Adobe Max and life without creative clouds

Life after creative cloud is fine, infact the computers have sighed several sighs of reliefs, start up is faster (no waiting for yet another "mystery" update). I've had enough of those with windows10, especially the ones that repeatably failed. Also I'm definitely wasting less time (some was learning but a lot of pointless play). Has my photography suddenly become poorer, don't think so (Dan Andrews lockdown has had more influence.) Am I more likely to use outrageous filter, ...  ...  ...Yes

So for yet another opportunity to learn that may become a waste of time. Comparing Adobe Max and  to last weeks ZOOMtopedia its a really clear example of how high quality video with snappy graphs is no where near as compelling as more interactive video streams that you know are truely live. You naturally follow the live much more close focus than the slickness of tight video was like have the TV on in the background Still I like the concept of learn and train in lightroom where you can select and example tutorial and work through it in light room.

Adobe Max is still on (the a big catalogue of "live" event) and is free to join but you may to set up an adobe ID.

Yet another update issue

 I have come to use OnOne Photo RAW as my go to RAW file editor of choice and when I use it I generally export a "finished" jpeg version but something has gone astray in the latest update. It often reports that the screen resolution has changed and I need to restart the application. I assume this is related to the fact that one of the two screens on my main desktop had died and I replaced it with an old VGA style monitor. The Microsoft update fiasco made this worse, the software would hang and clearly had rendering issues anytime I exported a finished edit.

Initially the response from their support was very non-specific (ie delete OneOne and reinstall it) but I had already done this 3 times. Yesterday I got a real reply it turns out this is a common bug when using two monitors. I had to physically unplug the old monitor and just use a single screen, Magic everything is fine again, albeit with less overall screen real estate.

Am I becoming too cynical or are companies just in such a rush to push out updates to their software they are forgoing testing, and using us as Alpha testers?

Enough is enough!

 

I have (yet again) wasted painful days watching this repeatedly appearing on three of my 4 active computers (two desktops & two laptop). Once this happens the next update on that machines takes hours. One desktop took 3 days before it was again useable.

Microsoft surely to realize this is a massive #FAIL.

After 3 months I wasn't overwhelmed

 I’ve had an trial of the creative cloud suite for an extended 3 month period. It really does have a comprehensive set of programs. In comparison I have a number of different programs, from several different software companies, that I use standalone but use whichever is appropriate and have to swap files between each application. I was expecting that by now adobe would be well integrated. I was disappointed there is only some interchangeability but it is pretty much the same step, saving &/or exporting then opening working on the file, save again and back on the roundtrip merry go round, like plugins have pretty much always worked. Ok it all works but I don’t need to be in the creative cloud environment to do it like this.

  I was once quiet a fan of lightroom up to revision 5 when it got so slow. So I was keen to see how light room classic had progressed and it had. The facial recognition was nice (but not essential for me) the HDR and Panorama were also fine and the synch to lightroom mobile seemed to work nicely. I was initially impressed. However I still had the strong impression that behind it all was the one person one catalogue, one spot to file your originals was underlying this all (the shared images just being smart previews). So I was a little underwhelmed here compared with tools I already had.

  I had decided to spend a fair bit if time learning Photoshop in detail, and it started well, I was particularly interested in layers and blending. I must admit it does do these tasks well, However things kind of fell apart after that there are so many menu, tabs, icons,  sliders and even different terminology for much the same process that I found trying to consume the actually well put together training material to be brain numbing. I did step down to Photoshop Express and that was useable straight away (I do have an old version of Adobe Photoshop express on my main machine, it came with my Wacom tablet, but I actually haven’t used it in 3 years. The new express is certainly update but again a bit disappointing.

  Illustrator wasn’t as hard to pick up and I made a couple of fun things with it, however when I tried doing a couple of cartoons I was a little shocked at how few graphic tools I commonly use I could actually find.

My final foray into the creative cloud world was video. I’m not very experience with video but interested and have been making a few experimental shorts. So I then dove deep into premiere pro,  The training material is good but stopped short of what I wanted. The wealth for a menus, tabs, sliders and icon and number of track types was a bit confusing. I reckon Davinci Resolve is easier to pickup. (that’s not a compliment by the way)  So after some time back down to Premiere Express (its ok easy and much quicker to get things done), then finally Rush.  

