OnOne Software Releases Liquid Resize Preview

OnOne Software has released a preview of the Liquid Resize technology that they purchased sometime ago. Liquid Resize is a way of resizing images in a way that is different from any other technology available. Since it is hard to explain what it does, I am going to show you. I have included a small sample video. This video shows the current Liquid Resize interface, a photo that comes with the preview and my having resized the image down by 50%, watch as the photo shrinks, it is quite interesting.

It is important to note that anyone can download the preview from the OnOne Software site. This is a very early almost alpha copy. The interface will change and the tools will change. In the end they plan to have this as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. The preview isn’t very stable at least it hasn’t been for me. It only works reliably on images 1000×1000 pixels or smaller. If you use the keep or remove paint brush to paint areas you don’t want altered or to select areas you do want altered you will most likely get a crash.

However, this technology is very interesting and once the bugs have been worked out and the technology fleshed out it looks to be a very promising technology.

OnOne Software\’s Liquid Resize – A Demo

Infrared Photos As Promised

I have had a chance to take my Fuji A900 that I bought pre-converted to Infrared Only out for a day of photo taking. Here are some of the shots I took. Overall I feel the camera does a nice job. It is lacking some of the features I would like to have in an Infrared only camera, but all of those features are easy to take care of in post processing. The biggest missing feature is manual white balance control so that I have a better control over the picture at the time of photographing it.

My one big complaint about the Fuji A900 is that it has no viewfinder, just the LCD screen on the back. Because this can’t be seen in sunlight it is very hard to frame, zoom and make sure that you are getting the picture you want. This problem however is not limited to the Fuji A900, it will be a problem with any camera that doesn’t have an optical viewfinder.

I purchased the camera pre-converted from http://www.maxmax.com and I am quite happy with not only the camera, but their conversion. I chose the Fuji A900 because it was the cheapest Infrared only camera that they had. I am now looking to convert one of my old dSLR’s which should give me more control and even better quality pictures.

I chose Infrared only instead of Infrared and Visible for several reasons.

1. I didn’t want to have to fool with lens mounted filters.
2. I had no intentions of ever wanting to use this camera for visible light (regular) photography.
3. It allows you to see on screen what your actual image will look like.

The big problem with the lens mounted filters that is not only throws off the cameras metering (by about 2 stops for an R72 Infrared filter), it can throw of the camera focusing and you can’t see anything on the LCD screen or the viewfinder (in the case of dSLR’s). However, if you have the camera converter internally (they remove some of the stock filters in front of the sensor and replace them with an Infrared filter) these problems go away.

Well any ways here are the photos. You can click on them to see the full size images. These were all taken in Tiburon and San Rafael (North of the Golden Gate Bridge, Northern California).

Adobe Adds New Room to Lightroom

Adobe recently announced the public availability of the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 beta. This beta offers a look at some of the features that will be in Lightroom 2.0, but according to a post on the Adobe forums not all of the features that will be available in 2.0 are in this public beta. Time will tell. The improvements that are in there are quite nice.

Improvements include:

Photoshop CS3 Integration:

• Open files in Photoshop as Smart Objects.  (This way you can tweak your Lightroom adjustments within Photoshop just by double-clicking the Smart Object layer that contains your raw file.)
• Select multiple images to merge as a panorama
• Merge multiple exposures into a single Photoshop HDR image
• Load multiple files (or virtual copies of a single file) into Photoshop as separate layers in a single document

Selective image editing that rocks:

• Lightroom 2 adds a Retouch tool in the Develop module, that means you can paint regions of the image to dodge, burn, saturate/desaturate, adjust contrast, and more. And, all edits are storied in the metadata and are non-destructive.

Library Module:

• Streamlined Library layout
• Smart Collections (based on search criteria)
• Powerful Filter Bar to search and refine images
• Suggested Keywords for simplified keywording
• 10,000 pixel size limit raised to 30,000 pixels
• Output-based collections

Multiple monitor support:

• Four flexible modes for an alternate window: Grid, Loupe, Compare, Survey
• Live Loupe mode

Export functionality:

• Auto-add exported images to the Lightroom catalog
• Auto Output Sharpening for images on export

Develop Module:

• Non-Destructive Localized Correction for dodging and burning specific areas of an image
• Post-Crop Vignette
• Basic Panel Keyboard Shortcuts
• Improved Auto Adjustment
• Improved memory handling through 64-bit support on OS X 10.5 and Vista 64-bit.(Not limited to develop module)

Print Module:

• Picture Package for multi-page layouts
• Print Module output directly to JPEG
• Enhanced Print Sharpening based on PhotoKit Sharpener algorithms
• 16-bit Printing for Mac OS X 10.5

As you can see there are some very nice, useful and important additions to Lightroom 2.0. If it is true that the public beta doesn’t reveal all of the new features and improvements one can hope that we will also see much more powerful noise reduction as well as distortion correction tools.

I am totally thrilled that the 10,000 x 10,000 pixel image size limit has been raised to match that of Adobe Photoshop, that being 30,000 x 30,000 pixels. This means now I can catalog my rather large collection of panorama images.

