Aurora HDR Next Release Announced

On By Mark DoddIn General Blog PostLeave a comment

Aurora HDR 2017

Welcome to Aurora HDR 2017

 

Aurora HDR Next Release Announced today. Aurora HDR is the world’s most powerful HDR software made exclusively for Mac. If you are waiting for Aurora HDR for Windows  make sure to sign up and click the radio button for “I use PC” so you get notified of the Aurora HDR for Windows release at a future date.

 

Pre-orders for Aurora HDR 2017 will start September 14th, with the official release launch on September 29th for the Mac Version. Windows users, still sign up and get notified about Aurora HDR for Windows, it is coming, just not September 29th.

 

 Sign up Here to get notified when pre-ordering starts and any updates on the Aurora HDR 2017 release.

 

Summary of a few of the Aurora HDR 2017 Features and Improvements.

  • New Batch Processing
  • New Tools, including polarize filter and radial masking tool
  • New presets by Trey Ratcliff and other recognized pros
  • Updated tone-mapping and bracket merging technology for more realistic looking HDR images

This is just the shortlist. There will be over 20 key improvements and new features in this release.

 

Sign Up NOW to get notified of the additional features Aurora HDR 2017

 

Aurora HDR Next Release Announced Upgrades and Pricing

  • Current users of Aurora HDR Pro can upgrade to Aurora HDR 2017 at a special pre-order price of $49
  • Current users of the standard version of Aurora HDR can upgrade to Aurora HDR 2017 at a special pre-order upgrade price of $69
  • New customers can pre-order Aurora HDR 2017 for $89
  • Pre-order customers will also receive special bonuses that and announced soon. As soon as I”m notified of what they are I’ll post it here.

 

Sign up Here to get notified when pre-ordering starts and any updates on the Aurora HDR 2017 release.

 

#AuroraHDR #AuroraHDR2017 #AuroraHDRPro #AuroraHDRProUpgrade #AuroraHDRUpgrade #NewRelease #nextreleaseofAuroraHDR #Macphun #AuroraHDRWindows

 

Educational, Government, Military, Group, Corporate discounts

On By Mark DoddIn TipsLeave a comment

Don’t forget to look for Educational, Government, Military, Group, or Corporate discounts when you’re buying software or hardware. No matter who the vendor is.

 

Most vendors I have come across have Educational, Government, Military, Group, or Corporate discounts available. Some do not make it easy to find on their websites while others, like Macphun, put it clearly on their front page.

 

The requirements to receive the discounts will vary from one vendor to another along with the method of proof of membership in the group. For example, B&H Photo does offer educational discounts, but has a stricter policy on who can receive the discount than others. Others are more flexible, and include a larger group that are eligible such as Faculty, Staff, and Students, instead of just Faculty and Students for educational institutions.

 

I would recommend that you make it your policy if you are a member of any educational institution, former or active Military, work for any part of the Government, or part of a larger company or association such as AAA, AARP, etc. to ask the company you are looking to buy from if they offer a discount to your group. When you ask, also make sure you find out what proof of group membership is required to receive the discount. If you do not see discounts mentioned directly on the website of the company, don’t be afraid to contact them via email or phone before you making your purchase and ask. The worst they can say is no  or you are not part of the qualifying group and you are no worse for the wear. It is better to ask before your buy and find out they do not offer any discount than to buy and find out later you could have gotten a better deal via one of these discounts.

 

Some Photography Slang

On By Mark DoddIn General Blog PostLeave a comment

Photography slang that you may already know or should know.

 

I’m not much on acronyms or slang but I found the following article interesting and even a little amusing so I though I would share. Hope is either informative or gives you a smile at what some of them mean.

 

Click here to see the 10 slang words every photographer should know

 

Recently I’ve found myself having writers block or not able to think of a good subject to write about during the week. So I’ve decided that I will share some things that I’ve found that I think you might enjoy or benefit from. I’m far from an expert on everything related to photography, so if I find a site or article that I either benefited from or I think you could benefit from I’ll create a post and include a link to it.

Download FREE Trials of Photography Software

On By Mark DoddIn Free StuffLeave a comment

FREE trials

Download FREE trials of various photography editing software. I know many like to try out a product before spending your hard-earned money on it, so here ya go with a free way to tryout these great apps.

 

Don’t forget to check out my Discounts and Coupon Codes post as I may have a discount for the software after you try it out. Click the Discounts and Coupon Codes menu above to see.

 

Recommended software Free Trail links.