 Now Rush does about 90% of what I was after and sort of quickly and had a nice set of options including schedule upload to YouTube. Its very heavily aimed at social media influencer wanna-bees. So I actually used that for a few weeks to recorded a set of quick tips for watercolourist. This might be the one program I would miss when the trial ends. I’ve since discovered a few stutters in the videos on YouTube that are not the same as renderings on my computer (but I’m not totally off-put, it may have been easy to avoid.)

The ongoing rental (aka subscription) and its price, have always been a stumbling block for me. I can’t find any strong reasons for me taking up an subscription (and no discount was offered). I did however registered for Adobe Max, which is free for those with Adobe ID just before my trial version ran out. Maybe the blue sky of features yet to come might keep the adobe flame burning, but its nearly gone out for me.

The enthusiasm for using anything Google or Facebook is being sucked out of me

I had been noticing for a while that it was just too co0incidental I would search for say a toner cartridge and then the same ads would be dished up on youtube, other searches, in Gmail. Instagram and Facebook for days/ Was someone spying on me listening in on everything I do, well yes. However, all the scrapping of every little bit of metadata is being justified on the grounds that it helps you see better content! I think that should be rephrased puts you in a bubble so you only see some of what you like and more significantly lifts the advertising revenue of those serving you the content (they most don't pay for).

So I have done a little research and just made two changes. I most often now used the search engine Duck Duck Go and also mostly (but not always because I do still use a few google tools) I have started using the browser Brave. The change to both was painless. Ok the top third of the page of the Duck Duck Go queries are not filled with paid adds and Brave seems a bit faster and streamlined, Also pretty well all those co-incidental bombardments of the same ads has virtually stopped. A little investigation in Brave gave me a good idea way.

By the way, these stats are just after a couple of hour on an average day.

Well it look like there is a lot more sharing (or piracy) of the thing left on out computer caches by some browser and social media services, than they want to admit too. I don't miss these creepy things.

I'm much happier now and I'm not going back!

Is it getting worse or am I just becoming a grumpy

 

Why is it that several well established services (and apps) keep introducing undocumented changes, dialogues screens with option do discussed anywhere THAT SIMPLY DON'T WORK?

In the rush to be a copy cat and offer something that has become popular for a competitor. Most of these companies should know better, but they seem to be pumping out untested and error prone services & software. It isn't just Instagram & facebooks, Its Windows 10 Update, Blogger revamps, Google Photos, several Adobe products. The reliablity of these is going down hill, not improving.

Well guys you are shooting yourselves in the foot. Cause it is time to find reliable alternatives.

Comparing RAW rendering of a camellia

 I decided while a had a couple of other big name photo editors under extended trial I should attempt a few comparisons. Then I came up against the very limited formatting capabilities on the new blogger. ...gramble, moan yet again!

So it looks like I can only present the images one on a line, at a time. Oh well so be it.

So what I am attempting to show here is how each package take the RAW image (in this case an .ORF from my little Olympus and renders the RAW image ready to edit. At the superficial level they are all very similar.

Yet they are all just subtle difference. Perhaps not different enough that once edited they are edited anyone could end up with the same result.

In a line up I would probably pick the Jpeg straight from the camera. Still my little Olympus is like that and it doesn't surprise me. So how do I justify having expensive software and spending lots of time to try and do better. Or even spending more money on more software. You'll need to watch this space as I work through that question.

Big Sigh! Those blue screens again

 I am trying to be patient, but  I have to admit updates to windows 10 have been a nightmares since the supposed May update (I might suggest it was a downgrade). There  are 5 computer running windows in my household (not all are used a lot, yet they are all used at some stage), There are 3 desktops and two portables. The May upgrade didn't work on any of them at the first install. There were warnings to wait, nothing crashed but a lot of time was wasted and very slowly most were bough up to date. 

However the latest updates seem to have at last been partially loaded and 4 of my 5 computers have soon after crashed with a blue screen. some multiple times One computer, my main desktop, is still very sick. 

Microsoft please get you act together. Linux is looking attractive.

