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Capture One Pro 10 released

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Today Capture One Pro sees its number raised from 9 to 10.
So what’s new in this awesome software.

 

 

This is actually from the press releases….
Based on customer feedback, Capture One Pro 10 puts superior user experience center stage – with interface improvements, under-the-hood tuning, and exciting new features that furnish the fastest, most reliable and most powerful performance yet.

Better performance
Whether you are a Mac or PC user, Capture One Pro is now even faster and more rewarding to work with.

On-screen proofing
Export images with total confidence, remove guesswork, and maximize efficiency.
1) Overview every stage of the sharpening process, including scale, compression artefacts and sharpness before exporting to your client.
2) Instantly check ICC Profile, Output Scaling, Sharpening and JPEG artefacts.
3) Customize parameters to streamline your workflow.

Greater control with 3-step sharpening
1) Capture — Lens tool option corrects lost sharpness caused by diffraction
2) Creative — The ability to creatively sharpen an entire image, or different elements within it.
3) Output — Targeted sharpening for the final output medium, letting you take into account the viewing distance and scaling of the final image.

Industry-leading panel support
Take image editing to a whole new level with an industry first: Tangent panel system support. Use multiple sliders and controls in combination, and shortcut up to 460 deep menu items for optimal efficiency.

 

So should you upgrade or get Capture One pro 10?
Your RAW convertor is the software that bridges the gap between a RAW file and Photoshop, or the internet/client/folders/whatever you need a RAW convertor for. Most people think that digital is…. well just digital but that’s not true. I always compare it with analogue photography, often we forget that when you shoot film the way you develop this film (chemicals, temperature, time) etc. are ALL contributing to the final image quality and look of the shot. Of course the scene doesn’t change, but the look and “feel” of a shot can change a lot. And this is the same for RAW convertors.

Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Lightroom, in fact I always tell people that this is where my images life and where they are easy to be found and or put into smart albums, you could say Lightroom is my “hub” my “library”. Lightroom does a lot of things very good but some things it does OK, or “good enough”, take for example the retouching options in Lightroom, they are extensive and work pretty well for most workflows but…. if you’re like me shooting a lot of people there really is no good way to do skin retouching, you HAVE to go to Photoshop (the skin retouch brush is nice and works but it’s a far cry from really good), in Capture One however there is this awesome option under the color adjustments where you can even out skin, this is even more powerful than for example Imagenomic Portraiture or any other skin plugin I’ve seen on the market (and I haven’t seen them all, but quite a few). In fact I always use this feature in Capture One when I have a model with more difficult skin. It’s awesome and FAST.

Also when shooting tethered Capture One REALLY shines.
It’s rock solid and blazingly fast, and that’s not all.
Think about Capture Pilot, which makes it possible to view the images you shoot on local iPhones/iPads/smartdevices but also worldwide via your internet connection. But also the focus overlay mask is absolutely awesome, where you see (via peaking) which parts of the shot are in focus (probably, hey it’s technique) and which are not… the cool thing…. it works very well and in 95% of the cases you don’t need to zoom in, this saves a LOT of work for all you guys out there shooting loads of images and don’t want to wait for Lightroom to render images (everytime it sometimes seems) for a 100% preview.

But most of all Capture One is just fast, whenever I demo the loupe people are stunned by how fast it zooms in to an image.

So should you upgrade or buy?
If you don’t already own Capture One I would without a doubt advise you to get it, especially when you shoot people or shoot tethered a lot, or when you have to go through A LOT of images and want to be able to see if something is sharp in an instance (the peaking also works on the tumbnail view speeding that process up a lot).

If you already own Capture One, should you upgrade?
In my opinion YES.
Capture One 10 is a huge update with some cool new features like you saw above, but there is also a lot of work done that is not even mentioned that will make the experience faster, smoother and easier for some.

Luckily for me and you, my instructional video about capture One Pro is still valid because the interface and the workflows/tips/techniques are still working in the new version. And that means that for people that already use Capture One Pro the new version 10 will feel totally at home, but you will find out very quickly (like I did) that it’s all much smoother and looks better. And best of all… the RAW output also improved in fine details and color graduations…. great job Capture One.

