ChatGPT Gets Photoshop: The Workflow Upgrade Nobody Saw Coming

It's impressive what Adobe is doing with Photoshop via ChatGPT. It allows for advanced tasks with adjustments that are layered and can be saved as a PSD file for you to edit later. It's more powerful than you think, so check out this video to learn how to set it up and use it.

Epson SureColor P600 Roll Printing using Exhibition Canvas Natural Gloss

Epson SureColor P600 Inkjet Printer

At the time this was written I’ve had my Epson SureColor P600 printer for about 3 months and have done doing quite a bit of long-term testing before releasing the 2nd part of my review. I do this because I really like to live with a printer and get to know it for a variety of situations before I give it my seal of approval. Thus far this printer has been exceeding all of my expectations and has been a delight to work with, but the ultimate test for any printer is always how it deals with canvas.

For this article I decided to try out roll printing on the P600 and do a long-overdue review of Epson’s Exhibition Canvas Natural Gloss (which also comes in Satin and Matte versions). This is the highest quality canvas product I’ve tested to date (as of July 15, 2015), so I’m now kicking myself for waiting so long to review this awesome canvas!

Roll Printing with the P600

I’ll be blunt and flat out state that printing sheets of canvas on any printer is something I enjoy about as much as getting a root canal, so I always advise people to print canvas via rolls. The P600 has roll paper holders included so I’ve been testing it out to see how it performs with various papers, including canvas.

If you are coming from a larger printer that features a built-in cutter then you’ll probably be disappointed, but if you are new to the process of working with rolls this system works fairly well. You simply need to feed the roll in the back and choose roll paper in the printer driver. The Windows printer driver also features a print page frame option that I like when using roll paper with the borderless option:

Unfortunately I didn’t see that option offered on my Mac, but fear not. When you eject the print from the printer it will print a faint cut line that you can use to get a strait print line and Photoshop supports crop marks that basically do the same as the page frame feature.

Printing from Photoshop & Lightroom CC 2015

Epson offers this handy Managing Color guide for getting prints on Photoshop and Lightroom, and I’ve featured this before in many of my paper reviews (i.e., Exhibition Fiber) and Advanced Black & White (ABW) guide in my Printing Series.

I’ve printed from both Photoshop and Lightroom from Windows and the ICC profiles were excellent. I could hardly believe that a printer that is so affordable could create such high quality canvas prints!

How To Print, Wrap and Finish a Canvas

The EPSON Exhibition Canvas Printing and Finishing Guidelines is a handy guide show you how to get the best results from your canvas printing, and this video shows how the pros do it:

To do it this way you’ll need to have at least:

1. Staple gun (preferred) or holding pins
2. Canvas trimmer or your razor of choice
3. Canvas stretching pliers

Breathing Color EasyWrappe

My friends at Breathing Color also have a nice system for easily wrapping your canvas prints, but the previously mentioned tools are still needed:

Click here to learn more and order the Breathing Color EasyWrappe 1.25" Stretcher Bars for Canvas Prints (12 x 18") – 5 Pack. You can also visit there site here, but please keep in mind if you order direct then I will not get a referral commission so a donation is very much appreciated.

Gallery Wrap Printing for Canvas

My old review on Perfect Resize shows just how good it is at resizing images compared to everything on the market (even in 2015), but one of its handy features is the gallery wrap feature. You can see how this works in the video below, but basically this helps you to leave some space on your print for the sides of your canvas that wrap around the stretcher bars.

 

Click here to learn more or order the latest copy of Perfect Resize. Please keep in mind that it makes much more financial sense to buy the entire bundle if you ever intend to get more than one product. See my review of Perfect Photo Suite 9.5 for more info about what this kit offers.

Please note that occasionally I’ll have discount coupon codes for products like this, so be sure to check the discounts tab for the latest deals.

Exhibition Canvas Gloss - Sean Davey

Each “Signature Worthy” paper features an interview of a pro who endorses the substrate, so here’s the video for this one:

You can skip the first three minutes if you want to get to the part where he starts to talk about his experience using this canvas.

Conclusion

There’s a lot to learn to get great canvas prints which is why many people just use a third party service like the ones below to do their canvas prints. However, you can save a lot of money and get the best results doing yourself.

Epson Exhibition Canvas is really the best product on the market and offered in Satin, Matte and Gloss finishes. If you love Exhibition Fiber (aka EFP) then you’ll definitely love these canvas, and the P600 is perfectly capable of giving you professional quality prints like those you’d find coming off an Epson 3880.  I did find the Gloss to be crazy reflective so you have to be careful where you place it, but the quality is also the amazing when you can avoid reflections. If that bothers you then definitely consider the Satin if you still want some extra pop without the extra shine and the matte if you want deep blacks without the glossy look.

I highly recommend any of the three types of Signature Worthy Epson Exhibition Canvas and the Epson SureColor P600 for those who want an affordable way to do their own small canvas prints.

