Color control is vital to making a subject pop. Nik Software in Viveza 2.0 enhances their powerful color control solution with three new features.

Global Image Adjustments
Of the three enhancements, global image adjustments will be used the most.  Now apply any color, light, or structure enhancement image-wide.  Then  refine the global adjustment selectively using control points. The included levels & curves provide even more control over contrast and tonality.

Structure Adjustment
Control the level of detail in your images for the ultimate look from realistic to artistic.

Shadow Adjustments
Preserve and recover details hidden in shadows.  Yet another tool to control the look and feel of the image.

Training
NIk Software provides both live and video training.  Check out their web site for the current schedule. Downloading the demo and using the training resources is a great way to test drive the product.

For more information on Viveza’s user interface check out my earlier review of Viveza

System Requirements:

Windows

Macintosh

** Nik Software product filters are developed to integrate seamlessly into many popular image editing applications that support the Adobe plug-in architecture and there are numerous software applications that accept Adobe plug-in compatible filters. Please consult your image editing application’s documentation for compatibility and installation instructions for 3rd-party plug-ins.

Cost: MSRP $199.95
B&H Photo Video

Contact: Nik Software

Lightroom 3 is a digital photography management program that imports, organizes, allows photographers to insert metadatasand create web galleries, provides tools to enhance images, and allows users to output high quality prints. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 CIAB is a great introductory book that walks its reader through Lightroom 3 fundamentals. If you’re new to Lightroom, it’s a good book to set down next to the computer while working through Lightroom 3. Lesson files are available on the inserted DVD, and each chapter focuses on different skills highlighted and enforced in individual lessons.

By referring to this book, you’ll save time and incur less frustration by following the examples and practicing as you develop a better understanding how Lightroom 3 operates. There are alternative books for beginning Lightroom 3 users, yet this is one of the better how-to books.

Chapter Layout
The first section covers how to get started, computer requirements and uploading lesson files. Chapter 1 provides a detailed tour of Lightroom 3 highlighting the work area, tools, different modules, work flow, and editing. The remaining chapters dig into the nuts and bolts of Lightroom 3:

• Introducing the Workspace
• Importing Images
• Reviewing views and Producing Collections
• Organizing and Selecting Images
• Developing and Editing
• Creating Slideshows
• Printing Images
• Publishing Your Photos
• Backup and Exporting Photos

If readers are interested in using Lightroom 3 to import and edit, organize, categorize and establish a photo collection to preparing output for slideshows, print and web, then consider this book as a good first learning resource.

Contact: www.peachpit.com/lr3cib
Cost: $54.99 US; $65.99 CAN

One of the nice touches that Scott uses in this book is at the top of each page he highlights which module he discusses. The photographs and screenshots used for illustrations are  clear and easy to read.  And they illustrate each step.

Chapters
The chapters in  The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers follow the typical process that a photographer may use when utilizing Lightroom 3.

• Importing –getting your photos into light room
• Library–how to organize your photos
• Customizing–how to set up things your way
• Editing essentials–how to develop your photos
• Local adjustments–how to edit just part of your images
• Problem photo–fixing common problems
• Exporting images–saving JPEGS, TIFFS, and more
• Jumping to Photoshop–how and when to do it
• In black and white– converting from color to black and white
• Slideshow–creating presentations of your work
• The big print–printing your photos
• Web galleries–getting your photos on the web
• My portrait workflow–my step-by-step process from the shoot to the final print
• 7-point system–my seven points in Lightroom

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers provides a comprehensive step-by-step learning guide.

Contact: New Riders

Cost: $49.99 USD, $59.99 CAN, £30.99 UK

Theory : Practice

When you take a picture, you have a vision of for the final result.  Unfortunately, the end result sometimes fails to  match your vision.  There can be several reasons for this failure.  David duChemin does a great job of addressing failures that result from a failure of your inner geek (left brain)  to serve your inner artist (right brain) and together serve your  vision.  He also discusses how to find your vision, and how to use your “voice” to bring your image into alignment with your vision.  The last half of the book provides the opportunity to practice a vision based work flow using Lightroom on twenty photos – 20 Visions, 20 Voices.

