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Developing an image • Photography related workflows, conditions and thoughts
  • 62 Replies sorted by
  • And while this happens... I think they didn't like my feedback at dpreview as I can not log in anymore... jajajaj

     



     
    Today I'm sharing some new workflow I'm testing - wonder if I'll test my death too - it's about LUTs

    What is a LUT? Well other than a pattern-running system for torpedoes used by the German navy during world War II, a village in Iran, a prophet of the Qur'an, an abbreviation of London's Luton airport and a Local User Terminal, LUT is an acronym for Look Up Table, 3 different explanation including pizza one :P

    OK, I must admit at first I didn't understand the commotion about LUTs and it took me a while to really grasp their potential, I like to blame the lead in the water :P

    Meanwhile I developed other heterodox grading methodologies FOR PHOTOGRAPHY and video. Here I must make a pit stop - I know this can be read as an egotrip, I won't even bother to state opposite, but what I would really like is for anyone reading to understand that this is ultimately a journey based in a very personal experience, ok?

    Though I never filmed, literally with film, in my early days I used and developed my photos only using negative and positive (slides) films. Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, Ilford, etc. They were my credo, pushing ASA, fucking up the negatives development with strange emulsion mixes, using hand made masks and non standard developed techniques in the lab and so on.

    So when I started to really get into digital photography I tried to achieve similar results with photoshop, gimp and that kind of editors which revealed as a big time consuming pain in the ass. Here shamefull picture of girlfriend getting cold in bed. Then I started cooking my own recipes using applications such as oneone's perfect suit, nik (now bought by almighty google) color effex, alien skin exposure, red giant and all sort of more esoteric software "helpers".

    I manage to get really nice results and even today a mix of color effex and exposure (really great software) can deliver such an appealing (for me at least) look as this one

    The original image, below is from a 1/2.3 inch sensor PS camera.

    Even with the shittiest mobile phone (2 megapixel camera) and developing in the phone itself (android cyanogenmod 10) you can achieve some nice organic stuff

    Allraich, guess that I made my point there, now here comes the LUTs part.

    With LUTs you can achieve this really, really but really fast and in an accurate way (from colour tinkering math POV); you "just" need to know your LUTs and how to mixed them. The other BIG benefit of doing so is that today they're getting pretty much cross-platform so you can develop a grade and apply it to your video footage in your NLE or composite program of choice and then to stills and then mix everything up and there you'll be expecting... babies!!! je je

    Now, I've reached this conclusion by my own travelling, pain, discovering, joy, sensibility, exchange, reading, sleepless nights and days and testing, a fucking lot of testing. Here at PV there are way more capable people that developed an extraordinary refined system: ColorGHear by @shian
    If I had the cash I would not loose a second and invest it in ColorGHear and I mean it. Unfortunatelly I'm far beyond broke and have to develop my own ways, which are still very time consuming and very often fruitless.

    I'll leave here 300Mb worth of LUTs; I've taken them from Resolve Lite, Speedgrade, Photoshop, AE, Arri LUT generator, etc. If you download the demos you may as-well extract them out, just look for LUT folder inside the application package. I wanted to save you the trouble (so you can put your energy in testing/playing with them) and some trees :P

    To use them in Photoshop together with the Lumetri LUTs, you have to place them - or a shortcut - inside of the application itself: Photoshop/Presets/3DLUTs. I mysel found very fast/convenient to duplicate layers and apply different opacities and transparency modes; it almost banished the need for masking layers, at the most gradient masks… hopefully we will see this capability implemented in future DMA (digital media management) programs such as lightroom; right now only 3D LUT Creator is being integraded.

    I know AE cc have an apply LUT thingie, If using other version you may want to download Red Giant's free LUT Buddy (at the end of the list) so to apply them in AE and Premiere and also to be able to translate LUTs to other formats, this is a very big deal for me. It’s free and good to have

    That's all for today folks =)
    If you liked what you've read click this link

     
    gashô

     

    Hope you appreciate me tiding the table for the picture, je je je


    Some more links
    http://www.quelsolaar.com/technology/clut.html
    http://opencolorio.org/index.html
    http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/color_mods/#color_lut

     



     
    Very very very interesting video!!!