Where to order

Click here to learn more or order the 13”x20’ roll for the P600 on the B&H web site. My friends at Amazon have it available here as well.

Click here for the full listing of Epson Exhibition Canvas Natural Gloss at B&H.

Click here for the full listing of Epson Exhibition Canvas Natural Gloss on Amazon.

Other articles you may enjoy

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

• Epson SureColor P600 Review Part I
• Printing Series  - tons of great info on all things printing
• Epson Stylus® Photo R3000 Review
• Epson Stylus® Pro 3880 Overview Review
• Epson Ultra Premium Luster Review and How To Walkthrough Videos for Mac & Windows - Covers Lightroom & Photoshop for Mac and Windows for the R3000, 3800 & 4900
• Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper Review and How To Walkthrough
• Epson Hot & Cold Press Papers
• How To: Using Epson’s Advanced B&W Photo (ABW) printing feature
• REVIEW: Epson Metallic Photo Paper Glossy & Luster
• Dano’s Dictionary of Fine Art and Photography Printing Terms (Concise Edition)
• Getting Great 4x6 Prints Without Any Hassle–Part I of II
• ILFORD GALERIE Prestige Gold Cotton 330gsm & Fine Art 220gsm Papers Review
• ILFORD GALERIE Prestige Smooth Pearl Photo Paper
• QImage Ultimate – Great for complex printing layouts
• X-Rite ColorMunki Photo Color Management Solution
• X-Rite i1Display Pro and ColorMunki Display Colorimeters

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.

What Photoshop Books Should I Read? (UPDATED: Jan 30, 2014)

One of my top blog posts was my article entitled "Which Books Should I Read?" lacked a detailed discussion about Photoshop books because of the time of its writing I was still getting up to speed on Photoshop. I've now had time to read a big stack of Photoshop books and have some concrete recommendations to go along with that article now.

If you are like me you find Photoshop to be both poorly laid out and daunting to learn. It's easy to buy a stack of books and never get anywhere beyond cropping then clicking Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, and Auto Color (and possibly Variations if you've discovered that one) and calling it a day. In essence you've spend a fortune on a product that doesn't really do much to help you with your photos. Fear not, you aren't alone!

Starting with the Basics

One of the problems with most Photoshop books is that they've forgotten that there are still people on this planet who don't know the fundamentals of Photoshop. If you don't know how to add or subtract from a selection or even what all of the selection tools do, then it will drive you insane when the book simply says "select the girl in the photo" who inevitably has wispy hair going everywhere!

If you are a Photoshop novice (and it is okay to admit that you are) then I highly recommend you start with Teach Yourself VISUALLY Photoshop CC (My old CS3 version review). However, the important thing to remember when reading Photoshop books is that you MUST apply what you've read on the computer. If you simply read it and move on then you'll forget it, so practical application is essential.

Okay, I know the basics now just show me how to do cool stuff

Now there are a handful of really great Photoshop books, but there comes a point where you just want to get on with it and start doing some cool stuff. Once you see that you can do cool stuff yourself, then you have the motivation to read all of those other good Photoshop books. For this I've found that there is one definitive MUST READ Photoshop book for anyone who as ever wanted to create pro looking photos and its called Scott Kelby's 7 Point System for Photoshop CS3. Yep, that's right - it's the same Scott Kelby that wrote The Digital Photography Book - Volume 1 (2nd Edition) which is #1 on my list of recommended Photography books. While it may seem like I'm becoming a bit of a Kelby fan boy, the reality is that the guy just knows how to write great books in a way that gets down to business so you can get your work done. This book has helped me tremendously and I know it will do the same for you. Once again I'll repeat , the important thing to remember when reading Photoshop books is that you MUST apply what you've read on the computer and in this case you must also WORK WITH THE SAMPLE FILES!!!!

Just cut to the chase, what's your recommend reading list?

Okay, here in order of importance (always read #1 first) are the books I recommend you read if you want to master Photoshop:

1. Teach Yourself VISUALLY Photoshop CC  (see my Teach Yourself Visually Adobe Photoshop CS3 book review which still applies to newer editions)
2. Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 (Review) - no CS4 or CS5 version but it is still applicable and a MUST OWN book)
3. The Adobe Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers (or the version that applies to your installed version of Photoshop – here’s my last reviewed version)
4. The Photoshop Channels Book is the magic resource that will teach you how to create complex selections that you find impossible to do right now (WAY better than Photoshop Masking & Compositing)

But wait, 3 of those 4 books are Kelby books. What the heck?

Yes, it's true Scott Kelby writes some great books and I highly recommend them. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't other great books out there. In fact, there are. However, I've found that great books like Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful Colorspace  don't appeal to the masses and quite simple are too advanced for someone reading an article like this. At some point I may do an advanced Photoshop book list, but for now I'm catering to those who are getting started and Kelby is the man right now.

