For those who follow the photo’s on my flickr account may notice that I do like HDR(like) post-processing on my images. I use Photomatix’s Tonemapping functionality to create the basic HDR. After that I add (a lot of) drama to the picture by using Nik Color Efex Pro.
Nik Color Efex Pro has a plugin called Tonal Contrast. This plugin adds the detail/drama in the picture. Last weekend I ran into Topaz Adjust from Topaz Labs. This plugin is able to create the exact same drama in the picture. The difference is that Topaz costs only $49,99, while Color Efex Pro (with the Tonal Contrast filter option) costs $299,95 (but you also get a lot more filters for that price).
The following pictures are the result of either Nik Color Efex Pro Tonal Contrast filter or Topaz adjust. The differences are minimal if you ask me.
Nik Color Efex Pro Tonal Contrast Post HDR Processing
Topaz Adjust Post HDR Processing
So if your looking for HDR-like drama in your photo’s you might wanna consider Topaz Adjust. It’s relatively cheap compared to Color Efex Pro, but you get 52 filters for that price (instead of one filter with several presets).
Sharpener Pro is a piece of software to sharpen the photos just before printing/publishing. Different formats require different types or levels of sharpening. As you can imagine a 4×6 image requires different sharpening parameters than a life size poster.
Nik Software provides the tool for doing this relatively easy. Custom user pre-sets can be made. So you’ve got easy access to the settings you use most.
After making Nik Color Efex Pro and Siver Efex Pro Lightroom compatible, Nik Software released an Adobe Lightroom compatible version of Nik Sharpener Pro (which also works like the ‘old’ Photoshop plugin). Just as the other two pieces of software this one is also an update which can be downloaded from the Nik website.
After installing the software, a name and serial number are required. Just use the serial number of your original (v3.0) software to register the software.
On Windows PC’s I use SnagIt from TechSmith for screencaptures etc. On OSX I use the built-in capabilities of OSX for capturing screens, windows, or areas, but there was something missing…
SnagIt can capture large windows within *cough*Internet Explorer*cough* or Firefox as one image. So no need for a capture, scroll down, capture again etc. This feature isn’t available in OSX, or any (commercial) capturing software I could get my hands on. Until I ran into Screengrab.
Screengrab is a FireFox extension which allows you to save an entire webpage as an image (jpg or png). Excellent extension if I may say so.
A while ago, Nik Software released the Nik Color Efex Pro plugins for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (or so it seems 
). Now they also release the awesome B&W filters Silver Efex Pro plugins for Adobe Lightroom v2.3.
No need to open the images in Photoshop for the Black and White conversion process. Just do it from within Lightroom.
Nik Silver Efex Pro 4 Lightroom
The new installers (either Silver Efex Pro or Color Efex Pro is nothing more but an small update of the original software with the added support for Lightroom. The update is free for registered users. New users pay $199,00.
Downside (apart from the price for new users) is that the custom templates created under the Photoshop CS version are not directly accessible under the Lightroom version.
Another point of attention is that a new copy is created every time you open the photo in the Lightroom plugin. This copy isn’t removed when you press cancel in the Nik plugin. This behaviour was also present in the earlier Lightroom versions when you editted a photo in Photoshop. So I hope that this (bug) will be gone with a new release of the NIK software. Read more…
A while back I wrote something about Path Finder as a probable Finder substitute. Well, it’s been a couple of months, and I must say that I’m still using the crappy Apple Finder.
Why? Well, I guess that it kinda grows on you, eventhough Path Finder has ’some’ neat features. It just didn’t feel like a real substitute. It felt more like an add-on.
So, back to Finder with its little annoyances like;
- Not being able to move or delete files when the OS is busy creating the thumbnails.
- No Cut&Paste (⌘-x, ⌘-v) in the file system.
- ⌘-o to open files instead of hitting the Enter-key.
- Sort folders before files. Not mixing them.
- Clock/Date format (I want the date also to be visible).
- Manual refresh option for (share) folders.
- etc.
I have high hopes up for Snow Leopard. Hope that Finder gets a real good overhaul.
It’s been a while since I used the MTK software for getting GPS logs from my QStarz GPS BT Q1000 travel recorder. This weekend I was surprised to see that the developpers had updated the application interface (among other things). The new version is a JAVA applet, which can be installed in your Applications folder, or it can be run online (’no’ installation required).
No installation is not entirely correct, because you still need the USB drivers AND you need to create a directory and set certain filesystem rights.
In short:
sudo mkdir /var/lock
sudo chmod 777 /var/lock
It’s possible that there’s a prompt for an admin password.
- Run the Application (or install it).
You need to trust the signed JAVA application. If you don’t, the application will not run.
- Launch the application and switch the GPS logger on (log-mode)
- Press connect, and you’re good to go.
I’m definitely looking forward to the maps integration (development version only at this moment).
I’ve been a PGP user for quite a while now. A couple of years ago I bought the software (before that I used the free PGP versions). My original license was for version 8.x. Every once in a while that would be a message indicating that there was a new version available.
The last couple of months there were no new messages, and when I checked for updates from the application the default message was “you’re running the latest version”.
But according to the PGP website there were newer versions (9.8, 9.9). So I ‘registered’ for an evaluation version and installed that over my existing 9.7 version.
After the reboot everything worked. My (old existing) license is still valid. So why is PGP not telling that there’s an upgrade available?
PGP Desktop v9.9
PGP License Overview
I guess the fun will end with the release of version 10.
B.t.w. I still find it frustrating that they removed the SIGN and ENCRYPT buttons/functionality from within Apple Mail.app. I don’t want to sign all my outgoing mail (which happens when you configure the mail proxy settings). I want to be in total control
Recently I bought a new MacBook (late 2008 edition). Since Apple charges the world for options I got the cheapest one available, and decided to upgrade the hard disk and/or memory when I saw the time fit. Well, that time has come.
Today I got a new Western Digital Scorpio Black 7.200rpm 320GB () for €85.00 to replace the default 160GB 5400 rpm drive. Read more…
While in the mids of my Juniper exam preparation I ran into a problem with my Apple equipment. Managing the Juniper firewall (SSG5 in this case) with SSH was not possible from OSX. The connection itself would work, but after entering the password the connection was closed by the remote host (the firewall).
Trying this from a Windows laptop (with SecureCRT) everything worked as expected.
Some searching revealed that this is an OpenSSH bug. To manage your Juniper with SSH from OSX you need to add a parameter to the ssh command (or edit the SSH config file).
Parameter to add:
-o ControlMaster=auto
e.g. ssh willem@127.0.0.1 -o ControlMaster=auto
Or add the following line to the global SSH config (/etc/ssh_config) or the user config (~/.ssh/config).
ControlMaster auto
Juniper has a knowledgebase article (KB12409) on the issue.
While the installation of the SafeSign software is relatively easy, the removal of the software is a bit harder. The installation package lacks an automated removal feature. So removing the driver/application must be done by hand.
The removal of the software (both the SafeSign as well as the TokenLounge software) can be reconstructed by analyzing the original packages/installation scripts. Read more…
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