoshop. 
  
• MacPhun Aurora HDR [Mac only] or HDRSoft Photomatix (esp with Trey Ratcliff’s Photomatix Presets) – If HDR is important to you then one of these has to be in the top 5. For as good as built-in HDR processing is in Photoshop and Lightroom, I still prefer stand alone applications. Aurora HDR is simply the best product on the market for HDR – bar none – but currently it’s only available on the Mac, so PC users will have to use the long-time industry standard Photomatix. Photomatix can create great results, but it’s cryptic controls can be difficult to master – especially if you want realistic results (and white clouds). Yes, you can go to Photoshop and work around its shortcomings, but Aurora HDR makes that easy to do in its UI without the need for Photoshop (or anything else).
  
• Topaz Labs Texture Effects, Glow and Impression – These are the hottest new plug-ins on the market for a reason – they create amazingly original looking work from the most boring of images. I really, really, love these products, but I do wish that they were all just merged into one product.
  
• Topaz Labs Restyle (alt review) – This is another one of those one click editing solutions that I love, but I don’t use it as much as I’d like to because it has so many choices! Seriously, I love choices but I sometimes find myself spending 20 minutes just pouring through all of the awesome choices it offers!
  
  It is very usefully for coming with up a “look” or “theme” for a project and leveraging favorites help reduce the time spent in the app. I adore this product and STRONGLY recommend you to check it out as this product is a game changer for those who want to focus on their photography, and not photo editing – yet still have professional results that don’t look like it was processed on Instagram.
  
• on1 Perfect Resize – There was a time where this would have been in the top 3, but resizing in Adobe products and printer drivers have gotten pretty good so this is more useful when you need the best possible results or when other methods just don’t do a good job. Generally speaking if you are going to increase an image by 200% or more, then this is the best game in town. Sadly it’s a hidden feature that is an optional install for the latest version of the on1 Photo bundle. My review covers an older version, but nothing has really changed in this product for quite some time. Sadly you can only get this with the entire on1 Bundle.
  
• Topaz Labs Simplify (review) – Great for turning your images into cartoons or drawings. It’s a cool app that I didn’t used to use that much, but I’ve learned that with the right scenes (especially leafy landscapes) it can create some exciting images that people want to buy. I also like to use it on busy backgrounds sometimes to remove distractions. This isn’t a product that most photographers would use every day, but when I pair it with the right image I often get a big grin on my face. Topaz Clean also is capable of doing this and more, so check it out while you are at it to see which works better for you. Personally, I tend to favor Simplify.

There’s of course a lot more that isn’t included here, so check out the Software Reviews section to the right or on my recommendations page to see if I’ve reviewed your favorite product. If you’d like my opinion one one not featured on my site then contact me.

What Happened to the Nik Collection by Google?

For as long as this blog has existed, I’ve been singing the praises of what used to be called the Nik Software Collection. They were the defacto standard by which all others were judged, and myself and so many others couldn’t live without it. However, my personal opinion of Google’s purchase of Nik Software, is that it seemed to be more of a patent grab than anything else as the innovation that Team Nik brought vanished after the acquisition (as well as many of the Nik employees).

If my calculations are correct, we are approaching 4 years since the last update of Color Efex and 2 years since the last update of anything (Analog Efex). As a result, it’s appears that these products are in sustained engineering mode. Given Google’s history of cutting products and services that aren’t part of their core business, I can’t escape the fear that one day an operating system change will come and we’ll hear that the Nik Collection will not be updated to support it.

With this in mind, I’ve been trying hard to wean myself off my favorite products like Color Efex, Silver Efex Pro, and Viveza for fear that I’d be up a creek without a paddle if I had an important job and they stopped working – with no plans to fix them.

I’ll be clear and state that these are still phenomenally good products, but if I’m going to advise my readers to spend their hard earned money then I want to point them to software solutions built by people with a ton of passion to make their products better (i.e., companies like Topaz Labs with their Complete Collection and MacPhun with their beautifully designed Creative Kit).  Sure, if you have bought the other recommended products and have an extra $149 to spare, then by all means pick these up as they are still quite good. However, I don’t recommend that people with limited funds make this their first purchase for the aforementioned reasons.

A Word About Bundles

One thing that is very clear is if you think you’ll ever want to own more than 2 or 3 products from a given company then you should just bit the bullet and get their largest bundled version. While it might be painful in the short-term buying such an expensive product, you’ll spend exponentially more if you find yourself buying all the products over time. The bundles are a great deal and the only way to go if you can make that happen. With that said, I do a quick run down of my favorite bundles here in priority stack ranked order:

1. Topaz Labs Plug-In Bundle – It has taken some time, but Topaz Labs has gone from the bottom to the top thanks to so many creative and game changing products. I find myself using Adjust and B&W Effects quite a bit now. Texture Effects, Glow, Impression, ReStyle and Simplify highlight the amazing innovation coming out of this new industry leader in photo editing.
   
   These products can give your photos that wow with minimal effort allowing you to focus on photography instead of photo editing, and save shots that would otherwise be duds. I’m also a huge fan of ReMask when I have to do masking because it is much more accurate than Refine Edge in Photoshop. As a result, these 8 products easily justify the cost of the bundle (which is available at a discount on my blog).
   
   While many people swear by them, I don’t really use Clean, Detail, Lens Effects,or Star Effects that much, but the other products still make the bundle worth it. I don’t care for  DeNoise , so I always use Noiseware when I need to do digital noise reduction (from using higher ISO’s).
   
   This is my new “if you could only have one” bundle choice because it offers so much to help create new art from your photography, that I think it really deserves the top spot.
   
2. Imagenomic Pro Plug-in Suite – Noiseware is the winner of my noise reduction series and as of now, nothing has changed that. I also have become obsessed with Portraiture as my preferred skin softening product for both photos and videos, so you may as well get the bundle. You’ll effectively get Real Grain for free, so it’s worth getting the bundle.
   
3. MacPhun Creative Kit – This company has some of my friends from the once brilliant Nik Software, and its beautifully built user interface is the one by which all other products should aspire to mimic. While it lacks the brilliant U-Point controls that are the secret sauce of the Nik Collection, it has everything else and so much more. This is really a great solution for Mac users, but sadly isn’t on Windows yet so I can’t give it a better rating.
   
4. Google Nik Collection – As I previously mentioned, this had been my favorite for many years. However, the product seems to be in maintenance mode with all of my Nik contacts leaving Google without any apparent replacements. Google has no meaningful financial interest in the product anymore, so I have concerns about its future. As a result, I’m reluctant to recommend it anymore, despite the brilliant software that remains.
   
