Get %15 off all NIK software products with this code – JPCNIK.

HDR Efex Pro
Color Efex Pro
Silver Efex Pro
Sharpener Pro
Dfine
Viveza
Capture NX

NIK software is among the best of the best in the digital imaging industry.
Just look at all the awards it’s won.

It makes complicated tasks easy. How?

“Photoshop plug-ins take away some of the most labour-intensive photo manipulations and replace them with an easier to use “script”, or presets. Nik plug-ins go one step further and provide the user with a unique ‘U-Point’ technology, allowing for customisation of individual image parameters. And all presets can be further customized to each photographer’s taste.”

With so many great choices, where do you start? I recommend you look very closely at HDR Efex Pro (the most visual and intuitive HDR interface available) and at Tonal Contrast in Viveza or Structure in Sharpener Pro (Clarity or High Pass sharpening on steroids).

Find NIK Software products here.

Category: Discount, Software
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Get 15% off Photomatix with this code – johnpaulcaponigro.

Beyond Photoshop, there are a number of HDR software options, both plug-ins and stand-alones. Some of the better-known programs include Artizen HDR, easyHDR, FDRTools, pfstools, HDR Efex Pro, and Photomatix. HDRsoft’s Photomatix is the longest standing and perhaps most robust and sophisticated solution.

Photomatix can be used either as a Photoshop plug-in or as a stand-alone product. It offers a variety of ways of combining exposures, including some non-HDR options. Photomatix offers impressive controls over essential image elements affected by HDR merges. Chief among these are control over halos, micro-contrast accentuation, micro-smoothing and control of saturation in highlights and shadows (areas that tend to need aggressive tone mapping).

With a little care and attention, the effect you produce with these tools can be one of your choosing. If used aggressively, you can produce a contemporary HDR effect that can give your images a new look. If used conservatively, you can produce a classic effect that’s virtually unnoticeable.

Every photographer can benefit from learning HDR techniques …

Read my review of Photomatix here. Stay tuned for the update.

Read more about HDR techniques here.

View more about HDR in my DVD Extending Dynamic Range – HDR Imaging.

Learn more in my digital photography workshops.

Category: Discount, Software
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The folks who make the software I use pass on great discounts to my readers.
That’s you!

Here’s a list of links to the codes you’ll need to get them.

Discount Adobe
Discount Epson
Discount FotoQuote
Discount Imagenomic
Discount OnOne
Discount PhotoKit

Stay tuned! There are more discounts coming!
You’ll find a growing list of links on my blog sidebar.

Learn more about the tools I use here.

Category: Discount
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Get 15% off of Pixel Genius products with this code – JPC15CPN.

The people at Pixel Genius (Martin Evening, the late Bruce Fraser, Mac Holbert, Andrew Rodney, Seth Resnick and Jeff Schewe) produce terrific production tools for use within Photoshop – PhotoKit, Photo Kit Color, and Photo Kit Sharpener.

PhotoKit automates a variety of tasks including color correction, color to black and white conversion, toning, and basic sharpening. PhotoKit Sharpener automates some of the most sophisticated sharpening routines ever devised. They’re so sophisticated they were licensed and modified for Adobe’s Lightroom.

Read more

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Get 20% off Imagenomic products with this discount code JPC2007.

Noiseware is the most robust noise-reduction software available. Ironically, while it offers the most sophisticated feature set, very often the default settings when you first open an image are all you’re likely to need. In many cases, very little, if any, additional tweaking is necessary.

In part, this is because Noiseware analyzes the images you process and creates “profiles” or saved settings that it uses every time you open a new image. It intelligently learns your needs by tracking your past images and analyzing your new images. You can also use Noiseware’s tools to create your own profiles, which can be saved and reused. You can save your own Preferences for how you’d like Noiseware to behave and learn. Noiseware also offers 13 default settings (like Landscape, Night Scene, Portrait, Stronger Noise, etc.) and allows you to save your own custom settings, which can be created from scratch or by modifying the provided presets.

Noiseware’s ability to target noise reduction to specific aspects of an image is what makes it unparalleled. You can adjust Noise Reduction based on Luminance or Chrominance; higher settings produce stronger noise reduction. You can target Noise Level based on Luminance or Chrominance; higher settings tell the software there’s more noise. You can target Color Range; Noise Reduction and Noise Level can be customized by hue—reds, yellows, greens, cyans, blues, magentas, neutrals. You can target Tonal Range; Noise Reduction and Noise Level can be customized for shadows, midtones and highlights. You can target image areas based on Frequency (or amount of detail); Noise Reduction and Noise Level can be customized to High, Mid, Low and Very Low frequencies. Finally, you can enhance detail, first, by using Detail Protection to reduce the effect based on Luminance or Color, and second, by using Detail Enhancement, which provides Sharpening, Contrast and Edge Smoothening.

Noiseware’s ability to provide this level of selectivity is extraordinary. It allows you to easily customize noise reduction for separate areas of an image without making complex masks. You’ll want to do this. Here’s just one example, among many, of why you want to do this. Smooth image areas reveal noise much more readily and they support more noise reduction, while highly textured image areas hide noise, but don’t support as much noise reduction without compromising apparent image sharpness.

Read my full review on Digital Photo Pro.

Find Imagenomic’s Noiseware here.

Read more in my digital photography resources.

Learn more in my digital printing workshops.

Category: Discount, Software
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Looking for information on how to price licensing and assignment work?
PhotoQuote Pro is the software I use.

“When someone wants to use one of your photos, you don’t need a number pulled out of a hat, you need help to get paid fairly for your work. You need fotoQuote, the industry standard photo pricing guide for stock and assignment photography.

FotoQuote is the only source of photo pricing information for photographers that includes powerful coaching help for every category. FotoQuote not only helps you come up with a fair price for your image license, but it also gives you the negotiation information you need to help you close the sale.

FotoQuote Pro 6 has just been released and it’s our biggest upgrade in the almost twenty years since the original version of our photo pricing calculator was written. We’ve added 86 new categories bringing the total to 304. The new version now includes both still and video stock footage categories, assignment pricing, thumbnails, international currency and much more.”

Learn more about PhotoQuote here.

Find more business resources here.

Learn more in my Digital Printing and Pro Portfolio workshops.

Category: Business, Software
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Get 20% off OnOne products with this code – PRINT20 !

OnOne offers free Plug-Ins.

You can add professional photographic effects, frames and backgrounds in Photoshop with just a few clicks with PhotoTools 2.5 Free Edition and PhotoFrame 4.5 Free Edition from onOne. You can also download free Lightroom Presets and Camera Raw Presets to speed up your workflow and instantly add effects. These products are yours to keep (they don’t expire) and will save you hours of time enhancing images in Photoshop and Lightroom.

Learn more about OnOne here.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.

Category: Software
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Nik Radio

August 21, 2010 | Leave a Comment

nikradio

Visit Nik Radio and listen to advice and inspiration from top pros using Nik software; the growing list of offerings includes Tony Corbel, Moose Peterson, Rick Sammon, Tony Sweet, Vincent Versace, and many others.

Want more inspiration?

Read selections from 42 conversations with photographers here.

Category: Audio
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Carter Emmart offers an inspiring perspective on how we see our home.

Category: TED, Video
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Acme Educational has worked out a deal with onOne Software. You will get 20% off any purchase at ononesoftware.com by using the coupon code ACME. This includes FocalPoint, Genuine Fractals, Mask Pro, and everything else onOne makes.

Do you use OnOne software? Tell us what you think here. Comment!

Check out On One here.
Check out Acme Educational DVDs here.
Check out my Acme Educational DVDs here.

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