Chuck Westfall Technical Education Award

4th ANNUAL LUCIE TECHNICAL AWARDS HONOR THE YEAR’S PHOTO-RELATED INNOVATIONS AND INTRODUCE CHUCK WESTFALL TECHNICAL EDUCATION AWARD

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2018
PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo, Jacob Javits Convention Center, NYC

August 16, 2018 – (Los Angeles, CA) - The fourth annual Lucie Technical Awards, an initiative of the Lucie Foundation and sister-program of The Lucie Awards, will take place in New York City on Thursday, October 25, 2018, during PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo, at The Jacob Javits Convention Center, in New York City, 5:30pm reception, 6:30pm awards presentation. Held just prior to Lucie Awards weekend, the acclaimed Lucie Technical Awards embraces a large and critical segment of the photographic community. The Lucie Technical Awards aim to honor the large and small companies, as well as the individuals who have advanced the photographic industry in a particular year. All-inclusive, these awards intend to encompass such items from cameras, lenses, lighting, and accessories, to printers, software and more.

This year for the first time, the Lucie Technical Awards will be presenting the Chuck Westfall Technical Education Award, named in honor of the legendary Canon spokesperson who became “teacher of technology” to journalists and the photo industry in general, for more than 35 years. Despite losing his long battle with cancer earlier this year, Chuck Westfall remained a transcendent, authentic spirit who loved photography and the photo industry, and it loved him right back. This distinguished honor is awarded to an influential voice in the photographic industry who displays an extraordinary commitment to, and love for the art and technology of photography. The recipient will have demonstrated a tireless effort to share their extensive knowledge with others, either through interactions with the media, written or published documents, and public appearances and presentations.

Hossein Farmani, the founder of The Lucie Technical Awards, commented, “For the 4th year in a row, we spotlight an ever-growing segment of our beloved photographic community by embracing those whose penchant for the technological lifts up the talented image-makers, many of whom we honor just a few days later at The Lucie Awards. It is with great pleasure that we add the Chuck Westfall Technical Education Award, to the festivities.” The 16th Annual Lucie Awards will follow, on Sunday, October 28, at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Experts in the field of photography as well as members of the public can contribute to the nomination process with the goal to recognize and reward deserving companies and individuals whose efforts have advanced the careers of so many image-makers. They all share a passion for creating extraordinary imagery through innovative technology.

In addition to the Lifetime Achievement Award, the categories include:

Camera:

Best Camera Drone
Best Instant Camera
Best Action Camera
Best Small Format System Camera
Best Full Frame System Camera
Best Medium Format System Camera
Best Fixed-Lens Compact Camera

Camera Accessory:

Best Camera
Bag Best Tripod
Best Speedlight
Best Industrial Design

Lens:

Best Wide Angle Prime Lens
Best Wide Angle Zoom Lens
Best Standard Prime Lens
Best Medium Range Zoom Lens
Best Telephoto Prime Lens
Best Telephoto Zoom Lens
Best Special Purpose Lens

Lighting & Studio:

Best Light Modifier
Best Continuous Light Source
Best Portable Battery Powered Studio Light
Best Studio Strobe

Printing:
Best Inkjet Printer

Software:

Best Photo Editing Software
Best Software Plugin

Storage:

Best Memory Card
Best Backup Solution

With the invaluable advice and guidance of the esteemed Lucie Technical Awards Advisory Board, these awards will honor the people and companies who have assisted and inspired so many on their photographic journeys. These awards, plus The Lucie Awards bestowed later in the same week, together create an even more inclusive photographic community.

Ticket availability for The Lucie Technical Awards will be announced shortly. For the complete list of awards and to nominate, please see http://tech.lucies.org/nominate/ for additional information.

About Lucie Technical Awards – The Lucie Technical Awards aim to honor the large and small companies, as well as the individuals who have advanced the photography industry in a given year. All-inclusive, these awards encompass cameras, lenses, lighting, accessories, printers, software and more.

About Lucie Foundation - Lucie Foundation’s mission is to honor master photographers, discover and cultivate emerging talent, and promote the appreciation of photography worldwide. In addition to Month of Photography Los Angeles (MOPLA), the foundation presents year-round programming to support high school students through SNAPSHOP!, emerging and professional photographers through the Lucie Scholarship Program and master photographers through The Lucie Awards. Lucie Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable foundation. www.luciefoundation.org

WPPI 2018 - Las Vegas Highlights

This past February I had the opportunity to go out to Las Vegas for the WPPI Conference & Expo for Wedding & Portrait Photography where I got to catch up on some of the latest offerings in the industry.

