Category: [c] Software we like

Testing Photoshop actions

Sawadee Khrap

Since I’ve had my medical problems I haven’t had many photo shoots of the local boys,  so to test a new Photoshop action that creates a explosion following the contours around a selected subject – I grabbed this older image of “Eart”._MG_2996-Edit -forge   I see I didn’t do a good job of selection, especially his hair, but the results of the action is encouraging.  If your into Photoshop and working on images then make sure to check out the actions crated by Brad Goble – They really are great starting points – and can give you some great inspiration and  ideas -  check them out.

Ciao

Open Source or Freeware software I use

Sawadee Khrap

Several people have asked what software programs I regularly use.

I run a 64 Bit  Win 7 system with 16 GB RAM and  4 GB video Graphics card – Wacom Intuos Digitizer board with mouse/Art Pen and 2 – 24in Benq Monitors.  This setup has done almost everything I need it to do and with good Disk Image Backup program – Reflex, registered – I keep my  4 TB of data protected.

I am a Photographic member of Adobe Creative Cloud so Photoshop CC, Bridge and Lightroom are my main programs.  And of course I have registered copies of  Win 7, 64 bit – and a very fast image viewer – FastPictureViewer.   However the rest of my needs are satisfied using Open Source  and/or Freeware Software.

  • OS — Scribus – Desk Top Publishing  –   InDesign
  • OS — InkScape – Vector Image Editor  –  Illustrator
  • OS — Gimp – Bit Map Editor -  however here I use Photoshop
  • OS — Avidemux -  Video Editor – 
  • Free -MPEG – Streamclip – Video Editor
  • Free -VideoLan – Video Player
  • Free – Super – video converter
  • 30 Day – Total Movie Converter – Video Editor
  • Free -MediaInfo – Displays video information of files
  • OS — Open Office – Word, Access, PowerPoint, Spreadsheet (Excel)
  • OS — Jarte -  Very fast word processor
  • OS — NotePad++  -  Quick ASCI editor
  • Free -WordWeb – Dictionary
  • OS — Audacity – Audio Editor
  • Free -BandiCam – Screen Recorder (Monitor)
  • OS — Filezilla – FTP  (file Transfers)
  • OS — KeePass  -  Password storage
  • Free –AMP Font Viewer – viewing fonts
  • OS — WampServer – Unix emulation shell
  • OS — GeoTag -  geotagging images
  • Free -Comodo – Antivirus and Firewall control
  • Free -Sophos Virus Removal Tool -  antivirus 
  • Free -FlashGet – download manager
  • Free -Windows live Writer (Win Essentials) – Blog commenting
  • OS — 7-Zip – Zipping program for files
  • OS — FireFox – Browser
  • OS — ThunderBird – Email Client
  • Free -Foxit Reader – PDF reader
  • Free -Google Earth – maps
  • Free -Skype – VOI – phone
  • Free -Nexus – Apple like Launcher for Windows Desktop
  • Free -CCleaner -  Registry and Performance checker
  • I didn’t put in the links to the homepages as all can be easily obtained from Google.

I’m hoping someone can find this valuable – all the software I show above I use and I think are the best of their class and easiest to use – and except for my registered ones are FREE.

Ciao

Don’t throw away your old Photoshop CC

Sawadee Khrap

AdobeWell the great updates to Adobe Creative Cloud 2014 are here and it really has some neat new stuff – BUT, what the fuck they dropped “Oil Paint Filter”.  

What a bummer – for the last few weeks I have been touting the Jack Davis Paint technique – and It’s based on the oil paint filter – Thank God the new Photoshop (2014) doesn’t remove or overwrite the old CC version so you still filter in the older one.  But, I have to admit that the new 2014 is really a step up, great new features and improved speed, new filters and mobile ready.  – just have to use the old version for the initial painting rendering and then switch to the 2014 version for final output – what the hell  – It works.

So if you’re a photographer or want to be Digital Painter – join the cloud with the Photographer’s $9.99 bundle and get the new 2014 and the older CC Photoshop versions loaded – you can get both.  That way you have the best of both worlds.

Ciao

Printing in Pattaya

Sawadee Khrap

I have always had a problem getting consistent colors when printing my images.  I was using Kodak but every time they changed their paper or I wanted a 4×6 to match a 8×12 – there was a problem.   To the rescue    Double A Printing Shop   on Thepprasit Rd. AA printing They have among their many  printers, a Xerox 800 wide laser printer/Rip  capable of printing up to 16×24 inch gloss coated paper.   Just what I needed – All I have to prepare a PDF file of the images using a Desktop Publishing program.

NOTE:. I am on the Adobe Creative Cloud with the Lightroom/Photoshop subscription – highly recommend it – but have not decided to get the whole package – i.e.  InDesign – so I’m using the open-source FREE  Scribus program.  II t works fine and does just what I need.

I have made several PDF templates that I just have to drop the images into.

  • 1.)  Full size 14×21  template
  • 2.)  8 – 4×6  template
  • 3.)  1- 8×12  and   2 – 4×6  template

Normally I make 2 ea.  4×6  prints of all finished Photoshop’ed images, keeping one for my display books and one to give to the Model.    In addition I offer to make a 8×12 print of the image the model likes best. – now I can supply a 14×21 in place of the 8×12 for no additional cost.   All images are printed on the same paper so they all match on color. – perfect  -  just place them on the template and save as a PDF using Adobe RGB 1898 color space and  “Double A”  does the rest.  Excellent quality and both Toy and her husband speak English and are experts with their machines – they also have printers capable of producing Poser size Extra Wide prints.

