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.

Ron's Windows Photo Editing System - Intel NUC i7

On June 6, 2016 I picked up an Intel NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK Mini PC as my primary computer (RAM and storage sold separately). In the past year that I've used it for my Photoshop, Lightroom and Camtasia 9 video editing system, I haven't had a single regret.

Here's some of the highlights from the system:

• 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-6770HQ
• Intel® Iris™ Pro Graphics 580
• Up to 7.1 multichannel digital audio via HDMI or DisplayPort signals
• USB 3.1, Thunderbolt, Bluetooth 4.2, 802.11ac & more
• 32GB 1.2v DDR4 RAM (purchased separately - Crucial 32GB Kit (16GBx2) DDR4 2133 MT/s (PC4-17000) DR x8 SODIMM 260-Pin Laptop Memory - CT2K16G4SFD8213)
• 512GB NVMe M.2 Internal SSD (purchased separately - the 950 I have was replaced by the improved Samsung 960 PRO Series - 512GB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD) - this storage is the size of a stick of Wrigley's gum!
• Full tech specs here and hardware compat list here

At the time I ordered this setup it was $1092.98, but the RAM was only $103.99 so as of July 9, 2017 this setup cost about $1117 USD. Now it's VERY important to note that not just any DDR4 RAM will work in this system, you must have 1.2 or 1.35v DDR 2133 SODDIMS or it WILL NOT WORK. Since this RAM type is less common, the prices will fluctuate based on availability.

Dual Displays - No Problem

NUC shown in red on my current desktop setup
Click for a full size view

For my left and primary photo editing monitor, I use a 32" 3840x2160 4K UHD native resolution (NEC PA322UHD) display in landscape orientation as shown in the middle above and a NEC PA241W in portrait orientation as shown on the right. The big gray box on the right is my GTI light box for viewing/comparing prints against my calibrated displays.

Notice how tiny the NUC is - it's about as thick as two of my Wacom Intuos Pro Pen and Touch Tablet, Medium (PTH651) (review) stacked on top of each other. It's barely wider than three of my NEC SpectraSensor Pro calibration puck. Simply put, this thing isn't a problem when it comes to space, and if it is then you can mount it to your display to get it out of the way.

Here's more info on my main display:

NEC PA322UHD-BK-SV 32" 4k Display at Amazon and at B&H (review)

Performance

Here's unedited iPhone video of me turning on my Intel NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK Mini PC with fast boot enabled and legacy boot turned off after 1 year of use with no disk degrag and 126 GB free disk space (40 seconds):

Here's unedited iPhone video of me restarting my Intel NUC Kit NUC6i7KYK Mini PC with fast boot enabled and legacy boot turned off after 1 year of use with no disk degrag and 126 GB free disk space (18 seconds):

What about Photoshop?

Here's a video I did that shows how fast Photoshop and some image files (including one that's over 700 MB) took to open:

NOTE: Please excuse my error in the video - I meant to say 10 bits per color channel, not 8. Read here to see why 30-bit (10-bit per channel) is a big deal.

I've been using this set up for over a year and edited countless files, and I've never found performance to be a problem. Because my work includes reviewing cameras, I've used the Nikon D800, D810, Sony a7R,  a7R II, Canon 5Ds and 5DsR and their large files haven't been a problem for me either.

Lightroom performs well too, but for confidentiality reasons I am not able to provide a good demo. What I can say is that my catalogs are created for each calendar year and contain 35,00 - 45,000 images all living on my external NAS, and I've never been bothered by the performance.

A note about Photoshop performance & Plug-ins

90% of your boot time for Photoshop is loading your plug-ins. For the record, I load A LOT of plug-ins so if your list is smaller than this then your boot time will be faster:

What about creating video?

I don't do much video so I can't comment a whole lot, but I can say that my typical 5 minute blog videos generally take about 10 minutes to render via WMV - much faster (around 2 minutes) if I'm only doing 1080p MP4. There are a lot of variables so your performance will vary. This machine can certainly handle video, but you'll want to be doing something else while it renders because it's not breakneck fast.

Is 512GB storage enough? Where do you keep your photos?