  • Interesting thread and tips, thanks @maxr. There's one free tool I want to add https://pixlr.com/ available in browser, Android and computer. It has a collection of tints, overlays and borders, so I can create a quick look or put some finishing touches on a picture coming out of Lightroom. Pixlr-O-Matic even has a randomizer for that surprise accident.

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  • @TraumManufaktur thank you =)
    Long time android pixlr user here too and though it has nice overlays and effects, recently switch to photo editor as it gives you best extended control over your images, channel levels and curves and a huge array of effects. It is faster to save and allows you to choose quality of compression and file format (jpeg, png, gif and something else I cannot recall).
    Quickpick for viewing and Camera Fv-5 to control phone camera :D

    Computer programs I lost count of how many I tried, currently I use ToyCamera from AnalogColor - mind you it's not free - also randomizable, simple / intuitive, nice and film mode like UI. For HQ tiff work I really think alien skin exposure and colour effex are unbeatable.

    You may want to check up S. Swerdlow's Color Wizard it's a free incredibly complex colour tweaking plugin for photoshop, his C3C Image Size it's also pretty good, Vitaliy used to recommend it

    Keep bringing fresh air, M mate :P

  • Hi there folks!!
    Though fashion like photo shoots doesn't normally turn me on, these BTS (behind the scenes) videos from fxMEDIA truly show the refined sensitivity behind a superb work in understanding and using photography itself. I did even "forget" there's no live sound whatsoever =)

    Credits
    Photographer: Kirsty Mitchell Photography
    Cinematographer: Richard Wakefield, FX Media
    MUA: Elbie Van Eeden - elbievaneeden.com
    Model: Marianna Toka
    Costume made by Kirsty Mitchell

    Credits
    Photographer: Kirsty Mitchell Photography
    Cinematographer: Richard Wakefield, FX Media
    Music: Diego Buongiorno - thebushworld.com
    MUA: Elbie Van Eeden - elbievaneeden.com
    Model: Marianna Toka
    Costume and boat design: Kirsty Mitchell

    Of course saved best for last, Terence Malick you chew on this {evil burning laugh from hell}

    Credits
    Photographer: Kirsty Mitchell Photography
    Cinematographer: Richard Wakefield, FX Media
    MUA: Elbie Van Eeden - elbievaneeden.com
    Music: Diego Buongiorno

    @Vitaliy_Kiselev I know we agreed one at the time... hope you find generosity to make an exception, je je. Thanks

    PS
    I totally forgot, free Mamo's TLtools 3.4.49 is out, download it -- HERE

  • I dig the new PS CC ACR and have pretty much only used ACR for the day-to-day processing of stills in the past as well. I download and compare every app I can get my hands on and keep current with each one as revisions become available - but mostly just testing them for my own information. The current version of ACR is very nice for 32bit HDRIs and is reentrant as well - which makes it all the nicer. Here's an example of a 4-bracket HDRI panorama of about 16 images (16x4=64 exposures) all put together in PS CC just using PS's automatic tools. I didn't have to edit or align anything other than to adjust a couple of sliders in ACR for the exposure level. There was no exporting or formats to deal with. Just straight from the GH2's RAW files to this with a little bit of waiting. :)

    Valley Of Japan

    Here's another one although this one is 8x3 single row IIRC (both of these are hand-held with a manual focus lens (the Yashica C/Y 24mm f/2.8 for the bottom one and the Nikkor AF 18-70 f/3.5G ED for the one above).

    alt Night Lake

    I believe both of these were loaded into PS CS6 for scaling and JPeg output - but not for any other reason than that PS CS6 was still defined as the default image app at the time. All this can be done using CS5 or CS6 alone but I believe there is an extra step or two involved in the process.

    Here's a list of RAW processors and/or photo editors I try to keep up with - a few of these are OS specific (only Mac, WinTel, or Linux), and I believe all of them have free timed trials if they aren't share or free-ware:

  • I don't think there are any extra tips for using Panasonic GH cameras as compared to any other digital still camera. If you can process RAW then it's basically the same deal with GH1, GH2, or GH3. The in camera JPegs pretty much suck butt but the RAW images are fairly nice (I mean for a $500 (used) GH2 or a $250 (used GH1). Both have more latitude in the darks than the lights. It's easy to blowout highlights on the GH cameras - so Ansel Adams' rule of exposing for the lights and developing for the darks applies directly when using these cameras for still photography.