 

 

As I come across more free trial downloads of software I feel comfortable recommending I’ll be adding more here.

 

#free #freetrial #software #photography #photoeditors #tryout

 

Happy 4th of July

On By Mark DoddIn General Blog PostLeave a comment

Happy 4th of July to Everyone.

I hope you have a good day and get out there and get some great shots of the fireworks in your area.

And just a reminder, the

Macphuns' Shooting Fireworks Bundle

is still available to help you out with improving those fireworks shots that you will get or  just got.

 

Creating Facebook 360 photos on your iOS Device

On By Mark DoddIn TutorialsLeave a comment

Creating Facebook 360 photos on your iOS devices like your iPhone with either the iPhone Camera app or Google’s Street View app for iOS.

First I will say you can do this on other devices as well such as Android devices via Google Camera, but since I only have access to and iPhone this is all I can show you. I”m sure the steps are similar but the steps in the apps you use will be different.

Both the Google Street View App and the iOS Camera app were tested on an iPhone 6s running iOS 9.3.2. and using Facebook app version 58.

There is an option to embed 360 video as well, but you need a 360 camera to do this and at the moment I do not. So see the Facebook FAQ for more information on video 360.

 

Creating Facebook 360 Photos on iOS with the iOS Camera App.

Open the Camera app and switch to pano mode. Create your pano making sure it is not too narrow. There is no way to really know, but if you make it to narrow it will not upload in the Facebook 360 format. The wider the panorama is the more movement you will have left and right after you have uploaded it to Facebook. Once you have your panorama created you can now upload it to Facebook.

 

Uploading your iPhone pano to Facebook.

You can upload your pano photo to Facebook either directly from your iOS device such as and iPhone or you can upload it from your computer.

 

Uploading from your iOS device such as an iPhone.

Open the Facebook app, create a new post by selecting “Photo”, then select the pano from your camera roll, click done. Add text, description, and tag your friends etc if you wish, then click post. Your photo is uploaded and you are sent to the Facebook 360 post on your feed. Although the text and such is not required it is nice to have a description of what the photo is about.

Continue reading “Creating Facebook 360 photos on your iOS Device” →

Getting a website created and online in no time with Bluehost

On By Mark DoddIn General Blog Post, Reviews, TutorialsLeave a comment

So you are thinking of creating a website and not sure where to go and how long it will take, I have a quick and easy solution for you with Bluehost, my hosting provider.

These days I think everyone is in the website hosting business and there are many providers you can choose from, but I know Bluehost can can get your website up and online in no time.

Wither you are a techie and like to do everything yourself or someone who just wants to get online and not worry about the details, Bluehost has solutions for you.

So how do you get started…

Before you even go to Bluehost, I would recommend that you do a little pre planning.

Things to think about:

  1. Your domain name. Come up with a list of domain names that you might want to use. I would come up with at least 3 and order them in preferred order. There is always a chance that the name you want is already taken so you want to have your 2nd and 3rd choices ready to go.
  2. Think about the type of site you want to have. This is anything from a blog to a just a e-commerce store. Bluehost has options for any type of site that you want and I believe WordPress can accommodate most types, but if you need a specialized type of site, they have various options for those as well.
  3. Know you budget. Like every hosting site there are a ton of options from the low-end shared hosting to dedicated servers just for you site. You can always start at the shared hosting option and move up the options list to the dedicated server as needed. Also, you can get more for your money using the introductory pricing if you get multiple years of service up front. This is what I did and it has saved me a lot over my initial sign-up period
  4. Think about your content. This mainly comes in for the Basic and Plus shared hosting options as there is a limit on server space. If you site is going to be heavy on images or videos that are stored on your site you may have to go with the Pro shared site option to start as it has unmetered storage space

Knowing these things will help you deciding which of the multitude of services that Bluehost can offer that you will need to start with.

Now that you have done your pre-planned. Lets go through the steps of getting you online and up in running.

Continue reading “Getting a website created and online in no time with Bluehost” →

Review of Macphun Intensify CK and a Special Deal.