I use a Synology 1515+ with 16 terabytes of a usable space for my photo storage needs plus a ioSafe DS1515+ (review includes Synology details) for redundant data protection as mentioned in my Scott Kelby article

99.9% of my photos get loaded directly off and saved to the NAS as part of my workflow and that hasn't been a performance problem that has ever bothered me.

What about your laptop?

I use a Surface Pro 4 as my laptop, and I own a Mid 2015 i7 based Retina 15" Macbook Pro that I use for blog videos. I love them both, but I prefer the Surface Pro for the weight and Windows Hello for logging in. However, I don't do much photo editing on either, I use my NUC 99% of the time. That said, when I have edited photos on both of them I haven't had any issues, so I'd say I'm happy with both.

Conclusion

Yes, using a tower system with multiple SSD drives as I had done in the past is faster. However, I'm extremely happy with this much smaller, quieter, more reliable and cheaper system than ones I've purchased in the past from Alienware, Dell, Gateway, and more.

Drivers have been reliable and updates are issued more often than I need or want them, but that's a good thing. I haven't updated in months and my system has been rock solid (no blue screens or any problems whatsoever).

Windows 10 can be a little sluggish in Explorer sometimes for reasons I can't fully understand, but Devices & Printers and the Settings control panel always open instantly on the builds I'm using. Office and Outlook run extremely well too (and I have all mail dating back to 2009 loaded locally).

Geek Stuff

All of the NUC's feature the Visual BIOS which is the most beautiful BIOS I've ever used in my 30 year high tech career, and Intel has been awesome about making updates easy with the driver update utility 2.8.1.9 shown:

Where to Buy?

CLICK HERE to learn more or buy today. Intel has also has a great NUC website here, and

Other articles you may enjoy

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

• Ron's Guest Appearance on Scott Kelby blog writing about data protection
• Wacom Intuos Pro
• GTI PDV-2020ex - Professional Desktop Viewer
• ioSafe 1515+ NAS powered by Synology DSM–The Ultimate in Photo & Video Storage
• NEC PA242W Monitor Review (PA241W & PA271W Review)
• NEC PA302W Monitor Review (PA301W Review)
• NEC PA322UHD 4k for Pro Photo & Video Editing
• NEC EA244UHD 4k Display
• NEC SoundBar Pro Display Speakers
• NEC SpectraSensor Pro (powered by X-Rite)
• Canon PRO-1000 17" Professional Printer
• Canon PRO-2000 Large Format Printer
• Epson SureColor P600 Printer Review
• Epson SureColor P800 Review
• Epson SureColor P5000 Preview
• Ron's Recommendations
• Printing Series 

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 Tutorial - On Sale Now

Macphun has released its newest photo editing product called Luminar. It's more powerful than Lightroom, yet easier to use than Photoshop.

Luminar Key Features:

• Adaptive User Interface
  • Multiple Modes: From basic to advanced
  • One-click switch between modes
  • Change modes anytime
• All-in-one photo editing tool set
  • Includes essential editing tools for different photography styles
  • Live editing, live processing, live previews
  • Non-destructive editing
  • Works as a standalone app or plug-in
  • RAW converter & processor
  • History Panel

To help quickly get up to speed, I've created this video tutorial:

Where to get it or learn more?

Click here to get your free trial version here or to learn more.

Other Articles You Might Enjoy

• Aurora HDR 2017 Tutorial
• Discount Coupon Codes 

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission.

Aurora HDR 2017 is now available

***REVIEW COMING SOON****

Here's a summary of what's new:

• Speed Improvements
• Polarize Tool
• Batch Processing
• DNG  File support
• HDR Noise Reduction
• Top and Bottom Adjustments
• Luminosity Masking
• Radial Masking
• Advanced Tone Mapping
• and more

Check out this blog link for the latest details and videos!

Click here to learn more, download a free trial or order today.

Stuck in customs also has a special offer here too.

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.

REVIEW: Topaz Glow 2 (Discount Offer)

I really enjoyed the first version of Glow, so I'm very excited to announce the release of Glow 2 which is faster and better than its predecessor.

While I recommend that you start by reading my first Glow review, the important thing to know about this product is that you are in control. Simply put, there's no need to use the electrify feature that gives the fake look.