You can find Capture one on this page
And my instructional video on the Pro version (filmed in 9) via this page (a great way to start with Capture One, or find new tricks)

Use the code AMBDOORHOF for a cool 10% discount.
By using this code you also support our work.

The switch…. apple to windows…. well ok not that dramatic

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I think this will be the first post in a series, if you guys like it that is.
After the announcement from Apple about the new MacBookPro’s, the discontinuing of their displays (which might hint at an end to the iMac, I hope I’m wrong) and the fact they stop producing airports I’m feeling pretty worried about where Apple goes for the pros, I’m not repeating everything I wrote before, please read those articles here, here, and here 

So the reality will be for now
I continue using my MacPro with D700s for the simple reason I LOVE MacOs and the MacPro is still pretty fast.
For mobile use I skipped the new MBP because my old one works fine and has all the ports I need.
For mobile however I do want more than what I have now and it seems like the Wacom Mobile studio Pro 16 is exactly what I need. Being able to edit on the road or during a workshop is an awesome addition to speed up my workflow, add a keyboard with touchpad you have a laptop, what more do you need.

But there are problems
By switching from Mac to PC can be a nightmare when you think about it.
Loads of people will tell you that all software runs the same and there is not really much to it… yeah well those are probably the people that use their computers for some light editing and surfing (with all due respect) we have a BOAT load of problems I have to tackle and I thought it would be interesting to do that via the blog and of course via our Vlog.

Software
Let’s start with the obvious and easy to solve.
Photoshop, Captureone, Lightroom etc. all no problem…. check
Alien Skin, DxO, Imagenomic, Topaz all no problem….. check
Manga Studio Pro, already have a PC version, no problem….. check
Apple iWorks, well that will be MS office or a free solution, for this device we only need Powerpoint actually… check
Email and calendar, nowadays both systems should be nicely compatible (time will tell) but for now I’ll say … check
MacPhun…… oops big problem, there is no PC version…… problem

The other thing is Final Cut Pro X, and let’s look a bit more at that.
Most of my editing I do on Final Cut Pro X, but this is mainly because it runs buttery smooth on my MacPro and I LOVE the magnetic timeline, I actually HATE the way it saves libraries etc. but I’ve learned to work with that.

Alternative is Adobe Premiere.
Not a big problem, I always used Final Cut Pro and when that stopped I switched to Adobe Premiere which was a very slight learning curve for me and I’ve used it for a pretty long time, so it’s more “back to an old friend that does very well”, I don’t see any problems there, especially because what I will edit on the road will be the vlog and that’s not multicam and it’s a pretty easy edit.

For MacPhun there are alternatives although not as good, for example Intensify is a plugin I use a lot, Topaz clarity comes VERY close but it’s slower and that will be very noticeable I’m afraid in my workflow, but it’s an alternative.

So software wise no problems so far, so lets look at where it gets REALLY tricky.

Hardware and interaction
On the road we don’t need any fancy stuff.
We will keep my MBP for digital classroom so all the capture cards, wirecast etc. will all still run on my mac.

What I do use a lot on the road is :
SD card reader…… is inside the Wacom…. check
But more importantly we also make backups on the road, at the moment we use a Western Digital My Passport Pro for this, a rather big (but still mobile) harddrive solution with 2x 2TB drives configured in RAID1 with a FIXED Thunderbolt connection, this works like a charm, it’s powered from my MacBookPro and it’s pretty fast and I feel much saver with a RAID1 solution than with “just” an external drive.

You have to realize that on the road we are pretty much filling up the harddrives of the laptops pretty fast with video and photos so before the end of a week we are often already running everything from the external drive, and call me paranoid I don’t want all my data on just one drive. A solution would of course be to get 2 USB-C drives. When the Wacom is here I will actually try to use a USB-C to TB convertor but I’m afraid that won’t work because the Wacom is not Thunderbolt but USB-C, but you never know. And other wise it will probably be 2 USB-C drives that we have to keep in sync somehow.

Another issue (also under integration) is of course file systems.
All my Mac drives are formatted as macdrives and not PC format.
The main operating system will probably be NTFS of course but for external drives we have to find something that both systems can read, and luckily there are solutions for this, you can buy some software that can read the Mac Format (or NTFS on the mac) but you can also format the backup drives as Exfat which would make it possible to use the drive on both the mac and pc.

