ON1 RAW coming ...

About a year ago I ran across a program called ON1 Effect 10.5 Free.
I thought I'd try it. Free right? It was safe, no bugs no malware but it opened up a new style of editing photography and creativity.

I found it extremely useful in adding a little special touch to my still life work.

Soon I was hooked into trying ON1 10.5 the program itself. At first I wasn't quite sure on how to use it, but I soon found it fairly user friendly.

After I watched some short clips which gave me helpful hints, I began to use the program more and more.

One day earlier this spring I wasn't paying much attention to the files I was going through and I opened ON1. I grabbed a .NEF file and opened it. A .NEF file is a RAW file shot with a Nikon camera.

Well jigger me switched.
Not only could I open a RAW file from the Nikon cameras, but I could open RAW files from both my Olympus E-420 and my Olympus EM5.

The file is opened and your RAW editing begins in Enhance. You are not editing your RAW file but leaving it alone and editing a copy.
Exposure, color, detail, all of those tools are before you.

Go to FX and your Enhancements are applied.

Now you have choices of edits that you can apply.

There are many presets and filters to chose from. I think the hardest part of ths is making choices.
However, in this shot I just wanted to bring out the little fern curls a bit better.

Imagine my relief when I found out I could do effortless masking.

At this point if you hit 'Save' your current working file is saved as a .PSD file that you can transport to another program as Adobe Photoshop or PaintShopPro and continue any edits.

Export will allow you to save the file as a .jpeg, .TIFF, or PNG. 

If you want to go fancy and make an edit like my still life shots, you can add textures, gradients, borders, and even items from your own files. 

You own the program. You don't lease it. 
ON1 has great short clip videos to help you learn. 
I've used the portrait editing tool and let me tell you, it is as good as it gets. 

NO...ON1 has not paid me to write about this program at all.
I'm just that excited about using it.

Another very cool thing. I opened this photo of my son's dog.
And went to the drop down menu and was able to open up SilverEfexPro 2 and edit the dog in Black and White.

I do like the BW presets in this program also.

What is not to like about ON1 except that I'd never heard of it until early last spring.

Let me just say ON1 Rocks.

But, don't take my word for it, explore the free stuff now.
Check it out.


ON1 RAW will be released soon. 
"ON1 Photo RAW is the lightning fast raw processor, photo editor and plug-in collection all in one app photographers have been asking for. Unlike the current class of raw-based photo editors requiring catalogs, bouncing between apps for editing, and a subscription ecosystem, ON1 Photo RAW features a new, modern raw processing engine, tuned for today's sensors and graphics chips. Combined with our current set of tools, the next generation of ON1 Photo 10, will continue to work where you want, as a standalone app, a plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® & Lightroom®, or a host app for other editing apps.

No Subscription Required."

More IR Photography Fun

Shot with my elderly Olympus E-420.  ISO at 100, f22, exposure time of 20 seconds.  Note, I also shot this in black and white mode.  The greens didn't turn out as 'white' and eerie as I wanted in this shot, but I love the softness of the clouds that were moving through.

Next is basically the same shot at 10 seconds. But edited much differently, I kept working at changing channels and editing until I got white in the foliage.

Well now in this shot I waited for the sun to come out from beneath a cloud and I worked with the colors a bit more and did get the trees behind the house white.

So I decided to follow some instructions I found on developing this shot for a more 'blue' sky and I got this:

Well that certainly is interesting and a bit wild.  I abandoned that to go see what my Nikon D3200 outfitted with the 50mm came up with.

Shot with the Nikon with an ISO of 800, f10, and 3 seconds.  This didn't turn out too badly and although not perfect with a touch more editing I think the whites would come out if I lost all the color and went strictly black and white [it was shot in black and white mode].

But I got sidetracked and tried some other things instead:

Okay this was really funky looking like some camera gone over to the evil side.  

So I messed with the color balance some more and got this:

I liked this for some strange reason, probably because it is so 'out there'.

So I went back to the drawing board and decided to try and do it as a black and white image and perhaps I finally got it.

What I have learned is that IR Photography isn't something you can just 'run' out and shoot.  It takes a lot of thought to set up and look for the proper lighting.
Processing is very difficult because of your colors are predominantly red, so there is a lot of post editing to be done.

I shot in RAW, I used both color and black and white modes, tried different exposures and different methods of processing.

Each time a shot is taken with an IR filter, it will be somewhat of an experiment or personal taste as to how the image turns out.

Impressions of Corel After Shot Pro

I decided to look into Corel After Shot Pro and see how easy it was to work with.  
I read and read and...read reviews about Adobe Lightroom 4 and how sometimes it was a bit slow and clunky.

Corel offers their product with a 30 day trail and an attractive price of $59.99 at the moment.

I found that I can shoot RAW files with my Nikons and my Olympus E420 and quickly edit them in a batch.  
I did all these photos as a batch with different settings and then sent them 'off' to be turned into .TIFF files to work with later.

The 'development' of the files took less than 4 seconds.
Okay, I was happy about that.
 
The program edits the RAW files but does not change them.  I even made 3 versions of one .RAW file [all saved quickly into fine quality .jpegs  ~~ not shown here].

Now I am not a techie, nor have I tried Lightroom 4, so I may have to really give that a go too.

The only camera that I have that isn't supported by Corel AfterShot Pro, was my Fuji camera with .RAF files.  No matter I can live with that small inconvenience, Corel may update their program to include it at a future date.

 

There are some fun features in this program that allow you to experiment with your photo.  The only drawback I can see is that you cannot add a watermark while working with them.  That is not a real big issue for me though.

The above shot was off color due to the bright snow, I did a quick check with the 'white' picker in Corel AfterShot Pro and bumped the saturation.  That was it.

You can also do non-destructive editing in layers.  Well, I haven't figured that out yet.  I've only been using it for 3 days.

The black dog in this photo was totally blown away yet I was able to save her image.  I used Corel to properly expose and bring back the black blob of a dog...then I easily sent it to CS2 to use a Topaz Plugin to finish it off.

Lastly.  Speed.
Speed
Speed
I loved this program's speed!

As did my sidekick, Morris.