Helderberg Photographic Society » Software

The Photographer’s Ephemeris for Android

Steve Crane — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:00:49 +0000

We’ve mentioned The Photographer’s Ephemeris before. It was available on the desktop for Windows, Mac and Linux, but mobile availability was restricted to the iPhone. This has changed, with a version for Android becoming available.

Find out more in the web version of the Android Market or scan the quick response code below to open the app page in the Android Market app on your phone.

Photoshop Elements 9 Finally Gets Real Layer Masks

Steve Crane — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:39:30 +0000

Earthbound Light published an article that starts;

Users of Adobe Photoshop Elements have long envied some of the cool features only available in the full version of Photoshop. Chief among these is true layer masks. There are workarounds to add layer masks to Elements, but Adobe has finally given in and added the real thing to the new Elements 9.

Read the full article here.

VSO Image Resizer 4

Steve Crane — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 22:25:55 +0000

VSO Software announces the release of VSO Image Resizer 4, a major new version of its photo resizing freeware.

VSO Image Resizer 4 is a stand-alone application which will compress, convert, create copies, import, edit or organise a single picture or a whole batch. VSO Image Resizer 4 offers an improved stand-alone usage and a quick access to profiles from the Windows shell extension. The file selection has been revamped, allowing images and folders to be added together to the same project. With the live preview, a major new feature in VSO Image Resizer 4, users can see what the result will look like before actually resizing or converting images. The output can be sent directly by email or be compressed to a zip folder. Finally, the watermark function has been improved with html-like text formatting features.

Photography Blog: VSO Image Resizer 4

The Photographer’s Ephemeris

Steve Crane — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:51:02 +0000

The Photographer’s Ephemeris is an interesting software application that presents details of moon phases, times and directions of sun and moon set and rise for any location you select. You can save your favourite locations and call them up again with just a few clicks. The software runs on the Adobe Air platform and is therefore available for Windows, Apple Mac and Linux operating systems. There is also a version for the iPhone. Read the Digital Photography School review It’s all about the light: The Photographer’s Ephemeris for more information.

Black & White in Photoshop Elements

Steve Crane — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:15:43 +0000

At the last meeting I demonstrated the use of the Enhance > Convert to Black and White… tool for converting images to black and white. While this tool is still a perfectly acceptable way of doing this, I have since discovered this tutorial that uses a different, in many ways better technique for this.

If you would like a refresher on the demonstration I gave, there is a two-part video tutorial here that you can take a look at. Please note though that this video uses Photoshop Elements 5 and the conversion dialog has changed since then, with the thumbnails for adjusting red, green and blue channels, as well as contrast being replaced with slider controls.

The other technique I demonstrated was how to retain only selected areas in colour while converting the image to black and white. This tutorial demonstrates how to do that as well as revealing some other ways of doing the black and white conversion.

Lightroom: What is it and When Should You Consider it?

Steve Crane — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:00:17 +0000

There have been questions posted as comments recently asking about the role of Lightroom in a photographer’s workflow. Many posters who are not currently using Lightroom aren’t sure whether Lightroom it is an alternative to Photoshop or where it fits if you have Photoshop too. I thought it was a good time to look at where Lightroom fits in the Adobe line up and to explain why Lightroom isn’t a Photoshop alternative.

Lightroom: What is it and When Should You Consider it?

PicturesToExe Deluxe 6.0 | PhotographyBLOG

Steve Crane — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:29:36 +0000

The standard in our club has always been to use Wings for producing AVs but to move beyond the free version to allow multiple piture and audio tracks is quite costly. PicturesToExe is an alternative that some members might want to take a look at.

WnSoft has released PicturesToExe Deluxe 6.0, a photo slideshow software for Windows. Version 6.0 of the Deluxe edition brings new enhancements to the program, including 3D effects and the capability to create executables for Mac. Other highlights include multi-monitor support, Windows 7 compatibility, and the ability to add your own soundtrack, sound effects and text comments to each slide.The Deluxe edition is available for $75.

PicturesToExe Deluxe 6.0 | PhotographyBLOG

Lightroom: What is it and When Should You Consider it?

Steve Crane — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:53:20 +0000

There have been questions posted as comments recently asking about the role of Lightroom in a photographer’s workflow. Many posters who are not currently using Lightroom aren’t sure whether Lightroom it is an alternative to Photoshop or where it fits if you have Photoshop too. I thought it was a good time to look at where Lightroom fits in the Adobe line up and to explain why Lightroom isn’t a Photoshop alternative.

Lightroom: What is it and When Should You Consider it?

Print photos with date taken or other EXIF data

Steve Crane — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:15:50 +0000

I use FastStone Image Viewer for viewing images and performing simple edits, resizing, etc. but this tip I just found is not something I’ve tried before. You might find it useful. The tokens shown in step 3 are just an example. Play around with the different options to arrive at your desired result.

Launch FastStone Image Viewer
Open photo directory
Create > Contact Sheet Builder > Caption > click "…" at top right > EXIF DateTime ($Hx) > Date and Time ($H1)
Save the output to a file (PDF, TIF, PNG, GIF, BMP, and JPG supported) or send directly to printer.

From TinyApps.Org

Start Using Curves in Elements

Steve Crane — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:41:41 +0000

Start Using Curves in Elements. | Photo Answers

One of the biggest advantages that the full version of Photoshop seems to offer over Elements is access to the Curves palette – and if you’ve used Curves you’ll know just how handy they are for controlling contrast.

What many people don’t realise though is that Curves are in all versions of Elements since version 5. Check out this video lesson to find out how to use them.