So overall not a lot of problems you might think, only really MacPhun, but even that is solvable.
On the first glance one would say… done.

But wait…. there is more
We use a LOT of copying from one machine to another via Airdrop, I’ve already looked a bit online and there are alternatives so this will probably be a non issue when you’re willing to do some concessions.
The other thing we use A LOT is Airplay, all our Macs are connected to Apple Tv’s to show CaptureOne, lightroom and Photoshop on big screens in our studio, but also here there are alternatives for PC users.
iTunes is another one, according to many a real piece of bad software on the PC (and some also claim on the Mac), the fun thing is…. we won’t be needing iTunes for the mobile devices, the only thing I sometimes do is copy movies to my iPad Pro and that can also be done via a webserver, so also this problems is solved.
Another thing I ran into during a previous attempt to switch to Windows for mobile use (Yeah I tried it before) was the integration with iCloud and agenda/contacts, but we switched over to Google Calendar at that time and we never switched back, so that should work without a problem and from what I understand also iCloud integration is now MUCH better.

Leaves us with one thing….
The OS itself
And indeed that’s where I’m REALLY REALLY worried.
I’ve had more than 20 years of experience with selling, maintaining and giving support to windows machines, and let’s be clear there actually never was a problem we couldn’t solve, and my machines always ran pretty smooth, but when it went wrong….. oh boy. Also when I switched machines…. oh boy. When I switched to the Mac I loved the simplicity of the OS, I could do the same things but it was just easier, plus when you get a new machine it’s a matter of just copying everything over to the new one and it works, wow… that’s awesome. With Windows a new machine was always a HUGE frustration, new installs, copying everything over from backup drives with documents, music etc. it’s something I didn’t miss for a second, I actually still run on my first OS install on my MacPro since I bought my first MacBookPro about 10 years ago, it’s copied from machine to machine and every time updated to the new versions, never had to reinstall from scratch.

Windows 10 looks nice, but make sure you get the pro version was the warning, and indeed I knew.
I’ve seen to many examples of people working and not taking notice of the small alarm that there are new updates which would mean that your machine would just start updating itself leaving you “jobless” for a while, and with our slow internet that “a while” could very well be 2 hours. And that’s also the biggest fear I have. On my production machine I NEVER update before I know something works, and in all honesty Apple hardly updates it’s software, sometimes a small security update or a fix but that’s it. When I boot my Windows 10 Pro machine (I’ve always also owned a windows laptop) it’s ALWAYS updating, I use it app 3-4 times a week and it’s never without updates and it doesn’t run a lot of software actually only one program (for calibrations), but the updates are always 1 out of 20-30-40-60 which can take a pretty long time sometimes. What will happen in the middle of a job where I know everything worked the day before…. And what about hotels where the internet craps out every so often and my laptop is in the middle of an update, that would be a TOTAL disaster. So with Pro we can luckily time the updates and for example do it only at night or next week. pfffff

The other thing… viruses and malware.
As a PC shop owner for many years I know how you get them, and I also know that you can be pretty save, but on the PC you really need a virus scanner, and with the work and travel we do a pretty good one *(many unknown wifi networks etc), and this will slow down the PC every so slightly. Not a big deal but I never liked them, so now I have to go back to using and configuring them.

 

For now the conclusion
For the moment it all looks pretty easy, I’m 100% confident I’m going to enjoy the Wacom Mobile Studio Pro as a device, but I’ll have to get used to the change of OS, but Windows has come a LONG way, and Windows 10 Pro actually looks very good and I actually love the Metro style they use for tablet use. Also the support from Microsoft I got has always been absolutely awesome. I’m however also 100% confident that although I did my homework and my software is already ready for the Wacom I’m sure I’ll find a lot of stuff that won’t work, that will not work, that will drive me nuts etc. but I’m also sure I’ll solve it. And that’s I think where this series will be fun to read and follow.

