Both were slow and neither were very interesting. But, I relooked at Aperture when Aperture 2 came out. Aperture 2 was completely rewritten and had seamless integration between other Mac apps. It also offered a book creation function which I wanted to use. So, I promptly purchased Aperture 2, and I became very proficient in Aperture. I didn’t think twice about choosing Aperture over Lightroom until I went to a photography event a few months back and realized Lightroom had some features I really liked.

I started wondering if I made the right choice. Lightroom 3 beta had just come out, and hey, it was free to try out, and so I started rethinking my position. I heard about a possible upgrade to Aperture in 2010, but will it have a brush and some of the other neat features Lightroom has? I wasn’t sure I could bank on Aperture, so I decided to give Lightroom 3 beta a whirl.

My 2008 and 2009 library is all in Aperture. I am now just putting some experiment photos in Lightroom beta 3 to see how well it works. I’ve got to say, it’s really different from Aperture. I don’t know my way around Lightroom, so it’s hard to get around. I accidently rejected and deleted my entire library yesterday. So far, I’ve only used the Library and Develop Module. I’m finding it odd that there is a separation between modules; maybe there is a rhyme or reason for this that I’ve yet to discover. I’ve gone in and out of Lightroom for a month or so, and I wanted to share with you some initial observations.

1. Lightroom has some options that are really nice. I’m a huge fan of the vignette option. The brush option in Lightroom is a big plus. The crop/straighten option works much better in Lightroom. It still doesn’t offer a book option, but this criteria is no longer important to me. Here’s an example of the vignette option:

2. Aperture still beats Lightroom in integration. I love the fact that I can simply drag and drop photos from Aperture to other Mac apps such as iWeb, PrintShop2, iMovie, iDVD, Pulpmotion, etc. (but not Adobe products!) I honestly didn’t think twice about this feature, until I realized Lightroom didn’t let me do this.

So, now I’m torn between waiting for Aperture 3 or converting to Lightroom 3 when it comes out. For now, I’m going to continue experimenting with Lightroom until my Lightroom 3 beta stops working. This way, I could become more proficient in Lightroom and be able to make a better decision come spring. Maybe then, Aperture will release a newer version so I can go through this exercise again! By then, maybe Adobe will have listened to my request to offer drag and drop capabilities from Lightroom!

All went well, and I learned quite a bit about WordPress and how to host my own WordPress blog site.  I recently created a blog for Macineer Studios, my photography business, and I started to wonder if I should move this blog to avoid hosting fees.

I contemplated the idea of moving it to one of my free hosting accounts on GoDaddy, but then I didn’t like the idea of seeing ads. I heard many positive reviews about SquareSpace, but I wanted a free solution.  So, then I remembered WordPress.com, and here I am, full circle.

With that decision made, the only thing I needed to figure out was how to move my data.  It was easier than I thought (in fact, I did it when I moved originally to my own hosted site).  After a quick google search, I had the answer.  WordPress comes with import/export function under the Tools Menu that allow users to quickly export existing WordPress blogs and import them into to the new blog.  It was quick and painless!

As for standard templates, there still aren’t very many to choose from, but I figured I could live with them, rather than paying for hosting.   Another added benefit is that I now have permalinks that are set up as I like them. I had used the original default permalinks, that didn’t include the title.   In short, life is good!  I can say goodbye to my hosting fees!

Import/Export works not only for WordPress to WordPress sites, but it also works with importing from Blogger, LiveJournal and some other popular blog sites.

So, if you’re looking to move your blog to or from WordPress, WordPress makes it easy!

Google offers a FREE utility called Calaboration that allows you to set up iCal so that it will sync with your Google calendar(s).  Calaboration requires the CalDEV protocol which is only available in OS X 10.5 and up, so if you’re not at this OS version yet, you can’t use Calaboration.   There are other tools I’ve heard of that provide more functionality in the iCal/Google calendar syncing process, but they also cost money.   I went with this freebie, and it met my needs.  First, I set up my new Google calendars.  I then ran Calaboration, and voila!  I saw my Google calendars in my list of iCal calendars.  iCal then automatically handled syncing to/from Google.