Chapters

1. Vision in Focus
2. Vision & Process
3. Vision & Style
4. A vision-Driven Workflow
5. Voice Training
6. The Means of Expression
7. 20 Visions, 20 Voices

Vision & Voice excels at encouraging your left brained geek to serve your right brained artist, and together serve your vision.  I highly recommend this book for beginners to experts.

Contact: New Riders

Cost: $44.99 US, 53.99 CAN

Accelerated Photography

New for Lightroom 3:

• Profile-based lens corrections
• Perspective corrections
• Tethered capture
• Drag and drop online publishing
• Import and organize video files
• Export video slideshow
• Noise reduction

Improved for Lightroom 3:

• Faster interactive performance
• Smarter imports
• Raw processing engine
• Flexible watermarks
• Multi-image print layouts
• Vignetting
• Sharpening

Smarter Imports
Lightroom 3 provides enhanced efficiency, allowing users to import images faster and simpler. As part of the import process, images can have developed settings applied, and a backup copy can be saved to a second hard drive.

New Image Process Engine
Adobe has rewritten and improved their raw processing engine. These improvements result in enhanced image quality. The images have better color tones, and sharper features. Lightroom 3 provides the user the choice of upgrading images that were processed with Lightroom 2, or Lightroom 1. Like other aspects of Lightroom, this feature is a nondestructive process.

Improved Noise Reduction
The new raw processing algorithms also enable significant improvements in both color and luminance noise reduction.  Much higher levels of noise reduction can be used without softening the image.

Lens Correction
This is a cool new feature that can automatically or manually correct geometric distortion, chromatic aberration and vignetting.  Automatic corrections uses lens profiles.  The lens profile can be manually selected or automatically selected based on the lens data saved as part of the EXIF data by the camera.  If your lens does not have a profile, corrections can be manually applied.

Perspective Correction
After applying the lens correction, a perspective correction can be applied by selecting “Manual” in the Lens Correction Panel.  By adjusting the vertical, horizontal and rotate sliders, the image can be adjusted so that it looks like it was taken straight on.   This new feature can also creatively distort, stretch and/or rotate the image.

Lightroom is now in its third generation, and with each version, has seen extensive improvements. The first two versions were good, and with version 3, Lightroom is coming into its own. All the features complement one another, and create a user friendly, dynamic product.

Contact: www.adobe.com
Cost: $299 US, upgrade $99 US

Color control is vital to making a subject pop. Nik Software provides a powerful color control solution with Viveza. Nik Software’s U Point® color control points provide Viveza with exceptional color control precision.

Color Control Workflow
Open an image in Photshop, select Nik Software and then Viveza from the Filters menu. Alternatively, access Viveza in Aperture (Images -> Edit With -> Viveza) or Lightroom (Photo -> Edit In -> Viveza). Viveza opens in its own user interface that includes preview, loupe, and filter control areas.

Simply select “Add a Control Point” from the filter control area. And then select the area of the photo to adjust. Adjust the sliders on the control point to achieve the desired effect.

Images
To illustrate the color control abilities of Viveza, an image was selected from photos taken with a Nikon D200 (10 MP sensor). The selected image was processed in Photoshop CS4 using Viveza. The original and processed images are presented below.

Original Photo

Viveza with 4 Control Points

The above image illustrates the powerful, yet easy-to-direct color control capabilities of Viveza. To draw the eye to the flower, the first control point was placed on the crocus flower and adjusted to add brightness, contrast, and saturation. To improve the contrast between the flower and the green leaves, the second control point was placed on the green tulip leaves to reduce the brightness, contrast and saturation. To de-emphasize and darken the background, particularly the red tones, two control #price points were added. The third control point is above and to the right of the flower. The fourth control point is slightly below and to the right of the flower. Both the third and forth control points reduced the brightness, contrast, saturation and red tones.

These simple to implement color adjustments, made a tremendous improvement to the image. Now the crocus really pops.

Nik Software has announced that Viveza 2.0 will be available in December 2009 for MSRP $199.95. This is a free upgrade if you purchased Viveza 1.0 after September 22, 2009. Thus, if you buy Viveza 1.0 now and get the free upgrade, you will save $50 over the MSRP of Viveza 2.0.

