This is the first time we’ve given this award. It stems from trying to understand which of all the various post-processing packages that are out there are truly valuable.

I’ve tested every single major post-processing suite from companies like Nik, onOne, Topaz, and more. I’ve evaluated them based on how much they cost, how easy to use they are, how powerful they are, how they work with other software and how truly important they are to my workflow. In other words, when you’re someone who’s lucky enough to own every post-processing software suite known to man, which one do you really, really, really use on a regular basis?

It’s a tough call because I think almost all of them are good. I use almost all of them on a fairly regular basis. But there’s just one set that I use every, single day. When I looked back at THAT fact, knowing I had access to everything – I knew I had the answer. And the answer may surprise some. But here it is.

I selected Topaz Labs Plug-in Bundle as the 2011 Post Processing Software of the Year.

Topaz’s products are affordable, easy to use and integrate well into the post programs I use like Aperture, Photoshop and even iPhoto. I love their use of presets. Many of their solutions offer 1-click enhancements that will blow you away. Whether you’re brand new to photo post processing or an old pro, the presets are amazing and will give you the chance to be productive right out of the box. The interface is easy and the speed of application acceptable.

While I’m selecting their bundle, which incorporates 10 different programs, you can buy just one, two or three, etc. and end up with the ones you really like and think you will use.

One of the best things about all Topaz products is that you can download them and try them for free. Topaz offers 30-day, unlimited trial keys. The company regularly updates its software and offers free training. This stuff works and in my opinion, since it’s so easy and affordable, and can be easily purchased in individual or bundle form, Topaz has earned the post-processing software of the year award.

Here’s a break down of the individual Topaz modules:

Adjust – makes faux HDR, adjusts image dynamics and while it’s not intended as a sharpener, I use it that way. I combine this program with Photomatix Pro or Nik HDR Efex Pro when I’m converting tone maps as a finishing tool.

DeNoise – it’s not as sophisticated as some dedicated noise reduction programs, but it gets the job done and is also good at preserving detail.

B&W Effects – While I use and enjoy Nik Silver Efex Pro, this module is much less expensive and very versatile. I like it a great deal.

ReMask – I am not much of a masking guy, but when I need to make a mask I use this tool because it’s just so easy – especially compared with some of the others out there on the market.

Lens Effects – this is one of my new favorites. You can make artificial bokeh, great vignettes, motion blurs, and faux tilt-shift effects with this module.

Detail – this program allows you to restore detail without crating artifacts. I don’t use this one as often as Adjust but I do use it.

Simplify – this was my first introduction to Topaz’ product suite. I am amazed at the artistic effects you can create with this very affordable program. It’s addicting.

Clean – great for creating smooth skin in portraits.

InFocus – this is Topaz’s sharpening program. It’s simple and fast. It’s not as sophisticated as some of the dedicated sharpening programs out there, but it’s affordable, easy and again – gets the job done.

DeJPEG – I’ve only used this module a few times, but if you have to make super sharp JPG conversions, this is the way to go.

You can get purchase information directly from Topaz’s Web site.

_______
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All in all a great book worth every penny of the $30 Amazon price tag. But the best part is that Uwe is actually giving away his book for one day only! On December 11 (that tomorrow!) the PDF download will be FREE! (the German version will be free on Decmber 18th).

Here’s the download link for your free copy. Remember, It’s only free on December 11, 2011. If you miss it, you can still get it on Amazon in time for X-mas!

Here’s the book’s promo video!

You liked this post? Then check out these ones as well!

• Review: DIY Ring Flash Kit
• My Interview at Smartpress.com
• And the Crickets are Chirping at YPS

What’s in the box

- Ring Flash Bracket (a $9.95 option that’s a must have)
- Inner sliver ring
- Outer black plastic ring
- Silver strip (for center ring)
- Instructions
- 2 strips of tape (witch are not part of the kit anymore since people were wondering what it was for, myself included)

I was lucky enough to get the Double Flash Bracket as a bonus. Even tough I’m not reviewing it, I strongly recommend it! It’s compact, lightweight and the price is right!