I can sync both ways – from iCal to Google and vice versa.  I use iCal, while my husband uses Google calendar, so now we can have a shared calendar for my daughter’s activities, our business, etc.  So far, I’ve not had any difficulties with the syncing.

Some functional caveats to be aware of:

1.  If you have multiple Google calendars, to see all calendars in iCal, you must go into your iCal preferences, under Accounts, select Delegation and use the delegation function in iCal.

2.  If you want to share calendars with others, you must set this up in Google calendar and also check your permissions under the iCal Delegation function (see above).

3.  You can’t sync an existing iCal calendar to Google. You can only sync a calendar that is created in Google.

4.  If you decide you don’t want to sync your Google Calendar, there is no de-install feature in Calaboration.  I have not tried, but I believe you just need to go into your iCal preferences, Account function, and remove your Google calendars.

5.  Once you figure out how to sync your calendar, you can then move on to sync your iPhone with your Google calendar by following either Google’s iPhone mobile help setup using Exchange or Google’s iPhone mobile help setup using CalDev.    Note: When I set this up for my husband’s iPhone, I used the CalDev option since the iPhone only allows for one Exchange option, and he already had an Exchange host established.  I also noted that the iPhone user must have full rights to all calendars.

6.  My calendars do not have large amounts of data that frequently changes, so I have not gone through full length testing yet.   However, I have not seen any syncing issues to date, except sometimes I get messages indicating a particular Google calendar is unavailable – later it syncs without issue.  I’ve been running it for a month now.  I’ll post an update should there be any issues I see in the future.

Summary:

If you are in need of sharing and syncing iCal and Google calendars, and you run OSX 10.5 or higher, Calaboration is a free product that you should consider.  There are a few manual setup steps, but once set up, it works like a charm. If you need some more elaborate iCal syncing, there is a product called BusySync that purports to offer more robust calendar syncing options.  If you’ve tried BusySync, please comment and let me know your thoughts.

Pros: Free and works good for basic calendar sharing and syncing.

Ease of Use: Calaboration is a setup tool only.  Once set up, there is nothing more to do; iCal can then auto sync with Google.

Audience: Users that need auto syncing between iCal and Google.

Cost: FREE

Well, I finally broke down and decided to take some of OnOneSoftware tools out for a test drive.  My first review is on PhotoTools 2 Professional Edition.  It can be purchased alone or as part of OnOneSoftware’s Plug-in Suite. In short, it’s a FANTASTIC tool that allows you to apply one or more effects to your image. So, what type of effects are there? Literally hundreds! Photo tinting, toning, black and white, sepia, focus, portrait retouch, artistic, vintage, HDR, and glowing, are just some of the basic types of effects.

This tool is a plug-in to both Photoshop CS3 and Aperture, which are the tools that I use on my iMac. If you’re a Lightroom and/or CS4 user, these works too.  The Photoshop plug-in offers a brush where you can mask the effects.  So, my review is based on the Photoshop version of the plug-in.

In Photoshop, OnOneSoftware creates a separate menu for its tools. You can also access presets (discussed later) in one click from this menu (I can see my workflow getting shorter as we speak!). When you launch the PhotoTools 2 plug-in, a new window opens up, showing PhotoTools’ easy to use interface. Each effect has a brief description that you can read before you apply it, as well as a sample photo for you to view the effect. You can apply multiple effects to your image at one time, stacking one on top of another.

It makes life so much easier when you can find the effect you want in many different ways, and OnOneSoftware put some good thought into their user interface.  On the bottom of the user interface, you can search for the effect, browse for the effect by categories, browse by keyword, and also browse by presets (see below).

On the right side of the interface, you have several options.  The top box is where you see the stack of effects.  Once you apply an effect, you can also fade the effect, or change the order of the effects, or remove the effect.  You can also view last used effects, favorites, and available presets.  The brush mask option is here as well (see below).

Here is a screenshot of the interface.

Multiple effects in a particular order can be saved as a “preset”. And, there is already many default presets that ship with the product. For effects or presets that you love, you can flag these as favorites to make it easy for you to find later. I named my presets with a fixed prefix, so that I can easily see which ones are my presets. So, imagine…you figure out a preset you like – and in one click, you can create the effect(s).

