Let me introduce Daniel Weisser. Based out of Leipzig Germany, Daniel shoots with a unique perspective. Most of his works are considered diptychs. Take a look at his website or his Flickr photostream. If you’re intrigued by his diptych work, he has a Flickr set just for you.

He works mainly in fashion, portrait and people photography and shoots for editorial, music, corporate and advertising clients. Daniel’s works are told in a human-nature context; his series’ make you feel like you’re almost on the set. His photography mixes colors of daydreams with urban realities.

Daniel outlined his basic editing workflow. He said:

“Normally I start with 16-bit raw files. I develop the images to neutral or with low contrast using Adobe Camera Raw or Canon Digital Photo Professional. Next I’ll add a layer for basic retouching like skin, dust, and fly away hairs.

I start with Exposure factory presets such as the settings under Polaroid or Lomo. I change parameters adjusting the setting to my taste and layer them at about 35% – 70% opaque over the touched up layer. Sometimes I use a B&W film layer set at a low opacity for slight desaturation.

As a last step I may add a couple adjustment layers for fine tuning, or I’ll run it through a batch action. Finally, I copy the final composite layer twice; once with grain and once without. This gives me more control over print for what the client likes best.

All of these photos were retouched with Photoshop and Alien Skin Software’s Exposure. I’ve included before and after Exposure versions.”

Here is a settings file that Daniel created for the blonde girl in the forest shot. Save the preset to your desktop first. In most browsers, right-click the link and choose Save As. That should save a file with a .f1s at the end of the name.

Then double-click the .f1s file to install.  Next time you run Exposure you should see it in the User Settings list.

This version of Exposure overlays real textures of artifacts from actual photography. This is why they look so real. It behaves differently than the procedural effects from the previous versions.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When building Exposure 4, we were faced with some decisions on how to combine the B&W Film filter with the Color Film filter. There were a lot of effects in one filter but not the other. For example, B&W Film didn’t have a Color Filter option but Color Film did. We could have simple hidden that feature when you choose the B&W filter but it made more sense to implement that feature for the B&W film effect after all when you are filming in black and white you can still use a color filter to affect the photo. In this article I am going to explain how the “Color Filter” option works.

Let’s explain how it works with an example…

If you were shooting with Black and White film you may want to use a color filter on your lens so you can either brighten or darken certain colors. The way it works is that a red filter will preserve the brightness of red objects but darken other colors by filtering them out. So if you want blues to stay bright then use a blue filter. With people, we usually want to use a red filter so faces stay bright. A red filter will also help to darken skies which is often desirable. One problem is that the shot will be darker overall because the filter blocks light. Usually the photographer will compensate for the overall darkening of the image by using a longer exposure time. This results in some colors brightening and others darkening and is a way to introduce contrast to the photo.

Here is an example of a simulated use of a filter. On the top right I applied a color filter (cyan) to a color image. Then I converted the filtered image to black and white just by using Exposure’s neutral black and white setting (bottom right). On the bottom left I applied the same neutral black and white setting to the original image.

Try to ignore the fact that the bottom right image is so dark. More importantly, you can see there is greater contrast between colors. For example, the umbrella got really dark but the coat, less so. Also, the dogs that were originally red on the coat stand out much more.

Now, I want to show how to do this automatically in Exposure 4 using the Color Filter feature. Here is a screenshot of the control:

You can select a filter from the presets but it is easy just to do it yourself. Just turn the filter density up to strengthen the effect and slide the color slider (along the hue gradient) until you get the look you want! Because it renders in real time, you can see the effect immediately. I usually start with the density cranked up until I get the look I want. Then I dial it down so it isn’t too dramatic.