MMMmmm you probably noticed I have stopped posting

 I haven't stopped posting because of the COVID19 restrictions. Well not entirely. It's been more to do with frustrations of things changing and either not working or requiring a lot of time to negotiate. The changes in Blogger where kind of the last straw, Ok the new interface is cleaner but....

I happen to have become a lot more interested in streaming, and zoom in prticular. Firstly through setting up a series of Zoom meeting. However it didn't take long to get more interested in how to use the medium (of reliable home streaming and personnal interaction) in a more creative way.

Well there is plenty of good and bad in the wide spread popularity of zoom (and similar video conferencing tools). First the BAD (and ugly) aspect are the one to many sessions where one or two people take over and often show detailed hard to read powerpoints. Its not only "death by powerpoint" its boring and stressfully hard going, its "zoom fatigue". we are all experiencing. I guess you can amuse yourself by looking around the room and seeing all the other bored faces looking back.

There is a GOOD side. It can be one to many but presented as one on one, but here it feels like it is being presented just to you. A very good example of this is Nora Jones Mini concerts live from home on YouTube
.

This YouTube link is an example of my frustration with blogger, the new interface no longer has an edit the html link feature, or I can't find it, but share from Youtube connects to the old blogger interface. so I shared from there as a draft. open the draft up the new interface just shows the clip greyed out ....Ahhhh

There is also the possibility of EVEN BETTER and this lies in the possibility of many to many connections where everyone gets to connect. However conversation on video conferencing can sometimes be a challenge if everyone tries to talk at once, because the technology is set up to only let one participant speak at a time. What is require is some old fashion etiquette, specifically look & listen. Don't keep talking over people take a breath and see if they are listening and want to say something. With this little bit of magic suddenly your opportunity to get together is much more likely to be enjoyable.

A "Real" Trial

I'm a little deeper into my trying out both Luminar 4 and also the Creative Cloud software. Today specifically Bridge & Rush. There has to be a problem running either of the creative cloud programs within the same session as running Luminar. I've had countless times that programs have frozen, several times individual programs have gone to blank screens and now four complete system crashes.  ...Not Happy Jan.

Thank goodness these companies offer free trials. If I'd have paid I might have become very annoyed. Once upon a time I might have spent a lot of time trying to help out but my recent experience with software support also suggests I'd be on another downward spiral.

Misty Morning Exercise in Jells Park

So all I have from pretty much a whole day of frustration is a very lightly touched and cropped image from Luminar which was to be and opening screen in a Rush video. That will not happen now, time to abandon the project, unwind and perhaps have a coffee in the last of the sunshine.

Lessons in Learning Video

 

Whilst our newer cameras, and especially smartphones, are great at video. It is a large step from still photography, especially in the time taken (or maybe I think of it as time wasted) on editing the video. Streaming techniques that capture everything, mistakes and all, have a strong appeal compared with filming the clip, saving it to SD card transferring it to the computer for editing. Editing the clips together and rendering the final "cut". Time evaporates. This little clip was one take with minimal editing and just adding some music. I see it as a bit of a big step forward for me. 

My investigations so far have reinforced the need to get as much right in camera as possible and minimize the need for editing. This reminds me a lot of the film days and using slide film, which was very unforgiving of exposure and other mistakes. With the results that you were much more careful when taking the photo.

Looking for Superblack

I have been struggling with creating a DYI calibration card for photographing art work. Not so much in the theoretical mainly in the practical aspect of getting a true black on the card. then Today's "Here's a Thought" podcast by Brooks Jensen was on the very relevant Three Kinds of Blacks.

... then it struck me my inkjet printer doesn't do super black! (it doesn't do CMYK all at once just K)

I'll discuss how this calibration card can be used in a future post.The card itself does appear true black here because it was created in sRGB colour space (and black set to R:0 G:0 & B:0) and that is the colour space of your browser/monitor

If you art interested in a more art and philosophic perspective on photography I can highly recommend Brook's Lensworks podcasts.

Colour Composition - complimentary colours

Complimentary colours, those on opposite sides of the colour wheel generally make for an interesting composition.