Pros

• A joy to use – great tool
• Powerful color control
• Excellent video training

Cons

• None noted

Training

• Training videos
• Webinar schedule
• Archived webinars

System Requirements:
Windows

• 32-bit version of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista
  (64-bit operating systems with 32-bit host application)
• Pentium III 1GHz or better
• 1 GB RAM
• Adobe® Photoshop® 7 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 through 7.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-in compatible application**
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® 2.3 or later

Macintosh

• Mac OS 10.4 and later
• G4, G5, Intel® Core™ Solo, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Xeon®
• 1 GB RAM
• Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 and 6.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-ins compatible applications**
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 or later
• Apple® Aperture™ 2.1 or later

** Nik Software product filters are developed to integrate seamlessly into many popular image editing applications that support the Adobe plug-in architecture and there are numerous software applications that accept Adobe plug-in compatible filters. Please consult your image editing application’s documentation for compatibility and installation instructions for 3rd-party plug-ins.

Cost: MSRP $149.95
B&H Photo Video

Contact: Nik Software

Location, Location, Location
Location may not be “everything” in photography.  Composition, focus,  exposure and a tack sharp image are still king.  When using images to tell a story – even “where I went on my last vacation” – knowing the images location makes a story come alive.

Size Matters
The GISTeq PhotoTrackr Mini is small.  At about the size of a pack of gum or a large flash drive, the Mini easily fits in a pouch, pocket, purse, or camera bag.  Like any GPS device, the PhotoTrackr Mini must be able to receive the GPS signal.  If the PhotoTrackr Mini is left in a car, building or ferry boat where GPS reception is limited or non-existent while taking pictures outside (where GPS signals are available), GPS data for the pictures  will not be available.  To maximize the chances of automatically geotagging photos, keep the Mini with the camera.  A small pouch on the camera strap is the best solution.

Timing is Critical
Camera time, GPS time, local time, close is good enough … right.  Too early, too late – either way the geotag could be incorrect or the photo may not be automatically geotagged.  For best results, fully charge your camera battery and then set the camera’s clock to match the GPS time from the PhotoTrackr Mini.  GPS time is obtained using the PhotoTrackr software with the PhotoTrackr Mini plugged into the computer USP port.

Geotagging
The included PhotoTrackr software can geotag JPEG images.  If you do not use image data base tools like Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture, the images can be imported in to PhotoTrackr, crops and minor edits made if desired, and geotagged.  PhotoTrackr also makes it easy to upload images to photo sharing websites like Flicker.  However, if you use Lightroom, Aperture, or other image data base tools, the process is more complicated.  One option is to import the images into PhotoTrackr, geotag the image, and then export the geotagged image.  The geotagged imaged can be imported into the image data base application.  This option results in making three copies of the image – the original, PhotoTrackr import, and geotagged export.  A second option is to us a third party geotagging software, for example PhotoLinker.  This option requires exporting the GPS track (GPX file) using PhotoTrackr.  Then using the GPX file in PhotoLinker or another third party geotagging application to geotag the photos.

Pros:

• Small Size
• Easy to use

Cons:

• Three step process if you want to use the Geo-tagged image outside the Photo Tracker software.
• Non-replaceable battery must be charged from a computer USB port.

System Requirements:

• Windows XP or Vista, Intel ® Pentium ® PIII 500 MHz
• MAc OS X 10.3.9, 10.4, or 10.5.4
• 256MB RAM
• 25MB hard-disk space
• 1024×768, 32-bit (true color) screen
• USB1.1 Port
• Internet connection is required for online mapping

Contact: GiSTEQ

Cost: $69.00 US

The image color is great, but if an image fails to convey the mood or emotion, the story behind the image falls flat. One of the filters in Color EfexPro 3.0 may be just the tool for adding just the right effect to enhance the image’s story power.

Nik Software’s U Point® control points in Color Efex Pro provide the tools of a color darkroom without messy chemicals, red lights, or working by brail.

New for Color Efex Pro 3.0:

• User Interface
• U Point – powered control points
• Selective tool interaction
• New filters: Bleach Bypass, Cross Balance, Film Effects, Film Grain, Glamour Glow, Low Key, High Key, Polaroid Transfer; and Tonal Contrast

User Interface

Color Efex Pro opens in an interface that is similar to the rest of the Nik Software plug ins.  Preview and Loupe views are available to review the effect on the image. A tabbed list of the 52 effects (filters) can be displayed on the left side of the preview window.  The tabs allow quick access to effects groups typically applied to an image or effect category e.g.  Favorites, All, or four user selected categories.  The user can select four tabs from Artistic, Landscape, Nature, Portrait, Stylizing, Traditional, or Wedding.

