There is something almost primal about instant gratification, and it is something that many modern companies have tapped into to resounding success.

Think Netflix, Apple, Amazon Prime – all of these massive services rely on the need for “now” and not later.

It comes of little surprise, then, that photography’s original king of “now” is making a comeback, and just in time.

Before Instagram, there were Polaroid cameras, which created instant memories and tokens that could be carried away immediately, unlike more traditional film processing which took time.

Not the best quality of image, but an accessibility and instantaneous factor that coupled together to create a market behemoth that became popular among photographers and casual users alike, Polaroid was the touchstone of a generation and one of the first examples of mass consumer photography which is so ubiquitous today in smartphones.

Polaroid OneStep 2 – Image via Polaroid Originals website.

This year those photographers and children of the 1970’s and 1980’s rejoice as Polaroid, the once-dead-now-alive maker of instant film cameras, celebrates its 80th anniversary, and they are doing it in style.

In fulfillment of the Impossible Project, Polaroid Originals is giving photographers and a new generation the chance at owning and using a classic.

Premiering a line of classic, retro cameras reborn for 2017, Polaroid is banking heavily on the nostalgia factor but also, to some degree, on just how cool these cameras are. For all imaginable purposes, these cameras are functionally identical to the classic units of yesterday and (unlike Yashica’ digiFilm concept) offer the true retro functionality some people still crave.

The original Polaroid SX-70 comes refurbished and in five different colors which comes at a price point of $USD 399. This include 8 film packs. Additional film packs are priced at $USD 18.99.

In addition to the Polaroid SX-70, Polaroid debuted a reimagining of the classic OneStep (which came to market 40 years ago) called the OneStep 2 which is competitively priced at $USD 99 for shipments starting in the middle of November this year. I-Type film will be available in packs of 8 for the OneStep 2 at a price of $USD 15.99.

You can order these new Polaroid cameras on Polaroid's website by clicking here.

Polaroid 600 Camera Impulse image via Polaroid Originals website.

Polaroid Autofocus 600 image via Polaroid Originals website.

Polaroid SX-70 Camera image via Polaroid Originals website.

Polaroid 600 camera image via Polaroid Originals website.

Polaroid Image/Spectra camera image via Polaroid Originals website.

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Sourced by Time Trap Photography sharing the best photography tips, news and tricks throughout the industry. Time Trap Photography is dedicated to freezing those special moments in life that can be revisited and admired for generations to come. - Shannon Bourque
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In a recent article, we wrote about Macphun’s plans (now known as Skylum) to introduce a digital asset management module to their upcoming Luminar 2018 photo editing software. Although the DAM is not yet included, Skylum has sent us a review copy of the 2018 edition and today we are going to give your our first impressions of the new photo editor. When released it will be available on Mac and PC although for this review we used Mac. I would not expect there to be any huge difference between the two versions.

Setting Up And Using Luminar

Once you have entered your license details you are directed to a very nice looking opening splash screen. Here you can choose to open an image directly or batch process a series of images. It also has links to what’s new in the 2018 version, an online user guide, paid and free presets and Macphun’s HDR editor. Once you open an image you arrive at a very clean, surprisingly uncluttered interface.

The opening screen of Luminar 2018

The interface is going to be a challenge for any relatively new photographic editing suites. The design problem is twofold. Making an interface simple enough for relative newcomers to get to grips with but also comprehensive and familiar enough for experienced photographers to feel comfortable moving over from the Adobe world. Luminar’s approach with the interface tends towards newcomers but behind the simple and clean interface lies a range of powerful tools and presets. Macphun have done a good job in not cluttering up the screen with these yet making it obvious on how to access them using simple icons. The advantage of this approach is clear, with a huge amount of screen real estate devoted to the actual image.

The clean interface conceals a powerful editing app

The Editing Tools

There are two ways to edit in Luminar 2018. Via a range of predesigned presets, or by using the more traditional editing tools. At the bottom of the editing screen, by default, are a range of presets. These are arranged into a series of categories ranging from Basic through Street to Dramatic. You can also add your own presets to this section.

There is a wide range of pre-made presets

The more traditional editing tools are found just under the histogram on the right side of the screen. Clicking Add Filters reveals a huge range of powerful tools, many of which will be very familiar to Photoshop users. This includes Curves, Channel Mixer, Advanced Contrast, similar to the Photoshop Levels tool and many others. When you select a tool it appears underneath the histogram showing the different variables that can be used. The beauty of this system is that you can stack the filters and turn them on or off as required. This allows you to easily change the effect they have on the image. You can also simply delete them if they are not doing what you had hoped for. Also included is Layers. This includes Adjustment Layers as found in Photoshop.

Under filters is a comprehensive collection of familiar tools

Basic cropping, resizing and zooming are found in a simple interface at the top. There is also a neat before and after comparison that splits the screen and shows you the difference between the edited and original image.

Crop and Resize tools are found at the top

Luminar In Use

Switching to a new editing program is a challenge for any photographer. I found that within a few minutes I had worked out how to use Luminar to a reasonable degree of proficiency.  The tools I know from other editing apps are available and easy to work out. The program loads RAW files straight into the editing suite without the need to go through a RAW processor first. This in itself is a useful advantage over its main competitor.