   Yes, this is still a great product and I adore it, but I’m lost as to what Google is really doing for its future. As a result, IF you’ve got the other suites and a an extra $149 lying around then it’s a worthwhile investment – just make sure you have a plan B if it stops working unexpectedly in the future.
   
5. on1 Photo 10 – I used to be a big fan of onOne Software, but this suite has been dumbed down so much with its confusing user interface that it’s left nothing really compelling to me anymore. I’m also tired of it coming out with new names and releases before they get the bugs out of the current one, so I really can’t get excited about this one anymore. Yes, Matt Klosowski makes it look pretty cool, but unless you’ve got his gift for photo editing, I think you’ll find yourself frustrated with the results you get with your own photos.
    
6. Alien Skin Bundle – Alien Skin makes decent products, but with so much goodness offered these days I just don’t find myself saying “I need that” over the other products in my workflow.

You really can save a bundle by getting bundles, so before you make that stand alone purchase ask yourself – will I want to buy any of these other products in the future? If you say yes to at least 3 products offered in the bundle then pony up now to save big later – get the bundle!

Topaz Labs Photoshop Bundle – The Best Place to Spend Your Money

Adjust is a mainstay in many great photographers digital workflow because it’s a product that is so unique that really nothing competes with it. Topaz created this same kind of magic with Glow, Impression and ReStyle all of which are super hot sellers that I love. With ReMask still being the best manual masking solution and the strength of Simplify and B&W Effects, you really have a true artist toolkit with this bundle. Lens Effects, Clean, Detail. Star Effects  and InFocus add value but I just have so many plug-ins that I don’t have a need for them. I’m still not a fan of Denoise even though some readers swear by it.

Imagenomic

Imagenomic makes three popular products which can only be purchased separately. The first two mentioned below are staples in my regular work, so I couldn’t live without them.

Based on my extensive testing during my Noise Reduction Roundup, nobody out performed Noiseware.  It’s a great product that I go to for my most important jobs because I know it will do the best job to preserve the detail. It’s only disadvantage is the lack of Nik’s U-Point controls, but most of the time I will just create a layer mask and roughly sketch out where I want selective noise reduction, so I’ll just use Noiseware in both those and global noise reduction scenarios.

I’ve stopped using my long-time beloved Nik Software’s Dynamic Skin Softener (filter found in Color Efex) in favor of Portraiture which does the best skin enhancements I’ve ever seen. I turned my mentor on to this product after his copy of Color Efex wouldn’t work on his upgraded version of the Mac OS, and he loves Portraiture more than anything now! 

Real Grain isn’t my cup of tea, but most people probably don't realize that it simulates a lot of films which could be handy to some. It also has nice grains which can prove useful in printing or dramatic stylistic effects like reproducing the artificial grain found in the movie Saving Private Ryan.

The Rest

There are thousands of Photoshop & Lightroom plug-ins, and many of them are fantastic. However, I don’t have the bandwidth to test everything, nor can I use everything, so what you see in this article represents my reality. Don’t assume that if  product isn’t mentioned here that I don’t like it, but rather assume I probably haven’t used it very much – if at all.

I will say that I’m no fan of Portrait Professional and Focus Magic as I feel both offer mediocre solutions for which there are much better options.

If you’ve got a great product that you think I must know about then feel free to leave a comment with your suggestion(s). Do not link as spam comments will not be approved.

Special Offers

Visit my Discount Coupon Code page for specials on plug-ins and a wide variety of products – many of which aren’t available any where else on the web!

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these too:

• KelbyOne Review & Discount 
• Discount Coupon Codes 
• Printing Series 
• NEC PA322UHD 4k for Pro Photo & Video Editing Review
• Wacom Intuos Pro Review
• Wacom Cintiq 13 HD Review
• Ron’s Recommendations 

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.

onOne Software Announces Perfect Photo Suite 6

onOne Software Announces Perfect Photo Suite 6
for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture

New products Perfect Effects, Perfect Portrait, Perfect Mask and the Perfect Layers update provide photographers with essential tools to realize their photographic vision.

Portland, OR– September 7, 2011 – onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of innovative, timesaving solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, today announced Perfect Photo Suite 6 along with new products Perfect Effects, Perfect Portrait, Perfect Mask, and an update to Perfect Layers. All products in the Perfect Photo Suite 6 now work as standalone applications in addition to working directly from within Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Apple Aperture and Adobe Photoshop.

Giving photographers intuitive tools that work where they do, the Perfect Photo Suite 6 now offers solutions for photographic effects, portrait retouching, creating and working with multilayered files, replacing unwanted backgrounds, image resizing, depth of field control, and edge effects, in one affordable package. The Perfect Photo Suite 6 includes Perfect Effects 3, Perfect Portrait 1, Perfect Mask 5, Perfect Layers 2, Perfect Resize 7, FocalPoint 2 and PhotoFrame 4.6.

With this new version of the Perfect Photo Suite 6, photographers can now move effortlessly between individual applications within the Suite and have complete flexibility to use the products where they work. The Perfect Photo Suite 6 now operates not only as a plug-in for Photoshop but also as a standalone application. This additional functionality means that the Suite can be used directly within Lightroom and Aperture without the need for a separate host application as was previously required. Perfect Photo Suite 6 will continue to include full support for Photoshop CS5 and CS4 with many of the products now functioning as Smart Filters.

"We are extremely excited about Perfect Photo Suite 6," said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. "We have always set our sights on creating tools that help photographers create high quality images so that they can spend more time behind the camera or with clients, and less time behind the computer. With the release of the completely new products Perfect Portrait, Perfect Effects, Perfect Mask and the update to Perfect Layers, the Perfect Photo Suite 6 provides photographers with products that are even more intuitive to use, and that integrate seamlessly into their workflow, so that they can realize their photographic vision."

Perfect Photo Suite 6 includes full versions of the following onOne Software products:

Perfect Effects 3 (New!): Perfect Effects builds on the popularity of PhotoTools to provide an even faster and more powerful way to create images with impact. Perfect Effects 3 includes a complete library of professional photographic effects that can be previewed live, full screen, on an image before being applied. Perfect Effects 3 now includes blending options that provide even more control over how effects are combined and applied.

Perfect Portrait 1 (New!): Perfect Portrait is a completely new product that offers the latest innovations in portrait retouching for photographers. Photographers can now focus on the art of retouching and portrait creation because the most time consuming tasks have been automated in Perfect Portrait. Perfect Portrait automatically finds faces and features in images so that photographers can get directly to the work of retouching and enhancing an image. Improving skin texture and color, removing blemishes and enhancing features like eyes, lips and teeth have never been easier.

