Nik and Pure RAW software on sale

Tom and I use the Nik plugin filters for creative editing. About half of our images are SOOC (straight out of camera) but the other half we enjoy creative editing. 

Nik is on sale for Black Friday. 

Order here https://tidd.ly/32okP1W

Tom and I also use the DxO PureRAW for noise reduction. I have done side by side comparisons with many noise reduction software (Topax AI clear replaced Topaz Denoise, but not PureRAW is superior to all other products. 

Purchase PureRAW here https://tidd.ly/32okP1W

FYI, Tom and I do not use the DxO Photolab as we like the control that Adobe ACR and Nik offers

You can compare the default ACR settings (sharpening = 40) in Adobe Camera RAW going into Photoshop (same as the lightroom develop module) here to the next version, where the noise was processed with DxO PureRAW. Images can actually look noisier in Adobe software than in the native software so we have changed the RAW defaults to sharpening = 0 for ORF RAW files)

PureRAW from DxO is a game-changer for high ISO images, like this one, and also for low ISO images where the image was underexposed (typically you want to expose to the right)

Topaz Black Friday Sale

Topaz Black Friday Promo Dates. Now through Monday, Nov 29th. Everything is on sale. Use our link https://web.topazlabs.com/ref/130 and enter promo code breaphotos for an additional 15% off

We just love, love, love their products. Our favorites? Topaz Glow, Topaz AI Clear, Topaz AI sharpen, Topaz Impression

• Image Quality Bundle. Includes: DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Gigapixel AI
  On sale for $99.99, more than 60% OFF the retail value of $259.97 
• Everything Bundle. Includes: Image Quality Bundle + Video Enhance AI
• On sale for $199.98, $359.98 OFF the retail value of $559.96 
• Everything is on sale!. Get 25% off any individual app, as well as 25% off upgrades 

We just love, love, love their products. Our favorites? Topaz Glow, Topaz AI Clear, Topaz AI sharpen, Topaz Impression

Enter the discount use code breaphotos for 15% off Topaz products. https://web.topazlabs.com/ref/130

Lisa Wins KelbyOne's Photoshop World Guru Creative Category Award

This week I received two emails from KelbyOne with wonderful news:

"It with great pleasure to let you know that you are one of the nominees for our Photoshop World Guru Awards!!

Congratulations"

Both nominations were in the creative category

Then last night the winners were announced and I won the Creative Category with Car Face!

Seascapes, Birds, Long Exposure, and More for PPA's Photography Workshops, September 11, 2021

I'm excited to be teaching a program on Seascapes, Birds, Long Exposure, and More for PPA's Photography Workshops, September 11, 2021 at 6:30am - 1:30pm!

Join me (Tom) for this great workshop.

Register by Sept 5th and save! Registration is open and $99 rate through September 5, 2021 ($120 after).

Register at (non-PPA members are welcome, note you will need to create a free PPA login).

https://www.ppa.com/events/seascapes-birds-long-exposure-and-more-9-11-2021?fbclid=IwAR1B6L8taOYIcuDNDho7uPUMYff3dc5UD45dPt-65t5zpqDlRnwCEqfFN7g

Come learn how to compose better seascapes, landscapes, and closeups. Seascapes can be wonderful and relaxing to create and popular to sell and compete. We will start at sunrise and get silhouettes and sunrise images, then progress to closeups, sand, seascapes, etc. Bring your ND filter and learn how to create silky ocean scenes. Bring your telephoto lens and I will also show you techniques to get better and sharper bird photographs. This area has a variety of birds like Osprey, Egrets, Clapper Rails, Great Blue Herons, Oyster Catchers, Willets, Terns, and other shorebirds. Come and learn about bird behavior and camera settings to get sharper and more dynamic bird images.

Best Of’ Olympus Passion Photography Magazine includes our article about night photography

The article on live composite that Tom and I wrote made it into this issue of the BEST of for Olympus Passion magazine

Best Of’ Olympus Passion Photography Magazine –  Summer 2021 https://shop.olympuspassion.com/product/best-of-olympus-passion-photography-magazine-summer-2021/

Composed by 391 pages with a selection of our most popular articles, all condensed into a single volume and ready to go with you on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, computer, notebook, iPAD, etc.