Putting the Ring Flash Together

It took me roughly 20 minutes to assemble the ring flash with the flash bracket. It was an painless process with the easy to read instructions. What’s also cool about the instructions is the QR code that links directly to the Lighting Kits Website when videos are available. A geek like me loves this!

The only part that wasn’t clear was the bending of the bracket. As you can see from this image, the dotted lines didn’t line up with the bracket. So I took a guess and lined it up at the narrow end and it ended up being a good guess. Udi at DIYPhotography.net confirms that the current drawing is perfectly scaled so you won’t have to guess.

Adding Your Flash and Camera

I hooked up my Nikon D300s to the bracket using my tripod plate. I made sure it was attached as far away from the ring flash as possible so that the lens didn’t protrude on the other side of the ring flash to avoid possible light glare in my Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens. I wouldn’t have to put it so far if a had a shorter lens like the Nikkor 50mm.

Adding the SB-800 was easy. Just slip it in the bottom hole of the ring flash and use the 3 blue elastics to secure it to the bracket. And you’re done!

Here’s a setup without the camera and the SB-800 mounted directly on the tripod.

And here’s a setup with the camera mounted on the tripod.

Testing

OK, now to test this baby out. I grabbed my good friend and fellow photographer Martin and did a few quick headshots. I compared the ring flash with a direct SB-800. By doing this, I wanted to test 2 things: 1- image quality and 2-the flash power difference to achieve the same exposure.

Here are the unprocessed RAW shots I selected…

Direct SB-800 strobe mounted on camera hotshoe

DIY ring flash using the SB-800

For image quality, the DIY ring flash wins hands down, as was expected. Shadows are soft and subdued. The catch light in the eyes is bigger making them brighter. What surprised me though was the cooler light generated by the ring flash. Roughly 700 kelvins cooler. Even though I prefer a cooler look, it’s something to take into consideration when shooting.

To get the same exposure, I went from an aperture of f2.8 with the ring flash to f11 with the direct SB-800. That’s a 4 stop difference.  The ring flash does suck up some power.

Note: Before anyone asks me how I triggered the SB-800, I can tell you that I used Pocket Wizards. But I also tested the CLS using the built-in flash and it worked great as well.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed playing with the DIY Ring Flash. It’s so light weight that I was hand holding my camera the whole time which makes for a versatile diffused light source. The light quality is much better than a direct strobe so I wouldn’t hesitate to use it as my front fill light instead of an extra softbox.

For the quality/price ratio, you really can’t go wrong here. It’s a great invention that deserves a place in any photographer’s tool kit. You can get more information on the DIY Ring Flash right HERE.

You liked this post? Then check out these ones as well!

• DIYPhotography.net – Review
• My Interview at Smartpress.com
• And the Crickets are Chirping at YPS

What’s in the box

- Ring Flash Bracket (a $9.95 option that’s a must have)
- Inner sliver ring
- Outer black plastic ring
- Silver strip (for center ring)
- Instructions
- 2 strips of tape (witch are not part of the kit anymore since people were wondering what it was for, myself included)

I was lucky enough to get the Double Flash Bracket as a bonus. Even tough I’m not reviewing it, I strongly recommend it! It’s compact, lightweight and the price is right!

Putting the Ring Flash Together

It took me roughly 20 minutes to assemble the ring flash with the flash bracket. It was an painless process with the easy to read instructions. What’s also cool about the instructions is the QR code that links directly to the Lighting Kits Website when videos are available. A geek like me loves this!

The only part that wasn’t clear was the bending of the bracket. As you can see from this image, the dotted lines didn’t line up with the bracket. So I took a guess and lined it up at the narrow end and it ended up being a good guess. Udi at DIYPhotography.net confirms that the current drawing is perfectly scaled so you won’t have to guess.

Adding Your Flash and Camera

I hooked up my Nikon D300s to the bracket using my tripod plate. I made sure it was attached as far away from the ring flash as possible so that the lens didn’t protrude on the other side of the ring flash to avoid possible light glare in my Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens. I wouldn’t have to put it so far if a had a shorter lens like the Nikkor 50mm.