    I've spent a lot of time critically testing and analyzing noise removal tools and the best right now (and for the past 2 years) is Topaz DeNoise. By adjusting a few sliders one can remove all (98%) of the noise from a very noisy photo and still retain all (95%) of the detail. Number two on the list is the new version of DxO's built-in NR. It's quite close to DeNoise but with less control and occasionally more mushy looking details. Number three is Noise Ninja and then you can just take your pick after that. The Nik one and others are all roughly about the same and pretty much forth rate - something to know if you plan on shooting a lot of high ISO images.

    Besides that I dunno of any special tips that are needed when shooting the GH cameras. I stick to all adapted glass myself. I've tried all of the Lumix lenses but don't care for them much. And since I prefer manual focus (even for birding BIF and action shots) and manual aperture over AF/AE I can save a bundle while at the same time usually getting better looking images than the Lumix lenses produce. More unique looking images too - as certain lenses are well known historically, for producing certain effects. For example the 3Dishness of some Zeiss C/Y or ZF/ZE lenses - and so on. There are a few good Lumix lenses to be sure but over half of them are pretty junky and overpriced IMO. For example that Nikkor I just mentioned above is typically a $30 to $40 lens and on a µ4/3 sensor produces outstanding results!

    Ivy Wall

    It's actually of the same (near identical!!) quality (IQ) to the $1,800 Zeiss Distagon ZF 21mm 2.8 :) and there's a lot of instances such as this where simply because we're shooting the center-most area of the image circle, inexpensive FF lenses can compete favorably with expensive µ4/3 models or high end FF lenses. Legacy glass is also a great hobby and can really enhance your experience shooting both video and stills.

    My Lens Collection

    Great fun! If you're about shooting detailed or artsy portraits like Mr. Maxr is showing above I certainly wouldn't recommend any of the µ4/3 cameras… Maybe the D800 would suit you better for that aye?!?

    Here's a few folders of images which include some BIF shots so you can see what's doable with MF lenses. And actually I guess most (70% or so) BIF shooters set their lenses to MF when shooting BIF anyway. Or at least the polls I've taken on pro and semi-pro photo-sites reveal the percentage to be about that anyway. AF still isn't good enough these days. High-end AF is good enough for most track & field sports tho. :)

    http://tesselator.gpmod.com/Images/_Image_By_Lens/Olympus_300mm_F4.5_AutoT/ http://tesselator.gpmod.com/Images/_Image_By_Lens/Canon_FD_300mm_F2.8L/ http://tesselator.gpmod.com/Images/_Image_By_Lens/Canon_FD_300mm_F4L/

    And finally here's a $25 manual focus Rokkor 100mm f/2.5 adapted to the GH1, shooting some Black Tipped Kite at the beach here in Japan:

    Kite In Japan

    Kite In Japan

  • @Tesselator
    Hey mister, I played 5 minutes with your first pano, without desaturating it (my first instinct), I applied 2 layers and 1 effect. As it was too sharp, a blur it with a gaugassian 0.3 filter. Then I applied Kodak LUT that comes inside of photoshop and finally a gentle curves layer with a linear gradient mask disappearing in the sky. If by any reason you want me to erase the image, say it so, I have no problem whatsoever =)

    Second one it's also very very nice, more natural, to my tired eye at least

    I find PS HDR horrendous, never ever used it. If you want 32bit HDR there are a ton of free programs that perform much much better and give you extensive control which in photoshop are very limited; talking about HDR, panoramic features are pretty ok. I really never felt the need for so much bit depth, If you read back you'll see (why) I'm big fan of open-source ImageFuser. Recently this little fucker greatly helped me making this

    look like this - don't even think of asking why the photo was taken like that :P

    Have a look at PS built-in LUTs, you're gona have fun. BTW where are those places?
    Thank you for sharing