I had so much fun that I stayed up half the night, just playing with the PhotoTools 2 in Photoshop CS3. I did encounter a few Photoshop crashes. No, I didn’t look at my logs to see what the problem was. Maybe conflicts with other plug-ins? I’m not sure…so I just save often. I can deal with a few crashes if it means that my workflow could be sped up dramatically. Be aware that there are some effects that only work on 8-bit images (the tool will warn you). Also be aware that applying effects on a large image can be a bit sluggish depending on your machine and the other apps you’re running.  This is fairly typical of all Photoshop plug-ins.

How does this tool compare with other similar products?

This tool is similar to Nik Software Color Efex 2.0.  It’s hard for me to compare “apples to apples” since I didn’t purchase the Nik Software Photoshop plug-in; I only have the Aperture plug-in, which is somewhat limited.   I like PhotoTools 2 more because it has more effects, I can easily find the effect I want, and I can stack them on top of each other in the Photoshop plug-in version.  I can forsee myself using the Aperture plug-in piece of PhotoTools 2 once I’m more familiar with the effects and know what presets work best for the look I am trying to achieve.

PhotoTools 2 has some effects similar to Alien Skin’s SnapArt product in that it offers the stylistic effect, half-tone, line art effect, impressionist effect, etc.  However, I still prefer SnapArt as it has many more options within each effect to customize your artistic image.

Below are some sample before and after images.

Portrait Enhancement: My first image is of me!   My skin is very uneven and I am in serious need of retouch.  I don’t know the exact effects I used on this image, but I know that I used many of the tools in the Portrait Enhance category.  Here’s what I recall.  The Auto Portrait Fixer effect was good for my uneven skin.  I then used the brush tool to mask my teeth and eyes so they did not look blurry from the Auto Portrait Fixer effect.   I loved the Magic Eye Fixer effect, and I used this to paint my teeth white and brighten my eyes!    I also had to used the standard Photoshop spot healing brushes to brush away dark moles on my skin.

Color Boost: In the below image, I simply used the Color Boost effect to brighten it up.  I then used the standard Photoshop dodge tool to remove the wrinkles on the muslin.

Mocha Java Look:  In the below image, I used the Mocha preset of PhotoTools 2 to quickly change this image.

Summary:

If you are someone who does a lot of touchups in Photoshop today and workflow speed is key to your success, this plug-in is worth every penny. OnOneSoftware offers many tutorials to get you jump started, but really, the tool is so intuitive, you don’t need much instruction. I recommend that you consider purchasing the suite of tools, since the other tools are just as interesting!  There are fully functioning 30 day trial versions of each of the tools on the OnOneSoftware website.

This tool lets me apply enhancements in both Aperture and Photoshop. In Photoshop, you have a brush option to mask your image with, which I like. The good thing is…when you purchase PhotoTools 2, it comes with both the Aperture plug-in product and plug-in for Photoshop.

OnOneSoftware offers a less expensive Standard Edition also. The Professional Edition offers effects from Kevin Kubota and more from Jack Davis. Kevin Kubota effects are some of my favorites, so my recommendation is…if you can, splurge for the Professional Edition or better yet, just buy the entire Plug-In Suite of OnOneSoftware tools if you find interest in at least 2 of their tools.

Pros: This software can greatly shorten your photo enhancement workflow.

Ease of Use: The PhotoTools 2 plug-in is highly intuitive.  If you’re using the Photoshop plug-in and already familiar with layer masks, the mask feature is very easy to use – otherwise, there is some learning curve here.

Audience: Anyone who needs to do an assortment of photo enhancements efficiently.  Of course, this means you, the real or pretend professional photographer.

Cost: The retail price is $259.95 for PhotoTools 2 Professional Edition and $159.95 for the PhotoTools 2 Standard Edition.   The individual prices for OnOneSoftware tools are reasonable, but a much sweeter deal is to get the Plug-in Suite for $499.95.   You get 6 of their tools in the suite.