Adding the SB-800 was easy. Just slip it in the bottom hole of the ring flash and use the 3 blue elastics to secure it to the bracket. And you’re done!

Here’s a setup without the camera and the SB-800 mounted directly on the tripod.

And here’s a setup with the camera mounted on the tripod.

Testing

OK, now to test this baby out. I grabbed my good friend and fellow photographer Martin and did a few quick headshots. I compared the ring flash with a direct SB-800. By doing this, I wanted to test 2 things: 1- image quality and 2-the flash power difference to achieve the same exposure.

Here are the unprocessed RAW shots I selected…

Direct SB-800 strobe mounted on camera hotshoe

DIY ring flash using the SB-800

For image quality, the DIY ring flash wins hands down, as was expected. Shadows are soft and subdued. The catch light in the eyes is bigger making them brighter. What surprised me though was the cooler light generated by the ring flash. Roughly 700 kelvins cooler. Even though I prefer a cooler look, it’s something to take into consideration when shooting.

To get the same exposure, I went from an aperture of f2.8 with the ring flash to f11 with the direct SB-800. That’s a 4 stop difference.  The ring flash does suck up some power.

Note: Before anyone asks me how I triggered the SB-800, I can tell you that I used Pocket Wizards. But I also tested the CLS using the built-in flash and it worked great as well.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed playing with the DIY Ring Flash. It’s so light weight that I was hand holding my camera the whole time which makes for a versatile diffused light source. The light quality is much better than a direct strobe so I wouldn’t hesitate to use it as my front fill light instead of an extra softbox.

For the quality/price ratio, you really can’t go wrong here. It’s a great invention that deserves a place in any photographer’s tool kit. You can get more information on the DIY Ring Flash right HERE.

You liked this post? Then check out these ones as well!

• DIYPhotography.net – Review
• Book Review: Wildlife Photography by Uwe Skrzypczak
• My Interview at Smartpress.com

Copyright Scott Bourne 2011 - All Rights Reserved - Before Post-Processing

As some of you may know, I am a big fan of pre-visualizing your shots. If you can see it in your mind’s eye before you capture the image, you have a better chance of making a significant photograph.

I’ve written about this a bit with my Cranes in the Fire Mist shot. I pre-visualized this shot in camera.

I am not a photo-journalist. Accordingly, the only thing that matters to me is the final image. So for you purists out there who think merely owning a copy of Photoshop is an offense worthy of beheading, read no further. There’s nothing for you to see here.

For the rest, I am of the opinion that ANYTHING you want to do to a photograph to get it where you want it is A-OK! As long as you are not a photo-journalist representing the image as fact, it doesn’t matter to me what you do or don’t do in post.

Sometimes, for me, the vision I have in my mind is either too difficult or simply impossible to get in camera. Sometimes it’s merely extremely inconvenient. Whatever the case, I have no problem pre-visualizing in the field, what I plan to shoot – knowing what I will do in post will “make” the picture.

Copyright Scott Bourne 2011 - All Rights Reserved - After Post-Processing

In the case of the images in this post, I used post-processing to achieve the image I saw in my mind before I even got in the car. I was out scouting the local dry lake bed for the next Vegas SMUG meeting. I didn’t want to waste time so I also decided to make a photograph while on the trip. Knowing generally what the dry lake bed looked like, I decided to take my car out there and place a model, holding a silver material above her head. I was hoping for some sort of etherial vision shot with her and the car. The problem was, I saw this image as being more dramatic, made at dusk, and I was at this place at 9:45 AM. So I made the shot, then took it home, converted the RAW file out of my Nikon D7000 in Aperture, sent the image to Nik Color Efex Pro 4.0 where I used the White Neutralizer filter. Then I moved the image to TOPAZ Adjust 4.0 and applied the “Dark Ghostly” filter. This gave me a final scene that closely matched my original vision.