     


     
    We just posted at the same time...
    Nik define for me (only plug solving banding issues) and yes dxo stuff for critical situations is awesome.
    Regarding your lens collection I'd like to tell you just 1 thing, never ever ever ever invite me for dinner :P

  • Hehe… OK, you're NOT invited to dinner. :D

    Sure tho, I don't care what you do with the images. Don't use them commercially without permission is the only thing I require - and of course give credit to "Tesselator" if you use them for non-commercial purposes. The usual, you know… :)

    I like my version best of course - between the three. ;)

  • Indulge me, je je... after all took Victor just 6 months of work ,-)
     

     


    BTW Adobe DNG converter 8.3 and BTW Lightroom 5.3 are out
    New supported cameras:

    Canon EOS M2
    Canon PowerShot S120
    Casio EX-10
    Fujifilm XQ1
    Fujifilm X-E2
    Nikon 1 AW1
    Nikon Coolpix P7800
    Nikon Df
    Nikon D610
    Nikon D5300
    Nokia Lumia 1020
    Olympus OM-D E-M1
    Olympus STYLUS 1
    Panasonic DMC-GM1
    Pentax K-3
    Phase One IQ260
    Phase One IQ280
    Sony A7 (ILCE-7)
    Sony A7R (ILCE-7R)
    Sony DSC-RX10

  • At VK, Serge Popov from 3D LUT Creator has shared Julia Trotti, a set of 40 drag&drop curves presets.

    Why I share this with you? Because even if you don't use their program it's quite a nice free collection (gotta love some of those names and examples) you can use to grade in Photoshop, Premiere and/or After effects along with the 32bits Curves adjustment =)

    I'm not even gonna start praising some LUTs they've been dropping over there, just have a kid-in-the-candy-store-look

  • Thanks man!

    Here's a $5 app that does only one thing, but does it fairly well! And there's something to be said for doing one thing well! :)

    PicSketch

    It's called PicSketch and lives at this address: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/picsketch/id672149251?mt=12

  • Hi there PV commune
    While I'm thinking in shifting a bit from the soft(ware) posts, as it is very... one-directional, and almost zero feedbackable, je je; I keep running into a myriad promiscuous issues and, as some might come across same demons and ninpho-psico-syrens, thought of sharing them

    Other than having your display calibrated, if you're using firefox as web browser, it is not a bad idea to tweak its colour settings... not only for the pseudo-geek kick out of it but for practical improvement reasons =)

    I'll suggest these light readings
    Web browser color management test
    Web browser color management guide

    And finally the how to
    How to configure Firefox colour management

    Resources:
    ICC Color Inspector

     
     
    Ok that's it, before going to kill my neighbour's dog, you need to try this piece of open source software, in many departments it's way better than lightroom, easier than rawtherapee, faster than lightzone and not a PITA to build as many other soft (i.e. digikam, mac user here). You can import single images or whole folders into it (it just import the embed jpeg) so works locally, can save styles/presets and exports 32bit depth images. Almost all effects, tweaks and corrections have blend options, loads of them, some even... Bezier region tools, zone system like, tons of interesting tools for further tweaking the look of your images; colorists will feel at home. We're now in version 1.4, it has come a long way =)

    drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle DARKTABLE drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle drakbatle

    Some quick&dirty developing test with QueSeSabe Oly M10 raws image
    image

    tschüss

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  • Hey guys, whazup?!
    Best open source raw processors comparison/review I ever read by ninedegreesbelow and swear to $ it's not 'cause our opinions match, though it surely makes me happy ,-)

    A Review of FLOSS Raw Processors

    image

    Must say latest UFRaw (1.9.2) lens module is stunting, based in panotools lens model, it does superb work. It made my day when I had to correct wide angle arquitechtural shots (not the one below) and much needed that extra pixels rescued from raw data (dcraw). Read there are some issues with win version, also people work out some solutions. On mac, I installed Gimp portable, but din't make the trick, as its UFRaw outputs only to Gimp in 8bit colour depth. You'll need to build UFRaw with macports/homebrew and the kind, plus XQuarz and that stuff to get it working as standalone, believe me, totally worth it.