The availability of a 64-bit native version is also good news, though 64-bit as far as I am concerned is still in its infancy and it will be a few years yet before I jump on that band wagon, however I am glad to see Adobe leading the way in 64-bit application development.

You can download the public beta from the Adobe Labs site. One thing to keep in mind is that this is a time limited beta. If you don’t have the current release of Lightroom installed your trial period will be limited to 30 days. If you have the current version installed this beta will expire at the end of August 2008.

Finally, the 2.0 beta WILL NOT import and/or convert your Lightroom 1.3.1 catalogs. You will need to re-import your images to get them in to the 2.0 beta. Adobe has done this to protect you. The Lightroom 2.0 beta is not production level software. Please make a backup of any images you plan to import in to it before you import them. Image loss or corruption isn’t likely to happen, but there are no guarantees this is beta software.

Pentax Announces New K20D dSLR!

I have been a Pentax K10D dSLR owner since the camera was released. I actually pre-ordered it with only having seen a couple of sample images. I have had my fair share of issues with Pentax, including…

Pentax’s habit of announcing ship dates for products only to have those dates pass and then not make any type of announcement about a new ship date or why there is a delay.

I have had issues with their choice of in camera sharpening (detail, instead of edge sharpening like nearly all other cameras) and their decision to not offer the second more useful form of sharpening in a firmware update.

I have always felt that Pentax had a lot to offer the digital camera world but with the whole shipping date issue leaving the door open for rampant speculation, rumors and other such customer scaring things that only server to keep people unsure of Pentax’s future and their ability to compete with the two main players in dSLR cameras one has to wonder about the people that control such things.

Pentax’s market share is rather small compared to Canon and Nikon and with these kinds of marketing issues I fear that it could stay that way. It could ultimately kill Pentax. Pentax needs to be more up front with their customers show their customers that they are going to keep you informed. It isn’t like suggesting they preannounce all of their new technology, I am talking about keep people in formed when an announced ship date has been missed. Explain why and when they think it will ship. Ship dates are missed all of the time, but to keep silent or give vague worthless answers only serves to hurt a company. This customer communication is even more important when a company like Pentax is expecting people for hand over $1000 dollar or more in a camera body and lenses and lock them selves in to a long term investment with the company.

The K10D is an incredible camera and offers a lot of advanced features for a camera in its price range. However, Pentax has just announced the new Pentax K20D dSLR camera and it not only blows the K10D out of the water in most respects it is perhaps the most innovative camera to come out in nearly a decade.

Many professional photographers swear by Canon and Nikon however if you look at what these two companies have released in new cameras over the last 10 years you will see that Canon has been the only one to offer something innovative and that was simply because they released the Canon Digital Rebel, the first dSLR camera for under $1000. Beyond that the rest of the releases have been less than stellar. Both companies seem to care more about more resolution than offering features and technology that is truly innovative.

To be fare most people stick with the brand they started with because you have a large investment in lenses and other brand specific accessories like flash units and the like. The only time it makes financial sense to switch brands is when the lenses and other accessories you have will no longer work on the new camera you want to buy. Even in this regard Pentax is better. You can use Pentax lenses going back to 1960’s or earlier with their new dSLR cameras. Not so with Canon and Nikon. Resolution is nice, it enables you to do extreme cropping while still having enough image data for a good size quality print, but resolution is not the be all and end all and it looks like Pentax more than any other company understands that.

Pentax right now may have the smaller market share but they are the innovators and the new Pentax K20D proves it. What you got for $1000 with the K10D was remarkable and still is. However, what you get with the K20D for $1299 is nothing short of amazing. A new sensor designed exclusively for the K20D that gives you ISO 6400 (through a custom setting) that is as clean as the K10D’s ISO 1600. ISO 1600 and 3200 that look like an ISO 400 and 800 shot from the K10D. Improved shake reduction, improved dust reduction system, better noise reduction and image processing engine. All of this with a massive resolution increase from 10.1 (K10D) to 14.6 (K20D) that is a whopping 4.5 more MP a rather large jump and given that for probably the first time in digital camera history this resolution increase has come with an improvement in image quality and less noise instead of a decrease in image quality and an increase in image noise is nothing short of astounding.

I am not going to list all of the new stuff here. There is a lot. Instead I have compiled a list of sites that have information and even sample shots from the K20D. Also, if the K20D is out of your price range you might want to consider the K200D the K20D’s new little brother.

Pentax Imaging Press Release

http://www.pentaximaging.com/footer/news_media_article?ArticleId=10507458

Popular Photography Coverage

http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/5049/first-look-pentax-k20d.html

If you click on the photo of the camera you will get a popup with sample photos including some high ISO shots.