Note – this is not about which picture here that YOU like better. It’s about having you a vision and being able to execute it either in camera – or in post.

So unless you are a photo-journalist, the next time you go somewhere and see a shot that you can’t make under existing conditions, shoot it anyway and try to work it out in post. You never know, it might come out better than you think.

_________
This Post Sponsored by:
Animoto -buy 1 month, get 1 month free plus a copy of “GoingPro” / BorrowLenses.com – Renting Canon, Nikon, Olympus & Sony, bodies, lenses and more / SmugMug – Professional Photo Sharing / Tenba – Photo Messenger Bagå

So here we go:

First open you photo and save it as standard layer. You do this by simply doubleclicking on the photo’s layer and transform it on standard layer through the dialogue window.

Next in order to add a border we will need more space around the photo. To do this we will increase the canvas size through Image->Canvas Size which will bring forward the canvas dialogue window. The easier way to add more space around the image is by ticking the button “Relative” and lets increase the size by 100x100. This means that 50 additional pixels will be added on either sides on vertically and horizontally of your photo.

Once you hit Enter this will add the border as described above, but in transparent mode. To fill it in with solid color create a separate layer for the border and hit Ctrl+Backspace. This will fill it in with the color preselected on your color selection area, in this case White since the default mode is black and white.

Now you are ready to start editing your frame. Hit Ctrl+click on the photo layer, this will choose the entire size of your photo. Once done create a new layer (you should have 3 layers by now all in all) .
Next click Edit->Stroke and this will bring up a new dialogue window which essentially will allow us to add a line round the photo.
On that window you can adjust 3 elements. The desired color of your framing line, its width and its position in relation to your photo.
We will go for a standard red, a width of 10pixels and Center it in relation to the margin of our photo, feel free to play around with these options.

And this is your result until now, which looks okay-ish but there is definitely room for improvement.

So will now repeat the last 2 steps. Go ahead and create a new layer and choose again your main photo layer by Click+Ctrl.
Then again Edit->Stroke but this time choose a different color we will go for black and this will add a black line frame over the existing red one.

Next add a Layer Mask on the black line frame by simply selecting the black line frame layer and clicking on the layer mask icon on the bottom of your layers window.

Now click on the Gradient Tool and by holding down Shift Click+Drag from the top of your picture to the bottom.

This will make your line frame progressively from red to black creating a nice effect round your photo.

We are not yet done though, to make our frame more punchy we can add a layer style on the red part of the line frame. So ensuring you have selected the red line frame layer click on Layer Style button and add a Drop Shadow effect.

On the dialogue window choose the direction of your shadow, we will go for a 140 degrees and lower the opacity (round 30 should be ok) so its a soft shadow.

Hit ok and now you have a classy and yet simple looking frame round your photo.

Experiment with different colors and shadows and make your photos really stand out!
For more easy and quick photo effects you can check our tutorials on Lomo Effects and Andy Warhol Effect .

As you guys know, I’ve been working on a top secret project for the better part of 9 months and I can officially talk about it now!

My long time friend and pro photographer Martin Perreault and I were working hard to create the best iPhone photo app ever! It all started with a few ideas jotted down on napkins and it ended up with 100s of pages of use cases! Over the course of 8 months, we hired 3 programmers and financed the whole project ourselves. We are VERY proud of what we’ve accomplished.

King Camera is now for sale on the App Store but the official launch MEGA $0.99 SALE will be Wednesday, June 1st for a limited time! For $0.99, you have nothing to lose! We made it this cheap to encourage our fans to try it out and take the time to rate it on the App Store. Your reviews will help in King Camera’s success! So don’t be shy. Give us your best 5 star rating ever.

On top of the awesome app, we built a comprehensive Website through our company name SayCheezzz.com. Check it out! Educators at heart (as you know ) it was really important for us to create tutorials. Yes, we have the official King Camera App tutorials but we also created King Camera University (KCU) where we’ll be giving you guys iphoneography tips and tutorials on a regular basis. Make sure you join our Twitter and our Facebook page to stay up to date!