For the future
I’ve been reading a lot on the subject Mac vs PC lately and also with my own experience with Windows 10 and if my worst nightmare comes true and Apple indeed doesn’t update their pro line anymore OR I have to donate one of my kidneys for the new new MacPro (nnMP) I don’t rule out a complete switch to Windows, which would be a TOTALLY different undertaking that will be very “dramatic” in terms of time, money etc. but I also enviously look at some of the killer PCs that render 4K material in seconds where my mighty MacPro takes several minutes, I also see the amazingly nice PC casings (which I always loved) and SLI connected power GPUs and double CPU setups with blistering speeds…… let’s just hope Apple wakes up and gives us an affordable MacPro soon…..

 

Anyone with good connections in the PC market that can build KILLER PCs workstations?
Just kidding.
For now let’s see how it goes with the Wacom Mobile Studio Pro 16 soon.

 

Let’s save some MONEY !!!

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It’s that time of the year again, cyber Monday, black Friday and what not more.
Although the don’t really know the concept over here (although its coming) I always try to select some of the best discounts for you guys, and by ordering through these links you also support our work, so make sure you do that 😀

 

Let’s start with some cool stuff that we can do for you.
Learning with Frank
First of all everyone that books a workshop in the Netherlands between today and November 28th will get a 25 euro discount, just mention CYBERDEAL. You can find the agenda at www.fotografie-workshops.nl (workshops are in Dutch and in our studio in Emmeloord)

And for people not able to come to Emmeloord let’s do a 30% off on all our instructional videos.
Head on over to www.frankdoorhof.com/videos and use the coupon CYBERDEAL  (all capitals) for the discount.

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First up we have Topaz
They have some amazing plugins and I love their Clarity and Clean3 for skin.

From November 25th through November 30th, they are offering 50% off of the full Topaz Complete Collection. That’s over $1000 worth of software for only $249.99! Just check out with the code “BLACKFRIDAY16” from your cart, use this link http://www.topazlabs.com/aff/idevaffiliate.php?id=716&url=http://www.topazlabs.com/store

 

And of course we also have SmugMug
The site where I host my portfolio and make all my backups, in short… they’re awesome.

From today until 12/1/2016, your can save 40% off of any new SmugMug pro package. Click on the banner to be taken to the discount page.
thanksgiving

 

And if you want some cool plugins that I use on almost any shot… where else to go than.

macphun_logo
MacPhun
What more can I say about them, I LOVE their intensify, tonality and they recently released their new Luminar, it’s a bit of a different kind of beast and I had to get used to it, but I will be uploading some material soon using it and in all honesty it’s freaking amazing and will probably replace my other apps from MacPhun, and this year they have two great offers for Black Friday

#1: They will be offering Luminar + $140 in bonuses for only $59 for new customers and $49 for existing customers.
#2: They will also be offering Aurora HDR 2017 with a 20-minute training video from Trey Ratcliff, a special holiday preset pack, and 2 great e-books from James Maher at a great value.

Use http://macphun.evyy.net/c/146243/326635/3255 to use their Luminar offer, and make sure to check out Luminar especially if you’re new at MacPhun plugins, this one does it all, and use  http://macphun.evyy.net/c/146243/326644/3255 for their HDR package deal.

 

photowhoa
If you want to learn about photography we also have some deals for you from our friends at PhotoWhoa
And these are all my instructional videos, so make sure to check them out if you don’t already have them 😀

https://photowhoa.com/deals/street-travel-photography-tips/?ap_id=9c06eb45

https://photowhoa.com/deals/frank_doorhof_nj/?ap_id=9c06eb45

https://photowhoa.com/deals/frank_doorhof_workshop/?ap_id=9c06eb45

https://photowhoa.com/deals/mastering-the-model-shoot/?ap_id=9c06eb45

https://photowhoa.com/deals/live_uk/?ap_id=9c06eb45

https://photowhoa.com/deals/doorhof_model_photography/?ap_id=9c06eb45

https://photowhoa.com/deals/doorhof_inside_look/?ap_id=9c06eb45

https://photowhoa.com/deals/frank_doorhof_lighting/?ap_id=9c06eb45

 

alien-skin-logo-green-glow

And Alien skin is also doing some cool deals
Here are the details:
What
25% off all our products
When
November 25th-28th

Follow this link

 

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For the best online training you have to go to Kelbyone
And I’m not just saying this because I’m one of their instructors
But I am teaching at Photoshop World 2017 in Orlando this year & tickets are $300 off—get yours now. http://kelbyone.com/cyber-2016/

 

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And if you need to meter the light, where else to go than Sekonic
Follow this link for some cool discounts.