Perfect Layers 2 (New!): Perfect Layers allows photographers to combine photos for endless creative options. Create and edit multi-layered files with Perfect Layers directly from Lightroom and Aperture, or as a standalone application. All Perfect Layers files can be edited in Photoshop later. Perfect Layers is the heart of the new Perfect Photo Suite 6.

Perfect Mask 5 (New!): Perfect Mask 5 is the next generation of Mask Pro, the leading software for background replacement. Perfect Mask takes the core strengths of Mask Pro to another level, by automating many common masking tasks with incredible accuracy. Perfect Mask's new masking technology makes selecting subjects and isolating backgrounds surprisingly easy. With Automatic Background Removal, an initial mask is made on the image and can then be fine-tuned using the Erase and Refine Tools. With these new features, high quality masks can be created in just a few clicks. Perfect Mask 5 makes masking tough subjects like hair and glass on complex backgrounds easy.

Perfect Resize 7: Perfect Resize 7—powered by Genuine Fractals—is the industry standard for image resizing. It is renowned across the photographic and printing industries for its ability to increase image size well over 1000% without the loss of sharpness or detail that is normally expected. The patented, fractal based interpolation algorithms work like nothing else and the results speak for themselves.

PhotoFrame 4.6: Add the perfect finishing touch to images and layouts with PhotoFrame. With over one thousand design elements like film edges, borders, textures, backgrounds and adornments, PhotoFrame 4.6 even has complete layouts where users can simply drop an image in and they are done. It is the easiest and fastest way to add an authentic darkroom touch with a film edge or to create beautiful albums or scrapbook pages.

FocalPoint 2: Like bringing the camera lens inside Photoshop, FocalPoint 2 gives photographers the best way to add the most realistic depth of field and selective focus control to any image after it is photographed. Photographers now have an incredible amount of flexibility and control over the look of the blur with FocalPoint 2's new blur algorithm, FocusBrush, Lens Presets and multiple FocusBug features.

Availability

The new Perfect Photo Suite 6 will be available in late October 2011. Owners of the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5, Plug-In Suite 5 or earlier versions, can upgrade to Perfect Photo Suite 6 for $149.95. Customers who own one or more of the products in Perfect Photo Suite 6 will be able to upgrade as well by visiting http://www.ononesoftware.com/upgrade/. For more information on the Perfect Photo Suite 6, please visit http://www.ononesoftware.com/.

For those that have purchased the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 on or after August 7, 2011, onOne Software will issue a complimentary upgrade to the Perfect Photo Suite 6 via download when it is available in late October 2011.

Special Offer

Please visit my Discount Coupon Code Page to get a code to save 10% off onOne Software Products.

Guest Blog: onOne PhotoTools and FocalPoint Tutorial by Brian Matiash

I've invited Brian Matiash to do a little demo for you today while I’m offline teaching with Bryan Peterson at his Seattle Workshop. I hope you enjoy and would love to hear if you’d like to see more videos like these from onOne or other software companies.

Play in HD

I want to thank Ron for giving me the opportunity to share this quick screencast video showing how I use two of seven products in the onOne Software Perfect Photo Suite family to elevate the look at feel of my image.

I shoot a lot of UrbEx photography and have been fortunate to get access to some pretty funky places. As you'd probably expect, most of the time, the only light that you have is either coming from your headlamp or from the available ambient light that makes its way in. Not much in terms of electricity here.

In some cases, though, the light coming in is in such stark contrast to the darkness all around that the best way to capture all of the detail is to use HDR tone-mapping. And that's exactly what I did - but I did so only to get a good representative foundation image.

From there, I used PhotoTools to stylize the image and give it a specific look. I wanted to accentuate the grossness of the scene.

Finally, I wanted to control where the viewer's eyes will spend the most time, so I used FocalPoint to create a shallow plane of focus by simulating a fast lens.

I was really happy with the end result and I hope you take some helpful tips away from the screencast.

If you have any questions, please email me at bmatiash@ononesoftware.com. You can also visit my personal Photoblog at http://www.brianmatiash.com.

Thanks again, Ron!

Special Offer

Save on ALL onOne Software products, including Perfect Layers (included free with Perfect Photo Suite) . Visit the Discount Coupon Code page for the code and more details. 

See my review of PhotoTools here as well as these other onOne Software reviews:

• PhotoFrame
• Perfect Layers Early Preview (update coming soon)

Disclaimer

I invited onOne Software to demo these products for my readers who have already purchased these products, and for those curious about how these products work. Like all of my articles, if you purchase using the links in my article I may get a commission. Thanks for supporting this blog by using my links when ordering!

REVIEW: onOne Software PhotoTools 2.6

I’m a busy guy so it’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to do a review on . The last version I reviewed was PhotoTools 2.0 Professional back in June 2009, so this is an update that is looonnng overdue.

If you read my last review I had a lot of rants and raves but more importantly the software had a lot of bugs so I ultimately stopped using it. That’s a shame because I know that onOne Software is a great company who listens to customer feedback and tries hard to make great products, but I think that 2.0 came out before it was ready.

I’m happy to report that this version, at least on my 64-bit Windows 7 based systems and my MacBook Pro seem to be very reliable and more importantly – very fast! I had some troubles when I used 1.0 and 2.0 so the improvement can be directly attributed to a lot of great work by the onOne Software team so I congratulate them for getting over the growing pains of building a new and complex product.

Installation

Overall the installation went fairly smoothly for me. However, I did hit one issue on one of my machines (not all) that caused this “Unknown error: -65” dialog to display when I ran any onOne Software product:

After a quick email to onOne Software I found out that this error was resolved by using the instructions at http://www.ononesoftware.com/support/1269/. It turns out that I didn’t have .net 4.0 installed and that was required. While I would have liked their setup program to have detected this issue and ran the update for me, it was a pretty painless process and I was up and running with no major headaches after that. In fact, you may already have this update and not even see this problem which is very easy to fix.

I should note that on my Lenovo W701ds Windows 7 system and my MacBook Pro I did not have any problems – they both just worked right out of the box. I am including this note in case you hit it too so you won’t have any delay in getting going again.

What’s New

Here’s some of the new feature’s you’ll find in this version:

• NEW! Portrait photographers get a new Blemish Removal brush.
• NEW! Includes new effects designed specifically to enhance HDR photos.
• NEW! Includes over a dozen new texture overlays.
• NEW! Over 12 new effects added including new black & white effects.

