Tag Archive for: alien skin

Oh yes. Alien skin 4 is coming ;)

/in , /by

I’ve had some sneak peaks ofcourse and this is so awesome. It’s a huge update.

You can find more and order here.

But let’s see :

RAW Processing Enhancements

Improved shadow and highlight recovery enables you to extract the maximum amount of detail from your RAW images, and faster photo processing times speed up your editing.

Fully Adjustable Light Effects

Exposure’s high-quality light effects are now fully adjustable, so you can freely move and rotate them to place them precisely where you want in your image, enabling gorgeous new creative looks. (Been waiting for this a long time)

Transform Tools

The new transform tools enable you to easily correct tilted or skewed perspective, such as keystoning of buildings in architectural photography.

Smart Collections

Exposure now helps you organize your photo library by automatically populating collections based on camera data and criteria you apply to your photos. Keywords, ratings, color labels, flags, and camera metadata like ISO and shutter speed are just some of the information that Exposure can query to build a smart collection. It’s a really useful way of speeding up your photo library organization, making it super easy to find specific images.

Monitored Folders for Tethered Shooting

You can now edit, cull, and share your images in Exposure with a client or subject during a tethered shoot thanks to Exposure’s new monitored folders. This includes being able to have Exposure automatically apply one or more of Exposure’s gorgeous presets to your images as they appear on screen during the shoot. Also a HUGE upgrade. Just run the software from your camera and voila instant looks that you want.

This is a big thing because now your client (and you) can literally see the end results and you can much easier fine tune everything.

Speed Enhancements

File export times are now up to 60% faster, launch times have been reduced by a third, and your photos will load up to 30% faster.

Additional Features

  • Support for new cameras and lenses
  • Print presets for easy printing straight from Exposure
  • Lightroom migration tool helps you move your workflow from Lightroom to Exposure
  • Expanded workflow options for image copying and exporting

Now is the Perfect Time to Purchase Exposure

If you don’t yet own Exposure, now is the perfect time to purchase it. You dont need to wait until Exposure X4 is out to enjoy the many benefits of editing and organizing your photos with Exposure.

That’s because they’ll be sending out free upgrades to Exposure X4 when it’s released to anyone who purchased Exposure X3 on or after July 1st, 2018.

And for those who purchased any version of Exposure before July 1st, the current license code qualifies them for an upgrade price of $99.

I’m super super phsyched about this update and can’t wait for you guys to also work with it.

Alien skin has been my favorite tinting program for years and 4 makes it so so much better. And finally we can share the news with you guys.

Get a free 30 day trial here

Different looks for different moods

/in , /by

In the old times we choose the filmrol for the look we wanted, now a days everything is of course digital and although I still love to shoot with film my workflow is 99% digital. I do however always say that “In my workflow I’m a 99% digital photographer, however in my heart I’m a 100% analogue photographer”, now why do I tell you this today?

 

When I look at my digital files I always feel something’s missing.
They are not bad, or looking weird, but they are just a bit “too” perfect, I know it sounds weird from a guy teaching to use the color checker and light meter however do realize that these tools are just to get the basis right, from this basis I always build up to the final look.

ALL the images you see from me are in one or another form tinted.
The last few years I’ve been mainly using the awesome DxO filmpack for this but since the release of Alien Skin Exposure X I have to be honest I’m more and more switching “back” to Alien skin, the X release is just really nice. If you already have filmpack… don’t upgrade (unless you want to) but if you don’t have any tinting plugin yet make sure to check out Alien Skin Exposure X (follow this link for a cool discount).

 

But what does tinting do?
To show you this and also to let you see my thought process I included 4 images from a session we did with Nadine in 4 different looks, it’s the same image, the only thing I changed are the colors, judge for yourself which one you like the best 😀

Nadine Januari 6 2016 1352 BW

Nadine Januari 6 2016 1352 SC

Nadine Januari 6 2016 1352

As you can see 4 totally different looks with different “feelings”.
I would normally just go through some presets I created and sometimes it just fits, but there is more….

 

If you shoot a commercial series it’s very important to keep the look constant, in other words use the same preset for all your images, now you also understand why it’s important to keep that basis correct, because if the basis is the same/correct the preset will give you the same results.