Below are a few highlights of what caught my eye at this years show.

Sony A7 III

By far one of the biggest hits of the show was the announcement of the Sony a7 III which features much of the goodness of the incredible Sony a9 that I loved, but at a fraction of the price.

Basically you lose the higher resolution viewfinder & display, flicker free faster burst mode and a little on video performance, but not too much more. What you get in return is an incredible camera for (barely) under $2000 USD, so it's a fair trade off.

Given what I saw, and the incredible performance of the a9 and a7R III that I loved, I expect this to be a very popular camera.

Oh and yes, early reports are that it does feature noticeably  improved dynamic range performance over its predecessor. However, you'll have to wait for my review before I can confirm that to be true or not.

Canon 470EX-AI

The surprise show stealer for me was the revolutionary Canon Speedlite 470EX-AI which made me the most excited I've ever been for a flash before! This auto self adjusting flash head finds the best bounce angle on its own and ensures a pro caliber flash shot nearly every time - or so it's told.

In practice, I did find it to be quite good but I was in an environment with incredibly high ceilings so I couldn't get a proper bounce without the assist of someone holding something above my head to bounce off of.

Yes, it works - very well so I can't wait to get one of these to review!

This is no gimmick - enjoy the couple of videos I did here to show how it really does work!

CLICK HERE to learn more

Canon M50

While there was much buzz on the web about the announcement of the Canon M50, I was highly unimpressed at what I saw.

Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG HSM Art

I've been a big fan of the Sigma Art series primes, but the zooms haven't impressed me nearly as much. As a owner of the amazingly awesome Canon 11-24mm, I couldn't help but be interested in seeing what Sigma had to offer with its new 14-24mm zoom to compete with the legendary Nikon 14-24mm.

The price is right and it's definitely got great build quality, but I couldn't really do much with it at the show. It definitely has promise, so I may have to check this one out.

See my other SIGMA Art series reviews:

• SIGMA 24mm Art Series
• SIGMA 35mm Art Series
• SIGMA 50mm f/1.4 Art Series (includes comparisons)
• SIGMA 85mm f/1.4 Art Series - the best art series I've tested
• Nikon D850 Review with the SIGMA 135mm Art

Do It Yourself Book Printing on Epson SureColor Printers?

Epson SureColor printers have been a big hit and their quality on the Epson Legacy Series and Epson Signature Worthy is second to none.  However, if you've wanted double-sided printing or a book you've had to go elsewhere.

Epson is considering changing that and they are looking for your feedback, so leave me some comments if you think they should do this.

They are considering a double-sided paper as shown above, plus partnering with third parties on some software like the one shown below:

To help stick it all together, they'll work with some third party products like this one:

The early prototypes showed promise, but there's definitely some kinks to work out before this is ready to replace your current book provider. However, the idea has merit and I'm excited about it.

Are you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

PLEASE NOTE: You only need to post once and your comment WILL NOT appear until I've approved it. This is to avoid the massive amount of spam posts I get. As such, any comments with links will automatically get rejected.

ON1 Photo RAW 2018.1

My friends at ON1 showed me the latest improvements in 2018.1 and I've got to say that it's really starting to come together for this product. When they first made the switch to the Photo RAW series product it felt like it had lost a lot from its predecessor products, but it's making incredible strides to not only catch up with Lightroom but to leap frog it!

Check out this video to see overview to see what I mean:

Click here to learn more - and my discount will automatically be applied to ensure you'll get the lowest price possible!

Conclusion

While there definitely seems to be a down turn in photo editing software products at the show, there was still plenty to see and enjoy. Even if you aren't a wedding photographer, this is a fun and worthwhile show to attend to learn more about the latest new products. There's also a ton of great images to see from some very talented photographers, so if you are looking for an excuse to visit Las Vegas (and who isn't?!!!) in February, then save a spot on your calendar for WPPI 2019 next year!

Where to Buy?

CLICK HERE to learn more or buy today.

Other articles you may enjoy

See more reviews on the Reviews tab as well as links to my favorite products on Ron's Recommendations.

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

First Look: on1 Photo RAW 2018 - The Best HDR & Pano Editor Yet?