Example: Editing a Portrait

While you can use this product to edit landscapes, architecture, etc… I thought I’d start by editing a portrait that was in bad need of some help. In the table below you can see that the original has tons of problems, but I started by fixing the white balance in Lightroom by clicking on the grout in between the tiles to get rid of the orange cast (thank goodness I shot in Raw!).

This image was shot at ISO 1000 so I went ahead and ran Imagenomic Noiseware to get rid of the noise. I had tried the noise reduction in PhotoTools, but it appears to be the same as what you find in Photoshop which means it sucks. In my Noise Reduction Series I compared various noise reduction products and Photoshop wasn’t even in the game, and even with CS5 it has a long way to go to catch up to Noiseware.

I decided to try a few techniques to fix this photo. I’ll discuss them more in a moment, but you can see the final results here. When you hover over the text in the bottom row of the table below, the image will switch to the method that you are hovering over. I’ve listed them in the order in which I liked the results. You may click the image or the text to get a larger version to examine the differences (recommended).

Original @ ISO 1000 and White Balance accidentally set to 5100K
Magic Portrait Fixer	Auto Portrait Fixer	PhotoTune 3

NOTE: I did use Sharpener Pro on the first two images after I was done editing them

Magic Portrait Fixer

PhotoTools 2.6 on Mac OS X 10.6.5 and Photoshop CS5 64-bit

This is a filter featured when I typed “Portrait” into the search box to filter down the dizzying array of choices in PhotoTools. I ran this one and it actually adds several filters to the stack. You can see which ones when you click on the image above for a larger size, but it is worth nothing that I masked out the changes to the lips on the Turbo Boost layer and I masked out the hair on the Auto Skin Smoother layer that PhotoTools creates in its stack. I also played around with the fade on several of the layers until I was happy with the final results (not shown above).

Dynamic Light Filter

I thought this effect darkened up the face to much so I went ahead and applied the Dynamic Light Filter which uses the spider tool like you would find in FocalPoint to allow for a little more light on the face which is very much like the effect that Vincent Versace teaches in his book Welcome to Oz, but with a lot less hassle. I loved this feature and the spider tool was a great way to make this adjustment very fast!

With this enhancement and the changes I made to the layers, I was very happy with the results I achieved very quickly with the Magic Portrait Fixer filter.

I should note that I finished this image off with Display sharpening using Sharpener Pro as I found it to be the better tool for sharpening than what I found in PhotoTools. However, I’ll make the disclaimer that I’m still getting reacquainted with this product again so if I find something better that is built in I’ll be sure to report back.

Auto Portrait Fixer

PhotoTools 2.6 on Windows 7 and Photoshop CS4 64-bit

Here I tried the Auto Portrait Fixer which is a little less aggressive. Once again I masked out the eyebrows and hair on the Auto Skin Smoother layer using the Masking brush. If you hover over the image above you can see the mask it applied. I liked the results and think they are very good, but the Magic Portrait Fixer version has some extra enhancements like Selective Focus that help to control the viewers eye.

All in all, I’d say this is a good filter that I can see myself using, but for this exercise I favored the more heavy handed Magic Portrait Fixer filter.

I should note that the for the final image for this one I did use Sharpener Pro as I had done in the photo above.

PhotoTune 3

For kicks and giggles I thought I’d see what would happen if I just used the People wizard of PhotoTune. Overall the results were okay, but nothing like the other two. PhotoTune is easy and great for the beginner, but I like PhotoTools way better for enhancing my images. 

I did not use Sharpener Pro on this one as the final step is sharpening so I didn’t feel it made sense to sharpen again.

Add a Frame with PhotoFrame 2.6

I was having a lot of fun playing around with the software inside onOne Software’s Perfect Photo Suite that I ended up doing something I rarely do – I added a frame to my final shot.

To do this I just went to the File menu and chose Automate PhotoFrame 2.6 and it brought up the library window. From there I typed film and chose one of the film frames. Since this is a snapshot I thought it was the perfect frame for the shot. Here’s some of the choices I had available, but it was pages of really cool options in this window:

It is easy to preview tons of great choices
with this brilliant user interface!

After I chose my frame I moved my image around and scaled it a bit smaller so that it would fit nicely in the film strip without being so heavily cropped as was the case in the default scenario. Fortunately I can do this quite easily in the PhotoFrame UI and it takes care of modifying my image and canvas to accommodate everything in Photoshop. This user-interface is very powerful and SUPER fast and reliable in this release:

Resize your image here and PhotoFrame takes care of the rest
(NOTE: Image shown is not from the final image used below)

The cool thing is that PhotoFrame gives you lots of options about how your frame can be applied but my favorite is this mode where the frame is separate from the image. In addition I can edit the layer mask to paint in only parts of the frame effect which is really cool when you want ragged edge frames. Here’s what my image looked like:

This could have been done in the main
image PSD but I broke it out to make
it easy to read here.

In just a matter of a couple minutes I had a fun frame and a great time creating it.

Conclusion

The Final Result
(Mouse in and out to see before & after)

The slogan for Perfect Photo Suite is “software that gets you back to shooting”, and I think that is a very accurate claim. I spent about 5 minutes in each filter experimenting with it and then another 2 minutes making the frame, so with little effort on my part I got a huge improvement (hover over above to see the before image) in less than 30 minutes. I’m very happy with the results and the improved performance and reliability will get me back to trying the onOne suite of products more often. I’m jazzed and ready to go edit some more images!

Special Offer

Visit my Discount Coupon Code page to see my latest special offer details for onOne Software. As of the time I am writing this offer they are offering $100 off the Perfect Photo Suite until December 31st, 2010. There’s also upgrade options (including a free upgrade for some) if you are a previous owner. Click here to see the latest offerings by onOne Software including a NEW special offer on Perfect Photo Suite!

Disclosure

onOne Software has provided me with an evaluation copy of all of their products for my review. I may get a commission if you purchase using the links in this article, so I appreciate your show of support by using the links on this blog when ordering.

onOne Software Ships Perfect Photo Suite 5.5

onOne Software Announces Availability of Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Apple Aperture

New version of Perfect Resize and direct integration with Lightroom and Aperture provide photographers with essential tools to quickly achieve high quality results

Portland, OR– December 2, 2010 – onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of innovative, timesaving solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, today announced availability of Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 for Adobe® Photoshop®, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® and Apple Aperture. Tackling specific problems within a photographer's preferred workflow, the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 offers simple yet powerful solutions for color correction, image resizing, masking and professional photographic effects in one affordable package. With support for Photoshop CS5, CS4 and CS3, the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 includes FocalPoint 2, PhotoTune 3, PhotoFrame 4.6, PhotoTools 2.6, MaskPro 4.1 and Perfect Resize 7 (the next generation of Genuine Fractals). The Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 will also include the recently announced Perfect Layers, which will be available in early 2011.