The photo below is a great example of one click edit that helped wipe out the distracting background without adding the electrify effect. I'm in control via the edit feature which allows me to add my own additions and omissions from any template.

Click for a larger view to see how effects can be subtle and effective in one click!

Of course if you want to go crazy with electrify, you may

Do you have fireworks shots that are just blah? Check out how some tender use of electrify can be pretty cool:

Click for a larger view to see new blending modes and mask features make it more powerful when used from Lightroom

Improvements

Glow 2 now features the following improvements:

1. Over 50 New Effects - Glow 2 features over 50 new effects from striking to subtle. You now have over 120 ways to create amazing lighting effects in one click. 
2. Unlimited Undo/Redo - With the new Glow 2, you can Undo changes or Redo them as many times as you need to. 
3. Integrated Masking - New integrated masking technology allows you to apply luminous detail to the image exactly where you want with a variety of masking tools including spot, color, luminosity, and brush masking.
4. Over 20 Blending Modes - Achieve perfect control with 28 blend modes and a precision opacity slider.

Click here to learn more.

Video

Here's a great video that shows off Glow 2 and what's new:

Click to learn more

Where to learn more or order?   (DISCOUNT OFFER)

Get the free trial or buy Topaz Glow 2 now for less than $49 (originally $69.99) with coupon code : GLOW2 (valid until September 3rd, 2016). After that discount runs out, check out my discount coupon page for offers on any Topaz Labs software and other great products.

Other articles you may enjoy

Here’s some of my Topaz Labs software reviews:

• Topaz Labs Glow 1.0
• Topaz Adjust 5.0
• Topaz Labs B&W Effects 2 (B&W Products Comparison)
• Topaz Labs DeNoise 3.0
• Topaz Labs Impression 2
• Topaz Labs Lens Effects
• Topaz Labs ReMask 5.0
• Topaz Labs Restyle 1.0
• Topaz Labs Simplify 4
• Topaz Labs Star Effects
• Topaz Labs Texture Effects

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.

REVIEW: Wacom Cintiq 13HD

Cintiq 13HD 13.3" Interactive Pen Display

For the past month I’ve been using a Cintiq 13HD 13.3" Interactive Pen Display. Previously I had been using the Wacom Intuos 4, and I was a Intuos 3 user before that.

Like many, I was excited about the idea of having a display built into the tablet because I thought it would be great for editing images. It seemed like a brilliant idea, so I was excited when my review unit arrived.

During my testing I tried it both with a MacBook Pro (pre-ThunderBolt) and my Windows 7 based Alienware Aurora systems. I started off by doing a calibration as the default picture quality on the display was terrible.

Overall I found the setup and ease of use on the Mac to be very good. Things just worked for the most part, but on Windows the drivers didn’t seem to be very good. Despite downloading the latest driver off the web, my Drobo Pro connected via iSCSI stopped working when I installed the tablet driver. Over a month later I haven’t been able to figure out what it did, so I’ve had to resort to using my Drobo in the very slow USB mode.

I eventually got it working on my PC, but it certainly was less stable than my Intuos 4 (in USB mode).

Overall Impressions

It’s times like this that I’m glad that I can review products because this is one that I found to be very disappointing. Perhaps it is because I use a Asus Zenbook with a touch screen as my daily work laptop, but I found the display both lacking in color depth and the touch performance to be mediocre. The pictures always show vivid images, but the viewing angle of this device isn’t very good so you have to be looking at it fairly head on to get the best picture quality.

Another practical oddity that you never think about until you own one these is that you can’t just drag your pen to objects on your other displays. You must first tap a display toggle button, otherwise your pen is locked to the Cintiq or your other displays. While this logically makes sense, in practice I found it hard to get used to.

Ironically I found that I didn’t really like running Photoshop on the Cintq because on the Mac the toolbar would default to the non Citique display so I kept having to toggle back and forth between displays to use the menu. While I could move the Mac’s menu to the Cintiq, that isn’t where I wanted it for all of my other apps.

Windows applications are self contained so they worked much better with the Cintq, but the tiny display was too small to host all of Photoshop. As a result, I found myself leaving the main app on one display and dragging just the window to the Cintq. This lead me with the Mac problem where I had to toggle to switch my cursor back and forth between the Citniq and my other displays. This was too cumbersome and annoying.