1. Color Pencil
2. Comics
3. Impasto
4. Oil Paint
5. Pastel
6. Pen and Ink
7. Pencil Sketch
8. Pointillism
9. Stylize
10. Watercolor

Once you select your style, you then can choose a preset from the many installed presets available.  Believe me, you can play for hours on end with the various options.  The possibilities are endless!   Of course, certain styles work better on some images than others.  But, you wont’ be able to resist trying all the styles and presets.  It’s addictive because it’s so easy to use.  And, presets are just presets.  Once you feel more comfortable with Snap Art, you can then start adjusting the features and tweaking them to best illustrate your images.  And, you can create and save your own presets.  What’s not to love?

This plug-in is so simple to use, and with literally a push of button, it does all the work for you.  Here is a sample view of the Snap Art interface. At the top left of the interface, you will see several tabs. The Settings tab is where the presets live.  The Basic tab offers you the ability to tweak sliders and also the option to save your image as a new layer.  Colors, Canvas and Lighting allow further adjustments. The big window is your image. In my interface sample, you are seeing a closeup of my image, which is at the top of the interface.

Enough said, here are some of my before/after images.  I found that I could achieve more interesting images if I used the Snap Art filters multiple times and/or prepped my image before/after. So, rather than just using the Snap Art filters by themselves, I prepped the image in Photoshop first, used one or more Snap Art styles, and finally added finishing touches using Photoshop and/or Corel Painter.

Soccer Ball Image Sample: I started with a simple subject – a boring image of a soccer ball.  I then used Snap Art’s Oil Paint.  I then added some Photoshop adjustments – a Curves Layer and a Hue Saturation Layer to add contrast and warmth to the image.

Tap Shoe Image Sample: In the below Tap Shoes image, I used Snap Art’s Oil Paint style for the entire image, and followed that with a new layer using the Impasto style. I masked the Impasto layer so that only the shoes were impasto-ized. I then added lighting effects with Corel Painter, went back into Photoshop and dodged and burned the socks to add more dimension, and added a final curves adjustment in Photoshop at the end.

Ballet Girl Image Sample: For the below image, I used Snap Art’s Pointicillism Style and saturated the colors to give me more assorted colors in my image.  I had to clone back her ankles because the white socks disappeared into the background once I used the Pointicillism filter.  I then used the Snap Art’s Impasto Style on the Pointicillism layer to get my final effect.

After quite a bit of experimentation, I came up with only few tips for people who download Snap Art.

1. Go to the basic tab and click on the option to always apply the setting to a new layer in Photoshop.

2.  Snap Art has its own shortcut keys.  To view the entire image in the Snap Art Window, click Command key and minus key to make the image smaller.  To switch quickly to the previous or next SnapArt filter style, click Command key and left or right bracket, respectively.  Also, see other keyboard shortcuts available.

3. To get even more out of this software, visit Alien Skin’s tutorials and case studies.  The tutorials are written by Tom Welsh, the original author of this product, and he offers some great tips as well as more presets that you can download and install.

Summary:

Snap Art is one of the best Photoshop plug-ins available for anyone who wants to bring out their artistic side, literally in a snap!   Use it to quickly create art from your images or just to create a base for virtual paintings or sketches.  Alien Skin Software offers a 30 day fully functioning trial version of their software. In my case, I started with the Mac trial version to run with Photoshop CS3.  Later, I installed the full version, which allowed me to easily remove the trial version.

Pros: This software gives Photoshop users the ability to be more artistic at a push of a button!   And, for more advanced users, run the SnapArt filters multiples times and masking these layers in Photoshop for exactly the look you want.

Cons: Really, there are none.

Ease of Use: The Snap Art plug-in tool is very simple to use.

Audience: Anyone interested in creating artistic effects for their images without a lot of work.

Cost: Reasonable at $149 retail.

Alien Skin’s Bokeh plug-in simulates a bokeh effect to make the subject of your photo really pop.  Instead of using your camera lens to create the effect, you can simply dial in the effect using Bokeh and Photoshop CS3/CS4 (or other compatible software).  Take a look at these examples on the Alien Skin website, and you will get excited as to the possibilities with this software, as I did!

The first thing you need to note is that this software is a plug-in to Photoshop CS3 or higher.  Bokeh also runs on other graphic software, including Photoshop Elements, Adobe Fireworks, and Corel Paint Shop Pro, as listed here.  But,  there is no Aperture nor Lightroom plug-in available for Bokeh from Alien Skin Software, at least not as of this writing.  As a Photoshop CS3 user, the remainder of my review is based on using the Bokeh plug-in with Photoshop CS3 on the Mac.

