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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
06-08-2016, 08:38 AM
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I'm looking at the website - I'll definitely dl the free trial and give it a try! It seems to be highly rated as one of the top professional dedicated monochrome software packages out there (just as Efex was a few years back), so definitely worth playing with and seeing how I like it. I'm sure it would expand my habits & style quite a bit to change software and I'm fine with that, it's an advantage! - I just dooo nooot want to lose the option to create the look I already work with.
What is it about mono that makes us black & white shooters so dedicated to it? I mean, I know why *I* love it....but there's probably a huge pool of reasons why. It would be cool to pose that question & see all the different things people said :)
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
06-07-2016, 09:17 PM
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Considering the lack of updates and other factors, the general consensus seems to be that Google probably purchased Nik to stripmine Snapseed, and that Nik will go the way of Picasa. It's just a truth of big-company-buys-nifty-start-up,eats-it-alive :(
---------- Post added 06-07-16 at 08:18 PM ----------
I'll take a look, thx pepperberry :) Had you used Silver Efex previously?
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
06-06-2016, 10:40 PM
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I'm a bit late on the curve on this one (Nik was converted to freeware in March, the final affirmation that Google will abandon it), but I'm crushed. Silver Efex has been my go-to for mono for years, I've never found anything to match it. The rest of the color tools are also excellent and I'll hate the learning curve when I'm finally forced by OS updates to switch programs...but Silver is my post-processing love, where I developed and refine my personal style; and monochrome is 90% of my work.
So my question is, has anyone heard of a gorilla attempt at an open-source effort? It's not inconceivable and has certainly been done before with complex programs that have a devoted following. I cannot find anything online that might point to such a thing, but it's early days yet.
Thoughts? Rumors? Inklings of hope?
And, secondarily, suggestions for eventual software change-ups from those who have figured out how to maintain their personal Silver Efex editing look in a different suite? Help me PentaxForums, you're my only hope...
Thx guys :)
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-13-2016, 11:41 AM
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Oo! Thanks for the heads up! I'll be checking in to see if they restock :)
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-13-2016, 08:42 AM
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Thanks for the heads up Wolfeye :) I'm definitely looking for the form-factor and build of the x10 though!
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-13-2016, 05:00 AM
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Wow has it been a long time since I posted :) I went through one of those 'photography doldrums' periods, but lately I've been taking a lot of photos of Brazilian jiu jitsu training and boy does the Fuji X-E1 & 35/1.4 combo do these photos justice!
Anyone who knows Fuji knows that these cameras are not designed for rapid focus sports photography. Since I must shoot at 1.4 both for iso value and subject isolation, I use really careful focus/recompose technique often setting up the focus and then holding the shutter button at half depression waiting for the exact moment when the action will be photo-worthy - but staying aware of when movement toward or away will necessitate refocusing. I'm getting pretty damn good at this approach after six months of photographing jiu jitsu and I'm definitely getting shots I would not capture were I using a more sports-friendly camera. The shots have some really unique quality that people remark on all the time - though I'm not sure how to define what that is exactly. (I've written a bunch more about settings & tech stuff on the blog, for anyone interested in duplicating this kind of shooting with the X-E1/2 etc.)
Here are some of my favorite shots - enjoy :)
some action shots:
a bit slower or even portrait-style shots:
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-13-2016, 03:21 AM
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Crossposting from the general off-Pentax forum, just in case some of you guys only frequent this thread!
I'm looking to purchase an x10 for a friend as a baby-shower gift. Anyone interested in selling? I'd rather give my $ to the forum peeps than ebay or Amazon!
Thx for any interest!
ecaterin
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-13-2016, 03:18 AM
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Hey folks! I know several people on the Fuji threads have had x10s that they've upgraded with the x30 long since - any of you interested in selling your x10? I've got a friend super interested in Fuji and would love to gift him one for a holiday occasion :)
Thanks for any response!
ecaterin
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-05-2015, 11:35 AM
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Hello all! Kind of had a crap winter with back-to-back illnesses...but managed to fit some shooting in there...
all shot with the X-E1 and the 35 1.4 except one
A roadtrip, about an hour out of Bozeman...
Oldest going to prom. And isn't he just a dapper thing! :D
Le Ridiculously Photogenic Cat...
Mailbox Macro shot with the Tammy 55bb 500mm lens... (when you're too sick to go shoot, shoot macro in your own yard!)
Last night's moonrise over Mt. Sentinel... (much post in Silver Efex, man moon shots are a pain!)
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
11-27-2014, 07:53 PM
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You are most welcome! I try to keep my rambling interesting :D Thank you for your compliment on the photo - I absolutely adore it and I'm always happy when it works for other people, too.
(I re-wrote the pp stuff in more detail on my blog)
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
11-27-2014, 06:44 PM
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Thank you yorik! I'm trying to remember when I stumbled upon this workflow so I can say intelligent things about it ...oh! Yes!