Perhaps the most shocking discovery was that for precise photo editing, the small display was challenging to use and my hands kept getting in the way. Sure, I could do nice demos of how things work but in practice I hated editing photos directly on the Citniq display. This lead me to use the Cintiq as a regular tablet, rather than something I can edit with.

Conclusion

Due to the previously obscene prices of the Cintiq’s, I never bothered to buy one and I couldn’t get one to review. After being used to Retina iPad’s, iPhone’s, and Windows 8 touch devices my bar about what I expect from a color display and touch screen is high. The Cintiq display failed to meet those expectations. It felt a bit like an outdated display with only pen technology to control it when my fingers were expecting to be able to do both touch and pen (like a Samsung Note or Windows Surface Pro).

I’m sure there will be fan boys who scream bloody murder at my review, and there’s probably sketch artist who will appreciate the Cintiq’s more than me. However, I ended up either not using it, or using it only as a tablet during a portion of my review period.

My advice is to save your money and get a Wacom Intuos 5. You’ll get pen performance that is roughly the same as the Cintiq, but you’ll have money to buy a good display like the NEC PA Series. This is basically what I’m doing now, but I anxiously await the near future when all my displays have capacitive touch support so the Cintiq won’t make any sense. Even today, a device like the Lenovo ThinkPad Helix gives you a touch display that is better than a Cintiq with a tablet & laptop included for only a few hundred dollars more.

Where to order

Click here to order the Cintiq 13HD 13.3" Interactive Pen Display at B&H web site, or go for the Wacom Intuos 5 instead.

Other articles you may enjoy

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

• Wacom Intuos 4 Review
• Choosing The Right Display Calibration Device
• NEC PA Series Monitors
• NEC PA242W

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.

I was provided with a loaner tablet which I returned after publishing this article.

REVIEW: Arcsoft Portrait+ (Discount Offer)

Arcsoft Portrait+ Makes Image Editing Easy

One of my favorite books is Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers using Photoshop because I think it does a great job demystifying the subject of portrait editing. With that said, there’s still lots of grunt work involved so I can easily spend 5+ hours editing a single photo. This of course begs the question, what if there were a product that could simplify that process?

Portrait Professional is probably the product most people are familiar with due to their extensive advertising, but when I used it I felt very disappointed. onOne tried to tackle the problem with Perfect Portrait, and they got closer to my desire to have “automatic” enhancements that didn’t look cheesy. There’s also Portraiture and Nik’s Dynamic Skin Softener that can be used with more grunt work to get results that more closely align with my preferences, but both are going to be too tedious to use for an entire face, eye, teeth and lips edit of the average face. This is exactly why ArcSoft created Portrait+ to make auto retouching faces much easier and more  comprehensive in very little time.

Features

Plenty Sliders are available

Overall, I found the user interface to be clean and straightforward. It features some test images you can use when you first start, or you can use your own image. It features automatic face detection, but like most implementation of this technique – it often requires some user adjustments to the default wireframe.

Above average facial part recognition and a wealth of presets are some of the strengths

Once the face has been detected, you simply use the presets or sliders to get your desired look. Simple retouch brushes are included as well.

Bulk Edits with manual settings and presets are first class features

One of the highlights of this product is its excellent batch editing support. If you do lots of editing of similar types of images, this can be a huge time saver.

Conclusion

While I like this product better than some that I’ve used in the past, I’m still a hard core do-it-yourself portrait retoucher who prefers to use Portraiture. I’d place this product ahead of the results I’ve obtained using the latest version of Portrait Pro 11, but similar to what I’m used to getting from Perfect Portrait.  This product seems to offer better bulk/batch editing of a large number of photos, but I can’t edit faces that way so I didn’t really test that feature.

Where to order

Click here to learn more or order and use my 15% off coupon code, RMARC , on any ArcSoft product. You can also save 25% off Portrait+ for a limited time when you use the coupon code RMARCPP. Here’s an example that shows how your cart should look (please note, codes and discount amounts may change from what appears in this image):

Other articles you may enjoy

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

• Imagenomic Noiseware 4.1.1 Professional (Latest Version)
• Imagenomic Portraiture 2.x (Latest Version Tutorial)
• onOne Perfect Photo Suite 7
• Portrait Professional 10
• What Photoshop books should I read?
• Professional Portrait Retouching Techniques for Photographers using Photoshop

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.