In case you were wondering why the image didn’t get dark like when we use a real lens filter, the reason is because we left “preserve luminosity” on. When this option is selected, we automatically compensate for the overall darkening effect of the filter. A color that matches the filter will get brightened the most and a color opposite on the color wheel will get darkened the most. Below are a couple options for this photo:

Notice how using a filter can really bring out contrasts. It gives you a lot more creative freedom in a black and white photo. If you want a video demo please check out this general video on Black and White Conversion. It has some other useful tips.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Come and get it! Exposure 4 is now available. We have lots of pretty examples and videos. If your brain is exploding with anticipation, then maybe you should go straight to our store.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In Exposure 3 we had dust and scratches, but they were computer generated and didn’t look realistic enough. Exposure 4 uses a new texture overlay feature based on real photographs which does a much better job. Here is an example.

Here is a more subtle version of dust and scratches added to an early Kodachrome preset. There are controls for overall texture visibility and for protecting the center of the photo. Below I turned up the center protection so the couple doesn’t have a lot of distracting dust on their faces.

The texture feature can also create light leaks which often occur in lo-fi plastic camera photography. This first example was inspired by the atmospheric effects that Peter Nguyen sometimes uses in his gorgeous work.

Exposure 4 will be out next week. When it comes out I’ll post about it here and send e-mail. If you want to join our mailing list then you can do so at the bottom of any of the web pages at alienskin.com. Free upgrades will be sent out before the public announcement.

You can see other blog articles on Exposure 4 here and here.

Yawn. Those messages make it 95% likely that I did not request the information and that it is unimportant. Spammy marketers like this make us all so jaded that we end up throwing out truly important items like bank and tax notices. Lazy marketers make the world a worse place.

But of course I opened it just in case. I’m one of those anal retentive people who still checks their spam folder too. Sure enough, it is a cookie cutter sales pitch to buy space at a design conference. Then I noticed the signature with the cute dotted i and I felt even more sad for the world. This is the same company that I recently praised for fun marketing.

Oh well. I’m not going to give up on the marketing world, but I certainly won’t buy anything from this company.

The card is pretty fancy, similar to a real wedding invitation. Inside is a sales pitch to advertise in a magazine, but it is written as a romantic proposal.

Inside the box is a ring with a D on it.

A lot of thought went into this marketing project. It isn’t just the usual dry sales pitch form letter. The writing is pretty cute. I chuckled a few times. The card is signed by a real human. The ribbon was probably tied by hand. Someone put effort into making the ring or finding a place to buy such a specialized item.

Although they aren’t getting my business right now (we don’t need to advertise more), I’ll certainly consider it in the future. Also, the project is interesting enough that I’m telling other people about it. Putting some effort into your projects pays off, maybe not now, but in little indirect ways that build up over time.

Update: This same company sent me a traditional spammy letter just a few days later. Both sad and funny at the same time.

After a lifetime of using thin single-ply toilet paper at schools and jobs, I finally asked myself why we put up with it. I guess schools need to save money, but thin toilet paper is used at most businesses too, even rich ones. Sad.

Now we use Charmin Ultra Strong at Alien Skin. I wouldn’t use it as a recruiting tool, but the little things in life are worth doing even if they don’t make you money. I mentioned this to Terence and he responded with his technique for judging a restaurant. Check out the bathroom. If it is beautiful and clean then they probably take pride in everything.

My alternate title for this article is Give a Shit. That’s what I gave for a few Festivus gifts last year. Oxfam makes it easy and they have a great video.

Yes, I did the origami in that photo. I think it scared everyone away from that bathroom.

In common usage, high speed photography has two main characteristics. One, the photo must be taken in a way that freezes the motion with minimal motion blur. And two, the series of photos must be taken at a high frame rate.

The development of this technique started with a few frames per second, then it rose to a few dozen, a few hundred and then a few thousand. But, what if we took it a step further, a few million, billion or trillion?

Even The Slow Mo Guys wouldn’t know what to do with MIT’s new camera. With it, instead of watching the scattering debris of an explosion, you watch the scattering of light itself.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It took me many years to realize that there are practical reasons behind grown up behaviors. Be a grown up because you are selfish! It can get you a job, a business deal, and most importantly, a date.

Here are some rules and why they benefit you. Do them because you want to succeed, not because a grumpy old man like me pesters you.