I saw some delicate, crisp monochrome shots of a baby that had been rendered in a perfect replacement of chocolate brown for black, without any dull-contrast "in-camera-sepia-setting" look. They had everything I love about excellent BW photography - the clean uncluttered visual field, but warm, almost velvety. I was instantly on a mission - how to replace the black with color in just that crisp, velvet way. Silver Efex gives you complete control of black point & structure during the BW conversion, and that makes the crisp-delicate-clear parts so much easier. By making the black end of the levels curve reeeally black, and then adjusting the curve to bring the grays back up to the standard diagonal or even a little lighter, you can then run the monochrome through any tint process you want and have rich looking color without having the whole photo look like you water colored over it and killed the contrast. 'Color Stylizer' in Color Efex gives you everything you need to tint quickly and precisely - pick any color (get as close to the original contrast values as you can...not easy :P), adjust contrast, shadows & highlights individually to tune the photo to the same contrast you started with, or something with more punch or more subtlety. (I should mention, tint with less-saturated very dark colors if you want anything that looks natural :D The shots below were tinted with browns or blues so dark the color on the color picker looked almost black, and well into the gray end of the saturation spectrum.)
This may be my favorite shot I've ever taken, and it wouldn't exist without this chocolate process. In color? It's a mess - the setting was just too busy, cause this was a pool-side candid. But with really careful black point, a green filter and then chocolate tint, everything that's amazing about this beautiful child leaps off the screen. (K-x)
If you blow out the mid-range until skin tones are almost flat, this processing almost glows. This is my youngest - just a quick candid with a truly abysmal kit-lens that became a totally different photo when I processed it. (K-x)
I worked up a gritty, grainy version of the look for my street/landscape photos (X-E1):
I got my settings mixed up one day and found if I had exactly the right blue, light skin tones looked amazing (X100).
(while waiting for the above photo to come together, his little sister photobombed - I love it LOL! There are a lot of times when I really adore the fact that the Fuji cameras *don't* autofocus quickly, cause oof shots like this are so perfect.)
(I kept revising this post and finally gave it up and went into a lot more detail on my blog :P)
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
11-25-2014, 05:47 PM
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LOL! Why thank you, Rupert! My hard work acknowledged! :D
Our favorite coffee shop changed locations to this cool industrial building. My favorite shot of the morning, pp=unsharp mask, Silver Efex with black point way to the right, bump in structure, then Color Efex color stylizer. I do a lot of my mono with this workflow.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
11-24-2014, 11:32 PM
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uuuuugh! Before these posts I hadn't gone and looked at the X-T1. Now I wish I hadn't. :( What a beauty!
LOL! Knowing what gear you'll love and carry everywhere and shoot every day, that's a gift :) So many people have gorgeous gear that they can't fit into their actual LIFE - what good is it to them? I still miss my X100 - it was really the perfect size for me. I really should get a pancake for my X-E1 to recapture that form factor as closely as I can :)
Took about 20 minutes to balance exposure and color - these bright snow/dark landscape/bright clouds shots are pretty tough to balance for exposure and color all at the same time. I've set the WB to 'cloudy' to deal with the tendency of the Fuji to tilt these bright snow-field shots too far into blue, and that's working perfectly. We're getting such great light right now - the low slant of the sun combined with snow reflection! It's challenging for the camera though :D
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
11-23-2014, 09:59 AM
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LOL Rupert! I'm sure those rascals would look fabulous in Chrome :D
After I posted I got to pondering about the intervalometer issue with the X-E1, and so I went looking to see if anyone had better 3rd party tech than the last time I wanted this feature a few years ago. Sure enough! Triggertrap has a set-up made for Fuji, the reviews are really good, the price is very reasonable (about $35 USD), so I purchased one. I'll let you guys know how it works for me :)
Anyone else using a Triggertrap set up? I'm very excited! :D I use time lapse to photograph holiday dinners, Christmas present opening - any event I'd like to have candids of, but want to participate in without waving the camera around. When I get *really* cornball, I create a timelapse movie with music and send it to relatives :D
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
11-22-2014, 10:20 AM
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Well, according to this page on Fuji's website, my X-E1 won't get the Classic Chrome update. Neither will the X-Pro-1. According to this page, the X-T1 does get Classic Chrome.
The X-E2 also gets interval shooting and that I'm REALLY cranky about, because I love interval shooting and actually went back to Pentax for almost a year just to have it.
It seems really unlikely to me that it's 'not possible' to give all the camera bodies least the upgrade of Classic Chrome which is simply a color algorithm and thus uses the same mechanism as Provia, Velvia & all the other standards. It's un-generous of them to leave out our older camera bodies - Giving your older tech the updates that are *possible* pays off in user loyalty in the long run.
Grrr.
