Where has Jason gone??

Well, to start, I spent the last few months preparing to move one state over and actually accomplishing this task. (Which is no easy task considering the move was about 650 miles and nearly a five-fold increase in elevation, plus I clearly under-estimated the size of the moving truck necessary to accomplish this task efficiently.) Needless to say, we made it and all of our belongings made it in one piece as well. Though still unpacking, the necessities are set-up and working now. (Computer, Television, Bed) On that, I am currently taking a short break from full-time work to concentrate on full-time school so that I can accelerate through my degree program even faster than before. (Business Administration with a specialization in Small Business and Entrepreneurship, who would have guessed that from an award winning photographer!?)

Keep reading! >>

Oloneo PhotoEngine 1.0 – May 2011

So after a year or more of beta testing the upcoming Oloneo PhotoEngine HDR software, they are releasing the full version to be purchased at a price of $149 (beta users get a 25% discount) this May. After testing and using the beta for a long time, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is clearly the best and most easy to use HDR software currently. Although they don’t have a Mac native version available yet, I have had no problems using the software under VMWare Fusion 3.x on my Mac Pro (2008 8gig, 8-core w/ OS 10.6.x). Alternatively you could run it even better under Boot Camp if you don’t mind rebooting into Windows.

On the same subject, look for my upcoming full-length DVD video tutorial showing how to do your own HDR blends based on my award winning recipe for amazing HDR images. I will post more information about that as soon as I am ready to share more.

Press release after the jump:

Pixel Bender + Fixel Plug-Ins

I’m already hearing the confusion from a number of people reading this. “What’s Pixel Bender?” or “What’s a Fixel?” Well, that is what this post is about.

First off, I want to say that before I came across the Fixel plug-ins for the “Pixel Bender” plug-in for CS5, I only had a vague knowledge of the Pixel Bender myself. So now that we are all starting on the same page, lets get going…

Adobe Labs - Pixel Bender

Fujifilm takes 3D photography to new levels.

So this caught my eye today. It seems that the Fujifilm FinePix W1 launched last year was such a hit that they have taken the technology, shrunk the package and added some features that make it a very interesting pocket size camera.

Just a quickie… PhotoEngine by Oloneo

Due to time constraints, I am going to just post a quick few lines on the currently Beta product from Oloneo called the “PhotoEngine”. The PhotoEngine software takes working with RAW captures to a whole new level. Imagine being able to “mix” light in multiple exposures like an audio engineer might use a mixer to blend different levels of instruments or effects. The PhotoEngine allows you to do something very similar to this. It also takes HDR do a new level with an easy to use interface and very good HDR processing for accurate and very realistic results.

Inexpensive color laser printing in-house; No really!

Ok ok, what I am about to review isn’t exactly lab-quality stuff here. Nor is it tabloid size awesome prints on any weight paper. However, for under $200 what can you really expect?

That’s right. UNDER $200 if you shop online you too can have a compact color laser printer with results that actually impressed me enough to go into details here about it. Oh yea, and it’s WiFi ready too! And did I mention it will actually fit on your desktop?

So how about that Adobe?

I’m sure at least a few people are wondering what gives. The blog has been silent for nearly a month and no new videos have been made in at least as long. So what gives?

Well first off, Adobe happened. To clarify, Creative Suite 5 (also known as CS5) was released AND to complicate things, Lightroom 3 went from an open Beta to a final cut very quickly at about the same time. Why is that significant? Well, it means I had a lot to do, learn, try, test and fix. It’s no surprise that CS5 was released with some bugs and “quirks” in it. And to make things worse, the now fully 64bit version is fantastic and fast but left behind a lot of plug-ins and add-on software. In fact, every last add-on that I own was broken for at least the first few weeks after CS5 was released. (Some of mine are still not compatible in 64bit mode.)

Could it be Lightroom 3?

With so many months of the Lightroom 3 beta, many users were starting to wonder when the full version would be available. It appears our wish has been granted.

Lightroom 3 and CS5 to include Lens Corrections

Yep, no more need for a separate plug-in based software to handle correcting for lens distortions! Can we say ABOUT TIME Adobe?! But it is worth the wait… Check out the video, click in for the link.

Lightroom 3 Beta 2 – Noise Reduction Test

So the big improvement in the Beta 2 version of Lightroom 3 is the addition of the new noise reduction controls which have been slightly changed and improved over Lightroom 2.