Extra Reading Recommendations

If you’ve finished my recommended books and want more, then you’ve gotta try these:

• Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers using Photoshop – the bible for portrait editing
• Photoshop Compositing Secrets – If you ever need to do a composite, this will help you do one that looks natural and not like cheesy stickers on a photo
• Welcome to Oz 2 – Helpful for learning how to control the viewer’s eye / attention
• The Digital Negative – If you want more depth on RAW 
• Layers – Helps to understand blending modes & “blend if” feature (current version is better than the one I reviewed)

A word about Photoshop CS5

As of the time I wrote this article the selection of Adobe Photoshop CS5 books was getting better, but still some key books haven’t been updated for CS5. Photoshop CS5 has some drastic changes to its user-interface and performance improvements. In addition, most cameras released after June 2010 that create RAW image files can't be opened in Photoshop CS4 or Lightroom 2.x because the newer version of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) is only integrated into Lightroom 3.x and Photoshop CS5 and up. If you can afford it, then it is a worthwhile upgrade, however you should always get the books for your specific version of Photoshop so look for CS4 updates to the books listed in this article.

What about Lightroom?

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book for Digital Photographers (my old review) is the bible for Lightroom and has stuff you won’t find anywhere on Adobe’s web site or manuals. I love it! It also includes an adaptation of the 7 Point System for Lightroom so it’s a great resource! If you want more depth, then check out The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers.

What about HDR?

This is one place where I say skip the book and go to the video and there’s nothing better out there than HDR Workshop DVD by Trey Ratcliff of StuckInCustoms.com. It’s a great resource that is easy to follow and worth every penny – especially for those who own Photomatix and don’t know how the hell to get good results out of it (which is where I was until watching this DVD series).Trey does have a book called A World in HDR which is a decent resource, but I got a lot more out of the DVD’s. However, the best place to go these days is flatbooks.com and search for Trey’s latest eBooks.

I want more info about Printing from Photoshop?

Printing is a whole beast in and of itself which is why I created my printing series and even my own Printing 101 eBook, but if you really want to get into printing then again I say watch The Perfect Print DVD Series by Randy Hufford first. It’s also useful to read The Digital Print if you want more depth than what my book offers.

But Ron, I REALLY hate reading books - what other choices do I have?

If you are the ADD type like me, it may be hard to focus long enough to finish a book unless you have a lot of uninterrupted time (I read many of my books when I was on bed rest due to back pain). Now that I'm back on my feet again, I'm finding it difficult to read books again. As a result, I've found my Kelby Training membership be a valuable resource due to the great detailed videos the have on their site that simply "get to the point" of the thing I'd like to do. I also like their magazine because it allows me to review short articles that solve specific common problems.

I struggle to find time to read books and magazines, how do you do it?

I have this problem too, but I've found a few things that work well for me. First, if I'm home sick I'll try to read for as long as I can before I eventually fall asleep (if your eyes get heavy then stop reading - its pointless). Next, is when I'm on the airplane (which isn't that often for me). Planes are a great place because it makes the flight go quicker. Next is anytime I find myself waiting. I keep my book or magazine handy with me when I go to appointments or I am waiting for my kids (it's great when they are playing on the McDonalds play structure that I'm too big to fit in). Lastly, and perhaps the funniest, is when I'm in the restroom at home. You laugh, but I've found that if you simply read a couple pages each time you are perched on your porcelain throne that you can finish a book in a month or less. In fact, it usually causes you to get so interested in a chapter that you follow up with it afterwards so you can at least finish a chapter. Sure this might gross some people out and make them think twice about borrowing a book from me, but it's the truth and it works. Try it out!

I also always try to pick long flights when I travel and take my books with me. It’s forced time that I can dedicate to reading, and often I can finish at least one book each way of my trip. Get the Kindle version of the books to do this without having to carry a bunch of extra weight, but personally still prefer the printed or PDF eBooks over Kindle books since you sometimes loose the integration of photos and text together.

Okay, what if I'm too lazy to do any of the things you've suggested - what now?

I understand where you are coming from. When I started with Photoshop I got so frustrated that I just decided to throw money at the problem and pick up some plug-ins. While these work very well and I use them frequently today, despite my strong Photoshop skills, the key thing to realize is that being strong in Photoshop will teach you how to get the most out of your plug-ins by being able to control their impact on your photo using things like masks. With that said, I do have some favorite plug-ins and I would recommend that you get them even if you become great in Photoshop. My recommend list can be found in my What Plug-Ins Should I Buy? article.

I also teach and do contract work, so contact me if you want to pay me to get you up to speed or edit a photo on your behalf.

These are expensive, do you have any discounts?

See the Discount Coupon Code page for the latest versions and discounts.