Installation was a breeze on my Mac.  I just downloaded the zipped file, unzipped it to find the DMG file, and inside the DMG file was the install application, which I clicked on to automatically installed Bokeh.

I then opened Photoshop CS3, and behold, it was there under the Filters Menu, like all good plug-ins. I then proceeded to open a photo and select Bokeh from the Filters Menu.  Here’s a peek at the plug-in’s interface:

Everything was blurry!  I quickly realized that I needed a little bit of instruction first, so I headed to Alien Skin’s website, where they offer several short tutorials on how to use the tool. But, before I talk about that,I wanted to show you the various presets available.

Bokeh comes with 11 preset categories available.   Below is the view of the preset categories, that you is essentially the top left window of the interface.

If you open each category, you will see a slew of presets, as shown below, which appear for every preset category.  Essentially, these are the Bokeh lens effects that Alien Skin is simulating.  If you know these lenses, you will immediately feel comfortable.  If you do not know these lenses, fear not.  Play around and use the presets as starting points only.

Like all Photoshop plug-in presets, you can then move the various sliders available in the other Bokeh and Vignette tabs (see top of preset window) to tweak the effect to your liking.   You can also create your own user defined presets, if you find settings that work well for you, as well as create your own preset categories.  You cannot modify the factory presets.

Now, on to the tutorials online.  The tutorials taught me various options in keeping areas of the photo sharp, while blurring other areas.  Essentially,  you have three options, two of which are built into the Bokeh plug-in.  Bokeh offers a radial and a planar option that allows you to select the area that should stay in focus.  The third option is to make selections in Photoshop prior to running Bokeh.  Select the subject using Photoshop selection tools, smooth out the edges per the tutorial, and finally apply the Bokeh effect.

Here is how to determine which option will work for your photo.

1. The Bokeh Radial Option: For studio portraits, or outdoor portraits that have no harsh background distractions,  the radial option can work well.  It also works well for scenic shots where you want to put focus on a certain area. This option allows you to select a circular area that you want to keep the focus on, while the remainder of your photo will have the bokeh effect applied.  The circle can be sized in many different ways.  You can set an intermediate blur around the focus area that will allow for more gradual blurring.
2. The Bokeh Planar Option: For photos that have well defined horizontal or vertical boundaries between the focus area and the area you want blurred, the planar option works well.  This option allows you to select two points.  Point 1 defines the area where the blur starts and Point 2 defines the area where the blur ends. So, if you put a Point 1 in the center of your photo and Point 2 at the top of your photo, the entire top half of your photo will have the bokeh effect applied.
3. The Photoshop Selection Option: For everything else, your best bet is to make your selection in Photoshop, followed by the Refine Edge function in Photoshop to smooth out the selection.  The actual selection is then assumed by the Bokeh software to be the area you want to keep in focus (you also have the option to reverse the selection in the Bokeh interface).   If you have large distractions, you might also want to do some basic touch-ups in Photoshop first, e.g., clone out the distractions or paint over them – the nice thing is that the touch-ups do not have to be perfect, since you’re going to blur it out anyways.  If you desire, you can use this option in conjunction with the Radial Option or the Planar Option (but not both).

I opened up the Bokeh interface again. I then clicked on the Bokeh tab to find the radial and planar options.  The Bokeh tab below also contains the other basic sliders which can be modified.

The photo that I chose had a very distracting background, and so I had to utilize the third (Photoshop selection) option to get the desired results.  I was fairly pleased with the overall results, though it isn’t perfect.  Specifically, I had difficulty in the hair selection.  From experimentation on several other photos, I discovered that I really have to work on my selection techniques in Photoshop in order to create the desired effect.   Once I can get this down, Bokeh works very well.  One thing I did discover (and it is documented in the Bokeh user manual) is that you cannot use a Photoshop selection and then apply the Bokeh filter to a smart object – not a big deal – just make a copy of your smart object and rasterize it before applying the filter.

