Magic Bullet Photolooks 1.0 for Photoshop was announced last week, but I’ve been so busy shooting it slipped right by me. Some of you may already be familiar with Redgiant Software and Magic Bullet Looks which runs in Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Final Cut Express, Apple Motion, Avid Xpress Pro, Avid Media Composer and Sony Vegas.  Well now Adobe Photoshop gets to play too!

So why is a blog that focuses on HDRI (high dynamic range imaging) mentioning a photoshop filter?

Redgiant Software Magic Bullet PhotoLooks 1.0 works in 32 bit space.  That means the looks and tools provided in PhotoLooks 1.0 can be used on your HDRs.  Yeeessssss!

So if you haven’t yet thanked Stu Maschwitz for birthing the original concept and product that became Magic Bullet Looks, we can all thank him again and even moreso for getting that wonderful plugin over into the photo community via Photoshop.  Thanks Stu!!!

I grabbed a handful of shots from a few model shoots I’ve done and threw them into a collage to show how the looks can really change the feel of a shot (reference image linked directly below)

I tried to grab images with different primary colors and different contrast ratios (not a perfect mix, but good enough).  I then created a screen capture as I cycled through the images after launching PhotoLooks 1.0 from the Photoshop CS3 filter menu.  This is a compressed video (vimeo & youtube versions) so the quality is not tremendous, but I uploaded a 720p HD version to both services.  Also noteworthy, some of the presets were meant to be applied to one image, not a collage of images so vinetting for some presets won’t apply perfectly to the collage.

Last and important to remember.  I’m applying these presets on WEB JPEGs.  Results will differ if working in higher bit depth than 8 bit.

I decided NOT to embed the videos here because you really need to see them full screen or in larger format to appreciate Magic Bullet PhotoLooks 1.0 as I apply them to the larger image.  Links to vimeo and youtube below (vimeo generally has higher quality …. generally speaking).

VIMEO LINK

YouTube LINK

Lens distortion correction can be achieved using PT Lens. It is available for both the PC and the Mac. I often forget about these little tools that make a huge difference in image quality. If you shoot real estate or architecture, you need PT Lens to remove bowed lines that should be straight.

I often get asked how I deal with distortion typical with wide angle lenses and PT Lens is something I’ve been using since 2007 when I was googling around for lens distortion correction solutions. That and I tend to try and get my tri-pod to about the mid-point of the room. Obviously a tilt and shift lens is ideal to not have to deal with this in post, but on capture.

Rather than grab photos from their site and post them here, you should use their interactive options to see before and after photos to get an idea of how it corrects lens distortion.

The link to PT Lens main web site HERE

From their navigation on the left, choose “Examples” to then view before and after photos. I’d link it directly, but I think they are using frames on their site and I didn’t see a different URL.

And an alternative for Mac users…

Back in 2007, there was no Mac solution so I used an alternative developers plugin that uses the PT Lens database.  Word of advice, if you need to use this other plugin (linked below) instead of PT Lens (such as if you are still running 10.4), make sure you SAVE before you launch the filter in Photoshop because it has caused PS to crash on me before (normally fast clicking through the dialogs has caused crashes).

Kekus Lens Fix

The 72 dpi myth was something that had me scratching my head years ago.  I was wanting to use some high end compositing packages to edit photos, but I was concerned about the fact that they deal in video “speak” and 72dpi was/is the norm.  So I was wondering how I could get an image I was working on in 300 dpi, there and back and not lose resolution.  I felt so dumb when I found out about the whole DPI myth and how it was/is tied to legacy printers, etc.

I still get people losing sleep over this stuff so I’m going to link a site with a ton of info on it.  There are a TON of other sites online.  If you want more opinions, just google:

72 dpi
72 dpi myth
The DPI Myth

…etc.

All About Digital Photos
http://www.rideau-info.com/photos/index.html

The Myth About DPI
http://www.rideau-info.com/photos/mythdpi.html

How to Properly Change DPI
http://www.rideau-info.com/photos/changedpi.html

I hope this helps clarify.