Apple what the… now also no more airports?

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Now I’m REALLY getting worried…..
Apple reportedly stops developing AirPort WiFi router products, moving employees to other projects

Let’s be honest, a lot of people bashed the new MBP and in all honesty I was also disappointed and I’m not going to repeat that now.It’s clear apple is choosing in laptops a different route than a lot of us has hoped, but now that I read this…. I’m really beginning to wonder if Apple has TOTALLY lost it’s way.

When I changed from windows to Apple the reason was simple, EVERYTHING worked seamlessly. In our home and studio we have all macs and the integration between them is absolutely out of this world, it works flawlessly in most cases. For work it’s important we have a solid wifi connection but also that we can run around with cameras and phones and laptops and keep the connection between different rooms, the airports are great for this, setup is incredibly easy with a simple app and it… well it just works.

But…..
At home we of course also want some switching (we have a house where we use 3 airports for complete coverage) but I also want airplay. We have the airports connected to our home theater set and a receiver in another room so we can listen to music wherever we are.

Apple is now stopping the production of the airports…. now let’s stop and think about this.

there are other routers…
But airplay is JUST apple, back to my mac is not always supported, time machine doesn’t work on all routers (connecting a harddrive), iTunes multiroom audio is gone probably, meaning that if they stop production and sales of the airport we loose all this “cool” stuff that works like a charm, we lose the easy management of several routers *(we have a total of 6) via one app…. and….

pffff
This is another step from Apple that I really don’t get.
For us it means we are now actively looking at alternatives, because if a router stops we have to replace it immediately.

According to Apple it wants to focus more on consumers and I get that, although I find it a weird choice, but this is a CONSUMER product, it’s one of the easiest and best working routers I ever worked with to be honest, so IF apple is indeed aiming for the consumer then why the heck do they take out the ONE thing that connects everything in both the house and the office…..

or are they coming out with a new device?
Maybe a build in router in an Apple TV?
Which would be ridiculous because it would mean we have to place a lot of Apple TVs in locations where we don’t want it, and extra Apple TVs in locations where we do need them…..

I don’t know anymore, but being an Apple user is getting harder and harder. I’ll wait and see how Windows operates on the Wacom Mobile Studio Pro and make a decision maybe sooner than later.

Don’t get me wrong I LOVE Apple, and everything works like a charm but the airports are part of that experience, if you take that out it’s a question of how will my wifi work… will there be a router with airplay from a cheap brand that sucks with wifi and makes it necessary to reboot every week or so (we had those) or will there be expensive high-end routers adding Airplay if they have to pay a lot of money to apple for it while they only aim at businesses?

For us who use the router both for business and personal this is going to be a huge hurdle, we need solid routers that are stable and powerful, but I also need airplay for the music in the studio, our Apple TV’s (which are connected via wifi), our iPads and iPhones etc. etc.

It’s becoming a mess….
Come on Apple….
Don’t keep us in the dark but at least be open about what you’re going to do, for the first time in a long time I’m actually afraid that I will have to redesign our whole infrastructure.

 

Apple created an awesome ecosystem and is now slowly (well talk about slowly, it’s going PRETTY fast) totally destroying that.

 

Let’s hope they are creating something MUCH cooler, but the way it’s presented at the moment is that IF we see a device like this it will probably be a device (like I mentioned with the Apple TV) that has “onboard” wifi routing capabilities, in other words aimed at people that can place it in a small house and cover the house that way, maybe a Siri hub or smart house whatever, we have a device like that for our home but it’s a disaster to place it correctly so it covers the area we need, mostly also because the only option to extend the range is to buy another one (and at 250.00 that’s a bit expensive). So if Apple is going that way it’s yet another Apple part of the Eco system that gets axed in our setup, like you guys we also don’t have an unlimited budget.