From interviews to tutorials, we present you a fine set of exclusive contents.

• Just another occasional photographer Santtu Per Kiö
• My adventure with Olympus Sylwia Ratajczyk
• Capturing Star Trails using Live Composite Lisa & Tom Cuchara
• Beautiful locked world Lívia Czank
• The right tool for the job Ingo Urbig
• User friendly Zachary Matenchuk
• Time for a stable world Fernando Gainzarain
• Fine Art Photography using Olympus Hatta Patria
• Dog’s life through a lens Nina Kalkkinen
• You can’t go wrong with Olympus Adam Dybowski
• City landscape work using Olympus Toby Lehner
• Olympus experience in Yangshuo, China John Salvino
• Moments in time Drew Whitley
• I usually do not photograph what I see, but instead, what I would really like to see Konstantinos Sahlos
• It’s the little things Chris McGinnis
• Lives captured in parts of a second Cliff Harvey
• My ‘Olympus-feeling’ Szilveszter Nemeth
• No one will see the world the way you see it Andreas Tornberg
• Still life photography an obsession Ron Mayhen
• Altering course John Pryke\

Super Resolution is in LR now (ACR since March)

Super resolution has been in ACR in Photoshop for many months (since March) now, but it is finally directly in LR

Have you tried the Abobe ACR Super Resolution yet? It is awesome! It increases the pixel count 400%. Enhance allows you to increase image quality for making large prints or increasing the resolution of a cropped image. It is coming to Lightroom "soon" (soon is Adobe's timeframe, stated in March), but for now, right click, edit in, open smart object in Photoshop which will open the file in ACR).

Bottom line: Work well and it is Better, Faster, and Easier (workflow wise) than Topaz Gigapixel. 

Why/When use Abobe ACR Super Resolution? 

-- for older cameras with less megapixels 

-- to crop an image to get bigger birds/subjects  

"Super Resolution, introduced in Camera Raw 13.2, helps create an enhanced image with similar results as Raw Details but with 2x the linear resolution. This means that the enhanced image will have 2x the width and 2x the height of the original image, or 4x the total pixel count. This feature supports the same file types as Raw Details, plus additional file types such as JPEG and TIFF. Super Resolution is especially useful to increase the resolution of a cropped image." https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/using/enhance.html

Tip -- If you want to go make your image 4x the size of your original size, open the file in ACR, save the dng (2x) and then re-open it in Adobe Camera Raw and run the enhance feature again on this saved copy (you can’t just run it again in Camera Raw without opening it and saving it again).

I compared Abobe ACR Super Resolution to Topaz Gigapixel, which I have used in the past and it works, but it is clunky and slow. Workflow wise Topaz Gigapixel does not interpret RAW files well, so I have to open the file in ACR and save it as a TIFF and then open it in Topaz Gigapixel, takes a while to process. See our comparisons below. 

From Julianna Kost https://jkost.com/blog/2021/06/lightroom-classic-10-3-support-for-apple-silicon-premium-presets-super-resolution-and-more.html

• In the Develop module, choose Photo > Enhance or, right-click in the image (Control -click on Mac) and choose Enhance to display the Enhance Preview dialog. 

• Applying Super Resolution automatically enables the Raw Details feature to create the highest quality image possible when working with raw files.  

• Any adjustments made to the source photo will automatically be carried over to the newly created, enhanced DNG.

• While you can’t apply Super Resolution multiple times to the same original, you can apply Super Resolution and then enlarge the image further when exporting or, within another application such as Photoshop (using the Image Size command).

To learn more about how Super Resolution works, check out this post by Eric Chan https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2021/03/10/from-the-acr-team-super-resolution.html#gs.4grl9h

DPreview Interview: Olympus Educators Lisa and Tom Cuchara on how Olympus has transformed their outdoor photography

Check this out! DP review interviewed Tom and I, publishing a story and several of our images.

