Nik Software has announced their HDR Efex Pro. While you won’t be able to buy it until October, I wanted to gloat that I’ve got it now and it rocks! What you see here is a real simple handheld, three image HDR of the setting sun over the Sierra. No way you can get the sun, shadow and clouds in one capture so HDR was required. What makes Nik’s HDR a stand out is they use the same basic UI as in Silver Efex Pro, you have a whole bunch of previews on the left. You look for the one you like, click and bang, you’ve got it. And if that’s not enough, you have more sliders, U Point controls then in the cockpit of a 747 to fine tune your selection. What you see here is the Realistic preset and it worked really, really well. Once I have a copy of the program that I can share, I will create a how to video because this is a must. Oh yeah, it runs 64bit! Bitchin!!!

Photo captured by D3x, 18AF on Lexar UDMA digital film

We’ve had a number of calls and emails of late asking the basic but REALLY important question, “How do you find an image you shot 5yrs ago?” Finding photos is important and doing so means you’ve taken care of the loneliest, most boring and unrewarding shore in photography, filing (yuck!!!). Truly, I hate it and Sooooo look forward to the day when we have a librarian for the files. In the meantime, I made the mess so I’ve got to take care of it. By the end of the summer, my image library will hit two million images (I’m so bloody fortunate!) and I am quite proud that anybody can come to my files and find the image they need. Here’s how I do it.

YOUR filing system MUST fit YOUR logic which means no one system works for everyone. I work on the KISS theorem so for critters it’s real simple. All images are filed so newest are at the back or end of the file. My favorites are tagged as such but left in order in which the image was captured. Mammals since there aren’t that many species in NoAm are all filed alphabetically under Mammals. Birds are totally different since there are so many species so they are filed alphabetically under their appropriate family by species. Landscape images in my mind are locations on the globe so are filed as such under state and then location name, all alphabetically. So far in 30yrs, this system has worked for us and those coming to work in our office. Then came aviation.

There are lots of aircraft out there, shot in many locations and often, many types photographed at specific events such as the Reno Air Races. At the same time, I at least capture thousands upon thousands of images in a day when working with aircraft. I could have used the Bird system and broken them down into aircraft type, but then when needing those for a particular event (for historic reasons) you’d have to look at the date of each file. That’s not a doable system for a business. I could file them all under the event, but then how do you find one particular aircraft for an editor? What I went to is something I told my partner David I would never use, Keywords (gotta watch when you use that word never). Thank goodness David ignored me and incorporated a killer Keyword and Keyword search engine in DigitalPro6! (You can see my partial aviation Keyword list above)

So last week when I had a client who wanted to look at some specific images for the P-51 Mustang, all I had to do was use the Keyword search, click on P-51 Mustang keyword, hit Find and then Display and then Ctrl T and in less then a minute all my favorite P-51 images from all my network drives were displayed on the monitor. While I was on the phone, I could tell the client exactly what I had and then with two more clicks, the images were selected, thumbnails created and emailed to the client. That’s how you turn images into cash and keep the cash!

Are Keywords perfect? Hell NO!!!! Once you use a Keyword, you can’t modify it (at this time) because it will effect all the libraries. The database of your Keywords can get lost or destroyed which is a royal pain in the %&(@)) so you must get in the habit of backing it up and storing it in other places (Thanks to Adam for that important word of advise!). But for our growing aviation business, Keywords works great and for our wildlife biz, our KISS system works great. Think through how you think about things and find them and you too will find the system that works best for you. The key, is just find the system and start using it today!

We’ve had a number of calls and emails of late asking the basic but REALLY important question, “How do you find an image you shot 5yrs ago?” Finding photos is important and doing so means you’ve taken care of the loneliest, most boring and unrewarding shore in photography, filing (yuck!!!). Truly, I hate it and Sooooo look forward to the day when we have a librarian for the files. In the meantime, I made the mess so I’ve got to take care of it. By the end of the summer, my image library will hit two million images (I’m so bloody fortunate!) and I am quite proud that anybody can come to my files and find the image they need. Here’s how I do it.

YOUR filing system MUST fit YOUR logic which means no one system works for everyone. I work on the KISS theorem so for critters it’s real simple. All images are filed so newest are at the back or end of the file. My favorites are tagged as such but left in order in which the image was captured. Mammals since there aren’t that many species in NoAm are all filed alphabetically under Mammals. Birds are totally different since there are so many species so they are filed alphabetically under their appropriate family by species. Landscape images in my mind are locations on the globe so are filed as such under state and then location name, all alphabetically. So far in 30yrs, this system has worked for us and those coming to work in our office. Then came aviation.