Other articles you may enjoy

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

• ** My FAVORITE Lightroom Presets - Discount Code **
• B&W Software Editing Comparison - Nik vs onOne vs Topaz
• Choosing The Right Display Calibration Device
• HDR Software Comparison
• Photographers Gift Guide / Recommendations
• Things You Need AFTER You Buy Your New Camera - Must Have Photography Accessories
• What plug-ins should I buy? (for Photoshop & Lightroom)
• Where should I display and/or sell my pictures online? (Updated 2012)
• Which Photography books should I read?

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.

Best of the Blog: How much is my photo or video worth? (fotoQuote Pro 6)

Hardly a week goes by where I don’t see or hear from someone asking “how much is my photo worth?” because they have been contacted by someone like Schmap who found their photo on flickr, and they want to use it without paying you anything more than a photographic credit. It happened to me, and since it was just a simple picture I took when I was at the zoo with my kids I thought – what they heck, why not? However, I quickly began to realize I was fueling a growing problem that is destroying the full-time pro photography industry.

The Problem

A common trend these days in this tight economy is for ad agencies, magazines, etc… to troll sites like flickr trying to find photos that are “good enough” for what they need, and then try to get the rights to use them for way below the market rate. Sadly, most new photographers are so honored at the thought of getting published that they simply give their photos away. This practice has hurt the full-time pro photography industry because they now find themselves competing with “free” and that’s resulted in a lot of photographers going bankrupt or having to change professions. There are even rumors that big agencies that charge large sums of money for photo rights taking advantage of these people by trolling popular photo sites and gaining rights to photos for mere pennies. In fact, even respected publications such as Newsweek, Time and National Geographic have been rumored to pay significantly less than the market rate to acquire rights to photos that would have in the past been provided by full-time pros.

The Solution - Cradoc fotoSoftware’s fotoQuote Pro 6

I think most people would argue that much of the photo giveaways are primarily due to people just not being aware of what their photos are worth. Since these photos aren’t their primary source of income there seems, apathy sets in and it is easier for people to just give them away. However, if you stop and think how much you paid for all of that photography gear that you’ve accumulated, you might think twice when you find out how much pros are getting for their photos. In fact, by charging a fair rate for your photos you not only help yourself, but you help the industry as a whole by allowing pros to continue to earn a fair wage for their full-time profession which includes overhead for things like insurance, assistants, marketing, office space, and more.

The solution to the problem is education, and right now the best tool on the market for this is Cradoc fotoSoftware’s fotoQuote Pro 6. This handy program, featured below, will help you to determine what your photo is worth depending on how it is used, and even allow you to invoice someone with specific usage terms for your photo. For example, the screen shot below shows that for a photo used on the exterior of a taxi cab, the rate you should charge your client is at least $975 per month (a lot more than the chump change some guy sold his photo to Time Magazine to be used as a cover):

How it Works

fotoQuote is a database of media formats where photos and videos might be used along with prices for a given time frame and rights offered for the use of a particular photo or video. The whole subject gets rather complicated, so it is common for people to just ask you for full rights to your photos to “make things simple”, but the reality is that usually its the photographer that gets screwed in that scenario as you may no longer be able to use or sell your own photo. This is where this tool is invaluable because it offers usage tips, coaching, and details about the rights granted for a photo based on experience from industry pros. The database stays up to date from pros in the field offering feedback back to fotoQuote on the going rates.

An Example

Let’s say your approached by an agency that wants to use your photo in a magazine advertisement. You might start by going to the Magazine Database to find out how how much the going rate is for an ad, which in the case below you’d see that ad prices are in the 5 figures. With this being the case, it is quickly to see why it is crazy for you to give your photo away for free when the company that uses it is willing to pay significantly more for space in a magazine!

Next, you might decide you are ready to prepare a quote so you’ll set up fotoQuote to create a personalized report for you:

Now that you’re setup, you can create your quote. Here’s an example of the create quote screen where you can type a new entry or choose from past customers stored in your database from previous transactions:

While you are in the stock pricing tab you can save values for use in your quote, so in this case we’ve saved some editorial magazine quotes and included a thumbnail image of the photo that will be used. Here the specific usage details and rights are spelled out as well as the term for which you are licensing the use of your photo:

 

After you’re done with your quote you can print it and you’ll notice that all of yours and your image information is included in a nice detailed quote:

In the end a complete novice selling his or her first photo can produce a quote that makes them appear like a pro that has been doing this for years. The net result is that you can protect your rights to your work, yet profit from well defined usage of your work to a client. Your clients will be used to this type of proposal, so when you share one of these quotes they are more likely to stop trying to bargain for an unfair price and do business.

You can see more screen shots here, and watch a great demo video here by Cradoc himself where he explains the user-interface in-depth as well as how to use some of the advanced features.

