2013-05-17 Around the house 17-35-52

2013-05-17 Around the house 17-35-52, a photo by Bershatsky on Flickr.

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5D Mark III X Series Look vs Canon XF100 Default Settings

Pixelmator Cannot Replace Photoshop - Not Even Close

Recently I've fallen in love with the Wacom Intuos5 tablet.  It really does give you all sorts of creative freedom when retouching a photo.  Specifically, the ability to control the amount of the effect with pressure sensitivity.  Lightroom calls this "flow" and Photoshop calls this "opacity."  Earlier this week, before I joined Adobe's Creative Cloud, I was looking at alternatives.  Pixelmator just released version 2.2 yesterday and with all of its updates, it still doesn't support different degrees of pen pressure with opacity.  Like it or not, if you want the best and easiest (especially with a pen and tablet) photo editor, with all of the latest features which also make your life easier, then you are locked into the monopoly of Adobe.  You win Adobe, you win.

OK, I give up Adobe. You win.

Adobe's new Creative Cloud and pricing strategy is just downright terrible.  You pay all this money and never own the software.  They say it's supposed to stop piracy, but in actuality it hurts legitimate buyers of their software and kills the secondary market.  I've owned every version of photoshop since CS2, every version of Lightroom since version 2, and both CS5.5 and CS6 of Production Premium.  In the old days, I would sell my older copies on eBay or Amazon to help offset the cost of the upgrade.  Now with a download only model, I can't do that anymore.  It's the same thing that iTunes does or other software companies do.  However, in the case of other companies or iTunes, at least you get to OWN and use without additional cost what you bought.  Like I said, I upgrade every year anyway, but still I don't like being locked into a contract.

I've looked for alternatives for quite sometime.  I have a love/hate relationship with Lightroom.  It requires a lot of fiddling to get the look you want.  Photoshop is great, but certain things I don't like. Still, there's nothing better - not even close.  I've tried CaptureNX2, DxO 8 (great program for just churning out quick RAW conversions that look good), ACDsee Pro 3 for Mac, Pixelmator, Acorn, and Aperture.  However, with Photosop, I can use plugins, edit some video, and make full use of the Wacom Intuos5 which lets you have amazing control and opens up a world of editing possibilities! Also, I use Premiere and I really like it!  The other stuff I really never use.  

I'm a hobbyist, not a pro.  $50/month makes this an even more expensive passion.  Yes, you need to spend $50 for Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects which I rarely use.  That's crazy expensive!  Now sure, you can upgrade to the Creative Cloud for $20/month and that's reasonable.  $240 / year is a good deal for those apps and Lightroom.  I can deal with not having a physical copy to always have the latest and greatest.  There is a huge difference between the two price points though.

Thankfully, I'm a dad with young kids.  My oldest is just going into kindergarten and my youngest is only one year old.  Why do I mention this?  Because Adobe offers academic pricing for k-12 and college.  It's $20/month and then $30/month normally.  Now even $360 / year is pushing it, but under Adobe's old model, that seems to be reasonable for all their software.

In summary, Adobe has the market cornered.  I've invested in a Quadro 4000 for the Mac to accelerate Premiere, I've invested in an Intuous5 which I love, and I'm familiar with the tools.  So, in a sense, I'm married to Adobe.  However, it's an abusive relationship.  I feel like a battered spouse afraid to leave because there's nothing better out there waiting for me.  This relationship is good enough, but I'm looking for an out.  For now, I've committed one more year in this relationship by joining the Creative Cloud.  Thankfully, our family is able to qualify for the academic pricing. If you have children in college, look at this as an option.

The dumbest thing about this, is that I can't prepay for the year.  I budget, I plan, and pay my bills.  Wy can't I just pay for one year up front?  STUPID!

One final comment.  I'm pretty much married to Apple too, but if I ever got another windows machine, it's nice that I can now install this on Mac and PC - previously you had to choose one or the other for the full Creative Suite.

Snapseed: Before and After

Snapseed is the best image editing application that I have used for iOS devices. Also, it's free! It was originally designed by Nik Software. Google purchased the Nik Software recently, so now this is a Google branded product.

Here's a shot that was taken at the Moscow, Idaho Renaissance Fair this weekend. I passed my iPhone 4s to a stranger, and the took this photo of our youngest daughter and myself. All of the edits were done on the itty bitty iPhone screen in Snapseed. Not bad for free!

Free Music That Doesn't Suck For Your Video Projects

Getting cool music for your amateur video projects is tough - assuming you want to keep things legal. Recently, I did a video for the karate school that I attend and really thought that Kennedy’s song “Karate” would be awesome for the video. So, I took a chance and emailed the artist on Facebook and asked his permission - he said yes! Also, the other night, I tweeted another artist that also gave me permission to use their music in my projects. So, the next time you would like to use cool music in one of your videos, contact the artist. The worst that can happen is they say no or don’t respond.

Switching to Canon has made photography enjoyable again!

99% of what I shoot is just for fun. I understand the power of RAW, but it's time consuming to edit every photo I take. Truly, I enjoy taking and looking at the pictures more than editing them. Ever since Nikon switched to their Picture Controls, I haven't liked the out of camera JPEGs. Also, their active D-Lighting did generally unpleasant things to the picture.

My last Nikon was the D800. It came with the dreaded green screen (Nikon did fix it though), and focus wasn't as good as I would like.

The 5D Mark III is the first Canon DSLR I have owned, and it makes shooting fun. The JPEGs in portrait and faithful are wonderful. Auto lighting optimization adds a nice effect without altering the exposure of the RAW file (Nikon's Active D-Lighting affects the exposure). Also, the HDR feature is easy and can get you some great shots. The autofocus speed and high ISO quality are the best I've ever used. Also, the fast frame rates are very useful. Certainly not least, but the white balance modes/colors are also wonderful.

Now, rather than needing to edit every RAW file to get decent images, I'm able to make a lot of changes on the fly in camera to get the shots I want. Moreover, only a few of my images really need post processing, and I only spend a fraction of time working on a few select shots vs all of them. It's sped up my time fiddling with the images which leaves more time for taking pictures!

Of the three images here, the one of the Freemont Troll was an in camera HDR, the one in the market was also out of camera, the third and final picture needed some rescuing and I used Lightroom for that one.