There are lots of aircraft out there, shot in many locations and often, many types photographed at specific events such as the Reno Air Races. At the same time, I at least capture thousands upon thousands of images in a day when working with aircraft. I could have used the Bird system and broken them down into aircraft type, but then when needing those for a particular event (for historic reasons) you’d have to look at the date of each file. That’s not a doable system for a business. I could file them all under the event, but then how do you find one particular aircraft for an editor? What I went to is something I told my partner David I would never use, Keywords (gotta watch when you use that word never). Thank goodness David ignored me and incorporated a killer Keyword and Keyword search engine in DigitalPro6! (You can see my partial aviation Keyword list above)

So last week when I had a client who wanted to look at some specific images for the P-51 Mustang, all I had to do was use the Keyword search, click on P-51 Mustang keyword, hit Find and then Display and then Ctrl T and in less then a minute all my favorite P-51 images from all my network drives were displayed on the monitor. While I was on the phone, I could tell the client exactly what I had and then with two more clicks, the images were selected, thumbnails created and emailed to the client. That’s how you turn images into cash and keep the cash!

Are Keywords perfect? Hell NO!!!! Once you use a Keyword, you can’t modify it (at this time) because it will effect all the libraries. The database of your Keywords can get lost or destroyed which is a royal pain in the %&(@)) so you must get in the habit of backing it up and storing it in other places (Thanks to Adam for that important word of advise!). But for our growing aviation business, Keywords works great and for our wildlife biz, our KISS system works great. Think through how you think about things and find them and you too will find the system that works best for you. The key, is just find the system and start using it today!

While our dear friend seems awfully official like in the video, the information he has is anything but stiff. Now he’s letting the secret out of the bag, but here’s just another reason why Wacom 21UX / Intous & CS5 rocks.

While our dear friend seems awfully official like in the video, the information he has is anything but stiff. Now he’s letting the secret out of the bag, but here’s just another reason why Wacom 21UX / Intous & CS5 rocks.

One Image HDR has me intrigued but as my good friend RC reminds me, don’t use Photomatix Pro isn’t for finishing, just the doing the heaving lifting. With that in mind, I’ve done all my finishing using just Photoshop which does an excellent job but I wanted something a little faster and a little more targeted, so I went playing.

You can see the before at top, quite a bit different from the bottom. Photomatix Pro pulled out some detail and color so the image isn’t as visually flat. Then, and here’s what I’ve been playing with, taking that 16bit Tif that Photomatix creates and run it through ACR (Adobe Camera Raw). I open up CS5 > Mini Bridge > Right Click on the image and select Open in Camera Raw. I then do the finishing in ACR. I’m likin the results, more play to come and then I’ll get a video made so you can see what I’m doing. Experimenting, when it works, is fun!

Photo captured by D3s, 18AF on Lexar UDMA digital film

And Doc’s offerings don’t stop there! Yesterday he posted his all new Dr. Brown’s Adobe Photoshop CS5 Scripts. I depend on these and rarely does a day go by and I don’t use at least one of them. Not only is it all free, it’s great stuff, check it out and grab it!

And Doc’s offerings don’t stop there! Yesterday he posted his all new Dr. Brown’s Adobe Photoshop CS5 Scripts. I depend on these and rarely does a day go by and I don’t use at least one of them. Not only is it all free, it’s great stuff, check it out and grab it!

I have three goals in this process: speed, flexibility and quality. Quality is a given because without that then it’s all a waste of time. Speed, that’s become more and more important as my shooting has vastly escalated and when clicking landscapes, digital darkroom time increases but that’s not where I want to spend my time. So a faster workflow is a must. And flexibility, well, I don’t want to be locked into anything a year from now that I’ve done today. My style and tastes do change! So as Sharon says, “You in Class?”

With finishing images from our Monument Valley adventure and getting all the lessons written and recorded to finish off the classes a top priority, I’ve been chained to the computer. I am very excited to have found a new B&W technique that fits my goals, runs at 64bit speed (which just rocks!) and all of it comes from right in CS5! No pluggins, no giant files and it really takes seconds. Gotta thank my bud Scott Kelby for giving me the start and my brilliant assistant Stephanie for providing a pivotal step. I like the results. Best thing, I can vary it slightly to give me slightly different tones in the B&W like you see above. I can’t wait to test/share it with folks next week at DLWS. And it will be on video shortly at Kelby Training. Excuse me now though, off to working on new techniques and classes.

Photos captured by D3x, 24PC-E / 70-200VRII on Lexar UDMA digital film