New Release: Perfect Photo Suite 9 Adds RAW Previews, Re-editable Files, Improved Selection Tools And More!

It's here! onOne Software has announced Perfect Photo Suite 9, an updated version of its photo editing and effects app for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. Included in the new release are many significant performance and feature improvements, all designed to help you streamline your photo-editing tasks, so you can spend more time shooting and less time processing your photos.

Key Enhancements:

Among the key enhancements in Perfect Photo Suite 9 are:

• An overhauled Browse module, which adds lightning-fast previews of RAW files; new rating, ranking and keyword tools; and sophisticated filtering capabilities. These features are designed to help you cull and sort through photos quickly after a shoot, without having to wait for previews to be generated. You can then edit your photos using the Suite, or can easily send them to a secondary photo tool like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom or Apple Aperture — with metadata and keywords intact.
• A new Smart Photo feature, which lets you re-edit your photos — with previous settings intact — after saving and closing them. All of your editing steps are saved with a Smart Photo, so you can make subtle (or major) changes to a photo at a later date, while preserving the Photoshop file format for compatibility.
• To help you create better selections, all the masking and selection tools have been improved and integrated throughout the Suite’s modules. And, Perfect Layers and Perfect Mask have been combined into a single module, streamlining the process of compositing photos.
• We’ve also added a new Quick Mask brush: run it over an area that you want to select (or remove), and a detailed mask is automatically created. This is perfect for replacing backgrounds or adding a custom look to part of your photo.
• You asked for it, we added it: noise reduction is now part of the Suite. Reduce noise in your photos while maintaining important details. You can even selectively apply noise reduction to different parts of a photo, such as the shadows or highlights.
  
  
  
  Source: onOne Software U
  If you are unable to view the video in your browser, the YouTube link is: http://youtu.be/mOaDipUipEc.
  
  
• A new Lens Flare filter in Perfect Effects lets you get that popular “shot into the sun” look and add flares ranging from subtle to bold.
• Faster image processing; filters and presets now load up to 30 percent faster than in previous versions.
• There are many more new features and enhancements found in Perfect Photo Suite 9, including Retina display support; an improved automatic tone algorithm, for quickly making your photos bright and clear; better crop and level tools; an enhanced Perfect Brush, updated to work on soft edges and semi-transparent objects; printing capabilities; better batch rename options; and much more.

About the Suite
onOne’s Perfect Photo Suite is a full-featured photo editor that works either as a plug-in editor to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom and Aperture, or as a standalone application. In any workflow, the Suite provides all the necessary tools for editing your photos, improving portraits, adding popular looks in color or black and white, resizing for large-format printing, and making complex selections with minimal effort.
Our open system allows access to your photos no matter where they are stored: your computer, your network, or on cloud-based storage services. We support all of the key online storage services, including Dropbox, iCloud Photo Stream, Google Drive, and Microsoft’s OneDrive.

Availability and Pricing

Perfect Photo Suite 9 will be available in late October 2014, in two versions: Premium and Basic. The Premium edition supports Photoshop CC, CC 2014, and CS6; Lightroom 5 and 4; Photoshop Elements 12, 11 and 10; and Apple Aperture 3, and has an introductory price of $129.95.

The Basic edition, which does not have plug-in support, is $79.95.

For a limited time, owners of earlier versions of the Perfect Photo Suite can upgrade to Premium for just $89.95.

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by Richard S - Dakota Visions Photography, LLC

Create Actions in Photoshop Using the Perfect Photo Suite

As you know, Perfect Photo Suite by onOne Software is one of our tools for creating great photographs along with interesting design elements. Adobe Creative Cloud Photoshop CC + Lightroom is another one of the tools we use consistenly every day, especially when creating design artwork. But did you know you can easily combine the two together?

Creating actions in Adobe Photoshop CC can save you time by allowing you to apply multiple effects to a single image. You can include the Perfect Photo Suite into an action, saving even more time when processing your photos. In this onOne Software training video, watch Liz LePage walk through this easy technique, showing how you can quickly create a Perfect Effects preset and apply it to open photos in Photoshop.