With this new version of the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5, photographers now have more options for where they use many of the onOne products. For the first time photographers will be able to use FocalPoint 2, PhotoTune 3, PhotoFrame 4.6 and Perfect Resize 7 directly within Lightroom and Aperture without the need for a separate host application. In addition, owners of the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 will receive Perfect Layers when it becomes available next year. This completely new product provides photographers with the ability to create layered files directly from within Lightroom and Aperture that are fully compatible with Photoshop for later editing.

Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 continues to include full support for Photoshop CS5, CS4 and CS3. Mask Pro 4.1 which allows photographers to replace backgrounds and make selections and PhotoTools 2.6, which allows photographers to leverage the power of Photoshop to enhance and stylize their images, continue to function directly within Photoshop and do not run as stand-alone applications.

Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 includes full versions of the following onOne Software products:

Perfect Resize 7 – The next generation of Genuine Fractals – Based on the same proven and patented algorithms as Genuine Fractals, the newest version of the industry standard for image resizing introduces new Smoothness and Sharpening controls to achieve the highest quality results when enlarging images. In addition, Perfect Resize adds features that make printing easier and faster including the new Loupe Tool for an instant 1:1 magnified preview. The upgrade also adds the ability to save custom Presets, a new Gallery Wrap preview with Auto Corner Fill, and Image Tiling improvements. Perfect Resize 7 now enables those who prefer a Lightroom or Aperture only workflow to resize a single or batch of images directly within those applications.

PhotoTools 2.6 – PhotoTools 2.6 adds a dozen new effects to the highly acclaimed Photoshop plug-in that allows photographers of all skill levels to maximize the full power of Photoshop with its ability to preview and combine Photoshop Actions in a single, intuitive interface. Designed by photographers for photographers, PhotoTools 2.6 includes the MaskingBug control, based on the FocusBug control from the award-winning FocalPoint plug-in, to selectively apply effects to images. PhotoTools 2.6 now has a total library of close to 300 effects that photographers can easily browse, preview and combine to create images that truly stand out.

PhotoFrame 4.6 – With PhotoFrame 4.6, you can add the perfect finishing touch to your images and layouts with new backgrounds, borders, layouts and adornments. With over one thousand design elements like film edges, borders, textures, backgrounds and adornments, PhotoFrame 4.6 even has complete layouts where users can simply drop an image in and they are done. It is the easiest and fastest way to add an authentic darkroom touch with a film edge or to create beautiful albums or scrapbook pages. Photographers can now use PhotoFrame 4.6 directly within Lightroom and Aperture.

FocalPoint 2 – Like bringing the camera lens inside Photoshop, FocalPoint 2 gives photographers the best way to add realistic depth of field and selective focus control to any image. Photographers now have an incredible amount of flexibility and control over the look of the blur with the new blur algorithm, FocusBrush, Lens Presets and multiple FocusBug features. Photographers can now use FocalPoint 2 directly within Lightroom and Aperture or on its own.

PhotoTune 3 – PhotoTune 3 uses patented technology to optimize the dynamic range, color and sharpness of images so that they look more true-to-life. The Wizard offers fast color and tone correction in as little as two steps while giving pro users direct access to advanced and innovative controls. SkinTune, which represents two years of research and analysis of thousands of skin tones, offers one-click color correction of portraits and the option to correct just the skin in an image. Photographers can now use PhotoTune 3 directly within Lightroom and Aperture or on its own.

MaskPro 4.1 – When a subject needs to be quickly extracted from a photo, Mask Pro 4 provides a color-based method that helps photographers easily remove unwanted backgrounds. Mask Pro's unique Color Decontamination technology allows users to get realistic results by maintaining transparency in hard to mask objects like hair, smoke and glass in a fraction of the time using traditional tools.

Perfect Layers 1 (New!) – The newest product in the onOne Software line-up provides a fast and easy way to bring a layered workflow to Photoshop Lightroom and Apple Aperture. For those using a Lightroom or Aperture workflow, but not yet using Photoshop, Perfect Layers introduces the ability to create and edit multi-layered Photoshop files. With Perfect Layers photographers can combine multiple images into a layered Photoshop compatible file, adjust layer size, position, blending mode and opacity and use the built-in masking tools to blend multiple layers together. Perfect Layers will be made available at no cost to current owners of Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 as a free upgrade when it becomes available in 2011.

Availability

The new Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 is available immediately to owners of Plug-In Suite 5 as a free upgrade by clicking here.

New users may purchase Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 for $499.95 (see the Discount Coupon Code page for a coupon code to save more). Purchased separately the products would normally cost $1,460. Existing owners of Plug-In Suite version 1, 2, 3 or 4 can upgrade to the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 for $199.95. Customers who own one or more of the products in Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 can now upgrade as well by clicking here.  For more information on the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5, please visit onOne Software.

Special Offer

Don’t forget to visit the Discount Coupon Code page for the latest codes to save big money on onOne Software products.

HDR Workshop DVD by Trey Ratcliff / StuckInCustoms.com

 
If you want to create HDR images
that don’t suck, read this article!

*** NOTE: This product is no longer sold, but you can get similar products here ***

As much as the subject has grabbed my interest, I haven’t fully embraced HDR and tone mapping as I’ve rarely been happy with the results that come out of the various HDR products I’ve tried. They are good products and I’ve seen others use them with great effectiveness, but honestly most of mine have seriously sucked. Of course, there’s tons of horrible HDR images out on the web with grey/black skies on sunny days, oversaturated colors that make me reach for my sunglasses, and some with so much texture and noise that they feel like the apocalypse is near.

I’ll admit with all of this bad stuff other there, I’ve kinda disassociated myself away from HDR as I wanted to avoid being shunned by the growing mass of the population that has a total disdain for HDR and is proud to let he world know about it. However, I recently had the pleasure of watching all four of Trey Ratcliff’s HDR Workshop DVD’s and I was pleasantly surprised, Trey has evolved  (as a post-processor) to create modern day HDR images that some might wonder if they are HDR at all. Put a different way, he’s creating some great stuff that are neither radioactive nor grungy so I believe their appeal will be more broadly accepted. His techniques as to how he creates his images has evolved, but much of the fundamentals he applies today he’s applied in the past, so the real point is that you can use the techniques of these DVD’s to improve your Photoshop skill set even if you absolutely hate HDR images!

So is this a HDR DVD or Photography/Photoshop Fundamentals DVD?