Try on1 Photo RAW 2018

I'm pretty busy these days so I don't have time for betas. As a result, I've been rocking along with on1 Photo RAW 2017 not paying much attention to what's coming next. Tonight in advance of the launch I finally kicked the tires and got both surprised and shocked by some of the changes so I thought I'd fill you in on some  of the ones that I think are worth your time to check out...

HDR Editor

I was super impressed with how fast and well this feature worked. Honestly, I didn't expect much as I've really been loving Aurora 2018 HDR as I prepare for my upcoming review.  However, I really have loved the fine grain control it offers with RAW images and how it it saves the merged file in a special format so that I can make non-destructive re-edits at anytime. This means that the HDR merge is never really final, and I can always go dial back in the dark and bright areas that might get messed up while editing. Check it out...

Sadly, this video doesn't do it justice because it kinda ends up with an image that doesn't look so hot. However, the image shown at the top of the article features one that I processed using HDR only (no presets) for very fast and realistic results.

Pano Feature

Some people love their panos, but I hate them. However, I thought this demo which shows how it not only does a good job creating panos, but it also adds metadata to make Facebook treat it as a spinnable pano too:

Maybe this is old news to you pano experts out there, but if you are like me and wondered how you could do this - this is it! Pretty sweet!

Mask Blur Chisel

I never quite got the hang of the chisel tool in the past, but this video here gave me one of those chimpanzee moments (you know, ooh, ooh) and I immediately wanted to go try it out.

More Cool Videos

Want to see what else is new? Start with the video above, then check out these videos...

• New Color Range Masks: https://youtu.be/OVAZo59TIRE
• Mew Luminosity Mask Tools: https://youtu.be/v7ry-zRGqAk
• Paint With Color Brush: https://youtu.be/2DiuYS2UBbM
• New Noise Adjustment Brush: https://youtu.be/KrM-e75OwSU
• Remove Haze from a Photo: https://youtu.be/vzz1ueLqTis

Conclusion

I was unhappy with on1 products for a few years, so I stopped covering them on my blog. I was frustrated with them crashing, features I loved being removed, and something that remained being uninteresting to me.

With the 2017 version I got interested again, but I found myself mostly using it for Resize and not much else. However, I've spent some time this evening playing with the new features and rediscovering this product again, and I like what I see.

At a minimum I'd encourage existing on1 fans to check it out as I think it's a worthy upgrade.

For those who have been burned in the past, I'd suggest giving it another go as the setup seems to do a good job of installing things in cleanly without any headaches. When trying out the product, I hit one snag when I selected  corrupt iPhone 7 file on my NAS, but other than that it was rock solid. It feels like some of the quality issues that plagued on1 in the past have been sorted, and more compelling features have been brought back to make it something worth considering again.

Contact me to let me know your thoughts!

Try it Today & Get  Discount

CLICK HERE to learn more and take it for a spin. If you like it, then try out the MART17 coupon code to get a 20% discount off your order. Contact me if you have any troubles with the special offer.

Other articles you may enjoy

Check out the Reviews tab as well as Ron's Recommendations.

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

Luminar 2018 & Aurora HDR 2018 for Windows & Mac Special Offer

I'm happy to announce that my friends at Skylum (formerly known as Macphun) have released Luminar 2018. This product has quickly become one of the hottest photo editing products and is hailed by many as the replacement for the Nik Collection.

To see what's new or pre-order please click the link below. You can also see what's see my Luminar for Windows Open Beta Review for some of the things you can do, but the final version is much more polished.

I'll be doing my full review later in November.

Oh, and if you are into HDR then my favorite HDR product for quite some time has been Aurora HDR, and the new 2018 version is out and better than ever. Learn more about what's new by clicking the image below:

Again, my review for this product will come out later in November.

Discount Offer

Save $10 on select Skylum (aka Macphun) products when you use the coupon code RONMART

This offer does not apply to pre-release products until after they are released, so Luminar is excluded at this time.

Conclusion

Sylum (formerly Macphun) is getting serious about bringing fast and easy to use products to market. While there's still some rough edges I'd like to see addressed, and improvements needed to get full parity of the WIndows versions vs the Mac versions, they have great presets that are fast and easy to use. It's also pretty cheap to own so it's definitely worth your time to check out the free trial.

Where to Buy?

CLICK HERE to learn more.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Aurora HDR 2017 Advanced Lessons Tutorial
• Aurora HDR 2018 for Windows & Mac (Discount)
• Luminar Tutorial and Review (Windows Open Beta)

Enjoy these and more on the Reviews tab as well as Ron's Recommendations.