    Grab comparing how UFraw and LR "extract" data from the raw, no adjustments whatsoever, just a curve in PS to equalise them
    image

     

     
    BTW Mr. Sverdlov has an improved version (win and mac) of C3C image resizing plugin for photoshop, best free resized plugin for PS there is, much better than adobe's. For batch conversion XnConvert (win, mac and linux) in lanczos is superb and also free =)

    image

    You'll also make sure to check his C3C Color Wizard, really good stuff. • thanks to @Vitaliy

    Quick and dirty BEFORE image
    AFTER image Resize is a bit hidden in Automate menu, you can create an action for faster access
    imageimage    


    Ahhh... just one more thing

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  • Recently I came across this tutorial, I must say this guy empowers opposite philosophy of what I think it's healthy; do shitty photos, don't delete anything, fix them in post. WRONG!!!

    One should experiment away, specially with pussy cats and humans :P, but also should't settle on mediocre results and expend hours fixing or sugar-coating them. Delusion is very dangerous. You took a photo of grandpa teeth in the glass, nice... most of times it's not going to be timeless new Lartigue's or C. Bresson's... and maybe you don't even want it to. NOW if one wants to improve, 97.395736% of the work it's gonna happen inside our heads, by learning, by comparing and analysing results, by being attentive and conscious, by re-learning how to see, relate, and establish relations (being these conceptual or sensory in nature) also becoming better human being.

    I imagine this may sound like clogging BS. It's not, I try to address matters from my personal experience, that's all.

    Ok, for a more positive example, Michael Woloszynowicz is a retoucher, so he has to be very precise and to the point. It may seem same thing than the other, but it's not. This guy starts with already good material (studio or landscape) and works very meticulously to enhance its qualities. Furthermore he gives away really useful techniques like high-pass/soft light sharpening, 50% grey noise, colour cast removing, etc. etc. These can be used in video too =)

  • Whatzzzzupp!!!

    Not much as far as I can see... hmmmmm

    Anyway, this video is funny as hell, Kai may be an obnoxious son of a bitch, but he's funny and sharp =)
     


     

    +

     
    I don't know if you've seen it - How to correctly sharpen GH2 footage or any footage! -
    but @Gardner, @BurnetRhoades and I have been messing around with sharpening methods.
    What does that have to do with you? hmmmmm

    So, for you guys of this forum only I created a photoshop action which explores 3 methods:

    • frequency separation
    • high pass (with alpha mask)
    • unsharp mask with lighten / darken separation (also with alpha mask, like the kernel one from link above)

     

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/d7rtc15jv10nu4b/sharpeningx3_for_PV.atn.zip

     
    The action was created in PS CC, don't know how compatible it is, you can report back ,-)
    Now like everything in life, it's not good for every situation / photo. You can change that.
    Gaussian blur used in frequency separation = 2 | Levels, that its up to you, you'll want well defined thin lines in order not to spill sharpening noise into surroundings | gaussian blur for alpha mask = 0.5 | unsharp mask values, beware a wooping 500 / 0.3 / 4 , or somethin' close - this can be changed and you can introduce more than one pass of sharpening ( kernel for video had 4) and it's going to be screened anyway by the alpha mask and even further by light / dark and percentage in blending | high pass = 0.7 (here there's a lot of possibilitties, i.e from 0.3 to 5) | high pass blending mode, basically there are 5 you can use, from overlay to linear light... beware some might introduce contrast... doesn't have to be bad.

    Well that's it, gone to smell the rain • don't forget

    image

     

    PS
    Just saw this and though could be a nice complement

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  • A couple of 3 PS tutos with great tips and tricks

    Match tone and colour

    Tinkering with skin tone & colours

    Advanced PS

  • Hey there guys
    For those of you interested/focusing on studio photography, great tips here.

    2 fantastishe PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY tutos by Alex Koloskov
    I must say, Alex may lack the glare of other show photogs but I love that there's absolutely no bullshit =)

    DIY LED Lighting for Studio Photography

    How to create a gradient reflection with large soft box

  • That second setup would work great with a "book light" setup as well, if you don't have a softbox. Instead of using a softbox source you're firing a spot or flood or LED, etc. at a reflector that's set at an angle like that from the diffusion surface. The light itself is at a 45 degree angle to the bounce.