I’d actually argue this DVD is equally both. It is definitely a series that shows you the value of shooting multiple exposures, and if those multiple exposures are bracketed then you can do some really cool composites to create a great image. From this standpoint you can use what Trey shows to remove tourists, and fix hot spots, even if you never fire up an HDR image processor. However, the goal of this series is to show you how to make great HDR shots, so naturally you’ll see plenty of Photomatix in action.

The gist of Trey’s secret sauce really boils down to this:

1. Collect a bracketed set of JPEG images of your subject (which you can create from Lightroom, Canon DPP, Capture NX2, etc…).
   
2. Combine and tone map these once (or sometimes twice) in Photomatix.However, this step could be optional for some and the other steps would still apply.
   
3. Use Bridge to load some or all of the images from step 1 into layers along with the output of step 2.
   
4. Use layer masks to combine elements from each of the images into one final composite image that is visually closer to the dynamic range of the eye rather than the limitations of the dynamic range of the camera (hence the value of HDR software in step 2).
   
5. Apply filters by Nik Software, Topaz Labs or onOne Software as desired to add visual pop (a step that the anti-HDR crowd might frown upon if you aren’t careful).
   
6. Reduce the noise (for some this may occur as step 5, others may occur after) using third party solutions instead of Photomatix. See my noise reduction series for why I agree with his decision to use Noiseware.
   
7. Sharpen to your favorite output target (i.e., web, print, etc…) using Nik Software’s Sharpener Pro (easy) or Photoshop’s USM filter (complex).

All of this sounds pretty easy, but it’s fun to watch a master at work and see how he accomplishes step 4. Each image offers unique challenges, and Troy handles them very well. This is the real value of this DVD, because even if you have ninja Photoshop skills – you may pick up on some cool tricks that you can apply on your own work either using Trey’s method directly or a derivative that accomplishes the same thing more efficiently.

Is this for Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture or Elements?

In this series Trey always exports his RAW’s via Lightroom, but he mostly uses Lightroom as a image organizing storage tool. He uses Bridge as a tool to do merge into layers (which theoretically should be doable as a export action in Lightroom). After this its all Photomatix and Photoshop, so the point here is that if you don’t have a tool that can do layer masking and change opacity on those layers, then your aren’t going to be able to apply the techniques shown in the series.

DVD Walkthrough

This series is broken up in to two editions. The three disc Basic Edition and the four disc Premium Edition, so the first three discs of both editions are identical. I’ll start with my thoughts on those below and finish up with disc four which is exclusive to the Premium Edition, and why you should care about that last disc. With that in mind, here’s my thoughts on the series discs:

Disc 1

This disc is comprised of seven chapters, each of which are described below. Of all the discs in the series, I initially felt this was the least useful.However, by the end I saw the value in the first disc – especially when you have the fourth disc from the premium edition. Here’s my chapter by chapter thoughts:

• Trey’s Welcome Message – I’ll be straight up and admit that I was very disappointed when I watched this because I wasn’t expecting this series to be a fairly unedited video capture of his Austin HDR Workshop (which cost $1495, so by comparison this series is a great deal!) at The Driskill Hotel. However, when I stopped and thought for a few minutes, it dawned on me that is exactly what the series is titled – the HDR Workshop, so I tried to get over my surprise and watch the series based on the most important thing – its content.
• Class introduction – Here Trey has a neat exercise where he points out how our brain plays games with us by showing how the same exact color can look like two entirely different colors based on them being in the sun and the shade. It was a fun exercise and discussion about the role colors play in our observation of a photo.
• Slideshow Presentation – This is a good idea, gone wrong for the video format. Here Trey goes over a bunch of his past photos and discusses some. The idea was good, but because this was a video recording of the class environment (with an odd start where the camera is effectively in dead space) it doesn’t come across as strong as if you were there in real life or if it were all a PowerPoint presentation made for video. However, for the most important photos the video feed from the classroom is replaced with a static image which helps for the most important photos. This is a good concept, but a not so good implementation for the video format. 
• Trey’s Camera Bag – Gear geeks will enjoy seeing what Trey carries around in his bag, but I was bummed that he neglected to mention what was attached to his Nikon D3x. He did have a couple cool little toys that were fun to see.
• Austin Photo Walk – At first my expectations were low about this, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of the disc. Here you get a chance to see how Trey executes the capture of the his images, and more importantly you get to hear what’s in his head when he’s evaluating a scene for a shot. This is golden here because I think this is an area where Trey possesses a lot more natural talent than your average button masher. The best part is that you get to enjoy being on the walk in the warmth of your home/office rather than being in the cold with the crowd – woohoo!
• Driskill Photo Walk – This is a fun chapter as well because you really get a better idea of what’s in Trey’s head when he composes the two shots in this chapter. It’s funny to see how he really doesn’t worry about people in the shot because he’ll use long exposures to compensate for them (which has the effect of ghosting or removing them all together depending on the length of the exposure and the movement of the people). I felt I learned a lot about composition in this chapter, so I was happy with the info presented here.
• Now the geeky engineer minds who approach photography as a science will probably flip out at a few of Trey’s comments in this chapter, and may event faint at his lack of concern for diffraction. I know for a fact that Trey’s way of thinking and operating his equipment is consistent with some of the best photographers in the industry that I’ve interviewed. What I mean by this is that Trey’s brain is thinking more about the shot itself and less about the camera settings, so that the camera really just becomes a tool to capture the data he needs to later assemble his vision. Perhaps this is the sign of a real artist because I’ve seen this pattern of behavior occur repeatedly with some of the photographers I admire the most. If you fall into this camp that has stress watching this chapter, then I’d encourage you to keep the big picture in mind and focus on the why behind what Trey is doing and apply your own camera technique to meet the objective that expresses your artistic intent.
  
  My overall take from this chapter is what a great sense for composition Trey has, which is something I hope to improve upon, so I thought this was one of the more important chapters on this disc.
  
  
  Paris Church - Copyright © Trey Ratcliff
• Paris Church Tutorial – This is fairly useful – especially for those who are still learning Photoshop because Trey shows practical applications of layer masks, including dialing down the brush opacity to 50% (a simple concept that many forget about). Some other practical things he did that I thought were good tips for me to remember, was his changing his layer order to make masking easier (although that’s not necessary if you fill your mask with black), and his multiple use of the patch tool to get the results he wanted. The patch tool is one that I become frustrated with as it rarely gives me the results I wanted, but I’ve never thought to use it repeatedly to get the desired result so this was a great technique for me to add to my toolkit. The funny thing about this shot is that I think Trey processes it better (i.e., removes more hot spots and has less black mid tones) in the video than he did in the shot above posted in this article.