After Bokeh-tizing my photo, I made some other minor tweaks to the photo before finalizing it.  Here is the original BEFORE photo and my final Bokeh-tized photo.  Bokeh, by default, applies the changes to a new layer, which is a nice option.

In addition to blurring and vignetting, the Bokeh plug-in software also simulates Bokeh lighting effects, such as hearts, diamonds, etc. on the highlights of your photo. Try it out yourself!  Below is a sample of the diamond effect.  I used the planar option on this photo to create hexagonal shapes for the fountain, and then masked the Bokeh effect on the buildings in the background to achieve this look.  Since my Photoshop skills are stronger than my photography skills, and I love the special effects, the Bokeh plug-in software fits my needs well.

Summary:

If you want that Bokeh effect on your photos and are unable to achieve them in the camera, I encourage you to try the software yourself to determine whether it will work for you.  The product is solidly built, and Alien Skin offer a 30 day fully functioning software that you can download and try out.  Definitely take the time to review the tutorials on Alien Skin’s website to get up and running quickly – it takes about 10 to 15 minutes.  Read up on the case studies too, as these include before/after shots, plus descriptions of how they obtained the desired results.    For more details, review the PDF user manual available online – this is a very good 16 page guide on the detailed functionality of Bokeh.

Pros: If you are a photographer and a Photoshop user (or have other compatible graphics software) and have photos which allow you to utilize the Radial or Planar options to make your selections, the Bokeh plug-in makes it a breeze to achieve the Bokeh effect on your photos.  If you really like the special effects (hearts, diamonds, etc on highlights of the photo), you can easily simulate this effect using the Bokeh plug-in.

Cons: There is no Aperture nor Lightroom plug-in available as of this writing.  I know photographers who disdain going into Photoshop, and therefore they are unlikely to ever use this tool.  From reading the Alien Skin forums, I did find out that having Bokeh as a plug-in to Aperture is #1 on the wish list of their users.  It remains to be seen as to whether Alien Skin Software will release an Aperture or Lightroom plug-in version.   Another issue I see is that for all other photos where the Planar and Radial options are not feasible, you will still need to go through the selection process in Photoshop, to get the effect you want.  Depending on the photo, it may take some practice to select and refine the selection properly in order to get the desired result.  Now, if Alien Skin can come up with a fantastic selection plug-in tool, I would definitely be interested in reviewing that.

Ease of Use: The Bokeh plug-in tool itself is easy to learn.  It requires Photoshop basic knowledge and practice to obtain the desired effect.

Audience: Photographers who use Photoshop CS3+, Photoshop Elements, Adobe Fireworks, and Corel Paint Shop Pro.

Cost: A bit pricey at $199 retail.

Behold!  Firefox PDF Plugin for Max OS X is a simple and free add-on that’s just waiting for you.  And, it does just what it claims to do – open PDFs!  What a find, and the best part about it is that it’s free!  You can find it at the Mozilla site under Firefox Add-ons or click here.  You can thank Sam Gross at MIT, the author of this plugin, for this!

The first chapter is all about RAW images – over 20 pages of details that describe all you wanted to know about RAW, including advantages and disadvantages of a RAW workflow as well as technical detail about what RAW means.  I think this was an excellent introduction into the world of Aperture, and it really assists the reader in understanding what’s going on in Aperture.  The book then introduces Aperture and its workspace in Chapter 2. The 3rd Chapter discusses the important topic of image management, including importing images, vault usage, referenced files vs. managed files, etc. Chapter 4 discusses the fine points of metadata usage in Aperture. Chapter 5 goes into the nitty gritty image adjustment features. Chapter 6 talks about Aperture workflow. Chapter 7 then discusses how to use Aperture with other applications, such as Photoshop and plug-in tools, as well as how to migrate from using Bridge or iPhoto. The final 8th Chapter discusses output, from exporting and printing, to the slideshow feature.

The book offers a very practical perspective in how best to use the Aperture 2 software, in addition to describing the features of the software.  For example, the book talks about practical backup strategies for your photo library, migration strategies from other photo management tools, workflow considerations when using external photo editing tools, creating books using Aperture but then using a different tool to output your book, and reasons why one might create separate Aperture libraries.