On the right side of the preview window are the following:

• Sliders for controlling specific aspects of the selected effect;
• shadow and highlight sliders; and
• a control point section that provides for managing control points includding adding  control point buttons

Color Efex Workflow

Open an image in Photshop and select Nik Software and then Color Efex Pro from the Filters menu.  Alternatively, access Color Efex Pro in Aperture (Images -> Edit With -> Color Efex Pro) or Lightroom (Photo -> Edit In -> Color Efex Pro).

After the user interface is open apply one of the effects on the left that is closest to the desired look.  Then fine-tune the image with the effect controls and control points on the right.

Images

To illustrate the abilities of Color Efex Pro, an two images was selected from photos taken with a Nikon D200 (10 MP sensor).  The images were processed in Photoshop CS4 using Color Efex Pro.  The original and processed images are presented below.

Original

Glamour Glow

As seen in the above images, the Glamour Glow effect provides a nice warming effect to the skin tone.

Original

Bleach Bypass

In the above image, the “Bleach Bypass” filter was selected to enhance the image. The image was also cropped.

The above images illustrate two of the new filters in Color Efex Pro 3.0.  These two examples, however, barely scratch the surface of Color Efex Pro’s powerful yet easy-to-control color effect tools.

Pros

Powerful color effects

Excellent video training

Cons

None noted

Training

• Training videos
• Webinar schedule
• Archived webinars

System Requirements:
Windows:

• 32-bit version of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista
  (64-bit operating systems with 32-bit host application)
• Pentium III 1GHz or better
• 1 GB RAM
• Adobe® Photoshop® 7 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 through 7.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-in compatible application**
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® 2.3 or later

Macintosh:

• Mac OS 10.4 and later
• G4, G5, Intel® Core™ Solo, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Xeon®
• 1 GB RAM
• Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 and 6.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-ins compatible applications**
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 or later
• Apple® Aperture™ 2.1 or later

** Nik Software product filters are developed to integrate seamlessly into many popular image editing applications that support the Adobe plug-in architecture and there are numerous software applications that accept Adobe plug-in compatible filters. Please consult your image editing application’s documentation for compatibility and installation instructions for 3rd-party plug-ins.

Contact: Nik Software

Cost: MSRP Standard Edition $99.95 (15 filters); Select Edition $159.95 (35 filters); and Complete Edition (52 filters).

Nik Software’s U Point® control points in Silver Efex Pro provide the tools of a black and white darkroom without messy chemicals, red lights, or working by brail.

User Interface
Silver Efex Pro opens in a clean, professional interface.  Preview and Loupe views are available to review the effect on the image.  When displayed, the style browser provides thumbnail views of 29 preset styles and any user created styles.  The extensive image enhancement tools are on the left of the preview image.  These tools include:

• Brightness, contrast and structure (amount of detail) sliders;
• Add a control point button;
• Shadow and highlight sliders;
• A control point section that provides for managing control points;
• A color filter section that provides 6 preset color filters and a details subsection that enables fine tuning the filter’s hue (color) and strength;
• A film types section that provides a pull-down menu with 18 simulated films and subsections that include tools for adjusting grain, color sensitivity, and the tone curve;  and
• A stylizing section providing subsections with tools for adjusting toning (simulate traditional darkroom toners or create a custom toner); vignettes; and burning edges.

Silver Efex Workflow
Open an image in Photoshop, select Nik Software and then Silver Efex Pro from the Filters menu.  Alternatively, access Silver Efex Pro in Aperture (Images -> Edit With -> Silver Efex Pro) or Lightroom (Photo -> Edit In -> Silver Efex Pro).

After the user interface is open, apply one of the styles from the style browser that is closest to the desired look.  Next, fine-tune the image with the enhancement tools.  While the enhancement tools can be used in any order, for best results, Nik recommends starting with brightness, contrast and structure.  Add one or more control points.  Continue working down through the section menus and tools – color filters, film types, and stylizing.

Images
To illustrate the black and white control abilities of Silver Efex Pro, an image was selected from photos taken with a Nikon D200 (10 MP sensor).  The selected image was processed in Photoshop CS4 using Silver Efex Pro.  The original and processed images are presented below.