Pentax 18-250 Lens Finally Came In…

Well, I decided that I wanted a lens for my Pentax K10D that spanned the 18 to 200 or better range and I wanted good quality. Having been told that Pentax was releasing the 18-250 at the end of October I placed my order for it Mid-October. Well as usually Pentax wasn’t close to shipping on time, but finally they got it out and Amazon.com got it shipped and I got it today. I have taken a couple of test run shots with it and I can say like with my other Pentax lenses (I only own Pentax brand lenses as I have had too much trouble with other brands and their Q.C. issues) it is a winner. Surprisingly good for a lens that covers this range. It looks like my 18-55 kit lens and 50-200 will be going in to semi-retirement.

Here is one shot. They are full sized from DNG files, Saved as JPG using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.3.

Pentax 18-250 Macro Test

Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0… Major Bug Problems…

Well, Adobe as I am sure you know released the new versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 and Adobe Premiere Elements 4; we received our review copies but won’t be installing either one for the time being. Apparently like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom it was more important to ship the products by a certain date then to deal with bugs in the program and apparently several very bad bugs that were in the beta and reported by many beta testers including one that corrupts the project files in Premiere Elements 4 are still there. This attitude of ship now, fix later has got to stop. There is no excuse for a bug that Adobe was well aware of being in the final shipping version. I strongly urge people to not upgrade their products until the bugs are fixed, if you do please make a backup of any Premiere Elements projects before you open them, unless you want them trashed beyond recovery.

Free Video Tutorials on Video Editing and More…

I have recently bought my first camcorder and have been spending more time playing around with video editing and other video related techniques. I was suprised that there is actually more to learn about video editing than there was about still photography (something I love to do). I started to look for tutorials that would help explain this complex yet fun process.

One of the best I have found is on the Digital Juice web site. Digital sells video related products like background animations, sound effects, music and more all for video editors. They also have their DJTV tutoiral videos that are just incredible. They cover a wide range of subjects the videos are free and are available in several different resolutions including ones for iPod that will also work with the AppleTV unit. If you would like to check out DJTV you can, there address is:

http://www.digitaljuice.com/djtv/default.asp

Very Cool Bridge CS3 Add-in Called “RapidFixer”

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could make Adobe Camera Raw adjustments right from inside of Adobe Bridge CS3 without ever having to go in to the ACR dialog box. Simply select the images you want to adjust and then have the most used ACR features show right up inside of the Bridge CS3 interface?

You can RapidFixer for Adobe Bridge CS3 lets you do this. It provides Bridge CS3 level access to the most used features in Adobe Camera Raw. For more information on this cool Bridge add-in and a video demonstration go to:

http://www.damuseful.com/pages/rapidfixer.html

Yep More IPod Touch… Apple Guided Tour… Very Cool!

Apple has posted on their site a very nice and informative Guided Tour of the new Apple iPod Touch. You can view it at:

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/guidedtour/

I have to say the interface and feature set is quite impressive and just makes me want one even more. Since the iPod touch is only available in 8GB or 16GB versions storage space can become an issue. However, a nifty program called ShrinkMyTunes (Windows Only!) can compress (usually with very little loss of quality) your music files to half their original size or smaller. I have not tried this program but it sounds interesting and I have read at least one article on the program.

The Software: http://www.shrinkmytunes.com/en_gb/
The Article: http://www.wired.com/software/softwarereviews/news/2007/09/shrinkmytunes

Howdy! Hello! and Welcome!

Well, we have decided to try blogging. This is the first time we have ever blogged and so it will be a learning experience and hopefully something fun too. To get things off to a good start we have a couple of things of interest to share today.

1. We have posted our video review of Image Trends Inc’s SensorKleen Pro 2.0.2 application. This interesting application takes a series of images from your dSLR (Digital SLR) camera, analyzizes them and then removes dust and other debris that was on the cameras sensor and removes it. While we find this program to be interesting it does seem to have some issues with images that are high in noise (high ISO images). Images with low noise it seems to do a very good job on, but if the noise is too high it will reduce the dust and debris ghosts in the image but will not completely remove them. For that you need to use SensorKleen Pro’s manual Smart Brush tool. Unfortunately you can’t use the manual Smart Brush tool to train SensorKleen Pro where the dust and debris is in the image and then have it batch process the images to remove it. Since the debris is in the same area from image to image it would seem that this would be a good feature to add to the next version of SensorKleen. Personally, I wouldn’t want to have to manually process several hundred images because I shot high ISO.

What our video review and decide for yourself. Even if you decide that SensoKleen Pro isn’t for you, Image Trends Inc. has some other products that are very useful. I especially like the Fisheye-Hemi plug-in for Photoshop. You can view our video review by Clicking Here . If you would like to visit Image Trends Inc’s web site you can do so by Clicking Here.

2. While watching the latest Photoshop User TV episode on my Apple TV unit today the mentioned the Lexar web site and their photography area and that there was a cool tutorial for a Hollywood style effect on there from Scott Kelby. I of course ran right over and took a look. The tutorial is short and sweet. If you do portrait shots and want to add some pizazz to them then you will want to take a look at this tutorial. To view the tutorial Click Here. Look for the tutorial titled “Giving your images that Hollywood look using Photoshop CS3 – Part 1″