"In this interview, they explain their background, the various kinds of photography that keep them creatively inspired, and why they chose to make the switch to Olympus's Micro Four Thirds system for their bird and nature work."

 https://www.dpreview.com/interviews/5058762659/interview-olympus-educators-lisa-and-tom-cuchara-on-how-olympus-has-transformed-their-photography

Have you tried the Abobe ACR Super Resolution yet? It is awesome! It increases the pixel count 400%. Enhance allows you to increase image quality for making large prints or increasing the resolution of a cropped image. It is coming to Lightroom "soon" (soon is Adobe's timeframe, stated in March), but for now, right click, edit in, open smart object in Photoshop which will open the file in ACR).

Bottom line: Work well and it is Better, Faster, and Easier (workflow wise) than Topaz Gigapixel. 

Why/When use Abobe ACR Super Resolution? 

-- for older cameras with less megapixels 

-- to crop an image to get bigger birds/subjects  

"Super Resolution, introduced in Camera Raw 13.2, helps create an enhanced image with similar results as Raw Details but with 2x the linear resolution. This means that the enhanced image will have 2x the width and 2x the height of the original image, or 4x the total pixel count. This feature supports the same file types as Raw Details, plus additional file types such as JPEG and TIFF. Super Resolution is especially useful to increase the resolution of a cropped image." https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/using/enhance.html

Tip -- If you want to go make your image 4x the size of your original size, open the file in ACR, save the dng (2x) and then re-open it in Adobe Camera Raw and run the enhance feature again on this saved copy (you can’t just run it again in Camera Raw without opening it and saving it again).

I compared Abobe ACR Super Resolution to Topaz Gigapixel, which I have used in the past and it works, but it is clunky and slow. Workflow wise Topaz Gigapixel does not interpret RAW files well, so I have to open the file in ACR and save it as a TIFF and then open it in Topaz Gigapixel, takes a while to process. See our comparisons below. 

The new Abobe ACR Super Resolution is easy -- built right into ACR (right click and click enhance and check Super resolution) and it creates a dng file.  

Note: Starting with Adobe Camera Raw 13.2 (March 2021 release), Enhance Details is renamed to Raw Details.

Enhance provides a set of features such as Raw Details and Super Resolution to help improve image quality using Camera Raw. 

Raw Details, previously called Enhance Details produces crisp detail and more accurate renditions of edges, improves color rendering, and also reduces artifacts. The resolution of the enhanced image stays the same as the original image. This feature is especially useful for large displays and prints, where fine details are visible. The supported file types are raw files. 

Super Resolution, introduced in Camera Raw 13.2, helps create an enhanced image with similar results as Raw Details but with 2x the linear resolution. This means that the enhanced image will have 2x the width and 2x the height of the original image, or 4x the total pixel count. This feature supports the same file types as Raw Details, plus additional file types such as JPEG and TIFF. Super Resolution is especially useful to increase the resolution of a cropped image.

When you click super res you will see it processing and end up with a Digital Negative (DNG) RAW file. 

FYI, any edits/adjustments that you made to the source photo will automatically be applied to the enhanced DNG and you can edit the enhanced DNG just like any other photo.

FYI, Right now it is only in ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) and not accessible via the filter camera RAW. It is coming to Lightroom soon. 

FYI, You can use Super Resolution on a JPG file, you just need to make sure that your ACR is set to open JPGs (see Figure 5 below)

FYI, It is coming to Lightroom "soon" (soon is Adobe's timeframe, stated in March), but for now, right click, edit in, open smart object in Photoshop which will open the file in ACR).

How to use and find Super Resolution. 

Figure 1. Open your RAW or JPG file in ACR (when you open a RAW file in Photoshop it automatically opens in ACR, but for a JPG file to open in ACR you must change a file handling setting, sett Figure 5). Right click (PC, or Control click MAC) and then select Enhance (PC shortcut Ctrl Sh D).

Figure 2. From the filmstrip select one or multiple images and click on the three dots and then enhance shortcut Ctrl Shift D on a PC. The pixels will increase 2X width and height for 4X image size. This means that if you significantly crop a small subject (birds always seem smaller on the computer than when you were photographing them, lol) and still have a lot of pixels left. 