I was provided a copy of this product to review.

Getting Great 4x6 Prints Without Any Hassle–Part II of II

This is the continuation of my previous article entitled, Getting Great 4x6 Prints Without Any Hassle–Part I of II. If you haven’t read that already, I encourage you to do so before proceeding any further.

Lightroom Tip

In Lightroom you always start with the Page Setup button on the bottom right side of the print module that looks like this:

Canon PRO-1

Setting the Printer Driver – Windows

When you click it you will set the paper size to 4x6 and click the Properties button to set additional settings:

Printer Driver – Quick Setup Page

After you are done with the steps listed here you might want to Save a new “Commonly Used Setting” so you don’t have to check all of this every time you print.

On this page you start with Photo Printing as a default until you have your own custom commonly used setting created. From there you have to set Borderless Printing, the Media Type to Photo  Paper Plus Gloss II, the Printer Paper Size to 4”x6” and Print Quality to High as shown here:

I just use Portrait orientation for Lightroom because it sorts things out so that everything just works. If printing from Photoshop you must choose the correct orientation of your image OR rotate your image to the Portrait orientation to ensure your image is positioned properly on the final output print.

Printer Driver – Main Page

The media type should still be correct based on your first page settings, so the only big change here is that you MUST choose a Manual Color/Intensity and click the Set button:

After clicking Set you’ll see the Manual Color Adjustment dialog where you’ll switch to the Matching page and choose None to turn color management OFF on your printer driver. If you fail to do this then you’ll get double color managed prints that will look horrible.

Printer Driver – Page Setup

For this page you shouldn’t need to do anything based on the settings already specified, but you should always double check.

Setting the Printer Driver – OS X

Coming soon…

Lightroom Settings for Mac & Windows

After closing this dialog and returning to Lightroom you are ready to work in the print module. You start by either creating a new template or modifying an existing one. I usually start with the “(1) 4x6 template”.

All you need to do here is reset all of your margins to 0. If you can’t do this then it means you didn’t set borderless printing in your printer driver, so repeat the steps above and try again.

Once you have 0 margins you can make the cell size 6.00in by 4.00in as highlighted below:

Use 300 ppi & “Canon PRO-1 <GL><PP> 3 Photo Plus Paper Glossy” profile
with zero margins and a 4x6 cell size

Your final steps are to simply change the print resolution to 300ppi and choose your printer profile. Your profile should be Canon PRO-1 <GL><PP> 3 Photo Plus Paper Glossy for gloss, and for Semi-Gloss paper you’d choose Canon PRO-1 <SG> 3 Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss.

Photoshop CS6 Settings for Windows and Mac

Photoshop works much like Lightroom in that most of the work is done in the printer dialog, but there are a few things you need to make sure you do right in Photoshop.

I generally resize my images in advance using onOne Perfect Resize 7.5 or greater, then I sharpen my images as a last step before printing. If you’ve done this step properly you’ll be able to have a “Scaled Print Size” that has a scale of 100%. If you don’t do this then you’ll need to use Scale to Fit Media which does a good job, but will stretch your image so some image quality is lost.

With those disclaimers, here’s what you need to do with a properly resized image:

1. Choose your printer and then make sure your printer settings are correct EVERY TIME
1. Make sure Photoshop’s Layout setting matches Canon’s Orientation setting
2. Be sure to set your Color Handling to Photoshop Manages Colors
3. Make sure you check Black Point Compensation and Center Position.

Epson Stylus Photo R3000

Setting the Printer Driver – Windows

When you click it you will set the paper size to 4x6 and click the Properties button to set additional settings:

Printer Driver – Main Page

This is your most important step in getting a correct print because you need to make sure you are using:

1. Photo Black Ink
2. Premium Photo Paper Glossy Media Type
3. Max Quality Print Quality
4. Your Mode setting should be Off (No Color Adjustment) to avoid double color management
5. Your paper settings are 4 x 6 in Sheet Borderless with default expansion settings

Here’s what it should all look like:

Setting the Printer Driver – Page Layout

Here’s how I set my Page Layout page by default, but sometimes I’ll check Reduce/Enlarge:

In Photoshop you must ALWAYS set the orientation correctly in this dialog.