Conclusion

This program is simply amazing because it gives you the power to provide detailed quotes on things you may have never even known existed (i.e., Buckslips, Rip Hangers, etc…) using industry terminology and accurate pricing. Not only can you quote for US customers, but this product has been designed to also allow quotes in other currencies. In addition, you can account for travel or high risk scenarios where you are providing a quote to do a specialized shoot. With things like usage tips and the assignment coach, anyone can go from being clueless to well educated on how to provide a proper professional quote. In addition, if you land a job and get paid a rate that is different than what is listed in the tool then you can provide pricing feedback which helps others to benefit from your experience. The service provided by this product is invaluable for the beginner and its price is easily recovered on your first image sale because you’ll quickly find that pretty much anything you sell will cost more than the price of this product. I highly recommend it!

Special Offer

Click here to get 10% off all Cradoc software products just by using the discount coupon code found on the Discount Coupon Code page.

UPDATE (April 2, 2013) – Negotiating with Publishers to get your fotoQuote price

I’ve used this product a number of times to get a fair market value for my work. Now, keep in mind the conversations ALWAYS have gone like this:

Publisher: Hey, we’d like to use one (or more) of your photos in our publication. Could you send us (a) high resolution version(s)?

Me: Sure, I’d be happy to send you a quote for usage rights for my photo. What sizes were you planning on running? (i.e., quarter page, half page, full page, double page spread)

Publisher: Uh, we don’t really have any budget so could you just email them to us?

Me: Hum, well my gear wasn’t free and my training, etc… wasn’t free. Tell, you what – I understand that times are tight – why don’t you just give me the same exact amount of space that you’ll use for my photos elsewhere in your publication (with the same level of prominence) and I’ll resell that space myself. You’ll get free images and I’ll make money to pay for my gear, time, etc… using your ad space.

Publisher: Oh, we didn’t realize you were a REAL photographer. I’m so sorry. Well, we can’t do that, but we can offer you $100 for all of your photos (that we want to use – with non-exclusive unlimited usage rights).

Me: Hum, well $100 sounds nice but that doesn’t really pay for much in the photography world these days. I see here (using fotoQuote) that an average quarter page one issue usage right fee for my image should be about $xxxx (amount varies from hundreds to thousands most often).

Publisher: Huh? We never pay anybody that much! (or we haven’t paid that in years).

Me: Hum, well has your publication dropped in readership and lowered its advertising fees? If so, I’d be happy to make an adjustment based on the percentage you’ve lowered your advertising fees. [Note: call to confirm as a would be advertiser – you’ll be SHOCKED what they charge]

Publisher: Oh no, we are a fine publication and we’ve only seen a minor drop which didn’t warrant a change in our advertising. In fact, we’ve raised it! (although sometimes you do get a “woe is me” story because most print publications are dying these days)

Me: Well, if that’s the case then you should be able to give me a fair rate. Send me an email with the photos you want and I’ll give you a quote with the best price I can do and we can take it from there.

Publisher (via email): We got your quote and that’s more than we can afford. How about we use picture(s) X (and y …) at any size we want for as long as we want and we pay you $300?

Me (via email): Hum, that’s still pretty low and it doesn’t meet the terms of my quote so I’m afraid I’m going to have to say no. If your budget improves or if you have a more fair offer then I’m happy to work with you.

Time goes by – days, weeks, sometimes even months. In some cases I never hear back, but more times than not I do hear back with something like this:

Publisher (via phone): Tell you what, here’s the max of what we can do using your terms. We didn’t realize that you were a real working pro so we didn’t tap into our real budget for the first quote. My apologies for that, but times are tough so we had to do what we had to do.

Me: Hey, no worries. That deal is much closer what is a reasonable price and its one that I can live with (using figures here we are talking about $500 per image at a quarter page per image for one issue for a typical mid-size publication with no web rights). I’ll send them over once I have a signed agreement, let me get that to you now updated with our agreed upon prices.

Publisher: Awesome, it was great doing business with you.

Me: Me too, and I’d love it if you could send me a PDF of the article you run too so I can have that for my tear sheet file.

Publisher: Sure, no problem.

Conclusion

Yes, this means I have walked away from a few hundred bucks here and there. I’ve walked away from A LOT of “let me use your photos for free” offers, but I don’t lose sleep over not having my photo published by someone making five figures for advertising in the space my photo would occupy in their publication (which is being used to sell their product). In the end though, my net income was more off one publication than all the lost publications combined. I’ve also had requests for more photos from these same paying publications, but none from the ones who wanted my photos for free so did I really miss out on anything?

Yes, I’ve also had to wait up to a year before all of the payment was settled (about 60 – 90 days in the US, but overseas is a hassle). However, everyone has always paid as promised. Some seasoned pros say don’t turn over photos until you are paid, but these days you’ll get about one gig a year if you are lucky if you do that (at least based on my experience). That’s just not the way things are done in the electronic era anymore (because petty cash days are over).