If you need any printing done  – – Contact   Double A Printing Shop

Ciao

Thanks to all those who keep up with my blog.

Sawadee Khrap

I want to thank all those who visit my  blog – I use StatCounter to monitor traffic and it’s amazing to see where the visitors are located – Here is the map report of areas where todays morning traffic had originated.    Covers quite a territory for not doing any web promotion.

Capture


Thanks again.

Ciao

Need to convert a video ?

Sawadee Khrap

I make and convert a lot of videos and have always had problems doing so.  I have also tested and tried to use over 8 different video converters and have finally found the best one on the market – WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe. 

WinXHD video converter  

This one even handles MKV files and better than that,  processes using all my CPU cores for the fastest speed.  And what quality video is the result – mp4’s that are outstanding.  Hurry and get it before Christmas and get the Ripper too.    I did have a little problem with a special codec and sent a email to support – WOW – 3 hr later I had my answer – customer service is as great as the product.

Ciao

iSwifter Browser for the iPad – view Flash content

Sawadee Khrap

I just heard some disturbing news, at least to me.  The Apple products, iPad, iPhone, and iPod will not work with  Adobe products.  Not owning any Apple products, I have never thought about this problem and just set my blog up with slideshows made with Lightroom using Adobe Flash.  Most of my Model and other posts have slideshows, over 8,000 images on the Blog, all  in Flash Slideshows.

iSwifterMaybe iSwifter  can come to the rescue – it’s free and states that it can show Adobe Flash on the iPad – for now maybe this would work.   Since I don’t have a iPad I can’t  check it out.   It would be almost impossible for me to convert the old slideshows to another format. 

I am going to redesign my slideshows to eliminate Flash – from checking the web, I think Adobe is or has pulled the Flash Player from Google Play store and intends to go to HTML5 for mobile platforms rather than Flash  – more research if I want my Blog to be readable by all -  Shit, problem, problems, problems.

Ciao

Argus for Photoshop

Sawadee Khrap

Tumasoft ArgusI just got the “Argus” Preset Viewer – works great and really helps looking at all those Photoshop brushes,swatches, shapes, gradients, and so on – right from Windows Explorer.  I still have the older stand-a-lone   “Preset Viewer 2.1” so I can work with the presets offline.  These are great additions for you machine for easier Photoshop’ing.

Ciao

Photoshop Fun + Great PS Tutorials

Sawadee Khrap

Here are a couple of new PS works – just for fun, Kong wanted something to show his horoscope symbol and I thought a modified SAM_0434-Rec-Picese2Roman Gladiator would be fun too (this was a exercise in getting the skin to match between images used in the composition – .SAM_0434-Roman-2   But this also lets me note a couple of great Photoshop Experts and their training classes or DVD’s

 

First   Mr. Ben Willmore – His explanation of how to use the “Curves” adjustment layer for matching colors is a God send.  Check out his tutorials on Kelby Training

Second is another great instructor on Photoshop  Mr. Aaron Nace at PHLearn.com  —  His use of adjustment layers to blend, color match, and make composites is I think the best out there.  Check out his PHLearn Pro video tutorial series for compositing. 

With these two video collections – your ready to tackle any composite task — Check them out if you’re  interested in Photoshop.

Ciao

Perspective – Set it straight – Carspace

Sawadee Khrap

I have been studying a terrific free course in drawing in perspective by Matt Kohr from CTRL+Paint – this is so crucial in paintings, drawings and Capture2creating realistic photomontages in Photoshop. And his web-page lead me to Warren’s program. What a life saver – now with Matt’s study principals and Carspace , all I have to do is to get proficient with it and use it on every image I produce – correct perspective – next I have to study shadows, the second most important aspect to making believable and realistic scenes.

So every once in a while I find a software that is a killer.   I hope I have some readers who are artists and are interested in how to calculate perspective for their drawings or how to create a perspective grid for an existing photograph.   To the rescue -  Warren Marshall  from Epic Games  released  CARSPACE perspective software (freeware)Capture

Capture3

 

Hope you find these tutorials and software helpful.

Ciao 

Amazing Lightroom–must have for Trips

Sawadee Khrap

Adobe’s Lightroom is a must have program for any photographer – or traveler who takes photos for that matter.Capture  And if your camera doesn’t have a built in Geo Tracker – then you can use your smart phone to record the tracklog and have Lightroom sync the photos.

I used GPS Essentials (free) with my Galaxy II to record my trip today and took 84 images with the Canon D7 (no GPS) around Pattaya Beach and Walking Street – loaded the images and tracklog into Lightroom and above is the results – in blue is my route and each of the photos have been set to the correct location automatically. – and very accurate too.

The route, shown in blue, also shows the car route I used to get there and back ( no images tagged).   I store the tracklog in the same directory as the original images, so I now have a permanent record of the trip.

Here is a      *******  SLIDESHOW *******  of some of the images taken during the walk.

I am going to plan more excursions and will use this system to record each trip – and put a copy, like above, in each slideshow –

GREAT – try it, for the traveler it’s invaluable.

Ciao