Color Matters is an excellent site to brush on some of the basics of colour theory

Colour Compostion

To help you break the focus on leading lines and rule of thirds and other compositionaspects oversaold to photographers and free your mind for a little creativity. Pick up your camera and take a walk (might just be around the house or your back yard.

Look for strong colours. Maybe they might be complimentary colours (that bounce off each other, The red and blue pegs) or analugous (similar in hue, the sky and blue peg)

Ive spent more time than expected making a YouTube video. I suppose I learned a lot but I still have a lot to learn.

I did find something really neat. I was able to record mt phone sequence using zoom. I set up a private meeting logged in from my phone and shared the screen and pressed record meeting locally back on the host PC.  No exotic hardware or software required.

My Walk in Stop Motion

In Victoria we still have stricter Stay At Home conditions than other Australian states. However we have always been able to go outside and exercise and Jells Park is very popular, too much so. Thus I enjoy walking along the tracks less traveled. This was largely flooded a few days ago, so definitely has less folk on it today.  Nature is doing very well without us, by the way.

The flock of Cockatoos was at the end of my street. I pretty well find great things to photograph everyday, even if I only take a photo very 10-20 meters or so. 

Most importantly it was fun to play with stop motion again, not so sure about bloggers handling of the video.

The Surreal Painting

This time I am paying homage to a surrealist artist, Rene Magritte, whose man in the bowler hat was made popular again in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. I believe his canvas on the easel that disappears into the scene behind is called The Human Condition. The idea of being able to see through the current situation to the world outside appeals to me during the COVID-19 social isolation period.

To make this picture I took a couple of photos, one with a canvas and one with no canvas. I have a nifty remote control for my little Olympus so you can't see me triggering the shot with my right hand by my side.  Rather than try to do a blended image I used the cloning and context sensitive retouch tools in On1 instead, to cover the window frame and easel where the picture would been.

Artist with Idol

I know yet another self portrait, but this pays homage the the Post Impressionist Artist Gaugain and his "Self Portrait with Idol". I was trying to capture the mood and lighting rather than strict copy of the pose, and that required a fair bit of turning on and off the lights (all standard lights in my home) and shift the mask from New Guinea around a bit.

I don't have any dark walls so I had to live with the lighter background, which makes the mask standout a bit. more ominous and his cowrie shell eye stand out. I also did some double processing of my image in On1. First I took the RAW file and darkened it somewhat and lifted the contrast a little.Finally using a warm cinematic colour grading look (CG12 for the ON1 folk). I then saved this as a Tiff file (to keep the dynamic range). I reloaded that and added a vignette and a subtle canvas texture overlay before exporting to the final Jpeg.

Definitely not a master piece but fun to do. I guess this #StayAtHome project has morphed from surrealist portrait into #artinspired self-portraits, such is life during a "lockdown".

More Ethereal than Surreal

Today's photo is another heavily post processed contribution, in fact it is using the one-click style filters that I generally dislike. However... ... you'll never know if you don't give it a go... This image (I'm not going to say it is still a photo) was completely created on my phone. Starting with a way to close selfie, then I used an app called Porta to generate the watercolour style feel with faded edges.

I'm not sure how the blood shot eye effect arose but it suits the apprehensive and ethereal mood. (My eye isn't blood shot at all).

Puddles of Fun

I started photographing my (almost) daily walks about 6 week ago, Over COVID-19 restriction allow us yo "exercise" close by for an hour. In particular I was closely observing what was under my feet. The original intent being to create a photo easy of my walks but from a very different perspective. Well the project is still ongoing and I don't see any need to finish it to soon, I think we have a few more weeks of "lockdown". I enjoy the walks and always carry my camera.

The wet weather has created a lot of puddles and wonderful reflections and with some floating Autumn leaves. I am reminded of a couple of the lithographs that where displayed in The M C Escher  X Nendo exhibition at the NGV last year.

Surreal-ly into a Deep Dream

This was an accidental selfie. I was in my favourite spot for the afternoon light beside TheWindow. I stopped to finish my coffee, right in the shadow of the door frame, and didn't realize I set off the self-timer on my camera from my phone. The actual photo was lame but I decided to try it out in Google Deep Dream Generator, using a "modern art" style pattern.