My gear isn’t free and it won’t pay for itself if I don’t stick up for myself. My time is also worth something, so you’ve got to stick to your guns if you want to make anything. People become so enamored with the idea of seeing their photo in print that they cave in too early while the publication makes a fortune off your hard work. These publications aren’t charities or else they probably would accept your offer for photos for advertising space, so keep that in mind when playing hardball. Good photographers are losing their livelihood over amateurs giving their work away for free, so don’t think bad of yourself for asking a fair wage – think about the good you are doing by getting a publication to pay an honest rate. If you do feel guilty then donate the money to your local photo journalist or freelance photographer – they need the money these days!

Other articles you may enjoy

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• Camera Insurance - Don't leave home without it
• Home Studio on a Budget
• Getting Started in Boudoir Photography
• How do I get my kid to look at the darn camera?
• Which Printer Should I Buy? Epson or Canon?
• What plug-ins should I buy? (for Photoshop & Lightroom)

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.

Epson Ultra Premium Luster Review and How To Walkthrough Videos for Mac & Windows

Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster Inkjet Signature Worthy Paper

If you use an Epson printer, the odds are you’ve had a chance to use Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster so you know how good it is. If you haven’t, then run out and get some now because this is the paper that you grew up thinking was the stuff that professional studios used. It’s a high quality, but reasonably priced paper that is easy to use and produces gorgeous results on any Epson printer (as well as other printer brands if you can find the ICC Profiles for it).

This paper is also has the prestigious distinction of being an entry level member of the Epson Signature Worthy™ papers. These papers are for those who insist on the highest quality papers that perform extremely well with today’s best inks like Epson’s UltraChrome® K3 and HDR. When you buy this paper, you know you are getting what Epson believes to be the best media for their printers and something you should be proud to sign your name on. Based on my experiences with all of the Signature Worthy papers, I couldn’t agree more!

Quick Facts

Basis weight	240 g/m² (260 Roll Available)
Thickness	10 mil
ISO brightness	97%
Opacity	97%
Gloss at 60º	16
Hot lamination	Yes
Base material	Polyethylene Encapsulated Paper
Surface finish	Luster

Here’s a few more things to know about this paper:

• It has a super high color gamut available for vivid color reproduction
• RC paper base for photorealistic prints
• Luster E surface finish
• Dries instantly for easy handling with Epson inks
• 10 mil thickness for a durable photographic feel

Helpful links on Epson’s web site

• Premium Luster Photo Paper Fact Sheet
• Print Permanence Ratings (also see Wilhelm Imaging Research)
• Framing Tips for Photographic Papers
• Ink and Paper Compatibility Guide

Print Test Image

For this review, I chose to use the unedited version of the following image:

However, I’ve printed hundreds of images on this paper so I’m quite familiar with it. I often use the Outback Print Printer Evaluation Image to evaluate papers and printers when doing side-by-side comparisons, but I already had done that with this paper and printer so I decided to use a different image for this review.

If you are doing your own evaluation, I strongly encourage you to use the Outback Print Printer Evaluation Image or something similar to it.

How To Videos for Mac OS X

The following videos are designed to teach you how to use your Epson printer driver with Photoshop and Lightroom to successfully print out your favorite images using Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster on a Epson Stylus Photo R3000, Stylus Pro 3880 and Stylus Pro 4900 printers. For the Mac versions I’ve created separate videos for each printer.

I should note that in one of the videos for the R3000 when I talk about the SPR3000 Luster profile I say SP stands for Spectrolina but ignore that. It actually means Stylus Photo in the case of the R3000 profiles.

Photoshop CS6 Tutorials

R3000 Tutorial

3880 Tutorial

4900 Tutorial

Lightroom Tutorials

The following tutorial applies to Lightroom 4.3 for Apple OS X (10.8 in this case) using Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster on a Epson Stylus Photo R3000, Stylus Pro 3880 and Stylus Pro 4900:

 

How To Videos for Windows

Since it took me so long to make the Mac videos I decided to consolidate them for the Windows videos. Besides, Windows users tend to be a little more computer savvy, right? ;-)

Photoshop CS6 Tutorials

The following tutorial applies to Photoshop CS6 for Windows using Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster on a Epson Stylus Photo R3000, Stylus Pro 3880 and Stylus Pro 4900:

Lightroom Tutorials

The following tutorial applies to Lightroom 4.3 for Windows using Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster on a Epson Stylus Photo R3000, Stylus Pro 3880 and Stylus Pro 4900:

NOTE: I say "distorted" for Zoom to Fill, but it's not really distorted. What I mean to say is that it will scale your image to fit which may be undesirable for pixel peepers. Most users are going to be very satisfied with the results.

Sample Pack

Okay, I know paper is expensive so if you just want to try out these papers and others from the Signature Worthy collection then I recommend the Epson Signature Worthy Sample Pack (8.5 x 11", 14 Sheets) .  If you like these then please support this blog by coming back here and using my links when ordering more paper – thanks!

