Geo Metro

Geo Metro
Originally uploaded by Kirk Howard

Fractalius for Mac

Jumping Spider Fractalius
Originally uploaded by Goshinsky

This is not my photo I borrowed it for another Flickr users. I use a Mac, so I can't create my own.

A few months back I put up a little post called Fractalius… It hasn’t received a lot of attention, but it has seen its share of web traffic.

In a nutshell it was about my frustration with Redfield who creates this fractalius plug-in. If you haven’t seen this plug in take a look on the internet. Go to Google or your favorite search engine and type in Fractalius images.

Redfield has stated in thier FAQ, that the plug-in is not supported on for a Mac, and nor do they ever plan on making a plug-in for Mac.

I have noticed an increased amount of traffic to my blog posting over the past few months. After going back through the searches that have led readers to the post and 90% have been from “Fractalius for Mac”.

If you ask me I think that Redfield is missing a crucial market. The Apple Mac user is basically a graphic user, and since this is a graphics image plug-in, I think it would be only natural to have this unusual plug-in available for the Mac OS platform.

I know, I am not the only Mac user that thinks this way. After linking to other sites from the links queried on my blog, I found an on-line petition. This petition is for all those Mac user being discriminated against by Redfield Plug-in. This petition is for all those Mac users that have said “Enough, I want my Fractalius Plug-in”.

Here is the link to the Fractalius for Mac OSX petition.

Do yourself a favor sign the petition above. Do me a favor a sign the petition. Do it for your mom, your dog, your fish or your spider . Sign the petition, sign it for any reason on earth just sign it, so we all can enjoy that little plug-in.

Reflection at Dawn

Reflection at Dawn
Originally uploaded by Kirk Howard

An early February snowy morning in Yosemite National Park. This is a photo from Stoneman Bridge take with my Panasonic Point n Shoot.

What attracted me to this image is the glassy calm of the Merced River and the dawn colors in the reflection.

Snuffleupagus

Snuffleupagus, originally uploaded by Kirk Howard.

Young Male Elephant Seal at Ano Nuevo State Natural Reserve. He was tucked into a nice cozy bed of sea grass that washed up on the shore during high tide.

Action!...

My life through actions. Actually it’s my life through Photoshop CS3 Actions. Earlier this week while I was furiously trying to catch up on all the photography blogs I follow, I found a tutorial by wildlife photographer Moose Peterson.

The tutorial is how to create a poster action in Photoshop for a web page. The first few times I tried creating the action I had a few hiccups. Then when I got the hang of creating an action, I felt more confident to create and work on my own. I took his action and put my own spin on it.

It really is a process of trial and error. Unfortunately I discovered you really have to double check your work. Once the action is created and you find a mistake… It is a pain in the arse to correct one line-action. I find that it is better to scrap the whole action and start over. I have managed to shorten a few steps because I have had to redo a few more than once.

If you don’t know how to use or create actions, take the time and learn. Once they are created, you spend less time in Photoshop and more time creating more productive stuff.

Above and below are examples of the poster and picture frame actions I created in the past few days. If you have any question about actions or how I created mine drop me a note and I will do my best to explain what I learned.

Holiday Message...

Artificial Bokeh…

Continued from Let’s Bokeh…

This image was taken at San Diego Wild Animal Park in 2006 pre Nikon DSLR. All I was using was an inexpensive Kodak point-in-shoot. The camera took nice colorful images, but lacked manual adjustments. Unfortunately the camera didn’t allow the ability to create (DoF). The entire image appears to be on the same focal plane. I adjusted colors and contrast in Adobe Lightroom 1.41.

This next image I adjusted in Adobe Lightroom 1.41 and Photoshop CS3. I created a Layers Mask and added Lens Blur. I didn’t think that the adjustment I made was blurry enough so I did it again.

Since I am using an adjustment mask in Layers I switched to the brush tool. Selected a soft edge brush. I made sure my primary color was black and painted over the entire sheep. The black allows the Mask to be removed in top layer to reveal the bottom clear layer, resulting in an “in-focus” sheep. This creates an artificial Bokeh and or Depth of Field.

Now I fudged a little. If I really wanted to create a true DoF look, I would have made everything within the focal plane of the sheep in focus. Instead I just made the sheep in focus, I felt this made the animal stand out a little more.

The Wordle Around Me

The Wordle Around Me, originally uploaded by Kirk Howard.

It was a slow day at work today (Oct. 3). While I was sitting at my desk, I remembered a conversation I was having with Magellan. She asked me if I had ever used Wordle? I said that had not, but I knew what the program was…

While I was sitting at my desk I thought It would take a stab at Wordle. I thought it would be interesting to take all the tags that I have used in Flickr, Zoomr, SmugMug, Photosig and all the blogs I had contributed in the past year.

This is what I came up with, and I titled it “The Wordle Around Me”.

I did the blending of the two wordle.com pages in PS CS3 along with combining the shot Magellan took of me in Alcatraz Island, San Francisco. I did all the PS work on my flight from Oakland, CA to San Diego, CA

Lightroom® Too...

As everyone knows in the photography community Tuesday was the big release of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2. I have spent the last few days poking, prodding and testing the new software. I still haven’t completed my under-the-hood check-out, but so far I like what I see.

One of the things that stand out is the layout. In the develop module is where I have seen the biggest layout change. Most of the tools i.e. crop, red eye adjustments are now in the left menu bar. Before they were positioned under the image workspace.

Also, a major new item is the ability to make adjustments to localized areas of a photograph vs. the entire photo. You can also burn a dodge your images. Previous this was not a feature of Lightroom® I, only in Adobe® Photoshop®.