Overall, I felt like the last three chapters were the real bang for the buck of this first DVD, so if you are wanting to power through the series I’d say those are the mandatory chapters to watch. These chapters made up for some of my initial disappointment and helped me to remember that the value in this material isn’t the presentation, but the content discussed. There were a fair amount of tips and concepts shared that made me really want to go shoot some HDR shots so I could apply what I just learned.

Disc 2

This is the disc you bought this series for, so I really got a kick out of the content on this. Here Trey walks through start to finish post-processing on four photos and common problems with two more. I loved this because I felt like I was a fly on the wall looking over Trey’s shoulder to see how he deals with problems we face all the time. When he had certain problems that many of us would just say screw it and discard the picture, he came up with a nice solution to save the shot. This was a very good disc and a lot of fun. Here’s my thoughts on the chapters:

 
Venetian - Copyright © Trey Ratcliff  (posted with special permission)
Post-processing by Ron Martinsen

• Venetian in Vegas – This was a cool shot even without HDR, so honestly I probably would have just taken the best frame and ran from there. However, Trey does a good job of addressing some common problems and making a good shot look great. I love the final output from this exercise. I especially enjoyed how he dealt with a little misalignment issue he had with his tone mapped image (something you’ve never seen before right? ha, ha). I loved the output here and thought this was a great final product. The shot above is my crack at it, but I didn’t quite solve the alignment problem as well as he did so I need to watch the chapter again. I’ve linked this shot to his version though so you can see how cool his final version really is!
  
  
  
  Kyoto Alley - Copyright © Trey Ratcliff  (posted with special permission)
  Post-processing by Ron Martinsen
  
  
  Trey’s edit (beyond what he does in the video)
  Copyright ® 2009 - Trey Ratcliff (original article)
• Japanese Alley – One of my favorite places on Earth is Kyoto, Japan so this photo has special meaning to me. With that disclaimer, I’d have to say this was one of my favorite photos to watch Trey work on because I felt the transformation from neat photo to awesome photo was complete. What’s even more fun is that since I had the premium version I actually had access to his original files and could apply what I learned myself on Trey’s photo. Thanks to special permission from Trey, I can show you the before and after results above. Below my version, I have also included Trey’s original version from December 2009 where’s put a bit more time in it than what you see on the DVD (my image is closer to the DVD edit), but both are great versions with different results due to personal taste. I like them both, and this is what you should take away from this – even if you hate HDR – you can apply HDR and tone mapping as a tool and choose to use or abuse it to your taste.
• Driskill Lion Statue – This was neat because you get to see Trey post-process the shot he took on the Driskill Photo Walk on Disc 1. I felt this chapter could have used a little more editing because Trey spends a lot of time searching through Nik Software filters when a simple Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer probably could have done the trick. What you do see clearly in this chapter though is that Trey doesn’t really have a formula, but rather a mental database of techniques that he’s mastered and he experiments heavily to get the results for the vision in his mind of how the shot should look.
• Oasis Sunset – I found his tip of drawing different opacity brushes around the horizon useful, but I also remember Scott Kelby doing a Radial Gradient with additional markers in his 7 Point System book that was more efficient (once you get the hang of it). I agree with Trey’s decision not to show that technique though as it is a little complex to grasp at first. Another useful thing about this chapter is that I thought his tone mapped version looked pretty nasty, but it shows very well how Trey only looks at the parts of the tone mapped image that he wishes to re-use and ignores the rest when working in Photomatix. This was a breakthrough idea for me as I tend to look at the entire image, so I have been a major technique in Trey’s toolbox! In this example he also shows off onOne Software’s Drizzle and Wow Landscape filters. He also used Viveza to desaturate the nasty purple color cast in the water, which is something I use quite often as well.
  
  My only gripe about this chapter was that Trey spends a lot of time removing dust spots by circling using the patch tool, when the healing brush’s default behavior would have been just as effective (and efficient for video purposes).
• Image Straightening – This was an ‘ah, ha” moment for me because Trey demonstrates a problem we all face when cropping – when you can straighten your vertical plane but not the horizontal at the same time. He solves this classic problem by checking off the perspective checkbox and moves the four corners independently to get his desired result. I use that technique later in this article for my Ireland Castle Tower shot, and was pleased to be reminded about something I had long forgotten about.
• California Sunrise – Here’s another case where Viveza saves part of the day and onOne Software Plug-in Tools Graduated Cool Warm filter (under Photo Filters) really helps to do serious magic on this shot that most of us would have deleted for fear that the photo couldn’t be saved.

I loved this disc because you get to sit and enjoy Trey from the best seat in the house to watch what he’s doing and listen to him discuss what’s in his head for a given shot. I know this disc has helped me a lot already, so this is one where you can’t miss a thing.

Disc 3

This disc is much of the same of what you get in disc 2, but every photo has its own unique challenge so it’s more about learning from repetition which is how I learn most effectively. Here’s the chapters you’ll find on this disc along with my thoughts on them:

Red Bridge – Copyright © Trey Ratcliff
• Red Bridge – This image has monster noise but Trey handles it in stride (without resorting to using Photomatix noise reduction, which I agree can be too aggressive). He uses a really cool radial blur (with zoom) to create a very cool sky effect that makes noise reduction software unnecessary for this photo.Hey calls this technique the “Trey Burst”, and I quite like it. See the story where this image first appeared here.
  
  
  
  Bullet Train – Copyright © Trey Ratcliff
• Bullet Train – This was a pretty challenging image to process, so you can learn a lot of techniques by watching this edit. For this one he uses the Topaz Adjust “Dramatic” filter and does an “onion style” (or radial gradient) to blend the man from one image into the tone mapped layer. He tops it off with the onOne Software “Wow Landscape” filter again for the final touch.
• Black & White HDR – Say the word Black & White or Split Toning to anyone using Photoshop these days and you’ll find that nearly all use Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro as their weapon of choice to get great results. This chapter is no different and is actually more of a short demo to show you how Trey uses this tool which I think is one of the most fun products on the market today (and remember, I used to hate Black & White!). (NOTE: If you decide to print your B&W on an Epson printer, then be sure to check out my Advanced Black & White article for some helpful tips).
• Double Tone Map – This is a funny tip/trick because after you do your first tone mapping the button to tone map again is disabled, but you can use the menu or shortcut keys in Photomatix to get it to tone map your already tone mapped image a second time. For the right subject the results are very neat, and Trey shows out to do it without going totally overboard.
• Process Single Raw – This is actually two techniques in one – the first is using a single RAW for an HDR image and the second is understanding how to properly tone map with people (i.e., ignore the exposed body parts and focus on properly tone mapping the rest of the image). Even though I would have never used HDR for this photo, I appreciated seeing how Trey executed both of these techniques to create a very pleasing result.
• Halo Removal – How many times have you had someone tell you that your final shot has halos? Have you fought with the transition from the twilight sky to the tree or city line? Well this chapter is very useful to see how to address this problem in a technique that is more simple and effective than what I’ve done in the past.