I also want to take this opportunity to thank all my YPS readers for being so patient with my very limited posts this last year. Change is a normal and healthy process but since I can’t be cloned, it meant taking a break from YPS and give almost all my time to this very passionate adventure. Thank you for your continued support!! You guys are great!

You liked this post? Then check out these ones as well!

• 8 Steps to Choosing Lenses for Your DSLR Camera
• The $1 Monopod!
• Understanding the EV Compensation Button

Here we have a nature themed photo, where the shadows on the inside of the branch are not that easy on the eye.

Click Image> Adjustments > Shadow/Highlight which will bring up the following dialogue box.

You will notice that unless you have messed with the Shadows setting before, the default setting is on 50% which may make certain photos look bleached, especially if there is already too much light involved.
We slide the Shadow setting to 35-40% and the entire picture brightens up making the shadow less destructive.

You can play around with the highlights as well, but be careful as this may take the focus off the subject of the picture and to the background as the highlights setting tends to emphasize the entire colors spectrum rather grossly. If you feel there is the need for a quick highlighting try anything below 10-15% .

First decide on the main theme of your flyer and pic a picture that will do the trick. It can be a beach if its a summer party, a swimming pool, a snowed-up mountain, well you get the idea. We will use a city picture for an urban themed flyer.

Start a new project File->New , and set the frame of your flyer to the standard paper size for flyers. Thats 8.5inches in width and 11 inches in height.

Next grab your Paint Bucket Tool and choose black color as background for your new project and create a new layer.

Open your main theme picture if you dont have it open already and by using the Move Tool drug the image into your black flyer.

You will probably notice that the picture does not precisely fit in the flyer’s canvas. To solve this we will resize the image to fit exactly into the canvas. Hit CTRL+T (Command on Mac) or Edit->Free Transform to dynamically resize the image by good ol’ clicking and dragging.

Next rearrange your layers by pulling Layer 1 over Layer 2 on your Layers window.
Now we will blend the two layers by using the Gradient Tool.

First click on the Rectangular Marquee Tool and select the area around the image. Once done choose the Gradient Tool and make sure the colors sequence is from black to white. Hold down Shift and Click and Drag a line from the centre of your canvas half way up creating a straight line.

Once you are happy with the result, go to your layers window and click on the Layer Blending Mode and from the drop down menu choose Multiply and once done merge the two layers (the image and the canvas) into one by hitting Ctrl+E , alternatively link the two layers by clicking on the tick box next to the eye icon of your layers this will bring up a chain do this on both layer and finally click on Layers menu and Merge. This will create a beautiful smooth effect between the two layers.

And you are almost done. What is left is the message of the flyer for which we will use the Type Tool.

The possibilities here are truly endless you may want to use a standard Fonts Format or go for something more extravagant in which case you can consult one of our other tutorials on, 3D typography, Fire text or Burning Neon Effect. The idea is to use the black area of your canvas for your message! So go on be creative and have a great party!

Our model in this case doesnt really need a liposuction but we will operate on her anyway for the shake of this tutorial.

Once you open your image on photoshop reach for your Liquify filter. You will find this under the Filter menu->Liquify.

Pick the Forward Warp Tool, thats the little hand tool on the top left.

Next we identify the area we want to reshape and gently click and push inwards. In the image below we are re-shaping the waste. This process requires stable hand and a bit of artistic touch. If you overdo it and the figure looks fake just hit ctrl+z and retry.

Repeat on the other side of the waste so it looks symmetric.

Next we will augment the model’s buttocks. We will use again the Warp Tool but a different technique. Instead of pushing from outside the body inwards we will click and drag from inside the body outwards. Its a really handy tool and it contributes hugely to this being a quick edit.

Click and drag, click and drag, slow moves till your get the desired result, dont be afraid to experiment.

Next we will augment the model’s breasts. Reach for the Bloat tool.

With gentle strokes, click and drag around the breast area, do this from the centre to get a more natural result.

Repeat on the other breast and you are done. Hope you have fun trying this tut.