I’m self-taught in Aperture 2 and have been using the tool for about 8 months. I now consider myself an intermediate user, and I still picked up many good tips from the book, some of which are listed below (I should mention that the book offers very good coverage of all the features of Aperture for a beginner user. Since I know how to use many of these features already, I’m not making mention of them here):

1.  I didn’t have a strong understanding about RAW even though I follow a RAW workflow, and Chapter 1 of this book gave an excellent overview.  I have to admit, I didn’t read this chapter until after I went through the rest of the book because 20+ pages of RAW material didn’t sound too interesting, but I was pleasantly surprised!  I had seen the RAW adjustment sliders in Aperture, but really never understood how they were preset for me and I never was quite sure if I should muck with them. Now, I have a basic understanding of them.  And, this chapter finally explained the reasoning behind why people say it’s better to overexpose, rather than underexpose.

2.  The book showed me how to launch Aperture so that it would prompt me to always select an Aperture library.  This is very helpful for me, since I have multiple Aperture libraries.  To date, no one else I knew ran 2 or more libraries, and even an Apple rep indicated there was no need to do so.  Finally, I see some acknowledgment of why it might be a good idea to do so in this book.

3.  I forgot completely about the HUD (Heads Up Display) that provides a floating control box.  I had been tabbing back and forth between the projects, metadata and adjustments tabs in my workspace, as needed.  Using the HUD, I can view, for example, metadata and adjustments at the same time for an image, a real timesaver from what I had been doing.

4.  Until I read this tip in the book, I didn’t realize that there was a preset feature in the adjustments panel that allows the user to create various presets for each adjustment category.  Ah, it’s the little things that are nice to know!

5.  I learned about the various sharpening techniques available in Aperture, which is something I had not played with.  To date, I had done my post processing sharpening exclusively in Photoshop as that is what I was familiar with.  Now, I feel like I have a better understanding of pre-sharpening and post-sharpening techniques available in Aperture and how to use them.

6.  The book mentioned some anomalies regarding how Aperture and Photoshop work together, which are good to know about, should I encounter these scenarios.

Summary:

This will definitely be my primary Aperture 2 reference book.  I find that I can glean information quickly from this book, and when I want more detail about a particular subject, I can delve further. This is definitely a quality I look for in a good reference book. Perhaps the only negative is that the text within the screenshots is smaller and lighter than usual – and it really makes me feel the need for reading glasses. Maybe I really do need them and it’s not the book’s fault!  But, apart from that, this is a solid reference book that I recommend to Aperture users.

I had previously reviewed Aperture 2 by Peachpit Press, and I find this Focal Press Aperture 2 book to be a much better choice for Aperture users.

My thoughts:

Ease of use: Easy and straightforward. I only wish I had this book when I was first learning Aperture 2!

Audience: Beginning to Intermediate Aperture 2 users alike will appreciate this book.

Cost: Reasonable

I thought about going to VOIP (Voice Over IP) many times, but I couldn’t justify the monthly rate since my long distance usage has been sporadic, at best.  So, does this mean I was stuck with AT&T long distance to make reliable long distance calls?  I searched and searched across the Internet for a cheaper solution.  I finally realized that I already had the tools available to me to make free phone calls.

Over a year ago, I had signed up for a private beta of a Google web application called GrandCentral, which allows you to have a virtual telephone number that can follow you wherever you go. Then, just recently, I came across a little feature in GrandCentral that lets me call long distance, using a landline phone.  GrandCentral calls you on whatever phone you choose and then it proceeds to call the telephone number of your choice.  For example, I have GrandCentral call me on my landline and proceed to dial a domestic long distance line.  The result is a landline long distance call, free of charge! In case you’re interested in knowing, GrandCentral connects your call via a company called Level 3 Communications, which is what I hear every time I place a call.

And, to make it even easier to use, I also recently discovered a Google Mac application called Vocito that allows a user to make outgoing calls using GrandCentral. Vocito sits on your toolbar at the top of your screen. Once configured, you simply click on it, and fill in the telephone number you wish to call and the number you wish to receive the call from. Vocito uses GrandCentral to connect you to your respective party.  Vocito also integrates with your Mac Address Book to quickly look up and call people in your Address book.