On By Mark DoddIn ReviewsLeave a comment

Review of Intensify CK from Macphun

I’ll get the basic information out of the way first before getting into my comments and review. First, this is a Mac OS only application. Sorry my Windows followers, but if you are looking for something that does run on Windows, I would check out On1’s Photo 10.5

The Intensify CK System and Software requirements

  • Mac OS 10.9 and above
  • iMac/MacBook Pro/ MacBook Air/Mac Pro/Mac Mini late 2009 or later
  • 4GB RAM and more
  • 512 MB Graphic RAM and more
  • Creative Kit is integrated as plugin with Lightroom 4,5,6 and CC; Photoshop Elements 10-14 (App Store version is not supported due to Apple Sandboxing); Apple Aperture 3.2 or later; Adobe Photoshop CS5, CS6 or CC 2014, СС 2015, СС.
  • Photos extensions support – for 10.11 only

 

Intensify CK Pricing

List price is $59.99 for the standalone application. (Look for a special limited time discount at the end of this review) You can also get it as part of the Creative Kit. There is a version of Intensify in the Mac App store, but it is a scaled down version and does not include the Plug-in support as mentioned above. To get the full features of Intensify CK you need to purchase it direct from Macphun.

Intensify CK feature set.

  • Real-Time Image Processing Engine!
  • Standalone software & Plug-in Support
  • Native 16-bit RAW Processing
  • Social integration: Facebook, Flickr, etc.
  • 68 Professional Presets
  • Advanced Structure and Micro Structure controls
  • Layers & Masking
  • Proprietary Technology for Revealing Details
  • Vignette with Custom Center
  • Proprietary Technology for Pro Contrast
  • Powerful Macro Sharpness
  • Built-in Macphun Print Lab

 

Now on to the review and my comments on Intensify CK

Continue reading “Review of Macphun Intensify CK and a Special Deal.” →

Get Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CC

On By Mark DoddIn Current Offers/Promotions, General Blog PostLeave a comment

Adobe has a special Creative Cloud set just for photographers for just $9.99/month

So to get Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CC click on the image below.

 

Adobe_PSLR_Affiliate_Bnnr_728x90_r1

 

They do offer Educational pricing on the full Creative Cloud set of applications, but for Photography Creative Cloud the pricing is the same for everyone. If you are interested in the full Creative Cloud set of applications, click the image above, then click on the Student and Teachers tab to see how to get All the Apps at Educational pricing.

The Creative Cloud subscriptions include all application updates as long as your subscription is active.

#lightroom #photoshop #PhotographyCC #Adobe #CreativeCloud

 

Review of Becoming An Artist Season 1

On By Mark DoddIn General Blog Post, ReviewsLeave a comment

Becoming An Artist Season 1 with Trey Ratcliff of StuckinCustoms.com

Preface

First I must say I do my best to be unbiased in all my reviews, but in this case I must disclose that I’ve been following Trey Ratcliff for years and as such I”m am a big fan so this review might be a little unintentionally biased. I’ve followed him for so long that I seen changes in his website, changes in his photography equipment, and the ever evolving changes and improvements in his photography. I’ve seen him go from a one person show to a multi artist show, to a worldwide show, and now to Facebook live. I’ve seen his business constantly expanding with new and exciting products and adventures. I also had the pleasure of meeting him in person on a photo walk he and the Stuck in Customs crew did last year in Philadelphia and Washington DC. If you want to see what that was like visit tour.treyratcliff.com

That said, let’s get to the review.

Becoming an Artist Series 1 is comprised of 15 episodes. Each episode is about 30 mins long and divided into two sections. In the first section of each episode you hear Trey tell personal stories such as a bit of his life history, how he became a photographer in his 30’s, and some of the things that inspire him in his photography and art. I believe he does this to give you a sense of where he’s coming from, how he sees the world, and what affects this has on his photography. There is some dialog just about art in general and how other art can help influence or inspire your photography. He will discuss the picture(s) he is taking at that time, why he choose to take that picture, and some tips about the picture including composition, color, light, and inspiration.

In the second section of each episode you get transported to Trey’s Studio in Queenstown New Zealand, where he will show you his editing techniques on some of the photos he took during the previous section using various tools from PhotoMatix, Lightroom,  Photoshop, and other tools like Autopano Giga for his panorama’s. He shows you basic techniques up to some very advanced techniques.

Episodes have interesting titles like

  • Episode 1 – The Accidental Creation of Me
  • Episode 6 – Writing a Failed Novel
  • Episode 10 – A Reccy to Chernobyl
  • Episode 14 – A Street Fight in Morocco

So you can see this is not your typical tutorial series.

This series was created before Aurora HDR came out, so for this season he doesn’t use his new tool, Aurora HDR Pro, which he co-developed with Macphun software.

In addition to the video series Trey has created a Facebook group “Becoming and Artist – Trey Ratcliff’s Funky Lounge” where you can post your own work and interact with fellow artists.

Continue reading “Review of Becoming An Artist Season 1” →