I think the results are somewhere avant garde 1920ish.

The Window X :: Getting close with a phone camera

No this is not an advert for an operating system or the next smart phone. It is the last, at least for a while, it my #StayAtHomePhotowalking series on TheWindow.

The cameras in smart phones have improved greatly over the last decade. They only have tiny lenses and thus their apparent depth of field appears very wide (almost everything in the image will be clear). They also can be taken very close to the subject (ie minimum focusing distance might just be a few centimetres. Their downside is they are not so good in low light and if you are really close you are likely to cast a shadow over the subject.

You could of course use  a magnifying glass between the phone and the subject, but there is generally a significant downside doing this, the focal distance of the magnifying glass might be 5 to 10cm meaning you must be further back from the object even though the magnifying glass is enlarging the subject, it is the distance of your phone must be reduces the size of the subject in your camera. Pretty much cancelling out the percieved subject size advantage.

I have a nifty little (and cheap) wide angle lens that clips over the camera lens and being a wider angle now I can get closer to the subject but now the perspective becomes extreme (which may or maynot help your image)

Hmm not many pictures of my window ... such is life

The Window IX :: Inside Looking Out

Exposed for Outside

This has been an age old challenge, to get both the inside exposure and the outside scene balanced.  Whereas our eyes can automatically adjust to see detail over a wide range of lighting levels than even the best digital camera. Also our eyes are constantly looking around the scene adjusting focus on regions of varying brightness. The image our mind sees is a reconstruction, and not a direct measure of the light entering our eye(s). If you are skeptical, read the Cambridge in Colour article Cameras .vs. TheHuman Eye.

Exposed for Inside

The camera just has to take a single image and because it has a limited dynamic range, and if its using the light meter to choose exposure it is likely to choose something in the middle.  The inside is very dark compared with the intensity of light outside. Finding a compromised for these two lighting condition may be too hard and any exposed in the middle will leave the interior in deep shadow and/or the exterior view bleach out.

You can override the automatic exposure metering and take two exposure one for inside and one for the outside view. Then blend them together assuming you have that capability in your postprocessing software. This is a very common procedure recommend elsewhere on the net, but it can be tedious to do.

Another alternative is to use the HDR methodology, which combines different exposures or can also exploit the extra information in a single RAW photo to expand the range of tones that can be reproduced. The article I have linked is somewhat old but does explain the method well. Most post-processing software now has a HDR capability. I prefer Trey Ratcliff's AuroraHDR and using a set of three EV bracketed photos (underexposed by 2 stop. Normally exposed & over exposed by 2 stops) which I have dialed in for the camera to take as a series.

Bracketed EV Series

A word of warning, be careful when tone mapping (or using presets with HDR images because it is easy to overdo and end up with ugly. faux painted look that is disturbing to most viewers. I prefer to just use the default HDR image (with AI controlled tone mapping and looks natural) from AuroraHDR and do any further tweaking in my chosen post-processing software, usually using On1 Photo RAW. It is my best solution to the Indoor and Outdoor View at the same time dilemma. Most real estate photographers must also believe!

Final HDR Result

The Window VIII :: Getting really close

When you think there is nothing more to challenge your photographic desires taking photos of TheWindow, its time to get closer.  "The closer you are too the subject, the more detail you see and the greater the impact of your photograph" ... Rich Sammon. This advice is not new but now is a perfect time to take the advice seriously.

You actually don't need a specialist macro lens, although they can simplify the tasks when getting really close up. You can use any lens really, but there will be a few challenges to address.

Most lenses have a minimum distance that they can focus and in general terms the longer the focal length the greater the minimum focusing distance. This can work against you when trying to use the magnification capability of a telephoto lens to get a larger image. With your impressive Telephone Zoom you might have to stand a meter or more away!  Whereas with your wide angle lens you could get with a few centimetres.

The next obstacle is depth of field which is a bigger topic than I need to address in full here, where by the longer the focal length of the lens the shorter can be the width over which the camera is able to achieve sharp focus and to confuse things the Aperture (which controls the amount of light let through the lens) also affects the apparent depth of field. Wider Aperture (lower f-stops) narrow the zone within which the focus seems sharp.