Speed wise the software was quick. Even with several filters stacked I did not see any slowdowns however the clone tool took some time to load on a 48mb Fuji Raw file. It also seemed slow to return to the main edit window after cloning. Saving also, seems quite slow, exporting to a simple Jpeg felt quite sluggish. This may be something that is optimised in the production version. The addition of many filters can make the filter window look quite cluttered although you can minimise each filter once you have finished using it.

Overall Luminar 2018 is a powerful photo editing app. Its clean and sleek interface conceal the multitude of tools that are available. The design of the interface puts emphasis on the actual image which makes editing easy on the eye and also very efficient. The performance issues with some brush style tools will hopefully be sorted out. The future integration of a DAM module will make a purchase of this software a very compelling case.

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Sourced by Time Trap Photography sharing the best photography tips, news and tricks throughout the industry. Time Trap Photography is dedicated to freezing those special moments in life that can be revisited and admired for generations to come. - Shannon Bourque
Please visit our main site for booking availability and rates.

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In an earlier article we introduced you to the concept and interface of RawTherapee. RawTherapee is a powerful yet free RAW editing program that is available for MacOS Windows and Linux. Being a free, open source program it has some idiosyncrasies but that should not detract from how powerful a tool it is. Today we are going to look at some of the basic editing tools to get you going. These will be Exposure, Shadow and Highlights and White Balance. The main tools to get you started with editing an image.

Exposure Tools

To quickly get to the Image Editor, double-click any image in the file browser. You will see on the left side of the screen that you have now entered the Editor tab and on the right will be an overly complex looking set of tools. Don’t worry too much about their complexity, the majority work in much the same way of those in Photoshop, Lightroom or any other image editing software.

The main exposure tool are top right of the editor window.

The top section of the editing tools is Exposure. Like other apps, you can show where there are compressed highlight and crushed shadows To do this, go to the two warning triangles top right of the actual image and set them on. Blown highlights will be shown in black, shadows in white. You also have the highly useful histogram to the top left of the screen.

The clipping indicators at the top right of the image window

The Exposure compensation slider simply raises or lowers the overall density of the image. Sliding to the right will increase exposure, to the left reduce it. Moving to the slider right to 1.00 is the equivalent of adding one stop of exposure.

Exposure compensation increase or decreases exposure by EV values.

The Highlight Compression slider is similar to Highlights in Photoshop or Lightroom. It will raise or lower the density of the highlight areas, allowing you to pull back clipped whites. The Highlight Compression Threshold tool basically regulates the strength of the Highlight Compression slider.

Black is used to change the density of the darkest parts of the image. Sliding it right will make the blacks darker, sliding left will make them become more grey.

Pushing the Blacks slider too far will clip the shadows

Shadow Compression tempers the effect of the Black tool and is used to lighten or darken the shadow regions of the image.

Lightness works in a similar way to Exposure Compensation in that is lightens or darkens the image. However, it keeps both the pure black and pure white points fixed so only changes exposure in the tonal regions of the image.

Contrast will push the darker regions out towards the left edge of the histogram and lighter areas towards the right edge of the histogram, posting overall contrast. Like with other editing apps you will get more control over contrast using the Highlight Compression, Black and Shadow Compression tools.

Shadows/Highlights Tool

Strangely to use the Shadow/Highlight tool you have to switch it on. That is done by clicking the on switch top left of the tool. Unlike the general Exposure tools, the Shadow/Highlight tools work only in their specific tonal ranges.

Sliding Highlights to the right will reduce exposure in the brightest parts of the image without affecting the dark areas. The Shadows slider does the same for the dark areas of the image. The Tonal Width sliders define how aggressive the Shadow or Highlight tool is working on an area.

Local Contrast boost contrast slightly across the whole image without moving the black and white points out to the edge of the histogram.

Shadow/Highlight adjustment should be done carefully to avoid halos

White Balance

To get to the color tools you need to click the third icon from the left at the top of the Editor Tools. We will deal with just the White Balance tools in this article, the others we will look at in some more advanced tutorials.

Temperature is used to change the color temperature of an image. It works best on RAW files where a temperature has not been embedded into the image. It works on the usual degrees Kelvin scale. Sliding left to the lower numbers will make an image more blue. This is because it is compensating for warm light such as tungsten. Sliding to the right will add warmth to the image compensating for colder light such as overcast and flash.

Temperature uses the Kelvin scale

Tint allows to fine control the green/magenta tint of the color balance whilst the Blue/Red equalizer changes the effective strength of the Temperature tool.

This tutorial has concentrated on getting some basic edits into an image using RawTherapee. For the next article, we will look at how to sharpen, resize and export an image. After that, we will take a look at some of RawTherapee’s more advanced functions.

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Sourced by Time Trap Photography sharing the best photography tips, news and tricks throughout the industry. Time Trap Photography is dedicated to freezing those special moments in life that can be revisited and admired for generations to come. - Shannon Bourque
Please visit our main site for booking availability and rates.

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