Conclusion

Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster is a fantastic paper for any Epson user to begin with. It’s a high quality paper that you can be proud to give your customers and it’s available at a price that won’t break the bank. I use it all of the time and love it!

If you want to step up from this paper, then I strongly recommend Epson Exhibition Fiber as the ultimate paper to show off your work. In my opinion, EFP is one of the best papers on the market – period!

Where to order

Click here to order Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster on the B&H web site. My friends at Adorama have it available here and Amazon has it available here.

Other articles you may enjoy

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

• Printing Series – If you like this article, you will love this!!!!
• Printing 101 eBook 

• Choosing the right Epson printer
• Epson Stylus® Photo R3000 Review
• Epson Stylus® Pro 3880 Overview Review
• Epson 4900 Review
• Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper Review and How To Walkthrough
• Epson Hot & Cold Press Papers
• How To: Using Epson’s Advanced B&W Photo (ABW) printing feature – Great resource for printing black and white!
• Topaz Labs B&W Effects 2 (discusses Silver Efex Pro and Perfect B&W too) 
• Understanding Epson’s Printable Area Feature to Avoid Uneven Margins on the 4900 – Read this if your images won’t print in the center of the page

• Breathing Color Lyve Canvas – The best canvas I've ever used!  (discount offer)
• ColorByte ImagePrint (discount) – My favorite Epson RIP!
• Metallic Paper Comparison: Red River Polar Pearl vs LexJet Sunset Photo (Coupon Code Included)
• Ilford Galerie Prestige Smooth Pearl Photo Paper
• Paper discounts on my discount coupon code page from companies like Red River Paper

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.

Background Replacement By Shooting On A Chroma Green Screen

Chroma Green Screen Background
Impact Chroma Sheet Background - 10 x 12' (Chroma Green)

When readers and my students ask me how to do background replacements on shots and generally I’ll tell them to just shoot on white or black and use the techniques found in Photoshop Compositing Secrets or The Photoshop Channels Book to mask out the background. This works for me, and if I do a good enough job lighting the background then I can also just drop a U-Point control on the entire background and dial up the brightness in Viveza shown in this example here:

Viveza background substitution from white background
shot using a Elinchrom Quadra Ringflash

However, the industry practice for video (i.e., your local weather forecast where the weatherman walks around with the map behind them) is done with what is called a chroma green screen.

To do this technique yourself you need a lighting setup that can be as complex as mine, or as simple as this kit that you can pick up for less than $100 at B&H:

Impact Digital Flash Umbrella Mount Kit (<$100 at B&H)

For this article, I used the kit above but I’ll admit that I prefer this kind of umbrella adapter rather than the cheap ones included in this kit. In fact, I don’t even use a cold shoe – I just screw my 580 EX II flash directly into them using the little stand that comes with my flash (it has a screw mount on the bottom). I’m pretty sure this works for Nikon’s too, but honestly I haven’t ever tried it with something like a SB-900 or SB-910.

You also need a green screen of course, so for this article I chose the Impact Chroma Sheet Background - 10 x 12' (Chroma Green) which retailed for < $59 at B&H. I tossed this on a Impact Background Support System (12' Wide) and I had Kimberly sit on a posing stool. I positioned the white shoot through umbrellas (with the black covers removed) on the left and right of Kimberly and let ETTL do the rest. My handheld shot with my Canon 1D Mark IV was taken using a 70-200mm lens set to 102mm at f/2.8 using ISO 320 for 1/60 sec. The result was the shot at the top of this article and also shown later when you hover over the shot where I’ve replaced the background.

Replacing the Background in Photoshop

The key to replacing the background in Photoshop is the Color Range dialog that you’ve probably never used before. However, it’s easily found under the Select menu of CS5 (and presumably in the same place in earlier versions).

Once you have this dialog the easiest way to get the results you want is to HOLD THE SHIFT KEY and drag downwards over the areas where you know your background appears. REPEAT this process for the big areas until you get something that looks like the screen shot above.  Click OK and you get a selection like this:

To fix the eyes you can just use your favorite method of removing an unwanted selection. I like the quick mask tool, but a minus selection using lasso would work (as would many other ways).

Once your selection is good, then go to the select menu and inverse your selection. This selects the subject instead of the background. You can now do a CTRL+J (or CMD+J) to create a new layer with just your subject as shown here:

From here you can either fill your background layer with another color or just replace the background layer with a new background. For this example, I chose to replace it with black:

This of course reveals what I hate about using Chroma Green Screens – the horrid green fringe! If you are lucky you can go select the layer with your subject (Layer 1 in this example) and then go to Layer –> Matting –> Defringe. Enter a value (usually try 1 and work your way up from there) and voila the green halo goes away. However, that never seems to work perfectly from me (although it does help).