The distance to the subject also affect perspective. Wider angle lenses (lower focal distance of the lens) make close objects seem larger. Telephotos (large focal length lens) make distant objects appear larger and more similar in size to close objects (they seem to compress space). This difference can be amplified for close up photo.

The final issue that might prove a challenge is the about of light. Consider that there is only a fixed amount light coming off a subject so as you use more magnification. The amount of light landing on a given sized pixel in you sensor gets less. You will need to either expose longer of move to a wide aperture. Leading to the possibility of blurring via camera shake or soft focus due to a narrower depth of field.

I'm deliberately not telling you how to find the compromise between all these issues. I'd rather you figured this out yourself. You should have plenty of time to work through your solution. No need to keep those trial photos this is an exercise in understanding not make a single great photo. However I found this nice explanation of what depth of field Is and Isn't on a new YouTube channel called Photography Online. Its quiet an informative show so perhaps check out some of the earlier episodes as well.

"When you think you are close enough, Get closer"

... Rich Sammon

A Surreal Selfie #photoproject

Le Violon d'Ingres

I got inspired whilst looking through Man Ray's photos (I was looking for but never found his Jazz series). He was a Dada &/or Surrealist artist and photographer who came to fame in Paris in the 1920's & 30's. His most famous image from that time is probably Ingre's Violin, but he was also a very successful fashion photographer and filmmaker after the war.

“It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realize them.”

...Man Ray

The object here is to take a "self portrait" (it doesn't have to include your face, could be just a shadow, an empty chair, your hands holding a camera, or a coffee cup!) that tells much more of your story than a standard head-shot selfie. What story do you want to tell? Perhaps it will be about your aspirations, what you have achieved, what you want to do after lockdown is over?

The Window VII :: At Dusk

This is an image from the window I should have taken as part of my windows snapshots and I missed the opportunity, because I had other things like eating dinner to distract me. Tonight I was ready BUT a normal standing  shot it didn't take in the sky. I had to move the camera down almost to the floor. Which gave a slightly skewed view.  If this is done deliberately this is know as a Dutch Tilt and can add drama, though strong diagonals in the composition.

 Lets just leave it as a happy accident and I like it. However trying to capture the light at dusk at The Window is now struck off my list of times (ie no Golden Hour photos)

Window VI :: Day & Night

Dappled Ambient Daylight

The quality of light varies a lot during the day but the changes to night and artificial light can be even more dramatic. This is even more obvious in any photographs we take. The artificial light normally has a different colour temperature and this may show up as a colour cast. (orange in my example below)

This colour cast can be fixed by a process normally know as White Balance, which is just a name for the task of removing that cast and it will vary depending on where you undertake it. It can be undertaken in digital cameras by the camera as your take the picture, often as little icon in the menu for daylight, sunny, cloudy, artificial light etc).

Jpeg direct from camera showing orange colour cast despite AWB

Most modern Digital cameras have an AWD (Automatic White Balance) setting that the camera best guesses the colour temperature (usually very well). If you are taking a jpeg image this adjustment is applied to the image, if you Capture in RAW the adjustment is applied to the preview but the un-altered data from the sensor is also stored and the white balance is easy to change later.

RAW image post processed with a WB adjustment

Most Photo Processing software also has white balance tools built in, and it is possible to make the same adjustments to removed colour casts in the post-processing step (as I have undertaken in my example above). How the adjustment is carried out varies with each package but most offer a simple approach using a dropper tool (that is pointed at part of the image that should be a neutral colour) through to sliders that adjust the colour temperature in degrees Kelvin (how colour temperature is measured)

Stay at Home Photo Scavenger Hunt

You don't have to use this list, its just a start. Set 10 items to find around the House &/or Garden and give everyone at home a phone or camera and a couple of days to find the items.

1. The red-ist thing/place in the house
2. The oldest item in the house
3. My favourite outfit
4. My happy place
5. An old neglected favorite toy, book, pair of shoes
6. Something made of wood
7. Something beautiful
8. Something that's living
9. Something that was lost and recently found
10. Something smelly

I thought I'd start with the smelly-ist, 
in my favourite bit of afternoon light.
(yes they are my shoes)