  • Thanks for the tips @BurnetRhoades =)

     
    Kai might be a dirty little fucker, but he knows what to do with a lady :P
    Not even going in the IQ, DR or colour rendition wet dream; just drooling over those beauuuutifuly massive OVFs XD

     
     
    BTW Rawtherapee 4.1 is out
    and so Darktable 1.4.2
    and TLTools 4.0.53
     
     
    image image

  • Nevermind the mediocre photo examples, this is a pretty solid LR workflow explained in great detail and without what seems to be today's hurry hurry standard. There are a couple of things though I personally find to be better practices, specially with µFT raws: 90% I heavily use negative exposure (which also helps reducing noise), lessen the contrast (but here I've to say I'll apply a LUT or specific film contrast and colour responses afterwards), to leave alone the shadow adjustment slider, don't abuse on negative highlights, take advantage of smoother changes done with CURVES, more detail and far more masking at sharpening module if image it's going to be resized for web, it's very rare I have to go so far up with luma NR (only when above ISO 800), USE grain, sometimes worth playing with camera calibration. Other than that a pretty solid workflow with great tips =)

    Forgot something else, never ever process a portrait with capture one pro, you'll never go back :P
    Lightzone is now beta9 (4.1.0)

  • HOW TO EXPORT ADJUSTMENTS AS LUTs FROM PS CC
     
    imageimageimageimageimageimageimage  
    BTW if you're suffering from camera raw 8.5 "bug" here's the quick fix
     
    image
    and download links for convenience ,-)
    MAC
    http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/multi/camera-raw-applictions-cannot-updated/_jcr_content/main-pars/download/file.res/Camera_Raw_8_5.dmg.zip
    WIN
    http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/multi/camera-raw-applictions-cannot-updated/_jcr_content/main-pars/download_0/file.res/Camera%20Raw_8_5_w64bit.zip

    Well, that's all folks, that and my condolences to brasilians fans :P

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  • Hi there PerVerts :P

    TLTools 2.0.54 Beta is out
    • LR 5.6 is out and so Camera Raw 8.6, win and mac
    • DxO is giving away FilmPack 3 emulation soft till August the 15th



    There's also this Tonality new B&W raw conversion soft integrated with LR, PS (also Elements) and Aperture. Pro version's 70$

    Is it good? No, it is the best, it really is; even the 15 days trial is fully operational (mind you need net connexion).
    It is Silver Effex ten levels ahead, intuitive, very responsive, nice UI and just every tool one needs to make a great B&W pic.
    You can save not only the presets but the workflow file and export in multiple file formats. The inbuilt presets are helpful as a starting point too.

    image

    Quick and dirty (first) conversion, dragan style image

     
    Now, to finish, a master blaster of B&W street photography,

    image

    Tatsuo Suzuki

    homepage
    image

  • I find this technique useful, specially if you're doing (fashion) portraits and retouching
    watch out for the dimensionality :P
     

     
    Talking portraits and studio, Phase One just launched Capture One pro 8.
    Here it's rainning like the end of the world!!! All good

  • Howdy pip(iolo)s =)
    Let's see what perversions are there in this week bag, shall we?

    1_This is a free LR pluggin for adding metadata to manual lenses; VERY USEFUL
    http://www.essl.de/wp/2012/05/07/adding-foreign-lens-info-in-lightroom/
    there's also the show focus points one but I really don't find it as interesting

    2_Next, CINEGRAPHS  in a nutshell (PS instructions)

    3_A bit of Kai's humorous bullshit

    4_Example of someone (totally unknown) who has a fine "touch" developing an image... IMO
    http://www.kowska.blogspot.pt
    4b_Example of someone (a girl,,, drullllinnngg) which style I also like
    http://temptingalice.com/wonderland/lifestyle/ and (wide spread) experiments
    http://temptingalice.com/wonderland/tinderella/

    5_Related on achieving SUCCES and/within web social platforms

     
    I have a fun story regarding the whole "go comment, make friends, and you will receive comments in return".