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

Aurora HDR 2018 for Windows and Mac (DISCOUNT)

Aurora is one of the easiest to use HDR programs on the market and in this new version it gets faster, more powerful and significantly improved. Results from my early testing show the best merging of nighttime skies which typically turn out pretty nasty in Photomatix, HDR Efex Pro,  and even older versions of Aurora HDR. 

Don't know what this is or what it's all about? Start by checking out my older reviews and tutorials for my Aurora and later Aurora 2017 reviews.

The latest version has finally been announced and I've got a special offer for you:

One of the most common FAQ's I had since my original review of Aurora (and later Aurora 2017)  was when are they going to make a Windows version? The cries got even worse after I did my Luminar for Windows Open Beta article.

Here's a look at the new UI for Aurora HDR 2018 Windows:

Click to see the new Aurora 2018 for Windows UI

and Mac:

Click to see the new Aurora 2018 for Mac UI

What's New

Here's a list of all the changes which I'll feature in a new tutorial later this year:

• Next-generation Tone Mapping – A new smart Tone Mapping algorithm automatically reduces noise, and produces more realistic and natural initial results.
• Mac and Windows versions – Aurora HDR 2018 is available both for Mac and PC users, enabling mixed-computer households to share the same product key.
• Lens Correction Tool* – The new Lens Correction filter easily fixes all kinds of lens distortion, from barrel and pincushion to chromatic aberration and vignetting.
• Transform Tool* – Easily scale, rotate and shift your image to better fit your vision.
• Dodge & Burn Filter – Selectively lighten or darken specific areas of an image to artfully direct your viewer’s eye towards the key subject of your image, similar to a traditional darkroom technique.
• HDR Enhance Filter - Adds details and clarity to an image, adjusting colors, details and contrast without creating artificial halos or other problems.
• User Interface – A new, modern and responsive user interface brings a powerful, yet  joyful experience to HDR photo editing.
• History Panel – An easy-to-reference list of edits made to your image, the History panel allows you to click on any editing step to revert the photo to an earlier stage of editing.
• Touch Bar support for Mac – Aurora HDR 2018 adds Touch Bar support to give new MacBook Pro users fast access to key editing features and speed up their workflow.
• Image Flip and Rotate* – Perfect for correcting photos with incorrect horizons or making creative compositions or other stylistic changes to an image.
• IMPROVED:  New Structure Algorithm – The re-developed Structure tool allows you to adjust detail and clarity of an image to get a classic HDR effect with great detail or a smoother effect with less details.
• IMPROVED: RAW handling – An improved RAW conversion brings out more details in shadows/highlights, displays colors more accurately and reduces noise in RAW files.
• IMPROVED: Crop tool update – Now specify custom crop sizes for even more versatility.
• IMPROVED: Speed – Faster merging and masking performance, improvement in RAW image processing.

* Lens Correction and Transform tools, as well as image flip and rotate will be available in the Mac version at launch, and arrive in the PC version with the first free update in the beginning of October. Other tools and features that are currently available for Mac only would be added to PC version by the end of the year.

Conclusion

Much like Luminar, the Windows version isn't quite as polished as the Mac version - YET, but the folks at Macphun tell me that it's a high priority to get them to be functionally identical. I've been impressed with what I've seen so far and can't wait to show you more in the near future.

Get Your Discount Now

CLICK HERE to learn more or pre-order today. While you are at it check out the Luminar Aerial Update too!

Pre-Order Pricing:

• Current users of Aurora HDR may upgrade at a special pre-order price of $49 ($59 MSRP)
• New users can purchase Aurora HDR 2018 at a special pre-order price of $89 ($99 MSRP)
• A collection of bonuses will also be included with every purchase.

Pre-Order Bonuses:

• Trey Ratcliff Deep Dive video
• Travel Photography Tutorial by Matt Granger
• Source Brackets
• 3-month Zenfolio Pro website, including a complementary design consultation. $60 value.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Luminar for Windows Open Beta
• Luminar for Mac (check out the Luminar Aerial Update online)
• NEW Imagenomic Portraiture 3
• on1 Photo RAW 2017.5
• Topaz Studio (NEW)
• Ron's Photo Editing system for Windows
• Discount Coupon Codes 
• Ron's Recommendations 

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.