The easy way to remove the green screen

I use the free version of a tool called Easy Green Screen found at http://www.photoshopgreenscreen.com/ that just works at getting rid of most of that nasty green screen. Here’s a quick video that shows how it works:

Play in HD

With a simple few clicks I ended up with a much better separation of my subject from the green screen and doing a 1px Defringe fixed 99% of the problem. The net result of the before and after (using a new background is shown here):

Mouse in and out to see the before and after

There’s a little area by her right arm, hair and shirt that isn’t 100% perfect but I honestly called it close enough for this article. In a real shot I might spend the time fixing it, but honestly that’s what I don’t like about green screens – you have to fight the green halo issue.

Of course you can use tools like Remask and Perfect Mask to quickly deal with contamination issues like this, but they can also be used to remove more complex background when you didn’t use a green screen in the first place.

Conclusion

This article shows that you don’t have to spend much money to do simple background replacements and that there are a wealth of tools to help you get perfect results. Lightroom users are probably better off using a white background and my Viveza trick for the cheapest way to just get a pure white background. However, Photoshop (and equivalent) users can use a product like Easy Green Screen and get great results in a hurry. The biggest tip to remember though is to be sure you get enough light on your background as the more evenly lit and bright it is, the easier it will be to remove it.

Disclaimer

If you make a purchase using the links found in this article, I may make a commission. Thanks for supporting this blog by using my links!

Using Manual Mode in Nik Software Dfine

One of the members of the Photography club I belong to asked a questioned about Nik Software’s Dfine versus Topaz Labs Denoise for which I felt the solution was using Nik Software’s Dfine in manual mode (something I discuss in my Noise Reduction Series).

To respond to him properly required a complex response complete with pictures, so I decided I’d just do a blog article for the response so others might be able to benefit from this as well. Essentially I’ll demonstrate how to use manual mode in Dfine to get better results than you’ll get by default in Dfine and many other noise reduction products.

Automatic Method – The Default

To begin with, when you use Dfine you probably do like most people out there and just run it and get this dialog:

Automatic Profile Applied – The Default Behavior

Automatic method is very good and most of the time will give you the results you want with no further action required.However, if you are unhappy with the results, then try Manual Mode.

Manual Method – Step by Step

Step 1 is to change the method from Automatic to Manual as shown here:

Change the Method to Manual

You’ll notice that there are rectangles in various places on the Lego guy, the glass and the stand disc. These are the measure points that Dfine detected automatically.

Step 2 is to click the Add Rectangle tool and draw rectangles around the areas where the automatic noise reduction didn’t work very well. What you are doing here is telling Dfine to include sample from those areas when doing the noise reduction which means that it will be more aggressive next time it removes noise (which is now a manual operation discussed later).

Click the Add Rectangle Tool

Here’s examples of two places I did additional measurements on – mouse in and out of the image to see the locations on the top and between the Lego characters legs:

Drag new rectangles over areas not handled very well

Step 3 is when you click Measure Noise so that the noise reduction is now applied to the areas where you drew rectangles.

Click Measure Noise to reapply noise
reduction to the image with your new
measure points

You should now see better (or at least more aggressive) noise reduction than you did the first time. This may be too much noise reduction so you may need experiment around with this to get the best results (or use a layer mask/brush feature to paint in the noise reduction you do and don’t want).

Other Helpful Tips

Since we are creatures of habit and many don’t explore beyond those first days with a product, I’d like to take this change to remind you of a couple other neat “hidden” features of Dfine over competing products.

Color Ranges

The first is Color Ranges where you can apply or suppress noise reduction based on color samples you select as shown here:

Color Ranges

In this example if I wanted to prevent noise reduction occurring on his shirt logo then I’d just sample that red and choose 0 for Contrast Noise and/or Color Noise.

Edge Preservation

One problem with noise reduction is that it can cause edges to get soft, especially in hair. To combat this issue, yet still keep some noise reduction you can experiment with the Edge Preservation slider to see if it helps.

It isn’t entirely necessary if you have Sharpener Pro and will be sharpening your image anyway, but some may prefer to do this step here – especially Lightroom users.

Conclusion

While Imagenomic Noiseware won my Noise Reduction Series because of its superior noise reduction with edge preservation for its default scenarios, Dfine was only a point behind and offers some powerful tools like those shown here and of course the wonderful U-Point controls to turn noise reduction on/off (especially useful for hair, textured walls, etc…) that in skilled hands can offer unmatched results that reduce noise and maintain image detail.

I highly recommend this product and use it quite often because of its flexibility, which is why it is at the #1 spot in my What Plug-ins Should I Buy? article.

Special Offer

Check out this page for some special offers for the products mentioned here that are only available during the holidays:

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

Disclosure

I may get a commission if you purchase using the links in this article. Thank you for supporting the blog by coming back here when making your Photography purchases (or making a donation if you can’t take advantage of my links).