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Sunday, December 2, 2018

New Items from SPIDER HOLSTER

Years ago when it was first introduced I bought a Spider Holster and attachments for both my cameras.  This system quickly became my favorite way to carry a camera.  Unfortunately a bout with bladder cancer put a kibosh on on the use of this.  Fast forward to last week when I was offered a chance to try a new way to use Spider gear with the SpiderLight Backpaker Kit and new Arca Swiss compatible plate.

The unit easily snaps on to just about any back pack strap and comes with adaptors to hold either a camera or a GoPro.

But the real test is wearing it.  Simply said its comfortable to wear the camera does not bounce around and the extra added feature of the security velcro strap helps to keep it secure.  Im happy to say that this is a really nice way to carry a camera

.

What I really love is that all the camera plates are now Arca Swiss compatible.  WOW this is huge no more changing plates when you want to use a tripod.

The folks at Spider Holsters put a lot of thought into these new products.  Its theses kinds of small touches that make every day life easier for photographers

Take a look at all the items from Spider at https://spiderholster.com

Watch this video on how to use the system
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWbiGjTubDY

Thursday, October 4, 2018

Are you a Fuji User? Do you love PhotoPills?
check this out

Monday, October 1, 2018

Keywording In Lightroom

Lets talk a little bit about keyWording in Lightroom.

I know, its a pain and its time consuming, but keywording can save you a lot of time when your looking for a photos.

Another advantage to keywording individual photos is that when uploading to sites like Instagram*, and others the keywords you imbed go right along with your photos!  A real time saver!

* Note that you may need additional programs like LR/Mogrify or LR/Instagram to do this.

So what if you could keyword rapidly or even automatically?  You can with a free LR plugin called MyKeyworder and you can get it at  http://mykeyworder.com/lightroom

Its simple to install and and easy to use.  Just follow the instructions on their website.

give it a try.

WHAT you said you have THOUSANDS of photos?  Well you can cheat sort of.  Try renaming your LR Folders to contain one or two keywords like Zoo or Sunset or Beach.   This is not really keywording but it will work when you want to find photos quickly.

After import I rename my folders - I keep the date and add at tag like  Bronx Zoo or Jones Beach to the end of the date.   Then when I want to find those images I select the Main Parent folder in Library and in Grid Mode.  Then I click TEXT at the top and type in Zoo.  All the folders and images that hav that tag will appear.

MAKE SURE you rename your folders from within LR or you will find yourself in a BIG MESS!


Sunday, September 23, 2018

Lightroom Publishing to Instagram No Longer Works

How to upload photos to Instagram from a desktop browser

Most browsers have a way of letting you change the "User Agent" -- the thing that tells a website what kind of device you're on. So, even when you're on a laptop or desktop, you can trick a website like Instagram into showing you the mobile site. That's what we're going to do.

Safari

On Safari, it's easy. Go to Safari > Preferences > Advanced. Check the box at the very bottom that says, "Show Develop menu in menu bar."

Now open a private browsing window. Head to Develop > User Agent > Safari -- iOS 10 -- iPhone. Go to Instagram.com, sign in and click the camera button at the bottom of the screen to upload a photo from your desktop.

Chrome

In Chrome, go to Instagram.com and sign in. Now right-click the page > Inspect > click the Tablet icon (top-left). The page should switch to mobile view, where you'll find a camera button at the bottom of the screen, which lets you upload a photo from your desktop.

From CNET

Sunday, August 12, 2018

NEW SOFTWARE FOR OLD PICTURES CHECK OUT RESTORE FROM VIVID-PIX

I was offered an opportunity to review a new software for old pictures!
Unfortunately the software only works on PC at this time, but I was so excited about trying it I borrowed a laptop from my photo club.

The software is from Vivid-Pix, a company that makes some specialty software called Land and Sea which auto enhances every day as well as underwater photos.
Land and Sea Scuba is geared towards photographers who are divers.
Check out all of their software here  https://www.vivid-pix.com

But the software package Im talking about in this review is called Restore.
https://www.vivid-pix.com/restore.html

Its designed to quickly process many old family photos that are faded and off color.  The interface is simple and easy.  You simply select the photo(s) that you want and are quickly presented with a 9 varietes of your first photo.  You just select the one that looks best, if your happy your done.  If you want you can also tweak lightness, contrast, sharpness RGB Values and more.  When you see what you like you just press the save key and you are then presented immediately with the next image to edit.

Restore is a great way to get you started especially if you have a lot of photos to edit.  I tried it on my family photos and it appears that I can get very close to a fully restored photo.  I believe that some images may require additional editing in photoshop or lightroom but it will certainly give you a great start.

Overall I really like this software.  It's a great easy way to edit old pics.

Please look at the Before / After  photos below to see the results I got.
Im pleased with the result.

The Good:
Easy and Fast to process a photo.
You can try it for free!

Whats Lacking:

Sharpening- While there is a how much to sharpen adjustment inside "preferences" there is only a on or off adjustment for this as you edit each photo.  I would prefer the addition of s sharpening slider as you edit each photo.  Note there is a DISCLAIMER IN RED - Do not adjust any preferences if you do not know what you are doing.  That scared me away!

Would like to see a way to BULK Process many photos at a time.
This would make the software more valuable to professionals and also to those who would rather not edit one at a time.