Create Actions in Photoshop Using the Perfect Photo Suite
by Liz LePage 

If you are unable to view the video in your browser, the direct YouTube link is: http://youtu.be/7utglrC9wOs.
Source: onOne Software

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by Richard S - Dakota Visions Photography, LLC

3 Camera Lessons For Every New Photographer [Free Cheat Sheet]

So you just bought your first camera...now what?!

Here are three key fundamental concepts that every new photographer should understand. How your camera's shutter speed scale works, how focal length affects your composition, and how your aperture controls what's sharp in the photo.

Media Source: Digital Camera World

1. Shutter Speed:

Shutter speed is one of the two ways of controlling the exposure (with lens aperture being the other). Just like aperture settings and ISO's, shutter speeds go in a fixed sequence. The longer your shutter is open, the further your moving subject will travel during the exposure (causing blur).

To freeze your subject, you use a faster shutter speed. Or you can become a bit artistic, by setting a slower shutter speed and 'pan' the shot. That is, follow the subject in the viewfinder, as you press the shutter. This keeps the subject sharp but blurs the background.

2. Focal Length:

Lenses are grouped according to their 'focal length'. The shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of view. These are commonly called wide-angle lenses.

When you shoot with a wide-angle lens (such as a 20mm), you get more in the frame but objects appear smaller.

The longer the focal length, the narrower the angle of view. These lenses provide a photograph with less in the frame, but the subject is magnified (such as a 300mm). This is commonly referred to as a 'telephoto' lens.

3. Focusing & Aperture:

Lens aperture is one of the controls used to get exposure right in photographs. Aperture controls the amount of light hitting the camera sensor, while the shutter speed controls the length of the time that the sensor is exposed.

The size of the lens aperture affects the depth of field in the picture. For example, shallow depth of field is where the main subject is sharp in the foreground, while the background is out of focus. You can achieve this affect by using wide lens apertures, such as f/4.

You can also increase the depth of field by using a narrower lens aperture such as f/16 or f/22 which makes objects at all distances look sharper.

Lens aperture is important if you wan to blur backgrounds to draw attention to your main subject or make your shots perfectly tack sharp, from foreground to background.


We hope this cheat sheet will help reinforce these three fundamental photography concepts. Most importantly, it gives you a reason to pick up your camera and get behind that lens!

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by Richard S - Dakota Visions Photography, LLC

References: Digital Camera World

Accepting the ALS #IceBucketChallenge

If you are having troubles viewing the embeded video above, please follow the direct link to YouTube at: http://youtu.be/IBsoDAKwHIA.

As of Wednesday, August 27, The ALS Association has received $94.3 million in donations compared to $2.7 million during the same time period last year (July 29 to August 27). These donations have come from existing donors and 2.1 million new donors. The ALS Association is tremendously thankful for all of the generous support and awareness that this summer phenomenon has generated for the cause.

“The ALS Association has been given a great deal of money and with that comes tremendous responsibility,” said Barbara Newhouse, President and CEO of The ALS Association. “We are absolutely committed to transparency and will be communicating regularly with the ALS community, our donors, the media and the public about progress to invest these dollars wisely in areas that will have maximum impact on the fight against this devastating disease.”

The ALS Association’s mission includes providing care services to assist people with ALS and their families through a network of chapters working in communities across the nation and a global research program focused on the discovery of treatments and eventually a cure for the disease. In addition, The Association’s advocacy efforts empower people to advance public policies in our nation’s Capital that respond to the needs of people with ALS.

Please join myself and Dakota Visions Photography, LLC in supporting the ALS #IceBucketChallenge by visiting http://www.alsa.org today to help #StrikeOutALS.

Join us on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ , Twitter, or sneak a peek at our photography on Dakota Visions Photography, LLC. Until next time, we'll see you behind the lens...

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by Richard S - Dakota Visions Photography, LLC