HDR tutorial requests about my high dynamic range imaging workflow have come in via email (my photography site email) for a couple of years now. Again a couple more last night, but this time through the form on this site that I finally “fixed”.

So my question is… what do you need help with the most? Use the Contact Me page to send me what area you need help in the most whether it be HDR Capture (camera settings), choosing a camera for HDR Capture, HDR Post Production like HDR in Photoshop or HDR in other apps, Tonemapping, or otherwise.

In 2006 when I first heard about HDR there was very scarce information online to work off of.  HDR Tutorials were geared towards grunge looks and I was seeking to provide my clients nearly photo realistic looks for real estate work. Back then there were very few players in the market for applications and I decided to just use Photoshop from Merge to HDR – to tonemapping – to final tweaks.

Late last year weather turned bad here for weeks so I took some time to peek around the net and even some books at Barnes and Noble just to see what was out there in terms of HDR Tutorials and HDR Training.  I was amazed to see so many “gurus” or folks posting tutorials either slamming Photoshop for HDR work or quickly moving folks on to Photomatix because the sliders are easier to work with for beginners.  The slider issue I understand totally, but the steering away from Photoshop for HDR work I don’t get at all.

For example, one of the many things I like about using Photoshop for HDR is it is a complete high dynamic range pipeline from raw to final output.  That and you can view the entire exposure range in pieces simply by opening up multiple windows of the same view.  You navigate to the top menu to WINDOW>ARRANGE>NEW WINDOW and presto, another window of the same file you are working on opens in a new window.  If you just merged to HDR here in 32 bit space in Photoshop, then this second window has another exposure slider at the bottom to change at will that has no impact on the file, it is simply for viewing purposes.  You use the slider at the bottom of that new window to adjust the exposure range of the image you want to view in that one window.

That slider  is NOT some kind of adjustment layer, it is just for viewing purposes.  So you can open multiple windows, place the exposure slider to various under/over exposed settings so that as you make changes to the document here in 32 bit space, those changes update in each window.  This way, you can make local or global changes using various adjustment levels over either parts of the image or the entire image and see the results across the ENTIRE exposure range via viewing the multiple windows you’ve opened.

Here is a screen capture to understand what I’m talking about.  What you see is nine windows opened and I’ve adjusted the exposure slider at the bottom of each window.  I took that screen capture after I had merged to HDR and before I made my tweaks in Photoshop in 32 bit space.  Once I finished my adjustments and then tonemapped out to a 16 bit TIFF, I made some final tweaks right there in photoshop and the image on the bottom was the result.

Photoshop is VERY capable at creating photo real images as a single application pipeline – from Merge to HDR to final output right in Photoshop.  I would say if Photoshop’s pipeline has a major fault it is that it is TOO GOOD at keeping saturation levels under control and makes creating grunge and technicolor images a more difficult process because it doesn’t over saturate colors and it doesn’t create wacky artifacts like other applications do.

It blows me away when I see “gurus” poo pooing photoshop as being lacking for editing HDR images.  There are so many things you can do right there after merging to HDR waaaaaaaay before you ever go to the menu to choose IMAGE>MODE>16 bit to tonemap it down.  And you can work in layers in 32 bit mode just as you can in any other mode so if you know photoshop well already, then why are you taking your HDR images to other applications, then bringing them back to photoshop when you could just do everything right there in Photoshop?

Give it a chance.

I can’t provide a link to an online tutorial showing how to take advantage of the full capabilities of Photoshop’s HDR workflow because I never found anyone else using it like I do.  I’m sure others use it this way and they are either too busy shooting to create tutorials (I can relate to that) or such tutorials do exist and I never found them.

Like I said, with nobody to turn to in 2006, I just starting farting around in Photoshop and eventually figured stuff out on my own.  Even Photoshop CS4 still has ZERO help files for working this way in 32 bit space, which is probably why so many folks use Photomatix Pro and the like.