Figure 3. RAW files from most cameras and JPG files can be enhanced using Super Resolution (circled here in red). Note that RAW details (greyed out here for this JPG file) can only use used on RAW files.

Figure 4. If you are only opening one file at a time and do not have the filmstrip enabled click on the icon in the bottom (circled here in red) to enable the filmstrip. 

Figure 5. If you want to use Super Res on a JPG file make sure that your ACR is set to open JPGs. Open ACR, click on the gear upper left (circled here in red), and then click on file handling (circled here in red) and drop down to open JPGs in ACR (circled here in red)

I cropped a lot of the pixels to crop in on this 5184 x 3888 Smew photo to 3533 x 2826.  

5184 x 3888 Smew photo to 3533 x 2826 cropped.  

After I used Enhance Super Res and cropped I had 7275 x 5820 pixels!

Cropped the 5184 x 3888 photo to 3533 x 2826 (top)

enlarged in PS 7275 x 5820(middle)

Enhance Super Resolution 7275 x 5820(bottom)

At 100% 

Top Left: cropped 5184 x 3888 to 3533 x 2826

Lower Left: GigalPixel 7275 x 5820

Upper Right Transformed in PS to 7275 x 5820

Lower Right Enhance SuperResolution 7275 x 5820

At 50% 

Top Left: cropped 5184 x 3888 to 3533 x 2826

Lower Left: GigalPixel 7275 x 5820 (notice the chromatic aberration)

Upper Right: Transformed in PS to 7275 x 5820

Lower Right: Enhance SuperResolution 7275 x 5820

cropped 5184 x 3888 to 3533 x 2826

Transformed in PS to 7275 x 5820

Enhance SuperResolution 7275 x 5820

You can especially notice the pattern of the feathers on the top of his head. 

In this example, the Topaz Gigapixel is not as sharp and has more chromatic aberration.

Gigapixel did OK from a TIFF but did not interpret the RAW file well. 

Enhance yielded the best results

Bird photography workshop

The birds are calling and we must go...

We have a last-minute workshop announcement -- the birds are displaying, nesting, and some have chicks! More information and sign up here  https://www.meetup.com/photography-by-lisa-and-tom/events/278281005

Come with us to photograph:

-- Eagles

-- Displaying and Nesting Egrets, some with chicks

-- Nesting Black Crowned Night Herons

-- Great Blue Herons

-- Cormorants

-- Baby ducks, Green Herons, and more

-- See some images here: https://www.photographybylisaandtom.com/Exhibitions/Bird-workshop1

The workshop includes tips on approaching and photographing wildlife, capturing birds standing, wading, fishing, and in flight, composition, lighting, exposure, etc.

Workshop -- Cloud stacking, Long exposure, HDR, and Landscape Photography at Gillette Castle -- May 9, 2021 at 9:00am - 5:00pm

Workshop -- Cloud stacking, Long exposure, HDR, and Landscape Photography at Gillette Castle -- May 9, 2021 at 9:00am - 5:00pm with Tom Cuchara

Sign up here: https://www.ppa.com/events/cloud-stacking-long-exposure-hdr-and-landscape-photography-at-gillette-castle-5-9-2021. Signing up here does not register you, you must register via the link above. **Please note: you do NOT need to be a PPA member to attend**

Come and photograph at the dramatic Gillette Castle in Connecticut. We will be photographing the Castle and the structures, the river, the clouds, the pond with its archway. 

Come and learn about composition, how to see light and shadows, determine how many exposures are needed for HDR scenes, how to take creative long exposure photographs, and more. The Castle, pond, and structures on the grounds will provide a plethora of photographic opportunities. 

Bring your ND filter and we can have fun and make people disappear. The ND filter can also be used for some dramatic cloud stacking. You will learn how to capture all of the details in the highlights and shadows by capturing multiple exposures (which are later tone-mapped to reveal the true dynamic range of the image). 

Participants will also be invited to a brief demonstration of tone mapping the HDR exposures one evening after the workshop.