Anyone got different information? I'd love to hear that I've misread this stuff or missed announcements and gotten this allll wrong! :D
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
11-20-2014, 08:49 PM
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I hadn't heard anything about this, so I went looking and this was the article that came up - very funny! But if we're (the cameras you mention) missing out on the firmware update I will be very cranky, because it sounds like another excellent film setting. :hmm:
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
11-18-2014, 12:19 PM
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A question for y'all! I'm noticing an interesting aspect of the automatic WB in my X-E1 - on these bright snow reflective days, it's too cool. I end up bumping up the yellow in all the finished shots. I think I'm going to have to set it to shoot in 'cloudy' mode & see if that compensates. Anyone else running into this?
Lovely shot Mr. Bassie - striking simple composition.
Oh man, Silver Efex can do no wrong - especially in your hands Steve :D It's such a specific look and always draws my eye. Ha - I've run into only *one* other Fuji shooter - and weirdly we were both stopping to shoot the same street musician. Totally random. He about grabbed my shoulder going, "IS THAT AN X100? ME TOO!" It's a small club :D
The Clark Fork river, frozen over. Love how the processing came out on this one (Analog, Nik) - the blues and golden grasses. It took 20 minutes in Nik to get the crisp definition & rich colors I wanted without going into 'Velvia ow!' territory (I like Velvia a lot of times, but it can make things too candy colored!)....and then Analog just took all that color tweaking and made it timeless. Worth all the effort!
The Higgins St. bridge with it's lacy-looking snow flake decorations. There was such interesting *light* yesterday - it wasn't misty or foggy...it was a glow on the mountains. Added to the geometry of the railings and power lines, I really like how this pic came out in monochrome (Silver Efex - a rare use of just a preset :D).
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
11-11-2014, 10:12 AM
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It's a really lovely town in so many ways :D The brick architecture 125+ years old is still everywhere, in good repair and in common use. Makes for wonderful photographs :D
Holy wow, Steve. I've seen quite a few pics of that installment - these are gorgeous! The bikes are also awesome :D
Mike leaving for work this morning - studded tires, one zillionty layers on torso, merino longies, snowboarding gloves & shell pants, goggles, 3 layers & windproof under the bike helmet. Wind chills as low as -17!
Tomorrow's temps? Wind chill as low as -26 in the morning. Gah!
35mm, processing in Nik Analog (and a bunch of PS otherwise :P)
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
11-05-2014, 11:24 AM
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Really like those mono shots!!
LOL Rupert! I certainly would never forget your genial and hilarious presence here at Fuji-town! :D Thank you on the pic - that's processed in its final stages in Nik Analog, which has some great presets and build-an-effect options for creating film or plate like effects.
Here's a couple of shots from walking to the polls on election day :D
Missoula is embarrassingly photogenic, honestly.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
10-31-2014, 08:28 PM
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Thank you! I've never seen mountains like this anywhere either - it's a very western Montana landscape it seems :)
Dog and Girl is a lovely photo :D and dog is ridiculously cute :P
Our porch and Halloween lights 35mm at 1.4 (monochrome is still my favorite way to shoot the X-E1, just as it was the X100) :) Happy Halloween, all!
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
10-30-2014, 10:23 PM
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whew it's been a long time since I've been over here :D So many beautiful pics, it'll take me days to scroll back to where I last left off! A couple of my recent X-E1 and 35mm:
a pano of the Clark Fork river as seen from the Orange St. bridge. Man, I had to bend over backwards in Nik to get the exposure to work for foreground glitter, background mountain textures and lovely sky-scape. Soooo much careful adjusting in manual modes for accurate color and exposure. One of the few times the amazing dynamic range and white balance of the X-E1 couldn't keep up with environmental exposure needs :)
A few meter further down the bridge (effects done in Nik Analog):
Missoula doesn't have the stunning fall beauty of so many other places, but it has amazing *light* - I need to capture more of that :)
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-13-2014, 09:04 PM
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WOW Pop - amazing night time + neon shots! If Rupert's life is in danger and Otis must protect him, clearly you're a spy - you gave the game away LOL!
ve2vfd - Perfect toystore pic :D
We had a cool moonrise here - a hazy moon reflecting a salmon sunset. I pulled out the 500mm and gave it a try - it's damn hard to get the colors true to what I saw and it's hard to get enough detail on the moon to make it look like 'mist' rather than 'camera shake' - I think I got close :) The Tammy sure is fun for moon shots though!
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-09-2014, 04:14 PM
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Out for a spring walk today with the 35mm 1.4 and a 3-stop ND filter so I could do some shallow DoF in the sunlight :)
Preparing for a race to be run on the trail tomorrow - colorful flags, how could f/1.4 resist! :D
This guy may just be the most photographed object in the city - but I'm pretty pleased with this shot of him, just the same.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-07-2014, 07:04 PM
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I haven't been out of the house to do any shooting in a few days, but Missoula's rainy season is upon us giving me clouds a plenty to photograph right outside my window. The Tammy 500mm does impressive things with a long enough hood (oh my, zero contrast without a hood - spend 15 bucks on a generic hood the length of the lens!) and some post processing.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
05-04-2014, 08:18 PM
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Mark that is an award winning photograph right there. Holy wow.
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