If you can only get the Basic Edition, this is the end of the road of what you’ll learn. However, there’s a lot to learn up to this point so you shouldn’t go away disappointed. I found a lot of value in watching Trey do his magic and then trying to do it myself on some of the sample images included in the Premium Edition, so if you don’t go for that edition then be sure to practice on your own images with similar challenges to apply what you’ve learned.

Disc 4 – Premium Edition Only

This disc is the one you should insert into your computer first before starting the series so you can download all of the images. I didn’t discover this until I was on disc 4, so I was disappointed I didn’t have the files handy for all of the chapters until the end. With that said, I was able to go back and try to apply what I saw and when necessary revisit some chapters, so I was thrilled to have this content.

All of the chapters on this disc are images captured during the photo walks on the first disc, so you can see more end to end results by watching these chapters. I honestly thought all three of them were fantastic examples of how to deal with common challenges to make the mundane look great. Here’s my thoughts on the chapters of this disc:

• Shakespeare’s Pub – This is one of the first things from the photo walk you see on disc 1, and this processing offers many challenges. It was neat to see how he deals with a moving flag, a way overblown light, and a little bit of a blur on the sign introduced by a little camera shake movement. Topaz Adjust is used on this one to give it that colorful look that so many people enjoy with Trey’s images, so it is neat to see him do his magic on this seemingly boring street shot.
• Old Warehouse – In this chapter Trey shows a technique for removing Chromatic Aberrations that I hadn’t seen before, so it made this chapter extraordinarily useful to me! I loved this technique and look forward to going back to a couple of photos that seemed hopeless and now fix them with this new trick. I also enjoyed seeing him double tone map a what turned out to be a cool shot of something that even one of the students on the walk wondered what he saw in the location.  This was a good example of turning ugly daily life into art – fun stuff!
  
  The Driskill at Night – Copyright © Trey Ratcliff
• Driskill Exterior – Once again  you get to see how Trey deals with distractions that would normally trip most of us up. He doesn’t wait for the cars to get out of the way, but rather takes his shots and then during imaging takes the best of the blurred cars from different images to create the final composite (show above). He also throws a “Trey Burst” on the orange lamp on the right side to give the image more dramatic flare, which I thought was a nice creative touch.
  
  This was a very good demo that was finished off with onOne Software’s “Wow Landscape” filter again.

Over 220 full-size JPEG files totaling 1.5GB await you on disc 4 so that you can follow along with Trey on the same exact images he’s working on. In addition, their is his eBook Top 10 Mistakes in HDR Processing and How to Fix Them, so if everything you’ve learned wasn’t enough there’s more goodness in this eBook to help you to address the challenges you face with your own photos more effectively.  

Can the information on these discs really help your HDR images?

Did anything that I watch on these discs really help? Well perhaps you should be the judge. Take a look at the image below which was done using the techniques described by Trey and then hover your mouse over it (it may take a few seconds for the image to load) to see the way that I did HDR for my Photomatix 3.1 review. My verdict? Uh, yeah I’ve improved and I want to vomit at that crap I had before!

 
My HDR work before and after what I learned in this series
Copyright © Ron Martinsen – All Rights Reserved

One of the big factors that helped this image was that I knew how to use Photomatix better, but another was that I had a better command of my post-processing options and tools by Topaz Labs, Nik Software, and onOne Software – all of which were used here to create this final result. Below is a shot of the tone-mapped file I created this time using Photomatix versus what I created before watching Trey’s video (i.e., before I knew what the hell I was doing):

My Photomatix tonemapping results before and after this series

Conclusion

I’m very happy with what I learned, and I felt that it helped me A LOT. Even if I never do another HDR image, I have skills that will help me with all of my work so that alone was worth the price of the basic edition. Personally, I got a lot of satisfaction out of working with Trey’s image and seeing the amazing results he posts day in and day out, and that added confidence made me look at my own photos that have been sitting on my drives forever and say “hey, I can save that”. I think the practice, repetition and confidence boost I got from having those files and a few more examples in the Premium Edition make it worth the extra money.

I highly recommend this series, and if you have the cash, I think it is worth it to get the Premium Edition. If you don’t, then it’s still worth getting the Basic Edition, but just be prepared to go shoot some new HDR images now so you have something you can use to apply what  you’ve learned from the series.

In addition to the passion I already had for my Nik Software tools, I find myself using Topaz Labs Adjust a lot more often now. I also find that I’m happy with Photomatix 4.2 way more than the 3.x version. Click here for my HDR Comparison article too. I therefore would encourage you to download trial versions of these tools as well as onOne Software’s Plug-in Suite (which I’ve used for ages) to see how fun it can be and how much time you can save by using all these tools together.

Special Offers from Trey, onOne, HDRSoft, Nik and Topaz (UPDATED)

Now Trey is offering three versions with the base downloadable version as low as $99, the Basic for only $219 and the Premium for only $379. Click here to learn more about each version and save while this offer lasts! The other good news is that the $99 version is downloadable for instant gratification!

I also have a special offer where you can save an additional 15% ALL StuckInCustoms products when you use my discount coupon code RONMART15 which can be applied on top of the savings listed above for the lowest prices ever!

Be sure to check out my interview of Trey Ratcliff which also includes info on his textures, as well as my review of his eBook “Top 10 Mistakes in HDR Processing and How to Fix Them”.

You can also save now with the limited time special offers on the products that Trey uses:

• Imagenomic Noiseware Professional – Save 20% off when you use the coupon code found on the discount coupon code page
• HDRSoft Photomatix 4.x – save 15% off when you use the coupon code found on the discount coupon code page 
• Nik Software Suite (which includes a copy of HDR Efex Pro)
• onOne Software – Click here to see my review of the latest version
• Topaz Labs – save 15% off when you use the coupon code found on the discount coupon code page

Check my discount coupon code page for the latest codes and program changes in case this article becomes out of date.

Disclaimer

I may get a commission if you use the coupon codes and order links provided. Thanks for supporting articles like this and this blog by visiting this page and using the links and codes before placing your order.