Things to bring:

--Lunch and water

--Layers (clothes)

--Camera with mid-range lens (24-105, 17-40, 12-100, etc.)

-- Tripod for long exposures 

--ND (neutral density) filter (if you do not have one you can still attend -- you will be able to do most of the things, just not long exposures or cloud stacking)

-- Masks (for times when social distancing cannot be done. FYi, we add a lanyard to our mask, making it easy to hang around our neck when not needed)

**Optional things to bring (if you have them, not required)** 

closeup lens like a 60mm, 100mm, or 105mm macro 

70-200 or similar lens

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery workshop 4/18

Join us for a photography workshop at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery 4/18

For more information here: https://www.meetup.com/photography-by-lisa-and-tom/events/276962453/

You can sign up on the site above, or email us at photographyByLisaAndTom [at] comcast.net and we can send you a Venmo or Paypal link.

We have after-hours access to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery! All skills levels and all kinds of cameras welcome. Beginners to Advanced, all welcome! dSLR, Mirrorless, cell phone, film, medium format, etc.

Check out a few photos from previous nights there www.breaphotosgalleries.com/Locations/Sleepy-Hollow

Things to Bring:

-- Camera and wide angle lens (24-105 type; faster is better if you have more than one lens to choose from)

--all camera makes and models are welcome!

-- extra batteries

-- Sturdy tripod

-- Cable release (you will be shooting for more than 30 seconds so you need a cable release)

-- Water, Snack (there is a bathroom on the premises)

-- Sturdy shoes (hiking boots provide good ankle support)

-- Appropriate outdoor clothing, fingerless gloves, hot hands, layers for cold weather

-- RED Flashlight (Walmart sells them or use red cellophane or red overheads from staples and tape). You MUST bring some sort of red flashlight. You may not use a white flashlight as it interferes with your night vision, and it interferes with exposures.

Please note that all of our workshops require that participants sign a liability waiver. Download it; print, read & sign it and bring it with you -- Thank you! http://tinyurl.com/cuchara-waiver16

Please note that this and all classes/workshops have no refunds. By signing up you agree to our terms and conditions, see www.lisaandtomphotography.com/p/workshops.html

COVID. 

We will be following and adhering to state and CDC mandates going forward until we are clear of the threat of spreading the virus. Please note that the pandemic is ever changing so our mandates may change based on state and local government, CDC recommendations, legal advisement, etc.

Here is what you need to know and comply with:

• Anyone who is sick with COVID-like symptoms must not attend.

o If you signed up for a workshop and have a positive COVID test please contact us ASAP. If possible we will transfer some or all (depends on the direct cost if we paid for a location) of your workshop to a future workshop.

• Anyone who has a fever over 100 degrees must not attend the event. Please check your temperature BEFORE you leave home.

• Anyone who has knowingly come in contact with a COVID positive person within the past two weeks must not attend the event.

• Face Masks (not gaiters and not vented masks) must be worn when inside or when in close (6 feet) proximity of another person.

• When you are outside and more than six feet away from others, you may remove the mask.

• FYI, We wear a lanyard attached to our mask when outside to make it easier to put the facemask on and off.

• People who arrive with symptoms or not wearing a mask properly will be asked to leave, no refunds.

Abobe ACR Super Resolution is amazing!

Have you tried the Abobe ACR Super Resolution yet? It is awesome! It increases the pixel count 400%

Enhance allows you to increase image quality for making large prints or increasing the resolution of a cropped image.

Bottom line: Work well and it is Better, Faster, and Easier (workflow wise) than Topaz Gigapixel. 

Why/When use Abobe ACR Super Resolution? 

-- for older cameras with less megapixels 

-- to crop an image to get bigger birds/subjects  

I compared Abobe ACR Super Resolution to Topaz Gigapixel, which I have used in the past and it works, but it is clunky and slow. Workflow wise Topaz Gigapixel does not interpret RAW files well, so I have to open the file in ACR and save it as a TIFF and then open it in Topaz Gigapixel, takes a while to process. Six comparisons are herein. 