Side Bar…

Tuesday, I spoke to Thomas Hawk (Flickr) of the infamous Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection. We discussed the new Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2. Thomas has been a big user of Adobe® Bridge®. Over the year he has a developed a great workflow in Bridge® that has work very well for him. In a previous conversation month back, I asked if he was using Lightroom® I? He had said he tested the software, and that Bridge was a better fit for his workflow.

However, Tuesday produced a different response from Thomas Hawk. He said he really liked the new Lightroom® 2, and was going to start using this Photo management software, now instead of Adobe® Bridge®.

Thomas Hawk has put up his own review of the new software which you can read it here. Click… Here. I will check back with him at a later date to see how he still feels about Lightroom® 2 or find out if he has gone back to Adobe® Bridge®. “The Proof is in the Pudding”.

That’s it for me. Have a nice weekend. Keep you focus sharp and you lens clean.

Lightroom 2

Today Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 software released. It has been a highly anticipated release of a very popular photo management and editing software.

In April 2008 Adobe Labs released the BETA for Lightroom 2. According to the information released by Adobe over 130,000 copies were downloaded.

I did not download the BETA version, so do not have any fist hand experience on the software. However, I am an avid user of the first version of Lightroom. I think it is a great tool. Most of my images posted to this blog and others have been adjusted with only the Adobe Lightroom software. For photography work flow and management, I don’t think there is better software out on the market. For features of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 Click… Here.

Check out the upgrade comparison chart Lightroom 1 vs. Lightroom 2. Click… Here
Check out Matt Kloskowski blog, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips for additional information and news. Click… Here.

Fractalius...

It's another day...

Yes, that’s right I am here to explain the whole Redfield Fractalius Filter plug-in frustration. Ever since I had seen some of these images I had been drawn to them. It’s like HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. I just think they are fantastic if done well.

So all the photographers that have submitted these fractalius picture I have contacted asking what this program was or how did they do that. One photag finally responded that it was a Photoshop plug-in.

Now my search is on for this funky plug-in. He didn’t say who it was made by nor did he say what it was. It was by chance that I saw an image on flickr that I was steered into the right discussion that told me the name “Fractalius”. Better yet they told me who made it and the web site Redfield Plug-ins at Redfieldplugins.com.

The filter plug-in was going to cast me $39.90 for the latest version. I had my credit card out and I was ready to purchase… and then the world was ripped from below my feet. My hopes and dreams all feel apart.

I looked for the MAC versioin download. I couldn’t find it. I saw the Windows user download, but nothing for MAC. So it browsed the FAQ. Right there in black and white was my answer.
______________________________________________________
Have you any plans to release Redfield Plug-ins for Mac OS?

Sorry, we regret that we do not have any plans to port our plug-ins to the Mac OS.
______________________________________________________

What the %#@$... Riken, Raken, Friken, Fraken… Sis boom bah! Bugs Bunny, Bugs Bunny Rah! Rah! Rah!.

What a shame. Magellan and I over a year ago had been yanked over to the MAC family. We decided to go MAC because we got tired of all the deadly viruses, pop up’s and phising without a permit.

I have on PC with Windows XP on it, but it only has Photoshop CS. I could see spending the $40 clams on the MAC, not on an outdated XP with old CS.

What a bummer. Why can’t everyone just get along in the software world. I just don’t understand.

I have posted an UPDATE/FOLLOW UP to this post you can find it here: Fractalius for Mac Apr. 1 2009

Jump to:
Fractalius Flickr Group

FREE... My favorite four letter word.

A few days, weeks or at least some time ago, I wrote about Adobe’s Photoshop Express. The FREE online but slim photo editing program. I say slim, because it is light on features.

Today I have a new FREE photo editing program for everyone to ponder. It is called INFANVIEW. The Irfanview team doesn’t call it an editing program the call it a “Graphic Viewer”. However it does give the user organization, preview thumbnail options.

It also supports a plethora of different formats to many to list, so here is the link to peek at for yourself. From what I understand that the latest version will support .RAW files. For me that is huge, to be able to open and edit RAW files without having to use Lightroom or Bridge or another expensive program.

IRFANVIEW also supports a ginormous amount of Plug-ins. This link will take you to the plug-ins page that can be downloaded.

** ACHTUNG**
This program is only allowed used on PC’s with Windows (whatever) OS. Unfortunately the MAC family is S.O.L. It’s really never a balanced playing field. Don’t even get me started on the software conspiracy of SourApple and Microhoo. Their is a great plug-in filter for sale by Redfield that does Fractalius. I will leave that for another day.

Express yourself...

Looking for a way to edit you photos, but you don’t want to spend a fortune on Photoshop? Well adobe has an online solution. In March Adobe released Photoshop Express. In its current state Photoshop Express is in Beta.

If you are looking for a full featured photo editing program like Photoshop CS you are going to be a little disappointed. Come on, did you really think Adobe was going to give the milk away for free, nope you are going to have to buy the cow. However Photoshop Express is a slick program all web based and has some cool features i.e. Slideshows.

Photoshop Express enables you to:
Download and Discuss

• Try the Photoshop Express beta now
• Discuss Photoshop Express in the forums
• Adobe Photoshop Express
• Online learning center



• Upload and store up to 2GB of photos. Fix photos with options including Crop & Rotate, Auto Correct, Exposure, Sharpen, Touchup, and Red-Eye Removal.
• Make your photos stand out with effects and enhancements including Pop Color, Hue, Black & White, Tint, Sketch, Distort, and Soft Focus.
• Show off your photos in My Gallery, where you can create customized displays and let visitors play and interact with them.
• Upload your photos on Photoshop Express to your blog or Facebook page.
  

You can now link Photoshop Express with your flickr, picassa, facebook and photobucket accounts. Check it out and download it for free. Adobe Photoshop Express.

My Gallery