Printer Driver – Current Settings

Your current settings window should have a summary that looks roughly like this:

Setting the Printer Driver – OS X

Coming soon…

Lightroom Settings for Mac & Windows

After closing this dialog and returning to Lightroom you are ready to work in the print module. You start by either creating a new template or modifying an existing one. I usually start with the “(1) 4x6 template”.

All you need to do here is reset all of your margins to 0. If you can’t do this then it means you didn’t set borderless printing in your printer driver, so repeat the steps above and try again.

Once you have 0 margins you can make the cell size 6.00in by 4.00in as highlighted below:

Use 360 ppi & “SPR300 Premium Glossy” profile with zero margins and a 4x6 cell size

Your final steps are to simply change the print resolution to 360ppi and choose your printer profile. Your profile should be SPR300 Premium Glossy for gloss, and for Semi-Gloss paper you’d choose SPR 3000 Premium Semigloss.

Photoshop CS6 Settings for Windows and Mac

Photoshop works much like Lightroom in that most of the work is done in the printer dialog, but there are a few things you need to make sure you do right in Photoshop.

I generally resize my images in advance using onOne Perfect Resize 7.5 or greater, then I sharpen my images as a last step before printing. If you’ve done this step properly you’ll be able to have a “Scaled Print Size” that has a scale of 100%. If you don’t do this then you’ll need to use Scale to Fit Media which does a good job, but will stretch your image so some image quality is lost.

With those disclaimers, here’s what you need to do with a properly resized image:

1. Choose your printer and then make sure your printer settings are correct EVERY TIME
1. Make sure Photoshop’s Layout setting matches Epson’s Orientation setting
2. Be sure to set your Color Handling to Photoshop Manages Colors
3. Make sure you check Black Point Compensation and Center Position.

Conclusion

Hopefully you will find this helpful in solving the frustration of making small prints for loved ones of your favorite photos. If so, please do me a favor and share a link to this article with your friends on your favorite social media sites and web forums. I’d also appreciate if you could consider making a donation or making purchases using links found in my articles and discount coupon codes.

NOTE: I ran out of time tonight so I wasn’t able to include the Mac screen shots, but I’ll try to do that soon. Thanks for your patience!

Where to order

Here’s links to where you can get 4x6 paper for Canon and Epson in Glossy and Semi-Gloss formats:

• Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy II (4 x 6") 100 Sheets
• Canon SG-201 Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss - 4x6" - 50 Sheets
• Epson Ultra Premium Glossy Photo Paper - 4x6" - 100 Sheets
• Epson Premium Semi-Gloss Photo Paper for Inkjet 4x6" - 40 Sheets

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• AutoPrint – ImagePrint’s best kept secret? – if you need your staff/family to easily get 4x6 prints with just drag and drop, this is the way to go!
• Which Printer Should I Buy? Epson or Canon?
• Choosing The Right Display Calibration Device – so what you see on the screen matches what you see on the print

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. I was also provided with samples of 4x6 paper at my request by Canon and Epson under no obligation.

Epson Ultra Premium Luster Review and How To Walkthrough Videos for Mac & Windows

Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster Inkjet Signature Worthy Paper

If you use an Epson printer, the odds are you’ve had a chance to use Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster so you know how good it is. If you haven’t, then run out and get some now because this is the paper that you grew up thinking was the stuff that professional studios used. It’s a high quality, but reasonably priced paper that is easy to use and produces gorgeous results on any Epson printer (as well as other printer brands if you can find the ICC Profiles for it).

This paper is also has the prestigious distinction of being an entry level member of the Epson Signature Worthy™ papers. These papers are for those who insist on the highest quality papers that perform extremely well with today’s best inks like Epson’s UltraChrome® K3 and HDR. When you buy this paper, you know you are getting what Epson believes to be the best media for their printers and something you should be proud to sign your name on. Based on my experiences with all of the Signature Worthy papers, I couldn’t agree more!

