Flight From Callahan County

 As an amature photographer interested in composites and image stylization, I love the use of machine learning/artificial intelligence now being incorporated in editing software. It speeds the workflow tremendously, but some features still need a little work. One of those is sky replacement. The software I use now does a good job of recognizing tree branches, leaves and large buildings sticking above the horizon. However, when it comes to automatically masking thin metal framework or structures like windmills extending into the middle or top area of the image, the software still needs more time in the classroom. The image below is a good example. Both ON1 Photo RAW 2022.1 and Skylum Luminar Neo Early Access masked the trees successfully, however they badly blew proper recognition of the blades and tower of the wind turbine, requiring a significant amount of time to correct. A second area of AI/ML problems is replacement of utility lines. Skylum Luminar Neo -- now with a limited-fea...

 The folks at Skylum Software have released what they call an Early Access Version of Luminar NEO to customers who have advanced-purchased this new software. This decision puts Skylum in the category of software publishers who promote public "beta" testing of forthcoming versions. Serif's Affinity products and Computer Insel's PhotoLine are two apps testing this way for a long time. Skylum's primary purpose of Early Access is to seek feedback on their Relight AI, Dust Spot Removal AI and Power Lines Removal AI features. In addition, the early access will help quiet criticism of the company for failing to meet the earlier announced release time of last month. For those of us eager to get our hands on the product, it's a chance to finally see how at least part of the product will work. Early Access is missing layers and numerous other features coming later, but based on my experience with free stock photos and my own raw images shot with Olympus cameras, I am im...

ON1 Photo RAW 2022 I had been looking forward to the December 20th update to ON1 Photo RAW 2022. Improvements and fixes were promised, including tweaking of the sky replacement tool. ON1 Photo RAW has been my primary start-to-finish raw file converter and editor for over a year now. However, several weeks ago Photo RAW began to crash on my 2017 iMac. ON1 support provided me with instructions for the time-consuming uninstall-and-reinstall process to get it working again. However, they could not replicate my crashes with the sample files and logs I sent them. Support indicated because ON1 is a small company, they could not spend more time trying to solve my problem. What I discovered was the digital asset manager I had been using -- Photo Supreme -- altered the Firmware cell in the EXIF data to read "Photo Supreme..." in JPG and TIF images. When ON1 encounters one of these JPG images, it shuts down. Using the Batch processor in ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac 8, I have been able to...

 Just figure me as an oddball. I don't subscribe to the Olympus micro four thirds trinity of prime lenses: 17mm f1.2 PRO, 25mm f1.2 PRO and 45mm f1.2 PRO, even though I desire the beautiful depth of field achieved with primes. These fast, weather-sealed, expensive lenses produce images with feathery bokeh and cover the slightly-wide, normal and portrait ranges. But the high prices and angles of view are not quite right for my needs. Plus packing all three of these glass-heavy lenses is less than ideal for traveling. Despite the steep price, I purchased the Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.2 PRO -- the normal view -- soon after it was released, replacing my slower M.Zuiko 25mm f1.8.  The f1.2 PRO works well on my Olympus E-M1 III camera and my Olympus PEN-F if a third-party grip is attached for better balance. The field of view of the Oly 25mm Pro is 47-degrees, arguably close to that of a human eye. By the time of this purchase, I had established the f-stop of 1.4 as the fastest neede...

 Version 12.0.1 (Monterey) of the macOS provides the infrastructure for many of the powerful features available in the newest version of Pixelmator Pro. To use some of them, you don't have to be running Pixelmator Pro. They can be accessed from Finder utilizing macOS Shortcuts. One of my Pixelmator favorites is Remove Background with Quick Actions in Finder. Here's a free image taken by photographer Alessia Chinazzo and made available on Unsplash. To remove the background using the magic of Pixelmator Pro, in Finder navigate to the folder with the photo and select it. Right-click and scroll down to Quick Actions, then Left-click on Remove Background.  The machine learning tool in Pixelmator Pro begins working its magic. The time this operation takes depends on the speed of your system and the size and complexity of the photo selected. On my iMac, removal of the background of this JPEG took just a few seconds. And there it is -- a transparent image of the subject with the backg...

 I have just discovered an image app that may completely replace and streamline my photo editing workflow. It's Pixelmator Pro 2.3 Abracadabra , just released earlier this week. Pixelmator's graphic, introducing the latest version of this Mac-only image editing app. Making the transition to a Mac from Windows a few years ago, I stuck with the traditional multi-platform image editing software when I moved to my new system. I found alternatives to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, but they were all available for Windows, too. I saw an occasional reference to Pixelmator, but paid little attention because it was Mac only. Little attention until I recently watched a YouTube video  by Austin photographer Jim Nix. I purchased Pixelmator Pro a few days ago at a Black Friday sale price of about $16 USD. Normally the price is $39.99 USD, still a bargain for this powerful application. Layers-based Pixelmator Pro does all that most amateur photographers need and most of what all enthusiast a...

 ACDSee has just released the latest version of its DAM/Editing software for Mac -- ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac 8. Back when I had a Windows-based computer, I relied on ACDSee for my image database management and much of my image editing. Switching to an iMac, I was disappointed with the ACDSee offering for that platform, because most of the helpful editing features of the ACDSee Windows suites were missing.  Version 8 for Mac makes up for some of that with the inclusion of two significant tools introduced on the Windows side last year -- Color Wheel and Tone Wheels. The wheel adjustment concept originated with Capture One developing software several years ago and has been adapted by some competitors, including ACDSee. The ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac 8 implementation is excellent. The Color Wheel on the left has identified the original blue hues of the knobs on the right and replaced them with green hues without altering the other colors in the photo. Quick and easy! The Tone...