 

To make sure you select the right preset I would advise to try out your favorite preset on a few images and if they look awesome that’s the preset to use, however very often a really cool preset can look awesome on Photo 1 but terrible on Photo 2, often you will quickly see what the “problem” is, it’s better to select a different preset than that fits great for all images.
For commercial shoots I will also normally show a few images in a black and white conversion I really like, this way the client can always choose and making sure the clients gets a lot to choose from means that they will order more prints, but you will actually have a bigger chance they will hire you again because you give them a lot to choose from.

 

So the next time you’re done with your image…. and you think it’s perfect….. run it through a tinting plugin and I’m sure you will be very surprised 😀

Some cool offers and discounts

/in , /by

Holidays are approaching very rapidly and as you guys we are looking forward to some time off and spending it with our family and loved ones.

 

However we also know that sometimes these days can be a bit…. boring or quite for some people so we wanted to give you all a very cool discount to enjoy all our instructional videos. So till christmas you can get a great 25% discount on ALL our videos with the coupon code “holiday15”.

 

So surf to https://frankdoorhof.com/web/shop-videos-etc/direct-video-downloads/ and start downloading your menu of videos for the holidays, and it’s of course allowed to download them now and watch later 😀

MTM video 2

But there is more :
As you know I love the plugins from MacPhun.
Over the year we have worked together with them on quite some occasions and we decided it was time to take this cooperation one step further in the form of a cool discount for their WHOLE creative suite 2016 PLUS some other goodies which will save you guys a lot of money. For this offer surf to the special page and you can take advantage of the discount there.

 

And we are not done yet :
One of the most asked questions on workflow is probably “How do you tether?” and “how do you keep it stable?”
Well the answer is quite simple, on the hardware site I use the Tethertools products which are amazing and very sturdy, and I just love the orange cables (Hey I’m Dutch). On the software side I use Capture One.

 

Capture One is one heck of a piece of software for all your tethering needs, you can not only shoot tethered but you can also use the “focus overlay mask” which will show everything green (or any other color you wish) that is in focus, so you can see from the other side of your studio if you are hitting the focus right. I always say that if my tethering stops I will always check my hardware because Capture One will never ever stop tethering, it’s rock solid.
But it’s not only for tethering btw, try zooming in on an image and you literally will think your computer just got a MAJOR upgrade, it’s blazingly fast, add to this the great RAW conversion and many other tools and you will without a doubt fall in love with Capture One (I did and I’m very picky). So surf to Phase One/Capture One and get a test version of their new Capture One 9 and start enjoying it. Now if you like it…. use the coupon code AMBDOORHOF for a cool discount on the product, and I’m sure you’re gonna keep it.

 

And finally we have another cool discount on software.
Both Alien Skin and Topaz have been long time supporters of my work and I use their plugins a lot.
Both companies gave me some nice coupons for you guys to enjoy.

Nadine 178 - August 28, 2015

Topaz labs always has nice plugins for a very very friendly price.
I always advise people to use their Clarity plugin if they are using a PC and are not able to use Macphuns Intensify, and it ROCKS, without any doubt, a plugin you really can’t afford to miss, it’s like tonal contrast on steroids, but also check out ReStyle which is an awesome tinting plugin and Clean3 which I use for the more difficult skin or to remove goosebumps. Order them via http://www.topazlabs.com/716.html . Use Doorhof99 as coupon code for a really cool 10% discount

 

Now Alien skin is one of the market leaders when it comes to tinting, I always switch between DxO filmpack and Alien Skin. DxO I use when I want very subtle lovely tonings and Exposure X when I want to go towards the more “extreme” side, although it can also do all the subtle tones of course. Visit their site via : the alien skin site  and use the code FrankDoorhof for a cool 10% discount.

 

I hope you guys can benefit from these offers, and always remember that I do promote only the gear/software that I use myself even if it means I don’t earn any money/or less from it, it’s all about advising the right stuff to you guys.

 

 

Think in a different way

/7 Comments/in , /by

I’m love color.
Don’t ask me why but when ever I shoot I seem to think in color, but I also have to add that I LOVE black and whites, often when I shoot I think about a powerful black and white conversion, but somehow when I’m doing my retouch I love the black and white conversion but in the end almost always still choose the color version.

Now it’s a fact that you have to beware not to get stuck in one style….. so I thought let’s do a blog post about this.

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