Quick Facts

Basis weight	240 g/m² (260 Roll Available)
Thickness	10 mil
ISO brightness	97%
Opacity	97%
Gloss at 60º	16
Hot lamination	Yes
Base material	Polyethylene Encapsulated Paper
Surface finish	Luster

Here’s a few more things to know about this paper:

• It has a super high color gamut available for vivid color reproduction
• RC paper base for photorealistic prints
• Luster E surface finish
• Dries instantly for easy handling with Epson inks
• 10 mil thickness for a durable photographic feel

Helpful links on Epson’s web site

• Premium Luster Photo Paper Fact Sheet
• Print Permanence Ratings (also see Wilhelm Imaging Research)
• Framing Tips for Photographic Papers
• Ink and Paper Compatibility Guide

Print Test Image

For this review, I chose to use the following image:

Copyright (c) Ron Martinsen - All Rights Reserved

However, I’ve printed hundreds of images on this paper so I’m quite familiar with it. I often use the Outback Print Printer Evaluation Image to evaluate papers and printers when doing side-by-side comparisons, but I already had done that with this paper and printer so I decided to use a different image for this review.

If you are doing your own evaluation, I strongly encourage you to use the Outback Print Printer Evaluation Image or something similar to it.

How To Videos for Mac OS X

The following videos are designed to teach you how to use your Epson printer driver with Photoshop and Lightroom to successfully print out your favorite images using Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster on a Epson Stylus Photo R3000, Stylus Pro 3880 and Stylus Pro 4900 printers. For the Mac versions I’ve created separate videos for each printer.

I should note that in one of the videos for the R3000 when I talk about the SPR3000 Luster profile I say SP stands for Spectrolina but ignore that. It actually means Stylus Photo in the case of the R3000 profiles.

Photoshop CS6 Tutorials

R3000 Tutorial

3880 Tutorial

4900 Tutorial

Lightroom Tutorials

The following tutorial applies to Lightroom 4.3 for Apple OS X (10.8 in this case) using Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster on a Epson Stylus Photo R3000, Stylus Pro 3880 and Stylus Pro 4900:

 

How To Videos for Windows

Since it took me so long to make the Mac videos I decided to consolidate them for the Windows videos. Besides, Windows users tend to be a little more computer savvy, right? ;-)

Photoshop CS6 Tutorials

The following tutorial applies to Photoshop CS6 for Windows using Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster on a Epson Stylus Photo R3000, Stylus Pro 3880 and Stylus Pro 4900:

Lightroom Tutorials

The following tutorial applies to Lightroom 4.3 for Windows using Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster on a Epson Stylus Photo R3000, Stylus Pro 3880 and Stylus Pro 4900:

NOTE: I say "distorted" for Zoom to Fill, but it's not really distorted. What I mean to say is that it will scale your image to fit which may be undesirable for pixel peepers. Most users are going to be very satisfied with the results.

Sample Pack

Okay, I know paper is expensive so if you just want to try out these papers and others from the Signature Worthy collection then I recommend the Epson Signature Worthy Sample Pack (8.5 x 11", 14 Sheets) .  If you like these then please support this blog by coming back here and using my links when ordering more paper – thanks!

Conclusion

Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster is a fantastic paper for any Epson user to begin with. It’s a high quality paper that you can be proud to give your customers and it’s available at a price that won’t break the bank. I use it all of the time and love it!

If you want to step up from this paper, then I strongly recommend Epson Exhibition Fiber as the ultimate paper to show off your work. In my opinion, EFP is one of the best papers on the market – period!

Where to order

Click here to order Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster on the B&H web site. My friends at Adorama have it available here and Amazon has it available here.