Behavior

Say please and thank you.

Why

This shows that you understand I am doing you a favor, and I have earned some karma with you that I might be able to exchange for a favor later. I don’t really think through it that way on a daily basis, but that is what politeness is about. It doesn’t take much effort but it makes people want to do more favors for you.

Recently I received a hand written thank you note from Joanne George on behalf of her team at Shutterbug Magazine for a holiday basket we sent. Contrast that with a magazine whose representative rarely returned my phone calls. Guess which one we advertise in?

Behavior

Return phone calls and e-mail within 24 hours.

Why

The longer you wait the stronger the message that I can’t rely on you. Put some effort into the response. If I asked a question then answer it. Write coherently. It doesn’t take much of this for me to abandon business deals or give up on an employee.

Behavior

Do what you say you will do.

Why

If you realize you won’t be able to accomplish what you promised then let me know long before the deadline. That’s not so bad. We can adjust the deadline or scope of the project. That is immensely better than silently forgetting or doing the work at the last minute to produce crappy results.

If I have to remind you to do something then you are wasting my most precious resource, my time. I’m not going to pester you. I’ll just stop working with you.

If I know I can point you at a task and forget about it then I’m never going to let you go. You want money, favors, backrubs? I’ll pay a very high price to work with grown ups.

Behavior

Tell the truth.

Why

Don’t kid yourself that you are a good liar. Lies are usually detected.

If you will lie about small things then you will lie about big things too. Grown ups are not going to work with you after they catch you lying.

It is always better to deal with an embarrassing truth than to try to cover it up. I am impressed when I meet a person who admits that they don’t know something or had a failure. That confidence and honesty will help you learn and grow.

You can break these rules for short term gain, but you will be constantly hunting for new people to step on. That is a lot of work. It is easier to follow these rules and reap the rewards from happy long term relationships.

Created by Sheldon Neill and Colin Delehanty

Learn more at the Project Yosemite Website.

The music is “Outro” from the new album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming by M83.
Publishing: emimusicpub.com
Licensing: bankrobbermusic.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

In reality our products often work on older systems. We just can’t guarantee it. If you want to find out then simply give it a try. All our products can be run in trial mode.

Even if your system is not supported, you can get a refund within 30 days of your purchase. If you use an unsupported system then use the software a bunch during the first 30 days.

If you use one of our products on an unsupported system then you can still get some tech support. We are happy to help you with most issues, but if the problem is related to the unsupported system then we will tell you that it is not fixable.

To find the system requirements for a product, visit our web page for that product and then look for a link on the left of the page.

I asked the winners to share some of their workflow with our readers. Everyone has slightly different techniques. Here’s what Marcus Vickers had to say.

“I shoot everything in RAW, this way I can lower the contrast, tweak the saturation and do minor color correction without losing quality.

For color photos, I generally run a slight curve adjustment to help the colors pop. Then I use Exposure. If I’m looking for a specific film look, I’ll glance through the different film options first, and then I’ll make some slight customizations to the effect. Exposure’s tone curve is great because of the brightness, contrast, midtone and shadow sliders. They give me good localized adjustments. I usually add a slight vignette and a touch of warmth across the board; this makes photos feel more natural.

For black and white photos, it’s a very similar process. I’ll generally look at B&W films to figure out which setting is a good starting point. For street scenes, I like Kodak Tri-X 400 because of its high contrast, which gives me a grittier look. For portraits, I like to start off with an Ilford film, adjust the tone curve sliders, and bring the “Ink 1″ slider up to give it a slight warmth. Exposure’s color temperature controls aren’t as extreme as Adobe Camera Raw’s.

Here is an example of a lighter contrast B&W

Exposure really is the cornerstone of my post production. I’m hesitant to share this because I risk sounding like a salesman.  It’s my “secret weapon” when processing photos.  I really do use it on everything.

If I want to emulate film, I go with what I like.  If I’m not using a film setting, Exposure has pretty much replaced Photoshop for the majority of my editing. I have better control over the look that I’m after.