    So I had been using this photo community site (name not disclosed, but it's a big one) for a couple of years, and my photos were decent, a few good ones. Whenever I posted a new one, I would get maybe 5 comments and a few upvotes/downvotes. A dozen people added me the their favorites over the years. Nothing major.

    At the same time there were a few dozen posters there with absolutely shit photos and they always got a hundred comments and nearly perfect ratings on every single photo.

    So I looked at what they did - and, as a programmer, I thought - I could write a bot that did all of that. And so I did. It did a very simple set of actions on every new photo posted:

    •   Give it 5 stars.
    •   Write a randomly generated comment made up of chunks like "absolutely amazing", "so beautiful", "you're talented", "adding you to my favorites", "A+++", etc.
    •   Added the author to the favorites.
    •   Gave the author +rep or something along the lines
    

    Before I launched it I posted a few very average photos under the bot's account, who also had some random girl's pic in the profile.

    Then one evening I launched, watched it for a few minutes, and went to sleep.

    When I woke up, HOLY SHIT.

    Every single photo of mine had perfect 5 star ratings with dozens and dozens of votes, tons of comments from the happy noobs who got "discovered" by me, almost all of them added me to their favorites, I had like 50 friends overnight.

    During the day when the site hit peak traffic, it went even more insane, everything quadrupled, my latest photo became the photo of the day on the front page.

    By then a few people figured out wtf was going on, because I was too lazy with writing randomized comments, they didn't have much variety. By the end of the day the bot got banned. But the damage was done. I posted on their forum explaining the whole thing. Many people were angry, because it exposed how full of shit the photo critique communities are, many were laughing and laughing. A few regulars quit. And so did I.

    That's why I only ask for the negative feedback to my work. Getting positive feedback is just too easy.

    http://www.reddit.com/r/photography/comments/2h6kjn/art_of_photography_competing_with_cat_photos/

    6_Some online photo mags (also contests and context) -  I wonder why don't they cover their eyes instead...???


    Strip Tease Tent, Charter Fair, Pinner, 1971
    By Homer Sykes

    http://deepsleep.org.uk
    https://www.lensculture.com
    http://www.the37thframe.org
    http://www.fstopmagazine.com/home.html
    http://www.filemagazine.com
    http://www.bjp-online.com
    http://zonezero.com
    http://www.seesawmagazine.com
    http://www.socialdocumentary.net
    http://www.positive-magazine.com
    http://photoworks.org.uk
    http://flakphoto.com
    http://hornygirlswithtightasseshavingfunwithmeanbicepodousaliensmeanwhilensacarefulscruttiny.com
    http://www.burnmagazine.org
    http://digitaljournalist.org
    http://www.source.ie
    http://pixelsandprose.net
    http://www.1000wordsmag.com
    http://www.lunaticmag.com
    http://www.frontroom.org
    https://daylightbooks.org
    http://www.ahornmagazine.com
    http://www.purpose.fr
    http://www.pixelpress.org
    http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/
    http://www.chambrenoire.com
    http://lightbox.time.com
    http://www.fractionmagazine.com
    http://lenscratch.com
    http://blog.photoeye.com

    ...... much much more

    6_A list of 321 c-lenses
    http://www.us.c-mount.passion.pro

    Sources: petapixel, reddit, the www in general; where else, the biblioteque?

    That's all folks, don't do stupid things without documenting first =)

  • Whazup fooool(k)s?!!! =)

    Let's get to today's pile of photographic related bullshit, shall we?

     
    Tony Roslund SUPERB beverage product photography TIPS

     
    Grandfather of photoshop
     

     
    To make Joan Crawford look good in 1931 film Laughing Sinners
     

     
    PS keyboard shortcuts by PHlearn and some penta blade porn
    image
    image  
    Nevermind attention deficit Gragger; if buying an Otus would come with 2 days spent with this guy at his office, I'll sell my other kidney ,-)
     

     
    All the glamour of photojournalism :P
     

     
    Daniel Arnold, an artist whose work I admire :-)
     















     
    And a nice life story
     


     
     
    Now get crazy and go shoot somethin'
    image