Vocito user interface

So, what’s not to like?  Well, there’s a downside to people who didn’t sign up for a GrandCentral Number way back when.  GrandCentral’s current status is private beta, and there are no free invites available at this time.  If you go to the GrandCentral website, you can sign up for a number, but according to forums I’ve recently read, no one knows when or if Google will respond with new phone numbers.  Of course, I just discovered this when I started writing this post.

I only make domestic calls from within the United States, so I can’t say whether it works for international calls or for international callers. I also am not aware of any Windows application that integrates with GrandCentral, similar to Vocito on the Mac. But, assuming you’re a Mac user, and you have a GrandCentral number, or if and when Google decides to go into public beta, you should definitely try out long distance using Google GrandCentral and Vocito. Free landline long distance calls have definitely helped me get back in touch with people!

So, I went in search of software that could offer me photo surrealism at an affordable price for “the Mac Intel masses”.

After hunting around many forums, I came across a very interesting Photoshop plug-in software called Topaz Adjust, by Topaz Labs (supporting Mac and Windows).

As luck would have it, the company just recently released their Mac version. Topaz Labs offers a free 30 day full version of their software, and so I immediately downloaded the software to give it a whirl, using Photoshop CS3 on an Intel iMac dual core processor.  For the record, I tested Topaz Adjust v2.4.

A simple installation routine will load the software accordingly. Once installed, simply go to the Photoshop Filters Menu, and the Topaz Labs Adjust option is available. Topaz Adjust currently offers 15 out-of-the-box presets that give the user various image enhancements, and new presets can be created by the user.  Below is the plug-in main interface.

There are four (4) controls:  Exposure, Details, Color, and Noise. Each tab offers several sliders. You can choose a preset and then tweak each of the tab controls to your liking.

I tried Topaz Adjust on both 8-bit and 16-bit images. I discovered that not all photos do well with this filter; by far, landscape photos were easier to enhance than photos with people closeup.  Topaz Adjust gave my landscape images the surreal, illustrative look that I was hoping for.

I did use Topaz Adjust to also clean up noise in my night shots, and it did a good job there as well.  However, I cannot compare this feature to other noise reduction software, as this is my first attempt in cleaning up noise on photos.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some samples of before and after photos.

Below is my original photo.

Now here is the same photo, enhanced using a combination of minor Photoshop enhancements, followed by  Topaz Adjust.

Here’s a before original photo – a fairly drab photo.

Now, here’s the after photo, after simply applying the Topaz Adjust filter, followed by a slight hue/saturation adjustment in Photoshop, finalized by some sharpening in Photoshop.

Here is a before original photo of an actor.

Here is the after photo of the actor, after applying the Topaz Adjust filter, followed by some masking out of the filter, a slight hue/saturation adjustment in Photoshop, and finally some slight dodging /burning on the coat.

Overall, I was pleased with the results of Topaz Adjust.  I suggest you to download the trial version yourself and try it out to determine if this Photoshop plug-in appeals to you.

To see more samples, visit the Flickr Topaz Adjust Group.

Summary:

Topaz Adjust is a wonderful product and offers an affordable software that can perform HDR image enhancements.  I personally found Eric of Topaz Labs to be very customer friendly;  the company is very receptive to customer feedback and provides prompt assistance.

My Thoughts:

Ease of Use: Easy to use

My Average Actual Use: Every week

My Primary Use: Enhancing photos prior to printing

My Wish List:

1.  At this writing, the Topaz Adjust software requires that you log in as an Administrator when installing the software, and this caused me a slight problem, but Topaz Labs was very quick to respond to my installation issue. I’m hoping future versions of their plug-in will not require Administrator login, but rather, just an Administrator userid/password prompt to get the installation started.

2.  I would like to see Topaz Labs offer Topaz Adjust as a plug-in to Aperture, which is my primary photo management tool.  Topaz Labs have polled their users about this interest in September 2008.  Update: As of October 2, 2008, Topaz Labs has indicated their intention to create the Aperture plug-in (no release date as of yet); this is great news for Aperture users like myself  – check their website for future announcements.

My Thought on Cost: Reasonably priced.  $99.  Special introductory price of $39 until October 1, 2008.