Here’s an example; I shot this in Chinatown. I think it makes a great B&W image. I used my Canon 5D with a 24-105 f/4L IS. The shot was handheld so it’s a bit dark. I made a slight exposure adjustment in ACR and everything else was done with Exposure.”

Here is the settings file. Save the preset to your desktop first. In most browsers, right-click the link and choose Save As. That should save a file with a .f1s at the end of the name.

Then double-click the .f1s file to install.  Next time you run Exposure 3 you should see it in the User Settings list.

Original Image from the camera

After Tweaking in Adobe Camera Raw

Final Image

First, I want to give a little background on this process. Wet plate photography is one of the earliest forms of photography (1850′s according to Wikipedia). Also, known as the “collodion wet plate process”, it enabled the photographer to make a negative image on glass and thereby print as many copies of an image as they wanted to later. Another interesting aspect of wet plate photography is that the process is only sensitive to blue light so faces are often dark and skies look washed out.

Here are a few before/after examples we created using Exposure 4. I happen to like old portraits so I think the look works well with some types of modern portraits as well as with flowers or macro shots.

I should print this on cards and hand them out whenever I see someone on our team bending over backward to save a tiny bit of money.

When I started Alien Skin I had absolutely no money but I did have time. So I duplicated disks by hand, designed the disk labels, printed each one on a slow dot matrix printer, and stuck the labels on. I wrote, laid out, printed, photocopied, and saddle stitched each manual. I packed up each order and walked it to the post office each afternoon.

That approach made sense when I was one guy struggling, but later when we were making money it was hard to get out of that thrifty mindset. It was important to do it though. In most businesses the best resource to save is time, not money. Not only your time, but your customers’ time too. If you can make your software run a little faster or be easier to use, that benefit is multiplied by all of your customers. It is worth the effort. Time savings almost always adds up to big money savings.

I recommend Dan Ariely’s book Predictably Irrational. That link to Amazon is just to help you find the book. We don’t use affiliate programs.

As a marketing guy I enjoy reading about psychology, but I try to avoid being too tricky. The best marketing simply presents great products clearly. It is hard enough just doing that.

As I worked on the press release for Exposure 4, Tom Welsh stopped by. Tom is the designer and lead programmer for Exposure. Knowing that the press release would contain a quote from him, he said, “It’s always a fun surprise to hear what words you put in my mouth!” I showed him a quote that listed geeky features. Tom said, “The rest of the release has enough dry technical details. Let’s have the quote be what I really think.” Here it is.

“This is the most significant update to Exposure since its creation. Across the board everything is faster and much easier to use.”

At first I thought it was too gushing, like typical marketing BS that no one believes. But Tom convinced me that if you really mean it you should say it. Tom means it and so do I. Exposure 4 is much faster and easier to explore and that is the most important upgrade any product can get.

The user interface has been completely redesigned. Here are a few of the significant improvements shown in screen shots. Click the pictures to see full resolution versions.

Group Presets

Below you can see what we call group presets. Those are presets that control a group of related sliders, like the ones for the new texture overlay feature shown below. Group presets let you quickly explore options for just one aspect of your look without fiddling with individual sliders. There is a pop up menu of group presets above each important group of controls, such as tone curves, focus, grain, vignette, etc.

Click to see a higher resolution version.

Thumbnail Previews

The thumbnail in the upper left of the window has been enlarged and now gives you fast previews of presets. As you mouse over a preset name the thumbnail updates to show you what it will look like on your photo. Just slide your cursor down the list of presets to rapidly explore them visually.

Click to see a higher resolution version.

Texture Overlay

The dust and scratches feature in Exposure 3 is simulated, so it sometimes looks a bit artificial. We threw that out and replaced it with a texture overlay system that uses high resolution photos. The result is that Exposure 4 can beautifully render a wide range of messy real world effects, like brushed emulsion, light leaks, scratches, dust, and frames. In the screen shots above you can see a light leak and an off-center vignette. Below are more examples. Click for higher resolution versions.