Original photo

Silver Efex Pro

In the above images, the blue sky was de-emphasized by placing a control point in the sky and reducing the brightness.  And blue filter was added from the color filter section.  The image was then burned along both sides and the top.

Second Example

Original photo

Silver Efex Pro

In the second set of images, the “Wet Rocks” style was selected from the style browser.  The image was further adjusted by using a control point to reduce the sky’s brightness.

The above images barely scratch the surface of Silver Efex Pro’s powerful yet easy-to-control black and white tools.

Pros: Powerful black & white control; Excellent video training

Cons: None noted

Training

• Training videos
• Webinar schedule
• Archived webinars

System Requirements:
Windows:

• 32-bit version of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista
  (64-bit operating systems with 32-bit host application)
• Pentium III 1GHz or better
• 1 GB RAM
• Adobe® Photoshop® 7 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 through 7.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-in compatible application**
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® 2.3 or later

Macintosh:

• Mac OS 10.4 and later
• G4, G5, Intel® Core™ Solo, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Xeon®
• 1 GB RAM
• Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 through CS4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 and 6.0; other Adobe Photoshop plug-ins compatible applications**
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 or later
• Apple® Aperture™ 2.1 or later

** Nik Software product filters are developed to integrate seamlessly into many popular image editing applications that support the Adobe plug-in architecture and there are numerous software applications that accept Adobe plug-in compatible filters. Please consult your image editing application’s documentation for compatibility and installation instructions for 3rd-party plug-ins.

Contact: Nik Software
Cost: MSRP $199.95

Every Photographer’s Compact
Care to dazzle your eyes with a suave green, or cool blue? And no, I’m not talking about eye shadows. Just as most women have some small makeup compact in their purse, or pouch – photographers, you should carry this nifty kit in your camera bag. It’s flat, compact and oh so functional! Quickly and easily, X-Rite’s Color Checker Passport allows beginning to expert photographers the ease of calibrating digital color from capture to edit.

Mind the Reds
How many times have colors in the field seem less vibrant, or washed out on screen? With the ColorChecker Passport, photographers can dial in accurate color on sight, and in their studio. The X-rite Color Checker combines three main features in the Passport:

• Creative Enhancement Target – enhancement patches that help photographers neutralize, check and evaluate details, highlights and shadows, plus check and control color shifting
• Classic Target – industry standard color reference target for creating DNG profiles and evaluating individual colors
• White Balance Target – allows custom in-camera white balance to establish a consistent white point within sets of images taken in the same lighting

In addition, X-rite provides a desktop application, plus an Adobe Lightroom plug-in and a portable protective case (with lanyard). This compact color kit provides self contained targets in a convenient, protective case.

Balancing Whites and Color
As part of the photo shoot using the Color Checker Passport, a photographer takes a picture of the color and the white balance targets under the same lighting conditions as the subject. Prior to shooting, the white balance target can also be used to set a custom white balance in the camera. If a custom white balance was not used in the camera, the white balance target can be applied to set the white balance from the photo shoot. After setting the white balance for the image with the color targets, the color target image is exported to the color checker plug-in (if using the Lightroom export button or menu comand). The color checker software will automatically generate a color profile that can be applied to the rest of the images. Photographers have the choice of uploading these images from the photo shoot into the desktop application, or within Adobe Lightroom 2.

The Color Checker Passport is not limited to photo shoots with fancy models. Capture that precious, spontaneous moment of toddler, teen, or sprinting pet. Then, take photos of the white balance and color targets within the subjects. And voilà, a perfect image is captured preserving this special memory.

Whether shooting RAW, or shooting for Jpeg images, the Color Checker Passport gives photographers the right tools to improve their images, and eliminate errors. It works great, and makes a great stocking stuffer, or surprise gift.

System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4, ; Windows XP 32 or 64 bit; 512 MB RAM; minimum of 200MB of disk space, G4 Processor or Intel Pentium 4

Compatible Software Supporting DNG Profiles
• Adobe® Lightroom® 2.0 or newer
• Adobe® Camera Raw 4.5 or newer
• Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 or newer
• Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 7 or newer
• Adobe® Bridge CS3 or newer

Contact:www.xrite.com
Cost: $99.00 US