The new Abobe ACR Super Resolution is easy -- built right into ACR (right click and click enhance and check Super resolution) and it creates a dng file.  

Note: Starting with Adobe Camera Raw 13.2 (March 2021 release), Enhance Details is renamed to Raw Details.

Enhance provides a set of features such as Raw Details and Super Resolution to help improve image quality using Camera Raw. 

Raw Details, previously called Enhance Details produces crisp detail and more accurate renditions of edges, improves color rendering, and also reduces artifacts. The resolution of the enhanced image stays the same as the original image. This feature is especially useful for large displays and prints, where fine details are visible. The supported file types are raw files. 

Super Resolution, introduced in Camera Raw 13.2, helps create an enhanced image with similar results as Raw Details but with 2x the linear resolution. This means that the enhanced image will have 2x the width and 2x the height of the original image, or 4x the total pixel count. This feature supports the same file types as Raw Details, plus additional file types such as JPEG and TIFF. Super Resolution is especially useful to increase the resolution of a cropped image.

When you click super res you will see it processing and end up with a Digital Negative (DNG) RAW file. FYI, any edits/adjustments that you made to the source photo will automatically be applied to the enhanced DNG and you can edit the enhanced DNG just like any other photo.

How to use and find Super Resolution. 

FYI, Right now it is only in ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) and not accessible via the filter camera RAW. It is coming to Lightroom soon. You can use Super Resolution on a JPG file, you just need to make sure that your ACR is set to open JPGs (see Figure5 below)

Figure 1. Open your RAW or JPG file in ACR (when you open a RAW file in Photoshop it automatically opens in ACR, but for a JPG file to open in ACR you must change a file handling setting, sett Figure 5). Right click (PC, or Control click MAC) and then select Enhance (PC shortcut Ctrl Sh D).

Figure 2. From the filmstrip select one or multiple images and click on the three dots and then enhance shortcut Ctrl Shift D on a PC. The pixels will increase 2X width and height for 4X image size. This means that if you significantly crop a small subject (birds always seem smaller on the computer than when you were photographing them, lol) and still have a lot of pixels left. 

Figure 3. RAW files from most cameras and JPG files can be enhanced using Super Resolution (circled here in red). Note that RAW details (greyed out here for this JPG file) can only use used on RAW files.

Figure 4. If you are only opening one file at a time and do not have the filmstrip enabled click on the icon in the bottom (circled here in red) to enable the filmstrip. 

Figure 5. If you want to use Super Res on a JPG file make sure that your ACr is set to open JPGs. Open ACR, click on the gear upper left (circled here in red), and then click on file handling (circled here in red) and drop down to open JPGs in ACR (circled here in red)

I cropped a lot of the pixels to crop in on this 5184 x 3888 Smew photo to 3533 x 2826.  

5184 x 3888 Smew photo to 3533 x 2826 cropped.  

After I used Enhance Super Res and cropped I had 7275 x 5820 pixels!

Cropped the 5184 x 3888 photo to 3533 x 2826 (top)

enlarged in PS 7275 x 5820(middle)

Enhance Super Resolution 7275 x 5820(bottom)

At 100% 

Top Left: cropped 5184 x 3888 to 3533 x 2826

Lower Left: GigalPixel 7275 x 5820

Upper Right Transformed in PS to 7275 x 5820

Lower Right Enhance SuperResolution 7275 x 5820

At 50% 

Top Left: cropped 5184 x 3888 to 3533 x 2826

Lower Left: GigalPixel 7275 x 5820 (notice the chromatic aberration)

Upper Right: Transformed in PS to 7275 x 5820

Lower Right: Enhance SuperResolution 7275 x 5820

cropped 5184 x 3888 to 3533 x 2826

Transformed in PS to 7275 x 5820

Enhance SuperResolution 7275 x 5820

You can especially notice the pattern of the feathers on the top of his head. 

In this example, the Topaz Gigapixel is not as sharp and has more chromatic aberration.

Gigapixel did OK from a TIFF but did not interpret the RAW file well. 

Enhance yielded the best results