The Geeky List

I wouldn’t get into this much detail with the press, but most of you are familiar with Exposure and probably want to hear it all. So, here are more of the improvements. I may elaborate on some of these and show more photos in the blog later.

Improved User Interface

A redesigned user interface makes Exposure 4 much easier to use.

• Black and White and Color filters are combined into one filter so you can find all the effects in one place.
• Group presets let you explore custom effects easily.
• Thumbnail Preview. Hover over a setting to preview it in the thumbnail.
• Settings Search. Find settings based on name or description.
• Speed. Dramatically faster on Mac and Windows.

New Controls and Effects

New controls let you create new custom looks quickly and intuitively

• New controls let you create Black and White effects more easily (more color channels, B/W Color Filter, Split Toning Control).
• New controls let you create custom color effects more easily (more saturation channels, color split toning).
• New Color Infrared effect
• New Texture Effect (light leaks, dust and scratches, borders)

New Presets

Hundreds of Presets. Many presets have been improved and new ones added.

• Alternative Photography. New textures help you recreate historical photographic processes. Cyanotype, Lith printing and Wet Plate Photography.
• Lo-Fi. More realistic toy camera settings using light leaks and organic textures

When? How much?

Exposure 4 will be available in February 2012 for $249. Owners of any version of Exposure can upgrade for $99. Free upgrades will be automatically sent to everyone who purchased Exposure 3 directly from Alien Skin Software in November 2011 or later.

When Exposure ships we will announce it to our e-mail list (sign up at the bottom of this page), in the blog (RSS here), Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.

When we announced the Photo Bundle price drop recently, some people thought it was a holiday sale. Just to be clear, it is permanent.

The Photo Bundle is $495 (down from $595). It consists of all five of our photography products: Exposure, Snap Art, Blow Up, Bokeh, and Image Doctor.

If you own the current version of any of those products then it is $295 (down from $450).

If you buy the bundle now you will get Exposure 4 for free when it comes out in February. I’ll post more details on this amazing update next week, but here are a few samples. You can see some new looks here like light leaks, texture overlays, and non-centered vignette, but the best part of the upgrade is the completely redesigned user interface. Everything is faster and easier to explore.

It is easy to let your job take over your life. If you find yourself dwelling on your job even at night and weekends then you need another activity to engage your mind. Get a hobby, preferably one that is very different from what you spend most of your time doing. For me that is fossil hunting. In my day job I sit in front of a computer all day, collaborate with a team, and focus on making money. When I’m fossil hunting I am outdoors playing in the dirt, usually by myself, and it doesn’t cost any money or make me any money. I love it!

Fiddling with work in your off hours might seem productive, but it can make you mentally tired. Your mind needs variety just like your body does. Take a break. You’ll be happier and more effective when you get back to work.

When using this technique I sometimes like very soft focus on my real subject. Macro mode helps with that. You can also use our Bokeh software to soften the background.

Here is a set of photos that use this technique to varying degrees. It is hard to get just right. In the best case the foreground helps tell a story about the background.

If you use Snap Art 2 then please check your version number in the about box. On Windows, start Snap Art 2 and open the Help menu to find the about box. On a Mac, start Snap Art 2 and then go to the Photoshop menu to find the about box.

If your Snap Art 2 version is not 2.1.1.1029 then you need to throw away your old installers and download the latest Windows or Mac version of Snap Art 2.

Older versions use our old activation system which will stop working for Snap Art 2 on February 10, 2012. Snap Art 2 won’t immediately die, but you won’t be able to do a new installation and activate it.

If Snap Art 2 is working for you then you don’t need to reinstall. But if it ever gives you any trouble (like activation errors) then uninstall the old version and run that new installer. Instructions for uninstalling are below.

Uninstall from Windows

Uninstall from Mac

Not bad, but they pale in comparison to the work of Nick Hobgood. I discovered his work in Wikimedia Commons. One of his photos is below.