∞ Blog ∞
On Photography, Art, And The Creative Life
Welcome to the place affectionately known as my "writings on the walls", where you will find images, thoughts, and discussions on Photography, Art, and The Creative Life... or so I'm told.
Aperture :: Iterations and Variations
Picasso was asked, "When do you know a painting is 'finished'?," to which he is reported to have replied, "When it is signed." Now we photographers, especially those of us now working in the digital realm of the medium rarely if ever sign our work, unless perhaps we print the work. Brooks Jensen, one of my favorite people in all of photography has...
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The Perfect Pairing :: Aperture and Exposure X5
Sometimes, once in a great while perhaps, you come across a pair of image editing softwares that play so well together you can't help but marvel at how well they do it. Most people will have a pair of software they use for image editing like the Adobe pairing of Photoshop and Lightroom to do all they need to create their images. Some really crazy f...
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Aperture :: And The Unsupported Image Format
If you are an Aperture user (I know, we are a very small but dedicated and scrappy bunch), this is the one thing you hope never to see! This dreaded image will appear after you import a RAW file that Aperture doesn't support, which includes most any camera that came out after 2015. The complete list of compatible cameras and their RAW formats for A...
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The Continued Case Against Software Subscriptions
Grabbing a warm, steamy cup of Joe, I thought I would settle in and wax on with a few more thoughtful insights against subscription software, specifically software geared towards photography and image editing and offer some questions you may not have thought to consider. Now I wrote an earlier blog post on "The Case Against Subscription Software" t...
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Aperture :: Make It Big
If you are an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber you probably know by now Adobe has just released an update to their separate RAW imaging processor Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). If you didn't get the memo, the YouTubes are alight with demos on its main feature Super Resolution. Funny thing is most of those channels are also running ads for the popular compe...
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Tools Too :: Photography Gear Matters ~ Or Does It?
A few years ago I wrote a post called "Tools:: On Why Gear Really Does Matter" and I have wanted to do an update, or at least carry the conversation further ever since. I blame all of this gear talk on David Duchemin, he's the one who started it, or at least focused on it ('scuse the pun!) But David is a kindred spirit and we teach much of the same...
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What I Want ~ Aperture '21
This post is part fantasy, but more importantly a really close look at a beautifully designed program for RAW image, and general photography managing and editing: Apple's Aperture. This post also piggy-backs on my previous post on the current Photo Editing State-of-the-Art in 2021.
I made a post with the above image on an Aperture Users Group I be...
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Photo Editing ~ The State of the Art
As we stroll into 2021 I want to take a peek into the current state-of-the-art of photo editing software. What I won't be looking at is any software that is a subscription only based solution. I've already written about my thoughts on that here. What I will address is the current crop of options for those looking to escape the subscription model an...
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Aperture, Noise and Film Grain:The Quest for a Filmic Portrait
This final portrait edit was created entirely in Apple's Aperture software here at the end of 2020. Yes, I'm still running Aperture five/six years after Apple closed the door on supporting and updating it. I'll tell you why in a later post, but for now, let me tell you how this image came to be.
I took this portrait of my very dear friend, Artist,...
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Black & White Done Right!
Original image left and a B&W conversion in NITRO using my custom LUT
As an artist and photographer I'm not one to go by numbers and formulas... usually. I was trained early and well in the structures of the camera and the mysteries of the alchemical Black & White darkroom. I followed the instructions on developing film and processing negatives in...
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It's 2020 and Adobe Is Finally Catching Up with Color Grading
New Color Grading Tool in Adobe Lightroom
So, it's 2020 and Adobe has finally started catching up with the color grading world of still photography. Catch this recent short video on the Lightroom Sneak Peek announcement. Kudos to Adobe for making a sneak peek since not every company has the transparency to let customers know what's coming (looki...
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Is RAW Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder?
Not all RAW converters are the same, that's not a new revelation. When I was photographing in the analog film days, all my fellow photographers would discuss the various merits of the pro film labs in town. Mostly we talked about the quality of the processing and which labs "ran warm" and which "ran cooler." If you were a portrait or fashion photog...
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Creating & Using Custom LUTs in Affinity Photo and Exposure X5
Creating and using custom LUTS for still photography is easy and fun using Affinity Photo and Exposure X5. (the above video is best viewed in full screen mode.)
LUTs have become really popular recently for photographers wanting to create a unique look for their images after looking over the shoulders of video creators and seeing some of the cool a...
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The Case Against Subscription Software
This is the third and final post in a series on photo software. A lot has been said and written about the whole Adobe move to the subscription model of photo software. While researching and writing my last two posts on photo software upgrading, and my move back to Aperture, I came across this episode of Scott Kelby's "The Grid" where the gist of th...
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Back To The Future ~ Taking The Zen Path
A funny thing happened on the way to the future... I decided to go back. No, not back to 1985 but more like 2014. Since writing my previous post " To Upgrade Or Not To Upgrade, That Is The Question" I've had time to test a number of things, and I've come to a decision. But before I get to that decision, a bit about what lead up to it.
If you read...
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