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• Printing Series – If you like this article, you will love this!!!!
• Printing 101 eBook 

• Choosing the right Epson printer
• Epson Stylus® Photo R3000 Review
• Epson Stylus® Pro 3880 Overview Review
• Epson 4900 Review
• Epson Exhibition Fiber Paper Review and How To Walkthrough
• Epson Hot & Cold Press Papers
• How To: Using Epson’s Advanced B&W Photo (ABW) printing feature – Great resource for printing black and white!
• Topaz Labs B&W Effects 2 (discusses Silver Efex Pro and Perfect B&W too) 
• Understanding Epson’s Printable Area Feature to Avoid Uneven Margins on the 4900 – Read this if your images won’t print in the center of the page

• Breathing Color Lyve Canvas – The best canvas I've ever used!  (discount offer)
• ColorByte ImagePrint (discount) – My favorite Epson RIP!
• Metallic Paper Comparison: Red River Polar Pearl vs LexJet Sunset Photo (Coupon Code Included)
• Ilford Galerie Prestige Smooth Pearl Photo Paper
• Paper discounts on my discount coupon code page from companies like Red River Paper

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.

REVIEW: FotoMagico 4.2 Demo & Discount – A Wedding Photographers Must Own App!

About four months ago I got contacted to see if I wanted to review a product called FotoMagico. I get lots of these offers, but my to-do list is so long that I turn most of them down. I quickly checked out the web site to see what this product was about and was immediately intrigued. Fast forward to today when I finally got time to review this product and I’m now kicking myself for not doing it out sooner!

In short, FotoMagico is a very inexpensive, yet easy and fun to use app for generating videos of your photos and videos with great transitions, music and more. Sure, you’ve seen lots of apps like this, but if you are like me most have failed to meet your expectations. Of course web sites like Animoto showed great promise and were super popular, but it was absurdly priced so why bother right?

WARNING: This is a Mac OS X product only. It will not run on Windows! (Don’t feel bad Windows users, QImage doesn’t run on OS X – much to the frustration of Mac users <g>).

User Interface Tour

The user interface is clean and simple with nice integration with both the files on your drive as well as your libraries in iPhoto, Lightroom and Aperture. You just select your images and drag and drop them onto the storyboard.

Once you have your files dropped you can create an instant slideshow and be done – zero work on your part – or you can use the storyboard or timeline to customize your presentation.

The Timeline is powerful so you can perform advanced customizations with text that appears on demand.

You can even add videos as well as photos, and you can choose for auto advancement of your slides or click to navigate (on supported platforms).

You can even have teleprompter notes to display on a second display or beamer to provide your own words during a live presentation.

New for 4.2 - Masks and Opacity Control!

FotoMagico Demo

Here’s a demo that the folks at Boinx wanted me to show you so you can see what’s possible after you master this product:

and here’s my first video (rated PG) that I created using low res images off my people portfolio (NSFW) with very little effort:

I did this without reading any manuals or any help, and now that I've done it once I could easily recreate a video like this with new content in less than 10 minutes. There is an error at the end with the audio that could have been prevented with a feature that exists in FotoMagico to adjust the slide timing based on the length of the audio, but I forgot to use that before publishing my video.

What’s New in 4.2

If you’ve already been using this cool product, then you might be curious to know what’s new in version 4. Here’s a little video that tells you all about it (which new users might find useful as well):

Here’s also what’s new in 4.2:

Click here to see more videos on some of the new enhancements like the splitscreen effect, picture in picture, the spotlight effect and more.

Conclusion

I hate video because it’s too time consuming and a pain in ass to edit, but this changes my view a little bit. FotoMagico was super easy and fun to use so I quickly became addicted to video experimentations! I was very satisfied with the results that didn’t take me long to build (excluding time wasted experimenting just for fun). It was also super easy to build output videos for YouTube, Vimeo, DVD, and iOS devices with a click of a button. In short, all software should be this be fun and simple.

Oh, and in case you are wondering – in the two hours I played around with FotoMagico on my 3 year old MacBook Pro, it didn’t crash or hang once. 8GB was plenty and the performance on newer systems should be even better!

Now you are no longer limited to the crappy slideshows that Lightroom creates nor do you have a reason (if you have a Mac) to not make videos of your work. This is a really cool app that I’m very excited about and highly recommend it! If you are a wedding or event photographer, then you'll really love it as its so much easier and faster than anything I’ve used!

To learn more or get A 5 day free trial visit boinx.com here. Don’t forget to come back here to get a discount on your order using the link below!

Special Offer – Save 10%

Click here to get your 10% discount (it should appear something like what you see below):

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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. I also was provided a copy of this product to review for the purpose of bringing this article to you.